Yesterday here in Sacramento, we spent the day meditating on ethical training methods for those who wish to live their life for the welfare of the world. a training method for those who aspire to realize authentic awakening, authentic understanding of reality, in order to be able to effectively benefit and teach

[01:05]

all living beings the Buddha way. We may aspire to live a life that will benefit the world, and this aspiration, in order to be realized, needs to be protected and developed So the training methods for those who have such an aspiration are methods to protect and develop this aspiration to its fulfillment. The basic training methods are all the methods of compassion and wisdom that the Buddha has taught, that the Buddhas have taught.

[02:06]

So basically, at the foundation of this practice of training this aspiration to fulfillment, basically it starts with compassion practices. So that for a person who has this aspiration and is involved in this training, They are instructed and encouraged to practice compassion towards everything that comes to them, everything that comes up within their own body and mind to their awareness, and every living being that they meet, human and non-human. They are encouraged and instructed about how to bring compassion to every encounter, to every meeting, inwardly and outwardly. The basic elements of compassion are generosity, ethical training, patience, enthusiasm, and concentration.

[03:33]

Based on these compassion practices, one is ready to enter into reality and realize Buddha's wisdom. So I'm here tonight to discuss these practices if you wish. And I wanted to mention that during the meditation retreat yesterday, someone questioned whether it's appropriate to practice compassion towards everything. And in particular, he was wondering, is it really appropriate to practice compassion towards evil? and also towards extreme evil. And he gave some famous examples of extreme evil.

[04:41]

To me, it seems to me that, yeah, that the extreme evils of human beings anyway are the actions of people who are extremely mentally unhealthy. or insane. But people can be insane and still be extremely powerful. So the combination can lead to great evil. So he was wondering, should we actually practice compassion in cases like that? He was, I think, thinking of examples external to himself. But it would also be, how about extreme evil in our own hearts? Should we practice compassion towards that? He was questioning that. I'm proposing that the Buddha, the founder of this tradition, demonstrated that the answer to that question is definitely yes.

[05:46]

And then this morning a friend of mine asked me at breakfast, he said, do we have anything else in our toolkit to deal with evil besides compassion? And I said, yes, we do. Wisdom. So I'm not saying that the only thing you apply to evil, if it should appear, is compassion. I'm just saying, the Buddha teaches that we do apply compassion to wisdom, but the Buddha also applies wisdom to evil. We need both compassion and wisdom to deal with evil in the most beneficial way. However, Most of us cannot start with wisdom. Most of us are not fully developed in wisdom.

[06:52]

For most of us, there's something, at least something we don't understand correctly. But with our own ignorance, our own confusion, our own unhealthy states, The beginning of the practice for the welfare of the world is to bring compassion to these states inwardly. And if we meet others who are disturbed, frightened, violent, et cetera, the beginning is not wisdom unless we already have it. And if we have the wisdom, that means we have the compassion. But you don't usually start giving people who are really upset wisdom teachings. The Buddha did not give extremely disturbed people wisdom teachings. He gave them compassion teachings, compassion teachings, and compassion teachings, and then compassion teachings.

[07:53]

And by giving them enough compassion teachings, they eventually became ready for wisdom teachings. wisdom teachings are not appropriate to people who are extremely agitated, upset, and distracted. When people are in that state, the wisdom teachings just bounce off. But compassion teachings can reach people who are extremely upset. For example, once upon a time, This is one of the amazing stories of the Buddhist tradition, but it's in the scriptures, it's not just a folk tale, that the Buddha lived in India and there was a man who lived in India named Angulimala. And Angulimala means necklace of fingers.

[09:00]

This person had some wholesome background, but something happened in his life such that his teacher, who he trusted, instructed him to kill a thousand people. And with his open heart to his teacher, who he trusted, when his teacher told him that, he kind of went insane and followed his teacher's instruction. And he was killing many people. And the amazing thing is that as he is about to kill his mother, who should show up? Isn't this too amazing to believe almost? Who should show up but the Buddha. And what did the Buddha want to do when he saw this crazy murderer about to kill his mother? What did he do?

[10:04]

He brought compassion. He stepped between this insane man and his mother to protect his mother and to meet him. And did he meet him with violence? Did he kill him? Well, no, he didn't. Could he have? The Buddha has great powers, but he didn't use them to harm people. So he met this man and said to this man, hello, friend. And this man did not think that the Buddha was his friend. But he kept saying, hello, friend. And this man says, you're not my friend. Matter of fact, you're getting in my way. I'm going to kill you. Buddha said, no, just a second. I want you to understand something. I am your friend. I feel great friendliness towards you. I want to help you and help you be happy. And they talk like that for quite a while. The Buddha, our founder of this tradition, is just giving this great, warm, loving kindness to this man who cannot believe that this was happening.

[11:23]

Still, the Buddha was giving it, and it was having an effect. gradually opening his heart. In the end the man just still was in crazy, but the Buddha had set him up with this compassion practice. And as the man was about to go ahead with his earlier plan to kill the Buddha, the Buddha decided to take a walk. And the Buddha did walk. And this powerful murderer ran after him to get him and kill him. But although he ran and the Buddha was walking, maybe really big steps, I don't know. But anyway, the Buddha was strolling across the earth. with great compassion and wisdom. This man was running at high speed, but he wasn't getting any closer to the Buddha.

[12:30]

So he finally yelled out, hey monk, what's going on? Why can't I catch you? And the Buddha said, because I've stopped. I've stopped greed, hate, and delusion, so you can't catch me. And you can't hurt me. This is a wisdom teaching the Buddha gave him and he woke up. But first, the Buddha gave him compassion and loving-kindness to open his heart so that he could give him the wisdom teaching, could show him the wisdom teaching and turn it and wake him up. And this person became a wonderful disciple of Buddha and Actually, people were hunting him down. The king came with a big army and wanted to kill him.

[13:32]

And when he got to where he was, and he was with the Buddha now, the Buddha went up to the king and said, this man has changed. Please don't kill him. The person who did the murders is gone. This is a new person. And the Buddha showed the king that this man was no longer a murderer. And the king called off his men and accepted the Buddha's demonstration. The Buddha's compassion also was extended to the king, and the Buddha's wisdom was given to the king, so the king also did not do the evil of killing this good man. However, this monk, he became a monk. He went to town one day, and some of the people who knew who he was before beat him up. And somebody, a nice lady, came and protected him. And he continued the rest of his life as an excellent, nonviolent person.

[14:39]

The first teaching is given by the Buddha that we have recorded in what's called the first turning of the wheel, the first turning of the Dharma wheel. This new book is called The Third Turning. It's a teaching about later developments of the teaching. But in the first turning, the scripture called the first turning, when the Buddha talked to these five yogis, the Buddha gave wisdom teachings because these five yogis already knew how to practice, now already had received compassion teachings. They had already received ethical training. They already received instruction about concentration. They were beings who were nonviolent and compassionate towards everyone they met. And they were also nonviolent and compassionate towards their own minds. And therefore their minds had become tamed and gentle and deeply, deeply calmed. So when the Buddha met them, he actually knew them from prior to his awakening.

[15:50]

So he knew that these people were people he could immediately show. They were already open to wisdom. They were already ready. So in the first teaching of the Buddha, you had the Buddha giving wisdom teachings to people who are ready. And after just a few minutes of talking, which is the first scripture, one of them was enlightened. Not completely, but had his initial entry into reality. And within a few weeks, all five were awakened and became completely enlightened. But they were prepared. And most of us have a lot of work to do on ourselves, a lot of kindness to give to our state, so that our state becomes open and vulnerable to reality, so we can hear the Dharma. And the same with others. If we practice kindness towards them, they will open to the truth. In the Lotus Sutra, it says that the one great causal condition of the Buddha appearing in the world, the one great causal condition of the Buddha appearing in the world is the wish

[17:12]

is a wish that has four parts. It's the wish to open living beings to Buddha's wisdom. And once they're open, to show it to them, to demonstrate it. And then once it's demonstrated, to help them awaken to it, and then to help them enter it. It's the wish to help them open see the demonstration, awaken, and enter Buddha's wisdom. But what I'd like to stress tonight is that in order to open to Buddha's wisdom, the Buddhas teach and demonstrate compassion. Most of us are not sure it's okay to open our heart, because we've learned that sometimes if we have our heart open and that open heart is not treated with compassion, we sometimes say, that was not a good idea.

[18:25]

Better keep it closed and protected because someone might not be kind. And if they're not kind and unclosed, it won't be so bad, we think. So somebody has to teach us that it's really a good idea to practice compassion. And if we practice compassion towards others and practice compassion towards ourselves, we will dare to open to the truth. We will dare to open to enlightenment. many of us have heard the idea of wishing to live for the welfare of all living beings. And many of us have felt like, I would like to learn that. I would like to actually be willing to give my life for the welfare of others.

[19:33]

Many of us have thought that's a good idea. And many of us have tried. But most of us who have tried have found that there's some cases that we feel should be an exception to that policy. Even sometimes people who the day before we thought I really want to be devoted to this person and open to this person and give my life for this person's welfare. But today they really insulted me. Today they ridiculed me. So I'm changing my mind up for this person." And then I hear again, being devoted to the welfare of others, and I say, well, I have my limits. But another way to say, not that I have my limits, But the level of practice here, the compassion that I have to offer, isn't well enough developed to handle all challenges. And being aware of that is part of compassion.

[20:39]

To be aware of the limits of our compassion is part of compassion. Being honest that I wish to be compassionate to all beings, but honestly, I don't feel it for everybody. Part of compassion is ethics. Part of ethics is to tell the truth about how you feel and what you're thinking. Part of ethics is to be honest about saying, this is too painful for me to be patient with. I would like to learn to be patient with great difficulty. This is too much for me. And I understand that if I If the patient's practice here is not sufficient to handle certain difficulties, if I feel like there's too much, it's appropriate for me, if possible, to take on a lesser difficulty. And if I can't be patient with that, to have a lesser difficulty until I find something that I can be patient with.

[21:43]

By being patient with a small pain, one can learn to be patient with a bigger pain. By learning to be patient with a small irritation and a small insult, you can learn to be patient with a medium-sized insult. And in this way, it is possible, according to the tradition, to be able to stand great, great difficulty, great, great insult, great, great harassment. But we need to work up to it. And when the Buddha sees us not too good at patience, when the Buddha sees us having trouble being patient with even a small irritation, what does the Buddha do in response to seeing our very underdeveloped practice of patience? Is the Buddha impatient with us? No. No. Does the Buddha feel pain when the Buddha sees us not being able to be compassionate?

[22:51]

Yes. Does the Buddha feel pain when the Buddha sees us unable to be patient? Yes. Why does the Buddha feel pain when the Buddha sees our limited compassion? Because the Buddha feels compassion for us and sees our pain. Our pain in what? Our pain in underdeveloped compassion. But the Buddha is generous and gracious to us no matter how low, no matter how lowly our level of compassion is. And the Buddha wants us to become more compassionate and the Buddha is not rushing us to be more compassionate. And the Buddha feels pain because the Buddha sees that when we're not compassionate fully, we are suffering. And the Buddha knows that if we develop our compassion, we will be free of suffering and be able to show others that great compassion is liberation from suffering.

[23:54]

Still, the Buddha is gracious to us and welcoming to us in our lowest possible condition, in our medium condition, in our advanced condition, in our supreme condition, the Buddha's compassion to every possible condition. Of course. And when we become sufficiently developed in compassion, the Buddha is very happy to see this. And then the Buddha says, now it's time to give the wisdom teachings. And the cases that were questioned, cases of extreme evil, are cases of extremely underdeveloped compassion.

[24:56]

It's for beings who have almost no compassion for their own suffering, and because they don't practice with their own suffering, their suffering is virtually it drives them crazy because they have no positive way to deal with it. So they deal with it in a negative way by being violent, blaming other people for it, and so on. Nobody has taught them how to practice compassion towards their suffering, so they don't. And some people are subjected to great suffering and no one has taught them how to deal with it. And under those circumstances, well, the worst things could happen. Still, the Buddha's heart cares for that person as much as the advanced and successful practitioner.

[25:58]

If I cannot welcome everybody, everybody, if I cannot welcome everything in my own heart, then I cannot welcome enlightenment. If my heart is closed a lot, then my heart is closed to enlightenment. Enlightenment is something that can enter our heart, but it can't enter our heart if our heart is closed. If our heart is completely closed, then enlightenment can't enter at all. If it's closed a little bit, enlightenment can enter a little bit. But to actually let it in, you have to open to everybody and everything. And this takes a long a long and loving practice of compassion and wisdom to open our body and mind to everybody and to everything in ourselves. And some things in ourselves we don't even know are there. So it takes quite a while, a lot of practice even to get the things in ourselves that we haven't opened to, to come out and say hello.

[27:24]

And that's why we need Sangha, because the Sangha helps us find the things in ourselves, find problems in ourselves that we didn't even know we were hiding from. And then they come out, and then we see, oh, this is what I've been hiding from, and I'm still not ready to accept. But at least now it's out in front. And similarly, you may, if you live with a small Sangha, you may be able to be compassionate with your whole Sangha. So then that's great. And then it's time to expand the Sangha. to expand the kinds of people that you're open to. Once again, I'm saying that the Lotus Sutra teaches that the Buddhas appear in the world to open beings to Buddha's wisdom, and that the way to open beings to Buddha's wisdom, the Buddha practices compassion. In other traditions too, like some traditions have soup kitchens.

[28:37]

People come in and they get some nice food, and then after they have the food, they offer them teachings. And after the food's been eaten, people say, okay, I'll listen to a sermon. And in Islam, they have a practice of welcoming guests. So when they meet, their practice is to welcome people and to give them gifts, especially strangers, and to show them this and to get them ready to receive the teachings of Islam by compassion. Probably all the major traditions. Maybe not, but maybe they all start with compassion. Giving, ethical training, patience, diligence, concentration, and then wisdom. So I'm not saying I can open my heart to everything in myself or everything that any living being presents to me, but I am saying that that's my understanding of what I need to learn, and I would like to learn that.

[30:00]

I would like to be able to open my heart to all of you. completely. But maybe I'm not there yet. But that's what I want to learn. And I came to study Zen. I came to study Zen because I saw some examples of some people who opened their heart in situations where most people would close them. And when I saw that, I thought, I want to learn that. I want to learn how to open instead of close. And then I found out, again, that these people who could open in situations where most people would close, that they didn't just have good luck, they were graduates of a training program. A training program, you know, the Bodhisattva training program. They did that training for a long time and then they could open when attacked. and benefit.

[31:08]

But I'm not saying that, and I am saying that part of learning compassion is to also be aware of what's too advanced to be able to sense this job is too big for me. I need to either find someone else too open to this person. I need to find somebody who can open to this person because I can't. This is not a very good example, but there's this story of, I think it's called, one way to call it is the story of three billy goats gruff. I'm going to change the end of that story. So the story is that these three billy goats, I guess billy goats are boy goats, right? Are the females called nanny goats? So the billy goats are into head-butting, right?

[32:17]

So these three billy goats lived on a meadow, and I guess the meadow was running out of green grass. And they looked over across a river gorge, and they saw that there was a lot of grass in the other one, and there happened to be a bridge between the two. So they decided to go over to the other pasture. And underneath the bridge there lived an evil being, called a troll, I believe. an evil being, a crazy being, somebody who had not received much compassion and wanted to be mean to people, thinking that that would fix everything. So I don't know if the oldest Billy Goat had the idea or what, but anyway, it turns out that the littlest Billy Goat went over the bridge first and he's going, you know, how'd you go? tap, [...] over the bridge.

[33:22]

And as he gets to the middle of the bridge, the troll says, who's that walking on my bridge? And the little billy goat says, it's me, little billy goat. And the troll says, well, I'm going to eat you up. And the little billy goat says, oh, well, actually, that's not too good idea, because I'm so little. It's hardly worth your trouble. I got a brother who's coming who's like twice as big as me. I think, really, it'd be better for you to try him. He's much better. So the troll says, OK. The little billigo was being compassionate to the troll. He wanted him to have a bigger meal. So then the medium-sized billy goat comes, you know, boom, [...] boom. And the crow says, who's that walking on my bridge? He says, well, it's me on the medium-sized billy goat.

[34:25]

The crow says, well, I'm going to eat you up. You'll be more satisfying than that little brother of yours. He says, wait a minute, you shouldn't eat meat because a really good meal is coming, a really big one. That's the one I recommend for you, dear troll. So he says, okay. And then the big one comes. Boom, boom, boom, boom. The troll says, who is that walking on my bridge? He says, it's me, the large-sized billy goat. I'm going to eat you up and you're going to be a really good meal. And the big one says, You're right. I would be a really good meal. I would satisfy you completely. And I give myself to you completely. And the troll woke up. And climbed up onto the bridge and over into the pasture and protected the billy goats forever.

[35:29]

This is the Buddhist version of that statement. Nonviolent response to violence. The Buddhists teach nonviolent response to violence. One of the Buddha's main, well, I'll say the main. Once upon a time there was a woman And I don't remember her name. It wasn't Kisa Gotami. It was another woman, and I don't remember her name. Maybe it was Kisa Gotami. But anyway, this woman had a family, I believe. And some natural disaster occurred. And please correct me if I get this wrong, and I'll change it, as I'm telling it. And I think maybe her parents got killed, and she got very upset.

[36:39]

And then I think the next thing that happened was another natural disaster happened, and her house was destroyed, and her husband was killed. And she got more disturbed and more upset. She didn't know how to meet this with compassion. No one taught her how to be gracious with such extreme impermanence. And then her children were killed. And then she went totally berserk and started wandering around in the state of insanity. And again, miraculously, just happened to run into guess who? And she goes up to the Buddha, emaciated, covered with filth and naked, kind of raving insane. She just happens to run into this wonderful, compassionate teacher. She walks up to him in her state, and the Buddha says, Regain your presence of mind, sister.

[37:48]

And she snaps at him. Again, he gives her his compassion, and she dares to live again, and wakes up. And she becomes one of the great disciples of Buddha. What's her name? Huh? Anyway, I'll look it up and email it to you. But she's one of the main early disciples of the Buddha. No, that was his mom. That was his stepmom, and she never did go nuts. She was compassionate from the get-go. His mother died, and then she took care of him after his mother died. So she was always in really good shape during his lifetime. Yeah, she was his mother. She was compassionate. She taught him compassion. He learned concussion from her, and then when he became Buddha, he gave her the Dharma he discovered.

[38:53]

He returned the great kindness to her. Once again, When the Buddha met these beings, these calm yogis who he used to hang out with, and they're calm. Why are they calm? Because when life's difficulties were presented to them, they met it with compassion. They met it with patience. They met it with ethical conduct. They met it with generosity. So they were able to be very calm with their life in India. And so when he met them, he gave them a teaching. And what teaching did he give them? He gave them the teaching of the middle way. He said, I found a middle way, which is peace, which is nirvana, which is bliss, which is freedom.

[39:55]

And what is the middle way? It is to avoid the extremes, the two forms of addiction. Addiction to self-concern and addiction to self-denial or self-mortification. He taught that to them. And what is the middle way? It is the Four Noble Truths. It is the truth of suffering and the truth of the origin of suffering. What's the origin of suffering? It's being addicted to extremes and therefore craving. What are the extremes? Well, one extreme is the extreme of self and others. the extreme of we are separate. That's an extreme view. You exist over there, separate from me over here. That's an extreme view. Because of thinking we're separate, if we see each other as separate, then we crave each other.

[41:03]

And then we cling to each other, and therefore we suffer. But it's possible to cure this disease, to cure this extreme addiction to separation. We are extremely or completely addicted to the illusion of separation from birth. But if we apply the training method of compassion to this addiction to believing that we're separate, we can open our hearts to that being an illusion. We can dare to open our heart to that we're not separate, to the reality of interdependence and non-separation. These people were ready for that and he taught it and one of them heard it within a few minutes and the others heard it within a few days. And then they deepened this understanding. The Buddha also taught many other things to antidote people's misconception.

[42:15]

The truth of suffering is that the truth of suffering has a cause, and the cause of the truth of suffering is misunderstanding. The Buddha taught things to address our misunderstandings. We are born naturally to look at things and think they're permanent. So the Buddha taught impermanence. We are born to see that things seem to have a self existing on their own. So Buddha taught no self. These are wisdom teachings. We are born naturally to see things as though maybe some of the things out there which exist on their own and are permanent, maybe they can give us happiness. So the Buddha taught impermanence. things in themselves, if you look to them for happiness, will be suffering. So he taught that. These are wisdom teachings. But he gives these wisdom teachings to people who have already received compassion.

[43:18]

If they haven't received compassion, first he gives them compassion. First he opens them to the teaching. Then he teaches impermanence, not self, and ill. We have minds, you know, which create a story that what we're looking at is out there separate from us. That's the kind of minds we have. We have minds that arise and look at themselves and say that what they're looking at is outside themselves. They're actually looking at themselves, but it looks like they're looking at something outside themselves. And the mind believes it. This is the way we're born. We have a mind which is deceptive. The Buddha taught living beings are born with deceptive minds. This is a wisdom teaching.

[44:18]

I'm telling you this now, but I don't know if you've received enough compassion to open to this teaching. This is not an insult to living beings. It's a warning to living beings. It's a warning that we're born with minds that are deceptive. And we need, I should say, if we wish to be free, then we need to listen to this teaching over and over. We need to remember that what we're looking at is our own mind. When I meet someone, I meet someone. When someone meets me, they meet me. However, I have a story about the meeting. Whenever I meet someone, I have a story about my meeting with them. I don't just meet people. I mean, I do just meet people, but then I add on to the meeting a story of the meeting.

[45:22]

And everybody does that. Whenever they meet someone, they don't just meet them, they add a story, I'm meeting this person. And not only that, but they think their story of the meeting is the meeting. But the other person also is just like that too. They meet us, and they have a story of their meeting with us, but their story is not our story. But they think their story is true, and we think our story is true, and that's the way living beings are born, is they can't help but make up a story about everybody they meet and everything they experience. And again, they can't help believing that their story is not a story but a reality. We do meet. We are relating to each other. But the way we're meeting is not our story of the way we're relating. But we can't help but have a story, so we have to be compassionate to that story so we can open to the teaching that this story is a deception. Because the story, basically the story is this person that I'm meeting is separate from me.

[46:25]

Whereas actually I'm looking at my mind which is mischaracterizing the meeting. The actual meeting, in the actual meeting there's no separation. But the living beings who are meeting think there is. If we listen to this teaching and listen to this teaching and remember this teaching and listen to this teaching, gradually We hear it. Someday we hear it. And when we hear it, we become free of what? Of our mind. We become free of our mind. We become free of living our life from the standpoint of our mind, which is deceptive. We don't eliminate our mind. We become free of our mind and let our mind go on as before, but now we're free of it. And then we can show other people who also have minds how they can become free of their mind. How?

[47:28]

By practicing compassion towards our mind and their mind. Practicing compassion towards our story of our mind and our story of their mind. And then we become free. We are born deceiving ourselves. We are born with a mind that's a trickster. This mind should be treated with great compassion. And if we don't know how to treat it with good compassion, we need to learn. And so we learn great compassion and by being greatly compassionate and greatly kind to this deceptive mental process, we will be able to receive these teachings and let them come into our heart and then we'll become free of the deceptive mind without messing with it at all.

[48:29]

And then it will serve us to talk to the other people who have not yet become free of the deception. Because we can show them, it's not like I don't have a mind and I'm free of a mind. I've got a mind just like yours and watch how I'm not fooled by it. I'm just like you. Watch how I'm not fooled by being just like you. So I'll tell a Zen story now about this. Once upon a time, there was a person who, he was very smart, and he was very devoted to the Buddhist teaching. And I think he knew how to practice compassion. And I think he was very ethical. Mostly they just talk about how smart he was and how well studied he was in the Buddha's teaching.

[49:39]

But I imagine that they're not mentioning that, or maybe it's assumed, that to be at the level of the story that we're telling, he was already learned how to practice generosity and ethics and patience and diligence. Obviously he was very diligent in his studies because he was a master of the Buddha's teaching. And I also imagine that he was quite concentrated. Because he was such a master in the teachings, he must have been very concentrated. However, he was still deceived by his mind. He still had the problem of a mind that he did not understand, and he was fooled by it. And he studied with a great teacher, And when he was with that teacher, that teacher's name was a Chinese master. His name was Bai Zhang. And while he was studying with Bai Zhang, he didn't understand his mind.

[50:43]

So he was trapped inside his mind. He was enslaved. He was a slave of his mind. He was a puppet of his mind, which told him, you know, the usual story. We all have minds which tell us stories, and he was just like us, and he was fooled by the stories his mind told. He thought they were true. Like he had a story that he was a great Buddhist student. Which a lot of other people had that story too. Like his, actually, his teacher probably had that story, but his teacher didn't believe that story. Anyway, his teacher tried to help him, but he couldn't. His teacher died. So then he studied with his teacher's main disciple, whose name was Guishan. And he lived with Guishan for a long time and studied with Guishan. But at a certain point, Guishan said to him, would you come and talk to me, please?

[51:47]

And he came and talked to him, and Guishan said, I don't want to hear any more about you. I don't want you to tell me anything about what you know. I don't want you to talk to me about anything you've learned. I want you to say something from before you were born. Very good. You can tell that's an amazing instruction. Say something. Don't just go to the place before you were born. Go to that place and then say something to me so I can know you got there. And then he said, another way to put it is, say something to me from before your mind discriminated objects. Say something to me before your mind sees the world as separate." And this wonderful student, who I imagine had many Buddhist virtues of compassion, and that's why the teacher was giving him this wisdom teaching.

[52:50]

He was ready for it, almost. almost, the teacher said, maybe he can let this teaching in and maybe he can go to the time before he was born and talk to me from there. And when he said that, this person, by the way, this person's name was Xiang Yan. So Xiang Yan heard the teaching and his response was to mumble. And Guishan said, well, no, not really. So then he went away and went back and looked at all his notes and scriptures and studied them. And then he came back to Guishan and tried to say something from before he was born. Tried to say something before he separated himself from everybody. And Guishan said, no, mm-mm.

[53:58]

And he kind of broke into tears. And he said, OK, I give up. I'm just going to leave and just go and just be a very simple monk. I'm not going to study anymore. I'm going to go. I heard that the national teacher, there was a great teacher, and he had a monument. I'm going to go take care of the national teacher's monument. Because I heard that it's not being cared for well. And Guishan, his teacher, said, okay, go. So he left his teacher and he went to this place where there's this monument to this great teacher and he just took care of the grounds. He just cleaned the ground around the monument to the great teacher. You know, cutting the grass and tidying up day after day, just living a simple life.

[55:03]

What was he doing? He was trying to find the place before he was born. He was trying to find the time before his mind separated from the universe. And one day, when he was cleaning the ground, his broom or his rake hit a pebble. And the pebble flew through the air and hit a bamboo stalk and went . And he became free of his mind. The wisdom teaching finally sunk in. He let it in. And he heard the sound. It wasn't that nothing was happening. He heard the sound, but not from the standpoint of his own mental constructions.

[56:10]

And then he bathed and made offerings and bowed in the direction of his teacher with great joy and gratitude. for this teaching. I missed one important point, is that after Guishan gave him this teaching, he said, would you please explain, teacher? And Guishan said, if I explain, it'll just be my understanding, which will be no good to you. And also later, you will revile me for explaining to you. And when he understood and bowed to the teacher, he said, your kindness is even greater than that of my parents, that you didn't explain to me. Because if you had, I would not have been able to have this experience and be free of my mind. Our mind is reaching outside for the teacher to explain.

[57:16]

The teacher kindly does not. I told you to go someplace before you were born. Now you're trying to get me to explain after you're born and keep you here in the realm after birth. I'm not going to do it. You have to go back home before you were born and then talk to me. So he did. And then he sent some verses to his teacher. He had somebody deliver some verses to the teacher to express what? To express speaking from the time before he was born, speaking from the time before he was deluded. And when the teacher heard it, he says, the disciple has penetrated reality. The story goes on, but it's getting late.

[58:16]

So I want to say thank you very much and invite anybody who'd like to come up here and play with me. There's a seat here to come and give me feedback, ask me questions, insult me, praise me, and see if I can respond with compassion. Please come up here and be compassionate to me. Please come up here and help me. if you like. And if you don't want to, please don't. Oh, Marilyn's going to come. How lovely. Welcome, Marilyn. Thank you. You're welcome. Here he comes around this way.

[59:22]

Gonna give you a microphone, very nice. I'll have to give you a little background just to... Please do. To help me and you. Yeah, please give me some background to help you. there's legislation in the cap going on right now being introduced to stop killing a certain I'm sorry back up a certain type of killing with animals so for the welfare of beings and I'm in favor of that legislation so we testify we hear you know we go and talk to the people who don't want it to pass because they want to continue that killing. And I actually in hearing you tonight, I have compassion for those people who are doing the killing. I know that they I think they they don't see anything wrong with it.

[60:24]

They're not thinking it's evil. But my I and my allies are thinking it's evil. Yes, not for the benefit of not for the welfare of all beings. Yeah, and not conducive to enlightenment. Right. Yeah. But I'm kind of stuck because I want to... Well, I guess I want to... I want that legislation to pass. Yes. So I want to change them to agree with me. Yes. You wish they would change and agree with you. Right. Mm-hmm. Okay, so I have compassion for them, and they're saying, or their feeling is, I've got to be able to go out and kill in the manner that... So... This is a good example. But I kind of waste my time, and I mean, I really do feel like I have the compassion for them, but how do I have the compassion and...

[61:33]

I hate to use this word, but win. I want to win. That's a little... If the Buddha sees a woman who wants to win, what does the Buddha do with that woman? Well, compassion. Compassion towards the woman who wants to win. So if you feel in your heart the wish to win, I would like you to be compassionate to the wish to win. So you've got the wish to win. I want to be compassionate to your wish to win. I'd like you to be compassionate to your wish to win. You know, be generous towards it. Be careful of it. Be patient with it. Because the wish to win, unless you're completely enlightened, is stressful. The wish to win... is something to feel compassion for unless the person has no attachment to winning.

[62:34]

And most people who do not have Buddha's wisdom, when they wish to win, they have some attachment to that wish, and therefore they're stressed and suffering. Buddha, however, does not hate them for being attached to their wish and does not hate them for their wish to win, especially to wish to win when they think it would be beneficial. But if somebody who wishes to win something that the Buddha could see was harmful, the Buddha feels compassion for that person too, especially if that person is attached to doing something that's harmful. So the thing about it is that if you wish to win, if you did wish to win, and you were kind to that, you would be ready to receive the Buddha's teaching and realize that these people who disagree with you are not separate from you. And that your story about winning and what is good is also not anything but your story. And then you could continue to wish to win, but with no attachment to your story.

[63:41]

And also, you could be compassionate to these people who disagree with you, but not just be compassionate to them, but understand that they're you. When you understand that they're you, you can be as effective teaching them as the Buddha is. But if you're working for something, and even if you're working for something and you disagree with someone, and you still believe that the appearance of them being separate, that belief in that separation undermines your compassion, undermines your working for the welfare of all. I mean, I see that. You see it. Yeah. And the Buddha's happy that you see that. And then being kind to that will make you more and more ready to see that these people are actually teaching you something about yourself. And when you really see that, they'll probably agree with you. But I can't say for sure. I saw this woman one time, just recently I was in a retreat at this place called Tassajara, and I was watching this woman who was doing something unusual in the form, in the ceremonies that we were doing.

[64:55]

And the people on both sides of her, the people on one side of her were demonstrating to her As a matter of fact, the person who was demonstrating was Jim Hare, demonstrating the usual way of doing it. But she didn't see him. So she didn't follow his example. And then everybody after her followed her example. And I watched her, you know, and I wondered when she would notice the example of the senior person next to her. And days went by and she didn't notice it. Now, I could have just gone over and told her, but I found it more interesting to watch how long will it take her to learn. You know, because she was doing this thing and the usual example was right next to her. She wasn't seeing it. And it was having some consequence because all her friends were copying her. And after a while, her friends kind of got the picture and they stopped following her.

[65:57]

So then she was the only one doing this. And she didn't notice that the people on this side were doing it different and the person on this side was doing it. And I was amazed. I was watching and watching. And again, I could have said, you know, blah, blah. But I didn't. And then finally I thought, what is it about her that's me? how is what I'm seeing over there me? I was wondering, how is this me? I thought that. And I really wondered. And as soon as I thought that, she changed and learned it. I mean, I thought it right before the time to do this thing. And I wasn't trying to manipulate it. I just thought, actually, forget about how amazing she is that she's not learning this. How is this about me? What is it about me? And then she learned it at that moment. I mean, a second later. So if you look at these people, and you do want this, and I think I agree with you, but if we see them as separate, that interferes with, I think, what you really want, the real peace you want, which is

[67:13]

that you and they awaken together. But some, maybe you awake a little bit before, and then you're not attached to the thing you want. You still want it though. You still want it. But if you want a good thing and you attach to it, you get disturbed. And then you become less effective. And then, like if I want something, I think something's good, and I attach to it, then when I, it's like when I tell someone about it, it's like I have electric charge on me and they go . And they don't even know what I said. They just feel the charge of my self-righteousness. So I have to deal with my own attachment to what I think is good. Otherwise, although I might win or I might lose, if I deal with it, the dharma gets transmitted. And they might agree with you. It's hard to say. But even if you do win and you don't learn this thing, more trouble will come until we solve this basic problem.

[68:22]

Thank you. I'll approach it tomorrow differently. Yeah, and this is a great example of what we want to do good, but we also need more than just compassion. We need the wisdom which comes from the compassion. So it would be good if you got enlightened before tomorrow morning. Thank you. Anything else tonight? Any other excellent examples? Please come. Do you want to come? I welcome you to come. I don't know if it's so much a question. It doesn't have to be a question. It can be a song, a dance. I work in the medical field, and sometimes I get so overwhelmed by empathy for somebody else's pain that I have a hard time doing my job. And I'd like to become a nurse, and that's a question that a lot of people have is, oh, or say to me, I could never do that.

[69:26]

I could never work in oncology or I could never work in hospice because it's so painful watching someone suffer. And I just would like some advice on how to deal with that as I get an education and continue my career in nursing. So you have experiences where the pain you feel seeing other people's pain, that you can barely stand it? Like having a hard time assisting a doctor because someone's in pain and it's just so hard for me to watch because I can feel it from them. Yeah, so you feel the pain. Now, the pain you feel, to some extent, I think the pain you feel is because you care about them. Okay, that's good pain. Now, how can you welcome that pain? You need to, so you got the pain you feel is good. It's connected to compassion. But you also need to be generous towards your own difficulty.

[70:27]

And continue to be helpful and do my job. Like that's where I can be helpful. I don't want to be overwhelmed by something that I can't do what I'm supposed to do. Right. So you need to learn, in order to do this work, you need to be gracious to this pain, which is very great. You need to say thank you. You don't have to like it. And certainly you shouldn't dislike it, because it's a good pain. It's the pain that comes from your caring for these people. The Buddha feels pain when the Buddha sees suffering people. But the pain the Buddha feels comes because the Buddha loves the people. So your pain, some part of your pain, is very, very good. And, but, yes, so what you need to do, number one, well, actually, number one is you want to learn to have this pain. You don't want to get rid of this pain. You don't want to not feel pain when you see suffering by other people, right? It wouldn't be good to not want. I mean, if you didn't want to feel it, you should be compassionate to that because that's not healthy.

[71:30]

So you also don't have to want the pain. It's just whatever pain you feel when you see suffering people, you need to learn to be generous with it. You need to give the gift of letting that pain be that pain, just like it is. Not make it more, not make it less. Say, I give you the gift pain to be the pain you are. So now you have the pain, but now you have generosity too. And the generosity is a joy, that you're being generous towards this pain. you're saying, welcome pain. I still feel the pain, but now there's a joy of welcoming you. You're a very difficult guest, but I welcome you anyway because I know if I don't welcome you, you're going to overwhelm me. Now, after welcoming this pain and feeling the joy of welcoming some very difficult guest, which you know is actually A guest that you would not want to eliminate because then you'd be watching people without feeling any pain for them.

[72:34]

You don't want to do that. So this is a difficult guest that you do not want to get rid of. But you would like to not be overwhelmed so you can function. And the first step in not being overwhelmed by a difficult guest is to learn to be a great hostess. That's the first step. Next step is once you let this difficult guest in, you've got to be careful with it. You have to practice ethics. You have to be very watchful because this guest, if you don't pay attention to it, I'll knock you down. So you need to say stuff to the guest like, you're really difficult. I must admit, I'm having a hard time with you. You need to respectfully sometimes say, I'm afraid of you. I'm afraid you're going to overwhelm me. You need to not say anything bad about this pain, not slander it. You need to not try to get a different pain or less pain. Take something that's not given. This is the pain that's given. And then it changes and you get a different one.

[73:35]

So don't try to get a different pain that's being given to you moment by moment. So practice ethics with this guest. And then move on to patience. And patient doesn't mean gritting your teeth, and patient does not mean wondering how long it's going to last and hoping it'll go away. Patience means being present with it. Right now. But also, it helps to be present in the smallest possible time. Just now. Don't think about how long it's been going on. Don't think about how long it will go on. Just deal with it right now. That's patience. Be present. Then, if you want to be able to do this work best, You have to be diligent. You have to think about how good it would be to do these practices so you can be present with all this pain. You need to think about it until you really aspire to bring these compassion practices to this pain. Because you know not only will it make it possible for you to be effective and present, but it will help the doctors, And it will help the patient because the patient is also having a hard time being present, being gracious and careful and patient with their pain.

[74:44]

So you're not only going to be more effective, but you're going to be teaching others, the doctors, the other nurses, and the patients how to do what they need to do with themselves. The doctors are also suffering. And the patients need somebody to show them, I'm here with you, I'm suffering with you, and I'm not trying to make you different from how you are right now. I want you to get well, but now that you're sick, I'm totally here with you in your sickness. And if you don't get better, I'm going to stay with you. Moment by moment, I'm training myself to be able to be with you. And I want to encourage you to be with yourself. We don't know where this is going, but we're going to be together. And the next step, after really being enthusiastic about this practice, this way of dealing with this pain, practice concentration. Try to be relaxed and be calm with it. then you're setting the stage for wisdom, which then that would really set everybody free if you could enter the wisdom and show them how to enter the reality of the situation, which is a truth which will liberate everybody.

[75:55]

Yeah. Thank you. Another very good example. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming to meet me and coming to help me. May your practice thrive here in Sacramento until we meet again.

[76:20]

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