Now the Buddha is sitting here among us with the eyes open. And I remember Suzuki Roshi saying something like, before Buddha, I think he said, before Buddha came into the world, people thought that they needed some great spiritual power, some mystical thing in order to be free. But after Buddha came, people could have a chance to understand that all you need to become free is yourself.

[01:05]

Because the only thing that's not free is yourself. And once you understand what the self is, you become Buddha. But another way I heard that was not so much after the historical Shakyamuni Buddha came into the world and had this historical impact where people no longer tried to get some power to become free, but used the study of self as the path to freedom. Also in your own life, in our own life, before we wake up, we still doubt that it could be this person that could be used as the opportunity for awakening.

[02:32]

But after awakening, we see that in fact we can trust ourselves. And the reason why we can trust ourselves is that our self is not what we thought it was before. So it's not that you should trust your current idea of yourself necessarily, your limited view of yourself, because that is just your limited view of yourself but rather could you trust the teaching that says by studying the view you do have by seeing it in its limitation and seeing the pain it causes and by studying the situation thoroughly you could realize liberation from this narrow view of a separate self

[03:37]

existing by herself. So Buddha walking along with all of the congregation pointed to the ground and said, this is a place to build a sanctuary. Each of you can point to the ground right here and say the same. And then you can use the next breath to build the sanctuary. And not even the breath to build the sanctuary, but use the freshness of the breath to build the sanctuary.

[04:40]

here on this piece of ground, on this piece of earth. When the Buddha points to the ground here where you are and you use the freshness of your next breath, the freshness of your next thought, and realize that that is the sanctuary, The freshness of that thought is the sanctuary. At that time, Buddha smiles. One time I was in a panel discussion with

[05:46]

Trungpa Rinpoche and Joseph Goldstein Rinpoche. And Trungpa Rinpoche said, first thought is best thought. And that was kind of a slogan around Boulder, Colorado at that time. First thought is best thought. And then Joseph Goldstein said, first thought is first thought. And then I said, first thought is not first thought. This is a Dharma symphony. Those statements work very nicely together. First thought is best thought, in a sense.

[06:53]

First thought is fresh thought. The fresh thought is good thought. The first thought coming up out of the ground of being. We should use it. But also, remember that this first thought, forget about calling it best thought. Forget about calling the fresh thought a fresh thought. Don't let it really be fresh and let it just be the first thought. And if you can use this, if you're alert to your experience and you let your experience be your experience, then your experience will not be your experience or your experience will be not experience. The first breath deserves our utmost attention.

[07:57]

The freshness of thought deserves our complete devotion. And the way to be completely devoted to this fresh event is to let it be. And if we let it be completely, it leaps off itself. and realizes liberation from itself and becomes not-itself. In other words, an ordinary fresh thought can become not a fresh thought and that thought can become a sanctuary. That thought can be a Buddha land. That thought can be a teaching for eons. That thought can be a mountain lion running through the hills. That thought can be the wind in December. That thought can be anything because that thought is not a thought. And the reason why it's not a thought is simply because it's just a thought.

[09:02]

But don't just make it theoretical. Apply that teaching of wisdom beyond wisdom to things as they happen here for you. Buddha saved the world so that you can use what happens to you as the ground, as the place of awakening. You don't have to get to some better, higher ground. You can use this experience right now. coming down to this place of ground that Buddha points to, and sitting still there, we can realize that the mind is stopped

[10:33]

that the mind has the nature of being stopped. When the breath and mind meet, they meet or they don't meet. But if you want to talk about their meeting, they always meet in peace. When the mind meets the breath, it is still. And the breath is still, too. When they meet, every moment they meet, the mind is completely concentrated on that breath.

[11:41]

And it is only concentrated at this moment, not in the past and the future. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about in this moment, when the mind touches the breath, when the breath touches the mind, it is totally concentrated, totally at rest in that meeting. This is not something you should force. This is not something you should make happen. This is the way it is. The mind is naturally calm. Our job is to appreciate this, to be devoted to this stopped mind, to make this stopped mind actualized in our life.

[12:43]

The way that this is done is called kindness. It's called giving. It's called ethics. It's called patience. It's called enthusiasm. It's called concentration. It's called wisdom. So I brought some what are called Dharma tools In Japan they call them dogo. Do means path and go means equipment or tools. And they have stores where you can go buy Dharma tools. In tea ceremony they also call the equipment they use dogo.

[13:57]

It's the tools or toys that they use in practicing the path of tea. Now this is one of the paths of the Zen school. It's a ladle. or also sometimes called a dipper. And this is a big dipper. It has been passed to me by the successive generations of Zen practitioners. Now I have it, so I would like to use it to try to show you what kindness is. not exactly show you because the Soto Zen school we don't actually directly show. I'm going to draw a circle around kindness and maybe you can see in the middle of the circle you'll be able to see the kindness. If I am not careful of how I hold this ladle, it might fall on the ground.

[15:12]

And it's strong stainless steel, I think, so it probably won't break, but it might. But even if it does, you might say, so what? It's an inanimate object. It won't hurt its feelings. But I don't know if that thought is kind. it kind of assumes that you know that this ladle has no feelings. Who has the wisdom to see that ladles have no feelings? Maybe they do. Maybe that will be the next article in Time magazine. Scientists have discovered ladles have feelings. I don't know. Anyway, these ladles are used to serve various things, like this big one is used, I think this one's used in a zendo sometimes.

[16:25]

Are these ones used in a big zendo? Or is this too big? Too big. Too big. Anyway, they use ladles something like this in a zendo to serve cereal. And sometimes the way cereal is given to us, it's thick. And what the servers do sometimes is they scoop the cereal up and they pour it into the bowl like this. And then it doesn't come out very well. It starts sticking in the thing and not coming out. So then sometimes they go... Or sometimes they go... Various ways they do. Now, there's some problems in this, of this shaking, trying to shake the cereal off the spoon. One problem is that you can accidentally hit the bowl, and the bowl can be cracked.

[17:28]

And these lacquer bowls that some of us have, if they get chipped, it's like major damage. It's like virtually expensive to repair. And also we respect the Buddha bowl so we don't want to hit it inadvertently. But also the feeling of shaking the food off the bowl, you know. I sometimes, when I see people shaking it off the bowl, I get images of those scenes when, you know, people are waiting in line at the cafeteria in prison and they come up, some guy's serving them and he goes... Just sort of slaps the food onto those plastic trays or whatever. Or in the army, too. And there's some similarities between Zen and the army and prison. And this is one of the similarities.

[18:31]

They slap this, they're shaking the food off the ladle. Now, we also have these plastic things. They sometimes go like this with these, too. They shake it off, like snap it off there. Now, it is possible to, I think, do this in a skillful way. I've seen some people scoop it up, like scoop it up out of the thing and sort of snap it in the bowl, in the serving container, sort of like lift it up and sort of snap it to clear the bottom off with one crisp snap. And then the bottom's clear so it doesn't drip all over the thing. But to slap it in the Buddha bowl usually doesn't work so well. So what I recommend is something more along the lines of a French restaurant where the waiter is serving you and they don't do that, do they? They don't go... In Chinese restaurants, sometimes they do that, right? Anyway, they serve it like this, don't they? They go like this and then they go... Maybe a little touch at the end.

[19:35]

But it's a flowing motion. Isn't it? The sauce. Sauce, sir. Not sauce, sir. Isn't that right? Isn't that unusual for them to snap it on there? Now, it's true, they don't serve oatmeal at French restaurants. So who knows how they would serve it? That's very important. It's very important. Hmm? Oat oatmeal? Thick oatmeal. Thick oatmeal. So what I suggest is, one way to do this is you just scoop it up, and you just pour it, and when it doesn't come out anymore, you stop and get some more. And if the bowl, if the thing's full, it probably will come out. Now, if it doesn't come out even then, I would suggest we have another implement and scoop it out. That's another possibility.

[20:41]

Now, I suggest this for various reasons. Not to hit the ball, not to have this feeling of slapping the food down. As a feeling of respect for the food, respect for the person you're serving. But I also, at the same time, want to respect this particular way of serving, this slapping the food in. It has certain value or certain appeal. Someone who is a teacher asked me recently if I had any thoughts about how to teach children. And the first thing that came to mind was something that Emerson said, is that the secret of teaching is in respect for the student. We, in a position of teacher or adult or parent, we sometimes think beforehand in some situation of learning or discipline that we know what's best, that we know what the proper way for the student to go is.

[21:54]

Respect means look again. Take another look. Maybe not. Maybe you don't know what's best. So I'm not saying I know it's best to serve the way I suggested, not to have this kind of shaking the food off the thing into the bowl. I'm not saying I know that's best. I'm suggesting that only as a form for you to use to practice kindness. And the way you might practice kindness after hearing this form is to shake the food off. That may be what you decide to do. But I'm pointing to pouring cereal off a ladle as an opportunity for kindness and an opportunity for me to say something to you about this. Adam, would you give me my Oreo key, please?

[23:14]

So I'm not judging other people's practice, or if I do judge other people's practice, I consider that, you know, not respectful and not kind. I think when I see somebody's practice, again, if I respect them, Even if I think they're good or excellent, I still, if I respect them, I take another look. I don't assume that what I see is what's happening. So I wanted to show you something about how to use this bag here. And this is the bag that the implements go into. So when we're done with the bag, the way we usually have it down in front of us is folded in three like this.

[24:17]

Okay, it's folded in three. And then the first thing we usually clean is the spoon. So then we put the spoon in. And generally, one way to do it is to hold the bag the folded case, cloth case, in front of your chest, and then slip the spoon in, kind of straight in towards your body. And then you set that down, and then you clean the chopsticks, and then put them in the same way, straight in towards your, if you want to be yogic about it, heart chakra. Then you can take a hold of the bag. At the same time, holding the bag, you also hold the implements. And there are two ways of doing this, or millions of ways of doing this, but two ways I see.

[25:19]

One way is the way I would suggest as the kindest way. But again, not the kindest way, but just a way of kindness. And that is to pull the bag out basically level. But the way you do it is by pushing the implements into the bag and then pulling the bag out and flipping it over. Do you see that? And then also unfolding it, same way. Pull it down like this and then hold the utensils and then pull the bag out and then double it over, or triple it over, like that. Okay? But horizontally. Now what I see quite frequently, and I understand, is to put them in the bag like this by using good old gravity. Or if not the vertical approach, sometimes the diagonal approach.

[26:25]

In each case you get the advantage of gravity doing that work for you, which otherwise you have to do it by hand. But I'm suggesting this other way of this way. Then you can put the setzu in like this. Then there's this setzu here. Sometimes when it's cleaned, sometimes I see people They clean it, you know? And you dip it in and you squeeze the water out, right? You know about that part? Squeezing the water out of that Setsu tip? Well, sometimes people, the way they squeeze the water out of the Setsu tip is they squeeze it like this. And they go... Which I notice.

[27:27]

I don't judge it. But it does cross my mind. I say, I wonder if they treat their breath like that. I wonder if they treat their legs like that and their knees like that and their back like that. For all I know, that may be kind. Also, I see some people, when they tie this knot, they use great force sometimes. Sometimes they really get the deltoids even in on it. So, in each thing you do throughout the day, there is the opportunity to pay attention to how you're doing it and to kind of respect yourself

[28:40]

and respect your activity, to look, is this kind? What assumptions are we making about, about things? And, you know, after doing Orioki for a long time, my Orioki practice is not too bad. And the way I eat it, sometimes certain people who eat with me outside the Zendo say they're surprised at the difference between the refinement of my Orioki and the way I eat in some other situations. And I'm working on trying to close the gap, actually. I do, for some reason or other, pay more close attention to how would I do an orioke, I think, than I do in some other eating situations.

[29:41]

And I think I am kinder to my bowls in the zendo than I am to my bowls sometimes outside the zendo. When in informal situations where I'm talking and not really paying attention to what I'm doing with my hands. on my posture, rest of my posture. But this kindness, this issue of kindness I think is how to basically realize the sameness of mind and objects. And just to bring the mind and object into total collectedness and to appreciate the collected, unified quality of mind, this is stopping.

[30:52]

and you don't have to like work up to it with a big long exhale or inhale or a whole period of meditation you can you can practice it just by touching a ladle when you're server or just by when you squeeze your setsu tip in that squeeze you can realize the stop mind But the full appreciation of this quiet mind is to give it up. The expression of trust and confidence

[31:56]

comes through giving up this current moment of it, which in fact is being given up because as soon as the mind is stopped it transcends itself and also realizes that it's now started. And watching the mind become subject and object again, watching the recurrence of the interaction between breath and mind, this is the entrance into contemplation. So when you touch a serving utensil, it's a moment for stopping the mind. Once the mind's stopped, then touching the serving utensil is a moment for contemplating mind. First use the relationship to realize composure.

[33:07]

Then use composure to understand the relationship. First use the touching to understand the calm. Then use the calm to understand the touching. In the oneness of mind and object, the mind is stopped. Once stopped, seeing the two-ness of mind and object, we enter into contemplation of this relationship. The suchness of mind and objects is its interplay.

[34:10]

between composure and contemplation, between the stability of oneness and the dynamic of two-ness. The suchness of this relationship of breath and mind is not their oneness, it is not their two-ness. It is how those two dance together. And in the suchness of this relationship, the gate of Dharma opens and the precepts of Buddha come forth. So yesterday I related this contemplation to, for example, the part in the Genjo Koan where Dogen talks about these fish swimming.

[35:47]

And I related it to the Julemir Samadhi where it talks about, you know, when the wooden man begins to sing, the stone woman gets up to dance. Those things are talking about this contemplation. And I heard that my talk was, not that my talk was, but that this was difficult to deal with, so I thought I'd do it again. Maybe one more time through will be a little easier for you. Or at least, I'll do one more time now and then we'll see. This, basically, I just spoke in those images, but basically what this stone woman is, or this wooden man, is this fresh thought.

[37:01]

Just a second. What are you smiling at? Jay? How come you're smiling? Tom? Yeah. That question does not have a wide enough applicability to this group, so you have to ask me that individually. You're referring to another text which not everyone's been studying, so you'll have to talk to me about that yourself. Meantime, I'll think about what the answer is. So anyway... What is this wooden man?

[38:41]

Has anybody seen a wooden man around here lately? Anybody know who this wooden man or what this wooden man is? The wooden man is a stopped mind. Well, that's a possibility. He's suggesting maybe the wooden man is a stopped mind. Okay. Okay. Now, then the wooden man, what does the wooden man do? Sings. So the stopped mind sings. Isn't that amazing? That a stopped mind sings. And what is this stopped mind? Why call the stopped mind a wooden man? Well, partly because, what is this stopped mind? The stopped mind is not this thing sitting out there, you know, kind of like a stopped mind. Stop mind is a quality of mind in a sense.

[39:43]

It's the nature of mind that when mind interacts with things, it always stops on them. By the very fact that we're aware of something, we have to stop there for a second and get into a good little chunk of awareness. And there the mind has this event called awareness occurs when the mind meets an object and the mind feels separate from the object too. And through that separation the mind meets the object and manifests and realizes stillness. And this stillness can't do anything. It's lost to the working world. like a wooden man. It can't do a thing. But the funny thing about this stopped mind is it can sing.

[40:44]

And it does sing. And it sings a happy song because it's happy. Because the stopped mind is a happy mind. It's blissful to have stopped. Stoppedness, being calm and quiet, is happy. What's that guy's name? Uh... Epicurus, he said, the calm mind is the greatest pleasure. I don't know too much about him, but anyway, then it is the greatest pleasure, but part of the way to prove it's the greatest pleasure is to give it up. How do you give it up? Sing. The stone man gives up his stillness and sings. Then what's this stone woman? Something else that can't move. Something else that's like not alive. What is that? Yes?

[41:47]

It's like a barren... Yeah, stone woman is like a barren woman. It's a woman who can't have children. But she also can't walk and can't dance, right? Okay? She's totally out of it, this stone woman. In another case, it says a stone woman bears children in the night. Stone woman bears children in the night. What's the night? The night is the fact that regular women are empty and so are stone women. But we walk around seeing people and calling them women. And we think that what we see is actually what's out there. We don't think the women we see are stone women. We don't think the men we see are stone men.

[42:54]

We don't think we're a wooden man. But when the mind stops, the man you become, the man you are at that time is a wooden man. He's not a real man. There aren't any real men. But the first thought of a man from this mind is the song of this man who's not a man. And there's a response to this. And it's a response from somebody who's nobody. It's from a woman who can't be a woman, but she can get up and dance. Just like these people we think are real women can get up and dance, she can get up and dance. But she gets up and dances in response to this wooden man. Regular women usually won't get up and dance with wooden men. But stone women get up and dance with singing stone men.

[43:59]

Something which can't sing evokes a dance from something that can't dance. someone who's not in the room right now, I asked this person what her aspiration for the practice period was, and she wrote she wanted the stone woman to learn how to dance. But it turns out that for the stone woman to learn how to dance... He could also do the story the other way around, though.

[45:07]

He could say, when the stone woman gets up to dance, the wooden man sings. I think that would work just as well. Is there a difference between them? No. They're both... What do you call it? Mindless beings. As a matter of fact, it's because beings are mindless that they can sing and dance. And it's because beings are beingless that they can sing and dance. It's our mindlessness and beinglessness and manly-lessness and womanly-lessness that allows us to be men and women and sing and dance. If we were a minded being, if we were a man and a woman, we would be froze into that and we wouldn't be able to do anything except be a stone woman.

[46:18]

Yes? It comes from when a thing is itself, it transcends itself. It's not that there's real people who then get to be real people. It's that there's pretend people that get to transcend being pretend people. But if you try to get a real person and then think you got a real person, then you're sunk for eternity. But when you got a fake person, it's easy to get rid of a fake person. These wood people are disposable. These stone women are a dime a dozen. They're coming up moment after moment. Have you seen one lately?

[47:21]

Just close your eyes and think of a woman. That's a stone woman. That's not a real woman. That's just a picture of a woman. That's not a real woman. What's a real woman? There is no such thing. However, there are these stone women, plastic women, cardboard women, in other words, fantasy women. There are fantasy women and there are fantasy men. That we've got. So there's a world. It's functioning. We're in it. We're alive. That's all fine. And what do we do with it? We imagine women and men These are not real women and men. These are our fantasy of something out there, something wonderful, something far beyond our fantasy, something that can do anything and does. Yes? Michael's question about a difference. Just for purposes of description, would it be accurate to say or useful to say that the wooden man is the mind and the stone woman is the environment or the field of consciousness?

[48:35]

That would be just ducky. He said, how about saying the wooden man is the mind and the stone woman is the object or the environment? Fine, okay. That's just fine. So because we think the mind is something other than a wooden man, we think the environment is something other than a stone woman. In other words, we don't respect the mind, we don't respect the environment. We say, the mind's this. and the environment's that and it's settled and now I'll tell you what to do next because I know what the mind is and it's real. It's not that what I think the mind is is a fantasy and what I think the world is is my fantasy. No, that's not where it's at. No, I see reality. You are like I see you. This is not seeing the stone woman anymore. This is seeing a flesh and blood woman and thinking that she's real.

[49:36]

But if you can see that the flesh-and-blood people, the people you think are real, are just derivatives of plastic fantasy people, it might help you realize that you don't see reality, that what you see is your own mind, that what you see is yourself. It might help. So that's why I said to talk about the fishy. The fish swims, you know. We're weird fishes. We swim through the world. of fantasy. We're different from fish in that way. We don't swim through water. We swim through fantasy. Everything we go through is fantasy. This is fantasy. This is illusion. This is a dream that we concoct. And we're swimming through it. And no matter how far we swim, we don't come to an end of it. There's no end to it. That's not the issue. It's not you swim, [...] and then swim to the end of the water. If you leave this water of fantasy, if you leave this water of delusion, you will die at once.

[50:43]

However, I also propose to you that if a fish, and also this Dogen says, a fish is life and the water is life. The water is life to the fish and the fish is life to the water. I'm the life of delusion, and delusion is my life. We make the world of the water of delusion alive. And the water of delusion makes us alive. This is a cooperative thing. It creates life. And when the fish is a fresh fish... And when the fish is just a fish, the fish is not a fish. The fish is the water, is the ocean, is the sky, is the earth. The fish can't get to the end of the water, but the end of the fish is the water, already, without moving the slightest.

[51:56]

The end of the fish, the front end and the back end of the fish is the water. The side ends of the fish are the water. Everything that's not the fish is the water. And the end of the water is the fish. The meaning of delusion is a human being. And the meaning of a human being is delusion. But what is delusion? Delusion is not something by itself. It's not something sitting out there by itself. Delusion is the end of a person. And a person is not something by herself. A person is the end of delusion. Delusion is not something by itself. Delusion is the life of the person. A person is not something by herself. A person is the life... of the mind is the life of fantasy. Fantasy is not just a dead thing. It lives through us.

[52:58]

We're not just dead things. We live through our mind. So there is no such thing as fantasy, as delusion, and a person. They're not such separate things. They're in perfect rapport and in perfect peace and perfect life. Delusion is not delusion. Fresh delusion is the best delusion. Delusion is just delusion. And delusion that's fresh and just itself is not delusion. Delusion which is just itself is not delusion. Delusion is great radiance. Delusion is life. But if you think delusion is reality, well, then it's kind of a problem.

[54:01]

Then you don't respect delusion. You don't respect, you say, delusion? Delusion? Oh, well, you're no good. You're delusion. Get out of here. I'm going to make you into reality. I'm going to promote you. You see all these people? I'm going to make what I see into reality. This is reality. This is true. What you just said is what I just saw and heard you say, what I just construed you as doing, that is a reality. That's not a delusion. That's not a perception. That's not my idea. That's not my fantasy response to you. No. That's a reality. I promoted you from just some figment of my imagination into a real woman. this is much better, isn't it? But when I do that, I may lose track of something. Namely, that I don't understand other people, because all I see, first of all, is my fantasy of them. However, whatever they are is right out there, breathing warmly, right on the edge of my fantasy.

[55:15]

So my fantasy is my way to connect with whatever really a person is. But if I don't know what I'm dealing with here in terms of my perceptions, then my perceptions block my relationships with people. And then I can be afraid of them or hate them or whatever. If you can get down there and catch this stone, this wooden guy doing his song, you can also watch this stone lady get up and do her dance. When you start seeing this kind of stuff and realize this, then you're starting to realize what's actually going on. Before you promote this guy into a real guy and promote her into a real environment, just leave it like that. and you can watch the whole world universe will get played out very nicely but you understand that it really is not the whole universe it's not anything at all and therefore it'll make it all the easier for you to be very specific about what it isn't and how it specifically isn't this, isn't that, isn't that in this way we study

[56:27]

and you will be able to stand this study from the position of the pleasant ground, the peaceful land of a stopped mind, then it won't annoy you if I talk like this and if the world keeps knocking on the door saying, hello, this is a fantasy. Remember, look again, what you see is just what you see. You are seeing an appearance you are seeing a production of something that does not exist. And here is another thing being delivered to you, hello, this doesn't exist. Now I'm not suggesting we have this kind of like universal Western Union that comes to the, every message that comes to you and says, hello, here's a message, it doesn't exist. That wouldn't be, we would just get confused if they did that. You have to keep turning the mind around.

[57:37]

Not you doing it, but the mind has to keep turning around, justifying itself. Justifying itself. Making itself just. Just. So this is contemplation, more in contemplation. Yes? he said he said when we're invited to contemplate what arises from stillness is that in effect a kind of manner of speech is that what you said the answer is yes this is all a manner of speech this is just speech

[59:08]

That's all it is. In practice? How does it happen? Buddha, with the finger, points to the ground. Buddha is somebody in the calm mind, okay? That's where Buddha lives. That's Buddha's address, calm mind city. Then Buddha points to the ground. That's the beginning of contemplation. And that is a manner of speech. Do you understand what that means for Buddha to point to the ground when there's calm?

[60:16]

Do you understand what it means for Buddha to point to the ground? What does that mean? Yes. Okay. I'll say okay to that, but I think that I would say Buddha points to the ground when something happens. When something happens to you, that is Buddha pointing to the ground. Everything that happens in your life is ultimate reality saying, hey, look at this. But ultimate reality is not Buddha. Buddha is ultimate reality's agent, is ultimate reality's teacher. We don't pay attention to ultimate reality. We need a Buddha to say, hey, look at this kid. So Buddha's the one who manifests a hand, because we're hand-oriented and face-oriented.

[61:18]

Buddha's got a face, smiling face. Hello. And we say, oh, who's that? And he says, see this? Boom, boom. Pay attention to this thing that's just happening now. So you can't see the Buddha. But the Buddha's there, smiling face, or getting ready to smile face, pointing. Pointing at what? At the first thing that's happening now. In other words, the Buddha's pointing at what's happening now as a place to do your work. So the way you do contemplation is you deal with what happens. Okay? Okay? I won't stop until you shake your head yes or no or something. Or smiling is okay, but is that a yes smile or no smile? What? Good. That's basically it. Look and see what happens. And if you realize that you're still, then you've got a good seat to watch what's happening.

[62:26]

And what's happening... If you pay attention to it fully, then you believe that Buddha has just pointed you to that thing. And then, further, let it be. The clear contemplation is to let that thing be what it is. Let it teach you. And then you realize that whatever it is it appears, it's not that. So, for example, you first of all let it appear that there seems to be an object out there that's happening. Let it be apparently an object. If you let it be all the way, let it be an object all the way, pretty soon you realize it's not an object. Well, if it's not an object, is it a subject? Well, maybe it's possible that actually what's out there is actually you. But if you look at that more carefully, you'll realize it's not a subject. Well, what is it? Well, maybe at that time it's good to be quiet for a little while.

[63:33]

Of course it is suchness. Suchness isn't object, isn't subject, isn't neither, isn't both. Subject is the radiance of everything. The radiance of subject, the radiance of object, the radiance of subject and object, the radiance of neither subject and object. Suchness is liberation and happiness. That's what we're here for. And kindness is to leave things alone. let them be. That's the same as look and see what's happening. And it's just that if you look from a calm place, from a stabilized mind, you can see better. You can see fresher. It's just a better seat. And then, it also, the other side of it is that the contemplation and the And the stopping or the contemplation of stabilization aid each other because naturally the contemplation in order to develop, the only way to develop is throw it away.

[64:43]

Give it up. That's the way you develop it. And the traditional way of developing it is to do some contemplation. But you can also develop it by just giving it away and doing some more stabilization. But that's what happens in the stopping path. So when you first feel stopped, before you go to contemplation, sometimes they say, give the stopping, give the composure away and practice composure some more. Give the composure away and practice composure some more. Give the composure away and practice composure some more. Give the composure away, practice composure. Give the composure away, practice composure. Give away the calm, practice calm. Give away the stillness, practice stillness. Give away non-moving, practice non-moving. Do this again and again, and eventually you're going to say, I've had enough of this. This is good. Now I know I'm really still. This is not going to work. I think what I better do is do a little contemplation. Because this whole thing is just more cause and effect. And actually, although it's great, This is not enough. I have to understand. I have to study how this all works.

[65:48]

How did this happen that I gave it up and did some more? How did it all work? In other words, then you're in a good position to look and see what happens. You can keep practicing contemplation, I mean stabilization and calming, but you're not just doing that. You're watching now. You're watching. Now Buddha says it's time for you to look and study. study this, study this, study this. Watch this fish swimming through fantasy and appreciate that this fish swimming through fantasy is just a fish. And at the limit of the fish is an ocean, an endless ocean of fantasy. And when the fish becomes the fish, then the fish's eyes open and they become eyes of compassion. And the ocean, of objects is sentient beings, who you first see, who you first saw as fantasies, but now that you understand what you are, namely that you're not you, you understand that they're not them.

[66:57]

And now you no longer see just your fantasy, you see sentient beings. And when you see a sentient being, what you see is not a sentient being. When you see a woman, what you see is not a woman. That's truly seeing a woman. But who wants to see not a woman? Buddha. Ordinary men do not want to see not a woman. They just want to see women. Ordinary men don't want to see stone women. This is too much. That's why we have to keep ourselves still, men. Keep yourself still. Then you can give away yourself, and when you give away yourself, you won't be afraid of a stone woman. And once you see a stone woman, you have a chance of meeting a real woman. And you women too. I don't know exactly, but I think you don't like to see wooden men very much.

[67:59]

But if you sit still, you can face a wooden man. And if you meet the wooden man, you can be the stone woman and teach him how to dance. And someday you'll meet a real man. And when you meet that real man you'll also, incidentally, one of the bonuses is you'll also meet Shakyamuni Buddha and a lot of other cool dudes. Do you believe This is just a manner of speaking. It's coming from some place that's not fabricated but can talk.

[68:56]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_92.12