The Secrets of the Four Truths

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[2:52]

Good morning. Okay, it looks like a big party in Malacca. Nice to see you. Okay, today I just want to give a short introduction about what's happening. I think we'll just start with the projector slides. This program is really preparation for an event that will be happening in October. Actually, can we see the next slide?

So this is a place called Dragon's Head. It's a very sexy name, but we didn't give it the sexy name. It had the sexy name for about a hundred years. A long time ago, the cowboys called this area Dragon's Head, and that comes from the shape of the river. In Arizona, we don't have any rivers, very, very rare. And these guys, Stanley and Xiaoping, came to me about a year ago, two years ago, and they said, Grandpa, can we buy this Dragon's Head area? Then I said, it's fine with me if I don't have to pay; you pay. Then they are very brave, they said, Okay, we will pay. And we bought it. It's about a million square meters. And it's very, very beautiful so we should thank these guys. And Xiaoping is online [Stanley is translating next to Geshehla]. Hi, Xiaoping. She's having special meetings with President Trump. It's called a visa meeting, so she couldn't come. But they have offered that we could use this place. There's a beautiful classroom there. If you know about European art, there's a famous painter called Van Dyck. In America, it's called Van Dyck, and I think it's his grandson. And he bought this property and he built a big studio for himself to paint and it's a really, really beautiful studio. It's funny, when we bought the land, the owner said, If you don't like this building, we will destroy it for you for free. Then we said, Well, maybe we'll keep it. And it's very beautiful. The whole wall is glass because he was an artist and he needs light. So we will have the Arya’s Diamond Way “transmission”, I call it, there. 

But it only fits five deer and 130 people. And also several pigs, wild, wild pigs, you know, there's a family. Then Tim was taking applications for the transmission in October, and I think it's almost 3,000 people. So if it's possible, 30 people have to sit on each person's lap. No, but I want to tell you our plan so you don't get nervous. So, 130 people we will choose, and then we will have branch transmissions happening around the world. And I would like to make it live around the world so I will get up early. The only place we don't cover is Australia. Australian people have to come to Singapore. Or if you live in Hawaii, then you have to come somewhere else. And we're working on this, Tim is planning everything. So be happy, don't worry about it. “Geshehla, Geshehla, who are you choosing to be the 130?” With my health… So I have a kidney disease, advanced kidney disease. Probably pretty soon I will get a third kidney. You only have two, I will have three. But I'm thinking in the next two years, I would like to focus very much on Diamond Way teaching together with how to see emptiness directly, and I think that's the best thing I can give to you. And they go together. That's why Diamond Way and Diamond World, same thing. So there's a special way to teach Diamond Way if you have touched the Diamond World, and up to now I didn't teach it much. I touched the Diamond World 51 years ago; I never met anyone else who touched it. And at my age, 53... No, I’m kidding, 73... I cannot prove to you that I touched the Diamond World. If you touched it, you will know, but otherwise you don't know. And maybe I'm telling the truth, maybe I'm not. So my suggestion, my teacher used to say, “you never know, maybe he's telling the truth.” Then better to take the teaching and you can have it, and if grandpa goes to another world, you got the teaching. So that's the plan. So I'm going to work really hard for two years. We might have a small interruption, like three months, and then I'll keep going, I hope. We are very lucky. Where I live, we are two hours from Phoenix and that's the best hospital in the world for kidney. Last summer, they finished their 2,000th kidney transplant. I think only 10 people disappeared, so it's pretty good. And so it's easier for me if we can do the transmission at Dragon's Head. It's about 10 minutes from my house. And I never heard of this place. I lived there for 20 years and then suddenly it just appeared, which seems to be your karma. Okay, so that's the plan for October. 

“Geshehla, who are you choosing to go to Dragon's Head?” I feel like a farmer and I have a big group of seeds in my hand. And at this time in my life, I have to try to plant as many as possible and I don't know which seeds will grow. Some groups will disappear in the next five years, some will continue for a thousand years; I don't know which is which. So I try to pick the people who are helping the most people, the best chance to grow after we throw the seeds. So I have two kinds of students. One helps me all day, every day. And then some other ones give me headaches every day. And I've been teaching for 50 years and I'm okay with everybody, it doesn't really matter to me. If the person will help more people, I will bring them to Dragon's Head. So even the ones who cause me to be bald, and all the ones who gave me gray hair, if I think they will help a lot of people, I will bring them to Dragon's Head. Okay? That's the decision I have to make. And I also, personally, I'm trying to choose different people from different countries and different languages. 

There's a story in the Christian and the Jewish Bible. Supposed to be, God saw that there's going to be a big flood in the world. And he called some guy named Noah and he said, There's going to be a big flood, it will cover the whole world and you have to make a boat. And Noah's like, I live in the desert. It's like he lives in Rimrock. There's no water there, there's no ocean there. But he believed in God so he started to make a big boat in his backyard. All the neighbors think he's crazy. Then God says, Make it big enough for a lot of animals. And Noah's like, How many animals are we talking about? God says, I want one boy and one girl of each kind of animal in the whole world, and after the flood kills all the other people and animals, you Noah, have to make extra babies. It’s a big job. And then bring one boy and one girl, like camel, turtle, dog, everything. So Dragon's Head is similar to Noah's Arc. I have to pick people who I think can spread the teaching, and people from many different places. And I think that's the safest way to spread, to keep it alive in the world. So if you come, be happy and come, but remember, there's one person out of 30 who can come. Please don't get mad at grandpa, that's the best I can do. 

And then, next picture.

We're going to have satellite transmissions around the world. Then, wherever you live, whatever language you speak, whatever country, I encourage you to talk to Tim. And write to him soon, don't write to him the day before. And we will have a local transmission in your place. Those of you who have strong groups in other countries, my idea is mom and dad come to Dragon's Head. Like Ella's son in Shenzhen, he can have fun on his own in Shenzhen. The mom comes here, the son is playing rock and roll at home. And we had an empowerment in last March at Dragon's Head. We did the same system - we brought 130 people and then we had a branch empowerment at the same time in Kyoto, and it was very successful. So we'll take care of everything. If you're from some strange Indonesian country, mom and dad have to leave the kids there and come to Dragon's Head. Things like that. So that's the plan. 

Next picture.

Do I have a clock? It's a good idea to have a clock. Here we go. I have an idea after the empowerment. This is a special museum in Phoenix, Arizona. It's called Musical Instrument Museum. I really really like this place, and especially for my friends when they come to visit Arizona and they say, You guys don't have anything in Arizona. And it's a new building, it's a very beautiful building, and it has many many rooms like this. And each room has musical instruments from different countries and you put on special earphone and you walk through the museum and each time you come close to a different instrument, that instrument will play in your ear. And it's really fun to go to different countries' rooms and suddenly the music is very strange. Then you can hear Jimi Hendrix also. They have Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. And that place has a beautiful auditorium, it's about 300 I think, Rob? Three-hundred people. It was built for music and it's the best auditorium I ever saw. 

So I think you know the story - like five years ago, some company come to me, “We are from Netflix. We want to do a movie about Geshe Michael. Will you help?” And I'm like, okay, it's all right. And so they came, they start filming. Then we had a meeting and they said, “Geshe Michael, you have two choices. One film we can make - we put the fake hair on your head, take out all the white hair, we fix everything. You look very handsome and you never say anything stupid. And we can make a movie like that. You know, you look like Brad Pitt.” They said, “or you can take the second choice.” Then I said, What's the second choice? “Second choice, we will follow you around the world and each continent, we will choose one person in the audience who never came to your teaching. And we'll see after the teaching if they become successful or not. But it's a little bit risky. If they fail, then you also look stupid.” Then I said, I'm brave, let's do the second kind of film. So they filmed all over the world. We chose one person from each continent. For example, we chose a guy in Peru. Then, after six months, big big problem. He got in trouble with his work, he got in trouble with his wife, and he got in trouble with his finances. This is before I taught him, okay? Then we tried one lady in Europe. She's younger, I thought she would be okay. We met her in Kyoto, I think. She's very bright and very healthy. Then we start. I get telephone [call]. She's in Germany, she's in the hospital, she might die tomorrow. I don't know what happened. Then the movie guy is like, “Okay Geshehla, we're running out of money, can you pay for the movie?” Then I'm like, wait a minute, you didn't tell me I have to pay for the movie. Then I collect money, give them money, and I think finally I called them. I said, Come to my house. And I said, Cancel the, what do you call that? Brad Pitt movie. Cancel the movie where I go around the world and everyone gets rich. Let's just make a movie about dying because everybody needs this movie. And I will talk about my experience, maybe we can get permission for you to come in the hospital and film the [surgery]. They got very excited and the movie's finished, I think. Then they said, we always have a premiere. We call “premiere”, then they show the movie for the first time and all the rich people come. That's you guys. No, just for free. And I want to do it at the Musical Instrument Museum. They didn't get permission yet. We have backup in Scottsdale, the Jewish Community Center. Nice place. But I have a dream - the day after the transmission, all you guys going to Phoenix to the airport, then in the morning, we can all see the movie. First time. I'm hoping it will be at that museum. 

And I think that movie is important to teach people how to die. I went to Princeton. We are building a business school, DSEU. To get American permission to have a degree, MBA degree, it's like 10 years of trouble. We are halfway finished, it looks very good. But we have to go to many universities and study their MBA program. I like to study how much wisdom they are teaching from Asia. Very good progress in America - Princeton has like 5,000 courses, 2 are about Asia. Understand? You cannot learn this wisdom in Princeton University and you cannot learn it at Harvard. Then I checked how many courses at Harvard and how many courses at Princeton about how to die well. The number is perfect. [Geshehla gives symbol which means both “okay” and “zero” with thumb and pointer finger touching, and rest of fingers fanned out.] It means nobody. That's very strange because all of us have to die. We all have to go there so I think it's important to learn how to die. And I'll tell you something and it's obvious, but I'll tell you again. In this physical universe, anything that can happen once can happen twice. Don't be stupid. If you can come here by accident once, you can come here by accident twice, because the odds are infinite, the dice are infinite. We should spend the whole day learning how to die, and we should teach our children. It's something our world should do. So, anyway, that's something we'll do together during the transmission. Then after that, some guy will be in the back with his cell phone, he will steal the movie, it will spread everywhere. It's okay. 

[37:54]

Next picture. 

This is across the street from the Musical Instrument Museum. You can walk there. This is the Mayo Hospital. These are the kidney specialists of the whole world. Then I have to go there every week or every two weeks; I spend sometimes the whole day there. And I asked the doctor, If I have some good, good students, and they are at the Musical Instrument Museum to see the premiere of a good movie, can they just walk across the street and watch me get my things [surgery for new kidney]? And she's like, No! So, anyway, we can crash it, I think. But I thought, if you want to, you can go across the street and see the place. So actually, this place is very connected to your transmission. It's all connected together. I like to call it nowadays “transmission”. I feel it's more “transmission” than “empowerment”, but sometimes I forget and I call it “empowerment”. So, in one way, I spent about 30 years learning Diamond Way from my teacher. He won't teach me unless I memorize the sadhana. [Tibetan] Like that. And he required it. Then, we are living together for 25 years, and he taught me many times, almost every day, for 2-3 hours privately. And we are living in a Mongolian temple, some of you guys have been there. Then we have a small group of monks. I was the youngest monk, all the monks are 75 or older. So we have about 15 monks at the beginning and about once a week, we will do all the different sadhanas for different empowerments. Then my teacher wouldn't help me at all. He said, You have to come, you have to recite. Then I’m like, So give me what I have to recite. He's like, You figure it out. He didn't help me, nothing. Then we are reciting 3, 4, 5 hours, I don't know what they are doing. Then, one by one, I learn, I collect all the sadhanas, many different lineages. Then we have to memorize them. So, by accident, I learned many other transmissions. And that's how I first heard the Diamond Cutter, was reciting with the Mongolian monks. So I have transmission in this way for 25 years. 

Then, that's not the most important transmission. When I say “transmission”, what I mean when I say “transmission”, is I want to transmit to you what happened to me when I touched the diamond. That's the real transmission. So, they go together. There's a reason why they call it Diamond Way, and there's a reason why diamond is important when you touch emptiness. They are very, very connected. So I call it “Arya Diamond Way”. Again, if you don't believe me, I don't really care. But if I'm you - “just in case he's correct, I will learn it.” Someone told me, big, big, big teacher told me, “You did not see kongxing.” And I'm like, Why you say that? “You cannot fly.” Then I’m like, there is no book out of John’s 300,000 books, there's not one that says arya has to fly. Then my whole life, I just got used to it because if you fight about that thing, it's a very, very bad karma. It's the worst karma. So, 51 years, I'm just like, yeah, okay, okay. But now, I have kidney problem so I'm thinking I should pass on that knowledge while I have time. 

So next two years, I have a plan, some of you heard it already. I worked for 17 years translating these four books. This is the greatest teaching on emptiness ever written. In English, it's 2,000 pages. It's by Tsongkapa, it's called DGONGS PA RAB GSAL, Illumination of the True Thought. I'm thinking about 15,000 hours I worked on it. I finished it in January, something like that. Then, I always like to write an introduction to the book. Maybe it's the only thing people will read, definitely the only thing they will understand. This book is completely correct, he doesn't miss one thing about emptiness, and it's very difficult. Then I thought I would like to write a ... Usually, I write an introduction to make it easier for people. Then I thought 99% of people, they won't be able to read it. So the introduction, I will make something everyone can understand. And I will tell a ... I call it grandpa's story. I will tell a grandpa's story about how to see emptiness yourself then everybody can read it and relax and enjoy. It's like sitting on your grandpa's knee and grandpa tell the kid a story. And I worked really hard on that story, I had this inspiration to connect it to how the Buddha taught emptiness himself. And that's the first teaching that Buddha ever gave in this world, and we'll talk more about it. It's called the Four Truths, Four Arya Truths, and each one has four ideas inside of it so it's 16 ideas. And this is how Buddha taught emptiness. It's also the first teaching that Buddha ever gave in this world. After he got enlightened, he didn't teach for seven weeks, he didn't talk to anybody, he just stayed quiet in the forest. And he said nobody can understand, then they will disrespect him. And I really did feel the same way for 50 years. But if I have to go to the next world, I will try to explain. Then I would like to use those 16, I would like to use his outline, his structure. So my plan for the next two years - just follow Buddha's own structure, but plug in my own experiences. So that's what we'll be doing here. We finished the first four perfections in our preparation study. We have two more left: shamata / vipashyana, how to see emptiness and how to reach the level of meditation you need to see emptiness. So, I have some good news. We have 31 really god damn good teachers teaching this week. [applause as teachers stand] I don't see 31. I feel like they are my kids. I was on the airplane. Some lady sit next to me, “Do you have any kids?” Yeah, I’ve got 31. Then she goes like this [checking Geshehla out]. Anyway, I'm very proud of all the teachers. You guys are very lucky to be here and have them teach, it's a lot of hard work. So together me and the 31 teachers, we will review all of the preparation for Diamond Way, and I will finish the last two perfections. Then you will be ready. Mazal? 

We have about 10 minutes, if anyone has a question. If you don't have a question, I will take a grandpa nap. 

[Student: So Teacher, I want to ask you, when you mentioned about this book [Illumination of True Thought], you said that 99.9% of people will not be able to understand it. Then why do you spend so much precious time of your life to translate this book? And what kind of people do you want that they can understand this book?]

Yeah, that's a very good question. The way I design my own day, I'm a member of Lindsay Jilk's Good Night Book Club, proud member. So I go to bed at 10 o'clock every night and Rob bangs on my door, he takes the computer. Because I don't trust myself, he takes it. And then 6 o'clock, he gives it back to me. Then starting at 6:00 until about noon, so 6 hours, from 6am to noon, I do my own practice. So meditation, yoga, and I translate. I translate for two reasons. One is to help other people who maybe will read it someday. But also mainly for myself. I have to struggle with it, I feel like every day I'm wrestling with Tsongkapa, and I learn every day new things. Somebody told me, “Geshehla, you gave Diamond Way in 2004 or something. We can just pass on the 2004.” Then I’m like, I spent 22 years wrestling with Tsongkapa every morning for 6 hours. Somebody can figure out the math, I don’t know, 6 x 22 x 365 ... 47,000 hours I wrestled with Tsongkapa. Not every day. But I changed, and the Diamond Way I'm teaching this week is not at all what I taught 22 years ago. And to be honest, that's why it's important to stay close to the teacher. This teacher is moving target, he's always moving. Then, honestly, the people who stay close, they get new things every day and it's a good reason to stay close. I also evolve every day. So what I'm teaching you this week is completely different from what I taught before. Then don't go home and say Geshehla said what he taught in 2004 was wrong. I didn't say that. First grade is correct, eighth grade is correct, but it's good to get all eight grades. 

Okay, last thing. So when I finish a new book, I always write an introduction. So when I was in Xi'an, I visited Xuanzang's tower, I went to Chang'an tower, and I got this powerful inspiration to connect Lord Buddha's teaching of the sixteen parts of emptiness to my experience. And I finished. And it's a small introduction, it's 125 pages. We have a bad word in English, okay? If I use it, don't tell my wife - it’s really good shit. No, and it’s really powerful and it’s what I will teach for the next two years, and it will be printed inside the book. But Stanley, Xiaoping, myself, we would like to offer each of you a copy while you are here. So that kid [Stanley] translated the whole thing. So far it's in English and Chinese. I'm sure that they [audience] will also translate into other languages. It is a good thing, some of you, to do during this week. If you can finish by the end of the week, we will pay for it. And it's free. So everyone will get a free English copy tomorrow, and Chinese. And I'm sure by the end of the week German, Russian, Ukrainian, things like that. Then I will teach it for two years, then everybody see kongxing. They ask me, “What are you going to do after that, Geshehla?” Then we all going to start a big diamond company, Warren Buffett say he will pay for everything. Just kidding. 

Then I'd like to especially thank Jasmine and Tim. Thank you. If you need a big job done, just call Jasmine. Okay. I'll see you guys tomorrow. And again, thank you, all the teachers. Thank you.