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51 DAY THREE

STEP 1 TO 12

I go for refuge to Buddha Dharma and Sangha until I obtain enlightenment,

By practicing generosity and the other perfections, May I be able to obtain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.

This is an easy way of combining refuge and bodhimind together. Last night we covered refuge. I didn't talk about bodhimind, but a question was raised yesterday, "Generating bodhimind says nothing, what do you expect us to do?" In answering that, this part was perfectly covered 14 and I will leave it there.

In the lineage prayer, the last line of each stanza is repeated. With each verse, at the first repetition, light and liquid come from those lineage masters, purify all our negativities and we obtain blessings. When we say it a second time, a duplicate of those masters dissolves to ourselves. That is why we repeat it twice.

14 See page 47

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When saying the Foundation of all Perfections we visualize in a similar fashion. When we say the last line of each verse the first time, light and liquid from the supreme field of merit purify our negativities in general and particularly those that prevent developing that particular point. Then the second time we repeat, we think and say that we did develop that point or realization. In English we say, " Empower me.. .etc.". so except in one or two verses that's a translators' problem — it also works. So, the first time is clearing the obstacles to realizing the point, the second is the realization actually taking place within your mind stream, feeling that it has been grown.

You may raise the question, "Well, nothing grew with me but you keep on saying, 'Grow here, grow here', am I fooling myself?" In a way, you are; we are all fooling ourselves. On the other hand, it is here you are building a connection. It is here you are sowing the seed. It is here you are nurturing your development. It is here, together with whatever efforts that you put in daily, that you will complete your development. Therefore, when you think in that way, you are fooling nobody. You are actually generating and sowing the seed. You are making it possible for it to happen. This is not only a positive suggestion but it could materialize.

Not only that, the traditional teachings will tell you that for some people the beginning of development can take place within the short teaching period itself. Many people do attain that. You may think, " It is maybe true for the Tibetans but not for us Westerners." That is absolutely wrong. Whatever Tibetans could do, Western people can do. (Whatever Western people can do, Tibetans cannot dos If they could, we still should be in Tibet.)

Then finally, you say, "I petition Lama Buddha Sakyamuni and seek your blessings." and you have the Buddha Sakyamuni mantra. We not only receive blessings and have a duplicate dissolving to us but we also make a pinpointed firm request. We should say the mantra of Buddha at least seven times; that'll make it pinpointed.

53 Day Three: step 1-12

Now, welcome to the adventure to freedom. If you look into your little bookmark, the essence of all the teachings of the Buddha, you will see as number one:

1

Create a sacred environment

There are two types of sacred environments, one, the actual physical, external environment, and second, the internal environment.

Good friends. A good friend or no friend, that is fine. Good friend means a friend who can tolerate you, a companion that will not be contradicting you all the time. If possible, someone who has the same interests, if not at least someone who can tolerate a) all your

External environment. What sort of physical environment is good for you? Basically, wherever you are, wherever you've landed, whatever place you are in, whether in the middle of a big metropolitan city or a ghetto or suburb or secluded area, whatever your place is, that is actually a wonderful place for you to practice. You have to make best use of the place. If you try to go on the hills of Colorado all the time, you may or may not get there. Even if you do, you may have the danger of two things, danger of losing the place and danger that some kind of big dynamite left there from World War Il will explode! Half the people are laughing, half are not. I had better share the story. One of our friends really likes to be in that area of the country. Whenever he could get off, he ran up with backpack right up the snow mountain somewhere. He did a retreat there for seven weeks. Then he realized he was sitting on dynamite. So that sort of danger may be there, even if you think the area is completely safe.

I must also share the traditional recommendations with you. Good ground is the first recommendation. No nuclear waste and toxic waste and so forth. Free of that is good ground.

Good friends. A good friend or no friend, that is fine. Good friend means a friend who can tolerate you, a compassion that will not be contradicting you all the time. If possible, someone who has the same interest, if not at least someone who can tolerate a) all your

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neurosis and b) all the efforts you are putting in to overcoming the neurosis. That is the most important. Of course, human beings are human beings and there are ups and downs, both in ourselves and as well as in the friend. We have that. But it also good to have some-body, so that things will be considered beyond "I am feeling bad, what can I do, I can't help it" , which is true, but very selfish. If you want to, you can help it. When you have some consideration, knowing that there is another person involved in your environment whom you don't want to make miserable, then, even if you are burning inside, you will make sure the smoke doesn't come out of your mouth. That is considered a good friend.

Healthy place, good supplies, no dangers. It is also important to make sure there is no dynamite under you! Make sure there are no tigers, or leopards or bears going to jump out of nowhere in the woods! Such a place, with no threat to your life, no threat to your physical wellbeing — if it is too wet you get sick, if it is too dry it is difficult — a place with the usual comforts, whatever you are used to, with good food etc., such a place is your sacred environment. It can be middle of a ghetto, it is okay; as long as you think you are managing, you are safe. Normally, you are safe. If you don't indulge in other people's business, you are sort of safe. Occasional accidents here and there may happen, you can't help it, but otherwise it is safe. That is creation of a sacred environment. On top of that, if you have a place where the great masters have practiced, a place they have blessed, that place can help you.

Clean place. The place should also be absolutely clean. If it is not clean, it is not fit to be sacred. You can't have a dirty sacred environment. You know, people dump everything in the bedroom; when you try to get to your bed, you almost swim through a sea of underwear. That is not a right place to become sacred. Also, a dirty place with a lot of dust is not sacred. You have to clean. Traditionally you use a broom to sweep the floor. Now you have vacuum cleaners. Not only the floor but also the altar, your bookshelf, the table and everything has to be dusted so it is really clean. Once you have cleaned it up, you can look from outside, and see " Ah, this is nice, this is a good place.'

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You should be able to generate that feeling by providing all these helps.

Yesterday two friends were cleaning the dining room floor and tables voluntarily, nobody told them to do it. It was a great first spiritual step in this particular Lamrim teaching you have taken. A number of people helped to set up this retreat, including the frustration of washing the carpet just before we started. All of them have contributed and t whether they know it or not, they have built up tremendous amounts of merit. Actually, they have made their first connection with Lamrim, whoever those guys who cleaned the carpet may be. With or without knowing, they have built their connection for this purpose.

Actually 'clean the dust and clear the dirt' is the word you use when you are cleaning your house. I always share here the story of the little arhat Lam Chungpa, the 'Small Road' guy. He couldn't pick up any g little thing, couldn't understand anything. When you talk about stupid, that arhat was absolutely stupid. They tried to teach him just to say, " clean the dust and clear the dirt." He forgets, like me. When he says 'dirt' he forgets the dust, when he says 'dust' he forgets the dirt. He couldn't do it. He went through many schools and he couldn't do anything, and even though he belonged to a very good family, they couldn't do anything. Then they sent him to his elder brother, who was very learned and a great being. The elder brother tried his best, but he couldn't help him at all. He meditated for a while, " Should I be a little rough with him and beat him up or something? Would that help or should I still be tolerant?" He gained an understanding out of the meditation. He should try to be rough with him. So he started quarreling with the guy, kicked him out, threw him out on the roadside, and u said to him, " You are useless, helpless, hopeless, get out of here, never come see me". The little arhat was sitting on the road crying, saying, a "I am useless, I am hopeless."

Then Buddha came by, and Buddha said, " What are you doing?" He said, "1 am crying because I couldn't learn anything. Even my own brother kicked me out. After all the efforts he put in, I still couldn't do anything, and then he kicked me out. So I am crying." Buddha said, " Would you like to go with me? I will take you in."

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He said, "No, no, my own brother kicked me out, you will, too. I am not going with you."

Buddha said, " 1 am a Buddha, with my understanding I have unlimited methods. Your brother is only an arhat, he has limitations. What about going with me?"

He said, " If you promise not to kick me out."

Buddha said, " Okay. I won 't kick you out." He said, "No matter what I say, what I do?"

Buddha said, "No!"

He said, " Okay, so what do you expect me to do?"

Buddha said, " Oh, sweep the floor. First you can sweep outside the temple and then you can sweep inside."

He said, " Sweeping, okay, I could do that." So he came in. Then Buddha tried to teach him again to clean the dust, clear the dirt, sweep the temple, and he couldn't do it.

Then Buddha said, "I have another idea for you. You go and clean all the shoes of these monks, these meditators.' He, said, " Okay, I'll do that."

So Buddha told every meditator, "If you see this guy cleaning your shoes keep on saying 'clean the dust and clear the dirt' ." He made everybody work for him by saying that and so reminding him constantly. Then one day he learned this 'clear the dirt, clean the dust'. Then Buddha said, "It is enough; you don't have to clean the shoes anymore. Now you go must and sweep the temple inside."

Sweeping is extremely helpful; it's the best purification, better than Vajrasattva recitations, truly, especially cleaning the place where people meet. In our dining hall some people did a wonderful job the other day. They volunteered, nobody told them to do it, you know. Anyone who would like to do it can pick up a bucket of water and soap and clean the table. As a consequence of that, people who are supposed to wipe the table are happy that somebody did a great job, and people who would go and sit and eat from that table appreciate how clean i t is. How much merit we build in doing that, how many people are made happy by that act. This is just an example I am giving you. But that is an important point.

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So this little arhat was sweeping the floor. And each time one side was clean, the Buddha would make the other side dirty. And then he would go and clean the other side and the Buddha would make this other side dirty. He kept on doing that for a while. After a little while, the little arhat began to think, "What am I saying? Clear the dirt, clear the dust?" Then he said, " Ah! I know what I am saying,"

The dust doesn't mean ordinary dust, it means the dust of attachment; if you are intelligent you should know that. The dirt is not ordinary dirt but it is the dirt of anger; if you are intelligent you should know that. It is not ordinary dust and dirt but it is ignorance; if you are intelligent you should know that.

This came out suddenly and all this person did was cleaning! Cleaning purifies negativity; whatever blockage he had, it had been cleared by doing cleaning. Just simple, physical cleaning. Not mentally visualizing light and liquid coming and washing you, but just physically cleaning; it works. And so for us this is also a great method, particularly cleaning the room where you meditate or practice everyday. Mind you, you are inviting all enlightened beings and through your own personal invitation they are coming. Would you like them to walk through whatever? So cleaning is very important.

Some people may think, if I keep my body dirty, it is me, it doesn't matter. People may think that. I have a message for those people. When you are in Vajrayana, what do you do? You generate yourself in the fom of a yidam. So then, the basis upon which you build your own yidam, if that's dirty, would you like that? No. That is the idea. So not only does your environment need to be clean, you have to be physically clean, too. This is important.

If you can manage, you do not only simple physical cleaning, clearing the dust and the dirt of left-over food, or whatever, you also clear your negative thoughts and those of all other sentient beings. If you keep thinking in that way, it becomes a sacred cleaning.

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Arranging an altar. Not only do you need to clean, you also have to arrange an altar. Is arranging an altar important? Yes, it is. Is it absolutely necessary? No, the physical altar is not absolutely necessary, however, it is very important for ordinary persons like you and me who are not mentally built up so much. A number of people will think, c' I am okay, I can do everything mentally." I like to tell those people who think they can do everything mentally, Don't fool yourself." I would like to share that.

So, to have something physical is very important unless you have strong objections from family tradition and so forth. In that case, you have to rely on your mental creation. But no matter what the situation is, it is possible for anyone to have a photograph of Buddha. You can use it as an art form, as art décor. That is also fine. It looks like that to others, but for you it is an altar. That is the reason why all these Tibetan thangkas hang everywhere. Partly it is art décor and partly it is the practice. From a practitioner point of view, you should see that as an actual living altar. Those who have no idea, they can think it's art décor. But treat the images with respect. If you have a nice Buddha image placed on a table so that everybody touches and rubs Buddha's head, I would feel uneasy about it. To avoid that happening, and to avoid having to tell them not to do that, it would be nicer if you put it some little distance away, so it is not going to be so easy to rub Buddha's head.

According to the rules of laying the altar, first comes the guru, then all the yidams, then the buddhas, not Buddha Sakyamuni but all the buddhas, then the bodhisattvas, dakas, dakinis, and the dharma protectors on the last or lowest line. These are the normal rules. But you don't have to have all of them at all. If you have a picture of Buddha Sakyamuni, who is also Guru Sakyamuni, who is also Yidam, who is also Dharma, who is also Sangha, who is also bodhisattva, dakas and dakinis, that'll do. To have an altar is very good because it reminds you. It's a reminder for ourselves.

Also, the altar should be in a very respected area rather than putting the Buddha's picture as art décor in the toilet. If ignorant people do it, there is no problem because they don't know anything about it.

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But you know better by now. Put it in a respectable area, whether it is the living room or the bedroom or wherever. Some people may think, "I don't think it should be in the bedroom, because all sorts of things are happening in there!" You don't have to worry about that because the enlightened beings know everything. They have no limitations. If you have a separate practice room, even if you shut the door, I don't think that blocks their view at all! So therefore, I think it is okay even in the bedroom. As a matter of fact, if you have some nice Buddha or White Tara or something beside the head of your bed, it is good, it sort of gives you support. You feel protected. Those of you who had the yoga of sleeping teaching, you know the reasons why.

Internal environment. The true sacred environment is internal — we produce it by ourselves. If you can do it within your mind, if you are happy enough, it is the place where you are, and if you want some help you can light a candle and bum incense, do whatever is needed. Whatever it takes for you, it is up to you. Some people can create a wonderful atmosphere wherever they are. Some people can only create it in a certain place, where you have different smell, different light, shoes off, etc. Whatever you need is okay.

Normally, to meditate people try to take you to a different place, make you sit down, and insist you to do certain things. I do the opposite. I try to get people to create that atmosphere wherever they are, whatever they are doing. Because the chances for us to be able to sit crossed-legged and block one hour or a couple of hours to do something are very small; it is very difficult [if we depend on externals].

2

Arrange symbolic offerings

We use the word symbolic because what we are really going to put as offerings are a bunch of bowls of water, or maybe a glass of water, a handful of flowers, probably a stick of incense, a light, and maybe one or two fruits. So it is simply symbolic and that's not the point. The point really is that the symbol represents something. So even if you only put a glass of water, it is absolutely necessary for it to be clean. It

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is often our normal practice to drink bottled water ourselves and to use local tap water for the offerings. That's not the right way to do it. If you can't drink it, do you expect the supreme field of merit to drink that? You may give the argument, "Yeah, it is symbolic, they really don't drink it and so it is waste of bottled water!" You may think that way. But number one, you don't know if they don't drink, and number two, it is not for them, it is for me. Each and every one of us, we think we are giving the flowers and offerings to them. No, it is for me. It is for me, to purify my negativities. It is for me, to gain merit. It is for me, it is not for them. So then you can pour bottled water, because it is for me! That's a joke, but really truly, it is for me.

If you have just a glass of water that is actually fine. I will leave it to the group discussions to cover the way to arrange the offerings. But I will tell you what to do mentally. Even though physically you may be giving one tiny little bowl of water, you multiple that. Imaginatively multiple that millions and zillions of times, until all of space is filled up completely with that offering.

Not only that, you can take up mentally all the great things from anywhere in the world and present them to the supreme field for the benefit of all sentient beings. So you don't have to give it literally. If you try to give literally something which doesn't belong to you, you know you can get into trouble! In the Six-session yoga we give 'the land, the jeweled vase, the sun and moon', everything. You can give the sun, you can give the moon. NASA doesn't own them yet! Anything that you find beautiful, the beautiful East and West coast areas and the beautiful mountains in the middle of Colorado, including the bears, and everything, anything that you have seen or that you can imagine, all these things you can offer. The symbolic offerings on the altar represent that.

In that symbolic way of offering, you can also have water for the mouth, water for the feet (like in the traditional Indian style), flowers, incense, light, perfume, food, and music. I noticed that in the Kagyu and Nyingma tradition they also put the music up on the altar in the form of cymbals or something. In the Gelugpa tradition, I have not seen anybody putting cymbals up there. The reason, they say, is that

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the music offering is really the offering of the sound, not the instrument. But, the same thing is true for the other offerings, too. Anyway, whether you put any musical instrument there or not, I don’t think it makes a big difference. If you are a musician, then your own music, whether singing, playing an instrument or whatever, is the best music offering you can make actually. And don’t limit it to yours alone. Pick up all the best music that you have seen or heard or participated in; you can think of that as making the best offering.

Offering is very important for a number of reasons. It is great generosity. Offering is also very powerful for cutting down attachment. The laid out offerings are symbolic, but the true offering is offering anything that you have very strong attachment to. Attachment is the glue to samsara. If you have attachment, it is very difficult to get away from samsara. Attachment really makes you stick to it. You know, with glue it is difficult to pull out, without glue it is easy to get away from samsara. So, the basis on which we have strong attachment or strong hatred, to offer that is the real offering! Like in the Vajrayogini practice it says, ‘I offer all objects of desire, hatred, and delusion, my body and possessions without reserve....’. So, symbolically we offer water, flowers etc., but the main offering, the true offering is letting go, letting go of whatever you’re holding back.

Now pay attention, this is a very important point, I want to underline it: when you actually offer, they accept your offering, they are happy, they develop joy. They are not lacking in joy, but when we think they develop joy, it creates the direct cause for ourselves to develop joy. That’s why this is important. With everything you offer, you think they accepted it. Not only did they accept it, they liked it. Not only did they like it, it helped them to develop or to further their joy. So that is a very important point. With every offering, you do this. There are zillions of other things, but I think basically that will be okay.

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3

Position body and mind

Positioning the body. For positioning the body there is a recommended posture, but you can use whatever is comfortable for you. Like Allen used to say, " Sit on the ground, if the ground's not there, sit on the chair15 ." If you are comfortable on a chair, fine. If you are comfortable on the ground, fine. If you are comfortable with crossed legs, fine. If you want to stretch your leg, that is also fine. I don't think you should lie down unless you are sick or can't get up. Can't get up might mean one of two things. One is you just simply don't want to get up and are being lazy. The other is you have physical pain which prevents you from getting up. When I say 'unless you can't get up', I am talking about the latter.

The seven-fold posture

The recommended way of sitting is the seven point Vairochana style. What are those seven points? First, it is recommended that you sit with crossed legs, if possible in lotus or vajra position, or if not simple crossed legs will also do. I should tell you the trick to sit crossed legged. The trick is don't sit too tight, don't put your legs completely tight, sit sort of completely loose. Then you are more comfortable and you can sit much longer. If you observe the people who are sitting crossed legged for a long time you'll find they are doing that. That's what you do, sit in a sort of very relaxed manner. If you try to sit in such a tight lotus position or vajra position, then within two minutes you have pain here, pain there. We have enough pain, we don't need additional pain. So the first recommendation is how to sit.

Now the eye discipline. Our eyes are another important source of picking up a lot of information. Our eyes are extremely active. When you try to focus your attention on something, the less distraction that comes in through the eyes the better. Therefore, disciplining the eye is recommended by just watching straight from your nose tip. Do not try to look at your nose tip. If you do, you will you get pain here. Look

15From 'Do the Meditation Rock' Allen Ginsberg, mite Shroud, poems pg. 20-22.

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past your nose tip forward maybe three or four feet, and keep it there at that level. Then your eyes will not go here and there and look through the windows or whatever. The distraction you get from the external things is less. That's why it is recommended to place your eye on that level.

"Keep your backbone straight," Allen used to say it 16 . There is a meaning and a reason for that. The reason is that you are supposed to have your secret central channel somewhere near your backbone. Air movement in the central channel is the one of the important achievements. Of course, our physical body workers will tell you, "I open your channel or I open your cakra and blah blah blah." I am sure they have something that they identify. But I don 't think we are talking about that sort of thing; the cakras and channels that we are talking about at this level cannot be opened physically. If so, we could all just go to the chiropractor people. Therefore, since the central channel is close to the backbone, when your backbone is straight, the central channel is straight up and down. Right now the central channel is inactive. However, when the air or energy flows through, then it becomes active.

Why is the central channel not active right now? There are two other channels: one is called the attachment channel, the other is called the hatred channel. The channels of hatred and attachment loop around the central channel and squeeze it. Since it is hollow, when it is squeezed, nothing can get through, so it is all blocked and made inactive. The central channel represents your wisdom, and these two side channels are the attachment and anger. Our job is to open the central channel and pass the air through and so forth. So since it is there, at that back, keeping the backbone straight is an important point here. If you have a crooked backbone, then of course it is an exceptional case, then you can't help it. If you keep it as straight as you can, and think your central channel is straight, it's fine. It is also our usual laziness, our bad habit, that we don't sit straight. People have a lot of back problems. I don't know whether keeping straight will help or not, hopefully it does. The helping here is a long-term effect not an immediate effect.

16 See previous note.

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Try to keep the shoulders straight and level. You just can't go and sit in meditation with one shoulder up and the other one down. In nature, we do have our shoulders straight, so just keep it that way.

You keep your backbone straight but you put your head slightly down. You don't really want to sit with your head tilted back. There are two problems with that and both are mental problems. The first is that, if you are sitting like this [with your head tilted up], because of that physical position, it is easier for your thoughts to wander. And number two, it also builds an unnecessary pride. " Hey it is me who is meditating here. That's me. Don't you know me?" To try to avoid these two problems, keep your head slightly down so that you are maintaining the quality of humility, and respect to the others, "I am not the only person in the world." Keeping your head slightly down also helps you to maintain the discipline of your eye. Even if you look at pictures of Tsongkhapa, though the drawings don't show this very well, it looks like his hat points straight up but actually it is bent a little bit on the top, the tip is slightly down. That is to indicate this way of sitting.

Your lips and jaw: just leave it normal. Don't close your mouth and squeeze your teeth so hard that you have a toothache. Just leave it in a normal position, however you are comfortable. If you are comfortable with your mouth open, you can also do that. If you are not comfortable with that, just be natural, normal.

It is recommended, if you are sitting a little longer period, to touch the tip of the tongue to the gum. There are two reasons. One is, we have generation of heat in our body and one of the heat passages is through the mouth. Blocking that passage by putting our tongue there will provide more moisture in your mouth, so that you don't have to drink a bottle of water every second. Another reason is that our speech action is often undisciplined, wild and crazy, To have some kind of discipline on the things that you say, this also helps. As the 5di Dalai Lama or somebody says,

In company watch your speech; when alone, watch your mind.

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When you are with people, what you watch or discipline is your speech. That doesn't mean don't say anything. It is not that. Say it with sense. Don't say too many senseless things. When you are living alone, discipline your mind. True mindfulness is that: be mindful of body, speech and mind.

Positioning the mind. How do I do the mind position? If your mind is completely controlled or overpowered by negative emotions, you can't think straight. When you can't think straight, you cannot do much. Especially if you are angry, or attached, you just cannot push yourself into something positive, like meditation on something. Your mind will bounce back, you'll be backfired, and you won't want to do it again. That's all because you pushed yourself too strongly. So what you do is bring your mind from this extreme level to the middle ground. That is, you try to calm down and focus inside yourself. Wherever you feel comfortable, like the heart region, bring your focus to there. And start a very shallow breathing, from your nostrils, for a couple of breaths. That will give you some kind of calm and relaxed atmosphere.

You may have noticed that every time we meet together, we start by keeping silence for a little while. This has two purposes. First, that the people who have not settled down can settle. Now, what happens sometimes is that we are waiting for somebody to settle down and that somebody keeps on thinking, "1hey are not yet started so I don't really have to rush." If you do this, you are delaying the other part completely. Quite a number of people may have the idea, " Well if I can sit when they start, then that's okay." It is not okay, because we all are waiting for you and you alone. So, please, remember that.

Sitting for a minute in silence also gives us an opportunity to observe what kind of mental state we are in. Is our mind stream connected with positivity or is it connected with negativity? Am I angry, am I upset? Am I drunk with attachment? Am I crazy with jealousy? You observe all these sorts of things as if you get yourself out of your body and look back at what you are thinking. You have knowledge of what you are thinking; it is only you who know. Your thoughts are not a secret for you. You may be embarrassed to share it with others, but it is not

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secret to you. Since you cannot really build great positivity on negative thoughts, if there is a weak negative thought, sometimes ignore it

and try to build up positive thoughts. Sometimes it is strong, you cannot simply ignore it, it won't go away.

So you time for that thought to leave and the way and how you do that following breathing exercise.

Nine-round breathing exercise

You breathe in through your right nostril and breathe out your left. You can even use your finger to help you block your nose.

So inhale from the right nostril, exhale from the left nostril three times, Then vice versa, inhale from the left, exhale from the right three times.

Then inhale through the nostrils together and exhale together from both nostrils, three times.

It's nine rounds if you do that. You focus, feel and acknowledge air coming in and going out. You almost literally see the air as a bluish incense smoke type of thing,

coming in and going out. If you do that, you sort of really focus, using the sensations that you get near your nostril and all these. Actually, it has a lot of meaning at the vajrayana level.

At this level, you are creating a diversion, turning the attention of your mind to something other than anger, other than attachment, other than jealousy or other than whatever. You shift focus away from self-preoccupation and worries, "Why should subject to that? What am I going to do now? I can't afford this, I do something," away from those kind of thoughts into a neutral. By doing those nine rounds of breathing exercise you are providing the bridge from

the negative thoughts to positive thoughts. So helpful. If doing it once doesn't work, you can do it twenty-one t You can build twenty-one bridges.

I am sure it helps much more that time, the intensity of your anger is weakened, the intensity of whatever your negative thought is, is weakened.

And if you have all the time in the world, build a hundred bridges. It is also okay.

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The whole purpose of doing this, at this moment, is to divert your attention. Really, your mind is locked in with anger, with hatred, with attachment. What you are trying to do is loosen the grip of anger,

loosen the grip of attachment. By distracting your mind to do something else, the strong tight grip is naturally loosened. This is natural. If you keep on thinking one single point, it's really locked in.

However, if you think of something else, it may not be that locked in. Right? We are habitually locked in, because we are so used to it. It is comfortable and almost natural that I get upset, it is so natural that I get attached,

it is so natural that I get jealous. That's why the mind will just go and grab there; it's been trained to do that. Whether anger grabs the mind or the mind grabs anger, who knows?

But 'somebody' is grabbing 'somebody' else, and they are not letting go. So you divert that by counting the breath. That way you provide an opportunity. You are positioning your mind to make it accept what you are going to do.

Tonglen (give and take) practice

Then if you can, on top of the breathing,

When you breathe in, you breathe in suffering.

When you breathe out, you breathe out joy.

The moment I tell you to breathe in everybody's suffering, you probably are going to get a shock, if you are thinking. You get hesitation. Don't worry, the hesitation is there because our mind is not trained. A trained mind will have no hesitation.

How do you train your mind to be able to take the suffering in? At first, don't take other people's sufferings, take your own sufferings that you have and hope that will substitute for anybody else who happens to be suffering with the same problem. Hope and pray that it will substitute.

Also, you can take in whatever suffering that you are going to have this evening, in advance. You know, make it come faster. Take in what you are supposed to take tomorrow,

take in what you are supposed to take for the whole week, take in what you are supposed to take in a whole month, in a year, your whole life; take them all to-

68 Odyssey to Freedom

gether, get it over with. So take them in and give away all your joy to that future you.

Then gradually, you can take the suffering from the person who you care about or love the most, then the second, then the children, the family, parents and so forth. That's how you expand. The more your mind level will come up, by that much your scope can be expanded. Otherwise, you just sort of sit down and say, " Here I am, taking all sentient beings' sufferings!" You may just be saying words, you may be just forcing it, your mind may be very uncomfortable. You don't want that.

So first, train yourself with only the breathing and second, you can add up on top of the breathing the sufferings and joy.

What do you really do here? Well, somehow I was told that all sentient beings are connected to each other. Not only Tibetan Buddhism, but also Tony King, as a scientist, says that. And Green Peace keeps on shouting the ecological thing, saying. " Hey, it is connected with your body, don't you see?" They don't say it exactly that way, but they should. Science will acknowledge now that living beings are connected. Somebody told me that the movement of a butterfly in Beijing makes a difference in New York; you can see this through computers. That was the actual example showing how we really have a dependent relationship with everybody, how we are connected with everybody.

One of the Lamrim benefits is that when I heard this butterfly story, I could pick it up, and put it into this practice. It shows how connected we are and how dependent we are. I told you, Lamrim does that, you can pick up a fit example from somewhere and fit it in. There are zillions of other examples. Star Trek is helpful to me. Really true. It has American culture, it has a message, you have the bigger message and you can pick up that way of presenting, and plug in where it fits.

So all sentient beings are somehow connected with us. We are all dependent on each other and we are very much connected. At this moment, when I look at myself, a very strange thing is happening. The strange thing is saying:

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I have this little practice here which promises total enlightenment not only for me but for all others. May I be able to take this opportunity to materialize the promise given here to benefit all those who are connected with me. Whatever little I am going to do, sitting,

meditating, saying prayers, listening, reading, walking, eating, washing laundry, daily chores, I will do everything for the benefit of all beings. In particular, I would like to do this prescribed meditation for the benefit of all beings — to obtain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.

That will be positioning your mind.