Latest / Lama Lena Teachings / Q&A with Lama Lena — Oct 25, 2026

Transcript

Q&A with Lama Lena — Oct 25, 2026 · Lama Lena Teachings

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: You are live.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: This is our Q&A again.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Every so often we're going to do this.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll get started.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like everything, it starts with a combination of bodhicitta and refuge.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: In this case, the lineage prayer and guru yoga contain both.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 0:38
  [music]
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Durjijang jitalo narudang,
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: marpa mila gomputsatsapa,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: na pipadang palden drupasuk,
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: kargyu lama
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: namla solwa deb,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: hochen lama namla solwa deb, druchen lama namla solwa deb,
• 1:34
  Kha-gi-nu-ari-lama-nam-la-solu-va-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'll pick one that seems moderately interesting.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: One of the first questions we have is,
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: when we practice traction, should our personality disappear?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: Who do we really consider ourselves to be?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Is it the Dharmakaya?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sambhogakaya.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Say the rest of it.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: The question is, is it the Dharmakaya personality?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: Who looks through my eyes?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: The seer.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Rigpa.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Dharmakaya is emptiness.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: However, innate to it is clear light nature of Dharmakaya.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: This itself is the Sambhogakaya.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is the vitality, the aliveness of the universe.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Its lucidity,
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: its ability to think, feel,
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: perceive,
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: not its thoughts,
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: feelings,
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: or perceptions,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: which is what your personality is, but rather the ability to have such.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sambhogakaya.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's awareness that looks out from behind your eyes and all the eyes
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: of all those beings that are aware.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Sentient means aware.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Awake, alive.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Nirmanakaya, that's where your personality is sitting.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Your personality is actually not a thing.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's an ever-changing,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: shifting clump, pile, heap,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: made out of your thoughts,
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: your sensations of the six sense organs,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: The story you tell yourself about those sensations and the feelings you have about
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: the story you tell yourself about those sensations that are occurring
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: in your six sense organs.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: All of this together in the moment is your current personality.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: It changes.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: The pile, the heat,
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Of thoughts, sensations, feelings.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: We call those perceptions.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: A whole pile of all those things combined,
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: sort of wound together, entangled, becomes a perception.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: A stack in time.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: From past to future of a series of perceptions becomes an experience.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Your personality has experiences and they change it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: You are not the same person you were 20 years ago.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: You don't even have the same personality you did 20 years ago.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: It changed as a result of experiences.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Which are simply made of a whole bunch of perceptions together,
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: which are the perceptions themselves fully answered your question
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: or confused you even more.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see which one.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: The question is, should I trust the Lama Lena I see in my dreams?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: Last time you told me to do a retreat at your place and shot a crystal ball
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: from your shotgun right next to my head.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it sounds like you.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: So are you coming to do the retreat?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: Do dharma practices,
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: in particular trekshid or tantra, can affect others or do they just change our mind?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: How can I attract a girlfriend using this magic?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, if you want a girlfriend, you have to make a decision.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: What is your dharma path?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Do you wish to be a yogi?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: A monk, well, not with a girlfriend, or a householder with children.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: If your decision is that you do not want children,
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: then before you attempt to attract a girlfriend, go get your balls cut.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: What's that operation called?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: Castration?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, no.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Vasectomy.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Go get yourself a vasectomy because then you will be in charge of not having children.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Girls lie.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Guys lie to each other.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what these intersexual relationships are all about.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'm seeing a couple of comments saying there is no sound.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: Can people in the chat sort of let me know if that's still the case?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Testing.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: One, two, three, testing.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: Sound is breaking up.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: Is what it's saying.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if that's our internet or if it isn't.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, one of our translators is getting okay sound.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_03: Most people are getting sound.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so those of you for whom sound is breaking up,
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: check your internet and see if you're in a wrong position or something in your house
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: on your phone.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: See if you can find a clearer spot.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes this happens.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's on your end, not my end.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: As I was saying,
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: it's very odd,
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: but in these intersexual relationships,
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: very often, especially while quite young, everybody lies to each other.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Eh?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think when you're older, you kind of get past that.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: You want a girlfriend, do you?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, karmically,
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: the best way to find one is to facilitate others meeting up with their partners
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: in any way you can.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like if they still live at home with their parents who are saying no,
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: then let them meet up at your place and go out for the evenings.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: That would be karma towards that.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: And what was the other half of the question other than getting a girlfriend?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: It was asking if Dharma practices,
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: Trekshut or Tantra can affect others or does it work by just changing oneself?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: What makes you think you're not others?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: That you're all separate like that.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: You're not.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Others affect you.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: If someone comes in and yells at you, you're going to be affected.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: If someone tells you that you are a right idiot and all those things,
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: is that not going to affect how you feel?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, of course you affect others.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Anything that affects you affects how you behave with others, which affects others.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: The vibe affects others.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you're in a bad mood and you're hanging out with others,
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: you'll probably bring them down a bit or they'll bring you up a bit.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: So if doing your practice improves how you feel,
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: then it will improve how others feel when they're around you.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: And if it does the opposite,
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: it will do the opposite.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: We're all interconnected here.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're not as singular as you all think you are.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a relationship between physical health and the flow?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: Do organs align or function better when you're in the flow?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're going to die anyway.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Besides, you are in the flow.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: If it were real, it wouldn't come and go, would it?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't come and go.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: There's a point where you notice it and stop resisting.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Realize that resistance to the flow is futile.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's always been there and always will.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's simply the pattern of time and space.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you being made of matter and awareness partake of the flow of time and space for
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: as long as the matter part is around.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: So don't be thinking the flow is something you're gonna achieve.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Even the bugs are in the flow.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Free will can be a bit of an illusion.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Why we do not perceive the flow Has to do with our inserting value judgments on it.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: Deciding we like it this way but not that way.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't go with it.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Or we try not to.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to happen anyway.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: You can't not go with it.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're resistant and scrabbling, you'll have a much less pleasant time of it.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Than if you just let it go along.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that does not mean utter passivity.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: That does not mean not setting limits.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Stay out of those extremes, guys.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Find the middle way.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: The question is,
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: I want to know whether there is a separate stream of consciousness for deities
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: and yiddums.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: Do they hear our offerings and prayers or is it more of a psychological trick?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: They're not sentient beings.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yiddums aren't.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: They are...
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Archetypes.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Clumps of awake aware energy.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Not unlike the kind of demon called a doom.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Except it's a different energy.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Dooms clump up selfish courting energy.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Jealousy and the like.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: You've heard of jealous gods.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Especially a particular famous jealous god.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas dooms are not sentient.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Clumps of energy.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: They act sentient.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: You can believe in one strongly enough and personify it that it becomes a dude.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And for all intents and purposes, dudes act like sentient beings, even though they aren't.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Tibetan demonology is complex.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: So yidams act like a sentient being
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: But they are not sentient from their own side.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: They are enlightened Buddhas from their side.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: They are coalesced bits of the energy of enlightenment given certain flavors
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: so you can relate to it.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's no way if you're not,
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: there's no way that most people We'll be able to relate to pure Buddha,
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: enlightened energy, kunduzangmo, kunduzangpo, in its raw state.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: You want somebody you can talk to.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hence, we have the idims, Tara,
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Chenrezig,
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Vajrayogini,
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Dorjipagmo, Heruka, any of the Herukas, Hayagriva, Purva, all of these and more.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't like name all of them.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: I just named the ones that came to mind in the moment.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_03: These are enlightened energy, the enlightened mind.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Of which there is neither one nor many.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: In order to even understand what it is, you have to get rid of your either ors.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And they will behave for you as if they were living sentient beings who are fond of you.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: If that's what you need.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: They'll be mommy if you need a mommy.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: They'll be lover if you need a lover.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: There'll be Dakinis if you need a Dakinis.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: So these beings,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: which do not exist separately from all Buddhas of the fourth time,
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: are neither... Well, they are not sentient beings.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: I will say that for sure.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: But they are neither individual nor non-individual.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: It'll depend on what you need them to be.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's what they're for.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: in the raw state,
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Buddha nature in the raw state is too all-encompassing.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: And doesn't have a nice little personality that you can talk to.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's too big.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Too vast.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Too beyond thought.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, for something for you to relate to when you need a relationship with this,
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: we have yidams.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully that makes sense to you all.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: One of our Polish viewers asks,
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: I get the impression that there is a discrepancy between Western teachers such
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: as yourself or James Lowe or Keith Dauman and traditional Tibetan masters such
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: as Patro Rinpoche,
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: Gangting Tulku or Khandro Rinpoche regarding whether one should follow
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: the path gradually and in a specific sequence, starting with Nundro.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: Why is this the case and how can one navigate these contradictions?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: If you are young enough, if you are, I don't think it's a contradiction.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Some of these guys are friends of mine.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we've talked about this.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: If you are in your, if you're under 30, forget about it.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: You're 60 years old.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Your knees aren't going to do that.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So let's find some other way.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: In Dzogchen we have Ruchen,
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: which are the same as in Nundro,
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: but they're just done differently and they're interspersed with your practice.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: So they get prescribed when you need a particular one or the other,
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: because you're stuck on something.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't see this as a difference between the Tibetans and the Westerners.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I see it as a difference between Kargu and Nyingma.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Kargu is a monastic lineage,
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: which means when you have a monastery with a thousand monks in it,
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: which many do, you can't teach them one by one.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: They outnumber you by too many.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: So in the Kargu line, everybody's the same.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: You got a monk, a young monk, okay, they do nundro.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: They all come in when they're young.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: They start young, they do nundro.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: After nundro,
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: they learn a whole bunch of ceremonial techniques and,
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: you know, do chores for the monastery and learn that.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then when they've kind of got stable on that,
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: then if they want to go on, they do a three-year retreat.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Or they go to Shedra and become a scholar and a Kempo.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Or they do a three-year retreat and become a monk yogi.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is Kargu path.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: I do not know enough about Shakyapath
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: to say the Galugpa path
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: is Was
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: until recently very monastic.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: And prioritizes Lam Rim even more than Nundro.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm most familiar with Kargyu, Nyingma, and Bon.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: So the Nyingma path,
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: because it used to be passed down from a teacher like Marpa to 20 or 30 students
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: that hung around or came and went.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Or like...
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Wang Dor Rinpoche's teacher,
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Jang Chub Dorji,
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: who lived in a place and students came and went and some lived there in the town
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: with him.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: The close students who had chosen to be there,
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: chose to be there and others chose to come and stay until they were full and then
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: to go on and do other things.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: He had maybe 50 or 100 students, not thousands of monks.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: And he, very traditional, but no, he didn't make everybody do a nundra.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Not if you were old when you turned up.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you read Buddha's Lions back in the old
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: days of India, Or what's the other name of it, the other book?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: Masters of Enchantment.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: Masters of Enchantment.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Either one.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Masters of Enchantment costs more because the art's prettier.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Buddha's Lions, the art's not quite as nice.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: But the stories are very nice and very similar.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same people.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Slightly different in the stories, but either one of those.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: You will see that Nundro was a later development in Tibet.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was not in the line that came up.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Nundro is not something that Marpa had Mila do.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's Nigma.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Or becoming Kargu.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: They were Nigma.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: They created Kargu.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: However, once we got to Gampopa, it was a Kargu line, monastic, many at a time.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so different methods of working with this were occurring.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't think it's Western versus Tibetan.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Much more Nyingma versus Kargyu.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Now, my studies with the Bon, Nundro is encouraged, but not necessarily for everyone.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: And not necessarily at all times.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Bon can be a bit monastic
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: because the yogis didn't get out, only the monks did.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's like...
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Cherokee lost their Dzogchen on the Trail of Tears.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes a lineage is lost.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now the way my teacher taught,
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: although he taught publicly to many,
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: mostly he had to go find them up in North India And hang around for a while
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: to really get the good stuff.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And he didn't make everybody do Nundro.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: He made me do Nundro twice because I seriously needed it.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: But he didn't make everybody do it.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: He would laugh at the idea that some 75,
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: 80 year old woman should be supposed to do that before she gets Dzogchen teachings.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: No time left.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to disagree with you about that.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think you need a survey of more lamas of more lineages.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_03: The question is,
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: why didn't the prayers for peace work,
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_03: even though many thousands of monks are praying and the wars are still going on?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_03: Does this mean that the Buddhas have lost their power and didn't hear our prayers?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: No, they're not gods.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be silly.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Mamos could be one reason.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: War is effective at that, as are plagues and landslides.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me, is your prayers or the survival of the planet more important?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know answers here,
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: except to say that are you praying for peace or are you praying for
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: the best possible outcome for all living beings?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you're praying for peace because you want some,
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: that has no great power or value.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: It is better if you will do prayers.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you're not praying to a god.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's not Buddhist.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're doing manlu,
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: wish path,
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: repetition of something to
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: create a track for it in the universal unconscious.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if you are starting with bodhisitta for the sake of all life,
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then you ask for something that harms all life.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then you offer the merits for the sake of all life.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think happens?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: For the individuals involved, peace is a good thing.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: But we do have to look at the overgrowth of homo sapiens.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that people cannot seem to keep from having a lot of children
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: because they want them for themselves.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Rather than seeing that there are enough children.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's an ecology here.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Just as you yourself are an ecology,
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: and if you have an
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: overgrowth of a fungus or a bacteria,
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: you take medicine
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: so that the entire ecology named you can survive.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Some of that medicine tastes God awful.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: And some has most unpleasant side effects.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, might be Mamos.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: The next question is, my mom passed away a few days ago.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: She was alone.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: I live far away and can't be there.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: She will be cremated in a few days.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_03: What are the best prayers to say for her now?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_03: She was Christian.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: Hail Mary.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord's Prayer.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: Open your Bible and read the words of Jesus that are about Bodicita.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: Don't bother trying to change her to something else at this point.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: She's fine as a Christian.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus said some perfectly reasonable things.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of things that have been distorted by churches,
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: but hell, the Buddhists have distorted things in their churches too.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: That isn't the point.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to read the history of Buddhism, you will find just as much dirt as in any church.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus' teachings were about bodhisitta,
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: which
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: is a very important teaching.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: So,
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: and Muhammad was a liberal.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: Trying to liberalize the treatment of women in his culture.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: Trying to make it kinder and fairer.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: Trying to make the women more equal.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then the powerful people of churches got it.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: Buddha spoke of the middle way, lack of extremes.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: Of stopping to chase what you want.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: And just sit down for a minute.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Go read history from the side of the barn.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_03: Do this or is it only for llamas?
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: I have no idea.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know how I do it.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: I watched my teacher do it for years.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like learning to wiggle your ears.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you can't and you can't and you can't and then suddenly you can.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: You found out which muscle it is that does that.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a muscle that allows you to shout telepathically.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's tiring to use.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Just like if you had to sit there for half an hour and wiggle your ears at people,
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: you would find your ears to be very tired after that.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: But it is effective.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's called the fourth Wong.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: The first Wong is intellectual.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: The second Wong is emotional.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: The third Wong is symbolic.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the fourth Wong is telepathic.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Probably you can
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: learn to shout telepathically.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I can't teach you how to do it.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to be around it a lot.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: Until you kind of figured out how that was happening.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: Or participate in it a lot.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: What we used to do when I was translating for him is we'd link minds.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: Something like a Vulcan mind meld.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: When we did that prayer that I start things with,
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: the lineage prayer, he would start everything with that lineage prayer.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we'd merge minds.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then I could hear him think.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it helped with translation if he used a word I didn't know because I could hear him think it.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then when he was shouting telepathically, well, obviously I could hear that too.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I could sort of feel how he did it.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: And after like 20 years of that, it kind of went in.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a very slow learner.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's the best I can tell you.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_03: One moment.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: One of the differences between Tibetan and Western teachers
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: that I have seen is what it's okay to talk about and what it isn't.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: The next question is, how to shake off the Great Depression of identifying as a mortal?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: And the anger about having done harm to myself and others,
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_03: which keeps me in a cycle of blame and addiction.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: Why on earth should you either be upset about being mortal or angry at it?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's a very odd reaction, which I'm not quite clearly understanding.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Learn to work with emotions.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: These are both emotions.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I recommend you take the class working with emotions.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to teach the whole thing right here.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: And learn how to work with your emotions so that they are able to release,
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: how to strip them naked of the stories that surround them and even of their name.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because an emotion cannot release into its true nature while it's wound about with stories.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Strong suggestion you learn that method.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: The retreat will be happening again soon in the next month or two.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: You have to sign up for it on the website, you see.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: If there's all this list of retreats that you can sign up for,
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: when any one of them has about 60 people in it, we schedule it.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if nobody signs up because they aren't scheduled, they never will be.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, if you want one, put your name down.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Simple.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_03: Can you give us a fun practice we can do on Halloween?
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, give away candy.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: Go out, knock on doors, and give people some cookies or something.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now, most people are a little bit afraid of homemade stuff in this day and age.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: But reverse trick-or-treating might be fun.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: So buy some store-bought,
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: well-wrapped cookies or candies or,
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: you know, fruit that's unadulterated, just like a basket of apples.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: And in costume, go...
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: Knock on your locals' doors and say, we're doing reverse trick-or-treat.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: Here, have some apples.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or carrots or, you know, whatever.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: That could be fun.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: Practice of generosity.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: See if you can think really nice things about the people when you do that.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: And say something really nice to them.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: Generosity of mind is important.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably the most important one of the three.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: So generosity of mind is to think the best possible of someone
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: rather than assume the worst.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now that doesn't mean go be stupid and don't lock your car door in a city.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you're locking your car door so
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: that some poor kid
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: doesn't see your parking meter fund and decide that
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: that would buy him an ice cream.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas if he didn't see it, he'd never steal.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: But it just occurs at the moment, and you know kids don't have any governor's
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: Or some poor homeless person might crawl inside to get dry or to try to sleep
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: and leave a terrible stink behind.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: So you lock your door, but you don't assume everyone is a thief when you do so.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: Can you see how it is possible to take normal day-to-day precautions while thinking
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: the best of the people around you?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's middle way.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean don't set limits when limits are required.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: Bodhicitta does not mean saying yes to everything you're asked to do, ladies.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: Rather, it's a matter of thinking well of others, of saying kind things.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: And of giving away and passing on your extra.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's a big box in the back room that's going.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: Talk about extra.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: Said to the peanut gallery that's actually here.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: You mentioned retreats earlier.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: The question is, is it usual to feel kind of odd or anxious before attending the Bayou retreat?
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have some recommendations?
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, get over yourself.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, frequently.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: Other people are getting fights before retreats start.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: We used to call it the pre-wong fight.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: Used to have it with my honey every friggin' time.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: The Rinpoche was given a big wong.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_03: He'd sit there laughing at us.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was always the same fight and it was never about anything.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: Time isn't as linear as you think it is.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes the effects of a retreat extend into the past and the future.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a feeling.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: We all take ourselves and our feelings and our thoughts so, so seriously.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: And they really aren't worth it.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: My goodness, the things I think.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: Silliness purely.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: Pardon me.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have any stories about Chu Lin?
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_03: I love her cave yogi stories.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: Chu Lin is a practice of eating stone and pills.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: I have no idea quite what you're referring to.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a practice I was ever good at.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: Rinpoche used to do it occasionally, but I wasn't good at that.
• 42:23
  You're going to have to give me another one.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: That one didn't make sense to me.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: Did I run
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_03: out?
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, not even close.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_03: I was just going through the...
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_03: One question reads, I blamed my ear infection on Nundro.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_03: You said I should go back to Sutra.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_03: I think I was missing compassion and acceptance that Tantra is sometimes pleasurable.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_03: Did I go back far enough?
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: No, your pattern, as I recall it, was to blame anything that happened to you on your practice.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: didn't you also have a sprained ankle that you blamed on Nundro as well
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: as your ear infection?
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: Which made me think you're really not ready for Nundro.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: Not when you're that nam talky.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you're going to have to be less inclined to believe your thoughts in order
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: to even succeed at Nundro.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you go back into Sutrayana and you go with the Lam Rim or the Four Turning Minds
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: and you make sure you really understand it.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: Understand how karma works.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean in depth, not just good and bad concepts.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: Understand what suffering is.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: How it works.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: Understand impermanence.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: Understand what is and what is not a precious human rebirth.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: You need these four points and you need them clearer than you have them now.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: Especially understanding karma because you ascribe coincidences In odd ways.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then you believe what you thought.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what you're tripping up over.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you do need more bodhicitta.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I would recommend you listen to the bodhicitta retreat
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: and spend some time doing those practices before you even try nundro again.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't think you're ready for it.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: Not with the way you have been having accidents caused by, or in your mind, caused by nundra.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: That tells me that you really shouldn't be doing it.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: Not now, not at this time.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_03: We have a couple of related questions about karma.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_03: One question reads,
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_03: does our karma incline us to be born in families with specific types
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_03: of generational trauma?
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_03: Could you say something about this?
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_01: Most people like to stay in the same place.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: For example,
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: there's a village in India The local people, it's a Brahmin village, local Brahmins.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: And they keep getting reborn there among the local Brahmins or the local monkey tribes.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's a breed of monkey that lives there that in every place else eats insects.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's, you know, omnivorous, not...
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: Vegetarian,
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_01: but the ones that go back and forth with the Brahmin,
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: monkey tribe, Brahmin, monkey tribe, are vegetarian.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: And both the Brahmins and the monkey tribe spend most of their life fighting over land.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: The Brahmins do it in the courts and the monkey tribe do it with teeth.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: But it's exactly the same territorial fight.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of funny to watch.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: Brahmins are funny.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, you tend to go for the familiar.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: So if abuse is familiar to you,
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: you'll keep putting yourself in situations as an abuser or an abusee.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: People don't like change.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: They try to rerun everything.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: Look at the poor Tulkus,
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: who are given the same life just about,
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: same teaching,
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: same thing,
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: same lineage, again and
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: again and again, like maybe 13 or 14 times in a row.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine that?
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: Over and over again, the same thing.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily getting any further than they got last time.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: Just picking up all the stitches and then supporting the monastery.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_01: Very so often one of them does a run
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: and gets away.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and good show on them for that.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can get away for a couple of generations, they'll probably stop chasing you.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, you will tend to stick with what you know.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's like very few people choose to incarnate on other planets as other things.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: Choose to.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: Very few people do that because it is not Among their possibilities.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: Those who believe that reincarnation is linear will reincarnate linearly according
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: to their belief systems.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_01: The world is so much bigger and so much less organized.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: In the way you think it is.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's organization within it.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's patterns.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I swear they're not the ones we think they are.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_03: Excuse me.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_03: The question is, my life has fallen apart all at once.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_03: My marriage, my work, and everything I had built.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_03: Now I feel only emptiness with no sense of future or direction.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: Marvelous.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: This is an incredible opportunity.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: Go for it, babe.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_03: Go for it.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_03: The question was, how can I approach this through practice?
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_03: If you have
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_01: any money,
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_01: like even up to five or a hundred or a thousand dollars,
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: euros, whatever, go on pilgrimage to PowerPoints.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_01: Visit teachers in person.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: Go on pilgrimage to PowerPoints.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you know of a teacher in a place that you can visit them,
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: you can make arrangements to visit them.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: Look for a two-bit job in that place to support yourself
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: if you don't have any money left at the end of it all.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: Go free as a seeker.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: Wander.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_03: Rarely do you get a chance at that
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: after your youth.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you're probably in your prime now.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_01: 30s, 40s, 50s is prime.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_01: So good for you.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_01: Go wander to PowerPoints.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_01: See what you find.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what country you're in.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_01: Four Corners area in America.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: Or Mount Shasta.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_01: South America.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: What's your name?
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: Knows South America really well.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: Is she here yet?
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: You'll find someone.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: There are PowerPoints down there.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: Very good ones, up in Peru especially.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_01: Meet the power plants.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: If you find a good shaman that you trust, don't just be having them in a pub somewhere.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_01: Get them with the proper ceremony.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: Europe PowerPoints.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody know of PowerPoints in Europe?
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_03: Stonehenge?
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's creepy.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_03: There's the...
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_01: Stonehenge is too well known.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_03: There's some hill drums and mounds,
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_03: I recall, that are powerpoints and are tied back into the old fairies and spirits.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, up on the moors in South England.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_01: I've gone up there and given teachers teachings to the things.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_01: That was really quite an experience of getting that request.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_01: So up on the moors around Devon,
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_01: if you happen to be in England,
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: and probably there's places up in Scotland and Wales.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know where they are.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because they cut down the groves, the Romans.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know the Romans did a lot of crap.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: Are we still pissed off at the Romans?
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, yes.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_01: So let's see.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: Where else?
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_01: Over in India and Asia, I mean, hell yes, there's caves that this one practiced in.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_01: Sulpema's a good PowerPoint.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_01: Just rent a little room somewhere, probably over at the Dregungampa has the nicest rooms.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_01: And circumambulate the lake and talk to locals.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_01: Find out if anything there is of interest to you.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think the whole of Ladakh is a PowerPoint, so take yourself up there.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: I know mostly the Asian PowerPoints and a few in America,
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_01: United States, such as Shasta and Four Corners.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_01: But there's more.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, pilgrimage, PowerPoints, you're free.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you,
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_01: I believe,
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_01: are young enough to still have a body that'll get you into the weird corners.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what you want to do.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_01: Go exploring.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: Take a risk.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: Find a portal.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: You can see I almost envy the guy.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, don't go running off yourself.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm too old for that.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: My body wouldn't do it now.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_03: What lineages venerate the Buddha Mitrugpa?
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_03: How can I deepen my connection with this Buddha?
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_01: Google it.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: A follow-up to the Chu Lin question suggests it might be actually about Mandareva.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_01: Go on YouTube.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_01: I did a whole long teaching about that.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can hear it.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'm going to do it again now,
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_01: except she was Guru Rinpoche's first consort that we know of.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: But she never lived with him.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeshe Soja lived with him and was a proper wife.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: Mandareva was more of a mistress.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_01: She was a little too independent to be married.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_01: And when he went and lived in her father's palace, she wouldn't join him.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_01: She did not like living in palaces.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: She was a wild yogi.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: She liked caves and mountains.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: Guru Rinpoche lived in the palace for a time because he could teach more people from there.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_01: Which she didn't disapprove of, but she didn't want to do it.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_01: So she wandered around the mountains,
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_01: occasionally snuck in at night and visited him, snuck back out.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_01: A very powerful, powerful yogini in her
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_02: own right.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_01: Not just because she was his consort,
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_01: but much less of a political person, more of a wild yogi than...
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_01: In Tibet.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_01: So she was North India.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, she was the wild yogi consort Mandareva.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeshi Sojel was the political princess wife in the palace in Tibet who gave him
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_01: the political power to make changes and bring it to Tibet.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_03: The next question is, Are crazy wisdom and Dzogchen kind of the same thing?
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_01: Dzogchen is a pathless path.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_01: Crazy wisdom is a manifestation.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_01: Of wisdom that does not look sane to those who do not understand what is going on.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_01: Don't ever try to fake crazy wisdom.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_01: You'll do yourself a serious mischief.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, don't ever try to fake a realization.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_01: You'll really fuck yourself up.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_01: People do, you know, all the time.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_01: They try to pretend that their practice today is as good as it was yesterday to themselves.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it isn't.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_01: You're having a down day, so have a down day.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_01: Don't fight it.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_01: It'll fight back.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_01: To be a practitioner effectively, you need to be self-honest.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: You need to not pretend to yourself that you're better or worse
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_01: than you are
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_01: in any given moment.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_03: The question is, would emotional trauma not the salon making Trekshid harder?
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_03: If it doesn't, why bother fixing it?
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_03: If it does, how can we handle it?
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_01: Would depend on the emotional trauma.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you've got PTSD and it is getting in your way of focusing or unfocusing, then try EMDR.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_01: It works pretty good.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_01: It even works on the Tibetan yogis who get stuck on things,
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_01: like things that happened on the way out of Tibet
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_02: that can still be in their
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_01: way.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_01: So if it isn't in your way, then no, it doesn't matter.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_01: It'll unwind itself eventually, especially if you keep practicing.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Vajrasattva is an excellent purification, but there's a better one.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_01: One minute of real treksha
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_01: purifies more than an entire three-month retreat of Vajrasattva.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_01: If you really do it, not faking it.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's that powerful.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_01: So Treksha will clear it all.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_01: Unless it keeps you from entering Treksha, in which case, go do something else about it.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_01: Whether that's, well,
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_01: I know EMDR works really well and something called Zapchin,
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_01: which has to do with body positions and Things held in the body.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's a name for it, somatic.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_01: Somatic therapy also works for some people.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, there's no one way for everybody, but if yours is bugging, you go fix it.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's not bugging, you leave it there and Trektur will fix it.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_01: Or rather, through Trektur, you will discover that there is nothing that requires repair.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_01: Nor was there ever.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that was the same one.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_03: Hang on.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a practice that can speed up the process of awakening?
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_03: I am in between and sometimes I feel like my path has slowed down and I'm used to
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_03: the consistency.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this is not making a lot of sense to me.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_01: Where are you going?
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_01: Enlightenment is a natural state.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_01: You've been enlightened from beginningless time.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: You just are so damn distracted by stuff that wiggles and goes bump that you haven't noticed.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's not something that you acquire or lead up to.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_01: That you get good enough for, that you accumulate.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's always been there.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_01: You just stop fighting it.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_01: But that's Dzogchen.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're practicing Tantra, Tantra is the art of transformation using symbols.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_01: It is K-rim, path of accumulation, not Dzog-rim, path of completion.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_01: It is very effective.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_01: Using all the symbols,
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_01: and usually a certain set of symbols is prescribed for you by your teacher,
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_01: called a yidim,
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_01: or sometimes it's some other practice,
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_01: but using those symbols,
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_01: you
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_01: remove the distraction, distractibility,
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_01: The accumulations of smudge on your glasses.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_01: You strip it down over time,
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_01: transforming
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_01: each bit of ignorance into its equivalent enlightenment,
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_01: like working with emotions, like that practice.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's a Tantra.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_01: A Krim.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_01: A Rushen.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_01: Any practice that you actually do
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_01: to get a result is Krim.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_01: So most of us are actually practicing Krim even though we like
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_01: to pretend we're practicing Dzogchen.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because we do this or that or the other thing to get this or that result.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's accumulation, path of accumulation.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_01: Be clear which one you're doing,
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_01: where you are today, because you might be somewhere else tomorrow.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now, sometimes you do a practice just because it looks like fun.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_01: You don't really expect to get anything out of it.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_01: But you saw somebody teaching it and it looked like, oh, that might be a lot of fun.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_01: It looks fun.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, look, it's got cool toys you get to play with.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now that can be part of Dzogchen.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're not trying to get something.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I think your question is Tantra.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I would have to know what practice you're actually practicing
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_01: to give you good answers on that.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_03: The question is, I feel connected to you, but don't think I will meet you in the physical.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_03: I live in Ireland.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_03: Do you feel the connection to students you don't meet in the physical,
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_03: I guess they mean real life, through the higher self?
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't have a higher and a lower self.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_01: So, no, connection is an emotion.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of feeling.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_01: You feel friendship.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_01: Friendliness.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you think they're amazingly funny,
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_01: so you keep, you know, reading their emails because it amuses you.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_01: What the fuck this time?
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you do it because
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's just a connection there, a friendship, a something.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that connection comes and goes.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it sticks.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_01: Sentient beings move around.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's very important for a Lama not to chase a student In most circumstances,
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_01: it really freaks them out.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_01: You have to wait for them to come to show interest.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_01: Remember those of you who I have been training to teach how much I talk about wait for the suck?
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_01: You can't teach them if they don't suck.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like through a straw.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_01: You can't answer a question you're not asked.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you look at all the times when the Buddha himself taught,
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_01: each time
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_01: someone asked a question
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_01: and then he riffed off that and gave a teaching.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really going through them today.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_01: Am I going to run out?
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_03: Not quite yet.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_03: So the next question is, I practice Truksha daily.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_03: To prepare practically for Tokyo down the line,
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_03: what foundational teachings or texts do you recommend to study?
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, Jesus, don't you dare.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, if you're doing Treksha to prepare for Togel, your Treksha's not working.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_01: You can't do Treksha for something.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't I just get on about that?
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_01: Landa, would you make me some more coffee while I rant about it?
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that is perfectly doable.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_03: More coffee is...
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_01: For treachery to be done properly, it can't be for something.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_01: It can't be achievement-oriented.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_01: That won't work.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can probably manage about as far as shini without an object with the idea
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_01: of it being an achievement or achieving something out of it.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_02: But once you're in Dzogchen,
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_01: which is Treksha, the meditation of Dzogchen,
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_01: you can't be trying
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_01: to get a result.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_01: So you're treating your Treksha like Kerem, like path of accumulation.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're doing it to get to the next thing.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_01: Even nundro doesn't work like that.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_01: How do I know this?
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to do,
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was young enough to do a nundro when I first came to Dharma,
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_01: so I did a full nundro.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then I went to my teacher going, okay, I finished.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now give me the good stuff.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_01: And he looks me up and he looks me down.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_01: He gets this sad look on his face and he says, Oh, it didn't work.
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_01: Do it again.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_01: So the next nundro I did,
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_01: I actually paid attention to what I was doing and what sort of juice I could get out
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_01: of those practices rather than just trying to get them done so I could get to
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_01: the good juicy stuff.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's a friggin' lot of juice in those practices.
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_01: They are amazing.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_01: None of which did I notice in the first nundro that I was just trying to get them done.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Counting.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_01: So no practice actually works if you're doing it to get done with it, to get to the next thing.
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_01: You probably think that you're going to get something out of togyal.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you go into Togel thinking you're going to get something out of it, it won't work.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_01: This is why it is kept secret, guys.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you know too much about it,
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_01: if you know anything about it and what it is and how it works,
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_01: it won't work for you.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_01: I remember translating Togel teachings To Rinpoche students and not being allowed
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_01: to read that part of the book or to remember what I had translated.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, now we've done.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Mind wipe.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_01: What were we talking about, Rinpoche?
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_02: So...
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_01: This happens.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_01: What you really need to do if you want Treksha to work for you,
• 1:11:51
  SPEAKER_02: what you really want to do is just settle
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_01: into Treksha.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing comes after this.
• 1:11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing went before this.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_01: It is just what it is.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Treksha is mind-mind looking.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Euphemistically, this is the practice of staring into your own eyes.
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Don't try to get rid of your personality.
• 1:12:21
  SPEAKER_01: You ever see a Lama without a personality?
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, remember Trungpa.
• 1:12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And any of the others.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Even Glenn has a personality.
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's just rather scholarly and a very
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_02: dry sense
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_01: of humor.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So don't try to change anything in Treksha.
• 1:12:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's not going to repair anything or fix anything.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_01: To sit in Treksha, well,
• 1:12:59
  SPEAKER_01: there's things that help in the beginning,
• 1:13:02
  SPEAKER_01: such as aligning your channels, such as the Zogchen gaze.
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_01: What the fuck?
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Nyando, your battery's low.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Low battery and phone.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry about that, technical issue.
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, so never mind that.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_01: So the point I'm making here is that for you to do Treksha,
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_01: you settle in,
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_01: depending on how long you've been doing it,
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Depends on whether you need the assistance of special positions and eye gazes.
• 1:13:55
  SPEAKER_01: You settle in.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_01: You cease paying attention to what you're thinking.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_01: You open your attention, the orifice of your attention as wide as you can.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't muck with it.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_01: You don't try to get it to do something.
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_01: You just sit there and see what it do do.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_01: If it do anything at all.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_01: You don't try to fix anything.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_01: You don't try to get rid of ignorance.
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_01: You don't try to grasp wisdom.
• 1:15:05
  SPEAKER_01: You accept.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_01: The thoughts that roll along, they can roll along.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_01: You don't follow them.
• 1:15:19
  SPEAKER_01: You leave them as little Nam particles without talking them,
• 1:15:23
  SPEAKER_01: sticking the talk, the little hooks together so they don't make a thought chain.
• 1:15:28
  SPEAKER_01: So they're not Nam talk, even though there are thoughts.
• 1:15:33
  SPEAKER_01: There are no discursive thoughts.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_01: From there, you
• 1:15:52
  SPEAKER_01: wait and see what happens.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes discursive thoughts arise
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_01: because something needs to happen,
• 1:16:04
  SPEAKER_01: such as you need to take a drink of water.
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes nothing arises.
• 1:16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's time to go and do something.
• 1:16:32
  SPEAKER_01: You go and do it.
• 1:16:34
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't change anything.
• 1:16:39
  SPEAKER_01: You don't judge the thoughts that arise as good or as bad.
• 1:16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Do any of you understand what I'm pointing at here?
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_01: You relax.
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Open your attention to include all and everything.
• 1:17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Mind itself is a starting place.
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Without fixing.
• 1:17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Anything at all without improving it, without making it better, without getting somewhere.
• 1:17:31
  SPEAKER_01: You simply leave it be.
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you practice that many times a day.
• 1:17:40
  SPEAKER_01: You practice not fixing everything or getting something out of it.
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you go ahead and waste time.
• 1:17:55
  SPEAKER_01: It won't hurt you.
• 1:17:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's enough of it.
• 1:18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Just sit there.
• 1:18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_03: The question is, I have a friend suddenly in stage four cancer.
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_03: He is tangentially interested in Buddhist thought, but is not a practitioner.
• 1:18:23
  SPEAKER_03: Would it be appropriate to point him to your teachings about death or Thurman's book?
• 1:18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, either one.
• 1:18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Although Thurman's a bit difficult to understand sometimes.
• 1:18:35
  SPEAKER_01: He ate a dictionary or two.
• 1:18:41
  SPEAKER_01: See what she likes.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_01: But this is something you would ask him, not me.
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yes, from my side, it's fine.
• 1:18:52
  SPEAKER_01: But don't push.
• 1:18:55
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people are going to be pushing religions at him if he's dying.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And don't push.
• 1:19:04
  SPEAKER_01: You can offer.
• 1:19:09
  SPEAKER_01: But see what he wants.
• 1:19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:19:15
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes I have the impulse to check my mind and that's fine.
• 1:19:20
  SPEAKER_03: But when I do it on purpose, I feel tension and it bothers me.
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_03: What could be the cause?
• 1:19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Tension.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_01: What are you tense about?
• 1:19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Might you perhaps discover that?
• 1:19:45
  SPEAKER_01: You have some tension.
• 1:19:46
  SPEAKER_01: You might want to see what you need to do to relax it.
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something you're afraid of?
• 1:19:51
  SPEAKER_01: You're worried about that?
• 1:19:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know you well.
• 1:19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And different people are tense about different things.
• 1:20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Perhaps a nice session of rolfing would help.
• 1:20:06
  SPEAKER_01: That was mean of me.
• 1:20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, next question.
• 1:20:12
  SPEAKER_01: I may be getting a little tired, so let's do a few more.
• 1:20:15
  SPEAKER_03: A few more.
• 1:20:16
  SPEAKER_03: A good question is, what about Yidam practice without transmission, just teachings?
• 1:20:23
  SPEAKER_03: Is it viable?
• 1:20:24
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 1:20:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's quite impossible to get some transmissions in my homeland.
• 1:20:29
  SPEAKER_01: But they're all over the internet.
• 1:20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Get them on the internet.
• 1:20:34
  SPEAKER_01: They can be caught.
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to know how to catch an internet.
• 1:20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Transmission.
• 1:20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Realize that time is not real.
• 1:20:41
  SPEAKER_01: You just nip up into the fourth time and grab it from there, even if it's pre-recorded.
• 1:20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Where... Hey, guys,
• 1:20:51
  SPEAKER_01: do I have anything on there about how to catch a Wong in time,
• 1:20:55
  SPEAKER_01: you know, in more detail than this?
• 1:20:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, but not me.
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in June 18th.
• 1:21:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you've done it in other videos.
• 1:21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so it's in some of the Q&As, but we'll never find it again.
• 1:21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Look, time is a concept.
• 1:21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Clocks and hours and minutes are man-made.
• 1:21:22
  SPEAKER_01: As are weeks, the days of the week, the numbered calendar...
• 1:21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, the earth turns around and orbits the sun,
• 1:21:36
  SPEAKER_01: but time itself and the way we perceive it is manmade, made up.
• 1:21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Before there were measuring devices, time was very different.
• 1:21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now we follow the devices.
• 1:21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Once you realize that,
• 1:21:53
  SPEAKER_01: you can come to the realization that time is not actually what you think it is.
• 1:21:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's a short jump from there to go into
• 1:22:06
  SPEAKER_01: the awareness that time
• 1:22:08
  SPEAKER_01: and space support each other but aren't real.
• 1:22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Matter is made of space.
• 1:22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Time is simply how matter changes.
• 1:22:26
  SPEAKER_01: So time and space are quite irrelevant.
• 1:22:29
  SPEAKER_01: And when you bring yourself to know this,
• 1:22:32
  SPEAKER_01: whether by studying Dharma or particle physics,
• 1:22:36
  SPEAKER_01: then you can easily catch a Wong that is prerecorded.
• 1:22:42
  SPEAKER_01: And they are out there.
• 1:22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:22:49
  SPEAKER_03: The question is, I'm currently going through a period of heavy doubt about my path.
• 1:22:55
  SPEAKER_03: I feel doubt about my ability to practice,
• 1:22:58
  SPEAKER_03: my lineage, and whether or not I'll ever make progress on the path.
• 1:23:03
  SPEAKER_03: Any advice?
• 1:23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, those are NAMM talk.
• 1:23:09
  SPEAKER_01: Discursive thoughts that you're having trouble with.
• 1:23:13
  SPEAKER_01: Don't listen to them.
• 1:23:15
  SPEAKER_01: They're silly.
• 1:23:21
  SPEAKER_01: There is a teaching out there in more depth.
• 1:23:24
  SPEAKER_01: You can hear...
• 1:23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Working with thought.
• 1:23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe I'll do it again.
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sign up.
• 1:23:31
  SPEAKER_01: You need that because your thoughts currently are giving you a hard time.
• 1:23:39
  SPEAKER_01: They're like chittering demons in your mind.
• 1:23:43
  SPEAKER_01: So you kind of need to learn what they're made of.
• 1:23:48
  SPEAKER_01: What are your thoughts made of?
• 1:23:52
  SPEAKER_01: See if you can catch one and poke it to find out.
• 1:23:56
  SPEAKER_01: Not what it says.
• 1:23:58
  SPEAKER_01: What substance is it made of?
• 1:24:02
  SPEAKER_01: See if you can follow one home and see where they're happening.
• 1:24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Find your mind and your thoughts will no longer bother you.
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 1:24:18
  SPEAKER_03: A long time ago, I think you warned us against using valerian.
• 1:24:24
  SPEAKER_03: Please remind me why that is.
• 1:24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Shuts down the dream body, dream yoga cycles.
• 1:24:31
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're doing dream yoga or anything psychic,
• 1:24:34
  SPEAKER_01: like trying to take a Wong, valerian will interfere.
• 1:24:41
  SPEAKER_01: You use it medicinally when you've got somebody who's a channel
• 1:24:45
  SPEAKER_01: and they get stuck open and they've got like weird stuff coming through.
• 1:24:49
  SPEAKER_01: You dose them up with valerian tea and it stops at least long enough for them
• 1:24:53
  SPEAKER_01: to maybe get some sleep and recover.
• 1:24:57
  SPEAKER_01: So if you don't want your psychic channels shut down, you don't use it.
• 1:25:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you do need to shut down your psychic channels because you've had an accident, you do use it.
• 1:25:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's a medicine.
• 1:25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, give me one more.
• 1:25:13
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:25:15
  SPEAKER_03: What is a karma to be born as gay?
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_03: I guess what kind of karma is involved there?
• 1:25:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's pretty good karma.
• 1:25:31
  SPEAKER_01: As in, have you seen the men available at my age?
• 1:25:38
  SPEAKER_01: They want a nursemaid.
• 1:25:49
  SPEAKER_01: However, I would say it often has to do with your attractions in the past life.
• 1:26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I tend to be gay or bi most of the time, most lives.
• 1:26:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, what manifests depends on what my opportunities are.
• 1:26:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I also tend to alternate male, female in most lives.
• 1:26:17
  SPEAKER_01: I like variety.
• 1:26:18
  SPEAKER_01: What can I say?
• 1:26:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it may come up,
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_01: for instance,
• 1:26:27
  SPEAKER_01: if you're a hetero male and you happen to end up in a female body,
• 1:26:34
  SPEAKER_01: well, you might still be attracted to women.
• 1:26:39
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're a retrofemale and you end up male one life, you might still be attracted to men.
• 1:26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, you know, most people are bi.
• 1:26:54
  SPEAKER_01: That is, they could have either attraction.
• 1:26:57
  SPEAKER_01: And depending on their society, I said most, not all.
• 1:27:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's a few that can't.
• 1:27:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I think they're fairly rare in what I've seen.
• 1:27:07
  SPEAKER_01: But depending on their society and the availabilities around them.
• 1:27:13
  SPEAKER_01: When I was very young, it was much easier to catch men than it was to catch women.
• 1:27:19
  SPEAKER_01: As I got older, it was much easier to catch women than it was to catch men for affairs.
• 1:27:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I think what changes is what your culture is doing.
• 1:27:34
  SPEAKER_01: A few people are only...
• 1:27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Gay or only hetero.
• 1:27:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't think that's most people.
• 1:27:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's midline.
• 1:27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Even the Tibetan yidams are not particularly drawn as overly masculine.
• 1:27:55
  SPEAKER_01: So that they're attractive to everyone.
• 1:28:03
  SPEAKER_01: But that's just my opinion.
• 1:28:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to think of what I've seen.
• 1:28:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't see much.
• 1:28:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think it has to do with just how you end up, your personality, your pattern.
• 1:28:26
  SPEAKER_01: You see a lot of people around here who claim to be hetero
• 1:28:32
  SPEAKER_01: and are very anti-gay here in America until they get caught being gay,
• 1:28:37
  SPEAKER_01: clandestinely.
• 1:28:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, guys, usually with a kid.
• 1:28:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, oh, guys, would you just go on Grindr or something?
• 1:28:53
  SPEAKER_01: People make too big a deal about sexuality.
• 1:28:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a simple thing.
• 1:28:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's the urge to merge.
• 1:29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Even for one moment, you want to be out of your own problems.
• 1:29:06
  SPEAKER_01: And nobody has problems while they're coming.
• 1:29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Before and after, sure.
• 1:29:14
  SPEAKER_01: But not during.
• 1:29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Which is why people like it so much.
• 1:29:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's the best I can give you on that.
• 1:29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, it's a, I don't know, but I'll speculate.
• 1:29:41
  SPEAKER_01: From what I've read in the Tibetan karma, the result of being gay depends on how you do it.
• 1:29:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's a certain Tibetan suggestion that you should vary the orifice of use as much
• 1:29:57
  SPEAKER_01: as possible so as not to create a karma particularly to one orifice or another.
• 1:30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because each orifice has symbolic karmas to different realms.
• 1:30:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you just keep it buried.
• 1:30:13
  SPEAKER_01: You should be okay.
• 1:30:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think the Dalai Lama was talking about this one time.
• 1:30:20
  SPEAKER_01: You should go find what he actually said.
• 1:30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I think I may be running out of energy.
• 1:30:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm ceasing to make a lot of sense.
• 1:30:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'll catch you guys next time.
• 1:30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Stop trying to win.
• 1:30:52
  SPEAKER_01: We're all in this together.
• 1:30:57
  SPEAKER_03: You can shut us up, Amanda.
• 1:31:00
  SPEAKER_03: Before we go, just a quick mention of both translators and your upcoming schedule on retreats.
• 1:31:08
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, yes.
• 1:31:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if you were listening to this in a language other than English,
• 1:31:15
  SPEAKER_01: please thank your translators.
• 1:31:17
  SPEAKER_01: Send them a little something.
• 1:31:19
  SPEAKER_01: These people are just volunteers.
• 1:31:22
  SPEAKER_01: They don't get paid.
• 1:31:24
  SPEAKER_01: They do it out of kindness.
• 1:31:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if they get busy trying to earn a living somewhere else,
• 1:31:33
  SPEAKER_01: well, then they won't be here to translate for you, will they?
• 1:31:39
  SPEAKER_01: Be kind to your translators.
• 1:31:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thank them.
• 1:31:44
  SPEAKER_01: On top of that, schedule is, what
• 1:31:48
  SPEAKER_03: is it, November 5th?
• 1:31:50
  SPEAKER_03: 5th through 10th is the next retreat.
• 1:31:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's the next retreat here in New Orleans, out at Bayou.
• 1:32:00
  SPEAKER_01: It will be Zogchen.
• 1:32:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess that's it.
• 1:32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 1:32:21
  Okay, you were offline.