So the Zen teacher, Torres, supposedly said, when I, a student of the Dharma, look at the real form of the universe, I wonder what he means. I imagine that he means, when he looks at the real form of the universe, he is looking It's not like him looking, but looking at the real form means the wisdom which understands that forms that we see, that we know, are appearances. The real form of the universe is not an appearance. We make appearances out of the real form. So looking at the real form doesn't really mean you're looking at the real form, it means you have realized the real form.

[01:01]

You have become yourself. The reality of which cannot be known, but in fact is lived every moment. So he uses this language of looking at the real form, I've kind of given the benefit of the doubt and understanding to say, realizing the real form of the universe, realizing the way things are, which are not appearances, then everything is the never-failing manifestation of a mysterious truth of the Tathagata. Then on each moment's flash, or on each moment's flash of our thought. So, you know, it's like thought flashes, and maybe the thought is an appearance, but there's a lotus in that thought, or a lotus is growing in that thought, and on that lotus sits a Buddha, or on each petal of the lotus sits a Buddha.

[02:19]

And we don't have to tamper with the appearances. It's just that understanding what appearances are, a lotus grows there. A lotus is revealed in each thought. And on the lotus is sitting a Buddha. And may we extend this mind. What mind? The mind which is revealing a lotus growing in it each moment. May we extend this mind in which Buddhas are sitting to all beings. The transmission of Zen to the West did not usually come in this language in the first few generations.

[03:44]

But now here we are, hearing this kind of talk, that this student of Dharma is wanting to realize a mind wherein the moment-by-moment appearances are simultaneously places, times for the growing of the lotus with the Buddha sitting in it. Which is no mind. Well, which is freedom from mind. So when we see appearances, we know appearances, we see sights, we hear sounds, and these objects, these are objects of consciousness, and when we're free of consciousness, then lotuses blossom in that freedom from consciousness, which could be called no mind or no thought.

[04:51]

But that doesn't mean there's no thought. It means that we're free of our thought. And we have some thoughts which a lot of us would be perfectly happy to be free from. But the freedom from these thoughts, the freedom in which the thought The thoughts we do have are the thoughts we're free of, and the thoughts we're free of are the thoughts where lotuses grow. Lotuses don't grow in mid-air, they grow on thoughts. What thoughts do they grow on? They grow on the thoughts we're free of. So we're not trying to get rid of the thoughts because lotuses grow in thoughts. That's where they grow, these kind of lotuses. They grow in thoughts. The thoughts are mud that the lotus grows in. And so with compassion, we put down roots in our thoughts and become free of our thoughts by that compassion.

[06:04]

And the wisdom flower grows up out of the thoughts with little Buddha sitting on top. Thank you very much for coming today and practicing here and for adjusting to this unusual schedule today. I appreciate that you continued to take care of the practice while I went to San Francisco and that you stayed around all afternoon with me. Thank you so much. Is there anything you care to say before Yes, you can ask a question. I can tell myself I'm having compassion for my thoughts, but I don't think I'm really having compassion for my thoughts.

[07:05]

I don't actually tell myself very often that I'm having compassion for my thoughts. I just have compassion for my thoughts. And I don't say, hey, Reb, you're compassionate towards your thoughts. But I do actually practice compassion towards my thoughts, but I don't usually think that I am when I'm doing it. So, I mean, when I try to do it, I just try to be gentle and kind and flexible, but... That sounds good. That sounds like compassion. All right. Just economic work, or... You mean you're not at all sincere about it? I can't tell. I think I am, but... Well, thinking you are is a good place to start. Even, you know, just try and then check to see, was that sincere? And then if you say yes, then try again. And then you might try again and think, well, that one wasn't so sincere. And try again. That one was sincere. If you keep trying, whether you think it's sincere or not, it will become sincere. I predict it will become sincere.

[08:09]

But if you don't try, and also don't try to reach sincerity, I never heard of anybody who got there without trying. I try as soon as the pain gets in the way. The pain gets in the way. No, the pain is what you're trying on. It doesn't get in the way. What gets in the way is your inability to be kind to the pain. The pain isn't stopping you. The pain is what you're compassionate towards. However, if you're not really skillful at your compassion, sometimes the pain is so great that you think maybe something other than compassion would be good. Like maybe blame somebody for it, for example. or lie about it, deny it, kill it. We have painkillers that you can buy legally. You can legally buy painkillers. But we're not, in this tradition, we're not into killing pain.

[09:09]

We're into being kind to pain. However, as I said earlier, being kind to pain is really, generally speaking, quite simple, but it's not easy. So if you try to be compassionate, that's basically really good to try. And then if you think that you are compassionate, sometimes people do say to me, I'm trying to practice compassion, but I'm not sure that I am. I usually would say, well, being sure that you're compassionate kind of doesn't go very well with being compassionate. wondering, I wonder if I really am compassionate. That's kind of okay. But saying that you are, and also saying that you aren't, neither one of those are very kind. But saying, I want to, but I'm not sure if I am, I would say, well, just keep track of the I want to. Bodhisattvas are I want to be compassionate beings. They're not I know I'm compassionate beings. They don't walk around thinking, I'm compassionate, I'm compassionate.

[10:12]

They go around, I want to be, I want to be, I want to be. And then they might think, I wonder if I am. And then they say, we hear your question. That's a perfectly good question. We welcome your question. I wonder if I am. I heard about the Dalai Lama. He was told when he was a kid that he was an emanation or something of Avalokiteshvara. When he was a kid, he thought that was really kind of far out. Now he's about 75 or 76 or something, and he says, maybe I am. It's possible. I've been trying all my life. Suzuki Roshi, when he got old, he said, now I'm old. I can't sit up straight anymore, but I can try. He kept trying. He didn't think, oh, now I'm sitting up straight.

[11:14]

But he kept trying. You can try. You can try. And if you keep trying, you will become sincere. And if you don't think you're sincere again, I would say, okay. I said, may all beings be happy, but I didn't really mean it. I didn't really mean it. There were a few people I didn't really want to be happy with. I didn't mean that. Let's say it again. Well, that time actually even less people did I want to be happy. And do it again. Well, that time actually only like two people I didn't want. There's only two exceptions to that. Try it again. Those people that I didn't want to be happy before, now I actually want them to be happy too. I really do. I actually see that that's really what I want. But you have to do it sometimes quite a few times before you actually feel like no exceptions to good wishes. Part of compassion is being honest. May all beings be happy, may all beings be at peace. Honestly speaking, I don't really mean that for all beings.

[12:16]

That honesty is part of compassion. And then being kind to yourself, making exceptions to being compassionate, is compassionate. The great teacher who's sitting next to you while you're making exceptions to compassion is compassionate towards you who are, you know, not wholehearted in your compassion. Isn't the great teacher compassionate to you when you're not wholeheartedly compassionate? Isn't that what you mean by a great compassionate teacher? Somebody who is patient and generous to us when we're not compassionate? Who might say to you, would you please be more compassionate? But really appreciating us at the same time. What's your next question? Sometimes I'm not aware of the shell. I'm not always aware of something packing that.

[13:21]

Right. As I've often mentioned, There's basically four patterns. One is, the basic one, is we're always pecking and we're always getting responded to. Everything we're doing is asking enlightenment to come and play with us. Every little sound I make, every little bird in the tree, everything's calling out, Hey! great compassionate beings, come play with me. Everything's doing that all the time. And there's a response all the time. That's the basic situation. But the basic situation, you don't know you're asking and you don't see the response. You don't know you're saying, hey Buddha, help. And Buddha's saying, I'm right here. Matter of fact, we say inquiry and response come up together. When you say, help Buddha, That is Buddha's help. A lot of times you don't even know you're asking for help and you don't know that you're responded to but you always are.

[14:30]

That's one level. Next level is you think you asked but you didn't see a response. Another level which is sort of parallel to it is you get a response and you didn't think you asked for it. I didn't ask you to tell me to be compassionate. Where'd that come from? I thought you did. The other case is, I asked and I got a response. I saw that I asked, I wanted help, I wanted guidance, I wanted wisdom, and wisdom came. Those are four basic renditions of this relationship. This is the relationship between freedom and bondage. They're always working closely together. According to this tradition, Buddhas are always practicing with us. And if you don't think they are, just keep thinking about that.

[15:30]

Just think about that all the time. Buddhas are always practicing with it and you'll eventually understand that they are. Buddhas are sitting on a lotus in every thought you have It's a question of being kind to your thoughts so you can open to that kindness which is sitting in your thoughts. And when the pain's really hard, it's hard to be kind. So it doesn't mean that when the pain's intense and you're having a hard time being kind, it doesn't mean that you can't hear yourself call. You might be able to. And you might be able to hear the response. It's just that if you can't hear the response, if you don't feel like you're getting the gift back, just give more, and eventually you'll hear it. Yes? When you say it is sincere, what do you mean?

[16:34]

A little wholehearted. so wholehearted that the enclosure is non-functional, that the enclosure of our mind is not really enclosing us anymore. Like Dogen says, when you see sights and hear sounds, fully engaging body and mind, it's not like the mirror and the reflection in the mirror. or like the mirror and the thing reflected in the mirror. It's not like that. When one side is illuminated, the other is dark. When you're fully engaged, there's not like you and objects out there. It's just you. You know, that all there is is you, and there's nothing.

[17:37]

Or, there's things, but there's no you. There's things, but there's no enclosing, there's no you enclosing. You are everything. Or, Everything's you. There's no enclosure. You're free. When you find your place like this, the practice occurs. When you're wholehearted, the practice occurs. Realizing your life. Realizing how your life, how your life actually is the truth. But we have to wholeheartedly and sincerely deal with these appearances in order to be free of them. Sincerely see a sight and hear a sound. And we can't do things sincerely unless we're compassionate. And we can be compassionate not completely sincerely, so we need to work on it. We need to be sincerely compassionate, sincerely generous, sincerely ethical, sincerely patient, and sincerely concentrated.

[18:49]

Some Chinese characters for sincerity are also translated as concentration and vice versa. To sincerely pound a nail you're just pointing the nail, to sincerely cut vegetables, to sincerely listen to somebody, to sincerely cry, you're concentrated. And in order to be concentrated, you really need to be generous and careful and patient. Therein, wisdom can flash on the thought. The lotuses can blossom in the mud of our dualistic thoughts.

[19:50]

That's the non-dual sprouting and flashing in the dual. We don't destroy duality. We realize non-duality simultaneous with duality. But we have to love duality in order to realize it's illusion. I'm confused a little bit at that touch between the illusion and the truth. For some reason, when the whole focus comes on non-duality, that's the whole focus, the deluded heart.

[20:53]

Well, we're devoted to non-duality, but the non-duality cannot be separate from the delusion. We use delusion to realize freedom from delusion. We use duality to transcend duality. We use delusion to transcend delusion. We cut through delusion with delusion. And we've got the tool, don't we? We've got it. We've got the delusion. Now we just need to use it to transcend it. And the way you do that is by being kind to your delusions. And everything you know is a delusion. I'm trying, but I cannot fit in there. I feel that non-duality is the present one.

[21:57]

You're feeling of non-duality. That's the presence, and the delusion is really... I don't know how to describe it. I don't know if we got through the delusion. You are describing it. You're describing delusion right now. You're doing a good job. You're good at describing delusion. That's how you're doing it right now. I don't see... Okay, let me see. There's nothing to be cut. There's nothing to be cut. That's right. There's nothing to be cut. And if you're kind to everything, you'll realize there's nothing to be cut. But if you're not kind, you're going to think there is something to be cut, and you're going to want to cut out of here. And that's your usual thing you want to cut out of here.

[22:59]

Because you think there's something to be cut. But as you just said, there really isn't anything to be cut. But that's just talk until you're kind to the things that you want to get away from. Got it? For a moment there? Here we go. May our intention equally extend to everything and place.

[23:24]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_85.04