Йога отношений (2010, Ламбертвилл), занятие 1

[Говорящий 1]
I'd like to thank everyone who arranged this event, and I know it's a lot of work, and Will and Amy especially, and people who run the studio. Most people, I tell them, don't worry, you can relax after I leave. It's hard, it's hard to do everything, but it's a very beautiful place and feels good.

So, I thought tonight to talk about spiritual partners. And I think a lot of people may not know, but Buddhists say, you know the Mahayana Buddhists, the higher school, they say that, they say Lord Buddha was not enlightened in this world. They say he acted out his twelve great deeds in this planet as sort of a show, just to let us know what we have to do in our spiritual careers.

So, the whole thing from running away from the palace up to getting enlightened under the Bodhi tree, that was all a big show that he put. Because according to the scriptures, he was enlightened long before that, in another world. And there are many references to it in the scripture.

And they say that on the final night before his enlightenment, he reached a certain level of practice, tenth level Bodhisattva. And then he got sort of stuck, he got a little bit stuck. And then the Buddhas of the ten directions looked down upon him and said, he needs a spiritual partner.

And so they called on this divine goddess named Tilottama. And they gave him an empowerment, permission as a monk to practice with a spiritual partner. On that night, first time that empowerment was given.

And... called Shirabhyashikiwang, special empowerment. And they granted him on that occasion permission to practice with Tilottama, this goddess.

And then they... they did special kinds of yoga all night. And then they say...

they say in the morning when the dawn came, they became enlightened together. It's a very beautiful story. So what do you do when you get enlightened together with somebody?

What do you do the next day? It's like the day... It's like the day after Christmas or something, you know.

And... you have to have this vision, you have to try to have this vision, which one day you can have in meditation. If you meditate well, if you work hard at your yoga, you will have a vision of how it is at the end.

But at the end, you are standing, literally standing in the air, high in the sky, high in the space above a planet with your partner. And together you are looking down. You are standing in space over a luminous planet with oceans and mountains and sky and clouds.

And you are looking down and you are discussing how to take care of them. Like what's the best way to take care of all these people down there, you know. So, that's what you do afterwards, okay?

That's what you do the next day. There's a beautiful verse. We'll read a few things from scripture, okay?

There's a beautiful verse on page two. And it's a special prayer that we do in the monastery, okay? So, this is a description of the highest kind of partner that you can have, okay?

And if you are a girl, you can think of a boy, okay? This one was written for monks, so it's about a girl. And this is a description of So, we'll start with the end, right, which is a tradition in our monastery.

With high, beautiful things, you start at the end. And then you go back to the beginning and find out how to get there. So, this is the end.

This is standing over the planet, taking together, in the sky, in the air, like NASA satellites are whizzing by. Okay. Tathāndhārthakaṇḍamā means, my shining angel of the sky.

Kaṇḍamāi Kordāgir, you are like the queen of all the angels. Yeshe ngāne kusumye. Mentally, you have perfect knowledge of all things and all people.

You know everyone's condition. You know what trouble every individual person among the six billion people below you are having. You can read their minds.

And you know what's the right thing to do for them. Kusumye means, you have a body which can go to each of those six billion people and help them, serve them. You have...

She's like that. She's not just a regular girlfriend, okay? Drohā kyabla cakthalo.

You know, I bow down to this woman, or you can think boy if you're a lady, okay? I bow down to this angel who is protecting, watching over these six billion individuals, each one, knowing the mind of each one, okay? Jīne dōje kaṇḍamā.

And then, almost it's like the singer of this song is thinking, well, if there's one of them in this world, maybe there's more that I haven't recognized yet, you see? Like, maybe there are other angels wandering around the world. Like, you never know, right?

That the person sitting next to you, unless it's the person you don't like, is not an angel, okay? You're never a hundred percent sure who's sitting... Jīne dōje kaṇḍamā means...

Who? Yeah. Usually they don't reveal themselves.

Okay. So, however many you are, kuṇḍitape cincu cinc. Please break the chains of my limitations in my mind.

And we'll talk about that tonight. Because you have to break those chains if you want to have a real partnership, a high partnership. You have to break those chains.

So, in this verse he's asking, you unannounced angels wandering around in my life, please help me break the chains of how I think of things, okay? Cincu cincu. Jīne dōje kaṇḍamā means...

You look like normal, you pretend to be normal people, you know? Like I know everybody sitting in the audience is already an angel, and I'm the only one in the room who's not, but thanks for letting me talk. Deine namla cakṣalā.

I bow down to all those unannounced angels in the world. Like that. It's a very beautiful verse.

But that's describing the last... That's describing the day after the morning. They say it's always in the morning.

I don't know why. You always have your final practice in the evening, and then all night, and then you both get enlightened in the morning, okay? So, the idea of a spiritual partnership, I sometimes hesitate to call it spiritual partnership, because people think, oh, I'm going to have to go to some Baptist church and pray with my boyfriend all day, and that's what a spiritual partner is, or something like that.

Like we'll both have to be... I have a translator in Mongolia named... Do you know Badbolt?

So, he's this young guy, I picked him up in a college like 15 years ago, at a lecture, and then he became my translator. And one night we were teaching in Mongolia, and it was on national TV. So, you know, 500,000 Mongolians saw it on TV.

And then... He has a beard, and he has long hair. The next day he came, shaved, and he cut his hair off.

And I said, Badbolt, what's going on? He said, Geshe-la, you ruined my life. I said, what?

He said, I was on TV, everybody in the country knows who I am now. I said, well, what's wrong with that? He says, well, they think I'm religious.

And I said, well, what's wrong with that? He says, but every time I go to a bar now, people are telling me I shouldn't be in the bar. And...

So I hesitate to call it spiritual partners, because people think, if I'm not spiritual, maybe I can't do this. It's not that you act spiritual, okay? You don't have to.

It's that you use spiritual means to find your partner. You use spiritual means to stay with your partner. You use spiritual means to be happy together.

You use spiritual means to eventually stand above the world, right? You use a different method than what you're used to, okay? Tonight I will propose a radically different method of finding the boy of your dreams, of sustaining a good relationship with them over a long period of time, of not fighting with each other, of not having the relationship go downhill eventually, and then eventually reaching a very high place together in your relationship.

So I'm going to describe a way of doing that, which is totally, totally different than anything you've ever heard, okay? And that's the spiritual part, okay? It's a means of...

It's a means of achieving those things, and it's a way of looking at a relationship which is completely different. And, you know, if you've ever had a failed relationship, listen, and then maybe you'll get some new ideas, okay? And I always say that tonight's talk is not just about, what do you call it?

Finding your perfect partner. If you already have a partner, I always tell people you can upgrade them, okay? So you can...

So we'll be talking about finding a partner, but if you already have a partner and you just want to make some improvements, you can also use this method. So I'm describing a new method, completely different, and you never heard of it. Because if you had, you probably wouldn't need to come to the talk tonight.

Okay. And I'm going to do it from the point of view of yoga, okay? Of yoga asana practice, physical asana practice.

The reason in the monastery... We have a secret practice of yoga in the monastery, and they only teach it to you after many years. It comes from a yogi called Naropa and his partner named Niguma.

But the reason that we do yoga in the monastery, the reason we do asana in the monastery is so that we can open up the inner channels which affect how we think and how we understand things, you see? So we say physical twists, forward bends, inversions, each of them has a different effect on your mind. And they open your chakras and they change the way you think.

Because of a very, very most important principle in Tibetan asana practice, which comes from India, which is from Naropa, as is much of the yoga being done in the world. I'll say a Tibetan word, you have to learn it, okay? We say lung.

Lung. Everybody say lung. Lung.

Sem. Sem. Jupa.

Jupa. Jipa. Jipa.

Lung-sem. Lung-sem. Jupa-jipa.

[Говорящий 2]
Jupa-jipa.

[Говорящий 1]
Lung-sem-jupa-jipa.

[Говорящий 2]
Lung-sem-jupa-jipa.

[Говорящий 1]
Okay, lung is the Tibetan word for prana, okay? Prana, chi, ki, whatever you call it, inner energy flowing through the inner body, lung. Sem means your thoughts, okay?

Jipa. Jupa-jipa means they always ride in tandem. They always ride together.

Wherever your prana goes, your thoughts go that way. You can also move your prana by shifting your thoughts. So, you can think of prana like a horse and your thoughts are like the horse rider.

So, sometimes the horse rider can move the horse, left or right, right? That would be focusing your mind on different chakras and that would bring your prana there, okay? Or you could do asanas.

You could do a twist to the right. It would bring prana down your pingala, your right hand channel of your body, and that would change your mind. That would change your capacity to think, alright?

You would have different thoughts after doing a twist to the left and stretching the right side of your back, okay? So, in Tibet, they use the yoga to affect the meditation. And then they use meditation to affect the yoga, okay?

They use them together. Lungsam jupa-jipa, alright? So, we're going to go to page 3.

Please repeat after me, okay? Ready? Bhavana Jnanam Surya Sayamat Sorry.

Bhavana Jnanam Surya Sayamat This is from the Yoga Sutra, okay? This is the oldest book about... Well, one of the oldest books about yoga.

Maybe the premier book about yoga. It has 210 verses. It has exactly one verse dedicated to asanas.

And, you know, 209 which are... talk about other stuff, okay? So, Bhavana Jnanam Surya Sayamat Surya means your right hand channel of your body, okay?

The right hand inner channel of your body. Sometimes called pingala. You could call it red channel.

You can call it sun channel. Surya means sun. It comes from sakral.

It came into Greek as helios. It came into English as helium or solar, okay? So, the right side of...

The right side of the body is a... is an inner channel called surya. And if you can get prana moving into that channel, then...

Master Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra, he says, Bhavana Jnanam You will understand the objects around you, okay? You will understand the nature of the wall, of the fans, of the light, and of your partner. Okay?

You will understand more about your partner if you can get prana moving in the surya, in the sun channel, in the right hand channel. Normally, you would do that with a twist to the left. And we'll talk more about that tomorrow, right?

So, we'll have a... We'll have a yoga session tomorrow in the afternoon. And we'll actually go through Niguma's yoga.

She was the partner of Naropa thousand years ago. She wrote a beautiful series of yoga that are meant... It's meant to affect your emotions.

If you have anger, you should do this kind of twist. If you have jealousy, you should move around the navel. You know, it's very, very beautiful.

It's the oldest written yoga series in the world. And it's the only classical yoga series written by a woman. So, the oldest series we have by about 500 years is by a woman.

And it's very, very beautiful, very powerful. So, tomorrow I'll tell you her story, which is very beautiful. But, if you can open up the right hand channel, you will understand the things around you.

Okay? Then the next verse. Please repeat.

Candre. Tara. Vyuha.

Jnanam. Candre. Tara.

Vyuha. Jnanam. Candre.

Candre means the moon. Okay? Comes from a root, cand, cand, like incandescent or candle.

And it means shining in a white light. So, that's the left hand channel. It's called the sun.

Tara. Tara means a star. Tara is the Sanskrit word for a star.

And here it means consciousness, your own mind. Sparks of consciousness, like a star, inside your own body. Okay?

These are called Tara. So, if you understand the left hand channel, you will understand your own mind. Alright?

Like that. Right hand channel, stuff around you. Left hand channel, yourself, your own mind.

Got it? Okay, last one. Say, Dhruve.

Dhruve. Tad. Tad.

Gati. Gati. Jnanam.

Jnanam. Dhruve. Dhruve.

Tad. Tad. Gati.

Gati. Jnanam. Jnanam.

Dhruva means the pole star, the north star, or the axis upon which the earth spins. Okay? You can think of a big axis in your body, like a big...

What do you call it? Like the pole that a merry-go-round goes around, or something like that. You know, the pole around which a thing rotates.

There's a central channel coming down through your body. It's called... Sushumna.

Okay? Sushumna or Avadhuti. It has different...

It has like 13 names in Mahatmya Upadipika. Madhya-patah. The...

Or Shunya-patah, the path of emptiness, is one of them. So, the Dhruva is your middle channel coming down through your body in front of your spine. Dhruva tadgatis jnanam.

If you... If you can get the prana into your central channel, you will understand the workings of the other two things. The people and things around you and your own mind.

Okay? Or your partner. Or how to get a partner, or how to sustain a relationship with a partner, or how to make sure that relationship is happy and joyful and interesting forever.

Okay? If you can get the prana out of the two side channels into the middle channel, into the Dhruva or the Sushumna, then understanding comes to your mind. Okay?

General understanding of the workings of both outer and inner things. Your partner and your own self. Okay?

Because generally, your relationship with your partner reflects your own state of being. Okay? If you're having trouble with your partner, you would be having trouble by yourself.

Okay? If you weren't with them. That's just the way it is.

Trouble with your partner reflects the problem with you. So, Dhruva tadgatis jnanam means if you could focus all the prana into the central channel, then you would gain great insights into... into the challenges that are coming up with your partner and the challenges that are inside of you that are making those come up in your partner.

So, tadgati means the drops of consciousness and the objects around you, you would gain great understanding. What I'm trying to say is I proposed to you at the beginning a new way of... of conducting a relationship.

Completely different system. You never heard of it in grade school or high school. Okay?

It's a completely different way of being with a partner. Okay? But it's hard to grasp it.

Okay? I call it... What do you call that kind of pig?

Grease pig. Okay? This is our grease pig idea.

Okay? These ideas are hard to... to get.

You know, I can say it and then you'll forget it tomorrow. You see what I mean? And then you'll say, he had some new idea but I can't remember what it was.

You know? It's hard to understand these new ideas. If you grasp the grease pig, you know, if you get these new ideas, you can use them for anything.

Okay? Like, we're talking partners. All right?

Why are we talking partners? Because most people want to know about that. But you can use it for other stuff.

We give a lot of business talks. We're going next week to... to give...

begin a training for 14,000 employees Okay? And they don't care about partners. They want to know about business.

They want to save their airline. It's losing 100 million dollars a month. So they're like, please come.

You can use the same principles for your finances. Okay? It's the same.

The grease pig principles are the same for your finances.

[Говорящий 2]
You know?

[Говорящий 1]
And I started a 250 million dollar company. I was trying to raise money for refugees. And I had seven dollars in my pocket when I went to New York.

And it was just sold last year to Warren Buffet. Okay? And it's up to 250 million dollars a year.

You can use it for anything. You know? If you want to make money, you can make money.

I used to have a very bad... What do you call it? Handicap in my foot.

Very bad gout. Inherited from my father. So there were days when I...

in my dining business, I couldn't walk. Or I had to take my shoe off and walk around. So it looked really funny.

Here's a guy at De Beers in London with a... with a suit and tie and one shoe on. You know?

And... And then... I used these principles.

And now I do ballet. And I stand on the toe. And I...

Last year I got the lady up in the air. Okay? At age 110.

So... You can use the principles for anything. You know?

After you get the money and the boy and the good health, you could use it for Iraq or Afghanistan or world poverty or world hunger. I mean, that's where we're headed, right? I mean, we use it for small things first.

And then we use it for big things. But you have to kind of prove it to yourself with something small like a boyfriend or some money. Okay?

Then you can use it for world poverty. And you will. Because in the end you're going to be standing up there worrying...

It's your world. You're going to have to worry about it. You know?

You're going to be the one who has to worry that everyone is fed. Right? You're like the mommy for six billion people.

But at the end it will come to that. At the beginning let's talk about partners. Okay?

Because you have to prove it to yourself with a small thing and then later you can use it for a big thing. And you will because you will want to. Once you have your basic needs met the human nature is to want to help more people and to do something to help more people.

So it will come. Okay? That thing will come.

You will understand these greased pig ideas better if you can get your prana into your central channel. Okay? So if you can do yoga, asana, here, with the teachers you have here who are very well qualified, you can get prana into your central channel.

And then you'll just understand things better. We gave a presentation to six union leaders and six management of... We gave a...

They said, you got one hour to sell us on this new greased pig thing. You know? Because they didn't know it was that.

So they said, you got one hour. You know? And we went to London and we gave this presentation.

And then they all jumped up. Twelve... Six union people and six management people.

They hate each other. But they all jumped up and three of them ran forward and said, I'll do anything to get this going for the company. And then later we found out those were the three people out of the twelve who are doing yoga.

They have a regular yoga practice. They understood it faster. They understood it better because prana is moving in the...

Because of what Patanjali says. Dhruvetadgatis jnanam. You get...

You get prana moving in the central channel, you can catch the greased pig faster. Okay. Next page.

Page four. Most of the yoga in Tibet and almost all the secret teachings, almost all the tantra in Tibet, even Kalachakra, Chakrasamvara, Goyasamaja, Vajrayogini, whatever you name, Bhairava, they were almost all brought to Tibet by Naropa or by one of his disciples. So, almost all of the higher teachings in Tibet derive in some way from Master Naropa.

There's a picture of him there, okay. That was a carving done in the palace of the Dalai Lama just before Tibet was lost in 1959. Okay.

And we got a hold of the carving. He was the greatest monk who ever lived in India. He was the head of a monastery called Nalenda.

He was the greatest, greatest scholar ever in India. Even the normal teachings, even the open teachings, he was the greatest scholar. So, there's a story.

He became the head of... Well, I got to go back. He was a prince.

He was born a prince. And then he had great yearnings to be a monk. You know, he wanted to be a monk.

He wanted to be... to live a monk's life, you know. And, you know, being a prince in India, there's a lot of pressure on you to get married and have kids.

Because you got to produce the next king, right? So, I mean, that's pretty much all you're good for, is to produce the next prince. So, you know, he was trying to study.

He went to Kashmir. He went to... What's it called?

The Tibetans call it Dojo. A famous city in Kashmir where there was a Buddhist university. What's that called?

Do you know? It'll come to me. No, it's Kashmir.

Huh? Not Srinagar. Actually, St. Thomas went there and taught there. Anyway, I'll think of it. Anyway. Taxila.

Taxila. And there was a... there was a great Buddhist university there.

And Thomas, St. Thomas, was there also, building a palace for Gondal Forres, who was one of the three wise men. But that's a long story. So anyway, he studied some Buddhism.

He came back home. He didn't show any interest in getting a wife. Then his father and his mother, you know, they put pressure on him in the way that fathers and mothers do.

And then finally he said, OK, OK, I'll take a wife. But I want to give you a wish list. You know, she's got to have certain qualities.

And they said, OK, make a list. I've got to tell you this story tomorrow. Anyway, he made an impossible list.

He made a list that could never be filled. And he thought he was safe, but it didn't work. And he ended up with a wife, who was Niguma.

Lady Niguma. And eventually he left her. There is a long story, but he went to become a monk.

She actually followed him on his journey. But he became the abbot of the greatest monastery in India, Nalanda Monastery. And then one day he's sitting outside the monastery and he's reading one of those palm leaf books, right?

About Nyaya. Nyaya means Buddhist logic, OK? Very dry and very interesting.

He's translating a very great book on Nyaya. So anyway, he was reading this book on Nyaya and then a dark shadow fell over him, you know? And he's like, it's like Halloween, right?

And he looks up and there's this woman, this old hag, is leaning over him, you know? And they say she had 37 different qualities of ugliness, OK? Like not just three or four.

And they list each one, like her warts were extraordinary and she had little pockets of hair hanging down from her face and a big nose, all this stuff, like a witch on Halloween. And then she is cackling at him, what are you doing, Naropa? And he says, I'm studying a book on logic.

I'm probably the only monk in India who can really do this. And she says, oh, I see, you're reading a book on logic, that's so good. Do you understand the words?

And he's like, well, if I don't understand them, who would? I'm Naropa, I'm the abbot of Nalanda, you know? I'm the great scholar Naropa.

And she laughs and she dances and she's singing and she does all these pirouettes. And then she comes down on him again, but do you understand the meaning of the book? And he says, of course I understand the meaning.

And then she goes, well, she starts crying, just like Bella on a bad day. She starts crying and pulling at her hair and gnashing her teeth. And then he says, wait, you know, old lady, why were you so happy when I said I understood the words of the book?

And why are you so sad now that I understand the meaning? And she says, you're a Buddhist monk, right? He said, yeah, I'm a Buddhist monk.

She said, so, when you said you understood the words, I was so happy that a Buddhist monk was telling the truth. You know? You get it?

And then when you said you understood the meaning, you know, I had to sit with a Buddhist monk who was lying. Like that. Then, you know, he got a little ruffled.

And he was like, if I don't understand the meaning of this book, who does? And she says, my brother, Tilopa, he knows the meaning of this book. He knows the meaning of all these things.

He says, you bring Tilopa to me and we'll discuss it. And then she leans over him and she says, you don't tell the teacher to come to you. You go to the teacher.

And then she disappears, right? Like that. So, you know, he can't shake it.

He can't shake that meaning, you know? He goes back to the monastery. He goes back to his big position.

You know, he gets to be the abbot. The big thing in being the abbot is you get your tea first in the monastery. Then you have to wait till the last monk gets his tea and yours is always cold by the time they finish.

So then it just bugs him and he can't get it out of his mind. And he says, you know, the old lady was right. I have a feeling that I haven't really got the deeper meaning of these things.

I have a feeling she's right. That name Tilopa, the name of that teacher is so attractive to me. Normally they say when you hear your heart lama's name for the first time, you will just fall in love.

Like after that, your life is ruined actually. Because you can't do anything else. You just have to follow them around.

And he heard the name Tilopa and then he couldn't shake it. And then finally he made an announcement. He got up in front of the monastery.

He said, I'm leaving the monastery. I have to find this guy. I don't know where he is.

I don't know what he looks like. All I got is his name. And he said, I'm leaving my robes.

He took, you can see in the picture, he took that dhoti, that Indian grocer's towel. And he wore that and he said, I'm leaving the monastery. And then the king came, like the president of, like, what do you call it?

Obama visited the monastery and said, you know, Naropa, don't be rash. You know, you're the best monk in the whole country. You know, just be reasonable.

You know, don't go running off because of some old lady. He said, I'm sorry. And they all threatened him in the end.

They said, you know, if you leave, you'll never be able to come back. We'll kick you out of the brotherhood. And he said, well, I got to know.

I got to find out these things. I have to learn these higher teachings. And he left.

And he searched for Talopa. That search is a long story. I don't have time to tell you.

Talopa put him through 12 minor trials and 12 major trials. Basically, just beat him up for years. And then, finally he taught him yoga.

He taught him what are now called Naro Chudu, the six yogas of Naropa. In the end, Talopa taught Naropa. The yoga, yoga as you know it today came from Naropa.

It went to Tibet. It was studied in Nepal extensively. Krishnamacharya, who is Sri Patabi Joyce's teacher, right?

Learned it in Nepal and brought it back to South India near Mysore. And then he taught it to Iyengar and Sri Patabi Joyce. So, all modern yoga that you know, Bhikram or whatever, Anussara, it all comes from Naropa, basically.

And so, Naropa, Naropa's yoga came to spread in Tibet. All right? But an interesting thing happens, you know.

Because he was doing yoga and because he got prana into his central channel and because he was meditating well and because of the blessings of his teacher, one day he realized that the old woman was Niguma, his wife, you know, that he had known since childhood. I mean, since he was a teenager. And he realized that, one day he realized that Talopa was Niguma, you know.

And then suddenly he realized that because he had prana in his central channel, he came to realize that all of the teachers in his life were just emanations of his own partner. But it took him his whole life to find out that all of these wise men and all of these visions that he had were just his partner in different forms, you see. It's a very beautiful story.

And then they lived happily ever after, okay? As you will. All right.

If you go to page 7. So you can read his story on your own, okay? We found his biography.

We translated it a couple of years ago. It's much longer and someday you can have the whole thing if you're good. Okay.

Which means, if I claim to have a new greased pig method of finding a nice partner or adjusting your current partner to what you would really like, if I claim to have such a method and I claim that you haven't heard it before, right? And if I further claim that it's the only method that works, then what's that say about all the other things you've tried up to now? I mean, it would imply that they were all pretty much useless, okay?

So, like, what are you talking about? I'm talking about... There's different methods to get a boy, right?

People come up to me, they say, Geshe-la, do you think I should go natural or do you think makeup is better, you know? And I'm like, I'm a Buddhist monk. Why are you asking me these things, you know?

And then I say, I don't know, have you been to Sephora? And they say, yeah. And I say, well, what's your...

What do you think, Lancôme or... You know, and then they... They always give me some story.

They say, like, oh, my friend wears red lipstick. It is Lancôme, you're right. And she got a boy, but he didn't turn out so good later, you know?

But my other friend was using pink lipstick, which was also Lancôme. But... And she met a boy, he turned out...

He stayed with her, but he's not so good looking. You know? So, should I go with the red or should I go for the pink?

You know, like that. People ask me questions like that, you know? Should I go to a club?

Should I go to a yoga... Where can I find a nice boy? Should I go to a yoga class?

Should I go online? Should I go to a club? You know, where will I find a good boy?

Geshe-la do a mo, you know mo? Mo is... You throw dice for people to tell the future.

They ask monks to do it. If you're a Mongol monk, you use sheep's knuckles. Dried sheep's knuckles.

And you... You go like that, and then the people ask you, tell my future, you know? And you go...

You got to do all these mantras, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then you have to look up in the... You have to boot your eyes like that.

And then you throw the dice down, you know? I saw an oracle in action in India, a Tibetan oracle, you know? And this Australian lady approached him, and...

He was a fierce oracle. He had a sword and a helmet, and he's a monk. But once a month he does the oracle thing.

The other 29 days of the month he was the monastery's secretary. He was typing all the time. And then...

And then on the 30th they take him down to the special room, and they dress him up like a warrior. And he has this pretty scary sword, you know? And then he goes into a trance, you know?

And he's like... He's like this, and he's foaming at the mouth, and he's shaking his hand, and he's waving his sword. And it's really kind of dangerous.

It takes like four or five monks, big monks to hold him down. And then when he's in trance, you can go ask him a question, you know? So this lady, Australian lady...

They asked me to go translate one day. This Australian lady wanted to know the secret of life, you know? So she like approaches the oracle.

She's been trained by some Tibetan teacher for six months in Lam Rim. Lam Rim is plain old, you know, find a teacher, meditate, work every day, do your yoga, be nice to people, keep your morality, you'll get to enlightenment, you know? So she did that for six months with a very qualified lama.

But she like wanted to know from the oracle the meaning of life. So... So he went into this trance, you know?

And he's waving his sword, and they're trying to hold him down. It takes like four or five big guys to hold him down. And he's skinny, he's a little guy.

And then he starts... And she comes... And I was standing behind her, you know?

And she goes, you know, I need to know what to do with my life, you know? And he's like... Then he says, you know, find a teacher, meditate every day.

Don't forget to do your yoga. Keep your morality. Be nice to people.

And then she's like, oh, now I understand, you know? And I was laughing, because it's the same thing the guy was teaching her for six months. And then suddenly she thought, because of this guy, she thought it was all right.

So anyway, people are asking, always asking me to do this... Should I go to a club? Should I go to yoga?

Where will I meet the man of my dreams, you know? Then you have to get into the new method, okay? What we're calling the new method, all right?

Buddhism says, and yoga says, Master Patanjali also says, your world is coming from seeds in your mind, all right? I'll do a thing with you. What's this thing?

It's a pen. I mean, I hold it up. If you want confirmation, okay?

I hold up this thing, and you don't think about it, right? I just hold up this thing, I pull it out, and I say, what's this thing? And you say, that's a pen.

You pass the test, okay? It's a pen. But then if a dog comes in here, right?

A dog comes up to the stage, right? And I'm waving this thing to the dog, puppy dog, right? And what will they do?

How do they see it? They will grab it, right? You know?

They will... They see it as a... What do you call?

You can say a stick or a chew toy. Let's say a chew toy, okay? I see it as a pen, okay?

The dog comes in, and I'm like, here puppy, puppy, puppy, you know? And they grab it, and they start, you know, chewing on it. So then that raises a lot of philosophical questions, okay?

About this object. I see it as a pen. We see it as a pen.

The dog sees it as something to chew on, okay? So the first philosophical question is, who's right? Some people are shaking their head.

No, come on, don't think too much. That's a bad habit. They're both right.

I mean, you can't say... They're both right, okay? I mean, do a dog...

There's only one guy who ever insisted it was a pen to everybody. He was in Florida. I gave a talk near Miami.

He was sitting right where they were. And he insisted that it was a pen, you know? And that the dog was chewing on a perfectly good pen.

And I said, but don't you think the dog thinks that we are wasting a perfectly good chew toy? You see? And why do you think a dog is dumber than a human?

You know what I mean? Like, equal rights. They're both right.

To themselves they're both right, right? Depends on who's looking, right? So which one is it really?

No, I didn't say. I said, which one is it really? Yeah, he just shook his head.

Lord Buddha used to teach like that. He said, I don't have to talk. He'd say, he would just shake his head.

It's neither, okay? If I say, especially if I say, really, right? If I say, really, which one is it?

It's okay, you can say animal rights and they see a chew toy, you see a pen. But which one is it really and you're not from Miami? Okay?

Then you can say, neither one. You have to go like that. Neither one, you know?

That's emptiness, okay? It took me so long in the monastery to understand that. I struggled with that for a long time.

I went to stay with one Lama. I asked him to teach me. He took me to this tiny little room.

You can almost touch the walls with your arms. And he said, okay, for the time being you can stay here. And I thought, oh, this is going to be a couple months.

And I was there for 25 years in this little room. And he said, okay, you have to meditate. And I said, what do you want me to meditate about?

He said, do you know about emptiness? And I said, I know, I know. That was my answer to him all the time.

I said, I know, I know. Later he called me Mr. I know, I know. He said, do you understand emptiness?

I said, yeah, yeah, I know, I know. He said, can you meditate? I said, I know, I know.

So he said, you meditate on emptiness. And then, you know, when I ring the bell, you come up and you talk to me. He had this little bell, right?

He had this little bell he called us with, like a dog, you know. And he would ring the bell. So, so I closed my eyes, I meditated.

Then I read a book about emptiness. It said, emptiness is nothing, you know, just black. So I got into this really good posture.

And I crossed my legs, even though it was excruciating. And, and then I just think about black. Like, when I think about black, I think of outer space black.

Like, you go past the atmosphere and there's black. Without stars, okay? Like in the middle, between stuff.

That's my black. So I'm like, black, black, black, black. Then I hear the bell, right?

Which means my meditation wasn't very good. And I, you had to run upstairs, and then you had to knock on his door, and he'd say, calm. And then you'd come in, and you had to get down on the floor.

And then you can't look at him in the eyes, you have to look at the floor. And then if you're being really polite, you have to go, which means I respect you very much. And then he'd say, did you meditate?

And I said, yeah. And he said, what did you meditate on? I said, you told me to meditate on emptiness.

He said, so what's it like? What's emptiness like? I said, black.

Just close your eyes, think about black, like outer space black. He said, that's emptiness? I said, yeah.

I know. And he said, kukpa. You're a kukpa.

You have to appreciate, kukpa means idiot. So he said, you go try again. You go down and try again, I'll ring the bell in a while.

And then I, do you need help? Do you need some instruction? I said, no, no, I know, I know.

And I went back to my little room and I read this book, what was that? Oh yeah, I read this book that said, just listen to your mind and watch the thoughts go through in your mind and don't connect to them, right? Don't, what do you call it?

Don't attach them or something. Just let thoughts come randomly through your mind. That's emptiness, you know?

So I sat down and I got in this good posture and I just let thoughts go through my mind and I don't attach them, you know? Like, they're just flying like frisbees in my mind and I'm not any of them. I'm just letting them go, you know?

And then he rang the bell, I go up. He says, did you meditate? I said, yeah.

He says, on what? I said, emptiness. Then he said, well, what's emptiness?

And I said, you know, you just let thoughts go through your mind and you don't think about anything. Just don't think about anything, you know? And that's emptiness, you know?

And then he said, but what is meditation? I said, well, meditation is ekagra, right? Cecikpa.

It's focusing the mind on a single point. He said, so you're focusing the mind, right? I said, yeah.

He said, you're thinking very hard. I said, yeah, you have to think, I mean, you're focusing. Then he said, and you're thinking very hard about thinking about nothing, right?

And I said, yeah. And he said, that's a shindunyinekuppa. He said, that's a supra-kuppa.

You know. So then he said, you try one more. So I went down, and this time I was ready, you know?

I thought, I read a book about emptiness. It said, nothing matters. Everything is maya.

Everything is an illusion, you know? Like, if someone offers you a donut, don't be happy. If you have to mow the lawn, don't be unhappy, you know?

Just be. And don't like anything, and don't dislike anything, and just equanimity. Your mind is always like, there, you know?

And don't worry about anything, don't be happy, don't be sad, just be. So I tried that for a while. Then he rang the bell, I went up.

He said, okay, what have you been thinking about? I said, emptiness. I was meditating on emptiness.

He says, what's emptiness? I said, everything is an illusion. You know, you shouldn't be happy when things go right, and you shouldn't be sad when things go bad.

He said, well, why do things go right in your life? And I said, well, you have good karma. He says, what's the definition of good karma?

I said, rāṅgīki nama-mimbe deva imbā. You know, if the thing ripens in the mind as a pleasant experience. If you do something to somebody and it ripens in your mind as a pleasant experience, this is the definition of good karma, right?

He says, well, what's the definition of bad karma? I said, nama-mimbe duṣa-gyurva. You know, you have a bad ripening from something you did to somebody else.

So, that's how you determine if something is a bad karma, right? So, he said, the results of pleasure and pain come from doing good towards others and doing harm to others, right? I said, yeah.

So, he said, and you're telling me that pleasure and pain are the same and I should just treat them the same? I said, yeah. So, he said, so you should just hurt people indiscriminately, you know, and refuse to help them because it's all the same?

You know, and I said, well, I guess. And he said, shinder nīne nīne kūpa, you know. He said, that's total kūpa.

You reached the perfection of kūpa, you know. And it took me a long time. It took me a really long time to understand emptiness, okay?

And you can demonstrate it to somebody in a few minutes, right? When he shook his head, he was saying empty, you know. He's saying it's not a pen.

If I take, if all the humans leave the room, ready? And if all the dogs leave the room, and I put this thing on the stage here and I leave the room too, then what is it? Which one is it?

Then. Do your thing again. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Then it's, you see, then it's just nothing. It's just a black stick. It's not a pen or a chew toy.

Take away all the dogs, take away all the humans, right? Can we agree on that? Be careful.

In the monastery, we debate, right? When you agree, you're stuck with that position for a long time, okay? They might even start to call you pen for the rest of your life.

I'm not going to tell you my monastic nickname. It's really bad. If you make a big mistake in a public debate, that becomes your name for the rest of your life.

So I'm not telling you. But anyway. So, question.

One more question. Now I'll give you a break, okay? We'll do some refreshments.

Is the pen coming this way? Or is the pen coming this way? It must be coming this way, right?

If the pen were coming this way, then the dog would attempt to write something. Got it? If pen were inside this, and if it were coming this way, at me, then the dog would, you know, they can't really hold it very well, but I imagine they would try to write a...

I like to think they would write a poem to their dog girlfriend. And they say, you have a beautiful tail or something, you see? Like, if this thing were announcing pen, if this thing were saying, I'm a pen, I'm a pen, I'm a pen, then even a dog would try to relate to it as a pen, right?

So, can we say that it's like a blank screen? It's like a blank white screen in a movie theater. And if I see a pen, it must be somehow coming from me.

It must somehow be coming from me. Okay, that's all. By itself, it's just a white empty screen.

You can call that emptiness. Sometimes I prefer blankness or blank to empty. Empty has all these weird connotations like you don't care whether someone punches you or gives you a donut, right?

It doesn't mean that, okay? It means it's like a blank screen. And then, depending on something in my mind, I see it as a pen, or I see it as something, or I salivate when I see it.

You got it? Why? Why do I see a pen and the dog sees a cheeto?

What's different in our mind? There must be some different thing going on in our two minds. He has a mind, I have a mind.

We say a seed. We say there's a seed in my mind which is different from the seed in his mind. Okay, got it?

There's a seed in my mind which is different from the seed in his mind. And if you really carefully think about it, the finding of modern physics, that there are multiple realities going on around us. Like, I think you're up to 17 now or something.

Okay, really, seriously. And they prove it mathematically. We would say the same thing.

Got it? We would say the same thing. When the dog is in the room with a human, in the space which this object occupies, there are two separate universes going on.

There are two separate realities going on in the same space. There are two absolutely separate realities going on. Could you learn to manipulate them?

Could you learn to control the process of the mind? Could you make a $250 million company in your spare time while you're finishing a 25-year Geshe course? Could you fix a bone in your foot?

Could you find a perfect partner? You see, if you understood this process by which the mind is creating objects, could you use that to change everything in your life? All the things around you, your finances, your health, and your partner.

Could you use this greased pig idea? It's here, okay? The greased pig is here.

Could you use this idea to change everything about your life, to make it the way you want, to get the things you want, you see? And then, of course, I'm saying ultimately you would use it to fix Iraq, and you would use it against world hunger. Because world hunger, world poverty, your finances, and your partner, it's all the same.

It's all the same. If we could learn to control that process, everything's possible. Everything could change.

Even if you were just kind of good at it, you could make millions of dollars and give it away. We gave it all away. I gave away all my money, you know?

You could do weird stuff, you know? So, we'll talk more. It's very exciting.

To me, it's very exciting. I got some little knack of it. I'm not very good at it.

Still stuff happens that I don't want to happen. But in general, I can get pretty amazing stuff to happen. And so, I just want to...

Let's work on that, okay? We'll try. It works better if you're doing your yoga, because your mind is more sharp, because the prana is in the right place, okay?

So, this goes together with the yoga we're doing tomorrow. They go hand in hand. Your mind is more clear.

And by the way, that yoga was invented for people who hate yoga. All right? No, I hate exercise.

I hate yoga. I hate... She knows.

She's known me for 30, 40 years. And I hate exercise. I truly detest exercise.

And I've never been good at it. I was the kid in school who they counted how many pull-ups you could do, and I didn't... I was just hanging there.

And... You know... So, no matter...

I was really overweight, and I don't like exercise. Nigume's yoga is very short. It takes half an hour.

And it changes your whole body. But the cool thing is it changes your thinking. It changes the capacity of your mind.

And you become very sharp, very clear. And you can catch grease pigs. You can catch pins, if you can find them.

And then... You can do cool stuff. You can change your life.

You can get the things you want in your life. And you can change the world.

[Говорящий 2]
Right?

[Говорящий 1]
Because they go together. All right. So, we'll talk more about that after the break.

I think there's refreshments. Do I have to make a talk about that? Yeah.

Okay. These are the commercial announcements. There's a bake sale going on, run by Rebecca Vinokur.

She's our... What do you call it? Liaison with my monastery, my Tibetan monastery, where I studied.

There are now... In the whole big monastery, there's 3,000 monks there. And...

We feed them. We feed a lot of them. And we also send people to study there.

Like young people. Because I figure someone paid my way my first time, when I was like 20, which was 100 years ago. And someone paid my way to go.

So, what we do is we sell cookies and cupcakes. And then we give the money to young people who want to go there to study. So, if you want to pay $20 for a cupcake, it's not so bad.

Okay? And sooner or later, some young person will go there. And they'll be giving a talk like this in 30 years.

Okay? So, it's an investment. All right.

These are music CDs by Mercedes. This is one of my most... This is my favorite piece of music, maybe in the world.

It really is awesome. It's Mercedes, called Mercy Songs. She doesn't like it, because I don't advertise her other album, because I like this one better.

But she's with White Swan Records. She's, you know... She's signed with an album company.

This is a Christmas album that we made last year. And not enough people bought it, and we still have leftovers. So, Christmas is coming.

There's a... We're going to pass out... This is what I like.

This is a list of 200 projects we're doing to help people. Okay? Some are refugee projects.

Some are work with Muslims in different countries. Some are, like, helping HIV, rape victims in Congo to do yoga. A very successful program in Rwanda.

Some are, like, I don't know, helping people in Mongolia or Russia, or different... Vietnam, we have projects. And so, it says, We need you.

And you can look on there, and if you see a project that strikes your fancy, talk to Jigme. And, you know, you can end up going there, and helping with it. And it's really fun.

We do that... We go all over the world, constantly, and we do cool stuff. Fun stuff.

We have a really big refugee project in Tibet for 20... Sorry, in India for... Tibetan people for 23 years.

And it's just really sexy and really fun. So, if you want to... If you want to try that, you can look on that list, and if you see something that strikes you, you know, you can sign up for that.

This is our schedule for the next year and a half or something. So, if you have friends in... What?

Hong Kong? You can tell them about it. And then there's websites and stuff like that.

Is that all? Yeah. Okay.

[Говорящий 2]
Huh?

[Говорящий 1]
Oh, we're giving talks next week at Princeton University. And there'll be business talks, asana workshop, and... I don't know.

Yoga Sutra. We'll be talking about the Yoga Sutras. So, if you're interested in that, come to that.

Okay. You're good to have your break. If you want to come up and say hi, or, you know, if you have some question that you don't want to ask in front of everybody else, I'll sit here for the break, okay?

Please try to ask your question fast and let somebody else come after you. And if you see me regularly, don't come. This is...

Okay? All right. So, we have to talk a little bit about why I see a pen and why the dog sees something to chew on.

And we've talked about how, just logically, okay? Not... What do you call it?

Scripturally. Logically, it makes sense that it's not coming this way. Right?

It seems to make sense to say that the pen is coming this way somehow. Okay? Like, we don't have to quote scripture, right?

Just logically, it seems like it must be coming this way. And then you... But we have to think about why or how is that.

Okay? Who put a pen thing in my mind? How did I get a penny seed in my mind?

You know? What did that and what put the seed in my mind? Because that's the next step, right?

Because we want to use this same principle for our partner. To find a partner or to upgrade our partner. Right?

We want to use the same principles for... You know, we're having a partner talk. If we were having a yoga talk, it would be yoga.

If we were having a business talk, it would be money. If we were having a save the world talk, it would be save the world. Right?

But we're on partners right now.

[Говорящий 2]
So...

[Говорящий 1]
How did I put a seed in my mind for my mind to see a pen? Okay? And it's so fast.

When I held the thing up, nobody... You didn't feel the thought come out of your head and go, but you know it must be like that. There must be instantaneous something goes out and makes it look like a pen to you.

Somehow it happens like that. So we have to explore how did that happen and how did that start. Because later we want to control the process.

You see? Later we want to make things happen that we want to happen. The implication of the pen, okay, is that you can design your life.

You can make things happen in your life that you want. We are used to pretty much accepting what happens to us. You see?

A lot of Buddhist teachers just get up and talk about how to cope with the stuff that happens to you. You see? You know, use trouble as a path.

You know? Like bad stuff is going to happen. Just get used to it.

Do the best you can do with it. You know? Try to stay calm in a world which is deadly.

You know? And what Lord Buddha really taught, I mean, and Master Patanjali, is that perhaps we could stop problems before they come. And perhaps we could design the things we want in our life.

They call mandala, right? In Buddhism they call mandala. Mandala means a world which is designed and not...

What do you call it? Just random. You see what I mean?

We're used to believing... You believe for the length of your whole life that what's happening to you cannot be controlled. You see?

You have some control, right? Like... I don't know.

You have control over your weight, but you don't have control whether you get cancer or not. I mean, you believe that. You feel that.

You believe that. And... We live in a planet where six billion people have gotten used to the idea that they can't really control what's happening to them.

You can make educated guesses. You can think carefully, take actions. Whether or not they will succeed, you can't be sure.

Even people like Bill Gates. You know what I mean? Nobody's sure.

In this system, in the greased pig system... That has a ring to it. You are...

It's different. You are... You are looking into the question of why do I see a pen?

Because if I could find out why my mind sees a pen, and if I could control that process, then I could see 250 million dollars. Or I could see ballet at 50 something. You see what I mean?

I could change radically my life according to my own wishes. You see? So, that's what I'm...

I'm trying to give you a sense that you don't have to just take random actions and hope everything's gonna work out. Rather, because of this thing, you can plant certain seeds in your mind that will make you see the world in certain ways that are successful, including a very nice partner. You know, the partner that you want.

So, I guess the process for today and tomorrow is gonna be... And we'll just go for another 15 minutes or so. Think of any questions you have, okay?

At the end, I'll see... Last 5-10 minutes, we'll talk about any questions that you have. We want to examine how do you plant a seed in your mind to see the perfect partner.

That's all. How do you plant the seed in your mind to see the partner you really wanted? And in this greased pig system, we're not talking about pretty much the partner you wanted.

Okay? We're not talking 70% of the partner you wanted, 80% of the partner you wanted. If this system works, then you just make a list of what you want and you get it.

You don't have to put up with less. I mean, I always tell people, how many people would go to the store and you say, do you have bread? And they said, yes, we have bread.

Aisle 3, you know? And you go to aisle 3, and there's all these half loaves of bread. Full price, half loaf, in a plastic bag.

You know? And you... You wouldn't...

You wouldn't buy it, right? I mean, you wouldn't go there and take... You wouldn't...

You would ask them, where's the other half of the loaf? You know? I mean, I...

I came to the store for a loaf of bread, not a half a loaf of bread. And anyway, you're charging for a full loaf of bread. You know what I mean?

But you put up with that in your partner.

[Говорящий 2]
You know?

[Говорящий 1]
There's a half a loaf of bread. You know? Not like they're cute, but they're dumb, or they're dumb, but they're smart, but they're...

You know. You don't have to do that. In this greased pig system, you decide what you want, and then you just plant the seeds for it in your mind, and then they change, or they become what you want.

It's very interesting. And to a person who's good at this system, you guys look crazy. You know?

You look like people who go to the store and buy half a gallon of ice cream, and the other half is eaten by somebody. You know? And...

You know? I mean, to a person who's good at this approach, because they get 100% what they want. You see?

And it's certain. There's no uncertainty about it. You plant a seed and you get it, and that's all.

You relax. You know? So...

How do you plant a seed for a partner? How do you plant a seed for a pen? Okay?

It's very dumb, all right? If you want a pen, you have to put a seed in your mind for a pen. How do you put a seed in your mind for a pen?

Can I demonstrate with you? So just stay there. But you got to reach your hand out.

So he needs a pen, okay? He's an important lawyer. He's about to sign a contract.

He forgot his pen. All right? And I know his situation.

He's got to sign it in the next five minutes or something. And I really like this pen because I get them from Tokyo. The pen.

Tokyo. And... And so...

Knowing that he needs a pen, even though I love the pen, or shall we say because I love the pen. Is that a better way to say it? Okay?

Because I love the pen. Because I like pens. I...

With knowledge, Prajnaparamita, with the perfection of wisdom, with knowledge, I give him the pen. When I let go, when I take my hand off the pen, a seed is planted in my mind, okay, for a pen. And it's...

It's hard for me to express greased pig to people who haven't been around them. Okay? It's very hard for me to express.

But get this. If you give him a pen with proper technique, which we'll teach tomorrow. If with proper intelligent technique you give him a pen, you cannot avoid getting a pen back in the future.

In fact, many pens. Many, many will come to you. You cannot avoid it.

If you give it properly, you couldn't avoid it if you wanted to. I was in a yoga class at Dharamitra in New York. And I always tell this story because it's fun.

So some guy comes up to me after the class. He says, Oh, Geshe Michael, let me shake your hand, you know. I say, yeah, hello.

And he says, I'm really happy that you are bringing Hindu people together with Buddhist people because it's a nice marriage, you know. Like people are, the Buddhist people are learning about Krishna and all those guys. And, you know, the Hindu people are learning about emptiness.

And it's a sweet thing that you are doing. And I appreciate it. You know, he said that.

Then I went home. Then I got this email from him like two days later. He said, Why didn't you thank me?

And I'm like, I sent an email back. I said, thank you for what? You know.

And then he wrote me back. He said, He said, you didn't find it? And then I wrote him back.

I said, find what? And then he wrote me back. He said, look in your backpack.

Because I carry this backpack. My office is in there. All my work is in there.

All my scriptures, they're all on my computer. There's 10,000 scriptures in there. And I use them all day, you know.

And I carry the office. I go to my other office, which is Starbucks. And they've, I've designed a company to put me in office in every city of the world.

But it took me so long to get the free internet straight. But we got it. Now we got it.

So I dug around in this backpack and I found an envelope. Inside the envelope there's a $100,000 check, you know. If you give money with technique, with proper technique, present paramita, with the perfection of wisdom, you cannot avoid money coming to you, even if you want to.

In a yoga class, in New York, a perfect stranger will put $100,000 in your backpack. Okay? It'll just be like that.

You can't avoid it. If you, it is, it is, it is inescapable that if you give him a pen with technique, meaning there's a lot of tricks, okay? There's intention tricks, there's other tricks.

If you give it with knowledge, you cannot avoid pens coming to you. You won't be able to avoid it. That plants a seed in your mind to see pens in your life.

Okay, that's all. One more thing and then I'll take some questions, okay? So, this being a talk about partners, how would you plant the seed for a partner?

You see? So, people are always, this is a joke, like people come to me and they say, Oh, Geshe-la, do more, you know? Should I go to a yoga class to find my next partner or should I go online, you know?

And I look at them, you know, I say, you want a nice boy, yeah? They say, yeah. I said, go to a nursing home.

You know? And then they always look at me like that. You know, they're trying to be respectful.

And, and then respectfully, some of them respectfully say, you know, Geshe-la, I was kind of thinking of somebody younger. You know? And, and then I look at them, I say, no, no, you don't understand.

You have to plant the seed. You know? Why do you want a partner?

What's the main reason to have a partner? I mean, most people, there's different reasons, right? But I think one of the top reasons is companionship.

You know, you want someone, you don't want to be lonely. Like, it's a drag to go home. Making dinner for yourself is a drag.

I mean, you go home, you know, you open the fridge, you're tired, and you're like, how much effort are you going to put out to have five minutes of eating? You know, like, are you going to do ten minutes? Are you going to do an hour for yourself?

It's not worth it, right? There's no fun. You're not going to like sit there and make a big, what do you call it?

I have a Julia Child cookbook. I make beef bourguignon.

[Говорящий 2]
You know?

[Говорящий 1]
You're not going to go like three hour cooking just to feed yourself for ten minutes? You know? And then wash the dishes?

[Говорящий 2]
You know?

[Говорящий 1]
So, normally, when you're alone, you go home, you get a can of beans or whatever, a can of something, right? Whatever you like. And you open it.

You can't even finish the whole can, which is very depressing. You know? Like, no, you're like, I wish I had somebody who would eat the other half of the can.

You know? And, so really, what most people want, or one of the main things we want, and there are other things you want, and that's fine. Other things are good too.

By the way, somebody asked me, are you also talking about gay relationships? And I am. No problem.

It's beautiful. The prana there is very interesting. And very powerful.

So, yeah. Same thing. The main thing you want is some companionship.

So, if you want a pen, if you want pens in your future, with knowledge, with technique, which we'll discuss tomorrow. There are, there's technique questions here, to make it faster, to make it more powerful. But basically, you have to give somebody a pen.

Whatever you want, you have to give something similar. If you want companionship of somebody else, you must provide companionship to others. That's all.

That's all. So, your job then becomes, don't worry about lipstick, don't worry about internet, don't worry about clubs, don't worry about yoga class. Worry about, where can I find the loneliest person possible?

Because that's bigger points. You see? Bigger karmic points.

Where can I find the loneliest people possible? Mainly elderly. Okay?

It could also be the person at your office who nobody likes. A lot of times it's children. Okay?

Whose parents are off working. Right? But, if your, if your goal is to find companionship of a partner, then, to plant the seed in your mind to see them.

Right? Right? This is partner.

Right? Okay? To see them, you have to plant a seed in your mind by providing companionship to someone who is desperately in need of it.

Okay? Like, don't be lazy. Alright?

If you want money, find people who are desperately poor, who are hungry. You know? If you want health, find people who are hopelessly sick and poor and help them.

I was in Detroit. We gave this talk in Detroit. They asked us to go there and speak to auto workers who are really having a rough time.

50% of the people in the inner city of Detroit are unemployed. Half the houses are empty. You can walk into a house and sleep there for a couple of months.

Nobody cares. Really. They're just open.

You know? Nobody wants them. Half of Detroit is empty.

They lost a million and a half residents in the last few years. It went from 3 million to 1.5 million. So we were giving talks to the auto workers.

And we had this beautiful... We gave this talk for like three days. We did a retreat with unemployed auto workers and other people.

And then something magical happened. They all got it. They were all like, I get it.

And then this guy came the last day. He said, Geshe-la, Geshe-la. I said, yeah, I what?

He said, I found the person. I said, for what? He said, they are old.

They are broke. And they are sick.

[Говорящий 2]
You know? You know?

[Говорящий 1]
I got one person. I thought, he's really smart. So, then do you still have to go to Sephora?

No. The question comes, if you do health seed by helping sick, do you still have to do your yoga? And you have to distinguish between the cause and the instrument.

Okay? The cause of health is serving the sick. The cause of health is planting a seed in your mind by serving the sick.

But the instrument by which the health comes to you will be a yoga class or something like that. Okay? It doesn't mean you can eat donuts your whole life if you help sick people.

Got it? The... If you help the elderly, then you will go to Sephora and they'll have a sale of the perfect lipstick that works for you.

And it's not an accident. Okay? It's because you were helping a lonely person.

But you still have to go to Sephora. Got it? That's the instrument of the seed.

We say then that our object is charged with moral power. It's very interesting. Then that lipstick is charged with moral power.

You have charged it with your kindness, with your goodness towards someone else. Then that lipstick has power inside of it. You put it on, the guy will show up.

Okay? It's very cool. Because sometimes it does work, right?

And sometimes it doesn't work. If you have not helped the lonely and you use the same lipstick, nothing will happen. Because the power is not in the lipstick.

The power is granted to the lipstick by the kindness. Got it? It's very beautiful.

It's a very beautiful idea. Kindness gives everything the power to do what it does. Even the building, the steel that holds up the building, its tensile strength is imbued in it by kindness.

It's a very beautiful idea. It's very powerful. Okay?

Then tomorrow we'll talk about details. You know, like, what's the best way to help a lonely person? Okay?

Like that. Because you want to make it faster, right? And more powerful.

Anybody have a question? If you don't have a question, you can go home. Okay.

[Говорящий 2]
I have a question about a person, let's say, for the sake of helping. Instead of, in the back of my mind, kind of helping, how can you tell us then to put it down? It sounds like very, kind of, like a business school.

Yeah. And I'm wondering if it's not Yeah. Yeah.

[Говорящий 1]
This is a really, really beautiful question. And it's an important question. Sometimes it comes from the Bhagavad Gita, which we're teaching in New York right now.

Like next week, every night, we're teaching Gita for three hours. And Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, He says, don't be attached to the fruits of your actions. You see?

There are many different answers to give to that question. I think one of the best ones is, if I give... How many pens are in my pocket?

I mean, there's one pen in my pocket, okay? Now, between him and me, in this moment, how many pens? In this closed system, called us, how many pens?

It's one, okay? If I give him the pen, is he happy? Assuming he likes pens, okay?

No, he's happy. It gives him pleasure. I serve him.

What will happen to me, in theory, by giving? I'll get ten. I'll get ten pens.

I mean, that's how I made a $250 million company, okay? In my spare time. It increases.

It always comes back more. How many pens in the system now? Eleven.

Okay? Because there's the original one that I gave. Due to the seed pilot in my mind, I will get ten pens.

Now, eleven pens in the system. What will I do to sustain my pens? I will give them.

I'll give more. You see? I'll give him more.

What will happen to the pen economy of the system? The total amount of pens in the system will continue to rise indefinitely. You see?

Probably we'll have to have shovels to get them out. Imagine the implications of that on a global level. If everyone caught the grease pig system, we're gonna have to name it something else in China because they'll eat it or something.

But if... if everyone started to do it, what would happen? And if it's true, if the system is true, what would happen?

Well, how would people behave? No, I mean, people would be interested in being generous. They would take more interest.

Probably the large auto companies would be competing to give away more cars to the poor or something. You see? It would become a strategic method.

And everyone in the world would be more generous and more kind to each other. Would it help him? Yeah.

Would it help me? I think what happens is... I think that the basis of the question is you don't get the sense of what would happen if it kept going.

You see what I mean? Yeah, it would be selfish if I gave him one to get ten and it stopped there. It would be...

I think you could say it was selfish. But if I give him one and I get ten and then I have to give away the rest or else my pens run out. You see?

If it becomes a way of life. And in the end, I'll tell you something cool. In the end, the answer to your question is something cool.

Do I need him to get pens? Does a pen have to pass into his hand for a pen to pass into my hand? Yes or no?

Absolutely. I cannot get a pen unless I... A pen cannot come into Michael's hand.

What's your name? Sean. Unless a pen goes into Sean's hand.

It's not possible. So how does his hand differ from my hand? Now, in this system.

A pen must pass into his fingers for a pen to pass into my fingers. Whose fingers are his fingers now?

[Говорящий 2]
They're mine.

[Говорящий 1]
They're mine. You proved that he is me. We just proved that he is me.

I'm not giving to Sean. I'm giving to Sean and Mike. Sean, Sean, Mike, Sean, Mike, Sean.

No. It's my middle name, Michael.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah, yeah, okay. It's a very...

[Говорящий 1]
In the end, a very beautiful thing will happen. If you understand... If you catch the grease pig firmly, the perception that I am different from him will start to dissolve.

Because I need him, and he needs me. And then, the idea of selfishness is that I get and he doesn't get, right? Or that I'm getting at his expense.

Or I'm only giving to him so I can get something. You see? In the end, in this system, he becomes me, and I become him.

And in the end, you won't distinguish anymore. I believe the words we use will change. It'll be a very interesting world.

There will be... I predict that the words for you and me will be dropped from the languages. They no longer have a function.

If we don't both get, neither one of us gets. So, what's the difference? You see?

But that's like a huge jump in the thinking of the whole world. It will... There are words that have disappeared from our language, okay?

Do you know what a halberd is? I don't know. It's some kind of thing you used to hold to do certain things that we don't do anymore because we have machines to do that.

And so that word has dropped out of the language. I believe, I predict, give it time, the very words in the languages of the world for you and me will be dropped because they no longer have a function. You see?

I must care for him to care for myself and when I care for myself I'm caring for him. It's very beautiful. That's a long answer, right?

In the end it's not selfish, but it's a good question. It's the most important question. If I'm giving to get something, it makes it dirty.

It makes it a truly dirty act and we have to think our way through that. We have to... That's a grease pig thing in itself, yes.

Uh, yeah.

[Говорящий 2]
So then, I think I'm sure I haven't been in the class very generally, do you realize that I'm a theologian? Yeah. Does it count?

Yeah, good.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's what I call technique. In the scriptures it's called prajnaparamita.

Do you give with knowledge? Do you give with wisdom? Is there a difference?

If I give him a pen without understanding the process, is the result as big as it is if I give it to him with knowledge? You see? If you give with knowledge of how the process works, that's the best way to speed it up and make it bigger.

Okay? So it's a good question. But her question was different.

is it like all the things you did before? Is all the nice things you did before for people when you weren't really totally conscious of the process, did they still count? You know?

Do I get any points for that? And the Buddha was asked that question. And he said, yeah, in the Madhyamaka Avatara the question comes up in the opening pages, you know?

Is charity done by an ignorant person still a good karma? And will they get results? And Lord Buddha said yes.

Is charity done by a selfish person? The question comes. Do they still get a result?

Lord Buddha said yes they do, but not much.

[Говорящий 2]
You know?

[Говорящий 1]
Not as much. Yeah, big difference. The more knowledge you have, the faster it works.

And the bigger the result. Why do you want to... I mean, once you get money, for example, human nature is to want to share it.

Human nature... In the bottom human nature... You know, everybody says people are bad.

It's not true. In the bottom of your heart, everybody wants to save the world. Come on.

How many Iron Man movies are there? What did I say? I saw Prince of Persia on the airplane.

I spent half my life on airplanes. Right? And finally they talked me into watching a movie.

You know? And they said, Geshe-la, you got to take a break. You know, like, translating.

Just watch a movie with us. So we all had the earphones on. Of course the guy and the girl save the world.

Right? The guy gets the girl and they save the world. It's always that way.

Okay? And deep down you want to save the world. If you use this method, you won't stop at just getting a Mercedes or something.

You see? You won't want to. You will want to change the world.

And you will. It's very beautiful.

[Говорящий 2]
You know?

[Говорящий 1]
We go all over the world. We're in China. This year we're in China, Mexico, Vienna, you know, Hamburg, Paris, Amsterdam, Dubai.

You know, I don't know. You can change the world. You will want to after you get your Mercedes.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay.

[Говорящий 1]
There was one more. One more quick question, okay? We'll talk about it tomorrow.

He said, if you're generous anonymously or to people that you have never met or to people's names you don't even know, how does that affect the power of the giving, power of the seed? We'll talk about it tomorrow, okay? But tomorrow we have to talk about how do you speed this process up.

You know, I was talking to this monk, you know, I said, I said, so what you're saying is that if I give a lot of money, then I'll get money. He said, yes, yes, that's true. You know, and I said, well, you know, win.

And he said, next life, next life. You know? And I'm like, Rinpoche, you know, I'm American.

There's a rule. We invented McDonald's. And there's a rule at McDonald's.

If you work at McDonald's, you know the rule. You have to get the French fries out in less than four minutes. From the order to the French, first hot French fry in the mouth, you cannot take more than four minutes.

I'm telling Rinpoche this, you know. I'm from the country where you get fired from McDonald's if the customer doesn't get that hot French fry in his mouth in four minutes, you know. And you want me to wait till my next life.

You know? I said, tell me how to make it faster. So that's what we'll do tomorrow.

Because I would say another thing. If you can't make it fast, then you can't confirm it. You see?

If I say, give some money to some poor person and you'll make money, and it comes to you 16 years later, are you going to believe that it came from what you did 16 years before? It has to be fast enough to confirm it and then you'll follow it. If it were already fast enough, everybody would be doing it already.

You know, if when you... People said to me, can I cheat on my taxes? I said, if the day that you turned in on April 15th, you turn in a false assessment of your tax, right?

If on the day that you mailed it, you lick the stamp, you mail the form to the IRS, you put it in the mailbox, you come home, and there's a notice in the mail that says, your bank account has dropped $3,000. Would you get it? If it kept happening, over and over.

You see? People say, can I kill roaches in my apartment? I'm attached, okay?

And I say, would you ask me the question if when you stepped on them, your rib broke? If your rib just broke and stuck out of your body every time you stepped on them, would you ask me the question? They said, no.

You see, that's the problem. The time gap is so long that we can't confirm it. So, I have to tomorrow teach you how to speed it up or else I can't expect you to follow it because you can't confirm it, right?

So, we'll do that tomorrow, okay? Thank you for coming. We'll see you tomorrow.