Did you know that story about a monk who came and asked the great Zen teacher, Jiaojo, if a dog has Buddha nature or not? Illiterate, Kohan illiterate. And then Jiaojo said, Mu. And then this week, the last two weeks, your assignment was to do something with Mu. To use it. So how have you used it?

[01:07]

How have you been going? I couldn't use it. Let's just do it. Grace. Martha. Brian. What's your name? David. David. I forgot your name. Liz. What's your name? David. Gloria. Gloria. And is your name Mark?

[02:10]

Kirk. Kirk. Marion. Jan. Jan. Carolyn. Carolyn. Susan. Susan. Corshill. Corshill. And Kathy. Kathy. Robin. Robin. Gunter. Gunter. What is your name? All of them. We're all up. All of them. You dabbed rug? You dabbed right. Patricia? Patricia, there's seats up here and you can probably come up here and study it. Beverly? Beverly. Spencer? Spencer. You know which one Spencer is? It's got long hair.

[03:15]

And your beard. And your beard. And Dasha. Dasha. Marianne. Marianne. Ann. [...] Yeah, what would you say? Yeah, it would make it more interesting. What is your name? Beresford. Beresford? Per-tipton? John Beresford Per-tipton. Remember, he gave away the million dollars. Vena. Harry. Harry. Harry. Arkeem.

[04:17]

Arkeem. Atali. Wes. Wes. And Stephen. Stephen. Pat. Pat. April. April. Kathy. Natalie. Misha. Sonia. Sonia. Donna. Donna. Don't count it. You're not upset. You're not upset. You're not upset. No, no, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no, no.

[05:21]

Fala. Fala. George. So how is Moon going? Yes? I was in something like the last 30 sessions you were serving. you know, making this call on all the other ones before, and I think, really without the lighting lighting, so really, I put those up in my friend. I love reading it in my life. You know, this one, this one, oh, my, Brett Stewart, I feel like, sweetie, I just can't show up. Yes. I thought, oh, I, you know, really. Well, no, maybe not through any of it.

[06:27]

Well, I just thought it was maybe the first thing that you talked about when I was like, I've been sick with someone out there. The first thing I talked about was the story, too. Pardon me? The story itself? Well, now it's changed, and now it's just been an issue. And now it's been some struggle with it. So what's the story about? Especially the moon part. Something about it. Yes, also. Has that not done? Yes. What's has, has not done. Why would the Buddha bring up such a thing? Such a moment on it. We got it. That's what most of them knew. It didn't believe.

[07:28]

The bird race set up as you believe in your personal assistance. And what is this for people who believe in personal existence? Chicks it up. Chicks it up? It wasn't like torturous. It wasn't like torturous? What's the torturous part? I don't know. Or maybe you, uh, fortress of the pleasantness, because everything that seems pleasant about it destroys and fiercely attacks everything that I, uh, think about myself.

[08:34]

So tell us about the joyfulness of it. There seems to be a point to this attack on myself. I can't quite put my picture on, but it's a direction I am drawn to. The joy is basically seeing unsupported. Joy and seeing unsupported. There's a new .

[09:44]

I need to get hearing about this audio. Black. The joy of this of you being tortured, is that what you say? And then that joy attacks what you believe? No, the joy is seeing Mu attack myself.

[10:50]

How did they enjoy seeing Mu attacking their self? Well, part of it is seeing that it is showing me that I can ultimately not take myself so seriously and even maybe Ex-stablish it. But part of it is also, uh... A blissfulness about, uh... I had a, uh...

[12:05]

profoundly different understanding prior to the last week of that, but it was very shameful for me, actually. And after we had talked about it in class, about two weeks ago, was that? Okay. When we talked about it then, I just, overwhelmed by how one-dimensionally I was looking at this. And I was, I was, it was joyful for me to, in the sense that I was, it was degrading or humiliating to myself to think that I had so completely missed the point where that I was so focused on one particular way of looking at it.

[13:07]

And it was joyful for me to open the door and see that I had been missing a huge part so that there was a fact of joy in myself. Thank you. There's a kind of rhythm going on in this room. And of course, always. And it's hard to stay with it.

[14:10]

And I felt you had it going there for a while. It's kind of like you was jumping a rope. It was hard to, and I couldn't I almost thought I could invite you to jump into the rope that you were spinning yourself. But I'm watching for this rope to try to invite you to jump in at various points. I was going to ask people to do it, but then I felt like it lost it. I was going to ask, we were talking for a while there, and I was almost going to say, probably makes me say,

[15:13]

Are you serious? And then I thought, no, I'm not going to talk to him about that. There's somebody else who's talking. And I was going to invite that person to speak. But I lost it. Somebody was talking to you for a while. This is Bill. Bill. And I think what I learned because I felt retrievable. Maybe I feel uncomfortable without telling you how to be comfortable. Maybe you feel uncomfortable with our same circle? Yeah. It's normal, especially if you felt comfortable with I'd say, if you feel comfortable, I'd say you guys have one that's going to be close to your heart.

[16:21]

So then if you're going to see, you're going to tell me and get everybody else with me, so it's kind of, you know, everybody's going to see. So it's phenomenal, it should not be somewhat. What kind of beating is it? A quick beating? And these are totally sticky, sticky. And it's almost possible for everybody's heart to be in rhythm, because this is not our, this is not a physical heart, it's a spiritual heart. We can almost have the same heart and we can almost all jump rope together. It's possible. So this young man says that what he does, it makes me tortured, blissful.

[17:45]

And so how could being tortured be blissful? How could being tortured be blissful? If you can't answer, make up your own story about something like that. You wouldn't say it's tortured and blissful. In fact, I'm going to be into this. Excited and frightened. And I played with him a lot. Yeah, but the press did. I can't answer so. And it's been a bit brought me closer to, you know, I don't want to get closer to meeting the city of,

[19:07]

some idea of emptiness and the certain part that grew excited with what I understood, how I compared with what was saying in relation to the force, knocking out all of the concepts, getting close to knocking out the concepts, and I was carrying a little. And I thought I would try to look with Is that possible?

[20:11]

People understand what I'm doing? Don't understand what I'm doing. Talk to me. Don't describe it. Don't understand. Would you be the one who tried to destroy it? Is this your turn? How do you turn the fish around?

[22:00]

Fish. You can say fish. Fish, okay. What does the fish say? Yeah. Yeah. That was the earlier part of the story. What does the fish say now? You get to say what you want. What does the fish say now? What did it say? It sang. Huh? It sang. It sang. As they're singing, did it make any sound? Globes. Globes. Tell us more about globes. Say more. Say more globes. All right. And what's the relationship between the brethren with fish and jaw join the breast?

[23:14]

What am I doing? What are you seeing me doing? Can't see anything? Okay, let's start over. You see what I'm doing? Yeah, all right. She said on the fishing, it was a straight hook. You're sticky. You're right. What does that mean?

[24:29]

Stay, it really cracks me, no second. Now who's talking? That's what I see, okay. Turn it again. Turn it again. Get ready everybody. Somebody else drew.

[25:31]

There's a gap. Somebody else got there. Do you know this game? Try not. Because I have to try and figure out if it's the right time or not. Why don't you like that? I'd like it to just be no time. No school bag. No planet consciousness. Yeah. So every morning, it's steam bagging, kind of consciousness, and this is the right kind. Yeah, so how do you use a move? Do you use it like that? Sometimes. When do you use it like that? Right now. I hate it. What's the problem? I hate it. I like Mount Sumeru. That's the only reason it came.

[26:41]

19. That's 19. He makes me thirsty. I listen to my friend. Want to sleep? Sleep eater. Moo. Well, makes now the right time. Okay, so make it simple.

[27:59]

His move is, as I said before, this has to be Zhao Zhou's move. And I said that to some pre-side meeting, I said something like it was different from some Zhou Zhou's moves, right? And someone said, wouldn't it be the same? What'd they say? You forgot. Anyway, I think it can be Joe Schmoe's blue. So here is this thing, there's this moe sitting here, and you can use this moe to express your abandonment of your opinions and your attempts to try to attain something, especially perfection.

[29:37]

and commit yourself to live the life of Buddha in the immediate present. And yet, you must fad yourself. You must jump in. I mean, your commitment must be expressed by jumping into this moment and living Buddhahood in this moment. And what was your is how to do that. And you must do it, I must do it on time, just at the right time. And the moon makes every time the right time, but you have to make every time the right time. Just like when Hakeem moved his chair, that was just the right time for him to move his chair.

[30:43]

It had a beautiful sound. So with no mind of attainment, yet you must express yourself on time, and you must make this time the right time, the time to do it. Don't you think so? Is there any problem with this? Yes, no, maybe so. And this is like, this is a dog's move that you just heard. Not George's, no, Jordan's. Good enough for me. I thought it was on time.

[31:44]

Now, try to do that now and participate. Do you want to do any more on this coin? Do you understand how to use it? Even though Stuart said he can't. Do you understand how? At least do you understand what I propose is the theory of Hop. one right way to do it yes I'm proposing as one right way to do it it's called the Buddha way it's one way it's called the awake way just like when you jump rope there's one way to do it you jump in and you jump or you jump in and you trip and fall down what's a Buddha way if you trip and fall down You trip and fall down, that's the Buddha way. There's no other kind of Buddha way there could be at that time.

[32:49]

If you're able to jump without falling down, you need to jump with rope. That's nice too, that's the Buddha way. There's only one way. How could there be two ways? Who wants two ways? Yeah, everybody. Is it the same way that Georgiou led for me? Is it the same way? Your way must be Georgiou's way. And your way is also okay. Perhaps I might pile up. Again, you know, this is a matter of time. Was that the right time? You say that at the right time. How can it be?

[34:00]

You tell me, how can it be a long time? I don't know. You're saying it was the right time. But if everything's the right time, then where is the wrong time? Yes. Well, I'll give you a chance to say, where is the wrong time? Where is the wrong time? That was the right time. It's called impulsive consciousness or karmic consciousness. That's where it is. And also, all wares are impulsive consciousness or karmic consciousness. What is it saying in your book, karmic or impulsive? Let's see, all impulsive.

[35:03]

The character there, which he translates as impulsive, his character usually translated as karmic. or active. But impulsive is okay, too. Do you understand, Gloria? All wares? What did you say? All wares, you know, any where, you say, where is it? Yeah. All wares are karmic consciousness. Karmic consciousness makes wares. Okay, so anyway, karmic consciousness makes the wrong time. And karmic consciousness makes a right time. Unconsciousness makes right in the wrong times. Does that make sense? More than where. I don't understand the where. I think, didn't you say where was it? Didn't you say where is it wrong? Yeah. So it's referring to that where you said where is the wrong time. And I say the wrong time is the Unconsciousness.

[36:05]

Unconsciousness makes the wrong time. That's where it is. I don't say there is no wrong time. I'm telling you where it is or how it's made. It's made by karmic consciousness. All right? That's where it is. And this teaching of Mu is both a thing in itself, but also it liberates karmic consciousness. Mu is pressure. Mu is pressure. Uh-huh. And pressure gives it place to push, time to push, time to be on time or late, or common consciousness to pulse and impulse. Yeah, uh-huh.

[37:06]

Buddha karma. Today I was talking with the priest about this idea of repentance as that if we can admit who we are, if we can admit who we are, by our admission of who we are, in a karmic sense, we then become allowed to live our life. And as we are allowed to live our life, we then can make our life alive. And Mu says, you know, Mu says anytime, but I have to admit my life to receive that gift. I cannot receive the gift that Mu provides unless I'm willing

[38:11]

to be at this time. This time becomes the right time if I move. This time becomes the right time if I admit it, if I admit it completely wholeheartedly that I'm allowed to be here. And allowed to be here, the Mu says, Buddha's light is lived right in this. So my commitment to live Buddha's life in this immediate experience is the same as my commitment to practice Mu. To use this, to use Zhao Zhao's Mu to remind me that I'm allowed to live this moment. But again, I have, first of all, offer my willingness to be what I am and to receive what's happening.

[39:18]

then the mu can come to my aid. I can't use mu before I confess what I am. I won't be able to use it unless I already feel allowed to be this. Of who I am right now? Well, I'm just here. It's groping. And trusting that it's going to work out, and we're going to be able to work it out. And with me being me.

[40:22]

without fixing myself up much. I had the trust, I had commitment that this must be Buddha's way, that this is where I'm going to work it out with the people here right now. And even if others seem to be hesitating, I still feel it's such people. And even if I'm misunderstood, I still feel it's with these people at this exact moment that I'm apparently misunderstood. Or apparently understood. And what I just said and just how I felt just now and what I'm talking about seems to be very much like all day long. Except right now, everybody's listening to that, or most people are listening to that.

[41:26]

But during the rest of the day, we may not hear this encouragement. So this class is an encouragement for daily life. So we can be willing in daily life to enter through this person and entered through admission of this person in this way. And this will be where we live the life of Buddha, which is to live our life, to feel all beings allow us to live this life, and to therefore make this life alive OK, and now this is all gone. Here we go again. OK, the rope slings again. Ready? Can you do it again?

[42:33]

Now, if there's any bystanders, they should come forward. Yes. I noticed myself in some situation where you could see a smile. It was like a neutralizer. And I got the images of a laxative. It was a laxative, or a or a . Yeah. Or the Terminator. Yeah. Or the Terminator. Yeah. Or in Terminator 2, the end is more advanced Terminator. It's like that guy too. Yeah. Yeah. Some will make you smile, and when you smile, that's .

[43:48]

So, I don't know if the new colors after I fully acknowledge if they seek to rise. You can use Mu that way. You can use Mu to help you honor your place, honor the time, honor this person. You can use Mu to encourage you to allow yourself to be yourself. That's enough. That shows that that's where you intend to live your life as Buddha. That's a good way. That's using mood, too, the same way. You just used it to let yourself honor your being. That's how to use mood. Yes? It seems like sometimes we're putting a big burden on mood, you know? You know, it's pretty complicated. No! [...]

[44:53]

No, what do you mean? I mean, no. Well, I was going to say that same. Moo is carrying a big burden. That's why it's Moo. Only Moo can carry this weight. Only no can carry this weight. No, get out of my face, can carry this weight. .. [...]

[46:07]

And I was thinking, well, maybe this move for me in some kind of color. Yeah. To accept what I believe or what I want. And also to accept all of the confusion that happened with that. where I will be there when I want to. It seems to me they're putting a pretty big burden on the street. I didn't say it was. Maybe I can tell you.

[47:14]

I can do my experience with the Korean school. Korean school? Well, I mean, personal interview with Barack, and then I came home. It was my first time. I came home by train, and I go, you know, what does it get? You know, everything that I have left. Immediately, I got it. And then I asked, the next week I came to the master and I asked him, and he asked me, what did he do? And I said, whoa, great. What is Buddha, what is Buddha and Shavadok? I don't know. He asked me. Very good.

[48:15]

Let me go home now. The main person you have to stand up to is yourself, of course. Nobody else, nothing else is telling you to move but you.

[49:23]

You're the only one who injures yourself. And you must injure yourself. You must. And you also must stand up to yourself and feel the permission that everything gives you. Except yourself doesn't give you that permission. and you have to have the courage to stand up against yourself. If you can stand up against yourself, you might be able to stand up against somebody else, which is good to do that second just as a kind of test. Oh, by the way, I want to have a meeting sometime pretty soon. I'll try to tell you I want to have a meeting to talk about what we call doksan. Anybody who wants to come and hear about what doksan's about?

[50:27]

Some of you already know a little bit, but I want to talk a little bit more about what's possible in doksan. I want to say that before I forget. It's actually like, it should be like what we're doing here. Basically the same thing. But actually there's more freedom when there's not so many people around because there's more chairs and stuff. Is there anything else? Are you ready to move on? Do you feel equipped? What do you mean that means that you must hinder yourself? I mean, you do hinder yourself, and you're the only thing that hinders yourself. The only thing that hinders anything is itself. Everything else helps it. So, in fact, you do hinder yourself.

[51:29]

In fact, you don't let yourself be yourself. In fact, you do tell yourself to hurry up and not give yourself time to be yourself. If somebody asks you for help, and you're not ready, You can't, what you really are is not ready, you know? And if you try to help them before you're ready, you can't help them. But you don't give yourself permission to be the person who's not ready. You know, you rush yourself. You think it's not right that you're who you are. Nobody knows who you are but you. And you think, well, I've got to, this person, you know, should be someplace else, should be somebody else. I shouldn't be this person. But this is natural. But still you have to take care of yourself. You have to give yourself the space and time to be yourself. And so mu is helpful that way, just to growl yourself into your body. You can bite yourself into your mouth.

[52:29]

Chew your vegetables, chew your brown rice. Give yourself the permission to take care of yourself so that you can take care of others. If someone asks you for something before you're ready to give it, and you give it before you're ready, you're not giving it. If you don't want to give it, then you can't give it. But if you want to give it, if you think you should give it, then you have to take care of the person who's not ready to give it. And if you take care of the person who's not ready to give it, it may not be very long before she's ready to give it. And then when she's ready to give it, then take care of that person and let that person give it. But if you think you're supposed to take care of somebody else before yourself, which is true, you should take care of the person before yourself, then you have to take care of yourself

[53:38]

when yourself isn't ready to take care of others first. And then if you take care of yourself who isn't ready, then you become one who is ready to take care of others first, and then you do quite naturally, and then it really is taking care of others first. It's not just pretending or covering up or trying to be somebody who you think you're supposed to be. It really is who you are. Why is it who you are? Because you took care of yourself. Which means you let yourself make who you are be the place you're going to drop this way away. And that's mood. That's what mood does for you. Don't make it too complicated. It is complicated. I didn't make it complicated. We keep getting lost all the time, don't we?

[54:41]

That's why Mu is nice. It keeps cutting through this complexity. It cuts through. It can cut through if you learn how to use it. And jumping rope, you know, then when they start doing it, then they put two ropes in it, right? Then they get three people jumping in there, then four people, then eight people. It always gets more complicated. If you can do it now, make it more complicated. That's the only way we can go until all sentient beings are jumping together. But again, I say bystanders should come forward. Now, are there any bystanders? I am. Are there any other bystanders? You're a bystander? Okay, come forward. Come on. That's it. It isn't that difficult. We accept those things. Any other bystanders before we move on?

[55:49]

Are you a bystander? Gosh. All right. That's not all that's to have on other people's compassion, actually. It doesn't all depend on other people's compassion. It definitely depends on other people's. Everybody is compassionate. That's why we can be ourselves, because people are compassionate. Everybody is letting us be us. They are. It's their compassion that lets us be. It's our lack of compassion that pushes us ahead of ourselves or pulls us back from ourselves. Other people are not compassionate with themselves, of course, and also other people are not compassionate with other people, too. But it's other people's compassion that lets us be ourselves.

[56:53]

Their lack of compassion doesn't let us be ourselves. So you want to help everybody realize their compassion? Be yourself. That's what everybody's helping you do. That's what their compassion's helping you do. So tune into compassion, be yourself. Then you tune into everybody's compassion to you. And then you flash it back to them. If you cop out on yourself and don't be yourself, then you turn into everybody's lack of compassion. And you're going in the negative direction. But it's starting by you being chicken to be yourself in the first place. So if you don't give yourself, then you turn into everybody else not supporting you, right? You be yourself, you stand up to yourself, you allow yourself to be yourself, then everybody's supporting you. That's their compassion that's working for you. And it is. Isn't that so? Who is talking after all?

[57:58]

I have children. What's the difference? Well, children sometimes find themselves in a abusive situation. Yes, exactly. So, when they're abused, what's happening? It's the compassion that lets them be who they are. And to the extent that the child is not able to be herself, she's tuning into the lack of compassion. And it is, then it is, then it is lack of compassion. Then it is cruelty that's happening to her because she's not being herself. And it is cruelty and the people are cruel. But the child is also colluding with it by not being herself. That's what this is the... What do you mean?

[58:59]

I feel like that was really a trick thing you said there. Tricky? Tricky. What's tricking about it? Well, one thing is to do that you don't understand it. Well, he can tell you. He said it's controversial, what he said. Well, basically what I said was, I said children are responsible creatures, is what I said. And he's saying that's controversial. And it is controversial to say that an abused child is a responsible being, but I say so. I say all living beings have the Buddha nature, and all living beings have karmic consciousness, and a baby bodhisattva does not get abused.

[60:09]

I thought I, and I don't know if you should dwell on this, but I thought I could just say that you're not just responsible, but responsible for their abuse. And that was... I said colluded. Colluded, yeah, colluded. Is that the right word, colluded? It doesn't seem right to me. With collusion, usually there's some permutation of blame. Not only does that make what works. Maybe participate. Participate. Participate. Definitely participants. Also, I would say they're getting something out of it. I would say that they have selfish motivation. Is it only Buddhas that are attacked?

[61:10]

And if it's Buddhas that are attacked, then they're not abused. If people are cruel to people, then the person who is receiving the cruelty, Does the person who receives a cruelty turn it around and make it not cruelty? Do they do that? If they do, it's not cruelty anymore. What is it? Yeah, what is it? What is it if you come at me and try to hurt me? You hate me and you try to hurt me and I turn it around. What is it then? What is it? Huh? Is compassion on my part?

[62:14]

Yes. And what is it on your part if I turn it around? It's a lack of understanding. No, I got turned around. Yeah, it's learning. You came to me trying to hurt me and I turned it around. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop. You already did it. I just turned it around. You came with, you already did it. You wanted to hurt me, and I turned it around. It got turned around. What's that? That's compassion. You saw it turn around. If it didn't get turned around, then it didn't get turned around. Then it's still there. It's still cruelty. But if I turned it around... Are we talking about Mu now? What? Are we talking about Mu? Yeah, we're talking about Mu. Mu turns it around. Do you want to prove this is a bad world? Well, go right ahead and prove it. And believe me, you're going to get a lot of help. Or do you want to turn this thing around? Who's going to turn it around? Are you going to go with the misery and cruelty and make sure that everybody believes that it's happening and make sure that everybody gets blamed for it and you know who's at blame?

[63:22]

Or are you going to turn this cruelty around? Not by denying that this is cruelty, but by taking cruelty and turning it. Because cruelty can be turned. It can be turned. How does it get turned? By fearlessness, among other things. By love. By seeing this person is asking for something from me. And turn it. Now, many children, most children, cannot do that when they're being attacked. I know. No. They can't do it. Most adults cannot do it either. So, adults get abused, children get abused. Because they cannot turn it. But it's the same thing. And how do you turn it? You turn it by being yourself.

[64:24]

And if you are yourself by what person's doing to you, then you make that person a compassionate being. And if a person comes at you with angry, hostile energy, and you use that to be yourself, you turn it. And if you turn it thoroughly enough, they will even see it. Pan, yes? I don't understand what that means by being yourself. Well, first of all, it means bliss while you're being tortured. Remember that one? Yes. I've done anything, you forgot for a while. It means, you know, like, it means you see a person hurting someone else or hurting you, and what do you see? What do you see in this cruel person? What do you see in this cruel person? Like I see this big, strong guy come running at me with angry mind or angry, drunken, frightened mind.

[65:30]

What do I do? What do I see? What do I see? Buddha. I say, Jordan, baby! Come on, let's go! And he feels recognized. No, maybe so. Yeah, yes, so, maybe so, right. But once in a while, yes. Once in a while, once in a while, once in a while, somebody sees a person, a frightened person. Basically, cruel people are frightened. That's why they're cruel. They're defending themselves. They're afraid. And somebody looks at them and sees an old friend and says, hey! And turns him around. If you fight them, they get more afraid and they get more fierce and more cruel. Everybody's afraid of them. And that makes them feel less recognized, more afraid.

[66:33]

One more person is not going to recognize them. And they get more aggressive until, well, of course, they're just mowed down finally. What's the matter, Jordan? Am I getting to you? No. What's the matter? I thought that we weren't talking about things that were so helpful. What would be helpful? Tell us a more helpful thing you said. Does a dog have boot nature? How is that more helpful? It's not a complete example of a situation that many people might have to fear about. It sounded something a little more femoral.

[67:36]

And what is more femoral? The anecdotes about someone coming down the street, and you're fighting the vacuum, I thought that wasn't so helpful. What was not helpful about it? Well, first of all, I don't know if you were attentive to that. Is it actually advice about how to handle a drunken mouth? I definitely mean that's the way to handle a drunken mouth. Definitely. Well, I think that it could be a problem if a 250-pound male drunken mouth came down at 130,000. I'm not sure the best appropriate way. Well, I'm not saying it is the appropriate way. I'm just saying that I've seen that way work. And running away is also okay. I'm not saying you shouldn't run away. I just say that probably won't turn the person around. Anyway, I thought that the conversation itself... had a little bit of an outer control element to it that wasn't to me helpful.

[68:43]

And so I wanted to share the conversation. Outer control? Outer control element to it. But sure, that just occurred to me to say that. Well, I chose an example of where you feel I was talking about The fact that we, most of us, chicken out of being ourselves because we do not feel allowed to be ourselves. I propose that to you. Okay? That's all. And then I said, if you feel that... If you feel all beings are supporting you to be yourself, then you tune into the compassionate side of all beings. If you think beings do not want you to be yourself, then you're tuning into the cruelty of all beings. And there is some reality to the cruelty of all beings.

[69:46]

I mean, people do go around, like let's say somebody at Green Alt is suffering, some people go up to that person and try to tease them out of their suffering. and say, you know, oh, don't suffer so much. Or some parents to children, too, say, oh, you're a big girl. You're all right. You don't have to cry. They tease the little girl out of her suffering. They tell her, they say, you don't show your suffering. And the little girl, the little boy, starts to deny her suffering because she feels that others do not want her to suffer. This is cruelty, I would propose. and it's abuse. You see, I'm thinking somehow there must be a story in my head about a nine-month-old baby that was killed by its parent. And so that's what brought this up about children.

[70:53]

And I would like to understand how it is that I believe that Moo is the answer to that, to understanding how that nine-month-old baby past Buddha nature, and how compassion arises in a situation where a parent kills a child. And the conversation was out of control, and I thought for a second there, because it was out of control, that maybe I might understand. Because it's not the kind of story that I have control of, certainly not understanding it anyway. I mean, I feel very out of control when I hear a story about a parent killing a nine-month-old child, their own child. So I feel compassion for the child, and I feel compassion for the parent, but how do I understand this situation? And for a second there, I thought the world was turning towards me understanding it. You were saying outrageous things, I thought, but I trust that those outrageous things were pointing towards understanding

[72:01]

A situation like that. A jump rope is an outrageous thing. It can slap you in the face. It can trip you up. It can leave you out in the cold. It can make you feel socially ostracized. Or you can jump into it and learn how to jump with it. A jump rope can be compassion, which helps you be yourself, a radiant jumper. Or a jump rope can be something that you see as a hostile force that drives you out of the playground and makes you feel left out. And if you can jump with it and they speed it up, again, it's the part of the jump rope, it's seeing the jump rope as driving you away from being yourself, that makes you turn the jump rope into a cruel force of nature. And it is the part of the jump rope that drives you to be more and more yourself, no matter how fast it goes, that shows you the compassion of the jump rope.

[73:11]

It's all a matter of concentration and staying with yourself. And if you flip away from yourself and get afraid of what will happen to you by the jump rope, the jump rope then becomes a cruel agent and becomes evil. It hurts you. It is then an outrageous slinging arrow of fortune. And the jump rope will go faster and faster until you are so ready that you're liberated and you see And so we have a jump rope in this class, and it goes a certain rate, and you have some say over it. You can slow it down if you want to, but there's a jump rope. In this class, there's a jump rope all day long. It's swinging around, and it's the question of whether you're going to jump in and play and use the circumstances to help you see the compassion which is supporting you to jump into your life and use this life to realize Buddha.

[74:20]

If you do not use circumstances, then strangely, magically, the circumstances actually become abusive. And you pick up on the abusive side of people. And it's not that that's not abusive, it really is abusive, but you start participating in evoking abusiveness towards you. Some people drag abusiveness out of people. They do. They go up and spit in people's faces to get the people to smash them in back. Because they think everyone is telling them not to be themselves. So of course they're extremely angry at everybody, who they see, and in fact everybody is telling you not to be yourself. That's the way to see them from the point of view of that they're being cruel to you. Right now I can see all you people that way. I can turn and see that you're all telling me to just shut up and be a good boy. Stop saying these outrageous things.

[75:25]

Stop challenging us. Be a good little boy. Talk about compassion in the way we thought about it last week. I can see you that way. And then I can feel abused by you and I can feel like you're trying to limit me and get me to be something I'm, well, anyway, some little thing, some under-control thing. But if I look at you as compassionate beings and I say, you're saying to me, Reb, be yourself. Or even sometimes if you're a compassionate being, you say, you know, Reb, I think you kind of chickened out there for a second. We would have let you do that. Come on, go for it. And even I don't like that can also be not I don't like it, you shouldn't be that way. I want you to stand still and hear that I didn't like that and not move away from that until you heard that. But you were that. It doesn't mean you don't get angry at me.

[76:25]

It means that I see you when you're angry at me as compassionate beings. And you're angry at me for not being me. to be chicken, to be me. Then your anger is not telling me not to be myself. Your anger is that you love me. And you won't let me get by with anything less than really being me. That's what I'm talking about, and that's what mu is about. I'm assuming here that we are the ones that are turning the road. And based on that, Isn't it cool if we keep turning the rope when most of the people keep getting tripped up in it, falling out on the ground, or getting slapped at the base by it, and one out of innumerable might be able to keep them alive.

[77:27]

So, is the jump rope the appropriate means? Always. We should be listening, listening, listening, listening all the time to see what's going on with the jump rope. But my feeling is with people is that not that people are getting hit by the jump rope and falling down. My feeling is that people are standing around not jumping in. That's usually what's going on around here. And that's usually what's going on in my life. It's not that I'm getting slapped by the jump rope. It's that I'm standing back. But if somebody gets hurt, hey, let's hear about it. But again, when people get hurt, they usually, instead of saying, hey, stop the jump roping or I'm down, they usually back off the playground again. We don't hear about it. It's not the getting hit that's the problem, it's the sense of non-participation. And this class is pretty good, participation is pretty good in this class.

[78:31]

Even though not everybody's talking, there's some alertness. But yeah, my feeling is if we jump rope together, you're gonna get scared. I'm gonna get scared. You're gonna get lost. I'm gonna get lost. That's not the problem. The problem is if somebody's not playing. We're gonna go forward into unknown territory. I don't mind about that. I mind if somebody doesn't come along. Of course I'm sorry when people get hurt, but that's not the problem. The problem is not participating in this thing. If you walk out of the class without your own move and you're not participating, you should at least tell us that you don't have it or that you're not playing.

[79:33]

We don't mind stopping and making sure you're on the boat or whatever. It's actually quite nice to be stopped on this particular journey, because we're not going anyplace. We're just simply trying to use this moment as the opportunity to realize the Buddha way. That's all. What does it take to make that leap into this moment? It takes a lot of encouragement. So we have a lot of encouragement here and we have a lot of encouragement right now in the present with these people and we have a lot of encouragement from the ancestors and so that maybe we can practice.

[80:39]

There is no in all of us. There is no in it. There is no, we give this back our life. There's no to be sitting. I don't feel like there's Mu in these things. I think it's more like Mu leads us into the life of this, of all this stuff. All this stuff has life. And Mu drives us to the living core of each moment and takes away our resistance to think that it has to be better than this for us to realize through it. It brings us there because we give it up for mood. It brings us there because we give it up for mood? True. Yeah. It brings us there because mood helps us give it up. So we move and give it up.

[81:50]

With Jojo's encouragement, with Dawg's encouragement, with all sentient beings encouraging it, with the encouragement of these great ancestors, we dare to be ourselves. And we dare to be ourselves when other people are being themselves in such a way we can barely stand it. And yet we could dare to be ourselves in the face of that. The refiner's fire. Pardon? The refiner's fire. It is the refiner's fire? No, no. Did you say refiner's fire? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, refiner's fire. We talked about that. It's like the fire. We have to enter the center of this fire. OK, well, yes. I feel fairly comfortable with my understanding of this meta discussion.

[83:01]

I guess it's a meta discussion in both senses. The meta discussion, the discussion of the structure and nature of the discussion, and somewhat less comfortable about the content of the discussion we're having before. I thought Bill tried to take us back to the content point, to the moving point, of the discussion, and then we will end up talking in meta terms about the structure of the discussion again. And I think there's a real critical issue it was raised, and I don't feel comfortable about it, that sense that not many people in the room feel comfortable about it, I don't feel comfortable about it either. The issue, the question of the complicity of, the complicity of the innocence.

[84:03]

You know, it's like the suffering of the innocence. And that issue about all of us, all creatures, all beings, have a karmic consciousness. But are we willing to say that if someone under a nine-month-old child doesn't manifest the capacity to turn cruelty of demented parents, that the nine-month-old child is expressing complicity in that cruelty, that somehow the nine-month-old child also is defining or contributing to the cruelty of parents.

[85:10]

Very difficult. to stay with that, okay? Let the prosecution finish this case, okay? So what do you want to say more? Well, the only thing I would add to that is that Faith or something like it allows me to see how compassion arises in any situation, killing a child. So where would compassion arise in a case of a child being killed by anybody? What would be compassionate about that? Where would there be compassion? I might see that compassion may arise in people recognizing the conditions under which people could be driven so mad.

[86:31]

and each day themselves could so utterly lose it. So compassion would seem to be that compassion. The expression of compassion would be at the hands of others who would recognize the suffering of all parties in the situation. That's different from seeing the cruel act as compassion. Nobody sees the cruel act as compassion except the insane person. Okay. Is that all right? Nobody thinks that, right? I'm not talking about that. So I said, where is there compassion in this story of a child being killed? And you said, I heard you say anyway, that there might be compassion towards the murderer. Compassion towards the murderer for being someone who's that crazy. That's one kind of compassion someone else might have looking at it.

[87:32]

But in between the murderer and the murdered, where is the compassion? What compassion could there be though? I asked you. There might perhaps... What compassion could there possibly be between a baby and someone who killed the baby? Or an adult and someone who killed the adult? What compassion could there be between those two people? On the part of the murder, we see it and lose it. On the part of the what? Murdered. The murdered? Yeah, so how can the murdered have compassion towards the murderer? You know, I understand a really deep way that the murdered individual might

[88:38]

and can have compassion for the situation that's developed. And I think that the thing about what you talked about, about the child and the adults, it's a very tricky, subtle thing. But what concerns me then and concerns me now is that this is a discussion which could be recounted without the nuances and without the depth. And it could be something which is a real far cry from what you're trying to say could convert into words. You know, and that's what I was doing. Well, something rather simply equal or simply uncompassionate without the background. And this is, I think, you know, you've been talking about discussing. I feel that somehow I feel a strong fear of talking about this example. I think some people are worried about you. People who care about you are worried that some people who don't know you so well are going to be a lot of confused about who you are because you're talking about these controversial issues in outrageous terms.

[89:48]

And it's the same thing that you were talking about with this discussion of the precepts in a rather non-realistic manner. the prohibitions and admonitions that are built into this particular text that we're talking about, but how it's only for initiates or people who are received through these precepts. There's a level of this recent discussion this evening, some aspects of it, that probably just because I think that it could be so easily misunderstood. You know, I'm afraid of calling you because I'm afraid you're angry at somebody. No. I just want to say, are we forgetting about the whole concept of bodhisattvas choosing to keep in the cycle of birth and death to save all beings? If you choose your parents, you know when they're your parents that they're shits and they're going to kill you or they're going to try.

[90:53]

And you're there. And maybe you're dying at their hands at age nine months. It's going to leave them with something inside them for their entire life that's going to make them want to be good somehow. It'll make them want to atone for that, to find who they are. That's the way I would definitely be. I agree with you. And I still, you know, I asked, well, how could the child be compassionate? I didn't talk about yet how the child could be evil. I talked about how child could be compassionate. And that the child or anybody that's being murdered could look at people for the things that are murdering it when they're causing the circumstances by which it will decide to die. It could look at that in such a way as to feel these circumstances are compassionate towards me. They are allowing me to be myself and realize the Buddha way under these circumstances. This is something which, if you have an intellect, you can intellectually conceive.

[91:58]

But the point is, you have to actually feel all the way to you.

[92:01]

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