Once again, I remind us that all compounded things are unstable, subject to change, not worthy of confidence. Being open and compassionate to compounded things, it's possible to have a steadfast practice in the midst of instability. And the steadfastness is also changing. But if we can accept that our steadfastness is changing, we get rewarded with more steadfastness in the practice.

[01:01]

of living in an impermanent, dynamic, unreliable world of compounded phenomena. And again, I'm a compounded phenomena and I'm calling you for compassion. I'm a Right now, I'm a compounded phenomena that wishes to listen to you, to observe you with compassion. And now I've changed, and again, I call for your compassion, and again, I wish to observe you with compassion. And so on. So this picture of compassion which I spoke of, this picture of steadfast practice which I spoke of, is a picture of a practice of social engagement.

[02:37]

It's a social action practice. It's a practice of conversation with all beings. And among the various schools of Buddhism, in one way, the school which is most known for social practice is Zen. The classical Zen stories are stories of of social interaction. They're not just stories of somebody sitting by herself on a mountain who wakes up. There's a few of those, but mostly they're stories of enacting the awakening in social dynamics. That's the classical Zen image. And it may be that there never was such a

[03:40]

social life, but at some point in the history of the Zen school, people said there was, and then people focused on that image up until now. And I'm focusing on it now. That what we're doing together is calling to each other, questioning each other, listening to each other. It's a social practice, and it's a social practice that goes alongside of Silent sitting. It isn't just social practice. It's a social practice which goes with silent sitting. We bring the silent sitting to our social practice. And we bring our social practice to our silent sitting. So we practice silent sitting socially. A friend

[04:44]

of mine from early days of practice at Tassajara said to me one time, and he had a dream, that we had a party in the Zendo at Tassajara. And it was, in a lot of ways, it looked like a normal period of meditation. We were all sitting in our seats, as usual, sitting still, and so on. The only difference was that we could talk to each other. That was the party. We just are starting a practice period now at Green Gulch, and part of the way we start practice periods is we have an initiation, usually,

[05:44]

At Tassara we have five-day initiation. At Green Gulch we have a one-day initiation where everybody sits basically all day long with meal breaks and toilet breaks. But basically everybody just sits. There aren't fixed periods. We just basically sit all day. And then after the initiation we have an entering ceremony for those new for the people who are entering the practice period. Some people have done practice periods before, some have not. So we have an entering ceremony. And then the entering ceremony has a form, a, what do you call it, a choreography, which the entering students learn the choreography usually the night before, and then they perform this choreography the next day, which involves them coming in And then in groups of three, excuse me, coming in and each person offering incense, and then after they offer incense, they form groups of three and prostrate themselves to the Buddha and then the next group of three.

[06:59]

And then when they finish, they line up. And when everybody's done, they do a circumambulation of the hall. And these people learned that ceremony and they performed it. They were trained. So we call it practice period, but also we used to call it training period. They got trained to do that ceremony. They paid attention to the instructions. And they performed what they were instructed to do. And it was more or less perfect performance of like 20, I don't know how many people, almost 30 people. Maybe 32 people performed the ceremony. Everybody was basically, you could say, perfect. But really, it wasn't so much perfect. It was beautiful from my perspective. For me, this kind of thing is beautiful to see people receive instruction and then sincerely perform it.

[08:07]

I was feeling a little down before the ceremony, but when I saw them do this, they really lifted my spirits with the beauty of their sincerity and their attention to performing the ceremony. Just like here, the way you practice here is uplifting to me. I'm calling for your compassion. Thank you for giving it to me in the form of your practice. The days are getting shorter. And this has been a beautiful one. Thank you very much. Is there anything you want to tell me before we close down the shop? Yes. I appreciate being here with you.

[09:15]

I appreciate you coming. Did Kurt bring you? Did he bring you? Are you a friend of his? Thanks for bringing him, Kurt. As I listened to your teaching this afternoon, a little bit of tension of where can I fly it, but also it was arising spontaneously that I think illustrates and maybe you'd comment on. So I think of one particular friend where we get along a great part of the time. Like part of the time, he's so obnoxious and so irritating to me and to others. But I feel that he is, I've been more comfortable with the word love in this situation. So maybe I'll go back and forth.

[10:16]

It feels like he's trying to say, I want you to love me even when I'm horrible around you. And it's as if, you know, as if those things are going to, again, a call for compassion, a call for love, but it's coming out in kind of an odd way. That's right. And I seem to recognize that. Well, last month it was just too much. Maybe this is the end, but no, it's not. It's an illustration of an opportunity for what I'm talking about. So I agree that your friend is calling for compassion and you could expand it and say he's calling for compassion no matter what he does.

[11:18]

In two senses. No matter what he does, he's calling for compassion, and he's calling for compassion no matter what he does. He wants to see, can I be, no matter what I am, will it come? Or rather, I want it to come no matter what I am. If I'm young and cute, I want it to come. If I'm middle-aged and not as cute, I want it to come. If I'm old and decrepit and demented, do I want it to come? Yes, I do. Is it difficult to be as loving to a demented old person as a little baby who's talking pretty much the same way? Most people have a harder time practicing compassion with demented people, old people, than with little babies who are really quite cuckoo. Like they think that their mother goes out of the room, that's it. No more mother.

[12:19]

But demented people think things like that too. They get terrified when somebody goes out of the room or comes into the room. They're like little babies. Their nervous system is the babies is coming together, but not quite. Theirs is going apart, but not quite. So, yeah, your friend is calling for compassion, is calling for love. I totally agree with you. And one more thing I want to say is your thought that he's obnoxious, that thought is calling for compassion. And if I can be compassionate to my thought, oh, no, not this again, or oh, how obnoxious. If I can be compassionate with that thought, then maybe I can be compassionate with the person I'm thinking about that way. If I'm not compassionate with my thought, oh, this person's obnoxious, it's going to be harder to be kind to them. It kind of undermines my attempts to be kind if I skip over being kind to my thoughts.

[13:21]

that they're obnoxious. And I often tell this story, which is basically illustrating the point, if you don't take care of yourself, it's going to make it hard to take care of others. If you don't take care of what you're thinking, it's going to be hard to take care of the person you're thinking that about. It's a story called The Acrobats. And Buddha makes up this story, right, about an acrobat and his master and disciple, or master and apprentice. And the master says to the apprentice, now you take care of me, and I'll take care of you, and we'll be able to perform this feat, our acrobatic feat. And the apprentice says to the teacher, I think you have a master, I think you have it turned around.

[14:22]

You take care of yourself. I'll take care of myself, and then we can do it. And the Buddha says, the apprentice is right. And how do you take care of yourself so you can perform the feat and take care of others? You're aware of your own anxiety and your own thoughts about people. If you take care of them, your own stuff, then you can take care of others. Then you can be kind to others. if you take care of your thought, this person's obnoxious, you can be kind to them. But if you don't, then you're trying to be kind, but they say, but they're so obnoxious. I'm trying to be kind. You're making it so difficult for me to be kind rather than, I think you're making it difficult and I totally am kind to that thought. And now that thought's not getting in the way anymore. It's more like a springboard into compassion because I practice compassion with it. Just like springboards, you know, the gymnasts.

[15:24]

They use that springboard. They don't skip over the springboard. They use it. And then they fly into the air and do that stuff. They don't use the springboard. It doesn't work so well. And sometimes they don't use the springboard very well, so then they can't do the next thing. So please give it a try with this person. And the person I'm talking about is you. Try it with yourself. And that's your homework. And if you do, then you have a chance of relating to this person that you think about that way. And also in the process of dealing with the way you think about him, the way you think about him might change. It might switch from obnoxious person to person who is helping me do my work. person who's helping me deal with something I've never dealt with before, which is my ideas of people.

[16:29]

Thank you so much. One time I was talking to someone, and I was thinking something about her, and I said to her, I do not believe what I'm thinking of you. I will not believe what I think of you. I do not believe what I'm thinking of you. I mean, I believe I'm thinking it, but I don't believe it's true. And also, when she saw me saying that, she changed quite a bit. But before, you know, I wasn't trying to get her to change. I was trying to tell myself in her presence not to believe what I thought of her. That would not be good. I think she got the idea. She didn't know what it was. But I think she got the idea. Whatever he's thinking about me probably wouldn't be good if he believed. I'm glad he's not going to believe it. That would make me, I think, more safe. She would be in danger if I actually believed what I thought of her.

[17:31]

But I didn't. But I had to work hard not to. So as it turns out, everything worked out. She didn't get hurt. I didn't get hurt. And now I have a story for you. So please don't believe what you think about other people. But also don't deny that you think it. So I'm to bring compassion to the thoughts about myself? Yes, and others. As opposed to bringing compassion to my actions. Oh, no. The thoughts you have about yourself are actions. Three types of actions in the Buddhadharma. You're thinking about yourself. That's an action. You're thinking about others. That's an action. Those are actions. Then speaking. And then postures. These are actions.

[18:33]

So, don't skip over your mental... Don't skip over attention and compassion to your mental action. Then, based on that, you can practice compassion towards your physical action and then you can practice compassion with your verbal action but actually the second to vert paying attention to mental is more subtle so the Buddha actually recommends first pay attention to your physical karma first pay attention to your posture then pay attention to your breath and then you can start taking care of your feelings Being compassionate. Be compassionate to your body. Attend to your body. Be kind to it. Let it be. Be compassionate to your breath. Then be compassionate to your feelings. Then be compassionate to your consciousness in general. And then be compassionate, mindful, and compassionate to your mental factors that are going on in your consciousness. The last category is more subtle than the first.

[19:43]

And the last category would be where you're thinking, specifically, this person is obnoxious. But in order to actually be aware that you think somebody's obnoxious, it helps to do that if you're aware of your posture, too. And in that story of the acrobats, the Buddha said, after the Buddha said... first you take care of yourself, then you take care of others. And he said, how do you take care of yourself? And then he said these four ways. Foundation of mindfulness on your posture and breathing, foundation of mindfulness on your feelings, foundation of mindfulness on your conscious states, foundation of mindfulness on your mental workings. That's... There's four foundations of mindfulness. Mindfulness of... body, mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of general conscious state, and mindfulness of the mental factors in your consciousness.

[20:49]

Those are the four. And usually people start with the first one because it's easier to observe your posture. And some people can observe their posture, but they're not in touch with their feelings. But by being aware of your posture and your breathing, then you can say, oh, I guess I do have some feelings. They're more subtle. And then feelings are, among mental factors, feelings are, in some sense, the easiest to be aware of, pain, pleasure, and neutral. Then you go into, like, what's the general characteristic of the consciousness? Well, I'm calm, or I'm distracted, or I'm frightened, or I'm angry. That's the whole consciousness. And then you get into the subtleties, where you look at the anger and the other mental factors, or the lust. So it's a progression of subtlety, those four. And that's how you take care of yourself. So if you're aware that you think somebody is obnoxious, you have that thought, it might also be good to be aware of your posture.

[21:51]

You might notice that your posture is all twisted or something at that time. So it's good to do all four. It's good to always be mindful of your posture. It's good to always be kind to your posture. Every moment. Yeah, that would be like impossible, right? No one could think of that about Kurt. Except certain people are very creative. Maybe they could. You want to give it a try? Let's think. One, two, three. Didn't work. Some things are very hard to imagine. Somehow we're able to imagine that someone's obnoxious. We can do that sometimes. They help us think that thought. And then now can we be compassionate to that terrible thought? And the answer is, yes, we can learn that.

[22:53]

But it's hard. It's hard even to look at it. And not to mention to look at it and then be kind to it. It's hard to look at monsters. But if you can look at them, then you have a chance to be kind to them. If you don't look at them and you're practicing kindness, in a way it doesn't count very well. It's like, okay, now look at them and then be kind. Couldn't I do it by absentee? Okay, okay. Couldn't I go over and imagine a cuter monster and then be compassionate to that and come back? All right. I can sometimes say to people who don't want to be kind to themselves, I say, well, if a child, if a baby was doing that, could you be kind to them? And they say, yeah. Imagine that you're a baby. Oh, okay. Okay, now imagine you're an adult. No, no, I can't. Well, how about a toddler? Well, okay.

[23:55]

And gradually work up to actually being kind to yourself. If you can't do a straight on, let's do the indirect route. We will find a way to be compassionate to ourselves, no matter what we are. Because that's what Buddha can do. Buddha, no matter how terrible we are, Buddha loves us. Buddha. And so we have examples of Buddha loving mass murderers. And also Zen ancestors loving murderers. And waking them up by that love. But, you know, this is rather advanced. We might not be quite there yet. Okay? But do you want to be there? You might say, well, I'm not sure, but if it would help people, okay, I'll be a Buddha. Once again, one, two, three, thank you so much.

[24:54]

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