very basic
here's what i wish to speak of

in a way that
the practice that i'm devoted to is sometimes called
being still
and silent

i got the impression before i came to practice of the san francisco zen center
that there was a practice
oh
great
compassionate beings
a practice they did ah
leading to their becoming
great compassionate bays and a practice they continued after they realized great compassion and wisdom
the practice was the practice of
sitting still

ben silent

i was attracted to learn how to become a great compassion and being and then i found out that the people who seem to be
amazingly compassionate i got the impression they didn't become that way
just by good luck that they actually had a training program
and then again i found out the training program involved
being still
silent

shockey mooney
i didn't know her early on mooney the sage but actually mean silent one

there seems to be some talking going on now
but i'm committed to this talking
being in touch with silence
i'm committed to a talking which comes from silence and stillness
i saw this training program of sitting still
particularly in the zen school
so i thought i would try the training program and one of the things i liked about it was i thought
among the various training programs available this is one that she could do when you're young
hold age and even right up to the threshold of death you could practice
being still and silent
you might not be able to sit up at the threshold of death
but you can practice being still and silent in a reclining foster
some ancient masters
granted branch of a tree and hung by it
the point of death
many are sitting some i reclining
the historical buddha was reclining
and i imagine the historical buddha was
still and silent
at the moment of passing over into nirvana
so there's been quite a bit of talk going on and yet
the basic thing is
be still
and
as i often quote am i on a sutra called the non activity of all things in that suit from manjushri bodhisattva says for living being
to be enlightenment is just not to move
i'm not moving has something to do with thing still
when a sentient being is just a central being
that is of course not moving from being sentient being on that is enlightenment

yesterday
love with such an easy game to play
so i noticed my and i noticed that my
seoul
on my foot and we're not on my shoe was coming loose the rubber was coming off a shoe
and i was at of
swimming club called a dolphin club
and i went to man there who repairs the boats and asked him if he had any glue
to glue the rubber back on the bottom of my shoes
and he said best thing would be this contact cement but if you put this on you he he really have to like
i'm firmly
ah clamp the the rubber onto the shoe for like twenty four hours i saw what about if i were the shoe
after practice and i said well then you'd have to be very zen-like served
and just really keep your feet down in the foot all the time and not move
i thought yeah people in san francisco know what zen is

hi neat people quite frequently lately
who are experiencing dying and death
lots of death
it's going on
in january this year and february is now happening we continue to have dying and people are talking about things falling apart
what's again i thought all
this reminds me of the basics
a practice we can do when things are falling apart
a practicing being still
when things are falling apart and you can practice this
it can be practiced
in this world where things are falling apart
when there's lots of vitality and things are falling apart but also when the vitality starts falling apart we can practice stillness and silence
there's also like so things fall apart i know quite a few people who are
close to old people who are becoming demented
ah there's alzheimer's but there's other kinds of dementia
and then his first plane or forget from us and they're just plain old sickness

now i can remember
there's a practice
i'm being still
and i can think oh i want to do that practice and i can actually like get myself to the practice and ritually sit still and be quiet
and i can also think when i'm sitting there are sitting here being still i can think
this is good
from this place i can deal with
everything
what if my body changes in my brain can't even remember english
or so i think i am in awesome place where nobody else thinks i am
what if i can remember that
being still is a practice that bodhisattvas do when everything's swirling around and where there's waves of dementia
and insanity or whatever is washing over the body and mind when if i can remember do all this the time for stillness and also be quiet don't talk about it when you're be quiet but if a number wealth i'm just
thought maybe if i practice being still for forty or fifty years even if you cut my head off i'll still be still
and that stillness will be the same stillness as somebody with a head practices
a lot of people with has that are especially hazardous have brains are complemented
think if there's something else to do besides being still
therefore they're not enlightened
plus also they're not necessarily training at what will work for them after their has removed
or up after their head is on but doing all kinds of strange things
how this is a practice you can do now which you can do later but if you don't do it now you might not be able to do it later
you can do it later and are examples of people who did it right up through all that stuff that might happen
the practice continued supposedly for some people even though they went through big changes
they couldn't even tell me when they were doing it but
they were do it was happening and it was happening because they train themselves when they thought there was an alternative to being still
have we just read some people give up worldly affairs
and maintain the buddha dharma right now if you give up early affairs you can maintain the buddha dharma and if you train yourself right now giving up worldly affairs
and maintain bodhidharma you might be the person who
who follows you have do you go away the person who has your same name but older than you
a person who people say is you this new person you become later whose demented
it might be also able to do the practice
now at that time this poor demented person this person with alzheimer's doesn't have any thought of i'm not very interesting
i'm not very entertaining just sitting here quiet and still
not being was remember who is in front of me or recognize anybody this isn't much fun they're not thinking that
it might be thinking
very very different kinds of things in any of us at every thought
and the things they think about maybe nobody agrees with what they're thinking
their stories about what's going on nobody agrees with not even the other demented people
and yet i propose that they might be sitting there
renouncing worldly affairs
right in the middle of all the stuff that's going on in your head or not going on in their head
and the renouncing worldly affairs by being still and silent
the same practice they did when they were young and quit their stories could you know good for such the people agreed with them somewhere like is saturday yes that's right
now when sarah they think it's tuesday i don't even know the names of the weeks anymore
but they've trained so that you're sitting still
and silent
and are radiating emanating a great light
and benefiting beings and they have no thought of what day it is who they're talking to who they are helping people they don't know anything and yet there are the same stillness that was there when they could be mm
under the scriptures and lecture on them brilliantly
the same stillness and just sit now there's no speech coming up there just drool
and yet
the enlightenment is still there
maybe
they can't do anything
but they're still practicing
the essential buddha dharma and and they never could do anything and now everybody can see it but because they trained they can still be still and quiet
they're alive they're still in quiet
who gets to do this practice when you get when they have no mind anymore
who gets to do the practice
a being there
when everything's changing so rapidly
that the can't even take care of themselves anymore
and if they couldn't take care of themselves that's all they could do would be take care of themselves
like you know
feed themselves as all they can do or get across from one position around to the other and would take their total
concentration that would be a super feet
and yet some people do that
and don't move while they do it
and when they're not moving there also not moving
who can do that is the people who train deck and do it and people don't train
when they're even though their demented they still are moving they still are seeking they're moving there still caught by the terror of not knowing what's going on or not understanding why no one agrees with them and no one sees what they say
see
or dreaming that everyone sees exactly like they see
all kinds of strange thoughts
so
yeah
we can train now you understand me when i'm saying i'm speaking english and get it you can train yourself had being still and silent all day long all night through
and if you train yourself this way you will notice that
somehow
you can continue to train yourself even though you're training is not perfect you can be still and unmoving with the imperfection of your current practice
if your practice ever became perfect you could even mr with that
that's called dementia

but i wasn't attracted to being still just for the radiance of being still
i was attracted to stillness and its radiance
because of what the light can do
how the light can you know respond to cruelty with kindness
how the life can dance with dementia
how the life can open to an embrace terror that's what i was attracted to but then i found out again this is all coming from stillness these amazing abilities are coming from stillness from the
radiance of a being of a living being being just herself
of giving up worldly affairs
and as i think about this
the thought arises as i contemplated to practice the thought arises of what a boring person such a practitioner might be
because it is settings than just sitting silent and still they're not necessarily entertaining and interesting in being so still
someone might think they're entertaining but curve
it's possible that most people would not think this person who is sitting still is is that entertaining
and the person sitting still might below worried people won't find me entertaining anymore
they might think i'm really not entertaining and not
yeah and they wouldn't necessarily come to my talks if i didn't move or talk

but i'm willing to give up popularity and people thinking i'm i'm i'm not
people thinking i'm a fun guy
i'm gonna to give that up for the sake of a practice
which if done regularly now
will take me and everybody else
through what is you know
the gates of heaven and hell
through the straits of
have
dementia alzheimer's
what kinds of illness that will take me through these difficult places and
and beyond
into other difficult situations
and the stillness allows all kinds of all kinds of activities
yeah it allows all kinds of states all kinds of activities it allows hawkins of difficulty and a louse all kinds of amazing performances of skill
from the stillness you can study the scriptures and enter deeply into their their message
and from the stillness you can enter into a mind that can't read the scriptures
either way
and if you enter into reminder kent
read or understand the words of the teachings
what the stillness and silence you are realizing the meaning of the teachings while you don't understand the words
you're looking at the words and not knowing what they're what they're saying and you're actually demonstrating what they're talking about
and then your body changes can you have a mind that can read the scriptures
and can understand the words
and then used continue to demonstrate with the words are talking about why you actually also have been understand what they mean and so on
however some people actually reading scriptures and kind of understand the words but they aren't still southern a manifesting with the scriptures of pointing to our care about

all is necessary
is to be completely still and silent
but again that means that you give up
being interesting
entertaining
fun person to be around
now
by the way when you give up being interesting being a fun person
when you give up trying to avoid being boring and
useless when you give that up it doesn't mean that you actually do become boring and not fun you might actually be lots of fun is possible
if you give up trying to be fun if you give up trying to be into entertaining you might be come super entertaining it's possible
what's the likelihood name is not to not a great i mean in our life i noticed the know a lot of people think i'm not very interesting
and kind of worry
and
pass me my
to some more interesting area
i can accept that when i'm still
but at the same time when i'm partially stillness i still might reach for half put it on my head and people might think i looked very funny
what how entertaining that he put their head on like look at that guy he's got a funny hat on two hundred i got on his head but
and i can do things that people think i really ridiculous even though
i wasn't really trying to be entertaining
the important thing is i'm willing to give up being entertaining
i'm willing to be to allow myself to be perceived as boring have no interest and so on
for the sake of what for the sake of be still and maintain buddha dharma and benefiting all beings that's tougher for
my basically i'm suggesting to myself and using the witness me
i think it's
absolutely necessary for me not to move and big for me to be quiet absolutely necessary and also i think is necessary in that stillness and quiet included i'm not attached to watch absolutely necessary
if i'm the slightest been attached to being still i'm not yet still
still omit of vibration there if i'm attached bank still
so in a way i'm talking myself into
being silent is still
and there are conflicting messages
coming up around that effort like this is not interesting hits on
but
i'm familiar with these conflicting comments
so they
so i know i welcome them
the stillness welcomes all the can all the conflicting comments
all the conflicting intentions besides being still are welcomed by the stillness
when when israel stone as it welcomes all rebellion against illness
the stillness welcomes being boring and welcomes the fear of being boring

you still love me
even though you never met me before that's very nice of you
you're still practicing love of whatever
whatever comes
by the name of ram

now if you practice stillness yourself than even when you can't remember when my name is or who i am or that you love me
you will love me
if you're back to stillness you love all the people that you don't know who you're your children and spouses itself while these strangers come to visit you you'll love them all if you're completely still and silent
you might be able to love a lot of name if or move if you even if you don't practice don't silence you might be able to love them but you my luck because you might have
a story about them that they're monsters and they want to eat you up and steal your money and poison you
which people do think sometimes a lot of old people think that about their caregivers that their caregivers are trying to kill him steal from them and so on
or they also sometimes think they should give the holder money to this person right here and then their children's in and i don't give it all to them and they are no and then they didn't their children are robbers

if you practice stillness that stuff when touch here
enlightenment
you have total can be totally deluded totally demented
but you won't move with it and you won't say anything about it
and your dementia will not hurt you
so now it's time to consider placing your bets
are you in a bet on stillness today
now
and you gonna bet on the for the rest of the day
now if you do bet on it now and for the rest of the day you might get some good returns on your investment you might think that was a great day
but also there's a teaching which says you won't necessarily be able to tell her a great scientist illnesses so quickly but it's possible you will
and even even sorry going to continue to to bet on stillness are you can embed on the teaching
that the training and bodhisattvas involves not moving gonna bet on that
and
now i'm looking at myself
and yeah i'm i'm continuing to bet on it and as i get older i keep coming back to this is my best and i it was my depth when i was in my early twenties same bed
but the more the more i see that the tremendous challenges that can come to a living being the tremendous this orientations that can happen
the more my conviction or being still
deepens
huh
in a way you can also tell the story that everybody gets to this place at the moon
moment of death
everybody stopped moving at the moment of death stops wiggling stopped talking and just as right there so in a sense everybody at the moment of death realizes enlightenment
and a great light is there
at the moment of death
is talking but how about all the years before that
how about all of it
trumbull that you go through on your on your travels to death
and how about having that same
light of an enlightenment for many years or for many moments before the time of day
so you can help people between now and that moment of enlightenment your enlightenment can start from now up until that point and beyond
but all the new people will become
somehow even though the can't remember to be still they are they practice their way because we practice that way today
your practice today can influence the possibility that you'll be still tomorrow that you'll be enlightened tomorrow the way you are today
and there were any get get today were sitting still not
to get anything in the future and yet we understand that this will influence the future and we want that
we're not moving from now with
perhaps the confidence that not moving from now
not speaking about anything other than this
promotes the next moment of a similar practice
giving up the kind of control it too
just betting on it
hi my cup
mts
he could run it over not
actually there's one drop left which i drink us
do you have any responses
yes
see even though i don't move i'm still silly
my responses
how can
see i saw
so the disaster
self has fine still by practicing by practicing stillness by giving yourself the stillness you will come to see that you never move you will see that sunday
you understand that
in fact movement is an illusion we don't really move
we change
and will change were gone and somebody else is our successor
and there's no movement there
it's the whole universe without moving changes
and more you practice stillness the more you understand that you're always not moving not average are all was who you are at this moment you're never somebody else and nobody else has ever anybody else and then everybody changes and we have all those people are gone we have a whole new set
and the new set is on movingly who they are
all of that is
it doesn't understand the song
you could set you could sit all of us in the understanding but you can also say the understandings in all of that
in the midst of change
it in an inner stillness in the midst of change all the understanding is there and in the understanding there's all the stillness
and all the change
the stillness is totally dynamic dynamics means changing the stillness is dynamic
i'm not moving
where enlightening each other right now without moving a particle of dust
your enlightening me i'm enlightening you right now but we're going to change anything right now we're just supporting each other the still an enlightened everything changes but there's no movement
and i were again supporting each other without moving anything
and we're supporting each other to perform the illusory drama of movement and of speech were supporting each other to do that
and stillness we accept all illusions and movement and speech
and accepting all that is stillness is
can can take on is amazing feats of compassion

and other response or feedback yes so i see how if we practice now we can still do this
but what about young children who have any chance to practice again but they still
i have a clear mind
but still don't have a clear mind here
well
he possible we on us with them
and then from that stillness we change their diapers and wash their butts and put the ointment on their diaper rash said they can grow up and be even more unclear than they were when they were kids
and then and then take care of them in that state
and from the stillness
yeah
what's the word
what's the word it's learned but
attacking are attending to them minister into them from the stillness
and at some point probably around in your twenties if think if this kind of administration
of kindness coming from the stillness
they'll start to think the to start to think oh i would like to try the kindness thing
that's what happened to me i will say really unclear and trying some pretty wild stuff and some people just the minister to me and made me interested in their ministrations i thought i would like to learn that i wouldn't like like to learn how to come back
with kindness to insult and attack i know how to fight and defend
but to come back with kindness
for cruelty that seem like a trick i hadn't learned yet and i would like to learn it i thought because i saw some people can do it even a navy in stories but still then i find out when i get a trip when i get attracted to that i find a where does this come from i find an a conference stillness it
doesn't come the idea of i want to help people actually comes from stillness it comes from being yourself it come from enlightenment
i first child when i see that's where it's coming from don't just see that they like it and as i started to practice at the notice on difficult and and they notice whole i guess i have to practice stillness in order to be able to do this i'm not gonna be able to be kind without having my feet on the ground
and you know because that's where they are i'm not gonna be a law practice kindness just from in have some idea i have to get my body settled
that's not the first thing that attracts most people although i i didn't see a picture around the same time that i was attracted to these administrations i did see a picture which is in
interviewing room a green gulch of a person's sitting zazen and i thought
that's really beautiful
that way of having a body
that way of thinking
so little by little people were setting examples will draw the children when they're ready into the practice which
then takes them to the practice of stillness from which the kindness will come from them when they're eventually after they practiced on this for a long time they will also star ministry to pay for such a way as to draw other people into the practice
i'm being themselves
the draw people into the practice of being themselves
because they see the fruits of the practice of being themselves are so lovely as are so attractive
but if they just try to be kind they prefer it's really hard he sort of train yourself to ground yourself from where the kindness comes from although you can try to be kind and be somewhat successful if you're if you're moving and not been yourself he keeps slipping and you know
so what are we take care of the children
and protect their lives so they can grow up
and and
but as long as they're alive anyway there's a chance of transmitting list of to some extent so even babies only live for a little while you can still transmit this to them
and then the next the next time they try
i hope somebody for the transmitted again and again until finally they can start practicing
he was
not right now thank you you want to
take away me too
yes

yeah

that

now let's start out less that ultimate reality but by opening to
two that the illusion if you open to the illusory quality of that
that opening to that it can be part of opening to ultimate truth but they but the illusion that the stillness itself is not ultimate reality
you know if you if you if you can see the individual pictures and the filmstrip and and see that one picture changes into another picture that's that's still conventional
truth
but if but when we first look at conventional truth we think whole it's like this and we're not opening and to the bot not opening to it also being like not this
namely that this is not really movement this is just a bunch of different still photographs which are mind converts into movement but actually we're doing it all day long and our brains doing that with everything in front of us things are changing and were tortured where reinterpreting for interpreting change as mu
mint and there's some benefits for are you know biological
success around being able to convert still photographs into movement
our own brains doing that so photography is just a few no elaboration of what my brain doing all the time
in our brain has all pixels in a to rights
the open to what's going on with ourselves is part of if we can't open to what's going on with ourselves in the conventional world then we shouldn't be looking at the ultimate truth
because if we look at the ultimate truth before we opened into the conventional truth it's it can be quite are harmful
so to be able to open to
how we're looking at change rather than looking at movement and be able to like stay calm and still if we open up to that more dynamic version of what's going on here
if you can do that you can open to
enlightenment to the and substantially of things

but then but what we're talking this is not ultimate truth year of an intern this is like the dynamism like impermanence is not ultimate truth
ultimate truth is that the even the impermanence is if substantial
prominence is
in substantial is impermanence but impermanence is also in substantial

of believes that life moves therefore we want to experience ourselves as being aligns with things are we going to the movement then
maybe the
the id or the thought that the still is not alive vs life i think that's right that that's part of the part of what makes it difficult to be still
the practice stillness and realized stillness is the thought that this is not alive
when people are sitting still sometimes people look at them and sometimes think that they work i've been dead
sometimes people do you know sometimes children get the frightened of their mother sit still sister sister to get frightened
i think she did
so then i think people do our people are somewhat afraid of being still
but that's pretty much the same as people think that people are most afraid of in life
he's being themselves
just flat out which is the same as being afraid of being still
the
in giving up
in that relationship what is he

while you're giving up distraction from reality
you're giving up
ah
ah you're giving up being interested interesting for getting up being alive for giving up been dead you're giving up be good in coming up in bad new giving up everything
so anything there is you give it up
worldly affairs is holding on to anything including
enlightenment pulling on to enlightenment is impossible of course but to try to hold onto it as a worldly affair
holding onto good is a world a affair
it can't hold onto good
but if you try it's a worldly affairs that you give up trying to hold on to girl holding onto evil is a worldly affair holding on to laziness as a world for anything you're trying to hold onto
that's what that's what should be given up
the clean to yeah or or the or the moving you know
credit may still with your desires you move to maintain them or avoid them
berlin just bestow with them when you make comments on them running just be quiet with them
so
so if you're still you do give up your attachment everything
in giving up your attachment of things
they didn't move but they can change now but before they change while they're still present your just present with them you're not trying to fix them
but when you can be that way with things you save everything you don't hold anything you save everything or the stillness saves all the things that you're not attached her when you attach to things you promote bondage
and congestion
yes
understanding
yes

you see

yeah
yeah
and being still with your understanding
allows it to change which it will

your experiences of stillness

well let's just take on partner you said the experience of stillness the experience of stillness is not the stillness
so if you think you're experiencing stillness know your experience is welcomed by stones stones will allow you to have experience of it but some people
might not have an experienced and as stay might be having experience of the blue sky
they're not experiencing their stillness are experiencing blue and they're not moving with it there but somebody else may say oh my god the stone was here that's okay but that's not the stones that's the experience of it
the original of stillness like saying still in a meditation hall than during the ritual the kind of sitting still but that's not the actual stillness
because there can be stillness when you're doing other rituals to
where people might think all your moving but in the present you cannot move in the present
and you don't move in the present
and that you can experience that or not
but the experience or the recognition of the stillness is not the stillness itself
but the better candy recognition of dullness the song for enlightenment
there can be a recognition
have you been yourself but that's not the same evening yourself that can be a recognition of enlightenment that's not the same as enlightenment itself
so you don't need to recognize that you're still
but you do need to practice and realize that you're still that's why we should practice in realize stillness now because the time is coming when we will build a recognize anything
after mentioned zen practice
but if we practice now we all need to recognize that we just want to the practice
so the buddha caesar's person completely enlightened completely still and this person has been practicing
stillness a long time so they actually there with the buddha on that
the vertices another person has completely still and sees their enlightenment but the person has not been practicing it so they think what's going on as what's in their head
made in there they recognize that they're not still
there are still but their recognition as i'm moving i'm tormented i'm frightened i cannot stand to be this
the another person can't stand to be this but they don't think i can stand to be this but they have for long time practiced i can't stand to be this i can't stay it sit here or rather i give myself to being this person has got this problem right now i've got this problem and this is my job and i'm not an i'm
practicing the ritual of not moving the thinking that that that's their experienced are practicing not moving next moment the practicing now moving but they're not thinking they're practicing that moving but they're practicing it and the realizing it and then if you change if you dial in the most horrible story
three the practice can go on
because if the person has been trained and they can show other people
this example like i'm often told the story of going to visit a zen master
one of the noted zen masters of japan and his disciples put on his role pretty robes on him and put him in a nice chair in front of me and there he sat on you know
drooling
and his disciples is a tenant saying rashi look who's come to visit you from america number him from the san francisco zen center
i just dislike this glazed over watery eyes no sign of recognition
unless i would consider his jewel drooling as a recognition of me
and i look at as a where's the zen master
is this is a master what what is a zen master there
when he a couple years before when he was doing a beautiful calligraphy for that the zen master
then i know there's a zen master doing this great calligraphy moon
where was it zen master them
was it the calligraphy was it are moving
was it the people there with him whereas is in master
where's the buddha
so somehow him training all those years why he winds up having people who put robes on him
and put him out in off in his room so that people from the marriage and priests from american come and meet him and wonder what is a zen master
so his practice was still working because i was in some way better than before before i i thought oh this isn't this is a zen master look at him
but that was actually comes to professional of me it was more profound really when i was wondering what if who is he and what is a zen master
now we don't like zen masters that make us think what is him as to realize investors masters who make us think this is a zen master i'm in the right plot i came present master and i got a zen master this is like this is cool right i mean i travel all across the ocean and here's a zen master great that's what i came to meet and they got the temple around him and it is
ipa's it's all perfect how lovely in the garden on the back in us for raining or whatever beautiful but to go on a distance to say what is who is this and what is a zen master
i mean like a zoo know zen master left or is there still a little bit of zen master there
this is see for yourself
where's the zen master is this a zen master is a stillness of i think it is i got experience of thousand and matt stone a solid
yeah yeah you can taste it but that's not it
it is itself it's not your taste of it but you tasting it and being that person that's it
that's a zen master but what is that
where'd you get away with where did it go where is this and master where is the buddha where is the radiance of us being us
and you're still you can wander about this now and if you practice that why you can keep wondering right through all timers and
the wondering will go on
even why you don't even were you thinking of even while you slip into the demented state of thinking you know what's going on
that's coming to us you're gonna get in that states eventually if you keep living you're going to wind up in place where i know what's going on you know and all your relatives are gonna be like whoo hoo
and your students are undergoing is is a master
this
oh my god
yes setting different now

hopefully you're wondering that right now
hopefully or even before i'm drooling excessively i'm grooming a little bit now but most of the saliva stay in my mouth
so i hopefully right now you're wondering what is a zen master
and who does he think he is to be making me think that why didn't you just shut up and visa and master and let me not have to worry about it anymore
what you use me as a measure that i can think is is and after the than being or whatever he is which makes me wonder what zen masters are
i don't need this i came here to find out a bizarre not to wonder not to have what i thought jan was kind of like put into question
i'd like to know it's an is rather than wonder what centers but you may have heard that does not actually recommended in this tradition to know what it is recommended that you wonder what it is
i you wonder why practices rather than know it
did you realize it without attaching to your knowledge
would you realize you without supposing that your knowledge is the realization but you do have knowledge and your knowledge is such that at a certain point
even more than now you might wonder what is a zen master
is it a person who doesn't throw and can do calligraphy
or is it somebody who makes you wonder
who you're looking at and who you are
i'm not gonna tell you which one but you think you know which when it is

this seems to me to be very basic and very simple and perhaps perhaps not that interesting so you might want to move on to some more interesting things other than just being still
but i am suggesting to myself in your presence that this is the basic practice of the buddha way not just zen but zens quite well known for
sang stillness fit and silence is really fundamental and you can do this you can give yourself to this practice you can bet on his practice moment after moment for the rest your life and then ah
getting that if you do better on this that when i talk to you later
you
the glad you bet on it
and if you don't bet i

i think can be sorry that you didn't
i think can be sorry
that you wasted the opportunity to be yourself
which is your basic job
and nobody can do it for you
and you can't do it by yourself so we're here to root for you doing the job of being yourself so please go ahead and do it even though we won't like it
yes ma'am
easy
your world
this is in the smaller sense
being as yourself out
that you will be
t
students still
a series of
is to give to others
which to respond fully to his expectations he wished to prefer to respond fully to those expectations now that's what most people think a zen master job is is to respond fully to people's expectations
by a fronting your expectations
which they will find very interesting
and also maybe they won't like it
some people do have expectations and you should meet those expectations the great compassion
which involves meeting expectations without any concern with what's gonna happen to you when you meet their expectations of you
and in i could involve something like to have any expectations of me i'd like to know what they are and you can take notes you know so now did are these the expectation you have of me and they say yes and was one of your expectations that i would not be taking notes on your expectations of me and say yeah i didn't think you were going out like
take asked me what my expectations were i thought you were just going to fulfill them when you have got your expectations now have i have filled them and they say no and you might say well
i've decided i'm going to not make an endeavor to fulfill all your expectations even though i understand i have not done so so far while one by doing this inventory of what they are but i'm not going to be devoted to fulfill your expectations
you might feel that way that may be who you are and not my be not moving
and they might say you know this isn't very interesting that you're gonna going this trip a fulfilling my expectations
i think of be more interesting if you didn't fulfill my expectations you say hey guess what i'm up for that too so now i'm going to abandon my product of of failure expectations are working to fulfill your expectations which i knew which i knew i would totally fail that it's impossible for me to film but i was going to try the impossible just for
you but now that you see how ridiculous it is with me nine going and like not fulfill your expectations from now on here we go
and they might say this is even more boring than before
are they might say you know i'm gonna call this morning because this is actually not boring is terrifying
that will be doing this together you say well fortunately for you i'm totally here for you and totally with all this fear and i mean i'm i'm i'm with you on this
beyond interesting and not interesting
and they might say okay you're fired
you know i fire you from your job which was a job of entertaining me but now i'm hiring you as my teacher of how to live
through the ocean of boredom
how to devote yourself to be still and the ocean of boredom
this is what will take us through
the oceans of dementia
with great compassion
les
a extend to every the days when such dream
the say
the
yes
how to save them
hostel
damn time
i was ah
the german good
is as possible
he comes