AL01 Teacher Summary for Reference only

DCIG Live Q&A 090121 Summary

1. I would really wish to transform my  family’s business  from food processing industry (involving killing) to Act of kindness , and hope it will succeed and earn enough money , so it won’t cut or affect the expenditure of the four families! what should I do? What kind of seeds do I need to plant?

(show the menu of an old café) Actually GMR bought a café name Crickets, which he changed to Peach Tree. The previous menu involved – dead cow, dead fish..
The solution he had – if he changed the menu in one day, and started serving vegetarian food, the café would close. The intention of the café is to help the community – the people are older, to let them come together, and brighten up their day.

The cowboys would come to town, and they invented the hamburgers.

After we close the café every day, we will have a special filming – Peach tree Tv show, which we would show it once a week. My team would help me to run the show. We would take something unhealthy like the hamburger, we will show you how to make it more healthy, slowly, not in one day,. You are not going to change people’s habits in one day – they grow up eating what they eat, their parents feed them, it’s hard to change, therefore we must slow down. Every 6 months, we would make one small change in people’s eating habits. Slowly we want to make them vegetarian. If you want to serve meat and alcohol to a person to your café. Then slowly, you change their eating habits – you are helping the community and the people. This is how we are taking care of it. We try to slowly change people’s habits.

GMR asked his teacher who wanted him to join the diamond biz. He came back after a few days and wanted to quit. Because the people were dishonest. Eventually he stayed there and changed them slowly. Took about 15 years to change, but he did it.

You can change people’s habits – don’t have to close the restaurant, do it slowly, bit by bit.

2. If the first truth is correct, everythings will end because is begin. So problem also will end because problems start show up in our life, then we hide from problem or solve problem, and problem finally gone? But we also learn that if we not fix problem it’s will be back again and become more serious? How should I understand about this conflict and how to apply it into my life to turn problem into masterpieces?

Everything that starts will eventually fall apart. This is the reality we all share and in science this is known as entropy. And because if the Einstein is right, then the problems should also end by itself even if we don’t do anything right? This is correct in theory.
The issue here is while we are having problems, we are also planting bad seeds at the same time. Eg. We may run away from problems or procrastinate in dealing with it. In addition to that, we are most likely to do the opposite to do what is helpful in the problems.
Eg, when we are having a hard time financially, as business owners, we may delay payments. And we are more likely to be less concerned about others’ well being.
These are the seeds that will perpetuate.
The real challenge when we are dealing problems is to REMEMBER HOW THE WORLD WORKS. And also TO GO AGAINST OUR COMMON SENSE & INSTINCT.
Eg. I don’t have money for myself. How am I supposed to help others? And also to reach out to those struggling and need help.
No matter what, also be sure to remember what MASTERPIECE DO U WANT TO CREATE. And also, do your 4 steps.
Hope this gives you some insights.

3. If we say not a single problem does not come from seeds, when we hear or see news about natural disasters, war, is it correct to say it comes from everybody seeds? And how can we transform this problem into a masterpiece?

Normally we feel that our environment is outside of us and we don’t think that they are coming from something that we did in the past. However, just like this pen it is coming from our mental seeds that we have planted in the past. And so it is true, we have planted seeds to cause our environment including the natural disaster or the good environment.

If we come to your second part of your question, how we can transform this huge problem into something as a masterpiece. I want to share a story. This is recently a movie that I watched. It’s about the rural place in South Africa. As you know people in South Africa are suffering from drought – lack of rain. So in this one year, there is severe drought with little rain, the farmers locally cannot grow their plants then they couldn’t sell their harvest. Then they did not have income, therefore no food for survival. The whole village was suffering. However, there was this young boy, who was very fascinated with physics. He read a lot of books and then one day he realized they could harvest the (energy from) wind and pull water from deep down from the earth. In this way, they could water their plants. He worked really hard, he borrowed his sister’s boyfriend’s bicycle – used the bicycle to build the wind harvesting machine. Initially people did not believe him, but he worked really hard and spoke to many people. In the end, he built this machine and helped the whole village to get water to water their plants. In the future, they never suffer from drought. I think we should provide a round of applause.

This is how we can transform problems into masterpieces – with the right skills, right attitude and then create it into a masterpiece. Sounds familiar? It is the structure of Advanced Level 1. Hope we can use the lifetools in Adv Lvl 1 to turn problems into masterpieces.

4. Hello, wise teacher ! The problem that particularly bothers me now is: I am in debt now, and often feel that lack of inner strength. I believe this will not be a problem once I have that inner strength, which I  don’t often have .  I know that my debt is meant to teach me something, to help me grow and change. But my body will be off balance if i try to work too much,  and feel guilty if not.  Beside, I keep receiving complaints from my family if i work too hard.  
   so I don’t know what seeds shall i  work on now? healthy? wealth? relationship? Thanks for the teacher’s advice.

I’ve a debt in my life and I know this problem about 15years ago.

When we talk about problems like that….

I keep talking about this problem in my house. Sometimes I wake up and walk to the kitchen to find snacks, many times I kept stepping on water on the floor.

I dunno… for  a month, I will get a sponge, clean the floor and at the back of my mind, I know there must be a problem in the plumbing under the sink.

But I am lazy and didn’t look into the problems. I put the shopping bags under the sink and refused and avoided looking under the sink without opening the door. Because I know it will be stinky. Finally my laziness overcame my laziness.

I looked through the grocery bags under the sink, and looked under the sink.

I found the plumber and he fixed the source.

I had a debt problem. I was helping to pay the food expenses for 35 people which is about $1.5million USD. I promised them to pay for their expenses if they do the retreat.

Working more hours, getting 2nd job is akin to cleaning the puddle of water. It doesn’t fix the source. It doesn’t change the source of the problems. Instead of working longer hours, getting 2nd job etc. I went to the cause of the debts. I realized the cause of the debts is to help people who doesn’t need the money. Maybe I can help others to get rid of their debts. It doesn’t cost me anything. It helps me to fix the leaking issues under the sink.

Work steadily at your job, pay your debt responsibly. I don’t agree with bankruptcy even if it take s a long time. Pay the Debt.

If you really want, find someone with debt and help them to clear the debt.

In America, there is a party that helps people to cut up their credit cards. Those people are so happy that they are not making new debts and living within their means.

Since I fix the plumbing under the sink…..

I was in the diamond business and I made a lot of money at that time. I was just helping people to make money. It works using 4 steps.

So If you are working on debts, help others.

Then you are able to support many other charities and it will be so much fun!

Good luck on your debt.

5. Death is a big issue that everyone will encounter, however there are people facing death issue everyday because due to their job, and therefore become helpless and sorrow.
   How could we transform the attitude toward death, into a masterpiece?

Death is part of life. For this issue, many of us can relate to. However, like everything else, it is empty. There are people who perceived it more positively – a sense of relief or like the end of a project but for most of us, we see it as a loss of hope. Hope is why we get up in the morning that’s why we feel sad.

I think it’s really brave of you to ask this question for yourself or for the person you are asking for as you don’t feel numb or indifferent as this is part of your job.

Just like death itself, experiencing death around you  itself, can be interpreted as a powerful motivator. In DC L11, when we teach time management, we introduced the practice of death (toothbrush) meditation. In this practice, it is very brief – every morning when we are brushing our teeth, look in the mirror at ourselves and ask honestly is it possible today is the last day of my life. Doing so, isn’t meant for us to feel scared or sad, but rather we will help us set priorities and also,  how we treat people differently as well. So this is one way we can take this problem and see what we can get out of it.

With a personal example, a few years ago, I lost 2 dear family members within a short period of time, like 5-6months. One of them passed away in an accident, the other one was diagnosed with terminal disease. Even though before these happened, I already started my journey of DCI learning. It was until the moment when death all off a sudden came into life that I became serious about my practice. When I did the Tongleng meditation, I did it so wholeheartedly, I wanted to take away the pain so much, I even had to take it out of myself. After they were gone all of a sudden, I was about to grasp the first of the three principal paths as there  was so much pain and struggle that so wanted to get out of it. In addition, I also develop more empathy for people who have similar experiences.

For now when I looked back, it was because of their death, because they were gone, I am able to be here today. I deepened my study because of that. Even though I still feel sad when I think about it, but now they have a different meaning. So I think this is a great reminder for all of us – we can do something while we can. So let’s take it as a reminder to work hard let’s take our problems and those of others, into masterpieces.

6. We always say “good seeds never expire”, what about bad seeds? But Whenever a good seed has ripen, we need to reinvest  and to plant a good seed again. Does it conflict with “good seeds never expire”? Thank you for your answer.

Yes we do want bad seeds to have an expiration date. We just want to wait and let bad seeds cancel by itself. However we know every seed will bring a result with the right condition. So, when we say “good seeds never expire” before they bring you a result, they will never expire. Which means before they open up, they ALWAYS HAVE THE POTENTIAL to open up. This is what we mean by “they never expire”.

It’s like our bank account, if we don’t spend money, the money will be there. If we spend $1, the money will be gone. Same as our mental seeds.

We try our best. This is a very good indication for all of us. Each kindness we provide for someone else, will be collected as a mental seed and they will always be there before they open up.

I want to share a story. Unfortunately it is about a small bad seed but I hope it helps everyone.

As you know, I plated my partner and he’s a nice guy. Suddenly one day he started to say NO to me. I suggested we go out to do sports but he said ‘no’. and many similar incidences happened.

I was thinking ‘he’s such a nice guy’ so it must be coming from me. It must be something I planted. So I went back in time and think what have I done.

I went back to 10years ago. 10years ago, I said many no to my mum. So you see, the seeds never expire. And now 10years later, it comes back.

Im happy because I found the source of the problem. I listen to somebody else and appreciate other’s opinions. So now, my partner changed. He now comes to me to ask me for advice.

So this is the story I want to share. And please remember: all our good and negative actions we did to someone else, they will become a mental seed. They will not expire before they open.

Thank you.

7. We have experienced covid 19 for more than 2 years. What bad seed did human race plant in the past to cause this happen? What are seeds solution to solve it on top of the convention solution – vaccination?

How does the emptiness solution apply to this situation?

I thought about it a lot, obviously I’m in the same situation. Hey Jeann, the coffeeshop around here closed at 2pm. So If I cannot go to Singapore, Taipei or Shenzhen, I’m going crazy here. I’m used to travelling so much. Like everybody I thought a lot about this question, this has to do with the environment. This virus apparently jumped from animals to humans. I believe that it comes from the fact that we are hurting our environment. I was taking the garbage out in the black plastic bag, I was reminded of my experience. Recently, Veronica and I went to San Diego for Christmas. In evening, we thought of cooking food for family so we went to a grocery store, and we bought some things to cook food and the cashier asked

Cashier: Where’s your bag,? did you bring your cloth bag?

GMR: No.  I’m from a different place

Cashier: You are supposed to bring a cloth bag to a grocery store.

GMR: I didn’t know about this as I was from elsewhere. Can you give me a plastic bag,

Cashier: Yes I can. It is $1, we will charge you

I feel insulting – I go to the grocery store for 60+ years and I have never paid for a bag. And the guy looked at me like I’m a stupid person and he’s a young guy

Cashier: you know all these plastic bags, they take 100 of years for them to disintegrate. Every time we made a plastic bag, most of the time they end up in the ocean – killing the fish, and limit the oxygen – this then kill the ocean and planet.

He talked to me like a kid, like a stupid kid.

I don’t know about you, but I always have this feeling that somebody knows what’s going on. Someone knows about everything – in charge of govt, or scientist, someone knows everything. If the plastic bag is a problem, someone will make a law, but not me as I’m not a politician, I read ancient books. I always feel somebody out there who understand bout plastic bag and if they allow plastic bag in my country they plastic bag is okays. Suddenly you realized, that there is a nobody in the office – it is your responsibility you can’t wait for somebody to make a plastic bag law. It is obvious that if you have a brain. Plastic bags are killing the ocean.

We went to Bangkok, Thailand for lam rim. We went swimming and got out of the water immediately.

Friend asked: Why?

GMR: There are many jellyfish everywhere. I’m afraid that I would get sting.

My friend laughed!

Friend: These are plastic bags from America. Went across from pacific ocean to Thailand, now they are in our beach.

I’m surprised.

Each of us have to take a step that we know are correct. We cannot wait for govt to tell us it is bad, govt to tell us driving car every time is bad – someone to tell us that south Africa is suffering from drought. You don’t need someone to tell you, look for it In the internet or on newspaper. We are not stupid. We can see people are starving. We can see that bags are problems. We can see that one automobile is unfair to others in the world.

We take responsibilities ourselves to try not to make the planet dirty and unclean which hurt all the other creatures in this world – hundred billions in this world, and what we are doing are hurting them. What it seems to me is that this is karma that the disease jumped from the animal to us. I do believe that about temporary measures like vaccination, wearing mask, social distancing. V and I got the vaccination and booster. Many people around me are sick, and one men died in his home, didn’t find him for 10 days who refused to get the vaccination. I don’t agree with that, I believe in science and scientific principals. They are not the principals of karma, but they are not contradicting. If the motivation is good, they we should wear a mask, not expose to other people.

I think is our responsibility to think about our people, and how we might affect the people.

It is not contradictory to drive your car less, to buy a cloth bag, wear a mask, then the mask will work, vaccination will work.

Until we agree to not ruin the earth for animals and other people, we will continue to have this kind of people.