The Diamond Cutter
※writer: Geshe Michael Roach (Author)
Michael Roach is a fully ordained Buddhist monk who received his geshe (Master of Buddhism) degree from Sera Mey Tibetan Monastery after twenty-two years of study. A teacher of Buddhism since 1981, he is also a scholar of Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Russian, and has translated numerous works. Geshe Michael received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and worked in New York City as a director of a large diamond firm for many years. He founded and directs the Asian Classics Institute and the Asian Classics Input Project, and has been active in the restoration of Sera Mey Monastery. He lives in New York City.
The now classic work on Buddhism and business from the foremost American teacher of Tibetan Buddhism—reissued in a tenth anniversary edition with compelling case studies that showcase its principles in action around the globe.
With a unique combination of ancient and contemporary wisdom from Tibetan Buddhism, The Diamond Cutter presents readers with empowering strategies for success in their personal and professional lives. The book is presented in three layers. The first is a translation of The Diamond Sutra, an ancient text of conversations between the Buddha and his close disciple, Subhuti. The second contains quotes from some of the best commentaries in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. And the third layer, the main text, is the practical application of Buddhist philosophies to the world of business, based upon Geshe Michael Roachs seventeen-years of experience as an employee of the Andin International Diamond Corporation, a company that grew during his tenure from four employees to a world leader in the jewelry industry.
Roach’s easy style and spiritual understanding make The Diamond Cutter an invaluable source of timeless wisdom for those familiar or unfamiliar with Tibetan Buddhism. His focus on practical personal and business applications has resonated with and changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals the world over since its original publication.
He has also received an honorary doctorate for lifetime achievement in the Congress of Mexico, in 2015. He is the founder of the Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP), which has digitally preserved thousands of ancient Asian books by training and equipping poor people in many countries to do input work during the past 33 years. More than 10,000 searchable manuscripts representing 25 centuries of ancient Asian philosophy are now available free, online, at ACIP’s website. ACIP was founded during Michael’s time at Princeton, with the help of the Hewlett Packard Foundation.
Michael is active in other causes. In 1993 he founded the Asian Classics Institute (ACI), which offers a 36-course program of study totaling 6,800 pages of translations for the traditional course material of a master of Tibetan Buddhism (Geshe). In 2003, after completing a 3-year silent retreat, he helped found Diamond Mountain Retreat Center, one of the largest centers of this kind in the world. In recent years he has helped found the Seeds for Peace program, which provides vocational training for refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East.
Michael helped found Andin International Diamond Corporation of New York, which reached US$250 million in sales and was sold to super-investor Warren Buffett in 2009.
In 2000, Michael wrote The Diamond Cutter, The Buddha on Managing Your Business & Your Life, which has become an international business bestseller, and tells the story of how he used ancient Asian principles for success. He is the author of over 30 other volumes, including the best-selling How Yoga Works.
In 2010, he founded the Diamond Cutter Management Training Institute (DCI), which provides management and personal success training to about 35,000 people each year, in more than 20 countries of the world. This was followed in 2016 by the founding of the Sedona College of International Management (SCIM), which trains DCI teachers for about 25 different countries. The college also houses the Mixed Nuts Translation Group, which annually produces about 1,000 pages of original translations of the ancient classics of Asian literature.
※Quotes:
1. I was to be a Buddhist sage on the inside, and a normal American businessman on the outside.
2. The first time I stepped into the diamond cutting shop it was something like Dante being led into the realms of hell by Virgil.
3. The metaphor is cherished by Buddhists — Can we be like the lotus? Can we swallow the pain and confusion of life, and thrive on it, and use it to become one of those rare jewels of the world — a truly compassionate person?
4. The Tibetan wise men make a joke that a diamond is the kind of thing that sooner or later will always be forced to go out looking for a new owner, after the previous owner gets old and dies. Diamonds are forever — but we’re not, it seems.
5. The value of the huge store of diamonds in the hands of the public at this moment — what we call the Overhang — is only a perception of value, of consumer confidence in the continued rarity of diamonds.
6. a good result cannot come from an unethical action, any more than a sweet fruit can come from the seeds for thistles or thorns
7. “empty” or neutral objects like a granite block.
8. The definition of a “mental affliction” in ancient Buddhist
is “any emotion which disturbs the peace of mind of the
person who is feeling it.” You might just call it a “bad thought.”
9.Our premise is that problems are created by seeds or imprints you
have planted in your mind in the past. Once these imprints have
reached a certain level of power, once they are going off or about to
go off and grow into a plant, it’s essentially too late to do much about
them.
10. Tsam in Tibetan means “border” or “dividing line,” and the word is
used to describe the art of getting away from your work every once in
a while—going off somewhere else and, in a sense, drawing a circle
around yourself where you can sit quietly and think for a bit.
11. There’s a famous verse from an ancient Indian Buddhist book that
says,
If a situation can be fixed,
Why get upset about it?
If a situation cannot be fixed,
What’s the use of getting upset?
1. I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid
※Goal One:Making the Money
※Reason for this book
1. During the seventeen years from 1981 to 1998, I had the honor of working with Ofer and Aya Azrielant, the owners of the Andin International Diamond Corporation, and the core staff of the company to build one of the world’s largest diamond and jewelry firms. The business was started with a $50,000 loan and only three or four employees, including myself.
2. By the time I left to devote full time to the training institute I had founded in New York, our sales were in excess of 100 million U.S. dollars per year, with over five hundred employees in offices around the world.
3. During his time in the diamond business, he led a double life. Seven years before joining the trade, he graduated from Princeton University with honors, having previously received the Presidential Scholar Medallion from the President of the United States at the White House, and the McConnell Scholarship Prize from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs.
4. A grant from this school allowed him to travel to Asia, for study with Tibetan Lamas at the seat of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Thus began his education in the ancient wisdom of Tibet, which culminated in 1995, when he became the first American to complete the twenty years of rigorous study and examinations required to earn the ancient degree of geshe , or master of Buddhist learning. He had lived in Buddhist monasteries both in the United States and Asia since graduating from Princeton, and in 1983 taken the vows of a Buddhist monk.
5. Once he had gained a firm foundation in the training of a Buddhist monk, his principal teacher — whose name is Khen Rinpoche, or “Precious Abbot” — encouraged him to enter the world of business. He told him that, although the monastery was an ideal place for learning the great ideas of Buddhist wisdom, a busy American office would provide the perfect “laboratory” for actually testing these ideals in real life.
6. He resisted for some time, hesitant to leave the quiet of their small monastery, and nervous about the image of American businessmen in his mind: greedy, ruthless, uncaring. But one day, after hearing his teacher give an especially inspiring talk to some university students, he told him he would agree to his instructions and seek a job in business.
7. Some years earlier he had had something of a vision at the monastery during my daily meditations, and he knew from that time what business he would choose to work in: It would surely involve diamonds. He had no knowledge of these gemstones, and frankly no attraction whatsoever to jewelry; neither had any of his family ever been involved in the trade. So, like the innocent Candide, he began visiting one diamond shop after another, asking if anyone would be willing to accept him as a trainee.
※Cutting Diamond
1. Trying to join the diamond business this way is a little like attempting to sign up for the Mafia: the raw diamond trade is a highly secretive and closed society, traditionally restricted to family members. In those days, the Belgians controlled the larger diamonds — those of a carat or more; the Israelis cut most of the smaller stones
※How to run the business
1. Hassidic Jews of New York’s Diamond District on Forty - seventh Street handled the majority of the domestic American wholesale trade.
Remember that the entire inventory of even the largest diamond houses can be contained in a few small containers that look a lot like ordinary shoe boxes. And there is no way to detect a theft of millions of dollars of diamonds: you just put a handful or two in your pocket and walk out the door — there is nothing like a metal detector that can spot the stones. And so most firms hire only sons or nephews or cousins, never an odd Irish boy who wants to play with diamonds.
2.As I remember, I visited some fifteen different shops, asking for an entry - level position, and was summarily thrown out of each of them. An old watchmaker in a nearby town advised me to try taking some courses in diamond grading at the Gemological Institute of America in New York; I’d be more likely to get work if I had a diploma, and might meet someone in the classes who could help me.
3.It was at the institute that I met Mr. Ofer Azrielant. He was also taking a class in grading very high - quality diamonds, known as “investment” or “certificate” stones. Distinguishing an extremely valuable certificate diamond from a fake or treated stone involves being able to spot tiny holes or other imperfections the size of a needle point, while dozens of dust motes land on the surface of the diamond, or on the lens of the microscope itself, to parade around and confuse things. So we were both there to learn how not to lose our shirts.
3.I was impressed immediately by Ofer’s questions to the teacher, by how he examined and challenged every concept presented. I determined to try to get him to help me find a job or even hire me himself, and so struck up an acquaintance. A few weeks later — the day I finished my final exams in diamond grading at the New York labs of the GIA — I made up an excuse to get into his office and ask him for a job.
4.By great good luck he was at that moment just opening a branch office in America, having already founded a small firm in Israel, his home. So I talk my way into his office and beg him to teach me the diamond business: “I’ll do anything you need, just give me a try. I’ll straighten up the office, wash the windows, whatever you say.”
5.And he says, “I don’t have any money to hire you! But tell you what, I’ll talk to the owner of this office — his name is Alex Rosenthal — and we’ll see if he and I can split your pay between us. Then you can do errands and things for us both.”
6.So I start as an errand boy, at seven dollars an hour, a Princeton graduate dragging through steamy New York summers and winter snowstorms on foot, uptown to the Diamond District, carrying nondescript canvas bags filled with gold and diamonds to be cast and set into rings. Ofer, his wife Aya, and a quiet, brilliant Yemeni jeweler named Alex Gal would sit around our single rented desk with me, sorting diamonds into grades, sketching new pieces, and calling around for customers.
7.Paychecks were few, often delayed while Ofer tried to talk his London friends into some more loans, but soon I had enough to buy my first business suit, which I wore every day for months. We often worked past midnight, and I would have a long trip back to my little room at a small monastery in the Asian Buddhist community of Howell, in New Jersey. In a few hours I would be up again and back on the bus to Manhattan.
8.After our business had grown a bit, we moved uptown closer to the jewelry district proper, and took the brave step of hiring a single jewelry craftsman.
9. He sat down with a parcel of loose diamonds and start sorting them into grades.
10. Ofer and Aya asked me if I would take responsibility for the newly formed diamond purchasing division (which at the time consisted of myself and one other person). I was excited at the opportunity, and plunged into the project.(never gave up for any opportunity)
※What’s the nutshell of success
1.The first principle is that the business should be successful: that it should make money. There is a belief prevalent in America and other Western countries that being successful, making money, is somehow wrong for people who are trying to lead a spiritual life. In Buddhism though it is not the money which is in itself wrong; in fact, a person with greater resources can do much more good in the world than one without. The question rather is how we make the money; whether we understand where it comes from and how to make it continue to come; and whether we keep a healthy attitude about the money .
The whole point then is to make money in a clean and honest way, to understand clearly where it comes from so it doesn’t stop, and to maintain a healthy view toward it while we have it. As long as we do these things, making money is completely consistent with a spiritual way of life; in fact, it becomes part of a spiritual way of life.
2.The second principle is that we should enjoy the money; that is, we should learn how to keep our minds and bodies in good health while we make the money. The activity of creating wealth should not exhaust us so much physically or mentally that we cannot enjoy the wealth. A business - person who ruins his health doing business is defeating the very purpose of business.
3.The third principle is that you should be able to look back at your business, at the end, and honestly say that your years of doing business have had some meaning. The end of every business enterprise we engage in, and in fact the end of our lives, must come to every person who ever does business. And at the most important part of the business — at the end, when we are looking back on all we have achieved — we should
※The Correlations, or Common Business Problems and Their Real Solutions
The Correlations, or Common Business Problems and Their Real Solutions
correlations between specific actions, their imprints, and what they make you see
how all of this noble - sounding stuff applies to real life. We can summarize them as follows:
• 1) generous:In order to see yourself do well in business and prosper financially, plant imprints for this in your subconscious by maintaining a generous state of mind.
• 2) happy:In order to see yourself in a world which is just generally a very happy place, plant imprints for this in your subconscious by maintaining a very ethical way of life.
• 3) healthy:In order to see yourself as physically healthy and attractive, plant imprints for this in your subconscious by refusing ever to get angry.
• 4)helpful: In order to see yourself as a leader in both your personal life and in business, plant imprints for this in your subconscious by taking joy in constructive and helpful actions.
• 5)calm meditation: In order to see yourself able to focus your mind steadily, plant imprints for this in your subconscious by practicing deep states of concentration, or meditation.
• 6) freely:In order to see yourself freed from a world where things don’t work the way you want them to, plant imprints for this in your subconscious by learning the principles of hidden potential and mental imprints.
• 7)compassion: In order to see yourself get all you ever wished for, and see others get all they ever wished for as well, plant imprints for this in your subconscious by cultivating an attitude of compassion toward others.
- Instincts
According to ancient Tibetan thinking, the “feelings” or “instincts” that successful businesspeople get that guide them through the dark forest of deals and markets is a direct flowering of a mental imprint — this then gives you some idea of what it feels like when a strong imprint comes up to the consciousness. These kinds of people are presented with a business problem and suddenly see, quite clearly, the right thing to do. No hesitation, no question in their minds.
People call them “brilliant” or “insightful” or “guys with the magic touch;” nothing’s more fun than to be one of these people — someone who rips up the market, a baseball player who consistently hits home runs and says that the ball looks as big to him as a watermelon just before he whacks it. But nothing’s more frustrating than to have been the guy with the right instincts and not feel them anymore — much worse than not having felt them in the first place.
※the book about diamond cutter
1. The Diamond Cutter is the oldest dated book in the world that was printed, rather than being written out by hand. The British Museum holds a copy that is dated A.D . 868, or about 600 years before the Gutenberg Bible was produced.
2. The Diamond Cutter is a written record of a teaching given by the Buddha over 2,500 years ago. In the beginning, it was passed down by word of mouth, and then — as writing first developed — it was inscribed onto long palm leaves.
3. These were durable fronds of palm on which the words of the book were first scratched, using a needle. Then charcoal dust was rubbed into the scratches left by the needle. Books that were made this way are still to be found in southern Asia, and remain quite legible.
The loose palm leaves would be kept together in one of two ways. Sometimes a hole would be bored with an awl through the middle of the stack of leaves, and a string passed through to keep the pages together.
9. The Diamond Cutter also spread to other great countries of Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia. Over the last twenty - five centuries it has been reprinted in the languages of these countries countless times, and its wisdom passed down in an unbroken lineage, from the lips of the teachers of each generation to the ears of the students of the next.
10. This all changed with the invention of the airplane, and in 1950 Tibet was invaded by Communist China.
11. During the invasion and subsequent occupation — which continues today — over five thousand libraries and monastic colleges holding these great books were destroyed; only a handful of the books were carried out by refugees making the dangerous journey on foot over the Himalayas near Mount Everest.
12. Imagine that the only books left are those that have been carried out in their hands by refugees, journeying on foot for the several weeks or months it would take to walk to Mexico.
The Input Project has trained Tibetan refugees in camps in India to type these endangered books onto computer disks; they are then organized on CD - ROM or the Web, and distributed without charge to thousands of scholars around the world. So far we have saved about 150,000 pages of wood - block manuscripts this way, going to the far corners of the world to locate the books that never made it out of Tibet.
Deep in a dusty collection of manuscripts in St. Petersburg, Russia, we were fortunate enough to find a copy of a wonderful explanation of The Diamond Cutter brought back to Russia by early explorers who visited Tibet. This commentary is called Sunlight on the Path to Freedom , and it was written by a great Tibetan Lama named Choney Drakpa Shedrup, who lived from 1675 to 1748. Coincidentally, this Lama comes from the Tibetan monastery where I completed my own studies: Sera Mey. His nickname, over the centuries, has been “Choney Lama,” or the “Lama from Choney,” an area in east Tibet.
10.Throughout this book we will be using the original words of The Diamond Cutter , along with the text of Sunlight on the Path to Freedom . This is the first time that this important explanation has ever been translated into English. Along with the selections from these two great works we will include explanations that have been passed down orally throughout the last twenty - five centuries, as I received them from my own Lamas. Then finally we will add actual incidents from my own life in the arcane world of the international diamond business
11.Therefore the market is “neutral,” or — in Buddhist terms — empty. It is neither good nor bad from its own side; it is only either of these in the perceptions of the particular diamond dealer, on this particular day. Whether the markets are kind to us or cruel to us seems — at the end of the day, or at the end of an extended business career in any kind of market — almost random. The truth though is that the market will appear kind, and the market will therefore be kind , to any dealer who has the right mental imprints coming up to his conscious mind at any given moment.
13.
※Diamond:
1. No light can see the miracle, just a hidden potential
If there were a wall of diamond several feet wide between you and another person, and if no light were reflecting from its surface, you couldn’t see the diamond at all .(to see through someone, we need the perfect tool to lead us closer to each other)
It is all around us, at all times; every object and person around us contains this potential.
2. Diamond is very unique
Diamond is significant in a second way. It is, very simply, the hardest thing in the universe. Nothing that exists can scratch a diamond, except another diamond: By one way of measuring hardness, called the Knoop scale, diamond is more than three times harder than the next hardest natural mineral — a ruby. And diamonds themselves can only scratch other diamonds when the diamond being scratched has a “soft” direction.
This in fact is how diamonds are “cut.” Although a diamond cannot be scratched, it can be “cleaved” or split along a plane like a piece of wood when it’s split by an ax. To cut a diamond, we take small leftover pieces from cutting another diamond — or else we take a piece of raw diamond stone which is not pure enough to make into a gemstone — and we split and crush the pieces into a powder.
3.They are reminders of the third important quality of diamonds. Every diamond is atomically quite simple: pure, unadulterated carbon.
The carbon in a pencil lead and the carbon in a diamond are, in fact, exactly the same substance.
The atoms of carbon in pencil lead have bonded together in loosely joined plates, like sheets of shale rock or the layers of a fine pastry.
The atoms of carbon in pencil lead have bonded together in loosely joined plates, like sheets of shale rock or the layers of a fine pastry. As you draw the tip of a pencil across a piece of paper, these layers sheer off in plates, spread across the surface of the paper.
1. a gift from nature
he problem is that fourteen - karat gold can be made a lot of different ways. In the karat system for gold (as opposed to the carat system for diamonds), twenty - four karat represents pure gold; this is much too soft to use in jewelry, and with normal wear a twenty - four - karat ring would just fall apart. So we mix in other metals that help make it harder.
If the mix is one quarter other metals, the ring becomes eighteen karat, and so on — the legal karatages in this country are eighteen, fourteen, and ten karat. The metal that you add to make the ring harder also determines what color it will end up: if you add nickel, the gold takes on a lighter yellow color. If you add copper, it takes on a burnished red color. Combinations result in other shades. Americans tend to like medium to lighter yellows; Asians generally prefer the deep gold colors; and many Europeans prefer an almost copper color.
5.professional job
no human hand unsupported is stable enough to keep a microscopic inclusion from jiggling around while you check the inside of the stone for carbon spots, sort of like locking yourself in a small closet with a microscope and looking for fleas while there’s an earthquake going on.
It takes me about half an hour to realize I’m not looking at inclusions in the stone, but rather the pores in the skin of my finger off on the other side of the stone. Holding up the degree gauge and the loupe and the dop with the stone, trying to keep my fingers from shaking, looking up at the light at the right angle, holding my breath and trying not to listen to the screech of the cutting wheels around me is a bit overwhelming.
6. perfect atomic angle, 40 and three quarters
And the angles must be perfect. Diamond has the highest degree of refraction of any naturally occurring substance in the universe which again is due to its perfect atomic structure. forty and three - quarters degrees, and hopefully not even half a degree more or less.
7.Team work
There’s a little commotion and I see Jorges, or rather Jorges’ rear end (he was a bit chubby), as he crawls around on his hands and knees with his nose to the floor. This, I later learned, is a common posture in the diamond business when someone drops a stone. At diamond grading school we weren’t allowed to go home until the errant stone was found
8. Honesty is the imprint to do thig job
back the cost of the stone, and you can be sure he would have paid it back — for this is the code of the cutters. Every man who set aside his own work to help look for the missing diamond was attending to someone in great need; if we stop and take care to help such a person, or else ignore their need, then the imprint (good or bad, respectively) is much stronger.
The next morning, by the way, the owner of the cutting shop got a call from the cutter in the office next door, down the hall. Had we lost a large stone? He had found it on the floor in his bookkeeper’s corner. This was my initiation into the absolute honesty of almost every single individual in the raw diamond trade — and I was deeply impressed. We figured out that the stone had ricocheted off the metal corner of the cutting bench, flown flat across the floor, dived under a tiny crack in the molding, made it through a gap under the wall, and emerged from a matching crack in the molding on the other side. Jorges, needless to say, was rather grateful.
14. useless gem for construction became a priceless gem for the economic market
Diamonds, flatly stated, are worth just about nothing. The ugly little deformed ones, brown and black pieces of boart or industrial diamonds no more fashionable than gravel, play a mighty role in the economy of the world.
10. diamond is the single best sharpening agent in the world.
For this reason, diamond used to be counted with the likes of uranium and plutonium as a strategic mineral, absolutely necessary for modern industry. The United States Government for many years stockpiled industrial diamonds in the event that a war or similar catastrophe would prevent the country from getting the supplies it needed, which at that time were concentrated in river - bottom deposits found only in a handful of African nations.
11.Diamonds are one of the heaviest of all minerals, on a level with gold itself, and since they are much harder than common stone they tend to dig little pockets for themselves out of the bedrock below a river.
12.to cut the diamond needs a lot of water, Russia found out the way to get the wataer in the landlocked Syberia
Perhaps the Russians though had figured out a way to make the production of synthetic diamonds cheap — it seemed to be the only way to explain the sudden appearance of vast quantities of raw material from Siberia, given one important fact about diamond mining. According to the technology we knew, huge amounts of water were required for processing the raw diamonds — for releasing them from the blue ground. This had traditionally been done by crushing the ore down to rocks of a certain size by using great gears (which, incidentally, almost always assured that the occasional really huge diamond would get broken into smaller pieces).
The finer ore was then mixed with water and spilled in a huge mush across the face of a broad table covered with a thick oil paste like axle grease. Again, diamonds, with their perfect atomic structure, tend to adhere to a grease - covered surface like no other mineral can. The slurry of water and diamond ore tumbled across the grease; the diamonds would stick; and the rest would spill off the side. The axle grease was then scraped off the table, collected into a huge container, and heated to a liquid so that the raw diamonds collected at the bottom.
But we knew it was impossible to trap and store this amount of water in landlocked places at the edge of the Arctic Circle — it would simply freeze as soon as it made contact with the open air. Detailed information about the diamond industry in the Soviet Union of those days — diamonds being absolutely necessary for the production of things like cars and airplanes, missiles and tanks — was considered a state secret, and a person who revealed this information was liable for the death penalty.
13. Once if the Russians developed a truly inexpensive synthetic, the real diamond’s price will collapse of the Overhang.
The value of the huge store of diamonds in the hands of the public at this moment — what we call the Overhang — is only a perception of value, of consumer confidence in the continued rarity of diamonds.
If the Russians had developed a truly inexpensive synthetic — a real diamond made in the laboratory — it meant the collapse of the Overhang: an avalanche of the accumulated diamonds of the world onto the market from private parties, as they panicked and tried to get at least a few dollars from Grandmom’s ring before diamonds became as common as candy. It was, ghtmare — one which fortunately never came true.
※Siddharta:
over two thousand years ago, in ancient India. A rich man, a prince by the name of Siddharta, has been capturing the hearts of the country, much like a man named Jesus, who will not appear for another five centuries. He has grown up in the wealth and luxury of a palace, but after seeing people suffer — after seeing that it is inevitable that we must lose all the things and people in our lives that we hold most dear — he has left the palace on a solitary quest to find out what makes us suffer, and how we might stop it.
And he has reached a final understanding of these things, and begun to teach his path to the people. Many of them have left their homes to follow him, agreeing to live a simple way of life, the life of a monk, free of possessions, clear in their thinking because their minds are free of the burden of having to remember what and whom they own.
The ancient wisdom of Tibet says that mental seeds behave no differently, and this too makes sense, if you consider something like the “mass” of the federal bureaucracy of the entire United States, as opposed to the tiny inkling of a new government in the country’s founders’ minds back in the 1700s — the seed that it all came from. You can imagine the first moment as a child in which you understood the meaning of money, and see now how much of the last twenty years of your life and thoughts has been occupied in its pursuit.
※Anata Pindada: a rich man bought the prince’s garden and contribute it for opening a place for the disciples to listen to Siddharta’s message.
Now in India there were six great cities, including the one known as “Shravasti.” This particular city was located in the domain of King Prasena Ajita, and contained a particularly beautiful site — the exquisite gardens of one known as Prince Jetavan.
There came a time, several years after the Conqueror attained his enlightenment, when a certain householder by the name of Anata Pindada resolved that he would construct a large, wondrous temple where the Buddha and his followers could live on a regular basis. To this end he approached Prince Jetavan and purchased his gardens by paying him many thousands of gold coins, enough in fact to fill the gardens themselves.
Jetavan as well offered to the Conqueror a parcel of land that had been part of the quarters for the caretakers of the property. In these gardens Anata Pindada, availing himself of the abilities of Shariputra, directed artisans from the lands of both gods and men to construct an extraordinary park.
When the park was completed, the Conqueror — perceiving that Jetavan wished it — named the main temple after him. Anata Pindada, by the way, was a great being who had purposely taken a birth as someone who could act as the Teacher’s sponsor. He had the power to see deposits of precious gems and metals deep under water or below the earth itself, and could utilize these riches whenever he wished.
The point of these opening lines from The Diamond Cutter is significant. The Buddha is about to give his teaching to a group of monks who have decided, much like the disciples of Jesus. But the reason the teaching is happening at all is that powerful people, wealthy people
※Dhiru Shah: A kind heart willing to help others, no matter how rich he is, enjoy family’s simple life to set the bed under the stars, his wife’s homemade bread. Worship the mountain spirit with bare foot.
a diamond dealer from Bombay (recently renamed to the more proper Mumbai) by the name of Dhiru Shah. If you glanced at Mr. Shah getting off a plane at Kennedy Airport in New York, your first impression would be of a shortish brown man, bespectacled, with thinning hair and perhaps a shy smile. He would move through the crowd and pick up a small, worn suitcase, then take a cab to a modest hotel in Manhattan, where he would eat for his evening meal a few slices of homemade bread cooked by his wife Ketki and placed in his bag with loving care.
In truth though, Mr. Shah is one of the most powerful diamond buyers in the world, purchasing thousands of stones every day for Andin. And he is, quite simply, one of the deepest spiritual persons I have ever met.
We stay, we all stay in meditation, each thinking of his own life, and how to spend that life when we return.
No one takes water or any other sustenance; it would seem almost a sacrilege upon this mountain.
Only then do I learn that Dhiru Shah, this happy dark little diamond dealer, spent years of his early life at the feet of spiritual masters on this same mountain; only later do I learn that on his visits to New York for international directors’ meetings he is likely to be on a spiritual fast, praying in his small hotel room over the garish lights of Times Square, late into the night. His offices in Bombay radiate an intense family warmth; he cares for each person there like a son or daughter, helping out with the expenses of a marriage ceremony here and the cremation of a loved one there. With millions of dollars of deals floating around him all day, he takes absolute care never to use a single penny he is not properly entitled to.
At home his own family is just as well managed. For years while I worked closely with the Shahs they lived in a tiny apartment on the third floor of a small quiet building in a place called Vileparle. Mrs. Shah was wealthy even before they married, and Dhiru — with his son Vikram — has added to the wealth, so people around them would harass them constantly to get a larger place. The children were growing bigger, they said, and needed their own rooms. But the family went on just as they had for years, grandfather in his own comfortable room off to the side of the kitchen, respected and cared for by all; the rest of the family giggling and going out onto the balcony at bedtime, to set their beds under the stars
※Jain
Mr. Shah is a Jain, an ancient faith of India that had its birth in the same era as Buddhism did, over two thousand years ago.
※Navsari
Navsari is a typical cutting town in Gujarat State, the area north of Bombay with the greatest concentration of diamond factories. Workers flood to Navsari from all over the country, hoping to get one of the more stable jobs you can find in India. They contract for say six months of work, usually up until one of the big religious holidays, like Divali. Then they collect their holiday bonus and head out of town the next day, back sometimes a thousand miles to see the wife and kids for a few weeks, and to invest their money in a neighbor’s corn crop. Then they pack a small satchel and return to the factory for another six - month stint.
※message of Buddha vs diamond cutter
1. The Hidden Potential in All Things, application in business. Dimond factory in the tenement is a man trap for the customer. It looked like those laundry lines you see strung between tenement buildings in Brooklyn, but this time between steel and glass towers in the heart of Manhattan. It shows the hidden potential to avoid sudden downward paroxysm with high mortgage payments. Maybe the money we save on rent will allow us to pay them higher prices, and we’ll attract more dealers, and make more money. Maybe the move to the new location will make it harder for employees to get to work, maybe the extra half hour on the subway will impel good people to quit and look for work closer to the Diamond District. Or maybe people will like the quieter area of our new home, West Greenwich Village — the quaint shops and restaurants with much bigger plates of food than midtown. Maybe the value of the property will shoot up after we move there, and tack on more largesse to the owners’ return on investment.
(to keep more employees to work there, cheaper rent will keep the diamond price go steady. To move to a new building brings largesse or not, it is a downward paroxysm or upward paroxysm? To solve this questions is a hidden potential in all things. it is neutral or blank or empty. In short, it has “emptiness,” and this — according to the deepest books of ancient Tibetan wisdom — is its hidden and ultimate potential.)
2. The Diamond Cutter seems to be floating off into that world of nothing - makes - sense which Buddhism is unfortunately known for in our culture.(empty) Among the the diamond man, Alex ,the jewelry designer, Shirley the computer lady are all empty. they weren’t aware of all the things.
3. imprints:
-Business:
(1)The point here is that Dealer B has violated the sacred trust of Dealer A: He has hurt a person who trusted him, he has trampled on the honor system represented by mazal , and this again makes the imprint of his action much stronger in his own mind.
(2)Even huge companies like Coca - Cola take a few
extra days for the deadline of the check
-Buddha rule:The final factor that affects how imprints are planted in your mind has to do with the conclusion of the thought, word, or action, which is to say, do you feel glad about having done it? Would you do it again? Do you take ownership of it? If so, then the imprint is that much stronger — whether for good or for bad.
These then are the principles of mental imprints. Our minds are like a very sensitive piece of film, and whatever we expose them to — in particular, whatever good or bad we see ourselves doing to others — makes a definite imprint or impression; the track of a dove or a wolf in fresh snow, a track that stays long after.
※Principles for Using the hidden Potential
1. Things have this
hidden potential where they could become anything, and the imprints
I put in my mind from the past play on this potential and decide how
I see everything
※Principles for using the imprints:
1. The imprint for this particular feature, the smoothness of the granite, happens to be speaking gently to others.
Now the window washer sees the same granite as something dangerous, and the imprint for this comes, understandably, from failing to respect life in the past.
As the Buddha himself said, you can always just give it a try for a while to see how it works for you. The worst thing that can happen is that you’re especially kind and generous to others for a bit.
2. Nothing is random, nothing is accident, and we have no one
outside ourselves to blame for our own world. Things occur to us in
exact accord with how we treat those around us, not by the decision
of any outside person but in exact compliance with a moral law
which is as sure and as undeniable and merciless as gravity itself.
3. If we really want to succeed, on any level, on every level, we must
seek to stamp out unhappiness in its every form, and within any mind
—even in those of people who compete with us.
4.We have to be visionary enough to create vast new wealth
2. Consciously
take joy in the successes of everyone around you
3. Refuse to give in to the
base emotion of jealousy over another person’s happiness. Life is
precious short; you and your competitors will be dead and forgotten
4. The imprint from caring for others in this way
flowers in the conscious mind as improved personal health.
5. Go through the company with a new eye
6. Maybe you took the time to think of something good an employee is
doing on a regular basis, and stopped to thank that person for it in a small way.
※Sam Shmuel
His wife Rachel was my right - hand man at Andin, and the reason for much of the success of our division. He agreed to teach me at night and on Sundays: One of the reasons that so many diamond dealers in New York are Orthodox Jews is that the trade respects Shabbat, the Sabbath, and no one on Forty - seventh Street is pressured to work on Saturdays if he or she is religious.
※mazal: Mazal is an abbreviation of the Yiddish expression mazel un b’rachah , meaning “Enjoy it in good health.” Among diamonteers the word means, “It’s a deal.” The majority of the diamond business at its highest levels works completely off the concept of this mazal , or verbal commitment to a deal. (Drek , by the way, is Yiddish for “garbage.” If you’re hassling an Indian dealer you substitute the word karab . If he’s Russian, you say musor . Anyway, you get the idea. When you’re buying stones from someone else, they’re always “garbage.” When you’re selling stones to someone else — even if they’re the same “garbage” stones that someone else offered you this morning — they’re always a mitzia , or an “unbelievable steal.”
※How to use potential yourself(Herein lies the secret of the mental imprints.)
1. hidden potential:
Obviously it’s somehow coming from us, from our own minds.
So can we simply decide that, if everything is coming from our own minds
2.imprints
all because of those mental imprints that we talked about above, and the art of Buddhist wisdom is to turn them around to your own advantage.
Like seeds of the natural world, seeds within the stream of the mind continue to grow after they have been planted, and they grow, as in nature, in an exponential way. The magnitude of a mental imprint planted on the first of the month has doubled by the second, and then quadrupled by the third — and by the fifth of the month is sixteen times its original strength.
(1)You own the special diamond
the inhabited planets of this great galaxy, a galaxy with a thousand thousands of a thousand planets, and cover them with the seven kinds of jewels, and present them as a gift to someone.
these planets are covered with the seven kinds of jewels: with gold, silver, crystal, lapis, emerald, karketana stone, and crimson pearl.
(2)you gain what you sow
Black and white actions that you have committed before now, and those which you are going to commit later, are such that the ones in the past have stopped, and the ones in the future are yet to come.
(3)everything got sense
we’ve seen that every event that ever happens to us is, in a sense
(4)business denied never grow from thorns, nor figs from thistles.
The strength of the imprint continually expands during its time in the subconscious; that is, until it flowers and forces us to undergo some experience, be it good or bad .
We’ve already talked about this phenomenon, the point being that even very small or hardly intentional actions can trigger immense future perceptions.
(5) No experience of any kind ever happens unless the imprint that triggers it has been planted first . The point here is that every experience we undergo is triggered by a previous imprint
Nothing around us — not people or things or events themselves, nor even our own thoughts — occurs without the cause of an imprint in our own mind coming up to our consciousness and making us perceive it.
8.Once an imprint is planted in the mind, it must lead to an experience: no imprint is ever wasted .
※There are a few basic principles
1. Causes come before their results.
2. Causes are smaller than their results.
3. Growing things takes time.
5. Understanding what you’re doing makes it infinitely stronger.
6. Always end with the act of truth
※diamond pipe:
Diamond pipes are huge carrot - shaped affairs that can range from several feet to hundreds of yards across where they break the surface of the earth. As we work the pipes for diamond ore, digging hundreds and thousands of feet deeper and deeper, the pipe generally gets progressively narrower and more difficult to mine. The pipes are actually tubes where ancient lava has driven up from the core of the earth to the open air, carrying with it nascent diamonds. These tubes are filled with a greenish ore named kimberlite; you might have to dig out an entire ton of this stuff to find the amount of diamond you could put on a pencil eraser, and so (contrary to popular belief) diamonds really are rather costly things to produce.
The positioning of pipes around the planet is one of the proofs of the theory that the continents of the world were once all joined together, and that the present oceans between them represent cracks or fissures created when the continents drifted apart. The classic pipes, as many people know, are located in South Africa. Here, for example — in the middle of some fields owned by the de Beer brothers, a pair of impoverished Boer farmers — was discovered the famed DeBeers pipe, which along with the Kimberley Mine on the same property, has produced millions of carats of diamonds since the brothers sold the land for a song around 1870. It is this mine that lent its name to the famed DeBeers diamond cartel, a powerful and unrelenting organization that has controlled much of the international raw diamond business for more than a hundred years.
An interesting thing happens over the couple of million years it takes for the cone - shaped pimple created by a diamond pipe eruption to flatten out, until it’s on a level with the surrounding land. Rain, wind, and the effects of heat and freezing gradually wear the cone down. Raw diamonds break out of the “blue rock” or ore and begin to roll in rivulets of water
※Goal 2-the Money,or ManagingBody and Mind
1. Setting the Day with Silent Time
After you have gotten in bed, first
review the day just past, as we described it above. Check for the best
three things you did or said or thought, and then the worst three.
Concentrate especially on the good things, and as you go to sleep—as
you enter the world of dreams, which the great Tibetan masters say is
close in many ways to the twilight world between your death in this
life and your awakening in the next—think ahead to the moment
your alarm clock will go off the next morning. Think ahead to your
first waking thoughts, to the first moments as you stretch and yawn
and open your eyes.
2. The ancient custom is to repeat this for the length of ten breaths,
with the caveat that—if you are distracted in a major way and lose
count—then you have to start over again. The outgoing breath counts
as the first half of a number, and the incoming breath as the second
half. This way of counting a breath (which is the opposite of our own
way, where taking, holding, and releasing a breath might be counted
as a single breath, say, in swimming) is said to have an added power
of bringing the mind inward, of focusing the thoughts within. If you
find yourself losing count frequently before you reach ten, it’s a sign
that you’re having trouble concentrating. This will affect everything
※Staying Clear, and Healthier Each Year
If you keep up your six-time book and your morning silent time,
you’ll soon find your workdays gradually changing. Slowly but surely
※The Circle, or Working for the Long Term
1. I looked of course for
the usual qualities: integrity, loyalty, team spirit, consideration for
others, intelligence, and honesty. To tell you the truth I wasn’t very
often concerned about actual skill. My experience is that the human
mind is so powerful that you can teach anyone how to do just about
any job in the world fairly quickly, but it takes years to break bad
personal habits and characteristics like lying or a lack of concern for
others, and these ruin a worker long before any lack of technical skill.
One hiring trick though that I would like to share with you was the
free-time test: I found out that the most important question you could
ask a person was what they did with their free time. Andin is a hard
place to work, and the hours—especially during the busy holiday
season—can be brutal. The more hours you spend in a place, the less
hours you spend someplace else. And there’s a limit to how many
new things you can learn around the same people in the same room,
month after month.
If you never go anyplace else—if you never see anything new, if
you never talk to anyone new—then your creativity is sure to suffer.
2. The whole idea is to break up the usual routine; to get some time to
think about why rather than how with the work at work—time to
plan, time to reflect, and perhaps most important time to get new input
※The Emptiness of Problems
Every existing object in the
world is empty. This means that no object in the world is good or bad
from its own side
※Goal Three-Looking Back,and KnowingIt Was Worth It
1. The decision to make sure that your business has some real
meaning and benefit in the world cannot even come to you unless
you are able to look at your life and your career from the perspective
of its inevitable end.
2. Learn to see that everything
Brought about by causes
Is like a star,
A problem in your eye,
A lamp, an illusion,
The dew, or a bubble;
A dream, or lightning,
Or else a cloud.
Choney Lama explains the verse as follows; again, the words of the
original book are in bold print. You can see that he finds in the verse
not only an instruction on impermanence but also a strong connection
to the concept of the hidden potential in things, or emptiness.
3. These are the five parts to a person mentioned above; the “Cousin of
the Sun” is another name for the Buddha.]
Master Kamalashila relates the final three metaphors to the three
times [the past, present, and future]; this is a little different from the
explanation here, but the two are in no way contradictory.
To put it briefly, Lord Buddha is telling us that we should “See that
each and every thing brought about by causes is impermanent, and is
empty of any nature of its own, all just like the nine examples given
above.” We should also consider these lines as indicating both the lack
of an inherent nature to people and the lack of such a nature to things.
The verse just covered refers primarily to the impermanence of a
person—to the fact that, as individuals, we must come to the end of
our careers, and to the end of our lives. To go to a much deeper level
(not that it’s our goal right here), this too can be explained in terms
of imprints and the hidden potential. That is, there are imprints in
our mind which create our perceptions of the very world around us,
and even of our own bodies and minds. These imprints are like any
other form of energy—like anything else that is ever set in motion
through circumstances or conditions.
4. By tracking, you will automatically change. By
changing, your reality itself will change, into everything you ever
dreamed of. If you keep this up over any decent period of time, you’ll
be amazed at the results.
5.Understanding what you’re doing makes it infinitely stronger.
6. Always end with the act of truth
※The Ultimate Management Tool
1.to highest nirvana. This particular Wish is
recognized in Buddhism as the source of all happiness itself
2. It is the final evolution of the practice of exchanging yourself
and others
3. The irony here is that the resources would come from the very act of
expanding yourself to include others
4. This would be real happiness, this would be true contentment. You know in your heart that it would be right, you know in your heart it would be right to
start it now, and you know that, if you spent your whole career and
your whole life this way, purposely trying to work for the good of
those around you as hard as you work for yourself
※The Real Source of Wealth, or the Economics ofLimitlessness
1. Some smart ones succeed, some smart ones fail; some not-so-smart ones fail,
but some not-so-smart ones succeed. None of the usual criteria, if we
are really honest with ourselves, seems to work in a foolproof or
predictable way at all.
2. Only then will you truly appreciate how limitless wealth
can be created by giving, and only then can you truly recognize how
“me” must rightfully become something that extends past your
current very limited self.
3. sort of like walking into a garden to find a single
flower and leaving laden with treasures we could not even imagine when we entered.
※Diamond Cutter Success Stories
1. The methods outlined in the book for managing our business and
personal lives have been implemented by more than a million people worldwide
2. It has been produced in a safe operation paying good wages, with full attention to
environmental issues
3. “karma and emptiness”—in the language of The Diamond Cutter, mental
seeds and the potential within all things—as if this were an idea that its millions of
readers were already familiar with.
4. one of the most powerful themes in The Diamond Cutter is the importance
of creating positive imprints in our lives.
I believe, wholeheartedly, that our success has had more to do with the seeds of
those imprints, many of them planted years ago, flowering in ways we couldn’t have
imagined. Those imprints have blossomed to bring us success and goodwill, and
have helped to create a nurturing work environment here at the agency.
※Conclusion:
1. Nowadays, people use laser microjet to cut the diamond.
2. The diamond cutter use the asbestos the paste to cut the diamond, before anyone had realized that even a tiny bit of asbestos can cause cancer. Behind the beautiful diamond, scarify so many lives.
3. There are four famous diamond cutter company in the world: NY, Israel, Belgium and India
4. Uncut and polished diamond has no brilliance. The function of cutting is to cut the diamond into a shape that maximizes light reflection.
5. Diamonds are colorless crystals composed of carbon and are the hardest natural substances known.
6. A good diamond 3 C:cut, clarity, and carat weight, it proves that The Diamond Cutter was literally made for these people — talented, tough, and savvy.
7. The value of the diamond is in the eye of the beholder. Anything can’t take away from you, has no value at all
8. Life is as short as the bubble, no one will survive in this life battle, what is everlasting is our holly deeds
9. “Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
10. By the way ,Teacher Geshe Michael has a wife. He also has a very good relationship with his wife. His stories all talk about how he helped his wife buying clothes. Treating each other with respect. His wife is a Christian
11. This book is about how to apply the Diamond Sutra in life. This book talks about the oldest wisdom in Asia, applied to modern business, life, relationships,Because our traditional Buddhism treats emptiness.But McGeshe, through his application in business, tells us that there is actually emptiness in the Diamond Sutra. If only you could learn this! Geshe Mack.
The two main points of this book are:
1. Understand emptiness:
Know what a mark is. Where do things come from?
2. Industrial capacity management:
How to transcend your actions, thoughts, and words to create a world that faces you and the problems you encounter
It’s because he discusses the Buddhist principles we study in college from a
Western perspective, so it’s particularly interesting and fresh for me!
And reflect on your own behavior, what changes have been made in modern
times, inherit ancient teachings, and create success in life
12.During our discussion about the diamondcutter, Clive throw us a questions about the differecen between pray and meditation. after couple days. i thougt about it and came out some idea to share with you: pray is seeking for help from outside to the holly spirit, meditation is ask for help from inside via breathing in the outward biger cosmos into the inner smaller cosmos via 6-hour book, yoga or triathlon.
Thank you so much for Claires leading. For me, you are my geshe, loupe our inner world with calm mind.
Related reading:
1. Dimond :https://www.worldofmastermind.com/?p=7234
2. Anata Pindada給孤獨 and Jetavana: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A5%87%E5%9B%AD%E7%B2%BE%E8%88%8D
給孤獨原名須達多（Sudatta），意為善授、善施，名如其人，他家財巨富，常周濟貧困，尤其是對孤獨無依的人，因此人稱「給孤獨」，意爲「給予（da）孤獨無依者（anātha）飯糰（piṇḍa）者」
故祇林又稱祇陀林（Jeta-vana）。波斯匿王、祇陀太子和給孤獨長者三人，因為捐贈祇園一事，後來被列入伽藍聖眾之
3. Shravasti舍衛城: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%88%8D%E8%A1%9B%E5%9F%8E
4. Kalachakra時輪金剛: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%B6%E8%BD%AE
5. Subhuti: Subhūti was born into a wealthy family and was a relative of Anāthapiṇḍika, the Buddhas chief patron. He became a monk after hearing the Buddha teach at the dedication ceremony of Jetavana Monastery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subh%C5%ABti
6. Diamond pipe: https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/gem-investing/diamond-investing/kimberlite-pipes-south-africa-australia-borneo-brazil-russia/
7. Orange in California:https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E6%A9%99%E7%B8%A3_(%E5%8A%A0%E5%88%A9%E7%A6%8F%E5%B0%BC%E4%BA%9E%E5%B7%9E)
8. Syberia；https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E8%A5%BF%E4%BC%AF%E5%88%A9%E4%BA%9A
9. https://www.diamondcutterpress.com/authors
10. Michael and his wife: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Roach
In 1996, Christie McNally became Roachs student and they began a "spiritual partnership", a Buddhist practice that encourages both partners to face their own flaws. The experiment included vowing to never be more than 15 feet (roughly 4.5 meters)[16] apart, eating from the same plate, reading the same books together.[15] They were married in a Christian ceremony in Rhode Island in 1998. The marriage was kept secret. When news of the marriage emerged in 2003, Roach explained to the New York Times that they had wished to honor their Christian heritage and that he wanted McNally to be entitled to his possessions if something happened to him.[26] He also argued that the future of Buddhism in America relies on being more inclusive of and welcoming to women.
When Roach proposed to teach in Dharamshala in 2006, the Office of the Dalai Lama rebuffed his plan, stating that Roachs "unconventional behavior does not accord with His Holinesss teachings and practices";the teaching took place in nearby Palampur instead.
McNally and Roach separated in the middle of 2009
The Diamond Cutter Book Club Discussion Notes
Good afternoon everyone. My name is Claire and I am excited to lead our book club discussion on The Diamond Cutter today! The book is written by Michael Roach, who was educated by the Tibetan Buddhists, and applied their teachings in the business world to achieve great success. This book has been a best seller and many readers have also adopted these teachings in their own lives as well.
Some of the concepts in this book may be new to us, may be interesting to us, or you may even find it a little controversial. This is all Ok! This is just a great opportunity for us to explore these concepts and see how it may have relevance in our lives. Let us start today’s discussion on The Diamond Cutter!
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引言:
你必須能夠回顧人生，而且不僅僅說你賺取了財富，不僅僅說你能夠盡情地創造並且享用財富，你也必須能夠說，在你賺取金錢的同時及其背後，你改變了世界，你讓世界有了些許不同。
You must be able to look back on your life, and not only say that you have earned wealth, not only that you can create and enjoy wealth to your hearts content, but you must also be able to say that while you are making money, you have also changed made a difference in this world and changed the world for the better.
作者運用西藏古老的智慧，幫忙將成立於紐約的安鼎國際鑽石公司，從借貸來五萬元的小公司，變成一億美元的大企業，最後被巴菲特所買下，1999年從公司的副總裁一職退下後，走遍20幾個國家開了無數個研討會，幫助許多人在人生和事業上更上一層樓。
The author used Tibetan ancient wisdom to help turn Anding International Diamond Company, founded in New York, from a small company with a loan of 50 thousand dollars, to a large enterprise of 100 million dollars. It was finally bought by Warren Buffett. In 1999, he stepped down as the deputy director of the company, and traveled to more than 20 countries and held countless seminars, helping many people to take their lives and careers to the next level.
事業的三個原則 The Three Principles of Business
1.要做生意就要成功，就得賺錢。
If you want to do business, you must succeed and make money.
2.我們應該能夠享受金錢。
We should be able to enjoy money.
3.一個人應該能夠在最後回顧自己的事業時，告訴自己這些年來的經營是有意義的。
A person should be able to look back on their career and tell themselves that their work experience over the years was meaningful.
何謂銘印 What is an imprint?
@ 我們看待事物的方法其實源自我們本身。
The way we see things actually comes from ourselves.
@ 把你的心想成一台錄影機，你的雙眼、雙耳，以及身體其他的部分是錄影機的視窗。幾乎所有決定錄影品質的旋鈕和開關全繫於你的動機 －你想要錄下什麼，以及你為什麼要錄影。
Think of your mind as a video recorder. Your eyes, ears, and other parts of your body are the windows of the video recorder. Almost all of the knobs and switches that determine the quality of your recordings depend on your motivation - what you want to record, and why you want to record it.
@ 把心看做一塊非常敏感的油灰，無論何時，無論那塊油灰接觸了什麼事務，那件事物都會在那塊油灰上留下印記。
Think of the mind as a very sensitive piece of putty. Whenever that piece of putty comes into contact with something, it will leave its mark on that piece of putty.
@ 銘印三種不同的植入方式：行動、說話、思考。
There are three different ways of implanting imprints: action, speaking, and thinking.
銘印如何開花結果 How imprints come to fruition
@ 經由銘記所生成的感受，必須與銘印的內容相符。一個負面的行為只能導致負面的結果，一個正面的行為只能導致正面的結果。
The feeling generated by imprinting must be consistent with the imprinted content. A negative behavior can only lead to negative results, and a positive behavior can only lead to positive results.
@ 銘印停留潛意識的時候，它的強度不斷地增強；直到它茁壯成熟，迫使我們經歷一些好的或壞的感受。
As the imprint remains in the subconscious mind, its intensity continues to increase until it matures and forces us to experience some good or bad feelings.
@ 從來沒有任何感受的存在，除非引發感受的銘印已經先植入心中。
There is never any feeling unless the imprint that causes it has been previously implanted in the mind.
@ 一旦銘印被植入於心，它必定產生一種感受；沒有一個銘印是白白不起任何作用的。
Once an imprint is implanted in the heart, it must produce a feeling; no imprint is in vain without any effect.
植入正面的銘印 Implanted Positive imprint
@ 光是態度就可以製造最深刻的銘印。
Attitude alone can create the deepest imprint.
@ 沒有一件事比服務需要幫助的人，更能鼓舞我們的心靈。靈思泉湧是保持完全的寧靜，接近偉大思想家的精神與思想，以及願意服務周遭人物所種下銘印的結果。
Nothing inspires our souls more than serving those in need. Spiritual well-being is the result of maintaining complete tranquility, being close to the spirit and thoughts of great thinkers, and the willingness to serve those around you. The imprints from these activities will generate great spiritual well-being.
@ 金錢本身是經由維持一個寬宏大度的心態所創造而來的。
Money itself is created by maintaining a generous mindset.
@ 要怎麼做到不害怕－ 過得清靜，不造成傷害，以他人的利益為先，就沒有什麼好怕的了。
How to not be afraid - live simply and peacefully, cause no harm, put the interests of others first, and there will be nothing to be afraid of.
@ 如果你渴望達成特定的結果，你可以反向運作，找出可以使你看見結果的特定銘印。
If you desire a specific result, you can work backwards and find the specific imprint that will allow you to see the result.
@ 我們可以植入心中、最令人嚮往、擁有的銘印－
We can implant the most desirable imprints into our hearts.
六度波羅蜜: 行為準則，幫助你植入美好人生的銘印 The Six Paramitas are good guidelines for imprints to a wonderful life
布施：為了看見自己的事業飛黃騰達，財源廣進，你必須保持慷慨大肚的心態。
Giving: In order to see your career flourish and becoming rich, you must maintain a generous attitude.
持戒：為了看見自己置身一個幸福快樂的世界，你必須遵循倫理道德的生活態度。
Precepts: In order to see yourself in a happy world, you must follow an ethical and moral attitude towards life.
忍辱：為了看見自己身體強健，充滿吸引力，你必須避免憤怒。
Tolerance: In order to see yourself as physically strong and be full of attraction, you must avoid anger.
精進：為了看見自己在私人生活和工作場合中擔任領導人物，你必須樂於利益、幫助他人。
Effort: In order to see yourself as a leader in your private life and in the workplace, you must be willing to benefit and help others.
禪定：為了看見自己能夠心斯專注，你必須進行深度的禪修。
Meditation: In order to see yourself being able to concentrate, you must meditate deeply.
智慧：為了看見自己心想事成，你必須了解潛能和心理銘印的原則。
Wisdom: In order to see your dreams come true, you must understand the principles of potential and mental imprinting.
慈悲：為了看見自己和他人事事滿願，你必須培養持悲心。
Compassion: In order to see yourself and others getting everything you want, you must cultivate compassion.
避免負面的銘印 Avoid negative imprints
@ 為了創造人生或事業的特定目標所需的特定銘印，往往與人性的本能相反。因此當你面對困難的時候，堤防你的本能反應是很重要的。本能的反應可能只會使問題一直存在，無法解決。
The specific imprints required to create specific goals in life or career are often contrary to human nature. So its important to guard against your instinctive reactions when youre faced with a difficult situation. Knee-jerk reactions may just perpetuate the problem without resolution.
@ 在商場上失利的原因，通常是許許多多微不足道的負面行動與思想累積起來的結果。
The reason for failure in the business is usually the accumulation of many insignificant negative actions and thoughts.
@ 從事商業活動需要敏捷的思考和快速的反應，但是，沒有一件事比控制自己的負面念頭更需要敏捷快速的反應。在你受到強大的憤怒、痛苦的情緒襲擊之前，你大約有三秒鐘的時間採取防衛的動作。在這三秒鐘之內，你必須採取積極的行動，強而有力的行動，否則就太遲了。
Engaging in business activities requires agile thinking and quick reactions, but nothing requires agile and quick reactions more than controlling ones negative thoughts. You have about three seconds to act defensively before you are hit with powerful angry, painful emotions. Within these three seconds, you must take positive action, strong action, otherwise it will be too late.
@ 我們的心大多如此運作－惡念多於善念。儘管如此，我們的心具有一個非常非常重要的特質：它是可以訓練的。只要一點點的練習，你的心幾乎可以學習任何事情；而其中的關鍵僅僅在於你是否專注精進。
Our minds mostly work like this - there are more bad thoughts than good thoughts. Nonetheless, our mind has one very, very important quality: it can be trained. With a little practice, your mind can learn almost anything; the key is simply your concentration.
@ 在一本古老的印度佛教經典中，記載了一個非常著名的偈頌：假若困境可解，何必心煩意亂？假若困境無解，鬱鬱寡歡又有何用？
In an ancient Indian Buddhist scripture, there is a very famous verse: If the dilemma can be solved, why be upset? Whats the use of being depressed if theres no solution to the dilemma?
覺悟人生 Enlightenment life
@ 死亡冥想death meditation
*死亡冥想是指，每天早晨你清醒之時，不要起身，雙眼睜開地躺在床上，然後你對自己說：「我今晚即將死去，我應該如何渡過餘生，才是最好的選擇？」
Death meditation means that every morning when you wake up, dont get up, lie in bed with your eyes open, and then you say to yourself: "I am going to die tonight, what is the best way for me to spend the rest of my life?”
*修持死亡冥想的一個立竿見影的成果是：你簡化了你的生活，捨棄你所擁有的事物，放慢你的生活步調，這是一種獲得身心自由的開端。
An immediate result of practicing death meditation is that you simplify your life, let go of the things you own, and slow down the pace of your life. This is the beginning of gaining physical and mental freedom.
*死亡冥想的要點在於，事先預測未來幾年的演變，並且在當下做出一些決定，以便在未來能夠以欣喜滿足的心情回顧過往。
The point of death meditation is to anticipate the evolution of the next few years and make decisions in the present so that you can look back on the past with joy and contentment in the future.
@ 萬物皆有盡時－All things come to an end -
*除非你能夠從萬事萬物皆有其盡頭的觀點來審視你的人生與事業，否則你不會決心讓你的事業發揮某種意義，造福世界。
Unless you can view your life and career from the perspective that all things must have an end, you will not be determined to make your career serve some purpose and benefit the world
*這種「萬物皆有盡時」的態度，使你的頭腦保持清晰明澈，人生的優先順序、輕重緩急也了然於心。
This attitude of "all things must come to an end" will keep your mind clear and clear, and your priorities and priorities in life will be clear to you.
終極的經營法門－自他交換 The ultimate business secret
自他交換－Exchange between oneself and others
1.學習如何敏銳地觀察其他人的需要與喜好。
Learn how to be sensitive to other peoples needs and preferences.
2.假裝把你的心放進他人的身體中，然後打開你的眼睛，注視著自己，看一看你(他們)想從他(你)身上獲得什麼。
Pretend to put your heart into another persons body, then open your eyes and look at yourself to see what you (them) want from him (you).
3.把別人看成自己，冺除你我的區別。
Treat others as yourself and eliminate the difference between you and me.
@ 能力來自每一次你擴張自己，接納他人的舉動。
Power comes from every move you make to expand yourself and accept others.
@ 不要為了他人而工作，而是彷彿沒有他人一般，不分人我地工作，這就是真正的快樂，真正的滿足。
Dont work for others, but work as if there are no other people, regardless of others. This is true happiness and true satisfaction.
@ 你必須能夠回顧人生，而且不僅僅說你賺取了財富，不僅僅說你能夠盡情地創造並且享用財富，你也必須能夠說，在你賺取金錢的同時及其背後，你改變了世界，你讓世界有了些許不同。
You must be able to look back on your life, and not only say that you have earned wealth, not only that you can create and enjoy wealth to your hearts content, but you must also be able to say that while you are making money and behind the scenes, you have changed the world, You made a little difference in the world.
46個商業問題的解決方案
這邊就請自行看書吧，書中有非常令人驚喜的解答。
46 Solutions to Business Problems
Please read the book on your own, there are some very surprising answers in the book. The Diamond Cutter Book Club Discussion Notes
Good afternoon everyone. My name is Claire and I am excited to lead our book club discussion on The Diamond Cutter today! The book is written by Michael Roach, who was educated by the Tibetan Buddhists, and applied their teachings in the business world to achieve great success. This book has been a best seller and many readers have also adopted these teachings in their own lives as well.
Some of the concepts in this book may be new to us, may be interesting to us, or you may even find it a little controversial. This is all Ok! This is just a great opportunity for us to explore these concepts and see how it may have relevance in our lives. Let us start today’s discussion on The Diamond Cutter!
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引言:
你必須能夠回顧人生，而且不僅僅說你賺取了財富，不僅僅說你能夠盡情地創造並且享用財富，你也必須能夠說，在你賺取金錢的同時及其背後，你改變了世界，你讓世界有了些許不同。
You must be able to look back on your life, and not only say that you have earned wealth, not only that you can create and enjoy wealth to your hearts content, but you must also be able to say that while you are making money, you have also changed made a difference in this world and changed the world for the better.
作者運用西藏古老的智慧，幫忙將成立於紐約的安鼎國際鑽石公司，從借貸來五萬元的小公司，變成一億美元的大企業，最後被巴菲特所買下，1999年從公司的副總裁一職退下後，走遍20幾個國家開了無數個研討會，幫助許多人在人生和事業上更上一層樓。
The author used Tibetan ancient wisdom to help turn Anding International Diamond Company, founded in New York, from a small company with a loan of 50 thousand dollars, to a large enterprise of 100 million dollars. It was finally bought by Warren Buffett. In 1999, he stepped down as the deputy director of the company, and traveled to more than 20 countries and held countless seminars, helping many people to take their lives and careers to the next level.
事業的三個原則 The Three Principles of Business
1.要做生意就要成功，就得賺錢。
If you want to do business, you must succeed and make money.
2.我們應該能夠享受金錢。
We should be able to enjoy money.
3.一個人應該能夠在最後回顧自己的事業時，告訴自己這些年來的經營是有意義的。
A person should be able to look back on their career and tell themselves that their work experience over the years was meaningful.
何謂銘印 What is an imprint?
@ 我們看待事物的方法其實源自我們本身。
The way we see things actually comes from ourselves.
@ 把你的心想成一台錄影機，你的雙眼、雙耳，以及身體其他的部分是錄影機的視窗。幾乎所有決定錄影品質的旋鈕和開關全繫於你的動機 －你想要錄下什麼，以及你為什麼要錄影。
Think of your mind as a video recorder. Your eyes, ears, and other parts of your body are the windows of the video recorder. Almost all of the knobs and switches that determine the quality of your recordings depend on your motivation - what you want to record, and why you want to record it.
@ 把心看做一塊非常敏感的油灰，無論何時，無論那塊油灰接觸了什麼事務，那件事物都會在那塊油灰上留下印記。
Think of the mind as a very sensitive piece of putty. Whenever that piece of putty comes into contact with something, it will leave its mark on that piece of putty.
@ 銘印三種不同的植入方式：行動、說話、思考。
There are three different ways of implanting imprints: action, speaking, and thinking.
銘印如何開花結果 How imprints come to fruition
@ 經由銘記所生成的感受，必須與銘印的內容相符。一個負面的行為只能導致負面的結果，一個正面的行為只能導致正面的結果。
The feeling generated by imprinting must be consistent with the imprinted content. A negative behavior can only lead to negative results, and a positive behavior can only lead to positive results.
@ 銘印停留潛意識的時候，它的強度不斷地增強；直到它茁壯成熟，迫使我們經歷一些好的或壞的感受。
As the imprint remains in the subconscious mind, its intensity continues to increase until it matures and forces us to experience some good or bad feelings.
@ 從來沒有任何感受的存在，除非引發感受的銘印已經先植入心中。
There is never any feeling unless the imprint that causes it has been previously implanted in the mind.
@ 一旦銘印被植入於心，它必定產生一種感受；沒有一個銘印是白白不起任何作用的。
Once an imprint is implanted in the heart, it must produce a feeling; no imprint is in vain without any effect.
植入正面的銘印 Implanted Positive imprint
@ 光是態度就可以製造最深刻的銘印。
Attitude alone can create the deepest imprint.
@ 沒有一件事比服務需要幫助的人，更能鼓舞我們的心靈。靈思泉湧是保持完全的寧靜，接近偉大思想家的精神與思想，以及願意服務周遭人物所種下銘印的結果。
Nothing inspires our souls more than serving those in need. Spiritual well-being is the result of maintaining complete tranquility, being close to the spirit and thoughts of great thinkers, and the willingness to serve those around you. The imprints from these activities will generate great spiritual well-being.
@ 金錢本身是經由維持一個寬宏大度的心態所創造而來的。
Money itself is created by maintaining a generous mindset.
@ 要怎麼做到不害怕－ 過得清靜，不造成傷害，以他人的利益為先，就沒有什麼好怕的了。
How to not be afraid - live simply and peacefully, cause no harm, put the interests of others first, and there will be nothing to be afraid of.
@ 如果你渴望達成特定的結果，你可以反向運作，找出可以使你看見結果的特定銘印。
If you desire a specific result, you can work backwards and find the specific imprint that will allow you to see the result.
@ 我們可以植入心中、最令人嚮往、擁有的銘印－
We can implant the most desirable imprints into our hearts.
六度波羅蜜: 行為準則，幫助你植入美好人生的銘印 The Six Paramitas are good guidelines for imprints to a wonderful life
布施：為了看見自己的事業飛黃騰達，財源廣進，你必須保持慷慨大肚的心態。
Giving: In order to see your career flourish and becoming rich, you must maintain a generous attitude.
持戒：為了看見自己置身一個幸福快樂的世界，你必須遵循倫理道德的生活態度。
Precepts: In order to see yourself in a happy world, you must follow an ethical and moral attitude towards life.
忍辱：為了看見自己身體強健，充滿吸引力，你必須避免憤怒。
Tolerance: In order to see yourself as physically strong and be full of attraction, you must avoid anger.
精進：為了看見自己在私人生活和工作場合中擔任領導人物，你必須樂於利益、幫助他人。
Effort: In order to see yourself as a leader in your private life and in the workplace, you must be willing to benefit and help others.
禪定：為了看見自己能夠心斯專注，你必須進行深度的禪修。
Meditation: In order to see yourself being able to concentrate, you must meditate deeply.
智慧：為了看見自己心想事成，你必須了解潛能和心理銘印的原則。
Wisdom: In order to see your dreams come true, you must understand the principles of potential and mental imprinting.
慈悲：為了看見自己和他人事事滿願，你必須培養持悲心。
Compassion: In order to see yourself and others getting everything you want, you must cultivate compassion.
避免負面的銘印 Avoid negative imprints
@ 為了創造人生或事業的特定目標所需的特定銘印，往往與人性的本能相反。因此當你面對困難的時候，堤防你的本能反應是很重要的。本能的反應可能只會使問題一直存在，無法解決。
The specific imprints required to create specific goals in life or career are often contrary to human nature. So its important to guard against your instinctive reactions when youre faced with a difficult situation. Knee-jerk reactions may just perpetuate the problem without resolution.
@ 在商場上失利的原因，通常是許許多多微不足道的負面行動與思想累積起來的結果。
The reason for failure in the business is usually the accumulation of many insignificant negative actions and thoughts.
@ 從事商業活動需要敏捷的思考和快速的反應，但是，沒有一件事比控制自己的負面念頭更需要敏捷快速的反應。在你受到強大的憤怒、痛苦的情緒襲擊之前，你大約有三秒鐘的時間採取防衛的動作。在這三秒鐘之內，你必須採取積極的行動，強而有力的行動，否則就太遲了。
Engaging in business activities requires agile thinking and quick reactions, but nothing requires agile and quick reactions more than controlling ones negative thoughts. You have about three seconds to act defensively before you are hit with powerful angry, painful emotions. Within these three seconds, you must take positive action, strong action, otherwise it will be too late.
@ 我們的心大多如此運作－惡念多於善念。儘管如此，我們的心具有一個非常非常重要的特質：它是可以訓練的。只要一點點的練習，你的心幾乎可以學習任何事情；而其中的關鍵僅僅在於你是否專注精進。
Our minds mostly work like this - there are more bad thoughts than good thoughts. Nonetheless, our mind has one very, very important quality: it can be trained. With a little practice, your mind can learn almost anything; the key is simply your concentration.
@ 在一本古老的印度佛教經典中，記載了一個非常著名的偈頌：假若困境可解，何必心煩意亂？假若困境無解，鬱鬱寡歡又有何用？
In an ancient Indian Buddhist scripture, there is a very famous verse: If the dilemma can be solved, why be upset? Whats the use of being depressed if theres no solution to the dilemma?
覺悟人生 Enlightenment life
@ 死亡冥想death meditation
*死亡冥想是指，每天早晨你清醒之時，不要起身，雙眼睜開地躺在床上，然後你對自己說：「我今晚即將死去，我應該如何渡過餘生，才是最好的選擇？」
Death meditation means that every morning when you wake up, dont get up, lie in bed with your eyes open, and then you say to yourself: "I am going to die tonight, what is the best way for me to spend the rest of my life?”
*修持死亡冥想的一個立竿見影的成果是：你簡化了你的生活，捨棄你所擁有的事物，放慢你的生活步調，這是一種獲得身心自由的開端。
An immediate result of practicing death meditation is that you simplify your life, let go of the things you own, and slow down the pace of your life. This is the beginning of gaining physical and mental freedom.
*死亡冥想的要點在於，事先預測未來幾年的演變，並且在當下做出一些決定，以便在未來能夠以欣喜滿足的心情回顧過往。
The point of death meditation is to anticipate the evolution of the next few years and make decisions in the present so that you can look back on the past with joy and contentment in the future.
@ 萬物皆有盡時－All things come to an end -
*除非你能夠從萬事萬物皆有其盡頭的觀點來審視你的人生與事業，否則你不會決心讓你的事業發揮某種意義，造福世界。
Unless you can view your life and career from the perspective that all things must have an end, you will not be determined to make your career serve some purpose and benefit the world
*這種「萬物皆有盡時」的態度，使你的頭腦保持清晰明澈，人生的優先順序、輕重緩急也了然於心。
This attitude of "all things must come to an end" will keep your mind clear and clear, and your priorities and priorities in life will be clear to you.
終極的經營法門－自他交換 The ultimate business secret
自他交換－Exchange between oneself and others
1.學習如何敏銳地觀察其他人的需要與喜好。
Learn how to be sensitive to other peoples needs and preferences.
2.假裝把你的心放進他人的身體中，然後打開你的眼睛，注視著自己，看一看你(他們)想從他(你)身上獲得什麼。
Pretend to put your heart into another persons body, then open your eyes and look at yourself to see what you (them) want from him (you).
3.把別人看成自己，冺除你我的區別。
Treat others as yourself and eliminate the difference between you and me.
@ 能力來自每一次你擴張自己，接納他人的舉動。
Power comes from every move you make to expand yourself and accept others.
@ 不要為了他人而工作，而是彷彿沒有他人一般，不分人我地工作，這就是真正的快樂，真正的滿足。
Dont work for others, but work as if there are no other people, regardless of others. This is true happiness and true satisfaction.
@ 你必須能夠回顧人生，而且不僅僅說你賺取了財富，不僅僅說你能夠盡情地創造並且享用財富，你也必須能夠說，在你賺取金錢的同時及其背後，你改變了世界，你讓世界有了些許不同。
You must be able to look back on your life, and not only say that you have earned wealth, not only that you can create and enjoy wealth to your hearts content, but you must also be able to say that while you are making money and behind the scenes, you have changed the world, You made a little difference in the world.
46個商業問題的解決方案
這邊就請自行看書吧，書中有非常令人驚喜的解答。
46 Solutions to Business Problems
Please read the book on your own, there are some very surprising answers in the book.
Discussion Questions:
1. Do you believe that the world you see was created by your consciousness?
(1)“Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson
(2) Be aware of our consciousness, once if it connects with our action, it turns out good or bad which decides our role to play in the end of the time when you leave the world.
2. Do you know what an imprint is? Tell me what you think of it?
※Principles for using the imprints:
(1)The imprint for this particular feature, the smoothness of the granite, happens to be speaking gently to others.
Now the window washer sees the same granite as something dangerous, and the imprint for this comes, understandably, from failing to respect life in the past.
As the Buddha himself said, you can always just give it a try for a while to see how it works for you. The worst thing that can happen is that you’re especially kind and generous to others for a bit.
(2)Nothing is random, nothing is accident, and we have no one
outside ourselves to blame for our own world. Things occur to us in
exact accord with how we treat those around us, not by the decision
of any outside person but in exact compliance with a moral law
which is as sure and as undeniable and merciless as gravity itself.
(3) If we really want to succeed, on any level, on every level, we must
seek to stamp out unhappiness in its every form, and within any mind
—even in those of people who compete with us.
(4)We have to be visionary enough to create vast new wealth
(5)Consciously
take joy in the successes of everyone around you
(6)refuseo give in to the
base emotion of jealousy over another person’s happiness. Life is
precious short; you and your competitors will be dead and forgotten
(7)The imprint from caring for others in this way
flowers in the conscious mind as improved personal health.
(8)Go through the company with a new eye
(9)Maybe you took the time to think of something good an employee is
doing on a regular basis, and stopped to thank that person for it in a small way.
3. How to use the concept of imprinting to create the life you want to experience?
The Ultimate Management Tool
(1).to highest nirvana. This particular Wish is
recognized in Buddhism as the source of all happiness itself
(2). It is the final evolution of the practice of exchanging yourself
and others
(3). The irony here is that the resources would come from the very act of
expanding yourself to include others
(4). This would be real happiness, this would be true contentment. You know in your heart that it would be right, you know in your heart it would be right to
start it now, and you know that, if you spent your whole career and
your whole life this way, purposely trying to work for the good of
those around you as hard as you work for yourself
4. When things dont go your way or when you encounter unpleasant things, can you still accept that everything comes from the seeds of consciousness you planted in the past?
(1)Things have this
hidden potential where they could become anything, and the imprints
I put in my mind from the past play on this potential and decide how
I see everything
5. How to accelerate the manifestation of the seeds you have planted in your consciousness?
※The Ultimate Management Tool
(1).to highest nirvana. This particular Wish is
recognized in Buddhism as the source of all happiness itself
(2). It is the final evolution of the practice of exchanging yourself
and others
(3). The irony here is that the resources would come from the very act of
expanding yourself to include others
(4). This would be real happiness, this would be true contentment. You know in your heart that it would be right, you know in your heart it would be right to
start it now, and you know that, if you spent your whole career and
your whole life this way, purposely trying to work for the good of
those around you as hard as you work for yourself
6. How to use the tools that books teach us? The Six Hours Book? Meditation? Circle Day? Yoga?
generate bodhicitta, accelerate in hearing dharma,Encourage your heart with right thought, Just like warming up before running, keep your self in the right motivation
※There are a few basic principles
(1). Causes come before their results.
(2). Causes are smaller than their results.
(3). Growing things takes time.
(4). Understanding what you’re doing makes it infinitely stronger.
(5). Always end with the act of truth
7. Do you practice death meditation? Why?
(Death meditation means that every morning when you wake up, dont get up, lie in bed with your eyes open, and then you say to yourself: "I am going to die tonight, what is the best way for me to spend the rest of my life?”)
(1)do morning exercises
(2)recite
(3)execration
(4)Repentance
(5) Only the righteous Dharma can lead to the next life
(6)warm up our life with the morning exercises and keep on doing right things in the blink of time
※Summary by consultant Clive:
Today we discussed The Diamond Cutter by Geshe Michael Roach and led today by Claire Lan. I think we can all agree that Claire’s information was truly remarkable and thought provoking. Claire presented the information to us in a very direct and pleasant style, blending captivating storytelling and also sharing how the book changed her own perceptions as a mother, wife and daughter. Claire was able to help members gain insights applicable straight away by anybody in their regular lives.
There are two major takeaways that I was able to learn from Claire today:
The first is an understanding of the emptiness of all things. In other terms, in every problem lies its own potential solution. Claire gave great examples of how she turned around challenges with her mother-in-law and being a business woman with her MIT graduate husband. High expectations require hard work but also the time to be reflective. Mingle was able to compare many of the lessons to her own Catholic faith and Faye and Monica were able to make connections to their own Christian faith.
The second takeaway is a deeper understanding of the functioning of mental imprints and karma - the law of cause and effect - and how our actions plant mental seeds in our subconscious that will grow into either positive or negative perceptions of the world. Claire gave us many examples from her life and Florence gave us even more context. Alice helped us to understand her view point and Sherry talked about how battling cancer helped her to in her own perceptions of life.
This book gave us a deep reassurance that it is possible to combine high spiritual aspirations with a highly successful life in the modern world no matter if you are Buddhist, Christian or Daoist. In other words, it is possible to have a big impact in the world and enjoying success and growing spiritually. We must commend Claire for travelling from Taipei to share her thoughts, and leading us all today. For anybody who has a deep sense of purpose and mission, and who aims at bridging the gap between spiritual, business and family life, today’s meeting was wonderful.
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