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

[Speaker 1]
So, we have two goals in the evening classes, one is to ... again to teach the ACI courses, there are 36 courses, 33 if you don't count the review courses. We're hoping to do three courses a year, to do them over again.

I haven't taught them in 27 years, okay? So, I started them 27 years ago and we recorded them with my dog barking in the house, and so we're trying to kind of do it over again. Probably there's things in the early recordings that you should listen to when you have time, because I had a ...

you know, I was in the middle of the Geshe course at that point. I think this time through will be more kind of a friendly presentation of someone who's been teaching for 40 years, and talking to people who want to be teachers, and I think you may ... I may mix in a lot of advices on how to teach, and new ideas I've had about the courses since I first wrote them.

But I would say, reading them over recently to prepare for this course, they're good, they're good stuff, and they stand. I have never ... to my memory, I've never had a correction from someone, a substantial correction for the for the courses.

They are good translations, they are the real thing, none of it is my writing, a hundred percent of the courses except for one page, which is secret. So, I think it's 6,000 pages of translation, and it's all straight translation, none of it's by me. So, it's all the great classics of ancient times, and I think it was the first time, and I think Jeff will appreciate it, that we were able to put in the original language with the translation.

So, every paragraph has the original sutras and scriptures in the 6,000 pages. So, if, you know, if anyone thinks something is wrong, or mistaken, or Geshe-la put his own ideas in it, you can actually check the Tibetan or the Sanskrit, and you can see every single word, where it came from. So, I think in that sense the courses are amazing, and we're gonna, the kind of the, what we'll be doing in the evening is, we'll go through the course material for each class.

So, there are ten classes in course one, and I'll go through the material for each class. You will do the normal homeworks for the ACI courses. So, even if you've done them before, I don't care.

There was a punishment in the monastery for young monks who snuck off across the cornfields. It's about a two-hour walk to the local town to see movies, and if you get caught, you have to hold an Indian movie poster up in the assembly for two hours. You can't put it down or you get massaged, and then you have to do prostrations, you have to do like a thousand prostrations to all the monks, and there was a big argument in the monastery that this was not a punishment, this was an honor.

And so, doing the homeworks again is an honor, and it'll increase your understanding. So, I don't care if you've done them before, you're gonna do them again, alright? And please turn your homeworks in on time.

Which leads me to another thing, I'm 27 years older than I was before, and I'm too old to deal with bad behavior, and people who don't turn in their assignments, and you know, I'm not a babysitter anymore. When I first did the courses, I was a babysitter, and I lost a lot of hair by doing the babysitting, and I'm assuming you are all mature, you know, stable people that I want you to behave well while you're here, and I expect you to, and I frankly, I'm too old to put up with any misbehavior. It's usually three people who take half the staff's time, and I'm not gonna, we're not gonna do it, okay?

If you don't want to do your homeworks on time, or you can't get here on time, or you have some other personal problems, then go solve them, come back to the next one, okay? And I'm just gonna be a tough guy. Yeah, right, okay.

So, I'm gonna go through, you've got two homeworks you're gonna be doing. One is the ACI course homework, and then secondly, you'll be doing a separate homework for the teacher training, which will include tips about how to teach, what's the purpose of the Asian Classic Institute, you know, how did we come up with it, what's the structure, things like that, okay? So, you'll have two homeworks to do every day, and we left you a block of time, unlike the SCIM classes, which you have to do at midnight.

We gave you two hours, I think, Tim, am I right? Two hours in the afternoon to do your homeworks, okay? So, there's no excuse.

I wrote it in 20 minutes, so, you can do it in two hours, okay? So, I'm gonna go straight through the homework because I have a bad habit of forgetting to go through the homework, and just talking about stories, and I'm gonna make sure I go through the two homeworks with you, okay? Probably in the ...

well, I'll probably just mix it up, okay? Teacher training stuff, and ... nah, let's do the teacher training stuff first, and then I'll do the coursework, okay?

So, here we go. General comments, and I'm gonna be following your homework. So, maybe your first homework question is, what is the mission of the Asian Classics Institute?

What is ACI meant to do? What are we supposed to be doing? Why are you becoming a teacher, and what's the purpose of the organization of ACI, okay?

So, first of all, ACI's mission is to ... we call it accuracy, relevancy ... accurate, relevant, and accessible, okay?

Those are three words I expect on your homework. Accurate, relevant, and accessible. We want to bring the ancient wisdom of Buddhism, 25 centuries, two and a half thousand years, to the modern world in a way which is accurate, relevant, and accessible, okay?

So, what do I mean by these three things? Accurate means ... the stuff is good stuff.

I almost said a bad word. It's good stuff, okay? It's the real Buddhism.

It's all the ancient texts, and jing, and it's really, really translated correctly, and it's all there. The original is in the document. So, there's even people who have spent part of their lives hypertexting, connecting the English to the Tibetan, just to make dictionaries.

So, there's been teams for the last 20 years, just connecting the words to ... and they've confirmed that all the words are there, okay? So, it's accurate, okay?

And when you pass it on, you're gonna do it accurately, okay? And you're gonna pass it down correctly, okay? The stuff is there.

It's like a recipe for a cake, okay? Like it's a really tasty cake, and ... or Hasso gave me his Guadalajara enchilada brown sauce.

What's those chilies called? The poblano, yeah. I use Anaheim's, you use poblano.

But, he has a recipe for a Mexican dish, right? It's his mom's or something like that? Like, it was very kind of him to give it to me.

It's highly secret, and I made him for Veronica, and she loves him. So, anyway, but you don't mess with the recipe, okay? The recipe has worked for 25 centuries, okay?

It has worked for the world for 25 centuries. So, don't mess with it. And we believe, okay?

Check this out, we believe that the person who started the tradition was omniscient. Omniscient is not like your mom who doesn't know exactly where you were keeping stuff in your room, although she knew you very well. Omniscient means they can see everything about you, about your life, they can read your mind, they know every detail of your life.

The person who wrote the original materials is watching this class right now, 25 centuries ago, okay? So, don't think you're gonna improve on what they did, okay? Don't think they left something out, or they didn't know that, I don't know, bubblegum was gonna be popular.

They know everything, okay? So, trust it, okay? Don't mess with it, all right?

That's my first thing. It was incredible amount of work to translate 6,000 pages. Don't mess it up, okay?

If you want to teach, you know, what do you call it? Psychic healing or something, do it on your own time, okay? Do it, don't do it in an ACI class.

You're free as an ACI teacher, we don't require that you follow Buddhism, you don't have to be a Buddhist to teach ACI, okay? And there are many people around the world, you know, who are not Buddhist, who come to ACI and especially DCI courses. I don't care what you are, 99% of people in the world follow what their parents did, and that's fine.

I had a guy in Ireland, you guys know him, Kevin Thornton, from Galway, and he says, Gisela, I like this stuff, you know, but my daughter's getting married, and is it okay she gets married in the Galway Cathedral, and not in our basement with the 12-armed Avalokiteshvara? Is this okay? Because it's more comfortable for everyone, you know?

So, yeah, whatever your parents did, whatever church, synagogue, mosque you went to as a kid, make your parents happy, make your family comfortable, do the holidays, you know, I don't do Hanukkah, I do Christmas, I still like Christmas. These are cultural things, you know, whatever you did, Spring Festival, I don't know, as a kid with your parents, keep peace in your family, okay? We're not trying to make you fanatic, okay?

We're trying to spread information that can help everybody in the world, and it does not have to be connected to a religion, okay? And if you choose to be a Buddhist, or you want to become a nun, like some wonderful people here, that's fine, you know, become a nun, teach ACI, that's fine, okay? But you don't have to, okay?

It's up to you, okay? Do whatever is legal in your country, that's fine, okay? And you don't have to look like a guru, or a lama, or a priest, we are not making gurus, we are not making lamas, we are not making priests, we're just offering information to people, which will help them with their life, and in ACI, with their future lives, and all their lives to come.

And it will not help just people who attend a business seminar, it will help the entire universe. And there's a time in your practice, in your meditations, when you will meet the universe, and every being in the universe. If you play your cards right, they say in English, if you study well, and you keep to the program, and you do your meditations, and your practices, you can personally meet every living being in this universe, and get to know them, and love them, okay?

The human mind has this capacity, due to emptiness, okay? So, you know, think big, okay? The purpose of ACI is to help the whole world, it's not a Buddhist sect, or a small Buddhist thing, okay?

It's a way of acting, and thinking, and practicing, that can help anyone. So, we're not forcing people to follow a certain religion, or something like, okay, it doesn't matter. What your parents had on your altar at home, do that, okay?

That's fine, have a crucifix in your house. I have, you know, and that's fine, and I feel happy with it, okay? Keep the holidays of your own culture, your own country, okay?

Add to the spice of life, this delicious ice cream called ACI, okay? And make your life more beautiful and whole, okay? And we're not here to convince people, or make them join something, there's no leader, okay?

There's a bald guy in the desert, you know, teaching you a little bit, later it'll be somebody else, it'll be you guys, okay? You'll be bald too, I'm telling you, and that's how you know when you're wise. So, I told him, his haircut, he's cut the sides, but for me it would work the other way.

So, me and John, okay? So, I think one of the most important things I'd say about the ACI courses is, have fun, don't be a fanatic, okay? Don't be a fundamentalist, you know, have fun.

Life is incredibly short. Yesterday I was 25, I swear to God I was 25 yesterday, I swear, and then boop, and I'm 66, and I'm like, whoa, what happened, you know? And don't get too serious about your life, okay?

Don't be like grumpy and you know, like this, you know? If life goes like that, you might as well have fun. ACI should be fun.

I don't want like people being, what do you call it, you have to do it this way, or you're a bad person, or you know, come on, we're all gonna die, we're in a boat that's sinking in the middle of the Pacific, let's play some music and eat a lot before it goes down, okay? Like, have fun teaching ACI, okay? Nobody likes a grumpy ACI teacher, or stressed out.

I was in the back of a meditation class, I went to spy on one of our new teachers, many years ago, they're not here anymore, don't worry about it, and two ladies were sitting in front of me, and I snuck in in the back, and I sat behind these two ladies, and the teacher was like really nervous, and drinking tea like this, and all upset, and angry, and uptight, you know, like you got to do it, like you know, and then this one lady turned to the other lady, and she said, what do you think? And she said, I don't know, you know, I don't know what kind of meditation she's teaching, but whatever it is, I don't want to learn it, because I don't want to be like that, okay? So, be happy, have fun, the minute you become a teacher you're gonna get extra trouble, because the demons don't like it, okay?

So, trust me, starting tonight, you're gonna have more trouble, more problems, more difficult people are gonna show up, and just tell them, the demons, to mmm you, and have fun, okay? Because, what are you gonna do with your life, you know? You're gonna be grumpy your whole life, you're gonna tell people what to do, okay?

So, keep it, but keep it accurate, okay? Number one, accurate, okay? Number two, relevant, okay?

Like, tie these courses to people's real life, okay? Never teach a class without tying the ancient wisdom to people's real problems, real life, okay? Like, you're not teaching some ancient books, you're teaching people how to be happy, okay?

If you're a success, people will be happy. I got a photo from Jeffrey Tso in Taiwan yesterday, and he went to DCI 2, which is how to find your talent or your passion in life, he went to a group of 50 blind people and taught them DCI 2, okay? And then they all said, I want to be this, I want to be this, this one young lady stood up and said, I want to be a competitive archer, ancient archery, ancient Chinese archery, you know?

This is in Taiwan, right? She wants to be an archer, she's blind, you know? And he's like, okay, let's do it, let's plant the seeds, you know?

And he sent me a photo yesterday, she's in an archery competition now, and she almost hit the middle, and they agreed that it was okay to put a bell in the middle of the target. So, she just listens for the bell and she shoots at the bell. So, don't wear bells to those competitions.

But it was so cool, and they have such fun, you know? The group is just, I met, some of them came to my yoga class, me and Alex taught them from Colorado, it's a country north of here, and it was so much fun, you know? And we just had fun.

So look, you have problems, I have problems, okay? We all have problems. As a teacher, you're gonna multiply your problems, okay?

But just realize other people have worse problems, okay? We're not blind, okay? And we don't have cancer, and we're still walking, and we have a brain, and we can study these beautiful things, okay?

So, be a little happy, okay? Okay, so, relevant to people's lives, second rule. What's the first rule again?

Accurate, don't mess with the recipe, right? It's not gonna taste the same, and it won't work the same, okay? I call it selling fire extinguishers that don't work.

And I can't think of anything more cynical or mean than to try to make extra money by selling a fire extinguisher that doesn't work, and you know it doesn't work, okay? So, if you want to mess with this fire extinguisher, this fire extinguisher is called ACI courses, 36 courses, okay? It works.

You get a fire, you push the button, the fire goes out. If your husband's mean to you, or your boss is being his usual self, any problem you have, you push this ACI course fire extinguisher, it will put out the fire, and the fire called death, okay? It puts it out, but if you mess with it, and it doesn't work anymore, can you imagine people like, oh my mom's dying, what do I do?

Oh, just shoot him with ACI 6. Yeah, but I changed it, it doesn't work anymore, okay? Understand?

It's big important stakes, it's an important thing, okay? It's like the only recipe for AIDS, to treat AIDS, like the only formula in the world. Don't mess with it, okay?

You can save millions of lives, but don't say, oh this, this needs a little sugar in it, okay? And then it doesn't work for the people who have AIDS, okay? Alright, so that's the mission.

Oh, did I say, what was the last one? Accessible, okay? Don't, there's a big temptation for baby teachers, and baby yoga teachers, to show off how much they know, and do poses that nobody else in the room can do, and then you're not teaching anymore, you're just showing off, you see?

Really, you want to think about the poses that are gonna help the people in the class, you know? They don't care if you can do some weird pose, they just want to be healthy, okay? So, make it accessible.

You can use Sanskrit words, Chinese words, Pali, you can show off sometimes, okay? I allow it, I maybe do it sometimes, but it's not the point, okay? We want the information to be open to everybody, we want it, it's, ACI courses are open source, okay?

Anyone can download an ACI course, they've been online for 19 years, 20 years, okay? And they're free, and they're online, anyone can download them. We lost count after the second year of the number of downloads, it was up to 150,000 then, okay?

Multiply that times 10, or more, I don't know, okay? So, we wanted people to use it, okay? Don't be stingy, and don't be weird, you know?

Don't use weird words and things that people can't understand. Judge your audience, stay with the level of your audience, if it means you have to throw out your lesson plan for the day, do it, in two seconds, okay? Stay with the level of your audience, okay?

Make it accessible, okay? If the audience wants you to go deeper, like if they're from a certain country I know, then accessible means deeper, go deeper, okay? But watch your audience, stay with your audience, and go deeper if you need, and always accessible, and interesting, and fun, okay?

If it's boring, it's not accessible, okay? If it's dry, it's not accessible. If you're not prepared to teach the class, it's not accessible, okay?

And by the way, people are like dogs, okay? The dog you hear barking on the ACI-1 recordings, okay? Whose name was Pancho Villa, because he was from Mexico, he was a Chihuahua, and a mean Chihuahua.

But, you know, I had some students, I had, I started ACI with six students, okay? They came to my kitchen, and we sat around the kitchen, and John Stilwell, this weird guy, said, let's record everything, and I'm like, why? What's the point?

Sorry, okay, here. Okay, and people would come in to go to class, you know, and I remember this one lady who didn't like dogs, and she opened the door, she stepped in, and he ran up and bit her leg, and oh my god, we had to go to the hospital, she was gonna sue me. We'll talk about that kind of stuff later.

And, the thing is, before she said anything, and before she did anything, the dog could tell she didn't like dogs. They have some ESP or something, dog clairvoyance, okay? And they can tell, and your students in ACI can tell if you're prepared or not, okay?

You can't BS, you can't fake it, okay? They'll know in five minutes whether you know your stuff or not. So, just cover yourself, know your stuff, know your material, okay?

Don't think the students don't know. The students know everything about you, they know your bad habits, they know you didn't meditate yesterday, they can smell it, okay? So, the safest thing is to be a good person, and don't have any secret.

You see what I mean? Be prepared for your class, okay? Cool?

Alright, and it takes preparation because this is real stuff, okay? This is hard stuff, and it takes preparation, and you will be so much happier if you spend, make time to spend a few hours to get ready, okay? For your classes.

Alright, so the mission is to present, by the way, this is a homework question. The mission is to present this ancient wisdom openly to the world without any need for them to join anything or become a certain sect or something, okay? And it's accurate, and it applies to their real life, and they can— it's accessible to everybody, it's meant to be accessible, okay?

And the immediate goal, okay? GZOGSOK CHOSHED, famous concept in Buddhism. What's the immediate goal?

Is they learn the material, okay? The immediate goal for this week is you guys learn the classic by Je Tsongkhapa called the Three Principle Path, right? Of Buddhism.

Principle Teachings of Buddhism, okay? That's the immediate goal. We call, what's it called?

GZOGSOK CHOSHED, okay? GZOGSOK CHOSHED is the immediate goal. The next goal is to make people's life happy, happier, okay?

Make their life happier. Life is hard, everyone has to die, we all get sick, you lose—you're gonna lose every person you ever met, and you're gonna lose everything you ever collected on the way, money, houses, family, you're gonna lose everything, okay? So, the short-term goal is to give people some happiness, okay?

Make them happy. Another goal of ACI, and especially DCI, is to change the way the world works, okay? Right now, for example, economically, politically, the model is competition.

I will sell more stuff than you, Coca-Cola fights Pepsi-Cola, Kandaji fights McDonald's, who can make the most money, okay? This is—and a lot of this thinking comes from America, I'm sorry. If I faster, stronger, harder, fight with the other guys, I can—I can make more money, I can be—I can get more things, okay?

ACI teaches the opposite is true, and thinking that you get more by being faster, stronger, meaner, is a very serious mistake that causes all the conflict in the world. Personal conflict, company conflict, international conflict, war, comes from this thinking that if you fight for more, you can get it, okay? So, ACI mission, immediate mission, make people happier in their home life, in their work life.

Second mission, change the model of the world, okay? If it's true that I will make more money by helping others to make money, if it's true that America will have more energy supplies, if they supply more oil to China, for example, if that's true, then as an ACI teacher, you can change the model that the whole world is working by, and would that be cool? You know, would that be cool?

That would be something cool, and my dream is that it's anonymous. People don't remember the name of the guy who started ACI, and they don't even remember that it was ACI who got the new model started. Maybe ACI can go away by then.

It's just the model, and when kids want something, their parents teach them to give it to someone else, and that becomes the model of the whole world. So, the next goal, the second goal of ACI, first goal, make people happy. Give them some comfort in this difficult life, okay?

Second goal, change the model of the world in a quiet way, and maybe we never get credit and that's fine, that's the credit, okay? Third goal, okay? Don't be a frog in a well.

There's many many worlds that you have not seen, okay? Don't think your little world is the end of all things, okay? I mean, a woman came from Asia, China to DM a couple years ago, a couple years ago, and she went outside at night and saw the stars.

Okay, she's from Shanghai, okay? The stars never shine in Shanghai, rarely, and she looked up, you know, and she's like, there were millions, billions of stars. This is the best place to see stars, one of the best places in the world to see stars.

We're two hours from the nearest serious grocery store, okay? And she came in and she asked the director, she said, are they gonna be here tomorrow? Are those gonna be here tomorrow, you know?

So, all you have to do to understand the far goal of ACI is to go out tonight and look at the sky. If it's, if the, by the way, it's gonna get hot now, starting tomorrow, so you're gonna be complaining about the heat. So, enjoy the spring.

Arizona spring is one day. Enjoy it, because you're gonna be complaining about the air conditioning tomorrow. Bring warm clothes to class, if you're from countries that don't grow up on the air conditioner, like we do, okay?

So, bring, like Luca, you know, bring a nice heavy coat. Don't get sick. Many people have gotten sick here from the air conditioner, okay?

Bring a scarf, head coat, okay? Because I keep the room cold, and you're gonna learn to keep the room cold, because otherwise people fall asleep. If they're freezing, they can't fall asleep.

They get sick, but okay, that's after you leave, okay? So, go out and look at the stars, and that's where we're headed, you know? My next planet is the Sirius star system, follow the two feet of Orion, it's the bright bluish star, off to its left foot, and so, don't think small, okay?

Just look up, don't think this is the only world, don't be, come on, you know, the world's a little bigger than that, okay? And it's fully the intention and goal of ACI, to spread this on other planets, okay? And other worlds.

There are many worlds in this room that you can't see. There are many kinds of beings in this room you can't see, okay? And we're not stopping with this world, we're not stopping with changing the paradigm, the model of this world, because there are other worlds that are suffering also.

You will see them, in time. Right now, you're not so worried about it, you know? Oh, that's in another country, that's in Africa, I don't need to worry about it Geshe-la.

Yeah, but there's other worlds that we have to take care of, okay? So, the goal is kind of, it's not less than destroying death in all worlds, okay? And you have the capacity to do that.

Each person in this room has the capacity to do that, okay? Don't think small, okay? Don't think small.

Your goal is bigger, okay? Our goal is bigger. ACI's goal is that.

And you, one day you will see it, okay? And you'll say, oh Geshe-la was right for once. Okay, I put a second question here, it says, what's not the mission of ACI?

I don't know, you could say a lot of things. I don't want to be unfriendly, I don't want to be a cult, I don't want to be a certain religion, I don't want to be mean to people and say, you're not my religion, you know? I don't want us to be famous.

So far, we've been really good at, you know, combined ACI and DCI is the largest Buddhist based organization in the world, but we don't talk about it, okay? I don't care, it doesn't matter, you know? It's not, we're not here as teachers to get people's attention.

Now, every person in this room likes people's attention, including the one talking, but you got to deal with it, okay? And as a teacher, you have to chill, control yourself a little bit, okay? We're not here to make gurus, lamas, imams, priests, ministers, pastors, you know, Kung Fu masters, it's not the goal, okay?

We're here as servants to share what we had the good fortune to learn from our teachers, and it's not about you or me, okay? It's about helping people, okay? Alright, so that's what we're not, we're not here for a personality cult, we're not here to make Geshe Michael king of the world, or anybody else, okay?

We're here to help people, okay? Alright, second question on your homework, what kinds of people teach the formal ACI courses? Who can teach ACI?

I think it's an important question to start with. Now, we have an esteemed group of professors for this course, they are very, very senior, as senior as me, right JB? And, they are kick-ass practitioners.

JB's been meditating, I don't know, 40 years, he and Connie both finished three-year retreats, Jing Mei has finished very long retreats, they've been in the business for a long time, they're good at it, okay? The teachers are very good at it, and we have a plan to develop the course with you, to collaborate with you. It's something we stole from Stanley Nelson, you know?

Let the students design the course, and I can relax and eat chili rellenos more often, okay? So, our dream is that we work with you, and we work with each other. So, the professors will be meeting every lunchtime, after our yoga practice, which everyone's gonna do, someone was telling me today how much their body hurts, and why they can't do yoga, and I'm like, duh!

But, come and sit on the mat and do something, you know? It's okay, you don't have to do everything that everybody else does, forget everybody else, do some stretching, let the body get blood, you know, be healthier, okay? After yoga, we will have a hour lunch with the professors, but we want your feedback, how to make this a cool course, and how to teach it more effectively, okay?

You're the first experiment, you're the laboratory, but we want the laboratory rats to tell us what they like, what they don't like, how they think they could, we could improve the teacher training. So, we're kind of keeping it fluid. What we realized already, is that you cannot teach a teacher for a week and let them go.

That would be like training a heart surgeon in a week, and giving them a razor blade and saying, go for it, okay? So, we kind of made a decision, which is negotiable, okay? Because you're all helping us develop it, this course.

We think, come to three courses, and then we talk about certifying you for the first one, okay? Got it? And you don't have to do them in order.

If you're from South Africa, welcome. There's been an underground ACI group in South Africa for a hundred years. We finally met after, I don't know, 20 years.

But, you know, you can, you're welcome to help design the course, help us design the course, and I think it's going to take three courses to really give you enough foundation to give you a razor blade and to go say, do heart operations, okay? And they don't have to be in order. If you're from South Africa, come next year, and the year after.

Now, the answer to the question Geshe-la, try to talk about the questions, okay? Is that anyone can teach ACI, anyone. The courses are free online, the materials are free online, we locked them, you can't change them, unless you retype them or something, okay?

Anyone is welcome to teach what we call living room courses, okay? And ideally, less than 15 people in a living room, and you came to one class at ACI, you can, you're very welcome to share it with your friends, okay? There's no limits on the materials, you can use the materials, you can, you're welcome to share with friends.

I expect you to teach at least one ACI course one class on the airplane on the way home to the person sitting next to you, okay? And that, you don't have to come to three courses to have permission to do that, okay? Everyone in the world has permission to sit down with their friends in their living room.

I know the Guadalajara skyscraper penthouse karma, they have this karma to have the most beautiful floor in the city was given to them for their classes, with a swimming pool on it at the top of the building, and the bar they don't go to, okay? And so, you're welcome to sit in your living room and teach friends, okay? If your country does not allow religious teaching, even in a living room, you're still welcome to take this training, and we ask you to teach it outside of your country, okay?

If your country doesn't allow this kinds of teaching in that country, we require that you go to another location if you want to teach, okay? And if I find out that people who are in a country where it's not allowed are endangering themselves or other people, I will remove your certification, okay? So, clear?

All right. And it's possible. In English they say, where there's a will there's a way.

If you love people enough, you will find a way to do it legally and correctly, okay? And I don't want anyone getting in trouble, all right? Okay.

So, that's... what kinds of people can teach ACI? The answer is...

anybody, if you have a head. Even without a head, if you can find a way to express yourself, okay? Certified teacher has to come to the training.

Certified teacher who's listed on the website as a certified teacher, you... we have to train you, okay? You have to go through the training, okay?

How many classes you have to come? How many courses you have to come in? How much can you do online, you know?

How much can you do by touching your head with another teacher? We have to decide this week. Maybe you can help us with suggestions.

We have to make it possible for people to get the training from South Africa or whatever. We are working on finding ways to certify teachers with a responsible mix of online and in-person. How that's going to happen is pretty much up to this group, especially the professors, okay?

Mentors. So, to teach officially groups of over 15 outside of your living room, including online, if the over 15 people, you must be certified, and you will be on a list of certified teachers. And what courses you're certified for, if we do it that way, will also be online.

It'll be on our website, okay? And we'll talk more about that whole process. There's a lot of questions you probably have, and don't stress about it.

I can't cover everything the first night. I got to do the homework, but it'll be a cool system. You will like it.

We want you to teach. We desperately want you to teach, and you are very valuable. The people who came here to learn to be a teacher, it took me 40 years to find you.

And I'm proud of each one of you for coming, and I'm gonna make you a good teacher, okay? So, that's the goal. Don't worry about it, but I'm gonna make you a good teacher.

Okay, so, certified teachers, groups of 15 or more, official ACI teaching, you got to be certified, your name will be on a list. What if I've been teaching for 20 years, Geshe-la, and you never told me I needed this stuff? We'll have a special deal that will work out for grandfathering the grandfathers and grandmothers.

Grandfathering, as a verb in English, means special exception for people who have been teaching for a long time already, okay? But still, we're gonna demand certain things that you retrain yourself in certain things, okay? Just to make sure the quality of the teaching is good.

Accurate, okay? Accessible, and relevant. Nice, okay.

Next homework question. The 36 formal study courses of ACI are divided into two broad groups. What are these groups named, and what is the primary emphasis of each of the two groups?

So, we have 36 courses, okay? Formal study courses. There are some other courses called practice modules, like special meditations, like tonglen.

There's a 50-page essay collected from the classics. No Geshe Michael. All classics on tonglen.

50 pages I think. And that's a separate thing, you can learn that. But the 36 main courses, okay, are divided into 18 and 18.

The first 18 name on your homework, which always gets people's attention for a while, is the ACI foundation courses. The 18 ACI foundation courses, okay? That's half of the formal study courses of ACI, okay?

And I'm gonna explain the structure of those 18 tonight, okay? That's another homework question, okay? But so far you just got a name, right?

18 ACI foundation courses, okay? By the way, just you probably, most of you know, the last three, 16, 17, and 18 are review of the first 15, okay? Now, the second 18 courses are Diamond Way courses.

In the Sanskrit is Vajrayana, okay? Diamond Way courses, right? The goal, okay, traditionally, if you study those first 18 courses and you work hard, you can become a Buddha and help all those stars we were talking about in about a billion years.

Standard time period for a normal Buddha, okay? I mean, I can't even count the number, it's, call it a billion, it's probably too small. If you study Diamond Way properly, accurately, accessibly, and relevantly, you can shorten that time to this lifetime, to one lifetime, okay?

And that's an incredible deal, you know? That's a good deal, okay? But, it takes a lot of training to do the second 18 courses, and as teachers, I expect you to never teach a person the second 18 courses without the first 18 courses.

It's like giving a kid a loaded gun, okay? They will hurt themselves, okay? So, I, okay?

And I've tried, I said, oh this person's special. Tell you what, you finish 12 courses, I'll give you the Vajrayana. They all failed.

I think the failure rate for people who didn't finish the first 18 courses is close to a hundred percent. And I'm talking big failures, okay? Hurt people, messed up people's lives, messed up their own lives, okay?

Not cool, okay? So, Vajrayana is fast. There's a, there's a Sanskrit word for those courses called Tantra, okay?

We're not going to use the word, because it has a bad reputation in the world, even in India, okay? The word Tantra has bad reputation in the world, because of misbehavior, bad behavior of teachers who were practicing other kinds of Tantra. I was in Indonesia, I won't, no sorry, close, Argentina.

And, we have somebody from Argentina, where are you? Yeah, a couple. So anyway, I was asked to go to Uruguay, and teach in ...

what's it called? Punta del Este? To a soccer team.

And it was cool, you know? And I did it, and it was fun. This is the Monte Carlo of South America, right?

And, it was on the beach and everything. They were so cool, we worked until two o'clock at night together. And, on the, in the airport, Montevideo?

What's it called? Uruguay. Yeah, in the airport I saw, there was a huge poster in the bookstore, it said Tantra Secrets, Sex, Killing Chickens, you know?

And I was like, we can't use this word, you know? So, I encourage you not to use this word, okay? Especially as an ACI teacher.

There's a traditional name of the higher teachings, advanced teachings, called Vajrayana, Diamond Way. And, I prefer to use it. Tim pointed out to me that there's a Buddhist group calling themselves Diamond Way nowadays.

And, there's a group calling themselves Kadampa also. That's fine. I'm not going to avoid an important word, because someone's using it, okay?

So, you know what it means. It means a method to help the whole universe in your lifetime, okay? And, to be honest, you don't want to go through the billion years anyway, okay?

It's too much trouble. You got to die. You got to get diarrhea, I don't know how many times.

You know, don't do it. Just plan on doing the second eighteen courses. They are called the Diamond Way courses.

Sometimes I call them advanced courses, but I thought it was too wimpy. They're not advanced courses, they're ultimate courses, okay? Diamond Way courses.

And, in my opinion, which is modest my opinion, because I wrote them, they are the best Vajrayana courses in history. They include every major topic of Vajrayana for the first time in one course. I was at the two Vajrayana monasteries of Tibet, and I was there the night they started the debate ground.

I debated all the students in the Vajrayana monastery, and kicked their butt frankly. And they don't have a good course as we have, okay? I don't care.

This is the best in the world, okay? So, cool, super cool, you can do it, okay? Vajrayana, 18 courses.

So, you got the answer to the question, right? It's pretty simple. You're not gonna put Tantra courses, and you're not gonna call them that, because people will get the wrong idea.

Even in India, that word is very, very ... for all Indian people, it's very uncomfortable to use the word Tantra, because of people who misused it, okay? So, stick to Diamond Way.

I don't want to see advanced courses on your homework, they're better than that, okay? Alright. You guys okay?

I'm gonna go straight through. I'm older than you, I have to stand up the whole time. I'm teaching three hours in the morning.

I'll go like this maybe. But, if you have a pee pee emergency, you're very welcome to just slip out, rather than taking a 10-minute break that turns into a half-hour break, okay? We don't have much time together.

So, if you have a ... I took my old lady to the ballet this week in Phoenix. Getting her out of her nursing home, getting her into the car, getting her into her wheelchair, we were the last people in the auditorium, and they were waiting for us.

And I worked hard to get her there on time. And she sat down, they started to lower the lights, and she said very loudly, I need to pee. And I'm like, already all the ushers are angry at us, you know?

And I'm like, alright. You know, put her in her wheelchair, and they waited for 15 minutes, you know, a huge auditorium. They waited for her for ...

why did I mention that? Oh, I'm not gonna take a break, it's too slow, okay? Alright?

Two hours straight through, you okay with that? But seriously, it's not disrespectful, it's not wrong. It's wrong to hurt your body, okay, in Buddhism.

So, if you, if something, if you drank a couple sodas before the class, just go, and don't ask me, and don't look desperate, okay? Just, just go, okay? Phil's showing you the way.

Okay, alright, next topic. In the very short run, my thinking when I started the ACI courses was to share the Geshe course with, with modern people outside of Tibet, you see? And I was very excited, I was finishing my Geshe degree, I was about three years from finishing, four years from finishing, and I was so turned on by the Geshe course.

It's so amazing, it's so, so cool. By the way, Geshe is short for Geshe Nyen, the Sanskrit is Kalyana Mitra, and it means spiritual friend, okay? So, Geshe is Kalyana Mitra, and it's not on your homework, don't worry about it.

And, but, it means spiritual friend, and that's what I want you to be, that's what we're trying to make you, people's spiritual friend, spiritual guide, okay? So, the Geshe course is amazing, and I thought, how, because people were asking me to teach Buddhism, and I was like, you know, blanket, let's do the whole Geshe course, you know? And they're like, we don't have 25 years, and I said well, do you have seven years?

And, so we tried to do three courses, six years, every year. So, they could have digestion time, which is highly desirable. And, I said okay, let's do the Geshe course.

So, I built the 18 foundation courses on the Geshe course. The Geshe course started roughly a thousand years ago, okay? People started getting the name Geshe about a thousand years ago.

At that time, those great Tsongkhapa monasteries were still 400 years out. But, masters who, who studied the great classics, Asian classics, and, and became masters of them, were already called Geshe's a thousand years ago, okay? In the Kadampa times.

There's Kadampa Geshe Dorje Sengi, we are studying his work, and Geshe Drolungpa, we are studying his work. These are from a thousand years ago, okay? So, Geshe started, the name, the title started a thousand years ago.

It became formalized about 600 years ago, okay? But, that course was so interesting, and so cool, that I wanted to share it with, with modern people, okay? And, I'm gonna brag, which is very unusual for me, that it's the first time women were taught the Geshe course in history.

Women in Tibet were not allowed to learn to read or write, okay? The name for woman in Tibetan is Pume, which means no penis. Or Kemen, which means lower rebirth.

These are the two words in the Tibetan language for females, women, and they were not allowed to, to study the Geshe course, and we broke this tradition, and we got a lot of heat for it, a lot, and a lot of criticism for it. Recently, the people criticized us just past the first woman Geshe, but we did it ten years before that, 20 years. We were a little bit ahead, right?

When was it? Two years ago? The first woman Geshe.

Yeah, I'm just saying it wasn't allowed, okay? And so, we did it. And so, my dream was that modern people, and, and people who weren't monks were never allowed to study the Geshe course.

So, it's the first time people who are not in a monastery, who are not monks or nuns, and women were allowed to study the Geshe course. Why? I have no idea.

There's 4,600 texts from ancient India, two were written by women, I think, maybe three, I don't know, okay? We're breaking this, we're breaking this tradition. It's a bad tradition, okay?

And 99% of those traditions are beautiful, that one's bad. So, we're breaking it, okay? And my dream was that, okay?

So, the Geshe course is based on five great topics, which I'm about to tell you, because they're on your homework. And you're gonna pay attention because they're on your homework? Okay, no, you have to teach them.

I'm gonna go, I've written a document in your manual, which is gonna be online to save paper, and also so I can keep adding stuff during the week. I wrote a 25 page essay about the foundation of the Geshe course and the ACI 18 courses, okay? The foundation courses.

So, you can read that, and all of this information is there, and that will be, you'll be able to access that tonight, right? Am I right, Tim? The manual, as it stands?

Yeah, and parts of the manual aren't finished, you'll see. But the essay about the 18 courses, the 25 pages, and it's beautiful because I added color pictures of all the lamas, all the masters, Chandrakirti, Dharmakirti, Gunaprabha, things, Asanga, okay? I did a lot of work.

So, five great topics are covered in the Geshe course, roughly, in order of higher school, because there's four great schools, and that's your last homework question, okay? So, five great topics covered in four great schools of ancient India. We are not talking about what?

The four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, okay? We're not talking about that, okay? There are four traditional schools in Tibetan Buddhism for the last thousand years, we're not talking about that.

We're talking about Buddhism for two and a half thousand years. In ancient India, there were four great schools, okay? And on the homework question, you're gonna have to give five names because—sorry, let's do the topics first.

Five great topics, okay? I'm not talking school, I'm talking Geshe topics, okay? And it's a little bit different.

If you really want to be cute on your homework, you can connect the five great topics to the four great schools, but I'm not even asking for that, okay? I want— separate questions, okay? Here's the five great topics, okay?

Should I do them in order? I better do it the way I did it. Let me see.

Yeah, and by the way, also in the—I gave you the—what do you call it? I gave you the schedule of the Geshe course in the monastery, the 25 years, like how much time on this subject, how much time on that, okay? I put it in the reading, okay?

This I want to do in order. Okay. Okay, first of the five great topics, okay?

Not school, okay? First of the five great topics of the Geshe course is— I'm gonna say Abhidharma, okay? The English name is higher knowledge, Abhidharma, higher knowledge, okay?

The first great topic of the Geshe course, not in order of how you take it, but in order of school, is Abhidharma, higher knowledge, okay? I didn't ask for it on the homework, but maybe I should have. Each of the five great topics of the Geshe course has an associated classic, great book, okay?

So, I'm just gonna throw those names at you, it's not on your homework, you can get it off the manual, okay? But, Stanley can probably tell me the first one. Abhidharmakosha by Vasubandhu, okay?

Vasubandhu, correct spelling is in the manual, you'll see, okay? Vasubandhu lived 350 AD, okay? I'm not doing dynasties, Tang Dynasties, Ming Dynasties, I'm gonna use Western dates, okay?

I think we're all gonna be wearing Chinese collars before the end of my time, and talking in dynasties, but right now it's Christian dates, okay? So, call it 350 AD. The dates for these guys are very, very difficult, there's no Indian history books, so forget it, okay?

I'm just giving you estimate, okay? I didn't have time to figure it out, I could probably do better, but, okay, 350 AD. The book is called The Treasure House of Higher Knowledge, The Treasure House of Higher Knowledge, okay?

Abhidharmakosha, okay? Kosha, full of Nours, okay? And still accountants in India are called Kotharis, it still comes from Kosha, okay?

And Stanley happens to be translating until 2042, is our schedule, right? 46? Oh, we might have to speed up.

A very important commentary, but it will take 20 years to translate, okay? And I translated one of the most important commentaries, first 12 years of my Geshe studies, I translated the whole commentary, okay? So, that's the first grade.

What's the topic? After the Buddha died, for 700 years, just after he died, some of his more advanced students, said to be Arhats, there's a debate about it, collected together collections of his topics, seven great collections of his teachings, and they called those literature Higher Knowledge, okay? So, that was collected together by students after the Buddha, and they kind of messed up some important points, okay?

But 90% of it is extremely important as a foundation of all Buddhism, okay? So, Abhidharma is important, it does not contain the highest teachings on emptiness, okay? And for 700 years after the Buddha, this is what was taught, okay?

That's what reached Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, okay? This tradition, okay? All right, what's the subject matter?

I describe it this way, oh anyway, just about every major idea that the Buddha taught, okay? It's like an encyclopedia, and you're constantly referring back to it. For example, the four steps of DCI come from there, the four laws of karma come from there, the four flowers come from there, the four steps of confession come from there, it's an amazing resource, okay?

It's an encyclopedia, okay? Second great topic, it's called Vinaya, vowed morality, promising through a commitment to keep to a moral code, an ethical code, okay? And there are eight great divisions, and you will study it during the ACI courses, okay?

Vinaya, okay? Vinaya comes from a root that means to tame a wild horse, okay? So, that's what we're doing.

Alison's translating Tsongkapa's greatest work on it, summary. Okay, the great book here for studying commitments, it's called the Vinaya Sutra, okay? And we can ...

right after that you should say it's not a ... Sutra, okay? Sutra technically means a teaching given directly by the Buddha, but it can also mean a short book, or a short classic.

Some of them are 12,000 pages, but ... like the Yoga Sutra, okay? 210 verses, that's all.

It's about 12 pages or something, okay? So, the Vinaya Sutra is the book we use to study Vinaya in the monastery, but it's not a Sutra, it's just a short book, okay? You can call it a short book on vowed morality, okay?

And the author's name is Gunaprabha, G-U-N-A-P-R-A-B-H-A. And it's in your reading, it's in your manual, don't stress about writing things. I'm not using visuals because it's in your manual, okay?

I don't want you to waste your time looking at a screen, okay? I want you to listen to an oral lineage, okay? Gunaprabha, about 550 AD, okay?

Pretty late, 550 AD. Okay, third great topic. In Sanskrit it's pramana, say pramana.

If you want to be really good, roll the N back, pramana. I would like a cup of tea if you don't mind, okay? A lot of Sanskrit is said with a tongue, pramana, okay?

Pramana means valid perception, correct perception. I have changed the name of the third topic to clear thinking, clear thinking, and I'm very happy, okay? It took me 27 years, but I'm happy with it.

I never did like Buddhist perception and epistakological theory, okay? What it is, is clear thinking, okay? And you have to be trained in how to think clearly, and it's an incredibly valuable tool for all Buddhists, okay?

So, it's called pramana, clear thinking, okay? How to think clearly, what are the rules for thinking clearly? And then, by the way, lots of information about how we perceive things.

For example, the crucial discussion of DCI level 7, chichedak, chichedak, okay? General and characteristics, what do you call it? Quality and characteristic, okay?

Very deep. This topic is called in Buddhism, the key to emptiness. It's extremely important, okay?

It's not some boring thing. I lost half my students when I taught ACI 13. 13 is a bad luck number in the West.

What's a bad luck number in China? Ba ba ba is good, right? Four?

Yeah, anyway, 13 is really bad luck in Western countries, because Jesus' 13th student killed, helped him get killed. So, 13 is a bad number. They don't have 13th floor on most buildings in America.

Why did I say that? Oh, course 13, which was logic. I lost half my students that year, okay?

And I'm gonna teach you the flow, by the way. Why did I teach one course after another? And you should know that by the time we finish this week, okay?

You're gonna know the names of the 18 courses, you're gonna be able to tell me the main ideas in the 18 courses, and you're gonna tell me, which even Geshe-la didn't know, why did he teach this one next? Okay? But I...

what do you call it? Revision? I went back and figured out a flow.

Okay, alright. The school here, by the way, is the Sutrast school in Sanskrit. You don't need to know the Sanskrit.

Sutrast school, followers of Sutra. Guess what? Okay, Mr. Know-it-all. Yeah, don't look around. Why is it called the Sutrast school? Why did they choose the name Sutrast for themselves?

So, the first school is called like Abhidharma, okay? Or Vinaya. But, by the way, Vinaya is just a part of the Abhidharma school, okay?

Same school. Okay, what's Sutrast? Good.

Yeah, they say to the Abhidharma guys, you're just reading stuff that was put together by the students. We want to read the Shinjin and the Jinkan. We want to go to the Sutras.

We want the Buddha's own word, okay? So, the second school, you can call them Logic school, or you can call them Sutrast school, because they say, we only want Sutra. We only want what the Buddha actually said, okay?

And then, they ended up being very interested in how do you think clearly, because that's a tool that every Buddhist needs. Why? The important stuff for getting out of suffering are things you cannot see with your eyes and ears.

You must develop your mental capacity. You must develop your clear thinking to see things that cannot be seen by the eyes and the ears. You must learn to develop this tool, pramana, okay?

You must learn to develop your mind to see things that you can't see with your eyes. Sometimes you can call it third eye, okay? So, the third eye is not some weird diamond way thing.

It's the ability to see things that cannot, like emptiness, that cannot be seen with your eyes, okay? You develop this muscle here, okay? Alright, next topic, Geshe topic.

How many Geshe topics? Five, good. How many schools?

Four. But five if you split the fourth school into two, okay? But we didn't get there yet, okay?

Okay, fourth major topic of the Geshe course, we're kind of going up schools, is ... it's called the Perfection of Wisdom. It's called the Perfection of Wisdom, okay?

Prajna Paramita. In Chinese? Boroboromudo, okay?

Prajna? Say Prajna? Paramita.

And actually, Russian is the closest modern language I'm aware of to Sanskrit. It's very precise, close to Russian. So, there you would say Znyayong, right?

For I know, I know, Znyayong. It's much closer to the Sanskrit, and in general Russian pronunciation is much closer to the Sanskrit. It's cool.

So, anyway, now Perfection of Wisdom has at least three major meanings that contradict each other. So, you better know which Perfection of Wisdom you're talking about, okay? When you talk about the Geshe topic, the fourth Geshe topic, which is named Perfection of Wisdom, in Tibetan?

Parchin. Parchin, just short name Parchin, okay? It's the study of the lower middle way school.

Perfection of Wisdom in the Geshe course only means the study of the lower half of the middle way school, the higher school, okay? It's only that. Why?

Because those early middle way works by Bhavaviveka, Asanga, these present every major topic of Mahayana, every major topic of the higher way, okay? So, super cool, alright? It's when you reach Prajnaparamita in the monastery, the fourth major topic, that you start the greater way, Mahayana, okay?

Don't call it Mahayana to your students, learn to use your language, Russian, Spanish, whatever. Don't drown your students under Sanskrit, okay? Don't force them to learn the same thing with an older name, you're just putting obstacles in their way, okay?

So, Perfection of Wisdom in the monastery course, in the Geshe course, it just means the study of the lower half of the middle way, okay? Why? Vast encyclopedia of all great ideas of Mahayana, except for the perfect explanation of emptiness, okay?

So, it's pretty cool, and frankly, it's half of the Geshe course, it's 12 years of the Geshe course, okay? It must be important, okay? I forgot to give you the important book for the Pramana, Clear Thinking Schools, okay?

It's by Dharma Kirti, and don't mix up your Kirtis, okay? You know, I went on wiki to see the dates for Dharma Kirti that they thought, and the picture of the Lama under Dharma Kirti in Wikipedia is Chandrakirti, and it says that under the picture in Tibetan. So, I wrote all my friends who do that kind of stuff, I said, can you fix it?

They stole the picture from me, which is okay, I got it in Russia. But, and it has the name under it, and they put it under the wrong Kirti, so don't get your Kirtis mixed up, okay? Dharma Kirti is the great logician, okay?

And we study his book called, A Commentary on Valid Perception or Clear Thinking, okay? In that case, what's valid perception or clear thinking mean? It's the work of his teacher, Dignaga, that's why it's a commentary, okay?

But I'm not telling you that, just put Dharma Kirti, okay? By the way, it's a tradition in Buddhism never to speak of your teacher, your personal Lama, with the, we call their naked name, Jemba, Ming Jemba. So, we're not really supposed to say Dharma Kirti.

And in ACI courses, we try to use the word master. Chinese people have a very good custom, they always say, oh, Michael Lao Tzu, Geshe Michael Lao Tzu, they always say Lao Tzu, I mean if you taught them how to change a tire on a car, they'll call you Lao Tzu. It's very polite, and it's a tradition in Buddhism, we say master Dharma Kirti, and I prefer that you do that.

You don't have to be a Buddhist to study ACI, and you don't have to be a Buddhist to teach ACI, but you should be respectful of the lineage, you call it master Dharma Kirti, okay? Dates from master Dharma Kirti, 650 AD. Now, who wrote the big book for fourth topic?

Well, actually it was Maitreya, and then his secretary got credit for it, Asanga, okay? And what's the... so, the book is by Maitreya slash Asanga, you can answer it that way if you want.

Half-brother of Vasubandhu, 350 AD, okay? Same mother. And what's the book called?

You got it, Jewel of Realizations. The Jewel of Realizations, in Sanskrit, Abhisamaya Alankara, Abhisam, okay? But you don't need to know that, okay?

Just put Jewel of Realizations. Very, very important. For example, DE NAS ZEN GYI RNAM RGYUD PA'I THING NGE BRDZIN LA NYOM ZHUGS NAS, BRTEN DRIN BRAL DRUNG LUG TU RNAM, LUS PA'I DRUNG LA RTOG PAR BYED.

We have to memorize most of these books in the monastery, these five great books. That's the whole source for two things, Lion's Dance and... and thousands of books on the on the twelve links.

It's two... two lines of Sanskrit, okay? It's a hot book, okay?

Twelve years of the Geshe course. Okay, fifth topic. I know you're getting tired, you're gonna be worse in a couple of days, so just enjoy.

Fifth topic, come on. Middle way, okay? Now...

oh, by the way, the other two meanings of perfection of wisdom, which is not what it means in the Geshe course, is the sixth perfection of a bodhisattva, the sixth activity of a bodhisattva, the sixth topic of training for all bodhisattvas is wisdom, Prajnaparamita, okay? The other meaning of Prajnaparamita is a huge group of sutras where the Buddha taught emptiness, but sometimes through very long stories, like the 8,000 verses, or the 20,000 verses, or the 25,000 verses, or the 100,000 verses, okay? It's a huge section in the scriptures called perfection of wisdom, so don't get confused, okay?

As a Geshe topic, it means the lower half of the middle way, which is big deal, not dummies, okay? Okay, here's the important Homer question. No, I'll tell you later.

Okay, I got your attention though. Alright, so this fourth topic, sorry, the fifth topic is middle way. Middle way also refers to the fourth topic, right?

They're the lower half of the middle way, so don't forget when you're listing Geshe topics, or you go to the monastery and they ask you, what do you guys studying nowadays? Use the right names, they are nicknames, they are misnomers, okay? Middle way means the study of the higher half of the middle way school, okay?

It's the study of the higher half of the middle way school. The big, big, big book, which is not the main book study, is Nagarjuna's Wisdom. It's just called Wisdom, okay?

By Nagarjuna. 200 AD. Does that date strike a ...

strike a bell? Ring a bell? Yeah, it's when Buddhism came back to what it was, 700 years after 700 years of Stanley Chen's Abhidharma, okay?

Then Nagarjuna came back and said, hey, you guys are missing emptiness man, you don't got it right, you know? So, he came, we call him, his nickname is Second Buddha on this Planet. Second Buddha to walk on this planet, okay?

200 AD. He wrote a book, which is sometimes just called, it's called Wisdom, but sometimes it's called, just called the Middle Way, okay? So, the most famous commentary on it is called Entering the Middle Way, meaning Nagarjuna's book, okay?

It doesn't mean the Middle Way as a school. And that's by Master Chandrakirti, okay? Around, I think it's 650, let me check, I put what I wrote here.

I can't find it, but yeah, 650, okay? Yeah, 650. You guys with me, okay?

Can I just keep going? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, because the nickname of the book Wisdom is Middle Way, okay?

So, Entering the Middle Way actually means learning to read Nagarjuna, okay? And so, it doesn't mean Entering Middle Way philosophy, for example. Although by, although we are, okay?

Okay, good question. So, those are the five great books. We memorized most of them in the monastery, over the course of the Geshe, Geshe course, okay?

I did all of the Abhisankara, I did the first four chapters of the Abhidharmakosha, which was almost a bitch, and you know, I've done pieces of the other ones, okay? But you need that to walk, you shouldn't walk on the debate ground if you don't have them in your head, okay? All right, now I'm gonna present them by school.

So, now we go to another homework question, the four schools, and it's actually the last homework question, and I'm actually timing this class not so bad, except I didn't get to your ACI course, but that's okay. I promised Tim I wouldn't do this, but I'm doing it. Okay, you might have to do half the homework to mine, okay?

You might have to do homework in halves, but anyway, okay, the four schools, the four great schools of ancient India, okay? They overlap a little bit, we'll see. First great school called Detailist.

Detailist, okay? Ist means a member of a group in English, you know like, I don't know, Republicanist. Anyway, Buddhist for example, okay?

So, yeah, so Detailist. Anybody, okay, human dictionary, anybody want to tell me why, who's not the human dictionary? Hassan?

Why are they called Detailist? Not, I mean it's a good guess, but there's a book called ... yeah, there's a book called The Detailed Explanation, which is what they follow.

That's their main Abhidharma book, that's their book, okay? Yeah, Detailist means Vaibhashika, but part of the title of the book is Vaibhasha, okay? So, Detailist just means their people, the first school of the four great schools of India, is called people who like to read the book The Detailed Explanation, okay?

And it's one of the books of Abhidharma, okay? Vaibhashika, okay, Vaibhashika. Alright, you don't need to know the spelling, it's in your ...

by the way, it's so nice to see so many people with jet lag, and I don't have, because all year it's the opposite. Second grade school, oh by the way, Abhidharma of ... now, Geshe topic in the four schools.

What's in the first school? Which Geshe topic? Two, great.

Abhidharma and Vinaya are in the first school. So, don't get confused between schools and topics. I'm trying to confuse you, but show me you're smarter than that.

Five topics, four schools, they go like this, okay? So, first topic, higher knowledge, second topic, vowed morality, are both part of the first school. The lowest school by the way, I'm going up, Vaibhashika, Vaibhashika.

Detail list, Abhidharma and Vinaya, okay? I prefer you don't use foreign words in your class, you know? You use them because you're used to them, you know?

Kongxing, you know? But, but just try to remember the first class you walked into. I remember the first class I walked into, and people were like, well the Vaibhashika approach to Abhidharma is not exactly what Vasubandhu would say, but it's more on the question of ālaya-vijñāna, you see?

And I'm like ... And for them it's very easy, they've been in it for ten years, but don't forget your students are not. Don't confuse them with a lot of Sanskrit, don't make them ...

Abhidharma sounds comfortable for you because you heard it for ten years, okay? So, don't do that to them, call it higher knowledge, okay? First school, detailist school.

Second school, we talked about it, Sutrist, Sutrist, okay? They follow the sutras, we don't want those huge summaries done by human beings after the Buddha died. We want the Heart Sutra, we want the Diamond Cutter, we want the real Sutras, we want what he said, okay?

Sutras, okay? But you can call them logic school, sometimes we call them logic school. Now we're going to call them clear thinking school, okay?

Clear thinking school, okay? That's their main thing. Topic number ...

three, okay? Topic number three. Now, with the first two schools, and with the first three topics, we have finished the branch called ...

the lower way. The lower way, okay? Now, you should know something about lower way.

In Tibetan it's, take men. Men means lower. Women are called GYES MEN, same word, lower being, okay?

I hope they change the language, they probably could if they really wanted to, you know, that's something the French would do. They'd have the courage to say, let's change this word, it's not nice. So anyway, those are lower way.

Literally, HINNA YANA, HINNA YANA, HINNA YANA, okay? HINNA means inferior, lower, okay? HINNA YANA, okay?

Now, you visit Sri Lanka, you visit Thailand, you visit Burma, do not call it HINNA YANA, you might go to jail. In their country, it's THERAVADA, the true way, THERAVADA, okay? So get, if you want to be polite, in a Buddhist group from one of those countries, don't use the word HINNA YANA.

It's like lower birth, it's like calling a woman a lower birth, it's not polite, okay? It's kind of not very sweet, okay? But, in our scriptures it's called lower way, okay?

It's the same word, lower, okay? So, the first two schools are HINNA YANA, and how many topics are HINNA YANA? Three, or THERAVADA if you're sitting with people from Sri Lanka or Burma, okay?

All right, third school, mind only school, okay? Mind only school. Where is it in the five Geshe topics?

Fifty dollar question. Okay, I had mentioned money, two people get excited. What?

Twenty-five dollars to get the question. Okay, anyway, you're both wrong, I saved my money. I mean, you're both not exactly precise, okay.

Now, when does a Geshe study the mind only school, okay? Exactly, okay? Course number 15, What the Buddha Really Meant, okay?

What the Buddha Really Meant, okay? We studied it for months in a certain city in China. Yes?

I'm about to refer to that, but hang with me. So, the main place in the Geshe course, thank you, when you study mind only, is when you study a book, a sutra called What I Really Meant. What I Really Meant, okay?

And, as the guys in the CS Pure Gold program can tell you, Buddha taught three great periods in his life. Forget the ACI course, what I'm going to do tomorrow. Buddha taught three great courses in his life, three great periods of his teaching.

First one is, I call it the list period, he made lists. Hey, there's four truths, there's twelve links, there's eightfold Arya path, there's the four steps of confession, there's the four steps of karma, there's the four lines of karma, there's the six ... you know, it's like ...

okay, it's the list period of his life. The first teaching for example he ever taught was the four truths, okay? So, he's just making lists.

He was ten non-virtues, he was organizing stuff for people, okay? And then, in the middle part of his life, he got up on a mountain, Vulture's Peak, and he said, by the way, all those lists I gave you, the stuff in those lists, it don't exist, it's not real. Every list I gave you, every piece of every list was not real.

It's like a joke you know, I fooled you guys for 20 years, you know? So, guess what happened? People freak out, people freak out, you know?

And people came to him, part of Marta Samudgatta, a Bodhisattva, and he said, listen, you spent the whole first part of your teaching career giving us lists, and we believed them and we practiced them. Then, we got to the second part of your teaching career, you know, like Diamond Mountain or something, instead of New York, and then you said, by the way, that list I gave you in New York, it's all BS, none of it exists, you know? And we're, we're like confused Mr. Buddha, like, what's the real one?

Which one was real? What are two famous Sutras from the second period, the second turning of the wheel? Yeah, the Diamond Cutter Sutra and the Heart Sutra, okay?

Like, nothing exists, nothing's real, okay? So naturally, some people are gonna come and say, what the, what are you talking about? You know, everything's not real.

And he said, look, you didn't get it, you know, let me explain it a different way. And he taught three characteristics of the Mind-Only School, and then he taught the Mind-Only School, okay? Which the Middle Way School understood to be Middle Way School, even in the third part of his life, and that started an argument that lasts until now, okay?

When Buddha... by the way, the third turning of the wheel is called clarifications, the second turning of the wheel is called emptiness, the first turning of the wheel is called lists, okay? Turning of the wheel means teaching period, but, why turning wheel?

Why is that the symbol of Buddhism? Yeah, you pat—I'm turning the wheel right now, and then you're gonna turn the wheel when you get certified as a DCI teacher, or you're gonna turn the wheel on the airplane unofficially, as a living room teacher, okay? So, three...

the third period, it's very interesting, because the Mind-Only guy said, oh, let's start a school called Mind-Only, and the Middle Way guy said, come on, he's just talking about the same thing he talked about before. Okay, got it? Anyway, you don't get to study that argument until after you finish Higher Middle Way, it's considered part of Higher Middle Way.

It's considered in the Geshe course, it's considered part of Higher Middle Way, but, as Stephen pointed out correctly, it comes up, very importantly, in the teachings on karma, and it came up in the Abhisamankara, right? Very important subjects about the Mind-Only school. So, you can say the Mind-Only school touches on the other schools in different places, but the main foundation of the Mind-Only school is the Middle Way school, okay?

They take off from their argument with the Middle Way school, okay? Third school, which topic in the monastery? In the Geshe course?

We're gonna—no, of the five. Yeah, we're gonna throw it in the Highest Middle Way, because that's where you study tongey. Okay, that's where you study tongey, okay?

We don't have a separate course in Mind-Only in the monastery, okay? Alright, fourth school, Middle Way, okay? That Middle Way is not the same as the Middle Way which is a topic of the Geshe course, okay?

As a school, Middle Way is the fourth and highest school. As a Geshe topic, it's the fifth topic, it's not the same thing, okay? Why?

Yeah, as a school, Middle Way is number four, and it includes two parts, and the lower part is the fourth Geshe topic, which is not called Middle Way. Confusing? Yeah, which is also the name in the Garjuna's book that started the whole problem.

Okay, so, as a school, Middle Way is the fourth school and the highest. As a topic, it's the fifth topic. As a school, it has two little schools in it, two groups.

As a topic, it's always the higher of those two groups, got it? No, higher, okay? Alright, now, since it's on your homework, and we're almost done, oh boy.

There's two schools in the, in the middle, two groups, okay? I ask you, for the rest of your life, to call them the groups of the Middle Way school, okay? First one is called, in English, Independent Group, the Independent Group, okay?

The Independent Group, they're called Independent, okay? And they wrote the books for the Geshe topic number four, which is not called Middle Way, which is called Perfection Wisdom, okay? I'm sorry, I'm just trying to...if you show up in the monastery and say you're studying Middle Way and you talk about lower Middle Way, you're in trouble, okay? Got it? Alright. Now, what we learned in our translation classes in Sedona, which you're always welcome to come to, there's a tuition fee to pay for the air conditioning, and you're always welcome to sign up, and we cover the classics, we translated 3,000 pages in the last two years.

No one has ever done that, okay? It's an awesome course, you should, you're welcome to come and sit in on it, you have to pay the fee, I'm sorry. And in that course, we learned a cool reason why the lower school is called Independent, okay?

Ready? It's cool, it's super sexy to me. Buddha said things don't grow from themselves, things don't grow from other things, things don't grow from both, and things don't grow from nothing.

That's very famous, okay? A big guy in the lower Middle Way school said, Buddha left a word out, he should have said, things don't grow from themselves, number two, and things don't grow from something else, from their own side, ultimately. He should have said that, because normally things do grow from other things, trees grow from seeds, stomachaches grow from turtles, you know?

So, this lower Middle Way guy said, you should have said, he should have said, ultimately, they don't grow from other things. When you say, they don't grow from other things, you confuse everybody, because they do grow from other things. You should just say, they don't grow from other things, ultimately, then everybody will understand what you're talking about.

Because when you say things don't grow from other things, well, what about trees? Okay, got it? Now, $100, why should that opinion, except for word, you get $10, why should that opinion be called independent?

Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, yeah, they think the word has its own power, independent power, because if someone's gonna misunderstand, doesn't grow from something else, they're also gonna misunderstand, ultimately, because the both words are empty. They don't have power from their own side, the power of word comes from you. You make a movie that, the last movie you saw, Netflix is coming from you, that's why you don't make money.

Just kidding. Got it? If you think it's gonna be easier for someone if you say the word ultimately, then you must think that word has more power than the other word.

But words don't have any power, the power in words comes from you. Got it? You're probably the only people in the world who understand why that school is named what it is.

Now, what's the name of the higher middle way school, we're almost done. Yeah, Consequence, Consequence, okay? Consequence, Prasangika.

Why called Consequence? So, word comes up to me and says, Geshe-la, I have an idea. I said, what?

All fruits are orange. I saw an orange, somebody had an orange, somebody had a tangerine, I got this idea, all fruits are orange. Okay, ready?

Then I say, oh really? Look at this banana, I guess it's orange. Okay, so the highest middle way school is called what they're called, Consequence, referring to the absurd consequences of the other guy's statements, the crazy implications of the other party's ideas, okay?

Got it? If you think I should have used the word ultimate, then I also should have said fish, right? It's effective, has the real meaning, it always refers to things that go like this, right?

From its own side, right? Okay, you could never call fishing looking for girls, right? Because it has its own meaning.

Got it? Okay, you're getting the deep explanations, okay? The highest middle way school is called Consequence or Resolve, you see?

Because if you believe a wrong idea about emptiness, the result is, you're gonna say stupid things, like all fruits are orange, okay? Got it? And the way we fight those people is we say, we don't say look, word, all fruits are not orange, there's other fruits, there's red apples, there's yellow bananas, that's not the chill system of the highest middle way.

The chill system of the highest middle way is to show, to put a banana and stick in his face and say, you want this orange fruit word? You know, you don't say I disagree, you don't say not all fruits are orange, you don't say this this fruit is yellow, you say, oh word, here's another orange fruit for you, okay? That's called ridiculous consequence of his own position.

The highest middle way school is called that. Now, we're out of time, am I right? We got three minutes?

Last question on your homework, I know I said that already, I was just trying to keep your attention. Last question, honest, just like what I really meant. Last question on your homework, how do we divide the four ancient schools into two groups?

On what basis do we say Hinayana and Mahayana for example? You can say motivation, okay? The lower two schools are supposedly not interested in saving the universe, they only—the three goals I laid out for ACI right?

Number one, make people happy, number two, change the model of the world, number three, go to Sirius, change the universe, okay? They don't believe in number three, they actually don't believe in number two much, okay? They just want to be happy, okay?

That's the traditional way to explain the difference between Mahayana and Hinayana, but, if you read the Abhidharmakosha, they discuss Bodhisattvas, and they discuss saving the world and being enlightened. Oh, I'm gonna kiss you but you got that beard. Perfect, yeah, it's perfect, yeah.

That's the second answer to the question. The question says I want two answers. Number one, lower school, higher school.

Lower school doesn't have Bodhisattvas, they don't want to save the universe. Higher schools, mind only and middle way, they want to save the universe. Abhidharma—sorry, Sutras and Detailers, they don't want to save the universe, but they do and it's in their books, duh, but that's a traditional answer, okay?

Now, if you want to go deeper, which as ACI teachers I'm sure, talk about it in terms of the six flavors of emptiness. The way you divide the schools, the way you divide the four schools, the way you divide Hinayana and Mahayana is all based on how good is their emptiness explanation, okay? How good is it, all right?

Let's do it. You won't be able to stay late later because you'll be too tired. Okay, you wanna?

Let's do it quick. Okay, we're gonna talk about the six flavors of emptiness that are the true basis of the differences between the schools, because you've got to understand the differences between schools to understand the structure of the Geshe course, which you have to understand if you're gonna understand the structure of the ACI Foundation courses, got it? Okay?

I'm trying to make you a real ACI teacher who understands what the hell is ACI, okay? You've got to know the schools, you've got to know the topics, okay? Ready?

And you've got to know the six flavors of emptiness to know why the first two schools are lower, and the second two schools are higher, way. Mahayana Hinayana, got it? Someone give me the first flavor of emptiness, quick quick, we did it like ten times in your city.

Yeah, things are... by the way, every time you teach the six flavors of emptiness, start out the sentence with the same words, things are empty, of, or things don't have, okay? And the blank, fill in the blank for the first flavor of emptiness is, things don't have lasting forever, okay?

Your husband's not gonna be yelling at you forever, he's gotta sleep, he's gotta eat, okay? Take refuge, which is real refuge, in the understanding that he has to change, he cannot yell all night. Most of the night, yes, but he's gotta take a break, okay?

And that's the lowest form of emptiness, your husband who's yelling at you, by the way, right now we're being relevant to real life, your husband can't yell forever, take refuge in emptiness, okay? First flavor of emptiness, nothing lasts forever. What's the famous example I always give in, when I discuss it?

Abraham Lincoln, the most compassionate president in American history, had to kill more people than any American president, wow, that's a... okay? But, and when he had his big meeting with the generals, he said the only good thing about this war is, it won't last forever, okay?

So, that's a low, low, low refuge, it don't work too good, okay? I'll put up with my husband because he'll go to bed sooner or later, okay? It's not a very effective emptiness, you know?

It'd be nice if you could just stop him from ever yelling, but if you don't know that higher emptiness, take refuge in the lower emptiness, which is real Buddhist refuge, you know? I'm gonna wait, I'm not gonna say anything, he can keep yelling, he's got to take a break sooner or later, you know? He's got to go to the PP, like you guys, okay?

Lowest form of emptiness. What school? Yeah, lowest school, lowest school, detailed school.

Second kind of emptiness. Yeah, okay? There's...

okay, second kind of emptiness, you cannot control things in this life, forget it, okay? There'll come a day when you can't raise your arm, okay? Don't tell me you can control your husband, or your finances, or your country, okay?

You can't control your finger, okay? In the end, in the hospital, someone will have to hand you the water, trust me, I've been there so many times in this life, okay? Someone will have, you won't be able, you don't have control, you can't control anything.

Take refuge in this lower emptiness. What do you do in the kitchen? Hey look, what the heck?

He's gonna yell, he's gonna yell. You know, I tried, I talked to him, I did everything, he's still yelling. I can't control everything, okay?

Just relax, okay? Is it a solution? No.

Does it help? Yes, that's lower school, that's a definition of lower school. Is it a solution?

No. Does it make you feel better? Yeah.

Which school? Is it? Yeah, you're right, second school mostly, okay?

Second school mostly. You gotta kind of say mostly. Okay, third flavor of emptiness, for zero dollars.

Yeah, good, yeah. THA GNYED DANG, THA GNYED RGYUG PA'I, GYUR GYUR ZHES PA'I, THA GNYED RGYUG PA'I, RGYUG ZHES PA'I YIN PA'I, RANG GI TSEN GYI RGYUG PA'I STONG PA'I, GYUR GYUR ZHES PA'I, RGYUG ZHES PA'I YIN PA'I, RANG GI TSEN GYI RGYUG PA'I STONG PA'I. Things are empty of being called what they're called, because that's what they have to be called.

Things are empty of their names, okay? How'd Shakespeare say it? I'm sorry.

It doesn't really matter, you can mix three and four if you want. Okay, Luca's right. I'll go your way, it's probably my way.

We do it with our elbow, right? Mind only school, right? Here's a seed.

You yelled at your kids a week ago. A week went by, the seed matured. Then you walked into the kitchen and the seed opened into you and your husband.

One seed splits into subject and object. Don't tell me your husband's a bad man. You are a bad person.

You created the yeller and the yelly. You created the yeller and the person getting yelled at. Don't blame, don't blame him.

You created him. Who brought you in the kitchen? Who brought him in the kitchen?

What are you talking, why are you whining? Why are you getting angry? If you don't like it, stop yelling at your kids.

Don't plant the tree if you don't like the branches. Got it? What school?

Are you sure? This is not a solution to the problems of the universe? Stop making bad seed that split into husband and wife?

Sounds pretty good to me. Yeah, good. Okay, but when you explain...

I'm not gonna go there. I will go there. I don't care if you don't sleep.

The mind only school says, the husband side of that equation is a video playing inside of your mind. He don't exist outside of your mind. So, you shouldn't get mad at him.

He's a video that you planted in your own mind, okay? Got it? I had a profound question for a hundred dollars that someone asked me about this.

Hmm? Am I alone is worth $25? Yeah, when I kiss my husband, am I kissing myself?

It was a deep philosophical question. Okay, you got it. Who's keeping track?

Allison, can you keep track of money? Okay, he gets 75, Peter gets 25, okay? Not euros.

Okay. Okay, got it? It's not a bad idea, unless you say it's all happening inside your head, which they do say, and that's why it's a lower emptiness.

Got it? Okay, next one is names. A rose by any other name would smell the same, okay?

Four. World view number four. Emptiness number four, okay?

It doesn't matter because they're both mind only. I reserve the right to confuse them, okay? They're both mind only, okay?

And that is, it's not true that things are called what they're called self-existently, okay? Which has big implications, okay? Like politicians are always, some disaster happens and they call it a different name.

They put a spin on it, you know? It's so good the economy went down this month because it can go up next month more, you know? And you're like ...

okay, you can use names for anything, okay? You can call a fish a rose, it's okay. Names don't belong to what they're used for, which also implies you have the freedom to call the problem with the husband an opportunity for growth, okay?

And it's true, and it helps right? When your husband's yelling at you, you can say, gee, now the economy is so much lower, think how much higher we can get, you know? If we start talking to each other civilly, we've made progress from yesterday, got it?

Okay? You can make opportunities out of problems, that's the fourth worldview, according to some schools of ACI. Number five.

Mm-hmm. You don't have a thing, you don't have a laptop or a microphone until you have an accurate perception of it, okay? It's not there.

Everything needs 50-50. 50% there has to be a square here, and some metal. 50% Geshe-la has to be not drunk, not crazy, and between those two things we get a laptop, okay?

Got it? 50% comes from the object, 50% comes from the subject, which is a big difference from the lower schools that say everything comes from the object side. The pen comes from the object side, 100%.

So, this worldview number five, it's a pretty big jump, you see? Half of that pen comes from me, got it? Half of that pen's coming from me, half of it's coming this way, half of it's coming from me, we meet in the middle.

That's reality, got it? LO NUS MED LA NANG WA'I WANG GI ZHAGS TZAM MA YIN PAR YUR RU ANG GI THUB MO MA YIN PA'I THUB LUGS KYI NGON GYI DRUB PA'I THONG BA, okay? That's the emptiness.

LO NUS MED LA NANG WA'I WANG GI ZHAGS TZAM MA YIN PAR, not simply established with the help of an unaffected, undrunk, uncrazy state of mind, the object, ZHAGS TZAM MA YIN PAR YUR RU ANG GI THUB MO MA YIN PA'I THUB LUGS KYI NGON GYI DRUB PA'I THONG BA, is appearing from its own side, but not on a hundred percent on its own power, okay? Emptiness, lower, middle way, got it? You all right?

Did I lose you yet? Yeah, I don't care. Okay, highest school, highest, highest, highest.

If you don't want your husband to yell in the kitchen, stop yelling at your kids, okay? It's all coming from that. It is empty of coming from anything else, that's highest emptiness, got it?

It is empty of coming from anybody else except yelling at your kids, and that's the highest viewpoint, okay? Now, that's the real Geshe method of dividing the four schools, got it? It's not by book, it's not by author, it's not by historical period, hysterical period, and it's not by what they think about saving the whole world or not, okay?

It's by how sophisticated is their presentation of emptiness, got it? So, that's your last homework question, yes? Yeah, lower, middle way.

Yeah, which in the Geshe topics has a nickname? Yeah, Perfection of Wisdom, got it? Did I confuse you guys?

All right, South Africa.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah?

[Speaker 1]
Uh, somewhere in the history of my teaching career. No doubt I'd said that, but I'm not completely... Is it a mind ...

yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. Do I have an answer for you?

Mmm, I will adjust what Pratyekabuddha focuses on, which is dependent origination, how's that? Okay, and listener would focus on the four truths, how's that? So, you got the Chandrakirti says, the two lead to the ...

he bows down to the lower arhats because they are the true source of Buddhas, and he bows down to ... he bows down to listeners, because they ... listener arhats, because they have gained their realization based on the four truths, and he bows down to Pratyekabuddha arhats, because they have based their realizations on the twelve links of dependent origination.

That's the main difference. I'll adjust that, but probably it says that somewhere, the other thing. Okay, so you're only going to get the homework, Jacqueline, they only get the teacher training homework, and they don't get the ACI, and I'll try to teach what I'm supposed to teach tomorrow.

But now you have an appreciation of the Geshe course and of ACI. You understand ACI. What we have to do next is go through the 18 courses of the Foundation series, and not the Diamond Way series, and we have to look at what's cool, and what flavor emptiness, and what Geshe topic.

Okay, that's what I want you ... once you know all those things, you can be a real ACI teacher. You can ...

you understand the whole structure of the ACI courses. Cool? Cool ma?

Okay, fei zhang ku? Okay, all right. Connie, Miss Connie.

By the way, I don't want ACI to be a Buddhist sect of any kind, but I think the prayers are cool. The Buddhist prayers are cool, because it's a prayer for the final goal of ACI. We want to take the stars.

Dhamma dhamma kam nirya yami. Dikhe wogon. Sanam yeshe tso tso shing.

Sanam yeshe ne chung we. Dhamma kunyi to pa chok. Cool.

By Sunday, you have to know those two prayers in the original pronunciation. By tomorrow, you got to be able to get your fingers like that. No, you see, you forgot how hard it was the first time, right?

Okay. Thank you, thank you for being here. Thank you for having the courage to take the ACI teacher training.

We will make you good teachers. You stay, you finish, you'll be a kick-ass teacher, okay? That's our commitment, okay?

And you can help more people than any other way in your life, okay? There's no way to help other people more than this wisdom, okay? And that's the greatest thing you've done in your life.

I can tell you from 66, it's the best thing I ever did, okay? You too. All right, thank you.