And before going into, I moved through that landscape of human experience, which runs from enlightenment to various forms. I might just say a little bit about the basic practice when someone is making the most basic practice. Hopefully, I'll continue to be endeavoring while moving through the landscape I talked about. The landscape I talked about. Describe this practice.

[01:02]

There's many different simple ways of describing it. It's a very simple practice. It is a practice which is simply what's happening. That's the practice. And this practice is also And put the chair over here.

[02:12]

And this practice is also called just sitting. And just the just part of just sitting means this is not a sitting that you do. This is just sit. That's the basic practice that I'm bringing up. A way to study what's happening. So I'm suggesting that what's happening is the way to study what's happening. That's why I think it's the best way to study what's happening. That also is called just sitting.

[03:28]

Just sitting is when what's happening is just what's happening. That's just sitting. If you're sitting, what do I do now? you doing the sitting is not just sitting. Maybe you think you're doing the sitting, which is fine. You can also think that you're not doing the sitting. You can also think that And I'm controlling the decision. But if you take away all that stuff and just let the sitting be the sitting, that's just sitting. Nobody's doing it.

[04:34]

Nobody's not doing it. It's just the sitting. That's the practice that I'm talking about. And close. Close to the bone. Is that the expression? Also bare bones. Some of you may not like to hear about this, but let me tell you that you don't like to hear it. Because one of the reasons why you don't like to hear it is because you're very much open to meditation practices. Like sitting. It's not just sitting. Five minutes you're sitting. I thought it was reasonably important. sitting, you can also consider meditation, mobile printing, sitting light. There are two kinds of sitting. Two kinds of meditation, two kinds of what?

[05:39]

One kind of sitting is sitting which I, or you, do, or don't. In other words, one kind of sitting is karma. One kind of meditation is karma. One kind of life is karma. As I said, it's a free country. You can practice this way. You can live this way. You can not. One drawback, this is non-stop pain. Now that non-stop means continuous, but I mean also stop. This guy over here, another kind of sitting is, I won't say don't do it. It happens. This kind of sitting, yeah, this kind of sitting this kind of meditation, this kind of thing, happened.

[06:53]

It happened. Not part of it. One drawback of that is that they're used to karma. You're going to miss it. But the good thing about this way of life or this kind of meditation practice is that one of the good things about it is it is what's happening. And being what's happening, it is wisdom. Being wisdom is the same thing. It's freedom. It's freedom, period. It's also freedom, in particular, from suffering. And freedom from suffering turns out isn't just freedom from suffering. Also, when you're free from suffering, it's very pleasant. So it is freedom from suffering and also happiness. This is the way I recommend it.

[08:05]

However, people don't like this way because they can't do it. They want a way they can do it. One way you can do it is here. And you can find a lot of teachers who will teach you how to do meditation. I want to teach them that. And God, I don't know what, also, God forgive them and God save them because they're doing bad things by teaching them this. In the long run, in the short run, it's a whole problem. But it's dangerous because you're reinforcing people's faith. I do things. I do things. These are not what's happening. That's not what's happening. That's what is happening. It is happening that we think It's happening. What's happening is not just . It's a little bit more expensive. What I'm thinking is not . Is that right? Is that what you think? Okay.

[09:24]

When I'm talking, the fact that I'm talking is part of what's happening. When you're talking, that's also part of what's happening. But what I'm saying is not happening. This is not true. This is what you're talking. It's that when you talk, you don't do it by your own personal power. You just think you do it. And so that's what I hear on this side of the room. That's that kind of life. So when we practice, just be present. And again, I said present with what's happening, but now I take away the word with. Not even like present with what's happening, but presence which is what's happening. Or intimacy. Intimacy about what's happening. Intimacy, what's happening, is a meditation practice which I recommend that you practice.

[10:34]

I'm actually recommending you practice through a Buddha practice. Buddha is just present what's happening. The reason I'm trying to use some practice to be Buddha. Buddha is just intimacy with what's happening. Intimacy with what's happening is Buddha. And you can't, and I can't, me, I can't do intimacy with what's happening. It's like I can't do intimacy. open the Internet with you? No. You have some say. And they say, I don't want to be. And you say, well, I appreciate you want to be intimate, but would you so like to brush your teeth? Or would you please be quiet for a second?

[11:43]

Or would you sit down? That would help me. What kind of intimacy is it? Intimacy is something I Not one you can't like have a relationship in one person's doing anything and persons like sitting there taking Now I know that some people actually think And a lot of people agree with them that you can have a relationship with somebody one person measures better to relationship than the other one Right I've been white for a long time relationship than I was. And I swear to God, that was true. She really wasn't too good at it because she couldn't get me to be good at it. Finally, she got me to be good at it. Then she was really good at it because then I was good at it too. Now I'm almost as good as she is. After many long years of difficulty, it hurt me better at the relationship than me.

[12:48]

Not good years. She was better. She was right. I was not the good. I was wrong. But I was liking that. So then she gave me a little tip. I don't know how she happened to say it, but she told me about this Greek word. Actually, some people say it's a Latin word. It's either Latin or Greek. It's your choice. It means wife. It means a word, an English word made out of it. which means she told me that devotion to your wife. So she told me that I should practice. Or something like that. Maybe she didn't tell me I should. She just said, well, that would be good. Give it a try. And so I did. And it was. It's okay to be deported. It's okay to be deported.

[13:54]

So then when I started practicing worship with my wife, then I would get into a relationship. When I first started practicing, she said, you're better than you used to be. Better than I used to be. Finally, she just said, good. Then she said, you're very good. Then she said, you're the best. All my devotion to her. Still practicing, so she doesn't... I can tell you some examples. For example, one time we were having dinner with somebody, and the husband teaches at the DC Irvine, and his wife said, what's Irvine like?

[15:12]

And he said, oh, it's beautiful. And his wife said, it's ugly. And he said, ugly. Is that the roach? Was it that moment? And I did it, and I did it. So, you know, I said, that's something my wife said, and I said, I said, that's beautiful, and my wife said, it taught me. Now, some people might think I'm, If I actually thought that what I said was beautiful, that would be true. And now I'm switching over to say, now that's true.

[16:16]

That's where I'm at. Then that's not where I'm at. It's nice to have an idea. You can tell that there's points, right? It's because it goes with being alive as a human. If you have lousy opinions, it turns out giving them up is fun. If you have great opinions, giving them up is almost more fun because in some sense you're less likely to want to give them up. Some people actually go along with it. They don't have very good opinions. It's not all that good. But still, if you give it up, it feels great. Now, I'm not that type. I think there are really good realities, but I don't think it's reality. I think it's illusion. The worship to my wife often involves giving up my delusion.

[17:19]

In most people think that they do things as delusion. Nobody can do anything by himself. Even people think that they can control it. Nobody can control anything. Even you would say, you know, I can go out there and do everything. It's kind of like, unless somebody tries to stop you from doing anything, then you might have trouble. It sometimes happens. But really, in any significant way, I really control them. But what you can do, you can be devoted to it. But devoted to me doesn't mean in control. And my wife, early on, was not in my control. She hasn't got any more in my control. However, she's not in my control because I'm devoted to her. She was here. It's just me, the tiger, the lion, your team, my devotion.

[18:30]

I'm out of your control, and I don't want to hurt you. I do not want to hurt you. I do not want you to hurt me. I don't want anything. But I'd like the situation to be changed. Changed means, you know, okay, we want to breathe it out. to what happened. And if you're on the ocean, you're normally devoted to the ocean. There's various ways to be devoted to the ocean. You can be devoted to the ocean by looking at it. You can be devoted to the ocean by swimming in it. You can be devoted to the ocean by riding a surfboard on it. It doesn't mean that the ocean doesn't have waves in it. And that's what a king ocean would be. But somehow, your relationship with the ocean becomes king of the ocean.

[19:34]

For example, if you're a surfer, the way you express your devotion is by going out in the ocean with a surfer. If you keep expressing your devotion to the ocean by practicing surfing, the ocean becomes king. It becomes your friend. It becomes important. the surface on which you realize you, instead of just something which originally seemed rough and scary. What you try to do, you just eat the oceans and you keep writing and so on and so forth. Children are such a worry, for example, because some parents try to control them. Then the children, what they have to do is they have to fight back. And if you try to control them too hard, the worst thing that will happen is your children will stop fighting back. That will be a control that will damage them.

[20:39]

All your children, they should fight back. When you're devoted to your children, they are a team. In mind, guess what? Same thing. That's why I recommend just being intimate with what's happening in the body and mind. In that case, being devoted to what's happening. If an angry thought arises, you can be able to hear whatever arises. What do you do? Present. That means you don't mess with it. You don't try to control it. Put your hands together or something like that, and you say, good morning, morning. Good morning, pain. Good morning, pleasure. Good morning, turbulent consciousness. And that divorsion takes you into intimacy with it.

[21:46]

And that very intimacy with the mind becomes tangible. And you start revealing the landscape. I told you about Lester. The practice I recommend is the practice of being intimate with what's happening, giving up personal power and going into the state of what's happening, rather than trying to control your mind, get intimate with your mind. Some people think, I'd have to control my mind before I can even get intimate. It looks like most of the time, you find such a connection. I can't even begin to get intimate. So let's beat it up for a little few more years. And then when it's completely crushed, then I'll be Well, here's two examples. One is, you know, when my wife and daughter, my daughter doesn't live with us now, but when my wife and daughter were living with me, sometimes they would go away for three days, and while they were gone, I would clean the house.

[22:55]

And then, two days, three days, it would be one day that the house would be cleaned before they got back. But in that one day, or maybe it would take more than one day, but it doesn't take very many days before I realize that I don't want that house to stay clean. You know, day after day, stay clean. It gets to be really annoying. I kind of wanted to come back. I didn't really want to take that mess like I usually do. I like it to come back and mess it up a little. I think I just come in and just drop a few leaves here. Maybe, you know. Put a magazine on the table or something. Prefer that. But to the house, it ain't clean. And one time here at Tassajara, when I was sitting over there in an old window, I had decided to do my job.

[23:59]

And I was very strong, very coercive and powerful, and it influenced my mind into being just like I wanted it to be. When I got it to be just like I wanted it to be, I realized I didn't want it to be that way. I didn't like the way it was when I got it. So a lot of people think that what meditation is, that concentration is about getting your mind under control. You can use personal power or even get a gang of people to help you to get your mind under control. But think of what you want your mind to be like and getting it to be that way and get some teachers to help you, get some fellow students to help you, some fellow mind control, teacher control people to get your mind under control, get it just like you want it to be. Get it there. Hopefully you realize it does not do anything. You don't want this We don't want to turn our mind into a thing.

[25:02]

We don't want to turn our children and our spouses and our planet into a thing. I don't think so. So that's why this kind of practice is not the kind of way. However, this kind of practice is not like, you know, separate because still, for all practical purposes, until you're completely enlightened, you're still operating on this side. He's still operating at the level of, I'm taking notes. I'm lifting the truck. I'm banging my head at the truck. I'm still operating at that level. I'm driving the car. When Suzuki Roshan lived alive, we used to give him rides everywhere. He didn't have a driver's license anyway, but anyway. Someone said to him, you know, how can you not drive Suzuki Roshan? He says, to-do list. You know, I drive the car.

[26:08]

So they let us be. He was non-dually into us. So the dualistic dualistic you and me. I do this. You do that. Dualistic work. Dualistic life. Dualistic action. That's going on and it's going to go on for a while. It doesn't mean we abolish that. It just means that our practice is what's happening. So what's happening is that dualistic world is going on, dualistic thinking is going on. Either I think I'm doing things or I see you think you're doing things. My practice is to be intimate with myself doing that. It's to be intimate with my practice. My practice is not the karma I'm doing. practice of intimacy. That's not the karma I'm doing.

[27:12]

It's studying very close and devoted to the one that's doing it, devoted to the mind that's creating it, flexibly adjusting, meditating, and aware of the process of karma, not doing more. Somebody keeps trying to fix this world up. It's another story that Sun Yat-sen picks up the world. Some of you have heard the story before. He's two stories my dog. So I had a really sweet dog one time. I had two stories of his dog. A little tiny one. Crossed between a golden lavender and a cherry. Looked like a little golden lavender back then. And I knew a lot about that lady, Dr. Yvonne. I just saw her movie, Dr. Yvonne.

[28:13]

And so she was really a sweet dog. And I'll just take a couple of points. One was she got pregnant. One was she came in to eat. And I did not want her to have puppies. You already know the end of the story. I didn't want her to have puppies because I didn't want to take care of puppies. As a college student, I liked having a dog, but I didn't want to take care of puppies. So finally, after I had her for a while, she came in to keep. I guess I got her when she was a puppy. And you can tell when a female falls asleep because it happened in her rare period. I can't smell the stuff, but it is of an odor which dogs can smell through walls. Male dogs can smell through walls. So I'm keeping her indoors during this time.

[29:18]

This is indoors. When I'm in the company, we stay indoors. Male dogs are outside barking, inviting her to come out. She wants to go out. I don't want her to go out. So this goes on. Anyway, I open the door. She tries to get out. Close the door. So one day, she runs ahead of me. I'm on the second story, so she's down the stairs. And there's this little crew of male dogs. There's a variety. She's ahead of me. So I kind of... I'm not into devotion to my dog, right? I'm into controlling my dog. She's into devotion to me, but it has wounds. Hormones overcame, in some sense, her devotion. Really, she wasn't devoted to me. So she goes running down the stairs.

[30:19]

She's downstairs on the ground. I'm still sort of on the second floor. I'm coming downstairs. Okay, so then I think, kind of like, oh. But then I think, wait a minute. I'm going to have to say who. So, there were two of them. Two of them seemed to be, you know, main characters. And there was one other guy. I thought, what a big, beautiful guy. Husky. A white husky. This is a Minnesotan in the winter. Husky's up there. He's smart. Pretty good looking husky. His name is Little Runty Guy. Little kind of like short-haired, spotty guy with legs. Anyway, I did not like that. That was not going to be my son. He was fast. So he got in there. And then I said, no. I wasn't. I was in my house. And I said, Mara, come in the house.

[31:26]

So her obedience kicked back in. And she came in the house. But what you may have heard about the dog's work is that once things start, you can't stop until they're done. So she came in the house. This book's called Personal Power. So I said, so when I saw that, I thought, this is too much. This is too ugly. So that happened. And that did happen. You know, it looks like personal power. You see, it looked like personal power. But it was ugly what happened to that personal power.

[32:31]

It wasn't really personal power. It was a combination of me and her. It was a combination of me and her, the abortion to me. And then it was a combination of personal power, but when I was acting that way, it was ugly. So anyway, she got pregnant. And he could tell she wasn't that pregnant because she didn't want to go outside anymore. She wasn't like, she wasn't like trying to go out anymore. She stayed in the house all the time. The job was done. And then she got, you know, grew and grew and grew and grew. And all those things happened. And then another kind of change happened around her, which shows, you can tell, the baby could come pretty soon, right? Kind of, who's it going to be? and discharge. No, right? At that time, usually she had her own little bed there in the kitchen, but also she had the pre-rain in the house. But when she got to this point, I kept her in the kitchen because she was dripping this red material all over the house.

[33:36]

So again, I tried to control her into her room. Kitchen. We're bedding. She also likes to come on my bed. I get her [...] to come on my bed. Control. I get her to come on my bed. I get her to come on my bed. Raising bosom, trying to get your dog in the stuff all over your pillowcase. Poor college student, you know, using free pillowcases. But that's what she wants, a pillowcase. Anyway, one day I come home from school, and I come into my bedroom, and there's my dog on my pillowcases. And I see this red stuff all over my filters.

[34:39]

I say, get in the kitchen. And she goes in the kitchen. And I go up and clean up the mess all behind the filters. And so it's a problem. It's all that. It's all that. So that's what I do. But it isn't just the puppies. I mean, puppies, you know, puppies are puppies. But what really is important is that this mother will leave her puppies, because I told her to, because she's so devoted to me. She will follow my instruction, all those protecting me, all her, like, snarling them. She left her puppies, and I told her to. So I said, now you can go back and go and pack your puppies and lock them up over here. You're dead, you're innocent.

[35:29]

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