BDW 4 «Алмаз в Киото», занятие 4

(7:44 - 12:49)
Welcome back everyone, I hope you had a nice rest and now you are ready for class number four with our dear teacher, Geshe Michael, so let us welcome our precious teacher, Geshe Michael Roach. The class is about to start. Sorry, can you hear me? I'm sorry. 

Hi, okay, please don't be [?]. All right, here we go. I don't know, I woke up this morning like at four o'clock and I had a bunch of new ideas about clear diamonds, so I'd like to talk about them and eventually I will teach something. 

And here's what I was thinking. Yeah, yesterday people gave me a lot of offerings. It was pretty unexpected and unusual, so I would like to donate those offerings to two things. 

One is, one I'll tell you about in a minute, the other is the staff and the teachers of five houses are underpaid. They don't get paid very well. This is the only organization, yeah, that doesn't, we don't charge people. 

Basically, we don't charge people for the courses. So, we have, we charge people for the hotel and things like that, but we don't, they don't make any money and it's difficult for them to continue like that. So, I keep trying to help them and I would like to donate $10,000 to bonuses this year for the five houses staff. 

Okay? And that's up to Tim and the other, you know, you decide. If you don't get a good bonus, it's his fault. Okay. 

Let's see. Then I would like to donate half of the, I'd like to donate the other $10,000 to an institute for advanced study, which is the new Diamond Way Institute at Dragon's Head in Rimrock. And they don't need that money. 

They don't need my money. But I would like to donate that money in order to pay for the development of Diamond Way courses for all our different groups. And so, I think in my heart that each group that we have, each different group we have, could have their own Diamond Way style or their own Diamond Way teachings. 

And I would like to see each organization, if they want it, to develop their own Diamond Way curriculum or Diamond Way influenced curriculum. Okay? So, I'd like to donate that money to bringing people to sit with me. It's going to, you know, the real Institute for Advanced Study is Peachtree Cafe.

(12:50 - 15:06)
And, you know, that's probably where we will have the real meetings. But I would like to bring people there, especially if I'm having surgery or something like that. I don't think I can travel around the world and I'll probably have to sit in my bed or something like that. 

Okay? So, in the next few months, I would like to donate that money. I have the following suggestions. Okay? I would like Wang Xia to come and work with me and Seiji to develop the Diamond Way flavor of the final seven courses of DCI Global. 

Okay? And that'll be maybe sometime in January, I guess. Okay. January looks pretty— and—oh, there you are. 

January is pretty empty so far, you know. If they tell me to go, I go. You know, if they say, come now, I have to go. 

But I don't—right now, they haven't said that. So, okay. Secondly, I would like to propose that Jasmine come to the capital of the world, which is Rimrock, and you work with YSI, Earl, and Five Houses, Tim, to develop a Diamond Way flavored curriculum for Five Houses and for YSI. 

Okay? And I'll pay all the expenses, okay? For both of you guys. All right? And you get free cinnamon rolls at Peachtree Cafe. You can live on them for like 10 days.

(15:06 - 15:57)
Then you get diarrhea. Oh, and I wanted— I wanted to suggest that we add Teresa if it's possible, and I'm willing to pay for her flight. So, if it's possible to have Teresa also come and help with that process, I think it would be good. 

Okay? I solved—I think I solved the Ben Kramer request, which was a beautiful request, and I'll always remember it. But I teach— I sometimes teach a closed class, translation class, and I have contacted those parties. I sent a message through a nun.

(15:59 - 17:04)
Right? I sent a video to you today, and you're going to offer this video, okay? As you ask, to deliver something. You see what I mean? And then I'm asking—I believe that I will be able to do Diamond Way translation class just for certain translators, okay? And so that's— that's in motion, okay? Then that too, I think, somehow IAS will be involved with—later they're going to pay for everything. That's the point, okay? Yesterday or the day before I sat with Jamie and his partner Bo, can you stand up you guys? Don't be shy. 

Yeah. They have put thousands and thousands of classes online for free. It's called the Knowledge Base.

(17:04 - 17:27)
They've translated everything. And Jamie has done some work, very advanced work, for AI. And like right now, if he finishes it, you can say, you know, I remember grandpa said something about holding up your finger.

(17:28 - 18:04)
And you ask the AI, and the AI will take you to all the recordings and to the video. The two minutes of video, it will take you directly to that class, and you will see the three minutes or four minutes about that. And you can tell the AI what you want to— you want to see grandpa teach something, okay? And they've also added translation ability from the ancient language.

(18:04 - 18:21)
So, you know, you can say, I want to see the ancient language for this, or I want to see which texts cover it, or things like that. So, he's doing very great work, very beautiful work. I suggest, okay? I'm, wait, I'm getting there.

(18:23 - 18:48)
How about demo tomorrow? Demo tomorrow. We'll set a time, okay? Be ready. He'll show a demonstration on the screen, okay? And I propose that we do that with Oscar, John Brady, Joel Crawford.

(18:49 - 19:31)
We need to do a cataloging meeting, and we need to do a— we need to organize the input center, the new input center, right? So, I propose Oaxaca, Mexico. Understand, Jamie? Right? Okay. Bo, understand? Okay. 

So, that's what I propose. And that will also make my wife happy, because she has some fantasy that she would enjoy that place. But at least once we can go and she can't get out.

(19:31 - 19:47)
So, I propose we do something in the next few months, and I'll pay for that also, okay? All right? Okay, and we'll work it out. And any other catalogers that we could come up with, like Roxanne or somebody, I don't know. Okay.

(19:50 - 20:16)
Dan, it says here Jamie to demonstrate his thing, okay? I mean your program, okay? Naughty teacher. Yeah. Vivian, I have an answer to your question, but I'll talk to you about it personally, okay? Vivian? Okay.

(20:17 - 20:49)
We'll talk about—you asked me for something, and I have a plan. Okay. All right, and Jenny Wong and Candy Lai, we worked that out, right? So, I will try to go to Singapore and Xi'an, okay? Next year, depending on the kidney stuff, the Singapore people have kept our organizations for many years, like 15, 20 years.

(20:50 - 21:03)
And they never ask me for anything. They just keep doing, doing, doing, doing. And Candy and Jenny especially, so I want to honor you, and I want to teach them.

(21:07 - 21:18)
Okay, then we have to sell it to my boss. Okay, my two bosses, Seiji and Veronica. Okay.

(21:20 - 21:26)
Yeah, that's all. I think that's all. Oh, what else we got here? Oh, hmm.

(21:27 - 21:46)
Today is Tsongkapa Day. So, today is probably the most important holiday of the year, and just coincidence. So, it's a good day to do anything.

(21:47 - 22:10)
It's a good day to talk about all these plans for Diamond Way, and it's a very special day of the year. This is the day of Tsongkapa's birth, and the day of Tsongkapa's passing, and the day of Tsongkapa's enlightenment happened on the same day, on same date in different years. So, it's a very important—it's called Ganden Namche, which is the 25th of the month.

(22:10 - 22:26)
The moon is almost dark. Okay. It's a [?] also. 

Okay. So, you know, it's a very, very good day to have a class, a Diamond class. It's a good day to decide about Diamond Way teachings for all the groups.

(22:26 - 22:58)
And so, you know, it's just coincidence. Right? Okay, okay, good. And I'm supposed to—I mean, I would like to talk about these. 

I like to boast about my translators, and I boasted about Ben the other day. And so, we'll have a 10th anniversary Mixed Nuts celebration sometime around Chinese New Year. It is on the Chinese New Year.

(23:00 - 23:18)
And tune in during the morning, 8 a.m. on the 17th of January. Am I right? Yeah, which is the first day of the Chinese New Year. So, we'll be having a special program, and you're welcome to come to that.

(23:19 - 23:49)
And a couple things happened. I have two slides. You guys ready? There's a red book slide. 

You got that one? Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy to announce that the Chinese government has approved the 25th anniversary edition of the Diamond Cutter Business Book. And okay.

(23:50 - 24:28)
And it came out recently. Yesterday? It came out on my— it will come out two days from now on my birthday. So, that's exciting. 

If you want to buy it, just go to China. And all the DCI organizers will also be offering it. Okay, and I'm very excited about it. 

I wrote a special introduction to it in it's very cool. Okay. Other picture you guys have.

(24:31 - 24:52)
Nothing hard to see, I guess. No, it's okay. Up above, the picture on the top is the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University, and this is where Einstein and Oppenheimer worked, okay? And it's very, very beautiful.

(24:53 - 25:23)
And now you can't see the whole thing, can you? I want the whole thing. Can you show the whole thing? At once? Anyway, yeah, you got to be able to see the whole thing at once, if you guys can. I would point out that the colors on the first picture and the colors on the bottom picture are exactly the same in my opinion.

(25:24 - 26:34)
And it's just that the bottom picture is lacking some buildings. Okay, so the bottom picture is Dragon's Head in Rimrock, and it's a stunning place. It's a very, very beautiful place. 

And that's where I would like to have this institute for developing Diamond Way materials for each of the organizations, okay? That's where Wang Xia and you guys will come. That's where Jasmine will come in January, February, okay? And the middle picture is the ... The middle picture is the building that's there now. And it was built by an artist. 

If you know the European artist Van Dyck, he's a descendant of the Van Dyck family, okay? And he built that room for painting and to have the special sunlight for painting. So it's a very beautiful place to have classes, okay? Cool. All right, and last thing.

(26:36 - 27:13)
Eight, nine years ago, I started with 12 different translators. Each one had their own special book, because there are 12 different languages of Buddhism. Each era has its own words. 

Each era has its own language. And just by coincidence, Stanley Chen and Zhou Xiaoping, they got the two first schools of Buddhism. One is called Abhidharma, and that was the official Buddhism for 700 years after the Buddha passed away.

(27:14 - 27:28)
For the next 700 years, they taught Abhidharma. It's the first book I studied in my life. My teacher taught it to me for 12 years, and we translated one of the great classics of Abhidharma.

(27:29 - 27:57)
It's a wonderful foundation of all Buddhism, Abhidharmakosha. And I gave that book to Stanley to work on. And then the same school, the detailist school, Vaibhashika, they are also the school where developed Vinaya, which is the monk's vows, nun's vows, layman's vows, novice's vows.

(27:58 - 28:26)
And so, I don't know why, but I gave that job to Zhou Xiaoping to translate a very beautiful book about the vows, okay? And it's a very difficult book, and the nun's vows were missing. The nun's vows were damaged a thousand years ago. It's very hard to find information about the nun's vows.

(28:27 - 29:32)
And we rebuilt the whole thing based on the sutras. So, we had John Brady's data, God bless you, and we were able to reconstruct all the nun's vows. So, it's now complete. 

The whole Vinaya is complete. And the strange thing is, the two kids finished at the same time, after eight years of work. So, we put their two books together because it's romantic, and it's and that's Xiaoping's Vinaya, and that's Stanley's Abhidharma book, okay? And I'd like to congratulate them.

(29:41 - 29:59)
They designed another box, which I think is also sexy. Okay, and both the books are in there, okay? I call, I have a nickname for these two books. It's the first half of Buddhism.

(30:00 - 30:15)
It's the, historically, this is the first half of Buddhism, and then all the other schools developed later, and that was the second half. So, these two books belong together. Those two belong together, and I congratulate you on your two books.

(30:26 - 30:34)
If you want to get those books, talk to Lindsay. Where's Lindsay? Stand up Lindsay. Yeah, talk to Lindsay.

(30:36 - 30:46)
We blackmail you. You have to join the Good Night Book Club to get the two books right now. Okay, only the Good Night Book Club people will get the two books right now.

(30:47 - 31:27)
Okay? So, if I'm you, I will join the Good Night Book Club. When you join the Good Night Book Club, you sort of agree to go to bed at 10 pm and lock up your computer and your phone and don't use them after 10 pm, and you agree to get up at 6 am and do your practice, okay? At 10 pm, you put away your phone, you put away your computer, and you take out your big box with the books in it and you read it until you fall asleep. These books are the best way to get a good night's sleep.

(31:28 - 31:38)
Because they will put you to sleep in two minutes. Okay? I guarantee. It's much cheaper than sleeping pills.

(31:38 - 32:09)
Okay? So, I'm just kidding. But I believe that when you go to bed after you read one of these books, your mind changes. I believe that. 

And in my life, my mind has changed 100% since I started doing it, about three years ago. And my productivity, my ability to translate is about, it's about 300% increase. I can do a book in a month.

(32:10 - 32:27)
It used to take me sometimes 10 years, 15 years. And so I really, really, for your health, for your mental health and for your spiritual health, I really, really encourage you to keep this system. Okay? Get rid of your electronics.

(32:28 - 32:34)
Get them out of the room. Rosa has a special bag. You can lock it.

(32:34 - 33:09)
It has a time lock on it. God bless. Okay? And it's amazing. 

And if you don't do it, you're like, I don't know, I'm frustrated telling people to do it. It will change your life. Your life will be very, very successful. 

Okay? All right? Okay. Okay, let's go to Lamrim. You guys in the back there, we are, so we are reading together a short book on the steps of the path.

(33:10 - 33:39)
It's called Song of My Spiritual Life. It was translated by Gibson Chung. Can you stand up, Gibson? Where are you? And it's a very, very beautiful book.

(33:40 - 34:30)
Generally Tsongkapa, who was born today, he did not talk about himself almost ever. He almost never talked about himself. You cannot find any history that he wrote about himself. 

There is no such thing. But in this Lamrim, in this short Lamrim, he talks about his spiritual life openly. And I think it's the only book where he talks about his own spiritual life. 

Okay? And we are using that to prepare the Five Houses students for Diamond Way teachings, Clear Diamond Way teachings. Okay? And I, we've reached a beautiful verse in the book. Okay? We've reached maybe one of the most important verses in the book.

(34:30 - 34:42)
And I'm going to project that now. Nah, that's the lady with the umbrella. That was the last picture we did last term.

(34:43 - 35:37)
And I'd like to go to the next picture. I'm sorry. That's my fault, you guys. 

Yeah. I, the deep practitioner, have accomplished my practice this way. And you who hope for freedom should do your practice the same. 

Okay? This is Tsongkapa talking about his own life experience. He rarely, rarely mentions himself. And in this book he says, look, this is how I did it, and that's how you should do it. 

Okay? And so it's very, very famous. If you want to even recite it like a mantra, this is very powerful words to recite. Okay? And we reached that point in the book now. 

Okay? We have reached the place where Tsongkapa talks about. And he says, this is how I did it, and that's how you should do it as well. Okay? Very, very famous.

(35:37 - 36:00)
NYANG CHOS BDAG YANG DE BZHIN BYAG RTZA'I SBYANG BRTZAL LO Right? You want to recite it, young man? You have a microphone? Quick. Who's got a microphone? Did he memorize that? I think so. Nice.

(36:04 - 36:46)
NYANG CHOS BDAG YANG DE BZHIN BYAG RTZA'I SBYANG BRTZAL LO Yay! Okay. Yeah, it's good luck. If you can learn it, it's very good. 

Okay. Back to you guys. So, I got a ... I got a strange AI. 

It's kind of like me. And it's referring to a book that we translated by somebody called Rendawa. Say Rendawa.

(36:47 - 38:11)
Rendawa was the teacher of Tsongkapa. Okay? Rendawa was the teacher of Tsongkapa. So we translated Rendawa's commentary on Nagarjuna. 

Okay? Rendawa wrote a beautiful commentary on Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend. And we worked on that recently. Last month, I think, we finished it. 

It took about two months. It should take about ten years. I think, honestly, because of that practice of sleeping well, we were able to finish it, I think, in two months or something. 

It's an extraordinary commentary. And I think it will be very, very good for your students. Okay? When you teach Buddhism to your students, I think this book by Tsongkapa's teacher, based on Nagarjuna, it's a commentary on Nagarjuna, I think it's an excellent book for your students. 

Okay? So if you are teaching, and Rosa is putting it out next, I think, right? How long? I don't know. I'm not ... February. In February, it will come out. 

Okay? And I ... Yeah, don't tell them it's the e-book. Just tell them it's coming out. Okay.

(38:12 - 39:54)
But it's coming out, and I strongly encourage you, if you're teaching, it's a wonderful book to teach people, and it's a wonderful way to introduce people to Buddhism. It's Nagarjuna, explained by Tsongkapa's teacher, and it's really, really fantastic. Okay? At this point in the Lamrim, okay, at this point in the Lamrim, we are talking about having a good death, and having a good rebirth. 

You see what I mean? It's kind of interesting. We're talking about ... We're not to the Bodhisattva section yet. We didn't reach that yet. 

We're talking about how can you live a better death, you see? How can you have a better death? Okay, and how can you prepare? How can you prepare a nice body and family for your next life? Okay, and it's interesting for those of us who are older or getting kidney operations and stuff. You know, you start to listen closer. And it's like, how can you arrange to have a ... How can you continue your Buddhist career past death? Okay, and it's very cool. 

It's very smart. Okay, it's a very, very good idea. Okay, how can you get ready? How ... These high teachers are so cool, they don't think of death as anything but a short interruption.

(39:55 - 40:39)
Okay, they're not thinking that this life is everything, and then you're going to die, and then something bad is going to happen, or something like that. They just see death as a few minutes in the car before you get to your next destination. They don't see it as a big problem, or they don't see it as some terrible thing. 

It's just kind of a short break before you continue your practice. You see what I mean? And Rendala is very, very insistent that you have to set up a good body for next time. Okay, you have to set up a good body for next time.

(40:40 - 41:15)
All right, and as you get older, or as you get closer to your death, it's something that you'll get more and more interested in. Okay, it's something that ... you have a good body now. You're lucky. 

You could travel to Kyoto, you know. You weren't so old that you couldn't travel to Kyoto or something. But Rendawa is like, how do you keep that for next life? How do you get it for your next life? So, I encourage you, if you're under 72.9 years old, 99, you can't really hear what I'm saying.

(41:16 - 41:46)
And I'm just telling you that because you'll remember it 20 years from now, or 30 years from now. But there will come a time in your life when you'll say, I'm so glad Geshe La taught us how to have a good body next time. How to have a good family next time. 

How to be born into a good country next time. Okay, and Rendawa says, it's all how you treat other people. It's all how you treat other people.

(41:47 - 42:10)
Okay, so he says, he's interesting. He's like, treat other people nice so you can continue your bodhisattva career in a good body. Okay, in a good body, in a healthy body, in an intelligent mind. 

Okay, all right. He's not saying, you know, if you don't want to get cancer in this life, be nice to other people. He's not saying that.

(42:11 - 42:29)
He's saying, you will get cancer in this life, and you will die, and you have to start thinking now about your next body. Okay, you got to start planning now for your next body. This is classic teaching that falls on deaf ears.

(42:29 - 43:09)
People cannot hear it. If you don't have cancer now, if you're not sick, you can't hear it. I'm just putting seeds in your mind. 

Okay, the day will come when you will, if I'm around, you will come and say, how can I have another body like the one I had in this life? How can I get another body like that? And then we have, then we got to talk about this verse. Okay, we got to talk about this verse. Mainly keeping your morality. 

Okay, mainly not killing, not stealing, not sexual misconduct, like that. Okay, mainly that. All right.

(43:12 - 43:29)
Next picture you dudes. I chose this picture, I don't remember why. Sometimes I can't remember why.

(43:30 - 44:00)
But it's meant to show the four powers of confession. Okay, how to clean bad seeds from your mind. Okay, and Rendawa's interesting. 

Okay, listen. Rendawa says, I could teach you how to be a good person, but you won't do it. It's kind of, you're like, what? He says, I can teach you lots of good things to do, the ten good deeds and things.

(44:00 - 44:22)
I can teach you that, but you won't be able to keep it. You know, a normal human being they will, somehow they will lie a little bit, somehow they will steal a little bit, somehow they won't be totally generous. You see what I mean? And he says, let's assume you're not going to be pure.

(44:23 - 44:32)
Let's assume you're going to make mistakes in your life. And we all make mistakes. If you think you're pure, that's a definite sign that you're not pure.

(44:32 - 45:26)
Okay, if you think you're not pure, you might be pure. Okay? All right. So, you are going to make mistakes, okay, in your life. 

We all make mistakes, and I think as a teacher you have to admit it. Okay, people only trust teachers who tell the truth, and I think a teacher should be, say, honestly, look, I have this problem, this problem, this problem. I'm jealous of people. 

I'm very proud. I like to brag about how many books I wrote. You know, we're all going to make mistakes. 

So, Tsongkapa says, here, learn how to clean up the mess. Okay, get good at cleaning up the mess. Become a master Geshe mess cleaner.

(45:27 - 46:34)
Okay, learn how to clean up your bad seeds. All right, and then he teaches the four powers. Okay, by the way, the four powers, tob shi, these are, there's a separate sutra, and if you really wanted to have a good class, or a good time, it would be nice to translate it. 

It's not very long, and the Buddha taught it as a separate teaching, as a separate sutra. It's the sutra on the four powers, and it'd be interesting if, like, if the Kendra family came back to Kyoto ever, it'd be interesting to choose something like that and teach it, because it's a beautiful sutra. Okay, it's the sutra on the four powers, okay? Yeah, I put in here, let me see, where is that? Shi sampajor tar duk [?], right? Let's see.

(46:38 - 48:55)
Yeah, I'll tell you the main things about how to clean a bad seed, okay? One is to admit that you have it, okay, and it's important to say the mistakes that you've made, and it's important to admit them to yourself. If you can't talk about your biggest mistakes with other people, then probably you cannot clean them, okay? So I think it's important to tell somebody. To clean a negative seed, it's really important to tell somebody. 

I like to have a, I like to have a bad seed friend. I like to have someone that I can talk to privately, and I can say, look, I have this problem. I do this bad thing, and I like to tell somebody. 

I got this habit with my teacher. My teacher was very, very, how do you say, he wasn't warm and fuzzy, how do you say? He wasn't this kind of, he was hard, he walked over the Himalayas to get out, and many, hundreds of thousands of people died, millions of people died. He made it, and he was a hard man, and you know, it was really hard to go to him and say, I made a mistake, you know, and there were many times, I remember I had a bad, I had a bad habit. 

I would masturbate, because it's monastery, and I had a very normal American high school and college, you know what I mean? As far as the sexual stuff, I had a very normal high school and college. So, we had girlfriends, and we did all kinds of things with them, and this, you know, and then I just walk into this monastery, and now suddenly, I'm supposed to not have any sexual contact at all, and you can't even, you never even touch anybody in the monastery. It's quite strict.

(48:56 - 50:39)
So, you know, here's a normal American boy, and you put him in a monastery, and I had to masturbate sometimes, like once, I found out, it was interesting, it was always Saturday night. Like, five years later, it was still Saturday night, and in the monastery, it doesn't matter, you know. And it's embarrassing to talk about, but what he did to me, to talk about it, okay? So, I'm talking about me, and I was very careful. 

If I broke it, I would go tell my teacher, you know. I never broke the sex thing. I didn't have sex for many years, but masturbation, I did it, and then I wanted to tell my teacher, and I was scared to tell him. 

I didn't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it now. And then I went to him, and I said, you know, I broke this thing, and he looked at me like I was really dirty person, you know. 

He's like, what? And I'm like, you know, I'm just a normal guy, you know, I'm sorry. And he's like, phew. And he's like, okay, go, you know, go back to whatever you're doing, you know. 

And then I made a promise to myself, I would tell him every time, you know. And then, you know, like, three, knock on his door, he's like, come here, you know. And then I do all these prostrations, maybe he won't be so angry, you know.

(50:40 - 50:57)
And then I said, I did it again, and he said, I said, do you want to know what? He said, I know. And he said, okay, you cleaned it, now go, go, you know. And then later he said, don't come into my room without knocking.

(50:58 - 51:42)
And so I knocked, and he said, you did it? I said, yeah. He said, okay, go, go away. And, but then I was able to just stop it, you see, because I was clean, and I told him every time I did it. 

I was honest with him. And so, that's a very, very important thing. The Four Powers means be open. 

At least have one friend in your life that you can tell them all of your stuff, okay? The main thing is mental, you know. The main thing is the mental ones. I was thinking to murder my associate at work, you know.

(51:43 - 51:53)
And they're like, wow, you look like a nice person. I was like, yeah, I was thinking, should I use a gun or not? You know. I mean, I do this.

(51:55 - 53:21)
We do a lot of things mentally, okay, and it's very, very powerful, and Tsongkapa is recommending. Have a friend in your life that you trust and tell them the worst things, okay? And don't have any hidden ones. When you have a hidden one, you die with it. 

It goes with you, okay? So, to protect your future self, to protect yourself when you die, then be honest. Be 100% honest. Have one person who won't kick you out of the room or lock the door, okay? You can yell through the door, okay? But, have one person in your life that you can tell your deepest secrets to, okay? The negative things that you think about, okay? And it will clean, it will clean it, okay? And that's the four powers. 

That's the essence of the four powers. Tell somebody, you know, if you take the bus to work, you can tell the person next to you. I've done that. 

Do you know what I did last night? No, I don't want to know. Okay, but I'm serious, okay? And it has made my life very happy. My life is extremely happy, you know? I don't hide stuff.

(53:22 - 56:39)
I don't have anything to hide in it. And that habit that I was taught is very, very nice, okay? And you will be very, very happy, okay? That's the key to happiness, okay? Next picture. Now Tsongkapa is getting into the Lamrim where you meditate on suffering, okay? This is the, you meditate on suffering. 

And I wanted to talk a little bit about, we talked about seed pictures, and we talked about luminous images, and we talked about pictures coming out of the seeds in your mind, and we talked about name only, we talked about labels, we talked about imputed, all of these emptiness philosophy words that just mean pictures come out of the seeds in your mind from how you treated other people in the past, and they go out. Stuff doesn't come this way. Stuff comes this way. 

Everything in the world comes from your here. Okay, everything in the world comes from your mind. Everything you ever see is coming from you. 

Everything, okay? So, when you, just before you see emptiness, you will see the seeds opening, and it's very, you know, you're like, damn, all of those classes were correct, okay? You don't really know until that day if Buddhism is correct, okay? You can say I'm Buddhist. You can say I'm Lamrim. You can say I go to all the classes. 

You are not a Buddhist until that day. Then you say, oh my god, I'm so lucky I got in the right business, okay, called Buddhism, okay? So, there's a deeper way to understand Mingtsam, name only, labeled, and it just means, forget name, forget term, forget label, it just means pictures are coming out, and they are creating the world in front of you, okay? And they come from how you treat other people. Got it? That's, we agreed. 

Now I want to talk about the four Arya Truths, okay? Four Arya Truths. I think we have time to cover it today, okay? It's the next topic in this Lamrim, and the Lamrim is necessary, or I will not teach you Diamond Way, okay? That's the deal. That's the agreement, that's the contract we have. 

You put in the Lamrim, I put in the Diamond Way, okay? You signed it when you came here, okay? Okay, and we got to talk about now the four truths. So, when Lord Buddha taught, well, it's an interesting story. Lord Buddha became the Buddha, and then I think it was 49 days, I think it was seven weeks, that he refused to teach.

(56:40 - 57:30)
And he got enlightened, and then he pretended to be enlightened in this world, and then he refused to teach, and he had some disciples. Who were they? The Tiger Cubs. He had like, I don't know, four or five, four plus one. 

He had five disciples, and he said, I refuse to teach you. He refused to teach for seven weeks after he became a Buddha, okay? And then he started, the first teaching he ever gave in the deer park, Dragon's Head had these beautiful deers. Do you got that one picture of them jumping? Can you send it to these kids back there? Stanley's going to send you a picture.

(57:33 - 58:03)
He went to the deer park in Varanasi, and he taught, sorry not, and he taught, the first thing he ever taught was the four truths, okay? Four truths means, it sounds, okay, try to understand, truth sounds like law or principle. You see what I mean? I'll teach you the four principles, or I'll teach you the four laws. They are not, okay? They are not laws.

(58:04 - 58:24)
Okay, laws are interesting in Buddhist logic because they are unchanging. They're one of the only unchanging things, okay? I don't know, all vegetables don't taste good. Don't tell my wife, I taught you that.

(58:25 - 59:06)
Okay? Principles are unchanging, okay? They don't get less or more, it's either vegetables taste good or they taste bad, but it's not like they change halfway through or something like that, okay? The facts, facts don't change. These are called the four Arya facts, okay? By the way, they were mistranslated in English for many years, and they called them the four noble truths, because the word Arya means higher, elevated. It means higher up, okay? Arya means higher up.

(59:06 - 59:53)
So these Western guys, in my teacher's generation, my professor's generation, they saw Arya and they translated it as noble, okay? Noble means what? You're super moral or something, and you're a good person, and you always tell people your faults, and you know, anyway, and they mistranslated it. Noble is a bad translation. It has nothing to do with the word Arya, okay? They are called Arya truths because they are experiences that an Arya has, okay? They are called Arya truths because they are experiences that an Arya has.

(59:54 - 1:00:20)
Jetob yeshe, following the direct perception of emptiness, in the next few hours, after seeing emptiness directly, every Arya sees these truths. Every Arya sees the same thing, okay? They see the same truth. That's a deer from Dragon's Head, pretty cool.

(1:00:21 - 1:00:51)
I feel like it's got the blessing of Deer Park or something. Yeah, anyway, so Arya truth is not a truth. It's not a fact. 

It's not a statement. It's an experience, okay? It's a thing that you experience, okay? Suffering, pain. If you have a toothache, you are experiencing one of the Arya truths.

(1:00:51 - 1:01:03)
You see what I mean? It's not the statement that toothaches hurt. It's not a truth. It's the fact, okay? They should have called it the four Arya facts.

(1:01:04 - 1:01:32)
It means that thing itself. The pain itself is the first Arya truth, okay? Got it? The first fact of Arya. Why Arya? Why do they call them Arya truths? Because only a person who has seen emptiness directly sees these four truths as they are, okay? You can learn them, and you can learn to repeat them, and you can learn all the 16 aspects.

(1:01:32 - 1:03:33)
You can learn the 16 divisions of them, but you don't have the direct experience that an Arya has of them, okay? All right? And so I wanted to talk a little bit about the Arya's experience of those 16, all right? And the four truths, all right? So I wanted to talk, I wanted to talk about the four truths and the 16 aspects, okay? And there are presentations of the four truths in the Abhidharma, for example. And I remember when Ben was translating about the four truths, we got confused because some of the books said they are not what you think. They are not this description. 

You know, it was very interesting. We had trouble translating it, okay? So here's, I want to share with you some of the experiences of a person who has just come out of the direct perception of emptiness, because those are the four Arya truths. Those are the four Arya truths. 

Nothing else is the four Arya truths. They are not written in books. They are experienced by Aryas, okay? Only by an Arya fully are they experienced, okay? So I think it'd be interesting if you have an Arya to listen to their experience. 

And then, you know, I think it would be interesting to try to connect these experiences to the 16 aspects, because they should line up. They should correlate. And I haven't really sat down to work on it, but that's, it's interesting. 

You can experience the 16 aspects and then go check if they are written down correctly. Okay, and it's very interesting. When I came out of the direct perception, one of the things I saw, and by the way, this is not during the direct perception of emptiness.

(1:03:33 - 1:03:41)
During the direct perception of emptiness, you cannot see anything else. It's impossible. You cannot even see your own mind.

(1:03:42 - 1:04:05)
You cannot, the most frustrating thing is, while you are in your first direct perception of emptiness, you cannot frame the thought, I did it. Because you cannot think I, and you cannot think did, and you cannot think it. You can just be in emptiness, okay? You are not, you are in the direct perception of emptiness.

(1:04:06 - 1:06:50)
You are not aware of thinking or perceiving. You're not aware of yourself, because your self is not emptiness. You are swimming in emptiness. 

You cannot perceive anything else, okay? Then when you come out, you start to see the 16 aspects, okay? Why are we talking about this, Geshe La? Because if you really appreciate some of those aspects, you will take care that you do not have a bad rebirth. Okay, if you really appreciate the 16 aspects, you will be very scared to plant any bad seeds, okay? Because you know what's coming, okay? So, I'm going to share a few things, and then, you know, someday we should do it for a couple days or something, all right? I don't have time right now. I'm trying to get you, I'm on a schedule to get you into your empowerment by autumn, something like that, okay? But we all have to stay healthy, and we have to work hard, okay? You know, by 26 autumn time sometime, depending on the clinic, okay? The CSP group and the related group, the DSEU group, they're a little bit ahead of you guys. 

They finished almost three years now, and they will be ready for their empowerment in the next few months, okay? And there are many great teachers of Diamond Way, such as John, Connie, Jing Mei, who are also granting empowerments and teaching Diamond Way, and they are very qualified, and they are very cool, and you know, if you like ice cream, it's also okay to have a cinnamon roll at the same time. It's my opinion. Understand? Okay, so that's up to you. 

All right, here's some of the 16 aspects, okay? Boy, I better pick them up, I better continue tomorrow, but I'll say one thing, you see your death, okay? You see your death, and and we all know we're gonna die. We saw many people die. We all believe we're gonna die, and nobody thinks they're gonna die.

(1:06:50 - 1:08:31)
Okay, and if you're an Arya, when you come out, you see your death, you know, and it's very powerful. It's very, very powerful, you know, and I guess it's kind of liberating. You see your death, there's no question about it. 

You see the day that you will die, and that's very powerful. You also see very typically that you will have to live seven more lifetimes to reach enlightenment, okay? So, you know very clearly, for certain, you see at least, well at worst, let's put it that way, if you don't practice Diamond Way, you have seven lifetimes to go. I saw that in, I saw that after I saw emptiness. 

I saw it on the same day in the same temple. And then later I read it in the Abhidharma, and I was so, I was, they have a word, say LEN DUN PA PA. LEN DUN PA PA means Arya with seven lifetimes to go, and including the one now, okay, so six more, and I was freaked out. 

I was like, damn, you know, that means somebody else saw emptiness. That means I'm not crazy, you know. By the way, you also see that you're not crazy, but I saw the word after I experienced it, you see what I mean? And I think that's really, that's really cool.

(1:08:31 - 1:10:00)
So, your death is like that, and your next seven lifetimes are like that, and you see it, okay, and you know you're gonna die, and somehow that's a very beautiful thing, okay. Then you see your enlightenment, okay. You see yourself as a Buddha, and that's very sexy, okay. 

You see yourself in seven lifetimes, and you see you will be a Buddha, and you see the Buddha, and it's you, and that's really cool, okay, and then how does that affect your mental affliction level? You see what I mean? Like someone says I'm gonna fire you, or we're gonna lower your salary, or you know, you have to clean the toilet, or other kinds of bad news, you know, or your kidney's bad, you see what I mean? And then how does that affect how you live? It changes everything, okay. If you see yourself as a Buddha within seven lifetimes, then nothing bothers you that much. There's still irritating people who irritate you, okay.

(1:10:01 - 1:10:29)
Someone told me, Geshe Michael, you're not an Arya. I said, why? You still get upset. When you become an Arya, you do not get rid of your upset, okay? I'm telling you now, okay? That's much later. 

That's called arhat, okay. Aryas have lots of problems. Aryas have all kinds of mental afflictions, except for doubt.

(1:10:30 - 1:12:27)
They saw their own Buddhahood, they know. You can talk to an Arya for ten years and tell them they're crazy, and they'll go, oh really? You know, like that, okay? So you get rid of doubt, okay? That's the main thing. You can't doubt Buddhism anymore. 

Question for you guys. This, the Angel-Devil book goes deeply into this topic later. By the way, you are only halfway through the Angel-Devil after fourteen years, okay? Later in the book, they start talking about, you know, doesn't Arya see things coming from their own side after they come out of the direct perception of emptiness? And the answer is yes. 

That habit is so old, that habit is so strong, that when you come down out of the direct perception of emptiness, deep down you still, things still look like they're coming this way, okay? But you don't believe it. How often do you don't believe it? No, not all the time, okay? And that's something interesting. Like Aryas forget themselves once in a while, like especially if they're jealous or upset or something like that, okay? They can get angry, they can get jealous, because they can forget what they saw. 

Not completely. I mean, if you sit down and say, are you, Geshe La, are you jealous right now? Yes. Are you upset right now? Yes. 

Did you see anything? Did you see emptiness? Ah. Yeah. So you know it's coming from you. 

Yeah. Oh yeah, you're right. I feel better.

(1:12:28 - 1:12:48)
Okay, all right. Even an Arya forgets where things are coming from. You do not eliminate your mental afflictions the day you see emptiness directly. 

That's not the case. Okay? You damage them. And by the way, after that you cannot collect karma and be reborn.

(1:12:50 - 1:13:12)
Okay? Those seven lifetimes are, those seven lifetimes are propelled by past karma, not by any new karma, okay? You make no new bad karma of that type. You cannot, you cannot have an eighth life or a ninth life or something like that. It's never going to happen, okay? After you see emptiness directly.

(1:13:13 - 1:14:45)
Okay kids, these are things that if you know them, you can practice Diamond Way better, okay? And I'll keep telling you and we'll keep talking about it. And I'll be honest, if you can meet an Arya and you can hear these things direct, firsthand, it's much, much stronger. It's much, much more powerful, okay? And so we're really lucky to have this chance together, okay? All right. 

See you tomorrow, okay? Okay, so please everyone stand up and thank you so much Geshe Michael for teaching. Thank you. Okay.

(1:14:52 - 1:15:08)
Okay, thank you everyone and that was a wonderful teaching. And then we're gonna have a break for 15 minutes. And after the break, we'll have the Q&A by our senior teachers.

(1:15:09 - 1:15:31)
So please stay tuned and we'll see you shortly. Thank you. Hello. 

Hello, everyone. This is Han from Vietnam. And thank you to Geshe Michael Roach for this meaningful and powerful teaching.

(1:15:32 - 1:15:44)
And so generously planting a new vision, new plan ahead. And your sharing also helps us to be more brave and confident doing four powers. I believe so.

(1:15:44 - 1:16:06)
So what else message that touched you today? Please share with your friends and community. And my dear friends around the world, may the knowledge and the goodness we receive at NAMTED today will be the beautiful gift to offer to all of us. And please spend your quiet time to offer and pray to him.

(1:16:07 - 1:16:23)
Thank you all for being part of this class. And now please have around 13 minutes. And then we would like to invite you to come next Q&A discussion panel with our senior teachers, Jing Mei, John Brady, Connie and Hector.

(1:16:24 - 1:16:31)
And from all of us as five house crew, we look forward to seeing you again. Thank you.