And so I'm yelling, kind of yelling, and I want to talk about love. Once I had a secret love that loomed inside the heart of me. You know that one? So love or compassion is the essence of what? What's it the essence of? It's the essence of Buddha. The root of Buddhahood is compassion. And this means compassion for what?

[01:02]

What? Compassion for what? All sentient beings. All living beings. We don't have compassion for non-living beings. In other words, you don't have compassion for beings that aren't suffering. They don't need compassion. They're not suffering. But all sentient beings, all beings who are not yet fully enlightened. The root of Buddhahood is to feel compassion for all beings who are not yet enlightened. Strictly speaking, you don't need to feel compassion for Buddha. You might like to, that's fine, but Buddha doesn't need compassion from you. Buddha feels his compassion. Buddha is not deluded anymore, so it doesn't need anybody rooting for her But there's so many suffering beings, there's so many beings who have not yet developed the ultimate vision of a Buddha and therefore are still suffering.

[02:12]

And these beings thrive on compassion, thrive on love. And if we spend our life, if we are moment by moment thinking compassionate thoughts and feeling compassionate feelings and engaging in compassionate speech and physical actions towards sentient beings, this kind of life, this kind of compassionate life is the root of Buddhahood. The root of Buddhahood is to develop a moment by moment or thought by thought thinking about how to be a benefit to all beings.

[03:26]

all sentient beings. And although Buddhas don't need compassion, when we think of and speak and act compassionately towards sentient beings, although this is not necessarily compassion towards Buddha, when we act this way towards sentient beings, it makes Buddhas happy. So not only is Buddha rooted in compassion and love for all beings, it also entails, Buddhahood entailed, that we not only serve sentient beings, but that we serve all Buddhas. Now sentient beings are easy to see. easy to have a perception of them.

[04:43]

We see ancient beings quite frequently. Most of us do not necessarily see Buddhas because Buddhas don't have any particular characteristics, so you can't really see them necessarily unless they take a form so that you can see them. But when you are devoted to sentient beings, you are actually, this is a way to praise Buddha. This is a way to serve Buddha also. Our main way of serving Buddha is to serve sentient beings. We can also praise Buddhas, we can also pay homage to Buddhas, even if we can't see Buddhas right in front of us. However, they are happy Buddhas are happy and their happiness is developed and increases as we are devoted to helping living beings.

[05:44]

So I must, if I wish to, if I wish to practice Buddha's way, I must understand that it is rooted in serving, accommodating, loving all living beings. All living beings. Isn't that amazing? Not just all people, but all animals. All animals. And if there's any plants that suffer, all plants too. There's some debate about whether plants actually suffer. Some sort of tuberculosis say that plants actually don't have psychological problems. Can you hear it at the back? No. Plants have sensation, but like, you know, if it's cold, they may feel like, oh, it's cold, but they don't, like, say, Bruce, I wish it wasn't cold.

[06:58]

You know, they don't feel like, you know, who planted me here? Uh, you know, I wish I was over there in that shirtless area, in that protected area. In other words, they don't, you know, they don't complain, as far as I know. And therefore, uh, you know, they're pretty enlightened. So they pretty much work with what's happening, just like a Buddha would. However, you know, in some areas they're not Buddhas. ...required. Somebody needs to actually

[08:01]

attain, make real, understand Buddha's mind. Actually to develop the same vision as the Buddha. So those are three basic things that are necessary for the Buddha way. Root compassion, the great flower of the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the welfare of all, and then actually realizing enlightenment or realizing wisdom. So it is possible to feel deep compassion for each person and really be devoted to each person. I think we have seen people who are really devoted to one or more persons. You've probably seen that. Like, for example, you've seen some mothers who are, like, pretty much nonstop thinking of how to help and make their baby as comfortable and happy as possible.

[09:12]

I think you've seen that. This is possible. And some mothers do it for several children, and some mothers do it for not only their kids but all the kids in the neighborhood. This is possible. You've seen this. But, again, this love can still be somewhat impure or defiled by the misunderstanding that those beings that are being helped are actually separate from the helper. That those beings who we're devoted to are actually out there on their own. This is an undermining perception. The Buddha not only is as devoted to each person as a mother would be to her only child, but the Buddha also does not have any sense, does not experience any difference between herself and this being that she's devoted to.

[10:24]

does not experience the difference between herself and all different beings. Buddha's vision does not see any inherently existing things anywhere Buddha's ultimate vision does not see any inherently existing phenomena Buddha sees all phenomena as empty of any intrinsic nature not empty of themselves like it's not like Zoe's empty of Zoe it's Zoe's empty of an intrinsic Zoe-ness or an intrinsic existence this is what Buddha sees and this is how Buddha because Buddha sees this and because Buddha worked or works hard to realize this Buddha understands how this can be realized and can teach other people to realize it

[11:33]

Buddha's ultimate vision is that everything, every feeling, every thought, every person, including himself, lacks intrinsic existence. This is just the strange ultimate view of a Buddha. And this is the same, to see everything that way is the same as whatever view you have of anything, whatever you think something is, that you relinquish that view. To see something, to experience a phenomena and understand that it lacks intrinsic existence is the same as you give up all your views of what the thing is. This is the way Buddha, when Buddha meets an experience, has an experience, Buddha does not grasp any of the views of that experience. Buddha is unattached to what she thinks about, to what she's thinking, and also what she's thinking about anything.

[12:47]

This attitude of not grasping appearances, This grasp, this view of giving up all views, this purifies the love and also offers the vision which will liberate each being from suffering. So it purifies the Buddha's love and it is the thing that Buddha ultimately must teach each being. and which Buddha wishes to teach each being. Actually, Buddha really wishes to open up people's eyes to this vision, this wisdom, and demonstrate this vision and awaken people to this vision and then guide people to enter this vision.

[13:50]

This is what Buddhas are primarily working on. they also will help people in any other way they can they'll change diapers they'll fix you know wounds they'll serve meals they'll do anything but their specialty the thing that that they really are the only ones who can do is to teach this Buddha's wisdom which will liberate the person completely from suffering so sometimes actually they get their junior disciples to change the diapers so that they can give this teaching but they're willing to do anything and they have done anything in the past and doing all these services to beings are what promote and are the root of this ultimate vision this realization of Buddha's wisdom which is

[14:51]

that all phenomena lack intrinsic existence, are empty of inherent existence. Now, if you are interested in entering this course I just want to mention, again, what needs to be done is, first of all, you need to work on thinking about thinking like this. What can I do? I want to do whatever I can to help all beings. And then try to find a way to do that steadily. And work on that. And work on that. until you really feel like you would like to take on this wisdom course.

[15:54]

If you don't want to take on the wisdom course yet, if you don't want to like take on this way of relinquishing all your views about what's going on, then just keep working on being devoted to your family, your friends, your neighbors, your acquaintances, and finally, your enemies. Just keep working on that. And in that environment, this little communion will start to occur between you and Buddha. Because when you're serving beings in this way, Buddhas start feeling happy. and in their happiness they start to like communicate with you more fully and you start communicating with them more fully and out of this communication between you and the happy Buddhas this aspiration to attain Buddha's wisdom will arise not in a kind of arbitrary contrived way but out of the deep heart of your loving work you will gradually

[17:07]

or suddenly start to feel, my God, my Buddha, I actually, I can feel it. I actually would like to realize perfect wisdom. And then, when that starts to arise, then take care of that for a while. And before moving on to the wisdom practices, try to now start working on that too. So you continue with your compassionate work and trying to feel these thoughts of compassion on a steady basis. and untiring way, thinking about and acting and speaking in ways of serving and benefiting and embracing and sustaining beings. And now start to try to steadily think of this feeling you have that you would like to realize Buddha's wisdom. So try to make both of those, both the compassion and the aspiration for Buddhahood, steady.

[18:09]

and consistent and when you feel that those are fairly steady then you may be ready to actually start working on the wisdom And wisdom involves developing a deep wisdom about wisdom requires that we practice meditation. And meditation, well, it's actually study and meditation. Study and meditation. In other words, study the Buddha's teaching about how to approach realizing Buddha's wisdom. And that starts by, you know, discussions like listening to talks, going to classes, reading scriptures, having conversations with teachers and having some insight based on that kind of discourse, which like right now is gonna start in a few minutes here.

[19:21]

I'm gonna talk to you, I'm gonna say some things to you about how to start, how you would start practicing wisdom And if you hear these things and you understand, and if you ask me questions and understand, then you have a certain understanding of how to develop wisdom, of how to develop love in the middle way or love without attachment or love while relinquishing your views about what love is. And anyway, after you do that, then like today, if you get some understanding of how to start practicing wisdom, then you can take whatever you understand and think about it for a while until you get your next installment in this kind of teaching. Think about it yourself.

[20:24]

And I'll give you a homework assignment to think about if you're up to it. And then, after you have an understanding on reflecting and thinking about these teachings, the next step would be to receive teachings on how to develop mental one-pointedness, concentration. And then you take your understanding, which is of how to practice wisdom, and you bring that understanding into a state of mental one-pointedness so that understanding becomes your body and mind. Okay, that's how to realize Buddha's wisdom. Is that clear? Maybe not. Anyway, rather than say that over and over many times, I'm going to go back and just say something about how to develop wisdom. Okay? Well, let's see, what time is it? Okay, it's time to go on.

[21:29]

So basically, one of our great teachers, a Zen master named Eihei Dogen, a Japanese Zen master, he said, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. And... So when I hear to study the Buddha way to study itself, what I hear is he's saying, now you've based on, you have now great compassion as a basis. And you have this aspiration now to study the Buddha way, to learn the Buddha way, to learn the way of a Buddha, to realize Buddha, okay? To study the way of realizing Buddha's wisdom, okay? In short, to study the Buddha way. to study the Buddha way, to study the way of Buddha's wisdom, is to study the self. So what he's saying is, to study the way of Buddha's wisdom, to study the way of the wisdom which does not see a self, to study the way

[22:56]

of Buddha's ultimate wisdom, which does not see an inherently existing self, is to study the belief, the view of an inherently existing self. Could you follow that? In other words, the way to study Buddha's wisdom is to study the opposite of Buddha's wisdom. which you have available to you. However, most people are not clearly observing that they have the opposite of Buddha's wisdom right before them all day long. Buddha doesn't see any inherent existence in any phenomena. Her ultimate vision is to see that all phenomena lack inherent existence. You want to learn that?

[23:57]

You want to learn to see like a Buddha? Well, you start by studying how you don't see like a Buddha. There is a deep lurking in the heart of women and men a belief in inherent existence. It's innate in a normally developed human being. The Buddha sees that all phenomena lack inherent existence, but normal sentient beings, the suffering ones who the Buddhas want to help, they don't really see an inherently existing self. What they do is they imagine an inherently existing self. We imagine that we exist inherently, intrinsically of ourself, that we have an inherent existence. We imagine that. We have a brain which can come up with that image.

[24:59]

And that image is strongly... present throughout our daily life. And based on that image, we are anxious and motivated to do something to protect this precious independent entity, which we sense is in danger by all the things that is not dependent on. So the first step in studying wisdom, when you're ready, you may not be ready yet because you may have to do a little bit of work to get to the point where you're 24 hours a day devoted to the welfare of all beings with no exception. But you don't have to wait until it's perfect before you start wisdom. But anyway, I think you do sort of have to, I would suggest actually to you, don't mean to prohibit you study developing wisdom but I would actually suggest to you that you don't try to develop wisdom before you actually want to that's my suggestion just a suggestion don't try to don't try to do this actually rather challenging and delightful work but rather hard work of facing your delusions

[26:22]

in order to realize wisdom. Don't try to start this word before you want to. I think it's sort of a waste of time to try to do it before you want to. I've seen various people try that didn't want to, and I think it would have been better if they just said, I don't want to, because they try and then they quit pretty much immediately, almost before they even start. They say, okay, one, two, three, I'll try it. I don't want to. So it doesn't really, it's sort of like, and then they do it over and over. Okay, I'll practice wisdom, I don't want to. Okay, I'll practice wisdom, I don't want to. I think it's better to sort of like, I want to, and then try it, and then say, it's hard. I want to, but I want to, yeah, I actually want to, but I forgot. I want to, but I forgot. I want to, but I forgot. I want to, but it's hard. I want to, but I'm complaining. I want to, but, and I, wait a second, now I am doing, actually I'm here, I'm actually paying attention to this delusion, I see it. see my belief there it is I think I'm inherently existing there it is I saw it my god it's happening but you have to sort of want to do this and you're not going to really want to do this maybe until you want to do it that's the reasonable

[27:32]

But I'm suggesting that you, first of all, work on being of service and kind to all beings. Work on that, work on that, work on that. Devote yourself to that in a joyful way. This should be joyful. If it's not joyful, you're not really getting into it yet. It should be joyful to be devoted to beings. And with this joy that comes, there's going to come this wish to become a Buddha, to realize Buddha's wisdom. And when you want to realize Buddha's wisdom, then you have a chance of working on it. okay but if you don't yet want to work on it then just hold in parentheses this instruction about how to start developing it which is to study the self which means to study the opposite of Buddhist vision Buddhist vision is no self you don't start there you start with Buddhist vision You start with your belief that there is a self, an inherently existing self, an independent self, an intrinsically existing self.

[28:42]

Try to find your belief in that. If you feel you want to start working on Buddha's vision, if you want to start working on Buddha's wisdom for the welfare of all beings, try to find your belief. Don't try to find mine. Try to find your belief. in inherent existence. Easy for you to see my belief in inherent existence. When I do something selfish, you say, oh, see, he's selfish. He believes in inherent existence. See, I saw it. As another selfish person, see, they're acting on that belief that they're independent. I saw it. Try to find it in yourself. One of the ways to locate it is when you're being selfish. When you're being selfish, when you're putting yourself ahead of somebody else, when you're being selfish, if you can spot that. And if you can't spot being selfish, see if you can find yourself being anxious. If you're anxious, it's somewhere around there. So, whenever you're up for it and whenever you want to, that's one way to start practicing wisdom is to start noticing how your view is not wisdom.

[29:49]

How you actually think that things do inherently exist and start with yourself. You think other people inherently exist. You think things inherently exist. But usually the best place to start is with the belief that you, that your psychophysical experience has an inherent selfhood. See if you can find not the inherent selfhood. You're not going to find that. See if you can find your belief or your view of inherent selfhood. see if you can find it and then if you can find it then try while continuing to practice devotion to all beings and experience the uplifting joy of that compassion then try to be steadily aware of this self-centered egotistical belief or this belief which is the basis of egotism try just be steady with that and if you're steady with it when you're steady with that which I would guess you know not too many of you are steady with that right now some of you have maybe never even seen this this belief you have in your inherent existence some of you may have seen it but just to see it once in a while like three times a day or once a week

[31:17]

once a month seven times a day I don't know maybe some of you are aware of it like a thousand times a day but most of us would have to work quite a bit to be aware of that a thousand times a day but it occurs more than a thousand times a day for most people actually as you start to get into this you can be aware of it more than a thousand times a day and be comfortable and encouraged to be that in touch with your delusion and again I always forget this quote I like this quote from the I think the Christian tradition Jesus says something like what is it that which That which is inside you or that which is inside you, if it's kept there, will destroy you. But if you bring it out in front, it will liberate you. Something like that. You know that one? This belief in your inherent existence, if it stays hidden in your heart, in your mind, it will hurt your life and eventually it will destroy you, destroy your opportunity for happiness.

[32:36]

and maybe hurt some other people along the way. But if you can bring it out in front and hold it there steadily, Buddha can come and help you look at it and realize it's empty. It's not real. Fortunately or unfortunately, it's not real. It's just an idea that we believe in as more than just an idea. It's just an imputation we place upon things of inherentness. So again, my homework assignment for you, until I talk to you again, or until somebody else talks to you about this again, is practice compassion. and either wait for or continue to nourish your aspiration to attain enlightenment for all beings and start to study the self which means start to look and see if you have this belief in your inherent existence and if you do to try to become familiar with it so that you can eventually spend the whole day with it and then when you can spend the whole day with it then we can we can

[33:50]

We can, what do you call it? We can take it for a ride. We can, you know, what do they do? We can become free of it. But we can't become free of it if it's lurking in the dark. Our neurological equipment and our social upbringing keeps it going. It's just going to keep going unless it's brought out, studied, and forgotten. So again, Dogen says, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the Buddha way is to study the opposite of the Buddha way. To study the Buddha way is to study what is antithetical to the Buddha way. And to study what is antithetical to the Buddha way is to forget what is antithetical to the Buddha way. To study the Buddha way is to study this inherent belief in self. And to study the inherent belief in self, once you get it out there and you see it, to study that is to forget it.

[34:56]

And when you forget it, ladies and gentlemen, we have Buddhahood. But this very short presentation, it's very hard to bring it out, see it, and be steady with it, and then steady with it, and steady with it, and continuously practicing compassion, studying this delusion, studying this delusion until it's forgotten. But several people have done this and it was really good that they did it and they were turned out to be really a very pure and incredibly great love when they realized this and so they're saying it is possible for us to become free of suffering but in order to become free of suffering we must become free of its source which is this belief in inherent existence okay is it clear so it's clear but it's hard so any questions about this today because there's a ceremony in the city which i have which i'm going to go to

[36:17]

I'm going to try to go to. We'll see. Today, question and answer will be now. This is question and answer. Welcome to question and answer. Do you have any questions? Yes? Is enlightenment genetic? Sure. Everything's genetic. Yes? How does Buddha view death? How does Buddha view death? Death is a phenomena and Buddha sees that death has no intrinsic nature. Does not inherently exist. And neither does life inherently exist. That's Buddha's ultimate view. That's Buddha's ultimate view of death.

[37:19]

Buddha's conventional view of death is that death is something that arises and ceases. Death comes and goes. So Buddha actually, Buddha can see the conventional view of death, which is something that arises and ceases, but Buddha also has an ultimate view of death and ultimate view of life that there's no such thing. all by itself, a death. There's no like death out there all by itself, inherently existing death. Death is interconnected with everything in the universe. There's no solid core to death. And realizing that there's no solid core of death, we call realizing deathlessness. which is the same as being free of suffering but if you think life has inherent existence you suffer if you think death has inherent existence you suffer when you realize neither have inherent existence then you realize birthlessness and deathlessness this is enlightenment okay yes yeah

[38:33]

well there's various theories one of the theories is called evolution there's a theory that that you had these organisms you know like I don't know what But at some point anyway, having a self was an adaptive advantage over not having a self. And once people had selves, those who didn't were like left out of the games on the playground. Imagine if you met somebody without a self. Would you be interested in spending your time with them? They would be lacking a certain technological breakthrough. having a self is you know very useful in terms you know terms of like these are my babies this is my turf you know and for my sake it'd be good if I didn't let people know that I thought this way I'm not going to tell people that I'm being selfish and stuff like that so all kinds of deceptions and stuff grow up in this and so for power and survival of the organism for its own

[39:47]

genetic success self turns out to be an advantage and and most lot of biologists when they watch life systems they see that having a self is an inevitable advancement in survival techniques for genes so genes came up with the self thing as a as a survival technique to reproduce themselves And genes don't care about that the person or the being that has this equipment is miserable. All they want is one more time. Let's do it again. And if this person's miserable, so what? And if they're mean to other people, we don't care. The gene is not concerned about happiness. It's concerned about successful reproduction. It just wants to reproduce. It's all what it's about. That's what it looks like to some people. So that's one theory about why why there's selfishness self and selfishness and you know one not a this is just a theory but maybe in the ancient past or you know maybe last week there were people human beings who did not have this selfishness you know so when it came time to reproduce they said you go first you know so our ancestors are the selfish ones

[41:12]

The unselfish ones didn't reproduce because our ancestors beat them to the punch or beat them to the catch. So human beings don't necessarily have to have a selfish idea of what was going on, but those who have selfish ideas usually get a head in the line, you know, in the reproductive race. That's one theory. It's a nice one, fun to play with. But anyway, somehow we've got the situation, and if we were able to, one of the, I hate to promise this, but now I'm on this promising track. If you would wake up from this delusion of inherent existence, you would be able to understand how come this situation got set up to be this way. In some ways, what it's all about is making Buddhas because it takes greater Buddhas to work with these intensely diluted human beings than it would to have Buddhas with, you know, just among bacteria.

[42:21]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Two-part question from Mary Ann. All right. The question was... the intention to want to benefit all beings yeah you may want to be helpful to others but they may not want that help that you're up to offering yes that often happens that's a very good example you may wish to help someone but they may not want the type of help which you are thinking of giving them Is that what you're saying? That's an example of where if you want to help people, you want to love people, it's very convenient or effective and helpful if you're not attached to the way you want to help them. So, you know, I want to help you this way, and they say, I don't want that help.

[43:27]

You say, okay, I'll help you another way. Which way you want to help? And they say, I want you to help this way. And you say, well, I didn't want to help you that way, but I'm not attached to the way I wanted to help you, so I'll help you the way you want. So that's one of the things you can do when you're not attached to your idea of love, is you can love people the way that people would feel would be beneficial, rather than the way you think would be beneficial. And you say, well, what about someone who wants you to give them drugs? They think that would be helpful, and you don't. Still, you give up your idea of what you think would be helpful. But it doesn't mean that you would do something that would be harmful to them. So somehow you give up your idea of what's helpful, at the same time you don't just switch over to do what's harmful. I think before you have perfect wisdom and you're trying to help beings, you go ahead and help them

[44:50]

with that limitation you go ahead and try to help with that limitation and and so sometimes you make mistakes sometimes you try to help someone and you maybe you even see that it wasn't helpful that you were mistaken and but that helps people for you to see that you made a mistake the mistake didn't necessarily help them but if they can see that you made a mistake that might help them plus it would help them to see that you saw you made a mistake now what if you make a mistake you can't even see it still might be helpful because still people can see she made a mistake it went this way plus she didn't even see she made a mistake so it still could be helpful so other people can be benefited by our mistakes they can see oh That's how it works when you make that kind of mistake. I've been helped by many people who have made mistakes so that I didn't have to make the mistake.

[45:51]

I could see their mistake. That was quite helpful to me. If they had had more wisdom, they wouldn't have made that mistake. But if they hadn't made that mistake, I wouldn't have been able to learn that particular example, which I needed to learn. So in fact, Buddhas can teach certain things that nobody else can teach, but people who are working towards being Buddhas can teach people things which Buddhas can't teach. Buddha can't teach you certain kind of mistakes. But some people who are working towards realizing Buddhahood can teach you certain things which you need to learn. And you can also teach people things that Buddhas can't teach people. So you actually are being helpful in ways that people need, but that Buddha couldn't give them. So that's why we need more than just Buddhas in this project, and fortunately we have more than just Buddhas. So we've got Buddhas and Buddhist Buddha aspirants. Buddha aspirants are the bodhisattvas, those who wish to become Buddha but not yet reaching it. They can help. And we have some people who don't even want to be Buddhas, and they can help too.

[46:54]

So we have a full range of helpers available. But part of Buddhism is to become able to help people in ways that Buddhas can help. And in becoming a Buddha, you may be going through various stages where you were helpful to people in ways that you're no longer able to be helpful. But you remember, you know, you have that experience. Yes? You can see that you can understand the devotion to all beings? Yes. And being able to do that in the world. but to actually be a Buddha and be part of the business world. Is that, I'm wondering, is that actually... So she's saying she can see being devoted to beings, for example, in the business world.

[47:58]

She can imagine being in the business world and trying to help people. But she wonders, could you be a Buddha and be in the business world? Could you actually give up self and be in the business world? Well, I would say definitely yes. You could have a Buddha like a Buddha might possibly visit a stock exchange. But, you know, well, I mean, just imagine a Buddha coming into the stock exchange with people running around, okay? When the Buddha got to the room, would the Buddha, like, where would the Buddha go? Would the Buddha stay at the door and just watch? Or would the Buddha walk into the middle of the stock exchange and sit down in the middle of it? and just sit there, and have people just run around the Buddha. She might just sit there. Would she try to beat somebody out in some way? No. Now, if it was helpful for the Buddha to try to, if it would educate people for Buddha to try to pull some fast deal, then the Buddha could do that,

[49:10]

If it would educate people, whatever would help people, the Buddha could and would do. Could and would do. But maybe the most helpful thing for the Buddha to do would be to just post a little sign on the bulletin board at the Stock Exchange saying, if you want to be free of suffering, come over to this place and I'll teach you how at 7.30 tomorrow night. So they might just go in and post a little announcement for meditation rather than going there and sitting in meditation in the middle of the stock exchange. But sometimes Buddhas do go and sit right in the middle of the stock exchange for a little while and people, maybe one person notices them and wakes up. The other people just don't even notice because they're too busy running around. They don't even notice the Buddha. So it might be better for the Buddha to be someplace where people are sort of like wanting to pay attention to the teaching rather than go someplace where people are too busy to even look. but so Shakyamuni Buddha didn't like go into really really hectic and turbulent situations like he didn't like walk out in the middle of a war scene usually there are some cases though where where someone is

[50:25]

extremely deluded and on the verge of doing some great harm, there are cases of where the Buddha went and met that person and converted that person. Or vice versa, the Buddha was someplace and somebody who was really crazy or whatever came into the Buddha's area and the Buddha just snapped him out of it. There are cases like that. But usually that wasn't the Buddha going into a place where he was infested with extremely upset and deluded people. Like, you know, going to the middle of a war scene where everybody's fighting everybody else and doesn't have time to look at the Buddha's teaching. It's more like maybe one warrior would wander off the battlefield and run into the Buddha on the sidelines and the Buddha wake the warrior up there because the warrior maybe could pay attention at that time so the point is anyway whatever would be helpful and if you could be helpful in the middle of a business scene then be helpful there but usually Buddha doesn't teach unless people are up for receiving the teaching because usually the teaching is a Buddha's

[51:37]

are, you know, the opposite of what people are ordinarily thinking. So usually Buddhists say, you know, they want to teach people, but they realize that people have to be up for it. So if you went into a business scene where people were like, some kind of a break or something from their ordinary activity, maybe at lunchtime Buddha could give a talk, that's what they do, right? They invite Buddha to give a luncheon, a talk at a luncheon, everybody stops for a little while and listens to a speaker and says, wow, and they go back to work. But it's possible Buddha would go give a talk at a luncheon of business people. And they would listen at that time and maybe be turned on to the Dharma at that time. Okay? Let's see. I don't know what the order of the questions are, but yes? A very different subject, okay. Okay. Oh, well, you mean aside from the fact of it being important for life?

[52:53]

Yes? You seem to have to sit with grief? Yes? Yes? Grieving is, if you mean by grieving, feeling sadness and some pain over things that you've lost, that's a normal part of Buddhist practice. To grieve is a normal part of Buddhist practice. Any of us who have attachments to things, whatever we're attached to, we lose eventually. So when we lose something and we're attached to it and don't let it go, we need to grieve or feel sad in order to get over what we've lost.

[54:11]

But if you're attached to something, sometimes you don't even know how you're attached, so you can't figure out how to let go. but your life is being dragged down by your attachment to something that's not there anymore. So your vitality wants to let go of what's not there. So it offers you this alternative way to get with the program called grieving or sadness. And if you feel the sadness, if you open to the sadness, you loosen your grip on what's already gone, which you still are refusing to let go. So feeling sadness and grief are a way to catch up to the present. It's definitely part of practice. So as long as we're attached, we're going to have to do more grieving. And when we finally aren't attached at all, then we need to grieve for whatever past attachments we had to what was lost. But it's possible Buddhas don't need to grieve anymore because they're not attaching to things. They just observe things come and go. and they know that there's no need to attach to what you don't have anymore but most of us are a little bit attached to things that don't exist anymore like our past our youth our good looks our intelligence that are gone you know our memory our teeth those things are gone

[55:38]

And it drags us. We get dragged down if we hold on to what's gone. So grief is your body offering. It says, okay, if you can't let go, feel this. And if you feel it, then you let go. It's kind of like what it's called. It refers to the area of attachment. Your opening to the grief refers to opening to the place where you're gripping. That make sense? So you can let go of things through grieving and sadness. And when you let go, then you're refreshed and you're ready to live. Maybe form new attachments, which you're going to have to grieve for later, but maybe not. We'll see. Okay? Back there, the man with the hair. What? well to what one way to think of it is that you is that you think you're independent of that you think you're an entity which is independent of other that's one way to say that we actually think that we're independent deep down we think we're an independent self we don't pay attention to all the all that our selfhood depends on so we think it's an a substantial

[57:02]

existent, independent, intrinsic thing. That's what I mean. We have that view. If we think about it, it doesn't make any sense, but we go ahead and feel that way anyway. That's our deep habit. It's the self-view habit. Okay? Another question? Yes? Rana? Rana? You're a teacher. Yes? Teachings are really slippery. Teachings are slippery? Yes. I feel like I find something that is here. I stop complaining and I feel that joy. And that desire and want to be there. You know, to help all kinds of things. But then that shadows... You don't have love for them anymore?

[58:31]

I'm not sure anymore because I'm so upset and inadequate. Uh-huh. You're inadequate? You feel inadequate? Yes. Tremendous. It's boiling the energy of, you know, five kids, six-year-old, and constantly. Yes. Otherwise, The more you try what, the less you see. Yeah, the more you try to teach them not to fight, the more they fight. Is that what you're saying? Well, maybe you should try another approach. Instead of trying to teach them not to fight, maybe you could offer, teach them how to fight better. Give them a class on fighting. Say, who wants to learn how to fight?

[59:36]

Come on over here, I'll show you how to fight. And you show them how to fight in this very loving way. So they learn how to fight better, plus they also get your love because they feel she really wants to teach us how to fight well. She really cares about us. She wants us to be good fighters. And now she's not attached to that trip she used to be on about trying to get us to not fight. Remember when she used to try to get us to not fight? What did we do? We fought more. So she seems to have got the message, and now she's going to teach us to do what we're doing better than we thought we would be able to. So the first thing in learning how to be a good fighter is, I mean, you know, am I a good fighter? Yes, teacher, you're a good fighter. I mean, like, am I super tough? Yes, you are. You want to learn to be super tough? Yes. The first thing to do is you have to spend six months. In order to learn what I'm going to teach you, you have to spend six months not fighting.

[60:37]

That's the requirement of learning my super fighting tricks. And you're not tricking them either because you are one bad lady, right? You're inadequate at teaching them how to be peaceful, but you could teach them how to fight, couldn't you? You're good at fighting, aren't you? You're not? Well, then you have to teach them something else if you can't teach them fighting. You've got to find something anyway that they're going to be interested in that you want to teach them. If you try to teach people something they're not interested in, they probably will not enter your class. The what? What about the what? The what? What about the standards? If you're responsible to teach things to people who don't want to learn them, then you have to just sort of say, these are things I'm responsible to teach, but today's not the day to teach them because today the children don't want to learn those things.

[61:39]

When you become a Buddha, you can teach the children everything, but you always have to take into account when they want to learn. The Buddha can teach everything, but the Buddha doesn't teach anything when the people don't want to hear it. The Buddha can teach everything. But if people don't want to learn X today, Buddha says, even if people ask to learn X and Buddha sees that they don't really want to learn, Buddha says, I don't think you want to learn X today. But if they say, oh no, we really do. No, I don't think so. But we really do. I don't think so. Okay, I'll teach you. So to try to teach people something they don't want to learn, you're going to have to find some way either to get them to want to learn it, before you teach it, you gotta get them to want to, or wait till later when they do want to. If you force it on them now, before they want to, then later when they want to, they're gonna be pouting. It's gonna be embarrassing. Yesterday I said I didn't wanna learn math, but today I want to, but I don't wanna admit that I changed my mind.

[62:46]

Do you understand? If you force some very good thing on people, when they're not when you push something on people when they're not ready then they get defensive against it and then the next few minutes or next day they're ready for it but because they said no the previous day they can't learn it the next day because they made a commitment to know but if you offer it and they say no you say okay fine and the next day you offer it and they say okay today I want to it's not so easy and not so difficult for them to accept it because you didn't force them into an entrenchment against it so again this is love you want to help them but if you're attached to your what you want to teach That's an impurity in your love. That's why you have to develop non-attachment to all the things you think love are, is. Whatever you think love is, you need to give that up, that view. Then people will show you what to give them. They say, okay, today, Rana, we want to learn this. You say, fine. Today, Rana, we want to learn what's that. Fine. I'm just your servant.

[63:48]

I can teach you 17 things. You tell me when. you know like a horse some people you know horses that when they're mature they can do like six things they can gallop they can stand they can walk they can trot they can canter they know how to do that because they're horses you just have to tell them when to do it and that's that that's the art of writing is to communicate to them and be what you what which one of those things to do you don't teach you don't teach him to walk you teach him his time to walk so The kids teach the teacher. Now, today, Rana, we want to learn math. Today, Rana, we want to learn nonviolence. Today, Rana, we want to learn violence. So you teach them violence. But how do you teach them violence? In a loving way. So they get to see violence, but they get to see love at the same time. And love connected to violence can protect beings from violence. But if you tell them, do not be violent! Well, guess what they just learned?

[64:52]

They learned violence with no love. That's very dangerous. But violence in the middle of love can be harmless. Beings can be protected from violence if there's lots of love around it. Okay? But it's getting late, and I feel like you're a trapped audience, so I'm going to let you go to practice whatever you want to practice. What are you going to practice? Think about it. What are you going to practice? Nothing? Compassion? Love? Aspiration to enlightenment? Wisdom? All of them? Some of them? Think about it. Please. Buddha's waiting to hear your answer.

[65:54]

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