Шесть путей духовного воина (1999, Голуэй), занятие 4

[Говорящий 1]
Remember we finished all the kinds of giving, I think we had four kinds of giving the first night, and then now we've finished the ten kinds of ethical behavior, alright? And as I said, there are going to be six main ways to plant imprints in your mind. We're on to number three now.

We'll try to do three and four this afternoon. Say serpa. Serpa.

Serpa means, it's been translated many ways, some people say patience, some people say forbearance. I like to call it the art of not getting angry, okay? When the time comes, alright?

There's a joke in Tibet, somebody was meditating by the side of the road, deep in meditation, you know, some guy, other guy came along and said, excuse me, what are you meditating about? He says, serpa, you know, the art of not getting angry, you know, and he says, good, good, did I tell you you're a stupid ass? And the guy says, what do you mean I'm a stupid ass?

I thought you were meditating on patience, you know, on not getting angry. I mean, the idea is that anger can come and, you know, I did this great serpa meditation a few days ago, and then I blew up right afterwards, like, right afterwards, the next minute, you see what I mean? Like, anger is just very, very volatile, anger is very hard to control.

I want to talk about different... by the way, what's wrong with anger? Let's say you spend a whole day making good imprints in your mind, consciously, right?

You gave the scone to other people, you paid for the styrofoam cups, you know, you did everything right, in your small world, in your small way. By the way, all these things are done in your own small way, that's how you get to be, you know, like a warrior, or a spiritual saint, or something like that. That's how you meet angels.

It's not by, you know, going out and saving countries and things like that. It's much more difficult, say the scriptures, to be patient with someone in your family, than it is to go meditate in a cave for five years. Much more difficult.

They say, you want to meet a great yogi, or a great meditator, it's a person who can be patient with the other people in their immediate family, than it is to stay in a cave and meditate for years. Much more difficult to deal with someone next to you, than to deal with humanity. You see what I mean?

And they say if you deal with the first one you're a great spiritual person, you know? Much harder. So, we're going to talk about different kinds of not getting angry, and different tricks you can use to not get angry, okay?

First one I think to say is like this... it's a... it's a scale like this, and over here is anger.

Oh, I didn't mention, one moment of anger can destroy a whole day's worth of good imprints, okay? And you sense that, you know that. You see, I mean, you can...

you can love someone, you can put up with someone who irritates you for weeks, but then when you blow up, all of the effort you... they'll never forget the day you really told them what you thought, you see what I mean? You know I mean, those words will be written in stone for years, they'll never forget what you said, because they can hear that you really mean it, you see what I mean?

Like, at all costs, you have to avoid the final moment where you burst out in anger, okay? So, over here you have anger, and over here you have what you could call a good mood, okay? Or some kind of joy.

And then in the middle, you have what we call off-balance. Somewhere around here, it becomes upset. And the idea in...

in these things is to never get beyond here, you see what I mean? Like, once anger has reached about here, you can't stop it, okay? It moves too fast.

It moves faster than your goodness can catch it, you see what I mean? It gains a certain momentum, you start to blow up, and once you get to about here, you're at the mercy of the anger, you can't stop it, you won't be able to stop it. The idea, the whole art of not getting angry, the whole art of not destroying all your hard work of making good imprints, right?

Is to stop by the time you get here, okay? And Master Shantideva, the one who wrote the book that we're talking about, he says, as soon as you're off-balance... off-balance meaning what?

You're starting to get upset, you know, the person has said something to you, and... or something's happening, and your mind is starting to roil, your mind is starting to get roiled up or disturbed, and you have to be sensitive to that moment, you have to be watching out, you know, you have to be here, watching when this is going to happen, you see what I mean? You have to be very, very sensitive and watchful towards your own mind, so that the minute you start to go off-balance, you see what I mean?

How do you know when you're off-balance? This starts to disappear, okay? The good mood is like, starting to waver, okay?

That's all. Like, they say a good spiritual person, most of the day should be in a good mood, I mean, you see the Dalai Lama, the one thing people say about the Dalai Lama is he's giggling all the time, he's in a good mood all the time, alright? He's just laughing and giggling all the time, he's keeping this good mood, and then every time something happens, somebody says something to you, I don't like what you're doing, or somebody says, I have a suggestion about something, or somebody does something, you know, jealousy starts to come, some emotion starts to come up, the minute you get off-balance you have to catch yourself and bring it back to to joy, you see what I mean?

Forcefully, consciously, the minute... don't let it get too upset, and then you... because then you'll slide right into anger, you see what I mean?

You have to be very sensitive to when someone else has said something, and thrown you off-balance a little bit. Shantideva says, Master Shantideva says, freeze, he says, SHING GI DONG PA NAG SHING GYUR JI, means, become like a log of wood, you know, just freeze, just... whatever you're doing at that moment, just shut down, you know, stop the conversation, drop a pen, you know, cough, look the other way, count to ten, okay, whatever, distract things at that moment, you see what I mean?

And you can always do that, you can always get out of this confrontation, you know, you're in the... you're heading towards a confrontation, you can always just get up and go to the bathroom, you know, you can always just say, I have to go to the toilet, you know, you can always break it, by the time... by the time you get to here it's very difficult, you're already engaged, your eyes are locked into each other, the body language is there, you know, and...

and the heart is starting to ding ding ding, and... and I don't know about you, I feel this thrill up my gut, you know, and it seems to trigger speech, you know, it's kind of... you know, I feel this thrill right here, like a sick thrill, you know, this is like...

like almost like a heartburn, it starts moving up real fast, and then you say something, and you have to stop it here, so the minute you feel yourself... the minute somebody says something, and you start to waver, your happiness, your joy starts to waver, you have to shut down, and get out, get out of the situation, you're risking many many good deeds that you've already done, you see what I mean? Something big is at stake here, and you don't want to lose them, okay, so you just...

you just move out of the situation, while you're still sane, okay, get out of the situation, yeah... yeah, what about anger for a good purpose? We would count that in Shige Wangdok that I talked about this morning, the four modes that a good teacher takes on, sometimes you're happy, you know, see the Dalai Lama when he comes to my monastery, he's not up there like, you know, he's like wrathful with us, he's like, you monks have been so lazy, you guys haven't been working hard, I know you haven't been studying, you know, he's like, you know, and then he goes to the West, and he's this big smiling, you see, they're both coming from the same pure mind, and...

and we say that when a great spiritual person seems to get angry, they're not angry in their heart, you see what I mean? They're just being forceful, they're pretending to be angry, the way a parent, you know, a good parent has to sometimes act angry to help a child, the child's about to put their finger into a fan, and you say, no, you don't do that, but it's not because you're angry, you see what I mean? We say anger is always bad, there is a sort of a righteous forcefulness, which is not at all anger, why?

You're totally under control, inside you're as cool as a cucumber, you know, like you're a really good, strong spiritual person, inside they're totally in control, outside they're acting very forcefully, you know, on the outside they're throwing these guys out of the temple, but inside they don't have any hatred for them at all, in fact, they're doing it because they love them, you see what I mean?

They're acting forcefully because they care for that person, so it's a big difference. Okay, so, watch for that, that's the best way to keep your patience, okay? There's three kinds of patience, and I'm gonna put them up—actually, I'm gonna write something else up here, let me get it straight here.

This is another trick for keeping yourself from getting angry. By the way, if you read the whole book, or if you have time to get the whole teaching, it takes about two, three weeks. His Holiness did it in my home state in Arizona about three, four years ago, and it took about ten days of constant teaching, like four, five hours a day.

Here's my favorite, I'm translating from the Sanskrit here, if there is something... this is on your homework! In Tibetan it's, kyal te chö su yun na ni, de la mi ga chi shi yu.

Okay? You get angry about two kinds of things, animate things and inanimate things, and either one can destroy imprints, alright? To be angry at your car when it won't start, it's the same thing as to be angry at your child because they won't get up out of bed, okay?

It doesn't matter whether that object is animate or inanimate, it's the emotion which destroys the good imprint, so you have to avoid it in either case. So if you find yourself getting upset, if you find yourself losing your balance, the first thing you have to think is, you know, is there something I could do about this or not? You know, can I...

if I get upset at this car, if I can do something about it, meaning if I can fix it, then why get upset? Okay? What should you do?

Fix it! Okay? Don't get angry at the car, you see what I mean?

If the car is fixable, don't get angry, why? Just fix it, okay? Just sit down and fix it.

So that's the first half of the equation, if there's something you can do about it, do it, and don't get upset, there's no point to getting upset, just do what you have to do to fix it, you see what I mean? That's the first choice when something's going wrong. If you can fix it, then fix it, okay?

If there's nothing you can do about it, then what is the use of being upset? ,GAL TE CHUD SU MED NA NI, ,DE LA MI DGA' CI CI PAD, Okay? If there's nothing you can do about it, then why get upset again?

You see, either case you shouldn't get upset, okay? Just let it go, you can't do anything about it. Remember that the principle of imprints is that when something bad is happening to you, it was caused by something in the past.

It's too late to do much about it, you see what I mean? Right now, at this present time, that you meet this person that you don't like, or something's happening to your car that you don't like, it's mostly coming from the imprint in the past, okay? It's too late to do anything at this moment, okay?

You have to be patient. If you don't want to have that happen again, then don't get angry, you see? Because by getting angry, what happens?

You plant a new imprint, that imprint comes up again, what happens? You meet the same person again, okay? Master Shantideva says, if you don't like somebody who bothers you, what's the best thing to do?

Be good to them. Why? Because you can eliminate them, okay?

You know, in the American post office they use a gun, and they come in with a gun and shoot the boss, you don't have to do that, you know? He yells at you, you smile, you know? Okay.

By the way, not smiling in a way which is trying to get him more angry, okay? That's a... that's a different thing, okay?

But you're just patient with him, you say okay, I understand you have a problem with what I did on this last project, and I'm sorry, even if he's unreasonable, I'm sorry, now let's see how we can fix it, let's sit down, and you and me, you know, you be a good boss, I'll be a good employee, and let's see how we can fix this thing, you know? And try to bring them to something constructive, okay? That's short-circuits, if you don't do that, and you get angry, what's gonna happen?

The most distasteful thing in the world. So, Master Shantideva says, pick out the people you don't like, and eliminate them one by one. How?

Break the cycle, break the cycle. We call samsara, we call korva, we call the self-perpetuating problems. You get angry, so you say something which makes an imprint, which makes them come back again, and you get angry again, which creates an imprint that makes them come back again, and you get angry, and then you say something, and which creates an imprint, which brings them back again, and we call it like a self-perpetuating problem.

We say that all the problems you ever meet are being self-perpetuated. Why? Because the natural human reaction to something unpleasant is to be unpleasant back.

And in fact, according to all this stuff, that's the only way to get this person to come back again. So, you just break it. Out of morality?

No. Out of ethics? No.

Out of compassion? Not necessarily. Out of what?

Self-interest, practical, okay? We're just trying to eliminate these people, okay? I don't mean to hurt them or anything like that, like you love them, but you don't want them to look like that anymore.

So, you just stop being bad to them, you see what I mean? And that's the reason to be good. You see, it's very interesting, it's very interesting.

[Говорящий 2]
Can you see them as an angel?

[Говорящий 1]
That's one trick, yeah, you can see them as coming to teach you. That's one trick. You can say, this person...

you know, we say that angels are very patient people, they became angels long ago, they were like you and me a long time ago, they heard this stuff, they did it, it's all finished, they became an angel already, and they sit up in their paradises, and they have a special quality. We say that when you become an angel, not only do you get a fantastic body, you gain the power to send other bodies out. You gain the power to send other forms out to other places, in many places at once.

One angel sitting in their own paradise, but where is that located? Wherever you are. Wherever you are, okay?

Remember this thing, okay? Just gotta remember that, wherever you are, okay? There's no heaven, the Apollo spaceship proved it, it didn't bump into heaven.

Now, either they went the wrong way, or... you know, it's not like that, your perceptions change, you are in heaven, and you know how to keep it going, because you know all this stuff, okay? Anyway, they have a power to send forms back to this plane of reality to help people, okay?

And they do that all the time. They're very patient, why? They see a million years ahead, that's a long time, okay?

They're patient. To them, one lifetime is nothing at all, it's a drop in a bucket, you know? So, every person in your family, the sister you don't like, the brother you don't like, they could be an angel on a mission.

And we say that all the time, we're not being New Age, or we're not being like some kind of, I don't know, wishy-washy thing, oh love all the people around you, it's not like that. Very, very practically speaking, they have the ability to send out people who spend 20 years being your irritating brother in order to help you, okay? And then they'll come one moment, at the very end, they'll turn to you and say, did you get it?

And then you say, what'd you say? And they'll say, oh nothing, I was just scratching my... you know, I mean, there's always like one moment in their whole lives when they reveal themselves.

Watch for it. I think it's a rule they have or something, you know, and then they're supposed to deny it the next moment. You say, I didn't say anything, okay?

It's very interesting. Yeah? Oh, if you're kind to them, how do you eliminate them?

If you're kind to someone, do they stop being unkind to you? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, okay? I mean, the person can torture you for years and you can be kind to them.

You know that. Some people in the room, right? Don't forget that you're not affecting them, you're affecting you.

You see what I mean? It's not that by observing your kindness they will become kind or something like that, it's not like that. You are refusing to plant new imprints to see them that way.

Does anybody love this person? Somebody somewhere loves them. All the time on New York, my Lama will say, come up, watch the news, you know, he lives on the second floor, you know, we built him a room up on the second floor, he'll yell down the stairs, come and see this thing on the TV, and I'll run upstairs, you know, and he'll say, look at that, and he'll be this kid in chains, you know, in the police lineup who just shot six people in Brooklyn, you know, in a drug deal, you know, and then they'll show the gun and they'll show him and everything, and then they'll interview his mother, you know, what do you think Johnny did this? He says, it couldn't be, my son is the most sensitive, loving, wonderful boy, it's impossible.

They always, my Lama laughs and says, see, you know, what I mean is, somebody loves them, somebody thinks they're the most wonderful person in the world, somebody has a different imprints with this person, you see what I mean? It's your problem. The big, really difficult thing about this whole idea that I'm going to be talking about this whole weekend, is that ultimately, you're the, the responsibility is on you, you have to change.

I didn't say once that you should go to other people and encourage them to change their imprints, it's your imprints have created them, you have to get used to that, you have to get used to that, and it's very, very empowering, you can become an angel, you can go to heaven, and it's very depressing. Oh, you mean every irritating person I ever met was my... was created by me?

Yeah, exactly, okay, and that's sort of daunting, okay, there's a lot of them, but that's the way it is. You don't like it, stop it. You know, I used to go home and complain about my job to my Lama, he'd say, just shut up, you know, you don't like it, you stop it.

Okay, it's like that. You should remember, this is one of the most famous lines in all of scripture, Buddhist scripture, if you can do something about it, shut up and do it, okay? If you can't do anything about it, why be upset, okay?

And don't, don't disturb your joy, okay? Nowadays in New York, my students run around and the big insult to somebody is, you're really disturbing my joy right now! You can't say you're making me angry, right?

Okay, I'll give you one or two kinds of patients, and then we'll take a break, okay? We're from the lineage of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama's lineage is all scholars, we like to divide things, categorize things, number things, okay?

Anyway, it helps you understand things. We say that if you understand the theory, and then meditate, it's very powerful. So, so our particular lineage is very good on, you know, categorizing things, we love to categorize things, okay?

So here's three kinds of patients. Say dung-lien, dung-lien, dung-lien, dung-lien. Dung-lien means problems, suffering, okay?

Dung-lien, but dung-lien means to... like, take them on happily, take them on happily, embrace them, how's that? Dung-lien is embrace, embrace problems, okay?

What's this mean? This is the first kind of patients, this is the first kind of way to react to things that make you angry. If you can't beat them, join them.

You just, you just use them, you know? Someone is coming to you to hurt you, someone's coming to you to make you angry, something's saying something bad to you, and you look at them and you say, this is wonderful, look at this opportunity, you know? Master Shantideva has a funny word for it, he calls it a...

what's it? Strategic collaboration. He says, go up to these people, I have a proposal, let's do a collaboration.

Oh, what would that be? You be the irritating person, I'll be the patient person, and together we'll make me an angel, you know? Like, I need people like you, you know?

I've been looking for someone like you, you're just right, you know? You say the wrong thing at the wrong time, exactly, you're the one person in the world who can get me angry anytime, you know? Do you mind to just stay with me, stay around me, you know, help me?

There was a great Lama named Atisha who came from India, and he was one of the first Buddhists to come to Tibet and teach, like, you know, coming to Ireland for the first time or something, you know? And he had this student that he always brought with him, this one disciple. He had like three good disciples, and then he had this one disciple who is the most irritating person you can imagine, you know?

And he came to Tibet, he started teaching, and then the Tibetans took him aside and said, you know, all the people who travel with you are quite nice, but you got this one, it's like the most arrogant, bothersome, foul-mouthed, irritating person we've ever met, why did you choose this one to come with you? You know? And he says, this is my strategic collaboration, I always bring this person with me everywhere I go, they test me every moment, you know?

They're constantly irritating, constantly saying bad things, constantly acting inappropriately, it's great for my spiritual life. I was looking for a student like that, and I finally got one, and now I take them with me everywhere I go, you know? And then they say he was trying to learn Tibetan, like he spoke Indian, right?

And he was trying to learn Tibetan, and he was trying very hard, but he was pretty old by that time, and he got a pebble in his shoe, and this Tibetan, he said, we have to stop, and they said, why? And he said, I have a boulder in my shoe, because he didn't know that it's chalk, okay, if you're interested, instead of dew, you know, so I have a chalk in my shoe. He meant to say pebble, he used the word for boulder, and they all laughed, all the Tibetans laughed, he said, ah, Adi Shankar, you're so funny, what's so funny?

He says, that's the word for boulder, you want to say pebble, do you, you know? He said, oh, okay, okay, and then he turns to the student, he says, now you can go back to India. Why?

He found new people to irritate him. This is some cut on the Tibetans, you know, he's like, he's playing a joke on the Tibetans, if you're gonna correct me like that when I'm trying to learn your language, I can send him back. Okay, anyway, try to look at these people as opportunities, okay, they say in, in Buddhism, that if you stay in a monastery, in a cave, and never meet bad people, you are less for it, okay, much better, my Lama, after I did eight years in the monastery, I did not go out almost, studied from morning to night, eight years, my father died, I didn't go to the funeral, my brother died, I visited briefly, my mother died, I didn't go, my brothers both got married, didn't go, stayed in the monastery, concentrated for eight years, then the Lama says, okay, now it's time to do it, I said, what do you mean do it, I'm doing it for eight years, he says, no, I want you to go to work, and work in an office, I'm like, what do I need that for, I like it here, he says, that's the whole point, you know, you have to find somebody to irritate you, get a job, I said, I don't want a job, I have money, my mother died, I have money, he says, that's not the point, you have to meet irritating people, I'm gonna send you to Manhattan to work in this diamond company, you know, like, like that, you know what I mean, and, and it's like a laboratory for your, you need to get to sharp, you cannot do these things unless you're around other people, you must have the energy, the infants are much more powerful if they're done around other human beings, you need other people like that, so the first kind of patience is to look at these people and say, thank you, I've been waiting for somebody like you, you know, by the way, if you joke like that, or if you think like, it breaks the whole anger thing, your whole mind gets easier, the whole thing becomes much easier, you're like, you're like laughing at this person, they're like, and you're like, and you know, and you're like, you know, you're, I need you, okay, thank you, well, if you can joke a little bit when you're having a mental affliction, it really breaks the power of it, if you can just laugh a little bit at yourself, you know, the minute you're angry, if you just make a small joke, the whole thing dissolves, I think devils don't like humor, okay, so the Irish are gonna do fine, all right, because you like humor so much, it's good, okay, and this is how the imprint...

oh yeah, there's, yeah, there's three kinds of guidelines, everything I'm doing today, oh, that related to to perfection number two, living an ethical life, and it had three kinds of guidelines, okay, we covered giving, and then we said living an ethical life, and those three are different versions of living an ethical life, and now we're on to, after we finished with an ethical life, and we're going on to the art of not getting angry, so these are now three kinds of ways of not getting angry, okay, say ji, by the way I'm gonna try to finish at five, so somebody has to remind me when it's like close to five to five, can you do, somebody do that, okay, so we'll try to finish on time, we don't start on time, but we always finish on time, okay, say ji, minyam, ji minyam, ji minyam is the third kind of patience, what was the first one? dang len, first one is where you embrace it, if you can't beat them, join them, you know, hey, tell you what, you be the irritating person, I'll be the patient one, I need you, stay close, okay, so I can get rid of you, okay, it really goes like that, okay, number two, yeah, it's where like, fortitude in a way, you know, this stuff takes courage, this stuff takes patience, this stuff takes stick-to-it-iveness, you don't get discouraged, that's number two, like, especially with your spiritual life, I don't care what I have to go through, I'm gonna get good at this, you see what I mean, and you have to be very persistent like that, it's difficult, things are difficult, and the minute you pop your head up, you can expect some problems, you know, they want you to roll over and die quietly, and the minute you try to be different, you'll get criticism from people, you'll get... people will make fun of you, all sorts of problems will come that you never had before, but don't don't worry, okay, did you have a question? Yeah, yeah, there's another practice called tonglen, I think we did it the first night I was in...

in Galway, and it was where you used... you take that black spot out of the other person, and you breathe it in... yeah, to take on the problems of other people, and then the idea is to take them into your heart, and then immediately destroy them, and...

and that's a very similar practice, yeah, you can even say it's a part of it. Okay, jīmi nyan means... jīmi nyan means just the art of just letting it go, okay, just let it go, somebody challenges you, somebody's in your face, you know, and you just say, it's okay, it's all right, it's just...

it's okay, jīmi nyanpa means don't... don't think anything about it, just let it go, okay, and that's the third kind of patience, I mean, just on the spot, no confrontation, they wanted to cause a fight, they want to get into it, and you just say, you know, it's all right, just leave it, okay, and just change the subject. Changing the subject is a great spiritual art, okay, somebody's trying to get you into a corner to lie, or somebody's trying to get you into talking about something you don't want to talk about, or just something improper or inappropriate, and you just...

you just change the subject, or if you're drinking a... if it's a heavy thing that they want you about to say something very bad, drop the glass, it's very useful, okay, and just 20 minutes cleaning up this thing, and... no, and everybody forgets the argument they were having, and...

try it, try it, it's really good, okay, it's really good, or you could pretend to have an epilepsy attack or something, but uh... you know, all sorts of things, it's very funny, all sorts of things, you can start dancing, or something, right in the middle, and then people just... they forget what was happening, you know, just try it, distraction.

They say in the monastery, if you can't stop a bad thought about a lady or something, just distract yourself, you know, try to think of something else, you see what I mean? Like, distraction is a great art, and you can use it all the time, and really, if it's getting to a point in a room where everyone's gonna lose a lot of good imprints by being mad with each other, drop a glass, okay, tip over a chair, or something, you know, tip over yourself in a chair, and everybody will laugh, you see what I mean? Really, you can do stuff like that.

If you can't meet a mental affliction head-on, you can always veer around it, you see what I mean? It's an art, it's a Buddhist art, okay? That's jimmy-nyamba.

Now I want to finish, we're gonna go on to the next kind of, the next perfection. So, so far we've finished three. It's been giving, and then it was ethical way of life, and ethical way of life got to be a long story, because it had ten parts, and three categories, right?

Three different versions. And then we went through patience, which had three different kinds of patience, or not getting angry. By the way, don't forget it applies to things as well as people.

You can destroy the good imprints in your heart by getting mad at traffic, by getting mad at the weather, by getting mad at the economy, okay? By getting mad at your own anger, I mean, by getting doubly upset, you see what I mean? You have to watch all those.

Now we're on to number four. Say tsundu. Tsundu.

Tsundu has been translated as effort, or perseverance, or something like that. I'd like to call it joyful effort. Joyful effort.

It's a special kind of attitude about doing good things, okay? And it's where you enjoy it, alright? Like, I think a lot of people have the impression that Tibetan monks sit up in the Himalayas, and austere, and they're staring at the wall, and the snow is up to their waist, and they're, they're like that, or something like that.

If you really go to a Tibetan monastery, you know, in my monastery, 3,000 monks, serje, serme, together. People are laughing, people are enjoying themselves, people are joking with each other. The most mischievous people in the monastery are the great lamas, and they're making little jokes on people all the time, and making fun of people all the time, and you go into a class with one of the really great lamas, and it feels like a party, you know, and they are getting you to learn, by getting you comfortable, and happy, and joyful, and it's much different from other...

like, I've been in other countries in Buddhist monasteries, and it's very serious, and Tibetan is not like that at all. It's this great joy going everywhere, kids running around, and everyone's happy, and they have a good time doing spiritual things. That's number four.

Have a good time with it, you know, and if people in a group are doing this well, you can feel the excitement, you know, you can sense it, if you're in a group of Buddhists who are practicing, and you can sense this kind of excitement and joy. And somebody says, we're gonna clean up now, and it's not like everybody runs out the door, okay, it's like, people say, yeah, what can I do, what can I do, you know, and there's always lots of people around to do the bad jobs, and people are always taking other people's luggage off their shoulder, and insisting that they carry it, you know. The first time I heard Tibetans in my life, I was on a bus, there were two people sitting in the back, in India, this horrible, dirty, cranky, leaking, dusty bus, and hot, and in the back there's these two Tibetans having a fight over a cigarette, you know, what kind of fight?

You take it, no, you take it, no, you take it, no, you promised you would take it, but you said you might take it, no, you know, and there's this fight going on, they have one cigarette left, and they're trying to give it to the other guy, and they have this joy, okay, so, you know, spiritual life shouldn't be some kind of grumpy, spiritual life shouldn't be restrictive, that you feel like, oh, these vows are meant to keep me from doing anything, you see, I mean, I heard a very great French monk speak, he wrote a nice book called, what's it called, The Philosopher and the Monk, it's like the number one bestseller in France, and his name is Mathieu Ricard, and he wrote this essay describing that vows make you free, like a bird, you know, they're like wings that you can fly with, and he never, ever felt that his vows were some kind of restriction, or some kind of, what do you call it, like duty, or obligation, or something like that, there's a pleasure to follow these ten things that we talked about, you know, it's an honor, it's a joy, if you really understand how things work, then keeping all of these things well becomes some kind of a very happy thing, and if you have a group of people who are keeping them well, it literally feels like a party, you know, like, I don't think we're going to be able to go back to the Marino Institute, it was a little too much like a party, but in Dublin, they're like, whoo, how can you fit twelve people in a room like that, and you know, everybody was over there on computers, and working on projects, and we had the phone lines all unplugged and wrapped in here, and there were twelve people making tea, and you know, it spreads out into the hallway, and it should be like that, okay? It should be like that, I mean, it shouldn't bother other people, or get kicked out of the Marino Institute, but I mean, there's a limit, but it should be some kind of joyful thing where you're having a good time, and it shouldn't be some grumpy, repressed feeling, you know, it should be like a...

you should be keeping your vows perfectly, and be perfectly happy doing so, and some kind of joy in the room, like that, okay? That's a... have a good time doing good things, that's the definition, I think that's your first question.

Give the brief definition of effort, it's like, have a good time doing good things, okay? Some kind of having a good time about it. If you're not having a good time, I don't think you're doing them properly, you know?

If they don't feel enjoyable, I think you haven't gotten the correct instruction about them, you see what I mean? They should be happy, should be... if you really do those ten things we talked about, respecting life, respecting other things, keeping sexual purity in your life, it should be some kind of happiness, it should be enjoyable, it should be like going to a good movie or something.

Where are the movie theatres around here? Are there? Go away.

I don't know, all I see is pubs. Okay, kind of lonely for a Buddhist monk. All right, number...

oh, three things that stop you from having tsundere, okay? These are the three things that prevent you from having joy, about doing good things, okay? First one...

le lo... le lo is the only Tibetan word that sounds like the English word, le lo. It means laziness, okay?

And laziness is some kind of thing where you don't feel like being good, and that's the first thing you have to overcome. There's this slight natural resistance to doing good things, you know? Somebody says, do you want to wash the dishes?

And then le lo comes up. It's like, I know it would be a good thing mom, but... you know, it's just the feeling of...

it's especially in a room when there's four or five people, and somebody has to get up to answer the door, and you don't want to. It's just slight resistance to doing the right thing, you see what I mean? And it's very easily overcome by just a few days of practice, like that.

It's not a big... it's not a big thing, but you have to be aware of it. It's a very slight, stupid...

hesitation to do something that you know is right, and it's no big skin-off-your-back, it's no big difficulty to do the thing, it's just a slight resistance in your heart doing it. You get it just before you're supposed to meditate in the morning, you know? It's just this slight thing that looks at this seat and says, I don't know, you know?

And it only takes a single willpower moment to overcome it. It's a very small hurdle, it's not a big one. Le lo is like, not a big thing.

But it's your first problem, it's your first... it's not feeling like doing the thing, okay? It's just this feeling, especially in meditation or something like that, you just don't feel like it.

If you sat down and did it, you'd feel great. It's a lot like exercise, you know? If you...

two minutes after starting exercise you feel great, but two minutes before it you have an attack of le lo, like you... you just kind of don't feel like doing it. You know how good you'll feel in two minutes if you start, but you just can't start.

That's le lo, okay? Say, chakpa? Chakpa?

Chakpa means attached to doing the wrong things, like, it's a habit of doing the... or an attachment to doing the wrong things, it's sort of a habit. What it means is, so often you've been the person that did not get up to answer the door, that now you've become...

in the Tibetan they say kyang lang shor wa, it means you've become spoiled, you know? You've become spoiled, and now... now you never expect to be the person that should get up to answer the door, you know?

You're in a group, or someone else has washed the dishes five times in a row, and then you're getting used to... you see, that's chakpa. It's not the same as le lo.

Le lo is that little hesitation the first time, and then chakpa is after you've refused to do the dishes five times, and you're starting to get used to, or you're starting to get attached to the opposite, and... and it becomes a pattern. So chakpa means like, it becomes a pattern, that you...

you're not the one who gets up to answer the door, and you're not the one who picks up the... the luggage for people, and you're not the one who... who, you know, cooks dinner, or something like that.

You don't even think about it. You're not the one who goes to the store to buy the breakfast things, okay? You just get used to it, and then you don't even think about it anymore.

That's... that's the second one. I'm not sure if I've spelled that right, but I think it's correct, okay?

It's not in my notes, but... Say giluk? Giluk?

Not the same as geluk, okay? Giluk means... discouraged.

Like you've tried to be good, and you can't do it very well, and you get discouraged, okay? You think like, I can't do that, I'm not good enough person. It's a low self-esteem?

Something like that, like... like, you know, other people can do this stuff, but I can't, okay? It's like some belief that you can't do it, all right?

This brings us to a thing which we call the book. Let me see if I... Somebody asked me, you know, if I...

if I teach all this stuff, and then leave, and don't come back for a while, then it doesn't help you much, you see? You can be in a state of mind right now where you say, you know, what you said makes sense, or, you know, what you've said so far affected me pretty strongly, you know, it sounds like... it matches everything they taught me in church, and it gives me more information that makes it more practical.

You know, now I know how sin works, you know, sin goes... an impression is made in my mind, the thing goes down into my subconscious, it comes up again, it affects how I see the world. In fact, it determines how you see the world, okay?

It makes the world. And now I understood all that, that's very compelling. And then, by Wednesday you'll forget everything, even with the homework, okay?

So, there's this thing called a book, or tunduk, okay? I'm gonna write it here. Say tunduk?

Tunduk? Tunduk means a six-time... six-times book, six-time book, we call it a six-time book.

Tund means time, druk means six. Six-time book. This is a method that, you know, if I teach you how to meditate every morning, which you'll know by tomorrow, okay?

And if I leave you with this book, you can pretty much run your own show, okay? Like, you can work on it, and you'll be bumping into angels after a while, alright? It's kind of fun.

By the way, do they just pop up one by one totally? No. They sort of start to, how do you say, squeak out.

They come up slowly, like, you get a flash from somebody, you say, they say something amazing to you, you know, and you're like, excuse me? And they say, oh never mind. And then, and then the next time you see them, they say something outright, blatantly, like, I know what you did three days ago and it's really great.

You're like, are you an angel? And they say, no, no, me no, no, I just was guessing, you know. And then, later on they admit it, okay?

So, there's this gradual build-up, okay, that you go—it doesn't happen all at once, okay? This is what a book looks like, and I'm gonna go through it, I'll start today and I'll go through some more. But what we do, six times book means six times a day you stop, and you check what you're doing, okay?

Against the things we've done so far. So, like, I'll make you a list. I think we have four kinds of giving, we have ten ways of ethical life, we have three kinds of patience, we have three kinds of effort now, we're gonna have meditation, we're gonna have wisdom.

But anyway, it'll come out to a certain number, like what, I don't know, say it's 18 or something. And then what we do is, six times a day you check one of them, okay? Six times a day you stop and check one of them.

So, you're supposed to check, let's say eight o'clock tomorrow morning, and I'll be giving you some books. I don't think I'll do it tonight. No, I should do it tonight.

Do it tonight, okay? When you get home. Do one tonight, okay?

I'll give you a book, on your way out you'll get a book. Do we have enough for everybody? You have enough books?

We do? Okay, all right. And the way the book works is like this.

You take the left side, and you mark it up like this. Up here you write times like 8 a.m., say 10 a.m., say noon, say 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. The point is that understanding all this stuff I've been talking about, understanding about imprints, understanding about how they come back to you, understanding how they create your reality, it doesn't mean much if you don't do anything, you see what I mean? There's lots of Buddhist monks who've understood everything and been miserable, because they didn't do anything, see what I mean?

There's a big difference between understanding it and doing it. So, the book is to try to get you to do it, you see what I mean? And it's a very interesting thing, it's called six-time book, meaning six times a day you have to stop and check what you're doing, and if you keep this up over a couple of weeks or months, then things start happening to you, okay?

I have many students in New York, I have hundreds and hundreds of students in the world, thousands, and they come to me and they say, I have, they ask me for interviews, they come for interviews, you know, so it's like 10 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour, and it's always the same, there's only two kinds of people who ever come to me. Here's the first, nothing's working, I'm not happy, everything's miserable, my meditation is not working, my parents are still lousy, you know, nothing's going right, I feel sick, I'm unhappy, I say, I have one question, they say, what? I said, are you doing that six times book I taught you?

I don't like it, you know, I don't think it's important. I did it for a couple weeks, just after you visited Galway, and then I kind of stopped, you know, so I say, don't bother me, just go away, okay, just go back home, and if you're gonna do it, do it, if you're not gonna do it, don't come to me and tell me your meditation is lousy, or you're not making money, or anything, I don't want to hear it, you know, sometimes I get impatient with them, I'm like, just, just go. Here's the second kind, oh, there's a variation on the first kind, they come in and they say, I'm not happy, my meditation is not going well, I'm financially not good, everything you said is not happening to me, and I say, are you keeping your book? And they say, yeah, I keep the book.

I say, are you keeping it well? Yeah, I only miss like half of it, you know, every day, I'm doing it at least three times a day, I said, no, it's called a what? It's called a six times book, you have to do it six times, you see, that's a...

oh, there's another variation, I keep it very well, what do you write, let me see what you write in your book, oh, what's supposed to give material things to other people, you're supposed to write a positive and negative, right? The positive says, sometimes I do, negative says, sometimes I don't, you know, that's not gonna change you, okay, that's not gonna improve you, it has to be specific, you see, so you take something like, the first kind of... help, giving help, helping anybody, okay, so then we say, plus, minus, you know, this is not some stupid system, this was invented by the holy tantric angel Vajradhara, which is an emanation of Shakyamuni Buddha, two and a half thousand years ago, on the top of this peak, you know, this is very holy, you're required to do this if you take the highest teachings of Buddhism, okay, you have to do it, so it's not like it's just some little thing that I made up, okay, it's not, this is...

Tundra is ancient, and Tundra is powerful, okay, it should be small, it should be specific, okay, I helped who? Okay, this morning I did two of the dishes, it has to be totally honest, okay, you can't say I did all the dishes, if you didn't, I did two dishes, what time? 7.30, where?

At the apartment, okay, okay, that's all, that's all, this gets you to heaven, this makes you into an angel, okay, I swear to God, okay, really, really it works, you start with the small things, you know, people ask me how do you do this, how do you do this stuff, it's just like playing piano, and you have to put as much serious interest into it as a person who learns piano, if you don't, you won't get anything, I promise, you won't get money, you won't get happiness, you won't get anything, you won't meet angels, you have to do it as if it were practicing piano. This sixth thing has to happen every day, specific, okay, something positive, I did two dishes at 7.30, that's fine, that's great, what's not good here, I'm a nice person, I help out people sometimes, it's not gonna change anything, okay, that doesn't make any big imprint, nothing, okay, we know you're a good person, and we know you're sometimes a bad person, that's not gonna change your life to think about that, okay, what's a negative? Ate the last scone, no, that's not helping, didn't help carry the box, okay, didn't help carry the box, with box, okay, that's not such a big thing, come on, is that gonna make you see angels?

Yes, because where's the most difficult place to be a spiritual person? In your kitchen, really, if you can be spiritual in the kitchen with the other three people in your family, you can do it anywhere, you see, it's true, it's absolutely true, you know, the big Joan of Arc test for you is gonna be in your kitchen, at breakfast, and if you can do it with the people you're around all the time, it's easy to do it with other people, okay, it's the people around you that you become normal with, okay, you want to be some holy, glorious saint, you have to overcome what we call the boring normal, and that's the people closest to you, okay, if you can overcome it with the people closest to you, you can overcome it with anybody, okay, sorry? Living alone is unlucky, you see, to be a real spiritual person it requires a lot of interaction with other people, really, you need people to get you angry, people to get you jealous, people to have desire over, it's very useful to have a lot of people around, if you don't, then you can do your mental ones, you know, like, had an unkind thought, I wasn't thinking to be helpful to so-and-so, you know, you can do it... thoughts are also imprints, okay, thoughts are the strongest imprints, okay, also it doesn't have to be in the last 24 hours, you can go back to a week ago, or three days ago, or something like that, okay, then we put down here a to-do, okay, for example, I'll help cook dinner, okay, there should be a to-do, don't make the to-do some huge stupid thing that you're not going to be able to complete, okay, don't make it, I'm gonna cook dinner every night for the next month, because then you'll have a new box to fill in, which one?

Lying, okay, no really, really, they say that, okay, be careful not to make the to-do this big glorious thing, make them small things that, you know, you can accomplish, yeah, I think it should be something like a bit of a challenge, you know, something a little bit new, something a little bit new, okay, I'm assuming you're like me, and you never help with dinner, okay, like that, okay, now at 10 a.m. you're gonna do the next one, and like that, so tonight I'd like you to try, do one at do one at 8 p.m. tonight, try an 8 p.m. tonight, something like that, you're gonna get a book, practice, and then tell me tomorrow, I'll ask a couple of people, you know, how it went, you know, I had a very, very fulfilling experience on this trip, you know, we make these trips often, we go around the world, and we were in Mongolia, and there was a woman there, and I asked her the next morning, I said, you know, she's in a room with a thousand people, and I'm choosing in a thousand people, you know, I say, how about you, you know, what did you write in your book last night, and she says, well yesterday you spoke about abortion, and you said it was wrong to kill, and she said, so I went home, and I told my sister, you know, do you know that Buddhists aren't allowed to do abortion, and she said, I didn't know that, I was gonna have an abortion this week, you know, and then she decided not to have an abortion, you see, I mean, so I'm like, wow, that made the whole trip worthwhile, I saved a human life, you know, and this is like, makes you feel really great, you see, I mean, so, it's a great thing, it's a good thing, so try it, if you don't keep it every few hours, you know, if you save it up for the end of the day, and you do six of them at eight o'clock, it does not work, okay, there's a system in the, in some Tibetan monasteries, where they do, they call six session yoga two times a day, that doesn't work, okay, and there's a system where they just read out the names of the vows, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, slander, harsh words, idle gossip, whenever I've done, I'm sorry, you know, sojong, ... you know, and then you all go home, you know, it's a corruption, it doesn't work, it won't work, okay, you have to stop every two hours and say, you know, check your mind, check what you're doing, okay? Last thing, are we close to five, I think?

Okay, last thing at the end of the day, is there a question? Yeah? Gotta write it down, gotta write it down, okay?

Reflection leads to lay low, what's lay low? Reflection gets shorter and shorter every day, until finally you're not reflecting anymore, yeah. No, no, good question.

So the next one you're gonna do is, what was the third kind of giving? Love, yeah. And what's the last kind of giving?

Yeah, spiritual, like, knowledge, giving people spiritual knowledge, you see? What's the first kind of ethical life? What's the first of the ten?

Respecting life. I much prefer to put it in a positive light, okay? So, respecting life, okay?

What's the second? Respecting people's things, okay? What's the last one?

The third one, sexual purity, which again doesn't mean no sex at all, it just means right sex, you know? Consenting adults happily doing sex with each other, wife and husband doing sex with each other, not doing sex with someone else's wife or husband, okay? That's all.

Yeah, yeah, you go through them. So now you're... I'll make you a whole list tomorrow, you'll have a whole list to go through, I think it'll end up to be thirty or something like that, because we've got four kinds of giving, ten kinds of ethical living, we got three kinds of patience, we got...

Yeah, yeah, you keep rotating through them like that, you see what I mean? You rotate through them. So, you might get back to respecting life in two days.

You see what I mean? Yeah, there's a positive, which is... let's say respecting life.

Positive, you know, I consciously stopped jabbering during driving, and I paid attention, because that's the easiest way in the West that you can kill somebody, you know? Like, we're not the... yeah, I don't believe anyone in this room is gonna go after somebody with a knife, but you can definitely kill a child on a bicycle, you see what I mean?

And that's what you have to be careful. So, I was careful driving very purposely, carefully drove. Where?

At 9 a.m. At what street? When I drove up Shop Street, which I wasn't supposed to do. Okay.

Negative, yeah, how about something different? I like, like... I'd say, you know, what's much more common is over eight.

Okay, over eight. Oh, wait a minute, that's about yourself, that's not about other things. Hey, same thing, okay?

Your body is very precious, you can't become an angel if you kill it. You won't have time, you'll be off to another one, you see what I mean? Your body is very precious.

Suicide in Buddhism is a very, very serious negative deed, okay? You have destroyed the vehicle by which someone could have become an angel, in this life, you see? Very serious.

So, harming your own body is a very serious thing, okay? You have to take good care of your body. Should you be attached to it?

Should you like, stand in the mirror all day? No, not especially if you have skinny legs like mine, okay? But, it's not the point.

So, not to be attached to it, not to be... but you have to take good care of it, you know, like... what do you call it?

Like, clinically, just look at it and say, oh look, oh you need some vitamins today, here, have some vitamins, you know, like that. What to do? Tonight I'll try to eat more salad, okay?

And try to encourage the people with me to eat more salad, or something like that, okay? Hey, that's not a big deal, that's not going to get you enlightened, it does get you enlightened. It's the small things, okay?

It's the small things.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah?

[Говорящий 1]
It's this, she's asking about priority. You've made commitments in your life, your job, your marriage, your children, your family. Buddhism says, you're not going to be good at this if you break the other commitments to do this commitment, you see what I mean?

If you ignore your family so you can be a good spiritual person, you know, or break your job commitment so you can keep your book, you know, break your marriage commitment so you'll have time to do your meditation, that's not a good... that's just getting into the habit of breaking commitments. You have to honor the commitments you already have, unless they're immoral or damaging or something like that, okay?

But a person who breaks their commitments to make new commitments is going to break the new commitments too. You have to respect your old commitments, okay? Sorry?

Go to the toilet. Just kidding. No, I worked in an office, we were on the phone five telephones at once, I'm not kidding.

You know, like, you're yelling into one phone to Bombay, and there's another phone to Belgium, and there's a guy from Tel Aviv, and there's a guy from Rio de Janeiro, and you're like, ah, I'll buy five, no, six, ten over there, and then they say, go into your book, you know, like, forget it. You have to find some method, if you're like in the middle of a heart operation or something, okay, wait, you know, and no, I mean if you have a... or if you're a schoolteacher and at ten o'clock you're supposed to be in front of 30 students teaching, so of course you can't do it then, but you must do it at the next chance you get, and you have more chances than...

don't fool yourself. What I'm saying is that people tend to fool themselves, they tend to say, there's no way I could get away. I always say, you know, I've been in these boardrooms, you know, hundred million dollar decisions, and you know, we're about to reach a crucial point, I just stand up, I say, I gotta go to the toilet.

Nobody ever stopped me, you know? Yeah, sneak it in there. The business people I know, like, Winston's a big shot at MetLife Insurance, okay?

He has it hidden in this daily planner. You know, they think he's very... what do you call it?

Responsible person, he's always sitting there with his daily planner, you know? It works. You can always sneak out.

Be very careful at believing that you don't have time. You have time to eat, you have time to comb your hair, you have time to put your clothes on, you never forgot your pants once, you know? Really, this is more important than your pants.

Better to forget to put your pants on than not do this. Really. Don't put your pants on, you'll get embarrassed for a few hours, okay?

Or days. But, forget to do this, you know, you could ruin your whole life for months, you know? It's really more important than eating, or those things.

Okay, last thing, then I really have to run too, I have a five o'clock. At the end of the day, on the right side, draw like a half there, and put one, two, three, for the good, and one, two, three for the bad. What's this all about?

This is last thing before you sleep. We say that before you die, and before you sleep, you should have a clean conscience, okay? In case you die while you sleep.

We have this prayer in the United States, do you have that? Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord my soul, yeah. Yeah, and we believe that's absolutely true, and the thing of last rites, a priest giving you last rites, we believe that's beautiful, perfect, necessary, because you don't want to die with these things on your heart, you know?

We say very, very bad if you die with one of these imprints on your heart, something big you've done, and you haven't told somebody, or you haven't admitted it. So, you know, what happens if you're doing this rotation, and killing doesn't come up that day, but you murdered your boss? I mean, you got to write it down, all right?

By the way, we say those imprints grow exponentially, if you leave it unexamined, it grows in power two times the first day, four times by the second day, 16 times by the third day, 64 times by the fourth day, the power. Especially for monks and nuns, that's a big thing in the Vinaya. So, so you have to, you know, if it didn't come up that day, you better write it down, okay?

It's killed the boss, that's on the bad side, unless it's like my boss, no. But you have to write, that's at the end of the day, just before you go to sleep, purify, clean your heart, you know? Lots of people die in their sleep, lots of people who never thought they'd die in their sleep, die in their sleep, you know?

And that prayer is not a stupid child's prayer, it's very profound, and you might very well die in your sleep, so get ready. It's a very important thing, and it's a very great spiritual practice, to clear your mind just before you sleep, because you might die during the time. Yeah?

That's great. You know, somebody told me, actually someone came in my room and stole my book one time, and they said, they're a very naughty student. So I said, I don't care, put it on the Internet.

I'm proud of that, I'm proud that I keep the book, you know what I mean? I'm not proud of the bad things in there, but really, you should be very straightforward with your spiritual life, you know? Yeah, I had a dirty thought yesterday, and I'm embarrassed, and I wrote it down, and I purified it, and I don't care, I'm proud of that, you see what I mean?

I'm proud, I'm proud of that. If they put my book on the Internet, that's fine, maybe other people will do their book, you see what I mean? You finally did something right, you know?

And the intelligent people in the world will understand it, and the other ones will make fun of you. Okay, yeah... Do you have to express it to the person you did it to?

It's good, but it's not necessary. Sometimes they're dead already, you know, sometimes they're not around anymore. It's good to go to the person and apologize directly, that's very powerful, but not absolutely necessary, but much more powerful.

Okay, we'll talk more about the book tomorrow, okay? I'd like to stop. Oh, yeah, yeah, adaption is very, what she calls adaption is very important.

I call it, what do they call it? Free association, free association. What does that mean?

Look, I didn't kill anything yesterday. Did you get close to killing anything? No, I didn't drive my car yesterday.

Did you do anything that could have come close to hurting someone? Well, yes, I did leave my bag on the corridor, of this, in between the chairs, on the aisle, and some people might have tripped on it, and maybe one person in 10,000 might have cut their head, you know? Oh, you see, free associate until you hit something, and sometimes it's hard.

You can do that, that's fine, you can say, you could say indirectly I'm contributing to the deaths of these beings, you know what I mean? You can do that, you can, you can do that, you can, you can write it down there.