Can you read that? Master Ma is unwell. Can you read that? I propose to you that we imagine, we human beings imagine pretty much non-stop. I imagine that there might have been a great master named Ma. Ma, by the way, means horse. His name was Matsu, which means horse master. So I imagine there was such a master

[01:02]

and that he had 139 enlightened disciples and thousands of students. I imagine that. Some people say there's historical evidence for that. Anyway, so I imagine that there was a person by that name and that he was unwell. I heard a story about that And that story is in this book. It's the third story in this book. And the name of that story is Master Ma is Unwell. Unwell. Now I imagine that Master Ma was a master at being intimate with his experience of himself and he was a master at being intimate with his experience of others.

[02:16]

I imagine that. That's what a Zen master is. It's a person who has trained at these practices I'm talking to you about and is able to be intimate with herself and with everybody she knows. That's a master of Zen. So he was intimate and he was dying. And he was intimate with his dying. He wasn't intimate with his death exactly. But he was intimate with his dying and then there was a possibility that when he died he would be intimate with his death. And then somebody comes to see him And from that intimacy, he receives a question from the superintendent of the monastery. Teacher, how is your venerable health? And from that presence, from that intimacy with his illness, he says, Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.

[03:23]

This expression is an expression of his intimacy, and it's offered to the world. to help people, to encourage people, to find the place that he found, to find the intimacy that he found. So this was his offering. Sun face Buddha, moon face Buddha, or sun face Buddha, moon face Buddha. Of course, he said it in Chinese. And the superintendent told people. Or maybe there were some other people there and witnessed that. And this story has been transmitted for 1,200 years. Can you imagine? Transmitting for 1,200 years. Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. What is that? What is that gift that he gave?

[04:27]

So I imagine he wanted to help all of his students by saying that. Now, some people have commented on this story by saying, if you look directly at this sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha, you will be blinded by the light. I think look at it directly means like look at it to try to see it, to try to get it. Somehow we have to look at it without, you know, trying to get anything. So, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. This is an expression like we can make, our own expression, whatever that would be when we're in the dying process. We can help everybody we meet too. So it says when the ancient masters were dying, they were still, they didn't give up their job of helping people.

[05:33]

They kept helping people even while they were dying. I was just kidding. Do as you wish. How is your venerable health? Great door to the south. Actually, I was talking to the door.

[06:35]

You understand the door, okay, fine. Yeah, well, that's what I was... Okay, so this story occurred like at the end of the 9th century, and in the 11th century, another Zen teacher whose name was Suedu wrote a verse saying, wrote a poem celebrating this story of the master saying, Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha. And the poem he wrote starts out, the first line of the poem is he quotes, the first line of the poem is Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha. The second line of the poem is, what kind of people were the ancient emperors After this poem appeared, because it was written by a noted teacher, word got out about this poem.

[07:49]

The second line of the poem got to the emperor of China. And the emperor of China thought that question, what kind of people were the ancient emperors, that it was kind of critical of the emperor. It didn't say, the ancient emperors were the greatest benefit to the Chinese people. It didn't say that. It just said, what kind of people were the ancient emperors? That was the second line of the poem written by a Zen master celebrating Master Ma's Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha. When the emperor heard about this, he and his ministers thought it was threatening were critical of the state of the nation, of the emperor, and they did not allow that poem to go into the Buddhist canon. Later emperors rescinded the prohibition, so we have the poem.

[08:53]

This is the second line of the poem. Now, some other teachers say, what does that mean? What kind of people were the ancient emperors? That means, what kind of a person is Master Ma? It wasn't about the emperors. It was just a poetic way of saying, what kind of a person says sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha? Well, I'll tell you, but when I tell you, you've got to promise not to grasp what I tell you, okay? Everybody promise? Raise your hand. I promise not to grasp. Pardon? Me? Yeah. Me attached to your promises? My vow is not to attach to your promises. My vow is to get you to promise and not attach to your promises. My vow is to get you to promise and you not to attach to your promises too.

[09:55]

And then get you to do it again and again. Yes? Pardon? Pardon? You only have to bow something or make a commitment to do something because you are threatened by what that is happening, what you want to do. You're asking me if that's right? Is that a right or wrong? I understand you. Well, another way to understand is you only have to vow to do something if you want to know what it's like to live after you vow to do something. Like if you vow to practice good, that's different, then you have a different life after that than before you vowed to practice good. If you do good... Good.

[10:57]

But if you don't do good and you didn't vow to do good, some people have no problem with that. But if you vow to do good and you don't do good, you have a problem. And you need to have a problem with not doing good in order to eventually be successful at doing good consistently. That's a big statement which may have flown by you, and I'll be willing to say it again if you want to hear it again. Did you notice that bell was timed? Okay, number one, number two, number three, number four. So, in practicing Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha, or in practicing... Bodhisattva Zen. There are four aspects to the essence of precepts, the essence of ethics.

[12:12]

BS with a circle around it is bodhisattva. Essence of bodhisattva precepts has four aspects. Number one is a precept which you receive from someone else correctly. Receiving precept from another who has received the precepts from another and so on second is vow or aspiration aspiration if you receive a precept and aspire to practice it promise to practice it, want to practice it, promise to practice it then if you fail which usually happens most precepts that you receive, that you want to practice, you want to receive are precepts that you don't already do

[13:53]

consistently, perfectly. So, based on number one and two, receiving, wanting to receive, receiving, and then aspiring to practice, if you fail, then you have regret. So, to feel regret... and embarrassment is necessary in order to attain state four, not fail. If you can do step one and two, then you don't fail. Then you don't have three and four. If you can do step number two, one and two, then you just have one, two, and four. If you actually can do these two, then you don't have to do number three.

[14:57]

But almost everybody has to do number three. So when people promise, like when I say, I was going to say something to you, and I said, okay, I'm going to say this to you, but you've got to promise not to grasp what I say, right? And you promised, so we got into this promise thing. But if you can do one and two, you won't have to... If you can do number two perfectly, you don't have to do number three. Well, you haven't promised them. That's the problem. You've got to promise. When you promise, you'll know about regret. Regret is one word. Another word is sorrow. You'll feel sorry. If you're not promising to be kind to everybody, if you don't promise, it's possible that you wouldn't be kind to somebody and you wouldn't feel sorrow.

[16:03]

But if you promise to be kind, really, and you promise to somebody who you really respect, then if you're not, you'll feel sorrow and regret. Or at least you have a good chance. And based on the sorrow and regret, you will eventually not fail. So if you promise not to grasp, and then you do grasp, you'll feel sorry. And you eventually not grasp. Now what was it I was going to tell you? That's the problem. Oh, huh? Okay, what was it? What was I talking about that I said don't grasp this? Huh? Yeah, don't grasp my fast talking. Well, it'll come up again, don't worry. So anyway, the emperor, the kind of person that, what kind of person, those ancient emperors, what kind of person was Master Ma?

[17:10]

I was going to tell you that I was going to tell you that pardon yeah I was going to tell you what kind of person Master Ma was wow probably that's it seems like it's close probably that I was going to tell you I was going to tell you something about Master Ma but I don't even know Master Ma so how am I going to tell you anything And whatever I was going to tell you, you weren't going to grasp, right? So that's where we are. Yeah, so we can just move on then. And then the next line of the poem, the next line of the poem, pardon? Master Ma practiced this way. And he got to the point maybe where he didn't fail anymore. But he spent a long time. I imagine, you know, this is one of the things which I don't want you to grasp, okay?

[18:17]

I don't want you to grasp and you promised not to grasp and I don't expect you to fulfill your promise. Master Ma failed at practicing these precepts that I've been talking to you about. He failed, but he promised to practice them, so he regretted when he failed. And he did that over and over and over and over until he became Master Ma. He did number three in relationship to number one and two many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, [...] many times, and he became number four, Master Ma. In other words, he became one and two. And from one and two came sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. From one and two, period, from the precept came whatever would help people. That's the kind of person he became by this practice.

[19:25]

Yes? Yes. what is the doing and not failing what is the doing and not failing the doing and not failing is the precept It's the precept, and actually it is the repeated aspiration to do the precept. It isn't just the precept, it's the vow to do the precept, doing the precept, and then vowing to do the precept again, doing the precept, vowing to do the precept. So you just keep going around and around like that. But sometimes, of course, most people...

[20:27]

almost everybody that I heard about, even Shakyamuni Buddha, he told us that he failed sometimes at the precepts that he taught. So everybody goes through number three for a while. Most people for a long, long, long time. Did he? I don't know. I don't know if he became a... I think he was a bodhisattva. I think he was a bodhisattva because I think his understanding was on a par with the Buddha. But Shakyamuni Buddha, the Indian founder of the tradition, excuse me for saying this, but he kind of like, I don't know what the word is, I don't want to say hogged, but he played the role of the Buddha and And kind of the rule of the game is the first Buddha is the only Buddha in a particular historical epoch because before him the Buddha's teaching was not available in that historical period that we're aware of.

[21:40]

But after him the Buddha's teaching were available. The implications and ramifications of the teaching have been unfolded for 2500 years. So nobody else gets to be the first one to give this teaching anymore until this historical epic is completed and we don't have Buddhist teaching anymore and we have to start a new thing. And then maybe the next Buddha might be Master Ma. We don't know. The next Buddha has already been appointed. It's called Maitreya Buddha. The Bodhisattva of loving kindness gets to be the next Buddha. But Master Ma made me scheduled to be a Buddha someplace else. I don't know. But he was a Bodhisattva. If that's true, wouldn't he continue to fail?

[22:44]

Well, when you get to phase four, you don't have to fail anymore. You failed enough. Then you just do this boring thing of doing... You just live the boring life of doing what you aspire to. So some people have kind of a boring practice. They're just kind all the time. There's no drama. You insult them, they come back with kindness. You praise them, they come back with kindness. Like, you know, they're just kind of boring... pure compassion, compassion, compassion, wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. There's no evolution anymore. It's just kind of like not that interesting. But most, 99.9% of bodhisattvas, even though they're maybe really compassionate and really wise, they still occasionally do number three. So, if you do number three, you are in very good company. Like I said... Shakyamuni Buddha said, I heard, he said, in this lifetime where he became the Buddha, he saw some old people and he felt some repulsion.

[23:57]

But then he felt embarrassment that he felt repulsion. How embarrassing that he would feel repulsion towards old people. Because he was going to be an old person quite soon himself. But I'm just saying that even the historical Buddha in his last life where he became Buddha fell into three and noticed it and confessed it. However, when he became Buddha he didn't fall into three anymore. And some bodhisattvas reached that stage Two, it's possible. But, you know, it's extremely rare. It's even rare to do number one and number two. That's even rare. It's rare for somebody to hear about these precepts and vow to practice them. That's rare. But as you know, and as I know, people vow to do these precepts and then they slip up. And sometimes they come and they tell me that they slip up. And then I tell them, well, don't get discouraged.

[25:03]

This is the normal process. And to come and confess is part of the practice. So Master Ma practiced these things for a long time. And the next step, I'd like to go to the next line of the poem. But before I do the next line of the poem, I'd like to invite Kate to come up here. Yes, Kate. In this hierarchy of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Who is the other who presents the precept? Who is the other? Well, in the case of Shakyamuni Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha told us, when he was in India, he told us that he studied with Buddhas before in past lives.

[26:08]

The historical Buddha told us that he studied with many Buddhas. And one of the Buddhas he studied with said he was going to be a Buddha. But he studied with other teachers too in the past. So Shakyamuni Buddha received the teachings from teachers before he came into this world. And Matsu had a teacher. Matsu's teacher was Nanyue Huayron. Matsu had a teacher. And I can tell you stories about Matsu and his teacher if you want to hear them in a minute. Matsu had a teacher. Matsu received the precepts from his teacher. And his teacher received the teachings from the sixth ancestor of Zen. And the sixth ancestor received the teachings from the fifth ancestor. We have stories about all these teachers who received the precepts from somebody else and vowed to practice them and failed. but then kept going and failed and kept going and succeeded and failed and succeeded and failed and succeeded and failed.

[27:17]

Just like us. And I received the precepts from you. And you received the precepts from me and I received them from Suzuki Roshi. and he received them from his teacher and I wanted to receive them and I aspired I promised to practice them even though I didn't realize what I was promising but gradually I found out and I failed but I didn't change my promise I never wanted to take it back and I still don't want to take it back but I feel sorry sometimes that I'm if I'm ever not respectful or kind to anybody if I don't give somebody my full attention I'm sorry I regret not giving my full attention to people But my sorrow doesn't knock me down for the count. It just knocks me down for a little while. And then I, what do you call it? How does it go? Dust myself off. How does it go? I brush myself off and start all over again. When I fall down, I get up and go back and receive the precepts again and bow again. That's the normal thing.

[28:24]

You don't assign precepts to yourself in this tradition. You don't say, well, I'm going to do these precepts and I promise to myself. That's another tradition where you assign yourself to teachings, where you teach yourself and promise to yourself. In this tradition, you promise to somebody else who you respect. And they witness you. That witnessing, that's a big part of this tradition. Self and other meet. So Master Ma did this, I imagine. And the person who wrote the poem is named Sui Du, another Zen master. So he quotes Master Ma in the first line of the poem, celebrating Master Ma by quoting Master Ma's statement. Then he says this, what kind of people were the ancient emperors? He's talking about Master Ma. And then again, as I mentioned, the emperor got upset about that. Then the next line of the poem is, for 20 years I have suffered bitterly. What was he doing when he was suffering bitterly? Guess what he was doing. Guess.

[29:25]

He was failing. He was failing. The Zen master was failing. What was he failing at? He was failing at being Matsu. He was failing at practicing the Bodhisattva precepts. He was failing at all of these practices. Not all the time, all of them. But some of the time, some of them. But this didn't break. Good. Still works. Almost everybody that's not completely enlightened is suffering. But he suffered bitterly because he vowed. The vow, in some sense, makes the suffering more pointed. It's not vague. It's like, you're sorry because you didn't do what you're... doing what you want to do. For 20 years he suffered bitterly. And then he says, how many times have I gone down into the green dragon cave for you?

[30:29]

What's the green dragon cave? It's to go down. Well, you're not going to attach to this either, right? It's to go down into the cave of your sorrow when you're not doing what you want to do. Because you know that if you go down in there and face death, failing at being the person you want to be, you're going to get a great jewel. The great jewel is number four, but number four is really number one and two. By going down and facing the green dragon who you promised you would practice these precepts to, you will practice these precepts. And the last two lines which I didn't write here was basically clear-eyed bodhisattvas do not take this lightly.

[31:30]

Do not take this practice, this training lightly. Do not take lightly how difficult it is to become a great teacher. Do not take lightly how difficult it is to be intimate with birth and death. And if people aren't able to be intimate with birth and death, don't take that lightly. Don't just say, lazy bums, wimpos, cowards. It's hard to become intimate with birth and death. It's not easy. And the great ancestors... went through a long, difficult training process to become intimate with birth and death. So all of us have a little bit of contact with birth and death and now if we keep working, practicing this way, we will become intimate with it and we will be able to help others to become intimate with it.

[32:40]

Can I erase this now since you're not attached to it? No? Well, when are you going to take the picture? Did you get the picture of the other one too? Okay. Well, what I was going to write there was I was going to write the six. So I also imagine that Master Ma practiced generosity, I imagine that you practiced ethics, which is ethics. The essence of the ethics process has these four aspects. Each of the bodhisattva precepts, each of the ethical precepts, is like something you receive, something you aspire to, something you fail at and then regret, and then something you eventually don't fail at because of repeated sorrow at failing. And the next one is patience, and so on.

[33:43]

I imagine he did these practices over and over and over, more or less successfully. But he also went through many years of struggle, many years of going down into the green dragon cave. Also, I want to point out that the poet, Suedu, said, how many times have I gone down into the green dragon cave for you? Who's the you? Is it for the reader? Could be. It could be for the teacher, yeah. I received the precepts from you, teacher. And I've gone down into the cave of recognizing my failure for you. You... gave me these great teachings, I'm so grateful that I have gone down into the cave of admitting that I didn't practice what you gave me.

[34:43]

This is my way to repay your kindness. Part of my way of repaying your kindness is to do the practices you gave me, but another way to repay your kindness is to feel sorrow when I don't utilize what you've given me. I hear you who is speaking okay okay so number one is receive can I say it again Oh, the poem. I didn't erase the poem. Oh, the last line? You want the last line?

[35:45]

I'm going to change left. So this is number one. Number two. Number three. Number four. And number five and six, actually, is Clear Eyes. monks don't take this suffering lightly. Lightly. And also don't let it discourage you.

[36:47]

Because I went through this and Matsu went through this. So not only do we have birth and death to suffer with, we have the suffering of the practice of becoming intimate. But the suffering of the practice of becoming intimate should be very joyful. We need to have joy at doing these practices which bring us to intimacy. which leads me to just say again now starting with the first three okay starting with the first three let's imagine that I don't know what that we're injured and that we're not healing in the way we would like to heal Maybe we're injured and we wish we would heal.

[37:52]

And maybe we wish we could do some exercises, some... What's the word? Rehabilitation exercises. Maybe we wish we could do some physical therapy. But not only we're injured, but we don't have much energy. So... what do we do with that situation well we could we could complain about it and you know yeah we could complain about it or we could practice generosity towards it towards being injured and not healing the way we would like and not having much energy or maybe we're not even injured we just don't have much energy maybe we have less energy than we wish we had And maybe we have less energy than we had yesterday, and yesterday we had less energy than we wished we had.

[38:57]

And the day before we had more energy, but even then it wasn't as much as we wanted. We're getting less and less energy, less and less energy, and complaining more and more. But we also could be generous towards this decline in energy, decline in whatever. We can be more and more generous towards it. And generosity doesn't... Yeah, generosity. And then we can practice ethics with it. Not try to take more energy than has been given. Not try to take more recovery than has been given. Not have ill will towards anything in the causes and conditions that led to the situation in our mind. and then we come to patience being patient with not much energy being patient with not recovering in the way we wish now if we do these first three as I mentioned before this benefits the situation of declining energy and slow recovery from injury and so on injury and illness that brings benefit doesn't necessarily bring the energy up

[40:31]

but it brings benefit. However, if we don't do these three, that doesn't bring benefit, and it knocks the energy down even more. Because we're resisting a situation that takes energy. It takes more energy to be stingy than to be generous. It takes more energy to not be ethical than to be ethical. It takes more energy to be impatient than patient. Being patient, you don't waste energy trying to get away from the pain. And now you're ready for the fourth practice, which is the energy practice. The energy practice, again, takes us back to what I erased. The root of energy is aspiration. The root of energy for doing good is aspiration for good.

[41:35]

And it is normal in the process of this training that we have to refresh our aspiration over and over, like the first two aspects of the precepts. Number one is the precept, number two is the aspiration. One the precept, two aspiration. Of course, there's aspiration before receiving the precept, but after you receive it, then you aspire to practice it. You have to keep going back to the aspiration to see, this is what I aspire to, this is what I promise to do, and I still want to do this thing I promise to do. And now that I think of it, it would be good. Like, I'm in a situation where I get to give instruction in things that I aspire to do. And while I'm giving instruction and things I aspire to do, I often think, this sounds really good. I think I'll try it myself. Matter of fact, I can barely wait. Matter of fact, I'm not going to wait. I'm going to start doing this right while I'm talking about it. Like I aspire to talk fast.

[42:39]

Sounds, no, I'm just kidding. I aspire to talk with presence. That sounds really good to me. I feel energy now to talk with presence. I aspire to take good care of this body for the welfare of others. I aspire to take care of this energy for the welfare of others. I aspire to be generous towards the amount of energy I have. That's a good way to take care of my energy. I aspire to that and I really feel that it would really be good and I feel a lot of enthusiasm for doing that when I go back to my aspiration and think about my aspiration and feel in my heart that I would like to do these good things. I really would like to. It sounds really good. It sounds wonderful. I'd like to try it now. And there are more aspects to this generating of energy but I just wanted to say that for starters before I go into the other aspects.

[43:47]

The main thing I'm emphasizing at this point is the going from the aspiration to the energy. And then you use the energy once it's sufficiently strong that you're ready to do the thing you want to do and then you do it. But don't wait too long before you go back and check on your aspiration again. Check on aspiration on a regular basis. Like, you know, once a day is not really that often. To go a whole day without remembering what your aspiration in this life is, is a little... It's kind of long. Unless you're completely enlightened, and then you're always acting from the aspiration, it's good to, on a daily basis, re... re-express check back into what your aspiration is or what your aspirations are and then look at them and think about do you still believe it? is this still really what you aspire to?

[44:49]

actually yes and then think about it for a while until you feel the energy coming up now that does maybe take a little time but without doing that your energy can slip away Because you're not tapping into the root. The root of this energy is aspiration. What's the root of aspiration? The root of aspiration is that you have thought about how things work and how the actions of living beings work, how karma works. You've thought about it and as a result you aspire to something. Like I've thought about what I imagine makes a master maa. I've thought about what makes a Buddha. I've thought about what makes a great Bodhisattva. I've thought about it. I've heard about it. I've thought about it. I've heard about it. I've read about it. I've thought about it. And what I've heard is that the great beings do a training program, do a practice.

[46:00]

So when I heard about that they do that to become this wise and compassionate person, then I thought, oh, I aspire to do the practice. Because I aspire to be like them, to see like they do, to act like, to respond to people the way they do. And I see that the karma that they do to make them be that way is such and such, so I aspire to that kind of action, to those kinds of practices. But I have to keep going back and remembering that. Why did I come to Zen in the first place again? Oh yeah, right. So I saw examples of human beings who I thought were really, really, were really cool, really beautiful. I aspired to be like them. Then I found out that they trained to be that way. And then after they were that way, they continued to train. Right? But the training after they were that way was now spontaneous.

[47:02]

They didn't have to think of it anymore. It just was the way they were. They trained at generosity, ethics, patience, enthusiasm, aspiration, enthusiasm, concentration of wisdom. They trained at that. They became this way. And then they just naturally were generous, ethical, and so on. And in parentheses is a little bit more discussion of the energy phase. But now I stop for a second to see if... Homa wants to say something. Yes. I see your aspiration more as the freedom than good. I see the good is coming from the freedom of your aspiration rather than the aspiration, rather than good. It's the free will, the freedom, the freeness is inspired as the good comes out.

[48:08]

Well, it's kind of a circle. Freedom, goodness, goodness, freedom. For me, freedom and goodness are kind of like, they go together. I think freedom is good. I don't know which is first. I don't know if freedom is good or bad. I don't know either. And even though I don't know, I think it's good. I didn't say I knew it was good. I think it's good. In other words, I want it. I want good. What I want is good. What I want is freedom. What I want is peace. What I want is cool. What I want is beautiful. What I want is fearlessness. For me, fearlessness goes with freedom. And freedom goes with not being afraid of fear. Freedom allows me to go down in the green dragon cave and face fear.

[49:16]

not doing what I really want to do. For me, that's freedom. For me, that's good. For me, that's peace. Yeah. For me. And I'm not attached to that. I mean, I don't want to be attached to that. I'm kind of not attached to that. Kind of. And you are kind of not attached to it either. That's why I asked you to not attach, because that's kind of the way you are. I'm asking you to be the way you are. And you seem to be okay with that. So, as we approach sometimes, [...] not always, but sometimes as we approach death, we feel a decline. But some people are actually going up. They feel an incline as they approach death. Like, you know, they're taking more and more cocaine. you know, more cocaine, more cocaine, and then, boop, they blow up.

[50:23]

But some of us who are not taking cocaine maybe feel some decline going on occasionally. Do you ever feel a decline? Do you ever feel a lessening of energy? Do you ever feel that? Well, this is an opportunity for generosity. Generosity. This is an opportunity for ethical training. You say, but how can I do ethical training when my energy is declining? Well, when you ask that question, that's part of ethical training. Somehow you have enough energy to wonder how you can do ethical training when you don't have much energy. Well, for example, not lying about your energy declining is ethical training. Not wanting to kill your declining is ethical training. Not slandering your decline is ethical training.

[51:24]

Blah-de-blah, decline, blah-de-blah. So, when you speak about declining, don't speak about declining in a way that would make people be less compassionate towards the decline. Speak about the decline in such a way that everybody was interested in helping the decline. Not stopping the decline. but accompanying the decline. So we have this precept of not slander or sometimes not speaking of others' faults. But slander is good, I think. Speaking of others' faults means don't speak of others' faults in such a way that people would not be devoted to the person or want to get away from the person. So if somebody says, is so-and-so a good driver? And you've watched them drive and you feel like, actually, they really don't know how to drive at all.

[52:25]

Matter of fact, yeah, they don't have a license and they're only six years old. So I don't think they're, I wouldn't say they're not a good driver. I would say they just don't know how to drive in a safe way. They do know how to drive in a way that probably will crash if the car is on. But there's a way of speaking of someone who's not skillful at something in such a way that everybody wants to come and help them. So you say, yeah, in some sense, you speak of their shortcomings in the driving, but everybody wants to come and help them. Then it's not slander. but if you speak of them in such a way that everybody goes away from them and nobody supports them then that's what I mean by slander so we don't talk about the same with your energy you speak of your energy in a way not necessarily that people are going to come in and try to make it greater but that people will come and love it people say oh this is a good opportunity for love let's go love this person of declining energy so I'm speaking of this person of declining energy

[53:32]

And I want to speak of their declining energy in a way to promote compassion. And if I can't speak in that way, I won't say anything about it. That's an example of being ethical with declining energy or a loss of certain faculties. So I'm observing a faculty, like the faculty of speech, I'm observing it, and I notice it's tripping. Like a few minutes ago, I was trying to say something, and I just went from trying to say something to say... I gave up whatever I was trying to say, and I kind of demonstrated that I gave up. But I felt kind of loving towards my wayward tongue and lips. And I hope to be kind as I lose my ability to speak articulately.

[54:40]

I may not be able to talk, but I may be able to be kind to my own inability and to anybody else's I find that when I start losing energy, the first thing I notice is that I've been dissipating energy in ways that I've not decided to do. So I literally keep a list of things, what did you call those, aspirations written up. And recently I added one at the top of it which said, that every day when I plan, I'll plan from a place of compassion, not from a plan of winning or achieving. You aspire to plan your day from a place of compassion.

[55:48]

That's your aspiration. And what I noticed was that when there's declining energy, first thing I go see what I've written up, and it gives me a lot of energy. Well, that particular aspiration... goes very well with declining energy because you can be compassionate to declining energy and when you're compassionate to declining energy you feel more energy. It is possible when you have almost no energy to use almost all of it for compassion. And again, what's compassion? Part of compassion is energy. is the practice of generating energy. Part of compassion is energy and part of compassion is nurturing and cultivating energy.

[56:48]

Both the energy itself to do good is part of compassion but also the care and feeding of compassion is part of compassion. And it's not that you're taking the compassion He said, you think about your aspiration to do good, and when you think about the aspiration to do certain cool things, energy comes up to do them. In fact, I got shocked by these last words. I don't remember exactly what the words were, but they were about telling people this. I see an HR right now. I don't remember the exact words, but it meant something like, Now I see impermanence, so don't worry about this body going away. Continue practicing, continue practicing. Yeah. Shakyamuni Buddha, as he was dying, said, continue to practice. I'm going, but continue to practice.

[57:49]

This body will go away. That's part of impermanence. Or he said, everything that arises ceases. All compounded phenomena, everything that's put together, will fall apart. But strive on, do the practice. Any feedback from you before we move on to new and interesting horizons? Yes? Yes? Yes? When I lose sight of my aspirations, I feel like I get very selfish. Would you hold that, please? When you what? When I lose touch with my aspirations and I forget. Can you hear me? When you do what with your aspirations? Lose touch with them. When you lose touch with your aspirations, you get selfish? What are your aspirations? What are your aspirations?

[58:50]

So when you lose contact with the aspiration to be kind and thoughtful of others, you become not kind and thoughtful. Yeah, that's the way it works, pretty much. Until you're... Actually, I think that's the way it works, period. When we lose contact with our aspirations, the things we aspire to are lost. Now, part of the training is to get so... What do you call it? so into our aspirations that we don't even have to think of them anymore. But most of us have to keep going back to our aspirations, otherwise we lose them. I often use this image that the aspiration to realize the optimal state of benefit in this world, which is called enlightenment or Buddha, the optimal way of helping others is called Buddha, the aspiration to attain optimal helpfulness.

[60:03]

Okay? When it first arises in us, when that aspiration first arises in us, it's like a flame of a candle. And a light breeze can blow it out. so our aspiration is sometimes when we first are feeling it if we haven't felt it for a while when it first comes up again or when it returns again it's very weak and easily blown out we have to take care of it if you take care of it the flame gets bigger and bigger so eventually the flame gets so big it's like a forest fire and then if you blow on it it just gets bigger until it's really big, until it's like all-consuming, we have to take care of it with these practices. So we aspire to practices which take care of our aspiration.

[61:08]

And in the middle of the practices which take care of the aspiration is aspiration and energy. but before you can really work on aspiration and energy you have to take care of before you can develop your aspiration and energy before you can make it stronger you need to do some it's like again it's like you have this flame this aspiration and you have to protect it before you can strengthen it let's maybe get that image got this wonderful aspiration and you can't immediately make it stronger you have to protect it first And the way you protect it is with generosity, ethics, and patience. Now you've got the flame protected a little bit. Now you can give it some fuel. And how do you give it fuel? Well, you think about the three practices you just did, and you think about how they protected it. And you think, well, I aspire to do those practices some more. So you feel more energy for those practices, so you do it more, so then it's more protected, but it's also stronger.

[62:13]

Then you think of other practices, like, well, I haven't got into concentration yet. Now I would like to do concentration in addition to these three protected practices, because concentration will... deepen the protection and get me ready for wisdom or get us ready for wisdom. So that's even a greater protection. When you finally have wisdom, wisdom is the ultimate protection. When you have wisdom, then the flame is really protected because you see things in a way that won't blow it out. But that's right. If you lose your aspiration, you're pretty much got to start over. And what was it again? Start over. What was it I was starting on? Oh, yeah, right. Now you've got the flame again. But it's a little flame. Now you have to take care of it. And once it's taken care of with these practices, then you can now let it grow. Isn't there a song like that? This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

[63:16]

That one. Let it shine, let it shine. You have to protect it. Is there something about protecting it in that song? Huh? You've got to protect that little flame so it'll grow and [...] grow. If you don't protect it, you will lose it. If you don't follow up on that aspiration with practices, it's impermanent. But if you do these practices, they don't make it permanent. They don't make it permanent. They just protect it until it can impermanently change into a stronger aspiration. The little aspiration is impermanent. It goes away. But when it goes away, it can be replaced by a bigger one, a stronger one, if you take care of it, because these practices get you ready to move on to a greater aspiration. Not greater, but stronger, bigger, more consistent. Tina?

[64:20]

Tina? In thinking about what Master Ma said when he was unwell, I imagine that when he said Sun Face Buddha and Moon Face Buddha, it was a gift of contrast. And Moon Face lived only one day and one night, you said, which probably wasn't a long time to do the... precepts and practice in contrast to Sun Face that lived 1,800 years. So my thinking is a person would be pretty tired welcoming all these things. And I'm thinking if someone's approaching death or if there's a person in your life that is, and they're probably somewhere in between, there might be some peace in knowing that They didn't live just a day and they're not living 1,800 years that they've been able to welcome and enjoy the effects of welcoming things.

[65:26]

That's just my thought and what I'm imagining, but I'm not trying to get, I don't want to get too attached to that because I think someone else might have another meaning that comes to. That's right. You don't want to get too attached to that because someone else might have another meaning, which could be your meanings. Exactly, and it might give me another thought instead of being so attached that that's what was meant, that that contrast is out there. So I welcome hearing someone else's thought on that. Here's the meaning that came up for me a little earlier when we were talking about it, when you were talking about something else. Sun and moon are sort of opposites, or it's an expression of non-duality, that in his dying, he had transitioned so he could see sun and moon at the same time, which we as humans can't, or as sentient beings... As non-Buddhas.

[66:29]

As non-Buddhas... we can't see, we can't hold those both simultaneously. So if I put a little and between those, it's sun and moon at the same time means non-duality that he had transitioned in his pre-dying process. Well, Tina can accept that interpretation. What do you think? I can accept that. Yeah, right. Which relates again to what Shankar was saying, that if you're attached to these precepts, that blocks your understanding of them. So we practice these precepts. When we first start practicing, we have some understanding of them upon which we practice them. When we practice giving, when we practice ethical precepts, when we practice the precept of patience, when we practice the precept of energy and enthusiasm, we have some idea.

[67:30]

But based on giving, even a limited idea of giving still kind of tells us we should be kind of generous towards our current understanding. And generous means generous towards ourselves, but also generous towards the understanding of not letting it be too tight. generous towards our understanding means also generous to other people's understanding if you let your understanding have an open feel around it you let other people's understanding come in and join it and if you do that then you're getting ready for concentration because with concentration you're focused on what you're doing but also you're open to lots of other possibilities about what you're doing is In concentration you're open to lots of different possibilities about what you're focusing on. And then because of that you're open to wisdom. And with that we have now break time. You have now a nice big break.

[68:34]

I shouldn't say a break. Now you have a little vacation. I shouldn't say vacation. Now you have a party. A two hour party time. And then we'll get back to you again at 3, please. Thank you very much.

[68:52]

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