Круги света — «Руководство к образу жизни бодхисаттвы» Мастера Шантидевы: глава о посвящении силы добрых дел (2002, Аризона), занятие 3

[Говорящий 1]
So, we've been talking about Master Shantideva's chapter on how to send your good karma to help other people. We first talk about how to send your good karma away. And then we try to talk about some kind of specific good karma.

And I try to remind each of you of a good karma I know you have, and I know you have many that I don't know about. And then we go to Master Shantideva's text to get some hints about where to send our good karma, because he sees so much more than we do. I'd like to repeat the method to give away your good karma.

It's a seed in your mind. Most people aren't aware of the seeds in their own minds. When I say seed in your mind, I think you think of an apple seed halfway between your ears.

Try to think of it like a tiny sliver of diamond or crystal, and it's in a tiny dot, a crystal dot-like water, that is at the level of your heart, behind your physical heart, near your backbone. And imagine, or actually, things are emanating from that dot. You are seeing the world you see as a reflection of that drop.

Everything from the drop to the stars, and all the stars are being projected for you from that drop in your own heart. When you look up and see the moon, you are seeing a part of your own consciousness. When you look up and see the sun, you are seeing an expression of your own mind.

And when you see other people, they are expressions of your own mind. So is mind the only mind in the world? No, not at all.

They are real. The other people are real, and they are different from you. It's not contradictory to say that they are different and your mind is creating them.

There are different people created by your mind, and you don't have a choice. You know that the last person who irritated you just before the teaching is your past seeds creating present results. So there are three levels at which we can change reality.

There are three methods of going to heaven. The most primitive one is to try to manipulate outer events. I like to think of it like cement.

I learned a lot about cement when we built Holy Lama Perfect. I didn't know about cement. We tried to make his sidewalk.

I remember Venerable Chuni La was there. She ripped her hands open, bleeding to make it nice. But you learn that after it hardens, after about half hour, 45 minutes, it's too late to do anything.

You can scratch your name in it with a nail, but you can't change it much. Outer events are like that. We can't do a lot to help other people in the outer world.

We can try to feed people or give them money, a place to stay, but it's very limited. We run out of money quickly. You know that.

You can only put so many people in your living room in New York, and there are so many more who need help. It's very limited. It's a good thing to do.

All bodhisattvas do those things. We must do those things, but it's not very powerful. Then there's an inner method.

If the whole universe that you perceive is an expression of a tiny drop of consciousness, in your own heart, then it would be extremely powerful to go there and manipulate the seeds. This is what dedication is all about. This is what we are doing during this teaching.

Go to the inner drop. Go to the chromosomes, to the DNA chains. Make subtle changes.

And then for 50, 60, 70 years after that, the child changes, grows in a different way. It's very powerful. I worked in the diamond business.

I told you we had many other gemstones. One is topaz. I think I told you before.

The blue color is made by radiation in a nuclear reactor. And I studied it because I wanted to be sure that the women, especially in our department, were safe. Especially who were pregnant.

It just takes a single stray particle from a single atom of a radioactive substance. It penetrates the skin easily. And it collides with a single small part of the DNA chain in a single cell of the mother.

And then the baby will be deformed for his whole life. Karma is just like that. If you really want to change reality, if you hope to bring other sweet, holy, living creatures to paradise, it's very powerful to work at the level of the subtle drop of consciousness.

And that's what we are doing when we make dedication. If your motivation is strong and sincere, if you truly crystallize in your mind your own good deeds, think about them, clarify in your mind the beauty of your own good deeds, make them into a beautiful little crystal pocket, and then send it out. Imagine it as a ray of colorless light, crystal light, coming from your heart, from that tiny drop.

And it strikes the heart of the person you hope to help. Intention creates all things. And so, you will be in a position to help every living creature, just with the power of your focus and your concentration and your pure intention.

So, I think it's a very holy practice, just for a few minutes, maybe in the evening. I like to do it before I go to bed. I search for one stray good thought from the whole day, and I crystallize it by focusing on it, and then I try to send it to another person's heart to help them.

And there's a third method. We are sort of hard-headed. We have trouble believing what I just said about the drop of consciousness and seeds of karma.

But I think most of you have advanced far enough to know that the external kinds of help are also limited. We are limited in what we can do, because that's like hard cement and the inner drop is like wet cement. You can do anything with wet cement.

You can make anything you like, because you're working at the cause level. You're working in the realm of causes and not in the realm of things that have already hardened. It's a very profound statement.

We have to work in the realm of causes and not in the realm of results. The results are hard. You can't move it.

The causes are fluid like wet cement. There's a middle ground, which is sort of a joyful place to be. It's a way to work down to the subtle drop.

It's a kind of dedication that is more physical and easier to believe. And I would like to share it with you. I believe it very much.

I enjoy it a lot. I think it's a very joyful and beautiful practice. And it's like this.

You undertake a virtuous project, a good project. You design something to help other people. It could be building something for a Lama like Kim Rinpoche.

It could be just making them dinner, for example. We used to do it in Howell a lot. You go to the store.

You spend a few hours. Those of you who are caretakers, I think among all the retreatants, I can appreciate what you're doing. For eight years, I went to the store, stood in those stupid lines, read the National Enquirer from three feet away, because I'm a monk.

And then you go home. Rinpoche always liked to have a good momo, a meat dumpling. It's a lot of work.

It takes maybe an hour and a half. You chop the chinse, the celery, special celery. You grind the erma, which is a special Chinese pepper in a mortar and pestle.

You grease up the momo pots. You chop the meat. He liked it chopped by hand.

No, you can't use an electric machine on my meat. I like it chopped by hand. So you make hamburger with a cleaver, and then mix it up.

It takes about a half hour to roll out the dough and press it into those nice little shapes. Then you cook it in the momo pot, and you hope they don't fall apart. Then just about the time you're ready to take it up and see the beautiful look on his face of happiness, a student walks in.

They've been sitting in the next room reading a Dharma book for the last two hours, not helping. You make the arrangement on the tray, a beautiful arrangement. You get a nice beautiful lacquered tray, and it's going to be taken up to Khen Rinpoche.

You say to this person, come here, you know, you take the tray up. Of course they say, sure. Then they go up the stairs, and you can feel Rinpoche's smile from downstairs while you're washing the pots.

And you have just dedicated your good karma. You see, it's a wonderful practice. I encourage you to try it.

You have given away too much.