BDW 3 «Суть волшебной жизни», занятие 6

(0:06 - 0:26)
OK, so we are about to start our last class for today. We are about to maybe listen a bit more of Geshe La's stories, because they are really helping us to understand deeper the precious teachings he delivered to us. Thank you very much.

(0:55 - 1:03)
Hello, hello. Oh, I woke up so many people. All right, we'll start.

(1:03 - 1:25)
All right, we're going to do Song of My Spiritual Life, which is Tsongkapa's story about his own life, the spiritual side of his life. And I'm going to start with the Good Night Book Club slide. This is called the Good Night Book Club.

(1:27 - 1:52)
And we reached a part. We finished the 16 steps of a good life, OK? And please use them in the next few weeks, OK? Read them. Don't skip any, OK? You can say, oh, I don't know how to prepare for my next life.

(1:53 - 2:18)
Then start thinking about it, OK? So don't skip any, all right? Go through the 16 again and again. If somebody is cool enough to teach Tsongkapa, he's probably cool, OK? Understand? All right. And I don't know, a couple of years ago, so there's my story.

(2:20 - 2:34)
I told you this story, but I have to tell you again, because somebody still didn't listen. So not you. Then during COVID, so I never owned a TV in my whole life.

(2:35 - 2:53)
I didn't watch TV. And then during COVID, I started to watch TV shows on my computer, because I'm stuck at home all the time. And then it gets worse and worse.

(2:53 - 2:59)
I start to watch movies. I start to watch violent movies. I start to watch dirty movies.

(2:59 - 3:06)
They're bad movies. And then I get more and more addicted. And then I start to watch all the time.

(3:07 - 3:27)
And then I found a way to stop it. And I decided, I have a friend in Arizona, my student, Will Duncan. He has a small retreat center, only two or three people allowed at a time.

(3:28 - 4:06)
And when you go to stay there in the evening, he takes away your phone and your computer, and he turns off the internet in the house. So even if you have a secret phone, you can't use it, secret computer. So I heard about it, and I knew about it for a long time, but somehow I didn't think to try it myself because I'm his teacher, why should I do what he's teaching? So then I actually tried it, and it's unbelievable.

(4:07 - 4:32)
It's unbelievably cool. And it's very important, if you try to do those 16 steps of a good life, it's very, very, very helpful if you can control your use of the cell phone and your use of movies and things like that. And I wish I had done it earlier.

(4:32 - 4:59)
I wish I had done it 10 years ago or 20 years ago because I started a couple of years ago, and I'm very strict, 10 o'clock, always at 10 o'clock. I either, if I'm with my wife, I put the computer and the phone on her side of the bed, and you cannot sneak by my wife late at night. She will catch you.

(5:00 - 5:17)
So it's safe, I won't touch it. And then if I'm traveling by myself, Rob, my assistant, my beautiful personal assistant, he will come at 10 o'clock and take my computer and my phone. No negotiation.

(5:18 - 5:36)
I cannot say, 10.05, 10.10. He's like, no negotiation, Michael, give me your computer. You know, it's time to sleep. So 10 o'clock, I give him my computer, I give him my phone, and then he brings it back at six o'clock, which means I have to wake up before six.

(5:37 - 5:56)
And I know John Brady and Connie and all those guys are very good Buddhists, and they wake up early and meditate. I never did that much, except for a three-year retreat. And I was lazy, and I had trouble waking up at six o'clock.

(5:56 - 6:27)
So now, for a few years, I'm going to bed at 10, forced to go to bed. And then six o'clock, I wake up, and I have a whole special system about going to bed and waking up, okay? And I would like to talk about it because it's very important for living the 16 steps of a good life. We covered the 16 steps in the last two days.

(6:28 - 6:55)
And if you keep this good night book club habit, if you, at 10 o'clock, you give up your phone, and you give up your computer, and you don't watch movies. And then six o'clock, you wake up. And from six o'clock up to 11.30, I try to study, or I try to do my practice.

(6:55 - 7:09)
I translate, and I don't see other people, usually, until about noontime or something. So it's pretty strict. And very few people can prevent.

(7:09 - 7:35)
Basically, you have to really work hard to interrupt me. See, like that. So anyway, and then if you follow this system, can you show the bag, the bag you got? Yeah, we created a bag.

(7:35 - 7:45)
Rosa Van Grieken and me, we worked together. We created a special bag. Lindsay's showing it to you.

(7:46 - 7:58)
That bag fits your computer. That bag fits your phone. And it has a lock on it, okay? It has a special time lock, okay? It locks at 10 o'clock.

(7:59 - 8:16)
And you cannot open it until six o'clock, okay? It's very, very good idea, okay? And then we have a tote bag that you put the computer bag in. And then I use that all the time. I carry it all the time.

(8:16 - 8:26)
And I use it all the time, okay? So we're not selling it. If you don't have money and you want one, I'll give it to you. I don't care.

(8:27 - 8:40)
But it's amazing. It's a miracle, okay? If you get, my third grade teacher told me, you need to sleep for eight hours. And I didn't believe her then.

(8:40 - 8:53)
And up till a few years ago, I didn't believe it. I said, look, I'm a tough guy. I was 19 years corporate slave, vice president of the largest jewelry company in the world.

(8:53 - 9:02)
I don't need sleep. I'm a tough guy. I can, four hours, three hours, five hours, it's okay, I can do it.

(9:02 - 9:14)
I'm not like you normal people. And I feel very proud that I don't need to sleep. Then suddenly I'm trying to do this thing of work, sleep eight hours a day.

(9:15 - 9:36)
And in the beginning, I was just sitting there like, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, I don't feel sleepy. But then I started to sleep at 10, and I started to wake up at six. And if you ever had a schedule like that, you start to wake up without a clock.

(9:37 - 9:46)
You start to wake up at 5.59. And it's fun. It's kind of fun. You wake up at 5.59. You have to be quick to turn off the alarm clock.

(9:47 - 10:00)
Then you say, ha ha, I turned you off before you rang. And you can get this really incredible habit. And it starts to make your mind stronger.

(10:01 - 10:13)
If you get eight hours of sleep, by the way, you just get down on the bed at 10 o'clock, I don't care. You feel sleepy, you don't feel sleepy, I don't care. Shut up, get on the bed, 10 o'clock.

(10:14 - 10:23)
And if you can't fall asleep, lay there, I don't care. And stay there until six. You can jump on the bed, but you can't get off the bed.

(10:24 - 10:39)
Stay there until six. And something will happen to your mind, and it's just wonderful. And I was afraid to keep this system because I have so much work to do.

(10:39 - 10:52)
I have thousands of pages of translations to do. I don't have time to sleep eight hours a night. What happened was my productivity increased 300%.

(10:54 - 11:11)
I used to finish one book in a year or something like that. This year I finished five or something like that. If you get eight hours of sleep, your mind changes, and you're very powerful mind.

(11:12 - 11:25)
And people can't believe it. I just keep translating a book every month, two months. Ancient books, 2,000-year-old books, because I'm rested, my mind is rested.

(11:25 - 11:39)
So we call it the Good Night Book Club. Lindsay Jilk runs it. Where's Lindsay? Yeah, talk to her, okay? I'll tell you a secret.

(11:40 - 11:50)
She's a big real estate person in the United States. Okay? She doesn't need to do this job. She does it as a volunteer.

(11:50 - 12:14)
She does it for us. I caught her in her garage in 115 degrees heat, 47, 48 for you centigrade people. And she's out there in the middle of the night packing books for people, okay? So if you join, we have a special club.

(12:15 - 12:31)
You can join the club. You make a donation to help the translators who have families and stuff like that. So it's my job, Geshe Michael's job.

(12:31 - 12:53)
Eight years ago, I agreed to pay 12 translators, and I've done it for eight years, okay? But it's always hard to find the money. It's a lot of money every year, and it's very, very difficult for me. But I promised, and I still do it every year.

(12:53 - 13:03)
I raise the money for them. And from their side, none of them has quit. Out of those 12 translators, nobody has quit.

(13:04 - 13:16)
Each one is learning a different ancient language, okay? Each one of them is learning a different ancient school. There are 12 ancient schools. They have specific vocabulary.

(13:17 - 13:26)
If you understand one school, you don't understand the other school. Only Geshe learns all the schools. So I'm teaching 12 people.

(13:27 - 14:23)
They're learning 12 different dialects, 12 different languages, technical terms, very difficult technical terms. And they are translating like crazy, okay? So we connected it to this goodnight book club idea, you see? So at 10 o'clock, when you get on your bed, you're not allowed to look at electronics, but you are allowed to read a paper book, okay? And we supply the paper book for you, okay? And by the way, I believe deeply in my heart that Bluetooth and cell phone transmission towers, it is radiation, okay? People get cancer from radiation. Radiation means the sun gives radiation.

(14:23 - 14:37)
The sun that comes up every day, it sends sunlight to the earth. It has many radioactive particles. Gamma radiation, they go through buildings.

(14:38 - 14:45)
They don't care about wood. They don't care about steel. They don't care about, they just pass through it like it doesn't matter.

(14:46 - 15:22)
If they hit your chromosome chain, if a single gamma particle, much smaller than a piece of sand, goes through the roof, goes through your skull, and hits a chromosome chain, and breaks it, and if that chromosome duplicates in your body, that's called cancer. That's how you get cancer, okay? That's how many people get cancer, just being alive, just sitting in the world, just being in the sunlight. By the way, you don't have to be in the sunlight.

(15:22 - 15:51)
You just have to be in a building, and the sunlight hits it, and that's how people get cancer. That's one of the ways that people get cancer, okay? All of these new transmission towers, Bluetooth, telephone transmissions, putting it up to your ear, close to the cells in your brain, I believe, I sincerely believe it's very dangerous for everybody. I believe it could cause cancer.

(15:51 - 16:21)
I believe it's caused, I think it's responsible for the rise in cancer rates. So, it's such a wonderful idea to put it away and turn it off when you go to bed, okay? At least eight hours, you don't have that radiation close to you, okay? And I'm not paranoid, and I'm not a hippie. I'm a hippie, but I'm not a hippie nutrition person.

(16:21 - 16:34)
I don't eat healthy. I do all kinds of things, but I do believe it's dangerous. I believe the cell phone, and I believe in the future, people will say it was a mistake.

(16:35 - 16:49)
I believe that. And in the meantime, if you can avoid it for eight hours at night, I think it's a wonderful idea, okay? Get rid of your cell phone, turn it off. Don't use the internet.

(16:50 - 17:31)
So, guess what, at 10 o'clock, get on your bed, get one of these books, okay? Now, it looks like a book, but it's not a book, understand? These are, by the way, the team of 12 translators has finished about, what was it, 12 books, 15 books? So far in eight years, they have finished 12 very difficult books, very, very deep books. And I'll show you two. These two came out last week, okay? These two are a few days old.

(17:33 - 18:17)
And I've sat with these two translators for eight years, and we worked on these books hard for eight years, okay? And they finished early this year, and then we cleaned it up and we worked on it. Anatole helps a lot, and Aisha, his wife, helps a lot. And we finished, these are the two newest books to come out, okay? One is called, one is called, Everything in the Universe, and that's a good translation of Abhidharmakosha, okay? And the translator's name is Stanley Chan.

(18:19 - 18:47)
You wanna stand up? So, I worked on this book for 12 years, okay? With my teacher, and Stanley finished in eight years because he's smarter than me. So, it's a beautiful book. And then the other book we finished is called The Essence of the Ocean, a classical summary of Buddhist ethics.

(18:47 - 18:58)
This is a very, very famous presentation of Buddhist ethics. And it's the oldest book we translated. It's 2,500 years old.

(18:58 - 19:26)
It's called Vinaya. And it was very, very difficult. It gives all the rules for men and women who want to follow vowed morality, who want to take ethical vows, okay? And in Central Asia, this system for women was lost.

(19:27 - 19:38)
It was destroyed. There was a king, a bad guy, who actually killed the nuns. And it takes 12 nuns to make a new nun.

(19:39 - 19:56)
And he killed so many nuns in that time that there wasn't enough nuns to make new nuns. So, the rules for nuns in particular, but also the rules for monks started to disappear. People don't understand them.

(19:56 - 20:13)
People don't understand the story behind them. And we spent eight years with John Brady's database. And we got the ancient books back from before the king, 2,500-year books.

(20:14 - 20:22)
And we worked like dogs, okay? Oh, oh. My wife can tell you. We worked really hard.

(20:22 - 20:33)
And we finished. We saved the women's vows, and we saved the men's vows for the first time. And that's Zhou Xiaoping's work, yeah.

(20:42 - 20:57)
And she teaches this book to business audiences. And it works. People use it, okay? I have an idea to package these two as together in a single box.

(20:58 - 21:22)
And you can say that this is half of Buddhism, okay? Historically, in the last 2,500 years, these two books are half of Buddhism, and they were lost, and they recovered them. And it's the first available translation of this kind. And I'd like to give them another hand.

(21:23 - 21:38)
Okay. So these are called pre-publication copies. They're not the final, final, final, final copy.

(21:38 - 22:23)
They have small things in there. And you cannot get it unless you join the book club, which means you kind of agree to go to bed at 10, and you agree to get up at 6. You agree not to look at your movies on your cell phone under your covers at 10.30, okay? And you get one of these books. When you join the book club for a small fee, which goes to feed the starving translators, when you join the club, then you make a donation, and Lindsay sends you the latest books as they come out.

(22:24 - 22:49)
And you get these books, okay? I want to say one more thing about this kind of book, okay? And I want to warn you, okay? You cannot sit there at 10 o'clock and read this book from cover to cover. This is not a Buddhist book. That's not what we do with a Buddhist book.

(22:50 - 22:59)
A Buddhist book is a lifetime friend. You don't read a Buddhist book. You don't read, you know, start it on Monday and finish on Friday.

(23:01 - 23:11)
That's not, these books are different. These books are a lifetime experience. You spend your whole life reading them.

(23:11 - 23:20)
You don't read it in one week or two weeks. That's not your relationship to a Dharma book. This book is a lifetime friend.

(23:22 - 23:32)
And I don't try to, I've been reading them for 50 years. I've been translating them for 50 years. I never read more than half a page, never.

(23:33 - 23:40)
I read half a page. It puts me to sleep. There's certain topics are better.

(23:41 - 23:50)
Madhyamaka is excellent. But I don't try to read the book from cover to cover. That's not what we're doing.

(23:51 - 24:04)
It's a very holy, mystical experience. Read half a page and then sleep. Sleep fast before you think of other stuff, okay? No, I'm not kidding.

(24:04 - 24:46)
Before you worry about your taxes and stuff, read half a page and close the book and turn off the light and go to bed. And this book will talk to you all night, okay? It will sing in your mind all night and your mind will explode, okay? You have to try it, okay? You have to try it. And your life will change completely, okay? Your life will become so amazing, you know? Why can Geshe Michael give away $100 bills when I left Diamond Mountain, I was $30,000, $40,000 in debt.

(24:46 - 24:54)
Nowadays, it'd be $200,000 or something. I was in debt. And then I started to teach DCI.

(24:56 - 25:30)
And now I'm very, very, very... I can give away money all day long and it's okay, okay? It's because of these books, you see? If you understand these books, you serve and you serve and you serve and you're so happy, super happy. And things just come to you, like crazy things happen. Dragon's head appears 10 minutes from your house, you know? You're like, what? It's a whole valley nobody knew about.

(25:31 - 25:58)
It has a beautiful river flowing through it. The owner who sold it to us is like, do you want to keep that huge classroom that's built there or should I tear it down? And we're like, yeah, we'll keep it, you know? It's this beautiful, huge cathedral glass. It was built by the descendant of the painter Van Dyck, the third, fourth generation.

(25:58 - 26:19)
It's a Van Dyck, you know? And they're like, do you want the house or should we tear it down? We're like, well, we'll keep it, you know? And then we held a class there the next week. You know, we didn't have to build a classroom. It fits 150 people for free.

(26:19 - 26:43)
The guy said, I'll throw in the classroom, you know? We're like, okay. So what I mean is if you follow this goodnight book club, you will save yourself from cancer maybe and your mind will change and your life will change. And you can give away $100 bills for the rest of your life.

(26:43 - 26:48)
And, you know, we have trouble. The bag's getting heavy. The bag's too heavy.

(26:49 - 27:02)
I spent the afternoon, my wife knows. I'm trying to get rid of the $100 bills, you know, because it's too much to carry around. Your life will change and you'll feel so happy.

(27:02 - 27:25)
You'll feel so delicious all day long. Try, give it a try, okay? You don't read the book, right? Half a page. Which half a page? I don't care, you know? There's a saying in Buddhism, what? Youtiao, Chinese donut.

(27:27 - 27:45)
It doesn't matter which side you start from. It all tastes delicious, okay? You can open this book anywhere. And Diamond Way means, Vajrayogini will send you a message, okay? Diamond Way is not start on the first page and go to the last page.

(27:46 - 28:01)
Diamond Way is, and she'll send you a message. And it's amazing. It's a miracle, okay? You just trust it, okay? And it's so beautiful.

(28:01 - 28:08)
It's just beautiful, okay? Please try it. You know, I'm an old man. I don't have much time.

(28:10 - 28:15)
This is one of the most valuable things I could teach you. It will change your life. It will really change your life.

(28:16 - 28:41)
Don't be stubborn and don't be lazy, okay? Like start tonight, okay? Go back, pick out the book that's most weird. And there's lots of them, okay? If you're super donor, okay? We created this box, okay? We call it the Red Lacquer Box. It's a special finish.

(28:41 - 28:52)
It takes a long time. We have a special wood craftsman who makes the boxes. It takes a long, long time to make one box.

(28:53 - 29:13)
They're very, very special. And if you're a super donor to those starving translators, right? If you're a super donor, we give you a whole box, okay? And the box has 12 books. Books, 12 books? 12 books inside, okay? So basically all of Buddhism.

(29:13 - 29:37)
And we filled up four boxes so far, okay? So what I found, my wife and I, we have a very small house. We have trouble with room in our house. And we found out that if you get, we got four of these, right? And they stack.

(29:37 - 29:48)
They're built to stack on each other. So you can get four boxes with 12 books each and you just stack them on each other. And they look beautiful in the house.

(29:48 - 30:34)
They look really beautiful, okay? My wife's very picky and they look really nice, okay? So that way you can support the translators. Teams of translators, keep all these guys going, okay? Why am I talking about it in this class? And by the way, I asked the team to consider when these are available to the public, I would like them to be in a box together. This is the first 700 years of Buddhism, okay? This is the first, you can say 1,000 years with the Abhidharmakosha.

(30:35 - 30:41)
This is half of Buddhism. These two books are half of Buddhism. They are the first half of Buddhism.

(30:42 - 30:50)
So I'd like to keep them in the same box together. And I'd like people to get them together. And I'd like them to stay together.

(30:50 - 31:22)
You understand the meaning of that? Okay, if the two books stay together, I think you'll be good luck, okay? All right, I remind you that this King of the Dharma book is available, new edition, new size, super slick, okay? And you can get it. I'm not trying to sell books, okay? It's a bad business. I'm a diamond seller.

(31:22 - 31:27)
That's a good business. You can make some money. This is a lot of work and no money.

(31:28 - 31:42)
So I'm not trying to sell something to you. Get them, read them every night. Why am I talking about that? When you read half a page, it stays in your mind.

(31:43 - 31:58)
It's the blessing of all the Buddhas, okay? It's the blessing of a million Buddhas. And it will change your mind as you sleep. That's a good deal, okay? People say, Geshe La, I can't sleep.

(31:58 - 32:06)
I have a friend who refuses to do the eight hour sleep. And they say, Geshe La, I can't get everything done. I have lots to do.

(32:06 - 32:17)
And I say, no, guys, you don't understand. If you do this system, you can do three times more work. Okay, really, I swear, you can do three times more work.

(32:17 - 32:22)
And you feel happy. You feel well-rested. You feel relaxed.

(32:24 - 32:39)
You feel much, much better. Your whole life, okay? You will live longer, okay? And you're supposed to live as long as you can, right? That's your job. Okay, I'm going to go on to the next picture, Mr. Brian.

(32:39 - 32:48)
I don't know why. Oh, so we passed around the diamond. And you have to remember why I passed around the diamond.

(32:48 - 32:51)
I still have the diamond. Don't worry about it. I know where it is.

(32:54 - 33:04)
It was the first perfect diamond I've ever touched in my life. And I have touched millions and millions, many millions of diamonds. But that diamond, never forget it.

(33:04 - 33:10)
You want to pass it around again? It's fun. It's in there. I'm just waiting for it to disappear and we search everybody.

(33:11 - 33:17)
That's why the guys with the guns are running around. No, I'm just kidding. It's in there.

(33:17 - 33:33)
It's in one of the three pouches. When you see that diamond, when you touch that diamond, when you hold that diamond, understand it represents your life. Okay? That diamond represents your life.

(33:33 - 33:42)
Okay? You have eyes to see. You have ears to hear. You know, you have a brain, a good mind.

(33:42 - 33:47)
Everyone here has a good mind. Okay? You are unique. You are more precious.

(33:48 - 33:56)
You are more rare than others. This diamond, okay? This is a perfect diamond. It's, you can't, there's no better diamond in the world.

(33:58 - 34:04)
It's a perfect diamond. And don't forget what it represents. Okay? It represents you.

(34:05 - 34:12)
Okay? You are a perfect diamond. Okay? And you are extremely rare. And you're extremely precious.

(34:13 - 34:18)
And you can change the world. Each one of you can change the world. This is not the diamond.

(34:18 - 34:24)
You are the diamond. So hold the diamond and say, I'm the diamond. You're just a rock.

(34:25 - 34:33)
Okay? That's what happens. Okay? It's very, very precious. Okay? That's what we're talking about.

(34:34 - 34:56)
To have a body that's not sick, to have a body that's healthy, to have a mind, to be in this class, to be allowed to be in a class in your country is very, very, very rare. You are the real diamonds. Okay? You are very, very special diamonds.

(34:56 - 35:00)
Okay? Don't forget. That's just a nice rock. I like it though.

(35:01 - 35:07)
Okay. So do the best with your diamond. Don't waste your diamond.

(35:08 - 35:17)
Okay? One way to use your diamond well is this. Okay? Use those eight hours well. Okay? Don't waste your diamond.

(35:18 - 35:26)
By the way, they're very hard to get, a human body. It's almost impossible. Okay? You just take it for granted.

(35:26 - 35:39)
Oh, my dad didn't have anything to do one night, so. That's not how you exist. Okay? You are extremely rare in the universe.

(35:40 - 35:47)
You are uniquely rare. And you got to use your body while you have it. It won't last forever.

(35:48 - 35:58)
You got to use it wisely. Okay? You are a diamond, and you have to use it wisely. You won't, to get another one, it's almost impossible.

(35:59 - 36:03)
All right. Don't assume you won't get another one. All right.

(36:04 - 36:15)
And next thing in this class, Tim, when do I get freedom? [?] 22. Man. Thank you, Brian.

(36:18 - 36:28)
I mean, I have a Japanese-Mexican friend, but the Mexican-Taiwanese friend, that's really weird. Okay. All right.

(36:29 - 36:51)
All right. So, this got kind of serious, okay? 23 minutes, kind of serious. I don't know, like, seven, eight years ago, I did a blood test, and the doctor said, you have a kidney problem.

(36:51 - 36:58)
And I'm like, no, I don't. And he said, no, you have a kidney problem. And I'm like, I don't feel anything.

(36:59 - 37:07)
He said, that's what kidney problem does. You don't know you have it. And then I said, well, what's going to happen? And he says, you will die.

(37:07 - 37:10)
It will kill you. And you have a kidney problem. You have to do something about it.

(37:10 - 37:31)
So, I went to a kidney doctor, like, eight or nine years ago, and they, I've been going for eight years, nine years, something. And they try to keep it going, but it will deteriorate. Everybody's kidney falls apart.

(37:31 - 37:41)
Just most people, it falls apart after you die. So, my kidney's going to fall apart before I die. And we know, and we have a schedule, we know it's going to happen.

(37:42 - 38:07)
So, I'm kind of, basically, in my position, you have two choices. You can do dialysis, which means you hook up to a machine for four hours a day or something, and it hurts, and it doesn't work very well, and you die after five years. The other option is a kidney transplant.

(38:08 - 38:18)
And then, someone donates a kidney to you. Everybody has two kidneys. Basically, one is extra, in case you play football and hurt your kidney.

(38:19 - 38:27)
So, basically, most people have, everybody has two kidneys. And it's very interesting. So, they get a donor.

(38:27 - 38:39)
Somebody says, I will give you my kidney, and they put it in your body with the other two. So, it's not that they take one out and put one back. They give you an extra one.

(38:39 - 38:54)
So, I will be, especially, I will be the most kidney person around, and I will have three kidneys. And so, someone has already said they would donate a kidney. And it doesn't hurt the person.

(38:54 - 39:17)
They lose 20, 25% of their kidney function from getting one kidney. But it's a messy operation, and it's funny. Guess where's the best hospital in the world to get this operation? It's called Phoenix, okay? And they do 3,000 a year here.

(39:18 - 39:32)
It's 10 minutes from here, by coincidence. And so, they're like, would you like to have a new kidney? And I'm like, no. Then they're like, would you like to die? And I said, no.

(39:32 - 39:50)
So, you gotta have a new kidney. So, it will be probably in the next year, I will have to. It's a six-week messy thing, and they take away your immune system so that the kidney won't be rejected.

(39:50 - 40:04)
You see what I mean? So, you get every cold, you get every flu, you get everything. You get skin cancer very easily, stuff like that. But it's better than going to the [?] early.

(40:05 - 40:13)
So, that's the situation. I'm looking at this thing in the next year, maybe. I have to do it sometime.

(40:13 - 40:19)
I don't feel anything. It's called the silent killer or something. It just stops one day.

(40:19 - 40:22)
And so, I'm fine. I feel happy. I don't hurt.

(40:23 - 40:51)
Nothing hurts. But it put me in a strange position, which we have reached in our text, okay? I mention it because we have reached it in the text. In the text, it says, each one of us will reach a day that Geshe Michael reached this year, and your life will run out, okay? Your life will finish.

(40:51 - 41:13)
You won't have more life, okay? We are, by sitting here, you are using up your life, and you only have so much life. I like to say, the guy who bought my jewelry company, which became the largest in the world, is Warren Buffett, you know, and he just retired. He's 94, something like that.

(41:14 - 41:31)
He has $140 billion. He's sitting on $140 billion, okay? And he retired. Why? He couldn't buy one hour of life.

(41:31 - 41:50)
You see, Warren Buffett, with $143 billion, cannot buy one hour more life. No one can give it to him. He cannot go to some poor person and say, hey man, I'll give you 50 billion for, you know, give me a couple weeks.

(41:51 - 41:57)
You can't do that. There's no such thing. Your life will finish, okay? Everybody's life will finish.

(41:57 - 42:16)
I think it's very lucky to have a teacher whose life might finish soon, and then you can really get the feeling. You can really understand that your life is, your life is pouring out of your mouth. As you sit here, your life is finished.

(42:17 - 42:34)
The life you have is, you are using it up, okay? So I have this weird thing in my life. I have to make plans, you see? It's not like I just have a family. I have a big family.

(42:34 - 42:39)
I was on an airplane. Did I tell you this story? It's funny. I'm on an airplane.

(42:39 - 42:51)
I sit down next to this lady. I was teaching British Airways' nine vice presidents. I had a job to teach them DCI.

(42:51 - 43:06)
So I flew to London on this plane. Guess which company's airplane? British Airways. First time in my life, I'm in first class, not business class, first class.

(43:06 - 43:26)
And then this lady rushes on the plane, sits down next to me. She's got this book in her hand, and I'm just sitting there, and she's going like this. Then she goes like this, and then she goes, she puts it next to my face, and it's the Diamond Cutter.

(43:27 - 43:40)
She said, I was reading the Diamond Cutter business book, and is that you? And I'm like, yeah. I felt so famous for five minutes. I'm like, yeah, that's me.

(43:41 - 43:57)
And she's like, oh, it's such a pleasure to meet you, and I feel so lucky. And then she asked me, we got to talking about our families, and I said, do you have children? She said, yeah, I have two children. And I said, wow, that's cool.

(43:58 - 44:22)
And then she said, do you have any kids? And just automatically, I said, yeah, about 400, because I meant my students, but I got to tell you a joke. She looked at me like this. Am I a superhero? And I'm like, no, they're not really my children.

(44:22 - 44:36)
They're my students, but I have to worry about them. You see what I mean? It's the same thing. If I die, if something happens to me, I have to plan the best plans for my students.

(44:36 - 44:51)
I have to make sure I can do the best thing before I pass. I have to do what's most beneficial for my students. And I have to think about your future, and I have to worry about your future.

(44:52 - 45:15)
So in this part of the Lamrim, it's talking about this exercise. I've been forced into it, but you also have to start thinking about it, okay? You will pass. I'll tell you a cute, Stanley and Xiaoping were, you were with me that day.

(45:15 - 45:26)
I went to the kidney doctor and she said, it's getting bad. It's getting pretty bad, you know? And I'm like, yeah, okay. And I'm like, that's cool.

(45:27 - 45:58)
And then she looked at me and she's like, can I ask you a personal question? I'm like, yeah. And she says, do you meditate? I'm like, yeah, a little bit. She's like, she thought I should be screaming and running out of the office, you know? And so, I mean, it's not to get worried, and it's not to get depressed, and it's not to think terrible things are going to happen, but each one of us has to plan for that day.

(45:58 - 46:31)
And it's very irresponsible not to, okay? There are many people depending on you. There are many people who need you, you know? And you must think about it, okay? You must think about the people who will miss you and who will need you, okay? So you have to prepare for that. Each one of us, you have to prepare for that, okay? It's, will you die? Yeah, Geshe La.

(46:31 - 46:44)
Do you know you'll die? Yeah, I know. Will you die today? Nah, I'm still, I'm not like you. I got time, you know? But you can't say that, you know? We lose people all the time.

(46:44 - 46:53)
We lost somebody yesterday. Somebody yesterday had a heart attack who didn't expect to have a heart attack, and she was fine the day before. She was walking around fine.

(46:54 - 47:10)
Somebody's mom. They should just fall down and die, okay? So you got to, part of Buddhism is to think about it in a happy way, okay? You're getting all serious on me. Everybody's like, okay.

(47:12 - 47:27)
If you're a real Buddhist and you understand Buddhism, it will not make you sad, okay? You know what's going to happen. You know where you're going. You prepare them.

(47:27 - 47:49)
Your suitcase is ready, okay? And you feel relaxed, and you feel joyful. And you're just like, I don't know. The train stopped in Paris, and then the train is on its way to Rome, and everything's good.

(47:49 - 48:19)
You see what I mean? It's not a, you don't have to be so serious. We all have to go on that train, okay? At this point in the text, it's talking about getting ready, okay? And you have a great teacher for this, because I have to get ready, okay? So each one of us, you must get ready. You must get everything set, and then you're fine.

(48:19 - 48:25)
I know where I'm going. I have seen it. I know who's my teacher.

(48:27 - 49:06)
I don't have, I don't really have to worry much about it, okay, but you have to think, you must think about it. You must think about it, okay? You cannot go there without preparing, okay? That's crazy, you know? Are you setting money aside for your taxes next year? Yes, because I'm not a fool. Are you getting ready to die? No, it's later, Geshe La, so are your taxes, okay? Get ready, all right? That's what this part of the Lamrim is about, okay? Everybody says, I want to study Diamond Way.

(49:06 - 50:02)
Geshe La, can you teach me Diamond Way? Yeah, but you have to be ready to die, okay? That's kind of, you can't practice Diamond Way unless you know how to die, okay, understand? Don't tell me it's depressing, okay? If you practice well, if you study well, you know where you're going, and it's beautiful, okay? It's no problem, and the ones you love will be there, okay? No problem. Okay, so the next part of the Lamrim, and the next part of the spiritual song is a meditation on death, and there's a section called, next picture, D, watch this one. Oh, no, can you go back to the last picture? I forgot to tell you.

(50:03 - 50:23)
This is a concert in Taiwan. This was a public talk about emptiness, and I think 6,000 or 7,000 people came, and I got to play rock and roll, which is my lifetime dream. Me and Stanley played in front of a huge audience.

(50:23 - 50:53)
He sang, it's a little bit better than, well, I won't say. We had a really, really good time, and there was a film crew that came there from, they work for Netflix, and they said, can we make a Geshe Michael Netflix movie? And I said, what kind of movie? I'm smart now. I asked, and they're like, well, we'll give you two choices.

(50:54 - 51:03)
They are very, very nice people, extremely nice people. They said, what kind of movie are you talking about? And they said, we'll give you the choice. You can decide.

(51:03 - 51:24)
And I said, what's the two choices? They said, number one, we can make you look really good, like you won't even recognize Geshe Michael. He will be a perfect person, always kind, always smiling. We will make you into a super rock star.

(51:25 - 51:36)
And I'm like, that sounds pretty good. And then they said, or we could tell the truth. And I'm like, what's that mean? And they said, we have a proposal for you.

(51:37 - 52:01)
And I'm like, what's the proposal? And they said, you go to four different continents in the world. You go to South America, you go to Asia, you go to Europe and North America, something like that. And in each continent, you find one person who doesn't know anything about Buddhism, who doesn't know anything about your system.

(52:02 - 52:14)
And then you teach them. You choose one person per continent, so there'll be four people in the movie. Each one has a dream.

(52:15 - 52:29)
And then you teach them your system and make the dream come true, and we will film it. And if the dream doesn't come true, we'll film that also. Are you willing to take the risk? And I'm like, I think that's fair.

(52:29 - 52:42)
I think we should make a movie like that. So we chose three of the people, I think. One was in Peru, one was in Germany, one was in Asia.

(52:43 - 52:58)
And then the guy in Peru had a nervous breakdown. The lady in Europe went to the hospital at age 25 with some terrible cancer. It was a disaster, the whole movie.

(52:58 - 53:06)
The whole thing was terrible. Then they found out about my kidney thing. And then they're like, we'll make a movie about your kidney.

(53:07 - 54:16)
And I'm like, what's that going to look like? And they said, you have special beliefs about how to die, right? You have special opinions about what happens to people when they die. And can we film you as you prepare? As you prepare, can we make a film? So this is a piece of the movie in front of 6,000, 7,000 people for the first movie when I was supposed to be a rock star. And what we had meetings and the film crew has decided we will make a film about Geshe La talking about his life and the danger of... How does a Buddhist person prepare to die? How does a Buddhist person prepare for the last part of their life? And I said, wow, now that's a useful movie.

(54:16 - 54:26)
I went to Princeton. It's number one university in the world 50 years in a row. They don't ever teach you how to die.

(54:27 - 54:36)
They don't even mention it. It's the only thing you have to do. And there's no [?] diploma.

(54:37 - 54:46)
There's no biology department. No one teaches you what's going to happen. No one teaches you how to get ready.

(54:46 - 55:02)
If I can make a movie like that, if Netflix can do a movie like that, I think that's something very beautiful. So we're working on it. And you may be asked to be in the movie where they're interviewing people.

(55:03 - 55:14)
Okay, just tell them how great I am and stuff like that. My brother, Florin, they asked him about me. He said some wonderful things.

(55:14 - 55:24)
I should say terrible. No, he said some good things. But the point is, and not to be serious, how much time I got today? Yeah, that's my life.

(55:26 - 55:34)
It's not to get so serious. You're all too serious. We all have to go there, right? Let's get ready.

(55:35 - 55:42)
And you can be super relaxed. And you can be super excited. You can see where you're going.

(55:43 - 55:58)
If you practice well, if you touch the diamond world, you can see exactly where you're going. And I can tell you the color of the sky there. It's not blue, okay? Okay, and you don't have to worry.

(55:58 - 56:08)
You don't have a big worry. Will you be with your loved ones? Yes, you will. Don't worry about it, okay? You can design the whole thing, okay? That's Buddhism.

(56:08 - 56:20)
That's what we're doing. The 16 steps included, dying well. Did you know this? Okay, the 16 steps include that.

(56:20 - 56:30)
It's something we all have to do. If someone can teach you to do it well, you'd be crazy not to learn. You'd be crazy.

(56:30 - 56:50)
That would be really crazy. If someone can teach you to do the right thing, go to the right place, be with the people you want to be with, you'd be crazy not to learn it, okay? That's what we're doing, okay? Anyway, so that's the first movie. I got two minutes.

(56:51 - 57:12)
My philosophy, never waste two minutes, okay? Next picture. Ta-da! You recognize me? This is my cat. Why she wants to stand on my computer and stick her butt in my face, I don't know.

(57:13 - 57:47)
But this represents trying to translate in the morning and people disturb your work, okay? You're doing something on the level of teaching people how to die. And someone writes to you about, I don't know, they had a fight with someone. Geshe La, can you be the umpire? And I'm like, you don't understand what I'm doing.

(57:47 - 58:06)
You don't understand how precious is an hour or two hours of my time to me, to me who doesn't have time. And you want me to help you with a fight you're having with your girlfriend or something? Look, I respect that. I know it's important to you.

(58:07 - 58:15)
But I got bigger fish to fry. There's a new idiom. I got bigger things I have to worry about.

(58:15 - 58:38)
I have to over, I have to fight with death and I have to teach my students to fight with death. And it's a little more important than your girlfriend's disagreements. You see what I mean? And the nature of your life as you age, the nature of your life is that things will come to waste your time.

(58:39 - 58:51)
Things will come to waste your life. And I'm here to tell you, you can't do that. You must do what's important first.

(58:51 - 59:04)
You cannot waste your time. I'm telling my cat right now, you know, I got to work. Don't stick your butt in my face and don't touch the computer.

(59:05 - 59:19)
And I'm just, I mean, it's kind of funny, right? But what I'm saying is your life is so precious. Your life is so valuable. There's so many important things you have to do.

(59:19 - 59:37)
Don't waste your time, okay? Don't waste your time on having disagreements with people or being grumpy. Are they assholes? Yes. Should you disagree with them? Yes.

(59:37 - 1:00:03)
Should you talk about them? Yes, you should. Criticize them as much as you can. When you have time, okay? And you don't have time, okay? You don't have time for all that, okay? You got to focus on dying well and going to a good place and taking care of people there also.

(1:00:04 - 1:00:23)
Okay, that was one of the 16, right? He prepared to die in order to take care of his students. And we didn't know if it was the ones here or the ones there. I think it's both, okay? So don't waste your time with small things.

(1:00:23 - 1:00:43)
Don't waste your time being upset at people. They're going to die. All the people, mostly the people who really criticized me in my life, there was a guy who made a Geshe Michael website and he spent his whole life criticizing me, you know? And now he's dead or he's gone.

(1:00:43 - 1:00:49)
I don't know where he is. And it doesn't matter, you see? It doesn't really matter. They will be gone.

(1:00:49 - 1:01:04)
You won't remember them. I have a long list of people who didn't like me who are dead, you know? And probably I will die before some of the other ones. And you can't worry about it, okay? Your life's too short.

(1:01:05 - 1:01:33)
Your life's too short, okay? Don't waste your time. You don't have the time, okay? Got it? You really don't have the time, okay? Don't worry about stupid people, okay? They come from, they come from anywhere, okay? So, you know, just relax, okay? Life is not so serious. The people you don't like are not so bad.

(1:01:33 - 1:01:52)
It's not so important to make sure they suffer. Just give it up and focus on what's important, okay? And by the way, you'll be super happy. You'll be super, super happy, okay? Cool? That's Lamrim for today.

(1:01:56 - 1:02:36)
And then I think the schedule is we set up for music for how long, an hour? And then we'll play music at 6.30, is it? Yeah, now let me talk about the music, okay? When we have time to practice and when all the good musicians show up, we're still pretty bad. And this time, we didn't have any time to practice and all the good musicians couldn't come. So just move with the music and enjoy yourself.

(1:02:36 - 1:02:49)
Okay, it was supposed to be tomorrow as a celebration for the end of the course, but some of the musicians couldn't come. It was messed, the whole schedule got messed up. So we're going to do it tonight.

(1:02:50 - 1:03:40)
And just, my suggestion is don't listen to the music, just dance, okay? All right, and have fun, okay? Have fun, all right? That's a big, big, big Buddhist practice, is to have fun, okay? And when I meet those really dull, serious Buddhists, it's just, you know, dance, have fun, celebrate, okay? You did the most valuable thing in the world this week. You are the coolest people in the world. And come on, you can dance a little bit, okay? Even Kim can, you know, okay? Anything else before we, yeah, go ahead.

(1:03:46 - 1:04:13)
So one of the things we're going to be doing, we're going to be dancing. We're also doing this concert as a benefit for one of our very important programs at ACI. And every year we offer scholarships to the Sedona High School students, and specifically to students who, oh, well, Sedona's where we live.

(1:04:14 - 1:04:33)
And it's a very, we all live in Rimrock now, apparently. It's a small town, and there's a lot of children of immigrants in Sedona. And they've had difficulties being able to afford going to college.

(1:04:33 - 1:04:58)
And about 10, 12 years ago, we started this program with Christine Walsh to offer scholarships to about 10 students a year so then they can fund their first year of school. And so we give $15,000 of scholarships every year. So we're asking, normally this money comes from our generous donors in Taiwan.

(1:04:59 - 1:05:23)
And we thought, wouldn't it be nice if maybe everyone else had an opportunity to support this program? So we're looking to raise $15,000 tonight. We've already got $100, which is in my pocket. So now we have 3,000 or 300.

(1:05:24 - 1:05:42)
Okay, so now we have 3,100. And we're trying to get to 15,000 so we can support about 10 people going to college next year. So dance, shake your booty, have a lot of fun, and donate to this.

(1:05:42 - 1:06:10)
And part of the idea is that we're planting seeds because we're here to, this is an educational organization, and we're trying to learn something very special. So we're trying to, we're giving opportunities to other people to follow their dreams and learn what they want to learn. So that's one of the reasons we do that as well as supporting people who are in a lot of cases, they need the money to be able to even go to school.

(1:06:11 - 1:06:21)
So if you're interested, there's a QR code behind my head. I'll get out of the way. I will come up on stage a couple of times to see how well we're doing.

(1:06:21 - 1:06:33)
Those of you online, you also can help us out as well. So we're gonna take about an hour break. We'll get set up and then, excuse me, it's an hour.

(1:06:35 - 1:06:51)
So we're gonna set up and we're gonna ask everyone to mosey on out so they can rehearse because they wanna make it the best they can make it in the short amount of time they have. And again, just enjoy yourself. It's supposed to be fun tonight.

(1:06:51 - 1:06:55)
All right. Thank you very much. ♪ Give me your attention ♪