Geshe Michael and Lama Christie with the publishers from Thai Ha Books.
The first talk was in Hanoi, consisting of up to 500 CEOs and business executives, and sponsored by Thai Ha Books and the Ha Noi Young Business Assn. Afterwards a representative of the business association got up and gave a very stirring thank-you talk:
"Vietnam friends, Vietnam people: today's seminar is very magic. It's not magic just because I bought the book, but the seminar today was very interesting because only presidents are here: CEOs and high ranking business people from Vietnam and Hanoi. And as Christie has said, we are connected together, we are all together. We are business people, we are presidents, and so we're trying to do our best to have wealth. Now we've learned how from American people, and from the Diamond Cutter Sutra. And I know that a lot of you are followers of Buddhism, so I think this is useful for you and you will very active in its practice.
"Geshe Michael shared that with us, and especially invited us to the university where people may study and improve their knowledge and practice. Fortunately there are some companies and corporations that are following Buddhism, but some companies do not understand the meaning, real meaning, of Buddhism. So I think that we could improve that way.
"A lot of people come to a monastery but they do not understand what they get from the monastery. They just come there. So we should understand the real meaning of Buddhism. And I think after that, we need more of this kind of seminar. A lot of high-ranking people have taken up the new ideas and understand very clearly. They understand about giving money to get money to be rich. When Lama Christie compared the money and emptiness, I understood about emptiness.
"I want to say to you American people, that during the war, during the war, we saw emptiness. And our president said that sometimes our bodies are inside, but our mind is outside. So our country is also a Buddhist country. Today we have our friends, plus they have protested the war, and they have come today to Vietnam to share their understanding and knowledge with our business people. I do not practice Buddhism, but I appreciate, highly appreciate, Buddhism.
I want to say thank you to the book publisher. After that, I also want to say thank you to our people, the volunteers sitting over here. It is not easy today to get a lot of presidents and high-ranking people in one hall.
"Two important things are money and knowledge. Maybe we cannot give money, but we can give each other knowledge. And then we can earn the money by using the knowledge. I can give knowledge and I can give a lot of things. I hope the companies, the corporations will benefit, and that this will be the turning point for the situation of the economy in our countries as well as in the world. We will apply the teachings in this book to our business and to our life. And once again on behalf of everyone here I want to say thank you."
Here's the recording of the business talk in Hanoi, April 22nd, 2009. *here*
Here's the recording of the talk in Ho Chi Minh City, April 24th, 2009. *here*
