«Дар освобождения», курс 14 «Красота учителя», занятие 12

[Geshe Michael Roach] (0:00 - 0:01)
We'll start with ...

[Geshe Michael Roach] (0:01 - 0:05)
we're still on problem number one.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (0:06 - 2:14)
I think it's, if you criticize your teacher, you criticize all the Buddhas. Criticize is two kinds. One is verbal.

One is verbal. But it is triggered by mental criticism. We don't complain about somebody in our mouth until we complain about them in our mind for some days or some hours.

SEMS PA YOD KYI LAS YIN NO, DE BYED LUS DANG SNGAGS KYI LAS Abhidharmakosha Thinking is root karma. DE BYED LUS DANG SNGAGS KYI LAS means and then what the thinking makes you say or do. This is physical karma and verbal karma.

But the root karma is thinking. So the most serious karma with your teacher is in your mind to criticize them. Or think about their problems.

Oh look, he forgot his shirt this morning. He's in such a rush. Geshe Michael also rushing.

Not calm, meditator. Then to stop that kind of thinking, which is very difficult, extremely difficult.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (2:14 - 2:16)
It's extremely difficult.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (2:18 - 3:09)
By the way, the text is misspelled. He's going to quote Lama Ngachupa. The NA is misspelled.

It should be L-N-G-A. We had that in Tibetan class. With the S it's before.

With the L it's five. With the R it's a drum. A drum.

So Lama Ngachupa means fifty verses about lamas. It's Ashvaghosha. Like Ashvaghosha.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (3:13 - 3:18)
One of the oldest Buddhist books we have.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (3:20 - 4:30)
Like time of Nagarjuna or a little bit before Nagarjuna. So that's a very famous book about how we should behave towards our teacher. And it forms the basis of many of the tantric vows.

LDAN DE RGON LA BSAM BYAS NAS BLO MAR GYUR NAS NYID NA NI SANGS RGYAS THAMS CAD NYID PAS NA DE NI BRTAG TU SDUG BSNGAL THOB LDAN DE RGON means RGON means protector or savior. Then you have to read across the lines. BSAM BYAS NAS, BLO MAR GYUR means BSAM BYAS NAS means after thinking about it for a long time.

BLO MAR GYUR means if you become their student.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (4:34 - 4:38)
So you check them out carefully.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (4:41 - 5:36)
Then you decide, okay, this lady or this man is a good teacher. Then you become their student. GNAS means after that.

GNAS means think bad about them or talk bad about them. NA means if you do it. RU GO SANGS RGYAS THAMS CAD NYID PAS NA It's the same as criticizing every Buddha.

DE NI and because of that BRTAG TU means all the time. SDUG BSNGAL THOB That disciple will be miserable. Unhappy.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (5:38 - 5:38)
Sick.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (5:40 - 6:21)
Problems with other people. So we are finished with the first problem. To summarize, I think you feel the most important point here.

Check out the teacher before you formally become their student. Check them out carefully. Take your time, but be thorough.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (6:27 - 6:34)
Dig. Dig into their life. Keep digging.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (6:35 - 6:55)
Ask everybody. Check their students. Check their books.

Check the videos. Go to their class without making commitment. Spy on everything.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (6:59 - 7:05)
And then hang around with them.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (7:05 - 8:18)
Watch how do they behave. I think the most important thing for a teacher is do they do what they say? People ask me, oh, you went to Princeton University.

What did you study? Then I started in psychology department. I want to study psychology.

And of course I took the course called Abnormal Psychology. It's a special branch of psychology, right Christina? It means you study crazy people.

You don't study... The other departments, they are studying rats all the time. I want to study people with serious mental illness.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (8:19 - 8:20)
I want to study people with serious mental illness.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (8:23 - 8:47)
Then Princeton has... I think they have a... I don't know.

I think it's around... I'm not sure. I think it's around $10 billion endowment.

$10 billion. So they can hire every great psychologist in New York. New York is one hour away.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (8:47 - 8:49)
One and a half.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (8:51 - 10:25)
Then you can say... They can send a limousine and pick up the psychologists. You can give them $3,000 for the day or something.

And then they will come and give a lecture. So in my freshman class we had the greatest psychologists in New York. I never forget the first one.

This is the greatest one. They are telling us about anxiety and nervousness. Then I remember she picked up the cup.

Then I'm like... Then I finished the course. Then I quit psychology.

Changed to religion. So I think, for example, if the teacher is teaching meditation, I want to teach you meditation because it will make you calm. Then I'm like...

I always hear something in my mind.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (10:27 - 10:32)
I don't know what kind of meditation you are doing.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (10:32 - 11:16)
But I don't want to learn it. So of course a teacher should be what they say. I think that's a good guideline for a teacher.

Later we're going to have a list of what to look for. I thought to skip there, but this is not the order that he wrote the book. This is supposed to be lamrim.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (11:19 - 11:20)
Step by step.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (11:22 - 14:08)
I feel like if I skip to the next section, I'm hurting the teachings. Second problem, if you make a relationship with the teacher and then break it. NAM MA LA GRO SEMS SKYE NA DE KHA'I GCIG MED DRANG DANG NYAMS PA'I DGE RTZA BCOM NAS If you get upset at your teacher, then if you count the number of seconds that you are upset for each second that you feel upset at your teacher, DGE RTZA BCOM DGE RTZA BCOM means you destroy good karma in your mind.

NAS And then GAL PAR NYAL BAR SKYE BA NI You will go to the hell realms for eons. Then there's a lot of questions there. Does hell exist?

Many religions talk about hell. When I think about hell myself, I remember the war, America got involved with the war. They like to get involved with the wars, right?

There was a war between Kuwait and Iraq. America got involved. So we were watching on the television and the soldiers from Iraq, it's a poor country.

Kuwait is a very wealthy country. So they attacked, suddenly they attacked Kuwait. And the first soldiers, they go to the banks.

And they blow up the door of the vault. And you can see them running away with the bars of gold.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (14:08 - 14:12)
They're like, crying.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (14:14 - 15:59)
They're very, very poor people. You can see them running out of the bank and they're holding like $50,000, $100,000. Then they just take the gun and they go to some guy who has a like a jaguar.

Kuwaitis love jaguars. Then they have their gold. Then they're like, give me the car keys.

And they're like, okay, okay. Then they get in the jaguar with all the gold. And they are headed back to Iraq.

Then on the TV they show, they showed it. It was terrible. America send these airplanes.

You can see all these very expensive cars driving down the highway to Iraq. And you can see the airplane come down. And it shoots a missile.

And that jaguar suddenly, whole jaguar is a ball of fire. And the person inside, he is living in a ball of fire. For one second he can understand, I am dying, I am in the fire.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (16:06 - 16:07)
Then he dies.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (16:08 - 16:32)
And his mind goes someplace else. But for a few minutes he has awareness, I am in the fire. And I feel so strange when I see the TV.

He's so happy. In the hand he has a gold.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (16:32 - 16:41)
And he's driving a jaguar. And the next second he's in the fire.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (16:44 - 16:59)
So even in this life it's possible you are very happy at 9:48. And then at 9:49 there's some accident.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (17:04 - 17:22)
Especially when you are driving on highway. And at 9:50 you are in the fire. And at 10 o'clock, 12 minutes from now, you are dead.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (17:22 - 17:23)
And you have gone to another place.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (17:25 - 17:40)
So if it can happen in this life that your seeds change so suddenly, suddenly you are in fire.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (17:41 - 17:48)
It can happen. You can be in the fire for a hundred years or a thousand years. It's not impossible.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (17:53 - 18:12)
If you can make karma to be in fire for five minutes, we say you can make karma to be in fire for a thousand years. It's not impossible. If you think it's impossible, you are foolish.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (18:16 - 18:30)
If you say, hell is an old idea, old bible idea, I don't believe it. Then you are a fool. Just foolish.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (18:33 - 18:34)
It exists.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (18:34 - 18:43)
Then how to plant a seed to be in the fire for that long?

[Geshe Michael Roach] (18:44 - 19:04)
After you check out a teacher, after you accept that teacher, every second you criticize them, or upset at them, each second, a thousand years in the fire.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (19:07 - 19:26)
Then it's like, oh, I don't want a teacher. My teacher used to laugh and say, you're going there anyway. Maybe the teacher can save you.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (19:26 - 19:28)
Maybe the lama can help you.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (19:29 - 21:07)
Okay, it's worth it. Try, give it a try. You can do it, okay?

The karma of trying to learn these things and to have a teacher. The karma of trying and failing sometimes. Is the karma which gets you enlightened.

The karma of a failure. Trying, what do you call? Sincerely trying.

That's the most powerful karma. It's like, if it's easy for you. Like, I'm trying to learn Chinese language, okay?

I'm like that Lam Chung, you know that guy, he learned the first part of the mantra, he forgot the second part. His teacher said, okay, OM MANI PADME HUM Then he said, OM MANI He can't remember the second part. Then the teacher said, PADME HUM Then he said, PADME HUM Now say the mantra.

PADME HUM He can't remember OM MANI.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (21:10 - 21:15)
When I try to learn Chinese, it's the same.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (21:15 - 21:35)
NI HAO NI HAO HAO Okay, say good morning. HAO First you say NI. NI Then you say HAO.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (21:40 - 21:47)
But if you keep trying to learn, that's the karma to learn.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (21:49 - 22:19)
Don't give up. So to fail many times is the karma to succeed. So you get more, if you're like some smart person, like, I don't know, Scott always remembers people's names in every country.

It's automatic. Then he doesn't get much karma for that.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (22:23 - 22:35)
But if I learn NI HAO, I get a lot of karma because it's so difficult for me.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (22:35 - 23:14)
Try hard. So of course I get more karma. Find a teacher.

Make the relationship. And you will fail sometimes. But you are making more karma than the people who's easy to stay with a teacher.

And you will go faster. Okay. I have six minutes [?].

[Geshe Michael Roach] (23:14 - 23:16)
I'm going to use it.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (23:18 - 23:45)
LAM MA LA GONGS SPROD SKYES NA If you get upset at your teacher, GONGS SPROD JI TZAM SKYES PAS YON GYIS THUNG STE SKYE GCIG PA'I BYANG DANG NYAMS PAR DGE RTZA CHOM NAS you destroy the good karma in your mind equal to the smallest division of a second. So not seconds, but the division of a second. How many divisions in a second?

[Geshe Michael Roach] (23:47 - 24:00)
You destroy the karma, the good karma in your mind equal to the smallest possible unit of measurement of a single possible second.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (24:01 - 24:16)
So it's not... Don't tell people. Every second you are upset with your teacher, you destroy huge amounts of karma in your mind.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (24:19 - 24:23)
Good karma. That's not true.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (24:23 - 24:32)
He said THUNG MTHA'I SKYE GCIG THUNG MTHA'I SKYE GCIG THUNG MTHA' means smallest moment of...

[Geshe Michael Roach] (24:32 - 24:41)
smallest sub-moment, smallest division of a moment.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (24:42 - 25:20)
How many? Sixty-five. Sixty-five THUNG MTHA'I SKYE GCIG for every SKYE GCIG.

SKYE GCIG means one second. So the book says every second you are upset, you will destroy big amounts of good karma in your mind. But that's just an abbreviation.

Sixty-five times worse than that. Sixty-five, sixty-five, sixty-five, sixty-five.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (25:20 - 25:20)
Okay?

[Geshe Michael Roach] (25:24 - 26:17)
When I see the Latino dance teacher, her feet are going like sixty-five per second. Mine is going like this. Like that.

Okay, I guess I took... DE'I THANG GI NAR MED DU NAS DGOS PAR You will have to stay the same amount of time in the NAR MED means Avichi hell. Avichi hell.

This is the lowest hell according to Buddhism. Some hell better than other hells. Some hell you just get squashed every five minutes.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (26:22 - 26:29)
In this hell, you are in fire all the time.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (26:32 - 27:27)
Then the name, those of you learning Tibetan, the name is strange. NAR MED means no suffering. But it's an abbreviation.

The full name is no moment when you are not suffering. Like you don't get Shavasana. You are in the fire all the time.

All right. Then we're going to have a quotation from Dungkor. Dungkor.

We'll talk about it later in the Tibetan video, but this is what I call an irrational exception. It means the pronunciation is wrong.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (27:37 - 27:44)
It's a pre-nasal on a second column which is not possible.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (27:45 - 27:53)
When you pronounce this one, you have to say, say Dungkor. Dungkor. You don't say do-kor.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (27:54 - 27:55)
Do-kor.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (27:55 - 27:59)
The book says do-kor. The pronunciation is dungkor.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (28:00 - 28:08)
Dung means what? Time. Kor means circle.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (28:10 - 28:12)
So time means kala.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (28:14 - 28:15)
Kor is chakra.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (28:17 - 28:20)
This is Kalachakra Tantra.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (28:21 - 28:25)
So he's quoting the Kalachakra Tantra.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (28:26 - 30:42)
We have one minute. Let's do it. LAM MA LA GROL SKAD CIG GRANG Equal in number to the seconds you are upset at your teacher.

BSKYAL PAR BSAGS PA'I SKAD CHOG NAS You destroy the good karma seeds that you collected for a million years. DE NI BSKYAL PAR MNYAL SOGS KYIS So equally you will have to stay a million years. SDUG BSNGAL SO BA DRAG PO NYONGS You will have to have terrible feelings of suffering, pain.

Just for those of you, just for the record, okay? Just for the archive. I tried to find that quotation and it's a little difficult to find.

But there is a similar statement in the Kalachakra Tantra. What's called CHOG KYI DANG PO CHOG KYI DANG PO means the first Kalachakra Tantra. And it says, GANG ZHIG NI, BYAS RTEN DAG NA, SBRANG DANG LA MA, DOR JI TSUN PA, DI BYA'O DE DAG TE, DE LA GNOD PA BYAS PAS, SOGS CHAGS RNAMS NI, NGES PAR MNYAM BAR GYUR TE, DE LA NGO TSAR MED DE NYES PAR YID, BDAG NYID GUS TE, DE LA GRONG BA'I MED YID, CHOS PA SHES PA CHEN PO It says it's not strange, it's not impossible that a person who tries to hurt their teacher will definitely go to the hell realms.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (30:47 - 30:58)
On the other hand, if you make your teacher happy, the opposite will happen.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (30:59 - 32:24)
Every second you make your teacher happy, you will be in paradise. Then again, a teacher doesn't need your money. A teacher doesn't need you to be oh lama, lama, or they don't need 34 more bananas, they already have 34 bananas.

And it's a lot of work to put all those flowers in a vase. Wash the vase. By the way, flowers are very important offering.

And I'm just kidding. It's a great offering. Very proper offering.

I grow flowers just because I want to give my teacher flowers. Many hours to take care of the flowers. So when they come to my house I have fresh, I can cut the flower.

But what does lama really want?

[Geshe Michael Roach] (32:27 - 32:29)
You do your practice.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (32:30 - 32:50)
Oh look, I helped him to come up on the stairs. I go like this, I grab his arm, and I'm like, yeah, he's doing his yoga. That's good.

Then I watch people doing meditation. I'm spying on you.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (32:52 - 32:57)
Oh look, people from Guangzhou, they do good meditation.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (32:58 - 33:03)
And then I feel happy. So what makes the lama happy?

[Geshe Michael Roach] (33:05 - 33:18)
You are doing your practice and you are treating each other with happiness and harmony.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (33:19 - 34:03)
You are being nice to other people. I love to see the picture of the people going to the nursing home in Singapore. Then I feel happy.

So that's the offering that your teacher needs. Highest offering to a teacher is your own happiness. If you look like this, then teacher is like, I'm a success.

I created a happy person.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (34:05 - 34:24)
That's my job. Painter has to paint a picture. Lama is supposed to create happy people.

So if everyone is happy, then I feel successful.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (34:27 - 34:29)
Then that's how to make a lama happy.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (34:32 - 34:49)
If you are smiling, every 65th of a second, you are making karma to go to paradise. Last thing.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (34:50 - 35:31)
Okay, I worked in a big company for 19 years. I was one of the first employees, like a third one I think. Then the boss is Israeli.

Two Israelis. Very, very tough people. Israelis are all tough.

They have to go to the army when they are 11 years old or something. They are really tough people.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (35:33 - 35:37)
Then first week I worked there.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (35:37 - 36:10)
Every night, two o'clock in the morning. Then I have to come back, I have to leave my house at six o'clock. It's like that.

They are tough. Then later I said, no, I can't do that. I'm studying Buddhism.

I have to get home in time for that. Class starts at seven o'clock.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (36:13 - 36:20)
I have to run to the bus station to make the class.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (36:20 - 36:40)
19 years. I said, I'm sorry, I have to leave on time. Then they're like, we're going to fire you.

We're going to cut your pay. We're going to make you clean the garbage.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (36:42 - 36:49)
Then I'm like, go ahead. Then I leave. I just leave.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (36:51 - 37:22)
I call them in the morning, do you want me to come or not? Okay, come, come, come. Then one day the owner, Ofer, he called me.

It's like 4.45. Mike, you're the heart of this company. We can't do anything without you.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (37:23 - 37:35)
When you are here, we are magic. When you're not here, we can't do anything.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (37:36 - 37:47)
Tonight we have a big order we have to finish. Without you, we can't do it.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (37:50 - 37:56)
We need the heart of our company. Please help us.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (37:56 - 37:59)
I'm like, okay, I can do it.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (38:03 - 38:12)
So for me, personally, negative reinforcement, it doesn't work.

[Geshe Michael Roach] (38:15 - 40:23)
We're going to fire you. Then, but positive reinforcement. Every second you are smiling in front of your teacher, 65 million years in the paradise.

Better than Starbucks. I'm like, okay, I like to think the positive way. Okay.

You have? Okay, Christian, please. Chant.

Chant. Chant. Chant.

Chant. Chant. Okay, cool.