a long time ago at Mount Madonna after everybody said their name I tried and the one time there was a person from the Monterey Mercury no no the San Jose Mercury who was kind of writing an article on the retreat and she said in the article that it was kind of a carnival trick when I said the names so I kind of thought maybe I was I didn't I thought maybe that was not such a good thing But tonight I feel like trying. Nancy? Is it gay? Gail. Susan? Lenar? Melina? Jessica? Melissa? What? Kate. Melissa. Or Melissa?

[01:04]

Kate? Melissa? Where is gay? Is there a gay? No. Leon? Elizabeth? Diane? Carol. Diane? Diane. Rob? Todd? Todd. Susan. June. Jack. John. Jack's behind you. Thanks for the tip. John. Kate. Amanda. Robert. I forgot. Chris. Shirley. Tina. Angela. Anna. Anna. Paul. Prahan. Huh?

[02:07]

Pedram. Pedram. Karen. I forgot. Starts with a S. Sally. Lynn. Forgot. Gary. Gary. Melissa. Diane. I forgot your name again. Huh? Oh, Francoise. I heard it better that time. Diane, Francoise. Melissa. And tell me your name again. Barnaby. Welcome, Barnaby. You got a seat? Something to sit on? And next, so Todd, Diane, and?

[03:19]

Joe. And? Allison. Well, nobody's going to say that was a carnival trick. Maybe they will. And what's your name again? Lael. Lael. And what's your name again? Carol. And Stella. Stella and Carol. And Barnaby. And Kate.

[04:26]

Well, I'll keep trying. So I wrote on the board kind of an outline This is the first part of the teachings. I will offer teachings, not so much that I'm going to teach you, but I will offer teachings. And when I offer them, and you learn, then maybe Maybe they'll be teaching. But anyway, these are teachings about compassionate care of created things or created beings sentient and insentient. And I gave some examples of sentient beings to take care of. Well, you know that you can take care of humans and animals

[05:36]

living animals and stuff but also when you take care of humans you can take care of the created things of a human and I gave examples of of grief fear pain joy pleasure and so on all the things I wrote all so I'm talking about the compassionate care of all kinds of beings all kind of living beings and all the experiences of living beings. Also, the compassionate care of insentient beings like bells and colors and sounds and tangibles and tastes and also kind of living things or the things of living beings that are somewhat abstract, like ideas.

[06:40]

Compassionate care of ideas and images. Okay? And then just to give you some advance on what happened next, is then the next act of the compassionate care those teachings and practices, and move on to practices or processes of aspiring and encouraging and energizing for the next, well, for those practices and then the practices which follow. And the practices which follow are practices of concentration, absorption, and relaxation. And these practices then set up the possibility of wisdom practices. And then wisdom practices set up the process of liberation, process of freedom.

[07:44]

And then a little expansion on... on the concentration and wisdom processes. The concentration practices, the relaxation practices, then lead to the, again, the processes of wisdom, insight, and understanding. And those processes involve creativity and playfulness. creativity and playfulness emerge from the practices of concentration and relaxation. And from the practices of playfulness, creativity, wisdom, we have liberation. So that's an overview of the process. And in the course description of the retreat, I said that the compassionate care of created things was the source of benefiting beings.

[09:24]

That's not exactly wrong. Well, it's kind of wrong. It's not really the source. It is benefiting beings. Compassionate care for beings is benefiting beings. Or you could say it's a condition for benefiting beings. And then this compassionate care of beings which is benefiting them sets up the possibility of completely relaxing with the beings that are benefited or completely relaxing in the process of benefit and benefiting. And in that relaxation in the process of benefiting we can start being playful and creative with the beings with whom we're practicing benefit.

[10:37]

And in that creativity we come to understand the beings and the process of benefiting and we become together liberated. So it's possible by practicing compassion with beings to benefit them but not yet liberate them. Or it's possible to be benefited while we're still caught by things. So these... And I'd like to add to the list here of... of things to practice compassionate care, I'd like to add to the list addictions or afflictions.

[11:38]

Addictions and afflictions, add that to the list of created things. Addictions are created things. Afflictions are created things. Joy is a created thing. A human is a creative thing, a created thing. By being compassionate to created things, we can enter into the creation of these things. When we enter the creation of the things, the things are liberated. But before we can enter into the creativity of created things, we have to be compassionate towards them. I propose that some beings are compassionate to some beings, but not to others. In other words, their compassion isn't to all things. So we actually can see some beings who are actually compassionate in some realms and achieve liberation in some realms, but not in others.

[12:44]

So part of what I point out at the beginning is that Some beings actually, I think, are actually compassionate, but we sometimes don't think of these beings as compassionate because in some areas they're not compassionate. But I think, for example, I don't want to say any names because I don't want to say somebody's not compassionate, but there are some artists, for example, who I think are creative with created things. And I think they have wisdom and freedom with some created things. But in other areas, they're not compassionate and not creative, not beneficial and not creative and not liberated. But I really have confidence in the necessity of being compassionate in order to be creative and liberative.

[13:46]

I think that, yeah, that that being creative is necessary in order to be wise and in order to be free and in order to show others how to be free. But it isn't necessary to be wise in order to be beneficial. You can be beneficial without yet being creative. But I would like actually us to be both learned compassion towards these all-created things, and take a few examples during this weekend, but also then from that compassion to move into aspiration. Aspiration for what? For extending this compassion into concentration and wisdom. To extend compassion and kindness into into relaxation, playfulness, wisdom.

[14:51]

So again, I'm not just here talking about benefiting beings, which I wrote in the title. Buddha's compassion, grief, Buddha's compassion towards grief, with grief, creativity and benefiting, all beings. I'm adding to the list benefiting and liberating all beings. I hope that's not too much for you. I'm warming up to the creativity starting with compassionate care. And I

[16:08]

I want to also set in the title, Grief, so I want to start with compassionate care of grief. And last Sunday at Green Gulch Zen Center I talked about this compassionate care of grief partly with the with the theme of autumn or the theme of fall because it does seem to be autumn. It does seem to be fall. I'm actually... I'm kind of working to encourage a positive attitude.

[17:30]

I'm trying to encourage a positive attitude in our human society towards grieving. Towards grief. and being positive with it. I consider grieving to be part of what happens when you actually start respecting grief. Seeing grief as a gift. Seeing grief and sadness as medicine that's being offered. I think there's some sentiment floating around in certain areas of modern human society that do not have a compassionate response to grief.

[18:39]

That when it comes, people sometimes are too busy for it. It's offering itself to us and we sometimes don't notice it even because we're moving too quickly. I think I was saying something about encouraging a positive view of sadness and grief. I distinguish grief from depression. I distinguish sadness from depression. I myself, yeah, I sometimes feel sad and I sometimes feel depressed. What's the difference between them? I think, for me, sadness doesn't necessarily make me feel like kind of like...

[19:55]

where grief doesn't make me feel kind of like down, it more makes me feel like inviting me to go down. Grief or sadness doesn't make me feel low energy. How do I tell the difference? In a way, I think maybe, yeah, that maybe depression, I feel like, kind of like I don't have much energy to do something. Whereas sadness, I feel more like I do have energy, and I don't particularly want to, you know, deal with the sadness or the grief. Yeah, something like that. And so I feel that when sadness and grief comes, when I open to it, it's more like open to the feeling.

[21:09]

I don't exactly open to depression. I shouldn't say I don't open to it. I don't feel like it's asking me to feel it. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's asking me to feel it. Yeah. I think that depression can arise in relationship to loss. But I feel that it's a little bit more related to a psychophysical state

[22:22]

that has to do more with thinking about something that didn't go the way I wanted it to. I feel it's more associated with thinking about loss, whereas I feel like the sadness is more about something I'm holding on to some kind of grasping in the flow of change and that the sadness comes it's asking me to open to the sadness and if I open to the sadness I let go of whatever it is I'm holding on to which I don't necessarily know what it is When I feel a sadness, I do not feel like I should arouse myself.

[23:43]

I feel like I should open and in a way go down with it. With depression, I more feel like I actually, if I'm going to do anything with it other than just be aware of it, that actually I probably would do well to arouse myself. not necessarily like go down into it, but more like maybe arouse myself with thoughts of gratitude. Not gratitude necessarily for the feeling of depression, but try to find something else to feel grateful to. back to sadness and grief how can I be compassionate to this and the basic thing that I feel is to welcome it to open to it and

[25:09]

And then if I'm open to it, that almost does it. But I guess I would also say be a little careful of it. Respect it. Not like it and not dislike it, but respect it. And then be patient with whatever amount of discomfort there is around it. But mostly it's open to it because I think the sadness is asking me to open. And I often use the image or the example of bamboo in snow. Bamboo often grows in places where it's not very, very cold. but cold enough to snow so the snow is often a little bit wet and sticks to the bamboo and like water also sticks a little bit to bamboo leaves and they bend over and snow they bend over also or even further and as they bend over

[26:31]

and bend down, the snow slides off them. And they bounce back. And when they bounce back, they're very lively and clean. And a similar thing happens for me when I go down with the sadness and the grief that what I'm holding on to slips off me and I bounce back fresh and alive and ready to live this moment. I was not ready to live this moment I needed to grieve in order to really live this moment I needed to let go of everything well not everything but as much as I could at the moment as much as that grief was coming to help me with there may be other griefs which will come to help me let go of other things but this particular offering of grief

[27:50]

It refreshes me relative to its assignment. Again, I would suggest that when we live in a flow of change, and when there's grasping in the change, the change may seem to be loss, or we may interpret change as loss when we're grasping in the flow.

[29:05]

we're grasping in the flow if we're alive actually if we're not too depressed we can notice the offering of grief and sadness sometimes people are so depressed that they can't see the sadness they don't see where to open to it so we're fairly healthy when we can feel grief and sadness And then if we can open to that we can stop grasping in the flow. And if we can stop grasping in the flow we're getting close to the place of being ready to practice concentration and relaxation on something.

[30:09]

in the present. And creative play or play is aware of grief. Creative play is aware of grief in a way that's getting ready to transform not just the grief but those things which we use to cover reality. We use many forms, we use them usually to cover the reality which we are not yet ready to face. grieving gets us ready to open to the using and to let go of it.

[31:23]

I wonder if you have any questions about how to practice compassionate care of grief that you could express. Could you come up, Joe, and sit here? You can face me, or you could sit here next to me and ask me. I guess more a personal observation that I wanted to check out with you on the compassionate care of grief.

[32:46]

I noticed a defense against grief sometimes would be some need to have it explain itself first. Like some inexplicable sadness. Yeah, that's a good point. Sometimes either the grief explains itself or we have a good sense of what it is. But lots of times the grief is about some physical holding and we do not know what it's about. We sometimes find out later what it was about. Yeah, sometimes we later... find out a lot of times it's actually for just some some physical thing like like sometimes people get you know we used to have when I was a kid we used to have people used to deliver milk to the house the person was called the milkman and so I sometimes use the example that sometimes when the milkman changed you would feel sad but you wouldn't think that you were attached to the milkman you know the

[34:03]

it's not like the milkman died even just to have a new milkman and you feel some pain that this, that milkman's not coming anymore and you had no idea you were attached to that milkman so the milkman's coming and going and then a new milkman comes and you notice that you're sad about the old milkman not in your life anymore you didn't think you were attaching to this person coming to deliver milk but you found out that you were Or somebody else, I gave the example that they lived on the coast where there was a searchlight, a lighthouse near their house. And then at night, the searchlight would go by their window and the room would light up. And they got used to going asleep with this light going on and off in their bedrooms. And one night in the middle of the night they woke up and it was dark.

[35:05]

They couldn't figure out why they woke up. The reason they woke up was because the searchlight was not functioning. So a lot of things we're attached to we don't know. Still, even though we don't know, this attachment is blocking us from entering into actually entering into a relaxed and concentrated presence with what's happening. And a healthy body will offer the medicine of grief. And if we open to that, we'll let go of the place where we're holding on, and we may never know what it is. So I can understand that you sometimes say, well, I would open to it if I knew what it was about. But I think I would recommend that you don't require to know what it's about. That it may be helping you let go someplace that your body and mind need you to let go, but it's never going to tell you what it is.

[36:07]

I shouldn't say it's never going to tell you, but anyway, you may wake up to what it is. That's sort of consistent with my experience. And the... It feels like I have to keep relearning that, especially when the inexplicable sadness comes up. Yeah. If your loved one dies, and if you actually could let go of them as they died, and really like, yeah, if you actually were like, with them and watching them change and being with the change of them and yourself and you really were there with the change without grasping anything you actually wouldn't need to grieve because you would be in the flow of this great change. Most people however both consciously and unconsciously have formed attachments with their loved ones so when they go through this change they do need grieve in order to live their life again.

[37:13]

in order to live their life, to be in the place of the flow again, and then to enter the flow and realize freedom and benefit. Benefit, I should say, and freedom. Which, of course, this loved one wants you to realize, and I even would say that you realize this for the loved one. that there's a relationship between me holding on to the change of a loved one and the loved one's freedom from clinging themselves even if they die. And many people are trying to die but their loved ones won't let them and it makes it difficult for them to let go because the loved ones aren't letting go of them. and grief is being offered to the loved one who is holding on to them but the people don't open to the grief so they keep holding on you can grieve before the person dies of course you can grieve as they lose their health I shouldn't say, I said lose but anyway as their health changes you can resist that

[38:29]

and you can resist right up to death. And this whole process of resisting is transmitted to them and makes it more difficult for them to not resist the changes they're going through. Is it okay to say one more thing about this? Can you speak up? Yes. Actually, you know, if you hold it a little horizontally, yeah. Is that better? Yeah. Okay. I've been finding there's been a repeating pattern in relation to some kind of development or some kind of freedom. It feels like a really positive development and I'm surprised that grief, I have been surprised to discover that there's a feeling of loss even when some ancient pattern from my childhood that I'm weary of is let go of.

[39:31]

Even then, there's grief about it. It actually surprises me. Yeah, right. Very good. I often say, we grieve the loss of our 4,000-pound teddy bear. You know, it's been crushing us, and we finally let go of it. I shouldn't say even the loss. We grieve the letting go of this big weight. But the grieving will help us accept actually that we've lost or we've let go of this burden. So we're, you know, it's funny. It feels paradoxical because it's something I'm moving toward. I'm relieved. We feel relieved. But another part of us feels, again, almost like we honor the things that have been crushing us. So it's good to understand that one way to honor them is actually to let go of them.

[40:38]

But still, we really do want to be, I don't know what, we want to make sure that we love them. Because they're our friend, that big teddy bear. was our friend. That's why we held on to it. But the more we held on to it, the heavier it got, the more troublesome it became. Originally, it wasn't 4,000 pounds. It was just like 15 ounces or something. But the more we held on to it, the more our health said, this is getting heavier. We should let go of it. And then we finally let go of it. And that's because we grieved it. And then we feel another kind of grief. Yeah, so it has been feeling that it's, this process is really at it flowing. Yeah, so, yeah. It feels like I'm having a series of wakes for old friends. Yes. Like there's some shape of me that's not, I'm not holding that tension pattern, not that one anymore. I just thought of an example where I did discover something, and it was when I, it hasn't happened lately, but when I was, around the time I was about eight years old,

[41:48]

I started to notice a ringing in my ears. But it wasn't, you know, it was inner ringing. And when I first heard it, I thought, is this my conscience? You know, did I do something wrong? And this went on for years. And when I was about 13, this ringing happened. And then I realized, I thought of something that happened during the day. And what it was, was that somebody was, I don't know, didn't give me much attention, that I wanted some attention and they didn't give it to me. But I didn't really address it, you know, and say, this really hurts me. This not really hurts me, but this hurts a little bit that they're not really like paying much attention to me or that they're paying more attention to somebody else than me. That happened like the day. But at the time, I didn't like say, this is painful. Because it's so, you know, like being, again, between 8 and 13 years old, you don't usually think you're supposed to be that upset about somebody giving you not too much attention, or at least I didn't sometimes.

[42:59]

As soon as I realized what the thing was and gave it attention, the ringing went away. And then I started to learn whenever the ringing came back, it reminded me of times during the day when I really didn't address the thing which wasn't so bad, but needed to be addressed. And as soon as I addressed it, I could let go of it. So the ringing was a kind of grief that came to me and was saying, look at this thing and let go of it, or just look at it. Give it the attention it was asking for. So in that case, I did learn what it was that was calling for more attention. But it happened for quite a while before the images came up about what it was that I overlooked. So then whenever the ringing came, I would just think that it was usually for that day. And usually the ringing happened in the evening or night. So I just looked back through the day, and I could usually find some place where some little thing happened that I really didn't honor.

[44:05]

And as soon as I noticed that, the ringing would go away. Now I actually honor more my difficulties during the day so I don't get the ringing. Now I kind of feel like, oh, that hurts. That hurts. That hurts. I notice these little troubles. I don't feel that it's beneath me to have these problems. So then I don't get the ringing so much. You're welcome. You're welcome. In other words, I give more compassionate care to the little problems that come up during the day. Or big. The big ones are easier, of course. If somebody would come and tell me I have a major illness, I usually don't overlook that. But the little things, I'm more willing to take care of the little things than I used to be when I was a kid. There used to be a clock on the wall, but I don't see it anymore.

[45:35]

What time is it? 8.14. I wanted to, before it gets too late, talk a little bit about the form of the weekend. Usually we will have some alternation between sitting quietly and walking quietly and then having teachings offered and discussion and then go again back to perhaps walking quietly and sitting quietly. This will be altered throughout the day with breaks. So tomorrow morning at 6.30 we will begin the day by coming here and sitting quietly for about half an hour and then walking quietly for about ten minutes

[46:37]

and sitting quietly for about a half an hour, and then walking quietly for about ten minutes, and then have some teachings and discussion, and then breakfast, and then reconvening here with quiet sitting and walking and discussion. And so that's sort of the way the day goes with breaks. So when you come back from breaks, usually we... We'll start by just sitting quietly together and then walking quietly together. And the sitting, the beginning of the sitting periods are usually signaled with three bells. Three ringings of the bell. And then the end of the period is signaled by two bells. So at that time you can gently get up and walk around the room.

[47:38]

And we usually walk in a circle around all of our seats, clockwise. And there's a way of walking, of synchronizing the breathing with the walking, which I can mention in a little while. And then after the walking has been going on for about 10 minutes, we ring a bell again. And then we walk back to our seats and sit down. Yeah, we walk back to our seats and sit down. Or, of course, some of you may, during the walking, wish to get up and use the restroom and so on. So feel free to adjust to your needs in relationship to this schedule. This schedule is offered to you. I support you to participate in a way that's compassionate. That you compassionately care for this created thing.

[48:45]

We're creating this schedule and I encourage you to practice compassion towards it or with it. And then... And then maybe relax with it and be absorbed in it. Be concentrated with it. And then start playing with it and so on. And finally, become free of it. Also, I am available to have individual meetings with you if you'd like. And if you'd like to have a meeting with me, this is Anna. And you can tell her that you'd like to and she'll arrange the meeting with me. Any other responses to my little introduction to compassionate care of grief?

[49:52]

And we can also go on to talk about if you have questions about how to compassionately care for fear or compassionately care for pain. To compassionately care for addictions and afflictions. I don't know actually, I don't really feel like myself, like, well, I guess maybe some people have an addiction to grief. It's kind of rare that people have an addiction to grief and sadness, but it's possible, but I don't hear about it too much. People are, again, mostly their addictions are using things in such a way as to cover or conceal reality. And when we use things and when I say things I mean anything anything we use to disguise, conceal reality I would say that's an addiction.

[51:09]

but also it's an affliction because it stresses our relationship to reality. It stresses our relationship with each other. Or it stresses the truth of our relationship with other. And most of us do have such afflictions. Most of us do have such addictions. For example, we look at somebody and the image of them that we have, we use that image of them to conceal them, the reality of them. We have an image that people are actually separate from us.

[52:12]

We have this image that looks like people are separate from us and that we are addicted to that image of separation. And we are afflicted by the image or the appearance that we're separate from each other. in the midst of such affliction, grief comes. And fear comes. When we're addicted to using our experience to cover up reality, grief comes. And grief kind of like knocks on the door and says, if you would open to me, If you would be compassionate to me, I will help you open up also to the realm where you can let go of what's afflicting.

[53:19]

I will help you if you accept me. I will help you enter the process of letting go of what's covering your real relationship with everybody. So grief is really good medicine. It doesn't do the whole job, but it's one of the good ways to start the process. But the grief is not grieving. The grief is what you practice grieving on. The grief is what, if you bring compassionate to it, becomes grieving. The grief doesn't exactly become grieving. The grief is an opportunity for compassion. And if we're compassionate with grief, we're ready to open to the process of healing. And being compassionate to grief brings benefit to the grief and brings benefit to the griever.

[54:26]

and gets ready for actually healing the addiction or transforming the addiction into an opening onto reality and freedom. And fear is another thing that kind of is especially helpful it's not the same as grief, but it's another helpful opportunity to indicate a moment, a door for compassion. So being compassionate to fear is another major opportunity to develop compassion to bring benefit, and to set up the possibility of not just benefit, but understanding, opening to reality, entering reality, and becoming free, not just of fear, but all the afflictions that arise from

[55:55]

Covering reality. I also wrote on there. Pain. Same with pain. Compassion towards pain is not usually called grieving. But. again that's another opportunity to bring benefit to the pain and again bringing benefit to the pain sets up the possibility of relaxing with the pain being concentrated and calm with the pain And being concentrated and calm with the pain sets up the possibility of being playful with the pain.

[57:05]

Being relaxed and calm with the pain sets up the possibility of being playful with the pain and creative with the pain and understanding the pain and becoming free of the pain. And once free of the pain, then you go back to practicing compassion, net care of all created things again. So we can practice compassionate care of all created things before we are able to relax and become with these created things. We can practice compassionate care with grief, fear, pain, various other afflictions.

[58:12]

We can practice compassion towards it before we know how to relax and become with it. And we can also practice the same practices after we've learned how to be relaxed and calm and playful and creative and understanding and free. So the same practices can be done before and after we enter into creativity with these objects of compassion. And now, at this point, do you have any questions about that? Could you come up? Please? By the way, someone said to me, you make it harder to ask questions if you have people come up, and I want you to know you don't have to come up.

[59:16]

I just would like you to, because for me... it's more alive this way. And you don't have to sit this way, you can also sit next to me if you'd like. Welcome, Leon. Thank you, Rev. You have a question, did you say? Or comment? Yes. My question is, I don't think I know what you mean by a created thing. Well, Everything that arises in dependence on causes and conditions is a created thing. So, for example, I'm a created thing, you're a created thing, my pain's a created thing, my fear's a created thing, my grief, my attachment, my addictions, all these are created things. So why do we need the word created in front of things? Because some things are sort of not created, like space isn't created.

[60:21]

That's confusing to me. It's confusing? Okay. That's a created thing. Yes. Mm-hmm. I can't differentiate between how I create things and how I don't create space. I can't find that. I guess the bigger question is I... You create, you and I together, we support each other to create an idea of space. Yes. But there's also space which, you know, isn't a created thing. And doesn't need any compassion. And you don't need to be free of space.

[61:27]

But I appreciate your question. It's rather... I think a difficult thing to understand. But anyway, some things are not created. If they exist, they dependently co-arise, but they're not, another way to say it is, they're not composed or they're not compounded of different elements. whereas most of our problems are composed of different elements, different aspects. I get that part. Yeah. But some things are not kind of like compounded or constructed. So, for example, for example, the way everything, the way all these constructed things, like you and me, The way we ultimately are is that we can't be found.

[62:31]

I get that. And not being able to be found, our unfindable or bottomless nature, that's not constructed. That's not created. I can get a little bit of that. I can go towards something there. It's pretty hard for me to grasp it though. The reality of the way created things are, the ultimate way that they are, that's not created. Okay. And that doesn't require compassion. But if we're compassionate towards all things that are that way, If I'm compassionate to the way you have no bottom or sides or top, excuse me, if I'm compassionate to you, I open to the way you are unlimited and ungraspable and unfindable.

[63:43]

I open to that. And that thing I don't have to be compassionate towards. That's just what will set me free from any limited idea of you that I'm grasping. That will set me free from the image of what you are in the image that you're separate from me. And my addiction is I'm addicted to seeing you as separate. If I'm kind to you in the sense of our separation I will open to the uncreated which will set us free from attaching to the created. And the created doesn't afflict us. It's our attachment to the created. And we tend to attach to created things because they appear to be out there. And when they appear to be out there, we crave them.

[64:45]

And we crave to cling them. And when we cling to them, we're afflicted. I'm starting to get it. You're starting to get it. I think I'll sleep on it. Thank you for your question. Thank you, Rand. I'm not saying it's impossible to practice compassion across the room. I won't say it's impossible. I just find that being a little closer seems more, I can more feel your compassion than I can when you're farther away.

[65:46]

When you come up close, I feel like you're being very generous and you're welcoming our interaction. I can feel it more fully than I can feel it when you're farther away. Now you could stay there and I could come to you too. That's no possibility. But that's why I find, that's why I invite you to come up to talk to me and sit with me. I can also hear you better and see you better and then I won't take the next step that the wolf took. Anything else you'd like to offer tonight? Any questions that you'd like to offer? Please come, Stella. Can you talk about compassion with joy and pleasure?

[67:03]

Oh, thank you. I was about to say, why do I have those up there? Compassion to joy. What would that look like? Well, what did I say compassion towards grief was? Started, number one, welcome it. So, compassion towards joy would start by welcoming the joy. Compassion towards pleasure would also start with welcoming the pleasure. And the welcoming would be the same as welcoming pain and grief and many other afflictions. Then what do you do? Next step, with being compassionate to joy, be careful of it. For example, don't take it if it's not given.

[68:04]

Like, you know, a pizza comes and it's sitting in front of you and you feel some pleasure just looking at it. So be careful now. You've got this pleasure and I say welcome it. I don't say reject the pizza and get it out of the room. Reject the positive sensations that are arising as you smell it and look at it. Say, no, welcome the pizza. Now be careful of the pizza and don't take the pizza unless it's given. Don't be possessive of the pizza. Being possessive of pizzas... is not compassionate. Being possessive of pleasure is not compassionate towards the pleasure. Being possessive of pain is not compassionate towards the pain. When you're compassionate towards pain, you're not possessive of it. You're ready to let go of it. When you're compassionate with pleasure, you're not possessive of it. You're ready to let go of it. In both cases, you're starting to get ready to let go.

[69:07]

to let go, and then getting ready to be calm and concentrated with them. Okay? And also, another one is be patient with pleasure. Be patient with joy. Be patient with, yeah, be patient with it. Be patient? Aren't you usually patient with pain? Yes. Is there some pain with pleasure? Yes. Why would you be patient with pleasure? Well, there might be patients with pleasure because Pleasure is impermanent.

[70:09]

Pleasure is changing. And even though I said be compassionate towards the pleasure, you actually might not actually be compassionate. You might be clinging to it a little bit, So as it changes you notice that you're not really cooperating with the change and you feel some pain even though it's pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. One pleasure followed by another pleasure but each one a little bit different and you're clinging somewhat in the process and you're a little uncomfortable. So you actually, to be compassionate towards pleasure involves being patient with any discomfort you have with the pleasure process. And you can also be compassionate towards not only pain, but the fact that the pain is also changing.

[71:11]

So there's pain, but there's also the pain of the change of the pain. Because you can attach to pain, but attachment to pain isn't compassion to pain. Compassion to the pain gets you ready to stop attaching to the pain. And attaching to pain gets you ready to not, of course, hold on to it or reject it. And that way of being with the pain, again, opens us to relaxing with it. If we're not generous and careful and patient with pain, if we're not generous and careful and patient with pleasure... We're not quite ready to relax with pain and pleasure. We're not quite yet ready to relax with grief and sadness. When we start to relax with it again, then we're getting ready to be playful and creative and so on. So all of our feelings, positive, negative, and neutral, all of our emotions, all of our fears, everything is an opportunity.

[72:24]

All these things are opportunities for compassion. And that compassion sets up the opportunity for creativity and wisdom and freedom. And then again, go back and start the compassion process again. Round and round. And this is the way to benefit all created things, all living beings, and also all non-living beings. It's the way to benefit all humans and non-humans and the physical world. It's a way to transform all living beings, including humans and non-humans and all non-living beings, the water, the air, everything. I was listening to you talk to Leon, and I heard something which I no longer remember very well.

[73:43]

I did something... Can you hear Karen? Okay. So I was sort of creative with what I heard, and I turned it maybe to something else. But what I thought you said was that if you... If you open compassionately to all creative things, that we would be set free. Yeah. Okay. How does... How does that work? Yeah. That if I open to all creative things, we are set free? Yes. Well, because you are not separate from me. And one of the things I would become free of if I open, if I compassionately open to all creative things, all created things, if I will open to all creative things, I will join the creative process, I will realize freedom, I will realize wisdom and freedom, and I will realize that you're totally included in that.

[74:49]

You, however, Don't realize it. You may not realize it. Yeah. But this wisdom realizes your freedom with me. The wisdom realizes the relief of your suffering with me. Keep going? Yeah, keep going. In the wisdom which arises from this creativity there is release from the suffering that comes from that we're separate. And in that wisdom, you know, it's like, it's not exactly, it's not my wisdom, even though I may have done the work which let that wisdom come alive. But in that wisdom... That's where we are free together.

[75:54]

And that wisdom is where the way you're being creative or the way you are creative is overlapping with the way I'm creative. And in that way our creativity is overlapping there is freedom of both of us. But if you're not paying attention to it, or if I'm not paying attention to it, it's happening, and we are being released in that. And if you're distracted, you miss it. And when you miss it, well, you have various opportunities for compassion. All the ways you're missing it are afflictions. And there's infinite possibilities of types of affliction you can have from the various things or ways you're ignoring the opportunity to be kind so if you're not actually actively practicing compassion you will miss the way you are being liberated right now but nonetheless in reality you and I in reality you and I are constantly being liberated there is an encouragement which I mentioned and when I mentioned this somebody later came and told me that when he thought about this he felt discouraged

[77:18]

But I'll mention it to you anyway. This is a thought, a way of thinking, which is recommended as a way to stimulate courage. Courage to jump into the practice of compassion. Courage to practice compassion and then gradually enter into relaxing with the things you're compassionate with and enter into the fire of creativity. This is to say to yourself or to think about that right now, in this moment, in every moment, innumerable human beings in innumerable universes are attaining complete enlightenment. Right now, innumerable beings are attaining enlightenment and being liberated. And then this is to stimulate the courage to enter that realm of enlightenment where beings are being creative together, not by themselves, but together.

[78:22]

And in that overlapping creativity there is healing of all affliction and freedom. And freedom for what? Freedom to actually now practice compassion more unobstructedly, more unstoppably, more uninterruptedly well I know I asked you this question a long time ago and it's still floating around and this is the question how does it how does it help anyone are you going to ask a question right now in a new way well I don't know maybe it's new you said you've asked it before but are you going to ask it in a new way right now Is there going to be a fresh version of it? Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, because it's important to me, and I don't quite get how it matters to anybody else or anything else if I follow this practice.

[79:26]

I can see that it's good for me, but how is it good for the world, and how is it good for other beings? Okay. Well, let's just start with the beginning, okay? Okay. To be compassionate to things that bring benefit right now, okay? So if you have a... Yeah, so you feel some grief right now, and you practice compassion towards that grief, and you start grieving, and can you see that that would benefit you right now? Mm-hmm. And you don't see that it would benefit me? Right now? In this situation where you're teaching that, yes, but I don't... Okay, right. So you can see it now. Yeah, okay. So now you can. Okay. Right? Yeah. Yeah, well, how about now? It's small. It's small? Yeah. Are you grateful for a little bit? No. No?

[80:26]

Okay, now, if you would practice generosity towards that little bit, would that be beneficial to you right now? Yes. I think it would. I think it would too. And would it benefit me right now if you would do that? Probably. I think so. Definitely. But would it benefit... Ask him. Is it definitely? Is he nodding? Is anybody it wouldn't benefit if she was compassionate towards her little bit of benefit? Is anybody here only... Is there anybody here who only feels benefit if she's, what do you call it, grateful and generous towards huge benefit? Yes. Yeah, I can't wait for that. No, she said she can't wait. Yeah, she said what she means.

[81:29]

She doesn't want to wait for the big one. She wants to enjoy your little ones. She wants to enjoy you being compassionate in little ways which are a little bit beneficial. Right? And if later you're compassionate in a way that brings a big benefit, that will benefit you too. If you ever do anything that brings big benefit, then Lenore will feel benefited, right? And I will be too. But I'm also benefited by you being compassionate in little ways that bring tiny benefits In this life, if I could do a little bit good, I would feel actually it's worthwhile to have lived if I did a little bit of good. And if I could do a little bit more, I would be even more grateful that I had another chance. And when I'm that way, and I tell people that, that benefits them.

[82:35]

They don't always say, yes, it does. But I think it does. It shows them an example of benefiting beings that are afflicted. Afflicted beings can be benefited before I... I can benefit the affliction before I understand and become free. And when I... whether it's mine or somebody else's, it's equally true. As I get more and more into this process, I realize that benefiting myself is the same as benefiting you, and benefiting you is the same as benefiting myself. They're inseparable. Now I may not understand that, so I can maybe, as I try to understand it now, it helps me understand what I will understand later. when you're kind to... when you're benefited I don't think you're benefited except... I don't think you're benefited except by being compassionate toward yourself or when somebody else is compassionate to you or when you're compassionate toward somebody else or somebody else is compassionate to somebody else that also benefits you I don't see any other way you're benefited and that benefit sets up the possibility of practices which not just benefit

[84:08]

but liberate. So I feel that you are practicing compassion towards very... you are availing yourself of the opportunity to practice compassion. I see you doing that. And when you do that, I feel it benefits you and it benefits me. And it looks like it benefits other people. That's what I see. And I see that's getting you ready for more benefit, more beneficial, compassionate action. And I see it's getting you ready for wisdom. And the wisdom that it's getting you ready for is happening right now. There is a wisdom here which right now is realizing enlightenment. And that is your creativity overlapping with our creativity. And by our creativity, I mean all living being.

[85:11]

That's already going on and you're getting ready to enter that realm and realize that wisdom. But you look like you haven't yet plunked into the realm that's already right in front of you. each of us is perhaps not yet ready to enter into the reality which is right in our face. The enlightenment which is right in front of us right now, it's not someplace else. I say it's right in front of us, but it's not out there in front of us or in there in front of us. It's actually the enlightenment that's right in front of us right now is actually the place where we're overlapping with the creativity of all beings. It's a place where we're all creating each other together. And that place is already the place of reality.

[86:13]

That's already the place of wisdom. And in that place, beings are liberated. Beings are actually liberated right now. but we must be kind in order to enter this realm. But again, kindness isn't the whole story and we have to move on to being concentrated and relaxed and then we have to start to be playful and actually exercise this, we have to exercise this creation in order to realize this creation. It's already what's happening but we have to practice creation in order to realize creation. Okay. Did you say okay? I said okay. Okay. I say okay too. Thank you. You say okay, I say okay. Isn't there a song like that? Yeah. You say yes and I say no.

[87:14]

Is that how it goes? You say stop. And I say go. Okay. How does it go? You say yes, I say no. You say stop, I say go. You say hi, I say hello. Hello. Hi, I say hello. Does that apply? Does that apply? Yes, it does. It applies. It is playful and it also is welcome. You say hello, I say goodbye, but basically, you know, whatever you say, welcome. You say hello, I say goodbye, but whatever you say, I got to be careful here.

[88:20]

You know? You say hello, I say goodbye, but I have to be patient. This is like, there's some difficulty in this. So anyway, now we can calm down with this very dynamic situation. And then we can reenter the creativity of it. And realize freedom for all beings. So first, kindness towards all beings. Then relax and calm down with them. Then play and create with them. Then liberate them. Really. Really. Or reality. That's reality. That's what we have to do in order to realize it. Or some other way. You know, some completely different way. Because I'm, you know, we can't be attached to this way that we have to do.

[89:20]

What time is it now? Two minutes? It's two minutes? It's two minutes. That's what time it is. Wow. And then maybe it'll be like the time will be one minute. And then after one minute, what will it be? Half a minute. And then it'll be now, finally. Yeah, we're gradually working our way down to now. So now that it's now, I say goodnight. And I say, I hope to see you again someday. And I hope to play with you tomorrow. And I hope to be kind enough so I can play with you. And I hope to be kind enough so you'll play with me. And I hope you'll be kind enough so I'll play with you. Please be kind to me. I want to be kind to you. Please come and play with me tomorrow. Let's have a play date.

[90:15]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_91.5