Серия «Сутра Алмазного огранщика», часть 4 — Девять посланий: неожиданный финал Камалашилы к «Сутре Алмазного огранщика» (2017, Даймонд-Маунтин, Аризона), занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
Know the lion stance very well, you can record it, okay? You can put your phone up here if you want. Oh, sure?

That's okay. We're gonna freeze the people in front so make sure you have a sweater. This system, the people in the back are hot and the people in the front are cold.

So, if you're not recording please turn off your phone, and we'll do a nice slow lion stance. We'll probably take a break in the middle, okay? Some people weren't here during the lamrim, so I'll do some explanation as we go, okay?

Please blow your nose. Here's a tissue if anyone needs. Clear your throat.

Please don't clear your throat during the meditation. Okay, let's go. So, the lion's dance meditation starts with tracking some noise in the room.

Air conditioner, or heater, refrigerator, traffic noise outside, kids noise, or small noises in the room. If you're in a Diamond Mountain cottage you can use the, and it's too quiet, you can use the sound of the air hitting your eardrums. It sounds like static on a radio.

Glue your mind to that sound. If you'd like to meditate for about half an hour, 40 minutes, you can do 10 breaths at each step. If you'd like to meditate for an hour, you can do about 20 breaths.

Then the lion's dance, the first eight levels, are all about comparing the previous level to the next level, and always seeking to go quieter. And it's also a kind of gag ja, meaning that you drop the louder level and you go to the quieter level, and there's a very active comparison of the two. So you put your mind on the air conditioner noise, and then you consider the first form realm level, which we're using the heartbeat, and compared to the noise of the air conditioner, the heartbeat is quieter.

This is called shiraki namba chen in the study of meditation. And by comparison of a louder place to a quieter place, we consciously choose the quieter place and we move into it. So compared to the air conditioner, which represents the desire realm, the gross physical world we live in, we choose the quiet place of the heartbeat.

So move now to the heartbeat. Follow the heartbeat. First form realm level, which is not really the form realm, but if you focused only on your heartbeat as your meditation, as a pretty devoted meditation during your lifetime, then you would be reborn into the form realm, first form realm, which is very, very similar to the superheroes in the movies you see, like Wonder Woman, Thor, or Spider-Man.

And then after that karma wears out, after that debit card is used up, you always, 99% of those people, go to the lower realms. So we don't want to devote our whole meditation just to quiet. We want to reach some kind of content which works against our tendency to see things as coming from their own side.

But to get there, we go through the steps of getting quieter and quieter, like moving up an elevator, eight floors, but don't get out in the first eight floors. Don't devote your life to meditating on just quiet. It doesn't stop the process of aging or death.

So heartbeat, first form realm. Then if your mind goes back to the air conditioner, sound of the fan, just use it as a step. Focus on it.

Glue your mind to it, and then step back up to the first form realm with your heartbeat. So in this meditation system, distractions can be used to climb to the next level. Second form realm level, we try to imagine that rather than watching the heart from the outside, we enter the heartbeat.

In technical terms, it's moving from vittarka and vichara to deeper levels of quiet, to a level deeper than that. So imagine that you are inside the heart like a small room, and it's beating around you. Maybe you are even beating with the heartbeat.

Go inside the heart because it's a more quiet place than watching the heart from the outside. Each time we're going more quiet. Third form realm level, classically we drop any emotional feeling of attachment or pleasure with the meditation posture and object.

We get some emotional distance from the object. So I like to imagine the heart is now beating a little bit ahead of me, like a little bit far away, and it's beating in a vacuum, and I don't relate to it much. It's beating by itself a little bit far away, and the sense of me is much less here, almost canceled.

So imagine the heart beating in a vacuum, especially emotional vacuum. You don't connect to it. You don't relate to it.

It's just beating. It's a deeper quiet than being inside the heart. Fourth form realm is characterized by a high state of single-pointedness, and we pretty much drop the entire sensation of the body, particularly the pleasant feeling of good posture in meditation.

So it's almost as if your body has been anesthetized, and you can't feel it anymore, and the mind sharpens like a laser into a single point, and it helps classically in meditation to reach a state of single point. If you're having trouble reaching a single point, then think of something tiny and put your mind on that, and that helps a lot to focus the concentration. So we use a grain of sugar at the fourth form realm, a single grain of sugar floating in darkness, white, crystal, beautiful, and move the mind inside it, and drop the feeling of the body completely.

These are not antidotes to samsara. These will not solve your problems of life, neither with your family or your job or the bigger problems of mortality, but we are climbing up a ladder to a place where we will deal with those problems. Now we move to the first formless realm level.

If you only meditated on this for long periods during your life, you would be reborn in a place where there's no gross suffering. You don't even have a gross physical body, and you would live like that for many years, and then when you died you would always go to the lower realms because you would use up your karma. So we don't stay in this meditation, we just use it to move up.

It's called sel jangwa in Tibetan. Sel jangwa means, now we show our flexibility in meditation. Can we go from a single grain of sugar to a state of mind which expands to the whole expanse of space itself?

So we imagine a huge lake, and our mind is like the surface of the lake, and it's on a horizontal plane. It spreads left and right especially, and we're going to drop a small pebble in the center of the lake, and ripples will go out to the left and the right. I like to make it one ripple.

For me it's less than an inch high, like a centimeter, and I found that it helps a lot if it's completely silent. The movement of the ripple left and right is completely silent. This is more quiet and deeper focus than the grain of sugar, but we are showing off our mental flexibility.

We can go from a single point to the expanse of the whole universe and still get quieter. Okay, drop the pebble and see the ripple, and don't let it stop. If you lose focus, bring your mind back to the ripple, and keep seeing it move out, out, out, no end, no shore.

Then come back to the center of your mind. For me it's like dark, and it's a point in the middle of a room about, you know, two meters off the ground, and come to the center of your mind. And we go to a more quiet place called the second formless realm level, nam she thay.

And we're going to imagine turning on a light, and the light flies from the bulb in a sphere, ever expanding, wider and wider. And that light is not white or yellow, it's clear light. And again, it's not the real meaning of clear light, or usel, in Buddhism, but it's just like a crystal color, which is not the meaning of clear light in Buddhism.

Then, but we imagine a crystal light expanding from a single point in a ball. And I like to make it as big as the earth, and then I like to see it go beyond the sun, and reach to the stars, beyond the stars. The universe has countless planets.

Somewhere right now there are people meditating, like us, in many places, countless places. They are meditating on the second formless realm level. And I like to imagine my sphere of crystal light is overlapping their sphere of crystal light.

Somehow we are touching each other. Maybe one day we'll be aware of it. So when I say go, turn on that light, and let the crystal light expand, endlessly, in all directions, like a ball.

And that light is your awareness, your own mind. Okay, go. Turn on the light.

Don't let it stop. Keep pushing it further, further. At the same time, try to be more quiet inside than the light.

Third formless realm level. Seventh of the eight levels, counting the air conditioner as zero. This is called Chiang Mei.

And we just try to imagine that we turn the mind off, like a switch. No thoughts, no feelings, no awareness. Just dark, black, as if your mind died.

And so when I say go, just shut the mind off. If thoughts come, feelings, memories, push them away. Keep the mind turned off.

Deeper quiet than the expanding mind of the second formless realm. Okay, go ahead, turn off the mind. Fourth formless realm level, and the highest of the eight meditations we use to prepare our mind for actual meditation.

So these eight are not real meditation. They are just stretching the mind, warming up the mind for the meditation. These are not meditation.

They cannot help your life in a real way. At the fourth formless realm level, we ... still the mind is turned off, but when thoughts come, memories, feelings, we just surrender to them.

We let them move through the mind. We don't make the noise of trying to stop them, as we did with the last level. So it's a more quiet place, extremely quiet place, where we just surrender.

We try to turn the mind off, but if it doesn't turn off, we just let it go. We stay in total silence. Okay, let's go.

Track three deep exhales. Don't open your eyes yet. Then you can gently open your eyes, take a stretch.

Microphone. Any questions about that part? That's the first part of the meditation.

We're going to start the second part in a few minutes, but anybody have any questions about the first part?

[Speaker 2]
Thank you Geshe-la. I have a question. During the instructions, when we're moving from one form to the next, when you're giving the instruction, do we stay in the form prior to the instruction?

My mind was jumping back and forth.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's a good question. Janice's question is, when I'm giving the instruction, should you start moving yet, or should you wait? The reason I'm giving instructions is that you can learn the meditation, and when you do it by yourself, for a week or something, use the recording, follow the recording, and then after that you can stop using the recording, and then you just move up to the next.

You decide, and it's always a process of comparison okay, shirdhaka nampa chen. You check the level you're on, you say, that's quiet, but I could go quieter. And then you kind of look ahead to the next level, you know, and you say, oh that would be more quiet.

And there's supposed to be a emotional feeling of going deeper, and for me it feels like drilling down okay. So you know, you get quiet, then you get used to that quiet, and then you say, let's see if I can go more quiet, and you drill down. So actually listening to a recording, you can't get past the desire realm, but you're just imagining okay.

So I think it's important to say, you have to practice a lot to really get to a formless realm meditation, or you know, I'm describing them, you're imagining them, but when the real thing comes you'll see it's much deeper okay. So there's no noise, there's no sound, so you have to practice. It's like playing soccer or learning a language, it takes time, and you have to practice every day okay.

Even if you can't, we just did like an hour, even if you can't do an hour every day, you can go through the levels faster okay. You got to go to work, then push it a little harder, five breaths each level okay. When I say five breaths in the beginning, count five breaths, then move.

Later that becomes a distraction okay, but you'll get used to the timing. There's a five breath version, 20 minutes. There's a 10 breath version, about half an hour, 40 minutes.

There's a 20 breath version, it's about an hour okay. And so first, at first use your breath to count when to move on okay, but later you'll have to drop that, because that's also noisy okay. Okay other question.

Thank you Geshe-la for your teaching. During the meditation, so my mind tend to think about things instead of getting down. It's more agitation all the time, and this especially in the first aid level, it tends to make our mind not to think.

So it's kind of against my tendency, and I got pretty frustrated when I like during the peaceful late and some project come out. So every time, many times when I finish this meditation, I feel tired, because I was like trying so hard to put it back, and it's not so peaceful. It's because my mind is just tend to think about things, analyze things.

So how would you suggest I do that? Yeah good. At the beginning, I mean your mind is very active, human mind is very active.

Stanley's more active, like mine, and so to get the mind to listen to you is struggle. A lot of ... in the meditation books, who wrote the best meditation book?

Kamalashila, how many? He wrote three books, in Tibetan they're called Gomrim, in Sanskrit they're called Bhavanakrama okay? And we read them together in the first two Kamalashilas.

There's nothing in those books that you don't find in the Lamrim. The Lamrim comes from those books okay? So, in those books they say, it's very common for a person to go to the Lama and say, after you taught my meditation, after you taught me meditation, my mind got worse.

My mind used to be quiet sometimes, now when I meditate it's like very noisy, it's worse than before. And then the Bhavanakrama, the Gomrim, the meditation manual says, your mind was always terrible, you just didn't know okay? Now you're listening to your terrible mind, it sounds worse okay?

So, the more you practice ... there's a stage, first six months when you feel frustrated, you feel like my mind's getting worse, you're just learning to listen to your mind for the first time. It is that bad, it always was that bad, but you never noticed it, because you were in it, and you didn't learn to watch it.

So, being in the mind, being in your thoughts, and learning to watch your mind are different okay? Your whole life you've been in your thoughts, busy busy busy, talking talking talking. Now you start to watch it, and you say Geshe-la my mind's getting worse okay?

Actually you're just learning to watch your mind. After that you learn to control your mind okay? And make it more quiet.

So, there's a stage where it's exhausting, you're fighting the mind actively. My suggestion is, just so you don't get discouraged, go up quickly through the eight, and go to number nine okay? Like the purpose of going through the eight is to build up your meditation muscle okay?

I like to say your mind is, you know, your mind is like a dog, like a bad dog, and you have the dog on the leash right? We have a small dog we babysit sometimes, me and V, it's a very active little black dog, and he wants to go go go go. He will pull you, he's this big he will pull you, and then you have to grab the dog.

You know the dog wants to think about lunch, in my case, it's always lunch. Or maybe you have something else you like to think about, your last fight with your husband, or what somebody said about you on the internet, and the mind wants to go over there you know, so you have to say, no no come on, come on, come back, come back. Then he gets quiet for a while, like our little black dog.

Then he's like, then he thinks of something else and he goes, then you have to pull him back you know, and then every time you pull him back this muscle gets stronger, this is meditation muscle. So, in Buddhism struggling is a good thing okay? Giving up is a bad thing, struggling is exhausting, if the bad dog is called my mind okay?

It's exhausting okay? Just anybody who did a three-year retreat, Thelma did two three-year retreats in a row, you can, she can tell you, it's a struggle you know? People came into my retreat cottage after my three-year retreat, I remember the first day when I came out, and they came in, for the first time in three years they saw my, inside of my cottage you know, and they said, oh Geshe-la it looks so peaceful.

I say, yeah like Vietnam War is peaceful. Many war fought in this cabin, many many many wars you know? So, don't expect meditation to be like, you know, if you do it wrong maybe it's peaceful, I don't know.

But if you're really watching your mind, it's a struggle, and it doesn't happen the first day that you feel peaceful, it's not going to happen, like that. Somebody want to turn off their alarm? You have to fight, you have to struggle okay?

And every moment that you struggle with your mind, you are making progress okay? And if you space out, called chingwa tramo, space out, oh I'm in the void, everything's nice, I'd not think about anything. There's a name for that, it's called subtle dullness, and it's a bad bad meditation habit.

If you meditate longer than you have capacity, you will definitely go there okay? Most people, when they meditate, should start with 12 minutes okay? That's an old tradition in Buddhism, 12 minutes okay?

Then maybe you can go to 20 minutes okay? But if you try to sit there for two hours, definitely you will go to chingwa tramo. Chingwa tramo means space out okay?

Just dull mind okay? Not sharp, not clean. What does real meditation feel like?

I like to say when you're watching a good movie okay? What's it called? Guardians of the Universe, and you're like watching the movie you know, and in the beginning everyone's eating popcorn, and the green lady is beating up people, and the big guy is saving her, the handsome guy is running around, and the little tree guy is helping, and the fox or something?

Yeah, then you're like eating popcorn, they are fighting, and then you're waiting for the special moment when the green lady kisses the handsome guy. So, everybody in the ... for two hours everybody's like eating popcorn you know, in an American movie you know, and then suddenly they start to go like this, and then everybody popcorn goes like this, and everyone's like this, maybe he's gonna kiss her now, after two movies finally you know, and they are going closer and closer you know, and everybody's like ...

they forgot the popcorn. This is focus okay? That moment in the movie.

Whole 200, 300 people like this okay? So, the feeling in a good movie, that's meditation, that's what you want. It's not like that okay?

Really, 99% of people who meditate are like this okay? A real meditation mind is sharp, clean, happy, engaged, excited, oh kiss is coming, kiss is coming, okay? Like that okay?

If you're like that, then you are actually making a bad habit okay? You are hurting your mind, and you're hurting your future okay? So, don't meditate too long, meditate 20 minutes, take a break like we're doing right now, then go back okay?

When you get stronger, then do more, but don't do too much at the beginning okay? You waste your time, and you make a bad habit, it's very hard to change later okay? Okay, any other question?

You, okay go. It's not for me actually. Yeah, yeah.

[Speaker 2]
This is from Amin Rizapur from Vancouver.

[Speaker 1]
Hmm.

[Speaker 2]
He asked, my question is, sometimes when I meditate, I see things and feel things that are very scary, or I perceive them as scary. They may not be real, but they scare me so much that I have to take a break.

[Speaker 1]
Is this normal, and how should I deal with this? Yeah, okay good. So, DCI level 3 is about meditation, how to meditate.

ACI 3 also is meditation, and the big breakthrough that Tsongkhapa made, the way he explained meditation, the huge, huge breakthrough that Tsongkhapa made is in a letter that he wrote to a student of his named Ngawang Dagpa, and he also wrote him what? The Three Principal Paths right? And, but he wrote another letter to Ngawang Dagpa, and he said, meditation is seeds opening in your mind okay?

And every time you hear your thoughts all day, seeds are opening in your mind. So, we're gonna do that next in this meditation. Little thoughts are coming out of seeds in your mind, and actually you are not the thinker, you are the listener okay?

So, when you hear thoughts in your mind all day, you are just the witness okay? You are not the talker. Why?

The talker left a moment ago, the talker is not here anymore okay? I like to say it's like light coming from a star okay? The light of the stars you saw last night, unbelievable beautiful last night, because it's just after the new moon, and the light left a year ago, or ten years ago, hundred years ago, then the light is coming to you.

By the time the light reaches your eye, that star can be gone already, already died out. Your thoughts are the same, by the time you hear them, the talker is gone okay? So, you cannot control the talker in your mind, it's not possible okay?

People used to come to my Lama you know, I was translator, I told you, I translate his English into English. People say, Rinpoche, I feel depression, all the time I feel depression, yeah I say, Rinpoche they feel sad, he says okay I got it. Then, then he said, okay I have advice for you, you know, sometimes they came from far away to ask my Lama question, he say, you should be happy.

Then he start doing his mantra again you know, that means interview is finished, you know, they're not, me and the other person are waiting. Then he's like, you still here? Then I said, Rinpoche, they have serious problem, maybe you're gonna commit suicide, they have depression.

He said, I told you what to do, what? Be happy. Then, I'm like, then the person go away, they are angry and depressed.

Then I go upstairs, I said, Rinpoche, why, why you, why you should be happy, why you giving some help? He said, it's too late, the seed is planted already, seed is opening, they are listening to a star that's already finished, you see? It's too late to, you are gonna be depressed today okay?

If you don't want to be depressed next week, then be nice to other people, that's all. Plant some good seeds this week, next week the thought you hear in your mind when the seeds open will be nice thought okay? Got it?

Meditation is the same okay? You cannot meditate, you cannot control your mind, you will hear what comes out of the seeds, maybe you will hear something quiet, or maybe you will hear something noisy, but by the time you hear it, it's too late. Guinka said, you cannot push a tree back into the ground.

The guy who invented Vipassana, I took his course when I was 20, he said, you cannot push a tree back in the ground, it's not possible okay? So, the real key to meditation is not to disturb other people, make other people happy, make other people peaceful, be nice to other people. Next week, the seed that opened in your mind will be peaceful, but you cannot control your mind, it's not possible, because the light already left the star, by the time you hear it, it's too late.

Got it? The real key to meditation is not to disturb other people's mind, be nice to other people's mind, make them happy okay? Make them peaceful.

Next week, your mind will be peaceful okay? Got it? I forgot what the question was.

Oh yeah, so, if you feel nervous or scared, if some strange images come in your mind while you're meditating, those were planted last week, it's too late to stop them. It's like telling the light from the ... after the light from the star reach you, it's like talking to the star hundred years ago, it's too late you see?

So, you have to deal with the seeds in your mind. Learn the four powers for cleaning away bad seeds, and be careful not to make other people scared or nervous okay? And...and then those thoughts won't come during meditation. If they're coming, it's a sign that you're being mean to somebody okay? And you have to stop okay? That's all.

Okay? Alright, let's do the second part. Utpala we'll get to you later okay?

Alright, here we go. Second part of the meditation. Blow your nose, do your yancy stuff, turn off your phone.

This is the second part of the lion's meditation okay? Lion stance. Then we'll take a pee-pee break okay?

So, you can meditate on your bladder if you want. Okay, we won't spend too long okay? So, we just pretend we just came out of the fourth formless realm.

We turned off the mind, and when thoughts came we ...we didn't confront them. Now we start the real meditation. The ninth floor is the real meditation.

The first eight floors, including zero floor, the air conditioner noise, are not meditation. They do not contradict the way the normal mind sees the world. So, now bring to mind one of your teachers in your life.

It could be your mother, or your father, who are your first grade teachers. It could be a school teacher. It could be ...a lot of us had sports teachers that we felt close to. It could be a spiritual teacher, like a priest, or a rabbi, or a monk. A lot of us were taught our occupation by someone. That person taught you a lot.

You can think about a historical teacher like Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Muhammad. Your heart teacher is especially good. Someone that you feel has helped you in your life more than anyone else we call a heart teacher.

And for some of us, if we haven't met someone yet that we have this feeling about them, this is my heart teacher. Then you can imagine your perfect heart teacher, and you can bring this teacher to sit with you in meditation right now. This is the beginning of level nine.

And I encourage you to make the teacher real. It's not a picture. It's not imagination.

It's not a statue. It's a breathing, warm, living teacher sitting with you knee-to-knee. Your eyes are closed, their eyes are open, and they're looking at you with great love, great emotion, very happy that you are meditating.

Then there are many qualities about your personal teacher that you admire, and of course there are many qualities about them that we would like to develop ourselves. That's why they're our teacher. So, in this meditation, level nine, you choose just one of those qualities that you love about this person in your life.

Could even be your child. I had a person who said his root lama was his dog, and I believed him. So, think about one good quality that you admire in this teacher.

You can change the teacher every day if you want in the meditation, or you can stay with one teacher for four or five days, and then change to another one. As you do this meditation more and more, you will find more and more sweet qualities in this teacher. It's not very useful to isolate a negative quality in another person and meditate on it.

It doesn't uplift your mind. It doesn't make you a better person. I encourage you to choose an admirable quality in someone else.

Focus on that. So, choose a quality. Now go back to the middle of your mind, which is where we've been meditating.

For me, I imagine a dark room, and in the middle of the room, imagine a small nest, like a bird's nest, and inside that nest are six or seven beautiful, beautiful eggs, silver color, as if there's a spotlight on them, and they are very bright, shining, beautiful. And now imagine that one of those eggs is cracked open, split, and an image comes out, luminous image, small, maybe the size of a marble, and it comes out of the seed, and like a hologram, and it's the image of your teacher's quality. In my case, let's say I'm thinking about my Lama's consideration of other people, and so I imagine a silver egg cracking open in the center of my mind, and out comes an image of consideration.

And in my meditation, it moves towards the front of my head, and it moves out of my head, and it settles on my Lama's in front of me like a coat, and it covers them, and this is why I see the consideration of my Lama. If it's more comfortable, you can imagine the seeds coming out of your heart. If you tend to get nervous in meditation, you can imagine them, seeds coming out of a place near your spine, in front of your spine, at the level of your navel, and that will ground you.

And the most important thing at this stage in the meditation is this feeling that what you see in your teacher, the beautiful quality, in my case consideration, is actually coming from seeds in my mind. They are making pictures, those pictures are settling over my Lama, and the goodness that I see in my Lama is coming from those seeds. Think about it, then go back to the second egg, watch it crack open, watch the image come out, watch it settle on your Lama, and that's the second moment of consideration.

Then go back to the silver eggs, and repeat this process for a few minutes. In real life it's happening at a rate of 65 eggs opening, one after one, per second. We're slowing it down.

If you do this part correctly, you should have a sort of a shocking feeling that what I see, the beauty I see, in my teacher is coming from me. I may not see that quality in myself, but I have the seeds to see it in another person. Now we take a fun trip.

We try to imagine, what did I do to plant those seeds? I must have done something. If I see something in my world, if I see a quality in my teacher, it has to be that I planted those seeds.

So, it could have been in this life, but we're going to pretend that we can go back into our past life, and try to imagine something you did in a past life to plant those seeds, and be creative, be happy. It was some beautiful things you did in your past life, some really nice habit you had for many years, how you treated other people, and be imaginative. Let go, don't limit yourself.

Use any image that comes to your mind, because all of those are your seeds. They belong to you. Any story you can make up about your past life is coming from your seeds.

It may not be correct, it may not be exactly what happened. Someday in the future you will be able to see your past lives directly, but right now let's make a story, let's write a movie about your past life. When ...

what era? Was it a hundred years ago? Was it a thousand years ago?

Was I in China? Was I in India? Was I in Europe?

Was I a Native American? And how did I treat people? What was I doing day-to-day that I planted these seeds to see such a considerate Lama?

Okay, so write your story. Just a few breaths, then we'll take a break. Now come back to your Lama in front of you.

Now you have a better feeling for why you see this quality. Respectfully ask them to move to the side. And now imagine another image of your Lama that looks just like the first Lama, but this is like the second husband in the kitchen.

This second imaginary Lama, their good quality is not coming from me, it's not coming from my seeds. I don't deserve it. It's not from doing nice things to other people.

It's just an accident. I met this Lama by accident. They don't come from me.

There's no history between us in the past. There's no past lives when I planted them or met them. There's no future between us, like a grand, beautiful ending to this story.

There's no future lives together. There's no future lives. There's no past lives.

We're not going to enlightenment together. It's just an accident. I met them by accident.

I came here by accident. They came here by accident. If you follow this train of thinking, everything's random.

I meet people by accident. There's no past reasons for this. Even the universe itself came from a random explosion called the Big Bang, and little dust particles hit each other billions and billions of times, and finally they banged together and made my nose, made my Lama's nose, made my Lama's eyes, made this world, and it's all just a big coincidence, accident.

I like to call this Lama, this accidental Lama, I like to call them Boo Boo Lama, random Lama, Big Bang Lama, and try to feel a sense of, for me it's almost like outrage, like this is wrong. My beautiful, exquisite, dear Lama is not a Big Bang accident. It's not true that we have no future together, no happy ending.

We have spent many lifetimes together. They're coming from these beautiful seeds. I object to this idea of an accidental Lama.

I don't believe it. And then wipe away this fake Lama, accidental Lama. Bring back the real one, and be aware that the place where the real Lama is sitting is where the fake Lama was wiped away from, and that's emptiness, okay?

Without emptiness I can't see this Lama coming from seeds. So practice the feeling that your Lama, living, sweet Lama, exists in the space left behind when we canceled the accidental Lama. That's your Lama living in emptiness.

Track three long exhales, and then open your eyes. Take a stretch. I'll answer questions about that after the break, okay?

So we're gonna take a break, 15 minutes. I believe there are some delicious green drinks and fresh juices for you in the kitchen. I encourage you to drink a green drink.

In my opinion, green drink is just below yoga. I hate both of them. But if you drink one, you'll be able to have a good class, okay?

So, just hold your nose and drink the green drink, okay? See you in 15 minutes, okay? Alright, so we're gonna go back to the verse at the end of the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

We have about an hour, and towards the end of the hour we'll go over the schedule for your meditation for today, okay? Please say taraka, timidam, dipo, maya, avashaya, budbudam, svapnam, ca, vidyud, abhram, ca, evam, drashtavya, sanskritam. Okay, we're on taraka, which means star.

We said there would be six different meanings. I'm gonna review the first three that we covered. First one is shared by Kamalashila, Master Kamalashila, Master Vasubandhu, Choney Lama, and Jamyam Shepa.

And that's that stars can only shine in the darkness, and the darkness in their understanding represents that we don't understand the object, okay? And then the star here represents things that ... bad things in our life, okay?

Because we don't understand. And then if we did understand they would go away, as if the sun came up, okay? And we use the example of your husband, or your wife.

Somebody object when I say husband, they said wife also cause trouble. So, when you come home, you know you yelled at your kids last week, then you come home and your husband yells at you for no reason, calls you stupid, okay? And then you have two choices.

You can understand that they are coming from the seed, little silver eggs in your mind, like the Lama. Or you can think that it's, I didn't do anything and they are just hurting me, okay? If you think you didn't do anything before, that's like darkness.

And then the husband will be like a star, and they will hurt you, okay? Then a Buddhist person, of course we should try to change our seeds. The nice thing is you don't have to tell your husband that you're changing him.

You just change your seeds. There's no need for long discussions, fighting, etc, okay? You can change them.

That all—but that doesn't mean you should let someone hurt you, or abuse you, okay? That's not Buddhist either, okay? So, if someone's hurting you, you know, you don't have to just stand there and let them hurt you, and say, it's my seeds, okay?

You can take action if you have to leave, or you have to seek advice, or you have to seek even legal means, then of course you should do what you have to do, but understand that whether it works or not depends on your seeds, okay? So, there shouldn't be anger. There should be no anger.

I'm responsible, but I choose to leave, or I choose to seek some help, legal help, or other kinds of help, psychological help, that's fine. Here we have a very strict policy at Diamond Mountain. You sign it every time you come here.

No alcohol, no drugs, no weapons, no hurting other people, no harassing other people physically, sexually, any other kind. It's a policy here for 14 years. We have a process, if you have something happen to you, and you want to report it, talk to one of the board members.

Would you stand up, board members? Rob, Scott, me, John, Michael, Stanley, Jigme, okay? Melissa, and Melissa.

If you have a problem with somebody, just report it to one of those board members. If you're shy, you can write an email to us, and it can be anonymous, okay? You don't have to tell us who you are.

And we have a system for investigating problems here, okay? And that system is 14 years old. I've been at all the board meetings, I think, during that time.

We have investigated people, we have issued warnings, we have, what do you call, disciplined people, we have even reported people to the police. So, if you feel you need, if you have a problem here, just feel free to tell somebody, okay? And if you have an old problem that you had, you can still tell us, okay?

But, the start is coming from you, okay? That doesn't mean you don't tell the police, or you don't tell the board, okay? But it means that you don't get angry, because you understand where it's coming from, okay?

And you can fix it, by fixing your seeds, okay? Alright, that's the first one. Second one, Tendral Hrambha said, no no, the stars are the truth of suffering, okay?

And, when the Sun comes out, which is the direct perception emptiness, those stars cannot show themselves, okay? A person who is seeing emptiness directly, especially, cannot have suffering, and they will, they can actually never again collect karma for suffering, okay? They can still get old karma ripening, but they don't make new karma for rebirth, okay?

Like that, okay? Then, Koinjatembedume said, I have another understanding, it's that emptiness allows things to appear, okay? So, for him, the darkness is not ignorance, the darkness is emptiness.

We just did a meditation, where we cancelled the...Bubu Lama, accidental Lama, we cancelled them, like a white movie screen, okay? That's emptiness. Cancel the accidental Lama, that gives room for the real Lama to come, from the projector, called your mind, okay?

Got it? Okay? So, according to Koinjatembedume, the darkness is actually emptiness, and it allows things to appear like stars.

So, for him, everything is appearing, because emptiness allows it. You can just think of a white movie screen, is emptiness, and then your mind is the projector, and what images you put in your mind will be projected onto the emptiness, okay? If there was no emptiness, there would be no...things, okay? If there's no black space, the stars have no place to come, okay? That's the third idea. Now we're ready for the fourth one.

So, Koinjatembedume, the same Lama says, therefore, the darkness in the first example, in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, can be...exists or not? Exists or...well, let's say, good thing or bad thing? The darkness, good thing or bad thing?

Was a misunderstanding is a good thing? Yeah, good, okay? He said, you can think of the darkness as a good thing or a bad thing, okay?

When we talk about misunderstanding, the darkness is a bad thing, okay? And then the star is your husband, the second husband, okay? But, you can also think the darkness is a useful thing called emptiness.

It's the white screen, and without it we can't have anything, okay? Alright? So, that's the fourth way to understand the star and the darkness.

He says, you know, you can think the darkness is a bad thing, or you can think the darkness is a good thing, okay? And that, if you want to go deeper, that's the emptiness of darkness, okay? That's the emptiness of darkness.

Neil Young sounds good to some people, and sounds terrible to other people. The darkness can be misunderstanding, or the darkness can be emptiness, which allows other things to appear, also good things, okay? Got it?

That's understanding number four. Okay. Understanding number five comes from a dude, an Arya named Nagarjuna, okay?

Nagarjuna. So famous, sometimes he's called the second Buddha, and one of the first great Aryas, okay? And after we finish Kamalashila, we're gonna start his most famous book, which is called Wisdom, okay?

Sometimes, then of course people gave it a longer name, he likes short names, okay? Mula Prajna Paramita Kartika, root text, verses on Wisdom. But he called his book Prajna, Wisdom, okay?

27 chapters, all in poetry, extremely beautiful, and it's like taking a trip to the Buddha realms, okay? So, we're gonna study his most famous book, all teachings on emptiness in China, Tibet, India, Nepal, Mongolia, Japan, they all come from Nagarjuna, okay? So, from that book.

So, you're gonna have a good time, okay? I think it will take two, three years, okay? We will go through the ...

I have never seen a good translation of it, okay? Alright. So anyway, Nagarjuna wrote many poems, but he also wrote commentaries to other works, and there's a famous prayer called Samantabhadra, okay?

Samantabhadra's Prayer. In Samantabhadra's Prayer, the most typical offering, do you guys know? Do you remember?

Yeah, is to imagine the sky covered with flowers, and offer it to your teacher. It's part of the ... Lama Chodpa and the George Boo, okay?

So, he wrote a commentary on that famous prayer, and in there he talked about how the stars appear in a glass of water, okay? If you go out at night at Diamond Mountain, and you ... Chöpto, let's not talk about Chöpto, one person under ...

you have a bucket of water, okay? And you can see the stars reflection in the bucket of water, okay? So, he says, Nagarjuna says the stars meaning is illusion, okay?

The meaning of the star is just illusion, okay? Because, you can see a star in the bucket of water, but it's not real, it's not the real star, okay? You use Sky Guide app on your cell phone, and you point it at the bucket of water, nothing will happen.

Seriously! By the way, if you don't have that app it's awesome, Sky Guide app, you can point it at the stars here, and it will give you the name and the history of the star, okay? Okay?

So, that's number five. Nagarjuna said the star represents illusion, because you can see all the stars in a bucket of water, okay? Number six, it's just common sense, I put in some common sense ones, okay?

Stars don't last, they change every 12 hours or so, okay? They go away. So, you can say the sixth meaning of the star is that they are impermanent, okay?

They always go away, okay? One of the most famous questions about this verse in history is, is he talking about impermanence or is he talking about illusion? Because some of the nine metaphors, they seem clearly to talk about impermanence, but then some of them seem to clearly talk about illusion, okay?

And there's a huge question for 2,000 years, you know, is Buddha talking about impermanence or is he talking about illusion? How would you vote on this one? Huh?

You like that? I vote for both? I agree, okay?

I'm sorry, but yeah, it's both. Stars come and go, every morning they disappear, just like our relationships, just like our money, just like our life, just like our body, they come, they go, okay? But also they are illusion, okay?

And that illusion depends on the darkness of not understanding, okay? So now you're ready to appreciate meditation number twenty, okay? We're starting at the end, okay?

Meditation number twenty. The nature of the things around us, how many examples? How things are?

Three. I mean, there's gonna—the first three are about, you know, what's the world like, okay? The first three of the nine examples describe the world, okay?

Our world. So, so far we've covered one of the twenty—three meditations, and we covered one-third of it, okay? So, maybe you should stay here for a few months, okay?

The nature of things around us, stars of the blank night. Now, we're gonna go to the second one, what's the Sanskrit? Timira.

Timira. Say Timira. Three roots here, okay?

Three separate roots here. Tim, tam, tem, there's three Sanskrit roots here, okay? Three meanings of the Sanskrit root, T-E-M.

One is darkness, okay? In Baruski, kak nazivayu? Tyomni da?

Tyomna? Tyomny? Tyomnaya.

You see the root in Russian, you don't see it in ... this darkness root in Russian, T-E-M, dark, okay? So, it means blindness, it came to mean blindness, you can't see, it's dark, okay?

The second root is tam, means to be cut off, to be cut off, yeah? And a place in a village which was separated from the rest of the village for worship was called tempo, okay? Tempo comes from that, got it?

Same root, it means cut off. What do you call a particle which is ... cannot be divided?

A-TEM, atom, okay? So, that's the root to cut, okay? There's a third meaning of tem, which means afraid, afraid.

Timid comes from that, temerity comes from that, okay? So, get this feeling. The second example, timida.

Timida means I'm alone, I'm cut off, I'm blind, and I'm scared, okay? I'm cut off, I'm blind, and I'm scared. This is timida, okay?

And it means, in this case, a cataract on the eye, okay? Extra skin on the eye, alright? It makes you blind, it makes you tired, okay?

Now, I'm gonna give you six meanings, okay? Six different meanings for the cataract, okay? Six different meanings for this covering on your eye, okay?

Kamalashila, Vasubandhu, Choney Lama, Jamyang Shepa, say ... the main meaning is that you think something's there, which is not there. Because of this bump on your eye, you see something out there which is not out there, it's just a bump on your own eye, okay?

It's just a problem with your own eye, okay? The second husband, okay? Looks like he's out there, but it's really a problem with you, okay?

Alright, got it? That's the most famous interpretation of the timida, the cataract, okay? They're always divided into two kinds, okay?

Meaning number one is always divided into two kinds. You see people, and you see things which are not there, okay? You see people, and you see things which are not there.

The husband is a people. But like traffic, okay? You get in a traffic jam.

Someone called me, they said I'm gonna be late coming from Tucson. I said why? They said traffic jam.

I said traffic jam? From Tucson to Bui? You can tell me in Shanghai or Berlin, but come on, traffic jam in Bui.

Give me another excuse next time, okay? Whoever it was. Alright, but traffic jams also coming from you, okay?

Don't blame the traffic, don't get mad at the traffic, okay? The purpose of studying the Diamond Cutter Sutra is to stop getting upset at things, okay? It's you, it's a bump on your own eye, okay?

Don't get upset at people, and don't get upset at things, okay? They're coming from you, okay? Alright, second meaning.

This is Tendar Sarambha, he likes to talk about the truth of suffering, right? Sometimes I like to call it the fact of suffering, because it refers to the suffering itself, okay? Alright, so you can say the four facts, okay?

So, he says only if you have a defective instrument of perception can you see suffering in your life, okay? Got it? He relates the eye problem to suffering, truth of suffering, okay?

And in Arya, a person who's looking at emptiness directly, they cannot perceive suffering, not possible. So for him, the bump on the eye is suffering, truth of suffering, okay? Second meaning.

And if you didn't have the bump on your eye, you couldn't see suffering, okay? Arya doesn't see any suffering, while they're seeing emptiness, okay? Alright, third one.

Kuan Chod Tenpa Dönme, he says, let's talk about Chandrakirti, let's go back to the Entering the Middle Way, okay? Very, very famous book on emptiness, Entering the Middle Way, okay? What's the middle way in Chandrakirti's Entering the Middle Way?

Who can tell me? It's Nagarjuna's book, okay? So, Chandrakirti's book is the most famous book recently on emptiness, okay?

1,200 years ago, and ... sorry, 1,400 years ago, and it ... it's called Entering the Middle Way, Madhyamaka Avatara, but the middle way here refers to the book called Wisdom, okay?

So, that's a nickname for Nagarjuna's book, is the Middle Way, okay? In his book, he said, RAB RIGS MED LA'ANG THAR ZHES LOL GYUR NA, DE LTAR MA YIN DE PHYIR DE YOD MIN, okay? And he's talking about a famous example from ancient times for things you see that are coming from you.

And the example is, like when Geshe Michael takes a shower in your bathroom, Scott can see, he always leaves like 30 or 40 hairs on the white porcelain. You can see hairs, you know? If I don't clean it up, you can see, okay?

Then Chandrakirti says, but some people have a scratch on their eye, then they see lots of hairs and they're cleaning them, but they're not hairs, it's a scratch on your own eye, okay? So, here we see in the third meaning of the eye problem, you will see what you have the seeds to see. You will see the problems that you have the seeds to see, and that's the first law of karma.

What's the first law of karma? Huh? Shikua makes shikua, okay?

Banana makes banana, watermelon makes watermelon, okay? What the bump on your eye makes you see, will match what you've been doing recently, got it? You see a hair on the porcelain, it's because there's a long fine scratch on your own eye, okay?

And you see a yelling husband, it's because you yelled at your kids last week, the scratch on your own eye will match what you see. You see what I mean? The content of the illusion is coming from how you treated people last week, or last month, okay?

Got it? The kind of bump on your eye will decide what you see, you see? You hurt somebody, you yell at somebody, then next week the hair you see in the bathroom, which is actually your own eye, scratch, okay?

Will match what you did last week, that's the first law of karma. So, for Kwan Chod Tenpa Dronme, this is the important thing. When you talk about a defect of the eye, scratch on the eye, you will see the same thing that matches how you behaved last week, okay?

Okay? There's no random, it's always match what you did last week. If you told your kids last week how beautiful they are, what would your husband say when you walk in the door?

You're so beautiful, okay? Got it? Is that a scratch on your eye?

Yes, good answer, good answer, alright. Meaning number four, this is important for Kwan Chod Tenpa Dronme. It's called confirmation, confirmation, confirmation, okay?

It means what happens if a person without a scratch on their eye comes in the room, okay? What happens if a person with clear eyes comes in the same room, okay? You came in the room, you know, you open the door and your husband said, you're stupid, okay?

For no reason at all. For no reason he called me, I didn't do anything, okay? Got it?

Then your friend comes in, who just got back from Kamalashila 4, okay? They come in the room and you say, can you believe this guy called me stupid? Your friend will say, who?

I don't see anybody. He's right there, he's my husband, he just called me stupid. What?

I can't see anything. I didn't, I didn't do anything. What?

Where is he? Is he hiding? No, he's standing right there.

I don't see anything. Okay, got it? Someone who understands the Diamond Cutter Sutra, walk in the kitchen right after you, they say, I don't see any husband who, I didn't do anything husband.

Okay, got it? Someone without the scratch on their eye come in the same kitchen, look at the same place, they don't see a husband who, I didn't do anything. Got it?

Okay, that's called confirmation, that's important to me. Fourth meaning of the scratch, if a person standing next to you doesn't have a scratch on their eye, they'll say, no Geshe Michael cleaned all the hairs out, there's no hairs in there. That's just your eye, okay?

That's a problem with your eye, okay? That's called confirmation that you are crazy. Okay?

Non-crazy person come in the room with you, say, I don't see any husband, I don't see any husband who's, not my fault. Okay? This is the story of every interview I ever had with a student, okay?

Hundreds of times every year, I talk to people, you know, people telling me, we had a problem, nobody listened to you, come on. Every year I talk to hundreds and hundreds of people, okay? I'm gonna buy a tape recorder, put it in my pocket, it's gonna say, maybe you should try the Four Steps, maybe it's coming from you.

Okay? I can say I've talked to thousands of people, okay? And the stories are almost all the same.

My husband blah blah blah blah, I know about the Four Steps, but my husband is different. I say, tell me about your husband, and then, I don't have this karma, I don't even know their husband, right? So, I don't have a scratch on my eye, and that's why they come to me, because I have other scratches with my own relationships, but I don't have the same scratch you have.

So, yeah, I can give you advice, this is called confirmation. Non-crazy person, talk to crazy person. When I go to my Lama for advice, I'm the crazy person, they're the non-crazy person, and they don't have a scratch, you see?

They can say, I don't know, your husband seems like a nice guy to me. No, no, he's not a nice guy, no. I say, well maybe it's a scratch on your eye.

I understand that's true of other people, but not in my case. Okay, that's called confirmation. Okay, how many we got for the cataract?

Four, good, let's go to number five. Vasubandhu, Master Vasubandhu, okay, he says think about the Wheel of Life, okay? By the way, how do you prepare to think about the Wheel of Life?

Lion's Dance, that's why the Lion's Dance was taught. DE NAS ZEN GYI RNAMS KYI'IN PA'I, MTHING YIN ZIN NA YONGS SHU'IN PA'I, BRTEN CING BRAL BYUNG LUG THUNG DANG, LUG MI THUN LA RTOG PAR BYED, Maitreya. Use the Lion's Dance, go straight to the Wheel of Life, that's the coolest, that's the coolest thing, okay?

Wheel of Life in our case, we're watching the seeds come out for the Lama, this is dependence, this is dependence, okay? Now, generally in the Wheel of Life, everything is messed up, everything in the Wheel of Life, the twelve parts of the Wheel of Life, is suffering, okay? That wheel is about the causes of death, and the wheel is held in the arms of death, okay?

So, this is an important thing to Master Vasubandhu, he says, if your equipment of experience, your eyes, your ears, your nose, your mind, if they were created by karma, then they are defective, okay? That's very interesting. Your telescope has a scratch on it, your telescope called your eyes, your ears, your nose, were built with a scratch on them, okay?

A normal person cannot see, hear, smell, taste, feel, or think of anything without making a mistake, okay? It's the nature of your equipment, you were born with the scratches on your eye, okay? And it's important to understand that, okay?

The natural human condition is to misperceive everything, all the time, okay? It's only with massive dosages of the perfection of wisdom that we can ever see anything correctly, because we were defective from the factory, okay? Called your mom's womb.

You came out with defective equipment, why? It was produced by defective thoughts, okay? Your nose, your eyes, your ears were produced by ignorance, okay?

The blind man. A normal person who doesn't have training, has to see the wrong thing, okay? If they just use their eyes, okay?

So, that's a very deep Buddhist thing, it's not just a mistake in your thinking, your equipment is broken, okay? You can't see anything without feeling that it's coming this way, okay? Normal human condition, you come out of your mom, five years later, you know, you see something, you believe it's coming this way, that's built into your eye also, okay?

Same with Lama Chöpa cookies, okay? They taste like the sugar is in the cookie, but the sugar is not in the cookie, the sugar coming from you, the sweetness coming from you, okay? But your tongue will lie to you, because your tongue was born from ignorance, your tongue was born defective, okay?

The tongue thinks, oh this cookie sweet, it's not true, sweet doesn't exist in the cookie, sweet coming from you, got it? Your equipment's broken, that's Master Vasubandhu. Number?

Understanding number five, okay? Alright, now the good news, number six, okay? It's not all bad news, okay?

Number six, say LO BUR BA. LO BUR BA. Nick has to learn this, Adam has to learn this, okay?

Say, say LO BUR BA. GNYUD MED. LO BUR BA.

GNYUD MED. Okay, GNYUD MED means, it's part of your mind which cannot be removed, it's like a cancer that's so spread in your body, if they cut it you will die, you know? You go to the doctor, you say, he says, you've got cancer, and you say, can you cut it out?

He says, it already metastasized, it already metastasized, we would have to cut your entire body out, it's too late, okay? It's spread everywhere, okay? It's part of your body now, cannot be removed, okay?

That's called GNYUD MED, okay? Say GNYUD MED, it means metastasized cataract, okay? Cannot cut it out without destroying the eye, okay?

Not possible, okay? LO BUR BA means, it's on the front of the eye, and if you have a good surgeon, you can remove it, you can cut it off. Which one is ignorance?

The second one, LO BUR BA, that's the goodness, okay? That's understanding number six, okay? Understanding number six is, the cataract is not part of you, it's removable, okay?

It's removable, alright? It didn't metastasize yet, okay? You can still remove it.

Skillful study, skillful meditation, skillful teaching, skillful effort on your side, we can cut it off, okay? And you will see things correctly, got it? Okay, those are the six understandings.

Let's go on to DIPO, okay? Long eye, DIPO, okay? DIPO.

Sorry, it's DIPA, okay? The full form is DIPA, AS before another word becomes O, okay? But the word is DIPA, okay?

In a verse it has to change to PO, DIPO, okay? The real word is DIPA, okay? Okay, this root is easy, the root is DEEP or D, and it means to shine, to shine, okay?

P, V, and B are interchangeable in linguistics. So, what comes from DEEP? Divine, okay?

Deva, okay? A lot of gods names, in the old days gods were sky gods, okay? So, Jove comes from that, Jupiter comes from that.

Jupiter means JUPITER, and the ancient form is DUPITER, okay? DUPITER, father of the light, DUPITER, and then JUS became JUS, became Jupiter. So, JUPITER means DUPITER, father of the sky, and many deity names are like that.

JUS is like that, JUS comes from DUS. TUESDAY comes from that, it's the day of the god named THIU, THIU, okay? Which means the sky god, okay?

The bright, bright god, okay? So, DEVA, DIVINE, DEITY, DAY, ZUS, JUPITER, TUESDAY, JOVE, they all come from the same root, okay? DUS, DUS.

Okay, so DEEP means a shining lamp, okay? Now, Master Kamalashila ... by the way, how many meanings here?

Let's do six, okay? First one is Master Vasubandhu, Master Kamalashila, JANG YANG ZHES PA'I DOR BYED, CHO NAS LAMA, they say the same thing, they say ... to make a butter lamp like here okay, you need two things, you need the wick, the piece of cloth, and then you need what?

You need the oil, or the butter, or the wax, okay? You need two things to make a lamp, you need cloth, and you need fuel, okay? Someone has to make the cloth feed the fire, okay?

Now, what's the fire? Is your awareness, okay? Messed up awareness, sansara awareness, okay?

Messed up state of mind, that you were born with, defective from the factory. Perception, okay? The light of perception, the light of awareness.

What you turn on at formless realm number ... two, okay? That light that comes from the ...

so, the lamp is your awareness, okay? What feeds it? The cloth represents karma.

This is Kamalashila, the cloth, the wick is karma. The oil, or the wax, is Wheel of Life, link number eight. Somebody tell me while I drink this whole coffee, that's how long it's gonna take.

Yeah, not bad, I didn't even get to start. Okay, you want money, right? You want some money.

You're low on money, somebody sends you some money through Rob Resinger, okay? From Guangzhou, and you have a choice, you can pay taxes or you cannot pay taxes, you can report it or you cannot report it, okay? Nobody knows about it, okay?

Somebody gives you cash, okay? In return for a service. In America you have to pay taxes, okay?

But, you're thinking, well nobody knows about it, I'll just spend the money, you know? I'll just use the money, I don't have to pay taxes on it, okay? Got it?

So, that attitude, that desire, wakes up the karma seed, okay? Misunderstanding where money comes from, and the desire that comes from that misunderstanding, wakes up the karma, okay? What's the opposite of that?

In a good seed, what wakes it up? Come on, coffee meditation, okay? Rejoicing about a good seed is the oil, the good seed is the wick, got it?

In the case of a good karma, okay? The wick is giving money to someone else, and the oil is, dak yur chepa, making it mine, making it mine. I did that, I'm happy, okay?

Got it? In this, in Vasubandhu's understanding of this verse, dipa, the lamp, the third, the third example of the nine, right? The lamp.

The wick is karma, like being generous to other people, okay? Giving money to other people. The oil is the coffee meditation, having the right attitude about it, I'm happy I did a good thing, I'm happy I did a good thing.

With those two, you get a fire, okay? And with a bad karma it's the same, okay? Cheat your taxes, cheat on your taxes, okay?

That's the wick. And the oil is, I'm glad I did the right thing, now I have more money, this is the way to make money, okay? Got it?

You make it your own, that's the oil, okay? Without the oil the karma isn't very powerful, okay? You can make a fire but it will burn out in one minute, right?

It needs fuel. Fuel is misunderstanding where money comes from, okay? You okay?

You guys okay? Can I go on? Okay.

Tendasha Rambha says, let's tie this to... what's he always want to do? Suffering, he wants to tie it to suffering, okay?

He says, the wick is the material cause, material cause, okay? What's a material cause? It's the thing that turns into the other thing.

What's the material cause for a tree? The seed, okay? The stuff in the seed becomes the stuff in the tree, and in Buddhism we call it a material cause, okay?

Direct cause. The stuff in the seed becomes the tree, that's called material cause, okay? And what's the contributing cause?

Water, fertilizer, sunlight, okay? Lack of gophers? Not exactly.

Okay, you okay? So, Tendasha Rambha wants to say, there's a material cause here, it's the wick. The material cause of the flame is the wick.

The contributing cause is the? Oil, okay? And they both represent suffering.

That makes the fire of suffering, okay? Then he adds the word CHE. CHE means...I was talking to, who was that? Tahiya I think, her friend's house is burned down this week in California. 4,000 houses? 6,000 houses burned down in California.

These are not cheap houses, these are nice houses. These people can afford fire protection. What happened?

I said, what happened you know? She said, the wind went to 50 miles an hour. I've seen that kind of fire, it spreads from the top of the tree to the top of the tree, it doesn't even touch the ground.

Nobody can stop it. That's called CHE PA, okay? So, understanding number two, okay?

If you have the material cause of a bad karma, if you have the contributing cause of, I'm happy I did it, it's called anti-coffee meditation. Anti-coffee meditation. Are you sorry you did that?

Are you kidding? I got more money. I will do it next week also, if I get a chance, okay?

That bad attitude about your bad deed, CHE PA, it tends to multiply, it tends to multiply, okay? So, for him, we do this thing on Tsongkapa day, we offer a thousand butter lamps, you know? It takes about two months to make the wicks by hand, with cotton balls, and what you learn quickly is you never put them all together, you spread them out, okay?

If you put them together they all join into one big flame, and they burn down the house. Many Buddhist people have burned down houses this way. Always spread them out in a line, okay?

Otherwise they all join together into one huge flame and you burn down your house, okay? So, that's Ten Dharampas understanding, okay? I'm gonna stop there.

Now, I want to go over your schedule for today, and then we'll stop. Oh, I'm sorry, oh, I'm sorry, I thought it was 10 o'clock, it's 1030, let's keep going. Okay, sorry to get your hopes up.

Sorry, we'll stop at 1020 and talk about your schedule, okay? We still have 20 minutes, is that okay with you? Okay.

Understanding number three, about the lamp. This is Koincho Denpe Dronme, it's a little more difficult. When we talked about the star, we talked about the darkness, the background darkness which is emptiness, okay?

And the light which is all the stuff you ever experienced, the star, okay? To see the star you need the background darkness. The background darkness in that way was emptiness, background emptiness, okay?

Only if the world is empty can you see things, okay? It's like only if you have a white screen can you show a movie, okay? So, you need the screen, background emptiness, okay?

In Buddhist terms, NANG STONG, NANG STONG, the emptiness which is the background, and then the appearance of things coming from your karma, okay? That was the star. In the cataract, we were seeing things that couldn't be there, okay?

That was the relationship. We saw things that weren't really there, okay? When he reaches this one, which is the lamp, he says the emphasis here is NANG, NANG, what appears to you, okay?

What appears to you, people, things, okay? The light, the lamp, in this case, is taken out of the context of emptiness and treated by itself, you know? Why do I see things?

Why do I see people? It's the process of the silver seeds opening, okay? No, no reference to emptiness for KUN CHOG BSTAN PA'I DRUNG MA, okay?

Because the word appear in Tibetan is the same word for lamp, okay? So, what's the technical name for that reality? Of the two kinds of reality?

Deceptive reality, okay? Why? It tricks you, it fools you, it looks like it's coming this way, to your mind?

To everything, to your eyes, to your ears, to your nose. Your nose was defective from the factory okay? Even your nose says, oh look, this guy didn't take a shower today.

Okay? No, you didn't keep your sexual purity, get used to it. No, but he didn't take a shower, that's why he didn't take a shower.

Okay? Your nose reports that it's coming from this guy. It's not true, it's coming from you.

Okay? Got it? If you were respecting other people's relationships all the time, everybody around you would take a shower.

Do you understand? Okay? So, anyway, for Koin-chang tenpa-gyur-me, third meaning of the plan, is to emphasize the world that seems to be coming this way.

Arya is the name for people who saw emptiness directly, in the past. Okay? What's the name for people who are not Arya?

Or? Tsultrim. Tsultrim.

People who see things coming this way. Oh, my husband yell at me, I didn't do anything. Okay?

The word for those people, the word in Buddhism for non-Arya is incoming seer. Okay? Incoming seer.

They see things coming this way. Tsultrim. Okay?

Tsultrim means this way. Tong means see, right? Like tong-lam.

So, tsultrim means...this is what the third meaning of the lamp is. Okay? People see things coming this way.

Got it? Can I go on? Alright.

This is difficult, but you like difficult, that's why you came to Diamond Mountain. This is Nagarjuna, okay? And Kuan Yong Tenpa.

This is Nagarjuna and Kuan Yong Tenpa. Ready? Things are empty, but they work.

Things are empty, but they work. In fact, you can say, I'm gonna kiss you, but your husband will get mad, and my partner will get upset at me. Okay?

Things are empty, but they still work. Okay? Things are empty, but they still work.

Okay? If the causes and conditions are there, they will work. Okay?

In DCI, this is called the aspirin. In DCI language, this is called the aspirin. Okay?

Does aspirin...what's the function of aspirin? Take away headache. What's the thing inside the aspirin called that takes away the headache?

Active ingredient. No, it's called active ingredient. Okay?

It's...what's it called Connie? COX-2 inhibitor. The chemical name is COX-2 inhibitor.

Okay? It stops the nerve transmission of pain. Okay?

The stuff in the aspirin that stops your headache is called the COX-2 inhibitor. Okay? The active ingredient.

Okay? Trust me, trust Connie, she's...you don't...she's Canadian. Okay?

You can trust the Canadian. Now, does it work? Sometimes.

Sometimes means it doesn't work. Okay? Sometimes means they didn't find the real cause.

Okay? Sometimes means it doesn't work. Okay?

You will knock it in a plane, if it works sometimes, it falls sometimes, but you will take an aspirin that works sometimes and doesn't work sometimes. Okay? Which means the active ingredient is inactive sometimes.

Can we say that? They should call it the sometimes active ingredient. Okay?

So, when an aspirin works, what's the active ingredient? Yeah, your seeds. Your seeds.

Because you helped someone who had a headache last week. Okay? And you have seeds for the COX-2 inhibitor to stop your headache.

Okay? Because the COX-2 inhibitor isn't the active ingredient, your karma is the active ingredient. Okay?

Got it? That's all. Khoang-che tenpa du-me says, look, you put together oil, you put together wick, you put together fire, it will work, but...it's all coming from you. Okay? It's all coming from you. It's empty.

Okay? Empty of what? COX-2 inhibitor.

That works. Okay? Got it?

You okay? You're awful quiet. When you get really quiet, I think you're not understanding.

Okay? Okay? You okay?

Yeah. It's your seeds that make the aspirin work. Okay?

It's your seeds that make the active ingredient active when it's active, because it ain't active. Okay? So, is there a contradiction between emptiness and a lamp?

No. Emptiness gives the lamp a place to be. Okay?

Emptiness gives the lamp a place to be. Emptiness means the fire is not burning on its own. Okay?

The fire is burning because you have the karma. There are slower schools of Buddhism that say, hot is part of fire, heat is part of fire, wet is part of water. The higher school says no.

Who put the hot in the fire? Who put the wet in the water? Could you remove the wet from the water and walk on the water if you had special abilities?

No problem. No stories are true. Jesus walked on water.

We say, yeah, he understood seeds. He talked about seeds all day. Okay?

People say, is there a problem between Buddhism and Christianity? I say, go away. You know, Jesus talked about seeds like all day.

Give me a break. Okay. Alright, that's all.

Okay? The sign that you understand emptiness is that you are more successful in your life. Okay?

Financially, relationships, health, mental state, state of your world. Okay? These five things are coming from you.

Okay? The sign that you understand emptiness is that you can make things happen. Okay?

Got it? It's not this, okay? What are you doing?

I'm telling you emptiness. Om. That's a sign of a person who doesn't understand emptiness.

Got it? Alright? A person understands emptiness is like the person in the movie.

You know, they're excited in their life, they can make things happen, they're having a fun life, things are going well, okay? Because they know how to plant seeds, because they understand things are empty. Got it?

Empty means they don't come from seeds. Don't not come from seeds. Anyway, you got it.

Okay, last one. We got five? Oh, four.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Okay, four. Now, uh ...

Koinjab Jambi Drume wants to make sure you understand, he kind of doesn't agree with Tendral Haram, but because he says, don't forget, the good things also come from causes. The good things also come from seeds, okay? In Buddhist terms, and in Kamalashila terms, and he's going to talk about it if we ever get there, in the scripture, the causes for samsara and the causes for nirvana are the same.

The principle is the same, okay? All the troubles in your life, and all the successes in your life, are coming from the same principle, okay? The causes, seeds, oil, wicks, fire, okay?

That's number five, okay? The good things and the bad things are coming from your seeds. No, number four was, things still work even though they're empty.

Number five is, good things come from you, and bad things come from you, okay? And in Buddhist terms, we would always say, Korn De, Korn De, say Korn De. Korn means, korwa means samsara, cycle of life.

De means, nyangen le depa, means nirvana. They both come from the same principles, okay? Ultimate good and ultimate evil, come from the same principles, okay?

Korn De. By the way, the correct pronunciation, pronunciation, is sansara, it's not Sam, it's not Sam. Before an S, Sanskrit M changes to N, sansara, okay?

Don't, I don't want to hear anybody say samsara, I'm gonna choke you if you say samsara, then you'll see samsara, okay? Sansara, okay? And it's not some big wheel of life somewhere else, okay?

Tell me the moment with the husband in the kitchen when you give birth to samsara. Now, you're stupid! Okay, got it?

You replant again, okay? Kids are bad, you call them stupid kids. You hear yourself, you plant a seed.

Next week you come home, your husband says, for no reason at all, your husband says, you're stupid. Now, at that point you can stop the blind man, or you can keep it going, okay? How do you keep it going?

Now, you're stupid, okay? Then the kids will act up next week, got it? That's called a mini sansara.

So, don't think sansara is some big rebirth blah blah, okay? You are making sansaras a hundred times a day, okay? Your reaction to problems is spinning the wheel again, and again, and again.

Now, you're stupid! Then, I don't know why my kids act up, I don't know why my kids aren't polite, okay? And my husband, he called me stupid for no reason at all, okay?

It's just like this, okay? That's sansara, okay? The root of sansara, and the root of nirvana, are the same principle, okay?

The lamp. Deep, deep bow, okay? Tarakati mira.

You guys going to sing that tomorrow, okay? Get the pronunciation right, you might have to change it a little bit. Budbudham.

Swapnamcha. Can you sing it tomorrow? That same tune, it's disgusting, because it stays in your head.

And then everybody will be able to memorize the Sanskrit, okay? You listen to these guys singing at one time, you can't forget it. You want to forget it, but you can't.

Tarakati mira, deep bow, okay? It's good, okay? Then, we'll do that after the meditation, because if you do it before the meditation, it ruins the meditation.

It's like ... And then, later in the class, someone's going to sing a Chinese version, okay? Alright Stanley?

Not you. No, it's okay. Can you find somebody?

Teach us a nice Chinese melody that will stay in the head, for the Chinese pronunciation, okay? Of the translation, okay? Alright, then we can memorize the Sanskrit in the Chinese, okay?

Alright, I want to memorize the Chinese. How many we got? Five?

Okay, number six. This is easy, this one's from Geshe Michael. There's a famous metaphor, in fact, when they teach us the word metaphor in the school, they always use life is a candle, life is a candle.

If you say life is like a candle, it's a simile. If you say life is a candle, it's a metaphor. So, what's that mean?

It burns down, okay? Trust me, I'm watching it, okay? It burns down every minute, okay?

That's impermanence, okay? So, the last meaning of the butter lamp is, just remember life is a candle, okay? Life is a candle.

Every minute you are losing your life. It's a ... you are born with a debit card, and life costs you 65 seeds a second, okay?

And it goes, it's like a candle, it's burn, burn, burn, burn, burn, then burn out, okay? So, that's pretty obvious, but nobody mentioned it, okay? Alright, so I threw in some of those myself.

We covered the three metaphors, the first three of the nine, and they all relate to how is the world around us, okay? How's the world around us? What's it like?

Well, it's like a star, it's like a cataract, and it's like a candle, okay? So, we finished the first big group of ... how many?

Well, how many groups? Good. Now we're on to the second group, okay?

How many members in the second group? Trick question. Yeah, only one.

What is it in Sanskrit? MA YA. Say MA YA.

MA YA. The root of this word is not clear to anybody, I checked a lot of people, nobody's really sure. It might be MA YA, which means to go wrong.

It might be MA KHYA, which means big power, to confuse you, okay? Like magnificent, or Mahatma, or stuff like that, okay? It might be the root I, which means to go in Sanskrit.

Like exit means go out, it is the past tense of I, okay? So, it might be MA IYA, which means to go wrong, okay? Anyway, nobody figured it out.

MA YA means illusion. It has two big meanings in Buddhism, okay? Illusion can mean like you think you see something, but it's not there, okay?

And classically, in the study of perception, illusion can have many causes. One is strong emotions. When you're angry or very jealous, you see things which are not there, okay?

So, strong emotions. One is called the movement of things around you. Like, if you're at a stoplight, with two cars on either side, and suddenly they both back up at the same time, you feel like you're rolling into the intersection, you see?

It's an illusion of movement, okay? It happens once in a while, right? Both cars next to you, they go back, and you feel like, huh, you slam on the brake, but actually you're not moving, okay?

So, that's called advantageous illusion. Just the way stuff is happening around you, confuses you, or strong emotions, okay? The second meaning of Maya in Buddhism, and by the way, what was the Buddha's mother's name?

Maya, okay? The second meaning is magic trick, and we'll talk about it. I almost used a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, okay?

In the West, in America, the illusion is when the guy goes like this, and he takes his hat, and he pulls a rabbit out, or he takes a coin out of your ear, or something like that. It's called a magic trick, okay? So, Maya means either one.

When you drive across the desert, you see water far away, that's illusion. Or magician's trick, Maya can mean either one, okay? And I'm gonna start it tomorrow, okay?

I'll start it tomorrow, it's pretty obvious. I'm gonna give you nine meanings of the illusion, okay? Nine meanings, alright?

Through history. Now let's talk about how are you gonna meditate today? What are you supposed to do today besides sleep, if you have jet lag?

Let me see the schedule here. Okay, you're supposed to go from here, and you're supposed to make yourself breakfast in your cottage. Veronica, you're gonna make me a big breakfast, right?

Okay. Then 11.45 to 12.15 you're supposed to relax. You cannot meditate if you haven't had enough sleep, forget it, it's not gonna happen, okay?

It cannot happen, trust me. I did 12 retreats, and it doesn't work, okay? If you feel like you need to sleep, sleep, okay?

Anytime today. If you feel you need to sleep, sleep, then get up and meditate, okay? After you throw some cold water on your head, alright?

But if you didn't sleep last night, or you have jet lag, then sleep, okay? Personally, if I have jet lag, I have a rule, and every traveler, frequent traveler, I have so many miles I'm off the charts. Recently the airline sent me a limousine to take me to the next airplane at the next gate, really, okay?

So, my advice, frequent traveler, if you have jet lag, don't go to sleep. Stay up till nine o'clock, at least nine o'clock, then you'll get back on schedule. Then you can go home and get messed up again, okay?

But generally, if you have not slept well, you have to sleep. I've also found that yoga is difficult if you haven't slept, okay? You might want to sleep.

Take Shavasana first, and take another one afterwards, right Scott? Right Scott? Scott's nickname is...including Shavasana? If we say we're doing an hour of yoga, he always says the same thing, is that including Shavasana? Okay, alright, 12.15, go through these first three images, okay? Go through the star, go through the cataract, and go through the lamp, okay?

Try to...you can keep a list of, you know, six words to remind you, if you have to peek with your eye. Left eye is good luck, okay? You look like a roadrunner, right?

Cat knows, it's a bird that lives around here, there you go Alan, okay? So, you can peek at your list, six qualities, okay? Try to remember the meaning, six meanings, okay?

And then try to think of something real in your life, okay? The star, which is the illusion, is my husband who hurt me yesterday, okay? So, don't...every time you do meditation, you should link it to your real life, okay? Don't make it some philosophy thing, okay? Think of people in your life who are like stars, think of times in your life when you had cataracts, okay? Got it?

Think of things that are empty but still work, like a lamp, okay? Like aspirin, okay? Alright, five...sorry, yeah, 5.15, take a walk. By the way, me and Veronica are gonna walk around and spy on you, to see if you're keeping a good retreat. But 5.15, go outside, take a walk, enjoy the sunset here, a beautiful, okay? Wear a hat, wear sunscreen, so you don't get big dots on your arms, okay?

They don't come off. Hmm, four to five, sorry, both, yeah, okay, both. You can also practice the first eight levels, or the Lama, but I suggest you do it separately in the afternoon.

Don't try to do the whole Lion's Dance in one piece. Practice the first eight, or practice nine, okay? Tomorrow we'll do the first two parts of the Lion's Dance, there are five parts.

Tomorrow we'll come back down together, okay? Tomorrow we'll come back down. Today it was too long, okay?

Alright, so, during the 12.15 to 1.30, or during the 4.00 to 5.00, if you want to warm up with some lion, that's fine, just don't growl. Rawr! Okay, 6.00 to 7.30, oh sorry, wear a hat, wear sunscreen, always take water. Nobody walks in the desert without water, never, ever, okay? I wear a little bag over my shoulder, then your hands are free, it's more fun, okay? Keep a building in sight, okay?

I have gotten lost walking around here, I walked around for five hours, I couldn't find the houses, okay? So, it's—and I lived here for seven years, okay? It's—it can be dangerous, okay?

So, keep a—keep a structure in sight, okay? Alright, and don't get stuck out after dark. Snakes like dusk, because mice like dusk.

Why do mice like dusk? It's hard for snakes to see them. So, they—they all run—everybody's running around at the same time, so are you.

So, be careful where you step, never step in the desert where you can't see what's there. The only person who ever got bit here, stepped over a log, and there was a snake on the other side, and they didn't see, okay? So, always look where you put your feet, okay?

If you get bit by a snake, sit down, call somebody, that's why we put internet here, okay? When you run around, the poison moves faster, okay? So, relax, fang song, okay?

And we'll take you to the hospital, they give you an injection, it's all fine, okay? Don't worry about it. If you hear a snake, don't look, turn around, go the other way.

Some people are like, what's that? They don't want you to step on them, they always give you a warning, they say it means, I'm here, don't step on me. They don't want you to step, you're too big to eat, okay?

They don't want to waste the poison on you, seriously, they're not stupid. If you step on them, they will get mad, but otherwise, they—they're very peaceful actually. Well, they have an attitude, but ...

nobody in the desert bothers a snake, except a human. Okay, I suggest you do lion again at 6 before you do your kamalashila meditation, okay? And then 8.45 after dinner is a useless meditation time, it's hopeless. So, just do some light coffee meditation, gratitude meditation, keep a list of who helped you in your life, okay? In your life, many people helped you, starting with your mom, and in your mind thank them, okay? Coffee, big coffee meditation, okay?

I like to drink hot chocolate, I like to sit in the most comfortable chair, forget meditation cushion, I might sit on the porch and watch the stars, and also mantra, okay? You can do your mantras. I used to lay down on the roof and do the—and watch the stars and do mantras, and try to pick out satellites, okay?

It's kind of fun, but I did millions of mantras on the roof, okay? So, take a chair, go outside, wear a sweater, and enjoy these beautiful stars, okay? You won't see them anywhere, almost anywhere in the world.

We are very far from the city, so enjoy the stars, okay? The main thing in retreat is fang song, have fun, don't get all ... don't do yoga like this, okay?

Like, smile, I hate yoga, okay? Same with meditation, don't try too hard, okay? The most common mistake is people try too hard, okay?

Just relax, okay? Okay? You can't meditate if you're trying too hard, okay?

That's the main thing. If you're tired, take a break, okay?