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Blooming in Universal Harmony
This talk delves into the concept of non-attachment within Zen philosophy, emphasizing that clinging to the notion that the universe is the true body of the self can obstruct enlightenment. It explores the practice of non-thinking in Soto Zen, where achieving a detached view of pain, pleasure, and neutrality leads to understanding nirvana as inherent in everyday experiences. The discussion distinguishes between manipulative self-improvement efforts and the natural, undisturbed state of blooming, paralleling the self with the universe. A narrative unfolds, illustrating how embracing the true body of the self aligns personal practice with universal harmony without creating a karmic burden.
Referenced Works and Teachings:
- Shakyamuni Buddha's Teaching: Described the practice of non-attachment to pain and pleasure as key to realizing nirvana.
- Soto Zen Concept of Non-Thinking: A method of existing without manipulation, fostering liberation through non-attachment.
- Bodhisattva Desire: The talk describes desire within Buddhism as the impulse for all beings to attain enlightenment without attachment.
- Meal Sutra Reference: Mention of feeding the Buddha and Sangha illustrating interconnectedness between showing reverence to both Buddha and monks.
- Story of Mahapajapati: Illustrates the importance of giving to the Sangha to embrace communal practice and transcend individual attachment.
Important Concepts:
- Non-Thinking: This practice involves being present without striving for being or non-being, fostering a state of wishlessness leading to liberation.
- Blooming Metaphor: Describes realizing one's nature as a continuous unfolding or flowering that does not emanate from self-effort but from universal interconnectedness.
- The True Body of the Self: An understanding that encompasses all beings and experiences, indicating a movement away from individual manipulation to a state of universal awareness.
AI Suggested Title: Blooming in Universal Harmony
Side: A
Speaker: Tenshin Reb Anderson
Possible Title: Sesshin D.T. Day #3
Additional text:
@AI-Vision_v003
By now, I think most of you have heard the verbal expression, the entire universe is the true body of the self. The entire universe is nothing but the true body of the self. Now, someone said to me, now, if we take that expression and think, you know, and make that into something, or think that that expression is what that means, well, that just becomes a hindrance.
[01:20]
So hearing this verbal expression, about the true human body, about the true body of the self, if you then think that that expression is something that you grasp, then that grasping becomes a hindrance to realizing that the whole universe is nothing but the true body of the self. and yet this verbal expression has appeared in the world and you have heard it. This expression could emerge from one who has understood
[02:23]
the truth. This expression could come from one who understands the end of suffering. So the door to understanding the end of suffering is not to make the words of one who understands the end of suffering into an object of attachment but rather to relate to those words and all words and all experience in the appropriate manner which is that in the midst of hearing words of Dharma, in the words of hearing words of pain, in the words, in the midst of all of our experience, in that situation there is no
[03:51]
The appropriate response to that situation is not to construct, not to generate, or not constructing and not generating an intention to annihilate what's happening. Not constructing or generating a wish that what's happening would go away. and also not wishing that what's happening would go on. No plans for this to continue, no plans for this to end. This attitude of, you know, not trying to set up being or to cut off being, not to promote this pain or eliminate this pain, this attitude is the door to realizing, to understanding that the entire universe is nothing but the true body of the self.
[05:07]
So Buddha says, you know, Shakyamuni Buddha said that when the yogi does not give rise to such intentions, to intentions to promote being, intentions to promote non-being. When the yogi relates to her pain, not wishing that it would go on, not wishing that it would end, just being with the pain or the pleasure in this upright fashion, that then she doesn't cling to the pain or the pleasure. Then she's not agitated in the face of the pain and pleasure. Then she calms down and realizes nirvana in the midst of this pain and pleasure. This way of being we call in Soto Zen, non-thinking.
[06:24]
So in the midst of your various thoughts, pain and pleasure, this is pain, this is pleasure, even in the midst of the thoughts, let's get rid of the pain, let's get rid of the pleasure, there's a non-thinking presence. there's a wishlessness and that wishlessness is the gate to liberation. And from this liberation and from this realization of truth that the whole universe is nothing but the true body of self, one then goes to work as a compassionate being, taking care of the entire universe as the true body of the self. All the energy that we ordinarily put into what's most important for our self-interest now goes for the welfare of the entire universe.
[07:42]
And it's kind of an interesting thing was also that, for me, is that the attitude prior to realizing nirvana that the Buddha described and the attitude after realizing nirvana seem quite similar. So he says, you know, before, not before, yeah, before sort of, as you're approaching the realization of truth, you know, the yogi is attentive without manipulation. She neither mentally creates nor wills being or non-being. She does not form any condition or generate any volition tending towards either being or non-being. And this way, she doesn't cling, she's not anxious, and she settles into an intimate, congruent relationship with truth and liberation.
[08:54]
Then, after realizing this truth, then when pain and pleasure arise, then she does not cling to it, then she does not hold it, then she does not delight in it. So the way she relates to pain as she's entering into realizing truth The way she relates to pleasure as she's entering into realizing the truth and the way she relates afterwards is very similar. Except I guess the slight difference in nuance is that upon entering into, the emphasis seems to be on not generating the wish or intention for things to be different. or for things to be the same. Afterwards, the nuance is more on the side of being detached.
[09:59]
It sounds similar, but it's a little bit more on the side of the fruit of this giving up manipulation is that you're not bound by any events. This attitude towards our experience, again, we call, for short, non-thinking. And it's the way you enter into this inconceivable Dharma practice of the Buddha, where you are not hindered even by the teaching that the entire universe is nothing but the true body of the self. that you understand that even without clinging to that. So, in the face of pain,
[11:16]
in the face of pleasure, in the face of all impulses that are arising in the world right now, in the face of the entire universe, the yogi is not into control in the universe. The yogi is simply in this balanced, attentive, non-craving mode. And in this mode, there is a blooming, a blooming of Buddha. This is the mode of blooming, not the mode of control. And the bloom is the fruit of this non-thinking approach to experience. Oh, and so people want to know, well, what about me?
[12:35]
Well, what's going to happen to me prior to this, when I learn how to practice this way? And besides that, what's so good about blooming anyway? And aren't I already blooming? And I'm not supposed to make blooming into a thing either, right? Right. So this Buddha thing, this realization of the whole universe being where it's at, It's not that Buddha's better than the current state of affairs. And someone says, well, aren't we always just who we are? And isn't it true that we can never be other than this person who's got all these impulses?
[13:39]
Don't we have to sort of admit that we're like a human being who's got impulses to annihilate pain and promote pleasure? And I would say, yeah. There's no way to avoid this. You can try to avoid the current situation. And the way that we try to avoid the current situation will be based, of course, on an incomplete understanding of the whole universe being the true body of self. If you understand that the whole universe is the true body of self, you won't anymore try to avoid being an ordinary human. Because, of course, ordinary human is part of the whole universe. which is the true body of self. You won't tamper with any humans anymore when you fully understand that the entire universe, that also means each little particle in it, is not to be tampered with or made the object of an engineering project.
[15:05]
You respect each particle of the universe and each incredibly complex composition called human being in the universe. You don't mess with people anymore, including yourself. And also, you can't anyway, right? So what's this thing about becoming Buddha? We can't help but be an ordinary person. So what's this thing about being Buddha? Well, being Buddha is when an ordinary person stops messing with herself. Then an ordinary person is not an ordinary person anymore. Then an ordinary person is a Buddha. It's very rare that a human being doesn't mess with himself. And this rare thing is called Buddha. But the Buddha's not anything but this person un-messed with.
[16:08]
It's just this person un-messed with. It's just this person with no clinging and no attachments and no agendas for self-improvement. Including this person's like hell-bent on self-improvement. The Buddha is like not wishing this person would be different. but just wishing this person would wake up, but not be different. Buddhas, from the point of view of Buddha, Buddha and sentient beings are the same. And sentient beings are those who don't get that, and Buddhas are those who do, and they're the same. And you say, well, isn't that a difference that one thinks that they're different and the other one doesn't think so? Isn't that a difference? It's a difference in their thinking.
[17:11]
Don't worry. All you got to do is switch over to the Buddhist point of view and you'll get this. And then again, someone will say, well, why switch? Well, it's not really a switch. it's actually to stop switching. You know, you immediately switch. Most people are into switching to something else. If you would just leave yourself alone, you immediately switch. But it's hard to leave ourselves alone because, you know, it's our thing to manipulate ourselves all the time. So it's very difficult for us to abandon these trips to be somebody else. It's very hard for us to just let the pain be the pain and not identify or disidentify with it. That's very hard for us because it means giving up this strong habit or finding some way in the middle of the strong habit to give it up, even while it goes on. One of the people in Sashin recently lost an old friend, a dog, that she lived with for a long time.
[18:33]
She loved the dog very much. She was very devoted to the dog, but finally the dog said, I've had enough. I'm out of here, and died. So she lost her wonderful, if you excuse the expression, pet. But kind of one of the neat things about being human is you don't have to worry about losing your pet, your human pet that you've got. Like we now up at our house, we have this cute little dog, you know, she's so sweet, cute little animal, so sweet, so alive. But that dog might grow old and leave before me. And that'll be kind of sad. But each of us has this little peppy little pet in us called our, you know, our sense of self, you know. And that little critter's going to be peppy right to the end.
[19:34]
It's not going to die before us. You don't have to worry about losing this pet. And it's the cutest thing of all, actually. It's happy to see us, you know. So this is one pet you've got forever, but you don't try to get rid of this pet and don't worry about it going. Just understand it's a little pet. It's a sweet little thing to take care of. And sometimes, just like other pets, sometimes it gets ticks and fleas. It can even get cancer. which is not funny, of course, but still, what do you do with the pet? You take care of it. Except this dog, this pet, when it gets cancer, it won't die. And it'll be peppy and alive forever, as long as you're there. As long as you're alive, you'll have this little pet called self. And it'll run around and do all these neat things right to the end.
[20:38]
So you got a friend, a companion, a pal, and it's full of life. And it's, you know, if anything's alive, this little self's alive. And like I say, it has problems sometimes. It requires medical attention. But, you know, just give it to it. Not to try to make it a better self, because it can't get any better. It is perfectly top of the line right now, isn't it? It's so cute. We're not supposed to admit it, but we really do love it. We're proud of it. And also, in order to protect it, we sometimes have contempt for it. But it's part of the overall protection thing, because we don't want anybody to find out that we've got a thoroughbred in the house. And then they get kidnapped and ransomed. So they say, oh, yeah, myself, it's really trashy. No, no, you wouldn't want myself. Can I meet yourself?
[21:41]
No, it's ugly. Forget it. You know about that? If you've got a cute daughter or a cute son, and people say, well, I haven't met your child. Can I meet him? You say, well, they're kind of ugly and stupid. I don't think you want to meet him. And then they meet him, and they say, well, they aren't so bad. Kind of cute and smart, right? But if you tell people what you actually think of your kids, and then they meet them, they say, oh, jeez. I was expecting this gorgeous, brilliant, and just kind of ordinary person. You kind of misled me. So what we do is often try to downplay. Chinese people hide their money, right? You downplay your kids. And then when people meet them, they're really pleasantly surprised. Now, some people don't do that. And that's really sad to meet their kids. when they over-tell you how great they are. Where's the kid? So not everybody tries that approach. Some people do a different style, but actually everybody thinks their kid's great, and everything's just to protect this kid and promote this kid, keep this kid going, but actually you don't have to promote it.
[22:52]
You don't have to protect it even, actually, but you do have to sort of be nice to it, because if you don't, this kid's going to take revenge on you and gonna, like, make you unable to practice. What's practice? It's gonna make it unable for you to, like, got some pain? Okay, now I got pain here. Got pain. What do we do with pain? What was that again? Oh, yeah. Don't get into, like, annihilating it. Don't get into promoting it. Just be upright and attentive. and let it bloom. Let it bloom. Let it bloom. That's what we do. Just let the Buddha bloom right here. Don't kill that. Let the Buddha seed bloom. Don't push it around. Let the Buddha seed bloom. That's what Buddha does with his little selves, his little pains, whatever.
[23:55]
But if you don't take care of these things, then they say, you can't practice, you lousy caregiver. In whichever approach, in whichever strategy of manipulation you try with this thing, it won't let you practice. So you should take good care of it, just like you take care of everything else with this detached way. Then it will let you sit quietly. and let things be and be free of anxiety and realize the truth. And it will be your constant companion to keep you honest, to keep saying, OK, here I am. How do you take care of me? And you test it on that little pet. sometimes the self, like I say, is not feeling well, so you've got to take care of it.
[25:03]
A friend of mine had an uncle. He had a father, too. He had a father and an uncle. And his father was quite an intelligent, enterprising person. But his uncle was kind of a genius. And... And his family, his parents, his father and his brother were leaders, were sons of the leaders of a big community in the Midwest. And they inherited extensive lands and responsibilities for a big social group. Anyway, the uncle one time had an accident driving a tractor and burned himself. A very bad burn, a very deep burn. He went back to work and became active before he gave the wound enough time to heal.
[26:19]
didn't rest long enough. So he went back to work and then gradually the wound started to manifest again and then he had to stop, you know, work again and rest. But then again he didn't rest long enough. He went back to work and then gradually it It came back and for his whole life he never gave that wound time to heal and always kind of like gave it less than what it needed and that attitude ruined his life. It just kept dragging him down. because he never would really give it what it needed. And it bothered him to the end of his life. And if we don't take care of this stuff properly, if we kind of like wish it was over before it's over and move on before it's done, it can drag us down.
[27:29]
Not it so much, but our unwillingness to take care of this person. these needs here. So trying to get on with the great work is not the right attitude. And of course indulging and resting too long is not the right attitude too. But this person didn't rest long enough, didn't take care of his human situation didn't give it enough attention, and it dragged him down again and again. He never would give it what it needed, and it pulled him down. So we have to take care of ourselves. How?
[28:35]
Face what's happening without slipping into manipulation. Manipulation is not the way to heal. The way to heal is attentiveness, loving attention. That's heals. So again, we can't be other than who we are. That's the same thing as take care of yourself. Be who you are. And a Buddha is being exactly what you are, truly what you are.
[29:48]
And it takes a lot of care to be who you are. Who you are requires care. It's not who you are not to give care to yourself. And who you are will not tolerate inattention or manipulation of who you are. Your Buddha, in some sense, is patient with you and yet at the same time will never give up on you and will keep, in some sense, encouraging you to do your work. What you really are, the true body of yourself, is on your case to realize that.
[30:54]
So I got a question here, what is an effort to practice or what is effort to practice or when is, yeah, when is effort to practice not a deluded act? To be here right now and not be caught by any impulse for things to be different is an effort. That is effort. Sounds like doing nothing to some people, but it is an effort. Is it a deluded act? Well, it could be if you think that you're doing it, if you introduce into it, like, I am going to do this thing called not wishing for it to be different.
[32:17]
If you add that in, then that makes it deluded. but you don't have to add it in try it right now if you want just to see if you can discover the place in the universe which might be real nearby this place actually is all over the place and it's the place where there is no impulse or no volition to you know, perpetuate or annihilate. No impulse towards or inclination towards being or not being. It's right here. Seeing that doesn't have to be something which you do, but it's right here.
[33:19]
If you want to add yourself into it, then that extra bit there kind of deludes the situation. And then the next question, when is intention not karmic? Well, that's sort of, I just already spoke of that. It is karmic intention when there's an inclination and then you connect the idea of an independent self to that inclination and think that the self is the actor of this inclination or this intention, then it's a karmic act. But when there's just an inclination, not even an inclination, but you could say an intention or vow,
[34:27]
to find this balanced place of being. It's not a state of being exactly, but it's a kind of radiance of being. It's being's transcendence of itself. It's being which is not clinging to itself. It's being which is not attached to itself. It's just pure presence in the midst of being and not being. This way of being, if connected to a sense of impersonal self, independent existence, connect those two and then this can turn into a karmic act. So you plug the deluded understanding of the way things are going to an independent person and you've got karma. Don't connect the two and you just have the, what do you call it, the desires of a Buddha.
[35:30]
the desires of a Buddha to be peacefully in accord with what's happening. And what's happening is the entire universe is nothing but the true body of the self of the Buddha. And when there is a body of a person and there's nothing but the body of the person, there's no adding or subtracting. That's the whole universe. And then it says, and how do we get it that way? How do we get it that way? So I don't know about that question.
[36:39]
But I think that that's probably enough for you to Chew on. Now I think maybe you already got this but to not create the intention to annihilate or perpetuate what's happening. To not create the intention to annihilate or perpetuate. And also another way to put it is to have no inclination towards being or non-being.
[37:53]
That's not like to sort of create a state called no intention. Okay? It's not the negative version of those intentions. desire to heal desire to heal that's fine desire to heal desire for all beings to be free that's fine desire for all beings to open their eyes to Buddha's wisdom no problem Desire for all beings to have the Buddha's wisdom demonstrated to them? No problem.
[38:56]
Desire for all beings to wake up to what that is and understand that? No problem. That's the main condition for Buddhas to appear in the world, as a matter of fact. Okay? Buddhas have desire. That's their desire. It's the kind of desire Buddhas have. Okay? So Buddhism and Bodhisattvas do have desire. But they practice with what's going on in this way we've been talking about. And out of that situation, of that kind of practice this desire comes. And that desire coupled with this kind of practice manifests the Buddha.
[40:00]
The desire for beings to open up to and realize Buddha's wisdom coupled with this kind of non-thinking by which you understand that all these beings for whom you want Buddha's wisdom, they are the true body of the self, then you're perfectly, completely, unhinderedly enhanced or equipped to devote yourself to realizing this desire. Because you then work for the welfare of all beings without it being karma, which is rather tiring. And then you're going to quit halfway in the middle. You've got people, everybody's sort of halfway to nirvana and you poop out and leave them there, hanging in mid-air. It's going to be a big problem. So you've got to do this, you've got to have this wisdom practice of not manipulating to go with this great desire to benefit beings.
[41:04]
The two have to be together. This wisdom practice, this practice which brings you into accord with the truth, and which realizes freedom from suffering, that wisdom protects this desire. Without that wisdom, this desire gets shortcut by, you know, by the undermining consequences of craving. Yes? Baldi? Yes? Yeah. The four big desires. Yeah.
[42:12]
Yeah. So what you're wondering, does a Buddha have a desire for an ice cream cone? Let's see, do they? It's just like I'm tuning into Buddha. Yeah. what they have is like, you know, you bring the ice cream cone towards the Buddha and the Buddha salivates. And then the Buddha's right hand goes up, the left hand goes up, they come together and the Buddha says, may I have an ice cream cone? Okay? Like that. Does the Buddha desire the ice cream cone? Right.
[43:23]
But they might in their mind, you know, be just walking along, suddenly in their mind a little picture of an ice cream cone comes up. And they might say, oh wow, ice cream cone. you know, but they wouldn't like, you know, be bound to that or like cling to that. But that's when a sentient being is just a sentient being, you see. When the sentient being has an ice cream cone appear in her mind or in her face and she's right there and nothing but that, then she herself also has no attachment to this. So when you're just who you are at that time, you have no attachment to these things too, so then you're a Buddha also. So anything can appear, but because you have no craving about that appearance, and you can still ask for food when you're hungry, but you're not bound to it.
[44:37]
You're not attached to it. You're just hungry. And you think, it's feeding time. And you don't, as the guy said, sentient being feeding time or Buddha feeding time, same thing. Because sentient beings and Buddhas are one. Every time you feed a sentient being, you feed Buddha. And every time you feed Buddha, you feed sentient beings. That's why Buddhists sometimes say, you know, if you come to feed a Buddha, sometimes Buddha says, feed the other monks. Because when you feed the other monks, you'll be feeding me. But if you feed me, you might not understand you're feeding the other monks. So feed the other monks. That's the same as feeding me. You notice that funny thing in the meal sutra, isn't that funny? It says, for the sake of Buddha and Sangha. It doesn't say Dharma. Feeding the Buddha and the Sangha.
[45:41]
By feeding the Sangha, you feed the Buddha. Anything else? What have you been talking about? I just laughed because I just thought of this story of... Mahapajapati, Buddha's, kind of like his aunt who took care of him, was his mother. I'll tell you that story later. Yes? You're talking about annihilation and perpetuation of the state or annihilation of it, and what about I was talking about the impulse to perpetuate or the intention to annihilate. Yes? So, I guess this doesn't really apply, but I was thinking more of, you know, something like boredom or like a neutral, more of a neutral state.
[46:51]
So that could be the same with that, if you either want to annihilate that or... So if boredom arose, you could want to annihilate the boredom? Yeah. Or perpetuate the boredom. I mean, I was sort of thinking of it, when you first said it, more like, you know, you think of it as pleasant and unpleasant experiences. That seems to apply more, but it's just sort of like a neutral, more of a neutral state. It doesn't seem like... I didn't mention the neutral, but that's actually in the scripture, too. Pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. And... But boredom is... Well, just anyway, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. Same attitude. Pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. The yogi, the one who is settled with the truth, says this is impermanent and does not hold it, does not delight into it, and is detached from it. First of all,
[47:52]
He understands this is impermanent, doesn't hold it, doesn't delight in it. Then, because of that, is detached from pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral sensation. Boredom is a little bit different from neutral sensation, though, I feel. Boredom is more in the class with desire and anger. than just neutral sensation, for me. And the French word ennui doesn't mean necessarily neutral sensation. It's a powerful, actually, it's a powerful demon, this boredom. It's like, you know, it's the last line of defense of the evil empire. Pardon?
[48:56]
It means to bother. Ah, that's interesting. Uh-huh, yeah. So what's his name, that guy, that master of evil, Baudelaire? You know, he says, he points that out, that the biggest demon, the most powerful demon, the one that they keep in the background, you know, in case any real trouble comes up, is on we. Usually they just put the wimpy little demons out there like craving lust and hatred. They seem pretty powerful, but they can be overcome. And then when they're overcome, they say, Bring boredom. Because the people who overcome this, you know, who are the people that overcome this craving and hatred and aversion? Well, they're yogis, right? They're would-be saints or, you know, baby bodhisattvas.
[50:03]
And so the evil empire says, okay, send out boredom. That'll stop them. You have better things to do than this, my dear. This is a waste of time. Your children are calling. You could learn a sutra. You could memorize a poem. You could do something more clever than just sit here practicing non-thinking. You could wish for something, couldn't you? Anyway, boredom, boredom's a, you know, but then when boredom, when that demon comes, same practice. Practice. Same practice. Oh, boredom, I see you there. I honor you. We're not going to rebel against you. You've come here for a good reason, I know. Please let me practice. Not even like, would you please go away, boredom?
[51:11]
They've got you. Any kind of like wishing for boredom to go away, boredom's successful. Then you're back into lust. Funny lust, but anyway, it's lust. Or maybe it's greed anyway. You want to be free. You want to get back to life when it was more interesting. You know, I think that boredom is somewhere in the neighborhood of depression. And I think depression is the super demon. It's the situation where it's not even clear that you should even continue to meditate when that demon comes.
[52:15]
You've got to mobilize so much courage to not mess with this thing. And boy, if there's anything, that's it. Try to mess with it. It's not meant to be messed with. How do you pay respects to depression? Depression is very different from grieving. Boredom is not grieving. You were talking about how practice is about not doing things. It's about not doing things. That you're rephrasing of it, I didn't so much see it as not doing something. It looks like that, but I don't think it's not doing something. I think it's effort. It's a way of living. Not doing is over on the side of non-being.
[53:16]
It's not not doing. Sometimes it looks like that maybe, but it's not. It's a vital effort. It's like blooming. When a flower blooms, the flower doesn't bloom itself. It isn't like you got a flower and says, okay, I'll bloom. The flower depends on the earth, the stem, the roots, water, And usually, a lot of flowers anyway depend on sunlight. I don't know. I guess, you know, tulips anyway, if the sun doesn't come out, they would never open. They would make a blossom, but it won't open without the sun. So I don't think that the flowers do the blooming.
[54:17]
But I wouldn't say the flowers are like not doing anything. I wouldn't put them over into not doing. This event is happening, this very wonderful energetic event called blooming is happening. But they're not like, it's not a karmic act on the part of the flower. But to say that, you know, to call the blooming of a flower not doing anything, that doesn't capture the, That seems to like overlook the fact that this amazing thing is happening. So it's rather that you don't veer into doing or not doing, and that that is full life. So for you to be completely yourself is a very vibrant blooming, but to call that not doing anything is like, whoa. this is not doing anything?
[55:20]
Well, give me not doing anything because this is really alive. To call doing something, though, is not quite right either because you're not doing being you. But when you're completely you, it's like this amazing fluorescence, you know? It's a radiant wonder. But you don't do that. And also you don't not do that. You're fully, completely... not running away from that. I don't understand what you're saying, but I don't understand the difference between manipulating and getting up out of bed or whatever. You don't understand the difference between manipulating and getting out of bed? You don't understand how to get out of bed without manipulating? Well, unfortunately for you, my wife won't let you sleep with me.
[56:24]
In other words, if you slept with me, slept right next to me, you could see how to get out of bed without manipulating. I don't manipulate myself out of the bed. I don't. I really don't. No kidding. If I did, you would not be seeing me here very often. Or anyway, there would be a lot of gaps in my appearances. But I don't manipulate myself into this practice. Maybe I used to, but I gave it up, because that wasn't what I came for. I didn't come to manipulate myself into Zen. That's not what I came for. But then after a while, I tried to practice that way, but I gave it up. I don't practice that way anymore, except occasionally I slip. But mostly I just am in bed, and then just getting out of bed.
[57:31]
It's not a manipulation of being in bed. It's like I don't manipulate this person out of the bed. That sounds like Buddhist activity, though. Wow, that's exactly what it is. It's like, you know, there's this body in the bed, right, and this alarm goes off, whoop, you know. The Jisha's coming, right. The wife is there, you know. And if the alarm clock goes too long, you know, the wife starts making noise, you know. Various things happen, you know, and all this comes together and the body arises. It starts moving about in the dark, you know? And various things start to happen. Light's gone, and all the water starts flowing. This is like, you know, this is the whole universe here, man. Now, I can tune into, like, okay, now there I am all by myself, and okay, I'm ready, I'm sleeping, and I'm sleeping, you know, and when that alarm goes off, I'm going to get out of bed, you know?
[58:37]
but you know that's really hard to practice that way you can do it a few times you know maybe a hundred times but you can't do it consistently you get tired tiring but with everybody's help it's really it's really like steady you know like there you are you can't miss you're always practicing because the whole universe is like they're supporting this flower you have to do the part of like not running away from this guy That is, you know, a big effort. You have to sit there and accept all the support. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, alarm clock. Thank you, Eno. Thank you, Tenkan. Thank you, wife. Thank you, dog. Thank you, thank [...] you. Up out of bed. Thank you, thank you. Into the zendo. Thank you, Zafu. Thank you, incense. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have to say thank you, all this stuff, which is... There's nobody in addition to all the support.
[59:40]
But you have to be like totally appreciative. That's your effort. Thank you, universe, happening here. It's a big effort. And there is a little thought running through our heads occasionally that we can do something other than that. And that gets very tiring very soon. And that's Buddha's activity. If you want to know about a person's activity, I think you know about that as well as I do, you know, pretty much. That's like you manipulating yourself out of bed. And that gets really tiring and really, you know, tiring. Really tiring. ONE DAY OF SESHIN, TWO DAYS OF SESHIN, THREE PERIODS OF SESHIN. YOU KNOW, IT GETS REALLY TIRED. EVERY TIME YOU DO SOMETHING ON THAT WAY, IT GOUGES YOU, GOUGES A LITTLE LIFE OUT OF YOU. YOU CASH IN A LITTLE OF YOUR BLESSED NATURE, YOU KNOW, IN TERMS OF, YOU KNOW, MANIPULATION.
[60:48]
ONE MORE INSULT TO YOUR TRUE HUMAN BODY IS THAT, I GOT THIS LITTLE GUY HERE AND HE'S REALLY MAKING THINGS HAPPEN. OKAY, OKAY. That's manipulation. What's skillful karma? It's skillful, yeah. It's wholesome. When you actually get out of bed, it's wholesome. But what about when you don't? That's unwholesome. Anyway, that's karma. It's the practice that RAIN does, the practice that REB does, that's karma. and there's skillful and unskillful karma. And so please do the skillful kind, right? But you were talking about how to do it without any manipulation, so I just talked about that. But again, I said that those were words, verbal expression, but don't make it into that. Just you be there when that alarm goes, and you watch and see if you can be there and appreciate
[61:52]
this inconceivable practice of where, you know, this inconceivable practice of everybody helping you be alive. And when you feel everybody helping you be alive, you know, that's it. That is the practice. And you won't try to be somebody other than you are. And you will bloom. Bloom, bloom, bloom. or I should say there will be blooming, blooming, blooming. And there can even be blooming, there's blooming in the bed, there's blooming out of the bed, and there's blooming back into the bed. It's always blooming. The universe is always blooming. It's like this huge, you know, It's a huge living thing, you know, that blooms all over the place.
[62:59]
Just one huge living universe and it's blooming all over the place. Blooming, blooming, blooming. But, just for now, and then the blooming goes away. And then it blooms again. And that total blooming is your true human body. And the entrance into understanding that total blooming is to, you know, work with what's happening in this balanced way. That opens the gate to realization of this total blooming. Yes? The story? Oh, the story, yeah, the story is Mahaprajnapati, Buddha's stepmom, his aunt, who took care of him very nicely after his mother passed away. Did his mother die after seven days? Huh?
[64:01]
Was it seven days? Yeah. His mother, his mother, Mahamaya, died when he was seven days old, and then his aunt took care of him, and she did a pretty good job, wouldn't you say? And then after he became Mr. Buddha, then, she came and practiced with him, and she brought him some... once she brought him some... she made some cloth for him. Actually, she made two cloths for him. She made the thread, you know? She made the thread, she spun the yarn, she wove the cloth, she brought it to the Buddha, And she said, here, I did this. I made this thread. I spun this thread. I wove this thread. And now I give you these garments, these cloths. Please accept this gift. And he said, it's a very nice gift, but would you please give it to the Sangha? Because if you give it to the Sangha, you give it to me and the Sangha.
[65:04]
And then she said again, you know, I said, well, you know, I did this wonderful thing, you know, and I want to give it to you. my little nephew, son, please accept." And he said, yeah, I really appreciate it, but would you please give it to the sangha? He did it three times. And then Nanda says, blessed one, please, you know, this is your mother doing this for you. Please accept it, would you? Come on. The part that made me laugh is when Nanda goes, come on, give your mom a break. But he was kind of strict about it. He said, no, no, give it to the Sangha. Give it to us both. I laugh as Ananda kind of getting on Buddha's case, trying to intervene. Ananda often trying to intervene for people, you know, when the Buddha kind of wasn't getting the picture. Excuse me, sir, don't you understand this?
[66:10]
Something's going on here I think you should pay a little attention to. And sometimes he was right. Sometimes apparently the Buddha, he could still learn a thing or two from his disciples. And one of the wonderful things about the history of the Buddha is that In the past, in past lives, the Buddha was sometimes the teacher or the senior disciple, the senior student of some of his students. He was like a big brother or big sister to some of his friends who would later become his students. But sometimes these people who would later become his students were his teachers. So in past lives, sometimes Shariputra,
[67:12]
was Buddha's teacher. And sometimes Buddha was Shariputra's teacher. Or sometimes, you know, Shariputra was the one who was helping the Buddha, and sometimes the Buddha was helping Shariputra. And sometimes Mahamagalana was helping, helped out the Buddha, and sometimes the Buddha helped out Mahamagalana. So in past lives, they sometimes, they were, you know, they took turns, you know, sort of which one was the teacher and which one was the helper. I really like that picture. you know, I see we now have, you know, living down at Mirror Beach, we have a little boy who's this nice, who's a little boy who's supposed to be this person who used to come here and teach at Green Gulch, this wonderful Tibetan Lama named Tara Toku. So now we have a little boy Tara Toku, and we used to have a
[68:15]
60-some-year-old Tartoku, and now we have a little boy Tartoku. And when Tartoku came here and taught, he had a jisha. His jisha's name, Kunga. Really nice monk. So Kunga took care of the old teacher, and then the old teacher died, so now Kunga's taking care of the little boy. I think that's nice. But I like another way, too. The other way is that when the teacher dies, the teacher says, I want to come back and be my Jisha's student. I like that one too. Because in fact, when you come back, if you come back, Even if you're a wonderful teacher, if you're a wonderful teacher, you have good students, right? So when you come back, you'll be just this little tiny creature. And then gradually you'll grow up. You'll start to understand English or Tibetan or something.
[69:17]
But your students by then will be really, you know, they'll be ready to teach. So then you come back and be your student's student. You can come back and go to your students' lectures. And some teachers, when they were dying, said, I can hardly wait. One Zen teacher said, I can hardly wait, and I hope I get to come back and study with my disciples, especially this one. I'd really like to be this guy's student. He's a better Zen teacher than me, actually. It'd be great to be his student in my next life. I like that turn of it, too. So this thing about learning from each other is in the spirit of the whole universe. is the true body of the self. That we really, we can learn from our students, we can learn from our teachers, we can learn from anybody we can learn from, we can learn from, and we should be ready for that.
[70:22]
Sometimes we have to play one side or the other, but anyway, you know, it can turn around. The blooming is the thing. How are we to understand the unity of our one self and all the Buddhas? Well, first of all, you have to understand the practice of a Buddha. The practice of a Buddha is carried out with the whole world together with all living beings. The practice of a Buddha is manifested when all beings are awakening. If it is not universal, it is not the practice of a Buddha. Therefore, from the first time you aspire to the Way until you attain Buddhahood, both practice and realization must be one with the whole earth and all living beings.
[71:35]
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