Серия «Сутра Алмазного огранщика» — Мастер Камалашила: медитации на «Сутру Алмазного огранщика», часть первая (Аризона, 2016), занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
Okay, let's start. I think it's good to do one long meditation first, and so I thought I would go to the gom rim, the stages of meditation by Kamalashina, and I thought you'd like to just hear what it sounds like, because this is the book in three parts, three short books, which are the basis of all meditation in Tibet, and the basis of this poster. So I'm going to go to the third gom rim, because that's the one that talks about technique the most, okay?

The first book talks mainly about compassion. Almost the whole book is about compassion, and it's very beautiful. It would be nice to translate someday.

It's very beautiful. He goes through a long description of the sufferings of the lower realms, so there's a long description of the hell realms, and how people are suffering from burning and freezing, and then there's a long description of the spirit, hungry spirits, and how much they suffer from hunger and thirst and uncertainty, and then there's a long description of animal realm, and how they mainly hurt each other, that it's a realm of where beings are hurting each other, eating each other. Then he gets to the human realm, and he says, he asks a rhetorical question.

He says, is it so much different from those other three? He says, people are getting burned and frozen, you know, in wars, for example, and people have hunger and thirst all over the world, like hungry ghosts, and people are, the society is abusing people and making them work like animals. Rosa knows about that.

But, you know, is it so different in our realm? You know, people are being burnt, and people are being enslaved, and people are hurting each other, and people are hungry. He goes into, you know, almost the whole book is about compassion, and then he says, compassion is the karma for shamatha, okay?

Compassion is the karma for shamatha, and it's also the motivation to get shamatha, because then you can become a Buddha, but with shamatha, you need what? Vipasyana, understanding emptiness. So, the second gom rim, the second book of his meditation triad?

[Speaker 2]
Trilogy.

[Speaker 1]
Who said that? The second book of his trilogy is emptiness, all emptiness. It's all about vipasyana, and it's interesting that somebody should do a study, some graduate student at the Sedona College should do a study between that and an earlier bhavana karma, an earlier gom rim, which was written by Nagarjuna.

So, Nagarjuna wrote a book called Stages of Meditation, and that's mostly a study of vipasyana, of emptiness, and it'd be very interesting to compare the second book of the trilogy to Nagarjuna. I think he, maybe that's why he named his book the same. So, he lived 1,500 years after Nagarjuna, so it's kind of cool.

Then the third book is technique, meditation technique. So, I want you to think of shamatha in terms of the karma that you need to get it. It's at the bottom, cause of cause, and then there's conditions like a nice beach in Thailand, where it's quiet, where you can meditate easily, and it's pleasant.

And then inner technique, mental techniques. And if you think about it, these two are caused by this one. You see what I mean?

The karma creates the conditions. The karma creates a nice meditation cottage at Diamond Mountain. I like Michael, it was said unique.

That's such a good publicity thing. We may be rustic, but we're unique. You gotta have something.

So, the compassion creates the circumstances. It stops the garbage trucks outside your house at six o'clock in the morning. They break down at the end of the street here in New York.

And then that also causes the success of the inner techniques of trying to detect dullness, trying to detect agitation, trying to block them. So, he gives it this kind of causal thing. The compassion creates the conditions and allows the technique to work, okay?

The inner technique. It's very cool. So, I thought you might like to hear something.

We'll start on his technique from his own book. This is the mother book of all meditation in Tibet. He bases his largely on a sutra.

Which one? What sutra talks about meditation? Yeah, Samadhi Raja.

Samadhi Raja, the king of concentration, king of meditation. So, it'd be fun to go through that sutra someday. Okay, so here, I'm just going to read you a small piece and then we'll meditate, okay?

Because he's starting on his technique. Third book of this trilogy. There's a fourth book I haven't explored yet.

It's mysterious, okay? It's called Meditation for Yogis. I don't know.

Okay. If you want to get shamatha and vipashyana, you have to collect the karma. Sutra number tapa la sopa, one of those causes is not disturbing the minds of other people, okay?

Not disturbing the minds of other people. And I think if you're going to be a good meditator, to make the karma, you have to be super sensitive to other people's reactions to what you say and what you do, you see? So, you watch, you learn to watch them.

You pick up signs, like their eyes go like that, you know? Like, you're like, would you like to make me hot chocolate? And they're like, yeah.

Yeah. And then you get, if you're going to be a good meditator, you have to be very sensitive to how other people are feeling. And your whole life is watching how they feel, observing what they need, and making them happy, you know?

Even little things like, how much honey do they take in their coffee, and stuff like that. And then those are the causes, when you get on your cushion, the techniques work for you, you see what I mean? So, in DCI language, we call it crystal lakes.

It means, it comes from a scripture. Everybody's in here, between the sides of your skull, it's as if everyone has a lake, a beautiful Swiss Geneva lake, you know, totally clean, pure. And they walk around with this lake in their mind.

And then, if they get upset in the morning, you know, like, if they can't find their toothpaste, then their mind gets a little, like, Lake Geneva with a breeze on it. And then the first person they meet, whose mind is still, it, it spreads. It's, what do you call?

Catchy. Contagious, yeah. Like, if I'm a little off-balance, and I meet you, and it seems to be the more off-balance person affects the less off-balance person.

So, if my mind's a little bit upset, because I couldn't find my toothpaste this morning, then, and I meet, the first time I meet somebody in the morning, my shaky leg shakes up their leg. So, so the, the karmic cause of shamatha is to do the opposite. Even if you're not feeling well, or you're not feeling so happy, or something just went wrong in your life, which happens once in a while, you try to make other people's minds calm.

Even if you don't feel so calm, okay? And on the outside, you're just, like, very calm. And on the inside, you're, like, worrying about this cabin, that the water broke.

You know? But outside, you're just, like, yeah, everything's fine. And then that respect for other people's peace of mind is the karmic cause of shamatha.

And without that, the other two don't matter. You can have a good cushion, and you can study the meditation poster for a year, and you're still going to have lousy meditation, because you don't have the karmic cause, okay? The base cause.

NEPA DE SEM CHEN LA SNYING RJE CHEN PO SKYE DE. And the second karmic cause, first karmic cause, is respecting other people's peaceful mind. And then the second karmic cause is SNYING RJE CHEN PO.

Yeah, MAHA KARUNA. Yeah. Compassion.

Concern for other people's ultimate welfare. Not just that they're happy this morning, but that they don't go to the hell realms, or that they reach... So, you got to get really good at explaining the pen, right?

You could keep some people... You could keep a lot of people out of the hell realms, okay? So, just bore people to death.

Teach it over and over, okay? Carry one with you. CHEN PO SKYE DE.

So, compassion. CHANG CHUB TU SEMS SKYE NAS. Have this intention to save the world by becoming a Buddha.

THOS PA DANG SANGS PA DANG GOM PA LA BYAR BAR BYA'O. And before you meditate, finish the process of THOS SAM GOM, okay? Go to lots of classes.

Go to as many classes as you can. Study as many books as you can. Then SAM.

Like, what you hear in the class, thrash it. Thrash it or thresh it? Thrash it out with other people.

In a coffee shop at the Julieta Blue Sky Dome. We're trying to build a coffee shop in Sedona, next to the college, because that's where people... That's called THOS SAM.

SAM means, you sit with your friends and you say, Geshe Michael said this thing this morning, but it doesn't make any sense to me. And your friend says, yeah, it didn't make any sense, so don't worry about it. So, but you work with your friends and you tear it apart and you work it out until you're satisfied with it.

And then GOM. Then you can meditate on it. Then Kamalashila, in another of his books, he has a long thing about, don't go into a meditation without the THOS and the SAM.

You know, that's really the third one. Meditate on, after you've questioned it, after you've heard about it. But, but don't go into meditation with no ammunition.

Don't go into meditation with nothing to meditate about, okay? You're going to meditate about what you discussed with your friends after you heard it in the class. So he, he's very adamant.

Don't go into a meditation with no object, you know. And I think that happens a lot in the West. Like, in China you meditated for 5,000 years.

In America we meditated for 50 years. One percent. And so we have all these weird ideas about meditation, you know.

And, and, and oftentimes in, in America, we don't have training, so we go into a meditation with nothing to meditate about. We're just like, you know. But we don't have an object in mind, okay?

Choosing the object is half of the meditation challenge. DE LA NYAL BRDZOR PA'I BSGOM PA'I DUS NA, THOG MAR BYA BA CI YOD PA THAMS CAD YONGS SU RDZOGS PA CHE LA. Any Nyal Brdzorpa, yogi, okay, any yogi who wants to meditate, THOG MAR, first, they should, CHA WA CI YOD PA THAMS CAD YONGS SU RDZOGS PA CHE, finish all your projects before you go into meditation.

Or, you know, get your, you know, finish all this, the work. Don't go into meditation with some work on your mind, okay? Finish it first, he says.

This is Kamalashila. This is really weird. It took me like half an hour to figure it out.

I was asking Veronica. By the way, Veronica says she will give massages to whoever needs them. Give your name to Jigme, and you're first on the list, I think.

You asked, I think. So she can't do endless, it takes like two hours, but if you're, if you're having a hard time, and you're not, your body's hurting, or you feel nervous, lung, then give your name to Jigme, and we'll schedule you, we'll try to get you in for a massage, okay? We have an expert here.

Okay. Then he says, ZHANG CI CHE LA DRAG TSER MA MED PA, YID DU'ONG BA'I CHOG. You should go to a Yid Du'ong Ba'i Chog.

What's Chog? PA PA YAT TA CHA NA RO CHOG GA SA CHOG. Good.

He's my human dictionary. Chog means direction. Yid Du'ong, like you guys know Yid Du'ong Jampa, where it's the kind of love that sees everyone as their own child.

So beautiful, that's beautiful. So Yid Du'ong means beautiful. So what's a Yid Du'ong Chog?

Yeah, go to a fantastic place. Then he describes it, it's really funny. He's kind of funny.

I don't know why I had the karma to meet him. It's okay if you go to a place that's filled with ZHANG and CI. Shit and pee-pee.

If your room is full of poopoo and pee-pee, that's fine. That's an attractive place, okay? I'm like, what?

And then he says, but there should be no DA'I TSERMA. DA'I TSERMA. TSERMA means a cactus thorn, okay?

And DA? Noise, okay? So an attractive place in meditation means quiet.

It can be filled with poopoo, pee-pee. That's okay, because you're not gonna worry about that. That's not gonna bother you.

You can clip your nose. But it should be quiet. You know, that's what a meditator's, what do you call it?

Bread and butter. It's a quiet place, you know? It's a quiet place.

And this Diamond Mountain is quiet. It's got rocks, and snakes, and cactus, but it's quiet, okay? It's super, this is the quietest place I've ever been to, okay?

So, so this is a beautiful place, okay? SEMS CAN TAN TZAM CHEN CING BYANG CHUB KYI GNYEN PO LA DGOS PAR BYA'O. Then have this intention to bring everybody to enlightenment.

And we're gonna talk about that a lot in the Diamond Cutter Sutra today, okay? In the GYIN GANG CING. YONG TSUL TZAM ZHING SEMS CAN TZAM CHEN CING BYANG CHUB KYI GNYEN PO LA DGOS PAR BYA'O.

Bring up thoughts of compassion for, for how much pain is in the minds of most people, okay? Now he says, there's certain things you should do before you start to meditate. Look, now we're getting into technique, okay?

Number one, see if you recognize them. CHOG CHU NA SHUG PA'I SANG GYI RANG. You know this?

Yeah, that's how the Sojong starts in the monastery. Three thousand monks going, CHOG CHU NA SHUG PA'I. And they always take a young man whose voice hasn't changed yet, and he goes, he sings it alone.

He sings the first verse alone. CHOG CHU NA SHUG PA'I SANG GYI RANG. It means all the Buddhas in the ten directions.

CHOG CHU SEM PA'I. Bodhisattvas, KHAM BYED LA CHOG TSE LO. With the YEN LAG NGA.

Yeah, what's that mean? What's a five part prostration? Yeah, two hands, two knees, and your head.

Okay, that's a full prostration. Well, I guess it could not be. Okay, so bow down to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

First, first meditation. First thing you do in a meditation. Second, SANG GYI DANG CHAG DU SEM PA'I KUSUG RIMO LA SOGS PA DUN DU SHAGS KHAM, SHEN DU YANG RUNG TE.

You can put an image in front of you, like a statue or a painting, or you can imagine them in front of you. And CHI NUG GI means as, as, as, as much as your means allow. CHUG PA.

Yeah, put offerings out for them. Okay, flowers, water, cakes. We have a pineapple upside down cake.

CHI NUG, CHUG PA, okay, make offerings. Third one, RANG GI DIG PA SHAGS. Yeah, confess your negativities, okay.

SHAGS means what? Do you know? Yeah, like when you take a hatchet and you split wood, and it goes whack.

So it means be honest, and be, be sincere. You can do it in your mind. You don't have to tell anybody what a nasty thing you did yesterday when you're by yourself in your room.

But when you're talking to your Lama in your head, you should SHAGS PA, because they can see it anyway. You might as well SHAGS PA. Four, DROG PA THA DAG GIS SUN NAM LA JE SOG YID RANG.

Yeah, rejoice in all the good of yourself and other people. What are those? It's pretty much the Georgia, okay.

It's pretty much the first of the three treasures, okay. There's two that he didn't mention. Yeah, ask him to stay, ask him to teach, and then, and then dedicate.

Okay, he didn't mention those. But you can see how 700 years before Tsongkhapa, the Georgia is forming up. Okay, last thing, then we'll meditate.

Okay, I'm just gonna give you a little, a little gom rim every day, Bhavana Krama. TEN SHIN DU BYAM PA DE BA LA. TEN here means a den, like Dorje Den.

Yeah, a seat, a seat. Asana, it's Vajrasana, right. Asana can mean seat also.

SHIN DU BYAM PA, BYAM PA. Very soft. MAN GYU.

MAN GYU means soft, like silk or velvet, okay. DE BA, comfortable, okay. LA, on a comfortable meditation seat, and you have to find your own, and keep experimenting, keep trying different ones.

After ten years, you find the one that's best for you. I love these. I highly recommend these.

These have, what's inside? Buckwheat. It have little grains inside.

So, my butt is like all messed up, and it takes the shape of your butt, you know. So, I really like this one, but I have a friend who uses a piece of wood, and some people, Lama Devorah has three cushions, and I like to put one of these here on my lap, because then my hands are like this, and they're not like this. So, I have two of these.

I put one here, I put it here, and I stretch it out to here, and I can, and then my hands are here, and I'm not like that. But, you have to experiment. But, he says, JAM, DE BA, comfortable and soft, okay.

Then he said there's this deity, I'm going to show you a picture of him. Where is he? It's an old picture.

So, there's an old deity, his name is Viruchana. You see where we're going? And he says, Viruchana always sits in a full lotus, okay.

So, look at his feet. He says, but Viruchana is a good example for us when we want to meditate. The way he holds his feet is very good, you know.

So, Kyumotung means a full lotus, Kyumtung. Or, Tabuam, Kyumotung Chedha. Yeah, half lotus, okay.

So, even in ancient Sanskrit, it's half lotus. Tuyang, either one, full lotus or half lotus. But, he says half lotus is best, and that's, use the one that you see Viruchana doing, okay.

Which foot is up? He's got his left foot up first. If you want to have a useless argument with a Hindu, you can do the right foot, left foot thing.

I don't think it matters too much. But, you pull the left foot in first, and then you pull the right foot in. But, but, like Dharmamitra does it the opposite, and that's fine.

He seems to be okay. But, if you want to, you know, get sectarian, you can argue about that. Okay.

Second, so that's how to put your legs. And that's probably why the eight-point posture became called Viruchana's posture. It's, maybe it was because of the, of the lotus, and then it got confused to everything.

You see what I mean? I think so. Mik hajang mi ye, hajang mi dzung.

Don't, don't open your eyes too wide, and don't close them too tight, okay. Nai tse mor te. Focus them loosely on, on the level of your nose, not on the tip of your nose, because that will hurt your eyes, okay.

And some people who didn't know Sanskrit very well, they, they read this, and they're like, it means focus here. Don't focus on the ground, and don't focus on your hands. Like, focus here.

Which is what you do when you're thinking about your boyfriend in high school. Okay. You're not looking at the ceiling.

Your, your eyes are unfocused, and that's a good for concentration. Okay, it's not, you're not, you're not looking at the ceiling, okay. Your eyes are unfocused, okay.

You can play around that. You can use that as a Durstian yoga also. You can play around with it, and see how it feels.

Okay, so that's your eyes. We got how many so far? Two things, right.

Third one, lu ha jang mi gu, ha jang mi gye. Gu means this. Gye means this.

Ha jang means too much. So don't ha jang gu, don't ha jang gye. Okay, so this refers to your spine.

Trang bor sang. Keep it straight. That's kinesthetic misapprehension.

I remembered the word. It's, what's that guy's name? He's a dance master who died long ago.

But, I mean, of course your spine is curved in three places, but some, but, but it feels straight.

[Speaker 2]
Huh?

[Speaker 1]
No. No. He teaches a special technique.

Alexander technique. Jang pa nang du shak de, and then collect your thoughts. And we're going to talk more about that, because the Buddha collects his thoughts next in the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

We'll talk about that. Next, trak pa nyang bor shak. Yeah, it's interesting though, because he uses the verb sama pati, which is the verb for balanced meditation.

But he's, here he's saying, make sure your shoulders are level. So the word for meditation in Sanskrit means, keep it level. Okay.

So dang chu. So means your teeth, and chu means your lips. Ta mel par shak go.

Ta mel means normal, right? It's a tantric expression, right? Ta mel nang shen.

To be attached to the normal. But here it means, just the way it always, you know, don't think about it. Just let them relax.

Don't, don't, don't do anything with them. Wherever your teeth go, let them go. Wherever your tongue and your lips go, let them go there.

Okay, so that was the sixth one, I think. Next, uk chi nang du gyuwa yang dra chen dang. The passing of your breath in and out should not have dra.

Yeah, it should be silent. There's two levels of that. One is a gross noise that you make when you breathe, and one is the noise of air passing your hairs and your nose.

And as you get better at meditation, you will detect the second, and then it will stop. Okay, so don't make, don't let your breath be noisy. Nangpa, don't let it be irregular.

Should be, the inhale and exhale should be smooth. And ukpa pa chen, like don't get, like don't have a coffee before you meditate, and then your breath is like a little bit crazy. Ukpa chen means crazy.

Monkeys are called mirgu. Apes, apes are called mirgu. Crazy, crazy people.

So your breath shouldn't be shaky. Chen du mi dang gi. Chi ne kyang mi tsorwa del telpur lung gi drupay tsul.

As far as you can do it, slow your breath down, and make long exhales. Okay, long exhales. So, so that's your first taste of the gomrim.

Okay, okay, and we'll, we'll try, now we'll try. He's missing one of the eight. I figured it out, because I had a half an hour, and I had my computer.

Which one?

[Speaker 2]
Huh?

[Speaker 1]
That included in the mouth. He covered the eyes. Did he cover the eyes?

Yeah, your hands. He doesn't talk about your hands. So, okay, you can write to him and complain.

Okay, okay. I was like, he's missing one, but I couldn't figure it out for a while. Probably the student forgot to write it down.

Okay, so let's, let's meditate. You okay, Zhenzhen? Better?

I think she got a little dizzy. So, as far as technique, we did yesterday, just letting stillness be the object of your meditation. So, the stillness of your body, and I'd like you to do that every day, okay, this week.

Do at least like 20 minutes, and take as your object your own body, and focus on your body, and see if you cannot move any part of it, like your eyebrow, or your fingers, or, okay. A little bit of movement in your, where is okay? Your chest, you have to breathe.

By the way, if your meditation gets really good, the breath stops. Which proves that you are not sustained by oxygen. Okay, so starting today, and every day, one pretty long session, 15-20 minutes on, where the body is the object of the meditation, and you don't move it.

Now we're going to add to that another meditation of about 20 minutes, about your breath, watching your breath, as a, as a preliminary, as a warm-up, okay. But I want you to do it a special way. This is from Naropa, and I find it very helpful for focusing in meditation, okay.

So, try this out this week. Give it a try, okay. This is a special way to watch your breath.

So, bring your mind to your forehead, and feel your two eyebrows, and then go towards the center of your head, and you see between the two eyebrows is a spot, and then go up the forehead about an inch, like a centimeter and a half, I guess, and focus on that spot, like a madhya. And if you want to get really fancy, go into your skull about half an inch, and the focus gets very nice, because you're touching a chakra, a minor chakra. So, you can move your focus around, like a flashlight, that part of your head inside your skull, maybe half an inch, but see if you can find a place with your focus that, when you bring your mind there, right away you feel deeper, the meditation feels deeper.

So, experiment. Go to the left, go to the right, go up, go down, go in, go deeper, come out. See if you can find a spot in the lower part of your forehead, between your eyebrows, on that line, where it gets a lot easier to concentrate.

So, I'm going to give you a few minutes here. See if you can find this place. Don't crunch up your forehead, don't, don't get, your forehead should be loose, you shouldn't wrinkle your forehead, like, stay loose and stay focused.

We'll stay here for five, ten minutes. Move around, see if you find a spot. Everybody's body is different.

When you find the spot, relax, stay there, and don't, don't wrinkle your forehead, don't tighten your forehead. Now, keep your eyes closed, but please add the breath, the exhale, coming out of that place in your forehead. So, the breath is coming out of your nose, but imagine that it's coming out of the place in your forehead, and when you exhale, the breath is coming out of your forehead, and you can play around with extending it further and further.

So, in meditation, long exhales tend to calm you down, and long inhales tend to agitate you. So, focus on a long, slow, leisurely exhale through the space in your forehead, and ignore the gross breath coming through your nostrils. This is where your prana is leaving the body, when you breathe.

We'll stay here for about, I don't know, five minutes or something. Long exhales through your forehead. Don't worry about the inhale.

Try not to move your body. Then, slowly open your eyes. Take a stretch.

We're about halfway, halfway through. Next part, I'd like you to imagine that the, the breath is coming out here, because you're pushing it from here, okay? So, lower belly, like even below your navel, okay?

So, imagine that you are squeezing here, and it, it, you're pulling in here, and it causes the breath to go out, like, and the breath comes out here. So, it goes up the body, up the spine, and it comes out here, okay? So, be aware of the tightening your, your lower stomach.

There's a word in yoga, also. It's khanda or something. I don't know.

I'll look it up. Yeah, same thing. There's a center here, and you squeeze it in, and then it forces the prana to come out of your forehead, okay?

So, you're going to be, just be aware of the tightening of the lower stomach, lower abdominal, abdominal muscles, and then that brings the breath out here, okay? So, we'll do that. We'll do that for the same, like, five minutes, okay?

So, so now, you're pressing in the lower abdomen, and it forces the prana out your forehead, okay? And that's super good for your health, okay? It's, like, really, really good for your health.

Ladies' health, especially. Men also. Okay.

It does something to you, okay? Okay? Ready?

Okay, try not to move, because when you move it, it disturbs other people, okay? If your body hurts, tell it to go to hell. Just divorce yourself from the body, okay?

I think if you're really going to meditate seriously, you have to learn to, to ignore it, okay? When your knees hurt or your feet fall asleep, like, don't get up fast, right, Haso? But, there'll be some pins, pins and needles, and pins, and then it goes away, and then you can sit there for five hours, because you can't feel anything.

But you got to get through that, that pins and needles, okay? Okay, here we go. Please don't move.

Find that place in your forehead. Move your focus around until you touch something, until you feel something that takes your mind deeper. Try higher, try lower, try deeper.

Keep your eyelids soft, keep your forehead soft. If you tighten up, you'll get a headache. And the exhales are coming out now.

Follow the exhales out. Long, relaxed exhales, feng sheng exhales. And don't worry about the inhales.

And now connect it to your lower abdomen. Feel how it contracts, and then the prana comes out the forehead. And we'll stay here for about five minutes.

Contract, exhale, contract, exhale. Don't go crazy, just a light contraction. Okay, you can open your eyes.

Can you stand up? Yeah, it's okay, be careful. You want to wait for a minute?

Okay, just stay there. Now we're going to work on the inhale, okay? Come closer.

And I want you to feel it coming down your back, okay? So, you have two side channels here, right? You're done, Pingala.

Then when you do the inhale, I want you to feel like energy collecting in your shoulder here, and then it gets thinner and thinner and thinner, and then it connects into the belly and it comes out again. So the exhale is coming up through the... what's the other name?

Start with D-H. Duti, okay. So the exhale is going to come up the middle of the spine, okay?

But the inhale, like feel the energy, the prana coming like your shoulder blade is a triangle, right? So it's a little bit wider here and then it gets thinner as it goes down, okay? And then your belly pushes it out again, okay?

So that's going to open up your two side channels. So the inhale is coming down the Iddha and the Pingala, okay? Inhale is coming down the two side channels.

Then down here they connect into the central channel. So when you exhale, your lower belly goes in and the breath comes out and then comes out here, okay? So don't worry about it coming in here or here or something like that.

You can think of it coming in at the top of your shoulders, okay? And feel it wide and then it gets narrower and then it comes out of here, okay? Alright?

Then we have a whole cycle, like the breath coming in and then it's connecting into the central channel and then you're pushing and it comes out here, okay? Good? Feel okay?

Any questions? Any questions? Don't get tight here, okay?

Don't like... No, because when you focus here it tends to get tight. And then you're going to have a headache, okay?

Question? Which one? Oh, it's like you have wings in the back.

It's like you have angel wings. Really, you can imagine that. It's very nice.

Like you're like... You know? Like you have wings like an angel.

And you feel the air, when you breathe in, it's coming here, down, from like this.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
So don't think two little tiny side channels like that. Think broad at the shoulders in the back and then it collects down and then it comes up through the central channel and comes out here, okay? So it's like...

Okay, like that. Cool? And you'll find a nice effect on your side channels.

And you can think of wings and open your, what do you call, shoulder blades. When you inhale, like... I mean, not so exaggerated.

[Speaker 2]
Hassel? When you say contraction of the abs, it's just the natural cooling with the breath? It's not like...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, don't go... But a slight, just a slight thing, you know? And this muscle will get stronger.

The first few days it'll feel a little uncomfortable and you'll hurt here. But don't go crazy. The whole thing, never go crazy in meditation.

Like, don't go... Because you'll get sick and something will happen. You'll get constipated.

Maybe some of the three retreatants. If you misplace the focus, you can't poop for three days. Yeah.

No, no perineum. Yeah. Not between your legs.

Not that part. Then you'll get, what do you call it, constipation. Okay, so don't try to tighten that.

Not perineum. Lower belly. We say...

Four chun below the belly button. So everybody's belly button is different. Some people here, some people here.

So it should be just below your belly button. And very gentle, okay? If you go really crazy, you're going to do something.

You won't be able to swallow or... Don't go crazy in meditation, because you'll hurt yourself. Then you run around without your clothes on.

We saw it.

[Speaker 2]
You're following your breath with your mind.

[Speaker 1]
Say again?

[Speaker 2]
You're following your breath with your mind.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah, like...

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
And don't pause. You don't have to pause. It becomes a cycle, okay?

But try to feel this thing with your shoulders like angel, really like angel wings. Like you're open, but not like that, okay? Just in your mind, you're like...

Okay. What should be longer, the inhale or the exhale? Yeah, always focus on the exhale.

Then you won't go crazy, okay? If you're like... You'll get nervous, and you'll have problems.

It's very sensitive. All this machine is... You can get cuckoo, okay?

[Speaker 2]
So if you're wearing this following breath all the way down to that point, and you're following it back up versus a peripheral...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah. I'd like you to follow it pretty closely, if you can. It's kind of more vague in the back, on the inhale.

There's just this kind of a feeling of almost like wings opening, you know? And then you press in, and then it comes out. Okay?

Cool? Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
I guess I'm still not clear where the inhale originates.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, so don't think here. Don't think here. Don't think here.

Vague, someplace vague behind the back of your upper shoulders.

[Speaker 2]
Can we consider the Svadhisthana as the turning point?

[Speaker 1]
I would put it more in front of that. Because Svadhisthana, I see it on my spine. And I would like you to put it a little forward to that.

[Speaker 2]
Should we, how do you say, feel the...

[Speaker 1]
Svadhisthana.

[Speaker 2]
No, what I mean is the...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, as it comes up.

[Speaker 2]
But in the back, it comes from the back?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, in the spine. In the back of the head? You don't have to think like this.

You don't have to think like that. You can later, but it's easier if you just like...

[Speaker 2]
And it runs from the back, right?

[Speaker 1]
It's a half inch in front of the spine. This much in front of the spine.

[Speaker 2]
In front you mean?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, what do they call it in medicine?

[Speaker 2]
Anterior. Anterior.

[Speaker 1]
This side of the spine. Yes?

[Speaker 2]
They say the chi comes out from the two sides and gathers in the middle channel. And the place of the dantian...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, at the dantian, below your navel.

[Speaker 2]
It comes out through the root chakra and comes to the dantian. Or directly to the dantian.

[Speaker 1]
It comes down... I want you to feel it like this. And then, you know like under the sink there's hot water and cold water and they connect to the drain?

Under the sink it goes like this. So, down below your navel, the two side channels connect to the central channel like that. It looks like...

It looks like that. You see? So the two side channels come down and they connect to the central channel.

Below the navel. That's where you're going to press in. But don't get too clear on it.

Don't make it too complicated because you'll get a stomach ache or something. Let it be a little vague. You ready to try?

Inhaling. Angel inhales. And then focus exhale.

We're not meditating yet. We're just getting ready. Maybe tomorrow we meditate.

Okay? So we have two meditations so far. What's the first one?

Focus on your body like a stone. Like a statue. That's going to be like 20 minutes.

Then this one you're going to do. And then I'm going to teach you some jing kan jing meditations today also. Ready?

Here we go. Yes please. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. No muladhara.

No perineum. You know when a yoga teacher says pull your navel towards your spine? That's pretty much it.

Okay. But don't go crazy because you'll hurt something. You won't be able to poo-poo for three days.

Okay. Never do extreme things, okay? Just relax.

Fangsong, fangsong. Okay? If you feel nervous, stop.

Go for a walk. If you feel shaky, stop. Go for a walk.

Don't continue. Just quit right away. Because I have a friend.

He's Michael Wieck. You know him. He did it wrong in 1972.

He's still sick. He's still sick. You know him.

He's like this, you know. My lama taught him this thing. And he said don't do too hard.

And he did it too hard. He was in hell. And he's still sick.

How old is he? He's like 70 now. Okay.

And he's still a little bit shaky. So don't go crazy. If you feel anything, stop.

Make yourself a big popcorn. No, oil. Oil is very good.

Okay? If you feel nervous or something, have greasy noodle. Lots of olive oil.

Okay? And then everything, relax. Okay?

But if you feel like this, then you have to stop. You have to stop. Go for a walk.

[Speaker 2]
How long you have to do it to really like got sick or something?

[Speaker 1]
He did it for weeks. He did it for six weeks or something. Without my teacher there.

My teacher went away. He did it. My teacher said don't do it too hard.

He did it too hard. I think it was about two months. So don't worry.

In three days you're not going to get sick. You might get constipation. Okay.

You ready? This is the last one. Okay?

Nice angel wings. And come out to the forehead. Do not wrinkle the forehead.

And do not tighten the forehead. Keep it loose. Okay?

And this is just slight. You know? It's like a butterfly.

What do you call butterfly?

[Speaker 2]
Udie.

[Speaker 1]
Udie. Udie. Okay.

There's one coming up in the, in the jing kang jing. Okay. Breathe down through your wings.

Press the lower belly. The exhale comes up to your spine. And out your forehead.

And just enjoy it. Okay? I'll tell you when to stop.

You don't have to worry. I won't leave you here. Okay.

You can relax. Okay. Let's do about ten minutes of diamond cutter.

And then we'll take a break. Michael and Melissa made you green drinks. And some OJ and some ginger tea.

Okay? Okay. So, we left, the Buddha was just going into meditation.

Right? He washed his feet. Put away his bowl.

And sat down on the cushion that the gods had put there for him. On the floor, to be humble. And then the sutra says he collected his thoughts.

Lungpa Dukshepa, Sam Lungpa Dukshepa, he collected his thoughts. Did you get the text or the sutra? Okay, so tomorrow.

Can you get it ready for tomorrow? Well, talk as much as you have to to get it done. Okay, you guys work it out.

One of my bosses used to say, do the necessary. That's all. He'd say, do the necessary, go out for coffee.

Okay. Then what does he collect his thoughts on? And Master Kamalashila says, on the Dungyun Mijepa.

So, Dungyun means his lineage. Parampara. Mijepa means it should not be interrupted.

So, his past prayers to come to this world and help people. Then, you know, what does the Buddha think about after breakfast? He's thinking, how can I prevent my lineage from being broken in this world?

How can I continue my teaching lineage on this planet? Because that was what I always wanted. I wanted to start a teaching lineage and then I wanted it to continue on.

So, that's his first thought during the meditation. Then suddenly, 1,250 monks show up. Okay.

It's confusing in the Tibetan, because it's tong nyi gyang op chu. So, normally, how many thousands comes after the thousands? Like, ge tong pa.

No, that's not right. Anyway, it's a confusing number. It's 1,250 monks show up.

Along with great bodhisattvas. Along with a great number of great bodhisattvas. So, Master Kamalashila, he's like Jetson Copp, he's like, how come he gives the number for the monks but he doesn't give the number for the bodhisattvas?

Why does he say exactly 1,250 monks came and then he doesn't tell you how many bodhisattvas? And he says, well, obviously, bodhisattvas haven't committed to helping all people. Some of them are going to be busy out teaching in Kazakhstan or southern China or, you know.

The bodhisattvas, because they agreed to help everybody, we don't know how many are going to show up, because they're out on missions. They're out helping people. The monks, these monks are not like bodhisattvas, they just show up.

They live around there, there's 1,250 monks, and they all came. But the bodhisattvas, some of them were out on missions to help other people. So that's why there's no exact number for the bodhisattvas.

Then he goes into some cool stuff, if you care about the scriptures, you know. He's writing in Sanskrit, right? And he gives some comments about why monks are called bhikshu.

So bhikshu, say bhikshu. Bhikshu. Bhikshu.

Means monk, full monk. And that's a female monk is? Bhikshuni.

Bhikshuni, yeah. So you can't add an I to a U, so you put an N between, bhikshuni. So why are they called bhikshu?

Sanskrit is built on roots, there's 800 roots. If you memorize 800 roots on the bus going to New York, you're done. You can generate Sanskrit, it's generative grammar.

You can generate the whole language if you know the roots, without seeing the words. So... Bhikshu is normally explained as what?

What's big? Yeah, normally they say beggar. Kamleshina says, I don't like that.

That's not correct. He says bhikshu is the desiderative case of bhag, which means to share. Or, because it means to split, because it means to divide up.

So bhagavad-gita, bhagavad, means you have your blessings. You get your share of blessings. It's similar to kalden in Tibetan.

Like you get your share. So bhaga, the root bhag, which sometimes has a pre-nasal bhang, means to cut, or to divide, or to share. And all the words like pranj comes from that, which means to branch.

And fragile comes from that. And fractiles. And phanga, the Latin, to branch or to break.

Vagina comes from that. It means to split. And so bhaga means your share, or to split, to split.

Then he says bhikshu, which is desiderative, which means a strong desire to split. In Sanskrit you double the verb and you add a su, so it becomes bhikshu. And so he says bhikshu means divorced from their mental afflictions.

Divided from their mental afflictions. Which means all monks and nuns should be totally stable and happy. But anyway.

Pretty much. They're working on it. They're working on it.

So he explains bhikshu. And they come in a mahasanghena, in the form of a great number of sangha. Then he says, did you know what sangha means?

And I always assumed it was S-A-M, which means together, and G-A, which means to come together. And the Greek word is synagogue, comes from that. So sangha and synagogue are related.

But there's a problem, because the G is G-H-A. And that G-H-A in Sanskrit is the verb for han. It comes from han, which means to strike or to cut.

Ahinsa comes from that. The word gun comes from that. So han means to hurt somebody.

So he's... Kamalashila's concerned that it's G-H-A. And he says, you've got to understand.

When you have a strong group of practitioners together, nobody can hurt them. Sangha. Okay?

Yeah, I like it. It's really cool. Then he says, why do we call it mahasangha?

Either because there's a lot of people there, or the monks and nuns who are there, the group, the community, is tight. So it's not only a lot of monks and nuns and students, but they're tight. They're strong.

Maha. They're big because they're strong. They're tight.

They work together. Okay? So they showed up.

Then they all come over to Lord Buddha, and it's not clear, but it seems like he taught the whole sutra in a state of meditation or something, like the... Heart Shinjing. Similar.

Okay? So first everybody comes, and each monk puts his head on the feet of the Buddha. Each monk touches their head to the feet of the Buddha.

And then they circle the Buddha three times, which is respectful. Okay? And then they sit down.

So this is showing respect to the teacher. And American people freak out if the people are prostrating to a teacher. They say, oh, this is a cult, and that's a guru.

But it's very normal for Buddhists to show respect to a teacher, and it's very necessary. Okay? So I will say the Americans just have to get used to it.

You know? We are not what they were before. We're different.

It's a new thing. We do some other things, and they're okay. They don't hurt anybody.

You bow down to your teacher. This is the Buddhist custom. But because of the other thing, we don't want to freak people out.

You can just go like that. If the people are all going to freak out if you get down on the floor, then you should respect their... You shouldn't mess up their crystal lake.

Okay. All right. Then one of the monks whose name is Subhuti, which in Tibetan is Rabjor.

We had a Mongol monk in New Jersey named Rubjor, and it's a corruption of Rabjor. He stands up, and he drops his sand. Okay?

Watch Gyalse. No, just mainly this one. So he drops the robe from his right shoulder, which is called salabap.

He drops the shawl, which is a sign of respect. So it means he's going to ask a question. So he drops the shawl.

He goes down on his right knee. He genuflects. He kneels down.

And then he joins his palms. So these are three customs for a Buddhist who's going to ask a question. They drop their...

Like you're not allowed to wear a hat. You know, it's better you take off your hat or you drop your sand. And then you go down on your right knee, and then you join your palms.

And in Buddhism, we put the thumbs inside. That's another thing you can fight with Hindus about if you want to. Okay?

It means my hands are not empty. I have something to offer. Okay?

And then you... Then he asks a question. Okay?

But that whole scene, Master Kamalashila says, the whole point of... Everything in this sutra has a purpose. Everything that happens in this sutra has a purpose.

If you have a... a really good training in Buddhism, this sutra is a lam rim. Everything is happening for a reason, in order.

You know? And if you can follow the Buddha's, you know, LSD mind, you know, there's a reason why everything's happening. You know?

Nothing's extra. Nothing's by accident. You must respect the teacher or you won't get any teaching.

Okay? You can't go there and say, Oh, hi. How are you doing, man?

You know? Like, you have to be respectful. And after many years...

I lived with my teacher for 25 years in the same house. It's hard to be respectful when you live with somebody all the time. Anyone who's ever been married knows that.

And it was hard for me to be respectful all the time. And then one day I realized respect is not outside. It's affection.

It's affection. We were like an old married couple. You know, he'd say, Uh.

I'd say, Mm. That means I feel like having a tea. That means, Give me a break.

I'll make one in a while.

[Speaker 2]
Mm. Mm.

[Speaker 1]
Mm. But there's an affection to the whole thing. Okay?

So I think respect without affection is... To me it's hollow. I don't like it.

These people who are like, Oh, I'm a... You know? And then you say, Would you mind putting a curtain on these two windows by tomorrow?

And they're like, No, I'm beauty. Then it's not respect. Okay?

Seiji, you got that? You and Nick? Okay.

Just a couple of thumbtacks. Nothing fancy. And then there's an affection.

They're like, Yeah, cut me some slack, Geshe-la. Let me do it by the day after. Okay?

But there's a sweet relationship and not this sterile respect without affection. Okay? So...

So the point here is that before a teaching can happen, the student must show some affectionate respect for the teacher. Okay? And that might involve, you know, making a dirty joke or something.

That's okay. You know? Like a poo-poo joke or something.

You know? That's okay. That's better than this if you're nervous and possessive, you know, of the teacher.

That's very unpleasant, you know? But if you're just like, Hey, Geshe-la, you wanna go out for a milkshake? We won't tell anybody.

I'm like, Yeah, let's do it. Okay?