Открывая дверь к Алмазному Пути: Пять домов, курс 1 (2025, Аризона), занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
Okay, we're going to start back with the new book by Gibson, Song of My Spiritual Life, and we're ready to start the actual text. So that book, that poem where Tsongkhapa describes his own spiritual life, maybe for the only time in his... he wrote like 20,000 pages.

This is the only time he talked about himself. And so in that book, there's poetry, he wrote in poetry, and we have an explanation by another teacher. His name is, say, Choney?

Lama? Okay, Choney Lama, Dr. Shedu. Yeah, Shedu.

He lived about 350 years ago, okay? And so each major monastery has their own Geshe course, and each major monastery has, in my time, about 50 advanced Geshe candidates. Out of those, maybe four or six will get their Geshe.

And so during that time, we studied special textbooks that were written by great lamas of our monastery, and Choney Lama wrote the important textbooks for my Geshe course about three, four hundred years ago. And he was... his writing is very, very unusual, and it's very, very extremely clear, and extremely organized, and very, very deep.

He wrote the best commentary to the Diamond Cutter Sutra. We have three great commentaries. We have Kamalashila, who lived 1,200 years ago, and then we have a short one by Vasubandhu, or Asanga, from 2,000 years ago.

Very short. And then we have Choney Lama's commentary. And when I had to choose which one to use, yeah, I chose Choney Lama because it's more clear.

And so he's amazing, and I checked his life story, and I did a biography of him. I forget which book but there's one part of his life that I remember a lot, and he had a dream that he was flying through the sky to the west to teach the Dharma. You know, this is like 400 years ago, something.

You know, he had this dream, and he himself didn't know why. And he wrote it in his biography, but he said, I don't know what it means. I think it means that his books would come to the mixed nuts, and he would become famous.

We use his books a lot, and they're amazing. They're just amazing. And we found his books.

They were lost. They were destroyed during a war, and we found them. It took a long time.

It took Mr. John, where's Mr. John? It took us a long time to, I don't know if you remember, Jason went to, yeah, we sent a guy in a bus to the mountains in the middle of China. He survived, and he brought back the copies.

So we have them. We input them. Gibson's book is one of those books.

It's one of the books that John said, and it's a great, great commentary to Tsongkhapa's own life. So at the beginning of every Buddhist thing you do, important thing you do, you bow down to your teacher. You remember your teacher.

So my teacher, mainly Ken Rinpoche here, and you think about your teacher and you bow down to your teacher. I also have a diamond weight teacher. That's another story.

So Sumati Kirti is whose name? Tsongkhapa's name. So at the beginning of Gibson's book, Choney Lama bows down to Sumati Kirti.

He asks for the blessing of Sumati Kirti, but it means Losantrakpa. It means Tsongkhapa. He's asking Tsongkhapa for help and for inspiration.

And if you're going to do diamond weight, you got to keep your eyes out for a diamond weight teacher. And in the monastery, there's an interesting distinction. We have Pecha Gergen.

We have Tsawwe Lama. We have different teachers. Me Lama, we have at least four.

One is Pecha Gergen means... Me too. Yeah, I didn't get lunch either.

Pecha Gergen means... I did get lunch. Pecha Gergen means your book teacher who teaches you the great books.

And then Khonsen, Gergen is like your... It's more like your babysitter. Like when you show up at the monastery, you're seven years old or something.

You want to go home. You miss your mom. And then they have a very sweet, gentle, cool mama who takes care of you.

And then after six months, you don't want to go home anymore. And that was Geshe Motar. That was his job.

He was a contender then. And then you have Tsawwe Lama. You have your own teacher.

And then you have your Dorje Depen. Dorje Depen means diamond captain. And that's your diamond weight teacher.

Okay, and so you have different teachers. I have 12 major teachers in the monastery. But I have one heart teacher.

Anyway, before you start a new project like Diamond Way teaches, Diamond Way study, you got to think of your teacher. You have to think about your teacher. Connect to your teacher in your heart.

And you got to look for your heart teacher. And what I mean to say is, in the Geshe course, that may not be your main teacher. You see, your Diamond Way teacher may be somebody else.

It may not be the person who teaches you debating or the person who teaches you philosophy or something like that. And I think, in my life, it has not been a monk. My Diamond Way teacher is not a monk.

And you will find someone in your life who's your Diamond Way teacher. I'm happy to be your Diamond Way teacher. I don't have to be your Diamond Way teacher.

Who you connect with the most is your heart teacher. I asked my teacher for the definition of a heart teacher. My scripture teacher.

And he said, the one that helped you the most in your life. Then I'm like, well, that's another story. The one who really helped me to become a good person, who changed me, that's a different story.

That might not be the person who taught me perfection and wisdom or something like that. So, here they bow. The first thing they do is to remember their root lama, their heart teacher.

And it could be anyone in your life. And don't rush it. You don't have to say, oh Geshe-la, I talked about root lama.

I got to find one before tomorrow. So, take your time. They might be sitting next to you and you don't know it.

Or they might be a thousand miles away and you don't know it. So, they will come. So, don't worry about it.

But there will be someone in your life who changes your life. He bows down to, who's he? Choney Lama bows down to Tsongkapa.

He helped us connect with Tsongkapa. Sumati kirti. Sumati means good mind, right?

Low sun. And kirti means famous. But kirti means famous, it's not like, what's his name?

Brad Pitt, okay? That's called temporary famous. Famous means the ideas you teach spread through the world.

The ideas that you teach spread to the whole world. And you help people throughout the whole world. Something like that.

That's famous in Buddhism. What's the normal example of famous in Buddhism? Yeah, the moon or the sun.

That's real famous. That's not newspapers famous for two days or something. Okay.

All right. First picture you guys. Nah, I got to teach you guys.

I put numbers on the pictures. Good. Okay, this one is, there's a tradition when you say your teacher's name, you say, my beloved, sexy, beautiful teacher, Kiri.

Like you don't just say, oh yeah, my teacher's Kiri. Traditionally, you don't say their name without thinking of how you feel about them. Traditionally, you never use your teacher's name without pausing and thinking, how do you feel about them?

What did they do for you? How did they help you? My teacher gave me my whole life, so I don't say their name very often.

I don't say it. I don't just say, oh, you know. Okay, so it's tradition to speak it only with great purpose or great reason.

That's a tradition in the diamond way. Then I thought, you know, if the world is all name only, which means what? Hundred dollar question.

You don't get, you're the money giver, not the money giver. Okay, mind only principle. A knife cannot cut itself.

A person cannot ride on their own back. Rob cannot pay himself. What was the question?

No, it wasn't that. What is the meaning of name? No.

Oh, when I say that something's created by names, what does it mean? It's an easy hundred dollars. Raise your hand.

You know the the bribe system from Rob? He gets 50%. No.

Mental picture. Yeah, good. Okay, sit.

Yeah, they say ming tsam. They say ming tsam. Ming tsam means everything is just names.

Then it used to confuse me for many years. I'm like, names only? I don't understand.

Everything is names? I'm supposed to understand that everything is names? It's not everything is names.

Margarita pizza. It's just the name, water. I mean, don't tell my wife I had a margarita pizza.

I didn't. I had water. Then it used to confuse me to say everything is name only.

It doesn't mean name only. It means everything is a picture coming out of your mind. Then I always, it's always funny because I have, I teach these classes.

I teach that everything's coming from you. I teach the pen, the pen, the pen. Then, you know the famous story, where is Jenny Wong?

The famous story from Singapore Union Trade Convention Center, UTC. I remember. It's 100 years ago.

Two things happened. Do you remember? One, that auditorium is shaped like this.

The seats go like this. So I can see, in the middle of the audience, I can see the audience right in front of me. And there's one guy sitting there like, you know, and I'm like, hmm.

And he has a seat. So during the break, I said, Jenny, come here. She's like, what?

I said, you see that guy with the big eyes? Go get him. He's going to help you.

She's like, sure. That was Sugeng. That was the first guy I remember.

The second guy I remember, there's a guy who's, I took Q&A and he raised his hand. He says, I have a question. And he's like, yes.

He says, you know we have to pay to come to this talk. I'm like, I don't know, I guess. And he said, well, I pay and I came here several years.

And I said, okay. And then he said, and you teach the same stupid thing every year. I said, what did I teach the same stupid thing every year?

He said, you teach the pen thing every year. And I pay the money every year, different money, for the same pen story. I said, well, I'm so sorry.

Next time I'll try to think of something different. Actually, my teacher told me you have to hear it 5,000 times before you understand it. So you guys are up to 4,000 or something like that.

And I remember this. And then Jenny ran up to me after the talk. She said, he's not from our group.

He's from a, I'm not going to say the country. It was another country. I'll give you a clue.

It's in Europe. I'll give you another clue. It's where John Brady takes his group without me.

And there's lots of, what do you call those things? No, the thing with the Nutella. Crepes with Nutella.

Understand? Really? Okay.

All right. So anyway, everything is names. And all, what I want to say in Diamond Way language, okay?

If you force me to teach a Diamond Way course, all names have deeper meaning. The name that you were given as a child has deeper meaning. Okay?

And in Diamond Way, Diamond Way, you have to think about it. Okay? It's what, you know, you can do a, people want to tantric meditation involving chickens or sex.

So I have one for you. Meditate on your name. Meditate on the name that you were given as a child in whatever language it was.

And it has deeper meaning. According to Diamond Way, your parents are very possibly tantric angels. If you're here, out of eight billion people, then your parents were, whether you like your parents or not, and whether you're still talking or not, something special there.

And there was a special decision made when they chose your name. Names are not accidents. And in Majjhimika, names create the world.

In Diamond Way, names have a message. And we just finished a program at Dunhuang IR, and we had a wonderful program. And they're learning how to do deep retreat, business retreat.

And they, I said, watch out for messages, you know. And we had actually two classes. We had several hours of instruction on how to receive a message, how to recognize a message.

Okay? And that's a big part of Diamond Way. If you want to study Diamond Way, we'll start talking about the idea that Diamond Way special beings, our angels, are sending you messages.

Okay? And they have an expression in English, you ready? Did you talk to the guy?

Yeah. Did you tell him what he was supposed to hear? Yeah.

What happened? What's that mean? He didn't get it at all.

It went over his head. We say it went over his head. You know, that's what happened to me.

No, it means in the Diamond Way, Diamond Way special beings, they're trying to send you messages all day. And we just, you know, it just goes over, you know, they said, I don't know, Sugeng said something strange to me. What?

And he said, how's your pizza? I don't know what he's talking about. You know, when you don't know what someone's talking about, either the person's crazy or there's a message.

Okay, you have to decide which one. All right, so be open. In the Diamond Way, be open for messages.

The first message you ever got was your name. Okay? The name that you were given as a child has special meaning.

If you're here in this room, out of 8 billion people, you are special. Statistically you're special. I'm not trying to convince you you're special.

Okay? Statistically. I don't know, do the percentages.

Out of 8 billion people, there's only the ones in this class listening right now. Okay? Then you are special.

And the name you got as a child is special. There's some meaning to it. And you have to, it's like a homework assignment.

Okay? If you're like bored in your cabin and you're tired of meditating about dinner, you could meditate on it. What does my name mean?

What's it mean really? Why was I given that name? What am I supposed to do with that name?

That's a tantric practice. Okay? All right?

It's not in the 18 courses. Next one. Next picture you guys.

Yeah, Buddha has a plan for you. Okay? I like it.

My AI is kind of artificial idiot. I mean intelligence. But sometimes he makes a cool picture.

And I said, I want to see the Buddha finalizing some architectural plans. And he did it. This is the first try.

And I was really impressed. So anyway, especially in Diamond Way. By the way, Choney Lama bows down to Lord Buddha.

Okay? At the beginning of the book. And to tell you the truth, in the philosophy classes, in the Geshe course, the teacher will often skip these prostrations.

It's just usual prostrations. They'll go to their philosophy. I think that's a mistake.

I think you got to look at the problem. Why? Who is Choney Lama bowing down to at the beginning of his book?

By the way, every Buddhist book is supposed to start with bowing down to your teacher. Every Buddhist book in history is supposed to start with bowing down to your teacher. Then for a hundred dollars, the more experienced students are going to tell me what's the next step in every single book by raising their hand.

[Speaker 2]
Promise to compose the work?

[Speaker 1]
Good. A hundred bucks. Yeah, then they make a promise that they will write the book.

Okay? Sombar Dhammachala. Say Sombar.

Dhammachala. Sombar. Dhammachala.

Yeah, they make a promise to write the book. First they bow down. For good luck, they bow down to their teacher and they recognize their teacher.

So it's a tradition to bow down to Lord Buddha. And I'm going to teach it from a Diamond Way point of view. Maybe Geshe-la is tricking you by saying you have to pass Lam Rim before he starts Diamond Way.

Maybe you finish Diamond Way by the time he finished the Lam Rim. Okay? From a Diamond Way...

By the way, that's not exactly... I'm going to keep going, don't worry. But from a Diamond Way point of view, when you...

we were in Dunhuang, we were reading the Diamond Cutters. We're talking about the Diamond Cutter Sutra, which was found there in that cave. And by the way, the finding of the Diamond Cutter Sutra in those caves affected the town.

The town is infected. Like, you can't sit there without feeling it. And we went to the shop.

We went to the downtown. We went to a coffee shop. We went and got chased by hotel owners because it's not tourist season yet.

And I don't care. The whole place feels like magic. The whole town, the whole city feels like magic because of the book, because of the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

And they only found one scroll out of the whole thing. Maybe 50 scrolls and only one scroll survived, I think. It's the one with the date on it.

But it also has a beautiful carving of Lord Buddha on it. And so, here's a message. Here's a message from Lord Buddha.

Try to understand this from a Diamond Way point of view. When Lord Buddha taught the Diamond Cutter Sutra, he saw you studying Choney Lama at Diamond Mountain in 2025. Okay?

When he taught the Diamond Cutter Sutra to, I don't know, 20 people, 30 people? I went there. I sat there where he taught it.

The seed's still there. After 2,500 years, the stone is still there. You can sit there.

It's fun. I sat there. He taught to 25, 30 people.

I don't know. But he was teaching directly to us at that time. You understand?

We were not less visible to him than the people sitting in front of him. You understand? That's what the word Buddha means.

Was he Buddha? Yes. Do you know what Buddha means?

I don't know. It means sees all things. So, when he's looking at his students 2,500 years ago, and there's some sutra called Diamond Cutter Sutra, he saw you in front of him as much as he saw those people in front of him.

You see what I mean? He's watching us right now. In the Diamond Way, you have to remember that.

This book was made for you. This Diamond Cutter Sutra, first talk about the Diamond Cutter Sutra was delivered to us, you. That Dunhuang Scroll, why the one survived with the picture on it of Buddha teaching, I don't know.

Maybe something special. He was watching this class. Buddha was watching this class when he taught the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

You understand? And he was watching you. That's what the word Buddha means.

You say, I don't know if Buddha can do that. He can because that's his name. Okay, Buddha comes from ...

Okay, $100, ridiculous bet. You ready? I'm in a mood today.

What's the Sanskrit, ultimate Sanskrit root for Buddha and what's the English word that comes from it? The most common English word. Yeah, video.

Video comes from Buddha. B-I-D comes from B-U-D. Buddha means the guy who watches videos all day.

Serious, I'm not kidding. You think I'm kidding. That's what Buddha means.

Buddha means, now Stanley's a genius, I told you. He's a Buddha. The video he's watching is us.

So in the Diamond Way, you have to remember that. And I'm going to teach you a special secret Diamond Way meditation. Only Geshe Michael knows about it.

Okay, and so I worked for 19 long hard years in Manhattan. And I built a company from zero to quarter billion dollars. Warren Buffett bought it.

And it took hard, hard 19 years. Four hour on the bus every day. And then it was hard.

Sometimes it's hard. And just getting people to work together. What I realized, I'm Vice President, right?

My only job is to keep people from fighting with each other. That's all. If I can get the managers to work together, I can go home.

Seriously, I realized I got paid an extremely high salary just to get people to work together. And that was my job. I mean, I had a title, but it was Vice President of Diamond Operations or something.

I have to find the diamonds. That's what I did to find you guys. So anyway, hard days.

Many, many hard days. Many hard-headed executives. Workers are easy.

You say, shut up and do your job. You tell it to a Vice President, they quit. So I'm like, I get all these guys.

I'm doing it. And some days it's just so tiring. And I'm so tired.

And I'm so, you know, overwhelmed. I need some help. So I built the building.

We went there, 12 story. I built the inside. I designed most of it.

And because it's high security, there's millions of dollars of diamonds sitting on the table in every room. And all the rooms are separated with special electronic stuff and cameras and all this stuff. So I, you know, it was hard.

And I built special bathrooms, okay? Why? All the men's toilets are in a stall also, just like a ladies bathroom.

You understand? Usually in America, the men have to be standing next to each other, which is always kind of weird, you know? And so I built all the bathrooms with separate stalls.

And they're like, Geshe-la, no, that's a men's bathroom. I'm like, I know. I don't care.

Everyone gets a stall, man or woman, you know? Then why? I have a meditation I do in the stall, okay?

When it's a hard day, when I'm having a really hard day, and I'm trying to get these managers to work together, I'm like, I just go sit on the toilet without raising the lid, okay? It's a special meditation time. And I'll tell you something cool.

You can be, we had vice president meetings, like eight-hour meetings. You know, everybody wants to get out of there. No one's listening to anybody.

And if you say, I have a client coming, he's a billion-dollar client, I gotta leave. They say, stay. Then I figured out, if you say, I gotta poop really bad, they're like, go.

Because, you know, something happens if you stay. So, they're like, go. So, I go to my toilet that I designed.

I lock the door. I don't open the seat. I just sit down on it.

And I do a, I call it talking to the Buddha, okay? I call it talking to the Buddha. It's a diamond way meditation.

I'm teaching you special stuff, okay? You wanted special stuff, you're getting it, okay? I don't teach this to normal people.

Does that make me abnormal? No. Okay, so anyway, then you sit down and you talk to the Buddha, okay?

It has to be loud enough to hear, okay? It can't be mental. That doesn't count.

Can the Buddha hear you if you talk to him mentally? Of course. But if you say something that you can hear, it's more powerful.

It makes seeds in your mind, okay? But guess what, I'm getting seeds, I'm thinking those thoughts. Doesn't matter.

When you say something, it's more powerful. NABDANG PHYI'I KHYI GZUGS, okay? NABDANG PHYI'I KHYI GZUGS becomes NABDANG PHYI'I MA YIN PAS GZUGS.

It becomes a special kind of karma, okay? So, you have to talk. They say loud enough that somebody sitting next to you could hear, but not so loud that the next stall can hear you, okay?

So, that's how loud. Then you talk to Buddha, and you say, Buddha, you know, I'm having a hard day today. What?

Oh, you know, I'm supposed to be patient, these guys are coming for me, but they just don't get along with each other, and it's like the 10th time I talk to them, and I'm just getting tired, and you know, help me out here, okay? You can do that, okay? That's not a diamond way meditation.

That's a stall meditation. Got it? Okay?

Wait, you're supposed to say, but Geshe-la, you said it would be a diamond way I'm getting there. Now, you want a real diamond way meditation. Same stall, same seat, gets a little hard after 10 minutes.

I'm talking, you didn't lift up the, and then you say, I'm having a special hard day today, you know, and I have big, big project, I need blessing of a special Buddha, you know, I need a, I don't want a regular Buddha, I want a special Buddha. Today's a special, I got a special project I'm doing, so I'm going to try to bring all these executives together and work together, and I need big help today, and Buddha's like, okay, then how do you do that meditation? You meditate to Buddha Mike.

[Speaker 2]
Buddha Mike.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah, you will be a Buddha. All beings have a tathagatagarbha. All beings have a seed to become a Buddha.

Your emptiness is your eligibility to become a Buddha. Your emptiness is, is your, if you have emptiness, you can become a Buddha. That's called Buddha nature, okay?

You have it. Everybody has it. Therefore, you will become a Buddha.

Therefore, you can talk to future Buddha. They don't care you existed 10 zillion years ago, which is how long it's going to take some people to get there. Okay, understand?

And it feels weird, right? By the way, Diamond Way, you asked for Diamond Way, I'm giving you Diamond Way. Don't look at me like that.

Diamond Way is unusual. Diamond Way is special. By the way, it's incontrovertible.

You cannot debate with me that it's not true. It's logical. If, if it's possible to become a being who sees all things, which is what the word Buddha means, then it's not crazy to talk to your future Buddha, okay?

If you're not already a Buddha. I don't know if you are or not, okay? Right?

I can't say you are and I can't say you're not. But I can say for sure, either now or in the future, you will be a Buddha. So, and I can say for sure that either now or in the future, you can hear every word you ever said in all your lifetimes.

That means you can ask for help sitting on the special stall toilet, as long as you don't talk too loud, from yourself as a Buddha. And that's a Diamond Way meditation. You want a Diamond Way meditation?

Now you got one. Next Saturday, Tim's gonna film the meditation in the toilet. And I'm gonna sit on the toilet and talk to Michael Buddha, you know, okay?

Look, I'm a very experienced teacher. If I don't get a warm seat, I don't think I can talk right. Okay?

No, I'm serious, okay? I like to joke, but because it's, Buddhahood is fun, okay? Okay?

You think it's gonna be serious? You believe all those statues? Okay, so anyway, he's watching you all the time, and he is you, or she is you, okay?

That's all. She's watching you all the time. Future Buddha is watching you all the time, okay?

And you can ask him for help, and they'll give you help, okay? It's not crazy. It's a very, very healthy Diamond Way meditation, okay?

What was my warning? Don't talk too loud. Sometimes people are actually pooping next door.

Somebody said, I walked by, you know how you hear conversations in the office, and somebody's saying, do you know a Geshe Michael does it in the bathroom? And I'm like, maybe I talk too loud. Next one, you ready?

Next picture. Yeah, I like this picture. I found it online.

It's probably illegal. I figured Tsongkapa wouldn't mind, but he has a beautiful, the next verse, he bows down to his High and Holy Lama, and he does not mention Je Tsongkapa, okay? Choney Lama does not mention Je Tsongkapa.

Choney Lama lived like 200 years after Tsongkapa, or more, actually. So, here's the verse, with the excellent insight of your incredible mind, you offered extraordinary commentary upon the profound, something that others found difficult to fathom. Your purest deeds shone forth with light above all, and known to everyone, I bow to you in deep respect at the precious feet of my Holy Lama.

Yeah, he has hidden Tsongkapa's name in the verse, okay? So, Gibson and me, we put italics. When you read it in your book, you can see some of the words are italicized.

That's to alert you that Choney Lama is having a joke on you. It looks like he's just bowing down to some nice person, but he's bowing down to Tsongkapa. He has hidden Tsongkapa's name in the poetry, and that's a traditional game that great sutra writers, they play like that.

They hide people's names in the sutra, okay? Sometimes people ruin the game. They take a knife, and they carve an X under the letter on the woodblock.

So, sometimes you'll see a little X under the word in the woodblock, and somebody was ruining the surprise, okay? But you'll see it. It's very unusual.

Cool. So, there's an idea here that I wanted to talk about. I stop at what time?

Five? Five o'clock, okay. So, I'm getting older.

I've been spending the last few weeks, after I leave here, Diamond Mountain, I have to leave on time, because I start three and a half days of tests to get a new kidney. Maybe in six years, or ten years, or something like that. So, no, it's not a good thing.

It's like terrible, and it's not yet, okay? But you have to get on the list. To get on the list, they have to make sure you don't have cancer, and they don't want to waste the kidney on you.

So, I have to go for three and a half days of testing. So, I have to leave on time. It starts right away.

I just barely will make it, and then I have to sit there for three days, three and a half days. They're going to do, they're going to make sure I won't cheat them out of a good kidney. So, I think about, I'm at the age, and I guess me, Ali, people aren't, we're, John, we're at the age where you seriously consider, Rob just had a very dangerous, successful operation, and he's promised to live another hundred years, and I'm glad for that.

We had triple bypass heart surgery, and then he came to the Diamond Mountain board meeting like 10 days later. It was crazy. But anyway, so we're aware of, we, I think we're aware of the world blacking out.

You see what I mean? This world will black out. We'll go somewhere else, you know.

This world will just become dark. We'll see our families' faces, and then everything will be dark for a while, and then we go somewhere else. But during that dark moment, try to imagine this world, try to imagine this world with no sun and no moon, okay?

Just, it's okay, we have flashlights. We got cell phones. Everybody's walking around with a cell phone.

Oh, hi, I didn't see you, you know. You know, just imagine if the world was dark 24 hours a day, okay? We live in a weird world.

This week, they found with a spectrometer on a satellite that another planet has two of the chemicals necessary for life, and then there was a discussion of whether it's an old fart from somebody else. It's funny, I'm not kidding. You think I'm kidding.

But this kind of planet is very rare. We haven't found one for sure yet out of billions of planets. We haven't found one for sure.

We've certainly never been visited for sure. So, imagine a planet which is all black. When you get to our age and you're having these exotic operations, it's no joke.

You can imagine the world all black. You see, all blacked out, okay? Imagine that.

If this world did not have the books that John Brady is saving, whether there's a sun or a moon or not, it would be in darkness, okay? Try to think like that. Imagine that, okay?

You know, why is John so crazy? Why are we spending so much work for 37 years to save these books? Why did Gibson spend all night translating?

Go to India. Somebody introduced me at a talk in Ecuador or something. They said, this is Geshe Michael.

He's a Geshe, and he paid for it with countless diarrhea. And I'm like, I said, that's the first time anyone introduced me correctly. Because when you go to those countries in a refugee camp, you drink one glass of water, you got diarrhea for three days.

We drank out of a dirty stream, and they gave me the water. It was brown. And they said, drink.

And I said, no, no, get me some bottled water. We don't have that. I said, get me, I'll take the water out of the tap.

That is the water out of the tap. And I said, well, it's going to give me diarrhea. And they said, yeah, it'll take about a couple hours.

I said, how long will it last? They said, how long are you staying? Anyway, imagine the world without those books.

And you don't believe me. You don't really feel it like I do. But if this little book by Gibson didn't exist, there would be no sun in this world.

And I don't care if there's a physical sun or there's not a physical sun. That doesn't matter. The world would be dark.

You would be stuck with Brad Pitt movies, Jason Bourne, football games. Don't ask me which kind. British or American?

The British is not, European is not football. I don't care about Latin America. Okay, Juan's like, okay.

Anyway, imagine the whole world dark and no stars, no moon. And without what we're talking about here, the world would be like that. No sun, ever.

It's like that. If these books get lost, if you don't teach your own students, the world will be dark, okay? Oh Geshe-la, I don't want to go to Hangzhou and teach in front of all those people.

No, come on. I started in the back of a Volkswagen. Okay, you got to teach somebody.

Teach your parents, they'll listen to you. Okay, all right. Next picture.

I asked the AI to put a woman making a, okay, she's got four fingers. Someone told me that, someone told me that all the artists in the world put a bug in all the AIs to always make four fingers. And that way you know it wasn't done by a human artist.

So I'm sorry. I tried like a hundred times to put her hand, we say a promise, right? And my AI doesn't let me make dirty pictures.

So they're like, some lady going like this is not appropriate. And I'm, no, she's making a promise. So anyway, that's the best I could do.

This picture refers to Choney Lama's promise to compose this book, okay? He promises to explain the verses of Je Tsongkapa, okay? And the verses are short.

The verses are cryptic. They are not obvious. They're kind of secret.

So you need an explanation. And Choney Lama, we are using Choney Lama's explanation, okay? But there's a deeper meaning here.

That's worth $300. There's a deeper meaning to this action in the picture. And you have to think.

You don't just, I have friends who raise their hand just before I ask the question. And then they say, well, there's a 50-50 chance I know the answer. I can make some money, you know?

Because Geshe-la doesn't charge for a wrong answer. Yet. Okay.

$300. Why would this picture be worth $300? Am I going to make it easy?

[Speaker 2]
No, the answer is he made a pledge to write the work and then if you do what he says to do, you're going to get a result if you follow the steps.

[Speaker 1]
That's not quite. Okay, $50. But you're close.

[Speaker 2]
$50. You're on the right track.

[Speaker 1]
Wait, they're pointing to each other. Anybody else? That looks like a G-box.

[Speaker 2]
The seeds opened to me at this moment that the picture showed the four fingers in the heart remind me that using four steps always in the heart.

[Speaker 1]
No, Ms. Nguyen said using the four steps, right? All day in your heart. Will make you successful.

Now listen, Ms. Nguyen. Some things in the world cannot be diamond way messages, right? I mean, it's ridiculous to think that an AI could be delivering tantric messages, right?

Yeah, he has a no. Good. Now, sometimes someone gives a $1,000 answer to a $300 question.

Sometimes somebody gives a $1,000 answer to a $300 question. If someone underperforms, you should underpay. If someone overperforms, you should overpay.

That's just basic management. Okay, anyway, what I was thinking of when I made the picture is that I think there's a special message here. And by the way, if you're in Diamond Way course and you go around talking about special messages, you're doing good.

That's fine. Usually I get irritated if someone, oh Geshe-la, I saw a message. What?

That car passed me on the street. I'm like... I mean, some people seem to go a little far, but anyway, it's not bad in the Diamond Way course, okay?

Every message is a message even if it wasn't supposed to be a message. If they are kind and if they are based in morality. And that's the answer I wanted.

He's the first act in Choney Lama's book, before he gets to the first line, is to make a promise and he keeps it. I'll tell you a beautiful story. The only copy of the Kangyur, the 990 sutras and tantras from India that still survive, and that's all that survives, all the books that, Zen Huang, that are sutras, are included in the Kangyur Tingyur.

The only copy is in the temple in New Jersey. Somebody wanted to microfilm it, microfiche it, because they didn't have computers. Then my mama agreed.

So you have to understand it's a hundred thousand pages. It's a hundred thousand pages. And he said, Mike, go get the first volume and count the pages and then give them to, send them to the imaging lab.

Then when it comes back, count them and make sure they're all there. Right? You understand?

So I counted them 200,000 times, the pages. This is the kind of thing I had to do. You don't even know.

I paid for the Geshe degree. Anyway, what I'm saying is, I was sneaking looks at the content while I was counting. Then I found a book and the line was only half carved.

I was like, that's weird. Half the line is empty. I took the page.

I thought my teacher's I was always trying to prove something to my teacher and I always was finding out I was wrong. I ran to him with the sheet. It's a big page.

I said, look, look, there's a half a line missing. He says, oh my God. He read it and he goes, da-da-da-da-da.

He goes, nope, it's not missing. I'm like, it's missing. There's no words there.

He said, listen, Mike, the guy died. The author died. That's the only conditions under which you don't keep your promise to finish your book, is if you die.

If you die halfway through, they carve it anyway. How much you finish, they carve. It's very unbelievable.

Dharmakirti did something like that. Okay? It's a serious promise.

When you promise to study Diamond Way course, it's not an easy thing. You can't, I mean, you can leave halfway through, but I'm not saying you're going to the hell realms. I'm not saying that, okay?

I'm not threatening you. I don't like that kind of stuff. I think you're just going to have to sit and watch TV for 25 lifetimes or something.

Something terrible like that. Anyway, what this author is saying by making a promise, just before he starts the Diamond Way explanation of Lam Rim, what he's saying is, you have to keep your promises. And keeping your promises, basic morality is the foundation of the Diamond Way.

Those 10 boring rules, don't kill, don't steal, don't mess around with other people's wives or husbands, like that. Those 10 are the foundation of Diamond Way. And you can't do Diamond Way without that.

So, he takes a promise at the beginning to show you how to act, okay? Got it? Keep your 10 good deeds, then you can study Diamond Way.

Okay? Got it? It's a message.

That's a message. It's also, there's, then the AI message is separate from Tony Lama's message, okay? By the way, I don't have that much money, so don't answer any more questions.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Just kidding.

Okay. How much time we got? Okay.

I'm supposed to start the sales pitches today. They give you two days rest and then they start asking you for donations. I'm the expert.

Okay. Were you doing that meditation, Brian? No?

Okay. Just kidding. Just kidding.

Just kidding. Okay, next picture. By the way, this carving comes from one of the 100 volumes in the Mongolian temple.

Okay? They have 101 volumes there. They have one volume of the 8,000 verses that was carved separately.

They were going to carve the Kangyur and Tengyur. They finished the Kangyur and then the printing press was blown up in the Cultural Revolution. Okay?

They never finished the Tengyur, but this one book survived. This is Manjushri. Who's going to read the caption?

Mr. Word. There's a reason why your parents called you Word, right? Loudly.

Oh, okay. Okay. Hello.

Hello. Good. Oh, okay.

Oh, okay. Yeah, good. Okay.

Okay. Okay. So, it's Manjushri.

And jampa means soft, like velvet. It's very soft, like silk. And yang means song.

So, Manjushri, manju means soft, and gosha means song. And so, you can call Manjushri, or you can call Manjushri Gosha Sente. Okay?

And he bows down. Now we're starting with Je Tsongkapa is making his own promise to write his book, because the last promise we saw was by Choney Lama. So, if you're not careful, you'll say, why did Gibson put an extra promise in there?

Where is Gibson? I got a pick on you. Hi.

Yeah, so there's two promises in a row. The second promise is by Tsongkapa, and he bows down to his own teacher, which is Manjushri. Manjushri.

Then I had trouble with Manjushri. I remember when I asked my teacher, what's the story with Manjushri? And he says he's a Buddha.

And then I'm like, okay, there's more than one Buddha? And he's like, yeah, there's zillions of Buddhas. And I'm like, well, why do they have an extra one?

Because I just came from Princeton, I don't know anything. And he's like, yeah, there's an extra Buddha called Manjushri. And I'm like, well, why is there an extra Buddha?

Isn't Shakyamuni enough? And they're like, well, he's the Buddha of wisdom. I'm like, is Shakyamuni doesn't have wisdom?

And he's like, just shut up. Later I got confused. My name is Mike or just shut up.

So anyway, yeah, Manjushri represents the understanding of emptiness. If you learn what Manjushri can teach, you will touch the diamond world. And some of you know from DCI, you know the story.

So there was a sheepherder wandering around the mountains in Tibet. And his name was Umapa, which happens to mean middle way by accident. And he's just taking care of sheep.

And then Je Tsongkapa was having trouble understanding emptiness. And he asked people, is there anyone who really understands emptiness alive? By the way, the situation in Tibet at that time was the same as America or the West now.

There wasn't enough people who understood anything about Buddhism. There was very few people. So he said, is there anyone who really understands emptiness?

And they said, yeah, Nama Umapa. And he says, well, which monastery is he in? And they said, he's not in any monastery.

He's a sheepherder. Was he a monk? No.

Well, how can he understand about emptiness? Just go talk to him. He can talk to Manjushri directly.

He has a direct cell phone to Verizon. What do you call it? Buddha Verizon.

Anyway, he can talk to Manjushri. So there's a beautiful story. Tsongkapa climbed around the mountains, found the best sheepherding pastors, found Nama Umapa, who was a very quiet, respectful person, just walking around with sheep.

And he said, are you Umapa? And he said, yes. And he said, can you talk to Manjushri?

And he said, yes. And he said, Tsongkapa's like, I'll be honest, I don't believe you. And Umapa's like, do you think I care?

And then, that's how it goes. And then Tsongkapa says, I'm going to test you. And Umapa's like, yeah, okay.

Wait, I got to go catch this sheep. I'll be back. He's like, okay, test me.

And so Tsongkapa thought about the most difficult ideas of emptiness. Deep questions. How can a cause make a result if they never touch each other?

And if they don't touch each other, why doesn't the cause cause all results? Because it doesn't touch everything else also. And if you say they do touch, then they have to exist at the same time.

And if the cause exists at the same time as the result, it cannot be the cause for the result. He's asking him stuff like that. Then, he really wanted to know.

And then Umapa gave him answers. And they were perfect. Tsongkapa's like, oh my gosh, I never realized that.

He gave beautiful answers. The cause and the result. The cause is not causing the result.

You see the cause causing the result. You see the pair making writing because your seeds, according to Ms. Nguyen, create the pen and then they create the writing. It's not the pen creating the writing.

But the pen comes before the writing. Got it? That's real cause and effect.

And Tsongkapa's like, oh my god, I never understood that. And he was blown away. So, after a while, he got irritated, I think, and climbing up in all through the shit poop.

And he said, he asked a better question. This is those three wishes question. There's a good joke about that, but I can only tell the boys.

Later. He said, I should have asked you the best question of all, which is what? Yeah, how do you talk to Manjushri?

Directly. And then Manjushri's like, you're supposed to be so smart, Tsongkapa, but you didn't ask me that before. And he taught him how to talk to him directly.

And so when Tsongkapa bows down to Manjushri, he bows down, when he bows down to his teacher, he bows down to Manjushri cause he was his teacher. And he could see Manjushri. He could ask Manjushri questions.

Then, Diamond Way. In Diamond Way, we would say Tsongkapa was Manjushri. In Sutra Way, non-tantra Sutra Way, you could say that Tsongkapa made contact with Manjushri.

You could say that or something like that. And then Tsongkapa's students said, but he is Manjushri. He's not Manjushri's student.

He is Manjushri. So then those students had Diamond Way teachers. They understood the Diamond Way.

They understood he wasn't a student of Manjushri. He was Manjushri. Okay, got it?

So throughout history, many people have not recognized who's the real teacher here. You see what I mean? They said Tsongkapa was studying with Manjushri and then those who understood Diamond Way said that Tsongkapa was Manjushri.

And then those who studied Diamond Mountain, Diamond Way, they say something different for $100. Don't raise your hand Don't let everybody else make the money.

[Speaker 2]
Geshe-la is Manjushri.

[Speaker 1]
I'm not. I swear I'm not. I wish.

I'm working on it.

[Speaker 2]
Can you speak Vietnamese? Tsongkapa is the son of Duc Van Thung.

[Speaker 1]
It's not that he is.

[Speaker 2]
Tsongkapa is the emanation of Manjushri.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so we can say he had to talk to the sheepherder to talk to Manjushri. First level. Second level he was Manjushri.

And then third level in Diamond Mountain. Okay, cancel the bet. Anybody want to try?

Kiri? Okay, come on, come on. I don't want a long sentence.

I don't want all the Harry Potter books. I want one short sentence.

[Speaker 2]
It's not that he is for sure and it's not that he is It's not that he is for sure and it's not that he's not for sure.

[Speaker 1]
That's a $100 answer anyway. No, you are Manjushri. You are Manjushri.

You are Manjushri. It's one thing to pray to Manjushri. It's another thing to realize your teacher is Manjushri.

But the goal of this class is to realize who you are. You are Manjushri. That's the goal of Diamond Mountain Diamond Ring.

That's real Diamond Ring. Okay? Understand?

You are Manjushri. If you didn't you didn't know it yet. Okay?

The whole Diamond Lake course is going to clean away the dirt on the mirror and then you'll say Oh my God! It looks very similar to me. Okay?

Got it? Okay? Alright.