I wanted to say something that we can go into more on another occasion. But we have these many Zen stories and some of them are called koans. And sometimes they have like a book and the book's got, we say, lots of koans in the book, public cases of public reality. And so another aspect of this would be that you have the story that you look at and that the story actually is an idea that some And by reading the story, this idea comes into your consciousness.

[01:05]

And this story has the potential within your limited consciousness to exceed the capacity of the consciousness. But the consciousness has let something in that is set up to inside the consciousness that the consciousness cannot contain. And then the consciousness can develop this relationship with something inside of itself that's greater than itself. the transition from the story when it first comes in, which you may think is interesting or meaningless or difficult to understand, the transition from this thing in your mind and what it can become like greater than the capacity of what holds it

[02:26]

that is facilitated by a conversation with another. And part of the conversation is some kind of like, you know, or some real, you know, being met by something that really meets you, and in that conversation the story becomes something which you could never have let into consciousness in the first place. Consciousness is that we bring in the rest of the world in a kind of diminished or reduced form because consciousness can't let undiminished things inside. So it actually lets a diminished version. So something very big touches the consciousness and the consciousness makes this kind of unjust, reduced version of this thing which the consciousness can deal with.

[03:34]

Like our digestive system, you know, the blood, there's no hamburgers. ...stream, right? But you can eat a hamburger and then a hamburger can be chewed up and broken down and converted into stuff that can go in the bloodstream. So, in the world we have to... ideas, these thoughts in consciousness, that some of them are set up, once they get inside, to open up to show that they're actually infinite, but in such a way that it doesn't make you go unconscious. It doesn't like... Maybe I use the word overwhelm. It doesn't like overwhelm the consciousness and make you faint. somehow through the conversation you can tolerate the vastness of what's in your mind.

[04:37]

Anything, but in order, I should say you can do it, that can happen with anything, but in order for this thing that came in a reduced form to be unreduced and to start to include all that it is, we come to that by conversation. So traditionally, these stories are discussed in conversation. And the same with our, for example, our sitting practice. So we have this body, and in our mind we have a reverse, a reduction of our body in our mind. Like, we have various little pictures of what our body is, which, you know, isn't really fair to our body, but we have these pictures and we deal with these pictures. And so we make a picture, we have a picture of ourselves sitting up And that's based on our body, which is sitting up in meditation, but it's sitting up in meditation in a way that can't get into consciousness because it's too big.

[05:51]

So we make this little kind of stick figure of ourselves with arms and legs and stuff. Our body doesn't really have arms. Or the arms and legs are like infinite, really. But we can't imagine that, so we make this imaginary version of our body, sitting upright, meditating. And then, by conversation, we can, like, start to realize the actual body that's sitting, which turns out to be the same body as the person sitting in everybody else's body. Be open to that, and then learn from that. So I just wanted to introduce that, and make sure we do it again in the future. And I also wanted to asked you, it was suggested that we end today at 5.

[06:51]

So, did you hear about that? Yes. So, today we're going to end at 5. And I'd be interested to see if you like ending at 5, or if you want to go back to ending at 5.30. It's up to you, I think. I hear you, and so it's up to you that it's up to me? Or is it up to me that it's up to you that it's up to me? Anyway, I asked for your feedback, and you gave it. Thank you. I honor what you wish. Oh, there you go. I honor what you wish. I vow to honor what you wish. Anything you wish right now? No? No wishes at this time? That's a standing offer. You can make a wish, really, for your well-being.

[07:59]

Honor your wish for our well-being. The roads being the way they are right now, for people going back to Green Gulch for dinner, maybe it's a little easier ending fine. And after the roads are repaired, let me know. Evaluation, I think, after the roads. Okay, thank you. Thank you, thank you for the feedback. I know that sometimes there's not enough time in the day to see all the people. So if there were more time, then maybe that would make it easier on you and other people. I don't know. That's a thought. Thank you for the feedback. Thank you for another day. I was uplifted by your support so that I was able to stay with you all day.

[09:05]

The man is reaching for her bell striker. Yes. I was in Daukasan today with Rev. A thought arose towards the end of our meeting, and it was, you should kiss this great teacher's feet and this country that he represents and the success he represents. And he looked at me and he said, not in here. I think something like this, not in here, but could you do it out, out in the other room? And I said, yes, I could do that. And so could you, I, I, my feeling, I don't know what will happen, but my feeling is one kiss. Can you bring your feet together? Yes, Linda.

[10:18]

To hear your wish. So she disclosed that there's no private kissing here. Yeah. Only public kissing. Yeah, I thought about the liability. And I thought, oh, it's for the welfare of all beings. A dude like the young priest in the series, he raises his foot like that for it to be kissed. He's a young priest in what? You know that series? It's called The Young Priest. Oh, I thought it was called The Young Pope. Young Pope. And he raised his foot? Oh, yeah. Oh, really? Wow. Are there any cardinals here? Are you a cardinal? I don't know. I don't think I am. Well...

[11:22]

I'm deeply touched that you want to spend your time doing that kind of thing. And I think I'd like to bring it to the abbots of Zen Center, what they think of this idea. Very well. And I'll let you know what they say. Who knows what they might say? You can imagine. Is a painted kiss and a kiss kiss the same? Well, actually, the kiss kiss is actually a painting of the kiss. So it's already happened. It's already happened. Mm-hmm. I was wondering if you could remind us what the symbol is on the chalkboard in the kitchen.

[12:27]

It's a Chinese character, and in Chinese it's pronounced Dao, in Japanese Dō, and it means a path, like in Daoism, or in Confucianism, but in Daoism it's the Dao, as in Dao De Jing, So it means a path or the way, but it also in Buddhism means enlightenment. And it also means to speak in regular Chinese. So it means to speak, the way, and enlightenment. Yes. In January, you handed out a sheet that you did some calligraphy on. And the first caricature is face-to-face.

[13:32]

And what was the second? The first caricature wasn't face-to-face. The first caricature... Oh, face. Meeting, not meeting. It means face. The next caricature is to give. So it's actually literally just face-giving. But in Zen we usually translate that as face-to-face, which is face-to-face transmission. Face-giving your face in the process of, you know, fully responsible meetings. In the Japanese way of pronouncing it, you. So the Buddhas do this giving of their face to their students, and the students give their face to the teacher.

[14:34]

That's the way that the Buddha is living, is giving our face to each other. And you've got to have a face to give a face, so your job is to have a face. You know, fully have your face, which is a big job. A lot of hands raising up, so I'll just associate the names of the people who have their hands. Karen, Homa, Jackie, anybody else? Okay, Karen, Homa, Jackie. In answer to what you said, the character was the way, the path, and I think the conversation. Enlightenment. Just speak. You said it before. You said it also meant to speak. To speak, the path, the way, and enlightenment. So to speak isn't intuitively for me in the same category as the other three.

[15:45]

Once again? To speak doesn't intuitively fit for me with the other three. Isn't that wonderful? Well, I'm wondering. And also at the beginning of the Tao Te Ching, It's one of the main scriptures of Daoism, attributed to the ancient sage Laozi. So it starts out something like this. The way, I'll just say it, I'll say it the way it's like Chinese. The Dao which can be Dao-ed is not the true Dao. So it uses that character three times. So one way it's often translated is, the way that can be spoken is not the true way. The way which is the way is not the true way. And it also says enlightenment which is spoken is not true enlightenment.

[16:50]

And the speaking which is speaking is not true speaking. You know, you can potentially play with it all these different ways. You usually wouldn't say the speaking, which is the Tao, is not the true speaking, because I think that's actually... The speaking, which is the Tao, is the true speaking. When our speaking is true speaking. So even though they translate it into English as usually the path which is spoken is not the true path, really the Chinese has all three in each place. The speaking, the enlightenment, and the path, which can be spoken, enlightenment, and the path, is not the true spoken enlightenment path. So it's one of the wonderful things about Chinese is it has these characters, all these meanings, and when they're translated in English, you sort of sometimes have to choose between one.

[17:59]

So that's why they have sometimes footnotes. This character also means all these other things, but we can't translate it that way. And I also mentioned at that lecture that this term which we're quite familiar with called dojo, judo dojos, karate dojos, aikido dojos, kendo dojos, In that case, dojo means place for the Tao. So it could be a place, but also a place for enlightenment. So it's to practice this particular form, like judo or karate, but it's also, in Buddhism, referring to the place where you're sitting all day long, which is where you're practicing enlightenment. Oma?

[19:03]

I forgot what I was going to say, but... You want me to come back later? No, I'd just like to finish. Just thank you, Rat. Just thank you. You're welcome, Oma. Jackie? So the Christians talk about the sight of God and that he's within us. And the Buddhists talk about silence. And oftentimes, I don't know what God or Buddha is, really. Is it one that reveals itself through me? Yep.

[20:06]

Can you amplify that? Yep. And also, I think in Christianity also, and also maybe in Hinduism, there's a discussion of meeting God face to face. So there's that similar in the Buddhism and Hinduism and Christianity. I don't know about Judaism to have meeting God face to face. Does anybody know? There's a notion of I and thou, but it's not quite the same. I think I and thou is similar. There's a story of Abraham and Israel, Isaac, meeting God, wrestling with God, meeting God. And did Muhammad meet God face to face? I don't know. So anyway, there's this thing among the humans.

[21:19]

It's possible for a little person to meet something really, really beyond measure. and that we don't have to blow our brains out to have the meeting. We can leave our mind that way and be open to this relationship and learn about whatever this reality is. Meet reality face to face. A reality which is really beneficial to me. and learn from, and we can do it right the way we are. We don't have to be somebody different. We just have to be more fully who we already are, and that's really hard, but not impossible, if you want to. We're working for you already because you already are who you are, and part of who you are is somebody who has some ambivalence about it.

[22:29]

You know, like, it's so hard. It's so scary. Do you want to meet Buddha face to face? Do you want to meet reality face to face? And including that reality is not the reality that you think it is. You want to meet the reality that's beyond and other than any reality you can think of. So, you know, if you think about this, you might say, I'm not so sure I'll think about it. You really want to meet reality, real reality, face to face. I think the ones who have met reality face-to-face, they don't want to not see reality face-to-face.

[23:59]

What they want is to see reality face-to-face. So my thought is that if we haven't seen it, then we are afraid. But it's not afraid of the truth. We're not afraid of that. We're afraid of the mind that Once again, thank you for your great kindness today, and I hope we can meet again and again I hope I don't get too healed for you.

[24:53]

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