Once again, I suggest to you that the instruction to get attention to our intention, our thinking, and to... Yeah, it's primarily in order to become free of discrimination. Ultimately, to become free of discrimination. And in that... or for that purpose, to look at an intention, to look at the thinking, to look at the stories that you're telling, and to see, to discriminate among them, is for the purpose of becoming free of discrimination. To look at your intentions and to discriminate among them is for the purpose of

[01:01]

becoming free of discrimination. In particular, to discriminate among your intentions about good intentions and evil intentions. Purpose of looking to see whether they're good or evil. is not for the sake of good and evil, but for the sake of becoming free of the discriminations between good and evil. To look at your intentions and see if your intentions are concerned with your own welfare or the welfare of others is ultimately for the sake of becoming free of the discrimination between welfare for yourself and welfare for others. Just to look at intention, to look at what your motives are, without noticing what discriminations are involved, is good.

[02:10]

Just to look at your motives is good. Bringing attention to your motives, your intentions, they will evolve positively. But still there might be some discrimination involved, which you might be caught by. And being caught in a good intention, a wholesome intention, you can still be caught by seeing the wholesome intention as separate from an unwholesome intention. Being caught is not unwholesome. Being caught is not wholesome. Wholesome is it is a type of intention which is beneficial. But even a wholesome intention can have discrimination involved, and you can be caught by the discrimination or not. Generally speaking, wholesome intentions do involve discrimination.

[03:17]

Otherwise, it's hard to ascertain that they're wholesome. Because they aren't really wholesome all by themselves, They partly depend on being discriminated as wholesome. They're dependent phenomena. If you could look at an unwholesome intention, see the discrimination involved in that unwholesome intention, and not be caught by it, the unwholesome intention would still be an unwholesome intention. However, there would be discriminating wisdom concurrent with the unwholesome intention. I'll stop there and see if you got that. Did you get that? Not discriminating wisdom or non-discriminating wisdom. Oh, did I say discriminating wisdom? Well, you didn't know that that was a mistake. So non-discriminating wisdom could accompany an unwholesome intention.

[04:23]

and discriminating consciousness does accompany wholesome intentions and unwholesome intentions. I'll stop there. Was that clear? That make sense? Are you afraid to say that it doesn't? No. It doesn't? It doesn't make sense? Okay, so you could see a picture in your mind of your relationship with beings. Do you follow that? With beings? With human beings or animals or whatever, some kind of being. You could see, have some vision of that. And it could be a vision, kind of an unwholesome vision. A vision, perhaps, of them being cruel to you. Okay? All right?

[05:29]

And you could determine that the picture is a picture of people not being good to you, not being kind to you. Okay? And you could see the discriminations involved there by which you come up with this picture. Okay? And you could not be caught by the discriminations. In other words, you could say, that's the story, there's the discriminations, and I don't go for it at all. In other words, there could be wisdom there. You could be in a state of not being caught by this scenario that you've seen, and it's an unwholesome scenario. Looks like you have to look at your face like that was difficult for you to understand. Did you understand it now, Tom? No? Maybe.

[06:36]

Yes, Barbara? What if it has to happen? Don't you have to have an alternate vision, alternate internet, that, for comparison's sake, that contrasts with… Correct. Correct. That's right. And that might be part of… And seeing the alternate, would be part of the way you might be able to discriminate that this was unwholesome because you have a wholesome alternative. So you can see, here's a picture of people who are acting towards me in a way that's not good, that's not nice. Now we could also have the other one, a picture of me being cruel to other people. or another one which may be equal to them and may be equal to me. I could have pictures like that, and I could say, this is a pretty unwholesome situation. A dog-eat-dog picture. That's the world I'm living in, that's the relationships I see.

[07:38]

This is kind of an unwholesome vision. Now, it could be that I just let go at that, that I'm not really committed to enact this, but I see this. And I can see, for example, that the discrimination that this is unwholesome, unfortunate, kind of negative picture, I could see that that depends on an alternative. And seeing that would perhaps help me not be caught by this discrimination. But whether I am actually thinking of the alternative or not, to not be caught by this picture, by this discrimination, kind of entails the alternative. And there would be wisdom there in this unwholesome situation. It would be seen as unwholesome and without being caught by this discrimination.

[08:40]

As I said last night, an example of that would be that you wouldn't hate this scene as a result, and you wouldn't like it. Alternatively, you could have a wholesome scene and also... Maybe not alternatively, but comparatively or comparably, you could have a wholesome scene and not be caught by the discriminations thereto, and there could be wisdom in that wholesome scene. And in both cases, it would still be a wholesome scene, but there would be non-discriminating wisdom. Now, you could have a wholesome scene but be caught by the discrimination, and then you'd have a wholesome scene which is still wholesome, But you're caught, and you don't have wisdom. It's still wholesome. And being caught and not having wisdom doesn't make the wholesome into unwholesome. It's still wholesome. In that picture, it's still wholesome. Probably. Let's say it is. Let's say it has good results, too.

[09:43]

to facilitate the sense that it's wholesome, but no wisdom. So again, you can have wisdom with wholesome or unwholesome, and you can have not-wisdom with wholesome and unwholesome. Bringing attention to intentions or our thinking and then noticing the discrimination is for the sake of not just doing good, and avoiding evil, but becoming free of discriminations between them while they're going on. OK? Did you want to say something? Well, I just... Come crawl up. No problem. I think I can stand this time. Just to say that if it's a wholesome situation and you get caught by it, it's bad because it's impermanent. It might not even be true.

[10:46]

That's just your perception. So the utility of trying not to be caught by even a wholesome situation is that if you get caught, you're going to suffer. Similarly with an unwholesome situation, if you get caught, you won't allow a different picture to arise. That's also an impermanent situation, and maybe there's a wholesome aspect of that that can't express itself because you're committed to, oh, this is a terrible situation. So it just seems to me that this is why we're trying to practice non-discriminating wisdom, I guess. Right? I'm tempted to fiddle with that a little bit, but pretty good. It seems to me that what you're saying is neutrality towards all things is required. It's not exactly neutrality, it's more like non-partial.

[11:49]

Because neutral doesn't convey that you're really putting your energy into it. Like if you cook dinner for somebody and really try to make the best possible dinner for them, and then prepare a nice bath for them, and a nice bed for them so they can do all kinds of services to them, we wouldn't really call that neutral, would you? No. That's positive, right? Right. So neutral doesn't sound like positive, right? So be positive. Non-partial would be more like it. Be generous. Be generous with everything. Which is similar to say, be impartially generous. Be generous towards enemies, towards friends, and towards the non-committed. Not neutral. Not neutral, but impartial.

[12:56]

Impartial, yeah. Being generous and positive and kind to everybody. That's impartial. That's not neutral. Yeah, impartial sounds like no parts. Don't be partial with people. Don't give part of yourself to people. Something like that. Learn to be generous with everybody. And also with people who you already know how to be generous with, who you actually already enjoy being generous with, with those people, learn to be not too generous. Learn not to overdo it with those. Learn not to underdo it with the people that you don't yet feel generous towards. You know, bring that bring that up to, like, generosity. And with the people you intend to overdo, bring it back down to generosity from excess.

[13:58]

Go from excess to generosity and incest to generosity. Excess and deficiency. Isn't there something to go with excess? Neglect. Decess. Decess. So what I just said there was intended for clarification, and it looked like it was kind of difficult for you. But it was kind of a difficult point, because again, attaching to discrimination doesn't make good things bad. It doesn't make bad things good. It shows that bad and good are inseparable, and both are insubstantial. neither one need to be attached to. However, there's still a rhetoric of pay attention and notice whether it's good or bad and concentrate on the good and try to drop the bad.

[15:11]

The reason for that is that requires attention and that requires you to get into your discrimination and learn about your discrimination. We need to learn about our discrimination in order to get over it. And this intention is a good place to find out about your intent, your discriminations, and become free of them. And then you will naturally do what you were training to do before. Training to avoid evil and do good, in order to avoid evil and do good, but not just that, but in order to get over being caught by discrimination. Once you're over-caught by discrimination, you will continue to avoid evil and do good, but from wisdom rather than from training in wisdom. So you're training in ethics, or training in morality, or training in intention, and as you do that, you start training in wisdom.

[16:16]

And as you achieve wisdom, you're no longer training in ethics, you're wise and naturally, spontaneously ethical. The way I'm getting this is that whatever it is that I resist, if I will recognize that I embodied that, that that's where nondiscriminating wisdom is. If I resist your anger or jealousy, whatever it is, and recognize that in me, then that's a way of understanding my way to nondiscriminating wisdom. That could be one way. That's not the way, that's a way. So, as you discriminate,

[17:17]

you actually are taking different perspectives. You're looking at things in different ways. And as you see the different possibilities of a situation, you can move that away from you, maybe get some distance from it. You already got plenty of distance. By discrimination, you're distancing yourself already. But I thought you were saying that as you study discrimination, you get to see that discriminations are partial. You start to notice that this is one way and this is another way. If you don't look at your discriminations, you make them and hold to them and think that that's the only way. You discriminate good from evil, or yourself from other, or... Christians from Buddhists make that discrimination. But if you don't study it, you think that's it, you're done. If you look at it, you say, well, actually, am I a Christian or a Buddhist?

[18:46]

That's part of why I went in to sit in there. Are we like Buddhists defiling the Christian sanctuary? Are we Christians who are pretending to be Buddhists? Are we Jews? Who are we? Can we go in there? Do you have to have a credit card? Or, you know, Is this only for people who have taken communion in the Roman Catholic Church? The only people that can go in there? I don't know. I don't think so. So I went in there and I did what I thought was respectful. But I don't know if it was. But I was looking at it. I wanted us to feel what it's like for us to be in, to feel like, are we part of this, are we not part of this? Do we allow it in here, are we not allowed? Do you have those feelings at all? I felt like it would be a great place to have a retreat. Yeah, so I wanted you to see the discriminations that happen when you move from one part of the retreat center to another, to see what happens, see the difference, see what happened in your mind when you did that, to look at your discriminations and your intentions.

[19:59]

that change when you go from room to room in this place. To give perspective about your discriminations in hopes to promote freedom from discriminations. But not to create distance. When I was talking about distance, I think it was gaining that perspective, so that you're not so attached to it. A more flexible perspective, yes. Sometimes people might use distance for what they mean as flexibility. Distance from inflexibility. That's exactly what I meant. So then letting go of... That was flexible, wasn't it? Yes. So then gaining those different perspectives and not attaching yourself to them, you're ultimately letting go of your discrimination.

[21:10]

And that wisdom can come in so you can see a situation and not be attached to the outcome, not hope for any result. You can hope for results, that's fine, without any expectation. That's another rule. You can hope for things, but expecting them, usually, if they're good things, and you hope for them, expectation usually is antithetical to that hope. Expectation is antithetical to hoping well for the situation. Or if you want these to go badly, that's your hope, then expectations will help. It's bad. If you hope for good and it doesn't go well, if you expect that it will go well, then usually it doesn't go well. And when it doesn't, you really get upset. If you hope for bad things and you have the expectation of them going a certain way, whether they go that way or not, you succeed, you feel bad.

[22:21]

In both ways, if things go badly, that's what you expected, so you're OK. And if they go well, you feel really upset. But that's what you wanted, so you're OK. So if you want trouble, expect things. If you don't, give up expectation, which is similar to giving up discrimination. But you can want things with discrimination, without expectation. In other words, you want things free of discrimination. I just want welfare. And I'm not caught by the distinction between welfare and not welfare. That goes very well with welfare. But mostly we have to notice that we don't have that. And we do have expectations, so we can confess to those. And getting them out in the light, actually, we have one more chance of wanting something without expecting it. And wanting more and more without expecting it.

[23:30]

And wanting more and more without expecting it. And then stop holding back our wanting. Just let the wanting come out that comes out with discriminating wisdom. Can I ask one more little question? Yeah, go on. So when you speak of nondiscriminating wisdom, is that the same as nondual awareness? Yeah. Nondual awareness means you're not caught by duality, you're not caught by the distinction between one and two. Nondual awareness is, in some sense, maybe putting more emphasis on something you get to see rather than something you're not caught by. They're kind of synonyms there.

[24:33]

Any other questions about this? Yeah? Can I ask you to think about a concrete example of something we would try to achieve non-discriminating wisdom about. So here's my example. OK, your example. And maybe you can work with this, or help me work with it. So think about the terrorists. And think about the fact that one story about the terrorists is that they are evil. And another story is that they are noble in search of freedom for a whole group of people. Those are two stories, and there certainly could be others. So if we are discriminating, we see both these stories.

[25:43]

I don't know if we're discriminating when we see both these stories. Let's see. I think if you're discriminating, you could see one. And if you're discriminating, you could see both. But you could be discriminating and just see one of them. OK. You just haven't heard about the second one. OK. And also, you could be discriminating and hear about both. Like, I could hear about both. You just told me both. And I didn't think one was true and the other one was false. Those two stories, I didn't identify with either one. But I do have a discrimination between them. I can tell them different stories. Right. So then if I'm stuck, I might really believe one or the other. I might be really attached to the fact that I believe that one is true and the other is not. Yes, but you also might not believe one more than the other, but you just believe they're different stories. Okay. In other words, you caught them.

[26:46]

Although I don't believe one's true and the other one's false, you might say. I do actually. I mean, they are really separate stories. And that I'm caught by. By the fact that they're separate, even though I don't believe either one. Yeah. There could be two different versions, neither one of which you believe, but you do believe that they're separate. Right? Okay, so that's one problem in which a lot of us would go for. Some of us might already believe one of those stories are true and both of them are false or whatever. That's another discrimination. So there's a lot of possibilities here, but one of them would be, even if you don't believe either one, you still might really believe that they're actually separate and that you might really believe that they're both insubstantial, which is true that they are, But you might think that there's a substantial truth that they're both insubstantial. But the truth that they're both insubstantial, which I think is true, that's not substantial.

[27:55]

OK. But now there's one more thing. So if we're trying to get to the point Non-discriminating leads to two stories. Yes. So what we're trying to get to the point of understanding is that they are really the same story. No. Okay, then what... That would be another discrimination, that they're the same would be another discrimination. Okay, then what are we... Relative to those two stories, then what are we trying to get to if we want to get to non-discrimination? Not be caught by either story or by the discrimination between... not be caught by that, by any of those discriminations. Isn't that the same as saying that they're the same? Two versions of the same thing, maybe? I don't think so. I don't think to say that two things are not separate says that they're the same. Well, it says they're connected.

[29:04]

If they're not separate, then they're connected. I think they are connected, yeah. But if they're not separate, that may not mean they're just the same. Yeah. But if they're not separate, aren't they part of... Doesn't connected mean you're part of the same reality, the same... Yeah, I guess it does. Connected means you're part of the same... Am I right, then, that we're trying to get to the point of feeling that both those stories about terrorists, for example, are really the same story? And I'm saying that's a discrimination, too. They're the same, which I kind of agree with. But if that discrimination is seen as substantial, grasp that, you're still caught. Okay. I understand the caught part. Okay. But if my calling at the same story is still a discrimination, I'm trying to get somewhere beyond that, aren't I?

[30:11]

Correct. That's right. That's what I'm saying. Okay, so where am I trying to get? Where are you trying to get? You're trying to enter the realm of enlightenment where you're not caught by discrimination. And you're trying to get there... by watching how you are caught by these combinations. So first you say, these two are separate, and you can be caught by that. Then you say they're connected, and you can be caught by that. Then you see that their connection and their interdependence is not substantial, and you're not caught by that. Now you're basically done. OK. There's something missing there at the end. It just seems as though I'm with you right up to the point where we say they're connected.

[31:17]

They're not separate. And we're not attached to that. We're not stuck on it. I'm there. But then it's the next piece that seems to just disappear into smoke for me. Because I don't know what my is for how it is I want to understand. what that terrorist phenomenon is. Well, you understand it as being something that words cannot reach. It's not that it's not there. It's just you realize any of your words do not reach it. Well, that's easy. I mean, I have no problem with that because words don't reach so much of our life experience. That part, that's right. We've had this discussion before about the inadequacies of language and all that.

[32:22]

So, yeah, that's where we're getting to. Then I'm there. Thank you. I'm very smitten with the idea of non-discriminating wisdom speaking to me in forms that my discriminating intelligence can understand. I assume that means by thought forms? You assume that the way it talks to you is by thought forms? Yes, because that's what my discriminating intelligence uses. Is that accurate? Oh, I see. That that will be the medium by which it communicates with you?

[33:24]

Yes. Or what other forms of speaking does it use? It actually can speak to you by making sounds. which you might interpret. And when these sounds that it's speaking to you with interact with your body, cognition arises as that interaction. So they're not actually speaking to you with thought forms, they're actually like, I should say, non-discriminating wisdom coming into the form of a person, for example, can speak English to you. But when you hear the English, then you interact with that sound in such a way that you become conscious of that English. And then your thought forms are interacting with that sound, maybe interpreting it and telling stories about it.

[34:32]

But actually, I think I'm actually saying that the wisdom will actually talk to you in such a way as to stimulate you to awaken to that wisdom in yourself. But the way it talks to you is not the wisdom. It's just the stimulation of the world stimulating you in such a way as to kind of induce you into being that way. It doesn't actually tell you what non-discriminating wisdom is, but it touches you in a way that you awaken to it. And you will awaken to it as it touches you in such a way that it encourages you or draws your attention to what's going on in your mind. Your mind, which is the way you deal with this, is the way you're dealing with this input, with this gift. Which comes through the world. Which comes through the world, yeah. It's in the world.

[35:34]

And it's coming to you in such a way as to stimulate you to find the same thing from which this message is coming in your own... through your own being. You also use the word discernment as distinct from discrimination. Discernment would go more with... Discernment would be more closely associated with nondiscriminating wisdom. non-discriminating wisdom when you be able to discern something about discriminations. Simple discerning that they're discriminations rather than realities. Discerning that they're insubstantial without necessarily discriminating that they're insubstantial versus substantial. So discernment has non-stuffness in it.

[36:46]

Yeah, discernment is... Usually discernment usually means correct. It doesn't mean just, what do you call it, construe. It's different from construe or whatever. It's more like it's associated with correctly seeing them. That's what I would mean, a correct ascertainment of something. in this case, a correct ascertainment of discriminations within the field of intention. Discernment, observing up to the point of discerning intentions and then discerning discriminations about intention to the point, yeah, to observe it up to discernment, correct understanding of intentions and discriminations to become free of both. Do you have any other feedback for me?

[38:09]

This is very helpful. That's my story. This morning I was up early. It's also feedback. I saw somebody this morning. I'll tell you that later. Yes, you saw somebody this morning. And out of what you spoke last night, saw the beginning and forming of intention about that person. It was just a great moment. Excuse me, after you saw the beginning of the formation, did you see the full formation of the intention? It seems to have spread out, and even now speaking about it seems like the continuing of it. It's a question. It's like, what will I be in relation to this person? So you're seeing kind of an evolving intention?

[39:33]

The intention is changing moment by moment? I think that we will tend to see that as we watch. The intention will tend to see them evolving. Individuals with couples and groups will see our intentions evolving as we watch them. Those of you who have not yet given me any feedback like to do so? I mean, I should say, who have not verbally come up here and given me feedback? Because even though you have not come up but given me feedback, I count all the people, all the smiles and grimaces that you've made as feedback. So if I have a friend and I sort of see that sometimes he manifests, say, as Ken and sometimes as Fred and sometimes as Gary, I can see myself sort of trying to decide who he is.

[40:53]

Yeah. And then I'll decide, okay, now that I know that today he's Ken, so today I'll be Amy. Yeah. but it seems like sort of getting caught in figuring out. Yeah, it's kind of getting caught in figuring out. It's getting caught in trying to figure out, plus it's getting caught once you think you've successfully figured it out, you're caught in that. Getting caught in figuring out. You can get caught in trying to figure out, Plus then once you feel like you have figured it out, you're caught in that. But before you have... Sometimes you haven't figured it out yet. Sometimes you're having trouble making a discrimination, but you're trying to... You're working towards making it and then sort of with the intention that when you get there you're going to hold it. And then you get there and you say, OK, that's it, now I found out.

[41:58]

It is actually a can. And that's... I'm staying with that one. And if I stay with it, say even if I was right, anything I do, sort of, with that fixed idea that my idea was right, it's kind of screwed up anyway, isn't it? It's kind of screwed up. It might be wholesome, you know, and beneficial to some extent, but it's blocking you That way of engagement with Gary is blocking defining your true relationship with Kim. It's screwed up, you know, not in the sense of being bad, but in the sense of isolating you from where you really want to be, where you really are. Isolating you from being like

[43:02]

It's kind of a consolation prize. Or you could say an addiction is a juicy word. Something we use to keep ourselves away from sort of the ungraspable way we are together. Fixing on to like one dimension. Yeah. Or one discrimination. It is or it isn't. Okay, thanks. I'm stuck.

[44:13]

I hear you. There's something about discrimination related to real concrete safety. Can you hear her? That I'm stuck on. You can? Nope, not everybody can. There's something related to real concrete safety that I'm stuck on. So if I'm discriminating, if I'm looking at the circumstance that was raised earlier about terrorists, I can imagine living in Akron, Ohio, which doesn't seem to have any terrorists, making some discriminations about terrorists and then detaching from those.

[45:22]

Detaching from the discriminations? Yes. Oh, I see. But if you live in a town that has lots of terrorists... Then I would think I would want to be paying attention to whether I'm likely to get blown up. Yeah? I was thinking that you probably would. So I get where I'm stuck is what does it mean to let go of? What does it mean to let go of discrimination in a way that still keeps me sane? Another example would be you walk out a door in this retreat center and you look out at the parking lot and it seems to be glistening as though it were covered with ice. And you make a discrimination that it might be unsafe. So then you approach it carefully.

[46:24]

And you get closer. You see that it actually isn't ice. It's water. And so then you realize your discrimination was wrong. But now you have another discrimination which you think maybe is right. And you don't have much trouble seeing that it's water, because you weren't heavily invested in it being ice. So now you can see, oh, it's water. So those discriminations seem to be helpful in you getting across the parking lot without falling down. So you use the discriminations that way. So that would be kind of like using discriminations to skillfully move out over the parking lot. So your intention was to avoid getting injured, and you did, and that seems good. And you could have been attached and caught by the distinction between getting hurt and not getting hurt,

[47:34]

And between skillfully and unskillfully moving across that area, you could have been caught. And if you were caught, then during that whole successful operation of crossing the parking lot, you would have felt that you were not living in the realm where everyone was helping you and where you were helping everyone. but you would have got across the parking lot safely. Which is, you know... And everyone helped you, but you wouldn't feel like that. You would think kind of that... You would think kind of like, it's by my discriminations that I was able to do this. First I was wrong, but then I was right. And... And that's how it happened. And that's my story, that I successfully did that.

[48:36]

And I'm not saying it's a false story. I'm just saying, if you were attached to that story, you would not appreciate the enlightenment that was going on during that story. You would not be enlightened, you would not in an enlightened way be functioning there. You would not be in touch with that enlightened way that you were functioning there, because you'd be caught in this personal realm of cognitive discrimination. Now, you say, if it was safer, like if I went out and the parking lot seemed to be, like, not shiny at all, like, you know, no way was it icy or slippery or anything, and if I wasn't in danger, then I could let go of my discrimination about whether it was safe or not. And I would say, well, if you could, great. But in fact, if you go out there and there isn't any shiny, the surface isn't shiny, do you actually let go?

[49:40]

You might say, well, actually, since I was trying to let go, I think I would have been able to let go in that case. But when I saw it shining, then I felt like I had to really get into whether is it really slippery or not. Then I couldn't let go. That's kind of a lesser example of your thing. So then you notice, oh, not only am I holding on, but I don't feel like I can let go. I feel it's too dangerous to not get into whether it's really slippery or not. So I would say, yeah, there you are, you're stuck. You're stuck about whether you're actually going to meditate or get across the parking lot. So you say, I don't care about meditation, I'm just going to get across the parking lot. So you get across, so now you're across the parking lot. Now are you going to start meditating? Do you feel safe enough now to meditate?

[50:42]

And I would say, if you do feel safe enough to meditate, well then start. Once you start, and you're actually successful to let go, then you open to this realm. And then you realize that whether you slip or not, all beings are supporting you and you're supporting all beings whether you slip or not. Then you can go back across the parking lot and do the same discriminations but dare to not hold to them. Because you can realize you can still use them even if you don't hold to them. Just like in the previous example, you actually had a little flexibility there, but you didn't dare to not have not just flexibility, but actually be open to dropping discrimination or not attaching to discrimination. You didn't feel quite that safe. So that's part of practicing tranquility.

[51:43]

And part of having a retreat is that you're in a situation where you can consider the possibility of looking at your discriminations for the sake of letting go of them. And if you need to feel more than usual amount of safety in order to consider that, I would say, fine. Whatever you need to consider studying your discriminations, becoming aware of where you're holding until you let go, fine. I would give you all you need to do that. I mean, up to a point. You say, well, I need lots of heroin to do that. It's not going to really help. I don't think. But if you want to stay indoors rather than go out ice skating, we can do that. So I think the feeling of what do you need to devote yourself to study your discriminations up to and including the possibility of dropping, I would say, I'd be willing to help you do that by making you feel safer.

[52:53]

and not going into neighborhoods where you think, you know, I won't be able to do it there. Okay, let's not go there right now. Let's find out where we can dare to drop what we need to drop in order to enter the realm of enlightenment. Let's consider what we need. Once you enter, you're not going to need anything anymore to drop it. You can see I can function perfectly well here. without attaching to my discriminations. Now I can use discriminations, but not for the sake of protecting me against what I don't need to protect against anymore. I don't need to protect myself against other people anymore, because I now see I have this other relationship. That's not what I use discrimination for anymore. I use discrimination to help the people who I used to be afraid of, to help the people I've always been helping that I didn't realize I was helping. And you can approach someone you are totally devoted to, for example, your own children, and be able to be aware that although they're helping you, the way they're going to help you is to try to attack you.

[54:06]

That's the way they want to help you. And you approach them knowing that they're going to try to hurt you. But you do want to approach them and find a way to get close so you can help them. You do want to, but you're taking a risk and you're willing to do it. But you know it's dangerous, but you're not afraid. It's very hard. Thank you. You're welcome. Good question, too. Thank you. You helped me. You helped me by asking hard questions, or inarticulate questions, and blurry questions. Those are hard, too. When one has non-discriminating wisdom and chooses to engage in an unwholesome situation... Can you hear that?

[55:15]

Barely. Speak up a little. And chooses to engage in an unwholesome situation? Is that the same as And I'm asking because a part of me says it's not possible for that to happen and for that person to, while utilizing nondiscriminating wisdom, be doing unskilled action. Is that true? I think I said earlier, when there's nondiscriminating wisdom, Avoiding evil will spontaneously arise from that wisdom. Avoiding evil. Right. So when I'm asking it... So I'm saying it is not possible that from non-discriminating wisdom an evil action will arise with that consciousness.

[56:22]

It won't happen. Right. Right. However, that consciousness could be looking at a scene of evil or a scene of unwholesomeness. It could be meditating on that and see that. But it wouldn't be caught in it. It wouldn't hate it. It wouldn't like it. But it would be dealing with it because it's there. Right. And that engagement with it is called avoiding evil. regardless of whether the actions performed from another consciousness perception might be seen as skilled or unskilled? Correct. Okay, thank you. So somebody else might think it's skilled, you might see it as unskilled, and you're avoiding it while seeing this unskilled thing, whether somebody else thought it was skilled or not, you're avoiding it. you're not getting involved in it, you're not doing evil at that time.

[57:26]

However you see this manifesting. And anybody who's working there could be inducted into this non-discriminating wisdom in that situation. It's possible. And you yourself will not be afraid, etc., of this. And in that sense, the evil doesn't have much power at that time. It's kind of disarmed, even though it has this pattern, because it isn't really substantial. But if you make it substantial, then it really hurts. And if somebody else makes it substantial, then it really hurts. Whatever they think of it, it hurts. Mm-hmm. Thank you. I have Amy to thank for getting over my shyness.

[58:48]

And would I would like to say is that after having lived with Gary and Ken and Fred for 40 years. 40 years? 40 years. Wow. Not all 40. Together for 40 years. That it seemed best for me not to discriminate between the three of them. And that if one of the three of them annoys me, then I should study that first. Or if all three bother you, you should study all three. And if none of them bother you, you should study all three.

[59:53]

You should study everything. Impartially give your inquiring mind to every being. And if you actually were able to do that, that would be nondiscriminating wisdom. Nondiscriminating wisdom isn't that you already understand everybody. It just means that you're devoted to understand everybody. But that's kind of what it is to understand everybody, is to be devoted to everybody. Fully. Not equally exactly, but fully. And not too much or too little. To everybody, that would be nondiscriminating wisdom in action. And learning how to do that is learning nondiscriminating wisdom. And catching yourself at not doing that, at being excessive with some people and not with others, really trying to understand some people and not others, noticing that is also part of developing non-discriminating wisdom.

[61:01]

Noticing that and confessing it and repenting it. And do that not just by yourself, but with enlightened beings and enlightening beings to get more light on it. The more light that gets on it, the closer you get to realizing it. The more light you get on its imbalance, the more you realize the closer you get for it to be balanced, proper attention to everything, every person, every animal, every plant, every physical object. Which is, you know, we're doing that here. It's just a question, are we balanced in giving everybody full, non-excessive, non-deficient attention? And you can kind of notice that, you can go, that's too much. Or you maybe don't notice it, and you ask somebody else, was that too much? And they say, mm-hmm. Or, was that too little? Yeah, I think... Okay, this is my story about the situation, and I welcome you to edit it.

[62:10]

This is, you know, like, I wrote this thing, right? And I asked my wife to look at it. So I asked Jane to help me write it. She gave me her feedback. So I don't have a story that's... I'm just... I'm groping for a story about all of you. And when I come up with something, I'll ask you to give me feedback on it. I'm groping for a story of the Buddha Dharma. Okay? And I ask you to give me feedback. You get to edit my story of practice, which you've been doing. Thank you. Well, we have a party arranged, if you'd like to come now, of various kinds of cookies and chai and other kinds of tea products. Thank you very much for hanging in there with us today.

[63:11]

Good night. I hope most of you can come back tomorrow.

[63:17]

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