BDW 3 «Суть волшебной жизни», занятие 2

(0:00 - 0:16)
Okay, dear audience, that was a fantastic class from our dear teacher. I think nobody can sell emptiness better than you, dear Geshe Michael. So we are really excited for the upcoming class.

(0:16 - 0:52)
Please sit back, enjoy, and let's absorb this wisdom. I hope so. Okay, good.

(0:53 - 1:15)
You got the first picture, Francisco? It's a diamond, I think, a box. Lindsay, can you push that back? I mean, that's my choice. All right.

(1:19 - 1:51)
So, welcome to Song of My Spiritual Life. And as I mentioned, Tsongkapa never talks about himself, except in one short book called Song of My Spiritual Life, which is kind of a book of spiritual experience or something like that. And only in this book he talks about his personal life, and he talks about his personal experience.

(1:52 - 2:21)
And, you know, it's so beautiful to hear him talk about his own inner self, that me and Gibson, is Gibson here? Gibson Chung? You would stand up, handsome. Yeah. And Gibson finished that book.

(2:21 - 2:32)
I bet Lindsay's going to get a copy. Is that what you're doing? She's... You should have sold cars. I got one here.

(2:34 - 2:41)
It's this book here. And if you don't have a copy, I guess we have them back there, I guess. I don't know.

(2:42 - 2:50)
But Gibson just finished this. It just came out. And it's a beautiful book.

(2:50 - 3:08)
We did a whole series of small books, pocket books, that you could carry in your purse or something like that, and read on the bus, or something like that. So I really, really like it. And Gibson did a beautiful job.

(3:10 - 3:59)
So this is the book that we're learning, and this is how I'm doing preparation for Diamond Way for this group. I have other groups around the world that I'm doing different Diamond Way introductions, but for you guys, this is the book that I'm teaching. All right. 

Thank you. And I think that's a wonderful introduction for a Diamond Way course, to read Tsongkapa's own verses about. And the commentary is by my teacher's teacher, Pabongka Rinpoche, who wrote the great lamrim that we studied for 14 long years.

(4:01 - 4:13)
People say they're my student. I say, how many of those 14-year classes did you come to? They're like, oh, I think I came to one. All right.

(4:14 - 4:45)
So I was in the diamond business for, after I saw emptiness directly, I had this intense, during the same hour, after I came down, I had this intense desire to not forget what happened to me for the rest of my life. So I thought, I need something to remember. And I just worked really hard.

(4:45 - 5:02)
I was still sitting on the same cushion. And I was thinking, thinking, thinking, you know, what's the one thing in this world which is similar to what I saw? And then I said, diamond. I said to myself, it's diamond.

(5:03 - 5:19)
If you read the Diamond Cutter business book, you know the reasons why. But diamond is the closest thing in this normal world to emptiness. And it's not close at all.

(5:20 - 5:36)
So what's the closest thing in the whole universe, physical universe? Diamond. How close is it? Not at all. And that's why I think Lord Buddha added the word cutter to the Diamond Sutra.

(5:37 - 5:43)
Because it's not, it's not close. Cut. Okay, cut it.

(5:43 - 5:57)
And there's some countries I've been to, they call it the Diamond Sutra. That's very, very wrong. It's Vajrachedika Sutra, which means Diamond Cutter Sutra.

(5:57 - 6:19)
And what it means, cutter means even diamond is not close. But it's the closest thing, okay? So I, in that moment, in those five minutes or something, I decided I must touch diamonds. I must be close to diamonds.

(6:20 - 6:29)
Any way I can do it, you know. And it took me years to get into the diamond business. It's like trying to join the mafia.

(6:31 - 6:41)
And they're like, well, who do you know in the mafia? And I'm like, I don't know anybody. They're like, go away. Many, many, I got kicked out of 30 companies.

(6:42 - 6:57)
So anyway, then I started this diamond business with some friends. And my only goal for 19 years was to touch diamonds every day. That's all.

(6:57 - 7:09)
I don't care about money. I used all the money for John Brady's project, mostly. But I didn't care about jewelry at all.

(7:10 - 7:28)
I still don't care about jewelry. And I wasn't, and nobody knew why I was there. Sometimes my partner would ask me, why are you here? What are you doing here? And I'm like, that's my private thing, you know.

(7:29 - 7:48)
But I just wanted to touch diamonds all day long. And we did, towards the end, we processed 300,000 diamonds every day. And we had a special building with a special basement.

(7:49 - 7:56)
And you guys saw it. And the armored car comes under the building. We close the iron gates.

(7:57 - 8:07)
And we take the bags of diamonds out of the truck. And we put them in the elevator, you know. Millions of diamonds every few weeks.

(8:09 - 8:22)
During those 19 years, doing millions of diamonds every two weeks, I never saw a perfect diamond. There is such a thing. There is a perfect diamond.

(8:23 - 8:40)
It's extremely rare. So in 19 years, dealing with millions and many millions of diamonds, I never saw and I never touched a perfect diamond. Okay? There is such a thing.

(8:40 - 8:48)
It's called D color, internally flawless, IF, 1.0 carat. There is such a thing. It's extremely rare.

(8:49 - 8:57)
He he he. Okay? And someone gave me one not too long ago. Thank you.

(8:58 - 9:12)
And I keep it in my... Well, I shouldn't tell you. It's right next to Tsongkapa on my altar, okay? If you ever need money. But I'm going to hand it around.

(9:14 - 9:27)
And just touch it, okay? It's good luck. In 19 years, I never touched one. Perfect diamond. 

It's a perfect diamond. You can hand it around. People can touch it.

(9:28 - 9:31)
No. Don't open. No, you'll lose it.

(9:31 - 9:39)
It'll fall out. Please don't open it. But I trust you, which is why I'm handing it around.

(9:40 - 10:00)
Okay? Why did I bring that today to you guys? Number one, Geshe Michael likes to show off. My friends know that. Right, Jingmei? But the other reason is, we're going to talk about dal-jor.

(10:00 - 10:18)
Say dal-jor. Dal-jor means all the things about your life that allow you to practice. Like, you have a human body.

(10:19 - 10:31)
It didn't fall apart yet. You have a good mind. We're not having war, nuclear war this week, I hope.

(10:31 - 10:40)
You know, we are living in good, good times. You have John Brady's project. You have Seiji's teaching business people.

(10:41 - 10:56)
You have all the translation. You have extraordinary resources to study. You sit here, you know, and you don't understand that you are one in a hundred million people.

(10:56 - 11:07)
Each person here is one in a hundred million people. You are more rare than that diamond. Each person here is more rare, you know.

(11:07 - 11:30)
And, I don't know, I was talking to Peter and Maria during the break. To find a good student, you work for years, you know, and then you find one, and then they drop out the next week, you know, right? So, no, I mean, you are rare. You people are much more rare than this diamond, and much more valuable.

(11:30 - 12:01)
You are extremely rare. To be alive, to have both kidneys working, or even one, okay, to have a mind, to have the ability to travel, to go to classes in the hot spot of the world, you are so... you are much more rare than that diamond, okay? So, that's what we're going to talk about today. That's what this class is about.

(12:01 - 12:26)
Say, DAL JOR. DAL JOR. It means the specific things about your mind, and your heart, and your body that are priceless. Much more rare than this diamond, okay? Each person here is one in a hundred million, really. I'm not exaggerating.

(12:26 - 12:35)
I like to exaggerate. That's... I don't know why. But, you are more rare than that, you know.

(12:35 - 12:51)
If you are sitting here in this class, and it's funny, because half the people in here are like, Geshe La, I'm not a good person. You're one in a hundred million, god damn, you know. You are... I don't care if you think you're good or not.

(12:52 - 13:01)
If you're here, that's proof that you are... out of a hundred million people, you are the best. Seriously. Inside.

(13:02 - 13:09)
Okay? Inside. You are... you are... you are very valuable. And you are valuable for the future, for other people.

(13:10 - 13:37)
If you are here, and you are learning something, you are extremely valuable, you know. Each time Peter, Maria, John, Jigme, when we teach somebody, and they learn... Seiji just did a wonderful one month program for his teacher training, SCAM [?]. Each person who comes out of that training is priceless.

(13:38 - 13:46)
It's much more valuable than this diamond, you know. They are priceless. And those conditions don't last.

(13:47 - 14:04)
Okay? Your body will not last. Okay? Your ability to travel, your ability to learn, your ability to sit on your cushion and meditate, it will not last. Your body will lie to you, your body will cheat you, your body will die.

(14:05 - 14:13)
Okay? Every person here, you know, that's the way it is. You have to use it now. You have to use it while you have.

(14:13 - 14:29)
So, that's this part of the Lamrim that we're going to study today. Okay? Who's the diamond? Where's the diamond? Yeah, you! Much more valuable than this diamond. Okay? Alright.

(14:36 - 15:13)
Each... Each time we have this kind of Diamond Way preparation class, I like to show you one of the twelve practice posters that we created when we translated the Life Story of Tsongkapa. Okay? And those were put together by myself and Rob Resinger. And... So, there's a set of twelve posters that give you advice for your life.

(15:14 - 15:19)
I'm sneaky. I don't know. Someday we have to print them and sell them.

(15:19 - 15:25)
Right, Tim? To raise money for ACI. Five Houses. Deal? Okay.

(15:25 - 15:38)
So, here's the poster for this term. And it's the twelfth of the original posters. And these are... Each poster gives you a suggestion for your life.

(15:38 - 15:52)
This poster says, Get away and go do retreat somewhere. Okay? Get away and go do retreat. We just had a wonderful ten-day innovation retreat.

(15:52 - 16:04)
Stanley Chan, stand up. Thank you. Yay! And we had forty participants.

(16:05 - 16:26)
These are high-powered business people. And we are trying to pass on the methods of finding new products, new ideas, new markets, innovation through retreat. It's a new idea for corporations.

(16:27 - 16:42)
Does it work? Geshe La built the largest jewelry company in the world. It was bought by Warren Buffet. Maybe it works? Okay.

(16:43 - 17:01)
I'm just saying. There's, I don't know, there's a hundred thousand jewelry companies around the world. Okay? The largest was built with new products and methods that were invented during deep retreat.

(17:02 - 17:12)
And specific deep retreat is like a three-day, four-day, ten-day deep retreat. So I'd like to congratulate Stanley. That was wonderful.

(17:12 - 17:29)
And I think, I think twelve of the retreatants are here. And could you stand up? If you were one of the retreatants, can you stand up? Yeah. Yay.

(17:33 - 17:37)
No, I mean this last week. This week. Yeah, this guy here.

(17:38 - 17:53)
So they were working on special projects. I gave them special projects to work on to invent a new process or to invent a new product. And we did a, it was a great job.

(17:53 - 18:09)
They did a great job. And it was a, they were very brave to come to a foreign country and go to a very wild place and do deep retreat there. And I'm very happy and very grateful.

(18:10 - 18:14)
And you guys did a good job. I heard you did a good job. That's what your boss said.

(18:15 - 18:25)
Alright. Here's a picture of those guys. This is their corporate homework.

(18:26 - 18:33)
They are doing wisdom mantras at Diamond Mountain. Okay. So this is a picture from last week.

(18:34 - 18:52)
We chose Diamond Mountain because it's one of the wildest places, emptiest places in the world. And we calculated how close to, it's two hours to the grocery store. Okay.

(18:52 - 19:14)
It's purposely out in the middle of nowhere. And that's a very, very good thing. And I think to me when you talk about how precious is your mind and your body, how precious are you, you are part of a new generation.

(19:14 - 19:29)
And I told some friends recently, my, I had 12 major teachers in the monastery. I had 12 teachers. Some of them spent 25 years teaching me.

(19:29 - 19:38)
And the last one passed away this year. They're all gone now. All 12 teachers are gone.

(19:40 - 19:45)
And that's the way it is. That's the way things go. Okay.

(19:46 - 20:02)
And then I was, I don't know, John will appreciate that thing. I was thinking about the future of my monastery. My monastery was started in 14, 1419 or something like that.

(20:02 - 20:16)
My monastery was started 600 years ago. And I'll be very honest, you know, and I spent 25 years there and I built a lot of things there. I built a library.

(20:17 - 20:29)
I built a school for 400 people, children. Somebody's here who helped support that school. Can you stand up, Candy Lai? Are you here? Yeah.

(20:30 - 20:42)
Where are you? Yeah. I gave a, we built a school. It's a huge school.

(20:43 - 20:53)
And I gave a talk there. They asked me to give a talk at the opening of the school. This is, I don't know, 20 years ago or something, 25 years ago.

(20:53 - 21:17)
And, so I'm trying to impress these kids, monk kids. And I'm like, who can tell me the difference between a human and a dog? And I thought they're going to say education. And then I said, what's the difference between a human and a dog? And one little kid goes, I know, I know.

(21:18 - 21:24)
Nguyen Hsien Kiyone [?], Nguyen Hsien Kiyone [?]. Yeah. What's the difference? Nguyen Hsien Kiyone says, Oh, Kusho-la, Kilo jumei ore [?].

(21:25 - 21:35)
Which means, Oh, respected sir, dogs have tails. I don't know. You know.

(21:36 - 21:48)
And, recently I met a geshe in New York. And, he says, I know you. And I said, how do you know me? He says, you built the school where I studied.

(21:48 - 22:00)
You and Candy Lai built the school where I studied. And I'm like, well, I'm sorry, you know, you changed a little bit. And he said, well, I once answered a question about a dog.

(22:01 - 22:20)
And I'm like, anyway, something happened to me when my last teacher passed away. And I was thinking about my 25 years there. And, and I'll tell you something very close to my heart.

(22:20 - 22:26)
Because I love that place. I think those days are gone. You know.

(22:27 - 22:47)
I think the days of those places are gone. I think the training, 25 years, difficult years. I think the training of Five Houses, the training of YSI, the ALL [?] effort, I think Peter and Maria's group.

(22:48 - 23:07)
These are all, to me, more valuable. And I think they are the future. I think they will, they will change the world more than those ancient, you know, monasteries where people, very few people come out of them.

(23:07 - 23:14)
Very few people go anywhere. They just live there. And it's only a few thousand people.

(23:15 - 23:27)
And so I think it's a, when I see this picture, I call it the new galaxy. And I think you are the stars. Okay? And I don't mean rock and roll star.

(23:27 - 23:38)
I mean star in the sky. You are the light. I think it's the students in Five Houses, the students in John's programs, all these guys' programs.

(23:40 - 23:45)
I believe, and I love these monasteries. I love them. I care about them.

(23:48 - 24:05)
I built more monasteries than any human in the world, I think. Okay? But I don't think, I think you are the future. Okay? And I think what you can do with your training will change more people, and will help more people.

(24:05 - 24:16)
I believe so. I think so. Okay? But, you have to take the diamond of your life, and you have to use it well.

(24:16 - 24:29)
Okay? You have to, you have to learn to use it well. Okay? You have to take the diamond that you have. And you are the hope for the future.

(24:29 - 24:35)
The people in this room are the hope for the future. Basically. Okay? There's other groups that we have.

(24:35 - 24:38)
We have DCIS [?]. We have these other groups. They are all same.

(24:38 - 24:43)
They are galaxy, future galaxy. They are all stars. They are all precious.

(24:44 - 24:57)
But you are the only hope, I think. People in this room, you are the hope for the future. And I would say, so recently I was translating a new book.

(24:58 - 25:15)
This is a book by Arya Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna wrote, we found 140, me and Stanley, something, 140 books by Nagarjuna. Only two are letters to kings.

(25:16 - 25:26)
And he was asked by the king of the country for advice. And Nagarjuna wrote two letters to kings. And they are exquisite.

(25:27 - 25:43)
And they are special, because they were not written for monks or nuns. They were written for normal politicians. Okay? No, I mean business leaders.

(25:43 - 25:56)
These two letters are extraordinary. They were written for normal family people, working people. They were written for working people.

(25:57 - 26:14)
And so, I was working on this, and I found a commentary by Tsongkapa's teacher. Which, to be the teacher of the greatest Buddhists who ever lived, must be pretty cool guy. And his name, say, Rendawa.

(26:16 - 26:29)
Yeah, his name was Rendawa. And he wrote an exquisite commentary to Nagarjuna. Okay? And, so I finished translating it.

(26:29 - 26:44)
It took me about two months, three months. And my teacher taught me this book 40 years ago. And, so it was something cool for me to translate it 40 years later.

(26:45 - 27:05)
And it's here. Can you hold it up? Can you take it out and hold it up? You can pass it around, okay? It's a, the manuscript is a slim 600 pages. And you can just hand it around.

(27:05 - 27:20)
You can poke into it. That's Rendawa on the cover, by the way. And the reason I'm showing it to you, Rosa doesn't, where is Rosa? Rosa doesn't like it when I let books out early.

(27:23 - 27:28)
But, she's on her way. I can do anything. Okay.

(27:30 - 27:52)
They're not ready to print. They have to be fixed by Anatole, who's our, where is Anatole? Are you here? Can you stand up? You should thank him. He works many, many hours every day to polish grandpa's books.

(27:52 - 28:02)
And he does, he does a really, really good job. Utpala spent many years doing the same. Utpala, stand up.

(28:10 - 28:37)
Why I'm showing you this book, I was curious about the teacher of Tsongkapa. Like, how did he get to be so special that he would teach, you can split them up and pass them around. How did he get to be so special to teach the greatest teacher of all? You know, what's this guy's life story? So I spent, I looked in John Brady's database.

(28:38 - 28:46)
I searched for him. I found 700 stories. Okay, in John Brady's database.

(28:46 - 28:58)
That's how cool is his database. And, so I put together his life. It took me a long time to read 700 stories, and I did it.

(29:00 - 29:23)
And deep inside one of those stories is his 16 steps of how to use your diamond well. There's 16 steps how to use your diamond, flawless diamond life well. Okay.

(29:24 - 29:33)
So, grandpa took them out. Grandpa made a list. And Tim printed it.

(29:34 - 29:44)
I hope. Did you? You ready? It's time. You got it? Oh, nice.

(29:45 - 29:59)
Okay, everybody has a copy. 16 guidelines to have a good life. And that's how I would like to teach dal-jor.

(30:02 - 30:11)
That's how I would like to teach the value of a human life. Okay. Here are 16 suggestions for living a good life.

(30:12 - 30:22)
Okay. This, I got it here. 16 suggestions for, 16 suggestions for living a good life.

(30:22 - 30:32)
I think if you follow these 16, we finish this part of the book. Okay. Alright? Okay, so here, we're going to go through one by one.

(30:32 - 30:37)
Alright. I can't read it anyway. Okay, thanks.

(30:38 - 30:52)
Say, rik-la, sig-ne, gyewa, she-tsu. Let's see, I got to watch the time, because I tend to talk too much. Okay.

(30:56 - 31:05)
In 29 minutes and 17 seconds. Alright. I might run over to tomorrow, okay? Don't worry about it.

(31:05 - 31:21)
Rik means, in Tibetan language, rik means family, especially in society. Like, where's the level of your family? It's called rik. It's also used in the five Buddha families.

(31:22 - 31:26)
They're also called rik. Rik-na. Okay, the five Buddha families.

(31:26 - 31:42)
So you can say, sig is very polite word for Chenrezig, to look. Avaloka, look down at all the people's problems. Okay, so, rik-la, sig-ne, gyewa, birth.

(31:43 - 31:55)
She means, he agreed to do it. Okay, so there's, gyewa means, gyewa is sort of a bad word in Buddhism. It means, forced to take a birth.

(31:56 - 32:13)
Then they added a second verb, he agreed to the deal. Okay, he, they're like, would you take birth on our planet? He's like, yeah, okay. That's called gyewa she, agreed to take birth, okay.

(32:13 - 32:45)
So, I translated it, he orchestrated his birth, and he chose a good family. Good means, what's a useful family at that time, in that part of the world. Okay, it could be any family, but in that particular society, in that particular time, what's a useful family to be born into? And people choose, okay, great beings choose.

(32:46 - 33:06)
Okay, all you parents can be suspicious of your kids, that they chose you, okay. They choose you, all right. So he chose his parents, and he chose to take birth in a certain place, okay.

(33:06 - 33:25)
So if I tell you, there's 16 things I want you to do, please take birth in a useful family, in a useful country, okay. Now it's too late, but I'm talking next time. I am talking next time, okay.

(33:25 - 33:36)
You've been born many millions of times. Be more careful. Choose your family carefully, okay.

(33:36 - 34:09)
And you will have some power over it, okay. You don't know how to do it yet, that's a later class, okay. But put it in your heart now that grandpa expects you to make a careful selection next time, of what family, in what country, in what language, in male or female body, what will be most useful for you to teach next time, okay.

(34:10 - 34:22)
And don't think it's a stupid or crazy thing. I'm working on it now, myself, okay. You gotta, you gotta understand how to do it, and then you have to do it, okay.

(34:22 - 34:43)
He chose his country, and his language, and his people, his sex, he chose everything carefully, okay. So, that's part of using your diamond well, okay. Second one, shun nu du kye nam par tharpa.

(34:43 - 35:50)
Those of you who know, nam par tharpa, nam tar means biography, but in this case it means, what's the story? And shun nu means when he was young, how did he spend his time? How did he prepare for his adulthood? You know, even as a, as a elementary school kid, as a little kid, how did he prepare himself? And usually this involves learning to read, learning to write, learning basic math, science, your elementary education, okay. You don't think about it, and we don't appreciate elementary school teachers, they are the backbone of a country, and they're the lowest paid also, okay. They are, if you have good teachers of children, your country is successful, and we don't pay them anything.

(35:51 - 36:03)
So he, he knew that, he was very careful. Shun nu, there's a pun here also, his monk's name was Shunnu Lodro. Say Shunnu Lodro.

(36:04 - 36:13)
His general name is Rendawa. Rendawa means Renda guy. That's his place name, okay.

(36:13 - 36:28)
That's where he, that's the place where he was born, was the town called Renda, Renda, okay. And he's called Mr. Rendawa. But his personal name is Shunnu Lodro, young wisdom, okay.

(36:29 - 36:44)
Kumaramati, in Sanskrit, okay. All right. So anyway, I'm asking you, next time, okay, don't think there won't be a next time, you'll go faster than you think.

(36:46 - 37:03)
Have the intention to prepare yourself well during your childhood, okay. I'm going to crack the books, and I'm going to listen to my mom and dad, and I'm going to be a good girl or a good boy, okay. All right.

(37:04 - 37:12)
It's not crazy. I'm asking you to use your diamond, okay. And you have to start as a child.

(37:12 - 37:29)
And it's a, isn't that interesting? Everybody in the world dies. Everybody. There's no course at Princeton or Harvard, maybe at DSU [?], I don't know, about how to die well, and how to die intelligently.

(37:30 - 37:53)
There's no course, because they don't know what's going to happen, right? You will come back. By the way, you need mathematical proof? You ready? If something can happen once, it can happen twice. Duh! I had a ballet teacher, she's like, duh! You know.

(37:54 - 38:09)
I mean, come on. If you can come once, and time is unending, you can come twice. Okay? So get ready.

(38:09 - 38:15)
It's not stupid to get ready. It's not stupid to set your intention. I'm going to study really good in elementary.

(38:16 - 38:28)
I'm going to listen to my... I will put a few thumbtacks on the teacher's chair, but in general I will be a good student. Okay? All right. Number three.

(38:30 - 38:55)
Geshe-lang che-pay [?] Geshe-lang che-pay [?] chi-mey ten-tsu [?] At a fairly young age, he took his bodhisattva vows and his basic ten vows when he was 15 years old. Like that, okay? He got his vows early. Okay? And that's a good goal.

(38:55 - 39:14)
He got his bodhisattva vows at 15 before he took his monk's vows, because you can't take monk's vows, full monk's vows, until you're 21. So he took his vows and he followed the vows. Okay? He took vows.

(39:15 - 39:24)
He made it a point in his lifetime. I got to take some vows. I got to take some normal vows.

(39:24 - 39:46)
Okay? Why are we having this class? We are preparing to take diamond way vows. Okay? You are preparing to be granted the extraordinary good luck, the diamond of all diamonds, to take diamond way vows. Okay? You are training to do that.

(39:47 - 39:58)
Okay? He took his vows and he kept them well. Okay? All his vows. Bodhisattva vows, Vinaya vows, Pratimoksha vows, Tantric vows.

(39:58 - 40:05)
He kept them. Okay? How many we got? Four. We got 12 more.

(40:05 - 40:15)
Okay? 16 suggestions. From whom? Rendawa. This is Tsongkapa's teacher, come on.

(40:16 - 40:22)
Alright? Like Jesus's teacher, private teacher. Okay? That's his position. That's who he is.

(40:24 - 40:44)
And by the way, that book, I'm trying to push to get it printed quickly, because it's a wonderful, wonderful introduction to Buddhism. It's a complete introduction to Buddhism, written by the greatest emptiness teacher in history, Nagarjuna. Okay? Alright.

(40:46 - 41:09)
Number four. Dhamme ngakpe, tacit tenso [?]. Even as a young person, teenager, he acted in a kind way towards other people, and he he watched his viewpoints.

(41:10 - 41:29)
Okay? Meaning, he's very sensitive to the fact that he created all the people he met. Okay? There's an old Diamond Mountain joke. We were studying this subject for a long time.

(41:29 - 41:37)
A new person came. They were irritating. I would say number one irritating person I've met at Diamond Mountain.

(41:38 - 42:08)
And they were irritating everybody. And then I remember they stood up and they were surrounded by a bunch of old Diamond Mountain people, and and this lady said, she looked around and she said, I'm surrounded by idiots, you know. And everybody's like, right? Because you create all the people around you.

(42:08 - 42:22)
Get it? Everyone around you is a mirror of you. Okay? Everyone around you is a mirror of you. What you see when you look at other people is you.

(42:23 - 42:48)
So anyway, he not only acted nicely towards other people, but he understood that they are the mirror of him. Every person he met, he understood what I see is who I am. Okay? Even as a young, like a teenager or something, okay? That's number four.

(42:49 - 43:04)
We're getting into ones that you can do now. You don't have to wait for next life. Okay? You can look at other people and say, I'm so glad I know Mahagirti [?], because he's my reflection.

(43:05 - 43:09)
And I'm proud of that reflection. Like that. Okay? Alright.

(43:10 - 43:33)
Number five. kyebu dampa kupe ten su. How he took himself to holy teachers for study and spiritual development. Okay? And he had the opportunity to study with the greatest teachers of his time.

(43:34 - 43:46)
Especially Tokme Sangpo. Tokme Sangpo pretty much invented lojong. Okay? 37 practices of the bodhisattva were written by Tokme Sangpo.

(43:47 - 44:13)
So here's Rendawa's root lama is pretty much the one who invented lojong. Okay? That's not bad, right? He also studied with Tsongkapa after he got to know him. And it's a very rare circumstance where they taught and studied with each other.

(44:14 - 44:24)
You know, sometimes Rendawa would teach, and sometimes Tsongkapa would teach. Okay? Got it? Cool. And they did that for many lifetimes.

(44:24 - 44:30)
And we even know their names in those lifetimes. And it's really cool to read that biography. Okay.

(44:30 - 44:43)
All right. So I wrote an introduction to that book. The introduction got so long that I moved it to the back of the book.

(44:44 - 44:54)
Because I thought no one would read the book. So there's a long hundred page biography of Rendawa in the back. It is exquisite.

(44:55 - 45:17)
It's an exquisite thing in how he studied, what he chose to study. And I'll tell you something that means a lot to me. The teachers he chose, and the subjects he studied, were the exact Geshe course.

(45:19 - 45:36)
Every year. He studied, by coincidence, exactly what a modern Geshe studies. He studied the exact course of great books that the Geshe program studies.

(45:36 - 45:59)
You can say he invented the Geshe course. Okay? And you can say that he learned it himself from his teachers. And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. 

Okay? For me it means a lot. Okay? Tens of thousands of Geshes in history have followed him. Okay? That's something.

(46:01 - 46:03)
The classics. Studying the classics. Okay.

(46:06 - 46:28)
By the way, I feel strongly that we should study the classics, even in these courses. So tomorrow morning, am I right? We will have our normal translator class. And because of the time that they opened this place, we will not do early meditation.

(46:29 - 46:43)
In Rimrock, we do a 7 a.m. meditation for the local friends. We can meditate together once a week. And then we do the translator class.

(46:43 - 46:58)
So what we have to do here, because of the opening time, is we will have the translator class at 8 a.m. here. Yeah. And we have 12 translators studying.

(46:59 - 47:15)
And Tim is one. And so Tim will be having his class tomorrow morning. Okay? Tim is translating Madhyamaka, meaning part of the Middle Way school.

(47:15 - 47:33)
He's translating. He has a book to translate, which will take 56 years to finish. Okay? How we're going to do that, we might have to pick up in the next life. 

Okay? I don't know. We'll see. Alright.

(47:34 - 47:45)
So anyway, Rendawa did his homework. And he worked hard to find the right teachers, and he studied. Now listen.

(47:46 - 48:04)
Something very important. Only Rendawa learned the great classics on emptiness by Nagarjuna, Shantideva, and Chandrakirti. Okay? Only ... Only Rendawa had that transmission at that time.

(48:04 - 48:14)
The only place that Tsongkapa could have learned emptiness was Rendawa. Nobody else knew it. Nobody else could understand it.

(48:14 - 48:23)
He was the one person who understood emptiness in Tibet at that time. Okay? So that's pretty cool. He worked hard to get there.

(48:24 - 48:31)
And we'll talk about that. Okay, number six. We're not going to make it through 16, I tell you that.

(48:32 - 48:39)
Okay. How he devoted himself to learning what the Buddha really meant, which is called gongpa. Say gongpa.

(48:40 - 49:01)
Gongpa means what the teacher really means. What the teacher really means. In the case of Lord Buddha, this is a very big subject, because Lord Buddha taught emptiness, for example, many different ways, to many kinds of students.

(49:02 - 49:17)
Only one of them is actually correct. Okay? Only one of ... So why did he teach so many kinds of emptiness? Because the students weren't ready. So he checked the student, and then he would teach the emptiness to fit them.

(49:18 - 49:26)
The one I taught you today is the ultimate one. Okay? No kidding. Really.

(49:27 - 49:29)
Okay? Seriously. Okay. All right.

(49:30 - 49:41)
So anyway, he spent ... He wasn't satisfied just to sit in the class. He wanted to go deeper, and he wanted to see what's the real truth. Okay? He worked very hard on that.

(49:42 - 49:59)
And if you're interested, you can get the book, and you can follow him through his education, his Buddhist education. Okay? Number seven. How he gained the profound, the deepest understandings of a perfect view of reality.

(49:59 - 50:21)
How did he see emptiness? Did he see emptiness? How did he see emptiness? What happened to him when he saw emptiness? These are things you can read. But it's exactly the same books that I'm teaching you. Okay? He used those books also.

(50:21 - 50:26)
Exactly the same books. Okay? All right. That's number seven.

(50:31 - 50:56)
How he wrote commentaries on the classics. So he explained the classics, and then he wrote new classics. And that part in his biography is, for me as a Geshe, it's very interesting, because he wrote a great commentary on each of the Geshe topics.

(50:57 - 51:10)
He covered all of them. Okay? When I say commentary, if you translated them into English, they would be four to five thousand pages each. That's a commentary.

(51:11 - 51:27)
And maybe you can cover one page in a day. Right? If you try to study them. You know, imagine this person wrote, I don't know, a hundred thousand pages, something.

(51:27 - 51:42)
It's incredible. And they're all amazing. And by the way, John Brady's project, Nick Lashaw, Ben Kramer, they found a handwritten copy of his books.

(51:43 - 51:52)
And I got the final input this morning. Okay? It's fourteen volumes. It's fourteen thousand pages.

(51:53 - 52:03)
And John's team input those pages. I got the last volume this morning. Okay? They've been working on it for five years or something.

(52:03 - 52:17)
So, it's really amazing. Alright? And it's free. What is that? Who is that? Oh, hi Malaysia [?].

(52:18 - 52:22)
Oh, that's Lashaw. Oh, hi. Congratulations.

(52:22 - 52:33)
Yeah, he sent it to me this morning. You're not looking at my bald spot, are you? Okay, okay, okay. No, they're over there.

(52:33 - 52:37)
Okay. Alright. Number eight.

(52:39 - 53:07)
RANG GA GZHAN DANG RNAM SHES RDZAY TSUL [?] Yeah, how did he write his commentaries? And how did he explain those books? And his style of writing is uniquely accessible. And this book is special because it was written for a person who was not a monk. This book was written for a person who was not a monk.

(53:07 - 53:13)
And he talks about it. Inside the book he talks about it. Nagarjuna talks about it.

(53:14 - 53:29)
Arya Nagarjuna wrote two letters to kings. There's a third letter to a king by a great scholar named Nagasena [?]. And we have those three letters to kings.

(53:30 - 53:44)
And they are extraordinary pieces of advice for business people. Because kings were the ultimate business people. So me and Stanley and Xiaoping, we're working on a book.

(53:46 - 53:57)
You don't know the name. Dragon Strategy, something like that. And it's how to use those three letters to run a business.

(53:57 - 54:05)
A successful business. Even if it's a non-profit, Tim. Okay, like that.

(54:05 - 54:18)
I think it's going to be cool. The third book is called Milinda Panha in Pali. And it means the questions of King Milinda.

(54:19 - 54:26)
Which is a corruption of the name Menander. Which is a Greek name. And he was one of the Greek kings of India.

(54:27 - 54:48)
So Alexander the Great, with the help of his teacher Aristotle, conquered the entire known world all the way to India. And conquered big parts of India. And then he left generals there to run the country for 500 years or something.

(54:48 - 54:56)
Menander was one of them. So it's very interesting. The Geshe hat comes from Alexander the Great.

(54:57 - 55:02)
Right? Okay. And it's very interesting. Okay.

(55:03 - 55:15)
Alright. I still got five minutes, okay? Hang in there. I was sitting in a small hut.

(55:16 - 55:26)
Was crushed in with 30 Geshe students. The teacher, we didn't have any classrooms. The teacher was sitting on his bed.

(55:26 - 55:35)
Because that was the only place to sit. And it was the monsoon. And the roof was straw.

(55:36 - 55:43)
And water was dripping down on all the students. Half of them had tuberculosis. And I'm sitting there.

(55:44 - 55:54)
And it's like... And it's hot. And it's wet. And I'm like... I make a solemn vow.

(55:55 - 56:09)
When I become a teacher, I will make those people suffer. Understand? That's why you have to sit so long. Okay? Anyway.

(56:09 - 56:16)
Alright. Number nine. By the way, this is a... This is a list of things you have to do in your lifetime.

(56:16 - 56:31)
Okay? Don't forget. Number nine. CHEN YIN RZE'I LOMANGS PA'I TSUL [?] How he grew his group of disciples and spread the Dharma among them.

(56:31 - 56:51)
Okay? So... By the way, group of disciples for some of you means... talk to people at work or talk to your family members and try to get them not to fight with each other. That's Dharma teaching. Okay? That may be your Dharma teaching.

(56:52 - 57:04)
You know? We don't know. But everybody here has to teach. Okay? And it may be... What I'm trying to say is it doesn't have to be your teaching the Geshe course.

(57:05 - 57:28)
Maybe you can help people more if you just teach people at your job to get along with each other. And the best way to do that is be a good example. Okay? I asked my teacher... You know, when I first went to the diamond business in the first few months, I told my teacher I can't stay there.

(57:28 - 57:43)
And he said, Why? And I said, They're doing some dishonest things and they're fighting and I can't stay there. And he said, You see if you can change it. You see if you can clean up.

(57:44 - 57:52)
And it took 15 years. But I did it. And at the end, it was like a Buddhist pocket in Manhattan.

(57:53 - 58:04)
The whole building, you know, like 800 people, they were all like... you know, except for Palma. Okay. Nah, I'm just kidding.

(58:05 - 58:09)
I'm just kidding. Okay. Alright.

(58:11 - 58:40)
By the way, just so you know, and I don't know, Peter Maria, I think of you, I don't know why. So, Rendawa's student was Tsongkapa, but before Rendawa met Tsongkapa, he had two other students called Gyaltsab Je and Kedrup Je. Okay? So, Tsongkapa's two closest disciples started with Rendawa.

(58:41 - 59:10)
And then Rendawa trained them, you know, and trained them in the classics. And these are the two great disciples of Tsongkapa. And Rendawa told those two disciples, there's this person named Tsongkapa, he's new to our area, central Tibet, central and central west Tibet, Tsang and U, Utsang.

(59:13 - 59:29)
And Rendawa assigned them to go help Tsongkapa. Okay? That's weird, you know. A teacher takes his two best students and offers them to another teacher.

(59:30 - 59:57)
And they became the two right-hand people of Tsongkapa. If you know the history, we are studying, I mean, Nick's translating Gyaltsab Je, Nick already translated a different Gyaltsab Je, Adam is translating Kedrup Je, Gibson is translating Tsongkapa. It's all, you know, it's all came from Rendawa.

(59:57 - 1:00:21)
It's very interesting. It's so interesting, like if you have two great fundraisers in your organization, like you're John Brady, and then Tim needs money because he's not allowed to charge, and then you're John Brady and you offer your two best fundraisers to Tim. That's what Rendawa did.

(1:00:22 - 1:00:28)
It's weird. It's pretty weird. I'm not saying anything.

(1:00:29 - 1:00:39)
Okay. Okay, number ... We still have zero minutes. Oh, we got to stop.

(1:00:40 - 1:00:48)
Okay, where did we stop? Number ... No. We did ten. Oh no, we didn't do ten.

(1:00:48 - 1:00:51)
You're right. We finished nine. Okay? And then we'll go to ten.

(1:00:53 - 1:01:01)
I should get the diamond back? I hope so. Don't worry, it's here. I trust you guys.

(1:01:02 - 1:01:06)
All right. We have to leave pretty soon, I think. They have to close the place.

(1:01:06 - 1:01:16)
Right, Tim? Am I right? Okay. So, please don't dawdle, or dawdle outside, okay? And I'll see you guys tomorrow. Thank you for coming so far.

(1:01:16 - 1:01:33)
Thank you for coming so far. Okay. Thank you so much, our dear teacher.

(1:01:33 - 1:01:48)
Thank you very much. Your classes are immaculate, as usually. A few announcements.

(1:01:49 - 1:02:20)
For those who are online, you will have meditation with Sugeng at 9 p.m. For those who are on site, please take your garbage with you, okay? Leave the place pure. And also, we have a necklace, orange stone inside the diamond [?]. So, maybe if it's yours, I have it, you can come to me to take it back.

(1:02:20 - 1:02:33)
Okay? Have an amazing, sweet, sweetest dreams tonight. And see you all at 8 a.m. for our translation classes. Goodbye.

(1:03:00 - 1:04:31)
And I'll send all my loving to you I'll pretend that I'm missing The lips I am missing And hope that my dreams will come true And then while I'm away I'll write home every day And I'll send all my loving to you All my loving I will send to you All my loving, darling, I'll be true Close your eyes and I'll kiss you To be true, I'll be true