In this chat we did, which we often do at the beginning of the day, talking about that when we meet the Dharma, the true Dharma, we will be able to let go of worldly affairs. like let go of sentimental compassion and let go of the compassion which is illuminated by wisdom. Holding on to those things is a worldly affair. We'll be able to let go of our clinging when we hear the true Dharma, when we meet it. And then we can maintain the Buddha way. And then it says, although our past evil karma has greatly accumulated, could also be translated, I guess, however our past karma may have greatly accumulated.

[01:02]

And becoming the cause and condition of obstacles in practicing the way of great compassion. And it says, may all Buddhas and ancestors who have attained the Buddha way be compassionate to us and free us from karmic effects, allowing us to practice the way without hindrance. So that way of putting it maybe sounds a little bit like we're inviting the Buddhas and ancestors to be compassionate to us That seems fine to me. It also seems fine to me, generally speaking, to ask you to be compassionate to me. But we can also be careful not to put this separate from ourselves or outside of ourselves.

[02:17]

So when karmic obstructions come up, I think we could say, may compassion come to this situation. May there be compassion to this obstruction, to great compassion. May there be compassion for this immature form of compassion. And in that compassion, the obstacle is liberated, and we are liberated with the obstacle. We were just reading that Torrey Senge talks about when people hurt us, they're a massacre. Yeah, when these things happen, when people are cruel to us, they offer us an opportunity to be compassionate, to join the compassion with that person.

[03:34]

Or you could say that, maybe you could say that, I guess, maybe he's saying that Buddhas are sending these people to us to stimulate us to be compassionate. So through their persecution of our being, they're emancipating us. No. I wouldn't say so much that they're emancipating us, but rather they're giving us an opportunity for emancipation. When people are cruel to me, they're giving me an opportunity for emancipation by me responding to them compassionately. If I can respond to people giving me a hard time with compassion, this is the path to emancipation, but not just freedom per se, but freedom from obstacles in practicing the way.

[04:48]

It's not just to be free, but it's to be free to practice the way which frees everybody. Not just, I'm going to be free of this affliction, but by being compassionate to it, I will be free to practice the Buddha way. That's what it says in the beginning of this one, too. Meeting the Buddha Dharma, you renounce worldly affairs, which is doing things which obstruct the Buddha way. You renounce them when you see the truth. When you renounce them, then you can practice without hindrance. And that practice doesn't just liberate you, it liberates everybody. It seems like these devices were sent to us for us to learn from them as a teacher. Yeah, so this view, these devices are the universe's devices to teach us how to be Buddhas.

[05:50]

We're being sent things to teach us how to be Buddhas. Here comes this big slap in the face. Now, this slap in the face is going to teach you how to be Buddha, to respond to the slap like a Buddha would, which might be like, oh, oh. but no ill will, no, and no, but for compassion for the slap and the slapper. The Buddha was kind of mistreated, the historical Buddha was mistreated, and many Zen ancestors have been mistreated, and they were able to respond with compassion. which was, you could say, an expression of their already having attained the way, but also it's an expression of removing the hindrances to attaining, practicing the way.

[06:55]

So the way would practice compassion towards these difficulties and practicing compassion with these difficulties opens the way. On that occasion, it liberates us, but it doesn't just liberate us from this particular problem, this particular pain. It liberates us from obstructions to practicing Buddhahood. And, by the way, it liberates us from this particular problem so we can be joyful with this pain because we respond to the pain with generosity and so on. So we can be joyful in the middle of pain. Plus, not only does that happen, and are we not harmed by the pain? The pain doesn't harm us, but we open the way, the way, the Buddha way, which is not just for us becoming free.

[07:58]

Linda. Linda. Now, borderline acceptable to me. But the way the text says it is not at all acceptable to me. The words get removed there. I find this dangerous. Very dangerous. And I'm sure you know why I'm saying this. But I couldn't go on reading when I got to those lines. It's not only I will need to be cruel to you or whatever it is. With compassion, that's not all that says.

[09:06]

It says when I will be uselessly persecuted, I will sincerely bow down to that person that's an avatar of Buddha who has come as a result of my ego-centered evil deeds. So I will say, I'm sure everybody knows why I'm saying this, but that is a cruel and dangerous way to make a sentence, put words together. And if you want me to say more about why that is, I don't think I need to, but I would. You put it in words that seem to have more wisdom. Those words are unacceptable. The Buddha way is, as you've heard me say, is to question everything.

[10:08]

And I hear you questioning this text But also it would be, the Buddha way would not only be to question this English text and if possible question the Japanese and see how the translation is, but also question yourself. And is it possible to question yourself and still say what you said? I hope so, because I wouldn't want you to question yourself into not being able to express yourself. Would you question me? Pardon? Would you question me? You said, could I question myself? Yeah, I could say, I'm questioning you. Can you question yourself when you express your views? That's my question to you. I'm not telling you to throw your views out the window. Buddhism wants to be questioned.

[11:12]

And so I feel you're questioning this expression of Tore Zenji's vow. You're questioning it. I'm saying Tore Zenji wants you to question this text. And I'm saying, thank you for questioning it. And other people say, thank you for questioning it. Then I also just, by the way, are you also questionable? So you're part of the Buddha way too, so you should be questionable also. So by questioning this, by me questioning it and you questioning it, this text can become a Dharmagate. And questioning it can include you questioning it and also that you maybe make statements about it. That can be part of it. If we have no text to question, if we had that situation, which we don't, we've got text to question, right?

[12:17]

Then we might have to bring the Chronicle in or something. If none of us had any questions of anything about Buddhism, then Buddhism would be dead. But we don't have that problem. We've got stuff to question. And now the questioning should be not a one-way street. Okay. Well, she's questioning. She's questioning that too. So she's questioning this thing saying it's all my fault. So does it say it's all my fault or does it say it's what? Yeah. And so that also needs to be interpreted as No, it doesn't say that, but it does say... It says emancipate us from sinful karma.

[13:28]

The merciful avatar of Buddha who uses devices to emancipate us from sinful karma that has been produced. Yeah. So that's slightly less, it's all my fault. It's to liberate us all. from our past karma. And it's not saying, so that includes that what happens to me is not just due to my karma, it's due to all of our karma. So questioning it, maybe, it gets us to look at that. We are responsible for this situation. And any hindrance that's arisen in our dealing with this situation is suggesting that practicing this way will free us of hindrances in practicing the way. And even the Buddha doesn't say that everything that happens to you is due to your karma, but your karma is one of the important things to look at.

[14:33]

to study. You can also become a meteorologist and study that. But we're focusing on our action and not just my action but our action. And what did I say? Yeah, I hope that we're also talking about this thing about making an effort and being relaxed. Can you make a big effort to do something and be relaxed? If you make a big effort and you tense up, we often know how to do that, right? You make a big effort to say something or express yourself and you tense up. And you can notice that tension. And some people are concerned if you're not tense, you might not be able to express yourself. But I'm proposing that if you have something to say, that being relaxed while you say it may help you say it more skillfully.

[15:39]

You can make a big effort to express your questions about the teachings, wholeheartedly express it, and be tense about it, and the tension may kind of not serve your expression. So that's another part of the compassion is to be kind to the tension that comes when we express our concerns about anything, including these teachings. And if there is tension, to be kind to it, to put it out there and practice the compassion with it. And then notice that you can do the same thing again but now in a relaxed way and more transformative and more liberating. So I appreciate you bringing this up and I hope that you keep bringing it up, these kinds of things.

[16:48]

I hope that you continue to bring it up. I hope that you keep finding a way to relax when you bring it up, because if you can relax, you're going to be able to bring it up more. If you're tense, you might say, this is just too painful, and perhaps give up. Yes? I join you in welcoming more expressions like Linda and because I, for myself, need to be kept awake. You're helping me to stay awake. It's just a vow, to make a vow and to be so wholeheartedly, like, I feel Tore is just really wholeheartedly saying that with the limits of where he wants to go with his devotion, his responsibility, and the way he regards this lowly sacrifice. And I also want to consider that, you know, humbly bowing down

[17:54]

in record belief, might be saying, you know, standing up and standing in cycles of violence, I'm not really what I want to engage in. And so I don't think it's a dictating behavior. I think the spirit of this is. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so how we bowing down might not be just being you could humbly bow down and say no. You could do a humble prostration and say no. But the point is, you're saying no, but it's not an arrogant no. It's a humble no. And a humble no might actually open the gates of compassion in other people's hearts. I I just want to say it, that Olympic swimmers make a big effort.

[18:59]

I don't know what they're saying when they make their effort, but they really put their arms into the water and pull really hard. If we did that with our arms, our arms would come out of the joint. They make tremendous, powerful strokes. And they're like the most powerful swimmers on the planet. And I heard people watching these people. And you had these amazingly powerful swimmers. They're all powerful. And they say, look who's the most relaxed. Michael Phelps. The other ones are just as powerful as he is, but he's more relaxed. So you can be more relaxed. effective in expressing your vows if you're relaxed. But we often are not relaxed and so we need to bring compassion to our lack of relaxation to enable our expression, not to suppress it.

[20:04]

I think this has a ring of truth to me. And what it does is describes, I think, an internal way of having loving power. And so even if I changed all the racism in the world, all the sexism, if I changed everything, I would still have those cycles of violence in my body. And so it would go on and on, even if I externally changed it. And so what this does for me is it gives me A way of owning my own, the way I treat people badly based on being treated badly. That whole cycle of owning my own propensity is what I think they're offering. And it doesn't mean every time you enter this, you won't be off-put by what I think you need to have.

[21:11]

It's true wisdom. That's how I experience. Thank you. And I want to say to you that for some reason or another, I like to bring up difficult stuff. That's part of my situation. I don't know if it's a karmic hindrance. It's kind of a joy to me to bring up difficult stuff. And I find both of these chants difficult for people. Confession and repentance is difficult. Karmic obstruction is difficult. The pure and simple color of practice is difficult. What Tore Zenji said, when I read it, I go like, what? Are you really saying that? I could imagine that he is so worked up in his bodhisattva vow that he's become insane and says this stuff.

[22:13]

It's possible that he's such a fanatic bodhisattva that he can say that all harm that comes to him is coming to help him be free of his karmic effect. These things are not coming because of his karmic effect. They're coming to help him with his karmic effect. That's another way to read it. It's not his fault that all this help is coming. But it's help that's coming to him to help him become free of his problems. Not it's coming to him because he's been a bad boy. Or not because we've been bad people, but anyway. I think that these topics are difficult and I hope that you keep questioning them, even if you're comfortable with them. question them. So I thank you, Linda, for your questioning.

[23:15]

And I also find this Dottori Zenji difficult to believe, difficult to understand, and easy to question. But not easy to question like it's easy to question, but easy to have a question. What's hard then is when you have a question, to put it out there. And to put it out there in a relaxed, Enlightened way. And if not, see how that feels and try again. Karen? Yeah. Yeah. To be really open to questioning myself takes quite a bit of confidence, which I might have once in a while, but I don't have that many good pieces. So I wonder if you can speak to that.

[24:16]

To really question yourself takes confidence, and also, you might say, to really allow yourself to be questioned by others. also requires confidence. But confidence in what? I would say confidence, for starters, confidence in the necessity of questioning, that you have confidence that if you try to practice according to your ideas of practice and you're not open to questioning, that you're confident that that's going to backfire, that that would be self-righteousness and that A great deal of the evils that are occurring in this country is because of people being religiously self-righteous. They're not open to questioning. For me, it's like, do I have confidence in the necessity and the efficacy and the compassion of questioning? I do. I think for me to practice ethics, if I'm not open to questioning, it won't work for me to do ethics according to my idea.

[25:20]

And also to be questioned about whether questioning is really necessary or helpful. That would also apply. It does take confidence, but not so much in me. But maybe some people need more confidence in themselves to open to the teaching that questioning and being questioned, questioning myself, questioning others, others questioning me, to see that actually I can see that is necessary, confidence in that. And then me, I don't have confidence that I'm going to be able to tolerate that because it's painful when you're questioned. But it doesn't say questioning and you being comfortable with the questioning. So I actually don't have, not so much confidence, I have some confidence that if people question me, I will have a hard time with that some of the time. I have confidence in that because I have a lot of experience of that.

[26:21]

And it makes sense to me because your world view is being challenged or questioned. So I don't have confidence that I'm going to have an easy time in this question and answer. And I often think of the phrase, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. So I'm the fool. I'm treading into texts like this. I rush in there and it's because I'm a fool. An angel might not go anywhere near this text. But who knows, maybe they're actually hovering above the text somewhere, helping us question it. But I'm not asking you to, I'm asking you, I encourage you to question these texts. And I would like to, I'm interested in bringing things forward that are difficult for us.

[27:28]

And I think I'm going to continue to want to do that. And it's 5 o'clock. And I appreciate that you still want to keep talking. And here we go. Congratulations. We did it. May our intentions

[28:03]

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