<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e6v1E2O1w1VyyW5ao-_8Kv9_nEKmnvwk/preview" width="100%" height="80" allow="autoplay"></iframe> All right, well, it seemed to be recording of the co-host. Great, okay. Yeah, I think so. So let me make sure that I can. Hi, Sophie. Oh, can you maybe try to give me the host back? Oh, we can. Got it. Got it? Okay, good. All right. All right, we're ready. We're ready now, guys. Sorry. Sorry, everyone. Once again. Okay. Did you turn your light down? Yeah, just a second. Can you suck, Jackie? Okay, got it. Should stop. That's beautiful. and it's muted okay It actually was. Should I start? I think we are ready for you now. Sorry for the wait. Oh, cool. All right, here we go. So I should start over, right? Yes. Okay, here we go. So as far as I understand it, we're on class four, which is entitled training for the first path. And we're going to talk about the first question, which I, as I said, I think it is best done by a team of two people. So whether it's a couple, which is always sweet, or whether it's two other friends, which is also sweet, you're welcome to bid for this question. And I think it's a very sexy question. Okay, the question is, in the next section of the Yoga Sutra, Master Patanjali says that we can achieve the goal of yoga, the cessation or stopping of how the mind wrongly turns things around through, quote, constant practice and giving up our attachments, unquote. Then he goes on to describe three elements that we need for this constant practice. Please name them in English, okay? Now, I had a lot of time this morning to work because I forgot another meeting I had. And so I thought on these flow charts, on the flow sheets, which you should all have probably after this class, I have included the relevant verses, and I've included the image that you're going to use, and I've included the answer from the master, and I have inserted the correct pronunciation of the Sanskrit in the answers. So the relevant verse here is 12 and 13 of the first chapter, and it says, Stopping it, meaning the turning, requires constant practice and giving up your attachments. Constant practice means striving to be there. And I put the Sanskrit for you both in the easy pronunciation and in the precise transcription and in the native script, the Devanagari script. So those of you who are brave, or especially I think if you take this question, it might be fun to start learning the Sanskrit script also. I noticed a mistake in the first word. And as I remember, these were done with the help of some assistants. So we got to keep an eye on mistakes in the Sanskrit script. Okay. The next verse 14 says, "You cultivate your practice over an extended period of time. It must be steady without gaps and it must be done correctly for then a firm foundation is laid." Satu dirgakala narantarya satkarasevito durdaha bumih Okay, and I like, I really like these verses so here we go. There are some interesting roots here for example on Bhaja Bhoomi Aung right which means here is the ground of the ground of gold when you make an offering in mandala and you say Bhoomi so here Bhoomi means like a foundation for a good practice okay. Now image number one which my friends are gonna show hello yeah is This is persistence, okay, and this is the first of the three elements that are part of constant practice. So constant practice involves three different parts, and the first is persistence, and you see a guy pushing a boulder up an incline. He cannot stop or the boulder will crush him and you know, he has to work hard and steadily. It's not like he can sit down, right? He has to keep pushing until it's up. Okay, so this is the first element in constant practice, which is called abhyasa. The practice is called abhyasa and the the first thing you need is it must be cultivated, the practice must be cultivated and this is called a sevita. So the practice of cultivation is a sevita. And I like this the Tibetan, it's either temba, bestemba with the e which Nick knows means to take yourself to a doctor over a period of time or take yourself to a lama over a period of time and the other interesting word in Tibetan for a sevita which is cultivating your practice is called nyemba which means can mean getting close to somebody and it happens to be the word for deep retreat also which means getting clothes. So like those guys in Diamond Mountain who did a three-year retreat we call Nianchen, the great retreat. So Nianba can also mean it has connotations of taking leather which is stiff and making it flexible. So you have all of these connotations of cultivating your practice which is the first part of hapyaasa. So cultivation means careful like rolling that boulder up a hill, it also implies it must be done over a long period of time and the text specifically says dhirga kala okay and that's the kala in kala chakra which means wheel of time and of course k-a-l is related to c-a-r char because r's and l's are interchangeable in sanskrit pretty much So for example, chariot or car, words like that are related to kala for time because it's something that keeps moving. Okay, so I think if you take this question, the first part you want to emphasize is that this cultivation takes time and you can't just expect instant results. And that's a theme which every great spiritual teacher especially in this lineage will tell you you know if you're here for quick results if you're here for instant enlightenment in the next week it's not going to happen you know you need a sevita you need a constant practice it has to go on over a long period of time it has to be cultivated okay so that's the first of the three elements of what we call constant practice which is required for stopping the way the mind turns things around. To achieve yoga you've got to have constant practice and that has these three elements in it okay which come in verse 14. In verse 14 I split it up for you guys I said you must A cultivate your practice over an extended period of time it must be steady B without gaps and c it must be done correctly. So then a firm foundation, dhumi, is laid. Okay by the way firm is dhurdaha okay and it's ultimately related to the dhur for dharma which means to hold and be firm and words like tree come from that, words like druid, true seer come from that, words like firm come from that okay now the second of the three elements of constant practice and i am showing a picture of a person smiling with a gap in their teeth and this is a very very popular funny image used in the lamrium and other ancient sources to describe a person who practices on monday takes tuesday and wednesday off does a little practice on thursday skips friday saturday and sunday and has an inconstant practice so the joke in tibetan is like an old person's teeth because they didn't have false teeth so uh there's a gap in their practice okay antaria means a gap and nair means no it's the root of nihilism for example so it means without gaps you have to keep your practice going steady and i think if you take this question this is a beautiful and appropriate place to talk about the principle of starting with a modest amount of time like a half hour yoga or 20 minutes of yoga or 10 minutes a month of meditation and just putting more focus on doing it daily daily i count five days a week i think it's good to take a break sometimes five or six days a week of meditation or yoga and it's got to be regular it's got to be daily even if it's brief and i i can name countless students of mine who did long meditation sessions or long retreats or two hours of yoga every day and then they quit okay so it's much much much better to start with a modest daily practice so whoever takes this question i'm really hoping you will sell these people on the idea of like a 10 minute meditation session and then increase it by one minute every week, every Sunday. All right, the third element. So what were the first two elements? A, you have to cultivate your practice over quite a long period of time. B, you shouldn't have gaps in your practice, like try to be steady. This Insight app, by the way, those of you who are using it, like I like it. I don't know who makes it, but I rarely like other people's stuff as you may have noticed but I do like it and it has a new feature that after you finish your session it tells you how many days in a row you've been doing which I think is very valuable for this second element of a practice of constant practice okay third element of concept practice the image is a guy fixing a car okay and I like to tell the story I don't know if you have a similar story but you know my llama had a Volkswagen with almost half a million miles on it and he asked me to fix it and I didn't ever touch a car in my life and I went to the library I got book about fixing Volkswagens and I took it apart and I fixed it and then the last thing I did on the car which is what this guy's doing in the picture is I tightened a bolt too much I tightened it too much because I didn't have any experience and I stripped the car I stripped the engine block it was a it was a loss you know it took about five seconds just to ruin the engine okay so I I I like the idea and I um in this third element of constant practice I think it's really sexy if you guys talk about how valuable and complicated and fragile uh the parts of your mind are you know like okay a car has 30 000 parts but your mind has more parts than that and and it it's more valuable territory than a very expensive car and you can you can break your mind you can mess with your mind if you don't know what you're doing so it's got to be uh satkara okay satkara and satkara means uh you have to do it all correctly. You have to do yoga in your mind with a correct method. You have to follow the manual. You have to follow. And that's why I put this older guy in the picture with the young mechanic. The young mechanic is trying to fix his mind. And the older guy, the more experienced teacher, mentor, and by the way, mentor is a good way to avoid the bad connotations of guru. So your mentor there, an older mentor, is helping the young man not to not to break his mind as he's working on it, as he's fixing it. So I think if you can convey, if you teach this part, that it's like as delicate as working on an engine, a car engine, the engine is powerful and it's delicate, and your mind is also powerful and delicate, and you can't use just any old method to work on your mind. You wouldn't let a beginning medical student do a heart operation. No one would agree to that. If you had a heart problem and your neighbor, your 18-year-old neighbor just finished their first six weeks of medical school, you would never submit to an operation on your heart, a bypass operation from an amateur. And the same is true with your mind. Your mind is much more delicate and valuable than a heart. So anyway, you have to seek out someone who knows a traditional and correct method, satkara. okay sat has meanings of truth ultimately it comes from the verb us the verbal root us which means to be and you see it in like in satya chatur satya the chatus satya which means the four truth the four arya truth okay so satya means truth ultimately related also to the sattva and bodhisattva And in kara, you know, it means to do, as in the word karma, related to cereal and creation. Cereal before the sea became soft, used to be karyal or kernels. Okay, so anyway, if you use a mistaken method, it'll take you a long, long time. And the Tibetan teachers like to say, because churning tea is a big thing in Tibet, like my teacher drank 15 or 20 cups of Tibetan tea a day. I was churning, we had a small churn, and I was churning his tea and his butter constantly. And so there's a joke in Tibet that if you don't put milk into the churn and you put water into it, you can sit there and pump all day, but nothing's going to happen. Okay, so you can, if you don't find an effective and unmistaken method to do these repairs on your mind to stop it from turning things around then you might break your mind and and i have friends like that who you know some of you know michael wigg for example he he did some wrong practices when he first met my lama i think it was i think it was 30 over 30 years ago and he he got a loom condition he got a upset prana condition and he still has it after 40 years or something from from from mistaken instructions okay all right number two question number two so that first question is long and it's gonna take I think it's gonna take two people you figure out how to break it up number two what about this idea of quote giving up attachments is it wrong to want or to be attached to nice things and then the next image of the little girl you know i don't think you can look at this image and imagine that something wrong is going on you know like is the girl enjoying the flower we have to say yes is the mother enjoying the girl enjoying the flower we have to say yes and the beauty of the nature there and everything. Is it wrong to seek out moments like this in your life with your children or with your family or with nature? You know, is it somehow attachment to enjoy things? And I think a big job we have in the West is to educate people that enjoyment is much different from attachment. happiness is not attachment okay you can love your child and not be attached okay you can enjoy a good french dinner which is the first thing i'm doing when i get out i'm going to guadalajara to that chocolate shop uh you can enjoy things without being attached okay so it's not wrong to want here's the answer that i wrote long ago it's not wrong to want nice things or to be attached to a healthy way it's good to be attached to your child me and veronica had a good cry about our dog for two days and that's fine that's a beautiful thing okay and then i pointed out that there isn't any description of heaven in any religion i'm aware of where people are suffering or or they're sitting in a corner and staring at a wall without attachment you know and just kind of frozen there or something. There's no such thing. And I think viscerally inside of us no person thinks that heaven will be like that. We all believe deeply in a place where people will be deeply happy. And it's fine to want that. You can be attached to the idea that humanity should be happy or that all living creatures should be happy. You can be very much attached to that idea and that's not a wrong thing. So when Master Patanjali says constant practice and vairagya, you know, giving up your attachments, he's not talking about clean attachments or beautiful attachments or love for other people, okay? It's not that we are supposed to reach a place where we don't want anything okay. So question three is kind of comes after that. What are some kinds of attachment that based on Master Patanjali's own words we might want to give up? And the next image this is a guy who's attached to his cell phone he's watching stuff all night long and he's unhappy and I was very happy about this unhappy picture because he looks unhappy, he's all gray and you know this is so typical if you turn on your internet in the middle of the night if you can't sleep and you try to watch a movie or you read new virus facts from CNN then this is what it feels like right so is this an attachment? Yes. Is it a healthy attachment? No. Does he look like he's having fun from this attachment to the addiction to the internet other cell phone we can say no he's not okay so of course uh attaining honest pleasures is the goal of a spiritual life uh trying to find pleasure in things which are unpleasant like stimulation of lower lower stimulation like how many new shows can you watch in one night you can tell the difference and i added a sentence to the answer which you'll see if you do this one. It's called Litmus Test. So, you know, how do we tell the difference between an honest pleasure, a good attachment, and a wrong attachment? What's the difference? And I would say the difference is if your worldview would allow you to hurt someone to get what you want to what you're attached to then it's a bad attachment and if your worldview would not allow you to hurt someone to get what you desire or what you're attached to then that's a good attachment and that's a good desire okay so that's a pretty basic one that's a pretty straightforward question okay let's go on to number four and i think that litmus test is extremely important if you understand that the pen is coming from you you automatically understand that hurting other people or competing with other people to get what you want is attachment which is ruining which is ruining your ability to stop the way the mind turns things around okay uh question four is pretty straightforward give the sanskrit words for constant practice and giving up attachment okay in each case give the sanskrit root and several english cognates so this is very common in this course to ask for the sanskrit word for something and then give the sanskrit root and or or typical prefixes or suffixes and then cognates okay so here's the picture is a lady i like this picture because she is sitting on her as okay and the main focus here in question four is the root us which means literally to sit okay and so asana comes from that and many other words come from that so we're talking about abhyasa okay so the as in abhyasa and the as in asana are the same root us literally meaning to sit okay so it would be tempting here to explain the word asana to talk about the word asana because abhyasa constant practice also has the same root and I think you could flirt with it don't forget it's coming in chapter two by god that's going to be I I don't know, half a year from now. So I think it wouldn't be inappropriate to make this more fun to talk about asana as you talk about abhyasa. Okay. Okay, Nick, you ready to make some money? Oh, yeah. Did you get the money I mailed you guys? I was just going to write you to thank you. Oh, I mailed out quite a bit of money the other day. It's so fun to write a physical letter. Okay, I'm going to give you, and I'm going to let Aaron partake of this question. I looked up asana in Locust Chandler's dictionary, and I got five Tibetan words for it, okay? The first one, here you go. How much am I betting? $30. I'll give one word for Nick and I'll give one word for Aaron. Okay, this is a cool question because you can see who answers it first. Nick, the Tibetan is R-K-U-B. Aaron, the Sanskrit is Apana. That's the first synonym for asana. In the in in the ancient dictionary, which is damn good by the way John I want to know what's the English word R-K-U-B, or A-P long A-N-A. And you're headed in the right direction, I will say. Downward. Yeah. Ground? Ground? Extend downward or something like that. Come on, coop. Make coop. Okay, cancel the bench. Ass. Yeah. It means your butt, okay? Asana. I didn't actually. So that's amazing. It's actually in the ancient dictionary that asana means your ass. okay and I used to speculate that it was but now I have proof okay so and apparently apana vayu it means downward but it also means the vayu that goes to your butt okay anyway so that's the first meaning of asana second meaning is chi which means in tibetan means a throne or ten and den which both mean which both mean a meditation cushion or a cushion that you sit on to practice asana right so by the way what's a famous Sanskrit word with that meaning in it Dorjaitan. Yeah, nice. Which is Vajrasana, which is the old name for Bodhgaya, where the Buddha sat on his asana and got enlightened. Okay. And asana means location. Okay, Mr. Human Dictionary, since you're doing all the work anyway. Yes, sir. The last Tibetan word I found for asana is Lu Jong. Practice the body. Train the body? Yeah, nice. Okay, and that's the physical exercises. Okay, so those are all the meanings of asana in the ancient, by the way, I mean, these ancient dictionaries that the Tibetan used to translate, how many? 300,000 pages. They are really, really good. If you want to understand what the Sanskrit means, You can go to Monier and Williams, which is ripped off from the St. Petersburg German lexicon people. Or you can go, and by the way, who's filed a lawsuit against him. But you can also go to these ancient Tibetan dictionaries, which are really, really good. Okay, so anyway, asana and abhyasa, the root is us, A-S, short A, okay, us. and it means to be. The English word is comes from us, okay? And I think it's kind of nice to point out, if you read the Hatha Yoga Pradipika or works like that, it's pretty obvious that the early asanas were what Alex took us. Alex, do you remember what you started us with in the last yoga class? Just a simple cross-legged forward fold? Yeah, hip opener, right? So asana, originally it was just a hip opener, okay? And that was, asana means to sit, ana means helps you to, like sadhana means helps you reach vajayogini, ana, ana. So ana means helps you to do something. It came into English like politician and magician and words like that, pediatrician. So anyway, abhyasa means abhyasa, so as means to sit, abhy means very much, like abhidharma you know means higher knowledge. Okay so it kind of means, abhyasa means to really sit with something and do constant practice okay so if you're explaining this word it's abhi plus us which means constant practice abhi means very much and us means to sit with it okay abhi is found in english with epi as in epicenter or apo as an apogee which is the highest point of a satellite's orbit or something okay all right us appears in is and in essence and in ass but you can talk about that later okay all right giving up the attachments is vairagya Yeah, I gotta fix the Homer question. The long a. Yeah, I'm gonna fix the Homer question. Hang on. Okay, good. Not Vi-Ragya. Okay, so V, the V, the VI that comes into Vi means to split two things. and the rug r-a-g means to be passionate about something so v is found in the english words divide and bicycle which means two cycles and the reason there's a w in the english word two like one two three is that v okay so uh it means to split or to be double okay so v means to get out of and rag i like the raga the indian music which is supposed to be passionate is called raga an indian song is called raga and it's also found in english words like rage and orange both connoting redness or the kind of color you get when you're very passionate so vairagya means to get rid of your wrong passions like the guy doing the cell phone in the middle of the night, but not to get rid of your good passions like the love for your children and nature in the other picture. Okay, yay! Question five: Nehman described the first of the five paths, which by the way is the principal subject matter of the first chapter, or levels of our spiritual evolution. relevant verse is 15 which says "giving up your attachment consists of the decision to gain control over your craving for experiences seen or only heard of." Okay and we're going to take it to this next image of a person dying in their hospital bed and the person holding their hand which is maybe their daughter or their son is getting introduced to the first of the five paths and I would say this is where Master Patanjali starts to introduce the five paths in the first chapter. So he's already taking you on a progression through the five paths. So then you have to talk a little bit about the first path, which is basically as you know we define it in DCI as a what is it? A nice disaster or tragedy in your life which is nganjum, renunciation, okay? You reach the path of accumulation, soplam, when you have a personal disaster, a personal tragedy in your life such as a parent dying. And if someone asks you why is it called the path of accumulation, The point is that the good karma of waking up to how difficult life is, makes such good seeds that if you accumulate them, you will be able to see emptiness directly at the third path. And you will also get teachings on emptiness in the second path. So just the activity of being sad about the state of the world is the first path, okay? I used to ask my teacher what's the difference between the lower track accumulation path and the higher track accumulation path, you know, on the bodhisattva track is renunciation still the mark of achieving the first path? And he gave such a beautiful answer, and I remember where we were standing. And he said, "Yeah, but it's renunciation aimed at everyone, not just yourself." And I was, wow, I was blown away by that, you know. So renunciation is still the mark of when you have reached the path of accumulation on the higher track, bodhisattva track, but it's renunciation which is marked by being aimed at everybody, you know, feeling sadness for everyone's condition, okay. All right, question six: How does Master Patanjali describe the ultimate form of freedom from attachment, and why does he bring it up at this point? And to me, I don't know, this is one of the sexiest questions. I think I'll take this one, okay, Connie? Is that okay? Anyway, she didn't answer, so I guess she agreed. I like this ultimate form of attachment. I like to explain attachment this way and master Patanjali says in its highest form it is the freedom from attachment to solid things gained by one to whom the true nature of the person has been revealed so what it means is and the next image is somebody smoking and I wanted I wanted to catch I wanted an image that caught two different ideas number one attachment right we've been bad attachment and then secondly I wanted to I wanted this sense of attachment which is aimed at a thing which doesn't even exist is the ultimate kind of attachment that we want to get rid of you see and he has it here attachment to solid things meaning attachment to a pen which is coming from the pen attachment to a wife or a husband or a child or a dog who is coming from their own side like smoke doesn't even exist insubstantial there's nothing there okay that's real attachment and by the way the more the thing you're attached to doesn't exist the more you will hurt someone to keep it okay it's a it's a weird correlation okay i'll say it again the more unreal an object is the more we will fight to keep it the more we will hurt other people to give it to keep it okay if if you understand the object of your attachment then the last thing you would do is fight someone for it you see so the more people fight for something the less they the more people fight for something the more they are fighting for something which cannot exist okay so that's real attachment okay and this is a continuation to the second level which is the path of preparation okay he's introducing the idea of the path of preparation and by the way you know I tell people if you understand the pen well you will get one of those second types the first type of cessation where you don't have to have a bad rebirth anymore but but it has to be and not aimed at at your own nature to to have that effect of saving you forever from negative birth it has to be some kind of understanding about yourself you have to apply the pen to yourself and and that's why he says here uh so there has to be some kind of illumination of the true nature of the person okay all right So solid things here is a pen which didn't come from me and a child who didn't come from my seeds and I will fight for them because they seem to be solid okay and it represents intellectual understanding of where things are coming from why is it called the path of preparation because it prepares you immediately it's the last step before you see emptiness directly so the first two paths are named relative to the third path you know the first one you're collecting karma or seeds to see emptiness directly and on the second path you are getting ready immediately to see it to see emptiness directly so the name of the first two paths are both relative to the nature of the third okay question number seven in this same section of the chapter master Patanjali which is verse 16 talks about unveiling the quote true nature of the person how does this relate to the practice of yoga okay and i have a picture here of a guy shaving in a mirror and the idea is that uh we are a reflection of our own seeds even how we see ourselves as a reflection of our seeds and he's looking at a reflection of himself and there's a another taste I wanted to catch, rasa, right? Another thing I wanted to catch here was that the world is a mirror of us, you know, the percentage of irritating people in your life is exactly equal to the percentage of irritation seeds in your mind. So everything is a direct formula about you, okay okay uh now john will know purusha as opposed to prakurti is a is a popular idea in indian literature as a concept and not necessarily as a person so purusha can mean purusha can mean person but it can also mean the true nature of a person is how we translate it here okay and then you have to you know to start thinking of yourself or the person as being a reflection of your own seats okay and then you're in a position to use the inner and outer methods of yoga to transform yourself because if you are if the true nature of the person if you know if that has been revealed to you who you really are which is a mirror of your seeds and your life is a mirror of your seeds then you can get freedom from attachment okay which is 50 percent of the path to stopping the turning of the mind and the first 50 percent was a bhyasa constant practice okay all right question number eight name and describe four general levels of meditation mentioned here by master patanjali and then explain why they are quote only like an axe so this is verse 17 let me see something i think i misspelled something yeah the asmita should have a long a okay Connie I fixed a few things in the homework okay okay in the master all right I would like to start here I think they're out of order I'd like to start here with the image of the lady who's shopping okay yeah that one okay this lady is at the grocery store and I always you know When I teach this, I always think of myself at Clark's, the old IGA. And I like that store because the average age of a hippie in Sedona is 65. And they always play my music at that store. So she's been shopping at Clark's in Sedona. And they started to play, I don't know, Beatles, Beatle music on the, what do you call that? Muzak. Muzak, yeah. So they're playing Beatles music to try to entice 65-year-olds to buy more stuff. And she, I worked really hard to find a photo where she hears it. If you look at her eyes, she's listening to something. but she's not paying attention to it really. Okay, this is the Vidharka. Okay, and what is that? In the Abhidharma is defined as Tsing Shib Nyi, the definition of Vidharka is rough, a rough awareness that the music is playing Tsing Wa. So she has a rough awareness is the first level of meditation okay and I'm taking these all to be the form realm level meditations which we're going to talk about later okay so Vitarka is typically the first formal meditation typically she hears the music she's aware of the music she's not paying attention to the music okay next image uh but which is called noting okay i like to translate vitarka as noting then uh the second step here is vichara vichara which means uh examining and this lady i imagine she went over to the pharmacy side of the grocery store and she was looking for some aspirin or something but a Beatles song came on that she really loved and so she's supposed to be totally distracted okay she's not even looking at her paper anymore she's not if you look at her eyes she's not really looking at the medications anymore she's kind of focusing on the music now so she has stopped her shopping and if it's Geshe Michael he's going into the baseline. He's trying to see what Paul McCartney was doing with this song. And so Geshe Michael's, you know, Vitarka is where I'm aware that a Beatles song is playing. Vichara is where I'm analyzing the baseline and I'm stopped shopping. I'm not shopping anymore. Okay. All right. Next image is called Ananda. Okay. And I imagine you're all saying at home, ananda and you're not saying what? Ananda. Ananda. Ananda. Okay if you take this question and if you say ananda I will show you what ananda is because it means pain and suffering and unhappiness. Okay so please don't say ananda. It's ananda. Okay so there's two A's at the beginning of Sanskrit words. The short A means not. The long A means very much. Nanda means to be happy. So if you say Ananda, it means Mr. Unhappiness, the big disciple of the Buddha. If you say Ananda, it means super happy. And you can guess which one is correct. Okay. So you're going to put the accent on the first syllable, Ananda. Okay. And you're going to make twice as long in meter, ananda. Okay, so this is the third level of meditative focus here. And this lady, you know, she's still in the grocery store, right? But she's been transported to a field, an open field covered with beautiful flowers, and the sun line is beaming down on her, and she's opened her arms. And so I think if you take this question, I think it's cute, to point out that she's still in the grocery store, but she's been transported to another universe. You know, she's like, probably they're playing, here comes the sun or something. And she just feels like she's been transported to another place. And this is the third level of deep meditation where you are having deep, deep pleasure, Ananda. Okay, you're having deep sense of contentment. okay and by the way you're not listening to the lyrics or the lines of the melody anymore you are just inside the song okay you are in in some kind of pleasure okay now image 13 next one i i'm so happy to find this image i worked on this one for quite a while This guy is in asmitah. So say asmitah. Asmi in Sanskrit means I am. A-S-M-I. Asmi. Same root as asana. Us to be to be. And ta ti langay always means the condition of that. So shunyata is the condition of being empty. Emptiness. And the ta came into English as T-I-O-N. like i don't know locomotion or motion uh it it means ness okay the condition of asmi so asmi the fourth level of meditation formal meditation means you're just beyond pleasure you're almost unconscious okay you have reached a play a place which is very similar to being anesthetized before an operation because I had an operation about a year ago first one in my life and I remember holding Veronica's hand and the lady injecting me with something and the next thing I knew it was like 12 hours later and so that state of mind is what you see here totally beyond beyond even pleasure gone into some kind of almost lack of consciousness and I think John Campbell and guys uh kramer who were excited about what was that called that thing uh the four modes uh i forgot the word but uh of a stop yeah chapter of a stop uh if if you teach this one i mean you can almost go there you know he's in another of a stuff a lady in the grocery store was in the waking state for three steps and then suddenly she's maybe in step three she went to chaturpa turiya i don't know but anyway this guy's totally out of it okay so that's a deep meditation where you forget yourself okay now we go to the next image which is the chopping okay because the homework question remember and and by the way i would never want any of you to teach these levels of meditative experience without saying they are dangerous, okay? Without saying they are not the point, okay? So, you know, anytime you write a homework question about how it feels to go through these four meditations, or anytime you give a teaching about these four levels, I don't want you to take a break in the class until you alert the audience that they can be dangerous and that they are not the goal okay so uh that's why i added to this question which is already a long question uh why are they only like an axe and the point is uh you you're just using these states to do something bigger okay like you can't go home and burn an axe in your fireplace i mean you can but you'll there's much point to it. The point is to use the axe, cut lots of wood, and then take the wood to your fireplace. So don't mistake the instrument for the goal, okay? So I think it's very important to say that in this section, Patanjali is warning us, you know, don't get stuck in these because they are rupanukamat, and we're going to talk about that. They are not a goal in themselves. Now, those of of you who studied the lion's dance, I based that well on many sources. There are two or three sutras. It was taught by Lord Buddha a couple of times. It was taught famously by Master of Sangha and Maitreya. What is that? How does that go? Anyway. Singha-va-va-virgin-bita. Okay. Very famous in the Abhisattva Alankara. So anyway, but the jewel was Kedub J's commentary on the Mayan stance, unbelievable. And he goes through these four states very, very carefully in great detail. And I've never seen anything like it. And, you know, so if you're the person who teaches these four, I mean, you could talk for an hour. about them. So I added to your flow chart about 50 pages of explanation, which I had written previously about the line stands. So if, you know, I think they're super sexy. Now, this is a big part of the principle. Who can get for $100? What's the principle I'm talking about to describe? Bring $100 to the dollar store. Damn. Boom. You are hopeless. You nincompoop. Okay. $100 to word. I got to make a note. I don't know why I tend to forget these bets I made afterwards. Take a shot. Do you want me to make notes? Yeah, that'd be good also. I got this one. I got this one. or you keep them shopping okay because i want to people on paypal okay okay good okay you can do that it makes my life easier okay and i'm gonna write it in the i'm gonna write this famous statement by dr word that when you go to the dollar store store take a hundred dollars so you know if you choose to take this question the challenge is not to say too much the challenge is to know it and to not say everything you know and to choose pick and choose carefully the things that will most help your audience you see so this question is going to be a challenge question number eight about the four general levels of meditation it's going to be a huge challenge to not tell everything you know but to take the best best best parts for helping somebody else okay so this is a big challenge so i gave you the whole lion's dance description study the four form realm meditations and you can correlate these four to those and it's amazing it's super amazing okay you guys want to go deeper somebody okay and maybe it's another person I don't know Connie you have to think about it but uh when I was in three-year retreat I wrote a book called Katrin about this young lady who becomes a geshe by tricking the monks and then she has some you know she gets trained in the yoga sutra by a very special monk who ends up at the end of the story to be a woman in disguise And there's a whole thing, you know, there's a whole tantric thing going on. And, but anyway, and then the book, you know, how yoga works is the sequel. And I never had time to finish the first book. I never had time to publish it. It's done, but it has to be shortened because it's way too long. Anyway, there's a very, very cool presentation. Connie, we should make this a separate question, a separate person, okay? And I was thinking, I put the whole thing in here, okay? Do you guys have time? Can I read it to you? Is it okay? Yes. Yes, okay. So here's Katrin's commentary, which she gave on March 14th. He or she, I don't know. okay i'm just gonna read it and maybe connie we can have a place where people just read something out of one of these books it might be nice i don't know like a like a mom reading to her kids anyway here we go and it's a little long and i don't care which of the five paths are we on now again started out kachin today the second i replied the path of preparation and how did we get there oh by the way she became a geshe by sort of unusual tricking the monks and when they found out they they basically she got what do you call it exiled and then she met katrin and learned the yoga sutra from her and then she went on to india to get stuck in a prison and all that story okay uh so how did we get there you travel the first path by confronting your attachments and deciding to reach for a higher meaning in life. On the second path, you begin examining the source of all trouble, how your mind turns things around the wrong way. Katrin nodded, which leads to the very first short period of actually stopping what the mind does wrong. And this happens on the third path during a state of deep meditation. Exactly so, said Katrin, and he paused for a moment looking out the window. But you see, and most people never really understand this, there are literally hundreds of different levels of meditation. Only one of them is the specific kind you need to be in to stop your mind from turning things around the wrong way. Not only that, he continued, but meditation itself, the ability to go into a very deep state of concentration, is after all only a tool. It's like a shovel, which allows you to dig deeper than you could use, than you could using only your hands. But a hole you see is a lot different from a treasure chest at the bottom of the hole. We use meditation to reach a deeper goal, stopping our mind from its constant great mistake. But a lot of people you see, they never have a chance to hear about all this. And they think that the goal of meditation is just the feeling of the meditation. And so that is why the master includes this line about four different levels of sensations you get as you go deeper into meditation. It is a warning from him. You see, he's saying, watch out that you don't get trapped here. Now, let's see. How shall I explain it to you? Katrin looked out the window again. I'm going to change this one. But I suspect it was just a ploy to keep my attention. I would guess that with his experience in the warrior courtyards, which is a debate ground, Katrin had these lessons planned out months ahead. He turned back to me, his eyes twinkling. A strong young country lad goes to town. He comes to the town square and sees a stage set up there with lots of people sitting, listening to a wonderful holiday play. He sits down in the crowd and out onto the stage comes a lovely slender young lass. She is just about his age and is not yet married. She stands and sings an incredibly beautiful song. And then she bows and disappears back behind the curtain to a hail of applause, not the least from the young Min. Now, this young man is a little rowdy, as young Min can be, and he enjoys coming into town to the tavern for a drink from time to time. He's also known to get into a fight or two on these nights. And so one evening he walks into town for his usual and striding briskly down the side alley, he suddenly pulls up short. And can you guess why? asked Katrin. To make sure I was still with him. I shook my head. He hears a song, no details or anything yet, but he definitely recognizes it. It's the young maiden's lovely song, song in her own lovely voice. this represents the first sensation of meditation that the master talked about is talking about and in the ancient text it's called noting vittarka right your mind in meditation is just connecting with the broad outline of its subject the young man listens more closely now he can tell that his beloved song is floating out of a slightly open shutter on a nearby window he steps over to window, trying to peer in through the dusk, and now he can hear the words and the subtle points of the melody. This compares with what we call examining in meditation, which is vichara. The mind has gone deeper than the general object and is now engaged in its details. As the mind continues to go thus deeper and deeper, it releases each previous sensation, which is an important part of the lion's dance, by the way, to delve into the next, thus passing through four standard meditational levels. Hearing his sweetheart sing of eternal love and fun, the young man's heart is soon filled with joy. He is no longer really listening to the words so much as simply enjoying the happiness that they bring him. And this corresponds in meditation to what we call deep pleasure, Ananda, right? The lady in the sunshine field. Like the deep subtle feeling of the contentment you feel when you're engrossed in a good book. And then finally, the young man is so entranced by the song that he completely forgets where he is, what he is doing. He focuses upon the shutters and thrusts his head inside. In meditation, we call this being in yourself, just being there, oblivious to everything else, gone beyond pleasure to a kind of absorbed numbness. It didn't sound so bad to me. Katrin shook his head gravely. Dangerous, he said quietly. Very, very dangerous. And then tomorrow. So this book is set up, I think it's a year of yoga sutra lessons. So the next date is March 15th. Okay, I hope you're not asleep yet. So what does the young man get when he pokes his head into her window, asked Katrin right off. I shrugged and took a chance. A kiss, I ventured. Who knows, cried Katrin, anything but why the lady's husband gives him a good strong punch in the nose. My heart stirred at this affront to true romance. But you said she wasn't married yet. She who squeaked cuttron as he does when he gets excited. That's a little hint that he's really a lady, but we don't know that. She the young maiden, the one who sang the song, I cried. She, this is no young maiden, squeaked cuttron again. Why, she's got four grown children and she's big and buxom as an ox. What are you talking about? So she didn't sing the song, I said, confused. Of course she did. I mean, she was singing that one, the one in the alley, but she didn't sing the first one. The one that the very young maiden sang, I said. Ah, but she did, exclaimed Katrin gleefully. Don't you know how these shows always go? They put some pretty young girl on the stage, out on the stage for her looks. Sorry, I'm fixing it as I go. But she hasn't got any ear to carry a tune, nor any lungs in her skinny little chest to belt out the words. And so a big lady always comes and stands up behind the curtain, and she does the real singing, while the other one out front moves her lips. Where have you been, girl? By the way, this is a true story that there's a very popular singer for, I don't know, 15 years in Indian movies that were sung by many actresses. and it's always the same big fat older lady who sings the song with that little girl voice and I don't know 15 years it's it's been her doing the real singing and then the girl's lip thinking in the movies in many many movies like 100 movies he said that last part is a joke but the girl part stung me again as it always does so she's got this thing about being a girl and not nobody letting her be a geshe and things like that. Okay. I sighed loudly and I, and began my usual sulking. But Kodrin was too excited to notice, I think, and he just rolled on. And that's the whole problem, you see. I mean, the young man is going crazy and all for, for what? So what if he's going deeper? Who cares if he's up into some kind of stupefied bliss, or even beyond bliss, because he's got it all wrong you see and it's about to cost him a punch in the head. Katrin paused and appraised my skull. My dear Geshe come now. Katrin is talking to the girl. No time for a bad mood. We're about to answer a very important question you had before about how the mind turns things around. I allowed myself to brighten up a bit. See, it's all here where the master says these sensations in meditation are still the type done consciously, quote. And what this means is, well, what he means by, I'm fixing it as I go, by the way. And what he means by this is that no matter how deep you have gone into this kind of meditation, even to the point of forgetting where you are and who you are, you are still conscious, still thinking about things in the wrong way. Just enjoying yourself in a deep state of concentration does not by itself fix that. Because you see, well, let me ask you this. When the young man hears this song, is he having a perception of the correct type or not? Accurate or not? Which time are we talking about? I asked. Doesn't matter, said Katrin. Well, then I'd say no. I mean, after all, he makes such a big mistake about it both times. So what he's hearing is not a song, right? demanded Katrin. Well, yes, it's a song, I said. And he perceived it as a song? He did, I said, getting a little confused. So he was having an accurate perception of a song, suggested Katrin. I, well, I suppose so, I said. So he wasn't mistaken then. It always throws me off balance when Katrin proves me wrong on both sides of a question. Well, he was mistaken, but really all he was mistaken about was where the song was coming from. So we can say he was mistaken about the song being sung, but not about the song. I shook my head and smiled. I could see the problems this would lead to. Kacin nodded. Enough, he said, you get the point. It's the same with every quote correct perception that a normal person has even as their mind is constantly turning things around. People see what they see and that's correct but they think so wrong about where it's coming from that we have to say in the end that they are mistaken. Do you follow? This by the way is the idea that even direct perceptions right Janice we were talking about it in the end they're all wrong because they misunderstand the thing. But here's, we're exploring that. I nodded, but I knew I had to think more about it. It did, however, already explain to me how we could go around all day thinking we were seeing things correctly, but still be wrong every single moment. Now back to this meditation, then said Kacchan. When you finally do get enough practice learning to meditate, that you can go into one of these deep levels, well, then you have to remember your main job. You have to turn this great concentration, this tool, upon yourself and discover how you really are. You have to stop seeing things the wrong way, starting with yourself. And if you don't do this, if you just hang out there in the feeling of meditation, well, then you're going to get a rude shock. Sorry, hang on. Just like the young man did, Katrin's hand moved to cover the small book. in its cloth. Small book means sutra in this novel. And every time the teacher starts to wrap it up again, it means the end of the class. Tomorrow I asked, and he just gave me a glare, that glare that says no more pouting in my class. Okay, last part, March 16th, we have 10 minutes more. The young man just got a whack on the head, Kachin began today. People who get lost in the feeling of meditation stay well, he glared down at me with those steel eyes as if to pick up from the day before. Do you believe in future lifetimes, he suddenly asked. I mean, you know, do you think a person goes on somewhere else after they die? And by the way, this might be a nice way to introduce the idea as part of a novel. It was an odd question to ask someone in Tibetan or India, since of course we already believe that we have all lived before, countless times in countless forms, and that we will go on to other forms as well afterwards. I gazed up at him quizzically. Oh, I'm not asking what your parents told you or what everybody says. I want to know what you think. What do you really think? Forget what you've heard from other people. I stopped and thought for a moment. Suddenly I could see the Lord of Death on the cliff at the rim, throwing the corpse down on rock. This is some vision she had. "It's hard sometimes to think of what continues on," I began honestly. "I mean, so much of the person dies with their body, their face, which is so much of how we think of them, everything about how they moved and spoke. If anything does go on, I suppose, I guess it could only be the mind. But how it does go with nothing left of the body to support it, I don't really know. Kadrin nodded. That's an honest answer. And the question in general is so big that I don't think we can cover it in detail at this point. So just think a little about this one thing. Suppose a mouse gets into your room late one night and starts running around banging on everything in that very quiet way of theirs. And if you've done a three-year retreat, you know about this. Kadren looked exasperated and I could appreciate it. You put yourself through a lot of trouble leaving the town and going out to nowhere to be a hermit because you need the silence for your contemplation. And then suddenly here's this little one little one inch annoyance that can ruin it all single-handedly. So what do you do about it? He asked. Well there's no good chasing them around because they're impossible to catch that way, I said. So you set up a box trap and go back to bed and hope it catches them in a day or two. A box trap is what we use for mice. By the way, this is a real trap that a Mongolian guy taught me to make and you can do it with three sticks and it catches them alive. It's a wooden box on a board held up with a couple of sticks in a special way. The mice trip the stick and then you carry the box out a long ways away and you set them free. Every creature values its life equally. I think we all sense that when we kill even the smallest thing. But in the meantime, no sleep, grumbled Katrin. Then he leaned over at me with the glare. Is that all? Oh, the hole, I said. You have to find the hole. Otherwise, added Katrin, you know that... Hang on, I gotta fix this. You know that inevitably, sooner or later, beyond any shadow of a doubt, another little mouse is going to find that hole and ruin another night's sleep. And even the laziest man or woman in the world will get up the next morning and crawl around on their hands and knees to find the hole, to block it up. He paused, so I'd have to wonder about what mice had to do with coming back again after you die. You tell me, he said finally. It came to me. It's very simple, I said. if something can happen once it's bound to happen again especially if there's all the time there is for it to happen again concluded my teacher you'd be a fool not to worry about the possibility not to look for the mouth hole okay that's the end of that day okay i got six minutes i can do it uh march 17th there's a reason why i brought this up this future life thing started katchen it has to do with where you go afterwards he sighed and looked down at me now i'm not stupid and i'm not old-fashioned really and i realize that most people especially if they're healthy or young don't give the least thought about the most obvious thing in the world that we all die sooner or later and that any normal intelligent person should be concerned about it and about what might happen to them later, if anything, he sighed again. Suffice to say, he said then, that the best option is, of course, to put the entire contents of this small book we're studying into immediate sincere practice in your day-to-day life. This gives you a very real chance of becoming a true angel who is beyond all death and suffering, and who has the ability to go to countless other living beings in countless planets to help them to do the same. And I think it's important to say that every person alive at this very moment on this whole planet senses that this is something which they can become, that it is in fact our destiny to become such an angel, each one of us. But if we don't make it in this life well, then the ancient books and wise people who can see these things, and by the way, anyone who reaches the third path does see them, They say that we must come back again to one of the three different realms. The lowest one is called the realm of desire and this is the one we live in here. Its name comes from the fact that most people here consume their entire lifetimes in the pursuit of basic attachments like food and sex. The highest of the three is called the formless realm. People who are born there live only in their minds without a gross physical body. In between these two is the realm of form. It is so-called because the beings who live there have incredibly exquisite bodies, the best form you can take, and are also surrounded by lovely gardens and great cities. Now after you die there's only one way your mind can go on to this realm of form. You have to have spent a lot of your time all through your life wrapped up in a sort of pleasant daydream meditation, like the kind that the master has just spoken about. And that's why he says, you see, they lead to that of form, Rupanugamag, in the verse, meaning the realm of form. And that's why he says further, these meditations are still the type done consciously. And you'll always remember, of course, that what this means here, what this means here, is not that you should try to be unconscious, only that your mind inside these meditations is still in a corner of your consciousness, still making the same old mistake, thinking that the young maiden is singing a song. Katrin stopped there and let me digest it for a while. And then he said, I'm sure, hang on, I'm sure you know about how good things come to you because you have been kind to others and how bad things can only come to you if you have been unkind to them. And of course the master will talk about this detail later on. But it brings up a question, you see, and I'd like you to tell me what you think. First of all, if losing yourself in the simple sensation of meditation is so bad, then how can it lead you after you die to a place as wonderful as the realm of form? And secondly, if it can get you there, then why not indulge yourself in this kind of meditation. Katrin glanced down at me for an answer. And when I had taken two seconds to clear my throat to answer them, of course he interrupted me with, "I'll give you a clue." On that night he's in the alley, listening to the big lady's song. The young man doesn't get into a fist fight at his favorite bar. "Well, he doesn't have any chance to," I said. "He's busy with the song and all that." Ah, just so, exclaimed Katrin, which explains, you see, why people who spend a lot of their time engrossed in the pleasant sensation of meditation go to the realm of form afterwards. I considered this. I still don't get it, I said. It's not like they are out being kind to other people all that time. Oh, not at all, continued Katrin, but that's not the point, you see. Most of us pass the entire day in constant little attacks of annoyance, with constant negative gossip about others, gossip that we hardly even notice, and with constant critical and judgmental thoughts of others. These are all a kind of low-level ongoing negativity that floods our minds and stays in them, dragging us back to the realm of desire after we die. But those other people you see, they've just been quiet the whole day. You can't hit someone or lie to somebody if you spend your your whole day in meditation and you certainly can't even think something bad about somebody either because then you'd pop right out of your meditation which i'm sure you've noticed he i nodded he was completely right and so unlike the rest of us people wrapped up like this go to the realm of form hang on fixing things as i go realm of form after they die which still doesn't explain why the master seems to think that that's such a bad thing. I had an idea and opened my mouth. Kantran jumped in anyway. Now suppose you're on a long, lonely journey. You guys have to stare with me five more minutes. And all you have to eat is a bag of kapse pastries, which by the way is a Tibetan churro. And you have another bag of some old dried cheese, which is called churro that you're tired of already anyway. I smiled and thought of my journey to Khadrin. And then the pain of losing long life, which is her dog, carefully avoided so far, hit me full. Khadrin looked down at me thoughtfully and went on quietly. You'd probably eat all the pastries in first day or two and then you'd be stuck with nothing but the dried cheese for a very long time. It's the same with the realm of form and thus the master's warning. Not only do these meditations fail to solve our real problem because they fail to stop the mind from turning things around the wrong way, they also create dangerous short-term good seeds. Oops, where did that go? Good seeds in in our minds. These seeds take us to the realm of form after we die. And then every day we spend there, we use up incredible amounts of these good seeds and just enjoying ourselves. It's like eating up all the pastries. And then when they run out, we die again, except that now all we have left is whatever negative seeds we had to begin with, the dried cheese. These then send us back to the desire realm, to the lowest part of that realm, to the lands of hell. Katrin glanced at me, which none of you believe in anyway, and so better not to profane the truth of their existence by describing them to you. He reached down and covered the book and gazed unflinchingly out the window. And then he turned back and said, you don't want to go there. Okay. So if you take this question, maybe you can read that little thing, that little part of that novel. And it would help you to present this. I mean, yeah, I don't expect you to read it like I read it. But I think an important point I want you guys to think about is, okay, give me an answer. Did the young man hear a song? yes yes uh was he right about this song he was right about the song but he was wrong about where it comes from he was wrong about a singing song yeah exactly both answers are perfect so so i think this image i think this story is better than other ways i've explained this in the past You know, I like it because Katrin challenges Friday and says, did he, was he right? You know, and she says, well, what do you mean? And Katrin says, did the young man hear a song? And you have to say, yeah. And how did he hear the song? Four different levels of meditation, vitaka, vichara, etc. Okay. He noted it. Ananda. sorry, he pittarka, he noted the song, he vichara, he got into the song, he ananda, he got swept away by the song, and then asmitah, he got lost, totally lost in the song, lost himself in the song. So he went through the four stages of typical good meditation practice, good axe sharpening. He went through the four meditation levels correctly, and he did hear a beautiful song, and that's correct, but it wasn't the song he thought it was, right? And because of that, he got a punch in the face, and somewhere in there is all the truth about these topics. Okay, you guys? Yeah, that was great. Okay, now I left one more question. I'll do next time okay and it's going to explain the idea of well actually i'll do it real fast okay question 10 is about uh why does master patanjali talk about these meditations lead you to the realm of form which in sanskrit is rupa which means form anugama which means they take you to the realm of form. Then I have a picture of a man overeating. Do you guys got that picture? Yeah that's Desire Realm. You can read it in the flowchart. I'll send you guys, Connie I'm going to send you a new flowchart because I fixed it as I was going. In the next slide here is the form realm and this lady is supposed to be Wonder Woman. It's not legal to show pictures of Wonder Woman. So this is from a one, two, three RF, and she's got a Wonder Woman costume on or similar. And that's the form realm. And then the next picture is supposed to be the formless realm. And then the meditation, the Homer question talks about the dangers of going to these realms without figuring out how the mind turns things around. Okay, I got to go to my cafe and figure out something out. So I'll see you guys at the gauntlet on Thursday. Geshla, do we have just one moment? Oh, yeah, we have an important thing to do. I'm sorry, you go ahead. Yeah, we just have a big thank you to give to Stanley and Allison and all of our friends at GSP because they just gave us a donation of, Stanley and Allison, correct me if I'm wrong, $18,000 for YSI. So we just want to take a picture of all of us together so we could send it where we're all just waving and maybe saying thank you. So we need Jack can we put a view on where we can take a snapshot view? Yeah of everybody so we need everybody's videos on. Okay. everyone fix your messy hair. I don't have a problem. Maybe mine can still be the one that says thank you. Conela is from some of our CSP students. Yes, from them. Right. That's why I say. nice lydia it's your birthday happy birthday lydia Happy birthday, Luria. Thank you, everybody. So I'm going to do a screenshot and then when we're ready, I'm going to say one, two, three smile. Ready? Oh wait. One, two, three, cheese. Jesus Jesus Jesus Thanks everyone Okay See you next time Thank you for teaching us Thank you Awesome Thank you Great story I like to listen to the audio book I hope my kids are bad. Okay, bye. Bye. Bye. Thanks, Stanley and Allison. You guys are awesome. Yeah. So we just have just to announce that Tim and Uta will have to go first this Thursday's gauntlet, followed by whomever chooses which episode for series four. And Jack already put up in the Google Drive a document where you can put your name in. First come, first serve, except for episode six, which has already been taken by Geshe Michael Roach. Okay? Okay. Should we catch up with the one that we didn't do that we should do? Should have them. Sorry? Sorry, I didn't catch that? Stanley and Allison, did they not go? Oh, yes. And sorry, yes, Stanley and Alison. Yes. So it'll be Stanley and Alison first, then Lydia is already gone. She's gone for her gauntlet. So it'll be Stanley and Alison, then Tim and Uta. And what has number one? has number one. Now what we decided to do is try to, we're going to make, we're just going to cut people off at three minutes with their feedback to make sure that we can consistently get through at least five people in a gauntlet. Okay. So we're just, don't, don't feel upset at all. If, if we're cut off and we just go on to the next person, it's just that we've got to be able to keep it all on track it's hard for people who come prepared and then they don't get to present so that's what we're going to do uh what else anything else jack to let it go oh yes please by uh wednesday at 5 p.m have your credential slide filled out and and any Sanskrit you need to put it in there what you want and then we'll send it to Christina and Christina will actually do the checking of the Sanskrit so if you're going to say some Sanskrit or use Sanskrit in your slides put it there and Christina can check it for us and Email Connie CC Christina. Yeah, email Connie CC Christina. Very nice. Or it can be put up right in Google Drive. Or is that too different? Yeah, we can do Google Slides. Anybody, everybody want to give a show of hands if you'd just rather do it all in Google Slides? Would that be easier? Do you want to just say yes or no? I don't know what Google Slides is. Oh, okay. So maybe we have to give a lesson in doing it. I hate to be the one to have to admit that. It's like a Google doc, except we'll all be able to update the PowerPoint live because instead of a PowerPoint, it'll be a Google slides. And I think that'll be easier for Connie and everyone else. So what we'll do is I'll put it in the Google drive and you can add to it directly at any time. Okay. Okay. You probably will have to do a training session. I couldn't even load my something to Stanley. Okay. I'm kind of not tech at all. Sorry, guys. Whichever you guys, Jacqueline and Connie, whichever you say, that's what we do. For now, let's leave it for now and just send them my email to me and CC Christina Kassica. Okay? Locally, doubly. Dina, can you put your email in the WhatsApp group for everybody? Thank you. Okay, that's wonderful. So first come, first serve on those awesome questions from today. And that's it, except for if Lydia and Word want to stay on afterwards. Yeah, because we have a further meeting. So thank you, everyone. Thank you, Connie and Jacqueline for all the amazing work you do. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for putting up with my tech problems. Thanks for helping me out so much this week. Thank you, guys. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Connie and Jacqueline.