Погружение в нирвану (2012, Нью-Йорк и Багамы), занятие 1

[Speaker 2]
Question for Swamiji, could you speak about the tradition of celibacy in your lineage and your own struggle with that and the benefits of it and why and where you are with that?

[Speaker 1]
That's a tough question. Did everybody hear it? We should repeat it.

Okay, so the question is how is celibacy perceived in our tradition and how I dealt with any of the problems with that.

[Speaker 2]
And the benefits of it.

[Speaker 1]
Benefits of celibacy.

[Speaker 2]
Inspiration to people who are interested.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so I think the celibacy is one of the vratas or vows taken in all traditions where people become monks. It's called brahmacharya. But the meaning of brahmacharya means to have the conduct that leads to Brahman.

Ideally, when you say that somebody is a brahmacharya, it means that one has already realized it. That would be the highest definition of it. And then we always have like a multi-definition for different types of people.

So, brahmacharya is the conduct that leads to the highest realization. And one of the vows is brahmacharya that can be taken either by monks, which means for life, or by partners for a little time. This is really a huge subject, but the main benefit is, as you know in the Raja Yoga Sutras, is that one gains the incredible energy to accomplish the work that will take somebody several lifetimes.

He or she can do it in one lifetime. That's the true benefit of it. Now, of course, the brahmacharya in our tradition has an aspect that is related to celibacy, and also an aspect that is related to controlling of all senses.

So, there's a story in the Ramayana, I don't know how many people know about this, and in Ramayana, Hanuman, who is the monkey god, he is the only one who can fly over to Sri Lanka to liberate Sita. And he was a very well-known celibate. And all other monkeys, when they were trying to jump over into Sri Lanka, they would fall into the ocean.

But he was the only one who could actually go over. And the symbolism of this is that Sri Lanka stands for the unconscious mind, and when he goes there and he finds Sita, he sets the whole Lanka on fire, which is kind of similar to burning off all of the karmic seeds. And he could do it through the power of his chastity.

And many stories exemplify this. In my opinion, brahmacharya is more equivalent to the term of vairagya. Because vairagya means to have not just a non-attachment, but not to be able to be pulled in any other direction of the five senses.

So, vairagya, you know the word which means non-attachment? So, a brahmachari who is just abstaining from sexual conduct, but yet is involved in engaging all his senses in all ways, is not truly a brahmachari. So, in traditional yoga, there are very strict rules, and you have to kind of work for a long time with the teacher.

You have to have a guru for this also. Because otherwise, if you try to do it on your own, you will find excuses for not wanting to follow it. And then, you know, people become fanatics.

And then the very celibacy becomes the objective of the spiritual work, which is, you know, the means that computes with the end. And the celibacy is only the means. So, there are many benefits.

One is health benefit. So, we have different pranas in our system, and there is something which is called ajas. I think in Chinese medicine they call it jin.

And we're born with a certain amount of ajas, which is a certain amount of energy that is in your heart. In fact, this is like the eight drops, I think. We talked about similar things.

This ajas gets destroyed through excessive sexual activity. So, the idea is that, again, this energy is transmuted. Raw energy, like a raw material, is transmuted into a very subtle spiritual force that has a protective effect on your aura, and, you know, for the spiritual work.

It strengthens your nadis. Do you know nadis, the words? Those channels, so that they can withstand the high pressure of the energy movement.

So, that's kind of one of the reasons Brahmacharya was like that. Many, many more benefits. I think the problem with this kind of vow is that the sexual desire is not perceived as sin, but it's very difficult for us to handle it sexually.

And this is why you have to have a guru for this. And when you take the vows, you take them in front of your guru. So, even though a guru is not going to check you with his secret cameras or anything like this, but you will know that he is connected with you on a psychic level, on a spiritual level, so that he will help you also when you attempt it.

Needless to say that this is one of the most difficult things to do. I mean, this just remains with you. Swami Vishnu was very open about this.

He says there is no yogi who did not have problems with this. In fact, sometimes when you kind of move in that direction, you experience the full force of that energy, and for this reason you need to have, you need to take the vows, you need to have a particular type of life and diet and everything, because this force is just totally out of hand with most people, and it takes a lot of skill and a lot of humility to handle it. So, in our teachings we also have another dimension, I think.

This is kind of a dedication to Lama. For us, it's also devotion to guru and to the Lord. So, the devotion plays an incredible role here.

Because the brahmacharya, even though it addresses the sexual energy, we say that sexual energy is a part of the kundalini energy, that is the energy of the whole creation, and all the creative work arises from the same place, the same energy. It may take the form of physical beings, where babies are born in their way, or emotional, let's say, aesthetics, you know, different artworks, philosophies. So, everything is the result of this energy being transformed in a proper way.

And you can see even with athletes and sportsmen and everybody, they take temporary kind of vows, maybe whatever, weeks or months or so, in order to be able to condense that energy in a certain way. So, we do also certain practices in yoga, that they help this. The bandhas are done, but in our teachings, in our school, the bandhas are not done freely.

So, when you come to Sivananda class, we don't teach bandhas. Because the bandhas reverse the ordinary flow of energy, they need to be handled again properly. And I know that the different schools have different reasons why they teach them.

But for the transformation of this energy, bandhas are necessary. As I said, food is necessary. We do some little visualizations and things like this.

But, traditionally, you know, in India, a brahmachari is called a hundred monkey man. Which means, you have to be busy all the time. They keep you busy like a horse, you know.

You wake up in the morning, the guru says, OK, then you go and you run like this. Because it's very easy for the mind to get distracted. And then there are rules also, which are sometimes tough for Westerners.

We have to have a little different approach to it, I think. Otherwise, everybody would be scared to death. Can we ask Lama Michael Geshe to share some of his views on this?

I don't know, it's good for me to hear that Swami Vishnu said, every yogi had trouble with it. I had trouble with it, it was difficult. Oh, I skipped that question altogether.

Yeah, yeah. It was hard for me, because I grew up, I wasn't, a lot of monks go in the monastery when they're seven or eight. And they never had relations with their baby, you know.

I became a monk at 30. And I went to the monastery at 22 or something. And then I was celibate since then.

But, it was hard. And I think what Swamiji said, that I would agree with, especially, is that, I lived with my teacher. So if I had a problem with masturbation or something like that, then I would go to him.

I had to go to him and tell him. And then, he was a tough, old-fashioned Lama, you know. And he would really, you know, beat on me.

Not physically, once in a while. Not once, this once. But it was so embarrassing to tell him that I had slipped in that way.

I never slipped in another, with a person. But I, it was very embarrassing to tell him. And then that forced me to keep it better.

And the embarrassment of having to admit it to him, made me later able to keep it well. So I think I agree that, to have a Lama around all the time, it's what Swamiji said, you take vows in front of that Lama, and then hopefully you live close to them, so that you can confess to them when you have a weakness, and then they help you, and they guide you. And I don't think you could do it on your own.

But the results of it is endless energy for me. It's always been extraordinary levels of energy. And I can work, you know, I can work just about constantly.

I worked in the car all the way up and downtown. And then I worked, we went to a lecture, I did all your homework in the back of the lecture. And you just had extraordinary energy, you know.

Also I think one advantage, if you're a spiritual teacher, if you can keep celibacy, is that people can trust you. People of the opposite sex especially. People can sense if you're keeping it well or not.

People have a good nose. And so if you are male or you're teaching ladies, or if you're a lady and you're teaching men, and if you're keeping your celibacy, they can smell it, and then they trust you more. So you're not, you don't have any ulterior motives when you're talking to a woman, and they can feel it.

And then they're more open to share their needs with you, because they know you're not going to take advantage of them. So I think, you know, if you can keep it, it's really sweet. And I think you need a lot to keep it.

Can I ask you a question?

[Speaker 2]
Brahmacharya is a masculine word, brahmacharya. For a woman it would be brahmachari. So I do not have, I've never heard in the history of India, I've studied in India, and I study Hindi and Sanskrit, I've never heard of the word brahmachari.

[Speaker 1]
So is celibacy as important as it is for a woman, as it is for a man? And if yes, then what advice do you have for us? Absolutely.

Of course it's important. It's for both men and women. In our teachings we say that the woman is eight times more powerful than the man, on that level.

So you can contemplate what that means. Of course, if a woman in fact can have the control over her energy like this, she would be, she would go faster than the man, in the spiritual domain. So, yeah, for everybody, brahmachari, brahmacharini, it's the same.

So, anybody. In the many, many swamis and ladies, of course in the most modern India, we have more ladies than swamis, but in olden times it was primarily men's job. But I think things have changed.

Yeah. I would just add another thing is that brahmacharya can give you tremendous memory. And this is necessary in spiritual teaching, which you have to memorize the text, you have to memorize the practices, and you have to memorize your past lifetime sometimes.

You know, you have to do all these things, so the health, one, energy, another, accomplishments. You know, you're speeding up your evolution, so you have to understand when you keep this vow, even for a little time, you have to understand why you're doing it. You have to have a purpose to it and not make that goal becomes the only objective and then you become, you know, a fanatic, and then you think all day long just how to save yourself from ladies or how to save yourself from men.

Of course, in the West, I think it's very difficult to do it because there's a certain freedom in the way of how we dress and how we approach to one another. It's much more difficult than in the East. But having said this, everybody has problems, East and West.

We've seen enough of them. I hope this lady is just going to raise her hand. Yes.

If you can't get rid of, say, your anger, that's my specialty, if you can't get rid of your anger and say you see emptiness directly and every time you get angry, you kind of seem to get more angry, what do you do? I mean, what are the means to stop it or to eliminate your anger or at least to just calm it down? Yeah.

So I'll repeat the question. In our tradition, you have to have a direct experience of ultimate reality Hang on. Only Mama has this phone, remember?

So I have to answer. So she said, in our tradition, it's impossible to remove a klesha without understanding ultimate reality and without seeing it directly. It's not possible.

It's part of the definition of nirvana, right? Nindirvana prapabdhi. So sattva means, as a result of a direct experience of ultimate reality, it's the only way you can stop your negative emotions permanently.

You can suppress them, but you can't stop them. Then Rebecca's question was, you know, we keep getting angry and every time we get angry, we plant more seeds to get angry. So how are you ever going to get over the anger?

Because you have to be semi-patient to see emptiness directly. Okay? It's a catch-22.

You can't see emptiness directly without getting rid of your anger and you can't get rid of your anger without seeing emptiness directly. Then I think the easiest answer, and I think Swamiji would agree, in both of our traditions, and I think it's the beauty of our traditions, both of them, we share more things than we don't share, I think. It's the blessing of your teacher, okay?

So you must have a teacher. You must have a close teacher. And if they're not close, you go to them, okay?

You don't get attached to a place, you know? So I asked His Holiness in 1973, something like that, who should I study with, you know? And he said, you go to Geshe Thaksin.

And I'm like, where does he live? Okay, so I was surfing in Del Mar, California. He said, New Jersey.

I said, in my mind I said, the armpit of the nation. In Del Mar, that's what they call New Jersey. And we see people from New Jersey, they come up in black cars, and they're looking out the window to see if a cloud will go over the sun.

And then if it does, they come out of their car, and they look all pasty white, you know? And then His Holiness said, New Jersey. And I'm like, yeah.

And then you go. So I lived there, I don't know, for 25 years, with him, in the same house. And it's only the blessing of your, I think, close contact with you.

With whoever your heart teacher is, you have to drop whatever you're doing and go be with them, and stay close to them. And then that's the blessing that can break the cycle. Otherwise it's almost impossible.

Because you've got to stop your anger to see emptiness, but you've got to see emptiness to stop your anger. And it's almost impossible. So there has to be some outside blessed force that breaks the cycle.

And I don't think it's ever anything else than your teacher's blessing. I agree. I just would like to add one more thing.

That's when you're working with any negative quality like this, just by becoming aware of it, and working with this, it's an acquisition, it's not a loss. So if you look at it, like there was one sage, and somebody came to him and said, I'd like to lead a spiritual life, but my life is full of, let's say, kleshas, right? And my life is full of obstacles and difficulties.

And so what should I do? And then the sage told him, there is no path outside of the obstacles. The obstacles are the path.

And it's a good way of approaching it, so you don't need to look at the ultimate solution right now, but it's the way for you to move towards getting into Lama and anchoring yourself. Okay, sorry, I was just talking to somebody. Geshe-la, when you spoke about a divine, like being in the regular presence of an extraordinary force, it sounded like a synonym for the blessing of Lama.

And Swamiji, in your tradition, would that be equatable with Shaktipat? Yes, that's what really guru-disciple relationship is about. It's everything.

A guru is somebody that can see you, even if he's not in a physical form anymore, if you know her, he doesn't need anything, any medium for that. What really is necessary, because you cannot see that directly, is to cultivate the faith. And this is something that is almost miraculous.

Some people seem to have that faith easily, some people don't. And I think it comes from the karma. So when you're serving the guru or Lama, you're creating the merits for that experience to become real for you.

So Shaktipat, of course, is the path in initiations. When you receive an initiation from a guru, it's a Shaktipat, it's a transfer of the Shakti of the guru. When you take the vows with the guru, he's empowering you to do certain things, but also he's protecting you by the power that he's given you.

For example, to be a monk, you have to not just be a good reader and a practitioner, but also the teacher has to make sure that you have strength enough to resist the temptations that are going to come your way. And they're going to come your way a hundred times stronger than to an ordinary person. And naturally, some people don't make it.

Swami Vishnu used to say, if you don't make it in this lifetime, it takes many, many lifetimes to make a good Swami, a good Lama. So you just have to have faith. Not to say that you cannot do this in one lifetime.

It is kind of a Shaktipat. And the gentleman here with the book, we have to say that. I have a question.

I don't really know much about this, which is just crazy. So thank you for teaching. So I'll speak about myself personally, and see if I can answer the question.

I have a tendency, I think, an innate desire to strike a greater balance within myself as it relates to the things that you outline, the properties and the notions. For instance, I would prefer to be more peaceful and quiet and sit in a pack. So I guess my question is, what is the nature of transforming those innate qualities that we have?

And are they innate? Is there a perfect balance of things that we all should strive for? Like a perfect balance of the three?

Do we treat ourselves as something we should work for? How does that actually work when we're working with these qualities? Yeah, this is a dosha question.

The gentleman is saying that he seems to have a good innate capacity to balance his doshas. You know the Kapha, the Pitta and the Vata. So that's the first part, as far as I understand.

And the second part is more like how to... whether these doshas are inherent in us in a way that... what do we need to do to be balanced?

This is kind of cutting through the question. Does the balance come by itself? Do we have to make some effort to do it?

So, the doshas are part of our prakriti, our nature. In fact, the doshas are called prakriti. There's two things.

There's prakriti and vikrti. Prakriti means that which you were born with, which in certain tendencies, of course, is related to your karmas. And when these doshas come out of the balance, they're called vikrti.

And sometimes when you're out of balance, it looks like that's your nature. And usually people are not always sure what to do. So you need to have somebody look at you and diagnose you, tell you what your doshas are predominantly.

So I think the whole idea of keeping the doshas in the balance is to use your discrimination in a correct way. Because most of the diseases and the problems and addictions are the result of misusage or underusage of your discriminative power. So, as you said, sometimes you feel like you want to sit in the back and be quiet.

That's what you just feel it's the right thing to do. So you're really following... I wouldn't call it an instinct.

I prefer to use the word some kind of a minor intuition, not necessarily the highest intuition. But it's to follow your heart so you know exactly what to do. And sometimes things are difficult.

For example, you may have some pitta, some kind of tendency to anger, but not very strong. But when you live with another person who has strong anger, strong pitta, it can imbalance your pitta. So that requires some kind of adjustment on your part.

Maybe not be with them too much, or maybe go out for a walk or something like this. Certainly do not marry a person like this. So...

[Speaker 2]
That's what happens is...

[Speaker 1]
You have to kind of be... have the closest of the friends or something that has some compatibility in terms of doshas with you. Let's say a kapha person doesn't like much of activities.

So if a kapha person sits with a vata who is like a bird, a kapha person won't even notice anything. But vata people will just bother them all the time. Why don't you move?

Why don't you move? So... I think it's the...

All diseases that come as a result of the doshas coming out of balance are the result, as I said, of a miscomprehension of the reality. And in this case, translating in a more practical way, not using one's discriminative power properly. Let's say it's cold outside, but you go with a T-shirt.

That's kind of where your discrimination is failing. It should be warm. At a warm place it should be...

And most people kind of should know this, but a lot of people don't, especially when you're young. You think, oh, I'll just do it another time. So...

There's many layers of answers there, I think. I think one more. We're a little bit over.

We kind of moved off the chart. This is all about nirvana. And...

We're talking about... To reach nirvana, we have to eliminate all of these negative emotions and release the six of them, right? Now, I think that the source of all six is in single one, is in fear.

Now, can we address fear, to eliminate fear, so we can eliminate the fear? Can you do that one? Yeah, if you eliminate fear, you know, it's a foundation of...

I don't know, like... Okay. I'm trying to think about fear, and what's the Tibetan word for fear, and how we talk about fear.

In our tradition, fear is mostly used as a positive thing. You know? Like, we had a moment, maybe 45 minutes ago, I was talking about how you might become a dog in a few minutes, and you wouldn't remember what you were before.

And then I felt a little wave of fear go through the room. And we think that's healthy. We think that kind of fear is healthy, because it makes you want to plant better seeds.

You might be a better person if you believed that in five minutes, you could become a dog, because of seeds that are already in your mind. You see what I mean? Nobody has to kill you and take your spirit and put you in a body, a different body, right?

So that, I think in our tradition, fear is often used as a motivation. But I think, as you go higher in your teachings, then fear has to be replaced by compassion, as a motivation. I think that's what you mean.

So I'm thinking, it's like that. Yeah, as time goes on, your motivation will change. And I'm thinking in this course, we will shift, okay?

Tonight. Let's do it now. It's a good point.

I'm not trying to get rid of jealousy anymore. I'm going to try to cultivate joy in other people's accomplishments. When I see a good teacher who might threaten me, then I will, so rather than envy, I will think, that's cool.

He's really cool, you know? And let's do that tonight, okay? So tomorrow we'll start talking about, rather than saying, let's fight anger, because I'm afraid of what it will do to me, how about we say, I'll become a person who has ultimate patience with everybody.

Let's make it positive. I think at some point, I respond better to positivity. In my work, okay?

So I worked in a corporation for, I don't know, 20 years. And the owner, he's Israeli guy. And he was so tough on me.

One night I went to him, I said, I have to go home early. I'm going home early from now on. I'm not staying after 1 a.m. And he got very angry. You know, it was like that. And then slowly I got it to 12, and then 11, and 10, and the night I was going home at 5 o'clock. And I said, fire me, I'm going home at 5 o'clock.

Just fire me, if you don't like it, fire me. And then he used to scream and rant, and I'd say, I have to go to see my teacher, I have to go for my classes, you know, I have to go. And then he screamed and he yelled, and it threatened me.

And then finally I just got chakto, in Tibetan they call it chakto. Chakto means, I'm saying, okay, fire me, I don't care. And then one day he calls me and he says, he says, we have a big order.

We need you. There's nobody in the company like you. You're the only one who can save us tonight.

You know? You are the man. You are the one who can save the company.

And I'm like, yeah. It's me. Can you stay till 11?

I'm like, I'll stay till 1. I think, so from tonight we'll change it from, we'll switch over from fair to, let's say, at some point we have to make it a policy. Fight the pressure by developing it.

And I say something, I'll repeat something I said last night. My biggest problem is jealousy. And there's a special kind of jealousy in Tibetan.

It's called pekyu. Say pekyu. Pekyu means professional dharma teacher jealousy.

There's a word for it. It's the jealousy that you have for another teacher. Once you start teaching, like a yoga teacher, who's jealous of another yoga teacher.

And there's a special word for that in Tibetan. But in my experience, if you can break through your jealousy, and invite Swamiji, and play music together, and hang out together, and enjoy Swamiji, the person who was jealous before becomes capable of greater joy than people who were never jealous. You see what I mean?

The person who was angry and has overcome that anger, they become a more patient person than someone who never had a problem with anger. So I can enjoy Swamiji more than you do. No, because I'm so good at jealousy.

That makes us jealous.

[Speaker 2]
I know.

[Speaker 1]
What I'm saying is, so let's stop the fear tonight, and stop thinking, I'm a jealous person. The person who was most jealous, when they fight that klesha, and beat it, becomes more, what do you call it, celebrating of other people's talents than the person who never had a problem with jealousy. Ex-alcoholics are the best teachers about substance abuse.

You know, people who've never had an alcoholic problem are not very good counselors. The people who got over alcoholism are the best teachers for alcoholics, right?