I'm particularly cautious when talking about the Prajnaparamita, the perfection of wisdom. I'm cautious about it because, I don't know, if people listen to it without a sangha, They, I don't know, it might not be appropriate. So I feel like since you're in the room with me, I feel more confident that I can talk to you about these deep matters and that they will be in a beneficial way. But if people are listening to it that aren't in the class, I'm not so sure. Anybody could maybe listen to them, and I don't know what their motivation is. Well, I don't know what the fortune teller knew.

[01:05]

But anyway, you have the password and you can listen to it. And also, if the people in the back are having trouble hearing me, please... How is this? Is this okay? Can you hear me okay? Better? Okay, so I said when you were sitting, how about trusting everything to stillness? And I've said during meditation in the past that enlightenment is living in stillness. Somehow I feel inspired to say that to you here tonight.

[02:07]

Enlightenment is living in stillness. And I wonder how many ways that can be turned. So, enlightenment is living in stillness. Living in enlightenment. Living in stillness is enlightenment. And I didn't say it, but now I add trusting stillness. Trusting everything to stillness, I would say, is also trusting stillness without abiding in it. Sitting that period, and here we are now, And I'm moving my hands on this bell striker.

[03:12]

I'm speaking. In other words, there seems to be action going on here. But I can still recommend to myself to trust in stillness. Stillness is not disturbed necessarily by activity. Now last week I said, how about trusting everything, breathing in and breathing out. For me they're very similar meditations. Trusting everything to breathing in and breathing out. For me is trusting everything to stillness. I'm breathing in and breathing out and every phase of my breathing process I wish to be present in stillness with the breathing.

[04:26]

And I wish to be present in stillness, I wish to be living in stillness without clinging to stillness. without abiding in it. To trust something, I think also someone asked, they were sitting over there, wasn't somebody saying, I remember that was some other place, somebody said, can you, yeah, it was some other venue, can you appreciate something without dwelling in it? So, can you appreciate the breathing process, be devoted to it, give yourself completely to it without abiding in it. And I'm proposing that and that is the task, that is one way to talk about how to train in transcendent wisdom.

[05:30]

Appreciating in this case does not mean like or dislike. It's more like appreciation means to be still with something. Appreciating somebody means, in this case, be still with them. You may be dancing with them, you may be walking with them, but how about don't lose touch with being still with them. Even if you're sitting still with someone you can lose track even if you're sitting with someone not walking around you can lose track of stillness. But it's there. And in that stillness enlightenment is living in that stillness. I just want to mention that I have the cell phone on because the clock is no longer on the wall.

[06:59]

So I just want to know what time it is every now and then. Although it's getting late, it's not yet time to leave. So I'm proposing a practice of being still and upright with whatever is appearing. And everything that appears could be called conveying truth.

[08:01]

The truth of things appearing and disappearing. The truth of words. The truth of language. And Margie and Madeleine and Jacques Those words are conventional truths. The word stillness is a convention. Movement is a conventional truth. The sound overhead, the rubbing of the eyelids, the blinking self and other.

[09:05]

And there's a practice of being still with such things. And then there is the ultimate truth. which is that none of the things I mentioned can be found if you look deeply for them. None of them can be grasped. It's impossible to abide in any of them. Not really possible. But we think it appears as though we can abide in sounds and names, in self and other. It appears that way. and it has appeared that way, it seems that it has appeared that way. I imagine that it has appeared that way in the past. And I imagine that because it's appeared that way in the past and I believed it, now I'm predisposed to believe it again.

[10:19]

So to learn to not abide will probably be not only facing the world where things appear, but facing the appearance of abiding in them, which is what I'm trying to become give up. So learning the mind that opens to perfect wisdom is learning the mind that has no abode, that doesn't abide in anything, that doesn't abide in conventional truth. And learning the mind that doesn't abide in conventional truth opens to the mind that doesn't abide in ultimate truth. And not abiding in ultimate truth, we open to it, realize it, but . But if we abide in conventional truth, the ultimate truth which sets beings free,

[11:30]

which disperses the gloom and darkness of delusion, that ultimate truth which purifies our mind of all delusion. We don't realize it if we abide in conventional truth. And if we would open to it and we would abide in it, we also wouldn't realize it. So we don't abide in conventional or ultimate truth. We don't abide in anything. But most of I don't know what the word is. We have lots of opportunities to see conventional truth, to see words, to hear words. Right? Anybody doesn't, please share that with us. We can help you. Most people do know the world of language and the world beyond language is right there with the world of language all the time, never separated, but we need to understand the world of language in order to understand the world beyond language, which is inseparable from the world of language.

[12:48]

And if by any chance we do open to the world beyond language, that too, we want to be trained not to abide there. Abide in the liberating ultimate truth. It's worse than to abide in conventional truth, because abiding in conventional truth, the suffering that occurs there, it's easier for people to help us with that. It's harder to help people who abide in the ultimate truth. It's not impossible, but one great master says, those who abide in the ultimate truth are incorrigible. Do you know what incorrigible means? What? Unworkable. That's one meaning. Another meaning? Uncorrectable. Unteachable. So that's a pretty bad situation. People who abide in conventional truth still can be corrected because, you know, you can say, oh, you're leaning in.

[13:59]

you don't seem to be doing what you said you wanted to do. Yes? Tish? How would you? Well, you just... You might feel like you're free. Or you might feel like you have... you have realized that, for example, you cannot find independently existing tish. And you feel, first of all, not only did you look and not be able to find it, but you even proved that no one could find it. And you even feel some freedom in that. and you kind of feel like you're going to stay there and have freedom and not give it up and not come back to the world where you used to attach to and abide in the things which you now know cannot be found in the past.

[15:21]

But that rigidity is an immature form of wisdom. You really cannot abide in anything, but some people seem to attain that and they seem, what you might call, dissociated, somewhat dissociated. They seem to be happily dissociated. And they don't seem to be demonstrating the kind of flexibility that comes with realization of ultimate truth in the way of realizing it without abiding even the ultimate. They don't seem to demonstrate the willingness to let go of the ultimate, which sets them free, willing to let go of being free.

[16:23]

which you might say, well, that doesn't sound like a very good freedom if you're holding on to it. But some people say, well, it may not be too good, but it's good enough for me and I'm not letting go of it. Does that give you some feeling? Are there a lot of folks out there like that? Are there a lot of people out there like that? A lot. There aren't so many. There are less of those people than the ones who are attached to conventional truth. There's quite a bit less. But I... I have met them. And... Yeah, and... And I've had a hard time bringing them back from attaching to that. The conventional, if I talk to them, they're hearing the conventional world but they're not letting go of holding on to the ultimate.

[17:34]

So I feel that they're kind of like, I felt that they're kind of in a bubble. And they're very happy in the bubble. And I can see that they're happy there. I can see they're having a really good time. And I sometimes say to them, this is not going to work. You have to come back and sort of like, you have to let go of that. You don't have to come back and hold on to conventional things. But you have to not hold yourself away from them. And sometimes they cannot come back because they're having such a good time. Because they are free of the problems they used to have when they're holding on to conventional things. One person that happened to, I said, you know, you actually should leave the temple now if you're doing that. If you're going to continue this, you should leave. Because, well, that's all I said. I said, but the community will not agree with me.

[18:37]

Even that's what I think you should do. If you're not going to come out of that, you should leave. And to myself, I thought, if she leaves, she'll come out of it. But if she stays here, she'll be able to stay in this little bliss bubble, and she won't be able to come out. And I talked to the community, and I was right. They did not want her to leave. They wanted to stay. And she wore people out because she was up all night, many nights, because she was so high. People didn't feel, rightly, they didn't feel like she should be left alone. So she just wore the community out and finally told me that she should leave. But she didn't want to leave. So I got in the car and drove out of the temple. And part of her dream was that she was my successor.

[19:38]

When I was saying this to her it was just sort of a test of her realization. But I thought if I get in the car she'll want to come with me and she did. She got in the car with me and we drove and then I got out of the car and the car kept going to the psych ward and as soon as she got to the psych ward she realized This was not a joke. This was actually a psych ward. This was not like another test by the Zen master and she snapped out of it, fortunately. And I've met other people too and nothing bothers them because they don't abide in anything. you know, things don't bother them, which is nice, but how can you, like, if you don't abide in things, they don't bother you anymore. But it doesn't mean that you're dissociated from them. And if you try to hold on to not being bothered, it's off, it's not right.

[20:43]

But that doesn't happen so much. I just thought I'd mention it, just in case. Simon? Simon? How does not abiding... How does not abiding in the ultimate happen? It happens the same way not abiding in the conventional happens. It happens from being upright and still in the middle of both. But the one you can see, like right now, you can see my face, you know, you can see in your mind, you can see an appearance of my face maybe. So you can see that, but it may be hard for you to see the insubstantiality of my face, even though it's right there. It's kind of harder to see. And you can hear the sound of my voice in your mind, but it's maybe more difficult to actually realize the insubstantiality of that sound.

[21:46]

But if you practice with the sound and the sights in your mind of your friends, if you practice being upright with them and actually try not to abide in them, and part of the way you learn to not abide in them is to realize that you are abiding in them, and part of the way you find out that you are abiding in them is to see the stress you have around things. and by being around things which come from abiding in them, you gradually get ready to not abide in them and be relieved of the stress. And then as the ultimate dawns, same practice, And you might even say, and I want to be careful here to see if I can be with the selflessness of the things which I'm not abiding in without abiding in the selflessness.

[22:56]

And then at that time, people often go talk to their... I think I have realized selflessness and I want to know if I have and also if I seem like I'm abiding in it. And sometimes the teacher says, I think you are abiding in it. Or, no, this is not selflessness. This is just an idea of selflessness. This is not it. And by the way they talk about it, you can point out that they're working with the images of it and so on. Or even that the images of it are incorrect. But sometimes it is authentic and they're leaning into it. So I often use this image, which many of you heard me use It's a poem by a Sufi named Rumi. And Rumi, Rumi, can you hear that? Rumi? You can't hear it? Rumi, can you say it?

[23:59]

Rumi, Rumi. No, just Rumi. You got it. He was a Sufi. And so supposedly he sang this song. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You have to say what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. Everybody's walking back and forth on the where the two worlds meet. the door is round and open, don't go back to sleep. So I've been mentioning lately that for a long time I thought, oh, the door is round and open, so you can walk through the door into other worlds. Lately I've been thinking, no, don't walk through the door.

[25:03]

Just be at the door which is open to both worlds. And don't walk into the ultimate world. Don't walk into the world of liberation. Just be. Don't walk away from the world of suffering into the world of freedom from suffering. Just be not separate from it. And also don't walk away from the world of liberation and go into the world Be not separate from it. So live at the threshold where you look at people and sounds and words and you see if there's any clinging that they're suffering. You see that. And you don't shrink back from it. Run towards it. You just be still with it without leaning into it. And the door is right there.

[26:06]

You can see it. And at the same time, the other world's, you could say, right there. And maybe you can turn around and look at the other world, but not lean into it. You don't have to even turn around. You can just, by looking at the conventional world where things seem to be graspable, when you don't grasp them anymore, suddenly it turns by itself and suddenly you're looking at the ultimate world or the ultimate truth and you're free. of the suffering comes from grasping and leaning into the conventional world, but you're not leaning away from it. Matter of fact, it turns and you see the other world because you're totally still with it, and quiet with it, and kind to it, and honest about it, but also not leaning into it and giving up trying to manipulate it. even though part of what's going on there is manipulation.

[27:09]

So part of you is just watching any kind of manipulation that's going on. If there's any manipulation, any handling of these words, any gripping of them, you watch it. But partly you're not, you're just being still with any kind of manipulation. There's fundamentally training to walk back and forth without manipulation, to learn what that's like. And again, to learn what it's like is by catching ourselves at many cases of grasping, clinging, manipulating, and honestly admitting that, and again, learning how to be upright with that. Because even if you're not, sort of, you're not doing as somebody else is, so lots of opportunities to be kind to any kind of abiding that you can see. And being kind and upright with any kind of abiding, you find non-abiding, and then it's like you turn and look in the other direction.

[28:14]

But again, don't lean into it. And I also mentioned last weekend that the weekend before, somebody said, when I mentioned this, that the, I think the The Farsi word, he might have said Persian, he might not have said, but anyway, I think it's Farsi, that Rumi spoke in. Farsi is the word of the Persian, the net language of the Persians. That in Farsi, the word for the threshold, the word for a person who lives at the threshold is dervish. A dervish is a person with a threshold and so a whirling dervish is a person who pivots at the threshold where ultimate truth and conventional truth meet and they pivot between the two.

[29:16]

They're upright with conventional truth and then they turn into ultimate truth and then they pivot back to conventional truth. They don't get stuck on either side. They integrate the two by their presence and their flexibility allows them to spin back and forth. This is an image of the place of practicing perfect wisdom. Yes, Sarah? Trust in stillness. What's the difference between trusting stillness and abiding in stillness? Well, that's what kind of that I thought. Yeah, trusting stillness is more like, it's maybe better rather than be still, like do stillness. Trust it. Because, yeah, if you think you can do it, it's kind of like it's kind of like abiding. Like Bodhisattva's to benefit beings.

[30:22]

They aspire to benefit many beings. They aspire to live for the happiness of many beings. But I don't hear them necessarily walking around saying, I'm benefiting beings. I'm a benefitter. I wish to be a benefitter. I wish to be still. And I think that would be beneficial, but I don't say I am and I don't do that. It's my aspiration, which is maybe in alignment with reality. Maybe reality is helping people, benefiting people, and being benefited by people. That's the Buddha's reality. The Buddha's reality is not that people are harming each other. Buddha can see that people think they're harming each other, not always, but that there's a lot of that going on.

[31:24]

A lot of people can see that that's the conventional world, where there's harming and not harming. The ultimate truth is everybody is inconceivably cooperating, and that inconceivable cooperation, nobody can abide in it. So I actually thought, rather than say, be still, and if you're not, the Zen master will discipline you, how about aspiring to be still? How about aspiring to be upright? You have to say what you really want. He didn't say, you know, you have to do what you really want. You have to say what you really want. And when you know what you really want, then be upright at the threshold of And another version of the two worlds is the world that you don't want and the world you do want. The world of bondage and suffering that you don't particularly want, and the world of freedom and peace that you do want.

[32:27]

Be upright with that. But say what you want, and then be upright with what you want. Where did this happen in my practice? Where did this happen? Yeah, so if you notice this, did you say leaning from one extreme to the other?

[33:39]

If you notice that, then I would say be still with that. Be compassionate to that. It sounds like you're being honest about it. And I would propose to you that if you're compassionate and still and honest about what you just reported, you will find not abiding with that, what you just reported, and finding not abiding with that, you'll open to the ultimate truth. And then you can see if you are tempted to lean into that and to move into that. Yes? . Would I elaborate on it?

[34:43]

Yeah, I'll elaborate on it. The way we're actually helping each other is not our idea. The way we're actually helping each other is not what we think we're doing with each other. If you think you're being helpful to people, that's fine. But the actuality of how you're helping people is not the way you think you're helping them. If you think you're helping people, Well, first I'm saying it's inconceivable. It's not something you can think. You cannot think, like I maybe mentioned last week, you can think of how you're able to speak English. You can speak English. That's just your story about it. You can think that you're helping me, and you can also think that I'm helping you.

[35:48]

which is fine. But the way you think you're helping me and the way you think I'm helping you, either way, that's not how I'm helping you. You're helping me. That's just your story about it. And if you think that that's actually so, that the way you think you're helping me is the way you're helping me, then you're going to be abiding in your story of how you're helping me and abiding in your story of how you're helping me will be stressful to you, but not necessarily to me, because I might be happily looking forward to helping you, not abiding in your story about how you're helping me, and be happy to try to teach you how to relax with your story of how you're helping me. And I'll stop there and see if you have a question.

[36:58]

Was that somewhat clear? Yeah. You said elaborate. Did I elaborate? How do you actually know? So how does the Buddha actually know that she's helping everybody and everybody's helping her and everybody's helping each other? How does the Buddha know that? So what did the Buddha say? Well, let's see. There are different stories the Buddha told about how she got to the position of knowing, of having this vision of everybody cooperating. But in the stories, there was a story about training at giving up her stories, about being still and observing the stories and noticing that there was grief in them and that there was stress.

[38:22]

which I'm telling you, and then meditating on that until there was freedom from stress, because there was freedom from abiding in your stories about people. Following that? And then there was opening to seeing, to understanding an inconceivable reality. that you can't see with your eyes, but that you have confidence in, that everybody is helping you all the time, helping you, and you're helping everything. And in that state, of course, I don't know of course, but to me it's of course, that you would be open to everybody joining you and testing you in this realization because everybody's like, Realize it because it's really a good thing for everybody to help you realize. And in the realm where people can see things, the Buddha could do various kind of surprising things.

[39:35]

Like the Buddha could meet people and help them let go and become free of their suffering. They could be really upset and the Buddha could sometimes interact with them in such a way that they would realize where they're clinging and stop clinging and enter this happy world that they wish to enter with. So like, you know, I often tell this story. There was this person, his name was Bahiya, and he was an advanced practitioner of meditation. But he still had doubts and he was still not really at peace, even though he was already a teacher of many people and he had progressed a long way in understanding himself. But still he was somewhat anxious, somewhat not at peace.

[40:41]

And he wanted to be at peace and free of fear. and he heard about the Buddha. So he made an effort to be with the Buddha and he went to see the Buddha and he asked for teaching. He went to where and when he got there people said, oh, the teacher has gone to town to beg for lunch. So he went to the Buddha And he said, teacher, please, I'm not yet at peace. Please teach, give me the, show me the truth. And the Buddhist said, this is not a good, this is not a good time, friend. I'm begging for lunch. who understands reality, and the reality he understands is a reality which makes him free, at peace, unafraid, joyful, devoted to all beings.

[42:00]

You know, nothing you can do to her will distract her from this truth. Nothing will distract you from being compassionate to all beings. Got a Buddha, right? This guy wants the Buddha to teach him what the Buddha has learned. The Buddha says, and he says, but we don't know what will happen. This afternoon we may be dead. So please teach me. And the Buddha says, friend, this is not a good time. And he asks again, you know, we may not live to this afternoon. Please give me the teaching. So then the Buddha says, train yourself. Now he's going to give him the instruction, okay? He's going to teach him how to open to Buddha's wisdom. That all beings are in cooperation.

[43:03]

That all beings are in peace. He's going to teach him how to see this. Train yourself thus. In the seen, there will be just the seen. There will be just the heard. And the next one I'll elaborate. The next category was just one, but I'm going to break it into three. In the smelled, they're just as smelled. In the tasted, they're just as tasted. And the touched, they're just as touched. And in the mental cognition, they're just as touched. Train yourself thus, he said to the monk. And then he said, when for you, in the seen, there's just a seen. In the heard, there's just a heard. Parentheses, when you're still with the scene, when you're still with the herd, then in the scene there will just be the scene.

[44:15]

That'll be it. You'll just be upright and still with it. And to be that way, you have to be compassionate with the scene and the herd, and honest and so on, and be still and then so on. When you're that way with things, then there will be no here." We said, then you will not identify. You will not identify with the herd. You will not identify with the mentally cognized, and so on. You will not put yourself in it or outside of it. And then there will be no here or there or in between, and that will be the end of suffering. training, the monk listened to Buddha and entered that training, and by the time the Buddha finished talking, the monk had entered the Buddha's vision. And the Buddha named this monk the quickest learner.

[45:15]

That was the quickest waking, that was the fastest. Most people don't learn it that fast. There's a lot of Zen stories that are like this. And then they say the monk woke up, and then later you find out that there was seven years between the finish. In this case it was right that time before lunch. And then his gratitude, and he awoke, the Buddha could see it, and in his gratitude he said, I would like to study further with you. So he's enlightened and wants to continue his enlightenment with the teacher. And so he says, I would join your community. And the Buddha says, do you have the requisites? So in order to join the community, you needed to have a robe and a bowl. And he said, no. The Buddha says, get the requisites and bring them to me, and I will welcome you to the community.

[46:17]

Fine, thank you very much. And he went off, but he got between a mother water buffalo and her calf, and the water buffalo killed him. So he was right that we might not live this afternoon. And the monk said, well, how is the situation, teacher? And he said, don't worry. He's fine. He awoke. He's in a place of peace. You know? He's a wise deceased. So this is one example of how you train to not abide, to be still, and to open to Buddha's vision. So that you can help other people just like the Buddha did. So that whoever comes to you, you can uprightly without abiding, because you've trained yourself in this way.

[47:30]

And it doesn't mean you don't sometimes get distracted, but that's the training. The Buddha trained and trained and trained, and the vision of reality comes. This is what the Buddha saw. Yes? Do we know if Bahiya's clarity persisted until after lunch? Or maybe he just... I don't know. What comes to my mind is that Gandhi was doing his morning prayers, and then at the end of his morning prayers, somebody came up and shot him, and he continued his morning prayers after being shot. So I personally, that's what I want. I want that when somebody shoots me, I say, bless you, brother or sister. You know, I want to be blessing, blessing, blessing without leaning into blessing.

[48:36]

And then when cancer comes or dementia comes or dysentia comes or malentia comes, whatever comes, I would like to say, bless you. I would like to, in other words, perform the reality that what people are doing to me is a blessing, that they're supporting me. And if they slap me, I would like to understand this is part of the way they're helping me. If they're yelling at me, I would like to understand this is what I would like to do. I'm not telling you what to do. I'm saying that's what I would like to do. Because I think some insults are coming in the past. I don't see why they would stop. But I want to see that they're blessings. But not by changing my ideas. I can still have the idea this person is slapping me in the face. I don't have to change it to this person's not slapping me in the face.

[49:39]

I just want to be upright and not abide in the slap so I can open to the reality that we are really good friends. So I want to practice a friendship that can live in stillness in whatever . That's what I really want. I really want that. And I'm training for that and I think other people want, some other people want that too. And stories of people acting like that for some maintain those stories and transmit those stories because some other people like them too. I like them, and people in the past have liked them, so here they are. The story I just told you, the Buddha could do that. This guy interrupted his lunch gathering, and he told him to go, you know, wait, and he didn't. But the Buddha didn't freak out.

[50:40]

He finally says, okay, ask me three times, that's the rule. Ask me three times, I'll give teaching, even though I wasn't planning on it. But the Buddha also sometimes, if you ask the Buddha, the Buddha doesn't, isn't always sort of like your idea of a nice guy and say, okay, I'll give you a talk. He said, no, it's not, no, this isn't a good time. But he's not attached to that. He's just telling you the usual policy. You know? Usually, usually when I'm begging, I just beg. I don't give talks. I wait till afterwards or before. This is not the usual time. This guy says, no, three times. And the Buddha says, okay, and here comes this wonderful teaching and this wonderful student and This is what I want. And this opens to the Buddha's vision. And the Buddha wants everybody to, as soon as possible, enter this vision. So perfect wisdom is the way of entering it. If you have any grasping for this, that closes the door on perfect wisdom.

[51:44]

You have to want without, you know, without leaning into, I know I'm doing what I... No, it's like, I want, and maybe this is what, and maybe, yeah, maybe this is it. Maybe so. Maybe this is nirvana. Nirvana here. Are you open to that possibility? Maybe it's not. Are you open to that possibility? Maybe these aren't all my good friends. Are you open to that possibility? These are all my good friends. Are you open to that good possibility? So seeing that everybody is your good friend comes with being open to everybody's not and that they are. That's called not abiding. So everybody is your enemy? Hello. Everybody is your friend? Hello. Yes. Yeah.

[52:49]

And the image that you gave last week of your grandmother, come here, and come here, and come here, and just appreciating what the word I thought, just appreciating. of experiencing your granddaughter, you know, the companionship of your granddaughter. And that's kind of, you know, that approaches that idea of being kind to other people. You know, some people will say, I need this. And then . And you might say no, but you might say no without abiding in no. And you might go along with it and abide in going along with it.

[53:53]

Yes. Right. Their ideas, many people think their idea of kindness is the actuality of kindness. So we need to train ourselves to realize we do have ideas of kindness, and we have ideas how to be kind to our ideas of kindness, and we probably know what we think is kind. But also we should watch out to see if we think, if we believe that what we think is kind is. And if we do, The teaching is telling us watch out for that. That's probably going to be a problem. I do have ideas of what kindness is and I have to watch out if I'm abiding in that because that's the normal conditioning. So I watch out for that. Although I can't necessarily see the actuality, I can discover that I'm gripping and I'm stressed and that I'm inflexible and that I'm afflicted. If I'm still, that's... When you're open, though.

[55:07]

That's right. That's right. That's right. Carmen? It sounds like, kind of, what you're saying is that you can never have perfect information. You can never have perfect information. And so, like, whatever information you have, you always have to remember that you can protect yourself. Well, that's one way to say it, but I would turn it and say all information is a good opportunity to not abide. It's not like this is good information, so I abide in this one, and this is not good, so I don't abide in that. So any information, if you don't abide in it, is a door to freedom. It's not like And part of it is you think this information is better than that. That's fine. To avoid your opinions about the quality of information, we're not talking about dissociating.

[56:11]

So it's okay to inquire about the quality of information. It's okay to be involved in judgments. All that's good opportunities to demonstrate that you aren't going to be falling into anything So nothing... Yeah, open to everything and not falling into anything. Success. Do the right thing. From that place, we do what's beneficial. And from that right place, we are in accord with the inconceivable way we're helping each other. Yes, Kim? Is that what you were talking about? The discernment? I don't know if it's discernment. Yeah, you're discerning is going on. Discerning is a normal situation. So you're awake and you notice, oh, this particular time between you and me right now, we're discerning.

[57:23]

And now how can we be with this discerning without abiding in it? If we can be without abiding in it, we open to perfect wisdom, which we're not interfering with by leaning into this discernment and away from that one, or holding onto this one and rejecting that one. But again, if we do that, that's another thing we discern. We can discern that we're becoming self-righteous. and be kind to it. And also be aware that be kind to it means be kind in the way we think of being kind. And again, notice it's also possible to be kind towards self-righteousness and without being self-righteous about the kindness to self-righteous. It's possible to do that and say,

[58:27]

That feels good. The way I confessed my self-righteousness didn't feel self-righteous. You know, and the way it didn't feel... I really didn't like... I didn't know exactly where I was. It just felt appropriate. And I'd like to do that again and again. Bill? You told the story last week that you need to connect up in the mind And therefore, so, does that work? Is that what?

[59:30]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Not, yeah. Sattva does not abide. They're devoted to helping beings and they don't abide in their devotion to helping beings. Therefore, they're indefatigable. People who want to help beings and abide in them burnout. But bodhisattvas do not dwell in their deep commitment to live in truth so that they can liberate all beings. They don't dwell in that wonderful commitment. By the way, I just want to tell you that When I was playing with my granddaughter this week between last class and this class, she likes my cell phone. She likes to play with it.

[60:33]

She likes to put it on a swing and then push the swing back and forth with the cell phone on it. She doesn't like the swing too much, but she likes to put it on. And the playground she plays on has a soft surface, so when the cell phone falls off onto the surface, it doesn't break. But then she was taking the cell phone and opening it and whacking it on cement. And I said, be gentle. And she kept whacking it. So I took it away from her. And then she went to hell. It was like down on the ground of the playground with her head on the ground. It was a pretty bad situation for her. I should say, no, that's too much here, you know, the banging. And I told her grandmother about it. Her grandmother says, I would let her do it. But that may be her grandmother testing the grandfather.

[61:36]

I don't know. Yeah, well, next week I'm going to use hers. Actually, it was hers. I borrowed hers because hers is... She doesn't have any service on it. She has another cell phone, a newer one. So it was her old cell phone, which doesn't have any service. Not your granddaughter's? No. It was my wife's old cell phone, and my wife said I would let her bang it. I said, well, I hear you. Yes, Jacques? My question is that... The question is how can... So I'm saying that she always... Right. And let go of our reality so that we can enter Buddha's reality.

[62:40]

Buddha's reality is available to everybody that lets go of their own. But letting go of your own doesn't mean you're not kind to your own. You have to be You have to be kind to your own in order to really let go. Throwing it in the trash is not what we mean. By being upright and still with my reality is reality. When we all do that practice, we enter the same reality. And already we're in the same reality. But if we hold on to our own versions, we're a bunch of exiles. And normally people are exiled you know, converting reality into their story. But it's not a hopeless situation. By doing this practice, with our different stories, we can all enter the reality, the inconceivable reality, where we always are together, helping each other.

[63:41]

So I will be seeing my granddaughter on Monday and Tuesday again, and with a cell phone. I'll let you know how it goes. I won't take... I'll take her grandmother's, and maybe I'll just let her whack it on the cement. Say again? I think that'll be interesting. Yeah. Do that. To put a picture of her in the cell phone. There actually is a picture of her brother in it now, so. So I just want to tell you that the practice of perfect wisdom is, again, being upright with language. So we practice stillness here.

[64:46]

And then we practice stillness with language and by being still with language we enter the truth beyond language. So we use language to liberate language. Language confines us and we use it, practice with it in this way that we're trying to learn of not abiding in it. And then language becomes the place we step forth from into perfect wisdom. So we, again, try to be still And now I'll work with in this class. OK. Thank you very much. I hope to see many of you next week. But John won't be here. He'll be so long. Well, we hope so. And we know what we want you to be doing there.

[65:37]

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