have you are today is at
is one of our great activity
how the situation here in this place is that the
they said
ha
new physical object
has appeared in his room
hey depending on many causes and conditions
lots of effort by human beings and other beings
so this altar with this statue of shakyamuni buddha his in the center of this space
and that there is the intention to
celebrate this
this altar and the statue and bring it alive today
so that it may be a
a sacred place in this world
and there's also a ceremony which several people here will be leaving to attend in berkeley
ah where bodhisattva precepts will be offered to our friends
hi i feel moved to discuss with you something
i'm talking about before
which is termed the place
what the sphere
have action
how the sphere of practice
i'm not body starts by masada
have an enlightening being great big
they
this term is defined and taught
in a load of cetera
in the mahayana
ah sublime
dharma flower scripture
and the scripture is taught by shakyamuni buddha and in this room we have
shakyamuni buddha and inside a shocking money but we placed the lotus sutra
along with
the basic scriptures of soto and they're inside the body of the statue of shocking when you put it
and in chapter fourteen
the lotus sutra
there which is called a
he's a practice or a joyful practice
more joyful serene practice
for comfortable practice

in this in this chapter the crown prince from the dharma
the body sought the money three
body sound from perfect wisdom
addresses shakyamuni buddha saying or bhagavad
my grandma is one of the epithets a buddha
these bodhisattvas are very rare
he's referring to bodhisattvas who have vowed
in the previous chapter to teach
the
supreme sublime dharma flowers crusher
and difficult
days to come in this world
such but he sought for as are rare that make this wow
in respect and respectful obedience to the buddha they have made this great file in troubled world to come we will persevere who will be patient will recite and teach
this lotus sutra
whoa bhagavad how can these bodies such for these great beings teach this scripture in trouble world's to come
in the buddha jet addressing manjushri says
he put he sought from my sight cause if enlightening beings great beings want to teach this sutra in troubled girls to come
they should abide in for kinds of practices
the first
is to establish the place the sphere of their bodies aren't the practice and replace the seer of their relationships and thereupon expound the sutra for the sake of all sentient beings
so in this chapter the buddha teaches
for methods
for comfortable ministries is for joyful ministry's ministries of body speech mind and wow
the first is
comfortable ministry the joyful ministry of the body
in the joyful ministry of body there are two practices one is
the place a bodhisattva action and practice the place or body soccer practice has given me in a place of intimacy the place or bodhisattvas relationships
him
i'll is actually want to talk about this place a body for action
i want to
i wouldn't remember this place and body sought back and i wanna to live in a place and bodyside for action
i'd go to go for refuge in this place
a bodhisattva activity
really we already live there but we must
remember it otherwise we'll miss
the great opportunity
and
i've said it many times that when i first read this i was pleasantly surprised pleasantly comfortably shocked to hear the buddhist instruction the first part are kind of comfortable
he put he sought for great bees wanna teach this surgery and troubled world of to come they should abide in for methods for practices
the first is to establish the sphere bodhisattva
action
manjushri what is the sphere what is the place of the practice of bodhisattvas of great beings
he bodhisattvas great paintings abide in the stage of perseverance patience his gentle tranquil nonviolent and unafraid and furthermore
if he remains unmoved with regard to in things
perceives them in their true aspect
and neither acts nor discriminates this has called the body sought the sphere of action
this is sphere of action of a great big
the surprising part is the sphere of action is to remain unmoved
the always be unmoved
as a way to live in a place of bodhisattva action and in this unmoving place where i'm moving room with regard to all things
we take no action with regard to all phenomena
but observe them in their true aspect
neither acting nor discriminating
so as i say i want to remember this place and talk about this place and and praised his place but particularly today i want to do it because today's an active day
a day of producing a great altar
i'm bringing to life
the body saw transaction is to bring the buddha to life to make practice places come to life
but the place of that action
is being unmoving with regard to things taking no action and no discrimination
and this is hard for us to understand
it's surprising to hear such a teaching for most of us we can hardly believe it
people courageously express their disbelief in such a practice
that if someone was suffering
that is someone was about to do some cruelty
that we would be unmoved
with regard to that phenomena how could you say how could that be so how good a bodies that for be that way
but i'm i'm proposing that the suture says that has going to take it literally
when you meet cruelty
when you meet pain when you meet on skillfulness the first thing bodhisattva the first place the bodhisattva it is is right there with it unmoved
and from this unmoving presence from this stillness with this hill
from the stones with the pain from the stillness with the sickness
the healing action of the bodhisattva
comes to life
what the stillness and the awareness of the true aspect of this pain of this suffering
of this great activity the body sought is unmoved does not take action observes how things are
does not discriminate and this is where the bodhisattvas action lives
a friend came to see me recently who
on the diagnosed with
cancer or kind of cancer was it so many people have cancer camera which kind is which
was its stomach
what kind of cancer to scott roeder
colin say it colon cancer
and
and
a basically they've spent a wonderful it's been a very very wonderful happy experience for him
he's been able to see the tremendous love there isn't a world for him and from him
but even though he could see that there's great love going to between him and other beings
i still he had he entertained the thought that he could accomplish something
i don't know what he was thinking i'm accomplishing but in the midst of his chemotherapy and everything there was a time when he wanted to accomplish something
let's just say wanted to accomplish something
let's just say he wanted to accomplish anything and he could not he saw he could not accomplish anything
and when he
saw that he could not accomplish anything then he really saw
how wonderful
the world is
then he really saw how his life activity
was a great blessing
but as hard to get the place where you can see that you cannot accomplish anything
do you need to get cancer and then on top of cancer taken all these poisons
to get to the place for you can't accomplish anything
and when you can see that you're ready to see
the great activity of the bodhisattva
or another story i saw about a man who are also got cancer
stomach cancer
how this is a man who before he got cancer was per diem merchant in this scots not this way scott's a wonderful
happy person before it gets cancer but this story about a person who was really unhappy and come on amazingly dead
while still being alive
who didn't really care about anybody
i conceal in a care for anybody including himself
and so then he was diagnosed with cancer
but it took him awhile to sit and but then he thought well maybe maybe he could honor know what he thought he could maybe do something
but all the things he thought i'm doing he couldn't do and all the things he thought i might help him
disappeared and he was finding left with nothing
and i had a coworker who had resigned from his his his his business his his work for the government and she was she was in the same office with him in which everybody in office didn't do anything for any the people
they are supposed to serve they just didn't care about anybody and she was with them but she wanted to get out of there because
and she was very alive
so he was dead and she was alive
and
she kind of thought that he was an all leche she didn't know he was sick
but what you see when he was interested in in her after she quit spend some time with their when he was interested in was as she was alive
he was very interested in how she can be so alive
and he finally told her
cancer stomach cancer
i wanna know how you can be so alive
and she said well after i quit working with you i got this job making these little bunnies is little mechanical bunnies
and when i make these bunnies
i i send these bunnies to the all the children in japan
that's why i'm alive
without getting cancer that girl real realized that she didn't have anything that she was wasting her life
working for the government
and he saw
when he saw he didn't have anything he's gonna lose his life his job was meaningless and his family didn't even care bottom
they thought he was on the make with this girl
how disgustingly fun
because he didn't have anything he saw
he saw where life is
he saw he the door to life opened when he stopped
doing anything when he saw he couldn't
so for us who are not so sick and have loving people around us
you know it maybe a little hard for us to see the place
i've been unmoved by things
again
in the surround of this central place of not moving and not doing anything and as can observing the way things are the surround is to be patient and gentle and not overbearing are nasty and harmonious and nonviolent all those nice
nice practices surround this place and get us ready
they're not do anything
to get ready to accept that
the place
the door
where we cannot accomplish anything if we don't accept that we can accomplish anything the door onto the realm of great bodhisattva healing activity
we don't know where the door is it seems to be closed on us and we feel more or less hindered frightened etc
elsa think of like gathered the expression in the beginning of the general encouragements of zazen by a dog
gun he says suppose one gains pride of understanding and glimpses the wisdom that runs through all things
one has gained the initial
partial excursions about the frontier
even if you have
i'm even when you have for example some understanding of the truth
when you are able to do some wholesome things
that's not bad
now you're on the frontier
you're you're you're scouting around and making some excursions some partial excursions about the frontier the frontier of what the frontier of the vital path of total liberation the living path of total freedom
but that frontier
which were at because we're being wholesome and wise
we have to find
the unmoving place where we can't do anything
stop
the excursions
stop trying to get in the door
of complete perfect enlightenment
give up trying to gain anything by are good karma
good karma good karma good karma is set up the possibility
i'm not being able to of seeing that we can't do anything
and then the activity which is not good or bad karma but the body sought from my as activity comes forth

and again this this amazing work of carpentry and painting and design
exists in place called know abode

and again this place of new abode the actual place of new abode
is the place where the bodhisattvas action
the bodhisattvas creative imagination
the bodhisattvas great creative vows always thinking of how to benefit beings and make
places for them to practice overlaps with the body sought for us
not moving
not thinking they're not thinking
in the hall was thinking
not even vowing and all was lonely overlapping
cianci he made a beautiful diagram of the overlap
between
unmoving always not thinking on constructed unmoving presence
whatever you meet don't think about it whoever you make don't think about her
don't move
don't construct
present without doing anything
whoever you meet always think of how you can help her
hall was vow to give your life for him
always always and overlapping between always is not abiding
not abiding and always not thinking not abiding and always not always thinking not abiding and not moving not abiding and moving always moving all was acting all was singing hall was dancing all was thinking for welfare of beings just like the buddha never thinking never constructing never do
going
abiding in neither round live where they both are alive the bodhisattva sphere of action
and of course
this is an amazing place to live and we're not used to it so we want to take a vacation
go back
turtle grass shack

in this ceremony we do today there will be great activity
and also the ceremony is about not doing anything
this is a ceremony of celebrating not doing anything
hannah bodhisattvas activity

did you are invited to
join the activity be part of the great activity and you are invited
yeah welcomed you are encouraged to be gentle
and patient
not nasty or overbearing
and nonviolent
and generous
you're invited to participate in this ceremony without trying to get anything
without trying to gain anything
and you're invited to
to chant
and to support the ceremony to sing the names the epithets a buddha
the sing hard cetera
and to help create
a buddha land
give me feedback for
this priest
yes
yes
she's taking of the akita kudos our story a key which is what i was referring to

by the way he kid who i think means
to live
someone told jersey
got really freaked out
just shy party
solar change them
i was just
doing
yeah when you see that you can't do anything
you can change something
like bodhisattvas do
people can for changing things anyway
but the way to but the bodhisattvas change is based on having nothing
having nothing then
the chain you the is supported from having nothing is the most refined the most completely was is the sublime
huh
watching
being people
spirit relationship
temptation

right now
the temptation to act before
you give up action
to act before
you don't move
try to work with at least waking up into that moment
yeah that's that's called
becoming aware of shortcomings in our practice
our lack of faith in that practice of not moving and our lack of faith of that practice of not moving ups i moved i moved just before it was time to act
now the i moved before with time to act rather than i missed not moving before was time to act
i took the action before the non-action
i didn't wait for the action i didn't unmoving we wait for my job assignment has a bodhisattva i wanted to be a boy sat that
so much that didn't wait to be told when my job was i couldn't stand me sell still i so much wanted to help
in the middle of it
then it appears that
because it
right
yeah
in the midst of confessing that you move before was time to act you see that you stop moving and action comes
who's already and actually was there
what is are you doing he's on faction but because you are unwilling to not move you didn't notice that you weren't moving
he actually already not moving but you have to do the ritual i'm not moving otherwise you miss out on the actual not moving the not moving is already here for us
have we have to give up something rich roy practice wise to go there
any other feedback from the heavens
the heavenly were heavenly realms

yeah
right
right
and also i heard you say hearing of this horrible cruelty
he said as an immediate reaction to do something
but i propose to you that the immediate thing is stillness
the stillness is immediate there's no time after which this stone this occurs it's right there
that's so we need to catch and these be practicing is the immediate stillness that's there with all good and bad action
but if you miss it then you can recuperate by the ritual can find it again and then you can see that it was there and there was some good action coming when you find the place it's kind of what highly was also saying
we need to keep going back to this place and we'll find out there are here are passed for cage when when we go to this place are past change realized that we were there in the past and action was there but we missed it
and this is part of the healing is to realize it was kindness when we thought there was cruelty
not to deny the cruelty but to go back and find the thread of kindness that was there all along and is not here to be
enjoyed and nurtured
we already know there's some kind of someplace probably are occasionally we know there's kindness running through the situation
but the fully see it to open the door completely we have to find the immediate stillness in each moment
to find the ongoing kindness and great activity
in each moment
yes
patent he's a when we did you say when at the end of time
at the end of time we will all know
that we're all here but as long as there's time somebody will not know so we still have what we call a job security
there's still work to be healing until the end of time and the buddhas are joyfully
accepting this wonderful opportunity to work with beings
until all bags realized it
together realize all beings realize and realize that they're realizing it together
and also this still place isn't is the place where the bodhisattva action lives but it's also where the place of boys saw for energy lives and enthusiasm
so we actually feel good about and enthusiastic about
this bodhisattva work without finding that place we get tired
we even think of resigning from the bodhisattva practice because we're getting the all these beings what you want to help they seem like a vampire's to us because we're not going back to the still place from which our energy
to help them comes
what did you
okay
any other responses before we get ready for the ceremony
so during the ceremony
i will be i will take a brush and i will point it
at the eyes
of the buddha and i will draw a circle in the air with the brush and while i'm drawing a circle in the air
if you like you can chant the epithets and buddha
the different qualities of the buddha
and then and then we'll continue to wake up the buddha and make offerings to the buddha
now if you like after we receptor we do our dedication you can do on walking meditation out in the deck and will set up for the ceremony and call your back here when a swim or ready
the our intention
the