Взять на себя ответственность: введение в практику Чё, сожжение себя (2011, Нью-Йорк), занятие 1

[Говорящий 2]
Hi and welcome. For those of you who have not had the great opportunity to meet or hear Geshe Michael Roach, Geshe Michael Roach is an international scholar of Tibetan, Sanskrit, Russian. He is the first Western person to have been ordained as a Tibetan monk and studied in India, Dharamsala, with his holy teacher, Khen Rinpoche.

The lineage of the Dalai Lama is held with Geshe Michael Roach and many of the teachings that he gives comes from that direct lineage. Geshe Michael Roach is probably the most incredible person I have ever had the opportunity to meet. If you have met him before, I ask you to listen with new ears and see him with new eyes.

If you haven't had the opportunity, may it be a beautiful thing for you. He's teaching today on the ship to Elysium, is that right? Which is the praxis of Chud.

[Говорящий 1]
There's an idea in Buddhism, it's called, I'd like you to repeat the word, okay? Say, LHAG-SAM-NAM-DAG This is a special idea that people ask me, oh, will you give a talk in New York? I thought, I don't know, I'm in the mood for LHAG-SAM-NAM-DAG, okay?

What is LHAG-SAM-NAM-DAG? LHAG-SAM-NAM-DAG is this beautiful idea. LHAG means more.

Like Tibetan, do you know what the favorite Tibetan food is? What's the favorite Tibetan food? Momo.

I mean, momos are like McDonald's hamburgers. They're like Dum-Sing dumplings, okay? This is the favorite Tibetan food.

Say again? Sorry? Oh, you can't hear?

Is that better? Okay, LHAG means leftovers, okay? But you never have LHAG-SAM-NAM-DAG with momos.

Why? Everybody eats them all, okay? Now, THUG-PA, you can have LHAG-SAM-NAM-DAG, okay?

Say THUG-SAM-NAM-DAG. THUG-SAM-NAM-DAG means leftover soup. That's the second, if you don't have any money in Tibet, you have THUG-SAM-NAM-DAG.

So THUG-SAM-NAM-DAG means, is that okay? Can the people in the back hear me okay? THUG-SAM-NAM-DAG means leftovers.

LHAG means extra, okay? Extra soup, extra leftovers. SAM means the thought in your heart.

LHAG-SAM means more than enough kindness in your heart. NAM-DAG means pure. Pure leftover kindness thoughts, okay?

Pure kindness, extra kindness thoughts, okay? LHAG-SAM, say LHAG-SAM. LHAG-SAM-NAM-DAG.

So, LHAG-SAM means you put your mind on what the world could be, okay? You put your mind on what the world could be. You imagine what the world could be.

You imagine a world where no one, there's no conflict. No one is struggling against anyone else. No one is at all unhappy, okay?

A whole world of people who are perfectly happy. A world of people whose bodies never get old. A world of people whose bodies are made of light.

A world where there is no hunger, okay? A world where people don't have to die. And they don't have to worry about what's going to happen after they die, okay?

There's no worry like that. A perfect world, okay? So, LHAG-SAM means I will help build that world.

I will help build a perfect world, alright? I will do it, okay? And LHAG-SAM means a different thing.

LHAG-SAM means I take responsibility for it to happen, alright? I'm not going to wait for someone else to figure it out. I will, myself, stop poverty, stop war, stop aging, stop death, and stop every form of unhappiness in the world.

I will do it myself. I will take responsibility to do that, okay? LHAG-SAM NAM-DAG means that, alright?

And usually in the scriptures it's, what do you call it? Even in the face of opposition, like if people say you're crazy, or people say you're stupid, or people say that's not possible, then you just say, that's okay, I'm going to try, okay? I take responsibility to try to make a perfect world, alright?

And it's a sense of, I don't know, what they call the buck passes, what do you call it? The buck stops here, okay? So, I'm not going to wait for somebody else.

I don't care if nobody else thinks it's even possible. People say it's not possible to have a perfect world. Perfect world is not possible, not reasonable.

Then I say, okay, I appreciate your viewpoint, but I don't accept it. I will work for a perfect world, and I will make a perfect world, alright? And that's LHAG-SAM NAM-DAG.

I will do what I have to do. And then the other idea is that even if no one helps me, if no one else is interested, okay? Even if no one else is interested, A, no one thinks it's possible.

Nobody else thinks it's possible. B, nobody else is even interested to try, okay? C, what?

They fight you, okay? They say, no, no, you can't do that. They actually discourage you.

They take great effort to say, stop thinking like that, you know? Be realistic, you know? It's not going to happen.

The world has been here for a long time. There's still as much war going on now as before. There are still natural disasters.

There are terrible things happening. Who are you to think that you can change the world? Who are you?

You can take responsibility, but you don't have any power to change it. You're not capable of changing the world, alright? So, I thought what I would like to teach today, if I taught about this idea, taking responsibility, I was looking like who gave the best explanation of that, about changing the world and about taking responsibility.

And then I came to a text by the first Panchen Lama, okay? So, there are two great lineages in Tibet, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, okay? And they sort of switch off, because when the Panchen Lama is a kid, the Dalai Lama is older, and then they switch off.

Normally, it was like that, okay? His Holiness, the first Panchen Lama, was named, say, Lobsang? Lobsang Chökyi Gyatsen.

Lobsang Chökyi Gyatsen. He was the first Panchen Lama. He lived from 1570 to 1662, okay?

He was a very unusual Lama for his time. First of all, he was a great poet and a great writer, alright? And his writing is very, very, very beautiful, and very, very special, alright?

Secondly, unlike many Lamas, he didn't stay in a cave. He did go to caves, he did live in caves. He practiced very hard practices.

He was a great tantric practitioner. But he cared about his world, and he cared about the people around him. And there's a story that there were two armies in Tibet that were going to have a war, you know?

Close to where he lived, there was a decision by two leaders in the country that they would fight. And two great armies formed, and they marched towards each other. He heard about it.

He was in retreat. And someone told him, there's going to be a start of battle tomorrow, a war, a civil war will start tomorrow in Tibet, you know? He broke his retreat.

He walked out to the plain between the two armies, you know? And he was a pretty high Lama, you know? And then he looked at them and he said, okay, if you're going to kill each other, you have to kill me first, you know?

I'm not going to allow you to fight, you know? I will stand, the man who swings the first sword, I will stand in front of that sword, and you will have to kill me to kill each other, you know? And he stood his ground, and by himself, a single Lama, he stood between two armies.

And they were afraid to fight, okay? They were afraid to start the war. And they stopped, okay?

They just stopped and they went home. And that was the kind of Lama he was, okay? So, he wrote many, many beautiful poems.

He wrote many high tantric poems. We published some of them, I think. They're very beautiful.

They're very, very beautiful. And then he wrote a little piece about responsibility. He wrote a little piece about Haksam Nampa.

And that piece is in the middle of a book called Chöd. Say Chöd. Chöd.

Chöd. Some people mispronounce it. They say Chöd.

Chöd, okay? That's like, if you come from East Tibet, you talk like that, you'd say Chöd, okay? But it got so popular, the name Chöd, that I thought if I put Chöd here, you might know what I was talking about.

So, I thought it would be fun to go through some of his texts on Chöd, okay? What is Chöd? Chöd means to cut, okay?

You know the Diamond Cutter Sutra in Chinese, Jing Gang Jing. In Tibetan, it's called the Dorje Chöpa. So the Chöpa means to cut.

Dorje Chöpa means to cut the diamond, okay? Diamond Cutter Sutra. And there's a practice in Tibet called Chöd, okay?

There's a practice, very old. It comes from ancient India, alright? It was practiced by yogis in ancient India.

And you can call it the immolation of yourself, okay? You terminate yourself, okay? Like Michael finishes off Michael.

Michael cuts Michael, okay? And that practice is called Chöd, alright? Michael eliminates Michael.

I was thinking about how to express the idea of Chöd. And I found, I remembered a photo that was popular in the Vietnam War. And I put it on the cover here, okay?

If you don't have a reading, can you raise your hand and people will bring you one? Okay. It's a picture of a monk, he's a Buddhist monk who was living in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

And I remember this day. He walked out onto the street in Vietnam. He got a big can of gasoline.

And he said, I object to the war. I object to this war. And as a protest, I will immolate myself in protest of this war.

And we saw it on the television. It was on the television that night. And he calmly sat down.

He put himself in meditation position. Somebody poured gasoline all over him and he lit the match himself, okay? And then that's his photo.

And he didn't break his meditation. He stayed in meditation, okay? And he lost his life right there.

He gave his life as a protest to the war. And I remember it had a big effect in this country. It changed the course of the war in this country.

And it was very beautiful. I remember Nixon said he didn't care about it or he thought it was stupid. But he didn't...

But it changed everyone's heart. And he gave his life. And this is the idea of chöd, okay?

Chöd means you give up your life, okay? You give up yourself. It's not as easy as giving up your physical life, okay?

It's probably easier to burn yourself, to set yourself aflame and die within a few minutes, right? Than it is to practice chöd. The real chöd is not...

The real chöd is not where you lose your body or your life, okay? It's harder. It's more difficult.

It's Michael. True meditation. Michael.

Eliminating Michael, okay? True meditation. Michael eliminates Michael's ego, okay?

True meditation. Michael burns Michael's ego, okay? So then a wrong thought just popped up in your mind, alright?

A wrong idea just popped up in your mind, okay? If I did chöd very well, okay? If I got good at chöd, then I wouldn't be at all...

What do you call? Selfish or egotistical or prideful. I would be a truly humble fool, you know?

If Michael could burn Michael to death, okay? If Michael could burn Michael to death, well then, it means, oh, Michael would be a more humble person, okay? And he would be quiet and agreeable.

And he would never be proud. And if he got rid of his ego, he would be a much nicer person. That must be the meaning of Michael eliminating Michael, okay?

It's not, okay? That's not the meaning of chöd, alright? It's not the...

Chöd doesn't mean to burn yourself to death and cause yourself to disappear from this world. And chöd doesn't mean to take your ego and suppress it until you seem to be a person who doesn't have pride or ego, okay? It doesn't mean that.

Those are easy, okay? To burn yourself to death in a few minutes is not that hard, okay? To suppress your ego and try to be a less prideful person, a more sharing person, a more humble person, these are not so difficult.

These are not chöd, okay? This is not what it means to eliminate Michael, alright? Eliminating Michael is something deeper, alright?

Eliminating Michael is much more difficult, alright? You ready? Eliminating Michael is to eliminate a Michael who was never there, alright?

What chöd means, what it means to destroy Michael is to destroy a Michael who was never there, alright? So we have an idea. Michael has an idea about Michael.

Michael has a Michael in mind who couldn't exist, alright? Michael spends his life taking care of a Michael who's not even there, okay? Alright?

This is the great irony of our suffering and our unhappiness. We are unhappy. When we're unhappy, which is most of the time, right?

When we're dissatisfied or when we don't feel joyful, it's because we are trying to take care of a Michael or we are worried about a Michael or we are making efforts about a Michael who is not there and who was never there, alright? So all of our efforts to be happy, which result in all of our sadness and all of our unhappiness, they're just based on a mistake, you see? If you realized you were making mistakes...

I have a... I live in the desert, okay? I live on a mountain in the desert, okay?

And there are rattlesnakes there. Not many, but sometimes they come, okay? And so I like to go out in the dusk to see...

I have a rose garden, you know? And I... you know, the roses don't grow, but all the wildflowers grow very well.

So the flowers I take care of, they don't grow. And then the ones that are just there, they grow like crazy. And so I enjoy going out in the evening to look at my flowers.

Not the roses, because they wouldn't open this year at all, after like 14 applications of fertilizer and magnesium. But the wildflowers are stunning, you know? Flax and Mexican poppies and, you know?

Primrose and jasmine, clematis. These are beautiful, very beautiful wildflowers. So I like to go out to enjoy them.

And I make some tea and I go out on the porch and I walk through the garden. But then part of your mind has to be aware of rattlesnakes. You have to...

When you live in the desert, part of your awareness is like rattlesnake, you know? So then you go out, you walk through the garden and suddenly you see one, you know? Like there's this...

I walked over them sometimes, you know? And you just hope you don't step on them. So you see one, and then you like get this thing, your heart starts pumping faster, you know?

And then you calculate, you know? Are you too close, you know? Can you get back if he jumps?

Because they can jump longer than their length. Like if the one is 6 feet long, it can jump 9 feet, you see? So then your heart's beating like crazy and you're calculating and you start to get all upset.

You're like, oh man, that's it. Now I have to build a wall, you know? I have to build something that the rattlesnake can't get over.

This is too much. I almost stepped on this one, you know? And you make this whole story in your mind.

I'm going to build a wall. I got to ask Sierra for more adobe bricks. We got to make it tall.

I've seen a snake go over a 6 feet wall. Let's see, it's going to have to be 8 or 9 feet, you know? I saw a snake go up a tree, come over a branch and jump into the garden.

And I'm like, you know? And this whole thing goes into your mind. And then you look at the snake and then you realize it's the host.

It's the garden host, you know? And then all these plans, all these worries, all this story, all the... What do you call it?

The tension you feel, the anxiety you feel, it just melts. Because it was never there, right? The thing you were making this story about was never there.

Chöd is the practice of reaching contentment and happiness in a peaceful state of mind by realizing that the Michael you always took care of was never there. The Michael that you fought the world to help, the Michael that you struggled to make happy, that Michael was never there. Is there a Michael who is here?

Yes, okay? You got to understand that, okay? Chöd is cutting the Michael who was never there, but there is a Michael sitting here.

Michael is talking to you. Michael is trying to say something. Michael is making points.

That Michael is here, okay? That's not a problem. And he functions, okay?

He eats a lot. And he does yoga occasionally, you know? And, you know, he's there.

There is a Michael there, okay? That's not the Michael who's the problem, okay? That's not the one you have to immolate or burn up.

There's a different Michael, okay? There's a Michael... Who is the Michael that's not there, okay?

Who is the Michael that's not there? Here you get into wisdom, okay? Here you get into understanding, okay?

There's a Michael here who really exists, and every detail about that Michael is coming from my own mind, okay? How he looks, how he talks, how people relate to him. Every detail about that Michael is coming from Michael's own mind, okay?

Every event that happens to that Michael is happening from that Michael's own mind, okay? There's nobody that that Michael ever met who wasn't coming from that Michael himself, alright? Got it?

Every person Michael ever met was coming from him, alright? From seeds in his mind. Every irritating person you ever met was coming directly from your own mind, okay?

Every person you struggled against, your last boyfriend came from you, okay? Alright? And everything about the way he acted came from you, alright?

Every word he ever said to you came from you, alright? Every irritating habit your partner has is coming directly from you, okay? How?

Seeds in your mind, okay? There's a seed in your mind, there's an energy in your mind, small seed, okay? They actually stay in your heart chakra, okay?

They stay here. And there are thousands upon thousands of tiny little seeds. And one of them opens at random, and then your partner says something to you, you know?

Like they say, I don't like the way you... Could you put the toilet seat down? You know?

And you're like, look, my mother taught me to put it up. You know? And they're like, yeah, that's because you didn't have any sisters in your family.

And I'm like, yeah, but my mom made a big deal about when you're a boy, you have to put it up, otherwise it gets all splashed on, you know? If the boy is careless, it gets splashed on the top. Even if the boy is careful, it splashes up from the bottom.

So my mom taught me, out of respect for others, I should lift the toilet seat. And then your partner is like, yeah, but do you realize what it means that every time a lady walks in the bathroom, she has to lower the seat? It's very irritating.

Couldn't you like raise the seat, go to the toilet, and then put the seat back down? You know? Would that be a good compromise?

And you're like, I don't know, because what if I'm the next one to use the bathroom? You know? And, no, it goes like that, and you, this whole era, like this is how you spend your time with some partners, right?

They didn't start out that way, right? They used to write you poems all the time. And now they're like arguing with you about the toilet seat.

I'm talking a good 20 minutes, you know? I'm talking about wasting 20 minutes of your precious human life talking about the toilet seat. Where did they come from?

You see? Where did this conversation come from? You see?

And a real, a person who understands life, they have to say, this came from me. Okay? This person came from me.

Everything this person said today is coming from me. How? I said something similar to somebody else, okay?

I irritated somebody else. I bothered somebody else. I nitpicked somebody else.

I hand-pecked somebody else. And then that put a seed in my mind, and now I got here this morning to get this lecture on when I gotta get to work, you know? To have a 20 minute conversation with the person I used to love about the toilet seat, you know?

Which is like how it goes towards the end of the relationship, you know? Like you start arguing about toilet seats, right? And then if you're really a good meditator, if you're a good yogi, you understand, this person is coming from me.

Okay? This person is coming from me. And the person they're talking to, right?

What do you call it? The blameless Michael. The innocent Michael, okay?

The Michael who doesn't deserve to be lectured about the toilet seat. A high geshe being lectured about the toilet seat, you know? That Michael who's...

That Michael who's like a sensitive, scholarly, informed, you know, who should be meditating at this moment. And then you're talking... You're talking to him about a toilet seat?

You're wasting his time about a toilet seat? He has to save the world today, you know? He doesn't have 20 minutes to talk about a toilet seat, you know?

And then, you feel like you are a person who is above all that. You feel like it's not proper that this person should be talking to you like that, okay? You're not the person they think you are, okay?

You're better than that. You don't want this person to talk to you, okay? There's a Michael you feel who is not to blame.

And there's a Michael you feel shouldn't be here talking about the toilet seat. That Michael doesn't exist, okay? You want to defend a Michael.

You want to protect a certain Michael. You feel a certain Michael is beyond toilet seat conversations, right? That person that you feel doesn't deserve to be lectured about the toilet seat.

That Michael who is not to blame for this conversation. That Michael never existed. That Michael is not there.

You are to blame for everything that happens to you. Every detail of your life. Every word that someone says to you.

Every car, every person in this city is coming directly from your mind, okay? It's coming from you. And there's a perfect justice to the universe.

You always wanted it, you got it. Okay? Your life is a perfect reflection of you.

Okay? Every detail of your life is a perfect reflection of you. Okay?

Every hassle. Every irritating person. Every discussion about toilet seats is perfect justice.

And it reflects exactly how your mind is. Alright? Or it wouldn't be happening to you because it's coming from your mind.

So the Michael who doesn't deserve that is who? Where is he? He was never there.

Okay? He's not there now. He was never there.

The Michael who doesn't exactly deserve the way as it is right now, the world as it is right now, the Michael who doesn't deserve to meet the people he meets right now never existed. Okay? The only Michael who's there is the Michael who who acted in certain ways towards other people, said certain things to other people, heard other people in such a way that he created this world exactly as it is.

Every detail of this world, he created. And it's all coming back to him perfectly on time. And perfectly the way it's supposed to be given what he did to other people.

Alright? The world is just. The world has a perfect justice to it.

Every single thing that ever happens to you is coming from you. And coming from how you treated other people last week. Or the week before that.

Okay? See? Every irritating comment every boyfriend ever made to you was your own voice just bouncing off a rock.

It was an echo of your own voice. Okay? Which is kind of depressing.

Okay? Alright? But you have to look at the good side of it.

Okay? It means you have hope. It means you can design your next boyfriend.

Okay? Like you can improve things or you can upgrade your current boyfriend. Okay?

No, I mean, just think of it. Everything irritating about your current boyfriend. You know?

I mean, there's thousands of things but just pick one. Let's say, let's say he's never on time. Let's just say he's not on time.

Like, he says he's gonna meet you at such and such a cafe and you take a book. Why? You just know he's gonna be late, you know?

If he shows up at all, you know? So, you have a problem. You have a partner who's always late.

So, according to this idea, it's coming from you. It comes from something that you're doing. Alright?

In the past, you were not timely. You were late to things. You let people down.

You let other people down. And then you have to put up with this boyfriend who doesn't get to places on time and he doesn't meet you on time. How do you...

On one way, you can just be depressed about having made him that way. In the other hand, you can change him. You see?

You just change the seed. You adjust the seed that created his... What do you call it?

Lateness, his tardiness. Adjust the seed. How do you adjust the seed?

Just be on time. Okay? Just make it a point to be on time.

I'm never late like him. Okay? I'm not like that.

Okay? We're talking he's an hour late. We're talking he's two hours late.

Like, I'm never like that. I don't... I'm not like that.

Michael is not like that. Okay? Cut that Michael.

Cut that Michael. Got it? Cut that Michael.

The Michael who's never late bad enough to have his partner or his friend to be two hours late, that Michael doesn't exist. That Michael never existed. The Michael who never was so late to deserve how late people are to him.

Where's that Michael? Cut him. Burn him.

Put gas on him. Light the match. He was never there.

There was no such Michael. Okay? Got it?

There was no such Michael. Why? You're five minutes late for your friends, they will be two hours late for you.

Why? It's a seed. It's a seed in your mind.

Why do you plant a wild... What do I have? Mexican primrose.

The most beautiful flower. Okay? Mexican primrose.

How big is the seed? You can fit like ten of them on the end of your finger. You know?

Then you plant it. Then a year later, up they come, like hundreds of them. Hundreds of primrose.

That's the way seeds work. I mean, come on. It's obvious.

Okay? That's the way seed works. How late do you have to be to have a boyfriend who shows up an hour late every time you have dinner?

How late do you have to be? What? Five minutes?

Three minutes? Okay, got it? Do you understand?

You're planting seeds all day. If you're a few minutes late to some appointment with somebody, your boyfriend will be an hour late. Don't complain about your boyfriend.

Get this, okay? The boyfriend that you complain to, you're always two hours late. I can't believe you, you know?

Like, what does it mean to be two hours late for dinner? When am I supposed to make the appointment for? What do you call it?

The reservation. Should I tell them in sometime between eight and ten? You know?

No, I mean, is that what you want me to do? See, you're criticizing a boyfriend who needs a two-hour window to make a dinner appointment. You know?

A dinner. You... Where's that boyfriend that you're criticizing?

The stupid boyfriend, where is he? Come on. You're all asleep.

Where's the stupid boyfriend? Where's the stupid boyfriend? He was never there.

He was never there. He got chewed a long time ago. Okay?

There's no such boyfriend. The boyfriend whose fault that he's two hours late, the boyfriend that you're gonna talk into not being two hours late, that boyfriend never existed. That boyfriend doesn't exist.

You can talk your head off. You can talk to him for years. Nothing will happen.

Because he's not... He's not the one you're talking to who was never there. Okay?

The one you're talking to is not there. Okay? He's not the one who can change because you talk to him.

What? There's no such thing. There's just no such thing.

You can talk all you want. Or you can... Not talk.

And he still won't change. Okay? No, you gotta get that strength.

You see? That's the futility of human action. That's the futility of everything you do in your life.

Investments, job decisions, relationship decisions. Everything. It's futile.

Okay? Talk to him. It's useless because the guy you're talking to is...

He got chewed a long time ago. Okay? And the guy that you're silent towards, and the guy that you're understanding and quiet and thoughtful and you don't complain about him being late, that guy also doesn't exist.

It doesn't matter whether you complain or whether you keep your peace. Neither one works. Duh!

You know? I mean... No, didn't you notice that yet?

Like, sometimes you say, Okay, I'm not gonna complain anymore. Let's see if... I'll do the passive-aggressive thing.

You know? You know? You just sit there and just...

He said, I'm sorry, honey, I'm late. I said, it's okay, I finished the whole novel. You know?

I kind of wanted to read that book anyway. You know? Like you're really cooperative.

Does that change him being late? No. Then you decide to stick up for your rights.

You know? He comes two hours late. Just leave!

Or pick up some other boy at the restaurant and have dinner with him. Then the... Then the guy comes and you say, I'm busy, you know?

You're two hours late. I found another one. You know?

And... You see, neither one works. He won't change.

Until what? Until you change. Until you change your seeds.

Your little seeds, okay? The good news is, you're not as bad as your boyfriend. That we can accept.

Okay? You do small things bad, he's two hours late. Got it?

You create small seeds, then he's two hours late. Okay? The person who was wronged, wrongly, Michael, whose friend showed up two hours late, right?

The person who was wronged, the person who was done wrong, right? Where is he? He was never there.

He was... The person you suffer about, the person you feel unhappy about, the person you feel bad about, the person who was hurt by the other person, that person's not there. Do chit.

Do chit. Cut him. Just cut him or her.

Give up on her. There's no such person. It's not possible to be hurt, if you understand this.

You cannot be hurt. No one can hurt you. It's not possible.

Right? The person who was hurt didn't exist. Never existed.

If you understood where things were coming from, it's not possible to be hurt. There's no chance. Because the person who was hurt is not there.

Who's the person who was hurt? The person who was innocently waiting in the restaurant for two hours. Okay?

Come on, cut the innocent crap. There's no such thing. There's no such thing as innocent.

You see? It's your fault he's late. Just accept it.

Okay? The person who's hurt, the victim of his being late, that person never existed. Do chit.

You see? Chit means cut this person. Is it hard?

I don't know. It shouldn't be hard. He was never there in the first place.

You know? Like you're burning a person who was never there. It should be kind of easy, I think.

I don't know. No, it's impossible. It's totally impossible.

You'll go out of here and you'll be, somebody will be late for dinner and you'll feel so hurt. And the me who is not there will feel wronged. You know?

And you will say, he's doing it again to me. You know? The victim will reappear within ten minutes after this talk.

You know? He's very... She's very...

What do you call it? She doesn't burn up easily. Even though she's not there.

Alright? Got it? Okay.

I have an idea. We'll read the chit text together. Okay?

It was designed by the first Panchen Lama to be read out loud. Okay? And we'll just go straight through it.

This is not the whole text. The whole text is secret. The church practice is secret.

I cannot teach you the church practice without an initiation. Okay? If you want the whole thing, let's negotiate.

Alright? I think it would be fun to do. I think it would be good to have a really beautiful church practice.

It's very, very, very beautiful. And very, very powerful. And you can do it...

If you learn church practice, you can do it yourself and your whole life will change. Your whole life will become beautiful. Okay?

So you have to like sweeten me up. And butter me up. And then...

This is just a tiny piece of the church practice. Okay? And then my hope is maybe someday we come in New York and we do the whole...

You do the whole church. But that requires an empowerment. Okay?

So we're just doing a little piece from the church. The church practice. Alright?

I'm gonna read it with you. Then what I'd like to do is ask you if you have any questions. So try to think if you have any questions about what we've been saying.

Okay? Or anything else that you want to talk about which is totally irrelevant. I don't care.

Okay? Anything that's on your mind. It should be something that concerns your life right now.

Okay? Like right now, what are the issues in your own life? What do you need some help with in your own life?

Okay? Or some struggle you're having in your own life. So if you have anything like that, just put it in your mind.

And we'll pass around a microphone. Do you have another microphone? Alright.

Not really. You can just get up and scream the question. And...

But let's read the Chöd text. Okay? You ready?

I'll count to three. We'll go through it, you know, together. And let's see how bad it is.

Okay. We're gonna start with Namo Guru. You ready?

Page one. Everybody ready? Here we go.

One. Two. Three.

Namo Guru Sarvadakya. I bow to my Namo, every angel there is, hearing my instructions for Chöd, the immolation of the self, shipped to the fields of Elysium for those who hope for freedom. He sits alone in swirls of smoke on the mountain peak of the Buddha's teachings, and upon his head the heavy weight of yogis' dreadlocks, each sharing the mother-world of the ancient classics of knowledge.

The mind's stand of his mind explodes in a flame of perfect reasoning to incinerate the brains of those who dream twice, of those who teach mistakes. He roars in soaring rapture, the song of emptiness, that puts an end to the yips and chatter of those wandering paths of Kaileras who think that anything could do something. He is a lion among teachers.

He is love-sowing japa, and to think of him sends true love devotion up the bones of my spine. May you ever be victorious, those of you who live your lives in the burial grounds of a place far from the useless thoughts of the eight attitudes. Dance, O dance, the song of bliss and joyfulness, joy and desire.

Spit forth the sound of the path, dependence that was never born. Split open the skulls of those who think that things could be themselves. Practice this single profound path, and you will rip out all the armies of demons in your own, like a dragon burning a puff of cotton.

This is the practice of Chök, the illumination of being, a practice which could never have been anything else, nothing unlisted at its heart. And so all you little bumblebees, disciples of intelligence, hum yourself a thousand songs of joy. Fly hither to this wondrous teaching with single-pointed thoughts of drinking in the nectar which lies beyond all death.

Thus then we start with the practice of seven steps, together with the offering of a mandala to our beloved heart teacher. Place your mind within equanimity, free of feeling that any living creature is more or less dear to you, and take yourself through the following train of thought. The cycle of life, the worlds of life, without beginning.

And thus the journeys that I have traveled here are countless, back to a beginning, without re-beginning. I am dead, I died, and lived again, and died again. There is no land where I have not stayed.

There is no world where I have not stayed. There is no creature's body where I have not worn. There is not a single living creature on all the planets of endless space who has not been my own mother, been my mother so many times there are no numbers to count it.

And still to be my mother, many times over. I acknowledge you all as my mother. And every time you have been my mother, you shower me with kindness, as did my mother in this one life.

Every living being you are. And each of you wrapped me in the arms of your kindness. Rested me in the warmth within your womb.

And from that day began your deeds of kindness towards me. Your accepted pain that would take your life to give me life. Life with anguish, with the slightest sickness came to me.

Serving me with every self that came to you. Never avoiding any action, any pain that would serve me. Thinking nothing of what others might say.

Thinking nothing of giving up your very own life for mine. Protecting me from anything that would harm me. Protecting me from the love I received.

Doing anything that would help me. Anything that would make me happy. I acknowledge the extraordinary kindness that each of you has shown me.

This is only the most simple part of this meditation on kindness. If you wish to learn the details, then avail yourself of the Supreme Words of the Lord and the Spiritual Son. Continuing our way.

Now my mothers, mothers of pure kindness, are captured by the evil spirits of negative thoughts and they have gone mad. Their eyes, their wisdom, blinded by ignorance. Unable to distinguish those things they should do from those that they should know.

Crazed by the wish to hurt themselves and others in every moment of the day. And so they are lost in the sea of suffering. And take their steps one after the other.

Relentless towards the edge of cliffs of terror. Worlds of terror lay on the wall of this life still. If I do not free them, who else will?

If my mothers cannot place their hopes in me, what other hope will they ever have? Before my nails stand the demons, each one my mother, each one my father. From time here and time, a lot to the present moment, they have surrendered their own wishes and cherish me with their whole heart.

Now it's my turn. I surrender my own wishes and cherish you all with my whole heart. I acknowledge that the time has come for me to repay your kindness.

I acknowledge that I love you. Beloved to me, children of mine, I see you now, all of you, demon mothers, demon fathers, and every other living being, bereft of every happiness which ends and bereft of every happiness which never ends. I see how you suffer just being alive.

And I see the thousand pains that are like these to you. May each of you, beloved mothers of mine, have every happiness you wish for. How beautiful it would be if each of you, beloved mothers of mine, had every happiness you wish for.

And I will see to it that you do. How beautiful it would be if none of you, beloved mothers of mine, ever felt a single form of pain. May none of you, beloved mothers of mine, ever feel a single form of pain.

And I will see to it that you do not. I promise you, I will find compassion. Compassion that is strong enough to bring you to the willingness to see it done myself.

Who is there that will free you from all pain? Who is there that will bring you to every happiness? I am here.

It is me. I will see it done myself. Ask me, Lord, how I will see it done.

And I shall be forced to speak the truth. I do not, not yet, swear. And who has this power?

My mom, my lord, angel lord, who sits within me, within my heart. And so for the sake of each of these demons, for every meaning of each of their lives, I swear that I will not suffer, how my Lord, the being of God, and that too quickly, could not quickly. And with this I wish to remind you.

Those of you who possess any intolerance at all must treasure within yourself this glorious practice of our Savior's. Lord Shantideva, Lord Arthashah, promise of shining glory. Let us not be, as Lord Arthashah once said, only in Tibet we find bodhisattvas who never trained themselves in love and compassion.

Let us not be people like this, who are incapable of telling in love and compassion for the rich and the mighty. People who think they have attained this rich, they have done no more than utter monster words. They are rich and mighty, for the sake of other living beings.

Let me now in your thoughts travel on to these thoughts. From time of no beginning, I have lived in countless bodies. When she threw in a pile all those skins and all those skeletons, they would form a mountain higher than the Himalayas.

Take the blood and the pus of all these bodies, and they would stretch farther and deeper in the oceans of this world. And yet not one of these bodies has ever been of any service to these demons, their bodies, or minds. And so now, this time, allow for the flesh of this body, and the blood of this body, and they shall eat of it, and they shall drink of it, eat their filth, drink their filth, and they will have the life of you, till the end of your days.

So this is a part in the practice of chöd, where we think about the fact that we have been born and lived and died billions upon billions of times, and we have all met each other billions of times. We have sat in a room like this together thousands and thousands of times. And in those lifetimes, our roles reversed.

Sometimes you were my mother, sometimes I was born from your own womb, and then sometimes I was your mother, and you were born from my womb. Don't think that the world is such a small place. If this world like this can happen once, it can happen billions of times.

Anything that can happen once can happen billions of times. If time is infinite, and time is infinite, we have been here countless times. We have been everything to each other countless times.

And every person you meet in New York City, every person you ever encounter, has been your mother countless times. They have risked their life to give you your life countless times. You feel that.

You know it's true. You have a feeling when you just encounter a single person on the sidewalk. You sense, deep inside you, you sense, this person has been more to me than I know now.

They have been my own mother. And you feel like if you could just recognize it, if you could just remember, then your whole feeling towards them would be one of great love. And you would feel very, very close to them.

And you would want to help them. You couldn't pass by anybody who needed help. If you remembered who you have been to each other many, many times before.

So now, you were able to come to a class like this. We talked about chöd. We said that there's a version of you which doesn't even exist.

The person you've been trying to protect all these years. The person you've been trying to serve all these years. The person you've been trying to defend from irritating boyfriends and girlfriends all these years.

The person who didn't deserve what was happening to them, the victim, doesn't exist. That person was never there. If we saw it, if we could recognize it, the first thing that would happen is that no one could ever hurt us.

It's not possible to be hurt by someone if you understand that they are coming from what you did last week. You see? It's not possible to be hurt by a person like that.

They say something to you and then you don't respond because you know it's just coming from what you did last week. You see? And you don't say anything unkindly back.

The person who is not to blame for this person who is hurting, they're not there. Then all of this process of being unhappy finishes. You see?

You can't be unhappy if you know that things are coming from you. It's not possible. And you just clean them up.

You just change. And then the person changes. Then it's...

There's no reason to be unhappy. And there's no reason to live in a world that's not perfect. Just clean stuff up.

Just clean up your seeds and then let the world be perfect. There's no reason to keep putting up with a world that's not perfect. You just change it.

You just fix it. And you have that knowledge. Okay?

You understand. And there are classes here. There are classes...

There are many teachers here in the room. There are people... They teach for free at the Three Jewels, right?

Which is sponsoring this event. They teach for free. They're happy to teach.

And you can go there. You can learn. And they will teach you.

And you can change the boyfriend. And you can change the city. And then you can change the world.

There's no reason to put up with it anymore. Just change it. Okay?

Just fix it. And then everything around you is like a dream. Everything is like perfect.

Okay? This class is about Haksam Nanda. Right?

This class is about... This talk is about... You have some kind of responsibility as a human being to help other people who are struggling to defend some guy who was never there.

Okay? You are living in a world of six billion people who are struggling to earn a living. And you are living in a world of six billion people who are mostly unhappy most of the day.

And who are afraid and who don't know what's gonna happen when they die. Everyone is nervous. Okay?

Every one of the six billion people, no matter how important they seem or how confident or how beautiful, they are all deeply worried about what's gonna happen to them when they die. Okay? Everybody is worried.

Okay? Doesn't matter how confident they seem or how sure in life they seem, they are all frightened. Six billion people are frightened.

And they don't have to be. You see? You can change that also.

You can change death. Death is also coming from you. Nothing is not coming from you.

Okay? Everything about life is coming from you. Also death.

And it's not fixed. It can be changed. Okay?

So you have to learn how to do that. And then it's your responsibility to help other people. You have to.

Okay? You don't have a choice. If you knew how not to die or if you knew how to control what happened after you died, it would be wrong not to help others.

It would be very, very wrong not to comfort the other six billion people. Okay? So what we're talking about in this room today is a sense of responsibility.

Okay? You must take responsibility to make them happy. And it's six billion people.

And you can do it. Because they're also coming from you. Okay?

The six billion people are also coming from you. All things are possible if things are coming from you. You yourself can make six billion people happy.

It starts with a sense of responsibility. That big sense of responsibility starts with a little sense of responsibility. Okay?

Where you just take responsibility for stuff. Okay? For example, at the Three Jewels, right?

If you, if they gave, if some lama came and gave a talk at twelve o'clock today, and you were at the Three Jewels, and you all ate afterwards, and you all had a snack, and then everybody left, and then what? There's a mess. Okay?

I mean, that's the nature of spiritual people. They, they come to the church or to the center, and they eat and they leave. And then there's a big mess.

You know? And in, in this system, just you get in the habit, haksam. Haksam means, I'll take care of it.

It's okay. You guys leave, I'll take care of it. What?

I'll clean up. You know? Clean up what?

Well, who'll take the garbage out? I'll take the garbage out. Don't, don't stress.

You guys can go. Okay? Well, who's gonna pay that?

Don't worry, I'm fundraising for that. You know? Well, but do you need?

No. You just, I'm, the buck stops here. I take responsibility for everything.

Okay? So get in the habit. You can't save six billion people if you can't clean up after the mess at Three Jewels, after all the spiritual people leave.

Okay? You gotta start somewhere. And just get in the habit of haksam namdak.

I take responsibility. I will get things done. And I don't care if nobody helps me.

And trust me, they won't thank you, and they won't help you. Okay? And they'll fight with you.

They'll say, Keshla, I didn't like the refreshments that I didn't clean up. You know? And then you say, I'm so sorry.

We'll try to make better ones next time. Okay? Like that.

And you do it. You take responsibility. Okay?

It's not popular subject in America right now. It's not a popular subject in the modern world. What I'm saying is, if you really want to be happy, if you wanna be deeply happy, just learn to take responsibility.

Okay? People, people need something. People need, people are afraid.

Six billion people are afraid. They're gonna die. They know it.

They're not stupid. Okay? Six billion people deep down are very afraid.

You take responsibility to help them. Okay? You learn what to do.

Because there's something you can do. You can learn. You can learn how to change that.

You can teach them how to change it. Alright? You have the teachers here in New York.

You have people who've been trained. Learn. It's your responsibility.

Okay? You can't wait for somebody else. Six billion people are afraid.

Six billion people know something bad is gonna happen. Okay? And you have to do something.

Okay? You have to help. Okay?

That's just part of being a person. Once you know how to help, you must help. You can't ignore it anymore.

Okay? You must help. Alright?

That's laksam namban. Okay? And it starts with little things.

Okay? To save the world, you have to clean up the three jewels. Alright?

That's just the way it goes. To save the world, you have to show up when no one else wants to show up. It's early in the morning.

Three people cancel for the morning meditation. And you're like, I'll take care of it. I'll do it.

Okay? Just try to get in that mode. Okay?

Then you become this extraordinary enlightened being who can help six billion people. It starts with small things. Just decide.

I take responsibility. It's my problem. You know?

Responsibility takers don't complain. Okay? They don't say, I told them to get it ready but they didn't get it ready.

You know? You just say, Okay Geshe-la, I'll get it ready. I'll take care of it.

You know? I'll figure out what has to be done and I'll do it. Okay?

And that's like the first step to being an enlightened being. Alright? I take, the buck stops with me for everything.

And I'll just take care of it. Okay? And then you don't whine about it.

By the way, people tell me, I'm overwhelmed Geshe-la. I can't take care of everything. Do you know why you're overwhelmed?

What's the karma for being overwhelmed? What's the karma for feeling like you're overwhelmed? Is it doing too much to help other people?

It's the opposite. It's not doing enough to help other people. Okay?

People say, Geshe-la, I can't take care of everybody. It makes me feel overwhelmed. The karma of feeling overwhelmed is that you didn't take care of enough people.

Get it? Like, if you take care of everybody, you never feel overwhelmed. Alright?

I'm telling you. You feel happy. You feel relaxed.

You know? Like everybody wants you to take care of them. And you're like, okay.

You know? No problem. I can take care of you.

And you feel deeply happy. Okay? It's hesitating to take care of more people that makes you feel overwhelmed.

The karma of being overwhelmed, of feeling overwhelmed, is that you avoided responsibility in the past. Okay? Accept all of it.

Take all of it. Everything's my fault. And I have to fix everything.

And I will. Okay? And then you'll find the capacity.

The capacity comes from wanting to. Alright? Alright.

Any questions? We have like, I don't know, ten minutes or something. But just don't be shy, okay?

Just... Go ahead. Yeah.

Talk loud. And I'll repeat the question. If I can hear you.

Oh, okay. If everything's coming from me, then am I coming from everything else? Like that?

Exactly. So she said, look, if everything's coming from me, that means you're coming from me too. Am I coming from you?

Or am I coming from me? You see? No, it's not a bad question.

It's like, it seems a contradiction. How can you be coming from me, and I'm coming from you at the same time, if I'm also one of the things that's supposed to be coming from me? Alright?

That gets into multiple perceptions of a single object. Okay? I like to use a...

Hen. Okay? And, no, it's a very famous example.

Okay? So, you perceive it, let's say you're a human, and you perceive it as a hen. And then a dog comes in here, and you show it to the dog, and they chew on it, right?

And they see it as something to chew on. The thing to chew on is coming from the dog. The pen is coming from me.

Okay? Now, if the dog leaves the room, and if I leave the room, and I set this thing here, which one is it? A pen, or something to chew on?

What does your heart tell you? If the dog leaves, and if I leave, the dog sees it as something to chew on, I see it as a pen, if we both leave the room, and I set this here, which one is it now? You just tell me what comes to mind.

Yes, neither. It's neither one. Okay?

That's emptiness. That's that big Buddhist thing about... Emptiness doesn't mean close your eyes and think about nothing.

Emptiness doesn't mean stare at a wall. Emptiness doesn't mean close your eyes and think, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay?

Emptiness means, to a dog, it's a chew toy. To the human, it's a pen. Put it on the stage.

Everybody leaves. What is it? Which one is it?

And you said correctly what came to your heart first. You said neither. That's emptiness.

Okay? I'm empty. You're empty.

I see you in a certain way, which is coming from me. You experience yourself in a different way, which is coming from you. Now you get into an interesting fact.

Here's the interesting evolution of this thinking. Everybody in this room could be perceiving themselves as an enlightened being right now. And you see them as a normal person.

Okay? It's not a contradiction. I could be seeing you as an angel.

And you could be seeing yourself as like an anxiety-ridden New Yorker. And there's no contradiction. You see?

There's no problem with that. You're both. You're both.

At the same time. Okay? No problem.

Yes? Yes. So you said there's perfect justice in the world.

And basically our reality comes from our own, you know, seemingly hatred of that.

[Говорящий 2]
The fact is that all of the families that have suffered in the time that they've been there and all the people who suffered during the Holocaust and so forth, that they had all kind of done something somehow either in their current lives or maybe in a past life that caused that trauma. Maybe it's a good trauma.

[Говорящий 1]
And the trauma is in your current life. So maybe it's in your past life. Okay.

So I was wondering if you could address that. Yeah. Maybe address the whole, like...

Okay, good. So you can say if it's true that there's a perfect justice to life and that you get exactly what you deserve, then what about horrible cases of, like in Tibet, where a million people were killed. Out of six million people, a million people died during the invasion of Tibet.

Did they deserve that, you see? And did they ever do such a wrong thing to deserve that? And are you saying that the wrong thing they did was in this life?

Or could they possibly carry wrongs that they did from a previous life? And if you do carry wrongs from a previous life, what's the mechanism? How does that happen?

So that's the question. The first thing to say is consider a world where the opposite is true. You see?

Consider a world where things can happen to you that you don't deserve. You see? Consider a universe where there is no justice.

You see? It's just... The classical texts of Buddhism say three choices, you know?

One is random. One is that life is random. There's no sense.

There's a big explosion at the beginning of time. Atoms bang into each other randomly. They created all the faces in this room.

Random bangings of atoms created all the faces in this room. No, and all the experiences of all the people here. And that's the Big Bang Theory.

That's the scientific theory. There's no sense to anything. There's no justice.

There's no sense. It is the random interaction of little dust particles that blew up a zillion years ago. And there's no justice and there's no sense to anything.

It's just happening at random. That's the implication of the Big Bang Theory. Second theory.

There's a guy running the shop. Okay? There's some very big guy running the shop.

And he's like Wen Cuckoo. And he burns babies in cars. And he...

Who could never have done anything wrong yet. You see what I mean? And he gives...

I was in Jakarta a couple weeks ago. We did a fundraiser for a hospice for children who inherited HIV from their parents. Okay?

They haven't done anything wrong. They didn't have time. They got HIV in the womb from their parents.

And this whole hospice's work is just aimed at making them comfortable while they die. Okay? And that's all they hope to do.

And that's all they can do. So, are you suggesting that there is a being who has the power to create this life and then imbue it with death in the moment of its conception? You know?

To create a being who will suffer its entire existence and then die before it's six years old. Are you suggesting that this is the conscious will of some very powerful being? You know?

And we say, No. It's not... It's wrong.

If that person is all-powerful but they're not compassionate, why would they make a being who just spent their whole life suffering and then died? You see? What would be the point of creating such a being?

Why not just create them healthy and make them live a whole healthy life? Why make them sick? In the beginning they didn't do anything yet to offend the God.

You see what I mean? So we don't... I mean, that's the second choice.

Random? Or... What do you call it?

An incompetent boss. Alright? And then the third choice is you get exactly what you do.

Okay? You get exactly what you do. Two things to say about getting exactly what you do.

Number one. Like all seeds, they grow wildly. Okay?

An oak tree, where I used to live in Howell, New Jersey. Right? Check it out.

It weighs four tons. The oak trees around the temple, which I had to cut one up one day with a chainsaw that fell on the temple. I had to climb up on the roof of the temple and chainsaw this tree.

And I can tell you it's about four tons. And it's dangerous. The tree is very, very dangerous.

And they sent me up on the second, third story with a chainsaw and said, cut it down. You know? And it was dangerous.

Then I was shaking like that. And they were making fun of me from the third floor down. And then I came down and I saw an acorn.

And I said, God damn. And I threw it out on the street. You know?

I threw it out on the street. Why? It's going to make another tree.

You see? And it's only a few grams. The acorn is only a few grams.

The oak tree is four or five tons. You know? And mental seeds are stronger.

Mental seeds grow faster. Don't be naive. Your life depends upon it.

Don't be naive. A slight moment of irritation towards a person on the street with the right mental incubation could create years of torment with a bad partner. Okay?

Get used to it. It's scary. It's scary.

Okay? Months or years with a partner who abuses you could be caused by a moment's irritation on the subway in the same way that a four ton oak tree can come from a seed that weighs a gram. It's not weird.

It's not impossible. Don't think any... Don't think any cruel injustice is impossible in a world where everything grows from tiny little seeds.

You see? Everything is possible there. So, think like that.

Proving that it might come from a past life, I don't think we even have to go there. Except to say that don't be... What do you call it?

If this world could happen to you once, if you could be born once in a place like this, in a realm like this, if it could happen to you once, it's naive to think it couldn't happen twice. If the odds are infinite, if time is infinite, if you have dice and you throw them once, will you get snake eyes? Is there a chance you will get snake eyes?

If you throw them a billion, billion, billion, billion, billion times, will you get one snake eyes? Will you get two snake eyes? I mean, it's infinite.

The chances are infinite. You have been here before and you have done everything to everyone. You know, if you have been here billions of times before, you have been...

I like to say you've been Miss America countless times. Also, the boys have been Miss America countless times. Okay?

You've also been Gaddafi and Hitler and... billions of times. You yourself have killed millions of other people millions of times.

We've been everything. We've done everything. Okay?

Then anything can happen here. This world is dangerous. Anything can happen.

Any... You have seeds in yourself which are... You have billions of seeds in yourself for everything.

They're all there. Okay? The whole practice of meditation, the practice of yoga, these practices are meant to eliminate the...

the insane seeds that you have inside of yourself. If you don't practice well, there's a chance that any terrible thing could happen to you. Because you have all seeds.

You have all kinds of seeds for countless lifetimes. But you're not... What do you call it?

You have control over it. If you understand, if you practice well, you can stop those seeds and you can direct the rest of your life. You can direct the rest of your life to happen in the way you want, which is a lot of fun.

So, I don't like to get into, oh, you know, you might get hit by a truck today. It's true. Okay?

But I'd rather get into, look, you could create a perfect world. Knowing about seeds and knowing that big things can come from small seeds, you could create a perfect world. You have the tools to create a perfect world and it could go that way.

Okay? Did you see... Okay, last thing.

What was that movie? Source Code. Yeah, okay.

So, like, they keep sending him back and it's like Groundhog Day. The world, the day keeps happening different ways. He keeps going back.

There's multiple realities going on at the same time. Okay? It's very like that.

It's very similar to that. I see it as a pen. You see it as a chew toy.

There's multiple realities happening in this world right now, in this room right now. It's not a weird thing, alright? And you can control which reality happens to you.

You have the power. If you study well, if someone teaches you well, you can make a reality occur which is perfect. What happened at the end of Source Code?

Come on. This is an easy example. The guy catches the bad guy who's gonna blow up Chicago.

Now, why anybody would wanna stop somebody from blowing Chicago up? I don't know. But anyway, sorry, sorry.

Okay. I know, I know. But anyway, he saves Chicago.

He, on the 18th try, he gets to go back again and save Chicago from the bad guy. And then he's supposed to die. Okay?

The premise of the movie is that he has eight minutes to save Chicago and on the 18th try or something, if he doesn't, no matter what he does, he's gonna die. His own karma is that he's gonna die. But by saving Chicago and the people on the train, he doesn't die.

He's supposed to die and he doesn't die. Get it? It's a message.

Alright. We have a custom to do a prayer. By the way, I'll be giving talks tonight, tomorrow, and the next night at Pure Yoga, Upper East Side.

If you have a burning question, you can come up and ask me then. Oh, I'm supposed to announce a bunch of stuff. And then we'll do some closing prayers.

Let me see here. There are teachings happening at the three-year retreat in Arizona, July 4th to the 13th. I'll be giving talks.

Lama Christy McNally and Lama Sumathi Maru will also be giving talks. July 4th to the 13th near Tucson, Arizona. There's probably some website called Diamond Mountain.

Lady Niguma Chakra Series 10-Hour Intensive Immersion Weekend by Nicole Vigna at the Three Jewels, May 14th and 15th. You can pick that up in the bag. There's a meditation course, 8 to 9 a.m., five days a week, Monday through Friday at the Three Jewels, which is free. There's a bake sale going on here. Am I right? In support of sending young people to my monastery, Sarame.

I was not the first monk ever. I was just the first Geshe from America. That's okay.

But there's a bake sale going on in the bag. If you buy some cookies or something, we use the money to pay for young people to go study at a Tibetan monastery. And then they'll come back and teach in 20 years.

Okay? There's a 10-day meditation retreat in Prescott, Arizona, August 12th to the 21st. It's free.

I'll be teaching it. You have to pay for your bunk bed, which is not worth it. And there's pretty good food.

And it's a beautiful, beautiful place. Okay? And we'll be doing 10 days of meditation and teachings.

Okay? In Prescott, April 12th to 21st. Was I supposed to learn something else?

No. Okay. Here's something else.

Oh, yeah. The teachings, these teachings at once, 7,000 teachings like this are available free online at the Knowledge Base. And free downloads.

And there are more information and CDs of all the free courses. There's 18 free courses in the lobby. So you can get a free CD or you can get it online.

Okay. Normally we do a prayer at the end of a teaching. And we dedicate the karma of what we did to a higher purpose.

What I'd like you to, as I'm reciting this, what I'd like you to think about is just taking responsibility. Okay? It's the idea of taking responsibility.

Start in small ways. Okay? Start in small ways to take responsibility for the things around you.

You wash the dishes. You clean the bathroom. Okay?

You help the center. And you don't wait for other people. And you don't wait for anyone to thank you or praise you.

And you even do it right after they start criticizing you. I don't like the way you washed the dishes last night. Okay?

And you say, I'm sorry. And you actually try to do it better the next night. Okay?

So, like that. You gotta get to that. Take responsibility for other people.

You have to. No one else is going to. Okay?

Six billion people are suffering. They don't have to. They're just...

They're suffering over something that's not there. And you have to learn how to help them. Okay?

And take responsibility. It's a terrible thing. The way the world is going.

It's not... The... What do you call it?

The tragedy is that it's avoidable. The tragedy is that all the suffering in the world is unnecessary. It's just because people don't know about the seed thing.

Nothing is... The tragedy is that these things don't have to be happening. It's just a mistake.

Fix the mistake. Help fix the mistake. Take responsibility.

Okay? None of the people dying in the world today have to die. It's just we need to help them.

Okay? Take responsibility. Alright.

Here we go. This is a famous teaching that some people in the room are learning. And they ask for the oral transmission which has been passed down for six centuries.

So, I'm giving this transmission in a modern language, English. And this is the oral transmission as I received it from my teacher. Okay?

As far as I am able, I'll explain the essence of all high teachings of the victors, the path that all their holy sons commend, the entry point for the fortunate seeking freedom. Listen with a pure mind, fortunate ones who have no craving for the pleasures of life and who to make leisure and fortune meaningful, strive to turn their minds to the path which pleases the victors. There's no way to end without pure renunciation, this striving for pleasant results in the ocean of life.

It's because of their hankering for life as well that beings are fettered, so seek renunciation first. Leisure and fortune are hard to find. Life's not long.

Think it constantly. Stop desire for this life. Think over and over how deeds and their fruits never fail and the cycle suffering.

Stop desire for the future. When you've meditated thus and feel not even a moment's wish for the good things of cyclic life and when you begin to think both night and day of achieving freedom, you've found renunciation. Renunciation, though, can never bring the total bliss of matchless Buddhahood unless it's bound by the purest wish and so the wise seek the high wish for enlightenment.

They're swept along on four fierce river currents, chained up tight in past deeds, hard to undo, stuffed in a steel cage of grasping self, smothered in the pitch-black ignorance. In the limitless realm they're born and in their births are tortured by three sufferings without a break. Think how your mothers feel.

Think of what's happening to them. Try to develop this highest wish. You may master renunciation and the wish, but unless you have the wisdom perceiving reality, you cannot cut the root of cyclic life.

Make efforts in ways, then, to perceive interdependence. A person's entered the path that pleases the Buddhas when for all objects in the cycle or beyond they see that cause and effect can never fail and when for them they lose all solid appearance. You've yet to realize the thought of the able as long as two ideas seem to you disparate, the appearance of things infallible interdependence and emptiness beyond taking any position.

At some time, they no longer alternate, come together. Just seeing that interdependence never fails brings realization that destroys how you hold to objects and then your analysis with view is complete. In addition, the appearance prevents the existence extreme, emptiness that of non-existence.

And if you see how emptiness shows in cause and effect, you will never be stolen off by extreme views. And when you've grasped as well as I the essential points of each of the three principal paths explained, then go into isolation, my child. Make mighty efforts and quickly win your ultimate wish.

I would like to finish the Chöd with you in New York, okay? You have to make the karma. I would like to give an empowerment and then I would like to teach the whole Chöd, okay?

But you have to make the karma, okay? And the karma I'm requesting is that you take responsibility more in your life, day to day, from today, okay? So just small things, washing the dishes, taking out the garbage, cleaning the floor, taking care of the people immediately around you on a tiny day to day basis, take responsibility for things.

And then slowly that will expand into taking responsibility for six billion people. And you have the ability to do that. You each have the ability.

With training you, you will have the ability to take care of six billion people. It starts with the dishes, okay? Really.

Just say, I take responsibility, okay? Just every time you do that mantra, you bring the Chöd empowerment to New York. Think like that, okay?

That's all you have to do. You don't need to write any request or you don't have to pay any money. You just have to take responsibility and dedicate it to that, okay?

And it will come, okay? Thank you for coming.