You hold up a vision of a realized universe in which all beings live together in complete wisdom, love, and compassion, completely responsible to each other, naturally mutually interdependent. I hold up a vision of boundless interdependence, a silent bond among all of us.

[01:20]

Not just all of us humans, but also non-human living beings, and not just living beings, but non-living beings, all of us together responding to each other. constantly, peacefully, with complete wisdom and compassion. This state I hold up to you, I hold a vision of this state to you, and I can call that state enlightenment. The realization of this state is of course a great happiness. This state, this way we're all working together is a great light and realizing this light is a great happiness and a great liberation.

[02:25]

And persons can realize this but the person does not realize it by herself but only realizes it when she gives herself away and gives herself up. When she gives herself away and gives herself up she opens to this light of perfect wisdom and compassion. Together with all beings And from there on he can work joyfully to help others open to this perfect vision of peace and harmony who then can help others learn how to open to it and so on. I hold up this vision and I hope I hold up this possible way of living with it and realizing it.

[03:35]

I also mention that we sometimes are closed to this vision. Closed to this vision means we ignore it. We have a habit of ignoring enlightenment, ignoring the way we're completely responsible for each other without limit. Ignoring this, then we become, we experience craving and fear. Fear and craving. Opening to this vision, letting this light of our interdependent mutual support in, the fear and the craving drop away. we stop ignoring enlightenment.

[04:44]

So today I have a simple basic suggestion and that is that if we can live our practical lives moment by moment wholeheartedly the habitual body and mind which ignores enlightenment will drop away in the wholeheartedness if we can wholeheartedly sit, if we can wholeheartedly stand, in wholehearted walking, in wholehearted reclining, in any position, in any activity, in the wholeheartedness of it, the ignoring body and mind drop away.

[06:11]

and we open to the relationship which has always been waiting there to be realized. And from there we work together with the beings who we have just opened to to help any of those who have not opened to open. And I also wish to suggest that the activity of the activity of making vows, vows, making solemn and dignified commitments to great compassionate endeavors

[07:40]

is a way to assist us moment by moment in being wholehearted. So I'm speaking to you now and I want to be wholehearted in my speaking. I'm sitting here, I want my sitting to be wholehearted. My hands are moving around. I wish this hand movement to be wholehearted. I vow actually, I vow right now in your presence to make my bodily gestures. I promise to make my, I promise to learn to make my wholehearted effort in all my bodily postures. I promise, I make the commitment to learn to make my speech wholehearted.

[08:54]

And I vow to make my thinking wholehearted. And vowing to make my thinking wholehearted is thinking. of wholeheartedly thinking. It's thinking of making my action of thinking, speaking and posture wholehearted. Thinking that way, wishing and committing to that way can support, can lift up all your activities into wholeheartedness. whatever you're doing, it can be borne up by the great vow, the great vows, it can be lifted up and infused and warmed up into wholeheartedness. And then when the knot of the head or the scratching of the nose

[10:02]

is together with this kind of intention, this kind of commitment, it becomes wholeheartedness. It becomes wholehearted and in the wholeheartedness we receive great encouragement So in one sense, when we are wholehearted, we open up. Another sense is when we open, we become more wholehearted. So if I wish to be wholehearted,

[11:09]

then it would make sense for me to vow to open up to all living beings. It could also make sense to open up to one. That would be a little bit of a warm-up, open to one living being. And if you feel that wish and feel that ability to open to one, then how about two? And at some point you might consider, well, how about opening all the way? How about opening to all beings? then that starts to open onto wholeheartedness.

[12:18]

If you're wholehearted, you can also naturally open to all beings. It's kind of this very closely related. And And, of course, one of the beings, if you're open to all beings, one of the beings that you're open to is yourself. One of the beings you're open to is the way you feel right now and what you're thinking right now. So it's open, open to all your own experiences. At this point we can't really open to everybody else's experience, because we don't know their experience, but we can open to them, open to those who are going through their experiences.

[13:27]

And we can open to those who are going through their experiences, who are not open to their experiences. We can open to people who are closed to their own experience and closed to ours. We can learn to open to them. I hold that up as a possibility that you get open to people who are cringing from their own experience. And in that openness begin to teach them that they too could open and become wholehearted. Before we're open to everybody, or I should say, when we're not open to everybody, which is similar to before we are open to everybody, but it's more like when we're not open to everybody, we feel, or I should say, I feel like my heart is a little dusty or has cobwebs in it.

[14:49]

or maybe a little bit moldy. But maybe not moldy because mold, well, yeah, mold sort of needs moisture. Sometimes it's more like dusty, like arid and dusty and not very alive. And if one, if I have been alive recently, if I've actually experienced having somewhat open heart, then when my heart is not open it feels dusty and moldy and dead. My experience is that the heart can open, your posture can open, your speech can open, your mind can open, you can be wholehearted, and then later or not later, and in that state of openness you can experience for some reason or other some pain.

[15:57]

And then in that pain there is some tendency sometimes or some ancient habit to say, well forget about being open. It's not really a good idea. Forget about being wholehearted. You get hurt when you're wholehearted. So let's just close down a little bit here for a while. Okay. Ooh, it's kind of dead. Closing down wholeheartedness is kind of dead, or just plain dead. Or not even death, but dead. Like, not death, exactly, but Strange combination of life and dead. Dead life. No, I don't like it. Is there some way to get back to wholeheartedness now?

[17:02]

Some way to find a way back to opening up to all beings, including the one who just hurt me? the one who I opened to and I was so open to and I was so generous with and now in that relationship I got hurt and I started to not feel so generous and close down. Yep, that's what happened and I'm...yeah. Ready? One, two, three, let's start over. What's the point again? Okay, wholeheartedness. What's the point of wholeheartedness? Oh, let's see. Oh, all the hindrances to enlightenment drop away. And then I feel happy and enthusiastic to help others. Those others who, in the process of helping them, it might be painful to be with them again, and I might close down again, but I'll try it again. Here we go. again.

[18:04]

So I was talking to somebody who, you know, she lost her old body in a big way. She had this great almost like a highly functioning body. A body that could do pretty much, somewhere in the neighborhood, if anything she wanted it to do. And then there was a bicycle accident. And then there was a broken neck. And so I'm fragile, she's fragile. I broke my leg riding a bicycle.

[19:05]

She broke her neck riding a bicycle. And so now she is grieving the loss of this wonderful body that she doesn't have anymore. She has to grieve that body to start taking care of this body. There's a little bit of closeness to losing a really nice body and getting one that's not only fragile like the last one, but has manifested the fragility in being, relatively speaking, broken. So part of opening is open to how fragile we are, with or without some major dramatic change that we can notice. Open to how fragile, open to how fragile other people are too then. And I said to her that she was a caregiver, and particularly she was a caregiver to people's bodies.

[20:12]

And I said, I think you can still be a caregiver if you can open to your fragile body and share your fragile body and acknowledge your fragile body with other beings, all of whom have fragile bodies, you can be a great helper you can still be a great caregiver if you can open to your fragile body and be gentle and tender with your fragile body and be upright with your fragile body and be honest about your fragile body and grieve the losses of your old bodies if you can open to that you might be able to open to a lot of other fragile bodies and show them how to open to themselves and other fragile bodies. If we don't feel fragile and we meet somebody who also doesn't look fragile, you know, that can be lots of fun.

[21:20]

Like, teenagers have that kind of experience quite frequently. like a perfectly unfragile teenage boy meets a perfectly unfragile teenage girl or teenage boy, and they interact, two non-fragile beings can have quite a nice time together. But actually, even in those moments, I would say that if those two beings who think of themselves as indestructible would open to how fragile they are, they would experience a much deeper, a much more moving encounter. I think that's my experience. Now I'm not a teenager anymore, so I don't have this non-fragile person meeting non-fragile people. But I still sometimes also like a teenager, resist really accepting how fragile I am and letting other people know it.

[22:27]

So then they might also not be open to showing me how fragile they are and everybody's okay and nobody's really meeting fully all the way. So when we start opening, and we do start opening, try a little tenderness. But also be upright. Don't lean into your opening. Don't lean into your fragility. Don't lean into other people's fragility. Don't lean into it, and don't lean away from it. Be upright with it. And upright, when you see someone who is manifesting fragility, part of us feels like the warm thing to do is to lean into them and say, oh, darling, you're all fragile.

[23:34]

You're all broken. There's a feeling of leaning forward. So I caution you against the leaning forward I caution you in a sense to grasp this other person. I caution you against that or to not do that. But be with them without leaning into them or away from them with the warning that if we lean into this other person who is fragile and who we care about, if we lean into it, that will cause us eventually to wish to lean away from them. to try to run away from them because leaning into them we lose our life. We lose our life when we lean into them and we lose our life when we lean away.

[24:39]

To be balanced with them and still totally open to them. Balanced and open. It's not balanced and closed, that's cold, but balanced and dare to feel what it's like and show them that they can do the same and be very tender with each other because this is going to potentially be uncomfortable. And be honest and be harmonious. And then we realize our life. Then we realize our wholeheartedness. Then we realize our exuberant then we say like a vigorously jumping fish. We feel the totality of our life, which we cannot feel without meeting the other people in this way. I can't feel wholeheartedly myself.

[25:43]

I can only feel it when I open to all beings and am gentle with them. When I open to myself and I'm gentle with me, when I'm honest about my meeting with you and honest about my meeting with myself and very gentle and very upright and open, then life washes away the body and mind which is resisting our relationship, which is enlightenment. But it's hard. It's hard when you break your neck to open to your fragility and be gentle with it. It's hard to give up trying to control when you don't have a broken neck. And when you do have a broken neck, in a way, you might think, well, now it's even harder to give up control, even though I totally can see I don't have control.

[26:46]

I can't brush my teeth anymore by myself. I can't even say when the toothbrush purse is going to come. I can see that I've lost control, but I have not yet been able to give up control. We do not have control. In the world of enlightenment we do not have control. We have perfect wisdom, unhindered compassion, and love, but not control. Loving people is not controlling them. Compassion is not controlling people and wisdom is not controlling people or yourself. It's just the way we are. And it's a question of opening to it. And it's hard. I broke my leg on a bicycle.

[27:50]

I'm still trying to completely accept this new leg day by day. This new leg which has, you know, metal in it. It's an ongoing relationship between my mind and this wonderful old friend who is not really my old friend at all, but a new friend Now, what about more serious injuries that I'm going to get? Trying to get ready for those. And I just wanted to bring up another major point, and that is that there's this

[28:50]

kind of balancing act in the tradition of the teachings of enlightenment between the individual becoming liberated and liberating the whole world. So some people feel like, you know, that the teachings of enlightenment in the history of what's called Buddhism have been successful well, at least have been successful at providing beautiful systems of meditation for people to be, for individuals who wish to practice those systems of meditation to become liberated from suffering. And there's a proposal that those who are liberated and those who wish to be liberated can only really be liberated together with everyone else like I said earlier and yet there's some incompleteness in the realization.

[29:56]

So I think actually that the teaching is both about individual liberation and liberating the whole world. It's about both. The liberation process works through individuals in relationship to other individuals. And also, I just want to mention a couple, at least one more indictment towards Buddhism. I wouldn't say against Buddhism because the indictments towards Buddhism are welcomed by, enlightenment welcomes indictments about itself, indictments about its full realization. And one of the indictments is that historically Buddhism has not been historical enough. And historically

[31:05]

the Buddhist institutions have seemed to accept and sometimes could be indicted for ignoring cruelty, tyranny and injustice in the government of the country that they live in. Once again, Buddhism could be indicted and has been indicted over its history for being, for ignoring, for ignoring or even, you know, in some sense supporting or colluding with the cruelty, injustice and tyrannies of the governments in the countries where they live. Now, someone else could say they could be indicted for accepting it. But accepting is a difficult word because acceptance is part of the program of meditation.

[32:15]

But accepting tyranny doesn't mean that you wish to support it. Or accepting it doesn't mean that you're not going to work to transform it. It just means you might say, I accept that this looks like tyranny and I accept that this looks like a horrible cruelty. I accept that that's the way it appears. This is a great disease of our country. I accept that. I'm not sure that the government's being cruel and unjust. I'm not sure that this corruption is true, but I'm open to the possibility that there's amazing amount of corruption and inequity in our government of this country and other countries. I'm open to consider the possibility that most of the countries are, if I can say this gently, protection rackets

[33:19]

Did I say that gently enough? I'm not saying that they are protection arcas, but I've heard that indictment and I feel that I should open to all beings. I feel that it would be good if I opened to all beings. I actually want to learn that. And it's difficult for me. And one of the beings I want to open to is the indictment of the national governments of the contemporary world as monstrous, monstrous protection rackets who deliberately foster fear and craving in the population. it looks like that to some extent that the government and the, what do you call it, the media that the government to some extent has a strong influence on.

[34:37]

The government isn't in control of the media, but they have a certain influence. And the influence seems to be that the media is also kind of like on, sort of on the same page of let's tell people how scary life is and let's Not only is telling that life is scary, but let's make them scared so they'll watch our show and the government so that they will do what we tell them. It looks like that. So protection racket is, I'm here to protect you. The situation is extremely dangerous and I will protect you. Matter of fact, I will make sure that nothing bad ever happens to you. I will guarantee complete security. Now, in order to achieve this amazing state of complete security, we may have to kill some people. Because you know that if you let those people live, I can't really guarantee you're going to have complete security.

[35:41]

So, in fact, we may even have to kill some of the people which we're trying to protect. For example, Americans, we want to save and protect American lives, right? Sounds good. But we may have to kill some Americans in order to protect American lives. Just, you know, it's part of the deal. You know, be realistic. Well, could we have like a little bit, could the situation be a little less safe perhaps? So we don't have to kill people to make it so perfectly safe? So it's dangerous, plus also we're offering you pretty much virtual complete safety and security, but there's a price. Namely, not promoting some people's security. And if that doesn't work on you, then we'll just make you more scared until you realize that you better let us protect you.

[36:47]

the way we think is best. We're the protectors of you. And if you don't let us protect you, there will be unfortunate consequences for you. If things happen this way, that's sort of the way a protection racket works. And there does seem to be something like that going on big time. big time in the world today. I want to learn to open to that. I want many people to open to that. There also are some other things to open to, like some government programs are actually helping people. I want to open to those too. You know, I have a close friend who's a schoolteacher and suffers under this program called No Child Left Behind.

[38:01]

Her experience is that this program where she's teaching, it really is difficult because for some kids the program is like totally boring, and they can't do it. It's not suited for them. It's too hard. For other kids, it's just right and totally boring. But it's right for them that they can do it, it's fine, and it's boring. And for the other kids, they can do it It's a total waste of time because it's way, you know, they're much more advanced than that. But they have to go sit through it too. So it's super boring for them. Plus they're wasting their time when they could be doing kind of all kinds of wonderful reading at a different level. And all the kids and teachers have to spend hours in this system which is supposed to help people, which is really questionable. And the people who run the system, I've heard, the people who are governing the system, I heard, I read, I mean, that of the five people who run the program in Harper's, you know, it said the five governors of this program, four of them have business interest in the businesses that supply the textbooks for this program.

[39:28]

And the average amount of income to the governors who run this No Child Left Behind, the income they get from the businesses which supply the textbooks, who knows what else, is $727,000. So I opened to that. And now I told you, and you can open to it or whatever. I suggest you open to it. Open doesn't mean believe. Just open to the story. somebody is putting, Harper's is putting out there and they don't get sued, maybe, you know, watch and see if they get sued for putting that information out there. A very high percentage of the people in the government who are regulating corporations, a very high percentage of them, like, looks like 80% maybe, of the people who regulate the corporations, used to be lobbyists for those corporations.

[40:40]

And you might say, well, that's good because they know how they work and so on. But anyways, it's something to open to. It's part of something to open to in this world. It's a being, or it's many beings to open to. And be upright with. Don't lean into them like, you're wrong and I'm right. Don't lean away like, I'm wrong, you're right. No, no. Just be upright with them and gentle, very tender with the lobbyists, with what appears to be corruption. Be upright. Be honest. Be open. be harmonious and receive receive complete wisdom compassion and love and bring it to these people and transform the world not you by yourself you together with everybody who you've opened to

[41:53]

everybody who you've opened to and you are gentle with. Gentle, tender, soft, pliant, centered, honest, open, courageous, gentle, fragile, open to being fragile. I'm not an indestructible person who's going to get broken. I'm a broken person who's going to get broken. I've really got nothing to lose. I am a drifting wreckage. I'm trying to open to being a wreck. And take care of the wreck. Take care of the wreck. Be kind to the wreck. Be gentle with the wreck. And in the openness, the wreck is lifted upright.

[42:57]

The wreck will find its uprightness. Wrecks can be upright. But if wrecks close to their wreckness, they get scared and start craving But it's hard. It's hard to learn this. It's hard to learn this wholeheartedness. That's why we need great vows. That's why we need to vow to ask for help from all beings and vow to help all beings. We need to vow, we need to promise, we need to commit, we need to learn to vow to help all beings. We need to vow to honor all enlightened ones. We need to vow to confess our shortcomings. We need to vow to make everything we do accompanied by the intention to practice together with everyone.

[44:18]

to bring everyone in with us, they're already there, to invite them in and think of them being with us all the time, including everyone, including those who seem to be harming others. I cannot be wholehearted by myself. Nobody can be. Only by remembering and thinking of my relationship with all enlightened beings can I be wholehearted. If I can think of my relationship with all beings, that opens my heart, that opens my mind, that opens my body.

[45:24]

If I close out to some enlightened beings, my body and mind close down. I cannot be wholehearted by myself, but if I open to all unenlightened beings, that openness lifts me up and makes me more and more wholehearted. And being wholehearted, I continue to wish to open to all enlightened and unenlightened beings. And again, that openness makes me upright. And the uprightness makes me ready to open. Really we are wholehearted beings. We actually are alive. Really we are already working together harmoniously, lovingly, mutually supporting each other. Really we are. But if we don't practice this way, we won't realize it.

[46:28]

And not realizing it is no good. Well, I won't say it's no good. It's a little bit good because it's job security for the Buddhas. So I won't say it's no good. It's just fear and craving and cruelty and stuff like that is what it is. But there's some good in that probably. And when I open to my own violence and cruelty and fear and craving, when I open to that, again, I start to become wholehearted. And when I'm completely wholehearted, the craving and the violence and the fear burn away or melt away. I hold that up to you.

[47:32]

And the more I hold it up to you and to me and to other people, the more wholehearted... the less I hold it up to me and to you, the more likely I'll slip away from wholeheartedness and feel less alive. So I... I thank you for supporting me to hold this up to all of us. Thank you for your support. It's a kind of outrageous thing to be doing. What time is it? It's about, what time is it? 11.13? Pardon? Time for a song. I thought you'd never ask. I'd just been waiting, waiting, just anticipating.

[48:43]

I was in England recently, and after I sang, a woman came up and said, you have a lovely voice, but don't give up your day job. And sometimes people say that after my so-called Dharma talks. That was a really nice Dharma talk, but don't give up your day job. Anyway, as you know, yogis get weary. Yogis do get weary facing that same shabby mess. So when she's weary, try a little tenderness. Yes. She may be waiting, just anticipating things she may never possess.

[49:52]

So while she's waiting, try a little tenderness. Now the rest, there's more words, but I think if I did the next part, you'd say, yeah, don't give up your day job. Because the next part, I'm sort of out of, I don't remember how quite the tone goes, and if I don't do it right, it really hurts. So I vow to learn how to do the next part for some future occasion. And I thank you for opening to the message of opening. I thank you for opening. to the message of living every moment wholeheartedly. And I pray that we all continue to open to live our life wholeheartedly, to save this shabby mess, this

[50:58]

wreckage, it can be saved if we're wholehearted. And it's hard to be wholehearted. But remember, ask for help. You've got to do that. Don't do it by yourself. Okay? Is that enough? Is that for you? Yeah, for me. Okay. Is there anything you'd like to discuss? Hi, Rita. Where have you been? Where have you been? At the opera? Do you work for the opera?

[52:04]

No. I actually did see an opera about the way of tea at the most important point. When you were talking, I was... Excuse me, could you close that door? The lovely sounds out there make it harder for me to hear Rita. I was trying to think of the connection between being wholehearted and open and being dazen. And... And I wondered if there is a connection. Is there a connection? I'm still wondering that. Yeah, you can continue to wonder, and in the meantime, let me tell you that that's what zazen is, really. The definition of zazen is not just that you're sitting. Well, excuse me, Buddha's zazen, you know, the zazen, the sitting meditation of the Buddha, That Zazen is wholeheartedness.

[53:10]

That Zazen is defined as dropping away a body and mind. That's the definition of that type of sitting. It's when the body, your habitual body, drops away. That's the kind of sitting that we mean by Zazen. And that happens in wholeheartedness. So wholeheartedness in the sitting posture is the sitting meditation of our school. Now, it's already there, but usually it takes quite a while for us to open to this wholeheartedness of our sitting. Like a lot of people try to sit by themselves. So the sitting I do by myself cannot be wholehearted. Why is that? Because if I'm sitting by myself I'm closing to sitting with everybody else. I'm closed. And when I'm closed I actually am wholehearted but I'm closing to wholeheartedness when I think I'm sitting by myself.

[54:20]

You're almost understanding me. So I propose to you that the sitting you do by yourself is not wholehearted sitting. The walking you do by yourself is not wholehearted walking. Whatever you do by yourself means that you're thinking of doing something by yourself, which means you're ignoring that you're doing things together with, for example, me. And I'm, you know, I'll be gentle with you, ignoring that you're doing it with me. But in fact, anyway, you do everything together with all beings. And if we ignore that, we are less wholehearted. When we open to that, we become wholehearted. So would you say it's essential to becoming whole-hearted to sit, or can you be whole-hearted without a sitting practice?

[55:27]

I think that you can be whole-hearted in any posture. But unless you never sat, then you wouldn't be able to be whole-hearted without being whole-hearted while you're sitting. because then you'd stop being wholehearted when you sat. You didn't follow that either, it looks like. Maybe it'd be easier to say, if you couldn't stand, you know, you could still be wholehearted in all the other postures you could do. So the point is to be wholehearted in whatever your posture you're in. Now there are special advantages to sitting because when you're sitting, usually you're still. And when you're still, lots of things come up to test your openness. So sitting is a nice place to find out that you're not open. Like a lot of people, you know, they say, hey, I'm open.

[56:32]

And they sit still and they say, oh my God, I'm not open. I want to get out of here. I want to get away from this. But if you're moving fast, you may not notice that you're running away from being present. I'm not running away, I just happen to be walking. Does that make sense to you? But when you sit... then you have a better chance of noticing, oh, I'm afraid of being here. I'm afraid of what's going to happen next. So slowing down helps us discover our fear. And fear is one of the main things that we have trouble opening to. Do you know what I mean? And also when you sit still, usually you start to see that you have craving. And it's hard for us to open to craving. So in the sitting situation, it's nice because it brings out the things that are difficult to open to. And so now you have the real work here before you.

[57:37]

Can you open to your craving and fear? And also you say, well, I'd like to. And when I say to you, can you open to your craving and fear, I don't mean can you by your own power open to your craving and fear. I really mean, with the aid and support of all beings, can there be openness to your craving and fear? And the answer to that is yes, I would say. Or check it out, I could also say. But I actually can't dare, I can't dare to open to my fear and craving all by myself. I need your support. And when I open to it, I start to become wholehearted. And then to continue in that openness, I continue to need your support, which I need to open to your support. I need to open to you and your support so that I can open to my fear and my craving.

[58:37]

And also if I open to my fear and craving, it makes it a little bit more likely I'll be able to open to your support. Because a lot of times you're afraid of how people are going to support you. where you have cravings about how they would support you. Is that starting to make some sense? This is what sitting is actually making possible. So sitting is nice that way. But you can also find that in walking and standing and reclining, too. It's possible to find it in those postures. In other words, have the fear and craving come up when you're standing. But open to it. So like Buddha uses, there's an example of the Buddha talking about practicing in the jungle, you know, Indian jungle 2,500 years ago when there really were lots of wild animals in the jungle. And it was, you know, there was some danger of being with wild animals. And so someone said to him, well, when you go into the jungle, don't you,

[59:42]

isn't it kind of hard to practice being calm in the jungle with all these dangerous animals around you and plants? And he said, well, before I found my wholeheartedness, he didn't really say that, but before I found wholeheartedness, it was kind of hard. But what I did was, when I was walking in the jungle, if I would hear a dangerous animal sound, if fear arose, If I was walking, I would just keep walking. And I would just keep walking until the fear would go away. If I was standing and I heard some or saw some dangerous animal and fear came, I would just keep standing. If I was sitting and the fear came, I would just keep sitting. And if I was reclining, I would just keep reclining until the fear passed. In this way, I found a way to be in the jungle And so now I'm not afraid anymore.

[60:45]

This is the whole heart of sitting, walking, standing and reclining. So when the fear comes, you're just open to it, be gentle with it, don't lean into it or away from it. Okay? Kind of a difficult training, but there it is. But we do, even though we don't have jungles anymore readily available with wild animals, we still have domesticated animals or partially domesticated animals walking around our cities which are, you know, we're afraid of. Humans particularly. So most of us are afraid of humans. So we've got plenty of human homophobia or homo sapien phobia. So we got that available So then we can like, when you're standing and you meet someone and you become afraid, just keep standing and be upright with that and gentle.

[61:51]

If you're walking and you become afraid of somebody, just keep walking. If you're sitting and so on. And this is one way to train in being wholehearted. Open to the fear, open to the frightening beings. Open to the beings who you feel craving towards. Open to the craving. Don't lean into the craving. Don't lean away from the craving. Be centered with the craving. Be centered with the fear. If you're sitting, that's wholehearted sitting. And your name? I'm Tressa. Tressa, did you want to bring something up? I guess I'm still a little bit back there with that.

[62:54]

It's fine to bring this up more. Because I'm trying to develop a stronger practice with the balance between city center and home practice. Yeah. And home, so what you're saying, I'm trying to relate to home practice, to wholeheartedness and being at home, alone, officially. Yeah, well, let me gently say, if I can possibly gently say, that when you're in your house, okay, sitting in meditation, I recommend you start practicing what we call bodhisattva vows. Okay? One of the bodhisattva vows, for example, is to bow to pay homage to all Buddhas.

[64:02]

Okay? That's one. Bodhisattvas who sit in meditation, many of them do actually sit and think of paying homage to all Buddhas while they're sitting. In other words, they think of practicing not alone, but with all Buddhas. It is thinking. Right. Okay. It is thinking. Okay. Now if you're sitting in meditation and practicing not thinking, for example, did you practice that way sometimes? Well, yes and, yes and, that automatically a thought comes up. Yes, and one of the thoughts that comes up, apparently, Is your name Tressa? Yes. One of the thoughts that seems to come up in Tressa's mind is, I am sitting alone in my house. That's a thought she has.

[65:08]

It's a thought. I didn't tell her to think that, but she went right ahead and thought it. Actually, I didn't tell her to, but I support her. When she's thinking, when she's sitting in her house, she's thinking, here I am all by myself. But actually, I'm supporting her to think that. And she doesn't think I am. right? You don't sit there. I'm thinking that I'm sitting by myself but Reb is actually supporting me to do this. You don't think that, right? I'm recommending you do think that. You actually, according to the meditation, I shouldn't say you actually, but the kind of meditation which will open you to the Buddha's truth is to meditate on open up to how you are never, ever living alone. You're never living alone. But we think we are. We think I'm living with these people, but not those people.

[66:12]

These people are in the room with me. Yes, that's true. But the people outside, like that lady who was laughing, who I was listening to before, her name's Naomi. She has a very distinctive laugh. She's practicing with us too. The Buddhas have sent this message to you, Tressa, that they are all practicing together with you every moment. That's the message they sent to you, which you can hear now and you can think about it for the rest of your life and beyond. When you think of those kinds of things, you're thinking like a bodhisattva. if you're sitting in meditation thinking about how all the Buddhas are practicing with you, you're sitting in meditation like a bodhisattva sits. They do not think very often that they're practicing by themselves. They don't very often think that. However, when they do think of that, they also simultaneously confess that they're thinking that.

[67:17]

And remember that actually their vow is to think of practicing together with everybody. So our habitual way of thinking is, I did it by myself. And I didn't do that. In other words, I'm only responsible for what I do for myself. And what you people do, I'm not responsible for. This is not the bodhisattva attitude. It's not I'm practicing by myself. Again, if I practice by myself, that just means I think I practice by myself. Nobody... lives by themselves. But most people, starting with little children, think that they do live by themselves. Most of the time they think that. Occasionally I think, well, those people helped me a little. But those people didn't. And those people I don't even know about are not helping me. That's the way most people think most of the time. And this is ignoring... ignoring... this interdependence.

[68:21]

It's ignoring interdependence. It's maybe recognizing, I'm a little independent with these people, but with those people I'm not interdependent with. Interdependence has no limits. Buddha's mind has no limits. So, I sometimes say to people, and I'm not really saying this to you right now, that if you think that you're practicing by yourself, in your house, but you think that when you go to Zen Center and you're sitting in Zen Center, you're practicing together with other people, then you should spend more time at Zen Center thinking correctly. Namely, I am practicing with other people. And keep practicing with other people in a way that you can think that you're practicing with other people. Until you stop thinking you're not practicing with other people. But you say, but I can't go to Zen Center that much. Well, just a suggestion. It's a suggestion. That's why we have Zen Center, so people can kind of get the idea.

[69:23]

Yeah, I actually am practicing. People come into this room and sit in meditation. Sometimes it's packed. They're packed with these other people meditating with them, and they think that they're practicing meditation by themselves. Get away from me so I can do my meditation. People think like that in this room. It takes a lot. It takes a lot to turn a mind around and make it realize that you're not living by yourself. It takes a lot. However, it's the most wonderful thing when we realize this. It's the most wonderful thing. It's called wholeheartedness. And in that understanding, fear and craving drop away. And we also then say, oh, now I can help all these other people who think they're practicing by themselves to get over it. So when you're at home, I hope, I pray that you will realize that I am supporting you and all the Zen ancestors are supporting you and all living beings are supporting you and all Buddhas are supporting you and you're supporting us.

[70:40]

I hope you think about that. moment after moment. And if you can't, I hope you confess, I wasn't able to do that. But first of all, consider making a vow, a promise that you will think about your relationship with Buddha. And Buddha doesn't mean necessarily Shakyamuni, but it could include Shakyamuni. It means, Buddha means, to always think of the radiant relationship you have with all beings. That relationship is Buddha. To always think of that, to learn to always think of that, and let that lift you up and carry you on the path. And if you ever think, or if I ever think that I'm practicing by myself or by my own power, that's just something to confess. That's a deluded thought. Okay, I think I did that. I confess, I think I did it. But even if you don't think you did it, you're still responsible for it.

[71:47]

So you're responsible for everything and don't do anything by yourself. Okay? Okay? So please bring us all to your meditation wherever you are, okay? Yes, Susan? Can you talk about loneliness in that context? Loneliness? So is loneliness delusional in that same way? Yeah, I say loneliness is delusion. And again, you know, some people, a lot of people actually, feel most lonely at a cocktail party. Because when they're out in the woods, a lot of people who feel lonely at cocktail parties like to be in the woods because when they're in the woods they don't feel how separate they think they are from other beings. But when people are packed in around you and you feel like, I'm not with these people, then it's so obvious that you're deluded. This is not my family. These drunks are not my family. These dishonest social climbers, they're not my family.

[72:55]

Yucko, get out of here. I'm not connected to these people. Right. I'm not going to be open to these unskillful escapists. Right. You're not going to open to them. And if you don't open, you're going to feel lonely and dusty. And it's the same thing when you're alone. It's the same thing when you're alone. And if you're alone and you open your heart, you don't feel lonely. You feel all the Buddhas are with you. All the bodhisattvas are with you and none of them are going to disagree with that. None of them has ever said anything different than that they're with you all the time. You are their beloved daughter. No question about it, just a question of opening to it. And we don't open to it, we feel lonely, more or less.

[74:00]

And of course scared too, all alone. Not supported and not supporting. So one of the first vows of the great bodhisattva Samantabhadra is to pay homage to all Buddhas every moment. What is homage? Well, one meaning of homage is to acknowledge you have a relationship. Like the original thing, when a vassal would pay homage to his lord, he would publicly acknowledge, I have a relationship with this guy. So homage to some extent is, I'm related to Buddha. I'm related to Buddha. I'm related to all Buddhas. And I have a respectful, venerating relationship. I love the Buddhas. And then also I make offerings to Buddhas. I want to make offerings. I want to make everything I do an offering to Buddha. And so on. Remember your relationship with Buddha.

[75:03]

And Buddha basically is your relationship with all beings. Buddha is the total relationship with all beings and all beings' relationship with you. Buddha is the realized universe. Buddha is the truth, the wisdom of complete realization. I pay homage to that. I have a relationship with that. I want to have a relationship. I forget it sometimes, but I want to have a relationship. I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to be like that. I want to join that. That's homage. Is it beyond perception? Is it not perception? It's beyond perception. The relationship is not beyond perception. It can be perceived. However, it's not perceived by dualistic consciousness. It's not like something out there. But before you have a direct perception of enlightenment, in which you're totally included, before the direct perception occurs, you think about it.

[76:10]

You think, think, think. Think, think, think. Think, think, think. Think of what? Think of, I am related to Buddhas. You think, think, think. I want to support all unenlightened beings. I want to support all suffering beings. I want to devote my life. You think that. Think, think, think. And as you think, you start, and of course you have to open, you can't be devoted to all beings and be closed to them. So thinking that way opens you. Opening that way, you start, you're more able to think of that. think of being totally devoted to every single living being. Just think about it. Okay, I thought about it, but I'm not. Okay, fine. Fine, now you realize. Some people I'm not devoted to. Okay, now, think it again. Okay, I'm not. I thought it, and I'm not. Okay, now confess that you're not. I'm not. Okay, how do you feel about that? I'm not too good, actually. Okay?

[77:11]

Now how do you feel? I'm ready to try again. To try it again. And so on. Think this way. And this thinking, you are aware, you can be aware of your thinking. What about those living beings? What about those living beings? Those living beings who, when you open to, you feel flooded with fear and craving. What about that? What about that? Well, open to the fear and craving. I mean, I said that kind of easily, but... So I see somebody and I feel craving. Okay, and I open to the craving. Not like I look at you, I feel craving, like, get that craving out of here. No, no, no, no, no, no. I look at you, I feel craving. Okay, now what do I do? What do I do with craving? What? Open, now what? Be upright, now what? Be generous. What else? Be gentle. Be harmonious.

[78:15]

And honest. Honest. I feel craving around here somewhere. I'm with you and there's craving in the area. But I'm not going to lean into it or away from it. I mean, I don't want to. And I want to be gentle with it. I don't want to smash it. Do a little craving. Do a little craving. And I don't want to smash you, and I don't want to smash me. This is life. I want to open to it. And then you open to it more, and then you open to it more, and, oh, there comes some more craving. Oh, yikes. And practice that way more, and then open more, and more comes, and more, and more, and more, and more. Well, suppose it's craving that the person be other than they are. Yeah, suppose that. That's a common one. That's quite a common one. I crave that you be other than you are. So you opened that. Yeah, so you opened that. Yeah, same way. I opened to my craving that you be other than you are, which, by the way, I do not feel right now.

[79:18]

Yes. Yes. Are you open to the fact that I'm open to the way you are and don't crave you to be another way? Are you open to that? I accept it as a matter of fact. Open to it. Yeah, I guess I could do even more. I could open to it. Yeah, you could open to it too. Instead of accepting it as a matter of fact, you could go, okay, okay, now I'll just like open to it. Yikes. Yike-a-rooney. Wow. So if you're open to that, those feelings you have about another person, yes then maybe they without wanting to change like you have to like no it's not so much that you don't want them to change you don't crave that they change like i would like everybody to become more open i wish everybody would become more and more open more and more upright more and more gentle more and more honest more and more etc i wish that for people

[80:35]

So I wish that they would change, not just change, because people will change, but I wish they would change in this wonderfully positive way. I do want that, but I don't want to crave it. So if you don't change according to the schedule I wish you would change on, I'm going to keep being gentle with you. So it's just that you don't crave. But if you do crave that they change rapidly in certain directions, then... hopefully be gentle and uncraving about getting rid of your craving. Because what you're wanting is to be upright, you're thinking the other person is going to disturb my practice. Yes. In thinking that, I've already disturbed my practice. No, not necessarily. You can look at somebody and think, I think they're going to disturb my practice. Okay? Okay. and be open to that, I think you're going to disturb my practice.

[81:41]

And I'm open to that. You may or you may not, but I am thinking you might, and I'm open to you disturbing my practice. I'm open to it. And I'm upright with it. I'm not trying to avoid you. And then, if my practice is being upright and gentle, and I think of you disturbing it, and upright and gentle with the thinking of you disturbing it, then, in fact, I didn't get disturbed. This is not easy, but this is how you do it. Any questions? Yes? Would you please share your thoughts as to why you think that Buddhism has a history of perhaps ignoring the tyranny of the government? What are the causes for it having a history of ignoring the government? Ignoring tyranny in the government.

[82:46]

I would say because the people in the institution, not enough of them are practicing wholeheartedly. That would be the reason. That the practice... is not fully alive in the people who are taking care of the institution. That would be the reason. So the institutions of Buddhism can be cared for by people who are not yet fully realizing the practice that they're trying to take care of. And so then that would not facilitate them to wholeheartedly meet and therefore not ignore the tyranny within their reach. And there are cases, however, where the people who are taking care of the institution do not ignore the injustices and do meet the injustices. And it's not always the case, but it's often the case.

[83:53]

You might say, one word I use, that the institutional Buddhism has been conspicuous in ignoring. In other words, it's pretty easy to see that they did quite often. But there's other cases where they didn't. So it's not that they never do. Like Zen Center doesn't always not confront in a skillful way the tyranny of our government. but you could find examples of where we missed some opportunities. You could make a case for that. And when we hear that case, the practice is to open to that criticism and to listen to it and be gentle with it. And be upright with it and be honest about it and try to harmonize with it. And then the practice is alive and then we have another chance to maybe interact with the person or beings that are indicting us and say, how do you feel about that response?

[85:00]

And they say, try again, try again. You say, OK, OK. Because we want to generously listen to the criticism. I guess I got the impression that you were suggesting that it happens more specifically towards government than maybe some other area. Maybe I shouldn't have said government, but I should have said social order. You know? There's also like rich people who aren't really the government, but who might be, you know, like some, I don't know what, they might have their own little bodyguard, which, you know, tyrannizes people in the neighborhood. a social order includes criminals, right? And so there's criminals going around harassing people and tyrannizing people. So it isn't just a government. I should have mentioned that. It's also just a social order that the practitioners, whether they're part of the institution or not, should open to the suffering and then they open to the suffering caused by crime and try to meet criminals.

[86:13]

And there are wonderful stories of practitioners meeting criminals and having wonderful interactions. But there's other cases where they seem to ignore the criminals. You know, except, yeah, there's an organized crime thing going on in this area and we just, you know... You could say we're just not ready to take it on, you know, and we admit. But we don't just say, okay, we say, We know there's this crime going on and it's really harming people. We don't yet have the skill to do something to turn it around. It's beyond our ability. But we admit that it's a problem and we admit that we aspire to be able to help beings address this problem. So then you wouldn't be ignoring it. You would just be saying, we know it's there, we're working on it, but just like at Zen Center, you know, for example, at Tassajara, our monastery, you've heard of Tassajara?

[87:24]

When we first moved in there... we inherited a history of environmental abuse, which is just normal, right? Propane generators and gas generators around which chemicals would fall on the ground and pollute the ground. So when we first went there, we also, you know, continued those practices. But over the 30, let's see, almost 40 years now, Tassajara opened actually 40 years ago this summer. Over the 40 years, we've gradually changed our practices. But before that, people could have criticized us and we criticized ourselves. You know, you people are not really being that aware and responsible for the earth around your monastery. So we heard that and we said, yeah, okay, and we'll work on it. And we're just working on it. But we're still not perfect. Or here, you know, we use cars that use gas, you know.

[88:28]

We are practitioners, but we're participating, you know. And people could say, you're Buddhist, you shouldn't drive cars. You say, well, I know what you mean. We feel pain driving cars in this community. We feel pain letting you come here in cars. But we're not ignoring it, we're just suffering with it. So you can criticize it and you say, why don't you people like, you know, eliminate... global warming, you know? We're working on it. It's not like, oh, we're... Don't expect us to eliminate global warming. No, no. We're concerned. So, it's the ignoring that sometimes happens. And it does. No, we don't have to deal with that. I think that that's not really in accord with the truth, that we don't have to deal with that. You know, I think we have to deal with everything. But, you know, I must admit, I'm having a hard time opening. I confess.

[89:28]

Give me a little break, okay? Get a break. Rest. Okay, now I'm ready. What did you want me to listen to? What cries should I listen to now? Okay, all right, okay. See, that's kind of a way to talk about it. Yes? Do you use the term open many different times in different ways? I don't understand what it means to be open. Well, I'm not saying I understand either, but for example, let's say somebody wanted to talk to you. And, you know, you're walking around here maybe right now. Maybe when you're about time for you to leave here, somebody's walking over to you and wants to talk to you. And you kind of maybe know that the person wants to talk to you, you can tell. But you'd like to leave Bengal soon. And you maybe know this person maybe wants to talk to you and wants to talk to you for a while.

[90:31]

Like, you know, they want to talk to you for a long time. And you kind of like don't want to talk to them for even a short time. So you kind of like close your heart to the person, kind of want to get away from them, kind of lean away from them, kind of wish they weren't there. You know? Or maybe think of maybe a lie so they'll leave you alone. That's called not being open. It looks like not open. Can you see that? That's not being open. However, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be open to yourself, too. And who is a person who would like to leave Ringgold? So you can be open. Yeah, I'm open to me wanting to leave. I feel, yeah, I'm willing to be a guy who wants to leave. laughter I'm even willing to be a guy who doesn't want to talk to this person. So I'm actually open to being that way. And balance it too. Yeah, right. Oh, well, one way is when the person comes over, you say, guess what?

[91:35]

I want to leave Ringgalt right now, soon. And I have this fantasy that you want to talk to me for a long time. So you're honest, you know. You tell them, hey, I'm a human being. I got this agenda to get out of here. and I get this idea of who you are. And you're honest, and you're gentle, and you're upright. You know, you're honest, you have this... You're not actually leaning into leaving, you're just there realizing, I'm a person who wants to leave, that's where I'm at, and I give this to you. And I'm a person who has this idea that you want to talk to me. And the person might say, no, I don't want to talk to you, I just want to say hi. You know? And they feel fine because you, you know, you're honest, you were gentle, and you weren't leaning into believing your story. You know? And then you say, geez, I'd like to stay a while. We'll talk to you. Everything changes. You know, you're in a different world where getting out of here is not the main point.

[92:36]

And you realize, oh, we have this relationship. How wonderful. You just woke me up. But you woke me up because I was practicing. If I hadn't been honest with you and said, I have to go, you know, people on the telephone, well, I have to go now. They don't say, I want to go. You know, I have to go. The baboons are biting my ankles. No. I'm talking to you and I want to stop talking to you and go do something else. And I'm being honest with you and I'm being gentle. Am I being gentle with you? And the person says, well, actually, yeah, you're being pretty gentle. Am I being honest? It sounds like you are. May I go? Well, no, you may not. I want to talk to you more. Oh, yeah? Well, what do you want to talk about? Or, yeah, you can go. I want to go. That's where I'm at. Or the other way is, I'll let you go. I'll let you go now. I've kept you so long.

[93:41]

I'll let you go. I know that's trying to be polite, but it's not the truth. He says, you want to go. Please forgive me, I want to go. And I have my reasons, but basically, whatever they are, really, I do want to go. So that's kind of, you're being open to yourself and you're being open to... Now, this doesn't exhaust what open means, but you can kind of find what balance is by imbalance. And you can kind of find what open is by not being open. Being open is kind of ungraspable. It's just, it's so wonderful, you know, you can't get a hold of it. It's bigger than all of us, right? But being closed you can find. And if you find closed, and [...] you admit it, admitting it, you find open.

[94:44]

Like that story, you know, this is the stories of Carlos Castaneda books, you know? The first one, one of the first stories in the first one, was Don Juan tells Carlos to find his place. so he finds his spot so he starts looking for his spot looking for his spot and he goes through a lot looking for his spot and then in the morning he sees Don Juan and Don Juan says did you find your spot and he said no he said where did you go to sleep he said over there behind the rock he said that's your spot You don't find your spot. [...] You don't find balance. You don't find balance. You don't find openness. You don't find openness. You don't find openness. Where is openness? I don't know. He found it. He found it.

[95:50]

You really don't know. You really don't know what's going on. You don't know anything. You tried to find it all night, but finally in the end... And you don't even think, oh, I found openness. But the teacher says, oh, that's it. But now it's gone. Is that enough? Google? Thank you. Do you think the difference between the two the tension you talked about at the lecture between the achieving enlightenment personally on the one hand as being a pursuit of Buddhism as opposed to liberating all beings, designing enlightenment for all beings.

[97:08]

Do you believe that's part of the tension or what leads to Buddhist institutions not be as engaged in the social conditions around them as they could be? Yeah, that would be part of it. That in order to train people and help people be upright and gentle, and harmonious and honest and open, sometimes it helps to, like, have a situation like this where you can talk about that and where you can then put them in a situation where they'll see, you know, how they're struggling to be open, where they can actually see, oh, I'm closed. And you can say, okay, now... And then when they discover they're closed, then they start to get ready to slug themselves, right?

[98:10]

You know what I mean? You following that? No? Slug yourself. Yeah, slug yourself. You're trying to learn how to be open and you look and you find out you're not open and you're about to punish yourself for that. But the teacher says, no, no, don't punish yourself. Be gentle with your closeness. So there needs to be, for most people, some guidance situation where you learn how to do these practices. Because if people just hear about them and try to do them, they often get confused and they don't find their way. So then you have this special training situation where people learn how to do these practices properly. So how do you, like, be upright in a gentle way? Some people try to be upright and they say, well, I'm not upright, and then they punch themselves for not being upright. You know? Or they think they're being upright, but they're not. And then somebody says, well, actually, you're leaning.

[99:13]

I am? Yeah. I mean, literally, physically leaning. I am? Yeah. Well, what's not leaning? Well, it's like this. Wow. It feels like leaning backwards. No, it looks upright. So that's a special situation to help the person find it and realize it. But if you're like, if I go downtown this afternoon or over, I don't know where, if I go certain places in the Bay Area and I see people leaning various directions and being not gentle and closed, you know, like people saying, oh, those people, you know, it may be, I mean, you know, I may feel like, well, they don't want me to sort of say, you know, do you feel open to those people you're talking about? Or can I adjust your posture? You know? Or, you know, are you afraid of something? Yeah, I'm afraid of you. So that's part of the situation actually of a Zen center is you have a teacher and people come into the space and then they feel afraid of the teacher.

[100:18]

But they remember, I came in here voluntarily and now I feel fear of the teacher. And the teacher will help you get over your fear of the teacher. But if a teacher goes out in the street, people are afraid of the teacher too, probably, many times. But they don't want to deal with the fear. They just want to be angry at the teacher and call him a whatever, you know. So there is some reason, some usefulness of having a training center where people are saying, I'm available for instruction. If the people go outside the training center and try to help people in the society, they may not be able to do very well because they haven't been trained to be skillful. So it's kind of like, how long should we keep them before we send them out? And basically, in some sense, you all feel like, well, keep them until they're upright, open, centered, kind, gentle, honest, and so on.

[101:21]

Then send them out. And there are stories of when the teacher's been successful teachers, they have a little group of well-trained people and then they send them out. And then they watch them actually function in the society and, you know, to perform miracles. You know? And then they come back after a day's work of miracle performing and train some more. You know? And then go out the next day. So, but there's a tension there because some people feel like, you know, you're keeping the people too long, you send them out, you know, but they're not ready. So there is that tension between making individuals who have been trained into not thinking about practicing by themselves, training people to give up themselves so that they then can go out and teach other people how to give up themselves, training them that way and getting them out there to do it.

[102:21]

If you send them too early, it's a little problematic. So you know what I mean? Is that getting the picture? So I think you're right. That is part of the problem. That's part of the problem. It's part of the problem. Okay? Yes? Hi. You're welcome. Yes. Yes. You're one of the creators of the universe, yeah. Yeah, there's a danger that you'll think that you are creating it by yourself. That's a danger. That's a danger.

[103:22]

And also to think that you're creating your own hand movements by yourself. There's a danger that you'll believe that. But most people have fallen for that one. Yes. So to extend that one to not only do I move my own hand, but I make the sun rise, that's just basically what we call a grandiose extension. But most people think I move my hand by myself, I move my mouth by myself, and I also extend it like, you know, I make my parents happy or sad, I make my children happy or sad. You know, they extend it. That's already... It's already partly true and partly false. I do make my parents happy. I do make my parents sad. When my parents are happy, I make my parents happy. When my children are happy, I make my children happy. When my teachers are happy, I make my teachers happy. When my students are happy, I make my students happy. When my teachers are miserable, I make my teachers happy. Everything that happens, I make happen. However, I do it together with everybody.

[104:23]

When my teachers are happy, you make them happy. You make them happy. Everybody makes my teachers happy. When my teachers are unhappy, everybody makes my teachers unhappy. We're doing this together. So any act that you think you're doing by yourself, any act, any thought that you do something by yourself is grandiose. So, just admit you have grandiose ideas. You think you could smile by yourself, by your own power. I can smile. I did that for myself. But of course I didn't do it by myself. I wouldn't have done that if you weren't here. I wouldn't have. That wouldn't have happened. What if you're the only one in the room and you smile? It's the same. Every time you smile in a room where there's no other people present, all the Buddhas are there with you. They're actually in the room with you. But Buddhas do not necessarily look like, you know, people.

[105:27]

Buddhas means all the beings who have realized that you're connected to all beings. And all of us who have not realized that, who are not in the room with you, are outside the room supporting you to smile. And you in the room, smiling, are supporting all of us in whatever we're doing. That's the vision which I hold up. And I'm saying it will be revealed to us and we will realize it when we open to wholeheartedness. With the support of all beings, we can open to it. Okay? So now, please carry on.

[106:11]

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