Дебаты дьявола с ангелом, часть 16: Церемония обетов бодхисаттвы (2022, Аризона), занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
All right, welcome back to Angel Devil. We've been talking, we're supposed to be talking about rebirth, but that got us talking about jealousy. And try to get this picture.

You're a full pleasure being. You have lots of cool stuff. You're like the richest person in your country and you have lots of cool stuff.

And then there's people who are a little bit less rich than you. And by nature, I mean the poor people are not so jealous of Warren Buffett's $81 billion because they'll never get it anyway. But the guys with $70 billion are jealous of Warren Buffett's $81 billion.

You see what I mean? So they take the example now of you're a full pleasure being. You're like Warren Buffett with $81 billion.

Then there's the half pleasure being who's got maybe $50 billion. And they're obsessed with your $81 billion. They can't enjoy their $50 billion.

You see what I mean? Isn't that the way it goes? So then they say, this lesser pleasure being who had the $50 billion, they look at the full pleasure being, Warren Buffett, with his $81 billion now.

And they're unhappy about the $81 billion. They don't like the $81 billion. Now we got a different kind of rebirth.

Suppose one of those lesser pleasure beings, that $50 billion guy, dies. And he's born into the higher realm and he gets the $81 billion. Will he still hate the $81 billion?

Or not? You say yes. So you're jealous of somebody.

They have a better card. They have the, what do you call it? A Bentley.

And you just have a B... What's the word? Stanley taught me the word in Chinese.

Bao... Bao Ma. Bao Ma.

Yeah, Bao Ma, precious horse. BMW. Yeah, so you have a...

So you died. You were a BMW owner. You died.

You became a Bentley owner. When you were the BMW owner, you were jealous of the Bentley and you didn't like the Bentley. But now you own the Bentley.

So if the lesser ones die and get reborn as one of those higher ones, remember the Bentley that the full deva possesses would not have changed, could not have changed. Why? The Bentley couldn't have changed.

So the lesser pleasure being who had the BMW, they died. Before they died, they're jealous of the Bentley. Then they died and then they were born into the higher realm.

Now they have that Bentley. Now, so now the being who had the BMW, much less old Toyota like me, now he's got the Bentley. Now the angel says to the devil, and the Bentley has not changed.

The Bentley has not changed. Why? The Bentley that the guy was jealous of and now the guy owns it.

The guy died and moved to a higher realm, but the Bentley, it didn't change. Tell me why? Because the devil is correct.

The Bentley that the guy was jealous of and then he got it. The Bentley, the car, the better car, it has not changed according to the devil. Why?

Because it's not coming from a seed. Trees get older and trees fall down because they came from a seed. What kills a tree?

Is it insects? Is it logging? Is it making highways?

What kills a tree? The seed kills a tree. What kills a human?

The seed that created the human kills the human. Now, if you don't believe in seeds, if you're this other guy and you say, ah, that's a dumb idea, that your life comes from how you treated other people. That's, ah, that's a dumb idea.

You saying my house, my wife, my kids, my job, they all come from how I treat other people? From seeds? And we say, yeah.

And he says, no, they don't. Then we say, well, if they don't come from seeds, then they cannot wear out. If they don't come from seeds, they cannot wear out.

The reason a tree falls down is that the seed's power wore out. If something comes from seeds, it must die. If something comes from seeds, it must die.

If the Bentley came from, what's the classic cause of a car, by the way, a new car?

[Speaker 2]
Sharing rides.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, sharing rides with other people. Giving rides to other people. That's a weird one.

I want a new car. What should I do? Should I save up the money?

No. You should give rides to other people. And I don't know, Ellie and Gyaltsen, they have old people that they have a contract.

They pick them up like once a week and take them to groceries and take them. No, they do. They have this scam going on.

Then they keep getting new, people keep giving her cars. Duh. So anyway, so now listen, the angel says to the devil, okay, let's take this $50 billion demigod who was jealous of the full god who had the $81 billion and then, or he had a BMW, Bama, and the other guy had a Bentley and the first guy died and was born into the place where the other guy used to live.

And we can agree that the Bentley will be there and the Bentley will be exactly the same as it was before he died. Okay, can we agree? Why?

Why is it exactly the same as before he died? The Bentley that he got after he died is exactly the same as the Bentley before he died. Why?

It does not come from seeds. It does not come from seeds. If it comes from seeds, it gets old.

It wears out. It falls apart. If it doesn't come from seeds, it'll just sit there forever.

If it's coming from its own side, there's nothing changed. There's nothing changed. The world's still there.

The chemicals are chemicals. Steel is steel. There's no reason for a car to get old if it doesn't come from you.

So the car's still there, right? I'm talking to ignorance, right? I'm talking to the devil.

And he says, yeah, right. That's what I say. Okay, all right.

So answer me on this. What are they supposed to do? If the car, if the Bentley did not change because the Bentley does not come from sharing your car with other people before, the Bentley just comes from its own side.

Then this guy got the Bentley. Now you tell me, you guys, what's the next line going to say? What's this guy's attitude towards the Bentley?

That guy died from the Toyota realm, or the BMW realm. He was born in the Bentley realm. Now, how should he feel about his new Bentley?

He should be jealous. Why? Because his emotions also don't come from seeds and they don't change.

Got it? So the angel says to the devil, well, I guess that guy hates the new Bentley. Why?

Because that didn't change. His feeling didn't change. Of course it changed, he died.

No, it didn't change because it's not coming from seeds. Why should it change? He should get to his $81 billion realm.

He should get to his Bentley realm and say, God, I hate this Bentley. All right, here we go. Let's see if that's what they say.

Should they be envious of themselves? Should they compete with themselves? I hate the owner of this Bentley, but you are the owner of the Bentley.

Yeah, but I hate the owner of the Bentley. Why? Because my hatred didn't change.

Why? Because it doesn't come from seeds and the Bentley doesn't come from seeds. I hate my hatred of the Bentley and the Bentley are just the same as they used to be because they don't come from seeds.

All right, that's the devil talking. Right? So devil, if you get a Bentley, give it to me.

Why? Because you hated them before and nothing changed. Nothing changed about the Bentley from the Bentley side.

All right, remember, according to you, when the guy gets reborn into Bentley owner, he didn't change. He didn't change either. The Bentley didn't change.

His feelings about the Bentley didn't change and he didn't change either. The guy before the Bentley and after the Bentley is the same guy. Why?

He does not change. Why? He does not come from seeds of how you treat other people.

Cool. So the guy who owned the Bentley in the first place, he had this idea about the Bentley that it wouldn't change. And now the guy who used to not have a Bentley and has a Bentley, well, he's going to be jealous of it.

And don't forget, according to you, a single being who was at the same time both a pleasure being and the lower cousin of that being is another impossibility. If you ask the guy, is it true somebody died and got a Bentley? Yes.

Is the guy who died the same person who didn't have the Bentley? Then he'd have to kind of say no. He's not.

He was a person without a Bentley and now he's a person with a Bentley. So he's not the same person. Not exactly the same person.

Before he was Bentley-less and now he's Bentley-full. So he's the same guy, but now he's a different person. He's a Bentley owner and he didn't used to be a Bentley owner.

Is he or not? What do you say, Mr. Devil? Is he now a Bentley owner?

Yes or no? Yeah, he went to the new realm. He got the Bentley.

Yeah, so he had to change, right? Yeah. But how did he change?

He doesn't come from seeds. Then Devil's like, ah. Utter impossibility.

Utter impossibility. Complete. What you're talking about.

You can't say he went from no Bentley to Bentley and also say he doesn't come from seeds because he changed. If he came from his own side, he wouldn't change. He'd always be Bentley-less.

Got it? And he's tricking you. The first Panchen Lama is tricking you.

He's supposed to be talking about karma and emptiness and he got us talking about jealousy. So I think he has two agendas here. He's got a secret.

He says, well, look, I'll teach you emptiness, okay? And Geshe Michael says, hey, Tim puts out an advertisement. Geshe Michael's going to talk about emptiness.

Then everybody's like, yeah, yeah, I'll come, I'll come. I had 800 people show up for an emptiness talk. I got, I think 12 showed up for the morality talk.

So it's a bait and switch. You promise them emptiness and you give them jealousy. If you said I'm going to teach about your jealousy, nobody would come to class.

So I'll say, I'll teach you about emptiness. Okay, let's talk about the emptiness of your jealousy. You get it?

That's what he's doing here. He's tricky. He's tricky.

All right, good. Now the other guy says, look, now devil's getting desperate, okay? And there's parts where the devil talks for an hour and the angel doesn't get to talk.

And then there's parts where the devil doesn't get to talk. I wish he kind of had more, I wish there were shorter parts, but here the devil says, look, look, it's not what you say. My position is not what you say.

And the angel says, well, what is your position? He says, well, as long as the guy is a BMW owner, he's a real BMW owner from his own side. As long as he's a BMW owner, he's a BMW owner from his own side.

Then he dies. And there's no BMW owner anymore. And then a Bentley owner is born.

And then the Bentley owner comes from his own side until he dies. So he wants it both ways, okay? He says, look, the guy can still come from his own side.

As long as he's a Bentley owner, he'd come from his own side as a Bentley owner. Then he dies. Then from his own side, he becomes a Bentley owner, okay?

The guy who didn't have a Bentley, from his own side didn't have a Bentley, now he has a Bentley from his own side. He changed into a guy who had a Bentley. And we're like, cha!

Changed? Changed? Okay, get it?

Oh, the devil says, well, he was a BMW owner for a while from his own side. Then he died. And then he became a Bentley owner for a while from his own side.

So there's no problem. Your problem doesn't exist. And we're saying, God, did he change from non-Bentley owner to Bentley owner?

Did he change from a self-existent non-Bentley owner to a self-existent Bentley owner? Yes. Then he's not self-existent, okay?

Got it? Because he changed. Got it?

The BMW owner who came from his own side became a Bentley owner who came from his own side and there's no problem. Yeah, but guess what? If he changed from BMW owner to a Bentley owner, that couldn't be from his own side because it's a change.

He's saying he didn't change the whole time he was a BMW owner. And then he didn't change the whole time he was a Bentley owner. And then we're like, God, did he go from BMW owner to Bentley owner?

Yeah. So he changed. Oh, that's like, the devil's like, oh, yeah.

Okay, got it? Well, since there could never exist a starting or stopping. Now we get into a tricky thing.

Did he stop being a BMW owner and did he start being a Bentley owner? Don't forget what the devil said. The devil said he was a BMW owner from his own side for a good while.

Then later he was a Bentley owner from his own side. And then we're like, so did the guy who owned the BMW stop? And he says, well, yeah.

And then we say, did the guy who owned the Bentley start? He says, yeah. So you agree that the guy who owned the BMW stopped and you agree that the guy who owned the Bentley started, right?

Yeah. Well, then you contradict yourself. If things are not coming from seeds, they cannot start.

If things are not coming from seeds, they cannot stop. There's no reason. Now, careful here, okay?

If a thing truly exists independently of itself, independently of your seeds, there's no reason why it should stop. And there's no reason why something new should start. Stopping and starting belong to the school called change.

And change comes from the seeds change and then the objects change. The object has no reason to change on its own. Then why didn't it change during the time you owned it?

Why would it suddenly start? If it comes from itself, how could it not change for a while and then change? Because it didn't change.

Nothing changed. It was always the same. Something else is happening.

And he's talking about pleasure beings and half pleasure beings. He's not talking about that. He's talking about us.

Why do we get old? Why we are weaker this year than last year? Why does that happen?

He's trying to get us to think about it. He's trying to get us to think about it. Yeah, so he says, you have neatly contradicted your own assertion that these things, neatly means you did a good job.

What? I didn't have to contradict you. You contradicted yourself.

Thank you. I didn't beat you in the argument. You messed up your own argument.

Thank you. You saved me the trouble. You neatly contradicted yourself.

Why? He said something that doesn't change stops and then another thing that doesn't change starts. But don't you get it?

That's a change. Okay, got it? All right, so we're like, thank you.

We didn't have to fight with you. You proved yourself wrong. Got it?

You proved yourself that these things are coming from seeds. We didn't have to say anything. Thank you.

By the way, she's tough. She's really tough. I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley.

She's really tough. That angel, she's no angel. All right.

We're going to go to hungry ghosts. We're going to go to hungry ghosts. I used to try to think of other translations for preta.

It means in the Western countries, we don't believe in preta. We don't have such a thing. We don't talk about it.

But we do have stories about people who were very attached to their house and then they died and then their ghost stays in the house. Like that we have stories in the West. Some people believe them.

Some people don't believe them. But it's certainly true that some Western people have said there's some kind of strange noises in this new house. I bought an old house and there's weird stuff going on.

I see this kind of ghost thing moving around and people are banging and making noises. They talk about that. And then their neighbors say, oh, you're crazy.

But if it happens to you, you believe it. And in Asia, they talk about ghosts. Ghosts.

And hungry means they were attached to the house. They got attached to the house. Then they died in the house.

And their spirit, they have a kind of a spirit being. And that spirit being stays in the house. And it stays there for a long time.

And normally those spirits are very hungry and thirsty because the attachment they had to their money and their food and their resources, they did not share them. During their life, if they got two donuts, they'd definitely eat both of them. And they wouldn't share one with you.

So those people, when they die, they have seeds to see themselves. So we're going to go on to hungry ghosts. And Tim, do you want to read?

Are you up for that? Take your time. Do it slow.

Haso's going to correct you. Geshe-la's taking a break. This is how I do the translation classes, Dr. Moore. I can relax and they fight with each other.

[Speaker 2]
,GOS KYI DRIN DRUB DE LTAR NA, CHIN PÜ'd QUE WA MI SHI KYAR, EY gag NEY SU GAY MEY SEY EY GOT TREY CON GI MEY NOYAN KEEP GOING! I can relax and they fight with each other. ,KYI RYU'd KYY., LA GYE KHA NJOT PEY, Is u, fei chang u, hungry?

[Speaker 1]
That's what I said.

[Speaker 2]
I hate it.

[Speaker 1]
Chinese people, you say a word and they look at you like... Then they say, oh, you try to speak Chinese. Okay.

Why it's easier for you to learn English? I don't know. If things exist in truth the way you think they do, who's u?

The devil. Then it's impossible that anybody could die and move on and be born again. What's the word in Tibetan for move on?

Powa. You heard that word. There are ceremonies you do to help people die well, to go on.

That's called powa. If things don't come from my seeds then they cannot change and it's impossible for a person to die and move on through the pardal and then be born again. It's not possible.

What's the first Panchen Lama doing here? He's feeding two horses with one apple? Or what's the other?

Killing two birds with one stone. He's getting two things done with one. He's teaching us about emptiness.

But he's also bringing up the bardo. I think all of us are wondering, where is Jeffery today? He passed away yesterday.

Good, good, good friend and a good, good, good person. Where is he today? We're all wondering.

Didn't you wake up and say, where is Jef? Where is he now? Can he hear us?

What's he thinking right now? By the way, it's probably he's near his wife and child. He can see them and it's like they're behind glass and he's trying to get their attention.

They're crying or they're sad. They're sitting at the breakfast table without him. He's nearby.

He's maybe two feet away and he's slamming on the glass to get their attention. Mostly people who die don't remember they died or they don't know they died. He feels very angry and frustrated because they don't even look at him.

They don't turn to him. They can't hear him. He's trying to bang on the glass and get their attention.

It takes a while to realize you died. You forget you died when you die. Because you died.

For a while it's very, very frustrating. If people don't come from seeds, then how can they change? How can they get old?

How can they die? How can they go through the spirit realm? How can they be reborn?

Who's talking? Angels talking to the Dhamma. How can these changes happen if they come from their own side?

Again, don't ever forget the pension lamas being sneaky. He could talk about cops. He could talk about pens.

He's trying to talk about an example that scares you and starts you thinking about Jeff Haney. He doesn't want you thinking about a pen. He wants you thinking about where you're going to go.

If someone did get born into the state of a hungry ghost and that hungry ghost was being tortured by hunger and thirst. The definition of these spirits, this is not the spirit in the bardo. This is a spirit after they're reborn.

They die as a human. They go through a spirit time of up to 49 days and then they must be born into some realm. We're talking about someone who's born as one of those ghosts attached to the house or attached to the food or something like that.

If they're reborn as a hungry ghost, then those who are reborn as hungry ghosts, and hungry means you don't have anything to eat. The angel says, well, I guess all these hungry ghosts who don't have any food are stuffing themselves. The devil's like, where did that come from?

I'll say it again. The angel says, well, I guess all those people who in this life did not share their resources with Ukrainian refugees. You didn't even think it was important.

They think it's important. They can't eat. I mean, you got to think of people like that and you got to do something.

Why? Because if you don't, when you die, if you ignore the hungry in the world, then when you die, you become a hungry ghost. But the angel says, well, I guess all those hungry ghosts are out there eating at McDonald's, a big super mac french fry.

Then the devil's like, God, where do you get this stuff? What are you talking about? Hungry ghost is hungry.

The angel says, no, they're not, because what? By the way, we're following someone who went from demigod to God, didn't help anybody, and went to hungry ghost. Okay, got it?

Then the angel says, well, I guess there's... I'll give you a clue. I guess there's still stuff in their face.

What's that mean? They were a deva. They were eating all day.

That's about all they had to do. It's like being American. They were eating all day.

Then they died. They went to a hungry ghost realm. And now they're eating all day because they can't change, because they don't come from seeds.

They don't come from how they treated people or didn't treat people in the past. Didn't help the refugees, for example. The riches they possessed as the pleasure being before are immutable.

They cannot change. The food they were... The big feasts they were eating as a pleasure being are solid.

Solid means ter suk in Tibetan means cannot change. They are out there. And they are not fluid.

They are not fluid. If they come from your seeds, if they come from your karma, things are fluid. Your job situation can flip in one day.

You can be VP and get fired the next day. Right, JB? I think we both did that.

No, we quit. We quit. But things can change.

Things are not solid. If they're coming from you, the seeds can stop anytime. If things are coming from their own side, then hungry ghosts are stuffing themselves because they used to be devas.

No, Geshe-la, they're only talking about hungry ghosts who were devas in their last life. No, they're not talking like that. They're talking about all pretas have been devas.

All hungry people have been full. All full people have been hungry. In the dice, when you throw the dice infinite times, every president has been a garbage collector.

I like to say everybody in this room has been Miss America countless times. I'm like, yay! In fact, it would be the case that the full bellies they possessed in their previous life as a pleasure being could never change to something else than a belly that was full.

Why would a preta ever feel hungry? Because they couldn't change. He's getting us to think about where we might go.

He's getting us to debate emptiness by using hungry ghosts. By the way, you want to debate emptiness? I have a joke.

When I go to China or other countries in Asia and I say, hey, you guys want to go deeper? They all go crazy. Dr. Moore, it's so fun to teach there. They're like, what? Then you come back to America and you say, you guys want to go deeper? And they're like, yeah, yeah, man.

If you want. Anyway, if you want to go deeper, I know Emily's got a big smile. Emily Chen, I can see your big smile.

Yeah, see, she wants to go deeper. If you want to go deeper than this class about emptiness, there are much deeper places to go. Probably the deepest is Nagarjuna.

Nagarjuna wrote a book and he just named it Wisdom. Prajna. He wrote a book called Wisdom.

It's kind of typical of a person who saw emptiness directly that they like to write in poetry and they like small things. Wisdom. He didn't call it an explication of the emptiness of the personal.

He called it, they said, what's the name of the book? He said, Wisdom. He wrote a book called Wisdom.

It's extremely deep and it's the source of all emptiness teachings for 2,000 years. It's the ultimate source. Grandpa Geshe-la really wanted to teach it.

Tim and me got together and we've been teaching it using the explanation of Choney Lama. Choney Lama is a great, great thinker from the 1600s who loves to explain things clearly. I'm in love with him.

I have a crush on him. Me and John Brady found all his books. His books were burned during the Cultural Revolution.

All the copies were gone. We didn't have any copies. We went all over the world.

We found most of them in Russia, in St. Petersburg, but we recovered all of them. We recovered this book. This is an explanation.

That's going to start Monday. If you guys are masochistic, Vivian, masochistic is an English word. It means the person who likes to give suffering to themselves.

If you are ku fei jangpang, ku fei jangpang dren, ku fei jangpang dren, the person who thinks that suffering is great. How's that? New word, even in Chinese.

Okay. If you want to go deeper, Monday we're starting to broadcast a course on Nagarjuna. I've been going through Nagarjuna's wisdom, which I wanted to do for my whole life.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't ready. Now I'm ready. We've been going through that.

It's very, very difficult. It's very, very amazing. There's a tradition in India.

I've had this, people came up to me and said, you just put out a 640 page book on the details of mental pictures for emptiness. I said, yes. They said, Geshe-la, it's too much.

It's too complicated. Can't you just do it simply? Why do you spend year after year, hours after hours?

Why do you keep going deeper and deeper into this? I'll tell you why. The definition of an intelligent student in Buddhism is RIGS PA THA YED PA'I SGO NI STONG NYID DUG PA'I GANG ZAG Someone who loves more proofs of emptiness is the definition of an intelligent student.

If you want to be an intelligent student, then come to Nagarjuna. If you want to make your compassion deeper, MIG MED TSE BA'I LTOS CAN CAN MED ZIG If you want to have a deeper compassion and a deeper emptiness, the class starts on Monday. Geshe-la, is it free?

Or does it cost anything? ACI is a charitable organization. We don't make money.

We specialize in losing money. Just kidding. We support ourselves.

But we do have expenses. We have equipment here. We have a building.

You have to spend money on the building. We have a compromise. You're welcome to come for free.

The course is free. If you want to go deeper in the course, if you want to join the study groups, if you want to hear classes taught by the translators and by senior ACI teachers, then you pay $99. We used to always charge $99 for jewelry.

$2.99, $3.99, $4.99. People get irritated. They say, just call it $500. Or just call it $100, Geshe-la.

People actually... Okay, I learned in business. They actually buy $99 who will not pay $100.

Most people. Anyway, if you want all the extra stuff, it costs a little bit of money. We use the money to pay for the building, to pay for the internet equipment, to pay for the cameras, to pay a minimum salary to some of the workers.

But if you want to come for free, you're very welcome to come for free. No problem. I got 10 more minutes before question and answer.

Don't forget to get your questions and answers ready and do a small prayer that Geshe-la will answer a question faster than 15 minutes. All right. Who's going to read this?

Ellie, do you feel comfortable? Hasa, are you a corrector? Loud, okay.

Slow and loud. Hello.

[Speaker 2]
Misipe. That's what I said. That sounded like a man.

Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Very, very nice. Yay! All right, what does that say?

If things exist in truth, it means if they exist from their own side. When we say self-existently, we mean it doesn't come from the seeds I planted by being nice or not nice to people. And if they don't come from seeds, they cannot change.

If a person was born as a hungry ghost and they started to feel starved and parched, they couldn't find food, they couldn't find water, then in all their future lives, they should still be hungry. In all their future lives, they should still be hungry. So over and over again.

It doesn't matter where they're born. They should be hungry forever because they don't change. Once you get born once into a preta realm, once you get born once into a place where you don't have resources because you refused to share your resources during your life, then according to you, once they get stuck in preta, they should stay there.

They should never change. What's the good news about bad karma? It wears out.

Yay! If you're ever in an impossible situation in your life, like a personal situation, just think, this is coming from seeds. It's going to change.

Then at least be happy that your misery is going to change. It has to change. If it was coming from its own side, if the situation of a preta, which is not to have enough food and water, if it was coming from its own side, they would never get out of it.

They would never change. I love this sentence. They would continue that collapsing to the ground in birth after birth.

That's so funny. By the way, it's difficult to translate. He uses very exotic language.

He's saying, well, they would just be hungry and thirsty forever and fall down every life or so to the ground again and get back up. They would become horizontal again and then they would get back up again. He means they would die.

It's a very poetic expression that he uses. Then eventually they would go to hell. What has he done here?

He said, if being hungry and thirsty came from its own side, then you'd be hungry and thirsty for many lifetimes. Then maybe you would fall down again if you're lucky and die. The earth would call you back.

When you see emptiness directly, one of the things you see is your own death. One of the things you see when you see emptiness directly is that gravity will reclaim you. You see it directly.

Everyone says they know they're going to die, but only an Arya has seen it and really believes it. You are going to be called back to horizontal. It would be a contradiction to say that they could go from horizontal.

Now there's a new topic. The hell realms. We've been going to different realms.

Deva sounded okay. Half Deva was at least a BMW. Then we got hungry.

Now he says, well, don't forget, you're going to keep falling down and probably end up in the hell realms. Which he's supposed to be discussing emptiness. The angel is sneaking in the hell realms.

There's a Christian writer named C.S. Lewis who I really like. He said one of the greatest achievements of the devil, the real devil, is that modern people don't believe in hell anymore. In the Western countries, in the times of Dante, 1300?

I don't remember. In the West, we did believe in hell. In the Bible, they describe hell.

They say, there's a joke among the Christian writers. They say one of the great achievements of the devil is that people think it's old fashioned or they think it's stupid to believe in hell. They don't believe in hell and then they go there.

There is such a place. Of course, it is possible to create seeds so terrible that you live in great pain for a long time. That's the definition of hell.

Now he's doing a new leap. They're making a new leap to the hell realms. Now he's going to start...

He's going to discuss... Look, here's the Panchen Lama. I'm just talking about emptiness.

That's all. I don't have any other goal here. Then people are like, you're trying to get us scared about hell.

Well, maybe. Well, how do you get out of hell? You understand emptiness.

Oh, okay. He's got an extra agenda here. Before the question and answer, I'm going to talk about a special book.

I'll let you know. All right. Tim, can we go back to you?

Haso said he enjoys checking people. SA BA'I Do you want me to read it again? Yes, please.

Things change because they come from seeds. First you're not reading it, then you're reading it again.

[Speaker 2]
SA BA'I DU MYONG BA'I TSE Good job, Hoso. Okay. I will.

FA YI DIG GI KANG TU THAL THAL Thank you. FA YI KAG GI DE WA TE Good. TU MEN YUR ME RAPA LEG Good.

SHEN JUN YUR WE MI SI NA SA BA'I DU MYONG CHI TEN Okay.

[Speaker 1]
CHI TEN MYONG Very nice. Good reading. He works hard on his Tibetan, by the way.

God bless you. All right. In the moment there that they began to burn in the hells, according to you, a person who went from pleasure being to the hells should be having a good time.

According to you, a person who was a Dhamma and dropped to the hells, they should be having a good time. Why? They don't change because they don't come from seeds.

So, no problem. You go to the hell, you still have French fries and Netflix and everything. Why?

Because you had them before. Well, what's that mean? Well, they didn't change.

They can't change. They're not coming from seeds. They come from their own side.

So there should be Netflix and French fries in the hell. Or pizza, right? What's the kind we like?

Pizza Lisa, right? Or Mabudofu. Yeah.

Okay, I had Mabudofu late. Since the pleasure they had as the being of pleasure before was completely independent of anything else at all, did not come from my seeds, and could never change and was never conditional, if, as you say, it was impossible for the pleasure to change in anything else, then how can they be burned in the hell? When they get to hell, they still have Netflix and what was the other thing?

French fries. Okay, all right. According to you.

All right, so I'll just repeat today's class the main point. If things don't come from how we treat other people, if the world does not come from the seeds we put in our mind by how we treat other people, then it shouldn't change. Then nothing should change.

Then everybody, even the person teaching should... If you get really bored of somebody online, just go. And then you got to try not to blink.

I'm teaching Dr. Moore how to have a Zoom call. If you want to get off the Zoom with somebody, you're like... And then you have to not blink.

Then nothing should change. If things are not coming from how you treat other people, they should never change. Before we start the question and answer, the diamond cutter press, the people who print all of our translations and books, who are in this beautiful building built by John and Connie, thank you again.

They are... I'm not supposed to use bad language. They are kicking ass of getting new books out.

Like, unbelievable. For years we just kind of trickled books out and now it's like a tidal wave. So there's a new book coming out.

Here's a picture of it. It's called Kachin. The subtitle is Girls Do Do That.

It's behind you. It's behind you guys. The book is called Girls Do Do That.

I wrote a book in my three-year retreat called How Yoga Works. It's a novel. It's a fiction story about a young lady who teaches yoga in a jail.

She gets put in an Indian jail, which I actually visited. She teaches yoga and amazing things happen in the jail. So that's a little novel story that I wrote about this young lady who lived a thousand years ago.

That book went crazy. It's been in the top of Amazon for a long time. It's in the top .01% of all books in the world. It went crazy. Actually, there's three books and I only printed one. So my friends asked me, will you print the other ones?

There's two more. I did clean up the second book and it's ready. It's coming out in August.

It's called Girls Do Do That. It's about how she tricks the monks to become a Geshe. A thousand years ago, a young lady in Tibet tricks the monks and becomes a Geshe.

If you're interested to try, you got to get the book. I'll be honest, I think it's the best book I ever wrote. It's very, very beautiful.

I was late in my three-year retreat and it was very beautiful. So YSI, Yoga Studies Institute, they will be having a chapter four of the Yoga Sutra. You can learn the ultimate last chapter of the mother book of all yoga.

During that time, we'll be discussing and releasing the new novel about this young lady who tricks the monks. She actually beats the monks, but I don't want to say everything. But it's a beautiful story from a thousand years ago and how she learns yoga.

All right, Timothy, back to you.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Geshe-la. The first question we have is, what does it mean when you say that this has been forced on me by my past karma? Isn't the past also empty of any self-existence?

And if the past is a projection forced on me by my past karma, what triggers the next projection to appear? Could we say that seeds aren't self-existent either?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, that's a cool idea. That's a really cool idea. I want to repeat one thing that I really did say to Jeff Eddy as he was dying.

And that's that it is possible to, if you can really understand emptiness, it is possible to change time and space itself. Is the universe infinite? Yes.

Are there infinite planets? Yes. Are there therefore infinite living creatures, animals and people who need help?

Yes. Is it possible for a single person to help all of them at the same time? Yes.

Is it possible to go to all of those planets and meet each of those living beings, countless living beings at the same time? The answer is yes. Why?

Because all those things are coming from your seeds. All those things are coming from your seeds. Time itself is coming from you and space is coming from you.

Einstein was right. Einstein, I finally understood it, so I like to brag about it, which is my habit. Einstein said, in theory, if it's correct, that heavier things suck.

If Newton was correct, if things with a lot of mass, you can think of it as heavier. If heavier, bigger things can attract lighter, smaller things, then light itself should be bendable. When light goes from me to Joe, then, I don't know, there's some really chubby person over here.

We don't have any here. But in theory, the gravity of the heavy person would attract the light slightly and it would bend on its way to Joe. That means Joe would see me a millisecond after I was here.

Because my light would arrive at Joe late, not on time. It'd be delayed by the big fat gravity thing halfway there. Got it?

So time should be bendable and space should be bendable. Real space is probably curved because there's big fat things hanging around. Then it means, in theory, Einstein said, it should be able to slow down time.

I should be able to look younger to Joe than I really am because the light took more time to reach him. He sees how I was ten minutes ago or an hour ago. Then Einstein said, if I'm correct, in the future, after I die, you guys check it.

You guys check it. I say that when Mercury goes around the sun and we have a very powerful telescope in the future and you can watch Mercury as it rotates around the sun and comes, the orbit of Mercury comes around the sun and you first see Mercury popping out from the back of the sun. The heaviness of the sun should bend that light and the timing of the orbit should be off.

The predicted time of the orbit should be a few milliseconds late. He predicted it and it's true. It was proven.

He was correct. That means time is also coming from you. That means time is bendable.

Time is changeable. According to your seeds, you can change time. When you're sitting in the dentist's chair, small amounts of time go by slowly.

When you're kissing your high school girlfriend or boyfriend, small amounts of time, long amounts of time go by shortly, fastly. Anyone has observed this? It means, yes, the past is coming from me.

There's a debate in the higher school that the past is still active. Lincoln's assassination, the explosion of Krakatoa, these events are still affecting us now. Things that happened a million years ago are still affecting us now.

In that sense, the past still exists. The past never stops existing. It can be bent and it can be manipulated.

It's cool to do. It's fun to do. If you feel like you can't get enough done or you have too many things to do and you want the miracle method to doing more things than a human being is supposed to be able to do, learn how to bend time.

Learn how to change time. It's fun. It's cool.

It's really awesome. So yeah, it's totally possible. And yes, the past does come from me.

It doesn't mean the past doesn't do anything. It means the past does do something. It proves the past does do something.

And the past still affects us now. Things that happened ten years ago are still affecting us now. They are gone, but they still act, so they are still existing.

[Speaker 2]
How do we bend it?

[Speaker 1]
How do you bend it? I'll tell you honestly, it sounds stupid. The deepest wisdom, as Nagarjuna proved, sounds too simple.

It's suspiciously simple. The deepest wisdom is suspiciously simple. But if you want to bend time, if you want to have more time and you want to put out books every week, then help someone else who has a time shortage.

I personally like to use moms who are stressed out from their kids and I say, I'll babysit. And they say, why? I say, I want more time.

I will save you time. And I will get more time. And I use it.

I do it. And I get more time. So it works.

Time is also coming from seeds. All right, next question Timothy. We're almost done you guys here.

Three more minutes, then we have a, I think Tim is giving us a big breakfast or something. Just kidding.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you Geshe-la for the answer. So the question here is, what do I do in the moment when a very strong negative emotion comes up and it's difficult to resist even yelling back? And then after that, I have this feeling of regret that I did yell, but I wasn't able to stop it.

How should we think about this?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good question. So we're talking about compulsion. You feel the time, you're on a short time frame.

Someone says something really insulting or something or there's an attractive object like a croissant. Sorry. You don't have much time.

You don't have much time, response time. And I'll be honest, it's too short a time to remember that it's coming from you. It's too, the person, it happens to me when I'm driving.

People in Arizona don't know how to drive. Then they do stupid things. I'm on my way to teach a class about not getting upset and I get upset on the way.

I actually use special mudras. Sometimes something's going too fast to remember the seeds. And let's face it, it happens to everybody.

It happens to me on the way here. Sometimes it happens like that. So what can we do?

What shall we do Geshe-la when we know we're not going to be able to control ourselves? And there is a technique and it's called ten second delay. It's called ten second delay.

Before you show the mudra, count to ten. Just count to ten. During that ten seconds you are building extremely powerful good seeds.

So if you can't control yourself and your bad habit is going to explode and you know you can't stop yelling or something, just wait ten seconds. Count to ten. Just count to ten.

Then yell. Then make this special sound. It's fine.

It's wonderful. Someone hands you a croissant. Count to ten.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. They say, the ancient books say that the ten seconds you delayed is powerful good seeds for next time. They say that the desire which is born from knowledge that I will wait for ten seconds is extremely powerful seeds.

Much more than the bad seeds you make with the special hand sign. It's very interesting. Ten seconds of controlling yourself and then explode.

Or then do the desire thing that you weren't supposed to do. Those ten seconds are extremely powerful karma. So that's my suggestion.

I use this method frequently. All right, I'd like to give some thank yous now. Pachi, thank you for being the primary producer of this show.

Pachi is very busy. He has a new son, beautiful baby named Shanti from his beautiful wife, Pao. Thank you, Pachi.

We know you're busy. Thank you very much. We'd like to thank the ACI translators.

I will do this very slow. That's the only slow thing I said today. I'm sorry that I spoke too fast.

Good job. Thank you. The tech heroes, it takes a lot of tech to do this emanation body thing.

Thank you for that. ACI is blessed with a huge amount of volunteers. Unbelievable.

It's a small army. If we ever need to defend America, you can come here. It's a small army of people who are volunteers and staff.

Thank you for that. Finally, reminder that tomorrow, due to two fine people from Diamond Mountain Retreat Center who asked me to give them bodhisattva vows, we decided to piggyback it on tomorrow's class. After the second class tomorrow, we'll take a 20-minute break.

Then we're going to have a bodhisattva vow ceremony. I'm sort of a, what do you call it? What do you call someone who enjoys eating?

Not glutton. Who likes different... I'm a connoisseur.

Not a glutton. I'm a connoisseur of ritual texts. I enjoy finding different bodhisattva vow ritual texts.

I found one by Nagarjuna. I found a text by Nagarjuna of how to take the bodhisattva vows. I'm in love with that one and I would like to use it tomorrow.

If you haven't taken bodhisattva vows before, you are welcome to take them. Grandpa is offering to give you a special name only for the people who didn't take the vows before. But if you did already take the bodhisattva vows, you are allowed to take them again.

It's a good idea. It makes them fresh again and it makes them powerful again. I'm going to take them tomorrow also.

You're very welcome to come tomorrow. If you don't have vows, let Tim or the staff know and if you take them tomorrow, we will arrange to get you a new name, a bodhisattva name. If you already took the vows, keep your old names.

But it's a very good idea to refresh them and to take them again. Some people I know take them every day. DE RING SANGS RGYAS RE ZUG BSGYED SANGS RGYAS ZE ZHIG BDAG GYUR DU DAG NYID BDAG GI JI NAS GYI NGAN RIGS DANG THUB PA'I RE TZAM DE KHYIM MA'I TSUN PA'I RIGS DE LA MYONG BA MI RGYUR DE DAG BYA Ta-da!

It's good to refresh them and I'm going to refresh mine. That will be after the second class tomorrow, about 20 minutes after the second class.