I offered a story, an image at the beginning. I didn't talk about it so much last week and now this is the third week I offer the image again. The image is of something like a river maybe life is like a river. And then the river gets covered by a road. And because the river is covered by something like a road, the road is always hungry. Were you here the first week?

[01:05]

Good. Now you heard what we talked about the first week. Yeah, so that was the image offered the first week. What we actually are, our actual life, is like a river. And beings who are living in something like a river or living beings who are the river or who are like a river are addicted certainty, addicted to grasping something in the river, in the river, like life.

[02:19]

Because of this habit of wanting certainty and intolerance of uncertainty, living beings live, their minds create this thing like a road. And the road is really basically a river. Sentient beings are hungry. They crave something. They crave their actual life. That was the image, something I offered at the beginning. So again, I propose, one way to put it is, we really aren't just sentient beings. We aren't, but as sentient beings, all we have to deal, all we know, as sentient beings, all we know is

[03:28]

the road. All we know is appearances. The road is appearances. You can be somewhat certain about, and it's almost like you can get a hold of them. And if you get a hold of them, then in that realm, we notice some change, like we notice birth and death in the where we have appearances. There's the appearance of birth and the appearance of death. There's the appearance of suffering. There's the appearance of self and the appearance of other. And there's change. But at the same time, we're like a river. we hunger. In the realm of appearances, we have desires.

[04:37]

Although the mind of sentient beings individually and collectively creates the world of appearances, we need quite a bit of training before we can actually understand how that process goes. And last week I talked about the creation of alternative worlds. So the world that we ordinarily live in is a created world. But we're not so much in touch with it as an act of creation. we don't necessarily see our moment-by-moment daily life as a work of art. If we could see our daily life, well, we would be artists, and we would be aware of how the world of appearance is created.

[05:50]

And we would be aware that it was just appearance. And open to an understanding of what, in a sense, this world of appearances is exiling us from. It's really the same world, exactly. It's the way the world actually is before it's a world, or when it's not a world. So by creating alternative worlds, we have a chance to understand that the world we live in is similarly to the way we create alternative worlds, that our actual ordinary life is a work of art that we've been missing out on and taking as a substantial thing rather than a creation.

[06:58]

So, yeah. And I've talked to you... Now I'm going to say some things about what to do with the road, which will tie into many, many previous classes at the yoga room and other locations, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. A little bit occasionally in the Southern Hemisphere, but mostly... in the northern hemisphere. I just heard today that there's a glacier in Antarctica a foot an hour towards the ocean. As the show said, it's not moving glacially. This is a story about This is a story about the road.

[08:02]

The river is a different story. Okay, so how do you make alternative worlds which are works of art and which, what do you call it, freedom from our life which we don't understand as art? And in the Buddhist tradition, the meaning of freedom is peace. When we're free, we're at peace. So I talked about facing change and realizing peace. That's the title of the meditation course. So now I'm talking about how to face the change in such a way as to create alternative worlds understand our ordinary world and alternative worlds and thereby achieve freedom and peace.

[09:10]

Okay, ready? So I mentioned something like it's pretty much the same thing to say everything is completely given and everything is completely constructed. So our life is completely given and it's completely constructed. It's given to us, but it's also a construction. It's not like a solid reality that's given to us, it's a construction that's given But again, we usually do not understand. First of all, we have trouble accepting that it's been given. We think that maybe it was a mistaken delivery, should be sent someplace else.

[10:19]

You know, why me? Why me? Why did I get this life? Or could I have, you know, all those New Yorker cartoons where the people are at the gates to some place or other, either up or down, and they're kind of like trying to negotiate with what's being done? You know those cartoons? Well, I wonder why they make those cartoons. Because we don't do that. Even though we might read the New Yorker, we don't act like those people in those cartoons, right? So the first step in the process of becoming an artist of freedom and peace, a peace and freedom artist, is, in the past I've said trust, but basically it's like, yeah, trust in the sense of accepting what has been given to you right now actually has been given to you

[11:23]

And so please accept what's being given to you. For example, this is, whatever, this is Thursday night in Berkeley with these people and your body and mind. This is a gift. And now this is a gift. Every moment, completely given. You didn't take any of this, actually. You didn't swipe this existence. And there's no alternative to it because it is being presented to us. It could be called trusting the teaching that everything is completely given. Or another way to put it is what we have to live is given. How we live undetermined. Or you could say, is to be determined later.

[12:25]

Or is to be determined now. It hasn't been determined. So completely given and there's a possibilities of freedom. And creating an alternative is part of the process of realizing the possibility of freedom. In fact we are never completely determined and because everything's given, our choice is not complete. We're free, but our choices are not completely choices. Our choices are not completely choices. There you go. But they're not determined. They're not determined and they're not really completely choices. They're given and they're not determined. First step is trust what's given.

[13:28]

Trust what's given. And that means everything, because everything is completely given. And then how do you trust? Well, in previous classes we talked about you practice compassion. Towards what? Well, towards everything, pretty much. the one possible exception to compassion might be the Buddhas who kind of don't need it. They're so happy. But they do need assistance. So practice compassion sort of as Buddha's assistant, kind of that. The Buddhas don't need the compassion exactly except that they need it because they want us to do it. So we practice compassion as a favor to the Buddhas and we practice compassion towards everything else that's given. Practice compassion, well, first three practices of bodhisattvas, they practice towards what's given. And what's given? Do you remember what was given?

[14:30]

According to me, what's given? Everything. So you practice these first three compassion practices towards, just make life simple, everything. Which means you practice generosity with everything. Everything is being given and you meet that with thank you very much, I have no complaint whatsoever. You meet that with generosity. You let the given be the given. You do that. Try to do it on a regular basis like every moment. If you don't, well, then you move on to the next phase, which is to practice ethics, which involves saying you're sorry. Practice generosity towards what was given to you. Say you're sorry that you forgot the teaching that everything's completely given. Now, when I say you forgot that teaching, that might be, for me anyway, that would be forgetting a teaching which I want to remember.

[15:40]

I want to remember the teaching that you heard here that everything's given. Maybe you want to forget that. But I would like to remember it, but I sometimes forget. I sometimes think, no, no, not this. I want something else. But then I say, I'm sorry, because that's not the teaching. Teaching is you're supposed to say thank you, even if it's painful. You don't just say, I like pain. You don't just say, I like disease. Matter of fact, you can even say, I don't like disease. But when you say it, it's completely given. And although it's completely given, guess what? It's not determined. It's undetermined when you say that, even though at the moment you say it, nobody knew you were going to say that. And at the moment you say it, it's completely given. I was listening to a... Where was I? I was... Oh, yeah.

[16:43]

I went to the opera last night, the Metropolitan Opera in Mill Valley. I wasn't actually, well, it was an alternative world. And those people are good singers. And then afterwards, I was driving home, I turned the radio on, and there was a baseball game on. And I was quite surprised there was a baseball game on, because that baseball game started at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. here, and now it was like 9.30. So it was like five hours. Well, what happened is the book baseball game got postponed for an hour and a half, and then it went to 11 innings. So I turned this on, and it because it's in extra innings, that means that they're tied. Well, I guess if it's the... Anyway, it was tied.

[17:45]

And so then there was a situation where this player from the San Francisco team came up to bat, and this player has not been hitting very well. He hasn't been hitting very well recently. But anyway, he came to bat, and And he had two strikes. You know, in baseball, there's three strikes and you're out. You've heard of that? One, two, three strikes, you're out at the old ball game. He had two strikes and he hasn't been batting. And during that game, he hadn't been batting very well. And by the way, there were two people on base. And then he hit the ball, and it was like one of these balls that went real far, like way out of the stadium, called a home run. So then they had all of a sudden. And it was 3-3 before, and they just got three runs from this guy.

[18:47]

And the announcer said, I saw that coming. Oh, by the way, before he hit the ball, He hit the ball kind of not very skillfully. The ball ricocheted from the bat onto his knee, and he fell down and rolled around the ground for a little while. And since it was so late in the game, he had to finish his bat because there was nobody else They used the whole bench. They sent home the starters because they have an early game tomorrow, today. So this guy was all they had to bat. They couldn't get a substitute, even though he was in a lot of pain. So then he somehow stayed in the batter's box, and they threw him, and he hit this home run. And then I just said, maybe he was just faking it to make the pitcher feel like, well, this guy can't hit anything. I'll just throw him, you know.

[19:48]

We don't see it coming. We don't see it coming. It's given, but we don't see it coming. There is the possibility of freedom always, and everything's completely given. We have to take care of both of those simultaneously, and that's a challenge. That's a problem to balance those two. So we practice generosity, and then we practice ethics. which again is to be very careful of what's given. Don't get distracted from this thing that you've got to work on now, because this is what you're going to work on to make an alternative world. So you've got to not just let it in the door and say, okay, yes, but then after it's in, you've got to be there with it, carefully, look carefully. But not overbearingly.

[20:55]

Not controllingly. Be right there with it. Be accepted here. Say thank you very much. And then be really close and careful with it without controlling, without trying to control. And then be patient. Oh, look. Somebody's eating berries off that plant up there. Do you know anybody know what kind of berries those are out there? They're blackberries. Somebody's eating blackberries behind the yoga room. That was given to me. I didn't set this up. I didn't know. I didn't see this coming. Then you've got to be patient with the situation of developing freedom. This is the process of freedom, by the way. what I'm talking about. But you still may be hungry. And the next practice is, so those are the of what we call trusting the situation.

[22:04]

It's not like trusting like, I think things are going to work out really well. It's not that kind of trust. It's like, I think this is what I'm supposed to be working with. I think this is my situation. I think this is my wife. I think this is my mother. I think this is my son. I think so. I trust that. I'm going to work with this. Not, they're going to be nice. I don't know what they're going to be. But it's more like, I trust that they're going to continue to be given to me. I'm going to keep receiving what's being given to me. I trust that I'm going to keep having things given to me. I trust that and I trust that this is my job. This is my job." In other words, back to, again, I, there's an obligation here, because I'm in payment. So I'm, it's, I'm impelled to deal with this. And I'm going to start out by trying not to argue about it, and then accept, accept this, and then now I can start responding.

[23:16]

Actually accepting it is the beginning of my responding to And it's beginning in my responding to the teaching that this has been given. And it's the beginning of the practice of responding by being generous and again ethical and patient with the pain, the pain of this road, the pain of appearances, and the pain of how hard it is to learn this practice of compassion. and how and my present state of my present level of skill to be patient with that because that's also given and to be careful and kind and not controlling skill and other people's level of skill and be patient with no matter how slow everybody is at learning to be compassionate towards what? towards what's being given towards our obligation, our assignment, our life.

[24:19]

I'm going to say this and you can tell me later whether it would have been better not to say it. There once was a movie called The Witches of Eastwick and it was about these ladies who are witches and I don't remember exactly but they did some of their magic and they created an alternative world in which a devil appeared or the devil appeared They created this appearance of a devil. And one of the things I remember the devil saying, and of course the devil is played by . He said, the hand is dealt from above. Down here we play the odds. He was a good card player. But I don't know, it's hard to see that he was practicing compassion.

[25:29]

So the alternative world-creating practice that I'm talking about is a practice that emerges from practicing compassion towards . It's not the real world, it's just the given world. And the given world is the appearance of our life, the road. So we practice compassion towards the road, and then we're ready to practice relaxing. So I'm saying trust, and the next practice is relax. But in terms of the six bodhisattva practices, The relax is the beginning of concentration practice, tranquility, of being focused. One of the qualities of concentration is to be focused, of course. Most people wouldn't think that, but it's a relaxed focus.

[26:32]

It's an open focus. It's got to be open because we want to be open to the possibilities, vast possibilities of what? Of what's being given here. We want to be open to the possibilities of creating alternative worlds which will help us be free of the given world. Well, we're already free, excuse me, we're already free of the given world. But when we create alternatives, we realize that we're free. We realize that we're not just a thing, not just determined. And before we practice relaxation, it's really good to develop some enthusiasm for relaxing, to think about that actually it would be good to be relaxed and alert and calm. That actually would be good. to actually feel really enthusiastic about being really concentrated.

[27:38]

Again, concentration, dash, focused, dash, open, relaxed, flexible, alert, and bright. Those are different. That fills in the picture of what we mean by concentration. And in that openness, there's a playfulness. But with the road, there isn't like necessarily trying to destroy the road so we can get back to the river and satisfy our hunger. Because as I was saying to somebody a little while ago, this hunger will not be satisfied comes from the road. When you understand the road, it's not that you satisfy the hunger. There's no hunger. You're just in the river. You just realize the river again, which is always there. So it isn't that this is going to satisfy the hunger.

[28:38]

It's going to liberate the hunger, even while the road and the hunger are still there. So these people I talked about last week that create this alternative world of deadwood South Dakota, when the show's over, they're still living in L.A. they're a little bit free or a lot free. And then they scurry back to create an alternative world the next day. So concentration is both relaxed and concentrated and focused. It also starts to play with things. And as we start to play with things, then we open the door to creation. Not hurting the living world, but seeing that without moving it at all or changing it at all, a playful attitude starts to develop without meddling.

[29:57]

with the thing, the hardness, that we actually like kind of to hold on, to get a hold of it. Not meddling, and yet developing a playfulness. And the playfulness will develop the ability to see creation, to participate in creation. And when we start participating in creation, we understand the road. And when we understand the road, we become free of the road and have the life which is like the river. So now we have the life of freedom and peace again, without breaking the bond with the road. As a matter of fact, we make new roads. We're making new roads now alongside the new worlds that were given.

[31:02]

And when those new worlds, at the moment those new worlds manifest in creation, they're given too. But we understand that they certainly weren't determined because we participated in their undetermined creation, and then they're given, and then so on. That's a starter for tonight. Any response or questions about that? Yes. Sometimes beings can't stand staying in the river. Sometimes beings can't stay in the river.

[32:03]

Can't stand to stay in the river. Right. I was wondering if you could expand on that a little bit. I didn't understand what the river was. Well, one story, this story is coming to you on the road, right? You're going to be able to, this road will appear, this story, and the story is that some of the beings who are living in the river, or who are living in this, who are some living beings, some non-Buddha living beings, which are called sentient beings, they are addicted to certainty.

[33:03]

Being addicted to certainty, they're uncomfortable with uncertainty. They're addicted to certainty. The Buddha said, you know, in the Buddha's first teaching, the Buddha said, there are two extremes which I have found a way to avoid. One is the addiction to sense pleasure, and the other is the addiction to self-mortification. One is the addiction to self-concern, and the other is the addiction to self-denial. The Buddha said, I've found addictions. In the river, we're not addicted to self-concern or self-denial. In the river, there's self-concern and self-denial. It's in the river. But it's kind of like not that clear where it is and where it isn't. It's like, I saw some self-concern, but I wasn't sure whose it was. But anyway, I took good care of it.

[34:06]

And now it seems it's time for self-denial, so we'll have a little self-denial. In other words, in the river you deny when it's appropriate and you take care of yourself when it's appropriate and you're not addicted to one side or the other or both. That's the way it is. People have trouble with that because they have become addicted to self-concern. live the addiction of self-concern, it really helps to be clear about which self is yours and which is not yours, which is other. And so sentient beings have this addiction or this habit of not tolerating ambiguity. Life is, you know, it's considerably ambiguous. Life is considerably ambiguous.

[35:10]

There is unclarity. And sentient beings, non-Buddhas, and even great bodhisattvas are still sentient beings, have trust in certainty with ambiguity. They like to get a hold of things. And when the mind that likes to get a hold of things runs into the river, it turns it into, like, it makes a beginning, you know, a birth, and then a death. And then now we're suffering, but, you know, things are not strictly ambiguous. And, you know, now things are established. Now we've got a world. And... And now in that world we hear the teaching, this world is given. Which is given by? It's given by the mind of sentient beings. Without that mind there's not really a world. The world is more like, it's more unformed, you know, like a river. So most people can't stand the ambiguity of our actual wonderful life.

[36:15]

So we're trying, part of practice is is to learn road practices, appearances that we can work, you know, to learn how to work, appearances of how to work with appearances, stories of how to work with stories, like an appearance of generosity, an appearance... ...appearance of patience, appearance of concentration. We use these appearances to address the appearances in such a way that we can develop the ability to stand ambiguity of not knowing, you know, pretty really others are not ourself. And also not knowing really clearly that others are ourself. Others are myself, yes, but that's sort of ambiguous. It's an ambiguous others are myself. And it's also an ambiguous I am myself.

[37:17]

And it's an ambiguous others are not. It's an ambiguous others are me. Everything's ambiguous and one of the main things that becomes ambiguous is myself. It's kind of like I approach myself through you. I develop that ability, and that's the way life is. But most people do not have that training. So they have to train a long time to be able to stand exposure to the river. But again, exposure to the river, the river is not out to eliminate the road. The river has no agenda to stop road building. Reject sentient beings who can't stand it. Our life generously accepts our lack of generosity and generously accepts our generosity. Our life accepts our life. And if we can accept our life, then we won't be hurt.

[38:23]

We'll be free and at peace. So the river is difficult for us in that way. we're training to be able to, if it was offered to us, we could say yes. And yes, and yes. But both those worlds exist together. The world where you know, the world that you're born of and the world you're born into. They exist together. Or rather, those two different worlds, but being born of the world and being born into the world live together. Having all things come forward, and then as everything comes forward, the birth of yourself, and feel like you're here and you're going forward towards all things.

[39:28]

Those two live together at the same time. You know, one's called enlightenment and the other one's called delusion, but they're not separate. you know, each of us is in the middle of enlightenment and delusion. And in a way, don't take this seriously, this is the story, but in a way, enlightenment's like, it's just given. It's just what's actually been given. And delusion is kind of like the fact that enlightenment is not determined. You don't have to be enlightened. Enlightenment is undetermined, even though it's completely given. So delusion is kind of like our freedom.

[40:28]

And what could be better to be free from What could be more important to be free from than enlightenment? I mean, being free of delusion is good, I know. That makes sense. But it's even better to be free of enlightenment. That's similar to your question. Why would anybody want to not be in the river? But remember, don't take what I just said seriously. Don't tell people. what I just said, okay? Even though you're going to put this on the internet? Any other responses to this? These statements? To these appearances which I offered? Yes? I'm curious about determinism, or what you said about determinism. What did I say about determinism?

[41:34]

Yeah. I mean, you know, determined, like strict determined. Because I'm not saying there's no determining, I'm just saying things aren't completely determined. In other words, there's freedom, possible, possible freedom. And I see that's useful from my practice. Right. Yeah. Well, no, you could practice, you just, you know, you would if you were determined to, and if you weren't, you wouldn't. And also, it wouldn't make any difference whether you practiced or not. So that's why the Buddha, I don't think, did teach strict determinism, because it would make, it would make, how would he call it?

[42:55]

It would make misery and freedom, condition freedom, not, it wouldn't make any sense. There wouldn't be any addiction or freedom from addiction if things were determined. Pardon? Say it louder, please. No, there wouldn't be any freedom if there was determinism. You just would have to be the way you are and there'd be no choice. You'd be given. You'd be given and determined. So you wouldn't be free. But also you wouldn't even be bound. because there'd be no alternative. So you wouldn't even be in bondage.

[43:56]

I heard a story that the word freedom first appeared in Western culture among female slaves in Greece. The oppressive male population of Greece didn't think about freedom. They just went around dominating people. They didn't feel oppressed and bound. The women thought of it. They thought, freedom sounds like a good idea. And also, one time a friend of mine went to Poland to teach Zen. Usually you go to the, you come off the airplane, you get off the plane, there's some, maybe there's somebody there to meet you when you get off the plane, you know, if you come to a foreign country to teach, there's somebody to meet you and take you to the Zen center or whatever. And usually, you know, sometimes the person who is waiting for you will signal you by following, you know, so you know which person among the

[45:03]

among the crowd was there to meet you, the Buddhist signal, I'm here for you. See, my palms joined. He said he came off the plane, and he was trying to look for the person who was picking him up, and everybody bowed to him. Everybody in the airport was . Not everybody in Poland was there to pick him up, but everybody at the airport in Poland was there to greet him. It was like he was the Beatles or something. And then we were talking about, why do you think the Polish people are so interested in liberation? And someone said, because they know they're in bondage. They know they're in prison. So they're really interested in liberation. Fortunately, no, we're in bondage, so we're interested in liberation, and we accept that we're in bondage so we can be free.

[46:08]

The people who don't accept they're in bondage, either they're not, namely they're Buddhas, or they're just something. Bring on the bondage if it wants to come. We will welcome it. Because when there's that, then there's also freedom. If you take the bondage away, there's no freedom. What do you have? Yes. Love is bondage willingly accepted by the free.

[47:19]

Love is bondage willingly accepted by the free. Yeah. So the free, except there's one exception to that, the Buddhas, but bodhisattvas willingly and knowingly enter into bondage out of love. Willingly and lovingly? Or did you say willingly? Love is bondage willingly accepted by the free. Yeah, love is bonded willingly accepted by the free. Or freedom is lovingly and willingly accepting bondage. That's a bodhisattva vow. I vow to enter the realm of bondage in order to help other beings be free. And if it takes a long time, I'm up for it. As long as they need, I'd just love to help them.

[48:23]

So we're not rushing this. Bodhisattvas come into the realm of bondage to play and to teach other people to play so we can create alternative worlds together But again, not to destroy the bondage. Until everybody was free, and then they'll be different. But until then, we need the bondage to show people how to deal with it. People who are in bondage who don't even know about it need to have it. Somebody's in prison and you say to them, you know, I'm having a hard time here in prison. You say, what are you talking about? What are you talking about prison? I just feel like I'm trapped here. You're not trapped. You live in America. We don't have bondage. I feel like I am. You're crazy. And then you walk away and the person says, why do they talk like that?

[49:27]

Hmm. Anything else tonight? We have a lot of time, so no rush to say anything. Yes, Marianne? Is your name Marianne still? Is your name Marianne? Okay, great. Is codependent origination the same as dependence? Well, yeah. But I don't know what you mean by dependence.

[50:33]

I said yes, but do you mean something different from dependable arising when you say dependence? Sometimes the pinnacle arising is used in a technical sense, which means showing the origin of birth and death from ignorance, karma, the arising of consciousness, which creates the road, and then craving and clinging, and then more birth and death. That's one of the, that rendition, that story of the birth, that's sometimes called dependable arising. But dependable arising is, in another way, is just phrased as depending on this, this arises. In the absence of this, this ceases.

[51:34]

That's a simple version of it. Yeah. Depending on a mind that is untrained and has difficulty dealing with non-duality, for example, a mind which has difficulty dealing with the intensities of intimacy, trying to create separation, as a technique of defense or in hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be here. That habit is, depending on that habit, there arises a world of and clinging, which then drives more of the same. That's what we're talking about here. Yes? of addiction.

[52:41]

Well, addiction, yeah, like I just said, you know, I've enjoyed pointing out that, you know, caring for your own well-being. The Buddha did not say, don't care about yourself. Adjusting your posture to a more comfortable position, the Buddha didn't say, don't do that. Eating when your blood sugar level's getting so low doesn't stand anybody. The Buddha didn't say not to eat. Matter of fact, it's clear that the Buddha ate before and after she was enlightened. The Buddha ate food. The Buddha took care of herself. The Buddha wasn't addicted to eating.

[53:43]

The Buddha wasn't addicted to taking care of herself. Of course, the Buddha also was taking care of everybody that she met. But she wasn't addicted to it. She could take care of herself instead sometimes, all by herself, and leave the students on their own for a while. So being addicted to taking care of others is one extreme. I like the term robotic altruism is an addiction. Some people are like robot helpers. They can't stand the ambiguity of not helping people. And some people are self-centered, robotically self-centered. They're addicted to thinking about their own pleasure all the time rather than, well, that'd be nice. I think I'll do that. And then somebody say, let Why not? They said, because it wouldn't be helpful. And they say, okay. There's no craving.

[54:45]

They just do what seems appropriate. In other words, they're not addicted. Addiction has the root, I think, of the word, you know, to be devoted. So devotion, that gets rigid. So then it obscures our relationship with playfulness and relaxation and creativity and freedom and peace. Is that enough? Almost? You're getting playful there. Be careful. So I'm going to assume you would say that if I had an addiction, you would encourage me to do it. Yeah, exactly.

[55:46]

You're right. If you were addicted, I would encourage you to be addicted. Huh? Addicted. As she said, realize you're not given. And also, don't forget the teaching. Even though you're addicted, you can still remember that although your addiction is completely given, It's being presented to you. You should accept it. You are not determined. You can be free. But you don't accept your addiction. People who are, well, you know, everybody in the family thinks the person's addicted, but they don't. Other people are kind of maybe pretty good at accepting it and being kind of free. But the person's not getting it, not understanding how they're accepting her. is opportunity for them to be creative and free, they're not joining the wonderful program of happiness because they won't admit they're addicted.

[56:49]

The other people have admitted they're addicted, so they look like they're not. They look like they're not. They look free, but actually they're addicted. Not actually, just apparently, if you look carefully. But also they're free. So you're right. That's what I would have said. Johan? We do, yeah. Right. Well, gaining idea when it's like a habit. You can have a gaining idea if it's not a habit. It's like you could think, oh, I think if I go up the stairs it'll be a gain in altitude. You could think that.

[57:50]

And then I could say, would you please not go up the stairs and help me with this for a little while? And you could say, okay. People are generally speaking into gaining more of what they want. They often think of what they want as a gain rather than just what they want. Then they add on to it that it's a gain. And they actually do that. So that makes their desires kind of addictions rather than just desires. So we say desire, craving, you know. Excessive desire. desire but it's you know because it's given to me i can't i can't decide what i desire it's just given to me but i can work with in such a way that there's no there's no determination that the that the situation is undetermined because we and we have a responsibility to take care of this desire to relate to it in an ethical way and there's our freedom

[59:08]

And gaining idea can pop up there and we can relate to that and find our freedom with gaining idea. But gaining idea kind of means... And we should do the same with habits. Yes? Yeah, the addiction is more basic than the craving. So the addiction is like... No, I don't think so. I think the same ethics relate to both. The addiction is more like not being willing to stand ambiguity. You know, addiction is more like trying to get a hold of things. Then once you get a hold of them, you got a road.

[60:14]

You're a success. And now you're hungry. Because you just from your life by successfully getting a hold of your life. And now you're strangling it with this because of this addiction. So now you're really, really hungry. And then all kinds of stuff happens from there. But the ethics should be practiced with everything. And the root thing is this clinging and this rejection of intimacy and rejection of non-separation, rejection of non-duality in our life. And we have this habit of being that way in the past. And so we really need to accept you know, that we have this habit. And then if we can accept it, we can become free of it. Yep. And not try to destroy the road.

[61:16]

Destroying the road, destruction is road building. And road destruction is another type of road. It's another type of alienation and bond. Yeah. Yeah. More generous with the addiction than with the craving? Yeah, you should be generous with both. Yeah. Well, generosity is basically just welcoming what's been given.

[62:19]

is getting into some discrimination about what it is now that's been given and what's appropriate to do with it and help us to be alert to either the addiction or the craving. Now we're going to look at it and be careful of it. So the thing we're being careful of is different. The techniques of carefulness and conscientiousness and gentleness and so on, those techniques are pretty much interchangeable with everything. Yeah, right. Right. Yes. At our first meeting of this series, you asked us to look and see if we noticed a sense of obligation. And now that we're talking about habits, I'm noticing It seems to be a little bit of a connection there that things that I feel obligated to do, I try to create a habit of doing.

[63:27]

Feeding a cat or whatever. It's like you feel responsibility and it seems helpful to create a habit about that. And so that's mostly just an observation. Could you hear what he said? So like, you were going to practice generosity. So we'd like to be stable and consistent. We would like that. So I'm saying, yes, we do want the generosity to be stable and consistent and widespread. We do want that. but it really is best if it's spread but not a habit. In other words, that it's connected to concentration. That it's flexible, that it's open, that it's not, we're not trying to determine, we're not trying to turn the on channel G and keep it there.

[64:43]

We want it to be consistent. We want it to be all-pervasive. We want everyone to join it. But we also understand that clinging to that is antithetical to it. That clinging to generosity is to be generous towards. But generosity does not cling to generosity. Generosity gives generosity away. With the understanding that relinquishing generosity promotes it. So we don't really want to make a habit of a good thing. We want to make habits out of bad things. I mean, we being sentient beings want to make a habit out of separating themselves from nonduality. Because they've done it in the past so they feel impelled to do that. But we also feel impelled to be ethical and to find freedom and peace.

[65:50]

We feel that. And not being attached to these good practices is part of them. It's part of generosity Generosity applied to ethics is to not... There's a type of wrong view in early Buddhism and also is in the later practices, which is called the wrong view of clinging to the conventional view of ethics. Haramarsha, which means clinging to your idea of ethics or clinging to your idea of being kind to your cat. That is a wrong view about the practice of caring for the welfare of the cat. So how can we be devoted to the welfare of the cat and watch out for clinging to our idea of the welfare of the cat?

[66:51]

That's a challenge there. How you doing? But it makes sense. But I still feel like it's a good habit to water the plants regularly and to put my seatbelt on. I mean, I think that's better than leaving it open to, you know. This teaching does say that there's good habits and bad habits. And the good habits are the ones that get us ready to give up all habits. So if you put the seat belt on, maybe you'll live a few more years and become even more enlightened than you are now. That's a good habit. Good habits mean habits conducive to freedom from habits. Bad habits are habits which interfere, which go against freedom.

[67:58]

to be habitually listening to the teaching is generally a habit which is conducive to becoming free of habitually listening to the teaching. And so you can listen to the teaching without it being a habit. But it may be that habitually listening to it is a condition for a lot of people to become able to listen to it unhabitually. So, for example, it's a good habit, or it's helpful to habitually put your seatbelt on until the point where you are able to be continuously present enough to not have to do it habitually. Right. In the car, think about and be conscious of doing it. And until then, it's better to do it even if it's unconsciously. You mean better than not doing it? I think so. But see, one of the things about the things that are conducive to enlightenment is they usually require attention. So that's part of it is you're developing attention by doing the things, by developing skills.

[69:12]

So most skills come by practicing attention. Again, when I was looking at those musicians who were playing at the opera last night, you know, they've got their music there, and these people can read that music. These are highly trained human beings. They can read that music and play, you know. And I was watching this woman play the harp and, you know, she really can pay attention. And that kind of attention is conducive to liberation. Attention, attention, attention, attention, attention. And then suddenly you're actually playing the harp, you know. And you're not any longer, you know... Even though you learn this piece kind of habitually, but now at a certain point you've gone beyond the habit and now it's like you're really in concentration and there's no separation between the harpist and the harp.

[70:15]

You know about that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Try to be really attentive. And if you get super attentive... to putting your seatbelt on, it will be done by the river. Did you have your hand raised? Um, just an observation that we've been, uh, defining freedom and relationship and bondage tonight. And, um, because at the same time, I'm also, you know, hearing about the, uh, fear of ambiguity, exposure to the river, uh, resistance to non-duality. So, the set tonight, it looked like a little bit like I'm between a rock and a hard place. Between the hunger of the road and the clinging there.

[71:19]

So, excuse me, you've got the fear of the river, and what else do you have? Clinging to the road. You've got the bondage of the road and the fear of the river. Yeah? Okay, you're feeling that way. So you've got three things. You've got... You've got the fear of the road, rock in a hard place, and clinging to the road. Huh? Fear of the river, clinging to the road, and rock in a hard place. Yeah. Those are all the road. Yes. Yes. One of the stories. this was intentional. You said that the root of all freedom is peace. Yeah. And then he's going separately after that.

[72:27]

But I found that an attractive story because it sort of dealt with my fear of the river, in a sense. But being at peace with that. Yeah. At peace with ambiguity. Mm-hmm. What feels different from bondage? Peace? Peace feels different from bondage. Yeah, again, I said, and I'll say again, real peace-freedom does not sever the bond with the world of bondage. If it separates from bondage, it's not real freedom. Like Sharon was saying, it's a love that's at peace with bondage.

[73:36]

It's a love with bondage. That's real freedom. No separation between freedom and bondage is freedom. Not tampering with bondage. Not tampering with fear. Totally welcoming. And understanding what it is. Because you can play with it and be creative with it. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Good night.

[74:13]

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