Ник Лашо — Книга 2: Ратнамала, занятие 43

[Говорящий 1]
Uh-oh. Is this the right meeting? Ah, yes.

Yep, that's me. Okay. Haha.

Oh, good. Those are the best potato chips. Just a quick product placement.

Thought everybody should know that. If you live in the U.S. Or anywhere you can get those. All right.

Uh, hi, everybody. Welcome to Xuanzang's Tower. I hope you're doing well.

Uh, excited. We've got two amazing classes with you today, live with the very mixed nuts that you tune into every week. First, we'll have my text, and I will be sharing some verses of Nagarjuna's wisdom with you.

And then we will have a discussion, Peach Tree World News, and an hour where we will be looking at the Bodhisattva's Guide with Mr. Seiji. I just realized I might be talking quickly. Going to slow down.

Good evening, good day, good afternoon. Um, for those of you who don't know, tomorrow is Geshe Michael's birthday, so that's kind of cool. In honor of his birthday, I didn't do a homework.

I got caught up doing some Christmas planning, and I forgot. So that's the truth. But I do have a lot of fun material translated for us.

So I think if we're ready, I'm stalling while more people show up. But I'll share my screen. And let's look at some Nagarjuna.

Also, I just want to, again, thank the Worldview Productions team. When we have these events where Geshe Michael's in Kyoto, and we're pre-recording classes, there's a lot of logistics involved, and we get incredible help from them to make it happen. And we just appreciate you guys and all the work you do.

And special thanks to Lindsay as well. Are you here? She may be traveling.

Lindsay has been working very hard to help make sure that we continue as an organization, and that we translators can survive. Yes. I think that was Lindsay.

Yeah. Who says people can't change? All right, here we go.

Sharing my screen. Here it is. But I do have some questions for you.

We've been working on this text for a while, and sometimes I feel that we get lost so much in the details. Or at least I feel that I get lost so much in the details that it's good to have a little refresher of what we're doing. So I'm going to ask you some basic questions about the text that we're studying, and that can serve as our quiz.

So somebody who doesn't know, as I like to say, somebody who's not a mixed nut, what book are we working on, and who wrote it? And Oscar, you can't answer this either, because I see you. Yeah.

What book has Nick been translating for a few years now? The chat said Rathnamala. Does that sound familiar to you?

Oh, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. That's the one.

That's right. I needed a little refresher too, because we're so deep into it. Oh, how do I see the chat?

This is so frustrating when I'm sharing screen. There we go. There we go.

Yes, it's Rathnamala. Anyone want to take a shot at what that is in West Chinese? Dodo's dancing.

You can answer if you want to. Yeah, it's been a while since we've even mentioned what text this is. Chenghua, that's part of the name.

Yes, Tin, that's part of it. It is a Chenghua. What kind of Chenghua?

Chenghua of what? Rinchen. Yes, a Rinchen Chenghua.

Very excitedly. Some new high-pitched voice student knew the answer. It's wonderful.

I love it. It could be anyone. All right, who wrote Rinchen Chenghua?

This quiz is harder than I thought it was going to be. Yeah, it wasn't. Someone said Nagarjuna.

They did? OK, good. Thank you for saying that.

That's wrong. No, that's right. I'm just kidding.

That is correct. Nagarjuna. What's his name?

Longshu. Longshu? I'm sorry.

That's not how you pronounce it. They put it in the chat. Longshu Dashie.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Hello, everyone. I am very happy now.

Let's see. Well, so sometimes we don't just... So the root text is from, you know, around, you know, Ariya Nagarjuna's time, around 200 AD.

We're studying more than the root text. We're also studying a... Fill in the blank.

It's a one word in English.

[Говорящий 2]
Momentary.

[Говорящий 1]
Whoever said that, you're not faking anybody. This new youngster, I feel like, has a lot of potential in this organization. Venerable Codding wrote it in chat, commentary.

[Говорящий 2]
I was going to say it before you said it, but I couldn't find the right button.

[Говорящий 1]
Oh, okay. Fair enough. Tien said Tenchu.

Oh, even better. Wonderful. And who wrote the commentary that we're studying?

Yeah, Tien. Who wrote it? Yes, that's right, Duoduo.

I can read lips, kind of. Although you guess you could have said anything, and yep, that's it. Yes, Kyeltsub J.

I can read lips well enough. That's right. I think...

I think... Let's see. That's good enough.

Kyeltsub J. Was the student of whom? Yes, Je Tsong Khapa.

Thank you. And just a quick fun review. Well, some of the things we've studied in this book so far are we discussed a little bit about the reason...

Sorry, I have one more question for you before I say what I'm going to say. Nagarjuna wrote this book for what purpose? What is Rinchen Tringwa?

It is something other than just a book. This is so easy. That whoever knows it doesn't get to answer.

Just kidding.

[Говорящий 2]
A pistol.

[Говорящий 1]
No, shut up. It's taking too long. Yeah, so that's right.

A letter. For those of you who don't know, this book was written as a letter to a king. He wrote a couple of famous letters.

One we know in English as letter to a friend. Another one is called letter to a king, is known as. And that's this one.

Although I believe both were written to kings. Maybe this king was less of a friend. I don't know.

But he was quite a jewel. Yeah, exactly. A string.

Wait, yeah. What does Rinchen Tringwa mean in English? Yeah, good question.

What does Rinchen Tringwa mean in English? Word gave you a hint two seconds before he asked the question. And it's a good question.

It is. Some people probably don't know. Precious mala.

Yeah, good. That's one way to put it. I think that's equally as correct as whatever English.

Precious mala. I don't know if that's actually an English word. String?

String of precious jewels is the way that Keshe Michael has been going. But yes, you were 100% right. Katarina Myrenkova wrote it in the chat.

I see. I see that. Okay.

An excellent Russian pronunciation word. Thank you. Okay.

Yeah, it's a string of precious jewels. And it has many names. Even in Sanskrit, it's sometimes called Ratna Mala, sometimes Ratna Vali.

So here we go. In this book so far, we've covered things like nirvana or what we've kind of outlined what are the goals of practicing the path. I'm just giving you in a very quick nutshell.

And then we've started embarking upon how does one achieve those goals. And most recently, we've gotten into discussions about right and wrong understandings of that most important concept, emptiness. And now, so I'm wearing two different.

Is there a question or a comment? Okay. So now, there's kind of.

Can somebody turn off that amazing effect? Thank you. There's kind of two different trajectories we're taking with this book.

One is classes with Geshe Michael, which are way before where we arrived at through our team classes. So now, with our team classes, we've reached a section where we, in our last class, we covered the proof of one or many or neither one nor many. And we were looking at these verses where we were talking about something very interesting.

Whether or not, I'll just cover it for you because he says it better than I could. This is kind of where we left off. There is no physical thing that exists by nature, nor is there any absence of a physical thing existing through its own nature, which exists through its own nature.

So what he's saying is that the absence also doesn't exist through its own nature. And now, we're kind of discussing that idea of whether there's some kind of destruction or absence that exists through its own nature. Then Gyaltsab J gave us a quote from the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, which we're going to study next, where he says, it comes from having examined the thing we examined.

This is what I think it says. This is not checked. Nothing has termination as its foundation.

Now, we move back to Mr. Gyaltsab J and get to a passage that I struggled with a lot, and I do not know if I'm correct with what I think it says. So let's have a look. I will read the West Chinese to you first, and then we can try to see what we think it says.

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Thank you. Okay, sorry. Okay, good.

All right. . .

. So this says something like functioning things or produce things themselves. .

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And then we start talking about nyampos, which are remedies. Because nyampo, some of you may know that idea or word from the four powers. It's the fourth power, power of the antidote.

Rangshinki yipa, very common phrase here, something existing from its own side. Mepargyur, becomes nothing. Mepargyur, turns into nothing.

Gyur is like change or become, typically. Drangna, I believe is something like, if so. This drang really threw me off because it means cold.

But the best I can do is I think this means if so, or if that's the case. We've had it. We've talked about this.

What did we decide? I'm going to double check. You don't forget things.

I'm pretty sure you're right, Nick, but I'm going to double check. I couldn't find it in any texts that have been translated, but you're probably right that we covered it. I don't doubt your memory ever.

Meparangshinki yipa, so here we go again. We saw all these words. Meparangshinki yipa is like a thing that could exist through some nature of its own.

Yipa, destroy. Again, remedy for destruction. How?

Or the remedy, which destroys. Or which destroys. Remedy.

Let's see how I translated it. Are produced things destroyed by their remedy in the way that a hammer smashes things? Causing something which exists, or I should say which could exist, through some nature of its own to become nonexistent.

So that goes up to here, to the spot after Mepargyor. Cool. Oscar, where did you find that?

Oh, from notes. Okay. Yeah, we did have it.

Yeah, I found it in a great dictionary too. I remember looking it up before you. Right on.

I think it could be a nice bonus question for the audience maybe to write in the chat. Whether you think an antidote like wisdom could destroy self-existent things. If our problem is seeing self-existent things, could you get rid of self-existent things with wisdom?

This is kind of what this paragraph seems to be talking about. And it's a good subtle point for smart mixed nuts and students. What do you think?

Can an antidote get rid of those pesky self-existent things? That's a good question. Answer in the chat.

Ah, Irvivor says it is the exact antidote. Okay. Anybody else want to...

That's very brave of you to chime in against Geltubjay. Kading doesn't think that antidotes can get rid of self-existent things. That's also very good.

Sabrina is against it. Well, self-existent things don't exist, so why would you need an antidote for them? Yeah, that seems to be where this is going.

Uh-oh. He's thinking. He's thinking, no.

Uh-oh, here comes Dodo. The belief in self-existence exists, so you can destroy that. He didn't say the belief in self-existent things.

I like it. I like it. No, it's a good answer.

He gave a better answer. He didn't let me... It is more helpful.

It is more helpful, I think. But, I mean, maybe there's something helpful to, you know, hammering on semantics. Chompa?

Yeah, smashing them like a hammer. So, I'm feeling pretty confident about this translation, at least that this is what he's trying to communicate. An antidote to believe in self-existent things is wisdom.

That's right. That's right. But does it get rid of self-existent things?

And I think the point here is what people have said. I believe the conclusion here that the guilt of J is really trying to push us toward, as we will see soon, is that there aren't any self-existent things, so how could you destroy them? And also, he's really making the point, which is very Nagarjunian, that if something were self-existent, it couldn't change into something that doesn't exist.

It couldn't be destroyed in the way that a hammer smashes things because it's self-existent. And so, by definition, a self-existent thing can't change. And I think that that's important that he keeps using this particular verb, ngyor, for cure.

And why can't a self-existent thing change? Well, I don't know. No, no, I'm kidding.

They say that the whole thing about being self-existent is that it exists independently of any causes or conditions. So that means it's self-powered. That's why they call it self-existent.

If something existed through its own nature, that would mean that no external circumstances would or could affect it because it's completely independent. And one of the whole premises of this teacher, the Buddha, and then those who came after, like Nagarjuna, is that things actually exist dependent upon one another. And one of the main things that they're empty of is that they could exist independently.

So if something was independent, it couldn't change because that's its nature, is to be what it is. It's kind of complicated. I mean, it seems simple enough, but I think it requires some meditating.

Yeah. Yeah. What would cause it to change?

I thought about that. Yeah, sorry. No, if it's not under the power of causality.

What if its self-existent nature was that it was just always changing? It's tempting.

[Говорящий 2]
It's tempting.

[Говорящий 1]
I struggle with that. That's got some appeal. Yeah.

It's been a problem for many years. And so I'm going to become a Hindu. I'm just kidding.

Jhangchenpa? Yeah, perhaps. But I'll stick around, see how this pans out.

[Говорящий 2]
Please do.

[Говорящий 1]
Okay, so what he's saying... So this is what I think is going on here. He's saying, destroyed by their remedy.

I produce things destroyed by their remedy. That's what the Nyampo is doing here. Meaning wisdom, right?

I believe that means wisdom, as Irvivore pointed out in the chat. Rangchinki Yipa, because that would be... Would that cause something which exists through some nature of its own to become non-existent?

And so we're glossing the root text here. The root text says, something that exists, and then Kelsavijay glosses it by saying through some nature of its own to become non-existent. And then he says, how could such a thing be destroyed?

How could something with its own nature be destroyed? How could it be remedied by destruction? It could not.

Mingyur Wartao. I believe that's what's going on here. Let's see what comes next.

Does everybody feel okay with that? Sure. Yes, we've mastered the topic.

So now that we are all realized beings, so let's... Class over. Thank you so much.

Let's move on to a headstand, I guess. Oh, man. I remember one time, many years ago, I was teaching a class about this kind of stuff, and I was like, you know, if I was a Buddha, I wouldn't do yoga.

I was teaching to a bunch of yogis, and I was like, if I was a Buddha, I wouldn't do yoga anymore, and they got so offended. That was what it hurts to do yoga, you know? I just want to relax.

Okay. So anyway. To each their own, you know?

Let's see. Word, I would ask you to read, but you keep doing that weird voice, so... Oh!

Oskar, are you translating or are you just hanging out?

[Говорящий 2]
Hanging out.

[Говорящий 1]
You want to read this to me, Mingyur?

[Говорящий 2]
Yes, of course. Thank you. Nice.

[Говорящий 1]
He said nyongwa for the M-Y, because he knows that a ma with a yata is pronounced like a N-Y. Nyongwa. Okay, so this first part is easy enough.

Rangshin giyupa sipa mayimpe chir. Chir is often because... I believe that this line really belongs in the section above, because we have a Mingyur Vartel, and this is kind of finishing the debate.

Rangshin giyupa sipa mayimpe chir. So I didn't want to correct Keshe Michael splitting it, but I think that that belongs up ahead. I believe he'll agree.

But the line says, because a thing that exists through some nature of its own is impossible. Sipa mayimpe. Okay, not something that's possible.

Dena, which usually means therefore, nyong'en le depa taupa yi, by achieving nirvana, and then in English, I just said when we achieve nirvana. Jigten korwa dundu ngarangshin giyus haru jipa mingyur vartel. I think this says, we don't remove some world or cycle of pain.

I believe he's glossing himself. Jigten korwa is kind of like, he's kind of like using jigten to gloss korwa or korwa to gloss jigten, but neither are in the root text. So he's just saying, we don't remove some world, you know, the cycle of pain that had some nature of its own.

Rangshin, rangshin giyupa means exist through some nature of its own. Ngar means before. And then it says sardu, which means fresh.

It's not jigten, Nick, but jipa. I mean, jipa is awfully close in the root text. In the root text?

That's true. Jipa is in the root text.

[Говорящий 2]
Jipa.

[Говорящий 1]
So maybe he's replacing jipa with... Jigten, meaning korwa. Jipa like an antidote for this world because it's jipa am nyembo.

Could be. That's an interesting take on it. I never, because I always look at jikten and I think world, I never think of it as destructible basis.

But that is literally what it means, which is such a cool, if you think about it, those people who speak this language, that's so cool that that's the word for the world. The thing that is disintegrating upon which we live. Yeah.

And it is, it's the very next line following sipa mayim chir. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. Interesting. What comes after the jipa?

Jipa am nyembo. Jiten. So where's that nyembo?

I believe that that was, it's right, it's glossed here. Look, jipa am nyembo jichar gyor. Well, nyembo happens twice in this verse.

Oh, let's go back and look at the verse. Yeah, look at this. But isn't that the jipa am then?

There might be both times actually. Jipa am nyembo ji. That's the first one.

Yeah, we did. In the gloss below, he actually did have this whole line there. Here's the jitar gyor.

He spelled it this way. Yeah. Yeah, this jipa is just, it's just a tense of shikpa.

He's like shikpa. Yeah, but it also has the jitar gyor. So I believe that he's glossing this line.

Okay. Okay, yeah. Because it has the whole line.

But yeah, jiten kora here, yeah, it's just synsodic world or something. There we go. Yeah.

But because we're mixed nuts, we really investigate all these details. It's part of what we do, what sets us apart. Here we go.

So is it saying, it's not that we like freshly remove something? Yeah, that's what I was. Yeah.

Because the Tibetan syntax does seem to say that, right? Sar du jirpa. It's like freshly, it looks like this is kind of adverbial, leave modifying, remove, jirpa.

But I couldn't, I just didn't, that doesn't make any sense in English anyway. It's not that we, no, it's like, because nar, it goes with nar. It's not that we just take away something that was there before or something like that.

It's not that we just take away something that was there before to become, to achieve nirvana. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. The dundu, in fact. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. I think I had the, I had the in fact there, but I might've erased it and never put it back.

It had some nature of its own before, and then replace it with a fresh one. Yeah. I took it out.

So I can. Yeah, it's almost like saying, I think that what the dundu is here is doing, that recycle of pain that was really there before. Yeah, it could be that.

Yeah. That was something, was something like this. I'm writing it in, so I don't forget about it again.

I mean, since the rajyupa is this verb here, and the agent, or the doer, is the achieving of nirvana, then it kind of seems like, yeah, you get this taste of replacing the earlier suffering world with a fresh nirvana world. Totally. That's how I'm seeing it.

Yeah, I think so. The sa is like a when. At the time when we achieve nirvana, it's not that some obstacle that's taken away freshly replaces things in a self-existent manner.

Yeah. Okay. All right.

I feel good about it. I've wrestled with it for so long that I feel that that's what it takes to understand something like this for me. So when I see Geshe...

I mean, obviously, Geshe Michael's on a far different level, but it's just amazing how fast I'm watching him translate Gomparabsa. Just like, what? That book is so hard.

Anyway. And then that's true because... Because...

Oh, yeah. So rangshin gi... Yeah.

Okay. This one, maybe somebody has some insight for me. Rangshin gi yong man yong wa de che.

I guess it's saying because we never experienced one that comes from some nature of its own or that has some nature of its own. It's just weird that he threw in yong man yong. Like, why is he saying all of a sudden that we never experienced one?

Maybe just for fun. But yong can just be like perceived or something, too. Yeah, right.

So because we haven't seen it, we've never actually experienced it or something. Well, we never experienced. Yeah.

Yeah. There was never a self nature to experience, begin with. Yeah.

That's kind of a cool way to put it. I like that. But wait, are we sure it's yong and not yu?

I think it's yu. Yeah. That's a really, really good point, man.

It's probably just... Absolutely, it's yu. Most definitely.

Yeah. It's just... Doesn't really change the translation, but you're absolutely...

It's got to be yu. Just got to take the comms out and just put... Yeah.

That's a really good point. What do we put, like a percent sign? Is that right?

Yeah, that's what we do. Yeah. That's got to be current.

Yeah. Why would a yong be there out of nowhere? Which fits our meaning even better.

Yeah. And it's just been yu constantly. In the root text and in the commentary.

Okay. Making swift progress here because we never experienced one that has... Okay.

Anyway. Cool. So that's as far as Geshe Michael ever got on this text.

So now we are truly out in a raft floating alone with no Geshe guide as we... Are you guys okay? Oh, yeah.

It's like a spacewalk once we get past here. We're untethered to the ship.

[Говорящий 2]
Can I provide a little bit of information from the Chinese translation?

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah. You're going to share some? Yeah.

In the Chinese translation, the first line of this paragraph belongs to the last paragraph. Absolutely. That's what we were saying.

There are two chairs in this paragraph. Yeah. They look probably the same.

But if you put it into the last paragraph, it makes more sense. Totally. Yeah.

That's what we were saying when we got to this paragraph too, because we realized that this chair is finishing this debate here. You got the tell, and it would just make sense for the chair here. And this line, this translated line doesn't really have much connection to the rest of this paragraph as much as it does to this one.

But then I ask you, Duoduo, can you tell in this last part here, because we never experience, does it have the verb like is or has, or does it have the verb young like comes? In the Chinese version, it's you. Okay, cool.

Yeah, it makes sense. Okay. Nice.

All right. Thank you for that. Any other insights from the Chinese?

No. All right. All right.

I'm just stealing from the master's idea. Okay. No, it's really great to hear because I've been stuck on this stuff.

All right. So now, like I said, we're spacewalking. I didn't translate the shi ba ni.

Anybody want to translate for me shi ba ni? Sorry, shi ba ni. Oh, shi ba ni.

I thought you said that we were going to die here. But then this is number four. Yeah, good.

Here's the fourth. I was scared. Uh-huh.

Yeah, well, that's what happens when you spacewalk. All right, man. Well, I started splitting this stuff up here.

So let's see how it goes. I didn't split the above ones, Duoduo. That's why I didn't want to change that back.

These were split by Geshe Michael. And we'll present it to him to change it back when we get up to this part with him. Okay.

Here's a part. Here's something. Let's see.

Duoduo, would you please read? Yes, sir. Awesome.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Let's see. Because I only have three lines of English. Now I'm like nervous that I left something out here.

But let's see. Sometimes I do that. Oh, yeah, that looks like something I left out.

There's what I left out right up front. Duoduo, what's it mean? Nirvana from samsara.

Yeah, samsara and nirvana. Yeah, samsara and nirvana, yeah. I think it's or in this case, though.

Yeah, yeah, right. Duoduo, do you want to finish that part?

[Говорящий 2]
Gangyang, how?

[Говорящий 1]
Ah, the rest of it. Yeah, yeah. Gangyang, I think is in this case is like either like or neither.

The self nature doesn't exist. Yeah, neither of them are. Neither of them is from the nature of their own.

I believe it's nature of those. Yeah, self nature. Mm hmm.

Yeah, right. Neither of them exist by self nature. Through that.

I'll say the cycle of pain because we don't really say samsara in our books. Maybe we do, but I say cycle of pain. It's it's definitely not an English translation.

But Geshe Michael says nirvana is an acceptable English translation.

[Говорящий 2]
No.

[Говорящий 1]
When there's a popular band called samsara, we can revisit. I know of a band called samsara, but they're not famous. Popular.

Yeah. Now we'll have to recheck and see if this connects in a different way. But that's funny.

And it's pay because of that. Yeah, which sometimes can be a period depending on how. Let's let's see.

So this part got a little confusing because I didn't know exactly what he's talking about. I looked it up. He says.

Okay. Ah, the 62 wrong views. I looked it up.

It's a thing. Here's a note here from the Burson Glossary, a helpful German Buddhist teacher of the past. We we did them all.

I just guess with them all last year. Oh, you mean we covered them, not that we have them. He covered them all.

Was it in an appendix to the Abhidharma book or to your book? No, it was an appendix to Dr. Blue. Oh, okay.

Okay, cool. Yeah, I can't remember now. Great.

Okay, that will help my footnote. Good. All right.

Thank you for remembering that. Thanks for catching that year before. That was awesome.

Yeah, you're welcome. So, yeah, cool. While the teacher did summarize the 62.

So I'm thinking he's saying so does like summarize or brief. And there's a there's another thing that says talk to sheer. So did he summarize the.

Oh, I see. Like into 14. Yeah, I mean, 14 extremes, I guess.

I got I couldn't find top sushi anywhere. Well, I think it says like, wrong, like wrong views about the self-existence of either the cycle of pain or nirvana have been summarized in as the 62 wrong views and the and the 14 extremes, something like that. Okay.

Okay. Or he summarized 62 wrong views into 14 extremes. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Sheer really makes me think it's into.

But and there's no time. Yeah, could be. And which.

Yeah. This doesn't mean it's not. And but either way, it's just saying that is what the wrong views have been kind of put into either either.

Either it's and or the sheer means through or something, or by. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I guess it remains. We'll have to determine whether he's saying he summarized the 62 into the 14 or he summarized it as 62 or 14 and 14. And then there's a name.

So I'm taking Arthur 14. Aren't these the 14? These are probably the 14 unanswered questions.

That's the only note that I know of. But I couldn't find them referred to this way. Yeah.

But this is also I see you massaged it into right. Like this statement was not made by the victors. But but if it's rather right, people ask these questions of the Buddha and he didn't talk.

It would fit nicely with this being 14. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay.

[Говорящий 1]
Let's see. Temple. Yeah, then the tomba.

Like other people did said to him, right? Others asked him. Yeah, whether I had like views about the world.

[Говорящий 2]
Totally.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. That's it. Absolutely.

Nice. Because 62 can be summarized into those 14. Yeah, it was when the And he said, right, tell me some more.

Go suck a lemon. I ain't saying nothing. Yeah.

Because when they asked about the self, or the world having an end, whether or not it had an end. Now I'm Shay Shuba. Now when they did that, get what chung me some more soup.

He stayed quiet. Nice. Yeah, I have that totally wrong.

unanswerable. It's funny. I was thinking about the 14 unanswerable questions, but I didn't put it together.

Just because that's the only 14 I know. And I was like, I don't want to try to force that. You know?

Yeah. But it's totally smart. So you know, lots of stuff.

But not about 14. Well, you knew the right thing about the 14 things you knew about. I feel good about it.

Let's see. Kongi chair. What do you do that for?

While the teacher did. So this is not going to be a while either. It's gonna be something else.

Something about like, I'll just redo this. I won't do it right now. But that's interesting.

So yeah, people asked, people asked Buddha, there's a very famous subject where people asked him 14 different subjects, one of them being whether things have an end. And he did not answer because he felt that whatever answer he gave would lead people to hold to something as being self-existent. At least that's the line.

Cool. Then that might change what happens next. Let's see.

Maybe. Well, you've got.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah.

[Говорящий 1]
Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Here I started getting a little lost. So or I think on the chair is just like, what? Why?

Like, why do you? Why do you for what? Like, for what purpose?

Maybe. Yeah. What's the for that?

You know, Kong? What was the chair for that? Yeah, maybe.

Let's read this real quick. Sure. Ben, would you please read?

Sure, that'll teach me. It's a long time. OK, so we see this.

This phrase happened a couple of times where he's saying and in this case, which is referring, I guess, to some prophecy or some having prophesied something. The only the only. It's also the 14 answer questions.

Yeah. Oh, they're called the long time. But the long time was the questions he didn't answer.

Oh, well, there we go. Right.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah.

[Говорящий 1]
Right. Because my time right is neutral karma because the Buddha didn't mention it. It is.

That's right. Exactly. It's not in law.

It's not a what? It's not in law. He didn't talk about it.

Right. Right. Right.

Right. Yeah. And why didn't he talk about it?

Because he seeks something. He saw something. Yeah, it would be inappropriate.

It would be. Probably they were inappropriate vessels. Yeah, they were an inappropriate vessel.

Teaching of teaching. So, let's see. Oh, yeah.

So, there's some kind of phrase that I was able to find in other commentaries. This phrase here. It's so this isn't philosophy.

This isn't prophecy. This is probably a question. But maybe it's one of maybe it's the name of one of the questions.

I don't know. No, she is super weird, man. It's like the you're familiar with this concept.

No, I'm just looking in the dictionary. It looks like but it's like a a like a particular special object in this case that's not there. But it's like it's a basis.

It's like a special basis. Yeah, that's not there. Yeah, right.

Distinguishing feature. Yeah, this is this is like me playing with a distinguishing feature of there being no basis of distinction, which is very unwieldy in English. Uh, I'm not quite sure, but I did find other mentions of this whole phrase in other commentaries in Tibetan.

So I was trying to figure out if maybe. Now, now that I know this is the 14 unanswerable questions, I'm wondering if maybe it's one of the specific questions. I guess I think, right, it would be medium inappropriate to to long term to give a teaching of some.

I don't know, some dharma, some thing or some special thing. Which. Like, I don't know, like doesn't underlie things or something.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a nicer way to say it.

But because that's what we were talking about before, about whether or not there is you can ascribe some level of realness to the absence of self-nature. Whether we can call and whether or not that absence exists through some nature of its own. So totally it's making sense to me now why this would go to the 14 unanswerable questions, because it would be inappropriate to answer certain things because one of the problems that I have also seen amongst myself and my Buddhist friends is we can start to think that emptiness is our ultimate is ultimate reality in the sense that it has some it's some kind of like special place or something like, like the kind of like reality where we really live that we didn't realize. And it's easy to...

And Samsara, right? Also, especially, right? My question is like, how would you get a wrong idea if you have a certain way of thinking, if you're thinking about things in a way that's wrong?

I mean, this way that he's talking about, how would, sorry, I'm struggling to phrase it. But if I'm thinking to myself of Samsara, in a way of the cycle of pain, in a way that it's this like real thing, that's going to be replaced by a real Nirvana, then when I asked the Buddha, does Samsara have an end? Is it just hopeless to give me an answer?

You see, am I going to get stuck, no matter what he says to me? That's what the yeah, although... Oh, the thing about this...

Oh, that's nice. Oscar, this is says in the chat. This is the fourth part of the fourth part, right?

Which it seems that he knows from his notes was a reason the Buddha didn't speak about the end of the world. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I remember now that he's mentioning it, that that is the section.

So we should smuggle that into this part of the book and making a heading. Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cool. This has all been very helpful to me. I hope the rest of you feel as fulfilled as I do.

But yeah, this is really interesting. So this I have a feeling, as we're just pointed out, that the 14 unanswerable questions are called the Lungma Thempa. So when it says Lung Thempa, I have a feeling it's saying it's he's using this phrase here, I guess, to say, you know, to refer to a specific question and why it would be inappropriate to respond to that specific question.

Because I think that's why it says Lung Thempa Mee Rung. So word, just to be clear, are they often are they called like the Lungma Thempa Chushi or something like that? Or he's probably making mashed potatoes now or something.

OK, well, anyway, cool. This is all very good to think about. Dharmapada.

So then it talks about people who believe that this looks so it looks like he's saying Dharmapada, you know, selflessness or the absence of a self nature and Thongpa, the emptiness, the emptiness of things existing of the parts of a person existing through any nature of their own. Yeah. Rungshin Kuchupe Thongpa Thempe.

That teaching. That teaching. This person is not a suitable vessel for that teaching.

Yeah, this person is not a suitable vessel for that teaching. So this must be relating to the Gangichu Na, like if they did think that way or something like that, I guess. Well, at least whoever it was that asked this question, he saw that they were not a suitable vessel for that teaching.

And so we didn't know nothing. Yeah. And so it was an unanswered question.

Cool. Well, this next we have two minutes, so let's just take a look. Uh, without reading the Tibetan, I guess, uh, uh, it's probably too much.

We have one minute. Yeah, it's too much. It's too much.

But it looks like he starts talking about how he wanted to share. Uh, he wanted to share the idea of Daini uh, with Drowas who were not vessels with whom you could share the ideas of the profound teachings of the profound men, people who were not that Drowas. To them, la, misungpa, didn't answer.

Daini, chir na. But it's kind of like if in order to, if this Daini means suchness, which it might not. But I was wondering if maybe he was saying in order to share suchness with them.

I think it's, uh, for that very reason. Could be. Uh, Kepa's scholars.

Yeah, this is interesting. I think it's things they teach about and things they don't teach about. Sungja is not a word I could find anywhere either.

Oh, oh, interesting. With the low tone is like the object, but, uh, oh, he, um, although, okay. So the, the Tupac Tupac, um, or Tamche Khyempa, right?

Like they see all things that Tupac, um, Khun Ken sees, sees Sikpa, uh, directly, Ngunsum, Tadak, all the things that can be talked about or can't be talked about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kepa Nam Ki, by the wise. Yeah. And then, um, yeah, then there were smarty pantses who said he was, uh, Mikimba.

Um, right. That he, this was a thing. I forget what book this came up in.

Um, but there was an argument that, uh, some ancient people said the Buddha must not have been omniscient because when someone asked him about the end of the world, he didn't say nothing. Oh, okay. Okay.

So I think these scholars think that, that, um, could be, I actually thought this was saying yeah, it could be that, especially now that you're mentioning that story. I thought it was saying that there was nothing that is not known. Mikim, by Tamche Kimba, omniscience.

Uh, yeah, he was, um, Mikimbe Mayinte. Um, he was not lacking knowledge. He was not, not a master.

Um, and this is probably Dekho Nanni. Yeah. So Shendu, rather than that, uh, Ngopo Dekho Nanni.

Probably. Right. Probably.

Right. Uh, the nature of phenomenon, he explained extensively. Um, yeah.

Yeah. He shared extensively. Oh, wait, was there a Shendu?

There was a Shendu here. Yeah. Uh, so I was trying to figure out if this meant like things other than vastness or is this too.

Um, how about in, in other elsewhere, he did teach, um, extensively about the, the nature of, of things about the suction of some things, even though he didn't to these cats. Right. Right.

That makes sense. Yeah. This other otherwise.

Yeah. Sometimes he did elsewhere. He did teach quite extensively.

Elsewhere is like perfect. I think. Yeah.

Cool. All right. That's time.

Thank you guys so much. Uh, I think we have, I have a whole new way of looking at all of this. So stop sharing these wrong translations.

Last anyone take a screenshot and post it and say, this is what the mixed nuts are doing when it's wrong. Okay. Michael's greatest fear.

Uh, so no screenshotting, uh, when it's, when it's a team class. Uh, cool. All right.

Thank you very much. It's four Oh four are in my time zone, which is almost no one else's time zone here. Uh, we're four past the hour.

We have a few more minutes to engage in some more discussion, uh, for whoever wants, um, does anybody have any thoughts? I feel that we, there are almost 400 people here and I would love to hear from some other of you besides me on this topic. Uh, so please, um, if you have, I think it's really, really cool.

If you have anything in mind as to practical applications of the knowledge we are gaining by listening to these classes, sometimes the class doesn't lend itself as much to practical applications unless you consider internal philosophical discourse and debate practical, which I got sometimes. Uh, so would anybody like to share your thoughts, feelings, uh, life story? I can talk a little bit, please.

Mm.

[Говорящий 2]
I remember like asking questions, a lot of questions and then later. Yeah. So then later, like when my questions got answered, I realized that my quest questions were like lame in a way or were like misconstructed.

How do you say that? Like I wasn't thinking clearly, really about what I wanted to know. So maybe we're, we're not asking the right question and maybe we need to think more deeply about what we want to know.

And sometimes you, you answer yourself and well, that's what has happened to me a lot of times.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a really, I'm really glad that you shared that.

It's, uh, I wasn't thinking about it, but it's my experience so many times too, is like, I usually don't ask any questions for like the last 12 years and it gets answered. Like if I just listen or sit and think about it for a minute, uh, not that my answers have helped me to have realizations. I'm not saying that.

I just mean my questions weren't good enough, but the answers weren't right in front of me. Uh, uh, and I have asked Keshi Michael questions personally that he wouldn't answer perhaps, or that he answered in a way that was kind of, uh, not helpful to me. Or I'll give you an example.

Uh, I was like, Keshi Michael, why can't a changing thing and an unchanging thing touch? Why can't they interact? You know, because that's like, this is a big point when you're talking about the perception of emptiness.

Uh, it's like, how can the mind, which is a changing thing, perceive emptiness, which is an unchanging thing. Right. And then it's like, well, they can't be, you know, it's impossible because how, you know, it's like, oh, okay, but maybe how about like a changing being perceives an unchanging thing?

And then I was like, Keshi Michael, why can't it? And he goes, oh, cause it's changing. And I was like, okay, but he wouldn't answer more than that.

So I don't know. I think that was an unanswerable question.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah. Maybe the answer is beyond our capacity right now.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah. But I know what you mean about like being in class. And I had a teacher one time and he was like, you guys don't have any questions.

The only people who don't have questions are idiots and Buddhas. Are you guys Buddhas? And I was like, uh, I guess I'm an idiot.

Cause I don't know. That's not Keshi Michael. Okay.

He wouldn't say, I mean, he's never said that to me. Thanks for sharing that. So anything else?

[Говорящий 2]
I'm looking at our question that we had at the beginning, Nick, how could a thing with some nature of its own be destroyed?

[Говорящий 1]
How could it be remedied by destruction? That seems like an unanswerable question. Totally.

That's introducing this whole idea of the 14 unanswered questions. I see what you mean. Cause, cause that's the point, right?

Like if it doesn't exist, then how is it even, this goes back to the 60 verses. Like, can we have a debate about a subject that we don't agree upon? Or can we, to me, it raises the question, can we have a debate about a subject or a discussion about a thing that doesn't exist?

Can we have a real discussion about a thing that doesn't exist? Yeah. There's even an idea in Dharmakīrti that you don't have to destroy a thing with causes.

You just have to take away the causes. So if you're trying to destroy a thing, then you don't understand because saṃsāra will be destroyed without the need for an external cause for its destruction because you just removed its cause and then it must stop. And so asking, how do I destroy it?

How do I smash it? Like with a hammer would be an impossible question to answer. That's a cool thought.

It is. And I like what you said there, Ben, too, because that's like the most fundamental kind of teaching that we get in all of Buddhism is the four truths. And the main point of the four truths is like suffering has a cause.

So it's like that's the order. Things are messed up, there's a reason, you can stop it, here's how. And how is completely removing that reason.

That's why there's a whole one-fourth of the four truths is devoted to the fact that there's a cause because that's what you got to get rid of.

[Говорящий 2]
So maybe a practical application of this situation would be to be sure and agree on terms before we try to engage in a conversation of problem solving or something.

[Говорящий 1]
Make sure we agree on terms, definitions. I like that. And to try not, for me personally, in my own personal life, this is evoking for me is to not answer questions when you're not sure that you got the answer.

It's helpful to the situation. That's gotten me into trouble both in my married life and with the police. And when I was younger, much younger.

That's funny. I'll just tell you guys a quick story. One time I was being questioned by a police officer and I thought the respectful thing to do was to answer his questions.

And he goes, this is New York, okay? He goes, I think you're being kind of a wise guy, Nick, you're answering all my questions. And I was like, I thought I was supposed to.

So my practical application is don't answer questions unless it's going to be helpful, not just correct. But sometimes your correct answer could be very unhelpful to the situation. Have I shared too much?

I think we just lost 25 people. No, I'm just kidding. No, it's gone up.

People are tuning in to hear about your sordid past. Yeah. Well, I got the whole house full of little kids and four people running around right now.

They show up at any moment, but they're not here now. Is Hasso standing by for the Peachtree World News? Better than that.

I think we have a special guest host. Oh, really? Am I right about that?

Right on. Nice. Hey, I love your background.

That's beautiful. We have two more minutes. Do you have anything you'd like to share on this subject, Chloe?

[Говорящий 2]
I will give this to the world and then I'll stand by.

[Говорящий 1]
Oh, no, no, it's okay. I think it's a good time for you to jump in. I'm just checking because it's an interesting topic.

But yeah, whenever you're ready, I would say go for it.

[Говорящий 2]
All righty. Well, welcome. Thank you, Ben and everybody here.

And thank you for this beautiful time together. We are having exciting news today. So let me share the screen.

So welcome to the Peachtree World News. Today is December 16th, Monday. You will notice it's 16th.

We'll have a big day coming up. So I want to tell you that we just had a very big meditation teacher training finished in New York City with the Three Jewels community. So I would love to share with you guys the first hand video from Hector Marcel.

They had just finished the graduation yesterday. So let's see. Let's take a look.

Wow. So this is a three month long meditation training they take every weekend for the past three months. And let's congratulate everybody who graduated this term.

And I personally attended this three years ago, and it had really changed my mind, changed my mind, changed my life. And it's just such a beautiful community. So let's keep our rejoicing going.

And let's get into the next thing we have here. So here you will hear from JB and Connie in Taiwan.

[Говорящий 1]
Yay.

[Говорящий 2]
So now you know it's Kesha Michael's birthday tomorrow, December the 17th. So we will introduce a beautiful, beautiful event. Let's now invite Siobhan and Francisco to interview.

So we have the World View organization has cooked a beautiful rejoice festival to all of us to be able to celebrate this birthday together. So let's see. Oh, hi, Francisco.

Hello, Siobhan.

[Говорящий 1]
Hi.

[Говорящий 2]
So tell us about this event. So how can we celebrate Kesha's birthday tomorrow?

[Говорящий 1]
Well, we've been celebrating already for 13 hours that we're in our 13th hour, it started, the rejoicing festival started at 5am. Arizona time this morning, the day that the sun crossed the international dateline into December 17. And we've been rejoicing ever since what's going on in that zoom room is absolutely incredible.

I invite you to think through what this might be, because I can use my words to describe it. But when you get it for yourself, you'll understand the power of what's happening in this space. It's gorgeous, what's coming together people from all over the world.

We've had German, we've had Spanish, we've had Russian. I'm trying to remember I've been up since 5am. I mean to take a nap, but I can't walk away from the rejoicing sessions.

They're just too good.

[Говорящий 2]
Thank you, Siobhan. Thank you for organizing it. Francisco, would you tell us about this festival?

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, it's been amazing. We have a lot of fun. It's a big party rejoicing party festival.

When we have Vietnamese, Chinese, Ukrainian, Italian, Bulgarian, like all the languages that we are doing some teachings across the globe. And we have then different topics. My topic is rejoicing about others.

So that's amazing. And then right now we are rejoicing about seeds and the seeds we want to to see in our lives. And it's just amazing how the community get together to have this amazing party across the globe.

[Говорящий 2]
Oh, wow. That is awesome. So how do people sign up and get to choose their language and themes?

[Говорящий 1]
There's a QR code. And you can just sync in in Zoom. And then you will receive and schedule where the languages are going to be.

So you can select what you want. And also there will be a link there that you can go to a Google document where you can see it more organized.

[Говорящий 2]
Oh, wonderful. So let's see. You can register to the Zoom.

But unfortunately, this is not open to certain countries due to the policy. But you can still rejoice on your own on this beautiful event. And you know that because of the time difference, this will be going on for three days.

Is that right, Sarvan? That's right. We've completed 12 hours.

We're at 35 and change more hours to go.

[Говорящий 1]
We're going until the day is complete. Complete, complete, complete, complete. We have 35 hours from rejoicing.

So you can come. Even if it's five minutes rejoicing, you can bring, rejoice, and you know, stand the seats.

[Говорящий 2]
That is great. So if you are interested, you can join this. I will send this link here.

And if somebody knows the schedule, you can also put in the chat. But if you go to the website, you'll see everything there.

[Говорящий 1]
The schedule is on the website with the registration link.

[Говорящий 2]
That's right. So Sarvan just sent the registration link. So let's take a minute to rejoice our great teacher, Geisha Michael.

And let's use a minute in your own mind. Come to think about one thing that he did that really has changed how you see this world. And rejoice really hard on this.

And let's keep rejoicing into the next 48 hours in your own. And join the festival, talk about this with your friends. And thank you so much Sarvan and Francisco in organizing and holding the space for the until tomorrow evening.

And so thank you. Thank you.

[Говорящий 1]
Of course, Chloe, I just want to encourage everyone to come. It's so beautiful what's happening in there. And the way that people are sharing their individual practices is inspiring, to say the least.

Please come.

[Говорящий 2]
So actually, right now, you can also put in the chat about what you want to rejoice. And you know, the rejoicing also be that we rejoice what Geisha Michael did to us, to the world, to each country, to each individuals. And is there anyone would like to share something with us?

Anybody in the room would like to share a rejoicing story? Well, not a story, maybe just some idea. Oh, someone sent a photo of meditating.

That's wonderful. Okay, well, Kat. Oh, I was enjoying the idea that rejoicing is what ripens our seeds, right?

[Говорящий 1]
So when we're tailor making our experience of reality, and we want to add a little bit more for power to a certain aspect, all we have to do is rejoice about seeing that quality in another person.

[Говорящий 2]
And of course, our teacher demonstrates all of the qualities that lead us to happiness and freedom from suffering.

[Говорящий 1]
So it's super easy to think of a rejoicable.

[Говорящий 2]
And you get to, you know, just tailor make your own experience of reality through rejoicing for our teacher. Wonderful. Thank you, Kat.

Thank you, Siobhan. Thank you, Francisco. And thank you all the worldview staff that work on this event and all the people who host in different languages.

Let's keep this festival going. And we will move on to the next news. Thank you.

Thank you. So let's see here. Okay, I'm gonna do my own sharing.

So again, here is the event. They are scheduled some topics, and then you can join this in this QR code here and all the links. So next news, oh, before we do that, Kelsey and Utpala sent us a birthday video from Vietnam.

Nice. Thank you, Kelsey and Utpala from Vietnam. So next, if you are inspired to do a retreat, there is an option, New Year retreat with Kelsey from December 29 to January 3 in Diamond Mountain.

So this is where it's a beautiful time to do a retreat because you are entering the new year with a completely new mind. And also one thing that you can rejoice the most for our teacher is to do what they asked us to do, to practice, to do a deep retreat, to do a retreat in Diamond Mountain, which has been the goal for Geshe Michael for many years to bring us to the deepest of our own mind. And eventually we can help more people.

So if you are inspired, and you can sign up and join this small group retreat. So there is a New Year Eve celebration with the Petrie World News. We'll have everybody and all the worldview network people to send in their videos and we enjoy and celebrate the new year together.

If you're not in retreat, you can come to this one and you can register. The QR code is right here. Also, if you have any progress you would like to share with the world, you are welcome to send in your video.

And last year, we did a great rejoicing for all the organizations throughout the whole network. So that's also a very nice end of year offering that you can do and participate. So you can send this, you can contact Juan, or send your email to info at PetrieWorldNews.com.

So lastly, we will just for the people in the Asian sphere, or in China, there is a great opportunity to join a retreat in April is the innovation retreat in Dunhuang, which is one of the most ancient historical site. So this is something you know, you can have the option to join in the coming year. So that is all the news for today.

And thank you so much for the time. And let's get this back to Nick and the next teacher. Thank you.

[Говорящий 1]
Thank you so much, Chloe. That was wonderful.