BDW 2 «Пять домов: Мудрость во времена хаоса», занятие 3

(0:08 - 0:52)
So finally, the last class for today. My name is Alena Bultaratskaya and I'm happy to invite our dear teacher Geshe Michael Roach with his class number three. We're still waiting for Geshe La.

(0:53 - 2:43)
So let's settle down and let's wait for, I think, the deepest and the most beautiful as usual. Hello. Oh, hi. 

Okay, good morning. We're going to do the song of my spiritual life. We were planning two classes about song of my spiritual life, which is preparation for Diamond Way. 

We're going to repeat this same classes, not the same classes, but we're going to have two more five houses presentations this year, including grandpa, and I'll give you the sign, what do you call it? Advertisement at the end of the class. But you have to remind me, okay? Okay. So we have to go through the spiritual song in order to start the Diamond Way.

(2:51 - 3:18)
There's a rule that you have to finish lamrim before you do Diamond Way. There's about 50 lam rims. The main lamrim started about 1,000 years ago exactly, and they are step-by-step how to prepare for Diamond Way.

(3:23 - 4:22)
So I chose the one that I thought would be best for you guys. It's the song of my spiritual life. And again, the Spanish translation is finished. 

The e-book is ready. Grandpa gave away a copy to everybody. If you didn't get one, just tell them grandpa said I'm supposed to get one for free, okay? And because I have very experience teaching Buddhism, 50 years, I know the big class is Friday night and not Sunday night, because people have to go home.

(4:25 - 4:57)
So I put the sexy class on Friday night, did you notice? We had a hard teacher class, okay? So I actually moved the two classes. So just so you know, for the first time in history, we're going back in the lamrim. Okay, we're doing ... yeah, lamrim in reverse.

(4:59 - 5:21)
Okay, and so that means tonight I have to talk about the lineage. And to me it's one of the coolest things about this tradition. We have a lineage that's two and a half thousand years old.

(5:24 - 5:53)
And you know, I studied ... I studied Greek also. I studied biblical Greek at Oxford. So, there's a small biblical Greek private school next to Oxford, and they put it there so you can tell people I went to Oxford.

(5:57 - 6:37)
But anyway, so I've studied, and in my university I studied Christian ... I have a ... my degree is partly Christian history. And what's interesting about this lineage, the more time that goes on, usually the lineage will get lost. Due to war, due to disease, due to death of teachers, we lose the information.

(6:43 - 7:40)
But in this tradition, because of your karma, it gets better and better. The lineage gets stronger and stronger every generation. So, it's kind of cool to learn a little bit about the lineage, okay? And you are like a 43rd generation, okay? RGYAL BA RGYAL TSOGS DE DAG DOR BYED SPYOD RGYAL BA'I DBANG PHYIR RANG CHUB KYI RNAMS MA YIN TAN, DOR BYED SNYAL SBYONG BA YIN ZHAG You can list 43 main teachers of the Diamond Way, okay? And so, we're going to talk tonight a little bit about the great lineage.

(7:44 - 8:11)
The books didn't get lost, the books didn't get corrupted, they got more and more pure. And one of the reasons is the Martians. No, Tim, you promised me.

(8:12 - 9:03)
Is there a slide about a Martian? It looks like Rob, but it's ... what's his name? Matt Damon? No, I keep going. Okay, okay. No, there's a guy in a space helmet, and it says, it says the Martian. 

There you go. Bring him home, okay? So, in general, science fiction has got worse and worse as our lineage got stronger and stronger. There's a similar thing going on with rock and roll, okay? It's getting worse and worse, okay? I don't know why, but 1968 was the peak.

(9:08 - 9:29)
But the only modern science fiction guy I like to read is this one. He wrote this ... this is a story about a guy from Earth who goes to the Mars. And I think when he gets there, he has some problem with his spaceship.

(9:33 - 10:10)
He's going to ... he's supposed to die. But he ... something miracle thing happens to him on Earth. And we had a very similar thing happen in our lineage, okay? And 1,700 years ago, a great teacher named Asanga, he did a retreat for 12 years.

(10:10 - 10:25)
He wants to meet Maitreya. Supposed to be Maitreya is the next Buddha to come here. And he's very close, just so you know.

(10:26 - 10:40)
Okay? And he's supposed to come soon. So, Asanga wants to meet him. So, for 12 years he did a retreat.

(10:43 - 11:14)
And he didn't meet Maitreya, and he was irritated. And it's a long story, I told you guys before. But basically, to make it simple, after 12 years, he gives up, he leaves his cave, and he's going to go back to town, I don't know, probably to a bar.

(11:19 - 11:54)
And on the way he sees a dog. That got run over by a cart, and his body is cut, almost cut in half, and the guts are coming out. And so, he's like, he wants to help the ... somehow he decides to stop. 

Everyone is walking, everyone's ignoring the dog. He decides to stop. Asanga decides to stop.

(11:59 - 12:11)
Nobody else wants to help the dog. They think, if you ever met an Indian dog, you would understand. They're very, very dirty and very dangerous.

(12:14 - 13:27)
Then the dog is sitting there, guts are spilled out. And Asanga decides to put the guts back inside, and carry the dog to the town. So, he leans down, he starts to push the guts back into the dog, and he sees there are already maggots growing in the guts. 

These are fly eggs. And then he stops, and he says, wait, I cannot kill the maggots to save the dog. You know, that's, that's stupid. 

I'm trying to save life, and I'm going to kill life to save life. It's not right. So, he decides to take the maggots out one by one.

(13:32 - 13:53)
Then he takes out the first one, you know, and he's, he's going to need ... now, if I put him on the dirt, he will die. So, he cut his leg. Cut open his leg, and he start to put the maggots in his leg, you know.

(13:58 - 14:25)
Then he noticed the maggots are uncomfortable to ... when he catch them, they are like, ow, you know. Then he's like, god, I have to, I have to take them out of the guts, but I cannot use my fingers, it's too strong. I need something soft.

(14:27 - 14:43)
I need something wet to get the maggots out of the dog guts. Perfect. My tongue.

(14:46 - 15:17)
He's going to take them, put them in his leg, you know. And he's, but he is pretty grossed out. So, he closes his eyes, you know, and he hit the ground, and the dog guts are, he opened his eyes, dog guts are gone.

(15:20 - 15:44)
He sees two feet were in sandals, and he look up, there's a Maitreya. He's like, wow, Maitreya! You were the dog? Yeah, you didn't have a karma. You saw me as a dog.

(15:45 - 16:00)
Then when you decide to save the maggot, I change. Then he's supposed to go, oh, I love you, thank you coming to me, thank you. He's like pissed off.

(16:05 - 16:32)
I sit in that cave for 12 years, you didn't come, what kind of Buddha are you? And then Maitreya's like, calm down, calm down, you know. I was there, sitting next to you for 12 years, you know. You couldn't see me.

(16:34 - 17:52)
You doing Maitreya's mantra, your throat got dry, and you kept spitting to the left side, right? I was there. How many times you spit on me? Then Asanga's like so happy, you know, he asked Maitreya to get on his shoulders, and he ran to the town, and he says, I got Maitreya, I got the Buddha on my shoulders! Then nobody in the town see anything on his shoulders. Hey, there's this crazy guy running around town like this with nothing on his shoulder, he's like, I see, I got Maitreya, I got Maitreya! Then there's one old lady, she liked to do Maitreya mantra, she's sitting on the porch of her house in a chair.

(17:57 - 18:28)
Then she ran into the kitchen to her daughter, you know, there's a crazy guy who's running down the street with a dead dog on his shoulders. Only one person has karma to see the dog. Everybody else don't see anything, he's just crazy.

(18:31 - 18:46)
By the way, if you become a good Buddhist, get ready. Many people will call you crazy, it's okay. You get Maitreya, it's okay.

(18:49 - 19:12)
Then, you know, Maitreya said, you want to come to my place, I'll teach you. And he said, hang on to my clothes. Then Maitreya went to Maitreya's heaven, and I forget exact, but he taught, he taught Asanga for one day.

(19:15 - 19:50)
Mainly he taught him five great books. The main one is the one that we were translating yesterday, and then, you know, then he said, you take notes, Asanga? You write down what I, the poetry, and then when you get home you can teach it to people. So, he came back to our world, the Martian.

(19:53 - 20:26)
Understand? Asanga is the Martian. Asanga is, what's his name? Matt Damon, okay? Go to the other world, come back. Understand? Okay. 

So, he didn't go to Mars, he went to a Sangha's paradise, to Maitreya's paradise. But then he came back to this world. I'm not going to tell you if Matt Damon came back or not.

(20:28 - 21:14)
You have to watch the movie, but it's a good movie, I read it. Okay, so anyway, Asanga came back, then he said, I have to teach these five books, you know? And he went to his house to meet his old students, and they're all gone. And what happened was, one day in Maitreya's paradise, he's 50 years here, and all his friends are gone, they're dead.

(21:15 - 21:32)
So, he started to teach, and he taught love. Ultimate love. Okay, and you know now, ultimate love is nang tong.

(21:38 - 21:58)
You are loving people that you created, who are not you. Your karma is so good that you make people around you, who are not you. Because then you have the honor of taking care of them.

(22:02 - 23:13)
Okay, so you make other people so you can take care of them. Just like Ria, to make people to take care of. Okay, that's a lila, I'm talking about lila, okay. 

Anyway, so he brought the teachings of love. Then there's another famous teacher who brought more teachings. There's another famous teacher, for our lineage. 

Two main ones. Here's his picture. Yeah, this is a very deep picture, okay? So, I'm working on this book with Stanley and Xiaoping, they don't know it yet, and it's a translation of three great books of advice for kings.

(23:19 - 23:44)
And I worked on that book with my teacher 45 years ago, and I decided to re-translate it because I learned a little bit more. And that's an unbelievable book, it's called Suhrllekha. Suhrllekha.

(23:45 - 23:49)
Su-her-ol. Su-her-ol. Su means good.

(23:51 - 24:19)
Her-ol is her-du. Her-ol is her-du. Her-du. 

Yeah, and the D changed to L before L. Okay, so really it's Su-her-du. And her-du is the Sanskrit root for heart. What's the name of the Heart Sutra in Sanskrit? Hridaya.

(24:21 - 24:37)
So, also the ... sometimes it's pronounced with a ... we call rough breathing. Herd. Herd. 

Heart. Then cardiac comes from that. So, cardiac or heart, it all comes from the same word.

(24:40 - 24:51)
Su-her-ol. So, su-herd means close friend, heart friend. And le-ka means letter.

(24:53 - 25:30)
So, in the ancient times the leaders hired wise people to teach them. Like Alexander the Great hired Aristotle to teach him, okay, and give him advice. That's why he can take over the world before the age of 30, because he has a teacher.

(25:32 - 26:01)
So, anyway, this book called The Letter to a Friend, I'm translating every morning. I will finish in two or three months, okay, and this is how I spend six hours every morning. I wake up very early and I translate.

(26:04 - 27:03)
Then, every morning I send a piece of translation to my friends, with some news about our organizations around the world. If you'd like to get that email every morning free, mostly free I think, almost free, for a donation to the translators, then you can talk to Lindsay. Can you speak? Okay, all right. 

Thank you. And she, she's feeding 12 translators and all those kids, right Word? There's a kid disease going, going on with the translators. You understand? Kid epidemic.

(27:06 - 27:33)
Anyway, he's, she's supporting them. So, anyway, if you'd like to, this Letter to a Friend, it was written 2,000 years ago, and it was written by a great Buddhist teacher called Nagarjuna. Can you imagine? And that's a long story.

(27:35 - 28:16)
I taught that story at the university last semester, I think. But anyway, Nagarjuna lived 2,000 years ago, he became a great teacher, and later in his life he became the meditation teacher of many great kings. And it's very beautiful to read his letter to a king.

(28:16 - 29:09)
A king in those days is not like a political leader now. Legally, a real king in the old times, they owned every object in their kingdom, and every house, and they owned every person. There's one guy nowadays who wants to bring this system back. 

I think so. Okay, and anyway, they can come to your house, because they own your house. And they can say, your wife is very cute, I'll take her today.

(29:13 - 29:32)
And they can take her, because they own her already. That's a real king in the ancient times. So then these wise men have to, or wise women sometimes, they have to help the king not be crazy person.

(29:38 - 29:58)
And so Nagarjuna wrote two, two famous letters survived. One was, one that Nick is translating. It's called ratnamala, the string of precious jewels.

(30:01 - 30:27)
And then there's this one called the letter to my friend. And again, I worked on it about 40-something years ago. And I was just learning Buddhism, and I helped my teacher translate this book.

(30:27 - 30:50)
This is a commentary to that book by the teacher of a famous person. Hundred dollars. Who's the famous person? This person's teacher wrote this book which I'm translating this week.

(30:55 - 31:30)
Is that Anatole? Yes, Anatole. You got to split the money with Kiri, okay? The famous person is Je Tsongkapa, the teacher of the diamond. Yeah, okay, so Tsongkapa. 

Tsongkapa's teacher wrote a commentary to the letter of Nagarjuna. So, you got to be an amazing person, to be a teacher of Tsongkapa. And that teacher's name is Jetsun Rendawa, Rendawa.

(31:34 - 32:25)
And he taught Tsongkapa for I think about ten years, and then one day he, he looked at Tsongkapa and he says, come on man, this is a joke, you know? You understand all this stuff much better than I do. Then will you be my teacher? Okay, it's very unusual in, in the tradition that the teacher asks the student to become their student, but he wrote a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful commentary. Bring that picture back you guys.

(32:27 - 33:22)
Where's that picture? Yeah, so, why I like this book? Halfway through the letter to the king, Rendawa, Tsongkapa's teacher, Rendawa, the teacher of Tsongkapa, he tells the king, he says, you're, you're a male, you're a man, what gets most men in trouble is what? Sex. Okay, you can see, Nagarjuna is talking to a guy who can kill him in one second, you know? He's like, you're a king, right? Yeah, gee. You own every beautiful woman in the whole kingdom.

(33:22 - 33:46)
It's very similar to the Epstein files, okay? You own all the women in the kingdom. You can have sex with any woman you want, anytime. And it will hurt your kingdom, and it will hurt the families.

(33:49 - 34:06)
A real king doesn't control the country, a king controls his sexual organ. Then you're a super king. Then you're a really beautiful king.

(34:10 - 35:44)
Now, hundred dollars, the king says, how can I learn to control my sexual urge, you know? And by the way, Buddhism is very open. If you're not married and you don't have commitment, you can have sex with other people, it's okay. If you get married, then you have to stay with the one person. 

That's also Christian, right? But he said, you know, how can I control myself? And I love the book because in that moment, in the middle of this conversation, Nagarjuna tells the king, there's only one thing going to help you. A hundred bucks, it's like ... Come on! Okay, here's the question. This famous letter, it's old-fashioned lamrim.

(35:47 - 36:05)
Then suddenly, the king asks, how can I control myself? With the opposite sex. And Nagarjuna says, there's only one way. Okay.

(36:07 - 36:43)
What's between them? Too easy. Jay, look at the picture, look at the picture. What's between them? What's in the bowl? Nothing? Ah, emptiness! Yay! Vacuidad! That was like pulling worms out of a dog.

(36:44 - 37:14)
Okay. I love this book, because I was, I was 20 years old, and I just went to a monastery. And I'm a normal American boy. 

I had, you know, many girlfriends. Then suddenly I have to stay in a monastery. And I never had a date after that.

(37:16 - 37:35)
You know, 30 years or something. How to control this energy? Nagarjuna says emptiness. Then the second half of that book is one of the greatest teachings on emptiness I ever saw.

(37:40 - 38:11)
that's your lineage, okay? You can remember, okay? You got the dog guy, and you got the bowl guy, the empty bowl guy, okay, and that is your lineage. Okay, those two people are your lineage. And those ideas are your lineage.

(38:11 - 38:29)
Love enough to cut your leg open and put them with your tongue. And when you can't control yourself, go to emptiness. And that is your lineage.

(38:30 - 38:44)
Okay, and that's the, that's the poem here. And that's all. Okay, and there's a famous image which is the next picture.

(38:46 - 39:22)
Yeah, in this lamrim, you can call it Gibson's song. Where is, where is Gibson? Thank you Gibson. He says those two ... He says those two great rivers, when they come together, this is your, this is your lineage.

(39:22 - 39:39)
This is who you are. If you follow this lineage, you are one river came from two rivers. And there's a snow mountain in the back.

(39:39 - 40:20)
You know, if you're not sure what that is, talk to Osiris. I like AI, because in the old days, I have to cut the pictures and glue them together. Now I just say, I need two big rivers coming from a snow mountain, and then I need the two rivers to meet in one river, and I need that river to go to Mexico City, okay? By way of Guadalajara, probably.

(40:20 - 40:38)
Okay, understand? So that's your, that's your lineage. And you need that lineage to practice Diamond Way. You put your boat on that river, and you float into Diamond Way, the ocean of the Diamond Way.

(40:42 - 41:06)
Okay, by the way, I'm following the text closely. So when you get to my age, you digested all of those books, and it's easy to remember. I'm following the text very carefully.

(41:06 - 41:34)
When you get the text, and you study it, you will see. And if you're going to teach something, I've been working on that text, I've spent about, I don't know, hundred hours? To get ready for this class. And you have to be like that, when you're a teacher.

(41:35 - 41:54)
You have to work hard, and then you can teach. Okay, alright, next picture. He says a beautiful thing, okay? There's a thing called yishin norbu.

(41:57 - 42:07)
In Sanskrit it's chintamani, chintamani. In Sanskrit it's shintamani. And in the West we have Aladdin's lamp.

(42:08 - 42:52)
Aladdin. And there's a small lamp, metal, metal butter lamp, and if you rub it, then this genie come out? Genio? And he said, thank you for releasing me, and I'll give you any wish that you want. And there's an excellent dirty high school boys joke about it, which if the boys want to know, I will tell you.

(42:56 - 43:12)
Did I ever ... Hagerty [?] I taught you? No. He's like, he's not ... Anyway, there's a similar thing in Asia. It's not a lamp, it's a jewel.

(43:12 - 44:01)
And you find this jewel in the river, you have to polish it, then you have to take it and put it on top of a flagpole. You have to wait for Tsechu, the tenth day of the moon, which by a strange coincidence is today. That's diamond way, okay? When you really come to diamond way, strange things happen.

(44:02 - 44:46)
So, only on this day of the month, you make a special prayer to the jewel on top of the flagpole, and then that jewel will give you any wish you want. You can say, I want to have enough money to give away hundred dollar bills every day. I want the karma to have the most amazing wife in the universe, or the most amazing friends in the universe.

(44:46 - 45:29)
You can make wishes like that, and that river will give them to you. Okay? And so we say that this teaching, this tradition is like a wishing jewel. For a hundred dollars, why is this teaching better than a jewel that gives you anything you can think of? Because it can grant you things that you can't even imagine.

(45:29 - 45:59)
Yay! So, if you try this teaching, just try. You don't have to be a loyal Buddhist or something, you don't need to. Just take those ideas, use them in your own life, don't tell anybody, I don't care.

(46:00 - 46:39)
Then you will have amazingly beautiful life, perfect life. And if I gave you a jewel ten years before that, and said this jewel will give you anything you can wish for, there's a problem with the jewel, because you can't imagine at that time how cool is what you're going to get. You can't ask the jewel for something you cannot imagine.

(46:45 - 47:21)
You can't tell the wishing gem, please give me the thing I don't know how to wish for. So, this little book, okay, and by the way, you just carried around, we made it purse size. The size of Gibson's book is, with the publisher we had a big fight, it's a purse size, it fit in your purse.

(47:21 - 48:05)
That, especially the Spanish version of the book, was designed for Mexico City. Why? Why? Mexico City is the only place where I got stuck in a traffic jam and everybody ran out of gas. Like five hours in the traffic jam, only, this is my only place in the world where I, all the cars ran out of gas, and later we're all walking.

(48:07 - 48:38)
Now listen, if you have to sit in the Mexico City traffic jam for five hours, you can finish half of Gibson's small book. So, Oscar and Rosa, and Oscar, who's the third translator? Oh, Mr. Brian Mendoza. I'd like to thank them for doing this.

(48:49 - 49:06)
Yeah, that's the book I'm teaching right now. Okay? And for the rest of the year. Then legally, technically, you're ready for Diamond Way initiation.

(49:12 - 49:20)
Something like that. I mean, we have to see how slow Grandpa will go. Next picture, guys.

(49:20 - 49:33)
Next picture. This one you guys know, I taught you. In India, you can buy this brown sugar ball.

(49:37 - 50:02)
You want a warning about the brown sugar balls? They are similar to the dog on the street. You understand what I'm saying? They always have worms inside. I experienced that directly.

(50:03 - 50:31)
The doctor in New York took six months to clean them out. But that's not the point, okay? This teaching in Gibson's book, it's sweet. And listen, no matter which part you take, you have the same amazing result.

(50:34 - 51:09)
So, I tell my friends, at night before you sleep, you know, just open the book. In Diamond Way, Maitreya is sending you messages. When you open this book at night, before you sleep, randomly, he will send exactly the words you need today to that page.

(51:14 - 51:34)
Just before you open the page, it was blank. Then when you looked down, Maitreya is like, oh my god, she needs this tomorrow. Then she's like, oh, be patient with the irritating people.

(51:38 - 52:01)
Then in the morning at breakfast table, she meets the guy. but she's ready because she read the book the night before. Okay, so, we say, anywhere you touch these teachings, you will get something beautiful.

(52:05 - 52:20)
And I've been working hard on them for 50 years. At least six, seven hours every morning. And, it's true.

(52:21 - 52:53)
Okay? Doesn't matter what book you take. Doesn't matter if you study with Gibson, you study with Word, you study with Word, you study with Aldo, you study with the Guadalajara lady, you will, doesn't matter who you go to, you will get what you need from that person. Because that's the magic of this teaching.

(52:53 - 53:11)
And we have lots of teachers. There's a rule in this lineage, if you listen to a teaching, you must share it with someone else. That's a rule.

(53:13 - 53:53)
Okay? Even you don't remember 90%, it's okay. Is there something about sugar balls with magnets, and you're supposed to go like this, and ... How? Yeah, but it's your responsibility to become a teacher. Listen, if you have the karma to be here today, you definitely have the karma to be a teacher.

(53:53 - 54:15)
In your own way. Okay? You don't have to like Jimi Hendrix's music, even if I'm going to play it tonight. Oh wow! But, you're in your own way to fit your personality.

(54:16 - 54:40)
To fit your own life experience. Okay? You had experiences in your life I have no idea about, and that's a beautiful thing about this lineage. You make it your own, and you teach it con estilo.

(54:44 - 54:51)
Con estilo. Con estilo. With ... With style.

(54:51 - 54:54)
Con estilo. Yeah, okay. With style.

(54:56 - 55:03)
With your own style. Okay? And you will teach. And each person has a different style.

(55:05 - 55:27)
And there's somebody in the world needs your style. And don't need Geshe Michael's style. You see? So, in this lineage, when you sit in the class, you take responsibility to share with somebody else.

(55:31 - 55:41)
In your own style. Okay? And you agree? Don't like ... Don't do it. Okay.

(55:43 - 56:03)
It's funny, you say you want a hundred dollars, everybody's ... You say you agree to teach in your own style? You agreed to teach? Okay, alright. Alright. Okay, we got it.

(56:04 - 56:14)
Next picture. Next picture. It's not Oscar, okay? No, I'm kidding.

(56:17 - 56:22)
So, there's an ancient word. Our ancient lineage is called Kadampa. Kadampa.

(56:25 - 56:36)
And nowadays there's a new group called Kadampa. I'm not talking about them. Tsongkapa's tradition is called New Kadampa.

(56:40 - 56:47)
Then there's another New Kadampa. I'm not talking about those guys. They're in England or something like that.

(56:49 - 57:16)
But Kadampa is about 1,000 years old. Your river of the two guys from the snow mountain, your personal river is called Kadampa. And ka means speech of Buddha.

(57:19 - 57:46)
Dampa means it was sent to you. And I'll give you an example. So, I don't know, you just had a fight with somebody at work, you know, and you don't sleep well that night, and you're worried about this relationship.

(57:49 - 58:27)
Then in the morning, you're having breakfast, you know, you got Gibson's book is on the table, you know, Brian Rosa, those guy's book is on the table. And just for fun, you open it up. And it will say, if you have trouble with somebody at your job, please remember the dog and the pen.

(58:33 - 59:01)
Yeah, then you're like, oh my god, that's weird. Buddha sent me a message at the breakfast table. If your heart is in the right place, any book in this tradition, you just open, random, Kadampa, what you need will come to you.

(59:04 - 59:15)
And it's, it's very, very wonderful. So, try it. That's the lineage that you are learning.

(59:18 - 59:30)
Okay, I got to move here, next picture. Yeah, last thing, I got two minutes. I timed this class perfectly.

(59:33 - 59:49)
Because I want to play rock and roll. Yeah, okay, last picture here, and very famous part of this book. It's called The Great Cliff.

(59:54 - 1:00:20)
Like Grand Canyon. So, I grew up in Arizona, I was born in Los Angeles, grew up in Arizona. My fifth grade teacher, whose name Wordsmith knows, there's another thing I didn't tell you about her.

(1:00:23 - 1:00:43)
She fell off the Grand Canyon. She went with her father to see the Grand Canyon. She fell, and he went, and he grabbed her hair, pulled her back, saved her life.

(1:00:44 - 1:01:23)
She's always talking about, I'm glad I have strong hair. Me and Aldo will die. So, it's a famous story, okay? There's a cliff in Buddhism, famous cliff, it's called The Great Cliff.

(1:01:23 - 1:01:47)
And that's, anytime you think a teaching is stupid or doesn't make sense. Okay, like, I love those emptiness teachings, but those morality teachings, they're so boring. Xiaoping just finished a 400 page book about morality.

(1:01:52 - 1:02:04)
We predict it's going to be the worst selling book in America. Prediction. Venerable Utpal, I finished a book on meditation on emptiness.

(1:02:09 - 1:02:52)
Extremely, it's number one seller. Yeah, so anyway, in this tradition, you make the biggest mistake possible? If you say, oh, those emptiness meditations, those are sexy. But controlling my sexual behavior, I mean, that's kind of, who wants to do that? By the way, if you understand emptiness, you understand these teachings, you will have the best sex you ever had, and it's okay, it's beautiful.

(1:02:58 - 1:03:10)
I'm not saying don't have sex, I'm saying have sex. But clean sex. Don't mess up, don't mess around with other people's wife or husband.

(1:03:14 - 1:03:46)
And what we learned from Nagarjuna, the teaching about how to control yourself, which seems kind of like boring, and then the teaching about emptiness. So cool. If you think this teaching is stupid and this teaching is cool, it's called the big mistake.

(1:03:48 - 1:04:24)
In this lineage, it's called the big mistake. And this teaching called the letter to, or you can call it the song of my spiritual life, lamrim, steps of the path, required before you can study Diamond Way, it protects you from falling off the mountain. Okay, automatic protection.

(1:04:25 - 1:05:11)
If you read the Gibson's book, just relax, don't be fanatic okay? Nobody likes fanatic who blows up airplanes or tells people, you have to be Buddhist. You know, with fun, relax, enjoy, respect all the teachings equally. Someone teaching you how to control your then someone teaching you about emptiness, it goes together.

(1:05:12 - 1:05:36)
It's one teaching, and don't think any different, and enjoy both. If you do them together, do I look like I'm having fun actually? Yeah, now listen, I might die in a month, I don't know. It's possible.

(1:05:37 - 1:05:51)
But if you learn this teaching, everything is fun. Life is fun, death is fun. It's like changing your shirt.

(1:05:51 - 1:06:03)
No problem at all. Like go from one happiness to the other happiness. Like changing your shirt.

(1:06:03 - 1:06:24)
Now I have to go change my shirt because we're playing rock and roll. Let's dance, and see you in ... one time? Oh, one ... when does it start? No, I know that one. In half an hour? 15 minutes.

(1:06:25 - 1:06:42)
Okay, if you have kidney problem, go have a pee pee now. Then you can have a good dance okay? There's another dance. My boss, Tim, and I'd like to thank Tim for this program.

(1:06:47 - 1:07:03)
And all his team. Thank you, thank you for hard work. We're going to have two more teachings this year.

(1:07:03 - 1:07:13)
Here's the information. Phoenix in October. Okay.

(1:07:15 - 1:07:32)
It's at a nice place. Then you can come up and see our cafe, and we can have some fun together. So we will continue this teaching in Phoenix.

(1:07:32 - 1:08:00)
And you're very welcome to come in person or online. We are very proud and honored to have people from the great country of Mexico come to visit us. Okay? You understand? Then ... December in Japan.

(1:08:02 - 1:08:35)
I never went to Japan much, but we started to have classes there. Our translators are studying a system which is 1400 years old, invented by a great Chinese translator named Xuanzang. And that's called the Tang Dynasty.

(1:08:35 - 1:08:54)
This is the peak of Chinese culture. Whole empire, the greatest empire in the world, and Buddhist empire. And they really understand the great books.

(1:08:55 - 1:09:15)
By many civil wars, that culture was wiped out in China. But just before that, it moved to Kyoto. So that city is still like 1500 years old.

(1:09:17 - 1:09:27)
1500. Nobody told the ladies you don't have to wear a kimono. Nobody told the ladies you don't have to wear a kimono.

(1:09:28 - 1:09:39)
The guys also wear a kimono, a boy's kimono. It's an elegant, elegant city. And very spiritual.

(1:09:40 - 1:09:50)
So, you know, I know it's difficult to go there. It costs some money. But you will never forget it in your life if you go there.

(1:09:52 - 1:10:03)
So, we'll have some class. We'll continue this class in December in Kyoto. So, you're very welcome to come.

(1:10:03 - 1:10:12)
At least take it online, it's fine. It's fine. I know you have lots of responsibilities.

(1:10:12 - 1:10:23)
And they're called kids. Some people can't just go to Japan and go to China. We all have other responsibilities.

(1:10:25 - 1:10:49)
So, at least come online. And that's fine. Okay. 

Alright, I'll see you when we dance. Thank you. Wow.

(1:10:51 - 1:10:55)
That was really an amazing class. Thank you. Thank you our dear teacher.

(1:10:56 - 1:11:18)
Our hearts are filled with gratitude for our extraordinary teacher. No words can truly express the depth of our appreciation. If you feel inspired to offer a monetary gift, you are welcome to use the QR code below.

(1:11:19 - 1:11:44)
More importantly, the greatest offerings we can make is to embody the teachings, to bring them into our thoughts, words, and actions each day. There is absolutely no expectations to give. At ACI Five Houses, teachers do not receive payment for sharing the Dharma.

(1:11:45 - 1:12:02)
Offerings arise freely from the heart when one feels moved to give. Thank you for joining us and see you very soon for all the upcoming programs.