As you may have heard, all Buddhas and all ancestors who uphold the Buddhadharma have made it the true path of enlightenment to sit upright and practice. Thus, in the midst of the awareness of our reciprocal, supportive relationship with all beings, it has been said that this directly transmitted, straightforward Buddhadharma is the unsurpassable of the unsurpassable. It has also been said that from the first time you meet a Master without engaging in incense offering, bowing, chanting Buddha's

[01:04]

name, repentance and confession, reciting scriptures and so on, you should just wholeheartedly sit and thus drop away body and mind. From the first time you meet a Master without engaging in various practices, there should just be wholehearted sitting, thus dropping away body and mind. One way of hearing this is that there needs to be this wholehearted sitting, dropping away body and mind, but then a Master is mentioned

[02:06]

and meeting a Master is mentioned, meeting a teacher. Perhaps the reason for saying this is that we don't find a way of practicing wholeheartedly, or wholehearted sitting and dropping away body and mind, we don't find it all by ourself. It's not just my idea of just wholeheartedly sit and thus drop away body and mind, which is just wholeheartedly sitting, dropping away body and mind. It's not just my idea. So then there's some perhaps question about, well, if wholeheartedly sitting and thus dropping away body and mind isn't my idea, how to practice it? Well, it seems that it's suggested that you practice it together

[03:10]

with a teacher, and that's a big problem. Meeting a teacher is a big practice in itself. And the teacher isn't the whole story about how this wholehearted sitting occurs, but it's an important part of it. It's a door which opens on to this mind of interdependence, that we understand that the teacher's part of our practice means that we understand,

[04:14]

not means, but opens us to everybody's part of our practice, and everybody is supporting us to understand what it means to wholeheartedly sit. Everybody's supporting us to understand how everybody's supporting us. Still, the teacher is mentioned because not everybody is interested, not everybody is a teacher, or not everyone plays the role of a teacher who is devoted to the realization of wholehearted sitting. So, Dogen seems to be suggesting

[05:16]

that we find some companion, someone else who is really interested and devoted to, in an explicit literal way, and also in non-literal ways, and so on, who is devoted to the realization of wholehearted sitting. Of course, we practice together with everyone, but we need such comrades, such companions, who are sharing this particular focus in order to realize it. And even our idea of the teacher is not the teacher. So, to meet a teacher with the understanding that when we meet a teacher, the teacher is not our idea, the teacher is part of meeting

[06:17]

the teacher. Of course, we have ideas of the teacher, otherwise we wouldn't be able to meet the teacher. And our ideas of the teacher are based on the teacher, but they're not the teacher. Realizing this is dropping off body and mind. So, the meeting with the teacher itself is an opportunity to wholeheartedly sit and thus drop away body and mind. It's part of wholeheartedly sitting and dropping off body and mind, is to go and meet the teacher, who is your idea of the teacher, and then also meet the teacher who is far beyond your idea of the teacher. Meet that teacher too. Of course, that teacher is the most important

[07:21]

teacher to meet, but you need to meet the teacher who is your idea of the teacher in order to find the teacher who is beyond your idea of the teacher. And that teacher, in that meeting, you realize wholehearted sitting. In that meeting, there is the realization of wholehearted sitting. In that meeting, there is dropping off body and mind. We cannot drop off body and mind by ourselves. We have to do it together with another one who is wholeheartedly sitting, dropping off body and mind. A

[08:22]

meditating in this way, there's a way of meditating that's going on, and from this meditating, words are emanating and you get to hear them, right now. This way of meditating that's happening right now, I'm very happy to have happening right now. It makes me not exactly feel safe in the dangerous situation of meeting a teacher, not exactly safe, but more kind of like ready for it and wholehearted about it. Part of what comes to mind is that there is a danger of what we call entering the room in Zen practice. Entering the room

[09:41]

means entering the room and meeting the teacher. Entering the room, usually closing the door, not necessarily, but often closing the door and being in the room with the teacher. There is danger there. There's a danger. There's the danger of death, which is also outside the room. But when you enter the room, the danger of death doesn't go away. So that comes with you. There's the danger of having some projection of what the teacher is, which is another way to say, have some idea of what the teacher is. There's a danger in that. There's a danger in believing and getting caught by what you project upon the teacher, by your idea of the teacher. There's a danger of that. It doesn't mean you for sure will, but there's a danger. And there's a danger that the teacher, so-called the one who is

[10:45]

playing the role of teacher, will also believe his or her ideas of you and the relationship. There are these kinds of dangers. Bringing these dangers out of hiding into the open and looking at them together, however, it's possible that the very dangers of meeting will be the way of becoming free and wholeheartedly sitting and dropping off body and mind. This will be an interpersonal way to wholeheartedly

[11:48]

sit and thus drop away body and mind. But there's a danger. And of course there's also a great opportunity. So people sense that often, and I affirm that there is this danger, and also there is this opportunity of meeting with the teacher, and actually in the meeting realizing wholeheartedly sitting together. In one sense, again, you might think, well, you meet the teacher and the teacher tells you how to do wholeheartedly sitting and then you go do wholeheartedly sitting and drop away body and mind. But maybe another way to understand it is you meet the teacher and in the meeting you understand that you're not going to practice wholeheartedly sitting by yourself. The wholeheartedly sitting is

[12:49]

not something you can do. Not something you can do by your own personal power. There is no such thing. Again, it may seem like, well, meet the teacher and kind of get to know each other, get your instruction, get your license to do wholeheartedly sitting, and then go sit. Do I understand now how to do wholeheartedly sitting? Yep, go ahead, do it. Okay, now I do it. Not so much that way, more like, in the meeting, together, there is the practice of wholeheartedly sitting. In the meeting, together with all beings, in the reciprocal support with all beings, that's wholeheartedly sitting. The wholeheartedly sitting, the actual

[13:51]

wholeheartedly sitting is the way you sit which is supported by all beings and which all beings support. The way you sit, dreaming, is the way you sit. That you're doing the sitting, or that some people are helping you, that way of sitting is also actually wholeheartedly sitting, but you don't get it, you misunderstand it. You need to go meet a teacher. And, the wholeheartedly sitting is the way you sit. Sometimes people talk to me about, you know, committing to a teacher, saying, okay, one, two, three, I commit to you, do you commit to me, and now we have a committed student-teacher relationship. And, I often mention that in ancient texts, it's recommended

[14:56]

that you spend about three years watching a teacher before you commit, make a commitment to be the student. Watch a person who is functioning in the role of teacher for years. And we can learn a lot. We can learn, actually, there's unlimited things we can learn by relating to a person who is playing the role of teacher before we make a commitment. To that relationship. I think it's also maybe possible that we, that by meeting someone and opening to this reciprocal embracing and sustaining, that we actually, that there could be realization of wholehearted sitting and dropping away a body and mind. I think that's

[16:02]

possible. And then, there can be commitment, and after the commitment, further realization, which I could call deeper realization, but anyway, further realization can occur after commitment. It's deeper in the sense that it's further, that there's certain things that can't happen prior to commitment, but those things can be very wonderful, and, you know, authentic Dharma practice. It's just that the reverse, usually we don't commit and then not commit, you know. Once you commit to somebody or to a relationship, you can't then, it's pretty hard then to go into an uncommitted relationship with them. And again, not impossible, but hard to get to the uncommitted from the committed. But again, I don't want

[17:15]

to say impossible. So I would say, be careful, be respectful, of the opportunity of what can happen when you commit to the meeting with a teacher. And during that time, when you're being careful of it, enjoy all that you can work out and all the way you can help all beings, and all beings can help you prior to making the commitment. And, many of you have heard this etymology before. The Chinese character for crisis,

[18:20]

excuse me, the Chinese compound for crisis is two characters. One character means danger, and the other is opportunity. So, even before there's a commitment, a mutual commitment of student and teacher, even before, there is a kind of potential crisis in the relationship. There's a danger, and there's an opportunity. Or I guess I should say, there's an opportunity. Is that correct? Checking with the English teachers. Even before there's a commitment from student to teacher and teacher to student, there's danger, and there can be harm, can manifest in the relationship, if both parties are not skillful. If either party is not skillful, there can be some harm. So there's danger prior to commitment, and in general, there's

[19:26]

new kinds of dangers after commitment. There's crisis before commitment, and there's crisis after commitment, actually. I just wonder, is there actually any opportunity without danger? Maybe. And again, crisis, the word crisis, has the origin of, well, has the origin of a sieve, where things are separated, where things fall out. And again, it means a pivot or a turning point. Crisis is a turning point. And it's not so much that we want to turn from inauthentic life to authentic life, although that would be nice, but also turn from authentic

[20:36]

life to inauthentic life. To turn, always actually be turning. Don't get stuck in authentic life. But if you are now currently living an inauthentic life, there's the opportunity for a meeting, which is a crisis, where there can be a turning point, where you can turn to authentic life. And then, don't make a nest of that, and turn out of that too. Turn beyond that. Maybe not to inauthentic, but go beyond authentic. And again, there's a turning point in relationship. Don't be cranking your own pivot. You don't. It's together, we turn together, constantly turning, going beyond where we are, even going beyond authentic Buddhahood. And we need, not need, we do this together. We keep each other turning. But

[21:42]

if we don't open to this, we miss out on this wonderful turning point, which is where our spiritual life is living right now. Turning, turning, pivoting, crisis, danger, opportunity. Once again, turning again. It isn't just that I wholeheartedly sit and drop away body and mind. The teacher has mentioned, as emblematic of the entire universe, that from the first time we meet the entire universe, just wholeheartedly sit and drop away body and mind. We do not practice wholehearted sitting by ourself. The ancestors are not saying, you do this

[22:45]

by yourself. Now sometimes they do say that because some people refuse to practice unless they can do it by themselves. They say, okay, go sit by yourself, go practice Zazen, you do it. So we don't want to be rigidly holding to the true Dharma. Give the false Dharma sometimes. Go, you go practice Zazen, you do it. And then later we mention that actually we're just kidding. There's no such practice. So be careful. If you don't have a teacher, yet, if you don't see one yet, be careful. If you see one and you're considering one, be careful. If you're getting ready to commit, be careful. If you've committed, be careful. It's dangerous.

[23:46]

Once again, as I enjoy this meditation on the student-teacher relationship, I do not actually feel safe, but I feel less afraid. I feel more ready to meet the teacher. As I meditate, it doesn't take the dangers away. It just makes me less afraid. As I meditate on how the relationship is reciprocal, if I do not meditate, or if I meditate on how I'm the one who's responsible and the teacher is not, or how I'm the one who's responsible and the student's not, if I meditate that way, if I meditate that way, this is an oral tradition, if I meditate that way, I repeat myself because this is not written down exactly.

[25:52]

I say it over and over so it will sink into our bodies. As I meditate on how, if I go with my habit of how I'm responsible for the relationship, it's not safe then either. Or maybe I actually think if I'm responsible, then it is safe. If I'm in control, it is safe. If I can control the teacher, it is safe. Or if I can control the students, if I'm in charge, then it's safe. But actually, it's still not safe, it's still dangerous, but I will be scared, there will be fear. The more I realize we're doing it together, the closer I get to no fear. So, I like this meditation because it makes me fearless to have relation, to be in relationship with more and more beings, and play whatever role is appropriate. The more I meditate on

[26:58]

this reciprocal quality, the less I feel stuck, the more I feel the turning. Wholehearted sitting, drop away body and mind. There was a Zen teacher named Lin Ji, and he had a teacher named Wong Bo. Lin Ji said,

[28:05]

actually, he was invited to get up, to ascend the seat, like this seat. He ascended the seat and he said, if I were to accord with the ancestral tradition, I wouldn't be able to open my mouth. And I say, I can't open my mouth either, but you open my mouth to tell you a story about Lin Ji's teacher, Wong Bo. And Wong Bo had a teacher named Bai Zhang. One day Bai Zhang went up into the hall with his, he was kind of a little skinny guy, I understand. Anyway, he was skinny, and I don't know how tall he was, but he was kind of skinny, kind of ascetic. But he had a stick, a big stick. And he went up into the hall, and when the monks assembled, he started swinging the stick at them and chasing them. And they ran

[29:09]

to the door, and when they got to the door he said, what is it? I don't know if anybody woke up at that time in the room. Did anybody hear about that? Did anybody wake up? Were any of you there? This was in the Tang Dynasty in China. Zen teachers apparently did stuff like that, even skinny ones. But anyway, as the story goes, I didn't hear that anybody woke up when he did that. However, there was a guy there named Yun Yan. And Yun Yan was a young monk who was Bai Zhang's attendant. And he didn't wake up either. Apparently, he was Bai Zhang's attendant from 14 years of age until 34 years of age. For 20 years,

[30:11]

he got to be the attendant to this great teacher and watch him do stuff like chase people around with sticks. A great master. He was with him for 20 years, but he didn't understand during that time. He was not supported by all beings to understand. After his teacher died in 94, he went traveling and he met a man named Yaoshan. Yaoshan said, oh, you study with Bai Zhang, oh goody, tell me about how Bai Zhang taught. So he told him stories about how Bai Zhang taught, which Yaoshan was very happy to hear. And then after he would tell the stories, Yaoshan would say, well, how do you understand that? And he would say how he understood. And Yaoshan would say, that's too bad. You studied with one of the greatest Zen masters in history

[31:21]

and this is how you understand? Very, very sad. I'm glad to hear the story though, thank you. Tell me another one tomorrow. So they went through this for quite a while and finally, Yun Yan came to the story of chasing the monks with a stick and saying, what is it? And he told Yaoshan that story and Yaoshan said, oh, thank you so much. Today, through you, I actually hear the Dharma from Yaoshan. From Bai Zhang. Actually, from Yaoshan. Yaoshan heard it from Yaoshan by hearing it from Bai Zhang. In other words, Yaoshan heard that Bai Zhang was teaching Yaoshan. He understood. And at that moment, Yun Yan understood. After 20 years, he understood too. Bai Zhang had a student named Wang Bo, who was very big,

[32:29]

7 feet tall. And he weighed 500 pounds. Chinese pounds. One day, perhaps in the middle of the night, perhaps you can guess what Wang Bo did. He went up to the hall, copying his teacher, as we often do, with a big stick, much bigger. And when the monks were assembled, he started to swing it at them and chase them. However, in this case, the monks did not move. They froze. Various interpretations of what happened to those monks at that time. Perhaps they were afraid of the giant swinging his club. I don't know. But anyway, they didn't move. They didn't run to the door, so he couldn't say, what is it? He just looked at this room full of frozen cowards. And he said, you are a bunch of drag slurpers. If you travel

[33:40]

like this, how will you have today? Don't you know that in all of China, there are no teachers of Zen? One finally mustered the courage to come forward, or rather, one was finally supported by all beings to be courageous enough to come forward and say, excuse me sir, do you think it's alright to pet on a first date? No, he said, what do you mean there's no teachers of Chan? What about all these monasteries that have these people that are studying the Dharma and practicing meditation and being kind to each other? He said, I didn't say there was no Zen, I just said there's no teachers of Zen. In other words, these monks were caught by their idea of the great huge Zen master, and so they couldn't turn, they couldn't meet,

[34:45]

they couldn't meet the teacher and they couldn't wholeheartedly stand there and drop off body and mind and run for the door, like any reasonable person would do. Or, go up to him and say, excuse me, do you think it's alright to pet on a first date? Or, where'd you get that stick big boy? Etc. All the things you can do when you're meeting the teacher, all the things you can do in the meeting with the teacher where the wholehearted sitting drops off body and mind. These are stories about meeting the teacher and wholehearted sitting. There's quite a few more, but I will stop now and ask if you want to express anything. Yes, Jackie? Pardon? It is dropping off body and mind. Meeting the teacher. To say that

[36:06]

it's something misses the mark. Pardon? Yes, Jackie? You're welcome. We set the table, laid out the food and then nobody grabbed anything. At least Jackie didn't. I won't say is that enough, I'll just say is there anything you wish to express? Erwan? Second of all, you're welcome. To say that's it, misses the point. Valerie Valera. Valera ha [...] ha.

[37:13]

Yes? If I knew it. Ready? Valera. Valera. Valera ha [...] ha. Anything further? Yes? Does the teacher ever learn anything? Does the teacher ever learn anything? I was hoping you'd ask. Yeah, I learn, well, you know, I learn, what do you call it? I learn, I learn what to say in the Dharma talks. All my Dharma talks are coming from

[38:22]

the doksan. Unfortunately, we don't tape the doksans because we could just play the tapes and I could go running or something. I learn, I learn, I'm, well, you know, it's not exactly that I learn more than the so-called students, not exactly more, but I seem to generally be having a better time. Generally, sometimes the students are having a great time too. It's not all bad for the students, but the students are often afraid. For example, they're often afraid that I won't think that they're good students, or brilliant even. Some of them even want me to think they're brilliant. Or some of them are afraid I'll think they're stupid even. Some of them will maybe think I'm afraid I think they have bad breath. Some

[39:29]

of them, yes? What zen master was that? That was Woody Allen. I don't like Woody Allen. You don't like Woody Allen? Not today? Okay. Well, you haven't made a commitment to him anyway, have you? No. So anyway, I learn, the most important thing I learn is our relationship. I can't figure out, I don't know about our relationship without the so-called students, I don't know anything about it. So I basically learn the relationship. And I also learn something about the person, and I learn something about their practice. And I learn something about my practice. And I learn about, for example, am I uptight, am I afraid, am I holding on? I learn about, are people expressing themselves the way I invite them? Do I invite them and

[40:34]

then they don't because I'm inviting them, but they don't really feel invited? I learn about that too. But again, I say I'm generally having a pretty good time because the people who come anyway are doing, I mean people are coming and expressing themselves. I'm pretty happy about that. And I mean I feel like they're expressing themselves not so much to get me to like them anymore, although there's still some of that, but it's mostly now people are expressing themselves to like show who they are more and more, which I find not necessarily likable, but it's what I want. I want the real person and I feel people are being more real with me than they used to. When I first started meeting with people, people were coming and like showing me some good faith. And after a while I just started to just be myself and go to sleep, which was, you know, spontaneous. I'm really bored by people presenting somebody

[41:35]

other than themselves. It's really boring to me. It puts me to sleep. But a person who's being herself, I never find it uninteresting. Sometimes it's adorable, sometimes it's really repulsive. But for a person to be who they are and have me find it repulsive and learn that they can, that's just fine, that I really am rooting for somebody to be who they are even if it's repulsive. And I wouldn't want them to shift to be who they aren't, which might be quite attractive. I wouldn't want that and I find it lifeless. I can go on forever about all I learn from the students. And sometimes I actually learn from the students that I'm wrong about some facts. I got the date of somebody's life or wrong name for the story. I learn that I make mistakes. I learn what the students want. I learn what's important

[42:37]

to them. I learn whether they want me to help them realize what they want. And then I learn sometimes that they're not doing what they want. And then I learn whether they want me to comment on that. And if I find that they do, then I learn how to do that together with them, how to help people stay on the path which they wish to walk after they told me what path they want to walk. So I learn what path people want to walk and I learn whether they want me to help them and then I learn with them how to do that, how to live the path that we want to walk together. These are some of the things I learn. I'm learning. I'm learning. I haven't learned much, but I'm learning. Slowly, but I'm learning. Learning means partly to become aware, to come to be aware. I'm becoming aware of things. Is that enough on that? Yes. What's your name again? Anita. Oh yeah, Anita. Hi, Anita. Do you live

[43:45]

in San Francisco? Yes. Moraga. Moraga. Anita, yes. Anita from Moraga. Anita from Moraga. Buenos dias. Buenos dias. Como estas? Esta bien. I have a feeling that, because I really believe that once I become a teacher, I have to stay with that teacher because of this word commitment. My question is how many teachers can I have a commitment with at one time? How many teachers can you have a commitment with at one time? I don't think there's a limit on commitment to teachers. We regularly pay homage to the Ten Names of Buddha. One

[44:52]

of the lines in the Ten Names of Buddha is, all Buddhas, ten directions, three times, isn't it? Or all Buddhas, blah-de-blah, what is it? All Buddhas, past, present and future. We regularly pay homage to all Buddhas, and every time you do that you can commit to study with and learn from all Buddhas. So, I think that there may be practical problems though with different commitments. For example, part of commitment that I recommend is that in some cases, especially with humans, that you make practical space-time commitments, not throughout space-time commitments, but just part of space-time commitments. Like, I will meet with you once a month, or I'll meet with you once a week, or I'll meet with you on Monday mornings between 5 and 7, every week that I'm around, and you meet me there, and yes we do. So then you have to respect that and take care of that, so then you can't commit

[45:57]

to another teacher at that same time unless those two teachers get together and meet you in the same room, which is possible. We can get a lot of teachers in the room and you can meet with them all Monday mornings, and that could happen, but we have to work that out, and it might be easier to meet in separate rooms on different days. It can be worked out. I should say, I probably do, so if you're making a commitment to a teacher, it's very likely that you would agree that you would talk to that teacher about such things as making commitments to teachers. So it would be a little funny to commit to a teacher in that kind of specific way and then not mention that you're committing to another teacher. I shouldn't say funny, but maybe that would not be part of your commitment. Maybe your commitment would be, I may want to commit to another teacher, but I'll do

[46:59]

that with you, I'll talk to you about that, so you understand that I'm working with other teachers even in the same area of Dharma practice. And the teacher might say, okay, and then you might tell them, and they might say, I don't agree with that, and you could work that out. And even if they didn't agree, you still might be able to work it out. You don't always have to agree with the teacher, I don't think. Some teachers may disagree with that, right? Teachers don't have to agree with me, that it's okay to disagree. Some teachers say, no, disagreement is allowed. And I would say, okay, can I disagree with you? No, you cannot. You have to agree with me. Why do you think people are being more themselves than they used to be? What's the reason for people being more themselves than they used to be?

[48:01]

Well, you know, here's some theories. Want some theories? Theory, I'm being more myself, and they see me getting by with it. I've said it hundreds and hundreds of times, I've said, I'd like you to express yourself, I'd like you to be yourself. I've said that many, many times. I've said it in large groups and small groups, in print. I've said that I want to know what kind of relationship we have, and if it's a relationship where we're working together, then let's work together. And then when people, when I or people act in a way that's not working together, we also understand we're going to give each other feedback, and there has been such feedback. The result of all this, and much more, is that I feel that

[49:04]

people have been encouraged and have tried it, have tried to, have had the courage, somehow, with all these conditions, the courage has arisen for people to express themselves. Even if there's still a little fear, the fear has been balanced by courage, the fear has been integrated with the courage to express, even though it is somewhat dangerous to show yourself, because if you show yourself and somebody finds it disgusting, it can hurt. But still, even if I show myself and you find it disgusting, I may find that I've just gotten over a big fear, that I finally did show myself and you found it just as bad as I thought you might and I was afraid you would, and here we are together and I think we can

[50:05]

be in love, but find each other disgusting. I'm pretty sure of it, actually. I think a lot of people find me disgusting and love me, or vice versa. I think a lot of people love me and find me disgusting. Right? Do you know anybody that you love and find disgusting? If you haven't had the experience yet, I recommend it. Find a disgusting person and start loving them. It's really cool. Or, another way to do it is just practice Zen and love everybody and disgusting people will come. They'll say, wow, that guy over there is practicing Zen, he loves people, I'm going over there. And they come all kind of like greedy and drooling to get love, and they're just really disgusting. And you just

[51:08]

love them anyway, and it is disgusting. If you practice Zen, or the Buddha way, everybody's going to come, and some of them are disgusting, but practicing the Buddha way means having love and compassion for everybody. Everybody. That's the Buddha's compassion. No exceptions. And some people just want to give it a test. I wonder if he'll love me if I'm really disgusting. And some people don't really want to give it a test, and that's really disgusting. He said that the interpersonal play is happening, and then the most important is the one going

[52:13]

beyond our ideas, like here we are. The interpersonal play is happening, and then what did you say, something more important than that? Yeah, there's something more important. No, nothing more important than interpersonal play. That's what interpersonal play is. It's going beyond your ideas. What? Interpersonal play. If you're stuck, it's not play. There's no play, it's taught. Now, of course, if you're doing that in a playful way, that can be your part. Okay, I'm going to be the scared one. Hey, don't hit me. Don't come over here. Don't

[53:16]

Are you enjoying the play? Are you opening to dependent co-arising? If you are, that's it. I mean, that's not it, but that's it. Yeah, Tracy? I have a practical, technical question. Okay. You said the same thing five years ago, or ten years ago. Oh my God. But, my question is, when I listen to those things now, they're wonderful, but I'm wondering how do you say that best when you read, so that it's not just roll out, dodge on top

[54:21]

note, or whatever. It's real every time. Even the old tapes are real. How do you make it every time? How do you do it? What's the answer? What's the answer? You don't do it. I don't do it, yeah. If I do it, it gets stale. If I tell the story again, it gets stale. If I do anything, it's stale. What I do is already dead, but I am just animation. This is animation. I'm animated by all things. And in oral tradition, you're animated by your community. Everybody's animated by everybody. And everybody's saying the same old stuff, as though they never heard it before. Even though they know, yes, we say this every other

[55:24]

Tuesday, we say this. Same stories over and over for centuries and centuries, and also from week to week or month to month. When you're playing, you can... Better roll the ball again, one more time. How can it keep being fun to throw the ball? If I do it by my own power, it gets very tiring and scary. Not only scary, but I can barely stand the fear, but I am animated by all beings, and in that awareness, that's our life, and it's alive, it's fresh. May our intention fully extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's

[57:03]

way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Illusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[57:40]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ