BDW 3 «Суть волшебной жизни», занятие 4

(1:07 - 1:29)
Okay, please take your seats. We are about to start our next class. I don't know, Geshe Michael, how you do this profound, deepest wisdom so fun, but we are really enjoying and waiting so much for the next layer.

(1:29 - 1:40)
Thank you very much. Hello, hello. Okay, hi.

(2:09 - 2:33)
Okay, good. Hang on. Okay.

(2:35 - 3:09)
So, we are going to the Song of My Spiritual Life, which is preparation for Diamond Way. If you would like to participate in Diamond Way with grandpa, by the way, there are many Diamond Way teachers, there are very good Diamond Way teachers in our group, and they are all working hard to teach Diamond Way, and they are all good, okay? And if one candy is good, two candy is even better. That's my philosophy.

(3:11 - 3:35)
My wife doesn't agree. So anyway, very welcome. And then talk to Tim, basically talk to Tim and figure it out, okay? At this point in my life, it's uncomfortable to tell people they cannot learn Diamond Way with me, right? So, it's up to you.

(3:35 - 3:45)
If you really have a true hope or something, talk to Tim, and Tim will make it happen somehow. He does everything. Alright.

(3:46 - 4:05)
I'm teaching 16 Steps of a Good Life by Jetsun Rendawa. This is the teacher of Tsongkapa. And, honestly, we don't study his life much in the Geshe course.

(4:06 - 4:21)
We don't study much about Rendawa. We don't study his works. So, it's been very wonderful experience for me to translate one of his greatest books, and to learn more about him.

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And he gave these 16 suggestions for a good life, okay? To have a good life. And I was thinking, we don't get together very often. Life is impermanent.

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We don't know what will happen. And, if I have to make sure you're okay, I think if I can leave you with these 16 Steps of a Good Life, that's a very, very beautiful guide for your whole life. People are always asking me, Grandpa, can you teach us meditation? And, by the way, my wife gets mad when you call me Grandpa, okay? Because that means she's Grandma.

(5:11 - 5:29)
And she says, I'm not ready to be Grandma. And, by the way, she'll come tomorrow, okay? She's being a Grandma, you understand? We have two new grandkids, okay? Two and a half. In English we say the bun is in the oven.

(5:30 - 6:04)
One of the half is that she's having a second grandchild with her younger son in Tucson, okay? I hope. So, anyway, when you meditate, you can just go through the 16 Steps and say, Grandpa asked me to do these 16 Steps. How am I doing today? If you can't think of something to meditate on, just look at the 16 Steps, okay? Left hand down first, right hand down second.

(6:06 - 6:26)
Look to the drishti, to the horizon, like that, and then look at the 16 Steps. Like, how are you doing on the 16 Steps, okay? And then you'll have a good life. Alright, so I'll repeat some of them.

(6:26 - 6:53)
The first one was ... The first one was basically learning the skill of choosing your next life. Learning the skill of choosing your next life, okay? Geshe La, you said we're going to learn Diamond Way with all of the Diamond Way teachers, and I said, yes you are. And then they said, well I'm just going to become Buddha in this life.

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Yeah, that's the way. But sometimes it takes a little longer, okay? And that's okay, you know, that's fine. And so it's good to know how to choose your next life, and how to get on the right bus as you die, alright? And it doesn't have to be a sad thing, or it's a depressing thing.

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If you're a good Buddhist, death is just another adventure, you know? It's another cool place to practice emptiness, you know? So don't worry about it. You don't have to worry much. The whole world has to worry except you.

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Okay, so you just ... Okay, by the way, I have a ... There's a student here, a good student from China. Her mom went to the bathroom last night, and didn't come out. And the family went in, and she passed.

(7:57 - 8:06)
She was not sick. You know, I'm sure she didn't expect to die last night. But it can happen to all of us.

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It can happen to any of us. She passed away on the toilet, and nobody thought she was going to be sick, or anything like that. So, it's just good to be ready, okay? If you know something's going to happen, then get ready.

(8:25 - 8:59)
And if it doesn't happen today, you're ready, okay? So anyway, learn the skill of choosing your next life. And it's not crazy, and it's not some kind of weirdo thing, you know? It's weird to know you're going to die and not prepare. That's weird. 

That's really weird, you know? And the whole world does that. Every single person does that, okay? We should be ready. We should be, you know, people say, are you going to die tomorrow? You say, look, honestly, I don't know.

(8:59 - 9:11)
People are asking me, are you going to survive this surgery? And I'm like, hey, I don't know. I really don't know. And then, well, aren't you worried? And I say, no, I got ready a long time ago.

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You know, I'm okay. So, be ready. Know how to choose a useful life, next life, okay? Know how to choose a good body and a good mind, okay? Learn it.

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And have that skill in your hands. And then you don't have to worry about it. You can have a happy life, and when the time comes, you're ready.

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Pack your bags now. Keep the suitcase under the bed. Philosophically, okay? And then when the time comes, you're like, yeah, okay, I'm ready.

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What's next, you know? You can see your next life. You can plan it. You can have a wonderful one.

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You can design it. And it's quite, I don't know how to say, it's exciting, you know? It's like, I don't know, going on a trip to a new place, and you're excited. It doesn't have to be scary, or it doesn't have to be sad, or something like that.

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You can plan it, and then you can make it happen. And it's wonderful. It's tasty.

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It's exciting. It's a whole new thing, okay? That's the first step, okay? Second step. Third step.

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Pembetang [?], say pembetang [?]. Pembetang [?] means make great plans. You know, have some good plans in mind, okay? What's the great plans? In that next world, I'm going to use my childhood very well, okay? Are you going to watch TV? Yes.

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Are you going to read science fiction books? Also, yes. I'm also going to prepare for my spiritual life. My childhood will not be wasted, okay? I've got plans for my childhood.

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I will learn to read well. I will start my basic ethical training at a young age. I got plans.

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I got plans for my six-year-old to twelve-year-old next time. I already got plans, okay? So, be ready. And you can do it, and we'll learn how to do it, okay? Don't worry, we'll learn.

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Then it's all taken care of. Okay, next, third thing. Yeah, start learning the activities and the viewpoints that will give you a good life next time, okay? Like, what ways of looking at the world and what kind of things to do would be useful for next life, okay? And get used to them, okay? Start practicing them now.

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What? Buddhist practices and Buddhist meditations, Buddhist ways of looking at things. Get them ready. And then, you know, start them when you're about twelve.

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Okay? Don't wait so long. This life, you were a little bit slow, okay? Before you got your bodhisattva vows. Next life, by the way, you don't have to be twenty-one to take bodhisattva vows.

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Take them at twelve, okay? Plan for it, plan for it. Don't be crazy. Plan for it.

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Okay, fifth one. People ask me, when you saw emptiness, is there anything else you saw? Technically, I saw sixteen things, which are the four aspects of the four Arya Truths, okay? One of them is, I know where I'm going, and I know I will have teachers from infancy. From the time I'm one or two years old, I will already be, I will already have people in charge of my Buddhist education.

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And I know that, okay? And it's very wonderful. It's a wonderful thing to have that kind of comfort, you know? I know I got good teachers lined up, you know? As a baby, as a two-year-old, you know? I will, they will be taking care of me, and they'll be training me. I know that, okay? So, prepare that.

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In your meditations at least, think about it, okay? Look, do you want to be, do you want to meet great teachers in your next life? Yeah, sure. Do you have any plan for how to do that? And you say, I don't know, Geshe La didn't teach that exactly. He talked about it, but he didn't really cover the details.

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Then you should learn. You should learn, okay? But I'm Geshe La, I'm not planning to die. Neither did everybody else who died.

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Okay, alright. Number six. Then he learned, how can I say? He, number five, step number five, he had teachers, he studied with them.

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Number six, basically he learned the great schools, and he learned how to reconcile them. He learned why the five great schools, what they are, and he learned the details of them. And then he figured out what the Buddha really meant, okay? So, it's one thing to learn a bunch of Buddhism.

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It's a different thing to learn what's the core, what's the core truth of Buddhism. That's a different task. You're going to have to do both.

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You're going to have to learn many, many Buddhist teachings. And then you're going to have to kind of arrange it around your own life. And then you will reach some kind of core practice, okay? That's learning what the Buddha really meant.

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Buddhism is very beautiful because Buddhism encouraged many different schools of thought. We didn't kill off all the mind-only guys. We didn't shoot the Abhidharma guys.

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You see, all of those schools exist. They all exist because they help somebody, and they all get along with each other. And we have different schools, they teach different things, and they're all good stuff, okay? They're all good stuff.

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And you should master all of them. You should learn all of them. Why? They fit different people.

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You say, I'm going to teach, I'm going to help living beings. Are you committed? Yes. Okay, then learn all the schools.

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Because they were designed for different kinds of people. It's like yoga, you know. There's certain kinds of yoga that are going to break your neck, if you're like me, okay? And then there's other kinds of yoga which are great for different people, okay? It's different people have different needs, okay? Learn all of them.

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And that's the smartest thing, right? Just learn all of these schools. That's what we're doing in the translator classes, okay? We are going through all the schools. Be there or? Be square.

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Oh Geshe La, it's boring. I know. It's too difficult.

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I know. You guys go so slow. I know.

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But you're crazy if you don't listen to those. You don't have to be a Buddhist scholar, you don't have to learn Tibetan, you don't have to learn Sanskrit, you know. I'm not saying that.

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Just go there and open up your mind like a mirror and let the ideas float around and they will change your life, okay? The more you don't understand them, the more you should be there. Am I right? Why go to a class that you understand everything? Why go, you know, go to the class where you don't understand anything. That means you can learn something.

(17:53 - 18:10)
Got it? Right? Only a few people nodded, okay. Alright. Go to the class where you don't understand what the hell is going on, okay? Because that means it's going to help you the most, okay? Don't go to, keep going to the same class over and over again, okay? Alright.

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Number seven. Understand emptiness, basically. Learn to understand emptiness.

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There's nothing more important than you can learn, okay? Try to learn emptiness. They say a real Buddhist student wants a thousand explanations of emptiness. And some people say, I guess I just want one explanation.

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Then come on, you know. You can't learn it very well if you don't learn many explanations. And definitely, you cannot teach many people if you only know one kind of yoga, for example.

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You see what I mean? If you really want to help other people, master all of the schools, and master all the emptiness ideas, okay? And don't be satisfied and don't stop. I have one rule in my life, I think my close friends know. I refuse to waste my time.

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I bitterly refuse. If you try to get me to do something that wastes my time, you're just wasting your time. Because I will not do it, you know.

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I know I'm going to die. I know how much time I have left. And I refuse to do something that doesn't help me or other people.

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I refuse. And I don't care if you threaten me or you tell me, you write me an email every day. I don't care. 

I won't answer. You know, I don't care. I cannot waste my time.

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I have things I need to do. And that I must understand these teachings. It's the only thing that really helps people.

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I must, I must learn them. I must master them. I must translate them.

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I cannot waste 10 minutes. People think I'm fanatic. Oh, Geshe La, I just want 5 minutes to tell you my problem.

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And I'm like, I already taught you how to fix that problem. You know, like, don't, don't, it doesn't, the argument to Geshe La that you just want 5 minutes to waste my time doesn't work. Because my life is made of 5 minute pieces.

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And if I lose them, I'm dead. I'm gone. I refuse.

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I refuse. And you should refuse. Is it a waste of time to watch The Emperor's Affection on Netflix? No, that's a Buddhist practice.

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No, resting and having fun, entertainment is a Buddhist practice. You gotta take care of your, you gotta take care to have some fun sometimes. I don't trust a Buddhist who has no fun.

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You know, then, okay? You gotta have, having fun is, is definitely a Buddhist meditation. And you gotta know how to have fun well. And you gotta be serious about having fun.

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Okay? And that's not a waste of time. It's a waste of time to not have fun. Okay? Alright, number 8. Then he taught.

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Basically he taught. He was a great writer. And he wrote two kinds of books.

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He wrote commentaries on the classics. Okay? He wrote unbelievable thousands of pages. He wrote commentaries on each of the great classics of Buddhism in the last 1,400 years before.

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2,000 years. And he wrote commentaries on each. And if you care, all the books we're studying in the Mixed Nuts came from him.

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Okay? All the books we're studying in the Mixed Nuts were written by his students. Okay? And, you know, so you should pay attention to the classics. Okay? And I know it's not popular to say that.

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But if you look at them once a day for 15 minutes, your life will change completely. Okay? People say, I don't have time to look at the classics for 15 minutes before I go to bed. Then I say, why? And they say, I'm working.

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I have work to do. Then I say, why are you working? And they say, I need to make money for myself and my family. And then I say, if you spend 15 minutes a day with the classics, you make more money than you ever dreamed of.

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You give away this, in the car, 40,000? 50,000? You think this $100 thing is good. You know? On the car, in the car, on the way here, is it 40 or 50,000? 60. Anyway, we're just like, you know, who's next? You know? So, people say, why? Why can you do that? I came from a very poor family.

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I can show you my house. You know? It's a poor house. It's a poor person's house.

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It's not far from here. It's half an hour from here. But I studied the classics.

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And the classics, if you, don't think you have to work and not study the classics. Think you should study the classics and then not work, okay? Understand? Okay? And trust me, it's true. And it's more fun.

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It's a lot more fun. And I'm not saying you have to be one of these nerds like Ward or Gibson or one of those guys. You don't have to be like that.

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Just expose your mind to it for 15 minutes a day. That's all. It doesn't hurt you.

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And by the way, there's no better way if you have trouble sleeping than to read Madhyamaka. Okay? I learned that in the Geshe course. When I have trouble sleeping, I pull out Kedrup Je's, you know, Uma Tsatik [?], put you to sleep in five minutes.

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Okay? Alright? Don't tell me you can't and then he wrote his own commentaries. He wrote commentaries to the classics and then he wrote his own books. I had a fun time.

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There's three or four famous Samuchayas, right? Stanley knows. He's translating one of them. There's three or four famous ancient Sanskrit compendiums, okay? Compendia.

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And it's called Samuchaya. And there's a weird Samuchaya in his collected writings, Rendawa. And it's a couple thousand pages of English if you translate it.

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And no one ever figured out what it was, which of the great Samuchayas it is. And the answer is, it's none of them. So he's writing his own great commentaries at the same time.

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Peter wrote a book recently and he wrote a nice book. And those are, that's cool. That's cool, you know.

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The best way to help the people in your modern world is to write a modern book, right? That's also helpful. Okay, number nine. Then he grew his group of disciples, okay? Then he taught people.

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And it's funny. There's a new TV series in America called The Chosen, right? Not new, it's like six, seven years old. And it's about Jesus' life.

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And it's really fun to watch because they tell the story of the disciples. So he's got these 12 disciples, 12 and a half disciples. And you get to watch them and they're complaining and they're fighting with each other.

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They're always complaining about the food, you know. We follow this teacher of mankind and he never heard of a good breakfast, you know. And it's, I love that show because it's the truth, okay? When you start teaching your students, you're gonna get white hair and lose your hair, okay? Each one will give you trouble.

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And it's so beautiful to see it in the TV, you know, that Netflix, that here's this teacher and it wasn't all happy days and it wasn't all love between the students. They're fighting against each other. They're all complaining.

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There's not enough money for everybody. And guess who has to take all the trouble on themselves is the teacher, okay? So get used to it. And I don't wanna hear you complaining, okay? Guess I got 10 students.

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Good. Nine of them are assholes. I know.

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They're so stupid. I'm like, that's why they're students. You know, so, okay? So just relax and have fun, okay? It's like a big family.

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When you have a big family, there's lots of problems. I came from, our family had six and a half people. I'm counting the dog, okay? And we had so many problems and, but we had love.

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We really had love. We had many, many challenges, you know, my brother fell off the roof, tore up his leg, my other brother, you know, was blind. You know, it's okay.

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That's a family, okay? So it's a lot of trouble, ask Tim, to have, to arrange teachings for a lot of students. It's a lot of trouble. Nobody will thank you enough.

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They'll come to you and say, Tim, I have to say something. You're like, yeah? They say, I didn't like the breakfast. And you're like, oh, I thought you were going to thank me.

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You know, so don't, you know, just take it easy and have fun, okay? It's, there's nothing more fun or beautiful than serving difficult people. Okay? And if you don't think you're difficult, you are. Okay? And when you're a teacher, you have to, you know, just kind of relax in the middle of all these disasters, you know? Financial problems and all this stuff, people fighting with each other, people having trouble.

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And you, as a teacher, you have to, come on, don't take it so seriously, you know? That's, that's what a parent agrees to. When you have a baby, that's what you agreed to. Okay? So don't forget, you agreed to it.

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And then, have some fun. Have some, Geshe La, can you have fun when your students are arguing with each other and fighting and causing you trouble? Definitely. You can definitely have fun.

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Okay? If you don't know how to do that, you're not a Buddhist. Okay? Buddhist has fun with everything. Okay? There's not like a good car accident.

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Okay. I had a good car accident last weekend, and we had fun. It was funny.

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It was amazing. We lost two cars, totally smashed. Grandpa has to pay.

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And I'm like, within five minutes we're having a really good time with the other driver. Which is something very strange, you know? We're almost like, hey, let's get together and go out, you know? He's like, yeah! You know? Okay? So, I mean a real Buddhist should be having fun all the time. You can't get you know, you can't be, oh! The student called me stupid! You know, you can't go, you can't do that.

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Okay? You gotta relax and have fun. Cause you're doing the best thing in the world. Okay? You're doing the best thing in the world.

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It's an honor to have pain in the ass students. Okay? It's the most wonderful thing in the world. You're so wonderful.

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Alright. Alright. No.

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You can say, no Geshe La, it's fun to have a pain in the ass teacher. Alright. Number ten.

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He had certain heart practices, core practices. And I had trouble with this idea. It's called, what's it called? Tukdam, Tukdam Til.

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Tukdam Til. Say Tukdam? Til. Tukdam? Til.

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Til mean, by the way, if you're interested in Tibetan, this list, which was written by his close disciple, is the most exquisite Tibetan I've ever read. This, and I, that's why I added it. If some of you are brave and you want to study it, it's the most elegant Tibetan I ever read.

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And this one is, Til means palm of your hand. Tuk is the high word for heart. And Tam means, Tamtsik means sacred pledge.

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Sacred pledge of the heart. Sacred pledge in the palm of the heart. It's such a beautiful image.

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And it means at a certain point in your Buddhist practice, you should figure out what's going to be your heart practice. Like, what are you really going to focus on? And I remember I went to my teacher, I said, oh, I want Tukdam Til to dzinpa. I want Tukdam Til.

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Give me, oh, holy teacher, give me my Tukdam Til. What should be my core heart practice for the rest of my life? And he said, logic. I'm like, I hate logic.

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He said, logic. He never say it three times. If he has to say it three times, it's with his hand.

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What? Logic. Huh? Logic. Okay, logic.

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So, you're lucky I don't do that. I think my hand would be worn out. So, Tukdam Til means decide a practice that's going to be your heart practice and follow that.

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Everybody's excited about Diamond Way right now. That's fine. That's okay.

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Inside of Diamond Way, there's 167 different practice, different systems of Diamond Way. And, you know, it takes time, but in your life, when you meet your your honey for life, like I did when I was 16, 17, you will know. You will know.

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So, keep your eyes out for your heart practice. Okay? Your Tukdam Til. You know, keep your eyes out for it.

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You don't have to decide. Don't get nervous. Oh, Geshe La said I have to have a Tukdam Til, but I don't know what it is.

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Don't worry about it. It will come. But keep your nose out.

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Okay? Keep looking for it. Okay? You will go to Buddhist teachings. You will hear many teachings.

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And, there's one that is like an arrow in your heart. Then, keep that one close and keep practicing it. I did.

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I chose my Tukdam Til many, many years ago, 50 years ago. And, keep it, and you will keep it in your heart. Don't get nervous and say, I don't have a Tukdam Til yet.

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Oh my god, I must be a terrible person. Okay? Just be patient and have fun, and your Tukdam Til will show up. Okay? Probably the best way to make it happen is to help somebody else do it.

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Right? What an idea. Okay. Number 11.

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Number 11. He made a sacred promise to his divine teacher that he would spend his life taking care of other people. That's number 11.

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That's awesome. Again, how do I want you to relate to these 16? What do I want you to do with these 16? Do a meditation on them like once a week or something. Doesn't matter.

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Okay? Go over the list. You don't have to finish all 16. Finish 5. Finish 10.

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What am I doing this week to keep my promise to my divine teacher to serve other people? What did I do this week? Oh, you know, I was handing out tea at the class. You know, something like that. Okay? Just check in.

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This can be your checklist. How am I doing with 16 things? Guess I haven't been focusing on preparing my next life's childhood. That's a mistake.

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Okay? Don't think it's farther away than tomorrow, because it may not be. Okay? I'm saying all 16. Okay? Take care of where you're going to be born next.

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Take care of what you're going to study. We're going to go through it in Tsongkapa. We're going to go through it in the song before we finish.

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He's going to give advice for making those preparations. Okay? Very cool. I like number 12, how he dedicated himself to deep retreat.

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He lived to the age of... He and Tsongkapa passed away in their early 60s. And Rendawa, five years before he died, he announced he's not going to do this kind of teaching anymore. He said, I'm going to do retreat.

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And then there was a big, everyone's like, ah! And he said, I will teach sometimes in retreat, but only to four or five people at a time. And so, towards the end of his life, he spent five years in deep retreat. And, and he only taught a few students in deep retreat.

(38:27 - 38:38)
So, it means throughout his life. And he and Tsongkapa did some nice retreats together. And you can see them in the King of the Dharma book.

(38:38 - 38:59)
There's a few paintings of Tsongkapa with his teacher doing retreats together. And it was, it's a very sweet thing. Tsongkapa had a student, Kedrup Je, within a few days after he met him, they went into Diamond Way retreat together.

(39:00 - 39:12)
So, you know, it's a, I, one thing in my life, I'm very happy about my life. I'm very satisfied with my life. I think I did exactly the right things, mostly.

(39:14 - 39:30)
But, I feel bad that, that our retreats, I feel bad that we're not doing more retreats, you know. We worked so hard to build Diamond Mountain Retreat Center. Now we also have Dragon's Head.

(39:32 - 39:55)
We worked so hard to build these beautiful retreats. This last Initiation [?] Retreat, me and Stanley had a good idea that we would visit each retreat within the first few days in their retreat cavern. And we would make sure everything's okay physically.

(39:56 - 40:15)
Is the feng shui correct? Do they have the right ventilation? Do they have the right seat? Are they sitting in the right direction? All these things. And we went to each person's cavern, which I had never done in all these years. I had never gone to all of those caverns.

(40:17 - 40:26)
it was amazing. Those caverns are unbelievable, you know. They have, they have this energy from the three year retreat.

(40:27 - 40:41)
They are unbelievable. Every cavern is unbelievable. And each cavern has a distinct aura of the person who built it, and the person who did retreat there.

(40:42 - 40:49)
And I can feel them, and I can see them. And it is awesome. That place is awesome.

(40:50 - 41:12)
So, if you have a chance, it's very, very important when you do retreat to do retreat in a place where another person did deep retreat. You see what I mean? Then they kind of karmically prepare the whole vibration for you. And I, this last trip, I thought, wow, that's really true.

(41:12 - 41:25)
You know, each one of those caverns is amazing place. It has beautiful energy, amazing energy. And I'm, we should be really grateful to those people who built them.

(41:25 - 41:56)
Some of them are here. And Stanley's group agreed to build some more. They're going to try to build retreat caverns similar to Dunhuang, China in the Gobi Desert, which are half cave and half retreat building.

(41:58 - 42:11)
And we are working on a new daytime retreat cavern in a tree at Dragon's Head. We're working on that. I think it'd be awesome.

(42:12 - 42:16)
When I was a kid, I used to hang out in trees. I don't know. Okay.

(42:19 - 42:31)
Next. Number 13, right? Yeah. I like 13, and there's a word here that I'm really hot on nowadays.

(42:31 - 42:36)
It's called deng. Say deng. There's an old cowboy song.

(42:36 - 42:52)
Deng me, deng me, they ought to take a rope and hang me. Deng. So, deng is a very unusual Tibetan word that means guarantee like that.

(42:53 - 42:59)
It's a very strange word. It means like you buy a car, you get a deng. The company will give you a deng.

(43:01 - 43:17)
But, if you practice sweetly and with your whole heart, you will reach a point of deng in your life when you know you got it. You know. You know you.

(43:17 - 43:29)
Like when we try to play music, we all try to tune the instrument, and you go too sharp, and then you go too flat, and then finally you hit the deng. And it's just right. Okay.

(43:29 - 43:38)
And there will be a time in your life when you hit the deng. Okay. Deng means perfect.

(43:38 - 43:43)
Everything's perfect. I worked hard. I went to all those stupid firehouse classes.

(43:44 - 43:47)
You know. I helped out. I did everything.

(43:48 - 43:59)
And there will come a time in your life when you hit deng. And you're like you know, I got it. You know.

(44:00 - 44:17)
And it's a kind of a lifetime guarantee, multiple lifetime guarantee. You'll be, everything will be beautiful for the rest of your infinite lives. Everything will be beautiful.

(44:17 - 44:22)
And it's a extraordinary feeling. It's a wonderful feeling. Okay.

(44:22 - 44:29)
It's a, cannot describe it. Okay. But number, what is it, 13? Yeah.

(44:29 - 44:44)
You gotta try to reach deng. Okay. Each person here, there's a place you can reach if you practice well when you're just like you know.

(44:44 - 44:49)
And everything is a miracle after that. And you can do it. Okay.

(44:49 - 44:55)
And you can't lose a deng. Deng is unlosable. When you reach deng, you got deng.

(44:55 - 44:59)
Nobody can take your deng away. Okay. Okay.

(44:59 - 45:16)
Seriously. And it's, I can't describe it very well, but I'm saying you, when you go through the 16 steps, you should say, look, I don't know exactly what Geshe La was talking about, but that deng sounds pretty cool, and I hope I get it someday. That's enough.

(45:16 - 45:29)
Just know there's a place in your lifetime you will hit perfect practice, and you're all set. You're like finished. Okay.

(45:29 - 45:33)
Before you're finished, you're finished. Okay. Got it? And it's a guarantee.

(45:33 - 45:36)
It doesn't go away. Okay. Cannot go away.

(45:37 - 45:40)
So, pray for deng. Okay. Alright.

(45:40 - 45:47)
Deng is also a bad word in cowboy English. It means damn it, dang it. Okay.

(45:47 - 45:49)
That's not bad. Okay. Alright.

(45:50 - 45:58)
Number, how much time I got? I got one minute. 15? Oh. Cool.

(45:58 - 46:00)
Alright. We can go much further. Ah.

(46:02 - 46:17)
Number 14. This is weird. Right? Usually when people pass away, it's a little bit sudden, like we had last night with a friend.

(46:19 - 46:24)
Or it's a little bit chaotic. You know. People get injured.

(46:24 - 46:28)
People have a stroke. People, something goes wrong. Cancer.

(46:30 - 46:34)
And then they're like, I'm not ready. You know. I'm not really ready to go.

(46:34 - 46:55)
And my life is not in order. I haven't got, I still owe, okay, $100. What was Socrates, what was it that Socrates had not finished by the time he drank the poison in his cell? Raise your hand.

(46:57 - 47:19)
Oh, you know? Paying taxes? Close. It's not, wasn't that, cancel, no, Emily, did I teach you that before? He pay off his debt before he drink the poison. No, there's one more.

(47:21 - 47:28)
Okay, cancel the bet. I love to cancel bet. He borrowed a chicken from somebody.

(47:29 - 47:41)
And then he has to, the government required him to drink hemlock, to drink poison in the next 10 minutes or something. And he has to do it bravely. He can't cry or whine.

(47:42 - 47:54)
He's like, you know, and he says, oh, wait a minute. I owe some guy a chicken. And he made sure his student took responsibility to give the chicken back.

(47:55 - 48:15)
Okay, so, what it means is, if you're a good Buddhist, and you, you practice your Buddhism well, then you should be ready to die. And it shouldn't be like, everyone's wah, or, you know, you're like, what happened? Oh, my kidney's gone. You're gonna die? Yeah.

(48:16 - 48:30)
Well, what are you gonna do? And I say, everything's ready, don't worry. You know, everything's good. Okay, so, I think first of all, most people think they're not gonna die, or they refuse to think about dying.

(48:31 - 48:43)
And then, even if they're sure they're gonna die, they don't know how to get ready. No one ever taught them that at Princeton. They don't have that course at Princeton, or anywhere else, okay? Like, how to die right.

(48:45 - 49:10)
So, I think it's, and all of you are already, because you're still sitting here after yesterday, you have promised to become a teacher, right? So, you gotta be a good example for your students. It's your responsibility to know how to die. And it's your responsibility to get ready properly.

(49:11 - 49:24)
And body and mind, okay? It's your responsibility. Your finances, your stuff. The worst thing you can do is leave all your old junk for someone else to clean up.

(49:25 - 49:49)
Okay? My mom, my stepmom, who died recently, she's like, let's get this house cleaned out. You know, I'm not gonna stick all you boys with this junk. And it was junk, okay? Your precious stuff of a lifetime is someone else's junk, okay? And don't put that on them.

(49:49 - 49:58)
You know, die with, die with consideration. Die with style. Die with class, you know.

(49:58 - 50:05)
Die well, you know. Get rid of all the stuff, you know. Take care of all your finances.

(50:07 - 50:21)
Don't leave your children or your friends with all your debts, for example. That's so, that's such an impolite thing to do, right? Take care of your life. Wrap it up wisely.

(50:22 - 50:37)
And then get ready, okay? The last part of this life should be spent preparing for the next one. Okay? The last part of this life should be spent bravely preparing for the next one. Okay? And you can do it.

(50:37 - 50:46)
You have all the information you need. Okay? Alright, so he did that very, very well. Rendawa did that very, very well.

(50:46 - 50:54)
And it was a good example. Just talking about it is a good example. Okay? We don't talk about it much, you know.

(50:54 - 51:18)
Are you ready to die? You got everything ready? Are you screwing your children? You know, you got everything ready for them? You know. I was thinking yesterday, I was like, how far does this children thing go? Like, I can see taking care of my grandkids' finances. What do you think, Ellie? Is great-grandkids included? I would kind of draw a line.

(51:18 - 51:28)
They should make their own money. Right? I got to ask my boss. Anyway, get ready.

(51:28 - 51:32)
Happily. Peacefully. Skillfully.

(51:33 - 51:37)
Get ready. Be brave. Be a good example for other people.

(51:37 - 51:54)
They need you. We need Buddhist people to be a good example. Okay? Alright, what's that number 15, right? How he passed on to other worlds for the sake of his disciples.

(51:54 - 52:10)
And that, that was an interesting translation challenge. It says, what's it say? GDUL BYA'I DON DU, right? GDUL BYA'I DON DU. So it means, for the sake of his disciples, he died well.

(52:12 - 52:32)
Okay? And then, you can read it as dying well, so that your students have a good example to follow. Or, you could read it as he had other disciples lined up for afterwards. Okay? I believe it was both.

(52:33 - 52:40)
I believe it is both. Okay? You should live a good life. You should die a good death.

(52:42 - 52:57)
That you should die in a way that helps your students learn to die well. And then, you have responsibilities for the rest of the universe. Where you have to go next, you have to be ready.

(52:57 - 53:22)
Okay? So you have disciples behind you, and you have disciples in front of you. And it's your job as a Buddhist teacher, if you're, did I say that? If you're here, you're a Buddhist teacher, it's your responsibility to take care of the people you're leaving behind, your students. But it's equal responsibility to take care of your future students.

(53:23 - 53:33)
And so he died a good death for both. He planned for both, which is really cool. And that practice is very heartwarming.

(53:34 - 53:41)
Okay? It's not depressing or something. Oh, I'm gonna get cancer, and nobody will like me. You know? It's not like that.

(53:42 - 54:02)
It's, I'm gonna die as bravely as I lived, and I'm gonna serve people on both ends. I'm ready. You know? I'll be a good example for the people I'm leaving, and I will be trained properly for my next group of friends.

(54:03 - 54:08)
Okay? Like that. That's a beautiful, that's how it should be. And nobody talks about this stuff.

(54:09 - 54:17)
Okay? Nobody. Not even Buddhist teachers, I think. But it's something that he talked about, something that he followed, Tsongkapa's teacher.

(54:18 - 54:29)
Okay, number 16. He left behind a legacy for his faithful disciples. The story I like here, I don't know if I told you this story.

(54:29 - 54:47)
When you get to my age, you can't remember who, who you told the story, or who you didn't tell the story. If I told you this story already, and you think I forgot that I told you this story, you can pretend I'm just trying to emphasize this story. Okay? So, okay, so, here.

(54:48 - 55:09)
I like this. He, in his final year of his life, you know, what happens? Netflix always comes just before you die. They don't come in the middle of your life when it would have been useful, right? So, you know, he, he got famous in the last, he got super famous.

(55:09 - 55:21)
He got global famous in the last year or two of his life. And we call it the two kings, the Eastern King and the Western King. So, the Eastern King was the Emperor of China, Da Ming.

(55:23 - 55:44)
And the Western King was the Guge Gyalpo, which means the King of Kashmir. So, if you go west from Hlasa city, you hit India, Afghanistan, Kashmir. If you go east, you hit, you know, Xi'an, Chang'an, the capital of the traditional Chinese Empire.

(55:45 - 56:02)
And then, he's like a sandwich in the middle. He's, you know, they were not very powerful. They were stuck between two great kingdoms, who kind of tried to run their business, like we do with Puerto Rico or something like that.

(56:03 - 56:32)
And, you know, so, if you're doing good work as a lama in those days, the Emperor of China will send you symbolic gifts, which means he approves of you. And you, you're almost, it's almost like giving you a lifetime position or something. So, he sent golden robes, woven from gold.

(56:33 - 56:50)
So, you know, here's these monks who are supposed to wear robes taken out of the garbage, patched together from the garbage. That's the rule in the Vinaya. And they get these gold, pure gold robes.

(56:50 - 57:00)
Must have been heavy and uncomfortable. I don't know how you wash them. So, he's got these pure gold robes from the Da Ming, from the Chinese Emperor.

(57:01 - 57:41)
And then from Guge Gyalpo, the King of Kashmir sends him a casket of saffron filaments, the middle of the saffron flower, which is what makes the orange color and makes paella [?], Portuguese tapas, so delicious, right? What's that thing we got in in Peru, Lima? How did he? Soup with all the, bouillabaisse or something? Yeah. Paella. We got paella in Lima.

(57:42 - 57:55)
So, anyway, if you're going to make paella, it's good if you have some saffron. Saffron is a, you put it in the rice, it turns the rice yellow. You use it in your offering bowls, it turns the water yellow.

(57:55 - 58:11)
One filament, one thread, can make your water bowls, all of them, beautiful color, beautiful smell. The King sent him a whole crate. It's equal to its weight in gold.

(58:12 - 58:19)
You see? It's from Kashmir. Only Kashmir can grow it. And he sent him this box, you know.

(58:19 - 58:35)
So, what does Rendawa do? He takes the gold clothes and he sells them. And he takes the box of saffron filaments and he sells it, right? And he gets all this money. And this is, he's about to die.

(58:35 - 58:43)
He's old, you know. He's about to die. And he sells all this stuff while he's still conscious.

(58:43 - 58:55)
You got to do that, okay? While you can still think, divest. Get rid of your possessions. You know, you should die with, you know, a good tea in your hand.

(58:56 - 59:08)
And the rest is already given away to everybody else. You see what I mean? And the last tea, I'll give you the last half. You should get rid of all your stuff.

(59:09 - 59:14)
Everything's taken care of. He gave away all his stuff. He sold those two precious gifts.

(59:15 - 59:35)
And he commissioned three copies of the Nartang Tengyur. Okay. He commissioned, so Nartang Tengyur, me and JB have a debate, but generally, you can say 3,700 books in the extended version.

(59:36 - 59:47)
Okay? It's a quarter million pages. And he paid for three copies. Those days, they didn't have wood blocks.

(59:48 - 1:00:06)
You hired someone, you hired like a few hundred people to write it. You know, you rented a huge room and you got quarter million pieces of paper and you paid a hundred guys to sit down and write them by hand. He paid for that.

(1:00:06 - 1:00:26)
That was his thing. Okay? We are currently working on the Nartang Tengyur. We are, John had an input [?], Oscar, Ward, Anatol, John Malpas, they are cataloging it.

(1:00:27 - 1:00:39)
It'll take, I don't know, six months or something. Okay? And you should leave, you should not have assets as you die. You should use them.

(1:00:40 - 1:00:49)
Okay? You should use them for something good. Okay? So die, you kind of time it. It's like running out of gas just before you reach home.

(1:00:50 - 1:00:59)
Then your parents will pay for the rest. Okay? So, you should kind of plan everything. You know, give away your money.

(1:01:00 - 1:01:15)
But, but do something useful with it. You know? Like, that's a very excellent thing. I hate to send more sponsors to John, but Nartang Tengyur would be a wonderful way to use your funds.

(1:01:15 - 1:01:24)
You know? Grandpa needs help to pay those workers. Right now I'm trying to pay them all myself. It's a little bit stretching.

(1:01:25 - 1:01:37)
So, anyway, he died with style. And, he's not going to ever read that Tengyur. He's never going to look at that quarter million pages.

(1:01:38 - 1:01:47)
He knows he's going to be dead before they finish. And he still does it. You see what I mean? So, you leave behind things for other people.

(1:01:47 - 1:02:02)
Okay? That's your responsibility as a Buddhist. Okay? You can't be selfish and think about your own life. Okay? Somebody wrote down this talk called the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

(1:02:03 - 1:02:23)
And, that was 2,500 years ago. That's 100 generations. Okay? For 100 generations, people have reprinted, re-carved, re-translated the Diamond Cutter Sutra until today.

(1:02:24 - 1:02:43)
100 generations of parents or grandparents thought it was important to reprint that book. And that's why we have it now. 100 generations of Buddhists thought it was important to go out of this world with a bang.

(1:02:44 - 1:03:01)
You know? Let's get, let's make a gold, let's print a Diamond Cutter Sutra with a beautiful carving of the Buddha in it and hide it in a cave in Dunhuang. And that's the one we have. That's the oldest printed book in the world is the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

(1:03:02 - 1:03:45)
Okay? So, we have to live with the same kind of... There's all these people... I feel like the... Do you know what is... What do they call it? Roadkill. Do you know what's roadkill? When you hit an animal with your car in Arizona and it dies, then the birds come and they're all like... You understand? I know the class is ending when all these people start opening doors and looking at me like... Anyway, we did finish the 16th. Let's give ourselves a hand.

(1:03:55 - 1:04:03)
This is... You know, all of us are teachers. Many of us are full-time teachers. This is a great teaching to share with people.

(1:04:03 - 1:04:16)
Okay? So, I really encourage you. You can say, I was there when Geshe La taught it and I can give you the real thing and then pass it on. And it's a wonderful meditation.

(1:04:17 - 1:04:29)
You can use it every day as your meditation. How am I doing on number six to number eight? You can go through it over and over again. This is a guideline for leading your whole life.

(1:04:29 - 1:04:41)
This is a guideline for the rest of your life. And don't leave out the first four or five. Okay? It is your responsibility to prepare your next childhood.

(1:04:42 - 1:04:52)
It is your responsibility to die and go to a good place where you can help people. Okay? Don't think it's none. Don't say, I'm going to skip the first three.

(1:04:52 - 1:04:57)
I don't understand. Try. Okay? Get ready.

(1:04:57 - 1:05:01)
Alright? Okay. See you tomorrow. 明天见.

(1:05:01 - 1:05:02)
Okay.