Тим Ловенхопт — Книга 1: Совершенство мудрости, занятие 47

[Speaker 1]
Alejandra, could you move the camera so we're centered a little bit? Thank you. All right.

I think we're ready to get started. Thank you, Andreana. That was awesome.

Where'd she go? Okay. Hey, Ben, can you guys hear us over there?

Yay. Sounds good. We cannot hear Ben speaking on his computer in the room.

You can hear it in Internet land. Now we can hear you. Yay.

Where are you, Ben? He's at a coffee shop in Albuquerque. Is that Earl?

Yes, it is. What neighborhood are we in? West Village.

We're in the West Village, and we have friends watching. Oh, hi, everyone. Hi.

It's great to see you all. Thank you. Hello, New York.

I'm kind of like wearing a suit. I'm sorry, Bob. No, you look great, Ben.

You look awesome. Okay. Thank you.

It's wonderful to see you. You're just playing my role. This is her house.

She hosted us all. Oh, wow. Thank you.

And then you're all in my house. They're in the West Village somewhere. In the West Village.

That's how they pronounce it here. I didn't know Cuaima ever went to New York. And since you're so stressed, Francisco, if you have a moment, could you turn down the color on the cameras?

It's too high because we're looking a little orange over here. Okay. Am I always looking orange?

Is that the problem? Use the camera to make me look good. Okay.

Anyway, let's get started with our homework, everyone. See? All right.

Cool. So can we put the homework up, please? All right.

So first question. So what we normally do is we review the previous class, which this previous class was in Mexico City at the end of July. So it's been quite a while since we've reviewed any of this material.

So good luck. Which is due to my surgeon. What's too small?

The enthusiasm of my surgeon. Let's do another one. Is that better?

That's as big as I can make it. Is that better? Okay, cool.

Thank you for letting me know. Okay, so this text, for those of you who haven't been to Mixed Nuts, is this text is in debate format. So all entirely, for those of you that are attracted to logical syllogisms, the classics house, you're going to love this.

This makes my head hurt, but it's been good for me, actually. I didn't think I liked logic until I started learning it. And now the problem is anyone says anything illogical to me, I can't have a conversation with them.

Anyhow, so normally what happens in this text, there's a debater. Someone shows up and makes some kind of, gives us an idea, and it's slightly wrong. And then throughout the debate, we learn what was wrong about that idea to get to the correct idea.

And the debaters are not stupid. They're very, very smart. They're very cunning.

And they bring up questions that normally come up in our minds anyhow. So what we're doing here is we're trying to define what is the speech of the Buddha. And we've been doing this for about half a year now.

And so when we say the speech of the Buddha, the argument we're in right now is, let's say we read a sutra. And you listen to it, and you memorize it. And then you hear those words in your head afterwards.

And you're not yet a Buddha. I don't know who you are, but I'm not yet. And so if I hear the words of the Buddha in my mind, is that still considered the speech of the Buddha?

Okay, so that's the... Because it's not the direct speech, because the Buddha's not speaking anymore. But it's in my head, and I'm hearing those words.

So does that count as the speech of the Buddha? And that's what we're trying to define. And it's a really profound question, actually, especially when it comes to those who are attracted to the diamond house.

Because what you're hearing in your mind could potentially be the voice of a Buddha trying to teach you something. Okay, here we go. Question number one.

I just said that. Our debater is trying to define the speech of the Buddha. And they claim that anything that is considered the speech of the Buddha must be in the mind of someone who has eliminated all the obstacles to Buddhahood.

Is that true, and why or why not? And if you're going to answer the question, we have microphones in the room. Please speak into them, so everyone at home can hear them.

Sugen, can you toss gently or pass gently? Excuse me, it's mayor, Sugen. Excuse me, the mayor of Rimrock.

It will soon become an incorporated town in Arizona when we vote. It's not a legal town, Sugen. I'm just letting you know.

So the mayor of Rimrock is going to answer our question. The answer is no. No, why?

Because I can think of the words of the Buddha, although I'm not free of obstacles yet. Otherwise, there is no such thing as the diamond house, if it is not correct. I don't think our debater goes there, but that's an interesting implication we can take to the playground.

Since you mentioned diamond house, so I just continue the conversation. If he was in diamond house, we wouldn't know. No.

So, correct, yes. So someone can hear the words of the Buddha in their mind and not yet have removed all the obstacles to Buddhahood. Yay, good job.

Number two. Is it necessarily the case that the speech of the Buddha is in the mind of someone who has eliminated all their obstacles to Buddhahood? This is the opposite question.

Anyone online, repeat the question slower for the translators. Good job. Is it necessarily the case that the speech of the Buddha is in the mind of someone who has eliminated all their obstacles to Buddhahood?

If the speech of the Buddha is in your mind, are you a Buddha? No. No.

Because you could be memorizing the speech or thinking of the speech. But that's still in the mind of a Buddha too. All in addition.

Great, so this is the opposite logical way. You can ask the question differently, and it's useful to ask it in the opposite way for your mind. To think of it this way.

Is it necessarily the case that if the speech is in your mind, that you have eliminated the obstacles? For some people, yes. But for some people, no.

Like me. I can hear the words in the mind, and I'm not yet a Buddha. Okay, number three.

This is a fun one. We've defined about four months ago three types of speech of the Buddha. Okay.

And then we're using the Heart Sutra, the example in the Heart Sutra. Excuse me? That was really fast.

You don't get $100. The question is, there's three types of speech, and which one is exemplified primarily, mainly, to get out of the argument, mainly by Shariputra and the Heart Sutra? And can you grab the microphone and answer that again?

There should be two floating around. One of our microphones has disappeared. We're fixing it.

It's broken. Yay. We're upgrading it.

I think there's three kinds of types. The first one is once I heard, and this is not recorded in the Sutra. So I think this is authorized by Buddha.

The other one is the main text, which is directly from Buddha. And the last one is less so, less so. You said it first.

Shariputra is blessing from Buddha. And what does that mean by blessing by the Buddha? Because Buddha is not speaking Heart Sutra.

Mainly it's a disciple, Shariputra, asking the question. And the Buddha is meditating to manipulate to students to have this talk. Manipulate sounds like a really bad word, but I get it.

It's okay. Blessing, blessing. Okay, blessing.

The Buddha is manipulating you, Gibson. And I think the Buddha was manipulating you because we have three vocab words that you just gave all three of them. So why don't you answer all three vocab words for us?

Give him the microphone. Sumpaka supposed to be direct speech from Buddha. That's correct, yep.

And gesu nangweka is follow the authorized by Buddha. Correct, and what's the primary example? What's that hurt?

Correct, and what's it in Sanskrit for $50? Whoa, 50 bucks. I've done you.

No, no help, no help, Stanley. You just got $16. No, you got the first one, Eva.

Eva, Eva Svahmaya Srutam? $32. $32.

Who wants to say the whole thing and get the rest of the money? Eva Maya Srutam. What was that, do that again Ben?

I think I got it. A-V-A-M-P-R-A-M-A-Y-A-S-U-T-R-A Nice, okay, let's repeat. A-V-A-M-P-R-A-M-A-Y-A-S-U-T-R-A Ben Kramer got 16 down, man.

That's all it is, every phrase. Please send me your PayPal. Okay, and Gibson, the very last one.

Pressing. Microphone, please. Pressing, pressing by Buddha.

Right, and what's the Tibetan? How do you say those words? Tinkylabeka.

Good, very good. Excellent, yay. Wow.

Okay. Yay! Let me open this up here.

So this is where we stopped last time, and I think it'd be useful for us to go back, go back through the first debate so we can know what the heck we're talking about. Okay. Okay, all right, cool.

Tim's going to explain. We're in the middle of a debate, so he's going to catch us up. Okay, so I'm not going to read it Tibetan.

We're just going to go through it quickly. So Kachig, someone comes along, someone smart like Gibson comes along and gives us a very slightly wrong idea. By the way, Gibson is really funny, too.

I didn't realize how, how, very, very funny person. No, but I mean that in like, he's humorous, his jokes are incredible. So the Buddha comes, so the Kachig comes and says, look, he says, consider the speech of the Buddha in the 80,000 verses of the Perfection of Wisdom.

Okay. Which is a very long text, 80,000 verses. All right.

And consider that speech in the mind of- 8,000. Excuse me? 8,000.

8,000? Yeah, kidding. Just kidding.

Yeah, okay. 8,000. It's still a lot of verses.

Okay. You know, whatever. In the mind of the realized being Shariputra.

So consider the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 verses in the mind of Shariputra. Okay. That speech of the Buddha that exists in the mind of Shariputra possesses the 60 qualities of the speech of a Buddha, which we talked about briefly last time, that there's 60 qualities of a Buddha.

60 qualities that I think you taught in DCI. It's- 64, actually. It's 64, it's 64.

Yeah, we taught it in DCI, yeah. And so he's basically saying, that speech of the Buddha has those qualities, which are in the mind of Shariputra. And the reason he gives is because they are the words of the Buddha.

Am I correct in that? Yeah, and I'm going to say it in a sarcastic way, okay? So we said, if you have the- Do you have to be a Buddha to have the Buddha's speech in your mind?

Yes or no? Then we say, no. And then we say, well, what's an example?

And we'll say, I don't know. Shariputra has the Heart Sutra in his mind. He spoke it, okay?

Okay, good. So here's our sarcastic response. That Heart Sutra in Shariputra's mind must have the 60 amazing intonations and other qualities of speech, which only an enlightened being can give to their talk, right?

Like it's the manner, it's the intent, it's the style. Are you saying that in Shariputra's mind, there's 64 different amazing characteristics of that speech? Yes or no?

In his head, in a non-Buddha's head, can there be those 64 qualities? We say, no. Then that's not Buddha's speech.

This is the kachig coming back to us. Yeah, it's not bad. It's not a bad argument.

We said, yes, everyone can have Buddha's speech in their mind. And he said, oh, then there must be those 64 qualities in their mind. Potentially.

Potentially. Well, then a rock has 64 qualities. Okay, and then the kachig keeps going on even with a little bit of sarcasm by quoting the Dode Gen, which is, what is that, Gibson?

I asked you about this yesterday, that's why I didn't know how to translate it. All right, let's read it first. Could you give that to Dr. Chen?

Dr. Chen? He's working on his doctorate degree. So starting here.

Here, okay. KAL TE DODE GYAO LE Gen? Gen Le.

Gen Le. DE SHE By the way, I want to hear, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. DE SHESUN NI TET YEP TE Yeah, good.

YANG LAG ZHUG ZHUG ZEN MI GYEL ZHES SUNGS PA'I ZHUG ZHES SUNGS ZHES SUNGS PA'I ZHUG Good, okay. So he basically says, this has to be true because in the, would you translate the Jewel of the Sutras? Or the, it's usually translated, the ornament of the?

You can say the Jewel of the Sutras here. Okay. In, who wrote the Jewel of the Sutras?

Who wrote the Dode Gen? Master Asanga. Master Asanga, and inspired by?

Lord Maitreya. By Maitreya, Lord Maitreya. And who is the, the future Buddha?

I like to say he was taking dictation. So he's using an example from a book that was not yet written by a, or dictated by a Buddha. That's, I find that interesting.

Now that's a huge debate. Okay, well, but let's not go there yet. We're not going there yet.

All right, so this is how I translated it. Okay. This is the case because the Jewel of the Sutras states, the conqueror's speech is limitless, inconceivable in the 60 exquisite ways.

Yeah, good. The only thing I would shift is how you started it? How did you start it?

The conqueror's speech? That is the case. It has to be more...

Sarcastic. Emphatic. Emphatic, okay.

That is so the case? Of course, of course that's the case. Okay.

Okay, what's the, what's the, remember the debate. The debate is, he said, look, you can have the Buddha's speech in your mind and not be a Buddha. Okay?

Like if you memorize the Heart Sutra, you have the Buddha's speech in your mind, but you haven't, you're not a Buddha. And then this guy came back and said, wow, if you have the Buddha's speech in your mind, then that speech must have the 60 qualities of the Buddha's, the way the Buddha talks. And then we said, ma kyap, which means what?

Look, that doesn't have to be true. I mean, you can have the Buddha's speech in your mind and it doesn't have all the fine details of an actual mind being talking. It's still the Buddha's speech.

And he says, well then, I guess Maitreya's wrong. Because Maitreya said the Buddha's speech always has those 64 qualities. Got it?

Kyap, so it has to be, the kyap has to be more strong. Always has that. He said what?

You can have the Buddha's speech in your mind and it's not have the 64 details of the way a Buddha talks. And then we said, well, I guess Maitreya's wrong. We say, why do you say that?

Well, Maitreya's defined the Buddha's speech as any speech which has those 64 qualities. Got it? Okay.

All right, so in the translation here, we would include that line where we say ma kyap and what it actually says, and then come back with his. Yeah, now, a challenge of all of these debate texts is that not all of the answers are written down. Okay, you're only hearing half the debate sometimes.

It's understood. It's not written down. Okay, what do you mean?

We said it's possible to have a Buddha's speech in your mind and not be a Buddha. Okay, it's not necessarily the case that you have to be a Buddha. And he said, well, of course it is.

And we said, why? And he said, because if it's a Buddha's speech, it has to be spoken like the way the Buddha talks it. And a non-Buddha can't do that.

You can memorize the Heart Sutra, but you're not going to say it the way the Buddha said it. You can't recite the Heart Sutra the way it was spoken by Lord Buddha, who at the same moment was observing the effect of that sutra for the next billion years. You can't talk it.

You can't speak it, though. You can memorize it, but you are not giving it the flavor of a person who can see a billion years ahead what the effect of this Heart Sutra is going to be. You see what I mean?

There's a difference, right? So can you memorize the Buddha's speech? I just explained why you couldn't.

By the way, we go and get the quotation in the original book by Maitreya, and we can do that because of John Brady's work. So we went and got it. By the way, talking about John Brady's work, Nick, it's a good segue.

Perfect, perfect. I will pull it up. Okay, listen.

We have input operators around the world working for John Brady's project. They have worked for 37 years in some low, and we put those data entry centers, which were originally sponsored by Hewlett Packard Computer, we put them in poor villages around the world. So we find a poor village, we find poor people, and we train them.

And there's a cute story of how I met one of these people in New York working in a store, and she told me her life was changed because she learned how to program in a village. So anyway, we have this, I think it's over 100 poor people typing these books in. Our goal is to finish 300,000 books.

We have finished what percent in 37 years? 7%, okay? So it's going to take 15 more generations.

15 more generations, okay? We already have two generations working together, okay? Some of the children of the moms are working.

And we feed them work when we get scans, okay? So like we're in Mongolia in the library, we find a rare book, we scan it, we send it to the village, and they type it in and they send it back. And we put it in the database, okay?

Sometimes we don't have a book ready for them because we didn't find the next rare book. So we have backup work for them. And for example, the total surviving books from ancient India are 3,700 commentaries and 990 sutras and tantras, okay?

5,000 books, okay? Now the cool thing is, those 5,000 books were carved in West China, in the Himalayas. They were carved.

And people carved copies. And different monasteries carved different sets. And they're important because they might have different versions.

So there's about six or seven famous carvings. And there was a place called Nartang in the central Himalayas. And during the Cultural Revolution, that place was destroyed completely.

And every brick was destroyed. And obviously the carvings were destroyed. So they've been missing.

We found a set. We found a set of the prints. So we told the poor people typing, when you don't have work, type this thing, because it will take you many years to finish.

Got it? So when they're not busy with some rare book that we find in Mongolia, they have extra time. They type these 5,000 books.

And those frustrating, diligent people in the last five, six years finished those pages. They finished 210,000 pages. In their spare time.

In their spare time. And they're amazing. They're amazing people.

They work so hard. And they're just amazing. And a couple of years ago, we said, we want to start a program to buy each family a house in your poor village.

And they said, no. And we said, why? And they said, we already built our houses because you hired us 37 years ago.

We saved our money. We built houses. We don't need your houses.

Somebody refused a house. Then, now they just finished the last page of 210,000 pages in their spare time. And we received it.

And we're already using it. We're already using it every day. I think we should give them a bonus or something.

I want to give them a, what do you call? A reward for their hard work. Nick?

Oh, no. Yeah, let's give them a tip. I was just agreeing with you.

Anyway, me and Nick sat down and we said, we should give these guys a reward. Okay, now listen, we have money. We have a foundation.

It's funded by some of our businesses. They have lots of money. They can give a grant.

They can give a reward to these people. We can do it. We already have the money.

But then you cannot get the karma. So I have the money and it's in our foundation. And we could give it tomorrow.

I'd like to give them 5,000 bucks, something like that. Then they can split it up and it's a lot of money for them. So what I'd like to propose, anyone wants to get their, I call it, get your finger in the karma pie.

Get your finger in the karmic pie. If you would like to contribute $10, $20, $10,000, I mean, we can go over 5,000. I don't see a problem with that.

So if you're interested to express our thanks to these people who did this work in their spare time and saved 210,000 pages of ancient texts, it's extremely valuable. And all copies of that were destroyed, except for one. And now everybody in the world can have a copy.

Okay, cool. All right, so that's called a QR code. All right.

So we'll post the link here afterwards. Okay, we'll post it. This QR code means sucks your money out from your pocket.

I mean, but that will go to them, okay? And I really, so our foundation will cover 5,000, okay? We'll give 5,000 anyway, even if nobody gives anything, okay?

And whatever you give, we'll give 5,000 on top, okay? All right? All right.

But just give something, don't be stupid. The karma is unbelievable. It's one of the most important things that ever happened in this world.

I just gave 500. Yeah. Okay, back to class.

Because I have access to the internet, and you don't. That's why we give you access. Yeah.

So after class, can we put that back up? Thank you. Okay.

That was beautiful, thank you. I think it's cool. And they don't know.

They don't know we're going to do it. There's one more sentence here. I have one more sentence in this.

Who has the box? Can you give that to Jack, please? He's right there in front.

Serna, yeah. Sangye bakpe gyu kisung la. Could you make a mistake next time?

Good job. So now that we come back, and this is what I think it says. I'm not sure if this is true.

That's okay. The first thing, so Serna here means that the other guy's done talking, right? And gyur mey te is us coming back and saying, but what you say is not even a problem at all.

Good, yeah. And then our guy comes back. I'll give $100 if someone can state the argument so far.

$100. Just tell me the argument so far. How about Maria in the back?

Marina.

[Speaker 2]
I'll try.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, just relax and, you know. So the other guy is arguing that we cannot have speech of the Buddha in the mind, and we're saying we can't.

[Speaker 2]
Why?

[Speaker 1]
Because he's saying we do not have the qualities of the speech. Perfect, $100. Jack and Rebecca can tell you, being the overseas language independent program masters, what's gyur mey du means?

Gyur mey du. No problem. Say no problem.

That's New York tongue. In Tibetan, you say gyur mey du. Say gyur mey du.

Gyur mey du. Gyur mey du. In scripture, you say gyur mey te.

Same, same thing. Gyur mey du. Hey, no problem.

Why? And our person says, well, why do you say that? And this is what I think it says, is that because the Buddha intended for his speech to be in the mind of Shariputra.

Nope. Nope, yeah. But it's all right, it's a good guess.

Not, but good guesses don't get published. So the key word here is gomba, gomba, okay. Does that mean what he intended?

Yeah, what they really meant. What it really meant, okay. That's a famous book name, right?

Dor de gong de. What the Buddha really meant. What I really meant, okay.

So it says here, when Maitreya said that something's not the speech of the Buddha if it doesn't have the 64 qualities, he was only talking about SANGS RGYAS BAG PA'I RGYUD KYI I was only talking about the speech of the Buddha, the speech in the mind of the Buddha. Good, as it exists in the mind of a Buddha. He was not saying in general, okay.

Maitreya said the Buddha's speech always has the 64 qualities. But he meant, what he meant was the Buddha's speech as it exists in the mind of a Buddha always has the 64 qualities. That doesn't mean you can't memorize the Heart Sutra and have the Buddha's speech in your mind and not sound like a Buddha.

Got it? Okay, it's still the Buddha's speech. It's what you thought.

It's what we all thought. We thought we were memorizing the Buddha's speech. You were.

But it's not the same as the Buddha's speech as it exists in the mind of a Buddha. Because that has 64 qualities that you will never have until you get to be a Buddha. Because those 64 qualities are imparted by looking ahead a billion years.

And you can't do it yet. Okay? All right, next debate.

Kha chik means new debate. Literally it means... Someone comes along and makes the claim.

Literally, kha chik. One mouth. One mouth.

One mouth means new debate starting. Okay, one mouth. Can you switch to his computer, please?

One big mouth says... Can you switch to Geshe-la's computer now? Oh, yeah.

Go back to the other one. Yes. We should thank the tech table.

Yeah. They get all the blame and none of the credit. All right, here we go.

All right, who would like to read? Let's put this in. Oh, do you want to read?

All right. Robert Haggerty Jr., the fixer. By the way, I cannot do my work without him helping me day and night.

And we should thank him. Some day he's going to figure out the overtime cost. I did.

They moved me to salary. But we're just, we're going to split it up. Let's just read the first two lines.

Kha chik sangay ki kha yin na dulwa nyong mo. Dulje. Oh, dulje.

Dulje nyong mong pong chir tu sung pay kyap park tel tau. Which one? Do you think it's sarcastic or not?

I think it's sarcastic, but I don't know. No, if the kha chik's coming along. Oh, so not.

Not sarcastic, because they believe what he's got. He believes what it, or they believe what they're going to say. Gyula ma ma lay.

Nice. Keep going. Gyula ma ma lay.

Gyula ma ma lay. I stopped there. You stopped there.

So if something is considered the speech of the Buddha. Yeah, if something is the speech of the Buddha, it must have been sung pa. It must have been spoken.

Chir tu. In order to, or for the purpose of? Yeah, for the purpose of pongwa'ing the nyong mong in the mind of the dulje.

To remove the negative emotions in the mind of students or disciples. You can be a Tibetan teacher, just read it backwards, and everybody says, wow. Yeah, if it's the Buddha's speech, it must have been spoken for the purpose of?

Eliminating. Eliminating negative emotions in the minds of students.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, in the student's mind.

[Speaker 1]
And Tim's going to give you an interesting etymology of student here. Dulje comes from the word dul duwa, which means to tame.

[Speaker 2]
A wild horse.

[Speaker 1]
A wild horse, yeah. The word for disciple in Tibetan is wild horse to be tamed, okay? Whipped, beaten, starved, worked them all night.

Finally they act right, okay. It kind of feels that way. Okay.

Then he quotes Gyur Lama. He quotes the Maitreya's higher line. Yeah, and why is that title deceptive?

Because it's not a tantra. Yeah, the title of the book is Uttara Tantra. Say uttara.

Uttara. Tantra. It's one of the five great books of the coming Buddha, and it's not a?

Tantra. Tantra. It has nothing, well, it's not a tantra.

It's an open. Because it maintains a certain line of thinking. And tantra means thread.

Tantra means line, okay? So, okay? It's not a tantra, but it's called Uttara Tantra, okay?

All right. How about Venerable Codding? Can you read next?

The next verse, and then the closing part of the verse. Oh, yeah, the closer, we'll call it that. Starting at Chir Du?

I know. Kangshik. Oh, kangshik don den chu dang nyer jau pa.

Kam sung kun ne nyon mong pong chir sung. Shi wei pen yong ton par ze pa kang. De ni drang drong sung yin dok pa shen.

Shei su. Sung? Shei sung.

Oh, shei sung pe chir ser na.

[Speaker 2]
Good job. Nice, nice.

[Speaker 1]
Very good. Very good. Awesome.

Awesome. So he's going to quote the Gyud Lama. It's a good book to quote because the author is a...

An Arya. Well, it's an almost...

[Speaker 2]
Future Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
It's a Buddha, practically a Buddha, okay? Should be a pretty good book. Anything which is don den.

That's a famous doctor, right? Yeshe don den. What's don den mean?

Don den means meaningful. Has meaning. Oh, meaningful, okay.

Anything which is supremely meaningful, as opposed to the internet. Don den, chu dang nyer jau pa, always connected to, which is a little weird in a definition of the Dharma, but there must be a deeper meaning, all right? And it was sung pa, at the end of the second line.

Oh, it was spoken. CHIR DU For the benefit of... In order to...

In order to... SPONG To remove... The NYON MONGS The negative emotions.

In all kam sung. In all the three realms. Yeah.

That thing which was spoken to help every being in the universe remove their negative thoughts, okay? That... He's defining the Dharma.

This is Dharma, okay? Buddha, the Buddha Dharma, okay? Who's defining it?

Maitreya. He's not so big. He's just the next Buddha.

Who's closer than you think? Okay. SHI BA'I PHAN YON PHAN YON is benefit, the benefit of...

Ultimate SHI BA. Highest peace? SHI BA HA, Shantideva, for example.

Peace. Peace, just peace in general? Peace, yeah.

Highest peace. In here, it refers to nirvana and Buddhahood. Okay.

Okay? So if it teaches you the benefits of peace, both personal peace and ultimate peace, Buddhahood, okay? Then that's the...

That's the teaching. That's the word capital W, okay? That's the word.

Of who? CANG SONG Siddha. Siddha.

Siddha. Of the Siddha. What's Siddha?

Like Siddhartha. It means great saint, okay? Siddha means great saint.

You can hear it in an Indian taxi. Siddha, Siddha. Go straight, go straight.

Okay? In modern Hindi, it means straight. Okay?

In ancient times, it meant a straight person, meaning a high saint. High saint. Siddha.

CANG SONG Okay? And Siddha generally means any great saint. There's 60 famous Siddhas of the yoga tradition, for example.

But CANG SONG CHEN PO The great saint. The great saint. That's a synonym for Buddha.

Okay? Maha Siddha. Maha Siddha.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
That's an ancient title for Lord Buddha. Okay? The great saint.

Okay? That's the SUM. If it teaches great things, if it has big meaning, if it was stated for the purpose of removing negative emotions in the people of all universe, if it teaches the benefits of ultimate peace, then that is the SUM of Maha Siddha, the great, of the Buddha.

SDOG PA Wrong. Well, the opposite. Yeah.

Anything that's not that, is not that. Okay? SDOG PA GZHAN Other.

Okay, got it? Anything that's not that, is not that. So, what was the original, the original debate was, if it is the Buddha's speech, it must be spoken for the purpose of removing negativities in the wild horse's mind.

How many wild horses in this room?

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
All right? And then we said, why do you say that? And he said, look, it's not me.

It's the future Buddha said that. Don't try to fight with me. This is the definition of the Dharma from the future Buddha.

Is that okay? You think he knows what he's talking about? Okay?

He said, the definition of Dharma is something that removes the negativities of students, of wild horses. Wild horses. Okay.

But, stand up. That's what he said. He claims, which means we...

We disagree. There's something wrong.

[Speaker 2]
We disagree.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, there's something wrong here. There's something wrong here. Okay?

I guess, let's go this way. You know, you explore, when you see a debate in a text, you explore the meaning in your mind. You start exploring.

You say, can I think of any speech? Can I think of a counterexample? What would a counterexample be here?

It would be speech of the Buddha which was not spoken for wild horses. I don't know. What if he said, could I have some pizza or something?

I don't know. You see what I mean? Okay, so you start thinking of counterexamples.

In a debate text, he's translating a debate text. Very difficult. You start thinking of counterexamples.

Is there anything that the Buddha said that wasn't specifically meant to remove people's negativity? By the way, if you're a mixed nut and he's quoting Maitreya, you go check the scriptures and make sure Maitreya did say that. And you make sure Maitreya said it that way.

And we did. We always do. That's why it's nice to have an extra copy of 210,000 pages of the ancient Indian books.

We can check a second source of the same books. We can check two sources from 1,000 years ago. Cool.

And we did. And he got it right. Okay, he's quoting it correctly.

Here we go. Are we going to read Gyaltsabje's commentary? I don't know.

Let's get in a debate and come back to Gyaltsabje. Okay. Gyaltsabje, one of Tsongkapa's prime disciples, has written a commentary on that verse.

And I like that stuff. But that means a 50-year project is going to be a 100-year project. So we're going to skip to the rest of the debate.

Okay. And then we'll come back to the other one. Okay.

Who's going to read, Mr. Tim? Oh, by the way, in eight minutes, we will stop and we'll have a 15-minute discussion led by Tim. I will go down, sit down, maybe take a nap, which is what 71-year-olds do.

And I'll go shut up. He'll lead a conversation. How can you use today's ancient book in your real life?

Okay. How can you use today's ancient book in your real life? Or is it not?

Okay, cool. After that, you go to the world news. Peachtree World News.

And we're lucky to have the reporter. He rode down in the car with us from Rimrod. And I told Rob, don't say anything that you don't want to hear repeated online.

We got a news, we got the, in English it's called muckraker. We got a reporter in the car. You got to sanitize everything you say.

Like sending wan pictures of Tim on the beach. So what I'm saying is be careful around him, what you say, what pictures you give him. It might end up on the Peachtree World News.

Just kidding. He's very responsible. And he will not embarrass you.

You will become a star. Okay. Who's going to read?

Ina's going to read. And I don't know how you're going to read the question mark. So good luck.

I don't know how you pronounce question marks. It's correct, by the way. Is it?

Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
GYON MED DE'I SKABS NYER BSTAN GYON MED DU That's not a problem. No problem. No problem.

What's no problem? What did they just talk about? Yeah, no problem.

It's not necessarily the case that everything the Buddha says is to remove people's negative emotions. Okay. So here comes his counterexample.

Here comes his counterexample. Who's going to read that, Tim? Ina just wrote it.

Oh, I see. Oh, we just translated all that. Okay.

Who would like, how about Venerable Sunam? Where did she go? There she is.

By the way, Venerable Sunam, I'll give you a clue to get the first two syllables correct. We believe it. It's not sarcastic.

So, Tibetan is not a tonal language as much as Chinese, but it does have some tonality, and it has meaning. Like, are you crazy? Are you crazy?

Different, right? Okay. DE'ER THA'ANG If you get a naughty student, they go, DE'ER THA'ANG They do both.

DE'ER THA'ANG DE'ER THA'ANG No.

[Speaker 2]
DAL CHEN LE ZHANG ZHUG ZEN PA NAM KYI MONG PA NI NAM PAR THOG PA'O PA'O ZHEP WAI KEP NE TEN PEN NON MONG LA NON MONG KYI PEN JI Nice, good job.

[Speaker 1]
DAL CHEN The Great Commentary, which one? Yeah, which commentary it is, I mean, it's kind of frustrating because he says, the big commentary says, like we just said there's 4,600 commentaries. Yeah, so anyway, here, yeah, it's a commentary to the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 verses.

And in the ancient monastic tradition, it's called The Great Book, or The Great Commentary. And it says, BYANG CHUB SEMS PA Bodhisattvas. Their nyeo-mongs, Their negative emotions, are nam-tong.

Without the S, it means misperception. I don't understand. I mean, I understand your words, but...

[Speaker 2]
It's very deep.

[Speaker 1]
We have to go to the Mayor of Rimrang. Ready? Here's your question.

What's the first link of the Wheel of Life? Huh? Is it a negative emotion?

No. Misunderstanding the me and mine. Is it a nyeo-mong?

Is it a collision? It should be. It is.

Should be is a different answer. It is. It is.

[Speaker 2]
It is. Not a student.

[Speaker 1]
Anyway, okay. In this case, he says, the real negative emotion for a bodhisattva is what? Oh, is misunderstanding.

Yeah, it's a misunderstanding. It's not a negative emotion. Okay?

Negative emotions for bodhisattvas are different from your negative emotions. Okay? Negative emotion for a bodhisattva is just a misunderstanding of emptiness.

It's not that they're angry, or they're upset, or they're jealous, or they're having desire, or something like that. Okay, got it? Okay.

The kleshas, the negative emotions of a bodhisattva are like, I wish I could have one of those. They're very, very high. They're very, very subtle misunderstandings of emptiness.

They are not upset. What's the definition of a klesha? What's the definition of a negative emotion?

In Buddhism, RANG RGYUD LEN GYI GANG SANGGYI ZHIG YIN MA ZHIG BAR BYED PA'I SEMS BYUNG, SEMS PA Any thought which upsets the peace of mind of the person who has it. Okay? Is this subtle, subtle misunderstanding of a bodhisattva, is it a klesha?

Not on that definition. Yeah, not on that definition. It's not making them upset the way, getting upset at your kids would make you upset.

You see what I mean? They're not upset. It's just a subtle misunderstanding, or subtle absence of further understanding.

Like they're great, but they're not fantastic, or something like that. I wish I had this misunderstanding. ZHES PA'I SKABS SU BRTEN NAS NYON MONGS LA NYON MONGS KYIS MA KHYAB NYON MONGS LA NYON MONGS KYIS MA KHYAB It's not necessarily the case.

Yeah, not all kleshas are kleshas. Not all negative emotions are negative, not all negative emotions are negative emotions. And by the way, just for you guys, if the word NYON MONGS has a PA on it, it changes the whole game.

The whole thing, okay? Kleshik and klesha are different. You know, like that statue of Buddha's head, is it klesha?

No. Is it a negative emotion? No.

Is it kleshik? Does it have to do with negative emotions? If you're looking at it, it probably does.

Not from inside. Okay, got it? Big difference.

Everything negative in the world is NYON MONGS PA, wrapped up with kleshas, came from kleshas, causes kleshas, triggers kleshas, product of kleshas. But that doesn't make it a klesha, unless it's in the mind of a non-Buddha person. Okay, got it?

Now he's talking about super, do high bodhisattvas have negative thoughts? Well, one type. Yeah, super, super subtle.

Super, super subtle. They have traces. They have random traces of thinking that things come from, of thinking the pen comes from its own side.

They have very subtle traces. Those are NYON MONGS. Those are NYON MONGS.

But they're not... Okay, now, I'll tell you where the debate's going to go and Tim's going to translate it for next class and I'm going to go sit down. If the Buddha says to a bodhisattva, you should stop thinking like that, was he trying to remove their mental afflictions?

Because you said that's the definition of a Buddha's speech. You said all Buddha's speech is meant to remove the negative emotions in a person's mind. Desire, hatred, jealousy.

When Buddha speaks to a high-level bodhisattva, the Dharma, was that speech meant to remove negative emotions in that bodhisattva's heart? No. They don't have any.

So they don't have NYON MONGS? They have kleshista. Okay, kleshista.

But not... Got it? So they have the NYON MONGS PA, but not the...

No. Okay. Or in this case, NYON MONGS isn't meant as NYON MONGS.

Here it says, NYON MONGS LA, NYON MONGS KYIS MA KHYAB Just because it's a klesha doesn't mean it's a klesha. Just because it disturbs their mind doesn't mean it's jealousy, hatred, desire. They have subtle, subtle, subtle traces of seeing things as self-existent, which mess up their mind, but they're not jealous or hating people, stuff like that, okay?

Therefore, are teachings granted to those people? Yes or no? Those high bodhisattvas, does Buddha grant them teachings?

Are those teachings targeted at their obvious mental afflictions? All right. Is there a step on that side?

Okay. All right. So, the point of the next 10 minutes or so is how do we...

We just learned something very subtle, right? And something that I don't have to deal with yet. Subtle traces of seeing things incorrectly.

I'm more obvious. Don't laugh. Don't laugh because you know.

Okay. How do we make this relevant? Or what's something that came to your mind that might be important to share?

Or if you just wanna share something, I don't know, something random, I don't know. Or maybe ask a question. Let's go with, we got the normal people talking.

Is there any non-normals? How about un-normal? Extraordinary, Tina Lu.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you for the beautiful teaching. So, the thing came to my mind, I want to share that even so what I can focus, everything, every people, they really come from. Thank you, Tina.

[Speaker 1]
So, there's something cool that she said in there that this is what I heard anyway. Yes. Once I heard that maybe the Buddha is speaking through the people that are irritated with us.

Or if someone gets mad at us or someone is upset or your coworkers, et cetera, et cetera, your partner, maybe they're trying to remind you something of something that, hey, this is coming from you, right? If you have that understanding, what Tina was talking about, that maybe you might look at why you have to see an upset boss or an upset coworker versus yelling back at them and telling them they're an idiot. Something like that.

I like that, Tina. Anything else? Let's see, Ina, did you want to say something?

Oh, by the way, can you bring it close to your mouth so we can really, really hear it? I just had a comment. I was thinking, you said that a good guess does not get published.

A good guess does not get published, okay. Unfortunately, that's not true. So good guesses do get published a lot of times.

And maybe your classes about what is the enlightened person's speech will help people to publish only something really correct. I like that, thank you, Ina. I feel better about my wrong translation.

The translation, the cool thing about this is it's helped me just try. And if I'm wrong, it's okay. Because I learn more when I'm incorrect than when I'm correct, right?

And so I think there's something about just putting yourself out there. And when you're trying to learn a new language, like I admire a lot of you. When I first met Jasmine, she just would say things and I'm like, I'm so afraid to speak other languages that I might hear it in my head, but I'm so afraid to.

And Jasmine was like, no, we need to talk. And so she just, and through that, her English has become excellent, right? She just made, she just tried, right?

And she tried to communicate. And I think that's a good lesson for all of us is make the mistake. And the best thing is when you make a mistake in front of everybody, you tend not to do it again.

Because of the slight emotional charge of being embarrassed in front of everybody. Thank you, Ina. Does anyone else have something?

Chloe.

[Speaker 2]
Hello.

[Speaker 1]
Sri Chloe Ma.

[Speaker 2]
Hi, the most today is what am I speaking in order to do, what's the purpose of my speech? So before I only speak, only speak when it's more beautiful than silence. And then today I learned the Buddhist speech is to remove negative emotion, even though it's not necessarily okay.

Instead of, for the sake of speaking, I want to be more intentional on removing someone's suffering or some sort of more intention in every word I speak.

[Speaker 1]
That's really beautiful, Chloe. Thank you. One of the things at ACI we talk a lot about is when we're communicating with people, we try to use the Disney approach.

No matter how irritating the person is in complaining, you always come back with a positivity, right? Like if you ever go to Disneyland or Disney World, they're very, you can be as, they deal with a lot of challenging guests who are demanding, and usually it's because the kids are upset and then the parents are getting frustrated and then they take it out on Mickey Mouse, right? And Mickey Mouse is like, okay, let me help you, right?

You know, so I think that's a really good way of approaching situations. Can you leave the situation or the interaction better than when it started? And maybe that is through very sweet speech.

I like that, Chloe. Thank you. We have a couple more minutes.

Anything else? Rebecca. Rebecca.

I like the wild horse metaphor, because I'm a wild horse.

[Speaker 2]
Really?

[Speaker 1]
And just how lucky we are that, on us, and that their patience and their love proves that they're surely gonna light up on us, so we're so. I think it, and I think, you know, if we're thinking about the five houses of ACI, you know, once you become a member, and then we're gonna talk about how you become a teacher, right? Like one of the, there's 10 qualities of a teacher, and right, and one of them is you never give up on your students, you know?

And to take that in when you have students and be like, I won't give up on you no matter how difficult you appear to be. And if your students are difficult towards you, why do you have to see that in the first place, right? You know, but I think that's a really beautiful quality for us to teach at ACI, is how we don't give up on people.

You know, and we keep trying. We keep trying all different ways. That's why we have five houses for five different personality types, right?

Which one is you? Which one, you know, which one do you wanna teach out of? And who do you want, and the kind of students you wanna teach?

You know, that's a cool thing to think about this week. Dr. Hasso, Hasso. Are you ready?

We're now gonna transition. Wow, he's become world famous. Juan Hasso, be careful what you say around this guy, what you do.

It will appear on the Peachtree World News. Everyone, now it's funny because it's really true. We were driving from, how do you say, from Sedona, and the English guy was saying that we have to be careful what he say, like, have to be careful because, and then this thing came up when they say, no, did you hear like some president in the world tried to bribe the news people?

And I said, like, oh, that sounds nice. So far as I only get threatened, not bribe, but anyways. I'm glad to be here, and thank you very much.

Hope you're enjoying this program. Thank you so much, Tim, for what you're doing. Yesterday, I had a beautiful chance to see how meaningful and impactful it is for many people.

So I really appreciate what you're doing, and it touched my heart on that. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, thank you as well, thank you as well.

Thank you, Yeshula. Thank you, Yeshula. So, well, here today, we have a live audience.

We are broadcasting live from Diamond Mountain, but all of you, I want to share that there is also a big audience. Are you talking to me, Francisco? Ah, okay.

There is a big audience that joins every Saturday and every Monday to join these translation classes. At about 1,000 people. Wow, that's amazing.

So these classes happen every week. We're gonna talk about it soon, but just, I want to share with you that there is a lot of people also, international audience watching and connecting with us today. So I just wanna give some context for those people who are watching online.

What are we doing here? Where are we, and what's coming up very quickly? So if tech table could help me with the, oh yeah, good.

So we are right now at Diamond Mountain. Just a few, one week ago, there was a beautiful pre-warming up event retreat, which is the first slide, please. Yeah, some people were here, and I had a small chance to talk with our friend, Gail Say.

She's somewhere here, I'm sure. Oh yeah, and you shared very kindly that it was beautiful, beautiful event, and I was so happy to hear. Maybe, is there anybody here in the audience who stayed for that?

Wonderful, maybe later you can tell us how was your experience. We'll see, but it's very glad to me to hear that this happened as preparation for, next slide, please. Yeah, and that's what we're doing here.

We are in Diamond Mountain. We're gonna be here from the 11th, that was yesterday, to the 20th. So yeah, if you wanna join, just catch a flight and talk to Suna maybe, or sign online.

You can still sign online, I think, right? Can they still sign online? So yeah, this is for the online audience, thousand people, if you can, if you want to keep following this program, there is a QR code.

Or tell all of your friends. Exactly, and then maybe we have 5,000 or something. But wait, why'd you jump there yet?

Almost, but, okay, yeah, after Diamond Mountain, one of the things that's gonna happen next month, we're gonna get together in Sedona. Those of you who already made the trip to Arizona, maybe you can consider the opportunity of staying a little longer and come to these wonderful, wonderful teachings that are gonna happen at the Sedona College. And just to let you know that tomorrow, I mean, if you are here, you are here.

Don't worry about, next slide, please. Who's doing the slides? Mike?

Okay, cool. Errol and Ben Kramer are gonna be giving a talk. It's very early, 5 a.m. in Arizona, so probably, I mean, don't worry about it, but for people online, they're gonna be giving a talk about what's gonna be a little bit of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika Chapter 4 that Geshe-la and Errol and other teachers are gonna be sharing with us. And all of you here will be meditating during that time. Yeah, so don't worry about it, but that's why I said the context that we have a lot of people online. It's true, true, true.

Yeah, you know, it's difficult to serve two masters at the same time. Anyways, and then after November, where is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika in December, there is gonna be this wonderful event that also Team Law Enhub is producing and Geshe-la just mentioned. If you can come, it's gonna be amazing because it's the final, the grand final to the series on the Steps on the Path.

You can sign up if you follow the QR code and yeah. We have very limited space left. So not only, as Geshe-la said, it's very wise to go, I said it positively.

It's very wise for all of you to go. There's very limited space left. It's gonna be, and it's also ACI's biggest fundraiser of the year.

So by going, you're supporting new projects like the Five Houses. So bring money. And it's a beautiful, beautiful hotel, yeah.

And there is a surprise, no, that a special famous person. You can say it. Almost famous as Geshe Michael.

Well, her name is Mari Kondo. And she's a very famous celebrity in Netflix in the last few years. And she's gonna be giving a talk, a special talk along with Geshe Michael about.

She, if you've ever watched her show, it's all about how to organize your life, like how to organize your stuff. And it's actually very inspiring. I threw out most of my stuff because of her.

I didn't need it anymore. I didn't throw it. I donated it to other people.

But the talk is called Organize Your Life, Organize Your Mind. So she's gonna be talking about how to organize your life and then mixing with how we organize our mind through the teachings that Geshe Michael gives. So we're gonna be bringing those together.

It's the very last day of the Kyoto event. So wonderful. And for those of you who also may be familiar, just quick mention, it's also gonna be the Sedona College Alumni Association happening there.

If you're interested on that, please talk to Sugeng. It's gonna be happening at the same time in the same hotel. So you can get two events for the price of one, I think.

And for those of you that are going, who are Sedona College alumni, there's some special classes that are only be, will only be available in Kyoto. They won't be streamed. And John Brady is gonna be giving those classes, a SCIM teacher, as well as a teacher in other organizations as well.

So talk to Sugeng about that. You don't wanna miss this event. Okay.

Space is limited for two. But space is always limited. That's good.

So, but the good thing Sugeng is here and also Xing Tian is here. You can talk to them. You can become friends, you know, work your way.

I don't know. But let's talk about what we're doing today. Right here, right now, which is, Shuangshan Tower.

This is the series that Geshe Michael and the Mixed Notes translators are doing these days to translate this wonderful text, these wonderful teachings. And what's special about this poster? Can anybody tell something's weird here or no?

It's free. No, I think, well, I mean, that's good, not weird. It's been one full year since we started this program.

Yes. So what I wanted to say, if Mike, you can help me with the last one, is that, no, the other one. Is that, you see, this is the first poster, the opening poster.

And it says, classes are gonna start in October 2nd, 2023. And this is the very first poster when the series were gonna open. And then, now it's October 2024, we are celebrating.

Those are the QR codes. If any of you want to keep coming to these classes every Saturday, every Monday, just follow the QR code. It's gonna take you to the website and there you can find all the information or just talk to one of the wonderful translators.

Here in the room are a few. So it's Tim, Sugeng, Gibson. Xiaoping and Stanley.

Xiaoping, Stanley, yes. They are all main part of this program. Of course, Geshell as well, but let him translate.

You can talk to the other translators about that at least. And because of that, we have a quick special talk with Tim, sorry, with Nick Lachaud and Ben Kramer. You see, there was another picture with Ben Kramer on it, but something happened.

Anyways, can you text table help us to give them a spotlight, please? And we'll be talking a little bit with them. Nick.

How did you guys get that picture of me with the shorts? That was supposed to be. I don't know, but I think it's amazing.

We should all have pictures like that sometime, maybe. So is Ben also? He's there.

Hi Ben, how's it going? Where are you? Where, what neighborhood are we in again?

West Village. West Village, I'm in the West Village. Nice to see you.

So we are here celebrating in Diamond Mountain. I don't know if you, is there a chance they can see the audience or I don't know, but it's very exciting. A lot of people, we are here celebrating with you.

Thank you so much.

[Speaker 2]
Nice to see you guys.

[Speaker 1]
So we would like to hear from you a little bit of what has been your experience during this year in the sense of maybe if you wanna share some story of a few challenges or big successes that you have had during this year, how's been the experience of being a translator and also running the program itself? Do you feel younger? Do you feel?

I don't feel younger, but for me, I think I had some personal challenges, but for the most part, it was very exciting and successful. And I think making the shift from the two week intense programs that we were doing to the weekly thing was really positive for me and for a lot of the people, because I think that there's something really special about having this time regularly, like weekly, to focus on these ideas instead of just in these concentrated periods, because it would get so exhausting to do the terms. And then I probably would only retain like 15%, if that, of the material.

But when we do it in a little bit more of a slower kind of spaced out way, I mean, spaced out in terms of when the classes happen, it's easier, it's easier to learn, I find. So I had some challenges because I was in Europe when we started and I had to do it. I had to do the classes from like 12 to 4 a.m. or something. So if you watch the videos from those days, you might see me dozing off. I was really trying. But to answer the last part of your question, and then I'll let Ben say a few words.

One of the really cool benefits that I've been finding from being part of this program is, well, I'm a teacher of this stuff too. I've been teaching ACI and things like that for over 10 years, maybe 13 years. And it's just that I feel like so much more fluid with the material.

And I don't even know how the information got there. It's just sitting week after week in these courses. I think yesterday morning, I had to teach at 6 a.m. I had stayed up pretty much all night because my daughter was sick and she was waking up all night. And so I didn't really sleep. And I had to get up and teach a course for an hour and a half online on the two truths, the two realities, which is super hard stuff. And so I did it with like no sleep.

And I don't know how, like I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I just kind of opened my mind and let it come out. And it went really well.

And it was like logic and the two realities. We got to a part of my book where it was about how if someone tries to say that logic is useless, then they're using logic to prove that logic doesn't work. So they just use logic to contradict themselves and they can't prove, they use logic to prove that they can't prove that logic doesn't work.

And like doing that explanation with a Chinese translator. And it was just really fun and it went really smoothly and people were getting it, which was, and I feel that's all just because I'm spending weeks, you know, week after week in these classes that it's in there somehow. So thank you so much, Nick.

We will be very excited if you and also Ben, of course, and other Mixed Thoughts translators start giving more teachings and talks because just hearing you, for example, sharing these wonderful insights that you've been having through this process that are making you in this case, let's say a better father, a better dad. I think it's wonderful and are great things. And in this context, I would like to ask Ben and to finish this interview with that.

Like, what are you guys planning for the, let's say next year, what's coming up? What are you cooking in the oven? Brace yourself for more of the same.

It's been beautiful. It's an incredible experience to be able to integrate this more into our lives and having these big breaks in between, it was kind of a bummer, but we get to see you more often. I will be there.

I'll be there next week, okay? A week from today, I'm gonna be in your seat there. So I'll see you soon, Diamond Mountain.

And I'm here with these friends. All right. I didn't know that they were throwing me a one-year party, but they threw it very beautifully.

And thank you so much to everyone supporting this program. It's an incredible thing to be a part of this global community and it's hard and it's hard and you come anyway and there, I can't believe how many people there are who come each week and it takes time. Over time, it makes a difference and you come to a class and you don't know what happened and you don't understand anything.

And I don't know why you come back, but you do. And then 12 classes later, you suddenly find that you understand things. How you got from one to, through three and seven, it's a miracle.

And so grateful that you're all continually a part of this program, supporting this program, showing up with us week after week. More of the same. Keep coming.

Keep coming. Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much.

And hope to see you soon here. There's also going to be a, there is going to be some presents. Sending best regards over there.

Too early for you, but very early here. So anyways, good luck and see you soon. And in these same lines of trying to support Diamond Cutter Classics, we have a very interesting story here with our dear friend, Lindsay, who is actually working very, very hard to spread the books and the content that the wonderful translators are creating.

So she approached me the other day with a very interesting situation she's going to share here with us. But, so tell us Lindsay, what's happening? What do you have in your hands?

Yeah, thank you Juan. All right.

[Speaker 2]
So something we do for Diamond Cutter Classics is we have something called the Good Night Book Club, which is a way for people to both financially support Diamond Cutter Classics, but also to receive some of the books that they are translating.

[Speaker 1]
So, but today what I actually want to talk about is we had a little accident Juan. Okay, what kind of accident?

[Speaker 2]
What happened?

[Speaker 1]
We slightly misprinted some of these Two Sutras of the Medicine Buddha books. So we have some extras. The only thing different about them is that the title on the spine is facing to the left instead of to the right.

And we want people to, in the book club, build their set and have them all match. So, but otherwise this is the same book. And so for those who are at Diamond Mountain in person, we have some of these available for purchase.

You can follow this QR code. I'm aware that no one has internet right now. So this is what happened.

Let me see if we got it right. So you were, well, this book was translated by Geshe Michael and some other translators. It's the Two Sutras of the Medicine Buddha Practice.

And along, very interesting really for everyone who's here, it contains also wonderful, wonderful, unbelievable essay that explain how Dharanis work. Why do they work? Why through our speech, we can trigger certain seeds to ripen in our lives.

It's unbelievable really. I mean, personally, I think it's one of the most amazing things I have read and it's here in this book as well. And in this context, Lindsay and I were talking like, it's a very interesting mistake because you see what we're trying to do here is like in a way, it's like a little bit more of an advanced practice.

The Medicine Buddha Practice. And I don't know, but the title just happens to be Turning to the Left. So it's not a big deal, but if you know what I mean, it could be very interesting to have one of these 27 unique versions who have the title Turning to the Left.

So could I ask really quickly, if you're a regional director for the book club or a volunteer like Chloe, and can you just really quickly come up? Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
So if you have questions about this or about the Good Night Book Club in general, these are good people to talk to.

[Speaker 1]
And then if you are online and you're interested in this book, I'd encourage you to go to Diamond Cutter Press's website and they have ebook versions available as well. Okay, so the deal is this, if anybody wants a copy of this 27 limited edition accidental books, talk to Lindsey. You're gonna be, okay, talk to them.

Or me, it's good. Or her. You wanna talk about details now or just whenever they approach you?

When they approach us. Okay, so approach her, don't be afraid. And what else?

You wanna talk about the other way to get the book, which is on the screen? Yes, so if you'd like to sign up to receive more books and to receive them over time, you can sign up for the Good Night Book Club and we will send you books if you're in a country where that is allowed.

[Speaker 2]
More information on the screen. And then also feel free to talk to me or the people that you saw who were just up here.

[Speaker 1]
Wonderful. I think that's it. Do you wanna have anything else?

Does anybody has questions? This will be like a great, great, great book to have really, it's wonderful. I haven't read, well, probably I have read the sutras too.

But they say, unbelievable. And the sutras too. I had the chance to do a short, not too short, middle length retreat on Medicine Buddha.

It was very wonderful. The sutras are here. Good practices, really recommend it.

And these are limited editions. You'll be supporting Diamond Curl Classics, the translators, the project. So that's it.

Thank you so much. And see you next Monday. Thank you.