Сейджи Арао — Книга 2: Мастер Шантидева, занятие 17

[ШАПКА ДЛЯ ЦИТИРОВАНИЯ]
Курс: Seiji Arao — Book 2: Master Shantideva (Diamond Cutter Classics) — «Руководство к образу жизни бодхисаттвы» Мастера Шантидевы
Урок: занятие 17 — Xuanzang's Tower — Master Shantideva / Bodhisattva — Session 1, Class 4
Ведёт: Геше Майкл Роуч; перевод и чтение текста: Сейджи Арао; ведущий эфира/интервью: Хуан Хассо (Juan Hasso)
Дата и место: 2024, Xuanzang's Tower (точная дата сессии не указана в pickup-map; между Spring '23 и Session 9 в июне 2024); место не указано
Источник: YouTube, канал Diamond Cutter Classics, плейлист PL1KVm5jgTljSp6vDnCG3LZlYhA2STM3UR; расшифровка TurboScribe
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[Speaker 1]
What time is it? It's midnight. Yeah, it's 11 p.m. Oh, that's not so bad. Cause we shift while you guys stay the same. So if you look bored during class, we can excuse you. Calls us to live in the middle of Q and A's.

You got any, oh, by the way, I have almost good news on that thing we were working on. I'm looking forward to hearing about it. No, tomorrow.

Okay, cool. Thank you. Thank you.

And don't thank me yet. Thank you for all this stuff that you ever do ever and everything you have ever done. You got any other announcements before I turn it over to Mr. Aro?

Mr., no, that's okay. I just wanted to say hello and welcome to Schoenzang's Tower. Thank you everybody for tuning in.

We've got exciting classes for you tonight, starting with Mr. Seiji Arao. And if you're ready, Seiji, and you're ready again, take it away. Yeah, can I unpin myself so I don't have to do any work?

Unfortunately, you don't have that ability. Even if you get unpinned, you'll still be the hardest working man here. Oh, okay.

Let's spotlight Seiji, come on. Yeah, okay, here we go. So I'm not going to unmute through this because it will create an audio loop, but can you guys hear me?

Yeah, we hear you perfectly. You want to put the mic over here? Oh, I see.

I put it in 360, so it should be. All right, grandpa. You sound great.

I sound like a proud papa. He just finished level eight, so he's goofing off again, like normal. Yeah, kind of.

Yeah, it's like, yeah. Almost, almost. Let's see.

So our last session was in Kyoto, so we didn't get to see much of the text. So please excuse me because my quiz is very short. We got to see three- We like short quizzes.

We only got to see three verses. So let me see, let me show my screen. You must have been selling the good night club.

Yeah. Sorry. That's okay.

I got three verses, so I got one question from each verse. All right. So we got to the offering of praise in the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life.

So can anyone remember what can be considered one of the sweetest offerings to make to the evil ones in some traditions? Please give some examples as given in the text. And as a bonus- The Bodhisattva's Way of Life.

Similar. Why do you think this can be the sweetest kind of offerings?

[Speaker 2]
It's on the natural thing, like the ocean.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
The ocean, tin, right? Tin unit?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, yeah. It's me, yes. I'm sorry, I'm just asking.

[Speaker 1]
Do you remember what the oceans had? Water. I think it's the sweetest thing because it don't belong to anybody.

Yeah, yeah, got it. Do you remember other examples that Master Shantideva gave? I just remember that's on the natural thing.

I'll give you a hint. The oceans had something in it that you also offer. Water?

It's related to perfume. Fish. What gives perfume?

Whales? Mussels? No, in a more direct way.

What smells good? Flowers. Yeah, very good.

Flowers. Actually, it's lotus flowers. In the ocean?

Yeah, in lakes. Oh, like lotus on the ocean. Yeah, among other things.

And this is for, actually, I wanted to ask you, but why are things, you mentioned that things that have no owner tend to be like the sweetest things. Does anyone have an idea of why this would be? Well, I was just reading a book translated by this guy named Arao, and it was talking about how our tendency to be selfish increases when we think we own something.

You see what I mean? And it was a whole verse about our habit of being like a squirrel, and you get something and you take it home and you put it away, and you think, oh, mine. And then your possessiveness increases because you put it away in your house.

So maybe things you don't own, you can't put the ocean in your house, right? Right. Cool.

That's what I'm thinking, but what do you guys think?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, it's perfect. It's a pure harmony.

[Speaker 1]
I actually was thinking on the same lines, that sweet is maybe because they're not tainted by self-cherishing. Yeah. Although, wouldn't you say that if you, oh.

Maybe you start to feel like a government tax officer that you can take everything from everybody. No, I'm just kidding. Well, question though, if you do feel self-cherishing for some possession and you give it away, wouldn't that be stronger because you're going against it?

Debate these guys. That's true. But in a way you can think that the ocean, if you think about the emptiness of the ocean, that somehow is connected to you and that makes you eligible to make that offering.

If you think the ocean is coming from my seeds. But everything is coming from your seeds. Everything, whatever you want.

No, but the question is, I mean, and there's, I don't think there's a right answer, but why the fact that you don't own them makes the offering more beautiful. So, you know what I mean? Why do you think?

Why is it more satisfying to give away things that nobody owns like this guy? Maybe you can get more elaborate in your mind than anything that, because you're kind of imagining you're making this offering. And maybe since it's not something so tangible, you can get very elaborate with it.

River has that.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, that you have to be really creative and thinking and seeing of everything that you see is something holy and pure. And so that affects your own heart.

[Speaker 1]
If you're talking about giving something away that you don't own, but my question comes to mind, can you give it away if you don't own it? Hmm. I would say yes, if you connect it to Vahasa's point.

To think about how your teacher doesn't actually need anything or the Buddhas don't need anything. So then. That's also an interesting idea.

Yeah. Nobody owns that. That's a nice thought.

I mean, I was thinking now that maybe the natural stuff are sweeter because they are more vast than anything that you could ever own. That's true too.

[Speaker 3]
Maybe then also once you give it away, it's not like you have someone else owns that.

[Speaker 1]
Ah, so yeah, no possibility for self-church. Some people say that the most beautiful things come for free or are they free things? Are free, yeah.

Yes.

[Speaker 3]
And you can never lose it.

[Speaker 1]
Right, if you don't own it, you don't own it.

[Speaker 3]
The non-stuff don't get less.

[Speaker 1]
Say again?

[Speaker 3]
They don't get less when you give them away.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, you can give away the sky and it doesn't shrink.

[Speaker 3]
You can give away the ocean and it doesn't shrink.

[Speaker 1]
Cool, cool points. All right, second one. Which one?

I'm sorry, this is super, super obvious, but again, I only have three verses. Which one? Quality is those Master Shantideva is praising.

Hint, this is a lojong.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, compassion, right.

[Speaker 1]
If you had to make it more specific.

[Speaker 2]
The wish to take care of everybody, including those that hurt us or intend to hurt us.

[Speaker 1]
Wow, nice. Yeah, perfect. Otherwise known as great compassion.

Wow, nice answer. Yeah, was that Tin again? Tin?

No, it was... Tin. Oh, yeah, nice.

Can someone stop asking me to unmute? If I unmute, you'll create an audio loop. But can you guys hear me through this microphone?

Well, we're hearing.

[Speaker 3]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. What other offering does Master Shantideva give and why?

[Speaker 3]
His body and all his bodies in future lives.

[Speaker 1]
Yes, and do you remember why he does? He does, he does.

[Speaker 3]
Oh, oh.

[Speaker 1]
He says, Lindsay said, he's giving his body and any of his future bodies. Yeah. Cool.

Yeah. Do you remember why? What he claims, and I'm sure it was not true, but what he claims.

[Speaker 3]
Said he wanted, I want to be part of your family and I think for service, I don't really know. The ability to give anything.

[Speaker 1]
Yes, but not what was in the text. Your time and energy, no? Yes.

No, but what I'm asking is why he refers to his body. Like, I give you my body, my bodies. Why bodies and not body?

No, I mean, he said something, again, this is the third verse that we got to see and he says, blah, blah, blah. Therefore I give my bodies. Because they're countless?

Because it's what he most is attached to.

[Speaker 3]
Of all his lives?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, all true. Well, I'll just tell you, he said, he claims that he was stingy in the past, does not have any goodness, because he was not generous in his past life, therefore has nothing to offer. So the one thing he can give is his bodies.

Oh, that's interesting. I doubt that Master Shantideva does not have any goodness, but that's what he says. That's a good answer.

Cool. Let's see. Vocabulary.

Anyone remember? Well-offered? Well-offered?

Something like that? Something offered in the- Offerings. Yes.

This has three meanings, Geshe-la told us.

[Speaker 3]
Great compassion. Thank you. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah, there you go. Tojichi. Yeah.

Sometimes they slur it to tojichi. It sounds like to, it should not, but it does. Tojichi.

So I guess the, just word by word is king of hearts, but then meaning to break compassion and colloquially use as thank you? Yeah. I think in any country, in any, like, the first thing you should learn is thank you, right?

I mean, no matter where we go, we should learn that. Terima kasih. You know, you said the same thing when you were explaining this in the text last time.

Just that.

[Speaker 3]
Oh, that's in the background.

[Speaker 1]
Arigato. Dakiluku. All of my bodies.

Yay, yes. All my bodies. The translation, thank you again, Nick, for helping.

[Speaker 2]
What would be the word for future? Future.

[Speaker 1]
Dakiluku, my future. The kuna, I guess, right? Kuna is what makes it.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm just trying to understand this next verse. It's kind of weird.

Danikikiyo Susumina. What? Well.

I don't. I don't know what it's talking about. I gotta go look at it.

Do you remember? Yeah, before. What was the verse before?

Here, here. Yodande. Thank you so much for that.

Oh, okay. Okay, okay, good. All right, let me see how you translate it.

Oops. Excuse me, Zumi. All right.

Derikusumina asina. Well, what happened in the verse before? Take me into your family.

I offer you my bodies. Please welcome me into your family. Yeah, if it were possible for you to actually take my body, right?

Tak mi ke kyi yong su sungway na. Yeah, why yong su sung instead of just sung or zing? Sung is a tense of zing.

What's the yong su imply? Anybody? It means completely, right?

Yong su means completely, so. All of them, all my bodies? Dark me, me, kyi kyi.

Yeah, by you, yong su sung.

[Speaker 2]
Oh.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, if you were able to own me completely, like you're a slave or something. Okay, if I belong to you, what do you call that? Unconditionally.

Unconditionally. If I belong to you unconditionally, si na, what's this si mean? We have si be kor lo.

Cycle. Yeah, there it means cycle. What does it mean, you guys, if you say mi si?

No, no, yeah. Impossible. Impossible.

Sometimes it means possible. Here it means possible. No, it's not.

If it were possible that you could yong su sung on me. Yeah, you could have me. If it were possible that I could turn myself over to you completely, okay?

If I had no self-will left and you owned me completely, who's you? The Buddhas. The Buddhas.

Then I could min jik about serving sen chen. No fear? Yeah, I wouldn't have to hesitate anymore.

There's nothing to hold back. There's no reason to hold back anymore because I don't own anything. I don't even own myself.

So then I could truly serve people. It's a beautiful two lines, I think. If it were possible for you to take me as your servant completely, then I wouldn't have to think about it anymore when I serve people because I don't own myself anymore.

You do. It's easier to give away other people's money than your own. See, now here we are.

I can tell you from experience. Okay. Third line, Seiji.

Let's see your translation. Yeah, ngun gyi dik le. Nice.

Yeah. Nick.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, and yeah. We'd have to check the Sanskrit for the le. What can le mean in Tibetan?

What's the two meanings of le? The su. Yeah, one is karma and one is from.

Da, we have in the word ngan ngen le depa. Go beyond. Go beyond pink, which is a Tibetan translation for nirvana.

So you don't see that word by itself very frequently, to go beyond. So here it means da. I finally, I can go beyond my past dikpas.

Yeah, I can go beyond my past bad deeds now because I don't own anything about myself and you're taking care of everything and I can truly give myself away to other people because I don't even, I don't have any say about it anymore. It's very beautiful, okay? It's not up to me, it's up to you.

And now I feel liberated to serve other people. It's beautiful. And dikpa shen yang.

Len che means, it's a difficult word. By the way, these words are difficult because the whole thing is a translation from Sanskrit. The whole poetry is a translation from Sanskrit and it's unusual Sanskrit.

So the translation of it 1,000 years ago is hard. Okay, so we don't say len, nobody says len chen anymore, nobody. But len chen means from now on, what?

No, not do anymore. Yeah, and there's no reason for me to do more bad deeds. So I got rid of my old bad deeds because you took over my body.

And since you own my body, I don't really have the right to do any bad deeds with that body now. It's a cool, cool idea. You can spend a lot of time with Shantanu.

Like, if you want something to read instead of your phone after 10 p.m., you can just take one verse and cook it. You can sit with it and it's very beautiful. All right, Seiji, nice translation.

Okay. All right, thank you. All right, here we go.

Sorry, Venerable Pilate, I sent you the quiz so late. Back to work. Back to work.

Can you read? Can you read, Seiji? Yep.

Chukikampa Shintu Chishinpa Shiyonki Saki Selshin Tsorwatthara Tsorwatthara. Tsorwatthara. Yeah.

Rinchen Warwe Mbarwe Mbarwe Kewa Yion Kewa Yion Then? Nice. Mutiko Chaklare Chepa Der Yeah.

A couple of comments about the Tibetan here. Tsorwa with a naro, tsorwa, is extremely common. It means...

It means feelings or feelings. Feelings, yeah, feelings. It's one of the five parts of a person.

Tserwa is extremely rare and it means sparkling, okay? And so the woodcarver wasn't familiar with tserwas, so they put tsorwa. Okay, so sometimes you have this subconscious correction by a carver.

So that's a big, big problem. When we were working with Hewlett-Packard to input the Greek and Latin Christian literature, they originally did it in Greece because they thought the Greek workers would be better, but they kept correcting things by accident. They kept changing the spellings, updating the spellings by accident, and finally they did it in Korea and the Philippines, and the people were much better at it because they couldn't read it.

They couldn't correct it subconsciously. So that's a very common mistake, and you guys have to... You know, when you translate a text, you have to be a textual scholar also.

You have to clean the text as you go. And that's a huge amount of years of experience, to replace feeling with sparkling, okay? All right, tserwa tar.

And the other comment I want to make about... There's a common monastic word here, which is la-re, in the last line, la-re. La means higher, right?

What's a common word?

[Speaker 3]
Lama.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good. Lama means higher one. And by the way, that's high tone, lama, okay?

If you want to be precise. So la means higher, and la-re in the ancient language means, if you've seen a Buddhist throne, and they put a cloth hanging from the ceiling over the throne, and they might put pearls around the edge of the cloth, there's a canopy. It's the canopy over a throne.

La-re means the canopy over a throne. But the last thing I want to say about it is, it has a colloquial pronunciation, and we say la-re, okay? There's no reason to have a B there.

It's just the oral transformation of the language over thousands of years. Like coffee, right? What's a coffee?

Something drinking Brooklyn, okay? So anyway, say la-re. La-re.

If you say la-re, nobody know what you're talking about. You got to say la-re. And there's no reason, okay?

It's like Dorje. There's no R in Dorje, okay? All right, okay.

So, and by the way, this verse is so famous because you're offering a washing, you're offering, what do you call that? A washing room. Sauna.

Not a bathroom, really. It's a sauna. It's like, what do you call that in the gym?

It's like a spa. You're offering a spa to your lamas, to the Buddhas. And there's a whole practice in India where, and people devote their life to it, is to wash Krishna or something.

And they get a doll of Krishna and they pretend they're washing Krishna. And there's masters of Krishna washing. And they spend their whole life, every day they do it for two hours or something, and they wash Krishna and dress him and stuff like that.

And it's a kind of a beautiful practice. If you're attracted to that, it's a beautiful practice. You might want to try it sometime.

My lama did it with Buddha, with Tara. He had this thing about dressing Tara. And I remember we went to, what's the name of that cross in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro?

[Speaker 2]
Oh, in Montenegro.

[Speaker 1]
Or Santo Ano or something like that. Pada Sucre. Yeah, so we were there.

And he wasn't interested in the cost. He was interested in these beads that they were selling to the tourists. And he's like, oh, I can buy that for my Tara statue.

And he went crazy. And he's buying all of them. And so there is an ancient practice, which is very sweet.

If you're ever overworked with your intellectual translations and stuff, just dress your Buddhas or wash your Buddhas. And it's really relaxing and kind of beautiful. Okay?

If you have a young child, you can do it with them and pretend they're a Buddha. It's a lot of, it's a great practice when you're feeling stressed out. Don't translate some logic text.

Like, wash your Buddha. It's very relaxing. Okay, so, and by the way, this verse is so famous that I believe it got put into the Lama Chodpa.

Okay. Maybe it sounds familiar to you. chu kyi kangpa shindu tu, shingpa shen kyi sa hi.

Love it. Okay. What's chu mean?

True? Bath. True.

Wash. Wash. Yeah.

Without the S, it's a measurement. With the S, it means to wash. Okay.

What's kangpa? That's easy. House.

Kangpa means a structure of any kind. Like, a ja kang is a tea house. A sa kang is a restaurant.

Yeah. There's other kangas that I can't talk to you about. Okay.

And chu kyi kangpa shindu. You know that from Koopa. Super much.

Chi. By the way, you can look at this Sanskrit if you want to have fun. But chi shenpa.

What's chi shenpa? Sweet smelling. Yeah, sweet smelling.

And usually shenpa means tasty. But with smells, it means sweet smelling. Fragrant.

Super fragrant. Shell is glass or crystal. Okay.

And it's a beautiful word. But she go is a window, for example. Okay.

So shell. Shell here means crystal. The crystal glass.

Sa shi. Sa shi. Foundation of the glass.

Yeah, the whole floor of the bathing house is crystal. Okay. The whole floor is crystal.

And it's sor wa. Cer wa.

[Speaker 2]
Sparkling.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's sparkling. So now you have to be visualizing this bath house. It's a bath house.

Okay. Cer wa tar. Rob went to a bath house in Japan.

I used to go sometimes, and they wouldn't let him in because he had tattoos. And the Yakuza, the gang members fight in the bath house. So they made a law that people with tattoos can't come in the bath house.

So you got to cover them up if you go. Cer wa tar. Rinchen, you know.

You know. Bar wa. Blazing.

Blazing, burning. Yeah, bar wa is for a flame out in a big way. Bar wa means in a big way, like flaming.

Tar wa. Pillar. You can put that for a pillar.

Yeah. And by the way, the Sanskrit is stamba, by the way. Stamba for pillar.

Once the English come in. Stump? Stump.

A tree stump. When you cut a tree and this piece is left there, that's stump. So a lot of the Sanskrit came into common English words.

And it's fun to, I really enjoy trying to find them. So stamba came into stump. Look at, what did you call it?

Yeongdeun. Yeong? Beautiful or attractive.

Yeah, attractive. Yeah, literally, what? Come to your mind.

Close your mind. Yeah, close your mind. Okay.

What did you guys know? Pearls. Pearls?

Yeah, pearls. Yeah. Okay.

What is, where is it, yeah. Echag. Echag means light spreads or light goes.

That kind of soft light that comes off of a pearl. What do you call that?

[Speaker 3]
What is it? Shine. Shine.

[Speaker 1]
Shine, but not. It's scintillating. Luster.

Luster, great. That's what I was trying to think of. Yeah, luster.

Lovely. It can't appear, but it can grow. It's got all these silk cloth hanging from the root.

dripa means, that's an ancient word that nobody knows, and it means they are spread. They are hung from the ceilings, spread out from the ceilings. I have a question for you guys, and by the way, I think you should talk about it when you do your conversation, when you do your talk about the class, 15 minutes.

What chapter are we in? By the way, this is one of the most famous Buddhist books ever written. First five years.

We're in the second chapter, which you can tell from the number on the verse. But what is the second chapter? It's a...

It's the benefits of bodhicitta? No, it's dikpa shakpa.

[Speaker 3]
What do you mean?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, confessing my bad deeds. It's a confession, the chapter on confession, okay? And why are we bathing the Buddhists in the chapter on confession?

And that would be an interesting topic to talk about, okay? And these verses are very, very famous, you know? And I'll give you a clue, because I like to not join that conversation, because I think it's more interesting to hear you guys talk to each other, but it's part of sak jang, okay?

Sak jang. So just to give you a clue, sak jang is from here. And then you guys have to talk about what that means, okay?

All right. Geshe-la, does it kind of seem like this verse came out of nowhere, too? Yeah, I mean, he just offered his body, and if you want an additional thing to talk about, you might explore whether this verse has any...

whether this flow of this chapter has anything to do with the seven preliminaries. You might try to look through the chapter and see if there's any connection. I'll say another thing about the general structure of this book.

If I ever have time, I'm supposed to write a commentary, right? And in the middle way, the ultimate book on emptiness goes straight through the perfections. Its structure is the six perfections.

Master Shantideva's book is mostly based on the perfections, but it wanders off in the beginning. And I think you might want to ask yourself why. His book is a hybrid between the seven preliminary practices and the six perfections.

And why is that? It's a very, very brilliant structure. It's a really cool idea.

What he did, just the structure, the chapters is revolutionary. And so, by the way, is the other text we're going to have today. I'll be done with some of each other.

We're going to work on the structure, and it's revolutionary. All right. Okay.

Seiji gets to pick on somebody else. Let's see. Tin Nguyen, you there?

[Speaker 2]
Yes, I'm here. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Can you go for it? Yeah, thank you, Professor Seiji. The Shinshek Tangte Yise Namla Rinchen Umpa Mangpo Chokyi Chu Ye Ong Lekpa Kangwa Luthang Ni Runmo Chepa Thume Kuthu Nice pronunciation.

The Tathagata. The Tathagata. Yeah, the Tathagata.

Those who went that way. Deshe Shepa. Meaning?

[Speaker 3]
The Buddhas.

[Speaker 1]
Along with their say. And, wait, I'll give $100 if you say it correctly. Dollars and cents.

$100. $100. Yeah.

For 2,000 years, they've mistranslated it as sons. But it means daughters and sons. Wow.

Instantaneous gratification. So, to the Buddhas and their daughters and their sons, okay, to them, I offer you a rinchen. Trees.

Jewels. Precious. Jeweled vases.

Not the ma. Rinchen. Rinchen can mean precious or it can mean jewel.

Bumba. Jeweled vases. In your mind, you can think of a vase that has jewels studding it, but very often in scripture, the thing is made of solid ruby or solid sapphire or solid diamond, you know, like a whole bowl is carved out of diamond or something.

They're like, go for it. Okay. Rinchen, bumba, mambo.

Many of those. Incense. Yeah, bum means incense, but this is chew mixed with bu.

Some perfume. Yeah, it's perfume water. It's water that smells of.

What's a very popular one that's easy to make? Rose? Saffron water.

Just drop some saffron on overnight and it makes a beautiful scented water. Yeah. Okay, sure.

Attractive. Yeah, attractive. Gang comes from kang.

It's a fill? Yeah, it's a verb. Filled with beautiful water that also is scented.

Then I offer lu. Sauce? Lu means buddy.

Lu means music. What's the Sanskrit? I thought you might like to learn the Sanskrit.

It's gita. Like Bhagavad Gita. Say gita.

Yeah, long I. Gita. So gita means lu.

The Sanskrit here, you can see the Sanskrit up here. Yeah, sagita means along with music, along with song. Sa means together with and gita means music or a song.

So Bhagavad Gita is a song of the Blessed One or something. Is it related to guitar? I didn't think of that.

Probably. Might be. Might be.

[Speaker 2]
There is a name in German, gita.

[Speaker 1]
I had trouble finding an English con name. The root is ga. So all Sanskrit words have a root, ga.

This one is ga. And I looked up Indo-European which is sekva. The gw is probably from gita, from ga.

Then saga.

[Speaker 3]
Gayety?

[Speaker 1]
In the sense of happiness?

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
It could be. Yeah, it could be. Okay.

So anyway, it's good. When I choose a Sanskrit word for you to learn, you should learn it. So gita.

You should learn gita. It's a very important word in India. It is the most important book in India, in history.

If you don't know what's the gita, then you're kind of a loser. What are you reading? I'm reading the gita because Gandhiji said we should.

That was Gandhiji's thing, to read the gita every night. Oh. And by the way, the fourth course of YSI will be the gita.

That will start next year. Oh my God. If we survive.

Ludangmi. And I offer rummo. Rummo means played music rather than sung music.

Lu means singing music. Rummo means music played with instruments. How many songs do you offer?

Dumma. A lot. Yeah, many.

With lots of different things. And by the way, you should know, if you do any diamond way rituals, very, very often they'll have many verses that end with kuchu su. Kuchu su.

Kuchu su. I bathe your holy body. I offer the bathing of your holy body.

Ku means holy body, chu means to bathe, and su means I offer. Su means I dare to offer. In Christian liturgy, you might see, I dare to offer to you.

I am so bold as to offer you a bathing of your body. It's very beautiful. Okay.

I thought you might like to learn this vase here. We had a word for this. Pumbaa.

Say pumbaa. It's used often in... It's used very often in logic.

Because when you speak of reality of objects, it's common to grab something that's in the room. We use a pen. In the ancient times they used a conch shell.

White conch shell. Or they would use a vase. Because all rooms in ancient times had a vase in them because there was no plumbing.

So you went to the well and you got water and you brought it. And you kept it in your room the whole day. And when you wanted to drink or you wanted to wash, that's turning on the faucet to turn over your vase.

What's the other important use of kumbha? Yoga. Yoga practice.

In yoga, the retention of the prana in the body is called kumbhaka. It comes from the same word. A closed vase.

A sealed vase. And what's kevala kumbhaka? It's spontaneous retention of the breath.

Spontaneous stopping of the breath. And by the way, that happens when you reach shamatha, that's a common sign that your breath will stop for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour. And that's the day you understand that your body is not living off of food or air.

Your body is living off of karma. And you don't have to breathe. It's very beautiful.

And you can only really focus your mind when you don't breathe. And I'm not suggesting that you try to not breathe. Because that just is a way to get ahead and make you loony.

You'll get loony. The opposite thing will happen. You'll just be irritable all the time.

[Speaker 2]
Don't hold it.

[Speaker 1]
I would say it happens about the same time. That you would start to spontaneously stop breathing and it'll surprise you. You'll think you're going to die or something.

And then you're like, wow, it's been 10 minutes, I didn't breathe. We're going to talk about that starting on Thursday. We'll be talking about the deeper yogic practices.

For 10-12 days, I think. And that's an awesome course. Because we're going to read some very deep practices about breathing and other things.

You want to have some real fun, Seiji? Yes. Get Christina Kasica to read the Sanskrit.

Oh, all right. Do you want to come up and try? You can sit.

Well, there's room here. We'll put you... We'll put you over here.

[Speaker 2]
Here, here.

[Speaker 1]
Take your time. Don't be nervous that we're singling you out among a thousand people. Just make the long vowels long and the short vowels short and I'll be happy.

[Speaker 2]
Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you for not saying God bless you.

[Speaker 3]
Sudupitāni dadāmi tebyo vara pshivarāni Yay!

[Speaker 1]
Nice. By the way, this first syllable, the second line, which ends with a rough breathing. In Greek it's called a rough breathing.

Say it. tatah. It's just a and and it's common in Greek but many Sanskrit scholars and poorly educated Sanskrit scholars will say tatah.

And yoga teachers will say tatah. Now listen. tatah surjaktāni sudupitāni How many?

Eleven beats. Okay. All right.

Let's do the first line. Let's do the second half in the second line. dadāmi tebyo vara pshivarāni How many beats?

Eleven. This is the kind of poetry which is 11 plus 11 two times. 44 syllables.

It's locked in. Now let's say tatah. tatah surjaktāni sudupitāni How many?

Twelve beats. It ruins the poetry. It's completely wrong.

And many, many yoga teachers, many, many Sanskrit teachers in India will say tatah. And you'll hear it when Vedic people do their fire offerings or something. They'll say tatah.

And then you're like okay, 5000 is a mistake.

[Speaker 2]
All right.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Okay. Dadā.

Those guys. Gu is honorific for body. Yeah, body.

Holy body, maybe. Sungpa means we know sungden in Abhidharma psychology. Connected or linked?

Linked, yeah. And it means equal. Here sungpa me.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Unparalleled, unequaled. Ku means clothing. Ku means clothing.

The Sanskrit of clothing, you should learn it. This book, part of the purpose of choosing this book for this class was to give you a painless way to learn some Sanskrit. Some easy Sanskrit.

And this one is Vastra. Say Vastra. Vastra.

And it came into English as vest or invest. Invest means slipping into your vest. Okay, all right.

And even the word wear comes from the same root. Vastra means clothing. And the root is vas, which means to cloth.

A proper Sanskrit initial V is a cross between a V and a W in English. Okay. I don't know.

Indian people can't say V. They'll say kind of a W sound. Wuh.

So vastra. And the Tibetans didn't have a V in the first place. So they have trouble writing down Sanskrit that has a V in it.

They say wajra. For Vajra. Okay.

But it was more like wajra. Okay, anyway. Sang means clean.

Okay, clean. Chi means scent in this case. And chi rub.

Rub is added to words to make them bigger. Bigger. Is Mount Meru.

So it means the best fragrance. Guh means to smear something. And we had it in my book in the Mind Only School.

And this was the verb that was used to describe how mental seeds are put into the mind. And they said guh. They are...

Their scent is imparted to the mind. You see what I mean? Smeared, but also in the sense of a scent smeared onto cloth or something.

Karma is implanted in the mind in the manner of perfume being sprayed on your dress before a date. Is that okay? Like that.

Again, rub. Again, high honorific body. Chi means to wipe somebody.

What's a shab chi? A attendant to a high lama. Yeah, an attendant to a high lama is called a shab chi.

And shab means the feet. And they are the person who's supposed to wipe the feet of the lama. Feet wiper, yeah.

And some people take it nowadays as an insult. And I was very honored when people called me my teacher's shab chi. I was like, thank you.

Because it's a very honorable way to refer to a student. You are the foot wiper of your lama. And it's a compliment.

To me it's a compliment. It's a high compliment. Jesus was a foot wiper.

Okay. All right. DE NYID DE LA After that, two of those guys, kadokarmar, first subject of all logic books.

Color? Color, yeah. It's color.

The first subject of the Geshe course is kadokarmar, debate on colors. And it's not a kid's debate. It's a deep debate.

Anyway, kadok, lek yi no. I don't know the word. Goodly?

It's a high word for good. Somebody was telling me about a lama, gelek. That means goodness.

And that lama was a big rascal. There's more to say, but that's another story. Okay.

Gyurwa means to change. Okay. So what it means is this cloth has been dyed a beautiful color.

And in ancient times it was the purple color from the shells in the Mediterranean Sea that was most prized. And only the emperor of Rome was allowed to wear it. So that's why you see purple is important in Christian rituals or something.

So lek gyurwa means dyed a beautiful color. Say nasa.

[Speaker 3]
Nasa.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, and again, in modern colloquial, this has a strange pronunciation. We say napsa. So if you say nasa, nobody knows what you're talking about.

If you say napsa, they're like, oh, okay. Napsa. Napsa nowadays, in the old days it meant clothing and garments.

It's the word garments. Nowadays it refers specifically to clothing you put on your favorite Buddha statue. It's called napsa.

So what are you up to today? I'm going to put napsa on my Buddha statue. And by the way, again, it sounds silly or childish or something, but to care for your images as if they were real people, he recommended just now singing a song, like get an electric guitar, play some Jimi Hendrix for your Buddha on your altar.

No, it's a wonderful way not to get loomed in a deep retreat. And it's very much approved of. Chijang Rinpoche used to talk about it a lot.

My teacher's teacher and Pabongka Rinpoche's student. When you're having a deep retreat, then sing a nice song that you know to your Buddha. And it makes the meditation go really well.

Take a break and wash your Buddha image or take a break and make them some little clothes like dolls. Or sing them a couple of favorite songs from your teenagehood. I used to do that with an electric guitar.

I used to play songs for them. It's a wonderful retreat practice. It's a wonderful way not to get loomed.

Even if you do a weekend retreat, sometimes just sing your favorite song for your Buddha image. You're talking about the physical thing, not just imagining that they're... You can imagine that they're there, but I think...

What I mean is you see these elderly Buddhist people that seem to do stuff like this and you think they're stupid or something. And that's a big mistake. It's a very holy practice.

[Speaker 3]
You could sing or you could play some musical instrument. Is the same?

[Speaker 1]
Absolutely. Like if your Lama advised you to learn piano or something, you could. By the way, if you can't play music and you want to start with an instrument, I suggest a flute.

Because you could carry it around. People in our group tend to travel a lot and it's a lot easier to carry a flute than a piano or a sitar. Harmonica's good.

Okay. Chi shim danpa. This is the danpa when it's real meaning of den danpa.

Den danpa means ultimate reality, right? So danpa means highest. And he's saying the chi should be danpa.

Chi ma. The scent that you use. Like the most expensive perfume you can find.

I used to use a perfume for my rituals that was something my wife used to wear when she was 16. And it's expensive. And now...

So anyway, chi shim danpa means highest of all scents. But it's useful to learn the word danpa this way. Meaning the highest.

Because normally we use the word as den danpa, which means ultimate reality. Bu? I offer.

I make offering. We got time. We okay?

Let's just pretend we don't know with time running out. I would like Seiji to read this one because it's kind of good luck. Okay, you do the cursor, okay?

gosang se la jampe ne chok thang gyen chok kya chak te thang te dak gi pak pe kun tu sang thang jam jam thang? Ah, jam yang thang. dik ten wang chuk sok rang kyang pal kyi Nice.

Okay, good. This is where you might want to buy some jewelry and put it on your Buddha images or something. I have some on my altar.

In fact, I worry about it because I have people clean my house sometimes. There's like some really... I should say that online.

Anyway, I put it away. Yeah, that's easy. Gosang means excellent clothing.

Sap means... What do you call that? Shear.

Like silk. Sap means shear. Thin and soft.

Jampa means soft. What's the Sanskrit? Manju.

Manjushri. Manju means soft. Manju.

Natso means all kinds. Different kinds. Again, you know from Alankara.

Alankara. Ornaments? Yeah, and a piece of jewelry.

Oftentimes a necklace. Say alankara. I told you before, I'll tell you again.

This is how I learned it. Alam means ready to go, prepared. And kara means to make.

So alankara means the last thing a woman does before she goes to a ball is to put on her necklace. And then she's alankara. There she's ready to go.

Okay? So the word in Sanskrit for jewelry in general is alankara. And Tim's book is the most famous alankara of all time, which is the...

Jewel organizations?

[Speaker 3]
Yeah, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
What's the Sanskrit? Abhisamaya. Abhisamaya.

Alankara. Alankara. Okay, good.

Gyantrak means hundreds and hundreds. Deda de means this kind, that kind, all kinds. Deda de.

All kinds of beautiful pieces of jewelry. And by the way, he's imagining putting an earring on Tara or offering Manjushri a... what do you call it?

A bracelet or something. And again, you can do that with your images or something. Harpa means Arya, right?

Kudusambho is... Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra is a famous bodhisattva.

And he's most famous for his... What do you call it? Innovating the offering of filling the sky with roses.

To be honest, that's what he's most famous for. They'll say Samantabhadra's offering. And there's an additional feature of that offering where when you make it to one Buddha, it appears to all Buddhas.

So if you offer a rose to one Buddha, Samantabhadra style, every Buddha in the universe suddenly sees a rose in front of them. Isn't that cool? So you fill the sky with these multi-purpose roses.

Okay? That's Samantabhadra. Jamyang, you know?

Yeah, so there's two... There's a synonym for Manjushri. You can say Manjushri.

Say Manjushri. Or you can say Manjushri. So Manjushri means soft.

And Shri means glorious. Shining and glorious. Gosha means throat or voice.

So you can call him gentle voice. I like to call him gentle voice. Or you can call him glorious, gentle one or something.

But they are synonyms. Manjushri and Manjushri is the same thing. Manjushri means soft like silk or velvet.

Jigten Longchuk. Jigten here, the word in Sanskrit for world is loka. Okay?

And then Longchuk is Ishvara. Ishvara. Say Ishvara.

Loka. Ishvara. Lokeshvara.

And then if he's looking down, he's Avalokiteshvara. So Ishvara means lord of the world, of the universe. And loka means with the world.

And that comes from an ancient root, roach, which means to shine. Okay. All right.

Like lucid comes from that. Okay. Like that.

Okay. All right. I think we did this, Avalokiteshvara.

We did Lokeshvara. Yeah, okay. So sometimes he's called Lokeshvara, and sometimes he's called Avalokiteshvara, if he's looking downwards.

And in Chinese, as I understand it, it was changed to not the one who looks down, but the one who hears the sounds of all suffering beings. The mom who hears the baby crying and the husband sleeps through it. Very famous.

It's a beautiful thing, right? Avalokiteshvara means the mom who wakes up and takes care of the baby when the husband sleeps through it. If you're interested, Ishvara means best wish, and whiskey is related to that.

Important to all Irish people. Best wish. Ishvara means the one who gets their favorite wish.

And whiskey comes from that. Wish? The root is Ish.

Oh, okay. Ishvara means they get the best wish. And it means the lord.

So the idea is that like if you kill a deer for the king, and it's taken to the palace, he gets to choose the part he wants first. Therefore, he's Ishvara. Yeah, Ishvara.

All right. Seiji's going to try and say 14 and 15. For next time.

And this book right now, it feels a little bit devotional or something, or they're just offering stuff. It's getting a little boring. But the idea is you cannot understand one of the greatest presentations of emptiness in history if you don't go through this part first.

So this book is built in a very consciously cool way. They force you to dress the Buddha and spray him with cologne. And then you have enough karma to understand emptiness teachings after that.

It's very cool. The book has got everything in it. You're forced to go through the silly little offerings.

And then that good karma improves your mental state by the time you get to the ninth chapter, which has... more people got lost in this ninth chapter than in any book in history. So you better do your little perfume sprays, okay?

While you're in this chapter. All right. Over to Seiji.

I'm going to take a break. First of all, thank you, Geshe-la. You're welcome.

Okay. All right. Let's see.

So, some of the questions that Geshe-la asked us. Why are we bathing the Buddha before confession? Second one, is the flow related to the seven preliminaries?

Oh, there's two questions, actually. And then he talked to us about the general structure between the perfections and the seven preliminaries. Cool.

Anyone has any idea of why we're bathing the Buddha before the confession?

[Speaker 3]
Because you're already married to the Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
It's a bribe so they don't freak out when they hear what we did.

[Speaker 3]
Well, I guess also, yeah. They're both cleaning. Like if you're confessing, you're like cleaning something bad out of you in the same way that you would be cleaning the Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
Cool, cool, cool. Anyone else?

[Speaker 3]
Yeah. So, if you're cleaning the Buddha, then you're doing a positive thing that reinforces the cleaning that you were doing, taking away.

[Speaker 1]
I have a question. Wouldn't it make more sense that you do the confession first and then clean the Buddha? You clean yourself before you clean the Buddha?

[Speaker 2]
In the preliminaries.

[Speaker 1]
Right. Shouldn't you wash your hands before you bathe somebody? Right, right.

[Speaker 3]
But maybe you need to collect some merit in order to confess.

[Speaker 1]
Right, yeah, that makes sense.

[Speaker 3]
Well, I think you should always do the highest karma first. What if you die after the second step? So you do the highest first and then you bathe.

[Speaker 1]
That makes sense to me.

[Speaker 2]
Can I say?

[Speaker 1]
What? Sorry? Go ahead.

Go ahead.

[Speaker 2]
I guess because the Buddha is from us, it comes from us, and when we bathe the Buddha, actually we bathe away our bad deeds and commit not to do it again.

[Speaker 1]
Right.

[Speaker 2]
Secondly, I have second part. Second part is, actually everything that we see is Buddha. No matter we see it as good or bad.

And when we bathe the Buddha, we show our respect and have a gratitude heart to the person because the person cost his life for us to see who is ourselves. It's a kind of respect and gratitude. So we bathe.

First thing is because the Buddha is also come from us, so when we bathe, it is an action that we bathe away our bad deeds.

[Speaker 1]
Cool. I have a question. How can we use this principle for something we can do in our daily life?

How can you make this a practice in our daily life? Let's say day to day.

[Speaker 2]
My favorite practice is to louder please. My favorite practice is driving in my car and putting like a good song and singing and dedicate that. Imagine I'm singing to my love.

It's like an offering. Cool.

[Speaker 1]
Nice. You seem like you want to say something. I think about teaching people or trying to help people to face difficulties.

Trying to help people to do difficult things. It seems that whenever you start with something positive first, in this case, bathing someone which is very pleasant or maybe praising someone in a difficult conversation, then it's much more likely that they will be able to accept the more difficult conversation. That's also why purification in the seven billion years comes after three.

You're talking about buttering up the Buddha before you tell him the best thing. Okay. Making pizza.

Cool. I like that. Thank you.

Anyone else maybe on Zoom has any ideas of how to put this into practice in our day-to-day life? Somebody is in the chat. Yes.

Rocio says when I want to fix some problem, some relationship, first I need to see my bad seeds and then clean them. Yeah, makes sense. Keep your mind pure and pure.

Let your mind be good. Cleaning the outer and the inner as you think of emptiness of both. Wow.

Cool. I remember our teacher saying about kind of wild offerings, right? When a teacher seems to make an offering to a statue or so much of what we do is motivated towards some sort of return we're hoping to get in the world and there's something radical about making an offering or doing something that like it really, it's not going to help you in an ordinary way to make an offering.

Most of the things I do in my life, I'm always thinking about even if I give you something, I want you to like me. I want you to think I'm a nice guy and that's fine and it's lovely but there's something about making an offering alone in a room with a statue or a picture that is just about me and that act of goodness and hoping it can go towards something special and I can't get anything else out of it and every now and then making an offering like that to remember that I'm shooting for something higher than anyone other than my own seeds can give me.

Beautiful. Thank you, Ben. Beautiful.

You know, when you were saying that, it reminded me of when I was learning Tonglen that the book that I was reading said that whenever you get something nice, you just give it away. I just, without expecting anything. I like that.

Thank you, Ben. Yay. Time for one more question.

Ben, before you go, if you had to guess, how is the flow related to the Seven Preliminaries? I don't know. I'm struggling with this because it seems like it could go in a few places.

On one level, there's this idea of a makeup activity and that's like the thing that's nice. There's a sense of cleaning ourselves, but there's also a tradition that before we make confession, we want to call some holy person into our hearts, into our minds to be there to hear it. I was thinking that maybe it had to do, there's this idea they call a place of collecting goodness or something.

Sometimes they say merit field, but that's kind of a weird translation. But calling the holy being who is special in your life in front of you to hear your confession. I don't know.

I'm wondering if that's why this is happening so early. Then they show up in the room and you've got to take sweet care of them right away.

[Speaker 3]
Don't wait to clean them.

[Speaker 1]
Don't wait to make offerings to them as soon as they get there, and then they'll be there for confession. Maybe. I don't know.

Ben, I think it'd be really useful for Seiji to write out the chapter names for next class as part of his homework. Thank you for pointing that out to me, Geshe Michael. Because then it would be, we could have a more logical discussion about the flow if we had all the names.

Actually, we have that already. Let's go to class. Also have the Peachtree World News standing by ready to go.

Yay. Here they come. It's happening.

Thank you so much, translators. Thank you, Geshe Michael. Thank you, Seiji.

Thank you, Ben. I'm delighted. Thank you.

Thank you, Peachtree World News for hopping in the hot seat. Look at that. Handsome and ready to go.

Thank you, Ben. Thank you. Thank you for the class very much.

I'll leave this for a little later. First, I would like to introduce you to the guest we have for today. It's a very dear friend, and he's visiting from overseas.

You may guess who he is. Do you want to try? Anybody wants to try to guess who he is?

[Speaker 3]
Yes, it's Peter.

[Speaker 1]
We have Mr. Peter Morfel here with us in studio live in Sedona. In person. It's not AI.

It's nothing like technological advance, but he's mind and heart here with us. Thank you very much for being here, Peter. Thank you for coming with this invitation.

I know you had a very busy day, but you made the time. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. It's an honor and pleasure. Great.

I'm glad that you see it that way, but for me, the pleasure is mine and the honor as well. We want to know a little bit of what you're doing these days, what you've been doing. We know that you have a new project that we would like to talk about, but first, before we get to know you a little bit more, I would like to ask if you can tell us a little bit of your story, personal story about how you ended up here today in the College Sedona 2024.

How many years ago you started and well, how did you find this ancient wisdom and how little by little you think you ended up here today? Thank you, Juan. It's a good question.

I just did an interview with Hector, actually. That's why I was a little late about his story. It's a fast comment.

I met Gesche through a book for the first time in 2007. At that time, I lived in Sweden already for eight years or something like that. Well, ten years.

I was married. My mother had died and my daughter was born exactly a year ago, so that was a very traumatic period for me to see how fast life comes and goes. Then the owner of the software company that I had worked for and I was a partner in, he sent me an English to Sweden.

When I read that book, I remember specifically I was in the Swedish Silicon Valley where Ericsson and Nokia had all the offices and I read the book and I just started crying a lot and I was like... I felt like the Russian secret services, the Spetsnaz being somewhere in the United States and getting the call and I have to wake up and do your thing in a positive way. I read the book.

I immediately started to look for more and I found the ACI homepage at that time. I started to meditate twice a day, every day. I started to do the daily practice and then after a couple of months I connected with my mentor, my first one, and she told me on that homepage where you learn the meditations, have you seen the ACI courses?

And I said, no, there's nothing. She said, yeah, if you look there's nothing. And so I started to study ACI wildly, like a lot.

I started to study the ancient wisdom and then in 2009 my mentor at that time, she allowed me to come to Diamond Mountain and I figured out on the map where Arizona was and Tucson and then I looked at Google where's Diamond Mountain and there was nothing. And I met Geshe Michael in 2009 and that was very transformative and I started to yoga at that time and then on the way back Geshe Michael told me we're going to start DCI together and on the way out I asked Adriana, what's DCI? She said, I have no idea.

And then in 2010 there was the first DCI event in Europe, in Vienna and then until 2017 or 18 I think we were in a lot of DCI tours, started to study and teach DCI. 2012 I made my first real four-step project successful. Maria appeared.

[Speaker 2]
Yay!

[Speaker 1]
And then we've been teaching in Europe and the United States world. Amazing. It's a very beautiful story and something that I sense is that somehow you have a lot of passion and I don't know really the word how to say it but you go 100% for things and you just throw yourself to the goal and to your dreams and to the wishes to achieve the goals and I admire that very much.

Just before we move on the next project we're talking about, I would like to ask your personal opinion. Just in class we hear this about this prayer of Master Shantideva saying that how beautiful it will be to give myself to you and do whatever. So I thought about it and for one I think it's beautiful.

Second, I find it very scary but it was good for me to realize that wow I still have some resistance. Hector was also telling me about this the other day like no the problem with you is that you always want to do what you want to do but how do you take this in your personal life? How is this practice of let's do whatever you want and then I will also add what's the point of because sometimes your teacher want you to think for yourself.

It happens to me like your teachers are like you figure it out. It's difficult because you want to do what they want but sometimes what they want is you to figure it out or to do what you want. It's a beautiful question.

How many hours do we have? I think I think it's speak faster. Something that I like about the Mixed Notes translators is that they are the best in the world.

If anyone can translate fast, it's you. Thank you. Thank you.

I mean this is a nice conversation but what you just asked I think for me is the pinnacle of how to relate to your teacher which is the pinnacle of reaching our goals. It's a very important and very tricky question because I think both ways don't work. You cannot if you have a good teacher which we all have to an extreme degree then you cannot just do what they tell you.

One of my favorite quotes of Gershom Meichler from 1814 is if you always believe everything I say I have a problem with you. Very cool. And then of course you cannot say well he doesn't mean that so I'm doing what I want.

Another extreme. And so I think for me studying the Mixed Notes system for me the Ancient Wisdom courses and these are anything he's getting more and more advanced in that question. Because at the end of the day the seeds that you plant are your seeds and you can never run away from that.

And in ACF 15, I don't know if you're allowed to say ACF but in the course 15 of the steps of Trangier The Art of Interpretation. Thank you, The Art of Interpretation. That whole course is about that.

And the answer to the question really is whatever you do with whatever intention will come back to you and nothing else exists. So if your teacher tells you to do something which you think is unethical then it is unethical if you do it. Because you think that.

And if you can see something as challenging and you don't really know if you can do it, but you do it with devotion to your teacher, then a miracle happens. And we have to stay, I think, in that tension and fail forward on that balance. Thank you.

Thank you for the question. Yeah, I mean, it was just in my mind, you know. But tell me, okay, about your project.

Your project is Brilliant Minds. Meditate. What is it about?

So what is it about? And how people can be part of it? Right.

When Maria and me are looking for projects, we're usually trying to find ways that support the whole welfare organizations. And we're trying to look for things that are maybe not that maybe not a lot of people are doing so we can reach people in a new way. Okay.

And for me, you know, the three extraordinary trainings, morality, meditation and wisdom, meditation is right in the middle. It's difficult to hook people up by saying you should be moral. That usually is a hard sell, so to speak.

And we're actually changing that when we talk about the 10 Deeds in the Brilliant Minds is meditate to not what you should do and what you should not do, but we're talking only about the results. Like, you know, you want energy, you want resources, you want great relationships, and then we go back to where it comes from. But coming back to the project, I'm very, very passionate about meditation.

And I think it's possible to explain to people that their mind has a huge relevance in their life. And it's not so difficult to make them say, look, if in the last two weeks you cannot find a single moment where your mind was not with you, maybe if you changed your mind, your experience would change. And then let's jump into that training, which sounds super natural to me.

People go to the gym, but what did you do with your mind? Did you do any mind? I think it's relatively easy to make them convinced that that's a good idea to do something with their mind.

And so then the big challenge, and we actually start tomorrow with a promo webinar in English. We do English, Russian, Ukrainian and German over the weeks. Nothing in Spanish?

Not yet. But we're looking for partners. Let's see.

So we're trying on these three webinars on each day to give people immediate gratification and experience of something they haven't had before. So the first one is relatively easy. We do Tonglen on the first day and ask them at the end, do you think that this focus exercise on giving and receiving something to yourself or to someone else is a way to calm your mind, but it doesn't change your outer reality?

Or do you think it does change your outer reality? And then we do the next week's thing and say come back and we'll tell you more. And then on the second day we do two exercises where we show the limitations of online.

One is we just ask them to focus on a point behind their fingers for two minutes. And then we ask, how did it go? Was there any energy that tried to drag you away from that focus point?

And if so, does that have a cause? And can you change it? And why did you get bored after two minutes?

You wasted so many two minutes in your lives already. What's the problem? And the second exercise on the second day where we go into time back and forward and ask them, how would it be if you could expand that?

And then we finish with the pen and then we do a 21-day program. Okay. So far what I'm understanding is you're doing two-day mini retreats.

Three days? Three webinars. They are online or live as well?

Online. They're live and online. And then after you finish that, people go through a 21-day process of keep practicing what they learned.

Meditate. We're basically saying, look, if you think it's a good idea to work with your mind then you have to change what you have done so far. So we'll help you to get going.

We hold your hand, you get daily videos, you get live Q&As, and we help you to get a good meditation object. So can you call this a little bit as a meditation training system? Yes.

Not meditation teacher training system like what Hector does but maybe. We started with that last year, which was very successful, but we need new people who want to start to meditate. So it's going to be several levels and eventually you get to a meditation teacher.

Cool. I would like if the person sharing the flyer, yes, thank you very much. Cool show.

Well, that's the beautiful cover portrayed or something. But then we have the next one, which is how people can link up. It's very simple.

Basically, you can follow us on Instagram or go to a landing page and I found a shouldn't say found but there's a very cool Ukrainian business person who tripled his business last year, which is incredible. And he's helping me to produce the videos that the cameraman is actually working with Vodafone in Ukraine and all the big brands, so they're very good in doing videos. And they helped me to produce it and we shared a business 50-50.

So how much is to sign up? Now I'm curious. Well, I honestly have no idea.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
I know the first three days are for free. And then I think it's a hundred or two hundred dollars or something. I don't remember.

Okay. Okay. And when is this the first time happening?

The first the first English and Russian speaking we started in February. Okay. So there is a month for prepare for that.

So I haven't checked but I'm curious. I'm going to check the Instagram page and the landing page and I will encourage you also to check it out. Even if you don't sign up or you don't decide yet but check it out because what they are doing what Peter is doing Maria and you both together are doing.

I think it's very very cool. I know you for a few years a little bit more every year and I really appreciate having you here. Thank you for your friendship for your patience for your time.

Thank you. Especially the patience. Thank you.

So thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone.

We go with Stanley Chen to his next book. Just before that I would like to invite you. We are playing a new year Chinese New Year Gears of the Dragon event and it's going to be very cool.

We are planning some surprises a lot of special guests there. You can sign up already. You can check it out.

We go with Stanley and Geshe Michael Roach. Thank you. Thank you.