dcc yt tim perfection of wisdom c041

[Speaker 1]
Some of those countries are very strict about religious stuff. So we have to be very careful and wear suits and do other strange things. But when you ask questions and stuff, or in the conversation part, please try to keep it a little bit non-religious.

Okay? And I know it's a religious book and I'm sorry. But it's the only way we can be safe in those countries.

Okay? All right, okay. By the way, I like wearing a suit.

Sometimes. One minute. Are we ready?

Cool, we're ready to go? We're gonna do that after you do. Yes.

Okay. Okay, cool. All right.

So, hi everybody. The first part of our class is homework from the previous class, which most of you were not there for. But what I thought, we're reaching a section in this book basically we're just defining what makes the, how do we define the word of a Buddha?

What is considered the word of a Buddha? So I thought we would review all the different wrong debates, excuse me, all the wrong ideas. So we're gonna be getting to a section now where we're gonna talk about the right ideas.

Tell them what your book is. Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah.

This book is a very long book. Probably the rest of my life, unless something weird happens. And it's called The Jewel of Realizations.

And it's by, it was written down by Arya Sangha, who, if many of you know this story, he was doing deep retreat like at Diamond Mountain for 12 years, which is a long time. And at the end of the 12 years, nothing happened in the retreat, supposedly. And he was like, I hate Diamond Mountain.

It's hot. They probably asked him to fundraise. It's hot.

It's uncomfortable. So yeah, so he left to retreat and he went to buoy. And kind of imagine, and he came across, there's lots of dogs in buoy as well.

And he came across a dog in buoy and that dog had been injured. And he started taking care of this dog. And in that process, he finally had a true moment of compassion.

And then the dog wasn't the dog. The dog was Maitreya and he met Maitreya. And then Maitreya was like, hey, come with me.

I'm gonna teach you some cool stuff. And so he grabbed onto Maitreya. And Maitreya took him to the Peachtree Cafe for a morning, right?

And served him cinnamon rolls. And in that morning, Maitreya taught him the five great books of Maitreya and Arya Sangha wrote them down. And so at the end of his breakfast with Maitreya at the Peachtree Cafe, when he got home, something weird happened and 50 years had passed.

And anyhow, so he wrote these books down. And one of the books is called the Jewel of Realization. And we're in the beginning of that book and it's in debate format.

So basically what happens is someone comes up and gives us a slightly wrong idea. And then we have to figure out what the correct idea is. And so we're in the middle of a section defining what the speech of the Buddha is.

In English, it will be about 12 volumes. Like that, yeah. So he has to live a long life.

Okay, so go. All right, here we go. So I'm gonna go through three of the main.

Oh, wait, something else happened. Something else happened? Yeah.

What happened to it? Rob? Are you ready?

Oh, we're gonna do that now. Yeah, so the reason we can have the translation team is due to our sponsors. And the reason we didn't have a translation team earlier was we didn't have the sponsors.

And there's a thing, after you become a translator, you start having kids. And I don't know what they're doing. They're supposed to be working.

It's work. Right, work? Where's work?

Yeah. Where's your other two girls? Okay.

So we have a program called Goodnight Book Club, which you know about. And I'm not gonna tell you about it, but you can sign up. You get a book sent to you as they come out.

And you promise not to use your phone and your computer from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. And it's really, really good for you. I can attest to it. And the big boss, Dalao Ban, of that program is having a birthday.

And we're gonna sing together. Lindsay, please jump. The birthday's technically tomorrow, but I won't be here to eat cakes.

So we're gonna have it today. Okay, Tim's gonna lead the coyote, I mean, the singing. It's kind of small.

Two, three. ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday dear Lindsay ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ What happened to the fire? Speech?

Pretend fire on the cake? Oh, pretend blow out the candles. Yeah.

You got to bring me those two, that one and that one. So we have a tradition that she picks up a page from this, this is the Life of Tsongkhapa, very long and beautiful book. It took 15 years to make it.

And she's gonna pick a page now. There's your book. And this morning, the German team and Austrian led by certain people who can come up now, Peter and Ava.

Ava did the work, Peter took the credit. It's called DER KUN NA'I DE'I STER MAS and we'd like to congratulate them and thank them, it took a long time, thank you. You want a German prediction?

Okay, you choose and you translate, okay? You choose the page number, between one and 400. Don't look.

Peter's gonna read it in German and translate. It's very interesting. So this is about, can I say the king, the name of the guy, of the king of the Dharma?

This is from a scene of Tsongkhapa where he gets secret teachings from Kalachakra, the wheel of time, which will be interpreted by Geshe Michael. You're gonna interpret. Oh yeah.

The meaning of that. There's this wheel called sansara, right? And you tend to hurt people and then you get bad karma and then the karma comes back to you.

And you can call that the wheel of life, the sansara wheel. You can call it the wheel of nice, crown of nice, which is Seiji's book. But there's a deep teaching that, Kalachakra, that if you learn about emptiness and if you learn that things are coming from your seeds, you can turn the wheel of suffering into the wheel of the Dharma, which is an eight-spoke wheel, which represents passing knowledge onto the next generation.

So that wheel, the reverse wheel, means that you pass wisdom onto each generation in the same way that Lindsay is doing in her life. Yay! And congratulations again to Eva, and especially Eva who did the work, and Peter.

One more time. Go to sleep. Did we have it set up so the people online can speak?

Thank you. So everyone online, you can just yell out the answers if they're not yelled out here in the room. Okay, so we're gonna go through the three main wrong ideas, and then when we start the class, we will get the correct idea.

We'll get through it, or start going through it. Okay, first one. Oh, there it is, okay.

Our opponent comes along and starts a new debate, and they say, if something is the word of the Buddha, it must also be a classical commentary. What do we say, what's wrong with this? What is our counterexample?

How do we disprove this? Just classical commentaries in general. Oh, that's nice.

The opponent said, if something is the word of the Buddha, it must be a classical commentary from ancient India. I don't know. I don't know.

There's a contradiction between the word of the Buddha. It's hard to hear what you say. Can you yell that into the microphone?

He said, there's a contradiction between the word of the Buddha and the classical commentary. A contradiction that the word of the Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
A contradiction in the sense that the word of the Buddha is the word of the Buddha, the commentary is someone else said something about that.

[Speaker 1]
Right, and that's pretty much the answer, more or less. Mike said it as well. So basically, if you look at the ALL database, from ancient India, we have 4,600 texts finished, and 990 are spoken by the Buddha, and the rest, 3,700, are written by human beings to explain the Buddha.

So the actual answer, that was an answer, and a correct one. But basically, they say that the argument is Lord Maitreya composed classical commentaries that are separate from his speech. That's the first example we gave.

This was the second example, meaning he didn't have to speak in order to write. Okay, next question. Next debate.

They make the claim that if something is considered the word of the Buddha, it must also be in the mind stream of a Buddha. So if something is the word of a Buddha, it must be in the mind of a Buddha. Why is that wrong?

Yes, please. Okay, can you throw the microphone to Peter? Sure.

I mean, or you could pass it, or gently give. I would say everything is in the mind stream of a Buddha. Kind of, but that's not the counterexample.

What would be considered, I know, who, does everything, everything that's word of the Buddha only exist in the mind stream of a Buddha? I think that's what you're. Yeah, so what Ward said is, if it's in Tim's mind, Tim's not a Buddha, it's still the word of a Buddha, and I'm not a Buddha.

Well, even, well, not even that. It's that if something's the word of a Buddha, doesn't necessarily only exist in the mind of a Buddha. No, because the words of the mind, I can have the words of the Buddha in my mind, and I'm not a Buddha.

Makes sense? Cool. All right, thirdly, if something is considered the word of the Buddha, and they define it in this debate as speech, which has been permitted by the Buddha, then it must be something that's spoken by a student.

And the example we use is, once I heard that the Buddha said, if you're going, he wants, Buddha said, please write down or relay everything I said, and you're not allowed to change it, except you're allowed to say three words. Well, what are the Sanskrit words? Evam, evam shraddham, right?

Once I heard, right? So that was permitted by the Buddha to add to the speech of the Buddha. So if it's that, is it something that is necessarily only spoken by a student of the Buddha?

And that's what makes speech of the Buddha? No.

[Speaker 2]
Excellent word.

[Speaker 1]
No. Give him the microphone. Let's see if he explains it.

So Shumna's teaching him. That's all I know. No.

Yeah, I mean, I know it's no, because it's wrong, it's Kachik. But why is it wrong? It's very specific.

The counter example starts with Ananda, one of the students of the Buddha. Because he repeated the sutras, but he didn't say them himself? Not exactly.

So imagine you're going to say, once I heard, like you heard the words of a Buddha and you're relaying and say, once I heard these words, do you think about it beforehand? Right, so yes. So if you thought about it beforehand and said, once I heard these words and thought of the words in your mind, because typically you think first before you say them, before you speak.

Sometimes. Sometimes. According to this debate, that's what you do.

Then it's not necessarily have to be spoken by a student because it would be in their mind first before they spoke it. Okay. Isn't this fun?

I think it's really fun. It trains you never to lose it. You better think it's fun.

You got a lot of pages. 22,000 pages, you said? It'll be about 10,000 pages, eight, six volumes.

Okay, Tibetan special vocabulary. All right, first words, ka and nak. Each.

What's the difference between these two words? Honorific and non-honorific. Which one is the honorific one, Maria?

Correct, ka is the honorific for speech, nak is just general Joe Schmo's speech. Yay. What'd you say?

Where does he send the chick? Next one. Dike dake toba du du chick.

No. Yeah. Once I heard.

Nice. And then last one. Oops, that's not what I meant to do.

Wrong Luke. What's that?

[Speaker 2]
Our system.

[Speaker 1]
Views, our position, our system. Yay. Cool.

Okay. Now we're gonna go to my beautifully incorrect translation. Yay.

Okay. Okay. Please read first the Tibetan and then read your translation and then me and word will pick on you.

Perfect. Could you throw the box to somebody or do you want me to read it? You read.

[Speaker 2]
You read first.

[Speaker 1]
NU PA RANG GI LUG LA RANG SOM PA PO'I SANGS RGYAS BAG PA'I DO RJE MI THUN CHOG PO'I PHYIR DU GSUM PA'I NAG SANGS RGYAS KYI SKAD PA'I SEMS NYID Yeah. So the system of the Geshe course books for a thousand years has been, you don't tell the student the correct thing first. First you try to confuse them.

And so every presentation of a topic, and there may be a hundred topics in these books, each one is presented first. A debater comes and argues something which is slightly wrong. And then we fight with them.

And we learn a lot by listening to somebody make mistakes. And then in the second section, we just present what's correct. And that reads like a modern Western textbook.

So a modern Western textbook, they don't have this section at the beginning where somebody presents slightly wrong ideas and gets defeated. And it's very, very useful. So ever since Lord Buddha's time, there has been this tradition to debate it first.

And then you explain it. So we finished the debate about what is the word of the Buddha. We heard a lot of slightly wrong ideas and we learned a lot.

And now we get the RANG LUG. RANG LUG means here's the party line. Here's the actual correct presentation.

After that, there's a very intriguing section called where he gets to come back and attack us. He gets to come back and attack what we said, which is very democratic in a way. You see, he gets to come back and defend himself again.

So we just reached the second section after, I don't know, one year or six months, I don't know. Two years. Two years.

Oh no, second section of this debate, like six months. Yeah, so here's RANG LUG. Here is what we believe is the definition of the speech of the Buddha.

And here we go. You want to translate? Sure.

The Nipa Ranggi Luglas. In the second part of our debate structure, we'll present our position. Okay.

Now, this is so confusing to me. Okay. It's like RANG SOM PA PO'I SANGS RGYAS.

It's the Buddha who's the author. Good. The composer of the teaching.

The one who created the teaching. Oh, just the general. Yeah.

The one who created the... The RANG means the book's author or the book, the teaching's speaker must be a SANGS RGYAS. Must be a Buddha.

Then why do they say BAG PA? Yeah, they're also an Arya. So when you say all the Aryas in the world, it includes all the Buddhas in the world.

So here he says an Arya, but only one who is a Buddha. So if it's the speech of the Buddha, it has to be spoken by an Arya. Then you say, oh, well, all the Aryas are teaching sutras.

You say, no, no, an Arya who's enlightened. Okay, BAG PA. Then the...

Yeah, so going to the end, we're saying the definition SEMS NI of the word of the Buddha. Good. Is speech.

Good. Whose purpose or the purpose of the speech is to eliminate the student's wrong ideas or wrong views. Good.

Sorry. Yeah, VIKUNCHO means the negative side or the negative side in the student. So any speech which is spoken by an enlightened being to help a student improve themselves is the definition of Lord Buddha's speech.

Two divisions, open and secret. Sutra and tantra. Okay, good.

Okay, GZHAN DU GSUM NI GNOD. There's something here, it has to be GNOD. It has to be spoken.

Yeah, it has to be spoken. They weren't written in the time of the Buddha. They were written down later.

That's why they said, EVA MAYA SHUD DANG. This is what I heard. Okay, keep going.

Next one. DE LA YED NA ZHAL NAS GSUM PA'I DGA' Good. JE SU NANG BA'I DGA' NANG BA'I DGA' NANG BA'I DGA' JIN GYI LHAG PA'I DGA' DANG GSUM Translate.

Okay. Definition is divided into three types. The direct word spoken by the Buddha, right here, GSUM PA'I DGA'.

Then JE SU NANG BA'I DGA' is speech permitted by the Buddha to be spoken by others as a substitute for the word of the Buddha. Good. You can say that.

It's long. And JIN GYI LHAG PA'I DGA' is speech spoken by others through the power of a blessing by the Buddha. Yeah, good.

So you can say the word of the Buddha is three types. Number one, spoken directly from their own lips, ZHAL NAS, okay? One.

Two, permitted by the Buddha to be added to sutras by non-Buddha, like this I heard once. Okay. And then thirdly, JIN GYI LHAG PA'I DGA' means speech of the Buddha, which occurs through the blessing or the magic of the Buddha.

Sort of like in the Heart Sutra? We're going to get the examples right now. Okay.

Those are the only two I did, so we can flip over to you.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, okay.

[Speaker 1]
You want to pick someone to pick on? Sure. Pick someone to pick on.

Who would like to try? Let's see. Let's do Aldo and then, let's do Chloe.

Hmm. This is her first time highlighting the ancient language on the computer during our class. Thank you, Chloe.

So thank you, Chloe. She's doing a great job, too. Whoa!

Okay, eat the microphone. It's something very... We don't have the fork.

Here. Okay. I just only want that kind of ring.

Okay, while they're working to fix that, I just want to make a short announcement that two of the Mixed Nuts went through a teacher training with one of the ancient text organizations and are now officially organization teachers. One was Betz Greer, and the other one is Ward Smith. Yay!

So thank you for now being official teachers. So go teach people and give them certificates. Yay!

Nice. Is it working now? And pay Betz.

Yay, good job. Okay. Go ahead, Chloe.

Starting with Danponi. Kanpani. So- You correct.

Hatang. Nipati. Sharap.

Ningpoi. Nang. Tendu.

Gyopei. Ndike. Daki.

Topa. Du. Chikna.

Shepatang. Sam. Cha.

Tang. Hangyur. Tang.

Jesu. Yirang. Hito.

Nang. Tao. Wuin.

Nice. Nice, Chloe. Yay!

Yay! Example of the first one, which is teaching delivered directly from the mouth of the Buddhas, is Do Dupa, which is? Short Sutra.

It's the short Prajna Paramita Sutra, which we had this morning, or yesterday. This morning. What did they say?

All the Buddhas of the universe have traveled the path of the six perfections. Yeah, it was quoted this morning. So that's a real...

Came from Buddha's own mouth. That's the first type, example. What was the second word?

Allowed by the Buddha to add to a sutra. Very few things, only by specific permission to be added to the teacher's own words. The third one is SHES RAB SNYING PO Heart Sutra.

Inside of it, NANG MTSAN DU BSGYUR PA'I, is the words... NI SKAD BDAG GIS LTOS PA DUG GCIG Yeah. So they had a meeting after Lord Buddha passed away, and they said, we should write down what he said to make sure we got it right.

And they started writing down things. And they had three huge meetings, and only arhats were allowed to come. And they would always say, here's what I heard.

NI SKAD BDAG GIS LTOS PA DUG GCIG NAS So Buddha said, after I pass away, you're allowed to add just that one sentence. This is what I heard him say. And then that will be part of the sutra.

So it's not spoken by Lord Buddha, but it's permitted to be added to sutras by Lord Buddha. And therefore, it became the Buddha's word. Cool?

All right, third one. Then he gives examples of... What else?

How should we say? Blessed speech, okay? Blessed speech, all right?

And he gives some difficulties. TZAM SBYAR means segues inside of a sutra. Sometimes there's poetry between the major sections of a sutra or something like that.

And those are allowed. Then LTUNG RGYUR. LTUNG RGYUR means Buddha's...

Suppose you're recording, suppose you're one of those arhats, and you say, Lord Buddha said this, and everybody went, wow. Then is the wow part of the sutra or not? Okay, and the answer is yes.

And it's called LTUNG RGYUR. LTUNG RGYUR means... Sorry, LTUNG RGYUR means we agree, we like it.

And then RJES SU YI RANG, from the seven preliminaries, it means rejoice. Yeah, wow, that was cool. So those are allowed to be added to sutras.

The reaction of the audience is allowed to be added to sutras. And so we're very strict about what's allowed. By the way, when we started ALL, we recorded the byte count of every book.

Byte count means, basically a word might have seven or eight bytes. Okay, so we recorded the byte count of every sutra we typed in. And you can tell if someone changed a single letter because of the byte count.

The byte count will change. So we're very, very strict to have a byte count. And in the ancient times, they had a bamboo count.

And bamboo count is a syllable count. And they had the same check system inside of the book. So that became also part of the sutra.

And they were very, very strict not to allow people to keep adding crap to sutras. Because that's what happens in 2,000 years. Everyone says, I think I should add a poem.

Or I think I should add something. And it's very nice in Buddhism, we have a byte count. We have a syllable count.

And you're not allowed to add things. Like there's a lot of discussion that the last chapter of the Yoga Sutra is not Patanjali. It doesn't seem to be his style.

And it doesn't follow from the first three chapters. And that's very common in non-Buddhist texts in ancient India. People will add something.

So we have byte count. And we're strict about it. So the comments of the...

When you say, wow, in a teaching, we add eight bytes to the byte count. And it's okay, it's allowed. The audience reaction is allowed during the sutra, not after the sutra.

That's a common... That's just research I did to do that. Okay, all right, go ahead.

[Speaker 2]
Who's gonna read?

[Speaker 1]
How about Christina? Yeah. Yes, you can do it.

You do it in my classes, you can do it. Forget that you can't do it. Thank you for not throwing it over the tech table.

Yeah, you're right. Are they showing mine? Okay, let me...

At the top? Let me give you a big curse right here. We're showing my computer actually.

Good, nice job. So if we talk about words which are added to sutras by the permission of the Buddha or by the blessing of the Buddha, we call it, these can be divided into three types. Those which are permitted, which are expressed by ku.

By the body? Yeah, physically. Physically, okay.

Then there's exceptions that are expressed through su. Through speech. And then there's thuk.

Mind. Yeah, so either the Buddha has physically, verbally, or mentally approved or blessed this addition to the sutra, okay? And then he gives examples and he says, Tim, who's going to read?

How about, how about Sophie? Yeah. How about, how about Andriana?

Yeah. So before we move on, she went to a program this year to study this language. And we have a shop here that if you would like to support people going to learn the ancient language, it's available, talk to Rachana and Tracy, and they can help you buy cool stuff.

It is cool stuff. Yes. Like it's real paintings and stuff like that, good ones.

They have, sometimes you see fake stuff or weird stuff. It's not like that, it's good stuff. Okay, so blessed by his physical presence, he says it's similar to the Dode Satchupa.

Satchupa means the 10th level. And generally, although there's a debate about it, you can say the 10th bodhisattva level is the level of enlightenment. Sometimes they say 11th.

But the sutra is called the 10th level sutra. If you go looking for it, you will not find it. It's part of the Avatamsaka, a huge collection of miscellaneous sutras.

It takes a long time to find it. But anyway, in that sutra, the Buddhists of the universe express their approval of the sutra by showing up. So like a billion Buddhists cover the sky, and they're like, you know.

So that's kind of allowed to be part of the sutra. Their physical blessing is part of the sutra. Got it?

Okay. That's the example of first one, physical speech. There's a sutra called Trying to Remove the Regret of Ajatashatru.

And he's a person who killed, you know there's the five big bad deeds, like killing your mom, killing your dad, trying to kill a Buddha. He, killing an arhat. And, what is the other one?

Trying to draw blood from a Buddha. Oh, trying to draw blood from a Buddha, with evil intent, so it doesn't cover blood draws. So, these five.

He's famous because he did two of them. He killed his father who was an arhat. And later he regretted it.

By the way, his name is the enemy unborn. Ajatashatru, not born, shatru means enemy. And his, they told his father that if he was born, he would murder his father.

And so they named him the unborn enemy. But he was born and he did kill his father. Later he regretted it and they tried to tell him, don't feel so bad.

They tried to clear away his grief by teaching him confession, to teach him about confession. So, there's a sutra where there's discussions between people that the Buddha has allowed to be part of the sutra. People telling him what to do, became part of the sutra to remove his grief.

Okay. RGYUD, his regret, yeah. And there's the, I went and got you the quotations from the sutras themselves.

So, you don't have to translate them, but the removing the regret is a conversation between two disciples. Is that a sutra or not? If it's true, it is.

Yeah, if the Buddha has. Yes, thank you. Yeah, if the Buddha allowed it.

If the Buddha allowed the conversation to be part of the sutra, it's part of the sutra. Okay. All right.

Then we haven't covered yet. So, we covered Buddha allowing people physically to be in the sutra, right? Like a billion other Buddhists show up and say, cool, that's allowed to be part of the sutra.

It's allowed to be part of the sutra if there's a conversation between normal humans inside the sutra. That becomes part of the sutra, even though it wasn't spoken by the Buddha. Got it?

And then the third example, which is sutras which were blessed by the mind of the Buddha. We have more examples. And those are beautiful.

So, Tim's going to choose somebody. How about Tracy? To suffer.

Tracy, I don't know what kind of drug you took, but she didn't know any Tibetan. And then suddenly, a week later, she's like really reading well. And all I can think of...

Just coming to all your classes, Geshe-la. Must be Ward Smith's class. And Ward's class is amazing.

Thank you. Yeah, I don't know what happened, but God bless. Okay, please read.

Tim's going to check. Okay. SUMPA-LA-CHE-NA DUK-DING-NE-CHEN DZIN-GYI-KHO-NE DZIN-GYI-LA-PE-KHA DUK-DEN-PE-KHO-NE DZIN-GYI-LA-PE-KHA DUK-DRIN-LE-KHI-KHO-NE DZIN-GYI-LA-PE-KHA-DANG-SUNG Nice.

Nice. So, words that are blessed by the Buddha's mind stream, and they become part of sutras. There's three different divisions.

One comes from the DZIN and ZIN of the Buddha. From the single-pointed meditation. Yeah, the Buddha goes into deep meditation.

People talk because of it. And that becomes part of the sutra. Secondly, DUK-DEN-PE-KHO-NE And this is like an act of truth.

Yeah, act of truth. If it's true, I never had a bad thought about somebody. May the Ganges River flow backwards.

And it will. Like that. So the Buddha did acts of truth, and those created changes in people, and that became part of sutra.

DEN DRIN-LE-KHI-KHO-NE DRIN-LE I don't remember what that means. Yeah, DRIN-LE means the activity of an enlightened being. My first teacher was named DRIN-LE.

Tenzin DRIN-LE. All right. NGON NAS DZIN-GYI-LA-PE-KHA And he's going to give examples, and it will be more clear.

But first, somebody has to read it. Oh, let's see. How about Christina?

You're holding the microphone already. DANG PO NI ZHES RAB YIN PO THAG Stop, stop there. I'm going to ask you to cut it in parts, okay?

Wherever you are. Yeah, hi. So where the Buddha goes into a deep meditation and that causes sutra to be produced, the example is, Tim?

The Heart Sutra. Yeah, Heart Sutra. In the beginning of the Heart Sutra, So he goes into deep meditation, and due to his blessing, two of his students have a conversation, and that's called the Heart Sutra.

So that's the first example. Due to the Buddha's blessing, two people talk, and that becomes the word of the Buddha. Okay, second example.

Christina, continue. Please read. GNYIS PA NI SANGS RGYAS GYIS BSTAN PA GRO BAS What's that?

BRJUNG? Yeah, BRJUNG. BRJUNG SHING RLUNG GI GYUR BA LAS CHUNG BA'I GCOD KYIS SDOM GZHI SDOM PA'I GNAG GNAG THA BU YIN When you see a Z-H, there's two SHAs in Tibetan.

There's SHA and ZHA. So when you see a Z, don't think Z, just think low tone. ZHA, ZHI, SDOM ZHI.

So Buddha, BSTAN PA'I RGYAS The act of truth. Yeah, the Buddha does an act of truth, and because of that, RGYON SHING SHING The trees. The trees start to GYUR PA.

Blow. The wind starts to blow. What would you call a tantric deity who doesn't move?

GYUR PA GYUR PA GZHA GZHA GZHA GZHA GZHA GZHA GZHA GZHA GZHA Doesn't move. But here, the trees are moving. That gives you a nice feeling of what Akshobhya means.

GYUR PA LAS CHUNG BA'I PHYIR GYIS SDOM ZHIG Something four. Through the wind blowing the trees, you hear the Buddha teaching the four somethings. Yeah, these are the four.

This one doesn't mean SDOM PA. This one means the four principles of Buddhism. SDUG BSNGAL THAMS CAD MI LTAS PA SDUG BSNGAL THAMS CAD SDUG BSNGAL BA Like that.

I'm sure Ben Kramer can tell us what they are. Sure. It's all thing...

I'll give you the first one, because that's SDUG BSNGAL THAMS CAD MI LTAS PA All things brought about by causes are going away.

[Speaker 2]
All impure things are suffering.

[Speaker 1]
Everything is empty in the sense of lacking a self, and nirvana is peace. Those are called the four principles of Buddhism. So Buddha can, without opening his mouth, he can bless the trees to move and if you're in a good space, especially at Diamond Mountain in retreat, seriously, you will hear the trees talking to you and they will give you advice.

And don't think you're crazy. Listen, listen carefully. When you're in retreat, you can hear it.

When you're not in retreat, you can't hear it. That's why you come to Diamond Mountain. Today a huge black bird came in front of my window and huge, and sat there for a long time.

And this is a traditional protector in the ancient teachings. So I was like, wow, this is Diamond Mountain. You can't get that other places.

All right. BCUG GI SDOM GZHIG TU MI SNGAG LTA BU YIN GSUM PA NI SANGS RGYAS KYI PHYIN LAS KYI DBANG GIS I'm sorry, someone's going to read that.

[Speaker 2]
Christina.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, excuse me. Or a big key card might show up in your mind. Oh, yes.

There it is. GSUM PA NI SANGS RGYAS KYI What is that? PHYIN PHYIN LAS KYI DBANG GIS GNOD BZHIN GZOGS KYIS THOR CHUNG DU RA PHA'I MA'I MA'I PHA'I RIGS SNGAG RIGS SNGAG ZLA BAR CHEN THA BU YIN Nice.

SANGS RGYAS KYI PHYIN LAS KYI DBANG GIS Due to the blessing of the activity of the Buddhas, GNOD BZHIN Demon? Yeah, demon, like a harmful spirit. Like they come like a bill in the mail.

GNOD BZHIN GZOGS KYIS THOR CHUNG THOR CHUNG means to blurt out something. Like, what? And sometimes there's this thing with demons.

If you meet a demon, and I've been on lay rooms where I met a demon, and I can say I've met a few. Like I'm not bragging, I'm just saying it happens. Real demons.

And if you follow your sadhana and you say, they asked me for lay room advice, right? Here you go. And you think you see them or you don't see them, or you can see them.

And then you say, if Buddhism is true, speak something. And they will say OM MANI PADME HUM. Or they will blurt out, THOR CHUNG means they will, by the force of the blessing of your retreat, even a demon will tell you something beautiful.

RIGS NA means mantra. They will tell you a secret. So when you run into a demon, you say, by the blessing of Lord Buddha's activities, may you speak something true.

And then they're like, okay. OM OM OM SANGS RGYAS BUDDHA LAM GNYIS YIN PA GNOD BA LAM GNYIS YIN PA GNOD BA LAM GNYIS SANGS RGYAS BUDDHA LAM GNYIS Okay, okay, enough. So that's been forced out of them by the Buddha's activity.

And is that the word of the Buddha? Yeah, it's the third type of the blessing of the Buddha's mind. Okay, like that, it's the third type.

Cool? And it's a cool trick. You can try it sometime.

Sometimes they just hit you on the head. Okay. I don't want to hurt him, shut up.

Okay, who's next, Peter? By the way, we have finished the definition of speech of the Buddha. We're done.

Those are all, that's the whole teaching on what is Buddhism. And isn't it interesting that in a Buddhist book, the first thing they define is, what is Buddhism? And that's so cool, right?

And now we're going to get, what is it, what is permitted commentary on Buddhism? What are the classics? What's the definition of the classics?

What should we spend our time studying? Okay, here we go. RANG MTSOMS PA PO SEMS CAN GYI GRUB DAG MTHONG PA'I SNGAGS DANG BCUG GI TZAM NYID Okay, RANG MTSOMS PA PO, Tim?

The author, the person who composes? Yeah, the person who wrote the book is a... SEMS CAN, a living being, a suffering living being.

Yeah, so there's this Buddhist word, SEMS CAN. Say SEMS CAN. And it literally means the person who has a SEM.

Has a mind. Has a mind. So it should include Buddhas.

But in the definition of SEMS CAN, they say, SDUG BSNGAL, SDUG BSNGAL GYI SEMS DANG BSTAN PAR Suffering, has a suffering mind. Yeah, a living being who is suffering is called SEMS CAN. So, any SNGAGS.

Any speech. Any speech of a suffering being, which teaches a GRUB DAG. A sadhanta.

Yeah, a school of thought. Any speech of a person who is still in the world of suffering, which expresses some kind of Buddhist school, is the definition of a Buddhist commentary. An allowed Buddhist commentary.

And again, there's 3,700 of them. In Sanskrit, Shastra. There's 3,700.

And then there's 900. There's about 1,000 speech of the Buddha. So these are the classical commentaries.

The great commentaries. If you boil those 3,700 down, half of them are tantra. Half of our canon, half of our holy books are tantra.

The other half, if you boil it down, it's a lot of, it's the five great books that are studied in the Geshe course. You take 3,700 books, cut out half of them, study them later when you get to tantric class. Which you're only allowed in the monastery if you finish a Geshe, 20 years, 25 years.

Diamond Mountain's a little bit easier. And then, so the rest of those books, say 2,000 books, the best of them are five. And that's the Geshe course.

And that's the ACI courses also. They treat the five books. All right, who's going to read next?

How about Maria in the back? Maria? Yeah.

Yes, Dela Yena. Dela Yena. Yes.

Chirope Tenshudang. Nangpa Sangye Pei Tenshun. Ni.

Ni. Okay, cool. Jim?

Yes. Thank you. There are two divisions of classical commentaries.

The first one is a Chiropa. Yeah. You can say non-Buddhist.

Non-Buddhist and then Buddhist. Yeah, Buddhist. So the Yoga Sutra is a Shastra, but it's not a Buddhist Shastra.

For example. Okay, cool. How about Sunam?

Dela Yena. Next line. Nangpa.

Nangpa Sangye Pei Tenshunamdaknidonshud. All right, nice. Ting?

The dung here just means equal. Oh, okay. So the Buddhist classical commentaries.

Yeah, a classical Buddhist commentary and a NAM DAG commentary. A pure one? Correct.

Correct, okay. Are the same. Yeah.

Buddhist classical commentary and correct classical commentary are synonyms. That sounds a little sectarian. And that's how he said it.

And when I first read this, I just came out of my Christian life, and I was like, yeah, yeah. Every religion says that. But if you study for a long time and you meditate and you practice, you will agree.

Sooner or later, you'll say, okay, that's correct. But, THAR THUB THEG PA GCIG. All paths lead to the same goal.

That's a principle in the Prajnaparamita. That's a principle in Tim's book. We will have a section called THAR THUB THEG PA GCIG.

In the end, everyone who's trying to be a good person ends up in the same place. It's very beautiful. And there's a bitter debate about it.

And our ranggu, we take the position that you will. If you're sincerely trying to practice a spiritual path, you will end up in the same place. Okay?

Cool. Yeah. Yeah.

But we don't have much time, so ask quick. Quick. The NI in the last section, does it mean of the two?

It's the two one? Yeah, these two expressions. Number one, a Buddhist shastra.

Number two, a correct shastra, are synonymous. Yeah, synonymous. Nice question.

I hate to say it, but I'm not going to say it. Okay. How about Francisco for the next line?

Yay, Francisco. RANG SOGS PA SOGS SANGS KYI GYIS KHYAD GYE SONG KRIG ZUGS SONG GYE NA GYE SONG BRAL DU GYUR PA DANG PO DENG CHO DENG CHO NANG DAG CI SANG NYID Good. Nice job.

Okay, nice. Yay. By the way, on Monday afternoons, Arizona time, so we do Saturday mornings early, mostly for Europe and North and South America.

And then on Mondays we start in the late afternoon to catch the Asian audience. So it would be, this class would start at 7 a.m. in Beijing, for example. So we're going to, the schedule for today that we usually follow is a one hour class with one translator.

Then we'll do a 15 minute discussion of all the students. And you can just make comments. How did this help you?

How were you confused? What would you like to know about it? We can talk about it.

How can you apply this to your real life? That will be led by the translator, which is Tim in this case. Then we have a 15 minute Peachtree World News, which is, we have 41 organizations in the World View Network around the world.

And we tell news from each organization for 15 minutes. If you would like your news to be put in, ask Quan after the class. If you're here in person, you've got to either PP during the first 15 minutes or the second 15 minutes.

So personally, I would do the second 15 minutes. But you're very, very welcome to do that because then we start another hour of translation class. And that's a tough hour.

So I would say get everything out before the class. Okay, let's go. You're going to translate, Tim?

RANG TZAM PA PO Let's get this sentence done. Yeah, the author of that text or the author of that teaching, RANG TZAM PA PO, if it's a SEMS CAN. If it's a, I'm guessing a suffering living being.

Yeah, meaning a non-Buddha. The author is a non-Buddha and they have written, TZAM PA, or composed something as a BRAL PA. A commentary to the speech of the Buddha.

Good. That's called a Buddhist commentary on the speech of the Buddha. So there's a special word and there's a special definition for a Buddhist commentary.

A commentary by a human being on the speech of the Buddha is called GA'I BSGOM BRAL. And here's the definition of it. And that's a correct commentary which is commenting directly on the speech of the Buddha.

Okay? All right. And I'm going to just do the next two sentences.

That commentary on the speech of the Buddha can either be a commentary on the BSGOMS PA. True intent. Yeah, what was the Buddha generally trying to say?

You can have Buddhist commentaries on general concepts of Lord Buddha or you can discuss particular statements by Lord Buddha. So there's two kinds of Buddhist commentaries. One, a human being talks about what he thought or she thought Lord Buddha meant.

Or in general, or you can say, here's what each line of the Heart Sutra means. You can write a commentary like that. And then he gives an example of the first would be those commentaries on the TSE MA DE BDUN which is the seven great books of clear thinking.

Seven great books on clear thinking along with their DO word. I gave you their clue on the screen. Didn't I?

TSE MA DE BDUN Yeah, SEMS DO. That sutra in this case is a nickname for the Pramana Sutra. I'm going to bar check her.

Don't show it. Yeah, Dignaga's text. Seven books by Dharmakirti, and then the root book by his...

So here sutra means root book by his teacher, who's not a Buddha in the normal sense. Then Tim's going to lead a discussion. Grandpa's going to sit down and daydream.

And Tim's going to translate these three sentences for next time. Starts with Nipa. Okay.

Thank you Geshe Michael. All right. Hmm.

It's weird when you, when you concentrate the whole time and then you're like, not going to talk about it. So, I'll just open it up. While I'm processing.

What, what thoughts came to your minds. You know, okay since many of you are going to be going into three days of silent contemplation after today. Is there anything in here that you find relevant, or no, or it could be about anything else.

Go ahead, Sherry. Near the beginning of the text that we started. One of the things that you were translating was that it had.

And I don't exactly remember but it said, it has to be an aria, but an aria, who is enlightened, which basically means a Buddha. So, why say it that way. Why say aria, but who has a pure mind, rather than just saying a Buddha.

What's the point of that. My microphone back. Thank you.

That's an interesting question. The first thing that came to mind which I have no idea if it's accurate or not, is maybe it helps us distinguish between enlightenment on the Hinayana track and enlightenment on the Mahayana track, and it's speaking specifically of Mahayana Buddhas. Or maybe it's also just to emphasize that they're really cool.

I don't know just giving more, you know, sometimes you have like five different names and you're just giving a Buddha who's an aria as well, you know, just in case you forgot that they're really cool. I don't know does anyone online or anyone here have anything to add to that, to explore what that could be. Hi everybody.

I was thinking that, I mean, I will not say anything new but I think this system is really crazy good. I mean, first, like, in the format of debate first we review slightly wrong ideas or completely wrong. Then we review correct ideas.

Then we fight, they fight back. And then we smash them with correct reasoning. And I think it would be a great idea like to do it in the schools, you know, like, because we teach.

I mean, I and Bill, we teach, and I think it's great to implement in any kind of education, this idea, you know, because people they start thinking, especially to children, I don't know maybe somebody will use this idea for schools or kindergartens, I don't know. So, this is what I was thinking. I think that's really cool to that, because it is a debate text is that they're being highly specific.

And so if there is that specificity maybe it's there for us to think why, like every word matters. Right. I like that.

Anyone else want to know Robert. I like the example of the by the blessing work was activity may speak something true. When we're talking about the demon thing, because I guess I didn't think of it as sort of in a practical sense like in your, you know, because we're in the business of projects, business of what projects projects.

Right. And so, or you know you come up to an obstacle at work, professionally, or, you know, whatever, customs, who knows. And just calling on that, that, you know, just like some extra special sauce that you can use in your everyday life, you know, quietly in our mind.

Like, you know how sometimes we'll be on the subway and we'll do like a, like a tongue lens, for example, it's just like one more little practical thing we can kind of just use to help us. I think at the end, with our goals of trying to help everybody know, because we're always going to start running into obstacles is what we've been talking about a little bit. Now guess what I said you know I don't have much time in my life.

I'm not going to think about it. So, take a little arsenal of tools that you can use so for me I thought this is brilliant maybe just give it a try and see. I would love that if, if, if my boss is yelling at me.

My boss is yelling at me and I just pull out an act of truth in the moment and force them to say something really cool. Like they're yelling at me and then they're like, Oh, money pending home and I'm like, Yes, that would be nobody like that Rob like pulling it out of, out of the, you know, into our real life like, can we use like see that those things as demons and if by the power of our good practice. Can we shift to transform that what's happening right now because it's coming from us, so it could shift in a moment where they could be yelling boss, or they could be someone giving you the most secret cool advices to change your life at the same time, depending on what your seats are.

That's cool. I like that one hustle.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you. Thank you. Just question about the language that you were in the quiz, bringing up the difference between.

And then, in the first verse I saw it says, what's the definition of some key. Some get key. God, I think.

I just wonder why, why is not in the honorific form.

[Speaker 1]
It is the honorific form.

[Speaker 2]
God is the honorific. Okay. Is the regular.

[Speaker 1]
Correct.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, thank you. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Cool. Good to clarify. Anyone else.

Yes, can we toss our gently hand the microphone to get to the place. One more comment that so comments. It's the high honorific.

It's like the, the exalted speech of the Buddha, then not means speech of anybody. And then also has the second meaning of the command of a king. So, there's some feeling of that.

When you say God, there's some feeling of it was spoken by a king or queen. Cool. What other cool ideas or applications.

The Joe Fulton want to say something. Yes. Just because people are going into retreat the next couple of days.

[Speaker 2]
I'm not sure the right question to ask, but the idea around in the heart sutra, the Buddha going into deep meditation and doing the puppeting thing.

[Speaker 1]
Like why allow that to be like an excuse or reason for it to be in the sutra why not just have the beat. Here's the heart sutra, like where else does that show up maybe that's a better question. That's an interesting question.

So one of the, one of the styles of one of the types of high honorific car speech of the Buddha is what Joe was talking about in the heart sutra. Like, so he's kind of asking, what is it anywhere else, does that happen anywhere else. So, guess what I said, that's the famous example but it probably happens elsewhere but it's sort of like, why, why didn't the Buddha just why did the Buddha go into deep meditation, and then have two of his students talk versus just say it himself.

Seems like a lot of effort. Why would that be something cool. Why would that be something that.

And what would be the meaning behind it. Like what's the purpose. Do you want to add.

Yeah, sure. First thing that comes to mind is, and it starts to just open you to the idea that two people having a conversation could be very special, like that's actually really enjoyed learning about all the different things that can be in a sutra like audience reaction and everything and it just helps you be a little bit less like rigid or like compartmentalizing like this is holy and that's not. Yeah, like that so maybe saying, focusing on the teaching and not the teacher.

Yeah. I like that. Any other ideas.

And I have some cool. I, I think, maybe, just like us, we are discussing something here, like in a dialogue that is more interesting and fun and maybe get your sitting aside. He's not in deep meditation but he just pretend.

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I think this is fun. So maybe it's a good teaching to let us discuss while we are teaching us.

And, and maybe somebody getting recorded, and maybe in the future and that become another modern heart sutra, nobody knows. That's so that's so. Just kidding, just kidding.

So, did you have something, Sophie, did you want to. Yeah, sure. Sure.

Yes, on the previous question that sometimes when it allows the students to get the teaching into pieces, which is more digestible. So when it's a conversation among two people.

[Speaker 2]
It's easier like if it's just a statement from one when it's as a conversation it allows to like that debrief, or that.

[Speaker 1]
So it gets more easily, so we can eat it more easily. Just like this cake. Nice.

Cool. Chloe, and this will be the last comment that one hustle is going to come up and give us the weekly entertainment news was happening around the world and all of our organizations. Buddha needs to talk through normal human for people has lesser good seed to see enlightened being.

So in this way. So so gave us the people who have not have very virtuous seeds are able to receive the teachings through a normal human. It's a compassion for the Buddha to do that.

I'd like that but I only thing I would say is that if you're a social cable, like me. And you're able to hear Holy Speech I think you probably have some pretty good seats. I would, that's the only thing I would change if I would consider it very special that you're able to.

And then that could then transform into something more beautiful, even more beautiful. Cool. Thank you, Chloe.

One. Are you ready. Yay.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Hola. Just checking.

It's working. Okay. Thank you everyone for being in these classes.

They are advanced classes, and I was just listening to some of my friends who are organizing the retreats, talking about these classes now are becoming very important part of every of the events all over the world. They are very meaningful, not always necessarily easy but as Geshe-la like to say, sometimes difficult classes, help us to learn deeper ideas to help us to grow even more in knowledge, and even better when they are fun, like now. So we want to encourage everyone, you can keep following these classes, they are going to be happening on weekly basis.

They happen all over the world. A few weeks ago we had some of them in Asia, in Japan, they were wonderful. So here's the QR code for anybody who is live or online, who want to sign up for them.

Here you can follow closely what's happening specifically with those classes. Very, very wonderful. So you may wonder where these texts are coming from.

And we want to talk a little bit about ALL, because they are having a very cool event, we talked a little bit about this before. But in Taipei, in Taiwan, they are organizing a very cool concert fundraising event for ALL. ALL basically is the organization who looks for lost ancient texts, they try to digitalize them, preserve them.

And they send them first to India to be imputed in the computer, then they send them to Sedona, basically. And there is where our wonderful team of translators, lead by Geshe Michael, do the magic. Oh wow, okay, they are going very fast.

So yeah, a concert is coming up. It's going to be 4am Arizona time. You know, Arizona has become a standard time for the world.

It's a reference time. But it's going to be amazing, apparently. Next picture, please.

They are going to have a very important Hollywood international film score master, Hans Zimmer, involved or something like that. Ooh. So, John, Brady, La, if you are watching, we send you best regards, best success, it's going to be wonderful.

The venue is going to be very, very, very beautiful. It's the next picture. It's supposed to be like a great acoustics, so elegant.

It's going to be a huge, massive event. So if you don't have the chance to watch it live, probably not, because I think it's happening tomorrow. No, two days from now, but at 4am here.

We hope to be able to watch the recording. I think they are preparing like a whole display of, I would say, like a play that has a theme involved with the ancient scripters. So thank you, John Brady, for all your work.

There is a QR code if you want to sign up for that. And I think our next, yes, they are also, here is Sophie. Where is she?

Where? Well, she's organizing a very cool event in June with John Brady as well. They are going to be teaching about the Heart Sutra.

If you are around or you're curious, you can also follow the QR code. I wanted to just, but I don't see her. But if you are here, you can stand up and people, if you're interested, talk to her.

I don't see her, but she's around. And yeah, okay, next thing. As you may know, we just came back from, this one is a very close, it's not quite Kyoto, but very close to Kyoto.

It's just like a few hour drive. That's why I wanted her to stand up, but I don't see her. Okay, so we were in Kyoto and I would like to invite Xiaoping to come with us.

It was a wonderful event. We just want to share a little bit of what happened. And I want to say, Xiaoping, thank you so much because the production was amazing.

Unbelievable. The place was amazing. But what I want to thank you the most is your kindness and the friendship and how nicely you treat us all.

Thank you so much. You can be ready whenever you want.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so as you may know, that Diamond Silk Entrepreneur University was founded in 2022. And our goal is to build a full university in the long run. So we start with business school and our strategy is to start with MBA and EMBA and then build a business school.

And then the next step is to build a bachelor's degree. And we are building two campuses, one in Sedona, Arizona. The other one is in Kyoto.

So we are in the middle of our first MBA, EMBA program. It's like 10 months now. And so this video is only a short video, but it can give us a taste of what our program looks like.

It's like a four-day event. While MBA, EMBA is like a 20-month event. Yeah, so I'd like to share with you this short video.

[Speaker 2]
Can you team help us with the lights? It looks better. Thank you.

As you can see, it's very cool. Just kidding. Yeah, right?

You have to come. It's about to... It's running, but not running.

But it was beautiful. I promise. Rob was there.

Tim was there. Stanley was there. They can all testify it's true.

Well, in the meantime... Yeah, Geshe-la was there. Of course.

In the meantime, you were about to share with us a little bit of what's the next you have planned. Maybe now we can do that first. What do you have in your mind?

[Speaker 1]
Yes. Once we finish the first MBA, EMBA, and upgrade it, then we are going to start our second MBA, EMBA, in March 2025. And so very soon we are going...

Our textbook writer, Professor Geshe Michael, he's our guiding father. And we will soon be designing our bachelor degree. Now, I'm very happy to share with you that we have already chosen our first major, which is called entrepreneurship.

And then once we start the bachelor degree program, it will be a four-year full program. So today we would like to share this video. I just want to share with you the progress we have made and invite you to pay to, if you are interested, to follow us.

So if your children, maybe you're interested, your children or your nephew or your granddaughter, they can attend. Yeah, because it's a very long project.

[Speaker 2]
So question for you, is anyone welcome to come? How can you qualify to be able to attend this program?

[Speaker 1]
For our next program... Okay, the video is ready now. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Better the video first, so people get excited.

[Speaker 1]
When you are keeping your ethics, or you are studying more about keeping your ethics, I think your heart is relaxed, just to talk about ethics, just to talk about stopping, you have a vision how you can stop. When you feel joyful, you are on the right path. When you feel sad, you are on the right path.

When you feel happy, Our salvation lies for the world.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you so much. It was wonderful. Really, really fun, beautiful, super professional, amazing.

I really impressed both of you. Geshe-la, congratulations. Amazing.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
So then, okay, what's next? How can people be part of this?

[Speaker 1]
You can pay attention, just follow us. We have our website, and there's a QR code. And meanwhile, during this retreat, if you are interested and want to get to know more about the progress of university, you can talk to my colleagues, Stanley Chen and Dinara.

Yes. Particularly, we are building, our goal is to build two beautiful physical campus. So it's a hundred years of vision, and it won't happen because many of your support and people who are online, but we need your continuous support.

Yeah, that's all.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you. Thank you very much. So just before we start with our next class that we have here with us, Ward, amazing teacher, amazing friend.

That's good. We just want to celebrate a little bit, a very other special friend that we have here. He's had his birthday, and I would like to invite Rob to come with us very quickly and share a little bit of what was your experience because there you go.

We created that poster for you. He has like many hidden talents. He's like a lacrosse star player, Macchiato, if you ever want to give him a present.

And nowadays you may know he's Geshe Michael personal fixer. He does basically all that needs to be fixed. So happy birthday.

43, right? Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Fixer Junior. Jigme is Fixer Senior.

[Speaker 2]
All right. You got to pay respect. Okay, yeah, of course.

It's a good Irish guy. Now, this is the thing. We have cake for you.

Wonderful. So I would like to ask you, how was your experience? Because we just came from a tour.

I had the chance to be part of the first half of the tour, but you did all of it. If you can share with us a little bit of how it was for you, and we have a few pictures to share while you talk. How was this trip?

Look at that, man. They do know how to like welcome you. Well, I have to admit they're very good.

That guy.

[Speaker 1]
I don't know. I sent that. I do clean up well.

It was amazing. I think these guys are just great producers of events.

[Speaker 2]
They're a great example to see, because I've watched people to events for almost 30 years, and to watch each generation just get better and better and better, and the students' hearts opening up more and more and more is just incredible.

[Speaker 1]
There I am in the middle next to Connie. Shanghai was remarkable. Kyoto was remarkable.

Really, at the end of the day, it's just I was thinking today, I was talking to Xiaoping yesterday, and just so nice to have all these really good friends that you were able to do these programs with.

[Speaker 2]
To have these bonds with these people that we travel around the world with and then be able to help in any way.

[Speaker 1]
President Obama said, if you want to get noticed, just learn how to get things done.

[Speaker 2]
It's such a great piece of advice. You're around a lot of people who know how to make things happen. You can't help but it rub off on you.

[Speaker 1]
You just hang out with them, and you travel with them, and they just rub off on you, and you always pick up a little skill from Stanley, from Xiaoping, from you.

[Speaker 2]
Me?

[Speaker 1]
Yes, of course.

[Speaker 2]
I think he's amazing, amazing. This Peachtree News is remarkable, and I've watched him blossom into this incredible presenter, basically. I think you're going to turn into this very handsome, gray-haired, Mexican, beautiful man who will just be like, back in the day, I remember the beginning when I had no money, but now look at me.

Let me tell you how this works. The four steps. It's funny that you connect the gray hair with beautiful, and I don't know if I'm going to have any left.

We have a bag of hair. Actually, in Shanghai, someone dressed as Geshe Michael, so we could give you the wig. Oh, Kyoto?

Yeah. It was amazing. Yeah, the whole trip was just remarkable.

I would encourage anyone, really, if you can get involved in any project, anywhere you are in the world, reach out to either an organizer or a friend or someone who's involved, and there's always something for you to do.

[Speaker 1]
When I first started, I think they asked if I could help with music, not music, but electronic device, which I have zero skill in, but I just said yes a lot.

[Speaker 2]
I always said, personally, I always said yes, so if an opportunity came, you just never know which direction it's going to take you, and so personally, I think you should just jump in, give it your all, don't worry about if you're overwhelmed, it's going to happen, you're going to grow.

[Speaker 1]
Constantly, I'm always like, ah, this is an opportunity to grow. Schedule, for example, I did not see that coming, and it's unbelievable. I met Mr. Aragawa's assistant,

[Speaker 2]
and we sat in the hotel, in the lobby, speaking to each other, and she showed me Mr. Aragawa's schedule, and I was like, hold on, and I pulled out guest list schedule, and I was like, can I Zoom call you, and talk about tricks of the trade, but we're so lucky, we really are, to be part of any of these things, and I think when you leave here, it becomes evident when you go home, people smell it, they pick up on it, they know something's going on, and then it's going to be your responsibility

[Speaker 1]
to pass this on to your colleague, your family member, the person at the gas station, the coffee shop, whatever, so yeah, just grateful.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you very much, because I really admire the job you do, and I really admire this fact that you are always thinking about how you could serve better your personal teachers, but also the community in general, and you have helped me a lot, you have welcomed me very much since I came back to Arizona, thank you so much for all the help you do to Geshe Michael, and to the whole community, very happy birthday, thank you so much.

Okay, now we have Ward Smith, and Sushupna.