Questions that every audience should ask, having spoken about mental seeds and the need to be kind

of others, certain questions should come up. Q: Why not use the word karma instead of seeds? A: People often ask this in Asia. Seed has the connotation of potential, whereas karma implies different things to different people. You need to separate the word from the baggage that is associated with it. In our training we want set up a series of courses two every year. Khen Rinpoche taught random texts for 25-30 years, some of them on and on for years. ACI was set up to have a distinct beginning and end, and to make it possible for people to learn something and finish. The idea is to work with them for several years in order to really help them. So not to have random people coming and teaching for a weekend and leaving you have to start from the beginning and work up. Teaching in Shanghai, Berlin, Taipei, Rio, Mexico City, for example. Someone could come and pave the way, but then to go through the series. The point of teaching people around the world is that they could plant a seed in their mind and get any result they want. For example in the retreats, by the end, they were talking only in terms of seeds. New ideas need new language. Our goal is to help people succeed, and by the end of the first five days, they should be thinking that they need to create their own karma. Q: If money comes from generosity, then why do I see stingy people making money? A: It's in the bible too why do the wicked prosper? Bad people haven't always been bad. It's the same as planting a seed in the ground. There's a time gap. Arya Nagarjuna addressed this point and said the reason for all our suffering If you step on a cockroach, and your own ribs break, then you would stop doing it right away. You have to get good at overcoming their objections for their own good. Here you have to use trang dun, and not teach at the highest level, but more at a level that they would understand, so you have to adjust the presentation. You don't say they were generous in their past life, but rather emphasize the time gap you can be generous now but it will take time to ripen. The four laws of karma: 1) you can't get a bad result from a good action. JC said the same thing you can't get figs from thistles. 2) seeds expand: an oak tree comes from an acorn; your body comes from one sperm and one egg. Things get bigger in the mind also for example the federal beaurocracy. It was just an idea in Jefferson and Franklin's heads, and they had debates, and they decided to have a republic. Now it's huge. You have to impress people that a small act of generosity early in your life can result in a million dollars later. But the time gap is theoretical, and not so effective with people. The most effective answer is that the more you understand the process, the better it works. If you know what you are doing and do it consciously, you won't be so successful. Then people are clamoring to learn the secret from you about seeds and how to nurture them. Important to debrief so the group improves in their presentations.

Q: How do you plant a seed for finding your passion? How do you get to be more creative? A: If you use karma, to find passion, you have to help other people to find what they want to do. That's one aspect of it. We all need to be dream weavers for other people. We need to find our kham, our own special thing that we have the karma to do and that we love to do. If you think back to the thing that you loved to do as a child, it's probably one of your khams. You don't have to force it, it will come to you. GMR likes Apple because they are innovative, and people need to be able to know what they will want to do. At work he would try to find what people at Andin wanted to do in life and what they would be good at. So first you need to take an interest in them, before you even start to help them with their passion. Then help them achieve their dreams. Then you won't have to stress about your own passion coming, because it will automatically come from that seed. If you plant the seed, you don't have to stress in your life. Just help others and then relax. And it also feels better it's more fun to help others, so you can't lose. Q: Why do generous people sometimes seem not to make money? A: Jamie talked about the time gap you don't wait for a watermelon to grow and it's the same with a mental seed. It's not so easy as just hearing about seeds and then writing a check to some charity or give it to someone. That way a seed is planted, but it's not too strong. It has to be done with wisdom you have to understand emptiness and seeds, and how to plant them and how they ripen. Also you need to identify a business partner, and continue to help them, and every time you do it it will plant a seed. Also It goes along with training your mind you can't be generous sometimes and then be angry the rest of the time. If so, your seeds won't be strong. If you understand the emptiness of the action, you will be able to make it stronger. Let them know the truth it has to be a sustained effort. It can't be a one-time shot: it has to be a way of life. If you want money, you need a business partner. If you want a companion, you need to care for the lonely as a way of life. There's always a balance in showmanship you have to promise possibly fast results, but also warn them it may take time. You have to show the positive, and get them excited. As a salesman, you don't say negative things say that if you understand it, it will happen really fast. But get them to understand you don't succeed in a period of a week or so, but balance it with excitement. Generosity has to become a way of life, in small and big actions. You don't have to give away a million dollars if someone comes to the house, offer them a cup of tea and listen to what they have to say. You can't just have flashy tours you also have to get your hands dirty by helping people in prison, immigrants, etc. There's a big need in Phoenix, and so you have more people to serve, and bring the two cultures together. Q: How does one find time to run a business and also help others to build theirs?

(If you really answer from the heart, it outweighs philosophy.) A: Suppose you have many responsibilities, but you also have a lot of skills that you could share. If you don't have much time, you can do a little, and if you don't have money, just give a little. First find someone who needs your help and spend a little time with them and ask them what their problems. Then something may happen all the time you took to solve your own problems goes away - the problems just disappear because you helped someone else. And then dedicate it and you will find your own time starts to loosen up. It will be almost easy to succeed, and there will be more time to give to other people. If you have trouble with finding time to be with your family, etc. how do you plant a seed for more time? Don't waste other peoples time with useless chatter, cutting people off and making it harder for them to get where they're going, etc. Many people say they don't have any time at all or that they can't relax. Life is rushing by with pressure from work, government, family, etc. Time is maybe the most important problem that people have all over. But if you give away a little of your time, you will find more time. The theme of DCI is don't just teach people but help them to implement the practice. You want to leave them with something they can do after you leave, as well as systems to help them implement them. If you want to help society, take it out of the religious context but don't abandon it. Q: Do you have to be Buddhist to practice these principals? A: You don't have to be, just like you don't have to believe in gravity for it to work. There are other systems that say things like do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Wherever you live in the world, if you let go of something it will fall towards the earth, and if you give you will receive. But if you try it, you will see that it works. GMR says he didn't know anything about business and made a $200 million company it's really helpful if you get up and use yourself as an example, but don't do it if you aren't practicing it yourself. In different countries it's more important, for example maybe in Detroit. There might be some concern that we are trying to convert them or that they will have to have a picture of a 6-headed blue deity. People in an audience are like dogs Ani Pelma wanted to name her dog Kitza and GMR called him Pancho Villa. He knew who wasn't cooperating, and would either pee on you or bite you. You can't lie to a dog they sense it and you can't fake it. In the end, the most important item on the application form is whether you have been putting these principals into effect and trying on a daily basis to follow them: meditation, doing yoga, and serving others. So the bottom line is that you have to do it yourself, and the best way to prepare is to do your practice.