I would like to begin by saying that I'm happy to be here and I'm happy to be able to come to the Minnesota Zen Center and join the practice down at the monastery in the south. I'm happy to practice Buddha's way with all of you and I'm glad all of you are practicing with everybody else. So there, I said it. The rest of what I'm saying tonight is basically the same feeling of my appreciation for the

[01:14]

teaching of Buddha and the ancestors. I don't say this at the beginning of every talk, but I want to say it tonight. It's kind of an apology and I want you to know that I feel a little funny about the possibility that I might do quite a bit of talking in this room tonight and that I might do quite a bit more talking than anybody else, which is kind of strange to do that in a room full of highly intelligent people. And as part of that kind of apology, I'd like you to think of what I'm saying as not a lecture, but as a song. Just think of me as doing a little song. I'm not telling you anything about anything other than just expressing my joy in the

[02:18]

teaching and my joy at being able to practice with all of you. So tonight's my turn to sing. That's all. And I hope there'll be some opportunity for us to sing together tonight. We live in America, which is a extremely beautiful country, extremely gifted country, full of wonderful people, and we have tremendous problems. Wherever I go, I'm really impressed by how much suffering there is, and particularly it

[03:35]

always seems to be getting, in a sense, I feel more of a crisis. I feel I'm surrounded by so many people in crisis, and therefore I'm in crisis. More and more, I'm in crisis. But I don't get discouraged about this because I actually think that that's where Buddhas live, in the middle of crises. So rather than begrudge the crisis and the crises, I try to settle. I try to settle in the middle of the crisis. Like I was walking with this lady last night here, and we were talking about what a beautiful

[04:37]

town this is, at least the neighborhood we were in, and what nice food we have to eat and nice house we have to live in, and we feel sometimes a little funny about that. But I'm very happy to have heard, to receive the news of a practice that shows us a way to not hold ourselves aside from those who are less fortunate right now, and to feel their suffering, to enter the crisis of their life situation, so that we do find happiness. That's where happiness is, is in the middle of that stuff. That's what I believe. This is my song. This is my song, which also comes from my understanding of what we call the movement.

[05:43]

There's a movement afoot. It has various names. One of the names of it is Mahayana Buddhism, or the Buddha's way of universal happiness for all living beings. We wouldn't need this movement if all beings were already happy. But since there is so much misery, a movement has started, and it has been quite apparent for more than 2,000 years, and millions of people have practiced this way of happiness and peace by dedicating their lives to helping others. Have you heard about this way? I know only one person coughed. Yes. You heard of it?

[06:44]

Yes, I did. Were you happy when you heard about it? Yes. I heard about it several times myself, and I keep being happy to hear about this movement. I'm really glad that so many people are willing to dedicate their life energy to this project. Tonight is not an initiation ceremony exactly, so I'm not going to ask you all to make a commitment tonight to this way, but I'll just sort of ask you at the beginning, and maybe in the middle and possibly at the end, I'll ask you, do you want to dance under the moonlight? Do you want to dance with all sentient beings?

[07:49]

Do you want to join hands with all sentient beings and dance? I'll ask you that now. You can think about that. I'll maybe ask you again. Even myself, sometimes I wonder, do you want to dance with all sentient beings? Even that one? Even that one? With all of them? And if I can't say yes, then at least I would recommend to myself that I maybe try to prepare myself and try to develop the ability to say yes someday. So there is this possibility of saying yes to the idea or to actually seeing,

[09:05]

witnessing the birth of a heart in yourself that actually wants the very, very best for everybody. Actually, in some ways, for me, it seems like it's easier to want the very best for everybody than to want just some fairly good things for everybody. For example, you might not want certain very cruel and aggressive people. You might not want them to get more money. You might not. But you probably still, if you think about it, would like them to be perfectly enlightened because then they would stop being so nasty

[10:10]

and they would be therefore unharmful in the world, even beneficial. So it would be to our advantage if any cruel person would become awakened. If you go for that, then you've got to be careful, though. If you go for that, then the lesser things also come under that, too. So you have to start giving lesser things to them, too. So it's kind of dangerous to want the very best for them. But think about it. Because it does make sense to want the best for them, I think. Don't you think so? That I can do. There's no one who I do not want to be perfectly enlightened. I can really say that. And I'm willing to actually work for that for everybody. But I have a little bit more trouble, actually, with giving people a new car or something. So the practice of working for other people's benefit,

[11:37]

which is proposed as also the most effective way to make yourself happy, has, in a sense, you might say, kind of like two aspects. One aspect is actually to... Well, one aspect is kind of like a way of thinking. And the other way is, in a sense, a way of not thinking. Or you might even say one part seems to be like a voluntary part and other parts may be involuntary. Maybe the voluntary part is not voluntary either. I'm not sure. I'll take that back, maybe. But one part is to actually work on your aspiration and compassion.

[12:38]

To actually do things with compassion. Which are directly helping others and helping yourself help others. One is actually concrete ways of thinking and acting for the altruistic benefit of all other beings. And the other way is a way, basically, to protect yourself from burnout in that process. The ways of thinking refer to generating compassion and the aspiration for the benefit of all others. And the way of not thinking is the way to protect yourself from burning out in the process of this work.

[13:44]

So I'd like to, in a sense, touch upon these two modes. How long do these lectures usually go? How long do you want to stay at night? Hour? Hour and a half? Something like that? Should we start calling? Yeah. Deborah, when I talk too long, would you go like this? The dog will start howling. When the dog starts howling, does that mean he's singing with me or am I supposed to stop? You have to listen. Okay, I'll listen. Well, generating compassion has something to do

[14:53]

with noticing who's around you because compassion starts at home. You should start real close. Don't start with people you can't see. It's okay to think about them and hope the best for them too. No problem. Go right ahead, please. But don't skip over the people that are right in your face. Some people do that. If you do skip over the... I propose to you to skip over the people that are right here. You won't be very effective with the ones you can't see. It's just a proposal. I might be wrong. I don't think so. I have not seen contradictory evidence so far. But I would propose the good news is that if you do take care of the people close to you, really take thorough care of them and give them your thorough attention and devotion.

[15:56]

Unlimited, unremitting, unrestricted, devotion and attention and love. If you give it to them, the ones real close, then you'll be able to move on to the ones a little bit further. And you'll be able to finally actually help people you can't even see. So, that's really neat, isn't it? If it's true. And then again, to switch over to the other side of what I'm talking about, in order to actually be able to do this kind of total devotion to the people who are nearby you, you have to protect yourself from burnout. In other words, you can't just do this any old way you feel like doing it. That won't necessarily work properly. You see, because I not only said unlimited, unrestricted,

[17:07]

unresistant, unholding back kindness and devotion to those nearby to you, but I also mentioned that it should be unremitting, unceasing. In other words, it's not just for the moment. It's for until the job's done. It's nice to give all you've got right now. There's no problem with that. Because you'll have all that you've got later too. And you can keep giving all you have. But if you don't give it with the right with the right attitude, you may think that you're running out of it. So that you give it all now and then you think you have less in the next moment. And if you give all in the next moment and keep having less and less, pretty soon you say, I don't have anything more. Unfortunately, the people may still be coming to get it. You may have developed a taste in them, a hunger. And then you have to run away. And some bodhisattvas, some enlightening beings

[18:09]

that have been working very well for people finally have to go hide because they didn't give their devotion in a proper way. What is the improper way? The improper way is to give things while holding on to some idea of what giving is. Or holding on to some idea some fixed idea of what compassion is. This is an example of an erroneous what we call leaking or burnout mode of helping others. So I'll go back and forth on these for a while to give you a feeling for it. Are you following me so far? So some people can be helpful to people very helpful for a short time that's which is good really but we want to have not only effective help but we want to have it to be sustained. We want it to become a way of life

[19:11]

rather than just sort of kind of like explosions what do you call it? It's like non-renewable resources If you have the wrong attitude towards your love your love somehow becomes a non-renewable resource or the recovery rate becomes slower than a moment. If you have the right attitude you get full recovery every moment. That's what the Buddha taught anyway. I think it's true. Thank you.

[20:19]

to my mother this morning. I'm from this area and I visited my mother this morning and she's had kind of a hard life I feel and in some ways now she says she's very happy, happier than she's ever been and it may be true, but on the other hand as my daughter says that's not saying much. It may be just that she's happier than she's been, but still she also said to me today things which made me feel like she has a lot of suffering still. She told me about my aunt who is on the verge of dying and a very painful death and my uncle who's having trouble relating to that and my cousin whose son is a drug addict.

[21:24]

So, and then my mother also said to me, she said, TV is my life, but so then I thought to myself this sounds, that kind of caught me. I thought gee that sounds terrible that TV is your life. I thought so, but again in a certain sense if I think that it's so bad that TV is her life which of course a lot of people might think that, this is kind of, I'm kind of hooked by that language. She says it's her life, except on the weekends it's not her life. On the weekends she reads because there's nothing really good on the weekends. It's just kids shows. She said it's just kids shows and I said in sports?

[22:36]

She says yeah. But then she said for a while there I got interested in the twins. She said I kind of like that guy, that little guy, Puckett. She likes Kirby Puckett. She says I like to watch him bat, I like to watch him wiggle his butt. She's got this, she went like this, she's got this kind of like, this little butt she says, it's like two little basketballs back there. I don't know if she meant basketballs because basketballs aren't so little, but she's not into sports that much. Maybe she means cantaloupes, basketballs, they're big, huh?

[23:38]

Is he big? No, he's a small one. He's little but he's got this huge, he's. The year before last the twins won the world championship, right? I live in San Francisco and we have our teams in first place this year. The San Francisco Giants and the Oakland across the bay, they're playing pretty well too, so there might be a Bay Area World Championship. I don't know if my mother would be interested to watch that or not. But anyway, she got, she somehow, she said TV is my life and then she started getting kind of interested in Kirby Puckett, in those basketballs. She's not so interested in the baseball. She said, she said, whenever they interview him, he says,

[24:45]

I go out in the field, I do my best and I enjoy it. She says that's what he says every time. She liked that. So my mother says, my life's television. I thought, oh, sad. But then when she told me about Kirby, I thought, wait a minute. Even while she has this kind of sad situation where her life is TV, she still notices the teaching of Zen right there on TV. She spotted it and she likes it. There it is, the teaching of her life, you know.

[25:53]

It's right there. Will she pick it up? Because her life then is to go sit on the couch, turn the TV on and do her best and enjoy it. It's a much harder game than baseball. Don't you think? Especially professional baseball, big league baseball is not as hard as watching TV. Almost no one can watch TV successfully. You know, almost no one can get there and do their best watching TV. It's very difficult, isn't it? I can't. But there is the challenge, folks. Maybe it's too much. Fortunately, on the weekend it's too much. She turns it off and reads books. But part of what I'm pointing out is that liberation is partly ... See, I'm supposed to ... I'm the Bodhisattva, right, seeing this suffering mother of mine. And I was tricked into thinking that life being television is kind of too bad.

[26:55]

I was bewitched by those words. I'm not saying you should watch television or not watch television. I'm saying, where does the bondage start? Who's the bewitcher? Who's the one who makes us think, oh, this is sad? And who's the one who ... how do we actually wake up to that there's a happiness, there's a beautiful teaching right there in the situation that we think is sad? As a matter of fact, as I said earlier, I propose to you that in the very situation of sadness and misery is exactly and the only place you ever find awakening. Right in the bewitchment of, my life is TV, in that kind of world is where Buddhists live. We don't need Buddhists for when there's not situations like that.

[28:07]

We don't have Buddhists like cruising around up in clouds, you know, kind of like, you know, relaxing up there, sort of wondering when they have some work to do. You know, and then they get a message from Earth saying, okay, come on down, we've got a problem for you, some people need some teaching. No, those aren't Buddhists, I don't know what they are. I think there are things like that actually. I think they're called Divine Spirits. They're cruising around and they can interact, I think, with living beings. But Buddhists are not out there floating around, sort of off-duty, so to speak, enjoying themselves. Their work is actually only occurring in the midst of people like my mother and me, who say stuff like, my life is TV. Buddha is the seeing.

[29:17]

Buddha is the awakening to the beautiful teaching that occurs during baseball interviews in a sad situation of TV is my life. That's Buddha. Buddha is the one who, Buddha is Willie Mays. Not Willie Mays, but the awakening which makes Willie Mays say, they pitch him, I hit him. They hit him, I catch him. Now Willie Mays has thousands of video cassettes in his house. Mostly, and I heard mostly stuff like Rambo. So again, I think, oh Willie, I heard about this.

[30:29]

You're a great Zen teacher, you know. You're sitting out there playing baseball so nicely and saying this neat Buddhist teaching and now you spend your time watching violent movies. This is not my idea of what Buddha should be doing. And it's not Buddha's idea of what Buddha should be doing either. Buddha doesn't have an idea about what Buddha is supposed to be doing. Buddha is turning around the story which catches us and makes us feel lousy. Not sneaking away from it and copping out, but turning it in a beneficial way. Like when this young woman was talking to me last night about how we feel when we have food in our stomach and other people don't. This is a story we tell ourselves and it's a true story in a sense,

[31:31]

but it's not meant to demoralize us too. It won't help other people who are hungry if we starve to death. But there's a way to turn our sadness at the words or the vision of suffering beings, to turn it in a way that helps them. What is that way? That way is called waking up. So one of the things that we can do is we can say the words and we can think the thoughts. When I meet living beings, I will do anything I can do to bring them happiness. Anything I can do to serve them.

[32:32]

Anything I can do to assist them. I will do these things to all of them. To each one and every one I meet. And even ones I can't see, I will do that. This is a kind of aspiration. This is a kind of thinking that we do. I say this is an aspiration which I'm very happy that people are willing to make. But I also say, okay, if you're willing to make that aspiration, then again, protect yourself from burnout. So like, again, when my mother told me about all my relative's misery and her misery, how do I protect myself from burnout? Well, I didn't do anything special. She actually helped me by telling me about Puckett. By her telling me about Puckett, somehow, it isn't that I didn't feel sorry for my mother anymore or unsorry for my mother. I actually was simply happy for my mother. That she could see that and enjoy that.

[33:34]

That she actually was enjoying him enjoying. That's all. No big deal. That's just one moment. So if you actually are willing, let's say if you are actually willing to serve beings, and I'm pretty sure, well, who cares whether I'm sure? Anyway, if some of you are willing to help beings, help some beings, do some kindness to somebody, well, anyway, although I'm not sure, I can hardly believe that you people don't do kindnesses for other people. I can hardly believe it. I know quite a few of you, and I know, it seems to me that since the ones I know in this room, I already know that a lot of those people are really kind to other people. I already know that. I mean, literally, I can see around this room people I know,

[34:37]

and I've seen them do many very kind things. So it seems unlikely to me that there would be amongst such, you know, what's like with about all, I'm sure, you know, from what I know, that there's about more than 50% of the people here I know, and I know that they're really great people. I can hardly believe that some other kinds of people have snuck in here and are infiltrating this place. Maybe one or two, but I think that's about it. And I can't even, maybe some people are hiding back in the other room that I can't see, but I doubt it. I doubt such people would come in this room. Because what would they think they're going to get out of it? Now, I think probably almost everybody in this room already is doing quite a bit of kindness. That's what I think. As a matter of fact, the fact that you have sat in this room already for

[35:39]

45 minutes, none of you have harmed anybody. That's fantastic, actually. I don't think any of you harmed anybody. Has anybody harmed themselves? Anybody uncomfortable? Please make yourself more comfortable, dear. Would you like to sit over here? Anyway, I actually, the more I think about it, the more I think that this room is full of kind... ...and therefore makes them happy that they're making you happy. Why let the world beat you into the ground? It's bad enough as it is, isn't it? Why not be made happy by what's happening, and show other people that it actually, there's something to be happy about here. Without denying the suffering. As a matter of fact, the suffering is exactly, precisely what you use to wake up.

[36:42]

That's what Buddhas eat, is suffering. But they don't leak out from it. Why? Because they don't see it that way. They're not fooled by it. They realize what's going on. Namely, everybody that's coming to us is saying, Can you wake up by this? And most of the time we say, Of course, what I'm saying is very difficult to do. But still, do you want to dance? Do you want to dance? Another way that the teacher, or the doctor, or the lawyer, or the mother, or the father, or the child,

[37:44]

or the dog, or the pwner, or the whatever, another way that they leak or have outflows is actually to have inflows, to have floods. And that's when the teacher has good students who respect her, and honor her, and pay her, and worship her. And are smart students, rich students, like to have... I've always been hoping that I would get a movie star for a student. Once I thought Ty Cashman was going to be my student. I thought, Oh good, he's pretty famous. Or maybe have beautiful students, gorgeous women and men who are my students. God, he has gorgeous students. And if they're gorgeous, well... This is called burnout by being flooded.

[38:47]

Flooded. They buy you Rolls Royces. Without even asking. I must be pretty good. I'll just test again, can I have another one? And if you get flooded in, rather than getting weaker, and [...] finally you run and hide in a hole somewhere, rather than that way of leaking out, by having flooded in, you puff up, and [...] up, until you're all puffed up. And then sometime, somebody will poke the puffed, and you will pop, and you will be splattered all over the newspapers. And that will be the end of your work to help people. These are extreme examples, most people, what they do,

[39:54]

is they leak out, and get puffed up. Leak out, and get puffed up. Leak out, and get puffed up. So you leak out, because you've got a lot of students, and then you get a good student, and you puff up. You leak out, because you lose one of your patients, and then you puff up, because you get a good student, and you get three more. That doesn't work either. It's better than the other two. But actually it's not. The other two are better, because in the other two ways, you usually get the message. You realize, gee, I came to practice Zen, or I started practicing psychotherapy, or I had kids in the first place, or whatever, I got a dog in the first place, because I loved beings. And now I hate beings. Now I'm afraid of them. And where before I wanted to embrace them, and do everything possible for them, now I'm running away from them. Something happened. What was it, I wonder? Maybe I should try to find out. Maybe something's gone wrong. Or the other one is,

[40:56]

hmm, how did I get curled up in a ball here, in the corner of my lawyer's office? How did that happen to me? Where did I go wrong? So those actually extremes are quite helpful to the spiritual path. I mean, what I mean is, that if you're going to get off, it's good to get way off, so that you can snap out of it. The problem is, in some ways, that people sort of vacillate, and are leaking, and not sure, for a long time before they get enough of a smash to realize that they basically got the wrong attitude about the whole thing. Namely, they got a fixed attitude about what it is. They think they know what helpful is. They think they know who's helpful to who, how. This is called leaking. So the thing about the practice is, please join hands with all beings and help them, but also do it with the right attitude so that you don't leak, so that you can actually have fun,

[41:58]

so that you can dance, day after day, year after year, happily. One way of doing that is to sort of basically remember that the one, this one, the one who's working for the benefit of others, is basically a figment of this one's imagination. And you can get some other people also to sort of confirm your figment, because they've got figments about you too. So it's figment of their imagination too. So between all of us, we create this illusion of somebody over here. And also the one you're trying to help is also basically an illusion. An illusion conjured up by your sense equipment. And the activity of being helpful itself, compassion itself, is an illusion. If you remember that you're an illusion, they're an illusion, and the compassion is an illusion, this will partially... If you keep thinking about this, and thinking about the ramifications about it, and thinking about how true that is, and the many, many ways in which it is true,

[42:59]

gradually you will start to plug up the leaks by which you gain and lose, by which you win and lose, by which you are inflated and deflated, by those views, the view of I'm really here, you're really there, and this is compassion. Such a view causes destruction of the project, temporary destruction, fortunately. You can recover from this stuff. Simply by changing your attitude. Like I mentioned earlier, I had this attitude, my poor mother, she told me about Plunket, or Pucket, and my attitude changed. Another way to look at it, another example of this is, another example of how you can protect yourself from burnout is, I like this example, is like when you sit down in a chair.

[44:02]

When you sit down in a chair, if you just sit down in a chair, and assume that the chair is going to be there, that kind of attitude is the attitude which causes burnout. Now, the other examples I gave, I don't know if you got those or not, but this is a little bit more subtle, because it's actually more about the day-to-day, moment-by-moment way we relate to our environment, and just in simple things, like sitting in a chair, assuming that it's going to be there, and someone might say, well, what's the matter with that? Well, that's not the problem. Is that how you feel? Or do you already understand what I'm saying? I would think that some of you might say, gee, that's kind of strict. Can't I assume a chair is going to be there? Well, I'm sorry, but in this kind of work, you can't. This is kind of like

[45:08]

high-compression work, high-compassion work. And if you make little mistakes, like assuming that a chair is going to be there, again, that might be a little bit of a mount-up. And if you do it with a chair, then you do it with people. You make assumptions about people. You make assumptions about what you're doing. Like you say, well, I'm trying to be helpful, so probably it's helpful. Or I'm trying to be helpful, so it's probably not helpful. Or whatever. Anyway, any assumption about what's happening will gradually burn you out. I mean, if you actually think, I mean, really think the chair is actually going to be there. I mean, most of the time it is, right? So I'm not saying... The point is just to sit down without sort of saying, well, gee, let's now try to sit down. Let's see if the chair is going to be there. Usually it's going to be. Let's just sit down like that. Let's go and put the little thing down there

[46:12]

and see if it's there. And, well, it is kind of there, yeah. Something's there. It's not always there, by the way. Sometimes it gets moved. Also, sometimes you lean back in the chair, right? That's quite familiar to people. You lean back, you assume the back's going to hold you up and sometimes it doesn't. The fact that it doesn't is not the problem. If you lean back in a chair and it breaks, that's actually... And I don't want you to get hurt if that happens. I really don't. But that's not a problem, assuming you survive. Or don't get hurt. That's actually kind of good because you say, hey, I assumed that that chair would hold me and it didn't. That's pretty interesting. Huh. When I first came to Zen Center in San Francisco, actually, I went to visit the president of Zen Center and he had me over for tea in his house and I sat down at his table and I went through the chair. It was one of those chairs that have an open seat

[47:16]

with a wicker work. I went right through the wicker work and he said, you must be rather dense. That's not the problem that I went through the chair. The problem is actually to day after day sit in chairs because most of the time they hold you. The problem is to sit in chairs and every chair you sit in that each time you sit in a chair you assume it's going to be there before you sit in it. That in itself can practically burn you out if you sit in chairs a lot. Not to mention if you act that way toward doors, floors, desks, pencils, people, dogs and suffering beings. If you do that, that will burn you out. But if you sit down in a chair like, geez, I wonder if the chair is going to be there

[48:16]

and if you talk to people like, I wonder if what I'm saying has any relevance to this world at all or I wonder if I should say anything or how are you feeling today or I'm not saying how are you feeling today like this is a technique and I know this helps people and I'm a good guy so I'm going to do it. No. You say how are you because actually you don't know how they are and you realize that you don't know what's going on so you better check out what's going on because you're totally you actually don't know what's happening and you don't know who's happening and what's happening and you really would like to know because you actually would like you sense that there's some suffering and you'd like to sort of help somebody and you don't know who. Well, this is my song, right? I'm not giving you a lecture. I'm singing. I wouldn't talk this way

[49:16]

but I sing like this. Another way of talking about this which is very popular in Zen this Soto Zen when I recently got this great connection with Henry David Thoreau about this Thoreau says you only need to sit still long enough in an attractive spot in the woods and all

[50:17]

the inhabitants will exhibit themselves in front of you in turn. And I don't know if it's true but I'd like to say and I hope that this is the essence of that book this is the whole this is concentrated the whole point of it if you can just sit still long enough in an attractive spot in the woods all the inhabitants will exhibit themselves in front of you by turn in turn excuse me he actually said may exhibit themselves in front of you in turn. This is another way

[51:19]

to work for the benefit of all beings in a way that protects you from burnout it's kind of like Soto Zen style it's also Thoreau the dog's not crying yet I'd like to go into this I'd like to go into this a little bit and say often times people look at Zen students sitting and they say what's this got to do with helping people this is not exactly a explanation of that but it's a song about it okay and I also there's two powers that I'd like to talk about

[52:19]

one power is the power of love the power of wanting to benefit all beings this power is really necessary in order even to understand the first thing to do you won't be able to understand what I'm talking about either if you don't if it isn't if these words don't happen in the context of love and aspiration for all beings but there's another power that's also important in this thing it's the power of stillness the power of silence those two powers are good the power of love gets you into the ballpark puts you gets you in the midst of all the suffering puts you in crisis because you take the hands of the crisis people so then you're in crisis that's what your love and aspiration gets you into then when you

[53:19]

get there then you stillness and silence to protect yourself from burnout stillness and silence will accomplish the same task that I mentioned by remembering that this compassionate being this being who's trying to be compassionate is an illusion the object of my compassion is an illusion and compassion itself is an illusion the same thing is done by simply sitting still and silent long enough in an attractive spot in the woods all the inhabitants exhibiting themselves could be understood as all the resources necessary to help beings it means the beings will bring themselves and all the inhabitants of

[54:19]

themselves before you and between you will be manifested what's happening if what is happening is manifested in front of your face between the two of you if the two of you can see what's happening the two of you will be happy that in fact what Buddhism is about is two people two Buddhas getting together and looking at what's happening together and if they both sit still or even one of them sit still the other one will come in front of them and the entire inhabitation of the woods will be manifested and they will be released from their narrow miserable constricted view of what's going on they will be released all your psychological phenomena will come before you and exhibit themselves and the point is that you don't

[55:19]

by sitting still and silent they just come before you according to their schedule not your schedule if I try to look at my problems or your problems if I say ok now you tell me your problems well actually your problems are ok me to draw your problems out don't come on my schedule like I think you've got certain problems right? maybe like if you're my student I think you're too lazy or I think you're arrogant or I think you're stupid or I think you're fat anyway you've got these problems and I said I want to come here come here tell me your problems and you start talking about different ones than I think you've got no no not those don't you want to talk about some other problems? that wasn't quite what I was hoping you'd bring up today and of course

[56:22]

some people say oh sorry what problems do I have again that you want to talk about? no really really drawing out the problems that they want to talk about not the problems that you want to talk about because I will just keep talking to people about the problems that I think they have and also if they come to tell me their problems if I try to draw out problems they'll tell me problems they didn't think that they were going to tell me about they say I came in to tell you about this but somehow the way you're talking to me I'm telling you about this what's going on? both people in other words Buddhism is not self mortification in other words you think ok I'll go and tell them all my problems you don't do the things that you think are bad you do what happens it's also not self indulgence that you don't even bring them up don't even go in a situation where anything is going to come up but if you just sit still the things will

[57:23]

come according to a schedule which is not the schedule that you would take them in but if you try to expose yourself to the information it's just going to be selected according to your selection process and it don't work that again leads to burnout you keep going over the same stuff that you think is wrong over and over and over rather than sitting still and seeing the problem that you think happening are just not coming when you sit still the problems that you usually think you're going to have are not the ones that necessarily come they do come sometimes yes and that's what bothers people so much when they sit is they get problems that they didn't think that they were going to have like they come and you come in and say I want problems I want to I'm going to have a problem of understanding this koan I'm going to have a problem

[58:23]

of penetrating into this subtle classical teaching I'm not going to have the problem of being a sleazy low quality person I'm not it's not that you're a sleazy low quality person it's that you start thinking that you are because you didn't want to deal with that so it pops right up there I've been practicing a long time I'm not going to have those kinds of problems anymore I'm beyond those I want to have these problems now and in fact if you don't sit still you can do it that way you see because when those old problems come you can say forget it I'm going over here and you walk right over there and you get new problems advanced problems sophisticated problems chic problems you know lovely problems inspiring problems

[59:24]

problems that show that you're good even though the problems only advanced people have these problems if you move you can do that you can maneuver away from the problems you don't want to have anymore that you spent enough time on those it's time to move on I've mastered this level so I'll move on if you move you can move on if you sit still you become seductive you become attractive and the beneficent message comes to you which is the thing you really need to see right now the truth comes to you and it is often exactly what you do not want to see and you've been able to avoid seeing all your life in fact that's what we've been able to avoid seeing is the exquisite truth of the beauty of this life in its

[60:24]

complete true manifestation with all beings and it will be shown right in front of our face and the first time we see it we very often run away or at least get very scared because we think we won't survive because it's a new world we think like a lot of women think they'll fall through the floor and never be seen again in this truth and a lot of men think it's going to chew them up and destroy them it won't and what you do when you when you get to that place where the truth is dawning on you the truth that you never could accept before what do you do? You just sit still you don't have

[61:25]

to push pull it on you don't have to hold on to it you don't have to hold it away you don't have to talk to it you don't have to blink an eyelash all you gotta do is just sit there this is the most difficult thing to do and now that it protects you perfectly and you don't just sit alone by yourself you sit alone in the woods with all being visiting you the truth has something to do with all these beings visiting you and saying to you and sometimes they come up to you and say the truth the truth today is that you are not sitting still but if you don't sit still a little you won't even get a hint that you're moving and finally when you do sit still you don't just get the message that you're moving you get the truth at least that's what Thoreau said and I

[62:26]

think I feel also very happy to find that in our own tradition our own Yankee tradition or honky tradition or whatever that one of us has been able to go out in the woods and wake up without hearing anything about Zen actually he probably did hear about Zen he was pretty well educated his you know his teacher was Emerson Emerson knew quite a bit about Buddhism although he didn't tell us everything he knew those two guys I think are great Bodhisattvas for us I recommend that we I recommend that we learn their teaching I think it will be a great inspiration to us both as Zen students and as Americans I think they show a way of redemption through our own in our own world

[63:26]

here and remember Thoreau went back to the city after two years at the pond he didn't stay there forever you don't have to stay at the pond well it's almost nine o'clock maybe that's enough do you understand what I'm talking about about this stuff do well

[64:26]

if you don't understand me completely well the thing that will help you understand better is work on your compassion and if the more you the more you work to benefit people the more sense this will mean to you and the more you the more you try to sit still those two practices will help a lot to understand this there's so many other songs I'd like to sing but I I think now it's time to sing some songs together and I'd like to sing some songs

[65:27]

that I think most of you know and I'd also wish that there was some more songs that most of you knew for example I'd like to sing stand by me but I don't think we know it well enough I love that song so I'll start with one that I think is more familiar to us it's written written by Oscar Hammerstein the second and Jerome Kern I believe a copyright date 19 1927 Old Man River okay it's about this wonderful river that's right nearby here the Mississippi Mississippi it's a great river I think we should have I thought we should have a session sometime run a big boat and sit down the Mississippi what yeah right right

[66:29]

a raft and we can go there's so many you know I grew up a minute up here in this part of Minnesota and I haven't seen that much of the Mississippi it's amazing I haven't but I haven't I'm sorry down by the land the monastery of the Zen Center is down in the part of the Mississippi that has zillions of islands out in it all these islands and so much just it's incredible it's like a whole huge huge world down there see up here it's like there's there's a bank and then there's water and a bank right which is nice but down there it's like just this whole world across each each section of the river has a whole world and so to go down that river together would really be something we probably just stop occasionally to get food but there it is so are you ready

[67:32]

will you sing with me I'll sing kind of loudly because I got the music here I mean I got the music here but I don't read notes very well so I mean I'll say the words pretty clearly okay Oh man river that old man river he must know something but don't say nothing he just keeps rolling he keeps on rolling along he don't plant

[68:32]

taters he don't plant cotton and em dad plants him he's soon forgotten but old man river he just keeps rolling along you and me we sweat and strain body all aching and wracked with pain tote that barge lift that bale get a little

[69:34]

drunk can you land in jail I get weary and sick of trying I'm scared tired of living and scared of dying but old man river he just keeps rolling along thank you and then one more kind of Zen song which I I think

[70:35]

by the way I mean I don't mean I but you know why you know music about the that comes from the suffering of the black people that comes from the suffering of the slaves the African slaves that comes from the people who know that they're slaves who come from the people who know that they're in prison this music is music which has taken over the entire planet the song that comes from those who know they're in prison is the best song everybody's in prison but the ones who don't know it their songs do not have soul okay

[71:42]

okay here's another song about as I say another Zen song this is about our regular practice not so emotional but I think so I think you can join me in on this one too how does it go it goes walk right in sit right down daddy let your mind roll on walk right in sit right down daddy let your mind roll on everybody's talking about a new way of walking do you want to learn how to lose your mind walk right in sit right down daddy let your mind

[72:44]

roll on mama let your mind roll on baby let your mind roll on and in particular I'd like to dedicate the merit of our meeting tonight the merit of your kindness of listening to my song and your merit of not causing any trouble for the last hour and a half and the merit of your kindness that you are giving to so many people and that you will continue to do for other people all this I'd like to dedicate to the well-being and to the practice of the founder of this temple

[73:45]

Kadagiri Roshi in that his health and his well-being will be complete and that the practice that he has dedicated his life to will thrive in this world the practice of Buddha's compassion I'm very grateful to him so I'll see you I'll see you around the Dharma okay okay ah

[75:04]

Oh [...]

[75:57]

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