January 11th, 2009, Serial No. 03621
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I have a New Year's gift for you. It's a story, which I've heard, that one day in the Tang Dynasty in China, a Zen teacher was approached and the Zen teacher's name was Bao Che. He was approached by a monk and the monk said, Teacher, the nature of wind is permanent and there's no place it does not reach. Why do you use a fan?"
[01:03]
And the teacher said, although you understand that the nature of wind is permanent, you do not understand the meaning of it reaching everywhere. The monk said, what is the meaning of it reaching everywhere? The teacher continued to fan herself. The monk bowed. You could rephrase the story by saying a monk approached the teacher and said, the nature of enlightenment is eternal and there's no place it doesn't reach.
[02:39]
Why do you sit? Why are you sitting now, teacher, and why do you sit every day with the other monks?" And the teacher says again, although you understand that the nature of awakening is eternal and all-pervasive, Now, although you understand the nature of awakening is eternal, you do not yet understand the meaning of it reaching everywhere. And the monk says, what is the meaning of it reaching everywhere? And the teacher continues to sit. You could rephrase it again and say,
[03:50]
The Buddha's compassion is boundless. The Bodhisattva's compassion is boundless. And there's no place it doesn't reach. Why do you practice compassion? Why do you need to practice compassion? Compassion is all-pervasive. Why do you have to practice it? You understand that the nature of Buddha's compassion is eternal, but you do not understand that it reaches everywhere. The meaning of it reaching everywhere is that we practice it. You're right, it does reach everywhere. We're not arguing with you about that.
[04:53]
But if you don't practice it, you don't realize it. The wind's blowing anyway, of course. But if you don't fan yourself... When I started fanning myself, it was very different from before. There was a breeze in here. I asked for the doors to be open, and I felt a breeze. But when I fanned myself, it was... I understood more. Did you? Did you? I offer this gift and I also now offer the gift of discussing with you faith and discussing with you beliefs at the beginning of this year. There are teachings in the tradition of the Buddha Dharma, the Buddha's teaching.
[06:10]
There are lots of teachings and quite a few people have heard about them and many appreciate them. What's the role of faith? I would start out by saying that faith or belief is that upon which one will take action. So if you've heard some teachings of the Buddha Dharma, which of them are something upon which you will actually take action? Like you might have heard that there's a practice of mindfulness, of being present you know, being aware of where you are right now, to be ardently aware and alert to the present moment, and that there's a practice which is beneficial, then do you believe that?
[07:34]
And you do believe it in a sense when you take action based on that. You believe that being mindful is beneficial, is something you want to practice, and then you actually act on it and practice mindfulness. Some idea you have you don't take action on. Some ideas you have you take action on. Those in a sense are your beliefs. In a sense I believed that I could enter this room, that the building was reasonably safe, and even if there's an earthquake maybe it will stand up to maybe 8.9 on the Richter scale.
[08:41]
I've heard that that's how safe it is. So I enter the building believing that it's safe. And I also, if I see you entering, I say, well, okay, they can enter. I believe. I take the action of not trying to, of allowing you to enter. Now, if I see you going into a building and I have the idea that it's not safe, and I let you enter in a way, I don't really believe what I heard. But if I really believe it's not safe, then maybe I'll take action and say, don't enter that building, it's not safe. I act on it. In this school we have ideas like sitting is a way to take action on enlightenment.
[09:50]
In other words, if you think that enlightenment is a good thing, then one of the ways to take action on it is to sit. If you think compassion if you think being devoted to the welfare of others is a good thing, one of the ways, one of the things you can do to act on that is to sit. And this school is based on the idea of an unceasing effort to free all beings so that they may dwell in peace and happiness. That's an idea. And I would say it's a belief when you're willing to act on it.
[11:01]
And one of the ways to act on it is to sit. Another teacher was asked, in this vast world, actually the teacher asked the question, in this vast world, why do you get up early in the morning and put on the robe when the bell rings? Why do you put on the robe? In this meditation hall, in the morning when we put the robe on, and other times when we put the robe on, the Buddha's robe, we say, wearing the Buddha's teaching, saving all beings. We put this robe on and we say, we take action, well, we take the action of putting the robe on. We take, we act by putting the robe on because we have the belief that saving all beings
[12:17]
is important. And the way we express, one of the ways we express that saving all beings is important is by putting the robe on. We put the robe on to realize saving all beings. We demonstrate that we believe that saving all beings is something we will take action on. What kind of action? One of them is to put a robe on. Another one is to sit. You can put those two together. Put a robe on and sit. If you don't have a robe, then sit. But the Buddha's compassion, the Buddha's enlightenment,
[13:19]
the activity of the unceasing activity to free beings, that activity is all-pervasive. And based on that idea, one might then also act on it by demonstrating that it's all-pervasive by sitting and putting a robe on. When one offers incense at this altar here in this room or other altars, sometimes one might say to oneself, this incense offering realizes nirvana. This incense realizes liberating beings so they can dwell in nirvana. Not everyone who's heard that idea will then offer incense, but some people will.
[14:29]
And when they offer incense that way, they're acting in order to realize the boundless compassion of the Buddhists. Like, any action. And you could say, well, how about an unwholesome action? I don't know what to say about that. Any action that's performed for the sake of freeing all beings demonstrates the understanding that the compassion of the Buddhas reaches everywhere.
[15:35]
It realizes the compassion when you offer incense, when you bow, when you walk. And as you walk, each step each step is taken in order to realize, to demonstrate that the enlightenment of the Buddha reaches everywhere, reaches this step. That's how the enlightenment, that's how the enlightenment of Buddha reaches every place. And in particular, that's how the enlightenment of the Buddha reaches this step of your foot on this piece of earth. That's how it reaches it at that time. There's other ways you could reach it. You could be taking a step and be thinking something else like, I wish to realize the Buddha's compassion by this step.
[16:46]
I wish to liberate all beings by this step. I wish to help a particular person by this step. And by thinking this way, I wish to realize the boundless compassion of the Buddhas by this step. There's infinite ways that you can act to verify, to prove that the wisdom of the Buddhas, the compassion of the Buddhas, the Buddha way reaches everywhere. But what I'm stressing today is that if we do not perform it, if we do not make our actions for this purpose, then we do not understand We do not realize the teaching that the Buddha's compassion, that the infinite compassion of the Buddha's reaches everywhere because we are not letting it reach here, this place.
[17:52]
We have other business apparently. I don't know what it is, but we're not actually making this body this mind, this voice, the place and the time, a place and a time here, which is proving, which is realizing that the truth pervades and reaches everywhere. Someone just came to me recently and was, I think, asking me about practicing compassion. And I think she was asking about, is it okay, does it make sense to practice compassion with dispassion?
[19:03]
And In the process of the conversation, I pulled the dictionary out and read the definition of dispassion. One meaning of dispassion is an absence of emotion. Another meaning of dispassion is to be uninfluenced by emotion. And another aspect of the definition is to be calm and imperturbable. So thinking about that now, I'm not thinking about if you wish, if you have the idea that compassion is good and you have the idea that it's wonderful, that the enlightening and enlightened compassion reaches everywhere and you'd like to perform it, you'd like to perform compassion to help it reach, not help it reach,
[20:14]
yeah, help it reach, but not only help it reach, but realize that it's reaching right here, then if you were practicing compassion, would dispassion be appropriate? Would dispassion help you practice compassion, which you want to practice because you want to verify that it's actually reaching here now? And I would say, as I said to this person, yes, dispassion is appropriate. appropriate to realizing compassion. But also, passion is appropriate to realizing compassion. That part surprised her. So I said it's a trio, compassion, dispassion, and passion. And also dispassion in the practice of compassion means that you're practicing dispassion in rough water.
[21:25]
So you're practicing freedom from or being uninfluenced by emotion in an ocean of rough emotion. The boat of compassion does not travel on smooth waters. It travels on the ocean waters. Sometimes the ocean is smooth, fine, but then the boat is stalled. It really functions in the rough water. But it is basically undisturbed by the emotions. It's in the middle of them and undisturbed. By being undisturbed in the midst of the ocean, it's part of proving that compassion reaches everywhere.
[22:30]
Part of proving compassion reaches everywhere is that it's practiced dispassionately even in the passions. Passions of... And what does passion mean? Passion means various things. One is it means, etymologically, it means it comes from pati, to suffer. So part of compassion, a passion means to suffer. It also means intense emotion. It also means intense sexual love or intense sexual desire. Strong emotion, compassion is strong emotion, suffering, strong sexual desire, and also boundless enthusiasm for various things. It could be boundless enthusiasm for sex. It could be boundless enthusiasm for compassion.
[23:35]
So compassion, the art, the art of compassion requires dispassion, requires being able to be in the middle of great emotion, the ability to be in the middle of passion calmly. a boundless enthusiasm, an intense desire to practice compassion, many other intense emotions, and in the middle of them, dispassion. Then we can have a place where compassion reaches, and then compassion can reach anywhere. Then the art of compassion can be enacted anywhere. if we have boundless enthusiasm and boundless calm. Intense calm.
[24:48]
An intense desire to be compassionate. An intense belief that compassion would be good to realize here. and also intense belief that we, I, am responsible, together with you, of realizing that it reaches everywhere. It realizes this meeting with this person here, fully giving ourselves to this occasion, calmly, ardently wishing to give ourselves completely but not getting disturbed by that ardent desire to give ourselves completely to this moment with these beings that we're with. Buddha's compassion reaches everywhere but we won't understand it unless we practice it this way.
[26:03]
unless we make these artworks of compassion, which are fleeting in the moment that they're created, but they have consequence that's boundless. The acts in the past of the Buddhas have boundless consequences which we are experiencing more, which we are the beneficiaries of today. They're not permanent, but they boundlessly benefit and influence. We can join this if we think it's a good idea. And also if you think it's a good idea, that if you don't join it, you won't realize it, that idea may also be something you can believe in, which will be the basis of actually practicing.
[27:15]
I heard someone say something like this one time, that the difference between... I don't know if he said Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo, but let's just say both of them, and add in maybe Shakespeare. The difference between these people... and most other people, this person said, are things, are manifested things, like the Mona Lisa, the statue, the marble statue of David, I think it's about 16 feet tall, which is the height of this room, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the painting on the ceiling, 37 plays. That's the difference between those people and most of us. In other words, they had some idea, some belief.
[28:22]
They had an idea, and their idea was a belief. They had an idea like Hamlet. And it was a belief and also an idea that it would be good to write a play called Hamlet. They had an idea of making a sculpture of David. They had that idea and they had faith. And based on that idea, they acted. And the difference between the ideas you might have or I might have of a sculpture or a play, and the play is acting on the idea. The difference between the idea of compassion and proving that it reaches everywhere is to act on that idea.
[29:34]
And I don't know if you can imagine a piece of marble 16 feet tall or 17 feet tall or whatever. Imagine a piece of marble that big. There it is. Now, interact with it with, I don't know what, a chisel and a hammer. Start pounding on it. Can you imagine that you'd have to have some enthusiasm to do that? Maybe not. Maybe the first hit. I can do that. I don't know how much enthusiasm. Just give it a whack. But to keep working on it, you need a lot of enthusiasm. Virtually boundless. Plus, also, can you imagine some emotions might come up? If somebody said, here's a 16-foot piece of marble, please carve it into a statue. Some emotions would come up, and then as you start to work on it, some emotions come up. Lots of emotions come up, probably. And in that place, somehow that person kept working. kept working on this idea to make this work of art.
[30:47]
We could have almost the same idea. You could say, he probably had a somewhat better idea of David than we do. Maybe. But whatever idea he had, that one went away. And then in the next moment he had a different idea, just like we would. Michelangelo's ideas of David were constantly changing, of course. as he danced around and played with this marble. And this marble fought him and cooperated with him and danced with him and fought him and cooperated, just like all beings cooperate with us and fight with us and resist us in the process of practicing compassion. We need a lot of enthusiasm to hang in there And we also need a lot of passion to hang in there. And we need a lot of dispassion to hang in there. There's a major motion picture now called Man on Wire about a French man named Philippe Petit.
[32:07]
And his passion is walking on wires. It has been now for 40 or 50 years. He has this passion of walking on wires, a passion. But he also, when he's walking on the wire, he has an awesome dispassion. the wire at various altitudes becomes a condition for the arising of emotions like fear or pride. I'm walking on a wire. I'm a great wire walker. I'm a great artist. Such emotions could arise. I might die any moment. Such emotions arise. as he stood at the edge of the top of the World Trade Center and he looked at the wire and he said death was all around and there was me on the top of the World Trade Center and there was the rope and then there was the moment of committing to step on the wire and perhaps death.
[33:25]
And he made the commitment And there was a little bit of time there when he was somewhat stressed. But then he found his place of dispassion. His friends observed him. And then he was, and then his face relaxed and he was happy in the practice of compassion, the practice of compassion on the wire. Somewhat, somewhat passionate, you might be able to say. And profoundly calm and uninfluenced and joyful. And not only was he joyful, but millions of other people are joyful, are lifted and liberated by his action. So the people in this school use particular forms like they use their body in certain postures.
[35:05]
They come in this room or rooms like this and they sit to prove that compassion reaches everywhere. They get up from sitting and they go into another room and sit or stand, and they sit or stand to prove that enlightenment reaches everywhere. They offer incense, they bow, they walk to verify that Buddha's compassion reaches everywhere. And people come and say, why are you sitting here? And they tell them. Sometimes people come to see them when they're standing and they talk to them.
[36:13]
And then one month later or two months later they tell their friends, that person saved my life. How did they save your life? Well, I don't know. They talked to me. They stood next to me when I was suffering. The person may not know that what that person was doing was they were standing with them to prove that Buddha's compassion reaches this spot And this other person at that moment did not realize that their life had been saved. But later they did. Or maybe they never realized it. But sometimes they do. It's not so much that I save your life by sitting here and proving that Buddha's compassion, which saves you, reaches this spot, but rather that the sitting realizes.
[37:40]
The making the sitting, the performance, the work, That realizes that Buddha's compassion reaches this spot and reaches everything. But all the other places that it reaches for them to be proved requires a prover, someone who will make their action the place who will be passionate about making this place where you are, the place where the Buddha way is actually proved to be reaching. And not only do you have the passion to use each place as the place to prove that it reaches that place, but you're also calm about it.
[38:42]
so that you can do it again and again. It's no big deal. It's just the activity of the Buddha way. No big deal. But we are quite passionate about it. Quite passionate about something that we're not very excited about. We're intensely passionate about something we're not emotionally involved with. We're extremely emotional about something that we're not emotional about. That's, I would say, although artists do sometimes get emotional, the place where they really do their work is that place of unconstructed stillness in the middle of their passion to offer this work of art. A stillness in the middle of the tremendous passion to walk the wire, to sculpt the giant,
[39:45]
to write the play to have Buddha's compassion live right here, right now. But, I mean, I didn't say this yet, did I? That this is not easy. It's easy to have emotion. That's pretty easy for most of us. But to be calm in the middle of it is not easy.
[40:50]
And the reward The reward of being able to be calm in the middle of our emotion is that we open to greater emotion. And opening to greater emotion gives a chance for our calm to get deeper, which opens to more emotion, more passion, more enthusiasm. And then with all this passion and enthusiasm, what is it, what vision is it that you wish to enact in this world? Each of us has our own vision. What is it for you? What is it that you wish that your body and mind that your actions, what is it that you wish your actions to be realizing in this world?
[41:53]
In this school, it is to help others. It is to liberate others. That's the work of art. with the message that it's possible, that there is actually compassion in the world, and it's actually always available, and it's reaching every place, but we have to give ourselves to it. And we have to learn to give ourselves to do it completely, and that's hard. And also understand that if we don't give ourselves completely, that little bit of not giving can have a big effect to hinder the realization of that which we want to realize.
[43:13]
I've been asking people, as some of you have also probably been doing for the last 11 or 12 days, what is your intention for the new year? Maybe today I would say, yeah, what's your intention for the new year? And do you feel passionately about it? So my intention for the new year is to realize that the Buddha way reaches every place. And I intend to look at my passion level and be gracious towards whatever amount of passion I have for realizing the Buddha way in every action of body, speech, and mind.
[44:25]
And then I also intend to be calm about what's going on. If I find out that my passion level is kind of low, I wish to be calm about low passion level, or if it's high. And even if I have passions like I don't want to spend any more of my time and energy on realizing the Buddha way. If that one should arise, I want to be gracious to that. Or I want to practice the Buddha way, but I'm scared. Or I want to practice the Buddha way, but I get distracted. I want to be dispassionate about my distraction from what I'm passionate about. and dash my distractions are maybe other things I have passion about. Things other than verifying that the nature of enlightenment is that it reaches everywhere and is always available.
[45:29]
And I intend to look at every other agenda and see if really I want to spend energy on it or whether I can find some way to invite it to join the big program. I looked at a watch on my wrist And this watch says 1111, which seems like an auspicious number to me. after these talks that I give, if I tell a story about my grandchildren, people usually say, thank you for the story about your grandchildren. So I really like those stories about your grandchildren, people tell me.
[46:38]
So I just happen to have one so that you all have enjoyed what happened here this morning. And I haven't had some for a while. They used to be producing at a higher rate, but recently I got one which was one of my daughters asked her son — they live in the LA region — she asked him, you know, which do you prefer? Where would you rather live? in L.A. or in San Francisco? And he said, well, San Francisco has grandma and granddaddy, but L.A. has cable. Laughter Oh, I can't resist.
[47:59]
I was thinking I want to distract you with a song, but... Pack up all my cares and woes, here I go singing low. Bye, bye, Blackbird. Where somebody waits for me, sugar sweet, so is he. Bye, bye, Blackbird. No one here can care or understand me, or what hard luck stories they all hand me. Make my bed and light the light, I'll arrive late tonight. Blackbird, bye, bye. One more.
[48:54]
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