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20020830SROFT14

(Chantingto 15:08) So we spend time talking about Four Noble Truths. Also we did spend quite a lot of time on the First Noble Truth. That also from the four points of view. It is impermanent, suffering, selflessness and empty. I think we also spent quite a lot of time on the selflessness part of it. At least you have a basic idea of what we are really talking about. It's sort of general, commonly accepted through all the Buddhist schools. I'm not talking about the Tibetan sects. I'm talking about the original different four or five thoughts of the schools. So most of them you have it.

Now I think it is time to sort of wind up all this. We have to conclude. We have been talking in detail. Here we told you we quite nicely object of refutation, the object of negation. That object of negation, here we borrow the terminology of ego, which is quite probably okay. We did not really spelled out the all totally, it is not clear. It is a confused state. It is a state where appearance accepted as true. So that is why it is a confused state, as well as wrong knowing, as all well as misknowledge, and also source of fear. All the variety of fears that we have are there. Yes, fearlessness is great, no doubt. But certain fears are also good as well. We did talk about that. So that's that part of it.

Now when you want to conclude for practical point of view. After all this, we know this is the ego and we know it has to be negated. We recognize and we do all this. Now the question comes how do I do? What Buddha give here are three higher trainings. Sometimes they call it the three baskets teachings. I will come back to this. Why three, how and what. It is exactly as we said wisdom alone is the direct antidote of that ego. It is the wisdom, (20:00)nothing else. As long as we have interest for obtaining liberation.

You know we have interest to be good. We have interest to be better person. It's not so easy to have interest to be liberated. Liberation is a word, what we are referring to when we mean free of samsara. I'm not sure how many people have interest for that. It is very rare. Yeah, everybody wants joy, happy, better, good. That is great deal of interest. When you say free of samsara a lot of people will say, I don't know about that. Or I do know about it as something should be, but I'm not really sure about it. So as long as we have that in our mind, we don't have the mind of seeking liberation. That is the measurement. So you can judge yourself whether you are a true liberation seeker or you are just one of those floating dilettantes. Whether you are serious or you are dilettante. That's a good new word for me. That is you can judge yourself. No one can judge you. You should not let anybody else judge you, also. So that is within yourself and you know.

It is really difficult to gain a great interest to be really liberated. One, because we don't know what liberation is all about. Two, you know nobody comes back. Yes, people talk to you and it's great and wonderful and all that. But no one really says, I been there, I saw this, and I had a wonderful time. I did this and the water is great and you can swim in the water with your telephone in your pocket. No one says that. Or your glasses go down. No one says that. That's why we do have difficulty. Yes, we are extremely intelligent, no doubt about it.

But we are very visual persons too, extremely visual. When we see it we believe it. Like Pat was telling me yesterday, he said he talked to these ten people and they are going to do this, then they are not going to do it. Finally, he said I believe it when I see it. So what happens is we are really very visual persons, and we don't believe it until we see it. It's not bad at all. It is a good thing. Unfortunately, we don't see the liberation. We can't take a tour. Ujen-la will take you on a tour to the Indian holy places. (25:00) But he cannot take you for a tour to the liberated area or to a pure land, or western paradise, or Tushita or something. So that is our problem.

However, you know our mind is such. The mind really doesn't have a limit of what can be known. What it can really learn. There is no limit. It is, even the computers have a problem where you can set how much you can look and overload and it makes slow and all of those and then after a while it crashes. The mind doesn't. Mind has better position than that. It has no limit, no storage limit, nothing. When you really meditate, think and analyze and when you see it, then you can really begin to see it and then begin to think about it, and then begin to understand. Then it becomes much easier. I have to talk with you here presuming that we are all interested in liberation. In a way that we are all interested in liberation. Otherwise, what are you doing here in the middle of nowhere Michigan, you are supposed to be interested or what is the point? So it is. Where do we get liberation from? How do you get liberated yourself?

Actually, when you free yourself from that confused ego state, that ego control, when you begin to function yourself as yourself, rather than ego functioning on your behalf, it is like a bully father in the family, who has to do everything according to his wishes. Or that bullying mother-in-law who controls everything. So ego functions in that manner within ourselves. We the true individual divided the I in two, remember? I as independent standing, tangible is the ego I. The other I is the I that really labeled and combination and truly functions making sure everything works, but has no set whatsoever. This is the true I that comes from karma, comes from previous life and will go to future life, that I. That is the true me. That true me has nothing to say because that bullying father-in-law is so powerful over there, and insists on everything.

So you have to really busted that out. That is only the wisdom can do. Nothing else can do. Yes, wisdom is developed by analyzing and meditating. However, this is very strong and very serious and very subtle meditation. Mind needs help. Mind needs help. (30:00) Without help, mind is capable, but it needs help. What help you need? It needs help to be stable. The problem with so many is lack of stability. You are not stable. I don't mean crazy. Not only a few screws loose, but so many screws loose. That is a problem. Have to put those screws back a little bit and make it stable. That stability is called Samadi or Shamatha. That is the meditation commonly known in the west is called meditation. Though for me meditation is two things: Shamatha meditation and wisdom meditation. Here, what you need is Shamatha, without which you cannot, the wisdom may not be able to work.

Buddha himself said, this is the dialogue between Brahma and Buddha. The Brahma asked. You know this Brahma, I don't know if this is mythical or not. Brahma is a well known diety in the Hindu Buddhist mythological tradition. Brahma asked Buddha how does one get liberated? Buddha replied (Quotes Tibetan) the root should be very very solid and stable, and one should be very happy with peace, meaning, let me put this, Buddha gives this example. If you are going to cut a tree you really need, these are old times, somebody whose shoulder is very stable. If you got a big axe you cut down you are never going to cut it.Constantly cutting in one place you can easily cut the tree. The root should be very stable.

That root he's talking about is the Shamatha part. Almost all of you, the meditation teachers make you focus. They make you think on one thing and one thing only. By focusing on one thing it is natural and gives you pleasure. If you lose your focus, you are thinking something else. Something else, even if it's good it's wrong and bad. Move it back to the subject or object whatever it is.(35:00). This is what concentrated meditation is all about. It is really what they are training is training the individual how to focus on one thing and one thing only. That is Shamatha. By focusing on one thing and one thing only it gives you a lot of pleasure, peace and harmony and all of those. It is a natural process. Because our mind is like this, it stinks and runs all over the place. So when you make sit down and when you focus on one thing, it gives you peace and harmony and all of those things. That's why people like meditation. That's what it is. I don't know how much grammars you get, how much stabile you get, but you get something there. You get happy and harmony and you get good pleasure and rest and relaxing too, and you can think about it, mindfully also. That is what we call it meditation. That is again a must. It is very important. Remember two days ago a question came up, what is meditation?Was it yesterday? So here it comes now. It is important.

We encourage everyone everywhere to have meditation. How they do it, we do have three hour sitting, and going to have the whole day sitting and soon we are thinking of introducing three days sitting and all of those and that's happening in New York. So three hour sitting, those are there because Shamatha is very important. Not equally important, it is a must. That way you gain stabilizing your mind. You learn and gain experience on how to focus. That provides the...I don't intend to talk in detail on this. The detail really comes into thelevel of the fifth paramita, the fifth paramita. It's one of the bodhissatva activities. The object of that style of meditation is to be able to focus.

What obstacles do you get is only two things preventing are wandering mind or sinking. Wandering is you can't focus, you can't think. You may be sitting here, but your mind may be shopping elsewhere, you know who goes here? Meiers (40:00). Your body may be here, but your mind may be going through those aisles of Meiers or Krogers for that matter. So that is what wondering mind is all about. Sinking? You finally go to sleep. That is gross sinking. The worst problem is not the gross sinking, but the subtle sinking. The subtle sinking really is a big problem. What they do. Subtle sinking, looks like you are focusing, looks like you are concentrating. Yet there is no sharpness. You are sort of loosely holding, half asleep. A lot of people used to think this is a great meditation. Really. They believe it too.

That brings a tremendous disadvantage to people. You are better off not meditating. You are better off than subtle sinking. You begin to lose your intelligence. Your wandering mind is much better off than subtle sinking. After a little while it also becomes you will not know what is what. You will not know whether it is something to throw it out. You won't know is it edible or not edible, you won't even know that. That far they can take you. I like to tell you the disadvantage what it has. So the subtle sinking mind, do not consider that as meditative state. A lot of people do. That meditate state really can make you quite dull. You will not know what is edible and not edible within a couple of years. Years go down the road. So that is important. You'll be better off not to have a meditative level than that.

At least as a good human being you have intelligence, which is extremely useful. It's a must to do anything in the world. In the material world it's a must. In the spiritual world it's a must. If you don't have that then no matter whatever you try to do. That's why the mind is important. Not only mind is important. Mind to be stable is extremely important. You can't go crazy. If you go crazy, you won't have a spiritual practice. You won't have material, anything. You will be a loser in both worlds, spiritual world as well as material world. Don't go crazy. It is so important. Great intelligence is important. I won't say great, very sharp, witty is the word. Sharp, witty (45:00) almost brilliant person can easily go almost off the chart. We have have seen it. We have worked with them. We do whatever we could do, but sometimes we can't help it. Just watch there sadly and keep on watching. So that is important. You really have to be aware of that. The most precious thing that we have is our mind. It is no comparison with anything. Not a billion dollars is nothing if you don't have a mind. What can you do? Wear it or whatever?So that's what it is. The mind is so important.

Please be very careful. Don't destroy your mind. Anything that makes you crazy, substances or even pot. It doesn't take very much to make you crazy. It is much easier than you expect it to be. No one will think I'm going to make myself crazy. When you are getting there, you never know you are getting crazy. No one will be able to tell you straightforward either. If they do, you are going to be mad. You will fight with them. Why should they tell you? By the time you really realize it is way way way too late. So I don't want to lose any friends from that. We do. This happens.

The powerful drugs we have, whether official or not official. The destruction drugs or the non destruction drugs, whatever. When you over use, the reason why the doctor has to cure you is because you over use. They have the information and they are supposed to use it. When you over use it, it really helps to destroy your mind. The minds that get destroyed are normally not the dull and stupid minds. The minds that get destroyed are normally the intelligent, brilliant, wonderful one that get destroyed. It is really sad to watch. Internally you can destroy by making a mistake and externally with other conditions. When you destroy your mind it is a crime against yourself, and crime against human life. The root should be very stable, you don't have that. There is no stable at all. You basically have this, flying worse than butterfly in the middle of a storm. Even worse than that.

Everybody has to be careful. That doesn't mean some people have worry: am I going crazy, am I going to be crazy, am I going crazy? You don't have to worry that far. But when you have the possibility, whoever is getting the possibility. (50:00) You have an intelligent person. They know there is something is not right. So you really have to be careful. Meditation or no meditation, liberation or no liberation, we cannot afford to lose our mind. That is important. That stability of mind is again an internal thing, which is training your mind so it develops free from a lot of attractions.

Well, loôks that I'm lost here. Doesn't matter. (quotes Tibetan). Nagarjuna says we really don't have much time. Even if we have fire on our head we may not have time to put it out. Why the urgency? What do we have time for, trying not to reincarnate. If you can achieve that, there is no better achievement than that. How you can get to that level, not to have uncontrolled reincarnated. It is morality, it is the wisdom, and it is the concentration. These three will guarantee you will be liberated. If you have that, the stage of the of liberation is not going to grow older. (55:00) The stage of the liberation is not going to die. The stage of liberation does not get exhaust. It is not going to be destroyed by earth, water, fire, air. So therefore that should be your goal according to Nagarjuna.

The common with the medium level learningis the Four Noble Truths and the twelve links of interdependent origination. So I taught the Four Noble Truths here the last two days, and I did give teachings on the twelve links of interdependent system in New York. So combine them together you have good learning of the medium level. I do hope both of these will add to the Odyssey To Freedom, not immediately, but within a couple of years. Very good first transcripts it's really fantastic, almost every week the updated come in. Every week. Sometimes two, sometimes one, sometimes every second week. Great production here, that comes out. That's lightly edited, not thoroughly edited, lightly edited. We are not updating, we are waiting for better editing, but now we are sort of letting the people have it. We don't want to put them on books yet. That is really great. So almost two transcripts, one in week it comes out and that is very very helpful. I'm very happy with that.

That way you have the full information. Now what do you do with the information? You need wisdom, you know that. You also know how to get it through thought, meditate it, analyze it. Why didn't I make it? A lot of people say why haven't I made it?I put the effort in. Why haven't I made it? You haven't put the effort in., strongly either. You have been thinking like two seconds here, two seconds there, talking with a couple of people and you ask why didn't I get it? You didn't put any effort in. You don't have the stable condition. The Shamatha is not there. You didn't meditate. You did not train yourself to be able to focus. You know why? If you don't learn to focus, then those analytical and all of them will not be able to give you a good result because you are focusing will be changing here and there and you are thinking I sort of standing independently me in aisle three in Meijers. No, that was in aisle eight. Oh yeah, it was near the vegetables where they are. That type of thing. It goes that way. It won't give you any result, that's why the concentration. That's why Buddha gave three baskets, or three higher trainings. They are all the same thing, different words. The concentration takes away from the attraction of the mind. Mental attraction, taking the attraction, it also depends how strong you can take (1:00) away the mental attractions. How much external things you do.

That why first basket is morality. Second basket inside that morality is the basket of focusing and concentration. The third basket is the basket of wisdom. They fit each other, it is Russian doll. Dig down there and instead of Chelsea you have that wisdom down there. Somebody gave me doll a year ago. It is a Bill Clinton doll with Clinton on the outside. You take it out, you get Hillary. Take it out and you get Monica. Then dig down you get the saxophone and you get Chelsea there. That's what I'm talking about. Instead of the Chelsea over there you have wisdom, instead of Clinton and Monaca you have concentration. Instead of Bill Clinton with the saxophone in the mouth, you get morality. It is the three Russian dolls. It's not a Russian doll, it'sBulgarian doll I think. It depends on each other.

The first thing is morality. That is something it easy for us to do. It is almost like meditation. Everybody can do meditation. They look at the other person, how is she or he doing. How they put their hands. Whatever you do you just copy it, right? You copy it, and that's how you meditate. What you cannot copy is the mind what they are thinking. Morality is almost like that, you can copy it. You look at how some good, nice reliable person is doing and you copy it. It is simple that way. But we are intelligent free thinkers, so we have to think for ourselves what is going to be the morality for each and every one of us.There's a lot of points there. Morality or ethics. In each and everything everybody has its own little approach. Spiritual practitioner must have a tremendous strong ethics without which you cannot maintain the two other baskets, as well as you cannot get that stable mind what I'm talking about. Stable mind you cannot get without a proper moral ethics. It has its own ethics. The business people have their own ethics, true. They may respect or they may not respect. Some of their ethics we may think that's not good ethics. Some them really think that's not good ethics.

Ethics is a very important issue. One must have it. No one would like to be an unethical person. No one will say, yeah, I like to be unethical person. Even if you are a counterculture person, even then you don't want to be an unethical person. They would like to be ethical counterculture person. (1:05). It is true, honestly. That is reality.

Ethics is so important. That is also the second paramita ofbodhissatva activities. So what constitutes ethical and what constitutes unethical? In one way it's very difficult, but on the other hand it's also very simple. The simple where you are going to draw the line. Most of our activities that are influenced or created by negative emotions, are more or less unethical. Negative emotions are more or less unethical. Nagarjuna considered ethical points are like a ground. When there is no ground how can you expect the trees and flowers and grass to grow? How can you expect buildings and things like that can be built when there is no ground. The ethical points provide ground for spiritual development as well as even normal respect. Everything is based on that.

This is also the root and basis of Buddhism. When you maintain that, it has a tremendous advantage. When you cannot maintain it properly, a disadvantage, almost like Guru devotional practice. Here you also have advantages and disadvantages. That's why in the Buddhist tradition we do give a tremendous respect to those celibates, monks and nuns, no matter whatever their quality it might be, just because theywear the robe. We give them a tremendous respect because of their robe. The robe itself is worn by the Buddha himself and they are wearing that robe and I t gets a tremendous respect, unless they destroy that respect by themselves. No one else will destroy it. If they are crazy it's a little bad. Also whether the Buddhism remains, it depends on the sangha, and the sangha with those vows. That of the sangha. In short, the morality really represents like the Buddha in the Buddhism, and the Buddha within the individual. It is the ethical part. (1:10).

For us we still have an advantage over the earlier people. Earlier those people who took vows and were protecting their vows for years, for life, did get quite good result. For us today we still have advantage. In this age, in this time, in this space, even if you protect your vows for a day, the benefit is over those earlier people. That's why we have an advantage. When I say vows, people may think I have to become a nun. I'm not talking about that. We have lay vows, and we do have bodhissatva vows, vajrayana vows and we also have twenty-four hour vows. Each and every one of them is really important. I have two minds. I did want to spend a little time and talk with you about the morality. On the other hand I also don't want to spend much time. Anyway,basically the morality is very important, especially it's important for spiritual practitioners.

Many of us will say I did tried this and that and I didn't get anything. Where it went wrong? You have to search the three basket trainings. That's because we didn't do concentrated meditation well because we have internal attachment to our mind. Why internal attraction to our mind? Because external attachment takes the internal attachment. External attachment where you don't keep your attachment under control. The day I talked you may think oh you don't have any attraction to other persons. I'm not talking about that at all. Our mind is so funny and so expert on anything mischievous (1:15) we want to do. Wherever it is possible to shortcut we would like to have that. Wherever the possibility where we could substitute something, we would like to have that. Wherever we can be mischievous we would like to be mischievous. That is the morality point here too. Basically, keeping vow. Those persons who don't have any vows, can that person be proper morality? Sure, of course.

Where you draw the line? You draw the line of your activities that have been influenced by negative emotions. Some are very clear. Basic negative activities like anger and hatred, jealousy, obsession activities are quite clear to us. There are many other activities that are not very clear to us. The time is such it is very different. In earlier times, our outreach was not what ours is today. Now our outreach is tremendous. Back then if you were vegetarian or not it's fine. If you were a vegetarian, you were a vegetarian. If you were not a vegetarian, thats also fine, it is limited. Now if you are not vegetarian they add up so much demand. Earlier time if a family needs meat they go a sheep. Now it's not. Now we are talking about a thousand sheep, and the slaughterhouse up accordingly. No comparison. It is the modern development. And it affects our morality. It is different from the time when Buddha was there or thereafter, even in Tibet in the nineteen fifties. Now the effect is so much difference. So much difference.

Likewise any other developments, a tremendous amount of scientific development, like the genome project. It's a great thing. Nobody is saying it is not a great, it is really great thing. But it is also extremely important. With the proper attention it's not going to be immoral stuff. But by its own development it can become very immoral stuff. I don't know whether you see it or not, in cases where you produce two different classes of human beings. They are not going to produce a bad class of human beings. We are the bad class of human beings. The human beings they produce will be the good class. They are going to be healthy. They are going to be handsome. They are going to be tall. They are not going to be fat, (1:20) whatever. Everything will be the selected way, selected way and by that there will become two classes of human beings and that will become immoral. No one would like to have that way, but they will want to have better and better and better. And many, that's why I said every single thing has its own morality. No one can really sort it out and say this is that morality, using the Bible thou shalt not do this and that. So morality is going to become a big issue.

But very simply, Buddha also had provided a very simple way of looking at morality, the ten non virtuous actions. Whether you look in Buddhism or Hinduism in the East you have those ten non virtues. You look in the West you have the Ten Commandments. I'm quite sure they did not have a conversation between Jesus and Buddha and said hey, I'm going to do this. All these are there. If you begin to look in that ten moralities very carefully it's spelled out. You see the bottom line, it comes to whether you are hurting people or not. Killing, sure. Sexual misconduct, sure it is hurting. A lot of people have different interpretations of sexual misconduct, but really true sexual morality is whether you are hurting person or not sexually, it is sexual misconduct. So if you really do it, definitely it doesn't matter if it is inside the temple or not or if it's during holy days or not it's sexual misconduct.

Then, what, stealing. If you steal my pencil and I steal you pencil I don't think it is stealing. But stealing is when you calculatedly cheat and hurt other people financially it is definitely stealing. Really true, now totally different. Traditionally, used to be if you have one shirt and steal another it's not really stealing, these were the good old days thoughts. Today it is totally different. If you financially manipulate people beyond expectations. If you take your ten percent commission, twenty percent commission, fifty percent commission or seventy percent commission officially, clearly, known to both sides there is no stealing. But if you have sort of done something like whatever they done, that is stealing for sure. But if it is officially agreed and open then it is open, not stealing. (1:25) If you know I'm going to take seventy-five percent of your income as my commission, you know it, I know it, then it's not stealing. It's open. If you thought five percent and I took ten percent, it is stealing. That is quite simple actually and the Buddha chose to go in simple ways. That is basically, even with the profit margin, when it is clear it is okay. When it is hiding it's a problem. When it's not hiding, it's there but not necessarily there either then it is stealing. Stealing and then what else?

What are those ten things? Wrong view is a different issue. Killing, of the ten non virtues killing is of human beings. I don't mean animals and insects don't have lives, but their killing is not killing. The ten non virtues are huge things we are talking here. Thatkilling refers to human killing. That's why doing the person's abortions, there is no doubt it is killing. Sure it is killing. But the question is whether it is killing a human being or not. I even said no one really thinks abortion is great. Nobody will volunteer. But circumstances become helpless, can't help. In that case one should have choice of abortion. That is connected with killing too. That doesn't mean we should let the insects and animals get killed. Certainly not. There was a time when there was a frog in the road and John got out until it crossed and said wait. You worked and we rejoiced. That's how it goes. But reality is every life has to be respected. That includes the environment. But the ten non virtues we are talking here is very specific. Killing a human being. I don't have to go into so much detail. Sometimes they say they kill each other. Normally they don't kill each other. Whoever died before has the advantage. If the other person dies before you die, he doesn't have the negative killing karma. We said they killed each other and they both died. No. Who died first? There is a big issue there. (1:30) That is basically the killing. Sexual misconduct I talked.

Then there is the lie business, it's a big thing, the black lie. It's not the used car dealer who says everything is wonderful. It is really black lie. Cheating people badly. Not just a little bit over here, a little bit over there, he lied. It's bad, but not that bad. Especially in the spiritual field if you pretend to have spiritual development, but you don't have it, that is black lie. The result of that lie leads the individual to the total hell realm, nothing else. It is just like killing a human being. You know why? It is unknown. There is no way of knowing. You are simply taking advantage of people, cheating on the spiritual field where you have no development yet you pretend to be. But if you believe you have it, you know there are some people who believe they really do have development. I don't think it becomes a lie, that they don't have it because they really honestly believe.

There was a guy in Nepal, called Hinaylama. A Chinese guy, claims to be a Lama. I went to his place with a guy to buy books, Tinetan books, for the Library of Congress. I had a friend with me who was a director of the Library of Congress. He keep on telling this guy how great he is. Meanwhile pick any book you like and I will price. In the meanwhile I didn't buy any books. He told this guy he was the highest Mahayana Lama developed in the world. Just a funny business man in the robes in Bodhinand. But he believed. Maybe he was a pathological liar or something, right? He really believed he was the highest developed person in this part of the world. He had some kind of letter written by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama thing behind him and he said he was the highest developed lama in the world. I don't think he was lying, really. He did not have the negativity of lying because he actually believed he was a lama and the most high test developed person, virtually as far as I could see, I can't judge anything, but he had no development, but he really believes. He puts on different hats. While I was selecting books he was putting on different hats, entertaining the library fellow. Reading different vows, inviting some monks who came in, he said prostrate. He had been performing. But he believes, he really believes so I don't think he gets the black lie downfall. He's not cheating. He really believes. I don't know. That is cheating yourself. That is a downfall. I don't know. That is lying.

The rest of them you can check them out, though the three by body is more stronger, the worst, though what we have to worry is three by mind, or three mental states. Three by mind if we correct on that level, the others will stop because there is no force behind. The others are coming out of three by mind. Three by mind. That is hatred, obsession and wrong view. Though wrong view is a different issue. Wrong view is doctrine. It is not really a natural negativity. It is the doctrine. And you get these little doctrine anecdotes here and there. It is the doctrine part. Doctrine here is believing there is no reincarnation and believing there are no positive or negative karmic consequences. It is harmful no doubt, but I don't think by nature it is a negativity. It is a doctrine thing. You have a big odyssey. I don't want it to be a small odyssey, we have a saying in Tibet the small odyssey which is slightly different from the big odyssey. I don't have the right to say what the Buddha laid out. But naturally, not believing in Buddha dharma and sangha, in karma, or reincarnation might not be a negativity. So the bottom line is íf you hurt someone, but when you hurt someone middle level it is middle level negativity, lightly it is a light negativity.

I'd like to stop here and then we come back and go into the Mahayana and morality too. I have been holding the (140.00) questions back so I'd like to start the questions in the next session, at the end of the session.