Гибсон Чан — Книга 2: Восхваление зависимости, занятие 17

[Speaker 1]
I know that we've got a nice group today joining us who is watching the Hatha Yoga Pratipika. So thank you so much everybody for coming and I hope that you enjoy what we do here. If you've never seen us before, we are the Diamond Cutter Classics Translators.

We are working to translate the ancient classics contained in the Asian Legacy Libraries database of amazing ancient and up-to-current philosophical work and we're doing our best to translate this work in a way that is accessible to the world and relevant to our lives and as accurate as possible, of course. And so to do that, we work really hard together with Geshe Michael to understand the different philosophical languages that are used to preserve all of these amazing concepts and learn how to translate them as best we can. So we luckily have class with him today and today we're working on a book with Mr. Gibson Chang and he's just beginning to embark on this book, right Gibson?

Yeah, I hear Geshe Michael. Maybe he's eating a cinnamon bun behind... oh there we go, there they are.

That comes later. Cool, oh and we've got Gibson live. All right, well great to see you and take it away, gentlemen.

So Nick, a few minutes ago, we have some guests here from Ukraine, these classes. I think we have about six or seven. And a few minutes ago I got a translation that comes from their team in Ukraine and it says, Katrin Devchata Takitsa Roblyak.

And this is Katrin and it's just been published in Ukrainian. I'd like to congratulate the Ukrainian team. It took a long time for both of us to get it done, so I'm very grateful.

Thank you for giving me that. Okay, now the bad news is that Gibson has a homework. Okay, let me see.

So this is the first quiz of the third book, The Essence of Eloquium. And the first question is, if you already finished ASI 15, maybe you know this answer. Give me the title of the text we are translating now, name, its author, and his date.

Yes, that is a short one. Well, how about the full translation? Interpretation.

Wow. Yeah, cool. That's the news.

So it's the essence of eloquium, a classical commentary upon the art of distinguishing between the figurative from the literal, written by Jason Kappa. And so I put a, can you feel this blank here in Tibetan? What is the first one?

Yeah. Okay. So what is the second one?

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Who is that? Okay, how about the next one?

Cool. And danger, what's nimble? Good.

[Speaker 3]
Good.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. The second one is, what Changdun and Ngedun means, and from the middle, weigh the point of view in the three turning the wheel. Which turning the wheel is Changdun, and which one is Ngedun?

[Speaker 2]
So...

[Speaker 1]
You know when you meditate, you can't get people to be quiet. But when you ask a homework question, it's perfectly quiet. What's Ngedun mean?

Yeah, literal. Yeah. Okay.

But sometimes translated as a fast value, right? Based on the context. So which turning the wheel is literal?

Depends. But I say middle way here. And...

Okay. So the second turning the wheel is Ngedun. How about, what's Changdun mean?

Yeah, figurative. To be interpreted. Yeah.

And mean what he says, not what he mean. And also a phone from the bird's chain means to pull something out. Okay.

So which turning the wheel is Changdun? Third? And?

And first, yeah. Okay. Third one.

What's happen... Oh, so we just begin our text last class. And we are in the section to...

To... How to say? Offer...

To make some offering to some master and some worldly god. Not worldly god, to Buddha. So in this section, he compare worldly god to Buddha.

And what happen when this worldly god lay their eyes on Buddha? They have a metaphor. Okay, Hasso.

They put their head into the lotus, meaning their feet. Yes. Off them.

Yeah. Cool. And they also say Buddha as a sun and those five worldly god as a what?

You say... What did you say? They made a metaphor between Buddha and those five worldly god.

And they say the Buddha is a sun. It's like the sun in the sky. Yeah.

And they are like a firefly.

[Speaker 2]
Yes. Okay, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Cool, cool.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Compared to the sun. Yeah. So they say the meaning they lay their eyes on Buddha's body, it does to them what the sun does to a firefly.

And throw themselves at the Buddha's feet, touching them with their lovely crown, bowing down to the Buddha. Those are the one god of all gods. So what's a Tibetan for fireflies?

They make it cool. What about Japan? Japan.

Yeah. Nice. Last one, Nje.

Difficult. To divide, yeah. To distinguish.

Cool. All right. I think he fell on his head.

I don't remember. All right. So here's my...

Let me see. Translate. Yeah, translate.

Let me show you again. Okay. I'm not showing.

Yeah, okay. Cool. Can you read the first verse?

Yeah. Okay. Nice.

Okay. So before Je Tsongkapa tries this book, he wants to bow down to the great masters of the past. And he starts with der shek su nop su ni shing de su.

I bow down and touch my head to the feet of Nagarjuna and Asanga. Okay, Ludrup told me, you are the innovators of the two ways, Tsongkapa. Yeah, shing de su.

What is innovator in Tibetan? shing de su je. Say shing de.

Shing de. Su je. Shing de.

Shing de. Su je. shing ta means wooden horse and it means the cart or the wheel.

And then someone who invents the wheel is called a shing de su. Su je means to open a new system or start a new system in the world. So they are world...

They're like... You know how they say you don't have to reinvent the wheel? But these are the guys who did invent the wheel.

Okay. And by the way, it was a big deal when someone invented the wheel. And up to that time, people carried things on their back.

And then after that, they used their Tesla. Okay. So it was a big deal.

And so they're honoring innovation or new ideas. People who get new ideas. Two great new idea people in Buddhism, Arya Nagarjuna and Arya Sangha.

You are the innovator. You made the fine distinctions. Nice.

Lekpar che. Right? Between interpreting the highest spoken order.

Nice. Yeah. Of those who have gone to bliss.

Okay, good. And you are like the sun itself. Illuminating those ultimate teachings.

The victors among all beings in all three worlds. Good. Okay, good.

This is the only translation I got. Nice. Thank you.

Oh, okay. Nice. Okay, good.

So I'll go to grandpa's text. I think I got it. Is that yours?

That's somebody else. It is? Okay.

Oh, sorry. That's another guy. Okay.

Good. Okay, we're here. Okay.

Okay, Gibson, you want to choose someone to read the next part? Okay, I'll go. Okay.

Okay. DRAG PA'I ZHABS Okay, cool. So before you write a book, you bow down to the teachers of the past, and it kind of identifies your parampara, as we found in the Hatha Yoga Padipika.

So at the beginning of the Hatha Yoga Padipika, they have the parampara, or they named the yogis who taught this text over time, to establish that there's a pure lineage. And here, it's the same thing. It's the parampara of these teachings, especially Minoan and Middle Way teachings.

So he's going to be bowing down to them. This list is called dzam ling gen, the gen, which means, alankara means jewels in this world. They are like the light of this world.

There's a few people in history who stand out among the millions and millions of people. They are like a gemstone among millions of people, and they are called the six jewels of Buddhism. So we're going to a list of them here.

And there's different guys in different lists, all right? So here we go. shing da chenpo...

what's that? The great innovator. Yeah, sul nyi.

The two systems? Two great systems of the innovators. So there's two innovators, Asanga and Arya Nagarjuna.

They each innovated a new system. They invented their own new car. And Asanga invented basically the...

what school? We can say Minoan school. And then Arya Nagarjuna invented the Middle Way school.

shing de sul je nyi lek sung ne. So after them, these people held those traditions, kept those traditions. sung ne.

And because of that, they were able to make gyepa. To open someone's eyes? Yeah, open the eyes of zamling.

Of the world, this world. But only those people who are low self. Intelligent.

Yeah, who have clear minds. And then he uses a number called se chewa. So it's interesting in Sanskrit and Tibetan, each ten, each group of ten has a different name.

So like one, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million, hundred million. So it goes like chik chu gya dong chi bum chewa. Like that, saya chewa.

So chewa means literally ten million. But it's just an exaggeration word. So you would say billions.

You open the eyes of billions of clear-minded disciples. And then he starts his list of the great teachers of this lineage, which is bhagpa la in Sanskrit is... Ayadeva.

Ayadeva, famous for the 400 verses on emptiness. That's just after Arya Nagarjuna and just before Chandrakirti. So sort of a blinking text around...

You can say... sometimes they call it gya, sometimes they call it shiyapa, sometimes they call it the hundred, sometimes they call it the 400 verses. But it's a proto-emptiness book.

We don't study it much by itself because it's not organized the way the later books are. bhagpa la pao I say Arya Shura. Yeah, Arya Shura or Shura, which means the warrior.

And then Sangye Khyang. Buddha Palita. Yeah, Buddha Palita.

So Buddha Palita interpreted Arya Nagarjuna. He wrote an interpretation of... Arya Nagarjuna is writing about the same time as Patanjali, which is about 200 AD, 200 years after Christ, which is 700 years after the Buddha.

So you've got... Arya Nagarjuna writes his famous book called... Simply...

Wisdom. Wisdom. By the way, he was known for being short and sweet, and then people tried to make his book's name long, and I think he would be irritated.

The book's name was Wisdom. And Sangye Khyang wrote a commentary to it. Buddha Palita wrote a commentary to it.

And then... Lekten... Baba Viveka.

Yeah, then Baba Viveka, who interpreted Buddha Palita kind of lower-middle way. Baba Viveka was the father of the lower-middle way, which is called...

[Speaker 2]
Svatantrika.

[Speaker 1]
Yes, Svatantrika, or the independent group of the middle-way school. So that was pretty much invented by Baba Viveka, and we don't agree with him. He's lower-middle way, and he started the lower-middle way because he made certain...

He invented certain ideas that we don't agree with. Subtle ideas. For example, that a logical statement has an inherent ability to prove something to somebody.

It does not depend on their seeds. He thought it had an independent existence. He thought that logic had an independent existence, but if you ever got married, you know it doesn't.

No, I mean, it depends on the other person's seeds whether they can see your logic or not. So that was his main unusual idea, and we don't accept it. He thought that logic had some inherent ability to prove something.

Everyone should accept the same... If a statement is logical, it should be accepted by all people, which is unfortunately not the case. Then came along...

Chandrakirti. Yeah, Dharmadharpa. It's common to mistake him for Dharmakirti.

Even great scholars sometimes just forget, and they use the wrong one. So there's Dharmakirti and there's Chandrakirti. Dharmakirti is the father of all great Buddhist logic.

Then Chandrakirti wrote a book called Entering the Middle Way. That is about... I don't know.

It's a book of poetry. It's divided into six chapters, roughly corresponding to the six perfections. The sixth chapter is most famous because that's the presentation of emptiness.

It's 90% of the book. It's something like 300 verses about Arya Nagarjuna's version of emptiness, but it's a completely new work, and it's amazing, and it's revolutionary. It's probably the greatest explanation, detailed explanation of emptiness that exists.

Then about 800 years later, Je Tsongkapa wrote a commentary to that, which in translation is about 1,800 pages. We are working on it. Our team is working on it.

We put out a daily update of that translation. If you want to get on the list, talk to Lindsay, right there. I send out an update every day.

I do 5 to 15 pages every day in my morning uninterrupted time when people don't send me messages on my phone. My phone is for emergencies. It's not for long proposals.

I will not look at it before 11 o'clock, and I will not answer it, so it's hopeless. Please, don't ring ding-dings when I'm trying to translate something really hard. But I leave it on because in case someone goes to the hospital or something, I'll be available.

But don't send me other stuff. Send me an email. Then that goes to the...

Gipsy is going to tell you, so you believe me. 70,080. Yeah, 70,000 unanswered emails, okay?

Then you just send it there. Okay. All right.

All right, good. Dharmakirti. Anyway, if you're interested in the greatest Chandrakirti's great work, then I suggest you sign up.

I do a little newsletter every morning, like who's doing cool stuff. There's always a nice photo. Then you get a few verses of Madhyamika for the day, Middle Emptiness Teachings.

Then you get the whole text, which is... right now it's around 1,800 pages. It's good stuff.

It's probably the best emptiness teaching ever given. So if you're serious about emptiness... Then I take out a paragraph every day and I put it in the email.

Then I... okay, we'll see how many people open the email.

[Speaker 2]
Yidmey... Yeah?

[Speaker 1]
You're going to read this verse? Come on. He's doing hard yoga all day.

Yeah, if you're going to read it sweetly, you go bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. Nice. Good.

Great. Yay! Nice phrasing.

yik nyen? Basu bandhu. Yeah, yik means like the world.

[Speaker 2]
Ship.

[Speaker 1]
Yik means... no, it's not yik. Yik means riches lying under the ground.

And then nyen means friend of the world. The friend that the world doesn't know they have. It's a beautiful Buddhist idea.

There are lots of deep friends that you have that you will never meet, who are working for you all day long. That's the idea. Anyway, yik nyen basu bandhu.

Shab. Shab is just pada. And it's an honorific.

It's like gospa din. It's like honorable, senior something. Like honorable word.

At the feet of basu bandhu. And loten. Sthiramati.

Yeah, Sthiramati, who's a great commentator on Nagarjuna, actually. And Chandrakirti. Choklang.

Dignaga. Dignaga is the grandpa of logic who did the... I wouldn't say primitive, but he laid the foundations for logic.

And then... Dharmakirti. Yeah, then Dharmakirti did the detail.

And huge work called... called what? Dharmakirti's work.

Pramana-vartika. Commentary on accurate perception, which is massive. It's huge.

And it takes many years to study the whole thing. A lot of geshes keep going on that afterwards, after they finish the geshe degree, they keep going on Dharmakirti because it's so deep. What did Dharmakirti say about Dharmakirti's deepness?

No one's going to understand this after I go. When I die, the river water will flow to the ocean. It means no one will ever figure out what I was writing about.

Okay, it's true. Shab to their feet. These are the dzamling gen.

The Jewel of the World. The Jewels of the World. And there's a slightly different list of those jewels.

Dzamling gen. They helped the tupe tenpa ten mi nu. They helped the teaching of the Buddha not to fail.

Yeah, nu means... It's when the sun goes down. And the word for west in Tibetan is the same word for the setting of the sun, nu.

And the same thing carries over to yoga asana practice.

[Speaker 2]
Paschima.

[Speaker 1]
Paschima means west. And that's your back. East is the front.

In yoga, the front of the body is the east and the back is the west. So paschima nasa, you put your west part down. Paschima.

tupe ten mi nu. Gyel tsen dzinpay chok. They hold the gyel tsen.

The victory banner. Yeah, I don't know. We don't really have that in the west.

I don't know. Anyway, there's a big flag. And when you take over a country, you carry it.

You march into their country. That's called gyel tsen. Sometimes it looks like a parasol or something like that.

Gyel tsen dzinpay chok. So it means they're upholding the tradition. SKAD PA'I DBANG PO The low among those wise?

Yeah, lords of the wise ones. SNAM LA GUS PA'I DUS I bow down to you. And a lot of teachers in the monastery, in the Geshe course, they will skip these verses.

They'll go straight to the philosophy. They'll say, oh, that's just verses. But it's a tradition to recognize the teachers of the lineage before you jump into the content.

I think we skipped one verse. Yeah. I'm sorry.

Here, this one. I don't mind to do that. Let's do that.

Okay, we're going backwards slightly. Okay. Who's going to read it?

How about Mimpo Chodzin? I see you got your coffee.

[Speaker 2]
I see.

[Speaker 1]
Cool. Thank you. Good job.

So the first word is khen tse. And there's lamas named khen tse. You probably heard the word khen tse.

But khen tse means? Knowing and love. Yeah, and oftentimes there's three words here.

khen tse nü. They know your situation. khen tse, they care about your situation.

And then nü, they can do something about it. So sometimes lamas are referred to as khen tse nü. ting ta Deep and wide.

Yeah, good. And it's often used for the... The emptiness, or the teaching.

And ocean, for oceans. ting ta ting means to plumb the depths of the ocean, and ta means the expanse of the ocean. ting ta shintu papar ga Very difficult to measure.

Yeah, mentally. And here's an ancient spelling of ga. D-K-V-A tao ka watak wasser tao ka wasser ah Which means difficult.

So it's a very, very ancient spelling. When there's a chance of confusing a word with another word, they'll add a little triangle at the bottom of the main letter, which is called a wasser. That's what we have here.

It probably is too differentiated from bao ka, the word. Okay. chang chup chupa The activity of the bodhisattva.

Yeah, so they're talking about the Buddha's mind being knowledge and love, and comparing it to the ocean. And then on that ocean, there are chel chok. Say chel chok.

Chel chok means waves. You know how they go across the ocean? Like, we were just in San Diego, and the waves come in from Japan, basically.

Or I used to surf in Hawaii with my brother, and if there was an earthquake in Japan, we'd all run out to the beach and wait for the tidal waves and break our surfboards. So anyway, that's called chel chok. The movement of waves across the ocean.

What is the waves? chang chup chup The activity. Yeah, so bodhisattvas, there is the ocean of the Buddha's wisdom, and then there's waves moving across it, which is the activity of their children, which is the men and women who have bodhichitta, who have love.

Does lap chen also mean wave? Lap means wave. This spelling, lap, means wave.

But it's also an important word that means efficient. So I remember, I didn't have a dictionary, I had my teacher. So I lived with him for 25 years, and every time I didn't know a word, I would ask him.

And then I always remember where we were, what we were doing, how he tried to avoid my question. So lap chen, he said, it's the difference between planting corn by hand and having one of those big John Deere tractor machines, planting a whole field in 10 minutes. So he said lap chen, which means big waves, is an ancient word for efficacious, like very, very effective.

Powerful and effective. So it's a pun here. The bodhisattvas are waves, meaning when they help somebody for 10 minutes, it's as if we helped the person for 10 years, because they know how to do it, with the right attitude.

So it's a beautiful thing. You might put a footnote there. Let me say more about that.

lekshe rinchen der gyur The treasure of the jewel of those five explanations. Yeah, you give good explanations. You are like an ocean, and it's referring to bodhisattvas in general, I think.

And what's the source of jewels? Ratnakara in Buddhism, supposedly. Where do jewels come from?

The bottom of the sea. That refers back to ancient Greek ideas, Sanskrit ideas, especially amber. When the Mediterranean has a storm, amber gets broken off of the sea bottom, and it floats up to the top because it's lighter than water, and then it floats into the beach.

So then people, the Greeks and later the Sanskrit writers, thought that jewels came from the bottom of the sea. They thought that all jewels came from the bottom of the sea. So he's comparing the Buddhas to these oceans with jewels at the bottom.

And the specific Buddha that he's interested in is Jampa Yaga. Manjushri. Yeah.

Usually when we talk about Gyaltsab, we're talking about Je Tsongkapa's disciple Gyaltsabje, but there's also a famous Gyaltsab in Tushita heaven. Maitreya? Which is Maitreya, the next Buddha, the fourth Buddha, the coming Buddha of this eon.

So he's hanging out there. He's waiting for a good time to come. I always tell people he's much closer than you could even imagine.

We call him Gyaltsab. Gyaltsab means when Buddha came to this world, when Shakyamuni came to this world, he said to Maitreya, you're the next Buddha, so you manage my heaven until I get back. So he was called Gyaltsab, which means regent or someone who takes care of the kingdom when the king is busy or something like that.

So the Gyaltsab is Maitreya. And then Tsongkapa had a great disciple named Gyaltsabje. And I think we're...

No. In this case, the representatives or the stand-ins for Manjushri are the bodhisattvas. So he's saying, he's bowing down to all the bodhisattvas, the Gyaltsabs of Manjushri.

Seychella. And he says they are like an ocean. Throughout the universe there are billions of bodhisattvas, and I bow down to them.

All right, now we got to start the book. By the way, at nine o'clock, can I say? We will stop.

We'll have a 15-minute conversation. Gibson will lead it. And this is something we do at the translation classes, and we'll have a 15-minute conversation about how can you use this information in your real life?

Because I think in the early years of this project, we've been going about eight years now, and there came to be some feeling that it was all too abstract and you couldn't use it in your real life. So every time we have a translation class on Saturday morning, we have a 15-minute conversation about how you could use this in your real life. And then we have 15 minutes of Pijri World News, which is Hasso.

We have 41 organizations in the World View Network, and it's nice to know what everyone's doing. So he tells us what's going on in the world with the World View Network for 15 minutes. Then we spend...

that's about the whole morning. The whole morning is two and a half hours, if you count the meditation. Then to balance that, we go to Peachtree Cafe for two and a half hours and stuff ourselves with food and coffee.

You're welcome to come. You don't have to come, but you're welcome to come. Okay.

I thought you might like to know the traditional six jewels of the world. Like the traditional list is... you might think about...

it's not quite the same. So you get different versions of this list. I think it would make a good footnote.

Due to John Brady's hard work and his team, we have access... we can search three million pages in less than one second. We have resources that no one ever had in history.

You can go look up the six gems, six jewels. Here's a classical presentation of them by a teacher named Muchu Dambhadra, Lama Quicksilver. He's good at this kind of stuff.

We had a nice biography of him at the end of Gibson's last book because his last book was written by Lama Quicksilver. We found out why he was called Quicksilver, for example. But you'll have to wait till the book comes out.

Talk to Rosa. Okay. So here's the list.

You can start with Lodro. Okay. Aya Nagarjuna, and Ayadeva, Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Dignaga, Dhammakirti.

Yeah, those are the traditional six. Are those two, each one, paired together? That's a good question.

Yeah, I guess they are. Yeah, you can say that. It's three sets of gems.

Yeah, that's a good observation. I didn't think about it. Okay.

Who's going to read next, Gibson? Bishop Michael, the list he gave us, it seems like maybe those are, are those two sets of people also like commentators following Arya Nagarjuna versus commentators following Arya Asanga, maybe? Yeah, it could be that.

It could be that, yeah. Seems weird not to mention them directly otherwise. Yeah, could be.

But it's an interesting, the difference in the list is interesting. Okay. All right, who is that?

Hi. All right.

[Speaker 3]
ZHUNG LUG MANG LTOS RIGS PA'I LAM DU'ANG NGAL BA MANG RTEN MYON PAR RTOGS PA'I YUN TAN RTEN SOGS KYIS MI MAN DU MED KYANG MYON PA'I MYON PA'I KYANG RTOGS PAR MA RGYUR NI DE NI Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Very, very nice. Your reading is amazing. ZHUNG LUG MANG LTOS A lot of texts.

Listen to a lot of texts. There are people who have listened to a lot of teachings. ZHUNG LUG MANG LTOS is classical teachings.

By the way, it's my position, which I will repeat again and again, that if you sit in this class once a week or twice a week, seeds will be planted in your mind that you have no idea, and weird things will happen to you in the rest of your life. Amazing things. If you just sit there in these classes and listen.

You don't have to understand everything. You don't have to learn Tibetan or Sanskrit. But if you just listen to these classes, weird, wonderful, amazing things will happen in your life.

I swear. Because there's an intense blessing of 2,000 years. Intense power beyond what you can imagine.

And your life will turn out amazingly different if you just sit there in the class. Sleep through the class, but keep your ears open. ZHUNG LUG MANG LTOS RIGS PA'I LAM In the way of the reasoning?

Yeah, they have the path of reasoning. They studied countless books. They understand logic, Buddhist logic.

They understand all that. And they NGAL BA MANG BSTAN with an S. So NGAL BA means to tire yourself out.

So what do you think NGAL BA MANG BSTAN means? They've tired themselves out depending on all these texts, like researching them, looking at them. Yeah, studying them.

By the way, this is the verb that's used for relying on your personal teacher. He has inserted the very strange, specific verb for relying on your spiritual teacher. It's a different spelling of the word depending.

It's only used for physicians and for lamas, your personal lama. So he's saying these guys spent years of their lives studying the classics. They spent years of their lives in the study of logic, which takes years.

It takes many years. And then they NGAL BA. They kicked my wife's hair.

Yeah, NGAL BA literally means exhausted themselves. They spent year after year after year, and they mastered these topics until they were like, All right, MANG BSTAN. And then they got a lot of NGON PAR RTOG PAS.

Realization. Yeah, Abhisamayas. They got a lot of insights into spiritual things.

They got lots of YUN RTEN. Good quality. Yeah, like, I don't know, all those magical...

They could fly in the sky, they could walk through walls, stuff like that. YUN RTEN SOGS MI MAN is a... there's a word in English.

I forget what you call it in English. But he said, their achievements were not small. Their achievements were not minor.

Meaning they were amazing. Got it? MI MAN means not minor.

Where do you see the word men typically? Take men. Hinayana.

It's the HINA in Hinayana, which means less or smaller. And he says, their achievements were MI MAN. Anti-HINA.

Meaning they were amazing. DE SDU MED And that's instrumental. A lot?

With many... With many? Yeah, with many great efforts.

BAD DU They kicked butt. They worked really hard. But...

RTOG PAR MA GYUR They did not have realization. They didn't get it. They didn't get it.

There's people around who spent their whole lives in the classics. And then they studied... they mastered logic.

And they did all these meditation practices. And they were no slouches. In English we say no slouches.

They were great guys. But they didn't get... There's a certain point they didn't get.

Which is... BYANG NAS BYANG NAS Why did the Buddha teach things he didn't mean? Why did he teach things he didn't mean?

And then why later did he say he meant them? He contradicted himself twice. He taught things that were not true.

And then later he insisted they were true. Why would an enlightened being teach ideas that are not ultimate? What's going on?

And where does that leave us as uneducated disciples? We're supposed to distinguish between what Buddha said which is correct, and what Buddha said which was not correct. And why do you put that job on us anyway?

We're supposed to be students. You're supposed to be telling us what's correct and what's not correct. And then you tell us not correct stuff is correct, and then you tell us correct stuff is not correct.

And then you say the correct was incorrect, but the incorrect-incorrect was correct. And then it's confusing. And there are certain people who spent their whole lives studying Buddhism who didn't get it.

It's all like, wow, good luck for us. Okay. Next verse is going to be...

Rosa. Uh-oh. We got to give Rosa a hand for working so hard.

She has published I think 13, 14 of our Mixed Nuts books. I got them on the shelf at my house. My wife wants to know when I'm going to move them from the front room.

And here's the latest one, which I don't know if you guys can see it. But this is what we call a sponsor copy, which means a fancy copy, which means more... I mean...

And it's Emptiness Meditations. This is the bestseller hit of the Mixed Nuts translators. And it's Venerable Utpala's translation, where she translated an extraordinary book on emptiness.

And then she added hundreds of pages of meditation instruction, how to meditate on that emptiness. So this book has two great divisions. The first part is one of the best explanations of emptiness ever given.

And then the second part is mostly the bhava-kramana, which is bhava-krama, which means the steps of meditation, which is the ancient source of all meditation practice in Buddhism. That person, what's the author's name? Kamalashila.

Master Kamalashila. He taught both in India and in Tibet, and in China. And he taught meditation to three countries of people.

Some of them were advanced practitioners. Some of them were yak herders. So he wrote three versions of his famous book on emptiness, on meditation, How to Meditate.

And we found all three versions. And we have Aisha, Nguyen has been helping us find the Sanskrit. So we added that to this book.

So it has the greatest meditation instructions ever, which were the basis of all meditation in Asia for a thousand years. And that's in her book. And it's very clear and very easy to read.

Very beautiful. So that's why this is the best seller. And we made a special copy, which is fancy, and you can give it to people for Christmas or New Year's.

Anyway, Rosa does all this work. I'd like to thank her. I love good books, and it's a beautiful book.

And so it's really one of the most precious books. Okay, let's see if she can pronounce Tibetan. I don't know about that.

Okay.

[Speaker 3]
Good. Keep going. Good.

Good.

[Speaker 1]
Yay! So, ching kyi means due to the cutting. Oh, due to the blessing.

Yes, you got this. Ukrainian is beautiful. And we got the translation of cartoon here.

And this book is a novel about a young lady from a thousand years ago, a yoga teacher who has a teacher named cartoon. But we named the book cartoon from the word kindness. So cartoon means the kindness of your teacher.

And here Tsongkapa has used an abbreviation called chin. Chin, cartoon. He used chin.

In this line he says ching kyi, due to the... Due to the kindness of your teacher. Slow down.

I leg tong. Leg tong? I leg tong, Tsongkapa says.

I see. I saw perfectly. Oh, perfectly.

What? These ideas that no one else understood. What?

What did Buddha say that he meant? What did Buddha say that he didn't mean? Why the heck is there a difference?

And why didn't he just say what he meant in the first place? People struggled with this question. By the way, you can see historically in Tsongkapa's life, I believe he was writing the commentary that we're sending out every day, and you can see where he stops.

And he's like, what the... And then he seems to move off to write the other book, and then he comes back to his 2,000 page book. But you can see him, he stops and he says, I don't get this.

He actually stops, and he goes off and he figures it out, and he writes a book, Gibson's new book, and then he came back and finished the emptiness book. So he's making quite a statement here. I saw it perfectly.

This point that nobody else could understand, I figured it out perfectly. Why? jam kun ma mik tin Because the kindness of the teacher Manjushri.

Yeah, and jam kun means gentle protector. Manjunata. Gentle protector.

And it's a general word for all teachers. But here I put the word literally. What's that mean?

Manjunata. Due to my gentle protector, I figured it out. Yeah, he had the real gentle protector.

He had Manjushri. Manjunata, the gentle protector. His gentle protector was Manjushri, like big Manjushri.

So he had personal contact with Manjushri. Manjushri helped him. The story of how he made contact is a wonderful story.

It's in the DCI teaching somewhere. Level 9. I always depend on my students to tell me what level.

And then, because I have shintu tsawa, super love, and out of my love for you guys, I will shit. I will share his brain to you. Yeah, I'm going to share it with you.

This was a weird question. It broke many people's brains. I was lucky I met Manjushri.

He explained it to me. I saw the solution perfectly. And by the way, Tsogkapa is the first person in history to solve this riddle, to solve this mystery.

Why did Buddha say things he didn't mean? And what are we supposed to do about it? That applies to any spiritual teacher.

There's going to be days when they say things they don't want you to do. Hey, could you go rub that vein today? The famous example.

The best student refused. The other two guys went and rubbed the vein. shintu tseway sampey dakye shes I will teach you.

denpay denyi tope nam chu kyi Those of you who have nam chu, who have strong powers of viveka, we call that the ability to distinguish fine points. Those of you who have that, and you can understand the denyi, the emptiness of the teachings. And here it doesn't mean...

when he says true nature of the teachings, he doesn't mean the emptiness of the teachings. When he says here tatva or shunyata, he's talking about the real truth about these contradictory teachings. That's the denpay denyi in this case.

I'm going to tell you the real poop about these teachings. The real thing. And if you are a person who dupas a mawa dame...

If you are a person who wants, desires a teacher without any comparison? Yeah, here mawa means teaching. If you are people who love high quality teachings, which he says matchless teachings, if you are the kind of people who want...

if you are the kind of people who are hungry for the highest teachings of all, küpe ngen Listen respectfully. Yeah, open your ears. Shut up and open your ears.

That's his introduction. And then he goes off on the topic. Then he starts the topic.

So the next class, the next Chantization class we have, we will start the extremely difficult topic of when do you know when your teacher is speaking literally, and you should follow what they say. And when do you know when they are talking to you figuratively, and they don't want you to do it literally. And that's a very delicate, delicate, delicate...

It's not a delicate, delicate thing to know. When did your teacher mean something? And when did your teacher not mean something?

And Ong Nying Tsongkapa, after 2,000 years, figured... Really, it's not boasting. He was the first person to really break that code.

He broke the Da Vinci code of the whole teaching. He really did. And it's amazing.

The book is amazing. Okay, so I'm going to disappear, and Geshe-la is going to lead the discussion. Thank you, Geshe-la.

You're welcome. So, anyone want to share something? Please raise your hand.

I will share first. In the first book, Song of My Spiritual Life by Je Tsongkapa, when he talked about, when Chodin Lama talked about how to serve your teacher, how to make your teacher happy. And in that book, they say you have to do whatever they say, whatever they teach.

But I think Geshe-la, in that time, gave a commentary, say, if you really make some effort to know what your teacher really means, and that is the highest offering or highest way to make your teacher happy. So I think it's a very beautiful connection between those two books. And today, we also do a meditation, and in the beginning, we do the preliminary.

And this made me realize that, because before, when I translate or I read, I tend to skip the very beginning of the text. But if you dig deeply into those people in the lineage, then you have the chance to invite them to your meditation and try to figure out what's their good quality, like your mind. Probably you will figure out how their quality all come together into this book.

So yeah, this is what I realized just now. So anyone want to share online or offline? No?

So quiet. Rob? So I guess I was thinking about this class in particular and then how YSI is here and how you would, you know, when we're traveling around the world, we're often trying to encourage the other programs to come to these programs in particular.

And we started this at Diamond Mountain in 2004 or something, I think. And I didn't want to come to the class, actually. So I was like, I am not going to the translation class.

So I sat out outside the temple and, you know, you can sit outside in the courtyard and I just happened to listen to it. And I think it was this book, The Essence of Eloquence, or the one you're translating, I can't remember. And it was extraordinary.

And I was like, oh my God, I can never miss another class of these. And so I think the application of this class to your life and to your practice, especially amongst yoginis and yogis, I think especially, there's so much wisdom you can draw that you can apply to your life, like immediately. I think Nicole and I were talking about teachers and lamas and like how to serve them.

And so, you know, if you really want your asana to take off, you know, coming to a class like this and, you know, figuring out, you know, how can I go serve a teacher? And then, you know, the big question is, how do I figure out what my teacher is telling me to do? But there's only one way to really get that to happen is you got to go find the teacher, really.

And so if you can find somebody that maybe fits you and then kind of plant yourself next to them, and then now you have all these instructions in the class, for example, like how can I interact with that teacher? And how can I apply this to my asana practice? And how can I make my yogi's life more applicable?

And I think it's such a beautiful marriage between this class, YSI, and then, you know, kind of like the whole teacher thing, just like a beautiful, it just kind of works really well together. So that's it. I think one of my enjoyment since I know the system is that when I read the book first, and after probably a few years later, I will see the code that the guest lab might in deeply.

And whenever I find this kind of secret, it made me so happy that it's a connection to a lot of book and a lot of teaching. And I think maybe in this subject, when you see at the first, when you read the book, you will surprisingly, why Buddha said that, or why Geshe said that, but you just wait for a while and to print some seed, and in the future, you will see maybe the true meaning of what he really mean. And it's really make me happy.

And yeah, so I don't know if anyone have any idea how to really see what teacher really mean, or how to print a seed to see what teacher really mean. You can share. Tracy?

[Speaker 3]
What do you mean by really?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, really? Good question. Okay, Tracy.

Come here, come here.

[Speaker 3]
Okay. I think when it comes for me, what I got today, how to really know what's the truth.

[Speaker 2]
And really at the end of the day, the more we meditate and attend these teachings and really go in to find the qualities that resonate of the essence of who we want to be.

[Speaker 3]
Each and every one of us have our own unique talents and essence.

[Speaker 2]
And the more we get to know ourselves, the more we can really be with what is inside us. And I think if we really put the teachings and the meditations and all what we're learning from whoever is resonating as our teacher, and we really put it into practice and do it, you will really tap into the layers of the depths of who you are. And when you hear the truth, it'll ring true to you, and you'll know.

And I think that the more we can all tap into this, the more we can be our truth, live our truth, and hopefully move forward with the awareness of what was really being said and talked to us.

[Speaker 1]
So Earl, I was wondering, is it possible to combine yoga and this subject together? Can you share? Thanks, Gibson.

So glad you asked. I think one of the things about yoga that is similar to the Diamond Way is that a lot of the language is kind of coded. I guess Michael calls it twilight language sometimes.

I'm not sure why. So we have to... It's kind of like a whole new language, and we're running into that in the Hatha Yuga Pratipika, in the text itself, where there's a lot of metaphor imagery that if you're not in on the game, if you're not in on the joke, it's really hard to know what they're talking about.

Like Diamond for Emptiness, really, like that. And so you can get authors that are very beautiful, like Master Swadmarama in the Hatha Yuga Pratipika, who's also a poet. He's using this coded language.

He's using this imagery that you get to learn the poetry and the imagery before you can really understand, like, why is he talking about diamonds or lotuses? And then when you understand the hidden language, then the text kind of unravels. I think this is one of the reasons that people translate the Diamond Sutra because they don't realize what Buddha really means, right?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks.

[Speaker 1]
Christina?

[Speaker 3]
I wanted to share an insight I got when you were translating that I can use every day

[Speaker 2]
because this idea of not being sure what your teacher or your boss or somebody you're working with is saying or what they mean creates a lot of discord

[Speaker 3]
in, let's say, a working environment where someone says, no, they meant this, no, they meant that, no, they meant the other thing, or I don't know what they meant. And then the whole team can't really work.

[Speaker 2]
So I was thinking, this is a very exciting idea about sitting in ambiguity and trying to figure out what we need to do and what is meant. It's almost like critical thinking, like not just blindly accepting something in the workplace, but really trying to figure out what are we doing, what are we trying to achieve, what did the boss say, how does that fit in, how does it not fit in, what should I do? And I've just been doing some work on The Source of All My Good.

And one of the verses is all about not grasping. And I think we tend to grasp to our view of what the boss said. And yet there's not really that much there to grasp onto.

[Speaker 3]
And maybe stopping grasping is the best thing to do. So I'm going to take that to my day's work.

[Speaker 1]
Gibson, can I share, please? Yeah. I'm very excited for this reminder to think on maybe the definition of a literal teaching, which is about emptiness, and a figurative teaching, which maybe is not about emptiness, and how when I'm going through my day to always jump back into an analysis of emptiness or gardening, to garden, that's what I'm reminded to do,

[Speaker 3]
with every transaction is to get back to the seed level of transactions that are coming down. What would be the best seeds to plant in this moment?

Or what is the suggestion for how to plant seeds? Or what seeds are ripening? Rather than get into an analysis of the blah, blah.

[Speaker 1]
To jump to an analysis of emptiness. How can I take the opportunity and garden right now? Thank you.

Okay. Anyone have any one to share? Gibson?

Okay. I was just thinking of these words about the kindness of a teacher and understanding through the kindness of a teacher and thinking how fortunate we are to have clear explanation and that things that are very difficult can be impossible or easy sometimes. I read this famous book about physics that was supposed to be for lay people.

I'm not going to say what book, but you've heard of it and I didn't like it. And it's very popular. And I didn't understand anything.

And the author was very famous and it was supposed to be a great explanation and I understood nothing. But then I read this biography later. Walter Isaacson's biography of Albert Einstein.

And he was not a physicist. He was a biographer and he wrote these explanations of relativity and physics and just as a friend who had to figure it out for themselves. And suddenly I understood things and I was so excited.

And then here we have in front of us the hardest teachings ever, they say. The things that if only we understood, it could stop our pain and the pain of the people that we love. And it's the hardest thing.

They say it's the hardest thing to understand. That it's like right on the border of what your mind can understand. And if you look through the history of philosophy, of philosophical teachings, they're hard, it's painful.

I can't read philosophy books. I never would have made it. I'm a philosopher at heart, but I can't read philosophy.

I try and it just, it hurts. I get frustrated and upset. But then you get someone who just, they just talk about pens and dogs and chew toys and they're telling you the same story.

The deepest part of the story that all these outlandish philosophers are trying to get to and suddenly you understand. And then you could think it's easy. You could think it's easy because it's easy for you now because someone made it easy for you now.

To have clear, simple explanation is incredibly rare. And you could miss it because the words sound so easy and it takes a very sophisticated teacher and a very deep understanding to be able to take the profound and tell it as a simple story. And when you find that, stay close to that.

And then there's no limit to the depths of what you could come to understand. Thank you, Pam. Lastly, I want to quote the text that we translate today is the Love Chain.

The teacher know how to use 10 minutes to fix the 10 years work that you need to figure out. And Geshe-la just say that you see through the whole Mixed Net text and you will have a wonderful and unexpected result and that's how you will get. And the text also say that the teacher know what's going to happen and he love you and he is able to do that.

So sometimes teacher will give you very a practice or something advice that you don't want to do. But that is because we don't know what's going to happen. So I think maybe you can try to sit here because in this text they also say those people who have a clear mind, they fail in the end because they don't know the subject of the Changye and we are very lucky here.

We are going to embark on this subject for the next few years. And we finally, we are very intelligent but we also need this subject to really get the thing down. So I'm really appreciate Geshe-la.

Thank you again. So let's welcome Hasso. Okay.

We gonna need the table because we have a special activity today. So welcome everyone. Good morning.

So glad that you're all here. It's wonderful to have this opportunity to have events live like this. For everyone who's here, these programs happen every Saturday and every Monday.

Geshe Michael always teaches these translation classes no matter where he's in the world pretty much. Sometimes by certain circumstances, the team, the translators have to take the class on but it's also like a training. I think it's kind of a training for them to figure it out and they discuss.

It's very fun as well. But the reason I'm saying that is because there is a lot of people watching online. Pretty much the audience is about at least kind of 300 people.

Sometimes it gets like to 600 when Stanley teaches his class in Chinese language. It's unbelievable. And all of you who are here, if you wanna follow this event, we have a picture we want to show with you.

I mean, the first one is for people online to know what we are in the middle of the YSI event, Hatha Yoga Pradipika for. And if you're not following it, I don't know what's wrong with you but really try because the teachings are amazing. I really, really are.

So there is a QR code for those people online who may want to join. And for people live is the next picture where you can follow this series. It's very, very meaningful, very helpful, very useful in your practical life.

As Geshe-la was saying, these ideas plant deep seeds in your minds. And also you see this kind of discussion times also allow us to find ways to put it into practice. So I don't know, I'm not seeing the picture.

Okay, yeah. If you're living in Asia, it's Saturdays and Tuesdays. So we have two posters, the English one, the other one, but yeah, both will work.

Okay, and this is Petrie World News. What we do is we try to give little windows for everyone to see what's happening everywhere. So yeah, we share what's happening in the programs, in the events, what's coming up, what just happened, time to rejoice.

And then I try to make this interesting and fun as well. So a little, a few weeks ago, I came up with this idea to start having, I call them unsolved questions. They are unsolved for me.

So if you know the answer, please let me know, let us know, just share. So next picture, please. I'm inviting people to try to figure out questions and send a video sharing your answer.

And I haven't been able to figure out this question, but if anybody does it, I will give them $100. So please, the question basically is, what's the relationship? And this goes also for the Mixed Notes translators because I have asked some of them and I haven't satisfied myself with the answers.

I'm not going to say names, but how's the four fruits? The four fruits meaning, you know, in descriptors, they say people who go into stream enterer, once returner, non-returner, and enemy destroyer. How does that labels connect with the bodysatba levels?

If someone can help me figure it out, we will share your video and you will get $100 and we will be super grateful. All right. Thank you.

Just follow the QR code. Okay, so now some news. Next picture, please.

Team Loewenhoff. Yay. We are celebrating still your birthday.

He's still taking birthday presents. He just had a birthday last week. So congratulations.

Thank you for all you do. And the reason that I bring this up is because if you want to make him really, really happy, try to come to the next event happening in Kyoto. Oh, yeah.

Now I see the picture. Wonderful. Okay, great.

He is one of the biggest or even the main producer of this event, not alone, but he's one of the main producers with this event. It's happening in Kyoto very, very soon. And he's encouraging people to come.

You can still come if you have not decided yet. It's, how do you say, news, because at some point it was already booked off, but now there are more opportunities. So if you want to come, please talk to him.

It's going to be very cool. And among all the activities happening there, I don't know what you're laughing about. Yes, yes, there are many rooms available.

I was talking with Sarah the other day about that. And guess what? Geshe Michael is going to be having a special talk with a famous lady in Japan, famous in Netflix.

She's Mari Kondo. And if you, for some sad reason, cannot make it live there, you can watch it online, but it's not going to be the same. It's better if you can come live.

Among other activities that are going to happen there, SKAA is also having some sessions. And then, yes, please, next picture. Prema and YSI are running a retreat there.

JBLA, Conila, Errol, I'm sure. Yes, he's in the picture. Teresa, Alfonso, you are all going to be there.

So if you're liking these programs, if you have the chance to be in Japan, try to come. It's just after the Steps on the Path, you can then join the YSI and Prema event. And you already know these teachers, wonderful teachers, no risk of having a bad retreat, guaranteed good retreat.

So just try to come if you can. And then after that, let me see what else we have. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

December 31st, we are planning a special event on Petri World News. We usually have this, how to call it, like big celebration party. For that, I want to invite Rob Hagerty to talk with me about it and a little bit of what you've been doing lately because I haven't seen you in a while.

Do we have another microphone? Yeah, thank you so much. Yes.

Thank you. All right, Rob. So really, there is a picture.

Hope you can see it. But, yeah, I've been trying to catch you because you are now the Schedule Master. For those of you who don't know, he's like really the person to talk when you have any businesses-related, Geshe Michael's schedule, right?

Correct. That's what they say. And even to you, you may need a person who figures out your schedule because now it's very difficult to reach you.

I want to show you the next picture. Last time, I was like, hey, Rob, we need to talk. We need to figure it out.

And he just sent me that picture. He said, like, I'm out for surfing. And I was like, what?

Wait, what picture? Oh, yeah, that's true. He wanted to have a meeting, and then I sent him that photo.

Yes. I'm like, Rob, we have to figure this out. I'm busy.

All right, but can you let me know? I was taking care of Geshe Michael. Yeah?

Yeah. Who, by the way, so we just came back from San Diego two days ago, I believe. So I think early last year, we were at Geshe Michael's mom's house, who is ill, and they were packing up all the belongings of her home.

And so I went there and I just volunteered myself to help, and we were packing boxes. And Geshe was like, what about this box? And I was like, well, I have a hernia.

I can't pick it up. So he picked it up. I shouldn't laugh.

It was your fault. He picked up a lot of boxes. And then his brother came by with, like, a cart.

Like, you know, like, we're both watching. I'm picking up light boxes. Geshe was picking all the heavy boxes.

And then his brother comes by with a cart and just walks it out. But as a result, he got a hernia. I think you heard yesterday.

So we've been in San Diego, sadly, a lot. Can we show the next picture to check how sad they were? I mean, I got this from Nick last night.

Nick last show. Geshe was always like, every time we go, everyone's wild way to go for a quick turnaround, like 24 hours to go see the doctor. And he pulls up.

He's like, let's get a Rolls Royce, a Maserati. And the last time we were there, he was like, what do you want to drive? And I was like, I don't know.

You have a Maserati? He was like, I do. So we got Geshe a Maserati.

And then this time on the plane, he's like, what do you want to drive? And I was like, I want to drive a Porsche. So I pull up and there's two Porsches sitting right there.

And the lady's like, yes, you can have it. And then we can't get our luggage in it because it's too small. And she's like, no problem.

You can have this one. So he's like, we put our bags in and then she's going to get the keys. And we have this beautiful red nine 11 convertible.

And then she's like, I'm sorry. I already gave it away. And I was like, no.

So this was our runner up, which was the convertible Mustang. Looks wonderful. And that's Aaron in the background.

We went to see Nick and Aaron because she just had a surgery a couple weeks as well. And my question is, why are you wearing that hat? Didn't you know that?

Next picture, please. Man, you're betting for the wrong team. Look, man, I'm a New Yorker.

Like, I grew up in New York. Technically, I was born in Philly, but I spent almost my. Yeah, I don't know how Geshe Michael let you be around with that thing.

I don't know. Yeah, because that's his team. So didn't you lose the bet?

I did. Did you pay him? That's why I learned not to support them.

I thought, where's the money? Someone which I cannot say her name has the money.

[Speaker 2]
All right.

[Speaker 1]
All right. So finally, I would like to let us know very quickly. What's the big picture for 2025 related with the schedule?

Yeah, we've been having, like, a lot of intense meetings, actually. And I think one of the most beautiful things has come about. They're still like Sagey and I sat at the Peachtree yesterday for, I don't know, two hours or.

And because there's 42 organizations, and there's 365 days in the year, and we need 456 days or something for 34. We need 70 days, which don't exist. So kind of like we kind of got all together, and then we just started collaborating, and they just all of a sudden decided that they would take it.

So this year, we have a 12% reduction, basically. So Geshe-la can have time to write and have time with his wife and his life and his health. And then they decided to add another 10% on.

So they actually dropped down 22% for next year. And so I think what you're seeing is this beautiful friendship, I think, happening between all those organizations coming together and then putting Geshe Michael's life. Not that they don't, but everyone's really putting that as a real priority and stuff.

So yeah, we're going to upload it in like a day. There's a few tweaks, but it's a lot of work. It's taken months and months to do, and it's super complicated.

And there's a lot of, I mean, I don't know how by some miracle it's happening. I don't know. Because if you look at his life, it doesn't make any sense at all.

I mean, zero. I mean, that's why someone's always like, can I get a minute with Geshe-la? And I was like, is it personal?

How important is it? And it's not that he doesn't look. It's not that he doesn't love all of you.

He does. There's just so many hours in the day. And so I always say my personal advice is go to a class.

Listen to the class. Think of the question you would like to ask. See if that question gets answered.

Apply that to your life. If you're still having problems and you can't figure it out, then come talk to me, and then we can figure out a solution, I think. So anything.

And then we also have all these great teachers. We have Earl, Sarah, Tim. Am I talking too fast?

You can go to the next section. I'll tell other people my story at Peacetree. God, you just took away my thunder.

What's that? What's your thunder?

[Speaker 3]
Thunder? Thunder?

[Speaker 1]
What's that? The thunder? Yeah.

What do you mean? I don't know. We can talk about it later.

All right. For now, let's welcome the next section. And you can stay.

It will be fun if you are here. But we need to talk with Benji. The other day, I was just hanging out, and then I get a message from Benji.

Can you show the next picture, please? And he is like, he never talks to me. I text you.

You never respond. And then he sends me this picture, which is the next one. It's a very fun picture.

But I understand. You're busy doing good things, which is glad to me. But can we get the next picture, please?

I can't believe you just cut me off. I'm just digesting that right now, actually. I really am.

That's your advice. You always advise me. We can talk about it later.

But I'm sorry. But, yeah. Can we get the next picture, please?

Francisco? Oh, he's handsome. Thank you.

Thank you? You're saying thank you for him being handsome. He's the most well-dressed yogi I've ever seen.

It's amazing. It's wonderful. So tell us a little bit.

What are you doing here today with that beautiful thing in the table? We need to fundraise for YSI. Earl keeps eating.

Bob just had a baby. And so now there's people to support. We want to keep bringing yoga to the masses.

And so we're doing a fundraiser. We took the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and we put it into Pecha form. All 387 verses.

And my friends keep telling me, sure, that no one's going to use it. That they just want it because Geshe-la's going to sign it. And I have a dream that people are going to do their homework.

They're going to do their final exam. They're going to open the Pecha. Learn Sanskrit.

Maybe the Devanangari. And then read Geshe-la's translation of the text. While they do their homework.

And then they've got it open on their yoga mat. After they just finished asana, of course. And now they've got to put it away.

So I wanted to ask if we could have JB come up. Yes, for this we need a real expert. So we will invite JB-la.

If you could come real quick and show us how to deal. How to treat these beauties properly. So yes.

I really like what you said the other day, Benji. That it's very funny, really, this idea of how the project of ALL. Finds the Pechas.

Does a huge process to bring them into modern content. And now you came up with this. Like, okay, let's go backwards now.

Let's take the modern content. Make it into an ancient presentation of it. I just want to see.

So this is a science on to its own. Wrapping Pechas. One of the things that we are looking at here is not a Tibetan text.

We're looking at a Sanskrit text. And part of the issue with the Sanskrit text, which is not the same system. Is that when you turn a page.

Of a Sanskrit text. In this case. You're actually having to turn it around to read the next page.

In a Tibetan Pecha. An actual commentary. You just have to do that.

And then the next page reads itself correctly. In this case, that's not the case. In this particular.

This is not a woodblock carving. Pretend it's not a woodblock carving. It is a woodblock carving.

But normally Devanagari is not woodblock. It's a palm leaf. And then they, they, you know, they copy it.

In paper form. So. We're going to show you.

And this is the right size. Wrapper. The other day we had one that was about two and a half feet long, which would never work.

But here, here, we're going to start with the cover. And every, you know, correct. Technology.

Is that you protect it. And usually with a wood cover. And some of them are beautifully ornate art pieces.

They're, they're amazingly beautiful. They can carve them. And, and, and make it a beautiful.

Sacred object. So. The first thing we do.

Is make sure that the pages are not crumbly. You know, really get some. Energy to that.

That they're, they're stacked properly. And then we take the tip of the back, right? So imagine that.

The title is here on the first page. And you're looking at the title. So you're, you're, you're.

The text is to you. So you're. If we had a colophon, which we don't.

I don't think there's a colophon. Well, we do. In the case of, of, of Tibetan texts as well.

The title is facing you. So the first step is to. You know, straighten it out a little bit.

You should iron it. To get the wrinkles out. So you take the first part of the back tip.

You take the first part of the back tip. And you align it into the center of the text. Right.

Sometimes you can tuck it in. I've got to tuck it in today. Because it gives more firm and tight.

Wrapping here. So we're going to. Kind of straighten it out.

It looks straight. We're looking pretty good here. Now, in a.

In a Tibetan. You have to remember how many times you fold it. Because you want to make sure that you end up with the title.

And the front and not the back. When you unwrap it. So.

You know, there's some, you know, Logistical practical things to remember. So, okay. So we're looking good here.

We're going to wrap it once. We're going to pull it a little bit tighter. Now, maybe a second time.

We're going to take it, wrap it. Now the title is back to the front, right? Now.

In traditional. You know, Tibetan. You have.

What's the book. You have a tag. Usually in beautiful silk.

I mean, it. You know, sometimes it's ornate and hand woven silk. And then the tag is woven.

And then the tag is woven. That hangs out on the left side of a picture. Because you're reading from the left to the right.

So that's, that's one of the most important things. If we had a tag. It would be here.

You would put it. Into. This area.

And then. You would slowly. I'm sorry, you would do this first.

And then you would put your tag. And then you would put your tag. Has a catalog number.

Has a brief. Description of what the volume is. It gives you data.

So every time we do one in the national library of Mongolia, it has our ALL. Catalog number. It has the title.

In Tibetan. Sometimes they put it into English. If it's translated.

And then it hangs down. With a cover to protect it. And if you don't do it properly, those things fall out.

And then you don't know what's inside the book. And it's weird that happens all the time. And Mongolia, especially.

So a proper way of doing it is you slide the. The piece. After the second fold, depending on the length of your cloth.

And then it's protected. Then you. You'll you'll.

You'll see it here. It'll. And then you really, really.

Pull on this. We're looking good here. We're looking pretty good.

And then it's a matter of, okay. This is a little short. So the front.

Page is not going to show. We ran out of room. And we could actually shorten it, but today we're not going to do that.

Okay. And then the. The string should be right at the tip of the, the triangle together.

That's pretty darn good. Look at that. It's like a cheese sandwich.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
So we're going to wrap it, you know, nicely. Pretty easy. Sometimes you find little notes.

You know, you find little notes in the text is fascinating. Maybe. Like a, like a scripted note in Tibetan.

Maybe the, the reader had some kind of thing to say about what was going on when he was reading the text. And then that's it. I mean, basically.

I just took it in once. This is really tight. This is like.

A very good example of making sure. That this is not going to go anywhere for a couple of hundred years. And then you maybe that's why people not reading them.

[Speaker 3]
So that's how you wrap up the sacred text. And, you know, even if you can't read it. Put it on your altar.

And, you know, honor it.

[Speaker 1]
And know that, you know, at some point in your future. It's going to speak to you. That's it.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you. Thank you so much.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you, Benji. Okay. So last question for Benji.

Thank you. So much. If people wanted what, how can they get it?

Yeah, we're going to make 50 copies. All of them will be numbered. All of them will be signed by guessing Michael.

Three of them will go up for auction. They'll have a special message on the picture. Guessing Michael doesn't know that yet.

Surprise. And a fingerprint. Also surprise.

So there's a QR code. Please support YSI if you can. And we'd love to see this on your altar.

Wonderful. And we're going to keep going with this. We're going to bring it up a few more times.

We're going to tell you more surprises about it. So try to get it now. But just be warned that you will see this again.

Thank you, Benji, so much. Thank you, YSI. People online, sign up.

Enjoy and have a great weekend. For people live, Pizzeria Cafe is a wonderful, wonderful place. It's like a best garden and best service.

The quality of the food is amazing. So I recommend you being there if you can. See you.

Thank you. See you Monday.