BDW 5 «Мост 5: Пустота в повседневности», занятие 9

(0:24 - 0:51)
Welcome back, welcome back everyone! We will now begin class 9 with Geshe Michael Roach. Thank you for continuing this journey of study and reflection with us. Please return to a comfortable seat, minimize distractions, and let's keep the same strong intention as we continue the teachings.

(0:52 - 2:41)
So, let's go. Yeah, so a few years ago I got a PhD from the National University of Mexico, UNAM, and they asked me to go to the Congress and give a talk, so I'm on the right side in the special hat, and I have something in my hand, what's that? Yeah, I was teaching the Pen, and then I asked Stanley to get up and teach the PEN also, I think, right? Something like that. What did you teach? I forgot.

(2:44 - 3:18)
But I asked Stanley to get up and give a talk at the same time, and it was very fun in the Congress of Mexico. And, $100, why am I talking about that? Wait, wait, wait, you got to raise your hand, there's a system. It's my first time also.

(3:20 - 3:36)
Thank you. So, you're talking about the PEN story, it's called Plant a Seed [?]. That's okay, but it's not the answer.

(3:36 - 3:41)
Talking about the emptiness. I always talk about emptiness. Yes.

(3:43 - 4:07)
It's a secret, it's a difficult answer. Dan, is someone offering me $100? I guess it might show how things exist, how everything comes from... That's correct, but that's not the answer today. Okay, one more try.

(4:09 - 4:26)
One more try. I think it's because you say that the world is changing. It's not normal for the world, but you're teaching it in Parliament, so it's showing that the world is changing.

(4:27 - 4:49)
Kiri [?]? By the way, you don't get the money, it goes to your college fund. Kids need help in Mexico because they're getting overweight and all that? Not exactly. Okay, cancel the bet.

(4:50 - 5:12)
Otherwise we spend the whole day. This was... If you notice, in front of Stanley is an eagle, and on the national flag in the National Congress, behind Grandpa, there's two eagles, then there's another eagle in the middle. Ay-yah.

(5:13 - 5:25)
What's it mean? Yeah, yeah. Who's the eagle? Patience. Who's the snake? Anger.

(5:25 - 5:32)
Where do they live? In here. In here. Okay.

(5:32 - 5:57)
They are internal. They are internal. So I was trying to remind you of this old... This is an old Sanskrit saying, bhujanga, who walks on the palm [?] of their hand, which is a snake, and that represents your anger.

(5:58 - 6:08)
We are talking mainly in this retreat, I'd like you to focus on effort. So that means... I don't like the word effort. Virya.

(6:09 - 6:31)
It's too boring. Actually, I think the joyful effort is a very good translation. So it means, in your practice, in your meditation, in your retreat, in your yoga, you have to have fun.

(6:32 - 6:41)
And that's required by who? Buddha. And people don't talk about it. I don't know why they don't talk about it.

(6:42 - 6:55)
Perfection number four, the fourth perfection, is have fun during your practice. Have fun during your practice. Don't be like, I've got to meditate.

(6:56 - 7:04)
Don't be grumpy that you have to meditate. Have fun. You're lucky to be alive.

(7:05 - 7:10)
You're lucky you have a brain. You're lucky you're eating. You're lucky this week [?].

(7:11 - 7:18)
You're lucky they're not bombing your house. You are very lucky. So be happy.

(7:18 - 7:24)
You're lucky. You're super lucky. Have fun with your practice.

(7:24 - 7:36)
I really don't like serious Buddhist people. They are boring. They're like, Oh my... I'm like, smile, at least smile.

(7:37 - 7:50)
The fourth perfection is have fun. If you are doing your practice well, if you are doing the six perfections, then you are having fun. You should be having fun.

(7:50 - 8:06)
Does it mean you don't have sickness? Does it mean you don't see bad things in the world? Does it mean you don't have people you don't agree with? It doesn't mean that. Everybody has hard things. Everybody.

(8:07 - 8:16)
You're not special. This is the democracy of life. Everybody has equal pain.

(8:17 - 8:21)
Everybody has equal suffering. Everybody has equal disappointment. We all have.

(8:22 - 8:29)
There's nobody who doesn't have it. Those rich, handsome... What's his name? I hate this guy. Brad Pitt.

(8:31 - 8:36)
He also has trouble. He's also going to die. He's also getting older.

(8:37 - 8:54)
His last movie is F1. He plays the older race car driver who's almost finished his career. And I felt so sad because when the actor gets that part of the older race car driver, it's just before they die.

(8:55 - 9:02)
They get this part. I feel everybody has trouble. Everybody has problems.

(9:02 - 9:13)
Don't think you are special. Your problems are not the worst in the world. Probably there's some guy in Brazil or something who has the worst problems in the world.

(9:13 - 9:18)
I don't know. But it's definitely not us. We have this class.

(9:21 - 9:36)
Have fun and don't be too serious. I think the worst thing in the world is a boring, serious Buddhist person. If you are really learning to stop your suffering, you should be a little bit happy.

(9:37 - 9:42)
And you should be... I don't know. You shouldn't be grumpy or too serious. Don't be too serious.

(9:43 - 9:49)
Always laugh. Laugh at yourself is the best. And your practice will be good.

(9:49 - 9:59)
That's why joyful effort is in the middle of the perfections. That's why it's number four. You use it for the first three and you use it for the second two.

(9:59 - 10:06)
So have fun. Have fun with your practice. If you're not having fun with your practice, you have to fix your practice.

(10:06 - 10:09)
Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Have fun.

(10:10 - 10:14)
Geshe La, I have cancer. I don't care. Geshe La, my husband's a bad guy.

(10:14 - 10:19)
I don't care. You are lucky. You are super lucky.

(10:20 - 10:26)
Smile once in a while. And have fun. You have a chance.

(10:26 - 10:38)
Other people don't. So smile and be a little bit happy. Okay? Stanley's like... Yeah, have fun.

(10:38 - 10:48)
Have fun with your practice. Otherwise I think it's not... Something's wrong. The fourth perfection, which we taught in this retreat, is to have fun.

(10:48 - 11:15)
What you're going to meditate about in the next four days, how can you use that? How can you use that in your life? How can you go home with a smile? And good people smile even when things are difficult. Even when they're very sick or they have family problems or stuff like that. They are still like... People say, how are you? I say, well, I'm okay.

(11:16 - 11:29)
And they're still smiling. So, there's a thing in Buddhism about being a flower for the world. In China they have this thing, I think.

(11:30 - 12:05)
We should be... They say that you should... The reason when you wake up, comb your hair, shave if you have time, put on some nice clothes, and smile, is that a good Buddhist meditator should be like a flower on the side of the road. Sometimes we come from Tucson or something and the wildflowers are growing near the side of the road and they're so beautiful. Nobody planted them.

(12:06 - 12:15)
They're just there. And they make everybody's day happier. Everyone who drives down the highway, they see the wildflowers and they feel a little bit happier.

(12:15 - 12:27)
You should be a wildflower. You should be the wildflower in the world. People don't know you, but they see you and you are smiling and you look like you're having a good time.

(12:28 - 12:35)
Then it makes their day happier. So, that's joyful effort. And it doesn't cost you anything.

(12:36 - 12:43)
You don't have to pay to smile. And it will help somebody else. It will make their life a little bit easier.

(12:44 - 12:56)
So, I think perfection number four is the most important one. Every teacher of Buddhism has this debate. What's the most important perfection? Nobody says number four.

(12:56 - 13:02)
I say number four. Be happy with your practice. Have fun with your practice.

(13:03 - 13:11)
If you're a serious, serious Buddhist, it's so boring. And I don't think it's very successful. So, have fun.

(13:11 - 13:16)
Even if your life is difficult, have fun. There's something good about your life. You're still breathing.

(13:17 - 13:35)
So far. We were talking about patience and I wanted to go to the next picture. We visited Xi'an by accident.

(13:35 - 13:41)
We were in Dunhuang. We did a program there. It was a very beautiful program.

(13:41 - 13:50)
Thank you for taking us to Dunhuang. I love this place. It's like the Diamond Mountain of China, of Asia.

(13:51 - 14:01)
And I really like to go there. It's a big blessing to go there. If you can go there in your life, you should try to go there one time.

(14:01 - 14:22)
That picture I show of Veronica? You got that one? These guys, every time they get good, I always make them do something strange. Yeah, that's the... In the cave where they found the 60,000 books, they built this front to the cave. It's a false front.

(14:23 - 14:29)
It's a pagoda. This is the library at Dunhuang. This is where they found the Diamond Cutter.

(14:30 - 14:41)
This is where the Diamond Cutter Sutra comes from. The oldest book in the world, with the date inside, came from that cave. It was a little tiny cave.

(14:42 - 15:01)
That's where the monk was, illegally smoking. Just imagine if he wasn't smoking, we wouldn't find the book. That was the monk.

(15:01 - 15:12)
It's okay. They do good stuff. Anyway, they built this false front to the cave.

(15:13 - 15:21)
I think you should go there. If you can go there, it's very beautiful to go there. Now let's go back to Xuanzang.

(15:21 - 15:39)
Yeah, we call our translation group classes Xuanzang Tower. This is the tower. The emperor of China, Tang Taizong, emperor of the Tang dynasty, Tang Qiao [?], Xuanzang asked him, he's a young man, 20-something.

(15:40 - 15:49)
He asked the emperor, can I go to India? The emperor said, no. If you go, I will kill you. I will have someone kill you.

(15:50 - 15:57)
He went anyway. He crossed the Gobi Desert. Nobody expected him to walk across the Gobi Desert.

(15:57 - 16:11)
He went that way. When he got back, 17 years later, he has, I don't know, 2,000 books? Something like that. 1,400-something.

(16:12 - 16:25)
He started to translate. He translated them in this tower. The emperor announced, he's so smart, he's such a good guy, that he found all these books and brought them back to China.

(16:25 - 16:37)
He became a hero by the person who wanted to kill him before. That's always the way it happens. He became famous for translating in that tower.

(16:37 - 16:48)
This is his statue at Dunhuang [?]. I like him. They made everybody wonder why he didn't get killed for 17 years.

(16:48 - 17:09)
He went through 51 kingdoms. The custom at that time is someone traveling through your country, you grab them, and you put them in chains, and you make them a slave for the rest of their life at your house, to stay in your house. There's no law, there's no police, there's no nothing.

(17:09 - 17:14)
It's just 51 wild countries. He walked through each one. No one touched him.

(17:15 - 17:30)
They said later, maybe he had the assistance of... Can I say Guanyin or something? He had the assistance of a Buddha. Lady Buddha. That's why he didn't get captured or killed.

(17:31 - 17:53)
Then he had a special pig, and a special horse, and a monkey. Anyway, these are magical people who travel with him and protect him. There came to be a story like that later, hundreds of years later.

(17:54 - 18:04)
That became one of the four great books of China. It's called Journey to the West. It became one of the most popular books in Chinese history.

(18:05 - 18:19)
Why are we talking about that? I was talking about patience. I want to talk about patience. Patience means partly to forgive other people.

(18:19 - 18:33)
When someone hurts you, and somebody does something bad to you, then you let it go. You let it go. I say you can let it go the same day, or you can wait 10 years.

(18:35 - 18:47)
No, you have freedom. Everybody has this freedom. You can decide how long you're going to take before you forget it, before you forgive it.

(18:47 - 18:55)
I went to a talk by an American nun. I don't remember her name. She gave a good talk in Seattle or something.

(18:57 - 19:13)
I heard this talk, and I liked it. She said she had a friend, and she asked the friend, are you married? The friend said, no, I'm not married. I've been divorced.

(19:13 - 19:29)
How long? 10 years. I've been divorced for 10 years. Then she asked him, why you got divorced? She said, 10 years ago, he's cheating with another woman, and then he said this thing to me.

(19:30 - 19:34)
Unbelievable. I like this other lady. I don't like you so much.

(19:34 - 19:51)
She quoted the husband's talk directly, 10 years later. Then the nun, she laughed. She said, do you think your husband remembers this talk? She said, no, I guess he doesn't remember this talk.

(19:52 - 20:18)
She said, no, not only that, 10 years later, you have trouble to memorize your prayers, you have trouble to memorize Xin Jing, Heart Sutra, but you memorize what your husband said to you. What's the bad thing that your husband said to you? You can say word for word. 10 years later, you can remember what he said word for word.

(20:18 - 20:25)
And he forgot it 10 years ago. He forgot it 10 years ago. He's not thinking about it.

(20:25 - 20:31)
You're holding it for 10 years. Direct quotation. You're holding it in your mind for 10 years.

(20:31 - 20:39)
Let it go. At some time, you will forget what he said. Or you will die.

(20:40 - 20:50)
And then you forget. Okay? Understand? Number one, you forget before you die, what he said. And you forget about him completely.

(20:52 - 21:02)
I was married before [?] I forgot everything. I just give it up. Or you can hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it.

(21:02 - 21:20)
Then you die. Then you forget it. Okay? So, why wait? If you're going to forget it anyway, or you're going to die and you're going to forget it, how about you forget it the next day? Okay? Someone says something bad to you.

(21:20 - 21:35)
Someone hurt you. Someone does something to hurt you. Then why should you wait 10 years? Why should you wait 20 years? Why should you wait until you die? Just forget it today.

(21:36 - 21:47)
Forget it the next day. And I challenge you, see if you can forget it in half a day. Someone really hurt you.

(21:47 - 21:55)
See if you can forget it in half a day. Then see if you can forget it in three hours. Then see if you can forget it in one hour.

(21:56 - 22:08)
Then see if you can forget it right after they say it. Like, do you believe what she said to you? What? I don't remember. It was 10 minutes ago.

(22:08 - 22:18)
Yeah, I don't remember. I have developed my capacity to forget. You know? I have a super capacity to forget.

(22:18 - 22:28)
In English we say forget and forgive. I forgot and I forgave them right after they said it. The moment they said it, Geshe La, you're an asshole.

(22:28 - 22:42)
I'm like, excuse me? I forgot. Okay? Really? Really? Give it up. You want to advance? People want Diamond Way, Tantric practice.

(22:44 - 23:05)
Forgive them before they call you an asshole. Okay? Okay? You know? It sounds like this guy is warming up to call me an asshole. Then you're like, I forgive you before you say the next sentence.

(23:06 - 23:17)
I forgive you in advance. Really? Because you can tell when someone's about to explode, right? And you can forgive them before they get angry. And that's patience.

(23:18 - 23:29)
That's the skill of forgetting it before they start. Okay? The skill of forgetting it before they start. I put these diamonds here.

(23:29 - 23:48)
Somebody came up to me, Jasmine Yao came up to me a couple, two weeks ago or a week, ten days ago, at Peace Tree and she said, Geshe La, we have a request. And I'm like, oh no. Then I said, what's the request? And she said, there's a new technology.

(23:48 - 23:58)
You can make diamonds cheap. That technology existed in 1957. General Electric made a diamond.

(23:58 - 24:07)
They made a one carat diamond. Real diamond. And it took enough electricity to run a city for five hours.

(24:09 - 24:24)
It was enough electricity to run a city for five hours. And they melt the pencil, pencil lead, carbon, and they create a diamond under pressure. But the pressure requires a lot of pneumatic pressure.

(24:24 - 25:10)
And I was, at that time I was writing gemology articles for the Gemological Institute. So I translated those secret books about Russian, learn how to make diamonds. And so they found a, the Russians found a, you want to hear the whole story? I like stories. 

Did I tell you that? The United States was fighting with Russia, as usual. And then you need diamonds to make everything. Because diamond is the only thing that can cut steel, easily.

(25:11 - 25:35)
So if you want to make a car engine, you need diamonds. If you want to drill for oil, you need diamonds on the oil drill. You need diamonds. 

The world needs diamonds. So most of the diamonds at that time came from Africa. And the United States created a system where the Russian government cannot get diamonds.

(25:38 - 25:53)
And so the Russian government decided they want to find diamonds in their own country. Russia is the largest country in the world, I think. So they have a lot of place to look for diamonds.

(25:53 - 26:06)
So they send out many teams to try to find diamonds, because without diamonds you cannot make anything. You cannot make weapons, you cannot make anything. And the United States was blocking the diamond supply.

(26:06 - 26:19)
So they went and went and went. Diamonds are grown... Diamonds come from the middle of the earth. They are created under the pressure of the middle of the earth.

(26:20 - 26:36)
And they come from liquid stone. So the middle of the, the core of the earth is liquid stone. And when there's a volcano, then the diamonds are brought up to the top of the earth.

(26:36 - 26:49)
And then the volcano blows up and it spreads the diamonds. The diamond, the volcano pipe has diamonds in it. And if you can find it, those pipes have blue stone.

(26:50 - 26:55)
It's a blue stone. It's called kimberlite. And it has a specific color, blue-green stone.

(26:55 - 27:14)
So the pipe, the lava, liquid rock is blue-green. So when you go looking for diamonds, you look for blue-green stone. And you look for garnets, red ruby-like stone.

(27:14 - 27:27)
It's made at the same time as the diamond. So if you want to find a diamond pipe, you go and check ants. You walk around and you look at the ants.

(27:27 - 27:56)
And you see if they are carrying up little pieces of red stone. And that's the garnets. And then you know there's kimberlite. 

You know there's a diamond ore. Okay, got it? So there's a Russian geologist, a lady. She's in Siberia. 

She's near, what's that lake, Baikal? And they are looking for diamond pipes. And they're also hungry because the government sent them without supplies. They have to shoot their own food.

(27:57 - 28:05)
So she's walking around. They give her a rifle. They say, go find... I heard someone else knows how to shoot a rifle recently.

(28:05 - 28:17)
I heard this story. Anyway, she's looking and she saw a fox, a red fox. And she aimed the rifle with the telescope.

(28:17 - 28:37)
And she see he has a blue collar on his red fur. And she realized he's digging in the kimberlite. So she followed the fox. 

She didn't kill him. And he took her to his hole. And they found the largest diamond mine in the world.

(28:38 - 28:48)
And it's called MIR. MIR means two meanings, peace or world, which is very beautiful. The Russian word for peace is also the Russian word for world.

(28:50 - 28:59)
So they named the mine the MIR mine. And it was the largest mine in the world. Then the Gemological Institute contacted me.

(29:00 - 29:15)
And they said, you speak Russian. Yeah, badly. You read Russian better. 

Yes. You know, if people publish books about the MIR mine, it's capital punishment. They can be killed.

(29:16 - 29:26)
It's against the law to talk about this mine in Russia. It's illegal to write anything about it. Death penalty.

(29:27 - 29:41)
And then I found some articles, secret articles. Should I tell you where? John, I'll give you a clue. Two lions on Fifth Avenue.

(29:43 - 29:51)
New York Public Library. They have all these Russian articles about the MIR mine. You know, secret articles.

(29:51 - 29:57)
So I translated them. And I can show them to you sometimes. They're semi-famous.

(29:58 - 30:07)
And there were some articles about producing diamonds artificially. Real diamond. We're not talking fake diamond.

(30:08 - 30:28)
The Russians also invented cubic zirconia, which is fake diamond. But they learned how to make real diamond. You still want some more? To make a real diamond, you have to melt the carbon at very high temperatures.

(30:28 - 30:39)
Very, very high temperatures. If you add iron to the mix, iron chemical, it will lower the melting point. Then it's cheaper.

(30:40 - 30:51)
You can make the diamond cheaper. To buy a one carat diamond flawless is about $30,000. To make one at that time was maybe a million dollars.

(30:52 - 31:03)
So there's no reason to make it. But if you add iron, you can make it for $20,000. Then you can cheat everybody in the world and make $10,000 per carat.

(31:06 - 31:13)
But with a microscope, you can find the iron. Or you can test it. There's ways to test it and find the iron.

(31:14 - 31:26)
Recently, the good news is, they learned how to make them with a different system. You can make a real diamond cheap. $30 a carat.

(31:26 - 31:37)
$30 for a $30,000 stone. And they are perfect. In fact, how do you detect them? They're too good.

(31:39 - 31:48)
You see? So the Russians, they're so cool. They put flaws in the diamond. So it looks natural.

(31:48 - 31:56)
You see what I mean? So that was the article I discovered. Anyway, I got famous for that. That you don't know about.

(31:57 - 32:12)
But while I talk about it, Jasmine said recently they got a new system of making diamonds. And they use the carbon in your hair. You cut a little bit of your hair and they make a diamond from it.

(32:12 - 32:27)
So we're going to make a plan. They're going to make some Geshe Michael hair diamonds. And we'll give them away in—or she'll sell them, I guess— in Xi'an.

(32:28 - 32:50)
That's why the hair and the diamond is with Xuanzang. If you come to Xi'an in April, we will be teaching Diamond Cutter Sutra and giving out diamonds. And then if you get on the airplane, you can fly to Dunhuang.

(32:51 - 33:00)
And you can see the caves. I encourage you to—if you can get— even if you're not Chinese. I was on the plane to Beijing.

(33:02 - 33:10)
And there's a lady sitting next to me. She's an older lady and she's very nervous. She looks like she's afraid to fly.

(33:11 - 33:41)
And she asked me, Are you going to Beijing? I said, Yeah, I'm on the plane. Then she said, Is it safe in Beijing? Can I go to Beijing? Is it going to be safe? I said, Listen, Beijing is the safest city in the world. You just came from New York, which is the most dangerous city in the world.

(33:41 - 33:50)
And you're flying to Beijing, which is the safest city in the world. And it's beautiful. And the people are so kind and so happy and so sweet.

(33:51 - 33:55)
And I told her, Don't worry. You're going to have a good time. You're going to have a really good time.

(33:56 - 34:08)
So I encourage you to go see Xi'an, if you can see it, and see China. Westerners—my dentist said, Where are you going next? I said, China. He said, Be careful.

(34:10 - 34:20)
I'm like, Why? He said, Very dangerous. I said, You have been to China? No. It's the most beautiful, happy place.

(34:20 - 34:24)
The people are so beautiful and kind. So shut up. And fix my tooth.

(34:27 - 34:35)
So I encourage you to go, if you can go. It's a beautiful place. And Xi'an is, for me, history.

(34:36 - 34:53)
Historically, this is like the capital of Buddhism in history. This is the most amazing city. And when you go there, and you walk around Xuanzang's Tower, you can go inside.

(34:53 - 35:02)
You can walk up to the top. You can sit where he was sitting when he translated the Heart Sutra, or the Diamond Cutter Sutra. I went and snuck over there and sat there.

(35:03 - 35:09)
And they let you to sit there, and it's so beautiful. The thing is very, very beautiful. And very modern.

(35:09 - 35:15)
There's a Sheraton? Hilton. Westin. There's a Westin across the street.

(35:15 - 35:21)
There's a luxury hotel. Not luxury, but there's good hotels around. I encourage you to go.

(35:21 - 35:31)
If you can, then go. If you can't get in and talk to Jenny or Vivian, they can get you in. They'll get you a ticket.

(35:37 - 35:41)
She's like... It's alright. Yay. Yay.

(35:47 - 36:12)
And we'll cover the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Okay? And then my suggestion is go take the flight to Dunhuang and see the caves and bring it back here and help make this place a great retreat center for a thousand years. You see? Okay? Deal? Agree? Try.

(36:13 - 36:21)
Mazel tov. Mazal u'bracha. Right? Yeah, that's what we say in the diamond business.

(36:21 - 36:24)
It's a deal. So go. If you can go, go.

(36:24 - 36:35)
It's a beautiful place. And you might get some diamonds there. Then I wanted to... How much time I got? Okay.

(36:36 - 36:41)
Tim's nervous. He looks nervous too. He's afraid I won't fundraise.

(36:44 - 36:55)
So, I'm going to fundraise a little bit. Don't fall asleep yet. So, ACI, we started it, I think, in 1991.

(36:55 - 37:05)
Am I right? 93? And I taught every day of the week. And I was working full-time. More than full-time.

(37:06 - 37:12)
And I taught every day of the week. And we decided to have Buddhist classes. And they're free.

(37:12 - 37:24)
They're completely free. So I worked. And the money I made from working, I spent... Like, the readings were all free.

(37:25 - 37:34)
And it was funny. Rob Haggerty... I finished the translation 15 minutes before class. He would run to the printer.

(37:35 - 37:40)
Chinese guy. Russian or Chinese? Chinese. Kinko's Copies.

(37:41 - 37:49)
He would run there. The guy would print the ACI readings. And they would go to the class, and they're still hot.

(37:50 - 37:58)
The reading is still hot. And we would have these readings there. And so we started the custom of being free.

(37:59 - 38:05)
That the classes should be free. And we kept that custom up until now. So we don't charge.

(38:06 - 38:27)
That's the... The ACI courses are the essence of the Geshe course. If you do well in your ACI courses, you are learning everything that a Geshe... You're learning the important things that a Geshe is learning. I went to... India.

(38:27 - 38:32)
I went to a town called Bangalore. City called Bangalore. My teacher visited me.

(38:32 - 38:39)
He brought two Geshes with him. Young Geshes. And Orit was with me.

(38:39 - 38:53)
Who was the other one? Hasso? Juan? Yeah, Juan was with me. And Orit Vasang was with me. And... So we're sitting with my teacher and the two young Geshes.

(38:53 - 39:09)
And I said, Let's have a debate. And they're like, what? And I said, let's have my two ACI students debate these two baby Geshes. And let's see who wins.

(39:10 - 39:19)
And they're like... Young Geshes are very proud. And they're like, oh yeah, let's go. And we're doing it.

(39:19 - 39:26)
And I said my Geshe Lodar will be the judge. He's this old friendly monk. And he said, I'll be the judge.

(39:26 - 39:49)
And they debated and I translated. And Orit and Juan kicked their ass. So then I thought, wow, these ACI courses are pretty good.

(39:50 - 39:57)
Because we took the essence out of the Geshe course. And I was really proud. That day I was really proud of Juan.

(40:07 - 40:24)
That was before Peace Tree World News. Because if it was after then, they would all be on the news. Why am I talking about that? We had board meetings here this week for ACI.

(40:24 - 40:35)
Five houses. And we are struggling to pay for ACI. I'm talking the people who work for ACI don't get paid.

(40:35 - 40:41)
We don't have money to pay them. Because we don't charge anything. But they have kids.

(40:41 - 40:56)
It's very irritating. They keep having kids. Like Shanti, right? Pachi? I feel bad because they have kids and they're working for us.

(40:56 - 41:00)
And they don't have any money. They don't have any pay. So I fundraise for that.

(41:01 - 41:25)
We made a new system where I told Tim every... I will try once a week. On Saturday morning I teach meditation in Rimrock to the local friends. And I said we will film 101 meditations.

(41:26 - 41:34)
And I agreed to teach 101 meditations. And then it was the 30th anniversary of ACI. Five houses.

(41:35 - 41:51)
So I made a proposal called 30-30-30. It means 30th anniversary of ACI. 30... No.

(41:52 - 42:07)
Oh, can you give $30 a month? Can you give $1 a day? Can anybody give $1 a day? It's not going to kill anybody. Everybody can do $1 a day. So we made a new system.

(42:07 - 42:14)
It's called 30-30-30. We're going to keep it up till 2030, something like that. Then we'll keep it up till 2130.

(42:16 - 42:34)
But we asked people, will you donate $1 a day? And in return, Geshe La is recording 101 meditations. These are the meditations I was taught for 25 years. And we will film them.

(42:35 - 42:47)
And the people who give $1 a day, they get the meditation video. And they can use it for their own practice. And so that's the deal.

(42:48 - 42:54)
You offer $1 a day. You get these videos. We don't give them to other people for six months.

(42:54 - 43:04)
So, you get six months in advance. You get to follow the 101 meditations as we create them. They are each one hour long.

(43:05 - 43:31)
And that's the deal. Now, you want the good news or the bad news? Good news is always better first. 500 people send them. 

Am I right? Yeah. So 500 people get the meditations. Hot off the stove, fresh.

(43:32 - 43:50)
As soon as I do them, they send them out. So for $1 a day, you get a video of a new meditation. And that pays roughly half, can I say half, of the expense of five houses.

(43:50 - 43:56)
It pays the salaries. We don't pay the teachers. The teachers don't charge the students.

(43:56 - 44:07)
But we try to help the teachers to fly. Like the Guadalajara teachers. They are flying to how many countries? Seven or eight countries.

(44:11 - 44:23)
Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Peru. They are flying and they are teaching.

(44:23 - 44:29)
Somebody has to pay for the airplane. I bought them all suits. They look hot.

(44:32 - 44:40)
My wife and I bought them all suits. By the way, you look really good in those suits. So we need something to help them.

(44:40 - 44:52)
And it's not enough. We don't have enough. So therefore, if you are not signed up to offer $1 a day, I'm asking you to sign up.

(44:52 - 45:01)
We have 1,900 people registered for this course. 1,900 people registered for this course. Only 500 are donating.

(45:02 - 45:18)
That's 1,400 more. I'm trying to get 1,399 to sign up for $1 a day. And being a diamond dealer, I have a new deal to make with you.

(45:18 - 45:38)
Okay? I meditate every morning. Then I thought, Tim asked me, can you think of a new fundraising thing? And I'm like, then I thought I would do meditation with you every morning. But I decided not to.

(45:39 - 45:48)
Because I can't focus. I don't want to get up and worry if the Zoom call is working. I think it would disturb my meditation, to be honest.

(45:49 - 45:54)
Because I have enough of that. My whole day is like that. I have to go here, I have to go there, I have to be on time.

(45:55 - 46:05)
They're going to start at a certain time filming. And it feels weird for me to film my meditation. So I have another deal to offer you.

(46:06 - 46:18)
If you sign up, or if you already signed up, we have an idea. Tim and me have an idea. That on your phone, there will be a red light go on.

(46:20 - 46:33)
And that means Grandpa is meditating. Right now. Okay? And it's usually, I can tell you it's going to be about 6.30 or 7 o'clock Arizona time.

(46:34 - 46:43)
Almost every day. I skip Sundays. I take a day off and I raise the time by five minutes or something.

(46:44 - 46:51)
So it's about an hour now. It's 52 minutes right now. The red light will go on your phone.

(46:52 - 47:01)
Or wherever, we don't know yet. Probably David can figure it out. But that means Grandpa is meditating.

(47:02 - 47:14)
And I thought it would be really powerful if we all meditate together. So that's 9.30 Beijing time. And that's not so bad.

(47:15 - 47:23)
You could do your goodnight book club meditation. You could do your coffee meditation while Grandpa's red light is on. And something like that.

(47:23 - 47:38)
So if around the world, if we all... You don't have to do it every day, but I do it almost every day. I miss a day sometimes if I have to teach on Saturday. I do it later in the day.

(47:39 - 47:55)
But we'll have a thing where it goes on red light. What do you have to do $1 a day? If you're already giving $1 a day, they get it for free, right? If you're not doing $1 a day, I ask you to do $1 a day. It's not going to kill you.

(47:55 - 48:16)
We used to say to people, put your spare change in the... Now they don't have change anymore. So I ask you shamelessly to help. You can give $1 a day and ignore the red light.

(48:17 - 48:40)
But we will develop it shortly, right Tim? And then I think to see the power of people meditating around the whole world together at the same time, I think it'd be awesome. Now Europeans are screwed, I'm sorry. It's going to be, let's see, 8 plus 9, it's 5 in the morning.

(48:41 - 48:45)
No, 5 in the evening. Oh, it's okay. Yeah, you're okay.

(48:46 - 48:55)
Yeah, my 6 a.m., 7 a.m. is good for everybody, I think. Unless Australians, I'm sorry, I can't help you. Or Hawaii.

(48:56 - 49:03)
Okay, all right. So please, Tim, how do they sign up? Right there. Okay, so take your phone.

(49:03 - 49:09)
I see everyone's pulling out their phone. Maybe the people in this room are already doing it. Okay.

(49:09 - 49:17)
We're already there. All right. But I encourage you, if you're listening online, I encourage you to join that.

(49:17 - 49:25)
It doesn't hurt you, $1 a day. And then we can keep teaching for free. And I like that.

(49:25 - 49:41)
I really like that. You'll be interested to know, when you start the Geshe course, a monk in the monastery has to sponsor you. Somebody has to say, he's with me.

(49:43 - 49:54)
So my Geshe Lodar did for me. So they take you to the abbot's office, and they say, he's mine. He's mine.

(49:54 - 49:59)
I vouch for him. I promise he will not misbehave. Much.

(50:02 - 50:25)
Then each person who joins the monastery, you need to... someone has to sponsor you. Okay? After you're sponsored, and after they write your name, there's a book called, say, kyi duk chik pa. Kyi duk chik pa. Kyi means happy. Duk means sad.

(50:26 - 50:34)
Chik pa means one for all, all for one. If we're happy, we're all happy. If we suffer, we all suffer.

(50:35 - 50:41)
But it means we all stick together. When things are good, we stick together. When things are bad, we stick together.

(50:42 - 50:51)
And joining the monastery is called kyi duk chik pa. Join the happy sad. Join the everybody happy sad together. It's called that.

(50:52 - 51:08)
The name for that is kyi duk chik pa. Then they put your name in the book, and then you start your classes. From the day that they put your name in the book, no one can charge you anything for 25 years. Okay? The Geshe course is free.

(51:09 - 51:21)
No one ever paid for a Geshe course. And you're studying for... I don't know. It's about 15 hours a day, 16 hours a day, for 25 years.

(51:22 - 51:28)
And you're not allowed to pay. No one's allowed to pay. Everyone takes care of everybody else.

(51:29 - 51:39)
And it's a beautiful system. Okay? So I would like to keep that system. When I met my teacher, the day I met my teacher, I gave him two things.

(51:40 - 51:45)
Momo, which I made myself. Dim sum. Dim sum.

(51:46 - 52:00)
And my bankbook. I gave it to him. He took the momo and he goes... Then much later he told me he threw it out in the forest.

(52:00 - 52:06)
We had a forest outside. He threw it in the forest. He said, I hope it didn't make the animals sick.

(52:09 - 52:16)
Then he took the bankbook. He said, what's this? And I said, this is my bankbook. I offer you everything I have.

(52:16 - 52:24)
Then he went like this. He threw it at me. And he says, I don't need your goddamn money.

(52:25 - 52:28)
I will teach you. But it's free. It's always free.

(52:29 - 52:36)
He never charged anything for 25 years. So, let's do that way. Let's keep it up.

(52:37 - 52:42)
But you need to help. Everybody has to help. Otherwise we can't do it.

(52:43 - 53:00)
And look how skinny Tim got without any support at all. We have a few minutes for Q&A? Yeah, I think that's all. The empowerment is in if you want to.

(53:01 - 53:08)
There's different empowerments you can take nowadays. You're welcome to take any empowerment you want. That's up to you.

(53:08 - 53:16)
That's your right. My job is to prepare you. There's many empowerments you can take.

(53:16 - 53:31)
If you'd like to take the one, if you'd like to add the one, it'll be in October. I have to say, it's super sexy. It's really, really cool.

(53:31 - 53:44)
It's very ancient. We're using some material from Dunhuang, from 1,400 years ago. And it's very, very beautiful.

(53:44 - 53:54)
And people are working very hard. It will be held at Dragon's Head, which is a new center in Rimrock. Huge, beautiful land.

(53:55 - 54:02)
It's limited. I think it's 130 people can fit there. And we'll have to figure out some way to help the other people.

(54:03 - 54:13)
But talk to Tim, right? Can I say that? Good. Fight with Tim. But you're very welcome to come.

(54:13 - 54:21)
My idea is two days of... My idea is this. I want you to understand the empowerment. So I will teach you for two days.

(54:22 - 54:34)
First of all, I will publish it, the translation, in your language. And I will give you a copy before. And then we'll study it together.

(54:35 - 54:51)
And then, when I hit you on the head with a rock, you understand what's going on. Okay? I want you to understand what the hell is going on. So, I will train you what it is.

(54:51 - 55:00)
And I will give you the text. The text will be about 200 or 300 pages. Maybe 300 pages.

(55:01 - 55:19)
And I will give you a copy and print it for you. I had this idea to make it... I've seen a kind of binding where you can lay it down flat. My Volkswagen fixing manual had a special binding.

(55:19 - 55:27)
And you can put it down flat, and you don't have to hold it. And you can look at it while you fix the car. So, I like that.

(55:27 - 55:36)
So, it'll be something like that. You can set it down, and you can have your bell and everything, and you can follow it. Okay? So, it'll be something like that.

(55:37 - 55:46)
Because I also want you to be able to give it to other people, responsibly. And I want you to know what's going on. So, there'll be two days of training what's going on.

(55:46 - 56:03)
And then three days of the empowerment. Okay? Free, I think. Tim, can I say free? Well, are you having a hard time? Did we intend that? Was that the idea? Yeah.

(56:04 - 56:14)
Well, from my side, it's free. We might have to fundraise for... There's a lot of stuff. There's 180 things you need to do the empowerment.

(56:15 - 56:20)
Weird stuff. Some of it costs some money. Like gold powder.

(56:21 - 56:32)
Okay? Someone has to pay for that. Stuff like that. But my idea is, generally, no charge.

(56:33 - 56:36)
All right. Questions? Q&A. Maybe one.

(56:38 - 56:43)
Oh, but you have to finish your Lamrim. Oh, good job. Right? You have to finish your Lamrim.

(56:44 - 56:50)
And the homeworks. Or forget it. Just don't even ask.

(56:50 - 57:10)
Do not come the week before and say, I want to come and I don't want to do any homework. And I will put my footprint on your pigu. Okay? Pigu is Chinese for... How do you say baruski [?]? Okay.

(57:11 - 57:14)
Yeah. Anyway. Okay.

(57:15 - 57:21)
Don't ask weird stuff. Do what you're supposed to do before. Don't ask me to break the rules.

(57:21 - 57:50)
I hate that. All right? You know the rules? Then do it. All right. 

Last question. Laoshi hao. I heard that you have to find a fundamental guru in Vajrayana.

(57:50 - 58:23)
And then connect with him and take you all the way. That I talked to you like this. And I feel like I can... Sometimes it's hard for me to talk to you.

(58:23 - 58:30)
And I rarely had a chance to speak with you. So there's been some thoughts in my heart. I wonder if I should do this or not.

(58:30 - 58:37)
Some people said you can connect with the teacher in the distance. And you can teach the Good Night Book Club. I said, okay, I won't study at night.

(58:38 - 58:44)
And I will go to the bed. I will stay for several months. And finally one day I was so happy you came into my dream.

(58:45 - 58:48)
And you taught me a lot. I was so happy. And you said everything in English.

(58:48 - 58:55)
So I didn't understand. So after I got up, I realized I still have to study. I have to study English.

(58:55 - 59:04)
Otherwise I won't understand. Then someone told me. Maybe find a great teacher around you.

(59:04 - 59:14)
And start to learn Diamond Way with them. Then I realized maybe some of them are already in western part of United States. Or they're moving to western part of United States.

(59:14 - 59:27)
And I had to go there anyway. So could you please give me some advice on choosing a teacher who can lead you on the completion of this Diamond Way and help more people. Thank you.

(59:27 - 59:33)
Okay, good. Okay, good. I'll tell you a funny story.

(59:35 - 59:46)
My teacher. So my Tibetan teacher. I met him in 1974.

(59:46 - 59:51)
Something like that. He came to Princeton. He gave a talk about the Heart Sutra.

(59:52 - 1:00:01)
And I went to the talk. And he gave a talk at Columbia also. So I thought, well, I'd like to study with him.

(1:00:01 - 1:00:08)
And I went there. But I was... I had a different problem. I felt conflicted.

(1:00:08 - 1:00:15)
I didn't feel he's my heart teacher. I studied with him. I lived with him for 25 years.

(1:00:15 - 1:00:24)
I served him for 25 years. But I felt like a different person was my heart teacher. But that person I couldn't be close to.

(1:00:25 - 1:00:35)
And I used to cry sometimes. I used to sit in the house and cry. Because I couldn't be close to the one I felt was my heart teacher, which is my wife, Veronica.

(1:00:36 - 1:00:52)
And so I used to be very conflicted. And then one day I remember he says, chamchang dro. Chamchang dro means the monks go for a walk every afternoon. This is the total exercise for a monk.

(1:00:53 - 1:01:02)
So they said, let's chamchang dro. And we went for a walk. And he had announced that he was going to give bodhisattva vows.

(1:01:05 - 1:01:18)
And then I was walking with him alone. And I said, can I ask you a question? He said, yeah. I said, I have someone I feel is my heart teacher, but I cannot be with them.

(1:01:19 - 1:01:29)
It's not possible. And I don't know if I'm ready to take bodhisattva vows from you. And I lived with you, and you trained everything.

(1:01:30 - 1:01:42)
But I feel this connection to this other person. But there's no hope that I will ever be able to be with them. There's no possibility.

(1:01:43 - 1:01:55)
So I said, then he said, wait. He said, don't take it this time. And I said, yeah, it feels more comfortable.

(1:01:55 - 1:02:16)
So the first time he offered it, I didn't take it. And it was weird, because I was his number one student, and number two. And then later, things worked out with my root lama.

(1:02:18 - 1:02:35)
But I decided it's OK to take it from my, we call house teacher, the teacher who's close to you. We call him nye lama. Nye lama means, like if you're Ukrainian, it's the teacher who speaks Ukrainian.

(1:02:35 - 1:02:46)
Someone close to you. And represent your root teacher. You see what I mean? So I had the same problem myself.

(1:02:46 - 1:02:57)
I couldn't be with my root teacher. And I had a choice to study with another teacher, who I feel good with. I feel honest.

(1:02:58 - 1:03:07)
I trust them. And I feel, what do you call, love between us. They're not my ultimate teacher.

(1:03:08 - 1:03:22)
But they are certainly a great teacher. So I went ahead and I took my empowerments from my house teacher. And I took my bodhisattva vows from my house teacher.

(1:03:23 - 1:03:31)
And I kind of dedicated it to be with my root teacher. And that worked out for me. That worked for me.

(1:03:33 - 1:03:40)
I served my house teacher for 25 years. I built his house. I suffered.

(1:03:40 - 1:03:46)
I cooked for eight years. Poor guy. Because I'm a terrible cook.

(1:03:46 - 1:03:53)
And I did hard things. Really, really hard things. But I served him very well.

(1:03:54 - 1:04:15)
And then I believe because of that, I was able to be with my heart teacher. So I would say in my own experience, if you can be with your heart teacher. When I met that teacher, my house teacher, I met a very, very high teacher in India.

(1:04:16 - 1:04:25)
And they said, you're so lucky, there's a great Geshe near Princeton. 45 minutes from Princeton. You just get in the car and go for 45 minutes.

(1:04:26 - 1:04:32)
So I went. It's a 45 minute drive. And then I stayed there for 25 years.

(1:04:32 - 1:04:49)
And they said, go meet him. I think you should study with him. And I believe that serving my house teacher created the chance for me to live with my heart teacher.

(1:04:50 - 1:05:00)
Okay? So I think it's a wonderful strategy. And so I respected him. And I served him hard.

(1:05:01 - 1:05:10)
I worked like a dog. I was cleaning everything all day. I did everything for 25 years.

(1:05:10 - 1:05:21)
And I think it created the chance to be with my heart teacher. So I think that's wonderful. I think that's a good strategy.

(1:05:21 - 1:05:41)
Okay? And I like it. Okay? All right. Just promise me Tim won't sing at the end.

(1:06:05 - 1:06:17)
Thank you. It should just about pay off my debt to five houses. So Geshe La, this is an offering from all of the students here.

(1:06:17 - 1:06:28)
And of course, we represent all of the students who are online as well. From Diamond Mountain as well. And please stay.

(1:06:28 - 1:06:40)
Please keep teaching us. Let's get that kidney as soon as possible. Please stay and teach.

(1:06:41 - 1:06:44)
And please come back to Diamond Mountain. Thank you. Thank you.

(1:06:50 - 1:07:00)
By the way, the kidney thing is in the next year, probably. I don't know. And I will get a new kidney.

(1:07:00 - 1:07:07)
It's funny because then you have three kidneys. They don't take out the old one. So I will be better than you guys.

(1:07:11 - 1:07:18)
And it's unknown when it will be. It's unknown how it will be. It's not sure.

(1:07:18 - 1:07:22)
It's a very complicated thing. But I think it will be all right. So I don't think you have to worry about it.

(1:07:22 - 1:07:37)
I have to stay for six weeks near the hospital. And then I can just do whatever I want to do. Okay? And I will be operating at 800% more than before.

(1:07:38 - 1:07:41)
Okay? Seriously. So it's okay. Don't worry about it.

(1:07:42 - 1:08:02)
Don't worry about it. A hundred bucks. Every time I come to Diamond Mountain, I like to donate some money to the local staff, the staff at Diamond Mountain, and cooking for us, cleaning for us.

(1:08:02 - 1:08:22)
It's a hard, hard job, even easier in New Jersey [?] than here, to serve all of us. Okay? It's a hard job all year long. So I'd like to encourage everybody to make an offering to help.

(1:08:22 - 1:08:33)
This is a donation to the staff. So I encourage all of you to give something. And it's not enough to pay them, but it's enough to thank them.

(1:08:34 - 1:08:39)
And they will feel your love for them. That's the important thing. Okay.

(1:08:39 - 1:09:24)
Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you, dear teacher Geshe La.

(1:09:26 - 1:09:29)
I'm sorry. Channel. Change channel.

(1:09:30 - 1:09:38)
Yes. Thank you, dear Geshe La. And thank you, everyone, for joining Class 9 with Geshe Michael Roach.

(1:09:38 - 1:09:53)
We hope the teaching continues to inspire and support your practice. Thank you for being there with us at ACI Five Houses. Thank you.

(1:09:53 - 1:09:53)
Bye.