«Дар освобождения», курс 41 «Сила доброго сердца», занятие 4

[Speaker 1]
So, I don't know if you have this expression in Spanish, but in English we call it a golden page. And the Tibetan here says, go sa tabu ton la, rang chupu sang chen, say sang chen. Sang means like Lop Sang.

That's Tsongkapa's name, right?

[Speaker 2]
Lop Sang.

[Speaker 1]
Lop means mind. Sang means pure mind. Tsun means jail.

So, what's sang tsun? Golden cage. Like a very wonderful jail.

Okay, and they're talking now about getting famous, or having some kind of high position in your life. And today we're going to talk about getting famous or having a high position. And he's going to quote somebody named Duk Chok Losang Namgyel.

Yeah, Losang Namgyel. And he says, ton la, if you get a high, if you get a position, like at work or in ACI, he said it's like a sang tsun, like a golden cage. Yeah, and so, why?

And we're going to talk about that this one. And the next idim is ... yeah, this guy is at work.

He's not a manager. He's not a vice president. He's quietly doing all the hard work.

It's like Brian Mendoza doing all the tech for DCI. He does the tech for like 30 countries. From his apartment in Mexico City, and with his dog.

Sometimes you can hear his friend. And the quotation here is very beautiful. MAN TSAR RGYA BA'I DANG TSA YIN It means, if we take the quiet position without getting famous, that's the position of the Buddha.

So, you know, in general in your life, kind of take the quiet position. And don't worry if everybody knows that you're doing the tech for 30 countries. When I bought my first computer, I bought it for $10,000.

I bought a cafe a while ago. The official name is Peach Tree Cafe. The unofficial name is the Black Hole Cafe.

When the money gets close to the cafe, it goes whoop, and it was built about 35 years ago. It was rebuilt in the last few years. We rebuilt it, and one or two of the rebuilders are here, and I'd like to thank Daniel Garcia, Hussle, Hussle is here?

Juan Hussle, and it's very beautiful now. So, it was built 34 years ago, and the previous owner, he used to walk around with a coffee pot, and he never talks, and he just has a big smile, you know, and he's checking if anybody needs coffee, and then he will pour coffee, and you know, he's always standing like this. Then I thought maybe he's a little bit retarded, you know, and I thought it's very nice that they hired this guy.

He can make a little bit of money, and then also they had a lot of photographs on the wall.

[Speaker 2]
Do you remember Daniel?

[Speaker 1]
Many stars, galaxies, photographs of them, you know. Then one day I asked the lady who ran the cafe, I said, why do you have all these pictures of stars and galaxies and stuff? She said, oh Ralph took them at his observatory in Flagstaff.

It's one hour away. It's the most famous observatory in the United States. They discovered Pluto, and he discovered the atmosphere of Pluto.

When the American government hired him to put a telescope in a 747 airliner and fly over Australia. So actually he's a genius, and he's walking around with a coffee, you know, and I thought he was retarded or something, and that's the attitude in Lam Rim. That's a lojong attitude.

Just don't ... just be quiet. Do your practice.

Don't worry if nobody knows about you, and just quietly be a Buddha, okay? And it's a very, very relaxing practice. You know, you can be a very great person, and you're not competing with anybody.

My teacher, he used to come down and clean the toilets. When he finished his geshe, there were 15,000 debaters, and he was number one in the country. Then during ...

he will teach this book, and then he will ... after the students leave, he will go down and clean the toilets. And then you just feel happy.

It's very relaxing to clean the toilet. And you're not competing with anybody. Nobody else wants to do it.

I don't know, it makes you very happy. So, just relax. Serve the coffee.

One day I asked him what ... first of all, I fight with him to do the toilet, but I didn't fight too hard. And then I asked him, what are you thinking about when you do the toilet?

And he was, in his mind, he's reciting like the 8,000 verses of the Perfection of Wisdom. So, that's a real lam rim person.

[Speaker 2]
All right. Next picture. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
I'm going to read it from the text, okay? Drom Rimpoche Khyan. This is a quotation from Drom Tön Che.

He lived 1,000 years ago. He was, I guess, one of the first great teachers of our lineage. And he's a very interesting guy because he was not a monk.

He was a normal family person. And he never became a monk, but he was one of the first great teachers in Tibet. And in those days, the Buddhists were called kadampa.

And they are family people. And they just do small Dharma centers in their house. And that's how it started in Tibet.

They didn't have these big monasteries in Tibet. And when you draw the lineage tree, it looks like a tumbleweed. It's all confused.

Because this guy will teach that guy, and then that guy will teach that guy, and that guy, and they will teach each other. And I think the Guadalajara group is very similar. I think you are like the Kadampas of Mexico.

Then one day, Drom Tön Che is supposed to debate with another guy. And they met each other, and Drom Tön Che does a full prostration to the guy, which is a big thing in Tibet. Like you put your face in the dirt.

And then he got up, and then they had a debate. And Drom Tön Che, it was about emptiness. And he destroyed the other guy.

Okay? But, all the time he's respecting him. And he treated the other guy like he's a big teacher.

So, it might happen in your life. You know, like, I don't know, you're having a conversation with somebody, and they start to say ridiculous things about emptiness. Like, oh, you should close your eyes and think about nothing.

Then it's your job to correct them, but with great respect and love. And that's the Lam Rim way. I had a dream one night, and I was with the Dalai Lama, and we were at a university, and there was a big conference table, and there were many professors, and they started talking about emptiness.

And it was all wrong. Oh, emptiness is black. Or, emptiness means there's nothing good, nothing bad.

Or, emptiness means you shouldn't feel good, you shouldn't feel bad. All these classic wrong ideas about emptiness. Then I said to Dalai Lama, let me tell him.

I'll debate that, you know, let me debate that. And he goes like, Mike, you know, sometimes it's better to be nice than to be correct. And I still remember that.

So, we should be like that. All right. By the way, we're going to have that examination tomorrow about the pictures, okay?

It's a lot easier than going to work for eight hours. Okay, so try to remember the pictures. Okay, next one you guys.

Next picture. Yeah, this guy is criticizing this lady. I don't know, he's telling her she didn't do her job right at the ACI event.

And her face is, I don't know, kind of happy, right? And this is a famous quotation. DON NAMS MI DKA' MED NAMS DKA' MED NA RANG KHYEN MTHER LA BOS DON NAMS MI DKA' means if someone praises you, you should be unhappy.

And if someone criticizes you, you should be happy. Because when someone criticizes you, you can learn something and you can improve. But when people praise you, you cannot improve.

And in fact, praise is dangerous for your ego. So, if people, like this lady, if people criticize you, you should be, oh, that's nice, okay, I got it. Maybe I can improve.

This is a lam rim attitude. And just from an old man, okay, and I was in corporate life for 19 hard years. Intense pressure in New York City.

And if you can learn this, when people criticize you, just try to take what's useful. Look, 99% when people criticize you, they are wrong, right? But 1% may be useful.

So, listen for this 1%. And don't worry about the 99%. I'll tell you from an old man's perspective, in my life, and trying to bring traditional Buddhism to Western people, then I got a lot of criticism from everybody.

From the Asians, from the Westerners, and everybody else. And to be honest, I didn't listen to it at all. I mean, sometimes I feel bad when I read on the internet.

And I feel bad, you know. But I just go ahead and do my thing. And work really hard.

Have fun. And I'll tell you something, most of those people are dead. No, I mean they didn't die early, they died on schedule.

It's not like I did some magic or something. And it's going to happen with you also. All the people who criticize you, one by one they will disappear from this world.

And then all the hours you spent worrying about them, it becomes meaningless. You used to worry about someone who's not even here anymore. I heard a nice Western nun give a talk many years ago, and she said, I want to talk to all those ladies who are divorced.

She said, listen, your former husband, that asshole who said so many bad things to you, he forgot what he said the same day. And 20 years later you still remember every word. Then she said, let it go.

He's gone. And everybody will pass away. So, personally, I like to just pretend they already passed away.

And I don't worry about it. And I save so much time, because it takes time to worry about people who criticize you. And I don't want to spend my time that way.

I want to move on to fresh things and healthy things. So when people criticize you, there's always 1% true. Not more, okay?

Then okay, learn something. And then let it go. And you're going to be much, much happier.

And you save so much time. I never answered any of those criticisms online. I didn't spend five minutes.

In 30 years. And I got so much work done. Translate like 50 books.

So just let it go. It doesn't really hurt you. And listen, they will pass away, and you will pass away, and nobody cares.

So have fun. Don't let other people slow you down. Okay?

That's advice from an old man. I should call this, we shouldn't call it lam rim, we should call it advice from an old man. Okay, then he gives the commentary.

GZHAN GYIS LTOS PA DANG NA SNGAGS RGYAL BYED CHE RGYUR If people praise you, then there's, yeah, it's right after the bold part you guys. If people praise you, there's a danger you will get pride. And it will ruin DI BYED.

DI BYED means it will ruin this life, and it will ruin your future life. And you also, in the time it takes to hear other people's praise, you are not evaluating your mistakes and your problems. So actually the people who praise you are cheating you.

If they tell you all of your mistakes, you can improve. If they tell you how cool you are, you cannot improve. So actually it's better if there's a few critical people, try to keep them close to you.

Usually I keep one close friend who praises me, and I keep one close friend who criticizes me. Like Jigme. And then I balance them.

When I feel down, I listen to this one. And when I want to improve myself, I listen to this one. Okay?

Not just kidding. Only sometimes. But she tells me the truth which is unusual when you're a teacher.

MED NA NAS SKABS MI NYAN YANG means if people, when Venerable Jigme criticizes me, by the way, it's always correct and it's always to my face. It's not, you know. I think my wife hired her as a representative.

My wife's the only one who tells me the truth every day. MED NA NAS SKABS MI NYAN means at the moment it feels uncomfortable. CI NAS RANG GI DE DE LA BTAG NAS But in the long run, we start to examine our own mistakes.

SAB BAR BYED SAB BAR BYED means we start to be more careful about our personal behavior. So, I think it's always good to have one person in your life who will tell you the truth. And a good, good friend.

And they can tell you frankly when you are being an asshole. And it's very useful to have a friend like that. Okay.

And they call MI KHA LHA'I PHAM PAB YIN Next picture you guys. By the way, if you want to make some easy money, learn the pictures. And I'll check you tomorrow.

And who can guess what this is? I mean, it's just for free. Who can guess?

What we are talking about?

[Speaker 2]
Ronit, you want to try? Just yell it.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, nice. Criticism from a good friend. They call LHA'I PHAM PAB.

LHA'I PHAM PAB means it's a gift from the gods. When there's someone, good friend, who can tell you your fault, it's a gift from the gods. Okay.

LHA'I NGOS GRUB BTAG PA YIN PA SOGS DE NA MI KHA'I BDAG PA SOGS SKYE NGAN ROL ZING PAS SKABS DE DE LTAR BSAM So we should think that way when people are criticizing you. RANG DE BZHIN GYIS PA BYUNG NA This is a very interesting argument. Generally, if somebody criticizes you, it's the result of a bad karma.

But if someone, if your friend criticizes you and you use it to improve yourself, then actually that was a result of a good seed. And that's the emptiness of seeds. And it's very beautiful.

So I'll say it again. Generally, if someone criticizes you, even your friend like Ellie, then you feel kind of sad, oh, it's a bad seed. I must have a bad seed.

But if you use the criticism to improve yourself, you change the bad seed into a good seed from your attitude. Therefore, a bad seed is not a bad seed. Therefore, a bad seed has emptiness.

So it's kind of cool. It means you have a good seed to turn a bad seed into a good seed. And every time you have any problem, if you use Lam Rim, then you are an emptiness master.

Everybody wants to be a maestro de la vacuidad. Everybody wants to be an emptiness teacher. Everybody wants to be an emptiness master.

But those people who really understand Lam Rim, they are actually using emptiness. They change a bad seed into a good seed. And that's an emptiness master.

It's not sitting very serious and staring at the wall. That's just stupid waste of time. You see pictures of those guys staring at the wall.

Some guy in a robe is standing behind them with his stick. And if they move, the guy hits them. That's not emptiness master.

That's a waste of time. Real emptiness master. When someone criticizes you, you can say, hmm, that was a bad seed.

That's a bad karma. Bad karma opened. But if I listen to the criticism, and I use the one percent, usually not more, which is correct, then I become an emptiness master.

And I change the bad seed into a good seed. And that's a real emptiness master. Bad seed is not a bad seed from its own side.

Bad seed is a bad seed because you have a bad seed to see the bad seed as a bad seed. So if you can turn a bad seed into a good seed with your attitude, then you're an emptiness master. Because that's the emptiness of a bad seed.

LHAG PA BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS BSGOM PA LA GRO ZHUGS KHYAD PAR SOGS BYA SO And you can say, thank you, your criticism is getting me closer to Buddhahood. Because your criticism is helping me to see emptiness. And it's hard at the moment.

Somebody says something, you're stupid or something. I give you old man's advice. I always wait 24 hours to answer those emails.

I have a personal rule. When somebody sends me an email and says, you're stupid or something, I feel like... Then I say, okay, wait 24 hours.

Then 24 hours I look at the email, I say, what? What is that? I think I'll just have a nice breakfast.

I'm going to show you guys something. I'm going to ask Aldo to read the number here. 57,114 57,114 Unanswered emails.

57,124 They're not all criticism. Maybe it's 56,000 or something. But my personal rule, wait 24 hours to answer someone who criticizes you.

And usually you're like, I'm just going to have fun today. Then I don't even, I don't look at it again. You save so much time.

Your life is short. Another old man's advice. I was looking at the photographs from the last time I was in Guadalajara, I was much younger.

All those niños were just bumps. Time will fly. Don't waste your time worrying about people who criticize you.

When you think about their criticism and feel bad about it, then you are honoring them. I prefer just don't listen to them. And that, I save so much time.

People ask me, Geshe-la, how do you get so much work done? People introduce me, they say, this guy has 20 companies. 20 companies and organizations.

How do you have time to do that? I just don't waste time. And talking back to people who criticize you and even thinking about people who criticize you is a waste of time.

If there's something true that they are saying, then use it. And if it's not true, then put it in the 57,124. We reached a new section here.

And the lam rim is very much divided into sections. The section we are in is called transforming things that happen to you. For example, if someone criticizes you, then transform it into something useful.

The subject we are inside of right now is called transformation. And there's generally two kinds of transformation here. First one is to transform how you think about criticism.

And then there's transforming how you respond to criticism. Let's go deeper. Transforming how you respond to criticism itself has two parts.

Number one, transform how you react to the criticism in your actions or your speech. But the second one is deeper. Transform how you think about the criticism and turn it into something useful.

So we reached the second part. It's mostly mental and it's mostly silent. Someone criticizes you.

I'm like, halfway I feel hurt. But then halfway I'm thinking, how can I use this? Is there anything true they are saying?

Is there something I can improve? And listen, all criticism has both. All criticism has some not true inside of it.

And then all criticism has some truth inside of it. So use the criticism. If there's something true, then use it.

Change yourself. There's one problem to be a famous teacher. Everyone's like, oh Geshe-la, you're so cool.

I played rock and roll in Taiwan. Everybody's like, wow, Geshe-la is so good. Then my wife, she's like, when you did the Joe Cocker song, you were completely off.

Then I listened to it. I said, oh my god, you're right. All my students didn't tell me the truth.

Probably they're like, so it's good to have a few friends who can tell you the truth. Obviously they love you a lot and they're not trying to hurt you. They're just trying to improve you.

Okay, I chose the next picture and one of my friends told me, guess who it was? She said, I don't know if you should show that picture. So whenever she says don't do something, I will do it.

So let me explain the picture before you criticize it. This is probably the greatest ballet dancer in history. His name was Nijinsky.

He was a very, very great dancer about 125 years ago. First World War. He went crazy.

He was at the top of his career at the top of his powers. He was the greatest dancer in Russia in Saint Petersburg. Then World War I started and he couldn't take the suffering that he saw.

He saw all the bombs, people dying. Shortly after this photograph he went completely crazy from the suffering of World War I and he never recovered. His wife took care of him and she got him to Switzerland and she took care of him and the whole war was, millions of people were dying and she just quietly took care of him.

He was completely crazy. Then one day he disappeared and they searched and they searched and they found him in another village in the mountains. In the village playground and he was playing with the children like he was a child and he never recovered.

Every day he would go play with the children and he became a child and in his mind he just became a complete child. Then his wife would bring him home, feed him, what are you doing? Why are you playing with the kids in the playground?

And he's like, oh, those aren't children, those are angels. I just want to be with the angels. That playground is full of angels.

Each child is an angel. In Tibetan, it's the next line. CHOS NA'ANG KHU ZHIR LTA BA'I If you want to be more advanced than the greatest ballet dancer in the world, you can try to get a promotion to becoming a child among the angels.

KHU ZHIR LTA BA means maybe we can reach that place where our heart is so pure that, for example, we think all the kids in this room are actual Buddhas and they are teaching us. I call it like the Nijinsky. Nijinsky level.

By the way, he died that way. Then he just died. He never recovered.

I think it's maybe a good non-recovery. KHU ZHIR LTA BA means when people are criticizing you, try to feel like you are surrounded by the four bodies of a Buddha. For example, using that criticism to improve yourself, changing the bad seed into a good seed, is an emptiness practice.

Everybody says, I want to see the emptiness body of the Buddha. That is the emptiness body of the Buddha. To see that other people's emptiness is not necessarily bad from its own side.

When you understand that, you are seeing the Buddha's emptiness body. Everybody says, I'd like to meet an angel. I would like to meet a Buddha.

So, you have to pray that someone will criticize you today. I'm not saying they're a Buddha. Not necessarily.

But, if you can turn the criticism into something useful, that's an emptiness meditation. At that moment, you are perceiving the emptiness body of a Buddha. If you can turn other people's criticism into something useful, you are playing with emptiness.

And when you're playing with emptiness, you are in contact with the Buddha. Everybody wants to make personal contact with an angel. That is the diamond way.

So, you just got to hope someone criticizes you today. Then you can try to turn it into something useful. And that's an emptiness meditation.

And then you have made contact with the Buddha. When you try to turn someone's criticism into something good, you are in the playground with the divine children. Okay, got it?

Beautiful. By the way, his wife wrote down what he was saying. It's called the Autobiography of Nijinsky.

If you have a chance, you should read it. It's very beautiful. He was extremely famous.

And also people took advantage of him. Financially and in many other ways. But he transformed everything.

Okay, what time do I have to stop Timothy? When the coffee... Six minutes I think.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, this is a little bit longer. Then Pabongka Rinpoche says this whole teaching about criticism it's like from the ancient times, from a thousand years ago. RANG RIGS BSTANGS NA CHUNG MI DE It's a little uncomfortable for us.

This idea of hoping someone will criticize me today so I can use it, it's a little bit uncomfortable. Then he says, go for the emptiness. SDUG BSNGAL GANG CHUNG YANG DE NGO BO LA BRTEN NA When someone's criticizing you, try to see where it came from.

And it came from dependent origination. And it means when someone criticizes me, it means I must have criticized someone else before. If you can remember when someone criticizes you that it has to be coming from seeds that you planted when you criticized somebody else.

If you remember that, you are directly perceiving dependent origination. And because you are seeing directly dependent origination, you are seeing emptiness. And you are seeing the Dharmakaya, the Buddha's essence body.

So, it could be that when someone criticizes you, in English we say if you play your cards right, if you know how to use the situation, then every time people criticize you, you can use it as an emptiness meditation. And then the more people criticize you, the more emptiness you understand. Then you become very in love with trolls.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Troll means a person who spends whole day to criticize you. Online. There's one guy, he spent 20 years online to criticize me.

He made a website with my name on it, just for that. Everybody thinks it's my website until they read it. But actually, every time you meet a troll, you can use it to meet the Dharmakaya.

You can use it to see emptiness. So, in this case, criticism becomes extremely useful. So, don't waste your life.

If you get angry at a troll, then the troll succeeded. If you use the troll to see emptiness, then you beat the troll. And that's more fun.

All right. GNAS PHYIR BA TZAM I still got two minutes. Use the two minutes.

SDOR NA RANG LA DE SDUG DANG, SKYEN SANG SNYEN, CI CHUNG YANG, RANG LA GYI NGO BO LA, PHYIR PA RGYU KHYEN RTEN DANG Whatever happens to you during the day, good or bad, try to remember it's the seeds. When you remember it's the seeds, you almost saw it's emptiness. Then he says, then you start to get confused what is criticism and what is enlightenment.

Oh, I met a troll today. What happened? He criticized me.

Then what happened? I saw emptiness. You sure he's troll?

Maybe he's Lama, I don't know. Okay, all right. Like that.

That's the emptiness of troll. And you can use it. And that anytime someone criticizes you, you can use it as a Buddha meeting.

Meeting with the Buddhas. Myself, during the day, I meet very beautiful people and I think they must be Buddha. That's about 50% of the day.

Then 50% I meet irritating people. Now, if I can turn the 50% irritating people into Buddha, then it's 100% of the day with the Buddhas. Personally, I like to think of it as Nijinsky in the playground.

So let's try to be like Nijinsky in the playground. Okay.