I have a plan that I'd like to tell you about for this practice period. The plan is that I will study with you six different ways of approaching breath awareness. These six approaches were called by the Chinese meditation teacher Jiri, the six subtle gates to the truth. six subtle Dharma gates.

[01:03]

I would also like to study with you the six perfections. This may be too ambitious a project, but that's my plan. At the center of all this study of these sixes, these two sets of sixes, is the basic practice of Buddha's way, the basic practice of the middle way. These practices I just mentioned I see as kind of

[02:06]

in a mandala around the central practice of the middle way, the central practice of being in balance, of making the appropriate response or the appropriate expression each moment. And these six breath meditations and six transcendent practices are ways to understand the central practice of the middle way and ways to express the central practice of the middle way. The six subtle dharmagates are called following,

[03:19]

Excuse me, counting is the first one. The Dharmagate of counting the breath. The next one is the Dharmagate of following the breath. Next is realizing that the breath is stopped. Next is contemplating the breath. The next is to return the breath. The sixth is purifying the breath awareness. Those six. The six perfections are giving, number one. Ethics number two. Patience number three.

[04:26]

Enthusiasm number four. Concentration number five. And wisdom number six. Bodhidharma's teacher, the Indian master, Prajnatara, which means wisdom jewel, once had lunch with an East Indian raja. After lunch, the raja asked the teacher, Master, why do you not read scriptures?"

[05:32]

And Prajnatara said, this poor wayfarer, when breathing in, does not dwell in body or mind. When breathing out, does not get entangled in myriad circumstances. I always recite this scripture, one hundred, one thousand, one million scrolls. This is the central practice he's referring to. Breathing in. not dwelling in body or mind, not dwelling in the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, or consciousness.

[06:50]

Breathing out, not dwelling in the 18 realms of form, of color, of eye, of sight consciousness, of sounds, of ear, or ear consciousness, and so on up to mind objects, mind organ, and mind consciousness. While he's breathing out, he doesn't get entangled in any of these realms. He doesn't dwell in body or mind. It means, practicing the middle way, it means you don't indulge

[07:58]

in your feelings, in your physical sensations, in your thoughts, in your opinions, in your conceptions, in your awareness. You don't indulge in it. You just let it be. And you also don't deny it. Not dwelling does not mean you deny it or run away from it. In other words, you have the proper relationship to everything, which is called non-attachment. But non-attachment is neither staying away nor getting involved. While he breathed in and breathed out, this is the way he practiced. Breathing in and breathing out.

[09:15]

There's your breath that you're aware of. He's pointing to a way of relating to this breathing without dwelling in it or forgetting about it. Clearly aware of the breathing without touching it or turning away from it. A pure, loving relationship with your breath, with your body. Not a clingy relationship, not a negligent, uncaring relationship. A relationship where you listen to your breath and your breath listens to you.

[10:18]

where you recognize your breath and also you assert your own position in the face of your breath. I am here, you are there. I listen to you, please recognize me. I recognize you, please listen to me. This is the kind of relationship he had with his breath. This is how not to get involved with breath or with people. One dance you can do with your breath is called counting. When you first learn to dance you go One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, or what is it?

[11:31]

Slow, slow, cha, cha, cha. Slow, slow, cha, cha, cha. Slow, slow, cha, cha, cha. Or slow, slow, quick, quick. Slow, slow, quick, quick. Slow, slow, quick, quick. When you first learn to dance, you count. Unless you already have got the beat. You're in a dance class, you're a beginner until you can keep the beat and carry on a conversation at the same time. A conversation other than one, two, three, one, two, three, or slow, slow, quick, quick, slow, slow. How are you? Slow, slow, quick, quick. You're still a beginner if you have to keep counting.

[12:35]

But if you keep counting long enough, pretty soon, the counting's extra. So, if you want to, we could do a kind of... We could actually, this week, we could all be very beginners at meditating on our breath. We could all, maybe for the next week until next Wednesday, we could all just go back to the very beginning practice of counting our breath. I'm willing to do it too, although it's really very beginning. I'm willing to be a rank beginner for one week. After that, I want to go on to something more advanced, following. Now, I probably would be afraid to do such a beginning practice because it might be, you know, someone might, you know, say that I was doing a beginner's practice.

[13:41]

The word might spread and my reputation might be totally damaged. But I know that in 1970, no, 1969, at the beginning of the year, Suzuki Roshi said, let's all count our breath, all of us, and I'll do it too. So we thought, well, if our teacher will do it, I guess we can come down from our advanced meditation practices and do this beginning one. So we did that. And I mentioned to you that in the summer, which is six months later or seven months later, one of the monks at Tassajara said to me, you know, Siddharasi didn't tell us to stop, but I think he stopped, so I'm going to stop. But I'm only suggesting we do it for a week. And so there's a number of ways of doing it, but the way I would suggest is...

[14:45]

that you watch your breath, and as you exhale, as you notice you're exhaling, you count the exhale. And then inhale, and then count the next exhale like that. And count the first one, and then two, and count up to ten, and then when you get to ten, go back to one. This is just a dance that you do with your breath. It's kind of a heavy-handed dance, kind of like cowboy dancing. You can wear your cowboy boots when you do this dance, or your wellingtons. You don't wear your ballet slippers or your high heels on this one, maybe. However, while doing this practice of counting your breath, you can still practice the middle way.

[15:55]

There's no practice that the middle way cannot reach. So here too, while breathing in and breathing out and counting the exhale, you can still watch to see if there's any dwelling in body or mind, if there's any entanglement in any of these realms. See if you can find the way that's not indulgent or hysterical on one side, or compulsive and obsessive and denial on the other. Which is not, oh my God, everything, this is really a big mess, or no problem. Hey man, it's okay, it's cool, no problem. Especially what I'm doing is not a problem. Try to find the middle between it's okay and it's not okay. Between we don't have much time left.

[17:06]

This is really a serious situation. Don't waste any time. You must be serious and relax. It's okay. The way is all pervading. Don't worry. What's the middle place between there? You can practice that while you're counting your breathing, which is actually quite apropos because a lot of people, when they're counting the breathing, get quite upset that they're at their lack of success. I can't do it. And they get quite upset about it. to get so upset that I sometimes suggest I forget the practice entirely. Some other people don't get upset at all and just don't do it. Some other people don't do it and get upset about not doing it. And some people do it successfully, but, you know, they're still complacent.

[18:09]

Again, where is the middle place while you're counting your breaths? See if you can find that middle place. that middle way. As far as I know, Shakyamuni Buddha did not teach counting the breath. It was a later invention. Perhaps when he was alive, Everybody kind of had the beat. Nobody needed to count in those days. Breath was extremely obvious when the Buddha was around. It's kind of like breath is happening everywhere. You could feel the Dharma breeze all the time.

[19:15]

But after the Buddha died, things got more coarse, and people needed to count. So I would suggest then we count for the next week in our sitting. Enjoy the dance. Breath counting for one week. Longer if you wish, but next week I will suggest that we do the next one. Following. I haven't been doing this counting for a while, but now that I started to do it again just now, I remember something that I used to do is that when counting I would make the number go long.

[20:46]

I wouldn't just say, I wouldn't be like exhaling, go one, and then just let the breath sort of like go out there and out there and out there without the number with it. I would usually say, I actually wait until the breath exhale started for a while. I get into the exhale and then towards about a third of the way through the exhale or halfway through the exhale, then I start saying, one. Because I remember that it's at the end of the exhale that I would lose track of the number. As the exhale drifts off into... that soft space there at the end, that's where the number kind of has a hard time standing up. Was that a one or a six? So save your counting energy for the second, for the latter part, that sometimes it helps you stay with that latter part. The latter part of the breath is when you start to relax,

[21:47]

Usually, most people start to relax towards the end. As you start to relax, it's hard to keep track of anything specific like that. So that sometimes helps. And there's a number of ways to feel the breath too. One way to feel it is to feel the breath around the nose, to feel the breath as it goes out of the nose and back into the nose. And also, it feels slightly different when it's going out than when it's coming in, especially if it's kind of cold outside. If it's cold outside, it's going to feel warmer going out than when it's coming in. And those little hairs in your nose feel a little different when they're going out than when they're getting pulled in.

[22:53]

And of course, any kind of mucus in there is going to be different when it's getting kind of like blown out or sucked in. So there's a difference, right? And the difference is quite specific. It's located right around here. So the virtue of concentrating on the feeling of the breath around the nose is that the concentration point is quite sharp. Some people don't need that sharp. They're naturally sharp, so that kind of meditation maybe isn't so attractive. If you're feeling kind of dull and having some trouble getting a tactile sense to track the breath, then the nose may help you. the awareness around the nose. Another way which I myself do is to feel the breath going out the nose on the exhale and I feel it going in an arc out of my nose, an arc down on the exhale.

[23:57]

And then on the end of the exhale I feel the breath coming to my abdomen below my navel and then entering my body there At the beginning of the inhale, it enters my body through my mudra, through the ellipse of my mudra. It comes in there, enters my body, and then comes up through my body on the inhale. At the end of the inhale, it reaches the back of my nose. And an exhale starts coming out of my nose. So it makes an ellipse. And I feel you know, halfway through the inhale, the breath's halfway up through my torso. And halfway on the exhale, it's halfway down to my, below my navel. That's another way you can feel it. It gives me a more whole-bodied sense of the breath and has a nice round feeling. And also I can use that to be aware of my posture at the same time.

[25:03]

So as the breath moves around, I pick up the part of the posture that's related to that. So I sort of do the, I do the sort of the, check the back, check my back on the inhale and my front on the exhale. But if you're feeling a little sleepy and having trouble, you might try this sharp concentration until you get sharp again and awake. Then you can use that sharpness maybe to bring that sharpness into a full-bodied awareness so you can feel your breath throughout your whole body. So that's the first of the six ways to dance with breath.

[26:21]

And then there's the first of the six perfections, or the six transcendents, the practice of As I mentioned before, this meditation that Prajnatara did on breathing, or this meditation which he did while he was breathing, was basically a practice of non-attachment. Buddha is basically a person who is unattached. person who doesn't deny others or deny objects and doesn't indulge in objects.

[27:52]

The practice of giving is also a practice in developing non-attachment or non-clinging. It's primarily concerned with helping us overcome any stinginess any feeling of holding something. Giving is basically the same as enlightenment. Enlightenment is primarily to help us overcome attachment or stinginess, holding on to our body and mind.

[28:59]

It is not just giving someone something, it's giving it with no feeling of resentment or hesitation or regret. A while ago I bought something at a clothing store and the person gave me too much change And I rightly, virtuously said, I think you gave me too much change and gave her the change. And she said something like, I don't know what it was. I wish there was more people like you. I felt pretty good about that. However, I also kind of regretted that I gave it to her. I did give it to her.

[30:15]

which was right, but I didn't steal the money. But there was some regret. Even though she praised me, I still, on some other level, wished I could have got the praise and the money. That regret means that I really didn't give it to her. I mean, I gave it to her, but that's not the practice of giving. The practice of giving is when you give it back and you do not at all regret it. Or you could say it's the part of you that does not regret it at all. That's the giving part of you. That's the enlightened part of you. Which is the part of you that feels actually just as good made me a little bit better, even, that the store got the money instead of you, especially since they like the money because it's their business.

[31:18]

And I think I've also told you the story about one time somebody gave me this beautiful new automatic pencil and I brought it home and my wife said, oh, that's neat, can I have it? And my feeling was, no. But rather than give it to her because I was so ashamed of being so stingy, here's my poor wife wants a pencil, I won't give her a pencil? I mean, really? Really? It wasn't that big a deal. But I didn't want to give it to her, and I felt fairly ashamed. But to tell you the truth, that's where I was at. To give it to her would just be covering up who I really was. And also, even though she might have thought, or somebody else who was watching might have Well, that was pretty generous of them.

[32:36]

Or they might have even thought it wasn't generous at all. It's nothing at all, just a pencil. But anyway, it might have looked pretty good. But inside, anyway, I wouldn't have given it. Inside, I would have regretted it. Inside, I might have resented it and felt like she and whoever else she might tell were coercing me. But I really feel that... There isn't much merit in that, giving something before you're ready to give it, especially since you might get angry later and even steal it back. So I said no, and I did not give it to her. But I waited, and I worked on it a little bit, and not too many hours later, I was ready to give it, and I wanted to give it, and there was no resentment, and there was no regret, and I gave it.

[33:39]

And it wasn't that big a deal to give it, because I didn't resent it, and I didn't want it, and it was pretty joyful actually. When you give in the proper way, in other words, when you give, period, as a spiritual practice, there must be no resentment. now if somebody needs something from you uh... they really need it and you still want to give it still you might give it sometime but it's not a spiritual practice in that case it's just a practical thing for their for their benefit but you're destroying it or I'm destroying it by my resentment the resentment the regret The stinginess is still there and you just go through the motions. So a lot of the practice of giving should be done inside.

[34:43]

And sometimes you have to think about things before you give them for quite a while until you can generate inside a positive feeling about it. And then keep working on it more and more until you feel quite joyful about giving it. And if you think about it, even a tiny, tiny gift, like a penny maybe these days is maybe too tiny to give to anybody because they might feel you're insulting them, but a blade of grass, especially one that was cut by the lawnmower that you just happened to find. A blade of grass, first of all, if you think about it before you pick it up, think about it for a minute or an hour or a couple of days until you're kind of like really feeling happy about giving it. If you give that blade of grass to somebody, even somebody who doesn't particularly want it, if you really love feeling and really feel great about giving it, it is very beneficial.

[35:49]

it will also then prepare you, since you have such a good time giving a blade of grass, you're getting in the mood and you'll be able to give other things. Again, you may have to work yourself up into it, but you can work yourself up into it. The feeling of joy. The joy of non-clinging. As Dogen Zenji says, you know, people are hard to change. Basically, what bodhisattvas vow is sentient beings are numberless. I vow to change them. I vow to help them to change. I vow to help them to get out of their rut. But it's hard to change people because ruts are powerful. the first way to change people is by giving.

[36:55]

The most gross entrenchment, the first way to get it to move is by giving. Other kinds of more subtle entrenchment and attachment you get with other practices. But the real heavy-duty, hardened cruelty can be turned and changed by giving. And if it doesn't get changed by the giving, what you do then is give more. And if that doesn't work, what you do is give more. And you keep giving more and more until finally it breaks and the person changes. Eventually, If you give enough, everyone would change. You know that story in, what is it, Les Miserables?

[38:03]

This kind of nice guy, actually, steals some bread for his family and gets put in jail. And because he's strong and has some will, he particularly aggravates the prison warden. And the prison warden gives him a really tough time and brutalizes him for a pretty long time. And the guy gets kind of mean. not exceptionally, you know, world-class mean, but just, you know, full-scale hardened criminal. And he escapes from prison and he goes to town and starts stealing stuff from people. I think he even beats somebody up in the process of stealing something or kills somebody. And then he, I don't know, I think he runs away. Somehow he runs into a Catholic priest and the priest puts him up for the night. And in the middle of the night, he gets up and he steals the guy's plates, I think, his silver plates.

[39:06]

Okay, candlesticks. I'll give, you know, candlestick. I think it's the plates, actually, but we'll say candlesticks for your benefit, I'll say candlesticks. So he steals the candlesticks and he gets caught. And the police bring him back to the priest and say, we found this guy who just stole your, according to Reb, plates, and according to these other people, candlesticks. And the priest said, he didn't steal them. I gave them to him. And the police say, oh, really? Okay. So they leave. And the guy says, how could you do that? I stole those. And the priest said, no, you didn't. Here, take these two. And then in one version of the story, he gives him the candlesticks also. In the other version of the story, he gives him the plates and a bunch of other stuff.

[40:13]

He just gives him all the stuff, all of the stuff. So the guy is, first of all, when he said, no, you didn't, the guy kind of goes, huh, what? He's starting to turn, you know. He's starting to turn. His mind's starting to turn. He's kind of going, what? What? Is this the way the world is? And then he doesn't quite turn all the way, so the priest just loads the rest of his stuff on. And he turns all the way and broke down. And the priest said, I just bought your soul. And from now on, you can never again do a bad thing. And he, from then on, couldn't do anything bad for the rest of his life. And he practiced the same practice. I like to tell some stories about, once in a while, about Christian priests doing something cool, right? That was cool. Of course, it was actually, I don't know if a Christian priest really did that.

[41:15]

That's something that was Balzac, though, right? Is that Balzac? Victor Hugo. Anyway, Victor Hugo had that idea and gave it to the priests. It's nice that some people sometimes give priests some credit for something, right? Right? So I don't know. This week I think that the priests should all do something like that. Or better yet, the non-priests do something like that and put the priest to shame. Let's have a little, what we call, giving contest here. See who can give most next week, the priests or the non-priests. See who can do the most astounding act of generosity, the most shocking, mind-bending giving.

[42:21]

Now I asked you to count your breath, that's quite a bit, but now to suggest a practice like giving. Not only would what you do start changing other people, but of course, first of all, you change yourself. See if you can find where you're stingy. Some small-scale stingy, not big-scale stingy, but something small that you're stingy about. Start with that. Some small thing that wouldn't be that difficult to dispense with, but just a little bit of chat to, like an automatic pencil or something, or maybe a new one And don't give any of this stuff to me. Give it to somebody else. Okay. Give it to somebody who wants it. Give it to somebody who asked for it. But also give it to somebody who didn't necessarily ask for it. But don't give them anything that won't be good for them. Don't give them anything that they wouldn't be able to ever give away. Don't put them in a hard position. But first of all,

[43:31]

Before you give it to anybody, think about something that you're a little bit stingy about. Meditate on that. Think about it until you start feeling, well, maybe it would be kind of good to give it and see if you start feeling happy about the thought of giving it. Yeah, that would be actually kind of cool to do that. Uh-huh. And then if you never give it, it doesn't matter that much because nobody's expecting you to give anything anyway. But if you get to that place where you feel totally joyful at doing it, you might actually do it. That's not the important point. The important point is in your heart you feel like, geez, two days ago I was kind of stingy about that. Today I'm happy to give it to anybody. And, God, I feel really good about that. So this week, please take on this practice until next Wednesday. Take on the practice of meditating on giving. Try to think of everything you're doing, actually, as giving. Try to think of your sitting, your breath following, as giving.

[44:41]

Not something you're just doing for yourself. but something that you're willing to make as something which I'm sitting here, but I also make my sitting a gift. And again, don't just say it, but think about giving your sitting to all sentient beings or to each individual sentient being. Think of giving your sitting to Rick. If not Rick, then somebody who you can give it to and then gradually get somebody you feel good about until finally you're so happy about giving it to that person that you can be happy about giving it to Rick. Don't give it before, no need to give it, give your sitting to somebody or to everybody until you can give it with no resentment, with no regret. Really, completely joyfully give it. Then give it. And once you get in that mood, then every, once you hit that place and find that place, then every time you sit, remember to make your sitting a gift.

[45:51]

give your sitting. Also, give your sitting cushion and give your zafu and give your zabutan to everybody. Give your assigned seat to everybody. Of course, if you're giving it to everybody, that's going to be hard, but still, be ready to and willing and happy about giving it to someone. Tom? Tom? Yeah, that's right. That's called regret. So watch out for that. You know Nagarjuna's disciple? Nagarjuna's great disciple, his name was Aryadeva, which means noble god or noble divinity.

[47:02]

That was his name in the early part of his career. And after he was fully trained, Nagarjuna got invited to go debate some big tough shaman yogi up in northern India. And Nagarjuna said, you know, actually, I don't feel like going. Would you go for me? And he gave him some instructions about how to defeat this guy in debate. And he also said, on the way up there, you may be asked to give something, to sacrifice something very valuable. And if you're asked, don't worry, just give it. But you must not regret giving it, no matter what happens. So while he was going up there, he ran into a blind beggar And the beggar said, can I have one of your eyes? And he said, sure. And he pulled his eyeball out of his head and gave it to the beggar. And he walked on.

[48:03]

And he heard some grumbling behind him. He turned around, and the beggar was trying to put the eyeball in his head. He didn't have proper surgical equipment. He was just trying to squash it in there. and it wasn't working, and the beggar got really mad and he took the eyeball and smashed it on the stump. Unfortunately, Aryadeva did not laugh, but he had a slight feeling of regret that his eyeball was not being put to the proper use. And as a result of that regret, he did not get his eyeball back. And he's got his name changed to Kanadeva, which means one-eyed God. So, before you give anything, especially before you give your eyeball or any other part of your body, consider deeply. Consider it carefully. Don't be afraid to notice that maybe you have some reservation about this.

[49:06]

Think it over. Don't be too impulsive because if you regret it, not only did you lose this thing, but you're worse off than before because now you're angry on top of it. And you don't get credit for the giving. So think it over. One of our friends here had a sister whose kidneys went into failure. And being her brother, he was an ideal candidate for donating his kidneys. He thought it over for quite a while, and he decided not to. Now, another friend of ours has a brother-in-law who needs a kidney, and she's thinking of giving a kidney. And I thought about that, and I thought, now, who would I be ready to give my kidney to? I thought about it. But I tell you, I was thinking about it and I thought, no, I'm definitely going to think about this because I'm not going to give my kidney and then regret it.

[50:14]

But there was some people I thought of, you know, that I thought, no problem, I'm giving the kidney, from my side anyway. Okay. And the more I think about it, it's not really a problem either because it's not like, well, somebody's saying, well, you gave her a kidney. Why didn't you give me one? There's not that kind of a problem because you've got to kind of like need a kidney, right? It's not kind of like, well, you're showing favoritism. Not everybody needed a kidney, but not everybody needs one. So you don't have to worry about that too much, about people comparing. Of course, they might ask you, you gave him a kidney, but would you have given me one if I had needed one? Or would you have given me one if I needed one and you were a proper type of donor? You have to match, you know, you have to match blood and some other stuff, right? It's not just blood type, it's more than that. That's why they often want to get your mom or your brother or sister to do it. But I've read a little bit about people who have made donations of their organs and

[51:28]

The studies I read were that one, they almost all say, after they gave it, they say, you know, it was helpful to that person to give him the organ, but I was helped far more. They got a few more years of life, but I got something that I never had before. If we give... something small or something big like an organ. And we give it with joy and no resentment. It is, well, basically, simply enlightenment. But if you're not careful and you don't honestly admit where you're at and you give it before you're ready, especially if you give a body part, and then your resentment will be proportionately greater then you made a mistake. It wasn't giving. You were just simply acting on some idea in your head about what's good, but you weren't really that person.

[52:34]

It is good to give wholeheartedly and joyfully, but if that ain't where you're at, it don't count. If really you don't want to give it and you're just pushing yourself, forget it. especially when it comes to giving your body. There's lots of cautions in the scriptures about you've got to be fairly advanced before you give your body. So I would suggest you warm up to that kind of thing with some other kinds of giving during the next week. And then after next week, if we wanted to get into body parts, we can discuss it. Did you have a body part raised there, Jim? I have a question. Okay, I take it back.

[53:45]

But still, I caution you to be careful. I'm not saying never give when you still feel some hesitancy. I'm not saying never give that, except when it comes to giving your body. I repeat what I've seen in the scriptures is a warning against giving your body before you're quite advanced, before you have the ability to sort of prove that you'll be able to handle it, because the danger of getting angry about giving away your body is fairly high. So I'm not saying you should never give before you're sure, but I would say consider whether you feel the possibility of resentment, and if you do, be careful. Sometimes if you give a little bit ahead of when you're ready, you find out later that it was really good. You feel, oh, it wasn't so bad after all. I don't have any resentment.

[54:46]

It's okay. That's right. But still... it helps a lot to work yourself up into a fervor, into a state of joy before you give. Because if you're already feeling joyful when you give, you have a good chance of continuing to feel joyful. If you already don't feel joyful and you already feel stingy and you haven't got over the stinginess and you feel bad about it, if you're already resentful, then be careful. But instead of, don't just be careful, also work on trying to develop joy. So as I say, this week, try to think of something that you can give. Just think of something you can give and then think until you feel joyful about giving it. And do that this week. Please. Give that. At least give that effort. And... We could do some kind of like little thing where you could tell people what you've been working on, even.

[55:47]

You could talk about it at the dining room table about, well, you could even say, you could sit there, you know, and keep one of your little, one of your little, like those mushrooms at lunch would have been a good example. When I got there, there were none left. And they really look good. Not today, for example. It's okay that you didn't save any for me, but anyway, today, some of you could have kept one of those, just kept one of those mushrooms on your plate, and you could have just sat there at the table for a while, you know, with the mushroom, just let it sit there, and just after you finished all the other stuff, you could have just sat there and think about giving somebody that mushroom. and sit there, you know, for a while until you started seeing how cool that would be and how happy, how wonderful it would be to give that mushroom, until you actually feel really great, and then maybe offer it to somebody across the table. Would you like this mushroom? If they don't want it, fine. Anyway, you feel good that you really wanted to give it. And you could even say, well, I could give it to myself.

[56:48]

And that would be fine, too. It's okay to give yourself stuff. But if you're going to give yourself stuff, why not think about it beforehand and really get excited about it? In a few minutes, you could give yourself a nice toothbrushing. Think about it before you do it, though, so you can really have it be a nice gift. You could also offer to brush somebody else's teeth. But again, think about it beforehand so that you can get into the feeling of how nice it would be to offer it. If they don't accept, it's no problem for you. You just save a little time and go to bed early. But if they want it, you know, get in there and brush those teeth. But, you know, joyfully. And this can extend to a lot of other things. Basically anything. So brushing teeth, basically what you're standing about there is, I don't know, toothpaste or time or I don't know what.

[57:55]

You don't want to get your hands, somebody else's saliva on your hands, whatever it is. You give yourself in some way that you really feel good about. And you give your practice this way too. You don't have to own something to give it. You can give somebody the Golden Gate Bridge in your heart. Just think about, okay, giving the Golden Gate Bridge to Maya, okay. It feels good. If I think of giving Maya the Golden Gate Bridge, I feel a nice warm feeling in my heart. And it didn't hurt anybody. I didn't get anything out of it other than feeling good. And she doesn't have to carry the bridge. And, you know, we didn't disturb any of the drivers on the bridge. It's very easy. It just feels good. And the same way about our practice, that we're doing this practice.

[58:56]

We don't just do it. It's an act of giving. We sit here and we make the sitting a gift. And we feel joyful at giving the sitting. Anyway, I think you get the idea, right? And I'm... I give you my foolishness in daring to ask you to do this practice this week of giving and the practice of counting your breathing. Two simple practices which are, you know, well, no one can say how great they are. And no one can say how terrible it would be if you don't do it. So please, try these practices this week, discuss them among each other, encourage each other, appreciate each other's effort, and then next week we'll go on to the next Dharma gate and the next perfection.

[59:58]

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