The Bodhisattva's Creativity and FreedomĀ
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we press the red
how's the thought arose that censuses the last
of the series
that i'd like to offer lots of opportunity for you to
offer feedback ask questions make comments
and
i also wanted to offer something which is a little different at the beginning which you can also comment on
and ask questions about
several people in this in the group here or did a retreat at gringotts last week
nine
nine and the people here
when a retreat last week at green gulch
and
one of the things that
we talked about was up
a story about it an ancient teacher crew
ah was about to die and as he and as he was about to die he said if i don't die tomorrow it will be soon afterwards and then he said i had just have one question for you and then he put this question out
to the group
and then
two people in the group the hedge the head monk and a one of the senior people actually interacted with him
and then later that night he had a further interaction with this with this elder member of the community
and then the next and he made it through the night and then the next day at noon service
one of the monks asked him
about the previous day's conversations interactions
and he said that the boat of compassion is not road over pure waters
that it's
it's wasted effort
for the
students to
ah put out wouldn't goes in precipitous streets or a precipitous straight it's vain effort to put on a wooden goose
and then he died
and then
the wooden goose idea is that in china when they when both were going through rough
real rough water and narrow straits
where they might hit rocks or bump into each other sometimes they would put out a wooden goose ahead of them and watch how the goose went through the rapids and then steer their boat sort of according to read a book the goose sweat
ah so there's two points one is that
the boat of compassion but they but he sought was right on they don't ride it on smooth water they actually they ride around well mostly rough water of
ah turbulent change and challenging situations that's where they actually ride the boat of compassion
and
ah in that situation
is it it's a said that to put something out there to figure out how to go is is wasted time
and then one and then there's that verse celebrating the story written couple hundred years later by another master and the verse starts out with that
using the moon has a hook and clouds as bait
and
part of what i want talked about tonight with is using
clouds as bait
mm
maybe later we can going to detail like this story but tonight i wanted to bring up the clouds as bait
also last week the moon that we had during the retreat as you may have noticed was a full moon
so in a way crescent moons seem like better hooks than beaumont
but we had a full moon last weekend in a way
you know that that's actually in some ways a better hook we also talked about ah story
the bar fishermen
that fished with a straight hook
and people noticed that
and they asked him why he did that i don't know if he caught any fish with the straight hook but anyway
ha
they asked him why fished with a straight hook and he said i think you might have said
ah
a curved hook is for beings are for fish that are turning away from life
i use a stray hook for fish who are turning towards life
hand them
the i don't know i guess i don't know if the current fish because lot most fish i think are turning away from life
those are the ones you catch with a current hook
anyway he became well known for this and the emperor heard a bottom and one thing led to another and the emperor actually came to see him
and asked him
why he was using this straight hook and the fisherman said to catch you
hindustan
denver never went to visit any other fishermen but this one
so he did catch the emperor
and it's with the straight hook that am
that there
but he started that catches
ha
catches up
enlightened creative liberated successor playmate
and one more image similar he said there
there's a piece of calligraphy which is still over the door of where suzuki roshi used to live in san center
and i asked him one time what to say and he said it says cloud farmer farmer
but a both means cloud driver and cloud farmer
and i don't know if you told me that but there's a little sort of inscription or sort of subtitle which says non thinking
which in the tradition of dogan non thinking is the essential art
oh but he sought some meditation
the images farming or tilling
it's like the are killing or driving through clouds and that is an image for the central art of
what he saw the meditation
and again i i this is kind of dualistic for me to say this but i've said it before i'll say it again that
it's possible to practice compassion
and by practicing and put into practice compassion in such a way as to bring benefit
two
suffering beings to bring benefit to
others and self in are suffering and those practices of compassion and generosity
ethical discipline and patience this is compassion which brings benefit
and some people who practice that way and bring benefit ah
they're willing to do that but they aren't yet ready to be creative
in in what they're doing
other beings but he sought for not only practices compassion practices but they're open to being creative
in their their generous in their relationships with others itself their ethical their patient and they're also willing to be creative they're willing to and in the creative process i'm suggesting not only it is benefit brought
are realized
in relationship to self and others but liberation is realized
and
and so i'm gonna i'm so leading to as a summary is that the of that they are these compassion practices are not are not practiced in in pure water the on practice with in situations where there's no affliction
their practice and turbulent
dangerous
life situations
but in order for there to be not just benefit but liberation we sort of had to give up the wooden duck the wooden goose district the current hook
and an open to the the creative possibilities in this turbulence
how the worse
use
clouds
as our hooks
and that
ah
the etymology of the word nuance
the the word nuance means a subtle difference
or are
ah sheer shades so subtle shades are differences
and the etymology of the word nuance is cloud
clouds are subtle and they also should they also can shade
so i'm proposing is that
in the liberating creative relationship with our self and others
that we actually are working with a subtle
cloud-like aspect of the relationship we don't we don't use the we don't hook each other
with a nice metal hook or plastic hook
we we'd actually can't get a hold of each other but we i have something to work with something kind of cloud-like something subtle we have nuance
there's a there's a subtle cloud-like
field that we can
negotiate or till
in our relationships
and the story which i didn't bring up too much of accepted this guy was about to die and is gave students a teaching and they tried to interact with them his story is the story of the teacher and student trying to
negotiate the subtle ah the subtlety of their relationship
and i would also say it's understandable as some people who wanna do good and do do good who want to practice compassion and do practice compassion hesitate
feel uncomfortable with some of the dimensions of
cloud farming
they're up there willing to go into the precipitous straits but they would like to use a wooden duck
when goose
something to get ahold of
but the
but can't get a whole or clouds really
seems like he can but you can't really
you either you can influence nam and they influence you but you can't really get a hold of them and that and being open to that is part of being open to the process of creativity and liberation in the precipitous straits where the boat of compassion is plunging along
a part of the and eleanor end the the practices that
that follow the generosity and ethics and patients the next practice practices heroic effort that you're actually willing to like
not just go into the
rough waters for the welfare of others but even consider and be enthusiastic about giving up the wouldn't goose because you really see is necessary
you will you ruin to accept the ironies ah
that initiate us
into this space
that if you wanna get enlightenment you have to use cloud-based
i did i talk to your last time about the
the prayer foxy brown repair
i don't know if as clear why i brought that story up but they think the reason i brought it up was because
there's a story about a zen master
who was the first teeth who was the first teacher of the teacher in the story that i was talking about so that the story is called lupu is about to die
that's a story were studying
where's the lupu says if i don't die tomorrow i'll die soon after and loop whose first teacher was the great zen master lin g or rinzai
and and
when lindsay was about to die
lupo wasn't there at that time loop would already kind of finished his studies with ah
a clingy and moved on and how to another teacher but anyway when lindsay was about to die
he did a kind of bruh rabbit thing
so he's bought to die and he says to students basically i don't care what you do to me do anything but just don't whatever you do don't tell me in the briar patch except to where he said it was please no matter what you do do not destroy
do not destroy my treasury of true dharma eyes
they are one of the one of the great works of the founder of the soto zen in japan is called treasury of true dharma eyes so treasure to our dharma eyes was a term in in chinese buddhism
and this zen teacher said to his group said whatever you do do not destroy my treasury of true dharma eyes that we don't destroy my teaching
i propose to you
that he was like for a rabbit
bruh rabbit wanted birth fox and braeburn to throw him into the briar patch
he was being ironic
and he didn't think they were very smart and he and he thought they would take him literally
and they did
and he was happy and lin g
one of his somebody to destroy his dharma because that's what's necessary in order first the teacher to find a successor or a successor
so one of his students comes up to him and shouts at him
and then he says
who would have thought that my treasury and true dharma eyes would be destroyed by a blind donkey
so i just
the way now from this class i i i make a gesture of letting you know that one of the reasons why people hesitate to enter the creative realm is because irony is somewhat difficult to deal with
but it's but when we when we are offered an offer irony when when the situation when there's enough concentration and kindness irony is kind of like a key i wish you enter the space
in which the cloud
the cloud
the cloud fields negotiated by us together when neither one of us is really
ah in charge and were all engulfed in the radiance of the clouds
so a lot of the the last again that's part of the reason why people hesitate i think to enter creativity is a different is not only turbulent but it takes away your taking things litter
really are not literally because
part of the power of irony for example is that you have to know the literal meaning is to understand the intended meaning is not that the literal meaning tells you what the intended meaning is and vice versa
and that's kind of difficult
so people say okay later on the later on the liberation i'm just going to sort of stick with my compassion and i can hold onto
which is still good it just that this class is about the bodhisattvas creativity and freedom which doesn't mean their freedom it means their creativity with
their partners for the sake of realizing freedom together
so i think maybe that's enough
and i i
i will continue to work on this cloud made with you
and i ask you if you have any cloud big you'd like to toss out for the golden fish
and if you have any moon hooks
there is still moon up there by the way
and i think it's been exposed
and there's cloud date all around it
yeah
yes
one of the students is a young song it's c c an opinion is yarn song and the other student is the head monk those the to and then there's also a monk who identified monk who asked the question the next day so the three months interacting with lupu
and yes
well one ironic thing is perhaps the end of the story when
what you know it i'm open to to the last statement that the that the teacher makes in the nighttime conversation has with a student at this and when they get together in the night to help follow up on the on the public interaction at the end of it the teacher says how miserable or the way we translate
did it for the class was tough isn't it tough isn't it
and someone listened to that and heard it tough isn't it
so that could be ironic that the teacher says it's tough when it really means
miraculous isn't it
isn't this like awesome what we're doing here people in berkeley are going to be talking about this
this is like
i'm dying
but i can still ah i can still plow clouds with you
read it to the end i can like put out
the kind of bait that catches
he this
and how wonderful that is and how difficult it is because it's so subtle how difficult it is to realize something that you can't get ahold of and how wonderful that is the that's what we're doing here
what just popped in my mind was
ts eliot saying
something like how can there be an end to a drifting wreckage
pardon
yes it is and i think the clouds are emphasizing
that going when going through the straits don't try to get ahold of anything
that will not
promote
what the continuous practice
i have
moving through the streets it isn't like we get in this case they didn't like we get through the stairs rhythm in the straits as part of the and the rhythm in know there's rhythm and clouds
clouds you know vibrate like people
and there's really a minute
but it's like this again this this despite these traits are endless
so doesn't like we get through them that
it's like we get through them and oh great another one
and another one
had mac fact we wish to never get out of these streets the body sought with freedom is part and parcel the bodhisattvas freedom is very closely related to they did not want the straits to end and they do not want them to continue
but they they are actually understand that they probably will continue because there's beings in straits like this and they wished to continue through the straits
and never never stop until everybody's
in i guess everybody's in none
pure waters
and then there's no way to into compassion anymore
well in the
in the first part of the story
yeah song puts out his teaching and and head monk comes forward and says something and then apparently aren't again this could be ironic
but the what the headman does is actually come forward and cotton and recite one of the teachers teachings and young earth and lupu seems to criticize the head monk for that and then yeah song comes forward and says something and the teacher and yon some talk back and forth for a while
and the teacher says
basically the teacher says pretty good say more and it not everything
i have any content
ironing ironing he actually has to have a rhythm to it to and so you don't just say ironic thing i'm rhonda thing i ran a thing so i think
and i'm not being ironic that when the teacher says pretty good say more he wasn't being ironic
and and then the elder ja song says
i can't say it on the teacher says i don't care if you can say it all or not
so i think he did he did the actually feel he was actually saying on song you're doing well and then he invited him to come
later
to continue the dialogue and they did
and to me
more and more it's just a wonderful example of
of freedom and and of freedom and creativity the way they played in the final night of the teachers life
i'm sorry you there's a typo
there's a typo in the published version i fortunately have a manuscript of this story before it was published which has corrected i'm i'm robyn a right to shambala and tell him
that this table which makes a story that mix a conversation with the first parts okay but that final conversation in the night doesn't make sense to where they have it there's a there's one thirty they're saying that young son said something that the teacher said and they also left out one of the lines that young songs
so there are so he did well to to realize that didn't make sense
yes
i'm to try to know that you've gotten rid of the good foot go goose is another wouldn't go
yeah so
another part of the fun of this case is that lupu his great grandfather was a guy named the boat man
and so he was a guy who after he finished his training
he he kind of like didn't want to be a formal you know habit of a monastery so we did as he just he just went and made his living ferrying people across one of them famous legs of china and he didn't tell people by the way year
your fairy man day is a noted zen master
named the boat man
and so i my feeling is that as he was as he was doing this
he was a master at focusing on his job and not trying to figure out how to do it
and it wasn't and there was in somebody said do you know how bout that wouldn't go and i say it probably okay if somebody got on the boat has started selling would wouldn't give to some of the rioters
some of the people on the boat might say what the the captain doesn't want to use the word and gross phenomena use it and then i'll tell him where to go
so i think when you're really focused when you really concentrated
it helps you not use something else to figure out that your concentrated if your concentrated you you aren't thinking about whether your concentrated when you're not concentrated
you might be thinking about about whether you're concentrated are not a lot of people think they're not concentrated
and they get kind of involved in that so they don't realize that they're concentrated when you're concentrated if the thought that you're not concentrated arises he just let it go
because it's unless you're unless you're focusing on that anon distraction as your concentration object
when you're concentrated you're not actually evaluating your concentration you're only when you're concentrated you losing you're doing with their concentration is giving it away
you're not trying to hold onto it and you're not trying to figure out what to do next
so you're ready to
you know
ha maneuver in the clouds without trying to get anywhere or avoid anything
but not if not trying to avoid things but trying to have a a subtle
appropriate relationship
joachim any other feedback
comments questions yes
you're dealing with what
ah
that's the that's a precipitous straight as yeah
the straight suck
and what makes them worth living is to be creative with them
if you've got a nice job that's precipitous straight to because at any moment it can turn into sauk city
but if your creative with it
beings are liberated
and being a teacher in law situations as lot of pressure on you not to be creative
avoid paradox and irony you know
and that that that often as appropriate if people aren't aren't ready to play with you
maybe it's not appropriate yet
so the irony
is is waiting for the right moment it's not always appropriate
it just that although it's not always appropriate
it may be necessary at a certain point
if people not ready to play then you don't necessarily bring out the materials of play
however if they want to play than you may need these materials in order to initiate the space where we play together
bodhisattvas do not play alone
they do not play but their their vows to play with others
and paradox and
aye or nay
initiated into this into the space between
any other offerings
yes
how are dependent is it on the other person what are
yes
right
as possible or even if everything can't be ironic
if things were it not ironic than they wouldn't there be paradoxical
but and when you're being if you're if you are offering irony to me i that's basically unless you think i'm not going to get it if you think i'm if you're offering a to mean you think i'm not going to get it then you think than you done your it's an insult my intelligence that you think i won't get it
and then you shouldn't give it to me if you think i'm stupid
so when you offer irony thinking the person has a chance to get it it's a compliment to them because it takes it takes curiosity inflexibility for them to like hold these the literal and the intended
or to wonder every time anybody says anything to you
could they be ironic
like one time security says to me
he said
i know you won't be calm arrogant because of this thing
and i thought could he be saying i mean could he be
could he be saying that i won't get arrogant because
make for critical could he be saying that i wouldn't get arrogant or is he saying that i couldn't get arrogant because i i might get arrogant
why would he say it
another time i i i moved a
sabaton which means up you know cover cushion for sitting i moved it with my foot and he turned to the person standing next to me he said we do not move is times with our feet and that person
an interesting response and i thought whoa look look at the way he teaches
me
so now whenever i see of sabaton and i'm standing and i have feet there it is
so i think it is good to throw
be ready for everything anybody saying is actually
now what they mean
and they may or may not know it
what you are
come not that would fully mean by that
oh yeah
but i think it's important to remember
yesterday actually always look people are saying is now what they mean that that the words pointed to me
well
language question your tongue but meaning and i would i would say more intention
he also
we use words try to communicate
the linguistic but sometimes sometimes we use a word that the opposite of what we think is the intention
yeah
we actually had we actually have an intention than we choose a were in which is the opposite and we do that because we when we wish we we might do that because we wish we i wish could be that we want to take another step deeper into compassion we want to invite this person into a deeper
relationship than just saying the literal meaning
we want we watched a we want to invite the person into the space between us
to this and then and and and then not now that we're in that space now we can start using cloud-based to talk to each other
gemini think
why i think that i i have noticed the personally i often use a little bit of iron a dash were in my communication that are prepared to the other person's not yet have you been doing that with me
yeah
i missed quite a few
but it's okay
i appreciate you telling me finally
i'll i'll be more careful well
is it happening now is not sarcasm or not not sarcasm is more sarcasm might be that
you use iron a i don't think the person will get it so for example like one of my favorite movies is the big lebowski
and i often use lines from that movie in my conversation to do with me
while not very often with you
i'm going to
you'll understand the ha ha ha
but when i just made by is i made by the koch brothers lot of people use lines for the is it
connect with your other called classic movies in their conversations and and there's the people who get it the people who don't get it but they really still gets the meaning there's just more layers to or deaths data summaries
the former irony but it's not like an opposite
you're not the point is
yeah we're clouds john and points
so you know
i welcome you to say things that do not have points or hooks
yes
he didn't say that they shouldn't he just said ah how dumb would he say for your era he did say just do not do anything but just don't do that yeah right he did say that to his some group
and and his successor the one who have the and this and this is this is a time when one of his his main students came forth and became his successor at that moment
at that moment he became as that was that was his dharma transmission moment where it came forward and yelled at his teacher and again part of the situation was he used at the t lin geez
treasury his actually yelling at his treasury
so a student came and yelled at him he used the teachers treasury of yelling to destroy the teachers treasury of yelling and after that there was really no more good yelling in the tradition
so i said do not destroy my pract my teaching which is often yelling and hitting and the student came and yelled at him and then he acknowledged he has destroyed my teaching and
in in parentheses he's the dharma successor this it's been successfully transmitted now because he's destroyed it and he used it to destroy it
are you a lot of people thought that loopholes the wouldn't be a salute one goose team with us for to that loop was just one big wooden goes
yeah he's a he's a goose that saying i don't use me
but
let's see let's talk to me about how you're not you show me by the way you talk to me that you're not using me let's have a conversation a demonstrates that you're not using me
i don't have little bit time left i gotta find out who won't use me but don't just say you're not going to use me talk to me in a way that demonstrates that you're not using me
yeah tough
isn't it
tough isn't it
but still try try to do the tough thing please
yes
your current understanding we you speak up
you thought the wooden goose as dharma
your current understanding as the dharma are you in your current understanding it
yeah
no
wouldn't wish not to drama
hmm
yeah it is right it's not the dharma
so you should it end so you should not use it
do not use the dharma
to figure out do not use to the truth to figure out what to do
yes
not to what
not to trust what thing away
oh yeah we said don't he said don't destroy it
no he didn't out the game shirt
no they would they were tossed away he he he didn't guarantee that they would be tossed away that they'd be destroyed because
it required somebody to be there if it to in some groups of people if he'd say please don't destroy my treasure to rock dramas people were said well of course not master we want to mess with your teaching we want we want destroy your great teaching
so if you saying that does not guarantee that somebody will
do with your ironically telling them not to do but this guy didn't do it
and he didn't throw it away and that's how it gets transmitted by being thrown away
yeah by throwing it away while he did throw it away but by throwing it away it it's reborn again fresh ha
yeah and now we should throw it away
so that it lives and i and and i think we did we did it right we threw it away didn't we
you have more to say
well you're welcome just do it
you fry conversational style
riyadh in all these for
grab the be to just water
it was
when he started to the after a year past i seen that i like both up his work it should be
you know you voted off the future and happen to be interested and i started reading because hundred thousand pages long
was it david foster wallace
and even in the prologue and he says it says many people read this one
i and they hope so you should read it's like anything
and color and some other side of the week ago
the party
i said oh i remember
and was funny because like the classical a little plate clash there's something but i got to oversee and just finally
i ideas
that i support the be a little creek park mich
anyway it's funny because i'm wondering what happens to the while i was listening
that first time where i mean that those cars gallipoli back
right
ciao
why we i have and were engaged with that
i would have
seeing the iron eat or like he was
i was like
dealing with who literally well who you're dealing with is deal with a gentleman tell me you didn't work at a literal and sometimes i think i was in part of his family you know just like us all to satisfy
and i wasn't i
happy here
are you meeting me now that i feel people i think it's just have that much
well i invite you to meet me
what were the date who they'd be
a problem is julie
pardon a julie date or ask what's a moduli date
years
kind of the jewel what is really neat in
how's your take a day and he
he a very sweet
so
yeah tell him go ahead and just
yeah
any other feedback
yes
whoo
well when you say that nine to serve opening my mind just to see if i can see examples of being ironic
yeah i'm just i'm just thinking about it was the ironic
yeah
huh
i'm thinking of one example and i don't know if this is this is doesn't sound like irony as i started to tell it
but
one story i i've told often is a story about this person who
ah
was quite ah
quite developed i believe
as a spiritual teacher
and he and he was you know reflecting on himself and his understanding and wondering
if he if he's understanding was authentic
and he was he was a person who was already teaching many people
but he's still sort of wondered how he was doing
and a deity came to visit him and told him that he has understanding was not too good
but that there was someone available who could actually help him and bring his understanding to for comment in this person's name was shocking money buddha and he wasn't such and such a place
so he set out to meet the buddha
and
ah
he answers
i'm starting to see the irony here it comes
ah
and so he started going towards where he heard the buddha was and the buddha tells it and around that same time the buddhism has these abilities i guess as clairvoyance he's aware that this person's coming to see him and he says to his
his students he says i'm gonna go and i'm going to take a walk
and i'm not going to take an entourage with me
so if the if shakyamuni buddha was walking around with a lot of monks you start as they all got there comes here comes a big teacher right he didn't do that so he was walking kind knives like incognito but
without his glamour so to speak so he's traveling and he he's traveling to meet this person and root and they meet at a at a city sort of halfway between the where the two of them were
and when the border comes to the town he knows for this person is and he goes to the place for this person is
and this person staying at in a shed of a potter so it goes to the potter and he says i served you have a place like is stay for the night and the potter says venerable sir
i do but there's someone stay now already
you can go ask him
and if start with him it's fine with me so the buddha goes to see this person who's coming to see the buddha
and the buddha a surgeon or hello excuse me may i stay with you
and
the and am the man says
kind of like sure man you can stay with me as room so they're staying together and they're both sitting in meditation through the night and the buddhist looking at this person and thinking this is quite a good meditator
and then i think in the morning the buddha says to him
under whom are you studying
and the man says
i'm studying under shakyamuni buddha
and then the buddhist as have you ever met him and man says no
and bruises ah
if you met him when you recognize him in the guy says no i wouldn't
is this ironic
and then the vertices perhaps you'd like to hear some discourse on on the dharma and the man says yeah i would and in the buddha gives his lovely discourse
which goes on for a while and is really quite lovely
but not not tonight i'm thinking this whole thing was really ironic
he's given this teaching which is a good teaching but what is really saying is
it looks like he's saying this this business but actually what isn't what he sang is the buddhist talking to you
the lotus sutra square not enough the whole lot of citizen around it but anyway this he's given his teaching which stands up which has meaning in itself and you can study it but in context this is
this in context the whole thing's ironic
because he's given this this is not that this balls
it's like somebody here's another one
somebody comes to learn arithmetic from a mathematician
and the mathematician teachers jesus some arithmetic
not that that's not a good example
so here is so anyway the boot and gives us talk to the guy is talking away and as he's talking the guy wakes up in the middle of the talk
he wakes up and what does he wake up to he wakes up to who's talking to him that's what he wakes up to but the boot is not teaching i am the buddha talking to you this is what you came to meet here i am hello
he gives a teaching which is a perfectly good teaching and and which is true in the sense of according to his isn't that his analyzing
his analyzing the mine actually
but that's not that's and that's what the literal meaning is is on his analyzing the mind but the intended meaning is to show the buddha
the buddha's teaching you how to analyze your mind and many teachings he's showing how to look at your mind but actually the that's not the literal that's the literal meaning the the implied meaning is guess who's talking to you yes who's delivering this to you
it's not just that you understand your mind which is put the good but understanding your mind is actually meeting buddha but boot it doesn't hit this case you didn't say you came to meet the buddha well i'm the buddha that you came to meet hello aren't you a happy now know what he didn't do that he did with the buddha does give to give talk
and as the guy understood the guy due to it was however
he didn't say hold a bug i mean hold a master i'd get it
he let him finish the talk because he wasn't done
you not to finish it i got them i got the important or he finished it and at the end he said
my teacher has gone
i've come to me my teacher and my teacher has come and then he apologized for being we're not seeing who it was and for talking to his teacher in a kind of disrespectful way
and i can see how you maybe not maybe not see that but
i'm
again this is something to try to put yourself in his shoes
he he he didn't know who it was
i didn't know who you were i didn't know
who you were an i treated you
well actually like i told you before he was treating him as though he wasn't the buddha he was treating the buddha has told the border wasn't a buddha
and he was sorry and the good it and said no no no problem he said that was the that was that was not good that you did that however the fact that you notice it and admit it that is the turning of the dharma wheel
so this is a i thank you very much for your question because i mean i didn't get until now that in fact the buddha is usually being ironic because the buddha's giving these teachings but the buddha in early the early teachings of buddha he doesn't say actually i'm getting the tissues but really what i'm doing is i'm
here talking to you so you can meet me and me is not the person you see
in this case he saw this person but that wasn't the buddha the buddha who is who he met when he woke up
and he actually saw the buddha and the boot is not this guy over there
and he didn't come to meet that guy over there he came to meet the buddha and where to meet the booty and minimum in the space this creative space that you enter when you open to irony and paradox and creativity you enter that space and their you meet the buddha
so thanks for your question that that's a that it story which i i didn't realize that he was being ironic
yeah
now
yeah that's my story where the boot is being ironic
where mass murderers chasing him
and he seems to be walking away
the litter the literal meaning is is walking away the implied meaning is i'm not moving i'm with you on your friend
raises the daisy that's good ha
that's an improvement actually buddha raise a daisy
it's like that too yeah it's like that too it's like here's a flower right
here's here's a flower that's the literal meaning as he raised a flower
the intended meaning is
i'm here to meet you and one person got it got the joke
just one life and so so sometimes the the ironies fine because it doesn't disturb the other people
yes
didn't i tell this story previously in this class
i said that couple weeks ago right
yeah i think i said it
does the the buddhist talking to his students and the buddha says only the buddha can see who the body sought bizarre
and then this senior student comes up and says well then prohibition we treat everybody as though they might be a bodhisattva and the buddhist said out
so
if we don't treat everybody as though the a sought for a buddha we're setting ourselves up for a mistake
so it doesn't isn't what is no skin off your nose to treat everybody like a buddha and so there were a buddha not gonna hurt you
just like i was talking to somebody recently who said that her co-workers she felt like a weren't being respectful of her and i said well you could you could just say that you requested to be respectful and i said it doesn't actually it's not actually that much more difficult to talk to people in a respectful way than a disrespectful way
way it doesn't take a lot a lot of extra work
like if you say to somebody
cry some water
you know it's not that much more difficult to say that in a respectful way like may i please have some water
it it's not you know so actually it would be a good idea if we treated everybody is the third buddha and then if we don't treat me like the buddha and they turn out to be we've prompt that we would apologize and if we did it the and if we don't treat em
respectfully and they turn out to tell us when i'm really not the buddha
but you should have treated me that way we should we should agree with them
okay so let's try to do that
yes
carrie
image
well that's good that that be at olivet much not not cannot care at all and just care too much or too little yeah
yeah
exactly he was meditating with the buddha the buddha talking to him i think supported him to enter the space between caring too much about the meeting the buddha and caring too little about this person
and so the buddha helped him
they meditated together and spending that time together
the guy got concentrated in the border than the buddha's words helped him get ready to not care too much about meeting the buddha or too little about listening to this person
and again a lot of people are very kind
but they do not wish to open to caring
to did not wish to open to not caring too much
lot of people are kind
and they're not into caring too little
because they rate
a lot of people carrying too little but those people are not usually the people who are practicing compassion
the people are practicing compassion would generally speaking beyond the side of carrying too much
actually there problem are people going to see the buddha a journalist and too much into taking seeing that it too seriously
that's the wooden duck right in the other people sometimes think it's not the wooden duck
so not the wooden duck also is not going to be helpful to say this isn't a wooden duck
but this isn't an example that you could use your notice this that this isn't the way to go because the wouldn't duck actually does go through nicely
it does it gets rude you just shouldn't use it that's taking it too seriously
but also you shouldn't say well that the wooden ducks no good because it does actually go quite you know if you could do that there would be good
another example of body soft are like wooden ducks
there are there often compared than the the wooden duck or the wooden goose isn't the common when to come to common ones are scarecrow they're like a scarecrow other example is a burn like a scared dear
they just they don't they don't like think about how to be bodhisattvas they just are bodhisattvas because of what people need that than their that
so you know scared year is mister bamboo tubes that fill up with water and then when they fill up enough that tilt over and pour the water out and then they fall back go
voice offers are like that
and you might think well that that isn't a scarecrow so that's not a bodhisattva but yes
a leap a leaping is this a leaping scarecrow
this could be a leaping what it called i'm scared scared years sleep okay ready fact lindsay
yeah
yeah
so she she was struggling with the same on that lindzey was
no
i i told your story about my dog right
my one of my earlier dogs
the one the one who was pregnant
you know that one
so my my dog or know she wasn't pregnant she was in heat she was in heat
and she and she wanted to go outside
and there were some male dogs outside that one to go outside to but i didn't want to go outside because i did not want to have a lot of puppies
but she wanted to go outside
and i didn't let her go outside
i was trying to control i didn't want grandchildren
anyway she somehow she escaped
but i shortly after she escaped i got her so she was running down the stairs
i saw right down the stairs and there were a bunch of males bread the bottom the stairs waiting for her like a or through the you know through the walls
and as she's run down there i said okay you know hikes i accepted i said okay you know apia grandparent
ladder has puppies i accepted
i know i was trying to control her but then somehow when i saw running down there i gave up
k
but then when it came time to select son-in-law
i started to control again
there was a beautiful big white husky and then another person who
and
i want hundred you'd be with a husky
but the other one this one who i won't describe
was quicker than the husky
so then again i tried to control who the son in law would be
and i tried i again i tried to assert my control i told her to common house
and she was very obedient and as an so she did cut come in a house but
she brought him with her
and then again i realized how stupid i was
so i said okay
the dog repeatedly taught me how stupid i was to try to control her
over and over i'd say i give up and then i'd try controller again
so again
the situation teaches us we should play and we start playing and then again with tighten up and try to control and then we see how stupid that is which are playing and again we tied round there's a rhythm minute it's not permanent you don't enter their you have to keep entering
this place where or not
trying to control are playmates
where would give up using
wooden geese and current hooks in our relationships we want to realize something
and without trying to control and then we with why that's where to know it
try to control on stupid okay like up
back and forth
how many times do we have to be taught
quite a few
i thank you for coming to play with me and each other
may we meet again in the bodies of the playground