Сугэн Ши — Книга 2: Колесо жизни (первый принцип и подразделения зависимости), занятие 24

[Speaker 1]
Okay, now let's start. Let me translate or joy wants to translate. Commitment to the, to the refuge.

Refuge. Refuge. Okay, I have the translation here, because I give you the English then I can just read directly.

Yeah. Oh yeah, never to forsake the three jewels, even at the cost of our lives. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So the question is that in the refuge are taking reviews file.

The last commitment is never to forsake the three jewels even at the cost of our lives or even as a joke. So, yeah, and then the Luca question was that if I was threatened and forced to forsake or renounce the, the three jewels. What should I do.

Should I just say and then in my heart still keep it because I understand that it is about emptiness, or I cannot say anything at all. All right. So, well, my personal view on this is that joy of Anima.

Okay, my personal view on this is that. First of all, we have to protect our life first, right, so we need to protect our life so if let's say we are being forced to renounce. Yes, maybe we just follow.

We just say, because we know this is coming from our seats also this is the emptiness. And first, okay, first of all, we need to know that this threat is our life. We must have threatened somebody.

Other people in the past. Right. So first we need to understand this is coming from our seat and secondly because this is coming from our seat, then we just have to comply for the sake of our life.

And then once we comply and then once we are free then of course we need to understand we need to. We need to do the four powers to clean our, our seats. So, remember, in all circumstances, number one is to protect our life, that is very important.

Of course, while I mean, when we watch movie there are many superheroes movie or many heroes movie you know, I don't know suddenly I think of this Titanic, you know, I think of Titanic and then Titanic. Of course the safe. I mean we they let the children, the ladies go first and all the men stay behind.

Yes, I think that is a very heroic and important. I think we need to know the reason why do we let the children go first, why do we let the woman go first and then the men stay behind. You know, because we believe, or rather the society believe that the children is children has a long life to go has a future.

And then the woman they, they are nurturing they will pick up the children so the men stay, but there's another. There's always another story right about a man and the wife in the sinking ship and then when the ship is going down the man actually get into the boat, and then left the wife behind and then people was asked, you know, do you think this is acceptable and then there are many opinions here are the many so selfish why did he leave the wife behind. Although the man before leaving the wife said hey I love you and then just laugh, you know, and then the story ended with the situation that hey actually the, the wife is having a late, late stage of cancer.

So no matter what the wife will die, you know. So before the man left the wife. He told the wife, I love you, I will take care of our children kind of thing, you know, so there is no fixed answer but as long as our motivation is correct and it should be all right, so it's back to our motivation.

Okay. Yeah. Wow, Jasmine is translating on the chat box.

Amazing. Okay, yeah. I hope that answers the question.

Right. Any more, any more questions. I think.

Okay, while waiting for the next question I just like to comment Luca you know this refuge commitments, there are the 12 refuge commitments are very important and somehow I noticed that people don't really pay attention to it. So well done you know you remember that is very good. People just take the refuge commitment every day they just say the refuge commitment but they forget about the, or other everyday people just take, take refuge, they just say I, I take refuge in Buddha and Dharma and Sangha but mostly people forget about the commitment so well done.

Any more question.

[Speaker 2]
Other people. Pure gold, other pure gold people.

[Speaker 1]
I don't know all of you. All the pure gold I don't I look at the name I don't know what the person. That's a reference.

Look, persists. Wow. Persists Hong Kong persists persists.

Lee Jason. When my, when my. Okay, okay.

So, just mean. Hello. Hello.

[Speaker 2]
Wow.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, any more questions. How do you find the mixed up so far? From FB.

No, I mean, how do you find the sessions so far? The learning.

[Speaker 3]
I totally don't understand it.

[Speaker 1]
Totally cannot understand, okay.

[Speaker 2]
If the explanation from Geshe-la or from all teachers mixed with Tibetan, then to get nowhere.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, the term, right, yeah, okay, okay.

[Speaker 2]
Because it's very hard to locate which word is which word.

[Speaker 3]
It's very, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and when we need to take the notes and for the Tibetan or Western language, and actually we don't know how to pronounce the word. In Tibetan, so it's hard to take your notes and the explanation is so hard for me.

Okay, okay.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, if Geshe-la could just tell the whole sentence for us, that would be much, much better for us to understand.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, well, I think my own experience, I think some of you old people, or rather some of you who have been in the system for a while, you must have heard my story. When I first attended Geshe Michael teaching, it's a DCR level five in Singapore. He used a lot of, he added a lot of Tibetan words.

Nowadays he seldom use, right? Nowadays he seldom use, but level five, especially has a lot of Tibetan words. We talk about penche kile, zokche kile, we talk about kun tong nyunmong, kun tong nyunmong juse, right, you remember that?

Yeah, so level five, a lot of Tibetan words. So he spoke, he gave us a lot of Tibetan words. And I still remember on stage he mentioned, okay, I just want all of you to listen, to follow me, all the Tibetan words, because I'm planting seeds in your mind for you to one day understand the Tibetan, you know?

So at that moment I felt very excited. Yeah, I want to learn, you know, I want to learn. So I just follow.

So every word he say, I just follow. And yeah, and I don't know, somehow miracle happen. End of 2016, I received the news that I was invited to join Mixed Nuts.

And then 2017, we started the first Mixed Nut, you know, until today. So just enjoy it, you know, be happy, be excited with the Tibetan. And don't feel bad if you don't understand.

Just, you know, sponge, you just absorb everything. It's okay, if you don't understand, it's okay. And what is good about, what is amazing about Geshe-la is that he will repeat again.

Even if you missed the earlier, let's say you just joined this year, 2021. We have been going, this is year five, Chia Pei Kao Kong, year five, right? This is year five.

We have done almost five years already. And yes, there is no way for you to catch up. I think if you want to catch up, you can watch the YouTube the whole day.

I don't know for many, many days, you know, but you will be too tired. So it's a bit impossible to catch up in that way. But Geshe Michael, when he's explaining, he will always repeat, you know?

Yeah, so it's a good method to learn. To be frank, you know, I also didn't, I also don't understand a lot of things except my own book. You know, my own book, I understand, but other people's book, no way, you know?

But what is, what happened is that when one book is finished, like let's say the Golden Key, you know, by Word. So, because as part of the Mixed Nuts, I have to do the editing. I have to do the proofreading.

So that process is very useful. When I was doing the proofreading, I got, I started to understand, oh, okay, this is the meaning, that is the meaning. And then the Meditation on Emptiness, you know, when I look at it, oh, okay, now I understand, you know?

So I'm actually looking forward to all the other books, all the other books, yeah. So, and then Pure Gold, you are lucky, you are part of the translation team. And then you get to look at the English draft.

So when the draft is ready, that is the time where you will really learn, you know? You will really learn, okay? I mean, I learned the most, the thing that I learned the most is when I'm doing the proofreading.

That is the best time. That's why I'm very, I'm always very excited when I receive email from Geshe-la or from Utpala, you know, hey, please help to check. Wow, I was so excited.

Yay, you know, it's my time. So it's not about learning. I saw, it's not about really checking, but actually I'm the one learning.

So that's fun. And of course I'm Indonesia translator, so I translate to Indonesian. So that is also another opportunity.

You know, when you are doing the translation, you really get to read and to understand, yeah. But of course I know pure gold is very tough because normally your lead time is very short. Today Geshe Michael finishes the text, tomorrow everybody wants it, you know?

Or even worse, he finished in the morning and then we want it at night, you know? That is the pleasure. Yeah, that is a pleasure.

But of course, quality is important, quality is important. Don't, what do you call that? Don't sacrifice the quality for speed, you know?

I think this is always, yeah, don't complain. I think this is always the balance. On one hand, people want it urgently.

You want to do it very quickly. On the other hand, you want to give them the best quality. Yeah.

Of course, another thing that is important is the language, the language you use. The language you use should be easily understood by people. Chinese language is very deep.

So I don't know, I don't, don't quote me on this, okay? This one you need to check with your leaders, your leaders, you know, Stanley Ellison or Cui Ping or whoever, you know? The standard, you need to ask them.

But to me, to me, well, I mean, for English, for English and then for Indonesian, my standard is always based on the waitress test. For Chinese, the problem is that if you use too simple Chinese, people who think that they are smart, or I shouldn't say that, the people who has exposures to all this ancient wisdom, especially those who know Wen Yan, when they will think that, hmm, okay, yeah, yeah, may have one, one, no, no culture, you know? People will think, ah, this translation, no quality, you know?

That is problem with Chinese language. If you use too difficult language, people cannot understand. If you use too easy language, people will think that, hey, this translation, this translator, no quality, no culture, you know?

So I think that's why for this, you need to really consult with your leaders. I heard a comment, right? About somebody commented on the quality of the translation.

No, I mean, not once, I heard many times. And then they come in and tell me, hey, Pilgol's translation is, the quality is not high. I say, no, you are wrong.

It's not, their quality is not high. They are using the simple language for people to understand, you know? I mean, I have been telling people, no, Pilgol is not low quality.

Pilgol is doing the best quality for the people to understand. So I think all of you need to have this understanding, you know? And some people come and tell me, ah, you know, how can you translate like that?

I say, yeah, this is Geshe Michael's standard, or rather, I'm sorry, this is Geshe Michael's direction. We want our text to be understood by people. We want our text to be readable by everybody, not only people with PhD, you know?

You know, PhD, in English we say permanent head damage. You understand? Permanent head damage.

You know, a lot of people, you know, if you look at the Chinese text, a lot of time you cannot understand, or rather, maybe my level is not high enough, you know? Maybe my level is not high. So I really appreciate those who can write with simple Chinese.

Yeah. Okay, so that is my, a bit of sharing. Permanent head damage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yongqiu, that's so ideal. You know?

But you know, PhD is a philosophical doctor, right? Philosophical doctor. But we just like to, we just like to joke permanent head damage.

Yeah, so, yeah. So I think it's good to use a simple English, or rather simple, oh, I don't know. I mean, for Chinese, ask your leader, okay?

I don't, I cannot tell you anything.

[Speaker 2]
Any more questions? Eight more questions.

[Speaker 1]
If you all want to learn more about the Tibetan, you know, in YouTube. Yeah, I know it's challenging for China people to go to YouTube. Tibetan language channel.

Tibetan language channel by Geshe Michael. I think, yeah, very, very early videos, you know? Is the Tibetan language teaching.

So, yeah. So I think it's good for you to, if you have time, if you want to, you can learn. And Geshe Michael actually did a very easy teaching to learn the Tibetan.

I've been referring a lot of people to that channel. Maybe I share my screen. So this is the channel.

You can click on play. Okay, you can see all our mixed arts videos are here. For the past five years, you can go to playlist.

And then you can scroll here. Here, Tibetan alphabet, you know? So when you click, and then you will see on the right-hand side.

All right. I don't know why video one and two are missing. It start from video three.

So you just watch from video three onwards. Yeah, three onwards. This is series one.

And then we have series two. We have series two. Where is the series two?

Oops. Stop. Okay, so this is one.

And oh yeah, this is series two, Tibetan pronunciation. Yeah, these two. And then of course, grammar.

But this grammar is very, very only four videos. So 16, eight, four. So 28 videos, you know?

The videos are pretty short. It's about 15 minutes. 10 to 20 minutes, maximum 20 minutes.

If you have time, you can watch this series one, series two, and the grammar. Okay, these three are very easy to follow, right? And then I remember there was a, for term one and term two, or term three, we prepared some questions for all the pure goal to learn.

So if you want to learn a bit of Tibetan, term one is very good because it's very basic. Everybody was still very new. I was also very new, term one.

So Geshe Michael explained even more in term one and then term two, yeah. So, oh yeah, only term one, you have the playlist, but all the rest will be individual, yeah? And yeah, I think they organized very well.

Oh yeah, term two, term three, term four, right? And after that, no more. After that is our own individual.

For example, this is my playlist, all my videos from the first term until now, 63 videos, you know? Yeah, so you can watch, learn all together. So that is how we learn, how I learn the language, yeah.

Okay, sure. Maybe I give you the link for each playlist, huh? Oh, this is the, oops, series one playlist, series one.

This is series one and then series two, series two, and then Tibetan grammar, Tibetan grammar, okay? Now these are the three, and then maybe I give you the, I'll give you the term one, term one, okay? So yeah, use this sequence.

You listen to series one, and then listen to series two, and then the grammar, yeah? And I, well, Geshe Michael used to praise my pronunciation, you know? He used to praise my pronunciation.

The secret is the YouTube video, okay? Okay, when you finish the, just series one is enough, you know, the 16 videos, you finish the 16 videos, your pronunciation will be like me, and Geshe Michael will praise you, okay? In fact, Gibson, Gibson also watched the video.

So Gibson's pronunciation is also very beautiful, if you notice that. Gibson, yeah, Emily is Lao Kong. Lao Kong.

It's also very, very beautiful, you know? So that's Gibson, okay? Yeah, and then, of course, the Western people is a bit challenging, especially when your base is English, it's not easy to pronounce the language, but for Eastern people, I have my Indonesian background, so I use Indonesian way to say it, it's very easy.

For China, for Chinese, it's also easy, you know? You have a, you have a, k, k, some of, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, p, So same, Tibetan also, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, k, it's very similar, but in English, you don't have this aspiration, not aspirated. Yeah, Pinin is from Latin, but, well, yes, But the way we say it is very, very, we differentiate between non-aspirated and aspirated.

So we have an advantage, OK? We have an advantage, OK? So as compared to when your first language is English, you don't have this non-aspirated.

So it's very difficult when you have that, OK? When you have that, yeah? So make use of our advantage, OK?

Oh, yeah, Pingyin, but you know, yeah, yeah, but different, you know? To me, I find it very different. So yeah, but I don't know.

Because maybe I came from Indonesia, I always think that Indonesian language is advantage, you know? With my Indonesian language base, I can speak a lot of languages. OK, so a bit of all this language, all right.

OK, any more questions? Everybody's so shy.

[Speaker 2]
Joy, her sweet, her dance. Can I ask you another question? Yes, please.

About the seed and the kunshi.

[Speaker 1]
What? Sorry? The seed and the kunshi.

[Speaker 2]
And the foundation consciousness. OK. A lot of confusing.

[Speaker 1]
What's your question?

[Speaker 2]
I remember for one class, Geshe-la mentioned that seeds is not kunshi, and the seeds is not not kunshi. But when the seeds opening, the kunshi become the seeds. So for this explanation, somehow I got trumped.

[Speaker 1]
OK, yeah.

[Speaker 2]
What are you really talking about?

[Speaker 1]
OK, OK. First of all, we need to know what hat we are wearing, right? What school we are referring to.

Of course, for me, sometimes I get naughty. I throw away all the other hat. I only wear my middle way hat.

And so I don't know. When you ask me these questions, my first thinking is actually from the higher middle way school, how I understand that. And this kunshi is the idea from the mind only.

So mind only have extra seven and eight consciousness. And that is how they used to explain about this, how we store the seeds and how the negative emotions, mental afflictions come about. And yes, it is very useful to understand, especially when we really need to know where we store the seeds, right?

But when we come from, when we put on our higher middle way hat, then the whole thing is actually, the whole thing actually do not hold anymore. Reason is that in higher middle way, basically, there is no number seven and number eight, OK? So even the kunshi, the place where we store the seeds, should be also coming from our seeds.

So with this understanding, we can say that, yeah, there is no kunshi. Kunshi is only there when we have our seeds opening and then projecting the kunshi for us to see that, yeah, that is where we keep all the seeds. So that's why Geshe-la say, can you repeat again the sentence?

There is no kunshi. Kunshi is only there when seeds open, right? Yeah.

So yeah, that is my understanding. So of course, another way to think of it is that mind only also comes from our seeds. So we have good seeds in such a way that it gives us this mind only concept of the kunshi so that we can understand the seeds even better.

But when we talk about accuracy, of course, Je Tsongkapa did mention, right? Je Tsongkapa did mention, I don't know whether all of you have exposed to ACI-14. I'm sorry, ACI-15, right?

Je Tsongkapa did mention that if, yeah, if, what do you call it? Yeah, what the Buddha really meant, right? So let me find out the sentence.

Yeah, so Je Tsongkapa gave his own position in regards of this mind only. So in his interpretation, sorry, in his commentary on the art of interpretation, he openly declares that he follows the teaching of the consequence group, which is the higher middle way. And he said that who on Earth who understood these things, let me put this up.

Who on Earth who understood these things would fail to take the system of the realized being, Nagarjuna, as their own? So I think this is very beautiful. This is very beautiful, meaning that after you understand all these teachings, after you understand the mind only teaching, after you understand the lower middle way, higher middle way teaching, after you understand all these things, if you really understand all those things, will you still fail to take the system that is being taught by Nagarjuna, the realized being Nagarjuna?

Yeah, persist.

[Speaker 3]
But how and why, actually, I don't quite understand it, for instance, just amongst the different schools. So how can I study and find the information from that, from KTP, KDB, but and actually, I don't know how to study those information and materials from the basics.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, of course, Luka said knowledge base, which is good. But if you want to learn it more simply, DCI level 12, the art of gratitude.

You remember, we talk about the archaeological dig, and then we started from accountant, map maker, psychedelics or whatever the term, and then refrigerator, and then swimmer. The swimming pool. The swimming pool.

Yeah, art of gratitude. You can, a lot of qualified teacher for DCI 12 in China, you can. Oh, you are Hong Kong, right?

Yeah, you ask Penny, Penny Wong. You ask Penny Wong. Yeah, so yeah, I mean, it's easy.

To me, level 12, the archaeological dig is very easy. Yeah, OK. OK.

Yes, hold on.

[Speaker 2]
Can I ask you another question?

[Speaker 1]
Let me answer Jasmine's question first. How did the Middle Way dispute the mind-only school about the true existence of the functional consciousness? Actually, OK, I don't know the answer, but I can give you my answer, how I dispute that in me.

In Middle Way, we always say that things, it is impossible for things to have self-existence, OK? Meaning that it is impossible for things to come from its own way. It always have to come from our way, right?

So the way the mind-only put the foundational consciousness, the kunzi, if you really learn the mind-only, you will have the idea that kunzi exists in itself. Because kunzi contains the seeds, the seeds as a potential and seeds as the ripen. If you just learn mind-only, you will think that kunzi is somewhere.

People say, Chinese say, kunzi is xintian, my wife's name, by the way, xintian. So kunzi is xintian. So since young, I always think, oh yeah, I have this as xintian.

All my seeds are here. But in Middle Way, we learn that things cannot be self-existence, or rather, things can only be self-existence if they are unchanging. And unchanging things cannot, because they are not changing, they cannot produce anything.

Means our seeds cannot be kept in there as well, if you are looking at it from the Middle Way. So based on this understanding, then kunzi is impossible. That is how my own understanding about this idea.

But I don't know the official answer. I don't know how the masters put it. But yeah, this is my understanding, right?

OK.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you very much.

[Speaker 1]
OK, Luka.

[Speaker 2]
OK, my question is that we were talking about Buddha's three turnings of will. And my understanding for the first one is that he's talking about everything that comes from seeds. And the second turning of will is talking about nothing.

I'll say everything is not from our seeds, does not exist. So it's talking about the emptiness. And the third turning of the will, he's talking about the somehow looks like there is a basis for this pain.

Now, I cannot say it's a pain since there is a basis of this round, long things. Then another seeds open, we see this pain. But even talking about the third turning of the will, if we go deeper, this kind of red things or long things is also coming from seeds.

So if we go deeper and deeper, actually, I feel like all three turning of the will is only talking about the highest teaching. They are not conflict at all.

[Speaker 1]
No. OK, the three turning of the wills, the first turning, I like to call it this way. The first turning of the will, basically, he's teaching all the basics.

He's teaching all the basics. The Abhidharma, the will of life, all the list. That's why we call it accountants period.

Basically, accountant periods and the map maker are the first turning of the will. And in the first turning of the will, he didn't talk about emptiness. He talked about cause and effect.

He talked about cause and effect. OK, he talked about cause and effect. So he didn't touch about emptiness in the first turning of the will.

Only on the second turning of the will, then he talked about emptiness. He talked about seeds. He talked about things coming from us.

And then the third turning of the will, people ask him, why did you? OK, so from the first turning of the will, in the first turning of the will, because of cause and effect, we think that the cause is coming from itself. We didn't even, or rather, we only say that something must be caused by something else.

We only talk about that. We didn't talk too much about, OK, then if we were to go all the way back, is there any first cause? Buddha didn't answer.

This is considered one of the 14 questions that Buddha didn't answer. Is there any first cause? He didn't answer.

He didn't answer. So in the first turning of the will, this is his position. And then on the second turning of the will, he started to talk about emptiness.

He started to talk about things coming from us, not coming from itself. And then on the third turning of the will, then people ask him, what is the difference? Why did you say one thing in first turning and then another thing on the second turning?

That's when he introduced the idea of this mind only. And then my guess is that Buddha was talking about this because he wanted to explain about what he really meant, as the sutra said. And based on the information inside, Buddha actually wanted us to really learn how to interpret his message correctly.

But of course, when we talk about interpretation, it's back to our own seeds again, whether we have enough seeds or not to understand. So basically, those are the three different differentiations. And if you want to make it easier, basically only the higher middle way, or if you want to use different schools, we can say that the third turning of the will is easy.

That is the mind only school. And then the second turning of the will is higher middle way. And all the rest basically are covered in the first turning of the will.

This is in simple way, in simple way. Although if people want to debate me, they can debate me also because it's too simple. It's too simple.

But this is just my way of categorizing my information. So yeah, actually, if you realize, if you realize, like you say, like Luca, you mentioned about the raw materials, for example, the cylinder with a color, the raw material, right? This is, which school is this when we talk about the raw material?

I always like to use the pen story, right? When we tell the pen story, when human goes out and dog goes out, or rather when we put the object on the table, human goes out, dog goes out on the table, what is that? We say potential, nothing, right?

But to us, when nobody's in the room, we still think that there is an object on the table. There is a raw material on the table. Which school is this?

[Speaker 2]
Mine only? Oh, no, no, no.

[Speaker 1]
Jasmine, you have answer?

[Speaker 2]
Abidama?

[Speaker 1]
No. It's a lower middle way. Lower middle way, right?

[Speaker 2]
Yes, yes, yes.

[Speaker 1]
Because 50-50, right? 50-50, lower middle way is 50-50. Why we call them lower middle way?

Because they think that raw material is already out there. How about higher middle way? Higher middle way, we said, hey, when human goes out of the room, dog goes out of the room, nothing left behind, not even the object.

And then just before I walk into the room, my seed projects out the raw material. And then when I go into the room, my seeds project the pen for me to see the pen, you see? Yeah.

So I think it's important for us to differentiate. All these are covered in the Utpala's book, Emptiness Meditation, and also in the next book, you know, the 60 verses by Arya Nagarjuna, yeah. It's kind of fun and interesting, you know?

So yeah, I look forward when the book is ready. I just want to read through everything. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. All these are basics.

And if you have all these basics already, your mixed nuts journey will not be too difficult, okay? And all these are covered in ACI-1. I don't know whether you have access to ACI-1 or not.

[Speaker 2]
I- I have another question.

[Speaker 1]
Yes.

[Speaker 2]
About the past lives. We'll see that the present life, we are experiencing the past lives happening, like projecting. But according to the higher middle way, it's impossible for you to be responsible for another person, maybe decades of years ago that has nothing to do with you.

So how could you explain it?

[Speaker 3]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good question. In fact, we dive very deeply into this in Arya Nagarjuna teaching. And yeah, in the higher middle way, we say that, in fact, in Arya Nagarjuna teaching, right?

We say that the cause and effect, there is no link. When the cause, when the result occurs, the cause is gone. They don't even touch each other.

So how can, well, I mean, before we can say something is a cause, there has to be a result. But when the result appears, the cause would be gone already. So how can we say that the cause is causing the result, right?

This is the higher middle way. In fact, yeah, this is the topic of my book also, which is very, very kind of confusing. So, okay, now, before we talk about that first, right?

When I say that the apple seed produces the apple tree, right? Yeah, it's good. All of you from China, so you didn't, I don't know whether all of you had a chance to attend the Medicine Buddha, but Yeshe Michael, in his translation for the Long Sutra, he added an appendix.

He added an appendix behind, and it was an explanation of why cause and effect is not the normal cause and effect that we think we understand, right? Let me see if I can pull up something to show you, okay? So, okay, this is last question now.

It's almost one o'clock. Joy Chen need to eat lunch. Ah, you don't have to eat lunch.

Joy Chen today is a fasting. Oh, Yeshe Michael actually give a very good explanation, but I'm only, I'm going to give you the picture, okay? I'm going to give you the picture.

Let me open up my Kindle. Sorry, no. Kindle.

Here it is. Kindle.

[Speaker 3]
And teacher, I want to ask you a question about, I am keep being invited by a person who invites me to a Buddhism center to learn some. Oh no, what is this? I am invited by a person who invites me to go to a Buddhism center to learn some Buddhist logic or sutra something.

But actually I don't want to go there because Stanley and Keshila said that we are the lineage of Jetsun Kappa. And I just want to learn the material and the information from Jetsun Kappa or Geshe Michael. But if I don't go there, she said, I'm not, how to say?

Just I don't give her face. And her things are good. The things I learn are, how to say, I don't give her immediate reaction, like she doesn't give me a lot of wealth or something.

But actually I don't want to go. But I refused. But she said to another friend, I refused her.

She felt bad. What should I do?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay, let me translate to English, right?

Somebody asked you to go to certain center with different lineage and- And actually I don't know his lineage at all. Yeah. So, and then you are worried that if you, I mean, you are worried that the person will bad mouth you because you don't give face to them, you know?

[Speaker 3]
Yeah. And because we work together.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, because you work together.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah. Yeah, that's why- We can see older time. And some of my colleagues go there a long time ago.

[Speaker 1]
I see. So you see, that's why sometimes we like to say that in the workplace or in the normal daily conversation, it's best not to touch on all these things which are considered private and religious. All these are considered religious and all these are private too, you know?

So it's a bit unhealthy, okay? So this is normally what we suggest. But if let's say it is happening now and you don't feel like going, first of all, you need to ask yourself, do you feel like going?

If you don't feel like going, you shouldn't force yourself, you know? You know, like my, you know, we Chinese, we like, or I don't know, maybe because of my parents, when they don't like to do something, they like to think of excuses, you know? Someone come from Indonesia and then, hey, let's meet up.

They don't like to see, meet them, you know? They give excuse. Oh, sorry, no, let's say, okay, let's say somebody invite them to somewhere, you know?

And then they don't feel like going. They just say, oh, I have a guest from Indonesia. I need to accompany them, you know?

They like to use all these excuses. I say, no, never use excuse. If you don't like, you just say you don't like.

If you don't like, just say you don't like. And you just apologize. Sorry, I don't feel like going, you know?

I mean, use a nice, say nicely, say nicely, right? So for your case, first of all, just say nicely. I know you meant good.

I know you are, you don't have bad intention. You want me to learn more, you know? But at this point of time, I don't feel like going.

You know, you just be frank with them. Don't pretend, don't force yourself to go, okay? And then, mian zi, okay, face.

Face is something I would say, depend on how you put it. If you really put it well, you know, then it should be okay, okay? So, yeah.

And then, of course, when we talk about lineage, it's best to keep our lineage clean, okay? I always like to tell people, hey, Je Tsongkapa, or in fact, this is Geshe Michael, you know? People ask him, why didn't you translate books from other masters?

Geshe Michael answers that in Je Tsongkapa lineage, there are so many books that he has not touched or read at all, you know? So why should I go to others? He say, yeah, maybe I go to others after I finish reading and translating all Je Tsongkapa's book.

So like our case, you know, all of us, I hope we are all aligned the same. I hope all of you also agree with me that we are in the same lineage, you know? Geshe, we don't have to talk about, we don't have to talk about Je Tsongkapa.

We talk about Geshe Michael. Geshe Michael books are so many. Have you finished reading all of them?

Question number one. Question number two, even if you finish reading, do you understand them or not? You see, you know?

So, I mean, this is always my principle, you know? You don't have to talk about too much thing, you know? Even DCI level one to 12, do you understand all the levels, you know?

After you finish this, you know, now Geshe Michael has advanced level one. And then beside that, he also has a, what do you call that? ACI series, 18 plus 18, 36 series.

Have you read all? Do you understand all, you know? So, I mean, this is always my guiding principle.

And then if, I mean, another way you can tell people is that, hey, my teacher gave me so many books, I haven't even finished all of them. So maybe I don't have time to try other things. Yeah, I mean, this is the way.

So, I mean, yeah, it's the way how you put it across. If you say, ah, no, I don't want, you know, then that is maybe you don't give face. But if you say nicely, then hopefully the person can understand.

Okay, I found it. Let me show you. This is very exciting.

You can get it from Diamond Cutter Press. Okay, this is our normal understanding. Okay, yeah.

We always think of, okay, this example, we always think that one thing causing the other. A is causing the CAT. CAT is causing the cat, the word cat.

The word cat is causing the image of cat. And the image of cat is causing the real cat, right? But if we understand the pen story, if we understand the seed system, you know, how should we look at it?

When we understand every occurrence should come from our seeds. And because of that, one thing, although it looks like one thing is causing the other, but this is wrong. You see the X here, right?

So A must have come from our seeds. CAT also from our seeds. And if you look at the arrow, the arrow should also come from our seeds.

Here is, yeah, we need to talk about the stapler. And Geshe Michael, come on, where is it? Where's the other picture?

Hey, come on, why the picture is gone? He has another picture that he put the seeds below all the arrows. Okay, okay.

Okay, okay, so each occurrence come from our seeds and even the arrow, yeah, I don't see it here. Actually you can think of it, even the arrow also come from our seeds. Our seed make us see A causing CAT.

Our seed make us see the apple seed is producing the apple tree, you know? So the cost is from our seed. The result is also from our seed and the relationship is also from our seed, okay?

So this is how we should look at it. Cool, clear? So in higher middle way, the cost is from the seeds, the result from the seeds and the relationship also from the seeds.

Okay, I think we are pretty late, okay? I pity Joy, Joy need to go for lunch, so. Okay, I think that's all.

Thank you very much for coming back. I'm sorry I ended the Zoom too early. And yeah, okay, so, okay, have a nice day and see you tonight.

Okay.

[Speaker 3]
Thank you. Thank you so much.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you so much. I would like to check with teacher. I bought the e-book of this Medicine Buddha Prayer but I did not find the appendix that you were talking about.

[Speaker 1]
It's page 242.

[Speaker 2]
No, actually the book is only one, five, three pages.

[Speaker 1]
Three pages?

[Speaker 2]
One, five, three, 153 pages of this e-book.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, really? Okay, hold on.

[Speaker 2]
So would you mind checking?

[Speaker 1]
One, five, three. Who sent you that book? Is that Rosa?

[Speaker 2]
I don't know. I received the link via the email.

[Speaker 1]
No, no, no, it's not link, it's attached email. Really? Yeah, if you receive a link, it's wrong.

[Speaker 2]
I did not receive other emails.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, let me show you my email. So if you buy, I mean, after you buy, you should receive this email from Rosa.

[Speaker 2]
No, I did not receive this, her email, but I just received the link. It seems like produced by the system. Yeah, from the Diamond Carter Press only.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, do you want to email her? Yes. Do you want to email her and then tell her about this, your order, right?

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Have a nice day. Have a nice Sunday. Bye-bye.

[Speaker 2]
Bye-bye. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you.

[Speaker 3]
Bye-bye.