So that I were all your confession and repentance. This is a pure and simple power of truth practice. Yet you deny the faith of the true body of God. So I read the description for this retreat, and it said, entering, embodying, and enacting truth and justice.

[01:37]

And then it says further, unconstructed silence and stillness is the source of truth and justice. In this meditation retreat, we will have ways of entering and embodying and enacting this source. So this source, this true relationship among all beings, I'm trying to show a way to enter it and let it into your body so that you can act from this body. In that retreat that I just did in Switzerland, Schweizerland, in that country we did a retreat in the

[02:49]

focus of the retreat was what is called Bodhisattva Vow. That was a good retreat. I didn't mean to bring up Bodhisattva Vow here in Sweden, but it's coming. The Bodhisattva Vow is coming, unexpectedly to me. And I wonder how many people here are not familiar with the term bodhisattva. Would you raise your hand? Bodhisattva literally means, bodhi means awakening and sattva means being. So bodhisattva is a form of being which is awake or which is awakening. And the process of awakening, awakening to the highest awakening, the highest enlightenment, is a process that goes forward by means of

[04:19]

vows by means of wishes, which are also committed wishes, promises. So the path to Buddhahood is a path sponsored by this wish to become Buddha so that all beings can be benefited. It's the path to Buddhahood needs this vow. Now, some people who are on the path to Buddhahood, in a sense, they wish to follow the path of Buddha, but they have not yet found this vow in their heart. But eventually, on the path, this wish, which we then commit to or promise to follow, is part of the path, is the heart of the path to Buddhahood.

[05:45]

Bodhisattvas are those who have this vow, living in them, or who are living this vow. And bodhisattvas are not just human beings. For example, I think fungi are bodhisattvas. Do you know fungi? Fungi are a type of living organism which live under the ground. And they're not really animals, and they're not really plants. And their flower is a mushroom. Do you know mushroom? The mushroom is the flower of the fungi. We have fungi living under the ground here right now, right? They live under the ground. Mostly they're under the ground. But occasionally they put up these flowers to spread spores.

[06:49]

And the flowers are called mushrooms. Fungi are kind of bodhisattvas because what they do is they help other beings. They take excess nutrients from beings who don't need them and give them to beings who do need them They demonstrate compassion. They purify toxins. They break them down and make them non-toxic. This is a bodhisattva activity. Their life is dedicated to the welfare of other beings. So bodhisattvas can be fungi. They can be dogs, cats. They can be snails. Any living being can be a bodhisattva. Humans can even be bodhisattvas. But not all humans yet wish to be bodhisattvas.

[07:56]

So someone asked me yesterday who had practiced Tibetan Buddhism, and in Tibetan Buddhism this bodhisattva vow is very important. Also we say bodhicitta, Bodhicitta, again, bodhi, and citta means mind. So bodhisattva, bodhi being, and bodhicitta, bodhi mind, or bodhi heart. So this bodhicitta is very important in Tibetan Buddhism. But actually, so the person said, do you have bodhicitta in Zen? We don't really have bodhicitta in Zen, but bodhicitta has Zen in it. Zen is in bodhicitta. We don't have, we don't possess bodhicitta. But bodhicitta is the seed of all Mahayana Buddhism, and Zen is one of the forms of Mahayana Buddhism.

[09:00]

So yes, we practice bodhicitta in the Zen school. And bodhicitta is, again, the wish the wish, the desire to attain supreme awakening in order to help all beings. Now, if you take the bodhicitta and then you promise to practice it, you commit to bodhicitta, then the bodhicitta becomes the bodhisattva vow. So what we just chanted was a Zen teacher's words to try to encourage the birth of the bodhicitta in our hearts. I don't mean to force you to become bodhisattvas. I would be happy if you did. I'm not forcing you to become Buddha. I'll be happy if you do. But if it would be helpful for me to force you to become Buddha, let me know.

[10:07]

I would be willing to force you if it really would be helpful. And I have ways to force people. I don't usually use them because usually they don't want it. So anyway, I wanted to bring up this Bodhisattva vow. And I wanted to tell you that if you don't feel this vow in your heart, You can still practice here, this retreat, even if you do not want to be a bodhisattva. It's fine. At Zen Center, I remember years ago, when I was a beginning teacher, A very sincere Zen student came to see me and he said, you know, I really don't care about other people. I don't want to help them. I don't want to save all beings.

[11:11]

I just want to be happier myself. I'm practicing Zen just for myself. I've got problems and I'd like to be more at ease with my life. Can I stay at Zen Center? And I said, of course. So you don't have to have this great bodhisattva vow to practice at a Zen Center. I should say, at some Zen Centers. Some Zen Centers, the teachers ask the people that come, are you a bodhisattva? Do you have a bodhisattva vow? And the student says, no, he says, go away. I only accept bodhisattvas. Some Zen teachers are very strict that way, and I don't criticize them. But in the West, there aren't very many Zen centers, so if you send somebody away, they maybe have no place to go, can't find another alternative. So usually we let everybody come. And then when we have some open Zen centers like that, then we can have some other Zen centers which are stricter, which only let bodhisattvas in.

[12:20]

So again, I want to say, yes, the heart of the practice is this unselfish promise to attain the highest possible state in order to help all beings. This is not about getting anything for yourself. This is about giving yourself. This is not about attaining the highest state for yourself. It's about giving yourself to the highest state to help others. Also, this person, this Heihei Koso, this Zen teacher, Dogen, he says, there are three things which are very rare and easily lost.

[13:38]

This is not quite true, anyway. He said there's three things which, when you get them, they're easily lost. One is fish eggs. Most fish eggs are lost. Only a few survive. Another one is a special fruit that lives in India. And the third thing is bodhicitta. Bodhicitta, once it arises, it's easily lost. So once it arises, it needs to be taken care of. Otherwise, it will be lost. And the first way to take care of it is to practice giving. And it's the first way, but it's also continuously taken care of by the practice of giving. I think I said something like this last night, that although living beings are changing all the time, still they manage to keep in a kind of a rut, or to keep stuck in their habits.

[15:20]

Is that okay? Do you understand that? Most living beings most living beings are kind of stuck in habitual ways of behaving. They're changing all the time, but they keep changing into someone who's a new version of a person who's stuck. So to change, to deeply, fundamentally change living beings is very difficult. And the first way to help them change is by practicing giving. So there's many forms of the bodhisattva vow. One form of the bodhisattva vow is, I vow

[16:25]

to embrace all beings. I vow to help all beings become free of their habitual ways of behaving. I vow to help all beings become free. And the first way I will practice that vow is by giving. So if I meet someone, including myself, who is in pain, who feels trapped, who's feeling tired, who's worried, who's afraid, If I meet someone like that, I vow to help them by practicing giving with them.

[17:32]

And practicing giving means I give them to themselves. And I give myself to myself. If they're tired, I give their tiredness to their tiredness. If they're worried, I give them to themselves worry. If they're in pain, I give them to their pain. If I'm in pain, I give my pain to my pain. I give myself to myself. And in this process, the pain becomes a gift. The worry becomes a gift. The fear becomes a gift. The tiredness becomes a gift.

[18:40]

In the In the retreat in Switzerland, many people told me they were afraid. Not so many said they were tired or in pain. They were tired sometimes, probably in pain, but mostly they told me about fear. In this retreat, I'm hearing more about being tired and in pain and fear. So people are already telling me that they're tired they're having a hard time, they're worried, they're in pain. And when I feel that way, the first practice that I want to practice is to be generous, to be gracious with my pain. Not to like my pain, not to dislike my pain, but to give my pain to my pain.

[19:55]

Not to like my tiredness, not to hate my tiredness, but to be gracious and consider my tiredness a welcome guest, a welcome difficult guest. Difficult guests come to Buddha's house. All difficult guests come to Buddha's house. Bodhisattva's vow to open to all pleasant guests and all unpleasant, difficult guests. This is the vow which supports the path to Buddhahood. So when the difficult gift comes, the bodhisattvas vow to say, welcome. I give you to you.

[21:03]

I give me to me. You are a treasure, a difficult treasure. a painful treasure, a treasure of pain. And not only that, but you might be, it's possible that you're a bodhisattva. So I respect difficult... I vow, I wish, and I promise to learn to respect difficult beings. Kicks? Snakes, biting insects, frightened, aggressive human beings, and so on. This is the vow that all Buddhas live by and all bodhisattvas live by.

[22:08]

And the first practice to take care of this vow is giving. Not I like and dislike, but thank you. Gracias. Gracias. Gracias. So, um, If a difficult guest comes, I do the ceremony or the practice of giving. I say, I promise to say, welcome. Thank you very much. And if I do that ceremony over and over, my body and my mind and my heart become soft and gentle and flexible.

[23:37]

My body becomes softer and more flexible. and my mind becomes softer and more flexible and more open, and my body becomes more open. And as I practice giving, the ceremony of giving with the pain that comes to me when I'm sitting, and the tiredness that comes to me when I'm sitting, and the fear that comes to me when I'm sitting, if I practice being gentle and generous towards these experiences, I become softer and softer and softer in mind, in heart, in body. We don't try to make you have pain in Zen practice, but if you sit still, pain will come. Pain is coming to us.

[24:43]

Unless we die very soon, pain is coming. Fear is coming. Tiredness is coming. Difficulty is coming. And if we sit and fight it, we become harder and harder. If we run away, we become hard and inflexible. But if we sit still and open to it, we become tenderized. We become more and more tender. Tender, tender, tender. And as we become more tender, we become more and more ready to completely give ourself. To completely, what we say, drop off body and mind. And in Soto Zen, The definition of actual Zen practice is dropping off body and mind.

[25:46]

To sit and let body and mind drop off. That's the actual practice of the Buddhist sitting. And if you sit and you haven't yet dropped off body and mind, you're still holding on to something That's normal. But then if you practice giving with whatever comes, you become softer and softer and you more and more are ready to actually let body and mind drop away. And then you enter the realm of the Buddhas. Then you enter the actual stillness the actual reality of giving. And from there you realize the body of the Buddhists.

[26:48]

The body of Buddha pervades everything right now, but we are somewhat resistant to it. There's some hardness in our body. We want to hold on to something. Well, that's a guest. The one who wants to hold on to something, that's a guest to welcome and be gentle with and feel what it's like to be with that person. I am deeply moved by talking to you about this wonderful practice.

[28:40]

I think it's so wonderful to have a practice of sitting still and being generous with everything that happens to your body and mind, and to be generous with all other beings. And thus enter the Buddha way. And embody the Buddha way. And then act it out with other beings and show them this path. It's so possible for us. Another thing that someone said to me yesterday was about thinking.

[29:57]

Sometimes people say that in Zen meditation you stop thinking, or that you don't think. And the person said, that doesn't seem reasonable to me because human beings think. And so I just wanted to mention that thinking is a very basic and almost always visiting guest to the practice. So I think that When some people say, don't think, there is merit to that instruction. But when they say that, they don't mean that when you're thinking, you shouldn't be thinking. I don't think they mean that. The usual thing I'm suggesting to you is that when you're thinking,

[31:03]

which is frequent. Like right now, most of you are probably thinking. I'm suggesting that when you're thinking, you practice giving with the thinking. That you be gracious with your thinking. And gracious means you take care of it, like an honored guest. And if the thinking is difficult, you take care of the difficult thinking like an honored difficult gift. And as you take care of the thinking, the difficult thinking, the difficult thinking turns into a treasure. It turns into a dharma, a true treasure.

[32:05]

if you take care of it, which means you observe it and give it to itself, give it to itself, give it to itself, with no expectation that the difficult thinking will turn into a treasure. But it will. Not trying to, okay, I'll be gracious to this guest, and that will help the guest go away. That's not gracious. Gracious is you really, you really, from your heart, say gracias. Thank you. Thank you for coming to help my practice of giving grow. Thank you. for pushing me to get bigger, to become a bodhisattva.

[33:09]

Thank you. Thank you, difficult guest. Thank you, inside difficult guest, difficult thinking that I have about my life, difficult thinking I have about you, difficult thinking you have about yourself. People come and tell me terrible stories they have about their life. They do not think their story about their life is a gift. So I have to... Not have to, I want to. I want to accept their terrible story and I want to accept that they don't think it's a gift. And if they see me accepting that they don't think it's a gift, they actually get ready for me to say it's a gift.

[34:09]

They eventually can hear that from me and not hit me for saying that. I remember the first time I came to Edelborg, a woman came to talk to me and she told me that she had no friends. She said, well, some people go to the opera with me, but they're not my close friends. I have no close friends. And I accepted that she said that. I really did. But then I thought, oh, you do have a close friend. Me.

[35:16]

And then I said, you have some other close friends. Everybody. Everybody is your close friend in Buddha's house. Some of your close friends are really troubled, unhappy people who do not think they have any close friends. So they're suffering and they're frightened because they don't think they have any close friends. If you think you don't have close friends, you'll be frightened. Of course. But actually, everyone is your close friend, and everyone is a treasure. And everyone is testing that teaching. Not everyone.

[36:22]

Some people kind of, you already know they're a treasure. You already know they're a gift. But then the next moment they change, and then maybe they test it. So once again, I have this diagram here, just a diagram that someone made. And they heard me give a talk, and they made this diagram. And what they heard me say was that Buddha is always thinking. This is in relationship to some people saying don't think. Buddha is always thinking and Buddha is always not thinking. Buddha is always constructing stories, constructing worlds. How does Buddha construct stories? Buddha thinks

[37:22]

Like this, I vow to walk the Buddha way and cause other beings to enter the Buddha way and walk the same way with me. Buddha's always thinking like that. And also, Buddha is always not thinking. Buddha is always not constructing stories about what's going on. And this diagram shows these two circles, always thinking and always not thinking, overlapping. Because Buddha doesn't abide in either always thinking or always not thinking. Buddha is always thinking without abiding in thinking. Buddha is always not thinking without abiding in not thinking. and not constructing, in a sense you could say, is the source of our actual life.

[38:45]

It's the realm of not thinking and not constructing is the way we're all supporting each other. That's not a construction, that's actual causes and conditions. without any story about how we're related to each other. It's our one life and one practice together. It's where we live right now, but we can't grasp the life we live. So we can enter it, we can embody it, we can express it, but we can't grasp it because it's not separate from us. So in a sense, this is the source of the bodhisattva vow. This is the source of Buddha's activity in the constructed realm where we can grasp things and can think things.

[39:52]

And when Buddha comes into this constructed realm, when the bodhisattva comes into the constructed realm, they wish to help all beings in the constructed realm Learn to think like Buddha and also learn to not think like Buddha. But again, not thinking coexists with thinking. And practicing giving with the thinking opens the door to the not thinking. Opens the door to freedom from karma while simultaneously performing good karma. Because karma is what makes worlds. And another point which I thought, maybe I'm already saying too much, but I'll just say this anyway, because it might be helpful at the beginning of the retreat, and that is, I ran into this, in reading the Zen teacher Dogen recently, I ran into this expression,

[41:32]

concentration moves, wisdom removes. Concentration, or stillness, moves, and wisdom removes. I like that word because it's got moves and removes. And also, it's kind of a surprise because to say that stillness moves is a little bit of a contradiction. So the interpretation you can make of this is when it says stillness moves, it means stillness moves or shakes delusion. And wisdom removes it, takes it out. So sometimes they use the image that when you become concentrated and still,

[42:37]

you start to shake, for example, like a tree of delusion, you start to shake it and loosen its roots. Sometimes use that image. Take your delusion, take your false ideas, and when the stillness starts to shake them, the delusions don't like stillness. They get disturbed by stillness. So there's a dynamic there that when you become more still, your delusions start acting up. Or another image they have is that when people are running around and very upset and agitated and worried and greedy and hate each other, Okay? Those kinds of situations. In those situations, they sometimes say in the ancient texts that the palaces or the house of delusion is serenely happy.

[43:51]

The demons in the house of delusion are at ease. You know? They're very happy because all the beings are hysterical. They don't have to do any work. The beings are carrying out their work for them. Their disciples are practicing diligently, being hysterical, and hating each other. Ah, they hate each other. Oh, we can relax. They're afraid of each other. They're not being generous toward each other. We don't have to do any work. Wonderful. But when people sit still, the house of the demons starts shaking. They think it's an earthquake. Their house is shaking because sentient beings are sitting still. So then they send armies.

[44:54]

You know, we have to go back to work. So they send armies to go to the people and say, you shouldn't be sitting still. You shouldn't be sitting still. This is really bad to sit still. Don't you feel upset? Don't you notice we're bothering you? Don't you see how stupid this is? Isn't it painful? Aren't you worried? You're not getting anything out of this. Aren't you a little uncomfortable? Aren't you a little tired? If you would just get up from here and go take a walk, you'd feel fine. And this happened to the Buddha, right? The Buddha said, the Buddha vowed. The Buddha said, the Buddha wanted to attain the Buddha way. And not only that, but he promised. He said, I will sit under the tree. I will sit under this tree. And I will not move until...

[45:56]

The Buddha way is attained. And then Mara's houses start to shake and many demons came to say, no, no, you don't. But what did he do when they came? He practiced giving. He let them be attackers. He did not fight them. He was generous towards them. And they relaxed. So it's normal when you sit still, when you sit still, that things start moving. It's normal when you come down that the delusions start shaking. It's normal. But also their shaking is they're coming loose, they're losing it, they're losing control of you. And then wisdom comes and just gently pulls them out of the ground, kisses them, and turns them into treasures.

[47:05]

So in this retreat, as usual, you're sitting still and the demons are coming. It's normal. It's been happening since the beginning of the practice of the Buddha way. And now when they come, welcome them. Welcome them. Not I like you, not I dislike you, but welcome. I let you be a demon completely. I'm your gentle, flexible friend. I don't like you, but I give you my whole compassionate life. And if you can't do that, then you confess and repent. And you say, you know, like I said in what you chatted here, you say, I can't be generous towards these demons.

[48:17]

I confess. Even though I promised to be compassionate to these demons, to anybody who comes. I'm not being compassionate. I'm not being generous. I'm not saying thank you. I'm not saying welcome. And I'm sorry, because I promised to be a bodhisattva and welcome all beings, but I'm not doing it. If you can do that, you will receive inconceivable assistance, imperceptible assistance to the eternity of practice. That's what this said. I found it to be true. People who practice it, I've seen them be successful in this way.

[49:21]

You can try it out. you can actually practice the Bodhisattva way. Those who have not attained Buddhahood will, shall become Buddhists. Before Buddhists were Buddhists, they were just like you, just like me. And they practice giving with themselves. So if you practice giving with yourself, then you're not only just like the Buddhas before they were Buddhas, but you're doing the same practice. When I go around the room at the beginning of a retreat and I touch the backs of the people, the humans, sometimes the backs of the humans feel like a turtle shell.

[51:35]

You know turtle? Their heart. And they're shaped kind of curved out like this. And if I touch a little bit and I put a little pressure on the turtle shell, it doesn't move. It's like, this is a shell. Do not push. It will not bend. Not all the people, but there are some turtle shells. And then the person sits day after day, letting the letting what happens comes. And the turtle shell gets softer and softer. And by the end of the retreat, the turtle shell has become not a turtle shell anymore. It's a soft shell crab. You touch him, the body can move. The body becomes soft. People become tenderized by staying in the

[52:41]

in the container where the guests keep coming and knocking on the shell. Knock, knock. Go away. Knock, knock. No, thank you. Knock, knock. Knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock. Okay, you can come in a little bit. Okay, you can come in more. Okay, you can come in All right. All right. Okay. All right. And then maybe they don't knock for a while, and you start tightening up again. And they come back. Hello? You let me in before?

[53:45]

Can I come in now? No. Please? No. Pretty please? No. But they get tiring. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, that's tiring. Okay, okay. That's why I said this is Kislam. You know. Do all these devices work? Are they turned on?

[54:47]

Does this work? Is there any feedback from me besides the feedback you already gave me? Thank you for your feedback. You gave me a lot this morning already. Did you notice that you're giving me feedback? That was feedback. Did you notice it? Is there any other that you'd like to offer? Samir?

[55:52]

Hello there, Samir? Can you hear me? I hear you. When you walk in here, would you try not to make any sound with your heels? OK. Thank you. Is it better for you? I'm not into better. I'm just into asking you to do things. Could you accept it? You can't be any better. Could you accept the ball? I definitely can accept it, yeah. At least at this time, I can. Longing for Tenshin during a whole year.

[57:12]

And practicing wholeheartedly every day. And meeting Tenshin, Gento faint. Meeting Tenshin what? Gento faint. Faint. Oh, you fainted. Gento is your name. As you know. Yeah, but they don't. You didn't know his name, did you? No. So he's saying, my name is Tenshen. He wanted to meet me. He met me. And then he fainted. Capping verses. Wow.

[58:19]

It's beautiful to see you. No teacher No Buddha. No sky. No fish. No hell. No paradise. No students. Just you know. I have a gift for you.

[59:31]

The gift is that I request I'm stopping to feel restlessness. Thank you, Rasmus.

[60:37]

Thank you, Sharad. Thank you, Samir. Thank you. Thank you, Samir. Any other offerings this morning?

[62:20]

On the right side, it says, after lecture, you want to join in this chant. I want to be strong. [...]

[65:00]

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