Окончательный ответ о смерти (1999, Сан-Франциско), занятие 1

[Говорящий 1]
OK, hi, good evening. First, I want to thank you for inviting us to come to Sechen Ling. And it's kind of like, in India, they call it selling water at the river, because you have your own great geshes now.

And Tenzin Lama, I met in Kalachakra. And so it's sort of just like a, I can be like the advertisement in the middle of the show. You know what I mean?

And sometimes it's fun to watch, OK? But you have great teachers here. And I think it's important.

These kind of talks are good for like inspiration. But really, you need to be fed steadily. Really, you need a steady diet of dharma, like once, twice a week, maybe every day of the week.

So it's good to come to the center, good to meet the geshe, good to steadily study every day if you can, you know, bother him, hang out in his house. Just cooking for them, you learn a lot of things. You know, I'd say most of my students learn most of their naughty things over dinner and things like that.

So I'll just try to give you a little excitement between the shows by your main gurus, OK? You know, I was asking people what I'm supposed to talk about tonight. And there are different ideas.

One person said death and dying. Another person said death and emptiness. And then they said they weren't sure they heard it right.

But that proves the emptiness of death and dying, you see? And so I think we'll talk about death and emptiness, all right? I'm going to use for the first half a text called Lamrim Chamo, which is by Je Tsongkapa, who is one of the greatest Tibetan masters of all time.

He was the teacher of the first Dalai Lama. And then we'll take a break. And I like people to relax and talk to each other.

And your butt will be sore by then. And then afterwards, we'll do something from the Heart Sutra, which is very relevant to death and dying and emptiness, OK? And I like it because I think it gives the ultimate answer on death, OK?

But first, I'd like to just start out discussing what death is, all right? I think it's important to understand what the Buddhist idea of death is. And this morning, at 6 o'clock, a student of mine died in New Jersey.

They've been dying for a few days now. And we were just waiting for the phone call. A phone call came this morning.

And so it's dear to my heart tonight. So I'd like to dedicate to him, OK? So we'll dedicate this talk to a friend, Miser.

He passed away this morning. But he had done very good death meditation for several months. And he died the way we should die, OK?

And I want to talk about what death is, and then talk about death meditation, which he did successfully, OK? So it starts with emptiness, and we'll talk about the emptiness of this thing. I don't have a pen tonight, but I have chalk, OK?

So I was supposed to go like this, and then I was supposed to go like this, and ask you, what is this thing? Just answer, don't be shy. Chalk, OK?

A piece of chalk, all right? If you're a real scientist, OK? We've got to talk about emptiness.

The whole point is emptiness, OK? If you're a real scientist, if you're really objective, you say, no, this is a piece of, this is a cylinder, a white cylinder, OK? You don't decide it's a piece of chalk right away.

You know, it could be plastic. It could be something else. Until you have time to examine it, or touch it, and look at it, you don't trust the guy who says, oh, this is a piece of chalk, OK?

Strictly speaking, from where you're sitting, you have to guess that it could be just a white cylinder, OK? Possible, all right? So I'd like you to do a little experiment, all right?

I'm going to put it back in my hand, and then I'll pick it up, I'll let it out again. And I want you to pretend that you're the perfect scientist. And when I let it out of my hand, you just see it as a white cylinder, and you do not think of it as a piece of chalk, OK?

Be very objective. And just say, OK, it's an interesting, smooth white cylinder, ready? And you can do it, OK?

Mentally, just forget that it's a piece of chalk. Pretend you're an Eskimo from the 13th century, walking in here. And you see this guy holding up just a white stick, OK?

Just a white cylinder, ready? One, two, three, OK. And you don't know what it's used for, OK?

It's just a white cylinder. Maybe it's some kind of food in their country. Cigarette.

OK, now, I'll do it again, but this time look at it as chalk, you know? See it as a piece of chalk, all right? Decide that it's a piece of chalk, and see it as a piece of chalk.

And you're wondering what I'm going to write with it, OK? Ready? And now, one last time, OK?

You can say cigarette, OK? Or let's say a dog toy, OK? Something that a dog would like to chew on, all right?

That's a little bit easier for me. So this time, pretend you're almost like a dog. And when I let it out, you don't know about chalk, and you don't know that it tastes chalky.

And you're just a puppy, OK? And you're wondering what it would be like to chew on this thing, like to chew it up and tell a story, OK? Maybe it's a piece of leather, bone, or something.

You know what I mean? Ready? If your mouth is watering, you're doing OK.

All right, now, OK? And those are two different modes of this thing in my hand, OK? It's a white cylinder.

It's also a piece of chalk. And if you were a dog, and if you hadn't tasted it yet, you could take it for something to chew on. If you were a puppy, that's probably all you would be interested in doing with it.

You see what I mean? So which one is it? All three.

You can say all three, right? OK, all three. So who's right, the dog or the human?

You have to say both, OK? You have to say both. So the point is this, and this is the meaning of emptiness, and you don't have to go deeper than that, and you don't have to worry about 16 volumes in the Tengyur, 16,000 pages of emptiness.

It's all right here, OK? Very simply, there is no chalk in my hand. There is no cylinder in my hand.

There is no dog toy in my hand, from its own side, which is proven by the fact that when a dog comes in, they see something to chew on. And when a human comes in, they interpret it as chalk, OK? If there was something chalkness, if there was, you know what they call inherent existence, what they call atman, what they call self, all it means is chalkness, OK?

If it had some chalkness about it, of its own, then when the dog came in, they would come up and they would try to write something, OK? If it was, from its own side, a chewing toy, then my mouth would be watering as I hold it, you know, anticipating the break, OK? Because it would be embarrassing to eat it in front of everybody, OK?

And then, both a human and a dog can perceive it as a white cylinder, originally, OK? On the basis of a white cylinder, you impute, or you interpret it as being chalk or a dog toy, OK? That's the emptiness of this thing.

It's not a piece of chalk from its own side, and it's not something to chew on from its own side. It's... I mean, from its own side, it's just a white cylinder, OK?

In and of itself, it's just a white cylinder. And then your mind is forcing you to see it a certain way. Now, there's two versions of that state of mind, OK?

If I say, pretend you're a dog and try to see it as something to chew on, you can do it, but sort of to a primitive extent, you know? You don't really... your mouth doesn't really water, and no one, like, knocked the chairs down trying to get to it, OK?

All right? Like, your mouth... you didn't go, you know, start wagging your tail and rush up here, which a puppy probably would, OK?

So you can imagine what it's like, but there's a big difference between that and actually, naturally seeing it as something to chew on, OK? So we have to distinguish between choosing to see it as a chew toy, and then being forced by your mind to see it as a chew toy. A dog is forced.

You are doing it as a mental exercise, OK? A dog, you know, probably could never conceive of this as chalk, the way we conceive of it as chalk. But for you, it seems very natural.

It's so natural that you... you see it as chalk automatically, and you think that's automatically the way it is. You see what I mean?

And when the dog chews it and breaks it, what do you say to them? You ruined the... chalk, you see what I mean?

You're already not giving animal rights, you see what I mean? You're already assuming it as a piece of chalk, you see what I mean? And you believe that.

I mean, in their heart, they've ruined a good piece of chalk. In their heart, you're standing up there... depriving them of a good thing to chew on, you see what I mean?

Why would the human stand up there for half an hour without chewing on it? You know, they're ruining a perfectly good chew toy, you see what I mean? From their point of view, that's what it is.

And from our point of view, they're ruining the chalk, which proves that we're biased, you see what I mean? We really, inherently, believe... our minds are so strongly into chalk that we believe that it's a piece of chalk from its own side.

And when they chew it and break it and ruin it, we're not like... that's okay, I understand, you saw it as something to chew on. That's all the way you could see it, that's the only way you could see it, okay?

It's... but in and of itself, it's just a white cylinder, okay? In and of itself, out there, it's just a white cylinder.

What's that got to do with dying? Okay? Why am I talking about this?

This is supposed to be talking about dying, okay? There's something in your mind forcing you to see this as a piece of chalk, okay? Like, you can imagine it as a chew toy, but you can't relate to it as a chew toy the way a dog can, the way a dog feels like, just automatically feels like this is something to chew on, okay?

Your mind is forcing you to see it as a piece of chalk, okay? The minute I held it up the first time, you saw me break it up here, you saw me write this guy's name, and then your mind was already saying, chalk, chalk, chalk, chalk, okay?

[Говорящий 2]
Your mind was forcing you to see chalk, forcing you to think chalk, okay? So, we've already kind of proved that there's nothing chalk about it, where's the chalk coming from?

[Говорящий 1]
Where's the thought of chalk coming from? Where's the identification of the thing as chalk coming from? That's from your own mind, okay?

It has to be coming from your own mind. What's the other choice? The dog's mind.

What's the other choice? Oh, there's something chalky about it from the beginning, but there's not, okay? Why?

The dog doesn't try to write with it, okay? It does not have any chalkiness in it. You are laying that trip on it.

It's just a plain old, I call it, innocent bystander white cylinder, and you're forcing it to be a piece of chalk. Who? Your mind.

Why? You have karma in your mind that's forcing you to think of it that way, okay? We still haven't gotten around to death, have we?

Now, what happens if you see it break, see it wear out, and it gets smaller and smaller? According to this idea, okay? And in the Heart Sutra, you hear the Buddha...

you know, why is the Heart Sutra so famous? Why is it the number one Buddhist sutra of all time? Okay, why is it that people...

all the Buddha says in there is stuff like there's no chalk, there's no cylinder, there's no microphone, there's no Buddha, there's no Ian, there's no Christy, there's no anybody, okay? And this gets to be the favorite song of all... sorry, sutra of all time?

You know what I mean? What's that mean? Why?

What's the point? The point is this, it's easy to see that the chalk's not there by itself, okay? It's easy to see that this is just a cylinder.

Something in your mind is forcing you to see it as a piece of chalk. What is that? We call it karma.

We call it karma. That's what karma does, okay? Karma is some kind of imprint on your mind.

Your mind is like a VCR tape recorder. As you go through life hurting people, helping people, thinking good thoughts, thinking bad thoughts, the intensity of those thoughts and the intensity of those emotions makes an imprint on your mind. Your mind is this tape recorder that's turned on all the time.

You cannot turn it off, you cannot stop it from recording, okay? You can take drugs... I have a student who was a heroin addict, you know, and I said, what...

what is it? What's so, you know, interesting about heroin? I was always afraid to try heroin, I did the littler things, okay?

And he says, the big deal is you try to get to a point where you can turn your mind off. You want your mind to stop, and it almost stops, and that makes it worth it, you see what I mean? In actuality, Buddhism says you cannot stop your mind.

You cannot turn off the tape recorder, it's impossible, okay? Cannot... and your mind will last for eternity, okay?

Forever. And it changes all the time. And so all the time, you're getting some imprints in your mind.

You have imprints in your mind that are floating up to your conscious mind at present, and like red, rose-colored sunglasses, they're making you see this cylinder as a piece of chalk, okay? That's karma. Karma is ripening your mind, it's creating this rose-colored glasses, chalk-colored glasses, and it's forcing you to see this cylinder as chalk.

This cylinder, independent of those sunglasses you got on, wasn't a piece of chalk. When we walked in here, it wasn't a piece of chalk. When I hold it up, and you look at it, and then suddenly those karmas are ripening in your mind, you see it as a piece of chalk, okay?

Got it? That's the first level of emptiness. Now, how are we going to get to death from here?

There's something about those karmas that you put in your mind, like all other energies, like all other things that move, they must come to a stop, okay? They come to a stop, they wear out. The energy that threw them into motion, wears out.

It's like you have a billiard ball, and you hit it with a stick, and it rolls until the energy wears out, and then it stops, okay? Your karmas are the same, all the karmas in your mind. The karmas to see everything around you, in your mind, are wearing out as we talk, okay?

What's that got to do with dying? We're getting closer, okay? The reason chalk wears out, if you're going to be a Buddha in the Heart Sutra, he'd say, there's no chalk, there's no mic, there's no board, and chalk doesn't wear out, okay?

And this was a big problem between the lower middle way school and the higher middle way school. In fact, the big difference between the two schools is that the lower middle way schools, Svatantrika, they can understand that this thing is coming from my mind, they understand that the chalkness is coming from my mind, but they don't get the thing about the chalk wearing out. They think that must be inherent, that must be inside the chalk, that must be part of nature, okay?

But it's not true. The higher school, Prasangika says, comes along and says, hey, guess what? No.

Even the wearing out of the chalk is your own mind. How does it happen? The karma is in your mind to see this as a piece of chalk wear out.

What forces does it take to make that wear out? Buddhism says, nothing other than the day you put the imprint in your mind. A child's dead the day they're born.

A thing is destroyed by its beginning, okay? Very intense, okay? The creation of the chalk is what destroys the chalk without any other circumstances.

Nothing outside of the chalk is required for the chalk to finish, okay? It doesn't take other things. Why?

[Говорящий 2]
Ultimately, it's because your karma, the imprint in your mind, which is flowering in your mind at this moment because you're seeing chalk, will wear out, okay? It'll wear out. Either the chalk will be used up, or there's a second way this chalk could wear out.

Guess what? Yeah, Alzheimer's or death, okay?

[Говорящий 1]
So, let's take Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is this thing, before you die, where you begin to lose the ability to cognize this as a piece of chalk. And so, you begin to use up the seeds in your mind that make you see it as a piece of chalk.

And then what happens? You lose cognitive ability, okay? You lose the ability to see it as a piece of chalk.

After a while, you can't remember what it was for. Like, you just stand there, and you're holding it, and you don't remember what it was for, okay, in the advanced stages, okay? Now I want to say a very interesting thing, and it's the whole subject of the talk tonight, okay?

This chalk could either wear out because I use it on the board, for you, okay? Reality is always for you, okay? It could wear out because I write something on the board, finally, okay?

Or, it could wear out because you get Alzheimer's, or it could wear out when you die, okay? And that kind of wearing out happens very quickly, okay? If you have a heart attack, which this beautiful monk in Nepal had a couple days ago, beautiful, sensitive, hard-working, devoted, faithful monk has a heart attack, okay?

And then, you know, if he was standing up here during this talk, and then suddenly he just grasped his heart and died, okay, then the karma to see it as chalk has just ended, quickly, okay? I mean, you can see normal chalk karma is just going ... you know what I mean?

And the Alzheimer's chalk karma goes like ... okay? But the death chalk karma goes ...

and it just wraps up like that, just goes ... and it's gone, and in a few minutes, the karma to see this as a chalk has been used up, okay, just ran out, you know, like a car that ran off a freeway bridge or something, okay, just ... they didn't finish the overpass, and they forgot to put up those cones, and it just goes and drops, okay, like that, that's death karma, okay, and all the karmas wrap up at once, okay, you've got to understand that death works that way, that's ...

that's how death works, okay, all your karmas wrap up at once, the karma to see chalk, the karma to see meat, the karma to see the microphone, the karma to see the city, the karma to see your feet and your legs and your arms, they all wrap up at one moment, okay, just wrap up, just finished, okay, now, get what the Heart Sutra is going to say, get what Lord Buddha is getting at, when he sits there and says, you don't got no eyes, you don't got no ears, you don't got no nose, what he's saying is that, when you die, don't think of your body sitting there dying, okay, don't think of a body and the energy leaving the body, stop thinking of death that way, that's not how death works, really, your karmas wear out very fast, all together, the karmas to see the things around you, the karmas to smell them, the karmas to touch other people, the karmas to feel a chair or a building or a city, the karmas to know who you are, the karmas to look down and see your own legs and your own feet, and to look over here and see your own arms, those all wear out at the same moment, okay, and we just call that death.

Don't think of death as a body out there that life has left it, you see what I mean? It's a perceptual thing, okay, your karma to see

[Говорящий 2]
this thing, as a piece of chalk, wears out suddenly, and so do all your karmas to see

[Говорящий 1]
everything else, oops, okay, no, and then, instead of just having a piece of chalk wear out, or losing your girlfriend or boyfriend, or getting old, or anything else, instead of those very, you know, occasional karmas, you got all these karmas, like all collapsing at the same time, okay, all these streams of karma that have been running for how long, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, the karma to see yourself as a human body, the karma to talk, the karma to listen to the radio, the karma to breathe the air, the karma to see the city, the karma to be alive, just suddenly wears out, okay, all at once, and you got to understand that that's how death works, that's what death is, you see what I mean?

There's no death independent of that, and there's no chalk, okay, get used to it, there's no death, and there's no chalk, and this chalk is no different from your death. Say again?

[Говорящий 2]
Oh, you still have lots of karmas in your mind, but the karmas to see yourself moving have stopped, the karmas to see yourself as Loras have stopped, the karmas to see your legs twitching have stopped, the karmas to see all the normal objects in your world have...you see, normally they wear out slowly, intermittently, pretty far apart, this chalk's going to wear out, you're going to have the karma...the

[Говорящий 1]
karma to see this stick of chalk is going to wear out by the end of tonight, either I'll use it up, or you'll leave the room, but the karma wore out to have this...to perceive this cylinder as a piece of chalk has worn out, you see what I mean? What I'm trying to get you into the mood of, is that the moment of death is the sudden wearing out of a hell of a lot of karmas that have been going on for a pretty long time, okay? And it's like a big shock, okay?

[Говорящий 2]
It's not weird to see one piece of chalk wear out, but to see every single object around you, including your own perception of yourself wear out all at once, is sort of frightening, okay?

[Говорящий 1]
And there is no death other than that, okay? Get used to it, there's no such thing as a dead body, there's no such thing, there's no such thing...stop thinking of death as a body that dies, there's no such thing. Your karmas that allow you to perceive these things as arms, those things as legs, this thing as a head, me as Michael Rhodes, they all wear out at the same time, and that's called death.

It's a perception, okay?

[Говорящий 2]
It's just a perception, as is this chalk, okay? Does that mean you can't write with this chalk? Of course not!

Anybody who thinks so, come up, I'll give you a little mustache. You know what I mean? No, really.

There's this big fight in Buddhism, you know?

[Говорящий 1]
Some of the schools say, hey, if things were as radical as you're describing them, how could the thing work, you know? And then Arya Nagarjuna says, hey, dumb head, it only works because of your karma, okay? That's exactly how it works.

[Говорящий 2]
If that was chalk out there, how could it wear out, you know? If it was chalk out there, how could it wear out? It would just always be a piece of chalk, you see what I mean?

How could it get smaller if it was out there as a piece of chalk, okay?

[Говорящий 1]
You gotta get used to that, right? But I want you to get in the mood of death. What causes death is the wearing out of your karmas.

Therein lies the secret for overcoming death, okay? If death was a thing that did not have emptiness, if this was a piece of chalk out there by itself, we would have to die, we have to die, okay? If death is a sudden ending of karmas in our minds, then we have a chance, you see?

Then something else could happen, okay? That's essential for understanding Buddhism, okay? You must understand that if you're going to understand Buddhism, okay?

You can't go any further if you don't understand how death occurs, okay? If you think death is a body that stops moving and some life goes out of it, then you'll never overcome death, you can't get out of death, you'll die, you must die, okay? Then, if you really understand Buddhism properly, you don't have to die.

This thing of a man dying this morning was preventable, okay? This thing of a monk in Kathmandu who's seriously ill is preventable, and that's what Buddhism is about, okay? Over the course of two and a half thousand years, the presentation of Buddhism as a radical method of preventing death, and old age, and illness, has gotten lost, okay?

It's just not emphasized, okay? They teach you, here's a nice meditation, here's a nice way to act towards other people, here's something that will bring you a more fulfilling life, but that's not what the Buddha was here to talk about, okay? Now you can pass out the Heart Sutra, okay?

All right, I was going to give you Lamrim, let's forget it, let's go straight to Heart Sutra, okay? Yeah?

[Говорящий 2]
I have a question about the Lamrim.

[Говорящий 1]
So, I'm thinking about the impermanence meditation in Lamrim, which assumes that the object is entirely permanent, and the objects are wearing out, I mean, that's what you contemplate, but you're suggesting that that's really not what happens. Oh, we'll go back to it, let's go back to it. I don't know if we should do that...

Let's not. Yeah, I was going to do a whole death meditation with you, nine-point death meditation, okay? I'll just speed it up, okay?

Very briefly, the meditation in Lamrim goes like this, you have to die, okay? First one is you have to die. First step is you have to die, okay?

You haven't seen anybody do anything else, right? Even Lord Buddha. Second one, you don't know when you're going to die, okay?

You don't know when. Third one, if you don't know—if you have to die and you don't know when you're going to die, then you should do something about it now, and not wait. You should do something about it tonight.

You should do death meditation, okay? Death meditation is this weird thing where different people have different death meditations. One is to sit there and picture colored lights or something like that.

And the other version of death meditation is to close your eyes and pretend you're in a hospital room, and they've got all these tubes up your nose, and you can hear the heart monitor going, beep, beep, beep, beep, you know, and you're supposed to sit there and meditate on that or something like that, okay? I mean, when you say death meditation, I'm afraid that most people think like that, okay? Most people are thinking, when you say death meditation, those three things.

Death is certain, don't know when you're going to die, and you have to find someone who's going to help you when you die. And so, then they think that death meditation—the word death meditation sounds like, you've heard a few tantric things at initiations, you've heard His Holiness, you've read some books, and they say, you're going to get a red light, then you're going to get a yellow light, and then there'll be a white light, and then there'll be a black, or something like that. That's one kind of death meditation.

And the other one—by the way, there's a very deep meditation behind that, which is not what I'm going to talk about tonight. And then there's this other meditation. You say death meditation, you imagine you're supposed to lie back on your bed, imagine that all this equipment is stuffed into your nose, imagine that your family is standing around looking down at you, and practice that somehow, you know what I mean?

That's not what death meditation is, okay? Very briefly, real death meditation is to... I'll just tell you the goal of death meditation, okay?

I think you can almost skip straight to the goal. The goal of death meditation is to wake up in the morning, and before you get up, before you sit up, lie there on your bed and say, today I'm going to die, okay? I'm going to die today.

That's how you do a death meditation, okay? And try it tomorrow. If nobody tries it, I've wasted my time here, and I'm dying and I'm not interested, okay?

Somebody has to try it in this room. I don't care if it's just one day, okay? Before you get up tomorrow, lay there in bed, keep your eyes closed, nobody will know, you know, unless you're...

if you usually snore, try to snore a little bit, okay? And... and say to yourself, I'm going to die today, okay?

It's not death meditation to say, I could die today, alright? It's not death med... the goal of death meditation is not to get up and say, oh jeez, I might die today, what should I do?

Okay? That's true, but this is much more radical. The goal, the attitude you want to achieve by this meditation, is that you're laying in your bed, you wake up, the alarm clock goes off, you know, you're like, bam, turn it off, and then, you sit there with your eyes closed and you say, I'm going to die today.

Now, what... what's on the agenda? Okay?

I'm dying at six o'clock. What's on the agenda? Okay?

And start tomorrow. And don't... you know, you can either quit smoking altogether, or you can try those patches, and try two a day, and then one a day, and then half a day.

I think most people I know who stopped tobacco or liquor did it all at once, you know what I mean? So, you know, try it, radical, very radical. Maybe under the blessing of the Heart Sutra you can do it, okay?

Just lay there, and keep your eyes closed and say, I'm going to die today. Now, what was it I was going to do today? Okay?

That's all. That's all you need for death meditation to work. And that's what death meditation is, and that's what it's meant to do.

Very cheap, easy way. You don't have to study Lam Rim Chom Mo, you know, you don't have to learn Tibetan, Sanskrit. Just lay there, and say, I'm going to die today.

Now, what am I going to do? Okay? I got...

I got twelve hours left. It's like, run Lola, run, or something. You know, I got twenty minutes.

I didn't see the movie yet, but I'm going to... Oh, yeah.

[Говорящий 2]
No, no, no.

[Говорящий 1]
Exactly what I'm trying to get at. Yeah, exactly what I'm trying to get at is, if you knew... Yeah, yeah.

If you woke up and said, I'm going to die today, what would you do? No, besides dying. No, you still got twelve hours, okay?

Now, what would you do with the twelve hours? That's the whole point, okay? I imagine the following sequence of events, okay?

If you did this meditation pretty well, pretty sincerely, then I would guess that the first stage of realization was that you would go out and try all the neat stuff you always wanted to try. Hey, what the hell, let's take the day off. If we're dying at six, let's take the day off.

We'll call in sick, okay? You know, call in and say you're going to die tonight. Okay, and then you just take the day off.

I mean, I think, at the beginning levels of this kind of attitude, you would go try to do maybe all the little dangerous things that you always wanted to do, like, I can think of parachuting, or, you know, trying some kind of drugs that you haven't tried yet, or mountain climbing without a rope, or, you know, stuff you're always afraid to do. And then, if you didn't die tonight, you'd get tired of that stuff pretty fast, I think. You'd also go broke, because those stuff are expensive.

You know, I just mean, after a while, that would become blasé, that would become normal. And then I think a deeper change would take place. I think you would seek a new occupation.

I think you would quit the job you're doing if it's not exactly what you'd like to be doing. You see, I mean, some people that I've met in their lives, and I'm one, they're doing exactly what they'd like to be doing, okay? But it's not very normal.

You know, normally there's some kind of economic blackmail going on, where you have to be doing that thing because you have commitments, and you have to do that thing, okay? But, if you woke up every morning with this attitude, I'm going to die tonight, then what would you really do? You know, would you want to do a different job for a while?

Maybe you'd want to try being a poet, or an artist, or something that doesn't pay very well. Because it doesn't matter if you only got twelve hours. You could be a poet for twelve hours.

You see what I mean? I think if you kept up this meditation for a couple weeks, you'd start to look into a new kind of job, okay? I think then you'd go to a deeper level.

If you talk to very wealthy people, and I worked in the diamond business for a long time, there are many wealthy people, very wealthy people, like fifty, hundred million dollars a year, making profit of fifty to a hundred million dollars a year. And after a while, you just get... after trying everything you wanted to do, and having complete liberate...

being completely liberated by the money, they call it F.U. money, when it gets to the point where you can do anything, you know what I mean? Then, it's interesting, they turn to charity. You see?

The great diamond dealers I know, like the Mehta dynasty in Antwerp, Belgium, you know, they're making fifty million dollars a year profit. And they just start building hospitals in India and stuff like that. You know what I mean?

They built a fifteen million dollar children's hospital in Bombay. Because there's... at some point, you realize that the normal pleasures are empty, and that the real pleasure is from doing something for someone else.

And that's why very wealthy people, especially towards the end of their lives, when they've tried everything else, they start getting into heavy-duty charity. Because it really does make you satisfied. It does make you happy, you know, to some extent.

So I think you would go through that kind of... I think you'd go through those stages. Trying out the things you always wanted to do that were a little dangerous, and then maybe changing your career to what you always dreamed of being, you know, and you were always putting it off for financial reasons.

And then finally, you'd get to this point where you get into extreme charity, okay? And there are different levels of extreme charity, and we'll talk about that. But that would be the effect of death meditation.

That's a real death meditation. If you can reach a place like that, where you get up in the morning and say, I'm going to die today, so what do I do? This is called the...

put locks on the door on the first of the month principle, okay? And this comes from the Lamrim, okay? You meet a...

you insult a guy on the street, you know, and this guy turns out to be a mafia, you know, what do they call those guys? A corporal, they call them corporals? Corporal, he's a corporal, the guy who kills the people, okay?

In New York, they call them corporals. So then, it turns out you've angered the wrong man, you know, you shouldn't have chosen that particular guy. And then he says, I got your address, you know, I'm going to off you.

What do they call it? No, there's another word. Whack you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going to whack you. I'm going to whack you in September. Sorry, let's say October, okay?

I'm going to whack you sometime between October 1st and Halloween. Okay? And that's all.

I promise you, I'm going to whack you. So, the big question in Lamrim is, do you wait till the 15th of October to put new locks on your door, or do you kind of do it at the end of September? You see what I mean?

And obviously you know the answer, you know, you would start preparing ahead of time. The principle behind death meditation is that every morning, you lay there, you don't open your eyes, and you say, I'm going to die today. Now what do I want to do?

What do I want to do the next 12 hours? Okay? And what pops into your mind is that it's irresponsible, I wouldn't go to work, I wouldn't get a salary, slowly my life would crumble, my credit cards would build, you know, if I really just did what was important for a person who's going to die tonight, my life would be a disaster.

But the point of death meditation is that your life is a disaster if you don't do it. You see what I mean? Because you will die.

And one day, it will be the day, it will be true what you said in the morning, when that car hits you in the afternoon. You see what I mean? It must happen one day that it happened.

You see what I mean? It must happen one day that you were right, and you did die today. And then, having done the most important thing you could do, becomes brilliant.

And then all those credit cards can pay themselves. You know what I mean? I mean, everything else can take care of itself.

You see what I mean? I mean, if you follow this reasoning to its farthest extrapolation, are you telling me, you know, that I should just, what, like just try to get by on almost nothing, and study Dharma all day, and spend most of my time meditating, and getting my heart ready with great virtues, so that when I die, I can have a nice rebirth? Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying.

You know what I mean? Does that come easily? No.

You see what I mean? Should you have a good, a right livelihood? Of course you have to have a right livelihood, but...

but would it be fifty weeks of work for two weeks off, if you were going to die tonight? You see what I mean? Would you put up with those odds, hundred to four?

That's even a bad diamond deal. You know what I mean? Hundred to four.

You give me a hundred dollars, I'll give you four. But after you give me the hundred. You know what I mean?

It's like, come on, wake up. You know what I mean? Anybody in America can live on less than what you're making.

And you could throw out 90% of what you have, and you wouldn't miss it a bit. You don't even use 80% of it. You haven't used 75% of it in the last six months.

Okay? It's just there, okay? It's true, you know what I mean?

I go on these long trips, two-month, three-month trips, and when I get back, I mean, everything I need is in my suitcase. I'm not like a big yogi or anything. I just can't wear more than that in a few months.

You see what I mean? That's all. You don't need anything else.

You don't need much else. So I think one effect of this meditation was that you would start to divest of unwanted possessions, okay? Is it evil to own a lot of things?

No. Is it wrong to have a nice dress, or nice shoes, or a nice car? No, it's not.

It's just dangerous, okay? Why? How many pairs of shoes do you have?

Okay? How many pairs of shoes do you have?

[Говорящий 2]
And what do they look like?

[Говорящий 1]
No, you see, they're in your mind, you can go back into your mind, your mind is like a computer, it has so many megabytes to hold stuff. And a certain, you know, mags are tied up, remembering what your shoes look like, and how many you have, okay? And I'm not kidding.

Don't think your mind power is infinite, it's not, it's just like a computer. You have a hard disk that you were born with, it happens to be shrinking every year, okay? And you have to remember where all that stuff is, you see what I mean?

It takes space on the hard disk to remember how many pairs of shoes you have. If you can remember, it means it's stored there, and that means that that much space on your hard disk is not available for other operations, okay? What's that got to do with anything?

Can you imagine what would happen if you suddenly cleaned all those old programs off your disk? You see what I mean? Like if suddenly you freed up 25-30% of your mind, if you had all that mind space suddenly released for creativity, or kindness, or wisdom, or meditation, or spiritual arts, you know what I mean?

Not owning things, the Vinaya principle of not owning things is just brilliant, you see what I mean? It's a brilliant way to keep your hard disk fast and clean, and you can think great thoughts, you can have brilliant ideas. Why?

Because 50% of it is not tied up with remembering which red shoes you have and which blue ones, you know what I mean? And it's not like this evil thing to own too many things. It's fun to own things.

It's nice to have different shoes to go out in. But it's a trade-off. You're using up some of your mind space to keep track of those things that you could have been using for something higher.

You know what I mean? So it's not like... Buddhism is not saying it's not nice to have a lot of different colors of shoes.

And it's not saying you're an evil person if... you know, maybe Mrs. Marcos, but... but not normal people, okay?

I mean, okay, have a few pairs... she had 2,000 pairs of shoes in their closet when they arrested her for embezzling the country's money, okay? But...

but what I'm saying is that it's not an evil thing, it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. Those are beauty, that's a beauty.

That's a kind of beauty. In your Buddha paradise, you will have... no, whatever you want, okay?

Infinite shoes. Infinite silk clothes. Jewels.

You don't see Maitreya up there, you know, with old jeans on, okay? No, I mean, all the time, because he's like decked out in these diamonds as big as a golf ball, and things like that. You can have all of those things.

The goal is to have those things. But the ones you have are not the right ones, because they... they were created by what we call dirty karma.

Guess what the nature of dirty karma is? It wears out. That's the distinction between dirty karma and pure karma, okay?

Dirty karma wears out. Just dirty karma wears out. What's it got to do with us?

How do we get from death to shoes? We went back to, if you're going to die today, would you be working on shoes, or what would you be working on? Okay?

And I suggest that ultimately, you would want to learn how not to die. You see what I mean? If there was a way not to die, you'd want to work on that.

Now, we're going to take a break. I'll answer one question, yeah?

[Говорящий 2]
What you're doing is a physical sensation, like, sometimes I have the feeling I can't breathe, and then I think that's a problem when I die, when it feels like that, and it's just... and it's kind of irritating.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, yeah. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it after the break, okay?

So the point is this. I'll leave you with the following questions, and we'll take a break. If the...

I just got up here and said that the original goals of Buddhism were to teach people how not to die or get old, okay? How to turn into an enlightened being in this lifetime. No less than that.

It was not a yoga exercise. It was not a calmness exercise. It was not an intellectual exercise.

It was very life-and-death attempt of a small group of crazy, hippie yogis in 500 BC following around this crazy guy who says, you don't have to die, and you don't have to get old. You know what I mean? And then later it became this big thing with all these monasteries and books, and hundreds of thousands of books, and traditions, and things like that.

But I mean, don't doubt that the original shtik, the original message that Lord Buddha was preaching, and in the Heart Sutra, and we're going to go through it, was, you don't have to die, and you don't have to get old, and you can enter a Buddha paradise here, now. I'll teach you how to do it. That's what Buddhism is for.

It's not a way of life, okay? Forget that. That kills you, okay?

Alright? It's not a way of life. It's not a way of life.

It's not... the goal of Buddhism is not to live here in this realm, which doesn't work, and die... you know, what, calmly?

Or something. That wasn't the meaning of Buddhism. That's not what Lord Buddha taught.

Lord Buddha was very radically teaching people, you don't have to die, you don't have to get old. Last question before you get some refreshments. If Lord Buddha taught that, then how come we don't see more people not dying?

You know what I mean? If that was the goal of Buddhism, you know, why are all these great lamas passing away? Why do they seem to get older?

You know what I mean? Why did one million Tibetan people get killed, if they were practicing Buddhism? You know what I mean?

Then... how come Time Magazine didn't have an article about, you know, the three guys in Kansas that didn't die this week? You see what I mean?

If that's what Buddhism is for, how come there's no real record of anyone having done it? You know what I mean? Anything we can confirm.

There are stories of Milarepa going up to the sky, or, you know, like that, but nothing... nothing confirmed, right? So, what's that about, right?

I'll leave you hanging. Have some... have some refreshments, and then come back in 10-15 minutes, we'll finish up, okay?

Okay. The reason I started out with the chalk, is that you can appreciate that your body is the same as the chalk, okay? The fact that you see yourself alive is a karmic result of the past deeds you did, and you're seeing that...

you're seeing this as an arm. You're able to perceive it as an arm because of certain things you did in the past. It's the same as the chalk, okay?

I always trick people into accepting it with the chalk, and if they don't raise their hands while I'm doing the chalk thing, I tell them, then they have to accept it with this thing, okay? So, this cylinder, which is white, and this cylinder, which is mostly flesh-colored, but has these hairy arms and stuff, okay? These are the same principle, okay?

The principle is the same. You can't recognize this as chalk unless you have certain imprints in your mind to interpret this cylinder as chalk. That's not such a big...

you know, if that's all that emptiness is, it's not so interesting, okay? Why? I don't really care whether I'm projecting it, or whether it's chalk in and of itself.

As long as I can use it as chalk, it doesn't matter to me, okay? I don't care. It's all just philosophical speculation.

It doesn't matter to me that I'm projecting it. If it doesn't act any different than the one I thought it was before, who cares, okay? But the point is, Buddhism is always addressing...

I mean, all the knowledge about emptiness, all this theory is supposed to address the question, do you have to die, okay? Can you stop that form of suffering in this realm? Is Buddhism meant to only stop the mental suffering of being unhappy, and not being compassionate, or is it meant to go further, and more radically stop the condition of death itself?

Okay? And that's the... the big question, okay?

What does Lord Buddha say about it? You've got the Heart Sutra now, right? Can I borrow?

By the way, those of you who know the Heart Sutra, or who have memorized it, and who sing it to their garden every morning... That's why her roses grow so well. It's...

this is the old version, okay? This is not the version that you would recite in the monastery, or something like that, okay? This is the old version from the congregation.

We use this version because we have a beautiful commentary to it, which... we're going to go over in February here, somewhere around here, okay? So...

it's just a matter of convenience. The words are slightly different, the meaning is exactly the same, the translation is no different, okay? Slightly different words.

We're going to go to... where is that? How about the top of page six, okay?

And this is like my favorite line, and I use it like a mantra. MA RIG PA MED MA RIG PA SRED PA MED PA NI RGA SHI ME RGA SHI SRED PA POR YIN MED DO Which means... there is no misunderstanding your world.

There is no stopping this misunderstanding. And the same is true all the way up to your old age and your death, and to stopping your old age and your death, okay? So, you know, I get up and give this death spiel about once a day, and...

people say to me, you know, it's noble what you say, and it's interesting, it's challenging intellectually what you say, but it doesn't sound practical. I mean, we don't hear other teachers talk that way. And secondly, we can't demonstrate anyone who hasn't died yet, and you yourself are getting a bald spot.

So, you know... is this... what's the point?

You know what I mean? If what you say is true, then why don't we see more happening? You see what I mean?

And this, you got to think of the chalk. Always think of the chalk thing, okay? Always remember the chalk thing.

Is this cylinder and this cylinder the same? Yes they are, okay? And get used to it, okay?

This... this is a white cylinder, this is a flesh-colored cylinder. My karma requires me to see this as a piece of chalk, until such time as I die or get Alzheimer's disease or use it up, okay?

And then my other karma requires me to see this as a human arm, okay? And those are definitely not coming from the objects themselves. If you accept it with the chalk, you have to accept it with the cylinder.

Just because this one's attached to you doesn't make it different, okay? I mean, you are perceiving this as a human arm because of certain imprints in your mind that force you to interpret this cylinder as a human arm. And you are perceiving this as a piece of chalk for the same reason.

This doesn't have any chalkness from its own side, and this doesn't have any armness from its own side. So, what's the point of that? Am I supposed to go around paralyzed?

Oh, wow! It could have been a dog leg. It could have been an insect leg.

You know what I mean? But it's not, so who cares? You see what I mean?

What's the point? The point is, you can start gardening. You can start putting, purposely, seeds in your own mind that will make you see this thing different in the future, okay?

Very interesting concept, okay? Can you do anything about the wrinkles and the freckles that are here right now? No.

Buddhism says no. The present is too late, okay? Can you change the seeds that cause you to see it this way for the future?

Yes. Okay? Now the big question is, how fast can you make it work?

Okay? Because if it takes ten thousand lifetimes, I'd rather go to work tomorrow and, you know, have a regular... You know what I mean?

If that's your spiel, I'm not interested, okay? And this is very simple, okay? There's this thing called Tantra.

This Tantra. And Tantra is a system in Buddhism for doing good deeds so fast and so powerful, that they can actually replace the karmic seeds in your mind that are making you see this as an arm right now, okay? That's the whole point of the most powerful teachings of Buddhism, okay?

The system called Tantras, the purpose of it is to manipulate the karmic seeds that are in your mind right now. You got to think of it as being a two-step thing, it's a two-step process. Job number one, eliminate the old karmic seeds in your mind that are forcing you to see this thing as a human arm.

Why? Why would you want to do that? Those are dirty karma, okay?

Dirty karma, and I'm going to talk about pure karma in a minute. Dirty karma's nature is to wear out, okay? Which is expressed how?

More wrinkles, gets skinnier, gets weaker, gets uglier, and then finally you see it dying, okay? That, the karmas... By the way, how many karmas does it take to see your arm for the time it takes me to snap my finger?

Sixty-five discrete good deeds from your past, that's heavy, okay? For you to maintain a human arm, this is like, in your mind it's very much like film frames, you know what I mean? There are pictures coming up in your mind that fast, overlaying a flesh-colored cylinder, okay?

There are overlays, what do you call it? Overhead projector things, what do you call those things? Transparencies.

There are transparencies with human arm written on them, and they're being flashed up like that, between you and this cylinder. The same with the chalk, okay? And they're just being flashed up sixty-five per finger snap, okay?

And they wear out, okay? They wear out, sometimes the frames wear out, and then you see it die, okay? And that's the nature of all dirty karmas.

You have karmas in your mind now, floating up to your conscious mind, from your subconscious mind, and making you see it that way, okay? So the first thing is to go and get rid of the lousy karmas, okay? All the ones that you would see you get old, have cancer, get broken, get in a car accident, get burned, you want to go back and eliminate those.

That's with a process called the Four Powers. If you're interested in that, you have to study it. I think a lot of people had it this weekend, okay?

But basically, it's a process of purification. You finish off your old karmic seeds, okay? More importantly, you have to now collect some new seeds, and they have to be so strong that they make you see your body differently, okay?

And that's just called Buddhism. It's the Buddhist path. And that is to learn the most powerful actions you can do to help other people.

These are the six perfections. How do you do the six perfections? I mean, six perfections are six parts of a Buddhist path— giving, keeping an ethical way of life, the art of not getting angry, the art of being happy about doing good things for people, concentration and meditation, I'm sorry, concentration and wisdom.

How do you actually do them? You know, I used to say, okay, I'd like to do the six perfections, how do you do them? There's these things called the Bodhisattva Vows, okay?

Sixty-four basic vows, sixty-four codes of conduct. And then you follow them, and that causes these karmas to change. That causes these karmas to change.

There's a system to keeping those sixty-four vows, which is called tunduk. Say tunduk. That's a thing that's required in tantric teachings, okay?

Six times a day, stop, check your vows, see how you're doing, okay? Normally you just check one or two, because it takes some time, okay? You have like sixty-four vows, but you might want to do them in a month or something like that, like you cycle through them.

And you examine how you're doing it. That keeps you mindful. The point is to stop every two hours, every two and a half hours.

Physically stop. Stop what you're doing, and check, and see if you're doing the perfections or not. And there's a nice set of guidelines, they're very doable, they work, and things like that.

If you keep that... By the way, the reason that's required in tantric practice, the reason that every highest tantric practice requires that you keep track of these vows six times a day, is that if you keep that up for long enough, the karma starts to change, okay? The karma seeds in your mind start to change.

I like to call it like four or five steps, okay? I really like this. And this is interesting, because if you try it, you'll start to see these things happen.

First you get things like surprising, or interesting, I think. I always forget, okay. Interesting means, you went to a lecture, you heard about these Buddhist bodhisattva vows, then you went to Geshe-la's class, and Tenzin Lama, and they taught you the bodhisattva vows, and you started keeping them.

And... then like, something interesting happens, like... like your mother who you never got along with, suddenly you start to get along with her.

Like, that's kind of interesting. You know, after all these years, that's kind of interesting. And then you have this suspicion that maybe you are learning how to manipulate your karmic seeds.

You see what I mean? If everything is your perceptions, then if you could manipulate those seeds in your mind, then reality should change. You see what I mean?

Reality should change. Which is to say, if you're practicing Buddhism properly, the reality around you should start changing. And don't think Buddhism is less than that.

It's not. And if you think that, you'll die. Okay?

You'll be... a person who's sincere, sensitive, compassionate, and dead. Okay?

No, really. You don't... That's not the limitations of Buddhism.

Buddhism is meant... Page 6, at the top. It's meant to address the real problems in your life.

And the goal of manipulating the seeds in your own mind is to change your reality. And reality means your mother. Okay?

So at the beginning, what I call the interesting stage, if you practice pretty well, for a couple of months, you'll start to have interesting results with other people. Then you keep it up. Like, you're getting...

You're interested to the point where you're wondering, I wonder if this is a result of that stuff or not. Okay? And then you get to what I would call surprising.

Okay? Surprising means, you know, the boss comes in and says, you deserve a raise. And here's a...

After a lot of thought, and considering the finances of this hundred-million-dollar corporation, I decide to give you 50 cents more an hour. You know? Right?

Am I kidding? She knows. She worked with me.

So... So, you know, that's... I would call...

It got surprising. Because he would never give 50 cents in the past. He would come back...

He would come in and say, we only made 100 million this year, we have to cut your pay by 50 cents. Okay? So, 50 cents, it's okay.

That's sort of surprising. That he would just come in. It's not even Christmas time.

He doesn't even need me this week. Okay? And he's giving me a raise.

That's surprising. Okay? Then you get into what I would call...

amazing. Okay? Amazing things.

And I can give you some real examples. Okay? Like...

And I... This is the one example that strikes me... It strikes people the most.

It's financial, but I guess it's still okay. So, we're looking for a half-an-acre land for a little monastery. And the word goes out, and this lady calls me and says, I have 100 acres of land in the most expensive part of the northeast of America, you know, Redding Township, Connecticut.

And... But you have to pay. So I said, well, how much?

And she said, one dollar. Okay? So the guy next to me at work, he's a Hindu, and he understands karma.

So he's like... he's like immediately into his pocket, pulls out a dollar and says, you have to use my dollar. You know?

And I... and we did. Okay?

Okay, and those papers are being signed now. I think it's going to finish in two weeks or something. We're on a three-year probation, which we almost screwed up, but it looks like we didn't.

So... so it looks like somebody might give us... is going to give us...

it's a three, four million dollar property for a dollar. Okay? This is what you would call...

amazing. Okay? I mean, this is not normal.

You know, and it's... it's quite... how do I say?

If you practice well, if you keep your vows well, you can... the whole idea is that you can count on this stuff happening. You see what I mean?

You can just count on it. Alright? But it has to be steady, it has to be sincere, and you have to work on the most powerful karmas you can.

That's why the Bodhisattva vows are important. There's 84,000 good deeds you can do, 64 of them are most powerful. So you take that list.

I don't even call them vows in New York. I can give vows to 25, 30 people, and I never say the word vows, because vows sounds bad, right? I just say, this is the list of the most important karmas.

And if you concentrate on these, then that kind of stuff will start happening.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
That's the goal of Buddhism. Okay? Then what is the...

then I call it... you go into what I call the miraculous stage. Okay, miraculous means things that physically cannot happen, start to happen.

Okay? Like walking on water, flying in the sky. You know, it'd be like you go into a restaurant in the East Village, and you're sitting there with one of your students, and you have a long lunch, because you've got to talk about some business stuff, and about all their issues that they need to straighten up, and they're talking about their practice and everything.

And then you eat one of those $6.95 lunches, and then me, you know, I got to have the dessert. The dessert is $7.95. Okay? That's how they get you in New York, especially people like me.

And then coffee is like $2.95. You see, much more expensive than the dinner. And you sit there, you have three or four coffees, and the bill is like... you know, and then you get this kind of a nervous feeling towards the end of one of those marathons with a student, because I take out my students all the time, because that's about the only peaceful time we have to talk.

And I know if I've been there more than an hour, the bill is really getting bad. You know what I mean? And I'm sort of like feeling nervous about the bill.

Because all my students are broke, but I have credit cards. So, we're like... I'm sitting there, and a lady comes, and she's this old Israeli, older Israeli lady, and she comes up, and you say, could I have a bill?

You know, we're an hour late, and she just looks at you, and she says, you're kidding me, right? And I say, what do you mean? She says, do you think in this restaurant we would charge a person who's practicing Vajrayogini Tantra?

Are you crazy? You know? It's my honor to feed you two, and very grateful to meet you, and hope you have a nice day, and see you later.

You know? And she just walks away. And you never met this person, and she has nothing to do, you know, and...

so you leave a $60 tip. You know? And...

Anyway, those things happen. They should happen. They're supposed to happen.

Okay? If they're not happening, something's wrong with your practice. Okay?

No, I'm not kidding. They're supposed to happen. That's how it's supposed to be.

Now, what would happen if this went on more and more? Well, it'd be a free lunch every day. Okay?

And no, I'm not kidding. The point is that... that's how you build a tantric paradise.

That's how you build an enlightened realm in this lifetime, is by very, very, very sincere keeping of your vows and all your karmas, okay? And very, very consciously building and designing your own reality for the next six months, or a year, or something like that. And the more sincerely you do it, the faster it works.

Okay? Very, very interesting. What's that got to do with tonight's subject?

By the way, if things weren't empty, this stuff wouldn't work. Because things are empty, you can do it. Okay?

So, now we're back to your arm, okay, which is really just a cylinder. There is a seed in your mind which is making you see this as a human arm. Okay?

If you took a proper tantric initiation, if you got the proper instructions from a qualified Lama, if you practiced both the stages of tantra and kept your vows nice, clean, pure, beautiful, holy, happy, joyful vows, then slowly it would start to change. Even your body. You see, it's one thing to pick up property, it's one thing to get a raise, it's one thing to get a free dinner.

But you see, it should be affecting all your inner and outer reality. You see what I mean? It starts to affect your body, okay?

Like pains that you had before start to go away. Alright? I have students who are keeping their tantric vows pretty well, who were almost crippled, you know, they had like frozen joints in their legs and stuff like that, who could barely walk.

And they are now dancing, you know, they are doing like semi-professional dancing, okay? And it's for real, and I'm not just exaggerating, you know, I don't get paid for this stuff, you know, I don't care. You can do it, you really can do it.

You have to go through that process, get a proper initiation, get proper vows, keep them sweetly, and then, if things are empty, you see, then this thing starts to change. Now, does it change like Franz Kafka, you wake up in the morning and... Oh, I'm a roach!

No, okay? It's not like that. Very gradual.

Gradual but noticeable, okay? Like, it gets to a certain point of noticeability that you can't ignore it anymore. You see what I mean?

Then you have to blame it on your vow-keeping. Okay? So...

So, it just gets gradually lighter, lighter, lighter, lighter, happier, happier, feel better, better, better, and then finally it starts to transfer into a body of light, okay? And that body doesn't die. And that body lives in a Buddha Paradise.

Okay, where is that Buddha Paradise? I'm not saying this place, okay? I'm not saying, as you see it now, no.

Not the place that you're seeing now. But there is no separate location. You see what I mean?

If what I say is true, it's going to happen in the same place that your lousy world is happening now. You see what I mean? Because this is just a perception, and this perception will be replaced by that other perception.

Except that it's done with pure good karma. Now, if I tell you the difference between pure good karma and lousy good karma, I don't have to say anything more, and everybody can go home. The difference is just that you know what's going on.

How's that? Okay? Any good deed done for another person with the perfection of wisdom...

Perfection of wisdom means with the knowledge that this is how things work. And another thing which I'll tell you later. But anyway, is mostly just knowing how it works.

You see what I mean? Then every time you do a good deed, you're doing it for the right reason. Okay...

I'd like to have a milkshake in about six months. In fact, I'd like to have a whole string of them for a couple of weeks. Here, Ian, have half my milkshake.

You know what I mean? Okay? Consciously, knowingly.

Planting perceptions in your own mind knowingly. Okay? It has to be done towards others, it has to be done with knowledge.

Okay? The ultimate... I mean, if you were really selfish, what would you do then?

The clue is this, the more people you do something good towards, the more results come back. Basically, you try to do it towards many people. You see what I mean?

I mean, if I can share my milkshake between these two people, then I'll have a string of one month of milkshakes, or something like that. But the point is that, if you can imagine all living beings, which in itself is a big exercise. You know, you sit down, close your eyes, don't try to see 40,000 faces, it'll take too long.

You know what I mean? Close your eyes, try to imagine the whole mass of living beings in the universe, right at this moment, crawling across different planets, you know, getting up at 8, 6, 7, working till 6 or 7, you know, living, dying, having babies, you know, just close your eyes, imagine all those creatures, and then, when you give Ian the milkshake, it's going to be the second half, because I couldn't stop drinking the first half, okay? And you say, I dedicate this to all those beings, you know what I mean? I can't give milkshakes to every living creature in the universe, but, you know, roughly, imagining all of them, I watch Ian sip my milkshake, you see what I mean?

And then it works, okay? That's ... that's the most powerful karma you can collect.

Last question, the thing before we took the break, okay? If all this stuff works, how come you got that bald spot? You didn't answer that yet.

Okay. And by the way, it's in the Heart Sutra, okay? I'm not making this stuff up.

This is the original tenet of Buddhism. What I'm saying tonight is exactly what Buddhism was meant to do, okay? So, how come we haven't seen more people do it?

What's this? It's a white cylinder. White cylinder.

It's chalk, okay? Okay. No.

No, I'm really serious, I'm not kidding. And your life is at stake, okay? Your life and your happiness.

And I say this from my heart, I'm going to be gone for three years, okay, locked up. And I have nothing to gain, I have nothing to lose, I say it for you, okay? It's possible that there are people in this room who are perceiving this as something like the nectar of immortality.

You know, to them, this white cylinder automatically, without any imagination, appears to be the nectar of immortality, okay? And they get, when they perceive it, they get these deep feelings of bliss, okay? Just by looking at it, okay?

It's possible that there are beings in this room who are seeing that, okay? Theoretically, if your karma was good enough, that's what you'd be seeing. Now, who's right?

You or them? Or the dog? We've got to count the dog too.

Yeah, they're all right for their own level, you see what I mean? Now, what if the dog came up to me and said, that's not chalk, because it's a chew toy?

[Говорящий 2]
He'd be an amazing dog!

[Говорящий 1]
The fact that he could deny it's chalk is already a good start, okay? But what I'm saying is that, a dog... I mean, you couldn't even explain, you could not express to a dog what this function is for us, you see what I mean?

Like, it'd be difficult even to to convey to the dog what this thing is. And don't think that there's not people at a different level above us who look at us the same way. Don't be so naive as to think it's just us and dogs, you know what I mean?

It's not logical, it's not probable, it's improbable that there's only us and dogs, you know what I mean? And that there's nobody another level up who's trying to explain to us, look, if you just kept these Bodhisattva vows, man, you know, come on, try, you know, and you're like... you know what I mean?

And they're struggling, you know, and they appear as a Dalai Lama, or they appear as a lama-sepa, you know, according to the scriptures, they masquerade as a normal human being, except he should sleep more, so it's more believable, okay? And like that, okay, they're trying to communicate with us, okay? And the fact that you can't see them for who they are, that doesn't prove a thing, come on.

Once you've ... you made a mistake of not objecting when I explained the talk, now you are in the uncomfortable position in the debate ground of accepting what I have to say about those beings. You can't see them for whom they are, okay?

You can't do it, because you're on a different level, okay? Thousands and thousands of people throughout the history of Buddhism have have reached it, have done it, okay? And you can't see them, okay?

It's like, did this guy walk on the Sea of Galilee? Was it the Sea of Galilee? I don't know.

Did he walk on the surface of that water, you know? You say, I don't know, this book says so, you know? And have you seen anybody walk on water?

You say, no, I haven't. I tried it once, and I just fell in, you know? I was just really curious, like, if you really sincerely tried, what would happen?

And I got my socks wet. It was a little stream. What I mean is, there's a certain karma needed to perform a miracle, that we call it sepa-kirting dzin.

You can, you can change the elements in an object, you see? If you have a certain amount of shamatha, you can change the water element into earth element, where your foot is stepping, and you can walk on water. That's in the scriptures, no problem.

It takes a certain amount of incredible karma to see yourself doing that, you see what I mean? It's the chalk thing, it's the chalk thing all over again. It takes a very similar amount of karma to see the person do it, okay?

You have to be almost to where you could do it yourself, to witness it, you see what I mean? You might even be so close that you could try to walk a few steps and do it yourself, and then you lose it, and you fall in, like, what's his name, what's that, Peter? Yeah, Peter, I guess Peter, right?

I don't know, but that's all real, those stories are for real, okay? Those things really happen. And the fact that you haven't seen anybody walk on water doesn't prove a thing, okay?

The fact that you think that the people around you are...or somebody like His Holiness the Dalai Lama are actually getting old, is...is a dog looking at a toy, okay? And...and don't think that they see it that way, okay? Who's right?

Both are right, which would you rather be? That's all. So, you have a great Lamas here, you have great teachers here, you hit the jackpot.

I mean, there's not five good Geshes in the United States like that, really. And to leave him alone for an hour is...bad. You should be bothering him all the time to teach. Get them to teach you your bodhisattva vows, get them to teach you about karma, follow it strictly, you know what I mean?

And then just sit back and watch the fireworks, because it really does work, it's amazing. Everything you ever dreamed for, all the stuff in the Bible is true, you know, all those miracle stuff is true, you know, and you can do it, you can really do it, and it's just the most exciting thing in the world. I think going through the exercise of becoming that Tantric being is more fun than being the Tantric being, you see what I mean?

I have this theory, you know, like, to see it working, and to turn other people on to it, it's just really, really cool, okay? So, study, study with them, and learn how to do it, okay? And you don't have to die, okay?

I don't want to talk about death and dying, okay? Okay, just dying and not dying, how's that? You don't have to die, you really don't have to, and that's what the Heart Sutra says, okay?

We'll do more in February, all right, good night, thank you.