Бен Крамер — Книга 2: Драгоценность истинной мысли (Геше Йеше Вангчук о Дхармакирти), занятие 44

[Speaker 1]
Good morning all, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are in the world. Wonderful to have you. Hey, Nick.

Hey, hey, hey. Ready for you? Ready, ready.

Good. I see the boss. Oh, great.

That makes everything possible. Yeah, it makes everything possible. Exactly.

I think we can translate stuff. Hey. Morning, Joshua.

Getting in place. Good morning, Ishamichael. Hey, is this as loud as it'll go?

Yeah, it's from there. It can be even louder. Oh, yeah.

Do you want it louder? Well, let's see when they... Okay, Mr. Kramer, where's your homework?

Oh, my dog ate. Oh, Mr. Nick, Mr. Nick, do you have anything? No, no.

We're all anxiously awaiting Ben's homework that his dog may have eaten. Wait. Yeah, that's not a thing anymore.

Can I show you guys? Would you please? I got something.

Hang on. So, I met this guy in San Diego. He's a top surfer and a top translator, and he can't decide which one he is, so...

I was getting funny looks from the folks at the hotel. But he went out and caught about 10 waves, we counted, and then he ran in and did a mixed nuts class. I thought it was pretty cool.

Well, congratulations, Nick. Luckily, my boss stays at a beach. We're so glad you're here, boss.

We're so glad that you're well. We love you. We miss you when you're away.

We're very happy that you can take care of yourself in every way that you need, and it's our job to miss you and pine for you when you're away. And anytime you need to do something, we support you, and we will be here to hold down the fort. But know that while we're holding down the fort, we're sitting here dreaming of you.

Thank you. I appreciate it. No, I appreciate it.

And by the way, everything's feeling much better. I'm so glad. Very good.

So, folks, if we were to divide all reasons into just two broad types, what would they be? Proving something's there and proving something's not there. That's right.

Paula's definitely right. Tim said something clever also. Not as clever.

Tim said correct and incorrect. Oh, not as clever. I like it.

This book hasn't gone that way yet, but you're not wrong. All reasons that involve the color blue and all reasons that don't involve the color blue would have also been accurate, but not covered in this text. Yeah, so let's go through those two, then, that Paula kindly provided us, which, again, are those proofs for the presence of something and those proofs for the absence of something.

And let's subdivide those, if we may. What would be two types of reasons for the presence of something? Oh, it's like identity and implication.

And you, results. Not you, importantly, but... Causal.

[Speaker 2]
Dre.

[Speaker 1]
Not causal. Yeah, great, great, great. Dre, not you.

And it's cool, right? If you think about it, the presence of a cause doesn't necessarily prove the result because you might not have all the other factors that go into producing the result. Exactable.

But if the result is there, the cause has to be there or has to have been there. Has to have been, yeah. I'll take it.

Yeah. Cool. How about, can you say it in another funny language?

Dre-boo-tahk. I'll take it. Dre-boo-tahk.

Rang-shin-gee-tahk. Yeah. Rang-shin.

Right. Rang-shin. What if we, instead of tahk, we could also say, and sometimes do in this text, say...

Ten-sip. Great. You're hired.

It's too late. I like it. Oh, good.

We'll never leave them. How many types of reasons for the absence of something have we been presented with in the context of this text to cover my...

[Speaker 3]
Two.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, technically two, but there will be more types. It's true, Pei-Ling, but this, what two? I was looking for two.

What two? Oh.

[Speaker 3]
The presence of something proves the absence of another thing.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 3]
Well, because it's close to three. Ah, yeah. The subcategory to prove the absence of something, the first is things that typically apparent, you can see.

Second thing is things that you cannot see.

[Speaker 1]
Or like you said, typically. That's brilliant. Thank you.

Yes. Typically, I couldn't see. Yeah, that's wonderful.

So we have... Here, and I'll put this on one line so it's most visible. Right.

So generally, we seem to be dividing proofs or reasons used to prove an absence into reasons for the absence of a thing that normally wouldn't be apparent. Um, I guess to a given person, and then reasons for the absence of something that that the person should see. I like it.

Okay. Now there are four types, it seems, of reasons for the absence of something that should be apparent. So far, though, we've only gotten into two of those.

So I'd like to know what those two are that we did sort of kind of cover. Sort of kind of cover.

[Speaker 3]
The first one, the presence of something can prove the absence of another thing.

[Speaker 1]
Because it's mutually exclusive. Yeah. In fact, I would say as a sneak preview of what I'm going to turn out to be right or wrong about, that it seems that the first two, Pei-Ling, are what you said.

There are two types of things that would be present, that would prove the absence of something. And I suspect we're going to find out that there are two types of things that could be missing, that would prove the absence of something, but we didn't get to those latter two yet. What two types of things could be present that would rule out the presence of another thing?

And I've got another hint in my pocket if we get desperate. Something that people could normally see is something that people could normally not see. It's not the one we're looking for right now.

And here's my big fat hint, is that Geshe Michael kindly gave us a note in the margin to remember with this categorization system that the—how can I make this not too easy—the mamikbe-ness overrides the dreiboo-ness in the categorization system. Yeah, the identity and the—are you talking about the identity and the and the—yeah, right. So there could be a contradictory what and a contradictory what.

You just said it. Yeah, an effect that would be contradictory and then cancel it out, or an identity that would be contradictory and cancel it out. I'm going to allow it.

Yeah, totally. Sounds great. And the identity canceller would supersede the other ones.

Yes, I think that's right. I think that's right. So we have a Rangshin Gelmikitak, okay, and a Gelmdre Mikitak.

These two are essential. So there could be something that by its—I hate to say by its nature, but whose identity—we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about it.

But yeah, reasons based on seeing the presence of something that is contradictory to something that we're denying about the subject, or reasons based on the presence of a result of something that would be contradictory to the thing we're trying to say about the topic. These are both dependent upon the concept of pairs of opposites, which I just thought this one's easy. I gave you two hard homework questions, so this one's easy.

You just give me this and you're free to go if you would just give me the corresponding term so that you have it ready in your pocket. Deal. I would like to try.

Okay.

[Speaker 3]
If the room temperature in a building is zero Celsius, it is impossible that the building is on fire.

[Speaker 1]
That sounds good to me. I'm not great at the conversion system, but zero, you picked a good number. And so my understanding is things should freeze at that.

That one I know is 32 Fahrenheit for you, knuckle-dragging imperial measurement system Americans. Cool. Great.

How about a little student translation for you, boss? Can I have a quick question? Sounds all good.

Geshe-la. Yeah. Hi.

Hi, again. Nice to see you. For the Rongxin Gel...

Wait, I don't have any money. I'll shake you down later. I'll ask Rob.

Is that when they use the crow and the owl example? Is that the Rongxin Gel? It can be.

It can be. It can be. Yeah.

But that's off into another question of two kinds of Gelndust. Really? And for that, you have to study Adam's Gelndust.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Tlenchik Menengal and something else. Tlenchik Menengal and... Tlenchik Menengal.

Tlenchik Menengal.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Tlenchik Menengal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did that.

Two are mutually contradictory, and two are unfriendly, and they don't... A crow and an owl do not stay on the same branch at the same time, but it doesn't mean that a crow is not an owl. Okay.

Got it. Thank you. I don't think they'd be under much duress.

You could get them together. I'm not convinced it's impossible. You asked me, boss, to translate this example that you kindly gave us of a Gelndrian Nickbang.

Mameypeyta. Yeah. Good.

Okay, a reason for a lack of something based on the presence of an opposing result. Yeah, good. That's correct.

Consider a place in the east. Yeah, Shakyashinachichen. Nice.

me top chenpoy kyepar nubpa mayin te. me top chenpoy kyepar nubpa mayin te. It is not covered in a raging fire, like raging for topchenpo.

And I like the covered, because it could mean there's a fire in the corner, but this says covered. chang re bulong chen, because there are continuous shivers there. I like that.

bulong chen gyen chak yinpay chu. Perfect. Yeah.

So what's the result here? The result here are shivers. Yeah, shivers.

And the presence of shivers precludes the presence of a... ...hypothetical cause, which would have been raging fire. Yeah, good.

Okay, great translation. Let's do number three. Okay, number three.

And I played with that for my own... Oh, here. So number three, we'll call something like...

gyu ma mikpay ma mikpay dak, would be a reason for the lack of something based on the lack of a cause. Oh. Yeah.

Yeah, you can say that. By the way, I tried to... I pulled these examples out of the logic scriptures.

There are many, many logic scriptures, due to John Brady's excellent database. Which helped us this morning, by the way, with a very important quotation about the bardo. And so I...

For the examples, I actually put the... I put the text that I pulled them from, so sometime in the future you know where to find them. Okay, let's keep going down.

Here it is. Can you read that? It was totally perfect pronunciation to impress everybody.

Unlikely, but I'm going to do it anyway. Dick, you got the plate. Oh, yeah.

Help me. Fly. Co-pilot.

dung gi shin di chö chen Can we finish the sentence before that? That's okay. Okay, that's okay.

Yeah, go ahead. dung gi shin di chö chen Yeah, dung gi shin di chö chen shak sa kel dun du song wey kansa gyi gyu la shak sa ngey pey che she dun tun me pe shak sa kel dun du song wey kansa gyi gyu la shak sa mik je kyi tse ma me pey che Nice. Okay, consider this place or the spot here before us.

In the mind of people with no capacity to see flesh-eating spirits, there are no perceptions of the past matching reality. shak sa kel dun du song wey kansa gyi gyu la shak sa ngey pey che she dun tun me pe You can print the present sentence. Yeah, okay, good.

The only thing I would say is kel dun du song wey, the way it was explained to me, and it's not a... it's a difficult term, but the way Ken Rinpoche used to always refer to it means kel dun, he would say it means that person still has a doubt whether ghosts exist. He would say kel dun du...

He would read it as kel dun du song means it is a point of doubt for that person. So kelwa normally means to have a share of something. But he always used to gloss it as a person.

So if you meet a person who's not sure if pretas exist, which is pisha cha, say pisha cha. Pisha means meat, cha means eat, and that's a Sanskrit for meat-eater, which is a synonym for a preta actually. Maybe if you eat meat you become a preta, I don't know.

Anyway, shak sa kel dun du song wey kansa gyi gyu la. Yeah, so if a person if you go up to a person and you say do you believe in bardo spirits, and they say no, I'm not sure, then that's evidence that they have not had the original correct perception of a bardo spirit, because now they don't have the recollection of... They can't say, oh, I saw them last September or something like that.

Okay, so yeah. So cheshe, by the way, there's a huge debate in logic texts and the texts on mental functions about whether cheshe is sema or not. Yeah, and there's different schools.

Is a memory a pramana? Can a memory ever be a correct perception, an accurate perception? And there's two schools of thought about it, but he says here they don't have any reasonable memory of a bardo spirit that they perceived, therefore they must not have had a pramana of...

they must never have met one face to face, because in that case they would have a reasonable recollection of that. Okay, so whether you say the recollection has to be accurate perception or not, doesn't matter. They couldn't...

if they don't have a recollection, they never had the accurate perception in the first place. Okay? And che means what, Ben, generally?

D-P-Y-A-D. Yeah, to analyze. So these sentences are very open to mistranslation by a person who has not been exposed to an oral lineage.

So kelden would mean you know, something you estimate. And cheshe would be something like scientific examination, and it's not what they mean at all. So, yeah, good.

Denton. What's denton? Denton and stuff.

Oh, I guess like this is corresponding with the way things are, or like consistent. Yeah, good, perfect. Yeah.

Yeah, perfect. Yeah, den means here, den means meaning, ten means in accordance with, and denton means accurate. Okay, it fits the reality.

It fits the reality of the situation. Den is a very, very loaded word, reality, or thing, or object, or things like that. So denton means, in logic, denton means which corresponds with reality.

Okay? Cool. Yeah, good, nice.

The rest is good. Okay, I'm going to give it back to you. Geshe-la, can I have a quick question as you transfer?

Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't Keldon, and I know, I guess you said Kendra Brachet liked to say it was to have a doubt, but doesn't it literally mean like hidden object, or like a hidden, something hidden?

Yeah, you could say that also. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. That's all I think.

All right. Let me share my screen. Let me make sure I have nothing terrible up on my screen.

I'm working on this many documents right now. You wouldn't want to accidentally show us a picture of Nick in his suit and shorts. I mean, too late.

You're just lucky I didn't, he didn't, you're lucky he didn't have his shirt off. Okay. We are lucky.

By the way, it's good to be a pretty good surfer. Okay. By the way, it's really, really fun to be with Nick and his family.

I'm thinking to do it more often, but if I don't have to be surgerized every time. Rimrock West, as they say. Yeah, there's rumors like that.

Okay, so here, I think we're, we did two, we did three, we did three. Did we have to, did we finish this sentence, Ben? We did not.

Okay. Would you like to have someone read? Sure.

Word, can I, can I go to you, to to your temporary services to hire a temporary employee? You're outsourcing. Sounds expensive to me.

It's, yeah, you don't have to pay insurance. That's good. All right.

Yeah, thank you. Okay. Nice, very, very nice reading, Tin, thank you.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for all your help with many projects, and I really appreciate it. All right, Ben, you want to translate?

Yeah, the lack of a cause. Yeah, setting that forth. Yeah, you're putting that forth in this case as a reason, would you think?

Yeah, which is like, you can't have goose bumps because there's no hope. Okay, may nay. DRE BU MED PA So we set that forth as a reason that there's no, that the result is not there.

Yeah, that the result is not there because the cause is not there. And to prove that you can use, you can use reason number three, which is RGYUD MA MIG PA The reason based on the absence of the cause. Perfect, okay.

And then he's gonna have a fourth one, which by the way, she here is tricky. And I'll tell you why. In this sentence, she does not refer to the place where the cold is.

It refers to the cold itself. It refers to the object. Okay, so you could easily mistranslate this.

So she meets that foundation of a perception, meaning object, here, which it can mean. And by the way, she in some scriptures can mean cause. Foundation can mean cause.

DE'I TSE MED MA MIG PA Yeah, if you don't see a thing with an accurate perception. Good, yeah, a foundation of a perception, right, with an accurate perception. Yeah, nice.

Then, BDAGS DGOS Yeah, you put that forth as a reason. The fact that you don't see, you suggest as a reason. Yeah, the fact that you don't see something with an accurate perception, is a proof that that she is MIG PA.

That that same item ain't there. Good, nice. Yeah, good.

That's called a RANG BZHIN MA MIG PA'I BDAGS. That's called a reason based on not seeing the thing with, I don't know, a thing, so that which is identical with the thing, maybe? I'm not sure how to translate that.

It kind of means the lack of one pair of a relationship of identity. Okay, like if there's no functioning thing there, then there's no changing thing there, for example. Okay, that's all.

Yeah, to be one is to be the other. SHI BSTAN TOG, those are, so he's got... Go ahead.

I was just going to ask, I mean RANG BZHIN MA MIG PA'I BDAGS though, if you go to translate that as a heading or something as one of the four types, what cute little name would you give that? I really struggled with that. Yeah, I'll let you struggle with it, but what it means is the absence of a nature.

You could call it that in a simple way, but it's a misleading name because it means the absence of one of two partners in a relationship where to be one is to be the other. That's the whole name. Right.

The absence of one of two partners in a relationship where to be one is to be the other. So the absence of a functional thing would consider changing thing, for example. Okay, very good.

We finished those two. You translated them quite well. Thank you for that.

Thank you. Oh, I have one more question, if I may. If we could go up to just the previous moment of commentary from Geshe Yeshe Wang Tu, not the one we just covered, but I dare say the one just before that, I have a quick question.

This one? Yeah, he seems to be saying here that the previous four verses give these four types of reasons, but also give senchis of them, that they directly present or explain the divisions of this type and then give a senchi, which we normally translate as an example. Now, you provided us classical examples, but I don't see that the verse did, and so I think I may be misunderstanding what Geshe Yeshe Wang Chu is saying here.

Yeah, I would have to say personally that you're correct and that the senchis are implied but not stated. Okay. By the way, I don't think at this point he was even inserting the verses, because I was the one who inserted the verses.

That's right, yeah. Okay. So it's only because of you that we caught him.

Yeah, okay. Thank you. Okay.

Yeah, that's a big... I think we're here. Do you want to have someone read, Ben?

Very much so. Word, can I go back to Word's temp agency? Geshe-la, I don't think we did number four, did we?

Oh. We just, oh. Oh, we didn't.

Paula's correct. I translated two and three as per your request, but we have to do number four. Oh, I'm sorry.

Okay. I'm going to skip. So there's the text which I used for the example, and then I converted that to a normal logical statement, which would make it easier for you guys, okay?

So let's do this one. Who's going to read that, Ben? This is proof.

This is example number four of a proof that something is missing because the thing that would be the same is also missing. So a functional thing is missing because it's missing. Okay, that's all.

Word, who can I use? Here's the class... Me, Len.

Sorry. Thanks, Ben. Thank you.

Who did we pick? Are they coming? Me, Len.

I don't know. Am I going? There is no sound because there is quiet.

[Speaker 3]
Good.

[Speaker 1]
Beautiful.

[Speaker 3]
ta nge che kyi che she tong tung she me ma mikpay kyi ra Great.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Don't be embarrassed.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm very happy. All right.

Hey, Ben, you're going to translate? Let's, in the air here before us, or something, in the space before us. Yeah, I think in English it's tricky because we would say, it literally says let's take the example of in the place in front of us.

But I think in English we might not have to say that. Okay, in the mind of someone who has doubt or has uncertainty about the presence of flesh-eating spirits. Yeah, or about their existence at all, right?

They must not have shastra ngeje kyi che she din ten. They could not have a perception of the past or a memory which is reflective of reality, which is consistent with the way things are, that sees flesh-eating spirits. Yeah, if this person in front of me is doubting the existence of pretas, then they must not have had a...

they must not have a correct recollection of seeing a preta. We're not saying they must never have had a correct perception of a preta. We're saying they must not have an accurate memory of having seen a preta.

Okay, us, Ben. Who's... Shastra kelden nusongway konsang.

Right, because people who doubt the existence of flesh-eating spirits don't have accurate perceptions matching reality of the past, which confirm flesh-eating spirits for them. Yeah, so it's very tricky here. I'll simplify it, okay?

This person doesn't have a correct memory of a preta, because that correct memory itself is se-me ma mikpa. Oh, that's cool. Okay.

Yeah. It's okay, because that... I see, because an accurate perception of the past, whatever, which matches reality of a flesh-eating spirit is not an accurate perception.

Or it's not. It's more subtle. They don't have an accurate recollection of having seen...

They don't possess an accurate recollection of having seen a preta, because in their mind that recollection is itself se-me ma mikpa. It's not a se-me ma. It's not an accurate perception.

It's a valid perception that has no object in the first place. No, it is not mikpa by itself. Oh, shoot, that's brutal.

Oh, boy. Okay. So that accurate perception of the past is not...

Sorry, that perception of the past, which matches reality, is not perceived by an accurate perception. Perfect, yeah. Brutal.

It's like saying there's no cup on the table because there's no cup which is perceived by an accurate perception. And to be perceived by an accurate perception is the definition of... An existing thing.

Yodpa. Yodpa. That's the definition of existence in Buddhism.

So it's sexy here. Yeah, that's why you have a... What's this category we're in?

Rang shin. The nature. This is a logical reason which is based on the nature of things.

And to be a thing is to be perceived by a correct perception. And that's the nature of a thing. The nature of a thing is to be perceived as a thing by a correct perception.

So if you make a logical statement and say this person has no memory of a ghost, because their memory of a ghost cannot be perceived itself by a correct perception, that's a rang shin ma mikpay dak. That's a proof of the absence of something based on its very nature. Which means the nature of existence is to be perceived by accurate perception.

In Buddhism, that's the definition of existence. It's a very sexy proof. And it's a difficult proof.

Cool? It is. Yeah, it's great.

Everyone here is nodding. They learn to nod. All right.

Nice job of reading, by the way, Milan. Thank you. Who's next, Mr. Kramer?

Dr. Wirt. This is going to get embarrassing when you have a team captain that you go to to ask.

[Speaker 2]
No, that'd be great.

[Speaker 1]
Just chase it down the line.

[Speaker 2]
Mike Hoffman.

[Speaker 1]
Please read. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Welcome back, Ashley.

[Speaker 1]
TSA'O BA'I ZHUGS LA BSTAN PA NI YOD DE RANG SHIN GAL MIG GI PHANG PAS KHYAB CHEN GAL MIG DANG RANG SHIN MA MIG PA'I PHANG PAS KHYAB CHEN MA MIG PA NI SO Nice. Great reading. I don't know, you have good ears because you're a piano player.

And I look forward to playing with you again. Diamond Mountain, October. TSA'O BA'I ZHUGS LA Okay, so Ben, he says the fifth and sixth examples of a proof for the absence of something, the fifth and sixth examples of a proof for the absence of something, are not directly stated in the root text, but they are ZHUGS LA BSTAN PA.

Oh, they're implied. Yeah, they're only implied by the root text. So he's saying, look, there's two more here that the root text implies, but does not state directly.

There's two more categories of basically negative proofs that are implied by the root text, but not stated directly in the root text. NI YOD DE, there's two more. And they are implied by three and four.

Okay. Okay, they are implied by the last two we have. I think it's the last two.

Okay, so PANG BA means here. PANG BA means to... Shoot.

Shoot an arrow. To project. Yeah, or to show or to imply.

So, one of the types of reasons that he's already described implies another. Now, what's the implier? RANG BZHIN RGYAL MI The implier is the...

Logical statements which describe the presence of something which is by nature contradictory to something else. Like if you have goosebumps at that moment, the place you're standing in cannot be covered by fire. Okay, so that's called a proof for something's absence, which is based on the fact that what's not there is directly related to what you have there.

Like goosebumps implies no heat. RANG BZHIN RGYAL MI SKYES So, supposedly that implies another kind of proof. What's the other kind of proof called?

RGYAL BYE'I RGYAL MI What's that mean, Ben? RGYAL BYE'I RGYAL MI Oh, RGYAL BYE'I RGYAL MI would be... Yeah, the presence or being covered by something which is contradictory.

Yeah, now this is... Let's say you want to prove there's no sound there, and you say there's no sound there because there's nothing there. Or let's say there's no sound there because there's no object of ear sense power there.

In one case, what you're saying is not there is bigger than the thing. In the other case, it's equal to the thing. I'll say it again.

There's nothing changing in this room. Therefore, there's no sound. Or I could say there's no object of ear consciousness here in this room.

Therefore, there's no sound. In the second case, the two sets are equal. In the first case, the one set is huge, and it disallows the smaller set.

If there's no existing thing in this room, there's no sound in this room. But existing thing and sound are not equal sets. So if the big set's not there, the little set's not there.

Or if the little set has a brother set, then it's not there. All right. So kyabje means the bigger set.

It means coverer, because big sets cover little sets. And these are fancy names, but if you just get to the examples, which if I had written this book, I would have put the examples in. So I went and got examples for you.

I like them. I think they're sexy. I didn't just go for an example.

I just went for the most fun one. So here's some fun ones. Here's where I got the example from, which happens to be a book by some textbook writer from probably 16th century.

We can only do this because of John Brady's hard work. Thank you. John Brady's here today, and we give him a silent applause.

Okay. And I'm going to push this down, Ben. Here's the example of number five.

And who's going to read it, Benjamin? Who's going to read it, Ward? I'm going to read it, Sam.

You see what's going to happen. I know.

[Speaker 2]
I'm joking, too. Svetlana, would you like to read, please? Thank you.

[Speaker 3]
Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Dr. Kramer, let's translate. By the way, I call you Dr. Kramer so often that I don't know anyone who doesn't call you Dr. Kramer, so you'll have to pick up a PhD at some point. ME STOB CHEN PO Yeah, Raging Fire.

Yeah, Raging Fire. KHYA BA Covers. Yeah.

What's the NIMBA here mean? Like, totally covers? Oh, NIMBA SHAR, a place?

It literally means the pierce, right? NIMBA means to stamp down on something, press down something. If you do this, it's called NIMBA.

So the fire is pressing down on the whole area. Interesting. NIMBA means pressed down by, you'll find a better word.

SHAR GYI GZHI means we're limiting the area so that every square inch of the area is conflagrated. GZHI NA GCIG CHEN GCIG CHEN There's no KHA BA'I RIG PA there. It doesn't feel hot there.

There's no continuous hot sensation. Not SA BA, KHA BA. Oh, sorry.

Oh, KHA BA. And that's a synonym for KANG, as in KANG CHEN. KANG CHEN The Sanskrit is HIMA.

HIMA. Oh, snow. Yeah, HIMA LAYA.

With snow. So KHA BA means snow. It's another word.

The cold feeling of a snowball is there constantly. No break. There's a no break feeling of snowballs there.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

There's no constant cold feeling of snowballs in a place which is covered by a huge fire. Why not? Because?

Because it's covered in raging fire. Yeah, good. It's a place covered by a raging fire.

Has he incurred the logical fault of repeating, as a reason, his subject? No, because he... That's a good restaurant to go to because it's a good restaurant to go to.

That's a husband-wife argument. If you say it's a good restaurant to go to in the East that's suppressed or pressed down by good food, then you're covered. Yeah, good, good.

Because the reason does not repeat the word East, it's legal. If the reason is in any way different from the subject, it's a legal proof. You simply cannot repeat the exact same thing.

That's a good restaurant because it's the best restaurant in B.L.C. or something like that. That's okay. You can say that.

Now, Ben, let's go back to the name of this thing. Let's put it down and you tell me who's the Khyabje and who's the Mamikpa. So the name of this particular one...

I'm going to move this name down here just for your convenience. That is fine. Right here.

Okay, so the name of this is a Khyabje Gelmik Mamikpa Thak. Khyabje Gelmik Mamikpa Thak. There's three elements here.

Khyabje, coverer. Gelmik, presence of a contradiction. Mamik, not present.

Who's the Khyabje? For $100, who's the Khyabje? By the way, this is for Ezra's scholarship fund, not for your private going-to-restaurant, or your coffee shop hanging out with your computer.

Khyabje, where's the coverer here? Gelmik, where's the contradiction presence? And Mamik means where's the absence?

Well, I know that the absence is the consistent feeling of nobleness. Good, nice. You got $33.

$33.33. $33. Good. And then the Gelmik, the thing that is present that contradicts that is the raging fire.

Good, good. And what's the Khyabje? And the, oh boy, the larger group.

Oh yes, sorry, the raging fire is a bigger thing than a raging fire that's pressing stuff down in the East. Nice, good, good, good. That was a tough one.

That's worth the final $33. So just contact my agent. I don't know who that is now.

It could be Rob. Rob Howard, he can send you that.

[Speaker 3]
So don't forget to ask him.

[Speaker 1]
I hope it includes art school or something. He's a tricky dude, I don't know. I seem to remember your parents saying something like this.

Okay. Okay. All right.

Here we are. Yeah. Obviously you're a highly profitable field if you can make $100 in one minute.

Once a year. That's why they call me doctor. Okay, for number six, this was used offhand by Je Tsongkapa in a wonderful commentary to the Prajnaparamita.

And it's not from a logic text, but since he was swimming in logic, he mentioned... Here's an example which you could have taken from the logic text. So number six, here's an example specifically referred to by Je Tsongkapa himself as this sixth type.

And that's kind of weird that he would do that, but he did. And I thought it's a wonderful proof. It's a beautiful proof.

So here we go. Dr. Kramer, who's going to read? Dr. Word, who's going to read?

Okay, let me look. It's here. Gordo, do you want to read?

Oh, yeah. Yes, sir. Hi, Gordo.

Hi. Hi, Geshe-la. ,ZHI LAM NAM SUM CHUD CAN, ,RTEN PAR MED TE, ,RTEN PA'I GCIG DANG, ,RTEN PA'I GCIG DANG DU MA GANG DU YANG MA SGRUB PA'I PHYIR, Nice.

Good reading. I don't know how you learn so fast, but it seems to people who meet Word learn fast. I don't know why.

Okay, ZHI LAM NAM SUM CHUD CAN. That example is a little bit tricky, Ben. Do you know ZHI LAM NAM SUM?

No, I'm not sure. It's like what three... Oh, I see.

Yeah, ZHI LAM NAM SUM. I guess this would be the three... What did we call it?

We called it the original condition? Like three something like that? No, it's not.

Oh, oh, oh. These are the three topics of the Prajnaparamita literature. These are the three great topics of the literature on the perfection of wisdom.

Tim says they are the three kinds of knowledge, which is the topic of the Jewel of Realizations, Abhisamha Angara. This is the subject matter, is these three wisdoms. ZHI ZHES, LAM ZHES, and NAM MKHYEN.

ZHI ZHES, LAM ZHES, and say ZHI ZHES.

[Speaker 3]
ZHI ZHES.

[Speaker 1]
LAM ZHES. LAM ZHES. NAM MKHYEN.

NAM MKHYEN, yeah. And it's tricky, but basically it's the perception of emptiness on three different levels. So ZHI ZHES you could say by perception of...

Foundation wisdom is the perception of emptiness on the lower track. LAM ZHES is the perception of emptiness on the bodhisattva track, non-Buddha. And NAM MKHYEN is the perception of emptiness by a Buddha.

Let's take those three perceptions of emptiness, which is the single main topic of the entire present-day Pāramitā literature. DEM PAR MED TE They're not truths? Or there is no truth?

They don't exist in truth, so that R is very, very tricky. Right, they're not there truly. They're not there really, from their own side without seeds, in the middle way.

Because... Tim says, you cannot establish them as one or many, and that's not exactly correct yet. Yeah, in truth.

They are not a real one, and they are not a real more-than-one. Okay. And this is a very, very famous proof called CIG TU LTAR.

Say CIG TU LTAR. And it's often misspelled. Why?

For a hundred dollars. Even worse. Because DUM MA is often confused with being a LAD DUN particle, the DU in DUM MA.

Nice! Which proves if you surf, you can eventually out-bet word. Okay, yeah.

Yeah, CIG TU LTAR means CIG TU LTAR, DUM MA LTAR. So it's DU and not TU. After CIG, the locative is TU.

But here it doesn't mean that. It's DU because it means DUM MA. CIG DUNG DU MA BRAL.

Neither one nor many. Neither a self-existent one, nor a self-existent plural. That's all.

CIG DU, often misspelled, often miscarved. Here it's correct because it's je tsong kapa. So things are not real, because they are neither a real single thing, or a real plural, multiple thing.

Like, I don't know, pizza and three pizzas. Neither one is real. I don't know why my wife says I can't eat them.

Now, je tsong kapa, being je tsong kapa, and this is my... By the way, you guys have three minutes to think up ways to apply these weird proofs in your real life. I still say with your wife or husband, it's one of the best places.

je tsong kapa, being je tsong kapa, he has not only made this three-part logical statement, he has accompanied it with a tunpay yang dak, $100, tunpay yang dak, tunpay yang dak, logic expression. He not only gave a proof, let's take three great perceptions of emptiness. They themselves do not exist in reality, because they are neither a real single thing, or a real multiple thing.

An illustrative example? Great! God, Nick, you're on so hot today.

You must be the influence of my trip there. Yeah, $100 more for Nicholas. Here's his illustrative example.

per na suk nyen shin Give me that one, Ben. Oh, it's like a mirror, for example. It's like a reflection in a mirror.

And a reflection in a mirror is often used as an example of an illusion. It looks to be your face, but it's not really your face. Therefore, it's similar to the three perceptions of emptiness, because they are not what they seem.

Okay, cool. And that's your example number six from Je Tsongkapa. We've got one more minute, I'll tell you from the surgery theater.

Don't waste a minute. Let's read this one, Mr. Kramer. How about you read?

de nyi tsawa ngu su ma den yang drel le ngu su sung so Yeah, these last two guys are not denpa in the tsawa. Yeah, they're not taught ngu su directly in the root text. Good.

Yeah, these last two I gave you, these last two categories of proofs for something not being there, or not being something. They're not explicitly mentioned in the root text, but they are ngu su in the rangga. But they are directly taught in the auto commentary, we assume.

Good. Guess who wrote the auto commentary? I wouldn't be guessing.

It really should be Dharmakirti. Yeah, Dharmakirti, okay. By the way, he never finished it, right, or something.

There's one chapter missing. Didn't one of his students finish it? He did the first chapter.

Yeah, one of his students finished it. I thought it would be fun to go try to find it, Ben. There's a special way that you can use Gopher to search the database and restrict it to a certain text.

So I did that. I went and searched that text for these kinds of last two weird examples. I think I found something that fits pretty well.

It's down here in the Pramanavarttika vritti, commentary to the Pramanavarttika. Here's the section that I would say describes those two. That deserves to stay footnote because it's not worth translating your time.

It's not worth your time. But if you want to play with it yourself, you can. I would like you to translate...

He's going to get into a tsupa pungwa. What's that? Refuting complaints.

Yeah, there's going to be some back and forth argument about these types of logical statements. Yeah, we're going to have some mishiganess. So I'd like you to translate shepay tsik che, and de dang la, and me...

Okay, those next three sentences, okay? For next time. Up to page 38.

By the way, why didn't they put front side and back side of this page number? It is printed in a Western-style book because the author is contemporary. Yeah, it's one of the first books ever printed as a Western book, and there is no front side and back side.

Yay, good answer. All right, I'm going to disappear. Ben's going to lead a discussion on how to use this in real life.

Good luck. And I think we can... If you're feeling frisky, you can try to translate that piece from the auto-commentary, but I was avoiding it.

Okay, I'll definitely try. It sounds like fun. I can only be told I'm wrong, and that's quite fun.

Okay, I'll see you guys later. Thank you so much, boss. Wonderful class.

Gosh, it's great to be together. It's so great. Let me stop sharing here.

Okay. All right. I hope you're all thinking already about an answer to this question.

I will say to try and get the ball rolling, and if you don't already have something to share, then start furiously thinking about it, even if it means avoiding listening to anything I say. You're more valuable to me contributing than listening to me prime the pump. But I think a lot of when Geshe Michael taught five different, six different...

Course two, how many different definitions of nirvana does Geshe Michael teach? And then I don't remember, you see, or I wouldn't be asking you. Cool.

Yeah, Dennis says four. I think at least four, right? You've got the nirvana with remainder, nirvana without remainder, you've got nirvana that doesn't stay, you've got...

Natural nirvana. Natural nirvana. There might be some more.

No, is that it? Those are the big main ones. But you know what I roughly remember?

I don't remember all of them, but I remember because I studied four different ones, or maybe more, that nirvana is the complete cessation of the mental affliction obstacles in their entirety due to individual analysis. Because he taught us that nirvana with remainder, for example, is the complete elimination of the mental affliction obstacles in their entirety due to individual analysis, in which the being still has something left over. And the other one is the complete cessation of the mental affliction obstacles in their entirety due to individual analysis.

You can slur also, translators. In which someone doesn't have something left over. And by studying many different types, I could remember the definition of nirvana, even if I forgot the definitions of all the other types.

Thinking, it seems to me, studying a lot of different types of something, right? There's something about this bringing $100 to the dollar store thing. It's overkill.

Of course it's overkill. Of course what we're doing is overkill. But to get together with your buddies and do it harder, right?

To do things in life harder than what you're going to need when the hoop hits the fan, you see, is a beautiful way to prepare for life. When we're hanging out alone with friends, it's safe. It's okay to be wrong.

I'm going to try to translate the root text for next class, darn it. And I am ill-prepared indeed to do that. But I'm going to try.

Because we're with friends here, and it's fine. I can be wrong. And then maybe later, when it hits the fan, no one's going to ask me at the grocery store, in my yoga class, on the bus, excuse me, sir, could you translate for me the root text of the Pramanavartika?

They're going to ask me something easy, like, yeah, does it make sense to get off at this bus stop? Or there will be simpler ways to serve people. And we're working very hard together.

And the harder we work to train our minds. Someone just asked me about how to make money, which is always a funny thing. In my case, I've just been blessed to be cared for by my teacher and kind people.

And I don't know, it does happen as if by magic, but I kind of run a business. And I do think that years of studying logic, I do think that years of studying logic, and studying language, prepared me to run a business. And I don't think I could have done it before.

I don't think I could have done it before years of study. I don't think I was ready until I honed my mind. And now I can use the heck out of a spreadsheet, which is boring.

But it's easy. It's easy. If you can think logically around the nature of reality, then spreadsheets are a breeze.

Olga, you have your hand raised. Are you going to share? Is that why your hand is raised?

Yes. I have thoughts. Nice to see you.

I have thoughts. Good, good. Share, share.

It doesn't work, sorry.

[Speaker 2]
But what ideas came to me while I was listening was that sometimes we don't have an accurate perception of something, but we think we do.

[Speaker 3]
And then we blame those who actually do have the accurate perception. And it's very practical in our translation circles that sometimes people don't have an accurate perception of grammar rules, for example, or translations, but they think they do. And then they try to get rid of those who see their mistakes and who have the accurate perception of grammar rules or translations.

[Speaker 1]
And then this problem.

[Speaker 2]
So the idea is to actually, maybe it's a good thing to think whether my perception is accurate or not for everyone who is especially leading the translations and then see if it's true or not.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. It's another good reason to study very hard books, right? It teaches us humility.

This is hard. Studying things which are harder than we're ready for keeps us aware that we're not so brilliant. If you regularly press your face up against things that are above your level, then you can't make the mistake of thinking you know everything.

A book like this is amazing for that. And I'm not aware of a spiritual tradition in the world that's really robust and lasting that doesn't have at its center a healthy dose of don't think you're so damn special. A healthy dose of tempering, of humility, of being careful not to think you know more than everybody.

Whatever your best topic is, there's someone who knows something in that topic that even you don't know. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing about a universe in which infinite knowledge is possible, that there's always someone who knows more than you.

And this text, I could never mistakenly think I'm so smart, as long as I keep my head in this book for 51 years or however long it'll take. Who else can share something, please? I told you, you were all supposed to be curiously thinking.

Oh, good. Sarah, bless your heart. Nice to see you.

Hello. Yes, so I'm someone that has taken Geshe-la's advice of just show up and be confused and just listen. You know, you're stupid if you don't do it.

And just to like, talk about something in a very simplified way from listening in. It's like, we finally have an answer to the question, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound? With the examples that were given about, if there's no ear consciousness, then there is no sound.

I'm like, oh, yeah, like, that's my kind of simplified Western brain. Well, Sarah, I, you know, I think I'll be humble enough to ask. I hope, you know, I'm not, shouldn't be afraid to ask.

So what did we decide? Is the tree there then? Or did the tree fall?

Did we decide that it is or isn't? Okay, so the tree fell, but there's no one there to hear it. There is no sound.

Because there's no, like, sound is, sound is. The question always bugs me because it starts, if a tree falls in the woods. So we're already accepting this premise that there's a tree in the woods, which always made me uncomfortable.

Right. Well, there's no eyes to see the tree.

[Speaker 2]
There is no tree. There's no ears.

[Speaker 1]
But then, but then your, you know, your, your co worker or your, you know, family member or your friends or whatever, they're gonna ask you, you're gonna, right, you come to this class and you feel, I mean, you, one, me, my face, I come to this class and I feel dumb. But then, but then I feel very clever at the convenience store, or on the bus, or at work, or with friends. And I, you don't always notice the connection that you were doing brain push ups, and during that time you feel dumb, you're getting smarter.

It's a miracle, and easy to lose sight of. But if you have humility, you learn to like the sensation of feeling lost, it seems like. So very brave of you to come and, and experience that sense of abuse, while I'm abused publicly.

Hey, Ben, can I say one last thing? Please do. All right.

I have good, good news this morning that I found out that Rosa van Grieken has got permission from the Fat Cat publisher in New York to reprint for the 25th anniversary of The Garden. And she's done a beautiful edition of The Paper Bag, and it's very, it's my favorite book of all time. I know not everyone thinks that, but, and if you don't mind, I'm going to put up a QR code, if anyone would like to order it, on Diamond Cutter Press' website.

And is that an e-book, or that's a paper book? Yeah, it's the paper copy, and it just came out this morning. Congratulations to Rosa for the hard work to get, she had to fight with the double-dead ghosts, and she managed it, so thank you.

Okay, back to you, Dr. Kramer. I'm out of here. Thank you so much, Geshe Michael.

Thank you for being here. It's such a joy. We're so glad you're here, and we pine for you all your way, like I said, but I'm very happy that you take care of yourself, and we want you to take care of yourself, and we want you to be here, rested and healthy and happy and forever.

Thank you. And then, yeah, thank you so much. Yes, so much fun.

Dr. Juan Jasso is certainly standing by, chanting at the bit, to regale us with tales of the goings-on in the world at large, and all of the virtuous things happening everywhere. I'm just going to keep talking until you appear.

[Speaker 2]
I'm here. Oh, good.

[Speaker 1]
There you are. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, yeah, no, thank you. Thank you, Ben. Thank you so much.

Geshe-la, great to see you in action here, and Nick as well. You know, we are kind of celebrating that the trip to San Diego went very well. Last week, we had a chance to talk a little bit with Nick, sorry, with Tim about it.

This is a very common name mistake people do. Nick and Tim, and I don't know why, maybe three syllables. I don't know.

They both have an I, but this is what we have for them. Just a little catch up on what happened. Yeah, yeah, the pictures are great.

Thank you. Well, Geshe-la told us in an email that he had the chance to, you know, like a very funny interactions with the, how do you call it, the surgeon, the surgery guy, the surgeon. And luckily, very soon he was walking.

Yeah. He was walking in the beach with Veronica. Very, very beautiful place.

Please, Geshe-la, if you want to add anything, you're always welcome just to jump in. So, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, just to get to go to sleep. It was important to have my assistants with me. Uh-huh.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rob was sharing some of these beautiful pictures. So, yeah, you see Rob, even if he's on the beach, he's always working.

So thank you, Rob, also for being a great support there during the San Diego trip. And I hear it was fun as well. I hear it was fun.

That's why we have the next pictures where we see Nick having a great time surfing and, you know, Tim also supervising that no people were throwing in the ocean. Yeah. Yeah, so it's great to have you all back for more Rock and Roll.

So now I'm just going to present a few things that are happening. As you saw just now, Geshe-la was talking about the Diamond Cutter Press, the garden book, and I had the chance just quickly to catch a screenshot. So I can show you the QR code again, in case you didn't have your phone, but now you do.

You can follow the QR code and go for it. I think it's a great, great, great news. Thank you for sharing, Geshe-la.

And yeah, this book is amazing. One of the best stories ever written that teaches a lot, not only philosophy, but also a lot of the inner ways of living these teachings, which I find super, super beautiful. Thank you, Geshe-la, for this and many other teachings and demonstrations of your care and love.

So thank you so much for this. And in other news, just to mention the events that our friend Gail Dutch is having these days. She's going to be continuing with these conversations with Master Shantideva.

Their next presentation, they're going to have Christian, our friend from Romania, great supporter of the Peachtree World News, sending best regards to Christian. And that's going to happen on next Friday, September 6. If you are interested, maybe just contact her or ask Tim Lowenhaupt about it.

And not only that, but today, while Ben was sharing with us his insights, he was talking about how important studying perception and logic has been for him, for his personal life, his business life. So Gail Dutch and, well, Gail and Teacher Betts, they are both having a course, a deep course on this art of reasoning. So it's like an advanced level on these kind of books that we are studying with Ben and that we are studying with Adam, of course, with Geshe Michael as well.

So if you're interested in these things, also talk to them. Just contact him. What do you mean only one head?

Oh, yeah, only one head. That's crazy. What's going on there?

We need two. But at least it's purple. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We will fix that sometime. And another news, while Geshe-la and friends were in San Diego, we get to hear that there is something very cool happening. There is about to be a new version of the Gopher program ready soon.

And soon we're going to be, hopefully, we're going to be talking with Ben Kramer and a friend, Murli, in India, that they are preparing this new program with some updates. So right now we are just letting the audience know it's cooking, it's cooking. But soon we'll have the full information and interview, hopefully.

And just finally, a few events that are coming up next week, September 7th and 8th. Erli is going to be having an immersion on the Inner Kingdom teachings. You're still on time if you want to sign up.

It's based on the teachings that Geshe-la might call some of the teachings he taught during his three-year retreat. Then Stanley and Geshe-la are going to be having the Innovation Retreat, September 12th to the 22nd. So it's going to be very, very cool.

First time they are opening for the English speaking audience as well. So everyone is welcome. If you're interested, there are the QR codes.

It's going to be happening at Diamond Mountain. And now, speaking of Diamond Mountain, they are also about to start the Sky Harvest Second Summit program. They are going to start on September 2nd.

They're going to go until September 7th. So it's like five days of working on the land, but also learning a lot about how to restore the ecosystem. And not only that, but also a few philosophy and yoga meditation classes.

And for that, hopefully we have a very dear guest with us today. She's going to talk to us about the great success on how Sky Harvest managed to actually be having this great Second Summit. And also, we're going to congratulate her because it's her birthday today.

So if tech table, you can help us to spot Paulina. She should be somewhere there. And if Pachi is, well, we hear Pachi had like a business, an unexpected business.

He was supposed to be here, but something different happened. So Paulina is here to do the, how to say, the job of the husband.

[Speaker 3]
Yes, thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Very happy birthday, Paulina.

[Speaker 3]
Thank you. Thank you, dear friend. Thank you.

Thank you all.

[Speaker 2]
So yeah, tell us, you were telling me the other day about this great success of how to, not that, not yet. We're still on Sky Harvest for the tech table. Yes, Paulina is going to tell us a little bit of what happened at the end.

You were doing a big campaign, Paulina, by the way, is one of the marketing people for Sky Harvest. And you were doing a big campaign to get people to come down. And now it's a great success.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

[Speaker 3]
Sure. Thank you, Juan. You know, honestly, I'm not an expert on these topics, of course, but I am a volunteer with Sky Harvest.

And this summit is very important because it will focus on methods to retain water. As you know, for the desert, water is crucial for reforestation or to positively impact the ecosystem. And yes, two weeks ago, we had around seven volunteers, right?

Like only seven, which is not bad because each person can make a big difference for the planet and for this project. But however, with more people, we can create even greater impact. So it's fantastic that I have great news to share that we have now 37 volunteers ready to start the summit at Diamond Mountain this Monday, September 2nd.

So thank you. Thank you. Thank you all.

[Speaker 2]
That's amazing. So we are excited to hear those news and also excited to next October meet there and see the beautiful progress on landscape that is happening there. I keep saying the same every time I go, it looks more and more beautiful.

So I just can't imagine how it's going to be in the next few months, the next few years. So congratulations. Another thing I wanted to talk to you, Paulina, is like to share with people the amazing programs you're helping to organize in Mexico.

And for that tech table is the next pictures we were showing. First, you just started with the Club de Oro. It's the Spanish version of the Gold Club that is fundraising for ALL.

Every Saturday. Yes, if we can show the picture, it will be great. Every Saturday, you are giving a follow up on the topics on steps on the path on the 18 advices to develop a good heart.

Could you tell us a little bit of that? And it is focused on Mexico and Colombia time, right? Like what I'm saying is like it's the biggest part of your audience these days.

[Speaker 3]
Right. So we are producing these from Mexico, Argentina. It doesn't really matter because it's online and we are inviting all the people in Latin America.

That's our big goal to share this with them, with more and more people in Spanish, you know, first for Spanish speaking countries. And yeah, you know, in Club de Oro, I am creating this consciousness about how important it is to preserve these wisdom teachings. But also there's not really impact if we only like save the book, if we cannot like actually access to that wisdom and to like benefit from it.

So I'm sharing every Saturday. This is for Spanish speaking countries. The wisdom of these 18 advices, which is so beautiful as a reward and to thank all the donors and also just for anyone who wants to come and learn these beautiful teachings.

[Speaker 2]
Wonderful. And then also we wanted to share with the audience about what's happening. Because after this wonderful event that Bachi, yourself, many other people producing Mexico City with Geshe Michael just a few weeks ago.

The plan was to have a follow up, a follow up to keep people engaged in the content that we just learned and studied here. And I wanted to rejoice with you and to thank you as well to be so productive in this sense that this program already started. You can tell us a little bit of what is the main idea of this follow up program we are having every other Wednesday.

[Speaker 3]
Well, you know, this started by an advice that one of my dear friends gave me years ago. His name is Seiji Arao. I think you all know him.

He came to me and he said, you know, if you want people to stay engaged in the events you are producing in Mexico, especially when Geshe Michael are visiting you guys, you should do a good follow up program. So that really like touched my heart and I wrote those words in my heart and I said, like, we need to do this. We need to offer during the whole year programs, especially follow ups for the new people and all people or students.

So we did it this year and gratefully and we invite different teachers from from Latin America. And we are studying and reviewing what Geshe-la taught during the event in Mexico City. And it's so beautiful and it's a great way to actually like put back again that beautiful feeling and beautiful wisdom in our hearts and minds.

So it's been a really success. So thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Yes. Thank you so much. Actually, Paulina invited me to be part of this follow up program.

And last Wednesday, we had the chance to have one of the sessions. I think people liked it very much. So I do see how people are engaging on it.

So thank you for this wonderful idea, Seiji. And thank you for this wonderful idea, Paulina as well. So just finally, I want to show the QR code of the Club de Oro that I say is the Spanish version of Gold Club.

They are helping to fundraise and spread all the information that ALL has been working to collect. So it's one of the activities, members and support of the Gold Club. I don't know where Paulina went away, but she's part of it.

She's a general director of Club de Oro in Latin America. And finally, I was I feel shy about this, but it's OK. I was asking Rob if he could ask Geshe-la if it was appropriate to read for you a happy birthday King of the Dharma verse.

But I don't know if we have time for that. But anyway.

[Speaker 1]
We have time. We have time.

[Speaker 2]
Happy birthday.

[Speaker 1]
OK. Paulina, we need a page number between 1 and 400 or something. I will say 18.

18? Yes. 18?

Oh, is that how old you are? All right. OK, this is about a guy named Chödr, which is a Mongol for chöddar, which means to spread the Dharma.

He was a big, big man. Very, very old. He had a heavy cane that he carried.

He always had two rosaries in his hand. He was always doing mantras on two different rosaries at the same time. He got really old and he asked me to help put him in a nursing home.

It took me three years to get him into a public assistance nursing home for free. I was so happy. I drove him there.

I said, OK, you got your own room. People are going to cook for you now. You don't have to worry about anything.

I put him there and then I came home. The next day he showed up at the temple. He walked about four miles home.

He got up out of the nursing home and walked home with his, we call the two horses. He came to the door and he slipped. His cane went through the glass door.

It was an exciting day, I remember. This is a story about him. Paulina, the next day he went out and he bought a lottery ticket.

He said, when I win the lottery, I'm going to give all the money to the temple. He didn't. I think it must be a story about hard work is better than thinking you're going to win the lottery.

I don't know, there's some kind of story here for you. I think it's just your steady, steady hard work on these projects, especially on the Latin America tours. Many, many supporters have come forth and said they're very happy with the Latin America tours.

They have toured six or seven countries with their team. They're very, very popular. I heard a lot of good things about your tours.

I hope you guys continue. Like Cheddar walking around New Jersey. Thank you.

[Speaker 3]
Thank you so much. Happy birthday.

[Speaker 1]
Wait, we're going to sing. One, two, three. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Paulina. Happy birthday to you.

[Speaker 3]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Give our love to Shanti and Pachi.

[Speaker 3]
We will.

[Speaker 1]
Back to you, Mr. Juan. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Well, I'm somewhere. Thank you. Thank you, Geshe-la.

Great to see you. Congratulations, Paulina. Send my regards as well to Pachi and Shanti.

Hope you have a great, great day. And thank you, of course, Ben, for your wonderful class and time today. Nicolas Shaw, maybe one day we can surf together either in San Diego or in San Pancho or somewhere.

And maybe one day it will be cool to have all the Mixed Nuts live in San Diego in a surfing camp translation trip or something. Let's plant the seeds and see you next time on Monday.

[Speaker 1]
See you soon. Ciao, everybody. See you next time.

Looking forward to Monday.

[Speaker 3]
Bye bye.