Сугэн Ши — Книга 2: Колесо жизни (первый принцип и подразделения зависимости), занятие 57

[Speaker 1]
Kenzie, I see Avimala, I see Venerable Cat, I see Anatole, I see Berta Velasco, Tien Nguyen, who else? Grace, Grace Nguyen, Marina, Kazakova. Wow, I remember all your last names.

Don't you like it? I see Fan Min Min, I see 49160, I don't know who you are, but just interesting. So, okay, Isabel, the subuti, subuti of our Democratic classics, how to understand the emptiness of emptiness.

Okay, I will answer with Tracy's comment, you look like a movie star, Sugeng Greatham. This is the emptiness of emptiness, you know. Yeah, emptiness of emptiness.

You see, when we talk about emptiness, it's kind of interesting, right? Because when we say emptiness, basically, it means potential. And when we say potential, so sometimes I just like to reverse or substitute the word emptiness with potential.

It is not really correct, I would say, but it helps me to understand things more easily. So if I were to change emptiness of emptiness to the potential of potential, I think it's easier to understand, right? So when you change that into potential of potential, then you will know that there are potentials, and they will change according to your seeds, how your seeds project them out.

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So, and I like to do this mind exercise.

I like to do this mind exercise. If we say that things are coming from our seeds, if we say that things are coming from our seeds, you can do everything you want, and you can, yeah, hold on, I'm going to address that later. Okay, let's focus on this.

If things are coming from our seeds, can we say that the seed system is also coming from our seeds, right? Yes, Tin Muin said yes. And if yes, Tracy McKenzie said yes.

And if we say yes, can we change the seed system if we change our seeds? Okay. Everybody say yes.

Amazing. But I mean, don't jump to conclusion too quickly. You know, I would suggest that you cook it.

Okay, step back and cook it and try to think about it. Try to think about it. How to do that?

Well, of course, you bring it to meditation and you question yourself. Because if you think that seed system is something that we cannot change, then you will think that seed system is coming from its own side, right? I think we can change the result of using the seed system, which is changing our seed system by changing our seeds.

Yeah, changing the result. How about changing the system itself? Is it even possible?

If we say that everything is coming from our seeds, can we say that it is impossible for our seed system to change so that the seed system itself is changed? You know, I mean, all these are not something that you should answer quickly. Especially, for example, I use this example a lot.

When we are telling the pen story, right? When we say that when human goes out of the room, when the puppy goes out of the room, on the table at that moment, is it a pen or is it a chew toy, right? And a lot of people like to quickly, yeah, no, it's nothing, you know, it's nothing.

No, don't jump there quickly, you know, just pause, just pause. Wait for a while. Wait for a while.

And the longer you wait, the more your mind struggles. We are actually planting very, very good seeds for us to one day to be able to see the emptiness directly. You know, so, so, pause, don't jump to, don't answer quickly.

Yes. So, another example is Geshe Michael likes to use the finger, right? Raise your finger and then point to anything which is not coming from seeds.

I used to think that, I used to think that I know the answer, so I don't, I don't play along, but play along, please. All these are Geshe Michael's skillful means to help us plant very, very good seeds. So, just play along.

Try to crack your mind and see if you can point to anything which is not coming from your seeds. This exercise will help you, will help to plant a lot of amazing seeds. Okay.

This is, I call it simulation of DPE, simulation of the direct perception of emptiness. And by playing along, by doing this exercise, you are planting lots of good seeds. Play along and force your mind to think, okay, now, is there anything not coming from my seeds?

Is my angry wife not coming from my seeds? You know, kind of thing. Or if you have any problem, if you have any problem, let's say your computer stops working, then try to force your mind, is this computer broken because it is too old?

Is it because I, because it just has to break down, you know, regardless of my seeds, force it, force it, you know, all these are very, very good exercise, including the, I like to call it a meditation on whether we, when we change our seeds, the seed system will change, you know. So, this is what I like to do. And I would suggest that you don't just jump, you don't just say yes, you don't just say no, you know, just force your mind to think.

I think that is a very good exercise. Okay. And just now there was one question, there was one comment that I say I will address later.

Oh, yeah. Suzie Mingyi Chen, you can do everything you want and you can. Yeah, I think when we say this sentence, we have to be careful, right?

We don't want to go into, well, I mean, logically, it is a valid statement. You can do everything you want and you can. But of course, we need to think of the ethics, right?

The ethics, the morality, right? The morality. Because at the end of the day, we plant seeds by three doors of expression, our action, our speech and our mind.

And, you know, I came from Indonesia, I was born in Indonesia. And in Indonesia, I was young and I was very obedient. Obedient means whatever my parents.

Oh, I mean, we have rules, we have rules, we have systems that we have to follow, right? And then when I first moved to Singapore, 30 years ago, at the age of 22, I suddenly found freedom. I suddenly found freedom, you know, away from family, away from friends, you know.

And then I extended this freedom too much. Okay, since I have freedom now, I have freedom of my mind also, you know. And I thought, okay, because of that, then I can have free thinking on anything.

Because whatever I have in my mind, people will not know, people will not read what I'm thinking, so I can think of anything. But I realized after a while, whatever I think in my mind, whatever I have in my mind, will start to give impact on my life. If I have lots of bad thoughts, I will have lots of negative things happening in my life.

I didn't know about the system at that moment. I just thought that since my mind is inside my mind, nobody can see, nobody can hear, nobody can feel, then I can have free thinking, you know. And I don't know about all of you, but when I was young, in my country, the racism was quite bad, you know.

Racism means race, you know, my skin is yellow, different from the Indonesian people who are brown. And, you know, they like to say, hey, you are not us, you are not one of us, you are from, your ancestors from China, you are not Indonesian, you know. I felt bad, I felt bad.

Hey, I was born in Indonesia, I grew up in Indonesia, and you say that I'm not Indonesian only because my skin is yellow, you know. I don't know, I don't know how many of you have this feeling. I know there are, well, I know there are conflicts because of the skin color, but that was my experience when I was young.

And because I couldn't do anything, I had lots of bad thoughts in my mind, you know. I have lots of bad thoughts in my mind. When I'm angry because I cannot do anything physically outside, I do it in my mind.

So, lots of, what do you call that? Lots of, what do you call that? Explosion in my mind, lots of explosion in my mind, you know.

Say again? Angst. Yeah, I think that's the term, lots of angst in my mind.

And I have lots of bad thoughts, you know. When I was young, I told myself when I grew up, I want to do this to take revenge, I want to do that to take revenge. And true enough, my life was not better, but I was lucky enough to escape to Singapore.

And I realized that my mind, that I realized that I had to control my mind, yeah. So yeah, that's what I want to say when I say that you have to be careful about having the idea that you can do everything you want and you can, okay? We still have the vows, the ethic morality that we need to keep, all right?

Okay, that's what I have. Sorry to pour out on all of you, but that is my feeling. And I think, yeah, it is, it is, it is hurtful, okay?

It is hurtful. Okay, any more question? Yeah, thank you.

Oh, okay. Jessica Kim on, in a pen story, the pen comes from my mind because the dog see chew toy. I observed that I normally got this in mind or it comes from my mind, but it is, it also, it is also apart from the object itself.

Oh, it is also part of, okay. Wonder if how it is in between, like the pen can come from some, from my mind and some from itself, like 50, 50 or 70, 30. Oh, okay.

This is interesting question. Yeah. So, oh, thank you, Adam.

So, yeah, I think this question from Jessica is interesting. If you, if you listen to, if you have ever heard of the teaching on the six flavors of emptiness, I think Geshe-la taught it in the, in the Mahamudra, right? Mahamudra, Mahamudra practice.

Yeah. And it came from the, I think the first Panchen Lama, if I'm not wrong, is so venerable cat was like nodding. So in the Mahamudra, that was, that was the first teaching on this.

And then of course, Geshe-la also adapted this teaching into the level nine, level nine DCI, DCI level nine. He, he called it the six worldview to shake your mind, six worldview to shake your mind. You know, he's using this six worldview to six flavors of emptiness, six worldview to, to plant the seeds for creativity, right?

So if you were to review the course, the class, you will, you will understand, you will realize that the 50-50 is the view of the lower middle way, right? Lower middle way. Yeah.

That's the view of the lower middle way. So in lower middle way, there is this 50-50. That means there is a 50% outside and 50% our seeds.

Yeah. Thank you, Sarah, for the link. Yeah.

Daily practice mind. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

So, yeah. So that is the first, the few of the fifth, fifth, the fifth, the fifth flavor of the, of the emptiness. And of course the highest will be the upper middle way, higher middle way, and a hundred percent is coming from our seeds.

Yeah. So, and yeah, I think this is correct. If you, if you use the pen story, you know, and you, I mean, when you tell people that when human goes out, when the dog goes out on the table, is it a chew toy or a pen?

If you use this line of thought, you are actually wiring the lower middle way school, right? Our middle school. But if you want to, if you want to move it into higher middle way, right?

Your question will change. Instead of asking people, what is it on the table? Is it a pen or chew toy?

What should be our question? Your question should be, is there even an object there, right? Is there even an object there when there is no human and there is no puppy?

If you want to go even further, is there even a table for the object to sit on? You know, if you want to go even further, is there even a room there? Yeah.

Or even an observer. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

So I think all these are interesting exercise that you can do on your own. And I like, I like to play with all these things. It's kind of fun.

It's kind of fun. You know, try to put on different hats and try to think of what they would say, what they would see for the same situation.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Yeah. So, so yeah, try, try that.

And I think two or three weeks ago during the Saturday Mixed Nut Session, right? I think it's Adam's School. Sorry, Adam's Book, Adam's School, Adam's Book, right?

And, and Geshe-la was saying, right? Try to put yourself on those different schools for a week. He said, he even said for a week and try to identify their thoughts and see if they are, if those are what you have in your mind without realizing it.

So maybe you can put on the, the second school, for example, the Sutris, the logician, and try to think what the logician would say, would think about certain situation for just a week, for just one week. And then you will start to realize, oh my goodness, my mind has always been in the Sutris school instead of, instead of in the higher middle way school, you know? And I think that's a very good, interesting exercise.

A lot of times we are unaware or subconsciously we fall back to certain lower school that we are very comfortable, which might cause problems if we are not careful, if you're not careful, you know? For example, our, nowadays we have this advanced level three and we use the term life system, a lot. Yeah, life system.

So, so I grew up in a very traditional Chinese family and our life system, my life system is very, I would say very, I would say very outdated. So I was brought up with the thinking that you need to save, you need to be prudent so that you can have money, you know? And because of that, I became very, very stingy in many things.

I need to save money. I need to reserve my time. I need to make full use of my resources for my own ends, for my own self, for my own family first, you know?

And I became very egoistic, egoistic, right? Self-centered. And I realized that, I didn't realize that that was no good.

To me, that's normal, right? That's normal. That's how I was brought up.

And then when I got married with my wife, I think a lot of you know my wife, Xin Tian, right? She came from different family background with different life system. She, well, maybe because they were pretty poor when she was young and she was sort of like, can identify with people who don't have, and she was very generous in sharing.

So I remember when I first got to know her on our first date, you know, and then she had gastric. She had gastric. And I learned that for gastric, we need to keep certain kind of biscuit in the back.

So when you are, your gastric has issue, when you are hungry, you can munch some biscuit to help get rid of the acid, gastric acid. So I bought for her, I bought and told her, okay, you can keep this in your bag. So anytime the gastric acid issue comes, you can just eat and settle that, you know?

And then the moment I gave to her, she started giving out to everybody. I was like, hey, come on, I bought those for you. And now you are giving out to everybody.

You know, remember I was coming from the very stingy mindset, you know, I spent money to buy that for you. Now you're giving away to everybody and you don't have anything left. Are you saying that I have to buy again for you?

Those are my money, you know? So that is the, I mean, that is interesting. That is, you see different.

This is a class of life system. There's a class of life system. And at that moment I was angry, but after I learned the seed system, I realized this is the key for you to really plant the seeds.

So, and I realized, yeah, at that moment I was having a good salary, good income, you know, but I realized after a while, because of my being stingy and not willing to share, I started to feel that, hey, my salary was good, but I don't, I didn't have enough. You won't believe, maybe you don't, you won't believe it. I got a five figure salary, Singapore dollar, which was supposed to be very comfortable life, which was supposed to be a very giving me a very comfortable life.

But at that moment I was like not having enough, not having enough. Every month was a struggle. The month is longer than the salary, or you call it the salary shorter than the month, meaning that I use up my salary before the end of the month.

You won't believe it, you know? My father was kind of questioning me, hey, your salary is a lot. How come you always don't have enough near the end of the month?

I was also wondering, yeah, how come I never have enough, you know? So I realized that, yeah, all those because I have been very stingy. I've been very stingy.

So life system, right? So we need to really, we really need to consider that. So if you want to learn more about life system, some of the organizers are still running the course, but some will also do it in January.

So please pay attention, find out and come to learn, okay? Okay. What is the difference between DCIG and YSI?

SCIM in the path of touching diamond world. If time, energy, and money are limited, how to choose this series? Okay.

First of all, before I address the differences, I would like to say one thing. Our dear teacher, Geshe Michael Roach, as much as we would like him to have a long life, as much as we want him to have to live forever, he still has the human body. That means one day, that means one day, the thing that we don't want to happen will happen, right?

So what I would like to say here is that if you have the means, meaning that if you have the money, if you have the time, anytime he's teaching, just come and learn from the teaching. A lot of time you may say, Hey, I learned the previous level. I still cannot understand everything.

I still don't know how to use the system. I want to master the thing first before I go for the next one. But listen, if you have the means, just come for all the classes, including Mixed Nuts, including the Shenzhen Tower, because do you realize what we are doing here?

Although we don't understand, but we ask you to come. What are we doing here? We are getting direct oral transmission.

Okay, we are getting direct oral transmission. Maybe you don't understand. It's okay.

The fact that you hear it from the master, you are getting all the direct transmission. You are getting all the seeds and seeds multiply every day. One day you will understand.

One day you will understand. If you don't get oral transmission from the master, yes, you can get from the students. But when the master is still around, isn't it much better to get from the master directly?

Don't wait until the master is not around. Then you get it from the students. Yes, it's still okay.

But while the master is still around, just get everything directly. So first of all, if you have the means, I don't mean to say that you have to come if you don't have time and don't have money. Okay.

If you don't have time, if you don't have money, you need to plant the seeds. You need to plant the seeds for the time and money. But if you have all of them, come to all the teachings.

Even better, now this Mixed Nut Session, Shenzhen Tower is free. So just come. Yeah, I mean, if you have to work there, I can't force you, but if you can come, just come.

Every Monday afternoon, Arizona time or Tuesday morning, Asia time. And every Saturday morning, Arizona time or Saturday midnight, Asia time. I'm not so sure about Europe, but just come.

It's free anyway. So that is one. Okay.

Now, what are the difference between all those organizations? If you really look at the content, if you really look at the content, right? All the teachings are leading us to have this, to touch the diamond world, the term we use in DCI.

Right. So if you realize all the content are leading us there, but why do we, for example, like DCI, I'm very familiar with DCI. Why do we have so many levels?

Although the focus is to touch the diamond world, why do we not just focus on level seven, on touching the diamond world? Why do we still have all the foundation levels? Why do we still have the advanced level one, two, three, and then next year four, all the way to Geshe Michael plans to do 12 advanced levels.

Why do we still have so many levels and not just focus on level seven? Because when we talk about food, right? I come from Asia, the most favorite food for Asian people, maybe fried rice, right?

Maybe fried rice or for, yeah, I think let's use Asia. Okay. I am not familiar with other cultures, but for Asia, fried rice is very common, very common.

In fact, my father say when he goes out of the town, the easiest food to find is fried rice and fried egg. That's the safest. The taste is standard.

Even if the taste is bad, it won't go too bad. You know, you can still eat them. But imagine if I were to serve you fried rice three times a day, every day, every day, will you get sick of fried rice?

Definitely. Definitely. Right.

You still want some variations. Maybe today, fried rice. Tomorrow, maybe you want noodle soup.

And then after that, maybe you want something else. You want dumplings, for example, right? You want variations.

So I want to say that, yes, we need variations. That's why we have so many levels. That's why we have so many programs.

We have DCI, we have ACI, we have YSI, we have Green Stretch Pan, we have, I think you name it, we have it. So first, we need variations. Second, do you realize that in order to touch the development world, we need lots and lots of good seeds?

And how do we plant those seeds? Yes, you can use four steps. You can use four steps.

You can do whatever things that you have learned to plant the seeds. But one thing, or I shouldn't say but, and the best way to plant seeds is what? Is to think of emptiness regularly.

How do we do that? We have six times book. Actually, six times book is not just for us to observe our morality, but it is time for us to think back about emptiness.

And then there is a moment when we plant lots of good seeds. And then when we go to all those levels, when we go to all those programs, when we get to think about emptiness, we are planting lots of good seeds for our own journey to touch the development world, including like exercises I just mentioned about when the human leaves the room, when the puppy leaves the room. What is it on the table?

A pen or a chew toy? Force your, that's why I say pause longer. Push your mind to think and struggle.

And in the meantime, you will plant lots of good seeds to speed up your journey to touch the development world. So I would like to say that all those are good teachings, good strategies for you to plant the seeds for your journey. It's not about just focusing on level seven alone.

Yeah, one day you will get sick of it, like eating fried rice every day, every meal. So yeah, they are different. Some people like to go through the YSI route.

Some of you like to go through the DCI route. Some of you like to go through the different routes, right? But all those are good starting point.

But of course, you need to explore other organizations too. Yeah. All right.

So this is what I can say. But of course, if you don't have money, you don't have time. First, you need to plant the seeds.

And then when, while planting the seeds, start with programs that you can afford. Like I mentioned just now about the Kyoto, right? Our reunion, when it was chargeable, nobody wanted to register.

When we make it free, everybody rushing to come and meet. And in a very short period of time, it was full house already. And then we opened the waiting list because we knew that visa is not something easy.

And we are moving people to confirm list. And I received a lot of questions from people. Teacher Suga, I want to go to reunion, but I'm in waiting list.

Can you move me to the confirm list? And then some people tell me, I have the ticket already. I have the visa already.

Should I cancel them? I said, please don't cancel. Kyoto, not only reunion.

We have a lot of other programs, right? We have the steps on the path. We have the yoga, YSI, with Lisa Lee.

So I have been telling people, can you just register for steps on the path? And then, yeah, it's very difficult to get a visa for Vietnamese, for Chinese, I believe so, right? It's not easy.

It's not easy. So if you already have the visa, if you already bought the ticket, just go and register for the steps on the path. And maybe in the meantime, because you have very good intention, you're planting very good seeds.

We have opening and we can move you to the confirm list. Don't just cancel your ticket because you are in the waiting list. I feel very sad when I hear that.

You are already so fortunate to have the visa, to have the ticket, to have the hotel, and then you cancel it because you are in the waiting list. Don't do that. Don't do that, right?

Yeah. Thank you. Right.

Yeah. Please, please go to other programs. And then when your seats are good, when there are openings, you can come in.

So it doesn't mean that when you are not confirmed for the reunion, then you don't go to Kyoto. Don't waste your seats. I like to say the seats are opening up anyway.

When the seats are opening up, you can't just press down the result. Yeah. So you can't just reject the seats opening up or the sprout.

You can't press down the sprout. You just have to accept it. All right.

Okay. So what else? Oh, it seems that we rarely talk about what pens light picture covers on.

We thought it's a black, which has thick shape, but if it's from emptiness, it is supposed to be nothing. What it looks like before we see the pen. Okay.

Sophia. No, this is not Sophia. Sophia is helping to translate, right?

I forgot who, I don't know who is asking this question, but anyway. Yeah. I like to bring your attention to the teaching on the, I forgot that term again.

What's the term again? Okay. So yeah, if you go, if you go to the teaching on the Mahamudra, you will understand it much better.

Yeah. So yeah. When we go to the higher middle way, when we said that things are coming from seats, right.

And then when we say that in the higher middle way, there is nothing there when human is not there and the puppy's not there. So is there even, is there even an object? Is there even a table?

Is there even a room, right? So the question is that, what is there before, before we, before human comes back? So in the higher middle way, we say that just before you enter the room, your seats will project a table.

Your seats will project the object, the object. And then when you enter the room, your seats will produce the light picture and cover the object for you to see it as a pan. Yeah.

So you can imagine that your seats are producing things as you move, as you move, right? So that is how you can help to visualize. All right.

So in fact, you can, especially when you're walking, you know, when you're walking, maybe you can do this exercise when you're walking, instead of thinking that you are walking, can you think of your seats projecting out your next step? So while you are walking, you imagine that your seats are projecting out the next scene and make you feel that you are walking. So instead of you are walking, you think that the seats are creating, projecting the next scene, the next scene, you know, like I don't know whether you have seen the old movie projector, you know, old movie projector, different picture.

Yeah. Those who nod your head, I know your age already. You're not young anymore.

The young people, they may not know, but if you are old enough, if you have seen those movie projector, yeah, film projector, real, you know, or Tracy, I know your age already. I know, I know, but you're still younger than me. You are young.

Okay. Don't worry. So you will, you will.

So imagine your seats are doing the movie, the movie projector, real different picture. In fact, we say 65 pictures every second, right? So when you are walking, try to visualize that.

So you are not, try to have the feeling that you are not really walking, but your seats make you feel that as if you're walking. I think, I think, I don't know, I don't know yet, but I think if you are in the DPE, that is what you would see and feel. Okay.

You will start to see your seats projecting out. Yeah. Okay.

So try to do that exercise. Sometimes I do that exercise and the feeling is great. You know, you will suddenly start to question yourself if I'm not walking, if I'm not really walking and my seats are making me feel that I'm walking.

How will this, what will this lead me to? Yeah. Just, just try to cook it.

Try to cook it. Okay. Okay.

Laya has follow up question. What I mean is we are taught it is a black stick shape, but if it is empty, yeah, we are not even supposed to have the shape in the black before we sit. That's right.

That's right. Yeah, that's right. So in fact, that's what I'm saying.

The Penn story that we are so familiar, I believe it's a lower middle way. All right. So if you want to bring it to the higher middle way, then yes, they are not supposed to be there before you are there.

Yeah. So yeah. Thank you.

Venerable Cat. Parts are empty and assembled when label is applied. Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah, we will use the concept of label, right? That's why I think it's important to know what hat we are wearing in what school we are talking.

We are referring referencing so that we can have the correct understanding. Yeah. So yeah, those are good questions, right?

When you start to have those questions, that means you are getting more sensitive on the views of different schools. The views of different schools. What tricks do you have to help to remember all the different schools?

Good question. First, listen to the Mahamudra lesson. And then take notes and bring it to meditation to review.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Venerable Cat, for the link.

But you can say the potential for a pen or chew toy does exist even before you walk into the room. That's right. Yeah.

That's right. The potential. Right.

And what is this potential? Why does this potential come from? So, yeah, I think all these are very good, good questions and discussion.

Very good questions and discussion. The more you cook all these concepts, the more good seeds you are planting. And I like to I like to really encourage everyone to spend time to cook all these concepts.

Sometimes when you have nothing to do, you just play with all these thoughts. If you have somebody to discuss, it's even better. It's even better.

I'm lucky I have my wife to debate. It's kind of fun, you know.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
So potential to whom? The thing in this way, where is the substance come from? Begin with mental image.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's yeah. That's cool.

Wow. OK. Oh, yeah.

Oh, there's a class by word. Yeah. Yeah.

Please attend. Cook it while we are cooking fried rice. Yeah.

That's for Asia. OK. If you are in in the Western world, cook it while you're eating pizza.

What I mean? OK, so. Kawa.

Yeah. Kawa. What is Kawa?

This is to hear. Right.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
All right. Is this the Mahamudra? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's the Mahamudra class.

Yeah. That's the link. OK.

Daily practice nine. I think it is one of the easier. Easier classes.

So, yeah, try, try to listen. There are four, I think, four classes, right? I forgot already.

I think a few classes, I think four classes. Yeah. Four classes.

Just spend some time to listen to it and then you will you will you will be able to understand more. All right. So my my tips is that my tips is that listen to the class and try to take notes, especially when Michael is explaining each of the worldview, try to take notes.

And once you are done, you will you will have them in your mind. I when I first learned those six, I was so curious and I keep on hearing people say about six flavors of emptiness, you know. So when I got into the class, into the recording, I was so excited.

I actually took very detailed notes and then I referred to the notes often until one day I can remember them.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
There is this one technique that I learned when I was young. When I was young, I was kind of I would say kind of stupid. I don't mean to say that I'm not stupid now, but I was pretty stupid when I was young in primary one, two.

You know, I was so stupid that my mom liked to tell people, you know, when he was young, if you ask him two plus three, he knows the answer is five. But if you ask him two plus what equals five, he cannot answer. So my mom liked to share this story to everyone.

Two plus what equals five. I didn't know how to answer this. And then and then I think when I was 10 years old, I got into I got hold of this book by Dale Carnegie.

I think a lot of you might know Dale Carnegie. And he was there is this one formula that I like a lot. You know, he was saying that to have good memory, sorry, to remember something.

To to remember something, you need to apply the formula is called A.I.R. Air, you know, the air, A.I.R. A stands for attention. I stands for interest. R stands for repeat.

So to remember something, you need to pay attention. You need to have interest in it. And then you need to repeat.

So I am applying this formula ever since. So if you think that I am I look pretty smart today, the truth or the fact is that I'm not that smart. I'm only using this formula A.I.R. So anything that I want to know and and remember, I give attention. I give attention. After I give attention, I develop interest. Anything that you are not interested, you will not remember.

So I develop interest. And then, of course, you need to repeat often enough so the whole thing can go in. So like the six flavors of emptiness, because I was so attracted to this concept, I give attention.

And then when I am listening to the teaching, I increase my interest. I increase my interest. How do I increase my interest?

I like to question myself. And of course, I repeat by sharing it with my wife. My wife likes to tell people, oh, I don't have to read a lot of books because my husband will give me all the summary.

I say, yeah, yeah, because this is my bouncing, bouncing wall, you know, any good, any new ideas I will bounce with her. So, yes, you get to learn. I get to repeat.

So win-win, right? So, yeah, if you want to really master all these teachings. Pay attention, develop your interest and repeat.

Yeah. If someone say wrong, how? Yeah, that is your seat.

Also, you know, if you have the seats for people to tell you the wrong thing, then, of course, you get it wrong. But my wife really trusts me. So whatever I say, she take it as true and correct.

So, yeah. So, yeah, I think that is. To me, this is a very good formula that I'm still using until today.

Imagine I was 10 years old and now I'm 50. I've been using it for the past 40 years. Yeah.

Oh, Jessica Kim, you are using it. Cool. Yeah, I think this is a very easy.

And I think a lot of people know it. A lot of people know it. Right.

Yeah. A lot of people know it. All right.

So. Yeah. If not read, how to debate?

Yeah, of course. You need to read. You need to learn.

You need to cook all those things. If you don't cook it, you cannot debate too. You have to cook all these ideas and it's good to surround yourself with people with the same interests so you can discuss all these things.

For example, we talk about, you know, I'm particularly interested in our lineage, you know, our lineage, meaning that who is the teacher of who is the student of who. And I can give the names pretty accurately. And people like to ask me, wow, you remember all the names?

Yeah. Why? Because I apply AIR.

I pay attention. I'm very interested. And I repeat.

I repeat. So. So because of that, I can.

I memorize the names. I can tell you the lineage pretty, pretty in pretty detail. Yeah.

What I mean is we are. This is the same thing. OK.

OK. So, yeah. Any more question?

OK. OK. You can discuss separately.

Any more things to discuss? I appreciate all your company. I appreciate your time.

How many of you here? Oh, wow. Still have 300 over people.

Wow. Amazing. Wow.

Thank you. Thank you for staying back. Otherwise, I will be very lonely here.

Thank you, Marina. Oh, can we take these classes out of order? Definitely.

Definitely. Yeah. There is no.

Well, there is no certain orders of DCI classes. Of course, if you can go from the foundation, it's good. But if not, it's OK.

You know, we always tell people. I'm waiting. You're waiting.

We always tell people, whatever level you start first. That is your seats. So you start first.

And I always say that any time Geshe Michael's teaching just come in, just come in. OK, maybe you don't understand. It's OK.

Then you start to catch up. You start to catch up. Right.

Start to catch up. And another thing that I shared before. Another thing that I shared before about some people say, I only I'm only interested in DCI.

I don't want to learn ACI. Or some people say, I just want to focus on ACI. I don't want to learn DCI.

Or something similar, you know, YSI or GreenStretchPen or whatever, you know. To me, all of them complement each other. It's just how you enter.

For me, I entered from DCI. And DCI is very practical. You can you can use it in your life very quickly, even without the belief.

You see, I have a lot of students in Indonesia. A lot of them are Muslim Christians. You know, they don't believe in all these, all these sutras.

And I don't mean to say they don't believe they don't have any exposure about all these, all these sutra things. Right. But they learn the system.

They apply the system and they get good results. They get good results. OK.

But when I and when I went into ACI, I felt that, oh, these are the ancient sources. And when I know the ancient sources, I can use it even more effectively. For example, I like to use example of the of the coffee meditation.

OK, coffee meditation. To DCI people, coffee meditation means to feel happy about what you have done and then you want to dedicate that to to others. You know, that is to a DCI people.

But when I learn, when I go into ACI, I learn more. Meaning what? Meaning I know that anything that we do, we need to, we need after we commit, we need to collect, commit and collect.

So this is this. This brings me deeper into understanding about the coffee meditation itself. And of course, there are a lot of other things that ACI helped me to deepen my understanding of DCI concepts that I learned.

On the other hand, if you learn ACI, you learn a lot of deep concepts. But the problem, do you know how to apply them in your life? For example, when you learn the six flavors of emptiness.

Yes, theoretically, you are very smart. Theoretically, you are very smart. You know a lot of things.

But. I like to, I like to challenge people, you know. Sorry, I shouldn't use the word challenge.

I like to ask people to think maybe so and so learn a lot of ACI courses. But to me, the proof that they really understand is about whether their life improve. Have you seen people who learn a lot of ACI courses, but they still live miserable life?

Miserable life means they don't have enough money. They have bad relationships. They have bad health.

A lot in our group, a lot in our Sangha. They are so, I would say, seasoned with all ACI courses. But they are not living a good life.

Is that even worth it? Is that even worth your time and effort to learn all ACI courses and you don't know how to use them and you live a miserable life? To me, it's not worth it.

So to me, if you have a bit of DCI knowledge and you know how to apply them in your life and you know how to make your life much better in terms of money, in terms of relationship, in terms of health and peace of mind. Why don't you do it? You know, I think besides intellectual, besides intellectual, you need to have happiness also.

Human is not designed to live a miserable life. Sorry to say that point blank. But I really pity those people who are smart intellectually, but they don't have, they don't enjoy good life that they deserve.

So let's, let's balance our life. Intellectual understanding is important, but at the same time, you need to know how to use them to make your life better. Yeah.

Okay. I think I have reached the end of the Q&A session. I hope I have inspired all of you to first.

Okay. Let's summarize. Okay.

First, anytime Geshe Michael's teaching, take your effort to attend, to listen, especially when it is free. Okay. No excuse.

Okay. When it is free, please come. If you have the time, you know, uh, you know, we, we, we, we need to really take effort.

Okay. Don't, don't, don't waste the opportunity when the master is still alive and kicking. And then secondly, try to learn and apply.

Don't just learn and forget to apply because at the end of the day, it's useless. If you are, if you are very smart, but you are not having a good life. All right.

So these are the two things I want you to bring home before you jump into the class by Dr. Ward Smith. Yeah. Let's welcome.

Thank you.