Дебаты дьявола с ангелом, часть 8: Если Эйнштейн неправ, проблемы исчезают (2014, Феникс), занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
Oh, good. Thank you. I said a better history of time.

The best-selling book in the history, after the Bible, is A Brief History of Time. It sold 350 million copies. It's also the least finished book in history.

And it represents... Why do 350 million people buy a book that they can't finish, you know? It's because we're curious about where we come from and where the world comes from.

And somehow, if we could understand where the world came from, maybe we could understand how to run our lives, right? So, yesterday we spoke about this idea of different theories of where the world came from or what the world looked like, and we went through, you know, early Buddhist and Western cultures that thought the world was flat and round, a disk. And then we came to Aristotle, who said it wasn't flat, it was round, but it didn't move, and it was the center of the universe, and the sun rotated around the moon.

Then we got to Ptolemy. Oh, and he said there were spheres, like Russian doll boxes, and spheres within spheres, and different planets moved along those spheres, and he still believed the sun went around the earth because we are the center of everything. People are the center of everything.

And God made people, so we should be in the center. And that lasted for...until the 1500s, that lasted like a thousand, over a thousand years. Then we got to...who was next? I forget. Copernicus, Polish. Said, no, he said, I think the earth goes around the sun, but he was afraid to put his name on the book because he thought the church might, you know, execute him or something.

And then Galileo came shortly after that and proved that the earth wasn't the center of everything, and then he was excommunicated and spent the last 15 years of his life under house arrest. But he still believed that the earth was not moving. And then came Newton who, you know, really revolutionized science.

He created modern science with his ideas, but he also believed that the stars were not moving. And then after that came Hubble, Edwin Hubble, who proved that everything's in motion away from a middle point where there was an explosion. I think it's 20 million years ago or something like that.

So, he showed that we're all moving. The earth is moving, the sun is moving, nothing is constant, nothing is static. There is no static center of the universe at all.

Then Einstein came along and said, it's worse than that. Space is curved. Things don't move in a straight line from the place of the explosion because the presence of something heavy, massive, mass if, curves space and makes even light will curve near a heavy, a massive body.

Then light itself will curve. So, even the universe is not, it's not like an endless infinite thing. It's curved in upon itself, which is totally, which is to imply that the presence of certain objects changes reality.

The presence of certain things changes how reality acts. In this case, the presence of mass, gravity, changes how reality behaves. And then we went to, what's his name, Heisenberg, who said that the presence of the observer also twists things and you can't measure a thing's location if you're measuring its velocity at the same time.

It's uncertain where it will be if you focus on its location. It's uncertain how fast it's going. And if you focus on how fast it's going, you can't be sure where it is.

So, things are uncertain. And there's a classic problem, even today in science, a question of whether light moves in particles or in waves because some measurements indicate that it, sometimes light acts as particles, pieces moving, and sometimes light acts in a contradictory way, going through a refraction gate that suggests it moves in waves. Okay?

So, now you've got this idea that reality can bend according to who's watching or what's around at the time. And maybe two realities, two contradictory realities are possible with the same object. Like how light comes from the sun to the earth is still unclear.

There are two contradictory measurements. It's not, science hasn't come to what they call a unified theory. It's not, right now it's impossible.

What happens on a quantum level, tiny, the level of tiny particles doesn't fit what happens on a general theory of relativity level. Huge objects like planets and black holes. So, science has reached the point where they can say that reality can be shifting or uncertain depending on who's watching.

And maybe it's even possible for two contradictory things to be going on at the same time in the same room. Okay? That two realities would be happening in the same room.

Okay? Buddhism goes one step further and tries to say that the way that reality works is that it's coming from you. It's not affected by the presence of the observer.

What is observed is actually flowing from the observer. And it goes further and it connects how reality works to kindness, which I think is a huge leap. It's a huge leap in our thinking.

None of those people that I mentioned so far since Aristotle has claimed that the shape that reality takes depends upon how nice you are to the person sitting next to you. You see what I mean? But that's what Buddhism says.

Tsongkapa said in the 14th century, that what you see around you, the objects and the people around you are flowing from seeds in your mind that you planted there last week or last month, depending on how you treated your kids or your husband or your wife or people at your job. Okay? It's creating your reality around you.

Okay? So, that's the viewpoint of Buddhism. And I think it could explain the apparent contradictions in quantum theory and the general theory of relativity.

I think these ideas could unify the contradictory findings of science. And I think that would be a nice next step in science. I think it would perfect science.

But within Buddhist schools and within Tibetan schools in the 16th century, in the time that the Panchen Lama is writing this poem, there were disagreements. There were very subtle disagreements about what does it mean that the world is coming from your mind. Okay?

And by exploring the subtle differences or the subtle misunderstandings, in Buddhist tradition, in the monastery, for example, when you go to a class, they don't sit down and tell you what's correct. They spend years or months explaining what's not correct. It's called shenlu kakpa.

It means the process is you hear wrong ideas about where things are coming from, and then you're expected to thresh out. Why? Why is it wrong?

And sometimes it takes you weeks or months. Every night you go with your friends, you go to class during the day, you memorize the text in the morning, you hear teachings on them during the day, and then in the evening you have this debate that looks like martial arts, and you spend hours arguing about why is this viewpoint subtly wrong. Because if you understand small wrong ideas, you will naturally come to the right idea on your own, which is more exciting than having somebody tell you what it is.

You see? So that's the pedagogical process in Tibet. That's how they teach people.

And then much later you get rangguk shakpa, which is, okay, here's what we believe. And after that you have tsepa pongwa, which means someone gets the opportunity to attack your own school. So first you hear other people's ideas, you defeat them, you find out why they're wrong, then you get your own school's ideas, and then finally you get to hear, what do you call that, in a courtroom when you get to...

you get to hear rebuttals. They get to come back. The subtly wrong schools get to come back and attack us again, and we have to defend ourselves again.

This is the classical Buddhist... for 25 years that's how we learn, okay? So in this text, rather than just laying out how reality is flowing from how you treat people, he gives very subtle misunderstandings about how to meditate on reality, how to see reality, and then we're expected to work through those.

And by doing that you come to a correct idea which is firm, you see? Because all the possible doubts you could ever have, you've already heard. So they just treat all the subtle doubts one by one.

So in verse 117 we're on to a new subtle doubt, and I'll read it. Some people believe in yet another version of what it means to meditate upon the way things really are. They say that when a thought pops up you should simply focus upon it, watch it as it makes its arrival, stare at how it looks, and when this thought then slips away, all on its own accord, understand that this is nothing less than a Buddhist body of reality, okay?

So this needs some explanation, okay? In Buddhism, you practice, you meditate, you study, you do yoga, you do all these practices. The ultimate goal is to become an enlightened being, okay?

And I grew up a Christian, and I grew up in a church like on Central, it's five blocks from here, exactly on Maryland. I grew up in a very beautiful church there, and it was very precious, it's still precious to me. I went to Mass last Sunday, and I try to go, I love it.

But in my church, no one ever said, in all the years that I was there, that if you worked really hard you could become Jesus Christ, you see? That just wasn't, nobody ever said something like, it would be strange to say that, okay? In Buddhism we do say that, okay?

In Buddhism, and when I first heard it, it seemed sort of like hubris, right? It seems strange to say, every person in this room will become a Buddha, okay? That's the evolution of all living creatures, is that you will become a Buddha, okay?

And then the question comes up, why? What do you have about you that guarantees that you will become a Buddha? And then they call that su-gata-garba, okay?

Say su-gata, garba. Su-gata means a Buddha, and garba means a seed. It can also mean womb, okay?

Su-gata-garba means the womb of a Buddha or the seed of a Buddha. All living creatures have su-gata-garba. Insects, fish, birds, cows, bacteria, they have a seed inside of them which guarantees that they will become enlightened, okay?

We all have this seed, okay? Then what is the seed made of? What's the nature of this seed, Buddha seed or Buddha nature?

By the way, we don't believe that you're already enlightened and you just have to uncover it, okay? That's a common misconception. We don't believe that.

We believe that there's something about you which will allow you to become enlightened, and because of the presence of that thing, you must become enlightened. All of us will become a Buddha. If you're not already a Buddha now, you will become a Buddha because of that seed.

So what is that seed? And that's a subtle thing, okay? I can look at my arm, okay?

And according to Buddhist idea, if I see a human arm, it's because I have seeds in my mind to see a human arm, okay? And if those seeds had been different, if those seeds changed subtly, I would see a dog's leg in the same place. Okay, you're getting close to Heisenberg, right?

In the same place I would see a dog's leg. You see, if I had different seeds in my mind, I would see a human arm or a dog's leg, okay? Or an angel's arm, okay?

The arm of a Buddha, okay? We say that all three are possible on the same object. This stick you call a human arm could have been a dog leg if I had had different seeds.

And it may, and it will surely become a Buddha's arm of light, an angelic arm in time, okay? I just have to work on the seeds, okay? So that's a...

The fact of that, the fact that there is no arm necessarily, the fact that it could have been a dog's leg or that it could be an angel's arm of light, okay? That fact is the seed of a Buddha. Okay, got it?

And everything has that. The classic example in our teaching is what? I need to borrow your...

Okay, everyone has heard this, I'll say it again one more time. What is this thing? It's a pen.

If a dog came here they would see something to chew on. Who's correct? Both are correct.

Both are valid. The dog can chew and enjoy, and the human can write and do something, right? If I lay the pen here on the table and all the humans leave the room and all the dogs leave the room, at that time, which one is it?

A pen or a chew toy? You can say neither, okay? You can say neither.

You can say it's available to be either one, right? That availability is emptiness. That's the meaning of emptiness.

Emptiness doesn't mean black hole. Emptiness doesn't mean watch your thoughts come and go. Emptiness doesn't mean nothing matters or everything's an illusion.

They don't mean that. Emptiness means when the humans leave the room and when the dogs leave the room and you set this thing here, it's neither one. Neither one means emptiness, okay?

Right now it's nothing. If the human walks back in, it becomes a... pen.

If the dog walks back in, it becomes a... chew toy. If they both walk in, it becomes a...

both at the same time. No problem. At that time, there are two separate realities running in this room and you have to appreciate that.

Two separate and valid realities are running in this room at the same time. No problem. It's a dog's world and a human's world, okay?

If somebody came in the room who had higher seeds and they saw this as a tool for liberating the world, I could write an essay called, The Debate Between the Angel and the Devil and maybe it would enlighten the entire world. Then this pen would become a... a sword of liberation for the whole world.

Like, it's possible to see it that way, right? If I had higher seeds than the human, I could see this as a holy object. In Tibet, you're not allowed to put a pen on the floor.

You're not allowed to disrespect pens, okay? You will get hit in the monastery. If you put a pen on the floor, they'll hit you because it's a holy thing.

It can change people. It can save a person's life. So, you're supposed to respect pens.

You're not allowed to put them on the floor. You have to like... With both hands, you have to put it on the table.

It's a holy... It's a sacred object, okay? So, at one time, a pen can be three different things.

A sacred sword of liberation or an instrument to write down your grocery list or something to chew on, okay? Dog toy. All three at the same time.

This and this are the same. No difference, okay? Don't think they're different.

They're not. If you have normal seeds, you'll see an arm. If you have lousy seeds, you'll see a...

dog leg. If you have great seeds, you'll see a... you'll see an angel's arm of light, okay?

Which one is correct? They're all valid. Which one would you rather have?

You see, that's the question you have to ask. Are all three valid? Yeah, they are, okay?

Which one would you rather have? I'll take the angel's arm of light, you see? The fact that it could have been any one of the three is the seed of a Buddha, okay?

And you all have it. Everyone has it, okay? The fact that you are, by nature, neutral, and what you see yourself as is coming from your own mind, from seeds that open in your mind, which were planted there by showing kindness to others, okay?

That's your Buddha nature, and everybody has it. The fact that your arm is not coming from itself, but coming from your mind, that proves that you can become a Buddha, and that's your Buddha nature, okay? Why are we talking about that?

After you get enlightened, do you still have Buddha nature? Yeah, it's just the fact that if you had worse seeds, you'd see your arm as human, mortal, okay? That's all.

But when you get enlightened, when you're sitting there in this Buddha's body of light, which has certain qualities, okay? We divide it into four bodies. It's called four bodies, but it really just means one body with four different qualities, okay?

One quality of a Buddha's body is that you are stuck in paradise forever, and you can't meet any idiots, okay? You're just surrounded by high-level bodhisattvas. You actually cannot meet anyone else.

If an idiot came to your paradise to visit you, you would experience them as a high bodhisattva. You see what I mean? Because your karma is too good, okay?

Got it? Like if a real true idiot, nudnik, let's call him nudnik. That's Jewish for what?

Yiddish for irritating person. Is that a good definition? Pretty good.

If a nudnik came to your Buddha paradise, you would experience them as a bodhisattva, because your karma is too good, okay? Because they also have Buddha nature. Got it?

So, one aspect of an enlightened being is that as they sit in paradise, they only get to see cool people around them all the time, even if those people are nudniks on another plane. Got it? Like the pen and the chew toy in the same room, okay?

So, where is a Buddhist paradise? Where is it located? Do you have to take a Apollo, you know, 12, or what's that called?

Jade Rabbit? Do you have to go to the moon? Is paradise somewhere else?

Then we say, no. Okay? It could be here if we had better seats, okay?

So, there's one part of you that's sitting in paradise and is stuck there forever, okay? Then there's another part of you called drukku, emanation body, and like... like images coming off multiple mirrors, you can appear in many planets and help many people, okay?

Automatically, without thought. It's called hundrup in Tibetan. Without intention, and without premeditation, your body is reflected upon countless planets to help other people, okay?

You're sitting in your paradise having a good time. You're probably having a latte, but automatically your body is appearing on countless planets to serve other people, okay? That's the...

that's the second body of a Buddha. It's called drukku or emanation body, nirmanakaya in Sanskrit. Then you have a third body, which is your wisdom, your state of mind.

Your enlightened state of mind is called the wisdom body, okay, of a Buddha. You have those three bodies. Why are we talking about this?

You also have a fourth body. It's your sugata-garma. It's the old seed of a Buddha that you always had, okay?

You never lose it. After you get enlightened you still have it, okay? It's still true of your arm that if you had different seeds you would see it as a dog leg even after you get enlightened, okay?

Will you ever see it as a dog leg? No. But is it true that the arm is available to be a dog leg even after you get enlightened?

Yes. That truth is called the reality body of a Buddha and all Buddhas have it. And it's the only part of you now that will be the same after you get enlightened, okay?

You have that now and you will have it then. And it's the fact that you are empty. It's the fact that you are nothing until a seed opens in your mind and makes you some way, okay?

You have it now and you will have it then. And it's what allows you to become a Buddha, okay? Are you a...

Is this an arm or a dog leg? It just depends on seeds in my mind. Is a Buddha's arm a Buddha's arm or a dog leg?

It will still depend on the seeds in your mind, okay? It could have been either. It doesn't have a nature of its own.

It's not an arm by itself. The arm-ness is coming from you, okay? It's not...

Arm-ness isn't in the arm. It's coming from your mind, from seeds in your mind. After you become a Buddha, that will still be the case, okay?

If you see a Buddha's arm, it will still be coming from your mind. Got it? Sorry, why are we talking about that?

Here we have a guy in verse... he says, if you want to know ultimate reality, what is ultimate reality? Close your eyes, watch your thoughts arise in your mind, watch them pass through your mind, and watch them subside in your mind.

And the second after they subside, that's the reality body of a Buddha, okay? That's the ultimate nature of a Buddha. That's the fact that a Buddha could have been anything, okay?

That's the emptiness of a Buddha, okay? Got it? This is their belief.

Someone had this belief. We spoke about it briefly yesterday because we said the mind... the thoughts in the mind are coming up like what?

Like water in a fountain. Can you show that, Nyingbo? Can you?

Yeah, okay, watch the fountain. That's how thoughts come up in your mind, okay? They are pushed up by seeds opening in the bottom and then they subside like that.

Okay, cut. Then they just subside, okay? The fountain subsides, the thoughts subside.

Why? The seeds are gone. The seeds have expended their power, okay?

That's why thoughts come into your mind and that's why thoughts leave your mind. We said last night, we asked a question, are you thinking the thoughts or are you listening to them? Because you can't do both, you know?

If you're thinking them, you haven't heard them yet. If you're hearing them, they must have been thunked about two seconds ago. So, are you the thunker or are you the listener?

Which one? We say you are always a captive audience. We say you are a witness, okay?

You are at the mercy of the seeds in your mind, okay? You will hear in your mind depression or happiness or love or hatred, depending on how you treated people last week. Okay?

That's a very interesting thing for a psychologist. It means that you cannot treat depression. It's not possible.

The depression is arising from things that you did to people last week. Okay? You cannot treat depression in the moment.

You cannot treat sadness in the moment. You cannot make yourself happy. It's not possible.

No matter what you do, spend things, eat things, enjoy certain things, it's not certain that they will make you happy. It cannot be. Whether they make you happy or not was decided last week.

Okay? You cannot consciously be happy. You may have noticed that.

Okay? No, I mean, it takes so long to figure it out. It's so amazing.

You can't wish that you are happy. Well, you can wish, but it won't make it happen. Okay?

And the things you thought would make you happy often make you miserable. And the things you were afraid were going to be hard and suddenly make you happy. It's because they have nothing to do with it.

It just depends on what you did last week to somebody else. Okay? So you are a witness to your happiness, but you can't make it happen in the moment.

You can't decide to be happy. My Lama, I remember this guy used to come who was depressed to see my Lama, my Tibetan Lama. And I used to translate for him, you know.

Not his Tibetan, his English. Okay, his English was so unusual that I would translate for him. And somebody would come up, it was somebody you know, and he'd say, Rinpoche, I feel unhappy this week, and Rinpoche, I feel depressed.

And Rinpoche would say, be happy. And then he'd say, okay, come back next week. And then I got, I used to get upset at Ken Rinpoche.

I'd say, what kind of advice is that to a depressed person, you know? Be happy. See you later.

You know, just be happy. And he'd say, he can't be happy. Okay?

He can't stop depression in the present moment. How do you stop depression? According to this idea.

Help someone who's sad. And then next week, maybe the seeds will open, and the depression will go away. And that's the only treatment for depression.

Okay? That's the only possible treatment for depression. If you take a drug, and you feel less depressed next week, or if you go to the beach in California, and you feel less depressed, it's not because you went to the beach, and it's not because of the drug.

It's because you helped somebody who was sad earlier in your life. Okay? And it's coming back to you through the drug, or it's coming back to you through the beach.

Okay? You wrote, you went to the post office, you wrote a check out to yourself, you put it in an envelope, and you mailed it to yourself. And then the postman brought it, like a week later, to your house.

Okay? So, it's not the postman who sent you the money. He's just bringing it to you.

Okay? The beach, and the drug, the psychological drug, or the therapy, is just the postman. Okay?

If you helped someone who was sad in your life, the postman will bring you a good letter. The therapy will be successful. The drug will work on you.

The beach will make you happy. And if you didn't send yourself that letter, then the postman will bring you an empty envelope. Okay?

And the therapy won't work, and the drug won't work, and the beach will make you nervous and busy. Got it? Okay?

So, even the thoughts you hear in your own mind were planted last week. Okay? Can you be happy next week?

Yeah, how? How? Plant good seeds this week.

Help someone else be happy. Help a sad person. Next week, you will be the victim of happy thoughts.

Okay? They will come up. You can't stop them.

Okay? You cannot stop them. They will come.

No matter what you do, they'll come. I have two dogs who live up the street from me. Their owner is very cruel.

He's an alcoholic. He screams at them, and they're so happy. And they love, they lick each other all day, and they look so happy.

And I'm like, how can you be happy with such a miserable owner? It's not the owner who makes you unhappy. It's your own seeds.

Okay? Then you could, if you have good seeds, you can go do anything and you'll be happy. If you have bad seeds, you can go on vacation and you'll be miserable.

You know that. Okay? Why are we talking about that?

This person has proposed that watching thoughts come up in your mind and watching them stop in your mind will lead to the understanding of ultimate reality. Okay? And it doesn't.

Okay? It does not. Now, yesterday we had a guy who came up, what was the first guy?

What did he say? What did he propose was a way to see that ultimate reality? Yeah, go look at the sky.

Okay? And somehow you'll see ultimate reality. And then it got more sophisticated and he said what?

Look at the sky at night. Okay? Watch the stars hanging in the sky.

Blue sky is not enough. Go watch the place where the stars hang. That's outer space.

Then he got more sophisticated and he said what? The space where stuff sits, where your pew is located right now, the space which your pew occupies and your bottom as well is a deeper kind of space and it is occupied now. And when you get up to have your refreshments it will be unoccupied.

And when you come back it will be occupied again. But it never changed. It was just there.

It was either filled or it was vacated. But the space will always be there. Okay?

The earth can be destroyed and the place where your bottom is occupying, the place that your bottom is occupying right now, it will still be there. If this planet, when this planet is consumed by the sun, which Buddhist philosophy says it will be, the place where your bottom is resting will still be there. Okay?

It never changes. It's the absence of stuff. Okay?

And that's very close to the deeper space which means what? Emptiness. Okay?

The absence of what? The absence of anything that's not coming from your mind. Okay?

What's the opposite of that? All things are coming from your mind. What's the opposite of that?

Nothing is not coming from your mind. Okay? The second one is somehow more important.

To understand there's nothing in your world that's not coming from you somehow leads directly to your liberation. So you have to appreciate that and you have to think about it. Okay.

So is it true that watching thoughts come up in your mind and disappear in your mind is going to get you enlightened? No. Okay?

If you appreciate where they're coming from it might help. Where are they coming from? Where do your thoughts come from?

The thoughts that you are forced to listen to in your own head. Where do they come from? How you treated people last week.

Okay? That's all. If you treated people badly you will have to listen to sad thoughts, worries, doubts, unfulfilled expectations.

You created them last week and now you're just listening. You're just a victim of them now. Okay?

Got it? Okay. Next question.

Do you have the brain, Mingpo? I tried to find you a good photo of a brain that wasn't too gross. You know, I looked through all these YouTube videos of brain operations and finally I just said, I don't think I want to show that in a church.

It's too weird, you know, people cutting open brains. So I just brought you two brains, one from Europe, one from South America. One's male, one's female.

I don't know if you can tell which is which. Is that your mind? No.

Okay? What is your mind? What is your mind?

According to the fountain idea, it's a succession of openings of karmic seeds. How many per second? 65 per second, okay?

Seeds are opening in your mind at the rate of 65 per second, each one giving you a fleeting millisecond of a feeling or a thought. And if like a couple of 500 or a thousand pile up together, you might think, I feel good. That thought might come in your mind, okay?

Thousands of, thousands of seeds go off, like little bombs in your mind in a row. And then you get, then you hear yourself think, I feel pretty good right now, or I feel bored, okay? Like thousands of seeds go off in your mind in a row, and then you have a thought, and that is your thought, and that's all your mind is.

There is no physical mind, okay? Get used to it. There's just a bunch of seeds that went off one after another really fast, and that's your mind.

Okay? You got to get used to that. That's the emptiness of your mind, okay?

That's one of the emptinesses of your mind. Sometimes your mind is empty anyway, right? But, try to, try to appreciate that, okay?

Your mind is not a piece of flesh that's encased in your skull. This is not your mind. Your mind is the explosion of tens of thousands of seeds every few seconds.

And they go so fast, it looks like you get the experience of what? Thought and time. Okay?

They go after, they blow up, the seeds blow up one after another really fast, and you have the experience of time passing. Okay? That's all.

There is no time. Okay? And there are no thoughts.

It's just a lot of stuff blowing up really fast one after another. My arm, watch my arm. You ready?

One, two, three, go! Do it again. Go!

Okay. That's a, that was sixty-five separate seeds opening in your mind. You had a seed to see my arm here, and a seed to see it here.

By the way, not to see my arm, to make my arm. Got it? You had a seed to make my arm here, and that was followed by a seed to make my arm here, and a seed to make my arm here, and a seed to make my arm here, and sixty-five per second went off.

What's the speed of a good film? Twenty-four frames a second. Buddhism says your mind is working at sixty-five frames a second, which is why it's so smooth.

And you can add scent, and sound, and taste, and touch, and thought, if you've got sixty-five bites a second. Okay? Sixty-five shots a second.

You can make a human experience. You can experience a human life. Okay?

But there's no mind. It's just a, it's just a really fast explosion of sixty-five things per second. You don't have a mind.

You are just watching sixty-five seeds blow up every second. That is your mind. You don't have a physical mind.

Okay? Yes, please. Is the mind a witness?

We say the mind is the witness. Okay? The mind of the previous moment is the seeds going off.

You are watching the mind, you are watching, when you hear thoughts in your mind, you are watching the condition of your mind a millisecond ago, and that is already past. By the time you hear the thought, it's gone. It's like the light that comes from a star and the star is already burned out, but the light didn't reach the earth yet.

The thoughts in your mind are the same. The seed explodes, a thought comes out, by the time you hear it, the thought is finished. So, you're actually, according to Abhidharma, you're always a millisecond behind.

So, don't feel bad if you're five minutes late all the time. Okay? You're always living in the past, okay?

You are only aware of things that happened a millisecond ago. You never catch up. Okay?

You are always living one second behind. Stuff has already changed by the time you hear your thoughts. The next thought has already been thunked, but you haven't heard it yet.

Okay? Got it? By the time you hear thought A, thought B has already blown up, but you didn't hear it yet.

Okay? You're always behind, not just in getting to your appointments and stuff. Okay?

It's kind of cool. Which means, for a psychologist, that you cannot make the mind happy in the present moment. It's not possible.

Okay? You cannot treat depression today. You can treat depression next week by taking care of sad people today.

But you cannot make a person happy today. Did you notice? It's not possible.

You can jump up and down, you can take off your clothes, you can make giggles, you can... you know, nothing will work. An unhappy person is going to be unhappy.

Okay? It doesn't matter how happy everyone else around is, or what happy things are happening. You can't make them happy if they don't have the seeds to be.

It's not possible. That's why it's so frustrating when you're trying to make someone happy, because you can't. Only they can make themselves happy by what they did last week.

Okay? Got it? All right, let's go to the next verse.

We're not going so fast, but you noticed that. Now he makes a joke in the middle of verse 118. If when a thought dies out in your mind, that's the reality body of a Buddha, that's the potential within a Buddha which we all already possess.

Okay? If when a thought dies out in your mind, that's the emptiness body of a Buddha, then, he says, the more random thoughts you have then, the more reality bodies you'll have. So, why make efforts to stop random thoughts during your meditation?

The more random thoughts you have, the more Buddha bodies you have in your mind. We're criticizing, he's criticizing, he's making a joke. Well, if the dying out of a thought in your mind is the body of a Buddha, then you should try to have as many random thoughts as you can.

Try to be distracted during meditation. Try to think about hamburgers and french fries. When I first learned meditation, I learned it from a teacher named Goenka who founded Insight Meditation in Vipassana.

And he, the Dalai Lama sent us to his place. Sent him to the Tibetan library. And we were required to go, as were all the monks in Dharamsala were required to come.

And we spent ten days with him, right? And we were all required to learn meditation from him. That was my first meditation experience, 1974 or something like that.

And he comes in and the first thing he says is, we're going to be spending ten days in deep meditation together and I don't want you to think about monkeys. Then like for ten days we're all like, monkeys, you know? Why aren't we supposed to think about monkeys, you know?

So, for ten days all you can think about is monkeys, okay? So, according to this thought that would be really helpful. Because the monkey thought would come up and the monkey thought would go away and then there'd be another Buddha there.

Got it? The more distraction you had about monkeys, the more Buddhas you would have, okay? If this is true.

He's criticizing. This they claim is the practice of transforming things into the body of reality, okay? This I want to teach you something.

Say, khyer. Khyer. Say, kusum lam khyer.

Kusum lam khyer. So, those of you learning Buddhist language, technical language, or studying Buddhism, this is a very, very, very important concept, okay? So, I wanted to pause, which I do so often, which is why this thing took like three years already and we're only like a hundred verses.

Khyer means to carry something. Like, khyer shok means, could you bring that to me? Could you hand me that pen?

Or, nukul di khyer shok. You know, please, please carry the pen to me. Bring me the pen.

Khyer means to carry, okay? And there's a grammar particle in Tibetan called denny grammar case, which some of you can learn someday, but it means to be something. So, in English we say, we elected Obama president, okay?

We elected, we elected Obama president. But in Tibetan you have to say, we elected Obama as president. You have to use the word as, okay?

You can almost use it in English, right? We elected him as our president. You can say that.

In Tibetan you're required to put the as, okay? So, there's an interesting, you say, carry as. Lam du khyer, lam du khyer.

And it's a very, very sophisticated, very profound Buddhist practice in the secret teachings, in tantra, okay? Tantra is not some kind of weird, what do you call, killing chickens and sexual stuff. That's all, I don't know where they got that from, but it's probably American newspapers.

It's a very sophisticated, highly ethical, very sophisticated system of meditation and practice. And lam khyer is a big part of it. Lam khyer means, can you take the normal events of your life and transform them into magical things?

The priest today, the pastor was talking about, what is it, magical? Magical moments, yeah. We're very much into magical moments.

We don't have a problem with that at all. I was kind of sad to hear that anyone would have a problem with magical moments. But it's okay, I understand it.

It means they don't want superstition or when it got out of hand. But for us, there's a whole school of practice called lam khyer, okay? Lam khyer means, can you take a normal event in your life and transform it into something magical?

You see? We went to, I told Rebecca today, in the evening I'd like to go eat a salad. And she said, where?

And I said, show me one of those hip new coffee shops around the 7th Street downtown area. I haven't seen them yet. And I want to learn them because I like to hang out in coffee shops.

When I did my three-year retreat, every night I was dreaming about Starbucks and sleeping, no, not sleeping, working in Starbucks, you know. And I said, take me to one of those hip coffee shops. So she said, okay.

There's one called Jobot? Jobot, like robot, but Jobot. And I said, okay, let's go.

We took a bunch of friends and we drove down to Jobot and Solei was with us. Where is she? Is she there?

She's asleep? Solei! Yeah, we took Solei.

Remember the place we went to? What was it called? Do you remember?

Red Hut, good girl. Okay, we went to go see Red Hut. Like we were supposed to go to Jobot, but when we turned the corner, there was Red Hut, okay?

So in Buddhism, there's this angel that lives in a red hut. And we decided that was significant and that we should stop it. We shouldn't go to Jobot.

We should pull over and go to Red Hut, okay, like angel's house. And we had a good time, okay? It is the same place?

Don't tell me that. It's like the pen. Never mind, it could be.

Anyway, okay, okay. Is it a pen or a tutorial? Okay.

The point is, why not make something magical, okay? Why not make something... If you have a chance, stop at Red Hut, don't go to Jobot, got it?

No, if you're headed towards Jobot, but you see Red Hut, then pull over. There's something, maybe something's supposed to happen there. Okay, got it?

That's a high Buddhist practice. That's called carrying, carrying a building into a paradise. Khyer du, lam du khyer, okay?

So, those of you who have studied, what is kusum lam khyer in the higher teachings? Yeah, you take your, what, your birth, your life and your death, and you make them into magic, okay? And that's called khyer, transform.

So, that's the word khyer. They say that you could transform the subsiding of your thoughts into a Buddha, okay? Got it?

All right. Verse 119. Seeing your random thoughts, seeing...

How are we doing on time? Two more minutes, okay? Then we'll take a break.

Seeing that your random thoughts are not a physical thing, understanding that our mind is not a physical thing, is not a point of view that stands in any way opposed to the way I consider things. We talked about it last night, okay? World views, world views, ways of viewing the world conflict with each other, like Titanic and an iceberg, okay?

Like they crash into each other, okay? And that happens throughout history. People believe the world is flat for 50,000 years, okay?

And then along comes Aristotle and says, but when the ship goes too far in the ocean you only see the mast, the world must be round. And suddenly the old viewpoint crashes into the new viewpoint and only one can survive, okay? One has to sink and one will stay, okay?

So, then Aristotle's viewpoint, the earth is round and it's the center of the universe. Bang! It hits into Copernicus.

And then, oh, suddenly Aristotle's earth sinks like the Titanic, right? It was there for a long time, like many centuries, okay? Then that bangs into Newton and then that bangs into Einstein and then he bangs into Tsongkapa, okay?

And somebody has to sink, okay? So, in this study of truth there must be a collision and then one viewpoint will survive, okay? So, what he's saying here is, get this, for example, if you say that the highest meditation is to think that, is to put your mind on the blue sky, think about the blue sky, okay?

Think about the blue sky. Will that affect how you see your husband when he yells at you? Is that in direct contradiction to believing that your husband comes from himself?

If your husband's yelling at you and you think blue sky, blue sky, blue sky, will you be okay? No, okay? The viewpoint that your husband is coming from himself and putting your thoughts on blue sky are not in contradiction.

They are not the Titanic and the iceberg. They missed each other. They never made contact.

There was no contact between those two viewpoints. They never collided, okay? And to think that, to think that when your thoughts subside, that's the Buddha.

And to have a, and to understand that your husband's not coming from himself, but rather coming from your, how you treated people last week. Those are not in contradiction, okay? You can sit there and think all you want that thoughts are just leaving your mind.

You can concentrate on that. It won't affect how you feel about your husband. Okay?

It's not in contradiction to your feeling that the husband is coming from himself. Got it? A meditation is not correct unless it collides with a wrong idea.

It has no effect. It doesn't have any benefit. Okay?

You can sit all day and think about blue sky, but it's not going to change how you feel when your husband screams at you. Okay? Now, other question.

If you come to the realization that if your husband screams at you, it's because you screamed at your own kids last week. Okay? Hold that thought.

My husband is screaming at me because I screamed at my kids last week and I planted a seed in my mind which opened and actually created my perception of a screaming husband. Got it? Hold that thought.

Does that collide with the belief that your husband is mean and wants to hurt you? Do those two thoughts collide? Yes.

Does one have to sink? Yes. That's Buddhist practice.

That's meditation. And only that is meditation. Got it?

Anything you can do which will collide with your old bad habits and create happiness in the collision, after the collision, that's Buddhist meditation. And nothing else is. Got it?

There must be contradiction. There must be collision. The new viewpoint must collide with the old and the old must sink.

Like, like Aristotle's round middle-of-the-universe Earth or the flat Earth or even Einstein's curved space that isn't curved because you, you were sneaky last week. Okay? Got it?

All right? Real Buddhist meditation must involve a new viewpoint which collides with an old one and destroys it. And anything less than that will not make you happy, will not make you peaceful.

Okay? Got it? It's very interesting.

Who said that? Who said that here? Your viewpoint is not in any way opposed to the way that I consider things.

Who said that? The devil. You want to get rid of me?

You better have a viewpoint that can touch me, that has something to do with me, because then otherwise I'm going to just sit here. Later he's going to say, if your viewpoint doesn't contradict how I see stuff, how does the devil see stuff? It's my husband's fault.

He's yelling at me for no reason at all. For no reason. The belief that anything can happen to you for no reason at all is the devil's way of thinking.

Then he says, until you come up with a way that is opposed to the way I consider things, I don't have a choice, I have to stay here. Get that. In about two verses he's going to say, you don't leave me any choice.

I have to stay in this mind because you haven't done anything to get rid of me. There's nothing that, there's no meditation you've been doing that would force me out of this mind. So, I don't have a choice, I have to stay here.

Got it? I must make this mind unhappy because nothing that you're meditating on has any effect on me. It's totally irrelevant to me.

Think about space. Think about blue. Watch your mind.

Watch thoughts go through your mind. Watch them fade from your mind. It doesn't have anything to do with me.

So, I have to stay here. If you would do anything to make me leave, I'd be happy to go. But you're just doing some random stuff.

You're like eating a pizza to make sure your car drives right or something. It doesn't have any relationship to me. Try to appreciate that, okay?

If the meditation you're trying to do doesn't change your viewpoint of where things come from, it won't do anything. It can't do anything because it misses the other thing. It's like the Titanic decided to go to Bahamas.

And the iceberg stayed up near Greenland. And they just never got close to each other, okay? If your meditation doesn't address the question of where stuff's really coming from, it's not going to change anything.

Okay? Alright. Okay?

We'll take a 10-minute $30 cookie break. Okay. Alright.

And I'll be sitting here if anyone wants to say hi. Okay. Hello, hello, hello.

We'll start again. Okay. I'm going to do about another oops, 10 minutes and then we'll, then I'd like to take questions if you have questions.

Okay, so think of some good questions. The cool thing about the questions is they don't have to relate to anything I've said today. And you can ask me any weird question you want.

And somehow I prefer it. So, any thought that came into your mind or any, especially any kind of doubt or question about what I've said, I like it when the, what do we call him? Pastor, when the pastor said today, push back, I like that.

So feel free to push back or if you want to explore something deeper, we'll do that in about 10 minutes, okay? Alright, we're going to go to verse 119. Seeing that your random thoughts are not a physical thing, understanding that our mind is not a physical thing, is not a point of view that stands in any way opposed to the way that I consider things.

To claim then that you could use this to drive me from your mind is nothing but a joke, much less saying that it's a way to see the reality body, okay? In Tibetan, those of you who care or are interested, it's the last three words in the Tibetan there. Say, kemo.

Kemone. Kemone. It means, that's a laughing stock?

Laughing. That's a big joke, you know. You're going to push the devil out of your mind by watching your thoughts come and go?

It doesn't have anything to do with me. You know, got it? It's like saying, I have an intruder in my house so I'm going to turn the sprinklers on or something.

It just doesn't... No, it doesn't do anything to your problems. It doesn't affect your problems.

It doesn't hurt them, it doesn't help them. It's just irrelevant. Watching the thoughts come and go in your mind doesn't do anything, okay?

Got it? Alright, verse 120. Some do a perfect analysis on the fact that things are neither one nor many.

They use it to think a thing and find that it's not there, then meditate on that. But this is just a meditation upon the major premise and not upon the proposal that there is no I that exists. It does not contradict the way in which I see things and it is not a meditation on why there is no me, okay?

This is subtle and this needs a lot of... This needs a lot of... We're going to be on this for probably a year or something at the rate we're going.

So, in Buddhism, there are many proofs for the idea of emptiness. I don't want... Someone came up to me during the break and said the idea of emptiness scared them.

It shouldn't be like that, okay? If someone explains emptiness to you half correctly, you should feel happy, okay? What's the emptiness in your home life when your husband yells at you, he's not there?

What does that mean? Is there someone yelling at you? Yes.

Is there a husband who is there? Yes. What kind of husband is that?

The one who's coming because you yelled at the kids last week. That husband's there, okay? Well, who's the husband who's not there?

The one who's not your fault. The one that you didn't cause is not there, and that's emptiness. And nothing else, okay?

Emptiness is not some like void thing or close your eyes and think of nothing or some weird om thing, om thing. Just forget all that stuff, okay? When somebody says emptiness, think husband yelling, or think pen, or something like that.

That's real emptiness. All the rest is just some two and a half thousand year old mistake. And it just doesn't help anybody.

Of course that doesn't help anybody. To think it means nothing or that nothing matters, why would that help anybody? It doesn't, okay?

Believing that your husband is coming, is yelling at you tonight because you yelled at the kids last week. Now that, that's useful. Why?

You can stop him from yelling next week. Can you stop him from yelling today? No, get used to that, okay?

It's too late, the concrete got hard already, okay? But next week, you can work with next week, okay? You can make your husband be whatever you want, okay?

You choose, and without talking or negotiating, without any kind of interaction with him, you can make him be whatever you want. I mean, that's power. He can wash the dishes.

He could cook, you know? I mean, the potential is unlimited. That's emptiness, okay?

So emptiness should be some kind of party or celebration, you know? I could make my husband into anything, you know? He could be like George Clooney and all these other guys put together, you know?

It should make you happy. The idea of emptiness should make you happy. If your husband is coming from his own side, then you have to fight, or then you have to negotiate, or then you have to ignore, or then you have to talk all night.

If he's coming from you, all things are possible. So when you hear the word emptiness, you should think, all things are possible. I can...

I can make my partner be anything. I can make any amount of money I want. My health could be...

I could be like... I could do ballet at 61. Okay?

Really, that's cool. That should make you happy. Emptiness...

If you understand what emptiness is, it should make you happy, and it should... it should open a whole new world of possibility, and you should feel excited about it, okay? That's the point of this class.

That's the point of what we're doing. It's not some weird, dark, cult, you know, weirdo thing. It's nothing to do with that.

It's all about making your husband wash the dishes, okay? So, verse 120 starts a long discussion, and it needs some background, okay? You need some background.

There are many proofs of emptiness in Buddhism, okay? There are many, many proofs of emptiness in Buddhism. The pen is one, okay?

The whole discussion of the pen. Okay, learn it. Be able to teach it to other people, because sooner or later you have to teach this stuff.

Sooner or later we're taking you on a tour to Paris, right Rick? That's what happened to him. It was a real hardship post, especially in the French restaurant.

Learn to teach it. What is this? A pen.

How does a dog see it? As a chew toy. Who's correct?

Both. When I put it on the table and the dogs and the humans go out, it's a... neither one.

That's emptiness, okay? Why does the dog see a chew toy? Why does the human see a pen?

They have different seeds in their mind. How do you put seeds in your mind to see a pen? Give away pens to other people with a good heart.

That puts seeds in your mind for pens. Then you won't be a dog, because, when you have the seeds in your mind to see it as a chew toy, you is a dog. And that's what makes you a dog.

Get used to that. Try to learn that, okay? That means you can switch into a dog in one day.

And that's what rebirth is all about, if you care. And you should, because one day it'll be relevant. If you have seeds in your mind to see this as a chew toy, and you don't share pens, then one day you will see it as a chew toy, and then you is a dog.

Try to feel that, okay? You don't have to die and go to a body factory and they stuff a new soul in your body or something. That's not how it works.

Your seeds shift slightly, and then you're suddenly a dog. You see this as a paw. It's the same thing you saw as an arm yesterday.

It's that fast, and it's that possible, because everything is coming from you, okay? So, one of the arguments for emptiness is the following. Can I have, Mr. Nyingbo, slide number 120A, whole pen?

It should say 120A, 120A. No? Okay, what's that?

How... It's a pen, I mean, don't bark at me. Okay, it's a pen.

Okay? Now, this is a... We're going to go off on a new...

on a very profound ancient discussion, 2000 years old discussion, okay? How many pens are up there? One, okay?

You answered correctly. Next slide. Is it one or is it many?

Is what you see in the photo one or many? It's many, okay? It's many parts of a pen.

I mean, I'm not trying to trick you. You don't have to say it's many pens. I didn't ask if it was many pens.

Is it a pen? Is it one thing or many things? Is it one thing or many things?

How many pens is up there? Go back to the last slide. Let's try to get this straight.

Alright, how many pens is up there? Now, try to feel something, okay? It's tricky.

Buddhist philosophy is so simple that it's difficult, okay? If you couldn't see the top, the part with the clip on it, and if you couldn't see the bottom part below the girdle thing, the middle, could you see the pen? Would you be able to see the pen if you couldn't see the top or the bottom?

Could you see a pen if you couldn't see the top and the bottom? No, you cannot, okay? Do you know that I have a...

Do I have a pen in my hand? No, sorry. Do I have a pen in my hand?

You can't tell. No, my right, this hand. Do I have a pen in my hand?

No, you can't tell. You can see a piece of it, right? But you can't say yes or no until you see the whole thing, okay?

Now, do I have a pen in my hand? Yeah, why do you say that? Because you can see the whole thing.

You can see the bottom and the top, right? So, I suggest that the pen is many. Because until you can see the many parts, you can't confirm that it's a pen.

Therefore, pens are many. Pens are more than one thing, right? A pen is more than one thing.

Because you must be able to see the top and the bottom separately. Hold on. You can't see the pen without seeing the parts of the pen.

Am I right or wrong? I mean, when you see a car, how do you know it's a car? You see wheels, you see doors, you see hood.

You don't have to see all the doors. Like, when you look at a car from the side, you don't know that there's doors on the other side, do you? Your mind sort of pastes together a complete car.

It could be somebody sliced the car in half and they're just showing you half, right? But we kind of fill in the rest of the car with our mind, okay? But the mind, the eyes, when you...

what do you call it? You hook up a person's eyes to those wires and their eyes go like this. They're always going like this.

They look at the wheels, they look at the steering wheel, they look at the windshield, then they look at the top, and then the mind creates a whole car. You never see a whole car. You cannot see a whole car.

You're always looking at pieces and then the mind glues the pieces together. So, is a car one thing or many things? It must be many things or you cannot see a car.

So, there's ten cars there, right? When you see a car. You just told me it was many things.

Huh? But if you don't put the... Okay, next slide, Ningbo.

Is that a pen? Can you write with that? No, okay.

Why not? Because it's not a one thing. So, tell me the truth now.

Quit playing with me. Is a pen one thing or many things? Yes.

You are really Zen Buddhist. Not either? Can you have a pen without having lots of stuff?

No. Can you have lots of stuff without having it come from a pen? He said many things that you call one thing.

One thing. What's one thing? Something less than two, I don't know.

No, I mean, how many pens do I have in my hand? One, okay. Is it one thing or many things?

It cannot be one unless it's many. That's the answer. And it cannot be many unless it's one, or else you would be including this in the pen, okay?

It cannot be one thing. If it were one thing, you couldn't see it. It'd be like one car.

You can't see one car. You can see the wheels and the door and the top and then your mind glues them all together, but if you don't, if your eye doesn't go like this, you can't see a car. It's not possible.

So, a car cannot be one thing. A car must be many things. But you only bought one car and you only have to drive one car home, I hope, at one time.

Okay, and what happens is you get confused, right? You're hoping I'll just tell you the right answer. My Lama was very bad that way.

He'd say, cook it! And he'd get up and leave, you know. The truth is it's neither, okay?

Or it's both, okay? It's not one thing. If it was only one thing, you couldn't see it because you have to look at the bottom and then you have to look at the top to see the whole thing.

You never see the whole thing. You can't see the whole thing. You can't see the whole thing without looking at lots of things.

Got it? But if all the parts were pens, then you'd have a whole pile of pens every time you had one pen. Right?

There's a problem here. It means it's an impossible question, okay? It's true.

If I say, is this one pen? You have to say, no. And then if I say, is it one pen?

You have to say, yes. Okay? So two opposite, you have to say two opposite things at the same time.

And that's the truth. Okay? That's the truth.

There is no pen there. Try to get this, people in Buddhist circles, they talk about self-existence or, what do they call that? Existing of its own accord.

I think that's all BS. Use the word, in. Just one two-letter word, in.

Okay? Is there a pen in this thing? Is there a hand in this thing?

Is there an arm in this thing? Not in it, okay? It's coming from me.

Is there a disagreeability in your husband? No. It's coming from you.

Okay? Is there anything in your husband? We say no.

Okay? That's emptiness. What you see is coming from you.

His hair, his face, his eyes, his form, it's all coming from you. There's nothing in your husband. Okay?

Try to think of it that way. All right? Is this one thing?

No. You can't see it if it's just one thing. Because you have to confirm it by all the parts, right?

Then is it multiple things? No, I mean, you can't use two pens at once. Is it neither?

Is it both? And the answer to all the above is no. Then how can it be anything?

If it's coming from you, then it's something. If it's not out there, that's okay. No problem.

You have to struggle with that. Okay? How do you see a pen?

What makes you see a pen? Why don't you see something? Why doesn't your mouth water when I hold this up?

Huh? Yeah, you have seeds in your mind to see a pen. Who planted those seeds in your mind?

Only you can. No one else can. It's not possible for another person to plant a seed in your mind.

I cannot give you anything. I can't teach you anything. Understand this, there are no words in my words.

There's no meaning in my words. If you hear something that helps you, it's coming from you, okay? If I bore you, it's also coming from you, especially that.

It's very profound. I mean, Nagarjuna wrote a book about it, you know. Words are...

the meaning of words are coming from you. If you understand something tonight, it's because you've been kind to someone else, not because of me, okay? You tried to share things with other people.

You tried to help other people. So you created me to talk tonight, and it means something to you. But that's all coming from you, okay?

It's very beautiful. It means you can have nice Dharma teachings anytime you want, you know. You don't have to wait for someone, okay?

Got it? So, is this one thing? We have to say no.

Is it two things? We also have to say no. And we also have to say yes.

And that's not a problem, okay? It's only a problem if it's not coming from your mind, okay? Why do you see a pen?

You have a seed in your mind to see a pen. Who put the seed there? You did.

How do you put a pen seed in your mind? Share pens with a good heart, okay? Offer pens to other people.

When you hand... here's a how to plant a karmic seed, you ready? It'd be nicer if I had another person.

Jigme, you ready? Quick. By the way, you get to ask questions starting in two minutes.

Think of something good. Hold up your hand high. Maybe you should stand up.

You look like a ballerina. No, I'm... yeah.

Okay, watch. I'm going to plant a karmic seed in my mind for a pen. Okay, watch.

Do you need a pen? Do you like this pen? Say yes.

Okay. I put it in your hand, and I release it, and I'm witnessing my hand release the pen. My witnessing my hand release the pen plants a seed in my mind for a pen.

How many pens? Someone in China said, Geshe-la, I don't understand. Why would you want to give a pen just to get a pen?

Just keep it. What's the answer? Yeah, I get ten times back.

Jesus said that. You know, this is a Christian church. Jesus said that.

You will get tenfold back. People plant one handful of corn and they get ten handfuls of corn back the next year. That's the way it works.

When you give one pen, you plant a seed in your mind. It grows under the ground. I have a very beautiful gardening teacher who teaches me gardening, and we were discussing irises.

Am I... Do you say ira? I don't know.

We were discussing irises, and they're like, you gotta... I said, look, the irises aren't growing as well as they were last year. And they said, no, you don't understand.

And I said, what? And they said, you have to split them. And I'm like, I don't understand what you're talking about.

And they said, irises split underground. They are rhizomes. And they...

Under the ground they split. Over the winter they split. They start to split.

So one iris bulb turns into two iris bulbs. And then they need twice as much water and twice as much nutrients, and they can't get it because they're competing with each other. So a good gardener digs up their iris every year or two or three years, and they split the bulbs and they spread them out so they can each have their own food.

Otherwise, they'll just keep getting smaller and smaller, okay? Seeds, karmic seeds in your mind split in the same way every 24 hours. They split every 24 hours, okay?

Give away one pen with real understanding today, you will have created two by the next day. You can create a $250 million company and know nothing about business. Nothing, no training at all, okay?

Just understand irises. Eye, right? Maybe that's what irritated, irritated, anyway.

Okay? You just understand that one thing. Give what you want.

Share what you want. Give away what you want. And then you will have tenfold.

Jesus said that. Buddha said every 24 hours it will double. If it's given properly, with correct intention, with love, that seed will double every 24 hours, okay?

That's how you plant a pen in your mind. And that's where pens come from. Because something's wrong with the way they are outside.

They cannot be explained otherwise. It must be that the seed opens in my mind, a small image of a pen comes out of that karmic seed and quickly goes onto this object from my mind. And that doesn't happen with the dog.

The dog doesn't have that kind of seed. The dog has a different seed. There's the karmic seed breaks open in their mind and flies out onto the same object and becomes a chew toy, okay?

Got it? It's not, the chew toy isn't in the chew toy and the pen is not in the pen. Forget all this self-existent word, verb, verbiage.

All those fancy Buddhist words, just junk it. Just say in. The pen is not in the pen.

Got it? The pen's coming from your mind, from a seed in your mind. And if you wanted ten pens, then give away one pen, plant a seed and wait a couple of days.

And then you'll have ten pens. Okay? How do you get the seed to grow faster than ten lifetimes?

That's the last thing I'll talk about tonight because that's cool to know if you want to use this in your life, in your real life, okay? If you want stuff to happen in your real life, you better know how to fertilize mental seeds. Okay?

So, I'll talk about it for one minute. Then you get to ask me questions. So, my mom, some friends of mine are here, they knew my mom.

My mom was so generous that we would not lock our door ever. We went on vacation once, we locked the door. When we got back, we had to break the window.

Because we all like, you got a key? And everybody's like, we never locked the house, why would we have a key? And we're like, oh, how do we get into the house?

We locked it. We had to break the window, you know? And anyone could come in and sleep in the house.

Anybody would come in and anyone could open the fridge and take whatever they wanted. So, people just came, you know? People came from all over.

One night, one morning my mom came and said, that guy who slept in my bed last night, he can't come again. And I'm like, what, were you in the bed? She said, no, no, I slept in your brother's bed.

And I was like, well, what was the problem? And then she says, this pistol was under my pillow. This loaded pistol was under my pillow.

That guy can't come home. He can't come back. But everybody else always just, they just came in and they ate our food.

We never had enough food because people would eat it. And we didn't lock the door. And she was the most generous person I ever met.

But she didn't get rich. What happened? She gave away pens all day and she didn't have any pens.

What happened? She didn't put fertilizer on those seeds. She didn't know how to water the seeds.

How do you water a karmic seed? I'll teach you that and then you can ask me some questions. Before you go to bed, when you lay down on your pillow, think about the good deeds you have done today.

Think about the kindnesses you have done to other people today. Today I gave someone a pen, who wanted a pen. That's the water on the karmic seed.

The Chinese told me, we have a new word for it, Geshe-la, in Shanghai. What's the new word? They said, the chicken has to sit on the egg.

I said, what are you talking about? The prana, you know, like the prana has to focus on the egg, on the seed, you know. I'm like, what are you talking about prana, seed, chickens?

I don't understand. They said, thinking about the good thing you did today is mama chicken. The good thing you did is like the egg.

Then when you focus on the good thing you did, the mama chicken sits on the egg. And then it gets warm. And that's your prana flowing into that seed from the thought.

And then the seed breaks open in like a week. Okay, got it? And they're right.

It was a good way to say it. So, we're going to change the DCI thing from coffee meditation to mama chicken sitting on the, on the egg, okay? It's just like that.

When you appreciate the good things you're doing or the good things you see others do, that's a mama chicken. And it sits on the seed and it makes it hot. And then it splits every 24 hours, okay?

It becomes like an iris under the ground of your conscious mind. It splits every 24 hours. Then you can make a $250 million company.

Or you can make stuff happen in your life, miracles, you know? Things that you wanted to happen your whole life you can make happen. Things that were impossible conventionally you can make happen, okay?

Weird stuff. Dreams you had your whole life, you can make them happen. It's very, very, very sweet.

Just sit on that egg. What does that mean? Think about the good stuff you're doing every night before you go to bed.

And if you can't think of stuff, then think about what other people are doing. That's okay, that counts too, okay? Then you plant a chicken egg and you sit on it.

Got it? I've just told you the secret to life. You know, you think I'm joking about mama chickens and stuff.

Try it, okay? You can make any dream you want come true. I've tried it and it worked for me, okay?

So, next time we meet we have to start talking about this idea of is it one thing or is it two things, okay? Or is it many things? And we have to explore that for like weeks.

And we will come to many new understandings about mama chickens. Okay, any questions? Yes, please.

Is there a microphone? The gentlemen over there.

[Speaker 2]
Geshe-la, thank you very much.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Please keep coming to teach us. My pleasure. How is it possible to plant seeds for things for which you have no prior knowledge or things that when they ripen will be completely new knowledge?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, great question. It means do you have to be able to conceive of what might grow out of the seed to plant the seed? And the answer is surprising.

The answer is the opposite. You can never know how wonderful the thing will grow out of your seeds, okay? Because...

Ningbo did the math one time. In a month, how many times? Something like two billion times, okay?

Try to imagine that. You see, if I plant a seed today and I water it, how? On my pillow.

People ask me, what's your secret? $250 million company. I say, sleeping.

Okay, put your head on your pillow, right? And just think about the good thing you did and the seed will split that night. And then it will split the next night.

Both sides will split again, that's four. And then eight, and then 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048. In a month you got a billion seeds, okay?

What I'm trying to say is if you understand this system, if you do good deeds towards others and if you appreciate yourself in a non-prideful way, if you give those things with true care and love for other people, if you help other people with, if you offer pens with real love for the other person, then what will come back to you in the space of a month is a billion times bigger. And that's like hard to wrap your head around, like, what's it going to be like, Geshe Michael? Like, I have an impossible dream, I want something to happen that's impossible.

And then I just tell people, plant the seed and check in with me later. And they're like, then they come back to me like a couple months later and they're like, it's incredible, you know, I got 100 times more than I expected. You know?

What I'm trying to say is you can never imagine how wonderful the result will be, because you can't even imagine it. It's not possible. You can't imagine it.

Plant the seed. Be happy every night in a good, honest, loving way about the good thing you did and things will come to you that you never even dreamed of. Okay?

That's what I'm trying to say. So, it's not the opposite. It's not that if you can't dream of it, you can't get it.

The fact is, if you plant the seeds, things will happen to you that you could never dream of. You cannot predict how awesome it's going to be. You could try to imagine it, but you're wrong.

It's not enough. Okay? It's cool.

It's like unbelievable. Okay? I never thought to make money like that.

I never thought of that. I never considered it. I never even thought about it.

I didn't want it. Okay? It will happen.

You can't stop it. People say, you should do good deeds without wanting a result. That's like saying, you should plant watermelons without wanting watermelons.

You can think that way, but you can't stop them. They're going to grow. If you want to, you can give them watermelons away.

And then what will happen? You'll have more watermelons. And that's okay.

Your friends will be happy. Everyone will have watermelons. Okay?

It's not a problem. It doesn't have to be a, what do you call, self-serving, that when you plant something good, goodness will come to you. You can't...

If you plant something bad, something bad will also come to you. You can't avoid either one. Okay?

Even if you don't want them, they will chase you. That's the nature of karma. You can't avoid it.

And it will double every day. Just plant sweet, beautiful, small things and big miracles will happen to you on a constant basis that you could never predict. So it's kind of fun.

It's a fun way of living. Last year, this August, the first time I went to China, I was extremely nervous. Okay?

I can't even say the whole thing. Okay? This August, we spoke in Tiananmen Square.

We taught the diamond cutter in Tiananmen Square. Okay? With the blessing of the government.

Okay? Who could imagine that? You know, the first time I went to China, I was all nervous.

I was nervous at the airport. Like I had these anxiety attacks at the airport. You know?

And then we just... You were there, right? Were you there?

No. Who was there? You were there.

Who was there? She was there. You can prove it, right?

It's awesome. Like, who could imagine that? How could you imagine that?

Okay? So what I'm saying is, plant the seeds. Don't worry that you can't imagine what's going to happen, because you can't.

Because it'll be better than that. Okay? I...

Who could imagine that? You know? Like I'm afraid to...

to... to walk in the airport. And then...

then I'm speaking in... in the Forbidden City. So...

The diamond cutter to the government, you know? It's weird. Okay?

You can't imagine what will happen, what will come. Plant the seeds. Sleep on them.

Let the chicken sit on the egg. If you don't think about the good stuff you did, the egg will sit there for a thousand lifetimes. Trust me.

Okay? You got to sit on it. The mama chicken has to come and sit on it.

Okay? Which means you have to think about the good things you've done, in a non-prideful way, in a clean way, in a happy way. And then that egg just hatches, bigger than you could imagine.

One more question. Anatole decides, this is how I get out of people being mad at me. I think Katie had a...

Katie got her hand up first. Okay, I'll repeat the question. How do you plant the seeds for a good coffee meditation?

So that process of when you lay your head down on the pillow, you think about the good things you've done, and the good things you've seen other people do, we call it coffee meditation. And it just comes from how my teacher taught it to me, my Tibetan Lama, how he taught it to me. He did it with a cup of coffee.

I don't suggest you do that, or you'll stay up all night. So, the question is, I teach this all over the world. We all teach it all over the world.

We teach thousands of people every month how to do this meditation on your pillow. And the weirdest thing is, we'll come back to a country in six months, and we'll meet people, and we'll say, so, did you get the baby, or did your company take off, or did that cancer go away? And they'll say no.

And then we'll say, well, did you do what we asked you to do? And they'll say, yeah, yeah, I did all the... I did all the karma you told me to do.

And then I'll say what? Did you sleep on it? Did mama chicken sit on the egg?

Did you think about the kindness you did before you went to bed? And they say, no. And then I'm like, why not?

And they say, it's too hard for me. I have trouble doing that. I put my head down, I start worrying about my finances, my credit card, my girlfriend, what my boss said this afternoon.

You know? Like, give me any other practice. That one's too hard.

Then I give them this lecture. Okay, you ready? You want to go deeper?

If something is true, if a method is 100% true and not just partially true, if a method is true, it should be easy. It should be the easiest thing to do. Okay?

And we feel guilty about that. We feel like it's not right. I should have to be crucified to do something meaningful.

You know? It shouldn't be that laying my head down on my pillow and thinking about the sweet things I did to people today should be the highest spiritual practice that a human being can do. It doesn't feel right, Geshe Michael.

It's got to be harder than that. I have to sweat spiritually to get any points at all. You know?

And it's totally wrong. If something is true, it should be easy and it should be the most powerful. Okay?

Laying your head down on the pillow and random thoughts about nice things you did for people today is the most powerful meditation you can do. Period. And it's the easiest one.

Okay? But we just resist it. It's weird.

It's really a global phenomenon. You can ask Christine. All over the world, people we know have trouble thinking good stuff about themselves.

I don't know why. We all have trouble. Okay?

We lay our head down and we start worrying and then you don't sleep. You know? Then you wake up in the middle of the night and you're like, oh no, my boss said that, my husband did this.

You know? And so, struggle. Okay?

Your mind, as you fall asleep, it will drift off to your problems. You will start with what I said. You will say, okay, Geshe Michael said I'm supposed to think about something good I did today.

Okay, I helped somebody, you know, get onto the Obamacare website, or you know, I helped somebody and do something impossible. And, you know, I really helped somebody today and I did a good thing and my boss said, I can't believe my boss would say that. And my husband, what's happening with my husband?

I don't know. And then your mind will drift away to your problems. What do you do?

Grab it. Just grab it, physically, and bring it, come on, sweetie pie. Let's come back.

Let's come back. You did such a nice thing today. Let's just, you can worry all day tomorrow, I promise.

You can worry all day tomorrow. As you fall asleep, sit, think about one good thing you did. Okay, I helped a person get there and, oh, but my boss said that thing.

And then you have to grab him again. And then there'll be a struggle. Then it will get nasty, I'm telling you.

Okay, it's like this. Come on, think about, now, my boss is, shut up, come back, think about the good, no, no, my credit card, shut up about the credit card. You did a good thing today.

No, no, my wife, my wife, shut up. Okay, what's happening here to this muscle? It gets stronger.

That's meditation. Meditation isn't some sweet, peaceful, I did a three-year silent retreat. It's like World War II.

Okay, people are like, oh, you must have been so peaceful. I said, yeah, like Vietnam was peaceful, you know. It's a war.

It's in the trenches and it's a struggle, but this muscle gets stronger. The meditation gets, the muscle in your mind gets stronger. So, people think, oh, I have to have a perfect meditation about the good stuff I did.

You make points when you lose a fight. It's the fight that makes you stronger. Okay, the first 20 times you try this meditation, you're going to go to sleep worrying about your credit card or something stupid that your partner said to you.

Okay, you're going to lose the battle, but fight. Okay, the scriptures say that the karma of the fight is a hundred times more powerful than easy karma. Okay, to struggle against your negative mind and fight to bring it to something good you did today, that struggle is a hundred times more powerful karma than to have a sweet, peaceful meditation.

You make more karma, hundred times more karma by the fight, through the fight. So, fight. Then he'll punch you and you'll lose.

Then next night fight him again, and he'll punch you again and you'll lose again. And then after maybe two months you'll have a good night. Okay, and then that's how it goes.

But if you don't fight, if you just roll over, okay, think about your credit card while you're asleep. When you go to sleep, you don't get any karma, you just waste your time. Fight.

Fight your mind. Okay, fight your desires, fight your laziness. Put up some kind of fight.

Say, I don't want to be lazy today. Okay, I'll sleep in. Okay, but the I don't want to be lazy today, it made you a lot of karma.

And one day it will, it will be more powerful than the laziness. Okay, just put up some kind of weakling fight. Okay, anytime you're like overeating or you're going to yell at your wife or you're impatient with your kids, put up a two-minute fight.

Pause for two minutes, then yell at them. Okay, and the karma will shift, the karma will change. Okay, you get huge karmic points for the fight, even when you lose.

Okay, and this muscle will get bigger if you fight with your mind. And that's meditation. Meditation is not some peaceful Aum thing and you just stay in some weird space.

It's not that. Real meditation is a war. Okay, and you get stronger, and your mind gets stronger, and then after a while your mind is like steel and you can do anything.

Okay, cool. So, your big assignment is to sleep. And just before you sleep, think about something sweet that you did.

And you can also think about sweet things you saw other people do. That has an extraordinary effect on the karmic seeds in your mind. Okay, every person here already has enough karmic seeds to be the Dalai Lama or whatever you want.

What's his name? Warren Buffet, who bought my company. Okay, you have enough karma already in your mind to be whatever you want, a saint or a wealthy person or a successful whatever.

But you didn't water it. You didn't put mama chicken on the egg. Okay, so you already have the seeds.

You already did enough good stuff because it increased a billion times every month. Just sit on it and you already have the karma in your mind. Okay, so your big assignment is go home, never lay down on your pillow without thinking about something good that you did or you saw someone else do.

That's all. That's all. And your whole life will change.

Okay, cool, easy. If it's true, it must be easy. If it's all complicated and difficult, it's probably something wrong.

Okay, got it? All right. We have a custom that before we go home we give away the good karma.

And there's a weird Tibetan prayer that Rosa's going to do. And you can just imagine that you're giving away all the good karma because we did a good deed. I'd like to thank the board of ACI for all the work they did and all the sweat they do.

I'd like to thank the sponsors who ate so well today and who pay for all, who pay for this every year so we can have free programs. So thank you for that. Okay, all right.

Sona Mi She Tso Tsog Shin Sona Mi She Le Chung He Dhamma Kunyi Togpar Shon Okay, cool. Thank you. Good night.

See you next time.