Bodhisattva VowsÂ
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i once again i i
i think about suggesting that if you
our for example sitting or walking and being mindful of your posture and your breathing
you have my full support to practice such mindfulness
and
while practicing my villages in this way you may be able to let go of discursive thought
ah consistently can become quite tranquil
concentrated flexible
and be rested
that's a practice of concentration
can also practice or course patients when you're in pain
and
and you can also practice generosity in all situations
you can
practice
clearly observing
the ethical precepts the ethical teachings
and you can practice enthusiasm
and energy
and you can study
phenomena
and practice wisdom but in all these practices
i'm encouraging you to simultaneously be aware
of the vows of the bodhisattva
so for example when you're sitting and being mindful of your posture you could simultaneously
consider
the infinite
possibilities of bodhisattva for aspirations bodhisattva vows
bodhisattva wishes
but he sought for prayers
and learn to
surround and
support all your activities or practice with whatever bodhisattva vows among the infinite ones available you wish to think about
among the infinite ways that bodhisattvas think you can actually think like a boy sought for you could adopt
some of the ways body cyprus think you could think that way to
and of course you can also forget about that and knocked effect
so it's a it's a possibility for you to bring the thinking the vowing a bodhisattva together with whatever practice you're doing and again when you're doing things that aren't formal practices
that you know hard on the list of basic bodhisattva training for example
eating a piece of roger brownie we had brownies were those brownies that eileen made for us did you make those brownies eileen
he didn't thank you
we ate them
and so while eating a brownie
one can consider
what is the relationship between this brownie eater and the buddha's
while i'm eating this brownie
what's my relationship with all the buddha has right now
it's a catchphrase i find myself thinking about
what my relationship with all buddhas or even one buddha is while i'm eating a brownie i find that the not a problem to think of that
it changes a brownie hating quite a bit
can make me feel like i got company
excellent company
the company was there before i thought about the company but now i'm thinking about the company
and i'm also thinking that the company
i have heating my brownie all the other people around me who are eating brownies are not eating brownies they have the same company
this buddhas are not just with me i'm not the only one here who has a relationship with buddhist
however at that moment i might have been the holy person among all of you who were thinking about your relationship with buddha
but maybe not maybe
maybe thrust of you were also at the same time that i was thinking what is my relationship with buddha maybe you guys were too
as you are putting something into the compost bucket maybe you're thinking what's the relationship between me compost
thing and the buddha's
he might have been doing that i don't know
it's not really my job to keep track of your volley
but i do happily join your vowing and invite you to join mine
and i think that these vows go very well with any activity of any living being
very well
and we can learn to do this and i never heard of so far people are having some trouble learning these things but i i haven't heard of anybody having a problem of considering their relationship with enlightenment while they're doing their life it doesn't seem to be a problem see
seems to be a big benefit
so
we do forget
we do forget to consider what's my relationship with enlightenment again again
we do forget that sometimes we remember and i think when we remember then where bodhisattvas because bodhisattvas their whole life their whole life
he's thinking about
buddha that thinking about all the time
and there's an infinite ways to think about buddha
and they think about buddha in into ways but they do think about buddha that's that's how they live their life and they also when i think about buddha that means they think about all sentient beings because buddhist think about all sentient beings so everybody's included but don't leave out buddha
of course bodhisattvas are devoted to the welfare of all living beings
human and non-human and they're awesome devoted to non living beings like mountains and water and sky they're devoted to all this but they're also devoted to buddhas and i think about them all the time they
learn this
so
please consider
inviting the buddhas and bodhisattvas to join you in all your activities and not just a one time invitation but a repeated invitation and a repeated consideration of whether they're coming or not whether you feel their presence or not whether you want them to be with you are not
it's possible is sometimes you think why i'd rather not have them with me right now while i'm doing this
okay
there there any way but okay
so
i
that's kind of
reiteration
and
i actually
myself do enjoy when i'm when i am
considering my relationship paying on paying homage to my relationship acknowledging my relationship
being mindful and imagining and
whatever my relationship with the buddhist i feel good about doing that while i'm doing anything and i find it very helpful and also my understanding is that this is how bodhisattvas practice they do innumerable practice but they always think of buddha why they're doing their practice there
i always think of enlightenment they always think of the enlightenment which the same enlightenment for them and all beings they always think of practice which they understands the same as the enlightenment of all big they've as they think about that and they also practice whatever practices but
buddhists have ever done
so i imagine that's like really clear and that you have some questions
some problems
that makes sense the how how about this and how about that
so you want to bring up anything
the linda
saving
saving
was saving means participate in their salvation doesn't mean that you're gonna do it all by yourself and sell people's salvation will come when they themselves understand the dharma
so and they will understand the dharma when they opened to all beings
and then when once this and as they will start to open as they learned to opened all beings and accept responsibility for all beings as a to these practices and they learned i take care of themselves in this openness and this responsibility together with our beings
if they learn how to be upright and gentle and not environment
they will then receive the dharma they will receive the buddhist teaching and they will be liberated
there will be saved
what
you saved by you doing that exactly you say but you saved by showing the practice that will liberate beings to show beings the practice of of liberation
and gap
that's
and a partition you participate by just being together with them and practicing with them because you do you joined the practice with them
which are already you are doing you wake up to the practice and then you can then they see you waking up to the practice and then they they say they say to you what are you doing and used is shown in an initial again and again and unless they eventually start copying you and then they become free
too
that's a teacher you teach you can't wake him up but you can show on the way to wake up
the buddha couldn't wake up everybody but the boot up his show people how to get themselves into a position where they could see
so even the boot and meeting even shocking when he bought a meeting people they actually seeing this shakyamuni buddha and he's talking to them but they still not really actually see the buddha they just see a person who they call buddha was talking to them and they but but the buddha talks to them and they started to practice rather listening and as they get into the prior
actus suddenly they see the buddha
the actual buddha
they see the dharma
but even having the buddha right in front of you are actual manifestation of buddha you would you still just joined the practice and buddha to see the to open to the buddha
so now you can start learning the practice of buddha so you can show other people the practice and bullet and the joy of practicing the practice of buddha and the joy showing others the practice of boot
and bodhisattvas that's how you save them and along the way
when you start to see the dharma you you realize things like while there actually aren't any beings to say if you realize that kind of stuff too
he realized the mind of know abode which the bodhisattvas open to and then you really are an unhindered
and your teaching practice
your unhindered by your ideas of beings
and you feel radius of boucher when you see buddha you're free of your ideas and buddha
okay
here i hear you're free of your ideas of saving right
because your your ideas of saving now or it's in our
our that's somebody's not saved so gotta get over that one
stephen
yeah
are being mean something that exists
right that inexistent inexistent thing so
it isn't like you know your nice year to the person stephen your kind of the person stephen and mean to all stevens feelings
demo work great
can also is isn't that your kind of stevens few things and mean the person who's composed of all these feelings so person is composed according to the teaching of five aggregates
form feeling
conceptions are perceptions were mentored many mental formations and consciousness as makes a person but all the parts of a person aren't they are persons but their beatings persons are made of multitude of beatings
we are we we don't have some existence by ourself we are just something that's wonderfully created by many many beatings some of them being our history some of them being our neighbors some of them being and our neighbors come to us as form
all you know all these beings here with its are coming as smells and touches and taste but also people can come to us other base can come to us at you know by being aware of their minds all these being support us all our history supports as these are all beings which make persons he worked for
persons
your persons
who are relationship with infinite beings and some of the beings are persons
but some of the beings are not persons like a fingernail isn't a person
as part of a person but it's a be
okay all beings
so what are you know and you can perceive feelings you competitive fingernails you can perceive humans and dogs and mountains all these beings you can perceive and and you can real and you do relate to them you will relate to them and then the way of relating to him you know how right
how
this is a quiz of course
how do you relate to beings
right yeah don't lean towards him away from them right
you walk around him he he take care of him you know grammar
you don't touch him and you don't turn away that's the way you take care of him any further instructions
be generous with them right
and by the way before i call on kim
all these practices are simply
expressions of the reality of your relationship as it currently exists always you really are always operate with people and you really are generous up with people that's what we have to practice these practices to realize it without practicing operate as we don't really understand
and
that were upright we kind of do but we have to put it into action
so if i tell you that you're already generous you might say great i had a feeling that was the case i'm glad to hear it
but if you don't practice it then you won't fully realize it
but you already are generous but had putting into action he already are really honest but gift a practice it to realize yes that's where i'm at i really am honest
so yeah that's how we relate to beings so as practice that
kim
what to say
that's really
thank you
join distress
and office thinking about compassion
compassion meta
but
difficult
didn't stop it
guys around
it's really good
compassion
it's very still
your way
baines
is it comes back to something
the that's even possible
thinking about oh
serious issue here is that sometimes i think compassion
as
spam
yeah i saw one thing you bring up his compassion that turns away from some problem that could look like compassion because you're not like a prop opera of a problematic many a violent person gay
you turn away from them and and you that might seem my better than attacking them
you turn the we may be as you wish them well and turn away
and you're you're you're probably concerned by well then will the person continue to be violent
if i just give them a kind look and turn away
and the answer is they might continue to be violence they might even get more violent
on tells can help begging somebody to come and save them from their violence and maybe if they're violated and nobody comes to help them they'll just keep getting more and more violent until someone comes to help them
but and one way to help them as help them become free of this of the violence
and so of course one way to try this get them to be free of violence is to totally destroy their violence
but that doesn't necessarily work if it did
than the buddha's will be teaching differently but buddhist art
usually characterized as gentle rather than fierce although they could be fierce in the heart first deities in our tradition but as can manifest fierceness
they could but usually they get body such as to do that for them
the boot is usually are characterized as gentle
and that was a story of the mass murderer you know the mass murderer about to kill his mother
steam tabbouleh mala clearing the story was about to kill his mother the buddha has happened to be there this is kind of set up what
what does he was looking for know he was gonna kill his mother
and buddhist saw that and intervened so then when he saw buddha he was gonna kill buddha
but buta put himself between this murder and his mother
and then the guy said okay i'll calculus guy
and so it goes in this is a big strong guy going to var is killed lot of people already so i started running after boot or walking fast and then
and not catching up to boot up and buddha's just walking along slowly in in a meditation and he starts running faster and faster and he's not getting any closer to the buddha say cause i incessant like hey yogi what's going on why i cannot catch up to you what are you doing and the buddha said you can't catch me because i've stopped
so this is a case of the would have nothing that rough actually you can say well kind of being kind of magical
love a magic but gentle magic that snapped this very violent crazy person out of it
and bourassa could see that is crazy person had some good routes in his past prior to his going insane
and so the buddha could saw this man could be could be awakened and he managed to awaken this person this is one of the amazing stories of the buddha's teaching
where he was kind and gentle and walked the person up some other cases however when we can't see a way to do it
but basically
ah the body was basically are often characterized as basically constantly
accommodating or according with beings they basically a chord with them i haven't heard about bodhisattvas occasionally or constantly confronting and conflicting with people they accord with them
they they tune into the person's violence and the accord with it and in late
and then they convert them they accord with them and loved them and the person changes
so it isn't just what they see a violent person accord with walk away and the person gets more violent although that can happen because sometimes bodhisattvas cannot see a way to snap the person out of it but they get in there and they try to say okay here we are okay here we are
yeah here we are can moving along here together yeah here we go here we go one two three one two three for you
like can do you know when it when is peppers to people are trained to rob you know you have wanted to and a three and you jump in as a bodhisattva as do it people who own and two and three but sometimes they don't it's going too fast or whatever the can't get in there but once i get in there one two or three and then everything's are school
epping around
that's it they wanna do
it doesn't work
i'm gonna try some the to keep trying but sometimes i can't find anything in the time scale of the story
i know not to say i'm a bodhisattva but i used to be the director of the city centre
and they add miss they asked me to be the director because they thought that i would be able to play with the violent people coming into the building
they thought i'd be able to do that
than just ignore them lot of people to letting people come into the building and harass the residents and and goal you know but they asked me to come because they thought i would interact with these people
ah
yeah kind of like a zen bouncer
so they invited me in and when and when people like guy
when people them like when one guy was like he he punched the tens out the head cook and so that when i heard about that people came and told me that he punched a or so i came and i said would you please leave the building
and he did
some other people weren't sure you know exactly how to relate to him i said would you please me the building and he did
and another in that same person however came to the building a com or a year or so later and i was in the courtyard of the city center and he came into the courtyard
suzuki roshi was there and he's walking toward suzuki roshi so i was going to intervene between him and suzuki roshi so he wouldn't bother suzuki roshi
okay so i went over to and i said would you please leave the building and the guy yelled over sort of over manny's and he said acidic erotic would you tell your stupid disciples get out in the way
sighs trying to protect my
my kind of small bodied great teacher
from this aggressive threat or into a hassle
so i got during the guy yelled tell your stupid disabled and get our the way is stickers she got up and walked across the courtyard and said stupid stupid
and he took the guy's hand and walk into the door
and he was very happy to have security escort him to the door
so i was embarrassed that i was trying to protect the security who could
as i knew from previous experience could pacify
pacify aggressive beings not always but
but how is the new was gonna pacify him but that didn't work so my teacher did
and another time a guy came in and went around all the lot of the rooms and stole our money and he was apprehended and i was a director and they brought to me
and and he said
i said to you know people say you went into the rooms install this stole money from their rooms he said no i didn't
i say well
if you didn't i tell you what
ah have you just give me your money
are you money you got
and nobody comes to say that the rooms were rot robbed i'll give you all your money back
but if people come and say that they're missing certain amount of money i will deduct with the money or give it that you have from that and give it to them and i'll give you the rest
and he said
you here he resisted
he resisted a suggestion then i said to him i said and this is a guy just came off the street in who saw the center as an easy target
an easy what are you call it easy easy mark which it was pretty easy
yeah he came in and he wins all rooms got this stuff but ticket apprehended it wasn't that easy so i said to if you if you give me the money i would i'd i promise you i'll give it back to have nobody comes with any losses
and
and if you do that you're welcome to come to center but if you don't give me that money you will not be welcome here in this community anymore
you know we want we want to
you know you lose our friendship in that way we'll still you know care about you but you can't come here anymore if you do that
and that
there really an effect on the stiff
and he gave me all the money
and he left now is it
he never came back to get to change
but he was welcomed come back and he knew that
i think any appreciated that he was how he left the building happily
and then while look more couple years later
more than a couple years later
i was an entryway of the zen center and a guy came in the building with a knife
with one of our students and i saw him from the hall and i thought no
i can't i can't i can't convert this guy it's get over the it gets too advanced for me it's not my not my job i couldn't do it i can see it so i just stepped into the law office called nine one one
and the police were there in forty five seconds
and they walked into the door
helen and the guy was pacified
no no no it totally oh okay police
and games weapon they took him away
so sometimes we we accord with him we see this is not i can't do this weekend guess i gotta get somebody else to do this other times we can so we want to get in and we want to disarm we'd want to disarm we want to disarm until we look for that way to bring gentleness and uprightness
and honesty and harmony to disarm and we look for the way to move with the energy to disarm it
we don't do we don't want to just stay away from it and let it pump up until
until somebody else comes in and beat them up or whatever the police did not beat him up
did he went with them peacefully
and he had just he had just killed his own baby
throwing her in the ocean to be with god so he was totally insane
an on a homicidal bench this is not
this is not necessary the work for me
but it's worked with somebody else will become and also help and disarm him so we we don't want to just let people go off we want to keep in touch with them
keep them in our embrace and in our awareness and keep watching them and guiding them but we don't always see the way to turn them but we keep looking for that opportunity we don't want them to we don't want to forsake them and let the and can just let their com crash
but sometimes we can't see any way to do it so we just
we just stay with them as as much as we can add a premier appropriate distance
until we are someone else can come and take their hand and turn them around that's the bodhisattva way that's a saving that we're hoping to do
but sometimes it's too advanced
okay
hi this is too advanced for me i accept yes sir i'm everything
story of land dharma evil king of the bed and then one of the monks disrobe and killed him took on the arabic did that too
this is kings destroying monastery zones and i'm just wondering that maybe wasn't a success i don't know what you think about that but it seems like it might not have been it wasn't it wasn't that it wasn't that successful the more success story would be it's a story about a monk
who could disrobed and killed somebody to protect people
from from the the person was killing people
so
body sought by the course are committed to not taking life totally committed to that however if it would benefit people to take life they should do it so compassion is more important than their own ethical practice and if if their own breaking the precepts when bennett
that people they should do it
and occasionally breaking precepts could help people like for example lying can sometimes help people so this an example of a monk
protect the people but he couldn't among couldn't convert the king the monks love and compassion was not intense enough to actually go to the king and convert the king but even shakyamuni buddha couldn't convert everybody david oughta like david data and like the army invading the shock and plan
even he couldn't somehow convert everybody today
but that's we wanna do we want to actually turn
ah
violent leaders around and make them peaceful we want to do that but
what you know and
and the bodhisattva some cases if you could stop the person from right now killing someone you would benefit that person
the benefit the potential murderer and you'd benefit the people who are going to be murdered
but that's different from converting the person which would be even a higher value that you would not just stop them from doing evil deed but snap out of it
and so we have zen stories like that in our the
this anteater doesn't just stop the violence the zen teacher convert the violent one into a humble gentle
to student of the buddha there are stories like that but there's also stories are where the zen teacher not only doesn't stop the person but the person kills us and master
this source that that too
and the zen master doing well under the circumstances but being killed
yonder it wasn't the right
yes
the examples you doing
very
player counter
okay seems like a basis for
actually
fashion
yes sir
killed
with it was all happens within someone
we as humans to justify a lot of stuff
massive can just for
we we we can justify things to ourselves mean rationalization that we can justify things to ourselves and other people may not agree with right yes that's right taking an action such as
because you feel protect others
just a second as do you took a big step there
so in this case however most of the people into bed agreed with this in this case in in his case he was what he did was supported by most people how and i think you're right that people we do operate within a subjective field it's true i agree
however
ah
something's we do or not just determined and not just something we do but everything we do is not determined just by are subjective field it's determined by all the things that create the just subject field
so sometimes you do things that you might not even think are good and other people think are good
but still the the basic teaching is the first teaching his study are subjective feeling but it doesn't mean it if you study your subjective feeling in your subjective feeling of subjective evaluation is this would be good it doesn't mean that that will be good for not saying that you can be sure
as you look at inside yourself at your story of what's helpful
doesn't mean that it's a story of what's helpful as appearing your mind and you act on that that it will be helpful
we're not saying that that's really
what we're talking about what we're talking about being aware of what you think is helpful and being aware what you think is not helpful
and
being aware of what you think is helpful requires awareness
now that was what you think it's helpful might not happen if you don't pay attention to that you think it's helpful
however what you think is not helpful can happen without you're paying attention to that it's not helpful
twenty cents c driving on skillfully you don't think it's helpful but you don't pay attention to your driving to avoid unskillful actions or another way you can drive on skillfully without paying attention
what caught my attention
free services
yes
say exceptions to that
it's not an exception no no i soon exception it is a violation it's not an exception
it's still a violation is you know i'd still unreality to do that but but if it helps people the boy said for he is supposed to do it now he doesn't know it's gonna be helpful he just thinks it will be and he meant he might be wrong
but anyway in the millions or billions of buddhist that there ben we have like one example
how many examples do we have to
this very rare but before but before we get any more examples were actually been told that that we actually should go against the precepts if it benefits people these precepts
our to liberate people from the realm of suffering they're not ultimate truth
their ways for us to pay attention
and by paying attention we're being told that things will evolve in a positive way
and we're not and we're being told not we're not been told don't pay attention were told that if for paying attention and we see that violating a precept would benefit beings
in the spirit of realizing buddha we should do it
even though we don't know for sure
that will benefit bags and even though we're pretty sure that it is violating the precept but we can't be sure it's violent present but we think it would be and were willing to do that
and this is not as an intersubjective thing is a subjective thing is i think it would be helpful
yeah and hopefully the person is doing this is a bodhisattva who can talk get some counseling on this and it doesn't say it doesn't say you can't go talk to your teacher about this it doesn't say you can't consult a buddha about this
you can be fine
and and you didn't you'd see if you've got confirmation from other beings who also thought this would be beneficial
and most most bodhisattva spend a long time bringing what they think is good
do their teacher and saying i think this was be good what do you think
it's been a long time doing that
and then watching our their conduct ocean there
and that's not very often to bodhisattvas bring to their teacher what they think is not good and their teacher think it is good
but this would be a case where they they would think i know they breaking the precepts is i've committed not to break the precepts
but now i think it would be good to break a precept this is unlikely that my teachers going to agree with me
if almost never do that think i think it would be good to break this precept in this case it's very rare
i was no i am almost capping at any examples where someone said i think it would be good to break the precept i think will be beneficial
and come to me and said that
but the body in this case the bodies of would be happy to go talk to their teacher are innumerable teachers about this because they would think this would be good
this is amazing i now see that violin is precept would be health i like to tell the buddha's about this and see if they agree it's very rare but
you're being asked to open your mind up
you know to beyond what these precepts are
murders
yeah
what was example
years ago
yes
he said somebody came into where he worked and killed seven people in they thought it would be helpful okay
yes
yes
still spirits
right okay
so he he would have the same attitude as a boy sofa
that he would think it's help on the body for with thing itself off so that way they'd be the same
what's the difference
what's the difference
get the difference between this one guy who thinks would be helpful who committed a heinous crime and the other guy who thinks is helpful
and is beneficial that's the difference the people who are still alive after this murder occurs
they think it's helpful that would be the judge everybody would think it was helpful everybody including the guy who got killed
everybody would think it's helpful
any other case you're in your example probably nobody thought it was helpful
as i know
nobody including the guy
probably he did not think it's helpful after he did it
i would guess
he thought so before him but afterwards usually these people shoot themselves and feel terrible
what i'm talking about a case where afterwards everybody feels good that's the difference
that's the difference where everybody thinks that the violating the precept with beneficial
at fifty percents
what i would say i would say here i would say it's my good enough it is fifty per cent
you know via via what he caught a conformist follow the precepts
if you go to your teacher and your teacher disagrees with you about violin the precepts i would say
you know all of the precept
hmm
i that's a bit extreme but i would say that the whole country of tibet was exploring the hope all the buddhist monks in tibet were trying to ethically deal with this guy i don't know how many they were up one hundred thousand to a million monks into tibet were trying to be followed the bodhisattva precepts and deal with the
key right
that's it they're trying to do
who is a doing it by now
and and and one of them decided to do it this other way can afterwards this now is a historical example of somebody violating the presets which the rest of the months were following
he will he couldn't exhausted by himself but he and the whole song over trying to peacefully deal with a king who was killing them they weren't phrasing am a tibetan monks harm in which they could have done to fight back they didn't do that one of them did apparently i don't know the whole
story but one of them did and he stopped being a monk i guess when he did
so the whole situation was trying to respond to this guy and nonviolent way and one person stopped them and
you know maybe everybody basically felt like it was beneficial including to the king i don't know
i'm just saying that these precepts hard to meditate on so that your behavior becomes more and more skillful so that you become more and more nonviolent that or thereabout but they're not just about that there but your mind being caught
but it's about becoming free of
gain and loss good and evil and all that
and
it is now a little bit past five thirty but i appreciate your bringing this forward your