We have this expression, when you find your place, right where you are, practice occurs, realizing the koan, the koan. We could change this in a playful way and say, when you find your place right where you are, practice occurs, realizing justice. When you find your place right where you are, practice occurs, realizing the truth.

[01:56]

So the source, as I was talking to you about last week, the source of justice, the source of truth is stillness, untouched by any kind of construction. Unconstructed stillness or unconstructedness in stillness is the source of the truth manifesting or the truth manifestations of justice. It's also a kind of meditation where you practice being present with what's

[03:13]

manifesting in the present as the koan. So we have the expression genjo koan, which means the koan as it's manifesting now, or koan could be called also ultimate truth. So we meditate on how ultimate truth is manifesting immediately, right now, or how what's manifesting is the ultimate truth, or how justice is manifesting now. But then there's the problem that it's hard for us to understand that this, right now, is the manifestation of justice. It's

[04:32]

hard for us to understand this is the realization of justice. But that is a traditional topic of meditation, is to meditate on how it is that what's happening right now is the immediate realization of reality, including the truth, reality as truth to us, and reality as justice in our relationships. Some people would say that justice is the administration of law. Some people

[05:39]

would say that justice is the administration or the adjudication, in an equitable way, among conflicting claims. Lots of different ways to talk about justice. That justice is fairness. In the Constitution, I think it says, is it the Constitution, all men are created equal? Does it say under God, or just all men are created equal? And I heard some time ago that that means all men are created equal in the sense that they all have the

[06:43]

capacity to be compassionate. And one of the people, I forgot which one, who was involved in the Constitutional Convention, used as an example of this, he said, he was talking to a friend, he said, he pointed to a young slave, and he said, this uneducated slave has the potential, has the ability to be sympathetic to other beings suffering. In this way, all beings are equal. Not that they all have equally developed compassion or equally developed sympathy for others suffering, but they are all equal in the sense that they all have that capacity, and therefore they all can become Buddhas. So they all should be treated,

[07:52]

in a sense, in the context of that equality. One of the justices of the Supreme Court said, the most important thing we do, he could be speaking of humans, or he could be speaking of Supreme Court justices, the most important thing we do is not doing. We must be still, right where we are, and give up construction in order to be justices, in order to allow

[08:56]

the realization of the truth. The word koan, by the way, originally meant a kind of a judgment handed down by a judge in court, the judge's offering of the truth of the matter. So the word koan is now extended to be about stories which have the potential to reveal the truth. But all stories have this potential. All stories are the current manifestation of the koan, are the current manifestation of truth and justice. But we must meet these stories with concentration. We must meet them in a relaxed and concentrated way in order that

[10:09]

the justice of the situation will be revealed to us, or the path of justice will be revealed to us. The path of just conduct will be revealed to us when we meet the current situation with unconstructed stillness. And again, the unconstructed stillness and the truth are already immediately manifesting. We have to open to it in order to fully participate with it. In the Sanskrit language, we have the word buddha, and the word dharma, and the word

[11:22]

sangha. Buddha could be translated as enlightenment or the enlightened one, dharma the truth, and sangha the community, is one translation. So the Buddhist community is a community where there's justice. It's a community wherein there would be conflicting claims, I would think, but where they would be adjudicated fairly, equitably, harmoniously. And the harmony among different beings is actually the sangha, that actually is the community. The law could also be called, again, justice, or the realization of the law. And the Buddha,

[12:36]

the understanding of the dharma. So another way to practice, another way to speak of practice, is to meditate in such a way that you're returning to Buddha, you're returning to dharma, you're returning to the law, and you're returning to the sangha, you're returning to the just community, to the community of justice. You're returning to the community and meditating on the harmony of the community. You're not in denial about disharmony, you're not in denial about disagreement, but you're present and open to that the law, the reality in the community,

[13:37]

the reality in the society is already manifested, the justice is already manifested. This doesn't preclude the appearance of injustice. Injustice could also be appearing. But again, I think I said last week, there seems to be lots of opportunities to see injustice. There seems to be lots of opportunities to see falsehood and lies. And to be right where you are would be the practice when there seems to be disharmony, inequity, injustice, and lying, to return

[14:39]

to that place and find your place right there. Then the practice will occur realizing justice right there, realizing the truth right there at that very moment. Another way to speak, another representation or manifestation of justice in this school is the Bodhisattva precepts. They can also be called a manifestation of the truth. They can also be called a manifestation of justice. So, not killing, not taking what's not given, not misusing sexuality, not intoxicating body and mind.

[15:46]

Not slandering, not praising self at the expense of others. These are examples of justice. I brought a little card that has the sixteen Bodhisattva precepts on it. If you'd like one, you can have one after class. Again, the first three of these precepts is returning to the enlightenment, to the awakening, to the practice, returning to the practice of the truth, to the practice of dharma, which is Buddha, to practice the way of truth, the way of justice, and then take refuge in the teaching of justice, in the reality of justice, and return to the peace and harmony of our life together. Those are justice practices.

[17:09]

Any feedback on that? Yes? This is sort of out there from what you're saying, I guess, but I have a feeling that justice is kind of a concept on such a different level than unconstructedness and stillness. So as you're talking, I understand what you're saying, that from unconstructedness and stillness would manifest just behavior, but it feels like they're very different, like you're talking about apples and oranges. Justice is partly a concept. Yes, it seems such a concept, such a structured concept.

[18:21]

It's a concept that people use to get along with each other. Yes, it's a concept that people use to get along with each other. It's a key concept in a fundamental concept in human society, but it also seems to be actually an important concept in non-human society also. It seems to be present among monkeys and other primates, a sense of fairness, a sense of justice seems to be part of it. Also there's some research that the part of the human brain that seems to be active in considerations of justice is comparable to the part of the brain of a rat that has to

[19:22]

do with food. So there's some research to suggest that the way the brain works with this issue of justice and fairness is like a very basic need, and that justice may be actually like a biological adaptation. But our idea of justice doesn't really exist in the biological world. No, but as I'm saying, there seems to be something about fairness in the study of closely related animals to us. They seem to have a sense of fairness and justice in their relationships, and when it's satisfied, they seem to be peaceful, and when it's not, they seem to be upset.

[20:24]

I'm suggesting that to you, that there's some research on this, and I think I maybe mentioned to you that fungi act in a way similar to a rat. They act in a way similar to a rat, that kind of demonstrates some principles of justice, the way they function. They live under the ground all over the planet. Their flowers are mushrooms, and they mediate between lots of different other organisms. In the earth, they take or they receive excess nutrients from organisms who don't need them, and pass the nutrients to other organisms

[21:38]

that do need them, who are undersupplied with it. So they serve this purpose to their not fungi neighbors, and they're all over the place, so they have a lot of neighbors. Without this function, the whole ecosystem would collapse. But they do this service, so they're in service of a kind of justice. They justify nutrients among beings. That's an example. Fungi is not an animal. That's not a plant. It's another category. But they make this peace between plants and animals, particularly between plants. They create harmony in the situation, and it makes possible the whole ecosystem. So they also demonstrate a kind of justice, or a kind of equality. One meaning of justice is distributive justice, which means to fairly

[22:50]

equitably distribute resources. That's part of the meaning of justice, used that way. So fungi do that. As far as we know, they don't think of the word justice, but they have just conduct in that way. If a human being did what they did, we would say that person was enacting justice, probably. So it's a pervasive phenomenon, but in human society it's also a concept, and we are discussing it. Different humans are discussing it, and different societies have different understandings of what justice means. But again, to work out harmony between different societies' understanding of justice would also be, from the point of view of a bodhisattva, that would be like a fungi type of work. You

[23:58]

would coordinate different societies' views of justice so that there would be a broader and broader harmony and peace. And then you would be extending the sangha in that way. Part of what I'm trying to do in this class is to coordinate the Buddha Dharma with the Buddha Dharma. I think that justice is very important to various societies on this planet.

[24:58]

If you translate Chinese and Sanskrit and Tibetan and Japanese and Korean and Thai and Burmese, if you translate the teachings of these Buddhist teachers into English, it's very difficult to find the English word justice. The English word justice just doesn't appear very much in Buddhist sutras in translation or commentaries or teachings. So I'm trying to find a way, since this word is so important in Western culture, I'm trying to find a way that Buddhism can participate with this issue and maybe even help. Enlighten the topic of justice. That's why I brought up the Supreme Court Justice's statement, because that judge seems to be tuned into a kind of Buddhist way of doing his work. So

[26:10]

if what he's doing is something that's promoted by not doing, then maybe he's doing the same thing as a person who is developing unconstructedness and stillness, because he's kind of talking like he's working on that. But he's also a justice, so he must have some concern with justice. So maybe the people who are doing those practices are actually concerned with the same issues, even though in one case they don't use the word justice. So I don't want to force things, but I'm trying to make Buddhism more accessible. More relevant to the issue of justice. How do you feel like that fungi justice, that plant and animal justice that you're talking about, relates to the place of unconstructedness and stillness that we were talking about last

[27:14]

week? Because I see the very fundamental scientific kind of justice balance and equilibrium going on between plants and animals, but that seems more mechanical and automatic than this sort of human... Good point. Good point. So I thought of this last week, and I think it's important that I think it was last week I thought of it. One example is a scarecrow, and another example is called a deer scare, or a scare deer. Another example is Suzuki Roshi getting bumped. So here's examples. The bodhisattva, the being

[28:20]

of enlightenment who is enacting this unconstructedness and stillness, is often compared to a scare deer, or a deer scare. So like if you go to a garden in Japan, or maybe other places in Asia too, they have these bamboo tubes in the garden, which are one end is closed and the other end is open. And water flows into the tube, and the tube is on a pivot, so the water flows in the tube and when the water fills up the tube, the tube tips over and spills out the water. And then when it flips back again to its original position, part of the bamboo hits a rock and

[29:23]

the being hollows it and scares the deer out of the garden. It performs that function mechanically, without any idea that it's performing the function, but it performs the function. That's compared to the way the bodhisattva acts. They don't actually consider that they're helping people. And then the scarecrow too is just sitting there in the field, and it scares the birds. But it's not trying to scare the birds, it just does, and it's performing this function. Another example, like I said, I didn't see this myself, but one time Suzuki Roshi came into the zendo, when we used to be at this place called Sokoji, before we had the San Francisco Zen Center, over on Page Street, and there was a zendo there, and he came into

[30:30]

the meditation hall and, as usual, stopped and bowed, and one of the students came in behind him but didn't stop. So the student ran into Suzuki Roshi, and he bowed, and he bowed. One observer saw Suzuki Roshi elbow the guy, and the guy ran into him, so one person saw Suzuki Roshi go whack him with his elbow. I wasn't there, but I imagined Suzuki Roshi bowing, and the person hitting him, and his elbows just going back, because the guy hit him and knocked him forward, and his elbows went back. So I'm imagining Suzuki Roshi as a bodhisattva, just that his reaction was to help that person get an elbow, and realize that he had run into the teacher, and he might have realized that even without

[31:36]

getting the elbow. But anyway, the way the teacher responded was mechanical. However, you have to be compassionate to drop into your mechanical level of functioning. Otherwise, your constructions will be like, I'm going to teach the guy a trick, or I shouldn't hit the students, or I shouldn't scare the deer. I should come down softly on the rock, or I should hit the rock harder. That's fine, but that's not the place that the bodhisattva's activity comes from. The bodhisattva's activity comes from wishing to help beings, but not having any idea of beings that are being helped. So it's mechanical. It just happens as a result

[32:39]

of causes and conditions. There's no construction about it. But it takes training to open to the unconstructedness. So the bodhisattvas are those who have actually trained themselves to open to this unconstructed way that they're relating to people, this just way, which is that they don't do anything by themselves, for example. They don't do things to people, they do things with people. Have the mushrooms trained themselves, or is that something different? I might have said they train themselves, but anyway, the bodhisattvas are trained by circumstances, and the mushrooms are trained by circumstances. They have evolved to perform this world-saving, planet-saving function. They also can dismantle

[33:48]

toxins that nothing else can. Human beings can package toxins up and put them in a holding tank someplace, but we don't know how to break them down. We do not have the sophistication in chemistry yet to break down some toxins. They do not degrade, some of them. Some of the ones that we don't know how to degrade, and bacteria do not know how to degrade, fungi can degrade into less toxic, and then they can degrade those less toxics into less toxics, so after relatively, not eons, they can convert a pile of toxins that nothing else can decompose into non-toxic material. The world has created these beings to serve this purpose, and the world creates bodhisattvas to serve basically the same purpose, but fungi,

[34:53]

even though they've been doing this job for a while, human beings have not really even noticed until recently this great beneficence on their part, or not too many human beings are noticing it. So I'm telling you about them, and bodhisattvas, too, are not necessarily noticed by a lot of people. We're talking it up about fungi and human bodhisattvas, and there can be monkey bodhisattvas, dog bodhisattvas, tree bodhisattvas, grass bodhisattvas—beings that are demonstrating justice, the way things work in a harmonious way among beings. In human societies, animal societies, and societies which include human and animal and plant societies. I don't know if this relates, I'll just throw some things out. I think sometimes people

[36:00]

with justice, they get very involved in the conceptual, and they kind of conceive of a result that's an unjust result, and that's not—sometimes they think of justice as being kind of a process that engages, that people work together at, and often people look at that result and say, well, that didn't come out perfect, but it's kind of the engagement to work together in, let's say, a legal system, that kind of generates—it's a process that kind of engages people. And the end product, in a conceptual sense, might not be fair or not fair, but it's the coming together to work together, in a sense, which is the justice. And I was thinking of, for instance, even another slant on that might be people are waiting for courts, they're waiting for some person to decide in a justice situation, but then

[37:03]

I thought, sometimes there are no courts, sometimes no one will get in court in a divorce situation or something. So someone might say, well, I'm going to assign you to a mediator, and the mediator might not tell anyone anything. He just might sit there doing nothing, essentially, kind of saying, okay, here's how this usually works. What do you need? What are your problems? Oh, wait a minute, okay, what are yours? And then they're kind of—I could see them being kind of a bit like the decomposers, kind of maybe not doing a whole lot, but just being a catalyst to facilitate this process. Yes? I have a kind of basic question as far as, if justice, like in the moment, if justice isn't being served, people are agitated, what is the student— Say again? If justice— If justice isn't being served. I mean, like you were saying, like the monkeys get agitated

[38:07]

until— Oh, yeah. Can I mention that I misheard you and I thought you said, justice isn't served when we're agitated. So, if justice isn't being served, what does a student of Buddhism, where are you in that moment? How do you find justice in that moment when it's not being served around you? Yeah. So, you said justice is not being served, but actually, another way to say it would be, people don't see that justice is being served, and when we don't see that justice is being served, we usually feel not too good. When we see either injustice, or maybe not that, but we can't see that justice is being served, like served for dinner, justice is not being given, then I think we don't feel very good. So, a student of the Buddha Dharma

[39:12]

might get to a point where they actually can feel that they've realized the Dharma. And then if they, if not feel that they've realized, but let's say they actually get to a point where they've realized the Dharma, then they're in a situation where some other people have not yet realized the Dharma. They've realized justice, and they're with people who have not realized justice, and they see that these people who do not realize justice are, in different ways, upset. Maybe they're upset for different reasons, but still, even though they don't agree, they're both upset. And the being who has realized justice sees this, and has the ability to serve, like John was saying, as a mediator, or a fungus, as a mediator between these people, where again, you're not really constructing a way to make them see the justice, you have realized it. So, when they pour water into you, you tip over,

[40:19]

and then you go, boop. So they get to see justice working in their presence. And if you stay there together, they start to pick up on the justice. They're able to see the injustice, they're able to see that neither party is getting what they want, and they're able to think that the other person is the problem. They can see these things, but they can't see the justice. If someone who has realized the justice, and I would even say not see it, but who has become it, if they go in their midst, the people can feel it, and they are transformed by that. So, again, the most important thing we do is not doing so. If the justice can go into a situation where there's a big question about what is justice, and they can be there with this question, with also their knowledge of the law and so

[41:25]

on, but that's just part of what's making them who they are, which is a person who may have realized justice, and then they can bring that into manifestation. That would be the way. Without any construction, even though in the realm of construction is where the feeling of lack of justice is there, and the unconstructed stillness can enlighten the realm of constructed justice and injustice. Not to say that what you're describing wouldn't be challenging enough for me, but what I find even more challenging to wrap my brain around is when I become aware of grand injustices, extreme poverty that we're partially responsible for, or grand suffering all around the world,

[42:32]

all around us. And so we're not talking about my behavior as a single individual or a room full of individuals, somehow affecting a small situation, an argument or a difficult situation in a room. But something on a global scale that dwarfs me and my idea of practicing by sitting and trying to find truth through stillness, how I can begin to apply that to something that's so crushing. When you say crushing, what do you mean by crushing? Well, to me the newspaper is crushing. You mean you feel crushed? Yeah, or overwhelmed. And then when you feel crushed and overwhelmed, then what do you do? How do you live when you feel crushed? I try denial.

[43:34]

Huh? I try different things. Denial? Denial. Anything else? I try education. I try to educate myself on the topic more. And do you feel okay about the education? I feel better about it, but I still feel like I'm not being effective in influencing what's going on or participating in it in any meaningful way. Okay, well, I would propose to you that you're always influencing the situation, and so am I. That if resources are not being distributed to beings, if the fungus aren't operating properly, that some people have much too much and other people have much too little. In a situation like that, we're all contributing to it right now. And no matter what you do

[44:35]

from this point on, when you see some injustice, everything you do in response to that from now on will continue to contribute to the evolution of the situation, of it staying pretty much the same, getting worse, getting better. We are contributing to it. So, it's possible that if you feel crushed and depressed and go into denial, it's possible, I suppose, that that would make a positive contribution to the situation, but I don't see how. Becoming educated about the situation, that seems to be kind of like in the neighborhood of facing it. So generally speaking, again, if you see some situation where there's injustice, facing it would be apropos of the activity of the bodhisattva, of the being who's working for justice. They kind of start by facing the appearance of injustice. But how do they face

[45:39]

it? Well, they try to learn about it. That would be reasonable. But also, they would try to discover some justice. If you're just going to see injustice and be messing with injustice, where is it going to go? If you don't know what justice is in the situation, you won't necessarily help. But learning about it is kind of probably in the direction of finding justice. Sometimes when you just ask people who are, for example, some people don't have enough and some other people have too much, if you just inquire in the situation sometimes, the distribution starts to even out. Like if you ask these people, do you need all that? Because these people over here seem to not have enough. If you're really inquiring, not coming in with knowing what justice is in the sense that they're wrong and these people are their victims, but you actually are trying to educate yourself and you bring this stillness and

[46:45]

this unconstructedness. For example, you're not constructing that you're better than the rich people or not as good as the poor people or whatever. You're not constructing that kind of thing. So you're facing it, you're learning about it, and you're also trying to bring a concentrated, relaxed presence to the situation. That will have an effect. It will have an effect. If you're not relaxed and you're self-righteous and not facing the situation, that will be effective. You will be effective. You are effective. You can't avoid being effective. But your effect can be better and better if you learn how to get to the source of justice. And if you feel crushed, that's another thing which deserves attention. It's another thing

[47:51]

to learn about. What is my feeling crushed? You tell me you're crushed, I want to find out what you're talking about. I'm not talking you out of your crushedness. I'm not trying to get rid of your crushedness. I'm just trying to understand what you mean so I can be with you. Maybe somebody else needs a little crushedness and we can take some of yours and give it to them. Sometimes that's the case. And then everybody feels better because now they have a little bit of crushedness which they didn't have enough of before, and now you have a little bit less and it's kind of like we're starting to feel like we're working together here now. It applies in conversations, it applies in your own mind, within your own conflicting voices and competing claims in your own mind, in a conversation and in neighborhoods, cities, countries. How you respond to this is effective. And if you say, I don't feel like I'm very

[49:00]

effective, maybe what you mean is I feel like my effect might not be very good. I am effective, but it doesn't seem like my effect is very good. I would like to have a more positive effect than I'm having now. Yes, Norbert. I used to know that this is about unconstructed stillness, what we're talking about here. I'm talking about unconstructed stillness as the source, as the place we need to go in order to be nourished in such a way that we would be nourished and have the resource to work for justice in the realm where people feel there's injustice, in the constructed realm where people feel injustice. We need the resource of unconstructed stillness.

[50:05]

We need the resource of a concentrated, relaxed presence with everything that we experience, and from there we have a chance to work to realize justice. Because in that realm we realize it. We enter it and we embody it. And once entering and embodying it, then our action can be just. But just doesn't mean you're doing the right thing so much. You might be doing the right thing, but some people do pretty much the right thing, but it doesn't seem to help these people who are fighting each other. Do you know what I mean? Some people are like, this person seems to be doing fine, and these two people are fighting with each other, and they look at the third person and they say, neither one of them has a problem with this third person. Do you know what I mean? Can that happen? Yes. Yes. What we need is a third person who comes and interacts with the two so that they discover

[51:08]

justice in their relationship, because they think there's injustice in their relationship. And as a matter of fact, the person who helps them might not be somebody that they think is being just, like the scare deer. They might think it's just a stupid person who tripped on the curb and fell on his face. But when they see this person fall and get hurt, both of the conflicting parties suddenly wake up and see justice, which they couldn't see before. And this person played a role in them waking up, because this person is demonstrating the source of justice. Not somebody's idea of justice, but the fact that when this person is in the neighborhood of these people who are fighting, this person falls down. Or when this person is in the neighborhood of these people fighting, this person starts crying. Or when this person is in the neighborhood of this, and so on, they manifest in such a

[52:16]

way as to help the other. And they realize justice. They realize it. They're at peace. They're in harmony with everybody. But they can see that the other people do not realize harmony. But they don't tell them, you know, you shouldn't. They just interact with them in such a way, because they're coming from this place. I can tell just a very, very short, relay a very short thing that I hear and ask, which is like, come and find a place of kind of perspective for me or kind of encouraging me. But I used to know this guy before, drawing. And sometimes when somebody was having trouble drawing this in this situation, there would be a thing over there and the person would be over here drawing. I used to know this guy who helped people do this. And he sometimes nothing he

[53:18]

did could help do this, whether it was his fault or not. And so then he would say that he would do this. And it was that he would just say to the person, listen, let's forget about who I am, like I'm the helper. And let's forget about who you are, you're the helpee. And let's just be here with this thing and now let's try. Yeah, that's a good example. Deconstruct helper, helpee, and the project we're doing. Again, let's just get together and not do anything. Let's forget about this project we're doing. And if you can open to that, with the teacher, we might find some peace and harmony with this situation. And what the person was trying to do, for example,

[54:22]

the drawing that they were trying to do, has been given up. And maybe they never do do that drawing, but they do some other drawing, which is a lot better than what they were thinking of doing, perhaps. They didn't even think of this other thing. And it was always right there. They could always do that. I mean, they could do that. They didn't have to learn to do it, they already knew how. It was their way of drawing, not somebody else's way of drawing. I just wanted to mention that on the radio today they announced that they arrested Radovan Karadzic, this person who is being indicted for genocide of lots of Muslim men and boys. He organized this huge slaughter of 8,000.

[55:33]

And I just thought that this is an example of an issue of justice now that we're going to be looking at. And I just wanted to tell you a story. Some of you have heard this story already, but it's a story about a famous, I think it's the person who founded the Hasidic movement in Poland. I think his name was Balshem Tov. So, Balshem Tov was this important teacher in Poland. At the time he was about to pass away, he gathered his main disciples

[56:40]

together, and he gave each one of them some special assignment about how to carry the And one of the junior disciples got the last assignment, and the assignment was to go around Europe and tell stories about Balshem Tov. And when you first hear you think what a conceited teacher he was, to have his disciple go around and tell stories to him. But anyway, and the disciple thought, geez, I got the lousiest job of all the disciples. They all have this important work, and I'm supposed to just go around and tell stories about the teacher.

[57:41]

But anyway, one of the refrains of the story is, when Balshem Tov told you to do something, you did it. So, he followed his orders, and after the teacher died, he went around Europe, and where somebody would listen, he told them stories about his teacher. And he did this for a long, long time, and when he felt like he pretty much covered the whole continent, and he thought he had fulfilled his teacher's instruction, he felt like it was time to go back home and carry on his practice and his teaching back in Poland. But then as he was on his way back, maybe from France and going by Italy, he heard a rumor about a very wealthy Italian count or something who offered a considerable amount of gold for people who would come and

[58:51]

tell him stories. So he thought, well, maybe I could extend my trip a little bit. So he made a side trip to the castle or the palace of this very wealthy aristocrat, Italian aristocrat, and he went into the place and he was welcomed because this guy wanted to hear stories. He advertised he wanted to hear stories. So here was a story about this great Jewish teacher. So when he heard from this young rabbi that he had stories about Baal Shem Tov, he said, great, let's hear them. And the guy said, okay, well, let's see now. Excuse me, I'm having a senior moment here, I'm just a kid. I can't remember any stories about my teacher.

[60:00]

This is really weird. I don't know what to say. And the count said, it's okay, just relax. Just have dinner and go to sleep and we'll talk again tomorrow. So the next day he said, well, are you ready to tell me a story? He said, yeah. But again, he couldn't think of any. And he was kind of surprised that he couldn't think of stories because he had been telling them all over Europe. And he had lived with Baal Shem Tov for quite a while. So he knew he knew stories, but they weren't coming to his mind and he couldn't get them to come to his mind. All these great teaching stories. And this went on, I think, for five days. But his host said, now stay, it's okay, just take your time. I'll wait forever. But he just got so embarrassed, he said, I've got to go. He couldn't stand to

[61:07]

be there and not be able to remember any stories. This guy wanted to hear stories and this was his line of work. He couldn't do it. So he went out of the castle and went away, but then a story came to him. But it wasn't one of the stories that he'd been telling. It was a story he hadn't thought of before. Not a very good story. It's kind of a weird story. But one thing about it was it was a story that he was in. So anyway, he went back and he said, I didn't think of a story. It's not a very good one and I'm involved, but it is a story. The guy says, fine, tell it. He said, well, one time Balshem Tov said to me, I was his attendant, he said, I think we should start packing now. I want

[62:12]

to go on a trip with you from Poland to Turkey. I want to go to such and such a town. I don't remember the name of the town. But the young rabbi said, excuse me, Master, but that town is very famous for being a hotbed of Christian fundamentalism and they have a tendency to persecute Jews in that town. And the rabbi said, uh-huh, okay, we're going. When are we going, by the way? And he said, we're going, I want to be there during Easter. And the young rabbi said, that's the time of year when sometimes they kill Jews in recompense for the Jews having crucified Jesus. So I don't think we should go because you might

[63:15]

get hurt, Master. So let's not go, okay? And Balshem Tov says, yeah, we're going. And when Balshem Tov said we're going to do something, you do it. So they went to this town at the holy time when they would often actually kill some Jew, not all of them, but kill some of the Jews in town. They went into the town at this time and the young rabbi following behind his teacher into this high holiday situation and they come into town and they go to the Jewish quarter of the town and all the Jews are like indoors with the doors shut and the windows blocked, really trying to protect themselves from any attack from any crazy Christians. So anyway, they get into the house, one of the houses, and then

[64:28]

they are in the house and Balshem Tov goes to the window, second story window of the house he's staying in and opens the windows and stands in front of the window. The young rabbi says, get away from the window, don't let them see you. And Balshem Tov is looking over the scene and from this window you can see a big plaza in this Turkish Christian city. And in the plaza there's lots of people gathered and there's going to be a big mass and Balshem Tov is sitting there looking at it and his attendant standing next to him, and Balshem Tov says, well, you see the procession coming now? See the procession? The disciple says, yeah. He says, see the leader of the procession? See the bishop? The disciple says,

[65:29]

yeah. He says, go down there into that crowd of Christians and go up to the bishop and tell him to come into this house to see me. And the disciple says, what? But when Balshem Tov says to go do something, you do it. So the Jewish boy goes down among the crowd of Christian revelers and gets up to the head of the procession and as the bishop is climbing up the stairs to do the mass, he comes up to him and says, excuse me, Balshem Tov wants you to come and see him over there in that house there, see he's in the window. And the

[66:32]

disciple says, okay. And he continues to climb up onto the altar, does the mass in all his vestments, heavy jewel vestments with this big scepter covered with major jewels. And after the mass is over, he comes down off the altar, walks across the square and by himself goes into the house, the Jewish house where Balshem Tov is, and goes in to meet Balshem Tov. And when he meets Balshem Tov, Balshem Tov says, come with me. And they go back into a back room, the two of them alone, for a long time, two or three hours. And then

[67:32]

the bishop comes out looking really shaken and leaves. And Balshem Tov says to the boy, okay, let's go back to Poland. And they go back. And then the young man says, that's the story. It doesn't even have really an ending, but that's the only one I've got. And he looks at the count and the count, his face is covered with tears. And he's also very, very happy looking. And the young rabbi says, what's happening? He says, well, the

[68:40]

bishop was me. I was the bishop. I'm a Jew. And I lived in that town, in that area. I was very wealthy, but I was afraid that the Christians would rob me and perhaps even kill me or my family. So I converted to Christianity. And of course they were very happy that I converted to Christianity, a wealthy Jew. And because of that, I rose in the church very rapidly and actually became the bishop eventually. And while I was bishop, not only did I abandon Judaism to protect myself and maintain my wealth, but as bishop I allowed

[69:47]

the Christians to kill Jews. Minor genocide allowed by him of his own people to protect himself. So when Baal Shem Tov came and called me and I went in that room, I saw the beginning of where I could start to see where my life was heading. The picture is coming into focus now that Baal Shem Tov has made a long trip. He heard about this guy. It was well known that he used to be a Jew. Baal Shem Tov heard about this and traveled a long way at great expense and danger to himself to go to this guy to tell this guy what's going on here

[70:52]

in this world. There's a big problem here for you, young man, old man maybe. So you see you're heading for something worse than you could ever imagine. There's almost no hope for you. And I've come here to tell you that. But I've also come to tell you that there is a slight possibility that you can recover from this terrible karma. And what you need to do is give back all the money that you gained disreputably and use the rest of your money that you had from your family to do good works and to encourage people from all over the world to come and tell you stories. And do this until somebody comes

[72:05]

and tells you your own story. And when somebody comes and tells you your own story, your repentance will be complete and you will be free. So this is an example of justice. There's a punishment involved, but the punishment is not really punishment, it's practice. It's like practice is the punishment in this case. And the person is coming and telling you, I want you to know that you've been overwhelmingly evil and I do not want what's going to happen to you to happen, but it's probably going to happen and it's going to be really horrible. But if you practice in this way wholeheartedly, there's some hope for you. So this is what the one who sees justice can do for someone who's acting in a way that doesn't seem to

[73:16]

be just. There's a way for them to interact and not deny the bad karma or the consequences. There are going to be consequences, but to show the way of practice is part of the process of justice. But somebody has to see the blindness to the justice and show a way to practice to open the mind and heart to the process of justice. And I bring this up in relationship to, for example, Radhavan Karadzic. I can't tell his story yet because it's just starting actually. The chute is just starting to close in on him now. And by the way, he was publicly

[74:19]

teaching meditation, he was teaching calm, quiet meditation, peaceful meditation. He was an alternative health healer, like a bishop or a rabbi or a Zen priest. And now we can see this coming in, but I don't know if there's going to be a bodhisattva there to help him practice with this. But the bodhisattva would go, would travel and endanger her life to go help Radhavan. Practice now to face this and to find salvation, even though he's involved in this unbelievable horror, still. The bodhisattva would have gone to help Saddam Hussein, the

[75:30]

bodhisattva will come to help George Bush and Dick Cheney. But not by the, you know, nice going boys, but show them the karma and show them the way to practice with it. But you have to see yourself. You have to be able to see it in your own story. When I heard the story about him, and I heard the story before, but when I heard it, I actually didn't feel like he was a bad guy and I was a good guy. I did feel a little bit like I did this. I felt that sickness that you feel when you think about something you did bad. Not the sickness you feel when you think somebody else did something bad, but when you feel kind of like culpable. I felt some culpability for this situation. It was that sick feeling that I feel when I think I did something unskillful or cruel. But I felt good that I hadn't distanced

[76:36]

myself from his guilt. I felt good about that, because that would help me if I had a chance to go to him and help him. But when we see the evils of the world, but we also see justice, we don't feel separate. We don't put ourselves above the people who are doing evil. We feel close to them, close to the evil ones, and we feel sick about it, because it's terrible and it's sickening. But we have to be able to be still with that, like a bamboo tube filling with water, in order to come close to them and just go... No big deal,

[77:40]

just, you know, I'm with you, there's harmony here, there's justice, and we're going to find it together. And it may mean that a lot of painful punishments are going to come to him. I don't know what's going to happen, but the point is, no matter what, there could be practice too. And the way you feel crushed is maybe not that different from the way he feels. He's going to feel crushed. What's the difference? You feel bad, he's going to feel bad. If he doesn't feel bad, then it's going to be hard for him to practice. If he somehow doesn't think there's any problem with this, then Balsham 12 can't help him. But if he can feel that now it's coming, maybe he's even started already, I don't know.

[78:42]

I have some other ones like that too. You also hear the juxtaposition of mercy and justice, almost like they're in conflict, or forgiveness and justice. They're not in conflict. I think in Buddhism they're together. Justice, including sometimes karmic consequences that look like punishment, go together with compassion and mercy and forgiveness. And we have quite a few nice stories about this, this combination of mercy and justice, punishment and helping people wake up in the middle of the punishment for the consequences of their actions. I think today was the first time I felt this sick feeling hearing about Slobodan Milosevic,

[80:07]

and there's one more, there's three of them. Somehow Slobodan Milosevic, when I watched his process, I didn't feel this. He seemed to be totally in denial about it all, like it wasn't bothering him at all. But this time I feel closer to him. Again, I feel sick, but I feel better. I feel more like his situation is connected to our practice here together. And therefore we share some responsibility for what he did. We contributed to the world that he lived in when he could act this way. We're somewhat responsible in our own way, and I feel sick about that. But feeling sick is good. I should feel sick about this. I feel good that I feel sick. And I feel good that his situation has allowed me to feel

[81:11]

that, where I didn't feel it, I felt more distant from Milosevic. I couldn't feel my responsibility, just like I feel my responsibility for George Bush, etc. So I feel sick. And a lot of Americans feel sick about it, and that's good that we feel sick. If we didn't feel sick about this, it wouldn't be good, because then we would be denying our contribution. It's putting it out there on them. Andy, did you want to offer something? I was captivated by your story. It's a great story, isn't it? And I guess the only thing I was thinking before was, I have these glimpses of, I think

[82:17]

I have these glimpses of the Bodhisattva or the unconditioned, but I also find that I'm not deluded, that I have enough of a deluded mind that I need to apply intention. You need what? To apply intention. Yes, you do. To be aware of my intentions. Yes, you do. You need to do that. But when you talk about the Bodhisattva, it's almost like you're just in this general field of love and open-heartedness. It's not like you and intentions, it's just movement. Yes, well, thank you for that. So, in one sense, what Charlie brought up was, to some extent, accusing the Bodhisattva of having intentions, and I said, in some sense, they really don't. Now, you're bringing up the side that the Bodhisattvas don't have any

[83:22]

intentions, and now I would say they really do. When you see them, that they're with all beings, intimately, and there's no beings they're with, but they do have intentions, and they take care of their intentions in such a way that they're open to this beyond intention way of being with them. They do want to help beings, and they develop that, and they look at that intention, and they find the unconstructed stillness in their intentions, by taking care of their intentions. And intentions usually often have some movement in them, or some constructed qualities of them. Intentions are constructions. So, part of what we do is we care for our intentions, we pay attention to our stories, we listen to and care for our stories, so that we become free of our stories and settle into the unconstructed,

[84:24]

the unstoried realm of our life. That's where the Bodhisattvas come from, but first they have to go there. So, they have to go there, and then they come from there. And they go there by practicing compassion with their own stories, their own intentions. But you can't really find true justice in your story, because your story isn't my story. And there seems to be some disharmony or conflict between people's different stories. So then it looks like we disagree, and we're not helping each other, because our stories differ, and so on. That's the way it is. Bodhisattvas live in that world, they're happily living in that world. They come into that world to practice relaxing and being playful with their story. And by being that way with their story, they enter the realm, the unstoried realm. Their

[85:25]

own conscious, constructed intentions, they practice with those in such a way that they enter the unconstructed, and they embody it. Then they come back into the constructed, into the story realm, and they tell stories and listen to stories. And they check their realization by seeing if everybody's story seems to be their own. And that's what they hear, they hear everybody's story is theirs. Because they don't have a story anymore, their story has been deconstructed. But it didn't get deconstructed by trying to pull it apart, it became just deconstructed by caring for it kindly, by being very intimate and honest and relaxed and playful with their story. So then they realize the source of their story, then they come out of their story into the realm, they come out of the unconstructed into the constructed, and teach other people how to play with their stories. Their overwhelming,

[86:25]

crushing stories. They teach people how to play with them and let go of them and enter the unconstructed and then come out and teach others. So there's two sides. One side is the boy's efforts to commit to live in the realm of stories and help all the beings that are involved with stories to become free of their stories. But also they get to a place where there aren't any beings or stories that they're working with anymore. So they go back and forth between these two realms and this is how they realize peace and harmony. It's a balance between the two. Not abiding in either, but exercising both with not getting stuck in either. So part of their activity is just unconscious, just filling with water and dumping it out. But then from there they enter into all these

[87:28]

constructions. Thank you very much.

[87:36]

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