«Дар освобождения», курс 10 «Новогодний ретрит», занятие 6

[Geshe Michael Roach] (0:00 - 0:20)
Okay, we'll start. LAM DU SGROL BA'I RTZAS KUS GSUNG THUGS BSTAN SOGS MTHONG NA Just when you are walking around in your life and you see something beautiful, you should, you know, give it a little prostration.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (0:20 - 0:26)
Every time you see something beautiful, give it a prostration in your own way.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (0:26 - 0:43)
GUS TSUL GYI MTHONG MO BYANG NAS TSUN CHAD CHAGS CHAD PAR SGROL Even just going like this out of respect for something beautiful that you see somebody's doing, is a CHAGS, is a prostration.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (0:44 - 0:46)
It's a full prostration.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (0:47 - 1:40)
NYAM LEN BYAS SHES PA ZHIG YIN NA This is cool. He says, if you're a person who knows how to do Buddhist practice, LUG GI YOD GUL CHE SOGS CHOS SU BRAL BA ZHIG BYA RGYUR YOD SU then there's a secret way that every single movement of your body is a dharma. If you really know how to do it, then all day long.

It means every time your body just moves an inch. It's a practice of dharma.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (1:43 - 1:45)
If you know what you're doing.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (1:48 - 3:07)
That, Andriana, that finishes the last homework. Now we start a new one. We're actually doing pretty good on time here.

We came to the second of the seven steps before you meditate. GNYIS PA MCHOD PA'I YAN LAG NI means now we are going to make offerings. We made offerings already.

This is part of the fifth of the six meditation preliminaries. A long time ago, we cleaned up our room, we put out an altar, we put a flower on the altar. Now, this one you can do in your mind.

So, those earlier steps are physical. You are putting things on your altar in the morning. And now, when just you're going into meditation, we say in the same eye-closing.

In Tibetan it's called in the same eye-closing.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (3:12 - 3:22)
So, you made a prostration, and then you close your eyes, and you start offering.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (3:24 - 5:51)
Personally, when I do, I was taught to do, in mental prostration, I was taught a special way. So, if you like, you can do the first of the seven steps in your mind also. And that's the way I was taught.

In that one, it's a prostration just to think of something nice about your teacher. So, later in this book, we will learn how to find a good teacher. But mainly, you should find someone that you want to become like them.

So, they should be a good example. Then, when you are prostrating to them, you should think, why do I want this person to be my teacher? Are they more kind?

Are they more quiet? Are they more peaceful? Are they helping more people?

Like that. You should be careful when you choose a teacher. Choose them slowly and wisely.

And there should be a reason why they're your teacher. Something about them you want to learn. So, I was trained, before meditation, close your eyes, and just think about what do you want to learn from this teacher.

So, for my teacher, for example, they are extremely graceful and kind to other people. And I want to learn that.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (5:53 - 6:00)
So, when I do the prostration, I'm thinking, I want to be like that.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (6:00 - 7:32)
I want to be as graceful and as kind as they are. And that's a real prostration. Okay?

Alright, so now we're on the second step offering. MED DO DANG PA ZHES SOGS TE Let me go down a little bit. ZHES SOGS TE So, he quotes again the song about the seven steps, which I hope to teach you maybe next time.

Okay? I have to translate it. It's the necklace for people who have good karma.

Right? Then he quotes part of a verse, and I went and got you the whole verse. MED DO DANG PA PHRA BA DANG PA DANG ZIL NYAN RNAMS DANG, CHUG PA'I DUS CHOG DANG MA MA'I CHOG DANG, DUS PA'I DANG PA'I YID RGYAL BA DE DAG LA NI CHOS PAR GYIS Then, before my teacher taught us tantra, we all want to learn tantra.

We're like, Rinpoche, when are you going to teach us tantra? He was like, you memorize the necklace, then I'll teach you tantra. So, we have to memorize that.

I think it was around 1970.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (7:35 - 7:37)
76, 76.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (7:38 - 10:23)
So, MED DO DANG PA PHRA BA DANG PA DANG means it begins with flowers. First offering is flowers. DPER NA NGES TSUL LO RTOG SANG PO SKYE BA'I SHING LAS LA SA BON MA LTA PA BLO CI LUS NA SHING DU PHAM PAR TSAD YANG In Tibet, a good field was a very precious thing.

Which has a soil and not rocks. Which has some water. And which has...

which is not snow. Then those places are rare in Tibet. So, if you own a field like that, and you are too lazy to plant anything this year, then everybody will say you are crazy.

Because a good land is so rare in Tibet. So, he said, actually that's not such a big deal. TSOR GYI SHING LA SON NAM ZAG RGYU MA CHUNG NA SNGA MA DE BA'I RGYA RGYUR STONG RGYUR GYI PHANG PA YIN If you have a teacher and you don't use them to plant your seeds, you are a hundred times, no, a thousand times more stupid than the person who doesn't plant their field.

So, if you are near a good teacher, you should plant things with them. RGYA RGYUR STONG MA THAR PHYI MA BDOD NYES KYI SANGS PA TZAM GYIS MA BZIN NA DGE LTA GANG SOGS THAMS CAD CHOS SU MI'I SGROR YANG So, he's talking about your motivation. Why are you meditating, for example?

Then when I give a DCI talk in Harbin or Beijing, then I tell people, oh, I can show you how to make money. How to find a good partner. How to be young.

And then the motivation is those three things.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (10:23 - 10:28)
For many people, those are good motivations.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (10:30 - 10:38)
If you don't have a good house, you cannot practice. I went to a cave.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (10:38 - 10:42)
I tried to practice there.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (10:46 - 10:49)
Not one spider, five hundred spiders.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (10:51 - 11:00)
Then I'm trying to meditate. Touching [?] is pretty bad. Then they start to taste [?] me.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (11:04 - 11:06)
Then I gave up the cave.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (11:06 - 11:11)
I went back to my house.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (11:12 - 11:37)
Close the door. Meditate. It's better.

Also a very poisonous snake came. And a wolf came. So I quit that place.

You should have money. You should be comfortable. If you don't have any money, then you can't practice good.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (11:37 - 11:44)
You need money. Not greedy.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (11:45 - 11:59)
But just enough not to have spiders. And it's nice to have a good partner. And it's nice to have good health.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (12:01 - 12:15)
But in traditional Buddhist practice, minimum motivation is after you die.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (12:15 - 12:42)
Look ahead to the day when you die. And what will happen in the next five minutes after that? Where will I go?

What will happen to me? Can I prepare for that also? In traditional Buddhist practice, this is minimum motivation.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (12:43 - 13:05)
Beyond house, beyond partner, beyond youth, death is waiting. Then I should prepare. My meditation should prepare me.

Or even stop it.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (13:05 - 14:42)
So what he's saying here is generally speaking, MA THAR PHYI MA BDE NYER GYI SANGS PA TZAM GYI MA BZIN NA RGYAS CA GANG ZAG THAMS CAD GCOD ZIN MIN DRO If you do good karmas but you don't have that minimum motivation, I don't think we can call it Dharma. But DE DAG DRO BA GCIG RGYUD TE Even if you have a lousy motivation, you just want to get a Mercedes-Benz car. So you are trying to make that karma.

And then even with a lousy motivation, if you bow to a Buddha or your teacher or you offer them some flower, even if your motivation is very selfish, by accident you will make a big good karma. Okay? So these practices are very powerful because the person is powerful, not your motivation.

So sometimes the power of the person to whom you give the flower is enough to make that very high karma.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (14:52 - 14:52)
Okay.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (14:53 - 16:18)
MTHRA GYI GOS BZUN NAM ZLAG NAS SKYE BA PHYI MA SANGS RGYAS BZHIN NA PHYAG CHOS SOGS KYI BZUN NAM ZLAG NAS SKYE BA PHYI MA SANGS PA'I KUN SLONG TZAM MED KYANG SANGS RGYAS RTOG PA'I RGYUR NGES PAR DRO And that offering of that flower will definitely be a cause that you will become a Buddha. Just because of the power of the person that you are giving it to. DE LTAR SANGS RGYAS GYI BZHIN NA PHYAG PA PHUL BA SOGS LA SANGS PA'I KUN SLONG NGAN PA'I ZIN KYANG SANGS RGYAS RTOG PA'I RGYUR DRO BA'I RGYUD ZAN NI Why is it that if you offer a flower to a powerful karmic object, it will cause you to become enlightened?

Why is that? DE LA GZHIN GYI MTHU'I MIG SEL GYI BRAL BU RTOG PA YIN I think some of you who are learning Tibetan, you know the word MIG SEL. It's very useful in the monastery.

MIG SEL means exception. Then it's very good in the monastery. For example, we have to plant the corn.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (16:23 - 16:24)
Corn, maize.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (16:27 - 17:07)
With a bull and a wooden plow. We don't have any machines Then we have to stand on the plow and hit the cow in a big bowl [?]. And then in my monastery, combined in my monastery there are 3,000 monks.

So when they make tea for 3,000 monks, the pot is about 3 meters across.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (17:08 - 17:09)
3 meters deep.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (17:14 - 17:54)
It takes 3 or 4 monks to clean it. They have to jump inside and clean. But if you get MIG [?], then everybody has to go to the kitchen and go to the farming.

It's a rotation. Unless you can get a MIG SEL. MIG SEL means exception.

So everybody's trying to get MIG SEL. Oh, I feel sick today.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (17:57 - 18:09)
Here there's a MIG SEL. For motivation, you don't have to have a good motivation.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (18:10 - 18:55)
One exception. If the person that you're doing the karma to is your teacher, or a Buddha, then you will plant a seed for Buddhahood even if your motivation is terrible. Then he gives an example.

DPER NA ZHING SANGS POR BSA BU'I BTAB TSUL MA LAS KYANG BDE BU NGES PAR BYUNG BA BZHIN NO If you have a field where the soil is very, very fertile and you don't know how to plant the seed properly, still it will grow.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (18:55 - 18:55)
Good.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (18:58 - 19:40)
That's the example. All right. BU BZHIN BU BDE GO NI BU LA SOGS PAR CI BZHIN BU RNAMS KUL BA'I KU BA RNAMS CHUG PA'O Then he starts talking about ways to make the offerings nice.

You can take special leaves or special plants. You can boil the leaves or the plants. In Sanskrit they call it aushadha.

And that will make incense.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (19:43 - 19:44)
Liquid incense.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (19:45 - 19:53)
Then when you have those sticks of incense you can smear them with the juice from those plants.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (19:58 - 20:08)
Then you let it dry and then you light it. And it has a special good smell.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (20:09 - 20:23)
MED DO BAM PA Then he starts to explain what is a flower, what is a good flower. The examples of offerings here are, I'm going to name them.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (20:24 - 20:25)
Flowers.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (20:28 - 21:21)
Loose flowers like you gave me today. There are two ways to give a flower. One is called a loose flower.

The other is to have a needle and a thread and you put the flowers on the thread and then you offer to your teacher around the neck. Like in Hawaii. Then sil nyen means music, offer music.

chukpa means what do you call that? Like a perfume oil that you put on the body of your teacher. means in India it's a big offering to hold an umbrella for a teacher.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (21:22 - 21:33)
In India it's a big offering to hold an umbrella for a teacher in the sun. Especially certain teachers.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (21:36 - 21:53)
MAR MED means offer light. It could be a candle. It could be electric light.

It could be a small fire light. Dukpa means incense.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (21:55 - 22:00)
So those are some of the offerings you can make.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (22:00 - 22:59)
Then he says LA NA YOD PA'I CHOS PA Say LA NA YOD PA'I CHOS PA LA YOD PA'I CHOS PA So many of you know the highest class of tantra is what? In Sanskrit it's anuttara. An means not, uttara means superior, gyu means tantra, secret teaching. So the highest form of tantra is called the tantra which has nothing higher.

Now he gave a strange name to the flowers and the lights and the incense and the oil.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (22:59 - 23:02)
He gave them a strange name.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (23:06 - 24:50)
sottara puja sottara puja The offering which has something better than it. The offering which is not the highest one. So all of those things, flowers, money, these are not the highest.

He says these are offerings which do have something higher. DGOS PA SKYE BA BAPA SOGS CHOS PA SNGA MA KUN LA SBYOR DGOS Then there's an expression in Tibetan that when you offer a flower for example, there should be two things about the flower. One is the beauty of the flower and one is the beauty of the presentation.

When I was studying when I was young in high school the English teacher gave us two grades on every paper. One is for content and one is for format. How beautiful is the writing and everything.

So when you give a flower Javier gave me a flower recently. Where are you? The flower was beautiful but he gave it in a very beautiful box.

What do you call it?

[Geshe Michael Roach] (24:51 - 24:52)
Elegant.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (24:52 - 25:18)
So you should give beautiful things and then the manner and the presentation should also be beautiful. You shouldn't throw a flower at your lama. The same when you are helping poor people or sick people.

You shouldn't say, oh I'm a big person, here's some money.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (25:21 - 25:23)
Write a check.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (25:24 - 25:33)
It should be here's money, I love you, can I help you? Can I come to your house? Do you need anything?

And here's some money.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (25:37 - 25:38)
With respect.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (25:38 - 27:39)
Or if you go to prison to help the prisoners treat them like brother or sister. So if we are Buddhist people we have to help people like prisoners. But also when we help them it should be very graceful and elegant.

Like they are family. Okay. SDUG PA NA GCIG PA NI RTZAN LDAN GYI GCIG LTA BU'O Then he starts to give examples of incense which you can offer.

One is sandalwood which comes in, you can offer in sticks, right? Sandalwood. And then CHE MA the song talks about CHE MA.

CHE MA means powdered incense. So these are, you can offer incense in a stick or a piece of wood or you can grind it into powder. Then you need, it's like in the Catholic Church, right?

You need some coals, some pieces of wood which are hot. And then you have to sprinkle the powder on it. Then in Tibet there was a beautiful custom, ancient custom.

The word here is PUR MA. Say PUR MA. PUR MA means you grind the incense very fine, very, very fine, like talc, like the powder that you put on your face.

Then you put it in a special muslin bag or something.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (27:39 - 27:50)
In a special bag. Then you hang it around the lama's house and the wind will blow it.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (27:52 - 27:54)
And then the smell will come through the house.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (27:57 - 28:00)
You don't have to burn it.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (28:00 - 28:53)
It's like wind incense. So that's also an old system. LUG GCIG LA CHE MA NI THI SANG GI CHE MA DANG PHO MA NI RE GYI KHUG PA LTA BUR THI SANG PO THU ROL BA'I CHE MA LUG PA LABS RE LTAGS TE LUNG GI RGYUD TSE GSUNG BZHIN PO THU ROL BA'O So he's describing how you tie up the bag and what happens when the wind blows it and the fragrance will drift through the house.

If you live in Guadalajara, you don't need that. You just need the night jasmine. Then there's a famous prayer called Samantabhadra.

Samantabhadra.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (28:56 - 29:04)
That's a special system for offering things in your mind.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (29:05 - 29:37)
So just before you meditate, like talking to people, you talk to your lama in your head. Lama, look outside your window. I put rose flowers to cover the whole sky.

Then the lama goes outside and the whole sky is covered with flowers. If it's night time, oh lama, go outside.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (29:40 - 29:41)
Look at the sky.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (29:41 - 31:12)
I put extra stars for you. The sky is filled with stars. That's like better than a butter lamp.

Better than a candle. I offer you the light shining on a billion planets in the night time sky. This is called Samantabhadra, special offering.

Then those seven substances which we mentioned are mentioned in the prayer of Samantabhadra. How are we doing on time? You seem pretty peppy.

I think it was the flamenco or something. Like lively. Him and me are lively because we are drinking something.

Now he's going to talk about we said that those seven things are the offering which does have something better. Now he's going to talk about what? Anuttara.

Anuttara.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (31:13 - 31:15)
Nothing better.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (31:17 - 32:49)
SANGS RGYAS DANG CHEN ZAD RNAMS KYIS THUG BSKYED DANG MUN LAMS KYIS SANGS RGYUR GRUB PA NI LA NA MED PA'I GRUB PA YIN TE When the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas make an offering out of the seven out of their love and out of their prayers for other people, that's what we call the offering that has nothing better. Then DI RANG CHAGS KYI BU MI NUS MOD people like you and me we cannot make that offering. Like a Buddha will take their love and they will put it into a flower and they will offer the flower.

The flower is not made of a plant. The material of the flower is love. Then we don't have that power just to turn our love into a flower.

We don't have this power. UN KYANG RANG RES BU RGYUR ZHIG CI STE But we do have something we can offer which is similar. Then he gives four famous examples.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (32:51 - 32:57)
And these are the highest offerings you can give.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (32:57 - 34:56)
LO DUR RGYA TSUL ZHUGS PA'I MDO LAS GSUNGS PA'I DANG PAS CHOD ZIN PA DANG To follow what the teacher taught you is the highest offering. So today I saw many people, they were doing nice prostrations. Very slowly they stood up very straight like flamenco.

Then that offering is the highest offering. To do what the teacher taught you is the highest offering. And that comes from a sutra called the Sutra Requested by the Bodhisattva whose name was Ocean of Wisdom.

Also to offer your teacher the love you have for other people. There's no offering higher than that. That love has two forms.

One, I will try to love everyone in the world. Then two, go to the prison, sit with the difficult guys and try to love them. That's a love in action.

One is love in the heart and one is love in your action. So those two kinds of love are the second kind of high offering.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (35:00 - 35:00)
Okay.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (35:02 - 35:44)
Third one. Then maybe we take a break. Nyingje pekar Say, Nyingje pekar Nyingje pekar pekar means, pema karpo, means white lotus.

And nyingje means compassion. karuna Then this is one of the most famous sutras of Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra. This is the real name of the Lotus Sutra.

And it's very popular in Japan and China.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (35:46 - 35:52)
The real name is the White Lotus of Compassion.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (35:52 - 36:42)
And there they said not just practice what your teacher said, but to lose yourself in that practice. And you forget to do anything else. It's a little bit dangerous.

You start to run red lights and things like that. You drive your car through the red light because you are offering flowers in your mind and you don't see the red light. So shulwa shulwa here, the G-Z-H-O-L means, shulwa means you don't just do what your teacher asks, you got lost in what your teacher asks.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (36:46 - 36:52)
My teacher asked me to go to work. To start a business.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (36:53 - 37:45)
It's the last thing I want to do. I hate business. He said, you have to go do business.

You can't say no to your lama, but I delayed for a long time. Then finally he pushed me to go to New York. Then one day I woke up, oh, 19 years passed.

It was fun. To serve my teacher was fun. I forgot that 19 years passed.

So that's shulwa. Shulwa means you got lost in doing what your teacher asked. And it's fun.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (37:45 - 37:46)
It's fun.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (37:47 - 38:32)
Okay, fourth one. LAM MED MED SNGAGS KYI KHA GANG PA DGE RTZA CHOS RDZAS SU RGYUR NAS PHUL BA STE This is where your teacher asks you to do something. Let's say, I don't know, your teacher asks you to wash the dishes.

And you make some good karma. And then there's a special practice you can do in your mind. Change that dishwashing karma into a flower and give it to your teacher.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (38:37 - 38:39)
In your mind.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (38:40 - 38:42)
Later you can do it real.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (38:44 - 38:45)
Here's a rose.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (38:47 - 39:10)
This is all the dishes I washed yesterday. It's made of all the dishes I washed yesterday. So that's a really beautiful offering.

Then we're going to explain each of those four more. I think we do it tomorrow.