It reminds me of my brain. I love... I'm glad you're keeping your mudra straight, John. It's great. Your mudra looks good. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. Keep it up there while I tell jokes, okay? Hold on. Hold on. I said, well, I tell jokes. That for some time people have been asking me why questions and I've been saying that I don't answer them. I was thinking that as an experiment in my 63rd year, instead of saying I don't answer why questions, I never said I don't respond to them. I just said I don't answer them.

[01:01]

But what I thought I'd do this year is say, although I don't answer them, I do respond. And my response is, what are you actually trying to tell me when you say why? I think that's part of the problem with why questions is the person's not actually saying what's going on. It's a little indirect. So I think that's what I'll do next year. So if I forget and say I don't answer a lot of questions, please remind me to say, what are you really asking me? So the cake reminded me of that. And this cake I will share with you, of course. with all of you. So I read you the Lotus Sutra, chapter 16.

[02:12]

So, you know, the Buddha's saying, although there's, I've been around, you know, it's been a really long time since I realized the Buddha way, and I will continue to do Buddha work moment by moment, Because if people think, some people, if they think I'm going to be around forever, they'll kind of like postpone their practice because, you know, hey, he'll be here tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll practice, you know, and tomorrow I'll be able to go to Doksana or tomorrow I'll be able to hear a lecture or tomorrow I'll be able to walk hand in hand in the garden with him or whatever. So today I've got other things to do. And when I was alive in a younger form, there was a person named Suzuki Roshi who was alive in San Francisco, and I got to be with him.

[03:20]

And I always used to think, not always, but I often thought, how could I be so lucky as to be able to hang out with this guy? And I couldn't understand why everybody wasn't there hanging out with them. But I didn't go around saying to people, why aren't you hanging out with them? Because I kind of wanted them all to myself. And some people who I... He loved his students. And some people who he really loved and wanted them around, they had other things to do. And I couldn't understand what they... I mean, I knew he wanted them there and they weren't there. I couldn't understand, but I didn't go see. You know, he'd want you there. I just let them, sorry, I let them do other things. But people do that, you know. When I was in college, I loved this jazz guy who was from Mississippi like me.

[04:30]

His name's Mose Allison. And if he came to Minneapolis, it was rare that he would go to Minneapolis. But I knew when he was there, it was rare. So if he was there, I would make a big effort to go hear him and listen to him and remember what he said. I'm the one, I'm the one, I'm the one they call the seventh son. I would make a big effort because I knew it was rare. So then I moved to San Francisco and he lived down the block. And played down the block. And I thought, hey, he's there all the time. I'll go see him some other time. But if he would come over to Zen Center and said, I'm playing and this is the last time I'm going to play.

[05:31]

then I probably would have thought, oh, this is a rare opportunity, I should go listen to him. You people have been very careful. Jane, you took a huge... Anyway, there is this strange thing that it's kind of surprising that... And we're very happy to meet Buddha. Everybody loves Suzuki Roshi. Oh, great, there's Suzuki Roshi. But he'll be around a little longer, so, you know. I can skip this lecture or I don't have to go to Zazen this period and sit with him because he sits quite frequently, so I'll come some other time. People do that. Not everybody, but... the Buddha says, hmm, maybe I should go away for a while, send word back that I'm dead. So that's what the Buddha, huh?

[06:36]

Did you say something funny? No, I didn't say funny. I have a problem with this. Do you have a problem with the sutra or the cake? Sutra. Yes, what's the problem? Well, I just don't like that he said that. You don't like that he said that? That he lied. You don't like that he lied. He played that trick. He actually thought somebody might think that, so he asked all the bodhisattvas what they thought. You're supposed to copy the bodhisattvas and say, oh yeah, you weren't lying. You weren't lying, boss. He knew that someone in a later age might think he was lying. So he set this up so you wouldn't fall into that trap. It's okay. But thanks for doing that, actually, because that's what he said that for, is for you to argue with. Anyway, he played this little trick on people to get them to take the medicine. So the medicines he's giving to help people, plus the tricks to get people to take the medicine, he's just doing to help people.

[07:48]

That's the idea, but it's a little bit tricky. And there's an earlier part in the sutra, too, where there's these people in a burning house, you know, and their father or mother says, come on out of the house, but they're in their nursery, you know, and they have these really, it's a nice house, you know, so these kids have the highest quality toys. They're like Marin County kids. You know, they've got really nice toys. And the house is burning, but they want to keep playing with their, you know, video games and whatever. Who knows what other games Marin County kids get, you know? So the father says, come out of the house, it's on fire. And they won't leave the house. So then he says, I've got beautiful horses and horse carts out here and goat carts and deer carts. And they've got all these kinds of special adornments on them, like CD players and TVs.

[08:49]

So then the kids come out to get these various kinds of beautiful chariots. When they get outside, there's just one cart. And it's a white ox cart. And again he says, you know, that wasn't really a lie. I just did that to get him out of the house. In this case, the analogy is that the three different kinds of carts are like three different vehicles that attract people. The individual vehicle, the bodhisattva vehicle, and the pratyekabuddha vehicle. When they get outside, he says, Actually, I just have one vehicle, the Buddha vehicle. But they wouldn't come out of the house for the Buddha vehicle, so he got these other vehicles. And again, he says, this boy said, was I lying? He said, no, boss. Skill and means. The first part of Lotus Sutras is about skill and means, in a way.

[09:52]

What the Buddha will do to get people to give up their distractions, basically. Pardon? It may never return. Once it gets over in the corner there, the people there can eat unobserved. That's quite a gauntlet to run there. Anyway, so then the Buddha, may I go on? Yeah, will you forgive me for that? Hold on, will everyone forgive him? I feel like I'm shooting towards Avicii down there. Pardon? You want to hear more of what's up for him? Be careful, Max. Want to tell her more? Yeah, I'm just wrestling with the problem of that thing called skillful means that you are actually tricking somebody in.

[10:57]

that he did that. I wrestled with this sutra in that way. I don't know if it's okay for the Buddha to say, well, this is the spirit of awakening people up. I can do this. Well, in the movie on the airplane, the airplane movie, they also said in there that artists use lies to expose the truth And politicians use lies to cover the truth. You might also say that the Buddha uses stories to show the truth. Stories aren't true, but he uses stories to expose the truth. But some people use stories to hide the truth. So there is that thing. like novels.

[12:01]

Novel's a lie. You know, a novel's a fiction. It's a lie. But hopefully it's a fiction which somehow while people are reading this fiction, they suddenly go... Because they know it's a fiction, they let it in. If you tell them it's a truth, they kind of might defend against it. So, but... Because you tell them... This is just a... You know, once upon a time, they say, oh, okay... And then they open to it, and suddenly the truth opens in the middle of the novel. Yes? The story kind of reminds me of our own mortality and how life is actually structured as a hiding of some, I mean, a form that appears after the mortality and makes us feel more urgency. Yeah. Yeah, you could read it that way too, that the transient form of life is to help us, by seeing the transiency of life, we open to what is eternal.

[13:14]

Yes. Yes. Did I lie and they say no? He doesn't say, was it okay that I lied, or was it skillful that I lied? He says, did I lie and they say no. Yeah, that's what he says. Well, he didn't ask you, he asked the Bodhisattvas. And they said, no, boss. They were being yes women, actually. and you should get with the program. We can change the sutra. He says, he asked Karen and she said, yes, you did lie. Then he asked the bodhisattvas and they said, no, you didn't. And then the bodhisattvas went over to Karen and they talked her into saying yes. I know, whatever they are. Anyway, there it is.

[14:17]

You and Max have some problem with this, and maybe some other people do. It's okay to have a problem with this. Wonder about what this is about. But anyway, he brought this up, that he does this thing, and he's just saying, I do this stuff which is not really, I appear, for example, to be born, and that's actually kind of a trick. in the first place. And then I appear to die. Because if the Buddha doesn't appear, people don't seem to see the Buddha. So the Buddha does this thing called taking a form. And then when the Buddha does take a form, people say, wow, great, nice to see you, we're so happy, we love you. That's fine, that's fine. That's part of the reason. To get people's attention, Buddha takes a form that they can attend to. But then some people, even though they're very happy to see the Buddha and they want the Buddha to teach them, they still won't really listen to the Buddha that they're so happy to see and listen to.

[15:22]

They won't really listen. So then the Buddha says, okay, to get these people. Some people will. For those people, the Buddha doesn't die. Everybody's happy to see the Buddha. But some people then when they see the Buddha, they wake up and then they don't see the Buddha die. For those who will not wake up even after they see the Buddha, the Buddha then does another trick called disappearing or saying that he's dying. And that gets the rest of them. So appearing gets half of them or whatever and disappearing gets the other half. But both the appearing is also a lie in a way. Because Buddha doesn't actually appear and disappear. But again, unless Buddha does appear, most people don't see it. Yeah, if the Buddha had said, was it an illusion that I appeared in the world?

[16:24]

They would have said, yes, it is an illusion. But he's not trying to deceive people. He's trying to wake people up. He's not trying to make people think that Buddha appears. He just does this thing and then they say, oh, Buddha has appeared. But he's not actually trying to get them to... Because once he appears and then he gives a teaching, the teaching is that I don't appear and disappear. Earlier he says, you know, before the part I read, he says... Yeah. The Buddha perceives all the marks of the triple world as they really are, that there's no birth, no death, no coming, no going. But if we don't perceive things that way, then the Buddha moves over into the way we perceive things as birth and death and coming and going.

[17:28]

Because if the Buddha is not coming and going, we don't see the Buddha because we only see stuff that comes and goes. So then the Buddha goes, okay, I'll do the coming and going thing. If that's what you're looking at, I'll do the coming and going thing. If you're looking at a football game, I'll go to the football game. I'll be the football or whatever. Just trying to get into our range of vision and But there's a little bit of a misrepresentation for the Buddha to appear because the Buddha doesn't appear and disappear. But so we can see it, the Buddha appears. And some people, once the Buddha's appeared, they get the message, there's no appearance and disappearance, so then they don't see the Buddha go. Other people need the Buddha to go. And then when the Buddha goes, their sorrow clears their vision. And then they see, oh, Yes? I called on you. Is that so different from what we all do? The coming and going?

[18:31]

Well, it's exactly the same except that we didn't appear, most of us didn't appear in order that people could see us. That's not the reason we appeared. We appeared partly because we had the background of thinking that way. The Buddha just doesn't think that way, doesn't see that way, but knows that other people do see that way. So some of us might have been born for that. Really, we were born to help people, but we didn't necessarily understand that the mode of being born was an illusion. Or we might have been sort of halfway through our embryonic development and then When we started getting under the pressure of being born, we might have, like, lost track of that or something. So at some point we might have been in touch with that and then lost it. It's possible. Yes? So this is sort of a leap of faith. is using skillful means for the benefit of all beings, right?

[19:36]

I mean, if we perceive it as a trick or a lie, that's not really true because the whole thing is illusory anyway. So what's happening is it seems like a Yes. Yes, right. And I don't know about the leap of faith, but there's some faith involved here at various points, like, for example, when you hear what it takes to be able to see the Buddha, that you would give that a try, that you would practice that. entering the mud of the world for the welfare of beings, and then practice being, you know, developing your tranquility practice so that you'd be pliant and then harmonious with beings and be honest, honestly express yourself and be upright through that process, that you'd give that a try is a kind of faith.

[20:48]

Whether it's a leap of faith or not, I don't know, it might be just more like a testing of the water of faith or like, I'll do this for a while. There still might not be leaping. So, for example, in that, again, the expression, trust everything to inhalation and exhalation and then leap. And that could be called a leap of faith. But it's also a spontaneous leaping that will happen when you give up involvement in anything but your current experience. And that's something we usually gradually do. We gradually give up distraction from just being right where we are. Finding our place right here is something we gradually do. We first try and we find like, you know, I'm sitting here in the room but actually my mind's all over the place. And we say, I'm sitting in the room and my mind's not all over the place, but it's a lot of places. Then I'm sitting in the room and my mind is just in a few places besides here.

[21:51]

Now I'm sitting in my mind and I'm almost like completely here. Now I'm sitting in the room and I'm finding my place actually right where I am and that's it. I finally arrived here. And we have that experience when we sit longer retreats. I think many of you know that. First couple of days you're kind of like somewhat resisting being at your seat. And those are the hard days. After about two and a half days, you're kind of almost just pretty much almost at your seat. And then you're at your seat, and then things start getting kind of easy. You're like you've arrived at your body and mind, at your seat, at this moment in the retreat. And then things get more and more relaxed. Even though there's still pain, it's kind of like you're relaxed with it. And then there's a leaping that occurs. And you could call it a leaping of faith, but it is faith leaping. It's the faith in being settled and undistracted, and then the faith leaps into the Buddha way.

[22:55]

Before that, most people don't leap. Or if they leap, usually they leap and then they quickly try to get back. I leap, but can I get back where I was before? Not everybody, but most people don't do too well with leaping. But the faith, when faith leaps, no problem. Then there's light. And so I don't really suggest that you leap into believing this, thing about the Buddhist technique, but I just want to say that in this section where he's summarizing it, he gives this nice short thing where he says, those who practice all virtues are pliant, harmonious, honest, and upright. They will see the Buddha. And the Buddha you will see is a Buddha that you've heard has not been around for 2,500 years.

[24:05]

You will see Shakyamuni Buddha right in front of you teaching the Lotus Sutra. And you will also see a bunch of other Buddhas. But you don't have to leap into that. Leap into the practice which will just show you that. And when you see that, you can tell us about it. And we can say, we'll say something probably. How's the cake doing? Really, it's all gone? The brain too? I don't know. I'm using skillful means. I'm not really sure where that's going. Maybe that's what you're right on. I just wanted to see whether you have a sense of loss or not having it. Well, give me the facts and I'll tell you how I feel. You think it's in the kitchen? Okay. It's in the kitchen? You know, I have a grandson, too, who's in the neighborhood. Anyway... You want it?

[25:09]

Want it back? Yeah. Anyway... It's written on the back of my rocks, and it's really, give that a try. And you don't, then you won't, you won't have to believe the Bodhisattva anymore. Supposedly, you'll be able to see. You'll be able to see the Buddha giving these talks, and then you can argue with the Buddha, right, face to face. You know, you can ask to say, hey man, I kind of think you were lying. What? What? But actually, you might not feel that way when you actually see the guy. Oh, I see. You know, kind of like, no, you weren't lying. I can see what you were up to. But hearing about it, maybe we have a picture, you know, in mind, and in that picture maybe it looks like you. But to actually be there. Thanks for not killing that mosquito. What?

[26:10]

It has? Yeah. Not quite. I just wanted to say, as usual, thank you for a lovely day. Oh, excuse me. As I often say, Talk for E-Dog. Thank you for the lovely day. Thank you for your sincere effort. Thank you for sitting so steadfastly and uprightly and pliantly and harmoniously and honestly. And thanks to Deirdre for having the place clean so we didn't have to have a work day.

[27:13]

And Did Eileen do something? Should I thank Eileen for something? So Eileen, thanks for doing nothing, as usual. And for abandoning us and coming back. And also for reminding me that there's a work day in two weeks here if you want to come and take care of the grounds. We have some grounds work to do and stuff. But I also want to tell you beforehand, I'm sorry that I will be in L.A. that weekend. I really feel like I should be in two places at once, but I probably won't be. And we have another one day sitting on the 12th of August. And thanks for somehow getting the people in here, Eileen. I wondered if we all fit, but we somewhat did.

[28:17]

How was it sitting up there? Was it okay? Huh? It was awesome? Did you see it? It looks like you're all in jail. Well, that's another story. So thank you very much and good night.

[28:43]

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