i like to bring up
the to kind of bigot
ding
issues one is the issue of the boy sat and the others the the issue of the my piano
those are sanskrit words bodhisattva
could be translated as enlightening being can you hear me okay any other room
little difficult enlightening being
is one translation and boy sofa or a being who has the
a body being spacetime means being and body means awakening or enlightenment so it's a body being it's a enlightening being it's a being
a being
i'm awakening
and as i mentioned in the ogre and the other night the word body sought factually was a new were that appeared in the
in india
ah sort of after the buddhist started teaching most of the words of buddha used
ah more we ordinary where where is that the that he inherited that were words of his the people he met but he introduced i think maybe the word bodhisattva
we don't know what apps you actual language he used when he spoke but when it got transport he speaks his speeches got translated into
sanskrit for example this word bodhisattva appeared and you don't find this an indian literature prior to the buddha and he used that term to refer to his career
his career
ah and and all the different beings that he was that that contributed to his awakening all those beings i called
the boy sought for or bodhisattvas
the beings who are evolving towards complete perfect enlightenment for the welfare of all beings all those beings that are in this evolutionary pattern he called body surface and and hit can also he referring to all the beings which particularly led to his
his path of evolution to
i'm in the current moment
the mahayana which means bigger great great vehicle it includes not just bodhisattva
is it includes
everything all beings
even those who
in whom we do not see how at the way they're living is really tuned in to the evolutionary process of awakening
even if we can't see that or even if we can see it all beings are included in the great vehicle the universal vehicle
bodhisattvas of course that's where they live they live in the universal vehicle
they live in the process by which all beings are being moved along
towards the realization
of
peace and harmony among all beings and enlightenment as to that process
so in one sense not everybody is a body sought for
in no sense you could say everybody is because everybody all beings are actually being
yeah
i was a pressured by their relationship with all other beings and all buddhas and bodhisattvas are under pressure to realize buddhahood
but bodhisattvas usually refers also to though to to to a being that
a form of being that's
more or less you know pretty much open to
living for the welfare of all beings
not to say bodhisattvas don't have a lot to learn
but they're already sort of onboard with like watch your life about again ma'am
well it's about how i'm here for i'm here this life is for the welfare of all beings that's what that's just life is for
now they may have some kind of like resident resistance to that occasionally but they see that as
a lack of faith and practice which they confess before all buddhas
to melt away the route how veering away from this complete commitment to the welfare of all beings
they're on board with that you know that's that's their practice which they sometimes might slip on but that's their practice
it's not generally it wouldn't be a surprise to them to say you're here to help me right
like enemy would come up to i'm your enemy right yes
you know i'm your enemy right yes i know you're my enemy you know i want to hurt your ideas and you're here to help me right yeah
this is what we to call bodhisattva
and therein to the mahayana which includes all the people all the animals all the plants all the mountains are and includes everything it's the universal vehicle
when bodhisattvas first kind of like are struck by the actual wish
in a wholehearted wish to give their life
moment by moment every moment
to the welfare of all beings
to the supreme welfare of all bees were first struck by that has called the birth
of
ah the birth of the mind of enlightenment
the mind of enlightenment wishes to live for the welfare of all beings and at some point there's like a time when that
iraq seems to arise and a person and they can of are i therefore it and that's the birth of the body
cit to her the mind of enlightenment and then this this mind can be lost though once it arises in the person is struck by it and and may be totally happy by being struck by it
detoured diverted confused and forget about it it can be it's an impermanent thing
actually
but it can be the condition for another bodhicitta
and that can be a condition for another bodhicitta and another body egypt and another body chapter
another body mind another body mind another body mind another body my it can go on like that
and the first one
and the last one last one would be the one where there actually was the realization of complete buddhahood the first and last ones have the same name
the mind of a buddha is called a bodhicitta and the mind of the
newly initiated your newly awakened being who for the first time feels is that the both of those minds have the same name bodhicitta
in one case is the arising of it the other is a combination of it but they have the same name very generous of the buddha's to let us when we first struck by this to have the same name as their mind
it's generous and it's also viera
can you hear that vira
however the first mind can be lost and lost many times can be lost and found lost and found lost and found
and once it's found there's ways of taking care of it to protect it from big lost and actually help it grow up into its full potential
ha somebody used the analogy of the first one related to the last one is like the comparison between the light of a firefly
and a galactic firestorm
and also the first nor comparisons of first ones like a candle
you know a candle maybe like a
a candle the size of new york
six inches taller so i might add that kind of candle which if you blow on it goes out
pretty easily they've got a can blow out and a fairly mild breeze
and the laid the later as as the bodhicitta develops it gives to be more like a forest fire
and then if you blow on it it just gets stronger
a certain point adversity and all kinds of challenges and distractions just inflame this this spirit at the beginning distractions can snuff it out but it can be found again
and i just want to mention that this this
this mind of the bodhisattva in his in his body shit core
yeah comes with practices which protected in the first practice which protects it which i've been stressing lately is what
his generosity is giving is being gracious
that's the first practice of the bodhisattvas
so quite a few people have come to me over the years
and i might even come to myself occasionally
and said
ah

and said that i have this feeling that
i had just feeling of not being loved
have not been appreciated
and then usually they also say that they feel bad about that they don't say and i'm so happy that i feel i'm not logged and unappreciated they usually
usually they're kind of like feeling really bad about it they find that difficult to feel unloved
painful
which i usually
completely that's easy for me to empathize with that there would be painful and
difficult
and so what i recommend is
heck even though they may not have told me right already that they're a bodhisattva
i give him body sought for practice
and ask him what's the first practice of a bodhisattva and they don't know as i say oh good it's giving
if you practice if your generous
with yourself and with these people who you think don't love you if you are generous with them
if your gracious with them and your gracious with them and your gracious with them you will come to see you will come to understand
the bay our gracious with you that they are loving you and supporting you
huh
and if we hold back
in our graciousness towards others
that tends to go with us feeling feeling like they're holding back in their graciousness towards us
however sometimes you might feel like i'm holding back but that person isn't
it's possible like for that they're just like totally loving me in supporting me and i'm kind of resisting it that can happen
which is great but when you feel like they're holding back
then you are wrong they're not holding back
and when you're actually feeling like they're not holding back but you're holding back you're wrong about yourself and you're right about them
so the key anyway for the body sod phase number one practice giving
and people have trouble understanding the the instruction that
ah letting yourself be yourself as giving and giving to yourself
makes it possible for you to give yourself to others and to give and to give them to themselves
and everybody you meet you can give them to themselves
without their permission
at least you know written or verbal
and you can give them to themselves
and feel joy in giving them to themselves and you're practicing giving which protects the body checked
which protects the body mind
and no matter what you feel you can be generous with it
now try to fix it up not like it or dislike it but be generous with it and that way of caring for it
care takes care of the body mind and you will eventually see that no matter what you feel
it's loving you
if you're in pain the pains loving you know it isn't liking or disliking you it's loving you it's supporting you it's been generous with you your pain is not holding back
it's offering to you
it's completely giving itself to you
and you're completely generous towards your pain you are all generous beings
we are all generous beings
but if we don't practice it we do not realize it
even if you think that you even if you think that's true that everybody's generous and your generous unless you practice your really don't fully get it
but if you do practice it you will understand this and this is the first practice of the bodhisattvas who live in the mahayana
and by the way into my piano are all the other yamas in the great vehicle or all the other smaller vehicles so bodhisattvas because are totally into all the small vehicles to
any limitation of the universal vehicle they're completely into their completely love and support and feel loved and supported by everybody's private narrow trip
there are all included all supported all loved all the childish project or are in the universe bodhisattvas loved them all
and buddha's love them all to

but being into all of them is that you're into each of them but also all of them and begun to all of them as called the great vehicle
and some people in the great vehicle or just into some small vehicle but they still get to be in a great vehicle and get to be loved by all the bodhisattvas
and all the buddhist and all the ancestors it's a good deal there's my miami
that's why it's been popular at various points in places throughout the universe
from beginning this time
that's why he's unstoppable irresistible
now you can resist it but you eventually will cave in and join
you will eventually appreciate everybody's narrow childish trips
not like or dislike appreciate with no gaining idea
you'll be drawn into the vortex of the mayan and when you feel that than your body softphone okay
i'm a servant of the big program
are you give you some instruction
vortex
it's like for things come together where things are drawn together
like like you your vortex of the universe
catherine is a vortex of the universe each of you as a vortex of all your support that's been given to you
all if you've been drawn into this process of liberation
okay that's some first practice and bodhisattva now
another thing i wanted to bring up about the mahayana
in this part is
this is kind of this can be a scary part well even even given can be scary but giving you the basic medicine for skiing scared so what to get into giving you'll be mostly over being afraid
but there's still a little bit of fear left on tell you understand
emptiness
so one of the that one of the things one of the ways of talking about what the universal vehicle is is that the universal vehicle is a deep understanding of emptiness
this way that all beings are working together and the working together of all beings is actually a profound understanding of emptiness
but i would add now
it's actually a profound understanding and a profound practice it's the it's the understanding and practice the mahayana is the understanding and practice of emptiness
packers in giving helps us open
to the emptiness and open to how we're all working together
an open to how
the way we're working together

is empty
mt of what
mt of anybody's idea of how we're working together
all things
are empty of anybody's idea of all things are each thing
that were empty of all conceptions
of ourself and other pigs are empty of all consent of all our conceptions of them and all their conceptions of them
understanding this is the vehicle of all beings
being liberated
and practicing according to this emptiness is the vehicle of of the liberation of all beings
in the heart sutra
the heart of wisdom beyond wisdom sutra starts up by saying
that have a lucky test foreign a bodhisattva
ah
a highly developed body surfer was practicing giving of course is practicing giving but he's also practicing or she's also practicing
prajna a prime meta she also practicing
the perfection of wisdom she's practicing the perfection of patients the perfection of ethics the profession perfection of patients the perfection of energy
enthusiasm
the perfection of concentration and the perfection of wisdom in practicing the perfection of wisdom
she clearly sees that all the different elements
of existence
all the different elements that make a person
are empty
all the different elements
her innocent
have any conception of what they are seeing this all suffering is relieved
all suffering is relieved not just her suffering but all suffering is relieved in his vision
beings who are not
open to this vision
and i'm not prior who are not opening to this understanding and practicing this understanding they don't understand they don't experience it
beings open to this vision is liberation
this is what's going on all the time but by practicing
practicing emptiness understanding emptiness the suffering is relieved
in that vision

i
so i like to talk a little bit about the bit more but
emptiness
but again is often taught
patna not enough but i just taught sometimes anyway
that unless you're grounded in the conventional
ah
familiar with the conventional it's not so appropriate for you to be taught about the ultimate
happiness
the mahayana it the actual working in the miami is a deep understanding of emptiness in order in order to understand emptiness we need to be taught and we need to study and meditate on emptiness
that's part of the work of the great vehicle because the great vehicle is the practice and understanding of emptiness ultimate truth
but still it will be warned that ah we should be grounded in the conventional before we take on
an open up to the teachings of the ultimate
it must be grounded but being granted the conventional isn't enough because only with the ultimate is the mahayana
is liberation realized so it's something we need as body such as we need to get ready for and
and eventually enter into the meditation on emptiness in order to fully perform our function in the my on
but in order to do that we need to be grounded the first grounding practice
in the conventional world is giving
and then ethics and so on that's how you get grounded
and with that grounding than you can ah
open to the teachings of emptiness because giving by itself
without you realizing emptiness who is not liberation
and if not realize the saving of all beings we need the wisdom to go with the giving
and isn't that was practice giving them stop and then start practicing the study the wisdom study of with of of emptiness the given goes on we stay grounded in the giving in the conventional
so
the earth
there was this magazine in the haight ashbury days i should say here is still a haight ashbury but in the days of up in our in in around sixty six sixty seven sixty eight their this magazine called the oracle published in the haight ashbury area and there was a article and suzuki russia
no one time
and
they said in the article that his favorite teacher was
guess what it was
reading through
would you say
forms emptiness he got half of it and is form yeah that's what he said that's what is this that's what the article said was his favorite teaching and i thought
i didn't disagree but i thought what an interesting way to characterize as then teachers favorite teaching form is emptiness emptiness is form in oracle
so radical form is emptiness emptiness is form
form in order to realize emptiness of form you have to be grounded in form and forms
where you start practicing giving your generous towards form
and then feeling
and then
a perception and then all mental formations and consciousness you practice generosity in these conventional things like forms and feelings you practice with that you're grounded really on the ground practicing practicing practicing generosity with the conventional
then you get ready for saying that this all conventionalities are emptiness
empty they're all empty and they're all emptiness in the sense that
the way they really are is emptiness they're empty and also the way they really are is emptiness they're both
empty and emptiness their non dual with it
all the forms through which were bound
are inseparable from the principal at such as free
all our blocks and limitations are inseparable
from what such as free from our blocks and limitations so we don't get it we don't get a little bit away from our blocks and limitations and then get free from them if you get a little bit away from them you don't get free from them
now being not a little bit away from home that's kind of a problem
and then if you can not
shy away from being with them
then you have another problem called being free of them which isn't away from them it's free of them
that's a problem to first bots happily hard to be right there right right here right pretty hard to be right here not a little bit away from right here which is generosity is generous of you you are generous and you are
generously being right here
but if you don't practice that you won't realize that your generously right here and you'll think you're trying to get away from here maybe
at least be a little bit away from here maybe stay the same room but to be slightly over to the side of your situation
that but again being slightly some place sounds from your conventional experience he has not been grounded it's it's your clothes you can take us wonder this tiny step and you could be grounded but your little bit
not grounded and in that way if you're if you're not been grounded you don't feel like you're practicing generosity you don't realize your generously being right where you are
the generously being right where you are that's a gift
you're a giver of that
you're giving yourself to the place that everybody else gave you
you're grounded there and in that grounding you're ready to realize freedom from your place you're grounded
he wrote to realize the emptiness of the place you're grounded the emptiness of your grounding the emptiness of your bondage the emptiness of your suffering
but i like i said even as a difficulty because that's a new way of life where are you know
you don't get to hold anything or grasp anything you don't get the grasp your release
my fact generally recommended if you're going to grasp better to grasp your bondage and your release
so how many have you heard the story of the animal releasing ceremony
one two three four five six
only six
you haven't heard how you kim
you've heard it wow
what
no i'm but yet you haven't heard my story about the animal relations ceremony yeah okay so one of the practices and a buddhist tradition is to release animals
kim knows about that right did you say release crabs
so this one i went to one
which released chickens
and it was actually a
he was at a temp was a brand new temple that i was at in japan in chiba can which is where the
but tell me is where
it's where the airport is
hmm
i can run with it was named to tokyo airport narita now data is in cheap again it's a peninsula how next tokyo sky was kinda is parka homme country anyway
the new temple there
under
next to the temple was a golf course
a golf course can view his looks so a located next to a temple or a temple conveniently located next to golf course
and so we served as altar sort of on the golf course and they brought these chickens enemies
in these cages
and then we did the ceremony you know mumbo jumbo bumblebee
and then at the climax of ceremony we opened the cages and the chickens flew out
in to freedom
this is the mahayana
and we concluded the ceremony and then there was a lovely vegetarian feast for the humans
who attended the ceremony
and then
i being on the officials of the ceremony cleaned up the altar afterwards
and while i'm cleaning up to alter the chickens came back and crawled back into their cages
freedom can be even more scary than being in prison
now i don't know if they use the chickens over and over
in various ceremonies to make humans feel good
we're we're releasing animals and then we get this contact release rate because i am freedom and then we have no we can have a vegetarian feast

being grounded in the conventional is difficult
it's a challenge and it was not a challenge
that's not so good actually because then unit practices and growing
we each have situations to
be grounded in to be one hundred per cent to learn to be one hundred percent giving ourselves to where we are moment by moment this is grounding in the conventional where the practice of giving to help us the practice ethics to help us catholics help us kind of look to see of we really here
patients
those yeah some and concentration of course is about being here
so those practices of compassion help us become grounded in the convention and then we're all set to open to emptiness and so on
i love you guys are grounded enough for me to tell you by an emptiness

you don't know either
thank you for saying that husker
how you doing with being generous with oscar and being one hundred percent oscar you don't so so
little resistance there i of get more grounded place because i'm not talking about emptiness until you get grounded
so you're holding up all these other people were more hats
oh on catherine has a comment here except maybe it's just your story i thought you saying maybe just my story
he or she wouldn't say about me because i would say that if you are you create a seamless
that's your story okay
now whose stories more generous that's the question
which i don't want you to answer i know
okay so
ha i i invite you to get really familiar with the conventional existence which is presenting itself to you and to me every moment get settled and when you're all settled
we can take a peek emptiness
and if any feedback for me before lunch
can you feedback

how you feeling
ha
strange
okay

yeah and i was suggesting you're welcome to come down but it would be good before you come down to get grounded in being up there
now you can come down before he rounded up there but for me to you i think of a great you can grind it up there and see when you're grounded up there and you still want to come down here you might
but first ground and feeling strange
which is the way you still feel that way
let's see if you can really be generous and let elizabeth feel strange
like get familiar with feeling strange if that's what's going on with you
and
how jerry doing up there
ha
you're okay here here are you getting grounded with mean okay

thank you elizabeth vira
is there a vortex to emptiness
do you say

in a way the vortex of emptiness is the conventional

his you know his form or feeling or whatever
so if you feeling strange that feeling of strange as an emptiness
but that feeling strange itself is emptiness
the way it really is
his entrance
where emptiness is it's sometimes the only way is emptiness because you can actually you can actually get an emptiness anymore that you can actually get at form and the fact that you can actually get at forms or feelings the fact that you can't get
at anything or find anything
that's the emptiness of things

doesn't mean there's no stephen it just that you can't get at him
you can't find him
doesn't mean your i'm an idea of stephen it just the your ideas of stephen never reached even never reached even anymore than your ideas of stephen rich stephen

but this ungraspable happiness
can also can't be grasp when you try to grasp it what you get as a form you try to get a grasp before if you're thorough about it what you get is that you can't grasp it
in the can't grasp the not grasping either so the vortex of emptiness isn't even something ungraspable it's something that you think you can grasp like a form but then again if you study that to get emptiness so they're emptiness is form and and form is emptiness and then was emptiness is form
so the vortex in some sense
the ultimate point
a form is emptiness and but the ultimate point of emptiness is also emptiness but the easiest way to get the emptiness emptiness is form
any other feedback
it elena

do you say green
ah as green as in raw or fresh like fresh fresh produce
non mature yeah new fresh experience
you would say so
would you say so
that's good see now she's not really a chickadee anymore but she still has fresh