While we were sitting, can you hear me, Nancy? While we were sitting, I thought that these flowers, I thought, there was a thought, and I was there. And the thought was, these flowers are welcoming us. And the vase is welcoming the flowers. there seems to be a mind, a conscious mind, and I'm there in that mind. And there's thoughts in that conscious mind. There seems to be a subject in the conscious mind.

[01:03]

and there are words in the conscious mind. These words seem to be arising in this conscious mind and they are now being vocalized. Can you hear them? Are some words appearing in a mind where you are? in the subjective world, which is the conscious world, there's somebody there and there's activities. And also there is, when there's somebody there and there's activities, there is usually considerable confusion

[02:12]

the words that are arising in the conscious mind where there's someone present, have the function of kind of turning the situation around, causing some confusion, not causing confusion, but being opportunities for confusion and disorientation. This is the normal situation of subjective mind, which is also, I would call, or could be called, consciousness. And there is also the thought in consciousness that there are other forms of cognition, other minds. There is a vast

[03:16]

unconscious realm of cognition which we share and do not share, which supports our conscious cognition. And there is also The proposal, those two previous minds that were mentioned, there was a proposal of these two minds, a conscious mind and an unconscious, inconceivable mind, which supports the conscious mind. And now there is the proposal in consciousness of a third type of mind, which is the mind of enlightenment, which is the mind that understands the other two realms of mind. And the understanding of these realms is peaceful and free of suffering.

[04:24]

Last night on the other side of the bay, someone said that language or words are like the currency. The person might have said the currency of mind, but I would say the currency of consciousness in some sense is words. these words can be tools. And the tools can, the words or the currency can be used in various ways. In the stillness of our life, the beneficial way of using words comes alive.

[05:47]

So there's the suggestion that in stillness the enlightened cognition, the enlightened mind which is not consciousness, but is the realization of consciousness, the understanding of it, and it's also the realization of unconscious cognition, and it's also the realization of the intimate relationship between unconscious cognition and how it supports conscious cognition, and how conscious cognition transforms unconscious cognition. They are transforming and supporting each other moment by moment. The understanding and the realization of this process of mind, which is intimately connected with body, so it's the process of body and mind, the understanding of this, the intimacy of this, the intimacy of all this cognitive activity which is embodied

[07:07]

is an awakened cognition which liberates life from distress and realizes the life of peace. There are the words which are that these words that I've been saying or that have been said are offerings. And there will be further offerings, I think, I think, or there's the thought that there will be further offerings about how to deal with these offerings in such a way that these offerings may be used beneficially. And the same instructions for how to deal with these offerings about the nature of mind, the same instructions of how to deal with them in such a way

[08:16]

as to realize peace, the same instructions apply to all the other words that are in consciousness, which aren't necessarily seen as instructions. There is the thought that this class had a title and that the title was something like The Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi. Does anybody have that, see that? Nobody? You saw it? Was it called The Song? So I'm here. And where I am, there will be singing. As a matter of fact, the singing has been going on already.

[09:23]

Now you could say, or I could say, or it could be said, that I will sing a song. And it could be said that you are invited to sing the song. Or it could be just, I am here, and you are here, and there will be singing. And some of the singing will be about a precious mirror, awareness. Samadhi is a type of awareness. Did you hear the music? Everyone, some of the people here, can you hear the music, Nancy? Yeah. So the song, there's a song called The Precious, The Song of the Precious Mirror.

[10:37]

Precious Mirror is like, someone said, why do you call it precious? I don't know. Anyway, it's a mirror. It's a mirror which is an image, the word mirror is an image of wisdom. And there's a samadhi which is an awareness which is calm and open and undistracted. intimacy with this wisdom, or it's a form of awareness which is intimate with the wisdom. And the wisdom is the intimacy of all beings, of all conscious and unconscious beings. What is the difference between awareness and consciousness?

[11:51]

She asked, what is the difference between awareness and consciousness? Well, let me see if someone wants to answer that. If there's any answers that are in somebody else's consciousness to that question. What's the difference between awareness and consciousness? Anybody? Yes? I've sometimes heard it described, because I've been in this dichotomy in various places, in the way you're talking about consciousness, that that would be a subjective consciousness where there's a subject preceding objects, whereas awareness might be a non-dual consciousness. I don't know what to say other than like a unity rather than the feeling of selfless.

[12:52]

Could you hear what he said at all? Okay. No? Well, he said something like, consciousness could refer to a type of mind where there's a sense of a subject and an object. And then he said awareness could be where there's not so much subject-object, but more of a unity. That's what John said. And Enrique is about to say something, it looks like. Yes? Yeah, but the way I look at it is like consciousness is like consciousness of something, like I-consciousness, you-consciousness. Yeah, consciousness of something. Right, and awareness holds it all. Yeah. So, you could say awareness holds it all, or you could say there's different kinds of awareness. So one type of awareness, so what's the difference between consciousness and awareness? Hello? Yeah. Is that consciousness is one type of awareness.

[13:58]

And there's another kind of awareness, that John refers to. And Rika said that she thought consciousness where you're conscious of something. So consciousness of something is like what John said, something and consciousness of it, the consciousness of it or the awareness of it is the subject. And the object of the awareness is the object. And that's the way things are in consciousness. But there's another mind which doesn't have subjects and objects. It's another awareness. And that awareness is unconscious cognition. And there's another awareness which is the intimacy of those two types of awareness. And that's not unconscious. cognition and it's not conscious cognition. It is the way each of them is and the way each of them doesn't exist without the other one.

[15:05]

It's the intimacy between the realm where there's somebody aware of things. There's intimacy in that realm and also the intimacy of that realm with another realm of cognition which we would call unconscious cognition. which is, for example, where that's the mind or that's the cognitive process that makes it possible for me to move my hands and speak English. It's not by conscious effort that I speak English, but I can see the English happening in consciousness. but the actual cognitive process that makes this amazing thing happen and moves my lips and tongue and teeth and jaws in this way that I could never consciously pull off, but I can consciously observe. And also in consciousness I learned how to speak English. So there's different types of awareness.

[16:11]

One of them is consciousness. One of them is unconscious cognition, which does most of the operation of our body. And then there is awakened awareness. They're all awarenesses. And awakened awareness is the actuality, the intimacy of all these cognitive processes with each other. And it is also, in its realization of that, it is wisdom, it is freedom from the processes. it's enlightened cognition. But this enlightened cognition or this enlightened awareness, perhaps you can already see, is not the tiniest bit separate from the other two. Because it is not the awareness of the intimacy of the other two, it is the intimacy of the other two. And in consciousness there is the

[17:17]

awareness of objects like other people. And in the unconscious process there is awareness but it's not of other people. It's an awareness which is affected and influenced by all other people and which influences all other people. And the way that works is from the point of view of consciousness inconceivable. It's much too complex. However, in the reduced world of consciousness, we can make all kinds of discoveries that cannot be made in the unconscious realm. In the realm that operates our heart and our digestion and the movement of our fingers, when we're just like talking to each other but also playing the piano and typing, or playing the violin, or doing eye surgery, all those movements of the body are not done by the conscious mind.

[18:26]

The conscious mind is a witness and the conscious mind can facilitate and augment the operator by making discoveries in the process. And so to help, one supports the other, The unconscious process supports the conscious process. They're both awarenesses. But you can't learn English unconsciously. And you can't actually forget it unconsciously. However, you can unconsciously forget it. by not speaking it for a while. And you can also unconsciously forget it. When your body gets older and older, your body changes and then the unconscious processes which support the performance of language change so much that the body changes so much that the

[19:39]

unconscious cognitive processes which sponsor language, they change so much that language abilities change a lot to the point where it's almost like you can't talk because you don't know what the words are anymore because your body's changed so much. And you can witness that in consciousness. Oh, I seem to be not remembering somebody's name. And that seems to be happening more and more. So, the first teaching that I offered, or that was offered, that I saw arising in consciousness, or that, again, I saw arising in consciousness, Another way to say it is, where I was, the thought arose in consciousness and the thought was that in stillness, this enlightened cognition is alive.

[20:50]

It lives in stillness. Enlightenment doesn't move. It doesn't move. Compassion doesn't move. There can be a feeling and a reality of compassion, but it's not a movement. It's a simultaneous relationship, and the relationship doesn't move. It's the actuality of caring about some suffering. inwardly or outwardly. There can be caring, there can be wishing for freedom, for beings, and it doesn't move.

[21:53]

It's an action. And I think right off, I would say that in consciousness, Many of us have difficulty understanding that there can be a great activity in stillness. But that's a proposal, that the great activity of compassion lives in stillness. Enlightenment lives in stillness. Wisdom lives in stillness. The performance of liberation. Liberation lives in stillness. Liberation is not moving from here to there. It's not moving from bondage to freedom. Another word for stillness? Intimacy.

[22:55]

Intimacy. Intimacy does not move. The teaching of suchness. John? Are you saying that Because things are interdependent and not separate, that there's no movement. It's not that there's no movement. It's not that there's no movement. There is movement. Interdependence sponsors the appearance of movement. But the interdependence isn't moving.

[23:55]

The way I'm related to you isn't moving. And the way I'm related to you and that you're related to me, we can move together. But that process by which we move together doesn't move. And the understanding of the process by which you and I, the inconceivable process by which we move together in friendship, that understanding doesn't move and it's an understanding of how right now without moving you support me and I support you. But I don't have to move to support you and vice versa. Us being together, we're alive together. The way we're living together is the way we independently co-arise together. The way we are living in creation isn't moving. And in the song, which we will be singing, one of the things that's said in the song is, if you move, you're trapped.

[25:00]

If you're moved, you're trapped. Is it possible to say that the movement is a result of movement? Is it possible to say that movement is a result of non-movement? It is possible to say it. You just said it, and then I said it after you. But what? Is it a valid proposition? I don't know. I think not. I think it's invalid. I think so. I don't know why. But anyway, that's what I think. I think it's invalid to say that movement is the result of non-movement. Is that what you said? Yeah. I don't think that's valid. The stillness is not running the show. The stillness is not like God that makes all the movement.

[26:07]

The stillness is not dependent core rising. The stillness is not creation. It's that creation lives in an enlightened way in stillness. And if you move, if you move to try to realize the stillness, or if you move to try to realize the enlightenment, you get trapped. Not by anything other than moving someplace else to get enlightened. Is it proper to say that there is love or peace at the time when the relationship happens and the because there is not no movement it happens it's not that there's no movement I didn't say no movement that's come up now a number of times I'm not saying no movement stillness does not exclude movement if there's movement fine

[27:17]

Stillness is like okay, to say the least, with movement. But I was saying it's being simply. Say again? Being, like being in stillness. Being in stillness. Right, it's being. I don't know if I can express, can say it. You did, you said it. Being in stillness. And being in stillness is enlightenment. And actually, we are being in stillness. And the stillness allows all the functions of creation to occur, including moving. But if you move, if you move, you will miss the peace of being in stillness. But if there's movement, but you don't go for it, you just appreciate the stillness in which it is occurring, then that's the life of awakening.

[28:31]

So the movement would imply that there is a desire. Desire makes the movement. Movement would imply there's a desire? When the movement happens, there is being. The moment the movement happens, it's because there is a desire, right? Well, there might be. I'm not sure that's always the case, but it could be I desire something, and I think I have to move to get it, and now I'm moving. That could happen. It seems like that story occurs in consciousness. I've seen stories like that, haven't you? Yeah, so that occurs. And we're not trying to stop these stories, like I desire to touch a flower, so I'm going to move my hand over to the flower. Fine. You don't have to stop doing flower arrangement or giving flowers to people. Here, here's a flower. That's fine. That's consciousness. This is stuff that happens in the conscious. I am here, and there's flower donations occurring.

[29:33]

And it seems like there's movement. Consciousness is usually something like that. You're familiar with that. What about the stillness? The stillness is there, too. And the stillness in this situation or of this situation, that is where enlightenment is living while you're offering flowers, while you're telling someone you wish to tell them that you appreciate them. So you say, I appreciate it. And you maybe walk closer to them to say it. All that can go on. We're not trying to stop that. What we're trying to do is wake up to the intimacy that's there through the whole process. But if I try to move to get the intimacy, I kind of deny it. I turn away from it. So back again to the song.

[30:36]

The beginning of the song says, the teaching of suchness the truth, which the word can be truth or teaching, the truth of suchness, the truth of thusness, the truth of the way everything really is. Intimate, mysterious, transmission. Or intimate, mysterious, mysterious communion. That's the way everything is. And then Buddhas and ancestors. That's what Buddhas and ancestors are. They are the truth of the way things are. They're not somebody other than me or you. They're the truth. What we mean by Buddha and ancestors is the truth of how we are. And how we are is that we live together.

[31:40]

intimately. That's Buddha. And that's also the truth of the way things are. And this is a song about that. And the Buddhas are living in stillness. Intimacy is living in stillness. The truth of the way things are is living in stillness. You cannot move to get it. If you move to get it, you cannot move to get intimacy. And you can't even move to get away from intimacy, you cannot get away from it. However, you can distract yourself from it very easily by moving to get it. You don't really, you're not successful, you can never be successful at moving away from the way things actually are. But if you try, it's like you miss the way you are.

[32:45]

You can't miss the way you are. But if you move to get the way you are, it's almost like you're a successful avoider of reality. Pat and then John. I'm comparing what you're saying to my experience of sitting down for about 30 minutes when my mind calms down and there will usually or often come a period of time when everything is still, there's no thoughts, and there's no sense of body discomfort. It's just a sense of stillness. And I wonder if that's an example I would say that that is like the samadhi. That's a type of awareness which goes very nicely with intimacy. Because that type of awareness seems like, in that awareness seems like you're willing to not try to go someplace to get something.

[33:49]

Yeah. So that way, that type of awareness So again, it's the precious mirror awareness or the precious mirror samadhi. It's a type of awareness where you're willing or you're open to not going someplace else to be free. You're willing to not go someplace else or trade in this life for another one that might be better for realization of peace. You're willing to work on peace right here without trying to get anything else. So it's possible something might come up in that space that's, well, for example, very painful. well but a painful thought might come up and you might be able to not turn away from it and if you don't turn away from it or try to if you don't run away from it or fight it or faint then in that stillness with this painful thought which might be promoted by this calm which you're which you're enjoying the calm

[35:18]

might promote you being able to not do anything about the pain. And not doing anything about it could include many actions. Not doing anything about being still with the pain could include a great activity of compassion. And in that compassion with this painful thought that arises right after you are enjoying no thoughts, if you're enjoying no thoughts and then the thought arises and then you say, okay, out of here, then I would say the samadhi is not deep enough. The awareness, the deep samadhi is open to painful thoughts.

[36:20]

in some sense, the ease and joy of samadhi, of that type of awareness, makes us more willing or able to not run away from difficult thoughts. If the samadhi, if the enjoyment of concentration makes us less open to pain than before, it's not a good samadhi. It's not samadhi. It's just a state of pleasure and calm that we're holding on to. The samadhi that goes with this wisdom is a samadhi that's open to all beings. And that openness is a great activity. It includes many virtuous actions like generosity, ethical conscientiousness, Patience. But again, not patience which is trying to get away from the pain.

[37:25]

Patience which is not moving from or towards the pain. Patience which is still with the pain. And then diligence, being very energetic and cultivating what we call husbanding or mothering, the energy to do these practices. And then the samadhi. And that sets up all those activities which are not moving, which are not going someplace else. Generosity doesn't go someplace. Generosity welcomes what's coming or what's here. It doesn't go someplace else to practice generosity. It's an action that doesn't require movement. And if there's movement, it's an action which doesn't move, which welcomes movement. It welcomes the appearance of movement, and it welcomes the end of movement.

[38:28]

It welcomes beginnings and endings. It welcomes whatever. But it doesn't move. Not really. And in stillness you find this great activity of generosity, the great activity of ethics. not killing, not stealing, not lying. These are activities. Not lying is an action. It's not just stopping the lying. As a matter of fact, it's not stopping the lying at all. It's not moving. It is not lying. And not lying is an action. Telling the truth, of course, is easier to see telling the truth as an action. But that action of telling truth can occur in stillness. You don't have to move to tell the truth. You don't have to move to not be possessive.

[39:40]

You don't have to move to not harbor ill will. Matter of fact, in stillness, we do not harbor ill will. And if we're harboring ill will, where's the stillness? Where's the stillness? Okay, stillness. Please come stillness, and please be here. Without moving stillness, please show yourself to me. And in stillness, in stillness, there is the request for stillness. with our new movement. A naturally ethical life. A naturally enlightened life. And yet, we must train ourselves to have this naturally ethical life.

[40:43]

we must train ourselves to practice the great activities that occur in stillness to realize stillness. And stillness is supporting us to practice with all that's going on in consciousness. Stillness is surrounding and supporting us to practice with all that's going on in our minds in a way that actualizes the stillness and actualizes enlightenment. But not tampering with things. Patience doesn't tamper with the pain. Generosity doesn't tamper with the guest. It just welcomes the guest and gives presence to the guest, and two kinds of presence. You know the two kinds?

[41:47]

It gives both kinds of presence to the guest, but you don't have to move to give presence. That great activity of unmoving generosity lives in stillness. And it's a great activity, and it transforms beings and encourages beings, and it changes their minds without moving. Or I should say, in stillness. There still can be movement. Beings can turn around their heads. They can move their lips and say, thank you. Thank you can occur in stillness. Thank you does occur in stillness.

[42:55]

And also no thank you can occur in stillness. And the life of enlightenment coexists with thank you and no thank you. Buddha can say thank you and no thank you. Intimacy can say intimacy includes thank you and no thank you. Yes. No thank you seems not generous. Yes, and no thank you can allow. And particularly no thank you can allow no thank you.

[44:00]

So is there something other than no thank you that allows no thank you? In stillness there's an awakening, that coexists with no thank you. In stillness, there is a path of saying thank you and no thank you, which are freedom and peace. There's a peaceful way to say no thank you in stillness. Generosity. The generosity that... There is a generosity which is living in stillness, which is generous towards self and others.

[45:06]

There is such a generosity in stillness. And in stillness, there's such a generosity. And that kind of generosity... is actually not moving. I should say, again, it's stillness. You don't have to move to do that kind of generosity. Matter of fact, if you do move, you might miss it. Yes? Stillness slash energy slash suchness Teaching suchness, in other words, the way things are naturally connected and related. Can you hear that by any chance? No. You heard some of it. The final part was maybe the quietest. I think that was, say the last part. The last part is the way things are, everything is intimately related.

[46:11]

The way everything's intimately related, the way things are dependent on each other, that's another one. So the way I'm dependent on you, dependency doesn't move. I know, I'm just... No, stillness doesn't really mean not moving. is just that stillness is stillness is the way we are actually related. The way I'm related to you isn't moving. It's always, it's just the way it is. But stillness doesn't preclude movement. There can be tremendous movement within the stillness, but the enlightened activity doesn't need to move.

[47:17]

As a matter of fact, if you move, you miss it. I see you, Lois. Would you stand up and say that? Your voice is blocked by Tracy's body. Yeah. Yeah. Still point of the turning world, there's a dance. Right. So there can be a dance in the stillness. So stillness doesn't make or stop movement, but it allows it. And it allows it to be liberating movement and liberating not moving. Louder. I don't know.

[48:20]

Charlie's going to check it for us. It probably says not moving. You're welcome to argue with Buddhism. In stillness, yes? Go ahead. Could we use pretty much any word besides stillness? Couldn't we say in movement, enlightenment is there? I mean, it seems like if we're doing stillness to be something other than... You could say in movement. It's so profound and deep this way, we could just use it, you know, we could take a word and put it where we're putting stillness. Well, you could do that. So go ahead, do it. And in stillness, in pumpkin. So in pumpkin, okay, enlightenment's living in pumpkin. And there's another expression which is, in pumpkin, mind and objects of consciousness enter and go beyond enlightenment.

[49:28]

So in pumpkin, that in pumpkin, this entering in awakening and going beyond enlightenment, that would be fine. But if you say in movement, then people think you have to move to enter. But you don't have to move to enter enlightenment. You have to be still. It's just in stillness is where the movement, is where the entry occurs. Because if something's happening and if you're generous with it, you're not manipulating it. You're just there with it. You're still with it when you're generous. If it moves, you move with it. But you're moving with it is still. Moving with the surf is still. On the train, you're moving with the train in still. So moving with the train and moving with the dance partner and moving with the wave and moving with whatever.

[50:33]

That intimate moving with and dependence upon mutually, that's stillness. And that's where you enter. But you can also call that pumpkin. It's fine. No duality in stillness. In stillness there is no duality. I should say in stillness there is realization of non-duality. There is duality in stillness, it's just that the realization of the illusion of duality is in stillness, or in pumpkin. Yeah. Yeah. There's a stillness in the center of the wheel. And the stillness in the center of the wheel is a very important part of the great activity of the wheel. But you could say, well, actually... You know, you have to get just a very small point there, so small at the center that it doesn't move.

[51:53]

It's a very small place, because even a slight, a point that's a millimeter wide, you might still say that's turning. So when we sit here, we do a ritual of stillness. where everybody sat pretty still. Now, one way to practice that sitting still is this sitting still, which is actually moving a little bit, but I'm doing a ritual sitting still as an homage or an alignment with an inconceivable stillness. the inconceivable stillness of our intimacy. So this sitting here could be my affirmation of our intimacy.

[52:59]

Our intimacy which is in which enlightenment happens. And I do this ritual of sitting still to say what's important to me is this intimacy. and this enlightenment of this intimacy, which is an inconceivable stillness, not my idea of it. The stillness which we did here earlier, when we were sitting still, that's a conceivable stillness, which was quite lovely. It was a lovely, conceivable, perceptible stillness. Did you see some of it? I think maybe you did. You can see the ritual of stillness. Or not. You can say, hey, the people are moving a lot today. But on the other side, I felt like I had the perception that the people were sitting still. Some people moved a little bit. I had a perception of some people moving.

[54:04]

But even those people were doing the ceremony of sitting still. That ceremony could be a celebration of the inconceivable stillness in which enlightenment is living. And the practice of sitting still, the practical sitting still which you can see, realizes the inconceivable sitting still which you can't see. they're always inseparable everything you do is inseparable from the inconceivable but if you don't practice the inconceivable it's not realized so that's one way to see this this practice is that we practically pay our respects we testify to an inconceivable way of being called pumpkin in which

[55:08]

Enlightenment is living. We pay our respects to a stillness which is so natural or an intimacy that's so natural that you don't have to move the slightest bit to be there with it. You're always with it. The next line of the song, after saying, the teaching of suchness, making it into a sentence, the teaching of suchness is intimately communicated by Buddhas and ancestors. That's making it into a sentence, but not a sentence is. Teaching of suchness, truth of suchness, intimate communion, Buddhas and ancestors, and the next line is, now you have it. teaching the song is, you have it now. And you can just run that line over and over. You have it now. You have it now.

[56:10]

You never don't have it. And then the next statement is, so take care of it. If you don't take care of it, you don't realize that you have it. But you do have it. Even if you don't take care of it, you do have it. But if you don't take care of it, you won't realize it. And it'll be like you don't have it. What does it mean to take care of it? Well, one way to take care of it, one way is to practice the ritual of sitting still, which we did. So one way to do it is you come to the yoga room and you sit still to help the other people sit still. And they help you sit still. We do that ritual. That's one way. And when we do that ritual, We are generous with everybody. We welcome everybody to be here. We're like this flower. We welcome each other to sit here. We're generous with each other.

[57:11]

We support each other. We're careful with each other. We're patient with each other. And we're patient with ourselves and our body and our mind. These practices... are living in stillness. And when we do these practices, when we practice generosity, when we practice ethics, when we practice sitting still as a gift, not as a control, when we do these practices, that is the realization. The realization of this intimacy is what we're doing here right now. We have it now. And we need to take care of it because if we don't take care of it, we'll miss what we already have. We'll never lose it. We just can get distracted. And how do we become distracted? I don't know. And what do we act like when we're distracted?

[58:14]

Well, we feel like we're not being generous. We don't really welcome this person or that person or that person. We're not patient with them if they're irritating us. We're not careful of the way we think about them and the way we talk about them and the kind of way we use our body in relationship to it. That's the way we act if we forget to take care of what's been given to us, which is what's given to us is our intimacy. every moment our intimacy is given to us. And every moment we can remember it, and practice it, and transmit it. Or we can not remember it. And not remember it looks like not generosity, not ethical behavior, not patience,

[59:21]

not diligence, and not tranquil, open mind. In other words, it looks like not wisdom. But that's, you know, that's not true. The truth is that no matter how unethical and impatient and stingy we are, we also have this intimacy. But if we don't practice it, it's like we don't. It's like this is insane. But in pumpkin, we have it. It's alive in pumpkin. Yes? But it seems to me that ill will might come up as a thought.

[60:31]

So is it the heart of it? Why don't we let it come up in the space? Yeah, well, that's an easy way to deal with this, is that if the thought of ill will arose in stillness, you know, being still with that, it would lose its function. But if you move away from it or towards it, it's kind of like you're trapped. Move and you're trapped by whatever. So stillness is not stopping you. everybody's mind from doing whatever it does. It's just that in the stillness of your mind, enlightenment's living there. So whatever's going on in your mind, in the stillness of it, enlightenment's there too. So enlightenment is totally intimate, is the intimacy of any human being's thought and the mind that understands.

[61:40]

But again, some people's thought they forget that mind, they forget that intimacy, and then it's like it's not there. And then it's like stress and fear and just basically just confusion. But in confusion, if we practice stillness, we practice generosity and so on with the confusion, That's how we realize the stillness, without tampering with the confusion. We bring compassion to the confusion rather than try to control it. Trying to control it is just more confusion. But even though we bring, if we try to control confusion, we still are intimate. We don't lose any intimacy by trying to control ourselves and other people. We don't lose intimacy by being violent.

[62:43]

We can't lose it. However, if you forget to be kind, you forget the intimacy. If you remember the intimacy and actually enter the stillness of it, there's freedom from all kinds of violence. Yes? Confusion and pain, when the mind is confused and in pain, it feels like movement, but your brain is moving. It feels turbulent. The normal karmic consciousness, normal human consciousness is turbulent. and confused and more or less uncomfortable. That's normal. So what's the stillness? In that turbulent mind, there is an intimacy.

[63:49]

That turbulent mind is intimate with all other minds of various levels of turbulence. Various minds are support. That mind is not making itself. The confusion doesn't make itself, it comes from many other minds in the past and the present. The intimacy of the whole process, all the causes and conditions which have led to this moment of confusion, we have. And that intimacy is the stillness. And that intimacy, if we take care of it, we can realize peace without tampering with the turbulence. Not eventually, constantly. The turbulence that doesn't change is not very high quality turbulence. It's like a dead... A turbulence that doesn't change is a dead turbulence.

[64:56]

normal turbulence changes, normal human consciousness changes, and a human consciousness that doesn't change is a dead person. Or a non-conscious person. You can turn the consciousness off, and you can have a person who's still alive, but they're in a coma. Sorry. Well, zombies, yeah. It could be a zombie, yeah. But normal consciousness, and consciousness is where we learn how to practice. Consciousness is where we hear the words of the teaching. The teachings are not words, but when the teachings of intimacy... From intimacy, there is the conveying of the teaching of intimacy. That's the song. The song starts out with the teaching of suchness, the teaching of intimacy, the teaching of holy communion.

[66:00]

That's how the song starts. And this teaching of intimacy, it's not words. But when that teaching of intimacy touches consciousness, And also it touches unconsciousness. When it touches the unconsciousness and touches the consciousness, in consciousness it gets turned into words. And words are turning us all over the place. But the teaching of intimacy is in the realm of turbulence and is teaching us how to deal with the turbulence in such a way as to realize peace without trying to stop the turbulence. I often use the example of the surf. This teaching is not flatten the ocean and stop the surf.

[67:01]

And it's also not try to make the surf come up. I don't know how to make the surf come up. It gets bigger and smaller. This teaching is about ride whatever surf there is. And if you learn how to ride the surf, you need to practice generosity, ethics, and patience. If you're not ethical, you cannot stand up on the surfboard. If you start swearing at the surfboard, it doesn't help. If you kick the surfboard, it doesn't help usually. It may be part of the process for you to learn. You may kick it many times before you realize, this is not actually helping me to learn. So there is turbulence normally. There is surf normally in the ocean. Not always. Sometimes consciousness is fairly flat. But if you actually stop it, it's dead. When there's consciousness there's a subject and an object and that is somewhat disturbing or really disturbing.

[68:10]

So we practice sitting still not to stop the turbulence but to find the stillness and the intimacy in the turbulence to realize it. So the ceremony of sitting still with our turbulent minds Sometimes you feel like things calm down. That's okay. Sometimes you don't. I would say that's okay too. But you're making a statement of honoring the stillness of intimacy when you do the practice of perceptibly sitting still. You pay homage to the imperceptible stillness in which right now you have the teaching. In the perceptible world of human consciousness, you can hear the words, you have it now. In the perceptible world of human consciousness, you can sit still. And you can make this sitting still as an offering to the inconceivable sitting still in which intimacy and freedom from suffering are alive.

[69:24]

And every time you do this, you realize it. However, you may not perceive it. You may not perceive it, you've realized it. But you have. You've already got it, but you have to practice it to realize it. But you're realizing something that's inconceivable. But you don't try to stop the turbulence. The teaching is don't try to stop the turbulence. The teaching is say thank you to the turbulence. Say thank you. Welcome it. And be careful of it. If you're not careful of it, it's going to smash you to the ground. So you go out there and you see the waves. You say, thank you, waves. And then maybe the waves say, please come in. And you say, OK. Or the waves say, can we come and meet you? You say, welcome. But then be careful.

[70:28]

Be careful. Hmm? How? Don't try to kill the waves. Don't lie about the waves. Don't try to get different waves than what you got. When this wave comes, don't try to get a different one. That's stealing. Don't say bad things to the waves. You're wasting your breath to say bad things about the waves. Don't praise yourself and say, I'm better than your waves. Don't hate the waves. Don't try to control the waves. That's how to be careful of them. That's how to be careful of something that is alive. Anything alive, be careful of. Anything alive, if you're not careful of, it can turn into a pitfall. And then be patient with the waves. Be patient with the turbulence.

[71:30]

Again, those are practices to realize the stillness which you already have. It's not a stillness you're going to get later. However, later you'll have it too. But you're not going to have it more later than you have now, but you can realize it more later by your practice becoming deeper and more consistent. But it's not that the practice becomes more consistent and then you have it more, it's that you realize it more. So tonight we have realized it somewhat because we have practiced compassion with our turbulent minds. Our turbulent minds have arisen during this class. That's what it looks like in one of the turbulent minds.

[72:33]

And I don't see a big protest against that proposal. But we have practiced with these turbulent minds. We have been kind to them. We have not stormed out of a mind that you can't storm out of. We have been present and still somewhat. We have practiced somewhat stillness in a perceptible way with this turbulence. And it has been great, perceptibly great and imperceptibly great. I don't know anything about the imperceptible greatness. I'm just making my perceptible life an act of praise of the imperceptible life. And because things are so great, I feel like I should sing a song about how great it was.

[73:40]

May our intention equally extend to every being and place With the true merit of Buddha's way, great beings are numberless.

[74:03]

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