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Embodied Enlightenment Through Zazen Practice
The talk elaborates on the non-dual nature of Zazen, asserting that this practice aligns with the original practices of Shakyamuni Buddha and Bodhidharma, emphasizing that the practice itself embodies enlightenment rather than being a means to achieve it. The concept of non-duality extends beyond individual practice to include the interconnectedness of self and others, with practical teachings on the execution of generosity and the first paramita, as integral to the practice of Zazen and realization of perfect wisdom.
Referenced Works:
- The Diamond Sutra: Central to the discussion of enlightenment through a thought that does not abide anywhere, inspiring the awakening of Workman Lu, who later becomes the sixth ancestor.
- The Shōbōgenzō by Dogen Zenji: A foundational text used to interpret the practice of Zazen and the concept of sitting, emphasizing the paramitas, particularly Dana Paramita (generosity).
- Bodhisattva Shi Sho Ho (Fascicle of the Shōbōgenzō): Discussed for its teachings on the integrative and liberating methods of a Bodhisattva, especially in relation to non-greed through giving.
AI Suggested Title: Embodied Enlightenment Through Zazen Practice
Speaker: Reb Anderson
Possible Title: Sesshin
Additional text:
@AI-Vision_v003
As I mentioned last night and on many other occasions, the practice of Zen is called Zazen. sitting Zen. And this Zazen is a non-dual practice. Non-dual in many different aspects. For example, the practice that you do when you do Zazen is not different from the practice done by Shakyamuni Buddha.
[01:46]
It's not like Shakyamuni Buddha did a certain kind of meditation and you're doing a different kind. No, they're not two. They're non-dual. That's what we mean by zazen, the actual practice of Buddha, the actual living Buddha. living enlightenment. The sitting that we do, the sitting that we intend to do, the sitting that we live to do, the sitting that we eat to do, the sitting that we sleep to do, the sitting that we come to sesshin to do, is not different from the sitting, from the practice done by Bodhidharma. So it's a non-dual practice in the sense that it's the same as the enlightened ancestors' practice. That's one aspect of non-dual.
[02:49]
Another aspect of non-dual is that the sitting we do is not a sitting that I do myself. I cannot do this sitting myself. And you also don't do it yourself. And I don't do it for you and you don't do it for me. It is a sitting done by everything. And it is a sitting which realizes that self and other are not really two. That's another aspect of the non-duality. The practice of Our sitting is also the same and one with our enlightenment. Our enlightenment is our meditation. Our meditation is our enlightenment. It's another aspect of its non-duality.
[03:51]
It's not a practice to attain something. It is the practice of attainment. It is attainment itself. It's not a warm-up for practice. It's not a getting ready for practice. It's not a preparation for practice. It is the practice of Buddha. People say, what is the fruit of our Zazen practice? Our Zazen practice does not have a fruit. It is the fruit of practice. In somewhat philosophical language, the school of Zen is called the school of emptiness. because emptiness is the basis of the school and the school meditates, the members of the school meditate on emptiness.
[05:13]
Emptiness is also non-duality. So the meditation itself is non-dual and the topic of the meditation is non-duality, is emptiness. The great ancestor, the fifth ancestor of Zen, Hongren. Hongren means spreading patience, proliferating forbearance. Hongren was a master who taught extensively the Diamond Sutra. the Diamond Sutra of the Perfect Wisdom. When he was up in North China teaching hundreds of monks about the Diamond Sutra, about meditation on emptiness, down south in Canton, a young man was strolling through the marketplace selling wood.
[06:33]
His name was Workman Lu, or to you, Mr. Lu. As Mr. Lu was strolling through the marketplace in this Buddhist country called China, they had various vendors selling many things. And one of the vendors was selling the Diamond Sutra, chanting it. As he walked by this chanting of the Diamond Sutra, the chanter just happened to be on Section 10C of the Diamond Sutra. And when Mr. Lu heard Section 10C, he was deeply awakened. Section 10c of the Diamond Sutra is, a bodhisattva, an enlightening being, should produce a thought which does not abide anywhere.
[07:53]
A thought which is not supported by sights, sounds, smells, touches, tastes, or mind objects. When Workman Lu heard that, he woke up. He went to the person who was chanting it and said, hey, where did you hear that? He said, well, it's a Diamond Sutra, and if you want to hear more about that, there's a great ancestor up in North China. He's teaching the essence of this sutra. You go check it out with him. And Mr. Lu decided to go visit the teacher in the North. However, because he was awakened so profoundly at that time, I think some kind of an aura started to radiate around him, and people started to notice it and gather around him. Even though he was young and newly awakened, people could spot it and asked him to teach them what the Dharma was.
[09:00]
So, fortunately or unfortunately, he acquired about a thousand students on his way. to visit the ancestor and actually stopped his pilgrimage and started teaching. After teaching for some time, he realized that he had more study to do and he told his disciples that he had to do so and left them and went to study with the fifth ancestor. Their meeting I will tell you more about later. I'm telling you this now to point out that in some sense what Zen is famous for is this producing a thought which has no home, has no residence.
[10:09]
And the sitting is that way too. During the early part of Sashin, people are a little sleepy because we've been working so hard all summer By the end of Sashin, people are not so sleepy. So sometimes at the beginning of Sashin, I think, I have a little bit of a problem because I feel like mumbling because I don't want the people who are asleep to miss what I have to say. But then I feel that would sort of punish the people who are awake. So I have a little bit of a problem. I don't want to say anything really important. So I'm starting out by pointing to this kind of essential zazen practice.
[11:34]
But part of my plan for this session is to also point out that this non-dual practice although it is in some sense the essential thing that a person should do for themselves to make themselves happy. For the achievement of Buddhahood, we also need to do practices which relate to other people and which benefit other people. So in a sense, the practice that I've just been talking about, the practice of producing a thought which abides nowhere, the non-dual practice is what we call perfect wisdom practice. And it is the sixth of the six perfections.
[12:38]
It is the sixth And it is the one that attracted most of us to Zen when we heard about it. But there are other practices which support this sixth practice, which are generosity, ethical conduct, patience, courageous effort, and concentration. These five are the ground upon which this thought, which abides nowhere, is born. So I'd like to talk about these other five also to give some sense of how to create the conditions, the circumstances in which this wonderful non-dual practice can actually happen. Does that make sense?
[13:47]
So, right there in the center of the room, as I pointed out, is the great bodhisattva, pleasant splendor. In his hand he holds something like this, a nyoy. Oftentimes, Manjushri has a sword. It's the sword of non-duality, the sword of emptiness. the sword of perfect wisdom. Again, for the Zen school, most people would say, what is the bodhisattva people think of first for Zen? Usually Manjushri, because Manjushri is the bodhisattva, the enlightening being that lives in the meditation hall. But recently, when a Tibetan teacher, Tara Toku Rinpoche, was visiting us, he felt, I really respect your non-dual practice.
[15:09]
You should keep doing that. Zen is wonderful in its emphasis and development of penetrating insight. So penetrating, you can't even see it. Zen is very good that way. One of our students said one time, at Muktananda's place, they shake. At the Rochester Zendo, they have Satori. At Zen Center, we have bad backs and babies. Deeply penetrating insight. Not even, not hindered by shaking or Utterly inconceivable and with no traces.
[16:10]
No traces of enlightenment here. This is the perfect way. However, such a perfect way is supported by other practices which do kind of leave traces in a way, at least when you talk about them at first. So he recommended we work more on the other aspects of practice and let the wisdom kind of still be there, but go back and work on compassion. And the compassion is particularly developed through generosity, through giving, through ethical conduct, through patience, through courageous effort, and through concentration. Of course, our non-dual practice is non-dual with those too. But again, usually in Zen, you don't hear so much talk about those. So I'd like to balance a little bit this time and put more emphasis on the first five.
[17:15]
Constantly remembering the sixth. The perfect wisdom is guiding, always guiding the other five. That's my plan. And one more thing from Manjushri today. He just reminded me. I forgot one point. Thank you. And that is, one time Manjushri was with a Shakyamuni Buddha and Manjushri said, Lord Buddha, have you heard the teaching of the inactivity of all things? And the Buddha said, no, I haven't. And Manjushri said, it's wonderful teaching, it's fabulous. And Buddha said, well, please tell me about it. And then Manjushri gave Buddha a little lecture about how everything really doesn't move.
[18:23]
Manjushri said many things to Buddha, but I'll just say a little bit for now. Again, this is another sample of non-dual practice, okay? Manjushri said, a condition of being a living being is precisely what we mean by awakening. In other words, you as you are, the actual condition that you're in, moment by moment, that is precisely what is meant by awakening. For a living being to be awake, for a living being to be Buddha, is just not to move. not to move from what it is, to be precisely what it is.
[19:36]
But to be a living being precisely as a living being is, to not move from what you are, is not so easy. What's easy is to move. What's easy is to be something other than a living being. It's much easier to be better than a living being or worse than a living being than just to be a living being. So, these first five paramitas are to help us simply be a living being. to help us simply not move from what we are. Okay? So the first paramita, the first perfection, is the perfection of giving.
[20:40]
Dana paramita. Dana means giving. Paramita means perfection. Or giving which has gone beyond. Giving which has gone beyond any idea we have about what giving is. Giving is also sometimes translated as generosity, liberality, what else? Manificence, and so on. But these other translations in some sense don't indicate the incredible variety of the things that an enlightening being gives. It's very important that you don't have a limited idea of giving. Having a limited idea of giving is a form of self-clinging.
[22:00]
Self-clinging is the thing that interferes with sitting still. So giving and the other paramitas are ways for us to overcome self-clinging. When we have overcome self-clinging, then the sitting we do is the same as awakening. I'd like to read a little bit to you from one of the works of the Zen teacher, Ehe Dogen. It's a fascicle of his Shobo Genzo called Bodhisattva Shi Sho Ho, the four integrative methods of the Bodhisattva, or the four liberating methods of a Bodhisattva.
[23:16]
We have several translations of this fascicle. So if you want to study it later, you can look at several different translations. However, they don't seem to vary too much. It doesn't seem to be a particularly difficult fascicle. Now, one thing I'd like to also mention is that it is taught by ancestors of this lineage that the Shobo Genzo is primarily a big footnote, a 95-chapter footnote on sitting. In 95 chapters, the ancestor Dogen is basically trying to help us understand what it means to just sit. So my My intention, too, in studying these paramitas is to help us understand sitting still.
[24:24]
And when I read the Shobo Genzo, I always think, how is this fascicle, how is this teaching, how does it encourage me and others? How does it help me just sit? The ancestor says, giving means non-greed. Non-greed means not to covet. Another translation does it the other way around. It says, giving means not coveting. Not coveting means not being greedy. Covet means, is related to the word cupid. It means to desire.
[25:32]
It also means excessive desire or craving. So the first paramita means non-craving. And craving is the source of the clinging. Craving is the source of self-clinging. So right at the beginning, we have the antidote to all our problems. Giving means not to covet.
[27:01]
Sitting means not to covet. That's what sitting is. Not to desire anything. Of course, if you're sitting, you may desire a great deal. You may desire the sun to come out. It's cloudy today. It's not sunny here. If I notice that it's cloudy, that's pretty much just that. But it's pretty easy to slip from noticing it's cloudy to wishing that it was sunny. Are you able to observe that? Slight... Notice it's cloudy and then this little thing comes up there like, gee, it would be nice if it was sunny. It would be more colorful or... On the other hand, if it was sunny, you would be less happy maybe being in this room. You wish you were outside.
[28:07]
But notice how when it's cloudy, I don't know if you feel this way, but I'll notice myself, how when it's cloudy, it's easy to slip very quickly into, gee, I wish it was sunny. Now, sitting in this zendo, day after day, period after period, some of you, some of us, may wish sometimes a period would end. We can move our legs. Or, Sashin's aura just started recently, so I don't know if your wishing was over yet. Have you got to that point yet? But at a certain point during Sashin, almost everyone wishes it was over. Not because necessarily they're even in pain, but just they'd like to get back to more productive activity. Or whatever, make a telephone call or take a walk. It usually happens that people want it to be over sometime before it's over.
[29:16]
Isn't that right? Those of you who've sat Sashin, haven't you sometimes had the experience of wishing that it was over prior to the end of it? What? Oh, yeah, and when it's ended, of course, you wish just a couple more days. This is called desire. Wishing for... You know, sometimes we say covet, and they say sometimes covet literally means to desire, but it has also acquired the idea of coveting, desiring something of an other's. Like, we come here... We make a tremendous effort, each of us individually and as a whole community, to provide the opportunity just to be here moment by moment where we are, day after day. Right? And even after that tremendous effort to provide the circumstances to just be here, we still wish we were someplace else. Not all the time, but sometimes.
[30:26]
And that's very useful to see how ridiculous that is that we do that. I came to Zen Center to study Zen with a teacher because I was actually trying to study by myself in Minnesota. And I felt a need for somebody who knew something about what was going on. So I heard about that there was a Zen center where there was other people practicing and where there was a good teacher. So I came and met Suzuki Roshi. And then over the years, I learned various ways to insinuate myself into his life and sort of be under his nose all the time. I worked really hard to get opportunities to be with him. And so I did get opportunities to be with him. And sometimes I got opportunities to be with him all by myself, just him and me. Like, you know, he'd say, come into my room.
[31:30]
And I'd go in there, and he'd close the door. And there we'd be, the two of us. And as soon as I got in there, I'd try to get out. And I thought to myself, how ridiculous this is. Here I've made this tremendous effort, traveled thousands of miles, put in years of sitting, you know, manipulated circumstances so that I could spend time with this person. Now here I am in the room with them, and where do I want to be? I want to be outside the room. Of course I was very appreciative to be in the room. Oh, how grateful I am, how lucky I am to be here. But actually, I was trying to get out of the room. Why? Why couldn't I stand just to sit there in the room and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity? Because I coveted this other person called me out in the hall. I desired something other than reality. But he wouldn't let me go usually, so that was, it would be, I get several experiences of that, of being so grateful to be there and trying to get out, grateful to be there and trying to get out.
[32:43]
And sometimes I would kind of give up and just be able to stay there with him. And then he would let me go. There was some pretext usually about what he wanted to talk to me about or what he wanted to teach me. But really, as soon as I would just settle down, the teaching of the lesson would be over and I would be excused. Because that's really all a teacher has to teach. It's just to teach you to sit still and be yourself with no ambivalence, no running away from yourself. But You have to run into that situation like you did in order to experience that you try to get away from it once you actually drive yourself into it. So this is a very auspicious situation here because you have signed up for this and now you don't like it.
[33:47]
I don't either. So that's basically what giving is. Giving is basically not being covetous of something else, not being desirous, not being stingy, not being stingy, not being holding back in yourself from being yourself. It is to give away unneeded belongings to someone you don't know. Giving is to give away things to a stranger. Right? Even in Christianity and other religions too, the idea you give things sometimes to a stranger. You don't even know, you won't necessarily even see them again.
[34:51]
To give to a stranger. to offer flowers blooming on a distant mountain to the Buddha. Or again, to offer treasures you had in former life to sentient beings. So you can give... generosity can be, or giving can be, you give a flower up on the hill to Buddha. You don't have to own it to give it. You can also... give things that you had in a former life, treasures you had in a former life. You can give those too. Can you do that? Can you give a treasure from a former life? You're allowed to. That's called giving. That's part of the inconceivable range of giving. Whether it is of teaching...
[35:57]
or a material, each gift has its value and it's worth giving. Even if a gift, even if the gift is not your own, there is no reason to keep from giving it. Stuart is sitting here in front of me. His name is Medicine Mountain. He has a raksu around his neck. I will give every one of you his raksu. It's yours now. Also, I give you Bill's raksu. Also, I give you my okesa. Also, I give you my wife. Is it all right with you if I gave your rock so away?
[37:03]
It was hard at first, but it's okay now. Thank you. The question is not whether the gift is valuable, but whether there is merit. This is a... Like you've heard the story... Have you heard that... We have a story in English anyway. Many of you are from overseas. We have a story called The Littlest Angel... And it's a story about this little angel that gives presents to God. And the other big, it's a little angel, just a baby angel. And then the big angels give these fabulous gifts. I don't know what they gave, but, you know, maybe they gave like thousand-mile jewel staircases or something. Or a hundred million gold pianos or something. And the little angel, what did the littlest angel give? Does anybody know? I think maybe a little box with a feather in it, in a rock or something.
[38:05]
It's not so important what exactly what you give, but of course the spirit you give it with. And the spirit you give it with, what's the spirit you give it with? I already told you, what is it? Huh? But what is the spirit of generosity? What is it? Non-clinging, non-greed. You give it not with desire. You just give it. In other words, you just do it. Just give. That's it. That's the spirit. That's the merit. Not what it is. And also, when you just give it, there's no limit on what you give. So you can give a flower on the mountain that's far away.
[39:14]
Of course, it is far away, so you can't actually get your hands on it and give it to somebody. It is a far away flower. But you can still give it the only way you can give it. Just give it. Not think about what does that mean or how can I do that or what would they like it. Just give it. This is called non-clinging. Now, as I said, when Dogen Zenji teaches anything, he's always teaching about zazen. So now he's teaching about the practice of giving. And what does he say? When you leave the way to the way, you attain the way. At the time of attaining the way, The way is always left to the way. You can say this again by substituting things for the way. The way means awakening, or the way means just sitting.
[40:20]
When you leave just sitting to just sitting, you attain just sitting. At the time of attaining just sitting, the just sitting is always left to just sitting. But yet we have to do this, we have to leave the just sitting to just sitting. We have to not cling to our method for just sitting. Giving is how, we just sit. Letting it not exactly do itself because it doesn't just do itself because we have to let it do itself. It's like, again, I've mentioned this to some people.
[41:24]
This is a I think this is an unusual idea, this thing of letting something, letting the way attain the way. Another way of saying is when one leaves the way to the way, one attains the way. When attaining the way, the way is necessarily being left to the way. So what I hear him saying is that the way attains the way. The just sitting attains the just sitting. But the just sitting or the awakening attaining itself needs us to be there to let it happen. Even though we don't make it happen, we have to be there to witness it.
[42:29]
it doesn't do it by itself, and we don't do it by ourselves. So it's like a Buddhist teacher or a Buddha walks next to the disciple. When the disciple falls down, the Buddha doesn't catch the disciple and stop the disciple from falling down. Now you could say, If the student is walking with the teacher and the student falls down and the teacher catches the student before the student falls down, then the student doesn't fall down. That's just a case of the student not falling down. But when the student's going to fall down, the teacher lets the student fall down. Once the student has fallen down, the teacher does not help the student get up. The teacher lets the student get up by him or herself.
[43:41]
This is not easy to let them do it by themselves, but that's called letting the way attain the way. However, the teacher's there. The student falling down without the teacher there is different than when the teacher's there. Because the student might think, I fell down, but if my teacher was here, my teacher would have caught me. And once they fall down, if the teacher's not there, they probably think, if my teacher was here, my teacher would help me up. But if the teacher's there and the teacher lets the student fall and the teacher doesn't help the student get up, then the student knows to learn something. Namely, he didn't stop me from falling down and she didn't help me up. This is Buddha. One allows one to fall and one allows one to stand up.
[44:45]
one as a human being, when one sees one fall, especially someone you love, you want to catch them. If you can catch them, fine, but you can't catch them sometimes. And when you can't catch them, when they fall, you have to let them fall. This is called what's happening. This is called the way it is. Now, then once they fall, as a human being, you naturally want to lift them up. You'd naturally desire that they would get up. You'd naturally desire to be helpful. But the greatest help is to let them get up themselves, and to learn how to stand up on their own two feet. You're standing there with them, feeling the human desire to try to help them up, and not giving into it, and letting them do it themselves.
[46:01]
That is what's called compassion, born out of what is happening. It is called giving. When treasure is left to treasure, treasure becomes giving. When the student falls on her face and is left to falling on her face, this is the treasure being a treasure. This is giving. You give yourself to yourself and you give others to others. You give yourself to yourself and you give others to others.
[47:11]
That's not easy. That's called giving. To give even a phrase or a verse of truth, it will be a wholesome seed in this and other lifetimes. Give your valuables even a penny or a blade of grass, it will be a wholesome root for this and other lifetimes. The truth can turn into valuables and valuables can turn into the truth.
[48:23]
This is all because The giver is willing. In this setup here in the Zendo, we have certain forms. For example, one person gets to be the leader of services and gets to go up there and make the offerings to the Buddha. And the head server gets to bring in the Buddha's breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well, his breakfast and lunch, anyway. Manjushri receives it for Buddha during Sashin. But I boldly give you my permission to make offerings to the great Bodhisattva if you wish. Every period of Zazen you come to, if you want to, you can make an offering.
[49:27]
For example, you can bring in a piece of dirt and put it on the altar. You can put a penny on the altar. You can put a piece of paper that says some truth on the altar. You can also sit on your seat And let yourself be yourself. And let the other people here be themselves. And you can give that to Buddha. Every period you can make that donation. That wonderful donation of you being you at the beginning of each period. Give it to Buddha. Give it to Manjushri. Give it to me. Please give me you being you every period. And if you give that to me, I promise I'll try to give you back me being me That may not be what you want, but that's what I would be most happy to give you back. Give anything.
[50:34]
At the beginning of each period, give anything to Buddha. Give anything to all sentient beings. Anything, but give something. But my favorite gift for you to give is to give yourself being who you are at that moment. And please give, allowing others to be others. As I said last night, this room is chock full of geniuses. This room has 50 or so treasures in it. Because of our human nature, training and kindness to others, you're all sitting there.
[51:37]
Whereas you could, if you felt like it, stand up and do something unbelievably fabulous and everyone would think you were a tremendous genius. But you're not expressing that in such a way that everyone has to notice it. We had a talent night the other night and people exposed their genius. The group said, okay, please, let's see it. And they dumped their genius out right in front of us. We got to see geniuses all over the place. It was a great thrill. But just because people aren't doing a big performance, don't forget that they are doing a big performance, that they're actually manifesting their genius right now. During Zazen, we keep our eyes open, right?
[52:49]
Always. We try anyway. And one of the reasons we do that is to stay awake. But the reason for staying awake is also, well, I won't say that. Anyway, part of the reason to open your eyes is to, even though you don't look around, is to appreciate the other's practice. To learn to see how much there is to appreciate in the other people in this room. Buddha said, if you are to practice giving to yourself, how much more so to parents, spouse, and children.
[53:51]
Therefore, you should know that to give to yourself is part of giving. Don't leave yourself out. To give to your family is also giving. Even when you give a particle of dust, you should rejoice quietly in your own act, because you correctly transmit the merit of the Buddhas. To take one particle of dust, you don't even have to put it on the altar. Just go outside and pick a particle of dust up. or don't even pick it up, just think about the particle of dust and offer it. At that time you transmit the merit of all the Buddhas. Anybody have any doubt about that? Excuse me for accenting it that way, as though how dare you doubt it.
[54:56]
But just imagine, if you don't want to do it, just imagine even doing it is pretty good. Imagine lifting up in your heart a particle of dust and offering it to Buddha. Can you feel that that is the heart of Buddha? Yes? Well, you don't have to actually hand it over. You can take what your mom gave you for your 16th birthday, you can bring it in and put it on the altar, and after you give it, you can take it back.
[56:01]
You can give it back to yourself. You don't even have to bring it into the room. You can just think right now of that thing your mom gave you for your 16th birthday. You can just think of it and right now just give it to me. You don't have to bring it over here. But you can also bring it over to me. Indian giving is okay in Buddhism. And why do they call it Indian giving, folks? Because Indians do that. They do give stuff and take it back. That's why it's called Indian giving. They thought it was all right. So in Buddhism, you can give stuff and take it back. And then you can give it again. If you've only got one thing to give, then you're going to have to, you know, use it over and over. And really, you only do have one thing to give. What you are. What's happening is really the main thing you have to give. And you give it by letting what's happening happen. And letting what's happening happen means you don't wish for something else to happen.
[57:05]
So fundamentally, giving is not craving something else. That's the main thing you have to give. Now, if you actually want to give me something and don't expect to take it back, okay, then you should ask your mother first. if she gave it to you. Okay? And if she says, no, don't give it to him, I gave that to you for your 16th birthday, then don't give it to me. Give me something else. Give me your mother. That probably she'd feel all right about. Give means not that you lose anything, not that you gain anything. Give means nothing. that you're not greedy for something else. And practicing giving manifests not greed. It's exercise. It works those not greed muscles. There's actually muscles. You've got muscles on your body.
[58:07]
You've got muscles in your mind. Those muscles are non-greed muscles. You should use them for non-greed. Namely, you should use them for being what you are. That's what they're best for anyway. Your biceps are really good for being biceps. Your brain is good for thinking. Use it for what it does. And let it go at that. That's called just sitting. So, I beg you to practice giving this session and for the rest of your life. As often as you can, give You know, give anything as often as you can. Yeah.
[59:21]
Giving yourself, letting yourself be yourself, is one part. The other part is let others be themselves. Okay? Now, Peter asked the other day, what about a comic bomb? Okay? So what about a person who's violent or dangerous? Okay? Giving is to let yourself be yourself. Namely, yourself be a person who thinks they see a dangerous person. Let yourself be a person who sees a dangerous person. Let yourself be somebody who sees atomic weapons. Let yourself be that. Don't try to be somebody who doesn't see those things. Don't try to talk yourself out of what you are. That's generosity. Also, let what you see be what you see. It doesn't mean you like it. It doesn't mean you accept it or approve of it. If you see someone hurting someone else, it doesn't mean you approve it.
[60:49]
It means that in this moment, you accept that what you see is someone hurting another person. It is the most reasonable thing to do, namely accept what's happening. It doesn't mean you approve of it, though. You may strongly disapprove of it. But you must accept it. That's generosity. In the next moment, you may do something about that. But if what you do is based on being greedy and wishing that what you saw wasn't happening, then your action which follows will be based on ignorance. If you can accept what you see and act from that, act from generosity, you will be very effective as a person in the world. You will make the correct move because you will be moving on what is rather than on what you wish, rather than on greed.
[61:52]
So you must accept that this is happening and really let it completely be that. So, like, you know, in the Talent Night, Ron took this old song, which goes something like, I don't know how it goes, but something like, how does it go? When you're tired and weary. Huh? What? Where is he? Do the whole thing, would you? I mean, the part about the tired and weary and, What? Yeah, would you do it, John? No, I'd like you to sing it if you don't mind. Would you mind? When she's weary, when that little girl gets weary, wearing that same old shabby dress,
[63:09]
And when she's weary, you try a little tenderness. That's fine, thanks. So that part about when she's weary, try a little tenderness, okay? First of all, excuse me for being emphatic. First of all, First of all, you gotta admit the weariness. You gotta admit the pain. You gotta admit the discomfort. It doesn't say, you know, after you avoid the weariness, then try a little tenderness. It doesn't say after you try to get out of the weariness, try a little tenderness.
[64:13]
Once you completely accept that what's happening is weariness and pain and discomfort, then try tenderness. Then it will be effective. Tenderness naturally flows from admitting the weariness. Or as Ron rewrote it, when she's weary, try a little emptiness. Emptiness is tried once you give to the situation. Once you have completely settled into your circumstances, this is giving. And once you give, then try emptiness. Emptiness will not work if you're not generous. If you're not giving yourself to yourself and letting yourself be yourself, emptiness won't work. If you don't let others be themselves, emptiness won't work. Because emptiness exactly happens when you completely give yourself to just what's happening.
[65:17]
So our sitting practice is to give to reality, to give to suchness, to totally give yourself to this. That's giving. You must do this. And then try emptiness. Then emptiness will come right in there. And you find emptiness will be a great relief. But it can't come to your aid until you're really giving yourself to this. So this is how giving is the foundation of sitting. The mind of sentient beings is difficult to change. The mind of sentient beings is difficult to accept completely. But if you can accept the mind of this sentient being, that is precisely what Manjushri means by awakening.
[66:29]
You should keep on changing the minds of sentient beings from the first moment that they have one particle to the moment they attain the way. This should be started by giving. For this reason, giving is the first of the perfections. What is difficult to transform is the mind of living beings. This giving is to intend from having put forth the first chattel and thus begun to transform the mind of living beings, to transform it even as far as the attainment of enlightenment. In the beginning, it must be done by giving. For this reason,
[67:33]
Giving is the first of the perfections. To transform our minds is very difficult. But the transformation happens when we let ourselves be ourselves. The change comes when you give yourself to what you are. There is a change, but it comes from giving to this and letting others be that. So I talk really long, I'm sorry, but I felt I needed to make this very clear from the beginning what sitting is and how the paramitas help us understand what it means to sit still, what it means to be ourselves.
[68:47]
And this way I will talk about each of the paramitas to try to give more understanding of how to sit and why sitting is compassion or how sitting is compassion. . the change happens in the next moment. At the time of giving, there's no change.
[69:51]
So in other words, giving is to accept change. And if you can accept what's coming up now, which is the latest change, that produces the next change, which is just what's happening anyway. So we're just talking about waking up to what's going on. And giving is just a way to help us be with what's happening. That's all. Giving is letting change happen, yeah. And therefore, giving lets change happen. You want the change, you want people to be free from suffering, let that change happen, then give. And then that can happen. It does happen. People are constantly being freed from their past suffering and get new suffering. But it only lasts for a second and you get another one. Until finally it's not suffering anymore. Is that
[70:55]
They're the same thing. You know, I talked about the sixth ancestor. I didn't tell you that Mr. Liu became the sixth ancestor. he finally did get up north and meet the fifth ancestor. And he became the sixth ancestor. Then after he was the sixth ancestor, then the seventh ancestor came to visit him. There were several seventh ancestors, but anyway, he finally got some good disciples. And when the, what's his name, Huairang Huaihai came to visit him, the sixth ancestor, Mr. Lu said to Huairang, he said, what is it that thus comes?
[72:19]
What is this that thus comes? You know that story? And Huairang said, As soon as I say it's this, I miss the point completely." And the ancestor, Mr. Lu, said, well, does that mean there's no practice and transformation or change? And he said in Zen style, I don't say there's no change. I just say the change cannot be defiled. Okay? So this change that happens as a result of giving is not defiled. But we don't say there's no change. So it's in that situation that we're talking about the change. Okay?
[73:21]
And between the question, what is it that thus comes, and his answer was eight years. So to really understand this means that you have to... Have you been practicing eight years? Of course you have. So you can understand it today. But anyway, this is an essential point, is how it is that if you can accept what's happening, if you can give completely, and let yourself be yourself and let others be others, we don't say that there's not a change as a result of that, but just that that change cannot be defiled. So it's, I think Lee is trying to say, we don't want to defile that change. We don't say that there's not a change, we also don't say there is a change. We don't want to defile it by saying it is or it isn't. So I can say, well, there is a change, but I really don't want to say there is a change.
[74:23]
I'll just say, like the ancestors, we don't say there's not change. But if there is a change, what does it come from? It comes from just sitting. Is it any different from the just sitting? It's not any different. It's not the same. It's not defiled by being the same or different. So we have to figure this out. Let's settle on this one, too. I just found this piece of paper. It says, in my cosmos, there will be no fever of discord. In my emotions, all my emotions will function in harmony and kind feelings. Signed, Crazy Cat. May I?
[75:20]
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