Серия «Сутра Алмазного огранщика» — Мастер Камалашила: медитации на «Сутру Алмазного огранщика», часть первая (Аризона, 2016), занятие 8

[Speaker 1]
Okay, first we'll do some gom rim, and today I'd like to take some from the second gom rim. Okay, mostly we've been doing the third and the first, here's the second. ,DE LA THOB MA RE ZHIG NAL BRAL PA'I GANG GIS, ,DE BA MYUR DU ZHIG NAS DANG LHA GTONG DUG PA, ,GYUR BA ZHIG NAS DANG LHA GTONG GI SOGS LA, ,JES BSTAN PAR BYA'O, So, the very first thing at the beginning is that the yogi, Nyaljorpe, who wants to develop shamatha and vipashyana, dewar and nyurwar.

Dewar? Easily. Comfortably.

And nyurwar?

[Speaker 2]
Quickly.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, if you want to develop shamatha and vipashyana without much hassle, and in a quick, in a short period of time, you need the tsok. So what's tsok mean? Tsok means collection, like tonight we're having a ceremony called tsok, but that means a collection of offerings, tsok chupa.

I'd like to request that John Brady lead that ceremony tonight, okay? 6.30 here, if you have Vajrayogini initiation. If you don't have, keep coming to Lam Rim, you'll get it, okay?

You'll get it here probably. And there's been a request that we leave some time for people to say encounters they've had with VY and stuff like that, like what's happening in their life. Okay, like people can say what's happening in their life.

I'd personally like to make a request that you bring something delicious and not a bag of potato chips, okay? I'm baking brownies, okay, like from scratch. Vajrayogini doesn't like cheap stuff.

Okay, so I thought today we could cover his description of the conditions, right, that you need to get shamatha, and tomorrow we'll do the conditions that you need for vipashyana, okay? So remember there are three levels of development of shamatha, right? Up here is proper technique that we talked about yesterday.

Detect dullness in your mind. Detect agitation in your mind. Detect that you lost the object completely, right?

Detect that you are not meditating and you're thinking about doing it tomorrow, okay? So those are all smoke alarms, right? Subtle dullness.

So those are all internal techniques. They happen inside your mind while you're meditating, okay? Then to get there you have to have the external conditions, which is the correct posture, good meditation seat.

He's going to talk about them today, okay? And then below that you need the cause of the causes, which is karmic. And without this, nothing, okay?

So forget these two if you don't have this. And if you have problems in your meditation, there's an old Buddhist joke. Are you meditating?

Yes. How long have you been meditating? Ten years.

Has it made you a better person? No. So why do you keep doing it?

Well, think how bad I would be if I wasn't meditating. Okay, so, well, people always come up to me and they say, look, I just have a block, you know? I reached a plateau.

You know, in the first six months I was a new Buddhist. Geshe-la came to Shanghai and gave a talk. Everything was so exciting.

My meditation got better and better. And now I just kind of reached a level and it's not improving. And now it's like I have to work harder and harder just to make a little progress.

That's karma. It's just karmic, okay? So your meditation seat probably hasn't changed.

You know, your level of distraction is probably about the same. But you need more karmic cause, which is respect other people's minds, you know? Put their minds at peace.

Be constantly aware of where another person's mind is and try to make it happy. Try to make their mind happy, okay? When you interact with people, just constantly checking their face, their outer indications, right?

When people move stuff on a table, they're nervous. Like a pen. Like you're in a business meeting and somebody moves a pen or something.

It means their mind's not at... there's something bothering them. And then you have to get it out of them.

You see what I mean? So, if you want good meditation, you have to try to put the minds of the people around you at peace. Reassure them.

Encourage them. Correct when necessary. But that's the karmic cause for meditation.

And if you don't have that, it doesn't matter if you have a good cushion and you're watching your mind. It doesn't matter. Because then you'll just watch the distractions come and you won't be able to stop them, okay?

You'll be aware of them, but you won't be able to stop them. Because they're coming out of karmic seats. The distractions are popping out of karmic...

they're not coming from nowhere, you know? They're popping out of things you did last week. And you can't stop them.

Inside your mind, you can't stop them. You can have 24 fire alarms, but they're just gonna keep... you know?

You're just gonna be listening to a fire alarm all day, okay? So, work on the karmic cause. And interestingly, these two also come from the karmic causes.

So whether or not your cushion feels comfortable today, it's not an accident. It's coming from, did you make other people comfortable? And whether or not you can detect subtle dullness comes from how you treated other people last week.

That's all. Everything comes from how you treat other people. So you can't be a mean person and expect to have good meditation.

And you can't ignore other people in need and expect to have good meditation. It just can't happen, because that's the cause of good meditation, okay? So now we're...

but he's gonna do this one, which is what? Circumstances, you know? Like, what kind of circumstances?

He calls it tsok. Meaning, what group of circumstances do you need? What's the perfect configuration?

You can call it configuration of circumstances do you need to develop shamatha. Outer circumstances, okay? Here we go.

And this comes from Maitreya, okay? Those of you who know, it comes from Asanga's works, okay? De la shinne ki tsok kang she na.

What are the conditions you need for shamatha? Then he's gonna give six, six different conditions. We had them in DCI.

Yeah, you know all this. Don't tell everybody. Then I won't look so smart.

Number one, tumpe yul na nepa. The place where you meditate has to be conducive. The place where you meditate has to be conducive.

He's gonna explain it later. Number two, you shouldn't have a lot of excess needs. Like, I need a Maserati, you know?

I need a hundred thousand dollars, you know? I need a better apartment, okay? So don't have a lot of...

a big list of... Christmas list, right? New Year's list.

Things I need, okay? Try to make it shorter. Number three, chok shepa.

I like this one. Contentment. You should have contentment.

This is the third condition. We'll talk about this. He's gonna talk about them.

Chawa mambo yong su pawa. Don't be too busy, okay? Busy-ness.

Okay, don't be... don't have too much stuff going on, okay? Number five, I think it's the most important, sutim nampa dakpa.

Sutim nampa dakpa. Pure morality, yeah. Keep your morality well.

No killing or threatening the lives of others by using your cell phone when you drive or something like that, okay? Respect other people's things. Respect other people's partners, and try to tell the truth.

Those are the main ones, okay? Dupa la sope nampa tokpa yong su pawa. Have a lot of shallow thoughts, and we'll talk about that, okay?

A lot of shallow thoughts going on. They kind of block you from going deeper. Okay, we'll talk about it.

Okay, here's number one. A good place to meditate has five characteristics, okay? So there's six conditions.

The first one has five characteristics. We talked about it in DCI. Number one, this is the...

what is the first word? Yeah, a conducive place, okay? Thunpa yo yin na shepa ja de.

Number one, good onsela sopa tsokpa. There's a mistake in the text, okay? This is tsa na ra tso ga sa tsok.

Tsa na ra tso ga sa tsok. And often the typist will subconsciously correct it. If it's tsek, tsa na ra tso ga sa tsok, because it looks similar, right?

It's just the difference of a horn. So tsek is very rare, but it's an important word, and it means hassle. Tsek me pa.

Yeah, you should be able to get clothes, water, food, tsek me pa, without a hassle. Like here, like at Diamond Mountain. I mean, it's ideal if someone can deliver your food.

And you don't have to think about food, you know? That's ideal. In my three-year retreat, they delivered three times a day.

Three thousand meals. And tsek me pa means without trouble. So generally, it helps if...

And in the scriptures, they say it's a larger question of the country should be economically secure enough to... You know, that it's not impossible to get some food. I read this story of this nun in Australia who stayed for 12 years in Tenzinpamo, I think was her name.

And she paid some guy to bring her groceries, and he stole the money, and he left. And she was halfway through the winter, and she's like eating her shoes, you know? So it should be a place where it's relatively easy to get food and things.

Number two. kyewo mi sumpa dandala sopa mi nepe chir ne sangwa Maitreya calls it a good place, which means nothing to endanger you, like bears. Or in India, it wasn't so common for a woman to do a long retreat in the jungle because they might get raped or something.

You see what I mean? So it was less common for women to do long retreats. You have to live in a country where that's not going to happen, you know?

Where people will respect you and things like that, where you're not endangered. Or there's somebody who doesn't like you, and they're trying to do something to you or something. He says dra.

Number three. ne mepe sa sangwa Maitreya calls it a good spot. But it means, there are some places where you can do retreat.

I've done retreat, like very humid and very warm, and it's easy to get problems. You get sick easily, you know? Lots of mosquitoes.

I tried to do a retreat in Varanasi, and it's on the banks. I tried to do a two-month retreat there, and it was no good. It's too hot, and you get sick easily.

And there's lots of mosquitoes, and they give you stuff, and there's flies. Easy to get sick. Place that's easy to get sick.

I think the desert is pretty good. It's pretty sterile. So, okay.

Number what? Number four. drog tsultrim dang denpa tawa tsumba.

Good retreat companions. People that you're in retreat with are cool. It says tsultrim.

They have tsultrim. They're high morality. Very, very honest people.

Very good people. Good. It's the kind of people that come to confess to you every morning about a thought they had for 20 seconds.

You know? Okay? Really nice people.

And, tawa tsumba. What's tsumba mean? It's going to come later today.

What's tsumba mean? Tsumba means equal. Matching.

So, tawa tsumba.

[Speaker 2]
Matching viewpoints.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, their viewpoints match yours. They think it's important to do retreat. We had a very good three-year retreat crew.

I mean, they were all pretty much on the same wavelength, you know? Nobody thought it was silly to do a three-year retreat. You know?

Everybody was willing to spend all their money on it. And they were committed, and they had the same viewpoint. You know?

Roughly. They all believe in this angel who's going to come help them. You know?

So, if you have one person in the group who strongly doesn't believe, then it's difficult to meditate with them. Okay? So, I think we had a really good three-year group.

We had very strong viewpoints. Matching viewpoints. Especially tantric.

Tawa tsumba. Pabongka adds something else from a scripture. Does anybody remember?

Remember? Yeah, nice, nice, nice. Nice.

He says, hardcore. Hardcore means they are unbelievably committed to Buddhist path. You know?

And, what did he say specifically? Do you remember? You say, how about we meditate five minutes shorter today?

And they go like this. He describes this look of a hardcore meditator. You know?

You say, how about we take today off?

[Speaker 2]
And they're like...

[Speaker 1]
Like, they don't say anything. You're just like... You know?

They're really hardcore. Let's do an extra two hours of meditation. Alright.

Does your back hurt? Yes. Okay, let's do some more.

Okay. Are you tired? Yes.

Nothing pep you up like another hour of meditation. So they should be really strongly committed. And I think we have that vibe on this land.

I think we had a really good group in the three-year retreat. Definitely committed. They went through really hard times and they stuck it out.

Okay. What number? Five.

Sorry. NIM MO SKYE BA RMANG PO DAG GIS MA GANG BA'I A place which is not full of a lot of people during the day. TSE MO DRA BCUNG BA No enemies at night.

DRA is S-G-R-A.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, pure sound at night.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's totally silent. And Pabongka Rinpoche says, no barking dogs. Okay.

This place is perfect. Diamond Mountain is perfect. It wasn't me, actually.

Winston McCullough, whose name should go down in history, chose and paid for, signed his name on the deed, you know, on the mortgage, a place which is totally silent. And it's one of the last places in America where you can't use a cell phone. And it's coming closer and closer.

In my outhouse, you can use a cell phone. How did I find it? You thought I was going to the bathroom a lot.

But it's totally silent here. It's really silent. It's just like one of the most empty places in America.

It's a really unusual place. Unique, as Michael says. It's like one of the most quiet places in the United States, you know.

So, Draya Tirma, right? The cactus thorn of sound. Very famous for meditation.

Destroys meditation, okay? So, that's the most dangerous thing, sound. I have, you know, I don't know.

I live in a quiet place, but it still has cars. I still have neighbors. I still have dogs sometimes.

And I resisted for a long time using earplugs, but I'm pretty much into it now, you know. If I'm not meditating at four in the morning, which never happens, I use earplugs. Recently, I discovered something.

I don't know, the soft ones that you can... you mold into a... And then I read on the instructions that your ear doesn't go straight in.

Your ear goes up. And I didn't know that. It goes like this.

So, you cram it in and you go up. And then, it helps me a lot. I really like it now.

I use it a lot. So, you might want to try that. If you're in the middle of Guangzhou, largest city in the world, you know, there's just going to be noise, okay?

It's also good if you get up early, you know, before your family gets up. You don't have to tell them. Just get up early before everybody else gets up, okay?

[Speaker 2]
You can take a nap at work or...

[Speaker 1]
A really good place to sleep is in Geshe Michael's teachings. Semodracung. So, at night, there should be quiet.

It should be quiet and not many people. Number two was?

[Speaker 2]
Not too many names.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, like don't... Don't make this impossible list of things you want to have in your life, okay? Döpa chungwa kang shi ne, chugga lo sopa songwa mongpo.

A car, which is fancy. Clothes, which are fancy. House, which is fancy, okay?

Like, everybody has a mental list of things they'd like to have in their life. Everybody has a mental list, you know, of upgrades they would like. You know, if my apartment had one more room, or if my garden had one more bed.

You know, like, you always have a little short list in your mind of things you'd like to have a little better. And he says, just cut it, okay? Cut it down.

So, mongpo and chugga. Many new things, or better, upgrade new things. Just give it up, okay?

The corollary to that in the Abhidharma is called dö chung chok she. Say it, dö chung. Chok she.

Very famous in the Abhidharma for meditators. Dö chung chok she. I like chok she.

Chok shepa means... Chok means enough, right? Shepa means to know.

Chugga lo sopa ngen ngun. Oh, that's misspelled. I always correct stuff in the database in the hopes that someone will put it in later.

There's a percentage sign in all my work. It means someone has to correct the database. Next generation.

Ngen ngun tsam nyepa tak tu chok shepa. I like this. It means, be happy with your old pair of shoes.

Be happy with your old pair of jeans. Be happy with your t-shirt that has a little hole in it. Become friends with your possessions and get to know them and appreciate them and say, I love you better than a new pair of shoes.

You're soft. You fit my feet. We've been together for a long time.

And I like you. Just have some affection for your old stuff. I like this.

Generally, I wear shoes until they fall apart. I just like them. They're actually softer.

Pants are okay if they have holes until they get a hole in the bottom. I went to that... What do you call that lady?

Midtown Sutra? She does yoga with ballet. I went to her class.

I had this old pair of yoga pants. And she did some movement, and my whole thing went... And my underwear was hanging down.

And I pirouetted to the door. So, become friends with your old stuff and just enjoy them. It's called contentment.

Have contentment. Satisfaction, contentment with your old stuff. So, you see how it goes along with chokshepa.

Sorry, with dupa chungwa. You know, don't need new stuff and appreciate your old stuff. They go together, okay?

BYA BA MANG PO YONGS SUG PA BA GANG ZHES NA Now he defines being too busy, okay? Having too many projects going. And he says...

He has interesting examples, okay? Number one. NYA TZONG LA SOGS PA LAS NGON PA Being in a...

Being in a career which is harmful. Having a career which is harmful. And he gives the example of selling meat.

Selling fish. NYA TZONG BA Okay? So, inside of busy is being in a business which hurts people.

Okay? They like weapons, or drugs, or selling meat. Things like that, okay?

NYA TZONG BA LAS NGON PA This LAS means occupation, right? A bad occupation. LAS NGON PA YONGS SUG PA BA NANG KHYIM PA DANG RAB TU CHUNG BA DANG HA JANG MER DRIN This is a delicate one.

It means don't have too many friends. Shallow friends. Many shallow friends, okay?

Like, you're always busy. You know, you gotta go out with this person, and you gotta make a birthday cake for this person, and, you know, but you don't have... You don't really spend a lot of time with any of them, you know?

You just have a lot of shallow relationships, and then they take up all your time. They eat up all your time. So you don't have time for anything else.

And it's not like the people particularly care about it, you know? Like, there's people who spend all day buying birthday cards, you know? And it's okay.

Buy five, buy ten, but don't buy one every day. You see what I mean? Like, it's too much.

You won't have time to do anything else, you know? Like, have some deep relationships. Have some really deep relationships, but don't have, like, a hundred shallow relationships.

Some people feel more, what do you call, secure, if they have a lot of shallow... If someone's calling them every day, or they're getting six emails a day, they feel somehow more reassured about life. But what they say in the scriptures, if you want to meditate, have fewer relationships that are deeper.

And don't try to... I told my family, I think in 1974, you know, I'm not going to do birthdays. I'm sorry, you know?

I'm just not going to do birthdays. 1974, that was twenty-five, forty years ago. You know?

And if I see something cool, if I see something special, I buy it and I send it to my brother for birthday, or we went to see my brother for his birthday. Sixtieth, that was the first one. But I just decided I don't have time, you know?

And I told them, and we worked it out. And they're happy with me, and they love me, and I love them, and we just don't do, you know, silly birthday card or something, okay? But if I see something elegant and nice, I buy it and I send it, you know?

But I don't spend all day in the store looking for a cheap... What do you call those things? Chachki.

Chachki. Chachki means little stupid thing that you send your relative when you can't find anything for their birthday. You know?

Like a little duck or something. Some people keep them in their house. Most people just throw them away.

Then he gives an interesting thing. He says, worthless subjects of study. And he gives example here of probably, if you're going to be a hardcore Dharma person, you probably won't have time to learn to get an MD.

You won't have time to go through the 12 years of study for medical degree. Or karma tsiwa. Astrology.

Yeah, like there's a Buddhist astrology, Kalachakra. You know, you study the planets, and you study the stars, and you know, you can tell the future and stuff like Vedic astrology. But it's very difficult, and it takes many years to learn.

And in Tibet, you don't start it until after you finish your geshe. Like Rinpoche started it, he never finished it. And it's very complicated.

I think in Seren Monastery, only one guy knows it. And it just takes many years to master. So probably you won't be able to master something else.

You can't do both. You won't have time to do both. So don't try.

I started flamenco guitar, and I just... The guy still owes me two lessons, I think. He played here.

And I loved it, and it was beautiful, but I don't have time. Okay, so those are examples of number four. Just admit you're not going to have time to do certain things.

And it may not sit well with your family at first. They may say, you know, you're a bad daughter. You didn't, you know, blah, blah, blah.

And then you just have to get used to it. Prove that you're a good daughter in other ways. Usually after a few years, they thank you.

And they say, you're the best daughter I have. My stepmom says that. We rarely see each other, you know.

But we're extremely close because of my Dharma practice. But I don't send her stupid little cards. And we just have this...

She knows where I'm at, and I explain it to her. Many, 40 years ago, and she's okay. And we're very close, okay.

Okay, number five. What is that?

[Speaker 2]
Pure morality.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, pure morality. Okay, certain number na khan she na dompa nyi ka la yang. You respect your two sets of vows.

So he's writing this book from a non-Tarot viewpoint, right. So he says two sets of vows. What are they?

Pratimoksha and Bodhisattva vows. Okay, so some of you took Bodhisattva vows last week. 64 vows, right.

And then we have our Pratimoksha vows, okay. Some people mistranslate the word Vinaya. They say monks and nuns vows.

It's not true. It's any vowed morality. You don't have to be a monk or a nun.

You can be a layperson, and you're still following Vinaya. Okay, so lifetime vows, five vows. What are they?

No killing a human being. No killing a human being or a human fetus, okay. Number one.

Number two. No stealing anything of value over nine dollars. It's so many karsapanas.

And I worked on it for a long time, and I figured out it's the cost of a good sweater. It's defined as the cost of a good sweater in your country. Okay, number three.

No sexual misconduct, which means don't mess around with other people's committed partners. So sometimes people are married, but no longer committed. That's okay.

If they agree, if they both feel that they're divorced, but they didn't go to the court yet, that's okay, if they both agree. And also, if they're not married yet, but both of them, or at least one of them, was led to believe it was an exclusive relationship, then you shouldn't mess with them, okay. So you have to make it clear.

When you meet somebody in the Starbucks, first question is, are you in a committed relationship? Sometimes they'll lie about it, then you have to check out. Okay, so, messing around with someone else's committed relationship, okay.

Then number four. Yeah, lying especially about your spiritual life. Like, I saw Buddha yesterday, or I saw emptiness, and, you know.

People ask me, I think I saw emptiness. I say, if you think, you didn't. Seriously, okay.

When you see, one of the qualities of that experience is, you know, without a doubt, you know. It's unquestionable. If you're not sure, you didn't see it, okay.

And there's lots of things that are close and are not. No cigar? In English we say, close but no cigar.

It means, it's close but not the real thing. I don't know why cigar is real thing. But, I always teach them new idioms.

I say, close but no cigar. It's not the real thing. So, be careful, okay.

Especially, I think it's especially irritating to people when people say, I saw Manjushri yesterday, or I saw Tara, and, you know. And you sense it's not true. You sense they're not telling the truth.

You can say, I was in the, I was in the grocery store, this lady sold something to me that made me think she might be Vajrayogini. That's okay. That's a healthy thing, you know.

But to say for sure, I had a conversation with Tara last night. That's a very serious bad karma. That's one of the four worst karmas in this system.

So, okay. What's the fifth one? Yeah, no alcohol or drugs.

Okay, no alcohol or drugs. When I was like 30, and my friends in college were, Princeton, were all like getting super good jobs, and I was in this white trash neighborhood called Howell, New Jersey. And, they're like, you know.

So, is it working out, you know? Are you going to come back to your senses, you know? And I'm like, listen.

If Buddhism didn't do anything else for me, it kept me from being an alcoholic, you know. Like, my parents were both alcoholics. I have the genetics for it.

And, I say, if all of Buddhism is wrong, at least I stopped alcohol, you know. When I was 20, I was 21 or something, you know. And I never, you never miss it.

There's nothing there. It's expensive, it's stupid. And it takes a lot of grain.

The use of some, what's the grain for vodka?

[Speaker 2]
Potato. Is it?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, I don't know. A large percentage of American food grains are used for alcohol. It takes a lot of food to make alcohol.

Yeah. Hops. Yeah.

It takes a lot. I think it's, in some cases, a quarter of the crop in the United States is used for alcohol. So, it's a lot.

Okay? It's very destructive. Okay.

Okay. RANG SHING DA CHE PA'I KHANAMATHAWA DANG CHE PA'I LHAB PA'I ZHIG MIN BRAL BA DANG BAG MED PA REL NA KHYEN DANG KHYEN PA Avoid RANG SHING GI KHANAMATHAWA and CHE PA'I KHANAMATHAWA. So, RANG SHING GI KHANAMATHAWA means natural bad deeds.

Every religion agrees that killing is wrong. Every religion agrees that stealing is wrong. Every major religion believes that.

Those are called RANG SHING GI KHANAMATHAWA. KHANAMATHAWA means a KHANAMATHAWA is a Tibetan word that means a deed which, if you did it, wise people would criticize you or would would think badly of you. It's called KHANAMATHAWA.

It means any, it's a synonym for DIG PA or MI DGE BA. So, there are two kinds. One is RANG SHING, which is natural bad deeds, like killing or stealing.

Then, CHE PA, this CHE PA means what is it? The Buddha made a rule against it. In the beginning of Buddhism, it wasn't wrong.

And then, Buddha saw it was a problem and he made a rule about it, like alcohol. In the beginning, alcohol wasn't against Buddha's morality. But then, Buddha saw what it was doing to his students, so he made a rule.

So, CHE PA means, what do you call it? There's a word that sounds like conscripted or amendments. Proscribed?

Proscribed, yeah. It was proscribed. He said, look, when we started our new religion, this was okay.

But now that I see how it affects people, like we had it in the three, I think people were getting out of hand with the TZOG materials. And that's very easy to do. And then, you have to restrict it.

And you have to say, okay, let's just do this. You see? Because people got, people get...

So, it's up to the teacher at the time to say, this is getting out of hand. We have to make a rule against this. Okay?

So, it means a rule was made. CHE PA'I KHAN NAM MA THOR ZHIG MI DANG DANG BAG MED PAR REL NA BAG MED PAR REL NA This rel is the same as phrel or drel. Phrel or drel.

Yeah. So, rel na means if you break the vow, if you rip the vow. Bag med par.

Because you were bag med par. Bag med par means you weren't totally mindful. Like, it's, he's cutting you slack.

When Lama says bag med par, it means like, oh, maybe you were tired. Or maybe you were super busy. Or maybe ten people were talking to you and you lied.

You know what I mean? Like, okay, bag med par means just by accident, careless, carelessly. Technically, it comes from an old word that means, bag med par means a new bride.

Bag med par means you're not careful like a new bride should be around her new in-laws. That's where the word comes from. Bag med par.

If because of bag med par you break it, kyen dang kyen pa, ancient, ancient, ancient word. S-K-Y-E-N. Kyen dang kyen pa means right away.

Fast and fast. It's very rare. Kyen dang kyen pa.

Gyepa, with regret, you should confess it. NGES DUG GI SDOM PA LA PHAM PA CHOS SU MI RUNG BAR GSUM PA KHANG YIN PA DE LA YANG RGYUD PA There are certain deeds in the Vinaya which are phamba. The first four for a monk are phamba.

Phamba means they would destroy your vows. Like having sex with a woman. These are phamba.

It destroys your vows. You can't fix it. You cannot confess it and restore it.

So, phamba, CHOS SU MI RUNG BAR means CHOS SU MI RUNG BAR means you can't fix it. GSUM PA KHANG YIN PA DE LA YANG Even if you do one of those, at least regret it. Okay?

Like, morality here means even if you did something which is irreparable, confess it.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
And have regret about it. PHYI MI BYA BA'I GSUM PA And even those things, try to have the idea that PHYI here means with an S, means later on.

[Speaker 2]
MI BYA You won't do it again.

[Speaker 1]
I won't do it again. Okay? Even if you've just already destroyed your vows, still don't give up on it.

MI BYA BA'I SEMS PA DANG LDAN PA SEMS KHANG GI DE LA BYAS PA'I SEMS DE LA NGOR NI MED PAR SO SOG THOB PAS You can also go into the emptiness of what you just did. THOB PAS BYAS PA'I SEMS DE LA NGOR NI MED PAR BSGOM PA'I PHYIR You can use meditations on emptiness as a...

[Speaker 2]
Antidote.

[Speaker 1]
Antidote. The fourth of the four powers, right? As a make-up activity for having broken your vows.

BSGOM PA'I PHYIR TSUL KHRIMS RNAM PAR BDAG PA KHO NA YIN PAR BCUG PA So even a person who committed such a bad deed that they destroyed their vow can be called one of pure morality if they're working very hard to repair it or to not do it again or to do the four powers. Then he says, if you don't believe me, you know, if it bothers you that I call a person of pure morality someone who's made mistakes but is working really hard not to, then you go read the book called about Ajatashatru. Ajatashatru.

Ajatashatru killed his father. I think it was Bimbisara. Killed his father who was also an arhat.

He killed the father and he committed two of the five baddest deeds, you know. And there's a sutra about it called Removing the Regret of Ajatashatru. And in there, Buddha talks about...

He became an arhat, I think. He fixed it so well he became an arhat. Okay.

Ajatashatru. If you don't believe me that it's possible, go read that sutra. And it is still in the Kangyur.

It's called Pakpa Marke Dai Gyupa Sawa Clearing Away the Regret of Ajatashatru. And it's about a hundred pages. Dai Gyupa Mepa Chela Gompa La Ngumba Tsunpa Chao After you do your cleansing, after you do your four powers, then you have to feel it's over.

Don't go back to it. Okay? It's over.

And then you can go to shamatha. Then you can reach shamatha. Okay?

So you have to deal with it. You have to deal with it. Everybody breaks vows.

That's why there probably are vows. Because we would tend to break them. And then you break vows, you clean them well, and then you move on.

Because if you don't move on you can't get shamatha. Okay? So you have to clean them and then it's over.

Okay? You're not allowed to dwell on it after you finish cleaning them. Okay?

It's over. Move on. Otherwise it blocks your shamatha.

Okay. I think we're on the last one. Which is what?

Like shallow, shallow... shallow wanty thoughts. Shallow wanty thoughts.

But it's not the same as the earlier wanting. It's not the same as the Maserati. Maserati specific upgrade in your life that's going to take some effort and time.

Okay? So we're not talking about that. We're talking about continual, shallow, busy, continual undercurrent of...

of need. Okay? And he's going to explain it.

Okay? dupa nam la yang, se di dang, se chi ba la, ni mi... These shallow thoughts ruin this life and they ruin your next life.

mam pa gyurwa, yi la che, pa de na la, nam pa tongpa, pa wan chok, give them up. nam pa chik tu na, korway ngepo, dupa. In one sense, they are aimed at the pleasant things of samsara.

Okay? They're... In one sense, they are aimed at the pleasant things of samsara.

Is a... Is a pan of fresh brownies, handmade brownies, is it a desire... Is it desire?

Is it a kind of desire? Not necessarily. Okay?

So don't get into this thing that Buddhists should be sterile people and not enjoy anything. Okay? That's a very big mistake.

Okay? Buddhists should enjoy things more than other people. You know, they should have nice...

nice, old, worn out, beautiful... but beautiful things, elegant things. That's fine.

Okay? And you can eat elegant food and that's fine. You shouldn't be like, you know, I don't like anything.

I'm a good Buddhist because I don't like anything. You know? That's a big mistake.

Okay? So what he says here is, is how you feel about how do you acquire that thing? How do you get that thing?

If you understand... If you go to a French restaurant and spend $300 taking Kristen out on your anniversary or something, that's a good thing. Okay?

If you have an understanding of the emptiness of the three spheres, you know, she's here with me because I kept my vows. You know? I'm here because I was honored Vajrayogini or something like that and I have $300 because I'm generous.

I help people and money comes to me. And then it's okay to use that money to have a nice French dinner with your partner. Okay?

That's fine. That's very healthy. Okay?

It doesn't mean you have to go out and have water and old bread together. You see what I mean? That doesn't make you a Buddhist.

So be careful. Okay? Lots of people have water and old bread and they will steal things from you.

You see what I mean? So it's... It's not that you're supposed to...

Here it doesn't mean denying yourself things. It means the things you get, understand that they come from giving. Understand that they come from generosity.

When you get, give a lot. And then use the rest and go to a goddamn French restaurant. You know?

Okay? That's fine. That's fine.

Maybe if your mind is in the right place in the French restaurant, you make 10,000 more dinners. You know what I mean? So...

Okay? DE DAG LA RNAM PAR RTOG PA'I SPANG BA'O Give up thinking of them as self-existent. Okay?

Number... So then he says, these thoughts could be think about nice things, but also they could be about things that bother you. So number six also includes shallow thoughts about things that bother you.

Things that you don't like. So, it's called DOD PA, but it means like an attachment to the self-existence of small pleasant things and small unpleasant things. All of them.

All samsaric things. What makes a thing samsaric? You eat the French dinner without any intention of sharing it with others.

Or without any intention of giving. You know? Or without any dedication to a higher purpose.

Okay? That's samsara. The same French dinner can be samsara and a cross for Nirvana.

Okay? Same dinner. Okay.

Depends on who's having it and what's in their mind at the time. THAMS CAD NI JIG PA'I CHOS CAN MI BSTAN DE Because any French dinner you eat without a desire to share with others is destruction. It's going to lead to destruction.

You will lose it. You will have your last French dinner. You will have your last trip to Hawaii.

You know? MI BSTAN DE DON MI SA BA DE DAG DON MI SA BA here means DON MI SA BA is an old word for beyond the doubt. DON MI SA BA It means without eating a demon or something.

DON MI SA BA means beyond the doubt. DE DAG THAMS CAD DAG RING PO MI THOB PA BYAL And you have to eat the French dinner with a good death meditation. Okay?

This may be the last one I ever have. You know? This could very well be the last one I ever have.

So let me put my whole heart into it. You know? Let me eat that creme brulee with with a total dedication to all living beings.

You know? Seriously. Okay?

Alright? Good death meditation just as you walk in. You know?

[Speaker 2]
SHE MORT Okay.

[Speaker 1]
THOB PA DAG YUN NAM DAG LA DIG SLAB PA DAG CHA PA LA SLAB PA YUN NAM So I'm gonna... It could... RING PO MI THOB PA means before very long I could lose this.

All of this. Okay? So enjoy the dinner with a good death meditation.

And you will enjoy it more. BSKOM NAS NAB PAR THOB PA THAMS CAD SPANG BA'O Give up all perception of things as coming from their own side. Then you're not being shallow.

Then your mind's not caught up in shallow. So every time you enjoy something it's with an idea that this came because I shared. Sometimes I think the first perfection should be called sharing.

You know? I got this because I shared. Okay?

And enjoy it. I also feel like certain kinds of use of the internet qualify here. Like kind of a shallow...

Busy shallow mind. And you... Then go on retreat once in a while.

And the whole shallow blah blah blah... WeChat mind... It's all shallow.

It's only like half an inch deep. You know? It's all like...

Then go in... Sometimes... It's okay.

Use it. Enjoy it. But then go on a retreat.

Go to Diamond Mountain. You don't have to wait until there's a Geshe Michael retreat. You know?

You can come here anytime. You own... A lot of you are...

Are in the cottage adopter program. You... You're already paying for part of a cabin.

Then come sometimes. And come early. Do a one-week retreat on your own before the big retreat.

Or stay after. And do a retreat on your own. The place was designed for retreat.

The houses were built for retreat. You've got the three-year retreatants energy in every single cottage. Has a...

That's what Michael was talking about when he said loaded. It wasn't alcohol loaded. It was...

It was... There's an energy in every cottage already. There's a very strong energy already.

The cottages were never used for anything else. They were only used for meditation. And...

Maitreya, when he discusses a good place, he says, a place where someone else has been doing retreat. You know? That's a...

That's a good place for meditation. Okay? Where someone else has loaded it with energy.

Okay? So, to balance the shallow WeChat state of mind, then go on the retreat and don't do WeChat for a couple weeks. And...

And the first few days you're like, you get up and you're like... You know? And you miss it.

And then after that you don't miss it. I haven't done emails for like ten days and I can feel tension all over the world. And I'm okay with it, you know?

It's okay. Because then your mind goes deeper and you have great ideas about your life. Okay?

So... By sacrificing two weeks of WeChat, you have very deep, cool ideas like... Like, how am I going to bring meditation to the schools?

You know? If you WeChat about it for one year, you get some information. But then if you put your phone down and you go into two-week retreat, no WeChat.

You get all these great ideas that you can't hear unless you're in retreat. So, if you're a business person or you have grand projects to do, do some deep retreat on them. And they'll get ten times cooler.

Ten times... You think like, Oh, I'm losing two weeks to Geshe-la. I'm losing two weeks on my project.

Just try it. The project will be ten times better. Hundred times better.

Okay? ACIP I thought about in a retreat. It's been twenty-something years.

Almost thirty years. It came in a retreat. You know?

And it's unbelievable. That's why we're doing Kamalashila. Okay?

So, just... Go out of the shallow and go deep. But to do that, you have to give up...

You have to give up WeChat for two weeks. Alright, we're done with Gomrim. We're going to meditate.

Tomorrow we do... What? Do you remember?

Yeah. The group of conditions you need for Vipasyana. We're in the temple tomorrow.

So, blow your nose well. Wow, that's good. That was a good one.

Sounds like one of those horns on a big truck. 18-millimeter horn. Okay.

Okay, get comfortable, because we're going to... This will be a little longer. We're going to do...

the preliminaries, right? The jortu was written by Pabongkha Rinpoche's lama, right? But you can see how I came from Kamalashila.

Okay? Who lived... 1200 years before him.

So, we'll do the preliminaries. And then we'll focus on... The body.

Make sure it's not moving. And then we'll move on to... The breath.

And then we'll go to...

[Speaker 2]
Yourself as the Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
And we'll wrap up by giving away the karma. That's a tradition. Okay?

So don't forget, at the end of a meditation, the tradition is to give away the good karma. And then you've... Then that's a whole meditation.

That whole thing, with all those steps, that's a proper shamatha meditation.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Because you're also making a lot of good karma, right? All right, here we go. Oh, and I'm going to interrupt you in the...

Meditation. First part of the... Me, the Buddha meditation.

To see if you are still on the...

[Speaker 2]
Object.

[Speaker 1]
And then after that, I'm going to interrupt you to see whether you are... How's the quality of your meditation? Is it...

Good quality, or not so good quality? Is it agitated, or is it dull, or is it good quality? Is it...

Bright? Bright... In English, there's an idiom, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

It means those little squirrels have a tail like this. It means they're like... They're like very...

Excited and bright. Like in the movie, when the good part comes in the movie, and you... Like that.

Okay. That's meditation. Meditation isn't spaced out...

Om... You know, hippie thing. It's a...

It's the bright state of mind that you have when you're inventing an iPhone or something like that. Right? Okay?

It's not some kind of dull, stupid, spaced out thing. Ready? Here we go.

Relax your hands, fingers. Pull in your stomach slightly. Little bit towards your...

Navel towards the spine. Relax your eyelids. Mouth is loose.

Corners of your mouth are loose. Maybe a little smile. Helps meditate.

Shoulders, blades are slightly moving towards each other. Chest is slightly coming out. And that draws the hands back a little bit on the thighs.

Soften your forehead. When you... Concentrate in meditation, try not to...

Crunch up your forehead. And relax your eyelids. Let them...

It might be better if you crack your eyelids slightly open. It might help you meditate longer. But don't look at anything.

Then... Come to your breath. This is just ten breaths.

To settle your mind down. Then please ask your teacher to come. Whoever that is.

The next few steps are called sak chung. Sak chung. Make some...

Make a little hit of good karma just before you meditate. And... Clean out some bad karmas just before you meditate.

Just a few moments before you meditate. Think about something beautiful about your teacher that you can enjoy thinking about. And that's a mental prostration.

Now make your teacher an offering. Could be the sky filled with... covered with flowers.

It could be something nice you did yesterday. Some little... little breakthrough in your practice.

We don't have big breakthroughs. We have little breakthroughs. A lot of little breakthroughs is a big breakthrough.

Then look at yesterday and see if there's some negative thing you did. In retreat they are mostly mental. And they're not big.

They're... small ones. Moments of irritation at someone you met last week.

Then let the lama into your mind. Show them that bad seed and it will help destroy it. Then tell your lama show them something good you did yesterday.

Something else good. Or something you saw other people do that was very beautiful. I think here at Diamond Mountain there's just a lot of dedicated people have built this place and very dedicated people running this place and you can rejoice in in that constant effort all year long.

Then ask your teacher to keep teaching you in many ways. Some of the teachings are negative. They come in the form of hardship.

And ask them to stay with you. The karma to have a good lama stay close is very expensive. A lot of that karma is asking them to stay.

Then we'll come to the first object of meditation which is our body. Scan your body. Is it moving?

You can move to make a correction. Like if you find your spine is bent over you can straighten out slowly. But otherwise no moving.

If something itches just watch it. It will go away. If something hurts normally if you watch it it will go away.

You can move your chest to breathe. That's all. Still like a statue.

We'll be here for five minutes. Let's go on to our breath. You're doing really well on the body.

Try to find this first go step by step. Try to find this spot in your forehead. Just first try to find this spot when you focus on it you feel you can go deeper.

It's not on the skin it's under the bone and it's up maybe a centimeter or two inch or two from the place between your eyebrows. It's not it's not between your eyebrows it's higher so follow your eyebrows go to where the middle of them go up and go in and feel around and see if you can find a place where your concentration gets deeper but keep your forehead loose don't don't tighten your forehead loose and relaxed and when you find it start breathing out of it the breath is coming out the exhale is coming out of that place very relaxed now when you breathe out feel like you're pulling your lower belly in towards your spine and that pushes the breath out of your forehead long relaxed exhales don't overdo the lower belly just slight light little contraction now introduce the inhale coming down through your back from the shoulders like a a V the breath coming in feels like from your shoulders and following the triangle of the shoulder blades and then coming to a point in your lower back then the belly comes in and the breath comes out your forehead the exhales are conscious long the inhales are automatic you don't think about them how much breath but you you feel that sensation of prana coming down in a triangle from your shoulders to a point in your lower back we'll stay here for five minutes now we'll go to the main meditation object which is myself as a Buddha I'm far above the earth

[Speaker 2]
near the

[Speaker 1]
blackness of space and I'm looking across the top of the atmosphere towards a brilliantly beautiful warm shining being who is standing or sitting on top of the sky and gazing down at the living beings on this planet like a mother who is taking care of all of them and that's myself in the future try to hold that object in a happy relaxed way enjoy relax don't struggle the face is so beautiful the idea is so beautiful it's so certain to be my future that it's pleasant to just stay with it and think about all the things I'll do to help people if I had infinite bodies if I could be in many places at once then just fantasize all the beautiful things you're doing who you're helping in different bodies we will there'll be a ring of a bell now and then a few minutes after that the bell will ring again and just try to be aware if your mind is still thinking about that Buddha if your mind is still gently in a relaxed way enjoying being that Buddha here we go what's your mind on the object we'll try that again the bell will ring and we'll start hold the object with enjoyment don't struggle if it feels like a struggle maybe the object is not beautiful enough maybe you're not thinking about how wonderful it would be to help countless people at the same time what's your mind on the object just a few minutes more stay here when the bell rings the second time check to see what was how was the quality of your attention were you enjoying the object were you feeling sleepy tired or were you thinking about something else already distracted by what's happening today tonight tomorrow here we go okay one more that's it check the quality of your meditation when the bell rings the second time is it engaged happy enjoying maybe the object has to be more beautiful helping more people what's your mind on the object how was the quality then you can come to your breath on the exhale you can share the good karma with the people of the world as if you are on a high mountain and your breath is blowing down bringing the karma to other people bringing them some peace happiness then slowly you can open your eyes take a good stretch