Сострадание и внутреннее тело: асана как дорога к любви (2011, Нью-Йорк), занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
So we've been having, we've had the great fortune to have some beautiful teachings in New York. I think we started ten years ago. Yeah, you look nice, Marie.

We started ten years ago, I think. We did four years, we did the Yoga Sutra. We covered the four chapters of the Yoga Sutra, myself and Lama Kristi.

Then we did four years of Hatha Yoga Padupika. It's a beautiful yoga text on the practical exercises of yoga and cleansing processes of yoga. And then we've done two years of Bhagavad Gita.

And we still have one more Bhagavad Gita class to go. That will be in January, but it might be later than I said. Due to the camp, the camp that we're going to has a problem for the retreat.

So anyway, we'll be doing, I think it's a week-long course or something on the Bhagavad Gita in January. And we'll complete the Bhagavad Gita, which are the three great classics of the yoga tradition. And there's like ten more that we can do for the next twenty years if you want.

They're beautiful, like Yoga Vashishtha, or Garhami Sahita, or Goraksha's Shataka. We can do a lot of beautiful, we can go on that for a while. I thought that today, I thought it would be really beautiful for these three days.

We have three days together. You know, during the last ten years of Yoga Talks with you, we've been concentrating a lot on ultimate reality, using yoga to understand where the world is coming from, using your yoga practices, physical practices of the body, to come to a deeper understanding of your world and reality, and how your life occurs, why your life is happening the way it's happening, due to your inner body. So we've been talking about that a lot.

And I sort of felt like we've spent so much attention and effort on understanding ultimate reality and the way reality works. And then I felt as though it would be nice if we turned our attention to the subject of compassion or love, you know, which is not treated that much in the text that we've been covering, in the Yoga Sutra. There are some mentions, like the Four Infinite Thoughts, right?

Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, and Upaksha. So we have that teaching there, but there's not a lot. And I felt as though it was a lot.

I felt that it would balance us if we talked a little more about the teachings on compassion and love. Personally, I have this deep feeling that I don't love people enough. I feel, what do you call it?

I feel like I'm too busy to love people enough, and I feel like... I don't feel, honestly, like I walk down the street and I love everybody in New York City, you know? After all these years of meditating and practicing, I still...

A guy drove up next to us on the way here. Margie was driving, which he's been doing for 20 years or so. And he was blasting this, what do you call it?

Hip-hop. Not... worse than hip-hop.

[Speaker 2]
Rap music.

[Speaker 1]
Rap music. And it was really loud, and I like... You know how you give him a look, which is what he wanted, right?

Which is why he played it loud. And I gave him this look, and then I'm thinking, I'm not loving him so much, you know? I don't know, after all these years, I have trouble even just down the street, just mindlessly judging people and thinking, I kind of am attracted to this one, but I'm not so attracted to that one.

And I move through my day like that. I don't love everybody equally. And I don't feel this outpouring of love for every person I meet.

And I would like to, you know? Are you warm? Are you too warm, by the way?

Yes, it's a little warm. Are you okay? Yeah.

It's gonna get warmer. Can somebody check the air and crank it up? I like it freezing, because then people stay awake, okay?

Can somebody check the air? Yeah, okay. Just ask her if it's cranked up already.

Then people complain later that it's too cold. So I honestly, I don't feel like that, you know? To be honest, I don't like go down the street, and I feel an outpouring of love from my heart for every single person I see, you know?

It's very, what do you call it? Prejudiced. I see someone who looks attractive to me, and I'm like, you know, smiling to them.

Then I see someone who's sort of irritated, and we... And... But sometimes I do, you know?

There are days when I... I don't know about you, but there are days of deep, I don't know, short periods of a few minutes, maybe, of feeling of great contentment, and a feeling of great... of being with peace at the world, and feeling like I love everybody in the whole room, and I feel a brotherly feeling towards them, like a...

what do you call it? A very kind feeling towards them. I had it once on a plane.

You know the story. Most people know the story. I won't tell it very long.

I'll tell the short version, okay? I was on a plane when I was... I don't know.

I was 18, and we were flying to Chicago. And it was a normal flight to Chicago. And then when we got to Chicago, the plane circled for a while.

And we were just all talking, and, you know, the normal. And then the plane started to fly up, and then down sharply. And then the pilot would take the plane up, and then drop a couple hundred feet, like straight down, and then he would come out of the turn and jar the plane.

And we're all like, whoa. The first time it happens, you think it's just wind or something. But he was like four or five times he did this.

And then we're getting... we're starting to feel strange. And then the stewardess comes out of the cabin in the front, and she's shaking.

She's visibly shaking. And then we're like, oh my gosh. And then the captain comes on the intercom, and he says, we have a problem, you know.

And we're all like, oh boy. And the plane gets really quiet, you know, and then he says, it was really foggy. And he says, we can't confirm that the landing gear are down.

We can't... we can't... The light on the...

in the cockpit says it's not down. And we can't get it down, you know. And we tried to shake it loose, and we think it might be down, but we can't tell for sure.

So we're going to take a few passes by the control tower and see if anyone can see if the landing gear is down. So then we're waiting, and then he zooms down close to the ground, really close, and zooms past the control tower. And we do this a couple of times, and we're all like, ah.

And then he gets up in the air, and he starts circling, and he says, nobody can see us. And it's too far to fly to another airport, you know. Like, we can't...

no one can see if the landing gear is down, and the light's not coming on to say it's down. So we're just going to circle until the fuel is almost out. Because if we land, and if we crash land, then it's better for you if there's not much fuel in the plane, you know.

So we have to wait for like half an hour, 45 minutes, until the fuel runs out. And he's circling Chicago, you know. And the plane gets really quiet, you know.

And then the stewardess gets on. And one stewardess had a breakdown. One stewardess started to cry, and they had to take her in the back.

And that's like freaking everybody out, you know. And then the other stewardess is walking around saying, OK, take off your shoes, because you can run faster. Everyone has to take their shoes...

Any high heels, anything, take your shoes off. And then she goes through, we're getting really nervous, you know. And then she says, take off your jewelry, because it will burn to your fingers.

You know, the heat of the metal will burn to your fingers. You know, people are writing notes to their loved ones. I mean, come on, where are you going to put the note, you know.

And they're writing notes and stuffing it everywhere, you know. And then suddenly someone starts to cry. And then somebody got up out of their seat, and they went and hugged her, you know.

And then another person started to cry. And then another person got up and started, they just went over and hugged her. All these people on the plane, this whole shift around the plane, and then people are hugging other people and saying, I don't know you, but I love you, you know.

It was really beautiful. It was really extraordinary. The whole plane of people were like hugging each other and holding each other and just touching each other.

It was so moving and so beautiful. And we were just there, you know. And then at the end they said, put your head down between your knees, you know.

And that was the worst part because you have to, you can't see anything, you know. And they said, put your head down between your knees. And everybody was holding hands, you know.

I mean, just spontaneously, everybody on the plane is holding hands, you know. We're all like this, you know. And they come down and hit the runway.

Everything's fine, you know. There was foam all down the runway and there was a long line of fire trucks on one side and there were ambulances on the other side and a lot of hearses. They were just waiting for us to crash, you know.

So we're all like, oh. And it was so beautiful. I've never felt anything like that, ever, you know.

And then we got to the gate and everybody was like, I got to get to and catch my plane, you know. Everybody jumps out of the grass and everything and they're like, get out, I'm late for my plane, you know. And they're like, wow, what happened?

And it was weird, but I don't think I've often haven't felt that feeling since then, you know. It was just that one special time. And everybody in the plane had this deep, human, what do you call, it was a spontaneous love for each other.

And that, I imagine, must be the real human condition. And I think the rest must be just nerves or something, you know. I imagine that the real human condition is this deep love for each other.

And I would like to have it all the time. You see, I've always wanted it all the time, you know. I wanted to be able to walk around New York or at least occasionally, a few times a day, to have this feeling towards everyone else in New York, to feel like that towards them.

So what I thought we could talk about was in the Buddhist tradition, there's a state of mind called bodhicitta. Say bodhicitta. Bodhi means enlightenment, right?

Like Buddha comes from the same root. Citta means your mind. And some people have translated enlightenment mind.

It doesn't mean that. It's a wrong translation. It means the wish to become enlightened, okay?

Because you love other people, okay? So out of concern for others' welfare, you wish to become an enlightened being. Who can serve them, right?

It's love. It's the ultimate kind of love. It's the kind of love that we were talking about in the plane, right?

It's the plane, airplane love, you know, between people. And then Buddhism goes into long, long, long, many, many trainings on how to develop that kind of love. There are many scriptures, and there are many techniques of meditation for how to develop that kind of love.

And I would like to. I personally would like to feel that what I felt on the plane. I would like to feel it all the time, right?

It would be beautiful. It would be... Then life would be something special, you know?

So there are many scriptures and many meditations you can do. And then there are tantric practices for reaching the same state of love, okay? And they involve the inner body.

They involve the chakras and the channels and prana. And they go at it from a different angle, you see? You go at it from the inner body.

You try to develop love, the airplane love for others through physical practices such as asanas or kriyas or practice with a partner. And you try to find... You try to open the channels and the chakras in such a way that you come to a deep state of love that way, okay?

And those are two very different traditions, you see? One is you could call open teachings in which you try to develop love for others through meditation and through empathy, through your own experiences that you felt. And then the other one is where you go at it through the inner body and you try purposely to move prana through the inner body which could trigger a state of love or compassion.

So what I thought would be interesting would be to, for three days, for three evenings talks, to alternate between the two. I thought it would be really interesting to sit together, go through one of the great meditations that are meant to develop that kind of love for people and then intersperse it with the practices of the prana and the chakras which are meant to bring on the same kind of love, you see? So you would have a, what do you call?

I always see it like a military attack, like a pincher, what do you call? Maneuver. You know, two-pronged maneuver.

So over here you would be doing meditations to try to bring on a state of love. And then over here you would be working in the inner body with special practices that are meant to move the prana in your body. And I thought it would be beautiful to try to go at it from both angles, you see?

In the same time, for three evenings. And then my hope is that in the three evenings you would be left with a practice of meditation and a practice of asana or practice of the physical body, the inner body, that you could use both of them and we could try to develop this kind of love, you know? And that's a tradition.

It's called Chinon Tabla Torbe. We'll talk more about it. So what I'd like to do is go at it from both sides, all right?

And I just thought it would be really, really nice. And then if after three days we had a practice that we could do regularly. And personally I like to understand the practice, you see?

So that means we'll go deeply through the meditations. We will go through many ancient sources for those meditations. And for the chakra work, I mean we'll go through a very detailed explanation of what happens inside your body with the prana and the chakras.

What happens as you reach a state of deep love? What's happening to your prana? And what's going on with your chakras?

And can you sort of, what do you call it, force it? Can you make it come faster? And there are beautiful, beautiful teachings on that in the text on the inner body.

So what I'd like to do is go very detailed into the two presentations, okay? One is a meditative presentation and then the other is an inner body presentation. And what I want to do is bring you to that experience.

There's a peak experience of love. There's a very unique experience of love in meditation which is triggered by work with your chakras. And if you can reach it, then your life will change forever.

Your life will never be the same and you will never be the same person. It doesn't take very long, it's five minutes maybe. It's like five minutes in a meditation.

And if you can induce it in a person's soul, right? Then that person changes forever and you will never ever be the same and you can never ever not feel deep love for other people. There's a very, very profound experience that you can bring on with the right training.

And what I'd like to do is see how many people we can get there. And it doesn't take more than a few minutes. I don't imagine, frankly, that you can do it in three days but I think we can start you on the practices and then you can have that experience.

And after that happens to you, there's nothing else that you need, okay? There's nothing else that you lack. It changes you forever.

It changes how you act, it changes how you speak, it changes everything about you. And you will always be in love with other people, okay? And it's a beautiful thing to be there.

So I want to try to induce that. It's like inducing labor, right? I feel like, you know, could we speed it up?

Not you, okay, you have to wait. But could we precipitate the process? Could a few people in the room reach that experience?

And it's extraordinary. We'll talk about the experience, all right? So I'm going to first start with how this experience is described in a sutra, okay?

So sutra, in Buddhism, sutra can have two meanings. Sutra can mean a teaching by the Buddha, you know, like Heart Sutra or Diamond Cutter Sutra. Or it can mean, hang on.

Bless you. Bless you. That's a prana, okay.

Okay, yeah, it may take that. There's a... One of the meanings of sutra, though, is as opposed to tantra.

So the word sutra can mean teaching love in an open way, which you could teach publicly and you could teach to people who are not interested in the inner body, okay? And that would be a sutra presentation. So I thought we could start with a sutra presentation on how you develop love for other people.

How would you develop this love for other people? And if you can reach that love, your life is just happy all the time, okay? You're deeply happy all the time.

And you feel inspired easily to work for other people tirelessly. You don't need much rest and you just feel deeply inspired to serve other people, which is a very beautiful place to be, okay? You just want to make other people happy and you spend all your time doing that.

And it's a very beautiful life. It's a good life. If you can sort of overcome your selfishness and reach a real concern for others.

And I think more importantly, if you have something to offer other people. You see what I mean? Like you can love other people and you can wish them well, but if you don't have anything to offer them, then they will just get old and die and...

You know, if your love could take manifestation in some kind of gift that you could give to people that would save their life, literally, take them beyond death, then that would be a love... You see, you could be in love with everybody and have nothing to offer them. But you could also be in love with everybody and have ultimate things to offer them, ultimate happiness and deathlessness.

And it would be nice to have the second, right? It would be nice to be like the second. And you can and you will, okay?

And I just want to, over the course of three evenings, to see if I can give you a feeling of that and how nice it would be and try to help you get there, okay? So here we go. To begin with an open teaching, a sutra teaching on developing compassion, there was a sutra that I read many years ago.

I think it was... I don't know. It was over...

It was about 30 years ago. And I was reading this sutra. I was teaching a class and the sutra was mentioned and I went and got the sutra and I...

And I read the sutra and it was so beautiful and it told a story about love, okay? And I thought I would tell you this story. This is a typical open teaching about developing love.

And the Buddha... It's called Karma Vibhanga. Say karma.

Karma Vibhanga Karma means karma. Vibhanga means to break or to fracture Bhagav comes from that and Vibhanga means to present all the divisions of karma. In Tibetan it's called Lekhi Namje.

Nje meaning to divide. So Lekhi Namje means I will teach you about the different forms of karma. Lord Buddha gave a talk called a teaching on the different forms of karma.

This is getting serious about the air conditioning. And what did they say? They said it was all the way out and they couldn't do anything else.

Okay. All right. Turn down the tumult, okay?

So the sutra was called Karma Vibhanga which means the different forms of karma. The different types of karma. And there's a story in that sutra.

And I got it out. You have to thank the state of Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles that they have cut the staff so much that I could find and translate most of the sutra during my stay there a couple of days ago. I'm not kidding.

But I found the sutra again and I was number 629 J. And there were two ladies there. Anyway.

So in this sutra Lord Buddha is describing to the monks he's talking to his monks about karma. He says, I want to teach you something about karma. So he said, and I translated it and I put it in the reading for you.

Because I love the story. It's one of the most beautiful stories in Buddhism that I've read. So Lord Buddha says there was a time many, many human lifetimes ago.

He says bhakti mepa. It means billions of lifetimes ago. Okay?

There was a time. And there was a young man. His name in Tibetan is what was that?

Jampa Chodzin. Say Jampa. Chodzin.

So Jampa means maitri. Right? Love.

And Chodzin means yajna which is the ancient Vedic rituals of sacrificing. Okay? So his name was Maitri Yajna.

And he was the son of a ship captain. Okay? And his father had gone to see...

This is in India, right? His father had gone to see many times. He had visited Ceylon, Sri Lanka.

And he had gone to Indonesia. We went recently to Jakarta and to Yogyakarta in Indonesia. It's a long journey and it's a hard journey.

Even just on the plane.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
He went by ship from India. It takes about, in the old days, 13-14 months on a ship. And those ships were like rafts.

They're just open rafts with little sticks on them. And so he traveled, the father went and he died at sea. First he had many successful trips and he came home with lots of money and things to sell.

And then finally he died at sea. Then as his son was growing up, the son had many friends and they were talking in the Sashingiroa, which means a park, Kungaroa, same thing, like park of fruit trees. And they would sit around there.

And they all said, look, our town is a town of seafarers and it's weird for us young people not to go to sea. Just because your father died doesn't mean we can't go to sea. We can see the world and we can make our fortune like our fathers did.

And we want you to lead us. They asked Maitri Yajna, would you lead us and we'll go to sea. And you know, we'll have adventures and we'll get rich and we'll come home.

And he said, OK, I like it. So he went home and he told his mother, I'm going to go to sea. And she's like, your father went to sea, he died.

You're the only person I have left. I ask you not to go. And she says, we have lots of money from father.

We don't need money. There's no reason to go. And you're all I have.

And I ask you not to go. I'm asking you as your mother not to go. And he says, I'll obey your wishes, mother.

He wasn't American. He was Indian. And he said, I will obey your wishes.

And then time went on. They had another meeting in the park and probably they Facebooked a lot. And then his friend said, really, let's go.

And then he went home again and asked his mother, told his mother, I really have to go. And she said no. And he respected her wishes.

The third time, she grabbed his, she knelt at his feet and she clasped his legs and she begged him not to go. And then he agreed not to go. And a fourth time, he agreed not to go.

Fifth time, his friend said, we're leaving, okay. If you don't come, we're leaving. Then he went home and he told his, his mom had locked up all his stuff in a cabinet.

He went home and broke open the cabinet. He got all his stuff out and he packed it up in a pack and he went to the door. And his mother was there.

And again she grabbed him by the leg and she knelt down and she begged him not to go. And he pushed her with his foot. And accidentally he kicked her head, kicked on the head.

And then she fell back and he ran. And he went down to the, he went down to the sea and got into a ship with his friends and they left. And then, on the way to Indonesia, they ran into a typhoon and the ship sank.

And everyone drowned except for Maitreya. And then he grabbed on to some bottles, like metal bottles that were in the ship and he tied them together and he just hung on. And then the currents just carried him.

And he spent days floating on the currents. And then he came to an island. He landed on a beach.

And he stepped out on the water and he looks up and there's this city. It looks like, what do you call it? Disneyland in LA.

You know? Except all the walls are made of gold, pure gold. And the city, all the turrets of the city and all the buildings are made of pure gold.

And he's looking at the city. And he gets out of the water and he walks across the sand. And then the gates of the city open.

And four goddesses, four beautiful goddesses come out of the city. And they take him by the hand and they say, come with us. And he goes into the golden city.

And they say he spent several hundred thousand years there with these goddesses, enjoying himself. They word in Tibetan is tsewa. I almost translated it to sport but it doesn't sound the same.

It means to have a really good time. To play. It means to play.

Like Lalita in Sanskrit. It means to play. And he played with them for hundreds of thousands of years.

He didn't get old. And he played with these ladies and he played with them. And then one day they said to him, you know, you can't really stay.

This is not really your place. And then, if it should come that you ever lose your way and you lose, you can't get back to the city, you should go north. Just go north.

They gave him this advice. One day he was outside the gates of the city and he got, what do you call it? Disoriented?

And he wandered through a forest and then he couldn't get back to the city. So he kept walking and walking and walking and he found, he came across another city but the walls were made of silver. Pure silver.

same story, except it was eight goddesses came out of the walls and took him inside and they played for, they say thousands of years. And he enjoyed the pleasures of their company for thousands of years. Then, same thing happened, they said, if you, if you lose the city, then you should go north.

So he did. One day he got lost in the woods and he traveled north. He came to a city of lapis, pure lapis, basilite.

And then, same story, but it was sixteen goddesses and then the next city was thirty-two. Oh, I forgot to tell you an important thing. Before they went to sea, standing at the dock, he suggested to all his friends, we should take vows, you know, we should take one-day vows, okay?

It's called dom-ba-gye, the eight, tim-gye, it's called the eight vows. It's an eight vows of a one-day vow, no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, no alcohol, like this. No sitting on high seats, no luxury, like this.

They took a, they took a vow of, of mindfulness for a one-day, right? And, so then he came to a city of Christo and the same thing, he said, how many goddesses? Thirty.

Sorry, that was thirty-two. Four, eight, sixteen, then thirty-two, okay? Then one day he left that city and he got lost, but this time he entered a forest of thorns, a forest of thorn bushes, very difficult to get through the thorns.

And, then he came to this city and the walls are made of iron, black iron. And, he wandered through the gates, he stepped inside the gates and then the gates slammed behind him, like this. And then he hears this screaming, he hears this person screaming at the top of their lungs, you know?

And he's like, what is this place? And he looks up on the, on the top of the parapet of the wall and there's a man standing there, okay? And, he's screaming, he's just screaming.

And he says, what's wrong? And the man comes down the stairs and then he can see there's a crown, an iron crown on his head, right? And inside the crown there are these little razor blades, like wheels and knives and they are chopping away at his head.

They are, the knives in the crown are, are chopping away at the flesh of his head and cutting open his head. And they just keep going and he can't get it off. He tries to help him get it off and they can't get it off, it won't come off.

And he's, and he's like, what is this thing? And he said, I, what did you do? How did this crown, by the way, those of you who studied what?

Lojong, the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, this is the crown, this is the real crown. It's not some wheel of sharp weapons, it's a crown of, of small knives cutting away at his head and you can't get it off, you know? And he said, how, how did you come to this place and how did this crown come to your head?

You know? And, and what do you eat? How did, how do you live here?

And he says, I've been here thousands of years. I've been here many thousands of years, you know? He says, so how do you survive?

He says, blood comes down my face when I drink it and I haven't died, you know? And then he says, well, what did you do that this crown came on your head? What was the karma that you did for this crown to come on your head?

He said, I was a young man. I lived in a city near the sea. My father was a ship captain but he died at sea and, and I always wanted to go to sea and my friends and I talked about it many times and I decided to go and I talked to my mother and I asked her permission and she said no and I obeyed her for four times and then on the last day I kicked her head by accident running from the house and I went to sea and the ship sank and I swam and I came to this land and I walked across the face of the land and first I saw a golden city and four goddesses came out, you know? And, Jampa Chidin, he's like, ahhh and then the guy keeps telling him, then I spent a long time in the golden city and then I was in the silver, then I came here and I walked in and the door shut behind me and there was a man standing on the parapet screaming and he had this thing on his head, you know? And he came down the steps and he told me his story and then the crown came off his head through the air and came to my head.

And then, my tree, my tree yajna, he's like, oh my god, you know? He said, he told the man, I've done the same thing, I've done exactly the same thing, you know? The man said, I think so because I heard a voice today and it said, your time is finished, the time of the crown is finished, another one comes to take the crown, you know?

And, oh, so, my tree yajna, he's like, oh my, you know, he's like, seeing the pain that the man is in and he, he gets very, very frightened and, and the man drops dead and the crown goes into the air, you know? And then he, it moves towards him and then he's very frightened and he, but he closes his eyes and he prays for his mother, you know? He just makes a prayer for his mother and he says, in my last, you know, moments here, I pray for my, I pray for the, my mother, that she should be happy.

And then something breaks open in his heart, something breaks open and he says, you know, may the crown come on my head and may all the pain of the world come through the crown to me, you know? I will take the pain of the entire world through the crown. Let the crown come, now, to my head.

And I choose to take not only that pain, but I choose to take the pain of every living creature in this world, human or animal, all their pain. Let it come, now, through the crown to me. He chooses to accept the pain and he prays that the pain of all people and creatures would come to him through the crown.

And he waits for the crown to fall. Oh yeah. And then because of his prayer, the crown cannot come down.

Okay? The prayer cannot come down. And the crown stays here.

You know? And it never touches his, his flesh. It never touches him.

So he stays there many years. The crown is following him around. It can't touch him.

It cannot come down because he had that one moment, you see, of real love. You know? He had the one moment of wishing that he could take on the pain of all people.

And then Lord Buddha finishes the story. He says, he says, don't think that was someone else. Okay?

Don't think that boy was someone else. That was me. That was me in a former life.

That was myself. And that's, and I, that's how I found love. You know?

It was through a very terrible tragedy that I found love. You know? And that's how I found love.

So that's the sutra in the scriptures. This is how love is often found through a tragedy. Okay?

And when we are training in bodhicitta, when we are trying to learn how to become a bodhisattva, then in the scriptures, they say if you're lucky you have a tragedy in your life. Okay? Your mother dies in your arms.

My brother killed himself. And if you're lucky, something like that happens. And then you, in the depths of true tragedy, and sadness, somehow it opens your heart.

And you're able to love other people. Because you have some deep tragedy in your own life. Because something really bad happens to you.

Then something opens in your heart and you're able to notice that other people are suffering. You know? Other people have the same thing.

Whatever tragedy you have, other people have that tragedy and many, many other tragedies. Because life is tragic for everyone. There's no one who's protected from those tragedies that happen to everybody.

If you haven't had one yet, you will. They come. And life is...

They define many people's lives. The deaths that have occurred around them or the accidents that have happened to them or to their friends and changed their lives forever. Our lives are defined by these tragedies.

And then many of us cannot open our hearts until a tragedy comes. It takes some great pain or suffering to notice what other people are going through all the time. Okay?

So they say, if you're lucky, you have a tragedy and then you step first upon the path. So the path has five stages. All spiritual evolution occurs in five stages.

And at the level of a bodhisattva, on a bodhisattva's track, you enter the first stage to a tragedy. And you see what life is and death and suffering of a life. And that puts you on the path.

It starts you on the path, you see? That's the open teaching, okay? That's the traditional presentation of how you first get love for other people.

It's through a tragedy in your own life. And then you're able, because your heart is open, you're able to see what's happening to other people. Okay?

So that's the open teaching. What I'd like to do next, I'd like to take a break. And then what I'd like to do is I'll give you the tantric version, okay?

The inner body version of the same experience, you see? Like related to chakras and to the prana within your body and let you, let us work from the inside and from the outside, in both directions, okay? So I'll take a break.

I'll be here, I'll stay here if you want to say hi, if you have a personal question, or you just want to say hi, you can come talk. Try to be sensitive that there are other people who also would like to talk, okay? And if you don't get through the line in the first night, don't get all worried, okay?

Because I'll be here a couple other nights and I'll stay late the last night, okay? Unless they kick me out. And you'll get there, so don't be all stressed, okay?

And just come and talk. Maybe we'll take a 10-15 minute break and then we'll come back and we'll continue on the inner body way to open the heart, okay? And then I'll give you a little bit, we'll start on the inner body methods for developing love.

And then I would like to open the floor for questions if you have any questions. The questions don't have to be relevant or very good, okay? You can ask about anything you want.

I think, ask about what's on your mind, okay? What's on your own mind. And especially if you're having some problem or you're struggling with something yourself.

And I think that helps everybody in the room, you see? If someone is very honest about something that's challenging them at this moment and they ask about it, then it helps everybody in the room, okay? So don't be shy and don't feel weird.

It doesn't have to be relevant to what I'm teaching, okay? Just ask about what's on your mind right now and something you need help with. And then I think it will help everybody, alright?

So we'll do, first we'll have a short meditation. Then I'll talk a little bit about inner body and love. And then we'll go into some questions, okay?

So I'd like to introduce you to the text, the root text that we're studying, okay? Say, Ø Ø Gil Gil Chilö Chilö Ø Gil Ø Gil Chilö Chilö Ø means light. Gil means a stream.

Chilö means a song of spring. And Chilö's are very common in Tibetan scripture, Sanskrit scripture. Chilö means a song of springtime.

Because the heart chakra, inside the heart chakra, the very core of the heart chakra is a tiny drop which is known as Chitik. Say, Chitik. Chitik It means the drop of spring, okay?

The drop of springtime. Why it's called that, and what it does, we'll be talking about. Because it's important for the development of that airplane love.

So this is a song about that part of the body and the coming of spring. I'd like you to go to page one. And just as a blessing, we start the Tibetan with you, okay?

Are you ready? Tsawe Tsawe Lame Lame Chinchinki Chinchinki Minte Minte Dukor Dukor Chukyotpe Chukyotpe Seme Seme Jiten Jiten Chilö Chilö Gel Gel Degun Degun Ngeche Ngeche Luntantok Luntantok So this is the first of the eight verses of this poem. It was written by a monk named Nossan Chinzin.

So Tsawe Lame means your heart teacher. Tsawe Lame, the first words mean heart teacher. Chinchinki means by their kindness.

Something happens at the at the heart chakra, okay? Something happens at the heart chakra. So now we're, second half of the class, we're gonna talk about the tantric or the yogic view of what's happening inside your inner body.

When you when you feel like you want to cry for love of other people, you see? Like on the plane or something like that, okay? When you have an experience like that, what's happening inside your your heart chakra?

In terms of the inner body, how would you reach the same place as the young man who is willing to take on the pain of the world? You see? How would you reach the same place in terms of the inner body, okay?

And for this you need to know a thing called pancha marga. Say pancha marga. Pancha means five, okay?

The word finger comes from pancha, okay? Because there's five of them. I mean on one hand.

And marga means five paths. And these are five steps. Five steps in everyone's spiritual evolution.

No matter who you are, no matter what tradition you follow, sooner or later you will go through five different steps in your spiritual evolution, alright? From what? From a human being to a a being of light, okay?

There are five steps that everyone goes through in that process, okay? And these are called the five paths or the five stages, okay? You can go through those stages on three levels.

The lower two levels. In the lower two levels you are going through the five stages because you don't want to have suffering yourself. You want to free your own self from suffering.

In the higher track of those five stages this is what we call the bodhisattva track, okay? And your goal is to protect the world, the whole world from suffering, not just yourself, okay? So I'm going to describe how a bodhisattva goes through the five stages, alright?

And you have to remember that it means a person who wants to help the world, a person who doesn't want the world to suffer, alright? And they're a part of the world, okay? Don't forget that.

The bodhisattva themself is always one of the people they are saving, okay? It's not like you save everybody else and you forget about yourself. You do everybody at the same time, okay?

So here we go. We talked about the first path. The first of the five paths, the first stage of every person's spiritual evolution is a tragedy of some kind, okay?

They become aware of the pain of the world, alright? Somehow, in some way, they become aware of the pain of the world and they take a true concern in the pain of the world, alright? And everybody has their own story.

People tell me terrible stories about how they first discovered pain and it seems like the worse the story, the better the student, okay?

[Speaker 2]
So...

[Speaker 1]
Well, the more committed they are, right? Okay? So, if you have a terrible story, be happy, okay?

Second level, second path. In the pursuit of trying to stop the pain of the world, you gain some great insight into how the world works, right? And in your pursuit of bringing happiness to the entire world, you have some very great breakthrough understanding how the world works, okay?

Basically meaning that the world is coming from how you treat other people, but we'll talk about it in more detail, okay? You have a breakthrough in seeing how you could modify the world because the world is flowing from your own mind. You have a...

a deep understanding comes to you of how the world is flowing from your own mind. This happens to everybody. Sooner or later it happens to everybody and that's the second of the five paths, okay?

The third path is probably the most crucial. It's called tolam. Say tolam.

Tolam. Tola means to see. Lam means a path.

And sometimes it's called the path of seeing. Because you have been working on trying to understand where the world is coming from, you meditate deeply, you practice deeply. And then in deep meditation, tolam can only be...

The first part of tolam only occurs in deep meditation. You must be in deep meditation and you will have a direct insight into reality, okay? You will have a direct perception or you can say a communion with ultimate reality, okay?

And it's... It doesn't take more than 20 minutes or something. It's 20 minutes of time.

It occurs in deep meditation. It takes billions of lifetimes to get there, okay? You are lucky you are in good times.

You can do it in this life. You are at the last life of billions of lifetimes. In Tibet they say, you are the bullet brushing the target.

You know? You are the bullet... The metal front of the bullet is brushing the paper of the target and the bullet is about to pass through the target.

You are there. You have a time. You have chance.

You have the teachings. You can do it in this lifetime. But you have a...

In deep meditation you have a a direct communion with a higher reality. If you have that communion, if it happens to you, you will become enlightened within a short time. What's a short time?

Let's say 500 years or something, okay? No, compared to trillions of years. Countless years, okay?

You are very close, okay? If you have that experience, then you become unstoppable, okay? That experience does something to your mind and you can't be stopped.

You will become an enlightened being within a short time. Very, very short time, okay? If you can reach that...

What was that? Only my lama has the number.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. So, during that time that you have that 20-minute experience, you are in such a deep meditation that you can't hear anything. You can't see anything.

You cannot be aware of the passage of time and you cannot even be aware of yourself, okay? During that 20-minute experience, the meditation is so strong and so deep that you cannot be aware of any other thing. Only ultimate reality, which is completely different from this reality, okay?

You cannot be aware of any part of this reality during that 20 minutes. And that's not even talking about what you're seeing. You see what I mean?

The meditation is so strong that if somebody put McDonald's french fries in front of your nose, you wouldn't smell anything, okay? It's pretty deep, alright? And then you go into a direct perception of ultimate reality.

Inside the body, inside the chakras, something extraordinary is happening at that time. You see? Mentally, in the meditation, unusual things are happening.

You are having a perception which can create a perfect world within a few lifetimes, okay? Something is happening in your mind. But in parallel to that, something is happening in your chakras and in your inner body and it's very, very unique, okay?

And we'll talk more about it. And you've had a lot of those teachings. Basically, you have a channel running from this point below the skull, runs under the skull, comes out in front of your spine at the base of the neck and then travels down the body.

They say very close to the front of the spine and then comes down to the groin and then there are side channels that split off. There are other channels that split off. But mainly you have one channel Sushumna in Sanskrit.

Say Sushumna. In Tibetan it's called Tsa Uma. Say Tsa.

Tsa Uma. Okay? And it runs from here down to the groin.

Normally the channels inside your body carry prana. The channels inside of your body carry a special energy called prana. But prana cannot travel through the central channel now.

If you have a human body of flesh and blood, it's proof that your central channel is not open. Alright? If you have this body now, it has formed around a central channel which was blocked, okay?

And which was choked. And that creates the build-up of a stuff called flesh. Okay?

You get a build-up of what's called flesh. And that's your body. That's your gross body.

So, because the central channel is not open, because the prana cannot flow through the central channel, the body itself forms in the womb. Okay? And you take on a mortal body.

A body which will die. A body which is doomed to die. A body which must die.

Okay? Left untreated by yogic practice, the body must die. Okay?

If you know how to practice properly, the body doesn't have to die. But that's because you will open the central channel. Okay?

Normally, in most people, the central channel doesn't open for the passage of prana except for two times in their lifetime. Okay? You know all this.

We've done this for ten years. During death, as you die, the central channel opens briefly. Okay?

The knots that choke the central channel open briefly during the experience of death. When urine is released, and feces is released, and blood will flow from the nose, and then all the inner knots are opened. Okay?

Not by any yogic practice. Just by the nature of karma. Okay?

When you die, all of your chakras loosen. And in your central channel, prana flows for the first time. And then the winds, the downward winds and the upward winds are released to flow freely, and you do your last act, which is to pee-pee and to poop.

And blood flows from your nose, and you die. The consciousness passes. Okay?

Also in the act of sex. Okay? During a full orgasm, for a few seconds, the central channel is opened.

Okay? And prana flows through the central channel very, very briefly. Then there's an ejaculation or a release of fluid, and then the nature of karma at that point is that they close up tighter than before.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
And you feel exhausted, or you don't feel well really. It's a release of prana briefly. And then there's a reaction.

The knots tighten again. And you don't feel that way an hour later. You see what I mean?

During the actual orgasm, your central channel is open and the prana is briefly flowing. And then it shuts again. And that's because especially knots that are tied around the channel, the central channel open.

Okay? So only in those two times of life is your central channel open. And if you're able to see, if you're able to go into the direct perception of ultimate reality, then the channel opens.

Okay? The central channel opens. In that deep meditation and in that deep perception of where all things come from and the direct communion with a higher...

I think it's what people probably thought was God, who may have been in a tradition like Christianity or Judaism and they have this experience, they would think it was God. Okay? It's a direct communion with that...

with that higher reality. Okay? And then your central channel opens, wide open.

And you have this experience. You see? So the purpose of yoga in Buddhism, in Tantra, is to bring on that experience.

The whole purpose of asana in Buddhism is to open the central channel, to get the knots out of the central channel and to open it. And then you will have this experience of ultimate reality. So we work on the various poses of asana, which we'll talk more about tomorrow.

There are special series of poses and progressions of poses that would facilitate the opening of the chakras, so that you would have the direct perception of ultimate reality. Okay? So I'm now on the third path, right?

And we just had our first direct perception of ultimate reality. Maybe 20 minutes. And it's an unstoppable force that will, within a relatively short time, make out of you an enlightened angel with the power to stand on billions of planets at the same moment and serve billions of living beings at the same moment.

It's cool. Okay? It's really cool.

This body is a mistake. This body is crap that built up. This is...

I have mineral in my water in Arizona, okay? And I have a drip system for the garden. And every year I have to throw all the pieces into vinegar because minerals deposit on all holes and the sprinklers won't work.

Minerals build up. Your body has built up on your channels like that. The flesh of your body has built up like mineral deposits on a sprinkler, you know?

And then when you open the channels that dissolves. It's like vinegar, okay? And then your flesh changes.

And you go to where your body was supposed to be which is light, okay? This is not the natural condition of the body. This is doomed.

This flesh will get wrinkled and old, you know? There's a joke in Buddhism if you spend two hours in a yoga class you're two hours closer to your death when you get out. You know?

It's not that it made you younger. Okay? So...

Seeing ultimate reality will change the body. Then something happens in the hours following your first communion with ultimate reality, okay? Something happens in the hours following that experience.

You see? You basically go back to the same way you were before. You cannot maintain that perception.

It's not possible. You don't have the karma. It's not...

Nobody can maintain it more than 20-30 minutes the first time. It's not possible. It takes a tremendous amount of karma to see ultimate reality directly.

Nobody can sustain that perception for more than a half hour. It's not possible. The first time.

So you've used up the karma and then you come out of the direct perception of ultimate reality. And then you're back in the world of McDonald's, French fries and... and, you know, the room that you're sitting in and your own body and Michael.

You come back into Michael. You see? Because Michael wasn't there either.

Michael was gone for that time because Michael's not ultimate reality. Okay? You come back to your body, to yourself, to your mind.

You remember what happened but you can't see it anymore. Alright? It's not possible.

You can't sustain it. But something cool happens, okay? This is on a tantric level.

Inside, your central channel hasn't closed back all the way yet. Okay? It was opened completely.

Your heart chakra was opened completely. But it doesn't... It's not like the moment you come out of the meditation it just closes again.

It stays open for a couple... It stays open until you fall asleep the same day. You can call it about twelve hours or eight to twelve hours.

The channel is still open. Okay? And cool stuff happens.

Because when the channel is open, your whole mind is freed. Okay? You can see the future.

You can see the day of your own enlightenment. And you can see what you will look like in that moment. Okay?

You can read other people's minds. Clearly. Exactly what they're thinking.

You can hear it in your own mind. Okay? Like you can go to a used car salesman.

And... Let's say you have this happen to you and you wanted to make an offer to your mom or something. And you said, I'll sell my car.

Because that's all the money you had. Right? And then you go take your car and you tell the guy, I need money right now.

And I'll take whatever money you have. Whatever you want to give me, I'll take. Then you can hear the person's mind.

Clearly. Directly. You can hear, Ha ha!

This little guy is a fool. You know? This is going to be good.

I can make some money out of this guy. You know? And then they...

You're talking to them verbally, but you're hearing the thoughts behind in their mind while they're talking. And it's it's very amazing and it's very dis... What do you call it?

Dismayed. Ha ha! To really hear a person's thought as they're talking to you.

You know what I mean? To hear both at the same time is... The dissonance between the two is quite disturbing.

Okay? Ah... So, four in the hours following the direct perception of ultimate reality, the central channel is still open.

It's in the act of closing. It's... It's closing as you...

And... And then when you fall asleep that line, it has closed. Okay?

The whole thing is... And it's over. And it may take you lifetimes to come back to that experience.

Okay? It's a very unique experience. But something else cool happens during that time.

All right? During those hours. In Tibetan, we say, Jai Top?

Yeshe. Jai Top Yeshe. In Tibetan, it's called Jai Top Yeshe.

Jai Top means the aftermath of seeing reality. In the hours following that experience. When you came down out of that experience, your heart chakra is still open.

Your heart chakra is still slightly open. Okay? And then you can have this experience of ultimate love.

You see? What I'm trying to describe, I've tried to lead you to another way of having the experience of ultimate love that the Buddha described about the son of the ship captain. You can get to this love a different way.

You can travel a different path to the same sort of love. And it's much, much more beautiful. And it's extraordinary.

Your heart chakra... If you can open your heart chakra briefly, then there's this intense feeling of colorless water, colorless liquid bursting out of your heart like a geyser. I tried to find a picture of it.

I googled for like an hour and gave up. That picture is the closest I could come. But don't imagine it coming down.

Imagine it coming this way out of your heart. Imagine that colorless... We call it...

It's like a bar of colorless water like from a hydrant that's flowing really hard. So it's like a bar of colorless light. It's light which has no color.

And it bursts out of your heart chakra. So that's what it feels like. It feels like it's bursting out of the front of your chest like a colorless light.

And I believe that's where they got the name clear light. But it's... I think the word is a little insufficient.

It's a colorless light. That's the point. It's a light which has no color.

And you feel it and you can see it bursting out of your chest. Okay? Then you have this intense experience where...

Let's say you're on a... Let's say you're passing a bus in your car, right? And you look up at the bus and you're passing the bus in a taxi.

And then you see the faces of the people one by one, right? So as the car is passing the bus... We're assuming the bus is slower than the cab.

And you look up and the people are looking down at you in the cab. And you see one face in one row and then you see that person in the next row and then you see the face of the person in the next row one by one, right? So you see maybe ten faces out the window of the cab.

Now try to imagine something that you could see all ten faces at the same time. Distinctly. In the same place.

Okay? Shorten the time and you perceive ten faces in the same place at the same moment. Okay?

Try to imagine that. That you saw the ten faces of the people on the bus but it didn't happen one after another. It all happened at the same time.

Okay? You saw all ten faces at the same time right in front of you. Okay?

Got it? Multiply that times all the faces of all the people in this world. Six billion faces at the same moment.

Okay? Throw in all the creatures who are not human. Okay?

From amoebas to fish to insects to birds. Throw in the faces of every other kind of living thing in this world. You are watching this many faces at the same time.

In the same moment. Because your heart chakra is open. When the heart chakra is open you have this capacity.

The natural capacity of a human being is to be able to see billions upon billions of faces of the living creatures on this planet at the same time. That is your natural state. Your present limitation only to be able to see one face on the bus after the other.

That's a mistake. That's not your natural condition. Okay?

You are blocked from your natural condition. Having a body which is mortal and which is aging is not your natural condition. You are blocked because of the knots in your channels.

Okay? Now multiply that times all the worlds on which there are living beings. Okay?

Try to imagine in a single moment looking upon the face not of every living creature in this world but all the worlds there are. Like multiply that times an infinite number of worlds. Okay?

You are watching at the same moment an infinite number of faces on an infinite number of worlds. Because your heart chakra is open and you are back to your normal condition. You are back to your natural condition.

This is your natural condition. You have the capacity. Now add the airplane love to that.

Okay? You are looking on the face of every living being in every world and in the same moment you love them like the people on the airplane. Okay?

You have an intense love and concern for them like the people on the airplane. Try to imagine loving infinite beings as you watch them in the way you would look your lover in the face or something. You see what I mean?

You have one lover, right? And you can look at them in the face and you can feel a certain emotion towards them. Multiply it times the number of faces there are in the whole universe and you have that capacity and that's love.

That's real love. Okay? But you see how we got to it by different means?

You see, the young man waiting for the crown to come down on his head he is having some kind of a emotion where he is wishing that everybody... he is imagining everybody in the world and he is thinking I love them and I want to take their pain. The young man standing waiting for the crown of knives to come down on his head is imagining all the people in the world and loving them and wanting to take their pain.

Now imagine a different person. They are sitting on a meditation cushion. They are just seeing ultimate reality directly.

And now they are in this direct perception of the faces of every living creature in every world where there is life among countless billions of planets and they are loving them all at the same time directly. Okay? And that's love.

That's real love. And if that experience happened to you what would you be after that? How would you act the next day?

What would you be like the next day? If it happened to you once and you knew it was for real how would you feel the next day? I don't know.

It would be nice. I mean try to imagine just try to imagine if you had that experience once and if you knew you weren't like crazy if you knew it was real. No, I mean you have to know, right?

By the way you do have another they call it a confirmation perception. You realize you are not crazy. Okay?

There is another perception which confirms the first perception. Okay? Try to imagine how you would be after that.

Try to imagine how you would be if you had looked in the face of every living thing and loved them like the person you most love in this life. Okay? Try to imagine how you would feel about yourself.

I am capable of loving billions upon billions of beings in the way I love the person I love the most in this life at the same time. And see them all at the same I have this capacity. Then there comes another very beautiful perception.

Okay? One more. Then I'll stop.

Then you can ask questions. There happens another perception. You see in the future the day that you will become a being who can take care of all of them at the same time.

So to be an enlightened being means that you have the capacity to take care of countless people at the same time. You are able to split your body. Avatar, I love that movie.

You know? I love the idea. I love the word avatar.

Okay? You will be you will have countless avatars. You will stand in countless worlds.

You will stand next to countless beings. You will have the capacity without conscious thought. They say, they say shundra.

Shundra means without conscious thought. Without any intention to do so you are suddenly reflected. You are splintered into billions of creatures on billions of planets to serve each person.

Okay? You have this capacity. You see it directly.

You see how you will be. Then what else do you need? I mean what else do you need in your life?

You see? If you have seen that if you have had that experience what what why would you worry about your rent? You know what I mean?

Or the last boyfriend you had? Or you know or traffic? How how would you be after that?

Try to imagine how you would be after that. And you would be really happy. Okay?

Because you would have seen the purpose of your life. And you would have seen how your life is going to turn out. There is not much suspense after that.

Okay? But you you have this capacity. Okay?

So the practices we are going to undertake the practices we are going to discuss in the next two days are all aimed at getting you to that experience. They are we are just going to talk about different ways of getting you to that experience. Because once you have had it then your life is like I can't describe it.

You have to try to imagine what it feels like. You have to try to imagine how would your life be after that? How would you feel towards other people?

And the whole worry about dying or what's going to happen to me or you know what's going to happen to me next year? What's going to happen to me after I die? Or why am I here?

Or what am I supposed to be doing? You would be the only person among thousands who knew why they were here and what they were supposed to be doing. And you would know your future.

And how would you act then? What would your life be like after that? And I suspect that's happiness.

Okay? That's love and that's happiness. You would have love for every other living creature and you would be happy.

You would be deeply, deeply happy. Because there's nothing more fun than to take care of one other person. And then you would have a direct perception of yourself taking care of billions of people at the same time.

And it just there wouldn't be any higher kind of happiness. You would be you'd be happy for the rest of your life. Deeply happy.

Okay? The karma of that experience is that you will never not have a heart teacher.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
The karma of that experience the seed planted by that experience is that you yourself will always be taken care of by a perfect teacher by a perfect heart teacher. Okay? The karma of that experience is that you will never ever be without a heart teacher.

They will always be with you. And wherever you go die, don't die. Wherever you pass because of the few minutes of intention and perception of yourself helping countless beings you earn a heart teacher who will always be close.

Okay? And nothing can change it. Nothing can separate you after that.

It's not possible. Okay? So it's pretty cool, right?

And you have to my goal, what I would like to try is we'll do some more meditations we'll try to get try to induce labor. Okay? And and see if we can induce the experience.

You know? From an outer practices and from inner practices. Okay?

And that's what I that's my that's what I really want to do. If we can do it. Okay?

Maybe we can do it in three days maybe we take longer maybe we do some more later. I don't know. But let's start with let's start with that.

Okay? You know what the goal is now. Okay?

You can have that experience. It will come. Okay?

Alright. We have like 15 minutes if you have any questions. They don't have to be about this.

You know? You can ask me about your boyfriend. If you have any.

Oh! I'm sorry. I got to tell you one more thing because it's on your homework.

So there is homework. There is a certificate for this course. It authorizes you to induce labor in people.

And you'll have to do homework tomorrow and the next day. I think it's I think there is a homework in your folder. And what I'd like to ask is that you I'd like to ask that you should do your homework with somebody else and cheat nicely together.

Okay? So if it's possible for you logistically I would encourage you to do your homework with someone else. There will be people here tomorrow out in the little living room, right?

What I'd like to ask people is that if you can approach someone else in the class whom you don't know. Okay? Whom you have never met.

Even as we leave tonight I'm requesting that you approach somebody that you don't know and say, would you like to do the homework together tomorrow sometime? It could be here, it could be in a coffee shop, it could be anywhere, okay? So I'm asking everybody even if you've come here for ten years I'm asking you there's probably like six people who haven't been here before they're going to get all these people approaching them.

Just approach somebody, don't be shy and just say, you know I normally would never do this but Geshe Michael said I'm supposed to. And would you like to do homework tomorrow together and then do it together, okay? I have to cover the there's three long questions, okay?

The third question I didn't cover yet, okay? I'll cover it for like five minutes then we'll have ten minutes of questions. Do you think these two approaches for developing ultimate love can be reconciled?

Do you think there's some... I'll tell you the two approaches again, okay? One is the traditional sutra approach.

You see? That approach is that you have a tragedy in your life you have a crown of thorns of knives dropping down on your head in about three minutes you know what I mean? And then you are pushed into the experience of love.

Or you're on an airplane and it's going to crash and then suddenly everybody in the... something happens to the hearts of everybody in the plane and you are all forced into this kind of relationship with each other, okay? A sort of an intense love for each other.

Due to some kind of tragedy or disaster, okay? That's the sutra approach. Or the tantra approach or the approach we talked about as far as the inner body.

Your heart chakra just opened for other purposes. And then it's still open. And then you have this perception of of all the living creatures and you have this intense love for all of them.

Can those two approaches be reconciled? Do they meet somewhere? What do you think?

Are they the same or are they different? Two different ways to the same experience? Anybody else?

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Those analytical investigations of method and wisdom, you would lead yourself and it would break down the door.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. So she said basically that you would have intellectual understandings of what we call renunciation, love and the direct perception of emptiness, right? And then...

And then you would be able to break down the doors that separate you from others, like that. Through that intellectual process. Anybody else?

Is there one common force which is creating both experiences? What?

[Speaker 2]
Karma.

[Speaker 1]
Karma. Okay? Okay?

Try to appreciate that, okay? The reason the young man had those thoughts as the crown was coming down was the karma of his love for his mother. Okay?

The reason he was capable of coming to a deeper love in that moment of of terror was karma. You see? He had...

He just finished the paraphrased mantra. Do you remember? Read the text, okay?

You have the translation. Read the thing when you go home, okay? I feel so bad.

I go to somebody's house, the thing is covered with dust. That's okay. I say, did you ever read it?

They say, no. You know, that hurts, okay? So...

So read it on the way home. It's not very long. He makes this intense prayer for his mother's happiness.

And then that triggers all this other higher kind of love. He has created the karma. He has created the seeds in his mind for this breakthrough.

How about the other person? What makes the prana move through the heart chakra? Why does the heart chakra open?

It's karma. It's just karma, okay? You can do all the asanas you want.

You can do twists until you are twisted forever. And it won't open your heart chakra. You see?

The prana won't come through the heart chakra. The reason it comes through the heart chakra is because you've done some great kindness to other people, okay? Then you go to yoga and it opens it.

You see what I mean? The kindness created the yoga class. The kindness created the twist.

The karma of being kind to others created the asana which opened your heart chakra. You see what I mean? So, you can say that the two great methods presented tonight, they meet each other in the sense of karma, okay?

You be kind enough to others often enough and you can have either experience or both experiences, okay? That's what causes them. That's what makes prana flow.

In the end, it's always your kindness to others which makes the prana flow, okay? All right, any questions? We have like 5-10 minutes.

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
I have a question about the text. On page 17, right after the boy makes the prayer for the sake of every being, it goes to, at the same time his mother was making her own prayer, Oh, yeah, I was afraid of it.

[Speaker 1]
and she says, she says, may my son be released, I love him, blah, blah, blah.

[Speaker 2]
And then, then it says, and then so, the karma dies and disappears. So, I wonder, who would have told the story?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Why is that passage there?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, Mercedes is asking about a passage which if you read the selection from the sutra, after the young man completes prayers for all living beings, and the crown is coming down towards his head, it says his mother back home was making prayers for him. His mother back home was dedicating all the karma of her life, you know, all the good deeds she'd ever done. She was taking that karma and she was offering it away to her son wherever he might have gone.

Like she didn't know if he was dead or alive. And she was trying to send her karma to that boy. And then the text says, and then the wheel stopped.

Due to, implying that it happened because of these two things, right? And it's a good point because in our, in our tradition, we say that you cannot give karma to another being. You see what I mean?

You cannot do a good deed. The mother cannot be a good mother and then send the boy the karma by FedEx. You know, like we say that's not possible.

Okay? You cannot share your good karmas with other people. You can't give away your karmic seeds.

It's not possible. What's the proof it's not possible? My car broke down last week.

Twice. Okay? In the same week.

Okay? Aside from being a financial disaster, it was, it was scary. I mean the second time it broke down on the highway going like 70 miles an hour and it started bucking, you know, and I just barely got it off the highway.

So, if it were possible for any enlightened being to take away someone else's seeds at will, I would not have had my car break last week. Got it? The presence of any undesirable thing in your life is itself proof that it's not possible for enlightened beings to take away your seeds because they would have already.

And you wouldn't have had the problem. You don't need to be able to see enlightened beings. You don't need to be able to confirm everything philosophically.

The fact that you got your teeth drilled by the last dentist you ran into is proof that no one can take away your seeds. No, really. It's just itself proof.

And there's no other proof needed. Okay? You can't take away someone else's seeds.

And you cannot give someone your good karma. Why the text states that, maybe you can talk about it in your homework groups. I have no idea.

There's a reason. I mean, the Buddha says things for a reason. The Buddha always says something for a reason.

Now, why? I wondered myself when I translated it. I thought, we should talk about it.

Maybe tomorrow we'll ask if anyone came up with a good idea. Okay? I think we have time for maybe one or two more questions.

You always do. I'm very new to this, so please excuse my ignorance.

[Speaker 2]
I was wondering, if being a light is natural and this is so unnatural, why does it take so long and so much to get to the natural state of things?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good. She said, if being of light is our natural condition, and having a body of mortal flesh and blood is an unnatural condition, why does it take so long to get out of the unnatural condition to go to the natural condition? Did you ever try to scrub mineral deposits off of a sprinkler?

I mean, it's like crazy. I don't know. No, it takes hours and hours.

You soak it in vinegar and then you heat it and then you weigh it and then you struggle against it. Why it is? I would say, maybe the build-up has been taking so long.

You see, the build-up of flesh has gone on for so long. We say, this is not the first build-up of flesh you've had. You've had it countless times.

You've had it billions upon billions of times. So maybe that's what makes it so hard to reverse. Right?

[Speaker 2]
Why did it start to build up in the first place?

[Speaker 1]
Good question. She said, why did it start to build up in the first place? Okay.

The build-up of flesh results from negative emotions, ultimately. Okay? Ultimately.

Also cancer, tumors. Even in this life, a lot of it is emotional, you know, and then flesh builds up. You have a body of flesh and blood because you have anger.

Then you're supposed to ask me, why do I have anger? And then the answer is, because you had a body of flesh and blood before that. And then you're supposed to say, well, where did I get that one?

And then I have to say, anger. And then you get frustrated and you say, well, when was the first body? Which is to say, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

And then a Buddhist has to say, there have always been eggs and chickens. You have, there's no beginning to the lifetimes you have led. You have had this kind of body.

To have this kind of body requires before it a state of anger. To have that anger requires a body before that. There's no beginning.

It's... Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, and then you come out.

You come out of it. We are in a temporary condition. And there are many worlds in which all the people have already changed.

And we are like the... My teacher said I can't say retards anymore. We're like the challenged people.

Like we're like the last people left in the whole universe that didn't get it. You know? And really this is a temporary setback.

Okay? This world where people are killing each other and people are hungry and there's war and there's fighting among us. The people sitting here.

You know? We can't get along with each other. This is all temporary.

Very, very temporary. It's not our natural condition. This is a small setback in the grand scale of things.

It's not our natural condition. We won't stay like this. We're almost out.

Okay, one more question I think. Anybody? Mama Kimberly?

[Speaker 2]
Well, it relates to the natural condition. So, love is our natural condition and she's feeling into the logic of this. Is it a natural condition of our mind?

Is it the inseparability of emptiness and love together as our ultimate condition, as our natural condition that brings love in as our natural condition?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. I was thinking about it today because we had an earlier program at the Three Jewels and we were studying a text on chit chud which is a very, very secret practice about eliminating self. Okay?

And part of the meditation for chud involves recognizing that all beings have been your mother. Right? Like you have been...

You have ripped apart the guts of everybody in this room. Okay? In the past, in your past lives, you have you have struggled your way out of the womb of every person here, male or female.

Okay? You have been born with great pain out of every person here in this room. Okay?

You have killed them in childbirth countless times. You know? And they have given you life at the cost of their life countless times.

So, in the practice of chud, you think about that and you try to develop a kind of what do you call it? Gratitude for the people around you. You know, you see them you say, you know, right now you look like the person who grabbed the last chocolate chip cookie before I did.

But I know in fact that you were my mother in my past life and you lost your life for me and I appreciate it. You know? And you're supposed to think like that.

Which always struck me as odd because they have also murdered you countless times. You see what I mean? You've all murdered each other countless times.

Why? Then, I'm always waiting for somebody to ask me this question, you know, like, well, why don't I just think about how badly they murdered me countless times and then I can abuse them at will. You know?

Everybody I meet has been my... has murdered me. I should get them back.

You know? And you have to come up with an answer which is the following. Love is our natural condition.

Okay? And it is the true condition. And hatred is an unnatural condition.

I... In China they call it Dao. Right?

Dao. Dao, Dao, Fei Zhang Dao. In Daoist idea, which is beautiful, Dao means the natural condition of things, the natural flow of things.

Okay? And to love other people is natural. And to hurt them and to dislike them is unnatural.

Okay? To hurt other people is unnatural. And against the Dao, against the flow of life.

And to love them is in accordance with the flow of life. Why? Because they are not separate from you.

Okay? They are not separate from you. And then you say, that's ridiculous.

She's sitting over there, I'm sitting over here. You know? She got a chocolate chip cookie during the break, I had to talk to people.

You know? We're not the same. You know?

That's not true. We're going to go home now to different houses, probably. And we're not the same.

We don't have the same address. You know? We're not the same.

But then this system, you cannot get any good thing in your life. It's not possible to get anything you want in your life good unless you provide it to someone else first. It's not possible.

Okay? I cannot have anything good, chocolate chip cookie for example. Okay?

I cannot, it's not possible for me to get a chocolate chip cookie in this yoga center tonight unless I give one to someone else before that. Unless I have offered one to someone else before that. It's not possible.

You cannot get a nice car unless you give other people rides. You cannot have a nice house unless you are concerned about sheltering other living beings. You can't have the things you want without providing them to others first.

It's not possible. Because those things are flowing from seeds in your mind which are planted from being kind in the same way to somebody else. You cannot have anything you want unless you provide it to someone else first.

Got it? So what's the difference between them and you? If I cannot have a chocolate chip cookie enter my mouth unless I assure that a chocolate chip cookie enters your mouth first, what's the difference really between the two mouths?

You see? They are in different locations. They are connected to different hands.

And I'm not debating that. But ultimately I cannot get a chocolate chip cookie unless I put one in your mouth first. Then what's the difference between your mouth and my mouth?

Your mouth becomes my mouth. Functionally, I need your mouth. No, I'm interested in chocolate chip cookies.

It's one of my main practices. And I want them. I like them.

And actually I don't, but I'm just giving an example. So don't bring me chocolate chip cookies. But therefore I must assure that they enter the mouths of other people.

And then what's the difference between their mouth and my mouth? Because really their mouth is a conduit to my own mouth. You get it?

So really, in the natural flow of things, love is the natural condition. And hatred is not. Hatred is against the Tao.

To say I'm separate from you and you can suffer and I don't have to suffer, this is against the Tao. This is not the nature of things. The nature of things is that anything you want, you must share.

And when you share, you become the other person. So love is the natural condition. It is our natural condition to take care of each other.

Because you can't take care of yourself without taking care of other people. Okay? And the opposite is not our natural condition.

Because it just hurts us. It's against life to do things which damage yourself. See what I mean?

Which is not sharing. Cool. So you should concentrate on how everybody has born you from their womb.

And you shouldn't worry about all the times they killed you. Okay? That's my answer to myself.

You see? Because the one is the natural way we are and the other is not. Okay?

Got it? Okay, we're gonna do a short prayer to dedicate the good karma. Get some sleep, okay?

The next two nights are gonna go late. They start at 8. So that the yoga here, the yoga teachers here, we don't want to hurt their income.

So we won't have classes until they're done with their classes here. So we'll start at 8. We'll go till 11.

So be ready to put out. Don't be windy, okay? You're gonna save the world.

You can spend an extra hour. Okay? And thank you for coming.

And it's... I love New York. It's an honor to be here.

And I love to have... I love all of the faces, the people here. I know you, most of you.

And... And it's very precious time that we spend. And I look forward to it.

And... And this is a beautiful thing to talk about. And it's a beautiful life to live, to have people, to have friends like you and that we can sit together and talk about these beautiful things.

Okay? I'm very happy and grateful. Okay?

All right. Who's gonna do this? Wait.

I'll embarrass you. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Thank you.