I think that what attracted me to the practice of the Buddhadharma, and in particular what attracted me to the way of life of the Zen school of Buddhadharma, was stories where I could see great in these stories I could see kindness and I could see that I wanted I could see the kindness and I could see that I wanted to live I think the first stories of the disciples of Buddha where I could see this kindness was the stories of Zen disciples.

[01:18]

not just then the disciples, but in India, the disciples of Buddha also were practicing in such a way that then later I could see kindness in their stories. And of course in Tibet, in China, well, China's where there's all over the world. one may be able to see that the disciples of Buddha are living in a way that's kind, and you may wish to be that way. But of course it's not just the disciples of Buddha that are living that way, too. Everybody is living that way. And that way is the way everybody wants to live. Everybody's actually living kindly, and everybody wants to live kindly, but most people do not realize they're living kindly. And especially most people do not realize that other people are living kindly.

[02:25]

But sometimes you can see, sometimes you can see, oh, this person's being kind to me, or this person's being kind to him or her. And then sometimes when you see that kindness, you think, I want to be like that. But sometimes when you watch the world, you look and sometimes you might not be able to see anything. You look, you look, you look, but you don't see, oh, this person is so kind. And sometimes you even see this person is being kind and sometimes you don't even think, I want to be that way. Sometimes do you see them being kind? to somebody else, and you're more concerned with them being kind to you than being kind to yourself. But sometimes you can see they're being kind to someone else and not you, but you still want to be kind like they're being kind.

[03:44]

Does that make sense to you? I came to Sweden a little while ago and I went to Sweden and when I was there I saw many people being kind. And in particular I saw many people being kind to me. And I could also see a little bit me being kind to them. As a matter of fact, about all I could see was people being kind to me and kind to each other and me being kind to them. That's about all I could see. So, of course, I was happy.

[04:46]

I heard that there was a fight in the kitchen, which I did not see. Now, if I had been in the kitchen at that time, I might have been able to see that they were being kind to each other. And to me. I might have been able to see it. I don't know. I wasn't there. But I might have been able to see, oh, they're fighting with each other to be kind to me. I might have been able to see that. And then when I saw them fighting with each other about how to be kind to me, I might have thought, I want to be like that. She told me that she's practicing Kung Fu. She said, in Kung Fu there's fighting for health.

[05:50]

Is that right? Did you say something like that? Huh? Simile. Yeah, simile. Accurate quote, but I thought, oh, fighting can be for your health. Actually, I'm proposing to you that when we're fighting, it's actually, there's a way we're harmonious, and it's for our health. And gung fu is an opportunity for that. And I walked around Stockholm after the retreat. And of course, it was near the end of the year, which some Swedish people told me was the biggest holiday of the year there, the holiday. And I walked among the people of Stockholm, and they didn't look depressed.

[06:59]

They looked like they loved each other. I saw them being kind to each other. I didn't see any fights, but I still could see that they were being kind to each other. That's what I saw. And they didn't know me. but I saw them being kind to me. So I was happy, happy to be there. If I was there in the middle of the winter when it's cold and snowing or raining and the people sort of maybe their heads down, bundled up, I don't know if I would be able to see that they were being kind to each other. But I want to learn how to do that. And those Swedish people took me to the airport very kindly. And then people kindly flew me.

[08:06]

People that worked for Lufthansa kindly brought me here. They brought me to Munich. And then from Munich, they kindly organized the airport so I could get on the next plane. And they kind of transferred my bags from one airship to another. And I came here, and Derek was kindly waiting for me at the airport at Zurich. And I kindly surprised him, because he was looking for me and didn't see me. And then he kindly brought me to Lucerne. And then Vanya kindly met me and took me to lunch at a beautiful restaurant on the lake. And now I come here, and now you're all being kind to me. This is what I see, so I'm happy. And I'm being kind to you.

[09:14]

but even a little glimmer of how kind you are to me and how kind I am with you and how kind you are to each other, this is the awareness that I want to talk to you about and practice with you this week. I was asked to write a description for... It says, actually, here, I wrote this, I guess, Course Description for Felzintor. The title of the course is The Wondrous Practice... Did you read that? Did you read this course description? You didn't. One person did. So it says something like, It has been said that all Buddhas... have a wondrous method for liberating beings past and beyond all activities of dualistic consciousness.

[10:25]

This method may illuminate human consciousness, it may illuminate dualistic consciousness, but dualistic consciousness cannot reach it. The criterion of this method is called self-fulfilling awareness. That's one way to call it. In Japanese it's called Jijuyuzanmai. And so another way to translate it would be ji means self, and ju means receive, and u means to engage or enact. And zama means samadhi or non-dual awareness, non-dual concentration. So you could also translate it as the non-dual awareness of how you receive and how this received self is engaged

[11:46]

And again, how you receive a self and how the self which is given to you is engaged. It's a non-dual awareness. It's an awareness that is not awareness of something separate from yourself. It's an awareness which realizes how your self in each moment is received from the and how this received self is then engaged to be kind to all beings. It's awareness of how everyone's kind to you and you're kind to everyone. It's awareness of how you're practicing all beings in a harmonious way. which includes all enlightened and unenlightened beings, and things that aren't living.

[12:52]

All things are supporting you, and you're supporting all them. This is the awareness of all Buddhas. This is the practice of all Buddhas. I've heard that it is. And I'm somewhat convinced. And then it says further in this course description that the Buddha ancestors teach that the true path of enlightenment is to sit upright, or just to be upright, in the midst of this awareness. Awareness that all Buddhas and all humans and non-human beings are just one mind, and all humans and Buddhas and non-humans

[14:14]

are inseparable, and furthermore, within this mind, they are constantly and intimately assisting each other. Within this vision, this is just the way things are for Buddhas. Now, of course, this does not reject the vision that we are frequently, maybe not constantly, but some people constantly, but some people frequently, in a kind of distant way, feel that they're not assisting other people. And some other people feel that other people are not assisting them. Do you know anybody like that? Of course, sometimes people think, These people are not assisting me and I don't want to assist them.

[15:18]

People do think like that. Ignore that. It just says all the people who think that they don't want to assist some people and also that some people are not assisting them, all those people are assisting Buddhas who do want to assist everyone and feel everyone's assisting them. And those people who feel like nobody's assisting them and they don't want to assist anybody, those people are also assisting the Buddhas, and the Buddhas are assisting them. So the people who completely reject this vision are totally intimate with it from the point of view of those who realize this vision. The most negative, ungrateful person in the world is the most generous, open, and loving person in the world.

[16:25]

And the most loving person is assisting the most hateful, unhappy person. But of course the most hated Buddha does not feel the assistance and does not want to assist the person who's assisting them. Some people actually hate Buddha. Even during the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, some people didn't like him. Some people tried to kill him. Some people who Buddha loves hate Buddha, just like some people who you love hate you. Just like some people, I don't know if any of you ever hated anybody, but some of the people which we sometimes hate love us.

[17:30]

And particularly enlightened beings, if we hate them, they love us. And they understand that we hate them, and it hurts them a little bit, because that's good for us that it hurts them, but they feel that we're assisting them when we hate them. They feel the practice grow on our hate, and then they give us the fruits of the practice And then they keep assisting us from that place. This is the awareness of this in a non-dual way of enlightenment, I propose to you. And aware of it in a dualistic way, like thinking about it, is also approaching the true path of where the awareness is not something you're just thinking about, but the awareness is something you have to come.

[18:37]

And then I've said in Course Description, now the great task before us is to realize this awareness. I've been talking about it now, and I've been talking about it then, and I'll talk about it again probably if I live longer, but to realize it because although I believe we're this way, I don't think we've realized it as fully as we might. It looks like we haven't realized it as fully as we might. So now I wish to realize it more fully together. So in this retreat, I will be devoted to the teachings about this awareness. And it says we will endeavor, may endeavor, to see how this awareness applies to forms of Zen practice. And in particular, such as sitting meditation, precept practice, formal and informal confession and repentance, which is chanted this vow which relates to that.

[19:57]

So the social and ecological and spiritual challenges of the world today. Is that okay if we do that? So I say we practice zazen continuously awakening to the reality that we are supported by all beings and things to live our life, day life, and give our spiritual life with gratitude for the blessing of this Buddha nature.

[21:10]

Another way to say it is, not that we practice zazen together, but there is the practice of zazen together. There is practicing zazen together, which continually realizes how we are mutually supporting each other. This is the third time I came to this place.

[23:01]

And the first time I came, I offered a kind of a picture or a... Yeah, I offered some words that created a kind of picture, process of practice and liberation. And I think I started off by suggesting something like... When meeting any situation, or in any situation, and in situations dualistically, we feel like... We feel like, I need... or I'm needing this work or this activity.

[24:07]

So I think at that time I suggested, in any situation, you start by relaxing with it. And by relaxing, in a sense, to calm down with it. And relaxing with it means, letting go of your ideas, your stories about what the situation is. Very handsome. You relax with that story that this person is very handsome. You reach someone who has a very beautiful figure, You relax with the story that they have a very beautiful figure. You meet someone who looks crazy. You relax with the story that they look crazy. And all other stories about yourself and the other person, you relax with.

[25:11]

You just let go of. You start to calm down if you do this consistently. And then when you're relaxed with the situation, your experience of your life at that moment, then you start playing with it. Then you can start playing with it, interacting with it, dancing with it. And then as the relaxed dance evolves, you enter into more and more you enter into creation. Or I would say you enter into the process of where you're supporting everyone you're meeting, and everyone you're meeting is supporting you. That process is going on even before you enter it, even before you become aware of it's still going on,

[26:19]

or it was going on, but if you're tense and not playful, you, in a sense, you magically exile yourself from this creative process. You're in it, but by tensing up and not being playful, you magically create a world of separation from the world of creation. You're still in it. You've just created another creative situation. But the name of the situation is exile from harmony and peace and creativity. But when you relax and are playful with what's happening, you start to plunge into the realm of creativity. And as you live in that realm more and more, you understand you understand more and more that you are supporting everyone, that you want to support everyone, and that everyone's supporting you and everybody wants to support you, even when they say, I don't support you.

[27:30]

Which they can say, right while they're totally supporting you, they can say, I don't want to support you. And some people who love you with their whole heart do sometimes say, I do not support you. And that's the way they're supporting you. And you can see that through this process of relaxing and playing, entering creativity, then you can understand creativity. And when you understand, you are liberated, together with everybody that you realize you're playing with. But some of the people you're playing with may not also realize that they have been liberated with you. But they have, and they are. Freedom is the state of affairs, but we haven't realized that fully yet. How do we realize it? I said before, relax, play, create, understand, liberate.

[28:34]

This is the realization. But also, I now add, at the beginning I didn't mention, a previous step I sometimes call trust. Trust. But I don't mean trust the situation. So when you meet someone, I don't say trust that person. When you meet a tree or a pain or a pleasure, experience, I don't say trust the experience. I would say more like commit to the experience. And that's a commit, so we probably should talk about what is that in German, commit? Why don't you figure out what word you want to use? Everybody agree? That's a good word?

[29:35]

You have a better one? You have a better word? Natural translation is . How do you feel? Do you feel like you know what I'm talking about when I say commit? And so I'd like to look... This process is a simple way to talk about how to enter into the samadhi of the Buddhas in relationship to different phenomena of our life. So sitting practice, precepts, meeting every person, noticing our shortcomings, and also all of our social and ecological problems. I suggest the first step is commitment.

[30:38]

Not trusting the situation. as it appears, but devotion to it and commitment to it. So it's a little hard for people if they hear about not trusting, for example, your spouse or your parents. People get a little nervous if you say, I don't say trust your teacher. I don't say trust your parents. I don't say trust your husband or wife. I don't say trust your co-workers or co-practitioners. I don't say that. I say commit to them. I don't say trust Zazen, or in the sense of, like, the usual meaning of trust. I would say commit to it. And I also, I saw some just recently here at Felzentor, and they looked kind of like a serious adult. They looked kind of like they... And they looked kind of serious about it.

[31:44]

And later I thought about how I didn't see much playfulness in the person at the time. But I thought about, in a sense, well, at this point in life, most of us, it's appropriate for us to be adults at this point. We may not be yet at that point of committing to that, but I would suggest that it's about time for us to, I don't say have an adult self so much like you possess it, but more like commit to being a self and being an adult self. Now, you already are an adult self, but I don't know if you're committed to it. But I don't want you to commit to it and stay being an adult self.

[32:47]

I want you to become free of it, and I want to become free of being an adult self too, with you. But in order to be free of being an adult self, adults need to commit to being an adult self. Then once you commit to it, then you can relax with it. But it's hard to relax with your adulthood if you don't It's hard to relax with your adulthood. And I'm looking at Maura. She has four kids who are still... She's taken care of, right? And so before she can relax with these four kids, I think she has to commit to them, as far as I know she has. But I don't recommend trusting them. So like I say, people are uncomfortable when I say, I don't recommend trusting teachers or trusting your friends.

[33:52]

So I use the example of my grandson. He's five, and so I tell people, and they don't seem to be so shocked. I say, he's not worthy of confidence. And they seem to say, I could see that. If I give him a sharp knife, I know it's very dangerous. So I probably wouldn't give him a sharp knife. Or if I did, I'd be very careful because I don't trust that he won't throw it at me. He might. But I am devoted to this little man. I'm committed to him, but I don't trust him. He's unstable. He's unpredictable. He's subject to change. He's not worthy of confidence. But he is worthy of commitment. And so I commit to him. And then I try to relax with this dangerous person.

[34:58]

So we can play. But if I commit to him and I'm tense, then it's hard for me to play with him. And with these other practices, like the sitting meditation and precepts, I'm suggesting that before we can relax and be playful with our sitting meditation, first we need to commit to it. And before we can relax with the precepts, before we can relax with not killing and not stealing and not lying, Before we can relax, we need to commit to not killing, not long. Deeply commit and check in our heart and see, do I really, am I really committed to not killing? If I really feel like if I won't kill you, then I can relax with the precept of not killing you. People think, oh no, you have to hold on to that, not killing, really, hold on to not killing me really tightly.

[36:06]

Don't let go of that one. And I would say, well, I'm trying to wholeheartedly commit to not killing in that circumstance. But I want to do that so I can relax with that and be playful with that and be creative with what that means. So we can understand what it means to not kill. Be free to kill. Of killing. Free of killing and free of not killing. Yes, Joanne? What's the etymology of commit? What's the etymology of commit? I would love to know. I didn't research it. but I vowed to do so. Is there an English etymological dictionary in the room? It's Latin.

[37:09]

It's not Latin. I don't know the translation. Does anybody know what Latin means? I recently read about the derivation of this, and it's really interesting that I can't remember. The comb probably is together, or joined, and the commitment probably... What? To send. Send. To send with. Yeah, that sounds right. So maybe one example would be, in the practice of sitting meditation, we have a form, like we have a body, and we have black cushions in this room, and we have a position in the room, and we have posture, possible posture that we will

[38:29]

commit to. You consider making a commitment to a place in this room and a posture, a physical posture. And we can also talk about mental posture in the sitting meditation. The mental posture, which I'm suggesting we look at, is called self-fulfilling awareness. The mental posture is the mind which is non-dualistically aware. It's the awareness without any separation of how we together with all beings are in peace. That's the mental posture. that I wish to make a commitment to. Physical posture may be sitting upright, and each of you has a different body, so that means a different thing in each case.

[39:37]

So you can do it if you want to. I support you. We all support you to commit to your posture every moment. And you support us to commit to ours. We all assist you to sit. and you assist all of us. But the first step is, do you wish to make a commitment, and then do you feel the commitment in you? I wouldn't even say, do you make the commitment, because again, you don't make this commitment by yourself. I do not make this commitment by myself, but I'm bringing up, with your support, I'm bringing it into a posture. And you can make, and your commitment, again, the postures of form and the commitments of form. And you can commit to, for example, one moment at a time. Or you can commit to one period at a time. Commit to one period and one moment and also one week.

[40:44]

There's various possible commitments to make. Then, with the commitment, clear then i would suggest you relax with not relax with the commitment but also relax with the posture so commit to a upright posture perhaps or you might want you might want to commit to a bent over posture that would be fine really i would suggest you get to choose what posture you'd like to commit to Of course, I could say sitting upright, but anyway, I don't want to be too rigid about that. Anyway, commit to a posture, and then relax with the posture, and then play with the posture. And I offer you my assistance.

[41:44]

I offer to relax with you, working with your posture. I offer to play with your posture. And you can play with my posture, too. I offer you to play with your posture, and I invite you to play with my posture. And so I sometimes walk around the room, but other times I just sit in my seat with you. When I'm sitting in my seat with you, I play with you in a different way than when I walk around the room. And sometimes when I'm walking in the room, I just put my hand on the people's back and move my hand down the spine just to feel the person. And each person, I make a commitment to the person, to work with them. And I sometimes just feel the back, and that's sometimes all I do.

[42:55]

And then when sometimes a person feels my hand in the back, they learn something about it without me necessarily suggesting anything. But sometimes I also suggest something. I make a gesture to suggest something. And sometimes the person, when they feel a little pressure from my hand, they move their body, and then sometimes I take my hand away and they wind up in a different place. Sometimes I touch the bag and I put a little pressure on, I push on the person a little bit and sometimes they don't move. So I offer and they offer some pressure back. And sometimes the pressure they offer back is more than the pressure I offer. So Sometimes it's just the most exactly the same so they don't move at all. And sometimes the way they offer pressure back, it sounds like they're saying, do not, not going to go where you're suggesting.

[44:02]

And then I say, okay, usually. I usually don't say, oh yeah? I usually don't do that. But anyway, it's, from my perspective, it's my way of expressing my commitment to meditation posture of all of us. I'm committed to this posture, but I'm also committed to your practice. I'm committed to help you with your practice and your commitment to your posture. And I invite you to be committed to everyone else's practice, body, posture, and meditation. And I also am committed to the process of relaxing with my commitment to posture, to meditation posture. So I'm committed to finding a relaxed way of touching it. So I'm not attached to any particular idea of how your posture should be.

[45:10]

I'm just suggesting something. And when I was in Sweden, I was adjusting posture of one hand. His mudra, his hand mudra, he had it up high like this around his sternum, around his chest. And I moved it down below his navel in an area we call sometimes hara or tantien. It's the... cinnabar field, which is a space below the navel. I moved it down there, and I said to him, below the navel, put the mudras below the navel. Here he said to me, in group discussion, he said that he felt I was, I don't know what he said, he felt I was not accepting him with his hand up high here, and that I was telling him it was wrong.

[46:16]

He said that this place up here he found was the most comfortable for him. And I said, no, I really did accept your posture of having your mudra up high here. I think I really do accept it. And if you put it back there, I accept it. I was just making something for you to try. It's the usual place. And I didn't say this at the time. I didn't want to talk him into it. But as you know, you don't very often see Buddha statues with the Buddha, the hands up here at the chest. But there are some statues where they have their hands up in this area, in the heart area.

[47:23]

But usually in meditation, the hands The meditation posture of the Buddha, the hands are down below the navel. But I wanted him to know, and I still feel that I accepted him having his hands up. I accept your posture. I accept your posture, or rather, I vow, I'm committed to accept your posture. My mind may slip into some tense place, and suddenly, I don't accept your posture. I say, oh, that posture, I do not accept that posture. That might happen to me. But after all these years of sitting myself and sitting with others, I'm pretty accepting of whatever posture a human being is in. Again, if you think of my grandson, he gets in all kinds of postures, and I really accept accepting them all. So I accept also in the same spirit of you supporting me and me supporting you to accept whatever posture you're in.

[48:33]

Then I also said to him, now do you feel I accept you? And he said, yes. He believed me. I said, do you feel I... And he said, yes. So not only do I want to accept you and accept me, but I want to appreciate you. And I want you to, if I accept you, I want you to understand that I accept you. And if I appreciate you, I want you to understand that I appreciate you. I need to appreciate you. And I need you to know I accept you and know I appreciate you. Although I need it, I may not get it. So I need to practice patience with people who feel that I accept them when I do. Now, if I don't accept them, they don't need to feel... Well, actually, if I don't think I accept them, I'm wrong. On a deep level, I do accept everyone.

[49:33]

But if I don't see that, That's my problem to work on. That's my problem for you to help me with. If you ever don't feel that I accept you, I invite you to express yourself. Tell me if you don't feel I'm accepting. And if you ever feel like I don't appreciate you, I'm not. If you don't feel I appreciate you. So one aspect of sitting meditation is the posture, making a commitment to it, relaxing with it and being playful with it. Part of being relaxing with it is to see if someone can adjust your posture. Can you accept the input of someone else about your posture? But still, if you do not want me to touch your posture,

[50:34]

which happens to be your body posture, if you don't want me to touch your body, then I won't. And I will accept. I vow to accept that you do not want me to touch you. And one of the ways I will accept that is probably I won't touch you. That's probably what I'll do. But I might not. I might actually do something different and beg you to let me touch you. Please let me adjust your posture. Please. I might. But usually if someone says they don't want to, it's fine for a while. In the endless future, however, things may change. And you may come to me and say, I changed my mind. It's been now 20 years. And I changed my mind. I welcome you to touch my posture. Give me suggestions. And I appreciate you waiting for 20 years. And I would appreciate waiting for 20 years, too.

[51:37]

I said, yes, it's been amazing. I had a lot of practice waiting for you to invite me. So this one particular little form of having a posture and having a person walking around the room looking at your posture and making suggestions to your posture is a way for your commitment and my commitment to interact. and see if we both can relax. If I can relax with your posture, and still, in my relaxation, I still may have a suggestion. Like I'm completely accepting and relaxed, and I suggest you try this. And you may be also relaxed with your posture, and when I make a suggestion, you say, okay, I'll try it. And you might say, I don't like it. I'm going back to the other one. Fine. This is part of the play. So I commit to posture.

[52:41]

We use the form of having a body and a yogic posture. I interact with it. And also, maybe I feel like if you sit in this room, maybe you're requesting me to give you some input. May I say, are you inviting me to check your posture? Am I invited to touch you? If I'm not invited, please tell me you are not yet invited, and I will accept the postponed invitation. So I'm invited, I respond, and then You and your invitation, then you receive my response, and then I receive your response. And you do this interactive thing around your posture. In other words, you're not sitting all by yourself. This little dance demonstrates how we're sitting together.

[53:45]

And maybe in that process you feel, you think you're relaxed, and then when the person touches you, you feel, oh, there's some tension I didn't know about. And then you think you're playful, but then you notice you're not playful. But then you notice you do. So in this way you get more and more creative. And I also propose to you, and to me, that in order to really be creative in our sitting meditation, we must enact practicing together. I cannot be fully creative with my posture without your participation, and the tree's participation, and the sky's participation, and the mountain's participation. We need the whole environment to interact with us to create the creativity of sitting meditation. And this, for example, the postural adjustment, just one form about that.

[54:59]

And another example of using the sitting posture as a mode or an opportunity to realize this awareness, which is the true path of enlightenment, is to sit. and open to the idea that you're sitting is an invitation not just to, for example, someone to touch your back, some human to touch your back, but it's also an invitation to all Buddhas and all living beings to come and join me in your sitting. So this posture is a physical invitation. Like, if you put my hand up in the air and move the fingers towards me like this, that's one way to signal, please come. Are there other ways of indicating please come that you can think of with your hand?

[56:09]

Yeah, with one finger. Also, another way to do it is with the head, like... Or another way to do it is kind of wink. When I was a little boy, when I was... I think I was just about eight years old, I was playing with some other boys, and some girls were sitting nearby. I don't know why. I don't know if the boys were the only ones who were allowed to play or if the girls just weren't interested in the game. But they seemed to be interested in the boys because they were sitting there watching the boys play. And as we were running around, I noticed one girl, every time I came near her, she looked at me and stuck her tongue out like this. Is that a European thing too? Do you do that in Europe? to get attention.

[57:11]

So it usually was considered to be, when we say a taunt, almost like, I don't like you. But she did it every time I went by, and she didn't do it to the other boys. I don't know what happened, but suddenly, instead of running with the other boys, I started running at her. I ran at her. And she saw me coming and she got up and she ran away. Have some of you heard this story before? Great. I think I could tell once a year. So now this is 54 years ago. So I'm running around, I'm running after this girl, and I live sort of out in the countryside. And she ran, and I ran, and she could run pretty fast. And she ran into a cornfield.

[58:19]

And I caught up with her, and I took her and I forced her to the ground. And I did the gung fu mudra. And I sat on her chest, and I was about to punch her. And I looked at her face, and she looked at my face, and I don't know what was on her face, but I kissed her instead. I never did hate her. And when I kissed her, it seemed like that's what she had in mind. She seemed to think that was a really good thing. And we just continued to kiss in the cornfield for quite a while. She was inviting me to stop playing with those silly boys.

[59:23]

But the way she invited me was by going . In English, in America, we also have a tune that goes with it. It's . You could put some words to it, like, you're a stupid boy, or whatever. Even with . And then you go after the person. It's an invitation. It doesn't look like an invitation to play. But it was. And then we, for the rest of the summer, we met and went out into the countryside. And spent long hours doing this kissing thing. And it was very tiring. Because at that age, you know, there's no end to it. It's like, well, it's time for dinner. So we invite each other in many ways with our bodies.

[60:27]

And then when you're sitting, you're actually, I would say, when you sit in this posture, that, of course, living Zen, you feel that you're inviting them to come and sit with you. Can you imagine that? If you saw someone sitting, you might think, oh, maybe they're sitting in public. Maybe they're inviting me to come sit with them. And you might go up to them and say, may I sit next to you? And they might say no, or they might say yes. You still might feel that maybe they'd like someone to sit with them. But you can think of it that way. You can feel like I'm sitting here inviting all these people to practice with me. My sitting is an invitation to you. So, of course, me coming to Europe is an invitation for you to come to this. If I come here, I'm inviting you to come here.

[61:32]

And the people at Felsentor send out invitations for me, right? So you could see those invitations. Those were invitations from Felsentor to come here. And you are an invitation for me to come here, too. So some of you invited me to come, not just the people of Felsentor, but you individuals invited me to come. And in Sweden, too, they said, please come back. I feel invited. But also when I get here, I'm inviting each other. Our sitting can be seen that way, and seeing it that way, I suggest to you, is the way that the Buddhas see their meditation. They see their meditation as an invitation to all beings, and they also see all beings sitting as an invitation. Of course, the Buddhas are always practicing with us, but if we don't invite them, we may not realize that they're here. So invitation is one way to see sitting.

[62:35]

Sitting as invitation. Another English word we would use is as invocation. The sitting posture as invoking the presence of Buddha. Inviting, requesting Buddha invoking Buddha. And particularly in the Zen lineage, this invitation to Buddha and the Buddha's response is kind of the feeling realm. The feeling realm and the sense realm and the thinking realm and the intuitive realm in which the practice really lives. Now, you can also come to a zendo with the idea, with the thinking and the feeling and the sensing and the intuition that you're practicing by yourself.

[63:48]

You can also practice that way. You're allowed to come in here thinking that way. If you come to the door, they ask you, do you think you're going to practice by yourself in here? And if you say yes, they say you can't come in. Do you feel like you're going to be practicing zazen by yourself in this room? If you say, yeah, that's the way I feel, I say, well, there's some very strict zendos like that. But I would say if you think you can practice Zazen by yourself, I invite you to come in and try. See if you can. One time I was in Japan. Somebody asked a Japanese Zen priest what this stick was for.

[64:51]

Zen priests in Japan sometimes carry this stick when they're leading services. It's called kotsu in Japanese. So some people think it's a back scratcher. But someone asked this priest, what's this for? And he said, when you come into the zendo, it's for hooking the Buddhas and pulling them into the room. So that's part of the interactive way of picturing is that we're invoking the presence of the Buddha by this sitting. In the chant, which we did earlier, it starts off by saying, I vow from this life of countless lives to hear the true Dharma.

[66:44]

And some ancestors have said that if you vow to hear the true dharma, that you will be successful in being able to hear the true dharma if you open up to the realm of where you're invoking the . In other words, if I sit here and I say, I vow to hear the true dharma, and if I think that this person is going to hear the true dharma by his own ears or his own voice to hear the teaching, that perspective on listening to the dharma and hearing the dharma may not be sufficient to hear the true dharma. But if I open to how all the Buddhas are practicing together, and all the Buddhas are practicing together with you, not just with me, if I feel and think and remember the teaching that the Buddhas are practicing together with each of you, and that each person I meet is not just one person, one person in the company of all Buddhas,

[68:23]

That's why I, of course, accept everybody. I mean, that's why, if I think that, I will accept everybody, because each person, no matter what their posture, all the Buddhas are around them. I'd be respectful to you if I understand you are surrounded by Buddhas. I don't want Buddha to seem to be disrespectful of you. I don't want to go up to you and not appreciate you and have all the Buddhas see me. So I'm a good boy when I come to you, because all the Buddhas are watching, and you. So I'm being a good boy, and you should be a good boy too, because Buddhas are all around you. But good boy doesn't mean anything, because you should relax with good boy and be playful with good boy. But anyway, presence of all the Buddhas, that's when I hear the true Dharma. I cannot hear the true Dharma if I think I'm all by myself.

[69:28]

I have to open to being in the presence of all Buddhas, and not just all Buddhas, which is very nice, I think, but all bodhisattvas, all beings. And as we say in America, including George Bush, And people say, no, no. But if you reject Norah George Bush, you can't hear the true Dharma. In the past year, I've given talks from a very difficult Mahayana sutra called the Samdhi Nirmacana Sutra. Some of you were here for those retreats. And I was in Texas one time studying a sutra with people, this Mahayana Sutra. It's about the nature of mind and consciousness and intellect. And it's a basic, maybe the most important Yogacara text.

[70:37]

And we were reciting the text in service, just like at noon service we recite this text on the self-fulfilling samadhi or self-receiving samadhi. And this one man came to see me and he said, I was doing this chanting and I just couldn't understand anything. The scripture just seemed much too difficult. I didn't understand anything. And then I thought, well, maybe I'll invite all the Buddhas to come. And he said he did that invitation, and then he understood it really well. And he said, I'll never practice alone again. I'll never study the sutras alone again. So there's many ways to do this, but basically I'm proposing to you that that's one way to open to the true path of enlightenment when you're sitting is to sit and invite all beings to come and join your practice, which they're already doing.

[72:01]

But if you don't invite them, you may not understand that. If you feel they're already invited and they're already here, then you might say, well, then I don't need to invite them. That's not necessarily so, though. Sometimes you may feel that people are invited, but they don't. So it's still good maybe to invite them, but you can see. Definitely if you don't think they're here, it's good to invite them. So I invite you to express yourself, if you'd like, at this point, in any way. Nancy? Can you explain a little bit specifically how the practice with someone

[73:09]

How do you practice what? Someone that... I'm searching for a word other than that that is frustrating to you or that you disagree with violently or, you know, kind of people. Uh-huh. If I disagree with somebody, I guess I would work on the violent part. That's one thing I would... I mean, that's what I would vow to do. I would vow to deal with the violent part. And so that's a big project right there. But let's say, just to shorten... that I just came to disagree deeply and widely, you know, or completely or something like that, rather than violently. And so that, again, I... These days I use him as an example.

[74:21]

I often disagree with him deeply and widely, but not very often violently. He disagrees with me violently, but I don't get violent with him. I almost never do. Yet I do disagree with him, but I kind of melt. in the midst of my disagreement. I don't necessarily lose track of my disagreement. I still disagree with him. Like, I come into his house where he lives, and I touch a banana, or he wants some orange juice. So I start to pour him some orange juice. But there's a top on the orange juice, which can be turned various ways. Like, one way it has a sign, it's just open, and the other way it has, like, a filter. So I turn it one way or another, and he informs me about which is the right way and which is the wrong way, you know?

[75:29]

I said, this is not the way it's done in this house, he says to me. He makes up these laws that he imposes upon me, and I agree with him. And... But I don't usually get violent with him, even though he's very fascist with me. I try to relax with him and be playful with him, and we work through it. So the people with whom I disagree are great. I'm committed to everyone, and I'm committed to the people who I disagree with, and I have a person in my life fortunately, who I really disagree with, who I'm completely connected with, I have all kinds of opportunities to work with him, and basically, I'm committed, I'm committed, I'm committed, and I try to relax with his extremely rigid and oppressive regime.

[76:33]

And then I try to, and if I can relax... But he even won't let me be playful sometimes. Sometimes the way he reacts to me being playful with his rigidity is that he won't even let me be... Like, sometimes he lays down these big heavy laws and I laugh. He says, no laughing. He won't even let me have fun. I mean, he won't let me show the fun because I think he wants me to be some, you know, beaten down and, you know... I think he partly wants me to suffer under this oppression. So how can I do that in a playful way that works with him? And sometimes it gets pretty violent. He gets really tough on me. But what's my intention? My intention is to be committed to George Bush, my grandson, all beings, and try to relax with them.

[77:38]

in that commitment. So with a very powerful person like George Bush, try to relax, try to commit to his welfare, and of course, therefore, the welfare of many other people, perhaps, and try to... But it doesn't mean you don't disagree anymore. You might disagree on certain points for a long time, But you relax with your disagreement. You relax with your opinion. You think this is the best way. He thinks that's the other way, the best way. But you don't hold to what you think. Originally hold to what you think is best. But you hold up. You hold up what you think is best. Like Gandhi said, which means grasp your truth and hold it up. Relaxed, playful way.

[78:41]

He didn't say that. I'm saying that. So if you had a chance to talk to someone like that, and you had a chance to hold up your truth, hold it up in a relaxed way, and if they see that you're relaxed and respectful and committed to them, and that this can move a little bit, then the dance... And in the dance, their position can move a little bit too. As they feel your relaxation, they may feel that they dare to relax. Of course, they also need commitment to you, which would also mean you need to work on that. But all beings, right? Isn't he? Maybe all American beings? All Republicans? Anyway, that's what I suggest to do with people who, at first, you have to reduce the violence, but reducing the violence Relax. I think that relaxing... First of all, committed.

[79:45]

Now, if you feel violent and you relax, then you might just be violent. So if you feel violent, first of all, you have to commit to the welfare of everybody in your situation so that your relaxation will not release the violence. And be devoted to everyone, even the people you really disagree with. In other words, be devoted to people who you think are on the wrong path. Be devoted to them. Have you ever heard of anybody in history that's been devoted to people on the wrong path? Have you? Regular? Shakyamuni Buddha. He was devoted to people who were on the wrong path. He said, generally speaking in the world, people veer off on two extremes. They veer off into the wrong He said in his early teaching, and his later teaching, and his final teaching, the Buddha sees that people are on the wrong path, but those are the people the Buddha is devoted to.

[80:52]

He loved these people on the wrong path. My grandson's sometimes on the wrong path. He's not always on the wrong path. He's generally on the wrong path. Buddha didn't say everybody's always on the wrong path. He said generally people on the wrong path. And these are the people I'm devoted to. So if you see somebody's on the wrong path and you're violent, take a break and go deal with your violence. Then come back and express your devotion to the person and help the person who's on the wrong path. But not try to get them to come off the wrong path. Try to get yourself to come off the right path. And if they see you willing to come off the right path, they'll dare to come on. But if you're holding to the right path and saying they're on the wrong path, they're going to hold to the wrong path even more. But if you say, okay, I'll try the wrong path with you, I'm assuming, I'll try your path.

[81:53]

I used to think this was right, but who knows, maybe you're right. Let's try your way. You feel you're not tricking them or manipulating, and in your heart you're not. You're just relaxing and playing with them. and they feel that, then things can turn. You can let go of your position, then they can let go of theirs, and then two people who still have these two different views can find peace and harmony. We do have different views. The question is, how can we work together to realize that even when we have different views, we're supporting each other? If we're feeling violent, we have to sort of check into the place of violence and relax with that. We can't really dance with people if we feel violently towards them. But after we feel relaxed with them, then we can dance with them in a violent way. Like you can do gung-fu with them. And when I was a kid, I used to like the tango because these people were dancing in a way that looked violent.

[82:58]

They were like fighting. They had these, you know, these scenes of these people fighting in bars, you know. But they were actually dancing. They weren't, in their hearts, they were not violent towards each other. So they could enter into this very harmonious, high energy, high movement together. And nobody gets hurt. But you have to be very skillful when you're doing that not to get hurt. Okay. Mika? You're talking about situations and there's a question that helps me quite a lot. How do you know whether this I mean, like, in some type of situation, you just didn't like it, just want to leave.

[84:06]

Well, basically, it's not so much a matter of when you know it's time to leave, but just when it is time to leave. So, like, if you're in a situation and you relax with it and you start to become playful with it, this creative thing arises out of the creation called leaving. It isn't like you're in there saying, well, now I'm going to decide this is the time to leave. It's more like you're letting go of when you think it's time to leave and when they think it's time to leave. So they're letting, because you're letting go, they're letting go of what time. Everybody has the idea about when it's time to leave, which is changing maybe. But then suddenly you say, hey, look what's happening, I'm leaving, bye-bye. Dogen says, When you find your place, practice occurs, realizing the fundamental point.

[85:07]

When you find your way, practice occurs. When you find your place in this relaxed, playful creation, and you understand the practice of leaving or the practice of staying will manifest. The practice will occur. It isn't that I go like this and I go, okay, now the practice... I'm in the creative process and things occur. I think that's a description. It happens that you leave the situation. Just like in this room, when do you decide to leave? And someone just left, and I want to tell you that you're invited to leave any time you want, particularly if you need to go to the toilet. Why should you leave? But when will it be time to leave? How do you know when it's time to go to the toilet?

[86:08]

How do I know when is the time for this Dharma talk this morning to end? When does this desired Dharma discussion end? When should we leave and go do service? Will we see? Watch. You can see how it happens. If you relax with this situation and be playful with it, probably we'll do service, but maybe we won't. If you find your place, the practice of new service, realizing the fundamental point. The practice of going to the toilet will occur. Or put it the other way, going to the toilet will be the practice. When you find your place. Okay? My body is invited to go to the toilet. Reb says he invites me to go to the toilet. My body wants to go to the toilet. I'm willing to go. I'm willing to miss part of the lecture.

[87:14]

Everything's coming together. And here I am. I'm standing up. Here we go. To the toilet. To the toilet. You know, it's happening. I mean, this is creation I'm living in, and everyone's supporting me. They didn't cheer, and I left, but I felt their support, and I felt that me leaving the room was good. So this is a description of how it happens. But this talk is not really how it happens. This is just talk about... how this inconceivable process of creation manifests, going and coming, leaving and staying, and coming and staying, and leaving and coming and staying. This is what happens. But to get a person in the middle and think that this poor little person called Reb has to decide when things happen, this is the great anguish of people.

[88:16]

Many Zen students come and say, well, how do I... Which airplane to ride on? When I should make my reservation? This is anguish. Let's just sit and see when you call. Find your place and the practice will occur. So how about new service? What do you say? Shall we have some new service?

[88:47]

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