from a story I told this morning about a person who came and said, I feel like I'm missing the point. And so as the conversation developed, I suggested to this person that practicing compassion with Missing the point. No. Yes. Practicing compassion with the discomfort. So this person's, what they felt the point was for them, the point was comfort. And this person has lots of discomfort. And I suggested that practicing compassion with discomfort. And maybe now I would amplify that

[01:01]

wholeheartedly practicing compassion with all discomfort bears fruit as great comfort and joy." And then I said to him, are you up for practicing compassion with this discomfort? And he did not say yes. He did not say yes. Does anybody, oh, I guess somebody have a phone. Phones have flashlights, right? Can I use your, would you turn your flashlight on? Thank you. So, so he said, he didn't say yes. He didn't say no, but he didn't say yes. And I think we kept talking for a little while, and I wasn't exactly like, what's the word?

[02:06]

I wasn't saying, are you ready, are you ready? I just kind of kept looking at the question, are you ready to practice compassion with discomfort? I didn't say wholeheartedly. And I also didn't say, are you ready to practice a little bit of compassion towards a little bit of discomfort? I didn't do that. But now that I said it, that would have been good. Anyway, finally he said, I am ready to learn how to practice compassion with discomfort. And I said, okay, I witness compassion. your wish to learn to practice compassion with discomfort. Which reminds me that sometimes during particularly talks at Green Gulch and also some workshops I've done where I talk about being friendly, about practicing compassion with everybody,

[03:20]

And then after the lecture sometimes, or during sometimes too, but after I remember one time, somebody says, I just can't practice compassion towards so-and-so. And so-and-so is often the president. She just couldn't say that she wants to practice compassion towards so-and-so. I said, okay. Okay. I said, would you like to practice compassion towards your lack of compassion? And she said, yeah, I can practice compassion with my lack of compassion. I said, well, start there. Start where you can start. And then let it spread. Let it spread, let it spread, let it spread. I'm not quite ready. You can help me when I'm ready. So before this wonderful issue of living appropriately, attending to the point, I was going to bring up Chapter 12.

[04:43]

And there's quite a bit there, so I just want to bring up one little point some of the bigger points I'll do next time. And the little point is, whoops, it's down here, I know. Okay, there it is. The little point is about talking about bodhisattva activity in this chapter quite a bit. And the little point is that Priceless jewels with mixed perfumes, precious banners and canopies, all finely adorned with flowers of gold and curtains of jewels.

[05:45]

All these rain forth from the palms of their left hand. Whose left hand? Yes. Bodhisattva's. All these emanate from the palms of Bodhisattva's hands. Now it doesn't say that this rains forth from the palms of all Bodhisattva's hands, but the place they rain forth from is Bodhisattva hands. Whenever wonderful things, whatever wonderful things there be in all realms that may be worthy to offer to the Supreme Honored One, all shower from their palms, all complete, and they bring it to enlightenment trees and offer it to Buddhas.

[06:59]

So they bring these offerings to the Buddhists. All artful music of the ten directions, bells and drums, harps and lyres, various different kinds, all played harmoniously with beautiful tones, all emerge from the Bodhisattva's palms. By the way, they say right palms. poor left hand doesn't get mentioned from the right hands. And it goes on, the amazing things that rain forth from Bodhisattva's palms and Bodhisattva's hands. At Zen Center now we have a ceremony which we do sometimes when people depart from residency. And at the end we say, you know, so-and-so goes forth from the temple into the marketplace with gift-bestowing hands.

[08:11]

With these hands. So what are these hands? These hands are the hands of people who practice compassion with discomfort. These hands emit wonderful lights when we practice compassion with all discomfort. the bodhisattvas don't skip over the discomfort and then send out the light. They are grounded in whatever discomfort there is, and in that groundedness then their hands become gift-bestowing hands. Now this is examples of some gifts that could be given. But you could also give water, a cup of water. You could give a seat, a chair,

[09:16]

you could give some words like, welcome. When these things come forth from our hands and mouth, from a place where we're settled, then it's a gift, it's a blessing. And the bodhisattvas give blessing with their hands planting tulips, coming from a place out in the rain, offering a tulip bulb to the earth so the tulip bulb can do its thing. Because it needs earth, water, sun, and compost helps too. I'm sorry I didn't bring you any bone meal. Anyway, we planted those flowers and if we are practicing compassion with all phenomena, with each thing, taking care of it, then our hands can plant a tulip bulb and it will be very beneficial.

[10:36]

Now, if we don't do that, it doesn't mean that the tulip bulb won't be beneficial. It's just that not only do we plant the tulip bulb, but we transmit the compassion to the tulip and to the earth and to the tulip's roots in the earth and to the flowers. So now these flowers will come out And they will be blessings to the extent that we were practicing when we planted them. And now we have so many terrible situations in the world, right? And can we settle in the middle of them? completely taking care of our suffering body and mind and completely listening to the cries of everyone around us. Can we do that? Yes, we can. Learn to do it.

[11:39]

Maybe now we're not ready, but we can vow to learn how to be with the suffering in such a way that our hands give blessing in the middle of the suffering. blessings for comfort and joy in this world of suffering. I don't hear so much about bodhisattvas getting rid of the world of suffering, because that would be getting rid of the world of living beings. I hear about them bringing these blessings from their hands into the world. And may I mention one more thing? Someone said to me recently that they weren't sure that it was possible to live a whole day without trying to get something out of it.

[12:47]

Maybe once in a while we can do something without trying to get something, but all day long, one whole day, which is full of lots of activities for each one to not try to get something. He wasn't sure it was possible. And then I brought up this story which I've told some of you before. It's from a sutra. And the name of the sutra, I think, is Buddha Treasury Sutra. In Japanese it would be . Buddha and treasury is . So to put the two of the words together is . The Buddha treasury scripture. Some of you know that sutra quite well, right?

[13:53]

But not all of you. So the sutra basically is about Shakyamuni Buddha telling us about serving all Buddhas. So it's about serving or making offerings to all Buddhas, and the Shakyamuni Buddha tells us about her attempt to serve Buddhas. And so she tells stories about her very extensive making offerings to Buddhas and goes into detail about all these very extensive offerings to many Buddhas. And then he says, after each description, for example, after the first description, he said, however, after I made all these offerings, the Buddha did not predict me to Buddhahood.

[14:56]

So, you know, He thought maybe he would be predicted to Buddhahood if he made all these offerings, which seems reasonable, actually. If you hear about what he did, he kind of deserves Buddhahood. But he didn't get the prediction of Buddhahood, even though he did all these good things. And then he says, and why did they not predict me? Because I was trying to get something. And then he goes on to another elaborate description of making offerings to Buddhas. And then at the end of the description he said, but that Buddha did not predict me to Buddhahood. And why? Because I made these offerings with a greedy mind, with a grasping mind. And then he does it with another one, and another one, and another one. So the one difference is the last time, the last Buddha he makes offerings to is the burning lamp Buddha, burning lamp Buddha, Dipankara Buddha.

[16:14]

That's the last one he makes offerings to in this scripture. And he said, I made all these offerings and there was a realization that nothing really happens that dharmas don't actually arise, that everything's really unborn. There was an insight to that. It wasn't just that he saw over and over again his greedy mind, and finally he found a way not to have a greedy mind and stopped having a greedy mind. It's that by noticing his greedy mind over and over, and noticing he was trying to get something, and noticing that he thought there was something to get, he finally saw that there's nothing to get. And when he saw that there's nothing to get, he stopped trying to get anything. And then Dipankara Buddha said, you will be Buddha named Shakyamuni.

[17:22]

So part of the deal, for your information, part of the deal of becoming Buddha is to have a Buddha predict that you're going to be a Buddha. And sometimes they predict you're going to be a Buddha quite a bit later, but they do make that prediction as part of the deal of making Buddhas. But the prediction comes when our practice reaches a point where we are now going to continue practicing, but without trying to get something, because we understand that there's nothing to get. And even though there's nothing to get, we still keep offering. To all Buddhas, we keep planting tulips, we keep cleaning the temple, after we realize there's nothing to get when you clean the temple. So that sutra is brought up in the fascicle by Dogen called Offerings to All Buddhas.

[18:37]

And again, if you make offerings to all Buddhas, then your offerings will turn into great blessings. They would be blessings before too, but now they're really great blessings. Thank you so much for offering this to me. So today, I guess pretty much everybody here made offerings. You offered your body in sitting. You did. And you offered that body to all Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and sentient beings, whether you think so or not, you did. And you took care of the temple and you took care of your cohort, your friends. So congratulations on a wonderful day today.

[19:48]

And also I want to celebrate something I just recently heard about. Somebody has built a Zendo. And I wonder if that somebody would like me to tell people which somebody it is or keep it quiet. So I've been told to keep it quiet. But I want to celebrate that somebody in this community built a Zendo this year. I don't know. I don't know. It's possible it was on their property. But it might have been on my property. Who knows? I'm not allowed to say any more about it, but I just want to celebrate building Zendos. So if you build a Zendo, it's really a great thing to do. It's very good. And if you can build it without trying to get anything, that's where it's at. And a lot of people can not build a Zendo and not be attached to it and not try to get anything from not building a Zendo.

[21:01]

And some people even could put down one foundation stone without trying to get anything. But to build a whole zendo without trying to get anything, that's really great. It's exactly like that. And if you're not ready for them to come, don't tell them where it is. Yeah, so there's a nice Zen center in Houston now. And 20, 25 years ago, some people from that little sangha in Houston came to me and said, would you please come and help us find a teacher? I said, okay. I've always wanted to help establish a Zen center in Houston because it's a huge city and I don't think it has a Zen center. But it has a lot of suffering people, but no Zen Center.

[22:06]

So I'd be happy to try to help. So I went and got to know the community, and then I came back to San Francisco and invited various senior people to go to Houston. And three went. The first two went and appreciated the situation, but they weren't quite ready to say, okay, I want to live there. But the third one says, I think maybe I do want to live there. But then the people didn't keep in touch with her. When she was there, it was great. She was happy. But when she came back to Zen Center, they didn't keep in touch with her. So then she got kind of like not sure that they really wanted her. And I said to them, build it and she will come. So they built it and she went.

[23:09]

And now this is thriving Zen Center because they built it. Now maybe they were trying to get something. But still, this is a good start. Is there anything else you want to bring up? This is our last in-person meeting. of 2024. Is there anything you want to say before we conclude today? Yes, Sonia? I'm cultivating or opening to a list of invisibles that have, even though I can't see it, they have impact or they generate waves like oxygen. Like, I can't see it, but it's coming and I'll get the best breath. Or gravity keeps me from floating off into space.

[24:14]

Microwaves, x-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet rays, infrared rays. Great compassion is invisible. Well, sentimental compassion can be visible. Well, like I'm asking for help and you give me help. And so that in my idea that you gave me help That's a sentimental idea I have. Or you, even worse, you could think, I was just compassionate to him. I just saw myself be compassionate. I saw my hand go out there. So that's a sentimental kind of compassion. The compassion, great compassion is invisible. Great compassion is invisible.

[25:22]

But sentimental compassion means it comes into the realm of our accustomed perceptions. And it comes into my mind, I did that. I did that. That's sentimental compassion. And that seems to be visible. So that variety is visible. But the overarching one that embraces the visible one, an invisible one embraces and sustains all the visible ones. But there are visible ones. But they're not real. The visible ones are not real. The invisible one is real. It's the one that embraces all the visible ones. But the way it embraces them is not visible. See, that was visible. Did you see that thumb go up there? That was a visible thumb.

[26:24]

But there's also an invisible thumb that's right there next to the visible one. And that invisible one embraces all the visible ones, plus it also embraces all the thumbs down. In a way, it's sad that we don't have electricity and it's getting dark. But in a way, it's really lovely, isn't it? To just have everything get darker and darker. Yeah. Oh, yes. Look who's here. I think what is invisible is visible. That's right.

[27:29]

Because people need it to be. So the invisible Buddha mind and Buddha body, it's invisible. However, it appears in a visible form to help people. So the invisible is visible. The invisible Buddha is visible as people need visible. And also it's auditory. It's a silent Buddha body. Oh yeah, that's what it says. The first verse of this book, speaking of the body of Buddha, says, the body of Buddha is quiet. Quiet. But because people need it, it can turn into a lion's roar or a mouse's squeak. Yeah. It is visible. Out of compassion, it's visible.

[28:35]

It gets limited in order to help people. So... There's a lot of different wavelengths in the universe, right? And there's one little band that's visible. So this huge, endless, invisible can go into that little range called visible for us. Look, Buddhist compassion, how lovely. Yeah, so the visible, the invisible can be visible. And the visible is actually invisible, the way it really is. But we have to open up to the way that visible is, really, and then we see, oh, wow, it's invisible. I'm free of the invisible, of the visible. And now that I'm free of the visible, I want to be free of the invisible.

[29:40]

Yeah, relax. Relax with the visible and open at the same time to the invisible. Thank you. Anything else? Yes. I've never really resonated with that word sentimental. You never resonated with... Sentimental, compassion, that idea. I mean, that word doesn't stick for me. So for example, when you say, when one says that, you know, a great compassion can manifest as visible, is it manifesting as sentimental in that case? If people need it to be sentimental, it can be sentimental. Another word, another definition for, part of the definition of sentimental is customary. So in this culture, this is what people think compassion is.

[30:47]

So in this culture, it looks like this. But in that culture, it looks different. So it adjusts to the conventional customary forms. according to what people need. Would you say that any visible compassion is sent out? Yep. So the being who's looking at it, they're making it small, but still what they're making small is a great thing. A token of my gratitude, for example. Yeah. So the mind that hears it or sees it has just made it into this little package and it lets itself be, it doesn't say, you can't do that. No, it's like, okay, I'll be visible for you. Yeah. There's a lot of phrases like a gesture of kindness. It's of the kindness.

[31:49]

It's derived from the kindness, but it's not the kindness. It's not the kindness. It's a gesture. And this gesture of kindness, if it's from the great compassion, it works for that person. But it doesn't work for the other people necessarily. That's part of the trickiness, why the practice is not, it has subtleties so that the gesture here is for this person, but this gesture is not for that person. So there's quite a few stories about how come you treat this person this way and that person that way. And then there's wonderful ways of showing why, the causes and conditions of being, what's the word, maybe easygoing on this person and strict with this person. For this person, a strict gesture is just what they need, but this other person is not appropriate. And certain great teachers have made mistakes.

[32:53]

So again, I just mentioned that this teacher who responded the same to insult and praise, that same teacher is the one who said, after 45 years of practice, I finally made it through a whole day without getting distracted. After 45 years, this great teacher And he also said, in my practice with people, I made a couple mistakes where he was strict when it wasn't right and it hurt people. So even, I would say, even our dear teacher Suzuki Roshi was strict once and it wasn't right. So one time a crazy monk came to his house and the practice is to be a good host to monks, even crazy ones.

[33:59]

But he was too strict about that. And that monk killed his wife. And she said, I don't want that guy in the house, but he was strict on this point. He made this gesture of kindness to the monk, but it wasn't right. It was off. And that changed the world. It was a terrible thing in his family, and it made him, I think, not be too strict. He's strict, but he was too strict. So there's strict, and then there's not strict enough, and then there's too strict. And he was too strict. And he regretted that for the rest of his life. And the people in America benefited from his mistake, that he became not attached to his sense of what's appropriate.

[35:14]

He did still have his sense, but he didn't grasp it anymore. And so And so he was so good for us, but the terrible price for him to learn from that mistake. Just a couple minutes more. Anything else? Yes. Yeah. Right. And he said that in the spring of 1971. His last year. And he said it in the Buddha Hall of Zen Center.

[36:31]

And I was sitting there in front of him, and I thought he looked right at me. I don't think he did necessarily, but I felt like he was looking at me and saying that to me. Maybe some other people in the audience thought he was saying it to them. And I thought, why is he telling me that? I do. I really agree with that. Because things are dying. So when you see things dying, you're seeing reality. And when you see the reality of things, that's good teaching. When things are showing you their impermanence, you're being shown the teaching. when things appear to be permanent, they're showing you delusion.

[37:43]

So again, delusion is something to be respectful of. Like little babies who are perfect, you know, and they look like they'll never die. They're so radiant and all packaged so nicely with no blemishes and no signs of aging. They look like this is eternal life. Well, it is, and yet you're forgetting that this is impermanent. This beautiful baby's impermanent. So when the baby shows you it's impermanence, it's teaching you how to take care of it better. And again, I heard somebody say, the Buddha's last teaching was impermanence. And I thought, well, actually, I think that was his penultimate teaching. So when the Buddha was dying, the Buddha said, all things that arise are going to cease.

[38:45]

That's the impermanence he taught right at the end. But then he said something more, which was, practice. The last thing he said was, practice. Everything's impermanent. Practice. Everything that arises is impermanent. Practice. That's the last thing. Practice. So, practice.

[39:14]

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