BDW 1 «Пять домов: Новый старт», занятие 5

(4:05 - 4:31)
By the way, thank you, all you guys at the tech table, Francesco, Brian. Gina, I heard a rumor. The next time you come, there's going to be all new equipment.

(4:37 - 4:39)
Insha Allah. Okay. Okay.

(4:49 - 5:04)
I'm going to start with Arya Nagarjuna's image, you guys, you tech table guys. Strangely, I'm behind. Tim's laughing.

(5:05 - 5:10)
Okay. Nope. When you find... yeah, there you go.

(5:13 - 6:13)
Okay. At this point in the song of my spiritual life, Arya Nagarjuna... Sorry, Je Tsongkapa starts bowing down to the great teachers of the lineage, and he bows down to Arya Nagarjuna. And if the Buddha could see us, right? That's the... what's the name of that meditation? Come on. 

Kelly knows because she got that Cheshire Cat smile. The Andean International Bathroom Meditation. Okay, right? If the Buddha can see us now, and is watching us in class, and then Arya Nagarjuna also, there are two great streams of wisdom that come to us.

(6:14 - 6:33)
Two great streams of wisdom that you need to practice time away. And I guess that's the most important idea this time, is that there's two streams of lamrim, staircase people, coming to us. One is Arya Nagarjuna.

(6:35 - 6:53)
He's the great master of emptiness. He wrote a book called Wisdom. He likes to write poetry. 

He likes to make it very short. But still it's very clear, but it has like a thousand meanings. It's extremely difficult to translate.

(6:54 - 7:10)
Tsongkapa wrote about 4,000 pages to explain a few verses. And we're working through those explanations. We finished about 2,500 pages.

(7:11 - 7:40)
So that's the main thing I'm working on. And I waited 50 years to do it, because I wanted to be ready. So we'll be going to that. 

We'll be teaching that. I think we're going to teach some of that at DSEU. Okay? Those are great seed planters in your mind, to study those books.

(7:40 - 8:03)
I wanted to talk at this point about the Good Night Book Club. In the last two or three years, I don't know how it started. Oh, a friend of mine, Will Duncan, who was one of the first students here, he has a small retreat center.

(8:03 - 8:34)
He has a farm that makes the same amount of money as my cafe. I'm not sure who's ahead. He makes lavender. 

He plants a big farm for lavender. About two hours from Rimrock. So anyway, I heard that on the weekend, he does special small retreats, like for three people, four people.

(8:37 - 8:43)
I heard this a long time ago. He takes away their cell phone. He takes away their computer.

(8:44 - 8:56)
And then, just to be safe, he turns off the internet in the house. And you can't get online, even if you want to get online. I thought it was a little bit too extreme.

(8:57 - 9:03)
I thought, I can't do that. I thought it was sweet, and Will is sweet. He's like that.

(9:04 - 9:14)
I thought, that's sweet, and that's nice. Not something I could ever do myself. Then I tried it.

(9:15 - 9:39)
I think my doctor said, you should try sleeping more hours. And our parents always told us, I don't know about you, but my school teachers, when I was 12 years old, when I was 8 years old, they used to say, you should sleep for 8 hours every night. So I grew up, I don't know in your country, do they tell people that in Singapore? I don't know.

(9:40 - 9:53)
It's the same useless advice. They say, you should sleep for 8 hours. Then you get to be, when you get to high school, you're like, that's impossible.

(9:55 - 10:22)
We were talking about it in Dunhuang. In my experience, in New York corporate life, if you're serious, if you really want to climb the corporate ladder, and I did, I spent 19 years at the top of the corporate ladder, you have to show you're serious. You two Singaporeans, you have to overwork.

(10:23 - 10:33)
You have to not sleep. Otherwise no one takes you seriously. Then when you get there in the morning, you have to brag about it.

(10:34 - 10:41)
Some people say, I only slept 6 hours. You say, I only slept 5 hours. Then somebody else says, I didn't sleep at all.

(10:45 - 10:58)
Then you think they're serious. You think they're really serious. I remember in Tokyo, I was in Tokyo, and I hate to say it, but me and all my friends went to a nightclub, not to drink, just to dance.

(11:00 - 11:09)
We danced all night. Then they stopped the music. We said, what's going on? The dawn was coming up.

(11:10 - 11:29)
We went outside, and we saw this zombie. It's a businessman with a briefcase and a suit. They're getting on the subway. 

I'm like, what's going on? They're supposed to get off the subway. No, no, no. They're going home.

(11:30 - 11:38)
The sun came up. They can go home now. It means you're a tough guy, or you're a serious worker.

(11:39 - 11:47)
Anyway, I decided I would try to sleep. I don't know why, but I decided to try to sleep 8 hours. Oh, it was because of COVID.

(11:49 - 11:59)
I never had a television. I never watched movies. Never, ever, in my whole life since I went to university.

(11:59 - 12:11)
Since I was 16, I never had a television. I never looked at movies online and stuff like that. Then during COVID, I couldn't travel.

(12:12 - 12:22)
I got bored, and I started watching. First, I watched football games. Then I started to watch movies.

(12:22 - 12:33)
Then I signed up for Amazon, Netflix, then Filo, then Disney. Then I started watching war movies. Then I started watching dirty movies.

(12:34 - 12:46)
Then at 2 o'clock in the morning, I'm waking up to watch another movie. Then I was like, this is not good for the teacher. I shouldn't be doing this.

(12:46 - 12:52)
I tried to stop. It was difficult. It was really difficult to stop, and I was really addicted.

(12:52 - 13:20)
What was the final problem? Korea's soap operas. They're really cool. The Emperor's Affection. 

Did you see it? Come on. She and her brother are the crown prince and crown princess in Korea in ancient times. He gets killed as a child.

(13:21 - 13:41)
Then the auntie raises up the girl as the prince. She tells everybody the prince didn't die. Then up until she's 30, she has to pretend to be the prince, which gets her into some interesting things with her boyfriend.

(13:43 - 13:55)
Anyway, you're not going to watch it. I just couldn't control myself. Then me, Lindsay, and other people, we made the Good Night Book Club.

(13:56 - 14:09)
This is how it works. You agree to... You got that bag? I'm not trying to sell anything. If you want, I'll give it to you.

(14:10 - 14:24)
I gave away about a couple hundred already. I lost a lot of money. This carry bag that Rosa designed, it's part of the luxury business.

(14:24 - 14:36)
She produces it in China. Inside, there's a small zipper for your computer and your phone. I have a rule.

(14:36 - 14:59)
At 10 o'clock, I put the computer in here, I zip it, and I put my phone with it. If I'm traveling, I put the hotel TV controller in it. If my wife's with me, I put it next to her, on the floor near her side of the bed.

(15:00 - 15:12)
It's very hard to sneak... It's very hard to get it away from her, even when she's asleep. She goes... I tried. You're laughing.

(15:12 - 15:34)
I did it a few times successfully, but then she caught me. I just realized I can't control myself. Rosa designed a lock. 

There's a time lock on the zipper. It's awesome. You can't get it open.

(15:35 - 15:44)
I actually took a knife. I was like, okay, I'm going to cut it open. I'm like, what are you doing? You're supposed to be the teacher.

(15:46 - 16:31)
Anyway, you set it for 10 p.m., and then you set it for 6 a.m. I never got up early. John Brady gets up early. I can't do it. 

He gets up at 4 a.m. and meditates. Everyone says to me, oh, Geshe Michael, you probably get up at 3 a.m. If John gets up at 4 a.m., you probably get up at 3 a.m. I don't want to tell him I get up at 8.30 or something. But I tried. 

I got up at 6 a.m., and it worked, because I didn't have my computer. I didn't have my phone. There's actually nothing else to do except sleep.

(16:32 - 16:54)
So 10 o'clock, I go to bed. Then I started reading in the monastery, in the Geshe course, when I have trouble sleeping. I will read Madhyamaka, Middle Way School, and then I'll fall asleep within 10 minutes.

(16:54 - 17:20)
I'll fall asleep on the book. My whole life, I realized, if you go to sleep with scripture in your mind, strange things happen. I think DCI, we're going to teach—it's called Advanced Level 5. It will come out in Shamian.

(17:21 - 17:35)
In Shamian, we'll do the first release in Shamian in June. It will include lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming means, in my case, I design programs in my sleep.

(17:36 - 17:50)
In AL5, that program was designed in my sleep. Then people tell me, that's weird, Geshe La. I'm tired enough when I go to bed.

(17:50 - 18:02)
I don't need to be working during my sleep. But you can work during your sleep, and when you wake up, you feel super fresh. You feel totally relaxed.

(18:02 - 18:09)
It's like super sleep. You get work done, and you're super asleep. It's called lucid dreaming, and it's part of the Diamond Way, actually.

(18:10 - 18:17)
Milam [?]. Swapna Yoga. Anyway, we'll teach it in Shamian.

(18:17 - 18:27)
We'll release it in Shamian. The idea is, you get a paper book at 10 o'clock. You lock up your phone.

(18:28 - 18:36)
You lock up your computer. By the way, don't try to put it in a drawer. You won't be able to do it.

(18:36 - 18:44)
I'm telling you. I'm not an addicted type of personality. I never was addicted to movies or stuff.

(18:46 - 18:56)
But it's not enough to put it in a drawer. I can tell you that. 2 a.m. You're trying not to make noise, because your wife's over there.

(18:57 - 19:11)
Then there's this blue glow in your face. She comes out, and she sees a ghost or something. So anyway, I found out for myself, and I'm not an addicted type of person.

(19:11 - 19:18)
I don't drink alcohol. I never smoked. But I can't stop myself.

(19:19 - 19:35)
I will use the phone. I remember the night I tried to start this new system. I woke up at 11 o'clock, and I said, Oh my God, where's my phone? And I couldn't find my phone.

(19:35 - 19:44)
By the way, you have to buy a cheap battery alarm clock. I have one I carry with me. So that's how I wake up.

(19:45 - 19:57)
Then I wake up, and I'm looking for my phone. I'm having a panic attack. Then I'm like, well, what did you need to check? I was going to check, I had something important.

(19:59 - 20:17)
Does your fingernails grow faster, or your toenails grow faster? I was going to look it up online. Then I'm like, maybe you don't have to know that at 12 o'clock. If you want to, maybe you can wait until tomorrow to check about that.

(20:17 - 20:24)
But then I realized how addicted I am to stupid information. Useless information. It doesn't help anybody.

(20:25 - 20:38)
They're still going to grow at the same speed. It doesn't matter if I look it up. So anyway, if you just put it in a drawer, you won't be able to control yourself.

(20:39 - 20:51)
You'll be opening the drawer and checking the toenail thing. So I lock it up, especially when I travel. When I travel, Rob, we have an agreement.

(20:51 - 21:03)
He takes it at 10 o'clock. He comes to my hotel room, he takes it at 10 o'clock, and then he brings it back at 6 o'clock. I haven't snuck into his room yet.

(21:04 - 21:15)
I mean, it's an option. But he'll probably wake up. We'll talk more about it.

(21:15 - 21:28)
I've been teaching it everywhere I go, because what happened to me was my productivity tripled. I can do three times more work. And I send it out every morning, so people know.

(21:28 - 21:35)
People know it's real. And I'm translating Nagarjuna now. It's a 4,000-page project.

(21:35 - 21:46)
And because I get good sleep, my work is unbelievable. The work is unbelievable. Much, much more productive.

(21:46 - 22:01)
So you feel like if I go to bed early and I wake up early, if I sleep so long, eight hours, I can't get any work done. Like I'm going to lose a lot of work. But it doesn't work like that.

(22:02 - 22:22)
If you sleep eight hours a night, which I've never done in my whole life, except for the last two years since I'm doing this, you sleep eight hours, you wake up, and then the work is high quality. Very high quality and very fast. So I really encourage you to try it.

(22:22 - 22:39)
Why I'm talking about that, because of Arya Nagarjuna. Where did he go? To me, that's the best one to read. See, 10 o'clock, you get a paper book, and you just read for five minutes, ten minutes.

(22:39 - 22:45)
Read something deep. Read something complex. Read something you don't understand.

(22:46 - 22:54)
And then it puts seeds in your mind. And so I always read Nagarjuna at 10 o'clock. At 10 o'clock, I get my Nagarjuna books.

(22:54 - 23:07)
I get my Mixed Nuts translations. Because you can't understand anything. And then I read a couple of pages, and it puts me into a deep sleep.

(23:09 - 23:19)
Sometimes the book even falls down. But something happens to your mind. The seeds are planted in your mind.

(23:21 - 23:48)
The great books of the Diamond Way, especially, the two flows, the two rivers into the Diamond Way, which one is emptiness, one is bodhisattva activity, they are not something you read and you put it away. I read a lot of science fiction for fun. And I read it once, and then I put it away.

(23:48 - 24:09)
And my wife, always for my birthday, she goes to the bookstore and she says, what's a good science fiction book? And they give her a science fiction book. And then she gives it to me. She wraps it up. 

I open it up. Then I look at it and say, yeah, I read that. I read that when I was 12.

(24:11 - 24:20)
My mom made a mistake. She said, I'll sign you up for the science fiction book club. You can have as many books as you want.

(24:21 - 24:35)
And I finished one every two days or something. And the whole garage was full of science fiction books. And what I mean is, modern books, they're not worth reading again.

(24:35 - 24:49)
You read them once, the same guy got killed, the same person, you know. Then these ancient books, you can't understand them. They are not entertaining.

(24:51 - 24:58)
They're not like a TV show. And they're hard, and you're like, this is not the way I want to go to sleep. I want to go to sleep.

(24:58 - 25:18)
I want the hero to kiss the girl. And then I fall asleep. But if you read a little bit of ancient books, just before, start at 10 o'clock, right? So 10 o'clock you put your computer away, and then you get your ancient book.

(25:19 - 25:24)
Now everybody has one. You can't tell me you don't have one. I know you got Gibson's book.

(25:26 - 25:37)
Then read it for a few minutes. And you'll get tired and you'll sleep, okay? Sleep for eight hours. And what happens during the eight hours is those great ideas cook in your mind.

(25:38 - 25:48)
Those books you can read a hundred times, and you won't understand. You won't go to the bottom. It takes several hundred times to read it.

(25:49 - 26:04)
So as you fall asleep, you don't even have to do it in order. Just open it, okay? According to Diamond Way, it's a message. It's a message, and it's fun.

(26:05 - 26:17)
You're like, what's the message today? And you go, this, and it says, copyright, Geshe Michael Roach. No, I'm kidding. But you see if there's some message.

(26:18 - 26:30)
See if there's some message for you. And it's a wonderful practice. So what I mean is your relationship to Nagarjuna, it's not a normal relationship.

(26:30 - 26:43)
You don't read his book, put it away, get a degree, and you're done with it. It's something you have to keep reading your whole life. And it will affect you after you die.

(26:44 - 26:51)
It's a book that will affect you after you die. So anyway, there's two streams of books like that. One is Nagarjuna.

(26:54 - 27:11)
And by the way, he had a book-saving project. I think John Brady might be Nagarjuna's reincarnation. Xuanzang, around 645, something like that, he walked to India for 17 years.

(27:12 - 27:19)
He visited Nagarjuna's database [?]. Nagarjuna had a special library. He collected all the books.

(27:20 - 27:29)
Xuanzang went there and saw it. Just like John Brady, Nagarjuna saved a lot of books. Nagarjuna talked the dragons out of a lot of books.

(27:30 - 27:42)
And that's why they show him... Those are supposed to be dragons over his head. And that's why his name is Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna, the king of the... the lord of the dragons.

(27:42 - 28:08)
Okay? Long. There's another dragon, but I'm not supposed to talk about it yet. Oh, there's a group of people who... There's an old story.

(28:12 - 28:24)
Tsongkapa was teaching Diamond Way. And then he said... He was at Ganden. He was at one of the great early monasteries that he founded.

(28:24 - 28:36)
And then he was teaching Diamond Way. And people were listening through the windows and stuff. And then he told his students, that's not really correct.

(28:36 - 28:58)
People who don't have the lamrim, they shouldn't be listening to the Diamond Way teachings. And then they said, well, what are you going to do? And he said, the best thing is if we had kind of a separate place to do those teachings. And we could close the doors and stuff like that.

(28:58 - 29:16)
And then all the students are like, oh god, he has another project. And you think I'm bad. Then he said, who's going to build a tantric monastery? A teaching hall.

(29:16 - 29:28)
And then all the old students are like, oh my god, we already went through this. And they just kind of look away. And then there was a quiet student.

(29:29 - 29:38)
And he's like, none of these great students is answering the teacher. I better promise. And he did it.

(29:38 - 29:41)
He did it. He built Gyume Tantric College. My teacher went there.

(29:42 - 30:05)
My teacher was the assistant abbot of Gyume. So anyway, somebody was offering to create a similar place near my house in case I can't travel much. So there's a large property near my house.

(30:05 - 30:10)
And it has a river going through it. And it's quite beautiful. And it's a secret valley.

(30:12 - 30:24)
So somebody has an idea. There's a building there, which might be nice. So if I need it later, they're making that.

(30:24 - 30:27)
So I don't know. Shopping's [?] done. They put an offer on the land yesterday.

(30:29 - 30:33)
No, it was accepted. Sorry. They put it two days ago.

(30:33 - 30:43)
It was accepted yesterday. OK. And the river, which is very rare in Arizona.

(30:44 - 30:53)
By the way, that's why this land is here, because there's a river. There's a spring, Bear Springs. If you find water in Arizona, you buy it.

(30:54 - 31:06)
And there's very, very few. And that's why there was a lot of fighting here about the water here. So anyway, the water there in Rimrock, it's a hidden valley.

(31:06 - 31:16)
And it flows in a strange shape. And it's called Dragon Head. The valley is called Dragon Head.

(31:16 - 31:25)
The secret valley is called Dragon Head. And you can go in and out of Rimrock, and you won't see it. So anyway, I don't know why I'm talking about that.

(31:26 - 31:31)
Nagarjuna is connected with Long, with dragon. OK. There's something about dragons.

(31:32 - 31:38)
OK. All right. The second stream comes down through Arya Asanga.

(31:38 - 31:42)
OK, next picture. Yeah, I like this. I think it's an old Chinese statue.

(31:43 - 31:53)
I don't know. Yeah, Stanley? Yeah. And you know him from whose class yesterday? Yeah, Tim's class.

(31:53 - 32:10)
Yeah, Tim's class was Arya Asanga's class. And generally, we say that the great teachings on bodhichitta come down through him. So when you study Lamrim, you're getting these two great streams are coming into your heart.

(32:11 - 32:19)
OK. And this is, what's the most bodhichitta thing he's famous for? $100. Rob, wake him up.

(32:22 - 32:30)
See how money circulates here? People give me red envelope. I give it away. My wife says, we have any money for the cafe? I'm like, no.

(32:33 - 32:44)
Oh, that's me again. Nice. So Master Asanga went to retreat for 12 years.

(32:44 - 32:53)
And he wanted to see Lord Maitreya. But he was annoyed like at least three times. He left three times and went back.

(32:53 - 33:07)
The last time he went out, he saw a female dog. And the lower body was being eaten by maggots. And so he had this moment of great compassion.

(33:07 - 33:22)
And he carried a dog into his cave. I think he traded his staff for a golden, what is called a razor. Yeah, a razor.

(33:22 - 33:41)
And he cut off a piece of his flesh. And he decided to move the maggots to the flesh so that both the maggots and the dog would live. But I think when he saw that, if he used his fingers, the maggots would die.

(33:42 - 33:49)
So he decided to use his tongue. And he closed his eyes. And he was reaching for the maggots.

(33:49 - 33:52)
But he opened his eyes. There's no maggots. There's no dog.

(33:52 - 33:58)
There's Lord Maitreya. And then that's why he saw Maitreya. Yeah.

(33:58 - 34:08)
Yay. It's funny. It's almost a $200 answer.

(34:08 - 34:13)
But nah. All right. But it's a great answer.

(34:14 - 34:20)
OK. Yeah. So anyway, when you think about it in Diamond Way, he's famous.

(34:22 - 34:33)
He's just as busy as we are. And he has lots of important things to do. And he stops to help a dog that got hurt on the road.

(34:34 - 34:48)
And I used to do that when I was younger. Every time I saw an animal got hurt on the road, I'll stop and try to take care of it. And usually you don't get where you're going.

(34:49 - 34:56)
And I think when you get older, you decide it's not worth the time. But he decided it's worth the time. OK.

(34:58 - 35:12)
Next picture, you guys. This is Lord Atisha. He lived about almost 1,000 years after Arya Nagarjuna and Arya Asanga.

(35:13 - 35:36)
And he helped bring the teachings to the Himalayas, to Tibet. And he brought both streams. He designed a flow of both streams, of Nagarjuna and Asanga.

(35:36 - 35:50)
So he designed the Lamrim, or he helped start the Lamrim tradition. And as I mentioned at the stupa the other day, he studied in Malaysia. And he studied in Indonesia.

(35:51 - 36:25)
And at that time, those two countries were the... Buddhism was stronger in Malaysia and Indonesia than it was in India, and than it was in China. So great Chinese monks, great Indian monks used to go to Malaysia or Indonesia to study. And Sugeng and Shinten have a lot of programs at those places where the great... What's it called? Jambu? Jambi? Jambi.

(36:27 - 36:38)
They have a lot of programs at that actual place. So I think it's cool to study there where Atisha studied. So Atisha went, especially the Bodhisattva teachings.

(36:38 - 36:58)
He got them from Malaysia, from Indonesia. He went on a ship, very, very dangerous at that time, in the South China Sea with lots of hurricanes, and in a small wooden boat. So he was very, very brave.

(36:59 - 37:20)
When I think about Atisha, I think about traveling to learn the Dharma. So when I was in university, I studied overseas. I got a grant to study overseas.

(37:22 - 37:40)
And then my plan was to come back to Del Mar and surf for the rest of my life. I had a place chosen and I had a surfboard. It was called... What was it called? Blue Fire or something.

(37:42 - 38:08)
I had a good surfboard that I used in Hawaii for a long time. So I was all set up. I had an apartment chosen. 

I had a beach chosen. And then I got interested in Lamrim. And then I asked, who's the greatest teacher in the world? I asked all these high teachers, high, high teachers.

(38:08 - 38:19)
And they said, his name is Khen Rinpoche. And I'm like, where does he live? And they're like, you're so lucky. He's in America.

(38:19 - 38:32)
I'm like, wow. And I said, where? And they said, New Jersey. And I'm like, so if you know about New Jersey, this is south of New York.

(38:33 - 38:45)
And this is where they make all the gasoline in the United States. The ships come in from Arab countries, etc. They deliver the raw oil to New Jersey.

(38:46 - 38:52)
And then they cook it. And they make gasoline for the whole United States. And then people waste it.

(38:53 - 39:01)
Americans won't walk across the street to the store. They'll get in their car. And they'll drive across the street to go to the store.

(39:02 - 39:14)
And so that part of the United States, it smells so bad from the cooking the gasoline. There's two names. One is Cancer Alley.

(39:15 - 39:25)
And I used to travel through there every day for 19 years. And the other name is Armpit of the Country. Because it smells so bad.

(39:25 - 39:39)
So he called New Jersey the armpit of America. Then they said New Jersey. And I'm like, I don't think I could go there.

(39:39 - 39:52)
I don't think I could. When I was a kid in Phoenix, and people drive from New Jersey, black car. Nobody drives a black car in Arizona except people from New Jersey.

(39:53 - 40:02)
And then they're like these white, white faces. And they're looking out, staring. They're afraid to get out of their car.

(40:02 - 40:09)
And we used to throw fruits at them. We used to throw things at them. Because we didn't like them.

(40:10 - 40:19)
And then they're like, you have to go to New Jersey. I'm like, no, no, no, no. And then I thought, I'll just go for a little while.

(40:20 - 40:27)
And then I'll go surf. Then I'll continue my surfing career. And so I went.

(40:28 - 40:45)
I went, and I got stuck for 25 years. And when I think about my life, that was the smartest thing I ever did. I went to stay with the teacher.

(40:47 - 40:56)
And I went where the teaching was. You know what I mean? Even though it was the armpit. And I'm very happy.

(40:56 - 41:12)
I'm so happy I did that. So what I'm saying is these examples of people like Xuanzang or Atisha, they risk their life to travel. You just get on a plane for two or three hours.

(41:12 - 41:28)
They risk their life. They walk for 17 years to get the teaching. So I think if you're serious about Diamond Way, you have to be flexible about where you live and what's your occupation and things like that.

(41:28 - 41:48)
If you're going to be serious, I don't think it's good to be unemployed. I think that's not good. My experience, many years of teaching Diamond Way, my experience is if you don't have some work, which is honest work and you can make enough money to support yourself.

(41:48 - 42:10)
If you're asking other people for money all the time and you can't pay your rent and you're trying to... We always say if a person shows up, if an American shows up, sorry, who is studying Diamond Way, watch your couch and watch your refrigerator. And that's not good. It shouldn't be like that.

(42:10 - 42:35)
A Diamond Way person should have a good job. They should enjoy their work. It's not wrong to be a vice president of the largest jewelry company in the world and be a Diamond Way person. 

That's okay. If you can't handle those two together, you're not practicing Diamond Way. It is Diamond Way.

(42:35 - 43:01)
Diamond Way means you can sit in a corporate office and be practicing all day long. It doesn't mean you give up your job and go sit at Diamond Mountain. But you should be willing and able to travel to where you need to to study Diamond Way with the money that you made in your good job.

(43:01 - 43:12)
Got it? And you support your family. And you don't keep asking other people for money or help. You should stand on your own.

(43:13 - 43:41)
Your religious practice shouldn't bother other people. That's a kind of contradiction. Oh, I'm Diamond Way. 

I don't have to work. Can you loan me $200? And they're like, if you're Diamond Way, why don't you go make some money? So you should have a good job. And I think having a good job is a good place to practice Diamond Way.

(43:41 - 44:01)
I think so. Running a company or something like that, it's a wonderful place to practice Diamond Way. There were people in my company who didn't know I was a monk for 15 years.

(44:01 - 44:18)
They didn't know I was a Buddhist. I'd just quietly do my thing. I'd just do my work. 

Nobody knew. Finally they found out. And I had a lot of Chinese employees because we had a refugee program for Chinese from Cambodia.

(44:19 - 44:32)
We hired a lot of refugees from Vietnam. Finally all these Asian people found out I was Buddhist. And I'm like, argh.

(44:33 - 44:45)
And then they said, can we meet your teacher? And I'm like, no. And they said, why? And I said, because he doesn't like me. And he will tell you bad things about me.

(44:46 - 44:55)
And they insist, insist. Because he always criticized me all the time. He called me all kinds of bad names.

(44:56 - 45:02)
Bangu or pungu? Say bangu. Pungu. Different, right? Bangu.

(45:03 - 45:08)
Pungu. Bangu means horsefly. Fly.

(45:10 - 45:19)
And then pungu means jackass. And if he's in a good mood, he'd call me bangu. If he's in a bad mood, he'd call me pungu.

(45:20 - 45:29)
I said, you don't want to meet my teacher. He'd just tell you I'm a bangu or a pungu. And they're like, come on, please, let us meet your teacher.

(45:30 - 45:41)
So finally they came down. And like 10 Chinese people and Vietnamese. And I said, okay, go ahead.

(45:42 - 45:51)
And he came down. And I used to translate for him. Yeah, I used to translate his English into English.

(45:54 - 46:01)
And so I would always sit with him when he was meeting people. And we went up. And then he said, Mike, you can leave.

(46:02 - 46:08)
Pungu, you can leave. And I'm like, no, I got to translate for you. And he's like, no, you can leave.

(46:09 - 46:14)
And then he left. I left. And they spent a long time, like an hour.

(46:15 - 46:34)
Then they all came down. And they're like, oh, Geshe Michael, you are so great, so holy. And I'm like, what did he say? And then, I don't know.

(46:35 - 46:46)
The point of it is, for Diamond Way, you don't have a place. Your place is where your teacher is. If it's possible.

(46:47 - 46:58)
You don't have a... So I stayed in New Jersey for 25 years. Finally I escaped to Arizona. All right.

(46:58 - 47:10)
What I'm saying is, the most important thing is to learn, and to go where you can learn. And I'm preaching to the choir. That's a new idiom, Stanley.

(47:12 - 47:31)
In the church, the people who come every Sunday, the only people who come every Sunday is the singers, the choir. Then every Sunday the priest has to give a talk. Then the only people in the whole town who learn all of the priest's talk is the choir, because they have to be there to do the music.

(47:32 - 47:45)
So we call it preaching to the choir. It means, you guys traveled here to learn Diamond Way, so you don't need to hear this talk. You're already here.

(47:45 - 48:10)
So anyway, I'm just preaching to the choir. All right. By the way, Seiji Arao, the VP of DCI and SCIM, I don't know if he's here this morning, but he translated a book based on Lord Atisha's teachings, and it is amazing.

(48:10 - 48:20)
It is incredible. So if you... Is it out yet? I don't think... Not yet. We're just about to put it out, but it's a Lojong book.

(48:21 - 48:27)
It's based on the Lojong. It's called The Crown of Love. It's something like that.

(48:27 - 48:38)
It's a very, very powerful book. In there, there's a history of where those teachings come from. It took many years.

(48:38 - 48:51)
It took us about eight years to finish the book. We wrote a very beautiful history of the Lamrim. If you're in Staircase House, you should get that book.

(48:52 - 49:19)
We put together a nice history of the Lamrim and the Lojong teachings, and we used John Brady's work from Mongolia. He has a team in Mongolia for 17 years, and they are saving the books there. There's 300,000... I would estimate 300,000 books there, different books, and he's been working on that.

(49:19 - 49:45)
So we used his work. So we should give John a hand. By the way, John, Connie, Ali, other people, they are continuing their retreat here, and they're teaching Diamond Way, the whole 18 courses.

(49:45 - 50:02)
If you have any time or any chance, you should learn from them also. It's very, very cool, and they're doing a good job all over the world. They're teaching people all over the world, so keep your nose above your head [?].

(50:10 - 50:15)
Yay. Okay. Next picture.

(50:17 - 50:47)
If we're talking about the lineage, which is very important, who passed on these teachings? I received Lamrim together with Diamond Way, so I got them from the same teacher. That's the teacher on the right side, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin. So I lived with him for 25 years, and he taught us Lamrim.

(50:48 - 51:21)
He taught Lamrim every day for 25 years, and then he taught Diamond Way for over 20 years, and we had to memorize the book. We had to memorize it, not like you guys. It's like an hour and a half, and as I mentioned, he was a very high Geshe.

(51:22 - 51:54)
He was in a debate with 15,000 monks, and he was number one. He beat the other 15,000 monks. Then the government of Tibet gave him— you know what's the highest prize in Tibet? It's one brick of Chinese tea and a sheep's stomach full of butter, because they don't have plastic, and it's the only way to carry food.

(51:54 - 52:09)
It's the only way to keep food from spoiling, so they take the stomach out of a sheep, and they store the butter in the stomach. It's kind of gross, but that's the award if you beat 15,000 monks. You get tea and butter.

(52:10 - 52:27)
So anyway, he's an extraordinary scholar, and then he finished his Geshe. In the Geshe tradition, you cannot study Diamond Way until you finish Geshe. Only a Geshe can go to the Diamond Way College.

(52:28 - 52:49)
Only a Geshe can study Diamond Way. You can get an initiation from your teacher, and you can learn basic Diamond Way from your teacher, but if you don't finish a Geshe course, you can't go to the secret monasteries. So he finished number one.

(52:51 - 53:05)
I'm a Lingse Geshe. Lingse Geshe means kind of local Geshe in my monastery. So I studied 25 years, I got Lingse Geshe.

(53:06 - 53:24)
But Lharampa, he's Lharampa. Lharampa means after you finish Lingse, you study for like another 12 years, over 30 years, and you debate all the monks in all the monasteries, and then you get a super Geshe degree. So he got that degree.

(53:25 - 53:34)
And then he went to Tantric College, and he studied there. And he studied it very, very well. And then he taught it to us.

(53:35 - 53:46)
He taught it to, I don't know how many [?], 30 people? I don't know. Maybe 30. He taught Vajrayogini, I don't know.

(53:47 - 53:56)
Maybe 30 people. For like 20 years. Okay? He was taught by Trijang Rinpoche.

(53:57 - 54:21)
You should know your lineage, okay? Now you're part of... I know you're all separate houses, but you're all part of Diamond House in a way. You graduate from the Four Houses to the Diamond House, or you live in both two houses. So anyway, he was taught Diamond Way by Trijang Rinpoche, who's in the middle.

(54:22 - 54:37)
And he was the teacher of the current Dalai Lama. In Tibet, when the Dalai Lama is a kid, they choose the two greatest Geshes in their country. They're called Senior Tutor and Junior Tutor.

(54:37 - 54:46)
So he was the tutor for the Dalai Lama. He raised him philosophically. He taught him philosophically for many, many years.

(54:46 - 54:58)
20, 25 years. And he was my teacher's teacher. So you're of the same... That's your great-grandfather.

(54:59 - 55:06)
So Khen Rinpoche is your grandfather. I'm always your ye ye. Then Trijang Rinpoche is his teacher.

(55:07 - 55:22)
Then you should know who Trijang Rinpoche's teacher is, called Pabongka Rinpoche. He's on the left side. He wrote the Liberation in the Palm of Your Hands, which is the greatest lamrim of all.

(55:23 - 55:34)
Of all the lamrims, there's many lamrims, he wrote the greatest one. And that we studied for 12 years. My teacher taught it to me for almost 30 years.

(55:36 - 56:35)
So you studied it for 12 years. Pabongka Rinpoche, so obviously he's a great lamrim teacher, but also he is the main holder of Diamond Way in Tibet at that time. He's the main... You okay? You okay? Did he bite? Did he bite? Can you catch him? Let's catch him.

(56:35 - 56:40)
Let's catch him. We got a spider. No, she didn't get bit.

(56:46 - 56:57)
Tim, I have a suggestion. We got four minutes left, right? Huh? Oh, okay. I can't stop, man.

(57:10 - 57:25)
Let's do that. We'll take a 15-minute break now. We'll find a creature who interrupted at the most important moment, which I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

(57:27 - 57:34)
I'll see you in 15 minutes, okay? 8.15? 8.10.