BDW 2, Мастер-класс — стенограмма

(1:02 - 1:22)
Welcome back, this is Katie Chiu again. We are honored to welcome Geshe Michael Roach, who will guide us through wisdom in the times of chaos. Please get comfortable and make sure your translation channel is set.

(1:23 - 4:02)
Let's begin and please welcome Geshe Michael Roach. And while we are waiting for our dear teacher, I hope you are already ready and set your intention. Hopefully we can hear some special messages in this class today. 

And I hope all of you enjoy this very special class. And we are so lucky to have these good seeds to be able to be part of this journey. So I believe our teacher is ready soon. 

So let's rejoice our good seeds and be prepared to listen to a very amazing class. And I believe our teacher is ready soon. So let's keep rejoicing and be very happy for this special moment, which is so powerful for all of us here. 

It is indeed very special. And we are really lucky to have such good seeds to be sitting here together. Let us don't forget how amazing this time is and enjoy the coming classes in the coming few days. 

And let us all think about death rule [?]. Now we see the teacher. Let's welcome Geshe Michael Roach.

(4:26 - 4:39)
Thank you. Hey, let me take a picture first. Let me take a picture first.

(5:02 - 5:15)
Thank you. Nila was supposed to translate tonight, but she had to go to bed. Okay, that's his new daughter.

(5:19 - 5:54)
Okay, tonight is a special program. So I went to Princeton University. Then I got permission to go study in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery for six months, but I stayed for 25 years, and I finished the Geshe course.

(5:57 - 6:29)
First white guy. Then they have a special course after that. And there's a special college. 

There's two colleges in Tibet. And they're called Gyupa, Gyupa. But Gyupa means have a magical life.

(6:33 - 6:51)
Your whole life is like magic. Strange, happy, beautiful things happen to you. Like, I don't know, I was in a ... we have a special ceremony twice a month.

(6:55 - 7:06)
We call Diamond Way. And there's an angel called the Angel of Diamond. And we're supposed to go have dinner together.

(7:09 - 7:20)
So I was in New York. I just finished my Geshe. And we went to a restaurant to do tsechu, tsok.

(7:23 - 7:39)
And this big Jewish lady come out. And New York waitress, they don't put the plate like this. They're like, choo, choo, choo.

(7:41 - 7:56)
Then we came out. Then she said, what do you want to eat? Then, okay, we order everything. And we ate a lot, because it's a holiday twice a month.

(8:01 - 8:44)
Then she came out. We had dessert. And then we're finished, and then she came again, and we said, can we have the bill? La cuenta. 

And she said, she got angry. Are you crazy? She's like, what? What happened? She said, you come here to do tsechu, and you think I'm going to charge you money? And we were like, what? She bit really hard. Tsechu is secret, nobody knows.

(8:44 - 9:01)
She's like, I'm not going to charge you guys, are you crazy? Then she went to the kitchen, you know. They were all like, wow, wow, must be the angel, must be the angel. We got excited.

(9:03 - 9:28)
Yeah, we got to go touch her, we have to bow to her, you know. We ran to the kitchen, and there's this old guy cooking, you know. And we're like, where's the angel? Where's the angel? Huh? I mean, where's the big Jewish lady? We don't have anybody like that.

(9:30 - 9:51)
He's like, I don't know what you're talking about. So that's a magical dinner. So there's a special teaching that you can learn how to have a magical life.

(9:51 - 10:07)
And every day is like that, some magic happening in your life. I think the most important thing is it's really fun. It's very magical.

(10:07 - 10:28)
And in the monastery, you have to finish Geshe before you can study magic. When I say magic, I don't mean you pull a rabbit out of a hat. I mean your whole life is like magic.

(10:31 - 10:53)
Cool things happen your whole life. So in Tibet, if you finish Geshe, you're allowed to go to the magic college. And I went there, I finished this course.

(10:53 - 11:10)
Then I went to teach it to my students. So I did the Geshe course in seven years, 1991 to 1998. Then I did a three year silent retreat.

(11:13 - 11:24)
Just meditate for three years. And then after that, I taught them magic. And it took seven years.

(11:27 - 11:45)
So the whole time investment is 17 years total. And then I taught about a hundred people. And I translated about 30,000 pages.

(11:45 - 12:24)
And it's a beautiful course, but it takes 17 years. So my friends came to me and said, look, could you do a little bit faster? And I said, yeah, I think it would be fun to do a nice modern magic course. Then if anybody wants to do the long one, I will send John Brady, Karmi, I will send those guys.

(12:24 - 12:41)
I will send John Brady and Karmi. Then if someone wants to do the relaxed magic course, come to my course. And I'll do it like three times a year.

(12:41 - 12:55)
And then you just relax and you have fun. So tonight's talk is part of that course. And you guys can do that course.

(12:55 - 13:06)
You don't have to come to any other country or something. You can finish it online. I'd like to welcome the people online right now.

(13:10 - 13:20)
If it sounds fun, you can try. And it's free. It should be.

(13:21 - 13:36)
My teacher never charged me for 25 years. I gave him my bank book and he said, what's this? I said, that's American bank book. I give to you.

(13:39 - 13:45)
Then he said, I don't need it. And he threw it at me. He hit me on the head.

(13:45 - 13:56)
It's like, I never forgot. He said, I don't need your money. I'm happy to teach you magic.

(13:56 - 14:06)
So just tonight relax. Listen. If it's interesting, you can do more.

(14:07 - 14:39)
If it's not interesting, you can have a nice nap. It's a late siesta. I don't mind. 

I'm fine. My advanced students, they know how to take siesta with their eyes open. I have one student.

(14:39 - 14:48)
Her name starts with Jig and ends with May. Her name starts with Jig and ends with May. Super advanced siesta.

(14:51 - 15:13)
In the class. Even if I don't say anything, she'll go. Don't tell her I said that.

(15:14 - 15:28)
It's also magic. Okay. And by coincidence, and in the magic system there's no coincidences.

(15:29 - 15:38)
Tonight's the most important night of the whole course. And it just came at this time. I don't know why.

(15:41 - 16:36)
So this is the most important class of seven years or something. So enjoy. Okay. 

Have fun. And whatever you do for the rest of your life, just remember this class. Okay, so we got our pictures. 

I don't know where to put this first. Yeah, the textbook for this course was written 600 years ago. And we translated it recently.

(16:39 - 17:01)
And then it was translated into Spanish. They finished two weeks ago. So I'd like to thank Rosa Van Grieken, Oscar Leon, and Brian Mendoza.

(17:01 - 17:17)
Can you stand up? There's one. There's two. Oscar? Donde Oscar? They translated very well into Spanish.

(17:21 - 17:31)
And this is the first night it's available. Then I checked the price. I also ordered it.

(17:33 - 17:53)
Here's the QR code. Then I saw it's $10 and something like that. So I don't like to charge money, because my teacher also threw the book at me.

(17:54 - 18:07)
So we're going to... I'll pay for it. For this group only. Not for your family.

(18:07 - 18:25)
Okay? All right. So, order it online. And I'll take care of it. 

Okay, Rosa? Where are you? She's like, Geshe La, you agreed that they could pay half. I said, no. I changed my mind.

(18:25 - 18:30)
Geshe La, they're going to pay half. No. So just take one.

(18:31 - 18:45)
And I'm teaching from that tonight. And for about another year or something. Then we'll go to a deeper book.

(18:45 - 19:08)
Okay, so anyway, next picture. We made a set of 12 posters about magic, how to do magic. And this is one of the first posters.

(19:08 - 19:27)
And the advice of the poster is find your heart teacher. And that's the most important magic instruction. First you have to find your heart teacher.

(19:29 - 19:45)
And by the way, it could be anybody. It doesn't have to be the old man who comes to Mexico City. Abuelo.

(19:47 - 20:01)
Sorry. But tonight we're going to talk about how to find your heart teacher. And that's the most important subject.

(20:03 - 20:09)
Okay, here we go. Not most, most important. Mucho más importante.

(20:11 - 20:36)
All right, next picture. By the way, when you study magic, the heat goes here. So this is John Brady's project.

(20:38 - 21:00)
We started 37 years ago with Hewlett Packard Corporation. And we started to put data entry centers in all the monasteries. And they input the books.

(21:03 - 21:16)
There's 300,000 ancient books. Our goal is to input all of them. And then translate maybe a few hundred.

(21:20 - 21:53)
So this is the National Library of Mongolia. We've been working there for about 30 years. And I had to start the project. 

I went there for many years. And something happened to me there. So I was working late in the library every night.

(21:57 - 22:17)
At that time Mongolia was very poor, still poor country. So the lights in the city, they stop at six o'clock or something. Then you have to walk to the hotel in the dark.

(22:20 - 22:30)
So we finished around eight o'clock. And I went with the librarian. We start to walk to the hotel.

(22:35 - 22:44)
And it's dark. And then I heard something. And I saw something move.

(22:46 - 23:03)
And the librarian's like, get back, get back. And I'm like, what is it? What is it? And out of the street came like an animal. Like this.

(23:05 - 23:11)
And I'm like, what is that? And he's like, don't get close, don't get close. They'll bite you. They'll bite you.

(23:11 - 23:20)
And I'm like, what is it? They ran. They came by us, run by us. They came inside.

(23:20 - 23:32)
Like this big, small animal. And he said, don't touch it, don't touch it. And I'm like, what is it? He said, it's a kid.

(23:33 - 23:58)
Human. I said, but it came out of the street. Yeah. 

He said, Mongolia is a cold place. And I'm like, what's under the street? That's the sewer. Poo-poo, all the poo-poo in the city is under the street.

(23:58 - 24:07)
And those children live in the sewer. They are orphans. They don't have parents.

(24:07 - 24:17)
Parents died or something. And they will freeze to death. Mongolia is very cold.

(24:17 - 24:26)
So they live in the sewer. Because the poo-poo is warm. And they smell terrible.

(24:28 - 24:35)
And they are animals. They cannot speak a language. They can't speak.

(24:37 - 24:50)
And they are dangerous. And they will try to steal something from you. If you push them, they will bite you like a dog.

(24:51 - 25:08)
And you can get a serious injury. Ian lost his computer this way. The kid knocked him over and stole the computer.

(25:08 - 25:21)
I remember because I had to pay for it. As usual. Then it made me think a lot about parents.

(25:24 - 26:15)
Until that day I didn't really appreciate my mom and my dad. And I started to think, if I don't have my mom and my dad, I will also be like that animal. Why not? If I don't know how to talk, if I don't know how to act with other people, I don't know how to... I remember my mom and dad teach me to tie my shoes. 

I remember. How to wear clothes. I remember they will teach me new words at the dinner table.

(26:18 - 26:28)
Like, I don't know, operation. And I'm like, operation. And they teach me words in the kitchen.

(26:28 - 26:35)
I remember. One by one they teach me. First time I saw an automobile.

(26:37 - 26:45)
Mom's like, car, car. I'm like, cow, cow. She's very patient.

(26:45 - 27:00)
She's like, not cow, car. Still, when I say car, I think of that day. She made me not an animal.

(27:00 - 27:13)
She's the first candidate for your heart teacher. She's your mom. So, I was at my brother's house.

(27:14 - 27:38)
I go regularly every 20 years. He lives in Seattle. I live in the desert. 

I don't like the rain. And he said, you know, I got all these pictures of mom. Do you want to take some? Here's the one I took.

(27:44 - 28:07)
And that's her wedding day. So, that's the first person you can check if you want to find your heart teacher. And for many people, it's your mom.

(28:09 - 28:28)
Then some American will always say, I don't like my mom. And I say, I don't care you don't like your mom. When she got pregnant, she made a decision.

(28:28 - 28:44)
She can have an abortion. She decided she will risk her life to give you life. I don't care if your mother talks to you like, I told you a thousand times.

(28:48 - 29:09)
She's the most unbelievable person in your life. Before anything, she is willing to give her life so you can have life. And that's pretty heart teacher, I think.

(29:12 - 29:52)
By the way, tonight we're just discussing possible candidates for heart teacher. If you study magic, if you want to live a magical life, which is also called Diamond Way or Vajrayana, then you have to find your heart teacher. So, tonight we will just discuss the possibilities.

(29:53 - 30:07)
And then in the morning, I'll teach you a meditation. And it just takes about half an hour to learn the meditation. And then you can do it.

(30:09 - 30:26)
That meditation is like a magnet and it pulls your heart teacher. So, we'll learn it tomorrow. After that, then Tim and I will work on a translation together.

(30:31 - 30:59)
The mother book that he's translating, which is called Perfection of Wisdom in Sanskrit, Prajnaparamita. I always give $100 prize in the class. If the student can answer.

(31:02 - 31:09)
$100? $100. $100. Okay, now I forgot the question.

(31:12 - 31:30)
Okay, here we go. I know those DCI [?] guys are like... Okay, in Sanskrit, Prajnaparamita. In English, Perfection of Wisdom.

(31:30 - 31:40)
Now, if you are Chinese, you cannot answer. If anyone can tell me in Chinese, $100. $100.

(31:42 - 31:48)
Not you. You studied Chinese. You also Chinese, give me a break.

(31:50 - 32:01)
Okay, Singapore, Singapore. Thank you for coming by the way. Thank you for having grandpa next year [?].

(32:01 - 32:22)
Is it, say Chinese? Xin Jing? Is it Xin Jing? No. Perfection of Wisdom. Prajnaparamita. 

I'm watching your mouth. I'm watching your lips. There's a Chinese person in front of her.

(32:25 - 32:34)
Prajnaparamita. Yay, $100. Very good. 

Prajnaparamita. $100. You guys split it.

(32:34 - 32:45)
By the way, how I keep people awake in my class? $100. $100. Yeah, okay.

(32:48 - 33:06)
They're like... Okay, so listen carefully. So anyway, that's the first possibility. You know, two and a half thousand years ago, they were saying, maybe it's your mom.

(33:06 - 33:24)
In fact, those sutras are called the Mother Sutras. Tim is translating them. So we'll be working on that tomorrow after the meditation.

(33:24 - 33:42)
Yeah, yeah, okay. Sometimes I don't put... My wife says, when you sing rock and roll, you're always like... Okay. By the way, tomorrow night, we have free rock and roll concert.

(33:45 - 33:51)
What time? Sunday. Tomorrow Sunday. No, sorry, Sunday night.

(33:51 - 33:56)
Domingo. Sunday night. And we can celebrate the weekend.

(33:59 - 34:09)
We just got back from Vietnam two days ago. And we brought the Vietnam band with us. Okay.

(34:10 - 34:39)
So that's the first possibility for your heart teacher. It's your mom. Listen, in the diamond way, in the world of magic, your heart teacher doesn't have to be some old, bald, Tibetan monk.

(34:44 - 34:51)
Can be your mom. Can be your sister. Can be your dog.

(34:53 - 35:02)
Okay? We don't know. One person will change your life. That's your magic teacher.

(35:03 - 35:14)
Geshe La, do I have to be Buddhist? No. Who cares? I don't care. You want to go to a temple? Fly to Thailand.

(35:17 - 35:30)
Who cares what you are? Just, magic is everybody. Then do what your mom did. Do what your dad did.

(35:30 - 35:41)
But do it with magic. Then no problem. Very fun. 

Very happy. You will be a better Christian. Okay.

(35:43 - 35:55)
Next picture. Yeah, that's my dad. He was messed up.

(35:57 - 36:18)
They got divorced. He was in the World War II when he was 17 years old in a submarine in the Pacific. He has one job.

(36:20 - 36:50)
If they shoot another ship with torpedo, if they succeed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that ship will sink. Two or three hundred guys will jump off. They are swimming in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

(36:50 - 37:12)
Sharks are already eating them because there's a lot of blood in the water. So the submarine has a machine gun on the deck, outside. They will come out of the water.

(37:12 - 37:35)
One guy's responsibility to shoot the people in the water because some will survive and they will fight again. So my father is that guy. He's like 17 years old.

(37:35 - 37:56)
This is his job and he killed many people and when he came home he was messed up and alcoholic, bad alcoholic. And then he has a gun in his hands. He has a rifle.

(37:59 - 38:29)
He used to take us to shoot the deer. I shot one deer with him. He gave me a knife. 

He said, you clean it. My arms were in the inside of the deer and it's still warm and it's looking at me. Then I told my father, that's it, I can never do this again.

(38:32 - 39:14)
He got very angry but I never did it again. But he was a very good businessman and I found a newspaper article. He built a big part of Anaheim, California and he built some big hotels in Japan and he was very organized and he was a good businessman and my Tibetan teacher met him.

(39:15 - 39:51)
I was afraid when they meet each other, I was afraid my Buddhist teacher won't like my father. Then my Buddhist teacher asked my father, what's your job? Right now I'm building houses. How many houses? One hundred. 

It's a neighborhood, one hundred houses. Here's my teacher. Oh my God, you're a real bodhisattva.

(39:53 - 40:23)
You put one hundred families into their home. You're a real bodhisattva. We talk about bodhisattva. 

You're doing bodhisattva. Then after that, for the rest of my life, my dad's like... He said, I like your teacher. He's a good guy.

(40:28 - 40:40)
But I learned business. I learned how to do business and it's very useful in my life. My mom taught me to talk.

(40:40 - 40:54)
My mom taught me to love people. My father taught me how to do things. How to live.

(40:54 - 41:08)
How to make a living. I have many students who didn't have a father. Understand? So I know how to do business.

(41:09 - 41:20)
It's because of my father. So I'm not sure. Now we have two candidates for heart teacher.

(41:21 - 41:30)
Maybe it's my mom. Maybe it's my father. Ah, but we have some more.

(41:31 - 41:42)
Yeah. So my mom had four boys. I'm on the right, by the way.

(41:42 - 41:57)
I had three brothers. Two of them still alive. And I learned how to fight from my brothers.

(42:01 - 42:18)
A fight in our house is not like a fight in your house. We will pick up the chair and break it on the other person. All the doors have holes in them.

(42:18 - 42:37)
Several windows are broken. So we lived together for, I don't know, 16, 17 years. We are four brothers.

(42:38 - 42:56)
We learned how to take care of other people. And we learned how to deal with problems. And we learned how to solve conflict.

(42:56 - 43:10)
And I use it a lot in my organizations. I started a company in New York. We start with three people.

(43:11 - 43:32)
Later we have 10,000 people. We sold the company to Warren Buffett quarter billion dollars every year. We started it by using these ideas.

(43:32 - 43:58)
But also I have a lot of skills, how to treat the employees by fighting with my brothers for many years. So I think it's lucky to grow up in a big family. Many problems.

(43:58 - 44:04)
A lot of tension. Serious problems. My little brother tried.

(44:05 - 44:21)
The little one tried to commit suicide. The second one did commit suicide. Then by living with a family, you learn about problems.

(44:21 - 44:34)
And deep love. We have deep, deep love for each other. So maybe those three small, irritating hobbits are my heart teacher.

(44:40 - 44:46)
Maybe they're my heart teacher. Maybe it's not my mom. Maybe it's not my dad.

(44:48 - 45:08)
Maybe it's those super irritating, especially the two little brothers are super irritating. Maybe they're my heart teacher. I'm trying to, we should all think about it.

(45:08 - 45:24)
What is a heart teacher? In this tradition, they were sent to you by God. Nothing less than that. They were sent for that.

(45:26 - 45:49)
There are some secret people in your life who were sent to you. They're not little stupid, irritating brothers. One of them is an angel.

(45:49 - 46:00)
Which one? I don't know. So there are some angels in your life. I mean real angels.

(46:01 - 46:07)
They are fake. Fake. They are not what they look like.

(46:10 - 46:20)
They were sent by the home office. I call central casting. They are movie actors.

(46:24 - 46:48)
They were sent into my home to teach me for, now it's 70 years. So in this tradition, you have to be suspicious. There's two or three angels in your life.

(46:49 - 47:13)
They were assigned to you by the big office. Before you were born, they were prepared for you. Your job in this life is to find them, is to recognize them.

(47:13 - 47:28)
I lived with that irritating little guy for 30 years. He's not an angel. Are you kidding me? The ones you think are not an angel are usually angels.

(47:28 - 47:50)
The ones you think are angels are usually not angels. Those nice, polite children like Kiri, they're not angels. It's the irritating ones, like Juan Jaso.

(47:52 - 48:08)
Those are the real angels. Your job in your life, I swear there's two or three in your life. I'm giving you candidates.

(48:08 - 48:22)
Think about it. That meditation is a very powerful, healthy, holy meditation. Holy? Holy.

(48:24 - 48:39)
Yeah. To be suspicious of other people, maybe she's an angel. That is religion.

(48:39 - 48:58)
To think like that is religion. Maybe there's one here, I don't know. That kind of paranoia, holy paranoia, maybe it's her.

(49:00 - 49:19)
Maybe I'm the only one in the whole room who's not an angel. Maybe they let me talk so I can become an angel. Try to look innocent.

(49:22 - 49:43)
Tim's like, no. Anyway, I appreciate that you let me talk, and I'll try to do a good job. Then you have to take me with you when you go home, okay? Okay? La casa, the big house.

(49:43 - 49:48)
Casa grande. Big house. Okay, next candidate.

(49:49 - 50:07)
Yeah. So when I was, I don't know, ten years old? This is not me by the way. But the uniform is what I used to wear.

(50:07 - 50:33)
So I was an altar boy in the church for like ten years. And I really enjoyed it. And in my church, the priests were unbelievably great.

(50:34 - 50:46)
No misbehavior, no problems. They are extremely compassionate. Extremely intelligent.

(50:47 - 51:00)
Extremely faith, big faith. And it was so nice to be with them. And they changed my mind.

(51:00 - 51:16)
Ten years, I worked close with them. And they were so kind and so good. And they teach me Bible all the time.

(51:17 - 51:33)
And it's like eating churros. The Bible from them tastes like churro. The church is like churreria for me.

(51:33 - 51:48)
And wonderful place. So when I think about who's my heart teacher, myself I have to think maybe it's one of those. I had four or five priests.

(51:53 - 52:06)
And they're all different and they're all amazing. I'll give you an example. On Sunday we have three services.

(52:07 - 52:26)
11 o'clock in the morning is for the lazy people. 9.15 is for the people who have children. 7 a.m. is for the hardcore Christians.

(52:27 - 52:54)
If you really want to talk to God, you come at 7. 9 o'clock, 11 o'clock, everybody's like, blah, blah, blah, blah. The 7 o'clock people are like... So we get assigned an assignment. And me and my older brother, we got 7 o'clock.

(52:57 - 53:06)
We don't like it because it's so early in the morning. But they are. But it's kind of cool.

(53:07 - 53:28)
There's a secret room in the back. In my church there's a cross much higher than this, two times higher than this ceiling. And there's a secret room behind the cross.

(53:28 - 53:36)
And we meet there. And we put on our robes. We get the wine ready.

(53:38 - 53:49)
Find all the bread. We get all the prayer books ready. My job is to light the candles.

(53:49 - 54:09)
If I spill the wax, I get in trouble because it's a very expensive cloth underneath. Then we come out. And my brother has to carry the cross.

(54:10 - 54:21)
And then I have to carry the incense. And then the priest will come out behind us. So we came out.

(54:22 - 54:29)
There's my brother. I got the incense. And the priest come out.

(54:29 - 54:44)
And we're on the stage like this. And there's not one person in the room. This church holds 2,000 people.

(54:45 - 55:05)
I don't know, that day everybody wants to sleep. Then we come out and we're like... I'm like to my brother, we get to go home. We can watch... they show cartoons on Sunday morning.

(55:08 - 55:12)
We get to watch TV. He's like, yeah, yeah. And we look at the priest.

(55:15 - 55:28)
And he's like... Then he said, I'll never forget. I'm crying. When one or two are gathered together, you're also there.

(55:29 - 55:39)
God is also there. He said, one, two. He's like, no, no.

(55:40 - 55:49)
We're like, no, no, no. He said, one, two. We're going to do the ceremony.

(55:50 - 56:01)
And we did the whole thing. And it was the most beautiful thing in my life. Because he said, I don't care if the people didn't come.

(56:04 - 56:23)
God is... God came. Let's do it. And it was so beautiful. 

I'll never forget it. So, maybe they are my heart teachers. Especially that one priest.

(56:24 - 56:35)
His name is Urbano. His name is Paul Urbano. So, anyway, maybe he's my heart teacher.

(56:35 - 57:11)
So, when you do the meditation, you have to think about candidates. It's like a presidential election. Who's going to win the Rob Haggerty Heart Teacher Contest? Who's going to win the Rob Haggerty Contest? Is it your brother? Is it your mother? Is it your priest? Who is it? What time am I supposed to shut up? 8.30. Okay, I still have time.

(57:11 - 57:29)
Okay, next candidate. Something happened to me when I was in fourth grade. And I discovered science fiction.

(57:30 - 57:50)
And my mom did a very stupid thing. There's a science fiction book club. And the parents pay, don't tell Kiri, okay? The parents sign a contract.

(57:51 - 58:08)
Every time the kid finish one book, their company will send another one. Then I start to read one book every day, or every two days. Then it's expensive.

(58:09 - 58:16)
We don't have money. My mom was a single mom. She's a school teacher.

(58:18 - 58:42)
I remember one day the garbage truck came by. And we were watching the garbage truck. And she said, you kids want to know something interesting? And we're like, what? And she said, you see those guys that throw the garbage out? They smell really bad.

(58:44 - 58:54)
The work is terrible work. She said, they make more money than your mom. That's school teachers pay.

(58:55 - 59:17)
I think it's in every country, and it's always been like that. The most important occupation in the country to teach the children is usually the lowest paid. I was in Mexico City when the teachers came here on strike.

(59:20 - 59:36)
And I had a good time talking to them. All over the country, they came here and sleep in there. So anyway, my mom said, okay, you can join the book club.

(59:39 - 1:00:01)
And I read hundreds of books. And in those days, science fiction is, we call hard science fiction, hard science fiction. It has a lot of astronomy and physics and real hard science fiction.

(1:00:03 - 1:00:21)
And this author, Robert Heinlein, he was a military officer. He graduated from the National Naval Academy. And he's a great scientist.

(1:00:21 - 1:00:40)
He designed first spaceships and things like that. But he's a moral genius. And his characters are exploring morality.

(1:00:40 - 1:01:04)
Is it okay to hurt someone if they're going to hurt many other people? And he filled his books with these questions. Especially this one, if you have a chance, read it. The quotation, the title comes from the Bible.

(1:01:05 - 1:01:24)
A stranger in a strange land. Jesus, stranger in a strange land. So when I think about who's my heart teacher, maybe it's the people who wrote the books that changed my life when I was a kid.

(1:01:29 - 1:01:42)
Maybe they are the secret angels. Maybe the science fiction book club company bosses are not greedy. They are trying to help me.

(1:01:49 - 1:02:06)
Because it changed my thinking forever. That's what allowed me to go to Tibetan monasteries. I had this big vision in my mind.

(1:02:06 - 1:02:25)
And it came from science fiction. So maybe those guys are my heart teachers. So this meditation which we are doing, and we'll do tomorrow, I'll teach you how to do it in meditation.

(1:02:26 - 1:03:14)
And it's easy and anybody can do it and you don't need special training. But if you want your life to be magical for the rest of your life, then you have to explore, who is my heart teacher? Who was the one teacher of my heart? Who was it? If you think about it, your mind will expand. Your life will change.

(1:03:15 - 1:03:25)
You'll be very happy. And also you will be very successful. I don't care about business.

(1:03:26 - 1:03:44)
I never liked business. But I made the largest jewelry company in the world by using these ideas. And we gave it to the libraries to save the ancient books.

(1:03:48 - 1:03:55)
Many millions of dollars. The books are free online. Tim's books are free.

(1:04:00 - 1:04:07)
But you can make more money. You can make that kind of money. You can give away a hundred dollars.

(1:04:09 - 1:04:16)
Every day of the year. His job is to... He has a wonderful job. Everyone loves him.

(1:04:18 - 1:04:39)
He just runs around and gives a hundred dollars. So, finding your heart teacher also helps you be successful in your spiritual life. But in your business life.

(1:04:39 - 1:04:50)
I'm not greedy. I have a small, small house. Of all of my friends, I have the oldest car.

(1:04:53 - 1:05:17)
I don't care. But I like to have money to help people. If you meet your heart teacher, if you meditate about who is my heart teacher, it's very powerful for success in your life.

(1:05:17 - 1:05:31)
I have no business experience. At university I majored in religion. I didn't know anything about business.

(1:05:32 - 1:05:47)
But I'm looking for my heart teacher. That state of mind makes you very successful in business. And it's like magic.

(1:05:48 - 1:06:03)
And it's super fun. So, I went to the hospital that you need some surgeries. They're like, okay, let's do it.

(1:06:05 - 1:06:32)
And they're like, the lady, the doctor said, you're a strange person. Aren't you scared? Are you scared? I said, no, I'm okay. She said, can I ask you a private question? I'm like, what? Do you meditate? Do you know how to meditate? And I'm like, yeah, I do a little bit.

(1:06:35 - 1:06:45)
So anyway, it makes your life happy. But also more successful. All right, next picture.

(1:06:51 - 1:07:11)
Okay, this is my English teacher when I'm 16. She went to the University of Chicago, which is the best in the world for English. She was old.

(1:07:14 - 1:07:29)
And she was mean. She can't even smile in the class picture. And this is her system.

(1:07:30 - 1:07:41)
You have to write an essay every night. Like six, seven pages. Every night.

(1:07:42 - 1:08:00)
And she reads all of them carefully. She has 180 students. She reads all of those 180 essays every night.

(1:08:01 - 1:08:15)
And when she finished with her essay, it looks like World War II. Everything's red-pink. She's like, cut, cut.

(1:08:17 - 1:08:32)
You talk too much. When I was younger, I found out how to play the game in the school. You just write as much as possible.

(1:08:33 - 1:08:42)
Then the teacher's like, okay, you're good. She's like, no, cut. This is unnecessary.

(1:08:43 - 1:08:59)
This you could say more elegantly. Then she gives you a grade for the composition. So I'm used to A, A, A, A. 100, 100, 100.

(1:09:00 - 1:09:14)
I'm used to that. Then she also made a new rule. If you misspell one word, the grade drops one point.

(1:09:14 - 1:09:34)
Like A goes to B, B goes to C. You misspell four words, you're not going to college. We're all like this. We look at every word, we look in the dictionary.

(1:09:34 - 1:09:47)
And she's crazy. But when I finish her class, I can write. And help me for the rest of my life.

(1:09:48 - 1:10:03)
$100, $100, $100. Not $100 for you, $100 for me. How many books I wrote? Roughly, I don't care.

(1:10:05 - 1:10:14)
Due to her, due to her. Because of her. $100.

(1:10:15 - 1:10:22)
Just guess, I mean. Not, oh no, Kiri. Okay, go ahead, go ahead.

(1:10:24 - 1:10:41)
$127, $100. She taught me how to write. And I went to see her when I grew up.

(1:10:41 - 1:10:48)
I went to see her. She was retired. And I went to see her.

(1:10:50 - 1:11:01)
I begged her, can I come? Thank you, I want to thank you. And she said, you can come. So I went to her house with my friend.

(1:11:02 - 1:11:12)
And we said, we want to thank you for her. Because she didn't rest. She worked six, seven hours after school.

(1:11:15 - 1:11:28)
And we said, we just want to thank you. Then her husband came in, he said, honey, we're ready to go to dinner. It's just like, it's like, you boys go home now.

(1:11:30 - 1:11:36)
But we want to talk. She said, listen, I gave you everything I have. I don't have more.

(1:11:40 - 1:11:55)
Now I'm retired, I'm going to dinner. You boys go have a good life. So, maybe she's my heart teacher.

(1:11:55 - 1:12:07)
Maybe it's the meanest teacher from your high school. Okay, we're running out of time. I got more candidates.

(1:12:07 - 1:12:24)
Neil Young. So when I was, I don't know, 16, 17, he was the most unbelievable guitar player. I want to play like him.

(1:12:24 - 1:12:34)
And I want to look like him. I still want to look like him. Next picture.

(1:12:39 - 1:12:55)
I look like him, right? And that's my first girlfriend. And she's my wife. We met 60 years ago.

(1:12:58 - 1:13:11)
It's pretty hot, hot. We're still hot. We still have a very interesting life.

(1:13:14 - 1:13:32)
She taught me a lot. She's the only person in the world saying, that last talk you gave was so stupid. That last talk you gave was so stupid.

(1:13:32 - 1:13:46)
Everybody else is like, Geshe Michael, Geshe Michael. My wife's in the audience. She's like... She's like, change, change.

(1:13:47 - 1:13:57)
And I had many, many magical moments with her. Countless. Cannot count them all.

(1:13:58 - 1:14:08)
If there's an angel in my life, she's the angel. Take care of me my whole life. And keep me in the magical world.

(1:14:10 - 1:14:33)
She refused to talk about bills and bank accounts and what we're going to do next week. I'm like, we got to decide this thing about the bank account. She's like, it's the most beautiful evening in Arizona.

(1:14:35 - 1:14:47)
The monsoon rain has begun. Come with me outside. Sit in the chair.

(1:14:47 - 1:14:54)
Have a drink. Watch the rain. I'm busy.

(1:14:56 - 1:15:06)
Shut up with the busy. Come with me. She taught me to appreciate life.

(1:15:08 - 1:15:27)
And she lives in the magic all the time. So, maybe she's my heart teacher. Who knows? Except after that, she made me wash the dishes all the time.

(1:15:27 - 1:15:33)
For 60 years. It's okay. Okay, next.

(1:15:34 - 1:15:49)
I have some time. These are two crazy Israeli business people. And they are hard as diamonds.

(1:15:50 - 1:16:02)
Tough, tough, tough people. And the three of us start the company. And they taught me real business.

(1:16:04 - 1:16:16)
Global business. So, our company has many branches in the world. We start with three people.

(1:16:16 - 1:16:30)
We start with three diamonds. We rent half a table from another guy. I'm like, I have to pee pee.

(1:16:30 - 1:16:43)
He's like, you didn't pay for the bathroom key. There's a McDonald's across the street. I'm like, I just got to pee right now.

(1:16:43 - 1:17:02)
And then the guy's like, no, you only rent half the table. Later, together, we do 300,000 diamonds every day. The armored cars come under the building.

(1:17:03 - 1:17:19)
We dump the diamond bags, the diamonds. And they taught me. And at that time I was studying with my Buddhist teacher.

(1:17:19 - 1:17:30)
My Buddhist teacher is called Khen Rinpoche. Their name is Asri Land [?]. Israeli, Asri Land [?].

(1:17:33 - 1:17:42)
So, I'm like, sometimes they're so tough. They say, do this, do this, do this, do this. Get it done.

(1:17:44 - 1:17:48)
I'm like, I can't. It's impossible. Let me see your business card.

(1:17:51 - 1:17:58)
What's it say? Michael Roach. Michael Roach. What's it say under that? Manager.

(1:17:59 - 1:18:02)
Manager. Do it. Execute it.

(1:18:02 - 1:18:08)
He said, kick me out. The card says, manager, you manage. I don't care.

(1:18:10 - 1:18:16)
Make the money. I'm like, okay. And they taught me business.

(1:18:18 - 1:18:30)
So, sometimes when I meet them, they yell at me just like my Lama yells at me. During the daytime, they yell at me. During the nighttime, my Lama yells at me.

(1:18:34 - 1:18:41)
Sometimes I get confused. I call them, hey Lama. Sometimes I call my Lama, Mr. Asri Land.

(1:18:44 - 1:19:04)
I get confused. Am I in the Buddhism during the day or at night? It's very possible they are my heart teachers. We have 42 organizations now in this group.

(1:19:04 - 1:19:15)
In 45 countries. We were in Vietnam two days ago. And then we were in China the week before that.

(1:19:16 - 1:19:32)
200,000 people. And how can we do that? These crazy business people taught me. Maybe they're my heart teachers.

(1:19:32 - 1:19:55)
You need that. If you're going to teach people Diamond Way, you need to organize things just to organize this talk. It's a huge amount of work for Tim and for all of his team.

(1:19:56 - 1:20:15)
And I think we should give them a hand. Can you give them a hand? You're on the team. We want to thank you.

(1:20:22 - 1:20:38)
But you need to know how to work to do charity. You need to know how to work. And they taught me how to work.

(1:20:38 - 1:20:56)
I was in that company for 19 years. We usually worked till two o'clock in the morning every night. I learned how to work.

(1:20:57 - 1:21:17)
You know, people don't talk about it much. But I think if you have a heart teacher, they will also teach you how to work hard. And that's very important.

(1:21:17 - 1:21:31)
Same as teaching you how to write, same as teaching you to learn how to read, how to work. And I'm very grateful to them. We're still very close friends.

(1:21:36 - 1:21:49)
We still send each other love emails. I didn't work there for 26 years. We're still sending these love letters to each other.

(1:21:50 - 1:22:02)
So I think maybe they're my heart teachers. Okay, we got more candidates? I don't know. Oh yeah.

(1:22:08 - 1:22:28)
After I was working in the diamond... I worked in the diamond business secretly as a Geshe. Nobody knows I'm a Geshe. They don't know why I'm working there.

(1:22:31 - 1:22:50)
Then they say, where do you live? I said, I live with my father. Two hours away, it's two hours by bus. Four hours on the bus every day for 19 years.

(1:22:51 - 1:23:18)
And they said, who's that person you go to stay with them? I said, it's my father. Then after many years, like after 10 years, they found out slowly, oh, I'm a Geshe. And then I have many Chinese employees.

(1:23:21 - 1:23:36)
And they're from Thailand, Vietnam. And they asked me, can we meet your father? So I said, okay, come on. They drove for two hours.

(1:23:36 - 1:23:55)
And my teacher said, they can come up to my room and have tea with me. And you shouldn't come. Yeah, here goes my reputation.

(1:23:55 - 1:24:14)
He's going to tell them all the bad stuff about me. So they had a long meeting, like one hour, and then they all came down. My job at that time, I was the cook.

(1:24:16 - 1:24:30)
So I have to cook dinner for them. They were all like, oh, your father is so gentle. He's so sweet, oh man.

(1:24:30 - 1:24:48)
This is the guy who hit me yesterday. You think those beads are for counting mantra? You think those beads on the necklaces are for counting mantra? They're for tsuk [?]. Red spot.

(1:24:51 - 1:25:04)
He'd give me red spot frequently. Then they're like, oh, he's such a sweet old man. He says you're a wonderful student.

(1:25:04 - 1:25:19)
He says you're his best student. I said, he said that? Anyway, he taught me for 25 years. Got me through the Geshe course.

(1:25:20 - 1:25:33)
Refused to take money. And I had the pleasure to be his slave for 25 years. All the dirty work.

(1:25:34 - 1:25:51)
And I enjoyed it. I dug out the treasure house [?], septic, many times. I'm like, Rinpoche, we have trucks that do that.

(1:25:55 - 1:26:09)
He's like, yeah, but why waste $15? He'd give me a shovel and he'd say, you can give me that. I'm up to the poo poo, I mean up to here. Clean up.

(1:26:11 - 1:26:23)
He always saved money and give it to the monastery. He taught me everything. In the debate, he beat 5,000 monks.

(1:26:24 - 1:26:37)
5,000 monks and many Geshes. He beat all of them. If he says the sky is not blue, don't argue.

(1:26:40 - 1:26:50)
He will beat you. Later you will say, okay, it's not blue. He's so strong.

(1:26:50 - 1:26:56)
And he killed me. 25 years. No rest.

(1:26:57 - 1:27:17)
And with the books also kill me. ,SDUG BSNGAL NANGS RGA LA MA KHOR LO RDOG PA YANG, ,YOD NA LTAR GYI RGYUD LA MI YID DANG, ,CHOG ZHIG LA MI ZHIG MI THOB PA'I GONG NAS ZHIG PA GYUR, ,BDAG DANG DROG LA RNAMS TE LTAR GYI RGYUR, ,SEMS CAN THAR PA'I DUS, ,DI NAS ZHIG MI CHU ZHIG BYAG TU NYID PA LA GCIG GI BAR DU, What? What? Made a mistake. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

(1:27:18 - 1:27:35)
You have to memorize the book. And if you make a mistake... Anyway, maybe he's my heart teacher. The heart teacher is supposed to be a Buddhist monk.

(1:27:35 - 1:28:01)
Shouldn't be a 16 year old blonde girlfriend, right? Shouldn't be your irritating little brother. Shouldn't be your high school English teacher. Right? Should be a monk, right? Should be a Geshe.

(1:28:01 - 1:28:18)
By now you know the answer. Not true. When you came to this talk tonight, they say, oh, big Buddhist master going to talk.

(1:28:18 - 1:28:38)
Who's your heart teacher? Very possible it's your wife or your husband. Very possible it's your high school teacher. Very possible her name is Nila.

(1:28:39 - 1:28:48)
Two month old baby. Yeah, okay, his baby. Oh, she's going to teach him a lot.

(1:28:51 - 1:29:15)
Right now she's teaching him how not to sleep. It's very useful in life. Then he gets to sit and listen to his wife Ria talk to the other mothers about what's the best way to get milk out of your breast for six hours.

(1:29:23 - 1:29:43)
I know the conversations. But maybe, who is your heart teacher? Well, a few more. I still have a few minutes. 

Two minutes, right? Okay, next one. I don't remember. Oh, there's the milk tree [?].

(1:29:45 - 1:29:59)
This is the Geshe examination. Three thousand monks helped to examine. It takes about three weeks.

(1:30:02 - 1:30:14)
Each one asking questions. They are my classmates. We suffered together for 25 years.

(1:30:14 - 1:30:30)
We start with 60 classmates. Four graduate. The rest died or left the monastery or no more.

(1:30:31 - 1:30:43)
But you feel so close. This is your real family. It's the other Geshe candidates.

(1:30:44 - 1:31:10)
You can't answer the question and they're like, I'm a Geshe. And you debate together for three, four hours every day for 25 years. So you are tight. 

You are close. And they teach you, maybe they're your heart teachers. I don't know.

(1:31:10 - 1:31:23)
Next one. I think we're almost done. In our tradition, we also have historical teachers.

(1:31:23 - 1:31:40)
This is the one who wrote the book that grandpa gave to you today. 600 years ago. Maybe they're your heart teachers.

(1:31:40 - 1:31:48)
The historical teachers. Like Jesus. Like Mohammed.

(1:31:49 - 1:31:59)
So maybe Buddha. Maybe they're your heart teacher. One more candidate.

(1:32:00 - 1:32:11)
Last one. No, Geshe La, you showed this one already. Yeah, but she taught me something else.

(1:32:11 - 1:32:27)
She's the first close person in my life who died. And she died very young. She died 46 or something.

(1:32:28 - 1:32:38)
So she taught me something else. She taught me how to die. Everybody needs to learn.

(1:32:40 - 1:32:51)
All of us will die. Everybody in this room, we will die. I have some medical problem.

(1:32:51 - 1:33:04)
I have to do a serious operation this year. I don't know what will happen. But I know how to die.

(1:33:04 - 1:33:15)
Because I learned it from my mom. So that's a beautiful thing to teach somebody. We all have to die.

(1:33:17 - 1:33:32)
And they don't talk about it in the school. At Princeton University, there's no course called how to die. But we all have to die.

(1:33:32 - 1:33:52)
So if you can find someone who help you, who show you the way before you have to go. And man, she had an amazing death. It was a slow death.

(1:33:52 - 1:34:13)
And she was so gracious, and so kind, and so brave. We were just kids. But we have this example of how to die well.

(1:34:13 - 1:34:33)
Even dying, she'd take care of other people. And what happens after that? So, that's the end of my talk. Those are the possible heart teachers in your life.

(1:34:33 - 1:34:56)
Each one taught you something valuable. You are a collection of all the pieces which they gave you. If you are lucky, you had great teachers your whole life.

(1:34:56 - 1:35:09)
And that's not an accident. There's things you can do to attract great teachers. And it's not too late.

(1:35:10 - 1:35:26)
Each one of us has a lot of life to live. And there are many teachers available. And we have to change how we think.

(1:35:26 - 1:35:48)
We have to treat everybody as our potential teacher. And then your life is super happy, and super magical. And that's the most important teaching I can give you about magical life.

(1:35:51 - 1:36:06)
Meditate about your teachers, all the way back to mom. Make it a daily practice. And you will find many teachers you didn't know.

(1:36:10 - 1:36:23)
And to be grateful to them, you will be very happy person. Super successful. Okay? Thank you.

(1:36:23 - 1:36:52)
Thank you Aldo. Thank you very much. Thank you Michael Roach, our dear teacher, Lotus [?] Buddhism teacher.

(1:36:53 - 1:37:14)
Please stay with us and continue to teach us Buddhism forever. And our class for today ends here. And we will meet you again tomorrow morning, Arizona time.

(1:37:14 - 1:37:29)
Thank you very much all participants for being here, and thank you for sharing this wonderful class together. And we wish you a nice morning, afternoon, or evening. We will see you again.

(1:37:30 - 1:37:31)
Thank you.