Дебаты дьявола с ангелом, часть 7: Растопить разногласия (2013, Феникс), занятие 1

[Говорящий 1]
So, we've been doing in Phoenix, which is kind of my home stomping ground. I spend much of the year traveling to other countries, and when I come home, I like to do something a little bit challenging. So, we've been going through a special book that was written about 400 years ago in Tibet.

There are two great lineage of lamas in Tibet, Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. And historically, it's been sort of worked out that when the Dalai Lama was very young, the Panchen Lama was mature, and he would cover for the Dalai Lama. And then when the Panchen Lama was young, the Dalai Lama would cover for him.

And it's been going like that for a while. So, the first Panchen Lama was a wonderful, fantastic teacher. He was, I think, one of the greatest poets of Tibet, and probably one of the top two or three greatest thinkers of ancient Tibet.

And I like that he was also a very ardent pacifist. And there's a beautiful story. One day, he was in retreat in a cave in the mountains, and in the Hlasa Valley, in the valley of the capital of Tibet, there was a war was about to begin, and the two sides in Tibet were facing off to have a war.

There's a joke in Tibet. There was a really big battle out in East Tibet. Three people died, you know.

But anyway, it was a pretty serious war about to start, and he walked out between the two lines of soldiers and said, if you're going to kill each other, you have to kill me first. And he stopped the war. It's also recorded that he made a large payment to each of the generals.

But I think he's—I like him a lot. He's a wonderful poet. So he wrote many books, and we've been studying a book called Dangzin Shangde.

Dangzin Shangde, roughly translated, means— excuse me, I have allergies, okay? It means a debate between the bad side of your mind and the good side of your mind. So inside of one person's mind, there's a debate going on.

Excuse me. And it's like those cartoons where you see the devil over here and the angel over here, and the devil's saying, go ahead, eat those brownies, and the angel's saying, you know, no, you should have a green shake, you know. In my mind, the devil's stronger that way.

But anyway, in this particular case, the angel is saying that we should have wisdom. We should try to have wisdom. And the devil is saying, no, that's not going to work out.

What does wisdom mean? It's the wisdom of emptiness, okay? Shunyata in Sanskrit.

What does emptiness mean? I think when I first heard that word, and I think most of us, when we first hear the word emptiness, we think, oh, close your eyes and try to think about nothing, or go into some kind of void and disappear like that. But emptiness has a much more practical meaning.

I can give the example, let's say someone criticizes you, right? Your partner, say, you come home after a long, hard day of work, and you come home into the kitchen, and your partner just goes at you right away, and they start criticizing you. At that moment, according to Buddhist philosophy and yoga philosophy, there are actually two of your partners in the kitchen.

There are two partners in front of you in the kitchen, okay? One is the partner who is coming from their side, and who is not your fault. And the other is the partner who is coming from you, from seeds in your own mind.

Perhaps when you criticize someone last week, okay? So there are two partners in the room, when your partner is criticizing you, actually there are two partners standing there. One is the one who is coming from you, because you criticized someone unfairly last week, and the other is the partner that is not your fault, and is criticizing you unfairly, unjustly, okay?

And that second one, the partner you don't deserve in your life, the partner who is not your fault, the partner who is criticizing you without justice, according to Buddhism, doesn't exist, and never did, and never will, and never could, okay? A partner who criticizes you in the kitchen, who is not coming from how you acted last week or last month, doesn't exist and could not exist. All things in your life are coming from how you treat other people.

This room, the beams that hold up this room, the tensile strength of the steel, the concrete, the carpet, the city, the Camelback Mountain, they are all coming from me, okay? All of them are coming from seeds in my mind, which I planted according to how I behaved towards others in the last week or the last month or the last few lifetimes. So, emptiness has a very practical meaning.

When you come home and your partner lays into you for no apparent reason, if you can remember emptiness, you will save yourself from having to see them again next week criticizing you, okay? Because you won't criticize back, got it? If you realize the partner that you thought was not your fault was never there, then you can keep your cool, okay?

And you won't get angry, and that's the real meaning of emptiness, okay? Empty means gone, absent, not there. The partner who is not your fault is empty, and the kitchen has emptiness.

It's the emptiness of the partner who's not your fault, okay? So, the angel in the guy's mind, First Panchen Lama's mind, he's arguing, she is arguing in favor of this viewpoint. And the devil, of course, is saying, oh, that's ridiculous, you know, your partner's always been unreasonable, you know.

Of course, there's no justice in life, they're criticizing you, you just got home, you didn't have time to say anything wrong yet, and they're already arguing with you. It's obviously their fault and not yours. The devil is saying that, okay?

And so we've been on this long trip through this text of these two guys arguing. The point is that those two beings, the devil who thinks that the partner is not your fault, and the angel who is quite certain that the partner is your fault, cannot coexist in the confines of the same mind. It's not possible.

This town ain't big enough for both of us, okay? Like, an active form of misunderstanding your partner, and an active form of understanding where they really came from, cannot coexist in the same skull at the same time, okay? That's just the principle of Buddhism and yoga, Yogas Chittavarti Nirodha, opening lines, right, of the Yoga Sutra.

If you understand where things are coming from, you can't misunderstand them anymore, because those two states of mind cannot coexist in the same head, okay? So the idea is to make the angel strong enough to kick the devil out. And we've been having this conversation, okay?

They've been having a conversation. I'm going to review a little bit of where we were. We were skipping around a little bit.

I'm going to quickly go through where we were. And then we're going to get to a special proof of emptiness, a very beautiful ancient proof of emptiness. It's two and a half thousand years old.

And then we're going to pause and savor it, and go deeper into it, okay? Because I have to go around the world and give these business talks and success seminars, and it drives me crazy, and I don't get to go deeper. But you made the mistake of living in Phoenix, so you get the tough stuff, okay?

I think without a little tough stuff every couple of weeks, you just atrophy somehow, right? It's like yoga, right? If you keep doing one-hour Hatha yoga things, you know?

All right, so here we go. I'm going to work from this little booklet. By the way, this booklet is an idea we had, if people in this community who live in Phoenix, if you do massage therapy, or you do Kung Fu teaching, or you do yoga teaching, or I don't know, you have a painting business, or you have a, I don't know, plumbing business, or you sell yoga mats or something, you're welcome to give us an advertisement next time.

We put them in for free, because we just want to help support each other, what you're doing for each other, right? So if you have a project, or you have some kind of activity that you're doing, you're welcome to let us know, and we'll put it in the next one, okay? And it's for free.

Okay, page seven. ,ZHI LAM BDE BU GSUM, ,CHAG RGYAL CHEN PO'I LO NGON ZIN LAS, ,TZAM PA'I ZHIR RAB DANG, ,DANG ZIN GNYIS KYI ZHANG BDEB, So that's the title of the text, and it's an argument about emptiness. In Tibet, this particular practice of emptiness is called Mahamudra, okay?

Say, Mahamudra. Maha? Mudra.

Maha means big, you know, magnificent, magnanimous, comes from that, magnificent. Any word with magnum in it comes from that. And mudra means a seal, and the word mural comes from that.

So Mahamudra means a great seal. In Tibetan it's called Chagya Chenpo. In this case, it's a practice of watching your own mind and seeing how does your mind think.

Catching your mind thinking that your partner who criticizes you is not coming from you would be a practice of Mahamudra. And if you're into physical yoga, physical asana, there are corresponding asanas that are meant to trigger that state of mind. So the asana and the mental, the meditation are meant to be practiced together.

So you might do an asana series that emphasizes the Mahamudra asana practice, and then you would study this text and you would do it together. And supposedly the inner and outer combination is very powerful. Chi nung tabla torpe in Tibetan.

Okay, next. Lama thagpa'i khala chaktsalo means I bow down to my lama, angel of angels. So this is just a tradition in Tibet that you honor the person who taught you what you're about to explain.

Are we? Yeah. Cool.

That's what happens to your prana if you don't do yoga every day. All right. Okay, page eight.

THOD PA CHEN GYIS GYUR BSGOM SER YATHA MA THAG GRUB GRUB DAM BYAS PA MA BO CHE CHEN NAS BSGOM LA GYUR NI TSUD TSUD ZAS THOD PA CHEN GYIS means people have sruti. Say sruti. Sruti means listening, okay?

It's a Sanskrit word, means listening. And it's the Sanskrit word for learning or to study with a teacher, because in the old days it was all listening to the teacher's words. It's called sruti.

In Tibetan it's called THOD PA, okay? Here it says THOD PA CHEN GYIS GYUR BSGOM SER. So there are...

We're picking up after 103 verses, okay? We're on verse 104. And now he's going to talk about some ideas that certain people have about meditation who are THOD PA CHEN.

They are not stupid. They've been trained, okay? They've had lots of hearing.

They are well-trained people. THOD PA CHEN GYIS GYUR BSGOM SER. And they say they're going to meditate about you.

Who's talking? The devil. Who's you?

The angel, okay? So, yeah, there are some well-educated meditators, yogis, they claim that they are going to meditate about your viewpoint, oh angel, okay? But, YATHA MATHA DRUP DRUP DANG, unfortunately they spend all their time trying to prove things, this or that.

Yatha means... I saw a Louis CK video and it was really good. He said, of course, but maybe...

And he has this, he's a comedian, right? What do you call it? Stand-up comic.

And he has this thing called of course, but maybe. And he keeps giving all these examples of of course, but maybe. The one I like was, of course it's bad to shoot American soldiers who are defending our flag, but maybe if you go to another person's country and point a gun at them, you know what I mean?

He has a lot like that. Anyway, that's Yatha Matha. Yatha means at the best, Matha means at the least, most and at the least.

It means up and down, like they examine things, they over-examine things intellectually. Chepa mambo che che ne, they check everything too much. Gom la gyu ni tsu tsu se.

And they look for problems in other people's meditations. And this is just a... I think it's a typical thing in yoga, for example.

Instead of working on our own handstand or something, we are watching someone else in the class who's not quite doing it right. And in the time it takes you to watch the other person, you're not improving yourself. You see what I mean?

It takes time to be critical of other people's practice, spiritual practice. And in the time you spend to worry about how bad their practice is, you're not practicing and you're not getting better in your own practice. So he's criticizing that kind of activity.

Next verse. I'm just going fast because we've covered this already. I'm trying to get to the main thing so I can really confuse you when we get there.

It won't be a problem. Jogpay dun la gyu ni tsu dang. Gom pa la yong chuh chuh pa.

Chuh pa po yong chuh pa che. Dey chuh pa po yong chuh. Those of you who are trying to learn Tibetan in the first line here, gyun tsu, what does gyun min du mean?

Gyun min du. Yeah, gyun min du means no problem. It's a joke in Tibet, the Tibetans who live in India, because when an Indian guy tells you there's no problem, like, is the bus leaving on time?

No problem. Then you like start looking for another bus. And then tsu, tsu means to seek or to look for something.

You know it without the O. You tell me. Yeah, nice.

Awesome, awesome. Tsel means to seek. Chak tsel means to seek something from the hand.

And so chak tsel means what does it mean in Tibetan? Yeah, to bow down. When you say namaste, namas, to bow down, in Tibetan translation is chak tsel, and it means to seek something from the hand of your teacher.

So it's a Buddhist custom when you greet your teacher, you bow down. You either bow at the waist or you do what's called a five-point prostration with your head and your hands on your knees, or you do a gyang chak, which means a full prostration on the ground, okay? So don't think it's weird, okay?

Don't think it's culty. It's a tradition, and I think it's a beautiful tradition. So don't, you don't have to do it.

I remember when I came to my first classes, I was like, I'm not going to do that. You know, that's okay. You don't get punished for not doing it.

But appreciate that other people think it's something beautiful, okay? And it's not like weird. It's an ancient way of honoring your teacher, okay?

All right. So they try to, yeah, they basically, this is talking about people who, they will examine other people's practice. For example, in a yoga class, you know?

Like, I have had teachers yell at me and say, stop looking at the other students, just worry about yourself, you know? So we tend to focus on other people's practice in the room. And then in this example, if you're into deeper meditation, you will begin to examine the state of mind in your own head which is watching the other person.

Okay? And you'll start examining that, all right? And then if you really go deeper, you'll start examining the state of mind which is watching the state of mind which is watching you watch the other person.

Okay? And then he says, it gets to be ridiculous, it just goes, you can over-analyze your life and you can over-analyze especially other people's practice, all right? Okay, next verse.

,GCOD PA'I NYEN PO MI ZAD PA'I, ,THUGS MED PAR DU SPYOD PA NA, ,DNGAL BA'I RNAM RDOG CHEN PO YID, ,LTAR BAR TSUN NAS BSGOM GYIS MED, ,GCOD PA'I DUS SU YONG YONG DRA, ,DZO RGA'I PHYI GONG DU BSGOM ZAD, ,TSUN GYIS NI BSGOM MED, These are just people, if you get into that practice of watching your mind. What's the Sanskrit word for the practice of watching your mind? Eh?

It's a one, one, huh? Mahamudra, okay, all right? So, there are several Mahamudras, okay?

One is a yoga asana series called Mahamudra that is supposed to open up your mind. And then one kind of Mahamudra is actually a practice with a partner. And then one kind of Mahamudra is the practice of meditating on your own thoughts, watching your own thoughts, okay?

So, what he's saying here is you can go overboard on that. You can start watching your thoughts, and then you're like curious about the watcher. Let me watch the watcher for a while and see how he is.

And then you start watching the person who's watching the watcher, and then you can just get lost in it. You can go deeper and deeper watching watchers, and it's not helpful, okay? Watching your thoughts is a good practice, because most of us are not aware of what's passing in our own mind because we're in it, you know?

But if you learn Mahamudra, if you learn to step back and watch your own thoughts, it's sort of depressing, okay? Like me, like I'll sit down and meditate, and I'll say, okay, let's do some Mahamudra Geshe Michael, let's watch your state of mind and see where you're at today. So I'm like, okay, let's go deeper.

Then I watch my mind, and my mind is like, I wonder what's for breakfast, you know? I wonder if we're going to have this or that, you know? Maybe we could go out for breakfast, you know?

And it's like 20 minutes on breakfast, and I'm watching, I'm waiting for some kind of spiritual thoughts, you know? And they don't really come, they're just like... But usually we're inside the thoughts about breakfast and we don't catch it, we don't catch ourselves in meditation wandering off to thinking about breakfast.

So it's good to have an awareness of what your mind is doing. That's a huge advancement in meditation. If you can learn to observe your own thoughts, the flow of your own thoughts, this is a great achievement in meditation.

Very few people get that far, where they can actually listen to what these ridiculous things your mind is talking about all day. Because usually you're saying it and you're not listening to it, okay? But you can overdo it, and you can start...

There's a point in meditation where if the meditation is flowing, you should stop checking. You should stop checking to see if it's flowing well or not, okay? If it's flowing well, there's a point in meditation where you should just let it flow.

And if you check to see how you're doing, you will interrupt the meditation, okay? So he's talking about something like that. Okay, next verse.

I'll let you know when we get to the new stuff, okay? ,RENG GA NGAN NYID GOM PAR BYED, ,RENG GA MED PAR KHO NA GOM, ,RENG GA YID LA MI BYED GOM, ,YANG DAG DUS NA, ,JOG TSAR NA, ,NGA DANG TSING DANG RGYAL BA'I, ,NE LEGS GOM PAR, ,NYIN GAR TZAM, Say NYIN... GAR...

TZAM. The last three syllables there. Say NYIN...

GAR... TZAM. NYIN means NYIMA.

NYIMA. What's NYIMA? It's...

Yeah, Surya in Sanskrit, right? The sun. NYIMA.

You can also say NYIN, okay? NYIN. GAR here is the half of the word Karma.

But in Tibetan, Karma doesn't mean karma, it means... It can mean minute, but it means a star also. A star.

Jyoti. Jyoti in Sanskrit. So...

NYIN GAR... TZAM means just that, like SEM TSAM means my only school, right? So TZAM means only that.

So... As common as a star shining in the middle of the day. Okay?

As... That's an expression in ancient Tibet, you know, as common as a star which is shining during the middle of the day. Okay?

Which means... Not at all. Yeah, okay?

Who's he talking about? Ngandam dzingdang gyelwa yi ney luk gompa. Someone who can really meditate in a way which is incompatible with the way the devil thinks.

Okay? Lung Gyal is very important word in Buddhist logic. In India it's called Nyaya, right?

So... To kick the devil out of your mind, you have to have a viewpoint which directly contradicts the way that devil thinks. Okay?

You have to have a viewpoint which directly contradicts the way that devil thinks. How does the devil think about the partner who's criticizing you in the kitchen? What's the devil think?

Huh? Yeah, it's not my fault. I mean, I just walked in.

I didn't even take my shoes, you know. I didn't have time to set my bag down and he's already going at me. I didn't say anything.

He's going at me already. You know, that's the devil talking. Okay?

What is an incompatible viewpoint to that? What's the angel's viewpoint? Yeah, it's coming from me.

I must have criticized someone last week. Okay? You can't think those two viewpoints at the same time.

It's not possible. You can't say, why is he yelling at me? Oh, I...

I yelled at somebody last week. You can't think those two thoughts at the same time. Somebody has to leave.

Somebody has to get out of your head. Okay? If the angel gets strong enough, the devil must go.

Okay? If the angel... Angel thinking is...

Angel thinking is like this. This is the ultimate insult in our little group, you know? Somebody comes up to you and says, and then you're like, you know, what's this mean?

Yeah, what did I do last week to create you in my life today? You know? In our group, it's kind of the ultimate insult.

You don't have to yell back at somebody. You don't have to say, they say, you're stupid Geshe Michael, and then you go. You're like, who did I say something stupid to last week that now I have to see you?

You know? Instead of arguing back, instead of saying, no, you're stupid, you're just like, what did I do to get you in my life? Okay?

This viewpoint, you know, where you're thinking, what did I do last week that's causing this person is incompatible with the devil. The devil can't stay in the mind for those two minutes that you're thinking about, why is this person in my life right now? What did I do last week?

Okay? During that two minutes that you are entertaining that question, the devil cannot be there. Okay?

Got it? But, those moments are Nyingkar Tsam, as common as it starts during the full daylight, which doesn't happen.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
And then he criticizes some forms of meditation. Here he goes, okay? I'm on verse 107, renga ngani gombarche.

Some people are simply lost in thoughts about me. Who's me? Who's me?

The devil, the devil is talking right now. The angel, by the way, gets a chance to come and talk. The angel will come in a while.

They trade off, okay? They alternate. So, some people are just, they think they are meditating, but what are they meditating on?

I hate this my boss, I hate my boss. I don't know why they're so stupid, you know, and they sit down and they meditate about why their boss is stupid, over and over. That's meditation, bhavana in Sanskrit is to think something over and over until it becomes part of you.

Bhava means to be, right? The word be comes from it. Okay?

You keep thinking that way until it becomes true, okay? So, that's a meditation on the devil. Okay?

Second one, renga mepa kona gom. Then some people say, oh, I'm going to meditate on emptiness, I'll try not to think about anything.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
I'll just try not to think about anything. I'll empty my thoughts, the chatter in my mind, I will... I will try to get the chatter to go away, or something like that, and they think that's meditation.

And the devil loves that kind of thing. So, the devil is in many yoga studios, I think, you know, in the first five minutes, they're like, just empty your mind, don't think about anything. If you do that regularly for a long period of time, you become an absent-minded professor?

You lose your keys, you lose your cell phone, you walk around like... like this, you know. If you try not to think about anything, and you achieve that goal.

Okay. Renga yi la mi che gom. Yi la mi che means, try consciously not to focus on anything at all.

Yang da du na jog san na. And those people are making a mistake, he says. Okay, I'm going to go on to verse 108.

Dundre tsule ma den na, nga ni buddho ma se chik. If you're going to keep up meditating like that, then don't keep saying, you're going to get rid of me. From where?

Kick me out from where? Your own mind. Okay.

Don't... If you're in meditation, if you're going to do one of those weirdo meditations, then don't keep threatening me. Because if you do those meditations, I'm here, man.

Nothing... Thinking about nothing does nothing to me. Okay.

It doesn't hurt me at all. Who's me? The devil.

How does the devil think? Why is this partner yelling at me? You know.

What did I do? Right, we say, what did I do? Wisdom says, what did I do?

Okay? All right. Kyuny udum vara tsam.

Say udum. Vara. Udum vara.

Say padma. Say utpal. Say udum vara.

Okay, padma means what? A lotus. It's a red lotus.

Okay, and then utpal is a blue lotus. Night, night blooming lotus. Padma opens during the day, that om mani padme hum, right?

Then udum vara is another kind of lotus. It's very cool. They open every time a Buddha comes to this planet again.

One will open. Okay, every time a Buddha shows up on this planet, which happens like every 10,000 years or 5,000 years. This flower only opens once every 10,000 years, okay?

Now, someone's accusing somebody else of being an udum vara. Who's talking? The devil.

Who's the devil talking to? The angel. And he's accusing the angel of being an udum vara.

What's it mean? Yeah, I mean, come on! This guy whose mind we're living in, he has a clear thought like once every 10 years.

You know, I'm completely safe in this mind. You know, I'm safe, I'm warm. How's it go, Jonny-o?

You know, I'm well taken care of in this mind. You are but an udum vara. Oh wisdom, oh angel, you show up briefly every 10 years for like 5 minutes.

He thinks maybe the stuff's happening to me is my fault. Nah! Then he goes back into being a normal self, blaming everybody else.

Okay? Don't be an udum vara. Okay.

,TAP GA LEGS NA LEN GYIS YIN, Under the best of circumstances, you show up once in a while. ,DE LA'ANG SKAL PA'I PHAG MA'I GNAS, ,SOGS CAN LA ME ZAG PA'I DGOS, Why does the udum vara open? What makes it open in the world?

The coming of a Buddha, the coming of an enlightened being, okay? 10,000 years or something, okay? If a being of that stature, Jesus or Moses or whatever, Muhammad, Buddha, shows up on this planet, one of those flowers will open on the whole planet, one, okay?

Udum vara. What does it take to get one of those flowers to open? ,LA ME ZAG CAN, LA ME, what's the...

sounds good for LA NUS MED PA, LA ME. Anuttara, okay? It's a form of yoga, right?

Anuttara Yoga. LA ME NYON DRO, right? Highest form of yoga, Anuttara, okay?

Anuttara. He says, if you want that flower to open in this world, you're going to need an Anuttara good karma. Anuttara good karma, okay?

Unbelievably high good karma to make the udum vara open, to make that special lotus bloom once in this planet, takes extraordinary good karma, very high good karma, okay? And there's only one way to get that much good karma, and he says, ,LA MA NYE PA LAS... Say, ,LA MA ,NYE ,LAS ,DBYUNG ,LA MA ,NYE ,LAS ,DBYUNG ,LA MA means LAMA, okay?

LAMA means... It's the Tibetan translation of the word Guru, okay? It means spiritual teacher.

LAMA means a spiritual teacher, okay? NYE PA means to please them, to make them happy, okay? DBYUNG means that's where you can get that...

The only way to get that much good karma is to please your teacher, okay? And I'm not trying to get you to please me, okay? You each have your own teachers in your own life.

You have your parents, you have your mentors in school, you have people who taught you your profession, whatever it is. You have your children, you have your family, you have your partners, the best LAMA of all. They test you, they push you, they make you learn, right?

So, the only way to make enough good karma for us to see that special lotus bloom in the world is from making our teacher happy, okay? Find a teacher and please them, okay? What's the highest offering that would please a teacher?

It's called... Say it in Tibetan. DUG PAS Say DUG PAS DUG PAS SIDDHA PUJA SIDDHA PUJA Like Siddhartha, right?

SIDDHA means to accomplish something, to do it. PUJA means offering, right? SIDDHA PUJA means make your teacher the offering of doing what they ask you to do.

They don't need money, okay? They don't need flowers or fruits or you know, Rolls Royces or you know, they... the highest offering you can make a teacher is to do what they ask you to do, okay?

So, how are you going to make an offering to the teacher of this class the next time someone criticizes you? Okay? That's all.

That's all. And if I heard that you did that, if I get information, you know, oh, I was with Nick the other day, yeah? This guy started hassling him.

What happened? Nick went like this, you know? I said, oh, that makes me so happy.

You know, he got it. He's using the class. I didn't waste my time at the Jewish Center, you know?

He's practicing, okay? Then that makes you happy, okay? And the karma of doing that makes the Udambara bloom, okay?

The karma of doing what your teacher asked you to do makes the Udambara bloom. What is the Udambara flower in this case? Huh?

Wisdom coming in your mind for five minutes, okay? Wisdom coming in your mind for five minutes, okay? It is extremely rare in the whole world, anywhere, anytime, for anybody, okay?

And we are lucky, okay? Like, I grew up Christian, right? I grew up with the words of Jesus and they were everywhere in my life, you know?

They... We had wonderful... I went to church near here.

I grew up in a church near here and it was awesome. And, you know, we heard those things all the time. And Jesus saying, if someone socks you on the right cheek, offer your left cheek.

I mean, it's insane teaching. It's like a cult thing, you know? Somebody punches you on this side of your face, offer them the other side of your face.

If someone steals your sweater, remember to give them your coat too. You know, like these crazy things, you know, to say. It's a very unusual karma to live in a world where someone will say that stuff, okay?

It's very unusual karma. If you grew up with that, you must have had an extraordinary last life. Your last life must have been very special.

To grow up in a country where you can go to some building and they will tell you, when someone punches you on one side of your face, offer them the other side of your face, okay? Like that. To say those things is Uddhamvara in the world.

To hear someone propose that what you should do to someone who's being violent is to offer them the chest to punch you on the other side of the face or someone who steals from you, give them more, you know, then this is strange, this is unusual, this is like a Uddhamvara flower, okay? To have a thought in your mind when you're seriously under fire, seriously being criticized, right? That maybe it's your fault and maybe you should stop criticizing other people and that would clear it up.

That viewpoint, that way of thinking is extremely rare in the world, okay? And if you heard it ever in your life, it's because you collected enough good karma. How?

You have made your teacher happy, okay? You found a teacher and you pleased them, okay? And cool, right?

It's cool. It's very rare to hear these things. It's extremely rare to hear someone say, when someone criticizes you, try to not to criticize other people so much, okay?

It's just, nobody says this kind of stuff. If you're hearing it tonight, it's either because you got to the wrong address or you have extraordinary good karma. You are like, you are personally like an udumbara flower.

If you are hearing these things, you are a special person, okay? You are a very unusual person to care about these things, okay? All right, next page.

By the way, we'll take a break halfway through and we have some refreshments or not? Yeah? Oh, we'll tell you about that later.

Okay. Okay, verse 109, page 12. Nga la den dang mi go shing, nga ni ten gyi dak po yin.

I'm not like you, man. I'm... I live here, okay?

This is my home. Who's talking? The devil.

What's his home? This guy's mind, okay? I'm not like you udumbara flowers that show up every 10,000 years.

I live here. This is my place, okay? I own this place.

This guy's mind. Every time you get upset at all, ever, the devil's in your mind. This devil's in your mind, okay?

You cannot think, what did I do last week to hurt someone and be upset at the same time. It's not possible, okay? The devil cannot be in your mind for the length of time that you are considering what you might have done to hurt someone else, okay?

It's not possible, okay? Ngani bupa chepa la, nga dan dzin dang gyelwa gyur, gyel gyur pa. If you're going to kick me out, oh angel, then this guy is going to have to change the way he sees things, okay?

Nyenpa sherab tru me chik, ngepa yun na ma tok pa. The only way he's going to get rid of me is if he starts thinking about wisdom, about where things really come from, okay? Next verse, verse 110, page 12 at the bottom.

Nyenpo shendak gyur gyur kyang, kun gyi yi che mi che pe. Ha ha! And, you know, even if you came up with some nice way of getting rid of me, which was correct, no one would listen to you anyway, okay?

People don't want to hear about it, you know? Would you like to go to a movie or would you rather go to a Buddhist talk? I'll go, I'll pick the movie, you know?

Would you rather eat breakfast or meditate for the next half hour? I'll have breakfast. You know, I mean, even if you came up with some way to get rid of me from your mind, nobody wants to hear it.

They're like interested in TV and Internet and Facebook and... I'm safe, man. I'm here, I'm in the mind.

No one's going to kick me out because nobody cares about this stuff, okay? All right. Except you guys.

Khor chok su khyurpa yin, chok su khyur la tarpa me. People are my friends. I get along with everybody, okay?

And for those that I get along with, there's no moksha. Tarpa is the Tibetan translation of moksha. What's moksha?

Freedom, okay? As long as people hang out with me, there's no moksha, okay? Who's me?

The devil. What's the devil do? Makes you think it's not your fault, okay?

Makes you blame other people for your problems, okay? All right. Verse number 11.

Dön dey tsu le man dey na nga la thorek ma tan war. If you don't change your tune, okay? If you don't get past this kind of thinking, if you don't put...

Say thorek. Thorek. Say thorek.

I like thorek. Thorek is cool word. It means the hammer of Thor, okay?

It means that... You know like Thor has this hammer, that's a thorek. We don't have them in America much.

I don't know what's the American thorek. Stealth bomber or something. But in the old days, there was a good big hammer, like the one that Thor has in the movies, that's called a thorek.

I like it. So he says, if things keep up in this guy's head, the way it's been so far, if the status quo is maintained, and if he doesn't lay a thorek on me, okay? If he doesn't lay that hammer on my head, who's me?

The devil, yeah. ,DE YIN DI MIN MED PA'I, ,LTOGS PA'I ZHES PA BSGOM PA LA, ,GNAS LUGS BSGOM PA'I DUS PA DUS, ,NGA NI NING NAS KHYAD MO SHOG, Then, you know, some people say they're going to smash me with a hammer. What's the hammer?

Oh, they say, try to think about nothing, don't have any opinions, don't say this is good, this is bad, this is wrong, this is right, just be, what do you call it? Be... like equanimity, what do you call it?

Just like chill out, ultimate chill, don't get... somebody punches you, don't get upset, somebody kisses you, don't get excited, just be a vegetable, okay? ,LTOGS PA'I ZHES PA BSGOM PA LA, ,GNAS LUGS BSGOM PA LA, Some people say that's meditation.

,NGA NI NING NAS KHYAD MO SHOG, When I hear that, I just got to laugh. ,NING NAS KHYAD MO SHOG means when I hear people talk like that, I just got to laugh. You know, who's talking?

Yeah, they're like, just chill, don't get upset, don't have any hopes, don't have any fears, don't think about anything, just stare at the wall, you know, don't worry. And he's like, don't worry, you know, like you got cancer, your wife left you, you know, you don't have any money, don't worry, you know, anyway, okay. Verse 112, ,LA LA SNANG BA SEMS SU BYAS, ,SEMS NI STONG PA THAG CHE THUG CHING, ,STONG PA RGYUR MA BYAS NAS SU, ,RGYUR MA RANG BZHIN MED PAR BSGOM, So, there's a word, illusion in Sanskrit, what?

Maya, okay? Maya, illusion. And, there's a lot of misunderstanding about what it means, okay?

Some people say, oh, everything's illusion, so, don't worry, you know, you don't have to worry about being moral, you know, you can lie or not lie, it's all the same, everything's an illusion, you know. Life is just an illusion, therefore you are freed from all responsibilities and all decisions and everything's the same anyway, so, just do what you want, you know, that's illusion. So, he's criticizing that view, ,STONG PA RGYUR MA BYAS NAS SU, then they think that's, illusion is what emptiness means.

,DE NI GNAS NO BSGOM PA BRDOD, And they meditate on that. ,DE NI KUN RDZOBS KHO NA YIN, ,LEGS NA RGYUR MAR BSGOM PA TZAM, Okay, this is tough, okay? He says, it's a good thing to meditate on illusion, there is an illusion going on, there is an illusion going on, if you meditate on it, you're doing good, I like it.

Who's talking? The angel, this time it's the angel, okay? We ask the angel a question, is there maya, is there illusion?

Yes. Is it useful to meditate on it? Yes.

What does illusion mean? Give me an example of an illusion, something that seems to be there, but which is not in the kitchen. Yeah, you, huh?

A partner who is criticizing you, who is not your fault, is an illusion. That's an illusion, okay? What does the word illusion mean?

Illusion means, in Tibetan they say, there's a conflict between the way the thing is and the way it appears to be, and that's the definition of illusion. There's an inconsistency between the way it appears to be and the way it is, and that's the definition of illusion. For example, what do you call those things when you're driving a car and you see water?

Like a mirage, okay? It seems to be water, but if you go there and you try to drink it, you'll just burn your nose, right? That fits the definition of an illusion.

Illusion means, it seems to be one way, but in truth it's a different way, okay? How does that apply to the kitchen? Yeah, the partner seems to be coming from them, but, but in actuality, they are coming from me.

So therefore there's an illusion. There's an inconsistency or contradiction between the way it seems to be and the way it really is. So can we call the situation in the kitchen an illusion?

When you're starting to get upset, is there an illusion there? Yes. Why?

You're taking the partner to be someone who's acting on their own accord, but in truth they are coming from you. They don't have a choice, they have to do what you did last week. They're not acting on their own will, they have to do, they have to follow the script which you wrote last week by criticizing someone, okay?

Got it? Good? Are you good so far?

If I meditate on that, is it useful? Yeah, it looks like it's their fault, but it's really my fault. That's maya.

That's the ultimate meaning of illusion. And there's almost no other meaning of illusion in India or Tibet for the last 5000 years, okay? All the other stuff that people came up with is just stupid, okay?

This is the real meaning of illusion. Why? It helps your life.

It makes you happy. If you kept this up long enough, you could clear out your whole life. You wouldn't have any creepy people in your whole life.

You'd just have nice people around you. If you understood illusion in this sense, you could make a perfect life, okay? That's useful illusion, okay?

The rest are not useful. Now, but a deeper question. Okay, ready?

Screw on your thinking caps. If I meditate on that meaning of illusion, am I meditating on emptiness? Huh?

Am I meditating on something positive or am I meditating on something negative? That's a clue. Because emptiness is defined as the absence of something, okay?

If you are meditating on emptiness, you are meditating on the absence of something. It's like you're in a restaurant. I love this example because it's true.

You know, like you take your friends to a restaurant, which we often go together, right? We do yoga, then we go to a restaurant together. It's kind of a thing that we do.

And you're like, oh, Geshe Michael's like, oh, I'll pay, okay, I'll treat everybody, you know? And you all sit down and you eat a lot of waffles or something, you know? And then the lady comes with the bill and you're like, it's this moment.

You ready? Here, I'll do it again. Okay, that's what emptiness feels like, okay?

Something you thought was there is not there. And then there's this, okay? Is the moment of illusion in the kitchen, careful, is it only an absence?

Because a sheer absence is what emptiness is. Huh? Yeah, there is some emptiness there.

Now, big question, if it's half emptiness and half something positive, can it qualify as emptiness? No, it cannot, okay? Emptiness is the sheer absence of something, okay?

Try to grasp this, because this is just the beginning of where we have to go tonight and tomorrow, okay? This is just the beginning of where we have to go tonight and tomorrow. If I think to myself, oh, the truth is that my partner is coming from what I did last week, and I can even pinpoint it.

I can think, oh, I was critical of somebody at work last week. Am I perceiving emptiness at that moment? No, because I'm perceiving something positive.

I'm perceiving something that is and not something that is not there, okay? So, is it a good thing? Yes.

Is it deep? Yes. Is it spiritual practice?

Absolutely. Is it emptiness? No.

There's something higher, okay? There's something higher, okay? Is it useful?

Yes. To understand where your partner is coming from? Yes.

What's the long, complicated word they call that in Buddhism? Yeah, dependent origination, which means, I understand this partner criticizing me tonight is coming from what I did last week. In Buddhism, there's a fancy word called dependent origination.

It just means, this stuff is coming from what I did last week. I think we should just replace the word, this stuff is coming from what I did last week, and we throw out dependent origination. To see that your partner is coming from what you did last week, is it true?

Yes. Is it correct? Yes.

Does it help the situation? Yes. Are you perceiving emptiness?

No. Okay, that's something different. That's something higher.

Okay, and we'll get there. We're going there, okay? All right.

But they go together, right? Uh... Go one more time.

Lek na... And so, I'm going to just redo the last line for those of you who are... Anyway.

Lek na gyumur gombatsam. Lek na means, at the very best, this person is only meditating on gyumur, on the illusion, which is dependent origination.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
So, is that good? Yes. At the best, they're halfway there.

At the best, they're halfway there. Okay? Got it?

Not quite there yet. Not quite there yet. Next verse, 1.13. We'll stop in six minutes. Hang in there. You can quietly leave during the refreshments, but you'll miss the most important part. Okay.

Nga me gom na, nga la nu. Nga dang nga me nge gel te. Nga me gompa ma chung chin.

Nga dang dzin dang min gel we. Nga la nu pa kalang gyur. Nga me gom na, nga la nu.

This is difficult, okay? Say nu. Nu.

Nu. Nu means to hurt somebody. Nu means to hurt somebody.

Nu sem, for example, is the ninth of the non-virtues, right? It's to be happy when someone else is having a problem. To want other people to hurt is nu, okay?

Nu. In logic, in the study of logic, nu means to damage the other position. You see what I mean?

So, the idea that your partner's criticism is coming from someone you criticized last week, nu is the idea that they're just doing it because they want to. Got it? It damages the other opinion.

One viewpoint damages another viewpoint, okay? What? Oh, they're not acting on their own accord.

They're criticizing me because I criticized someone last week. Then the understanding that I criticized someone last week and that's why I see my partner criticize me damages my old way of thinking, okay? So the word damage is used in Buddhism a lot when we're talking about the clash between viewpoints, the clash between viewpoints, okay?

Which is, in Buddhism is 90% of Buddhism. The clash between worldviews is Buddhism, okay? I used to think that people who criticize me were bad and I would criticize them back.

But now I've been studying Buddhism or yoga for a few years and I damaged that viewpoint with my new viewpoint which is that all this stuff is coming from what I'm doing myself, okay? I damaged the old viewpoint, okay? So, he says here, Nga me gom na nga la nu.

If you meditate on the fact that I is not there, then you can do me some damage, okay? Who's talking? The devil.

Who's the I that he's talking about who's not there? Now, I had a trouble with the translation, okay? I had some difficulty in the translation.

He says, if you meditate on the fact that I is not there, you can damage I. If you meditate on the fact that me is not there, you can damage me, okay? The second me is clear, who's that?

The devil. The first one is not so clear, okay? There's a word called Atman, okay?

Say Atman. Atman. It means the self, right?

It can mean, in Hinduism, it can mean God, the Supreme Self. If you care, it's a very beautiful Sanskrit root. The root is Tama, which means to divide.

And it comes in the word temple, because temples were set off from other places. They were divided off from other places. So, Tama means to divide.

Atama means undividable, indivisible. Atom, atom. Atoms were believed to be indivisible particles.

Atama, okay? Indivisible, all right? Atam.

And Atma is the same. Atma means indivisible self or indivisible... the indivisible self, okay?

And Buddhism says Anatman. Anatman, which means what? There is no such thing.

There is no self, okay? Am I here? You got—I got one more minute, okay?

Am I here? Yes. Is Geshe Michael here?

Yes. Is he himself? Yes, I'm not Nick, or I could sing, or Aaron, or you know, like I'm not...

Am I myself? Yes. Do I exist?

Yes, I'm giving a talk, you know, I'm here. Do I have an Atman? Yes, okay?

Is there a Geshe Michael who is not here? Yeah, we started out the whole talk tonight. Where were we?

In the kitchen. How many partners were there? Yeah, two guys.

One was coming from themselves, and one was coming from me. The one who comes from himself is Anatman. He doesn't exist.

He's not a self. He's not somebody, okay? Anatman means he's not somebody.

Why? There's no such guy. Who?

The guy that's not your fault was never in the kitchen. Okay? Well, who's left in the kitchen?

The guy who is your fault. Could you get him out of the kitchen? Yeah, if you're nice this week, maybe next week he won't criticize you.

Can you get him out of the kitchen in the moment? It's too late. It's too late.

Go in bed, calm down, go to the bathroom. I drop something. I drop a glass.

Glass shatters all over the floor. They forget what they were going to criticize you about. You can take your shirt off or something.

You know, there's all ways to just defuse the whole situation, okay? But karmically, it's too late. Karmically, the karma has ripened.

You're going to be criticized tonight. Just calm down, okay? Don't criticize back because then you're going to see them again next week, okay?

Alright, let's finish this verse and we're done. Then we can have a break. Nga me go ma ma chung chin, nga nam dzin dang ngun gyal we.

So, until you realize that that self is not there, the one who's not your fault, you're in trouble. But if you do realize he's not there, nga me, okay? If you realize that self is not there, then you have dzin dang ngun gyal.

Say dzin, dang, ngun, gyal. Dzin dang, dang, ngun gyal. Then you have a point of view which is incompatible with the devil's point of view, and somebody has to leave the mind.

Okay? The two worldviews are opposed, directly opposed. What do you want to call it?

Diametrically opposed. They cannot coexist in the same mind, okay? For so long as you can remember that the people who hurt you are coming because you hurt someone else, then you cannot get anger.

It's not possible. Anger must leave the mind. Anger must leave the mind, okay?

Nirvana in Buddhism is defined as the point in your spiritual evolution where understanding always inhabits the mind. And then anger cannot exist in the mind, okay? You can't be upset if you know it's your fault, okay?

I always tell the water on the, what do you call, bathroom floor story, right? You come in into the bathroom in cold day and your feet get wet, and you say, oh, god damn, somebody, you know, didn't close the shower curtain, you know, I told them a thousand times. And then you go to your family and you start screaming, you know, I told you, I told you to close the shower curtain, you know, and then they're like, you start yelling at them and they're all like, mom, I didn't, I didn't take a shower today, I didn't take a shower today.

Then your smallest child, right, the mosquito who's at the bathroom, who's here, the mosquito raises his hand and says, mom, you took a shower this morning. Then you're like, then there's this weird thing, the anger dissolves, right? There's no one to yell at.

Nobody rushes into the bathroom and starts screaming at the mirror, you left the shower curtain open, you know, you don't, you cut, you cut one person's slack in your life. Who? Yourself.

You always cut yourself slack. Oh, I can understand that, I was probably in a rush, you know, it's okay, it's not so bad, I can, my feet dry out, you know, like, we always give ourselves the benefit of the doubt, right? When you understand that the partner who is being, criticizing you today comes from you, you will cut slack.

Suddenly you will cut slack because it's you, you know, you're not so bad, I can understand it. Okay, got it? And so a person who understands where their partner is coming from cannot get angry.

The stronger your understanding is of where they're coming from, the more anger goes away, okay? And that's the point of this, that's the point of this class, that's why we're having this class, so you can be happy. Okay, we'll start again in 10 or 15 minutes.

Here we go. All right. We're going to go for another 45 minutes.

[Говорящий 2]
Let me just see something. That's wonderful.

[Говорящий 1]
I'm going to take a break and go to a different book, okay? Which is why these things end up taking 12 years and stuff. We're about to reach a section where the first Panchen Lama criticizes other Buddhists of his time for not understanding a special kind of proof of emptiness, okay?

There's a special kind of proof of emptiness. And he will spend many verses discussing why these other Tibetan meditators don't understand this ancient proof of emptiness, okay? And that proof is very, very, very famous, and I want you to get good at it.

Okay, it says, cik tu tral. Okay, it's a very famous and important proof of emptiness. It's one of the most famous, okay?

So, he's going to be criticizing people who misunderstand cik tu tral, okay? And I never really had a chance to teach cik tu tral in detail, and I would like to do that. So, we're going to take a detour.

It might take a while, okay? So, I was going through the database. We're lucky tonight we have Dan Stuyvesant.

Where are you? You should give him a hand. He runs our project to save the ancient literature of Tibet.

So, all the libraries in Tibet were burned, 5,000 libraries were burned, and much of the literature was destroyed. And for 25 years, he and his people have paid Tibetan refugees to type in the missing books, ancient books, and put them up for free online. It cost millions of dollars.

A few months ago, they finished all of the books that survived from India, all of them, 4,600 books, half a million pages. It took 25 years. So, I think you should give him a hand for that.

So, anyway, I was looking through the database, because now I have half a million pages on my laptop, and I can search it, and I can ask, you know, questions. So, I was like, okay, tell me about Ciktadel. You know, where can I find something cool about Ciktadel?

And there were 475 books that explained Ciktadel. So, I'm like, I got like an hour. You know, I'm like, what am I going to do?

I just went through them fast, you know. Who's got the coolest explanation of this thing I'd like to teach tonight? And I hit one, and I was like, wow, this one's really good, you know.

And I, I was digging into it, and I was reading it, and I was like, yeah, that's what I'm going to teach tonight, you know, this is the best one. Then I looked up the author, guess who it is? First Pajan Lama.

Okay? So, he wrote a book about this proof of emptiness, okay? Why is emptiness so important?

Because you're going to use it in the kitchen when your husband criticizes you, okay? I'm not just teaching some kind of philosophy, okay? You have to use it to make your life better, especially your relationships with other people, okay?

You should come out of here with more tools to deal with the other people in your life and make those relationships sweet, okay? And Cikgutrta is a big weapon to use on your partner. Okay?

So, I want you to get good at Cikgutrta and I found a separate work on it. And this is beautiful. The first Pajan Lama wrote a commentary on a book called Boddhipatapadipika, Light on the Path to Enlightenment.

Who wrote that? Atisha. Okay, Atisha lived exactly a thousand years ago.

He was a big yogi from India. He came to Tibet. He never got back home.

He ended up staying in Tibet and he taught for many years in Tibet. So, he brought these ideas to Tibet, okay? So, he wrote a little book in Sanskrit about these ideas including Cikgutrta.

And then it was translated into Tibetan. By whom? By himself.

He translated himself. So, he was showing off. Because he had to learn Tibetan when he got to Tibet.

And he did. He was not young and he learned Tibetan and he learned to speak and he wrote. So, there's only one book in the tenure which is translated by the author, you know, and into Tibetan.

So, we're going to use that book. Okay, here we go. And if someone's really interested in it, they could translate it.

Or if someone's really interested in it, the Tibetan, I can give you the Tibetan. Okay. And I'm just going to read it straight through and it's going to take a while.

But I won't keep you past 9.30. So, if we have to continue, we'll do tomorrow. Okay? ,DE BZHIN DU DE RANG LHAG MTHONG GI TSOR BRTAN PA LA NYID, He's going to teach about Lhag Mthong.

Lhag Mthong. What's the Sanskrit for Lhag Mthong? Huh?

Vipasyana. Say Vipasyana. Vipasyana.

And if you came from the South India back about 2,000 years ago and you had a weird accident, you could say Vipasana. Vipasana. Okay?

And it's stuck. Say Vipasyana. That's the correct, that's the correct word.

Okay? Vipasana is a corruption from that. Anyway, it means, nowadays there's a technique called Vipasana.

I studied it. My first meditation teacher was the founder of Vipasana, Goenka. And I studied with him, meditation, 38 years ago.

But, in his country, Burma I think, Vipasana means breath meditation. But classically, it means the study of meditating on emptiness. How to meditate on emptiness is called Vipasyana.

Okay? It means special insight. Vi means very much in Sanskrit and pasyan means to see.

Okay? So Vipasyana means seeing very much. Okay?

He's going to teach us how to meditate on emptiness. Who? First Panchen Lama, commenting on Lord Atisha.

Okay? By the way, he lived about 500 years after Lord Atisha, right? Okay?

Here we go. Lhakdrang gi tsok tenpa. Tsok tenpa means, if you wanted to see emptiness in a deep state of meditation, I was speaking to Abhishek, and we were talking about the difference between understanding emptiness intellectually in the kitchen, right?

And then seeing it in a deep state of meditation. The goal of yoga and the goal of Buddhism is to see emptiness in a deep state of meditation. Okay?

The Yoga Sutra's purpose of the Ishtanga is to reach that. The last of the Ishtanga is samadhi, which means the direct perception of emptiness. Okay?

Tsok tenpa means, I'm going to tell you what you need to get there. Okay? He's going to tell you what you need to get there.

Tsok tenpa la nyi. There are two divisions of that. One is, rigpa la tenpa samjung gi shirab.

One is to use rigpa, which is what? Logic, reasoning. Okay?

These kind of talks, like what we're doing now is called rigpa. Okay? We are logically, we are discussing how you can be patient with your partner in the kitchen.

Okay? The real thing is much different, right? To apply that logic when you're irritated and you just got home and your partner's laying into you, that's a different thing, right?

But that's rigpa. Then you... But you need rigpa to get to the meditation.

You need to understand it before you meditate on it. Okay? Our goal is to see it in deep meditation.

Dharana, dhyana, samadhi, the last three of the Ishtanga. Our goal is to see these things in deep meditation. But to get there, you have to logically understand what they're about.

Okay? So one is rigpa. One is lung.

Okay? Lung la tenpa. What's lung as opposed to rigpa?

Scripture. Learning from scripture. Okay?

As opposed to logic. So like when you're in a debate in a Tibetan monastery, there's two ways to prove something. Lung.

What? Lung. Just makes...

Sorry, rigpa means logical. You just keep following the logical flow until you prove it to the other guy. That's called rigpa.

Then lung is... You just quote somebody that everyone accepts. Do you accept Patanjali?

Yes. Do you accept the Yoga Sutra? Yes.

Did he say there's Ishtanga? Yes. Did he list them?

Yes. What are the last three? Dharana, dhyana, samadhi.

What's samadhi mean? See, then you can say you got to accept what I'm telling you because it comes from Patanjali. I didn't make it up.

That's called lung. Okay? If you're really...

If you're a teacher in a Buddhist monastery and you are fanatical about this concept that you can prove things through logic and through scripture, you might even call your disciple lung rig. Okay? So we have a very close friend, a monk, and his teacher was goofing off when he named him and he called him logic and scripture.

His name is logic for his whole life. People, hey, logic and scripture. You know?

Anyway. So these are two ways to reach wisdom. Logic, figure it out, or scripture.

And they lead to the meditation. And then you dump them. They say you don't carry a ship.

Once you... Once you... Once you get in a boat and go from California to Japan, you don't, like, beach the boat and then carry it around with you.

You know? You use the scripture and you use the logic and then you let it go when you go into the meditation. But it gets you there.

Otherwise you wouldn't be in Japan to be meditating. Okay? Alright.

Dambalasum. So, the first has three different categories. I'm going slow through this text.

It's going to take a while. There are three proofs of emptiness. He says there are three logical proofs of emptiness.

By the way, there are many more than that. But, in this presentation, there are three. DRE BU LA SPYOD PA YOD MED KHYEN GOG GI BSTAN ZIG Let us examine results, products of the world.

For example, an iPhone, okay? As a product of a factory. Let us examine the process by which something is made.

A child, a company, a book, a watermelon. Let us examine how things come to be from other things. Results, okay?

That's going to be the first kind of logic. Second, RGYUD LA SPYOD PA'I DORJE ZEG MED DEN ZIG Let us examine the causes of things, okay? Let us examine the causes of things and come to emptiness.

Third one, LO BA LA SPYOD PA Let us examine the very nature of things, okay? So we have three proofs of emptiness. Let us examine the results of things.

Let us examine the causes of things. And let us examine the very nature of things. These three.

Each of those has a corresponding traditional proof in ancient India. And I'm going to give you the names of the three logics, the three proofs, okay? The first one is called, say, YU ME KEN GOG KYI DEN ZIG You are getting sleep.

YU ME KEN GOG KYI DEN ZIG Okay? KEN GOG means we deny that things ever start. We deny that things can start.

KEN GOG Okay? Got it? YU ME YU ME means, what does YOD PA mean in MED PA?

YOD PA means exist, and MED PA means not exist. Now, here it means we deny that something which already existed could ever start. And we also deny that something that didn't ever exist could start.

Okay? We're going to get there, don't worry. Okay?

I'm reading a lot of Stephen Hawking nowadays, they're grappling with the same things. Okay, the second proof is called DOR RJE ZEGS MA Say DOR RJE. ZEGS MA What's DOR RJE?

CING GANG CING CING GANG CING KUANG CI TSA'I BU SA No, DOR RJE means diamond. ZEGS MA? ZEGS MA means a sliver, a sliver of diamond.

Okay, it's a very rare word, it means a sliver of diamond. There's a proof of emptiness called the sliver of diamond. DOR RJE ZEGS MA Third one, what do you guess?

CIG TU DAL Say CIG TU DAL. That's why we're talking about it. Okay?

Remember why we're in this text, even if it does take us a year to get through it. Okay? It is the best presentation of CIG TU DAL.

CIG TU DAL is a famous proof of emptiness. CIG means one. DUM is short for DUMMA, which means many.

DAL means not there. They are not there. Okay?

Is this a thing? You're wrong. Is this one thing?

Or many? Is this one thing or more than one thing? You're wrong.

Okay? Okay. Did this come from someplace?

You're wrong. Okay. Will it...

Can it do anything? You're wrong. I'll do it again.

Ready? Did this come from someplace? You're wrong.

Can it do anything? Like tell the time? You hope.

You're wrong. Okay? Is this one thing or is it more than one thing?

Just tell me. Don't think too much. Is this one cell phone or two?

I mean, it's one. You're wrong. Okay?

Those are very fundamental wrongs. Okay? Those are very fundamental wrongs.

Alright? Is this one thing? No.

Did this come from someplace? No. Can it do anything?

No. Okay? And I'm not kidding.

And I'm not being... What do you call it? What do you call that?

Facetious or... I'm not being cute because it's hard for me. I'm not being cute.

The answer is no to all three. And if you get that, your life will change radically. Your life will change radically.

You know? Okay? You can make cool stuff happen.

You can change reality. Okay? I helped to make a $250 million business.

I don't know anything about business. Nothing. But I understand Chittadhara.

Like, I'm trying to say, if you understand these very weird ideas, you can make stuff happen that you want. You can save... You can save Tibetan culture.

You can raise enough money to run a 25-year project. Okay? If you know these things.

Why this is not a thing. You can change the world. You can do anything.

It's the key to the universe. Okay? So, we're not just talking about some obscure Tibetan logic.

Okay? Try to appreciate that. Okay?

I'm not interested to waste your time. And I'm not interested to sit here and try to teach you some obscure Tibetan thing. You know?

I want you to get something that will allow you to change the future course of your life and make stuff happen in your life. I think I can say I have everything I want in my life. Exactly what I want.

Perfectly and absolutely, I have everything I want in my life. Okay? You can do it if you...

if you learn this. Okay? So, I'm not just...

It's beautiful to learn it from a traditional text, but then we're going to talk about how can you use it, right? In your real life. Okay?

I promise. By the end. Okay, here we go.

So, Three Pills of Emptiness. It's really beautiful.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
Number one. DANG PO NI YOD PA SKYE BA RIGS MIN TE MED PAR RANG RNAMS KYI MED DO ZHING NYES PA NYID KA THAM YUL CHIR NYID KA BDAG KYANG BYUNG BA MIN Now we're going to discuss the first of the three arguments, which is what? This thing never came from anywhere.

Okay? This thing never started. Okay?

There was never a first moment of this iPhone. It didn't start. This iPhone never started.

Okay? Why? It didn't...

This... Nothing made this iPhone... Nothing caused this iPhone.

Okay? You can say what? A factory or a machine, right?

In China somewhere, right? Created this iPhone. You can say that, right?

Did the iPhone exist the second before it was created? Yes or no? Did an iPhone exist the second before the creation?

Did this iPhone exist a second before it was manufactured? No. Did it not exist a second before it was manufactured?

He would say no. Did it both exist and not exist the moment before it's manufactured? No.

Did it both exist and not exist a second before it's manufactured? No. He says no to all four.

Okay? I'll say it again. Did it exist...

Did this iPhone exist before the moment of its manufacture? No. Did it not exist then the moment before its manufacture?

I didn't say that. Did it both exist and not exist the moment before it's manufactured? I didn't say that.

Did it neither exist nor not exist... I didn't say that either. Got it?

Okay? We have to struggle now. We have to struggle with that.

Try to grasp. This couldn't have existed the moment before it was manufactured, but it also could not have not existed at that moment, okay? And we have to struggle.

We have to work our way through that. I'm not just being cute. I repeat, okay?

I'm not just being cute. In there somewhere is the answer to your whole life. You can make anything in your life happen if you understand...

if by the end you understand what I'm trying to say. You can do all things in your life, okay? It's cool.

Partner, money, health, happiness, peace, world peace. The clues are in there. Somewhere, how?

Okay? Got it? I'm reading a lot of Stephen Hawking's quantum theory, right?

Where's Nyingpo? Like, can it exist and not exist at the same time? You know, can it be moving and not moving at the same time?

On a computer, something has to be zero setting or one setting, all binary, right? But what if they're not different? You see?

Let's get...we'll get there. Okay. GONG DU RANG BZHIN GYIS SKYE BAR MA TOGS PA'I SKYE BAR MED PAR TOGS PA'I LO SHES RAB TU BSTAN PA LA Previous in our studies, we were trying to prove that if you understood that nothing was itself, that was wisdom, okay?

If you understood that nothing was itself, that is wisdom. What's the example in the kitchen? What is not itself?

Your partner, who's being critical, who's criticizing you. According to atisha, okay? The partner who's criticizing you is not the partner who's criticizing you.

Does that make sense? Is there any way you could make sense out of that? Yeah, there is, right?

What? How? The partner you thought was there was not there.

The partner who's your fault is there. The partner who's not your fault is not there, okay? So you could say, the partner that I thought was there is not there.

And you could say, the partner who's criticizing me is not the partner who's criticizing me, if you mean the first one is the one who's coming from you and the second one is the one that's not your fault. Are we okay? In that case, you can say, the partner who's criticizing me is not the partner who's criticizing me.

Got it? The partner who doesn't come from me who's criticizing me is not the partner who's coming from me who is criticizing me. Okay, got it?

So, you can say, the partner is not your partner. Got it? That's not such a hard thing, right?

Okay? But, people don't get it, and, nga mawa nam na re. Nga mawa means, a whole group of Buddhist schools who believe that things work.

A whole group of Buddhist schools that believe that things work. I will give you an easy example called aspirin. Do aspirins work?

Huh? Sometimes. Sometimes.

That's such a terrible answer, you know. I got a car for you. Yeah, I'll take it.

Is it very expensive? No, no, it's a $50,000 car. Well, okay, how much are you going to charge me?

I'll give it to you for 5,000 bucks. You give me a $5,000 car, a $50,000 car for 5,000 bucks, I'll take it. Yeah, it's just one problem.

What's the problem? Like, it only works three days a week. Which three days?

Well, that's a thing, we never know. You know. Is that a deal?

No, it's just dumb. Does aspirin work? No, it doesn't.

You see, if it works sometimes, then it doesn't work. Does aspirin have an active ingredient? Yeah, it's called aspirin, you get 81 milligrams, am I right?

I looked it up. There's 81 milligrams of aspirin in an aspirin pill, which is mostly probably some kind of cow hoof filler or something. Right?

No, you know that. Is the aspirin, is the 81 milligrams of aspirin in an aspirin, is that the active ingredient, according to the label and the FDA? FDA.

Yes, it is. Is it active? And don't tell me sometimes, or I'm going to sell you the car.

Don't tell me sometimes, you know. It isn't active. The active ingredient in aspirin isn't active.

Why? It doesn't work. Why?

It doesn't work all the time. If something doesn't work all the time, it doesn't work. Got it?

If your car starts on four days a week, but not three days a week, you don't have a car. Got it? It's that simple.

Flying our new airline, our tickets are only half what other people charge. Most of the time we get there fine. No, I don't want that airline.

I'll pay more to get one that works all the time. Okay, that's all. Now, here's the big question.

Here's the big, big question. This is important for your life, okay? Even if only for headaches, you should listen, okay?

Because headaches are miserable. Headaches are some of the... one of the worst things in the world, right?

To have a really good headache is one of the worst things in the world. I think so. I get them like once or twice a year.

I throw up, I feel terrible, and I don't... they don't go away till the next morning or something. So, when you get a headache, you take an aspirin, right?

Does it work? Sometimes. When it works, why does it work?

Yeah, what I mean is it cannot be the 81 milligrams of aspirin in it because if it were the 81 milligrams of aspirin in the aspirin that made the aspirin work, then the aspirin would work all the time, every time it had 81 milligrams of aspirin in it. And the FDA does watch those things. It's not like you take a pill and it doesn't work and you have to worry that maybe there was no aspirin in it.

In some countries, it is, you do have to worry about that. When it works, it doesn't work because of something in the aspirin, okay? Get used to that and use the word in, okay?

Is the power of an aspirin in the aspirin? No, okay? No.

Then where is the power? Yeah, it's in me somewhere. Can I decide that the aspirin will work?

No, it doesn't work like that. Everyone who ever took an aspirin and decided they wanted to work, you know, it's not a matter of willpower, you know, it's a seed, it's a karmic seed. If you have the karmic seed, it will work.

The 81 milligrams will work. If you don't have the karmic seed, the same 81 milligrams won't work. Got it?

So, do things work? There's a school of Buddhism called the guys who think that things work and they're wrong, okay? No, they're lower school, it's a lower school.

Does aspirin work? They say, yeah. Why?

It has an active ingredient. What's the active ingredient? 81 milligrams aspirin.

Does it always work? No. When it doesn't work, do you take the bottle back to the drugstore and ask for your money back for half the pills?

No. Anyway, there's a school of Buddhism that thinks that things work. Got it?

They're wrong. Mun na, tey tey. Ngopo nam rang shing gi kye wa yi dang ji pa ngun sung du drub pa'i che.

They complain, they say, look, of course it started, it was in the factory, you know, they added the last little button and it was completed. In the moment that the worker put on the last button, it was a cell phone. Of course, of course it started, at that moment the cell phone started.

In the moment that they put the last piece on the cell phone, the cell phone started. You can see that with your own eyes, ngun sung du. Ngun sung du drub pa'i che means you can see it with your own eyes, you know, and then you drop the phone.

I had a friend, she dropped it in the toilet. Somewhere, going down into the water, like I think about two-thirds of the way down, it stopped working. We can say there was a point, right?

It went potom, and it, somewhere there or here, I don't know where, the phone stopped working. Ngun sung du gyur wey che. You can see it, don't be ridiculous.

Did it start? Of course, anyone can go to the factory in China, you can see it start. Did it end?

Yeah, when she dropped it and it was like one inch underwater, it stopped working. Anybody can see that. Okay, got it?

Is it happening from its own side? Yes, I mean, where else? Got it?

Okay, that's what they say. Here's us. Ona.

Ona means, oh, wow, ona, say ona. Ona means just before you destroy somebody logically, you're, ona. Ona means, wow.

This is just before you wipe the guy out, you're like, ona. Ona, nyu ku rang shing gi kye na, gyur du na yupa mepa. So, if things really start, okay, if the cell phone really started at some point, okay, did it exist when it started or it didn't exist when it started?

Or you can say the moment before is okay, you can say that. In the moment before it was a cell phone, was it there yet or not? What do you say?

Most people would say no, okay? But there are four possibilities, logically there are four possibilities. What?

It was there just before it started. A. B.

It wasn't there just before it started. C. D.

It was both there and not there just before it started. D. It was neither there nor not there just before it started.

Okay, those are the four. To be perfectly logical, we'll have to cover the four. I like reading physics because if they are good scientists, they're very honest.

They're very demanding of honesty. They will say, this is my theory, I believed it for seven years, I tried to prove it to 200 people and I couldn't. It's not perfect yet.

They'll say that. Hawking has reversed himself several times on big matters. You know, he said, I figured out I was wrong.

And somehow they're more honest than the rest of us. I don't know. Hopefully.

Okay, Dambodhana. So then, we have to disprove that the phone existed or each of those four things about the phone, okay? A.

That it was there the moment before it was finished. B. That it wasn't there the moment before it was finished.

C. That it was both and D. That it was neither.

Got it? If we can prove all four, we're done. Good?

All four possibilities, cover them. If none of the above is true, then we can say, the phone never started. If a phone which was there just before it started isn't there, or a phone which isn't there just before it started isn't there, or if a phone which is both there and not there just before it started isn't there, or a phone which is neither there or not there just before it started is not there, then we're covered.

Then we can say the phone never started. Whew! Okay?

It sounds stupid, right? It sounds crazy. I'm telling you, if you understand this, you can make stuff happen in your life.

You can have things happen in your life that you want. Anything. Okay?

And I do it, and I like it, it's fun, and I want to share it. I want you to be able to do it, because it's cool. It's cool to have everything you want.

Okay? All right, here we go. Dhammatthana, the first one is, the guy says, okay, okay, I'll bite on the first one.

What was the first one? You tell me. The phone...

we're going to start with was. Okay? The phone was there the moment before its manufacture was completed.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
The phone was already there in the moments before it was finished in the factory. Got it? The phone was there.

[Говорящий 2]
All right?

[Говорящий 1]
Now, here's our arguments against that. Okay? By the way, this one is not going to be as important to us as the second one, which is what?

It wasn't there the moment before it was... manufacturing was completed, and then suddenly it was there, because that's what we believe. That's the one we believe.

You want to go straight there? You want to go straight there? If we don't go straight there, you won't hear it if you don't come tomorrow.

I'll go fast through the first one and we'll go halfway through the second one. That way you'll have to come back tomorrow. Okay, Dhammatthana, if it was there just before it was finished, okay?

NUS KYI CHOS CAN RGYU DUS SU YOD PA SKYE BA RIG PA MA YIN PAS YOD PA GRUB ZIN PAS SKYE BA GRUB PA MED PA'I PHYIR If it was there in the moments before its manufacture was completed, then did it start or not? What do you say? Did it...

If it had been there a moment before its manufacture was completed, would it have started when its manufacture was completed? No, it's pointless, it's already there. Why say it started when it was completed if it was already there?

Why bother, okay? Got it? Okay, alright, here we go.

GRUB ZIN GRUB PA MED There's GRUB PA MED means there's no point to it. If it's already there and you manufacture it and then it's there again, well, what's the point? Just let it be there.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
GRUB ZIN LA YANG SKYE NA SKYE BA THUG MED DUG GYUR BA'I PHYIR If things which already started had to start again, how many starts this goddamn thing got to have? Okay, you alright? You alright with that?

That's your second... That's our second argument, you know? Okay, so it started again, so how many more times you want it to start?

Okay, it started already, then you started it again, then how many times you're going to start it? Because if the second one is already meaningless, so let's have a thousand. Got it?

Okay, that's the argument against the idea that the phone was there the moment before its manufacture was completed. Okay, got it? Now comes the more interesting one for us because this is what we believe.

What? That it wasn't there in the moments before it was completed. GNYIS PA LTAR NA, RGYUD DU SU MED PA'ANG RANG BZHIN GYIS KHYER BA RIG PA MA YIN TE You can say that something wasn't there in the moments before it was...

its manufacture was completed, but can you say that was coming from its own side? The thing which wasn't yet a phone just before it was a phone, okay? Got...you got what I'm talking about? I'm talking about the thing that wasn't quite a phone yet just before it was finished, okay? That thing. Is that coming from you or coming from itself?

Go to the kitchen for an answer. What? According to Buddhism it's coming from me, okay?

The fact that it wasn't finished, a thing yet before it was finished, that's also coming from me, okay? Got it? That's also coming from me.

Is there a phone that's not quite finished yet which is not yet a phone, which is not coming from me? Can you say that that phone never starts?

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
So in Buddhism when we say a phone that wasn't there just before the phone was finished that never started, when I say that, I'm talking about the one that didn't come from me. Let's take it to the kitchen. Did your husband start complaining at you, your partner?

In the kitchen, did the husband start complaining to you? Yes. Did both of them start complaining to you?

Good. Who said no? Yeah, good, you're hot tonight.

Probably every night, but I mean I'm just with you tonight. Yeah, there are two husbands in the kitchen. One of them did start complaining, but the other one didn't start complaining.

Let's talk about the one who did start complaining. The moment before you walked in the door, were they not complaining? I'll say it again.

The husband who is coming from you and what you did last week, did they start complaining when you walked in the door? Yes. Were they complaining to you just before you walked in the door?

Did...okay, got it? So, did a husband who was not complaining start complaining? Yes.

Which one? Good, good. The one who's coming from me.

She's just going like that to Dan. That's not fair. Just kidding.

Now for the tough question. And then if you answer me well, I'll probably let you go, which is kind of risky, right? You might have to spend the whole night.

Is there a husband in the kitchen who's not coming from you? Well, there is, but he doesn't exist, right? He's the one you're upset at, right?

Okay? Doesn't exist. Can he complain to you?

No, he doesn't exist. How can something that doesn't exist complain, you know? Like my raise from my company in the last six months, I mean, I can't put a number on it, because it doesn't exist, right?

The husband who's not coming from you, is he complaining? No, I mean you can say, I thought he was, but he wasn't, because he's not there. Got it?

Was he complaining a moment before you got into the kitchen? Okay, that's the punchline. Got it?

Okay, got it? Did this phone... was there a phone that wasn't there the moment before they finished it?

Is there an uncompleted phone the moment before they finish it? Yeah, I mean generally there is, right? The one who's coming from me, okay?

My iPhone 5 doesn't work as well as my 4 did. I still carry around the 4 and fondle it from time to time, because it worked, you know? And then the new one, which I kind of feel stupid to get rid of, because I paid so much money for it, doesn't work so well.

Okay? Got it? Why does my iPhone 4 work and my iPhone 5 doesn't work?

Because of me, okay? Alright? It's coming from me.

The problem in my new phone, it's coming from me. Okay, got it? So, should I go to the Biltmore Fashion Mall and scream at the people at Apple, which I do do.

Should I do it? No, because it's not their fault. Okay, got it?

The phone that they made that wasn't there just before it wasn't finished never existed. Got it? You okay?

If you just nod, you can go home. Even if you don't follow it. Okay?

Comfortable? Comfortable? Now, don't just think it's just some kind of logic play or something like that, okay?

The point of this exercise is to think deeply about how situations start. Okay? Let this ancient text remind you of how situations start.

That's the point of the exercise, okay? You walk into the kitchen, suddenly he's on your case, suddenly he's saying stuff. You didn't even set down your bag yet, and you didn't even say anything yet, and he's on you.

Right? Then examine the start of it. This is a discussion of starting, how things start.

Examine how it started. What was the moment that it started? Because that's how it gets in an argument in a partnership, right?

You're like, when did it start? You started it. Yesterday you talked about my cooking, and then of course I was upset when you got home.

You know? No, well, it must have started before that. You're looking for startings.

Startings? When did it start? This is a discussion of when does stuff start.

How did it start? When did it start? Any given moment with your partner, any given moment of tension, of sadness, tension, you know, anxiety with a partner, any given moment, examine how did it start?

What was there the moment before? What was there the moment before it started? What was there?

You can apply it to black holes, okay? The creation of the universe, big, what do you call it? Big bang.

Okay? They say all matter in the universe was compressed into a thing no bigger than your fingernail. All the planets that ever are, hundreds of billions of stars, were in a thumbnail size piece of stuff.

Okay? But why did it blow up? I mean, just before it blew up, what happened?

No, you have to ask the same question. It's the same question with universes as it is with your partner in the kitchen. What happened just before they started complaining?

Tell me that and you can go home, I keep saying that. Yeah, a seed went off. Where?

In your mind, okay? In your mind. Don't go looking for what happened yesterday.

Don't go looking, you know, who started this argument? You did, yesterday. No, you did the day before.

No, it was you the day before that. Don't go there, okay? There are no external causes.

A factory didn't make this iPhone, prove it. I have the most modern, highest gigabyte phone you can buy and it doesn't work, as good as the old one. Why?

It proves it's not the factory, okay? It's coming, it must be coming from me, okay? I want to say one more quotation, then I'll let you go.

Say, you ready? Repeat after me, then I swear I'll let you go. ,CHE BA, ,THA KYA, ,RGYUD YID KYANG, ,NGOS PO, ,MED PA, ,RGYUR DU, ,MED Ten billion causes cannot affect a thing which is not itself.

Ten billion causes cannot affect a thing which is not itself. Okay? Who said that?

Shantideva. Master Shantideva, okay? So, it must be cool.

He wrote the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, right? He died to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. And he said, ten billion things cannot affect a thing which is not itself, okay?

Can you calm down the husband who is not your fault? Yes or no? I swear you can go home.

Can you calm down the husband who is not your fault? Why not? He doesn't exist.

Nothing can affect him. Nothing can touch him. He's not there.

You can jump on your head, you can do cartwheels, you can beg, you can plead, you can reason, you can fight, you can be, you can ignore him, you can pay attention to him, you can speak softly, you can speak loudly. It all doesn't matter at all because he doesn't exist. And ten billion different ways of acting towards him are not going to affect him.

Okay? Got it? Because he's not who you thought, he's not the one you thought.

It's a case of mistaken identity, alright? And nothing can change him. Nothing.

Change your seeds and he will change. Everything else is useless. Useless.

All the wrinkles on your face were put there by trying useless things. Take my word for it. Every wrinkle on your face has come there by trying useless things.

And that's how you got them. Okay? Think about that.

It's true. Okay? Alright, it's a Buddhist custom at the end of the talk.

By the way, tomorrow night we have a special thing planned. I saw this awesome movie which is a completely Dharma movie and I just thought I'd like all my friends in the world to be able to see it. So, I made a deal with the Jewish Community Center and a bunch of other people.

They're going to let us stay tomorrow night till midnight if we want to. So, we thought we would show the film here. So, if you're not busy from 9.30 to 11.30 tomorrow night you're welcome to stay after the teaching tomorrow. I say the movie's going to change your life. But you don't have to believe me. And I'm not going to say what it is.

Okay? I don't think you've seen it. And I think you'll really, really like it.

And I think it'd just be fun to see it. So, if you want to, you know, stay tomorrow night and we'll watch it together if you like. Okay?

And tomorrow, what's the schedule? What time is the meditation tomorrow? 9.30?

Here? At 9.30 tomorrow here there'll be a guided meditation if you'd like to learn how to meditate. We'll do a brief guided meditation.

And then after that, a lot of our senior teachers have been teaching in Russia in the last year. We got a contract to teach these things to 40,000 people in a large banking and petroleum corporation there. Which is kind of cool, right?

They really understood this thing. They're very unusual people, the Russians, they're very intellectual and... and they said, train our 40,000 workers.

So, our workers, our staff have been there, been going there in small teams, two people teams. They've been to Krasnodar, Ufa, Novosibirsk, Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, and Moscow. They've been to these cities and they're training people, meditation, yoga, and...

and this kind of worldview, okay? But anyway, one of them asked... Ningbo gave a demonstration of yoga alignment to one of the corporate offices and they freaked out and they said, we want a video.

So, we were talking about it and I said, why don't we make a video tomorrow? Why don't Ningbo teach... why doesn't Ningbo teach an alignment class?

So, if you'd like to come at... eleven? At eleven there'll be a...

everybody can do that yoga, right? It's an all levels class, which means if you get disgusted you can just lay down and... that's what I do.

All levels class, just on how to line up your bones properly when you do yoga, okay? And we'll be filming it for our Russian client. And then in the afternoon there'll be a more difficult text, which we've been doing for ten years now.

So, if you really want a headache, come in the afternoon. What time? Two...

three... three-thirty. About emptiness, a very deep text on emptiness.

This part that we're reaching tomorrow is not so difficult. It is... eleven ways that a bodhisattva should act and you haven't heard it before.

I've never taught it before. There are... it's an eleven part code for a person who wants to help the world, a superhero.

Superhero, eleven part code, bodhisattva code, which is stuck in the middle of an emptiness text, don't ask me why, but it's there, so you're going to get that. Actually it's there, but I'll tell you tomorrow. Then in the evening we'll continue this at seven and not seven-thirty.

Yeah? Okay. Did I...

I covered everything? Yeah. Then I'd like to thank...

we had a board meeting today, Diamond Mountain University, and... which is in the middle of what I think is one of the most important... historically it will be...

later people will look back and say this was one of the most important spiritual events in the history of the U.S. up to now, which was a large group of people undertaking a three-year silent retreat, and they've been working extremely hard for two years and two months, they got ten months to go, and I would just like to give them a hand, the board. They've been working really hard. It's cost...

the total cost is about a million dollars to feed the people and to take care of them, and... countless... thousands and thousands of hours of volunteer work, and...

they are... extraordinary people doing it, really, it is an extraordinary place. There's a gentleman who I'm not allowed to identify in the audience, who...

has offered a $3,500 donation to Diamond Mountain University, contingent on a matching... contingent on matching funds. It's not me, okay?

I wouldn't do something like sneaky like that. It's really not me. But if anyone's interested, who should be...

who's going to be here, Scott? Scott will be here, right? In the next two days.

You guys are going home, right? So... talk to Scott, if you're interested in help.

Whatever we can match, the person will donate up to $3,500, okay? So, I think that's cool. We have to build a...

a new cafeteria there, so... that'll help a little bit, right? Silverware.

Yeah, okay. It's a Buddhist custom to offer the good karma. So, if you know this custom, you can do this mandala.

If you don't know this custom, you can just do this, and... and wish that the good karma of what we talked about. The kind of talk we had tonight is like an Udumbara flower in the world.

I don't think there's any other talk going on in Scottsdale of this nature, or any other city in the U.S. right now, so... let's offer the good karma. You ready, Hagini?

Okay.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay. $3,500, okay? Okay.

Good night. Thank you for coming.