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Default Page Style;Soundfile 19980429GRJHNLOTF08

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location Netherlands

Topic Odyssey to Freedom

Transcriber Christine Brennan

Date December 21, 2021

So it is a rarity, and that of the Tibetan Buddhists really essence, value of the rarity is Vajrayana. Vajrayana is something like a vehicle. Somebody last night told me, it's like a rocket. It is a rocket. It is not only a rocket, it is a satellite, true. So that's why we're very fortunate to have it. So we have to appreciate it, ok? Good. So rarity. Then I did not do the Gelupa propaganda. Now I better do that as well.

[0:01:15.0] That it is even rarer to meet with Tsongkhapa's teaching, rarer than that. Why? Tsongkhapa's tradition had neither ignored the scholarship nor ignored the development, combined together. Tsongkhapa's tradition neither ignores scholarship, scholarly knowing details nor is ignored the development, like SIDS type of thing. In other words, some people will say you need only development, you do not need nothing, just sit straight and get your development. You can sit there for twenty years and nothing will happen. It is Tsongkhapa who said, pick up information first, investigate, and then when you find the truth internalize it. It was Tsongkhapa who said it. When you have your spiritual development and you behave like normal human beings, the more learned you are you should be more kind and more well behaved. You know there's

[0:03:36.8 Tibetan] keh pa mah che tsun puh mah mon pah kun nyen den deh don yeh sho shu mas.

The quality that Tsongkhapa insists should have well behaving and, ke peh mah che tsun puh mah mon pah, those who are very well disciplined but they have no knowledge. So he contradicts both of them and you try to find the middle path. The more knowledgeable you are you should be much more well behaved rather than you can't say I'm free of everything, I can do anything because I can do free I can do anything. You can't do it because you're not free. That is not right. So Tsongkhapa objected to that very strongly.

keh pa ma che tsun puh ma mon pah kun nyen den deh don yeh sho shu mas.

[0:04:26.2] If you're learned you cannot be behaving funny. If you are sort of very well maintained with discipline and don't do much you should not be stupid, you should be learned. There's many more. Tsongkhapa has special teaching, a special way to understand impermanence within our life. Every talks about impermanence but Tsongkhapa has a special way of guiding disciples through the meditative state of impermanence. Tsongkhapa also had a special way of developing love compassion. Normally seven stages of development or exchange stage of development, whichever you do doesn't matter you develop hivemind. However Tsongkhapa has combined both seven and exchange together making it eleven steps. It sort of revolutionized the way of developing and making it work better and faster and stronger.

[0:06:47.9] You know the seven stages and exchange combined becomes eleven, and that becomes seven eleven, open twenty-four hours. It's open twenty-four hours.

Translator: Yes, I explained.

Rimpoche: It's open twenty-four hours. Which means anytime, any moment you feel like poking in or looking in you can. It doesn't end there, much of the good special qualities into the Vajrayana, tremendous amount of way of doing it. That's why it is even rarer. So I hope I have done enough propaganda for it. Anyway, now next. If you have such a wonderful life, if you have opportunity you can do it, right? You can do it. Can you do it?

[0:08:51.8 audience talking off mic, can't hear]

Rimpoche: It's ok. I know, I know you've been raising hand. So you didn't understand every question is coming up.

Translator: She has a comment on what you remarked before about that only a very few people have a real sincere interest in a spiritual path. She says, while I meet a lot of people who may not be satisfied with going to church and who do have a very sincere and spiritual need and who are really looking for a good spiritual path, I mean even if they call it, even if they give it a different name.

Rimpoche: I agree with you, but if you compare that number and compare the sixty million, that's my main point, and that's Holland alone. The whole Europe, and then you can't compare with America, there's a huge amount of people. There's a really huge amount of people who really doesn't care, you know. That's everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. There's always a person who is really interested in path, there's always much less than normally people are not much, they may be a lot of people that had some interest but you know even the interest decrease.

[0:11:39.6] You disagree with me? Yeah, fine. But it you're right, you can disagree but if you really look carefully the number of the people and then you compare it, I think you can really see it. That doesn't mean that all of them don't have interest. They do have some interest but good strong enough so they can persuade. They say, yes I would like to do it but if I am not busy, yes yes yes, I'd like to do it but not today. Yes yes yes, I'd like to pick up but when I finish my project. Yes, there's a lot of those too, so I don't count them as having opportunity because the project is not over yet. You know what I mean? Ok.

[0:13:24.5] Translator: The question is, what are the consequences of this for Buddhism? The fact that it's always a minority that has a sincere interest in spirituality?

Rimpoche: Nothing. Buddhism is not for propagation. Each and every one of us who practice Buddhism, it is for our own benefit. If we can benefit others, fine but we are not missionaries. We don't go around like Jehovah Witnesses do. Neither we will make nonsense like the Hari Krishna people do at the airport, you know? So we're here to benefit ourselves. So whether you have ten people or one person or a hundred persons or a thousand persons or hundred-thousand or million, that doesn't matter. The real purpose is to help and that is the one percent concerned. So that's it, and this is the truth, you know. Maybe we should hire Billy Graham. I'm just joking.

[0:15:38.7] Ok, now having said that, I think that's good enough. The whole stories we told the purpose is to appreciate what you have in front of you. Not the message, but the teaching much. Not the message and the teaching much, as in front of you. I said not it's not necessarily talking about the teaching and message. You yourself and making yourself available and taking opportunity by you, the way and how you're functioning and that has to be appreciated. That is the rare quality. Information is not a rare quality, it's available everywhere. You can print it and make a hundred copies in a minute, so that doesn't count. What counts is investigating with human capabilities that is the real thing. Ok? Thank you.

[0:17:21.7] So now the next step, such an opportunity yes it's based on our life but our life is also very impermanent. Number twenty, it is very very impermanent. Nobody knows, nobody knows when the think called death comes. Nobody knows. It is not necessary that a person who is chronically sick will die earlier than this youthful happy joyful bright person. It's true. You have a problem with that?

Audience: Well, I ask my self why? Why is it that we don't know when we are going to die, because I heard something about in Hinduism they show these charts, astrologically you get your lifeline and there is about a point where you should develop to and then you know at that certain point that you are possibly going to die, maybe not the moment but in time.

[0:19:40.3 ] Rimpoche: In time we all will die, for sure. We don't have to go through that chart at all. We're definitely going to die. You know, in a hundred years from now most of us, well maybe there are little babies maybe around but most of us are definitely gone anyway. We don't need that chart, you know. If you know how to read the chart, go ahead and read it, enjoy it. I'm not making a sarcastic remark, ok. Just for saying, but truly the human capacity unless there's some extra development that comes we cannot see it. We have limitations. We have unlimited capability but we do have limitations. These limitations are like you know we don't see the future, so that's why we don't. I mean you may think you see the future, but we don't see the future so that's why we don't know when you're going to die. You don't see what will happen to your future life, these are the limitations we have and that's why we don't see it, we don't know it, so nobody really can. Everybody can give you scientific answers or astrological answers or clairvoyant answers or I Ching answers, countless ways, Shaman answers and all sorts of the lamas can tell you, all sorts of them there, but what is really true is there's always a big surprise, all the time. Always big surprise.

[0:22:42.4] It is the same thing, you know. I'm looking at myself and you go and see a Tibetan doctor and then they will feel your pulse and check your urine. Some very good doctors will check your urine, put it on their tongue like a wine tasting for a while and after a little while they say you have this problem, that problem, this problem, that problem, this problem, that problem, right? And they give you medicine and you eat the medicine and when you eat the medicine it goes and goes with medicine for year after year and nothing happens, right? And they you go back to them and they say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to eat more blah, blah, blah and so they give you that, right? And the same thing, you go and see lamas or oracles and there's oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a threat to your life, blah, blah, blah, do this, do this, do this, do this, and it goes on forever, nothing happens and nothing. You know it just goes on forever. There's no end to this. So the true reality is nobody knows what's going to happen.

[0:25:04.9] At least this pathological doctors will give you drugs and that will balance within your body, you add one pill and twenty minutes later you know the balance is working within you.

Translator: You do?

Rimpoche: Yes, pathological doctors, yes the drugs do that. It may not cure you, but it balances. So I know that because I'm a diabetic, right? So that's why I know it. I think the doctors, the pathological doctors will also try to give you a prognosis, right? Most probably prognosis are not true. I'm sorry. But they have a basis of some judgment, but still because our human capacity is not going beyond that level so that's why we don't know. Somebody else up there may be knowing it but we can't ask. So under these circumstances, what can we do? So Buddha is saying, it doesn't matter whenever we die, we die. You know like Allen used to say, do what you want to do, die when you want to die, touch whoever you want to touch.

[ 0:27:19.5] So that's it. So do what you need to do. So if you do what you need to do it doesn't matter whether death comes tomorrow or tonight or this hour or a hundred years later, it doesn't matter you're prepared. We go in the opposite direction, we save the time now and try to prepare later. This is our problem. Switch them around, do it now and then go well later. It's like me all the time, I have to pack whenever I'm traveling. I'll be packing at the last hour all the time. Every time, I'm packing at the last hour. So you know I do the last minute packing so my packing is no good. You'll find you're missing this, you're missing this, you're missing that, all the time. That is the religion to me now [laughs]. So you forget your warm clothes, and then you're cold and then you feel it. Then they give me an extra jacket, I appreciate and thank you. That is the problem because I packed last minute. That's ok, if somebody can give you a jacket or you can buy it or you can get warm, whatever it is, but when it's the big journey called death and if you're not well packed you may not be able to get it. You may have trouble. You may remain cold or you may remain too hot.

[0:30:37.7] You may be very hungry for a long time or maybe you become dull and stupid for a very long time. [ to translator]I'm sorry, are you ready?

Translator: Yes I'm ready

Rimpoche: No I mean ready to die? [laughs] Packed already, right? I'm just joking. So making sure your future is ok. This is the main purpose, the purpose of our life is this. To obtain enlightenment, sure but it's a long time to go. To tell you the truth, I don't even care. I'm sorry, you know really. What I do care, I don't want to be miserable. I don't want to be too cold, I don't want to be too hot, I don't want to be hungry. This is the right now, right in front of our nose, that's what we're talking about. So when I go I don't want to go with anger. I don't want to go with dissatisfaction. I don't want to go with regret. I don't want to go with attachment. I would like to go as though I am a bird on a stone flying on the peak of the mountain. That's really true. You know the corner of the mountain there's a big stone there and bird sits on that then goes, that's it.

[0:33:11.4] I don't want anything holding on my leg. I don't want any load on my back. Yeah, when you want to land you land like a bird and when you want to fly you fly like a bird. What do you call it? Free spirit. So those regrets, dissatisfaction, anger, attachment, and they are the, you know if the bird has something has something on the leg and big strong thing anchors, it become an anchor for them. We don't want that. That we prepare right now, that's why we want to cut attachment. That's why we want to cut anger. That's why we don't want all these negative things. They make us not free. Free of those negative emotions we are free, we will be free. So even if you can't do that, ok let's say even if you can't do that and when death comes what are we going to do? We're not free of anger, we're not free of attachment, perhaps sometimes you have more attachment than getting yourself free. You may have more attachment to Hooperman. [laughing] I'm sorry. The thing is, it's possible or something upset and for unnecessarily something gets upset so you get angry because physical conditions, you can't do certain things that you're used to.

[0:36:12.9] Or you attitude of your companion may irritate you. Anything is possible, anything. Doesn't have to be a really valid reason, anything is possible. So at least try to remember Buddha. Try to remember Yiddam. Try to remember Guru. Try to remember Oh mani peme hung. Try to remember Ohm alone, even. Each and every one of them are capable of making sure that you don't meet with a bad future. If that is not to do, then Buddha is letting down the sentient beings. So Buddha doesn't let down sentient beings, so that's why I say normally you bite, you can chew. You don't bite something which you cannot chew. So whatever level you are, people talk about emptiness and bodhimind and blah, blah, clear light and all this. Yeah, if you can manage, go ahead. Who stops you? But when you can't do it, do something that you can manage. So it is important.

[0:38:44.4] Three months ago, no a month and a half ago there's a woman in Ann Arbor in Jewel Heart, her name is Julia. Julia Ritter. Her mother, her mother is dying. She asked me to come and see her mother. So I definitely have to go, but I hesitated so much, I hesitated I said not today, not tomorrow, not day after tomorrow you now. I hesitated because I don't know what to say to her. True. I don't know what to say and she has been very strict, very very strict Roman Catholic throughout her life. Completely dedicated, doesn't want to hear anything about anything else. So I don't know what to say, right? But I have to go otherwise she will get upset. So I delayed a couple of days, then one day suddenly I got a telephone call from a friend of hers saying you have to come right now she is dying. So you know, in my mind is no she's not dying now. She's not supposed to die for three more days. So anyway I went there and she's ok. She had some kind of thing, she's ok and she's sitting there so then she introduces and all this and that and then I'm trying to talk to Julie rather than talk to her. I said when you have the time comes you lay and be peaceful, do not disturb and try to generate compassion and do your usual practice and all this. Then Julie keeps on repeating to her whatever I said.

[0:42:34.1] Then suddenly Julie asked the mother, mother can you understand? She says every word clear like crystal. Not only shocked me a little bit, but compelled me to talk to her now. So in that last minute of period I don't wan to bring Buddha in there and make her more confused, right? So I said look, you had a wonderful life, you have great children, you had a great family, you appreciate and everything whatever you could have done you've done everything and appreciate your life, do not regret anything. Look at your children, they're all well established and don't worry about them. You're going to go through. You're going to go through a transition. The transition that you're going to do is from this life which is the environment in which we are in, into a wonderful and new God's open space, unlimited opportunity, unlimited things, you're going to go in there. So that's all I could say. Then she passed away two days later.

[0:45:18.1] So it is at least your guided mind in the openness and associated with the gods. The god's open space. Where there is unlimited opportunity that will be available for you. So that sort of attitude if you bring it may be helping. This is the level in which Timothy Leary died in the same way and I was on the television just before he died, you know and I said oh muni muni maha muni oh muni muni maha muni a couple of times and he kept on saying why, why? So finally this space business and he's very happy with it and even he sent his own ashes up with, that was his wish take his ashes somewhere. Where did they take it, the moon or somewhere?

[0:47:18.9] For Timothy Leary it is open space, ok. I mean you can't say God's open space or you've got a problem. For a stranger Catholic or whatever you know I mean just God's open space, it is I told you, it's perception. That's why it all works. Or any other, you know. Anybody who accepts a monotheistic creator it is the God's open space with plenty of opportunity. So Buddhists can use Buddha or even God's open space, why not? So that's how you should try to have an atmosphere of opportunity which can be helped by people around you and you yourself and everybody can do that. Sometimes when you look at the companions or the people who are helping you, sometimes it's a little difficult for them too. Quite a lot of difficulty they have, but you don't want to look at it from the difficulty point of view. You want to look at it from the opportunity point of view.

[0:49:45.3] Opportunity one, it is an opportunity for you to serve and give. Opportunity two, it is on your own spiritual practice purification, accumulation of merit, both work together. One of the earlier teachers, I forgot his name. He had meditated for so long he could not understand anything and finally one teacher got very sick and he's been only attendant helping him cleaning everything and one day when he's picking up some dirt out of the bed and cleaning and suddenly he realized emptiness while holding, pulling his sheets out. These things happen, that's why I say it 's an opportunity. Opportunity to purify, opportunity for accumulation of merit and it is an opportunity. It is also a rare opportunity actually.

[0:51:41.2] And then sometimes the people lose their temper, I told you. We all lose our temper, all the time actually. Especially if you lost your job or if you lost your house or if you lost your girlfriend or boyfriend or something we definitely have a temper. But the dying person, if he dies will definitely lose everything. So definitely they have a right to show temper. So the person whoever is around, we should respect that, right? Well I said too much, I'll stop here and take a ten minute break.

[0:53:12.8 ] To continue that, as I said, as I told you earlier Tsongkhapa had a special way of meditating impermanence which will effect our mind very strongly. Which is three root, three reasons, three resolutions. So it's called nine round meditation on emptiness. No I'm sorry, impermanence. Impermanence and that of subtle impermanence is not necessarily true emptiness but it helps us to understand what we mean by emptiness. It's the way to get there is through subtle impermanence understanding and visualizing and practicing. It also helps us to cut down our ego grasping. It also contributes to contradicting the ego's desires. It also contributes tremendously to understand the meanings that we try to give in our life materially is not necessarily meaningful. So in other words this is considered one of the most very import, maybe one of the most important.

[0:56:08.2] You know Buddha says if you look at the footprints, you know in the forest you look at the footprints and you will see different animals footprints. But most importantly footprint will be the elephant's footprint because it's big, heavier so it makes a bigger imprint. So Buddha compared the elephant footprint and the effect of impermanent meditation to destroy ego. Death and dying is a very gross example of impermanence. There are a lot of subtle impermanence, for example we change from yesterday to today, today to tomorrow, this week to next week and this month to next month, this year to next year, we keep on changing. Even hour to hour, minute to minute we change. That's true. This morning's me is not here, but I'm here. So do you. This morning you are somewhere else. So it is change is our sort of nature.

[0:58:45.2] Unavoidable phenomena and it is event of life. It is the true nature of life. So to understand that becomes not only so important, by understanding we will begin to change the value in our life. Many people, the value of their life is comfort and the word comfort is such a thing, it differs from one person to another all the time. Many people have material value. Maybe we have nobody here who really would like to be super rich, but many other people would like to be, that's their goal of life. That's why they put all their efforts in Wall St. or anywhere.

[1:00:45.3] But when you understand the impermanence you will begin to think about value. So then you will see no longer better value than freeing yourself. Ok? So you have to meditate yourself to the point where you really realize how fragile, how impermanent our life is. You have built up appreciation of life and on top of that you add the impermanence and what you hope to get is to cut down your laziness. Cut down your ego grasping. So then we are proceeding, we're moving. Again, if suddenly death comes, I've not prepared anything, what do I do? Take refuge. If you are a little better than that if you are common with the medium level, get out of samsara. If you're bodhisattva level, dedicate to the benefit of all beings. If you're Vajrayana level, transform it. Ok? So there's a zillion different things to do. Lean them, practice them, train yourself and make sure it works that way.

[1:03:24.7] Ok, now what else? Again, the Vajrayana is so important here. Without Vajrayana there's no way we can, we don't know what to do with our death. We don't know what to do with our bardo. We don't know what to do with our sleep. We don't know what to do with our dreams. So these are very important points in life. Seeing the death as true reality or nature, natural true reality of all phenomena, it's like sleep. Like open space and then bardo is just like a dream. It has the same effect. The sufferings are real, the joys are real. True, if you dream of suffering, you suffer that period. If you dream of pleasure, you have pleasure too. I'm remembering some very dirty thing now, I'm not going to say.

[1:05:44.2] So to make the death and the bardo and the rebirth not only rare but useful, helpful. Not only a bardo and death, but also our sleep period as well as the dreaming stage, for all of them making useful we need Vajrayana. It may be a rocket, it may be a supersonic rocket or it maybe satellite. It is the best vehicle available. So you know one of the Buddhist logos, Buddha said those created phenomena are impermanent. Everything whichever we created, it is impermanent be cause it's impermanent because it's changeable. It is changeable because it dependently arises. So the particles and the parts and the process will give up. In that way you can even destroy. Even permanent fixtures that we have, you know like landmark or whatever you know, all these permanent fixtures are also impermanent. So everything, whatever we have we are perceiving, we're enjoying, we're suffering, we're tired, we're eager all of those, everything is impermanent. It is changing matter, it's not static.

[1:08:43.1] So it should not make you upset so much because it's going to change. Change which you don't like is going to change back to what you like and what you love is going to change back to what you don't like. That is nature, why it's even called samsara. Well, that covers the realized death's time is uncertain. Also wonder what happens after death. Ok, what happens after death? It is simply separation of entity and identity. Our physical appearance, physical thing is our identity. The consciousness within ourself is entity. This entity uses this identity and functioning. Now they're disconnected. So you have to get a new identity and I don't know what you get in Holland, but in America they get driver's license. Driver's license, that's your identity. Everywhere you go you sign a check they say, let me see your identification. That is a joke. The real identity is this, right? Your body.

[1:11:48.4] So now the change, time to change the identity. It is the rented apartment which is about to collapse. There's no water, there's no heat, maybe there is no air, maybe there is too much air. They're getting the red tag and yellow tag and all this, you've got to go. I'm sure you have it here too. I'm sure you have it here, right? On the houses, getting terrible, they'll give you red tag, yellow tag, all this. So you're getting those, then you've got to go. I'm going here means changing your identity. So what identity are you going to get next time? It is just like you're getting a number for your new car. Sometimes you can select, you can get an easy number. It may cost a little more money and sometimes you can't get it, you can't choose anything. They give it to you. I have a car number in America for a long time, it says BEG11-something. So after they give me the number they looked at it, are you ok with this? I said ok, I enjoy that for a couple of years. So you never know what you're going to get, BEG or JOY or LEG or who knows? So you may get a human identity, you may get a yak identity or you may get monkey identity or you may get a cat identity, who knows?

[1:15:14.5] If you're wealthy enough with your positive karma, then you can buy a human identity by paying your good karma. A human identity with quality, with beauty, all of them you can make a choice. So the spiritual positive work is your money to buy the good future life that you need. That's your insurance, that's your pocket money, that's your savings, that's your insurance, everything. That's why it is important to work now. Work now, try to build good work, good karma and try to purify the bad karma. By purifying bad karma it becomes good karma. You know purifying bad karma is good karma, so what is how you build your savings. That's also like, it's like you're putting your money in Wall St. When the economy is good it makes double, triple. When the economy is bad it looses double, triple. So that's a question, wonder what happens thereafter.

[1:17:41.5] Alright, contemplate bardo, twenty-four. What is bardo? It's really a stage in between. How does bardo look like? Do I recognize you if you are in bardo? Truly, no. Your identity has changed. You don't look like the shape of who died. You have a new shape which looks like your future life rather than your past life. Yet,

[1:18:41.3 Tibetan] Yeh geh ju duh sho don dah oh moh gun tza tha me jung muh du sing ju chak tsur jez

In Abhidharmakoś?a they have said the bardo looks like the middle age their future life, whatever it may be. Middle-aged future life. It also has power, it gets everywhere. It's not like us, we have to carry the identity with us. The bardoers don't carry identification with them. Their identity is mental body. So therefore no physical transportation is necessary. So it works at the telepathic level rather than the physical level. The way and how it works at the telepathic level is the moment you think something you get there. You're sitting in the middle of Nijmegen and suddenly you think of what? Shanghai or Tokyo or whatever, Venezuela or Milan or Sabalo or anything, you get there because the advantage of the mental body. So that's why whatever the bardoist think, they get there. That is the difference between when we are in life and when we're in the bardo level. The bardoist can see each other if you're both bardoers, but we don't see the bardoers. So that's why you see movies, you know. You see Indian movies where somebody died in a car accident and suddenly it looks like they're wounded and they're lifted up and the same person is running around and he goes back home and tries to talk to his family and they won't answer him. He will go in front of them, nothing happens. So that is exactly what the bardo is, even the Indian movies will tell you.

[1:22:49.3] That is because, that's not because bardoers fault, it's neither our fault. It's because the human beings capacity to be able to see has ceased. So that will be bardo. The main purpose of the bardo person is looking for future rebirth. By the time they realize they're in bardo stage they immediately would like to settle. So you're looking for, and also you have a very delicate body and mind. A tiny little thing will make you so upset and make you even die. So bardoers always die in every seventh day, at least, if not more. They also remain to the bardo maximum forty-nine days. Seven weeks, right? That is the maximum for life, no more. By that time you have to take rebirth. Whatever you can get, man, woman, animal, samsaric god, hell realm, angry ghost. You've got to get a life, because your time is running out.

[1:25:26.0] So what you have to do, avoid hell realm rebirth because it has a lot of suffering, hot or cold. Avoid hungry ghost rebirth or you'll be too hungry.

dor je tsun trun pem gha che yah tsen she shin doh cha

Well, forget. Then avoid animal rebirth because you'll be too dull. Remember the limitations of human rebirth. Even human realm is good, but even then it has a lot of limitations. The qualities that we have many human beings don't have. So remember the limitations and take path, take rebirth. Avoid demi god rebirth, it is meaningless. Avoid samsaric god rebirth, it is useless. So what makes that happen is the positive karma and the negative karma. So knowing what can help and harm in life and death. So if you have no time to do anything about your negative karma and positive karma, then what shall we do? Take refuge. To whom? To Buddha, dharma, and sangha. Simply, Buddha is experienced person and it's like a well educated doctor who can give you a good diagnosis. The dharma is the real medicine. The true dharma is true positivity within you. Not the book, not the teaching [recording ends here]