Тим Ловенхопт — Книга 1: Совершенство мудрости, занятие 58

[Speaker 1]
Stop sharing, right? Yeah. Start sharing.

Go here. You want the full screen or do you want to share? Well, can I do that?

Yes. Can you guys see that? Yes, I can.

Hello, world. Yes. Middle Asia book.

Looks good. Yeah. Where can I buy that?

You can buy that at bookstores all over the universe. Yes, please. I think it's going to be our bestseller.

JB, we're going to sell 29 copies. Yeah, this is a new book that just came out and it's Gibson's second book. And, hi.

Oh, handsome. Yeah, this is Gibson's second book. And it's Tsongkhapa's Treatment of the Other Side of Emptiness, which is a mysterious thing.

And you have to buy it to find out what it's about. And it'll come out at the Diamond Mountain Retreat, which we leave day after tomorrow. So day after tomorrow.

And I'm happy to announce Gbox. Gbox is a project to have the translators teach with another teacher one of their books. And so Gibson will be teaching with Rob Haggerty at the, what do you call it?

Diamond Mountain, right? Yeah. And if I can straighten out my financial situation, which took a big dive this week due to certain events, we can do more Gbox.

But I couldn't sponsor any this year so far. Okay, sorry for that. All right, we're going back to Timothy, right?

I get out of here, right? Yep. Okay, do homework.

Wake me up when you're done, okay? Thanks. Okay.

So we're going to quickly go through the last two debates that we were working on. Because if we go fast today, we're actually going to get to the definition of what makes for a future Buddha. And then we're going to get to the section in the text where we get clear explanation about what everything around Luke, our position.

So we can relax a little bit and not have to fight our brains so much. So the second to last debate we just did is the opponent comes along and states, and that Maitreya is already a Buddha. And our argument comes back and we say, well, then I guess he's not on the 10th Bhumi level.

At the end of that argument, what does this clear up about what the 10th Bhumi level means? And more importantly, like, what's the debate about that at that level? Oh, good.

That's a good question. What's that? Well, let's talk about the 10th level Bhumi first.

Right. So the question would be, when you reach the 10th level, are you still a Bodhisattva or are you a Buddha? Okay.

So Rosa said Bodhisattva. According to this argument. Oh, fine, but not yet a Buddha.

Thank you, debater in the back. Okay, that's pretty much it. So we basically say, that's it.

So basically we say... Oh, somebody said he can't be a Buddha because he's on the 10th level. Right.

And that clarifies what the 10th level is, because there's a big debate about it, which also implies there's an 11th level. Okay, or which may be Buddhahood. Yes, and basically we say that at the 10th level Bodhisattva, the 10th level Bhumi, we say that anyone who's at a 10th level Bhumi is still a Semchen, meaning they're still a suffering being.

So that's how we define that. So Buddha doesn't have a suffering then? Yes.

I think that's what... did I say that? You implied that, but I was just trying to get you.

Okay. Semchen is the... means a person who has a mind.

Sometimes it's called luchen. But in both cases, it means suffering body or suffering mind. So Buddha is not a...

Semchen. Or a... Luchen.

He was sick this week. He's getting sicker every minute. All right, by sicker we mean better, right?

He was so sick. Hey, Nick, so first we say, that was a sick wave, right? Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I had some sick ones. He's sick also.

All right, so then the opponent continues and says, well, he is a Buddha because he's the future Buddha, right? That's a good one. I'm a future millionaire.

So what ends up happening is that there's two possible definitions that are given of what it means to be a future Buddha. We're in the middle of that debate. Nice.

So we're in the middle of that debate. And so we paused after we gave two different definitions. So does anyone remember what the first definition is?

And it's related to the 12 great deeds of a Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
He hasn't shown them yet.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, we got two. I got two answers here. One in the room said, he has to go through the 12 great deeds.

And then Upala said, he hasn't shown them yet. Can we define that a little bit more clearly? Well, it's all a pretense, right?

[Speaker 2]
The 12 deeds are a bit of a show, an acting out. So that's why I said he hasn't shown them yet.

[Speaker 1]
And then why is it an acting out, Upala?

[Speaker 2]
Why is that an acting out?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. I guess because he was enlightened long ago. He was already a Buddha and then came back and demonstrated, exhibited the 12 deeds that they must go through to become a Buddha.

Right. So our question in this debate was, well, if you're not yet a Buddha, do you still have to go through the 12 great deeds to become a Buddha? Or are only after you become a Buddha, then you demonstrate that you have to go through the 12 great deeds to teach others how to go through them.

But you're not. It's a bad question because you don't become a Buddha until you go halfway through the 12 deeds. And that too.

Right. There'd be no reason to have to demonstrate them if it didn't help people to become a Buddha, I guess. Yeah, I think that's correct.

But the debate really is about, you know, is he already a Buddha and he came back to show us how to do it? Or is he not yet a Buddha? And that has to go through those 12 great deeds.

And then Geshe-la says it's a bad question because only half of them are before you become a Buddha. The first time. The first time.

Right. I'll just show you. Or the second time.

It's all fake. Which would then be fake that time, right? So my prayer is the second time Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
But he hasn't shown them yet. It's the first time Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
Right. So that's one side of the definition. So that was one definition that was given.

That he has to show. And that he has to show up by pretending to go through the 12 deeds. That's the first.

That's what makes him the future Buddha. What's that? That's what I thought.

That's the right answer. That's probably it.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Right. Yeah, or three times. Well, because the second time you're already a Buddha emanating to pretend to not be a Buddha to show us how to become a Buddha.

But the question is, before he came here, did our Buddha show the 12 deeds a first time? Are they accurate? No, I just mean, do you think he ever showed the 12 deeds?

He went through the 12 times. He didn't show them for us. He went through a different process.

I mean the very first time, way, way back. Yeah, that's a little different. Seems to me he would have done a real 12 deeds the first time.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, something like that.

[Speaker 1]
It does raise the question, though. Why is it important then, if there was a first time, why is it important that this time he was already a Buddha? Actually, for us, it doesn't matter.

We're actually trying to define what makes for a future Buddha. Like, and is Maitreya a Buddha now or is Maitreya Bodhisattva, who has yet to become a Buddha? Don't we need like a luminous image to come out?

Based on how he treated others in the past. All right. A luminous picture of a Bodhisattva.

Second question. And so then we're given a second option, and it's not the luminous image option, of what makes for a future Buddha. And this is a little bit more complicated, like the first one wasn't.

Lindsay has an opinion. I can't scroll up because of vocabulary words. It's at the bottom.

I'm sorry. You want to read it, Malby? What is the second option that we give the opponent to define what makes for a future Buddha?

Buddha. Yeah, exactly. It's something that's future, and they're already a Buddha at the same time.

And we're going to figure out what that means in a moment. Yeah, we ended the class with that, and everyone's eyes crossed, and then we're like, have a nice day. Okay.

This isn't a diamond way text. Well, we're about to get there. That's a good question.

That comes up in the debate. That question comes up in the debate. Vocabulary word number one, Sultan.

Pretend what? Right. It can mean...

Oh, oops. Something weird happened. What the heck?

There it is. Pretend to put on display, to exhibit, to appear to do something. Next word, Sepajni.

The 12 Deeds of the Buddha. The 12 Great Deeds of the Buddha. Yes.

And last one, Shittun. Like a reasonable basis. Something has two qualities?

Two things at once. One thing has two qualities. Common locus.

That's a great... A common locus. That's a great...

Common locus. They come in the spring, flying thousands. All right.

Here's my attempted translation. I have a lot of fun with this. Okay.

You're going to read, handsome? Sure. Wait, you think I start with you?

No, I'm kidding. Go ahead. Who's got the plane?

You got it? Wow. I'm kidding.

I'm in the mood today. All right. They did a jackhammer in my house during my nap time.

All right. DANG PO MA GZUGS NA PHAD GANG RUNG YIN Oh, cripes. We are saying it's not it.

Okay. PHAD GANG RUNG YIN PAR DAO That's spelled DAO. DAO?

DAO. DAO. DAO.

DAO. DAO. DAO.

DAO. DAO. DAO.

DAO. DAO. They are two.

Oh, okay. All right. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
They are two.

[Speaker 1]
And we say it in English. We say, we are two. No, you're not.

I am two. MA'ONG PA'I SANGS RGYAS PAG PA'I YIN PA'I PHYIR Yeah. And so what I did, so because there's the two of these, the first one is this first part.

But this last one said, he's a future Buddha because he's a a future thing. Okay. And be a Buddha.

An Arya who's a Buddha. So is it referring only to this first one? Somebody said he's not a future event.

Future event. Okay. Okay.

All right. Well, then I'm wrong already. No, maybe you're right, actually.

Is there another one about that? Well, no, because the reason I say that, because later on we get to Sourdhana. So referring to the first one.

Okay. Maybe. I don't know.

I don't know. Let's see. Well, I think there was something like he's future and he's a Buddha.

Therefore, he's a future Buddha. Is that the case? Is that true?

Right. Yeah. If you're future and a Buddha, are you a future Buddha?

Yeah. That's one of the questions. Okay.

Then we say he is one of the two. One or both of the two. One or both of the two.

Okay. Because he's a future Buddha. All right.

Cool. Anyway, they're talking about future Buddha. Okay.

That's the thing you got to keep in mind. Do one more. Nice.

Go on. Yeah. He must be a Buddha because he's future.

Because he's future. I don't think so necessarily. The latter.

The latter. Well, that's a question. Somebody to support that he's a Buddha says he will be someone in the future.

That implies that anyone who is someone in the future is a Buddha. Right. Something like that.

It's where the argument goes. Let's see if they go. It kind of goes.

That's where I think it goes. The argument is if you are a future Buddha, then your future Buddha already exists, and therefore you're already a Buddha. Something like that.

Something like that. It would become future Buddha. Any person in the future is a Buddha.

Will be is a Buddha eventually. So the question here, we're only talking about because it's a future thing, right? Well, that's tricky.

You can read Maung Pa as the future, and you can read Maung Pa as an adjective future. Okay. If somebody is future, are they always a Buddha?

If somebody is a person in the future, are they always a Buddha? They're always going to be a Buddha. They're always going to be a Buddha.

Because it depends how far in the future. They're just playing with it. They're just playing with it.

Okay. Let's see where it goes. Okay.

Gibson, would you like to? Um, let's. Do we want to go this way?

Do we want to go? I think we move everything down this way. Tim, come here.

Can we move the table a little bit? Let's see if we can spill the water. The three monkeys.

Dr. Friega? Okay. I think so.

Yeah, more? Uh, here, right?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Do you tell? He is both. What?

Now, Maung Pa can be a noun or it can be an adjective. Why is that important here? Because it's whether he's future Buddha or a future being.

Yeah, is he a future person? Or is he the future? Because you can read the Tibetan either way.

But this is us talking, right? Yes, it is. So it must mean...

That we agree to it. No, yeah, which means future here must be... Future Buddha.

Something in the future. Someone in the future. Okay.

He will be someone in the future. Why can you say that so surely? You cannot kill a human mind.

You cannot kill him. You cannot kill any mind stream. No mind stream ever ends.

You're stuck here forever. You're going to come to translator class forever. So in this case, could I say he's both a future Buddha and a realized Buddha today?

Because we're talking about... No, if it were me, I would say he is both future karma. He is both one future karma.

And he is one thing which is both future and an Arya who is enlightened. Both future and... He's both one future and two, an Arya who's enlightened.

Right, okay. Fix that later. Would you capitalize Arya in this case?

And if you wanted to make it super clear, but it might make it more confusing, you could say or both. No, seriously. It allows for that.

But logically, it allows for that. I think it would hurt the reader. If it would hurt the reader too much, you don't do it.

There's no Kangrim in this part. Yeah. You can say that with Ganga, I think.

Okay. Anyway, you got it. He is future and he is an Arya who's a Buddha.

Would you capitalize Arya in this case or just lowercase? I never capitalize Arya and I always use higher being. And that's the same thing.

We'd also for like arc or things, high things. So in this case, we would say a higher being who is enlightened? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I like that. He's...

We don't normally say Sangye Papa. I mean, sometimes we do, but you have to translate it correctly. You cannot say an enlightened...

Well, you could say an enlightened Arya, but it's more clear to say he's an Arya who is enlightened. All right. All right.

Keep going. Okay. Nice.

Nice reading. I thought he was saying I had a good translation. So, tsawag durna.

What do you think of it? If you agree that... I think...

If you agree to our original statement, which I don't remember what it is. The original one, I think, is this one here regarding the 12. The 12 showing...

If you agree that he's a future Buddha, is that what you remember? Well, if you agree to this original one, that's what I'm thinking. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Well, let's see if it fits.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Where is it? Right here.

There's some kind of argument. If somebody is future and a Buddha, then they're a future Buddha. Then they're a Buddha...

Well, there's a question whether they're a Buddha. If someone is number one, future, and number two, Buddha, are they themselves now a future Buddha? Yeah.

So, let's take a... If any referred to Maitreya as the future Buddha, even though technically he's not a Buddha yet, because he is future and Buddha. Okay.

And then we say, well, if anybody that's future and Buddha, and especially if someone is going to be a Buddha in the future, then let's take Kigeng Gyal. A bearded old dog. An old dog with white whiskers, like me.

Okay. Kigeng Gyal, future. It's a very...

First time I heard it in the debate ground, I'm like, what? An old dog with white whiskers. Okay.

Something like that. Let's take an old dog with white whiskers. Are you saying he's a Ma'onbe Sangye Papa?

Are you saying he's a future Buddha? Is he an Arya? An Arya.

Buddha's a future Buddha, yeah. That's a little tricky with the dog thing. The dog thing is a dog, wait.

Okay, yeah. Okay, Ma'onbe Sangye Papa. Yinpata, are you saying that he's a future Arya who's a Buddha?

Because he will... In the future. Where's that, pardon?

Right down here. Because that dog in the future will have to pretend to exhibit the 12 great deeds. Yeah, okay.

Are you saying he's a future Buddha? Why do you say that? Because in the future, he's going to display the 12 deeds of the Buddha.

So he's a future Buddha, right? That's okay. Right?

This old dog is a future Buddha. Why? In the future, he will display the 12 deeds of a Buddha.

This is us. This is us, yeah. And we can accept kyepa kye.

Kyepa kye means... I forgot to translate that. Kyepa kye means everybody would accept that necessity.

If they are a person who's passing into the future, they're going to be a... They are an Arya who in the future will show the 12 deeds if they're not a Buddha now. That's okay.

Okay? All right. I'm going to keep you.

All right. How about... By the way, I repeat for those of you who missed the beginning of this section.

This is the section that I was assigned to do my Geshe. Or my... Yeah, my Geshe.

And there's like 20 sections in the Abhisam Alankara, in the 12-year course. There's about 20 sections. You spend about eight months on each one.

So we spent about eight months on this. Debate for six hours every day.

[Speaker 2]
And then the next week, both of them...

[Speaker 1]
And this is the only section in the Geshe course which directly... Your first... Addresses the question of dharma.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, but this time I got them right.

[Speaker 1]
It's a very important question. It's a very important section. It was an honor to be assigned that.

It's not the number one assignment, by the way. I was so happy to get it. Anyway, okay.

And we still haven't reached the root text yet. Yeah, we haven't reached it. Okay, who's going to read the next one, Timothy?

How about... Wow, Emily. By the way, would you agree to the khyaba here?

Is it true that if someone's a living being, they will have to show the 12 Ds in the future?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Then the Buddha's not a living being. Because they don't have to show the 12 Ds in the future. They did their gig already.

But as a nirmanakaya, they would appear as a semchen. My cup. I gave you an easy one.

Who's next? Yeah, meaning what, Tim? This person will have to exhibit...

They will have to exhibit the 12 great deeds. Of a Buddha in the future. Because he's a living being.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Because the dog's a living being. Yeah, suffering living being. Yeah, currently.

Okay. Or appearing as a suffering living being. Yeah, you'd have to...

If you're going to be precise, you'd have to say they are what they seem to be. You can get another one. You're so nice.

[Speaker 2]
Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Must be genetic. Yeah. You want to read it, Mover?

Mover. It must be true that if there is any existing thing at any time in the future, it must be an entity which we can call future existing thing. I wasn't sure quite how to do that.

Yeah, if anything which is a thing of the future time must be a future thing. Anything which is a thing of a future time must be a future thing. What about the first moment of the thing?

There wasn't a first moment. I mean the first moment that they made a pen in the factory or with your luminous images. Doesn't matter, right?

Will it be a thing in the future? Will it be a thing in the future if it's not destroyed? Yes.

Yeah. Is it a future thing? No, it's a present thing.

So, that's tricky. Okay. Yeah, here they say two.

Instead of saying future thing, they say of the future time. Of the future time, okay. That's a little tricky, right?

And so we're applying the same logic to a future Buddha. If somebody is a Buddha in a future time, they would have to be a future Buddha, right? Yeah.

No, because if they're a Buddha in the future time, then at that time they are a present Buddha. Okay. It's a little tricky.

Either way. He will never again be a future Buddha in the sense of only becoming enlightened in the future, right? Because he's already enlightened.

All right, let's go. One more. We've got two more.

Do you tell? I didn't understand this one. I just wrote, I translated the words.

It seems to say, if you agreed that Maitreya is a future Buddha, then you must be saying that there's someone you should have compassion about, implying that. What? Is it that he has compassion or you?

Well, I would say if you say, do you say Maitreya is a future Buddha? Sure. Then we should, we feel bad for him now.

That's what they're saying. That's true. If he's not a Buddha yet, we should feel.

Tukde means the love of your holy heart. This Sewa spelling is love. Okay.

There does exist a certain, Tesa means, I'll say you. Someone you can be sorry for. Okay.

You should feel bad for Maitreya. Why? Because he's a future Buddha.

Okay. It's logical. That means he's still suffering.

Right? Okay, let's see where they go with that. It kind of moves on to something else.

That's good luck. Because I don't know where it's going. Okay.

And then, one more, one more. Okay. Let's take a thing, let's take a thing, let's take a thing of a future time.

Is it, is it a thing of a future time? Right? Let's take tomorrow.

Okay. Is it a thing of a future time relative to now? So, can you break it down and say it's a thing and it's future?

Yeah, it's not a thing yet. Okay. So, it's delicate to talk about a future Buddha.

You can say the word future Buddha, but he's not future and a Buddha. Okay. You all right?

Then, I didn't know what to do with the Tukselo. Tukselo, it means, and the selwa is the equivalent of the kyaba in a tailgear. Takes down this, changing, it's impermanent because it's changing, because it's made.

This takes down, it's changing because it's made. The tak is because it's made. The sel is, if it's made, it must be changing.

But, but sel is always the kyaba in a prasangika. You know, they say, oh, he said, take my chair. He's a future Buddha because he's a future and be a Buddha.

He said he is a future and be Buddha because he's a future Buddha. And we said, well, first of all, we disagree he's a future Buddha. And secondly, we disagree that if you're a future Buddha, you're both future and Buddha.

Because the future Buddha in their own time is not future anymore. Okay. But in their own time, they'll still be future of them.

That, that's not the point though. They're not a future. You can be a future Buddha and not be future in your own time.

In your own future time, you're not future anymore. Okay. That's all.

So when you say, say dak sel, it refers to the logical components in a tengyur, prasangika, not in a joram, not in a straight logical statement. Take A, it's B because of C. Take sel is changing because it's made.

The reason it's made and the kelpa is if it's made, it must be changing. Okay. It must be impermanent.

But in a tengyur, the kelpa is called a sel one. Okay. Don't ask me why.

It's very confusing. All right. Does that just mean that this is an easy thing?

Yeah, come on. Do I have to run it through? Do I have to jor lop?

Kelpa lop. What's kelpa lop? You have to spell it out for me.

You know, what is the necessity here? If it's made, it must be impermanent. It's like that.

Do I have to go through that? And he says, yeah. We say lau.

Lau means easy. Easy. There's an interesting word in cooking, Tibetan cooking, which I did for eight years.

Same two dishes. Moho and pentuk. I went to Vimala's house and her roommate made us pentuk.

Which is, you make the noodles by pulling them from the dough. And I had a flashback. Anyway.

So anyway, lau means, in that case, in cooking, lau means the sauce is too wet. The sauce is too thin. Okay.

So it gives you the same spelling. It gives you an idea of the word lau. Lau means easy.

I don't have to read back to you the necessary logical consequences here. They are lau. They are like a piece of cake.

Okay. Thanks. That's it?

Yep. Wow. Okay.

Nice job. All right. Here we go, kids.

I'll show a lousy carving. That's a lousy carving. Why?

That's one that I'm working on now. It's handwritten over the block. Someone has corrected the film with a pen, which is the worst possible thing.

Me and Ribichick paid for printing his book. Eight volumes. And the guy did it that way.

He took a film and then he hired someone to draw over the letters to make sure they were clear. And he ruined like every 10th letter. And I always told the guy, if I ever meet this guy, I'm going to kill him.

And one night I was in New Delhi, up on the top of like a 10-story apartment. And we were enjoying the evening. And this guy says, I'm, you know, I'm the one describing.

And I took him over to the edge of the river. And I said, I made a solving bow. He was a little bit upset.

But his wife died very young. And she died like a couple of weeks later. It's just sudden.

It's very sudden. I'm not saying. Now maybe you will learn to write faster.

But I remember that it was very sudden. Okay, this one. All right.

Okay. All right. Oh, yay.

Okay. Who's going to read? I'll make it bigger.

Who's going to read Timothy? You have victims online and in person. Yeah, you can go through it.

It's a short sentence. Just make noise. Just fake it.

That's what everybody else does. So yeah. Nice job.

Stay here. You got to do more. I'm sorry.

I gave you something easy. You got to go. And he does this now.

Let's do it fast. See if I can. No, okay.

Okay, Timothy. Okay, the second section here is our position. Yeah.

And it's going to have two parts. It's going to have a debate and answers. Yeah, good.

Wait, no, stop. Peter and Maria. I have this new book just for you to teach around the world.

But you have to tell me what's the dumb book. This is Randall's Commentary on the Guardian by Tsongkhapa's teacher. You can help him, Joel.

Anybody can help or just whisper. Dumb book. Yeah.

And one for Joel. He looks more powerful today. So it's interesting because usually wrong look is where you take a break and we present what we really believe.

But this wrong look is corrupt. And they say, let's have another argument. Inside of our own system, we're going to have another argument, which is kind of a cheap shot.

They could have just had it in a piece before. Okay. Who's going to read?

One more. Yep. Yeah, go slow.

Go nice. Yes. You're correcting.

[Speaker 2]
Don't. Gilomepa Pachir.

[Speaker 1]
You know a lot more than you think.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. So somebody shows up and says, Papajamba, the realized, Maitreya, the realized. Yeah, Maitreya, the Aryan.

And by the way, there are lots of cases where people refer to Buddhists still as Aryans. So it's not definitive. Papajamba, Arya, Maitreya.

His opening lines in Abhisam Alankara is the justification for assuming to write a book, right? And he has to give us some reasons why he would be so bold as to write a book. And he says, well, first of all, Rangnitambichepa Nantumba, very famous.

I wanted to tumba. I wanted to act in accordance with. I wanted to fit how the Tampas do things.

Yeah, the high beings. Yeah, the holy people, the Tampas, okay? I wanted to replicate the behavior of holy beings.

Therefore, I've written a book. Okay, what happened? We have to.

Purple haze is all around. Which one is yours? Yeah, it's very important here.

Rangnitambichepa Nantumba, very famous. From my own point of view, I wanted to, what do you call that? Not replicate.

Emulate? Emulate. I wanted to emulate the holy ones.

Similar to the Bodhisattva dharma, emulate the behavior. Yeah, Rangnitambichepa Nantumba. I will try to behave like Buddhas, right?

Okay, I was hoping. Due to my text. Okay, here we are.

All right. And then when they write a commentary to that, which is oftentimes Haribhadra, okay? The most famous commentator to the Abhisamhankara.

He says, it would be mitek. It would be inappropriate. And to apply this, samjanwa.

Sam we have in retreat, right? Janwan means to draw the minds together. It would be inappropriate to apply this to some time kind of rangden.

Meaning? Yeah, so there's a question here. If Maitreya is writing the Abhisamhankara, even through a secretary, even through, what do you call it?

What do you call it in the old office days? Secretary? Stenographer.

Dictation. Yeah, so even though it's not, even though Maitreya didn't take the dictation, we're not talking about the person who took the dictation. We're talking about the dictationee, which means Maitreya, okay?

Is it ever te, tepa. Would it ever be proper or correct to say that this relates, his promise to relate the book relates to the part, the traditional part of the opening of a book where you say, you know, I didn't write this for anybody else. I wrote it for myself.

Because, ,SKYE BA PHYIR ZHUGS PA'I LA CHAGS SHING, ,SHES ROL TSUL MED PA'I NI, ,LAS CHE RNAMS SDUG BSNGAL MI NIR, ,KHOR NA MA SRID DU, ,CHAG ROL GYIS MI PHYI MA, ,DANG BAR YANG, Opening lines of, I'm going to write that. Because I need to fix myself. Yeah, I don't do this for anybody else because they're all jealous and they're all doing the wrong thing.

I'm just writing this for myself. So here it says, would it be correct to say that Maitreya wrote this book only for himself? That would not make sense.

Could you say the same thing that, who wrote the Pramodha Rathika? Kasturi Dharmakirti. Can he make the same claim that Dharmakirti did?

I just wrote this for myself, you know, and I don't care if you don't like it. Okay, right? Would that be appropriate in the opening of this book?

We didn't believe what he said. And now here's the punchline, okay? Jetsun Gyula, In his own mind, in Maitreya's heart, there is no aspiration for his own purposes.

He would never do anything for himself. Oh boy. It's the position of the opponent.

That line that, you know, I'm just, I'm sorry. I'm trying to emulate the acts of the holy ones, right? Meaning, I myself would like to think of myself in their category.

Then that's why I'm writing this book. And then we say, that's not Maitreya talking. And then the guy says, why?

And we say, because he would never do anything to look good or to fit the holy ones. He doesn't have those motivations, okay? So normally the introduction to a book says, I'm doing this to fix my own heart and to benefit others.

But he says, the first part shouldn't be in this book, if he's a Buddha. He would never write a book saying, I'm doing this to improve myself. Got it?

It's a beautiful debate. Okay. We'll see if he got power.

[Speaker 2]
dulja shendak ten chö la dukpa kone chö du yinpey chir Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Timothy Dulja, a disciple, student. Yeah, those to be tamed, like wild horses. Wild horses.

dulja shendak, other wild horses. He wanted them to juke into his tensure. They wanted them to enter into his...

Yeah, and that's the only reason he said, I'm just doing this to improve myself. Okay, it's impossible for a Buddha to say at the beginning of their book, I'm just writing this to improve myself. Would there be any possible benefit to their audience?

Sure. Yeah, they'd say this guy's nuts. You know, you write a book and say, I'm a Buddha.

I don't have to write this book for myself. You're going to get a lot of quizzes right away. So if you're a smart Buddha, which they are, you would say, you know, I really need to understand this better.

You would write something like that. So we're defending him. We're defending why he would add these lines.

I was just doing this to help my own understanding. Okay, got it? All right.

Jukpa Konechedu. He was just trying to help other people to get interested, jukpa, in his denture. How did dollars tell me the wrong way to translate denture into Sanskrit, from the Sanskrit?

It's shastra. It's not a story. Give us a chance.

It's shastra. You got a 50% chance. I guessed.

Well, you didn't tell me anything. What's the correct pronunciation of a classical commentary? Shastra.

Shastra. Long A has two qualities. It has a, they call it in linguistics, it has a qualitative difference.

A compared to a. It's a as opposed to a. But it also has a metric difference.

It's two mini beats. It's two microseconds. So you say, for the book, you say, shastra.

And you kind of pause. And you are, and you double the length of the meter. Then sword.

Shastra. Shastra. 100 bucks.

[Speaker 2]
Didn't actually say.

[Speaker 1]
He's got power. Oh, you split it with Joel? Happy birthday.

Okay, he was. Next line, Joel. Nice.

I like this. There's a going up. And there's a going down.

And then there's a. There's a DCC smear. It's called.

[Speaker 2]
Young Sue.

[Speaker 1]
By the way, there does exist a copy of this book. In St. Petersburg. And by contract, we had the right to get.

To copy it. But we didn't. We got kicked out before we were able to do it.

They found a copy in India. An original. So we have a copy now.

But still, I'm trying to get it out of St. Petersburg. And I have like three people working on it. Okay.

The first part of the two parts of the talk. Of the reason. Is correct.

Meaning he wouldn't say something like that. He would never say. I'm writing this from to help myself.

Because he's. It's already completely satisfied. Yeah, he already got.

He already fulfilled all his own needs. Okay. He's a person who has fulfilled all his own needs.

Yeah. Okay. All right.

How are we doing on time? Yeah, three minutes. Three minutes.

The first word here. Is. Nipa.

No, let's say. Supa. Let's say supa.

Okay. Supa. If John Brady can tell me.

What it means. I'm giving you a clue. I'd like to give you a book.

Because you guys teach these books all over the place. Okay. What's it mean?

Supa. It means to argue. To argue.

To debate. Good. All right.

Good guess. And the second part is the explanation of the response to the debate. We're going to respond to that debate.

Did he read it? No, he didn't. I'm sorry.

Go. It should be ngelwa.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
They don't say it here. But I went and got it for you. And I'll teach it to you next time.

Okay. Because we're out of time, I think. One minute.

There's a famous incident where Gyaltsabje was debating this book, Abhisamahankara, with a famous Sakya scholar called Rongten. And Rongten is famous for... They lived in the same era, early 1400s.

And they met in the debate ground. And they debated this book together. And Rongten was famous for writing...

It's a two-volume work. In fact, my copy came from Gene Smith. And it's a very beautiful book.

It's long. It's very long. In English, it would be a thousand pages or something.

And he struggled through his life to finish that book. Rongten struggled through his life to finish that book. After they debated...

And this is supposedly... This is how our school reports the debate. I'm sure they'd report it differently.

But we say, Gyaltsabje said to him, it's a pity you didn't have a chance to study this subject much. After he spent like six years writing and poetry. And it's very famous.

Say, Pepechembe. Shibdu. They know how to spell differently.

Oh, no. Shibdu. It's a pity you didn't have time to go into this.

It's a very famous. And you throw it. You bring it out in the debate ground.

Okay. So anyway. So the answer starts with...

This kind of argument about... If Maitreya is a Buddha, he would not have had to say, I'm writing this for my own benefit, right? That kind of argument comes from...

There's a problem with that kind of argument. That the person who makes it has not spent enough effort. A sweat.

Ngawa. Has not sweated enough over the classics. Okay.

Cool. I think I have... Yeah, I have there his dates for you.

I wanted to show you something. Here? Is it here?

No. No, I forget it. You'll have to stop sharing your screen.

Here. John. Can you stop sharing your screen?

Oops. This is... The Economist has a quote of the day.

This is the quote of the day from The Economist today. If you want a new idea, read an old book. Okay.

And it's by Pavlov, the dog guy. Oh, wow. All right.

An old quote. Where is he? Pavlov?

Yeah. Yeah. How much more do you want me to just translate a couple more and see where we go?

Okay. Okay. Cool.

All right.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Geshe Michael.

[Speaker 1]
We're not taking a break, everyone. Some people are. Fair enough.

Well, since no one's paying attention here, does anybody online want to share anything? No, seriously. All right.

Any thoughts? What can we do with what we learned today? What does this have to say about you and your future success?

I always find it heartwarming just to have the idea that we're all future Buddhas. And sometimes I use that to help me get through the day. And it just reminds me of the helpfulness of at times to kind of recalibrate my mind to act like I'm already that guy so that I can, it will help guide me to be more consistent with the seeds, with planting the seeds that will get me there.

Because I, you know, being human and all, it's easy to slip into getting upset and reacting to things in a way that is not so helpful. So I really like it. Yeah, go ahead.

No, no, I'm sorry I interrupted you. I was just going to sum up what I was saying is that I find that a practical application of this for me is that I really like to be reminded to act that way, to try to be the guy I want to be. One of the things I, kind of an extension to that practice, Nick, is that I, at the end of the day, like if I have a particular goal in mind, I try to think about did I do anything today first that went against the goal, even sort of, you know, in a small way.

Like maybe I got upset about something or maybe I said something I shouldn't say or even some of my own thoughts, right? And so I like to think of it first as like, well, what did I do to get in the way of my goal? And then stop doing those kind of things.

And then, of course, I try to switch it into the positive. What did I do to align with that goal? Because I find that in the moment, like if I take the time to think about, well, if I have goal X and I'm doing things that are planting seeds against that, you know, in the moment, yeah, sure, I shouldn't get angry.

But like, I think if I apply a larger picture to it, like if I did this, then I'm not going to get that. Or I'm going to block it, at least. I block the good seeds that I might have waiting, hopefully.

Now everyone's paying attention. They shove their faces full of food and now they're calm. It's like the coyotes out here.

[Speaker 2]
I mean, I'm sorry.

[Speaker 1]
Is there anyone who wants to share? Is there anyone here who wants to share anything or anyone online? I think cutting is chiming in.

I don't know. I'm in the car. Can you not hear me?

We can hear you now. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
To agree with you, Nick, I employ this idea of myself as a future Buddha to decisions that I make in the moment every day. Geshe Michael recently said, you know, we have that diamond way idea of being that already. So if that's the case in my prayers and affirmations, to behave that way already.

And it's a wonderful reminder, you know, when I'm faced with dealing with people or making decisions or, you know, what am I going to do? What would I do as a Buddha? Being that Buddha now.

And I just love it. And I feel my future Buddha is so close. I don't know.

Because I'm thinking about her all the time. And I'm thinking about behaving like her all the time. So she really brings me close to the moment.

And I'm going to sign off out of this noisy car. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Hi, everyone. Hi.

[Speaker 2]
I think it's because I live in New York. I use the negative side of the argument today. That's what inspired me.

I'm like, what did you say, Geshe-la? You cannot stop a mind. You can't kill it.

There will be a forever future. Forever future. And so when I procrastinate or when I think I'm not good enough or I'm lazy, like just that idea frightens me into taking action.

So I think that for me is that I give myself adrenaline of fear to get it done. It's the opposite of being nice.

[Speaker 1]
Fear is a great motivator. So the opposite, kind of an opposite of that is one of the things I like to think, like what I thought about is like we have this, you know, this old mangy dog with white whiskers, right? Like if that dog, not, I'm not saying anything.

If that dog is also a future, has a future potential, what it helps me think, like if someone's, if someone appears to me to be angry or they're criticizing me or they're acting in, stupid ways, right? I could always think, well, they could be, they could be a future Buddha or they will be, not even could, they will be. So how could my reaction help them?

Like to stop that criticism or stop that, that inane behavior or something like that. You know, like if a dog can do it, then, then that annoying neighbor can do it too. You know, or, you know, it's usually the people closest to you that annoy you the most, present company excluded.

It's kind of how I think about it.

[Speaker 2]
Like riffing off of that, Tim, then, you know, you could think if someone's getting angry at you, that it's a future Buddha trying to help you get closer to your future Buddhahood.

[Speaker 1]
Can you say a little bit more about that? Like, I thought that was pretty cool. I'd just like to hear it again.

[Speaker 2]
Just riffing off of what you said, that if someone who's, you know, displaying themselves as an angry neighbor is a future Buddha, will become a Buddha in the future. Then we could think of them as, oh, this future Buddha is teaching me about my own mind and what I need to do. And it's pushing me to get closer to my future Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
I like that. It's hard in the moment though. We make it hard, it wasn't hard.

Especially when it hit all your trigger points. Lindsay said, when I said, they hit all your trigger points, then Lindsay said, that's when you know they're a future, that's when you know they're a Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
Surrounded by.

[Speaker 1]
So, Geshe-la says the ultimate insult in our group is to say, oh, you're just a future Buddha. I like that. I always remember this, the first Panchen Lama, kind of quoting himself or talking about himself, and he says that he tried really hard to travel across, I guess, Tibet and see everyone as an angel.

But he really failed miserably. And so, I think there's some kind of balance or, I don't know, we don't want to get scammed and be naive and call people Buddhas who may not be or something. There's something in the mind that says, I don't want to get pulled into something, overdo it and regret it later.

But at the same time, we don't want to live a boring life and never take a chance. And then, me personally, I feel like I've reached this point where I really want to relax into it. I want to get some kind of confirmation logically that this is a good way to follow, a good idea to follow, that if there's not a Buddha in my life yet or something, I could imagine it and create it or something like that.

So, I just keep trying to seek this sort of way of thinking that's clear to the point where I can settle into it and know that if I make a choice to see someone around me or all the people around me as enlightened, that I'm not going to get nervous about it later because I've thought about it clearly. And so, I think all these ideas about, just all the questions that are being raised, like, is Maitreya a Buddha? Then, why is he writing the book for himself?

And then, this idea that Arya Sangha took dictation. So, he can't be saying it for himself because if he was saying it for himself, he would just be saying it in his own mind. Just little debates like that can be really helpful to finally get into a point where you can relax into the idea of accepting that.

If you see a person as an enlightened being, you're doing something that's a really good choice. It's a really sure choice. It's an infallible choice in a way, something like that.

Cool. I just keep wondering about, why is this at the beginning of this book? Yeah.

What are we supposed to learn before we even start learning the Abhisamha Ilankara? We've been doing this four years and we still haven't hit the root text yet. They're talking about the praise.

We're close, it looks like. But, why should we think this way in the beginning? And maybe this should be a way for us to color, have our minds, the mindset we should have as we read the rest of the book, maybe.

I mean, if you approach any book with the mentality that it was likely written by a Buddha, you'd pay more attention.

[Speaker 2]
Today's debate about future Buddha, it is precision. Precision. A thing of a future time is not the same as a future thing.

The future is not solid, it's just conditions. And second, it trains logic. Sound is impermanent because it is made.

Conclusion and reason must align. This made me question my own decisions. Do I have clear reasons, or am I reacting emotionally?

And third, it challenges motivation. A Buddha would never act for self-benefit. So, when I say I do something for myself, what is really behind that?

Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you for sharing. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone, for your thoughts.

And I feel like I learned a lot just listening to each of you today. Thank you. Thank you, it's been fun.

I have a question, Tim. Okay. Yeah, no, really, but we can talk about this later or less, because maybe we don't have the time for the answer.

But my question is, I'm having a hard time finding where is the line between high view and wishful thinking. And it's really, it's something, because it has the same thing. Well, oh, it's all, I don't know, but it's really interesting.

And to me, not that easy. Maybe it's my own, Jose, lack of skill. But to me, it's a challenging question.

And I feel this text kind of gives us tools to get there. Maybe it has to do with being a peacock warrior. Okay, hopefully we can keep talking about these things soon.

But today we are celebrating a happy birthday. So, you know, we are testing new, Jose, screen magicians. Thank you so much.

So today is another person, new person helping us. Thank you so much. His name is Anli, I think, right?

So thank you. It's fun to have new players playing the game. Okay, so first picture, please.

We're gonna celebrate Salvina's birthday. Yay, today she had a birthday. She has been doing an amazing job sending best, best wishes.

And hopefully we see her sometime soon, but sending best, best wishes from Rimrock. I also want to take the chance to welcome all the Sedona visitor friends that are visiting here. Peter, Maria, Hector, Jay Vila, Eva, who else?

Jewel, why are you all pointing to each other? Laura, yes. Who else is new visitor?

Well, all the people from mainland, thank you so much for being here, still here, wonderful. And speaking of that, I know you have been having great, great time here, especially spending time at Dragon's Head, which is, next picture, beautiful place who has been hosting us for the last few months in many different events, many different activities, looking more and more beautiful every day, I think, really. Also the season helps because water comes and everything starts like flowering, ripening.

So you see how beautiful. That's probably in the future gonna be like a lake or a fountain, very beautiful. We found a little, what's the name, conch shells, very small conch shells all over there.

And the river, super clean water, super beautiful. We swim there a few months ago, magical, magical place. So because of that, kindly, Xiaoping share a video that I want to share with you about some of the latest adventures of DSCU and Dragon's Head place.

So we will share with you to open up this new section. So thank you very much, Xiaoping, for sharing. Thank you to everyone who make this possible.

Thank you, Gesha, for inspiring us all to keep doing wonderful projects and Stanley as well for his hard work and friendship helping us the other day. They both took us to, I'll say, to show us the land. And I have some videos that I will share with you some other time.

But thank you especially because, next picture, please. We celebrate the 10th anniversary over there. You can watch the full event recording there following the QR code.

DCC celebrating the 10th year of this translation project along with the new year, Firehorse year. Wonderful, wonderful year. Amazing.

I'm already amazed of all the adventures and crazy beautiful things that are happening. Some more crazy than beautiful, again, but it's okay. We believe they're going to be beautiful as well.

All right. And yeah. Future Peter.

Peter, yeah. So next picture, please. Let's move quickly.

By the way, thank you to all the translators because I know this is no easy task. You are the elite of the elite of the translators who can hold these 15 minutes. Okay.

The planner. This is something that Lindsay released during the new year's event. Beautiful planner.

I keep talking about it and I don't get one yet. But I have to get one. I will get one.

Oh yeah. I'm on camera now. You cannot say I didn't say it.

Which one? This one? Beautiful.

Tim Lowenhaupt, when he was little. But you can see a lot of quotes from all the books. It has notes you can write there.

Your poetry or your dreams or plans or whatever. Grocery list. And yeah.

Very beautiful. Very well designed. And especially this helps us to keep going with the Diamond Cutter Classics project.

If you want one, just follow the QR code or talk to Lindsay directly. All right. Let's keep going.

A few events coming up. No, no, not yet. Yeah.

In a few more days, YSA is going to have their Lady Niguma Foundation one. Just talk with your local distributors if you're interested in it. They have a few other programs coming up.

And that's the next one is in Japan. That's going to be when? Oh, the dates.

Yeah. July. June, February, March, May, June.

Yes. Stanley's right. In June.

June 24th to July. I guess we were both right in a way. You were more right.

Next figure is the level three where now it's taken to a whole other level. But in order to get there, you need to do the foundations. Otherwise, you're not going to get it most likely unless you have amazing seeds, which is likely.

But who knows? It's better to take the foundation course because it's really advanced course. It's just new.

It launch amazing, amazing content about the subtle body and a lot of energy. What else we have there? We have Ben Kramer about to release his worldview debate federation.

Sounds like a galactic something federation with Captain Ashtar and like that. I don't know if you're familiar with those things, but anyways, May 18 to May 20. It's going to be 10 sessions to train people how to debate in depth.

All the rules or the dirty tricks that you need in order to win a debate. I hope Ben teach us about them and show us how not to misuse them as well. All right, Ben, best wishes with that.

I hope to see you there. Congratulations to all the new releases of books by Diamond Cutter Press, by Geshe-la and along with other translators. In this case, Seiji, for example.

I think the printed version is going to be coming up later during sometime soon or not so soon. Yeah, in the summer. This book is already available and you saw it's already, how to say, moving around, being distributed, being, how to say, moved underground in the streets.

Imagine like all in Reimburg, like going around. And yeah, but the real release, yes, as Rosa say, it's going to happen at Diamond. No, no, yes, at Diamond Mountain.

[Speaker 2]
Together with this book, and the Praise of Dependence commentary, The Other Side of Emptiness, which Geshe-la and Gibson, where is he?

[Speaker 1]
Oh yeah, good to see you. Just finished translator. We're going to have a party in Diamond Mountain.

Yes, along with the Gbox. For this, I would like to have Gibson and Rob one more time just to give us the last push because it's going to be very cool. You know, this topic is very, very hot nowadays.

Remember how Geshe-la was saying that different times in India, different topics were hot. I think as well here, different times in Reimburg, different topics are hot. And the pot in the stove is definitely hot.

So let's talk about the hot pot in the stove. So what will you... Hot pot.

Hot pot, yeah, Chinese hot pot. Krishna changed the name. So we got very fortunate that Geshe-la encouraged me and Rob to have the Gbox.

And Gbox is a translator pair with other ASI teacher to teach this class. And what we are going to teach, Rob, you want to say it? Oh, I'm panicking right now, actually.

Why? Because Gibson helped translate this book. So he's very calm and collected about what we're going to present.

Mainly, we're talking a lot about the luminous image, which we just covered in YSI. And where does that luminous image come from? It's from treating how we treat others.

So we're going to jump into that for three days, actually.

[Speaker 2]
In a row, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, so it's been really great. I think the main thing is sort of what we want to talk about is how can we apply this to your life immediately, personally and professionally? And then how does this help contribute to us moving into October for the empowerment, really, is what we really want to touch on.

And the title is called The Other Side of Emptiness, so which indicates that the dependence and emptiness is bonding together. And in these three days, we are going to share with you guys how to prepare yourself. There's a full preparation that in the history, every artist has to fulfill that full preparation, you know, to trigger the experience of the past and still experience.

And it's kind of cool because we know the dependence and the emptiness intellectually with a pen. But on that day, when you see emptiness directly, you can have the other experience, which is called the part-on-the-stone experience, which you see the picture coming out of your mind. So I think it's pretty cool.

And you will get the full preparation, full introduction. And hopefully, we can help you do in the future to see the part-on-the-stone. Okay.

Yeah. And the only way to watch it is if you go to the QR code and sign up for the Five Houses. Yeah.

We would like to show the QR code, please. And it's happening at the Five Houses event. So, and even if you can't go to the whole thing, it's okay just to sign up and come to the class.

My friend always wants to help Geshe Michael and all his projects. And so one way he found is that he signs up for every program that Geshe Michael does. And then he just saves it.

And in his free time, he goes back and re-watches it. So you can easily just sign up for the Five Houses program and then watch it in your own home, at your own time and stuff. So yeah, no problem.

Beautiful. So see you soon. It's gonna be very soon.

In three more days, I'm already excited. Probably tomorrow and the day after, people are gonna start their trip to Diamond Mountain. Wonderful, wonderful place.

See you there and yay. See you next time. But what's gonna happen?

Do we have class, translation class on Saturday? Yeah. Okay.

So see you Saturday in Mixed Nodes, but see you before in Gbox and even before in Five Houses. Peace. Thank you, Geshe Vlad.