Every day is a good day, and as usual, it's a good day. Every day is, and each day has its own reasons for that. One of the reasons why it's a good day is that it's Rick's birthday. Another reason is that it's the first day of our seven-day retreat to commemorate and celebrate the great awakening of a fairly young man in India.

[01:02]

More than 25 centuries ago. This day also is very dear to my heart because of a thing that happened on this day at about 5 o'clock in 1968. I went up to Suzuki Reshman's office and I asked him if he thought it would be a good idea for me to go to Tassajara. He said, okay, but ask them. I said, I already asked them, I wanted to ask you too. So now, 27 years later, still, Tassajara.

[02:10]

And my teacher. And me. So, it's a very good day to discuss the Bodhisattva precepts. I pay homage to all the Bodhisattvas, the great beings, who have received and transmitted these precepts, the Dhyans. And they embrace and sustain us in our discourse on their precepts. Today I'd like to talk about the second pure Bodhisattva precept. Or a precept called devotedly practice good.

[03:12]

This is a teaching of all Buddhas and was given prior to the appearance of what we call Mahayana Buddhism in India. But I will look at this precept, this ancient precept, from the point of view of the Bodhisattva's consent for the liberation of all beings throughout the universe. For a Bodhisattva, among all good things, the most wonderful is to produce a mind which dwells nowhere.

[04:21]

It is a mind which does not alight or abide in anything. It does not abide in color, sound, smell, taste, tangibles, mind objects, self or other. Not only is this most wonderful, it is also the mind which meets all events in awe and wonder. The greatest good is to forget oneself. This greatest good for all beings is to realize that self is not self. That is to say, the self as we usually see it is not the self.

[05:33]

To forget oneself is to forget one's usual understanding of the Bodhisattva precepts. And thus to understand that our habitual view of the precepts is not the precepts. Furthermore, we come to see the Bodhisattva precepts are themselves not precepts. They are the forgotten self. To forget oneself is to be confirmed and realized by all things. In this self-forgiving, we can witness that all things are also, and at the same time, being realized and confirmed through their own self-forgiving.

[06:47]

A basic principle of Buddha Dharma is that all beings are self-fulfilled through self-forgetting. Such self-forgetting and self-fulfilling awareness is the true path which all Buddha ancestors have taken and received. And are now taking and receiving into unsurpassable correct awakening. This precept is gesturing towards peaceful life of self-forgiving and self-fulfilling awareness. For Bodhisattvas, practicing all that is good is not about improving oneself.

[07:59]

In fact, to practice all that is good is to completely forget about self-improvement. It is to renounce the intention to benefit and transform oneself. Such an intention is an obstacle to the Bodhisattva's highest intention of realizing great awakening. To practice good by forgetting about self-improvement and personal benefit is not a negative practice. It is simply being oneself. And today is a good day for it.

[09:06]

It is for a living being to be a living being. However, it is not easy for a living being to just be a living being. What is easy is to be concerned with whatever benefits or improves one's situation. What is easy is to be a demon. What is easy is to be a god or goddess. But it is not easy to just be yourself. How does one renounce selfish intentions and just be oneself? Well, such renunciation is accomplished immediately by being unmovingly upright.

[10:34]

Being upright is not holding on to anything. Being upright does not even hold on to direct posture. Being upright does not hold on to being upright. Being upright is being erect and at the same time being infinitely flexible. Being upright and flexible one is able to harmonize with the immediate circumstances and thus respond appropriately with no deliberation. The bodhisattva's heart is one-pointed and serene while simultaneously untiringly flexible and adaptive.

[11:56]

Thus, he can be totally unmoving or as active as necessary in order to realize the ultimate welfare of others. Homage to the bodhisattva's heart. Homage to the heart of the great being. Being upright one realizes that wishing for the welfare of others is not the same as wishing that they would be other than what they are. Practicing all that is good, one renounces all gaining ideas for self and others and is thus empowered to help beings become liberated from however they are immediately.

[13:08]

With a mind of no abode, the bodhisattva does not even dwell in her constant concern for the greatest welfare of others. She does not disdain any involvement in less beneficial enterprises. Even though a bodhisattva vows to be constantly attentive to the highest welfare for others, she is able to adapt to the requests of the world and devote her energies to being only slightly helpful, if that is appropriate. Practicing all that is good, being devoted entirely to helping others, one is free of self-concern.

[14:32]

One remembers others so much that one forgets oneself. From such self-forgetting, the bodhisattva exerts the Dharma to the fullest without concern that there are no other people. As the ancient teacher Myriad Pines said, to be this way it is necessary to have the ruthless ability to snap a wooden pillar in two. This is a little about the meaning of practicing good from the perspective of the ultimate goal of the bodhisattva, that is to say, the complete liberation of all beings.

[15:41]

This liberation from self-clinging relies on thoroughly and skillfully studying and practicing with all aspects of self and self-clinging. The final non-dual, non-conceptual meditation of the bodhisattva is based on a deep understanding of the ordinary, dualistic, conceptual consciousness of the conventional world. By developing skill, that is, wholesome relations with all things of the conventional world, we gradually become able to skillfully deal with the ungraspable subtlety of our final settling.

[16:55]

This is what we do with ourselves, which we find down at the bottom of the green dragon's cave. From the perspective of worldly convention, there is still an other, separate from ourself. There are objects external to our mind. This is the world of conventional duality, the world of good and bad. Thus, from this perspective, whatever our activities, let them be for the benefit of all other beings, beings which we still see as other.

[18:06]

May they be happy. May they be liberated. All our actions of body, speech and thought are wholeheartedly dedicated towards the greatest happiness of others. Within this dimension of practice, within this dimension of practicing good, we are warming up by practicing with objects. We are warming up by practicing with our body, speech and thought as objects, internal, and with objects external, animate and inanimate, throughout our environment. By gradually developing skillful and wholesome relations with internal and external objects, we lay the foundation for the ultimately liberating, objectless, non-dual practice of good, which finally sets all beings free.

[19:35]

The primary qualities of working with all these objects are kindness, gentleness, compassion, attention to the minute details of things, precision, carefulness, respect, and devotion. Developing these qualities, we warm up to the total range of practicing this precept. Practicing good in the conventional world with the body, while still or moving in all postures,

[20:52]

one tries as much as possible to be focused on the welfare of others. In the midst of all one's physical activities, one vows to be considerate of all animate and inanimate beings. In Soto Zen, we have words like, There is no place on earth to spit. Here, one refrains from handling things noisily, carelessly, or moving things about needlessly.

[21:55]

All things are treated with the utmost respect. Doors are opened and closed quietly and gently. Our actions are performed in such a manner so as to be pleasant and inspiring to all others, animate and inanimate, pleasant and inspiring to the door. Pleasant and inspiring to your sitting cushion. Our bodily posture and facial expression are good opportunities to encourage and generate love and compassion.

[23:06]

There's a wonderful story which I don't remember the punchline to, but I do remember the practice that's pointed to in the story. It is the practice of how to open Japanese doors. Internal to the house, there are shoji doors or shoji screens, which are paper-covered windows set into doors and windows, and also solid doors, both of which slide. The solid doors are called fusuma. The Japanese people are not unfamiliar with the concept of convenience.

[24:39]

However, they have inconvenient ways of doing certain things. For example, opening these doors. Instead of just walking over to the door and opening it, the traditional way of practicing with these doors, which is still maintained in tea rooms and Zen temples, is to come up to the door and sit down in front of it. And then, if the door is going to be moved open from left to right, you start with your right, left hand, and there is often a, on the fusuma, on the solid door, there is often a lovely brass finger hole. Place your fingers in the hole with your left hand and move it to the right,

[25:46]

so that the edge of the door is now pretty much in front of you. Then you gently, mindfully bring your hand down and raise your right hand and put it into the hole. And then you move the door further to the right. Then you take your hand out of the hole and slide it down lower on the edge of the door and push it the rest of the way with your right hand all the way to the right. Like this. I may have that wrong, but it gives you some idea of an inconvenient way to open the door. There is a wonderful story about this, which goes something like,

[26:51]

the monk walks up and just opens the door and then something happens. Vis-a-vis his compassionate teacher. I don't remember how it goes, but you can imagine various possible renditions of that. If you think of something, write it down and give it to me, and I'll use your version later. Another story which is a little bit easier to remember, I sort of remember it, is that there is another set of doors on the outside of the building, which are the storm doors. They're heavy wood doors. They're called Amado. They're in a track, sometimes several in a row, and they're set in a track in such a way that if there's five or ten of them, and you're pushing them in some direction,

[27:53]

you can start with the one farthest away from the direction you're pushing. You can push that one, and it will push the one in front of it, and that will push the one in front of it, and that will push the one in front of it, and that will push the one in front of it. You can move the whole row at once. The way they're set in the tracks is that when the first one hits the storage box, it automatically derails itself and makes room for the next one, which automatically derails itself and makes room for the next one. So you can just push them right into their storage unit by just pushing from the end, and they all just go right into place. I don't know who designed them in the first place, but you can imagine perhaps that in some situation, like if the house was owned by a warrior, the warriors might push in this way,

[28:53]

and immediately open up the side of the building and ready for attack. A very efficient way to uncover a flank. Perhaps, we don't know, with no respect for the doors, but in Suzuki Roshi's training, the monks were not allowed to do this. They had to take each door and put each door in by itself, starting with the one closest to the storage unit, slide that one in, go get the next one, put that one in, go get the next one, put that one in, go get the next one, put that one in. In one sense, this is a mindfulness practice for the monk, to bring herself back to where she is, and be present with what's happening, and see if she's in a hurry to go someplace else and be somebody else.

[29:57]

See if she's in a hurry to do something that could improve her. Rather than another door to be put in storage. But the other side is that this is a kindness to the door. This is being concerned with the door. This is including the door in your vow. This is taking the limits away from what you love. This is appreciating the service that this wood has offered you. This is appreciating the tree which made the door. This is appreciating the earth which made the tree. This is appreciating the carpenter and the architect.

[30:58]

This is a conventional, dualistic way to feel the meaning of the Bodhisattva vow. It's very efficient for becoming a true Zen monk. This is how Suzuki Roshi was trained, and this is how he trained us. Shortly after we moved to our Zen Center on Page Street, from our Zen Center in Japan Town, one time he pointed out to us something that he'd like us to do, and that was to not slide the chairs in the dining room around.

[32:02]

Again, there were many reasons for that. One is that our Zen Dojo was under the dining room, and if people slid the chairs around, particularly for breakfast or dinner, we would often be sitting downstairs, and on those tile floors, moving one chair could be hurt in the whole Zen Dojo, not to mention moving trains of chairs, which some demons did. He said, the chair is already convenient enough. It's already enough of a convenience that we can sit on these things. But we don't need to go any further. We can pick a chair up, and lift it off the ground, and set it where we want it, and sit in it. When we're done, we can lift it up and put it back. This respects the people in the Zen Dojo.

[33:13]

This respects the chair. And in that relationship, we will witness the dependent co-arising of awakening. The chair helps us, we help the chair. And particularly, the place to realize the dependent co-arising of awakening is to realize the dependent co-arising of the world, of each thing in the world. That's each thing in the world. It can teach us dependent co-arising, if we give it our utmost respect. And especially, all the things in the world which we have abandoned, all the things in the world we have rejected,

[34:16]

all the things which we do not think deserve our utmost respect, especially there, we will retrieve the dependent co-arising universe. It's in those places that we go most blind to the truth. And those places are the best place to give our attention. The best place, the most likely place to discover the secret of Buddhist teaching. In all our daily activities of caring for our own body, there is an opportunity. There are limitless verses for generating and maintaining our focus,

[35:21]

for generating and maintaining our warm heart for the welfare of others. Although we are concerned for the welfare of others first, part of what's good for others and part of what's helpful for others is for us to brush our teeth. They actually really appreciate it. Even the dentists appreciate it. And dental hygienists. If you take good care of your teeth and you go see the dental hygienist, they're deeply moved and encouraged. They've got job security. Our teeth are going to go. But they don't like it when we don't take care of them. It's kind of like this respects our teeth, they don't like that, they respect teeth. It disrespects our gum, it disrespects our tongue, it disrespects our cheeks, it disrespects our body. They don't like it, it doesn't encourage them, it discourages them.

[36:25]

If you take care of your teeth, they are deeply touched and they never forget it. They say, you made my day. If I had one clean mouth, I could keep going. I won't tell you how I know that. But anyway, bodhisattvas, when they go to have their teeth cleaned, they present a very clean, fresh mouth to the dental hygienist. And all beings want us to have clean, fresh mouths. So they want us to take care of ourselves and that's part of our job. Take care of your body. Everybody wants you to. You should do that for us. While taking care of our body. As we wash our face with water,

[37:28]

we desire that all beings attain pure Dharmagate and be unstained forever. Holding the toothbrush in our joint palms, we vow with all sentient beings to attain the right Dharma and purity spontaneously. While brushing the teeth and rinsing the mouth, we vow with all sentient beings to turn towards the pure and spotless Dharmagate and completely enter into awakening. After brushing the teeth, using the toothbrush every morning, we vow with all beings to attain teeth strong enough to gnaw through all delusion. This is practicing good with the body

[38:34]

in the conventional world. This is a warm-up. You can make up many other verses to generate, encourage and maintain this warm heart. Practicing good with speech, with our speech. Motivated by a warm and kind heart, Bodhisattva's vow to communicate with others honestly, speaking gently and endearingly to them. Motivated by a warm and kind heart,

[39:45]

Bodhisattva's vow to not speak to others. If that would be helpful. Seeing others' virtuous deeds, one immediately sings their praises and talks about their good qualities to others to an appropriate extent. Praising those with virtue and expressing deep compassion for those without it. Here one practices the Bodhisattva method of conversion, called kind speech. Here one practices the Bodhisattva method

[40:51]

of converting beings and liberating beings, called kind speech. This means that when we see a living being, we arouse the mind of compassion and offer words of loving care. As Dogen Zenji says, it is kind speech to speak to sentient beings as one would to a baby. Having a nice nap, sweetheart? Hey! You're so cute. Such a cute little Zen monk sleeping through my lecture. Am I speaking softly enough? I love you, sweetheart.

[41:55]

Go right back to sleep. I'll talk more quietly. There is a convention, both secular and among Zen monks, of asking after someone's help. This is not only a kindness and encouragement to oneself and the other, but it is also an opportunity for the dependable arising of utter liberation. Once a Zen monk went to visit another Zen monk who was sick, and she said, How is your venerable health, my dear? And he said, I'm so sick. And she said,

[42:57]

You're so sick. And he said, I'm so sick. And had a great awakening. Kind speech is good. Kind speech is not just kind speech. Kind speech can turn the world upside down. It turns out to be right side up. When one offers kind speech, little by little, the virtue of all concerned will increase. When one practices kind speech, one starts to notice that there's kind speech all over the place, in places you never noticed before. People who you thought were nasty,

[44:01]

sometimes you realize that they're very kind in their speech. Something got transformed through the practice of kind speech. A bodhisattva joyfully bows to practice kind speech for her entire lifetime, never giving up. Life after life. Those who hear one's kind speech, just like those who see one's clean mouth, will be deeply touched. They will never forget it. Bodhisattvas understand that kind speech arises from a warm heart.

[45:02]

And a warm heart is born from a heart of compassion. A warm heart is born from the heart which hears the suffering of others. Kind speech is not just praising the virtues of others. It has the capacity to transform the destiny of our entire world. Practicing good with thought. Bodhisattvas always think of what is a condition

[46:05]

for the happiness and benefit of others. This is their vow. We do not think about the fault of others, but rather confess and examine our own shortcomings and vow to renounce them. We do not think of our own virtues, but dwell in thought on the virtuous qualities of others and inwardly venerate them as our teacher. Bodhisattvas develop Bodhisattvas

[47:07]

still associated with others without thinking that they are superior to them. Moral authority is not moral superiority. We most sincerely want to help others, but we don't go around thinking and saying that we are actually helping. We want to be most helpful, but we really don't know if we are. Perhaps I should speak for myself.

[48:13]

Maybe you people know that you are helpful. People tell us sometimes that we are helpful. It doesn't mean we are helpful. People tell us sometimes that we are not helpful. It doesn't mean we are not helpful. Bodhisattvas, as Bodhisattvas, we vow that whenever we see another person, we will think, because of this very sentient being, I may be able to attain the enlightenment of the Buddhas. By serving this sentient being, great awakening may be realized. There is a marvelous expression for the Buddha's mind in Chinese.

[49:20]

It says, ji yi qi sha mu ryo shin ji yi qi sha mu ryo shin Ji means to love beings just as they are. Qi means to worry and be concerned for their suffering. Qi means joy and rejoicing in them. Sha means to give everything to them. Mu ryo means all these things beyond all measure. And shin means heart. Love, concern, joy and giving everything.

[50:24]

Whenever we think to engage in a particular practice, it's good to first contemplate its benefits and thereby develop an intense aspiration for what we are intending to do. Whenever about to do something, we examine our motivation to check to see that it's selfless. No matter what you do, it's possible to do it with selflessness. But you might have to stop and look. If you open a door, it's possible to do it selfishly or selflessly. But before you do it, you check. You might be able to find the selfless motivation

[51:27]

and come from there. Without checking, you might do the same act out of selfish habit and harm self and others. By checking and finding your warm heart, you become harmless and even beneficial. It's important to examine our motivation. If we think something is good, seems to be good, we're not sure but it seems to be good, we examine our motivation, it seems selfless, then basically we should enact that as soon as possible. Still, for some especially important large-scale acts of goodness, we might check with others. We might consult to make sure that we've looked deeply enough.

[52:32]

Maybe never being completely certain, but some things deserve more exhaustive study beforehand. I have a story in this regard about this lady that we call Oksana, which means Mrs. It's a humble way to address the Mrs. of the house. So we call her Mrs. Suzuki. We call her Oksana. And when I thought of this story, I realized that this is a story about her being at a banquet. And when I thought of the story, I envisioned the story and saw her at this banquet. I saw myself sitting next to her at the banquet table.

[53:37]

But I didn't go to the banquet with her. She told me this story in her kitchen. But I thought about this story so many times that I was there at the event. But actually I wasn't. So she was invited to a what we call a testimonial banquet, a testimonial dinner, where certain members of the Japanese community in San Francisco were being honored for their social contributions. And so one man was, you know, recognized for his great kindness and energy and the great benefit he brought to the community. And Oksana thought to herself, well, that's great, but of course he only could accomplish that

[54:42]

with the support of his family. So his family should be mentioned too. This is the true Japanese way. But she didn't just stand up and suggest this to the master of ceremony, although she thought it would be good. She consulted with some people nearby. And fortunately she had a range of counselors. She had on one side of her a rather conservative person, the other side rather liberal. And so she consulted with the liberal person about whether they thought that would be proper decorum to go and suggest this and also that it would be proper now to now bring up and recognize and thank the family.

[55:45]

And the more liberal woman said yes, she thought it would be good. And she consulted a more traditional and strict older lady about the properness of such action. And that lady also thought it was good. So she went up to the master of ceremonies and suggested this. Afterwards she did not look. She, Oksan, boldly stood up and joyfully expressed her gratitude and appreciation for the whole family. And the whole audience was in thunderous applause. So it seemed good. She saw the possibility of good. She deeply considered and consulted with others about it and immediately acted. They're still discussing practicing good in the realm of

[57:10]

the conventional world, self and other. Still trying to practice good even though we may still believe in ourself as a separate thing from everything else. Still we can practice good in this way. All the perfections of the Bodhisattva can be practiced with this ordinary dualistic conceptual consciousness. Giving, ethical discrimination, patience, enthusiasm, concentration and wisdom can all be practiced in ordinary dualistic point of view. And all of them can generate virtue

[58:14]

and one self of practicing these same practices from a non-dualistic perspective. All these practices are primarily in terms of thinking, in terms of thought, are internal. Occasionally they surface in truth relating to others, but they start in the mind. So in practicing giving we contemplate how good it is to give and how painful it is to do miserly. We contemplate that and contemplate that until we really don't have much trouble giving up stinginess.

[59:15]

And we really don't have much trouble practicing giving because we're in such a state of joy about it. Like these other practices of good, giving is not just good and joyful in itself. It also can transform the other. The gift can be transformed through giving and the receiver can be transformed through giving. A penny can turn into a great treasure. A penny thief can turn into a magnificent philanthropist. Giving is the first way to transform the world. Giving is the first way to transform the world.

[60:49]

Okay. [...] object that we're going to give, and contemplating that object, and contemplating the giving, and in action of the giving, in all these cases, these qualities of respect, and gentleness,

[61:57]

and carefulness, and thorough attention to the details, and devotion, all these qualities come to bear on the giving, apply to the thing given, and to the person given to. These qualities help us settle into, gradually, the suchness of the relationship, starting out dualistically of self and object, through these qualities of carefulness, and kindness, and patience, and devotion, by settling more and more carefully into the process of the giving, and transcending the duality. In dealing with objects, in terms of practicing ethical contemplation, in terms

[63:01]

of watching carefully our deeds, we apply then the same carefulness and attention to the details of our actions. In practicing patience, patience with the object that's causing us pain and irritation. Again, the same qualities, gradually, help us settle into the relationship between feeler, experiencer, and pain, and gradually realize the non-duality thereto. And so, in all these practices, we start with ordinary conventional mind, but these qualities of practicing good, we so thoroughly settle into this duality, that we start this vow, with all beings, with all beings, that each being,

[64:55]

will find, where they are right now, a way to be intimate with his experience. As we become more and more thorough in practicing good, in this conventional mode, we lay the foundation, we approach, and we enter into the ultimate meaning of practicing this precept. We enter into the ultimate meaning of practicing this precept from the perspective beyond self

[66:04]

and other, beyond doing and not doing, beyond existence and non-existence. We enter into the ultimate meaning of practicing good, which is just being upright. Just being upright with our experience now, we enter into the ultimate meaning of practicing all that is good. Exhaustively practicing this precept, according to the ordinary conventional world, we naturally

[67:15]

overflow into the ultimate liberating dimension of this precept. Our impeccable practice of good becomes the impeccable practice of good. When we first hear about practicing good, and even after we've heard about it for a while, we may think that there's some good outside ourselves. That there's some good waiting for us to come on the scene and bring it alive.

[68:18]

Although other beings have great virtues, the good is not outside you. The good is none other than our wholesome deeds themselves. We say doing all good, and that word good could also be wholesome. It's kushala. Doing all good, doing all wholesome, it means doing all skillful, doing all skillfulness, enacting all skillfulness. In other words, it means do all doing, do all good doing, do doing. The good we are to practice is just pure doing. It is just performance. It is just devotedly doing.

[69:42]

We need to warm up to this pure doing by being unconditionally respectful of what is happening. So we're not just dreaming of doing itself. We have the skill to gently, kindly, respectfully, completely just do. Right now, the ultimate good is just doing exactly what we are doing, whatever we are doing. It is no more or less than the doing of doing. It is the totality of doing. It is the wholeness of what is being done.

[71:09]

It is doing leaping off the summit of doing. It is doing plunging through the bottom of the ocean of doing. You and I are all doing. Are you on the summit of the doing? If you are, you can leap off. Are you on the bottom of the ocean of your doing? If you are, you can plunge through. If you're not, then you're just in the prison of doing. And if you are in the prison of doing, then if you're kind and respectful and gentle and thorough with the prison, you will get to the summit. You will get to the bottom.

[72:24]

Therefore, this doing, all that is good, goes entirely beyond all doing. Ultimately, doing good is not doing at all. It is simply for a sentient being to just be a sentient being. Right now, we are all sentient beings. I think you are having sensations. I think for you to just be having your sensations the way you're having them, is this prison. For you, for a sentient being, to be this way is just not to move. This is precisely what is meant by Supreme Enlightenment.

[73:52]

That was Supreme Enlightenment. So supreme that what do we know? It can't be met with our calculations. How do not move? Go down, go down into the green dragon cave. Go down into all aspects of yourself. Graciously, invite yourself into yourself.

[75:04]

Graciously, kindly, invite yourself to inhabit your body, speech, and thought. Come all the way and sit down. And once the guest arrives, continue your gracious entertainment. Continue your kindness, your gentleness, your attention to every detail, your devotion, your carefulness. Continue so that the guest may settle even more unmovingly and thus realize Supreme Enlightenment.

[76:12]

Invite the self in and lovingly care for it until it's forgotten and then beyond. If you get bored taking care of this self, if you get bored with your gracious, kind, and gentle care, that's a good sign. I'm not even mentioning today that you might get angry at your guest after it arrives. I'm not even talking about that you might get angry for your guest, toward your guest, even before they come in. That you might not even want that self to come to visit this body, or you might not want this body to visit the self.

[77:36]

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about after, that's all taken care of, after you actually come home. Then, that's because you get home because you've been gracious. You won't come home to an ungracious scene. You're not going to come home to battering and brutality. You're going to hang out in the suburbs, far away from this place if you're not kind. But once you trap yourself into yourself by kindness, and devotion, and carefulness, and gentleness, and respect, once you've got it, once you're there, and you put aside these gross emotional reactions, then boredom comes. Boredom is the last thing to come. When all the grosser distractions from being here are passed beyond, then boredom comes and says various clever things.

[78:45]

Basically, this is not interesting. I have better things to do. You have better things to do. This is just not really that worthwhile. Basically, I'm above this. This is a bunch of crap. But not quite getting angry about it. If you start getting angry, if it gets that bad, then boredom can go rest, sit on the sidelines. Here again, the special thing is to pay attention to whatever you've rejected, to whatever you don't want to look at. And again, preparing through dualistic practices of dealing with objects in a careful way, now you really need those skills to do the final settling.

[80:13]

The final settling needs to be very, very delicate and gentle, because the final settling is so, so subtle. We've battled our way through rougher and grosser suffering than this. We've handled worse stuff. This stuff isn't even worth worrying about. It's so subtle, and therefore so frustrating, and so painful, that you've never seen any pain like this before. It's a new one. It's maybe like the final one to face. Meeting this final pain is very close. It's just on the other side of being rough, of turning away from being present.

[81:49]

It will be your reward for not running away, and it will be the final thing which we will be tempted to run away from, or to grab disrespectfully. To grab by categorizing it as something, rather than just doing the thing called facing it. Maybe now, at the end of the practice period, after practicing kindly all this time, with all your suffering, period after period, maybe now you can completely settle yourself on self. It's possible. This doesn't need to be a selfish thing. Actually, it would be a big help to all of us, if any of us would do this.

[83:08]

We'll be completely thorough in this inhabiting of body, speech, and thought. This is the pure and simple color of true practice. This is the pure and simple color of practicing good. I vow, with all beings, to enter this practice. I vow to bring all beings with me into this practice. I vow to go with all beings through this door of repose and bliss.

[84:16]

Please come with me. Please take me with you. Please come with us. Please take us all with you. And please, practice this precept of all bodhisattvas, if you want to be a bodhisattva. Thank you for listening to me. I'm sorry I talked so long. I didn't mean it to hurt you. I just really wanted you to get started right away in our practice. Now you can do it for the full seven days. Congratulations.

[85:35]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ