I would like to wish our precious abbot a happy birthday and happy rest of your life too. Now hearing about the supreme power of the bodhisattvas may help us open to it, like we just hearing the Dharma, we'll have no doubt, meeting it, we will renounce worldly affairs.

[01:09]

So as we meet this Dharma, this teaching about this samadhi, perhaps we will, just in hearing, as we hear it, there will be a renouncing of worldly affairs. And in particular, the main worldly affair of grasping and seeking the worldly affair of discursive thought to figure out how to practice. And again, the first aspect that is presented about this samadhi is that The samadhi is to purify the mind as though you were purifying space. So as we hear about as these various aspects of the samadhi are presented to our mind,

[02:28]

We receive them in this spaciousness. We might think, oh my God, that seems impossible. How could I ever enter into such a samadhi where such things are happening? So deal with that. to this description of the samadhi, the way you deal with space and the way space deals with it. Namely, it allows it to happen. Space doesn't push things around. Space doesn't change when things arise in it. Space doesn't try to hold on to what is arisen in it.

[03:32]

So hearing about this and even though the mind as it hears may have some comment, like, I can do that, I can't do that, I can receive that, I can't receive that, space treats the quality the same way it treats human reactions to hearing about the samadhi. So this background, and this dealing with the mind, and the mind is hearing about the samadhi, that's your mind presenting you this information about the samadhi. So you purify that mind which is receiving this teaching as though it were space and then any kinds of other extraneous thoughts that are arising besides the teaching are treated the same way.

[04:42]

Everything is dealt with basically the same way. Namely, no matter what it is, it's met. with no grasping and no seeking. Now there is also, in a sense, another consciousness which is perhaps grasping and seeking to every line of this scripture. And even if your mind isn't doing that, somebody else's is. So, we have the teachings coming forth and then we have all kinds of myriad beings hearing the teaching and living around the teaching, producing all kinds of, all kinds of being. So all of it's received in this oceanic context.

[05:50]

Now we've read ten of these aspects, one hundred aspects, and maybe I'll just read two more. The eleventh one is, well I'll just read this really nice one. knowledge of former abodes without encountering any impediment. And then this samadhi is possessing unobstructed heavenly eye. This samadhi is obtaining knowledge of outflows, but without attaining it inopportunely. And among those twelve aspects, nine of them are what are called Tathagatabala, of the Tathagata.

[07:01]

For some reason or other, the sutra, as it's presented here, doesn't have all ten. But this list of ten powers of the Tathagata is found not just in Mahayana scriptures like this, but also in the early... You can find it in the middle-length sayings and so on, these ten powers of the Tathagata. So basically, after introducing this practice of dealing with everything that happens in mind, which is the same as everything that happens to you, as though you were dealing with space, after this instruction of purifying whatever happens by acting as though you were dealing with space. Then comes these ten powers of a Buddha. When I first read these, I didn't recognize them as the ten powers of the Buddha.

[08:07]

I just thought, boy, these knowledges would be handy for a bodhisattva. And I thought also, these knowledges would be very therapist or a psychiatrist. Mostly, a lot of it is really about understanding people and what their problems are and where they're headed and where they've been. But understanding that also, not only understanding it, but understanding it in a very harmonious and a very happy, easy way. So that with these knowledges you really would be well prepared and well endowed to help beings. And you yourself would be very happy with all this knowledge. You could hear anything about anybody and you would be able to hear everything about everybody.

[09:12]

And it wouldn't be a problem for you. You'd be able to get in there with people. So these are knowledge that would be very helpful to a person who was trying to have beneficial relationships with beings. And then, when these ten powers are presented in the Mahayana scriptures, in the Prajnaparamita scriptures, after each of these knowledges. By the way, these are knowledges, but when the Buddha has these knowledges, they're also called powers. But actually, each one of these is knowing something. It's a cognition. Each one of these knowledge powers, it says, and all this through non-apprehension. So it presents each of the ten and after each one it says, all this through non-apprehension.

[10:14]

In other words, you have these knowledges but you don't grasp them. And the context of the revelation of this knowledge is in the realm of not grasping and then when the knowledge comes, you don't grasp it. And then because you don't grasp these wonderful knowledges, more knowledge comes and you don't grasp it. And more knowledge comes and you don't grasp it. So all of these very helpful things to know are being presented, are being given in the context of not trying to get anything. And then once receiving them, you don't hold them and you're given them again and again and again. You keep getting them because you keep not holding them and not seeking them. this samadhi, hearing about these very handy knowledges, we're instructed to like, don't they sound good? Don't try to get them. Don't seek this wonderful knowledge.

[11:18]

Purify your mind and also purify your mind of any kind of seeking. the way you would purify space. So don't try to get rid of the seeking either. If there's seeking around all this stuff, just let it be. If you let the seeking be, it's not going to work. If you fight the seeking, it's functioning pretty well. Of course, if you go with the seeking, it's functioning pretty well. But just to let it come, and let what the seeking is about to come, what the seeking is about to go, and just let the seeking go. This is the way to purify the seeking, purify the mind, and allow this samadhi to touch you. The samadhi is obtaining the knowledge which penetrates the sameness of the world of form and the world of formlessness.

[12:38]

Zen has various kinds of reputation. One kind of reputation that Zen has is for those circles, those nice black circles, those black ink circles. And sometimes people say, well, that's a symbol of formlessness. And sometimes they have... pictures of something that's kind of formless as presented as, that's really Zen. So Zen has a reputation of having a formlessness, and it also has a reputation as being the religion of form. Part of what we're trying to do is to develop a sense of working with forms, but understanding that they're not different from formlessness.

[14:23]

To pick up your chopsticks and understand that getting a hold of them and not getting a hold of them is the same, and yet somehow manage to get a hold of them offering incense, working with that form and understanding that that form is the same as no incense, no hand, no offering. And you can kind of see if you understand it by the way you offer incense. If you think they're different, you notice you're getting tired or excited, and then tired and excited. The samadhi is manifesting and being at ease with all forms.

[15:35]

So we use, we manifest. It's working with the forms and being at ease with them, using them without clinging or seeking anything from them. It is knowing all sounds as the same as an echo. It is successively penetrating mindfulness and wisdom. The samadhi is delighting beings with good words. You know, it's like when I hear that, I think, well, is that like, you know, somebody reads a sutra like this, and then some beings in the room are delighted by those words? That's one way to understand it.

[16:40]

But another way to understand it is that the Samad, the state of mind, of delighting beings with words or beings delighted with words is the samadhi. Expounding the Dharma as circumstances require or expounding the Dharma according to circumstances Again, not have some fixed idea, but let the circumstances come forth and let the expounding come forth. Distinguishing between opportune and inopportune time. It is being able to change It is giving instructions that are never in vain.

[17:49]

Oh, that last one, I hope I didn't skip over that too fast for you. I think there's a very important one in the world today, being able to change one's sex. There's various ways to understand it, but one way I think is very important is, like, don't have a fixed idea of what your sex is. don't have a fixed idea of what female or male is, or what your association with those genders are, or that sex and gender are the same or different, don't have a fixed idea about this, I think this is a crucial area. for a bodhisattva. And this samadhi would be a samadhi which, you know, you wouldn't be attached to your sex.

[18:54]

You wouldn't have a fixed idea about it. This is very helpful. This samadhi is never giving instructions in vain. It is penetrating the limit of reality. It is being skillful and winning over the various categories of beings. The samadhi is fulfilling all the perfections. Usually that means practice of giving patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and wisdom. But there's sometimes four more added. It is being skillful in winning over the various... The samadhi is having bodily attitudes and a bearing precluding all particularity.

[20:12]

What does that mean? Seeing the sameness? Uh-huh. Hmm? Having bodily attitudes, bodily postures and bearing precluding all particularity. What? Don't strut. Don't strut. Don't slouch. Drop body and mind. What? Any mannerism. All right. Being ready.

[21:28]

Being ready. Being ready without being ready for a particular thing. Good. Did you get all that, Serena? In other words, usually they just say, you know, that the Bodhisattva or the Buddha has, what do they say, awesome demeanor. Like people go, But what's most awesome is somebody who reminds you of something very important, namely the way you truly want to walk in this world, the way you want to be. So it's a very inspiring thing, but without the person drawing a lot of attention, it's a great bodhisattva. And yet, although they're not doing that, you're inspired to not do that

[22:31]

And yet, you're inspired to be inspiring without, you know, standing up. How could that be? How could you just facilitate without being particular? The samadhi has that kind of attitude. It is reflection, discrimination, and imagination. Eliminating. Again, like space. Not harming the fundamental element, but exhausting it to the very limit. The fundamental element literally is called the dharmadhatu, the element of dharma.

[23:39]

The fundamental element of whatever is happening is, the prize for that is given to emptiness. So we don't harm emptiness, and yet we exhaust emptiness. We exhaust it without harming it in this samadhi. In a single instant, it is manifesting one's body in the presence of all Buddhas. Now, excuse me, but that one strikes me as really easy. Because right now, in definition, each of you is manifesting your body in the present moment, in the presence of all Buddhas.

[24:49]

But that's not because you're so special, or you did some big deal, but rather the universe... And then all the Buddhas are attending on this birth. Buddhas don't miss you. So you don't have to really do anything other than what you're doing. And again, so that's, again, the samadhi, that you're just like present with yourself. And that's manifesting your body in the present, in the presence of all Buddhas. To be kind of firm on that point is an aspect of the samadhi. Your body is manifested in the presence of all Buddhas. You're never alone.

[25:55]

You're never unprotected. Boom, boom, boom. in a single instant, manifesting one's body in the presence of all Buddhas. Notice it doesn't say in several instances. It's just right now. Don't, like, think of doing it tomorrow. The Samadhi's busy enjoying the body being manifested in the presence of the Buddhas just one moment. You don't manifest the body in two moments. Would you say it louder please?

[26:59]

Yes. This samadhi is remembering the instructions of all Buddhas. That seems harder, right? I haven't even heard all the instructions of all the Buddhists. Well, you're not going to. The samadhi will. You don't have to do it. Just jump in the samadhi. The samadhi will remember all the instructions. I thought, you know, that what a wonderful teaching tradition it is that we're emphasizing, you know, this is what the Buddha can do, although it is what the Buddha can do, but sort of emphasizing what the Samadhi makes possible.

[28:28]

Now, it turns out that the Samadhi and the Buddha are kind of like indistinguishable, but the emphasis kind of here is on a state of consciousness all this possible and also that when this is happening that's a certain kind of consciousness and this consciousness has this great this this way of being this way of being aware has this wonderful rather than you know something's going to make you be able to do this. Rather, it's not really you and me, it's this samadhi. This samadhi which turns the wheel of the Dharma. This samadhi is in all universes.

[29:34]

performing bodily transformations like mirages, easily flowing from one to the next, you know. Like recently, some of you know, I had this nice thing on my face which is sometimes called a shiner, sometimes called a black eye. It actually was purple. AND IT LASTED FOR QUITE A WHILE. AND SO I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO, LIKE, HAVE MY BODY TRANSFORMED THAT WAY. AND THEN, AND THEN I WENT TO THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE AND THE DOCTOR, LIKE, ANOINTED ME WITH LIQUID NITROGEN AND MADE LITTLE DECORATIONS ON THE TOP OF MY HEAD. And then next to the shiner, a cyst started to develop.

[30:40]

So I puffed out from that infection. And then the purple kind of went away and I put some medicine on the infection and it subsided. So to be able to go through these bodily transformations as though mirages, you know. This is what the samadhi's like. Oh, getting old, getting young, being born, getting ugly, getting cute, blah, you know. Just like, oh yeah, okay. Rather than that, trying to hold on to some particular bodily manifestation as real. So being settled in that way of dealing with the evolution and transformation of the body. But I think, to some extent, it includes noticing it.

[31:52]

It isn't like, close your eyes until it's over. because you want to test to see with it. The samadhi is skillfully expounding all vehicles, delivering beings and always ensuring the uninterrupted triple jewel. So again, this is very important, which I mentioned before, that bodhisattvas learn all the vehicles They penetrate into the different kinds of enlightenment and also they penetrate into the unenlightenment of all beings. They penetrate into some very excellent courses of training and learn those ways and teach those ways. They don't forget the big picture. even though they're working really hard on a particular course of study, course of liberation, they forget that the point is not this particular one liberation that we're working on here.

[33:06]

So again, that helps them work on the one particular thing because they're not getting tense in a limited by this one project, this one being, this one exercise program. The samadhi is producing great adornments up to the final limit of samsara and doing experience in the slightest feeling of tiredness. Again, if I think, can I practice without the slightest feeling of tiredness? It's okay to think that. Madi is not concerned about whether I can practice with the slightest feeling of tiredness. This is giving up that kind of thought, even if it arises, to just let it be, and that

[34:14]

is the samadhi which doesn't get tired. I may get tired, you may get tired, but the samadhi doesn't get tired. If I'm concerned about me getting tired, then I'm going to get more tired. But in not being concerned about whether I get tired, in not grasping or avoiding tiredness, a reception of the samadhi which doesn't get tired. So again, the samadhi is tireless when we're tired. And we can realize that when we're tired if we don't . But just be, as we say, when you're tired, be killed by tiredness. Don't fight it. Don't hold to it. That's the samadhi. So the tiredness can manifest, but there's no tiredness in relating to that tiredness.

[35:21]

Again, through all aspects of samsara, round and round and round and round, we meet all the aspects of samsara. of all the death and birth and energy. Always manifesting oneself in all places of birth and doing so opportunely and uninterruptedly. Again, if you think about that, that seems difficult, right? How am I going to manifest in all places of birth? just at the right time and without any interruption. That's a kind of samadhi. It is manifesting one's activity in all places of birth. It is being skillful in ripening beings.

[36:32]

This samadhi is skillfully keeping up acquaintance with all beings. I've got to call my mother today, my father, my uncle, my sister, my brother, all these sick people, I've got to go to the hospital, you know. I can't keep up acquaintance with all beings. It's not, I'm not going to be. I can keep up acquaintance with a few, maybe, but not all beings. This is like, this samadhi will be able, you know, This is a way to really keep up and acquainted with everybody if we can somehow open to the samadhi. This is really important. Inconceivable how it could be happening, but I think the important thing is you really are open to being acquainted with all beings if they were in your face.

[37:33]

And if you're open to that, that's entering the samadhi. If you enter this samadhi, it means you're not grasping and seeking. And if you're not grasping and seeking, you are perfectly willing to keep up on your acquaintance with everyone. The Buddhas you see that are with us all the time, that are always acquainted with us, The Buddhas are always acquainted with us because the Buddhas have no reservation of hanging out with us all day long. They don't say, I don't want to be with this person sitting there in this center all day long. They have no problem with that. They have no problem attending to you. A Buddha has no problem attending to you all day long, moment after moment, through all you go through. No problem. Fine. Because of no grasping and seeking. Because of the samadhi. But without this samadhi, we're going to feel bad because some people we're not going to have time for.

[38:43]

Even some people we really care for. And not to mention, some people we don't care for, we're going to not be wanting to spend time with, and we're going to feel bad about that. So, this samadhi would really be, you know, do you want to, you know, are you settled that you would like to actually be able to enter a way of being so that you kept up your acquaintance with all beings. It is being unfathomable to all the depths of the two vehicles. That sounds kind of nasty in a way. But we're in the samadhi that even enlightened beings of the vehicle of the listeners and the vehicle of the they wouldn't be able to fathom this samadhi.

[40:06]

But that's the way it is. even those enlightened beings can't fathom this samadhi. So it's not really like something personal. It's just by definition. This is a bodhisattva samadhi which they can't fathom. The samadhi is clearly understanding the pronunciation of all sounds. It is causing all dharmas You know Rumi saying something about, I just want you to burn up completely. I just want to be burnt completely.

[41:13]

So in the Samadhi it's like that. It is causing an ordinary kalpa, an ordinary aeon, to become an incalculable aeon. In other words, in the samadhi there is being able to be creative because in the samadhi there's no grasping or seeking of time. It is causing an ordinary, it is causing a very, very long aeon, an incalculably long aeon, to be reduced to an ordinary aeon. This samadhi is causing an ordinary field or land to expand into innumerable

[42:19]

The Samadhi is causing innumerable fields to be reduced to an ordinary field. It is placing immense Buddha lands into a single pore of skin. Can you feel that? Immense Buddha lands being put into one pore, or into all the pores of your body. immense facilities of enlightenment being placed in each pore of your body. Gotta lift your arms a little away from your sides for your armpits, you know, to make room under your armpits. The samadhi is placing all beings into a single body. all beings placed into a single body is this samadhi.

[43:36]

It is understanding that all Buddha lands are the same as space. So again, cultivating Buddha lands is like cultivating space, and cultivating space is cultivating Buddha lands. It is extending one's own body to all Buddha lands without exception. It is placing all bodies into the fundamental element so that there is no longer any bodies. placing all bodies into emptiness so that there's no longer any bodies.

[45:19]

It is understanding that all dharmas, all things, are free of marks. It is being free to the acquisition of all skill and means. The samadhi is with a single vocal pronouncement being able to express all the natures of things. It is also uttering only one phrase, speaking innumerable, four innumerable Asamkhya Kalpas.

[46:25]

It's able to speak a single, only one phrase for incalculable eons. This samadhi is all the chapters of the expositions of the Buddha Dharma.

[48:05]

It is fully recognizing resemblances and differences and expounding the Dharma or at length. It is withdrawing skillfully from all paths of Mara. It strikes me that it isn't just withdrawing from the paths of Mara, it's withdrawing skillfully from the paths of Mara. So it's withdrawing without like... Sometimes you can withdraw from the path of Mara and still in some sense be a subject of the path of Mara because you reject the path of Mara.

[49:15]

But in this Samadhi there's no rejection of Mara and that is withdrawing skillfully from Mara, from all the deadening forces of life to withdraw skillfully not like pouting angrily or arrogantly or self-righteously not getting into discriminations between Mara and not Mara is to withdraw from Mara skillfully but also to be able to spot Mara when you see him or her, to be able to spot the deadening tendencies of the mind, to meet them and welcome them, and to find them actually astonishing. To join your palms and respectfully bow is a way to withdraw skillfully.

[50:29]

this is seems to me in the spirit of the samadhi and possible because alert and vigilant being able to spot a disease and to withdraw skillfully from it It is emitting the ray of the greatest skillful means of knowledge and of wisdom. It is causing actions of body, speech and mind to be preceded by knowledge. Now the kitchen is moving. Is this movement preceded by knowledge? You could start over again if it wasn't.

[51:38]

We have a moving kitchen. The samadhi is without making any special effort, always having the super-knowledges at one's disposal. Again, hearing that, one might be frightened. Super-knowledges at my disposal? Yikes! or no-no. Someone mentioned to me yesterday that he had this kind of new insight or new take on the Diamond Sutra.

[52:53]

Because yesterday I mentioned that the stage of the Bodhisattva is emphasizing the practice of giving. And that one of the things that happens when you perfect giving is you realize fearlessness. And looking at the Diamond Sutra, this person felt that it seems a great deal of the Diamond Sutra has to do with giving, with making offerings. and that when the Buddha speaks of the Bodhisattva in that scripture, he often speaks of the Bodhisattva. So he thought, maybe this sutra, the Diamond Sutra, is about Buddha initiating Subuddhi into the perfection of giving. So reading this aspect of the Samadhi, it's like having these great facilities available

[54:04]

I think could be a frightening thought. But in the Samadhi, where are these super-knowledges? The teaching is they're right there because in the Samadhi you're always face-to-face with the Buddhas. You're never apart from facing Buddhas. All the superpowers are right there available. You can just ask for them, for them to be used. But it's, again, that's the fearlessness of this samadhi, that you can live with Buddha all the time, that you can be face to face with Buddha moment after moment, that you can be with this body that's manifested in the and all these supernatural, all these supernormal powers are available. Well, seems to me that we have

[55:29]

heroically marched quite a ways into this sutra. Maybe we've marched far enough for today. I was thinking of that myself. We are all the way to 59. Yes. I'm just wondering about you say that the Buddhas are with us. I don't understand this point. I mean, I sort of see where you're going. You can't see the Buddhas, right? Well, it's not so much that I'm saying that the Buddhas are with us. It's not so much that I'm saying that. I mean, I could say that, but let's not put it that way right now. That this samadhi is manifesting a body in the presence of all Buddhas. That's a certain way of being called the Heroic March Samadhi.

[56:38]

About a certain way of, in some sense, a certain way of deciding to be. Like, I am determined, I am resolute that I want to manifest a body in the presence of all Buddhas. to manifest a body in the presence of all Buddhas, and then accepting the body as manifesting in the presence of all Buddhas, that's what the samadhi is like. Now, is that samadhi reality? We can argue about that. It doesn't say necessarily that you see some particular thing. It also says this samadhi is never being apart from seeing Buddhas face to face. So right now, are you resolute?

[57:45]

Am I resolute? Am I decided? to never be a part of Buddha's face-to-face. If I am settled in that and resolute in that, that's the samadhi. Now, of course, Buddha doesn't mean seeing like, you know, there's a Buddha statue on the altar here. It doesn't mean that you see a face like that Buddha statue or some other Buddha statue. Buddha is not necessarily in some particular form. Buddha doesn't have some particular marks, right? And yet, to be never seeing Buddha face to face is the samadhi. And for the human mind to think, well, what does it mean to see Buddha face to face?

[58:51]

Well, that's just a thought. And at the time of having that thought, what does it mean to meet Buddha face to face, in the midst of that thought, to be like, okay, I'm having this thought, what does it mean to meet Buddha face to face? I'm having this thought, and while I'm having this thought, I want to, and I'm settled into that I'm not apart from meeting Buddha face to face. If I'm looking at your face or somebody else's face, if that's what my experience is at this moment, this is my body manifesting in that way of producing an image of you. The samadhi is that that body is manifesting in the presence of all the Buddhas. The samadhi is that I'm not apart from seeing Buddha face to face when I'm looking at your face.

[59:54]

I'm not apart from seeing Buddha face to face feeling pain in my legs. I'm not apart from seeing Buddha face to face when I'm having lunch. I'm not apart from seeing Buddha face to face no matter what's happening. nothing that's happening to any being ever separates them from seeing Buddha face to face. That certainty, that resolution, that subtleness is what the samadhi is about. And you can perhaps imagine what it would be like if you really were like totally settled into everything that ever happened, you were always like all this stuff, for example, that you were always this body was manifesting in the presence of all Buddhas. I mean, like you actually were settled in that thoroughly. You were touched by that, that way, that type of awareness. To get into discussing, you know, what the Buddhas are like, fine.

[61:00]

But while we're discussing it, if we're in the Samadhi, we're never apart from Buddhas while we're discussing what it means not to be apart from Buddhas. While we're discussing it, we're never apart from the awareness of the body manifesting in the presence of the Buddhas. The body, a talking body, is saying, what does it mean to be manifesting in the presence, manifesting a body in the presence of the Buddha? The body is just talking like that. This body is manifesting in the presence of the Buddhas. So you understand that while you're discussing it. You understand it while you're talking about it. You understand it while you're reading about it. That's what the samadhi is like. And this is a dimension makes these other things possible. Now, just manifesting a body, the samadhi, manifesting a body that's, or having a body that's manifesting in the presence of all Buddhas, you might say, well, so what?

[62:01]

But that goes with, it looks like, being able to help people in all these skillful ways. So the bodhisattva isn't just like helping people. The bodhisattva has like some support of feeling like no matter what she's doing, she's uplifted by this tremendous support all the time. All this help's coming helping her with her own problems, helping her help other people. So she's totally enthusiastic and has all these facilities to facilitate beings liberation. Having a great time, but not just by personal power, but by the power of the samadhi. So it's okay to get into discussions of what does it mean to see the Buddha In other words, to get into what that means. It's okay.

[63:02]

But even if you're trying to grasp what it means, even though you're getting really petty now about trying, like, where is this Buddha? I want to see this Buddha, and I want to see a Buddha this way. Fine. They're with you while you're on this trip. if the samadhi is realized. They're with you anyway, that's right. you know, that's what you started with. Are they actually with you? And I say, yes, but... The samadhi is to be like, you are settled in that.

[64:12]

It's that type of settledness, you're settled into that, rather than... Samadhi, I guess, but we usually don't call it Samadhi because Samadhi, generally speaking, is like to be settled in or decisive about beneficial things. But you could use Samadhi in a negative sense that some people are settled into, I'm practicing all by myself and nobody's helping me. And I'm having a really hard time quite well considering how unhelpful everybody is. But, you know, I'm doing this all by my own power. There's that kind of samadhi that some people practice that way. You see, this is not that kind of samadhi. This supreme samadhi is not something that you're doing by your own human power. This is a samadhi which is developed in the context of understanding all the help you're getting. And because you're getting so much help, you can be helpful. Because so many people are helping you, so many Buddhas are helping you, so many Buddhists are helping you, you can gradually be as helpful as they are to you.

[65:26]

They're like helping you and everybody else so that you would actually be able to help you and everybody else and help them by making them successful helpers. the part of the sutra where it talks about how dare you not be a bodhisattva considering how nice they are to you. Why don't you get to work? But there isn't that part of the sutra. The sutra is just totally trying to help you become a helper, just totally trying to help you become more and more skillful helping beings. So just trying to help you be able to have knowledge of how to help beings. And it's, again, this is 2,000 years ago, the way bodhisattvas tried to help people be bodhisattvas through encouraging them to enter into this samadhi and encourage them then in doing all the things that this samadhi makes possible.

[66:39]

yes yes yes yes well I'm one in the ways you could I guess theoretically heard emptiness would be to be disrespectful of it, try to make it into a thing. Now, you could say, well, of course you can't hurt emptiness, but that would be a way maybe in some sense you could slap emptiness in the face by trying to make emptiness into something you can grasp. Or you could maybe hurt emptiness by seeking emptiness. it goes with, although they don't hurt it, they totally enter into it and become familiar with it. So to become familiar without grasping, to become familiar without seeking, to keep working for your whole life to understand emptiness without trying that understanding for yourself.

[68:02]

What? Or, yeah, thinking you were done with it, in a sense, kind of like hurt emptiness' feelings. Like, oh, you think you're done with me? You're not going to study me anymore? Yes? When you were discussing It wasn't quite recognition. It's more like, based on samadhis, there can be recognitions. But this wasn't so much, it didn't say recognize, it said the samadhi is manifesting a body in the presence of all Buddhas. So it's like it is being settled, it is being firm, it is being peacefully with the body manifesting that way.

[69:17]

It could have said recognizing, but it didn't. Well, you've got to be careful here, but basically Buddhas and beings are not completely the same. But even though they're not completely the same, they're totally inseparable. There's no Buddhas floating from beings. If you separate a Buddha from beings, you don't have a Buddha anymore. So you don't have any beings around without Buddhas intimately with them. And you don't have any Buddhas floating around without beings intimately with them.

[70:20]

The nature of Buddha is this intimacy with all beings. And this intimacy is multidimensional, so you have lots of not only Buddhas, but Buddha lands, which are full of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and all kinds of other things. You have world systems of Buddhas. So this multidimensional intimacy with all Buddhas is part of what this Samadhi is about. And so you listen to this and try to relate to that like you'd relate to space. Don't try to grasp, you know, this stuff. Just let it come in. And until you feel settled in it. And then you're in the samadhi. Pardon? Is there a difference between Buddhas and Buddha nature?

[71:21]

Is there a difference? Well, in a sense, yeah. Buddha nature can manifest as Buddhas and it can manifest as sentient beings. Buddha nature is not just Buddhas, it's also sentient beings. Buddha nature is the relationship and functioning of the Buddha's relationship and functioning with beings. And it's also the way beings manifest Buddha. So beings actually make Buddhas appear. And Buddhas make sentient beings appear. They co-create each other. That is the Buddha nature. So Buddha nature is like, in some sense, the whole working of the world, including both sentient beings and Buddhas. There's lots of hands, but I...

[72:27]

I hesitate to have it go much longer because it's already 1120. So I seek guidance. Pardon? So is this small aeon getting to be a large one, or is this large aeon getting to be a small one? Or is it stuck in just being an hour and twenty minutes? Ah, so glad to be free of time, aren't you? and so glad to be intimate with beings who are stuck in time, aren't you?

[73:43]

So we're surrounded by and intimately attended by beings who are free of time and we're surrounded by an intimate group of beings who are hung up on time. And we We're looking to a samadhi which doesn't prefer the liberated over the unliberated. So like, I don't know if I'm a sentient being dreaming of the samadhi, or if I'm a samadhi dreaming I'm a sentient being. If it's all right with you, I will continue.

[75:02]

bringing this sutra to you and we'll just keep going forward into it some more. Is that all right? Let me know if you need any rest stops. Fast. Equally penetrate every being and place.

[75:36]

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