Once again, presenting the ethical training in the kind of ethics that brings welfare to the world. The first precept is the precept of restraint. And that provides the context for the second and third methods of training. And there's various, almost infinite distractions from practice that are restrained.

[01:04]

the first that comes to mind is to practice to try to get something, rather than practice to give. So it's natural for living beings to be oriented towards trying to get, like babies, little babies. They don't usually think, oh, I want to give my mommy something. You know, when they first come out, they want to get milk. They want to get air. They want to get somebody to make them more comfortable. They want to get attention. They don't think, oh, I want to give my mommy a lot of attention this morning. I want to help my mommy. She's stressed out taking care of me. Of course they can't speak when they're first born. But usually there's not too much sign except for very advanced babies who are born bodhisattvas already.

[02:08]

Most of them are kind of oriented towards getting. We're born innately that way. We learn it that way of that orientation of getting, we at a certain age, some kids at ten, some at eleven, some sixteen, some thirty-five, some fifty, eventually most people get that the primary orientation of getting-self-for-ourself, in other words, the addiction to self-concern, the addiction to getting, even getting for others, that addiction is painful. So we hear about a training to switch from getting to giving. So the first is restrain that natural tendency to get and develop the new skill of being present and getting ready to practice

[03:14]

wholesome action, the first of which, the first practice, besides being present, that protects the bodhisattva aspiration, the first practice is giving. Three pure precepts. Number one, precept of restraint. Number two, precept of all wholesome practices. Number three, all these wholesome practices are applied to maturing beings. So we start with practicing giving, and we're practicing giving not to get good at practicing giving, but to give ourselves to be good at practicing giving. to give ourselves to the practice of giving to mature beings, to show other people how to practice giving. Because they need somebody to teach them how to practice giving.

[04:20]

Just like little babies need to be taught over and over until they learn how to practice giving. Somebody has to know how to practice giving to teach them. So, all hopes and practices, again, are these six practices, which include infinite practices. Number one is giving. Sometimes giving is expressed as three types. Giving material things, giving fearlessness, and giving the teachings. Giving material things like giving food, giving energy, giving your body, giving your... listening to somebody, saying things to people, all these physical things, giving them.

[05:32]

Sharing your wealth with all beings. That's the first aspect. The next one is to give fearlessness. And it's hard to give fearlessness if you don't have a little bit of fearlessness. But if you practice generosity toward your fear, you'll be given fearlessness. If you're generous and you welcome your fear, you get more and more fearless. Also, if you're generous with your material wealth, you also become more fearless. You're not afraid of losing. Because as you get more and more skillful, before you lose anything, you can make it a gift. Before your youth is taken from you and you lose it, you can give it away. But if you haven't learned that yet, you can learn it now. the more we're able to give away our health and our wealth and our youth or our present age, whatever, the more we're able to give it away, the more we protect the aspiration and the more fearless we become, and then we can give the fearlessness, basically by demonstrating it.

[07:00]

And then the third type of gift is to give the teaching. If you practice giving to develop your aspiration to benefit beings, then you can give the teaching of your aspiration, you can tell people about your aspiration, you can help other people find their aspiration. And you can give your aspiration, which is part of your material wealth, and you can give people encouragements to find their own aspiration. Not tell them what their aspiration should be, but help them find their own. You can also give them other teachings. Like you can tell them, if you find your aspiration, then we have these practices. You can teach them these practices. You can teach people these practices if you practice them. And the first one is that if you are practicing these practices, then these practices are the dharma or the teachings that you can give.

[08:10]

If you wish to benefit beings, and you're practicing generosity to protect that aspiration, that wish, You can give people that practice. You can teach people giving. You don't have to say, I'm going to teach you giving. You can show it. You don't have to say anything. They can see it. Matter of fact, it's probably better just to show it rather than say it. To remember to practice giving and show people everything you do in relationship to anyone else you could see as a gift. Everything you do in relationship to yourself you can see as a gift. You can brush your teeth as a gift. And if you brush your teeth as a gift, people, they pick it up. They can see the difference between brushing your teeth to get clean teeth, rather than brushing your teeth as a gift to the world.

[09:13]

But you have to remember to do it. You have to say, okay, I'm going to brush my teeth now as a gift. I'm not going to be practicing giving and then take a break and brush my teeth and go back to giving. I'm not going to, like, practice giving and then take a break and open a door. And then after I've opened the door, I'll stop practicing giving again. When you go out of this room later, in case you do leave ever. If you go out those doors, when you open the door you can make that a gift. Or not. So the thought arises in my mind, why not? Why not make everything you do a gift? You can tell me later if you have some problem with making everything you do for the rest of your life a gift. I imagine that the awakened people, everything they do is giving.

[10:21]

There's nothing they do that's not giving. Also, everything they do has been given to them. They don't think they already possess their activity. Their activity is given to them. I don't own the role I'm playing here this morning with you. You gave it to me. You invited me to come here. You came to meet me so I can play this role. I don't own it. You gave it to me. You put me in the position of offering these teachings. I give them to you as a gift. I have no expectation. Or rather, I'm training to have no expectation. I think it would be good if I have no expectation that you would appreciate what I offer or not appreciate it, that you would understand what I'm saying or not understand it. I think it would be good if I don't expect that. I would like you to appreciate it, and I would like you to understand it, but if you don't, if I'm doing what I'm saying, I'll just keep offering it, even if you don't.

[11:29]

Because if I don't expect I'm not disappointed. I keep offering. If I offer you these teachings, if I offer you these precepts, and you say, please give them to me, and you receive them, and you say, I promise to practice them, and you don't, I don't expect you to do it. And if you don't, I just say, okay, I'll give them to you again. I'm pretty good at giving these teachings and not expecting... And there's one advantage of not expecting — well, actually, yeah, I should say, one advantage of giving teachings and people don't remember them is that I can give them again and again. So anyway, giving. That's the first one. And I want to say one more time, if you're practicing giving, one of the main things you can give is the teaching of giving. Now if you move on from giving to practice ethics, then you can give the dharma, the teaching of giving, and then you can also give the dharma, the teaching of ethics, which you're trying to practice.

[12:44]

And you can give your practice even though it's not at the highest level possible. You can give your current level of practicing ethics. So you can practice ethics also as a gift. You're practicing it as a gift And also, it's been given to you, you're receiving it, and you're putting your energy into practicing it as a gift. And also, your practice of ethics, you're also giving to others. So you're giving yourself to the practice of ethics, which is giving. You're receiving the practice of ethics, which is giving. And you're giving your practice of ethics to others, which is giving. And you're showing people that you have the joy of giving yourself to the practice of giving and the practice of ethics. So they can see, hmm, she really seems to enjoy practicing giving and ethics. Maybe there's something to it. These training methods are taught to be practiced

[13:55]

sequentially, that the early ones are the basis or prerequisite for the later ones. However, all the other five are included in each. So, for example, if you practice giving and you would practice it really deeply, you would notice that there's ethics in it. But you won't notice that there's ethics in it until you practice giving. If you go to ethics directly without practicing giving, you won't notice that there's ethics in giving, I propose to you. Plus you also have trouble practicing ethics if you don't practice on the basis of giving. So, in one sense, you need to practice giving in order to be successful at ethics. In another sense, if you just practice giving more and more deeply, you'll notice that you move on to ethics, or you move down to ethics.

[14:58]

In the giving, there's ethics, which you will discover as you practice giving. For example, if you're practicing giving and you get more skillful at it, you might think, Wonderful. I'm more skillful. There's more skill here in practice of giving. How lovely. Then you might think, and actually, not only am I getting good at it, but I'm better than other people are. Well, being better, being good at something, and then also noticing you're better than other people, is actually not ethical. And if you're practicing giving and you think, well, I'm getting pretty good, this is wonderful, and I'm better than others, if you're practicing giving, you'd notice that something's wrong with that. There's something wrong at thinking you're better than other people when you're practicing giving. you would just naturally notice that as you get deeper into giving that, well, I'm good at it, but I'm not better than other people.

[16:04]

Even selfish people, you know, like, for example, grandparents are sometimes quite generous to their grandchildren, and the grandchildren have never even got the slightest idea of being generous to their grandparents. They're not generous. They haven't learned it yet. but the grandparents don't feel the slightest bit separate from the grandchildren who don't know anything about giving and they just keep pouring the generosity on the grandchildren but they don't think they're better than their grandchildren they might think their grandchildren are better than them even though they see the grandchildren do not know how to practice generosity and are very very greedy when you get good at generosity it helps you see that you're not better than people who don't even have the beginning level of understanding. That's an ethical precept, which is not to praise yourself while putting somebody else down.

[17:07]

So you can either just practice giving until you notice that it's strange to think you're better at it than somebody else. I shouldn't say better, that you're above somebody who doesn't know how to do it. You can do it that way. Or you can just move on from giving to practice the precept of realizing that you do get good at things when you practice them but not putting yourself above people who aren't. To somehow not look down on people who don't know how to speak English as well as you or walk as well as you or do math as well as you do or be generous as well as you do. That's an ethical precept. Also you can practice generosity and it's conceivable if you're practicing generosity superficially that you would lie still. Like you might give some donation and somebody might say, how much did you give? And you might say you gave more than you did.

[18:11]

Even though you did give $100, when they ask you how much you gave, you say, well, $200. It's possible that you can generously give $100 and the next moment lie about it. However, if you really are profound in your giving a hundred, you'll find that the precept of not lying is in there. But another way, a more simple way, is just after practicing giving, then think, okay, now I'm going to practice ethics. If anybody asks me about my donation, I'm going to tell the truth about it. Now, if I lie about it, then what do I do? I feel regret and embarrassment and so on. Again, it's possible to practice giving and see someone who's stingy and say something bad about them, slander them.

[19:20]

Now, sometimes that ethical precept, I'll just say the main bodhisattva precepts, there's ten main ones, traditionally. And there's forty-eight minor ones. So that's fifty-eight. But the ten major ones are, number one is not killing. Number two is not stealing. Number three is not misusing sexuality. Number four is not lying. Number five is not intoxicating, actually, others. But at Zen Center we combine that one with not intoxicating self or others. Number six is not slandering. Number seven is not putting yourself up, praising yourself at the expense of others. Number eight is not being possessive, which relates back to giving. Number nine is not harboring ill will.

[20:32]

And number ten is not disparaging enlightenment. The Buddha... the teaching of the Buddha or the community of people who are trying to practice or successful at it. Those are the ten major bodhisattva ethical precepts. Again, they're done in the context of the first one. The context is, again, you're not doing these practices to get something, and you understand that whatever level you're at in doing these ten practices, you're inseparable from those who are really good at it. Also, no matter how good you get at these practices, you're inseparable from those who aren't good at it. It's okay to look up to people who are more skillful than you, but don't put yourself down. Don't slander yourself either just because you're not too good at some practice.

[21:35]

That's the sixth of these ten Sometimes they translate it as not talking about the faults of others, but sometimes it's beneficial to talk about the faults of others. For example, if you've got a bunch of your dearly beloved friends who need a ride and got a bus to take them in and somebody is... and the driver's been drinking too much, you might say, this person has a fault. They're drunk. I don't think they should drive. But you can say that without slandering the person. You can say that hoping that everybody will be kind to this person and care for this person and respect this person and make it possible for this person not to drive the bus. but if you say this person is is drunk in such a way that people not only prevent the person from driving the bus but don't care about the person anymore and don't respect the person if you say if you talk about other people's faults in such a way that other people feel separate from them and don't care about them that's what we mean by slander but if you point out somebody's faults in hopes that people will help them with that

[23:02]

that is in accord with generosity, that is in accord with maturing beings. And again, these precepts are in the deeper levels of giving. They're actually down in the reality of the giving process. All these ethical practices are there. The next one is patience. Patience is very close to the first bodhisattva precept of presence because patience is basically to be present with discomfort. It's to be present with hardship and pain and heat and cold and hunger and illness and insult and attacks from other living beings. Some people are really good at patience with hardship, but they're not too good at patience with insults.

[24:10]

Some people are actually pretty good with insults. You know, you insult them and they say, thank you, but they're not too good at, you know, heat and cold. So patience is to be good with physical pain, illness, hardship, and attacks and insults from other living beings. These three practices, again, they each include the other two, and it's usually recommended to do them sequentially. If you're holding on to your possessions, it makes it harder for you to focus on ethics. For example, if people are holding on to their wealth, sometimes when somebody comes into possession of what they think is theirs, they don't think they gave it to them because they're not practicing giving.

[25:22]

They feel a person's stealing from them because they're not practicing giving, and then they're liable to feel frightened and violent towards that person. And so we have many stories of people killing people who they think are stealing from them. Right? The bodhisattva teaching literature is not full of stories of bodhisattvas killing people who are taking stuff from them. We have enough stories like that. I've heard them all. I've heard a lot of them. But I heard a story one time about a Zen monk who was living in a little hut on a mountainside on a full moon night. And he heard some noise outside of his hut. It sounded like somebody was creeping up to his house. Creep, creep, creep.

[26:24]

And he thought, maybe it's a robber. So I won't do this right now. But he took off all his clothes and tossed them out the window and said, here. And he threw the rest of his possessions out the window and said, here. He didn't, this monk did not kill the robber. He wasn't afraid of losing his stuff. You might think his stuff probably wasn't that good anyway, so so what? Actually he had some good stuff. He had some nice books that had excellent teachings in them. He threw them all out the window, his precious teachings that had been given to him. Everything had been given to him, he threw it all out the window. And as the thief was going away with his stuff, he looked up at the moon and he said, sorry, I can't give you the moon too.

[27:34]

And I heard that and I thought, that's what I want to learn. The aspiration to be like that arose in my heart. And I've been trying to take care of it ever since. But of course I forget sometimes. And when I forget... I regret. I'm embarrassed. Because that's not the way I want to be. I want to be like that. Here, take it all. I wish I could give you more. Joyfully. When you're like that, you're less likely to kill people when they're trying to take something. Or, you know, lie to them about it. Think badly of them. Slander them, and so on. So, the the eighth bodhisattva precept is not being possessive of your teachings, of your material wealth. And that, you see, is not too difficult to practice if you are practicing giving.

[28:38]

But it's hard to do those practices if you're not practicing them with giving. Then if you're practicing giving and ethics, now you're ready for patience. These three bring benefit to suffering beings. These three bring benefit to us while we're still deluded. They don't actually liberate us from delusion in themselves, but they benefit the situation and get us ready for the next three training methods and the next three are the ones which actually liberate us. And I'm not withholding the next three. They're written up there, but I'll go into them this afternoon. So please return this afternoon and hear about the next three, which are not only beneficial, but actually completely mature beings.

[29:50]

It's getting close to noon, and I could entertain, I could receive the gift of any questions or comments you have at this time, if you wish to offer something. Yes? Of the ten major bodhisattva precepts, what would I have? Of the ten major bodhisattva precepts on the ethical... Yes? You have the least understanding of the tenth. So in this tradition, the tenth major bodhisattva precept, under the rubric of ethics in terms of like wholesome, unwholesome kind of ethics, which is the second of the six basic practices, he says he has trouble with disparaging the triple treasure. Okay? The easiest thing, probably, is to start with disparaging the Sangha.

[31:01]

So, if somebody's trying to practice, disparaging means to speak, to say something. It doesn't actually apply to thinking, in this case. To say something that disparages somebody who's trying to practice, that's what it means. Now, what about disparaging the Buddha or the Dharma? How could you disparage the Buddha? Well, this is a kind of advanced one. You could say the Buddha is that, or is not that. Or you could say this is Buddha, or this is not Buddha. That disparages Buddha. So that final one is quite similar to the first pure precept. where you restrain saying that you are not Buddha, or that something else is Buddha.

[32:03]

You also restrain saying that you are Buddha. You more emphasize simply being an honest person who generously allows himself to be the way he appears, and you understand that Buddha is not separate from that. But you don't say you're not Buddha. Because how would you know? Unless you say you are. And also the Dharma, too. You don't disparage the Dharma by saying it's here or not here, or there or not there. The Dharma isn't exactly here, it's just that it can be nowhere else. To confine it, to restrict it, into, you know, your idea of it, is a kind of disparaging. And then to say something like that, it disparages this infinite reality that no words can reach. So I say something about Dharma, but I don't think that what I say really reaches it. I just make an offering. But if I think that what I said is the Dharma, that kind of is kind of disparaging.

[33:09]

Just like if I say, you are Breck, and I think that really describes who you are. I can say you are Breck, but know that I just said that. That's not who you are. But if I think that's who you are, I'm kind of disparaging you. It's more like, I see a little tiny bit of whatever he is, and I call it Breck. That's more, you know, respectful of you. I have my own version of you, but that's not who you are. If I remember that and I say, hello, Breck, maybe you feel that, that I'm talking to you and I see you in my own way, but I don't believe that you're just what I think you are. You feel that. So you feel that I'm not confining you to my idea of you. But when somebody...

[34:11]

confines us to their idea of us, even if their idea of us is spectacularly wonderful, we feel a little bit bad. Like I used to listen to this person sometimes talk to her friends on the telephone about me, and she says these amazingly complimentary things about me that I never did. And I thought, wow, she's saying these great things about me, but I felt bad because she was lying about me. I wasn't like that. And I wasn't otherwise. I felt confined by this very positive picture of me. But a very negative picture of me I also feel confined by, if the person thinks that they just got me there. So as people may say, hello old man, If I feel like they really got me in that, if they think I really belong inside that picture, I feel kind of like, I feel insulted.

[35:20]

But I've got to practice for that. If I feel they say it just as a kind of like nickname, like Reb or old man, and I go, okay, fine. I don't feel like, as a matter of fact, I appreciate that they're practicing calling me names without thinking that the names reach me. I feel their practice. They're not disparaging me. Does that make some sense? Yes? I feel like in practicing giving people kindness meditation, and there's one day I had a lot of cards, Can I repeat what you said? Can I repeat what you said because it didn't get picked up? I heard you say you feel like you're practicing giving by giving kindness meditations. So you gave a man these kindness meditations.

[36:28]

Yeah. He was loving and then pushed you away? yeah do you want so I heard you say you don't know how to get attached Okay, so you're saying that you are attached, which sounds like you're being honest about your attachment. That's part of ethical training is, okay, I'm attached. I agree. I admit. Anybody here attached? I am attached. That's the part of ethical training is to admit that you're attached. Another part of ethical training is to be generous towards your attachment, to say, thank you very much, attachment. But thank you very much attachment doesn't mean you like the attachment and doesn't mean you don't like the attachment. Welcoming the attachment isn't the same as liking or disliking it.

[37:33]

It's welcoming it aside from and including any likes or dislikes. So the practice of welcoming your attachment and welcoming this person who pushes you away and hugs you, welcoming that person, that's the path to freedom from attachment. Yes, it's hard to let go. In other words, it's hard to practice generosity towards that. It's hard to say thank you very much for bye-bye, no closure. It's hard to say thank you very much for that, right? These practices are not advertised as easy. they are advertised as necessary and sufficient for enlightenment. You must do them, and they do, and they are enlightenment. They are enlightenment. But it's not easy when somebody is cruel to us with no closure.

[38:38]

It's not easy to say thank you very much. It's not easy to welcome us. It's easy to like it. It's easy to dislike it. If there's dislike, welcome the dislike. If there's like, welcome the like. You don't have to like. If you practice welcoming, you will learn to let go. Practice loving, practice welcoming, welcome, welcome, welcome, thank you, thank you, thank you. This is a necessary and sufficient condition to let go. That's what I say. And I didn't make it up. It was transmitted to us. So now we could have a lunch break. I take it back. Now we can have lunch. We can practice giving during lunchtime. We can practice ethics during lunchtime. And we can practice patience during lunchtime.

[39:39]

Please do. And please return at what time? Any suggestions? Five after one was suggested. How about one? Is that acceptable? Please return at one, and the lights will be off, and we can sit quietly for a while and resume our ethical training for the welfare of the world.

[40:05]

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