Базовый курс ACI 1: Основные учения буддизма (2019, Аризона), занятие 3

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so we're doing class ... what is that ... three of this course, and before he starts on the three principle path, Je Tsongkapa makes a big deal that you should have a teacher, you should have a qualified teacher, and because you are in a teacher training, this is maybe a very important class for you.

Not what to look for in a teacher, but what to be in a teacher, okay? And the list is impossible, but teach anyway, okay? You can't be such a good person, it's impossible, but there are ten qualities of a real teacher, authentic teacher, okay?

And we're gonna go through those ten qualities tonight. I'm gonna take about an hour. We won't go probably to the flow document of the eighteen courses, we'll start that again tomorrow, because it's very good luck that today is a holy day, tenth day of the month, we call it Sechu.

It's a diamond way holiday today, twice a month today, very big holiday, and we decided to do the offering to Lamas, which is I think the most holy prayer in Tibet. I remember the first time I met monks and nuns, I walked into a Lama Chopa by accident, and I didn't know what was going on, but it felt really good, you know? So, tonight we'll do this offering, and the main thing about this, all rituals, they can either be meaningless, or they can be meaningful, okay?

I'll show you the meaningless, okay? SDUG BSNGAL GANG RNAMS PA'I KHOR BA'I SDOM PA'I YOD GYUR LA TZAG GI RGYUR GYI LAM PA'I YID NAM CHOG ZIN GANG NI GSUM GYI TSUL GYI DBANG NGUR BZHIG PA RGYUR DA LTANG DNGOS RNAMS PA'I THAR RANG NYID PA'I SEMS BRTZAM TSUL GYI RGYUR GYI GYI LAS TSUM GYI TSUM GYI YIN PO LA CHEN GYUR PA'I PHAG PA'I NYIN BU LA CHEN GYUR LHAG PA'I LAS NYIN OM LAM HAM RNAMS RNAMS RNAMS RNAMS RNAMS RNAMS RNAMS the way not to do a ritual, okay?

And tonight we're gonna do Lama Chöpa. To do it correctly, it doesn't matter what you say, and it doesn't matter if you know the language, and it doesn't matter if you finish the prayer, it just matters that you think about your teachers in your life, okay? Start with your mom, go to your dad, all your school teachers, all your ex-husbands and wife who taught you a lot by giving you such trouble, and then you know, work your way up to your spiritual teachers, okay?

If your mind is thinking tonight about gratitude for your teachers, then you did the ceremony. And if you recited perfectly in Tibetan, and you close your eyes and go like that, but you're thinking about eating more snacks after the ritual, then you didn't do Lama Chöpa, okay? So, you did Lama Chöpa if you think about your teachers, and be grateful to your mom, be grateful to your dad, all your teachers in your life, okay?

And it's nice to make a list in your mind, some of those teachers you didn't think about them for many years. So, tonight during the ritual, do a ... what do you call it?

Shargon? Review meditation about all the teachers in your life, okay? Then you did Lama Chöpa.

Then you deserve the offerings afterwards, okay? Okay. This is probably one of the most important classes of all the ACI courses, and this is the class where Pabongka Rinpoche in his commentary explains what is a Lama.

If you go shopping for a Lama, what should you look for? And it's an important list, okay? So, it has ten parts, okay?

Very famous. By the way, there's a Diamond Way edition of ten more, but we're not going to do it tonight, okay? Someday you have to learn those, okay?

I believe it's in the same verse actually. Okay, here's the first one, say tulwa. Tulwa.

Tulwa, you know ndulwa, which means Vinaya, which means to tame a wild horse, okay? This is the past tense. Tame, duh, okay?

Their Lama already beat them up until they're a nice person. Everybody asks me why are Tibetan monks so polite? I say, it's a rosary.

They say, what do you mean? I say, wha-choo, wha-choo, wha-choo, okay? If you do anything wrong in the monastery, they hit you with a rosary hard on the head, and you get the blessing of these red dots, and everyone makes fun of you for all day.

If you do something really bad, they use a belt, or an electrical cord, or a fan belt from an engine, and that's quite an experience. So, anyway, willful anymore. But in this poem, in this list, it refers to keeps their morality, keeps their ethical life, okay?

They avoid those ten bad deeds. They don't kill people, or animals, or fetuses. They don't steal things over, the classic text says, over the cost of a good sweater.

So, ten dollars, I know H&M, okay? No sexual misconduct, which is mainly hurting other people's marriage or relationship, okay? No lying.

The big number one lie is to say you saw emptiness, and you didn't see emptiness, or to say you met Manjushri yesterday, and you didn't meet Manjushri. So, these are called the big lie. Then we call splitting up people with your speech, you know?

So, Mark, you know, Stanley, he really likes you, despite what he said yesterday to me privately. You see what I mean? Then those words will create doubt in Mark's mind, oh, what did Stanley say about me?

And then already I split them, okay? It's not true, okay? I'm just giving an example.

He's like hmm, okay? So, it's very easy to make that mistake, and split up friends, okay? The next one is called harsh words.

It's like to say stupid, or idiot, or fan bong, or call people bad names. My roommate in college, we had nickname for each other, I'm sorry, excuse me, but my name was shithead, and he called me shithead, and I called him something else which I cannot say, and ... but with great love, and with great affection, okay?

Right? So, it doesn't depend on the word, it depends on the motivation, right? How do you feel if you can say have a nice day and it means to go to hell, right?

Have a nice day, you know? So, it doesn't matter what you say, it matters how you say it, right? So, that's number what?

Six. And then wasted talk, talking about nothing, wasting time talking. Atisha said, once you get more than one person in a room, you will do this.

Maybe you could do it by yourself, I don't know, we could try, okay? Waste your time talking, and it's very very common, okay? Then the eight, nine, and ten are the most serious, right?

Eight is what? Be unhappy when other people get something nice, okay? Be jealous or unhappy.

If it's in the top ten of 84,000 bad deeds, it must be something we all do many times every day, without knowing it, okay? Like, oh, oh really? That guy had a car accident?

Oh, I'm so sorry, did he cut off anything? You know, like, we have this interest about disasters, right? How many people died in the bombing, you know?

How did they die? And, and you have this weird human nature to be interested in other people's problems, and to be jealous when other people have something good, okay? Even your best friend, you know, if they get a very handsome boyfriend, you're like, oh, congratulations, you know?

It means you're really not very happy, okay? Number nine, okay, is to opposite, what's that? Yeah, be happy when something bad happens to somebody, okay?

The guy you don't like lost, he went bankrupt, and you're like, oh I'm so sorry, you know? Okay, number ten, yeah, to put it simply, you can say don't, don't understand the pen, don't accept karma, don't accept future life, past life, okay? Like that.

So, the first quality, out of the ten qualities of a Lama, is they keep those ten very well. They keep those ten very well. I was thinking about a few ACI teachers I know who failed, who failed very badly, and the one I'm thinking of, they failed because they were not keeping the morality.

Number three, but there were danger signs long before that, they were not careful with people's money, or you know, they were lying sometimes, and I have a feeling that all ten of these bad deeds support each other. So, if you find a person that you want to be your teacher, be strict, okay? Don't take a teacher easily.

It's much more serious than getting married, it's much more serious than getting married. I'm talking about formal relationship with a teacher, you see? Because in Buddhism, it's a very, it's a connection that lasts many lifetimes.

So, you have to be careful who you make a connection to. It's my hope and my intention that people who come to your classes are not required to take you as a Lama, okay? They are not required to say I commit to you for a thousand lifetimes or something, because they just met you, they know you for five minutes, they just, you're just teaching the first class.

So, I think it's unfair to say this person is your Lama for the next thousand lifetimes. You can't even, you know, smile in front of them, you'll break your morality, you know? Like I, I think the way it should work in ACI is that you teach, and you're gonna teach for free, you can have offerings, if they offer offerings, okay?

They're most likely to offer an apple and some bananas, and you have to pay the airfare, and you offer the airfare to American Airlines. You offer the banana to American Airlines, and it doesn't work out. But anyway, we'll talk about it later.

There's a financial policy for ACI. But, it's my intention that when you become an ACI teacher, you don't become their Lama automatically. If they want you to be their Lama, that's fine.

They can say, you know, Jasmine, I love you, I've been coming to your classes for six months, and I'm ready to make this commitment with you, and that's fine. But, I think just because you teach the class, it shouldn't be so heavy for them as a Lama relationship, okay? Because it's a very, it's like getting married, it's more important than getting married, okay?

Alright, so that's the first thing. We're talking, don't make that commitment of Lama and disciple, right? Teacher, student, Lama, disciple, different, right?

Don't make this commitment easily, you know, check the person out, okay? Countless married couples get divorced. You know the numbers in America, it's about 65% get divorced.

They interviewed the other 35%. Are you happy? Two-thirds said no, which means 90% of couples aren't happy.

How come you didn't get divorced? We have kids, okay? So, it means you didn't check the person out before you got married, okay?

So, people, I heard a radio interview with some country music singer, I forget his name, like a week ago. He's been married seven times, and the announcer said he's been married seven times, he got six divorces, and the guy goes, what? He says, well, actually, last week it's a seven.

So, don't get married to someone after you know them for half an hour, okay? And don't take someone as a Lama. There's a young monk coming with my teacher from the monastery, you know, and they asked me, do you want him to teach?

He's a Geshe candidate, and I said no, and they said why not? And I said, I don't know him, I don't know, I don't know his private life, you know. 80% of the monks I brought to America, I got about eight green cards.

You don't know how long that takes to do the paperwork and the money, and six of them ran away with some girl or something. Like, I don't want, I don't know this person. They said, you want him to give a lecture?

I said no, let me get to know him first, you know. I, probably he's a nice guy, but don't make this relationship, and don't ask someone to teach you until you check them out. Atisha took 11 months, 12 months, to, how long to sail to Indonesia, Sumatra?

How long? Over a year. When he got there, he didn't go to the teacher, he checked him out.

For how many months? I forget. Well, traditionally it can be 12 years, okay?

There's a joke in Tibet, you know, the guy checked his lama out for 12 years, and then he said, he went to the lama, he said, you're so lucky. He said, what? I decided to take you as my lama.

I checked you out for 12 years, you pass. And the lama's like, well, now I'm going to check you out for 12 years. So, come back in 12, I'll let you know, okay?

So, you know, it's tradition to just be very, very careful, and countless people have made a commitment to a lama, and they didn't know them, they just met them. There's lamas giving tantric initiations for $25, you never met them. You're supposed to study with someone like seven, eight years before you can talk about tantra, you see?

And they're just giving an announcement, you know, I'm giving initiation next year, $35, $25 if you pay early, you know. My lama was very upset about that stuff, okay? So, be careful.

Check them, check them out, okay? Don't be in a rush. You will get hurt, you will be disappointed, okay?

Okay, so first thing you're looking for, you're looking for ten things. Number one, are they honest? Are they ethical, okay?

And if they're a little bit unethical in their finances, but they seem okay in their sexual life, don't ... don't take them as a teacher, okay? If there's a problem over here, there's a problem over here, okay?

That's the nature of ethics, okay? Alright, second, se shiwa. What's it mean in Sanskrit?

Shanti. We did it in class today. We had a great class with Nicole, where are you?

Yeah, we had a great class. I feel so good after that, nice. Okay, so anyway, shiwa means peace, peaceful.

They should be peaceful, okay? But it's a code word for ... they have good meditation, okay?

They have good meditation, alright? They practice meditation every day, they work hard, and they have good meditation, okay? Alright.

You can tell if a person has good meditation. They do things carefully, they do things calmly, they don't get upset easily, they are very good at problem-solving, personal problems, business problems, because they have ... their mind is running on a better level, okay?

So, you can tell if a person looks nervous, or they get angry easily, or they get upset easily, or they have lots of tension and problems around them, it doesn't matter if they're sitting on a cushion every day, they're probably not meditating, okay? So, just check the person out. Be smart, okay?

Check them out. They say, oh this is a great meditation master. I met one like that, not Tibetan, okay?

And they say he sat in the snow for six days meditating, you know, and I actually went to him and stayed a couple days to learn, and it was very unpleasant. He was very angry and nervous, and ... okay?

So, check them out, okay? If they're meditating, there's just behavior, their signs should be behavior signs. They're peaceful, they don't get upset easily.

There was a great meditator named Lati Rinpoche, and I had the honor to spend some time with him. We were driving through the Indian countryside, and the car broke, which is very unusual in India, right Andreas? And, you know, we got out, and he's this old, you know, lama, and we stood, we all stood around the engine, you know, and the Indian driver was trying to fix it, and Lati Rinpoche said to me, you know, what's this thing do?

I said, that's a carburetor, it cleans the air, you know, and he said, what's this thing do? Oh, that's the gas pump. What's this thing do?

Oh, that's the battery, and he looks at it and he says, the problem is here, and we fixed it. He never saw an engine in his life, okay? So, if you're meditating, you should have super intelligent, and you solve problems easily with other people, okay?

If a person is always fighting with other people, if there's always tension around them, if they're always nervous, if they're always late, I mean, sometimes late is okay, you know, if they're just not organized, they're not responsible, they're probably not meditating, okay? What's that famous ACI joke? I don't know what kind of meditation she's teaching, but I don't want to learn it.

Okay, so check that they are meditating, okay? Third quality is called NGES SHI, say NGES SHI. By the way, there's a poem, DUS SHING SHI BA NGES SHI LUNG GI CHUG, it's very famous, this is from a poem, and it's a tradition for a root Lama, after their student becomes a good Lama, they will write a long life prayer for them, a poem for their long life, and the long life prayer for my teacher was written by Chi Jang Rinpoche, who wrote down this Lam Rim, and it's very beautiful, and he got all these ten in there. He said, you know, DUS SHING SHI BA NGES SHI LUNG GI CHUG, very famous, okay?

The next one is called NGES SHI. NGES SHI means super peaceful, okay? Super peaceful.

What's number two? Peaceful, okay? What's number one?

Controlled, you know, they're controlled, they don't break their morality, okay? They have self-control, like a well-tamed horse, DUL BA, okay? And number three is, NGES SHI means total, totally peaceful, and that means they saw emptiness directly, or they can teach it correctly.

They studied it, they studied the great books, okay? They understand emptiness correctly. It's best if they saw it directly, but that's extremely rare, okay?

It's best if they have seen it directly, but if you can't find one, just find one who can teach it correctly. And what's interesting in the Tsongkhapa lineage, is that the emptiness teachings have been passed on correctly, even by generations of people who didn't see it directly, okay? They're so strict with the translation, and they're so strict with not mixing up chocolate cake and mapo tofu, that I can tell you the teachings are completely 100% correct, okay?

So, if you can find a lineage like that, even if the person didn't see it directly, it's okay, they will make a good teacher, okay? Alright, if they're not mixing mapo tofu in the chocolate cake, okay? Okay, number four, say YUN DEN, ZHAG PA.

YUN DEN, ZHAG PA. It's pretty simple, but it's something you might not think about. The teacher should know more than the student, okay?

Like, I feel stupid when I go to Anatole's— when Anatole comes to my yoga class, right? I feel stupid, because he's a much better yoga teacher than me, you know? I just have to teach the class, and then I'm like, don't come to my class.

He's like, I want to come, it'll be fun. I say, yeah, but it's uncomfortable for me, okay? So, obviously you should try to find a teacher who's better than you.

I was on the tennis team in high school, so, for four years, what do you call it? Competing? And, during the season, and the practice season, the practice season is about three or four months, the coach made a rule that we couldn't play—okay, number one, we couldn't play with a girl, against a girl, and we—number two, we couldn't play against anyone who was not better than us.

You see? Isn't that interesting? Same with Lama, okay?

Don't play with someone who's not better than you, okay? They should know more, their meditation should be better, their ethics should be better, their kindness should be—all those qualities should be better, because otherwise you're gonna get bad—you're gonna go down, you know? If their ethics are not so good, but their Majjhimika is very good, your Majjhimika is gonna go up, and your ethics gonna go down, okay?

You—do you know what the satsa is? Satsa is a—is a mold, like my Amitabha mold, and you put the clay, you put the clay in, and then you pull it out, and it looks like Amitabha, you see? And, little images like that, and then you bake it, and you keep it on your altar.

This is called satsa, the mold is called satsa, the teacher is a satsa, the student is the clay. They're gonna come out just like the teacher, okay? So, if their ethics is not so good, and their Majjhimika is very good, you're gonna come out like that, and I've seen it many, many times in the monastery.

What's fun, when you go to the Olympics, there's a debate Olympics every year, one month, it's called Janggunchu, and it's a competition between the monasteries, you know, and it's very heavy, very, very heavy. One month debate, sometimes all night, Sengkung, all night debate until dawn, and you're debating, and what's cool is, you can debate people the second year, and you say, oh your teacher is Geshe Jampa Senggye from Saraje, isn't he? And they're like, yeah, how'd you know?

Because the student comes out like the teacher, you know? What's cool, you can debate somebody that you don't know, and from another monastery, and then after like a half hour you say, I know who your teacher is, you see? Because the student comes out like the satsa, the student comes out.

So, don't go to a teacher who is worse than you, if their meditation is worse than you, or their ethics is worse than you, or their Madhyamika is worse than yours, okay? I'll tell you something interesting, okay? I'm not bragging, but I am.

I went to give a DCI program in Bangalore, India, to a bunch of business people, and my monastery is a nine-hour drive, which is not too far, and Geshe Lotar, my old house teacher, he came to visit during the talk, and he brought three Geshe candidates with him. These are high, high Geshe candidates, and Hasso was with me, where are you? Right?

And Orit was there, and Scott, and Adam, and I forget, someone asked Geshe Lotar a question, and one of the Geshe candidates answered, and then Orit said, but isn't it like this? And then Hasso said, I think it's like this too, you know? And they debated the three Geshe candidates.

They beat their ass, okay? Alright, okay? I was like, damn!

Okay, and then the Geshe candidates were like, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, hmm, hmm. Okay, so, just to warn you, I mean the quality of teaching, the quality of the ACI courses is very high.

You can stand up to a Geshe if you study the ACI courses, and if they can speak English, or you know, Chinese or whatever, you'll do be like Hasso. They should have given you a Geshe that day, but you know, I was very proud of him. Okay, so what I mean is, don't assume a person who has a red robe, or a yellow robe, or a gray robe, or who went to the Geshe course knows more than you.

Check them out. Check them out. Ask them tough questions, okay?

And see what they say. Unfortunately, like in all universities, in the monastery, it sometimes happens that people memorize everything, but they don't understand it. You know, and they don't really question it.

So, sometimes foreigners, or non-Geshe, what do you call, non-ordained people, candy lie, has learned more than a Geshe, by questioning things, you see what I mean? In a normal way, okay? So, don't ...

just because a person has a robe on, check them out, okay? Or somebody says they're famous, check them out, okay? There's lots of famous people who became unfamous later.

Infamous? Okay, alright. Okay, so that's number what?

Four. You know, check them out, make sure they know more than you. You might spend a couple of years with them and find out you didn't learn anything new, okay?

Really, okay? So, be demanding, okay? Your mental real estate is irreplaceable.

You have so many hours in your life. The number of breaths you will take has a number, and don't waste it, okay? Check the people out.

Don't go and sit there for a year and find out they weren't qualified, okay? Check them out. Alright, number what?

Five. Say DZUN BYED. DZUN BYED means they work hard.

What kind of hard work? They work hard for their students, okay? They work hard for their students, okay?

And they think it's fun to teach people and to help their students. You call them up at midnight, Nicole—sorry, I'm not supposed to say who—someone called me up in China at three o'clock in the morning. They said, my husband's dying next to me right now, what do I do?

You know, and we talked it out, and he died. And, so, you gotta be there for your students, right? That's a big thing, okay?

Like, you don't say, come on, it's three o'clock in the morning, tell him not to die till tomorrow, you know, okay? Alright, so, DZUN BYED means they enjoy the trouble of teaching people, okay? They enjoy helping people, okay?

You want to find a crazy person like that, like John Brady, you know? You know, somebody says, can you fly to Singapore and teach that class we missed? And John's like, yeah sure, you know?

So, you got to find someone who really enjoys helping people, okay? And not someone who doesn't want to give, okay? We call PIG Q.

PIG Q means they don't want to give everything. They don't want to give all their time, they don't want to give their heart. They hold back from the student.

You don't want a teacher like that, okay? You want a teacher who do anything for you, okay? My Lama was like that, okay?

[Speaker 2]
Alright, number six?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, I say LUNG GYI CHUG. LUNG GYI CHUG. LUNG GYI CHUG means they are rich in DZIN.

They have lots of scriptural knowledge. They know all the great books, they've studied them, they've memorized them, they spent time with them, they worked hard, okay? And you never finish, okay?

The teacher who taught me Pramana, which is clear thinking, he was on his deathbed. He was dying in the hospital. He was his last day of his life, and I went to see him, because I was taking him to doctors for many years and translating, and so I said, you know Geshe-la, this looks like it, and he says yeah, this is it.

And there was this lump on his chest, you know, I said what's going on? What's that? And he took the sheet off, and it's Pramana-vartika commentary, you know, for beginning monks, okay?

For 15 year old monks, it's the Pramana-vartika commentary we call the green book. It's the one that Adam is translating, and he's got it on his chest, he's dying, you know? I'm like what's going on Geshe-la?

He said hey, you know, I gotta go somewhere, I might as well have my logic fresh, you know? You know, I just wanted to freshen up on it, because tomorrow, who knows where I'll be, you know? I can't take the book with me, and he gave me the book, and I still have it, and we're translating it in Sedona, and it's very beautiful, okay?

So, find a teacher like that, okay? I heard Xiaoping has a teacher. I met his wife recently, and we had tea together, and she was complaining that the bed was half filled with books all the time, like there wasn't room for her, and I was like what's the problem?

Oh, he's got like 50,000 books in the house, you know? You walk to the bathroom, and a pile of books falls on you, and you want somebody like that, okay? Someone who's really loves the books, like John Brady, ACIP master, okay?

Alright? They are rich in the book. You ask them a question, they say oh, you know, that's Chandrakirti, verse 48, you know, it's in their mind, okay?

Alright, I went to a class by like a psychology person late recently. Someone asked me to go, and I was being polite, and I said okay, and I went, and they said don't think with your head, think with your heart, you know? You won't get enlightened by thinking, you know?

Do everything with your heart, you know? Then we had lunch together the next day, and I'm like, well in our tradition, the way you get to your heart is through your brain, you see? You figure out emptiness, and then you know you have to love people, you see what I mean?

But you need the ... it's not wrong in Buddhism to learn all the scriptures, and to work to your heart to do the head, okay? The heart without the head is an unsteady creature.

It can change very easily, you know? So, the head makes the heart strong, okay? Alright.

Number ... what are we on? Seven?

Say, DE NYID RAB RTOG. DE NYID RAB RTOG. DE NYID RAB RTOG means specifically ...

okay, number three was what? Yeah, they understand the seed system for example, they understand emptiness, okay? Number seven means they have seen it directly for sure, or very close, or they know about it very well, okay?

So, he repeated ... number seven kind of repeats number three, okay? But it's more specific.

DE NYID means emptiness, tatva, and RAB RTOG means, Mr. Dictionary, RAB TU THOB PA, with an S. Yeah, super understood, super realized emptiness, okay? So, you're looking for someone like that.

There's a tradition in Buddhism that says for disciples who are not so intelligent, teach them one or two proofs of emptiness and stop. And ... but if you meet a very good disciple, teach them a thousand proofs of emptiness.

Teach them emptiness from a thousand different ways, a thousand different arguments, okay? And we don't consider it too much information. We consider it more strong, okay?

Like, I don't know ... many many many proofs of emptiness in Madhyamika, okay? Buddha ...

Buddha taught ... by the way, all those five topics come from Buddha, right? Buddha taught countless proofs for emptiness, and you should know them, and you should have them in your toolkit, and you should find a teacher who knows them, okay?

They shouldn't know one kind of emptiness or some ... by the way, if ... if I were you, if I were as young as Candy Lai, and I was looking for a teacher, I would talk to them about emptiness for half an hour, and if they don't say what you heard here, I wouldn't take them as a teacher, okay?

And I have to say that the level of understanding ... the kitchen ... I don't think you'll find it almost anywhere in the world, okay?

It sounds simple. Oh, dependent origination is yelling at the kids. It sounds simple, but when you're looking for a teacher, don't be satisfied unless that teacher can take that argument to the kitchen.

If they can't explain Buddhism in the kitchen, what's the sansara in the kitchen? Yeah, yell back, you know, okay? If they can't explain emptiness in the kitchen, they don't know emptiness, okay?

I got it? Okay, alright. We were talking in China soft power, right?

Amazing program, amazing. Those two kids, my two kids, Stanley and Allison, not grandkids, you graduated. They started this program called China soft power.

They teach business executives the ancient classics and how to use them in business. For the One Belt One Road, when China goes out to the world, these people are like the heroes of Chinese culture, and wow, they understand those kitchens so dang well, you know? It's unbelievable.

It's really unbelievable, and I see more understanding there than I see in the there, you know, in that room. It's amazing, you know? So, look for that kind of person, okay?

Who can bring it to the real world, okay? Alright, number what? Eight.

Say, ma khen den. Ma khen den. Ma means teaching, okay?

K means master, teaching master. Den means they have this quality. So, ma khen means very good teacher, okay?

And it often happens in things like music, you know? This guy's a famous piano player, but he can't teach anybody, you see? Sometimes they're a very good teacher and they're a lousy piano player, and then you can't learn anything either.

You want to find the best piano player who's also the best teacher, so that's rare, okay? You want to find the master of Buddhism, but who can teach it to people, okay? And the main quality that they list in the scriptures is that they are able to fit the level of their teaching to the level of the student, which might result in a whole bunch of different schools, okay?

Understand? So, the main quality of a master teacher, according to this list which is, you know, 2,000 years old, is ... do they adjust to the student's level?

Do they have the ability to adjust to the student's level, okay? And that's what makes you a master teacher, okay? Got it?

We talked about it yesterday in the goals of ACI, which one is it? For zero dollars Maroon? Hmm?

Huh? Yeah, I'd say relevant, right? And accessible, okay?

Okay, if they see the audience is bored, like in China, they go deeper. If they see the audience is underwater, they go more simple, okay? Alright, okay.

I always tell a joke okay, just to be honest to my American students, in China I say, do you guys want to go deeper? And people scream, the whole ... a thousand people, ahhh, yeah, let's go deeper!

You know? Then if I say in America, you want to go deeper, people are like, yeah man, I mean if you wanna, you know? Sorry.

Okay, I still love America, okay? Although Shenzhen is also my hometown. Okay, next one?

Eight? Nine, okay good. Tim, we're gonna be on time, you gotta give me an award, like half the table, okay?

He's like, no. Alright, say it, ZE BA'I BDAG NYID, ZE BA'I BDAG NYID. Super love, super love.

They gotta, they gotta be made of love, okay? Made of love. BDAG NYID means made of love.

ZE BA means love, okay? And the main meaning in the context of a teacher, is that they teach for the love of their students, and not for ... money, get attention, get famous.

We were talking, the teachers, we were having a fun time today, telling stories about ... the minute you get up on a stage, okay? And I don't care if you're a lousy teacher, I don't care if you're bald, I don't care if you're old, the audience is gonna fall in love with you.

Three people in the audience are gonna fall in love with you. Not because you're smart, not because you're a good teacher, but because you're on the stage, you see? So, you gotta, in English we say, you gotta keep a level head, okay Stanley?

Okay? No, like ten women are gonna fall in love with you in the audience, just because you're on the stage, not because you're a good person, okay? I'm sorry.

And I saw it a hundred times, okay? I've seen it many many times, and I want to warn you as an ACI teacher, okay? People will get a crush on you, crush means immature attraction, they will fall in love with you for two weeks or something, then they'll treat you bad, okay?

So, don't get a big head, don't say, oh I'm so handsome, three ladies came to my room after the talk, you know? They're not there for you, they're there for the teacher, okay? They're there because you were on the stage, okay?

And every man will fall in love with Xiaoping, and try to, you know, buy you a new car, and just say, calm down, talk to me next week. And I'm just warning you, okay? Teach because you love the student, and don't teach for famous, or people gonna call you wonderful, people gonna offer you chocolate all day, like they did today to me, you know?

Don't teach for those reasons, it's gonna be a mess, it's gonna be a mess, okay? Don't teach for lower reasons, don't teach for attention. For every hour of attention you get, you're gonna get criticized for an hour on the Internet, trust me, okay?

You're gonna attract both ... if you get good, you will attract jealousy, okay? And people will attack you, and then you're gonna freak out, oh I thought everyone loved me, you know?

So, keep a level head, okay? Don't get big idea about yourself, okay? You're just a instrument, you know?

You're just passing on the teaching, you're a bucket, you're not the water, how's that? Okay? And keep that in mind, okay?

You'll avoid a lot of problems, a lot of disappointment. So, you should be a TSE BA'I DANG NYID. TSE BA'I DANG NYID means, they teach because they love people, they teach because they love people.

If a teacher will not wash dishes, don't take him as a teacher. If a teacher will not clean the temple after the ceremony, don't take him as a teacher, okay? It goes together.

Love, service of others, okay? Service of others, okay? If they're too lazy to, I don't know, build a cabin at Diamond Mountain, they're probably not teaching for the right reason, okay?

So, now I'm just gonna set you up for something. It's starting to look like impossible to find a teacher, we're gonna talk about it, okay? Alright?

So, what's number nine? They teach for love, they teach for love of the student, they care about the student, okay? They care about the student.

That means, if the student gets crazy and criticizes the teacher, and tries to hurt the teacher, the teacher still loves them, okay? It's like, you can't divorce your kids, right? I mean, probably it'd be nice, right?

You never heard of that, right? There's no legal thing where you can divorce your kids. And the same with your students, okay?

Disciples. Once you become a teacher, a Lama, you can't divorce them, no matter how bad they act, no matter how ... One day, so I had a system with Ken Rinpoche, he bought a TV and he said, you cannot have a TV, and I said, well why?

He said, I'm the Lama, that was his answer, you know, I'm the Lama, I get a TV, you don't get a TV. I'm like, okay. Actually, I don't like TVs anyway, I never had one in my whole life, it saves so much time.

That's why I can translate. Then, but we had a system, if there was something interesting on TV, he would ring his bell, he had a bell, he had a servant bell, if he rang the bell I had to run upstairs and he'd say, I want some tea, or I need momos, or you know, so the bell rang, it's just, if something important on television, he'll ring the bell, and I'm supposed to run upstairs and ... and they're interviewing this lady, and they said, is your son a good person?

And she said, my son is so kind, is so loving, is so beautiful, he's such a good boy, you know, and I'm like, why are you ringing the bell Rinpoche? He said, this kid just killed 17 people with a gun, this is his mom, you know, and she's like, he's a good boy. Okay?

You got to be like that with your students, okay? No matter how bad they are, no matter how upset they make you, they're your kids okay? You don't divorce your kids, alright?

Can you show your kids tough love? Yeah, sometimes you have to. It doesn't mean I don't love you okay?

It means I love you enough to yell at you. My Lama constantly yelled at me, and afterwards I realized it's because he loved me. He loved me enough not to care what I think about him, you see?

He's not just trying to be nice to me all the time so he's popular, you know? He did what he had to do, which means a lot of bong bong bong. Okay, I'll put some bumps on your head, just kidding.

Alright, number ten. I'm precisely on time Tim. Okay, say, GYIS BSKUBS NAS NYID MA ZHAR GYIS BSKUBS NAS NYID MA ZHAR.

The sun came up this morning out of the butthole of a dog. Somebody said, what? The sun came up out of the butt of the dog this morning.

It means something impossible happened. So, I'm finishing on time. So, you can try it on Geshe Lotar, he'll be so impressed.

What? Geshe Michael did something this week, what? Oh, he did GYIS BSKUBS NAS NYID MA ZHAR.

Check it out, he'll be so happy. Okay, by the way, our lineage is fun, okay? Ken Rinpoche, Geshe Lotar, Pabongka, Chidam Rinpoche, we are fun linemen.

We have fun. We tell kind of naughty jokes, and we do emptiness with fun, okay? Got it?

That's your lineage. You're not allowed to be so serious, okay? Alright, say, RGYAL BA SPANG.

RGYAL BA SPANG. They never give up on you, never. Isn't that wonderful?

To be number ten, okay? They will not give up on you, okay? You're the bone, they're the dog.

You know, it doesn't matter how much you hurt them, how bad you are, how you mess up, how many problems you have, you can go away for 20 years and come back, they will take you happily, okay? They never give up on you, okay? Never.

And that's a Lama, okay? Alright, RGYAL BA SPANG means they never give up on you, okay? Alright, GYIS KUN NAS NYID MA ZHAG.