This tattered robe was made from one of Suzuki Roshi's old robes. It's falling apart, just like us. If any of you in the other room want to come up, there's a space up here. We just chanted the Heart Sutra, did you notice? And it starts out something like this. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing, Prajnaparamita,

[01:07]

clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty, and thus all suffering and distress was relieved. Avalokiteshvara, observing all living beings, with eyes of compassion. Observing all living beings with eyes of compassion is practicing prajnaparamita, when you do it wholeheartedly. Observing the five aggregates, observing forms, colors, observing colors, with eyes of compassion, observing feelings, observing perceptions, observing all kinds of emotional states, and observing self-consciousness.

[02:25]

with compassion, you see that self-consciousness is empty, that the emotional factors are empty, that perceptions are empty, that feelings are empty, I should say are empty and emptiness, and that colors and sounds and smells and tastes are all emptiness. By observing these factors of existence and by observing Each sentient being with eyes of compassion, the sentient being's mask drops away and you see ultimate dharma in their face. So that's one of the wonderful things about the Heart Sutra, it's saying, observing sentient beings with eyes of compassion sees that everything that's being observed is emptiness. And this vision, this compassionate vision, is practicing perfect wisdom.

[03:34]

And this vision relieves suffering. the enlightening being of observing all sentient beings with eyes of compassion. The eyes of compassion observing all sentient beings, enlightening being, practices deeply Prajnaparamita. And then he starts talking, and he teaches the great disciple, Shariputra, he teaches him about what he sees.

[04:44]

But what he sees is coming from these eyes of compassion, coming from them, coming through them, coming with them, At the end it says that this teaching is a mantra, a really great mantra, and then it tells you what the mantra is. gate gate para gate parasamgate bodhisvaha gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, gone completely beyond, welcome awakening. this mantra is being given by the one who is observing all sentient beings.

[05:53]

So you don't just say the mantra and look away from and not pay attention to all the suffering. While you're looking at all the suffering beings and while you're listening, you say that mantra and that mantra is to help you listen more wholeheartedly. It's not a way to escape from listening to people and listening to yourself. Do you have a clock on you? Thank you. And one more story, which I tell often but just seems apropos, so I'll say it again, is the story about this sincere, sincere person who had a sense that he didn't really understand completely reality.

[07:13]

I don't know, somehow he felt that so strongly that he got visited by a deity, by a divine being who said, yes, it's true, you do not understand reality, but there's somebody who does, and if you go visit him, I think he can help you out. His name is Gautama Shakyamuni Buddha. So this monk, he wasn't really a monk, this sincere person who really wanted to understand life, traveled to meet the Buddha, and to make a long story short, he finally got the Buddha to talk to him. I'm going to make the story longer. He found the Buddha after a long trip. He made a long trip to find the Buddha. He made a big effort. He didn't just go to his computer screen. He traveled, and then he finally went to where he heard Buddha was, and he went to where he heard Buddha was staying, and Buddha wasn't there, and the people told him where Buddha was, so then he went to where he heard Buddha was, and there was Buddha.

[08:31]

And he went up to the great teacher and he said, you know, please, please teach me. I feel like I don't understand deeply And the Buddha said, this is not a good time. And then he said, yeah, but one of us might die this afternoon. We don't know what's gonna happen, so please give me the teaching. And the Buddha said, venerable sir, this is not a good time. And he said again, please, we don't know what will happen in our life. I can't wait till tonight. Please give me the teaching." Third time, Buddha has to talk. He said twice, not a good time. He doesn't say it three times. And so the Buddha said, Okay, Bahiya, train yourself like this.

[09:35]

In the scene, there will be just the scene. So he was telling him, you know, how to look at something in such a way that you're not trying to get anything from it. And he said, in the scene there will be just the scene, that's it. And then he said, in the herd there will be just the herd. He's telling him how to listen. This is like a Zen teaching to tell somebody how to see and how to listen. And then he tells them how to smell, how to taste, how to touch, and how to observe his thinking. This is the early teaching. Now, in the later teaching, when the Bodhisattva comes to the Buddhas, the Bodhisattva says, I'm listening, I'm listening, I'm listening to the cries of the world, but I don't really know how to listen.

[10:41]

And the Buddha would say the same thing. In the voices, there will be just the voices. In those suffering faces, there will be just those suffering faces. training into the really wholehearted listening and really wholehearted observing. But it starts with you are listening, and you're trying to listen to everything. And when it comes to the place where in the herd there's just the herd, and in the scene there's just the scene, then there will be no here or there or in between. If we're trying to get to this wonderful state of no here or there or in between, we won't get there. You have to let things be, completely. And we would say now that it helps to let things be when the things are the cries of the world.

[11:50]

Let them be. Otherwise you might slip into, well, it's just for me, you know. I'm gonna let him be just for me? I don't think so. But maybe, maybe you can do it. You're making a face like, I'm considering that maybe you can do it. Maybe you can really let things be for your own benefit. It's possible. But now, what you're letting be is the beings that you're listening to with compassion. You're letting them be. You're letting their cries be. You're letting their cries be, and then also your cry, which is, what can I do to help them? You let that be, too. You let their cries be, and then you let your cry, I have to do something for them. You let that be. you let their cry be, and then you let your voice, I wonder if I'm doing enough for people, you listen to that, just like you listen to them, to their cries, you listen to your cry, I don't think I'm being helpful, I'm not worthy, this is too big a job for me, this is a job for Superman.

[13:09]

You let all those be, completely, with no gain or loss distracting you. And then you see that all these things are emptiness, and that does the job. That vision of the way all these cries really are, the cries take their mask off and show you the true Dharma. So, we could imagine Bodhisattva saying, well, if you're only interested in your own salvation, I'll give you a practice for your own salvation, which is, in the scene there will be just a scene.

[14:14]

In the herd there will be just a herd. I'll give you that practice. And when you actually become like that, there will be no here or there in between, and that will be the end of your suffering. Now, if you're a Bodhisattva, and you're listening to the cries of the world, I'll give you the same teaching. And this will take you to the same place. And it'll give you the same relief. It's just that you're doing it together with all sentient beings, and they're included. So it's a funny thing in the Heart Sutra that says, blah, blah, blah, and thus all suffering was relieved, or thus all suffering is relieved. But it doesn't say whose. Is it Avalokitesvara's or is it the Christ's? The listening is not

[15:18]

suffering. The listening is compassion. It's happiness. The listening is not suffering. The observing is not suffering. The observing is happiness. Not happy that there's suffering, happiness that you care about the suffering and that you're giving your life. It's the giving of life to suffering. That's happiness. And this happiness is now trying to get rid of this suffering. It's totally embracing it, and in that embrace there is the transmission, which is this happiness is exactly the same as this misery. They're not separate. And I'm even more happy about that. I mean, I'm happy I care about you, but what I'm really happy about is that you are emptiness and you and I together, you and I together are exactly the same.

[16:36]

You're me and I'm you. It's just that I'm more you than you're you. You are? Yeah. Yeah. As a matter of fact. But the same for you. If you're good, you get to be more me than I am. So, thank you very much. Is there anything you want to say to me before I go back to Green Gulch? Well, by the way, thank you, orchestra, you did a very nice job. Got some really good bells there. They sounded good. Was there somebody over here? Sonja's pointing at somebody.

[17:40]

And you have a question? As a matter of fact, there is. I mean, just the first person and the second one you described, is there really any difference other than their conception of what they're doing? I mean, the one... No. And even their conceptions aren't really different. But they're the same. The person who is only concerned for their personal liberation is the same as the person who is concerned with the liberation of all beings. It's just that the person who's concerned with the liberation of all beings knows that they are, and the other person doesn't. But really, that's really where they're at. They just don't know it. And not knowing it's not really different than knowing it. As a matter of fact, not knowing it's a little bit better than the people who know it. The bodhisattvas who don't want to be bodhisattvas are really more like bodhisattvas than the bodhisattvas who do want to be bodhisattvas.

[18:48]

It's a slight advantage, because if you want to be a bodhisattva you might kind of get stuck there, which is not a bodhisattva. So it's a little easier for bodhisattvas not to get stuck in not being a bodhisattva. Although you could pull that off too. Almost anything you can get stuck in. But, you know, the people who say, I do not want to be a bodhisattva are like... Somebody doesn't want to be something, you know? At one time somebody became an abbot of some organization who said they didn't want to be the abbot, but then they accepted. And at their installation ceremony I said, reverse is the most powerful gear. Reverse is the most powerful gear. I don't know if that's true, but I heard that. Does anybody know if that's true? Yeah, usually it's lowest gear.

[19:54]

It's the lowest gear, yeah. I saw it in the Whole Foods parking lot this morning in Mill Valley. A gentleman put his car in reverse and a woman went, and boom! Yeah, reverse is, so, if you don't want to be a bodhisattva, in a way that's really powerful. The wanting to be a bodhisattva is great, but not wanting to be, like if you really don't, that's really going to get you in there. I don't want to be a bodhisattva. In other words, I don't want to be Buddha. Stay in that gear, you'll be fine. But you can do the forward, you can do low, you know, medium drive, super drive, those are fine too, all of them are fine. You're gonna, oh my God. Yes? Can you give me an explanation for why, or maybe how, witnessing the suffering is necessary?

[21:11]

Because for me, I feel like my view isn't expansive enough to conceptually conceive of why or how that works, like why witnessing is transformative. And I know you've given some, you've talked about different evolutionary like a biological kind of explanation, you know, about how child development works and how we develop our personalities by, you know, face-to-face communication and things like that? Is that the most compelling...? That's the explanation of how we develop a self. that the psychological face-to-face is how we develop a self. So one example, I was just talking to somebody about a dream, and in the dream she was being kind to people, tender with people.

[22:21]

Then she woke up from the dream and she started to feel tender towards people in her waking state. how the kindness towards the inner kindness could pivot to be kindness towards outer objects, that's not psychological, that's spiritual. And that we can't psychologically explain. The pivoting from concern for the self to concern for other, how that happens is a spiritual thing, and it's not psychological, even though it has psychological impact. So like the arising, the normally self-conscious beings, like us and dogs, are concerned for their own territory, their own stuff. and to think they own their mother and their siblings really have no claim on her.

[23:30]

You don't have to teach them that. As a matter of fact, you can tell them it's not true, and they're just like, no way. You have to go to kindergarten to find out that that's true. So, it's built in that we are selfish. Not understanding the self is called being selfish. Where does this thing about being concerned for the welfare of others big time come from? It comes from a face-to-face transmission with somebody else. It comes from a communion, but it's not from the other person. It's in the conversation. So there's a face-to-face transmission giving rise to the self, and then there's a face-to-face transmission where we turn from self-concern to other concern, but it isn't like you turn from self-concern to other concern and you stay on other concern and never go back to self-concern. It's just you pivot and make a vow as you pivot, and then you go back to self-concern, and then you pivot again.

[24:33]

So the Buddha way is not self-concern and it's not other concern. It's self-concern pivoting with not self-concern and other concern pivoting with not other concern. That's the middle way. Sometimes the Buddha feeds herself, sometimes she feeds others. And the place where the feeding comes from is the middle. where it spontaneously arises that now I feed me and now I feed you. And sometimes, as the food's on the way to my mouth, there's something about your face that makes me turn the spoon in the other direction. And just before it gets to your face, I realize it actually should go to somebody else. But I'm not operating this feeding process. I'm in the middle and my activities are coming from that place, that middle place between self-concern and self-denial, between self-benefit and other-benefit.

[25:44]

It's like not being stuck in either one of them. Of course Buddhism is not being stuck in self-concern, everybody knows that. But it's also not being stuck in other-concern. But other-concern is maybe one of the first steps for some people, for many people, it's the first step towards not being stuck in self-concern. Then some people switch over to other concern and get stuck there. So they need some help now. So the teacher has to come and say, hello, I want to talk to you. May I? Yeah, what do you want to talk about? I want to tell you that I had this strange thing happen to me. I got stuck in other concern. And the student says, oh, I did too. You're just like me. And now I feel totally self-concerned. This is wonderful. I'm free of other concern. So now I can be self-concerned. And when I'm totally self-concerned, I'm not self-concerned. But again, most people, to really become free of self-concern, really, really deeply, you have to try on other concern and do it without getting stuck there, too.

[26:58]

And then again, you need help not to get stuck in other concerns. Some people are. Some people are addicted to self-denial. Like Shakyamuni Buddha was addicted to self-denial for a while. Some people are addicted to self-affirmation. Self-affirmation is sometimes totally enlightened. Other affirmation or self-denial is sometimes totally, perfectly, spontaneously liberating. They both come from this middle place of listening to all the cries and not abiding in any of them. Listening to all of them and realizing they're all emptiness. Then, the time to feed others just comes right out of there. Perfect timing. Other feeding time. Self-feeding time. And then the next moment, other feeding time. spontaneous, which means there's no additional stimulation to the process.

[28:10]

The conditions are there, and it comes right out of there with no deliberation, comes right out of where? Listening to the cries of the world in stillness, seeing that they're emptiness, then it spontaneously comes up. which might be listening to the cries of the world again. And listening to the cries of the world can be self-affirmation or self-denial. Like, hey, I just listened to the cries of the world, I'm totally here, me. Oh, I listened to the cries of the world, I'm totally denied, annihilated, no, negated. but not stuck in either one, just flipping back and forth, liberating all beings. Well, I see Sonja's hand, but it's past five o'clock, Sonja.

[29:18]

So, you know, maybe... Whoa! Congratulations, Sonja! She's liberated me! There we go again. I rest my case. Thank you very much. See you soon, and I mean soon.

[29:37]

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