you well you [...] unmoving, not coming or going, yet teaches appropriately, teaches beings appropriately, causing them all to see. She said to me that she's concerned of how just sitting saves all beings.

[01:17]

This is the proposal that sitting of the Buddha saves all beings. Sitting of the Buddha without dust, teaches appropriate, the sitting teaches appropriate, causing all to see. How is the sitting saving all beings? And I said to this person, well, another way to think of it is, How are beings saved? How are an individual being saved? And the way that all beings are saved, that is Buddha-siddha.

[02:37]

And right now, Our sitting in ten directions, and that sitting that is happening right now is how all beings are saved right now. All beings are being saved right now. This is called Buddha, or the sitting of a Buddha. Now, this talk is being taped, but the tape might not be working. Please memorize what I just said. Not because I said it, but just because it's almost exactly the Avatamsaka Sutra. slightly reworked presences for people who spend a lot of time sitting and hopefully learning how to sit as a Buddhist.

[03:57]

The scripture also says that when the Buddha first sits, at the site of enlightenment. The world trembles in six ways. bathe in light. And in this light, all beings in all states are relieved from pain. And I said the other morning, Zen monks wonder about this sitting, this miraculous sitting.

[05:10]

and they wonder about it. Someone remembered they asked questions about this. They're in awe of this. They worship this sitting. They worship this sitting by practicing the ritual of the sitting as a form of worship of this sitting. They worship sitting which creates such a light. And they worship it by actually physically assuming the sitting posture in the form of worshipping the saving function of the Buddha. Zen monks have been doing that for a long time. In that context, the story, the 56th case, the Book of Serenity, has Dongshan, Uncle Mi, who are walking along,

[06:44]

A white rabbit ran out in front of him. Uncle Mee said, Swift. Deng Shan said, How? Uncle Mee said, A commoner being made into a prime minister. great, great, old, old person still has such words. And to me said, well, how about you? Tungshan said, generations of nobility temporarily fallen into destitution.

[07:48]

In this case, number 56, if you want to, we can study quite a long time. There's a great deal in this case. It also offers the opportunity to talk about my trip to China. because this case took place in China, in the Tang Dynasty. And also, the verse, which celebrates this case, is written by a Chinese Zen monk. And the examples, which are brought up in the verse, are often Chinese history. So there's a wealth of history and poetry in this case. And not only that, but this case just happens to be the case that we're studying up in the Bay Area in the colon class.

[09:11]

We just happen to be on this case. After five or six years of studying the Book of Serenity, we're on Case 53. So it's, what do you call it, auspicious and synchronistic that this is the case which we just happen to be on. And this case is so relevant to understanding, particularly this case, I feel, really brings to light the Lotus Sutra's understanding of Zazen, the Avatamsaka Sutra's understanding of Zazen, the Zenji's understanding of Zazen. It also, this case also, is a commentary on different studies that

[10:12]

a living being can quickly go from being a commoner into a prime minister. That's one way that sometimes people think of practice. If you do a practice And then, our means of that practice have a real meaning. But understanding there is some opposition between means and end. And some people want to practice that way. They want to practice. They have a way of practicing which is not the realization which they seek.

[11:24]

And because people want that, want a practice which is not the same as the realization which they want, some Buddhist teachers out of kindness of their heart. Give them something to do. Give them a way to be that will make it possible. Give them a way to be which is not really what they want, but will help them get what they want. A practice which if they do the practice, then they'll get and freedom and wisdom and compassion. But the practice is not the wisdom and compassion and freedom. They don't want a practice which is wisdom and compassion and freedom.

[12:33]

They want a practice which is giving back to them. You might say, why wouldn't someone want wisdom and compassion and freedom? Wouldn't they prefer that? And I would think, yeah, wouldn't you? But I guess the reason why people don't want it is because if you give them a practice with this wisdom and compassion and freedom, sitting at your seat during a period of meditation, which is perfect enlightenment right there, they say, well, this is just like usual. I'm still the same person. So if this is the practice, which is actually the realization, this is not the realization that I want. I want a different realization from this one.

[13:35]

So, okay, well then this is just the practice of the do. If you keep doing this practice, then eventually you'll get what you want, the realization you want. They say, okay, and they do that. And there actually are some practices which are very fast, which will just very quickly you'll go from the way you are now to the way you want to be. So it won't be long, but you have to be the way you are now before you get to be the way you want to be. Just a little bit longer. But of course you have to do it, practice completely. You have to do this practice the same as what you want.

[14:42]

You have to do it really correctly and thoroughly and completely. Then very quickly you'll be prime minister. How long will it take me to be able to do it completely? Well, if you completely give yourself to it, not long. If you half-heartedly do it. So you get into this kind of thing, which is, sound familiar? But the problem with that kind of practice is that it's dualistic. And And it actually kind of like just reinforces delusion. And again, reinforcing delusion is not all that bad because sometimes if you reinforce delusion and get it really, really intensely, fully manifested as delusion, that sometimes becomes non-dualistic.

[15:47]

and you're just like a totally deluded person, and you even forget about becoming Buddha, and you just do it. That can be pretty much the same as, again, doing a practice which is not something different from what you wanted to do, but is just simply completely deluded. So it can be useful. That's the kind of practice that Uncle Mi was talking about. Swift. Like a person like you suddenly becoming a prime Buddha. Dung Shan's point of view is that after generations of nobility, you're temporarily like this. And the word that's used there, you know, temporarily fallen into what?

[16:57]

Temporarily fallen into stinginess, pettiness, meanness. And you can sort of like go ahead and if you like you can kind of expand on that theme. Okay? Petty. tight, strangled, self-concerned. Can you sort of get into that? Or at least you know some people are like that. You know, little, petty, tight. Temporarily, after generations of nobility, after generations of being big, After generations of being huge, being unlimited, being anonymous, being free of self-concern, temporarily we have fallen into, fallen down into being a little tiny person who's kind of concerned with himself.

[18:17]

It's not like this person, we're going to take this little person and then quickly make this person back into a great person. It's not so much like that. It's that this person hasn't lost his fundamentals. Just temporarily got squished a little bit. So it isn't a matter of doing a practice to make you into something else. It's doing a practice which appreciates what you are in the first place. That's another approach to Zen or to Buddhism. do something to quickly or gradually become a Buddha.

[19:24]

The other is not do anything. Which is what a Buddha does. A Buddha doesn't do something to become a Buddha. A Buddha is just a Buddha. To be just a Buddha is for a person just to be a person. And for a Buddha who has temporarily fallen into being a limited person, it's for a Buddha to be a limited person. To sit there at that limited personhood. A limited person sits at the place of being a limited person. That's called the sight of. Enlightenment. A limited person is enlightened at the sight of being a limited person. It isn't that a limited person is enlightened by moving some other place from what they're sitting.

[20:31]

Like you're a limited person and you move next door and get enlightened there. Or expand your seat, you know, to take a few other seats. Ask your neighbors to move over so you can have three seats. And then there you get a night. Or six. Or take the whole zendo. Get everybody on zendo and take the whole room up for yourself. But even if you have the whole room, still, that's a limited seat for you. It's there that you sit. And it's at that place that you wake up. So dungshan is a falling, that we have fallen, that we ordinary people have fallen into a state of meanness, a state of stinginess, and take it more seriously than others.

[21:43]

Or some of us are more conscious of how seriously we take it than others. But in fact, much that I'm here to tell you, you are in a fallen state. But rather, the characteristic of our existence is that it is fallen. It is mean. It is tight and small and petty and relative. to what it can be, or to what it is, really. It has a petty, small, fallen quality. It has all there is to it, but it has that aspect.

[22:45]

So I would guess, and we can discuss later if there's anybody who isn't this way, but I would guess that most of you understand something about the fallen quality of your life. Or if not fallen in your life, because you may not think you ever were in a place else, but that there's a limited quality of your life, a pettiness in your life, a self-concern, a In order to become free of that, in order to understand that in such a way that you become free of that, we have to be grounded in that recognition. So, Dung Shan is saying, we've been noble for you know, a while.

[23:51]

Generations, we've been noble. But now, we've got to ground ourselves our pettiness. Not ground ourselves in our pettiness, but ground ourselves in the awareness of that. Not try to take the petty person and promote her because she's not person, she's a noble person. She is already good. But in order to realize that, she has to be grounded in her parents. But again, the funny thing is that a lot of people, that's why a lot of people don't want to do a practice which is non-dualistic, because a non-dualistic practice means that you work with the pettiness you already have.

[24:57]

You don't try to, like, get yourself when you're not petty. Rather, you ground yourself in your pettiness, and that is the basis for you to realize your greatness. But if you don't want to do that, what you want to do is over-emphasize on the fact of your limitation and put the emphasis on a practice which will get you out of your limitation. Rather than admit your limitation. concentrate on what will move you away from it. But if we try to get away from our limitation, our limitation keeps pulling us back all the way.

[26:01]

But the very process of trying to get away from your limitation is basically the same as our limitation. That's the problem with that kind of practice. The zazen of the Buddhas, the sitting meditation of the Buddhas, is not a way to make a sentient being into a Buddha. It's not a way to make a sentient being into a Buddha. It is a sentient being becoming a Buddha. See the difference? Sitting meditation is not a means by which this person uses this means. The sitting meditation is the person being a Buddha.

[27:06]

Is the person becoming a Buddha? Well, I know what a person becoming a Buddha is like. It's sitting meditation. They're not separate. Zazen is the way that sentient beings are Buddhas. You've got a living being who's saving all beings. You've got a living being who's liberating all beings. That's Zazen. A person like you and me is saving all beings. That's Zazen. When you've got a person who's trying to make herself better, a practice by which they'll get better, then that practice, call it whatever you want, sitting meditation, that sitting meditation is delusion.

[28:11]

It just keeps this person basically trying to do something for herself. to get to be somebody who would do things for other people as well. That practice keeps you separated from the person you want to become. Take granted that that practice you're doing by which to make yourself into a better person, that practice is a lot better than a practice that you do to make yourself into a worse person. So, you see, there's you and then there's your goal, right? Do by which you make yourself into something else. Now, to do something to make yourself into a better person is a lot better than to do something to make you into a worse person. One's called good karma and the other one's called bad karma.

[29:15]

So there's a big difference. But karma is not Buddha's sitting meditation. And again, we can talk about that. Zazen is the whole being of you. The sitting meditation of the Buddha is your whole being, is what you are completely. That's what sitting meditation is. And that doesn't make you into Buddha. That is Buddha. The whole being of your pettiness is Buddha. Because Buddha can take on and become your pettiness. But when Buddha takes on your pettiness, Buddha takes it on with no reservation.

[30:22]

With no like, okay, I'll be like, you know, one of these people here in this room. I'll do it. But, you know, it's the same comma. I'll remember that I'm Buddha and I'm just visiting. Like in Monopoly. Just visiting jail. Not actually in jail. I voluntarily entered jail. Most people, you know, like, visit their limited being, you know, like, wind up to be a man or a woman, but they don't do it. And one of the ways to not do it wholeheartedly is to overdo it, like to be more of a man than you need to be, or less of a woman than you need to be. But the Buddha is wholeheartedly, whole-beingly you. You, in your wholeness, are Buddha.

[31:28]

And everybody is that way. That is precisely what a Buddha is. He is you, and you and you, completely what you are. Not any more, and not any less. after generations of mobility temporarily fall into a stingy situation. expression temporarily fallen into poverty or stinginess or meanness. The first character means shh. It's a four-character compound, four-character sentence.

[32:32]

The first one means suddenly or for a little bit of time. And then the second character is time. Suddenly fallen into meanness. and some people who can read Chinese would probably tell me I'm really off to do this, but I go ahead and do it, is that we have suddenly, and we do it suddenly, moment by moment, we suddenly fall into time. Buddha falls into time, falls into the meanness of being in time. So part of what it takes to recognize what it means to be a limited being is to take responsibility that you're living in time. And to be on time and to have the right timing.

[33:35]

After generations of being beyond time, We have suddenly, we suddenly enter into time. Reading many of your expressions of ultimate concern, one of the One of the ones that has been repeated is unconditional love. The number one concern is unconditional love. Or in some cases, they have other ultimate concerns, and the practice which they need to do, which they feel they need to get involved in their ultimate concern, is unconditional love. Some people want to save all sentient beings or get rich.

[34:45]

And the practice they need to do to accomplish that is unconditional love. Other people want unconditional love. And they have another practice which is hopeful. Unconditional love. But so far, I haven't read one yet where what they ultimately assert is unconditional love and the practice that's entailed there is unconditional love. And what they want to focus on is unconditional love. In some ways, that's another way of practice. What you want is unconditional love and the practice that's involved there is unconditional love. And then you focus on unconditional love. Love means the conditions vary, but the love doesn't. That would be one way of talking about unconditional love.

[35:50]

Love does not, for me, love does not mean you like something. Or dislike it. If you have a child, you might unconditionally love your child, but you might not like the child. And it's necessary, actually, for the child that you don't like it. Because of unconditional love, you temporarily fall into meanness. Because of unconditional love, you don't like it. The being needs you to be me. And say, I don't like that. No is required simply.

[36:52]

As unconditional love. But what is unconditional love? What does it mean? No and no. But anyway, what does it mean? It means you work with this. It means you sit here. It means no matter what your situation, no matter what your situation is, you work with this. Like, okay, this is my situation, fine, thanks, and I'll stop working with my situation later when I get a better one. I'm not going to give my whole life energy to this moment. This is not going to, like, get my full attention. I've got something else to do right now, okay? I've got to walk across the room. Don't ask me not to pay attention to where I am now.

[37:55]

People won't let me actually, like, be here. I mean, I would be willing to be here, but other people would think I'm weird and give me a hard time if I was up here. Took my seat. That's not a sign to me. It's a petty place. They'll tease me if they seem like I'm actually inhabiting this spot. So, later when they're not doing that, later when they're saying, okay, you can sit there, then I'll use this opportunity. No. Unconditional love is this situation deserves my utmost, my complete attention, my complete devotion, my complete presence. And that applies to all situations. This person before me right now deserves my complete attention, not my complete liking or dislike.

[39:10]

My complete life. Including liking and disliking. I don't like you. But that's just part of what I'm giving. I'm giving I don't like you, plus also I will die for you. But I don't like you. I like you, but that's nothing compared to what actually I'm willing to give. And I'll give completely now, and I'll give completely forever. No matter what you become, no matter what I become, I'll be completely here. And I don't even know what that is. I wonder at such a sitting.

[40:11]

I'll live in time, here and now, with me, with me, as I am, not waiting for another step. This kind of sitting is a great light which releases all beings. This is the sitting which is the saving of beings. This is going deep into the mountains and finding wisdom there. the deepness of the mountains, but deep in the mountains means deep into where you sit. And some people have to go actually into the mountains, like these mountains, in order to actually enter deeply into the place they sit. Because they say, in the city, I sit here.

[41:21]

Wherever you go, the people, when I was in China, when I was in the city, I was in China, near the city, on the city, Xi'an, thinking of those mountains, the Zhongnan Mountains, all the Buddhists, Taoists, yogis, they'll sit deep into the mountains, find their seat, thinking about, what does it mean to go deep? And I went to Beijing, went into Imperial Palace, in Qingdai, and so now, and you can walk into the huge, huge, huge, build one of them, the Imperial Palace, scene where he was sitting up and only that's one of those they go behind those big big they have hundreds of other buildings those big stone rooms look in from outside take it in the building and as you get in the smaller one closer and closer to the throne get some other stones closer in the building the biggest room and then smaller one into the into the own that field one of them take one of the go into the building wrong with the sitting nothing between you and Good girl throne. And on one particular room I went in to, there was a throne sitting on one side of the throne. Chinese, a Chinese man sitting on the side of a Chinese woman. And I was immediately struck by the way they're both sitting. Two people I assume were government employees. Paid guard throne. The guard throne from what? Can you imagine if there were no... There's a throne there. Can you imagine if there were no guards there sitting in the throne? Have their picture taken on the... The family photo.

[42:21]

These people get up there and lounge on cigarettes. Who knows? Anyway, maybe in Chinese there were signs that don't sit on the pearl. Don't have lunch. I don't know. I didn't look. Nobody was doing that. These guards were not like right. Postured. They weren't sitting. I think I first noticed a woman. She was a young girl. Sitting there with her legs. Picking one of her legs. She was seeing it against the desk. Picking and tapping the desk. I thought, if we've got all day, she'd wear that. I watched her some more, and she also had a little radio. But actually, she didn't. I watched this for quite a while. She didn't just keep kicking it, thought she was going to wear the berth. Then she started changing it, lost the other way, the other way. Then she started wiggling in her seat. I started to notice, you know, time-lapse photography of my mind. I could see that she probably just spent the whole day, if not eight hours, any hours a day, I assume that she worked a day after day, wiggling in her seat, kicking her feet this way. Listen to the music. Looking at her wiggling, wiggling, wiggling, wiggling. And the other side was mad. He was like, he was like leaning back. He wasn't wiggling. He was like leaning back. He was picking his thing. Totally slouched. Like he was kind of nervous. He was like mad. Like they were both bored. He was wiggling bored. He was like, how can I like melt into this? Like not be here. I guess they're both getting paid money, which they can do to me. What a garden. How do you think they're gardening? about prime ministers okay they're guided in the seat of them but they won't they're not sitting in their own chair i mean they're sitting there they're not they're not happy camp they're not sitting on that chair as though this is the place that i'm going to live my life they weren't sitting there i don't mean to criticize them but that's how they they weren't willing to be on that chair for that time for one i didn't feel like for one moment that i saw

[43:39]

Just for one moment that they're willing to be on that complete life-solving for quite a few moments. This is a moving tour that, hey, it's a mouthful. It's part of my thing. So I'd like to see these things together, see them with me. There was one thing that I really sure thought of. I went ahead and said, I'd like to see these things with you, but these take so long. You stop for these things and you just stay there and look at them. You go and look at one thing and then you're just there. I was really spending a lot of time in it. I was really struck. I was struck. I was struck. That these people, I was struck by these people who were not willing to sit on their seat. They were no better than us, no worse than us. They weren't willing to sit on their seat, I saw. One minute, they weren't willing to just be there. They were, they silenced everyone. I thought, now if this woman had a baby, my own baby, would she have shown up? I wouldn't be like, hey, this is interesting. This guy may be gambling. You know, he had a chance now to win a lot of money. He probably would have been quite interested in the age. Now, trust me, these two people are in the perfect position to go deep in love. They have nothing to do. No one is expecting anything. Somebody tried to get up more steady. They could be anything. Nothing's all yet set. Right there in the middle. Thousands of tourists. Millions of sitting. Hold that light. Let's hear it. That is what it's like.

[44:41]

That's an act I ain't grown about. They moved us. That's very situate. Most suited. Might be. Might be. He has even said it. That's very situate. Most suited. Sit at your. Not move. Situation that's most suited. The one most. Situation which is most suited. Unconditional love. Is the one most. And what is the most suited? Unconditional love. What is it? Time to answer. It's this one. This is the one. Right now. Here where you are. Mo suited into not your, not your, not your feet. You can't practice something that you did. You can't do it anymore. You can't do it right now. You only do that by suited all being boneless and difficult. And those people sit at that seat, practice unconditionally, sitting in that hand, sitting in that seat, in the forbidden seat, middle of Beijing, in that light, not sitting. A Buddha right now sits in every cell of your bone, duck cell, not wiggle. Buddha's back to you. What am I doing here? You mean, meaning of what you're doing here? The point of what you're doing here? Yeah, well, meaning of what you're doing here. The point of being in this bad person is unconditional. He said, what am I doing here? We're human. We fall in human poverty. We're human. This is our situation. Because of that, we have to do this. We didn't come here to do this. We didn't come to Tathasahara to do this. He said, but because we're limited, Think in those terms.

[45:41]

That's not the point. The point is, although you're doing, although you're falling in condition states where you have to do, think in those terms. The point of doing is actually in condition while doing is in condition doing. So those people have blocked the work, sit in that seat, and think in those terms. That's not the point. The point is, when they're doing what they're doing, so what you're doing, cooking, sitting in the room, walking across structures, eating, what you're doing, Activity in point is a giving. We should give yourself weekly giving. In the left, I completely, utterly voted you. Hopelessly devoted. Hopelessly, overwhelmingly loving you. In the meantime, Mr. Popo is a part of the English and I'm the world. That's not what you're doing. We're doing you. So part of what we need to do is grounded in the recognition that a character is our life and we have decided to live no way. Infinite life would impact you good if we counted part of what it takes to realize. Infinite life is infinite. What is life in order to realize infinite life? And life aspect of certain and unfortunate often in human really painful because nature life also. The kind of God has to give you a lumped with life infinite. So when I'm in the problem seat, abounding on a regeneration, unlimited part of the real, it is not a way to lose. Death was fresh, so I am very ordered, not just foolish, offressing, or pounding your staff, wearing a station.

[46:45]

I will brush you fully. When you express yourself fully, you come to the end of your fresh, limited self. Fully call it death. That's why we call it both death. You know what I mean? Kind of hold back. Be a good boy, good girl. Say completely, honestly what you have to say. Be a deaf man with your feet away. Block a really honest say how you feel and say that's real. They'll kill you if they would. Seems it is dangerous. Really. So, yes, part of the strongest awareness of how a way to do that is not just by sitting around, oh, well, gee, I guess mortal dies somehow. That's the way to actually feel that death before they live. And the death happens. So that's part of it. That's part of what I mean by first meet a mass wholehearted sit. That means you first meet somebody who tells you when you sit, sit in a way that fully expresses you. And that sitting, that wholehearted sitting, you sit in something. Say, okay, I'm sitting that way. No, I'm really sitting, and like, that's really like, oh, so now I'm really just sitting. That's fair. Meeting a master, that's other person brings in, oh, really? Can I open one? That's cold. Oh, I might catch a cold. Don't worry. The thing about not just our mountains, but if master opens door, or door, or the fresh, our master's master's door, he goes holding the master's door. Thank you for watching.

[47:38]

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