Дебаты дьявола с ангелом, часть 11: Стрельба по мишени с завязанными глазами (2017, Аризона), занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
Hi, so this talk has a strange history. We were, there was some, a group from China asked me, will I give two special days of talks for them on these two days, and I said yes. And then they couldn't come, and I think it's bad luck to cancel something, so I just decided to do it anyway.

And I thought it's a good chance to start again, the devil debates an angel. So, I was checking this afternoon how much we finished and how much we have to go. I started this text seven years ago.

We are 11% through it. So that's, we'll finish in two, yeah, 70 years, 2087. But if I have time, I'll try to speed up, okay?

So let me tell you about this text. My Lama taught it to me, he started teaching it, he never finished, and he only had 25 years. So he taught us this text, and it's a very, very beautiful poem.

It's a long poem, and in Tibetan language it's called dang dzin shang dep. Say dang dzin, shang dep. So dang dzin means the tendency to misunderstand the world, and shang dep means an argument or a debate.

And in America or in the West, we have this custom of the devil and the angel inside of one person's mind. Like if Geshe Michael's deciding whether to eat his third sweet roll in the same day, then the devil will say, oh yeah, that's okay, we can do yoga tomorrow. And then the angel says, well maybe two is enough.

And so all of us during our lives, we have times when our own mind is arguing with our own mind, right? And we're trying to decide what's the right thing to do. So this is the idea of this text.

To give you a little bit about the author, his name is Lobsang Chukgyi Gyeltsen. And he's, in Tibet they say he lived to 100, but he didn't actually. He lived, oh, I don't have it here.

Anyway, 92, something like that. And he was the first Panchen Lama, okay? So in Tibet there are two great lineages of high Lama, and the Panchen Lama is one of them.

He was born in 1662, I think, something like that. 1557, I don't know. But he's one of the highest Lamas in Tibet.

And the first one, as usual, was very special. And he was a great poet. He's a great philosopher.

We study a lot of his books. Three of the 18 advanced courses of ACI are written by him. And this is a Lam Rim called The Path to Bliss.

So he wrote that. So people who study Diamond Way, Vajrayana, in our tradition, they start with those three courses based on the first Panchen Lama's works. During those three courses—can you turn the mic down a little bit?

I could hold it like that. And I put in that Lam Rim, I spiced it with some of his poetry. He wrote a lot of tantric poetry, which was very beautiful.

And it's recited in some of the great tantric colleges in Tibet. So I translated that, and I threw some into the course. And without permission, one of my students published it.

So if you are feeling like adventurous, you can read it. And Jigme can tell you how to get copies of it, okay? And I found it on Amazon.

It's on Amazon. But it's pretty out there. So anyway, I like him especially because of the story that he was doing retreat near a certain valley in Tibet.

And his attendant came to him and said, you have to stop the retreat. And he said, why? And he said, there's a war going to break out this evening.

There are two armies headed towards each other. They're going to meet in the valley right in front of your cave. And there's going to be a war.

And so he said, well, I'll take care of that. And he left retreat, and he walked down, and he stood between the two armies. And he yelled at both of them and said, you want to have a war, you have to kill me first.

And nobody wanted to kill him because he was already famous. And then he said, let me meet with the two generals of the two armies. And they came, and he said, you know, I'm pretty famous.

And they said, yeah. And he said, well, you're going to have to kill me if you want to have this war. And they said, yeah.

And then he said, also, I have a lot of gold, you know. And if you don't fight, I'll make each of you rich, you know. And they said, that sounds good.

And so he actually is credited with stopping a war by bribing both of the two generals. So I just really admire him like that. It's rare in Buddhism to have people like that, you know, high lama who will go out and stand between two armies and risk his life.

And I really like him for that, OK? So I have this plan tonight. I thought tonight we could review what we did before.

Because we did start seven years ago. And then I stopped about three years ago because I was so busy. And let's see how it goes.

I don't like to not finish a text. So if there's interest and if my partner says it's OK, you know, maybe we can do one or two nights a month or something like that and try to finish it. Because it's very exquisite.

My lama started it. My lama started it, but he didn't finish it. It's a difficult text to teach because there's no commentary.

And it's colloquial. It's like, hey, man, what's up? And it's colloquial of his province, which is even worse.

So, but the ideas are classical. He's a classical thinker. So we can figure out, you know, the ideas.

We can figure out the language from the ideas, OK? So, and I'm at an age in my life and a point in my training where I realized if I don't translate it, nobody else can. So I might as well just try.

And Kamalashila is the same. We're going to do Kamalashila in about two weeks, right? And no one's taught it for a thousand years.

And a lot of it's very difficult. But I just figure no one else is going to have the training I had to try to read it and to crack it. So Kamalashila is also a problem.

There are no commentaries. And we are missing the Sanskrit. And I think the translator was drunk when he translated it into Tibetan.

So it's really weird. And we've been trying to get through it, you know. And, but I just figure no one else is going to be able to even try.

So let's go. OK, so far I'm pretty comfortable with this text. OK, I'm going to review for you the whole, tonight will be a review.

And then tomorrow we'll do new stuff. Unfortunately, it happens every time I teach this. And that's why it's so slow.

OK, so the name, the technical name of the whole book is Shilam de sum chakya chenpo ngo ngun dzin le tsam pa'i syurab dang dang dzin yi gyi shang dep Which means, this is a book about Mahamudra. OK, Mahamudra. And Mahamudra is a very famous word in India.

It can refer to many things, OK. One is a yoga pose where you hold this foot up to your ear and you grab the other toe. And that's a Mahamudra pose.

And it's supposed to open your channels in a very unique way. It's like holding your foot to your ear as if you're making a phone call. And then holding the other toe straight.

And that's called Mahamudra pose. Mahamudra can mean the practice of deep practice with your consort, with your man or woman partner. It can refer to that.

And in this case, Mahamudra refers to the emptiness of the mind. OK, and it's a special meditation to meditate on the emptiness of the mind. So the object of meditation in Mahamudra is your own mind.

And we have a version of it in DCI where we focus on the mind and we learn to watch the thoughts. OK, so normally we are in our thoughts and it's difficult for us to observe our thoughts as an observer. We tend to think and not to watch ourselves think.

So in Mahamudra, it's a famous object of meditation because it's moving. And its nature is to keep you awake in the meditation. To watch your own mind is a fascinating thing because it's so wild.

So instead of meditating on a Buddha picture or instead of meditating on death or something like that, you're watching your own mind. And so that kind of meditation where you watch your own mind is called Mahamudra. And you try to see the emptiness of the mind.

OK, and we'll talk about what that means. It doesn't mean you forgot where your keys are or something like that. OK.

Now, I'm just going to go quickly through the first 135 verses tonight. OK, my plan is... Do we have refreshments, you guys?

We do? Really? But OK, if we take a break.

OK, all right. There's Mexican food. OK, let's just go through these first few verses.

The very first thing he does... And by the way, later I will... Yeah, OK, we can use that.

I wasn't going to display it, but that's OK. We'll go for it. It's OK.

First thing he does, of course, is to honor his own teacher and to call his teacher the highest of all secret angels. Then he describes... And I've added these things in the bold print, just so you can follow where you are.

And the whole text so far has been... It was supposed to have been sent to everybody who's registered, so you could read ahead. I don't know if it was sent, and I don't know how many people read it.

But anyway, I added these headers to make life easier for you, so you can see where he's going. So the Maha Mudra or Great Seal. Mudra means seal, and it refers to the seal that a king uses to stamp things.

Nowadays, the American president, unfortunately, has a red box, and he's followed around by some Air Force colonel. And inside of that box are all the nuclear buttons, and it's chained to the colonel's hand. And it's always within 100 feet of the president, even if he's asleep.

There's a guy there, standing there. He can launch a nuclear attack in 15 minutes, any American president. I assume it's the same in China.

So anyway, you need some verification codes. If the people waiting with the missiles get these codes, they will shoot the missile. If they don't get the codes, they will wait.

There's a famous Russian guy who got the codes by accident and refused to pull the button. And he just passed away a few weeks ago. He's very famous.

He's called the guy who saved the world. So anyway, this is the same. In ancient times, if you got a letter from the emperor or the king, and it had the stamp on it, then you could attack Mongolia, or you could attack Tibet, or India, Nepal, if you got a stamp.

So that's called mudra. That stamp that a king uses is called a mudra. And in the case of a spiritual partner, which is also called a mudra, the explanation is that the king should never be without their seal.

And no one else should ever, you know, the king should always be close to their seal like the American president is close to their nuclear codes, you see. So it means that your relationship with your spiritual partner should be that tight. There should never be, you should never be far from your spiritual partner.

So that's why traditionally that partner is called a mudra. So here he's going to talk about mahamudra in three stages of life, which we call shi lam dir bu sum. Okay, say shi, lam, dir bu.

Shi, lam, dir bu. Be a little more animated, okay? Because it's nine and, you know, I know you just had food, which is a bad idea.

Okay, shi means foundation, lam means path, and dir bu means result. So shi means, how does the emptiness of the mind manifest itself in a normal person without any training, okay? Do they have mahamudra, okay?

And then lam means, while they're practicing Buddhism daily, what is mahamudra in that person's mind? And then dir bu means, after they achieve enlightenment and they become a Buddha, then how do we describe their mahamudra, okay? So we say shi, lam, dir bu.

There's three mahamudras, okay? And he explains it. Right now, if you notice the text, it sounds like someone just talking, okay?

Someone teaching. What is mahamudra in a person as they normally are? It's the true nature of their mind, okay?

And it's come along with mind since the beginning, since no beginning, okay? Buddhism says the mind has no beginning because a moment of the mind cannot be created except by a previous moment of the mind. It's a unique stuff.

Consciousness is a unique stuff. We don't believe that you will ever be able to create a mind with chemicals. The primary cause of mind, which is consciousness, must be a previous moment of consciousness.

So we believe, therefore, that the mind has no beginning and no end, okay? So you have always been here. You have lived in different bodies and different countries and different planets, but your mind has no beginning and the emptiness of your mind has no beginning, okay?

We'll talk more about the emptiness of your mind. Because people don't understand the emptiness of their mind, they have to live in pain, okay? Pain, I mean, on its most basic level, is that all of us have to get old and die.

It doesn't matter how smart you are, how strong you are, how powerful you are, how rich you are. We're all the same. Voltaire said, fellows sufferers for a day.

You know, we all have the same future. And that dismal future has been created by your mind, the condition of your mind. If you could understand the nature of your mind, you could change it.

Death would not be inevitable, okay? And then he says, the only way to stop misunderstanding in the mind is wisdom. And then he talks about, you know, everybody in the world sees the emptiness of their mind briefly as they die, okay?

During the death process, after your external senses withdraw, then you have a brief, you are briefly in the presence of emptiness, but you don't recognize it for what it is and you cannot use it because you're not trained. Every person during the process of death is in the presence of emptiness and doesn't recognize it, okay? And that emptiness during the death process, which some of you studied already in great detail, is called the clear light, okay?

And he says here, it goes from people who are at the highest bodhisattva level down to the insects on the, all insects have, they also are exposed to emptiness as they die, but they don't realize it, okay? If they could recognize it, they could get freedom, but they can't, okay? Then he talks about the first time you see, you use the emptiness of your mind directly, the first time you see emptiness directly, which is called the path of seeing, okay?

A big moment in a person's life. The next period on the path is after you see emptiness directly and you keep using it to perfect your life, okay? And then when you perfect your life, you become omniscient, you become a Buddha, okay?

And then he uses the tantric word for enlightenment, which is the union of bliss and voidness, dettong, and you can see emptiness directly and you can be an angel at the same time, okay? And then the conversation goes cuckoo, okay? Then the conversation gets chaotic, okay?

Whoever's talking, which sounds like the first Panchen Lama so far, okay? Whoever's talking says, by the way, and here's where the trouble starts for the next 70 years, okay? This is where the trouble starts.

He says, by the way, that Buddha that you reach is also empty, okay? The Buddha you become by mastering Mahamudra is also empty and if you don't think so, you have a problem, okay? So this Buddha has been born from two conditions, okay?

Number one, while the person was becoming a Buddha for millions of years, they made a prayer that they should become an angel who can help all beings. Then from their side, they made a prayer and then from the student's side, they were wishing to meet a Buddha, okay? So two things join together.

The Buddha made a prayer, when I become a Buddha, I want to help everybody and the student made a prayer, I hope I get to meet the Buddha one day, okay? And then those two causes create a Buddha. If the Buddha had no causes like that, they wouldn't be empty.

Because they have causes like that, they are empty. What does empty mean? They don't exist without those two causes, that's all, okay?

If there's no student who's ready to see them and there's no Buddha who prayed to be seen, then there won't be any Buddha, okay? Those two causes have to be there, okay? They have created the Buddha.

Therefore, the Buddha that you reach by practicing Mahamudra is also empty. Got it? Just, I always tell people, even if you don't understand, just nod.

Okay, then I'll keep going. Maybe you'll understand something later. Okay.

Okay. Then, if you think a Buddha exists from their own side and not from you, he calls it the biggest mistake you can make, okay? Right here he says, that's the biggest mistake you can make, okay?

And then right here, the discussion changes, okay? And somebody, the person who's been talking all along, which we thought was the first pension Lama, says, so, for right now and for the rest of all time, I will give you up. Okay?

That now it becomes a conversation. Someone's talking to somebody. So far, it's just like a teaching about emptiness, okay?

And progress through the path. And now suddenly says, somebody says, if you thought the Buddha you reached by practicing Mahamudra was real, then that's the biggest mistake you can make. And I don't want to make that mistake anymore.

So, take no offense, but it's time for you to leave. Okay? It becomes a conversation at this moment.

It's kind of cool. So, if we had a real class and if I was examining you tomorrow to let you into the class and I said, how did it become a debate? When did it become a debate?

You would have to say, well, he was talking about some people never see emptiness in their whole life and they don't hear about it. Okay? Are they exposed to it?

Well, especially when they die. It's right in front of people and they don't recognize it. Okay?

So, normal people, you know, they have no idea what you're talking about when you see emptiness, but they are swimming in it as they die and they don't recognize it. Okay? Then people are trained, they work, they work, they meditate, they study, they go to Lam Rim retreats and then they translate and then they get some breakthrough called path of seeing.

They see emptiness directly. And then if they work, work, work, they become a Buddha. But that Buddha is coming from people's seeds.

Okay? That Buddha is coming from... and if you don't think so, the idea that...

the idea that Buddha is not coming from those seeds is the worst idea you can have. So now, the person who's been talking so far says, so you gotta leave my mind. Okay?

Who's you? The devil. Okay?

Who's the devil? Yeah, not understanding that things are coming from your seeds, basically. Okay?

Not understanding that your world is coming from your seeds. And now the angel, which is understanding, says to the devil, I know enough now that you should leave the mind. There's a famous line in a cowboy movie from the 1940s, I think.

I tried to find it one day. And Gary Cooper or somebody says to somebody else, there ain't room in this town for both of us. You know?

Like, one of us is gonna die unless you leave. You know? And it's just like that.

So the angel is telling the devil, in one person's mind, in one person's skull, it says, one of us has to leave. And it's gonna be you. Okay?

Understanding says to, it's a really cute argument. It gets very sophisticated. Okay?

I counted today. Veronica and I were sitting, I was sitting in the car while she was doing the bees today. So I was just there as a policeman in case the bees got crazy.

And I said, I gotta work in the car. I gotta get ready for tonight. She's like, yeah, okay.

What are you gonna do in the car? I said, I'm gonna count how many wrong meditations the first Panchen Lama lists in his book so far. How many stupid meditations.

I call them ineffective meditations. Okay? Ineffective means they look like meditation, they feel like meditation, they have some mild effect on you, but they're not gonna help you get out of death and age, aging.

And they're not gonna help you get free. You know, they are ineffective. I call them ineffective.

Guess how many so far? 25. Okay?

He, in detail, he describes 25 ineffective ways to meditate. Okay? And then 26 is the correct one.

Okay. Well, sorry. Not exactly.

We'll get there. Okay. Now, I call it the entrance of an eternal false friend.

Follow me. In French or something like that. You gotta ask Seiji.

Here we go. Now, this is misunderstanding talking back to the angel. This is the devil talking back to the angel.

Okay? Look, as long as this mind has been here, I've been here. Okay?

And the person you're trying to kick out is the person who took care of you all these years. I took care of Michael. All these lifetimes, I took care of Michael.

I loved you like a father. I loved you like a mother. I cared for you with love.

I gave you food and clothes. Okay? Who's talking?

The devil. Okay? I was the one who brought you to the ultimate dharma of wanting things.

Okay? And the other two poisons. You know?

I was the one who wiped from this mind any desire to do good karma. Okay? I'm the one who took care of you.

Okay? And then wisdom says, you know, I made her a girl because in Buddhism we say wisdom is a left-hand practice. Right?

Vamamarga. It's a feminine quality. Wisdom.

So I made her a girl. I made him a guy. I hope that's okay.

Then she says, oh, you've been in the mind forever? And he says, yes. And she says, but there is no mind.

Okay? All right. That's where the conversation goes.

How could you have been in the mind? There is no mind. Got it?

Just nod. Okay. Absolutely speaking, what does that mean in Buddhism?

It means without my seeds from how I treated people in the past. Okay? Without those seeds from whether I treated people well or I treated people bad in the past.

Without those seeds, mind doesn't exist. Nothing exists. Okay?

Everything's coming from seeds in my mind. Okay? So, actually, who are you to argue with me?

Because you don't exist either. Devil don't exist either. And the place you want to keep, the house you want to stay in called this mind, this guy's mind, Phil's mind, that doesn't exist either.

Okay? The guy who wants the apartment doesn't exist and the apartment doesn't exist. What kind of argument are you having with me?

Got it? Just, yeah, yeah, I got it. Okay.

Now, now the devil says, oh, yeah? Well, if I don't exist and the mind doesn't exist, then you don't exist either. Okay?

He says to the angel, you don't exist either. So, how can you be standing there arguing with me if I don't exist and the mind we both want to take possession of, they both want the same apartment. Okay?

If the apartment doesn't exist and I don't exist, then you don't exist either. Why are you hassling me? Okay?

And anyway, who are you to say nothing happens? You know? Who are, who are you to say nothing exists?

We all know Buddha said causation. What's that t-shirt, Scott? Inquil.

Cause and effect. Come on. Your teacher taught that, not me.

Okay? Of course I exist. I come from cause and effect.

The apartment exists. It comes from cause and effect. You exist.

You come from cause and effect. What are you saying I don't exist? Your teacher said I exist.

Independence. On dependence on causes. Dependent imagination.

Don't give me this crap about there's nobody here. Your teacher said we're here because of causes. Okay, got it?

This is a pretty cool devil. He's quoting Buddhism to the angel. You know?

Don't tell me I don't exist. I exist in cause and effect. I'm dependent imagination.

Your Buddha said that. Okay? If anyone's gonna leave, you should leave.

Okay? Why? Because, and then he calls her, Miss Nothing Exists in an Ultimate Way.

He says, Miss Nothing Exists in an Ultimate Way. If anyone leaves, you should leave. Because you are denying that things can exist nominally.

Okay? What do you call that? Relatively.

Okay? What's the other word? Conventionally.

Yeah. Okay? You're the one that should leave.

You're the one who's contradicting the Buddha. Because you're saying that even on a day-to-day level, nothing exists. Okay?

Then you should get out of here. Because the Buddha said that's the wrong idea. Okay?

You can't say ignorance doesn't exist. I'm cause. I'm dependent.

I'm dependent imagination. Okay? Little Miss Nothing Exists in an Ultimate Way.

What about all the other stuff that's not ultimate? What about stuff that comes from causes? Normal stuff.

Are you saying I don't exist? Okay? Got it?

He's cool. He's not a fool. Then wisdom says.

Okay? Now, this is tricky. And this is a big point fight between the two middle way schools.

Okay? Lower middle way says nothing exists in an ultimate way except correct deceptive things. Okay?

Except things which have causes. You know? So, like, I don't know.

You're stopped at the stoplight. Your car goes back. Sorry.

The car next to you goes back. No. The car.

Two cars on either side. At the same moment, at a red light, they back up. And you think you're going into the red light.

And you're like, like that. Okay? It's just relative.

You are tricked into thinking that. But it's not true. Your car's not moving.

You don't have to slam on the brakes. Okay? Life is like that.

A wrong reaction to relative things. Now, what if your car really does slip into the red line? You see?

Got the difference? In the first case, it feels like your car slipped into the red line. But it's just relative.

Okay? In the second case, your car really did slip into the red line. Okay?

They're both called normal reality. Not ultimate reality. They're both normal reality.

But one is a mistake and one's not a mistake. Okay? In the lower school, lower middle way, they say there's two kinds of deceptive reality.

Real and unreal. And neither one's real. Got it?

Neither one's ultimate. But you know, there's normal perceptions that are correct and there's normal perceptions that are wrong. Like your car going into the red line.

Okay? Got it? Anyway, we'll talk about it.

And if, you know, if according to you, my karma isn't producing the world. Okay? Who's talking?

The angel. You're always 50% chance to be right. Okay?

And she says to him, you know, if things don't come from the seeds in my mind, then they would have to be unchanging. Okay? Me and Veronica were talking about an example.

Try to understand. Okay? When I use a pen.

Okay? When I write something on her folder. Okay?

Ready? I'm— Here, let me just mess it up. I'm writing something on her folder.

Yeah. Okay, I'm writing something on this folder. All right?

Did the writing come from the pen? Even in a relative sense. That's the question here.

Did the pen make the writing? No. You see, lower middle way says yes.

The writing came from the pen. Okay? Higher middle way says what?

My mind is— Images are opening out of karmic seeds in my mind. Pen. Pen.

Pen. Movement. Movement.

Writing. Writing. Okay?

The pen doesn't make the writing. The seeds in my mind make the pen. The seeds in my mind make Geshe Michael's hand move.

And then the seeds in my mind project writing. The writing is not coming from the pen. The pen came from my mind.

The movement of the hand came from my mind. And the writing came from my mind. Okay?

Got it? So, in the higher middle way, highest school, nothing's coming from the pen. The pen doesn't work.

Okay? The pen doesn't work. Cool?

In the highest middle way. Well, what's the use of that, Geshe-la? You know, if I have to sign a check, I'll just sign a check.

Why do I have to know that? Why is it important? Because you can make anything you want happen at all.

Okay? You can make anything happen in your life. If the writing was coming from the pen, you're stuck.

Okay? If the writing's coming from the pen, you're stuck. You have no future.

You must die. Okay? And you must lose everything you worked for in your whole life.

And your children. And your family. Okay?

If the writing's coming from the pen. But, if the writing's coming from your seeds in your mind, then you can change anything. You could even make cell phones not ring during the class.

Sorry. Okay. Okay?

If the writing was coming from the pen, according to the higher middle way, it could never change. Okay? On a practical level, if the world's not coming from your seeds that you plant by how you treat other people, then life is finished.

You have no hope. You will get old. You will die.

And you can't get the things you want in your life. It's not possible. Okay?

They're not coming from you. They're just happening. Okay?

All right. All right. So, then Miss Wisdom says, can one thing be hot and cold at the same time?

Like one, we have a tea kettle, right? It gets too hot. We bought a new stove.

We bought a gas stove. And the tea kettle we have is too hot. You can't touch it.

You have to use a, what do you call it? Pot holder. But at the moment that that thing is too hot to touch, okay, can it also be too cold to touch?

No, it's not. It can't be all hot and all cold at the same time. Okay?

It's either hot or it's cold. Hot and cold cannot live together in the same teapot. It's not possible.

You put the teapot in the freezer for a couple hours, it'll be cold. You put it on the stove for 10 minutes, it'll be too hot to touch. But they can't be both at the same time.

Okay, why is he saying that? Why is the angel wrapping up her little section here that way? What's the point she's making?

Yeah, but talk about the apartment. Yeah, okay. You're hot, I'm cold.

You know, you can live in this apartment or I can live in this apartment, but we can't live in here together. Why? Because the way you see things and the way I see things is completely opposite.

You think the writing is coming from the pen. I think the writing is coming from the mind. It can't be both.

It's got to be one or the other. You know, okay? So that's crucial for this text, okay?

You got to understand that in this text, only one person can get the apartment. Okay? Either you're going to have wisdom in your mind, or you're going to misunderstand for the rest of your life.

If one moves in, the other has to move out, okay? And that's what she says here. She says, we are incompatible.

Why? The way you look at the world and the way I look at the world is just fundamentally different, okay? You think the world is atoms bumping into each other after the big bang and that's what created Trump.

Just random, okay? And I think it has something to do with how we treat people. That we have to see what we have to see, okay?

Got it? But those two opinions are, they can't both be right. Somebody has to be wrong.

Somebody has to move out of here, okay? Got it? Both of them want the apartment.

It's a fight about a Russian apartment, right? In Moscow or something. Okay.

Then he quotes Dharmakirti, who says, they are incompatible, okay? And one has to win. One of them is looking at something which could never exist, okay?

One of them is looking at something which could never exist and the other is looking at something which is truth. Got it? What's the thing that can't exist?

What's it called in Tibetan? Yeah, Gakja, okay? I don't know why, but people can remember this word and sometimes I just use it in a translation because it's it's such a cool word.

Say Gakja. Gak Ja Gakja Okay, what's a Gakja? Writing on Vimala's folder that came from the pen.

Something which could never exist. How do they describe Gakja in DCI? No, wait, wait, wait.

Huh? Yeah, that's okay, but the Buddha, whenever he talked about this, he said, didn't exist in the past, could never exist in the future and it don't exist now. Okay, what's that?

Writing which came from the pen. Couldn't exist in the past, will never exist in the future and it doesn't exist right now. Okay?

Impossible thing, okay? Well, where did the writing come from? Your mind, okay?

Well, why did it come right after I put the pen on the paper? I don't know. You made the comment right after that.

Okay, got it? It's not coming from the pen. It's very important, okay?

Money doesn't come from working. Okay, boyfriends don't come from going to nightclubs. There's no connection.

Got it? It's very interesting. Okay.

Then Shantideva says, if you don't understand, if you cannot identify what's not there, then it's hopeless, okay? If you can't identify what's not there, it's hopeless, okay? Who is that?

I'm not going to do the two husbands things. You guys know that. Okay.

To succeed in Buddhism, to get enlightened, you have to be able to tell me what's not there, okay? What's emptiness empty of, okay? And in a simple way, you can say, a boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife who's not coming from you is impossible, okay?

No such thing, okay? Every irritating person you ever met was a mirror of you. That's the bad news.

The good news is you can change them without talking to them because they're coming from here, okay? You can change your husband. Change the seed, he will change.

He doesn't have choice, okay? If he's not coming from you, then you should argue and fight and divorce and do whatever, shoot him in the American way. Okay.

Okay. Okay, now, the bad mind, the devil, he's going to give his answer. Okay, you ready?

Listen, I've been staying in this apartment since it was built. When was it built? Yeah, no beginning, okay?

I've been staying in this apartment since it was built which never had a beginning. Okay? I've been living here, all right?

Have mercy. Let me stay, you know? And I'll tell you why.

If you didn't have me in your mind misunderstanding the writing on Vimala's folder, you would not have the sense to take care of yourself. Okay? You wouldn't go out and get things and compete with other people.

You'd be starving, you know, without me. Okay, now he's drawing a... he's drawing a connection between two things.

What? Selfishness depends on misunderstanding the pen. Okay?

To think, you know, that you can compete for money or you can compete for girlfriends, you know, to think that can only happen in a mind which doesn't understand where things are coming from. The whole idea of competition and taking care of myself before I take care of you depends on misunderstanding the whole world. Okay?

Why? What if you do understand where the world comes from? You got to take care of other people first.

Why? Because you want things. Okay?

The only way to get things is to give them. Okay? It's very cool.

Okay? The only way to get anything is to give it. You see?

But he... So what... Now listen what he says.

Come on, you don't want me to leave your mind? Who's gonna... Where's your sense of self-preservation?

You kick me out, who's gonna take care of you? Who's gonna watch out for number one? Okay?

All right, got it? Just not... This is his argument.

Why? Because misunderstanding the world is the source of selfishness. Taking care of number one.

Okay? If he left the apartment, what would happen to selfishness? It couldn't exist there.

Why? Because the angel understands to get something I have to give it. You see?

The angel understands that. Okay? The angel has a sense of self-preservation, but it's an intelligent sense of self-preservation which takes care of the other person first.

Got it? But he's making a wrong claim. What's he saying?

Oh, you kick me out of your mind, you're in trouble man. Who's gonna watch out for number one? Okay?

Who's been taking care of you all these years? Without me, you would starve. All those people would out-compete you.

You wouldn't know to take care of yourself. You need me. Okay?

It's kind of cute. All right. If you kick me out, hey, you would lose your oldest friend.

And who's gonna come back? Who's gonna want to hang out with you? Okay?

It's also shameless. What kind of bad karma are you gonna make if you kick me out of my apartment? Okay?

Okay. Then the thing that— the idea that you're gonna take over the apartment and you're gonna be the new wife of our mind is really bad. Okay?

Okay? That's a very bad idea. Okay?

My lease on this place is permanent. Okay? Many people have threatened to kick me out of this mind in the past.

Many lifetimes this guy has tried to meditate. Always fail. Okay?

He tried so many times to evict me. You know? He tried so many times to get the apartment back.

It's just like Chun Tzu's apartment. Right? How many years are you in this apartment?

Never mind. Since she was a teenager, she lived in the same rent-controlled apartment in New York. Do you know how hard they've tried to get her out of there?

It's the same thing. But she's a Buddhist nun, so it's not gonna happen. Okay.

He says, Look. Many people, you know, in the past, they said, Oh, I'm gonna purify my mind. I'm gonna start thinking right.

I'm gonna start practicing Buddhism. They all failed. Okay?

He says, Why? I gave them my blessing. And I'll tell you something else.

Until you reach the seventh bodhisattva lama, I don't even start to move out. Okay? What happens at the seventh bodhisattva lama?

It was my pre-Geshe examination debate. Yeah. You stop seeing the world coming this way.

Okay? After you see emptiness directly, you understand it's coming this way, but you don't see it that way. It's still...

That's what we call maya, illusion. It still looks like it's coming this way, but you know you're wrong. You know you're wrong, but you can't stop.

Okay? At the seventh bodhisattva lama, you can stop. He says, Look.

Even up to seventh bodhisattva lama, very, very high saint, they still have me in the apartment. Okay? I'm still there.

Up until the seventh bodhisattva lama. But you're just a normal dude. What hope do you have?

You know? High bodhisattvas, very high bodhisattvas, I'm still living in their apartment. Okay?

What chance do you have of kicking me out? Come on. Now, in fact, if you want to know the truth, it's called the stain.

Okay? Which means the subtle effects on your mind of ignorance stay in your mind up to the tenth bodhisattva lama. Okay?

Do you have manifest ignorance? No. Are his clothes still in your apartment?

Yeah. Okay, got it? His stuff is still there.

Like you kicked him out, but his stuff is still in all the closets. Seriously. Okay?

Like the potential to start thinking wrong again exists all the way up just almost to Buddhahood. Okay? So, you're a normal person.

Are you kidding me? You don't meditate every day. You get in fights with everybody.

You're so selfish. You're going to kick me out? Are you serious?

My clothes are still in a tenth level bodhisattva's closet. You know? And you say you're going to kick me out?

Come on. He's like, I own this place. Okay, got it?

Miss Wisdom, you visit this apartment very occasionally. I live here. Okay, got it?

Got it? Okay. And by the way, I brought all my friends to live here too.

Okay? You know people like that. They ask you, can they stay at your house for 10 days?

Two years later, they're still there. And then suddenly, their three friends are there also. Okay.

So, ignorance is like, by the way, I'm not the only person living in your apartment. I brought my other friends. Who are they?

Refusing to share. Jealousy. Deceit.

Pretending to be someone you're not. Vanity. Pride.

62 kinds of wrong view. Laziness. Refusing to think of others.

We're all here living here. You know? It's not just me.

My whole family is here. Okay? We've been living here for all of time.

You think you're going to kick us all out? You know? I'm not alone here.

I got like 64,000 friends. 80? 84,000 friends.

You are the occasional flash in the pan. I'm staying here forever as the confidant of this mind. If someone should go, it's you.

Okay? Miss Wisdom. Okay?

And then you made me out to be a demon. Okay? I'm your younger brother.

You like, you put horns on my head. You tell everybody I'm really bad. Okay?

Then you're going to kick your younger brother out? You know? I come along with you.

Okay? Then he makes a very powerful argument. Okay, ready?

Who put me in this mind in the first place? Who put me here? Karma.

Okay? Karma put me here. And every Buddhist knows karma is more powerful than the Buddha.

Okay? The Buddha cannot cancel karma. Okay?

The Buddha cannot say, oh, oh Vimala, you know, you kicked the dog yesterday. It's okay. No, no result.

You know, don't worry about it. I washed you, you know, and I don't worry about it. It's gone.

You know? Not even a Buddha can do that. Then this very nice argument from the devil.

He says, who put me in the mind? Who put me here in the beginning? Who put in there?

Karma. A Buddha cannot cancel karma. You going to cancel karma?

You know? I'm here. I signed a contract with the Buddha to live in this apartment.

Got it? Okay? I was put here by karma.

Buddha cannot cancel that contract. Okay? Don't talk about making me leave.

Karma put me here. Here. Every Buddha of all time, working together, trying all the miracles that a Buddha can do, cannot stop one minute of karma.

Okay? Even if all the Buddhas in the world decided to team up against me and kick me out of this apartment, it's not going to happen. Because who put me here?

Karma put me here. A Buddha cannot cancel karma. Okay?

My contract for this apartment is airtight. Got it? All right.

And then wisdom says, PHUNG PO'I GZHON NAS PHUNG PO'I TSUL Say PHUNG PO'I GZHON NAS PHUNG PO'I TSUL Now if you don't know good Tibetan culture well, this is going to be impossible. So there's this story about this guy who had a herd of 50 jackasses. And every day he takes them out to the pasture on the mountainside.

And he feeds them. He rides around, you know, and checks on them. And then he's come, when he comes home, he has to count the 50 to make sure he's got everybody.

Okay? And then one night he's out riding. He gets 49.

And he says, Some snow leopard has eaten my jackass. He rode everywhere and couldn't find number 50. He's on it.

He's sitting on it. Okay? You're riding out on the donkey to look for the donkey you lost.

What's it mean? The fact that you're here makes it impossible for you to stay. The fact that karma signed the contract with you is why you have to leave.

Don't tell me you're going to stay forever because you got karma on your side. The reason you have to leave is because you got karma on your side. What's it mean?

Karma always runs out. You know? That's why people get old.

That's why trees fall down. That's why nations finish. Right?

Don't tell me you got karma on your side. If you got karma on your side, you're out of here. Got it?

Anything you get by karma is going to be lost. Okay? Don't tell me karma signed the contract.

If karma signed the contract, I'm in fat city. You'll be out of here. Got it?

What's it got to do with the donkey? You think I have no right to be here, but you're riding on the right to be here. Got it?

Because you're riding on karma. Got it? Okay.

This is just review, okay? And then she says, you want to know who's really been in this apartment forever? It's wisdom.

Because emptiness has been in this mind forever. The capacity for freedom has been living in this mind since it was designed. Okay?

You can't make a mind without putting in the capacity for freedom. It's part of every mind. Mahamudra.

The emptiness of this mind is the key to the liberation of this mind. You want to talk about who's been here forever? I've been here forever.

Why? Because this mind itself is flowing out of seeds from the past deeds of this person. Therefore, there's no part of this mind that came from nowhere.

Therefore, this mind is nirvana-ble. Got it? Okay?

Don't tell me you've been here forever. I've been here longer. Okay?

When they built this mind, they put the key inside. Okay? Got it?

Just nod. But, okay, last three lines here. Okay?

That primordial Buddha, the Buddha that was put into you from the factory when you were built. Okay? That's been there all along, but it's veiled by things that are not innate.

They can be removed. Okay? The veils can be removed.

Okay? The nature of a human being is pure. The nature of the human mind is beauty.

Okay? And it's veiled. And it will be the veil will be removed and you will see what a human mind is.

I'm the one who's been here forever. The human mind is angelic. It's its nature.

It came out of the factory that way. There's parts of the mind which are not built in, which came later and they they made a curtain. And we tear away the curtain and you'll see the angel that this person has always been.

It's called the primordial Buddha. Okay? Cool?

She's got a cool argument. If anybody's ruining our happy home, it's you. If anyone put devil horns on your head, it was you.

As long as I live here, you're gonna be homeless. And I don't care. Now, those of you who are interested, ten sa ten pur gang du che.

ten sa ten pur gang du che. Okay? There's an ancient custom in Tibet that started with Padmasambhava.

Okay? The first Buddhist Lama, big Lama to come to Tibet. He brought a dagger, a holy dagger.

You've seen these ritual daggers, you know? And there's called, it's called ten pur. That dagger is called a purpu, ritual dagger.

And when he came to Tibet, he knelt on the ground and he drove the dagger into the dirt and he said, this belongs to the angels. This land belongs to the angels. He staked it out.

You know? So those of you who are translating, this is a tough... It means you have no right to stake your claim here.

Who's talking to who? Yeah, the angel says to the devil, you put your dagger back in your pocket. Because you don't own this place.

Okay? We claim this place already. What?

The human heart is ours. Okay? You've got no right here.

It's not your place. You go someplace else. The human heart is mine.

Okay? Very beautiful. Okay.

Now, okay, here's where you guys get in trouble. But if you still say you want to put your dagger here, just listen to some logic I have about where the world comes from. Okay?

Just listen to a few things I have to say about where the world comes from. And I think you will tear your own house down. Okay?

Got it? So, you're in trouble now. Why?

The first penchant, Lama is about to present 25 wrong meditations. And he's going to present them and and blow them up. One by one.

The rest of the hundred pages, okay, is all the kinds of stupid meditations you can get sucked into. And then one by one, he will explode them. Okay?

So, this is a long list of... You know, I was going to translate it as wrong meditations, but it feels like judgmental. You know, I don't want to say someone's meditation is wrong.

I like to call it ineffectual. Ineffective meditations. Okay?

They won't get you anywhere. You will... You will do them and you will die and you will go to hell.

Frankly, I don't say that in a DCI talk, but this is an ACI talk. In this little room, I can say what I want to say. Okay?

Waste your life on a meditation that doesn't free you, you're in trouble. Okay? You're in trouble.

All right? It's like drinking poison or something. Okay?

So, he's going to have 25 before he gives you the right one. Okay? So, as we go through these 25, why does he teach it this way?

Because every one of us is attracted to one of those 25. Me too. Every one of us would be attracted to some of them.

So, in Buddhism, there's this way of teaching where you list all the mistakes one by one and then finally, you hit one that says, wait Geshe-la, that one sounds good to me. Yeah, well, that's your problem. Okay?

So, we're going to go through 25 different kinds of meditation that they're just a waste of your life and you will die. And you will never know what happened. Okay?

You will just get old and die. Okay? Doing this stupid meditation.

Not stupid, but it didn't work. I call it selling fire extinguishers that don't work. And you don't know until you have a fire and you push the button and nothing happens.

What's the fire? The week you're dying. The week you're dying and then you're like, pull out this meditation you've been doing for 10 years.

Oops! It doesn't work. Okay?

Oops! And it's too late. I get at least one letter a week from people who used to be my student saying, help me.

I got cancer or or something. I swear I get a letter every week and it's, help me. I got one, Jiggy, we should not hear.

I got one from a lady in Phoenix. She said, I got it last week. My mother's dying.

Help me. Teach me, teach me all you know about death and death meditation. I've been teaching it for two years at Diamond Mountain.

You didn't come. And you want me to write you an email? You know what I mean?

And inevitably I get this and it's frustrating. You know? So anyway, stop kvetching.

All right. You can search from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. You will never find out if you are the sum of all your parts put together.

Okay? You won't find anything. Let me make it simple.

Okay? Because many lamas teach this in a ridiculous wrong way and it doesn't make any sense. And you, someone told me, a Chinese guy told me, when you go to China, say confusing stuff.

People will respect you more. You know? I'm like, no, but it's not confusing.

They're confused. The teachers are confused. Okay?

Are you the sum of your parts? No. Okay?

Is Geshe Michael, does my body equal my legs plus my arm plus my head plus my torso? Is that Geshe Michael's body? All those things together.

First of all, let's do simple. Is my foot Geshe Michael's body? No, that's easy.

We don't have to talk about it. The hard thing is, is my two legs and my two arms and my head and my torso, is that all together? Is that Geshe Michael?

Buddhism says, no. Okay? Why?

One part's missing. One part's always missing. What's the last part?

The seeds in your mind. The seeds in your mind. Okay?

People who have Alzheimer's, they forget who their kids are. Their kids come to visit them and they're like, who are you? Okay?

It means the kid is not the kid because they can't think of the kid as the kid anymore. When you can think of this body as Michael's body, then it becomes Michael's body. Why do you think of Michael's body as Michael's body?

Karma forces you to. Okay? Karma forces you to.

Why? Because you served the sick in the past. And that put a seed in your mind to see a human body.

Okay? That's how you got your human body. You served sick people in the past.

Okay, got it? If you didn't serve sick people in the past and you had these two arms and two legs and a head and a body, you wouldn't see it as a body. Okay?

You wouldn't have a human body. You only see it as a human body because you served the sick. Okay?

Stop serving the sick. You will lose this body. Okay?

Coming from you. That's the final part. So, are you your arms and legs and middle and head?

Yes or no? Are you individually? Is my foot Geshe Michael?

Body. No. Is all of Geshe Michael's body parts together Geshe Michael?

No, there's one part left. The karma to see it as Geshe Michael. Got it?

That's easy. Okay, so forget all the other explanations you heard. They're all wrong.

And they feel wrong. Because they are. Okay?

You are not your parts. You are in the void. I'm going to kick you in the ass part with my leg part.

How do you think about that? Okay, never mind. I shouldn't say bad words.

Somebody's going to yell at me at home later on. Okay, that part's easy. It's the same with your mind.

Okay? It's the same with your mind. Take all your emotions.

Take all of your knowledge. Take all of your mistakes. They don't equal Michael's mind.

Okay? Until... I have helped depressed people.

Or I have helped people with emotional trouble. Okay? And if I have, I will experience the parts of my mind as a mind.

And if that wears out, I will get Alzheimer's. Got it? Okay?

Got it? Are you all the parts of your mind together? Are you all your emotions and memories together?

Is your mind... Is Michael's mind the sum of his memories, emotions, etc? Yes or no?

No. There's one part waiting. What?

He has to think of his mind as his mind. Well, what unifies all the parts of his mind into his mind? Serving other people who have mental problems.

She told me I shouldn't stick my tongue out like that. I'm sorry. She said, sometimes when you make a point, you go...

I said, I didn't... I wasn't aware of that, but now I am. Okay.

So, it applies to your body. It applies to your mind. Okay?

You are not the sum of your parts until you have the final part which is helping someone else. The karma of having helped somebody else. Okay?

Five more minutes. We'll take a break. Now, once you understand that...

This is angel talking. If you understand that thing about the part, the illusion is torn. The root of the mind is ripped down.

The poison tree is falling down. Okay? And the evil one is in his grave.

Okay? Okay? The one who thinks you can have a body and mind without taking care of other people.

He's... We just buried him. Okay?

Who's him? The devil. Yeah.

Misunderstanding. Okay? And then she goes on and she calls it sexy stuff, but it doesn't matter.

You know what it is. Okay. And then she calls it the single song.

What's it mean? Anyone want to take a shot? Eka rasa.

Single song. Yeah, but what's the point? Why single?

Yeah. Everything's like that. Body, mind, car, house, wife, dog, nose, left eye, right eye.

Okay? It's all singing the same song. What?

You got to be nice to other people or you cannot have me. Okay? I'm coming from those things.

Okay? Don't... Don't think I'm not coming from anything.

I am. Okay? And they're all singing the same song.

We come from your good stuff. Every object in this room is singing the same song. Okay?

But you can't hear it. It's called one song. Right?

Eka rasa. In Sanskrit. One song.

Hmm... Then she gets really poetic and that's okay. You don't need that.

And now she makes a point and then I'll stop for a break. Okay, we'll stop for a 10-minute break which will stretch into 15 and I'll go late. She says you have a choice in your life.

Okay? You can examine your life. You can question where things are coming from.

You can ask if there's a better way to run the world. Okay? You can be curious.

And you can try to make a breakthrough about where the whole world is coming from. Or you can just leave it. Okay?

Just live your life. You know? Eat.

Sleep. Work. You know?

Raise kids. Die. Lose your house.

Kids die. You can do that. You have a choice.

You can not question where everything's coming from. And then okay. Everything's fine.

There's no contradictions. You know? I wrote a letter with my pen.

Okay, leave it. That's okay. That's one approach to life.

Don't question all this stuff. Don't go deeper. Just live your life.

You know? And you will go through the same cycles as everyone. You will be young and strong and then you'll get middle-aged and slightly stupid.

And then you'll get old age like me and John. And you'll be more stupid. And then you die.

You have a choice, she says. Wisdom says you always have a choice. You know?

If you don't question who put the writing on her folder, life is okay. It's easy. It's normal.

But it's deadly. Okay? Or you can question.

And that's a hard road to follow. But it's the road to get free. Okay?

It's the road to to get out of this world. This kind of world. Okay?

All right. I'm not even halfway through there. This is why it's taking 70 years.

Okay, last thing. Then we'll take a break. Wisdom's been, she's, the angel's been saying everything's empty.

Why? Because there's nothing you can point to which is not coming from your karma. That's the meaning of emptiness.

You know, sometimes I tell people, show me your finger, point to something in this room that's not coming from you. And then a real Buddhist will go like, that's, then you arrive at emptiness. Try to find a thing in this world room that's not coming from how you treat other people.

And there's nothing. That's the meaning of emptiness. Okay?

Now she says, did you just learn emptiness? Yes. Tell me again, what is it?

It's that nothing in this room is not coming from how I treat other people. Is that the meaning of emptiness? Yes.

Who taught you that? You did, Geshe Michael. Who made Geshe Michael?

You know, I like to tell DCI audiences, if you don't like what I'm saying, that's your problem. You created me. If you like what I say, that came from me.

Okay, but really nothing comes from me. Okay? So, at this point, the angel says a very sweet thing.

She says, by the way, Mr. Devil, my side of the conversation is coming from you. Okay? I'm an echo in a canyon.

She calls herself the echo in the canyon. You know, yelled down in the canyon, you get something back. She says, you don't like me?

You made me. You know, you don't like wisdom in your mind? You made me.

You planted me. You put me here. Okay?

I also have emptiness. The angel also has emptiness. Meaning, she didn't come here randomly.

She came here from someone's karma. Whose? The devil.

If you don't like me, that's your fault. Okay. Let's take a break.

If you don't like the food at the break, that's your fault. Okay. Please come back in 15 minutes and let's do some questions and answers.

Okay? Okay. You guys have an extra microphone?

Any questions for 15 minutes and then I have to go home. And we'll continue tomorrow. We didn't finish the review, which is why we always get behind.

Who had a question? Geshe-la talks too much. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Hello.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, hi. I have a question regarding karma and seeds in relation to the way in which the recent Las Vegas shootings that happened, where some people got shot and some people didn't, some people lived and some people didn't. And it seems, I was talking to Nicole about this the other night, but it seems in that moment that things are so random in a situation like that.

[Speaker 2]
But then it was presented to me that, well, it's not random. It's all those people had karma or seeds for that situation.

[Speaker 1]
And I'm just kind of... Yeah, it's mind-boggling. ...wrapping. So that was just something recent that I've been kind of meditating on. There's a classic answer and it's hard. The answer is hard, but the answer goes like this. And this is Shantideva.

This is 1300 years ago. He said, well, there's three possibilities. Number one, it's just random.

Just who gets shot, who doesn't get shot, whether or not someone's shooting tonight or not, you know, is completely random. That's the first possibility. There's no sense to it.

Second possibility, there's a divine being. There's someone in charge of the world and they choose who gets shot and who doesn't get shot. And we can't figure out their decisions, you know.

And, you know, if you're going to create a being and then kill them, well, why not just do it painlessly? If there's something wrong with the being you created, just, you know, cancel them. Like, that's the second possibility.

The third possibility is that there's a complete logic to everything and you only get what you deserve. And it's not 50%. It's either 100 or it's zero.

So, either things are random and everyone gets something they don't deserve or they get exactly what they deserve. Then you get into the question of, well, it didn't seem like some of those people killed anybody or they weren't shooting at people. And then the answer is a combination of a discussion of watermelons and a discussion of, I don't know, democracy.

Okay, you can say that. What's the watermelons mean? It means there's a consistency of cause and effect.

You cannot, I just, we just grew our first watermelons, right? This year. I got like seven watermelons.

I was so proud of myself. Like, Pachi did whole forest but I just did seven watermelons. And, you know, I felt really proud of myself.

But the way it works is you take a seed out of a watermelon and you plant it and with certainty, you know you're not going to get a banana. You know, there's some kind of weird, what's going on, I don't really know. But if I take a seed out of this fruit and I plant it, I will get that fruit.

So, in the third view of the world, violence cannot be begotten except by violence. Those people must have done something violent before. That's the theory.

That's just the theory that everyone deserves what they get, good or bad. And there's no exceptions. Then the second question is, well, this person didn't do anything like that in their past.

I've known them since they were a kid. They were nice people, you know. And then this comes in the, I call it democracy, but this whole federal bureaucracy right now.

I heard the number today. I don't know, it's like three trillion dollars. It's like a quarter of the people in this country work for the federal government.

And I pay for it. V knows I argue about it a lot. I'm paying for them, you know.

And it started with an idea in Benjamin Franklin's mind as he walked up the steps in Philadelphia in 1774. Those three trillion dollars and 50 million employees were a random thought in his mind as he walked up the steps to the rented little apartment in 1774. Why am I talking about that?

A small, tiny, passing thought can create a country that lasts for 300 years, you see. And according to Buddhism, a small violence done to someone can escalate into a killing, you know. And those are the two factors here.

According to Buddhist answer, number one, no one ever gets anything they don't deserve. Number two, they might have done a tiny thing that grew like... You know, some guy, I was in Taiwan, I think.

And some guy raised his hand, he says, I don't accept that. JB, raise your hand. I don't accept that.

Then I went like this. I said, wait, let's talk about your arm. He said, what?

He's like trying to get his arm back. I'm like, give me your arm. He's like, no, no.

I said, wait, you say it's not possible, right? He says, right, it's not possible. I say, how many cells made this arm?

This arm, I checked on Google. That's all you have to say for authority anymore. I checked on Google.

It's a hundred trillion cells in the arm that you're using to alert me that you don't agree. How many cells did it come from? Two.

End of story. End of story. Go home.

End of story. Your mom gave one cell. Your dad gave one cell.

This hundred thousand cells has survived for 70 years. 69. Okay, so don't raise this hand and tell me it's not possible, because your hand proves it is.

You see what I mean? And he's like, ah. Okay, your arm proves, the arm that you raised to say it's not possible proves that it is possible.

You are riding on a donkey looking for a donkey. Now, see, those are the two Buddhist answers. Now, if you're given a DCI program in, in, where are we going?

Denver next month, right? For the Young Presidents Association. You don't talk like that.

You don't say that. You say it's a terrible thing. Things happen.

You know, obviously people there didn't deserve it. We should try to limit guns in this country. You know, that's why Buddha gave four different schools, depending on the audience.

So for a level one audience, Buddha would say, oh, of course they didn't deserve it. And, and it's just some crazy guy. And, you know, probably, and it's true, we all have some responsibility for creating this person.

You see what I mean? Like that would be a better way to go. You know, or someone asks you about the Holocaust.

You don't talk like that. You know, or why did I lose my baby or something like that? You don't, you don't give the detail.

But frankly, that's when it is. Yep. Any more questions?

Yeah, and I wish it wasn't like that. But maybe if we deserve everything we get, we would just work harder at deserving good things. Okay, one more question.

[Speaker 2]
So Geshe-la, we have a question from the live stream.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, cool.

[Speaker 2]
So this comes from Alejandro in Mexico. And he asked about, early on in the talk, you talked about that there's, can only be one tenant in the apartment. And later on, you talked about they're both living there, kind of like, at the same time, are like brothers.

And he wanted to ask about the clarity of that. What happened in the argument? Because originally you said they could only one be living there, but then it turned out that the devil is living there.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, yeah.

[Speaker 2]
But the angel has always been there.

[Speaker 1]
The devil referred to himself as her little brother. And he said, don't put horns on your little brother. So it seems to imply that they were in the same family at some point.

And she's painting him black, you know. And he's objecting. And no, the fact is they cannot coexist.

And they never lived in the apartment at the same time. And they're not, they're related in some ways. They both have emptiness.

They both have their own causes. But no, they can't coexist. But I'll give this to Alejandro.

Think about this. The main point when you say they can't live in the same apartment is that the way they see things is incompatible. It's not physical presence or something like that.

You see what I mean? The point isn't that where they are. The point is either like you have an argument with someone.

Someone hurts you. Someone calls you a bad name. Then at that point, at that moment, like I get called bad names on the internet.

So at that moment, I have a decision. I can believe that it's coming from someone else. Or I can believe that it's coming from me because I judge people all the time.

You see what I mean? Like I have a choice. But the choices are incompatible.

You must go one way or the other. You must either say, you know, these are bad people attacking Geshe Michael. Or you have to say, this is coming from the habit I have of judging people I meet.

But you can't have it both ways. It's that that's the main meaning of incompatibility here. That's why they can't live in the same apartment.

One mind at the same time, okay? Because they can come in and out real fast. You know, you can be a Buddhist for like 20 minutes and then you get pissed off.

You know, but in one moment, it's impossible for one human mind at 8007 to both think that this person criticizing me on the internet is coming from me and at the same time to think they're not coming from me. And those two guys can't live in the same apartment. Now, can the one thought run out 10 seconds later and the other thought moves in for 10 seconds?

And yeah, that's the story of any Buddhist's life. We are schizophrenic. You know, we're like really nice people for 10 minutes and then we lose it for 10 minutes.

V's often asking me, you know, well, doesn't your own philosophy say blah, blah, blah? And I'm like, yeah, but that's not the point. Okay, we're going to stop there.

I plan to stop at... I made it six to eight rather than seven to nine because I thought people might have things to do. People might have to get back to Phoenix and stuff like that.

So, we'll continue tomorrow. We'll continue the review tomorrow. I'll try to go faster so we hit some new stuff.

But I have never gone back through... We've had 10 sessions like this in the last seven years. I've never gone back and tried to see the whole flow.

And I almost feel like if we can see the flow together, it's not so important that we get to the 24th meditation. If we understand why 23 are wrong, then we can make a solemn promise to get together more often here since we have a place that John and Connie built. And I'd like to thank them for that.

Let's use the place more often. And, you know, I'm used to talking to a thousand or two thousand people. And...

But this is actually quite sweet for me also because it's close friends and it's kind of less pressure. And I can actually see your face in the last row. And it's kind of nice.

So, okay. So we'll try to do it more often.