Buddha Activity

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The work of buddhas — buddha activity — is realizing intimacy and liberation in conversation together with all beings. In this series of meetings we will contemplate what it is to fully engage with such an activity. Everyone is welcome to come, study, and realize this work together with all beings.

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so i i begin by offering you
conversation pieces
one conversation piece is

a boot activity
is
an unceasing process
or sometimes we say an unceasing effort
to free all beings so they may dwell for they may live in peace and harmony
did you hear them barbara joan can you say it
is
unceasing
all
could you hear that
so i mentioned that on sunday at green gulch and i've mentioned it last night at green gulch and i mentioning again so
one amplification of that is that
when beings are free
they are able to discover
and
actual eyes
peace the path of peace and harmony
and so the freedom is freedom from the way things appear
in consciousness because the way they apparent consciousness is
often
quite mistaken or misrepresenting was going on the way things are
and consciousness is a state of awareness where there's an eye or a me it's familiar to most of us
most of us right now have some probably some access to consciousness where it seems like you're here and i'm here and kind of like i'm not you
that's kind of yeah and you're not me
so that's consciousness and consciousness isn't always like that but one zen teacher when he woke up
he said now
i am not him
and in truth he is me
so sometimes consciousness can be illuminated so that the way they usually things usually appear is not destroyed but kind of like
illuminated or expanded or another point of views they're simultaneously with the old view and there's freedom then
and then part of the problem of consciousness is that the way things usually appear interferes with not interferes obscures
a peaceful relationship like
we think this is the way things should go and somebody else thinks that's not the way they to go and
we feel some conflict or stress
and hard to see a peaceful way to live with somebody who thinks you're stupid and thinks they're brilliant
have you ever seen an email like the thought you were stupid because you didn't agree with them
sun makes that step and then you also see them as thinking you're stupid and you also see them who think you're stupid as not yourself which again is kind of stressful and makes a it isn't impossible but it makes it hard to see kind of like harmonious path of living together
so there's a process of liberating us from what seems to be hindering
peace with
with everything
with all beings including beings who say you are stupid here my enemy you're worthless and also
with thoughts in your own mind that you yourself are worthless
or that other people are worthless
even if nobody's around you all by yourself
and there's thoughts like that your mine is there's a and and so it's hard to find peace when you're demeaning yourself are demanding others however
there was a process by which we can become free of this demeaning conversation
within and demeaning conversation within and without and the process of liberation is buddha activity which against i've been same for last couple days is put activity is
conversation which is what we do here we have conversations and where the conversations we have here could have the potential function of liberating
i can't our our consciousnesses
so we can yeah we can write in our middle of our conversations here there could be liberation of consciousness and discovering a peaceful moment
a peaceful path in the moment and i think some of you
some of you some of the times have had such moments in these classes
is it abraham lincoln said he he's the one who said you can fool some of the people all the time know some of the people you know you can feel some of the people all the time he can prove all the people some time it can do for all the people of all the time i think those are
yeah yeah and so sometimes some of us have not been fooled anymore
there's been moments where we were caught and that we weren't caught and then we saw a piece where we could see it before we felt some obstruction to a peaceful harmonious situation right in this class and we got liberated from that and saw all
there's peace here and then the next moment
so the and the way we the the way we become liberated are not trapped by consciousness is through conversation inwardly and interpersonal it
and the conversation it actually you know i have to be like
the conversation could be described with various adjectives like whole hearted
compassionate
basically basically basically generous
it it starts with
you know an act of giving the conversation not
of course conversations can start off on the wrong foot but and but then at one with the kind of conversation that liberates starts it starts with generosity
and really what can't really consciousness in reality a consciousness is basically generous
but if we don't practice that in consciousness
we don't realize it
that's basically and then from there we move on to consciousness is actually
ethical
but again we have to practice ethics in the consciousness to realize that and a key ingredient in ethics is to be called into question by others which doesn't exclude being called into question and within your own mind
because your own mind there might be a sense of yourself and something that in your consciousness which is not you
another person or
or an idea of your dog or in her an idea of your children and and then suddenly he feels called into question by that thing that you think is not use again
it is not me
so the it that's not you and your own mind can can call you into question and also another person who is sitting in front of you they can also call you in the question
and you can end then you can welcome that
because you're wanted to have a conversation
you

not the that they could that could be part of it like or are like arms you could give me a gift i mean you could give me a gift and you could want to give me a gift
and i could think you gave me a gift
and then i want it might not want to give you a gift and the gift them i wanna give you is to call you into question
and the way am i call you the question might be to say you are so generous
and you suddenly might be like i wonder if i really was generous why will be saying that to me
is he being ironic
like i often tell that story of when i got ordained the day i think it was today i got our danger right around that time since a girl she said to me i'm sure you won't be arrogant that you're getting ordained
you know sort of ahead of your seniority
he didn't say you're arrogant that would have called me into question too
you're so arrogant tensions on
that that would get going i probably would have gone home so
am i but he didn't usually do that were with me he would say more like i'm sure you won't be arrogant and then that kind of kind statement
called me into question
an other the way he talked to me made me question myself or made me wonder what's going on with me
question
say it is there another way to say called
i'll call into question well hum
huh
you can just take away the call and say question question what you're doing but
i kind of like call because because
everything is calling us
and we're calling everything so i calling it has the additional thing if you put the call together
it is simply maybe somebody else is involved
in the process
like we say i feel called to do something or worse call coming from is it is sort of me i feel called but sometimes i feel called because somebody actually called me and asked me to go visit them i feel called to go visit my friend in the hospital why would they called me and asked me to come
but they might not call me on the phone i might just feel it inside and i walk in to see them and say
i've been calling you how did you know
and it's not mental telepathy
they have they have been calling everybody is calling it's all the jacket and to come and visit them
and a lot of people don't know it
so when you show up they say why you hear i didn't call you

so anyway quite questioning myself am questioning others
that's that's one way to put it i feel called
well i do actually feel called to question others i think they want me to even though when i do sometimes to their little shy about it or
but everybody sometimes is they say would you please asked me more questions sometimes people begged me to ask him questions
and sometimes they specify what situations they want me to ask him questions
like
when they received the ethical precepts
before and afterwards they often say to me if you see me not practicing and a quarter of these precepts would you question me that they don't say would you beat me up or would you criticize me or were they say would you actually come and check in on check on me or what's going on if you think if you don't see
if it don't seem to be going on the path i just told her i wanted to go on so they invite me they don't necessarily tell me the question and bought some other things
which may be i don't know if there's anything that's not ethical but
oh i know they don't know if they don't miss they don't people don't we often say if you see me practicing these ethical precepts and i seem to be practicing them really well when you question me
i've never heard that one
and they also don't say if you see me practicing these precepts which i just said i want to practice would you please come and praise me
they don't they don't say that however
the to kind of appreciate it when
you know thanks for being generous thanks for being on a stage for being careful thanks for you know
not taking that piece of pizza before it was given to you thank you they do appreciate when those things are noticed but does not eat they usually don't ask me for praise when they are on track but they do ask me for and they don't ask me for punishment either they asked me basically for question would you please check in with me or quo
austin make or give me guidance if you see me veering off course
so i feel called to question people especially people that have told me they want me to but i also feel called your question people who haven't told me i feel called but i almost never do
because i don't think it's the right time did you fall that last little bit
i know i see people who i don't even know and i feel they're calling me but if i would go on checking with them about what they're doing they would be so startled they'd be frightened probably and at risk of attacking me so i don't walk down the streets of
laredo and question people about you know the way they are wearing her
it's six guns
usually almost never
but if they if they say if you see me where my six comes in an appropriate way when you question me even then i don't necessarily do it unless i think it's the right time
i i usually think he'll just frightened them if i if i questioned them
not usually
so i i i do feel called i think they would like somebody to ask him about what they're doing because i think that they're doing is calling for questioning i think we are we want people to try to find out overdoing doing yes and yes
oh we don't we don't know if it's the right time but but often times if that did the buddha had these criteria for when to speak which would apply maybe to somewhat to went to ask questions you can ask questions non-verbally to like and go
but anyway for speaking and questioning about ethics is one of the main things to speak about
what is said is a true
so like
he has a true like you may hear something about you may you may hear something about somebody or you may think somebody or something about somebody but have you checked it out so keep the best of your ability is a true you think you have you verified that seem to be true and you can also consult with other people
and i could i could amplify and that but start out with you do some investigation like if somebody in his class tells me about somebody else in the class to something they did i wouldn't necessarily think they did it just because they you told me i would try to find out more than just what hearsay
and then if i sort of i thought somewhat verified that it was true as criterion number one
number two is would it be beneficial to ask the question
because not all sometimes you have ethical question about someone else or about yourself
but let's say talk about somebody else but he he think by i don't think be helpful to ask them
for example because they haven't asked me to ask them questions
i think and i fake i asked them he would actually distract them from looking at discussion themselves maybe so it wouldn't be beneficial even though it's true that i'm concerned about this or even though seems to be true that they said they wanted to go this way
and they don't seem to be drawn that's number two is it beneficial number three is at the right time so right time is like
this is where to find out one is like ask them
is now good time for me to ask you a question and their story is one of my my favorite stories about people going up to the buddha and saying can i ask you a question and the buddhist as this is not a good time but they ask
and yeah it's i don't i think i usually as circulation who may i ask a question or you know and sometimes people ask me questions and i do not think it's a good time like that asked me questions when i'm pouring hot soup
and i i it is and i often say
could you know i'm busy or project talk to about that later
they didn't like stop they wanted it asked me a question or tell me something
and they didn't stop to think i wonder if when he's pouring that soup is a good time or i'm talking to somebody else
and then did they stop and think i wonder if it's be good for me to interrupt the conversation
well if that's usually not a good time but not always sometimes you should interrupt it would really it is a good time
sometimes i would want you to interrupt me talking to someone else it work it would be as right time but if you don't think it's right if your check and you don't think it is it probably it might not be and you can get more skillful at this to more you do it the more you check on timing the more skillful you get a checking on timing
and yet and if you're not sure that's a good time then ask this other question which is is this a good time
so i often ask people is this a good time
but i started talking to them at the first question and sometimes they do say no this is not or how about later
that's often
it doesn't take that long to say is this is a good time
you can do it could quickly even and sort of an emergency situation this is a good time even even emergency situations that person might say no this is an emergency situation i'm i'm focusing on this
but now the but actually what do you want to say well i think you're putting on backwards oh thank you
so those three are i can be used and in a sense those those three are used
in the process of ethical
discipline ethical conversations
and if losses and stories where the teacher and or the students seem to be interrupting
one of the other and many of them the interruption is very fruitful
it was a good time even though they didn't say is now a good time like australia tone
what's that on saturday i told the story and told a story on sunday the teacher asked to student in question and as a student was opening the mouth to answered the teacher put his whisk just over the students mouth
and a student
have you know was liberated
so it wasn't really interruption it was
i'm i'm asking you question i'm asking you to answer me and now when you start answering me i'm going to respond to you by putting this whisk in your face
for once again
worthwhile yeah and i can never i actually try should find out what it is what
understanding is that important he said
well i don't mind i remind adding that and with which should go second or third
i think that's nice left amplify it is it true
is it beneficial and is it important and isn't the right time fine
because some i've been to
it's not the duchess about talking
like yeah so am i had that's a nice texturing of it like him something might be true it might be beneficial but not important enough
like the pert but not but that sort of blends into the right time
oh yes yes yes yes that would definitely a of it but that would be part of the the beneficial side of it and the important side of it
yeah so i think your intention would fit in there
it she said his intention part of this in intention this is all this is to this is texturing the intention to speak to someone this is a yeah this is examined and compassionately investigating
that a thought that maybe something should be said about something that you're thinking or that you've heard about or that you've been asked to speak to yes oh i'm not sure so i've been using this the three

a wagon
how is it wise
no i can say is it true necessary answer
so i think honest
honest is good too so like i hit somebody tells me that you did something and i and i honestly think i heard that you did something and i'm not lying that somebody told me you parked your car sideways right as i'm honest that when i check with your on
that or speak to you about it but i will look better but it might not be true what i heard even though i honestly did hear that so i think checking out to see if it's true you should be added not just honest now if you check out the that's true
whether it's true or not and you find out it is is then you should be honest about your research
and if you and if you hear something and you check out to find out if it's true and this needs to be not true
you should be honest about that too and maybe she even tell someone sometimes that you heard something you checked it on about them and it wasn't true but after you check out the other things and some things aren't important enough
to bring up we have other things to work on yes
when you started out say
is obviously seen conversation so
very talking of conversations
our and
at some point people started using their hand and said and to details her of the three points for so i like it at the beginning when our starters who but i didn't like it so much people starting point
more questions for it
three pointer for appointed true honest of important or an official so will you actually want to go so if eaten all
as i if you were i would like to thank you and i i actually was the place i was gonna go the place i was are going was
two to right now when you asked me that question have to place i was going
so we're right where i wanted to go
i wanted to go into conversation and i did not have a night i don't have an idea about where it's gonna go
i want yeah so i want this discussion here including that people bring up things that some of us feel more or less comfortable with i want i want there to be a conversation with what you feel comfortable with what you don't what you feel as liberating would you feel don't i'm i'm and
that's what that's what i like to do here
but i don't know what gives her going to be given or what challenges that can arise in the process but i would like to i would like us to all of us
the responsible for the conversation of all of us
and that's another point that i
it came up on sunday a green gulch was when i was speaking about this liberation of consciousness
which comes from come to with
contemplating it
with compassion
and questioning it
in a compassionate away
i i was talking about the situation and somebody noticed that that i was speaking about the the sense of self
that's in consciousness getting on his he he said uncoupled with some activities
i didn't use the word uncoupled but ah identity and drugs are okay with me usually in consciousness the sense of self is coupled with the activities or at least some of the activities that are appearing in consciousness and coupled
in kind of up
like sticky
habitual
yeah rigid more or less rigid way and that coupling makes it hard for us to find peace
but i point out some examples of ways to look at the we even if there is sticking of the self to the activities
and also sticking up the self to the idea and the self owns the activities
there can be noticing oh there is a sense of self there's i did to self all those activities there's a belief that the idea of ownership is true in the whole situation seems to be kind of stuck and stressful and even though stuff
and stress for if anybody would wiggle any of that stuff around there might be a lot of anxiety and fear and also there's anxiety and fear about whether the activities which to self homes are gonna be go forth the according to some idea that also lives in the neighborhood of the self
but if you start to look at this she started to hoping to the possibility that or why don't we also say at the idea
that the self owns the activity owns the self
why not do that or that the idea that the self owns the activity that that idea really is the one that owns the activities one of that or the activities why don't they get to own the self or why don't take it to on the idea that the cellphones the activities why not because they're actually all just living together in the room
room so like what instead of saying i own
maggie and i don't own mardi instead of that why don't i say well market owns maggie and maggie on me because we're here in the room why couldn't we switch ownership papers
why not because they're equally nonsensical and ridiculous ideas actually
the south doesn't own what's going on
the self comes up with the stuff it's um it's not just we think the selves here and then comes the activities if you observe you see self arises with activities to the activities bring the self the consciousness comes up to the conscience come up and then if you're a little bit later the self comes up and
a little bit later the activities come up nope
the all come up together consciousness activities karma and self come up together and attitudes about koons what comes up all comes up at the same time none is a primary none is the maker of the others and and some of the ideas that are floating around
found are like this one makes those
but
it can't make those if they just come up at the same time and if you say this makes their will then it would be equally trust that makes this
which is sort of
it's kind of like that ideas about the self make the self and the salt makes ideas of self but
really they they're dependent on each other and they come up together so anyway discussing this this person started to see some uncoupling and he said when when things started to come on coupled like when you don't originally stick the self to the activities said then
the sense of responsibility might collapse
he said if if the self and the activities weren't stuck together like those are my activities and i am actually operate in the activities without the self being stuck to those ideas and then those ideas and and the self being stuck onto the
like the activities then when it then someone might might than without that sticking someone who are not responsible for those activities because i didn't do them i would just there at the second at the time that they arose
so the person was started the sense of responsibility my collapse and the sense of that type of responsibility might collapse it's true but there's another type of responsibility which would which is already there that might be revealed which is not the limited
responsibility of me doing that but the responsibility it doesn't have horizons on honored that that's responsible for everything that's going on and consciousness and that responsibility is buddha activity that liberates the process so again if you
fall down i i don't we know especially if i'm far away and i didn't say anything if you fall down i don't think i made you fall down
and if i push you i might think i made you fall down but sometimes like bush jr don't fall down
and then i walk away and then you fall down and then
did i retroactively mickey vada
we we we are not our our our
imprisoned meant or imprisonment is limited
responsibility associated with possessiveness
and the limited responsibility keeps us trapped in consciousness
and makes us prone to blaming
and we have a legal system which backs that up to blame some people or of the aging said no blame and i'm adding to that no blame and also know horizons are limits to responsibility
each person's responsibilities different
and really in the awakened mind as no limits the awakened mine is responsible to every being
and every being is responsible to the awakened mind
and when the coupling of the things that are going on in consciousness starts to melt or loosen this new sense of
responsibility starts to come alive and you start killing and then you start realizing responsibility
not just some
and you stopped feeling responsibility and a sense of i'm in control of what i do and i'm in control of what you do in response to me and i'm in control of what you ask me
i can do things which will get you to ask me certain things and won't and prevent you from asking me other things
that's not that's not the kind of questioning situation which promotes
ethics which promotes liberation
which it up
there's reasons why we have some hesitancy to opening to that kind of questioning but opening with kind of questioning his opening to liberation or anybody could ask me anything but maybe they won't
which which is okay with me
but i want to be open to whatever they ask i do cause i think that is good activity
and i also wanna be open to ask them but again according to certain precepts of respect and tenderness and carefulness and so on and i would like them to ask me questions that way to
like people to be careful when they prob
our relationship
yes
that's what you think
call
though
it was kind of oh yeah
and i
healthy
yeah exactly was more like

he does it does and he's not really a hermit except that when he wakes up in them were and he's the only person there but he's actually a fully functioning
bodhisattva who wakes up in the morning as name's wig on he wakes up in the morning and he says master
because he's a master
he says master and then he says yes
are you awake and then he says yes and then he says all day long don't let anybody for you and he says i want
for your needs distract you from being present with who you are because
in our people
people don't mean to fall as they don't want us to get distracted from we are really but we somehow think that they're asking us to do something other than be present don't dont before he said i won't be
yeah and he's he's questioning himself to encourage himself to question himself all day long
and when were questioning ourselves that offer they will make us ready
and welcoming of other people to questions
and they are questioning us all day long and this is something we can wake up to
everybody's questioning has all day long and we are questioning everybody all day long this is what people wake up to
yes

wow

while the first thing that comes to mind are you a dancer does used to be a dancer
no more than anybody on anyway we're just popped in my head is tango tango is not a human being
gay
it's not a human being human beings are often present when there's tango effect
yeah has one of the main times when tank was there is when humans are somewhat in the neighborhood of other humans
but tangles they're all the time
and it's a wonderful thing
so human beings actually like go and find other human beings to perform
tango so they can wake up to this conversation which is not a human being
i bet you can remind you asked for it
save on another another example of a conversation that's
not him be
how ago when a on avoidable for such as you mates and on
movable things such as ago
objects such as you
but dad and another something's gotta give so
i think non-human things also are doing this are in conversation
yes
pedro
sounds
the possibility
our conversation
oh please he says each other who would start without me
she said campbell is bad
yeah so you can we can start with that that the possibility of tango is always present and then also i can think about tango
so we're not when i think about tango it's more than just a possibility of time there can be the possibility tango even when i don't think of it
but then other times i can i can hear tango music in my head and still and is calling me
but one might say well the tangles not there yet
but and been called to it
now
yeah i've been called to it by this music and then i also feel that wish
to do it and so then i go may may meet someone and we start moving together but i still might feel like the tangles not there
and then suddenly the thought may occur to me
which has occurred to me i think tango has arrived i think
i think we're doing the tango and then a few seconds before minutes before
i i actually was thinking that maybe we maybe we weren't yet doing the tango that we're trying
we're trying to dance but the tango hadn't arrived
i've had that experience i'm thinking well i'm we're going through the motions and you know we're not really making mistakes or anything we're doing the steps and i know the names of them and know we're not fighting
we're kind of tech were kind of and then suddenly there's this like all its here
and then i could be all it was here before i realized it
and so people ask me now they say are you still practicing tango and i say well in my heart
but i don't go to them
to the you know those rooms where the other people are doing it with the music i don't do that anymore
another thing that pops in my mind is
there was as the book which i read back in the sixties called black elk speaks i don't know when the book was written but it was very popular in the sixties about this lakota sioux who had this great vision
it was a you know it was a wouldn't call it was a historically important vision
and he went to his teacher and told his teacher and he said this is very important what you see here not everybody not all dakota suit had this vision that he had he was yeah he was in a spiritual tradition and he had a vision and the teacher said someday
you should perform this this vision so the vision was there and the possibility of the performance of the vision was also there but it wasn't the right time and the time and a time came when he got i don't know how much does mean you know how many people came together to do but
a lot of people like a significant proportion of the nation
came together and performed as vision which he had quite a few years before and they performed it i think at a time when the nation was on the verge of extinction
and they and they performed it and it it it help those people stay alive as a people
that performance but the possibility that performance was there but for years and also the vision which makes that possible was there
it's hard to say which is more real than performance of division because the performance of the vision was the performance of the soup in a of the pub the path of the sue people so even the performance you can say is not this is really important that performance it could say is not the same as the peace and harmony of the sue people
even though there were doing a performance for that purpose
however the work
the work
of peace and harmony of those people with arc
in a country of surround where they're surrounded by white people that work
is nothing other than that performance
even though after the performance over they want also like headpiece in on their reservations and for the how long ago the plug i live i remember and the twentieth century or it
and so the the people have had trouble before and after that but got the performance
served a function for the actualization of the health and happiness and peace of the people so this is this is the part where we get into work i mentioned last week ritual
that ritual is sometimes to perform something that you can't see for the sake of
of realizing what you can't see
in the ritual which you can see but also for realizing it in your daily life which you also can see
see into a ritual which everybody knows is a ritual and then people walk out of the ritual
and they feel what the ritual was supposedly enacting they feel it in their daily life they feel inspired in their daily life
and then their daily life becomes a ritual
but not but now not explicitly ritual but explicitly encouraged
and then they go back into the ritual again so in soto zen we have this teaching which were discussing and discussing the teaching is part of the teacher teaching says discussed the teaching
part of the teaching is that the teaching is realized by people conversing about it but also the teaching is realized not just by people talking about it but by something non-human which we call ceiling
so when we said we're doing a ritual which practices the conversation
without any conversation that we can see
so when we're on we're sitting we're we're emphasizing that the practice we're doing is the realization and the realization is what we're doing and then in conversation we exercise that and try to enact it with each other that what we're doing in this conversation he has realized
ing enlightenment
once again that we're conversing as a practice to realize enlightenment
and the conversation isn't a human being but human beings
can have conversations and were sitting together our relationship isn't a human being it's a conversation which is not a human being but we're actually coming together and doing this thing which which creates and can a presence huh
which is beyond human activity
it's not another what our relationship and we're together is not another human activity
and no and most of us do not think we're in with than any of us are controlling our relationship
in that same way tank was always hear the conversation is always here
deliberate the ceaseless activity is always here but we need to
we need to perform it
otherwise
we get out of sync with it we get on touch with it and we are performing it
i'm getting in touch with are realizing it yes
last last question
racing
a furniture
is there are you are you questioning what you just said or do i have to
are you could do you do question what you just said do you question what you just said
do i personally
do you think it going to question what you just said
do you think it would be good for you to question what you just said i'm i'm questioning what you just said
well but you already said what you already said do you think would be good to question you just said time i think you're crazy right
right you and i'm saying are you questioning that are you are gorgeous
you're doing it out okay i'm glad to hear i i'd thought maybe it the don't part was down now i'm i'm here that maybe the do part is there to which i would encourage that when you tell me that you think i'm going to think you're crazy that you question yourself when you talk like that
now the the question i'm talking about i don't feel like you acknowledged you would you went onto the next question
candidate should shut up i think you are blighting could be good for you to see if to see if you understand what i just ask you do not i just asked you know
but you what did i ask you what did i just ask you
what did i just ask you
or i asked you if when you told me told everybody that i'm gonna think you're crazy
i want i wanted to know if you question yourself about what you just said you did thank you
nadia want to ask another question
okay go ahead
know is there an alternate
realization i was a thirty
with an alternate obligation her
well there multiple name obligation or according to the state alert
there's both there is ultimate hollywood ultimate
there's up there is an ultimate obligation
and there's also many individual obligations many calls they're both and those the the many
our conversation with each other in a way that's ultimate
the way the many obligations are in conversation with each other
is the way that they're liberating each other
and we're being asked to realize the conversation which includes all of them and then also realize that the conversation and includes all of them includes all of them so it's also not really just the one that includes all of them it's also
the ones that don't include all of them
alternate universes like here right yeah

there's both and those are in conversation us to
so that the
the buddha activity includes things which are not buddha activity
some for example questioning overdoing
includes not questioning or we're doing
so what so questioning what rejoin
is not simply questioning more rejoin because it includes not questioning or rejoined and vice versa

yes

this question as to can oh yeah the conversation seven
as the my question is it you have that one side of her i'm excited so much as
a differences not needed of fun
not anymore or
yeah i think so
yeah i think i think we have that
we have that expression don't worry or one sided conversation we have that expression and then
what does not necessarily didn't have it say
the one sided conversation yeah
one sided conversations are a certain type of conversation which seems like not so much of a conversation
like see somebody says to me when referring to certain people she says that person really knows how to hold up their end of the conversation
which means
dante talk a lot
and i often say to people who come to the and they actually come to see me
and then they probably they don't think before they come i'm going to go and talk to him and doesn't matter whether he says anything or not
they don't think that probably
so they come and talk to me and it seems like the kind of want me to be there but it seems at a certain point like whoa did you want us to be a monologue i often ask them and they almost always say no
and then because i asked the question is it stopping a monologue and when they say know it again although they're talking again if we start to feel like it's a conversation however it was a conversation before that
it just were taken the form of them doing all the talking and me feeling kind of uncomfortable and wondering what was going on
you know and so then finally i think maybe i
that maybe it'd be good for me to ask a question
but sometimes it seems like the conversation is like one person is doing all the talking doesn't seem like a conversation even though the one who's listening is talking back the whole time
i guess is that the a sunday i said i was i said to the people the audience i said so like right now you're not talking and i am however everything i say that you hear you talk back to
you know you hear me say
you hear me say welcome and then some people say thank you and some people so boring and sometimes say why didn't come here to stab somebody to talk to me like that and say
hundred one hundred different responses to well my say welcome and almost everybody hears me and everybody in their mind talked back to me but i can't hear it
and when i said that one of the people said when i said and you're talking back to me one of the people said no i'm not
and then is and then he woke up
that when he said noise or not he was and that before he said no i'm not he wants to we are that seen that that's the on
unlimited responsibility whatever you whatever you do
touches me
and you're responsible than i'm touched and i'm and whatever you do i respond to you
i don't know all that i'm doing but i am responding to you in it and when the self isn't stuck with i am doing the talking but i'm not doing a listening or that's
that's nonsense really when i talk i'm also listening when i talk i'm also listening i'm calling and listening all day long and i say i'm just listening i'm just calling but as
but still when somebody is doing all the talking i might start feeling suffocated
and i might feel a need to raise my hand i'd want to interrupt anybody so i've raised my hand
somebody's talking marriage yes did you have something interesting
ah well yeah i did did you want us to be a monologue or
you know
we are responding
and
it's wonderful that we are and so how can we
kit with what's going on and the more we practice with it the more we wake up to that is going on even when we don't
attend to it
but and that we wake up to where are attending to it before we know we're attending to it we are listening before we know we're listening and we are calling before we know we're calling
every wake up we realized more and more i'm calling everybody and they're calling me and i'm listening to them and now listening to me that's waking up when you rip when i started to expand and limit starter
back off
this is like the boot activity is releasing us from this narrow little world where i'm talking and not listening and you're listening and not talking but actually you're listening that's true but you're also talking
and i'm talking it's true in your also listening all-time
you're asking for help and i'm asking for help
like last week we run
so various people accusing me of being trustworthy member
and i don't agree that i'm trustworthy but i do agree that i'm worthy of compassion and i do agree that i'm asking for all day long i want the world to be kind to me i want to live in a world where no matter what i am the world
supports me and loves me and listened to me and is generous to me and it's also asking me to do the same to it
and then as i get old and approach death it'll be just like that whenever i am will still be in more and more unreliable
you know like the saliva will not be reliably in the mouth
you know
you can't depend on the slightest thing in my mouth pretty soon but i'm still worthy of compassion and i still want it
even though i might think i don't need your help i can i can definitely live by myself i don't need your help
but still have my way i think he has please help me
that's what i'm always saying even though i might say do not help me
that's what we're waking up to
and to me that's a very
that's a very wonderful world of where were all calling
we're all listening all the time
don't you calling
i just went where a patient was
buddha activity is the ultimate that's the ultimate
you can't avoid it but if you don't practice it it's like you missed out on and even though you can't avoid it
you somehow you can miss it like and then were and then we feel you know what we feel this thing called regret oh yeah i had a life that i missed it time i had this opportunity to
participate in the liberation of being so that we get dwell on peace and i missed it i wish i hadn't missed it
because it was there all the time calling me and people you know now i realize all those years you were calling to me
i'm so sorry i was listening to you in the person says yeah you're right i was calling you all those years and you weren't listening to me i mean i was calling you all those years and you were listening to me and you were ignoring that you were listening to me and you ignoring that who called me and you ignored mike
cause because you did hear them and you did not want to
he did not want to accept that i was calling him so you said you're not calling me
and i and also i can say you're not calling me because i'm not calling you if i call using maybe out after
then maybe i should listen to you i don't want i want to listen to you and now as i'm about to die i realized that you are all those years sweetly calling to me
i'm so sorry but now at least i got it i wish i had a few more minutes of this
my father
the last two years of his life he had had he had many heart attacks and many strokes and the last two years of his life you know he was like with the program
he was starting to realize this situation and it was so great
i just wish i and i said i hope he has a little bit more time but he only had two years of this kind of like waking up
it's nice to wake up
today so we can enjoy it for the rest of the way and also it helps us go the rest of the way as we're going into more and more critical it unreliable behavior
we're we're we're becoming more and more like our grandchildren
so again i i use my grandchildren because people do not get scared i say that the grandchildren are unstable and not worthy of confidence feel yeah children on and then we think character unreliable
unstable not worthy of confidence and then suddenly okay now this and other starting to be stable and reliable and
what age does that start well i don't think it over starts and then people think okay now this starts and then not but now it seems like they're starting to be like children again there's like
the requiring you have to feed 'em again
can i saw on
and then we have trouble adjusting to that change but it's been going on the whole time
we missed we missed miss some of it we we have to miss anymore probably will but we can so we can stop missing the situation we can realize that everybody's calling us to help them
to listen to him to be compassionate and that's our ultimate the fact that everybody is and then to actually accept the the obligation is to accept that in practice according to that's the ultimate and then all the specific ones like this person wants this this person wants this this person wants
there's also some individual ones that we can see but the ultimate is like opening up to what we can't even see
the unlimited
which is necessary for the full function
of elaboration that we open to what we can't see and also hold and that helps us open to all the ones we can see and that helps us understand that some of the ones we can see
were resisting seeing them
that we begin that we can we say oh i resisted seeing this and this and this and i'm sorry
to them
that melts away the resistance
yes and nudged in and that's that's very important thing that's one of the most important things to have conversations about it's very fruitful is to converse about when we missed a call
that we really did want to listen to but we did miss it
yes
a savings account message i did yeah
you know like this little boxes a conversation
this cup is a conversation
i'm a conversation this class is a conversation
the buddha away as a conversation
again another term which i've used before bring it back in again
buddha activity right we're talking about that another expression is the pivotal activity or bullets
the pivotal activity a buddhist is how buddhists are pivoting with not buddhas
buddhists aren't just buddha's there nothing in lieu of themselves
they're in a relationship with sentient beings who are not voters and sentient beings also
i'm not just sentient beings they're they're they're sentient beings because they're in this conversation with buddhas
conversation
yeah i'd say conversation is a type of relationship
and i don't know if this any other type because everything is a conversation
everything is everything's pivoting with not itself
everything is pivoting with the whole universe everything is the whole universe is in conversation with every person and everything and everything is in conversation with the total causal situation which allows it to be and it actually the only way we see the whole universe is by particular things
that are the whole universe the whole universe as you the whole universe as jeff the whole universe as frown
but we can't see the whole universe but we ended the teaching says
but each thing is the whole universe and each thing if in conversation with
the whole universe
that makes sense a stickler this kind of house next that somehow fools
the amen
conscious conversation loses his mean when we say
no
well

the the place where we miss
the conversation that's all what's going on is in certain types of conversations or we're using words with our self and other
so we it
the part of our situation is that some conversations are distracting us from other conversations
to part of realizing that everything is a conversation which is part of realizing that everything's working deliberate everything else is to use the com is to be diligent and compassionate with the conversations that seem to distract us from how everything's a conversation
one so many people are having conversations where they think for example this is a one sided conversation
but there's a way of taking care of a one sided conversation
what you realize that the one sided conversation is a conversation
and that actually the two sided conversations our conversations and the know sided conversations our conversations and no conversations our conversations and conversations on
but without engaging our conversations we tend to fall into our commerce it fall into our idea of conversation and think now's a conversation and now is not
this is a conversation but that's not this is not a conversation with sometimes say
even though that was a conversation piece and when you're great see your question to with help on that
words trappist and words or what we lose to get released
conversations certain conversations have trapped us into a certain understanding and we we need to use conversation to free us from that to realize that
but activities always going on it is ceaseless it is beginning lists and it is endless
and we need to work with what has beginnings and ends to open to what doesn't and we can do that we can work with something that has a beginning high beginning have okay by we can work with that in a way that opens us to okay
are you ready for something that doesn't have a beginning and ending okay i think so
ready
who who
like that new movie first man
but this people going to the moon out
his guess is they they open to something you know pretty amazing for getting a nose rockets and flying off to the moon it's kind of like a conversation a very courageous conversation which they might not live through and we might not live through
our conversations either but if we open to them
no will be doing the work
yes it was most and friend jeff
the

exactly it's exactly the same and i'm just emphasizing that
yes we the bodhisattva is called listening to the cries but i'm emphasizing the body is also calling
listening to the cries and also the bodyshop as crime constantly
it's not one side
friend
i'm sorry
yeah
what is it out
now
well
i think if you remind me next week i'll tell the story and nice to see the whole story and see what the stories about with stories about us
it's you know it it takes a it yeah and so on
but if you want to bring it up next week it's people were no are talking about a fight
it's a it's a very subtle story jeff
thank you for all your calls thank you for listening i hope you realize that you were calling
and that you were listening
and thank you have room for calling and last night
got a good situation here