Отдать себя, чтобы найти себя: секреты древней тибетской практики Чё, часть 2 (2012, Нью-Йорк), занятие 2

[Speaker 2]
Welcome back, everybody. We're so honored and excited to have the second day of lecture teachings this year, and thank you for coming, Geshe-la. For those of you who've never been here before, let me introduce Geshe Michael Roach.

Geshe Michael Roach is a wonderful lama who has studied many traditions, including the Tibetan Buddhist tradition at Seramay Monastery, and for many, many years with his lama here in the United States, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin Khen Rinpoche. He's also studied deeply the yoga traditions, and as of late, he's a scientist too. So I'm just so pleased that you all came today, and please keep coming, and if you come, Geshe Michael will come.

I know that. So with no further ado, let's make our request offering prayer. Perhaps, Chelsea, could you help us?

[Speaker 1]
Hi, thank you for coming. I know it's a hassle to come into Manhattan on a Sunday, but thank you for coming. I'm going to just go straight into it.

Chöd is an ancient practice from a thousand years ago. It was made popular by a Tibetan yogini named Machig Labdron, who was born in 10... What is it?

62, I think. And chöd means to cut, right? Like the Diamond Cutter Sutra is very famous in Tibet.

It's called Dorje Chöpa, so that means to cut. Chöd is the past tense, cut, already cut off. And then, what you're supposed to cut is yourself, alright, your ego or yourself.

Then yesterday we spoke about what does it mean to cut your ego. And it's very common to go to a teaching like this, go to a, especially a Buddhist teaching or something like that, and they will say, you should cut your ego in the sense that you shouldn't assert yourself. You should be mild and meek and you should just take whatever comes to you and smile.

And if they say you have cancer, just relax and smile. And if they say you lost your job, just don't stress and cut your ego. Don't be so egotistical.

It almost feels sometimes like they're telling you don't be anything or anybody, okay? And that would be cutting your ego, that would be chöd. That's a lesser understanding of this practice, okay?

This practice involves... We said yesterday, we did the first half of the practice, which is cutting the ego in the sense of understanding that I am not myself, okay? Already I am not myself.

My ego was cut from the beginning. What does that mean, alright? And then we described it with a pen, okay?

Then we'll do it real fast, okay? What is this thing? It's a pen, alright?

If a dog came up on the stage, a puppy dog, and I waved it in front of the puppy dog, what would they do? They would chew it, right? Does the dog see it as a pen?

No. They see it as a... Chew toy.

Who's right, the human or the dog? Good, both. You can say both.

Then if I put this object here, and then all the people leave the room, and all the dogs leave the room, at that time, which one is it? Neither. And that's the idea, that's the Buddhist idea of emptiness, alright?

That's what emptiness means. Nothing else, okay? It doesn't mean nothing's real.

This is empty, but I can draw a mustache on your face, okay? If you don't think so, come up on the stage, okay? I'll give you a nice...

I do different ones, okay? It's not a pen by itself, but it will be a pen for me, alright? For me it's a pen.

Is it coming from me, or is it coming from itself? It must be coming from me. If it were coming from itself, the dog would see a pen.

It would announce itself, I'm a pen, I'm a pen, I'm a pen. Okay? No, you feel like that, but it doesn't.

It must be coming from me. If you're not sure of that principle, take the example of your favorite song, okay? You're driving in the car with your friend, you know, you say, God, you know, you've got to hear this song, you know?

You pull out your iPhone, and you put on the iPod, you know? And you get in the Steve Miller band, and... Where is that?

Yeah. Where did he go? Yeah.

And then you say, you've got to hear this song. Here we go. You sing along, right?

Because you like it so much. And then you look at your friend. And they're like, they give you the ultimate diss.

They say, that's really interesting. Okay, you know that. You go through that, right?

You go through that. I go through that every day. They start talking in the middle of the song.

Then I know they're not even listening to it, you know? Songs are empty, okay? If you hear something beautiful, it's coming from?

From you, okay? If it were in the song, then it would be everybody's favorite song. But it's not, I guess.

Okay? I knew I'd get to play it today, because the band doesn't want to play it. So, the pen is the same way, right?

It's coming from me, right? Why? How?

Why do I see a pen? Why does the dog see something to chew? I have a seed in my mind to see a pen, okay?

You can call it a karma, if you want to get fancy. But I think karma gets confused, you know? Everybody gets confused about the word karma.

I prefer to call it a seed. In China, we don't call it ye li. Ye li means karma in Chinese.

We call it zhong guo. What is it? No.

Xigua zhong zi. We call it zhong zi, which means seed. We don't use the word karma, we use the word seed, okay?

Seed means I have a seed in my mind to see it as a pen. Who put the seed there? I did.

Only I can put seeds in my mind, okay? Nobody else can put a seed in my mind. How do I put a seed in my mind?

I watch myself do something. That's karma, okay? I watch Michael do something, alright?

And it has to be to somebody else, okay? I need other people to make a karmic seed, alright? You can't do a karmic seed on yourself, alright?

It's like a knife cutting itself. They say in the scriptures it's like a knife. You can't use a knife to cut the knife.

Okay? You can cut other things with the knife, but you need an orange or an apple or a piece of bread. You can't cut a knife with itself, right?

You cannot make a karma by yourself. It's not possible, okay? You need another person to plant the seed with.

So, I need... If I want to have a seed for a pen in my mind, I need to... I have to watch myself give a pen to somebody else.

I have to see Michael's hand, right? My eyes are watching my hand like a video camera. And I see the hand gets smaller, right?

And it reaches out to somebody else's hand. And then I put the pen in their hand and then I let go of the pen. I see myself let go of the pen.

That plants a seed. That plants a seed in the mind. Watching myself let go of the pen and thinking I gave the pen to somebody else, that plants a seed in my mind.

I think what's often... what's useful to know is what happens to the seed in between the time I give the pen and the time I see a pen, alright? What's happening to the seed during that time?

Depending on certain emotions and understandings I have, okay? I'll say it again. Depending on certain emotions and understanding I have when I give the pen, a seed is placed in my subconscious.

It sits there under the ground of my mind and it matures like other seeds, right? It ripens underground. You put a seed underground and something starts happening right away.

And then sooner or later, what? It cracks open and it pops up and it clears the ground, right? You see a little spout come up, right?

How does it happen in the mind? The seed splits open in your subconscious. It starts to make its way towards the conscious mind.

And things are timed, okay? The timing is perfect. Seven billion people's seeds are all timed to interlock.

They interweave. They intermesh with each other. It's extraordinary, okay?

I come to the talk. The guy talking holds up an object. At that instant, the seed opens in my mind.

How does it open? A tiny image pops into my conscious mind. A tiny image comes out of the subconscious and pops into my conscious mind.

It's an image of a pen, okay? It's the image of a pen. It's this big, okay?

The image is this big. And then I'm looking at that image as somebody holds up this object. And I mistake the image for the object.

And I say that's a pen, okay? I have created the pen by giving a pen, all right? You've got to understand that.

Just understanding that much, you can get a sense. You can create your own reality, okay? You can use these principles.

You are not a victim of the seeds in your mind. You can plant the garden that you want, you know? I plant my garden right now.

This morning I was at Veselka. And eating a huge breakfast and talking to Andriana and planning my garden for the spring, you know? It's actually planning how to keep the deer out.

So I'll decide tulips will go there and irises will go there and I'll give the roses extra fruit and the jasmine will go there. I plan the whole garden. Before I...

Now, before spring, I plan. Then I plant the things I want. And then I just relax, okay?

You don't put a seed in the ground and go out and stand and watch, you know? You plant. You cover it with hay.

You water it. You put a little fertilizer. Then you go sit in your house for a while.

You relax. And you don't go out and stress and stare at the dirt, okay? You don't have...

It doesn't help. It will come up, okay? And it will be beautiful because you planned it properly, okay?

You can plan your future like that. You can plan your life like that, alright? It's very interesting.

It's a new way of living, alright? I think when you teach something, you should have tried it yourself, right? If you're gonna...

People, when you're talking to people, even if it's just one other person in Starbucks, right? You say stuff and then they listen. And then they can hear conviction in your voice, okay?

Like, it doesn't matter what words you say. If you did it all... If you gardened your own life, they can spell it.

If you're sitting there saying, you can make anything in your life happen that you want to happen, then they're gonna look at you and they're... Deep down inside, they're gonna say, well, how's his life going? You know?

If what he says is true, then he should be like rich and he should be happy and he should be healthy and he should have a nice relationship. Okay? That's natural.

People will check. If you claim to be able to design the future and you have a lousy life going on, then it's something suspicious. Okay?

So, I'm not boasting, okay? But my lama told me to make a company in Manhattan and help the refugees. It's a quarter billion dollars now.

And it was sold to Warren Buffett, okay? Ten thousand people. We started with three.

We started with renting one table in another guy's office. We weren't allowed to go to the bathroom unless we asked him. And now there's a building downtown, a 12-story building.

You know, like that. You can design your future, okay? You can design your health.

You can change your health. I used to have a very bad handicap. I couldn't walk some days.

Now I do ballet. Just to say, you. Okay?

To my body. No, it's just like a statement. You're not only not going to limp, you're going to do ballet.

And I don't like ballet that much, but it's just a statement that I could do it. You know what I mean? I couldn't do it when I was 20.

I tried. I couldn't do it when I was 20. And now I'm 100.

And then, you know, relationship. You can have the most beautiful relationship in the world. And I have, okay?

So you can design what you want if you understand the seed planting thing. We went through that yesterday, alright? Now, try to understand this.

This and this are the same. Okay? Everything's coming from you.

Not just outside objects. Okay? Not just the school.

And not just the pen you're using. But your body is coming from you. From seeds in your mind.

And what you hear in your head is coming from you. You don't think your thoughts. Your thoughts go off a microsecond before you hear them.

Okay? They come out of the seeds in your mind. And you're just a witness.

You're just a listener. Are you talking and listening at the same time? It's not possible.

Seeds open in your mind. Your mind says stuff. And you're the victim of your seeds.

If the seeds are depressed thoughts, then you don't have a choice. You know? You think people want to be depressed.

You know? You can't stop those seeds. You can't say, let's be happy today.

You know? My Lama... People used to come from New York to New Jersey.

And they would wait, like, a couple hours to see my teacher. And then they would get their big audience. And they would go upstairs.

And I had to bring the tea. So I heard all of the... Or sometimes I had to translate.

And then I would hear all the... the heart exchanges going on. You know?

And somebody would come from... Especially New Yorkers. I don't know why.

They'd say, Rinpoche, I'm depressed. You know? And then he'd look at them and say, be happy.

And then they'd look at him like... And then he'd say, that's enough. Send up the next person.

You know? And really... And then they'd come down and I'd say, what are you saying?

And they said, he told me to be happy. You know? And...

It's like a joke, right? Because you can't be... When you're sad or when you're depressed, you can't be happy.

The problem is, you're listening to thoughts that are coming out of karmic seeds in your mind. And you're just listening. You're the listener.

You're not the thinker. Okay? In...

in the scriptures, they say, those thoughts go off a microsecond before you hear them. And it should be that way. It takes time to get across the synapses, right?

Those thoughts... By the time you hear them, those thoughts are past, like the... like the light coming from the stars, right?

Sometimes they say, the starlight we see is from stars which are no longer burning. They stopped burning, but the light took that long to get to us. Your thoughts are the same.

The thoughts come out of the subconscious mind from karmic seeds. Then you... Then a microsecond later, you hear...

later you hear them. You are always living one microsecond behind. Okay?

You thought you were late to everything. You are. Okay?

It's very interesting. So what I'm trying to say is that the way you experience yourself, is the same as the way you experience the pen. Alright?

You... And different people will experience you in different ways. Okay?

And that's the way... Like the favorite song, Think. So how do I...

Then the big question should become, how do I plant seeds to see a different me? You know? I would like to tweak my me a little bit.

I would like to be different than I am now. Okay? Everybody has wishes, right?

Everybody has a dream. You should have some dream. Okay?

It doesn't matter, big or small. Take some dream and do an experiment. Alright?

Take one of your dreams and do an experiment. Plant a seed and see if this stuff works. Okay?

See if you can make a change in your life using this idea. Okay? It's a different idea.

And it's the pen. It's based on the pen. So don't forget the pen.

Why do I use a pen and not a banana? Because in theory you're going to use a pen a couple of times a day. A lot of you carry pens around with you.

I'm hoping that every time you see the pen you think of it. You're in the bank and you have to fill out a deposit form and you pick up a pen. And I want you to think about where it's coming from.

It's coming from seeds in your mind. So I'm going to go really quickly through the process. It's not enough to plant seeds.

You have to know how to take care of them properly. There's stuff you have to do in the spring. I started last fall.

I mulched the beds last fall for this spring. I had to go out and turn the soil and put some hay on it and put some fertilizer on it. Where we live you have to put everything because it's all rocks.

And then there's stuff you have to do while the seeds are coming up. And then there's stuff you have to do to keep them healthy. If you want the secret in the desert in Arizona to beautiful roses, it's Starbucks coffee grinds.

You go to Starbucks and you say, can I have the old grinds? And they like it because they're in the way. And they give me huge bags of grinds and I put them on the roses.

They're over my head now. They started like little sticks like this. It's not enough to plant a rose.

You have to know how to take care of it. And how to prepare for the rose. Then you have some extraordinary thing.

You know people who are generous. You know people who give financial help to other people all the time. But they didn't make a quarter billion dollars.

And their bones and their feet didn't change. You need to know the... It's not enough to plant a good seed.

What's more important is to know how to take care of the soil before you plant it. And how to take care of the seed after you plant it. The before the planting and after the planting are more important than the planting.

I go out to plant flowers. It takes 10 minutes. To prepare for the flowers takes many days.

And to take care of them afterwards takes many days. The planting is nothing. All the people you know who were generous and didn't reach financial...

What do you call it? Independence. I like independence.

I like independence. I don't like to be dependent on a credit card company. I don't like to sit around and wait for my boss to give me a raise.

I hate that stuff. I'm very... What do you call?

I don't like any kind of boss. So I'd like to be financially independent. I call it oxygen money.

Oxygen money means there's enough oxygen in the room for everybody. You're not sitting there thinking is there enough oxygen? You just walk in and you breathe.

I think your money, your finances should be like that. I just don't think about it. I ask Jigme every once in a while how much money I have.

And then she's like... I say, can I give away this? Can I give away $1200 this afternoon?

She's checking. Like, really, OK? We have to know by seven.

I know, but there were some other expenses. So, like that. You should be like that.

You should be... I think you should be independent. Then if you want to serve other people you have the means, right?

You can fly to Jakarta and give a talk to the Muslim community. We did it a couple months ago, OK? You say the Muslim community in Jakarta says will you come give a talk?

They say yes. They say we can't pay anything. You're like, I'm there.

Don't worry about it. I have enough money for the ticket. You don't have to worry about it.

I'll be there. And it was beautiful. And it was awesome.

And then there's no pressure on them. They're not like, oh, how am I going to get a ticket? So, like that.

Be independent. I'm going to give you four steps, OK? Write it down.

You're a schmuck if you don't listen. OK? I can't even use that word in Arizona.

Nobody knows what it means. OK? And if next year I meet you and I say how are you doing?

Did you make your dream? And you say no, then you're a new Nick, OK? And then people in Arizona especially don't know this word.

Just try, OK? Just try it. Number one.

Decide one thing that you want to run an experiment on. My teacher forced me to start a diamond business, OK? It was the last thing I wanted to do in the universe.

Especially if it meant living in New Jersey. OK? No, the Dalai Lama forced me to go to New Jersey, OK?

Like, it was the worst place in the world. And really, any place would have been better, OK? So, you do an experiment.

You do one experiment. You say, I'm going to do one experiment. It could be financial, OK?

I want to make more money by... In three months, I would like to be making more money. Or I would like a different job.

OK? I would like my boyfriend to be a little more affectionate. OK?

When I come home and go like this, he should hug me and not go to do Facebook. You know? He goes like this, and he hugs his computer.

I'd like him to pay a little more attention to me. OK? Like that.

No, these are all worthy experiments. OK? These are for real.

I'm not giving some spiritual talk. OK? I want you to make your dreams come true.

Then we'll take it to the world. Then we'll take it to the rest of the world. OK?

We have to. That's coming. OK?

But first, prove it to yourself. You can't go telling people, I'm going to make you happy if you're obviously miserable. OK?

Nobody buys it. All right. So, here's number one.

Decide what you want. Write one short sentence. OK?

I had a lady last night, she wanted to tell me about her life, you know, and I said, I said, one sentence. What do you want in one sentence? I want my relationship to get better, and blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, no, stop. One sentence. It's just, I want my relationship to get better because my...

I said, stop. One sentence. It took like five stops.

And then finally she did it. I want my relationship to get better. That's all.

That's enough. Make one sentence what you want. Decide what you want.

As an experiment. If the experiment works, we can go for bigger stuff. You know?

If it doesn't work, you just stop and do something else. Do what you always did. OK?

I don't know. Step number two. You must find somebody else to plant the seed with.

OK? I used to say in, but then some guys got an idea. You must find someone to plant the seeds with.

OK? Which means, you have to find someone who wants something similar. Alright?

If I want pen seeds, I have to find a person who needs a pen. And I have to give them a pen. And I have to watch myself give them the pen because that plants the seed for the pen.

Alright? Got it? So, it doesn't have to be exactly the same because the Abhidharmakosha fourth chapter says that if the groundhogs are not mating in that month, you can be born as a dog.

OK? It means there's some leeway. OK?

You can give pencils and you can still get a pen. OK? Alright?

Find someone who wants something similar. Alright? Then I had an irritating person this morning.

You're not really irritating, but the statement was irritating. I don't know anybody like that. Spend two days looking and you'll find a hundred.

Alright? Come on. Get real.

You know? I want a boyfriend, but I don't know anybody who wants a boyfriend. Look for twenty minutes.

You know? No, I mean, it's just blatant laziness. If you're lazy, the system doesn't work.

OK? It's not going to happen. Find somebody.

Look around in your immediate... Usually within your immediate circle of friends and family you'll find somebody. Or the people at work.

OK? But you can find somebody who wants the same thing that you want. OK?

That's step number two. By the way, step number two, take a lot of time planning it. OK?

Take a lot of time. Consider many candidates. You're going to choose one.

Alright? You're going to choose one to be your project. It's going to be your pet project.

Your pilot project. OK? But choose one.

But think a lot about them. Alright? Think as much information as you can think of about them.

She wants a boyfriend. Then ask yourself why. Oh, she had a bad breakup a couple years ago.

Then what happened? Oh, she got burned and she was afraid to have a boyfriend for a couple years. Then she keeps thinking about the old one.

And then I ask her to go out and she doesn't want to go out because she's afraid she's going to get burned. Then I set her up with this guy and then she, you know. Like that.

Collect information in your mind like you're a private investigator. Everything you know about this person, run it through your mind. Because you have to help them.

You're going to have to help them. So you have to review in your mind all the information you know. And ask around.

Did she go out with anybody in the last six months? No. Has she gone on vacation?

Has she done anything? Ask her friends. Collect a whole dossier about this person.

Pretend you're doing an investigation about them. They are your pet project. You have to know as much about them as you can.

They're going to be your pet project. And then plan. I say, step three.

You ready for step three? Take them to Starbucks. Take them out to some place to talk.

I like Starbucks. It's, what do you call it? It's anonymous.

It's neutral. Everybody goes there. Right?

No one's going to notice whatever you talk about. They don't care. She'll feel safe at Starbucks.

There's no one there that's going to overhear the conversation. They don't care. People go there and talk to themselves at length.

There was a guy yesterday at Starbucks. We go there to work. He had a big bottle of whiskey.

He had this long, loud conversation going on with himself. People just turn it out. Tune it out.

They don't listen. Step number three, take them to Starbucks. Do you have to take them every day?

No. Let's say, I don't know. Let's say you want a boyfriend.

Let's say you're looking for a boyfriend. Step number two would be, think of someone who's looking for a boyfriend. It could be any lonely person.

I like to tell people, go to a nursing home. Go to a nursing home. Adopt one of the elderly, lonely ladies.

I have one. I have one for 20 years. And I use her.

Okay? Alright? And I go there.

I go there. Every time I'm in Phoenix, I go through Phoenix. I stop at her house.

I take her a bouquet of flowers. I fix something in her house. Recently I fixed her toilet seat.

I did her shower handle. Then we did the light over the stove. The stove hood.

That light. She thinks I'm a genius, okay? And then we did a sprinkler system for her garden.

You know, like that. We fixed her sidewalk, like that. So, every time you go, you do something for her.

And then you surprise her. You say, hey, you want to go out to dinner? And she's like, oh, I'm so surprised.

And you do it every time. And she's already got her hair done. She's like, oh, me?

You want to take me to dinner? And she's like, my person's ready. Let's go.

And then you take her out. And you treat her. And you listen.

And you give her companionship. That's step number three. That's planting a seed.

Take them out. Plant a seed. You can take them out once every week or once every two weeks.

Don't try to do more than you can do comfortably. Because you'll stop. And it's discipline.

People like that, they just want something regular. It doesn't have to be frequent. They want to know you'll be there once every two weeks.

You don't have to go every day. They want to know you're going to be there twice a month. And then you have to keep it up.

You have to be regular and predictable. Now, there's a trick to number three that you've got to know. There's a trick to number three that you've got to know.

If you take an elderly woman out to dinner and fix her toilet seat and... Oh, by the way, is helping her once every two weeks enough to have a boyfriend who stays around 24 hours a day? I mean, this is a deep philosophical question.

Okay? Shouldn't you have to help her 24 hours a day to get a boyfriend who doesn't just visit you twice a month? You tell me.

No. Why? Seeds grow.

Seeds grow. Okay? Seeds grow.

I checked on the internet. Ningbo is always halfling me because I exaggerate in the class. Did I exaggerate today?

Probably. But I checked on the internet. An acorn weighs a half a gram.

An oak tree weighs 250 tons. Okay? If you don't believe that example, then how about your dad's sperm and your mom's egg?

One sperm, one egg, 70 years of trillions upon trillions of cells replicating themselves. Your body, over the length of your life, came from two tiny cells. Okay?

That's power. That's extraordinary power. Mental seeds are much more fecund.

Much more powerful. Mental seeds are much more powerful than that. Take the lady out once every two weeks.

You got a boyfriend for decades. Okay? I'm not kidding.

You got to appreciate that. You got to appreciate the power of a seed. Mental seeds are much more powerful than seeds in the physical world, in the natural world.

Now, there's a trick to number three. If you don't pay attention right now, there's going to be a mess up. It's selfish to go visit an old lady in exchange for a boyfriend.

Alright? It's selfish to go there and step out of her house when you get home and start looking around the street. I visited the old lady.

Where's the boy? I'll give you some money if I can get rich. I'll give you a pen if I can get ten.

Like that. It's a business deal. It's selfish.

Then there's a trick to number three to change it from selfish to enlightened. There's a trick with number three to change it from selfish to enlightened. What's the trick?

It's very easy and it's true, so it's a no-brainer. It's very easy. While you're sitting at Vincent's restaurant with your old lady, and she's like cleaning up the wine off her blouse, because she always spills them.

Then, take a moment to think to yourself, if this works, if this really works, I'll get a beautiful boy. A beautiful boy will come to me. Okay?

If you leave it at that, it's a selfish deal. I'm exchanging a couple days a month for a boyfriend. Then that's selfish.

When you take a lady out and you plant a boyfriend that way, you're gonna get a boyfriend who's selfish. Alright? So we gotta be careful here.

You will get a boyfriend. Even if your motivation sucks, you will get a boyfriend. Because that's the way the seeds work.

But he will be selfish. He will use you as an object. Like that.

So we don't want that. How do I prevent that? How do I change the seed?

As you're helping the old lady, let it run through your mind that if this stuff works, I will get a nice man. A nice man will come into my life. By the way, when I say come, I mean come.

You don't have to go looking. Alright? You will bump into him someplace and not by accident.

Okay? You created the bump-in. You created the bump-in.

Alright? You designed the bump-in. Then your friend, you will, of course, after a couple of dates, you will want to show him off to your friends who said you could never find a boyfriend.

Okay? And then you just casually take him along to the next time you meet your friends at Starbucks. And you walk in and all three of them are sitting there and they look up and you're walking with this boy and they're wondering if he just came in at the same time.

You know? Or he's your cousin or something. Okay?

And then you sit down and they're kind of... You know there's this moment of indecision like they don't know how to relate to him yet because they might hit on him if he's not your boyfriend? And then you're like, I want to introduce you to my new boyfriend.

And then suddenly all around the table there's this... And they're all like, Boyfriend? And then you all have coffee and they keep slipping glances at him.

You know? And then he says, I have to catch a train or something and he leaves and then everybody's like, Where'd you get him? Where'd you get him?

Which club? Which yoga center? You know?

Which Bhagavad Gita teaching was it? You know? Where did you meet this boy?

You know? You haven't had a boy for five years. You've been looking around for a boy and now suddenly you got this one.

Are you using a different perfume or something? Can you tell us what it is? And then you're going to say what?

Don't worry about... It's not a club and it's not a... It's not this or that Sephora.

It's a... It's a nursing home. I have a secret weapon at the nursing home.

Okay? And then you turn them on to this idea. If you have five friends, two of them will try it.

Okay? Two of them will... I mean, if you give them a good teaching, which you should, okay?

That's why I'm asking you to write down the four things. Because you have to transmit... You're the next person in the lineage, okay?

I don't have time to walk around New York and meet all your friends. You have to take care of your friends, okay? You have to pass it on to your friends.

If it works, wouldn't it be a wonderful gift to give to your friends? Okay? Look, you can design a boy.

I got this teaching. I don't want you to call it Buddhist, okay? I don't care.

You can call it Zoroastrian or something. It doesn't matter to me, okay? You try it.

Check it out. Get a lady in a nursing home. Take care of her, okay?

And you will get one too. And then two of them will try it and two of them will get boys. Then you're like six of you walking in.

Three boys, three girls. And the other three friends who are slackers. Even they will be convinced, okay?

Right? Then what will happen with their friends? I mean, your friend hasn't had a boyfriend for seven years.

Okay? Then the other friends will ask them, where did you find him? And then it will become a fad, okay?

You will be at the middle of a new movement. The nursing home boyfriend movement. Okay?

Alright? No, it's natural, okay? I was in the diamond business, right?

We built the company to a quarter billion dollars. Then Doubleday called me. And they said, I always wanted to be a writer, right?

Actually, I planted the seeds for it. That's another story. But they called me.

And they said, Would you write a book about what you did at that company? It's the fastest growing company of its kind, manufacturing company, in the history of New York City. Would you write a book about it?

And then I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, but how did you... Then I said, I'll write it for free, because I just want to let people know.

They said, no, no, no, you can't write it for free. We had a big fight. And they're like, we have to pay you.

And I said, I don't want any money. They said, $50,000. I said, they want to give me $50,000.

I never wrote a book in my life. They said, we'll give you $50,000. I'm like, no, I don't need the money.

I don't want the money. They sent it to me. They insisted on sending it to me.

And then, people will ask you, what's your story? How did you do that? People will ask you.

When you do step number three, project your mind into the future, and see 35 other people getting a boyfriend, or a hundred, or a thousand. See the whole chain reaction, as it's going to be in six months, or one year. And then it's not selfish, then it's the service of the world.

Then it's bodhicitta, if you want to use the word. You want to know what bodhicitta is? It's not sitting in a class, and it's like, ...

It doesn't help anybody. Get a boyfriend, using these principles, that's bodhicitta. Really.

Really. If you don't learn anything else today, you buddhist people, learn what bodhicitta is. It's to make your dreams come true, and set an example for the rest of the world, because they will follow you.

They will call you and ask you to write a book. And they'll offer you money to write the book. How do you get a boyfriend?

Can you write a book called, How You Get a Boyfriend? I met him at the nursing home. Something like that.

That's bodhicitta. That's really changing the world. That's really affecting the world.

You set an example with your success. In anything, your health, your relationships, your finances, something else. Your level of anger.

You change it. Ani Thelma is famous. The lady who started the Three Jewels.

When I met her, she was the most angry person I ever met. Don't tell her when she gets out through your retreat. But she used the seeds on herself.

And now she's this beautiful, beautiful person. She's one of the people I know who changed themselves the most in the world. And then people will get interested.

They'll say, what did you do to her? How did you do that? You see?

And then you start a revolution. So number three, to prevent from planting a seed for selfish. If you don't think in big terms by getting the boyfriend through making seeds, I'm changing the whole world.

I'm starting a movement. Keep that in mind. That's bodhicitta.

That prevents it from... If you don't do that, the boyfriend's gonna be a selfish son of a gun. Okay?

He will keep using you for his purposes. Got it? Alright?

So we don't want that. That's step number three. Step number four.

We're doing good on time. The clock's wrong, right? Yeah.

They let these kids out an hour early. I like it. It's a good clock, Michael.

Step number four. The most important. Step number four.

The most important. It makes the difference between... See, seeds...

Okay, remember Jay told me he started a business in New York for the refugees. I went to another lama in my monastery. I said, you know, Rinpoche...

His name was Geshe Tharchin at the time. Geshe Tharchin told me I should start a business in New York. What should I do?

He says, use the Diamond Cutter Sutra. I said, what am I supposed to do? He said, you know, you help somebody else start a business and then your business will take off.

Okay? We call it karmic business partner. If Ben Gomi talks at Princeton University, he's going to talk about karmic business partners.

Okay? Like, you need a karmic business partner. You have to find somebody else who's starting a business.

Even those of you who are interested in charitable work, if you want to fundraise for your charitable work, find another person who has a charitable project and help them raise money. Okay? I gave a big talk in Singapore to a huge group of NGOs and they got it.

They were so excited. People who do social work tend to be the most selfish when it comes to funding. They compete with each other and they're very possessive of their sponsors.

So do the opposite. If you have a charitable mission and you want to raise money for it, help some other charity raise money and then money will flow into your charity. We did it at Diamond Mountain, right?

We had to pay off a million and a half dollars in debt. We started with a million and a half dollars in debt and we don't have any fees. We don't charge anything.

So whatever money we got, we gave it to a competing institution and we paid off the loan 25 years early and the bank had a heart attack. It was really funny. So, there's a trick to number...

Oh, so I asked this Rinpoche, how am I going to start this business in New York that Ken Rinpoche wants me to start? He says, you help somebody else start a business. And then I'm like, okay Rinpoche, now the big question.

How long is this going to take? How many visits to the old lady? What's the time frame here?

You know, and he says, Say Chimu. Say Chimula. I'm sorry.

Say, say Chimula. Say Chima. And I'm like, when's it going to come back to me?

Next life. Next life. Then I'm like, Rinpoche, you don't get it.

I'm from America. What's the only American institution that's everywhere? McDonald's.

I was at a McDonald's. Very interesting. If you don't make the french fries in two minutes, exactly the way they're supposed to be made.

If the customer has to wait for their french fries more than two minutes, you get fired. You just get fired. That's it.

You got 120 seconds to make the french fries. I said, Rinpoche, I'm from McDonald's land. We invented fast food.

I can't wait till next life. I got to show results now. Rinpoche is on my rear end.

He wants money for the refugees. People are starving. They were starving.

And he's like, you got to get it done now. He says, oh, you need step number four. Just do step number four.

You didn't tell me you needed it that quick. Do step number four. So, I'm telling you, direct from, his name is Jampa.

He's not the Jampa you know. What's step number four? He never cries.

Step number four is take your old lady out, you know, take the lonely person out to Starbucks. That's going to happen maybe in the afternoon, I'm guessing. Because you're going to spend the morning planning what you're going to say, who you're going to take, what you're going to wear, what you're going to order for them.

You have to pay, okay? You have to entrap them. Plan in the morning.

Plan what you're going to wear. Plan how to get her to the Starbucks. She's got a stroller walker thing.

These are hard to get into Starbucks. Make sure your friend's there ahead. They got a table ready.

She can't stand up. An old person can't stand up and wait for a table. Like you got the whole thing planned.

It's like a military campaign. That's step number two, right? Then you take her to Starbucks.

Step number three. You think about the little revolution you're starting. I had a lady in Bulgaria.

We went to Sofia, what? Last year. Her name is Iskra.

She said, I want a boyfriend. I want a boyfriend. I want one husband.

Okay? Okay? We can do it.

Then she got one. She used it and she got one. Then she called me.

She's all excited. She says, we're starting a revolution. Which means, we're going to start a new revolution.

She's all excited. Bulgarians love revolutions. She's like...

Step number three is like, I'm going to start a revolution. People all over the world who are looking for a man will visit lonely people. You will have to take a number at the nursing home to get in to see the lonely people.

Because there will be lines of young ladies waiting outside. Is she free today? No.

Next week? No. It will be like a plumber or a doctor.

Okay? She's busy next week. That's step three.

Now here's step four. You come back home, right? You drop her off at home.

I always ask her, what's our next project, you know? Like, what are we going to do next week in the garden? What are we going to do next week in...

What's in the house is broken. You know what she said last time? I said, what do we got left to do in the garden, Mrs. Hancock?

She says, Nikki's taking care of that. He swiped her. Anyway.

Then you say, what are we doing next time? When am I going to see you next time? Then you go home, okay?

Then it's like evening. You have your dinner. You take a bath.

You watch a little TV, if that's what you do in the evening. Read a book. Then you get ready for bed, okay?

You start to get ready for bed. You put on your bedclothes, right? And you start to get ready for bed.

Put on your bedclothes. Sit on the edge of your bed. I got this thing nowadays.

It's like this, right? You sit up against the headboard, right? You put lots of pillows behind you when you sit up next to the headboard.

And don't assume a meditation posture. And forget the eight steps of Vaira Chandra's meditation posture, okay? You're just like this, okay?

When you're thinking about a boy, you don't go like this, right? You're like... Seriously.

It's a very good posture for... Do a meditation. It...

Step four is a meditation. Think about how you helped her today. Okay?

Then you're just like that. You're like leaning up against the pillows, you know? And you're getting a little sleepy, okay?

And you're like, that was cool, you know? First I picked her up. She liked the flowers.

Next time I'll have to use this. She likes that kind of flower. You're making mental notes about next time.

She enjoyed the lemon cake. I'll have to remember to see... I'll take her next time to a place that has lemon cake, you know?

And she really enjoyed talking about the boy that she met in high school. You know? The most handsome boy in high school in the little town in New Mexico where she grew up.

And how he had a crush on her. So next time I'll ask her more about the boyfriend. You know?

Like making notes about next time and reviewing what a nice thing you did today when you dropped her off. She was all bubbly and she was all smiling and she's not lonely anymore, okay? She knows I'm gonna come again.

She's not lonely anymore. She looks forward to it. Step number four is to be happy about the nice thing that you did.

It's not pride, okay? It's hard to get pride with visiting an old person, alright? Lady Ruth the other day, she said, I like Shavasana.

You know, this final relaxation pose after you do your yoga. She goes, I like Shavasana. I said, why?

She said, nobody competes in Shavasana. You know? Nobody's thinking my Shavasana is better than anybody else's Shavasana.

You know? She obviously can't read my mind. I can compete about anything.

But it's the same, like, it's a healthy thing. You think, just be happy, okay? Like, just be happy and say, today I was a nice person.

I succeeded in being a nice person today. I served somebody today. You know?

I did a nice thing. Now, number four, step number four, you must be especially happy about the fact that you didn't go to a yoga class and you didn't go online and you didn't go to a club looking for a boy because they don't work, okay? You have to be happy about the fact that you are finally acting with intelligence.

Okay? That's very important. It's not just be happy that you took a lonely person out.

You have to be happy that you are working in accordance with the Dao, right? Dao ka dao, fei chong dao, min ka min, fei chong min. You are finally following the flow of the way the world works, okay?

You are not trying to get something by competing with other people or by trying to get it away from other people. You are creating a boyfriend. You're not looking for one, okay?

You're not wandering around clubs and yoga studios looking for a guy who might be 70% of what you really want, right? There's always a percent. There's a balance.

He asks you out and you look at him and there's a number, right? You want to go out tomorrow and you're like, 63%. You know, that's cutting it a little close, you know?

Maybe he'll get to 70. Okay, I'll go out with you, you know? Those are old ways, okay?

Then, step number four, don't just be happy that you took her out. Be happy that you're finally doing something intelligently. And when intelligently, I mean correctly, okay?

You are finally using a means to fulfill your dream which always works, all the time. It never doesn't work, all right? Then people come up to me, they say, just like I took a lady out for four weeks, you know?

Every Friday. And the boy didn't come yet. What should I do?

Then I'll say, you know, when I first got to the refugee camp, I didn't know how to cook. I was in college. And, you know, they taught me how to cook a loaf of bread in a tin can on top of a little fire like that.

They taught me how to make bread in a tin can. You make a cone out of the dough and you put it in the tin can and then you fill it up with water and then you burn little tiny sticks under it. And it cooks the bread, okay?

If you keep a lid on it, it cooks the bread, right? So then I'm like, but the outside of the tin can gets really disgusting. Like it's covered with black carbon, right?

And I remember I went down to the stream and I'm washing my tin can, you know? And it wasn't, I couldn't get it silvery, you know? All the Tibetan refugees had silvery tin cans.

And mine was all black and disgusting, you know? And then all these refugee ladies, these old ladies, they're sitting there watching me and I'm scrubbing the tin can. Then I finally, I said, I just learned how to speak a little Tibetan.

I'm like, no, get black. No, get silver. How to get silver?

Then she came over and she goes, rub harder. You rub hard. Then it got silver.

I'm like, ah, okay. You know? If you take her out six times and the boy doesn't come out, come, take her out again.

Duh. Okay, all right? Take her out some more.

If you rub and it doesn't get silvery, then rub some more. That's very profound advice. All right?

If you try it and you're four or five times and he hasn't come yet, take her out four or five times more. The worst that can happen is you help a lonely person. Okay?

The worst that can happen is you do something really nice, okay? And you will get a boy, okay? Different people have different...

My lama called them blockers. Different people are different blockers, you know? If you stole other people's boyfriends for 36 lives, then you got more blockers in your head.

Okay? And you're gonna have to take her out a few more times. That's all.

All right? Some people takes more, some people takes less. How many is it gonna take you?

I don't know. Keep taking her out until the boyfriend comes. Got it?

That's pretty clear. Step number four, though. Come home.

Be happy about what you did. This is extremely powerful fertilizer on the seed. It makes the difference between Se Chima and two months from now.

What's Se Chima? Next life, okay? If you want...

If you don't mind waiting till next life to get him, then don't do step four. If you wanna speed it up, when you go to sleep, think about the nice thing that you did. He will come faster.

It will work faster. If you wanna speed things up. The mind, as you fall off to sleep, is very vulnerable, very open.

There's a thing called dream yoga. In Buddhism, we have a thing called dream yoga, right? That's all.

It's just that. As you fall asleep, think about the good thing you did and think about that you're finally following the laws of the universe. Okay?

I'm finally looking for a boy the right way. I'm finally trying to get money the right way by helping other people to get money. I'm finally getting good at my yoga the right way.

How? Help the sick. I can't do a headstand.

I can't do a handstand. I want to do a scorpion. Okay?

My back is loosening up. Should I go to a chiropractor? No.

Go to a hospital. Help sick people. Then go try to do a scorpion.

It will come. Because that's the real cause. Then just be happy that you're finally doing the correct thing to get stuff and not some dumb way.

Should I go and tie ropes around my waist and try to bend backwards? And then I'll be able to do a scorpion. You know?

If you want to see a really good... Should I tell them that? I don't know.

Nah. Yeah? What do you think, Anatole?

Alright. There's a cartoon on YouTube, okay? It's not...

I didn't make it, okay? Because it's naughty. It's called Hot Power Yoga.

You've got to see it. It's really funny. Anyway, they discuss wrong ways to do poses.

To get into poses. But they discuss a lot of other things and they use a lot of bad language. Mrs. Hancock made me turn it off. That's all. I have a proposal. Where does chud come into it, right?

Where does chud come into it? No, I'm not kidding. I'm going to tell you, okay?

I'm going to bring it to chud. Here we go. This is to chud, okay?

The chud practice comes in like five different sections. The later sections are secret. You cannot...

You cannot learn the later parts of the chud practice without an initiation, okay? I'm slipping you pieces of the chud practice one by one. The ones that you have in your hand now are not secret.

But they are approaching secret, okay? The last few paragraphs are getting close to secret. Alright?

Don't look yet. The most important... What do you call it?

Requirement to be successful at chud is to understand the stuff I just told you. I call it the nursing home stuff. The most important requirement for understanding the practice of chud is exactly what we talked about.

Why? Why? Chud is the elimination of the ego.

Okay? Chud is the elimination of the ego. Who's the ego?

Alright? Who's the ego? Let's talk about it.

Is it wrong to want a nice man? Is it somehow wrong? Is it unspiritual to want a partner?

No. I mean, Machik Labdron, the woman who created this practice, the yogini from the 11th century in Tibet, she was famous for her partner practice. That was her most famous thing about her.

She had a partner. Is it wrong to want a nice partner? No.

Is it egotistical to want a nice partner? It's not. It's natural and it's healthy to want to be happy.

That's natural and it's healthy. So, is there no ego that I should cut? Chud.

Is there no ego that I should cut? Chud. There is an ego which you should cut.

There is a you which you should cut. If you understand the theory, then we can just read it. It doesn't matter.

Then people read the goddamn thing over and over and they don't know what it means. I'm telling you what it means and then you can read it on your own. I don't care.

There is an ego that you have to cut. It's not the one that wants a boyfriend. That's a healthy wish.

You're not stealing him from somebody else, right? You're creating a new one. So, chud.

That's not the ego you have to cut. Who's the ego you have to cut? The one that would go out and look for new clothes.

The one that would go to Sephora and stress, should I use the Lancome or should I use the Estee Lauder? That ego should be cut. That ego is a fool.

That's the wrong self. That's the self you have to dump. It doesn't know how to get a boyfriend.

It thinks I should go to yoga classes to meet a boy or I should go to a club or online to meet a boy. I should go to Sephora. Should I use the natural look or should I use, you know, Lancome?

Which is better? Should I do H&M or should I do something else? How do I get a boy?

The ego who wants to get a boy through cosmetics and clothes and going to events where boys might be there, that should be cut. Because that one doesn't work. That you is dumb and we should cancel that you.

The one who's wandering around New York looking for a boy, we should cut that you. That you is chud. Chud that you.

But the you who looks for a boy by going to the nursing home, should you cut that one? That's a beautiful one. That one's finally doing the right thing.

Why is it right? Because it's moral? No, because it works.

It also happens to be moral which is good luck. Cut the you's who are doing stuff that doesn't work. That's chud.

That's the meaning of chud. Try to grasp that. That's the only meaning of chud.

All the other you's are okay. Is the you who wants a boyfriend okay? Yes, don't chud that one.

Is the you who wanders like a preta, right? Around different yoga studios and cosmetic shops and clothing stores looking for the way to get a boy, should that you be cut? Yes.

Why? That you is undertaking actions, karmas to meet a boy which don't work. That you is wasting its time and tiring itself out.

Okay? And all the associated stress, okay? All the associated stress is red better, is pink better, is short better, is long better, is frilly better, is torn better.

Okay? Where am I gonna meet him? Okay?

All that stuff, you can drop all the stress. The actions are foolish. The stress is just unnecessary.

Plant him. Just go to the nursing home, plant him. Then relax.

Then just chill. He has to come. That's where they come from.

So you get rid of the stress. That's chud, okay? Got the chud?

So I suggest we take a ten minute break. We'll start again at a quarter to... We're gonna run over a little bit, okay?

Don't stress about it. You're learning the secrets to the universe. You can spend a little extra time.

I suggest, hang on, don't leave yet. I'm sure they wanna make some announcements at you or something. I don't know.

Please open your book to page 22. We're gonna recite a special piece together of the sadhana, which is new for this year. And then next year we'll get into probably secret stuff.

But I wanted to take a few questions. If there's a few questions about what I spoke about. If anybody has a question, or it could be about something totally irrelevant.

Yeah? Yeah, go ahead. But stand up and talk loud.

Can you help your parents? Okay, good. Can you help somebody else, right?

Let's say, for example, that I've been trying to help Tibetan refugees. It's 25 years. We started a foundation 25 years ago.

We give them employment. They type in their ancient literature and we put that up for free on the web. So that started 25 years ago.

Then there are three levels of that kind of help, okay? There are three levels of that kind of help. First level is just straight material assistance, right?

You go to the refugee camp and you buy food or you give them money. And I did that. For years I did that.

I bought clothes or I bought food or I brought money to the monastery and I gave them that. So, that's level one, okay? Like, you can help.

I think, Ori, I think we got a... Yeah. That's level one of the kind of help that you can give, okay?

Just straight material help. If you want to help your parents, you help them with their mortgage, you help them buy food, you drive them around. That's level number one, okay?

Then level number two in a refugee camp is I felt like I would go, I would give people money, I would buy medicine, I would buy food and then after two weeks they would run out, right? The money would run out or the food would run out or the medicine would run out. And then there was nothing.

You see what I mean? That's when I started the idea of giving them some kind of employment, right? So, you know, we taught them computers, we bought them computers, we built buildings for the computers and they, 25 years ago, they started doing computer work.

Then that's better because it's like rather than giving corn, you teach them how to plant corn, right? I want to say fish but that's not nice, right? So, teach them to be, teach them some way to to get their own, right?

That would be the second level of help. What would be the third level of help? Highest level of help.

Teach them what we talked about today. Teach them the four steps, okay? Teach them the four steps.

Then they can get what they want and they don't need you, you see? Teach them the four steps to make whatever dream they want come true. And that's the highest way to help someone.

Should you help your parents? Yes. What's the beginning level?

Give people material assistance and help them learn to get their own material assistance, right? Why? Why do you start with that?

It builds up trust, okay? If you keep giving somebody money long enough, they're going to trust you after a while, you know? Or you go and you visit or you go and buy groceries for them or you go and like that.

All of this kind of help builds up trust. Then you come in one day and you say, now I want to teach you about seeds and they will listen to you because they trust you because you help them with straight material help for a couple of months or a couple of years, okay? So it's a progression.

The highest kind of help is to teach a person to plant their own seeds. So in the example of the refugee camp, we go into the computer center and we teach them about the seeds and then we make an announcement. We're going to take 20% of your computers and you're going to give them away to other refugees.

And they're going to compete with you. Okay? That's the hard part, right?

We're going to give them computers, you're going to train them to do what you do and then we're going to split the money with them. Okay? And they have to trust you to do that.

They have to believe in you before they will create a competitor. Alright? So, the highest kind of help you can give to anyone is to help them plant their own seeds.

But they won't listen to you until you build up some trust. Okay? So be kind, be generous.

Give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give. Okay? And then start telling them about the seeds, because they will trust you.

But in the end, you have to teach them to plant their own seeds. You cannot transfer your seeds to another person. It's not possible.

You can't work extra hard to be generous and then take your extra seeds and insert them in another person's soul. Okay? It's not possible.

There's no such thing. All you can do is teach. Because they must plant the seeds themselves.

Okay? Then somebody asked me, Well, what if the person doesn't want to listen to this stuff? Okay?

Which, I don't know. It happens occasionally, right? You know.

So, I have a friend. He's in the diamond business. He had a really good company.

And then it started to go downhill. Right? And he didn't know why.

Right? What was happening? The old seeds were wearing out.

Because he was rich for a while. And that wears out the old seeds. And he wasn't planting any new seeds.

Because he didn't know about it. And he's not going to listen to me. If I ask him to come.

Those kind of people who won't listen to the idea of seeds, you have to trick them into planting seeds. It's called Upaya in Sanskrit. In Tibetan it's called Tepke.

Skillful means. Right? It's a religious tricking.

Okay? How did I do it with this guy? It's a beautiful story.

You'll like it. Okay? I said, you know, let's go out to Daniel's.

He likes Daniel's. He used to have a private table. When his company was going well, he had a private table there reserved every night.

Whether he showed up or not. And they put a pavilion around it. A tent.

They put his table in a tent in the middle of the restaurant. And then he just paid every night for like a thousand dollars a night. Then his company started to get in trouble.

He quit the tent thing. Then he's like, I said, I'm taking you out tonight. I'll pay.

To pay for a rich person is already fun for them. Somebody who wants to pay for them is very unusual. So I'm like, I'm paying.

Let's go to your favorite restaurant. So we go, you know. And then I'm like, you know, today's a Buddhist holiday.

We're called tsok, right? And I'm going to give the waiter a hundred dollar tip. And he's like, you don't have to.

I know them. You don't have to give them anything. I'm like, no, we're going to give the waiter a hundred dollar tip.

And he says, well, I would never do that. I'm like, yeah, I know you would never do that. And, you know.

So I get the, I call for the bill. I give the guy the credit card. He's headed back with the credit card, right?

To give it back to me. I got the hundred dollars already in my hand. Then I'm like, oh man, I gotta pee really bad.

He's like, what? I said, I gotta pee really bad. Here, you give him the hundred dollars.

And then I go to the toilet. I go to the bathroom. Then I'm peeking out the door.

You know. And the waiter comes up, you know, with the credit card. And then my friend gives him the hundred dollars.

And then the waiter's like slapping him on the shoulders and shaking his hand. And my friend's like, you know. And then, you know, then I come back.

And I didn't even pee, okay? And then I come back and I'm like, so did you give him the money? And he says, yeah.

And I said, how do you feel? He says, God, that feels great, you know. And then he started to do it.

He started giving, you know, twenty dollars to him. And then he built up to a hundred. And now his company is up again.

Okay? It's like that. You can get, especially with children, okay, like children, if a child is not well, right, a child is sick, then you say, we're gonna go give toys to the children in the hospital.

And you say, I'll come with you and we'll give toys to the children in the hospital. And you take them. And so, for your parents, the best thing to do is to teach them about the seeds.

If they won't do it or they're not ready to listen, trick them. Say, we're gonna go visit Mrs. Smith, who's elderly, and I baked her a cake and can you come with me? Because she'll feel more comfortable if there's another old person in the room.

You know, like that. No, I'm not kidding. This is skillful means.

This is what it means, okay? Get them used to the pleasure of serving other people and then they'll want to do it on their own later. Okay?

Any other questions? Somebody that I don't usually see all the time. No.

Okay. Yes, please.

[Speaker 2]
Is it important to the success of your seed that your subject is successful? And if you're trying to have a successful business, for example, and you choose a subject, and you try to help them have a successful business, but then they fail, no matter what. You can't make them succeed.

[Speaker 1]
Is that important? Yeah. It's a good question.

I'll repeat the question. If I choose... If I try to reach financial independence, which requires helping another person become financially independent, right?

And then I take them out to Starbucks and, you know, we talk about how to become financially independent. And after repeated efforts, they fail. They don't...

When you're doing this seed system to understand up front that you are not changing the other person's seeds. You can't. Okay?

You can't. You can't control whether they are successful or not. You can advise.

You can encourage. You can wheedle. And you can trick.

But you can't... What do they say? You can't lead a dog to horse to water and make him drink, right?

You can't force... Sometimes they just won't do it, right? And you fail.

And they don't become as successful. The seed is less, okay? If they're not successful, your seeds are not as powerful as they could be if they were successful.

Okay? But you get about 90% of the power, alright? It's in the intention.

It's in two and four. 90% of the power of a seed is in number two and in number four. Number two is planning to take them out and do the best you can to help them.

Number four is go home and be glad that you tried to help them. Right? You cannot guarantee that they will be successful unless they agree to use the seed.

Sometimes they won't. They won't agree. You see what I mean?

That's not your fault. But it does slightly affect the seed. 90% of the power comes from your intentions and your ownership afterwards.

But 10% does come from their success. So it's not as complete as it could have been. But it's still damn good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then he's saying, would you choose someone who would be more likely to listen to the seed theory after they trusted you for a while? Right?

I prefer the opposite. I like tough nuts. You know?

I like to pick people who are not well disposed towards spiritual things. We choose cities in the world which are tough. We just taught the mafia in Kiev.

Okay? We went to a mafia. They asked us to go out with the mafia and we met them in a restaurant, mafia restaurant in Kiev.

And we worked hard on them. And they agreed that if they made a small part of their operation they would run legally and honestly. And that they would check the success.

And if they made more money they might switch over more parts of their operation. Okay? I'm not kidding.

I'm not kidding. So, personally, it is true. You get more power by helping people who are more hopeless.

Okay? The people who are have less hope or less less well disposed to these ideas. If you can help those people, it's a greater glory.

It's a greater seed. But I think when you're first learning you might want to pick someone who sort of already leans that way. And then when you get good at it, go after the mafia guys.

Okay. One more question. In the middle.

I was... Good. That's good.

And I was thinking about St. Francis of Assisi and how his prayer pretty much is the same as what you're teaching. And also, you know, Jesus said do unto others as you do to yourself. And I just wanted to hear your thoughts about these two people and what you're teaching.

I, you know, I grew up a Christian. I was a Christian you know, I went to church even when nobody went to church in the 60s and 70s. I still went to church.

And it was empty. I was the altar boy, you know. At 25 I was serving the wine with the priests.

One day we had to do it to ourselves because nobody came to church. You know. We did the whole service.

I was very moving. It was one of the most beautiful days of my life, you know. We made this great exit from the nave and we came out to offer the Mass and there wasn't anybody in a 2,000 person church, you know.

And then I said, well, I guess I get to go home, you know. He's like, no, we're doing the Mass, you know. And it was...

It was a long way. It was very, very, very beautiful. Very, very moving.

And he did the whole thing as if 2,000 people were there, you know. And the two of us had a drink. Okay, and then...

And then... So I love... I love...

I think... My Christian upbringing has been informed by my Buddhist training. You see what I mean?

So I don't see myself as not being a Christian. You see what I mean? I just think I'm a...

Now I understand what Jesus said. Go for the red print edition of the New Testament, right? There's an edition where Jesus' words are in red print and the rest is in black print.

And read the red print and compare it to what we said today. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good. It works.

Okay, it works. Okay, yeah. Lately, you know, in my old age I realize more and more it doesn't matter what picture you have on your wall, you know.

And you can say that to be... But we were in Jakarta. We gave these teachings to a Muslim audience under 30.

They were all under 30. And they went crazy. And they were so happy.

And in Israel, I don't know, we were in Yeshua Theater in Jaffa. 900 people came. What's the night when everybody dresses up funny?

Purim? Yeah. So it was Purim night.

I got out of the car. Everybody... See, it's like Halloween night.

It's a religious holiday. Everyone dresses up something. And then this guy came up to me and said, God damn, Dalai Lama suit.

That's such a good idea. But... You can...

The more you... The more you learn these things, yeah, then the more you feel comfortable with everybody. It's the essence of everything.

Of all religions. All high religions, yeah. One more question.

Then we got to recite the ritual. Yes, please. Okay, good.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, good.

She asked, how does it work with physical illness? You can guess, but I'll repeat it. Step one would be, what do you want?

I would like my detached vitreous to reattach. I had it recently. I would like my detached vitreous to reattach.

Then, step number one. Step number two, identify someone who's having a medical problem. The closer the better.

If you help someone with a kidney problem, that's okay. You can redirect it to your eye. During step number four.

I didn't mention that, but I should mention that. During step number four, you help somebody who had a kidney problem get to their weekly dialysis thing. And you go home at night for step number four.

And you say, I helped a person with their dialysis today. I send that power to the vitreous in my eye. I send that power to my eye.

And you can do that. And then, the rest of the steps are the same. Identify someone with a similar problem.

Help them. Take them to the hospital. Help them.

I had some dental problems. So I paid for somebody else's dental work. $3,500.

It took me a while to get the money. And I said, I'm going to fix your teeth. And I did.

I worked really hard on it. I paid off their... They did a whole dental...

They did the whole thing. They did it all straightened out. It was kind of cool.

They all work fine now. And it was a tooth that I broke during three-year retreat. And they told me I would have to take it out.

And I said no. And I did help somebody else. And now it's fine.

They found a new thing. I even put a diamond in it. Okay?

You can check it out sometime. But... You can use it for medical things.

Anything is changeable. Because a tumor in your body is coming from you in the same way that the pen is. A tumor in your body is coming from you in the same way that the pen is.

All things can be changed. All things can be changed. If the tumor existed outside of your mind, you couldn't change it.

But it doesn't. And that's chud of tumor. That's chud of tumor.

The tumor never existed out there in your body. It was always coming from your mind. From the seeds in your mind.

Change the seeds, the tumor will go away. It's very profound. There are people in three-year retreat now in Diamond Mountain who had serious cancer earlier.

And it's gone. OK. So you can do anything.

You don't even know who. All right. We're gonna...

We're gonna go to page 22. We're gonna recite the last part together. OK.

Just a warning. This gets heavy. What do you mean, this gets heavy?

In this part of the chud practice, which you can recite if you want to every day, OK. You can take this home, you can recite it every day. In this part of the chud practice, you give away your body to the world.

OK. In this part of the practice, you give away your body to the world. OK.

Each part of your body, you imagine as something to give away. My hand is money. My other hand is health.

My heart is a boyfriend for those who don't have a boyfriend. And you invite people to come and take what they want. Take my heart.

Cut my hand. Take it. OK.

And as they cut it, you transform it into what they want. OK. Take my hand.

It's wealth. Take my other hand. It is health.

Cut my heart. It's a boyfriend. Take it.

OK. It's very beautiful. OK.

Very powerful. In the end, you will have to supply everything to everyone. That's why we're going to read it together.

In the end, it's not enough to visit an old, one elderly person, right? That's the boyfriend. Then you're going to have to share your money, right?

To make more money. That's financial. Then you're going to have to visit the sick people so that you can live longer.

Right? And in the end, you will give away everything. And you will get everything.

And you will become everything. It's really beautiful. OK.

So, this is the chöd practice. It's really beautiful. In the end, you will give away everything.

And you will have everything. OK. So, we'll read it together.

It's very beautiful. And then we'll stop. OK.

Here we go. You ready? Page 22.

Hector, you're good at this. Come on. He's got a much better voice than I do.

Wait. You need a microphone. Come on.

Read together.

[Speaker 2]
In short, I call upon all the gods and all the demons within this world and I call upon those who live beyond this world and those who live upon it and those who live above it come together here come and gather here I offer my body I offer this illusion in exchange for the lives of all who have been so kind to me for the lives of my fathers for the lives of my mothers for every living being and all kinds of beings for demons and for every other creature especially I offer my body in exchange for the lives and all those who practice a spiritual path more especially I offer my body in exchange for the lives of the shining ones of glory my own spiritual teachers in brief I offer my body to every suffering being being with these my mothers and my fathers the demons assembles here and so they might achieve their own enlightenment I present my body to the guests of honour to the precious three I present my body to the saviours to the guests who possess high qualities to acknowledge their kindness to me I give my body to the guests who are objects of my pity to living beings of all the six different kinds I offer my body as payment for my debts for evil spirits who block our path to the objects of obligation catch continue those of who like meat eat the meat those who like blood drink the blood those who prefer skin take the skin those who lust for people's life and soul take the life and soul those who feed on people's youthful strength come and take that strength those who crave glory and recognition take whatever I have everyone else take whatever it is you like those of you who don't have much time can eat my body raw those of you who have time take whatever is cooked or have it roasted too take it as you like catch chop my body into pieces and make every piece become whatever thing that people want things within my world things beyond this world catch take now all the things all these riches everything a person could want excellent and perfect take them home with you to the vault of the sky take them with you to the depths of the earth to the peaks to the great mountains to the hollows of the three great valleys take them home to the rapid of rivers to the bottom of the sea to cliffs of ivory cliffs of crimson sandstone take them home to the darkness within the forest carry them home to the temples to the treasure vaults carry them with you to wherever you call home catch by the power of the good deed may I quickly become the angel of wisdom and then may I help every living being there is to become an angel as well it has come from the highway of the gods the high of words victorious buddhas it is the sun of a thousand rays holiest of advices shining glory that opens a garden full of lotus flowers countless numbers of sages here you will find them find an explanation a jewel ordinary sky

[Speaker 1]
middle of the next page

[Speaker 2]
on the tip of my head a cushion of the lotus flower atop them sits a holy being whose form is that of magic but whose actual nature is indivisible from that of my own heart teacher she is the angel of the sky adorer of the buddhas her body made of white light shining with crimson hue she has a single face and two arms in her right hand she holds a drum crafted of sandalwood slowly repeats again in her left hand she holds a silver bell slowly it rings again her holy hair on one side down in ivory silk and the rest of her hair cascades across her chest she smiles and casts an unlook she is wrapped in the silks of the gods she sits in a circle of magnificent light shining with the strength of a thousand suns she dances with her right leg extended and her left leg bent on her forehead is a white omb at her throat is a red letter A at her heart a blue letter HUM at her nails a yellow rasva and at her secret place is a green A lights of five colors burst forth from the HUM heart fly the race of light they call forth from the realm of Is the victorious queen the diamond angel surrounded by the lamas and the precious tree pack you step in the crystal palace of the pure realm of things showing a magical body of fabric of illusion O Empress of angels of all three worlds think of us with love and come please to this place OM AH GURU VAJRA SARVA BUDDHA BODHISATVA SARVA DAKINI SAPARIVA VAJRA SAMAYA JA JA JA HUM VAM OH

[Speaker 1]
Okay, good. Do the four steps. Choose what a dream that you have.

Do the four steps, okay? I'll check in with you next time. Next time we'll continue, okay?

We have more chud to do, okay? But please, please do the four steps. Otherwise, there's no benefit from this talk, okay?

Pick your dream. Do the four steps. When I see you next, I'll ask you who did you take to Starbucks?

And if you say nobody, I'll probably step on your toes. Alright, good night. See you later.