Ник Лашо — Книга 2: Ратнамала, занятие 31

[Speaker 1]
Hey, it's time, right? Is this the right place? Schwenzhag Tower?

Yes, okay, this is it. Again. How do you feel?

Do you feel all right? Yes. Yeah, I feel good.

Fighting off a cold, but I think it's not scarlet fever. So there's that. Oh, yeah.

Okay. How's the family? Everybody got it like something, but Aaron's getting better, Amelie's fine.

We both have been having midnight coughing fits, but other than that, good. Oh, I think it's a time thing. How's your son, Jeru?

He's great. He's amazing. Just vigilantly keeping watch over the family, and.

Does he like Portugal? What's wrong? I think he prefers California, but he also likes it here.

It's been rainy for months, so he doesn't get to get out as much. Yeah, he's funny when it's rainy. But he likes it.

Everybody's good here. Yes, yes, here it comes. Good to see you.

Let's see. I'll just share my desktop, and here is. Okay, listen.

I want to remind you of the rule that grandpa doesn't have to answer homework questions. You don't have to. You're free to, and you're also free not to.

Good. Just clarifying. Yes, you can also relax.

It's early there. Have some breakfast or something. Yeah, although I'm sure you guys will.

Are you all better, Geshe Michael? I am not, but I'm getting there. I got some good drugs.

Nice. All right, well, let me know where to get those. Can you make your page bigger, bigger, bigger?

Bigger, bigger, coming up. Bigger. Okay.

In the metaphor of the mirage, this is where we're at, right? Who are the people far away from the image of the mirage who are close, and who sees the things in the world purely? It gets so quiet during meditation.

And then when it's homework time, it's perfect silence. No, we don't do that. We don't have noisy meditators, do we?

[Speaker 2]
No, we don't.

[Speaker 1]
Not yours today, Geshe Michael. I don't think so. Is it people who, sorry.

Is it people who are far away who get tricked? Are they sosokewas, and people who are close and see it for real, or arias, or something? Yeah, good.

Rob says the faraways are the sosokewas. Yeah, both Rob and Word got it. And I got a two in the chat first.

[Speaker 2]
Fantastic.

[Speaker 1]
Thanks for reminding me. I'm gonna open the chat so I can have a look here. Okay, so I didn't see, if anybody's been chatting me, I still love you.

I just didn't see your messages. And thank you, Kat. And who sees the things in the world as existing purely?

Both of them. Well, no. The people I'm pointing to.

Sorry, Geshe Michael. That might have been the first time Oscar didn't get it right. So now I'm questioning myself.

[Speaker 2]
Well, I was thinking of purely use in the both ways.

[Speaker 1]
Oh yeah, you can say that. But then he made a point to say it in a certain way. Do you remember?

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Arias. Yes, it's the opposite.

The sosokewas see them purely in it. Because in this particular moment, he's using the word purely to say that they, as if they existed through some nature of their own. And it's good.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
And that's the only reason I had one more question. Anybody want a shot at the Tibetan used here for existing purely? How much money are you offering?

A bowl of popcorn. I don't know. Oh, thanks.

Young Dagbar Nepa? I don't know. Yeah, good enough.

Young Dagbar Drupa. Good. You got it, as far as I'm concerned.

Nice. And good, Utpal got it in the chat. Next question for a bag of gold.

Yay! Gold. In what sense are the indicators of whether or not someone is a male or female mirages, or of whether someone is a male or female?

[Speaker 2]
We talked about when you're in the direct perception of emptiness, those are like normal objects, so you can't see that, like you can't see this.

[Speaker 1]
Did you catch that, Nick? Lindsay says when you're in the direct perception of emptiness, they wouldn't be a difference. Perfect.

Perfect. Nice job, Lindsay. Somebody.

Someone in the DPE is too close to perceive them, whereas someone far away will see them. Great answer. Tibetan for close?

Neywar? Neywar. Yeah, in this case, he said Tak-Neywar, but yes.

Lindsay got some brain stimulators in Texas. Oh, yeah. Send some Portugal, I'll pay the shipping.

Believe me, I need it. Here we go. What are, this is great, you guys are getting the answers.

This is the first time in a while. What are the nihilists doing wrong and what is the result of their error? What kind of view do, and I'm just trying this on, okay, these translations, existencers possess and what is the result of their error?

I already came up with a better word, I think, for existencers. I was trying to think of a word this morning for that. That's not too bad.

I know what it is usually, Nick, but I forget the context of this. Well, I'm proud of you. I can say what it usually is, I don't know.

Go ahead, let's see. Usually, nihilists are taking, because the fact that things are empty, saying that nothing exists, and so the result of their error is chepa, nothing exists. And usually, existencers are taking things as self-existent so they think things last forever, so the result of their error is chepa, thinking things are permanent or something or unchanging.

Good, I mean, you're right about those two extremes. And then I wanna get more specific. When I say result, and this is for you or anybody, when we say result here, I mean the result of the seed planted by having that error.

Like, how may that seed ripen in each case? And then if you want to specifically try to tell me the error that YeltsinJ has been focusing upon, nihilists. Don't they go to a higher realm or something?

Sorry again. No, you go ahead. I promised not to answer.

Don't they go to a higher realm or something, and then the other ones go to a lower realm or something? Yeah, do you wanna tell me which? Yeah, nihilists will end up in a upper realm, a higher realm.

Lower? Nihilists in a lower realm? Yeah, nihilists would be, yeah.

Oh, oh yeah, because they think nothing is moral, but then the existencers do something that is somewhat moral, even though they see it as self-existent and end up in a higher realm. That's closer to the bullseye. Okay, precise and not accurate, but let's see what I wrote.

I thought you were gonna say bullseye. Nihilists underestimate the reality of cause and effect, like you said, Word, and due to this, go to the lower realms. Existencers have correct view in a worldly way, and so will be reborn in the higher realms.

But if these worldly views are the extent of their understanding, they will continue to spin in the cycle of pain. Nice answer. What is the Tibetan, thank you, Geshe-la.

What's the Tibetan for underestimate? Hey, you could ask the people in this room. They know this really well.

Are you guys underestimating? Wait, which is the existencer? Oh, my, your papa?

Yeah, Sugeng says your papa for existencer. Good. What about nihilists?

[Speaker 2]
Me papa.

[Speaker 1]
And me papa. Nice. And if they're female, it's your mama and me mama.

Right, right, right. I never thought about that. Me mama.

Me mama. Me mama. Tu mama.

Okay, good. And then underestimate, anybody wanna give me? John Doe?

Yeah, you're right. Surendep, Kurendep, excuse me. Yeah, good, your papa, me papa.

Oh, I wrote a fourth question. Who is represented in the metaphor by someone who from far away sees water, up close, no water, and then they believe that there was water there before, and then it was gone when they got there? English and Tibetan.

And I know Utpala knows this, although I'm not looking at the chat. Well, isn't it somebody who, isn't one of the other schools or someone who doesn't understand emptiness and at the end switches from one to the other? Good guess, but that was not what was mentioned in the text.

I thought so. It's much simpler than that. Utpala says a fool.

Yes, a fool. That's what I meant. Fools.

Nice, one buzz. All right, cool. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Geshe Michael. Nice homework. Thank you, sir.

I've been having fun with this text and let's look at some of that fun. If I can find it. There we go.

Make it big, Nick, for all the grandpas. For all the me papas. But Geshe-la, were you guys just talking about me papas and your papas?

Yeah, we were having a meditation about it. Oh, cool. All right.

So this is the setting I've given. Do you want to read the Tibetan down below, just for the big ones? Yeah.

Sorry, excuse me. CHEN DU LTAR BA SPANG BA SPANG BA If you need necessity that doesn't feel sincere. Well, THAG DANG THOB PA YIN MED KYI LTAR BA CHEN DU LTAR BA SPANG BA This SPANG BA is a little bit dangerous, right?

Word? Do you have any opinion? Well, SPANG BA usually means to eliminate, right?

What if it said PEN BA? PEN BA Right, to launch, in this case. Yes.

So if it's PEN BA, it means it promotes that view. And if it's SPANG BA, it means it denies that view. So it's a problem.

The way they've spelled it is really unusual. And I think we need to get into it to understand which one it is. I'm not sure which one it is with this spelling.

So SPANG BA means to get rid of, but PEN BA, SPANG BA means to promote an idea. You see what I mean? Hasn't he been very clearly speaking out against this necessity already?

THAG DANG THOB PA YIN MED KYI LTAR BA CHEN DU LTAR BA SPANG BA Yeah, good. Yeah, I think you're right. I think logically, THAG DANG THOB PA means what?

If we understand THAG DANG, things are free... From the extremes, from the extreme positions. Things are free of extremes.

If we understand that things are free of extremes, then it's wrong, SPANG BA, to say that we must have a view that things exist from their own side or don't exist from their own side.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
He's really been on about this. Yeah, I think you're right. I think logically, it has to be get rid of and not promote.

But it's a very strange spelling. I mean, it's weird. I don't think I've ever seen it actually.

I didn't even, maybe it's an error on the part of the typist or the carver. It could be. Yeah.

Okay, that's good. Okay. Anyway, session is good.

Let's go on to the next one. Okay. Oh, it looks like I did try to do the verses.

Do you want to look at them first or should we look at them? Can you read the first verse? YANG THAG CI SHIN YONG ZHES PAS ME DANG YOD PAR MI DOD PA DE PHYIR MED PA BAR MING GYUR NA CI PHYIR YOD PAR BAR MING GYUR Right.

Good. When we comprehend things correctly. Good.

We don't believe... By the way, it's nice length of the lines and that's something I look for in a translation. The Sanskrit is all equal meter.

The Tibetan is all equal meter. The English will never be all equal meter, but at least there shouldn't be lines there twice as long as the other lines. Okay.

When we comprehend things correctly, we don't believe that they exist or not. If we then were to become learners, why wouldn't we become realists? Good.

Perfect translation. Nice. Knowing realists, I'm trying on for YOD PA PA.

So let's see how it fits, I guess. Yeah, you're going to change it six times before we finish, but it's okay. Noted.

PHAL TE YOD PA GSUM CHUNG BA'I THON GYI GDIS NI MED PAR LEN THEG SHEN MED PA GSUM CHUNG BA'I YOD PAR GCIG GIS PHYIR MI LEN Good. I like that you said amount too. And it's a very, very difficult verb that we've never had before.

LEN. Say LEN. LEN.

Yeah. LEN is low tone. LEN is high tone.

BA'O SOS LOD TU LA RNAM LEN When it has prefix letters, it goes high tone. L, L with anything on it, top of it or before it, it goes high tone. LEN.

PHAL TE YOD PA GSUM CHUNG BA'I If we're being altruistic, what's the present tense of GSUM CHUNG BA'I, Nick? GSUM BYUNG GSUM BYUNG BA BYUNG BA GSUM BYUNG BA Yeah. With just an N.

So in this case, the N in the present tense changes to NG in the past tense, which is kind of weird. So, GSUM Of course, yeah. GSUM is past, past, past, past tense.

Okay. He's making a point to make past tense. If we're being altruistic, DENG KYI DIN NI MED PAR LEN Good.

Yeah. Maybe I could tweak it to get more equivalent line length, like you just mentioned about. Yeah.

Work on it. You know, if I get desperate, I split the line. Yeah.

Just so it looks good on paper. Cool. Oh, in the chat, I think he meant GSUM JIN, rather than GSUM BYUNG.

All right. Yeah. BA'I YOD TE BYA'I GYI GUS BYIN NA JIN Yeah.

Green nasal, JIN. The point is here, if he went so far as to put CHUNG, he wants to draw attention that it's past tense. Okay.

Because it's unusual to make it this past tense. Okay. And by the way, it's the conditional past tense.

If it were the case, and you translated it fine. If you say if, then the tense doesn't matter. Okay.

Let's go to the... The verses are nice, which is unusual in this text. It's hard.

Who do you want to read, Uncle Ning? Don't ask, Oscar. He just got back from studying.

I mean, come on. Okay, Oscar. Go for it.

That's what you get for answering homework questions correctly.

[Speaker 2]
NELUK'I DUNG YANG DAG PA JITA WA SHING YONG SU SHES PA'I RANG SHING GI YIPAR MIN DUG PA DE CHER MED PA PAR NGUR NA YOD PA PAR YANG CHI'I CHIR MIN GYUR GYUR BAR LTA'O LEN DRIN MED PAR YANG MIN DUG PA'I CHIR Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. I should have been writing student translation. That's okay.

Sorry. NELUK'I DUNG YANG DAG PA JITA WA SHING YONG SU SHES PA'I RANG SHING GI YIPAR MIN DUG PA DE CHER MED PA PAR NGUR NA YOD PA PAR YANG MIN CHIR MIN GYUR GYUR BAR LTA'O LEN DRIN MED PAR YANG MIN DUG PA DE CHER MED PA PAR NGUR NA That's perfect translation. Boring.

Next paragraph. Who's going to read, Uncle Nick? I didn't get a chance to even look at that.

When someone comprehends correctly, the meaning of the way that things truly are, they don't believe that things exist through any nature of their own. If they then became nihilists, then why wouldn't you have to also say that they have become realists? Because they don't accept that there is no cause and effect.

So people are coming up to Nagarjuna and saying, you're a nihilist, you don't believe anything. And he says, why? And they say, because you say nothing exists.

And he says, no, I didn't say that. I said nothing exists from its own side. And if that makes me a nihilist, then I should also be a realist.

Because I do believe that some things do exist in and of themselves, if it's cause and effect or something like that. I do believe in a cause and effect. So if you're going to call me a nihilist because I believe nothing exists from its own side, then for the same reason you should call me a realist.

Because I do believe that cause and effect comes from its own side, in a way. Or that it exists, I guess he's saying. That it exists, yeah.

If you're going to call me a nihilist because I said something didn't exist, then you should also call me a realist because I did say other things existed. I said nothing existed from its own side. If that's why you want to call me a nihilist, then call me a nihilist.

But then at the same moment, you'll have to call me a realist because I do believe that things come from their own seeds. Okay, cool? And what's the relevant Tibetan here?

In both cases. Mepapa and Yupapa. If you're going to call me a Mepapa, you might as well call me a Yupapa because I do believe some things are me, but I also believe some things are you.

Cause and effect, you. Existence from its own side, me. If you're going to call me a Mepapa, then you have to call me a Yupapa also.

Got it? Cool? By the way, who is Nagarjuna struggling with as he struggled in your first book?

Lower schools. Yeah, he's struggling with Buddhist schools who couldn't understand what he was saying. He had a bad position in his life.

He was working against 700 years of lower schools. And he's one guy trying to convince them they're wrong. Okay, next.

Who's going to read, Nicholas? Go ahead. Mix it up a little bit.

How about Kat? You ready?

[Speaker 2]
I'm ready.

[Speaker 1]
All right. How do you say the last word? Lend.

No, but then there's a few more syllables below. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Parja-o-she-na.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Yes. The lend, because it has a head letter, you got to make it high tone.

Lend. So lend means to answer. Lend means to equal.

Okay. Completely different word. All right.

Let's look at Nicholas's transition. If we say that someone who says that things have no nature at all has ripped out the idea that things exist through some nature of their own, someone may protest, it amounts to just calling them nihilists. Yes, saying that things exist through dependence is enough to call them existences.

Okay. So does the parallel case hold true? If I say that something doesn't exist of its own nature, am I then a nihilist?

He says, you said, saying that things had cause and effect was enough to not call yourself a nihilist. So is saying that things don't exist through any nature of their own enough to call yourself a nihilist? And we say no.

Okay, that's his question here. Okay. Okay, cool.

Just a claim. I wouldn't call amounts to calling them nihilists amounts to them being nihilists, you see? Yeah.

Or something like that. Yeah. I think that I thought about that and I got you.

If I say that things... If I say, look, I'm not a nihilist. Why?

I'm an existencer. Why? I believe things exist through cause and effect.

Then the other guy comes back and says, well then, you're also a nihilist. And we say, why the hell do you say that? He says, because you said nothing exists from its own side.

You're also saying nothing exists. You said everything exists from cause and effect. Did you say that?

Yes. So therefore you're an existencer. Yes, I am.

Well, then you're also a non-existencer. Why do you say that? Because you say something doesn't exist.

What did I say doesn't exist? Something that could come from its own side. If you're going to call yourself an existencer, then by the same logic you should call yourself a nihilist.

Who's talking? The other guy. Got it?

Are you an existencer? Yes, I agree with everything. Farmers believe, I believe.

That's Nagarjuna's famous thing. Well, what do you believe? I believe things exist through cause and effect.

Well, then you're also a nihilist. Why? Because you also believe that things don't exist any other way.

So you're an existencer and a nihilist, right? Nagarjuna's like, well, that's not Rigpa Gotsang, right? That's not parallel logic.

I can call myself an existencer if things exist through cause and effect, but that doesn't mean I also have to call myself a nihilist because they don't exist any other way. I don't have to call myself an existencer and a nihilist. I don't have to call myself one and zero at the same time.

Got it? What's the game called in Tibetan logic, Nick? He's trying to do Rigpa Gotsang.

Gotsang means parallel logic. If it's true you're an existencer because you say things do exist through cause and effect, then it's also true you're a nonexistencer because things don't exist any other way. And we say, ma kya, not necessarily the case.

One doesn't follow from the other. Got it? You okay?

Hey Nick, it got almost as quiet as during your homework. Bravo to the interpreters who are keeping up with this. Oh, God bless.

If you're an interpreter for this thing, you deserve a medal. Portuguese gold medal. Okay, Sreeni, next.

They also use pa for a lot of things in Portuguese slang in Portugal. It's very funny. What's it mean, pa?

It just exaggerates a point. Like, oh, pa. Like, yeah, pa.

I thought it meant that way with mine. No, it's something else. Here we go.

I'll read this one. I think I'm good. I don't know if I caught that there were the two lens.

Oh, maybe I did. Let's see. Yeah, good.

No, that's fine. I think you're all good. Great thinkers we're doing.

Yeah. Umapa. Yeah, okay.

Why doesn't being a middle way follower amount to being a realist? Why doesn't being a middle way follower amount to the same thing as being a realist? And he says, why do you say that?

And we said, because we deny that cause and effect doesn't exist. We deny that cause and effect doesn't exist. Double negative makes us say nyupa pa.

Okay? Is that okay? By the way, he's done a Rigpa Gosung on the Rigpa Gosung, Nick, if you really want to know.

I see it, yeah. Yeah, he did a Rigpa Gosung. If one, then two.

Then we say, okay, cool. Then if two, then three. Same thing.

If you're going to just cancel what was not, then that makes us realists. Got it? You okay?

It's got very quiet here, Nick. I think they're just thinking, they're just concentrating on cinnamon rolls, I think. I can't blame them, but yeah.

Okay, who's next? Nick, translate the next part. All right.

Tey tak ni go jung gi gak pao. Yeah, nice. We use the exact same kind of logic to deny both of these ideas.

Yeah, we're just flipping their own argument back on them. It's called pancake syllogism. And then my question is just a translation question.

In a text like this, I feel like in my last text, obviously, there was a lot of technical terms. In this text, would you say parallel logic? Or would you do something like this, like exact same kind of logic?

I think parallel logic is close enough to understandable that it's not a technical term. Okay. You can accuse your wife of parallel logic or something like that, right?

I would never. Anyhow, I would never. Yeah.

No, you can't go to logic. I know. All right.

Let's keep going. Let one of you take it back. I don't have the Tibetan here, so you take the plan, boss.

Okay, good. Nice job on your homework and nice job on your translation. And it's very helpful.

Maybe that Portugal stuff is helping something. I don't know. It's probably the surfing, right?

It helps in many ways. Let me see if I can get to the right place here. It's a lot easier to surf in California, though.

There was a huge competition here the other day. There was people from Encinitas here. Wow.

Oh, why? Well, they always travel for the big waves. But also, Nazaré had a big surfing competition.

Oh, I see. And then right here in Carcavelos, it's a famous spot. Oh, not then.

Okay. I just saw a video of Cardiff in California, and there was overhead barrels. Pretty amazing.

If you're a real surfer, you should keep following around the world and ignore what visa you have. I'm sure there are those people. Okay, Nick, we're on a third point.

The third point is down here in the big letters. Who's going to read it, Nick? Let's see.

How about Ina? Oh, no, are you translating, Ina? Okay, sorry.

Everybody who's translating has their cameras on. Who's in the room with you there? Sugeng.

Sugeng's here. Come on, Sugeng, quick, quick. He's kind of got jet lag.

He's slower than usual. That's why I called on him. I want to see if we can catch him slipping.

Sometimes jet lag improves your mind. I haven't had that experience yet. Sure.

Yeah, stay here, because that was so short. What's tur del mean, you guys? This is a difficult word.

Free of elaboration or free of figments. In the case of someone irritating you last week, what would tur del be? You don't think that it was their fault that they were being irritating?

Yeah, so you can say free of elaborations, but it's easier. I mean, think of it as the fake them was never there. The fake them was never there.

The person who irritated me last week was never there. That's free of elaboration. That's what it is.

Okay, tur del. It's a big jump between the word and the idea, right? Okay, kom tu chupa means?

Comprehending. Yeah, if you comprehend it. Then what's nye pa?

Well, the whole thing is there is no problem of things being cut off, right? Yeah, I never said the person who irritated me last week was not there. I never said that.

That would be chepay nye pa. That would be the mistake of thinking they were never there. I didn't say they were never there.

I just said the person I thought was irritating me wasn't there, which was a person who came from their own side. Okay, that's all. Now we're going to cover the point in the verse.

I suggest, Nick, that we skip the verse because they're never going to quite mean what you think. You might as well go straight to the commentary. Again?

Yeah. Do you say cut off in your translations for chepay nye pa? No, not in this case.

Oh, no. Yeah, sometimes you need to give it more words in English. I would say just disappeared or was never there or something like that.

Oh, okay. Thanks for the tip. What's the famous book title with chepay nye pa?

George Chilton. Diamond Cutter. Okay.

Sugeng wants to read one more just to prove he doesn't have jet lag. Please. Wait, wait, wait.

Come back here. In the middle. Give me a nice phrasing here.

Okay. Good. Yeah, you got to say the papa.

You got to get the papa. Papa corn. Sounds like Indonesian.

I'll show it. Good. Nick, it's a question.

Practitioners in the Middle Way, how is it that they don't? What exactly are they explaining is not there? Yeah, how the hell can you call Middle Way people nothing at all?

How can you call them? How the hell can you call Middle Ways nothing at all? It's a privilege to call them that.

Yeah, they're not people who say nothing's there. They don't say nothing's there. Why?

Because they never dom chah. You got to read it together. They would never dom chah and then go backwards.

They would never assert that cause and effect don't exist. Good. And here's a difficult word, dren kyi.

Or something? They would never say that, in fact, there's no cause and effect. Or they would never imply that.

So dren kyi means here, Nick, they would never imply that. Okay. And it's juxtaposed with another word here, tsi kyi mi ma.

Oh, they wouldn't utter such, or their words wouldn't proclaim that or something like that? Yeah, they would never imply that there's no cause and effect. And they would certainly never say it.

Okay, that's the point here. Dren kyi is as opposed to tsi kyi. Right, of course, yeah, yeah.

Dren kyi means they would never say something which implied that they thought that cause and effect didn't exist. And they would certainly never say it either, out loud. Out loud is the tsi kyi, the N word.

What's dom chah, Nick? Well, pledge often, and here I think it's more like claim or assert. Right, perfect, yeah.

They would never say something which implied that they didn't accept cause and effect. And certainly they would never assert that in words. Okay.

So why are you calling them? Give me a papa here. Me papa.

Why the heck are you calling them me papa? They're not me papas, either in meaning or in word. They never said cause and effect wasn't there.

Why are you calling them me papas? Okay, they never even implied that. Why are you calling them me papas?

Okay, got it? We are not nihilists. You're the goddamn nihilists, all right?

All right, no bad words. Don't tell my wife. Nick, who's reading the next one?

I got another. Cyr, if you want Sugeng to choose. Oh, me?

All right. Top line, use the cursor. Yes, please.

What? Nick, pressure's all on you. A hundred bucks.

Okay. This is his answer to what we just said. We just said, look, we're not nihilists.

We neither said that nor did we imply them. And then he comes. You came in land, but chimping, young man.

Yeah, but your actions, your practices and your – what about your practices and your actions? Those are incorrect. What's the first part of the sentence?

Came in land.

[Speaker 2]
Came in land.

[Speaker 1]
Don't accept.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
I don't accept that your practices and your actions. Yeah, your actions speak louder than your words. Speak louder than the words you didn't say.

Okay? The actions you do speak louder than the words you didn't say. A hundred bucks, Nick.

You have to collect it. Find someone who knows me that has a hundred bucks. Next line, Ram.

Luki. Luki. Luki – Luki.

Negro? Wait. Nature.

Nature. Nature, yes, says three words. Yes.

CHER LU KI KYANG MEH PA DANG THUN PAR MI CHILA? Yeah. Here's our answer, okay?

Yeah, yeah. We don't act in accord with nihilism, with our bodies. Nature.

Nature is a morality thing. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Right, yeah.

We don't do these bad deeds of body, any. Yeah, we don't do bad karma. Who's talking?

Middlewears. Yeah, middlewears. Nagarjuna, defending himself.

They said, look, maybe you don't say nothing exists, but you act like nothing exists. And we say, excuse me, we don't act that way at all. We never do bad deeds.

We don't kill, steal, sexual misconduct, lying, slander, harsh words, violence, we don't do those things, okay? In fact, because of that... Yeah, because of that, now double negative here, Nick, see if you can catch it.

We don't do anything to our body. Uh-huh. Sorry, let me read the sentence here.

Yeah, I thought the negative, the first may is we don't do anything, we don't do any negative deeds with our body, and then we don't even do negative deeds. We don't do anything, we don't do any physical actions, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct. We don't do any physical actions that are with the idea that things are...

Uh-huh, yeah, that's what I thought it said. We don't do any physical actions that would be in accord with nihilism. Yeah, nice.

We don't act physically as though nothing existed, do we? We follow morality. We must think something exists, got it?

We middle-agers are not nihilists, why? Well, physically speaking, we don't ignore certain kinds of physical actions which are good, and we do avoid things that are bad. Therefore, we are not just some kind of crazy nihilists who say nothing the heck matters.

Our morality backs us up. The fact that we're talking about and trying to keep no killing, no sexual misconduct, no stealing, assumes that we are not nihilists, got it? Uh-huh.

Physical actions, we're not nihilists. Anticipatory translation. He might go into verbal and he may go into mental.

[Speaker 2]
Right.

[Speaker 1]
Let's see where he's going to go. Who do you want to read, Nicholas? Rob, can you pick somebody, please?

Daniel. Daniel. You're going to get the peach tree news early today.

By the way, he sprouts a tie exactly at 9 a.m. That's right. This is not the peach tree attire. Okay.

You're cursing, Chris. Oh, I'm sorry. You're checking me.

I'm not sure why I'm doing this. I'm trying to read the book. Lendre.

[Speaker 2]
Say that?

[Speaker 1]
Lendre.

[Speaker 2]
Lendre. I'm not sure how to say it.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Yeah. If we even suspect some kind of vitamins?

Well, you got to look at the say first, okay? Oh, eliminate? Well, no, it's tricky here.

I agree that you guys seem to watch your behavior, which would imply that you don't believe nothing exists. But this say here, Nick, means it's just all... That's it.

That's it. It's just all for this purpose, and that's it. Say means here, where out.

Here means the reason you act well in your morality. It's all blah, blah, blah, blah, and that's it. Say, and then pause.

Key, but rather it's not because... Okay, got it? Yeah, I see.

Yeah. So he's accusing the middle way guys of following proper behavior, not because they believe in cause and effect, but because what? They want nye kwer.

They just want people to think that they're being good, I guess? Yeah, nye kwer is a combination word. Nye means respect, other people's respect.

And kwer... I'm sorry. Nye means red envelopes.

Oh, yeah. And kwer means other people's respect. Nye means financial reward for being a good monk or something like that.

They want people's gifts, and they want people's respect. Kwer means respect. Nye means mulang.

Okay? And the only reason you guys don't do bad deeds, mi kwer, okay? It's not because you are some moral geniuses.

It's because what? You're afraid you lose... Nyam?

[Speaker 2]
The red envelopes.

[Speaker 1]
Your red envelopes and other people's respect. Okay? You could care less about morality.

You just want other people. The rewards you get from other people. You're afraid...

What, Nick? Nyam. That it's going to go down.

Other people will think. Yeah, you're afraid your donations are going to drop. That's why you act so holy.

Okay, got it? It's very beautiful. And that's it.

Se means that's all. And then it's not that... Ki means...

But it's not that what? Do you think that cause and effect exist? Or...

Yeah. It's that you think that cause and effect don't exist. Something like that.

Yeah. You still might think cause and effect don't exist. Or do you think?

I'm sorry. The Tibetan is very confusing here. And it's...

He says, but you guys do have a nyampa that len de me. Right. That's what I thought the nyam was.

The cause and effect don't exist. Yeah, you guys are thinking that cause and effect doesn't exist. Okay?

Ken, do you think the nyam distributes? Like the way that you were describing? Yeah, we're saying like this.

He says, you do believe that cause and effect doesn't exist. And I say, no, obviously we do believe it exists. We behave well.

Oh, yeah, you behave well just because you don't want to lose your donations. It's not that you're some great moral geniuses. You just don't want people to start giving you money.

He's saying that, the other guy. Okay? All right.

Daniel begged me to do one more, Nick. Just relax, Daniel. Yes.

Nice. He says, len dre me nyampe sem jang me pa yin te. La na me pa jang chup dokpe che du de lam la tem pa le ndre chin chee ma lokpar dokpe chir.

Nice reading, Daniel. Nice reading. Yeah, great.

Double negative here, Nick. Let's see if you can catch it. By the way, this is our reply.

We don't have a mind. We don't have any kind of mindset that thinks that cause and effect don't exist. Nice, double negative.

We don't think cause and effect doesn't exist, okay? And I guess because it's a yin, right? So you're saying ours is not a mind which thinks that cause and effect don't exist.

Good, good. We do not have a mindset that there's no cause and effect. Okay, who's talking?

Middle way, middle way. Okay, so by the way, what we're saying is our mental state, our physical practices reflect a certain mental state. Okay, it's not that we are being, what do you call that?

Disingenuous, it's not that we're, what do you call that when you act one way and you do another? Equal, disingenuous. It's not that we're being hypocritical.

It's not that our actions don't match our thoughts. Our thoughts are the same. We don't believe that there's no cause and effect, okay?

Our thoughts match those actions. It's not a random one, okay? In fact, one, we realize that the unmatched, the path to unmatched Buddhahood relies upon acceptance on cause and effect.

Yeah, because we are so committed to the path, we must have some understanding of cause and effect. Okay, got it? Sorry.

We realize that cause and effect is unmistaken, I guess is what he... Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we must have a good understanding of cause and effect because we act so well.

That's what he's saying. That's what we're saying. Okay, got it?

All right, Nick, you can choose somebody online if you want. Alrighty, let's see here. That was about Earl.

Yeah. Whoa.

[Speaker 2]
Thanks, buddy.

[Speaker 1]
Hey.

[Speaker 2]
Mr. Michael, I had some cups here from the temple the other day. I hope you got yours.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Dini, is that where we're at? Yep.

Dini, umma, peche, tamche, rangching, yi, tungpar, tempala, yin, tse, de, pa, ka, chik.

[Speaker 2]
Dini, lendrela, kurwandep, hey, meparpar. Dini, umma, tse, pa, ka, chik. rangching, yin, pa, Good, nice.

[Speaker 1]
Dini, umma, peche, rangching, yin, tse, de, pa, ka, chik. So the middlewayers on this subject. Yeah, the Middle Wayers say, CHOS THAMS CAD RANG BZHIN GYIS STONG MA Everything, all stuff is empty of any nature of its own.

Good. And to them who say that, to the Middle Wayers who say that, MYIN TU DE DPA'I SRED Those who follow the scriptures of the listeners. Yeah, the lower schools, the Hinayana schools, say to the Middle Wayers, You are LEN DRE LA GUR DE PA You're underestimating the reality of cause and effect.

Yeah, you refuse cause and effect. Therefore, you are a MED PA'I NAYA You are a plain old MED PA'I PAS, you guys. Cool.

You Middle Wayers are plain old MED PA'I PAS, okay? And then we reply, NO, WE CHI BAG NE DBANG KHUR Normally DBANG KHUR means what in Diamond Way teachings? What's DBANG KHUR?

DBANG KHUR means what? I thought it was... I'm trying to remember.

It means to grant an empowerment. DBANG KHUR means to grant an empowerment. CHI BA means what?

Top of your head? Yeah, so in Buddhism, when you go like this, Oh, you know, like at an initiation, someone bangs you on the head with... I mean grants you an initiation.

Someone puts something on their head. What's the image here, Nick? What are the UMABAS putting on their head like this, with great respect?

Cause and effect. Yeah, God, we are... Whoa, we totally bow down to cause and effect.

Got it? We're empowering cause and effect, right? Okay.

Therefore, we got by your idea that we are MEPAPA. Yeah, we deny your claim that we are NAYA. Yeah.

CHER DU ZINPA means the whole purpose of this section is for the Middle Way guys to get a chance to say we bow our heads at the feet, at the holy lotus feet of... Cause and effect. Don't accuse us of not respecting karma.

We are the ultimate karma respecters. Got it? Good deed respecters.

Got it? Cool? Yeah, yeah.

And that's the whole purpose of these last few verses. Who's talking? Us, Middle Wayers.

What's up, Jason? Come on. We are devoted to the idea of karma and its consequences.

Don't accuse us of being nihilist. Which means we are behaving supposedly... The more you understand emptiness, the better your morality.

That's a very important point. That's a very holy point. All right.

Who's up next, Nicholas? We got you. Svetlana?

You want to read, Svetlana?

[Speaker 2]
Okay, thank you. Okay, Nick, go backwards.

[Speaker 1]
We are going to tenpa, an explanation. We are going to explain the feature. My impotence.

The unique feature. Oh, this is a feature of the Buddhist system. Yeah, the unique feature of the Buddhist system is that it avoids both extremes.

Yeah. Some kind of rip-off buying and yip-up buying. Yeah.

Okay? We avoid the two extremes, which makes us... Middle Wayers.

Okay, Middle Wayers. Yeah, and there's where it came from, Nick, but in this case, unusually, he mentioned the section name.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Usually he just... Okay, in this unusual case, he mentioned the section name. Usually he says number three, and he doesn't tell us where the heck we are.

Okay, we still have one minute. Oh. Let's see.

Svetlana did it. It's a good... Let's do this.

Let's do this verse. Nick, do this verse. Good luck, good luck.

Okay. DE PHYIR SANGS RGYAS RNAM KYI GNYIS BSTAN PA GCIG MA'I YOD MA'I LAS GNAS PA SOGS MO'I DING ZHIG PA CHOS KYI KHUB PA YIN ZHIG GYI Nice. DE PHYIR SANGS RGYAS RNAM KYI GNYIS SO THUS THE BUDDHA'S Yeah.

BSTAN PA GCIG MA'I YOD MA'I LAS Stop. Stop at GCIG MA'I and read backwards. Oh, okay.

RELY UPON THE DEATHLESS TEACHINGS Yeah. The deathless teachings... The deathlessness of the Buddhist teachings.

The death... AMRTA The deathlessness of the... is that we have gone beyond YOD and MA'I.

Yeah, we've transcended the ideas of existence or non-existence. Yeah. And the profound explanation.

That's totally unique and deep for us. And this is our... I've never seen KHUB in my life.

I looked it up. I studied it. It means YAL TE.

Here's the Sanskrit definition. Cool. Exclusive.

It's a bridal dowry. It's the reward that the parents give to the guy's family or something like that. Okay?

And he's saying... Who's saying... These concepts, which are beyond existing and non-existing, are the KHUB PA, which we offer to you.

Oh. Wow, interesting. These concepts which are beyond existing or non-existing are the dowry.

This is our... This is our bridal... Wow.

This is our bridal gift to our readers. And that implies some kind of relationship was just formed. It's very beautiful.

By teaching you what's really there, YOD PA PA, what's not really there, MED PA PA, we have formed a bond. You have now been married into our family. It's very beautiful.

It's really beautiful. You want a bridal gift? Here's one.

And now you're married. Now you're part of... It's a beautiful idea.

And it's very Diamond Way. All right. Nick, Grandpa's going to go sit down and sleep probably.

Cool. And you're going to lead a discussion up till the Peachtree dudes put their... I mean, come up.

Okay. Right on. All right.

Have a nice rest. Thank you, Michael. Thank you very much.

Cool. We'll take a little 15-minute discussion and then Peachtree World News, and then words class for those of you who want to stick around and study. Thanks again, everybody, for being here, really having fun with this text.

And I appreciate you all participating in this awesome way. So what do you think? Does anybody want to weigh in?

I'll share one thing that I think is interesting that comes up in life, even for me, because I'm personally a guy who works for an organization that's sharing these beautiful and precious ideas. And I'm also a guy who struggles to make sure that I'm living my life in accord with these ideas and maybe does it to different degrees of perfection or lack of perfection at different times. And does the idea ever come into mind that I have to appear that I have great morality for various reasons to keep this organization going or whatever?

Sure. I mean, that's an uncomfortable and strange position to be in life, but it came up in the text just now. And I think that it's something that could come up in different ways in our lives, in our jobs and in our relationships and in our friendships.

Just wanting to appear, wanting to appear all for the sake of, for some other than just because you understand cause and effect. And maybe I'm the only one who would admit to ever having thoughts creep into my mind. But does anybody else want to share?

[Speaker 2]
I'll share. I love when Geshe-la brought in the part about Nagarjuna and how the middle wayers and how we think and what we're saying and what we're not saying. And I remember Geshe-la always saying, Nagarjuna only tells you 1%.

There's 99% that's not being said.

[Speaker 1]
So I like to put this into my world, into my day-to-day of always looking at the contradiction. Like what's there? What's not there?

What's being said? What's not being said? And I'm just going to cook it.

Yeah. And then we can think about that in our lives, I guess, in many ways. Not just Nagarjuna, but what's not being said all over the place.

I know shame and consideration are two tools that we can use to keep our vows and our morality. So yeah, while that might arise, oh, I'm only going to do this good behavior so others will think well of me. Well, yeah.

That's a good starting point. That's a good motivation to uphold the reputation and the honor of our organization and our family, our friends, our peers, our organizations. I like that.

I like that a lot. I also think about that. I think about, personally, like neuroplasticity and habits.

So it's like whatever motivates you to be a moral and kind person, heck yeah, because it's planting, it's helping to form the habits in your mind, whether you're looking at that from the perspective of seeds or science or whatever works for you. Neuroplasticity is a fascinating subject because it's like the more you act a certain way, the more you get the habit of doing it, which is one of the laws of seeds. And Geshe Michael likes to give the example of like, he used to tell this story a lot, like tricking somebody else into giving a $100 tip so that they start to get a feeling of what it's like to be super generous.

Like, I think that's cool. I think he's done it to me, actually. I was already pretty generous.

Maybe not. So these are good tools to use in our practice as we evolve into the habit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it's, for me, an important thing is to be able to be lighthearted when we see ourselves have a less than high motivation. Like, I don't know. I think it's really important.

Like, if I catch myself trying to appear better than I am for the sake of giving Diamond Cutter Classics a good image, and then I could go down into a hole and think about like, oh, God, you're so lame, Nick. You know, because that's, you know, being a human, sometimes I have these habitual ways of talking to myself. But a practice I've been adopting for the last 15 years, I try to be myself and be like, you know, it's okay.

It's like, it's still better than it could have been, and you're doing okay by acting morally and trying to, as Kat said, uphold the reputation of a good organization. Anybody else? Anybody else ever?

I'm excited.

[Speaker 2]
Sorry. Oh, we have a new person. Terry.

[Speaker 1]
Yes, I have sparked a memory today. I remember about 18 years ago, I was on a family vacation, and a boyfriend of one of my nieces was reading a book on Buddhism. And I had just started listening to the original ACI courses.

And so he was reading this book. I don't know which book it was, but he read a part on emptiness. And I remember he came to me, and he was so happy that he could do anything he wanted and without any bad consequences.

And I was freaked out. I was like, you know, I couldn't believe someone would interpret it that way. This was amazing to me.

I was like, I was at a loss for words. I didn't know how to explain it to him. I was like, you know, other than saying you're crazy, you know?

So today it was really helpful, being a realist, but things are empty at the same time. And, oh, man, it was just unbelievable. And I was like, this is one of those people I heard about.

And I was like running into them. I was like, oh, my gosh. This is like, so this was a very real teaching to me.

And I was like, wow, this can really happen. And you got to be ready to be able to, you know, not get knocked off balance and really explain it. So that was very good.

Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And I just want to say, I mean, I'll just take a second to detour from that to say, or just to expand upon that to say, like it's one of the main reasons or one of the things that I'm so grateful to Geshe Michael for, because, you know, without him, I don't know if I also would have interpreted things that way.

I always don't know, you know? He makes it so clear. And, you know, we're just so lucky for Geshe Michael that way of just being able to extract that crucial element of the teachings of this lineage and convey it again and again and again, so clearly to us and to the whole world, you know, all these people that he sees and man, he's really.

Nobody else makes it that clear and it's just, we're so lucky. Oh yeah. I had that feeling, you know, that sense of gratitude that, man, he's taught us so well.

And this was, this is great. So thanks again. Thank you for sharing, Terry.

Who else?

[Speaker 2]
Okay. I did. I had this thought a little bit about trying to learn to tweak my, I don't know, the slider between believing in things that don't exist or failing to believe things that do exist.

And that I can measure that by my, my motivation to act morally. I do generally try to be moral. There are certain things in my life where, for example, do I always perfectly observe the speed limit?

And if I, if I think, and for example, if I think, if I speed just a little bit, if I believe that speeding has the power to get me somewhere faster, right. Then, then I'll, I'll go that. But now I looked this up recently.

I did some math on how much time it actually saves me. And it's not very helpful. If I left five minutes late, going well over the speed limit has some chance to save me 30 seconds.

I'm just wrong. It's just not clear thinking.

[Speaker 1]
It's just not true that it has, it has the power to put my life and other people's life in danger, but it doesn't have the power to get me there. If I knew that I wouldn't bother to speed.

[Speaker 2]
It's not even helpful. On the other hand, if I think that speeding doesn't have the power to get me in trouble, which sometimes I can think, oh, well, I know these roads. There's never cops along these roads.

Nobody's going to notice I'm not going to get in any trouble. Well, the other day I got, and I've, you know, I've driven this road so many times, never seen cops. I was kind of in a hurry.

Okay. You know, just make, you know, I did go 10 miles over the speed limit and wouldn't, you know, they installed new cameras. And I got a ticket in the mail the other day.

[Speaker 1]
For thinking that speeding didn't have the power to get me in trouble at all, which of course it did. Have that power to some. So I'm, I'm fascinated.

Right. I. To fine tuning this relationship.

In either direction.

[Speaker 2]
I can get in trouble, whether I think things exist that don't exist or whether I fail to believe in things that don't exist, I drift into these questionable zones of morality because as Dr. Martin Luther King jr. Said all reality hinges on moral foundations.

[Speaker 1]
And so when we get that. Understanding of what exists and doesn't exist.

[Speaker 2]
Perfectly. Then our morality reflects it.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Yeah. The nuts and bolts of it are very interesting when you really start to break it down for each situation for each of us.

It's funny. I, I feel, and you might be like this too, a bit bad, but sometimes I want to be such a contrarian. Especially with my friends who are practitioners of the seed system.

I got an off Connie's here, but I think in front of some of the people who are such great practitioners, I will purposely do like say things that are almost immoral just to mess with. I think that's going too far.

[Speaker 2]
I, I also, I have a personal technique. If it's helpful to anybody.

[Speaker 1]
Habit is powerful. And I have a, an old habit from before I learned about morality from my teacher.

[Speaker 2]
For speeding. What I find is if I set the cruise control. Even in town, even at really basic speeds.

[Speaker 1]
Then my habit doesn't have the power. I take some power away from my, my heavy foot. And so if you're struggling not to speed, just as a little friendly tip.

[Speaker 2]
You can use cruise control to keep your foot from habitually going faster than it should.

[Speaker 1]
I think that's, we've hit time. Thank you for that tip. All those of you in Europe, no tailgating again, as I, as I like to say every few weeks.

So we've hit time. It's time for the Peachtree world news. Are your ties clip clipped on guys?

All right. A real tie. Amazing.

Well, thank you so much. Everybody for sharing in this. And thank you so much for class and thank you.

Peachtree world news for keeping us posted on all of the worldview events. Take it away, Mr. Daniel. Can you hear me?

I can hear you now. All right, cool. So thank you for class and Nick and you guys are amazing.

So I'm very happy to be able to participate and give you guys some of the news that's going on. This is usually fun. Chenzo's great, you know, first 10.

So I'm jumping in today to help out with that. So basically for today, we're going to talk about what's going on around the worldview. So starting of course, with an event that we have coming up in Kyoto.

So Mr. Tim Lowenthal is hosting an event called steps on the path. And they're hoping to get a lot of students to sign up for this. They're putting a lot of effort in and they're taking awesome chance to bring these teachings to the students of Asia.

And he's putting in a lot of work. So we have five different languages here, which we would like for everyone to take a look at. And it's going to be an incredible event.

It's going to be Earl, Mr. Tim and Earl's beautiful partner, as well as a couple of ladies who I'm unfamiliar with Gina and Kelly are going to be teaching. So it's not very expensive. It's only a $400 investment, but it's going to be an incredible new cycle of the teachings in Kyoto.

So please sign up for that, especially if you have any interest in keeping up with these teachings for the coming years. So as you can see, those are the slides. Okay.

We also have another several events coming up with the three jewels. So as you know, Hector is doing an incredible job with the three jewels and his whole team. So they have a couple of events coming up.

We have one coming up and they have a retreat, which we have a promo for that. Gina is going to show you guys it's coming up in March. So here you can see it is a retreat in Panama with Hector and Rachel.

We're going to show you guys a video. They have some really cool retreats and they put together a video, not yet, but we'll show it to you in a second. And we also have the another retreat by them coming up in June.

So they're very active and they have an incredible group in New York city. They're very young and exciting and very excited to be spreading the Asian wisdom. So if anybody wants to make a sweet connection with an incredible group here in the West that are doing really cool work, we would definitely recommend signing up for one of these retreats.

So let's go ahead and show their video, which shows the excitement of one of their recent retreats, which by the way, Juan was just editing frantically and was done with about 10 minutes before this. Yeah. Very cool.

Very cool. So thank you three jewels for editing and sending us that video. And thank you, Mr. Juan for making it world friendly for us after getting it from three jewels. That was very good. You're amazing. And so we also have another video that we want to show.

They're doing another event called the med gala. And so I think this is there's going to be their third year where they have a really cool party. They ask everyone to dress up as their idea of what they will look like once they've reached their highest goals of wisdom.

And it's a lot of fun. It's a great fundraiser for them. So why don't we show that video?

[Speaker 2]
Imagine that you are no longer in this room, but by yourself in the most exquisite paradise of your divine form, whatever that is for you. It's just creature in this room has just met their future enlightened. You've been blessed by your own mind.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. So a very exciting group with very cool things going on, helping to keep the Asian wisdom in the world. Thank you very much.

Three jewels. We look forward to hearing about your retreat. It's going to be awesome.

Okay. So next we have some news from the diamond mountain. So there's some really cool projects going on.

Venerable. I'm sorry. Kat.

Her name is Kat. So Kat is going to, she has a project going on. So at diamond mountain, the land, you know, it used to belong to natives a long time ago.

And so diamond mountain is working with the natives of the land, inviting them to use as originally the land was taken without permission. So it was an idea of gesture, Michael, to invite the natives and open it up and wonderful cat has been working very closely with them. She has an incredible relationship with the Apache elders and they come to diamond mountain maybe once or twice a year to bless the land, to do ceremonies, to teach us their ways.

And we also have a video to, you know, bring you up to speed on some of that initiative. So here we go. For countless years, the Apache served as keepers of the lands where diamond mountain is based.

[Speaker 2]
And now that's the hardest part I face is trying to, trying to keep it alive.

[Speaker 1]
Only eight Apache tribes remain today. In spite of numerous obstacles, the Mescalero Apache persist striving to keep their culture alive.

[Speaker 2]
We really cherish the coins to protect our people, the reservation. We use them for illnesses, sicknesses, just everything like that. In general, you know, you know, we sing about everything.

We sing about mother earth. We sing about heaven with the stars, rainbows, the moon, the sun, the air, the blue clear skies, the clouds, everything that's involved with it. That's what we used to dance for.

And everything that we live upon mother earth with the animals, the trees, the grass, the rocks, the dirt, everything like that, the water, everything that, that there's a certain song for each one. So our church is when we wake up.

[Speaker 1]
We must urgently join forces to safeguard their wisdom and learn from their ways to protect the environment and all sentient beings.

[Speaker 2]
Everything falls down to as long as the funding's available, we're available to help. It's not us being available to the money, it's us being available to get to where we need to go. Because those prices are sky high now.

[Speaker 1]
Diesel fuel for the vehicles. The Blue Mountain Clan, with the support of Geshe Michael Roach, has established a non-profit to strengthen their efforts in preserving their wisdom and traditions. We're going to be able to open up to the community and teach them what they need to know about their way of life.

Because that's just how it has to be from now until forever. Be a part of this endeavor by taking action now with kindness and compassion. There you can see.

So there's a QR code on the screen there to help support the Apache Initiative. And again, they've come to the land at Diamond Mountain. And just to be clear, the land was purchased legally, but I'm talking about before when, you know, before when American settlers came and basically the whole United States was taken without permission.

And now the new owners don't really consider the old owners. But Geshe Michael has done that. And so he's bringing them in and they are teaching us how to take care of the land better than we even know how.

And thank you to Cat for that initiative. You're doing an excellent job. And we're really blessed to have that fire ceremony at Diamond Mountain not too long ago.

So if you guys can support this project, it's an incredible project to support. And it helps Diamond Mountain and it helps these beautiful people. So thank you, Cat.

All right. And so we're almost out of time. But one thing we need to talk about really quickly is we had a segment with YSI where they had a guitar that Geshe Michael had signed and they used it to raise some money.

So we heard from someone else that was very interested in the guitar and was a little bit, you know, sad that they didn't get a chance to outbid when they closed the bidding. So YSI decided that it would be a nice thing to do for everyone involved to have a second guitar. So the person reached out and asked, so we're going to have we have this guitar here and we're just going to have Geshe Michael sign it briefly.

He's not even going to be on the air. We're not going to show him sign it. But I just want to talk about it that we have the second guitar.

And we just wanted to thank Xi Chun if you're watching. Okay. And Geshe Michael is signing your guitar here in a few seconds.

And we just want to thank you for helping out. All right. Cool.

Here's Geshe. Here's a Sharpie. Here's a Sharpie.

[Speaker 2]
We have the name, but if you just want to sign your name, we need. Can I? Anywhere you want.

Maybe here.

[Speaker 1]
Check it out, Xi Chun. Here is your guitar. And by the way, that was our very successful.

Thank you, Geshe. That was a very successful first paid segment that we had. Our paid partnership segments, as you can see, are already working out well.

I think with that, the guitar helped YSI raise a good amount of funds. So the paid partnership is working. And we look forward to continuing very soon with our next paid partnership.

So we're out of time. And over to Mr. Wordsmith. Yay.

Thank you so much.