Тим Ловенхопт — Книга 1: Совершенство мудрости, занятие 56

[Speaker 1]
Hi, Yogis and Yoginis and everybody. Welcome to Shrensong's Tower. I'm very happy to be here with everybody this morning and evening and afternoon, depending on your global position.

So this is a small detour from our normal YSI class and we're going to do a class with Tim on his book. Right Geshe Michael? On the Perfection of Wisdom.

What's that? That'll help. He's probably doing his hair.

Yeah, he's got more hair. Oh, his hair is impossible, Nick. Your hair looks good, by the way.

Oh, thank you very much. You got a haircut. I did, yeah, yeah.

And I shaved much closer, so I look younger. Turn it off, right? Turn off my speaker, right?

Or my microphone. We do have the echo. There we go.

Turn off the microphone. Now you're all good, Geshe-la. Okay, nice to see you.

I found Timothy. Oh, I was a little worried about that. I was dreaming about his book.

I was worried I would find him. Oh, he's such a rock star. He's easy to find.

All right, we probably have a very intelligent homework coming up. Francisco, how many passcodes do I need? Oh, you got it?

Am I just sharing my screen and you're using that camera? You guys getting monsoons, Geshe-la? Yeah, right.

Yesterday, the EPA removed all restrictions on burning of oil in the United States. So, and University of England came out with a list of 2,000 heat wave events caused by those emissions. Life is interesting.

Very strange, yes. I'm not going to think about it before I start doing politics all day. Okay.

All right, and do I need, Francisco, do I need a microphone or anything? Or no, I was right here. Okay, cool.

All right, cool. Hi, everyone. All right, so many of you may not be familiar with this book.

And we've just started what is a very, very amazing section on who is the author of the book. And meaning, what's the status of the author? So, we're talking about Maitreya, who we talked about in class yesterday, I think.

And we're in the middle of a debate of whether Maitreya is the future Buddha of the Bodhisattva who wrote this book, or was Maitreya a Buddha who wrote the book, right? And so, the answer is, well, we're debating what that is and what it means. And for those of you who've taken the Five Houses Foundation courses, this is very present in the second course.

So, now we're actually getting the full debate around this. So, it's going to be a lot of fun. Again, I was reading Rin's biography in the car this morning, and it was 600 years ago, about a diamond ring.

And are there really hundreds of enlightened beings running around the world, or are they Bodhisattvas? There was a bitter debate in his time about, especially the Kalachakra. So, it's very interesting.

All right. So, our first question. So, this is a review from last class.

So, in that current debate, our opponent is trying to get us to say that Maitreya is, in fact, a Buddha, as the author of the Jewel of Realizations. And we counter by proposing that Maitreya's rationale for composing the work. We counter by proposing Maitreya's rationale.

Why do we claim that Maitreya is not yet a Buddha, based on the reason for having composed the Jewel of Realizations? At the beginning of the book, Maitreya explains why he is writing it. And what would that suggest about the question of whether he's a Buddha or a Bodhisattva?

He wrote it to help himself. Yes, exactly. He wrote it for his own benefit.

And what benefit would that be, Stanley or Nick? So that he could become a Buddha? Right.

Yeah. So, he's admitting, at least in his writing, or claiming that he's not yet a Buddha, because he's doing it for himself. And I'll give $100 if someone can mention the principle.

The principle that's relevant here, when you're writing a book. Khenpo Khyun. Nice, $100.

Khenpo Khyun means... It's traditional to understate your qualifications at the beginning of a book. Like, I'm just an idiot, but I'm going to write this book anyway.

Even if you're a Buddha. So, it could be that he's just Khenpo Khyun Gyi. And that he is a Buddha.

And he's just trying to talk himself. Set an example for us. Before you teach a yoga class, you say, look, I'm not Dharmamitra, but I'm going to lead the class anyway.

Something like that. Cool. Which means he might misstate who he is at the beginning.

Just to not brag. You see what I mean? He might say I'm just a normal person.

Yeah, so what we're saying is that if he was writing to purify his own mind, how could he possibly be a Buddha? And then we have all these other discussions. All right, so there's a vocabulary distinction that's very important as the debate goes forward.

Whether or not he's the future Buddha or already a Buddha. And the distinction is the two phrases. Thungmo and Thungmo Mayimpa.

What is the general meaning of these two words? And then how do they relate to the open and secret teachings? Nice question.

I mean, the answer is in my question.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, common, right?

[Speaker 1]
Right.

[Speaker 2]
To sutra as opposed to the way.

[Speaker 1]
Right. What's the word that we typically use when we're talking about the common? You said common, but there's another word.

Right. Which of those two words? Yeah.

And then what's the second part, Upaula?

[Speaker 2]
I don't understand the question. I'm sorry.

[Speaker 1]
What is that? What does that one refer to? I'm serious.

[Speaker 2]
Sutra. Oh, Mayimpa, sorry. Diamond Way.

[Speaker 1]
Right. It refers to the viewpoint that's unshared. Yeah, and by the way, somebody will say, oh, Maitreya is a Buddha.

The author of this book, which is the greatest commentary ever to the huge Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, is a Buddha. And then some people say, no, he's a future Buddha, which means he's not a Buddha. Yeah, he's just a high 10th level bodhisattva.

And then the response is, you are making a huge mistake of failing to distinguish between normal and special. Normal and special interpretation. And then what does normal and special mean in this book?

It's going to be a debate itself. Someone says, if you think he's a bodhisattva, you failed to distinguish between normal and special viewpoints. But even what normal and special viewpoints are, there's a special version and there's a normal view.

A normal normal and a special normal. And that's going to be the subject for quite a while. Okay.

And I have an extra credit question for those who know. What is the name in the ancient language for a crucial Diamond Way practice that has two forms? The Tungwawa and the Tumang Mayempa.

It's in the Diamond Way practices. So it is already unshared. But what's the name in the West Chinese for this practice?

The first word is Sam?

[Speaker 2]
Sam Nikyapa.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, Sam Nikyapa. There's one of the 11 secret yogas is called Inconceivable. And it has two versions, Tumang and Tumang Mayempa.

And they're both Tumang Mayempa from the perspective of the open teachings. Yes. Okay.

That's just for fun for later. Tim is special during his class. And then he goes back to being not special.

I feel that was a little bit of a fried egg. Wow. You're special during the class.

All right. So when we use the phrase Sangye Pakpa, what is the purpose of the apparent redundancy, especially in the context of this debate? Nice question.

All Buddhas are realized beings, but there are realized beings who are not yet Buddhas. So this is probably to distinguish between realized beings who are Buddhas or aren't Buddhas. Great.

And so for those who don't know the ancient language, could you separate those words out in commentary? Could you give the Sanskrit? Oh, Aryabuddha.

And then in West Chinese, it's Sangye Pakpa, where Sangye means Buddha. And I guess it means purified and vast. And Pakpa means realized being, like higher being.

And so in the context of this debate, because we're talking about someone who is maybe just a realized being, or maybe is a Buddha who is a realized being, a realized being Buddha. Okay, cool. Normally when you say Arya, you just think of someone who's Santinus directly.

And you forget, I think we forget that all Buddhas are Aryas also. They're still Aryas. When you become a Buddha, you don't un-Aryasize?

Okay, you don't take off your Arya clothes. Cool, all right, great. In which case, if you say Buddha Arya, the implication is there are non-enlightened Aryas.

Okay, there are non-enlightened Aryas who didn't reach Buddhahood yet, but they did see emptiness. It's an important distinction. Are Bodhisattvas and Aryas the same in this discussion?

Oh no, that's a huge debate. But if you want Tsongkhapa's opinion, you can be an Arya without being a Bodhisattva. You can see emptiness directly without a very conscious desire to save all beings in the universe.

Okay, can you be a Bodhisattva and not be an Arya? That's also possible. You didn't see emptiness yet, but you do have the desire to be.

So that would make you... Someone on the Mahayana track in the first two paths is not an Arya, unless they achieved emptiness on a lower path. On a lower level.

So that's also possible. And there are 20 permutations. And there's a famous book of this genre called The 20 Possibilities.

And it's the first book we ever translated, 50 years ago. You can say...

[Speaker 2]
The first Bodhisattva movement was seeing emptiness directly.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you can. There's a debate about that also. Okay.

But when a person sees emptiness directly and has that Bodhisattva experience afterwards, in the aftermath, Jeytob Yeshe, then they're an Arya Bodhisattva. But they could have that experience before seeing emptiness directly? Technically, they say it's possible.

I don't know. All right. There's all...

If you want to go further. There's also... There's a Bodhicitta...

There's an almost Bodhicitta called Sugarcane Bodhicitta, something like that. And that's where you're very close to getting Bodhicitta. And they say, okay, we'll call it Bodhicitta.

And in my opinion, that would be at the first two paths of a person who never saw emptiness directly. Okay. They would have like a pseudo Bodhicitta, something like that.

One Buddha got Bodhicitta when he was like that bird or something. Yeah, you could say. So that...

Yeah, you could say that. In the hell realms. Yeah.

Okay, Tim. So this is my attempted translation. Should we read it or should we...

Yeah, I'm sorry. Can you read please? Yeah.

Okay, let's see. Well, we're in a synchronicity in the offering praise. So there's a standard poetry required before you write a Buddhist book.

Before you get into the subject matter, you're supposed to praise somebody. And then you're supposed to say, I don't know much, but I promise to write the book. And then that praise is supposed to reveal something about the book.

You see? So if I praise Vajrapani at the beginning of my book, it's probably not a Vinaya book. You see what I mean?

So somehow the person you praise in the opening lines is supposed to reflect the topic of the book itself. If you bow down to Buddha as the giver of all vows, then maybe you are writing a Vinaya book. You see what I mean?

So that's called chod chö. It means offering a praise. And it's normally accompanied by a promise to compose the book.

Which means, unless I die, I will finish this book. That's a promise. It's always the same format.

If I don't die, I will finish this book. I'll figure out a way to finish this book. That's very, very standard Buddhist procedure.

CHOD CHOS RANG BDUN GYI DGOS PA ZLA MTSAMS SBYAR BA DGOS PA ZLA MTSAMS SBYAR Wasn't sure how to do MTSAMS SBYAR BA. CHOD CHOS RANG BDUN GYI DGOS PA ZLA MTSAMS SBYAR BA Yeah, you could say that. It's incorrect.

Now, so the point is, if this book is being written by Maitreya, and the question is whether or not he's a Buddha when he wrote it, or was he just a bodhisattva, and that gets into what's the status of Maitreya as a future Buddha. Can you call him a future Buddha? If he's a future Buddha, he's not a Buddha.

He's a bodhisattva. So RANG BDUN GYI DGOS PA ZLA means, yeah, Tim translated it as intention to fulfill his own needs. So in his promise to write this book, did he say anything about fulfilling his own needs?

Or did he say, was the language like, I'm just writing this for other people, because I'm where I have to be already. I already reached what I have to reach. So I'm just writing this for other people.

Did he use that kind of language? Or did he say, for my own purposes and for the good of all beings, I will write this book. So we have to examine his promise at the beginning of the book might give us a clue as to whether he's already a Buddha or not.

If he's already a Buddha, there shouldn't be any language where he says, I'm writing this book to get enough good karma to take me over the top. Directly is good. Yeah, so our guy says, you cannot read the introduction to this book as Maitreya saying, I hope it helps me get there.

If you believe he's already a Buddha, you cannot interpret his opening lines as saying, I hope the karma of writing this book is the thing that pushes me into enlightenment, because he's already enlightened. Also, Je Tsongkha. Yeah, and by the way, when you see that percentage sign in the second line of the Tibetan, it means the carving was mistaken.

And we're dealing with eight volumes of handwritten. The only copy we have is, as I mentioned, it's a lithograph, which means it was written on a flat stone by hand, and then the paper was put on the stone and mimeographed on a flat stone in a refugee camp. And that's the only copy we have.

There's one copy in the Bibliotheca Vostokovodzhenia of the Soviet Union in Petersburg, which we're trying to get a copy. That's a long story. Je Tsongkha Gyalwa Rangdong Dönyokyi Loméby Chö.

What's that mean, Tim? Yeah, Maitreya should not have a state of mind in his heart where he's trying to reach Buddhahood for himself. If he's already a Buddha, he shouldn't have this burning desire to become a Buddha in his heart.

Okay? In the context of... This is also important.

Yeah. Oh, I should meet somebody. Yeah.

Yeah. If you say that, then you are failing to distinguish between the unique view of Maitreya and the common view of Maitreya. Okay?

And so this, again, this whole debate today is going to hinge on the difference between the normal view of Maitreya and the enhanced view of Maitreya. Okay? And what does that mean?

It's going to shift around. We're going to explore different meanings of that. Okay?

Okay. Nice translation so far. So far.

You want to... Why don't you go ahead and read this one? Okay, I'm going to read it.

Okay. Yeah, I was going to say it on the first page. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You okay? Yeah. Yes.

Yes. Yeah. Yes.

Okay, yes. Why is, why would you say that in italics? Because it's not in the text.

Yeah, it's an understood response in the debate system. Okay, somebody says, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then another sentence comes and in a debate, there should have been a response in between those two and they are understood in a text.

In a debate text, we don't repeat all the responses. Everybody knows they are there, okay? Somebody says something, somebody says, I disagree.

And then the guy says, it is so because, then just to save space, they don't write, I disagree or something like that. Now, Mixed Nuts policy, since our readers are not monks in monasteries, we put in all of the debate, we give you the whole debate, but we give it to you, when we fill in a missing piece, we give it in italics to indicate to the reader that we believe this is here, okay? All right, because you already accepted, there's no state of mind where Maitreya is aspiring to.

Yeah, yeah. The opponent has already, we asked him, is Maitreya trying to get something for himself? What do you think?

Is he trying to get something for himself? It's a debate, it's a fair debate. Does a Buddha have to try to get something for themself?

If he's a bodhisattva, then definitely he's trying to get something for himself by writing the book, the karma of writing the book, similar to doing the first set of seven preliminaries. The book itself about how to become a Buddha will act as karma for him to become a Buddha. So is that why he's writing the book?

Is he trying to get enough good karma to get over the top? That's a question. If he's only a bodhisattva, that makes sense.

But if he's a Buddha, that doesn't make sense. Mindstream, this is just a problem you made up. When you listened to and thought about the major texts of the great Maitreya, yeah, no, no.

Say, say, TUSAM, MA CHE. MA CHE. MA CHE.

But you didn't. Yeah. When you weren't, you weren't, I'm sorry.

So when you weren't actually listening and thinking about the major texts of the greater way. The nickname of my monastery, where I finished the Geshe, is TUSAM GOM PA'I LING. TUSAM GOM PA'I LING.

LING means an island. There are four continents, these four guys. So in Himalayan language, when you refer to a monastery, you call it an island, meaning a protected, beautiful place of special activity.

Island of happiness. Then you go to the town and you're like, I'm not in my island anymore. And it's really like that.

I went to town. My teacher went to town once in his whole life, in the monastery. But his students snuck in every week.

Okay, anyway, so what's TUSAM GOM? Listening, contemplating, and meditating. So here we just have two of them, TUSAM.

Say TUSAM. TUSAM. Does Maitreya need to TUSAM?

That's the question. No, I'm sorry. Here the question is different.

It says, do you think Maitreya is a Buddha? Or do you think he's a Bodhisattva? And more specifically, do you think he still has something to do?

Do you think he still has something to do? Do you think he still has something left he wants? And then somebody said, no, he doesn't have anything left that he wants, because he's a Buddha already.

He's... Ah, now you're anticipating the debate to come. Yeah, and it's very delicate language.

Does he have anything that he still hopes for? You see what I mean? And then some famous scholar said, no, because he's already a Buddha.

He has no further needs. He's already a Buddha. Therefore, if the author of this book is already a Buddha, there's nothing more he wants.

He doesn't want anything more. And he said that. And then there was a famous, famous, famous response.

I think it's by Je Tsongkapa. THEG PA CHEN PO'I ZHUNG LA NGEL BAR ZHUGS TU MA BYAS PA'I RGYUN YIN which means, I wish you had spent more time learning the Mahayana. I wish you had spent more time learning to learn the Mahayana.

And he said this, frankly, to a Sakya scholar who had just finished a 12-volume work on emptiness. It's very famous. It's a very famous side...

He wasn't like in a debate with him. He just said, oh, I hope someday you can do some real scholarly work. And he's very famous for finishing 12 volumes and they still exist.

And he said, he said these words, THEG PA CHEN PO'I ZHUNG LA NGEL BAR ZHUGS TU MA BYAS PA'I RGYUN I wish you could have spent a little more time on the classics, honey. Okay. So that's a veiled reference.

We call it veiled. It's, he doesn't mention the other guy's name. He just says, boy, this person should have spent more time on their study.

But everybody knows, everybody knows that that's the comment that was made. Okay, all right. And it was not said unkindly.

It was said with compassion. I hope someday you can really delve the classics. I hope you have the karma someday to really dig into the classics.

Okay. All right. Join the goodnight book club.

Okay, one more. Who's going to read this one, Timothy? Let's bring someone up.

Let's scoot over. I don't know which is, that's up or down. It's going to be up in this case.

They're tall. Yeah, good. Nam Shay Lay, Jetsun La Rang Dun Dun, say?

Rang Dun Dun. Rang Dun Dun Yer. Mm-hmm.

Gi Lo May Par, May Par Dup Pa Sok Mi Tek Pa Chem Po Shung La. Tem Chem Poi. Tem Chem Poi.

Here comes the quotation. Shung La, Tem Chem Poi. Ngao Wa.

Ngao Wa, Chep Tu Ma Chepay Yintay. Jetsun Nung Par Sok Par Sangay Pay Tang Wang Du Jay. Chay Nah.

Chay Nah Tun Mong Dang, Tun Mong May Yintay Kyap Ma. Kyap. Kyap.

Kyap Ma. Chay Wah Yin La Shay Sung Pay Cher. Yeah, nice.

Good. Yeah, there Tao, you do too have a problem with not having read enough, okay? Because Nam Shay Nyingpo again.

Let me, let me just delete that so we can get to the, we can see the whole thing. Okay, so our author, who is a late 1500s monastic textbook author, very famous, Kedug Denpa Dzogchen, and he lived maybe 100 years after Tsongkhapa, okay? So he's quoting Tsongkhapa.

And Tsongkhapa wrote a book on the perfection of wisdom. It was his first major work. He was still in his 20s.

I think he was 26, something like that. And it's huge. It's like 600 pages.

And so in there, so our author says, my opinion of your, my opinion of your position about who Maitreya is, is reflected in Tsongkhapa's famous commentary on the same question. And in that commentary, Tsongkhapa says, would you accept that there is no state of mind where Maitreya is aspiring to fulfill? Yeah, if you say Maitreya is not interested in going farther, okay, and that's a big question.

Is Maitreya interested in going farther? What do you think? Okay, he says, you seem to believe he has no interest in going farther.

Okay, I'm following Tim's translation. Therefore, I would say that you still have to go farther in your own studies. If you think Maitreya doesn't feel like Maitreya has to go any further, I would say you need to go further in your studies.

Okay, which would imply that Maitreya is, well, anyway, I'm going to, and if you take the point of view as manifesting, yeah, number two, but yeah, okay. I'm not, it wasn't true. That's okay, it just means total.

Okay, total, okay. This is a very distinguished between speaking the concept. Yeah.

Does Maitreya have any further needs of his own? And the other guy says, no, he doesn't have any further needs of his own. And then we say, if you believe that you have failed to distinguish between the normal way of looking at Maitreya and the extraordinary way of looking at Maitreya, which is the same as how you look at the people around you all day.

Diamond Way is a change in how you look at the people around you. Okay, all right. So he's saying you have a Diamond Way problem with the Diamond Way teacher, much less your wife or your daughter or your two kids.

All right, good. Cool. You got the plan now.

Yeah, and by the way, that's lungen rikpe gong ne. What's that mean? For a hundred dollars, lungen rikpe gong ne.

It was proved through scripture and logic. Yeah, good. Okay.

We have proved our, we are going to prove, we're going to discuss the question of whether Maitreya has anything left to do. If he has any desire for more. We're going to look at it through logic and we're going to look at it through scriptural quotation, which is the classic Buddhist way.

Lungen rikpe. It's so Buddhist that my roommate in the monastery was called Lungen rikpe. Scripture and logic.

I was like, hey, scripture and logic. He's like, what? Okay.

Again. Here we go. Now, the question is, do you see a part in here?

I don't see a part. I better go find it. Hang on.

I could just bring up my copy if you want. I got it. Okay.

Now, let me see a part in here. Yeah, this one right here. Okay.

And we're the other direction. We gotta go back. Yeah, we're going back to...

There? There, and then we're two paragraphs down. Next one.

Yeah, and by the way, if you look at this screen, it's a mixed nuts policy that when an author quotes another author, we go find it in the database. And we went to find it and we found it. And when we have a bolded section in our notes, that's the same quotation.

And how often do you think it doesn't match? Sometimes. Maybe once out of five or something.

It seems oftentimes that they're slightly misquoting it. Yeah, maybe one time out of five, it's different. And maybe one time out of 10, it's the opposite.

So we go find it and we go check it. That's just mixed nuts policy. And that takes a lot of time.

And it also requires a database of 80 million words. And it requires a AI program that we wrote 37 years ago that still works, but it has to be updated every year. And we just did a major update of it.

Okay, Kajik, who's going to read? Gina. Gina.

I know. These classes are possible because of Gina. That's it.

[Speaker 2]
Kajik, dear, shut, bay, tumong, warang, tongi, chuk, guh, patang, tumong, ma, ching, pa, rang, ton, tong, nyer, ki, lo, la, je, pa, ching, te, je, tung, la, tung, mong, warang, tongi, guh, guh, nice, pa, ju, jang, kyang, kyang, tung, mong, ma, ching, pa, rang, tong, tong, nyer, nyer, ji, lo, me, pa, pay, cheer.

[Speaker 1]
Good, nice.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
By the way, I mean, it's my, I'll repeat one more time that if you can listen to five minutes of an enlightened being's writing, it has a profound effect on the rest of your life. You know, it's not a, if you get a chance to sit in a translator class and not understand anything, that's a tremendous good karma. That's the best karma you had in your whole life.

So don't, so just keep it in mind. If you get a chance to hear five minutes of a translator class and you have no clue what's going on, that's a sign it's really good for you. And it's immeasurable benefit.

I can't describe it. You know, you should tune in. You know, go ahead and eat your breakfast and watch a football game on your other device.

But with half a ear, listen to a translator class. It's an extraordinary karma, and it will have very, very powerful effect on you later. Okay?

Really, seriously. Okay. By the way, I'm going to, I want to get this guy.

Is that okay? Come back, come back. This one?

Yeah. You want to do it? I don't know.

[Speaker 2]
I don't know. I forgot. Where does it live?

[Speaker 1]
It lives in? That's a building. It's a building.

And then, oh, this one, display. Display, okay. Yeah.

And then slide down. What was that? Here.

Okay. Okay, good. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. There we go.

Who's going to read? Oh, we read. Yeah.

Okay. What's it mean, Tim? Someone comes along and makes a claim here.

Yeah. Someone comes along and makes a claim. We already understand that the following sentence is?

Wrong. False. Okay?

Someone says, some debater comes up. So, before you even go further, you have to remind yourself, this next statement is wrong. Somehow this next statement is subtly wrong, and it's your job to figure it out, and that's why it's in the book.

Okay? Here's the statement. DER ZHES PA'I THUN MO'I DBANG With regards to the open teachings or the common viewpoints?

Yeah. We're talking about a special view of Maitreya and a normal view of Maitreya. And then he's going to give his opinion of what normal means, okay?

Should we look at Maitreya with a normal viewpoint or with tantric eyes? Like, how should we view him? And he says, normal.

He's going to tell you what normal means. He says, normal means he still has rang dun gyi gupa. He still has the intention of fulfilling his own needs.

Yeah, he still has needs of his own. Look, this is getting very subtle, okay? And that's the question.

Does he still have needs of his own? Okay? If you word it that way.

Or, in THUN MO'I MA YIN PA In the special view. Yeah, if you see him as somehow unusual or special, does he have rang dun dunyak gi lo? Does he have a mind which aspires to fulfill his own needs?

Yeah, so normal here means, does he still have normal, does he still have needs of his own? Does he still have needs of his own? And then special means, is he still thinking about those needs?

Is he still intending to do something about those needs? Okay? And there's a slight difference, right?

Does he have the needs or is he intending to do something about those needs? YIN TE Jetsun la. Oh, by the way, Jetsun is a synonym in this book for...

Maitreya. Maitreya. Yeah.

Normally, Jetsun means high and holy. JE TSUN And it means a high teacher is called Jetsun. Randhawa is typically called Jetsun Randhawa, okay?

Tsongkapa, they just chopped it off and called him. JE TSUN Okay. So, THUN MO'I MA YIN PA RANG DUN Does Jetsun, meaning Lord Maitreya, does he have RANG DUN GYI DGOS PA?

Does he have needs relate to himself? Himself. YOD This guy's position.

He does. Jetsun, Maitreya, does still have needs of his own. He does still have needs of his own.

KYANG But. But RANG DUN DON GNYER GYI LO MED He's not... But he's not thinking about it.

Yeah, he's not focused on it. That now we get many, many debater's ideas. This guy's idea, he still has needs, but he's not focused on them.

Okay. All right. Could that describe a Buddha?

I don't, you know, that's up to you guys. Okay. We're trying to decide whether it's a Buddha or a Bodhisattva.

And this guy says he still has needs, but he doesn't focus on them. Well, in the uncommon or this special view, he's not thinking of his needs. Yeah.

He's not thinking, he's not intent on those needs. Yeah. Okay.

Next sentence is pretty long. Can you... You got to pick on somebody.

Can you give the microphone to Rivas? Oh. You sang this song one time in Mexico, Low Riders?

Yeah. Low Rider was... Diamond Mountain.

Well, I was just doing it yesterday. That's it. Low, low ride.

But if you'd like, you can come sit here. Why don't you come sit here? I mean, I sit here.

I essentially got up and made it way over here. Right. Rang dun gi gu pa la tun mong wa dang.

Rang dun dun nyer gi lo. La tun mong ma yin pa she chong che. She che.

This word is incorrect. I'm going to cut it here, Benji. Let me cut something here.

Okay. So, oh, I'm sorry. Look over here.

There's... Che. Che.

No, no. Che. Yeah.

Pei gyu tsen yu de. Yeah. Rang dun.

His own needs. His own needs. Gupa, his own needs.

That's the normal viewpoint. He does have his own needs. It's normal viewpoint.

Rang dun dun nyer gi lo. Does he lo nyer? Does he focus on those needs?

That's uncommon. That's unusual. Okay.

Does he have needs? Yes, that's normal. Does he focus on those needs?

No, that's a special question. Something like that. If you're going to...

You know, it's probably good to say upfront that normal here means looked at from a non-Tantric view. And special means looked at from a Tantric view. And so inside of the first book that every Geshe studies at age 16 or 17 is the whole Tantric path.

Which they're not allowed to enter until they get their Geshe 25 years later. In the first year, they are studying the main question of all Tantra. They probably don't even know it.

And they're not allowed to study Tantra until 25 years later. But in the first year, they're getting a heavy dose. They're getting the heaviest dose of it.

It's all a secret thing, you see? Are you going to teach me Tantra? Yes.

When? After 25 years. Now there's this special thing, and there's this less special thing.

Yeah, okay. Okay? All right.

RANG LDAN LDAN NYES KYIS BLO LA THU'I MO MA YIN CHEN PO'I RGYUD TZAM RGYUD TZAM means what? Reason. There's a reason why we call...

There's a reason why we call your own needs normal. And focusing on your own needs as special. Okay, this is still the other guy.

Yeah. Yeah. Now Alex can start on...

So yeah, there's a difference between your own needs and focusing on your own needs. One is normal, one is special. Okay, let's keep going.

RANG LDAN KYIS RANG LDAN KYIS GUS PA LOG PA DANG MILO PA NYIK KYEE GYUL LA YUK PE TUNG MONG WA DANG RANG LDAN LDAN NYER GYIS LO LOG PA KOO NEY KOO NEY GYUL LA YUK CHING MILO PA THAM GYE THAM GYEP PAK PE GYUL LA MED PE GYUR TZEN GYEE DE TAR SHEPE SIR SENA Yeah, nice. Rangdeng kyi gupa, nice reading. Stay.

Rangdeng kyi gupa still has needs. Still has needs. Still has needs for himself.

Rangdeng kyi gupa. That's in the view of both lopas and milopas. Students and non-students?

Yeah. Lopa means studying. Studying, okay.

Milopa means beyond studying. It's a common idiom for not enlightened yet and already enlightened. When a book says still has some study to do, that's a non-Buddha.

Then doesn't need to study anymore is a Buddha. So he says lopa and milopa. You, nyi ka.

It's in the mind of both of them, or the stream of both of them. Both people who need more study and people who need no more study, both of them still have rangdeng kyi gupa. They still have needs.

They still have needs. Doesn't matter whether you're a Buddha or a bodhisattva, you still have personal needs. That's the position of...

By the way, Stanley, before you think, look at the last syllable here. Serna. He claims.

That means this whole statement is false. There's something wrong with this whole statement. What is this statement?

Both Buddhas, both people who have finished studying and people who still have to do more study, meaning Buddhas and non-Buddhas, they both have things they need. They both have things they still need. Dukmong.

They both have things they still need. Therefore, that's normal and not special. If you look at...

We're using the word here, normal and special, which Tim had in his homework. Normal and special. Normal viewpoint of Maitreya.

Future Buddha, just a bodhisattva. Tantric viewpoint of Maitreya. Tantric viewpoint of your dog and your cat.

Not the cat. My cats. Maybe your cats.

I got scars. But he switches here. He says, normal here means both Buddhas and non-Buddhas still have needs of their own.

That's the normal viewpoint. He changes the word normal. It doesn't mean here, normal means seeing Maitreya as a bodhisattva.

Normal here means, look, everybody has their needs. He's switching the word normal. The other guy, the other debater says, you don't understand what normal means here.

Normal doesn't mean to see Maitreya as a non-Buddha. Or your neighbor as a non-Buddha. Normal here means both enlightened beings and normal people, they do have their own needs.

That's normal. Then what's abnormal? I mean, what's special?

Here it goes. RANG BDUN DON GNYER GYI LO LOPA KHO NA In the mind stream of a non-Buddha. LOPA means still have study to do.

Only for those who still have study to do. They're thinking about their needs. Normal means Buddhas and bodhisattvas still have needs.

Abnormal, super normal, higher viewpoint means only non-Buddhas still have things they want to reach. Does that help? Non-Buddhas and Buddhas both have needs, but only non-Buddhas want to reach them.

This is the other guy's position. All right. KHO NA'I RGYUD LA YOD CING Only non-Buddhas are acting on what they haven't reached yet.

Buddhas, MI LOPA, who are beyond any more study, that's a very attractive word in the Geshe course. You got to finish the course. Why?

You can become MI LOPA. Can I throw out all my books? Yes.

Okay, I'm on. It's very famous that people come home after the final Geshe exam and throw out all their books. It's not a good thing, but okay.

MI LOPA means Buddha, SANGYI PHAGPA. I realize being completely enlightened. Yeah, an Arya who is a Buddha, which now you guys can appreciate that term, an Arya who is a Buddha.

RGYUD LA MED They don't have RANG DON GYUR GYI LO. They're no longer... They don't have an aspiration to fulfill their needs.

Do they have their own needs? Yes. Are they working for their own needs?

No. Who are we talking about? Buddha.

A Buddha. That's an interesting distinction. They have their own needs, but they're not focusing on them.

That's a Buddha. That's a Buddha. Someone who has their own needs and is focusing on them is a Bodhisattva.

That's the other guy. That's his version. We're going to have to fight that version.

Here we go. That's all. The rest is okay.

This is still all considered the normal version, right? There's nothing here that says that this is the special version. Yes, you can say that.

Okay. Who's next? Nice reading, Mr. Rubus. How about Sophie? Sophie. Oh, no.

She just fell down and hit. Those Guadalajarans are... Come on, Sophie.

Those Guadalajarans are kicking in. That's how you become a Milopa by studying. Come on.

That's mine. We're starting here. You got it.

Just make some noises. I'll help you out here.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Doing great. Okay.

Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Normally, we stop at... Yes. 9 o'clock.

Then we do a 15-minute discussion led by the translator in which we try to figure out if there's anything in this book that we heard today that we could use at home. So then grandpa disappears and for 15 minutes we have this discussion led by Tim. And then after that, we have 15 minutes of Peachtree World News, where Juan Haso tells us what's going on in all the organizations.

And what you might want to come to. And then after that, on Saturdays, we're done for the day. And we all go overeat at Peachtree Cafe.

But just so you can leave on a good note, okay? He says something interesting here. He says, it's not true that Buddhists don't have any aspirations for themselves because they do have aspirations for themselves because they do enjoy having a Buddhist body because they look forward to having a Buddhist body.

But they already have a Buddha. Does a Buddha look forward to having a Buddhist body? Well, in the next moment, they're looking forward to that.

Yeah, would you like to still be a Buddha tomorrow? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So they still have aspiration to be a Buddha in the future.

Can we say, does that make them a bodhisattva? Yeah. So this guy's being cute.

He's being cute. You know, he's like, do Buddhists care about the future? Yeah.

Do they care about who they are in the future? Yeah. Do they like to stay a Buddha in the future?

Yes. So they're aspiring towards Buddhahood, right? Yes.

All right, that's where the guy's going. Guy, they do aspire towards Buddhahood because they would like to stay a Buddha tomorrow. Okay.

Do they aspire towards a Buddhahood, which they have never reached? No. No, they don't.

We're going to get to that part. Okay, bye. Have a nice discussion.

Thank you so much, Geshe Michael. We very much appreciate these classes. I thank you, everybody, for listening and tuning in.

All right, Tim. I don't know if, yeah, you can take the computer. Although, I want to see the people.

Oh, wait, I can still see the people. I can still see the people here. You can take it.

Okay, all right, cool. Thoughts, thoughts, concerns, considerations, sharings. Sophie, yeah.

Why don't you come up here so we can see you? I don't know if it makes sense, but it made a lot of sense to me that when you're in that moment, when you're planting seeds and you want to see a result,

[Speaker 2]
that this whole debate, if the Buddha or Maitreya has needs or not, if he's doing something about it or not, and made me feel strong that in that moment, when I want to see certain result happening, I should just, it gave me confidence to disattach to that, to feel not so attached to the need of that result.

[Speaker 1]
Well, that's cool. So it gave you, you have the aspiration to, it gave you more aspiration and motivation to do it, but not worried so much about the result you're gonna get.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, and some confidence about the thing is creating it, having the aspiration and the intention.

[Speaker 1]
I like that. So is that kind of a confidence we learned the other day?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
I like that. That's cool. Thank you for sharing.

I think it's a good question of if you're a good person, or are you supposed to ignore your own needs and just take care of other people? Are you supposed to take care of other people at the expense of your own health and your own happiness? Because that is a common idea.

I'm supposed to be miserable and, I'm supposed to wash dishes all day. And I just take care of other people. And I think that's a common mistake that yogis make.

Yeah, it's like, it's being obsessed with, I have to plant all the good seeds. And so focusing out there and not taking care of, you are planting good seeds by taking care of yourself too. How about that?

For fun. Like you could still buy a fun truck and drive it around. I don't think you have to sacrifice everything to be a good Yomi.

I don't think so. I mean, buying a nice red truck is fulfilling your own needs, right? In some way.

And the needs of others. And the needs of others for sure. Yeah, yeah.

So by having, if you didn't hear what he said online, by having fun, like taking care of your own needs is also having fun, you know? Go ahead. I was also thinking how to connect to what we were learning here about Bhagavad Gita and also about 14 questions yesterday, right?

So sometimes we learn how contradictory stuff are not really contradictory and how there is a third answer to questions that the question does not give you black or white, but it gives you orange or green. So I think this may be a good opportunity to think for whom it may be correct first thing, for whom it may be correct the second type may be correct, right? And how there is maybe no contradiction.

You see what I mean? Like Bhagavad Gita, he asks like, oh, should I fight or should I give up? Should I let them kill me?

And actually both answers are incorrect, right? I mean, in a way. And in a way, both are correct because this is not at all how it functions, right?

And this is why these 14 questions, it's like if there is no worldview, how you answer it. So I would ask a follow-up question. Now, this is for you, Ina, follow-up question.

How would that, what you just said, relate to the normal view and then the special view? I was thinking like normal view for a normal person is a lot about phenomenology, right? It's about phenomenology.

It's a science about what you observe, what you can observe with your eyes and other stuff, like what they call objective reality, right?

[Speaker 2]
And then with logic, you develop your third eye and you see that phenomenology is not actually, does not make really sense.

[Speaker 1]
And then it brings you to uncommon stuff, right? And then you develop your third eye in a way as a part of your logic, right? As a result of your logic.

And this is how you come to uncommon vision. I like that. I think that has a, suggesting that it's our logic that unwinds a normal point of view.

Yeah, that's how I ended up from being a scientist, you know, studying this thing. That's just describes the past. Cool, thank you.

Tina. Yeah, thank you so much for the teachings. For me, it's like a education, it reminds me that there is normal way to solve conflict.

And the normal way to solving conflict is to clean the balance sheets, to remember the pain. But it's not good enough to let me read the deep gratitude for the other person. But if I take the special way, and to from this tantric way, it's like this person, it's really specially designed to teach me something.

And it's not only solve the problem. For me, I think it gives me a very deep gratitude for the so-called troublemaker in your own life. So this is a, it's really, I love it very much because the whole debate is about normal and special.

And this is something I got, so yeah. So when someone's causing you trouble, what, you know, how do you think about it? Like in this way?

Like how are you thinking? I'm asking you a question.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Like how do you like, how do you think about that? Yeah, for example, I think for all the DCI, all the practitioner in the system, we can bank the pain. We think, oh, it must be my own bad sis.

And then I do full power to clean. This is the normal way. But the special way is that it's not only that.

This one caused me trouble. It's the one who loves me most because, yeah, because they know that I need to experience that to become a stronger person, a better person. They are the person who love me the most.

They are the special angels for me. And if I think this special way, you know, all the bad feelings, you know, just to disappear, you know, a very deep gratitude, you know, arise. The feeling is good.

It's like sunshine in your own heart already.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
And they're still annoying you. No. Yeah, this is Maya.

Annoying sunshine. Yeah, over here. I was thinking of the first part where it says that you have to, it's a tradition to undertake your qualities before starting a teaching.

It's a tradition to what? To undertake and understand your qualities. And I was thinking how that could be a lesson that even if in your heart you're embodying to be the unshakable Buddha or the Buddha of appearances, how in your speech you still have to be humble and not embody that perhaps outwards.

What do you think the seed is to understate your, like if you're understating your capacity or your goodness or something like that, like what seed is that planting for you if you're not already a Buddha? To have people around me that are humble to teach me and they don't think I don't deserve the teachings or that I think to get teachings because... I'd say since it's human nature to overestimate yourself 50%, then if you cut 50% from the start, you get to your real self, right?

Understate your qualifications mentally at the beginning and you'll be actually correct. Thank you, thank you guys for the teaching. I was thinking on how you said that we use this 50 minutes to see how we can apply it in our lives.

So for me, it started to feel like a need thing, like you have the normal view, the higher view, and then you have the needs, right? And needs are something that we can really identify to. So it kind of felt like every time I have a need, there's the normal need and the higher need kind of, like I'm hungry, yes, so I have a need to eat.

But then there's the higher need, which is obviously you're seeing where that food is coming from and what's the real view of that food, but also the higher need would be to make sure you feed someone else or contribute to feeding someone else, which is gonna be feeding you. So it kind of made me think of how easy it is to feel need and how you can ideally use need in a higher perspective to really get to the seed of that need or the essence of that need. I like that.

That's very, I think that's very subtle and it's a very good practice to say, I'm hungry. Let me give some food to somebody else first, right? Even if you have the need of, I need that banana right now.

I mean, it's what we teach, but I think it's like making that shift in ourselves, like where we're naturally just going to offer food when we're hungry versus being like, well, I should offer food, but the food's right here and I'm hungry right now. That's cool. Thanks.

Chloe, did you want to add something?

[Speaker 2]
Follow up on Alfonso's idea. I thought about one of the Buddhist suffer restrictions.

[Speaker 1]
That you are breaking the restriction if you are not, oh, you can be a Buddhist sufferer and break a vow. Even if you are doing a good thing. If you are not having the intention of, you are doing this good thing to become a higher being.

So that was a, yeah, that's what I thought about. So if you don't, so if you do a good deed without. The intention.

Without the higher intention, is it still a good deed? Is that what you're saying? You can break the vow.

So that was the vow, right? So that's. Oh, I see.

Okay. So we have to have the intention, the elevated intention. Even when we are doing a good thing.

Because if we're just doing a good thing by helping others, it's a dirty good karma, it's not the highest thing we can be doing. We have to be thinking by having a good deed. I like that because you're constantly reminding yourself why.

Like, why are you doing this? Okay. Great.

So I think it's time for Juan Hazo. Okay. Thank you, team.

Thank you, Geshe-la for everything. Years and years and years of love and fun. Thank you.

Thank you as well. We are on the middle of, well, not really, we are almost done, but in the context of the Bhagavad Gita. This is a great program of YSI.

And I would like to start the sharing of the screen that the tech table kindly is gonna help me with. And you know, the thing is like, we with the tech table, we have been talking like, what can we do? Maybe sometimes it's too difficult to share the screen.

We get confused. We don't know when to do it. We don't know how to always be precise.

So we decided we need to hire somebody else to help us. And I would like, can we see the pictures here as well? Yes.

Okay. So that's the other one, but I want to show the picture of the new person who's gonna be helping us from now on. It's our friend Pichiquino.

And he has a very interesting story. And then when he helps us, he's a professional, like he does that. And then we see, look, yay.

That's his picture when he was little with his family. He grew up in town. He got a lot of training in Marina.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he got a special training with many big professors out to Ring a Bell.

He's working the service industry. He worked in a boxing gym. It was very interesting.

He has a lot of stories. Soon we will have an interview with him, but today he's gonna help us to change the picture. Yay.

All right. So we are celebrating that the red truck, iconic, iconic Petrie Cafe red truck is now running in full powers. What'd you say?

Re again. So you can see Geshe-la came to the venue yesterday on it. And you can tell it's really, really fun.

Rob Haggerty is a little sad that he's not driving, but look at that. They did a great, great, how to say? Show off to, how to say?

Introduction to society. There is a word in English for that. Yeah, no, but they throw a party for you when you're ready to, yeah, something like that.

All right. So we also have a lot of birthdays happening in the context of Vagabandita, being with Chloe and Mike, Nicole and Sarah's birthday is coming up, Francisco's coming up, and Nicola's show as well is coming up. So just happy birthday.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for being part of this family. And yeah, we wish you the best.

They, by the way, are receiving the red envelope if you want to. They tell me that you can give it to me and then we'll figure it out. All right.

So what's happening? DSU is the next event. I want to tell you a little bit of what we do in Petrie World News is we connect all the World B organizations.

And sometimes I tell my friends that try to see yourselves not only as like, oh no, I'm a student of five houses or I'm a student of YSI or I'm a student of Diamond Cutter Classics, but really at the end of the day, we are all Worldview Network people. We are all a big, big family. We are all part of this big project.

And this is the time, Petrie World News is the time when we can connect and exchange a little information of what's going on. Hey, I invite you over here, you invite me over there, I pay for you this time, you pay for me next time, stuff like that. Just collaborating and creating harmony and connection between friends.

This is the idea. And that's why, for example, today we are presenting DSU who they're kindly are inviting us to their next inauguration ceremony. It's gonna be on Tuesday.

And kindly Xiaoping, she let me know yesterday that everybody who is around can come live in person. You just have to follow probably the Telegram chat group or WeChat. And then let them know you're coming, right?

To save your spot.

[Speaker 2]
You want to come in person to attend a ceremony? The ceremony will be hosted by Geshe Michael himself. And then you can join the Telegram group.

We are going to announce the exact time or some instruction guidance. Yeah, particularly about transportation. And yeah.

And for those friends who are online, you can watch it live on Zoom. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Excellent. And thank you so much. It's a beautiful, beautiful piece of land.

If you come, you will be able to see. Really recommend it. It looks a lot of fun.

I can see almost, I can imagine in the future it's gonna be amazing adventures and stories. Okay. So what else is going on?

We have the party of the Mexican agave drinking bat coming up, Creatures of the Night. This is part of a bigger project called Sky Harvest in Diamond Mountain. So that's gonna be on September 22nd to the 27th.

Kat is here. So if you're interested, oh yeah. If you're interested, just talk to her.

But what they are doing is like gathering a big group of people who wants to learn how to serve the ecosystem. Apply that knowledge into Diamond Mountain, which is a beautiful, beautiful retreat center. And at the same time, you learn a lot of things on how to live in harmony with nature.

So you work and you learn. Then speaking of Diamond Mountain, oh wait, one before. Pichiquino, too hard.

All right. Stanley Chen is producing this event there at Diamond Mountain. So if you work there and make the environment beautiful, Stanley's gonna be very happy that their event is gonna be even better.

They are doing innovation retreats in October. This is gonna be going on from October 15th to the 24th. And then just right after that, we go to Phoenix with Geshe Michael and the Five Houses, October 24th to 28th.

That's gonna be really, really great. We are going back to a venue that I think Tim produced an event there with Tim. Yeah, like 10 years ago, 12 years ago?

That was the first time I met Rob Hagerty. Yeah, it was very cool. He was about to do some trips, but I remember you, you took me and Paulina for coffee to Starbucks.

And you told us that you used to work there and the whole story. It was very fun. It's a great venue.

I really recommend it. And of course the content, we're gonna be talking about opening the door to Diamond Way. It's like the third series of this preparation to the official Diamond Way, right?

Okay, so after that, you can go to Diamond Mountain. You can do some retreat. Also, you can talk with Gielse and Jigme, who are here as well.

If you're interested after you learn in Phoenix, I don't see them, but I'm sure they're... Oh, okay. Hi.

Yeah, so it's just so you know, you can after Phoenix go and spend some time in quiet, in peace to learn and digest what you just learned in Phoenix. And if you're interested to do that as well, they're gonna have a talk in September, Friday, September. No, wait, in the 22nd.

I'm sure I changed that, but you know, it's crazy. Sometimes I make mistakes, believe it or not. So, all right.

But okay, so the talk they're gonna have is on September 22nd. And on September 19th, last week, we were talking about this new project called Blue Sky Friends, which is like a service that Jigme and Gielse are providing along with Angeli Nicole. I don't know if she's here.

Yes, thank you so much. What they are doing is like one of the main services they're doing is that they help people who is either going through the loss of a family member or like a person who needs emotional support, like grief, is going through some grief need, support need situation. And on September 19th at 7 a.m., they're gonna have this talk about a little bit of how does it work, a few things of what can you do if you're facing these situations. They also organize prayers. If you have a family member that just passed and you want professional prayer people to guide their stream, mind stream to a better place, you just talk to them and they can set up everything for you. Talk to them if you're interested, if you need these services as well.

Okay, and finally, before we move on to our exciting news of YSI, because we are like, they are our big host and guest at the same time, we would like to, well, I would like to invite you to please consider sign up for our Telegram and WhatsApp groups. This is a new initiative, a new idea that came up to try to develop this interconnection between organizations, between friends, between community. Here, you may wonder what am I gonna get if I sign up there?

Okay, so what you're gonna get is access to this kind of information. For example, you wanna know more about the Good Night Book Club. Okay, you're gonna find things there.

Okay, sometimes we do special reports like Errol, a special aficion for water ski. We make him a video, it was very amazing. We had this interview with a teacher, John Brady and Holger from Germany.

They are producing an event. So for example, we'll be sharing the content there. If you miss something, you can catch up there.

If you need to understand more about what is Blue Sky Friends, there you're gonna find information. And for example, this new video that is just releasing now about String of Hearts, you're gonna be able to access it from there. So just as a teaser, I would like tech table to yeah, consider following the YouTube ad.

Okay, volume please. Let's start over. Let's start over.

Can we hear the volume? Well, this is his first day. So please be patient.

He's a great person. Okay. I hope you get the idea.

This is a teaser of the actual interview. Teresa is developing this String of Hearts project, which is a project who integrates service, service to other service to the community and to the ones in need as part of, a meddler part of the yoga training. And here we're exploring these ideas on how actually service helps you to achieve the goals that yoga promises.

So this is just a one minute. Apparently you see a connection between these acts of service as being an important part on the practice itself. Doing them is not only nice, but necessary and it's gonna enhance every other practice we do around yoga.

It's gonna even make it attain the goals that we are pursuing. This is my personal opinion. You can study a lot of theory of yoga.

You can do great asana poses, like acrobatic poses and maybe have no realizations at all. And you can do very little yoga or some kind of exercise, but work a lot in service. And I think you can have great realization.

Okay, so thank you, Tere. Thank you, Tere. Yeah, that was a nice story.

We, I'm glad we had to do it. We did it in February. And then a few days ago, we did a visit to the food bank here in Sedona as part of this string of hearts.

So there is more content coming up. This was just a teaser. So you can see the, yeah, you can watch the full interview.

It's like a 10 minute interviews longer. So that's why now we have a lot of people and we're gonna channel it through the YouTube channel. Okay, and yeah, please consider following the social media and show your support.

Yeah, now it's, now that I'm working on social media, it's so interesting to see these interactions, like how, why people watch your stories but never give you like, but why sometimes I do the same? Why sometimes I don't support certain things. It's very interesting.

So anyways, finally, before I invite Errol over, I just wanted to tell him that this project, is actually the next one. The next project, Carrots and Potatoes, is gonna soon have like a special program with Errol sharing his secret recipe for strength, vitality and youth. Youth, exactly.

Which is a secret chai recipe that he has been sharing with them. So if you're interested in what actually he's putting in his chai, then you can follow the QR code and check it out in Carrots and Potatoes. All right, Errol, thank you.

Please come here and tell us, why are you celebrating this exciting program?

[Speaker 2]
Go for it. Cool. I wanted to thank all of our teachers that have been here for the Gita program and everybody that's been attending.

We will continue. I wanted to thank Kesha Michael for completing his part.

[Speaker 1]
But we have, today we'll have classes and then we'll finish tomorrow.

[Speaker 2]
One of the things that we're, we're heading into retreat season for YSI and we'll be doing a retreat in Thailand. Connie, myself and Pal and Benji. And retreat is a time to step back from our rush, from our busyness and a time to give ourselves an opportunity, I think to really advance quite quickly in a lot of ways and to step back to recharge.

So this is a beautiful location in Thailand with Vivian, who's an amazing teacher, a good friend and great retreat organizer. So if you have time and space to take a step back, that'll be a very beautiful retreat.

[Speaker 1]
We'll be doing a Lady Naguma retreat and a Jewel of Sharing retreat. Opening the heart. You can just say, you know.

We'll be our very first programs for Lady Naguma three coming up. So we've got three levels of Lady Naguma and this will be the first time we introduce level three. And it's gonna be, I think a big issue or a thing for people right now is finding their teacher.

As people taking Geshe Michael's courses and entering the Diamond Way courses, it seems to me around the world people are asking this question. And this course is all about that. I have to say something about it.

I hear, it's like a maybe, a maybe, because you're saying that people are having a hard time finding their teacher. And I hear from Sarah that you spend a lot of time in the bathroom. Maybe it's just that you're hiding there too much.

That's why they cannot find you. Oh, maybe, maybe, I don't know. Okay.

We'll be doing one in Turkey with Pranamu's Russian speaking group. And we'll be doing in Malaysia in January in Kuala Lumpur. And just really looking forward to that.

[Speaker 2]
Our team has been working a lot to get that program ready and we're ready to unleash it onto the world.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, we do retreats like this. And then I get the feeling people drop off and lose connection and lose community. One of the biggest parts of this retreat is coming together in community.

[Speaker 2]
And we talk a lot about the necessity of a consistent long-term practice without gaps, done properly. So we have a foundation. So where do we go after a retreat?

And so we have a practice club.

[Speaker 1]
We're coming together in community, consistently three times a week to have support for our daily practice. And that one is led by Benji. Sure is.

Yeah, I don't see where he is. I told him like, Benji, if you get too jealous, you can exit the room. But where is, oh, no, there he is, there he is.

So thank you, Benji. And also I wanna say that you're doing an amazing job and all the team that supports like Megan and Karina, where are you? Just raise your hand.

You're doing an amazing job. Thank you for helping us. Best wishes.

So that, yeah, it's Benji, it's Karina and myself and it's a place to come practice. Excellent. So you are there sometimes as well.

Excellent. Okay. Every week.

Every week? Where? Online.

[Speaker 2]
Online.

[Speaker 1]
There's your QR code. And what day? Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

All right, excellent. Is it free? No, it's a very low bar to get in.

Okay. Accessible for everybody. We'll have to find out more.

Maybe I'll invite Benji soon to talk about it. All right. So now it's time for the red thing.

Yes. The red thing.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you so much. This is from the whole community. Thank you so much for the entire team teaching and having a place to teach and have a space to study.

This will help with truck repairs.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Okay. And finally, just to say thank you to everybody who has participated on Vagaband Gita 2.

Kindly, the, how do I call it? Marketing team, I don't know how to call them, of YSI has prepared a special video for your enjoyment. As Benji liked to say, for your pure enjoyment and entertainment, something like that.

All right. But we need volume. Wait, wait, wait.

Thank you, big Chiquito. Be patient. Let's see who will learn.

Let's start over.

[Speaker 2]
Musica.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Thank you very much. What time is the next activity, Earl?

It's gonna be three? Peachtree. 45, okay.

Breakfast. After you eat your cinnamon rolls. 3.45, Arizona Central time. 3.45, here, same place, or at your house? Here. Thank you very much.

Next time, we'll meet on Monday, after our Shuangshan Tower. And in the meantime, I hope you enjoy a lot. Thank you for coming to Arizona.

Thank you very much. Music. When I'm now working at the Yoga Studies Institute playing a yoga teacher on TV, I'm a simple gardener, growing thousands of trees to plant my community every year.

At Giving Tree Nursery, we use natural practices to grow fruit nut trees like chestnuts, persimmons and plums. Let me show you where. We provide to local gardeners who plant trees to feed their families.

And we help establish forest sanctuaries that will provide fruits and nuts to wildlife for generations. And now we're integrating our trees into a new program we call Stewardship School, where we give the skills, the methods and the tools that future generations need to transform the inner and the outer landscape. Like growing food.

And herbal medicine. Propagating plants. Harvesting rainwater.

Building gardens. Don't worry, it's not all physical labor. We'll practice yoga asana.

Meditation. Self-reflection. And building community.

Sounds like fun, right? We want young adults to come to our program for hands-on experience and to feel empowered with new skills. The kind of skills that work in harmony with nature, that don't mine it for resources, but leave it better than how they found it.

To do that, we partner with non-profit organizations. They let us come onto their land, to camp, cook by the fire, roll around in the grass with some yoga asana. And in exchange, we do all the hard work.

We transform bare dirt, food-growing systems for our community, while teaching young adults the skills they need to transform the inner weeds and truly become the person that can serve this world. And we need your help to do it. Donations help us to get trees in the ground, teaching to students, and a community working together.

Help us plant seeds for a future generation, and let's get growing.

[Speaker 2]
KUNG NEI LUNG letters weave together. Individual marks become symbols of power. Geshe Michael's handwritten calligraphy teaches us to shape the motivation of our hearts with gung nei long, elevated intention.

The Western Chinese transliteration, English translation, his signature rests in the corner. A teacher's blessing through ancient wisdom. This isn't just calligraphy.

Handwritten, authentic, alive. A reminder to seek the heart's motivation. Bring Geshe Michael's elevated intention home.

Let it remind you daily of your heart's truest motivation. Your elevated intention starts now.

[Speaker 1]
When I'm now working at the Yoga Studies Institute, playing a yoga teacher on TV, I'm a simple gardener growing thousands of trees to plan my community every year. At Giving Tree Nursery, we use natural practices to grow fruit and nut trees, like chestnuts, persimmons, and plums. Let me show you where.

We provide to local gardeners who plant trees to feed their families. And we help establish forest sanctuaries that will provide fruits and nuts to wildlife for generations. And now we're integrating our trees into a new program we call Stewardship School, where we give the skills, the methods, and the tools that future generations need to transform the inner and the outer landscape, like growing food and herbal medicine, propagating plants, harvesting rainwater, building gardens.

Don't worry, it's not all physical labor. We'll practice yoga asana, meditation, self-reflection, and building community. Sounds like fun, right?

We want young adults to come to our program for hands-on experience and to feel empowered with new skills, the kind of skills that work in harmony with nature, that don't mine it for resources, but leave it better than how they found it. To do that, we partner with non-profit organizations. They let us come onto the land, to camp, cook by the fire, roll around in the grass, or ski over asana.

And in exchange, we do all the hard work. We transform bare dirt, food growing systems for our community, while teaching young adults the skills they need to transform the inner weeds and truly become the person that can serve this world. And we need your help to do it.

Donations help us to get trees in the ground, teachings to students, and a community working together. Help us plant seeds for a future generation, and let's get growing.

[Speaker 2]
letters weave together. Individual marks become symbols of power. Kesha Michael's calligraphy teaches us to shape the motivation of our hearts with elevated intention.

The western Chinese transliteration, English translation, his signature rests in the corner. A teacher's blessing through ancient wisdom. This isn't just calligraphy.

Handwritten, authentic, alive. A reminder to seek the heart's motivation. Bring Kesha Michael's elevated intention home.

Let it remind you daily of your heart's truest motivation. Your elevated intention starts now.

[Speaker 1]
When I'm now working at the Yoga Studies Institute, playing a yoga teacher on TV, I'm a simple gardener growing thousands of trees to plan my community every year. At Giving Tree Nursery, we use natural practices to grow fruit and nut trees, like chestnuts, persimmons, and plums. Let me show you where.

We provide to local gardeners who plant trees to feed their families, and we help establish forest sanctuaries that will provide fruits and nuts to wildlife for generations. And now we're integrating our trees into a new program we call Stewardship School, where we give the skills, the methods, and the tools that future generations need to transform the inner and the outer landscape, like growing food and herbal medicine, propagating plants, harvesting rainwater, building gardens. Don't worry, it's not all physical labor.

We'll practice yoga asana, meditation, self-reflection, and building community. Sounds like fun, right? We want young adults to come to our program for hands-on experience, to feel empowered with new skills, the kind of skills that work in harmony with nature, that don't mine it for resources, but leave it better than how they found it.

To do that, we partner with non-profit organizations. They let us come onto their land, to camp, cook by the fire, roll around in the grass with some yoga asana, and in exchange we do all the hard work. We transform bare dirt, food growing systems for our community, while teaching young adults the skills they need to transform the inner weeds, truly become the person that can serve this world.

We need your help to do it. Donations help us to get trees in the ground, teachings to students, and a community working together. Help us plant seeds for a future generation, and let's get growing.

[Speaker 2]
letters weave together. Individual marks become symbols of power. Kesha Michael's handwritten calligraphy teaches us to shape the motivation of our hearts with kum nei long, elevated intention.

The western Chinese transliteration, English translation, his signature rests in the corner. A teacher's blessing through ancient wisdom. This isn't just calligraphy.

Handwritten, authentic, alive. A reminder to seek the heart's motivation. Bring Kesha Michael's elevated intention home.

Let it remind you daily of your heart's truest motivation. Your elevated intention starts now.

[Speaker 1]
So when I'm now working at the Yoga Studies Institute, playing a yoga teacher on TV, I'm a simple gardener growing thousands of trees to plan my community every year. At Giving Tree Nursery, we use natural practices to grow fruit and nut trees, like chestnuts, persimmons, and plums. Let me show you where.

We provide to local gardeners who plant trees to feed their families, and we help establish forest sanctuaries that will provide fruits and nuts to wildlife for generations. And now we're integrating our trees into a new program we call Stewardship School, where we give the skills, the methods, and the tools that future generations need to transform the inner and the outer landscape, like growing food and herbal medicine, propagating plants, harvesting rainwater, building gardens. Don't worry, it's not all physical labor.

We'll practice yoga asana, meditation, self-reflection, and building community. Sounds like fun, right? We want young adults to come to our program for hands-on experience, to feel empowered with new skills, the kind of skills that work in harmony with nature, that don't mine it for resources, but leave it better than how they found it.

To do that, we partner with non-profit organizations. They let us come onto their land, to camp, cook by the fire, roll around in the grass, do some yoga asana, and in exchange, we do all the hard work. We transform bare dirt, food growing systems for our community, while teaching young adults the skills they need to transform the inner weeds, truly become the person that can serve this world.

We need your help to do it. Donations help us to get trees in the ground, teachings to students, and a community working together. Help us plant seeds for our future generation, and let's get growing.

[Speaker 2]
KUNG NEI LUNG Letters weave together. Individual marks become symbols of power. Kesha Michael's handwritten calligraphy teaches us to shape the motivation of our hearts with KUNG NEI LUNG, elevated intention.

The western Chinese transliteration, English translation, his signature rests in the corner. A teacher's blessing through ancient wisdom. This isn't just calligraphy.

Handwritten. Authentic. Alive.

A reminder to seek the heart's motivation. Bring Kesha Michael's elevated intention home. Let it remind you daily of your heart's truest motivation.

Your elevated intention starts now. Welcome.

[Speaker 1]
Thanks for being here.

[Speaker 2]
Today, we're sitting with the idea of true action, not in the sense of doing more or trying harder, but in a quieter, subtler choices we make. I'm Chrissy.

[Speaker 1]
You may recognize me as the emcee from earlier, and I'll be leading you through a 60-minute more yin restorative class today.

[Speaker 2]
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks to Arjuna about how stepping back and taking action can be a part of the spiritual path. But ultimately, action, when it's done with clarity and awareness, is more transformative than inaction. Let me share this verse with you.

Both giving up action and taking action with awareness can lead to ultimate good. Both of the two, acting with clarity is the more powerful path.

[Speaker 1]
So even in stillness, we're planting seeds. Every breath, every choice to stay, to soften, to listen, these are actions too.

[Speaker 2]
So go ahead and find a shape where you feel fully supported. We're going to start practice either seated upright on a cushion, or maybe you start laying down.

[Speaker 1]
And let your body settle into it.

[Speaker 2]
Let the ground hold you. Now gently bring to mind one small area in your life where you've been waiting, maybe unsure of the next step, or stuck between doing and not doing. Ask yourself, what need am I planting by standing still?

What might shift if I moved with clarity, even without certainty? Let's use this whole practice as an offering. A quiet action, a breath of intention, nothing to force or prove, just presence.

And when you're ready, we'll begin. If your eyes were closed, you can flutter them open. So as mentioned, we're going to practice an asana class, a bit more yin, restorative postures that will encourage stillness and internal listening.

[Speaker 1]
And I invite you to get some props. So even if you don't have all the props, don't worry, I don't have too many props myself. But your mat laid out, two blocks will be helpful, a cushion, a bolster if you have, and a yoga blanket if you have or anything that could act as those.

And we'll get started.

[Speaker 2]
So first, we'll start seated. On our mats, you can move props off to the side. Easy seat, one ankle in front of the other.

Crawl your left fingertips out to the side. Place the palm flat.

[Speaker 1]
Sweep the floor in front of you with your right fingertips and lengthen the right arm alongside the ears. So as if you're opening up your chest to the sky, press into the palm that's touching the mat, inhale. And exhale, you might reach through your right fingertips while sealing your right sit bone down.

The neck is long. Move it a little side to side. We'll stay here for five cycles.