«Дар освобождения», курс 43 «Современный бодхисаттва», занятие 5

[Говорящий 1]
By the way, we're in the middle of the perfection of giving, okay, and we're going to discuss giving. And it says, UL PONG means people who have nothing, people who don't have much money. SOGS DANG, BU means bugs.

DROGS PA means ants. BRTZON LA BSAM PA BYANG SEMS KYI SEMS PA'I SGO NAS This is a thing I used to do with Lama Christie. We used to go to McDonald's and the only thing we could eat there was the french fries.

The salad at that time was worse than the hamburgers. And we would buy french fries and go sit outside and feed the birds. It's really fun.

It's a fun meditation. So you buy something small and then you sit outside and feed the birds. You hold it in your hand and the birds come and then you talk to the birds and you say, if you eat this you're going to be my student when I become a Buddha.

And then you throw them a piece of french fry and they always eat it. Okay, who else did that? Huh?

Yeah. Well, yeah, but Lord Buddha gave the body to the tiger cubs, right? He said, if you eat this, then you're going to be my student.

And those five were his first students, the four babies and the mom. And it's a, I don't know, I think it's really fun. There's a lot of fun ways you can do the paramitas, you know, the bodhisattva activities.

You don't have to be very serious and try to remember your 64 vows and all this. You can have fun with it also. And I think if you have fun with it, you'll be better at it.

You'll be a better bodhisattva. So think about ways that you can have fun and do things for other beings and have fun. And you can do it all day long.

You can do it just when you see people on the way in the airport, just do funny little good things for them. Let them go in line first. Let them use the toilet that's clean.

Stuff like that, if you can find one. Okay. DGON NAS ZAD KHAMS GCIG DANG PHYIR TZAM PA TZAM CHEN PO'I RE TZAM PA means, you know, a little bit of barley flour.

TZAM CHIN PA YIN CHE CHIN PA'I BAR CHEN GYIS MNYAM NA This is the perfection of giving. This is the practice of the perfection of giving. You don't have to think that I have to give my body or something like that.

Just little things. Fun little things with remembering that you're supposed to be a bodhisattva is probably more productive for us. It's probably better practice for us.

MNYAM REN DANG RGYAL ZAD KYI CHOS PA Then that's RGYAL ZAD. RGYAL ZAD means daughter or son of the Buddhas. It's a synonym for bodhisattva.

RGYAL ZAD, right? DE YANG BRAS BU CHUNG DU MIN GRO BA'I PHYIR GANG CHEN PO'I DE JIN YUL TZAM PA ZHIG BYAS He says, sit there. If there's too many birds and one French fry is not enough, then buy a second French fry.

Like, when you do a little practice like that for some animals or something, make sure they are satisfied. Make sure they get what they want. Keep throwing them French fries until they refuse to eat more.

TSEMS PA means make sure they get what they want. Since it's just pieces of French fries, you can do it. With money, it's a little difficult.

RANG RES KHO YON CHOG LA NYON KHO'I RGYAL CHEN PO ZHIG BUL BA TSE NGES RGA RAB CI STANG YIN YANG PAS KHYAMS PA KHYAMS PA means we feel like we're big people. When we give something, when we make a donation to Diamond Mountain, we think, oh, we're so special and I'm so generous. We tend to have some pride about even small things that we give.

So he says, that's MA BDAG PA'I DBYIN PA MA BDAG PA means you made your practice of the first perfection dirty. You made it dirty by being proud about it. Just give it and shut up.

And shut up in your own heart. Don't think, oh, I'm so special, I'm so good, I gave all this money. Personally, I find that it's good to forget it as soon as you give it.

Just give it and then look ahead to the next one. And don't dwell on the old ones. Here's an important advice, traditional.

This next part is traditionally very important. YANG DANG SEMS PA'I RJES SU DANG PHRAD DUG NYAMS PA DANG DANG YUL NOR DUG NYAMS PA SOGS PHYIS NAS RGYUD PA BYAS PA DE DANG DRA BA'ANG BYA MI RUNG Sometimes you get excited when the people at Diamond Mountain, like Sunim, are fundraising and they get you excited and you give a lot. And then you go home and you say, God, that was too much money.

I shouldn't have given Aldo so much. And Rob's like, Geshe-la, your backpack's getting empty. And then there's a very strong tradition in the Lam Rim that you should never regret something you did.

Okay, it's true, maybe you gave too much. Maybe you overdid it. But never regret what you gave.

When you regret it, you kind of, traditionally they say you destroy the good karma. The seed is damaged when you regret it. It's okay to say, look, I was excited, I gave too much.

That's okay. Next time I'll be more careful. But don't regret what you gave.

And don't try to get it back or something. Just let it go. Just let it go.

By the way, later you will not regret it. You will be very happy about it. And if you just give away stuff uncontrollably, all day long, it feels great.

And you will get much more back, don't worry. Just get in the habit of giving whatever you can. And do it all day.

And my personal experience is it will just keep coming back and you'll be crazy. You'll have much more money than you ever thought of. It'll just keep coming, it's crazy.

And just enjoy it and use it. SDUG YIN NO SDUG NYAMS PA There's a special weird karma when you find out the person you gave the money to had a lot of money already. That happened to me one time.

I was pretty upset. But just let it go. It's okay.

Try to check it out beforehand. But we never know. Sometimes people have a lot of money already and we don't know, and they ask you for money.

It's okay. If they have a lot of money and they ask you for money, they probably need it. Because there's something inside.

They feel like they don't have enough or something. The main thing is after you give, in English we say second guess. Don't say, maybe I did the wrong thing or maybe I gave too much or something like that.

Then you kind of ruin the karma. So just give it and don't worry about it. It always comes back much more than you think.

Always, always. If you regret it or if you think, oh, I gave too much. You ruin it.

You ruin it. Okay. SDONG KHAB THAMS PA DANG THAMS MAR SEMS CAN GYI BRTEN DON GYUR BA'I KUN LUNG LAS PAR SPYOD ZHING LAS PAR SPYOD SPYOD is a nice word in the second line.

SPYOD means to fix something. And the word SHASTRA, DEN SPYOD, right Tim? The word for a classical commentary in Buddhism is fixer.

It fixes you. And this SPYOD means fix your motivation before you give something. So pause.

Always think I would like you to be my student when I become a Buddha. Like even you just give somebody a few dollars, or you give them a cup of coffee or something. Just pause in your own mind and say, you know, please be my student.

When I become a Buddha, please be my student. There's a beautiful, we just finished Seiji's text and there was a beautiful prayer at the end. He said, in the realms of hell, may I appear and may people ask me to be their teacher in hell.

And may I sit in hell with the beings and be their teacher. It's very beautiful. So when you give anything, make a prayer that I should be your teacher.

DNGOS RNAMS ZHUGS BRTAG BDAG Make those prayers. ZHUGS BRTAG means it's like you almost feel like you want to cry or something. BRTZON PA BYAS CHUNG GANG STONG YANG NYES KHOR SOGS RANG BDUN LA MED DE BA SOGS There's a...

When you see emptiness directly, during that twenty minutes, you don't see other things. You cannot see other things because you can only see emptiness. So you can't even see yourself for twenty minutes.

Then when you come out, you have a... like a... until you sleep, maybe ten or twelve hours more, you have all these amazing ideas.

Those are not the direct perception of emptiness. Those are, we call after effects. Or you start having amazing understandings for the rest of the day.

By the way, the next day is kind of dead. But that day, try not to go to sleep. One of the things you realize, and there's many, many things, those understandings that you have because prana is still in your central channel.

Some prana is still in your central channel. So some of the ideas you have, all of those ideas were organized into the four Arya Truths. Four aspects of the four truths.

Sixteen different cool ideas. They got kind of corrupted and they got to be doctrine, and they got to be this boring list. It doesn't seem to make much sense.

But there are, the point is there's certain amazing understandings you have after you see emptiness directly because the prana is still in the central channel. For example, you can read other people's minds until the end of the day. But here, one of the understandings you have, and maybe we should rewrite the sixteen, I don't know, but one of the understandings you have is that you never did, you never did any giving to another person without selfishness.

Never, ever, in your life. You never really gave something to someone not expecting some kind of reward or praise or something like that. It's human nature.

There's always, whenever you give something to somebody until you're a pretty strong Arya, there's always some motivation that you want something or you're trying to get something. I think it's, I don't think you should walk around depressed about it, but you should understand it. If you have a bad habit, at least you should understand it, even if you can't stop it.

So, I think you should understand that habit, that we tend to, we don't tend to give something unless we can get something. So, if there's situations where you can give anonymously, or you can run away after you give the thing, that's sweet. And you're not going to change your human nature before you become an Arya, you're not going to change.

But at least know about it and then later you can work on it. So, it's human nature not to do something for someone else without some self-interest. It's human nature.

But we have to think, someday may I, someday may I perfect giving. May I really give without anything coming back, or without any hope. I should be doing pictures, I guess.

19? 4619? The person giving, holding out a hand.

Keep going, I think. Somebody's holding a hand out, I don't know. There you go.

CHOS KYI BRJIM PA NI NGAN DU CHEN LA PHAN SEMS KYI CHOS GCIG ZHIG PA GCIG BSTAN PA YIN DANG CHOS KYI BRJIM PA means he's going to talk about the bodhisattva first perfection giving Dharma, giving teachings to someone. I put in the bold NGAN DU CHEN It's too bad you can't talk because you could make some money. Exception, Tim?

Can they talk if I ask them a question? Okay. NGAN DU CHEN for $100.

NGAN DU CHEN NGAN DU CHEN Looks like I'm safe. NGAN means to listen. DU means they want to.

NGAN DU CHEN So NGAN DU CHEN means when we talk about the gift of the Dharma in Buddhism, NGAN DU CHEN means don't give it to people who don't want it. Okay? Don't bother people with your Buddhism.

Don't grab people and say, did you hear the good news about Buddha? Don't bother people with your Buddhism. And I think when you first start studying, there's a habit, especially with your wife or your husband or your relatives, and you say, oh, Geshe Michael is the true prophet and he gave us these wonderful things and you have to agree.

If you want your wife or husband never to become a Buddhist, the best thing is to bother them with your Buddhism. So don't bother other people with your Buddhism. Don't try to push it on people who don't want to hear it.

You can be a Buddhist and affect people. Be generous, for example, and people will watch you. But don't try to sell Buddhism to people.

NGAN DU CHEN NA PHAN SEMS KYIS CHOS GCIG GZHI If somebody wants to know NGAN DU CHEN if somebody wants to know, they're interested, then you can, if you just teach them a single verse, a line or two lines of Buddhism, that is the gift of the Dharma. That is the karma of giving the gift of the Dharma, which is probably the highest form of giving. I have in my own life sort of a, what do you call it, priority conflict.

So I have time, I have choice of doing, I have choices. I can translate more books, I can teach more things. A lot of people want personal things, and I have to decide with my own time.

I only have a limited time, so I have to make decisions every day about how do I spend the time. I think to keep the Dharma alive is priority, for me. To make sure it doesn't disappear in the world is sometimes, I think about it a lot.

People ask me, sometimes people need like two hours, three hours discussion about a personal problem or something, and I'm like, and I have this struggle in my mind, I'm like, I know they really need the time, but my time is not unlimited. I only have so many hours, and then I'll be going somewhere, so I have to think about what's more important, or how can I help more people. So here it says if you get a chance to share the Dharma, that's the highest gift.

I think you can think about that when you're thinking about priorities. If there's some way to keep the Dharma in the world, that's really important. They call it the light of the world, right?

And I always heard that in Christian, you should be, don't hide the light under a basket, right? They say Jesus said that. And that this world without these teachings would be darkness, I think.

There would be no light in this world. So I think you have to, personally, I think I have to keep some light going before I go. I got to make sure there's some light.

And that means I don't always have time to sit and listen for an hour or something like that. I just don't have time. There's 200,000 students now.

People say, I just need an hour, Geshe-la. And I'm like, did you learn math in school? They say, yeah.

And I say, what is one times 200,000? And they say, 200,000, I'm like, right. But I still need an hour.

And I'm like, okay, but we have about 200,000 students in the whole system. Then it's completely impossible I don't have this capacity. I can't do it.

I have to make choices. And I think to keep the physical dharma in the world is something I'm capable of. So I think I have to try to do that.

,DE'I RGYAS THUG LA, ,DE'I PHYIR PHYIR PA, ,TSON CHAD CHOS KYI, ,BYIN PA BRAL BA NAS, If you just share a line with another person in the class, you are teaching the dharma. If you just explain something that somebody said in the class, then you, even if it's just in the car going to Tucson or something, then that's the same as teaching up on the stage. Same thing.

To share the dharma with one other person personally is the same as giving a dharma teaching. He says, not me. Next picture.

I like this picture. This is Lama Palma. She came for a job to my jewelry company many years ago.

We were working long hours. I remember Uma Thurman came in the same week and asked for a job. I interviewed Uma Thurman and I said, my advice to you is go be an actress because you will never be a secretary.

Her father often thanks me. But Lama Palma came at the same time and we were working till midnight every day and we were just building the company and it was really hard. I said, look, I'll hire you but there's no hours, okay?

You work as long as I say. She says, no. The first thing she said to me was, no.

I'm like, there's a long line of people waiting for a job interview. I'm like, I would just throw her out. I would just say, well, thank you very much.

I'll get in touch. But something told me to keep her. I said, that'll be fine.

You can work whatever hours you want. Then she started coming to classes and stuff like that and she became a great teacher. If you walk around her neighborhood in New York, every single person is stopping and talking to her.

They know her because she was teaching so many people everywhere. Then we started to call her Lama Palma and then people objected. She's not Tibetan.

She's not a man. She doesn't wear robes. She's not from Asia.

How can you call her Lama? We got all this trouble from people. Here the text says, the Greatest Lama says, LAMA SER NAS CHOS KYI RTEN DU RDZEGS DE BYAS PA ZHIG BSNGAL PA DGOS PA MIN You don't have to be sitting up on a Dharma throne in front of a bunch of Asians to be a Lama.

He says, not me. LAMA SER means the name Lama means you're teaching people. It doesn't matter what country you're from.

Before my teacher's time and my time, women were not allowed to study the Geshe course. Can you imagine? Can you believe it?

When we started teaching women, we got a lot of trouble. We got a lot of criticism. It was hard.

It was really hard. LAMA SER NAS CHOS KYI RTEN DU RDZEGS DE BYAS PA ZHIG BSNGAL PA DGOS PA MIN RDZEGS means to climb up on a Dharma throne. It's not necessarily the case that you have to climb up on a Dharma throne to teach the Dharma.

You could be sitting in an airplane seat next to... It's a great place to teach somebody. They have a seat belt on, they can't get away.

The bathrooms on the plane are never free. Okay, captive audience. CHOS BYIN PA CHOS BYIN DI BYIN PA GZHAN LAS CHOG KHYAD This is a simple simple phrase, but it's nice.

Where are we? Next picture. We got a video, I think, you guys.

Francisco? Is there a video? I don't know.

I thought there was a video.

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Maybe?

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No? Can? Yes?

He's massaging it. Anyway, tell me if you do... Yeah?

Okay, let's go. This is one of my favorite Vinaya sitting here. Francisco, I'll stall.

So the Guadalajara Sangha is one of the best Sangha in the world. Oh, here we go. Sound.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. That must have been a hundred...

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... Oh, we know what we have, let's hold on tight Found what we're looking for in life Cope as crazy, but things are finally right You and I, the future is bright Yay!

[Говорящий 1]
PHYIR BYIN GYIS BYIN PA GZHAN LAS CHOG YIN PHYIR BYIN GYIS BYIN PA GZHAN LAS CHOG YIN The gift of the Dharma is the highest gift of all. So if you want a good karma, or you want to do something important, then to share the Dharma is the highest gift you can give. And it's kind of nice because you don't have to be perfect.

Don't feel like you have to be perfect. Imperfect Dharma teachers are the best because they understand people's problems. They say, I'm fighting with my husband.

I say, me too. So don't feel like you have to be some kind of saint or something like that. I think when you teach the Dharma, somebody asked me, what's the first thing that happens Geshe-la?

I said, when you teach the Dharma, you reach a new level of hypocrisy because you're teaching something you cannot do yourself. But inevitably, if you talk about it all day, it starts to affect you. Don't think you have to be perfect.

Don't wait till you're perfect. It'll wait a long time. What you understand, teach.

What you don't understand, admit it. Just say, look, I'll get back to you on that question. And then go ask somebody else.

Don't think you have to be perfect. Don't be proud. Don't be embarrassed to mess up at a teaching.

Just do it. It's the highest karma you can do. And don't be shy.

Somebody, you meet on a plane, you say, where are you going? They say, Costa Rica. You say, oh, I was looking for someone to sponsor my teaching in Costa Rica.

And, okay, don't be shy. And don't wait till you're ready. And don't wait until you're perfect because that's a long time away.

So, go ahead, teach. We mess up. Teachers mess up.

Don't mess up once. Just shut up and keep going. And apologize to everybody and then keep going.

Grandpa's ready to help with the second tour. Just let me know before I spend the money. You might want to get it this week actually.

Talk to the guy with the envelope. Probably better to get it this week. I got some money.

I don't know if I'm going to have it next week. But I'm happy to do the same donation. All right.

PHRAD CHAD ZIN GYUR BYANG SOGS KYI TSE YANG RANG GI DAG POR DU This is a nice sentence and I remember when I first heard it from my teacher and I was very happy to hear about it. And they said, when you're doing your morning practice and when you're saying your prayers, when you're saying your mantras, don't mumble. Like, just say, OM NAMS PA SOGS PAR GYI YANG RANG GI DAG POR DU SOGS You hear people do that, right?

And he says, say it clearly so that someone sitting next to you could hear. Unless you're on an airplane or something. So, OM NAMS PA SOGS Say it clearly, because there are lots of spirits in the world.

Especially here, I think, there's a lot of spirits hanging around. There was a lot of trouble here. There was a lot of fighting between the white people and the original people here.

I think there's a lot of spirits moving around. And they're curious what you're doing in your cabin and they want to listen. And so, do your prayers loud enough that they can hear.

And here's the original source of that. A lot of what I say in a class comes from this book. I was brought up on this.

This was the milk that I was fed on. PHRAD CHAGS BZIN GYUR BYANG TSE When you're reciting your prayers, RANG GI DAG POR DU GAR CHOG GI LHAG SOGS there are spirits around you. SEMS CAN THAMS CAD KHOS NAS Also, you have imagined that the people in the whole world are sitting with you.

Therefore, NYAN PAR BSAMS PAS Imagine that there are many beings listening. Because there are. And you cannot see them.

BSAMS NAS CHE NA CHOS KYI BYIN PAR This also, you will get the karma of giving the Dharma, which is a very, very high karma. If they're going to listen anyway, you might as well get some credit. Say, oh, I know you're listening.

Here's some mantras you can listen to. These are nice mantras. I learned this at Daimyo.

OM NOM NOM PHYIR DRAG BSTOD PA'I BU ZIN SOGS KYI RGYUD LA'ANG BAG CHAGS Joke. Animals, he says, all the way down to bugs and worms. Animals can hear you.

So, I don't know if you're releasing an animal or you see an animal. I mentioned, I like to sing to wild animals. I like to do mandala offerings.

If I see a deer or something, I'll stop and I'll sing the mandala offering to them or something. Sometimes they run away and they're like, oh. Sometimes they're like, hmm.

So you can put a seed in their mind. So even you meet a... They wanted me to take my granddaughter to the zoo yesterday, the day before.

I haven't been to a zoo in 50 years because I think it's a terrible thing. But I said, okay, I'll go. My wife said, no comments.

And I'm like, understand. So I went through all the zoo and sang to the animals and the giraffe and all those guys. You can do that.

When you meet animals, you can whisper stuff or sing things to them. Put seeds in their mind. Have fun.

This whole thing about dharma practice, you should have fun. You should be creative and you should be fun. You should be an odd person.

And that's fine. Let other people get used to it. They're not having fun.

You can say, look, I know you don't want to have fun, but I want to have fun. And if you think I'm a little bit strange, I'm okay with that. You can go ahead and think that.

I've done that my whole life and it's fun. And it's nice. You don't have to show off being weird, but you can just quietly be weird.

And it's fun. It's just fun. Oh, that's the guy who sings to the giraffe.

You're like, yeah. And you're like, okay. BU ZHING GI RGYUD LA BAR CHAGS SBYOGS BAR CHAGS SBYOGS means you can put seeds in their mind by singing mandala offering to them or something like that.

GZHAN CI MA GDIS NI BYIN DAG GZHAN CI MA means if you can plant a seed in an insect by singing to it, then obviously if you sing somewhere else, in the park or something, and other people are around, then that's fine. Just don't get locked up. Or maybe it's good and you can sing in the jail.

GZHAN DAG TSAR GSUNGS RAB BLOGS DON BYAS PA GSOS BYAS DU'ANG SEMS Then there's a big tradition in the monastery. Don't forget he's talking to a lot of monks. And there's a big tradition called BYONG CHOG.

BYONG CHOG means people pay the monks to come to sing prayers at their house. Usually you get a lunch in return. So you go in the morning and you recite at people's homes.

Then it's supposed to be that the people sit around and listen. This is an old Buddhist tradition. So I grew up in a Mongolian temple.

I was there for 25 years. We used to do BYONG CHOG a couple times a week. It's usually four or five monks and you go to somebody's house.

They make a big lunch and you recite prayers in their house. We had a, the abbot was this old, old Mongolian blind. He was blind and very chubby because he loved BYONG CHOG.

He said, let's go do BYONG CHOG. We're like, okay. Take us.

I remember one BYONG CHOG and he said, we're kind of late. We got to start, monks are supposed to start by 12 o'clock, right? Supposed to start eating by 12 o'clock and not eat in the evening.

So he's like, well, we're kind of in a rush today. He said, well, I brought one scripture with me, but he said, I have an idea. Let's split it up and I'll give everybody five pages and then we'll recite it and we can eat faster.

I'm like, but everyone's going to be reciting a different thing. He said, they don't know. I'm like, okay.

He gave everybody five pages and it was the Diamond Cutter Sutra. I had never read it. I was like, wow, this is good stuff.

Then every time we went somewhere, I would say, I would try to get a different five pages. That's how I first studied the Diamond Cutter Sutra. So you can do that.

He says here, CHOS DRAG TU MI MTHRONG CHOG Here's the MTHRONG CHOG SLAB PAR SAB DGOS TE He says, SAB. SAB means be careful. When you go to a family's house to do prayers, SAB means be careful.

BRTZON PA THUGS RJE'I CHEN GYIS ZAS GCIG LA SANG RGYAS BA'I THABS SU SANG SNGAGS BSRUNG BA MTHRONG CHOG GI NYE GYUR So it is true that Lord Buddha used the Diamond Way to become a Buddha in one lifetime. It's true. By the way, there's a discussion in the Diamond Way text how many Buddhas got to Buddhahood not using Diamond Way and how many Buddhas got to Buddhahood using the Diamond Way.

And the answer is everybody used the Diamond Way. There's no Buddha who ever became a Buddha who didn't use the Diamond Way to become a Buddha. So he says here, we all know that this Buddha used the Diamond Way.

And by the way, he had a spiritual partner and it's a beautiful, beautiful story. But we all know that he used the Diamond Way. But, MTHRONG CHOG GI NYE GYUR DANG RJE RJE means he didn't trade prayers for Buddhahood.

Meaning, he didn't, he didn't, the way he practiced Diamond Way, he didn't go to people's house and do secret mantras so that he could get lunch. Did he use secret mantras to become Buddha? Yes.

Can we use secret mantras to become Buddha? Yes. Did he go to people's house and trade mantras for lunch?

And he says, no. Do they do mantras at people's houses? Yes.

Does it result in lunch? Yes. Is it for lunch?

No. GNOR PHYIR SPYOD SONG SPYOD SONG means don't sell the Dharma. Don't sell the Dharma.

Then people are worried about it. People are like, well, Geshe-la, should we sell Dharma books? Should we sell paintings?

Is it wrong? That depends on your motivation. It's a lousy business, I'll tell you that.

Diamonds are better. Selling the Dharma doesn't pay very well. I'm just saying, it's a lousy business.

If you want money for, if you want a business, don't sell Dharma. Go sell something. Sell, I don't know, jewelry or something.

It's not, he says here, don't sell the Dharma. Don't sell it. Can you charge money?

Here's my answer. Can you charge, can you ask for donations for your South America tour? People are always asking me, why you sit up there and ask for donations for Diamond Mountain, which I'm about to do.

My answer is, if you don't want to donate to ACI for the 30-30-30 program, then come with me to United Airlines and I'll go with you and say, look, Geshe-la has to get to Kyoto. He's going to teach for free. Just give him his seat for free.

You come with me to the United Airlines travel desk and we'll talk to them. They'll say, excuse me, they'll say, get your crazy ass out of here. There are expenses that we have and we can't cover them without help.

The ACI is free. The teachings are free. Teachings have always been free, but it's a big strain on me and other people.

It's very difficult to raise the money and it wastes our time. It's a huge waste of time. It's free, everything's free.

You don't have to give anything. But if you can help, we could translate more books, we could do more teachings. If you just help, the Vietnamese just donated I think $140,000, something like that, to the volunteer's cabin.

The best thing was I didn't have to ask them. They just did it. I didn't have to stop my work and go beg for money.

It's not, the people organizing those tours, we don't enjoy asking for money. It's kind of, I don't know, you feel kind of like a prostitute sometimes. Seriously, you're like, oh, please give me $10 for this teaching.

But if you can help, it would be nice. What are we looking for? Tim has a program to keep the ACI teachings free.

Then we have it called 30, 30, 30, I forget what it is. If everybody gave $1 a day, then we're going to finish, what did we say, 30 years or something like that? Huh?

In seven years we'll finish what? Okay, finish the Lam Rim. That's nine years, honey.

Okay, nine, okay. Yeah. Say again?

Yeah, we're going to do 100 meditation videos. Okay? We're going to do 100 videos for how to meditate.

Are we doing any this week? We'll do one tomorrow, maybe. We'll do the first one tomorrow, okay?

Alright. I think it's something that we haven't done very well. We have not supplied meditations very well.

I think we're doing good on the ancient books and all that. The Lam Rim's been steady, but we haven't done, we haven't recorded the meditations. So there's about 100 meditations.

We're going to record 100 meditations. I think we're going to keep them to half an hour. TikTok attention span.

Yeah, I mean it went from two hours to one hour to 45 to 30. Seiji's asking me to do five minute things now. I'm like, Seiji, I can't even start my mouth in five minutes.

But we'll make them short and you can use them for the rest of your life. You'll have 100 choices every morning what you want to meditate. Guided meditation.

100 guided meditations, okay? But we need help. Just sign up and shut up.

Sign up and shut up. It's $1 a day. Don't tell me you can't do that.

So if you, please use the QR code and sign up. Put it on your credit card. Jigme wrote me yesterday, you got like 200 subscriptions to different kinds of Netflix things.

Why don't you add ACI? If there's a really good movie on a certain streaming service, I'm like, okay, who cares? $5 a month, I'll sign up just to see one movie.

But then after 20 years it's like, she's like, you think we should stop this one? I'm like, nah. Just think it's like another streaming service.

So please help with that. It's not a big deal. Like $30 a month.

$1 a day. And then if we all do it, then Tim can fly all around all doing his mafia game. They can fly around and help people.

And we can keep it free. It's our intention to keep it free. Geshe-la, it's not free.

You have to pay to come here. I said, that's for the food and that's for the cabins. But the teaching is free.

NOR PHYIR GCOD SONG STE RGYAL PO PHYIR Selling Dharma or trying to get money out of Dharma is like asking a king or a queen to get off the throne and clean the garbage can. It's not appropriate. Selling Dharma is like asking the king or the queen to go clean the toilet or something.

PHYIR LAS PHAGS means it's like asking the king or the queen to get off the throne and go clean the toilet or something like that. BCUG PA DANG DRA BA'I KUN LONG BSAM PA SEMS DGOS Keep your motivation high. Tim, schedule?

I start Q&A at 7? Is that correct? For 15 minutes, is that correct?

Okay. PHYIR PHYIR NGOS BSTON PA LTA'I PHYIR SKAD BYA SOGS LA SPYOD NAS GZHAN NGOS DANG RGYUD PA'I SPYOD LA THI THABS SPYOD PA'ANG SPYOD CAN DU GRO SPYOD CAN means the gift of the Dharma. He's focusing here on giving the gift of the Dharma.

He says we're not supposed to push the Dharma on people. I'll tell you a funny story. I think, okay, people say, Geshe-la, you're getting old.

I say, I know. But they say, you're repeating the same stories over and over. And I said, I teach every single day around the world.

I can't remember which place I taught 12 years ago and told the stories. If you are into the Diamond Way classes, you can think that Geshe-la knows what he's doing. And he's trying to give you this story two or three times.

But if you're not, you can just say he's getting old. It's okay. I don't mind.

So anyway, now I forgot what I was going to tell you. Yeah. Yeah, okay.

So I took the bus to New York for 19 years. People tell me I commute for an hour or I commute for 45 minutes. I commuted for four hours every day for 19 years.

And I didn't want to buy a car because I wanted to give all the money to ALL. So I did. I gave all the money to ALL and to the monastery.

It was for 19 years. And I took the bus. And I stood out there in snow storms and rain storms.

And I took the... So one day coming home, the bus broke north of Frijol. And it's too far to walk home.

It would take a couple hours. And it's raining and we stopped. And the bus driver said, everybody get out.

And we're like, where? And he said, there's a little bar. You guys can go in the bar.

And I'm like, oh boy. And I went in the bar. I called Art and said, I need a ride fast.

So he came to get me and I was in the bar and there was a lady doing go-go in a bikini on the bar, on top of the bar. And I'm like... And there are all these guys sitting there getting drunk.

And I was reading this part of the Lam Rim and I thought, well, he says, whenever you're sitting with anybody, try to bring up the Dharma in a skillful way. Stop looking at all these drunk guys. The lady is like dancing.

And I'm like, did you ever hear about Dharma? And you can always, if you're skillful, you can always teach something. You can always talk about something.

So, think about it. When you're in the bar, in the go-go bar, you can always think of something to help people, right? And that's a bodhisattva's activity.

That's a bodhisattva's activity. Wherever you are, by accident, then use the time, don't waste your time, and try to learn something or try to speak something. The Buddha, we had it yesterday.

We did a ritual yesterday. There's 64 songs of the Buddha's speech. Sometimes they say 60, and one of them is to be able to talk to anybody in their language.

So, you can try to learn bar talk, go-go bar talk. Hey, what's the guys doing? What's up with the football game?

And then, you know, do you know you have to die sometimes? So you can always, there's always some kind of dharma thing you can say. And we're supposed to learn these, learn to speak sarva-bhuta-rutas jnanam.

What's that? We're supposed to learn to speak in all people's languages, sarva-bhuta-rutas. It doesn't mean Russian, Spanish, Japanese.

It means bar talk, go-go bar talk, go-go bar dialect, and learn to speak to people in their own language, okay? And that's a skill of a bodhisattva. PHYIR THAB BYAS PA'ANG CHOS CAN DU ROL RAB CHUNG GYIS NI CHOS CAN RTZO BAR CHOS CAN DE STANGS PAS MA'I SBYOR NA SANGS RTZIN BYIN PA'ANG PHYIR DGOS RAB CHUNG GYIS Now, those of you who are monks and nuns in Tibet in 1920, CHOS CAN RTZO BAR CHOS Actually, you're kind of limited to dharma.

The giving you can do is dharma giving because monks and nuns aren't supposed to carry money or they're not supposed to own things. And I think it got corrupted in recent years. In my monastery, everybody kind of owns their own house.

They own their own apartment. They pass it on to their student. So really there is private property and I think it's not a good system.

The tantric college, gyu me, where my teacher was like vice president or something, there you cannot own your room. You don't own your room. You have to move every three months.

You cannot stay in one room more than three months and they force you to move to another room. In the sera, it's pretty much private property. You own your monk's apartment and you pass it on to your friends or your students.

But it's supposed to be that monks and nuns don't possess things like that. CHOS CAN, so the main kind of giving for a monk or a nun is the dharma. DE'I GTENG DU BAS MA'I SBYOR NA BAS MA'I SBYOR NA BAS MA'I SBYOR NA means if it comes to you easily, if people give you a lot of money, if people hand you a red envelope with $10,000 in it, BAS MA'I SBYOR NA, and you didn't ask for it, they just gave it to you.

Okay, then you can, as a monk or a nun, you can share what you have. You can share the money with other people. You can give the money to other people.

DNGOS KYANG RAB CHUNG LA DKA' DAM RGYAS SHES SHA RA BA'I There is a DKA' DAM RGYAS SHES named SHA RA BA, second generation DKA' DAM RGYAS SHES. NGES NI SKYES LA STONG BA'I PHAN YON MI SBYOD KYI BYIN PA'I NYES MI SBYOD PA YIN GSUNG I like this one. He says, I'm not trying to sell you on the benefits of sharing what you have.

STONG BA'I PHAN YON MI SBYOD MI SBYOD means I'm not trying to convince you. of the benefits of sharing what you have. SBYIN PA'I NYES MI SBYOD PA YIN I'm trying to convince you that it hurts you to keep things.

That's cool, I think. He says, I'm not trying to get you to donate money to ACI. I'm just telling you if you keep it, it'll hurt you.

It's interesting. If you keep it, if you think you can keep it by keeping it, you're hurting yourself. You keep it by giving it.

You see what I mean? Do I like money? Yes.

I don't buy things. I have an old car, old house, old clothes. They just sewed it up while I was in Tucson.

Not very well. But if I get money, I like to use it. I like to print a new book or I like to build a new cabin at Diamond Mountain or something like that.

So he says, here, I'm not trying to convince you to make a donation to ACI. I'm not trying to get you to appreciate the act of giving. I'm trying to convince you that keeping things is a stupid strategy.

When you keep things, I had a friend in the diamond business, a Jain monk in Mumbai, and he started a diamond business. We started it together in India and he became one of the largest in the world. He used to say, Michael, money likes to move.

Money likes to move. You shouldn't keep money in a bank account or you shouldn't hold it in your pocket. You should let it move.

Money wants to flow and then it will help more people. So he says here, this kadampa geshe, I'm not trying to convince you to be generous. I'm just saying what a drag it is to sit on money and then you're going to die anyway.

Then that money has to go looking for a new owner. It's just stupid. Don't let money sit there doing nothing while you sit on it and then you die and it didn't help anybody.

The money was useless. Sometimes it flows too fast, that's okay. Sometimes my wife's like, we can't pay the bills.

We'll work it out. It's better to let it flow too fast than to hold it. Holding it is really, holding it is stupid and if everybody held their money then everybody would be poor.

You see what I mean? We have to let money flow. When it comes, then let it flow.

Then everyone's benefit. All right, we're going to pause there and do Q&A. Please don't hit anybody with the box.

By the way, if you need to go to the bathroom or something, feel free.

[Говорящий 2]
Geshe-la, the first question is from online and it's kind of a fun, difficult question. I'm wondering if you could explain how we move from the fifth flavor of emptiness, the fifth flavor of emptiness, to the sixth flavor of emptiness and how dependence is different in those two so we can help our students understand those differences.

[Говорящий 1]
,YOD RANG GI THU MONG BA YIN PA'I ,DU LUS KYING MNGON NAS GRUB PA'I MTHONG, Yeah, there's a, the difference between the two forms of emptiness inside the middle way school, okay, lower middle way and higher middle way. So, Prasangika higher middle way and the independent, I like to call it the two groups inside of the middle way school. ,YOD RANG GI THU MONG BA YIN PA'I ,DU LUS KYING MNGON NAS GRUB PA'I The lower middle way, which would be five, we'll do number five.

They believe that basically you can think of it that we are interpreting the world. So how the world seems to you is an interpretation. So different people get different raw data, raw data, like, I don't know, there's a glass of pink liquid.

And then the raw data, according to the lower middle way, is the same for everybody in this room. There's a cup of pink liquid. And that's from the other side, not from my side, but from the other side, there's raw data appearing to me.

And that's a pink color and a cup shape. And then I interpret the raw data. If I'm, you know, I don't know, if I'm trying to be healthy, it happens to be almond milk and strawberry.

Zero carbs, both of them. And then, I don't know, to somebody else it might, if you don't know what it is, I don't know, many people online, I mean, people, I get all kinds of emails. They say, why are you drinking a margarita in class?

No, really, you have no idea. By the way, when you step into the role of a Dharma teacher, get ready to be patient. Because people will say all kinds of terrible things about, oh, Geshe-la was drinking margaritas in class.

And so somebody looks at the same liquid and they see a margarita. And that tells us more about the person than about Geshe-la. You know what I mean?

If you see a margarita, maybe you're drinking margaritas, not me. So in the lower middle way, everybody has a certain set of seeds and there's raw data. There is a pink liquid in this room and that wasn't made by anybody.

Geshe-la just held it up. I'm not making the pink liquid. The pink liquid is there.

How I interpret it, how I take it, that's the emptiness. If I have been drinking margaritas a lot, then I will think Geshe-la has a margarita. And if I've been on a diet for too long, nine kilos, I'll teach you a trick.

If you've been on a diet for a long time, then you're like, oh, that's some kind of healthy drink, like that. So in the lower middle way, worldview number five, people are interpreting raw data which is out there. The raw data is really there.

And then we interpret it in different ways and that's the emptiness. The emptiness of this pink liquid is that it could be an almond drink or it could be a margarita. That depends on your seeds.

But the pink liquid does not depend on your seeds. Pink liquid is raw data. We're all experiencing a pink liquid no matter what's our karma.

Everyone's experiencing a color and a shape. That's fifth school. Fifth worldview.

Sixth worldview is even the raw data is coming from you. Even the pink liquid is coming from you. There's many people who would not see pink and there's many people who would not see a liquid.

There's many people who might see this as a knife or something. There's no reason to say just because it's pink that the pink is coming from its own side. And the highest middle way, sixth worldview, says that even the raw data is coming from me.

That if you had different karmic seeds you wouldn't even see pink. And you wouldn't see a cup shape. You would see a different shape and you would see a different color.

Everything about your perceptions is coming from your seeds. There's nothing coming from its own side. Not even the pink color.

Not even the shape. You're making that also. And that's the difference between five and six.

As you go higher through the six flavors of emptiness, they become more all-inclusive and they help you more. If you can understand that even the colors you see are coming from you, you'll be a better person. You'll be sweeter to other people.

Even the colors are coming from you. Everything's coming from you. There's nothing about another person, even the color of their face, their eyes, their lips, that's not coming from you.

Everything's your fault. Every, excuse me, but every asshole you ever met was a direct reflection of you. Then that gets a little overwhelming.

You're like, everyone? Like that boyfriend in sixth grade? Yeah.

Everything, even their colors are coming from you. Much less how they act and stuff like that. Cool, that's the difference between five and six.

LO NUS MED LA SNANG BA'I DBANG GI ZHAG BSAM MA YIN PAS YUL RANG GI THUM MO MED YIN PA'I DUS SU SBRUB PA'I MTHONG BA It's the fifth one. LO NUS MED LA LO NUS MED LA SNANG BA'I DBANG GI ZHAG BSAM MA YIN PAS They would say if the state of mind is not affected by alcohol or insanity or sickness, LO NUS MED LA SNANG BA'I DBANG GI ZHAG BSAM MA YIN PAS YUL RANG GI THUM MO MED YIN PA'I DUS SU SBRUB PA that the raw data is out there by its own. That's the fifth worldview.

There's a small print that says the mind should be unaffected. It should be not crazy, not drunk, not insane. Then that raw data is coming from its own side.

Cool. Next? Yeah.

[Говорящий 2]
Thank you for teaching, Geshe-la. The first of the six perceptions, the first one is giving, sharing, and the first one, four magnets, sharing too. So what's the difference between these two?

[Говорящий 1]
I'm sorry, say again.

[Говорящий 2]
The first of the six perceptions is sharing, and the first one of the four magnets is also sharing.

[Говорящий 1]
Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, got it, yeah. Okay, good. By the way, Sophie Chow organized a beautiful talk with, she and I talked to Marie Kono, who invented this neatness program in Japan.

We had a really good time, and I think it was an hour or something, and the three of us did a talk together, and if you get a chance, you should see it. I think it's kind of fun to see such a disorganized Geshe talking about talking with such an organized people. But it was a beautiful interview that we had, and we might do it again in Kyoto or something.

Anyway, the first of the four magnets or ways of attracting disciples is to attract them with material things. So if you want, when you're ready, you should attract students, and the first thing is to help them financially, or offer them... Always, by the way, you Latin America tour guys, the key is donuts, to get people to come to your talk.

It's refreshments. And that's just, if you want to attract students, then the first rule is to be generous, and feed them. The original ACI course, seven years, I paid for everything for seven years, and it was hard.

It was really hard. But you should, if you want to be a teacher, in the beginning, to get people to come to class, be generous. Be overly generous.

Get some money. Don't have cheap, stupid refreshments. Have high quality refreshments.

Spend some time thinking about it. Spend some effort to help your students. And if a student is broke, or a student is having a financial problem, then help them.

And this is the first step to being a teacher, is to be willing to help your students financially, and physically. Whatever they need, help them. Help them take care of it.

What's the difference between that and the first perfection? I would say it is the first perfection. I'd say it's, when we talk about the four methods of attracting disciples, it's the same giving, it's the same perfection of giving, but in the short term, the goal of the giving is to attract people to class, and to get people to come to your class, or something like that.

And then the first perfection is more general. It's all kinds of giving. Actually, in the first perfection, you're still trying to get people to come to your class, but in 10,000 years.

Like when he gave his body to the tiger. It's the same thing as giving donuts to the first students who come to your class, but a little bit longer timeline. And then the first of the four magnets is, it is also the perfection of giving.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. But it's short term purposes to attract the students.

And don't be shy about it. That's the way things are. That's the way the world is.

Spend some time, make sure you have high quality refreshments. Make sure you have a lot. Make sure you're ready to clean up afterwards, because they will not help you.

And just relax and have fun. You're like mommy. Your mommy doesn't say, look, do you know how many breasts full of milk I gave you already?

Why do you want more? Moms don't ask that question. They just give.

And so a Dharma teacher should just keep giving. And don't get weird about it. Just keep giving.

Keep giving. That's the business we're in. That's what we do.

Cool.