I'd like to begin by tuning in the forest, so to speak, which is the overall teaching of the Four Noble Truths, the Truth of Suffering, the Truth of Origin of Suffering, the Truth of Cessation of Suffering, and the Truth of the Path which leads to the Cessation of Suffering, and the Path which realizes the Cessation of Suffering. And then focusing a little bit on the forest, in this forest of the Four Noble Truths there

[01:13]

are eight big trees, the first tree is called Right View, next is Right Thinking, next is Right Speech, next is Right Action, then comes Right Livelihood, and then Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. A

[02:28]

Buddha during his whole lifetime, a young man said, an appropriate statement, an appropriate response. The Buddha's appropriate response was to teach the Four Noble Truths, and to teach these eight aspects of the path when appropriate. And the Chinese of this appropriate statement or appropriate response or appropriate teaching, which was what Buddha was doing during the whole lifetime of his teaching, literally means facing or meeting one, teaching. Facing or meeting one thing, one situation, and teaching.

[03:32]

Facing another situation and teaching. Facing this situation, teaching, responding according to the situation. This is the Eightfold Path. This is the same as facing, uprightly, whatever comes, that's the Eightfold Path. Meeting beings in samsara, uprightly, and responding appropriately. The Eightfold Path is numbered such that the first two, Right View and Right Thinking,

[04:37]

and Right Understanding and Right Thought, are about wisdom, about insight and understanding. The next three, Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood, are about ethics or morality, the moral foundation of the path, of practice. And the last three are about developing a certain state of presence or state of mind and body, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. Usually, the presentation of the practice is to present the foundation of ethics first, then develop the proper quality of body and mind in which insight arises.

[05:40]

First laying the moral foundation, then developing concentration, then studying wisdom. But the Eightfold Path is presented with the wisdom first. So I think it might be helpful to think of the Eightfold Path more as a circle. First wisdom, then ethics, then concentration, then wisdom. Ethics, concentration, wisdom. Ethics, concentration, wisdom. Wisdom, ethics, concentration, wisdom. Round and round, beginningless, endless practice. But also, these eight interact with each other, interpenetrate with each other.

[06:45]

Like all things in the universe, they dependently co-arise. You can't have any of them fully developed without the others. You can start to practice one by itself, without considering the others, but eventually you have to bring the others in. You can start practicing wisdom without a moral foundation, but you immediately would run into trouble. You can practice moral discipline without wisdom for a while, but actually you can't even start moral practice without a little bit of wisdom. And if you have a little bit of wisdom, enough to start moral discipline, enough to start practicing right speech, right action, and right livelihood, then at a certain point you'll hit a block, and then you're going to have to bring in the concentration and wisdom practices to bring the ethics to fulfillment. But I'm presenting these in this way of wisdom first.

[07:49]

Part of the reason why that may work here is that the life we lead here is the life of ethics. The fact of following this schedule entails an ethical practice. It is pretty difficult to get up at 3.30 in the morning and go sit and sit on your cushion and be on time and stay awake and not eat too much or too little and so on and so forth. To follow this schedule is ethical training. It is right action. During Sashin, most people practice right speech, being silent. And during Doksan, people do pretty well too. I'm the main person in danger of wrong speech during Sashin. During the rest of the time, we need some work there at this monastery on the right speech thing.

[09:02]

And right livelihood also here is pretty good. We don't kill any animals and so on. Our livelihood here is one where we're pretty often considering and discussing whether our livelihood here is right. So the ethical base is pretty well established. Or at least we're working on it before we even discuss it. We're working on it here. Also the concentration practice is already being worked on here. Being mindful of how we eat, how we serve, how we wear our clothes, how we bow, how we set up the altars, how we cook. All these things are part of mindfulness, right effort and concentration. So those are actually already going on here to some extent. So it may be alright to start with wisdom since the actuality of a practice here is that we're already doing the other six to some extent.

[10:08]

I hope that with the support of the wisdom practices of right view and right thinking your ethics and concentration will go deeper. And so now I'd like to go again into right view and open up right thinking. Now I want to tell you something about the way I'm going to try to present this to you. I'm going to try to present this with a little bit of rhythm in it so it's not just a non-stop barrage. But when I pause now and then I need you to stay awake during the pause.

[11:11]

One advantage of a non-stop barrage is it tends to keep you a little bit more awake but then you can't stay concentrated during the whole thing. So try to stay awake during this whole talk so that I can make some spaces for you to digest what's coming. But I need you to really try. This may be useful what's coming. Whether I can present it well or not I don't know but it's very important these first two about wisdom. Very important that we understand this. So right view. On the conventional level, on the dualistic level right view is to consider and meditate on the Four Noble Truths.

[12:13]

And as part of the Four Noble Truths to meditate on the laws of karma and as part of the laws of karma as taught by the Buddhist tradition the laws of how rebirth works with karma. So on the conventional level right view means to look at the Four Truths to look at the truth of suffering to look at the truth of origination to look at the truth of cessation and to look at the truth of the path. Right view is part of the path and it's the part of the path which is to look at the path to keep the path in view to see the Eightfold Path in this moment to see the Eightfold Path in this moment to see the Four Truths to see them as ideas, as concepts, as teachings right now. Still somewhat dualistically in a sense of

[13:23]

you the viewer are looking at the teaching of Eightfold Path the teaching of the Four Truths. Look at suffering. See suffering. See it deeply. Get intimate with your awareness of suffering. Your awareness internally seeing it in yourself and your awareness of seeing it in other living beings. Look at the suffering. See the suffering. If we can see very clearly very deeply, very intimately our own suffering in that clear intimate vision of your suffering of your pain which now the third day of session your pain is starting to come into focus if you can be upright in other words, practice right effort right mindfulness and right concentration if you can have a state of presence and watch your suffering

[14:24]

study your suffering very deeply and intimately in its precise manifestation you will be able to see the Second Truth. You will be able to see with your wisdom eye the conditions for your suffering. You will see the Second Truth by seeing the First Truth. If you can see the Second Truth in its precise manifestation in the present moment you will see the Third Truth. You will see with your eye of understanding you will see cessation. And you will realize the path and see the path by that vision of cessation. I don't know your level of pain right now your level of pain may be such that you can hardly hear me talk but

[15:25]

that very pain and that very sharpness of your pain is an excellent opportunity for studying the First Truth in vivid vivid real time and to see the Second Truth in vivid real time and to witness the Third Truth and the Fourth Truth actually. Then you realize the right view in the sense of you're actually seeing with your eye of understanding the way things are and the way things are is the Four Noble Truths. You'll see them with your wisdom eye with your eye that is there before you were born with the eye that's been with you your whole life and is waking waiting to wake up to open and see

[16:28]

the Truth the Truth of suffering, origination and the end of suffering. Pause. Pause. When we have this clear penetrating, steady unflinching view of our suffering

[17:29]

when you see suffering clearly you'll see the other Truths too. Pause. But when you see the Truth of cessation, when you see the Truth of Nirvana you do not see Nirvana with your eye or with your mind. Nirvana cannot be the object of thought. You see Nirvana with your eye of wisdom. Pause. You can't see suffering completely with your eye, your ordinary eye either or with your mind but you can totally settle with it. Right view

[18:31]

is to keep Nirvana in view. Right view is to have Nirvana as your object of your view but not as something outside. You're directed towards Nirvana but Nirvana has no sign. You're directed towards Nirvana but Nirvana has no wish. Nirvana is called the signless the wishless and the empty. You're oriented towards these qualities of Nirvana which cannot be grasped. You're oriented towards the ungraspable in the midst of the graspable in the midst of the grasping in the midst of suffering from grasping. Watching what you can see orient you towards what you can't. Watching what you can see your karmic life just as it is orient you towards your life of freedom

[19:32]

which you can't see but is realized by being oriented towards it by being oriented towards what you can't see and recognizing what you can and not flinching from what you see not flinching from what you feel or pushing at what you see or pushing at what you feel just staying upright with your pain. You will understand it deeply and you will fall through its conditions to its liberation. You will see the cycle of craving and suffering you will see delusion, karma karmic results, pain pain, delusion, karma karmic results, pain you will see it it's there right under your nose. Someone asked me

[20:35]

if I don't see nirvana if I don't see cessation the truth of cessation is faith in the truth of cessation right view? At the beginning it is but what is faith in cessation? Faith in cessation is faith that there is a practice faith in cessation is to practice watching suffering faith in cessation is trusting that suffering has a condition and therefore since it has a condition cessation is possible if the condition is removed is dropped cessation will be realized faith in the truth of cessation means that you study suffering studying suffering means you study it until you see its conditions seeing its conditions you naturally drop it dropping it you will see cessation actualized who can do this work? your buddha nature can do this work

[21:43]

pause now write the next aspect of wisdom so the first part of wisdom is right view or right understanding the next part is right thinking or right thought these are two dimensions of vision one dimension of vision being like seeing the other dimension of wisdom is like manifesting it in the way you are operating in the way your mind thinks and thinking is the definition of karma so wisdom is not just penetrating vision it is that your mind gets transformed that the definition of karma

[23:00]

the way you think starts being non-karmic your thinking turns around and is reversed so the wisdom is not just a new understanding and a new vision it is also a transformation of your thinking process it is discovering a buddha-like thought process and this discovery this revelation and realization of your buddha thinking comes without moving a particle of dust it comes not from renovating or manipulating your thinking but by studying it which is again study suffering which is the result of your thinking you can see the conditions for the kind of thinking that causes suffering

[24:00]

then the thinking will be revolutionized how are you doing? are you ok? are you with me? no? ok now the conventional presentation of right thinking I prefer right thinking but sometimes it is translated as right thought or right intention the Sanskrit or Pali word is sankapa and sankapa is kind of unusual word and it is a synonym for another word which is a little unusual called vittarka vittarka means the application of mind

[25:05]

how the mind is applied how the mind is applied is our thinking so the conventional presentation of right thinking is closely related to the conventional presentation of wrong thinking wrong thinking is the way we have been thinking quite a bit for some time wrong thinking is what we are quite experienced with namely of thinking in terms of greed, hatred and delusion right thinking is to reverse those or abstain from those habitual patterns of thinking what now all monks

[26:12]

is right thought or right thinking it is a mind free from lust, ill will and cruelty I would say delusion is understood right thinking is a mind that is free of greed, lust free of greed, lust free of ill will free of cruelty and free of delusion delusion is not mentioned but it is in the background of the other two delusion is in the background of hatred and greed right thinking is to be free of delusion hatred and greed right view is to think in a selfless way

[27:13]

that abandons these kinds of thoughts and is a mind of love selfless love and non-violence and kindness this right thinking is the type of thinking from which kindness and non-violence naturally come forth so what is wrong thinking?

[28:56]

what is delusion? it is to see the self as separate from the five aggregates that's wrong thinking it is to see the self as separate from others that's wrong thinking right view comes to help us develop right thinking by observing the first truth of suffering and seeing that the first truth of suffering is connected to the second truth of the condition for suffering and the condition for suffering is wrong view is this delusion that we are separate that we exist seperately from our own experience

[29:58]

that there is me, and my pain the cause of my pain is that I think that im separate from my pain that there is me and my ideas or there's me and ideas and there's me and my consciousness and there's me and my perceptions and there's me in my concepts and there's me and my ideas and there's me and my pain and there is me and my There's me and all my experience. This is wrong view. This is the condition for craving. This is the place where ill will, lust come from. Do you see that? Right view is to meditate on nirvana. Meditating on nirvana is to see the end of that kind of thinking. Seeing the end of that kind of thinking happens to somebody who sees that kind of thinking. It won't end until you see it. Unsupervised wrong thinking will go on happily forever. Once under supervision, it will drop off.

[31:05]

If you can, if we can, moment by moment, sit upright, which again means practice right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Practicing those three and watching your suffering and see that your suffering is inextricably connected to the wrong thinking, that you're separate from your experience and that you're separate from, for example, me, poor old me. You're separate from if you think wrongly. This causes you pain and I'm sorry to see it and I understand because I think that way it's the same for me. That's why I can say to you that the slightest sense of separation from anybody is painful

[32:43]

and to multiply that separation billion fold is sure to be rather difficult for us. If you can sit and watch that your suffering depends on this delusion, the watching itself is right thinking, is right view and is changing the way you're thinking. Because wrong thinking, deluded thinking is not trusting that this is the place to work. Wrong view is trusting that some other place is a place to work. Wrong view is thinking that some other place is a place to practice. Right view is to abandon the trust that some place else is the place to practice.

[33:48]

That trust we have from beginningless time, that some place else would be a better place, would be a good place to live a happy life. That we have well established. Right thinking is to drop that and trust what's left over, namely this and not veer into the future or past at all. Wrong view, wrong thinking is to trust distraction, wandering and hunting and searching for something. Right thinking is to abandon that wrong thought and trust not wandering, not distraction, not trying to get anything. This is the new way of thinking. So I'm shifting into the ultimate perspective of what right thinking is.

[35:10]

So, Master Dogen says, when we have right thinking, all the Buddhas in ten directions are actualized. When the ten directions come forth and the Buddhas appear, it is the time of right thinking. And when we have right thinking, it is not ourself or others. This right thinking happens in the present, but it must be the same thinking of Shakyamuni Buddha in Banaras, in Varanasi, when he taught the Four Noble Truths. When we have right thinking, we have exactly the same kind of thinking as the Buddha in

[36:13]

Varanasi, teaching the Eightfold Path. All the Buddhas in ten directions appear in this right thinking. It is at the time of right thinking that they appear, that the Buddhas appear in ten directions. Yakusan Igen said, no he didn't say, he was sitting, he was sitting upright, and a monk

[37:19]

said to him, what kind of thinking are you doing sitting there so still? And he said, I'm thinking of not thinking. This is his expression of right thinking, thinking of not thinking. Thinking of not thinking means thinking which is beyond thinking and not thinking. Monk says, how do you think of not thinking? He said, non-thinking. He said, think beyond thinking and not thinking. Both thinking and not thinking drop off right thinking. Whatever you're thinking, in any moment, just that thought, in its uprightness and its rightness,

[38:28]

thinking drops off it, and non-thinking drops off it, everything drops off it. And because of that, the Buddhas in ten directions come forth. And when the Buddhas in ten directions are here, our thinking drops off itself by simply being itself, as it is. At this point, the conventional and the ultimate come together, kind, non-violent, non-greedy thinking. Kind, gentle, unselfish thought comes from the thought which drops itself off.

[39:30]

The ordinary, dualistic way of thinking about being kind can happen at the same time as the thinking which is not karmic, which is not thinking in terms of self doing something. And the person who doesn't think that way looks just like somebody who's thinking that way, being kind. They look like somebody who's being non-violent. But they don't think that way. They don't think, I'm being kind, I'm being not violent, I'm being not greedy. They just watch how they're thinking until thinking and not thinking drop off. And then they act just like you're supposed to act conventionally, just like everybody wants to act conventionally. So, someone told me recently that he was having trouble staying upright in the midst

[41:20]

of his preferences, preferences, likes and dislikes. As you heard, case number two of the Blue Cliff Record, Zhao Zhou says, the way is not difficult, the Eightfold Path is not difficult if you practice right thinking. The Eightfold Path is not difficult except for picking and choosing, except for leaning into your likes and dislikes. If you lean at all, slightly into your likes and dislikes, if you lean towards your likes or away from your dislikes a little bit, the way gets really difficult. If you lean a lot into your likes and dislikes, it gets harder, then really difficult, and

[42:22]

so on. If you don't lean at all into your likes and dislikes, into your preferences, this is called right thinking. It doesn't mean that there aren't likes and dislikes sitting in the trees around your meditation seat, flying by your nose and your ears and your eyes and your tongue and your body. It doesn't mean likes and dislikes are not happening all around you all the time, changing, offering new and delicious opportunities to be repulsed or attracted. It doesn't mean that. As a matter of fact, the Buddha sat in such a provocative situation his whole life, but he abstained from wrong thinking. He abstained from picking and choosing among these preferences. He just, when he had a preference, when his mind created a preference, he thought that

[43:24]

preference so perfectly, so exactly, so fully, that the thinking dropped off and there was no leaning. There was no picking. There was no choosing. Then the way is effortless, unhindered, right thinking. Under the auspices of right view, which watches and says, look, there's a preference. There's one of those guys, one of those gals that, you know, there's one of them. There's one of those things which I have a longstanding habit of leaning towards, which causes my suffering. As a matter of fact, I see myself leaning right now and there's pain there. I see it. Wow. It's not a real bad one right now, but it can get worse. I've seen it many times. Right view sees that, sees in every preference. As soon as you see a preference, boom, you see first noble truth, second noble truth. And seeing that, just as it is, just as it is, suffering conditioned for suffering, suffering

[44:27]

conditioned for suffering, exactly that. You see it. That's right view. That's the way it is. Then you see cessation and you realize right view. With that right view, then you can practice. Can you learn the new way of not grabbing at your preferences and not avoiding what you don't like? Can you learn it? Yes. What do you need? You need the Eightfold Path. You need right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration and right view in order to not pick and choose. And so by not picking and choose, all eight aspects of the path are realized. When a preference arises and you don't flinch, you don't bat an eyelash, you don't grab it at all. You have just realized the entire Eightfold Path that is nirvana. Who wants it? Nobody. But there it is.

[45:33]

That's what it takes. Now, this time of year, sitting here in the mountains, many preferences, many likes and dislikes can arise in our minds. We can like and dislike fellow practitioners. We can like and dislike the weather. We can like and dislike the food. We can like and dislike the practice. We can like and dislike our pain. We can like and dislike Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's. We can like and dislike the end of the practice period. We can like and dislike the rest of the practice period. We can like and dislike what's coming up after the practice period. And there's a lot coming up after, isn't there? Many things will happen. Many of us will leave here and go see people who we have strong feelings about. Even before we get there, we can think of many Christmases past, many New Year's past,

[46:41]

many sad and happy times, many dark times, many bright, lovely times, things which we feel deep and delicious preferences about. Someone told me about his enlightenment experience, said it's like when a child first sees a Christmas tree. When they first walk into the room and they see this beautiful tree of light, this burning bush, you know? There they are. Moses, you know, seeing God for the first time. It's like that. Or when you first saw the Hanukkah candles. Whatever your background, lots of celebrations are coming up with feasts to accompany them.

[47:44]

We have feelings about these things. How can you stay upright and not lean towards or away? Well, you partly got to work with the right view. Right view has got to tell you, you know, this is like, you know, it's kind of like not optional. One more holiday season of screwing up may be the last. How can you stay upright through all the color and vividness that's coming to you the rest of this practice period, the rest of this session? Right view will help you. Right thinking will realize. The two together, you will realize, you can realize Buddha's wisdom this week. But it takes great courage to watch your pain calmly, steadily. See its conditions. The wrong thinking, the wrong views, which are its conditions.

[48:47]

Right view is to see the wrong view and to see the wrong thinking, to see it. And right thinking is to change that mode. And how do you change that mode? By not trying to do anything about it. That's the big change. It's not to think a different way. It's to think of a thinking which is dropping off all thinking and non-thinking. It's to let the thinking be totally what it is in this moment. That is new. That is a revolution. That is right thinking. And if you want to check to see if it's right thinking, just look. Are the Buddhas in ten directions sitting there? If they are, you got right thinking, right? But what do the Buddhas in ten directions look like? They look exactly like this world. This is the Buddhas in ten directions. Every moment, never anything but.

[49:51]

All the sages saw the Buddhas in ten directions without moving a particle of dust. They didn't move one live oak leaf. They didn't adjust one sycamore leaf. They see the Buddhas in ten directions right here. They say, here is the place you see the Buddhas in ten directions. This is what it is like. So, when the Buddha is sitting upright and still, the monk says, what kind of thinking are you doing, man? I'm thinking in a way that drops off thinking and not thinking. I'm thinking in a way, the way I'm thinking is not thinking. It's not messing with the situation anymore. It's just to see that there is a thinking person here who is messing with the situation and that's causing suffering. The right thinking totally lives with the wrong thinking.

[50:53]

And the right thinking sits up straight and the wrong thinking drops off and sits nicely right next to it, like a good little puppy. Peep, peep, [...] peep. When do I get a chance to take over again? No, you just sit there now. It's okay, it's okay, you just be a good little wrong thinking. You're doing your job, that's fine. High level preference, okay, you sit there, be good. We'll feed you later, don't worry, and you will. Lunch will do the trick. Dinner will do the trick. Don't worry about these wrong thinkings and these wrong views, they will survive. They just lose their power to cause us trouble, that's all. But it's hard, it's hard when you see someone you love to just see someone you love.

[51:54]

And not kind of like, you know, work it. It's hard when you see someone you hate to just see someone you hate. Just see, it's somebody I hate, that's it. That's wrong thinking, fine. That's not even wrong thinking. The wrong thinking is leaning into, this is someone I hate. Someone I hate is just somebody who walks up with a somebody I hate sign on them. They're just like a sycamore leaf, that's it. Sometimes you can leave sycamore leaves alone, great. Sometimes you can't. Not great. Take lots and lots of sycamore leaves and put them, you know, in your lunch.

[53:12]

And can you leave them alone? It's harder then. Out on the street, it's fine. Your enemy is fine too, on Mars. But put your enemy up close to you, can you like leave it alone? Can you not pick and choose that enemy? If you can, that's called right thinking. And once again, it's pretty hard to do that unless you know, from right view, that you need to. That if you mess with this person, this so-called enemy, this person you hate. If you mess with that, like for example saying, oh, I don't really hate you. Lying, for example. Or something cruel to them, this is wrong thinking. Wrong thinking is just to grab, take hold of this person you don't like. Take hold of it. Rather than think of the thought, I don't like this person, to think that thought so fully.

[54:16]

That it drops off, and you're free of it. You're free of ill will. Right thinking is to renounce picking and choosing. To renounce all alternatives to this. To renounce the other. Not abandon living beings, but renounce them as others. Renounce the thought that these other people here are other than you. Renounce that your enemy is other.

[55:19]

Renounce the otherness of your enemy. Renounce the otherness of your lover. But there's some fear of that, because if you renounce the otherness of your lover, you'll be all alone. But from that renunciation of the otherness of your lover, you will be kind to your lover. If you grasp the otherness of your lover, that will interfere with your kindness. If you renounce the otherness of your enemy, you will be kind to your enemy. If you renounce the otherness of your lover, you will be kind to your lover. You will be free of greed for your lover. But that's so hard, but it opens the doors to the appearance of the Buddhas in ten directions

[56:38]

right now. One time, a few years ago, I had an appointment that I made a commitment to attend outside of Tassajara during a practice period, a conference where I was going to give a talk, and it was snowing and we tried to dig our way out of the road, we tried to dig a trench for the wheels of the four-wheel drive vehicle, and we dug [...] and we dug, and sunset was coming and we realized we would never be able to dig a trench far enough to get out, so we gave up and came back, and then our local maintenance guru Stanley Dudek said, I have some skis, you can ski out, I'll go with you.

[57:38]

So we got the skis and walked up the road until it started snowing, where the snow was, and we skied out, and I'm not much of a skier, so I got to have a beginner's mind at skiing, and basically what I learned was, it was cross-country skiing mostly, until we got to the other side, and I'll tell you about that later, mostly it was on the top of the ridge and then going down to China Camp and then on the top of the ridge again. So it was cross-country, and cross-country, the way I was doing it was straight ahead, and I sort of went in his tracks, and so I learned that I really had to have no alternative to keeping my mind on my feet in those tracks. If I got into any alternatives from that, I didn't have enough skill to have alternatives

[58:42]

to that activity, and if I had no alternatives to the activity which was required for me to stay on the path, something else happened, unexpected happened, something that happens to a person when the person renounces alternatives to what's happening and just does this, as though there were no real viable alternative, and when this thing comes or came as I was moving my feet in these tracks, I wanted to turn and look at it, I wanted to turn and look at it and meet it over there or over there, because it was everywhere, including straight ahead, including it was actually down in front of me in those tracks. It was everywhere, but what was required of me was to keep my mind on the tracks, because

[59:47]

that was my job, that was the thinking which I was doing, but I wanted to look and see it in the sky, because it was in the sky too, and I wanted to look and see it in the mountains and in the valleys, because it was everywhere, I wanted to have the whole thing, I wanted to see the Buddhas in ten directions, and they were, but as soon as I looked for them, not only did I lose them, but I also fell down. Wrong thinking is very attractive, because then you can see the Buddhas where you want to see them, you can see the thing where you want to see it, and you do want to see it every place, which is fine, but as soon as you turn away from here, you'll lose it, because you're getting into greed, and ill-will, you're saying, it's not, yeah, I know it's

[60:50]

in these tracks, sure, sure, sure, I know it's in this job, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's here in this cushion, but still I'd like to, you know, give me a break. That's wrong thinking, that's greed or aversion, that's believing that there is some other place, but when you do not fall for that anymore, and you act like that, you realize right thinking, and there are all the Buddhas in ten directions right there. Also they're every place else too, of course, but when you turn away from here to there, you lose them there and here. But I could see as I was going, step by step, how hard it was, even aside from wanting to see the Buddhas in ten directions, just general old, you know, distractions, hard to stay that focused in that rut, in that rut, but I don't recommend movies, but I do recommend

[61:54]

right thinking. Right thinking is to renounce these selfish desires and to love what's in front of you. Love, it doesn't mean like it, it means honor it as the place where life will be liberated from suffering. Honor whatever is happening at the door of liberation, in other words, always keep your eye on nirvana, and line your thinking up with that vision, which is thinking which has no alternative to itself, and drops itself off.

[62:58]

Now, if I keep turning pages, I get to write speech. But I'll stop now. So I talked about two of the eightfold path now, just six more to go, but I already talked about them too, right? Didn't I? Didn't I? So, I don't have to give any more lectures on the eightfold path, right? I want to call it, I satisfied, I did my job, right? Okay? Is that right? Huh? What do I want to talk about? I want to talk about, did I do my job, am I done now talking about the eightfold path and can I retire? Okay, so, I just want to make it clear that I've done my job, and this is all like, you

[64:27]

know, gravy from now on, okay? Okay? This is not required of me. I taught the eightfold path, right? Didn't I? Okay, Jack? I mean, so now, it just, maybe I'll talk about it, maybe I won't, kind of, that's okay. So tomorrow, I may or may not talk about right speech, it depends on the weather, really. I'd be happy to if the weather's good, but if the weather's bad, I feel like I should bow to the weather and the storm's saying, shut up rim, be quiet, listen to the rain today, listen to the creek. On days like this, it works okay. Well, I feel pretty good because I said just about what I wanted to say. I hope you heard me. I think, actually, that was pretty much what I wanted to say. So, if you listen to me, that's great, I mean, because then I'd talk and you listened and

[65:30]

that's nirvana. But if you didn't listen, that's samsara. And I'm sorry about that, really.

[65:39]

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