Больше сил помогать другим: сходство христианства и буддизма (2011, Рочестер), занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
Thank you for the greeting and the introduction. And I'd like to especially thank Reverend Wheeler for having us. He's been very kind since we first met a year ago, and a really exemplary person to have as the head of your church here.

You're lucky to have somebody like that. So, I thought tonight to talk about angels. It's sort of a shared thing between Buddhism and Christianity.

And I thought to talk about that. And I guess I would start by saying what an angel is in the Buddhist tradition. And maybe it's similar, I think, in the Christian tradition.

So, in Buddhism, an angel is somebody... First of all, they split their bodies. They have the ability to split their bodies.

So, you know, an angel is able... We used to have a joke in Tibet that an angel is able to be on every bus in the world at the same time, sitting next to somebody who needs something. So, if someone is lonely on a bus, or someone's having a hard day, or someone's not having a hard enough day, then they would appear.

They would have the ability to appear on all the buses at once. And then, we say more than one world. So, like an angel would have the ability to be on all the buses in one world, but at the same time be on all the buses in many worlds, on many planets.

Buddhism believes that there are many different planets. Buddhism has books about astronomy that were written many thousand years ago. In meditation, people were able to see other planets that are inhabited, and then angels sort of hang out.

A single angel can hang out on many planets at the same time and take care of other people. And then, normally they are disguised. We don't have the capacity, normally, to meet an angel or to see them directly.

We say that angels may be sitting among us. There may be three with us tonight. There may be thirty.

Maybe everybody in the room is an angel, except me. It's all possible. At any given time, you don't know how many there are around you, but it would be nice to be able to be one.

I think all of us have some kind of deep... I don't know how conscious it is, but we all have this deep desire to be an angel. Like, I don't know about you, but ever since I saw pictures of angels and statues of angels, the wings attracted me a lot.

You know, just to have wings like that would be nice. And they are the same in Buddhism. They are much the same appearance.

So, I think most of us would like to be like that. You would like to have... what do you call it?

The normal things of life. I guess they boil down to three things. We would all like to be successful financially.

I don't think anybody here wants to be a big railroad tycoon or something like that, but it would be nice to be able to pay your credit cards and not to owe people money and to... you know, to have enough money to... not to think about money, right?

The amount of money that you could have not to think about money would be nice to have, right? And then I think secondly, we would all like to be healthy and have energy. I think it would be nice never to get sick.

It would be nice not to get older. That would be nice. And then I think everybody would like to have a nice relationship, okay?

A partner, nice partner and a nice family. And these are the common goals of all people in all countries. But I think beyond that, there's a deeper desire to help other people, to be in a position where you could be of great service to other people.

And I think we would all like to have... Deep down, everyone would like to have the capacity to help other people in an extraordinary way. We have two arms.

We have two legs. We have a limited capacity to help other people, but it's not... Most of us would like to have the capacity to help many people.

And I think we all sense that we could have a higher capacity. We feel like we could have. We're not exactly sure how it's going to happen like that.

So I thought it would be nice to... If I could bring you... There's a little instruction book in Tibet about how to be an angel, how to get to be an angel, how to catch angels off guard, and figure out who they are in the audience and things like that.

So I thought you'd like to read that. It's like only eight. It's a poem.

It has eight verses. In Tibetan, it's called Lojong Tsegyema. It's actually the first thing they teach you in the monastery.

Most Tibetans come to the monastery when they are seven or eight years old. The parents put them in the monastery. Usually it's the fourth boy because the parents don't have the money to feed that one.

And they kind of dump them on the monastery. And then when they get to be twenty-one, they have a... They are encouraged to make a choice whether they want to stay or not.

So actually they are not allowed to become a full monk until they are twenty-one. But they are allowed to stay at the monastery, and they dress up in, like, what do you call them, trainer robes? You know, they get to dress up in trainer robes for like...

till they hit twenty-one. But when you get to the monastery, however old you are, the first thing they teach you is the paper that you have, okay? Lojonsikhyamma, the eight verses.

And it was written by a very beautiful Buddhist master. You know the stories of the early Christians in Rome, you know, who hung out in the catacombs and... you know, they were sort of trying to figure out what Jesus had said over in Israel, right?

And they were trying to pass it on and keep it alive. They had no idea that they would become the church of the world. They were being, what do you call it?

Harassed. What's more worse than harassed? They are being persecuted, yeah.

And then their symbol came to be a cross, which if you think about it is pretty strange. This is the instrument of the murder of their leader, you know? The cross is the way that Jesus was killed.

So, they had a difficult time. They were starting off... I mean the disciples, the original disciples are...

The first meeting of the disciples was held in secret in Jerusalem, and they didn't know if they weren't going to be killed the next day, you know? And so, the very first Christians, the early Christians, are very similar to what we call Kadampa. Kadampa means the very first Buddhist that appeared in Tibet, okay?

So, Buddhism started in India 500 years before Christ. And then it got big in India, and then later it came to Tibet. There were no airplanes.

There were no highways or trains. You had to climb down past Mount Everest, and then down into India. And it was a very dangerous journey, and a lot of people died on the way.

And then Tibetans have... Their lung capacity is larger, much larger than lower altitudes. And then many of them caught tuberculosis.

Many of my teachers had tuberculosis when they got down to India. So, the first people to come back to Tibet with Buddhist ideas were called Kadampas. And the word Geshe means sort of like a Buddhist master.

And one of the first Geshes, a thousand years ago, was named Dorje Senge. Dorje Senge means Diamond Lion, okay? And I'm not going to go into it much tonight, but there are historical links between this text and the New Testament, okay?

There are historical links between Judaism and Christianity and Buddhism that I think most people aren't aware of. Alexander the Great came to India. He reached India in his conquest of the known world at the time, a couple of hundred years before Christ.

And he brought to India ideas that became part of Buddhism. We have—I don't know if you've ever seen, but we have a custom of debating in the monastery. It's a Socratic dialogue.

And it's believed that this came into Buddhism from Alexander. Then Alexander conquered much of India, and his generals became the governors of India, and they stayed for 500 years, until the time of Christ. And then the disciple Thomas was sent by Christ to India.

He built a palace in a town called Taxila, which is where one of the greatest Buddhist universities was there. Thomas came to Taxila. He built a palace for a king named Gondofores.

The Greeks call him Gondofores. The Romans called him Gaspar. But he was one of the three wise men who came to Bethlehem.

And he lived in India, and he had a palace built for him by Thomas after Christ died. And then Thomas preached in India for many years. He never went back home.

He learned to speak the Indian languages, and he stayed and he taught. He died near Madras, Chennai. He was martyred there.

But much of Christ's teachings survived in India in a different form. And Jewish teachings had come much earlier, to the southwest coast of India. And we still have parts of the Torah on copper plates in southwest India, and things like that.

So, the ideas of... Moses' ideas of morality, and the Christian teachings on compassion, they reached Tibet, and they affected Buddhism greatly. The change that happened in those days in Buddhism is called Mahayana.

Mahayana means there was a historical event 200 years after Christ, after Thomas had preached in India, where Buddhism changed. And it became... They say it went to a higher level.

And teachings of compassion, and special teachings on love were introduced into Buddhism. So Dorje Senge, this diamond lion, this Geshe from a thousand years ago, he was teaching those ideas. He was influenced by those ideas, and he was a master of those ideas.

So, he wrote these eight verses, mainly about compassion. It's called Lojong. Lojong means how to develop a good heart, or how to develop a compassionate heart.

So, this one page, these eight verses, they are very, very famous in Tibet. And I thought we would read them, talk about them. In the middle I'll stick in a meditation that was made popular in those days by this Geshe and other Geshes.

It's called Tonglen. It's a very good meditation for people who would like to become angels. And then, so, Dan and Aaron will be leading us in that meditation.

And it's a very beautiful meditation that was influenced by Christ's teachings. So, you can imagine an entirely different branch of Christianity that went east with Thomas, and developed on its own for two thousand years. And so, tonight you will get sort of an insight into a branch of the Christian family that most people have never heard of.

And what you're going to learn tonight is a different look at what Jesus taught. It came to India. It was preserved in Tibet.

And so, you're kind of getting, how do you say, a rerun from two thousand years ago. Which I think will sweeten your Christian practice. It will deepen your Christian practice.

And I grew up in a church. I was in college. I lived at the church.

And then I was supposed to go to seminary, and I got hijacked to India. But for me, after I learned these ideas that you're going to learn tonight, it deepened my Christian practice. It made me understand Jesus much more.

Okay? So, I think you'll find it sort of a dessert to your current Christian practice. Okay?

So, the first verse— they make you memorize it when you're a kid in the monastery. DAG NI SEMS CAN THAMS CAD LA YI SHING NOBOD LE LHAG PA'I DUN CHEN DRUB PA'I SANG PA'I YI THAG TU CHOS PA DZIN PA ZHONG They do it fast, so you don't have to think about it. It's...

DAG NI SEMS CAN THAMS CAD LA means, may I see every living being as more precious than a wish-giving gem. Okay? May I see every living creature as more precious than a wish-giving gem.

To understand this, you need to understand aspirin. Who's got the bottle of aspirin? You had...

Who had that? It's in the backpack. I don't know.

Anybody... Yeah, here, just... That'll do.

Yeah, good. Pain relief. Alright, so...

Sorry. We'll start from aspirin, okay? So, I don't know about you, I get a headache sometimes.

Like, I don't know why, I tend to get them on a plane if I'm going to Chicago. I don't know why. I don't know why.

Like, I can take a plane to India or China or Russia and I don't get a headache. But going into Chicago, I get a headache. I don't know why it is.

I seriously don't know why it is. But... So, I mean, when I came here last week, I got a really bad headache in the plane.

And then you... You take an aspirin, right? I mean, you carry...

I carry some with me. I have all kinds in my bag because then my friends get headaches and I'm like a dispensary. You know, I say, you want Excedrin or you want aspirin or you want NyQuil.

I also have NyQuil or... Like that. I keep a little...

I keep a little bottles in my backpack and I hand them out. Uh... Then I always imagine people from another planet, you know?

I always... I saw Independence Day last night, okay? I have a blackout period from...

from 1975 to 1995. When I was in the monastery, you're not allowed to watch movies or listen to rock and roll and... I have this blackout period, so I have all those movies to catch up on.

And... So, Rory had Independence Day and I'm like, okay, I haven't seen that, you know? And...

So, I was... I was playing it last night, right? And...

It's like, when you have a headache... How do we say? Well, that movie was about aliens, okay?

So, I was thinking of being an alien. I was like... I was wondering how we look to them, right?

Like, they were scary looking, right? They had these big heads and they're all slimy. And...

Then I was wondering, you know, if they had some instrument that they could see us, right? That the aliens could see us. And I'm imagining that those aliens could see through the roof, you know?

That's why I washed all my underwear and stuff. So... I was thinking they could look down through the roof and they could observe us and they would...

You know, they'd be curious about... If you're going to attack somebody, it's useful to know, you know, stuff about them. So...

Then I... I had this vision of aliens looking down through the... through the roof of a normal American home and then the mother is there and she's cooking dinner and all the kids are screaming and running around, you know, and she's like yelling at them and it's hot and it's humid and she's working over the stove and it's unpleasant and then the kids are being really bad that night and they're like always yelling at each other and fighting with each other.

I had three... There were four brothers in my family, no girls. We had tremendous fights, you know?

And... I can imagine like mother... Finally she gets a headache, you know?

And then... I think to an alien it looks like a coyote with all the coyote pups. And...

Then the pups start going... howling, you know? And then they're like, what will the mother coyote do?

And then the mother goes like this. They see the mother rubbing their head and then she goes into the bathroom, right? I used to be a babysitter and then in college I was a nanny.

That's how I paid for my room, right? And... I got a free room to be a nanny twice a week.

But I know where's the place of refuge in a house when there's kids and it's the bathroom, you know? Like... You go in the bathroom and you lock the door.

You have to lock the door. And then they bang on it and they scream and the coyotes howl and... And...

You just... you're allowed to ignore them. You don't feel bad because, you know, you have to go sometimes.

And... So, I imagine mom goes in the bathroom and she locks the door and then she goes to the... This...

I'm an alien, right? I'm watching this mother coyote. And she goes in.

She opens the cabinet. She takes out one of these bottles, right? And then she's like struggling to get the top off.

We don't understand why you don't make the tops easier to get off. And then she's like, ooh, these are green. Then she's like taking one out.

Her hands are shaking. She takes one of these things out. She gets some water in a glass.

She throws it in her mouth. The coyotes are really yelping now outside. And then she drinks water.

And then she sits on the toilet but she doesn't open it. She sits down on the top of the toilet, you know? Like we don't know what she's doing exactly.

And then she's like this, you know? And we theorize that she's waiting for something. We're not quite sure what.

You see? But then sometimes she stops rubbing her head and she gets this slight smile on her face. And then she straightens up.

She looks in the mirror. She combs her hair. And then she goes out and she can control the coyote pups very gracefully and peacefully and with a smile, right?

And then sometimes she sits on the toilet and she waits and then she still is rubbing her head, you know? And then she gets up and she goes to the cabinet again and she opens it up and she she pours out more of those tablets and she takes more and she drinks more water. Then she sits down on the toilet seat again, you know?

And then sometimes she does that two or three times and then finally she just gets up and she has a scowl on her face and she goes out and and then she howls with the coyote pups. And so we're not quite sure. Our planet is not sure what your planet...

We just wanted to ask about what was going on. So, what is... Okay, I'm from the other planet.

You're from Earth, okay? What is this stuff? Don't...

I'm not tricking you, okay? Just be comfortable. It's aspirin, right?

What's it used for? Normally. Yeah, pain relief.

It says here pain relief. Headaches. Many people use it for headaches, right?

Is it a medicine? Are you saying then that it's a medicine? Yeah, it's a medicine.

What makes it a medicine? The fact that it takes away some physical ailment, right? It takes away pain or it takes away some physical ailment.

If a substance takes away a physical disease or problem, then we can call it a medicine, right? Like little bottles, jars of rocks are not medicine. They don't take away a headache, right?

Am I right? Okay, so... Because this takes away a headache, right?

It's a... It's a medicine. Aspirin is a medicine.

I'm right, right? So, why does she take it twice? It's a really bad headache.

But sometimes she goes out and howls with the coyote pups afterwards. So, that means it doesn't appear to have worked. Am I right?

So, I'm just trying to understand. I'm not criticizing. Your planet's okay.

So, you take a... You take a tablet, which is medicine, to remove the headache of the coyote mother, the she-coyote. She takes the pill to remove a headache.

But am I right to say that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work? Yeah. Is it the whole pill that works, or is there something in the pill which takes away the headache?

Is it the whole pill that takes away the headache, or is there some substance inside the pill that takes away the headache? It's something inside, right? I mean, I'll show you.

It says active ingredient here, okay? It says active ingredient, and then there's filler, right? To make it a big enough pill.

Right? I mean, you gotta... I think the active ingredient is very little.

The actual stuff that takes away your headache is very little. And then they put in other stuff to fill it up, right? I mean, just so you have something to hold, there's filler, you know?

There's a base of stuff, right? What does active ingredient mean? We're getting to angels, okay?

But you gotta answer these questions for me. Okay? What does active mean?

Yeah, it's the one that works. Somebody said works. Works is the best word, okay?

Works is the important word, okay? If you took a bucket full of the filler and ate that, nothing would happen, right? It's the active ingredient that takes away the headache, right?

And then... So that's aspirin. And then there's other stuff in here, you know?

In India, they use rat poison. I don't know what they use in America, okay? Now I have an important question.

Answer freely and answer happily and answer openly. I'm not trying to trick you. I'm trying to make your aspirin work for you, okay?

Which is very important, okay? It's important for everybody here. You know, I had a headache for two and a half days.

It's not fun, you know? It really hurts. And this is important for us.

We need to try to understand how an aspirin works, okay? So, can I say that you take an aspirin... When you take an aspirin and your headache goes away, what made the headache go away?

What's in the aspirin that made the headache go away? It's the active ingredient, right? That's why they call it active.

Duh! Okay, alright. Now I have a really important question for you.

Does every tablet contain active ingredient? I mean in theory. If the FDA has done its job.

Yeah, it's supposed to be that every tablet has an equal amount, roughly, of the active ingredient, okay? So, now I have a difficult question for you. Why sometimes does the coyote mother take the pill and sit down on the toilet and wait and nothing happens?

The headache doesn't... This is a big question for you. Our alien anthropologists are stumped.

That's why I came actually to ask. You know, why doesn't the active ingredient work sometimes? Then we have another question for you.

Okay, this is more important. If it... How many pills work in a normal bottle aspirin?

Roughly, roughly. I'd say half. I mean in my life it's about half.

Otherwise I would have had an hour headache and not a two and a half day headache, right? I mean... I took a reasonable number.

You're not supposed to take more than that or all your headaches go away forever. So, I took a reasonable amount of aspirins and then it just didn't work, okay? Now, our anthropologists appointed me to ask, how come you don't go back to Walgreens, which doesn't have any green walls?

We're stumped by that, but I'm not asking. I'm not asking that. How come you don't take the aspirin bottle back and ask for half your money back?

Because we've observed that if you buy an automobile and it doesn't work half the time, you take it back. And there's some kind of guarantee process and then they give you one that works all the time, right? So, we're just curious why you don't take the bottle back.

Because you know ahead of time that it may work or it may not work. So, you know ahead of time that the active ingredient may or may not be active. So, actually you're paying double, right?

For the active ones that are active. And then the active ones that are inactive, you don't, right? It's like that, okay?

And you don't question it, why? You got used to it, alright? We all got used to it.

If there was an aspirin that worked every time, everybody would buy it. And there wouldn't be advertisements on the television that said, this new kind really works, okay? No, there would be one kind that was discovered like a hundred years ago and everybody would just use that, right?

The fact that they come out with new ones every few years and the fact that they have to get on the television and say, this one really works, the really means... In Tibet, they call it maingak, really means the others don't always work, right? So then, as a scientist, right?

As a person who believes that all things have their causes, we're curious whether you think there's a reason why it works sometimes. Yeah, maybe not all the pills have the same amount of active ingredient, but I think they... I think they're pretty strict on it.

I think all the pills... I think all the pills have, you know, average, on average, they have pretty much the same amount of active ingredient, you know? Oh, yeah.

She said it takes an hour for the active ingredient to work. So, can we say that after an hour, every aspen works? No, you see, you got used to it and you don't question it anymore, okay?

But it's an important question to ask. You have to ask the question, okay? It has to do with angels, all right?

It has to do with becoming an angel. I'll tell you what... I'll tell you what Tibetans say, okay?

I'll tell you what they say. This is interesting, okay? They say, six weeks before you took the aspen, somebody in your office had a headache.

Okay? Before the time that you got your headache, maybe a couple weeks before, six weeks before, somebody in your office got a headache, okay? And then you made some attempt to help them, okay?

You said, don't worry, that's why I carry in my backpack all the extra kinds of headache, because some people like Tylenol, some people want Excedrin, I have to carry like five bottles with me, okay? And then they say, I have a headache, do you have any Tylenol, Mike? Do you have any Tylenol?

And I say, yeah, I'm ready for you. And I have Tylenol in my bag and I give them the Tylenol, right? Then, this is a big deal in Tibet.

They reach out their hand to take the Tylenol from me, right? And my eye is watching their hand, right? I see their hand, otherwise I would drop the bottle on the floor, right?

I have to aim the bottle towards their hand. So, I'm watching their hand, okay? And we say that your brain is like a video recorder, okay?

We say your mind is like a video recorder. And it's hooked up, the lens is your eyes, right? They are like the lens of the camera.

Your eyes are watching their hand. Your hand reaches out with the bottle of Tylenol with kindly intent, right? To help them.

Your hand places the Tylenol in their hand, right? Your mind is recording everything, right? Then your hand releases the bottle.

You see your hand release the bottle. And in your heart, in your mind you hear the thought, I gave them some aspirin. I hope it helps their headache, right?

You hear the thought, I hope it helps them. When you hear the thought in your own mind, I hope it helps them, that thought is recorded, okay? That thought is recorded.

That intention is recorded. And it plants a seed in your subconscious, okay? It's like digging into the ground and dropping a watermelon seed, and then covering it up, okay?

So, when you let go of the aspirin bottle, and you think, I hope it helps you. You hear yourself think that. That hearing yourself think that and watching yourself give it, plants a seed in your mind, alright?

Subconscious seed in your mind. Fast forward to six weeks later. You're on an airplane with Ningbo and Mercedes, right?

And then you say, God, I'm starting to get a headache, you know? And they say, Don't worry man, I got some... whatever.

I got Walgreens pain relief. And then they pop open the bottle and your hand is like usually shaking, right? I mean, the moment that you have a headache is one of the worst moments in life, right?

And you're like, Give it to me man, give it to me, you know? And then they put the aspirin in your hand, right? And you take it, alright?

We say, in Tibet, we say, this is what we think is happening. You take the aspirin. During the hour that it takes for the active ingredient to work, the old seed in your subconscious is opening, okay?

The seed from having given someone else an aspirin is opening during that hour. The seed in the subconscious is opening. And when that seed opens, it makes the aspirin work, okay?

It empowers the active ingredient, okay? It triggers the power of the active ingredient. It's why the active ingredient works, alright?

There has to be an active ingredient under the active ingredient, okay? You have to help someone else with a headache. And that seed has to be in your mind.

And when you pop the pill, and you're waiting, that seed is opening. And then it opens, and it grants the active ingredient the power to be active, okay? If you have that seed, the aspirin will work for you, alright?

What if you don't have that seed? What if you have not attempted to alleviate other people's pain? You will take the headache, you will sit down on the toilet, and the alien anthropologist will observe you still rubbing your head, you know, or you'll have like me, you'll have a headache for two and a half days, okay?

It won't go away, alright? We say... It's very beautiful, right?

It's very interesting. I mean, the possibility is very interesting that the active ingredient in an aspirin is kindness. You see?

Kindness triggers the power of the active ingredient. If you have been kind, then the active ingredient will be active. It makes the active ingredient active.

And if you have not been kind, and if you have not taken an interest in others, right? In their problems, then the aspirin won't work for you. And that explains why aspirin works sometimes and don't work other times.

Got it? It's the same for your car. Okay?

Really. Okay? On the mornings that your car doesn't start, same car, same parts, same gas, same battery, on the mornings that it doesn't start, you don't have a seed in your mind that was planted there when you helped someone else get somewhere they had to be.

Okay? The real power behind a car, what makes a car run, is not gasoline. Okay?

What makes power... what grants gasoline the power to run a car is kindness. Okay?

It's very cool. Okay? It's very cool.

Alright? You can have gas in your car and it won't start. You see?

It sounds silly to you because you are primitive. No, like, for us it's... No, for us it's very obvious, you know?

We say, what runs your car? Gas. Does your car always run when you have gas in the car?

No. You know? You know, and then, you think it's weird for me to be saying this, but we think it's weird for you to think that.

Okay? Something is making the gasoline able to run the car. Okay?

Something enables the gasoline to run the car. Alright? And that is helping other people get to where they need to go.

If you have helped other people get to where they need to go, your mind has a seat in it, when you turn the key, the seat in your mind opens, the gasoline is granted the power to run the car. Okay? What's this got to do with Diamond Lion's book?

Okay? A little book. His first verse says, DAG NI SEMS CAN THAGYI LA YI SHING NOBOD LE THAG PA'I Other people are like wishing gem.

Wishing gem means, what do you call? It's the Tibetan version of an Aladdin's lamp. Okay?

In Tibet, they don't have Aladdin's lamp. They don't have this little lamp, then you rub it, and then this guy jumps out and says, what would you like today? You know, brownies or apple pie?

That's what my genie always asks. You know, so... You know, we don't have...

In Tibet, they don't have those. They have a special little gemstone, and if you... It's called cinta mani, right?

If you find one of them, you just rub it, and then you say, I want brownies today, you know? And then this angel comes out and says, oh, here's your brownies, you know? Okay?

That's a wishing gem. What he's saying in the first verse is that all the other people around you are your genies. Okay?

They will deliver to you the goods. Alright? That's what they do.

Why? Your aspirin won't... Your aspirin can't work unless you help somebody else with their heading.

If there didn't exist other people, your aspirin would never work. Okay? Your gasoline runs your car only when you have helped other people get to some place they need to go.

If you didn't have other people to help get somewhere they need to go, your car would never work. Okay? If that's true, then can we say that other people are precious?

Yeah, they like make everything work. Got it? Like, you can't run your life.

Nothing. Your dishwasher wouldn't work. Your husband wouldn't work.

You know. Everything works because you help somebody else. Right?

And that makes the active ingredient active and that makes the gasoline run the car. Right? So, imagine a world where there was nobody who needed anything.

Like, we'd be up the creek, right? We'd be in the beds. You need other people.

Okay? Just on a practical sense. I'm not even saying morally or...

or, you know, compassion or... forget all that. Just on a practical level, you need other people because you can't plant seeds otherwise.

You can't make things active without doing something nice to other people to put the seed in your mind. Okay? DAG NI SEMS CAN THAM PA'I LA'I SHING NOBOD DE HA'PE Other people are your Aladdin's lamp.

They make everything work. Okay? Now other people become precious commodities.

People in need. People who need to get somewhere are important for the car companies. Alright?

People who have a headache that you can help them with their headache are important for the aspirin companies. You see? We need a...

In this system, if this system is true, other people are... are valuable. Everybody around you is valuable.

DAG NI SEMS CAN THAM PA'I LA'I SHING NOBOD DE HA'PE DBYUNG CHOG GRUB PA'I SANGS PA'I LTAG TU CHOD PA'I DZIN PA'I ZHONG They are also very important if you want to become an angel. Okay? If you want to become an angel, you need other people.

Helping someone with a headache allows you to see an aspirin to work. Helping someone get somewhere allows you to see gasoline and make your car run. Showing kindness to others on a regular basis allows you to see yourself transform into an angel.

Got it? How did you think it was going to happen? You see?

You know, would you just go to a class and they would give you a certificate and they glue your wings on or something like that, you see? We say, all people have the capacity to become an angel. All people are angels in training.

All living beings are angels in training, right? And your wings will grow according to how many seeds you plant in your mind by helping other people, okay? That's all.

They make your body change into an angel's body, okay? It's a very beautiful idea. You need other people if you want to become an angel.

You need them, okay? And you are the raw material already. You're like the...

the white chemicals in that tablet, right? And you're like the metal square thing with the wheels and the liquid in the tank. You are the raw material for an angel.

You already are. Okay, they call it Rangchen Nirik. In Tibet they call it Rangchen.

Rangchen Nirik means you have an enlightenment seed. You have an angel seed in you. Your body was meant to be an angel.

Your mind was meant to be an angel. You just have to activate it. You need the active ingredient, okay?

You're already... the raw material is you. You're already fit to be an angel.

You were designed to be an angel. You just need to activate it, okay? Dhani Sem Chittayeshvara Namaha.

What's the second verse say? Chulam kundu ranggila... No.

Khandu Suran Dopey say, Dhani kunday menda shing, dala sampa thapa yi, chok tu chepa dzin ma shok. It means, in any given situation, when you're with anybody, if you want to plant the seeds to become an angel, okay? This whole thing is like an instruction book on how to become an angel, right?

You want to get money, you want to be healthy, you want to have a nice boyfriend. That's a given. In Tibet they say, you get weeds when you plant corn.

Shoot for the angel, the other stuff will come, okay? Along the way. You get all the other stuff, you know?

I'm a stupid monk. I spent most of my life in a medieval Tibetan monastery. And I made a quarter billion dollar business in my spare time, you know?

Just because I learned how to plant seeds. You see? They taught me how to plant seeds.

They didn't say, everything is easy. You will get the little stuff along the way. Shoot to become an angel.

And then you'll get the million dollars and you'll get the guy and he'll be nice and he'll stay with you and he'll be fun to stay with. And then you can stay healthy, you know. If you have the right seeds, yoga makes you healthy.

If you don't have the right seeds, yoga will hurt your neck. Got it? Everything is like the aspirin.

No, everything is like the aspirin. There's nothing in the aspirin that takes away a headache. Your kindness makes the aspirin work, right?

There's nothing in a car that makes it go. Your kindness makes the gasoline active, alright? And there's nothing in a yoga class that can make you thin or flexible or attractive or strong.

Because some people go and get hurt. You see? If yoga made you strong, everybody would get strong.

If aspirin took away your headache, everybody who took an aspirin would not have a headache. If cars... If gasoline made things run, then every car that had gasoline in it would run.

But that's not true, okay? Something else is going on. There's something deeper that makes stuff work.

There's something that makes the stuff and the stuff work. Okay? Like a yoga pose makes you strong and thin if you have served others in the past.

And if you haven't, then you will go to yoga and you'll do the same class as somebody else, you'll go into the same pose as somebody else, you'll be the same teacher as somebody else, you pay the same fee as somebody else, you're on the same kind of special yoga mat as somebody else, and you hurt your neck. Okay? It's not the yoga.

It's not the mat. Those are just the vehicles through which the seeds return to you by being kind to others. So, the second verse is...

When you're with other people, look at them and say, you're the highest, I'm the lowest. Okay, what does that mean? It doesn't mean you meet other people and you say, I'm a schmuck and you're smart, because usually they are not.

Okay? Alright, it doesn't mean you have to pretend that other people are somehow cooler than you and you're not as good as them. It doesn't mean that.

We have enough trouble with that. We have enough problems worrying about, are we good enough? It doesn't mean that, okay?

It means, anytime you're sitting with somebody else, entertain the possibility that they are an angel in disguise. Okay? Whether they're being nice to you or whether they're being mean to you, I guess especially when they're being mean to you, alright?

It's a healthy exercise. It's an important exercise. It's important to plant the seeds for your own angelhood, to...

to, what do you call, harbor a suspicion that they could be an angel, okay? So, this second verse, it's a practice in a Buddhist monastery, you know? You're like going around, who's an angel?

You know, you're like... trying to bust them, you know, like... you know, are you an angel?

You know? No, I get angry. Maybe you're trying to help me.

No, I don't want to help you, you know? Are you sure? Absolutely.

You know? Okay? They also...

they also fib a lot. Okay? Like you say, are you an angel?

I'm asking you face to face. Angels can't lie and they're like, I don't know. Nah.

You know, they're allowed to fib about being an angel. That's the one fib they're allowed. Otherwise, they'd all be exposed.

You see? So, they can like... Usually, they try to get you off on some other subject.

You know, like you say, are you an angel? And they say, what'd you have for breakfast? You know?

And then, okay? So, what the second verse means, it's a lot more entertaining in life to just assume everybody else is an angel, you know? And then try to figure out, what do you call it?

Retrofit them. You know, like go back and try to figure out why they're acting how they're acting. Some people it's easy, you know?

Oh, this person is kind to everybody. They must... It's not hard to think of them as an angel, right?

Sometimes they're the creep in the office. You know, the biggest creep in the office, you know? And then you're like, why is this person here?

How could he be an angel? Right? And then you can think, you know, there's lots of reasons why.

To develop patience, you need irritating people. I mean, they're... they're also a precious commodity, right?

To get your gasoline to work, you need... you need people who are too lazy to have a car. Or, you see, you need people who didn't do their yearly maintenance and their car broke and they're grubbing...

you need people grubbing rides off you in order for your gasoline to work. You need sick people. Or irritable people who have a headache, right?

You need them in order for your aspirin to work, okay? You need all these people, alright? Every angel has a place in your life.

Okay? Whether they're irritating you or whether they are serving you, right? It makes sense.

I mean, they should be acting like people in need. Because you need to... you need to help people in need to make your stuff work.

So, those angels have their job. We need them, okay? If there wasn't anybody who needed anything, your car wouldn't work and your aspirin wouldn't work.

Got it? You need good angels and you need dumb ones. Okay?

You need both. I just proved to you that everybody in your life is functional and relevant to you and you need them. Whether they're hurting you or whether they're helping you.

Okay? Because you need to help somebody to plant the seeds for your other stuff to work. Got it?

So, all these angels have a place. You can't... Now you can't disqualify anybody.

You know, they're creepy. What kind of answer is that, you know? Why are they not an angel?

They yell all the time. I mean, that's not logical. You need someone to be patient with in order to be...

By the way, the seed or the karma for beauty is patience with irritating people. Right? That if you want to know that the karmic seed in Buddhism for physical beauty is patience.

Right? So, how's anybody going to be foxy if there's no irritating people? Okay?

Like, if there's no people to be patient with, how are you going to look good? You see? So, then you get this appreciation for everybody.

Then you're like, it's a weird life, you know? You're like, who's an angel? I don't know.

Well, the bad people aren't... Are the good people angels? Well, they must be.

I mean, that's a no-brainer. Well, how about the bad people? Well, that guy said, I need irritating people in order to be beautiful.

I guess they're angels too. Okay? So, it's a very healthy...

What do you call? Exercise. Just decide.

Everybody is an angel except you. Okay? Just decide.

And then it's such a nice life, you know? You get an irritating person at work and you say... What do you call that?

What do you call when two companies make a cooperation? There's a better word. They call it tactical.

They call it... Something like tactical. Huh?

Something alliance. Strategic alliance. Strategic alliance.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay? So, you need irritating people and you can make strategic alliances with them.

Okay? You can say... You can ask your boss, please move the irritating lady into my department.

You know? And then... Okay?

And he says, why? He says, because I want to look nicer. You know?

Okay? You need them. Okay?

You need them. Everybody is a... Everybody is acting as an angel for you.

Get used to it. It's a lot more fun. Okay?

It's a lot more fun. Is it true that they are also not an angel, that they are just an irritating person? That there's no bigger plan going on at all?

Is it also true that they're just a plain old irritating person? We say yes. In Tibet we say yes.

We say they are both. Does this aspirin work or not work? You can say both, you see?

If you have the seed from helping someone else with a headache in the past, it works. If you don't have the seed from helping somebody else in the past with headache, it doesn't work. By itself, it works and it doesn't work.

Got it? By itself, the person in your office is just a stupid irritating person who's not an angel. What do you call it?

Imitating an irritating person? And they are also a real irritating person who's not... See, they're also an angel and they're also not an angel.

It depends on you. Okay? They are eligible to be both.

Okay? Then you decide. Would you rather just be with a plain irritating person at work all day or would you rather be with an angel who's pretending to be irritating so you can be patient, so you can look foxier?

I mean... No, it's... They're both there, okay?

In this system, we say they're both there. That's the meaning of emptiness in Buddhism. They're both there.

You choose. Which one do you want to hang out with all day? Okay?

Which is more fun to be with all day? Okay? They're irritating either way.

All right. But we've just proven that irritating people are valuable. You can use them.

You need them. They are better... He said better than a wish-giving gem.

He didn't say as good as. Right? He said more precious than.

Okay? Why did he say more precious than? Okay?

Aladdin's lamps and genies and wish-giving gems have a limitation. Okay? They have a limitation.

Can you guess what it is? They can only give you something that you can imagine. You have to ask, right?

You have to ask. The guys... I don't know, there's a lot of dirty jokes about the guy who asked and turned into something else, but I won't tell you.

But you see, someone who says, I will grant you any wish you have can only grant you what you ask for and not more than that. They can't grant you something you can't imagine. All right?

Other people, if you get in the habit of serving them, if you get in the habit of helping them when they have a headache, when you get in the habit of taking them somewhere when they need a ride, if you get in the habit of being patient with them when they're irritating, they can give you more than you could think of. You see? They can turn you into something more beautiful than you can imagine right now.

Okay? They can turn you into an angel. Okay?

They can turn you into a divine being. All right? If you have them, you can become more than you could imagine.

And that's why he says they're more precious than an Aladdin's lamp. Because an Aladdin's lamp needs to be told what you want. And you can have more than you can even imagine with other people.

The people around you, in your office, in your family, especially the irritators, the professional irritators, they are more valuable than an Aladdin's lamp. Okay? Because they could grant you something higher than you can imagine.

Cool? Okay, let's do a little meditation to break it up a bit. So, Erin Banik is going to come and— this is like an angel-producing meditation that you can learn.

Okay?

[Speaker 2]
Hi everyone. So, thanks for coming. We're going to do a group meditation together.

So, just where you are, find a comfortable way to sit. It's nice if your back is straight. So, sometimes it helps to move way to the back of your seat.

And other times it might be better to kind of scoot up to the front so you can sit up nice and tall. But the important thing is to be comfortable so that you don't have to think about how you're sitting. Okay?

And now just gently close your eyes. And draw your awareness into your breath. And try to focus your mind closely on the breath as it exits and enters your nostrils.

Letting go of the thoughts from the day. And just noticing if a thought arises in your mind. Happily say hello and then let it pass by.

And draw your awareness back to your breath. And now invite Jesus to come and sit with you. See him sitting in front of you, looking into your eyes.

And feel the love that he has for you. How happy he is that you've invited him. And ask him to help you with this meditation tonight.

And as you sit together, you bring your awareness back to your own body and where your muscles and bones used to be. There is just a perfect clear blue light filling your entire body. From the top of your head to the ends of your fingertips and the tips of your toes.

And you are just this perfect clear blue light. And where your skin used to be, the light glistens off of it like sunlight off a still lake. And now at the place just in front of your backbone where your heart used to be, there's a perfect tiny red rose about the size of your thumbnail.

And nestled inside that rose is a brilliant shining diamond. A brilliant diamond light. And this diamond represents your highest wisdom.

And the rose is the highest form of compassion. Unconditional love. And you decide that you're going to use this compassion to help your friend.

So think of someone that you love and you care about deeply. Think of someone that you care about deeply. And see them sitting across from you in their favorite place.

Someone that's having some trouble in their life. Maybe they're sick. Maybe...

And see them sitting across from you in their favorite place. Someone that's having some trouble in their life. Maybe they're sick.

Maybe they're worried about something. And decide that you're going to help them. So as you see them sitting across from you, say their name to yourself in your mind.

And as you breathe, that trouble moves like a black swirling smoke in their body. And with every breath, it condenses into a tiny black pea-sized marble at their heart center. So take a few breaths to move all of that smoke into that tiny black pea-sized marble.

And now together on an inhale, when I count to three, we're going to draw that black pea-sized marble up through their nose until it comes to rest in front of our own nose, suspended in the air. One, two, three. And now we draw our attention back to the diamond and the rose at our heart.

The highest expression of our love and our compassion for them. And we decide that we're going to destroy that pain for both of us. That we must.

And that it is that love that we have for them and our willingness to help them that has the power to destroy that pain for both of us. When I count to three, on one inhale, that black pea-sized marble will come up through our nose and the minute that it touches that brilliant diamond light of love at our heart, there will be a brilliant white flash of light and it will be completely destroyed. So remember the love that you have for them and how much you want to help them.

One, two, three. Brilliant flash of light and now all that's left is a brilliant white light that begins to fill your entire body and that darkness is completely gone. It has been transformed by the power of your love and you see your friend sitting in their favorite place, feeling lighter, freer, and they're smiling and you feel happy because they're happy.

Draw your attention back to your body and the room and when you're ready, slowly open your eyes.

[Speaker 1]
We'll do just a... just do maybe five, ten more minutes and then we'll take a break, okay? This is verse three, right?

As I go through the day, may I watch my mind to see if a negative thought has come. If it does, may I stop it right there with force since it hurts myself and others. So, there are...

energies which prevent the ability to see angels, all right? There are forces in our mind. We are born with blinders like a horse, like an old horse, okay?

And then there's exercises you can do to remove them. And then it's fun to recognize an angel here or there, okay? It's pleasant.

It's very pleasant to meet an angel from time to time, like a real one. I'm talking like the real thing, you know? It's a lot of...

It gives you a lot of faith, right? If you could meet one real one in your life, you know, that confirmed angel sighting, then you'd be more encouraged to do all these things, right? But we have some kind of blinders on our eyes, okay?

The blinders come from not understanding the aspirin, okay? The blinders are created by not understanding the aspirin. So, I'll explain how.

I'll give a real-life example, okay? So, like you're at work and... I don't know if it ever happened to you, but let's say your boss criticizes you.

Ha-ha. Okay, I guess nobody's been at work for a while. But, you know, that's what bosses are for, right?

To unjustly criticize you, all right? So, they criticize you. So, they come up...

I don't know, for me... I remember one day... I don't know.

The boss came in and accused... I was in the diamond business and they... The boss accused me of not sending the diamonds to J.C. Penney's. So, J.C. Penney's... This is a famous incident in my life, okay? He gave me the wrong date or something.

It's always the boss's fault. I don't remember what he did, okay? But he gave me the wrong dates.

J.C. Penney was going to sell earrings or something. They needed diamonds for the earrings. I was supposed to send the...

I was supposed to buy 50,000 diamonds and send them to some factory in Hong Kong or something. And then... You know, I hadn't even started looking for them yet.

And he runs in the room with a newspaper, The New York Times. And he's got it open to page two, you know? And there's this big beautiful ad from J.C. Penney for these diamond earrings, you know? And he says, I just got a call from J.C. Penney. The ad is run this morning and they don't have them. You know?

The customers are pouring into the stores and there's nothing to give them. And it's your fault, you know? Like, he gets angry and he starts yelling at you.

Okay? He starts calling you stupid. Right?

And... So, what's the... Where is he coming from?

Why is he yelling at you? Yeah, because according to this system, okay? Take it or leave it.

If you take it, you'll have a happy life and you'll meet angels. If you don't take it, you can just, you know... He's yelling at you because you yelled at somebody last week.

Okay? Or the month before. You spoke unkindly, unreasonably.

You yelled at someone a week ago. And you said... Unreasonably, you said, you're stupid.

Right? And then... Was it Saint Peter or who was recording your...

your... your bad deed? Your...

In Hebrew they call chet. Who was recording your chet? Yeah, you don't need Saint Peter.

Okay? I mean, he can still do it too. But...

Your mind is recording everything you say. Right? Your mind...

Through the lens of your ears. You are the witness to everything you do. In this system it doesn't help to lock...

to close the door of your room and then do something bad. Because it's being recorded by you. Your awareness of yourself doing something negative is what plants the seed in your mind.

Okay? And you're always aware of yourself. See?

So... So, you know, you yelled at somebody a week ago. You heard your words, loud, angry words.

That planted a seed in your mind. Now, this week the boss enters the room and he starts saying something. You know?

And it hurts you. Right? You get upset.

It hurts you. Right? Does it upset everybody else in the office?

Let's say you have like... In my office we had like 15 people in the same room. One big room.

And filled with diamonds. All the tables covered with diamonds. 15 people in the room.

You know, like three doors to get to the outside. Do his words sound angry to everybody else? Are they undesirable to everybody else?

Somebody is in the room who... who covets my job. You know?

Somebody is in the room who would like to be the vice president. Do they hear the words as undesirable? No.

Okay? Got it? Like, it applies to your favorite song.

Like, Neil Young's Cowgirl on the Sun. I'm just taking the best piece of music ever written. And...

That's... How you hear it is also coming from you. That's obvious, right?

I told people the other night, my roommate in college, he heard Neil Young's Cowgirl on the Sun. I played it for him. And then he said, it sounds like a screaming eunuch.

You know? And then he called him... For four years he called him the screaming eunuch.

You know? We don't experience the same object in the same way. Right?

That person can sound very reasonable and even happy. Right? Someone sees you get in trouble who wants your job, it sounds good to them.

You see? Neil Young sounds good to some people. Okay?

So, that person yells at you, right? You have a seed in your mind to have them yell at you. Right?

They are calling you stupid and they are calling you stupid because you put a seed in your mind when you called somebody else stupid last week. And what's human nature to reply to the boss? What's human nature to say back?

No, you yell back. You say, no, no, you're stupid. You know?

Like you try to prove to them that they're stupid, right? That plants another seed for him to come back the next week and call you stupid again. So, I'm asking you, what's the stupidest thing you can do when somebody calls you stupid?

If you don't like it. If you like it, it's not the stupidest thing to do. Okay?

Yeah, the stupidest thing to do is to call him stupid because that plants a new seed and then he'll come back again and call you the same thing again. Okay? So, that verse, verse 3, watch your mind.

Okay? Watch your mind. When you get angry and you want to say stupid back, stop it.

TSEM DAB DONG LAS DOG PAR SHOG TSEM DAB, by the way, is the Tibetan word for hatha. It's very interesting. Those of you who are into yoga, the Tibetans a thousand years ago learned the word hatha and they translated it as TSEM DAB.

And TSEM DAB means with force, by force. Physical yoga was considered forcing your mind into a good pattern. It was considered a violent means to control the mind.

Making your body go into physical poses was considered hatha, means... violent means, okay? To train the mind.

Okay? That's a long story. We're not doing a yoga class.

The point here is that it hurts you. Okay? When you call him stupid back, it hurts you.

And it creates the blinders which don't allow you to see angels. Okay? Reacting stupidly.

Reacting... Proving that you're stupid, right? By calling him stupid, right?

It creates these blinders. Reacting to the world the wrong way creates an inability in us to see the angels among us. Okay?

If you want to meet an angel, you have to understand where stuff is coming from. That's why they make a big deal in yoga about avidyā, right? Misunderstanding your world.

The more you misunderstand where... The more you misunderstand where stuff is coming from, the less capable you are of seeing angels. Okay?

The more you try to understand that things are coming from how you treat other people... Who said that? The more you grasp that stuff is coming from how you treat other people, right?

Then the more you have a capacity to see the angels around you.

[Speaker 2]
Alright?

[Speaker 1]
Is the person next to you an angel? Is Cowgirl in the Sand the best song in the world? You see?

You can say, for me. Right? You can say, for me.

And again, try to grasp... The person sitting next to you is not an angel, from their own side. And they're also not an angel.

What? Not not an angel. They're not an angel from their own side, and they're not not an angel from their own side.

They're an aspirin. Okay? And maybe they will work, and maybe they won't work.

You see? Everything is the same. The person sitting next to you is like an aspirin.

Maybe they're gonna be an angel, and maybe they're not gonna be an angel. Every tablet in this bottle could take away your headache. And every tablet in this bottle could fail to take away your headache.

Got it? You know that. You understand that now.

Right? If you help other people with their headaches, it will work. If you don't help other people with their headaches, it won't work.

If you act like just kind of randomly, without understanding where stuff comes from, half of them will work, and half of them won't work. Guess what you're doing. Okay?

Alright? Is the person next to you an angel? They could be, if you had the right seeds.

Right? If you treated other people the right way, they would be an angel. If you were angelic...

If you were trying to be angelic, they would be angel, okay? By the way, trying to be angelic is enough to create an angel. You don't have to be angelic.

Got it? Little seeds make big results. Okay?

Jesus went off on something like, you know, you plant one... one weed seed and you get ten sprouts of weed. That's the way it works.

You don't have to be perfect to everybody to see a perfect being. You just have to try. You know?

You plant a watermelon seed, you get five watermelons. You know? You don't have to plant five watermelons to get five watermelons.

Got it? Seeds grow. Luckily.

Okay? You don't have to be perfect to see angels. You just have to try.

Right? But if you get angry, or if you start to get upset, if you start to misunderstand where the boss came from, cut it off immediately. tsendap dongle dopa sho Dongle means face...

face it. Be a warrior. You know?

What's it? What do they call it? Virasana?

What's that thing you do, warrior one, warrior two? Bhadrasana? Virabhadrasana?

Anyway, it's warrior pose. Be a warrior. You know?

Against who? Against your own stupidity. You see?

Stand up to it. Dongle means stand up to it. Dopa sho means shut...

you know, shut him off. You know? No.

You're... You know? We have in my students, there's...

I call it the school of half-finished sentences. You know? They're all like...

No. Somebody calls him stupid and they go, No, you're... You know?

Okay. Understand where stuff is coming from and it will take the blinders off your eyes and you will see the angels around you. It's very, very cool to see an angel.

If it happens once in your life, the rest of your life is cool. You know, you say, I didn't do anything else in my life but I saw... I met an angel.

Okay? I have a cool life. Then you can start to attract them.

You can start to collect them like baseball cards. Okay? No, it's really...

It's very, very, very beautiful. It makes your life very, very beautiful. You want to sing.

You want to play music. You want to dance. You have seen angels.

You know how to... You know how to get them to be around you. You know?

And then it's... It's a very, very beautiful life. Okay?

You don't have to live a dull life. You know? If you understood this stuff, you could just be around angels.

And it's... It's a lot more fun. It's like Halloween.

Okay. Okay, just... We don't take a break.

Last thing. At times... Verse four.

RANG BZHIN GYEN PA'I SEMS CAN GNYIS DUS DU DRAG PA NON TONG TSE RIN CHEN DER DANG PHRAD PA SHIN TA NYES PA'I KHAR BA'I CHEN ZIN ZHOG At times I will meet bad people tormented by strong bad deeds and pain. They are hard to find like a mine of gold and so I may... and so may I hold them dear.

Alright? You get big points by putting up with really bad people. Okay?

You get more points by having really bad people around you and responding to them properly than you would get if you just had nice people around you. Alright? So, you're lucky if you have a lousy boss.

Okay? Or a challenging husband. Or...

coyote pup kids. Alright? No, I mean, CHEN ZIN ZHOG means value the...

value the opportunity. Okay? You get a lot more opportunities to plant seeds in your mind if you're surrounded by irritating people.

There was a famous lama... Okay, then I'll stop. Called Lord Atisha.

He came... He brought Buddhism to Tibet, right? And he was the most famous monk in India at the time.

It was 1100 years ago, okay? Then, he had anybody he could choose to bring to Tibet with him to be his attendant, right? His helper.

So, he chose this really irritating guy, you know? And then, the Tibetans asked him, you know, of all the people you could have brought with you, you know, why did you bring him, you know? And he said, he keeps me sharp, you know?

He's like, by the way, it's not true of my attendants who are extremely beautiful, really. But anyway, he had a different thing going on. So, he said, I...

I tried to find the most irritating person I could to be with me all the time. Okay? Don't worry, your wife didn't do that.

So, then one day, I'll tell you a joke, okay? So, he was in a... he was walking to Lhasa, you know?

That's how you get to Lhasa, you have to walk. It's like a month's walk, you know? He was walking to Lhasa.

He's trying to learn Tibetan so he can teach the Tibetans. He got a rock in his shoe, and he sat down and he pulled his shoe off, and all his... the Tibetans said, what's wrong, you know?

And he wanted to say, I have a rock in my shoe. Ngay ham go nang la do ya. Then, he didn't know the word for rock, but he knew the word for boulder.

Which is pabong. Those of you who know Pabongka, the word for boulder is pabong. So, he said...

he wrote that famous lamrim. So anyway, he said, I have a pabong in my... in my shoe.

And they all started roaring, you know? They said, he's got a boulder in his shoe, he's too stupid, he doesn't know the word for... for pebble.

He mistook the word for boulder and pebble, right? And then he looked around and he said, now I can send my attendant back. Uh...

So, they are... they are precious, okay? To meet people who are really irritating are precious.

Probably they're angels also, okay? I mean, if they... Me and my little brother had a deal.

We were both studying martial arts. We had a deal in the house that anybody could sneak up to other person and hit them in the back of the head. And you got really sharp.

And you got really fast. Because you knew they might hit you in the back of the head anytime. And...

it's the same. If angels wanted to help you, they would try to be really irritating to make you stronger. Okay?

So, no one is disqualified from being an angel. Alright? Okay, we're going to take a break.

A couple of things. Uh... There's a bake sale going on.

That's to help raise money for our airfares and stuff like that. We are going from here to Ukraine. Uh...

You know, we get lots of requests from many countries to go and give programs. And then we try to do a charity country every three months or something. And, you know, their economy dropped 25% last week in one day.

You know? Like a dollar became 75 cents in one day. So, they're having a rough time.

We're going there. We're paying for everything ourselves. We're trying to do a five-day program for them.

So, if you eat more cookies, you're helping the Ukrainians. Uh... Then, uh...

There's a CD. I like it. Uh...

It's, uh... Mercedes, the singer who's here, did this CD. And, uh...

It really is... It's a Christian-oriented CD. The first song is, uh...

Domini filo... I don't know. I can't pronounce it.

But, I think it's one of the most beautiful songs I ever heard. So, I encourage you to... Especially, like, if you do yoga or you do meditation, it's a very...

It's a very, uh... beautiful album to get. Any other announcements?

Are you guys giving any programs? Do you want to talk about them? Do you want to say...

Or... Yeah. Is it working?

Okay. So, if we, um... If we could, we also want to put in a plug-in for Geshe Michael's books.

Um... Eastern Path to Heaven and also The Diamond Cutter. If you're more of a business-minded individual, The Diamond Cutter's in there, which I highly recommend.

And, The Eastern Path to Heaven is this kind of, uh... It's... It was actually the first book I ever read that got me seriously interested in all of these ideas that he's talking about.

And, I think it was a huge influence for me. So, I highly recommend that. And, um...

A big, cool thing with that is if you get one of these books and you'd like to have Geshe Michael sign it, today would be the day. Um... There are other events going on with the Mandala Center that we have offered here.

Um... The next thing kind of up for bid right now is that downstairs in the church basement for the next three Sundays in a row, I will be leading a Introduction to Meditation course. Seven o'clock Sunday night for the next three nights.

So, it's only one hour and it's only three weeks because I didn't want to teach longer and more than what I felt like I could really offer you. Uh... Well...

Because we're all in progress, you know? But, um... So, we have this meditation course come out that if these ideas are new to you and if you'd like to develop some kind of a meditation practice, I would love to teach you and Aaron and I will be there.

Um... And, that's downstairs on Sunday nights at seven. Mandala Center also has essentials classes that we offer on Sunday evenings that we'll be starting up after this month.

We're kind of off for a little break this summer. Tuesday night meetings for more in-depth study from the Asians Classics Institute. A whole series, a whole course of study that you can get involved in.

And, of course, we have other events going on. So, please pick up one of the Mandala Center... They have little postcards with the website and you can check out coming events on the website.

Um... You can go to echoescommunity.com which is Aaron and my house church website and we'll have all of those events listed there. So, um...

If you don't know how to use a computer, please find somebody that does because everything's on there and it's really great and you can actually find recordings of classes. So, if you can't make it to something, you can get the recordings. And, um...

Uh... There's... We have links on those websites to many, many other of Geshe Michael's teachings.

Years and years and years worth of teachings. Um... Very, very beautiful, authentic teachings.

So, all of these resources are available to you on the web for free. You must have done some really good seed planting. So, um...

Please stop by the Mandala Center table which is in the hallway. Please go and get some goodies from the bake sale, if not for you but for somebody else and give generously. Uh...

One more thing. I'll stay up here if you have a personal question. Uh...

If you have some personal challenge going on and you need some help, I'll be happy to help you. I'll also... Is it okay to stay after?

Yeah. I'll also stay after if you have a personal question that I can help with. I'll be here.

Also, I have some teachers traveling with me, some senior teachers, and I'd like them to stand up. Uh... Where are you?

Stand up. Those two guys. Christine.

Uh... Where's the rest of... Where's Anatole and Adriana?

Oh, yeah. Okay. So, if you have any questions about all this stuff, while you're chomping, uh...

You can also talk to these guys. Okay? All right.

Have a good break. We'll start again in 10, 15 minutes. Okay?

July 30th. Sunday, July 31st. At Bodhi Seed Yoga in Mount Clemens, is it?

Mount Clemens. Uh... Nicole Vignes is going to be teaching it.

She's a very good teacher of... This is a special kind of yoga that we learn in the monastery. I hate yoga.

I hate exercise. I think it's retarded. Uh...

Just kidding. I go every day to yoga. I had some great classes in...

around here. You have a lot of great teachers around here. But anyway, it's a kind of yoga that we learn in the monastery.

It's like easy. It takes half an hour. It makes you strong.

It makes you thin. It makes you young. It's cheap.

Uh... And, uh... I like it because it doesn't waste my time.

You know, it doesn't take much time. So, uh... So, I encourage you to do that.

I need somebody to give me a clock because I don't know what time it is. Yeah? Okay.

Good. Ah, yeah. Yeah.

Oh, boy. Okay. Can I do the second half in three minutes?

Uh... The Dalai Lama, actually, he loves to teach this. He teaches this, like, couple times a month around the world.

And he does the same thing. He, like, rushes through the last four verses. Some jealous person might do me wrong, insult me or something of the like.

May I learn to take the loss myself and offer them all the gain. This gets in to take people taking advantage of you. Okay?

Like, a lot of spiritual people say, I... You know, I'm impatient with my boss at work. He calls me stupid over and over again.

I'm patient with him. I don't get angry. But really, he's taking advantage of me.

You know? Should I just roll over and let people take advantage of me? You know?

So, I had a boss. They, in the diamond business, they didn't pay me enough. Okay?

No, I mean, I made them a hundred million dollars. And, you know, they wouldn't pay me much. You know?

And then I just... What was the reason for not getting money? Why did I didn't not get money?

It means I wasn't giving enough. You see? I wasn't giving enough of my money.

You see? What it means is nobody can take advantage of you. It's not possible.

Okay? Forget that. Okay?

Somebody needs something or you can serve somebody, just serve them full out. And don't worry about it. Serving people, helping others, cannot lead to not having enough.

It's not possible. Jesus was very big on that, right? You don't get thorns from thistles?

What do you say? You don't get grapes from thorns and something from thistles. Probably it's mangoes?

Figs. Yeah. It's not possible that you serve someone and you help someone and you don't get something good back.

Okay? If you serve someone and you don't get something back, you're not serving enough. Okay?

So, I have a different viewpoint on that. If anything, by allowing you to serve them... What do you say?

If you let someone keep asking you to serve them, you're taking advantage of them. Okay? Alright?

The more you can serve, the more will come to you. They don't understand. Nobody can take advantage of you.

Alright? By serving them more, you are taking advantage of them. Get used to it.

Okay? It's true. Alright?

Serve them more and be happy that they are giving you the chance. And you will... That person now is bankrupt.

They don't have... You know? They might have their house taken away.

One of their houses was taken away. You know? And I have...

I have everything I could want. You know? I have more than I could ever want.

And I just kept serving them. My friends all told me, they're taking advantage of you. I said, no, I'm taking advantage of him.

Okay? If you understand this system, just serve more. Okay?

Be honored and glad that people gave you a chance to serve. Nobody can take advantage of you. It's not possible.

Okay? If you know what's going on, it's not possible. Okay.

There may be times when I turn to someone with every hope that they'll help me and instead they do me a great wrong. May I see them as my holy guide. Right?

If you still have bad seeds inside of you from calling someone stupid, and if someone comes to say to you, you're stupid, then you should thank them. Okay? They are wearing out your seeds for you.

Okay? Alright. Thank you for being stupid.

I mean... You know, thank you for yelling at me, I wore out some old seeds. You know?

And then don't plant more with them. That's all. They are showing you that you still have a ways to go.

And that's a beautiful lesson. And that's a valuable lesson. When someone...

When you can be mistreated by somebody, it means you still have seeds in you for that. And you need them to remind you that you should stop. Okay?

So, when you are totally pure and you no longer have seeds for that, they won't be mistreating you anymore. Because you don't have any seeds for that. And then you don't need anybody to remind you that you have seeds.

Okay? And then they'll stop. But until such time as they do stop, you need them.

So, be happy. When trouble comes to you, be happy. It means your seeds aren't finished yet.

You still need work. The people who criticize you are... are the barometer of your spiritual success.

And when they stop, you know you are done. Okay? So, you need them.

They are like a thermometer on a hot day. Okay, you need them. Alright.

We're gonna do one last meditation. Dan's gonna lead us in... in the second half of the meditation that we started.

I know some number of you have already done these meditations. I know some of you have already learned the meditation tonglen. Don't...

What do you call it? Don't get used to it. I mean, treasure it.

Treasure a chance to do it one more time. Don't say, I already heard that one. That's really bad.

Treasure another chance to do one. And make your whole life like that. Okay?

Don't say, I already heard that. Okay? That's a bad habit.

Alright? He's gonna lead us in a meditation. And treasure the chance to do it one more time.

And don't get used to it and don't get lazy. Do it really well. Okay?

Alright, here we go. So again, I'm just gonna ask that you find a nice, comfortable seat where you can get your spine a little more tall and a little more straight. I'm not asking you that because I'm a physical therapist and I'm watching that sort of thing.

I just want you to allow your mind to work its best. So just sit up nice and straight and tall. And allow your eyes to soften.

And close. And just begin by kind of sliding your mind right up to the tip of your nose and watching your breath again. Feel the air moving in and out through your nostrils.

And remember that you're sitting here with this beautiful, holy, divine teacher that you invited. And you can see them sitting here with you, helping you with your meditation. And you remember this friend who you had removed some pain or some suffering from.

And you look at them and you see that they feel lighter. And you see very clearly on their face that their wrinkles are softening and they do look happier and they do look lighter. But you decide that from this beautiful diamond and rose within your own heart and from this beautiful blue body of yours that you're going to send them even more.

That you're going to send them healing. That you're going to send them wisdom. You're going to send them whatever it is that they need.

And so if this friend was sick, you're going to send them perfect health. If this friend was troubled and worried about some problem, you're going to send them a world that's completely free of problems. The sky's the limit.

And so as you sit here, see yourself clearly and see this beautiful diamond light at your heart. And see it just glowing so brightly where your whole body is full of this beautiful diamond light. And imagine a beam of beautiful glowing light carrying on it whatever it is you want to send to your friend, beaming across and entering their own heart and filling their own body.

On every exhale, breathe out this beautiful power and energy to heal them, to bring them comfort. You never run out of this beautiful power and energy to send them. Every exhale you breathe out fills them up, and every inhale you realize that your own blue light body is still full of this diamond light.

Keep sending it to them. And look at the look on their face. They're happy.

They're unbelievably happy. Their body is completely healed. Their mind is free of trouble.

That pain that you removed is gone, and you've replaced it with every good thing that they need. Just take a moment to feel good about that. Take a moment to have some joy and realize that you yourself are happy, that you yourself are full and content.

And both of you now are full of light and rejoice for this good thing that you're doing for your friend. And you look and you realize that this holy teacher, that this Jesus is still here with you, smiling, happy for this practice that you've done. And you just ask them to stay.

Ask them to stay with you. And as you do so, see this divine being rising up off of the ground, shrinking down now, smaller and smaller, not in power but in size, smaller and smaller, and floating over to rest just above the crown of your head, facing the same direction as you, rising tiny now. And ask that this divine being would just stay with you, stay in your heart.

And see as the top of your head opens and they descend now down through the crown of your head, filling your entire body with just amazing love, clarity, joy, but most of all, compassion for all beings, descending now further down now and coming to rest right at the center of your chest, in your heart center, with this diamond and this rose lighting you from the inside out. Just ask them to stay. And feel this beauty, this warmth in your body, this love for all beings emanating from within you.

And allow your mind now to slide back to your breath, realizing that this physical body is still breathing in and out. And when you're ready, you can open your eyes. I'd like to play you a song and then a few more words on myself, okay?

Tonight is Mercedes, I believe. Tonight is a special holiday for us in the Buddhist tradition. It's like a holiday of our teacher, of your personal teacher.

So I thought it would be nice to sing a song of your teacher, about your teacher. In Tibetan, the word for teacher is lama. In India, it's...

That's a translation of the Indian word guru, okay? So lama means guru. And it means your personal teacher.

In Hebrew, rebbe, which is what Jesus' disciples called him, rebbe, right? Rabbi. And it's the same.

Rebbe and lama and guru are the same. Dev means my lord. So this song doesn't have a lot of words.

But so it means like... It's a song to my lord. To your personal teacher.

And I'd like to dedicate it to my own teacher. Om Guru Maha Guru Deva Om Maha Guru Deva Om Maha Guru Deva Maha Guru Deva Om Maha Guru Om Maha Guru Deva Om Om Guru Deva Maha Guru Om Maha Guru Deva Om Maha Guru Om Maha Guru Deva Om Maha Guru Om So then, in closing, ok? The final verses, they say...

Ngu dang gyu payi means... So help people. Serve people.

And that could be ngu dang gyu. Ngu means... You help them directly.

You help people at work who have a headache. Or you help people get somewhere when they need to get somewhere, right? You be patient with people who are young like you, right?

You help other people. Make it a way of life to help other people. Gyu means indirectly.

Help them indirectly. And that means... You can do the meditation, which Dan and Erin taught us.

You just close your eyes. Sometimes when you're by yourself. I used to do it a lot on the subway going to work in New York.

Like there would be somebody across the... What do you call it? In the subway it's weird because you have to face each other, right?

And it's not like a bus. A bus is anonymous. A subway, you see everybody.

And, you know, I would do that meditation. Tonglen. I would see these exhausted executives sitting across from me with their briefcase.

And then I would sort of like gaze out the window, but I would do the breathing meditation on them, right? So I would try... Every time I took an in-breath, I would try to take away their exhaustion and their worries and their troubles, right?

And then every time I breathed out, I would try to give them calmness and peace. So you can do... This is indirect means of helping others.

If you know them, you can step across the subway and give them a background, you know? If you don't know them, probably better just to do it on your breath, you know? To do it with your breath.

And then you... It's just to quietly... And this is a very beautiful way to spend your time, okay?

You don't have to waste time. You can do more spiritual practice between times than during times. You see?

Like waiting in a dentist's office, or waiting for your meal in a restaurant, or driving your car. These are the fertile times for indirect service of others, right? While you're driving, while you're waiting, don't waste the time, okay?

It's a very beautiful practice time. People always say, I don't have time to meditate. And then they...

I ask them, how long is your commute to work? And they say 45 minutes. And I say, well, there you go.

You know? There's your practice time, you know? Just breathe.

You have to breathe anyway, right? So breathe. It's a...

Those of you who know yoga, that's a pranayama. That's the highest pranayama. And you are just giving help on your breath, and you are taking away people's trouble on your breath.

Sangway daklak lempar shok. The last line of that, right? Sangway daklak lempar shok means...

And you can do it secretly. Secret help is the sweetest help. Anonymous help is the most beautiful help, okay?

So, serve others in ways which are not known to them, because that's what angels are doing around you all the time, okay? The seed to meet angels, to be in their company, to recognize their presence, and the seed to join them is to help people secretly and anonymously. See, they are around you all the time.

Did you see Truman's show? Okay? That was made by the angels.

Somebody slipped up, and they showed it on earth. Okay? It was supposed to not be shown, because it's true, all right?

And around you, constantly, is being orchestrated a grand play. You know? There are hundreds of people in your life that you have met and known who are angels.

My favorite movie, okay? I'm asking you to see it. You won't like it that much.

It's called, Date with an Angel, okay? I don't know if you could find it, but try it. It's Date with an Angel, okay?

You have to see it. But you have been surrounded your whole life by special, divine beings who have been helping you your whole life. They have been guiding you, directing you, assisting you.

And their vision is long-term. Okay? 500 years to them is nothing.

Okay? And they see that if they got, if you had someone yelling at you now, you might be a better person six years from now. So they yell at you.

Okay? They don't think they are so short-term people. You know?

They do things in a grand scale. They are looking out for your interests hundreds of years ahead. Okay?

And you are surrounded by them. Their main quality is that they are happy to serve you secretly and not be known by you. They get no credit, right?

I mean, they are at the end of the Truman Show. There is the... What do you call the...

What do you call the... Credits, right? They are like at the end.

They are just like bit part actors, you know? And they are happy to have no credit. Okay?

They have been around you your whole life. Really, they have been around you your whole life. And they have been serving you your whole life on a grand scale with a grand vision in mind.

The best thing you can plan in your mind to be them, become them, to have... to know them and to join them is to help other people secretly. Okay?

Just do beautiful, kind things for other people that they will never know that you did them. Okay? And that's all I have to say.

Okay? Do beautiful, kind things for others quietly. Do a lot of secret good for others.

And that's the seed to become a being who does that with their whole life. Okay? And that's what you really want.

You want to be that. We all want to be that. Okay?

That's what my teacher is. Okay? All right.

That was beautiful. So we would especially like to thank Dr. Michael for taking this time to come and...