Мгновенная перенастройка для нового мира: хватит справляться — начинайте преуспевать (2010, Лос-Анджелес), занятие 2

[Говорящий 1]
Well, good evening and welcome to the second night, part two of the Diamond Cutter Institute's talk on Instant Retraining. So, my name is Cliff Spencer and I'm one of the teachers of the Asian Classics Institute of Los Angeles, the Mahasuka Center, and we'll be hosting the events tomorrow, the intensive in the afternoon and the teachings in the evening, the emptiness teachings in the evening. So, we're very honored to have the Diamond Cutter Institute here in Los Angeles for the first time in L.A., what we hope to be many more, the beginning of many more visits here, and we're very honored to have Geshe Michael Roach here teaching us. Geshe Michael Roach graduated from honors from Princeton University, went on to receive the Presidential Scholarship Medal from the President of the United States at the White House, went on to, through that, went on to study in India at the monasteries there, and studied there for over 20 years and became what's called a Geshe, or a Buddhist master, and became the first of such Geshe, the first to earn this title, the first Westerner to earn this title, in the 600-year history of Seramay Monastery.

So, 20 years of study in the monastery. So then, after becoming a Geshe, 20 years of study in the monastery, you seem like you're pretty well set. Like he told us last night, once you're accepted in the monastery, they feed you every day, you can just hang out there.

So, but becoming a Geshe, I mean, please. So did he stay? No.

He came back to the States, he came back to America. His teacher told him, now go apply what you've learned, go start a company, which he did. So he went out in New York, helped to found Amden International Diamond Corporation, using these principles that we're learning tonight, entirely using the diamond-cutter principles that we'll be learning tonight.

So Amden started, as he told us last night, started with $7 in his pocket, is now a $250 million corporation, recently purchased by Warren Buffett. He went on, was that enough? You know, I mean, you get a penthouse from that, right?

But no, that was not enough. He took his experience from doing this and wrote the book, The Diamond Cutter, to explain the wisdom of how to make these things work, how to turn a company into a $250 million company from $7. Wrote this book that has helped millions of people, has been translated into 20 languages, and has now had a reprinting as well.

So was that enough? No. He also, at the same time, founded the Asian Classics Institute, and then went on to found Diamond Mountain University.

Through these institutes of learning, he has basically brought the Geshe program that was away in the monasteries, brought them to us in America, brought them in a clear curriculum of courses that we can all learn and study and benefit from. So, translated thousands and thousands of texts into English for the first time. So, in addition, has been active for over 25 years in Tibetan refugee work.

So, Geshe Michael has worked tirelessly to make the wisdom, the Geshe wisdom, available to all walks of life. His efforts crosses the divide. You wouldn't believe how many projects Geshe Michael is involved with.

Just ask his students, who are trying to accomplish the project. He works tirelessly, and he's reached so many people, so many people in his continuous, continuous efforts to teach. So, thousands and thousands of texts, of pages of texts, translated and made available for free on the internet.

Free on the internet. And also, one important thing, along the way, in doing all this, he has, in teaching, he has taught his students to teach. He has trained his students to become masters of the material as well.

So, it's not a figure, it's not a teacher that has withheld all the information and stayed in the ivory tower. But he's empowered others to teach as well. So, this points to the generosity, the spirit of generosity of this teacher that I think is at the heart of these diamond cutter teachings.

If there's one word that I could sum up and say about Geshe Michael and the diamond cutter wisdom, I think it would be unstoppable. Geshe Michael, in his efforts to make this wisdom available, is an unstoppable force. Just like the mental seeds we talked about last night, the planting of mental seeds, that diamond cutter technique, where you plant the seeds with the diamond cutter technique, such that you must experience the result.

It's an unstoppable process. So, from the bottom of ACILA's heart, from the Diamond Cutter Institute, we welcome you, and welcome Geshe Michael Roach. Thank you.

So, the talk was titled Instant Retraining for the New World. And last night we talked about what the new world is. What does the world look like right now?

And I mentioned that last week we were in London. British Airways asked us to come and help mediate. They're having a strike.

14,000 cabin crew are on strike. And they have total employees of 40,000 people. And last year they reached $12 billion a year in revenue, annual revenue.

But they are losing $100 million a month because of the strike. They are losing $100 million a month. And I think they were an example, I think, of the need to retrain.

You see, they became an airline when the sun never set on the British Empire. And they're sort of used to that. That's sort of their, what do you call it, their culture of their company, is that we are the airline for the empire.

They started like that. And it's still, in their mind, this is still the way they think. And as a company, as a corporation, it's still the idea, you know, we came in and we met, we were invited into the corporate headquarters and we were given, I think, what, an hour and a half?

We were given an hour to suggest a solution to the company's $100 million a month problem. And so they said, OK, get up right now. There were six people from the ownership management board and there were six people from the union.

And they sat on different, there was a U-shaped board table and they were, you could see where the boarder was. And the union people were saying, look, the company is taking away our benefits. The company is taking away our pay.

They are firing all their people. And we are suffering, you know. You've got to turn this down just a bit.

We are suffering and people are in pain. The people on the staff are in real pain. We need the company to be more compassionate and more generous to the staff.

Then, on the other hand, there were the management people and they said, look, the company is losing $100 million a month and if we don't cut now, if we don't cut people's pay and we don't cut perks and we don't tighten up this ship, then it's going to sink. And these stewards and stewardesses and cabin crew who have a problem, there won't be a company to have a problem with. There won't be a company you can strike against.

There won't be anything. So, there was this struggle. There was this fight going on.

This typical old-fashioned dichotomy. There was this feeling that either the airline has to succeed or the staff has to get what they want. So we got up and they said, okay, you have one hour to explain what you're going to do.

And there was this, what do you call it, espionage going on? On the flight over, somebody came over to my table and a crew member slipped an envelope into my hand explaining their side of things. And then the management guy came down the aisle and he was explaining his side of things.

And I'm already, like I never met anybody yet, I'm just on the airplane going there. And already I have these two sides. And this is the classical, anyone who's helped build a large business or anyone who's had any kind of experience in a large company, this is classical.

It's the profits of the company versus the needs of the employees. And there's a struggle. There's a classical, traditional struggle between these two needs.

The company has to make money, and the workers need to have what they want. And then they fight, and there's a struggle. It was a lot of pressure.

They flew us over there, we'd been talking for months. And then we got up, and they said, what are you going to do? And then we said a very interesting thing.

We said something new. We said, we're going to give you a method by which the company will become prosperous. The investors will make a lot of money.

And the management will make a lot of money. And the stock value of the company will go up. The return on investment will rise.

The investors will be happy. More people will buy your stock. Your company will become profitable.

A. B. Your staff will get more benefits.

The staff will get more salary. And the staff will not be cut. You see what I mean?

So instead of going the old way, that there had to be a tension between these two goals, these two points of view, right? You say, we will give you a method of achieving both at the same time. We will increase your expenses and pay the staff more.

And then we will increase your income more than that. And you will become profitable again. That's what we offered to do.

That's a kind of retraining of thinking. You see? It's not that either you make money or you treat your staff properly.

We were like, you can make both at the same time. We will teach you to do that at the same time. It's a retraining of that company's philosophy.

Because it's been union against management for years, many years, okay? That's a kind of retraining. But there's a word here that we didn't talk about last night, and that's instant, okay?

We're talking about an instant retraining. So what does that mean? What does that mean to do a retraining?

We are in a situation as a country, and we are in a situation as a people, in America, right? Especially in America, where things are changing drastically. Our lives are changing drastically.

I think it's because of the Internet, maybe, okay? I don't know. The Internet has contributed to it.

But a lot of, you know, General Motors, I grew up with General Motors. That was the most successful company in the world. I grew up with feeling like General Motors was the thing.

I studied in India, and I used to be this kind of, what do you call it, very confident, arrogant American. They would say, why are we a poor country? And I would say, well, you know, you just can't run things as well as Americans, you know?

Americans, we're just more intelligent, and we know how to do things, and you just learn from us, and everything will be good for you. You know, we have General Motors. We have NASA.

We have Boeing. We make everything there. Nobody can touch us.

Nobody can do what we do, right? I went to the movies the other night. What was it?

Toy Story 3, okay? It's a very deep film. And there was an advertisement by General Motors in the middle of the film, and they had black and white footage from the days when Americans were making trains, and Americans were making different kinds of products.

I don't know if you've seen it, but then it goes, we know how to make things. You know, like, we're going to learn again how to make things. Why?

Why do they have to say that? Because the last booster program, right, NASA, is done. Now, I believe it's finished now.

There will be no more shuttle flights. They are stopping. And the American rockets won't be used anymore.

They'll use European or Chinese rockets. The aircraft companies were down to one, I think. No computers are made.

In Europe, there's no more computers being made at all. No computers are made in all of Europe. And, you know, what is it?

The computer I used to use, which was what? IBM is now... What do they call the company?

What is it? Yeah, Lenovo. And it was purchased by a Chinese firm.

And even the... What do you call a big, useless SUV by Chevrolet? The military one.

[Говорящий 2]
The Hummer.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, yeah. The Hummer was purchased by a Chinese company. And it's over.

You know, the American ability, the American dream of being able to lead the world. China has passed us in economic output already. They produce more than we do now.

Their manufacturing capacity of China exceeds that of the United States. And they just became the second most powerful economy in the world. Japan just dropped to three last week.

So I imagine... And they say that we will drop to number two in a year or two years or something like that. We're projected to drop to number two.

So things are changing. And what we thought was our birthright, what we thought was inevitable, that we were the leaders in the world, or we were the most successful people in the world, and we were leading the world, that's not true anymore. And if you're into economics...

I went to Guangzhou, right? We're speaking in Guangzhou in a couple of months. Guangzhou is a city outside of Hong Kong.

It's just outside the Hong Kong territory border. And this is where goods are produced for the United States. So the offices are in Hong Kong.

They decide what to make, how to make it. And then the factory is on the other side in Guangzhou. Guangzhou was an empty field ten years ago.

Guangzhou was a bunch of empty fields. Now it's a city of 20 million people. And it's beautiful.

And when you go there, or you go to Hong Kong, if you understand finance, there's more gold reserves in Hong Kong than in America and Canada combined. In the banks in downtown Hong Kong, there's more gold reserves than in the United States and Canada combined. Just in one area of Hong Kong.

And Guangzhou, you can see it there. You can see that the balance has shifted. And really the economic power is there.

You don't see the whole thing yet. If you travel a lot, if you go to China a lot, you can see it's already shifted. They are already leading the world.

And then if you come back to America, I went to the dam on the Yangtze River. It's the largest dam in the world. It's a mile and a half long.

And I went to see it. And there's this teenage girl leading the tour. And she was so proud.

She was so amazingly proud of her country. And she said, our army built this dam. The army soldiers, with their hands, they built this longest dam in the world.

You Americans are talking about the dangers of nuclear power, etc. And pollution. And this dam is going to replace 18 nuclear plants.

Because of this dam, we will not have to build 18 nuclear plants. And we are doing something about it. And on the way to the airport from Shanghai, we got on the train in downtown Shanghai.

And we were going to take a flight out of Shanghai. So we were busy. We were overbooked, which is very unusual.

And somebody said, could we have a meeting with you guys? We have to discuss some stuff. I said, OK, let's just meet in the train.

Because it took an hour to get from the airport to the city in a car. So I said, well, we'll talk in the train. You know, we'll probably have half an hour, 45 minutes to talk in the train.

So we got on the train in downtown Shanghai. We sat down. These other companies, people sat down.

The railway company, right? And we sat down across from the seats from each other. And we started to talk about the business programs we were going to do together and all that.

Then the conductor came by. And he said, he came by after like seven minutes. And he said, you have to get off the train now.

And I said, well, is there a problem? And we didn't speak Chinese. And we're like yelling at each other.

And I said, no, no, we're going to the airport. And he's like, you've got to get off the train. And we're like, no, no, we can't get off the train.

We have to go to the airport. He said, this is the airport. You got there in seven minutes.

The train goes 250 miles an hour. You're there. Get off.

And I'm like, we didn't even sit down. We didn't have our meeting yet. And then you're just standing there and saying, in America, they wouldn't think to build a thing like that.

They wouldn't think to build the fastest train in the world. They just wouldn't do it anymore. People wouldn't think of it anymore.

They're watching TV. Or they're playing their little video game thing. And they wouldn't build a dam that replaced 18 in nuclear plants.

Or they wouldn't think to do a train that reached the airport in seven minutes from downtown. And we don't do those things anymore. We have changed.

We've gotten lazy and contented. And then other people are... The world is changing.

So what do you do now? You do retraining. What kind of retraining?

I like instant retraining. Like in America, we like things fast, right? So these talks, what we're proposing...

And this is the first of... Technically, it's the first of a series of 12. Two nights of talks.

And then normally, we do three days of retreat after that. Like in British Air, we're going in October to start with the 40,000 employees. There'll be two nights like this.

And then there'll be three days of... We take them out of the countryside and we... What do you call it?

Indoctrinate them.

[Говорящий 2]
And then brainwash them.

[Говорящий 1]
And then they come back and they're successful. So the point is, as individuals, we are becoming redundant. A lot of the jobs that existed when I started my business aren't necessary anymore.

We don't need American people. You don't need an American person to answer the phone for your company anymore. You don't need an American...

We were the last great manufacturing company in New York City. And then we moved everything overseas. It's all done in the Dominican Republic and in Guangzhou.

There was a little bit in Haifa, in Israel. We just moved it all to China. And that was the end of the story.

People don't need someone who makes $20 an hour anymore or $50 an hour anymore. And that's why the auto companies went under. They just don't need you anymore.

So what are you going to do now? We're just selling off our assets. You're just selling off your wood, your lumber.

You are selling off your bonds. You're like a person who's living in a house who used to own the house. And now you are taking equity loans on the house.

Basically, that's what's happening in America. You have taken a loan from the world for the cost of operating your country for about 15-20 years. And it's about to be called in.

The loan is about to be called in. We don't own our own debt anymore. That's owned by other people.

They could say we want Yellowstone Park. Or we want Kaibab National Forest. Because they own the national debt.

Your country is owned by other people now, mostly. And you have no product that people want anymore. You can make cell phones elsewhere.

You can make rockets elsewhere. They make better planes elsewhere. You don't have anything that people really want.

You're just kind of sitting around and living off of debt. So we need to retrain as a people. We need to retrain.

And it applies to many countries. It applies to almost every country. My approach, or the approach of the diamond cutter, is not to say that America should be prosperous and China should be...

We should fight with China and get back our economic advantage. We should struggle against China. And we should make back our advantage.

That is not what this philosophy is. That's the British Air Management Against the Union thing. You get it?

We should find a way that creates a way of retraining ourselves and a way of retraining people in China. We spent half our tour time in China. And we spent half of it in the West.

And we should find a way that makes both countries prosperous. And all the other countries as well. You see what I mean?

It shouldn't be an idea that either China is prosperous or America is prosperous. It should be both countries prosper and all countries prosper. This is the approach.

The union should make their money and the management should turn a good profit for the investor at the same time. And China should be successful and America should be successful. And they should make the rest of the countries in the world successful.

That will require some retraining. That will require some retraining. And the retraining is done in the mind.

And it's not done in the hands. It's not that you have to learn to do web design. Or you have to change your job.

You can't make cars anymore. Or you have to make computers. That's not the point.

The retraining is not done in the hands. The retraining is done in the mind. In this system, in the diamond cutter system, the retraining is done in the mind.

It's a point of view that changes. And then you become successful in whatever you want. So you know, I used it for a company.

We wanted to help Tibet refugees. And we started with 7 dollars. And now it's a quarter of a billion dollars.

And we did that in our spare time. While I was doing the Geshe thing. So that was done in 4 days a week.

Building that company, 4 days a week. Going home at 5 o'clock. And then taking 6 months off every year.

Then there's some technique that you use. There's some mental retraining that you do. And then today we were at a yoga studio.

We were saying, if you learn that technique, you can use it for other things. You can use it for your health. I used to have a handicap in my foot.

And now I do ballet. Change the bone in the foot. Fix the bone in the foot with this method.

A lot of people come to me and say, how can I get a partner? I'm not interested in getting rich. I just feel lonely when I go home.

I would like to have a nice, intelligent, good partner. So once you understand the method, you can use it for anything. You can use it for anything you want.

So we have to talk about the method. To start that, I think we need to do the, it says the pen thing again. We'll just do a quick review of yesterday.

Some people weren't here yesterday. Ah. Yeah.

There's a Buddhist idea. There's an idea called emptiness. There's a special idea called emptiness.

And it's very confusing. It sounds very confusing. Some people think, oh, emptiness means nothing matters.

It doesn't matter what you do. You can help people or you hurt people. It doesn't matter.

Everything is empty. Or some people think, oh, emptiness means I shouldn't think about anything. Like, I should just clear my mind.

I shouldn't think something is good and I shouldn't think something is bad. I should just be staring at the wall or something like that. People think that.

Some people think emptiness is what you get to if you go on a rocket ship past the atmosphere and then everything's black. Some people think that. When I say emptiness, you get all these weird ideas in your mind.

You think, oh, he's going to start talking about sitting in front of a wall and thinking about nothing. Like that. You feel that.

People think that. But you have to understand what emptiness means if you're going to use this Diamond Cutter Method. If you want to make a quarter billion dollar company in your free time, if you want to change the ball on your foot, if you want to find a beautiful, beautiful partner and relationship in your life, then you need to understand the emptiness thing.

And you don't need a... It's not complicated and it's not mysterious. I'll explain it to you in three minutes.

Okay, fine. What is this thing? You can say it's a pen.

Everybody can say, oh, it's a pen. You look at it and automatically you think pen. In your mind, the word pen comes.

It's not that you have to stop and think and consider. You don't do that. You just look at it and your mind goes pen and you say pen, right?

So, suppose a dog comes up, comes up the aisle, comes up on the stage, a puppy especially, okay? And you... I used to have a puppy that I carried around with me to do this demonstration.

But you wave this thing in front of a dog. Is it a pen to the dog? Is it a pen to the dog?

No. What is it to the dog? You can say a stick or something to chew on, right?

What do you call that? Chew toy. You can say a chew toy.

To the dog, it's a chew toy, alright? And... Then I have to ask you some questions about this.

People, this afternoon you have this already. Don't cheat, okay? I'll ask you some questions.

And they're important questions. If you want to live in a country, in a world where things are radically different, where both China and America are equally prosperous, all the people in China have all the material things they would like to have, and all the people in America have them equally, and other countries as well. If you want to live in a world like that, you have to understand this idea.

Okay, so I'm going to ask you some questions about this thing. Ready? Dog thinks it's something to chew on.

The human thinks it's something to write with. Who's right? Everybody.

What do you think? You agree? They're both right?

You can say that. It's not a problem to say that. I don't think...

You know, Buddhists, we debate like five hours a day in the monastery. Have you seen it? It's like karate.

It looks cool. We'll do some tonight, okay? It's loud, and it's obnoxious, and you scream at the top of your lungs, and sometimes you do it all night.

Sometimes they keep you there all night. You can't go home until the debate master goes home, because he carries an electrical extension cord with him. Do you know why?

Well, you get whipped with it if you go home. If you go home without permission, you get whipped. They pull down your robes, and they whip you.

And so that's why Tibetan monks are so nice and quiet. You think it's like their nature. Anyway.

You can't leave. If the guy decides to take a tea at home, if the debate master takes a tea at home, and he falls asleep, and doesn't wake up the next morning, you have to debate all night. You have to go all night.

So sometimes we do. But they ask a question, okay? Is the dog...

And you have to be careful with the debater, because it's like chess, okay? If you agree to something now, you may regret it later. So be careful with me.

Don't answer lightly. Think about it carefully. Are the dog and the human both right?

Be careful. You can say yes. So can we say that this is both a pen and a qigong?

[Говорящий 2]
We can.

[Говорящий 1]
I think we can say that. Can we say that one is more right than the other? Can we say that the dog is more right than the human, or the human is more right than the dog?

I don't think you can say. I think they're both equally right. But if I take this thing and I leave it on the stage, okay?

And then everybody goes home. And no dogs in this room, and no people in this room. What does it do?

He said nothing. He said nothing, okay? That's emptiness.

That's a perfect answer. It's a perfect answer, okay? What it is, after that, if everyone leaves, and there's no dog, and there's no human, and this thing is sitting there, it's nothing.

It's not a pen, and it's not a qigong. So can we say that it is both a pen and a qigong, and it is neither a pen nor a qigong?

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah, we can.

[Говорящий 1]
Okay, there's no problem with that. And that's emptiness, okay? It's no more mysterious than that.

It's not a big mystery, okay? That's the emptiness of this subject. By itself, it's not a pen.

By itself, it's not a qigong. Okay, got it? So if I, when I held it up, and you saw, immediately you saw a pen.

You didn't like, you know, sit there and go, what's the right answer? You said it was a pen, right? I have a question for you.

Is the pen coming this way, or is the pen coming this way? What makes it a pen? Yeah, they're both saying, it must be coming from you.

Why? Because if it was coming from it, then the dog, what? They would see a pen.

They would try to hold it, and write, I always say they would write a poem to their dog girlfriend, you have a beautiful tail, and all that, okay? Like they would try to write something, but, so, this object is not announcing pen, okay? This object is not saying to you, I'm a pen.

It's not. The pen has to be coming from, from your mind, got it? So, be careful.

Be careful. Don't agree to things lightly, easily. You'll get stuck 20 moves from now.

Okay? So can we say, that the pen is coming from my mind? Yes.

We can say that. I think we can say that. Everybody, you've got to nod.

You can nod later when you fall asleep. And, okay. So, we can say that the pen is coming from my mind.

Therefore, we can say, that if I decide to make it the largest, longest diamond in the world, I just have to think of it that way. Right? No.

No. Okay? It's not a matter of, so can we say, okay, I'm careful.

Can we say, that it is coming from my mind, but it's not a matter of choice. Yes. Of current choice.

Okay? It's not a matter of my choice in the moment. I can't, I understand that this is coming from my mind.

It must be, or else the dog would try to bite me. Right? Or else I would be salivating.

You know? It must be coming from me somehow. It must be coming from me.

But at the same time, I can't control the process in the present moment. Okay? I can't say, oh, it's coming from my mind, so I want it to be a diamond.

Or, you know, I want it to be a bar of gold, or something like that. It doesn't work. Right?

You know that. You wish for things, and they don't happen. You say, I wish my relationship would get better.

I wish my boss was more kind. I will pray that my aunt doesn't die from cancer, or got cancer. And you, I did it when I was seven years old, or something.

I said, my aunt, one of my aunts got cancer. And I asked my mom, what should I do? She said, just go pray.

And I prayed, and then she died. You cannot wish things to happen, but they are coming from you somehow. Okay?

They are coming from you somehow. So, so, how do you use that? My next question to you.

Okay, here's my next question to you. Why do you see a pen? And why does the dog see something to chew on?

[Говорящий 2]
Frame of reference.

[Говорящий 1]
But where does it come from? Why does the dog have a different frame of reference? Why does the human see it differently?

Why? There must be a cause. Buddhism and science agree.

Everything has a cause.

[Говорящий 2]
Knowledge. Intention. Experience.

[Говорящий 1]
Well, you see, you can, you can say, education is, you know, it'd be nice, you wish. Intention. Knowledge.

Like the person who created the pen, it's intention.

[Говорящий 2]
They used knowledge to make the pen. I agree. They taught everybody, this is a pen.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, they taught people, this is a pen. But there's some kind of, what do you call it? That's true.

Experience, right? Or training. But you can also, but there's a limit to what a dog can understand.

You see? Dogs are, I love dogs. My mama had dogs.

They bit everybody. We used to put notches in their collar. We bit the Dalai Lama's assistant.

But anyway, you can, to a point, you can train a dog. To a point, you can, you could get a dog probably to hold it and maybe make a line of them, right? But there's a block there.

There's a limit there, right? There's a limit to how well they could see the thing as a pen. There's a certain limit in a dog's mind to how they can see it as a pen.

Okay? Where does that limit come from? Because if we could understand that, you could design things to happen the way you want.

You could make a quarter billion dollar company. You could find the partner of your dreams. You could change the bone in your foot.

You see? When I look at the bone in my foot, it's the same as this. You see?

The bone in my foot is not twisted because the bone is twisted. The bone in my foot is twisted because something in my mind is making me see it that way. Understand?

That's crucial. That's crucial. It's not twisted from its own side.

It's twisted because the way I look at it, I'm forced to see it. We can say forced, okay? It's not a matter of free will.

You can't say, I would like to see this as a diamond and it's going to be a diamond. It doesn't work. You can't say, I'd like to see my foot straightened out and it's going to straighten out.

It doesn't work. I want not to see disease in my body. And how do you change that?

We've established that there's something in your mind, okay? There's something in your mind that's forcing you to see it. And you don't have a choice in the current moment.

I can't hold it up and say, see this goal and then you suddenly see this goal. It doesn't work like that. It is coming from me.

But apparently there's some kind of thing forcing me to see it in a certain way. Why? There's some kind of energy or seed in your mind.

You see? Your mind has a certain seed in it. And you're seeing it a certain way.

And then the dog has a different seed in their mind. Got it? There's something in their mind that opens.

When they look at this object, the seed opens and they see it. They see something to chew. And there's a seed in your mind that opens and you see it as something to write with.

Neither one is right, okay? Neither one is correct. Both are real.

In a sense there are two realities going on in the room at the same time. There's a dog's reality and there's a human's reality. Independent of the dog and the human, how many realities?

None. That's emptiness. Okay?

That's emptiness. It's available. The room is constantly available.

And then you come and put something on it. But the room is available. The room is like a white screen.

That's the meaning of emptiness. How do you use that to make a quarter billion dollars? How do you use that idea?

You have to understand how the seeds got put in your mind. How did the seed get put in your mind to see a pen? What happened to put that seed in your mind that the dog doesn't have?

If you understand that process, you're going to get anything you want. Because there's nothing. Got it?

There's nothing. The world is nothing. And it's coming from the seeds in your mind.

Learn how to plant a seed in your mind and you're set. You know? Just put the right seeds there and what?

Wait. Okay? Plant the seeds and wait.

And then you'll see things. Okay? You'll see things happen.

So each thing that a person would want in their life has a different seed. And what I do around the world, what me and all the other staff here do around the world, we just teach people how to plant the seed they want. So there's very basic principles about seeds.

And Jesus said the same thing. What? He said you don't get fizzles from...

How does it go? You don't get... Nobody can ever quote this to me.

You don't get... You don't get grapes from thorns or figs from thistles. Somebody look it up.

I would have said you don't get bananas from watermelon seeds. And like that. Okay?

It just doesn't happen. And thank God. You know?

Thank God. That means we can have food next year. Because people pick the seeds from the corn and they plant the corn seeds.

And they don't have to worry that cactus might grow. You see what I mean? There's a...

There's a law of all seeds in the world that the result resembles the seed. Got it? That's just the law of all seeds in the world.

And it's a good thing. It's a lucky thing. It's not like you have to go and pick watermelon seeds and grapefruit seeds and, you know, banana seeds and plant them and then, you know, see what comes.

Maybe corn. You know? Maybe wheat.

You know? It's not like that. You go to a wheat plant.

Someone taught me how a corn plant works. I have one growing in my house, in my garden. By accident.

I feed the birds corn. And one of them decided to grow. And they were showing me.

It's so cool. I didn't know this. One stalk grows.

It has a male half and a female half. And those threads that come out of the top of the ear of corn, those are the female eggs, basically. And then the other half, there's like a jagged thing on the top of the plant.

And that's the male. And he produces... What do you call it?

Pollen. And then the wind shakes it and the pollen lands on the little... What do you call it?

Silpings. And each piece of silk has to get a piece of pollen on it or that kernel won't grow inside. It has to be fertilized by the other half of the plant.

It's very beautiful. It's like some kind of miracle, right? But the bottom line is you have to plant corn to get corn.

If you want it to have financial success, if you want it to live in a country that used to have a financial problem, that used to be going downhill, that used to be losing its world eminence in financial matters, if you didn't want to live in a third world country 20 years from now, then what would you do? To see money come to you, what do you have to do? It has to be to do with money.

It has to do with money. And it has to be giving. You see?

You will have to give money to somebody else to see money coming to you. That's just the way it is. You don't get money coming to you because you gave away, I don't know, a ticket around me.

Or because you were nice to old ladies or something like that, okay? It isn't the cause. The cause of money...

Where's that five dollars that I spoke to you yesterday? I still have it, okay? I can get back to you.

So yesterday he gave me five. I'm going to show you how to plant a seed. And you can say, oh, Geshe-la, that's new aging.

Yeah, well, Warren Buffett just bought the new aging. If you want to... If it's your goal to make money...

And by the way, it's not... We start with money, right? And then you go on to your body.

Remove the illness from your body and get a young body, healthy body. And then you move on to relationships. It's no fun to have a healthy body and lots of money if you don't have any friends, right?

Or someone to share it with. So you go through these levels, right? You get the money.

You get a body. Because if you're old and you can't... If you have a Cadillac and you can't drive it or you can't race it, then what's the use?

So you feel... You get vitality. Then you get a partner.

And then you go for the big stuff, okay? I'm not saying this is gonna stop here. You get money because it's nice to have money and then you don't have to worry about money.

I don't worry about money. I don't have to think about money. I don't want a big car.

I have a 1980 Volvo, okay? Like old hippies come up and praise my car. And you can...

I have a small, comfortable house. And, you know, you should be comfortable. Not like me, okay?

And then you should be healthy. I don't have to think about my health. My health...

My body is strong. I'm old. And the body is strong.

And I do things I couldn't do when I was 20, okay? And... Because I know how to plant a seed, right?

And then you find someone... You find beautiful people. You create beautiful people around you.

Then you go on to the big things in life, you see? Then you make sure that Africa has enough to eat. Then you stop the war in Iraq, you see?

You go for the big stuff. Because it's all... Where did it go?

It's all the same, okay? It's all the same. Iraq is the same as the pen.

And your arm is the same as the pen. And your partner is the same as the pen. And your job is the same as the pen.

It's all coming from your mind. Plant the right seeds. And those things will change.

Iraq will change. And your boss will change. And your wife will change.

And your bank account will change. You can change anything. Just figure out the seeds, okay?

Here's the seeds, alright? If I want money... A seed...

This is how you plant a seed for money, okay? Take five dollars. You find someone...

We'll talk more about it. But you find... Basically, you find someone who needs help.

Who really needs help. And then you hand them the five dollars. And when you let go...

Okay? When you let go... A seed is planted in your mind...

Because you see yourself let go. Okay? It has to come through the senses.

The organs of sense. Into the mind. There has to be a process where...

You see yourself let go of the money. Through your eyes. And that comes to your mind.

And it's planted in your mind. Okay? Witnessing is what plants a seed in your mind.

Who witnesses? I witness myself. I watch myself do something.

Okay? I watch myself give someone something. When I let go...

And I see that... A seed is planted in my mind. Okay?

If I have the right intention... You mentioned intention. And it was nice.

If I really truly want to help this person... If I give them the money out of kindness... Okay?

That seed is planted in my mind. And it must grow. It must grow.

You cannot avoid it. It will grow. Something will come to you.

You can't stop it. Okay? You can't stop it.

It's one of the things in the world which you cannot stop. If you are generous... Something will come to you.

You can't stop it. And one other co-opener... All seeds grow.

Right? All seeds grow. Your body...

For 70 years... Of billions of cells... Sloughing off the skin...

Regrowing from... Where? From inside your body.

Right? Was created by two cells. One cell from your father, the sperm.

And one cell from your mother, the egg. Your body... 70 years...

50 years... Of billions of cells regenerating... For 50 or 70 years...

Have come from what? Two cells. Just two cells.

Okay? So... All seeds have the power to...

To grow millions... Thousands and hundreds of thousands... And millions of results.

Okay? So you can give five dollars... And then what will come back?

What will come back? Maybe 50. Maybe 500.

Maybe 5000. It depends on how well you do it, okay? Tonight we'll talk about technique.

Depends on how well you do it. You'll always get more back. Always.

You must get more back. Our company doubled every year for 15 years. You don't know what that is.

In the diamond business... 3% growth is good. It's very unusual to have 3% growth.

5% is almost unheard of. Okay? Because diamonds cost everybody the same.

It's all a cartel. It's all owned by De Beers. You all buy the diamonds for the same price.

So you can't do a better diamond company than somebody else. It's not possible. We doubled every year.

We had 100% growth every year. Fastest growing manufacturing company in the history of New York City. We doubled every year.

How? You see? How?

It's to understand the seeds. If you understand the seeds... The result is much more powerful.

The result is much greater than the cost. Otherwise there's no point, right? You give 5 bucks, you get 5 bucks back.

What's that? Okay? If you know how to plant the seeds properly, the day will come back much greater.

If you know the technique. So we have to talk about technique. I'll talk about technique a little bit.

And then I think, just to spice things up, we'll have some other stuff. We'll do some other... We'll do some other stuff up here, okay?

And if... Today we talked about... I'm going to show you how to plant a seed that grows faster and bigger, okay?

Because if you don't know this, if you don't know the technique, and you just go giving away money, right? By the way, what's the cause of finding a partner? What do you think is the cause of...

You know, some people in this room, they have enough money, you know? I'm okay, I don't need more. But I would like to have a partner.

What would be the cause of a partner? Remember the cause has to resemble the result. What's the result you want?

When you want a partner, what's the result you're looking for? What do you want from a partner? What do you want?

You want love, right? You want companionship. You want someone to share your life with.

You know, you want to come home and not open a can of beans and, you know, eat half and throw away. You know what I mean? Because it's lonesome.

You would like to have someone reasonable, friendly, good looking, smart, you know, does everything you want. You know, you would like to have someone, a nice partner. You would like to have a nice partner.

Each of those things has its own cause in the mind, right? You plan a partner. You don't find them.

You plant them. But the main essence of a partner is that you want companionship and you want someone to share your life with, right? You want that feeling of having someone in your life who is experiencing it with you, right?

It's lonely to be successful by yourself, right? You can be happy and you can be rich, but if you're sitting in a big empty house by yourself, it's not happy. You don't feel happy.

So, the cause, the mental seed for finding a person to share your life with that you could truly feel companionship with would be to help a lonely person. Got it? You would help a lonely person.

You want money, you have to give money. You want money, you have to help people financially, right? When we started our company, we started a charity in India at the same time.

In the same year that we started our company, we started a charity which is still going 23 years later. That charity is still going. And it still supplies our profit through the seeds.

So, for companionship, you have to plant a seed by helping lonely people. People are asking me all the time, you know, Geshe-la, should I... They always come to monks and they ask weird questions, right?

And then you're supposed to look wise and tell them the answer, you know. And it's very frustrating, you know. Constantly people come to me and ask me dumb questions.

And they're like, Geshe-la, I want to find a partner. Do you think I should go on the internet or do you think I should go to a club or a yoga class, you know? Where can I find a partner?

Like I'm supposed to know, right? So I try to look wise, you know. Give me a minute to meditate on that, you know.

And then I think, you know, then I go like this, you know. I always do it dramatically, you know. I got it, you know.

And they're like, OK, is it the club or is it the internet? Or is it the yoga class? And I say, it's a nursing home, you know.

You have to go to a nursing home. You know, and they're like, Ew, I don't want an old boy, I want a young boy, you know. And you don't get it.

You're like, no, no, you don't get it. You have to go to a nursing home and help a lonely person. Don't worry about internet.

Don't think internet. And don't think yoga class. Think lonely person.

Go find a lonely person. And spend time with them on a regular basis. Go once a week, help.

I still have one. I have one that I'm using. You see, I'm using her.

You know, she's 85. She was a friend of my mother. She's in Phoenix.

Whenever I'm in Phoenix, I go to her house. I bring her a big bouquet of flowers. And I fix something for her.

You know, like her toilet. I'm really good. I know all her toilets.

I fix all of them. But she can count on me. She knows I'll be there every few weeks.

She calls me. She says the toilet broke. She wanted some photos.

Her stairway was broken. Her oven light wasn't working. Her garden sprinklers broke.

And I'm her, like, handyman. And I bring her flowers. I fix her stuff.

I take her out to dinner. And I disappear. And I pay for everything.

You see what I mean? And I make her feel... I do it because I love her.

And I want her to feel not... I want her to feel that she has someone to count on. And she doesn't feel lonely, you know?

If you know... Some people have seen her. She's getting more and more, like, happy every year.

It's kind of weird. And... I'm afraid she's going to start dancing at the top.

But she feels happy that someone is taking care of her. So that's what I see in my mind. To have someone take care of me.

And someone care for me. You see? And that's the only way you can get that.

According to this philosophy. You cannot get someone to help you feel love if you don't provide it to someone else. It's not possible.

It will never happen. It cannot happen. Right?

You cannot get money unless you help someone else with money. And you cannot have love or someone's care unless you care for other people and keep it up over a long period of time. What would be the cause for you if you had a disease in your body?

You know? If you had a problem... That was hereditary.

My brother got the same problem. And he used... What's that stuff that athletes take?

Steroids. Yeah. He was put on steroids like 20 years ago.

And now he's had very bad health problems from the steroids. The doctors told me you have to take steroids. I said, no.

I'm going to use seeds. They're like, what seeds? They don't like that discussion because it could put them out of business.

If you have a health problem, should you have an operation or should you take steroids? It's the old bad question, okay? It's that old dumb question.

Should you look on the internet or should you go to yoga class? Which one?

[Говорящий 2]
Neither.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, you better say neither one. Go to the nursing home. If you have a health problem, should you have an operation or should you take some steroids?

Which one? Which one? Yeah, you have to refuse these bad choices.

You have to say, no, no. No, no, bad choice, bad choice. I should help sick people.

I should help sick people. Does that mean you shouldn't have a medical treatment? Does that mean you shouldn't undertake medical treatment?

It doesn't mean that. It means help sick people, then seek medical treatment and it will work. Don't help sick people.

Seek medical treatment and it won't work. Got it? It's not that the medical treatment works.

Medical treatment which is charged by helping others works. Medical treatment which is not charged by helping others doesn't work. Got it?

Why? Because whether or not the medical treatment works is coming from a seed in your mind. You know, yeah, right?

This doesn't come from inside. It comes from this side. And don't think anything else is different.

It's not like some of the stuff in the world comes from this side and some of the stuff in the world comes from your side. Don't think like that. Your body comes from you.

Your body comes from seeds in your mind. The way you see your body and the way you see this is the same. Got it?

It's coming from a seed in your mind. Give this, the way you experience your own mind, the way you hear thoughts in your own mind, it's the same. They are also not coming from you.

I'm sorry. They are coming from you. They are also coming from how you treat other people.

Got it? Whether you feel happy, whether you hear kind thoughts running to your mind, or whether you hear sad thoughts coming to your mind, comes from what you do to other people. You see?

It's very beautiful. Even the thoughts in your mind are coming from how you treat other people. And you can't stop them in the present moment any more than you can make this a piece of gold in the present moment.

You cannot. You can say, I don't want to be angry right now. I don't want to be depressed right now.

I don't want to be sad right now. It doesn't matter. You will be.

Because you planted those seeds. Right? It's like this.

You can't stop it. You have to plant new seeds. Got it?

By the way, you should be asking me, or the next question in your mind should be, OK, I believe you. You know? It sounds logical to me.

And you seem to have accomplished your goal. You seem to have used it, and it seems to have worked for you. For a monk who has no business experience at all, to start the fastest growing company in New York City, maybe something's there.

Maybe something's there. I believe you. But I planted lots of bad seeds before.

Like, you know, I was a cheapskate before. And I didn't visit sick people. And I ignored the elderly people.

You know? I've been living that way for a long time. You know?

According to your idea, I have big seeds from that. I have billions of seeds in my mind from that. By the way, seeds are collected 65 a finger-step.

Every second, 65 seeds. OK? And life comes back about that speed.

Discrete images in your mind are happening at 65 a second. Somebody told me that's the speed of a normal, of a film that's not jerky. I think a film that's not jerky is 24, but that's just vision.

So if you want to put it sound... OK. So it's like that.

It's like your life is passing by according to Lord Buddha, OK? Two and a half thousand years ago. He said there are 65 discrete images coming up in your mind, your subconscious, every finger-snap.

Maybe a finger-snap is not a snapping or something. You know, there's probably some kind of thing. But he said, images are ripening in your mind from things you've done for other people at the rate of 65 a finger-snap.

And they come up so fast that it looks like the world is moving. It looks like the world is, you know, is all moving like that. And that's how it happens, OK?

So you can say I believe you. OK? It sounds logical to me.

If I want money, I must plant some kind of seed of money. And if I want help, then I should serve the sick, right? And if I want to have companionship, I should serve the lonely.

I understand that. How do I make it faster? How do I make it happen in a way that I can...

What do you call it? Confirm. Right?

If it takes like six months, if you give five dollars and it takes six months to get a hundred dollars back, how do you confirm that that happened from the five dollars? Or if you help a lonely person and two years later you meet somebody in Starbucks, how can you prove that that was connected to helping the old person? You want some kind of...

It has to move fast enough that you can confirm that you planted a seed and then you got the result back. I have to teach you technique. We have to talk about technique so that you can have it happen fast enough.

If you do a couple of things that are cool, if you give five bucks and then your account goes up ten thousand dollars next week, you'll be hooked. You'll say, yeah, this stuff works. I had a student in New York, David Sons, was it?

He made a t-shirt that said, hey, this stuff really works. Was it you? Oh, okay.

So I have to teach you that. There are certain conditions under which the seeds ripen faster. There are certain states of mind and there are certain physical states under which the seeds ripen faster.

One of the mental states is a good ability to meditate. It doesn't matter what religion. I don't care.

Buddhist, Christian, doesn't matter. Islam. But the ability to focus the mind and to go into a deep state of mind is very helpful for planting seeds.

So if you're going to try this system, which you should, right? It's helpful if you learn to meditate. So we're going to do just a short practice meditation with you.

But it's one that you can keep doing for the rest of your life. You can learn it in ten minutes and you can keep doing it for the rest of your life. And then your mind will be more suitable for giving the money or taking care of the old people.

You know, you will be better at it and you'll get faster results. So I'd like to introduce one of our friends in L.A. He's an independent filmmaker, pretty famous. And he's been using these methods for a long time for his own personal success.

And it's Zoe Barman. I'd like to thank her for coming today. Thank you.

Thanks for coming. So just sit comfortably. Feet on the floor.

Back straight. Mike, closer to me. Mike, closer to me.

And shoulders relaxed. You can close your eyes. And then just try to be still.

Try not to move. Just bring your awareness to your breath. Maybe as it exits and then enters your nostrils.

Bring your awareness inside. Last night we took the suffering or trouble or problems from a loved one or a special friend. Tonight we're going to take advantage of the fact that this loved one, this special friend now is more available.

So bring that special person to mind. It can be a family member, a close friend. Or the person you used last night, if you were here.

And then just feel your connection to them through your open heart. And then think about what they, in their most wildest dreams, would like to have. And that can be a new car.

It can be a partner. It could be a quarter-billion-dollar business. It could be help.

But you know your loved one. You know your special friend. Look into their heart.

Look into their mind. And perhaps you know even better than they do. And then offer that to them.

See them having, achieving, realizing their wildest dream or dreams. Maybe they wake up in the morning and they're healed. Maybe they get their dream job.

Maybe they lose the job they hate. This is giving. This is planting these seeds that we're talking about in the richest soil.

The other people in our lives. So think of your loved one, your special friend. Look in their eyes.

See how happy they are to have received this gift. To have realized this dream of theirs. And notice how good you feel.

How happy it makes you. This is a very simple meditation that you can do all day long. And you can practice it on the bus.

You can practice it at line, in the line at Starbucks. You can practice it at work. Okay.

And open your eyes. So some questions about that meditation. If you just wish, like I was wishing that a friend of mine could feel younger and more energetic.

If you just wish it on somebody, will they feel more energetic? Does it work?

[Говорящий 2]
I hope so.

[Говорящий 1]
Well, we hope. Does it work to wish it was gone? It doesn't work.

You can't give somebody youth or energy. You can't do it by wishing. This meditation doesn't work.

Right? Be careful. Does it plant any seeds in your mind?

Yes. Yeah. How?

What kind of seeds? Yeah, it plants a seed for it's a seed for wishing that other people could have success. Right?

It does plant a seed in the mind to wish that other people could be successful. Right? It does plant that.

It doesn't seem to work directly. Okay? It doesn't change the other person's health like that.

Okay? You can't just wish that someone didn't have a disease and let the disease go away. It doesn't work like that.

But the intention to remove other people's illness would plant seeds in you. Okay? And that's an important thing about seeds.

You can only plant seeds for yourself. Okay? You cannot plant other people's seeds.

In our tradition, they have a proof for that. There's a logical proof for that. But what is it?

It's that no one in the world would be suffering if great beings could give away their seeds to other people. You see, if Jesus or Muhammad or any Gandhi or any good person, being, kind being if they could take seeds out of their mind and give them to another person we wouldn't be suffering. No one would be suffering.

They would have sacrificed all their seeds for other people. Right? They wouldn't hold back.

They wouldn't say, oh, these are my seeds. These are not your seeds. I'm not giving you my seeds.

It wouldn't have happened. Alright? You can't give seeds away to other people.

So can you help other people? How? Yeah.

Teach people how to plant their own seeds. You see? And then you really help them.

Okay? So what you're doing in that meditation you're increasing your willingness to share seeds with other people. And to share the knowledge of seeds with other people.

And then you get really good at teaching other people about how to plant seeds. In your meditation you think, oh, I would like to teach this person how to make seeds. Okay?

Like that. That's the highest help you could give to somebody. We do charity, right?

I have a charity. It's almost 25 years old now. There was a cool story.

I went into a... I needed some fruit at midnight in New York. I went to a store after a talk like this.

And there were two Asian women working in the store. It was near John Bailey's house, okay? And then I went in and they were working on the what do you call it?

The cash register. And I bought some things and I went up. And then one lady turned to the other and said something in Tibetan.

And I was like, oh, cool. I can spy on them. And so they were talking.

And I said, oh, where are you from? And they said, we're Tibetan. I said, well, how did you get here?

And they said, well, we were refugees. We were in India. And I said, well, how did you get to the United States?

Because it's impossible. They don't even have an Indian passport. They're stateless.

They have no passport. They have no papers. They have nobody.

They can't own land. They can't have a good job. They're just refugees, right?

They can't even buy something. They can't run a store in India, for example. So I said, how did you ever get here to the United States?

They said, oh, it was really cool. In our village, there was a refugee program. And they teach people computers.

And I said, oh, how did that start? And they said, oh, there's this really cool American guy. And he raised all his money.

And then we had this training for all the women in our village for 20 years. And I said, wow. And I said, did you ever see this guy?

And they said, no, no, we've never seen him. He hasn't been here. I said, oh, that's interesting.

And then I left. Well, then the next day, I sent somebody back. And I was having a fundraiser the next night.

And then they came and spoke at the fundraiser. It was really fun. Because they got the job.

They got to the United States because they knew computer skills. And the embassy hired them. And then they got a green card.

So it was really cool. So you can either give money to somebody, right? You can give money to somebody.

And you help them in a sense. You can wish that someone else had money. And that's one thing.

Then you can give money to another person. And that's a second thing. But better is to teach them how to make money, right?

So you teach them a skill. Rather than going to the refugee camp with cash and handing out cash, which runs out in a week, you teach them how to do something like computer work, right? But then what's the next thing you teach them?

[Говорящий 2]
Teach someone else.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah. You teach them to teach somebody else. Because that's where the seeds really come from.

So you get them to run their own little business. And they're good at it. They have their own independent data entry centers all over India, these Tibetan refugee women.

But then you teach them, for you to succeed, you're going to have to help somebody else. You're going to have to do something else. You're going to have to teach somebody poorer than you.

And that's how seeds are going to come in your mind. So like that, you make seeds. I want to do one more thing.

I want to show you a little bit of Tibetan debate. And then we'll take a break. And then after that, I'd like to talk a little bit more about technique, how to make things faster.

Because if you can't get a result fast enough, you're not going to believe me. And you won't try. You have to be able to get a result fast enough.

But we'll do a little debate for fun. I just want to do a debate for fun. So I'm going to ask some friends to come up.

One is Daniel Garcia. He's from El Paso. And he's been training at our university for, I don't know, 100 years.

And one is Kat Erhorn, who's also a professor at our university. And Jeff Eddy, who's also a graduate of our program at the university. So can we set up some chairs, like three chairs?

We're going to do a little Tibetan debate just for fun. So you can see. And you're going to need that round thing.

And the chairs may be one, two, three. How about like facing this way? Come up.

And like, be there. And then you're there. Facing this way.

And then you're there. Facing this way. Facing this way.

So we did this last night a little bit. You guys have to talk loud, OK? I don't want to be over here.

We did this a little bit last night. Some of you weren't here, maybe. So this custom is 2,500 years old.

And this is how you study in a Tibetan monastery. This is the main way that you study in a Tibetan monastery. So you start with a very respectful, you know.

Di ji da che chen. Which means, let's talk about this, OK? Di ji da che chen.

You are me. No way. So you aren't me.

That's right. I'm not you. Prove it.

If this is the last donut, and you, Michael, eat this donut, then Daniel doesn't get a donut. Oh, so you're telling me I'm not Daniel. That's right.

Michael's not Daniel. Michael's not Daniel. And you're trying to tell me it's because, if we walk into a donut shop, right?

And there's only one donut there, right? And if you give it to me, then Daniel won't get a donut! That's right.

Wu cha! Cha means, like, you should be embarrassed for being so dumb. OK.

Let's go, cha. So if we walk into a donut shop, right? Me and Daniel.

And there's only one donut there, right? And then he decides to give me the donut, right? Then he doesn't get a donut!

Oh, he does get a donut. Unh! Unh!

Unh means you're stalling for time, OK? Unh means, what are you talking? Say that again.

Unh! Unh! Say that again.

He knows where to eat. You get a donut. Are you saying that if there's only one donut in a donut shop, right?

And he gives me the donut. Then it's not true that he doesn't get a donut? He gets a donut.

Where do donuts come from?

[Говорящий 2]
You don't know where donuts come from. I don't know where donuts come from?

[Говорящий 1]
You don't know where donuts come from.

[Говорящий 2]
I know where donuts come from.

[Говорящий 1]
I know where donuts come from.

[Говорящий 2]
Where do donuts come from?

[Говорящий 1]
Donuts come from, they come from flour. And they come from water. And they come from sugar.

And they make them in the back of the donut shop. And then, if you want one of them, you gotta have money, right? And you take the money into the, what's it called, Dunkin' Donuts, right?

And you give the guy the money. And he gives you a donut. And that's where donuts come from!

[Говорящий 2]
That's not correct.

[Говорящий 1]
What? Stop!

[Говорящий 2]
That's not correct.

[Говорящий 1]
Well then, where the hell do donuts come from? Well, I can walk into a donut shop with money and not get a donut. And I can walk into my friend's house without money and get a donut.

So, donut, you don't get donuts by using money to get donuts? That's correct. How do you get donuts then?

You have to plant the seed of giving a donut to Daniel to be sure you get a donut. You're telling me I have to plant a seed in my mind for a donut for me to get a donut. And it doesn't depend on how much money I have?

[Говорящий 2]
That's correct.

[Говорящий 1]
And how do I plant a seed in my mind for a donut? Because I love donuts and I want as many donuts as I can get. You give Daniel lots of donuts.

But he's not me, right? He's not me, right? Right?

We agree. We have to agree. He's you.

I'm going to run off to stay here. I've seen it happen. So, let me get this straight.

According to her, okay? I'm not saying I believe it, alright? According to her cat, the only way I can get a donut is if I plant a seed in my mind to get a donut.

[Говорящий 2]
That's right.

[Говорящий 1]
What's up? You're telling me the only way to get a donut is to give somebody else a donut? Absolutely.

And that plants some kind of seed in my mind to get a donut myself. That's right. What's up?

And what you're saying is that I can't get a donut in my mouth unless he gets a donut in his mouth? Yeah, that's exactly right. What's up?

So, you're suggesting that for a donut to cross into the border of my mouth, right? For a donut to pass through these lips. A donut has to pass through his lips?

What's up? So, you're suggesting that a donut can't pass into his mouth unless a donut passes into Michael's mouth? That's exactly right.

No, no. Yeah. You're saying that.

I didn't say that. I'm telling you what you're saying. No, but you're wrong.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay, listen.

[Говорящий 1]
I'll say it again. You're saying that I can't see a donut pass into his mouth. Wait a minute.

Okay, let's say I want a donut, right? Okay. So, if I want a donut, I have to put a donut between his mouth so a donut can come into my mouth.

Because the only way for me to get a donut is to plant a seed in my mind for a donut. And I have to do that by putting a donut in his mouth. Yeah, that's it.

So, for me to get a donut in this mouth, I gotta put a donut in that mouth. You got that? That's right.

So, his mouth is my mouth. Yeah. So, he's me.

Yeah. So, he's me. Yes.

Daniel is Michael. That's correct. Daniel is Michael.

That's correct. Stay, okay? We were practicing this debate tonight.

This is, by the way, why young monks can live without girls for so long. Because you're totally exhausted by the time you get home. We were talking about what does this mean, you know?

How do you... That's okay. How do you...

What are we saying here? Right? The suggestion is that there's no me and there's no you, okay?

Why? How do you prove that, right? In the Buddhist principles, in the ancient Indian principles, Tibet, Daniel stops at the edge of his skin, okay?

Daniel stops at the edge of his skin. Who is Daniel?

[Говорящий 2]
Him.

[Говорящий 1]
Daniel is the person who is hurt if I stick his hand with a pen, okay? You thought it was a pen. You obviously didn't see Born Identity.

Where he murdered the guy with the pen, right? Didn't he? The guy came to the window and they had a fight and he ended up...

Right? It's a weapon. It's not a chute or a pen, right?

In all of ancient world of the Eastern world, Daniel is the thing that when you poke it with a needle, he hurts. You see? If I poke this with a needle, does it hurt Daniel?

That's Daniel, okay? Now, watch. Now, this is cat's hand, okay?

Why is it cat's hand? When I poke it with a needle, cat feels pain. Got it?

Right? Am I right? Be careful.

Am I right? I'm right. I'm always right.

So, this hand is not Daniel. Why? Because if I poke it with a needle, he doesn't hurt.

Got it? That's just the way life is. That's true, right?

That's why we don't help old people. They're boring. And they're not fun.

And they smell bad. And they don't think fast. And they're not me.

You see? If I go to see a movie, I feel happy. If I show them a movie, they feel happy.

Got it? The person who feels happy when you see a movie is you. Got it?

That's what me is. If you show a movie to these eyeballs, and the movie is enjoyed, then that was Michael. Got it?

That's what Michael means. That's what Michael is. If I poke this hand, it doesn't hurt him.

Therefore what? This is not Daniel. This hand is not Daniel.

Got it? And that's how you live your life. You believe that.

You really believe that. You live by that. We're different.

They're different. That's you. That's me.

Got it? But, according to everything we said tonight, what's the only way you can get a donut? You see?

If he wants a donut, what has... If he wants a donut, according to the principles we... You don't have to believe them, okay?

I'm not saying you have to believe them. If you don't want to make a quarter billion, it's okay with me. Okay?

According to the principles we said tonight, what's the only way for him to get donuts? He must give a donut. No choice.

No choice. We're not talking kindness. We're not talking ethics.

We're not talking compassion. We're talking me. Okay?

He must give a donut to somebody else. Got it? Is that true?

According to these ideas. You don't have to believe it. So, here we are.

Does a donut have to pass those lips for a donut to pass those lips? My question to you.

[Говорящий 2]
No.

[Говорящий 1]
Please. Who said that?

[Говорящий 2]
They can pass your lips.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, yeah. No. But I'm saying in general.

Does a donut have to pass the lips of someone to whom he gave the donut for the donut to pass his lips?

[Говорящий 2]
Yes.

[Говорящий 1]
No. No. A donut has to pass into someone else's mouth for a seed to be planted in his mind for him to see a donut which passes into his mouth.

Am I correct or not according to the Diamond Cutter? According to these ideas. It's true.

It's true. So, what? Then, get this.

Try. Try hard. Try hard.

Get this. Try hard. So, his mouth is his mouth.

Because a donut cannot pass this mouth unless a donut passes this mouth. And we said that needle thing. Got it?

You were talking about the needle thing. He cannot have an experience of pleasure unless he provides him an experience of pleasure. So, who is him?

Who is Daniel? He cannot have a feeling of pleasure unless he provides a feeling of pleasure to this thing. The right hand cannot have a donut unless the left hand has a donut.

So, is he Daniel? Is he Daniel? Is his mouth Daniel's mouth?

It is because a donut must pass into his mouth for a donut to pass into his mouth. A donut cannot pass into his mouth unless a donut passes into his mouth. You got it?

So, your mind is struggling. Right now, your mind is struggling. You don't want to think that way.

You fight it. Your language is wrong. The language you invented on this planet.

Every version of that mother language is wrong. They are not two people. They are not two people.

Just by logic. I'm not saying, oh, let's be, what do you call it? New Agey and everyone's one.

I'm not saying that. I just proved it to you. He can't get a donut in his mouth.

In that mouth. That mouth cannot have a donut in it unless he gives this mouth a donut to have. So, what's the difference between their two mouths?

It's a timing question. Do I have a donut? Do I have a donut?

Is this my hand? Is this my hand? Is this his mouth?

[Говорящий 2]
Yes.

[Говорящий 1]
Yes. You have to get there. You have to get there.

You have to reach there. At some point, you got to reach there. Got it?

You have to realize that his mouth is his mouth. He's not being kind to Jeff. Daniel's not being kind to Jeff.

By giving Jeff a donut, Daniel is putting a donut in Daniel's mouth. You have to get that. You have to get that.

What would happen in the world if everyone believed that? What would happen in the world if everybody acted on that? Hunger is not possible.

Hunger is not possible. You must feed other people. It's not a question of charity.

It's not a question of compassion. You can't eat unless you give other people food. It won't happen.

All the food you ever got in your life is because you shared with others. And when you stop sharing, you'll be hungry and your country will go down. Your country will go down.

Stop sharing, your country will go down. Got it? Nice?

It's not giving to another person. It's not charity. It's not like he's the boss and he's like the poor person and he's being so sweet to the poor person.

Stop thinking like that. When you help somebody else, you're feeding yourself. Got it?

You're feeding yourself. It's very profound. The words are wrong in your language.

The word you and me are a mistake. It's very profound. In the end, in this world, there won't be words for you and me.

Because his mouth is his mouth. Got it? It's very beautiful.

We are like cavemen. And there is another place. We will rise up to a higher place where he doesn't see his mouth as different from his mouth.

And he will work as hard to put a donut into his mouth as he does into his mouth. Because they are the same mouth. Got it?

If you say yes, you get to have refreshments. Okay, cool. Okay, last thing.

We're going to have some refreshments. We're going to have refreshments. And a couple of things.

Rob? Where is Rob? He's been handing out, or he is handing out, pieces of paper on which you can write questions.

Then we're going to have a question and answer panel up here. And we'll read the questions you wrote during the intermission. So if you have a question that you would like to ask our panel of experts, write that down and we'll have those.

There is some stuff going on tomorrow. I don't know. What is it?

There is an intensive session like this tomorrow afternoon. You can talk to one of the staff. Staff have these.

They don't have. Anybody who has a label on his staff, ask them if you want to come. We'll go a little bit deeper tomorrow.

If you'd like to come. Tomorrow night, there is a free talk at Manasuka Center, which is in Culver City area, near Loyola. And you're welcome to come to that.

That's going to be a very, very advanced talk. It's for people who have been studying this for a while. But you're welcome to drop in and get confused.

In my monastery, they encourage the first year students. They tell you, go to the 8th year student's class. And you go and you don't understand anything.

And then they say, that puts a seed in your mind for the future. Then when you get to the 8th year class, you understand. Comment if you'd like.

Lama, are you ready? Do you have anything? Yeah?

You have those things? Okay, so Ora is back there. She's been studying for a long time.

And she's a lama. She's a very great teacher. I don't know, 20 years or something.

And she's only 20. No, anyway. But anyway, she's got this thing.

She's making little, after the talk, she'll have available these, what do you call it? iPod shuffle type things. These little iPod things that you can clip on your ear.

And they'll have this whole night. And yesterday's talk also.

[Говорящий 2]
They'll have yesterday's talk, the Yoga Sutra from this afternoon, and a selection of other talks from the other archives.

[Говорящий 1]
Not tonight. So they'll have yesterday's talks, all the talks earlier today, and a lot of other talks that we've given will be on this little thing. And you can just have one.

It'll be free online. She's running this thing that has thousands of hours of talks online for free. It's called the Knowledge Base, right?

She's trying to raise money for them to continue putting stuff up free online. So what she does is she sells water at the side of the river. She'll offer you an iPod shuffle with today's talks, today's talks earlier today, and yesterday's talk on it.

And you can go home and you can listen to it if you make a donation to her project. Or you can just go online tomorrow and get it for free. You see, it's kind of a scam.

But the idea is that it would support. We have about 50 different teachers' lectures for free online. And then it takes a lot of funds to make it free.

So if you'd like to make a donation to that, see her. And part of the money goes to our refugee women. They are typing ancient Tibetan texts for 23 years now.

And they go up for free online. Every time they finish a text, it goes up for free online. And it supports their living.

It supports their life. Because we give away all the texts. All the data is free online.

So they've finished, I think, a million pages. They've finished about a million pages. And they have another 150 years to go.

They've cataloged 130,000 manuscripts. A lot of them in St. Petersburg and Mongolia and Khasa, Tibet, all over the world. And they are typing them.

It will take another 150 years. And we give the stuff away for free online. But it takes money.

Because we pay them. So if you'd like to help with that, go talk to Ramona. Anything else I'm supposed to announce?

We'll put up a...

[Говорящий 2]
Who's collecting the questions?

[Говорящий 1]
Rob Harvey is going around collecting the questions. There will be an announcement put up about programs in LA. Upcoming programs in LA.

So if you'd like to get another hit of this. There are some programs happening in the next month. And they will be coming back.

If there's time and interest. This is the first of 12 levels. And we'll go through 11 more levels.

Okay? If you're interested. So have some nice refreshments.

And we'll see you in 10 or 15 minutes. Nice job. We're out longer.

We always run over. So please forgive us. But it's so hard to get everybody here.

We might as well take advantage of it while we're here. So these are some questions that have been asked. Some of them are questions that you guys asked.

And some of them are rigged questions. Questions you should have asked. Because I think they're important.

Having done this hundreds of times. There are certain really essential questions. And then you've also asked some really great questions.

So we're going to mix them up. And these are some of our senior teachers. Trained at our university in Arizona.

Or who are teaching here in LA. Cliff and Lauren. They are trained classically for a long time.

And they are available in Los Santos if you need help after tonight. So, you know, after the question and answer is over, we'll be done. And then you just can grab one of them and say, I have this problem and can you help me work it out?

Okay? Any problem you have in your life. Take tonight.

Take the chance to ask. Okay? It's free.

They just want to help you. Okay? So, grab one of them.

And ask them. Or if you have some dream. Okay?

Now you don't have to limit your dreams anymore, right? You don't have to say, I want to make $50 or $5,000. You can say, I want a half million or I want 50 million.

Or something like that. You don't... If this stuff works, then there's no limit on dreams anymore.

And putting a limit on your dreams is foolish. Okay? I want my husband to be perfect.

You know? I want him to be what he never was. You know?

Like, after the honeymoon. Or something... You know, I want a perfect person.

And you can have it. You can have everything. Don't think, oh, I want to be younger.

You know? I want to have energy. I have more energy now than I had when I was 20.

It's embarrassing, you know? I went to hip-hop yoga this morning in Santa Monica. Everybody else is 25 years old, you know?

And I'm out jumping and everything. And I feel like they're, like, staring at me, you know? So, you can dream of anything.

Whatever you want. Don't put a limit anymore, okay? Get what you want.

That's what we're here for. And they're here to help you, okay? Cliff and Lauren, right?

Darcy's often in the LA area. She goes there. Okay, so here we go.

I'm going to ask some of these questions. And then... And listen carefully, okay?

These are important. If you don't ask these questions, I'm not sure you can do what we're proposing, okay? So here's, I think, some of the most important questions.

This first one's for Darcy Jones. We... You know, you guys have been teaching that if I want to get money, I should give money to other people with technique.

With the proper technique. And you've been saying that if I want to have a nice partner, I should help lonely people, right? And you're saying that if I want good health, I should help the sick.

But... Okay? But, from my own observation in life, there are people who are very generous, and they're poor.

They're broke, right? There are other people who never help anybody, and they have lots of money. Right?

I see people who ignore the sick, and they're like, got sick packs, you know? And then I see people who could care less about the elderly, and lonely people, and they have fantastic partners. Okay?

So, if you can't answer this question to me now, I don't see how you can expect me to try your system. Okay? So, we see the...

In the Bible they say, Why do the wicked prosper? That's in the Bible, right? Why do...

Generous people are broke all the time. Sometimes. Right, so, like Eshleh said, this is very important.

This idea, like... Like he said. Yeah, why do we see wicked people prosper?

And, you know, this is something we see with our own eyes. And this is what is hindering me from actually taking up the right actions to find happiness, whatever it is. If it's a partner, if it's money, if it's health.

This is what's hindering me. Like, this is the crux. It's very important that...

Why am I not seeing... Why do... When I see somebody mean, why are they prosperous and look happy?

The thing we have to understand is this idea of the time gap. There's a gap between what I do right now, in the immediate present moment, and what happens in the future.

[Говорящий 2]
And what I'm experiencing in this present moment, is it coming from, like, something three seconds ago that I did? Let's say I did something nice to somebody.

[Говорящий 1]
If I plant a seed in my mind, in my heart, for something kind, do I get a result right away? Right, we've been talking about, like, this idea of a seed planted in your mind. And it takes time.

Just like if I'm planting any sort of fruit or vegetable. It takes time to ripen. My family grows almonds.

You know, we take an almond seed. My dad doesn't sit there waiting, you know, for tomorrow. It's not going to ripen into a full crop.

It takes time. So, when I have something happen to me in the present moment, it's from the past. So this idea of somebody, if we're talking about money, if you see somebody being generous all the time, and then they're always poor.

They don't quite have enough money. And you see them really making efforts, striving to be generous. They don't even have a lot of money, but they still always give when anybody asks for it.

The reason that they aren't affluent just yet is because it takes time. And maybe in the past, they have been stingy. They haven't shared.

So in the present, they're not that affluent yet. But in the future, if they continue to take up the right, plant the right seed in their heart, they will, definite, the seed is definite. If I plant the example of planting a banana, I'm not going to get a watermelon.

If I plant a banana seed, I'm going to get a banana. That's definite. And the problem is this time gap.

It takes time for it to ripen. So I can't expect a result immediately. So when you see your friend taking up actions of generosity and they're not getting the result of immediate wealth, it's because it takes time.

And we need to then learn how to make these seeds ripen faster. So like Aishwarya said, so it's a proof to you. It's not just hearsay.

Oh, yeah, they say, of course. Yeah, it makes sense. Like if I plant a seed, I'll get a result.

But I need to see the result quicker. That's a proof for me somehow.

[Говорящий 2]
And I need to know how to do that. You're going to talk about that later.

[Говорящий 1]
No, tomorrow. Okay, thank you. I'd like to give her a hand.

So it's the idea of a time gap. I give money now. Tomorrow, I lose my job.

It's not cause and effect. Losing the job comes from something I didn't before. And the money I gave today will bring me money later, in a week or six months, depending on how well I do it, how much I understand the technique, okay?

So don't be confused when a past seed ripens right after you did something. That's not a result of giving the money. Got it?

You give money, you lose your job. You didn't lose your job because you gave money. You lost your job because you didn't help people in the past.

By giving money, you will get another job. You see what I mean? Later.

There's a time gap. Our goal in life is to shorten the time gap to zero. Can you get so good at this that you give away money in the morning and you have more money in the evening?

It's possible. You can do it, okay? It's very cool.

Then you believe it and then you keep doing it and you get better and better at it. Okay, second question for Kat. I think this is a very important question.

You've been talking all night and yesterday and today during the day. You guys are always talking about, oh, if you want money, prosperity, you have to give money to other people. If you want to find a beautiful partner, you have to find someone who's lonely and take care of them.

If you want help, you have to serve the sick. I believe what you say. I believe what you say.

But it sounds selfish to me. You know? You're not giving people money because you want to help them.

You're giving money now because you want money. And you're not helping the sick because they're suffering. You're helping the sick because you want to be able to do yoga better tomorrow.

And you're helping lonely people because you want a partner. It's all self-interested. And it's all selfish.

You're suggesting that we should give people money, we should help the needy, only for your own advancement, for your own benefit. So it seems, even if it does work, it seems pretty selfish to me.

[Говорящий 2]
Well, I know all of these actions are intended to help suffering people. And first of all, I could be considered as one of those suffering people as well. We've been learning that results are produced from similar seeds.

And it seems to be a law that a watermelon seed will produce a watermelon. And it seems to be that those results are greater in results than what was started with in that original seed.

[Говорящий 1]
So if I plant a seed of generosity and I give $10, it stands to reason and logic that I would be forced to receive $100, for example. And that would increase the wealth of the world, of those people around me, tenfold. Just with that simple one small seed of $10 gift, of a $10 offering to another suffering being.

[Говорящий 2]
And we've eliminated a lot of suffering just with that small act of generosity, because these seeds do increase.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, so the question is like this. If there's $10 between you and me, and I have the $10 and you don't have the $10, then if I give you the $10, and if these principles are correct, then $100 will come to me. That $100 is new money.

That $100 is money that did not exist in the world before. The net value of the world's economy would rise. The total value of the world's economy would rise.

In this system, the amount of money in the whole system would increase. Got it? I give $10, I get $100 from giving the $10.

How much is in the system now? $110, right? There was only $10 before.

If these principles are correct, I just created $110, where there was only $10 before, by moving the $10 from me to you. Got it? So I've increased the amount of wealth in the world.

That wealth will help everybody. That's more wealth in the world. It's not wrong to use a gift of $10 to create $100, of which you will now give again.

You're increasing the amount of wealth available to give to the other people in the world. Got it? It's not wrong for you to benefit from a gift to someone else.

It's right. And it should be that way. And now there's more money to share with other people.

And you will continue to give. Why? You have to, or your wealth will run out.

Whatever seeds you plant, you have to keep doing it. You can't stop. You can't dump the lonely person when you get your boyfriend.

If you do, the boy will dump you. Got it? Really.

You have to keep going. You can't stop. This is a pyramid scheme.

You can't stop helping the lonely person when you meet the boy that you wanted. Because he will dump you. You get it?

You have to keep serving the lonely. There's no end. There's no end.

You keep reinvesting the seeds. Got it? So it's not wrong to benefit from a kindness.

It should work that way. It should be like that. It should be that when you're kind to someone, something good happens to them.

And something good happens to you. It's not true that you have to be nailed up to do a good thing. It's not true that you have to sacrifice to do a good thing.

It should be the way the world works that you give something to someone. And then you get something back. And there's more goodness in the world.

That's okay. That's alright. And in fact, you can't avoid it.

If you are generous, money will come to you and you cannot avoid it. You can't say, I would not want to have a result for my action. It will come to you.

You can't avoid it. And then there will be more money in the world and you can help more people. Got it?

Alright. Third question. For Anne.

Anne Currie. So these practices have all been derived from a Buddhist book. It's the oldest book in the world.

Printed book. It's called the Diamond Cutter. Dorje Chupa.

And that's a Buddhist book. The book was taught by Lord Buddha. Two and a half thousand years ago.

Do you have to be a Buddhist to practice these principles? Do you have to convert to Buddhism for these principles to work?

[Говорящий 2]
So, what do you think? Someone might ask you this question now. A family member might ask you this question.

So, what is this?

[Говорящий 1]
This is a different trick. What will happen if I let go of this pen?

[Говорящий 2]
Only now. We'll wrap. So, what is that?

The law of gravity, right? The law of karma is the same. It doesn't matter if I pray to Lord Buddha or if I put Geshe Michael on my altar or if I put Tara on my altar.

It doesn't matter if it's Jesus that you pray to. It doesn't matter. The law of gravity, the law of karma is the same.

It has to work. So, if I give to someone, I have to receive. So, it doesn't matter who you pray to or what you grew up with.

It will work. It will function. But how to get that to ripen faster is with understanding.

So, if you can understand the giving, if I give to Darcy, that I will get something in return. If you can understand how those seeds are planted in your mind, then it will work faster.

[Говорящий 1]
Next question is for Lauren, okay? So, let's say there's a theoretical case. I'm walking down the street.

I saw this in New York. I'm walking down the street in New York. And I see some big guy walk up to a lady.

And he's like punches her and he's trying to steal her purse, right? What caused that? Why is the lady being attacked?

According to this idea. She attacked someone in the past. In a lesser way.

In a smaller way. In a much smaller way. Because seeds grow.

It could have been that she insulted her mother. Or something small, okay? According to these principles, the seed grows and she's being attacked on the street, okay?

So, it would seem to me, if I see someone being attacked on the street, right? I should stand on my side of the street and think, oh, she deserves it, okay? She has earned it.

She has earned it. She has placed the seeds in her mind for this to happen. And there's nothing I can do.

And there's no reason for me to try to help her. It's coming from her. This is a common...

People say that. People think that.

[Говорящий 2]
But if she created that karma, she created the karma for you to cross the street.

[Говорящий 1]
Oh, let her answer. But you could be up there next time.

[Говорящий 2]
But she answered it good. It was a good answer. We were talking about this earlier a little bit.

And there are actually many ways to answer this question. And that, yes, that is one of them. Also, I was actually surprised.

At one point, I was talking to a prospective student. And they said that they were not interested in Buddhism. And described this phenomenon that someone had told them.

That if you believe in karma, then people reap the results of the causes that they put into play. And therefore, there is never... And that you shouldn't get in the way of someone else's karma.

And they just didn't think that that was a very compassionate or good way to live. That surprised me. In one sense, the other person's karma...

Oh, let me say this too. This is not just like... I really don't have to think about this.

Because how many times do I meet a woman being beat up by a mugger on the street? All you have to do is think about this a little bit. And you come up with questions like...

That means that slavery was the fault of people coming from Africa. And that means that the Holocaust was the fault of the Jews. And that means that a rape victim is responsible.

I mean, you can get into all kinds of really troublesome ways of thinking. If you say, well, that's their karma. And they have to deal with it.

And that's not my responsibility. So, in one sense, the other person's karma is irrelevant. What that person brought on themselves is irrelevant.

You are trying to create a world in which people behave compassionately. Where there is no violence. Where people are happy.

And have what they need. The only way that you can do that has nothing to do with someone else's karma. The only way that you can do that is to plant seeds by seeing yourself acting in a way which is helpful to someone else.

Whether it's taking care of a mugger, or giving them the money that they need for food, or any number of ways. So, whether or not that person deserves it is completely irrelevant to you. And to the world that you are trying to create.

[Говорящий 1]
In actuality, you must help that person in order for you to see a world in which violence is diminished. Or in which poverty is diminished or non-existent. In which sickness is diminished or non-existent.

[Говорящий 2]
You must help them. You must see yourself making that action, doing that action. On the other hand, the issue of their karma is relevant.

Because we get into questions like, Well, what if I try to feed the guy the donut, but he spits it out? Or he's allergic to, am I forcing the donut down his throat so that I can have a donut? The result of your intervention in that victim and the mugger, We can say it does fall in the realm of that person's karma.

Whether or not your action is successful. Whether or not that person is actually helped by whatever action you take. It does fall in the realm of that person's karma.

But you must, you must, you must see yourself trying.

[Говорящий 1]
That was beautiful. Question for Rob Haggerty. How do you incorporate these principles at work in a corporate environment?

Especially if you are no longer climbing the corporate ladder, but trying to deepen your own practice? I would say the first thing, there's sort of two parts to this. One is, I think you need to start at home, really.

[Говорящий 2]
And that means starting as sort of like a personal practice. A practice of beginning to learn to meditate and doing yoga. Very similar to the meditation that Zara led today and Lauren did yesterday, right?

[Говорящий 1]
So, trying to begin with a home practice. Learning to do some meditation, maybe five, ten minutes in the morning. And learning to do some yoga, which is very beneficial.

[Говорящий 2]
And coming from somebody who, I hated yoga. So, and I do yoga, I've been meditating every day since, a couple days off. Over the last, I don't know, 12 years.

[Говорящий 1]
Consistently been on yoga for quite a while now. So, those two practices will sort of make your time at work probably a little bit easier. Now, at work, and then what I did was, I identified a kind of a career that I sort of wanted to do again.

And that was acting. So, I was looking for somebody who was doing a project. So, if I wanted to be successful in my job, my position, I needed to help somebody else.

So, it was something we were calling a karmic profit center, I believe.

[Говорящий 2]
In some of the business classes. And so, I found somebody who had just purchased the rights to a book to turn into a movie. And so, I just went to them and offered my services to them.

I'll be a construction worker, I'll paint, I'll sweep. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do. He said, yeah, yeah, no problem.

You know, I have all these Hollywood friends, we'll see. So, I kept offering, you know, over and over and over. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get back to you, you know, we'll see what happens.

And finally, I was the only guy still standing there.

[Говорящий 1]
So, he just basically had to hire me. And I just, because I wanted to be successful in my own project.

[Говорящий 2]
And so, I really wanted to help him be successful in his project. And I thought somewhere along the way, that karma would come back to me. And I would sort of be able to maybe get some work.

And my job was supposed to, I was supposed to raise some money. And he had given me a call and said he wanted to see me. At this point, I hadn't raised a penny.

So, I actually thought I was getting fired. So, it was really important that he speak to me. I actually was trying to put it off for another day.

He said, can you come down tonight and have dinner with me? I said, how about tomorrow? I said, Gordon, can we do it today?

I was like, oh God, this is it, you know. My whole career is over. So, I went.

And he's like, look, this is really serious. And he kind of like, you know, was telling me sort of the weight of the whole situation. And I was like, wow.

I really, you know, dropped the ball here. I'm never going to, this is not going to work out for me. And actually, what had happened is he was telling me that as he was auditioning for one of the characters, every time someone would audition, he kept comparing them to me.

And so, he realized that the lead character of the movie actually should be me. And he offered me the lead role in the film. And I thought, oh, that's interesting.

I didn't expect that sort of C to turn around so quick.

[Говорящий 1]
I was thinking, you know, maybe a year, two years, I'd get a, I don't know, I'd work as a PA.

[Говорящий 2]
And so, we just finished filming about two weeks ago. And so, and also, in the job as well, as we were filming, we also identified other projects that were trying to be successful. So, we identified a film, a person was trying to make their movie.

And we were helping them make their film as well.

[Говорящий 1]
So, one is developing a home practice at home, starting to do some meditation, starting to do some yoga. And then identify, be specific about what it is you want to do. And then go and, like they've been saying, find somebody that you can help.

And I think you'd be surprised at how quickly maybe some of those things might turn around.

[Говорящий 2]
Thank you.

[Говорящий 1]
The last question, and then we'll do like a five-minute meditation, and then I'll release you, okay? And they won't charge us extra for staying late. Okay.

Cliff Spencer is one of the senior teachers here in L.A., of the ACI group in L.A. So, he's especially, he and Lauren especially, if you have questions afterward. Or you want to meet someone in a week and talk to them about something that you're working on in your life. And they do it for free, okay?

So, here we go. Dear Cliff, I would like to help my daughter stop emotional eating. What kind of seed to sow?

I've had a hard time identifying what to do. Please advise. Okay.

Well, this is a hard one. It's a difficult one. Because any kind of eating disorder or alcoholism or depression, serious chronic depression, when you talk about the seeds for them, it's almost as if, it is as if seeds are, negative seeds are compounded.

So, one begins, and then another, because the conditions are right, another ripens, and another, and another, and another. Such that you've got a weight on your shoulders, such that it seems like you can't get out of it. Or you see a loved one who just can't see their way out of it.

And you don't know how to, you feel lost, you feel trapped in that too. So, it's very scary. But if we look at, trying to think about this question, if, say, an eating problem is related to self-esteem, a low self-esteem, some sort of hole in the self-esteem, then classically, it's interesting, classically in the text, if the cause of low self-esteem is wasted talk, is gossip, is meaningless chatter, literally.

So, one of the basic, the first sets of vows are these, they call the vows of individual liberation, freedom vows. Which means, if you take these vows, then you'll be free of the problems. And if you don't, you will still be pestered by the problems.

So, they're broken down into body, speech, and mind. So, this one refers to speech. Wasted talk.

So, idle speech ends up, results in a feeling of low self-esteem. So, how do we work on that, trying to think about how we work on that in our life, how we put the causes into play to change that? Well, we need to try to figure out how to live a meaningful life.

So, one of the ways, I'd say two answers to that. One, make it your mission, since it's someone else that you see as having a really low self-esteem problem, make it your mission to make sure you're a supportive person to others. Make sure you praise people's good qualities, so that you're a beacon of good self-esteem.

Now, on the idle talk kind of thing, don't gossip. Don't waste your speech. And see if you can, by example, encourage that person, who's having the problem, to do the same.

So, don't chit-chat with the neighbor about the other neighbor, and what's going on on the news on the block, the water cooler talk, or whatever. Or what this person is saying to another. And then here's a real powerful way to do this.

Ready? It's a secret. And if you planted the seeds for it, you might be able to make some money at it.

Stand in front of your television at home, take a photograph of it, load it onto your computer, and then sell it on eBay. Get rid of your television. Don't watch television anymore.

So, take out the sources of meaningless chatter in your life. Because we live in a culture that we're bombarded by meaningless stuff. Like in LA, especially, now we have billboards that talk to us all the time as we're driving down the street.

Look at me! Hi, I've got a gun! Look at me!

Hi! Aren't I beautiful? I'm eating some ice cream.

Just all the time, meaningless distraction, distraction, distraction. And so, that kind of 24-7 distraction to meaningless activities has to have an effect. And a lot of what we see, too, on TV and whatnot, creates a culture of narcissism.

It's like, look at me, how wonderful I am. Look at me, how beautiful I am. Look how great everything is.

And so, watching that, it's like my self-esteem goes to zero. Whereas, when I'm being fed, this is the image of beauty out there. This is the image of beauty out there.

So, that kind of interaction with meaningless stuff can only result in feeling worthless. So, kill your television. And support others, try to be a beacon of self-esteem for other people.

I'd like to ask them to stay up here, and we'll do one last thing, okay? So, a lot of people ask me, what's the mental seed that you should plant for a good night's sleep? You see?

You know, a lot of people have trouble sleeping, right? And then that ruins your day, also. You don't feel good the next day, you can't operate, you can't function properly, right, the next day.

So, what kind of seed do you plant to have a nice, peaceful night's sleep, a good night's sleep? My staff, I have two staff members that travel with me all the time. And they're jealous of me, because I can just fall asleep for ten minutes, anywhere, anytime.

Right? On the plane, or in the airport, or talking to a person. I did that once, in an interview.

What's the karma, what's the mental seed you can plant to have a really beautiful night's sleep? And then I thought that would be the last thing we could do tonight. So I'd like to introduce Summer Moore, who's a member of the ACILA group here.

And she's a fairly successful actress. I've seen some of her films, they're very beautiful. And she does a lot of other work.

And she's going to lead us in a special meditation that will help you when you need to get a good night's sleep.

[Говорящий 2]
So everybody put your feet flat on the floor. And try to be still for roughly five minutes. Not move at all, because that disturbs the person next to you.

And the way to have a calm meditation is to allow someone else to have a calm meditation. So close your eyes, and your back should be straight. And focus on your breath.

The inhale and exhale through the nostrils. And actually feel the sensation. And now think about some quality that you have attained in your lifetime.

That you didn't start out with when you were born, but something that you have worked to attain. And be happy that you've attained this quality. It could be something that you haven't quite totally reached to the highest level, but you have really succeeded to a point.

And now think of the person in your lifetime that exemplified this quality to you. You may have not realized that they were the teacher of the quality. And you may have to rack your brain, but there was someone that was teaching you this quality.

The reason that you attained this quality is because of the other person teaching you. So feel gratitude towards them. And as you feel this gratitude, see a red light that's collecting in your heart.

With each gratitude, it will grow brighter and brighter. So it's a faint light, but it's there right now. And now think of the person that brought you here.

You may not be aware of who that person is. You may have just received an email or seen a flyer at Starbucks. So there may be somebody that you didn't realize that you need to be grateful to.

Somebody who spent part of their life to serve you. And this goes on throughout the day countless times. That we're unaware of the waitress or the chef or the postal man.

But somebody that gave part of their life for you. And be grateful. Now this red light is growing brighter and brighter in your heart.

Now think of some quality that you want to attain.

[Говорящий 1]
It could be pride. You want to get rid of your pride.

[Говорящий 2]
You want to get rid of anger. You want to get rid of irritation while driving in traffic. Who is the person in your life that can teach you that?

Ask them to teach you. And see them accept that they will teach you. And feel grateful.

And again the red light grows brighter and brighter. And finally, I'd like to feel gratitude towards Kishu Michael for coming to Los Angeles. For him giving up part of his life for us to teach us.

If you're like me you're really stubborn and you can hear the pen thing a million times and it doesn't quite sink in. So feel gratitude towards him giving up his life for us. And see that red light as a big ball of flames in your heart.

Now take that light and send it out to all of the world.

[Говорящий 1]
All of the people that are suffering. All the people that couldn't make it to this talk.

[Говорящий 2]
There are millions of people in Los Angeles that didn't have the seeds to make it here. Send that red light to teach them all of these methods. And feel grateful and happy.

Feel happy with yourself that your world will transform. And now bring that red light back into your heart. And see everyone on the planet beaming smiling happy faces.

And when you're ready you can open your eyes.

[Говорящий 1]
So that's called Thanksgiving meditation. And it's very simple. You just sit there at night and think of all the people you have in your life to thank.

You'll find that you sleep very sweetly, very well. And you also, you can't thank someone for something that they've done to you unless you think something good has happened to you. You see what I mean?

You don't think to thank somebody unless you're happy about something about yourself. The more you thank other people, the more good things you find about yourself. And then you feel happy about yourself also.

So if you can't sleep or you have bad dreams or trouble, before you sleep just think of people you would like to thank in your life. For anything, for your whole life. And then it will change.

You'll have a sweet sleep. So I'd like to thank especially the people who made these two days possible. I think Lauren Benjamin helped.

Steph, Cliff Spencer, Summer Moore, and Becky. Where's Becky? Where's Alicia?

Right there. Brian Reed. Andrew Lajelle, who we also called.

I'd also like to thank Christine Walsh who ran the bookstore, right? Also I'd like to thank my two assistants. They travel with me all the time.

I drag them from country to country. They never get any sleep. They are working constantly.

They're under pressure all the time. And that's Eric Brinkman. Where is he?

There he is there. And Mercedes Palena. Thank you.

[Говорящий 2]
I mean there are 25 people who helped out.

[Говорящий 1]
Thank you for coming. And there will be more. We can keep going on the stream.

If you would like to do that. Is there some kind of email list somewhere?

[Говорящий 2]
You will be on the DCI list. And then you will also receive an invitation. If you would like to be on the ACILA email list.

All you have to do is hit yes.

[Говорящий 1]
I'm ready.

[Говорящий 2]
They'll get an email invitation.

[Говорящий 1]
Thank you for coming.