Тим Ловенхопт — Книга 1: Совершенство мудрости, занятие 49

[Speaker 1]
Francisco, let us know when to start. Good. Okay.

All right. I'd like to give a short introduction and then we'll start. So about eight or nine years ago, I I tried a project that I created in 1976.

And that was to try to train like 10 or 15 good translators. And I couldn't succeed for many years. Then about eight years ago, I tried again.

And I found 12 foolish, I mean, intelligent, intelligent people. And I tried to start training them to be translators of the ancient books. And we chose one ancient book from each of the great ancient schools.

So we are doing 12 different schools, and each one has a different language. So if you understand Abhidharma language, maybe you don't understand Madhyamika language, for example. So I want to train 12 people who can translate the 12 great languages of two and a half thousand years of Buddhism.

And so we chose 12 people, seven, eight years ago, and I have a good news, nobody dropped out. I'll survive. Yeah.

And they have finished, we have 17 books in publication. We have 12 already published, we have five more coming out. And that covers all the great topics of Buddhism.

So future generations can translate based on the books that we're doing. And they've worked very hard, and they've done a good job. And we have two days a week, when we translate together, and I train them.

And we on Saturday mornings, Arizona time, which is World Central Time. I teach two, I teach a meditation class for ACI, then I teach a translation class. On Monday evening, I teach two more classes, mostly for the Asia students.

And the Saturday is mostly for European, Western and European students. So and I insist to our 42 organizations, that if it's Monday, or if it's Saturday, we have to have those classes, wherever I travel, whatever I'm doing, even if it has nothing to do with translation, I forced each organization to have this class. And there was a lot of fighting for about a year, but I won.

So we have this class. And I say that if you do these two classes every week, that your mind will change, okay, and your mind, your mind and your life will change. For example, if you start a business, your business will be unbelievable.

You, my businesses are unbelievable. The amount of money and going around is crazy. It's completely crazy.

And, and it's, it's because I look at these things every day. So I really encourage you. I don't care if you're not interested in this book.

I don't care if you don't understand them. If you sit in the class, your future will change, your future will be amazing. Okay, so just shut up, relax, and listen to the class.

And don't worry, you don't understand anything. Okay, if you understand everything, there's no reason to go to a class. Okay, you should go to a class that you don't understand something, right?

So therefore, if you don't understand this class, it's a good class. Okay, so we're gonna do and we're working on a project. There's an eight volume, classic, so you can say it's about it's three and a half thousand pages of the perfection of wisdom.

This is heavy emptiness teaching, okay. And it will take 50 years to translate it. And that's why I chose a young man to work on this project.

So Tim has been working on on this perfection of wisdom for a number of years. And he's made good progress. So he's going to give you he's going to be doing his homework from last class.

He'll ask you some questions, try to look confused. And then I noticed when I teach meditation, I asked people to be quiet. They cannot.

But when we have a homework, it's completely silent. So anyway, here we go, Tim. So we're, I've actually decided not to give you a homework.

Because you were all so you're such good students. Basically, I the translation that I got as a to do for today as a student translation to see how bad I am at it is, in order to understand that we have to go back a few steps to understand where we are like what the heck is going on? Okay.

So what the heck is going on? I don't really know. But what I think is going on is we're in the middle.

So this book is set up in a debate format, which when you first started, it's incredibly humbling. Like if you if you ever want to humble yourself and be like, I don't understand something, just try to study logic and clear thinking in these classes. And you will realize maybe I mean, if you're, well, I realized that I can't speak about you.

I realized that I'm not as smart as I thought I was. And it was really great, actually, because I was, it made me work a little bit harder. But what we're doing so each little point that we learn in this book, actually can take four or five pages of just debate what's wrong, what's wrong, what's wrong with these ideas, to eventually get to the right idea, which is infuriating for those of us who just want to go to school and get the right answer.

Just tell me what the right answer is. But there's something I found that's very special about forcing yourself to understand why something is the right answer. And then you don't forget it.

Slow down. Thank you. All right.

So we're in the middle of a long debate about what makes for the speech of a Buddha. And the question that comes up is, so let's pretend I'm reading the words of a Buddha, okay, reading them on a page. And then they're in my head.

Right? And I'm hearing the words in my head. Does that constitute the speech of a Buddha?

Does that make it because it's, it's not spoken by a Buddha. But then it's in my head, right? And I'm not a Buddha, by the way, just in case there was any doubt.

Right? Just normal, Tim, hearing or thinking these words in my mind, is that considered the speech of a Buddha? Okay, so we're going back and forth, we've been going back and forth, I think, for about six months now.

I think eventually, we'll get to the punchline. Very soon, I hope. So I would like a little bit of help.

So we're starting a new debate right now. And I would like to invite you, Roxanna, to come up and read. Okay.

Yeah. She's feeling guilty already. But I chose someone who doesn't make any mistakes, so I don't look bad.

Okay. Do you guys have my text back there? Yep.

Okay, cool. Roxanna was in our overseas study program. So she studied in the original languages overseas.

The director of that program is here today. Rebecca. Yeah, and thank you for that.

She's been working on that program for over 20 years. And she looks 20. So that's pretty good.

We're going to read this line to here.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Kachik. Sangeki ka yina tulchayi nyomongpong chirtu sungpe kya kya partal? Are you cheated?

Gyula male. Okay. So who?

Yeah, of course. So Kachik, who is that? What does this mean?

Some guy, usually the opponent. And what does that mean? Some guy?

[Speaker 2]
Usually the opponent.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, explain the opponent in a fight in a debate. Usually the guy that's wrong. All right, like me, right?

Yeah, so someone starts a debate and they come up and they say, Hey, I have an idea. And they say, I'm going to and they give a new idea. And then with it, because it says Kachik, it's the person arriving, we know there's something wrong.

But we don't know what's wrong yet. All right. So the Kachik comes along and says, what does the Kachik say?

Roxanna? If it is the speech of a Buddha, correct, if something's a speech of the Buddha, then it must be that Kachik. That speech is spoken in order to remove the negative emotions of a student.

Wow, nice job. So what it's saying here is that if something is the speech of a Buddha, then the purpose of that speech, the reason the Buddha spoke those words was to remove negative emotions in the minds or from students themselves. So like, the Buddha comes up to me and says something it's so I can remove my negative emotions.

Okay. And then we're going to get an example to prove or the Kachik is going to try to prove their point. And it comes from a text when which text is that?

It's the higher line. Right. Good job.

The higher line. Okay. We're going to have you read the quote from the book.

Nice. Good job. Okay, so this is now we're going to get to the part where he asked me to translate this.

And it's not clear what it all means. So he found the common Gelsupje's commentary on this verse. And so we're going to try to understand what it means from the commentary.

So we're gonna go down here. So the first thing Geshe-la did was check to make sure that what's in the book is quoted properly. So that's the first thing we do a mix nuts, we get all nerdy.

And we say, is this even a correct quote? And it actually is. So we're going to skip that.

And then we have a commentary here. Alright, we'll see how we did. You get to you get to read again.

Just this first part here. Okay. Nice.

And then what we do here is you see the words, some of the words here are bigger and capitalized. Well, they're already all capitalized, but bigger. And those are the words that are in the original verses.

All right. Now we're going to see how well I did. All right.

Yeah. By the way, he's quoting on this question. If you have a, you know, if you are, for example, if you memorize the shinjing heart sutra, and it's in your mind, is it still the speech of the Buddha?

Do we still consider it the speech of the Buddha in your mind? Okay. And then he says, Well, does it fit the definition of the speech of the Buddha, as given by uttara tantra, which is a name of a ancient commentary.

It's not a tantra. It's called tantra. It's not a tantra.

Here tantra just means higher, higher line, like the higher line tantra means line or string. So the book is that who's the author for $100? Maitreya Hasso.

Do we have a microphone? Yeah, Hasso got the answer. This is how I get good news about me on the show.

It was taught by Lord Maitreya and written by Master Arya Sangha. Good. How many years ago?

1800 years ago. Okay, almost 2000 years ago. Okay.

This is so this is the definition of the Buddha's speech from the next Buddha. So maybe it's a good definition. Okay, got it.

This is the future Buddha, Buddha number four in this world, who's going to give the definition of the Buddha's speech. And here's what he says. And here's the second point.

I'm checking Tim's translation. Okay. Which is my job.

Speech which best is expressed speech which possesses the ability to express directly both the world and ultimate goals of any beings. And which are connected completely connected to the Dharma. You're not showing that part on the screen.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, that's yeah, that's okay.

[Speaker 1]
Express the way to become free from all types of problems. Oh, I see. There's a this should yeah, it should be like this.

Okay. Okay. That's pretty good.

Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Okay, so GZHU GZHI GYI TZIG GI GYEN THA DAG DANG BRAL BA'I Yeah, this is a trick. GZHU GZHI GYI TZIG means the words which express the teaching. Okay, the words of the teaching.

GYEN means problems. THA DAG means kun or all. BRAL means free of.

So normally, this phrase means free of errors in writing. You see what I mean? The writing has no obvious problems.

And in Sanskrit, ancient Sanskrit writing, there are many rules. There, there's a list of rules, for example, a repetition of the same word, or things like that. These are classical DIPA GYEN.

These are classical faults of composition. So it has to be free of all faults of composition. The teaching of the Buddha, a sutra should be well written.

Okay, it should have highest meaning. It should help people achieve their short term goals and their ultimate goals. And that's pretty much the definition of a sutra by Maitreya, by the next Buddha.

Okay. All right. That's good.

That's pretty good. So when it says, like the, the Yeah, the words which express the topic, should not have any faults of composition. Yeah.

So that's a classical thing. Yeah. And that's a classical text.

All right, cool. Next line. Okay, next one.

DONG GANG ZHIG SNYAM SU LANG NA, GANG GSUM GYIS KUN NAS NYON MONGS PA PO NGUR BAR BYAS PA'I LTABS, DONG BAR BYAS PA'I GSUNGS Good. Good. If it's meaning were to be put into practice by someone, that speech would also teach the method to remove every negative emotion possible in the three realms.

Good. Yeah. So that's part of the definition of a sutra.

If you follow it, you should be able to stop all your negative emotions in your own mind. Okay. And those negative emotions would be universal throughout the whole universe.

Anybody in the universe, if they read this sutra, it would help them become a better person. Okay. All right.

That part's okay. Three realms is is an expression for universe in Buddhism. Okay.

It means desire realm, form realm, formless realm. And actually, each planet has three realms. So it's like that.

Okay. You are living, we are living in the desire realm. And we don't see the beings in the form realm and the formless realm.

They are invisible to us. But they're connected to this planet. Okay.

So wherever you live, on the surface of this planet or somewhere connected to this planet, if you read that book, it should remove your negative emotions. Okay. And then that's part of the definition of a sutra.

Okay. We're trying to define a sutra. Okay.

Next. So if we were to finalize the translations, would we say the three realms or should we say the universe? I would say all three realms and I have a footnote.

Yeah, that's what I like to do. Yeah. The first time it comes.

And then after that, you don't have to do it. We're good. We're gonna...

Yeah. Yeah, good. This is the...

the translation should reflect the word pinyin better. The benefits? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. In other words, a sutra should be a sales job.

Okay. Look, if you could get rid of your negative emotions towards everybody, then you would be happy. You would be ultimately happy.

So a sutra, part of the definition of a sutra... Who gave the definition? The next Buddha.

He said part of the definition of the speech of the Buddha is that it should be a good sales job. It should say, look, if you can get rid of your negative emotions, look how happy you would be. Okay.

All your suffering would end because all the pain you see in the world is coming from you. It's coming from your negative emotions. If you could stop them, you would create peace on this planet.

Okay. So there has to be some... Part of the definition of a sutra is that it should be a good advertisement for ultimate peace.

Okay, that's all. Okay, good. Translations, fine.

Yeah. Yeah, good. Okay.

Yeah, that meaning... Daini, if it cleared away all of your negativities, and if it brought total peace to your world, then we could say that's a Buddha speech. And they don't call the Buddha, Buddha here.

They call Buddha Siddha, or Siddhi, which means great master. And you're supposed to understand who's the great master. Okay.

It's a great master with capital M. That means Buddha. Okay.

And then Tim, what's the meaning of the last word of that sentence? But. But.

Okay, there's a big but. G-Y-I, G-Y-I means but. So he's going to say something else.

He's not finished with his definition of a sutra. Okay, but. G-Y-I But rather anything else, any other words which you not teach these unmistaken methods, the path to liberation and the higher rebirth, is just not that.

And frankly, you should know it's not the speech of the Buddha. That's okay. Yeah, okay.

If it doesn't talk about removing permanently the negative emotions in your own mind, and therefore changing your world, then you should understand this is not a sutra. This is not the word of the Buddha. Buddha doesn't tell you what's the weather, or the economy, or something like that.

Okay, that would not be the speech of a Buddha. Okay? Okay, okay.

Nice. So the quotation from Maitreya also defines a sutra negatively. It's not wasted talk.

It's meaningful. It has to help you remove your negativities. Okay, cool.

Yay. Thank you. Good job.

Yay. Thank you. We did this already.

Yeah. Kind of getting or up to your next section, where we left off. Yeah.

Can I go to my version? Yes, you may. Yep.

Okay, so just in case. Okay, here we go. All right.

What was the last thing? Yeltsin and Chandra Sambandhan. Where are we?

We're on the kind of just need to explain what we're... Yeah, if you disagree with this last quotation we had, hang on, I gotta find out what it is. Okay.

Good. Just because somebody said negative emotions in a book, it may not refer to what you think of as negative emotions. Okay, that's their context.

And if you don't agree to that, Rob, would you like to read? I would. If you don't agree to that, Rob.

Okay, good. Let me get the context for you again. Sorry.

I think it's the difference between cliche and cliches. Yeah. Okay, good.

So this is a difficult part. Say nyomu. In this class, you have to open your mouth, okay?

In the other class, you have to close your mouth. Okay, say nyomu. Nyomu.

Say nyomupa. Nyomupa. Is this glass of water nyomu?

Is it a negative emotion? No. But is it mixed up with negative emotions?

Yeah, so in the ancient books, we have two different words, kleshar in Sanskrit. Kleshar, which means negative emotion, and then kleshik, which means a product of negative emotions. How many things in this room are kleshik?

Almost everything. Okay, like the chair, the carpet, the building, the city, the planet. These were all made by negative emotions.

Okay, because they're all mortal. They all have to die. The city has to die.

The building has to die. The people have to die. They are not negative emotions because they're not emotions.

But they're creations of negative emotions. So the whole city, the whole planet, is kleshik but it's not kleshar. Kleshar means the actual negative emotion.

The source of the suffering is anger, desire, hatred, like that. But the suffering that comes from that may be a chair, may be a carpet, may be a hotel. Okay, now he says all kleshik things are kleshas.

The other guy is making a wrong statement. The hotel is a klesha because it's kleshik. Okay, the hotel is a negative emotion because it was created by negative emotions.

And we said, come on, you don't understand the difference between a negative emotion and a world which was created by, and bodies. Everyone in this room has a body. Your body was created by negative emotions and it will self-destruct.

Okay, it will fall apart if you live long enough. So your body is kleshik and it was created by kleshar. But he's mixing it up.

He has a confusion. Okay, so we want to give a counterexample. And we give a very clever counterexample.

Here's the trick. We're going to mention negativities which are not negative emotions. We're going to give him bad things which are not bad thoughts.

Okay, in the classic idea of a bad thought. Okay, they are messed up but they are not messed up thinking. Got it?

Okay, now where can you find such a thing? Okay, and this is a reference to the classic division of all problems in your life. All obstacles in your life are in two categories.

There's two kinds of obstacles in your life. Number one prevents you from reaching nirvana and then number two prevents you from reaching buddhahood. So what's the difference?

A lot of people think nirvana is the same as buddhahood, but they're not. Tim's going to tell you the difference. I believe.

So when you reach a place where you have no, you no longer have negative emotions, that's what we call an arhat, that's nirvana. However, you still have obstacles, you still have blocks to total enlightenment and those blocks are obstacles to total complete knowledge, omniscience. Yeah, just because you got rid of all your anger, for example, and desire doesn't mean you can see all the things in the universe.

So there's a difference between nirvana and buddhahood, okay? Nirvan, nirvan means blow out. Nir means out, van means blow, van, van in English comes from van.

So blow out your negative emotions. It's one thing, but to be able to see every object in the universe, including the thoughts of every living being at the same time and all the thoughts they ever had and ever will have, that's buddha. That's a little different from not getting upset, right?

Okay, so what you remove when you reach nirvana is klesha, negative emotion. But what you remove when you reach buddhahood is obstacles to be able to see everything in the universe. Big difference, okay?

You can remove your jealousy, but you may not be able to see what's in your... if someone's raiding your refrigerator back at home, which is what's happening at my house. Okay, all right?

Big difference, all right? So to give a counterexample to that guy, because he didn't give a very good definition of a klesha, let's choose obstacles to omniscience, things that stop you from seeing everything in the universe, okay? Those are not negative emotions, but they are obstacles, okay?

Got it? Right, so his counterexample is going to be some things which block you from seeing all the things in the universe, but they don't stop you. They're not negative emotions, okay?

They're not classical negative emotions, okay? So here we go. shidip sung jin gyi nam pa dong So, this is very interesting to me.

All buddhism takes place over five paths. There are five pathways and they actually connect. You go to the first one, you reach the beginning of the second one.

And so all people in the universe have to go through five paths. There are five paths to perfection. And you go through each one separately.

First one is a hundred dollars. What's basically the definition of the first one? Definition.

Microphone, please. You can just yell, it's okay. Right there, over there.

Gibson, raise your hand. Give me a definition of the first path. First of the five paths.

How do you know when you reach the first of the five paths of all buddhism? You are sick of everything? Yeah, you're effing tired of this place.

Okay, all right, got it? Then you can say you're on the first path. If you paid money to come to Kyoto and sit here, probably you're on the first path, okay?

Or you just wanted to see Tim, I don't know. But probably you think there's some kind of suffering and you would like to stop it. That's the first path.

The third path, let's skip the second one, okay? The third path is the path of seeing. That's also a hundred dollars.

So Gibson gets a hundred dollars. Rob's paying, okay? So if you don't get your money from Rob, it's not my fault, okay?

I had a guy in Japan last year. He said, you made a bet with me 15 years ago, you didn't pay it. I said, you got it correct, honey.

You know, okay? Third path, what? Easy.

Ha-so, do-do, shish-ma. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Yeah, quick, quick.

[Speaker 2]
Path of seeing.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, path of seeing. What does it mean? It means a direct perception of emptiness.

Yeah, good. Okay, good. That's easy.

Okay, third path is seeing emptiness directly. Fourth path is getting used to what you saw. Okay, fourth path is getting used to what you saw.

And it typically takes about 500 years, okay? The path of seeing takes 20 minutes. Okay, it typically takes millions of years to get to the third path, okay?

Now, you guys are actually, most of you probably are on the second path right now, okay? You, you, you achieved, you're sick of, you're sick of suffering, which is why you came here, probably, I hope. Okay, you're tired of suffering.

And then, so you already got through the first path. Now you're on the second path, okay? On the second path, you are training yourself to see emptiness directly.

And that involves a lot of pen talks, all right? It involves a lot of pen talks, okay? And, and you're trying to figure out what you're doing wrong, okay?

Like, what am I doing wrong that's causing all my suffering, you know? And, and they say you're looking at things the wrong way. And there's two ways of looking at things the wrong way, okay?

You can, sung dzin gyi nam tok, here, say sung dzin. Sung dzin. Sung dzin.

Sung dzin. Gyi. Gyi.

Nam tok. Okay. It means, do you misunderstand things, or do you misunderstand people, okay?

Do you misunderstand things, or do you misunderstand states of mind, for example, okay? That's called sung dzin gyi tok, nam tok, okay, here. When someone teaches you the pen, you are learning intellectually, not directly.

You are learning about how the pen comes from you, okay? And, and that's called, you are damaging your misunderstanding about where things come from, okay? Every time someone teaches you the pen, you are on the second path, and someone is damaging your wrong idea about things.

Okay? Then when you get better, when you advance on the second path, you start, someone will start to teach you that your mind is the same as the pen, okay? Your mind is the same as the pen, okay?

Your, your mind, how you see your own mind, who talks in your mind, how you see things, how you understand things, is also coming from how you treated people in the past. Your own mind's talk is coming from how you treated people in the past, okay? If you're on the second path, and someone's teaching you the pen, you are understanding, you are fighting wrong ideas about things, okay?

But if your teacher keeps going, and they teach you that your own thoughts that you hear in your mind are coming from how you treat other people, that's called stopping wrong ideas about where my thoughts come from. So the second path has two parts, stopping wrong ideas about things, where things come from, and stopping wrong ideas about where your own thoughts come from. And if you understand those two well, then you see emptiness directly, okay?

And they come in that order. Why I'm selling you this, if you get an advanced understanding that the pen is coming from you, you cannot go to a lower birth after you die. It's not possible.

You cannot become a dog. You cannot go to the hell realms. You cannot.

You cannot become a hungry ghost. You cannot have a bad rebirth. You at least will be a human, okay, with good coffee shops, just kidding.

Okay, so why does grandpa teach over and over and over again, everywhere he goes, teaching the pen? That, when you get to the end of the pen, no matter how bad you are, you cannot be born as an animal. You cannot take a bad rebirth, okay?

Just sitting there and hearing the pen. Okay, so this subject is very important. There's two versions of misunderstanding your own mind, and there's two versions of misunderstanding the things that your mind sees.

And if you understand this sentence and what it means, and if you die, which you will, you cannot go down. Cool? That's why I forced you to have a translator class.

Cool? All right, here we go. Okay, sorry.

Okay, so Madhubna, and then he says, let's take those sung jin kyi nomba topa. Four misunderstandings. Four wrong ideas about things and thoughts.

Four wrong ideas about things and thoughts. Things means pens. So there's two wrong ideas about pens, and there's two wrong ideas about thoughts.

And if you understand these four well, and you die in a car accident this afternoon, you cannot go into a bad place. It's not possible. Okay, that's a good deal.

That's worth whatever Tim's charging. I don't know. Okay, here we go.

So I went to another book by Tsongkhapa, and I got you a description of these four, because they're important to know, and he doesn't explain them. His audience already knows them. So in this case, we need to bring in some outside experts, okay, to talk about these two ways, two ways of misunderstanding things, two ways of misunderstanding states of mind.

Okay, and if you know these four, you know, you cannot go to a bad place after you die. That's a good deal. Okay, all right.

So I went to the other book and gave you the definitions of these four. Okay, here we go. Who's going to read the big letters?

How much time we got? Four minutes? All right, we're starting off.

Okay, good. So I won't leave them in the wrong world. Okay.

Oh, yeah, big letters. Shepa nikyi dangpo la. Stop there.

Good. So dok here, without an S, okay, those of you who understand Tibetan spelling, R-T-O-G means wrong idea. R-T-O-G-S, which is pronounced exactly the same, means good idea.

That's a bad idea, but I didn't make it up. Okay. So, what's sung tok, Tim?

Guess. Sung tok. Tokpa about sung as opposed to a tokpa about zin.

A misunderstanding about the text themselves? No, not sung. Sung past tense of zin.

Past passive participle. Held. Held.

The wrong idea is about what's held. Yeah, which means objects. You see?

And then wrong ideas about zin state of mind. Your thoughts. Yeah, good.

We're going to have two wrong ideas about stuff, pens, and then we're going to have two wrong ideas about the mind which perceives the pen. And if you understand the last two, you can't go to a bad place after you die. That's a that's a good deal.

You know, even if this is all crazy talk, I think you're smart if you cover yourself. Okay. Maybe Geshe-la's right.

Maybe Geshe-la's wrong. But if it takes you 10 minutes to learn it, and it might save you a thousand years of pain, that's a good deal. Okay.

All right. We're going to do the sung toks first. Here we go.

Go ahead. Who's going to read that, Mr. Huggerty? Tsawa.

Tsawa dang. Drel pa'o. Dangpo ni.

Sungwar tokpa Ye. Ye shi nam pa. Ni yod de.

Shi kun ne. Nonmong pe ten chen dang. De.

De. Nyen poy. Ten chen tu.

Tsawa? Ten chen tu. Ye wa.

Ten chen tu. Ye wa. Ye wa yi su.

Ye wa yi su. Okay, good. If we're going to talk about And by the way, I'm chopping it up because it would take us a year to finish the whole thing.

Okay, and we're not even on our book. We went to another book. Okay, but we're not going to spend there very much time.

So two of these relate to objects. Sung tok. Wrong ideas about sung ja.

Things that the mind holds, which is pens. Wrong ideas about pens. Two types.

De's wrong ideas. Tokpa. Ye shi.

What they refer to. Okay, what we're dividing. Is two types.

Number one. Shi kun ne. Nonmong pe ten chen.

Things that are nonmong pa. Things that are negativities. No.

Which came from, involved with negativity. They could include negative emotions, but it could include all the bad stuff that negative emotions created, like cancer. Okay.

And then, de nyenpo ten chen. Nyenpo. The antidotes to that?

Yeah, the antidotes to those things. So when you talk about objects in the world, either they're related to messed up thoughts, or they're related to purity in your mind. Okay.

All right. Those are two kinds. Now I'm going to skip to the.

Those are two kinds of wrong. All wrong ideas about objects can be divided into wrong ideas about objects which are messed up, and wrong ideas about objects which are pure. Like sutras.

Okay. Objects which are messed up. Cancer.

Objects which are pure. Sutras. Okay.

But you misunderstand both of them. Why? Because you think, for example, if the sutra is pure, you think it's coming from its own side.

Yeah, you don't realize that all the sutras you ever read were coming from you. Just the same as the pen. And you don't realize, okay, that all the terrible, all the cancer you ever heard of was coming from you.

Okay. As long as you don't understand good stuff, and you don't understand bad stuff, then you're having wrong ideas about stuff. Good.

Or where they come from. Where they come from. Okay.

And that happens to people who think that a pen was made in a factory. Okay. Or that you can acquire a pen by paying.

Which is a really bad idea. Okay. The way you get pens is to loan pens to other people.

The way you get a fancy car is to make sure other people have a car. Me and Rob this year, I saw my bank account statement. I said, Rob, how did we spend this much money?

He said, Geshe-la, you don't remember we were buying cars for people? I'm like, oh yeah. Okay.

Why? Because I don't want my car to break down. Understand?

Okay, good. Oh, who's going to read the big letters? Emily Chen.

Yeah, Emily, come on. Uh-oh. You can bring your husband.

She can do it without him. By the way, I'd like to welcome Emily's mom, who's here today. Thank you for good production.

Okay. Zimba. Yeah, nice.

Okay, good. And basically, do you take the deeper kind of misunderstanding is misunderstanding people. Okay.

Misunderstanding pens is the beginning. I always teach the pen first, but then we have to teach the misunderstanding of the misunderstanding or the misunderstander, okay? You also come, your thoughts, you have no control over your thoughts, so just relax.

Okay, your thoughts were created, I don't know, six months ago when you yelled at somebody or something. Then you're going to be depressed this week, and no psychiatrist can help you, to be honest. Okay, if you were yelling at people six months ago, you will have sad thoughts because you cannot control them.

Okay, ask any depressed person. My teacher used to make a joke. Somebody would go up to him and say, I feel depressed.

He'd say, stop that. Don't be depressed. And then he'd laugh.

I'd say, why you said that? He said, well, actually, your thoughts were created six months ago. No doctor can stop your depression.

No medicine can stop your depression. The only thing that can stop depression is being nice to other people. Okay, got it?

So, perceptions themselves are coming from seeds, the same as the pen. What you hear in your mind is coming from seeds in your mind, the same as the pen. When you, and here we're going to discuss, when you see a person, do you take them as ZE YOD or BDAG YOD?

Do you take the person as ZE YOD, or do you take them as BDAG YOD? ZE YOD means ZE. Buddhpala, ZE.

Substantial, okay? Substantial. Or do you take them as B-T-A-G-S, BDAG.

Labeled, just labeled. Do you take people as coming from their own side, or coming from your side, basically? Okay?

Okay, got it? Okay, so we're making the same division that we made with things, with people, and specifically thoughts. Are the thoughts ZE YOD, which means they have an existence from their own side, or are they just coming from karma in your mind?

Okay, the same way as the pen. That's all. Okay, that's all.

Cool? So it's two divisions of wrong thinking, rather than two divisions of things you think about. And that's the ZHI that we talked about at the beginning.

That's the NAM PAR RTOG PA ZHI. That's the four bad ideas, four wrong ideas, okay? And again, if you overcome those four, if you understand those four, okay, two about pens and two about your own mind.

Just understand that you don't have to go to a lower rebirth. I think it's worth the time, I think it's worth it to spend 10 minutes to think about it. You know, the owner of the diamond business that I worked in for 19 long years, he made a huge donation to the debate ground where I did my Geshe degree.

And I asked him, I said, you're from Israel, you're Jewish, you know, why are you making donation for a Buddhist debate ground? And he said, hey, you never know who's right. Okay, you understand what I'm saying?

Like, learn this, because maybe it's right. If it's wrong, you can forget it, you know. If it's right, you save yourself a thousand years of pain.

You know, you never know. You might as well learn it. Okay, all right, Tim, let's go on.

Can we go back to that line real quick? Yeah. Because it says the four misunderstandings as obstacles in the mind of someone who still has obstacles to omniscience.

Yeah, and then he says, these four understandings act as an obstacle to omniscience. Being a know-it-all. Seeing all things in the universe.

They are not obstacles which are nyomo. Which are about negative emotions. In themselves, they are not like anger, or jealousy, or desire.

They are just you don't know. And that in Buddhism, that's a different category of mental event. Okay, there's emotions, negative emotions.

They stop you from nirvana, jealousy, desire, competitiveness. Okay, then there's other mental states, which are just, you're just stupid. You just don't know stuff.

You know, that's different from being angry at somebody, or jealous at somebody. Being angry, being jealous, they stop you from your personal happiness. But misunderstanding the universe stops you from becoming a Buddha.

Okay, that prevents you from becoming a Buddha. Therefore, suppose there's a book that teaches you how to stop your wrong ideas about the universe. Got it?

I'll say it again. Suppose there's a book that helps you stop your wrong ideas about the universe. Is it the speech of the Buddha?

No, because Maitreya said the speech of the Buddha is always to stop negative emotions. When we walked into this class, we had a quotation from Maitreya. He said the purpose of a sutra, the purpose of the speech of the Buddha, is to stop negative emotions.

He said that. Now you've got speech that was not meant to stop negative emotions. It was meant to stop misunderstanding of reality.

So our opponent says, Ha ha, Maitreya must be wrong. Got it? Maitreya defined a sutra as a book that helps you stop your negative emotions.

But what about a book that helps you stop your misunderstanding about the pen? Is that a sutra? Because it does not fit Maitreya's definition of a sutra.

Got it? What did Geshe's do all those years in the debate ground? This is the kind of stuff.

Okay, got it? Everybody got it? There's a book that teaches you how to see the pen.

That doesn't stop your jealousy. You know, like that. If it doesn't stop a negative emotion, is it a sutra or not?

Because there's wrong thoughts that are not negative emotions. There are wrong thoughts that are not jealousy or anger or desire. They're just misunderstanding.

You're not like, Okay, got it? Very silent. Okay.

Dare tell? Dare tell? ,'CHOG CHEN DE DANG ZHIG YIN PA'I PHYOR, Yeah, now this is a very cheap and lazy answer.

Okay. He said, If a book is meant to stop the four wrong ideas that I just talked about, which stop you from being a Buddha, but which are not negative emotions. Okay, is that a sutra or not?

And we say, It is too what it is, because it's what we said it is. Take Stanley. He's handsome because he looks good.

Okay? So, You know, If I say, If I say, take Stanley. He looks good because he's the same thing as Stanley.

Is it logical or not? It's kind of cheap logic, if you ask me. He used it here.

Our guy used it here. Okay, he said, ,CHOG CHEN DE DANG ZHIG YIN PA'I PHYOR, The example I gave is the same as what I gave. Take Stanley.

He's handsome because Stanley is the same as Stanley. From his own side. Anyway, it's a cheap reason.

I mean, if you're in an argument with your wife and you say, We should go to the Japanese restaurant because it's the same as the Japanese restaurant. I mean, maybe she'll buy it, but not my wife. All right, here.

Now, ,DOD MI NUS TE, ZHES DU MI MI'I PHYIR, You can't agree to that, because that's what a, because that's, because they are obstacles to omissions. Yeah, you cannot agree that these fit Namaitreya's definition of a sutra, because these teachings are meant to stop misunderstanding, and they are not meant to stop hot emotions. Got it?

Okay, our definition from Maitreya was that a speech of the Buddha is that speech which is meant to stop your negative emotions. Then we chose things which are negative, but they are not negative emotions. And we said, well, teachings about that then should not be a sutra, according to Maitreya.

Got it? What's the punchline going to be? I'll give, I almost said a thousand dollars, but I don't have that much.

I'll give a hundred dollars. Tell me what the punchline is going to be. What's the punchline going to be?

I'll say it again. Now everybody's listening, especially dodos. Just kidding.

Maitreya said the definition of a sutra, of a teaching of the Buddha, is any teaching which helps you to stop your negative emotions. Then we said, what about wrong ideas about the pen? They're not like anger or jealousy.

They're not emotions. They're just wrong ideas. So if I have a book that teaches you how to get rid of your wrong ideas, is that a sutra or not?

What do you guys think? I mean, the 100,000 verse of Perfection of Wisdom, is it a sutra? Is the diamond cutter a sutra?

Is the heart sutra a sutra? Yeah, but it doesn't talk about negative emotions. It talks about misunderstanding.

Okay. So it does not fit Maitreya's definition of a sutra, correct or not? It has to.

Yeah, good. Dodos, correct. But did I offer money?

I don't remember. Yeah, look, when Maitreya said that the definition of a sutra or the speech of the Buddha is any speech which helps you to stop your negative emotions, he was including the misunderstanding of the pen, which is at the root of the negative emotions. Please, come on.

Don't you understand that? Got it? Just because a book doesn't talk about how to stop your jealousy directly.

If it teaches you how to understand the pen, that's also going to stop your jealousy indirectly. Okay, got it? So it's still a sutra, please.

Even if it doesn't talk about jealousy, if it just talks about pens, like the heart sutra, the diamond cutter sutra, the bodo bodo mido. Okay, got it? And we are just finishing.

Now, we always have a 15-minute discussion led by the esteemed translator about how the heck can you use this in your real life. And this is where I sit down and listen. All right.

That's a lot. That's a lot for a first class. Half of you have jet lag.

All right. I promise all the other classes will be maybe easier. Maybe after Venerable Pala's class.

So the first thing that kind of came to mind, that's an interesting question, right? If you can't control your thoughts, and I say the first thing that comes to mind, right? I didn't really control that, right?

There's a whole series of memes on Instagram and TikTok all about intrusive thoughts. And the whole thing is about, you know, when people are just walking around doing normal things, then all of a sudden, they have a really weird thought in their mind. Like when someone walks, like the waiter walks by with the plate, and you go, wouldn't it be really funny if I just went like that?

And then it falls off, right? You know, and so these thoughts that pop into our mind, you know, most people don't act on them. Right?

But some, you know, sometimes we do. And, you know, if you don't act on them, who's making the choice not to act on them? What's that?

Microphone.

[Speaker 2]
Your next thought?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. So where'd that next thought come from? Can you say that a little bit differently?

Because the answer is always seeds. It comes from encouraging other people not acting upon their negative emotions in the past. Nice.

I wish I had offered you $100, but I didn't. No, but right. So if you have one of those intrusive thoughts, right?

The waiter's going by and you're like, wouldn't that be really funny, right? And then you don't do it. Why didn't you do it?

Or why did you do it? Right? You know, and the answer is, well, because in the past, maybe you helped other people not act on their negative emotions and kind of have a little bit more control of themselves.

Right? So what I found really interesting, what I was thinking about up here is if you had all, if you could consistently think like that, right, if you're constantly thinking like that, where, oh, and you have an intrusive thought, oh, I should run over to that person who's crossing the sidewalk or crossing from front of me on the road. Come on, tell me you have never thought that.

Okay. Maybe I'm the only weird one, you know? And then you go, well, I'm not going to do that.

And you go, well, that's coming from a previous seed. But the thought that I had just to think about it came from a previous seed. Right?

And then you start, it becomes this kind of like, you know, it's almost a little, it feels sometimes those thoughts, the thinking like that can feel intrusive because you don't do anything. Like you just get stuck in, well, where's this coming from? But I think there's a power to that, right?

That if you can constantly be aware of, oh, I'm having a negative emotion or a negative thought, and then whether you act on it or not, if you did act on it, don't be so upset with, I mean, don't run over people, please. But don't be so upset with yourself because that's coming from another seed, right? If you have that negative emotion and then you yell at somebody and you actually do that, well, that active yelling would come from somewhere else.

So what should you do in that moment? Should you feel bad about yourself? Well, maybe a little bit and maybe apologize.

Depends what you said. But maybe you would act, maybe you would change the way you acted to prevent that from happening in the first place. That's what I was thinking about.

Upala would like to, can we get her a microphone? Microphone, microphone person. Okay.

I was just thinking back to when I went into three-year retreat at the beginning of the retreat and I'm sitting there with all sorts of distracted thoughts and negative emotions popping up like fruit flies on a day-old piece of pear and they kept growing. And then I recalled that I'm just experiencing the results of my past attempts at meditation and then I just like, oh, okay, good. Because all I can do right now is plant seeds for my future meditation and that's what I turn my focus to rather than putting my focus on those distractions.

Cool. Thanks for sharing that. I have a question for you.

I've always wanted to ask a three-year retreater this. No, no, not why would you do it? How do you think about like if you're by yourself and you need to plant, you have all these negative emotions coming up and then you wanna plant different seeds.

How do you do it without other people around? Do you think there are other people around you right now? Wow, wow.

Should we debate this right now? I think that's a, I think if you wanna debate that, take that out to dinner tonight and think about, I think that was very, very profound what Venerable Pala said. And I don't think it means that there aren't people around you.

But that would be an interesting question to debate about. Thank you, that was a great answer. All right, any other thoughts?

Any other intrusive thoughts in the room? In the back, the back, back, microphone person. Hi, I definitely didn't fall in love with the classes from the beginning.

I listened to them for a while, but they're really, really difficult. So mostly I, I don't know, either I like fall asleep on the somewhere or I zoom out. But today's class to me was a total sales pitch.

Pitch sale? Sales pitch, yeah. Like I see how throughout the last year, my mind became different.

It just really became different. And not going to hell sounds good to me. So just like listening and sitting and falling asleep, it becomes better and better.

And please just come. And I was not paid to say that, but today I was really excited. So it was a really, thank you very much for teaching us.

Thank you for translating. It's amazing. Thank you very much.

Thank you. That was beautiful. I hope we recorded that and we'll use that as a sales pitch.

Well, one of the things that Ula does, how did, Ula, let me ask you a question. How do you think that your mind became more clear over the last year? What do you think you were, what seeds were you planting?

Microphone, say it again. Just listening is one thing. And when you can share those wisdom with, this wisdom with others.

Again, a sales pitch for being a translator is pretty cool. So yeah, I think this is how it happened. And so she's one of our translators who will sit in a mixed nuts class and attempt to translate the intensity of confusion that happens up here sometimes.

I don't know how you do it. I really am like, I'm in awe of it. So that's maybe why, that's what I was thinking.

So thanks for sharing that.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you for doing it. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Any other thoughts? There are no, there are 250 people in this room, which I'd like to thank the people who helped get those 250 people here. Where's Yuki?

There she is. So we have Yuki in the back. Thank you for helping bring a lot of people here.

Where is Jasmine? Jasmine Yao, where is she? Where's Jasmine?

Jasmine, I can't see her, but she helped bring a lot of people here. We have Sugeng and his team with Cheryl brought a lot of people here with the Sedona College of International Management. So I'd like to thank all of you.

We have a very diverse event happening here and we actually have two, it's kind of two events in one. We have the Steps on the Path group and we're finishing up this, we're going up the last steps in this teaching, this, the next five or six days. And then we're sharing the event space with the Sedona College Alumni Association and they're having a separate program while we're here and they have graciously invited some of us and we'll talk about that a little bit later tomorrow.

But it's really beautiful to see all the worldview groups coming together, right? And a lot of the directors are here, a lot of the staff are here and it's really wonderful that we get a chance to share it together. I have a surprise for Juan.

Can you come up, Juan? We have about two minutes before your world news starts and I have a surprise for you. So this is Juan Hasso.

Yeah, come on. Yeah, right here is fine, yeah. Yeah, that's fine.

So Juan is the director of the Ph.D. World News. He is an amazing reporter and he shares a lot of interesting factoids about people's lives and I have a surprise for you, Juan. Now I'm nervous.

Yeah, you're nervous? Yeah, with that introduction. That's right.

So I have a surprise for Juan. Go ahead, please. I've been around the world back and forth for so long and if you feel like I do, I'm on it.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Let's get it. Oh!

[Speaker 2]
Let's get it.

[Speaker 1]
So we have made some t-shirts. This is a famous question. Anywhere where Juan is, inevitably within 15 minutes, somebody will ask the question, where's Juan?

And we have no idea where he is. And he has this beautiful, beautiful way of appearing, just out of nowhere. And he always has a really cool story to tell.

And so what we did here, most times it's the bathroom, really. So we decided we're going to start helping the Peachtree World News. They're there with all of the organizations.

They're being forced to be with all the organizations. And we get to learn all the cool things that are going on around the world at any given moment within all different arms of what we do. So we get to share together.

So Juan, we have made some t-shirts. If you would like to support the Peachtree World News, you can go purchase your very own Where's Juan t-shirt. Thank you, team.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. And Juan gets his own special t-shirt. He gets one that just says, I'm Juan.

Thank you. No, I want to thank really very much everyone, Geshe-la, Veronica, and now I also want to thank you so much. And I also have a present for you.

Music, please. No, I'm just kidding. But because Gina has been helping me so much, actually the whole tech table and all of them.

I'm looking for something that I can find. Just one sec. Where is it, Juan?

[Speaker 2]
It's in my backpack.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, cool. Yeah, I have it. All right.

So, she has helped me a lot. She's a super handy person. So she helped me to create these cups and I'm putting some money on them so you can also spend it.

And I want to thank you and give you this as well for all the support and the friendship and the adventures and the patience because many times, yeah, I hope you use it. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope we can create many, many cool projects together.

And little by little, start bringing all the organizations more into this super close friendship and collaboration. I think it's very fun. And it just makes things much more exciting, much more, how to say, heart opening.

So I'm so glad for having this chance. Thank you for all your support and cheers for all the adventures that are coming up. And get yourself a Where's Juan T-shirt.

So here you go, Juan.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
You can stay if you want. I don't know. Okay.

Okay. Cheers. All right.

Well, thank you. Really appreciate it. And it has been a wonderful two years now of this project.

We have had like five big parties because of the New Year's. That's when we usually throw our biggest events, Western New Year and Eastern New Year. And this year we are also planning something.

Details are soon to be decided. So let me just, because as you may know, this is broadcast online as well. So it's not only for the live audience in this room right now, but we have many people watching online and it's good.

I like to give them a little context and all of you as well. So what we do is we try to share with everyone what's happening around the world really based on the worldview organizations. There are like about 42, 42 organizations.

They do wonderful, wonderful projects. And it's this space where we can get to hear a little bit of what's happening, where and with whom and all the details. So I would like the tech table.

Oh yeah, it's already doing it. Thank you so much for all your support. Actually all the tech table is Mexican.

That's so wonderful. Thank you guys for being here. And Pachi, which is basically Mexican.

He wants to become Mexican. He told me just a few hours ago. And he has a beautiful baby, which is half Mexican too.

All right. So yeah, we are here for the people online. We are in the context of the Steps on the Path.

We're in Kyoto, December 2024. It's a wonderful, wonderful event. It's the first time I had the wonderful chance to attend to an event, Steps on the Path in Kyoto.

Very happy to be here. It's wonderful. And soon Tim will talk about venues and other stuff.

People are just getting here. I arrived last night and I just wanted to share something. Like I really needed to show them, Rob.

I'm sorry about it. But I was very disappointed when you see, like I was like, Rob, let's hang out. He said, no, I'm busy.

But my spies got you there. And I'm putting you on evidence, shopping, surfing boards, which, you know, I will feel very interested. But anyways, I hope we can hang out.

And we hope we all kind of have a time to spend time with each other, get to know each other, make friends, share these beautiful teachings, you know, and live the experience of the community that these kind of events can bring up. Also a reminder that at the end of this week, there is going to be a special event where Geshe Michael is going to be teaching a seminar, a big like public talk with Marie Kondo. If you are not here, if you are online on Zoom, you can sign up following the QR code.

And then as part of this program, we also keep sharing events that are coming up soon, usually over the year, but also we approach the ones that are closer. And I want to, in that context, mention the one that our dear friend Gielse is about to have in New Year. It's a beautiful retreat that's going to be in Diamond Mountain.

This is a retreat center in Arizona, in Bouguy, Arizona. It's a very, very little town. For those of you who may not know this town in the movie Rambo, you know, it's supposed that Rambo is from Bouguy, Arizona.

So it's like a good, I don't know, I find it interesting. Soon we're going to be talking with her about it. Just moving very quickly about other news.

Rosa, where is she? Talk to her because she is launching this wonderful book and she has many other books and many cool projects that are having very awaiting, you say. Now you can get this wonderful book and Utpala, where is she?

Yay! She's going to be also having a retreat about that, about this book on January as well at Diamond Mountain. And then in February, yeah, she translates together with Geshe Michael.

So the book is great and the retreat, I bet, is going to be very, very amazing as well. You can come up to the retreat with your book already and that'll be amazing. And in February then, Errol and where is Conny La?

Well, many people here are organizers from YSI. They're going to be teaching the course on the Bhagavad Gita. Wonderful, wonderful text.

I haven't studied, but I hear the first verse that Errol shared with us and I think it's wonderful. It's about the inner fight or war that sometimes we have to do in order to pursue making the right decision to be moral, to be a good person, and the deep implications that that has in our lives and how to make the correct, right decision making. So if you're interested in that, I think you should check it out.

And after this event, after this whole seven days in this hotel, for those who are still in Japan, you can also join the Prema YSI event where some of the teachers here, Conny You can talk to Yuki, you can talk to Mei Chang, and they can guide you through the process if you want to participate on it. It's a great opportunity to let all the teachings sink in and put them into practice. Okay, in that context now, I want to move on and invite my friend Lindsay because she has wonderful, wonderful news to share with us.

She told me this afternoon I was really, honestly, super impressed of the goals that she's achieving. So welcome, Lindsay. Take a microphone.

Yeah, yeah, let us know. She's the coordinator of a very great program. I'm gonna let you introduce it, but it's called the Good Night Book Club.

Yeah, and you're doing amazing things and the results that you show me today are wonderful. So would you like to explain briefly what it is about?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, thanks Juan.

[Speaker 1]
Welcome.

[Speaker 2]
So one year ago in Kyoto, we launched the Good Night Book Club. And what it is, is it's a practice centered around putting away your electronics at night, reading a little bit, and then getting a good night's sleep. And so this is a practice that Geshe Michael personally does every night.

And he shared with us that it really helps with productivity, creativity, and things like that. So the Good Night Book Club helps you to do this practice. And we have these release bags where you can put away your electronics, put your phone, your laptop, all of that in here, lock it for the night, and then read one of these beautiful books that have been translated by people like Tim and the Diamond Cutter Classics translation team.

So there's different ways that people can do it. For example, these release bags are available for purchase outside, and you can buy your own books. And then something that we also do as a fundraiser that funds these translation classes is we will actually send you these in the mail on an ongoing basis.

We will mail you these books a few times a year. So we also have a table outside if you're interested in that, and we can show you as well. But I did want to share what happened.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, the results. Can we play the picture to say the good time? I was impressed.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. So the main reason I'm up here is just so that everybody can rejoice and celebrate this. Many, many people in this room have contributed to this.

So in the past year, we raised $1 million USD, and please, please celebrate that. Thank you, all of you who are involved with this. Yeah, that's coming from people in 41 different countries, and we've given over 700 books out so far as part of this, and you guys are supporting the whole Diamond Cutter Classics translation team.

So yeah, yeah. And then I would like to have a couple of people stand up. Is Inma here?

[Speaker 1]
Inma?

[Speaker 2]
She's not here. Oh, okay. She's on that.

Okay. Are Sugeng and Xinchen here? Do you stand up?

Okay. So if you are interested in this, please talk to Sugeng or me. Yeah.

And then also is, I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name, but is it Wang Yuan here from China Tina's team? Are you here? No.

All right. We'll scan this code and you can talk to her. We do have a different version of this in China since we do not ship these books to China.

So cool.

[Speaker 1]
So thank you, Lindsey. I really want to congratulate you because this project, I think, has the actual potential of change our daily life for real. I have tried it myself.

I have seen very, very cool, how to say, mood swings when I do it. I haven't done it as much as I should, to be honest. But when I have, it's really, really nice.

You go to sleep with something very nice in your mind. You wake up fresh, you sleep better. And also you are supporting all these wonderful projects that, as Geshe-la said, will help us to be born as humans, at least again, even better, hopefully.

So it's like a very meaningful thing. You support great projects and also you get a lot of benefits for yourself. So if you are interested, if you can support, please keep coming to these classes because it's not only about supporting the project, but also learning the content and bringing it into practice.

And then, of course, if you can support it as well. So thank you very much, Lindsey. We'll talk to you again soon.

Thank you and congratulations. Thank you for all you're doing. And finally, just to move on to the next class, which is going to be with our friend Utpala and Geshe-la as well.

I would like to invite Gielse to share with us a little bit of what are you planning for the New Year's event, for your New Year's retreat. I think it's going to be very, very cool to spend the New Year in a meaningful way like this, but I don't know yet a lot of the information, a lot of the details on what are you going to be teaching or doing. And I'm glad that you're here so you can help me to understand better.

Well, as Juan said, doing a retreat over the New Year and we have many New Years, right? We have Chinese New Year and the tradition that I was brought in. They have another New Year.

But the New Year between December and January is kind of a universal New Year and a great time for reflecting on your past and how you want to go into the future. So this retreat, one, it's especially creative for people who have never done retreat before and who want to learn how to do retreat. And by coming to the retreat, you will learn how to pace yourself in the retreat and give you some ideas and thoughts and things that you can think about while you're in retreat.

And we're going back to basics. We're going back to ACI 1, which covers basically the whole path. It explains the whole path.

And we're going to take different ideas in ACI 1 and go into them deeper and see how we can use them in our daily lives. Wonderful. Wonderful.

So it's actually, as you say, a retreat that anybody could join. It doesn't matter if they don't have like previous experience much. This is a great opportunity to come and start like diving into these wonderful teachings.

[Speaker 2]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. And will you maybe say something about the place where it's going to be, how special it is? So as you can see, here's a winter picture of Diamond Mountain.

Diamond Mountain just had its 20th anniversary last year. And it's been a place where, well, we've talked about three-year retreat where 31 people did retreat, or 32, I think I've lost count at this point, did retreat. Geshe Michael has done retreat there.

There's been a lot of retreat there. And so it has this, can you say essence or this feeling?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
It helps people to do retreat. Yeah. Because so many people have done retreat there.

And it's very quiet. It's two hours from the nearest city. And they take care of you quite well there.

And it's a place where you can quiet your mind and open your mind and your heart. Yeah, yeah. I myself have tried retreats there.

And I also have tried retreats in different places. And honestly, so far for me, this place is number one, really. If I really want to do retreat, last time when I was in Diamond Mountain, I was trying to do retreat.

And then I was trying to be quiet. Of course, people start getting worried about me because I'm never quiet. But I was really trying and the place was super conducive.

And I had wonderful, wonderful experiences. So if you want to try, I think it's a very good opportunity. Doing retreat can bring super great benefits to our inner lives, inner practice.

So I strongly recommend it. If you want to hear or know more about, can people approach you sometime during the week? Of course.

Wonderful. So yeah, there you go. Next Saturday, we'll talk more about other things.

And now we move on into the next translation class.