Гибсон Чан — Книга 1: Песнь моей духовной жизни (шаги пути), занятие 12

[Speaker 1]
Hello everyone. Let's begin the quizzes. Okay, so here's the first question.

Under the circumstance, what circumstance you can get a guarantee that you won't go to the three-level run after after you die? Yeah, so let's try. This is the answer.

And? And? Yeah, Deng is the guarantee.

Oh, guarantee. Deng? Yeah, let me see.

Yeah, you can go to three-level run if you have a sophisticated understanding of the emptiness and reach the level called mastery within the path of preparation. So this means you have to listen to Penn's story over and over again until you get to that point. So what's the Tibetan for guarantee?

Deng. Deng. Deng.

Deng. Deng. Deng.

So what's another meaning of this? Because it's the mastery. Patience.

Patience. Yes. Cool.

Nice. Good questions. So the second question is, Choney Nirmal is part of the Rin, mentioned the following three kinds of faith.

And which faith you need to for taking refuge? So you can leave in the comments. One, two, or three.

Yiche is two. Yiche Deva. Yiche Ki Deva.

Yeah, Yiche Ki Deva. Correct. Tangwa Deva is one.

Yeah, Tangwa Deva. And the third? Which three wrong, which wrong will they leave?

Yeah. Out of all palaces, Dupa Deva. Dupa Deva, yes.

Nice. So the correct one is the number two, second one, is Yiche Deva. Yiche Deva.

Yeah. By the way, the Yiche is spelled C-H-E-S, okay? Yeah, there you go.

Okay. Geshe-la. Yeah?

Aren't there two ways to spell Tangwa? Can't you spell it with a wasu as well?

[Speaker 2]
Yes, you can.

[Speaker 1]
You can, yeah. And it probably is correct, but he didn't do it this way in the text. It's a good question.

So the third question is, please give a list of signs that can show the person who is taking refuge. Don't they put their hands over their head? It's related to Lelando.

Ooh, nice. Nice clue. Hey, if the students are making too much noise, Gibson, don't tell them to shut up, just ask them to answer a homework question.

Okay, Nick, do you remember? It gets completely quiet. What does it relate to?

Lelando, what's that? Yeah. Lelando, what's Lelando?

[Speaker 2]
Oh, what to give up and what to take, what to throw away.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah. So Geshe-la mentioned, if a person is doing a good deed that brings happiness and giving up a bad deed that brings suffering, and trying to keep up, then we can say that person is taking refuge. Yeah, and if you take it to the two husbands in the kitchen, what's the sign that the wife is taking refuge?

She doesn't go to the bathroom. Yeah, good. She does not yell back.

That means she's taking refuge in the pen. Okay, she does not yell back. Easy to say during class, difficult to do after class.

That's right. So here is an extra-Tibetan question. What is Mepamase?

Not running out? No. This one is Mepamase.

There's nothing there and that's not all. Yeah, that's correct. That's not all.

Okay, so what's the synonym of the Mepamase? Synonym? Yeah.

emptiness? I'd say tendu. I don't know if it's right.

I guess it's another way of saying the same thing. Yeah, another synonym. Okay.

So what is a little child? That's a tough one. Like putting your hopes on a refuge object?

Yes, the one and only. Put all your hope in one person or one object. Yeah, that verb is, I don't know, 80%, 90% of the time it's always in a discussion of taking refuge.

I wonder if Asghar does all the words and he just answers the hard ones, or if he does just the hard ones. I think cha-wa has to do with making a promise or making a commitment. Like bao cha, a cha means to make a commitment.

So I think it's related to that. So here is some minor effort. It means promise.

Promise. Just by itself. Cha-wa.

So here is the translation that I made. Yay, translation. First person.

Yeah, and it means he's quoting the root text, okay? Lam chok drub is the root text. Okay, good.

So you got to put it in quotation marks. Okay. Yeah, and you have to take it out of the verse.

Okay, especially to reach the lam chok nam khyen. So the mission tree should possess a proper foundation that has features. Nice.

Okay. And these features are the eight. I think I accidentally.

You double did it twice. Yeah, I double pasted. I think here.

Which includes. Yeah. Yeah.

Long life, beautiful complexion. And so on. Until you find this funny.

Yeah, you left out half of that sentence. Until you find the spot in mind, karma, you cannot sa chö myung. Until you find this body and mind, karma, sa chö means to make substantial progress.

You're not going to make substantial progress without a body and mind like the one you have. Learn all the causes which prevent. de ongway che du de ongway che du means in order to get a body and mind like that, de nyi tsangwa de ma tsangway pa'i gyur, you have to train yourself in accomplishing, in assembling the causes for that body and mind, in a state that will never be incomplete.

ma tsangway pa'i means you have to put together the causes to get that body and mind, and those causes are going to have to be complete with nothing missing. ma tsangway pa'i de nyi tsangwa is a body and mind which have all the necessary qualities for spiritual progress. Something like that.

Not bad. You're good. That one's quite good.

We got to give you something a little more hard. Otherwise you're going to make too much money. Next sentence.

I think you said the next sentence, no? Yeah, I got a message. Here.

yu nyi tseng kyi sok gyur pa, de na ma me buwa sok mong wo Yeah, good. The causes for getting a nice human body and mind are to protect others' life for its good. And...

de na ma me buwa This ten, R-T-E-N, means your altar at home. Oh, okay. Offering it to the altar.

And we just had it. We weren't supposed to make gross noises in front of a ten. We just had it in the vanara.

Nice job, Gimson. Nice. Thank you.

Your Tibetan's getting really good. Thank you. Don't get too good or you're going to embarrass these old men and old ladies here.

No. Let's see here. All right, we're going to pick up here.

Please read... You read and Vimala's going to check you. Be tough on him, Vimala.

Vimala, I got that sampa. Thank you very much. It tastes good.

Please thank Deiki. I get old sampa from a guy in Los Angeles, and sometimes from a lady from China, but this is better. Thank you.

Homemade. All right. Let's go.

Sumbalanyi. Sumbalanyi. Muthang.

Doshi. Tenchulo. Yeah.

And Sumba is nam khyen dupe ten. What's that? The foundation that you need to achieve the omission.

Yeah. Yeah. Good.

And especially, what kind of body and mind are you going to need to achieve Buddhahood? And then, that discussion has two parts. Nge means what?

The main explanation. Yeah, the actual discussion. And then, by the way, he's going to give us a teaching on topshi.

The four power. Yeah. What are they in Sanskrit, you guys?

Chatur... Chatur...

[Speaker 2]
Chaturbala?

[Speaker 1]
And there's even a Sanskrit... there's even a sutra called Chaturbala. Sutra.

Okay, the four power sutra. All right. The first point, which is the description of the body and mind you need to achieve enlightenment, starts with lam chok druk.

Okay? And then, notice you guys, you could read lam chok as, in the ancient way, adi in Sanskrit, which means starts with. Okay?

Instead of saying et cetera, you could say starts with blah, blah, blah. Okay. Vimla, you're still checking.

Mr. Gibson, just interrupt him every third word. It doesn't matter if he made a mistake or not. Okay.

Geshe-la, we have been through this one. Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't we?

Oh, okay. Oh, you gave us this one. Okay.

Let's... Why did I make a footnote here?

[Speaker 2]
The eight causes?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Yeah, do you want to go through those? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, so there's eight qualities of your... that will make your... Where is that?

Oh, here it is. Yeah. There's eight qualities of your body and mind which will help you achieve your Buddhist goals.

And here's a list of them from a commentary to Jambashilam, which is a very famous tantra. Chanting the names of... Sorry.

Jambashilam is a lam rim. Okay, here we go. Here we go.

Please start here. And Vimla, you're still checking. Just interrupt him any time.

It's okay. Okay. Yeah, good.

Okay. Here's things that... Here's karmic results.

Eight karmic results. Which are dup duks. What's that mean, Gibson?

Dup is accomplish. Yeah. Drupal.

Drupal friend. Yeah, so these eight are friends who will help you accomplish your goals. Okay?

Okay. And they're all karmic results. Whatever the Abhidharma says.

Okay? All right. Number one.

Seringwa. Long life. Yeah, and you know, I don't know, you guys.

I have this theory that you get... One of the ways to get famous is not to die. So, a lot of really famous people, they just live longer.

So, long life helps you be a Dharma teacher. How about Sama? Beautiful complexion.

Yeah, and that was very important in India. They had different skin complexions. And it was a racist society.

If you had certain skin colors, you were lower caste. If you had other skin colors, you were higher caste. So, whatever country you live in, if you have a nice appearance.

Riktor. Higher birth. Yep.

Higher... Yeah, higher caste. You're born into a wealthy family.

Next one. Wangchuk Tsogpa. That is Atisha Ishwara.

This one means... This Wangchuk means authority. Authority.

100% excellent. Yeah, you're the big boss. Tsik Tsumba.

Tsik Tsumba, your word is powerful? Tsumba means kind of... When you say Tsik Tsumba, it means other people think what you say is important.

They revere your words? Yeah, or they honor what you say. They listen.

They listen to you. Okay. All right.

They think what you say has value. Okay. All right.

Number six. They have influence. Yeah, good.

[Speaker 2]
Perfect.

[Speaker 1]
I like that word. That's a perfect word here. They have more influence.

Porgyowa. Birth as a male? Yeah, and when I've been translating these kind of texts, I will say born in a state that is useful in that society.

If you're an Amazon, it's helpful if you're born as a woman. Okay. But in my translations nowadays, I kind of like to avoid this...

I don't know, what do you call it? Chauvinistic references. Number eight.

You got the power? Yeah. You have power.

Yeah, good. All right, those are the eight. Geshe-la.

Yeah. Yeah, but it's not actually chauvinistic one way or the other. It just depends on where you're born.

It just means wherever you're born, be the thing that gets you more privileges, right? Yeah, yeah, and that's how I would say it. I wouldn't connect it to a color or a sex.

You see what I mean? I would try to say... So I've been...

Without hesitation, I've been translating all these born as a woman things as, you know, born in a class in society where you can't affect things or something. All right. Remember Asanga's mom, right?

Right, you guys? I don't see everybody nodding. She said, you know, as a woman, I can't do anything, so I have to have some sons, you know.

All right. Okay. All right.

Keep going and let me see who I'm gonna pick. Uta, are you up for it? Okay, thank you.

Thanks for teaching yoga, by the way. Thank you. Let's go, you guys.

So I start from the next one. Yeah, is it Gyuni, right? Yeah, that's it.

Okay. Gyuni. Okay.

Gyuni, GZHAN GYIS GZOGS RGYUD PA DE LA MA MED BU BA GZOGS MANG NGO Good. All right. Now, what's the causes to have a good...

What's the causes to have all these good things, like people listen to you, you have authority, you're born in a good social status? What's the causes? You make an offering, MA MED...

Yeah. MA MED offering to the altar. Yeah, and it can mean GZOD DANG NGOS SOGS RGYUD PA So either a temple or your altar in your own home.

What about this GZHAN GYIS GZOGS RGYUD PA? Protect other's lives. Yeah.

Yeah, you protect the lives of others, of other people. And in Buddhism, and in Tibetan, and in Sanskrit, I don't know about Chinese, but others' animals are called people, individuals. So when you say others in Tibetan, it can mean other animals also, not just other humans.

So protecting the lives of other living beings, instead of protecting the lives of other people. All right. The causes you can collect to get those things.

All right, keep going.

[Speaker 2]
Geshe-la, something just happened to your microphone.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, you're right. You're exactly right. I think a cord fell out.

Oh, come on. Okay, got it. Thank you.

Okay. DE PHYIR LAS BRTZE LA, RANG RDOL GCIG DU PHYIR GYANG, BAB MED PAR THANG, NYON MONGS MANG BA'I, DANG GIS NGES PAR BYUNG BA'I SOGS Yeah, good. DE PHYIR LA While you're trying to collect the causes to have these opportunities to practice, BDE BU RLANG RDOG GCIG DU PHYIR LEN BDE LA LEN BDE LA What you give up or what you take on as a cause and effect.

Good, yeah. Pay attention to cause and effect. What deeds give you good results?

What deeds give you bad results? GCIG DU PHYIR GCIG DU PHYIR, I don't know. As much as you can?

Yeah, as much as you can. This THUG PA is the Muni, Buddha, the able one. When you say GCIG DU PHYIR, it means as much as you are able.

GCIG KYANG BAB MED PAR THANG, NYON MONGS MANG BA'I, DANG GIS NGES PAR BYUNG BA'I SOGS But if you're trying to collect the karmic causes to have a good chance to practice Dharma in your future lives, or in this life, you're going to have to watch out for BAB MED PAR and NYON MONGS MANG BA'I. What's that mean? Tendency and mental friction?

Yeah, BAB MED PAR means you are not careful. You're careless or you're not mindful. For example, when you speak to other people, you don't keep in mind that you should speak respectfully and kindly.

It's called BAB MED PAR. And then NYON MONGS MANG BA'I means you can get upset easily, or you have a lot of desire, things like that. So if you're trying to put together the causes for a good human life in the future, you have to be careful for these two things.

Now he says number two, and number two is this one. What's this say, Gibson? LTOBS SHIG DANG TSUL How to rely on the full power.

Yeah, good. In order to do what? In order to achieve omission.

Yeah, or to have a good body and mind too. Why teach people the four powers here? Why does Nagarjuna go to the four powers?

He told us what we have to do to collect the causes of a good body and mind. Why does he go right away to the four powers? Because all the stuff we did before, we knew that.

Yeah, and even after you know it, you still make mistakes, okay? I always tell people if you didn't make mistakes, you wouldn't have to come to class. You wouldn't need to study.

You wouldn't need to translate books. If you were a person who never made mistakes. He's assuming that while you're practicing to get a human body and mind, you're also making some mistakes.

Let's read the text here, and we'll hit the root text along the way. Let me see somebody I can pick on. Claudia?

Do you want to try? Just interrupt him every word, okay? All right, Claudia is going to try, Gibson.

Go slow. Make a big mistake for her. Okay.

Okay. Okay. RANG BYAG NI means what?

All of those guys. Yeah, people like you and me. Personally, I think that as a teacher, if you always include yourself, when you talk about how we mess up, I don't know, it feels more honest to the audience.

Because it's true. All right. LU NGA'I RGYI DGOS SUM Through the three doors, body, speech, and mind.

Good. NYON CHI DANG BSKYED PAR DU We get NYON MONGS CHI We get mental affliction, in general. Good.

And more especially, we get HIG MI GANG NI MA THOR BA'I DIG PA Geshe-la, how to make a mistake to read the LAS and NYON together? RGYI DGOS SUM LAS NYON CHI DANG That's a great question. I would read it as LAS NYON together, karma and kleshas, right?

Yeah. But it could have been DGOS SUM LAS NYON. It could have said, through the three doors of expression.

You have... But it doesn't quite make sense. So if you say LAS NYON together, it makes sense.

So you have to be careful about karma and negative emotions in general. And more especially, you got to watch out for the RANG BZHIN GYIS KHAR MA THOR BA'I DIG PA The nature of the bad deeds? This means natural bad deeds, and it kind of means...

Kramer, what's that? MAHA VRATA The great vow? Yeah, for the whole world, right?

How do they say that? MAHA VRATA Anyway, it's in the Yoga Sutra. Like the five deeds?

It doesn't matter what race, creed, color, or where you are? Yeah, so RANG BZHIN GYIS KHAR MA THOR means... The nature of the action is that it hurts somebody.

And therefore we call it a natural bad deed. There doesn't have to be anything else to say, it just hurts people. RANG BZHIN GYIS KHAR MA THOR BA'I DIG PA And then BYED PA'I KHAR MA THOR So he's drawing a contradistinction between RANG BZHIN GYIS KHAR MA THOR and BYED PA'I KHAR MA THOR.

Anybody can tell me for $50? Those deeds are natural bad deeds, and those deeds are the ones that the Buddha prescribed due to someone breaking a rule or something?

[Speaker 2]
Gibson was talking, Word.

[Speaker 1]
I heard some groaning. Or maybe it was one of those sounds you're not supposed to make, I don't know. Gibson, what were you going to say?

No, because I think BYED PA'I is a long way, but I think Word is correct. Yeah, Word is correct. So we're going to give the $19, was it?

$50. Was it $50? Aiyah.

Okay. Yeah, there's bad deeds which are natural. Everybody around the world says don't kill people, don't steal things, don't commit sexual misconduct.

These are in the whole world. Then BYED PA'I KHAR MA THOR, give me an example. Alcohol.

Yeah, the use of alcohol. At first, monks and nuns were allowed to use alcohol. Later the Buddha, BYED PA means he made a rule.

B-C-A-S means the Buddha made a rule. Bad deeds that the Buddha made a rule about. Okay.

PHYI MA means what, Vimala? Mala. Mala.

It means bad smell or impurity. PHYI MA BAG PA is an unusual word. You won't see it much.

It means to be sullied by a bad smell. Bad smell wears off on you. Okay, BAG PA DE NI, LAS DANG MYONG MONGS PA'I BYED PA GNYIS LAS LHAG PAR LAS KYI BYED PA BYUNG BA LAS BYED PA There's two kinds of obstacles.

Some are karmic. Some are mental afflictions. Of those two, it's LAS BYED PA.

What's that mean you guys? LAS BYED PA. It's very crucial.

It's a very crucial point. LAS BYED PA means it's very crucial that we should be careful about our LAS KYI BYED PA, our karmic obstacles. Okay, good.

Okay. All right. Gibson, you want to choose somebody?

I mean, you could choose Emily. Yeah. All right.

Okay, so you read and Emily... Emily, you don't have to say anything. Just kick him.

If he... Okay. He's going to go, oh!

Thank you. So, DO RGYUN DU means on a regular basis, we should do the four powers okay? BSTAN GYI STOBS is, what's that mean, Gibson?

The foundation power. Yeah, which basically means what? To thinking about the pain.

Yeah, and we say taking refuge. And taking refuge means to take refuge. And that's to think about.

Okay, then sun jimpey to, what's that mean? Do intellectual regret. Yeah.

Yeah, and sun jimpey, as I've mentioned to you. Yeah, it means destruction, and unfortunately it can also mean to rape a person. So it's a very distasteful word.

It's a very bad word. So sun jimpa means to rip out a plant from its roots, or even to rape somebody. So it's a very bad word.

But here it's a good word, right? Yeah. We got to smash those bad seeds, okay?

How about lan dopey to? Power to make up. Yeah.

Yeah, lan dopey means to make a commitment to stop doing something. Lan dopey means to turn away from that kind of behavior in the future. And what's the advice you have to give new people here?

[Speaker 2]
Set a time limit. Set a time limit.

[Speaker 1]
Very, very, very wise to set a time limit. We cannot stop ourselves. You make a promise not to do something, and you do it five minutes later.

That's how strong we are. Okay, lan dopey to. Then what's the fourth power?

Thorough antidote. Yeah, nyenpo kundu chenpoy to. Yeah, it's the opposite.

If you killed somebody, then protect life. If you stole something, then give something to somebody, okay? I want you, Gibson, to explain shaktum.

And it better be sweet. Shaktum. Two elements.

You gather together and make confession? No? Dum is like a vow?

Dum is a verb for what you do with a vow. Dum pa means vow. Dum here is a verb.

What are we supposed to do with our vows? Promise to keep them. Yeah, keep them.

Dum means to keep your vows. And here it means to restrain yourself. The English word restrain.

Like when you're just about to eat a donut, and your other hand, you hold back your hand. Okay, that's called dum. Self-restraint.

What's shakpa? Confession. Yeah, it means confession.

And it comes from what, you guys? Splitting a log. Yeah, it's a word for cutting wood with an axe, and it splits open like that.

And it means that your heart and your activity should be an open book to your teacher. We shouldn't hide anything from them. You should tell them.

Every time you make any kind of mistake, you should tell them. Shaktum. These are the two elements of a good confession.

Number one, tell somebody. Number two, restrain yourself in the future. Two, shak and dum.

Tsangwa ten means you got to practice these two together completely. Don't leave anything out. Don't leave out the shak and just dum, and don't leave out the dum and just shak.

You should do both. Alright. Alright.

Now, Utpala, what's this little note here to ourselves mean?

[Speaker 2]
That means we should think about who has explained these four in a really beautiful way, and then go find that text and pick out the quotation that you can add to a footnote.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, so we have a resource for our translators. It's all the footnotes that were written up to now. And we have them in one document, due to Utpala's hard work.

If you're going to write a footnote, which you should, about the four powers, you could check that document and see if there's already a footnote in somebody else's book about the four powers. If there is, you could take that footnote and you could modify it for your book. Most of the footnotes, you guys, where I took a quotation from another book, I took from the most famous books.

Like yesterday with Utpala's text, we covered the quotation from Master Sangha from where?

[Speaker 2]
Mahayana Sangha.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, that quotation, but from where did we explain it?

[Speaker 2]
Oh, we got it from the very first ever published in the series of Diamond Cutter Classics.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, so roughly our strategy so far has been to do the most important books first. Like the Diamond Cutter Sutras was the first first book. Before you take the...

To write a good footnote can take an hour. We don't have time. We are mortal.

The books are long. We got to find ways to move faster. One way is to use the footnotes that other people already used.

You can search the combined footnote document. You can get a... By the way, I think you're going to have to modify the footnote.

I don't think... Usually your style in your book is not going to be exactly the same style that somebody else's uses in their book. I think you should reword it to fit the style of your own book.

But you save a lot of time. I have used that resource a lot in the last few... In the last year or year and a half, I don't write a footnote if it's already written.

I just go find it. So, Gibson's going to work with Utpala and see if you find a good place that you'd like to use to explain the Four Powers. All right.

Please read in. Who's going to check you? Alex Rivas.

Boy, you just showed up. I don't know what it is. Strangers in the night.

Okay. Chime, Sapa, Dixie, Xun, Mongpor, Junwa, Dachela, Chuju, Duni, Dixie, Junwo. Yeah.

Chuju, Duni, Dixie, Junwo. Oh, yeah. I think this is misspelled.

Let me check. Yeah, it should be sabak. This is misspelled.

All right. Bakpa means to be polluted by a bad smell or some kind of stink. Okay, bakpa.

There's an Indian spice named... Asafoetida. Asafoetida?

Hing. Hing. It's so powerful that in my home we don't keep it in the house.

We keep it outside under the stairs. Outside. Because it's so strong.

It's so powerful. When you use it in food, you've got to be very careful. It's like super garlic or something.

That's called bakpa. If the smell gets on your hands, it'll stay on your hands for like three, four days. That's called bakpa.

The smell will stick to your hands. Shung mambar jungwa tar. Chela.

Now, when he says shung mambar jungwa tar, it means there's a different reading of the root text in different books. Different books quote Tsongkhapa's root text differently. He says here, in many shungs...

What is shung, you guys? Text. Scripture.

In many texts, the wording is changed to thimay bakpa di. Let's see what it is here. Thimay bakpa di.

That's what it says in this text. Shung mambar jungwa tar. Chela.

chu chu du ni. di shi jungwa. Yeah.

Chu chu is a genre of literature. Anybody know? Rachel?

It's the prayer books that they use in monasteries. Each monastery has their own chu chu. One of the first things we did at ALL, we collected all the chu chus from the major monasteries.

We collected all the major prayer books from all the major monasteries, and we input them. We have input all of them from the seven great colleges. That's called chu chu.

They are very, very useful for our work. You can find all the important short texts are in there. But there's a problem with chu chus.

They are put together by local monks of each monastery, and those monks make... Mistakes. Mistakes.

Yeah, they introduce mistakes. He says, in the chu chu, in the common book of prayer, chu chu du ni, it says di with an instrumental. chi me bakpa ndi.

Di means an S at the end. Shi jungwa. You guys can think about the difference.

By the pollution, by the stink, or the pollution of the stink. Anyway. Okay, let's read this one.

Alex Riva is still checking. Yesterday in Utpala's text, we attempted to ngun dzin how it was that objects were appearing to us in a wrong way. So what's ngun dzin mean?

Identify? Yeah, identify. We have to identify what?

The top shi. The four powers. Yeah, so if you want to know the real detailed description, here it means detailed description of the four powers, and if you want to know the details, gyepa, of how to do your confession, shatsung, shen du shepa chak.

You have to... you should understand other... Yeah, he's saying, if you don't...

Yeah, go look in some other book. I'm not going to comment, okay? It's kind of impolite.

He says, if you really want a good teaching on the four powers, and you want to know how to do your confessions, well, go find another book that explains it, okay? There's detailed books that explain it. I don't want to make my book too long.

As an author, and as a teacher, if you can be careful not to make things too long, or longer than they have to be, that's a great way to teach, and that's a great way to write. Me and Xiaoping and Stanley, we gave some sample classes in Japan for the MBA and the EMBA courses, and we are required, in order to grant American accredited degrees, we are required to use some standard textbooks. Oh my god, there's like 600 pages each of just fluff.

I had the hardest time to read them. I had to read a few pages, and it was painful for me. After reading scripture, where people are very...

what do you call it? They use great... Yeah, economy.

They use an economy of words, and they are deep. The words are deep, and they don't say too many words. I think in some educational circles, the goal is to say as much as you can, and use as many words as you can, and then the book looks more authoritative.

Anyway, it's not uncommon in a brief commentary, a brief work like this one, The Song of My Spiritual Life, it's not uncommon for him to say, if you want more detail, you go find it somewhere else. The goal of this work was conciseness. It was meant to be concise, and I'm not going to make it fatter by adding a lot of stuff.

If you want the details, he usually tells you where to go to get them. He's fighting to keep this text short, and it was successful. This particular text, the reason it's in the Prayer Book of the Great Monasteries, is that it's short and sweet, and a Lama can give this teaching in one or two days, and they can finish the whole book in one or two days.

That's why he's going to say many times, if you want the details on the confession, you want to know more about the four powers, what they are, go read it somewhere else. Sometimes he'll tell you where, sometimes he won't. Now, extremely important tiny little piece here.

Gibson. GZHAN LAM MED SOGS SNGA GZHIN NO So Jerry, Je Tsongkhapa also explained before. Yeah.

What's this line say? GZHAN LAM MED NYAM LEN DE DAG BYED DANG DROD DAG KYANG DE BZHIN BYANG CHO LO Okay. If you want to...

This is what I did to... Yeah. This is how I...

This is how I practiced, and I hope you guys will practice the same. Okay? Okay.

That line's the same. He's even trying to be short here. He's not repeating the last two lines.

He says, I already told you these last two lines. It's a refrain. It's repeated over and over.

All right. We have a few minutes, I think. Two minutes, Geshe-la.

Let's use it. Okay? Okay.

NYIS PA SKYES BU JING DANG THU MONG BA'I LAM NYAM SU LEN TSUL NI DU KUN NI GYIS NYE DMIGS PA SANGS SGUD PA'I YUL CHEN THANG SANGS SU NGU SO Good. Okay. NYIS PA SKYES BU JING DANG THU MONG BA'I LAM NYAM SU LEN TSUL NA NI We have reached the steps of the path for people of...

Medium. Medium capacity. Yeah, we've reached...

And technically, it's called shared with people of medium capacity. The steps which are shared with people of medium capacity. And we're going to have to think about the problems of DU KUN.

DUN YONG and KUN BYUNG. The suffering and the cause of suffering. Yeah, those two truths.

We had it in whose text? Nick's text. Nick's text.

DU KUN Yeah. Nick will never make that mistake again. Because he did it in front of us.

So DU KUN.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, all the mistakes I made in front of a thousand monks, I still remember them very clearly. And I don't make them usually. DU KUN NI GYIS NYE DMIGS PA'I SANGS SGUD PA'I YUL CHEN Why should we think more about the problems of the truth of suffering and the truth of the source of suffering?

And then SANGS SU LUNG DNGOS. How are we supposed to do our contemplations? How are we supposed to do our contemplations?

Thank you, Geshe-la. Yeah, you're welcome. By the way, this is a favorite text of a visiting teacher.

So if a teacher is invited to give a teaching at Södermay, for example, a High Lama will be invited. Those High Lamas are always busy. They don't have a lot of days.

And they will teach this text. So I encourage everybody to follow this text closely. It's like the Germans or the Swiss asked me to give a teaching two days ago.

Half hour teaching. And I took it out of here. So this is a good teaching to keep in your pocket and use it.

And a couple of weeks before, the Russians asked me for a half hour talk. So this kind of text is very helpful for that. All right, stop here.

Oh, so Gibson, next few lines, right? Next paragraph. Okay, next two paragraphs, okay, Gibson?

Okay. All right. Okay, and also...

Who is this? Oh, Alison, you're going to do... I want you to do five more rules.

They're short, right? Okay, Alison? For next time.

Okay, all right. Yours is the only one of the 12 books that I have not finished for the whole term. It's so difficult.

The language is so difficult. Yeah, Xiaoping, your text. It's by far the oldest language and the most difficult language.

So it's taking me a long time. Okay. See you guys at...

Any words, Nick? Thank you so much, Keshala. Thank you, everybody.

We have yoga now, again with Teresa, a really, really fantastic teacher. So if you can stick around for a few minutes, yoga at 8.15. And then we have another yoga class with Juan Hasso at 4. You need to be sleeping now.

Come to Hasso's class at 4, which I'm sure will be fun. And then we'll see you this evening for more classes. I'm going to make fun of him heavily.

It's a lot of fun. All the more reason to come and be a spectator for that. All right.

Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Keshala.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. I'm having a good time as usual. Okay.

Great. See you tonight. Okay.

It's Seichu. Don't forget to keep your Seichu if you're one of those guys. Okay.

Bye. Thanks, boss. See you.

See you. Thank you.