we were talking about the same thing we've been talking about for the whole practice period and that is the Eightfold Path and the Eightfold Path is comprehensive understanding comprehensive thinking comprehensive speech comprehensive action comprehensive livelihood Comprehensive effort, comprehensive mindfulness, and comprehensive concentration. Did I miss any? I said thinking. That's another. You could say intention, thinking, thought. And we were talking about right or comprehensive action last week, and someone said to me that she came to Zen Center, or came to Buddhism anyway, to learn how to treat herself and treat others.

[01:25]

And I said, do you mean how to treat yourself and others appropriately? And he said, yeah. I said, do you mean you came to learn how to treat others with wisdom and compassion and how to treat yourself with wisdom and compassion? And he said, yeah. So that's why that person came to Zen Center. And so you could say, you know, this right action or comprehensive, complete conduct of the Eightfold Path is about how to treat yourself with wisdom and compassion and how to treat others with wisdom and compassion. Does that make sense? That might be what it's about. Of course, that's a possibility, right? I think that's one way to talk about it or think about it, focusing on this, that practice.

[02:35]

And so, and one of the things that comes up to me when I think about that is that there's some tendency for us to think, oh, well if I'm relating to others or if I'm relating to myself then I kind of like, maybe I have some wisdom and some compassion And then I use the wisdom and compassion to figure out how to relate to myself and how to relate to others. Maybe some of you think like that occasionally. Maybe I do. Does that make sense that you might think that way? But I don't. Actually, I try to sort of like set that aside. I more think like wisdom and compassion is like, well, you know, it's sort of what's happening. And it doesn't exactly like I have it and then I use it. Oh, that's not so bad. I think, you know, how, you know, what's the wise and compassionate thing to do? But it's not necessarily that I have it and then I'm going to use it, but more like it's available in the situation. And then how can we kind of like, you know, be in tune with the wisdom and compassion that's present and then let that wisdom and compassion

[03:51]

help us take care of ourselves and take care of others. We like to deal with ourselves and treat ourselves and treat others. And, you know, looking at your faces right now, I could imagine that what I just said was pretty much useless. And... And I thought, well, that's too bad. But then I thought, well, that's right. What I'm talking about is not something you can exactly use. It's more like, because, you know, when wisdom is something that I can use, it's not exactly wisdom. It's not like my tool, you know, I'm going to use wisdom on me or you. So if it's more like not something you can use, what I just said, but maybe something that you can attune, not with what I said, but attune with what's happening.

[04:57]

The actuality of our meeting with each other, the actuality of our meeting with ourselves, although you may not be able to use it, the truth may really be more important, or you might value the truth above what you can use. So that's kind of a summary of some summary thoughts I had about right action. Anything else I should say about that before I stop talking about it? Is that enough? Anything else you want to talk about tonight? but talk about some of the other of the path oh you want to talk about the next one okay next one is right livelihood and um in the literature uh in the traditional literature about right livelihood

[06:13]

Right livelihood is about the shortest entry on the list. At least, I would say, scanning the literature, the smallest amount of words are said about right livelihood in the scriptures. So basically, what it's about is that as much as possible, in the activities you do in conjunction with supporting your life, basically try not to be harmful and try not to be dishonest. Those are the two main things that are mentioned. Buddhist monks in old India the way they their livelihood was their practice plus begging and the begging they did as part of their livelihood but also as their understanding was there was a service that they did for the people who were supporting them they gave the people who were supporting them a chance to serve to help them and that was helping them

[07:37]

So, and I think it was also the case that if they were far away from inhabited areas where they couldn't, so there was nobody to beg from, they would try to eat food that had just sort of fallen on the ground, like fruits and berries, fruits and nuts. So that was their attempt to be as harmless as possible in the process of feeding themselves. And they also, one of the equipment they carried was a strainer, and they would pour the water through the strainer. You could say partly to clean it, so they weren't eating too much dirt, but also in case any small animals were in the water, they would then free those animals and try to drink just the water rather than miscellaneous protein that might be in there. But the main, the main, the largest amount of comments on livelihood in the Old Text, it was basically, again, basically to counsel monks in how to be honest about how they got their livelihood, because in begging there, it turns out that

[08:57]

that they thought up lots of clever ways to beg in such a way as to get more donations. And there's a whole set of tricks that somebody thought up. I don't know if anybody ever practiced these tricks, but somebody thought them up and then told the people before they would even try them not to do them. What were some of these tricks? Okay, um... There were six basic types of trickery.

[10:14]

One of them is called scheming. And there are... There's many kinds of scheming, but the ones that they mention... One of the main kinds of scheming is called rejection of requisites. So, like, you know, I'm begging, you know, and I... I go over to... to Erin's house, and she's about to give me something, and I say, actually, you know, Erin, I'm really not worthy to receive the offering. That sounds like rain. You know, I'm not worthy. Plus, the thing you're offering me, this nice rice, you know, it's really, you know, it's too nice, really.

[11:20]

For a person like me, it should be like just kind of whatever kind of crummy old, you know, dirty stuff you can find in the house, which you should give to me. This is too nice. And then the people go, oh my God, what have we got here? And they say, please sit down, sir. They sit down, and they go running all over the neighborhood and collect, you know, they feel guilty offering just this really nice rice, because they realize they have a holy person here. So they go get you much more donations. And you say, oh, no, no, no, no, really, I wasn't kidding. I don't want this good stuff, you know, and you just keep refusing it because it's too good for you. You just want a tiny little bit to support your skinny little body. And no one can exactly tell what's under there, you know. Just, you know, just the bare minimum. Don't give me all that. That's too much, and it's too much too good for me. And then they give you more and more and more, you know. And word spreads, and the donations are rolling in now. Because, well, this is a real saint, right? And people, the principle of giving is you get much more merit from giving to a high saint than you do for an ordinary monk.

[12:25]

You get merit for giving to monks, but then the holier they get, the more merit you get. Plus, if you give them more, of course, so it's a great opportunity And so, by this method, some monks would contrive to earn a very luxurious livelihood. That's scheming. Another one is called grimacing. Actually, this is one which you may not be familiar with, some of you. because American Buddhism hasn't really got into this yet so much, but in Asia, one of the ways that some monks meditate is like this. And there's nice sculptures of them doing that and stuff, and they get these deep creases right here from doing that. And... Anyway, people go, oh my God, look at that, she's really serious.

[13:28]

They just walk around all the time. It's not that they're not kind, it's just they're so concentrated and they're, you know, people chase them all over the neighborhood, please take something. Like Bodhidharma? Yeah, like Bodhidharma, right. Now, of course, it does often happen to you that if you're concentrating, you wind up looking like that, but this is like to do it to get the donations, right? So, like, nice, chubby, happy-go-lucky people, when they meet the supporters, they suddenly become very severe. And then they get the donation and, you know, go back home. Relax a little bit over their meal. And then there's indirect talk. Can you imagine what that is? Sort of talk about getting a donation indirectly. Not directly bringing it up, you know.

[14:30]

And then there's hinting. And then there's belittling. Like the person gives you a donation and you say, oh, the Prince of Givers, thank you, it's so great, you know. Do you understand? You're being sarcastic. Yeah, being sarcastic. Oh, that's really great, thank you so much. Boy, you are really generous. Wow. I'll tell everybody how generous you are. As I move through the village, I'll tell the other people you're really generous. Just a minute, maybe we do have something back there. Another one is like taking your, getting your donations and then

[15:47]

And then when people are watching, go and give them away to children where people are watching. Give them all away. That's another one. And then another one, another example, this is a rather elaborate example. This monk comes to beg at one of his regular places and the woman in the house says, I'm sorry, I really don't have anything for you today worth giving to you, so sorry. And the monk says, oh, okay. Well, can I just sit here for a little while while you, you know, just rest, while you can just carry on with your household activities. So then the woman of the house goes away for a while and then he starts snooping around the place to see what's, you know, what's going on. And he goes in the storeroom and he finds them. some sugar cane, and a bowl of sugar, and actually I guess a chunk of sugar maybe, and a string of salted fish, and a basket, and a jar of rice, rice in a jar, and some ghee in a pot.

[17:06]

And when the woman comes back he said, Oh, the most amazing thing happened. I went into your closet and I saw a snake. It kind of looked like a sugar cane, but it was really a snake. And then I picked up a stone that looked like a piece of sugar and threw it at the snake. And it broke into pieces, you know, lots of different pieces, like a bunch of, you know, like the string of the fish. And... And then it showed his teeth, you know, like the rice and the thing. It showed his teeth. And then it started to salivate, you know, like the ghee. He didn't say those things, but he drew this picture so the woman knew what he was talking about. And she said, nothing can stop you. And she gave him all this stuff. And then there's people who are just kind of, what do you call it, just ingratiating chatter. You just, you know, without any threats or anything, you just drop by and you just talk in a very flattering, ingratiating way and you get everybody all jolly and pretty soon the donations start flowing.

[18:19]

It's kind of like without maybe drinking alcohol and you do it with your words, get people kind of like high and relaxed on your talk and then they kind of like... Speak of the monks talking like bean soupy talk, flattering talk, this kind of thing. So these are some of the ways that the monks would get the donations so they didn't do any, you know, they didn't hurt any animals or anything to get the food. And they didn't steal it really, but they kind of used all these methods to get their donations. So in one sense, Zen Center fundraisers, when they heard about this, they got really excited, but not because they wanted to use these devices, but because they didn't want to use these devices. They wanted to, like, avoid, these are like, in some sense, what a fundraiser should not do. Even though this would probably, you know, in some ways would work, this is what a fundraiser shouldn't do.

[19:19]

A fundraiser should just be straightforward and say, you know, Well, we're not very worthy, but, you know, we want to do these things and we think these are good things, you know, we're practicing here, we want to practice, we need support. More straightforward, actually, although these ways work really well in certain ways, fundraisers should not, we don't beg and speak, but we do fundraise, so fundraisers should actually avoid these things. They're good ideas in one way, but in another idea, they're ways, they're things to avoid in your fundraising. And when you think about what's going on here, you direct your mind more towards treating people with honesty and wisdom and compassion rather than manipulation. Trying to be, you know, trusting your relationship with people rather than trying to make the relationship go a certain way. that, in a sense, we are here and we will be supported.

[20:20]

You know, I will be supported. And you can work for other people's support, but you will be supported. One way or another, you will be supported by your relationships. And still, within that context, you can ask for things. It's all right. It's good, actually, to ask. It's good to share yourself with people, let people know what you want. But, Livelihood is not to tell people, not to say things to people to get what you want, but to tell people what you want so that you can tell them the truth about what you want. You don't tell them the truth in order to manipulate them. You tell them the truth to tell them the truth. And if telling the truth doesn't bring you food from that person, that still your livelihood is telling the truth. And somehow you will be supported. But to say things in such a way that you'll get support, and to ask for what you want, to express your desires in order to get something, you're not really expressing them.

[21:26]

But to express them regardless of what you get, that's right livelihood. I say that's right livelihood. Yes. Yes. to a large extent I can resolve this with a parable of stone soup speaking of fundraiser but it seems like in the story of you know the soldiers adapted to be monks I guess coming to a village and essentially tricking the villagers into contributing carrots and cabbage and other things but the stone and the soup the stones and the soup it seems like scheming to me um I'm kind of like not following what you're saying. Okay. You've just listed a number of things that people should avoid in begging or in the practice of right livelihood. I don't know if I said should.

[22:27]

I'm just saying that in the practice of red livelihood, they recommend avoiding these things. And then the parable of stone soup, as I remember it. Maybe I don't know the parable, so maybe... As I remember it, three itinerants, either soldiers or monks, came to a village and... We're asking for food and the villagers said, we have no food. We said, if you have a pot, we'll just boil some water and we'll make some stone soups with the stones in the water. You mean the monks say that? Yes. They say, we'll make some stone soups. They let the people know that? Yes. And they say, gee, stone soup tastes much better if there are carrots. Yeah, that sounds like what I just said, kind of scheming. Yeah. Someone else said, well, I have some cabbage. Yeah, right. And I heard that story used a couple of times in the last couple of years here in lectures. And also it seems to be the basis of the stone soup auction.

[23:30]

I believe that's... I'm calling it stone soup auction as a reference to the parable. But it seems like that parable is an example of scheming rather than... Right, that's what it sounds like. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. That's what it sounds like, yeah. It's another example to put on this list. Unless it was really okay to have stone soup. Yeah, unless you're really having stone soup because you want to have stone soup and you're not doing it as a manipulation or a trick. You're really expressing yourself in this rather strange way. Can you share this? Huh? Can you share this? Well, whatever, you know, the point is that you tell the truth for yourself and you don't tell the truth in order to get something for telling the truth. You tell the truth to tell the truth. So that's, that's right livelihood. You tell the truth and then you see how you get supported for telling the truth. You know, you don't, you don't steal and you see how you get supported for not stealing, but you don't not steal in order to get supported.

[24:35]

You don't, you don't, you don't steal because you don't want to live that way. and you will be supported somehow. Whatever, you know, you do your thing as an expression of yourself, and when you express yourself fully, there's no room for manipulation. When you hold back in your self-expression, then that little bit that you're not expressing, you can use that to manipulate, to maneuver, to strategize. So, at the beginning of this evening I said, you know, the question is, some people come to Zen Center to learn how to treat themselves and others appropriately. When you're treating people appropriately, it's not a strategy. You don't do it for some other reason. Treating people appropriately is the goal. Not a technique. Could you talk about taking what is given?

[25:47]

A little idea around that. You mean when begging? Yeah. Well, I mean, if the person is giving to you, you're doing them a favor by receiving it. You don't have to eat everything that they give you, though. It doesn't say you have to take everything and eat it. Matter of fact, the Buddha apparently, and I've heard some stories, the Buddha would get more food than he needed, so he certainly couldn't eat all he collected, and he would share it with others. So it isn't that you say, I'm receiving this and I will eat it. So the people get the merit for this generous act, whatever you do with it. I guess, yeah, whatever you do, that's not their problem. So you might as well receive it all, and then after you receive it, and you can figure out what to do with it. Well, you share it, and some things you might receive, you might feel aren't really good for your health. Like, let's say you got just sugar canes one day or something, so you wouldn't, you know, you might, wouldn't want to eat it all, probably.

[26:53]

So there's something about to, like, if an animal was killed for you and you couldn't take it? If an animal was killed for you? Specifically for the monk? Yeah. I mean, you'd arrive at the place and you'd say, we knew you were coming and we killed the animal for you. Well, you might say, well, I, I, you might say, there's one possibility you could say, well, you're, you're interested to give to me, I accept that. I accept the gift from you, but I'm not going to eat it, and I don't, and I prefer that you not kill any more animals for me. I just thought there was a specific... What? I thought there was a specific admonition about not taking meat that was killed specifically for a month. Well, I think what they mean is meat that you had killed for you. Oh, how I... See, what some monks do, what some Buddhists do is they have somebody else kill it for them because they take the precept of not killing, so then they have Muslims kill it for them. That's what it means, you have it killed for you. And then what they do is, you're not supposed to do that, so what they do is they have it killed when removed.

[27:59]

So they have, you know, they don't actually ask for it to be killed, but somebody else asks it to be killed for them, and then they don't even have that. But of course, most of us don't go for that anymore, right? So you still, whatever number, however far down the line it goes, you might say, I'd rather not have you give this to me anymore, but I still acknowledge your generosity. But to tell you the truth, I don't need this. And so in the future, please don't go to the effort to give me this, you might say. Can you, as many people use that now for like our situation in the community, just take what's given, you know, what's offered. Yes. And would you consider it a similar situation or is it different now? You mean at Zen Center, like take what's offered and you might say to somebody at Zen Center, I respect your, I respect that you've made this food for me, but please don't get this food for me anymore. And you could do that. That's fine. And that could be like, again, for me, where my heart's at is, I would say that to the person primarily to tell them how I'm feeling, but not in order to get them under my control.

[29:14]

In other words, my feeling for telling them that is to tell them where I'm at. And to tell them, and to say, this is where I'm at, and I'm this way, but I'm not saying this to you in order to get you to do what I want. I'm saying this to you so you know where I'm at. Which, they may do what I want, but they may not. This is an act of devotion to myself and to the other person. Devotion to my own self-expression and honesty and also devotion to that person that I give them my unmanipulative self-expression. And sometimes that changes people's behavior, but sometimes it doesn't. Because what sometimes people have to do is they have to make sure that you're not doing that manipulatively. So they have to not do what you asked them to do just to make sure that you weren't saying that to manipulate them. And if they don't do what you ask, and you come back again with this expression rather than anger that they didn't do what you said, then they sort of have confidence that you're really telling them your truth rather than you're trying to manipulate them.

[30:16]

Children often have to do that with their parents. Does that make sense? So at Zen Center, some of you, I think, would like to say to the, the buyer or the tenzo, you know, please don't buy that from me. And if you just keep saying that, whenever you feel like it's appropriate to say it, they'll hear it and they'll respect your devotion to them, to yourself and to all beings and gradually that'll be what they just hear a lot of. And they'll figure out what to do with that information to the best of their you know, to the wisdom and compassion that runs through their life. But I think it's still good to all, I think basically, if a person's expressing generosity is that, I feel your generosity, I don't want it, it's not appropriate for me to receive it and use it, but I acknowledge like this is kind of a far leap but today there was a presentation to the practice leaders here at Green Gulch and a story was told about this psychotherapist who said to I believe his client his client was being very you know I don't know what expressing some very loving feelings towards him and he said this loving feeling is really coming because of neurotic reasons laughter

[31:47]

But the therapist said it to the client. He said, this loving feeling you're giving to me is coming because of neurotic reasons. But I'll really miss it when you get well and you don't show it to me anymore. So you receive it, but yet you don't use it. And you respect it for what it is. It's not really appropriate. But also, it's kind of nice, too, that the person's giving it to you. So someone can give you something, and you feel like, oh, it's so nice that you're giving it to me, and it's not good for my health, or yours, for me to take this. But you recognize the positive feeling, and you also point out the inappropriateness of using it. But not the inappropriateness of saying thank you for your positive intention. Okay? So, if there's something you don't want to eat, you know, state it like you're doing this.

[32:54]

Please be heard about it. I didn't quite hear what you said. I believe, you know, you said that somebody doesn't want to eat something for some reason of conscience or whatever. Yes. It's been offered on the menu? Yes. Yes. Okay, and you're suggesting, you know, that they say, you know, I don't want to eat this, you know, respectfully at it because it's not good for me or, you know, the environment or whatever, you know, it might be. Something, yeah. Okay. So then should you request something else? Well, let's say, you know, if you go to a restaurant, You know, they have various things on the menu, right? So, you don't order those things which you don't think are appropriate, maybe. And you order something else which you think is appropriate. So, in that case, you don't order that, you do order this. Now, in that case, you might not feel that the restaurant is giving you this food. So, it's not a donation situation.

[33:56]

But there are situations where you don't choose these and you do choose these. If it's a donation situation... In fact, what monks do is they beg at this house, this house, this house, this house. So, if you beg at this house and what they offer you doesn't seem appropriate, but you thank them for their offering, but you say, I can't use it, well, it's not weird then to go to the next house anyway. But to say to that person, I don't want that, would you give me something else? I think that's, myself, I think that's kind of, you know, not that cool. I think it's cooler just to say, no thanks, and move on, rather than saying, no thanks, and would you, now that you've, in other words, their gift has already happened, right? And I'm grateful for their gift, and I'm saying, give me another gift. Is the food we receive a gift? Pardon? Is the food we receive a gift? I can't hear what you're saying. Is the food we receive a gift? If you give me the food...

[34:58]

It's a gift from you to me. If you... I mean, in our institution, that is me. Here at Green Gold, the food we eat in the dining hall, I get... That's what I'm saying, is if Lee brings me my food, and he gives it to me with the spirit, if I want to give Reb some food, then it's a gift from Lee to me. That's what I feel. If he thinks he's giving to me... then I feel like he's giving to me. If nobody feels like they're giving me anything, then that's not a gift. A gift goes with the intention. Something that falls into your lap without the intention, there's no karmic merit there. In other words, a banana that falls off the tree, unless the tree meant it, the tree doesn't get any credit for that. I mean, it's grace, right? God maybe gets credit, but if a person... If a person intends to give me anything and they really joyfully give it to me as an act of giving to me and wanting to do something positive in me, then I call it a gift.

[35:59]

And if they give it to me by accident, he walks by, Lee walks by, and a banana falls off of his shoulder and onto my plate, I don't call that giving. And I probably shouldn't take the banana. I should probably say, Hey, Lee, you dropped a banana. And he says, Hey, you can have it. What? You walk through the dinner line and people, you know, work in the kitchen. Is this a gift or is it just falling off the tree? It depends on the intention. If the kitchen puts the food out there, you're like, okay, you pig. We're getting paid big bucks to make this food. We don't care who gets it. Even you people can eat it. Here. Then, that's not a gift. I would say it's not a gift. But if they make the food and they feel like we care about those people coming in the room here and we worked all day, all morning, all afternoon to make this food for them and this is an offering to them, then it is, in my opinion, I feel like I've been given a gift.

[37:04]

And when the people come in there and bow to the food, I guess they're bowing in the sense of they're expecting the food, but also they're saying thank you to those people, if by chance they meant that as a gift. But I think sometimes I feel that the kitchen is giving. And Dogen really strongly emphasizes that you make that food, that the greatest joy in the world is to make food for the monks. that is a great joy, and this is a great offering, and if you give it with that spirit, then to receive it in the zendo or whatever, from that kind of giving, this is a wonderful, you know, generating place in the world, I think, to have that kind of thing going on. So it's not for me to judge, but if I sense that somebody is giving, I say thank you. And if they are giving with a whole heart, then, you know, what do you call it? It's to their credit. And to my joy, too, to see them have that joy.

[38:06]

Does that make sense? Yeah. Good. I think Martin was next. Yeah, I wish I knew this when I was with my mother growing up in the Bronx. She used to feed me all this food, and I couldn't stand it after a while. It was her love. And I was a fat little kid. I didn't know how to say no. I used to throw away the food sometimes. It's just overwhelming. A Jewish mother's gift is her food. Too bad there weren't some Buddhist monks in your neighborhood. Too bad there weren't some Buddhist monks that could have come and helped you. Your mother could have given to them, too. She should see me today. I think Carrie was next. Yeah, I heard the version of the stone soup story that I heard was somewhat different. Well, it wasn't a monk, it was a woodcutter. And he was manipulating, but he could see that this woman was stingy.

[39:08]

And part of his motivation was, he was also getting Emile a place to stay that night, but he freed her from her stinginess. Yeah, well, that's a different story, isn't it? And she was happy in her generosity. So, like, you know, the pure case is, like, if you see some person being stingy with some other people, you know, like, you see somebody being stingy with your enemies, and you trick this person into giving rise to a generous thought, you know, trick them out of their stinginess so they give to your enemies. Now, this is like stone soup. And that's the spirit of the auction. Yeah. Then he's trying to, you know, get people all over the universe to overcome their stinginess and give to the Tassajara, which we don't care about, have no personal interest in. To our enemies over there? Yeah, to future generations of, you know, like, I don't know, whoever's going to take over Tassajara next. It's a tie.

[40:15]

There you go. Well, it's relevant to her question, so I don't feel guilty. Um, actually, I want to say that here, actually, Timber does ask for people to make comments and suggestions, so I think in that case, she's asking you to, you know, what would you like? I want to give you something, so what would you like? So it makes sense that you would state your preferences. Well, um, I kind of like what I call missed a jump or something, because it sounds like you're saying that somebody said you shouldn't state your preferences. Do you think somebody said that? Well, yeah, you said when begging, it wouldn't be cool to say, I don't like this, but you could give me a donut, that would be really cool. No, what I'm saying is, what I'm saying is, if somebody gives you something, and the main thing, I think, is to acknowledge their generosity. That's the most important thing. And then, if you can acknowledge their generosity and then ask again for something else, so they can be generous with you again, if that's the point, really, then I think that's good.

[41:26]

But if you're, if you switch from one, someone gives you a gift and then you like, switch to something else, but it doesn't seem to acknowledge their generosity, then I think you're kind of undermining the relationship and confusing their practice. then they kind of get confused about, well, wasn't that a gift? I mean, didn't you see that as a gift? Well, didn't I convey it to you properly? So, I mean, if you could sincerely say, you know, I really appreciate that you gave this to me, and that's really clear, but you need something else from them, you could possibly ask. Yeah, that would be okay. So, how is that different from the mistake that you made before? Remember when you said you didn't think that was cool? The cool thing to do would be to... Well, usually it doesn't work that way. I mean, usually when somebody gives you something like that, you don't need to then ask him for... I mean, it's like, sometimes a person criticizes me, right? And sometimes, if you can believe it, sometimes a person might criticize me, and I might have some rebuttal. You know? Sometimes people...

[42:26]

some argument, some disagreement, you know? Like someone, maybe somebody, actually, maybe somebody comes and criticizes me. Let's say some really big fat person comes over to me and says to me, you know, you're overweight. You know? Or something like that. Or... Something like that. I mean, I can't think of a better example. And I could say, I could say, you know... Or let's say somebody who's cramming food in their face at dinner, they turn over to me and say, you know, you're really kind of a greedy eater. So what I try to do is I try to listen, I'm not saying I'm able to do this, but I try to listen to the comment before, leave a few nanoseconds before I turn around and say, well, what about you? Because usually when somebody criticizes you, they're usually, they're pretty, they're psychotic, right?

[43:30]

So it's easy then to find something to criticize in them, right? You know those people criticize, those psychos that criticize you? So, it's easy then to come say, you know, you're criticizing me, and they're like, you know, You're just lucky I don't have you locked up, right? You can come back like that. But it's good sometimes to like take just a few moments before you make that comment. And sometimes the best criticism of you is made by a person who's got the problem worse than you. They know. They're experts at this problem, you know. Like the most arrogant person on the block can spot your arrogance like three blocks away. And they go, boom, they get you, you know, and they're right. But how about them? You can say right away, well, how about you? But I think it's nice to sort of wait a while before you say that and let it sink in. Let it sink down, a little depth charge, and so it hits the self.

[44:35]

And let it, you know, stay with it for a little while. Maybe, you know... an hour or a day, and then maybe then go back and say, by the way, you know, you have that problem sometimes as much as I do, but a lot of times you don't have to go back because the benefit of seeing what it touched and what it woke up in you is far away as the little comment of telling them they got the same problem. So similarly, if someone gives you a gift... And you want to like really... So let's say like you go see Buddha, right? Go see Buddha and say, good morning, Lord Buddha. And the Buddha gives you some really nice Dharma, right? And your tears are running down your face, tears of joy of receiving the Dharma. And you say, could I have some more, please? Hit me again. Now that was really liberating what you said last year. Would you just give me another talk? Rather than saying, come on, let's have another one. So it's kind of like, if you really appreciate the donation. I mean, I've had some good meals. Right?

[45:40]

I have. I went to Vancouver this weekend. And the people I was staying with... were really busy, but they still had me stay with them. They promised a space for me. And even though their life had changed in certain ways, so that by circumstances they were really busy, they still had me come to their house. And they didn't take quite as good care of me this time as they did last time, actually. But they... Under the circumstances of their busyness, even doing a little bit less, even giving me a little bit less attention, was actually much more attention. And they, within this space of their busy time, the attention they gave me was like, you know, it was incredible how kind they were. And how embarrassed and apologetic they were that they weren't taking better care of me.

[46:47]

And in fact, they weren't taking quite as good care of me as they did last time. But the heart that was there... I mean, I've had some good meals, like I said. They didn't give me very good meals compared to last time or compared to some of the other meals I had. But when a poor person who's poor and doesn't have much time makes time to get up early in the morning and give you a little oatmeal, sometimes the heart there is so great... that you just basically, you know, you're just really touched by that little thing. And then you don't say, well, could I please now have some yogurt? I mean, you might, if you really needed it. But I didn't need it. So I didn't ask for, you know. Matter of fact, they tried to give me more. I said, no, no, no, no. You know, they were so busy. I kind of tried to sneak out of the house to mine without breakfast because I knew I'd be indebted to them for life.

[47:49]

Which I hate. Now I've got to be generous back to them, right? So I'm just saying that if somebody's really generous with you and they give you kind of a crummy little gift that you can't even use... The generosity is sometimes so overwhelming that you might wait a little while before you ask for more, that's all. But if the generosity is well recognized and then there's a pulse there and a space and you really do feel like you recognized it and you want to ask for more, it might work out. That's what I was referring to before, though. So with these people, you know, it was really... And you heard that story about the guy that Senno Rikyu went to tea with this guy, right? This kind of like farmer. He served him tea one time. You know that story? I think it was a farmer or a laborer or somebody. Somehow Senno Rikyu, the founder of tea, the big movement of tea in Japan, tea ceremony, he somehow had tea with this farmer, I guess. And the farmer, you know, just had these very humble tea equipment, you know, this homemade stuff.

[48:55]

And Sanrikyo said, that was the best tea I ever had in my life. So for, you know, Hideyoshi to serve him tea out of a gold tea bowl, you know, is nothing compared to this guy's sincerity and clumsiness. It's the heart thing, right? So the most important thing is when we're receiving offerings and our support, is that when it does come with generosity, that we register that and appreciate that and let this person know that they hit the mark for us. And this is really inspiration to us. And then, if we do need more, then, you know, one, two, at the right moment say, you know, I feel funny saying this, you've overwhelmed me with your generosity, but I have this problem, I'm starving. You know, and I wondered if you could just give me a little bit more to eat, please. If you have anything more around there, like I'm going into hypothermia or something, just give me some warm soup or something. You might be in a situation like that.

[49:58]

That's what I meant. I'm not sure what the karmic merit is in trees dropping fruit or anything, but I guess I feel that ultimately there really is nothing but generosity. There's really nothing but giving. It's just a matter of how we perceive it. And especially when I walk outside, I feel, you know, that vegetative life isn't indulging in self-clinging the way humans usually do. So I feel like, you know, there's enormous giving. I'm not sure exactly if there's some tension in the way there is with human beings. Seems to be like a wonderful example. I agree, it's very beautiful the way nature offers itself to us sometimes. Nature offers itself to itself, it's beautiful. But I guess, you know, from my human point of view, what really moves me is when a creature overcomes its resistance. That's very moving to me. That's all I'm saying, is that... is when a basically selfish animal...

[51:06]

overcomes its selfishness and acts generously to some other being that it gets no gain from. To me that's just so moving that they overcome that. That's what I'm talking about. The practice of generosity isn't just the giving. It's the giving which overcomes the basic self-centeredness. And that's such a great joy to everyone concerned when a human being overcomes their, you know, their... Yeah, they're impediments, right, and then does this thing. Whereas trees may not have any selfishness in the first place, which is lovely too, but there isn't that triumphal generosity that I don't appreciate, I don't see that in them. But maybe I just don't notice them. Trees are really stingy too, and every time they give something they're overcoming their basic stinginess. I don't see it myself. But with human beings, we seem to have some kind of clinging, so when we overcome it, it's really great. Don't you think? Shall we go home now? I'm going to go rest in the meditative state.

[52:14]

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