About a hundred ladybugs came to Doksan this morning. Now we have devoted about a year to studying the song of the precious mirror samadhi. And spent about a year devoting ourselves to practicing this samadhi. this awareness of the precious mirror.

[01:09]

At Green Gulch, we just finished a practice period of about two months, and we also finished a seven-day session. during the session I mentioned that around Green Gulch and other Zen centers too, they sometimes post schedules of events. And so on the schedule it maybe says, daily schedule or something like that. And then it says, 5 o'clock, Zazen. And then it says maybe 5.40, Kin Hin.

[02:24]

And I mentioned that I mentioned during Sashin that Zazen is kind of a nickname for that we use. Even if you translate it into English, which would literally maybe be sitting meditation or sitting concentration, sitting Zen, it's kind of a nickname. It's a nickname for the precious mirror samadhi. So we don't write on the schedule, precious mirror samadhi at 5 o'clock. And then also at 5.40, where it says kin hin, which we often say that's walking meditation, we don't say 5.40, precious mirror samadhi.

[03:33]

And then at... At 5.50 we have another period where it usually says Zazen. We don't write again Precious Mere Samadhi. And then we have service. We write service, which is a nickname for Precious Mere Samadhi. And during service we sing the song of the Precious Mere Samadhi. And then we have breakfast. It's a nickname for Precious Mere Samadhi. Everything on the schedule is a nickname for precious mirror samadhi. It's a nickname for unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. Five o'clock, unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. Five-forty, unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. So I think the nickname is much more convenient.

[04:38]

You can also condense it to za, if you want to, sitting. Somebody told me about his feeling for the Bodhisattva vow, which we just recited a Bodhisattva vow just now. Ehe Koso Hotsagamon is the Bodhisattva vow of a particular ancestor named Ehe Koso.

[05:42]

Dogen Zenji, that's an example of his bodhisattva vow. And there's many other ways to express it. The sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them. The Buddha way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it for the welfare of all beings. So someone just told me that he really wants to practice those bodhisattva vows. Those are his aspirations. And he's not going to spend, he doesn't want to spend more than any time talking about the things he's not going to do. He's just going to try to focus on the things he'd like to do. Like he'd like to practice this vow. And I said, yeah, that vow is a full-time job.

[06:52]

These vows are full-time jobs. We're vowing to do something which is a full-time job. Makes sense, doesn't it? Beings are numberless. Beings are without limit. I vow to save them. Doesn't that sound like a full-time job? In order to live that vow, we don't have time for much else. We really can't afford really to It doesn't work to be distracted from it. It's enough. Isn't it enough? Isn't saving all sentient beings a big enough job? No, we don't have to add anything to that. In other words, we don't have to get distracted from it. And it's a full-time job. It's not like beings are numberless and I vow to save them on a part-time basis. This is a full-time job

[08:06]

This is a job that's done on all occasions, no exceptions. That's what I aspire to. All moments, all people, all beings. If I get distracted, that distraction is part of the full-time job. In other words, that distraction is another being to Embrace and sustain. The bodhisattva job is to embrace and sustain all beings, right? Which means all moments of experience, which means every moment. Full time. I aspire to be a bodhisattva full time.

[09:09]

I aspire to, and I aspire to practice the precious mirror samadhi. Here goes, see this? Watch this. Full time. Full time. I'm putting this robe on again. Full time. I don't like, okay, I'm practicing the samadhi. I'm going to take a little break now and adjust my robe. Sometimes Zen priests fall into that. They say, I'm trying to practice the Buddha way and now I have to fix my robe. It's falling down. I'll be right back. Now, adjusting every little adjustment we make in our clothing, every little adjustment of the fabric, each one of these is part of the full-time job. Full-time job. Full-time job. Every gesture, every meeting of the opposable thumb, full-time job.

[10:21]

Full-time job. Buddha... mind mudra, every gesture for the welfare of all beings. So in this full-time work of the bodhisattva, in that work, practice is realization.

[11:45]

Practice is enlightenment. The job is enlightenment. The job of Buddhas is enlightenment. The job of bodhisattvas is enlightenment for the welfare of all beings. The practice is the job. Our responsibility is the practice. The enlightenment is transmitted to us.

[12:54]

Now our job is to practice it. Full time. And full time is, again, not just kind of like saying, well, it's a big job and don't stop. It's saying, understand that every moment is an opportunity, is a responsibility. Our daily life, our daily actions, all day long, we're active. All day long, there's activities.

[13:59]

There's never a moment of consciousness that's inactive. Just like there's never a moment where Buddhas are inactive, they're always doing the practice of a Buddha, which is enlightenment. The bodhisattvas aspire to the same activity, the same practice of the Buddhas. The practice must be the enlightenment and the enlightenment must be practice.

[15:13]

Buddha's enlightenment is an activity of a Buddha. They're not two different things. And yet they're, in a way, although not separate and not two, there's a difference because the practices that we're involved in are sometimes perceptible. For example, you can see there can be an awareness of a hand gesture. There can be awareness of a thought. a perceptible thought, a perceptible gesture, a perceptible vocalization.

[16:18]

The bodhisattva's job is not so much to make gestures or to talk, but to make that gesture the practice of enlightenment. Listening to motorcycles go by the temple. That's not the practice. It's making the listening practice of enlightenment. So in a

[17:40]

Usually I've been saying, clean the temple and then sit. Clean the temple and then precious mirror samadhi. Clean the temple and then practice enlightenment. Today I start with practice enlightenment. precious mere samadhi. And now I mention that the action which is offered, which is devoted to enlightenment, the practice, the action which is offered as enlightenment, it lives with cleaning the action of any abiding.

[18:48]

There's actions in the temple. In the temple there's gestures and thoughts and words all day long. Temple cleaning is clean each action of any abiding. Clean the action of any self in the action or self and that action. we're not getting rid of the self, we're just not locating the self in relationship to what's going on in the temple. Already there is no abiding, but if we don't practice non-abiding, we don't realize it.

[20:10]

Already everything in the temple is clean. Everything is already clean. But if we don't clean it, we don't realize it's clean. Every action is already clean and nobody's abiding in them. But if we don't practice non-abiding, we don't realize the non-abiding, and then the action somehow, magically, seems to be different from enlightenment, which it's not. Someone's sitting in front of me and has a t-shirt on, and I see on the t-shirt, it looks like a tree, and also it says, just sitting on the t-shirt.

[21:30]

Is that a t-shirt? Would you call that a t-shirt? Yeah, it says, just sitting. Did you find that in Goodwill? Did you find it in a boutique? You find it at Green Gulch? It was in the bookshop. So we sell t-shirts at Green Gulch which say, just sitting on them. So today, I would say, and I say, I say, but this saying, nobody's in that saying, which is, just sitting is sitting on with no abiding in the sitting. It's just sitting. It's not, I'm sitting. I'm in the sitting. I'm outside the sitting. The sitting is over there. It's just sitting. It's not like I'm there or not there.

[22:32]

We're not talking about that right now. We're talking about the sitting, which is the practice, which is the enlightenment. The sitting? The sitting is enlightenment? But again, if I say this sitting, this sitting is enlightenment, I say this sitting without saying, without putting the enlightenment in the sitting. It's sitting aside from in the sitting. Just sitting also could be called no more than sitting-ism. Just sitting is no more than sitting-ism. Also, of course, no less than sitting.

[23:38]

Just sitting is no less than sitting-ism. When Ehe Koso, you know him, right? You've heard about him, Ehe Koso? He wrote the Hotsugamon. When he was just 31 years old, I hear, he wrote something which we call Negotiating the Way or Endeavoring in the Buddha Way. And in that in what he wrote, there are some questions and some responses. Today there's like, looks like four people who were ordained as priests are in here, in this room, in this temple.

[25:00]

The rest are not priests, or you could say are lay people. So one of the questions in this text about endeavoring in the way, endeavoring in the Buddha way, one of the questions is, should Zazen, should the, precious mirror samadhi be practiced by lay women and lay men? Or should it be practiced by home leavers only, by monks and nuns only? Do you understand the question? And the answer given is, in understanding Buddha Dharma, in understanding Buddha Dharma, men and women, noble and common, brackets, lay and monks, are not distinguished.

[26:28]

Here's another question, right after this other one. Monks and nuns, home leavers, are free from various involvements and do not have hindrances to practicing the precious mere samadhi. they do not have hindrances in taking care of the teaching of suchness which is transmitted to all beings. How can the laity who are variously occupied, how can the laity who are variously occupied practice single-mindedly in accord with the Buddha Dharma, which is unconstructedness and stillness?

[27:50]

Answer? Buddha ancestors, out of their kindness, have opened wide the gates of compassion in order to let all living beings enter realization. Who among all living beings cannot enter and practice the precious mirror of samadhi. That's a question at the end of the answer. And now I'll answer the question at the end of the answer. I'll take the answer as a question.

[29:06]

Who cannot enter? Enter what? The Buddha Dharma, the teaching of suchness. Who cannot enter? No one cannot enter. All living beings fully possess the wisdom and virtue of the Buddhas. And yet, because of attachments and false ideas, they don't realize it. So, there's work to be done. There's a job to be done. and it's a full-time job. There's monk bodhisattva, nun bodhisattva, and lay and women bodhisattva, and now we have transgender bodhisattvas.

[30:18]

And other possibilities of bodhisattvas are there too. Inconceivable, unlimited possibilities of sentient beings. All sentient beings can enter. And all sentient beings are actually on this path of practicing or it can be nicknamed Zaza. And all sentient beings must practice in order to realize that they fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddhas. It's not quite the same as saying all sentient beings are Buddhas.

[31:26]

Not quite saying that. We're saying all sentient beings are bodhisattvas. And then after you say all sentient beings are bodhisattvas, then you can say, and there's no difference between the bodhisattvas who are on the path to Buddhahood and the Buddhas. So we can enter, and we are on the path, and we have a full-time job opportunity. And we don't have to wait to sign a contract. However, there are opportunities to sign contracts. which we sometimes practice. We have special ceremonies where people sign contracts. It's sometimes helpful.

[32:30]

But between contract signing meetings, we have all other possible activities and each of them, in order for the Buddha Way to be realized, each of them is the only opportunity for the Buddha way. If one were me, one could continue talking without end. And also one could stop talking.

[33:33]

I don't know about without end, but one could stop talking. People often ask me, something like, how are you? And I usually say, kind of boring, but I usually say, great. And great could also be rephrased as, great's kind of a nickname for never been worse. And it's also a nickname for never been better. Great means I have a full-time job. I'm like fully employed. It's so great. My employment is so great. It like doesn't have any limits. And it's really a good job.

[34:38]

It's a job of taking care of this intimate transmission. It's so great. It's so wonderful to have this job of practicing the precious mirror awareness with everybody, with everything. How wonderful to remember stillness, Somebody said to me, what should I do or what do you do when people seem to be trying to control you, control me? What should I do when people seem to be trying to control me? I said, remember stillness. What if they keep trying?

[35:40]

Practice stillness. What if they keep trying? Transmit stillness. What if they keep trying? Transmit stillness. if you keep transmitting it from your practice and from your mindfulness of it, they will melt into stillness. And in their stillness they will give up trying to control you. But part of stillness is not to be measuring how long it's taking for everybody else to join. What should I do when people are trying to control me? And I'm thinking about how much longer are they going to do this? Be still with... They seem to be... Are you trying to control me? Mm-hmm. How much longer is this going to go on? Mm-hmm. Stillness with everything. We got the activity.

[36:43]

the activity just needs to be cleaned of any abiding, of any self-confusion, then all the activities are enlightenment. But if they're not cleaned, we kind of miss that, even though it's right there. So, probably that's enough. If anybody wants to say anything, there's two seconds before lunch. Actually, I'm just kidding. There's two seconds before noon. Lunch doesn't have to be at noon. It can be at afternoon. We can have afternoon lunch. Ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha.

[37:52]

Thank you. Were you sitting upstairs earlier? Yeah. Was it great? Super great. Super great. Whoa. I wouldn't dare say that. But I'm glad I got some friends who do say super great. My daughter... When I talk to her on the telephone, she says, How are you, Daddy? And I say, Great. She says, Uh-huh. She's a little bit bored with me saying the same thing over and over. Occasionally, just to entertain her, I say, Semi-great. I'm going to try super-great next time.

[38:56]

Maybe I will. I don't know if I will. We'll have to see. So I've told you that some time ago it came to my attention that strong females in this neighborhood anyway, this part of the universe, around here, strong females, strong human females, are often called bossy. I just heard somebody say that recently there was a meeting and there were women and men at the meeting and somebody said, how many of you women have been called bossy? And most of them raised their hands. And I said, how many of the men have been called bossy?

[40:02]

And not too many of them have been called bossy. Interesting, huh? So when I heard about this bossy thing for strong women and also for strong little women called girls, I took it to heart. And I think it also came to my attention that we could call strong women leaders instead of bossy. So I refer to my strong, tiny granddaughter as my leader. Now I find out that there's an organization in the Bay Area called Bossy Girls. And, you know, I have a full-time job.

[41:07]

So I'm not going to argue with that. This is a women's organization where they're trying to like, you know, use the word bossy for what it's worth. Anyways, so we'll see what the latest is. But I still refer to this little female as my leader. Anything else? Any other questions you don't want to ask? Yes? I'm not quite sure I understood what you said about practice. But I want to practice that way. So if I don't understand, is the wanting helpful? The aspiration? The wanting is an action, a perceptible action.

[42:13]

There's a want. And that want, that action, could be used as the current opportunity of the practice, which is the realization. I don't know if I will. Was that an expansion? It didn't help. There was another thought. So there was wanting to, what? What did you want? To practice in a way that you described but I don't quite understand. So you want to practice enlightenment. Is that right? Yeah. Then you had a thought about not helpful. The first thought was, I'm not quite understanding. So that was that thought, okay? So we can start with that and work over to the other one.

[43:16]

So thought arose, not quite understanding. That's an action. An action that occurred in consciousness. Not quite understanding. That's an action. Those are words. That's an activity. That's a vital activity called not quite understanding. It's a thought. But it's an activity. It's a living activity. All thoughts are activities of life. So here's an activity. There's energy and not quite understanding. There's an energy, a vital energy and not quite understanding. That's an activity. Now, if I have a an activity like that, I have a full-time job, so all my activities, whatever they are, my full-time job comes in and uses that. My full-time job has to use, if it's full-time, it has to use every activity, including not quite understanding.

[44:26]

Now, there also sometimes occurs perfect understanding. I perfectly understand. She perfectly understands. Those are activities. Those thoughts are activities. Each one of those are opportunities for the full-time job of practice which is enlightenment. Practice which is enlightenment. Each gesture, like this one, this gesture, this gesture, This gesture, this thought, that thought, each thought, each word. If it's a full-time job, then each action needs to be for the job, which is practicing enlightenment. including the activity of, I do not understand what he's talking about.

[45:35]

Can you use the opportunity, that perfectly good opportunity, I do not understand, can you use that activity as the practice of enlightenment? I would say, yes, you can. Like right now, I can think, I don't understand anything, and I just did that as my current offering of practicing enlightenment. I didn't believe that or not believe that. I just said it. But I didn't just say it. I offered it to the practice of enlightenment because that's my job for the welfare of all beings. And now you might have a thought like, whoa, I completely understand. Yes?

[46:43]

I have maybe a testimonial. A testimonial. Okay, then please... Shout it out, shout that testimony out. I have this story, and it took place Thanksgiving. Can you hear her, Hannah? Loud. Okay, I have a story that took place Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, yeah. And it has to do with activity and stillness, and stillness and activity. And that... was very beneficial. So we were out to dinner, my husband, my child, myself, and my mom and dad. And my dad has been in sobriety for five years. And he was having a difficult evening. And when the waiter came to take drinks, he ordered an alcoholic beverage.

[47:46]

And my mother seemed passive about it. And I felt a lot of energy and activity in my body. And yet I was still. And when the waiter walked away, I asked dad if, he would maybe want to think about his choice of beverage, and that I realized he was feeling a frustration about being seated later, and yet might he think about is this cause for him to drink? Possibly also think of and he said yes, it is it is and I said, okay and I said well maybe maybe think about if about everything that we have been through, you know and He he didn't say anything and then the beverages came to the table and he chose the non-alcoholic beverage and I

[49:12]

it was... seemed beneficial to stay... I don't know if it's to stay still, but that the stillness was there, yet I felt that the situation was very dynamic. There was a lot of energy and... But it was a vital, vital moment. Vital moments. Yeah. Mm-hmm. When you were talking, as you started to talk, I felt like there's these layers, you know, like there's very dynamic situation, stress, stress, frustration, seeking some way to quell the frustration, the pain of the frustration, thinking some ways to... numb the frustration. All that's going on.

[50:16]

Fear that someone will choose something to numb the frustration. All that's going on. Very dynamic activity. And in the middle of that activity there was somebody remembered stillness. There was a remembering of stillness. And then maybe there was some practice of stillness. And then maybe there was some transmission of stillness. And in the stillness, in the remembering the stillness, in practicing the stillness, in transmitting the stillness, in the stillness there's an activity. So there's activity in the middle of the activity stillness and in the middle of the stillness activity. The activity in the stillness is to transmit itself, to reproduce itself, and to liberate beings from suffering. And then the next moment.

[51:19]

Here we go again. Another whirlwind, a vital, living whirlwind May we remember stillness in this turbulent, dynamic, challenging moment and practice stillness. And remember that in the stillness there's a living, liberating enlightenment living in there. It will do the job if we give ourselves to its practice. But it's hard to remember stillness in karmic consciousness with loved ones about to take poisons, or not even poisons, just take something that might distract them from our precious life, that might intoxicate them so that they forget the precepts.

[52:24]

like the Buddha has these five mindfulnesses that he talked about, and I don't know if I remember correctly, but it's mindfulness of, I think he said the danger or the threat of losing our life. the threat of losing youth, the threat of losing health. And I don't think he said it in this particular meditation, but I would just put in there in brackets, the threat of losing our mind. And I think he said one more like everything is depending on causes and conditions. He says, if we don't remember, for example, that youth is impermanent, then we can become intoxicated with it.

[53:48]

Youth isn't usually considered an intoxicant. But if we're not careful of it and remember that this youth is temporary, it can become intoxicating. So we have in this country tremendous intoxication with youth. And that intoxication leads to all kinds of unwholesomeness. Life If we don't remember that life is impermanent, if we're not mindful of that, life can be an intoxicant. Health is not an intoxicant, but if we lose track of its impermanence, we become intoxicated with the health. And then intoxicated with health, we get distracted from the precepts. What precepts? Well, being still. So part of cleaning the temple is to remember that all these things are impermanent, which helps us be still and so on.

[54:56]

Thank you for the testimonial. Yes? I cannot be still when I make something out of still. You cannot be still when you make something of the stillness? No. Well, making something of the stillness seems to be an activity. Then I cannot be still with making activity out of what's not still. Yeah, so then you have to clean the activity so you can be still with it. Allowing the... Allowing the... Something to be made out of. Yeah, allowing that and also allowing the thought, I cannot be still when I do make something out of it. That's another activity to relate to in such a way that you can be still with that thought. I have charge, so could you please...

[55:59]

So when you're like, there was two phases. One is somebody was messing with the stillness, trying to make something out of it. Like, let's monetize stillness. Let's find a way to sell it. And people are actually doing that now. They're like finding ways to sell stillness. Maybe I'm even doing it. And when you're trying to monetize stillness, make something out of it, at that moment, it might be quite difficult to be still with that. But then when you say, I can't be still when I'm messing with stillness, maybe you could be still with that thought. Because that thought wasn't trying to mess with the stillness. That was just a judgment about how messing with stillness is not so good. It actually makes me sick. Yeah, so then, now let's clean. In the temple we have, I'm feeling sick.

[57:02]

Now this is getting closer to something you can work with. Because your job is to work with sickness, isn't it? Yeah, so now I'm feeling sick. Okay, now I know how to be kind to that. I know how to be still with sickness. Okay, so let's go to work there. And then expand the work with the sickness back to the cause of the sickness or the conditions for the sickness. So if we can't work with something, okay, what can you work with? Well, I can work with that I can't work with the sickness. I can't work with that. Well, I can work, can you work with that? Yeah. Let's find something we can practice with and then expand. You know, in other words, this is like part-time work, right? I can't work with this, but I can work with this. So do part-time work and then expand to full-time work. And right now, I recognize I'm not working full-time as a bodhisattva.

[58:08]

Rather, I can't see it. But I'm going to work with where I can see it and then just try to extend it. So, in fact, we find times when we are able to practice and then we want to extend it and extend it and extend it into full time and also full space, throughout time and throughout space. And as we... as we ongoing... moment by moment, time by time, do the practice, this wonderful thing happens is that we realize that all the times when we weren't practicing, we actually were. When we start being full-time from now forward, we realize that all the times which we said we couldn't in the past, actually, they are saved.

[59:10]

Like, I'm listening to Marcel Proust. He wrote this book called Remembrance of Time Lost. That's the name of his book. Remembrance of Lost Time. And in Zen we might say, Remembrance of Wasted Time. We always say, time is fleeting, don't waste time. Don't waste time. This is a precious opportunity. Don't waste time. His book is Remembrance of Times Wasted. What's his book about? His book about him remembering all the times he wasted, all the times he didn't practice stillness and he didn't practice the precious mirror samadhi. Now he's remembering those times that he wasted, but now he's here doing his art.

[60:19]

And now he's realizing by remembering and writing down all the time he wasted that the time was never wasted. but we have to remember all the wasted time in order to realize there's no wasted time. And remembering wasted time is promoted by remembering now not to waste time. And as we remember more and more not to waste time, the sentient beings from the so-called past come and say, save me. Who are you?

[61:24]

I'm wasted time. What are you called? I'm the ghost of Christmas past. I am telling you all the time you wasted trying to get rich. Listen to me. Listen to me. Don't waste the time of listening to me." And then the ghosts are released. So this is Christmas present and Christmas future. Yes. What about times of bad deeds or hurt? Bad deeds are what we call wasted time. Wasted time means wasted moments for great art. For Proust, it's like wasted moments of art.

[62:27]

So he tells all these stories about what he was doing. The book's over and over talking about he's not going to work, he's not going to work, he's not going to work. And then suddenly he sees the moment, he says, now's the time to start writing. And somebody comes to visit him, and it's so great to see the person he doesn't start writing. So wasted time means... basically bad deeds. It's a bad deed to waste this moment to practice compassion. Bad deeds to other people, hurt to other people. That's a waste of time, right? For the other person, it was probably more than a waste of time. I mean, you could say it was time wasted in doing good things. Okay, so doing things which other people think is more than a waste of time, that was more than a waste of time. That just really killed me.

[63:28]

Well, killing people is a waste of time. Now, do you want to up the ante and say it's worse than a waste of time? You can if you want to. You're welcome to say so. But from the Bodhisattva point of view, not practicing compassion is a waste of time. Our job is to practice compassion. When you're cruel, you're wasting your compassion time. We've got compassion time. We have time for compassion. That's what our life's about. Compassion time. And when we don't practice it, we waste our compassion time. For Proust it was art time. For Proust, art was salvation. For Schopenhauer, art is liberation from suffering. Our art is the art of compassion, the art of enlightenment. When we don't practice enlightenment,

[64:32]

more or less terrible things happen. When we don't practice compassion, more or less cruel things happen. So it's a waste of time to... It's a waste of time to not practice ethics, not practice patience, not be generous. Those are wastes of time. of opportunity. They're wasted opportunities to realize peace and freedom in this world. They're wasted opportunities. And you can also call them the things we do when we're wasting opportunities. You can call them bad, wrong, etc. That's okay. But just don't forget that that thing was a missed opportunity.

[65:35]

And part of the practice is remembering the wasted opportunities. Then they're not wasted opportunities because when you remember them, you can remember them in a not wasting way. Like you can say, I'm sorry. I want to do something different. I don't want to waste time. So in this way, the wasted time is liberated. It loses its power when we remember it and bring compassion to it. So I remember that I wasn't compassionate, but I don't remember that I'm not compassionate and then be mean to me or it, or not to mention blame somebody else. I wasn't compassionate, but that was because somebody... No. remember that I wasn't compassionate. Don't get distracted from that and bring compassion to it. Then the not-compassion is liberated and loses its destructive influence.

[66:41]

You're welcome. The assembly seems to be quiet. Is that right? Quiet. Yes? I was just very struck when you said things you get intoxicated by, because I just got back from two weeks in China, and I really noticed how intoxicated I am with activity, because when I was there, it lost a lot of structure, because people, because the language gap, people wouldn't even about mutings or when things were going to happen. There's no, the schedule kind of seemed always shifting and the traffic is not like it does here. It's like everyone's playing it on some other sort of subliminal contact with each other that we don't have here like we follow the rules here so you're in fact fast because from the intersection and we stick by our schedules and business meetings and I realized it was like such a one of my best two weeks of practice I've had in a long time even though it was like supposed to be high pressure

[67:54]

business meetings because I had to, I couldn't get intoxicated with activity because it just sort of was on some other thing. You were kind of supported to remember impermanence. And I was very afraid of the traffic. And then someone told me that when they were here, they were super afraid of our traffic, because the very reason that we expect people to follow the rules is that we go very fast through the intersections. And that's terrifying. And he said to me, I wouldn't drive in, especially Europe, but he had said it. And as soon as I, I just realized it was that we have this intoxication of activity in here, in a way. There's lots of activity there, but different. For me, it wasn't intoxication. It was amazing. I felt like I was on retreat. And I realized when you said this, it's that intoxication.

[68:59]

For me, and then the cultures, that one thing. Yes? I've just been realizing that it's expanded that when we care for the one, we care for all beings. We care for one. Sometimes we think that one has to be ourself, and it is others. And everything matters. I used to have categories for what mattered and what didn't, but I'm realizing, whatever my judgment about a thing is, it all matters. Mm-hmm. Full-time job. Full-time job, Eric. Can you hear that? May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's Way.

[70:20]

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