Welcome to this retreat, this session. This session comes at the conclusion of a two-month period of training. And the theme for this training period has been Buddha activity. the activity of Great Awakening, which may be described as an unceasing process, an unceasing activity of freeing all beings from their deluded consciousness so that they may live in peace and harmony with each other.

[01:12]

Earlier today I suggested that Buddha activity, the activity of liberating, awakening, is living in stillness and silence. There is a great, bright, living activity in stillness and silence.

[02:40]

This activity is not about here or there. It's the activity of reality. which is not going anyplace. It's the Buddha activity that's the way we are supporting our life, our unique, precious human life, the way our life is supporting all beings. And the way all beings, animate and inanimate, are supporting each of our lives. And again, the way each of our lives supports all life, all things.

[03:55]

That mutual, inconceivable, beginningless, endless, and unceasing activity is Buddha activity. And this way is the way things really are. And the way things really are is what liberates us from believing in the way things aren't and allows us to realize this Buddha activity which is peace and harmony and a great living radiance which is living in stillness. the world is supporting us to sit here for a week and explore the wondrous Buddha activity in stillness and silence.

[05:11]

We are allowed to be quiet and still. And again explore this great awakening activity that's going on moment by moment. Teachings like these are given to be understood, to be realized. But they cannot be realized without practice.

[06:13]

So the teaching which which cannot be understood without practice, is a teaching which guides us to practice. It guides us to practice, and by practicing the teaching, we can realize the teaching. which the word realize has two aspects. One is to make real, to make actual, to manifest, and the other side is to understand. So I said that we, the teaching is that we are supporting each other mutually, that we support all beings and all beings support us.

[07:15]

And if you listen to that and you think, yeah, in a way you understand it. But some people hear that teaching and they say, if I say it, they say to me, I don't get it. I don't get how everybody's supporting me. And I don't see how I'm supporting everybody. I see how some people are supporting me. I see how I'm supporting some people, but there's some people I do not think they're supporting me and I don't want to support them. And I wish nobody would support them. They have much too much support as it is. I don't get how Well, I don't get why you're teaching this, but also I don't get that that's true, that we really are supporting everybody, no exceptions.

[08:16]

And everybody, no exceptions, is supporting us. And somebody said to me, I can see how we're interrelated with everything, like I'm interrelated with people who I don't want to support, but I don't want to support them. So interrelated I can get, but not support and not that that's the truth. So that person's an example of somebody who thinks they do not understand this teaching and they're probably right. So the teaching, but the person may continue to listen to it in various ways, be willing to listen to something that he doesn't understand and almost disagrees with. And by listening to it, he may be guided, guided in a mysterious, imperceptible way into practicing the teaching.

[09:27]

He may be okay with practicing it, even though he doesn't yet fully understand it. So for example, he may be willing to practice supporting some people. And by practicing some people, he may wake up to the truth that he's supporting all people. Or he may be able to consider how some people are supporting him And by considering that, the mind may open to understanding that all beings are supporting him. And then that process is the process by which the teaching gets put into practice. And by putting it into practice, we become the teaching.

[10:29]

and we understand it. Now this teaching is also saying that this Buddha activity is going on right now. It's right here, living in silence and stillness. It's not saying anything. It's not going anywhere. It is reality. Reality doesn't take trips. It doesn't talk. However, it enables movers and talkers to speak of it and to show it so that beings can hear its teaching and become it and understand it. and thus understand that not only is there Buddha activity already, not only right now and always, and it always has been and always will be, that we include all beings and we're included in all beings.

[11:39]

Not only is that so, but we're exercising it and the exercise of it is inseparable from it. The understanding it is inseparable from it. It's working, but if we don't join it, it's like we don't get it. But when we do join it, we not only join the exercise, but we realize that we are and that we always have been and always will be. When I sit on this seat, I make an effort to sit on this seat. I make an effort to sit.

[12:40]

And yeah, it takes, my body, my life calls for my care of the body, of the life. In reality, this life calls for care. This body, this life, this mind call for compassion. And in reality, there is a compassionate response to the call of this body. When I sit, I sit here and this body and mind call for care and this body and mind give care. Moment by moment, And in my deluded consciousness, or in the consciousness which I call mine, there is an acquiescence, there is a willingness to join this careful, compassionate activity of caring for this body and mind, moment by moment,

[14:03]

and to care for the bodies and minds of all other beings, starting with, in a way, the people I can see in this room. I'm being called to care for you. I'm being called to care for me. You are being called to care for everybody in this room. You are calling everybody in this room to care for you. That's reality. That's already what's going on, moment by moment, nonstop. It is our responsibility to care for everybody in this room with compassion.

[15:13]

It is our responsibility because we're being asked to do it. And also it's our responsibility because we're asking others to do it for us. So our responsibility, it comes from reality. This responsibility to care for all beings and for all beings to care for us is reality. And in stillness we have an opportunity to accept the stillness and to accept this reality. We can also disregard stillness and try to accept it too. And maybe we can somewhat. But in a way, the deepest acceptance is living in stillness because we don't have to move at all to receive this reality or to give it.

[16:25]

We don't have to say anything to ask for it or to give it. So this fully alive mutual benefaction of reality is going on in stillness and silence. And the stillness and silence also is going on moment and moment, moment by moment. This, what I've been saying, is a story. I've told you a big fat story. And here's another one. This story is true. Everything I say to you is questionable.

[17:34]

And that statement is also questionable. I think therefore it's true. I said it was questionable and it is. Everything I say to you is a conversation piece. Everything I do is questionable. My postures are conversation pieces. My hand gestures, the turning of my head, my sitting upright is questionable. And it's questionable by everyone. And being questioned by everyone about my actions is part of the way I'm calling for compassion. I'm calling for compassion. It means I'm calling to be questioned.

[18:44]

And you're calling me to question you. And again, in reality you do question me and in reality I do question you. But if I don't hear that teaching and listen to that teaching and practice that teaching, I might not realize that I'm questioning everybody all the time and they're questioning me. If I do practice listening to that teaching and living in accord with it, I do realize that teaching. or rather that practice realizes it. It's almost, what's the word, embarrassing to bring up some stories over and over for 1500 years.

[19:48]

But anyway, there's a story about an Indian Buddhist monk who went to China. And the name of this monk in this story, this story, which is questionable. This is a questionable story. Often repeated, we tell this questionable story over and over. and ask questions about it. And therefore, it's a living tradition of telling the story and questioning it. It's not like we tell the story, question it, and stop telling the story and start telling some other stories which we don't question and say those over and over. We tell stories that get questioned, and this one's been questioned a lot. Indian monk called Bodhidharma in this story went from India to China and somehow got to meet the emperor of China.

[21:09]

Now that certainly is questionable. But anyway, that's the story. Got to meet the emperor of China. Now in this story, there's another story which is this emperor's name was Liang, I mean Wu, Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty. And this emperor was really devoted to the teachings of the Buddhists. And he hung out with major Chinese Buddhist practitioners. And he supported many monasteries, many monks and nuns he supported to practice the Buddha way. He was totally into Buddha activity.

[22:11]

And so somehow he allowed this Indian monk to come and see him. And part of the story goes like this. The emperor says to the Buddhist monk, what is the highest meaning of the holy truths? And Bodhidharma said, last emptiness, no holy. And the emperor said, Who is this facing me?" And Bodhidharma said, don't know. And then he left the emperor and went across the Yangshi River and went to a place called Little Forest, Shaolin, and he sat there

[23:23]

and faced a wall for nine years. And he sat there in stillness and silence. Cooly, he was cool. He was one of the cool ancestors. And in this silence, he completely brought out the true imperative, the true essential and most important thing, Buddha activity. He didn't go here or there.

[24:28]

And he didn't say anything. He just demonstrated supporting all beings and being supported by all beings. And by doing that practice he realized the Buddha Dharma at this little forest. And from that questionable story comes this thing called the Zen tradition, which spread all over China into Tibet. And the Tibetans, however, pushed it back down off the plateau, then back into China. It went into Mongolia. The Tibetans also pushed it out of Mongolia back to China.

[25:33]

Went into Korea. The Koreans said, welcome. Got to stay in Korea. Went into Southeast Asia. Went over to Japan. And then went to California. Of course, it was already in California before it went to California. Yeah. But some people came from Japan and Korea and China and said, do you people realize that you have Buddha activity here? And the people said, no, we didn't. That's outrageous. Go back where you came from. But some people actually heard about it and went to meet the teachers and started to practice. So here we are practicing, sitting upright in stillness and silence, which was here before we started this session.

[26:40]

the silence and stillness was in this valley, whatever this valley was, before these buildings were built, before humans were here. And then it didn't go away after the humans came. And then some humans came here and decided to come here and practice stillness and silence, which was already here. We looked into the valley of silence and stillness and we said, can we live here and practice silence and stillness? And the answer was, yes. So here we are. We get to explore the Buddha mind, the Buddha body in silence and stillness. And we get to learn that even when we get up and walk, and even when we go outside and walk, And even when we leave this valley, we will never leave stillness and silence.

[27:47]

That's where we're actually living all the time. However, we can think we're not being silent and still, and the thought that we're not still is supported by all beings and supports all beings. And the thought that we're not still is questionable. And the thought that we are still is questionable. But the thoughts that we're still and the thoughts that we're not still are not the stillness. They're thoughts about it. And those thoughts are living in stillness. But the way they're living in stillness is the way they're really living in stillness, namely, My thought that I am or am not sitting still is supported by all beings and supports all beings. Every thought we have is actually questionable and is actually Buddha activity.

[28:56]

But we need to practice stillness and silence to understand that, which is what we're offered now, the opportunity to plunge into stillness and silence, and discover Buddha activity. And if somebody asks you who you are, you might copy Bodhidharma and say, don't know. Or you might say, my name's Edward. Or you might not. You might say, my name's Jonathan. Or you might not. You might say, I'm not going to tell you. Or you might not. But whatever you do, you're just like me. You're questionable. And you're being questioned. And I hope you celebrate that in silence and stillness. So you understand what I said, right?

[30:06]

You understand that everything I said is questionable, right? You got that? All right. So I'm not going to fool you, am I? Because you know what I'm saying is questionable. And you're not even going to let that fool you, are you? You're like not going to get fooled, right? All day long, I'm not going to be able to fool you. But maybe I will. It's up to you. You can join the Great Protection by questioning. For example, what are we doing here?

[31:27]

May our intention equally

[31:37]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_93.62