Круги света — «Руководство к образу жизни бодхисаттвы» Мастера Шантидевы: глава о посвящении силы добрых дел (2002, Аризона), занятие 2

[Говорящий 1]
I'd like to speak a little bit about how you do dedication, or giving away your karma, sending your good karma to other people, reinvesting it in the earth, in the place where it came from, other people, sweet, holy other people. So, let's say that you are one of the many people, I don't think we've met most of them, who come and help the caretakers. We often get a very odd meal, like a Japanese sushi, or some exquisite Thai dish.

We feel embarrassed. We're not like Villarepa at all. We have a sign in retreatant language, we go like that.

It means, somebody flew in today. And, not that the other meals aren't extraordinary. You should know, I'm not exaggerating.

We are served extraordinary, beautiful meals constantly, all the time, every day. It's embarrassing in many ways. But, suppose you're one of those people who came to work anonymously, the best way.

Then you have this good karma. Now you have to plant it somewhere. You have to send it somewhere.

That's like putting it in the bank. It's like reinvesting it. So, for example, you could sit down tonight and think, I washed dishes for Venerable Jigme Pharma for a month.

I dedicate that. I send it. And, you could send it, for example, to one of your teachers.

We all have many beautiful teachers. Just in this retreat, during the break months, many wonderful teachers are coming to help us. They fly from far away.

They give up their work with many other people. They sacrifice all their income for that time. They come to serve us, to help us.

And, each of the retreatants has been blessed by several wonderful teachers. So, you could dedicate that good karma to that teacher's long life. I dedicate the karma of this retreat to the long life of my holy teachers, especially those who are sitting here.

Does it help their long life? Can you make someone live a long life just by thinking it? For this, you have to understand emptiness and how karma works.

I'll speak a very tiny bit. It takes a long time to understand clearly. But, when you meet one of your holy teachers, actually, they are just a big lump of skin and arms and legs and a head.

And, whether you hear them teaching you or not, all depends on your karma. Nothing is coming from their side. Nothing.

Everything you are seeing because you served teachers in the past and you helped teach people in the past. That big lump of flesh is teaching you. You see it teaching you because karmic seeds are exploding in your consciousness.

And, the karmic seeds are planted mostly by intention. If you truly intend to help other people, everyone around you, all the time, then powerful seeds are being planted in your mind. If you learn this art of giving away your good karma to other holy people, holy sweet living creatures, all other people, if you learn this skill, then really you are just planting incredibly vast amounts of new good karma in your mind.

And, that will flower and you will meet that teacher again and again and again. And, they will teach you until the day you reach enlightenment. So, yes, this is extremely powerful.

This is the way to bring the teachers to you. Think about the karma you did for the three year retreat. Please think about some of it now and then send it in your mind.

Say, I send this good karmic energy to my teacher's heart to ask him or her to live for a long life. And, that is a perfect act of dedication. That's how you give it away.

Imagine that the power is coming out of your heart, not your physical heart, but from the very subtle drop of consciousness that lies behind the heart, close to the backbone. See it coming out as a kind of crystal light. It's light, but it doesn't have any color.

It's like water. You can think of it as ripples of light. You drop the good karma in a quiet pond, and then the ripples start to go out.

And, they touch your teachers. They touch your teachers in the heart, in their heart. And, that actually begins to work.

And, the teachers will keep coming to you. You will see your current teachers happy and well and healthy. And, then you will see new teachers coming over and over, higher and higher.

So, let's try now, just a minute, just a minute or two. Think of one of the good things you have done for this retreat especially, and then send it to one of our sweet holy teachers. We are so blessed we have so many.

We have Holy Lama Khen Rinpoche, whose kindness to us, you can't imagine it. And, Holy Lama Super Rinpoche, and of course, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And, send this energy now, at this moment.

Drop the good karma in the pond. Watch the ripples go out, and touch them in their heart, in the little tiny drop of consciousness in their heart. So, let's do that for a minute or two.

Okay. Now, we'll finally get to the text. I'm sorry to go so long.

Master Shantideva's good karma is that he wrote the book about how to be a Bodhisattva. And, at the end of the book, he says, I give away this good karma. And, then you need somewhere to give it to.

And, he gives it to all of us. And, he says, may everyone who ever lives, learn to act like a Bodhisattva. Giving every moment of their entire life, to help countless living creatures.

Never stopping, never wavering from that one goal. Your whole life, every moment of your life. And, he sends it to us.

We have been given that karma. Now, I'd like to ask that the second reader read the second verse, please.

[Говорящий 2]
By the power of this good deed, too, may any single living creature, in sickness or in pain, of body or of mind, in any corner of this universe, be thrown into a sea of bliss.

[Говорящий 1]
When you give away your good karma, either send it as help for someone who is in trouble, or send it as something beautiful to someone who isn't in trouble. And, these are the two kinds of love. They are called Maitri and Karuna.

Jampa and Nyingje in Tibetan. And, the first kind of love seeks to remove other people's problems. The second kind of love seeks to give them happiness.

So, when you send away your good karma, you can send it for either goal to stop people's pain forever, or to give them ultimate happiness. These are the two great purposes for which to send your karma, your good karma. I'd like to ask the third verse to be read.

[Говорящий 2]
And, for as long as they may wander in the circle of suffering life, may they never lose this bliss. May every one of them one day reach the bliss beyond all other, and stay there never ending.

[Говорящий 1]
I think there are three different basic types of people in the world. I don't know who's who, and I don't assume to know. The first kind doesn't think about other people much.

They are concerned about their own happiness. I think if you are not Buddhist already, or Bodhisattvas, you and I, we tend this way sometimes. Then there are other people who truly want to help people, and they do it in the immediate ways.

They help other people who need money, or food, or places to stay. Things like that. Then there are special people who understand the true stakes of life, that it's not enough to give people food, or money, or a place to stay, because they will still suffer.

While they eat, they are getting old. While they sleep in the place you prepared for them, they are getting old. While they use the money you gave them, they are getting old.

The stakes are higher than that. We have to work to stop all pain, all suffering, even death itself. And especially death itself, and all forms of unhappiness, forever.

So in this verse, Master Shantideva is saying, I send my good karma to help people in a short-term way, but I also send my karma to help people in the ultimate way. And then you meet people who say, I'm helping people in the ultimate way. I don't need to help people with food, or money, or places to stay.

But that's not how bodhisattvas live. Bodhisattvas are working constantly for universal plans. Every creature in the universe, they are working for them directly.

But if someone comes into your yurt, and they look tired, then you sit down and make them a cup of tea, and you serve them. Bodhisattvas have to do both. I'd like someone to read the next verse.

[Говорящий 2]
And by this power, may the blind open their eyes and see the beauty. May the deaf hear the song of sound. May every woman with child give birth as Maya, the Buddha's angel mother, did him without a hint of pain.

[Говорящий 1]
This begins a whole section of the dedication chapter, where Master Shantideva is speaking on two or more levels all the time. There will always be two or more levels going on. He prays first.

He sends his good karma out to all blind people. And if you've known a blind person, it would be a wonderful thing to give them sight. And he sends his good karma out that way.

Can it give sight to a blind person just to think about sending them your good karma? Where did the blind person come from? What made the blind person?

Why did you meet a blind person? It's painful to watch a blind person. If it's painful for you, you must have done something negative in the past.

So in a sense, you have helped create this blind person for you in your life. So if you pray sincerely for their sight, it will change. If you know the real method of giving away your karma, you can give people sight.

In this life, you can actually perform these miracles. But on a deeper level, Master Shantideva is beginning a long section of praying that people wake up. He's sending his karma to people who are like sheep going to the slaughterhouse.

We have beautiful cows here. They walk around. They like us now.

They stick their head in the fence. They get a cookie. Sometimes they look like they'll pull the fence down.

But every time you see a cow here, it's kind of sad in our hearts, because we know they are here to fatten them up and go kill them. It's almost intolerable to feel it. We hear them crying at night sometimes for the ones who were taken already.

They are innocent. I saw the way they were brought to the truck for slaughter. They were offered beautiful bunches of carrots, fresh carrots.

They couldn't resist. They didn't know why the carrots were there. They were being led to a truck that would take them to the slaughterhouse.

They are innocent. They are trusting. And everyone in the world, all the humans, are the same.

They are sincerely trying to live a good life. They are trying to help their families. They are trying to do a good job.

They are trying to get by. They are really trying to be happy. But they don't know how bad things are.

They keep hoping for things that will never happen. And then they are slaughtered. They are helpless as the cows.

And so, the first prayer here is, please, wake up. Look at what's happening to you. Look at where things are going.

Look where all the other cows have gone. Open your eyes. It's something very bad here going on.

We have to try to stop it. It's not enough to do small good things. We have to try to stop death itself, suffering itself.

We have to try to remove it from this whole planet and other worlds. So the first prayer here is, I send my good karma to all those innocent millions of people on this planet who are walking slowly to their death, not knowing, not thinking anything else could be. Then he says, may the death hear.

Because often you meet people, you give them very convincing, logical arguments why they don't have to die, why their body can actually change, but they can't hear it. They smile at you with a sort of smile that says, little wacky this one. And then they are gone from your life.

And they don't hear. Jesus often accuses his disciples of having hard hearts. He says, I'm telling you how to stop the pain of every living being.

And you don't even hear it. Then he makes a special prayer. He sends his good karma to every pregnant woman in the world.

It's a very beautiful prayer. When I first read this chapter, which is in the monastery, we read this chapter separately as a prayer, often times in the temple. All the monks will sing this prayer together, this whole chapter.

I said, how wonderful to think about the magic of a woman. She is about to give the most precious gift you can give of life at the risk of her own life. To be a mother is the perfect kind of bodhisattva deed.

To know as you conceive this child that you are risking your life to give life to another is so beautiful. And for Master Shantideva to pray for them, to send his good karma to every pregnant woman, may they not suffer during the labor. May they give their child as Lord Buddha's mother did.

Lord Buddha's mother in Tibetan is called Lhagyuma. In Sanskrit it's Maya. And when she gave birth to Lord Buddha, he just popped out of her side.

No pain. They say that holy beings are especially careful not to give pain to their mothers when they are born. So we pray that every woman who has conceived a child and has that special suffering of carrying the child for so long and knowing the dangers of childbirth, we send our good karma to them.

It's very powerful. On a deeper level, Master Shantideva is praying for the successful birth of every spiritual person. May you open your eyes and see the trouble we and everyone else are in.

May you hear the instructions on how to stop it forever. May your birth as a bodhisattva be happy and painless. Next verse.

[Говорящий 2]
May those without sufficient clothing be suddenly clothed. May the hungry be instantly filled with food. May those who suffer now from thirst drink fine fresh water and other delicious beverages.

[Говорящий 1]
Master Shantideva begins to pray for people who will enter the spiritual life. You can't practice spiritual goals, the deep ones with meditation and very difficult study how to understand emptiness, how to get to other realms. You can't do these things if you don't have clothes.

You can't do these things if you are suffering physically. When I first went as a young person to India, I stayed in a town in the Himalayas. It was very cold at night.

There's no heating there. You just wrap up as well as you can. In the morning, people would count the dead people.

During the winter, how many people died in town last night from lack of clothing? You can't expect a person like that to be studying or meditating. It takes basic physical needs.

You can't expect hungry people to go to a dharma teaching and start studying and meditating and doing what they need to do to reach ultimate happiness. People who don't have clean water to drink. And so, at the very basic level, Master Shantideva is sending his good karma to people that they should have the basic physical needs that everyone needs before they can start a spiritual path.

Next verse, please.

[Говорящий 2]
May every poor person there is find all the money they need. May those who grieve be comforted. May those who've lost hope find hope anew and security that will never leave them.

[Говорящий 1]
If you don't have enough money to pay the rent, if you're always living in debt, if you don't know what you're going to do, if you have this kind of anxiety constantly, you can't practice dharma. So Master Shantideva sends his good karma to all the poor people. Then he prays for people who have lost hope, who are grieving.

Often times, people come to the dharma only after a major problem in their lives. Maybe only after their husband or wife has died, or their mother or their child. And deep down inside, they are very hurt.

Deep down inside, they have lost hope. We see many people like that come. They come to teachers when they've had this kind of suffering.

And it's almost impossible to help them. While you're in a deep state of grief, while you're in a deep state of depression, while you're in a deep feeling that no one can help you, that there's no security, if people don't have very basic mental security, physical security, it's very difficult to help them, teach them. So Master Shantideva is praying for those people.

He is sending his good karma to them. Next verse, please.

[Говорящий 2]
May every single being who's sick within this entire universe be suddenly totally cured, may every kind of disease ever known to living kind vanish now forever.

[Говорящий 1]
The real spiritual goals, seeing emptiness directly, meeting higher beings, developing ultimate compassion, they take strength, they take training, they take learning, they take meditation. And you can't do that if you're sick. Sickness is one of the great obstacles to all spiritual practice.

And so Master Shantideva is sending his good karma to people who are sick. Then he sort of reveals his real game. He says, by the way, may all the kinds of sicknesses in the world vanish from the world.

How is it possible that all sickness could vanish from this world? If sickness is something that you see in your world, painful, then it has come because we failed to take care of others in the past. If we truly dedicate our good karma to sick people, then slowly we will begin to see less and less.

In your world there won't be any sickness. And you won't ever see a sick person, because there won't be any. Master Shantideva is showing you the real point of his chapter.

You yourself will be the one to remove sickness from this world. I know that it's a difficult idea for many of us. And I think, maybe you think I'm just being poetic or trying to be inspiring.

It's not that. Each person here, sooner or later, will be the one to remove sickness in their world from all other beings. We spoke about it before.

I think it's worth mentioning again. How can there be, I don't know how many people are here, but how is there enough room for all of us to save the world, to be the one? It's a question of emptiness.

You are creating the world that you see. The karmas in your mind are ripening in your own mind. You will become the one to save these people in this world.

You will be the one. There are people sitting here who can see that. Next verse.

May all those in any kind of fear be suddenly freed from it. May those imprisoned be released. May those downtrodden come to power.

May all of us, living men as family, in harmony with each other. You can't meditate on emptiness. You can't see emptiness.

You can't do deep retreats. You can't serve other people in an ultimate way. If you are in a country where you are not even allowed to do prayers, Master Shantideva is talking about political repression, especially of spiritual practitioners.

It's not something that used to happen. It's happening now. Sara Monastery in Tibet, which had 8,000 monks, has a legally imposed restriction of 50 monks.

There is a police station in the monastery. There is a military guard to watch the 50 monks so that the government can collect the money from the tourists when they give it to the monks. The nuns in Tibet have been raped, beaten.

They refuse to surrender. They keep speaking out. They are tied down and have electric cattle prods thrust up their genitals.

You can't practice like that. You can't have a deep meditation under those circumstances if you are a normal person. These things are still going on.

And it's not the Chinese government. The American government did it to the holy native peoples who were trying to practice their own faiths. The Russian government did it to the peoples of Siberia.

And they crushed the monasteries of eastern Russia. Where do you think the books in St. Petersburg came from? They were stolen from monasteries when the monasteries were burned and the monks were killed.

So all of the governments are doing it. Our government is doing it. We are indirectly helping that.

We are all like that. Master Shantideva is not a fool. He grew up in the court of a king.

He knows politics. He makes an interesting prayer in the second half of the verse. He says, if the people who have been persecuted suddenly come to power, may they not start persecuting the ones who persecuted them before.

Because it so often happens that when one group which has been persecuted assumes power, then they start to persecute the other groups in exactly the same way. Because it's our nature. It's human nature.

We all do that. So you can send your good karma to people in any part of the world. Who are not free to practice their religion as they wish to.

There's a very subtle repression even in this country. You and I have faced many situations where you can't speak openly about your beliefs in certain kinds of company or certain situations where you work. Because you know you'll be labeled in a certain way.

And so you can also send your good karma to try to change that kind of repression. Very subtle repression. Next verse, please.

[Говорящий 2]
May all of those who are on the road to anywhere at all be safe and comfortable wherever they are now. And may they without the slightest trouble find at the end of their journey the thing they left their home to find.

[Говорящий 1]
If you think about it, everybody in the world at this very moment is either sitting at home or they are someplace else that they've gone to like their office where they work. Maybe a grocery store. And then all the other people are traveling between their home and where they are going.

I think even at the moment that we speak there are perhaps several billion people traveling somewhere. Even if it's just across the street. And so Master Shantideva sends his good karma to them.

All you people on your way home commuting through heavy traffic, you know, reach your home safely. I hope that you have found what you went to work to find. And just pray for all the people who are traveling.

But there's a deeper level to this verse. If you have opened your eyes, if you can hear, if a bodhisattva has been given birth, if you have enough food, if your mind is basically stable, if you live in a country where you can practice, if you're not sick, then please accept my good karma. I'm sending you this good karma.

All of you people who are starting to try to find a spiritual way. Master Shantideva is sending his good karma to everyone who's just starting out. He says, and you and I can imagine people like that.

People we haven't met yet. People who will hear one of you teach someday. And you pray for them.

Send your good karma to your future students. All of you will become a teacher. Many of you are already teaching.

It is a beautiful, wonderful thing. Send your good karma to your future students. They are just leaving home now.

Next verse.

[Говорящий 2]
May all those who've left dry land to travel in boats or ships accomplish all they set out to do. May they cross the dangers of the waters and then return safe to their homes and the arms of friends and family.

[Говорящий 1]
What a coincidence. You have to understand that getting in a ship in Master Shantideva's time was extremely dangerous. If you even just think about Columbus.

You put, I don't know, six, eight weeks of food in your ship. You sail off to the horizon. After three weeks, you know you can't turn back.

You don't have enough food to get home again. You must go on. Even though you don't know what's ahead, you maybe will die in the ocean.

We can read the stories of Lord Atisha's travel to meet his guru. He left from India around 950 or a little later AD. It took him, I believe, a year to get to Indonesia.

He went for one reason. To learn what you are learning today. And the stories of the dangers.

You get in a small wooden boat. You cast off. You try to navigate.

You stop for food and water. People will just as soon kill you as give you food or water. And most people who undertook these journeys died.

So in one sense, Master Shantideva is praying for them. But in a deeper sense, deeper level, he's praying for everybody who has had the courage to leave what they knew and go into unknown, uncharted waters. I think everyone here, especially the people involved in the three-year retreat, you gave up everything.

In a sense, you cast off. You had no idea, maybe still no idea what's ahead. But you had the courage to leave.

You had the courage to leave what was obviously death. And Master Shantideva is sending you his good karma. He says, everyone who's had the courage to leave security, everyone here, all of you, have left some kind of security.

I know that it's very hard sometimes. I lived for many years in a small community in New Jersey. I believe most people thought I was a fool.

I didn't have a regular job. I was trying to study with this unknown lama. And it was very hard socially, the pressure to know that everyone believes you're a fool.

I went one day. Something special happened. I met a man.

He asked me, what do you do for your living? I said, I'm a cook. I cook at a church.

And something special happened, and I knew he was thinking I was a complete fool. And I think everyone senses that we all, it's hard for all of us to have left the normal life in the sense of people thinking we are intelligent, or we have a good career, or it's difficult. And in a sense, you have cast off from what you knew, believing that there may be something higher, and you are just sailing out to open water.

You are very brave. In a whole world, you are swimming upstream in the Mississippi River. You are very brave.

Master Shankadeva is sending you his karma to help you. Next verse.

[Говорящий 2]
May those who travel a barren waste or mistake their way, who wander lost, suddenly come upon new companions, and find their way easily, free of fatigue, without the slightest danger of things like thieves or wild beasts.

[Говорящий 1]
Hear Master Shankadeva's praying. People who travel in Tibet, people who travel in India, in the old days, it was very dangerous. There was no police.

There were no hotels to stop at. There were no interstate highways. No airports.

It was extremely dangerous to travel. And many people died. People just rode up on horses and took what you had and killed you.

And no one even heard about it. And so, people would be very happy to find another traveler. It would double their protection.

Groups would form caravans, travel together. And so, on one level, Master Shankadeva is praying for people to find good companions. He is praying that they never lose their way.

He is praying that they be safe from wild animals. We live in a culture where all the really wild animals have been slaughtered. But in places like India, in the old days, it was just you and the tigers when you were walking on a long trip.

And there were many animals that would kill you. When the monks first came to Sara, there were herds of wild elephants who would come and crush the corn and eat it. And they just killed some of the monks when they tried to stop them.

We live in a world where there are no such animals in our country. But it was a real danger in those times. There is a deeper level here.

If you hope to travel a spiritual path, you need companions. You need friends. It's much easier, you are much more likely to succeed if you are living around other people who have the same vision, who have the same faith, who have the same devotion.

It's one of the greatest joys of being in retreat here is that the people serving the retreat, the teachers who grace us with their presence, all the people who come to help, and the retreatants themselves are all very dedicated. They have powerful devotion. And it's a pleasure and a joy to be together with them.

And it makes us all stronger. It protects us from the fatigue of giving up. It protects us from the wild beasts which are our own mental afflictions.

It protects us from the thieves. Thieves are nice, friendly, sophisticated, reasonable, normal people who come up to you and say, why would you waste a week out in that godforsaken desert? And that's for us, the wild beasts and the thieves.

They will steal your vision. They will steal your devotion. They won't beat you or put you in prison.

They will say, let's go to a movie. And you'll forget what you were supposed to practice. And so, being with other like-minded people, dedicated people, is very powerful.

Master Shantideva is sending his good karma that everyone should have friends like the ones we have here. We are so blessed. Next verse.

May holy angels come and protect all those who live in fear with nowhere to go, no path to follow, small children, the elderly, those with no one to help them, those who cannot sleep, those who are troubled, and the insane. Here Master Shantideva, on a one level, is praying. It's a very beautiful prayer.

He's trying to send his good karma to people who are lost, physically lost, and then to people who are mentally lost. They don't have a place to go. They don't have friends.

You know people like that. When you're with them, they seem okay. They share a cup of coffee with you at a restaurant.

They go home, and they are lonely for the other 23 hours. They don't have any choice. They don't know about any other thing to do like we do.

They don't have a path. And specifically, when Master Shantideva uses the word gumbo in Tibetan, nata in Sanskrit, a protector, a guide, he's talking about a lama, a teacher, a guru. He's talking about people who are trying to make the trip without a teacher.

And it's hard for them. They will never reach where they are trying to go. And they will be alone.

No one will be there to protect them. And he's sending his good karma. May these people meet holy teachers like Holy Lama Khen Rinpoche.

Someone who will spend their whole life to help people for free in the ultimate way. And put up with every kind of disappointment, pain, trouble, all kinds of hard times to help those students. May all living beings meet a protector like that.

Then Master Shantideva begins to speak about people in the world who have no one to protect them. He starts with small children. In the history of mankind, children have had a special place.

They have never had any rights. They are considered possessions of their parents. Throughout history, even into modern times, there have been no legal or social means of protecting children.

They don't have protection. The idea in our society that a young child has the protection of society as a whole is completely new and it's very flimsy. People still believe that a child is like an animal who is possessed by the parents.

And whatever the parents do to the child is a private matter. They don't have other protectors. The same is true of the elderly.

When I first came to serve Holy Lama, there were many elderly Kalmyk Mongolians in our community because they all came here after World War II at the same age. So everyone reached 70, 80 at the same time. And so one of our main activities was to help them find nursing homes and then go and serve them in the nursing homes.

I had never really been in a nursing home. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it.

It was like a hell realm. There's one in which people were just screaming all day, all night. There was another where you had to walk down an aisle to visit a friend.

And people were sitting on each side of the corridor. And they would just reach out to touch a person. They would look at you with this look of utter misery.

They hadn't even been able to touch a person. The children come at the beginning once a week. Then they come once a month.

Then they come once a year. And there's no one to help these people. We would leave them the comics.

We would give them a rosary to do their prayers. We would leave a little Buddha image that they could have next to their bed. The next time we came back it was always gone.

We said, where's the rosary? Where's the Buddha image? They said, is there any nursing home worker in this room?

We said, no. They said, then I can speak. They take them.

They steal them. Oh, why didn't you call us? How can I call you?

Those are the people I have to ask to use the phone. They watch us. They listen to what we do.

If we complain. We don't get our medication at night. The bedpan isn't changed.

They forget to visit us during meal time. There's a blackmail going on in nursing homes. The staff is often underpaid.

They are bitter. They often times are abusing the patients. And the patients can't say anything.

They don't have a Natha. They don't have a Gumbo. They don't have a protector.

And then Master Shantideva goes on to talk about people who can't sleep. I think it's very beautiful that in a major philosophical work of ancient times someone would have the sensitivity to send his good karma to this simple disease that almost everyone has had. Almost everyone has times when they can't sleep.

It's a great suffering. If it goes on too long or you move into a deeper level, depression, you begin to be depressed. You begin to feel anxious all the time.

And if it gets deeper, you simply go insane. People who can't sleep are no fun to be around. People who are deeply depressed or have anxiety lose their friends.

People who get into asylum, if you think people won't visit old people, you should see the people in the asylums. We used to go to visit people. It's hopeless.

It's a very great suffering. People are literally beating each other, screaming. Televisions are up full blast because no one can stand the sound of everyone else screaming.

And Master Shantideva is praying for those people. He is sending his power to those people. On a deeper level, people who are children, you know, many of you, it's a code word for people who haven't woken up yet.

People who are still like children, they are walking very patiently, slowly, ignorantly to their death. Everything they do to make themselves happy is backwards. Every action they take during the day is only giving them more pain.

They don't understand. They are just like small children with a huge pack of razor blades cutting themselves. They don't even know.

They don't understand. So Master Shantideva is trying to send them good karma. Elderly doesn't mean old people.

It means people who have lost hope. Half the people in the world are wrapped up in their lives and half of them have finished so much life that they believe there's no hope anymore. People past a certain age refuse to believe there's any choice but to live the way they are living.

It's particularly frustrating as a teacher to meet a good person, a sincere person, but who's gone past a certain age and they, you say, you could learn to stop all these things. You could learn to change. You could change your body.

You don't have to live like this. You could reach a holy paradise before you die. And they just don't believe it.

They don't think it's possible. They've gone past a certain point of age where they can't hear it. And so Master Shantideva is praying for them.

When he speaks about people who can't sleep, people with mental anxiety, depression, insane, he's not talking on a literal level. On another level, he's talking about people who haven't discovered kindness. People who are going crazy in this life because they are trying to serve themselves first.

And this makes people crazy. If you are truly working for others, if you truly live for others, if your heart is stolen away by the idea of serving others, you will sleep like a baby. You will never feel depressed or anxiety.

You can't. You won't. They all come from blindness.

They all come from worrying about yourself first. All kinds of disorders of sleep. All kinds of mental anguish.

Insanity itself. The one feature that characterizes all the insane people I've ever tried to help was that they were wrapped up in themselves. They weren't thinking about others.

Every kind of mental suffering comes from selfishness. Thinking about yourself. You know, it's the great paradox of life.

When you think of others, your mind is at peace. You never have trouble sleeping. You never have anxieties or depression.

So, Master Shantideva is sending us his good karma to try to wake us up because this verse is about protectors. And the only real protection is to think of others, serve others. You will never again need anything.

You will never again be hurt by anything. He's talking about the ultimate protection, which is simply living your whole life to help other people. Next verse.

May they spend every life they have, still have to live, free of every obstacle to a spiritual life. May they find firm feelings of faith and wisdom and a perfect capacity for love. May their physical needs be filled.

May they lead good lives. He's saying if people wake up and try to practice a spiritual life, you know and I know the first thing that will come is obstacles. The more you try to live a good life, the more you try to serve others, you can be sure that you will have obstacles.

You become like a cosmic magnet. I'm not kidding. I'm not being poetic.

It's absolutely true. You know it. People who have really tried to live a spiritual life, every time you step up the volume, the obstacles step up the volume.

It must be like that. It will always be like that. You have to expect it.

And you have to try to send your good karma to people who are already on a path and getting obstacles. We have this naive notion that all the great saints of Tibet and India popped out perfect and didn't have any problems and served their lamas perfectly and kept all their vows perfectly and did the bodhisattva activities perfectly. Well, then they wouldn't have been here, would they?

You come to this realm. We come here because we are imperfect. If you were involved with the Asian Classics Input Project, three, four thousand scriptures have been input.

A good percentage are prayers to stop obstacles. Those books wouldn't exist if there hadn't been a hell of a lot of obstacles. So you can count on them.

You can expect them. They help us. Then Master Shantideva says, all those people who are trying to lead a spiritual life, may they find first faith.

The word shraddha in Sanskrit, depa in Tibetan, doesn't mean blind, stupid, unconsidered faith in a teacher or a religion. It's a word that reflects feelings of admiration. It's a word that means to aspire to something great and holy.

And so, the first step for everyone is to meet a person like His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, just to see him, just to hear him speak, or Holy Lama Khen Rinpoche, or Lama Supa Rinpoche. You meet a great person. You meet a holy teacher.

There are teachers like that, I think, listening today. And you are inspired by them. And that's what faith means.

You say, I want to be like His Holiness. I want to be like those other Lamas. I want to learn to be as good and to serve people the way they do.

Then you need wisdom. Wisdom discriminates between wrong paths and right paths. Wisdom discriminates between something that's good and something that's not so useful.

And all throughout your spiritual life, Lord Buddha especially emphasized it, you have to keep evaluating the path. At this point, I need this. At this point, I need this.

At this point, I shouldn't be doing that. And I don't think this particular path that I've heard about is very useful. And you reason it out in your mind.

Lord Buddha, as you know, taught four great systems. Three of them are wrong. But the lower three were necessary for people who didn't have enough wisdom.

And so a teacher will give part of a path, or even a slightly mistaken path, to a disciple whose mind is not ready for higher paths. And then it's really up to each disciple to find out the truth and to go higher. All of you who studied at Serra with Holy Lama Geshe Thubten Rinchen, you heard those teachings.

In his final round of, in his final the wheel, the third turning of the wheel on this planet, Lord Buddha said, the fourth school I taught was wrong. He's already said the first three were wrong. Then he says the fourth one was wrong.

And then he passes from this world. And so people are left with having to figure out which one is the right school. And in the end, Lord Buddha says, you must learn, you must have wisdom, you must figure it out.

You can't just take what teachers say literally. You have to learn your, you have to use your wisdom. If you hear a teacher teach something, you have to check it out.

If it doesn't make sense, you have to leave it. If you see something of higher benefit, you must drop the thing of lower benefit. Then lastly, you need love.

We are all millions of years apart, possibly, in our spiritual lives. It's not just one life. There are people here who are maybe millions of lifetimes ahead of other people here.

And so often times, it's hard to communicate. The person who is a million lifetimes ahead may be extremely close to the final goal. How can they speak to us?

What can they say to us? How will we understand with the great gap between us? It's love.

Love can break through all of those problems of communication. We don't always understand what people around us want, or what they are trying to do. It's hard to make them happy.

But if you have love for them, it breaks down all the other differences. If you really love other people, then all the other differences go away. Then lastly, in this verse, Master Shantideva is praying that people who start a spiritual path should always have the things they need.

We need basic housing, food, teachings. There are basic needs that every spiritual person has to have. Next verse.

May they have all they need to live forever, without a moment's pause, as if they possessed the treasure of the magic sky. May they live together without ever quarreling, without ever hurting each other, enjoying instead the freedom to live as they choose to. There's a special thing called nam-kha-dzu.

It's here in the magic, treasure of the magic sky. It's a special yogic skill. It's a special skill of high meditators.

They can, like, reach into another dimension and pull out whatever they need. I need a cappuccino right now. And they just put out their arms and they bring in a cappuccino.

It's called the treasure of the magic sky. So, Master Shantideva is saying, I hope every person who tries to do deep meditation, deep retreats, deep practice, that they can learn the skill of the magic sky. It's all based on generosity, of course.

These great meditators have perfected the art of giving to others. And so, whenever they need something, they can call on that karma and it comes immediately. And he's praying for them.

What was the second part of that verse?

[Говорящий 2]
May they live together with...

[Говорящий 1]
Oh, yes. Okay. Here Master Shantideva is talking about spiritual practitioners fighting with each other.

If people are millions of years apart on their spiritual path, it's natural that they would think that the other spiritual paths they see are wrong, and to struggle with those who follow those paths. I think it's really important for each of us to understand that all of us are at different levels. We are at completely different levels.

If there's such a thing as past lives and future lives, then it's very possible that people in this room are thousands of years away from each other. If person A stopped all spiritual progress today, and person B worked for thousands of lifetimes, they might catch up. So, naturally, we see things differently.

And naturally, different practices are useful for different people at different stages in their lives. So, it's especially foolish, and you are breaking your first bodhisattva vow, if you criticize other spiritual paths, demean other spiritual paths. Also, I think it's important to say, especially in our countries, a person on a spiritual path, such as the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, just as one example, you have to be a real hard-ass.

You have to be very stubborn. You have to work against the whole culture, the whole American culture is telling you, from the time you were a child, that it's important to make a lot of money, or that impressing other people is important, or that it's important to eat a lot, or it's important to have good sex with many different people. It's important to indulge yourself.

It's important to get what you want. There's only one life to live. Live it as full as you can.

And most of those spiritual ideas are just funny, or they don't really work, or they're for older people who have no other hope. And your whole culture is telling you that. The people here are struggling against the entire culture.

Hundreds of years of ignorance. It's very hard. People here have to be tough.

People here are stubborn. I think even if you could be with the retreatants for a few hours, you can't stay in a little yurt for two years, struggle, if you're not stubborn. And naturally, when we get together, five, six incredibly stubborn people, we start to have little disagreements, speechless disagreements, within a few minutes.

That's our nature. What I'm saying is, if you go on a spiritual path, if you're working very hard, you won't succeed unless you're very stubborn. And then when you put stubborn people together, they start to have disagreements.

And Master Shantideva is saying, you know, may all the people practicing spiritual paths live in some kind of harmony, even though they're all stubborn. Okay, next.

[Говорящий 2]
May every person who is small or shy, who has no confidence, become strong and full of grace. May those who have lived a life of need and suffered from it physically, recover in resplendent health.

[Говорящий 1]
Many of the early commentaries on this work, and there are many commentaries, they say, Master Shantideva is praying for short people. Master Shantideva is praying for people who don't have confidence. Master Shantideva is praying for people with low self-esteem.

Master Shantideva is praying for people whose appearance is not very beautiful, physical appearance. But if you consider where the verse is located in the context, he's obviously not talking about that at all. There are two great lessons in this verse.

The first is we have to be willing to take risks in our spiritual practice. We can't be complacent. You have to keep moving up.

Every time you reach a new level, you have to go up to the next level. You don't get anywhere without taking risks. They should be intelligent risks.

I'm not saying that people should just walk out in the desert with no food or water and sit down and meditate on a rock. But there comes a time in your practice, normally you're alone in your room. You're meditating.

You have a chance to go up to another level. It's a little scary. Maybe you're alone.

Maybe you sense it might be a little bit frightening to go. But you have to jump. You have to take a risk.

You can't be tentative. Master Shantideva is sending his good karma to us. Be willing to take risks.

You don't get anywhere if you just lay back and do what you used to do and you're comfortable with. I think of any kind of physical exercise. You could think of weight lifting.

People who are serious weight lifters, they always add another two and a half pound weight at least every few days. They move up to the next level. They take a risk.

People who are serious dancers like ballet, they will tell you, when I practice, I try to do something new. I try to push the envelope. It hurts sometimes.

Sometimes I fall. Sometimes I twist my ankle. But it's the constant willingness to push the envelope ahead that makes people great.

I've had the honor of having several teachers show me the yoga asanas, the physical postures which help your channels open. And several of them have had serious injuries in their practice because they pushed the envelope. And they are teachers now because they were willing to push the envelope and they became great from pushing it, from taking new risks.

Again, I want to emphasize it's not to take stupid risks, but to continue to push yourself. And Master Shantideva is sending his good karma. I think the second half of the verse is talking about people who took a risk and failed.

We, especially the people in retreat, we often try to push up to another level. And then we have a big fall. Maybe you spend a week in bed.

Maybe you think you're going crazy. Maybe you get what we call a wind condition. For three diets you can't sleep.

Your hands are shaking. And so Master Shantideva is praying for people who took a risk, people who tried to push the envelope, and then they went a little beyond their ability. And he's saying, may you recover.

And I think it's a beautiful thing to send your good karma to. There are many people who have tried this or other spiritual paths in this country and they reached a serious obstacle and they seriously hurt themselves. I've seen many students of many traditions, physically, mentally, emotionally.

They pushed a little too hard. Perhaps they lost all their faith after that. Perhaps they actually hurt themselves physically.

And Master Shantideva is saying, get back up. Try to recover, and then get back to your practice. Next verse.

May all who live in a place in society where they're not treated right, transform forever to a position ideal. May those who are looked down upon be raised up high and their arrogant friends be tumbled to the ground. Here Master Shantideva is talking about specifically people who in their own society are looked down upon.

It could be because of their nationality. It could be because of their racial background. It could be because of their sex.

It could be because of their in our country, whether they have money or not. But people who society, for some reason, has a prejudice towards. Master Shantideva in his verse is specifically speaking about women in ancient India who were discouraged from practicing.

Social pressures were put on them. You should have a baby. You should have a family.

You shouldn't study philosophy. Women don't do that. I met women yogis in India when I was, oh, twenty-something.

And still it was difficult for them. A male yogi will get an honor and a big meal. And then if a woman comes the next day, everyone thinks she's something dirty.

Everyone assumes she's some kind of strange or crazy or immoral woman. And so Master Shantideva is specifically praying here that people who are in a place in society where they have strong pressures on them not to be spiritual should be able to overcome those pressures and that it should switch. I think in this country there's a strong prejudice.

People think that paths like Tibetan Buddhism are restricted to people who wear red robes or people who sit in a urine all year. It's a kind of ignorance and a kind of prejudice. Lord Buddha intended, strongly intended that people should be able to live a normal life with a family if they choose to, with a career if they choose to, and that by using those careers and families wisely, they reach enlightenment in this lifetime.

He taught the secret teachings, tantras, specifically to people who were engaged in business or in running governments, or who had family lives. And so there's a kind of prejudice nowadays. If you don't wear a red suit, people probably won't come to hear you teach as much.

If you lead a family life, people will assume that you're not having deep meditations and seeing emptiness, or that you've possibly already entered a divine realm in your living room. And Master Shantideva's praying that that kind of ignorance and prejudice should be removed. Then he does a very strange thing.

Is this the last verse? I think so. Then we'll finish.

I'm sorry it's so long. But I would really like to finish the whole chapter, and we have to do this much each day. He says, may people who are low in society get some kind of position, and then may their arrogant friends tumble to the ground.

What kind of bodhisattva would make a... What kind of bodhisattva would pray? What kind of bodhisattva would send his good karma to crush arrogant people to the ground?

It's a special prayer. Master Shantideva grew up in the politics of the court. It was a very dangerous place, treacherous place.

The royal courts of India were places of intrigue, assassination, imprisonment for the previous dynasty. He has seen the cruelty of the court. He has lived...

He was the highest socially in his whole country. When he prays that those who are high should be tumbled to the ground, he's not praying that people should be unhappy. He's praying that people like him, who grew up in a high position, like you and I have grown up.

We are consuming... I believe 10% of the people on earth consume 70% or 80% of its resources. We are in that 10%.

We are in the higher edge of that 10%. You and I have grown up with tremendous comfort, rights. You and I...

If the earth is being raped, it's because of the level of comfort that you and I are demanding and we grew up with. And he's really praying...