Сугэн Ши — Книга 2: Колесо жизни (первый принцип и подразделения зависимости), занятие 12

[Speaker 2]
Oh, you're going to do beautifully, man.

[Speaker 1]
I don't know, I'm still confused after your session.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, yeah, totally. You know, I'm left kind of shaking my head at the end of the day, too. It's nice because, you know, I kind of let it like sit in my head for a while, and over the next couple of weeks, like, things will start to click a little bit, you know?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, that's true.

[Speaker 2]
I explain it to Ava sometimes, too, and although, you know, there's no context really, it's trying to put it into words, you know, that help understand it. Oh, it's nice, man, I enjoyed your class, too, the biography.

[Speaker 1]
The story, the story was nice, yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Hey, man, how are you over there?

[Speaker 1]
I'm good, I'm good. So what, you, everybody's down with COVID, or?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, it's pretty, it's interesting. Yeah, Katie started getting just a little, she started feeling a little ill, right? And at the time, she didn't have like full blown symptoms, really, she wasn't feeling really sick.

So Ava, I ended up taking Ava and we were doing some stuff like kind of out in the mountains and doing a lot of hiking and stuff. And by the time we came back, Katie actually had like, she had come down with it, you know? So yeah, so we kind of had to keep Ava away for a little while.

And now, Ava, just over the past couple of nights, I was starting to, she started running a fever.

[Speaker 3]
Oh.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, and she's kind of, she's got like a cough, that's a little bit more pronounced like in the evenings. So it kind of it's every, you know, a lot of her symptoms actually aren't really present during the day. So I wasn't too worried.

But last night, I started to feel something in my throat. So we'll see how that, if that progresses and gets any worse or not. But yeah, we all might have, you know.

[Speaker 1]
But you are, you are good. You are good, aren't you?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, I mean, you know, I feel good right now. I think this, it gets progressively worse though. So we'll see how everything goes over the next few days.

And yeah, I was paying attention, like, yeah, Ava, she was waking up a lot in the last night as we were sleeping. And so, yeah, and I kept feeling her and she was just really hot, like, yeah, it was really bad. So, you know, I think it should be like two or three days of like kind of, you know, where it's just kind of intense and then that should start to.

[Speaker 3]
Oh, wow.

[Speaker 2]
So anyways, man, sorry, long explanation. But I'm sure there's a lot of people who are kind of wondering, after Geshe-la said, that our entire family came down with it.

[Speaker 1]
All right. I see. Wow.

[Speaker 2]
But all in all, I'm feeling good. You know, I mean.

[Speaker 1]
But you look, you look okay. Are you still coping okay?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, I took a shower before my class. It kind of woke me up. And so I feel fresh.

[Speaker 1]
I see. I see. But you got COVID too or you are good?

[Speaker 2]
Not entirely sure yet. So my mom is a cardiac nurse. She works in an industry where she has access to tests.

So she's going to bring one of the rapid kind of swab tests with her the next time she can. So we'll see.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. I think. Yeah.

Thank you, Adam. Please take care. Drink more water.

Rest more.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Sorry. I'll let you get on with the Q&A again.

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Sure. Okay.

Thank you, Adam.

[Speaker 3]
Thank you. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, everyone. Let's start. I'm sorry for the delay.

That was my rest, actually. Yeah. I saw a few questions in the chat box.

I'll start with the easier one, the one that I know how to answer. So Zhang Jie is asking about having hard time learning and then not familiar with the topics, not familiar with the Tibetan language, especially. So what is my suggestion?

So what I would say is that personally, I started this like a dummy, didn't know anything, not even the Tibetan. So I just planned myself, make myself be present, try to listen as much as possible. And then, well, sometimes when we don't know, we want to write everything, you know.

But here, I would say don't try to write because when you write, well, of course, depend on your learning modality. Some people learn by writing, but sometimes in Mixed Nuts, our discussion can be pretty fast, you know, like, for example, Adam's session, you know, the discussion was so fast. So if you try to write, you might lose the discussion, the train of thought in the discussion.

So what I would suggest is try to listen as much as you can. And then the fact that you are here means you have access to the recording. You can always listen back to the recording.

And then if you want to take notes, maybe you can do that during the, when you listen back to the recording. That is what I suggest. Tibetan is, the language is not something that is easy, but I don't know, somehow I sort of get a gist of it, you know, after I think five years, I think five years, right, Adam?

For 2017, four, four years, four, almost four and a half years, you know. So, yeah, January, yeah, four and a half years. So it feels like, well, I mean, sort of getting the, some of the feelings.

So I think that's what you need to have, right. And of course, Joshua Michael has a very good series of videos in YouTube. You know, maybe you can't get access in China, but those of you who have access to the YouTube Tibetan Languages Channel, TLC, TLC is a nice acronym, Tender Loving Care Tibetan Language Channel.

So you can, I think, when was it? Is that 2017, Adam, I think? I don't remember.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, they started the Tibetan Language Channel just after the translator course started. Yeah, but you can find it on there. You know, I think there is actually a playlist of the grammar and the pronunciation that Joshua Michael was leading, but Joshua Michael shot all those videos.

I want to say like maybe 2014, 2015, 14.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, yeah, end of 2014, yeah. So those are good videos. I think I would really recommend all of you to go there to learn the alphabet.

I will paste the link here. I found it so you can go there and then listen to the alphabets. Joshua Michael also added lots of explanations, vocabularies and some of grammars.

So try to listen to them. And yeah, basically, that's my base. That's my foundation before I went to Sedona.

So that will help you a lot in your learning. The next one, yeah, I hope I answer your question, Zhang Jie. I hope you can understand my English.

OK, and then, yeah, I saw another one from Always Love. I think this is who, Natasha? Yeah, Natasha, you were asking about the Tibetan language, too.

Yeah, and yeah, Natasha asked another question, which is pretty sensitive. Political asylum. How can I get it quickly?

Well, I would like to go back to the democratic principles that we are learning here. So we are saying that give what you want. So we just need to give what we want.

So what do we want? We want to get the... Well, I mean, we can't use it literally, political asylum.

You know, what does it mean? What does it mean to us? You know, is that protection?

Is that peace of mind? So I think you need to really define this term to you. Well, yes, we know realistically it means you go somewhere and then a country will accept you.

But what does it mean to you? Why do you want to have that? You know, do you want it because of the protection?

Do you want it because of the peace of mind? Do you want it because of the... Yeah, I think you just need to find it, the essence of that.

And then do it, give it to others. So if I were you, I would like to... Well, I mean, I was born in Indonesia and then I grew up in Indonesia and then I came to Singapore in my 20s.

To me, at that moment, I really wanted to get out of that country, you know. The racism was pretty bad then, 30, 40 years ago, 50 years ago. You know, the fact that my skin is yellow was a cause of pain for me, you know, because...

Well, I mean, I'm sorry I use this term, you know, my skin color was different or is different from everybody else in Indonesia. So that is a cause of pain for me when I was young. And I really wanted to get out of that country.

And I got wild thoughts then, very, very bad, very, very bad thoughts then, you know. And but deep in my heart, I was pretty soft, I was pretty soft. So I have this...

Yeah, I was born in Indonesia. I grew up in Indonesia, my university too. So I...

But deep in my heart, I was a very soft person. I was a very straight person. My father has a term to describe me.

He was saying that Sugeng is somebody who is very straight. He couldn't even... You know, in Chinese, we have a term saying that you need to be flexible to be able to survive in this world kind of thing.

So Sugeng is somebody who is not flexible at all. He will tell you if it is black, he will tell you it's black. He wouldn't even tell you it's a gray.

Although people might want to hear that it is gray rather than black or white as white rather than something else. So my father used to say, hey, Sugeng is too straight. He is not flexible.

I don't know how he can survive. So I'm so straight. Basically, I love underdogs.

Underdog means people who are marginalized. Marginalized as in... Marginalized means you are being discriminated in the society, you know?

So, for example, if I watch... Oh, yeah, Olympics is going on, right? If I watch somebody who is an underdog behind, you know, losing, losing in the battle, I will tend to cheer for the underdogs.

Hey, come on, run, you know, kind of thing. So maybe because of my nature of... Well, I mean, first, I feel very...

I feel because of the discrimination, I always feel that I am nobody. So because of that, I like to support the underdogs. So because of that, I have kind of a compassion for people who are suffering.

So I tend to give, I think, protection. So that actually planted good seeds for me to be able to come to Singapore in my 20s, you know? And then, well, I don't know whether we have Indonesian here.

OK, I think he left already. Even the first time I came to Singapore, you know, what did I tell myself then? I told myself I'm not going to go back to that damn country anymore.

So, well, I mean, my hatred was so bad at that time. But because of my love for underdogs, for the marginalized people, I had compassion for them. I give protection, some sort of protection.

So I managed to, I think, plant the seeds for me to get out of and to move, to migrate to Singapore. OK, so I hope this can help you. OK, there are questions in the Q&A box.

Adam, please feel free to chime in if you have any other thoughts. OK, well, yeah, there is a question in the chat box in Chinese. It is basically saying that.

How can we stop our I mean, if our loved ones is coming to the end of their life, how can we help that person to stop the negative cycle? And, you know, I mean, somebody. Yeah, Adam, I came to Singapore immediately after my university.

OK, back to this question, you know, how to help our loved ones at the end of the who are dying and then to stop them from stop them from the negative cycle. And interestingly, yesterday, somebody one of my friends were asking me about on this question as well. And yeah, and I remember Geshe Michael in Lam Rim 35.

In Lam Rim 35, I thought about this on the Wheel of Life, how to help our loved ones. Prepare, get ready, or even when they pass on to to not fall into the. To not fall into the negative cycle.

And let me give you the link. I think I have the link here. It is Liberation 35.

So, yeah, I think you can you can learn. You can watch the video, knowledge based. Lam Rim, Give Our Liberation 35, I think it's a very, very comprehensive instruction how to help our loved one get through.

The end of their life, who are dying.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
OK.

[Speaker 3]
And yeah.

[Speaker 1]
I heard that pain, bad experiences bring many times learning, isn't that saying that good thing can come from a bad thing? Oh, yeah, of course. Of course.

Hi, Eva, how are you?

[Speaker 2]
She's been she's been very patient and over the past hour.

[Speaker 1]
How is so her temperature is good already?

[Speaker 2]
Well, that's the thing is during during the day, she's fine. Oh, it doesn't get bad really until she goes to sleep.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, OK. And yet she needs to sleep. She needs more sleep.

Right.

[Speaker 2]
Totally. But yeah, I noticed. Yeah, I noticed that her temperature goes up and she starts to run a fever and her cough comes back after dinner.

[Speaker 1]
So the nighttimes that I'm worried about, perhaps drink, give her more drinks. Oh, yeah. And then what?

Coconut water kind of thing.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, that's interesting. That's been one of her favorite drinks over the past few days. Yeah.

We give her tons of coconut water or at least I try to.

[Speaker 1]
Well, yeah, that's good. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
You know, I was going to say, too, I've heard Gish and Michael say in the past that you can use top use top skillful means to try to walk your loved ones through through the four powers, through the biggest things that they may be regretting in their life. And, you know, I think that takes a lot of skill to be able to do that, you know, and. Sorry, I got to go fill her watering can.

[Speaker 1]
All right. No worry. Thanks a lot for that.

[Speaker 2]
You know, he was saying that if you can get them to kind of confess, you know, in a skillful way, and the things that may be heaviest on their mind, that that's a great way to help them in a transition, you know, in a more peaceful way. Yeah. You know, I didn't mean to hijack everything, but.

[Speaker 1]
No, no, no. That's good. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. And yeah, we should help them get their mind away from any regrets that they may have or any negative things that they may have done before.

Yeah. And then and then ask them to think back on the good times when she was when that when he or she was helping other people and feeling happy about life in general, you know?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Thank you, Adam. Yeah, I'm going to go.

Yeah, man. Yes. The class.

And yeah, thanks for the Q&A so far.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Thank you for staying back.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
OK. So, yeah. And then the next question, I've heard that pain, bad experiences bring many times learning in life.

Isn't that saying that a good thing can come from a bad thing? Yeah. Well, well, yes, we can say yes and no.

Good thing can come from bad things, provided we understand the nature of the good thing, the bad thing. You know, a lot of time people don't just don't understand that good thing can come from bad things. And because of that, we we hate the bad things.

So that's why if you sit through say this class developing a good heart. We will learn that we will learn. Very often that we need to look at the.

That we need to look at the learning from all the bad things happening to us. They bad things will only happen if we have the seeds. So instead of feeling resentful of the result of the bad seeds.

We need to try our. Best to understand what the seeds are and then try to change the seeds so that we don't experience them anymore. Yeah.

So, yes, we still need to have the understanding. We can't be just. We can't be just feeling resentful of the bad things or blindly think that good things can come from bad things.

Yeah. So we need to really understand that.

[Speaker 3]
OK.

[Speaker 1]
The next one, if my parents did not get married, will I still exist? Am I the same person? Well, I thought through this question before, too.

And I think now with my current understanding, I would say that, yes, I will still exist, maybe through other ways. You know, parents, my parents are just the vehicle for me to to come back to this to come back to this wheel of suffering, sansara. And and yeah.

So perhaps I will maybe I will be born in another families. With the same environmental seeds that I carry, you know. So, yeah.

Geshe Michael was also saying, you know, in the book Karma of Love, he gave a story of. Some some being one, a being who will have to be born as a as a bear, you know. But the timing was the timing.

Didn't happen to match that, that the timing was not the bear mating season. So that being will still be born. But instead of born as a bear, it would be born.

As for something else, which is very similar to the nature of the bear. So, yeah, it will still happen. Yeah.

OK, I saw some more questions in the chat box. Let me move here. Oh, yeah.

Thank you, Li Wang, for saying that's reciting the Buddha's name and let the person hear the name will be useful, too. Yeah.

[Speaker 3]
OK. Tai Tarn, Tai Tarn Tee Wan, OK, Sophie, Sophie.

[Speaker 1]
Was helping some other people to ask questions and. Oh, this is talking about insurance. OK, well, the question is basically talking about insurance, whether we need to buy insurance, right?

In simple terms. Yeah. OK, well, yeah, insurance.

Well, this is very similar to a question about if I'm sick, whether I should go and see doctor or not. You know, so I have a house. Should I have insurance and whether if I'm sick, whether I should see doctor, whether I should eat medicine?

You know, should I just focus on planting the seeds? Well, the answer is yes and no. Basically, we still need the seeds as the deeper costs.

But well, I mean, depending on deeper costs alone is all right, provided you have a lot of good, good seeds. Yeah, so we definitely need the deeper costs. But on the other hand, I think in Karma of Love again, Geshe Michael also mentioned a term called the pattern and equipment, pattern and equipment.

So there's a pattern for the seeds to ripen and there is equipment for the seeds to ripen. So so in the case of a doctor, for example, medicine. So when we when we are when we are sick, we will go to see doctor, right?

Well, I mean, yes, we need to plant the seeds. We need to have the seeds to be healthy. At the same time, we also need to go and see doctor and then doctor will give us the medicine.

So this is the pattern, the pattern of people, general pattern for people to recover from their sickness. And the equipment will be the medicine. So the question is that do I need to follow the pattern and the equipment?

I would say yes for the start. And then. And that is normally how the seeds ripen.

Yeah, it's the same thing about the. Case of. I forgot that term.

Domestic violence, domestic violence, japa, you know, domestic violence, violence at home, you know, when there is a domestic violence or when you meet a rascal, you know, what do you do? Should you run away or should you just tell yourself I have good seeds? I will not be bullied.

I will not be hit. You know, I know that's not true. When you face problem, when you see rascals, when you are in the situation of domestic violence, the first thing is to run away.

Somebody come and see you. Hey. My husband hit me, you know, is hitting me.

You know, your first advice is please, please get away first. Don't let your husband or your wife hitting you. You know, when you are being bullied in school, for example, you know, first action is to run away first, get away from the bully.

At least tell the teacher if it is a school bullies, you know, don't just sit there trusting you. I never bully people. I never hit people.

So I will be safe. Well, I mean, get out of the way first. So that is the pattern, right?

That's the pattern. So the same thing for insurance. This is talking about what Charlie Bowsen.

So it's a home insurance, for example, or maybe personal insurance. So that is the pattern. People use insurance to protect their life, their home.

The health insurance, for example. So, yeah, I think there's a pattern and we need the equipment. Yeah.

So just just do it. And then, of course, if you want to know something, what is the key? What is the key point you need to take care of?

I think you need to consult the professional. We need to consult the professional and the professional will be able to help you. The kind of insurance and coverage that you would need.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
OK. OK. I saw a question from Zhang Jie again.

I like the questions. In the classics, is there any teaching of coffee meditation? How is it related?

What is the relationship between coffee meditation and law of attraction? Does it mean that coffee meditation also has both power and good things and bad things? Yes, definitely.

Yeah. Coffee meditation is part of our four steps and it is covered. Geshe Michael took it from the Abhidharmakosha chapter four on the seeds.

So that is the ancient source. And you can refer back to that one. Oh, yeah.

Or if you have chance, you can get on the DCI global level one. We will learn in full detail about how to use this in our life. Right.

Now, law of attraction, LOA. I used to be very interested in LOA too. And that was before my DC days, you know, Dharmakarta days.

So I follow the steps taught in there. I do whatever that I have to do. I do my visualization.

I do my. What do you call that? The dream board, you know, I pasted things on the ceiling of my room, on my wall, you know, and I didn't see anything or I didn't see any good results out of that.

And finally, after coming, after learning the Dharmakarta principle, I realized, oh, yeah, yes, those are good to start with. But I was missing the seeds. I wanted to be I wanted to be prosperous.

I want to have extra money, but I was very. I was very stingy. I was very stingy.

I was very calculative. I didn't I didn't even want to share what I have with others. You know, very interesting.

I used to be very egoistical, you know, egoistic when I when we. You know, my I used to have this thinking, you know, if I have my share of food, I just want to have it myself. You know, I don't like it when people ask.

Some food from me. Especially when it is packed food, you know, so when when you go somewhere and then when you pack food for everybody, so everybody has the same size of the food that they have. Of course, I will be very happy if people give me their food, but I will be very upset if people are, hey, hey, can I have some of your whatever, you know, some of your veggies, some of your rice, some of your noodle?

I will not be happy at all in the past. So that was me. You know, when I first got married, I was kind of confused.

Wow. My wife was so generous. She would even before she start eating, she would even ask people, hey, hey, Catherine, you want to have some noodle?

Hey, Joy, you want to have some rice? Hey, Juan, you want to have some veggie, you know? So I was wondering, wow, OK, after she give away all the food, what is left for her to eat, you know?

And then I have another thought. Yeah, lady, they don't eat much, you know, they don't eat much. That's why they should give it to others first, you know.

But me, I'm a guy. Yes, it's suspicious. I'm a guy, you know, I I need more food.

I need to eat a lot of food. How can I give it to Juan, for example? You know, so you see, I was so stingy to that extent.

So you see that kind of me, even if I have if I try to attract lots of. Wow, from a universe, do you think the universe will ever give me never? So after learning the six principle, I realized, oh, yeah, I was so stingy.

I was not even willing to share what I have. And no wonder I was never prosperous. So, yeah.

So now. I learned the system, I learned to share with people and you know what? I feel much better now, you know, just our first day, our first day mixed nuts.

That was on Friday evening, Singapore time, Asia time, right? Friday evening. I tell you that night I was in a bad health.

I was so feeling so bad. I was wondering that could be the last of me, you know. I was breathless.

I couldn't breathe. I felt I felt so dizzy. You know, I was thinking maybe I should ask my wife to call ambulance that night.

You know, it's all it's midnight after just after the class is Seiji started first. Venerable Utpala next. You know, it was after her class.

I was so excited. I was listening to the class. I felt so good.

But. But at the end, I felt so dizzy, I felt like falling down. And I realized that night was terrible.

It was how I I almost didn't sleep. My wife didn't sleep. And I realized, oh, it must be my digestion, because just before the class, I went at first.

I thought I wanted to to fast. I didn't want to eat, but that meant we got lots of leftover. I thought, OK, because you see, I'm so stingy.

Even a leftover. I also didn't want to to throw away, you know. So I thought I just eat.

And wow, my goodness, because of my greedy, the greedy feeling, you know, I was terrible. So like last night, I decided to eat a little and I'm sharing with people. Wow.

I felt so good. So sharing is good. OK, enough of my story.

Coffee meditation is you think about a good thing you did, but actually you don't do anything. Oh, no. To do coffee meditation.

Yes, you think of good things that you do, but you need to do it. You can't just wish for it. You still need to do it.

Yeah. You think of the good thing that you want to do. And you also must feel happy after you do it.

And you recall the happiness. That is the coffee meditation. So very different.

Now, you still need to have the seeds. For coffee meditation to work. And yeah, we discussed this in the Wheel of Life in my first book about good seeds and bad seeds.

Coffee meditation will work on both good seeds and bad seeds. If you recall back all the bad things that you have done, of course, the bad seeds will also ripen very quickly. But on top of that, if we have a wrong understanding of the worldview, you know, if you know the.

If you know the two husband in the kitchen, the story and the husband who is not coming from your seeds, if you have the wrong understanding, yeah, my husband scolded me because he was because he was hungry. My husband scolded me because he was scolded by the boss. My husband scolded me because I because he was trapped in the jam.

Then that is a wrong understanding that will actually ripen the bad seeds very quickly. So, yeah, very different. I want to jump to Ruko's question.

I think she was so desperate. She put on the chat box and also Q&A box. How to plant seeds of getting close to the teacher?

I remember this. I remember Geshe Michael's answer to this one, because this is also something very close to my heart. I want to be close to my teacher.

I want to be close to Geshe Michael. So and I really pay attention when somebody asks the same question. I really pay attention to the answer.

And this is what I'm going to tell you. To the seeds to get close to the teacher is to apply and practice what the teacher teaches you. You see, what's the point of being close to the teacher if you don't apply what the teacher is teaching you?

You know, so very obvious. Whatever your teacher teach you, whatever your teachers teach you, you need to apply even a simple things. So we learn about the seeds.

We learn about the pen story. We learn about the four steps. We learn about to not cherish ourselves.

We learn about, you know, a lot of things. We learn about a lot of things. We learn about the ten virtues.

We learn to write the book, three times book, six times book. We learn how to do meditation. We learn how to do yoga, you know.

So are we listening? Are we doing what the teacher is teaching us? Yeah.

So we need to apply. We need to apply. We need to practice what the teacher teaches us, you know.

So because, yeah, we want to be close to teacher because we want to get a teaching. That's why. Therefore, we need to apply what we are learning in life.

We learn to have compassion. We learn to have bodhicitta. We learn to be patient.

We learn not to get angry. But if you are still angry with your family, if you are still angry with your mother. Every day, then then why do you still want to be close to teacher, you know?

So I think using this, using the logic alone, you know, like Adam's class, amazing using the logic alone. It is illogical for you to be close to teacher if you don't want to apply what the teacher is teaching you. So if you want to be close to the teacher, then you have to apply what the teacher is teaching you.

So this is explanation from logic, which is also happened to be the same thing for the seeds. Yeah. So Ruko, I hope you get it.

Yeah. OK. Another few more questions in Chinese.

Yeah. Although I can read Chinese, but I'm lazy to read the Chinese properly. But OK.

OK, a question by. Oh, Xiao Li, Gong Xiao Li, Mahamudra, Mahamudra meditation, present moment. I hope you are asking about the Mahamudra meditation that we cover in the DCI level three, right?

Future and past and the present moment. Oh, yeah. OK.

There is future. There is past. Is there any present thought?

Oh, yeah, of course. So in the Mahamudra meditation, we also call it present moment meditation. It's called present moment meditation.

I don't know in China. I don't know whether. Yeah, because you call it da shou yin, you see, da shou yin, ming xiang in Asia, in Southeast Asia.

We call it tang xia ming xiang, you know, we call it present moment meditation. I think that's the old term that Geshe Michael used. And well, yeah, our focus is our focus is to keep our mind on present moment.

So we don't want we want to observe our mind when it runs to the future. We want to observe our mind when it runs to the past, you know. So by observing the mind, we will be able to keep it in present moment.

Yeah. So, yes, there is present moment in this in this present moment meditation. You're mutants.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. So the reason why we.

OK, so this present moment, this Mahamudra in the context of a level three ACI three or DCI three, right? We have our session, our small we draw a mind, small mind at the back at the back, observing the big mind. Right.

So by just having awareness, the awareness of small mind observing the big mind, it is actually a top case, top case, the skillful means sunshine, you know, is a skillful mean for us to to keep the mind in present. Yeah. Yes, there is answer in that.

OK. And then. OK, there is a.

It's a male. Hi, Susan. She went on to send me a lot of songs.

I don't know how to get to it. It's a young kid. OK.

And then there's a question from Luka. Luka, I hope Luka is my old friend. Not that she's old, but I knew her quite a while ago.

I think seven years ago. Right. So if there is nothing bad happening, but we are just feeling lazy, you know, slacking off, you know.

So how to solve this situation? Very easy. I think in the.

I think in DCI level eight, yeah, DCI level eight, Geshe Michael Geshe Michael give us about talk about this. Right. So DCI level eight.

There is this one of the problem in leadership is that there are three kind of. There are three kind of laziness. Yeah, there are two kind of laziness.

So the first kind of laziness is that doing nothing, slacking off, lying around. So at that moment. How do we solve this problem?

Yeah. So so how do we solve this problem is by. Thinking, you know, give us the the solution is that doing meditation, thinking about a cow's being led to slaughterhouse.

So all of us living now, we are just like the cows, you know, like cows. Everybody of us, we are actually queuing up. To go to our death, we are.

Approaching our death. Every day, every day, it is one step closer to death. Everybody of us.

So the problem is that we are not aware, just like the cows. They are not aware they are being led to slaughterhouse. All of us are the same.

Every day we are moving nearer to our death. So so by understanding this, by doing meditation on this, we will be able to we will be able to get rid of this feeling of lazy. I think this is my problem, too.

You know, there are days I just feel so lazy. I don't want to do anything. Of course, the first question I ask is that, am I burned out?

Am I tired? Am I not having enough sleep? If the answer are all negative, no, I'm not burned out.

I'm not feeling tired. I'm not having lack of sleep. Then what else?

So I will just think of the cows being led to slaughterhouse. No way. I must quickly, quickly get on the work, you know, quickly get on the work.

So, yeah, that's what I would do. OK. OK.

OK. Nirvana is later. I see another question by anonymous attendee.

My mother is a Christian, and I see there's a sentence in the Bible which means that you will be with me in the heaven for 1000 years. Does it mean if you believe in Jesus and do go to heaven, the life will be 1000 years long?

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
This could be a metaphor, right? This could be a metaphor and a metaphor of long life. Or rather forever.

But I'm not here to discuss about other texts. I'm not here to discuss about Bible or whatever. But in this situation, I will try to do my own reflection, whether it is literal or it is figurative.

Right. And if it is literal, it is scary, you know, like what you ask here. Is it only for 1000 years?

What happened to the year 1001? Yeah, it is scary if you think of that. So, wow, year 1001, where will I be?

Will I be abandoned? You know, will I have to live my own life? Where?

You know. So. But if it is figurative, you know, means that this is just to show us that it is long period of time, then.

Then we need to come back to. I think Adam's session is very wonderful. You know, we don't just have to.

Get everything on the face value. We have a tool to apply the logic. To all situations.

So in this logic. So if we were to apply logic to this, you know, is there something? Of.

Call forever. You know. Here can I think we can.

Use another term, you know, forever means permanent and changing. And then it will go to DCI seven, changing and changing the jewelry box of the concept of things, you know. And I think we discuss a lot in Adam's text before his first book.

Yeah. Today, what we discuss in the second book, if we go to the first book, you can actually look at the TLC, the Tibetan language channel playlist on Adam's book, the Dura, the logic. And there was a discussion about this impermanent, changing and changing.

So is there anything that we can call on changing? Yeah. Yes.

And then we as a being. Are we changing or unchanging? There is a discussion in there and we all agree or rather we came to the conclusion that we are unchanging.

So that means we are impermanent. Hmm. We are sorry.

We are changing. Right. That means we are impermanent.

So when we are changing, is it possible for us to be. In a place. With someone who is also who is also changing to be forever, to become unchanging, you know.

So I think we don't have much time. I think you can do your own reflection and think about that. If if you were to take this figuratively as a metaphor, but if you were to take this literally, I think that's very scary.

Yeah. One thousand. Then what happened to one thousand and one?

And then in Veda, in Veda, I think it was they say that we will be living like 10,000 years with Brahma, whatever, you know. So if we were to take that literally, it is also scary. OK, now let's go to the nirvana, lower nirvana, higher nirvana.

OK, actually, to make it simple. OK, before nirvana, Ruko, if you want to look at the content of the books, not just my book, all the all the Mixed Nuts books, you know, you can go to Democritaclassics.com website. You will have access to all the confirmed final or rather all the confirmed content that have been checked by Geshe Michael.

Yeah. All books, not just mine. So you can go there, right?

OK, now back to nirvana. OK, this lower nirvana, higher nirvana, it they come up pretty often in the text, if you pay attention. And well, typically, well, yes, we we always think that our nirvana is basically the arhat, the the the listeners.

And then the the higher. The Mahayana, we talk about Buddhahood, we talk about enlightenment. But in but some people also refer to the enlightenment Buddhahood as the higher nirvana.

Yeah. So here, basically, it's just a matter of. A matter of names.

Yeah. Just just call it that way. So, yeah.

So generally, when you see lower nirvana, it refers to the arhats nirvana. And then when you see higher nirvana, it refers to the enlightenment Buddhahood. So I think we shouldn't worry too much about this, too.

It's just a matter of getting used to it. You know. Like I was joking just earlier, you know, John Chan, Joy Chan, she put herself as JC, you know, so it's a matter of calling.

Yeah. And then John John Campbell, he also put JC most of the time. So it's a matter of calling in that name.

Yeah. OK, Liu Yingying, another of my old friend. Let me see.

OK, for those on your phone and so. So. Just for you, it's a good thing that don't don't do so we turn.

Well, yeah, this is talking about whether if we can tell white lies for the good of others, right? OK. So basically, I will always like to.

OK, sorry, I'm back to Isabel. Isabel left over, no left over. Let's not get confused with that.

Yeah, because this left over and no left over. Well, what we learn about left over, no left over in the lower school and the higher school, they are also very different. Yeah.

In the lower school, we say that when we become our heart, well, while still having a body, it is left over. And then when we go into our nirvana, it is parinirvana. It is no left over.

Whereas the higher school is reverse. So let's not go there. It will take a lot of time.

I think it was discussed in Utpala's text, you know. So you may want to refer back to that text. So leave it there.

You know, you can. I think Utpala or Nick's book, we discussed very in detail why the higher school look differently. But here, lower nirvana, higher nirvana is basically referring to the Arhat and the Buddhahood.

OK, back to white lie. Yeah, I think personally, I would. I would.

I would agree with you. You know, if it is for the good of others, white lies are good. Yeah, personally, I think like.

Yeah, let's say somebody is sick, you know, our dear, our dear one is sick, you know, and then and then doctors say, hey, the life is three months left, you know. And then do we do we tell our loved ones, hey, hey, you only have three months left to go, you know, or oh, no, no. You are very good, you know.

So again, I will assess the situation if that person is pretty is spiritually mature. Then I will try to say, yeah, you only have three months. Please get ready.

But if the person is not spiritually ready, you know, I will not tell that person directly. I will use skillful means to him to get ready. Yeah.

So, yeah. But of course, I always tell people, if you tell white lies, they are still lies. So the question is, do you want to do you want to do you have the courage to bear the lies, the negative seeds?

If yes, then why not? Yeah. So, yeah, to me, if it is for the sake of others, why not?

But you need to understand the risk, too. Yeah. OK.

OK, Isabel. OK, let me go back a while. So, yeah, higher nirvana, lower nirvana for me in simple terms is basically lower nirvana is the arhat nirvana.

Higher nirvana is the Buddhahood, right? But if there is no reference of lower and higher, if it is just nirvana, then for me, I will take it as the arhat nirvana. OK, so that is one.

Put aside. OK, now left over, no left over. Let's use the lower school, lower school, say.

When I when when you become arhat, it is you reach nirvana with left over because you still have this body left over. And then on the day when you parinirvana, when you leave this world, then you don't have anything left over. That is nirvana with nothing left over.

I think that's good for your understanding now. OK, don't get confused. Now, if you want to go deeper about the higher school, which reverse it, you know, you can read Nick's book or Utpala's book.

OK, I don't think I want to go there. OK, it is it's it's quite long. OK, so put it aside.

OK, park it aside. When we have time, we discuss. OK, when we have time, we discuss.

OK, now, leaving in another questions. Wow, Vinaya. Ah, OK.

Hmm.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
OK. OK, let me simplify, summarize the questions. Yeah.

In Alison's Vinaya class, we talk a lot about male and female. Male and female, how they should get along with each other. And she was saying that last year.

Is that last year? One month. OK.

In the past, in her company, in the past, a male and female colleagues had a travel together in a car, carpooling. And then there were many improper relationships. Oh, OK.

And so that the company then issued a directive. Yeah. Issued an instruction that a single man and woman should not ride together in a car.

And a lot of people think that that's too much. So what is my opinion? Wow.

Is that. In what is what should we how should we address this, right? Yeah, I think.

First of all, we need to we need to see follow. Well, yeah. First of all, we need to understand this Vinaya or rules, you know, at moral ethics, you know, ethics, morality.

Why do we have rules? Some people say rules are made to be broken. But why do we have rules?

If you follow our follow our mixed nuts from beginning, you will realize that a lot of rules in Vinaya were actually added by Buddha along the way. Buddha didn't come on day one and say, hey, this is a few hundred rules for monks. This is a few hundred rules for nuns.

No, you know. In fact, in the beginning, it was pretty I would say pretty empty. And then along the way, so and so did this wrong.

OK, let's have room for this. So and so that did that wrong. OK, let's add that into the rules.

You know, so it is accumulative. The rules were added along the way. As and when Buddha observed that people couldn't behave properly.

So, yeah, the same thing like in your company, you know, because men and women, single men and single women sometimes. Not just single men and women, you know, married men and women also behave wrongly. That's why your company is wise enough to implement the rule.

You know, so we always like to say. Behave, do as what the Romans do, as in Romans, do as what the Romans do. Do follow the local rules, you know, follow the local rules.

So I think follow the local rules. So that means we need to respect the local rule. The rules are made because something must have happened before.

OK, so and it's good that we have the. It's good that we have the 10 virtues, for example. And somebody asked me, so is that.

Does it mean that it is not right to have comic pun of opposite gender? Yeah, you know. Even in Singapore, you know, sometimes in the past, we teach, we tell people to do four steps.

You need to find your comic partner and then and then men and women, they do together and then improper behavior also happen. So, yes, we always tell people if the best is to find a comic partner from the same gender. Yeah, the best.

But if you are pretty. If you can follow the ethical moral. Well, then it's OK.

But the first rule is that try to find comic partner from the same gender. Yeah, we don't know. You know, we don't know.

But yeah, that is normally our advice when we tell people to do four steps. Right. OK, joy was actually helping to translate.

So, yeah, I would say that the rules are there. I think it's good to obey them. And then, yeah, sometimes, you know, we are still human.

You know, we are still human. The when the prana runs to the left, the urge, the. The what to call that one, one, the one desire, the desire is there.

The last is there. Yeah. Thank you, Joy.

So when we have this desire, sometimes it is the last, especially it's difficult to control, you know. Yeah, I can tell myself I'm married. I have to respect other women.

But as a human, you know, when we are when you are together in the. When there is nobody around, it's pretty dangerous, you know. So I think the rule of not having male and female together in a quiet place, you know, it's kind of good.

I think DCI has a rule on that. You know, I think it's from Geisha Michael. DCI teachers are not allowed to be male and female.

I'm not allowed to be alone in a single room. I think I think there's such rule before, you know, we just don't want. We just want to prevent things from happening.

We just don't want all this to mess up with our with our life, you know. Hey, we have already so many problems. So let's not add into those problems, unnecessary things.

You know, you know, we are still human. It's so difficult to control. It's so difficult to control.

Well, I know some people say women are wiser. Women are more wise. Women can control.

But men, trust you, I'm a man. It's so difficult to control. So rules are good.

So, yeah, for I think this is from Yingying, right? Liu Yingying. So, yeah, if there is a rule, there is such a rule in a company that we just have to respect.

We just have to respect. Yeah. Because if I were the boss, I think I would also implement the same thing.

As a company, we have too many problems already. We don't want to go into personal relationship. Let's say I have a very good employees.

A and B, male B is female, you know. A and B are so good employees of me. But because we don't have such rule, A and B has an issue.

You know, and when A and B had an issue due to relationship, due to infidelity, infidelity, you know, it will create problems. And then both of them have issue. They cannot contribute to the company or maybe end of the day, they have to quit the company.

It's a loss to the company. So rather than risking all this, I must as well put a rule, no. Male and female cannot be together if there is nobody else.

OK, I hope I answer all the questions. Yeah, it looks like I answered all the questions, right? Yeah, maybe Isabel's question, we can catch up next some other time.

And that's all. Thank you for staying back with me. 50 over people here.

Yeah. And thank you again for supporting MixedNuts. I think I was just telling another friend of mine, you know, she was saying that she didn't come for MixedNuts.

I said, hey, MixedNuts is the cheapest way to invest, to plant wisdom seeds, you know, $295. I know you may not understand, but that's very cheap compared to other courses. So once again, thank you very much to all your contribution.

And let's call it a day. OK, thank you. Bye bye.

See you tonight in Asia and tomorrow morning for people on the other side of the hemisphere. Bye bye.