You know, I probably didn't say that, because I don't usually talk about staying. Maybe what I said was, the way to be completely with it is to practice compassion with it. You know, in a full way. So you don't really stay there, because the thing you're being compassionate with doesn't stay either. So you're just there for as long as it's visiting you. And then, if you're compassionate, you accept that it just went away, and it's got a successor, which is calling for the same treatment of great compassion. So, in order to wake up with something, you have to be completely with it. In order to wake up and liberate things, you have to be completely with them. In order for you to be completely liberated, you have to be completely with yourself.

[01:12]

And being completely with things is compassion. Did you hear what she said? She said, if something comes up, if somebody visits you, or something arises in your consciousness, and you're not able to respond compassionately, she said, a good something was to confess and repent your inability to be compassionate. Is that what she said? A good next step. And you can take away next step, and just say, you don't have to, you can do it right now, you don't have to wait for next. So, if you can't be compassionate, it's good to confess that you're feeling like you can't

[02:15]

be compassionate. Right now, not later, if possible. Wait a second, before we go to the third part, I wanted to mention that when you notice that you're not being diligent in practicing compassion with something, with some phenomena, if you notice that you're kind of like, I can't do it, or I don't want to do it, or whatever, and you notice it, and you say, I confess that I'm not up to be compassionate right now, and I'm sorry, okay? That's compassion. When you confess and say you're sorry for not being compassionate, that's compassion. It's a very important part of compassion, is noting when you're not doing your job. That's compassion.

[03:17]

And that will make it so that you'll, there won't be a Harris-Britt deviation between what you're doing and compassion. So, sometimes it feels like, well, there's compassion, and there's what I'm doing, and they're a little bit different, you know? Like, that's compassion, well, yes, and what I'm doing is different, yeah, but even though that's compassion, what you're doing is different, there's not a slightest bit of separation. Compassion is not a little bit away from what you're doing. No matter what I'm doing, no matter what you're doing, all day long, compassion is right there. And if you separate them, that's your business. It's not true. It's not true that they're separate, but somehow you think you did, and then it's almost like you're successful. But, you know, you're really not. You're unsuccessful, and it hurts to be unsuccessful. And you can be successful by just not separating yourself from the compassion

[04:23]

which is always with you. But still, when you feel like you did miss, at that moment, you can be with that, and then there's no difference. And so the compassion is now not split in two. Third part of the question? Well, I sit on the end here because I get anxious when I'm meditating, so I try to practice compassion with this experience. And then when I can't quite feel that, then I confess to the pen. And sometimes I do, and sometimes I end up saying, Sometimes you end up saying what? Ugg? So how do you practice with Ugg? Yeah, accepting Ugg, then you're practicing compassion with Ugg.

[05:26]

And so, the circle, I assume, is just something you continue to experience and practice with? Yeah, the circle. It just goes on and on. You aspire to practice compassion. You notice that you slipped, or you kind of like, Ugg, a little bit, I'm not ready to do it, or whatever. And then, oh, I confess, I kind of like shrunk back from my aspiration, and I'm sorry. And now I want to try again. By noticing that you're not doing quite what you want to do, and saying you're sorry, then the next thing is, you sign up again for the job. So you go round and round like that. And that's the Dharma wheels turning. The Dharma wheels turning, that way. In the early teachings,

[06:30]

there's a wonderful long story, which, if you beg me, I'll tell you again and again. I've already told you many times, but I'll just tell you sort of the end of the story, which is, a person was with the Buddha, and the person didn't know that they were with the Buddha. And then they realized that they were with the Buddha. They thought they were with some kind of cool yogi, and they were also kind of a cool yogi. So it's kind of like, hey man, hey yogi, how are you doing? So they were hanging out together, this yogi and the Buddha, but the yogi didn't know that the Buddha was the Buddha. And the yogi treated Buddha kind of, not with the kind of respect that would probably be appropriate for the world honored. And then he realized that this person was the Buddha,

[07:37]

and then a little bit later he said, I've been looking for you, and now I found you, and I'm so happy and I'm so sorry that I kind of said, hey man, hey man, what's up? I'm kind of sorry that I talked to you that way. And the Buddha didn't say, you didn't do anything. The Buddha said, yeah, you kind of were not very respectful. And it's partly because you didn't know who you were talking to. But anyway, he said, but you did it, and you said you're sorry, and when you notice that you slip off the appropriate activity, and you say you're sorry, the Dharma wheel turns. And the Buddha, in their evolution, they made a lot of slips too, and they made a lot of, I slipped, and I'm sorry.

[08:42]

And the Dharma wheel turned and turned and turned and turned them into Buddha. So if you keep doing that, you are turning the Dharma wheel, you are practicing compassion, you are making Buddha, you're turning the wheel. Thank you for your three-part investigation. Yes? What do you wish for us? She says, what do I wish for you? I wish that you will practice compassion with every phenomena.

[09:44]

I wish that you will remember that the teaching has been transmitted to you, that you have it. And I wish that you want to take care of what's been given to you. And taking care of what's given to you goes right along with being compassionate to everything. If you're not compassionate to things, then you don't take care of what's been given to you. If you don't practice generosity with everything that's given to you, then you don't realize what's given to you. You're receiving blessings all the time, but if you don't practice generosity towards everything, you don't see how everything's doing that with you. But actually, really that's what's going on, and if you practice compassion with everything that comes to you, you'll wake up to that. That's what I wish for you, is great awakening. And the practice of compassion

[10:48]

is part of the process of great awakening. Which probably makes sense to you, right? Hmm? Yeah. And practicing compassion with some things may not seem that hard, which is fine. It's okay if practicing compassion is occasionally easy, or even frequently easy, that's fine. But to practice it with everything, that is really hard for us, and we're training to be able to do that. We're aspiring to be compassionate really frequently, because there's a lot of frequently. There's frequently, frequently. And we want to practice compassion with more and more, not miss opportunities, right? Because again, when we miss opportunities, the door to the teaching kind of gets sort of closed for the moment. Not forever, just for the moment.

[11:52]

And you can recover by saying, Oop! I was not compassionate to him or her, and I closed the door on the Dharma that's being given to me. I'm sorry. Then it opens again. And then you never really lost it, you just closed the door on it. Like kids who, you know, go in their room and close their door on their parents. They don't really lose their parents, they just close the door. And they pray that the parents will find some really brilliant way to get them to open the door again. You see, I got that last part, the way that the child goes in the room,

[12:54]

and they would like the parents to do something so cool that they want to open the door. You know? And other people also, they wish somebody else would do something cool so they can get out of their room someday. But, you know, they're not going to open the door if somebody comes and says, you know, be different than you are. They're going to open the door when somebody says, Hey, I know where you're at, man. I got something really cool for you, and I'm not kidding. What is it? And they're hoping that you're going to say something that will really turn them around. And if you do, they're very happy. You know, it's not that bad in their room usually.

[14:04]

It's just that it's kind of little. And, you know, they really want to open to the whole universe. And so they're going in their room to see who can get me to open to the whole universe. And if my parents can't do it, maybe my uncles or aunts can do it. Maybe some of my friends can do it. Maybe my dog can do it. Maybe an earthquake can do it. You know. An earthquake, this is totally cool. I can get out of my room now and not lose face. You know. Something cool like that. And something sincere. You know, like not faking that you have a heart attack. A real heart attack, that would get them out. Hello, your dad just had a heart attack. Oh, really? Oh, cool. I'm coming. And also,

[15:12]

hello, I'm outside and I'm sincerely requesting that you open the door and I'm not saying that to you to get you to open the door. I'm just telling you what's going on out here. And it's really intense. And I know it's intense in there too. And this is what I want and I'm not trying to get you to give it to me. What do you want? And can you tell me that without trying to get me to give it to you? Just tell me what's going on with you. And you can keep being quiet, of course. I'm just telling you I want you to talk to me. Because I do. And as you know, sometimes I like you to not talk. But right now I want you to talk. And it makes a difference to me whether you do or don't. But if you don't, I'm totally here for you not talking to me. I don't love you anymore if you do what I ask you to do than if you don't.

[16:15]

And that's really great. You should try it with me. Yes? Practice compassion and then be open to see if appropriate action shows up. Well, practicing compassion is already appropriate action. When you practice compassion, that's appropriate. And then from there, from that appropriate action, another one will come. Sometimes I'm afraid I'm just going to be so compassionate I'll lose my justice edge. I'll just understand everybody and grow up. So that's a nice little snippet. You practice compassion with something, whatever.

[17:22]

And then when you practice compassion, a fear arises. And one of the fears she's telling about is I'm afraid I'm going to lose my justice edge. What do you do with that? Yeah. So the thought is I'm afraid of losing my justice edge. Practice compassion with that. That doesn't get that fear away. But there's no justice edge without occasionally at least a fear of losing it. Or if not a fear of losing it, a fear of not using it properly. Or a fear of abusing it. You can abuse your justice edge by being self-righteous or being lazy. So if you've got any concerns for justice, as I said last week, justice has a slippery slope all around it where you can slip into self-righteousness or laziness or denial or complacency.

[18:26]

Those are slippery slopes all around the practice of justice. And those aren't going to go away. It's not going to be like you're practicing justice and there's going to be no chance of being complacent and there's going to be no chance of no anxiety about it. So if you're practicing compassion with justice, there's still a possibility that there'll be some anxiety that you won't practice it and then you practice compassion with. The anxiety that you won't practice compassion, that you won't remember it, that you'll drift off and lose your commitment or get out of touch with your commitment for justice. That's a possibility that's not going to go away, a possibility that you'll forget what you're working on, it will not go away. And the fear that you'll forget, it also isn't really going to go away.

[19:30]

I mean, it's going to go away in the next moment, but it's going to keep coming back. And also complacency. You know, I do enough for the world. Give me a break. Or even before give me a break, I do enough for the world. I'm a successful justice worker. Again, that thought, it isn't like we say, no, get out of here. Practice compassion towards the people who think they're doing enough. Complacent people want compassion too. They don't want to get stuck in complacency. Anxious people don't want to get stuck in anxiety. Compassion for them. So, is that clear? It's quite clear, but very difficult. Yes? Well, that was very clear. I'm not sure I understand. When you're saying that Tracy's a worker, I mean, that's compassion. Does any further action further reveal compassion?

[20:31]

Do the actions objectively show that? Well, it's not so much further action, it's compassion with your actions. So, she's a professional social worker, professional justice worker. So, she's doing justice work. That's the work. And along with that work, you practice compassion. So then, if you practice compassion with your justice work, and when she does that, then this fear comes up alongside the justice work, which is, I think this compassion might make me lose the sharpness and clarity of my justice work. That thought is not necessarily true, that you will, but the anxiety is kind of true, in the sense that you are worried about that, and that's calling for compassion. So, you're doing justice work, and you're practicing compassion at the same time. And then this thought comes up,

[21:35]

which kind of challenges your work. At least it challenges the compassion, because it says, maybe your compassion will take away the rigor of your justice work. And it might, it's possible, but it probably won't be that the compassion takes it away, it's just that when you're doing any kind of work, you're always at risk of losing the rigor of it. There's always the risk that you'll be unrigorous in your work. There's always a risk, whatever job you're doing, that you're going to lose your job. You know, not everybody does lose their job, but there's always a risk. You're always at risk of losing your livelihood. And people are afraid of that. And not just because they don't, not just because they, you know, are worried that they're not going to get their bread and cheese,

[22:38]

they're worried that they won't be able to do the work, which is really important to them. They don't want to have their work taken away from them, because they're devoted to the work. But there's a possibility that your work will be taken away from you, that your livelihood will be taken away from you, that your health will be taken away from you, that your life will be taken away from you, that your reputation will be taken away from you, that your mind will be taken away from you, that everything you think is dear to you There's always a risk. It doesn't happen every moment that this stuff goes away necessarily, but there's a risk. And remembering that risk and taking care of any fear you have around that is recommended by the Buddhas. And if you forget to remember this about these things, then you can become intoxicated with them. There's nothing wrong with your... Let's say you're doing wholesome livelihood, and let's say you're healthy, and let's say

[23:40]

you're young. That's nothing wrong with those things, but if you get intoxicated about them, then you start doing unwholesome activities in your intoxication. But if you remember that your health, and your job, and your mind, and your reputation, that they're all subject to change, then you're sober, and then you can act wholesomely. You're taking care of things in a sober way, which again, it's sober, it's not intoxicating, it's not real exciting. Like, I'm taking care of my health, which is going to be here forever. I'm taking care of my youth, or her youth, which is going to be here forever. Youth is fine, but we need to be mindful that it's subject to change, it's subject to being

[24:41]

lost. Then we can enjoy it and be sober, or enjoy it in a sober state and act skillfully with it. So, as I've often mentioned, the country-western lyric, when I drink a six-pack of beer, I think I'm ten feet tall and bulletproof. Another way to say it, when I drink a six-pack of beer, I think that I'll be young forever, and our love will never change, and I'll never lose my mind, and I'll always be strong and healthy, and I'll never lose my job, and et cetera. When you're intoxicated, you think that way, and if you think that way, you become intoxicated. But if you realize everything is everything, all compounded things, all phenomena are fragile,

[25:45]

remember that, and that they're calling for tenderness, remember that. And again, if you're tender, you tend to be sober, and if you're sober, you tend to be tender. Not tend to be, but it promotes being tender. If you're sober, you don't mind being careful of people and gentle. But if you're intoxicated sometimes, you think it's okay just to slap somebody on the back. What? Hey, man! It seems fine, right? But maybe they don't think so. Maybe they think, that was really hard. Like when my granddaughter slapped me in the face a year or so ago. You know, she probably thinks, oh, there's my granddaddy, he's like permanent. And then she gets really high on having a permanent granddaddy.

[26:48]

I think I'll give him a whack. And partly she wants to see, is it true that he's indestructible? And she didn't really destroy me, but I did give her the feedback that that was really hard. And I remember her mother, when she was a little girl, her mother spoke, my wife, her mother spoke Chinese to her. And I remember she said many times, Qing Xing Da, which means gentle, and Ma Ma De Che, which means eat slowly. So I wish that you will be tender with fragile beings, and everybody is fragile. So I wish you would be tender with everybody. I wish that.

[27:50]

I wish I would be too. And I wish you'd be tender to me, but that doesn't mean you don't tell me if you disagree with me, or ask me questions, or call me into question. You can call me into question tenderly, and you do. Thank you. Yes? This time it's the two-part question. I was just thinking back over the class, and someone talked about it, and in the beginning of a couple of classes ago, you were talking about many ways to describe the relationship between relative and ultimately true. I don't know. I was just wondering why there are so many ways to describe it. I don't know why, but there are. So there's principle and phenomenon.

[28:51]

There's ultimate and conventional. There's real and provisional. There's same, or sameness and difference. There's dark and light. There's upright and inclined. There's universal and particular. So emptiness is universal. It applies to all phenomena. And all phenomena are different from other phenomena. So there's a universal truth that applies to all particularities. And the universal truth, which is not particular, interpenetrates the particular, and the particular interpenetrates. They're not separate.

[29:54]

But you can distinct, we can talk about them, and there's a teaching which talks about them. Which you've been hearing about. And this is to help us get ready to discover the truth of that teaching, which is right here, right now. So we have to be compassionate to all particularities in order to discover the universal that's always present in the particular. And not just that, but then discover that the particular is always present in the universal. So again, you can wake up to the universal and the particular, and then wake up to the particular and the universal. So I feel like I should be able to answer part two of what you just said.

[30:59]

I was thinking back about the story of the bet. The story of the bet? Does everybody know about the bet? It's a Chekhov play called The Bet. It's a story. It's a Chekhov story. Yeah, and it's called The Bet. Yeah, and it's about a bet. And then there's also a Twilight Zone story based on the Chekhov story, which is called Silence. And I was kind of testing myself. I understood the story the way you had interpreted it. And was it that the young man kind of came to ultimate truth because he was willing to so early investigate conventional truth?

[32:00]

Yeah. Yeah. And not just investigate it, but I don't know which happened first, but I think he was compassionate with the situation of him being in this room, which I remember it as like a library. But anyway, he was in an enclosed space, which the bet was you can't stay in an enclosed space for five years. That's impossible. But I think either the enclosed space was a library that had books in it or he was asked for books and books were brought into the space. But he had a hard time actually doing what he was trying to do. He didn't think it would be... I don't think he thought it was going to be easy to stay in that room for five years. And by the way, he changed the bet to 15. He upped the ante and he said 15 years. So I think he thought it would be somewhat challenged. But I think he thought, I can do this.

[33:01]

I can do this. It's going to be hard. And it was hard. But he practiced compassion with all the suffering of being trapped in a room and not being able to... I shouldn't say not being able to, but seeing that it really was a waste of time to run away from the discomfort. So he more and more faced the discomfort of being in prison. He was more and more compassionate with being trapped in this confined space, which is like our mind. Our conscious mind is an enclosure. And we have problems with that. And we want to get out. Like people often say, I'm sick of this. This self, this mind where there's a self. I want to get out of here. That's the same thing. But he, I think, gradually became more and more settled and at peace being in the room. And then I think he realized

[34:06]

that the money which he was going to win, he didn't really care about. That that wasn't the point of life after all. And winning the bet wasn't really... He saw that. And then he also saw, oh... Well, he didn't know though. He didn't know. He didn't know that he really couldn't get the money because the person didn't have the money anymore. And he didn't know that the person was going to kill him. So he didn't even know about that. However, he made a response which saved that person and himself from that terrible violence. Which is another thing that when you are compassionate with your situation, you understand it and you see the appropriate response but you don't know how good it is. Like he didn't know it was going to keep that guy from killing him. So you make the appropriate response but you don't necessarily know how good it is when it comes from this place.

[35:09]

Even though you think it's appropriate, you don't know the great function of it. So he realized that he was free of caring about getting the money and winning the bet but he didn't realize that he was saving his life and the other person's life too. Which it does. That's my understanding of the story. Which is not terribly different from what I understood when I was a kid. But I guess when I was a kid I didn't think of it so much in terms of helping that man not kill him. I thought more about how he just simply became at ease and at peace being in prison. And I guess I did also think that that would be really cool if you're at ease

[36:14]

and at peace with being in prison that you would leave a day before the bet was going to be over so that your peace wouldn't in any way harm somebody else. And another version of the story would be, he said, OK, I left early, can I go back in for another 15 years now? Yes? I was thinking about that story, about how, if I read the story after you talked about it, and how he was completely isolated. He was never allowed to hear a human voice. So he did all of this completely in isolation. But he read a lot of people. So he's listening to, I don't know, Socrates and Plato and Shakespeare

[37:15]

and Pushkin and Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. He's listening to all of these great voices. So he was actually in conversation. He didn't have a certain kind of voices. Yes, solitary confinement is very advanced. But he did fine. Because you always have your conversation in your head going on. That doesn't stop in solitary confinement. It's just that most people benefit from having somebody question the inner dialogue and call that into question. Usually that helps people. But it is possible to find,

[38:16]

to have the dialogue in your head question you and question your dialogue. And also, I think you read books which said you should be questioning the dialogue in your head. And I think he did. So he didn't become, I don't know what's the word, mentally ill from his own inner dialogue. His inner dialogue was questioned by what he was reading. Yes? Don't humans need more, don't they need touch and exposure to nature and elements? I mean, is that really realistic? That they can't be nourished but just... Yes, it's realistic. Yes, you can go into the forest and question the forest and be questioned by the forest. Especially if you have been trained

[39:20]

at questioning and being questioned. Go into the forest? Did you say nature? Because he didn't have access to nature or human touch or any sort of sensory experience. He did have sensory experience in the room. He just didn't have trees and flowers and birds and animals and people interacting with him. You know, I think not. Again, my picture of the room, it had no windows. I think it didn't have any windows. I think he couldn't really get out of the room, he stepped through the door and the door was locked. And so, yeah. We really, in a cell, if you have a developed person,

[40:21]

I think you can put them in a cell and the dialogue goes on very nicely. But they usually have to be trained with other people for a while before they can get a feeling for that. So, if you put most people in solitary confinement who haven't been trained of how to work with their mind, it's like torture. It's terrible torture for a lot of people. But if a person is well trained, they can deal with that situation and that situation can call what they think is going on into question and they can call what's going on into question because they're trained to do that. So, they talk to somebody and somebody calls them into question. They talk to somebody and they call the person into question. Then you take the person away, the dialogue can go on. And that's part of Zen training, is you sit quietly

[41:25]

and maybe when you first sit, you don't notice that you're being called into question. You think it's quiet. It is. You're not talking, nobody's talking to you, right? At the beginning of the class. I say, I talked to you a little bit, sorry. And sometimes they ask you questions when you're sitting. But still, a lot of people, when they're meditating, they don't really think that they're in dialogue, that they're in a conversation. Does that make sense? So then you go to the class or you go to the teacher and you have a dialogue. And then the dialogue helps you understand that the dialogue didn't start when you came to talk to the teacher. It was going on before you came. And then you go back and sit and the dialogue goes on. However, maybe you don't notice certain aspects of the dialogue that's going on in silence.

[42:29]

So you go back to the teacher and the teacher asks you how your sitting was going and then the teacher maybe notices that you thought something but then you didn't question what you thought. Like, you thought you understood something but you didn't question whether that was so. And then you come to see the teacher and you tell the teacher what you understood and the teacher questions you. And then maybe you realize, oh, yeah, I didn't question that. Or sometimes even you feel really insulted that the teacher questions you. And then that shows you, oh yeah, I'm not used to being questioned. And then you go back and sit and you notice that the question is going on in silence. And again, another resonance is the statement,

[43:35]

you know, we say if there's the slightest discrepancy it's a big difference, but in other words, if there's the slightest discrepancy or the slightest preference, you fail to accord with the proper attunement. So I told the story of somebody quoting that teaching which says, the way is not difficult except for picking and choosing. And yet, if there's a slightest discrepancy, it's a big difference. And then one monk questions another one saying, if there's a slightest discrepancy, it's like the distance between heaven and earth. How do you realize that? How do you understand that? And the monk says, if there's a slightest discrepancy,

[44:37]

it's like the distance between heaven and earth. So when he said the same thing again, was there any discrepancy? Maybe not. Because he said the same thing, right? They're talking about, you know, if there is a discrepancy, there's a big problem. So how do you understand that there isn't a big problem if there's no discrepancy? Well, just say the same thing again. But then the teacher called that understanding into question, see? So he said, how do you understand? And he said how he understood. But then there are both teachers. The first teacher asks the second teacher, how do you understand the slightest discrepancy? And the one says, the slightest discrepancy. That's how he understood it. And he says, and he questioned it. So he questioned him, the guy responded,

[45:39]

questioned again. And then the second question is, how can you comprehend it when you say the same thing? So actually, if somebody asks you how you understand if there's a slightest discrepancy, it's like the distance between heaven and earth. If you say it in a different way, in a sense, it's easier maybe to get a hold of something there. But if you say it exactly the same way, if you're successful, there's nothing to get a hold of. And then the other one, after being questioned, said again, I'm just like this, how about you? And then he said the same thing, if there's a slightest discrepancy. So it's ongoing attunement. Ongoing attunement. And the attunement involves no discrepancy. No discrepancy between the different parts of your mind,

[46:41]

no discrepancy between your sense of yourself and a sense of others, no discrepancy, attunement. And it's an ongoing process. And it involves questioning and being questioned. Because again, you might think, I'm attuned. And you might be right. Because in fact, you are attuned. But in order to realize that in life, you need to say, but maybe I'm not. And the story which I said, I'll tell you if you beg me, that story starts out with a person who kind of like did understand, but then a question arose in his own mind, which was, I mean he had a good understanding, but a question arose in his mind,

[47:43]

I wonder if my understanding is really authentic. So that's like, in his own mind, the dialogue happened. I have a good understanding, but I wonder if it's really authentic. And then, in response to that question, he got a visitation from a deity. And the deity said, no, you don't. However, there is somebody who does understand. His name is Shakyamuni Buddha, and he lives in such and such a town, and if you go visit him, you can have a conversation, and he'll help you. And that's the thing. And he went off to be questioned, to question the Buddha, and be questioned by the Buddha. And then that was led into the story of them meeting and him not, of him meeting the Buddha, but not knowing it was the Buddha he met. And them hanging out together,

[48:45]

and him not knowing who he was with, even though he was looking for the very person he was with. And then, and then he woke up to who he was with, and that who he was with was who he wanted to be with. And really, that's always so. Who we're with is who we really want to be with. And when we wake up to that, sometimes we feel, oh, sorry I didn't respect you sufficiently. I didn't realize that you were who I really wanted to be with, and I kind of talked to you a little bit disrespectfully. I'm sorry. But then, that's fine. Now you're cooking. By the way, that scripture which I'm telling you part of is called Discourse on Elements, and it's in the Middle-Length Sayings of the Buddha.

[49:47]

It's in the what? The Middle-Length Sayings of the Buddha. It's called Discourse on Elements. It's Dhatunirdesha, Discourse on Elements. So in the middle of the sutra, the Buddha gives this monk a Discourse on Elements. And while he's giving this Discourse on Elements, the monk realizes who he's talking to. When he starts talking, he thinks, well, this is quite a guy. I'll listen to him talk. Then he realizes, oh, this is the person I wanted to meet all along. And he... Did he say to the Buddha that he was looking for the Buddha? The Buddha knew. But he didn't say, hey, I'm looking for... No, he didn't say that to the Buddha. No, he didn't say that. But that's another funny part about the story is that this guy lived a long way from the Buddha

[50:49]

and he set out towards the Buddha. And the Buddha, far away, said to his monks, I'm going to go for a walk and I'm going to go by myself. I don't want you all to come with me. So he was walking by himself, you know. And if you see the Buddha with a large group of people, you're sort of like, oh, who's that? But he wasn't, you know... He took off his glamour. The Buddha can put on glamour and take it off. And one of the ways the Buddha puts on glamour is to have several hundred people surrounding her. Like, you know, who is that person in the middle of all those people who are listening to her? She looks really glamorous. They're all, like, really paying attention to her. She must be something.

[51:50]

So anyway, traveling by himself, he went on this long walk and he went from where he was to a city intermediate between where that guy was and where he was headed. The guy was headed to where the Buddha was, but the Buddha headed him off. He knew where he was coming and they arrived at the same place at the same time. The Buddha arrived a little bit before him on the same day in a city. And the place the Buddha decided to stay, this guy went to the same place. It's like, can you believe this story? We have stories like this. In the old, in the... The Buddha walks long distance to a town, goes and stays in a potter's shed. And this guy also walks long distance to a town and goes to the potter's house and asks if he has a place to stay and the guy says, yeah, you can stay in my shed. And the Buddha is in the shed.

[52:52]

What do you think, besides the magical aspect or whatever, what else is that story saying? What else is it? Do you say? Well, I think, what else is that story saying? Is it saying, what you're looking for is right where you are? I think, I think, I think the story is saying the person you're looking to meet, the companion you want to meet is already here. What you're looking for, what you're searching for is always with you. It's saying that. And also, when you meet it, you won't necessarily know it. However, you will eventually wake up to it. And he, even though he did speak kind of informally with the Buddha, when the Buddha started talking, he listened to him. Like one time, I was driving home to Green Gulch

[54:03]

in the night and I used to listen to an AM radio station that had plays on it and old radio shows like, you know, Star King and Amos and Andy and The Shadow and anyway, so I used to listen to that station driving from the city center back to Green Gulch. And one night I turned it on and it sounded like a play was going on or something. Anyway, some conversation was going on. And I just couldn't quite figure out what the story was. But I could tell they were having a conversation. And then when I was listening, it struck me that the way they're talking to each other is really beautiful. I didn't know what they were talking about. I didn't know the plot.

[55:05]

But I just was struck by the beauty of their conversation. And I thought, oh, it must be Shakespeare. Who else can... What other English can be so beautiful? Well, probably there is some that I don't know about. But anyway, the main, for me, Shakespeare is really beautiful. And I thought, it must be Shakespeare. And it was. So again, if you... But I was listening, you know. If you listen to people, if you listen to them, you'll realize that you're with Buddha. No matter who you're with. And that's what the Buddha realizes, of course. Buddha knows that Buddha's always with Buddha, right? No matter who Buddha's talking to. Yeah, that's one meaning of it. Another meaning of it is, which relates to this thing about what Charlie brought up last time about the monk who said, is that so when confronted with praise and blame?

[56:08]

When you hear stories like this, about, like, this person, like, wondering if they understand, and a deity saying, no, you don't. But there's a Buddha living in a town. If you go see him, he'll help you. And he sets off. And then simultaneously, or shortly after, in that place where Buddha is, Buddha tells his community that he's going to go on a walk. He doesn't tell them what for, but he's heading to meet this guy. And they do meet in the same room and spend the night together. And the Buddha gives them a talk. And the guy wakes up. It's like, is that so? Or could that happen? Is it possible that such mysterious things happen? Such miracles happen in the world? That's another meaning. And the other meaning, which is the one I brought up, is at the end of the sutra, after this monk woke up, by listening to the Buddha's teaching,

[57:11]

he woke up, while listening to the teaching, that this is the Buddha, that he also woke up to that he hadn't been respectful. And then he confessed. And that's another meaning of this thing, is that after you wake up and you notice that you weren't, you had a few slip-ups, when you mention your slip-ups and say you're sorry, you're participating in the Dharma Wheel turning. That's another message in the sutra. So it's quite a bit going on. Plus, in the middle of the sutra is this teaching, which is Discourse on Ultimate Self, which I didn't get into. You're not going to give us the discourse? Well, it's too long. So I gave you the setup of their meeting, and I gave you the conclusion of the conclusion of the discourse, is that the monk woke up. And he woke up to the teaching, and also woke up to the teacher. And he was so happy. He said, I've been looking for the teacher,

[58:13]

and I found the teacher. And he said that to himself while the Buddha was still teaching. But he didn't stop the Buddha and say, I found your teacher. He let the Buddha finish, and then after the Buddha finished, he said, he didn't ever tell the Buddha how happy he was. It was an internal thing of, I've been searching for my teacher, and I found my teacher. He said that to himself while he was listening. And when he finished, he apologized to his newly discovered teacher for not being respectful at the beginning. And the Buddha said, yeah, you weren't, but, and so on. So even though he was really happy, he didn't become intoxicated because he was still able. Yeah, exactly, exactly. He was very happy. He was ecstatic that he had, can you imagine that something like that happened to him? I was looking for this person, and we met here,

[59:14]

without me even knowing that we're meeting. How wonderful. However, he didn't lose track. But I wasn't very respectful to him, and I'm sorry. And when he's done talking, because he's kind of talkative, I'll apologize. And he did. Yeah, because he was, what do you call it? He was a well-respected yogi. He had lots of students. And again, he was a well-respected yogi, and it looks like he deserved his, the respect because he questioned himself. He wasn't a well-respected yogi. He said, I heard there's a Buddha living over in Sarnath, but I don't need him because I'm totally sure that my understanding is complete and perfect. He didn't think that,

[60:15]

which is, the Buddha even doesn't. Well, the Buddha maybe doesn't. But anyway, but the Buddha doesn't think that for no reason. The Buddha has a reason, a whole set of reasons why he knows that. It's not just he thinks it as a way of testing in which he followed. But anyway, he was a well-respected teacher who had some humility. And so that question arose, and in response to his humble question, a deity came and said, yes, you do need help, and there's a helper. And that's where he lives. So head over there. So the guy did. Yeah, so he wasn't intoxicated. When you ask yourself, could I possibly learn more about the reality? That's a sign that you're somewhat sober. Somewhat sober.

[61:17]

When you wonder if your understanding is complete, or if you wonder if perhaps you could do with a little further study. That's like a sober thought, or even a sobering thought. Like some people do sometimes in meditation, have great meditation periods. They feel really happy. Well, that's fine. But if you remember that that wonderful meditation experience is subject to change, then you might not get high, get intoxicated by it, even though it's really lofty and wonderful, and full of light and joy. That might happen. But you might also say, hmm, I wonder if that's... I wonder if I could ask a question about that. And you could say that if you're sober. I'm in a great state, but I'm not...

[62:20]

Or even, the question could be, I wonder if I'm getting intoxicated by all this joy. To question whether you're intoxicated is a sign of soberness. But sometimes you could possibly ingest a lot of intoxicants and still question... And that question would be sober even though you're still intoxicated. Make sense? Yeah. It's time to stop. The time has come. Thank you so much.

[63:06]

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