Crisis: A Spiritual Turning Point
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Spiritual life exists in crisis, which can be used as a turning point. To the extent that we recognize that where we sit right now is a turning point, we are able to understand the possibility of freedom in this moment. The Chinese character for "crisis" consists of two radicals: danger and opportunity. A common danger is the crisis of faith that emerges when the conversation or stories about "truths" are stopped. Zen stories are about crises and turning points, where people in face-to-face meetings turn from bondage to freedom, and from ignorance to enlightenment. They are stories that demonstrate that opening to the dangers that surround us is also opening to the opportunities, and closing to those dangers closes us to those opportunities.
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is there anything you'd like to discuss or any questions you for like two
yes current
the i think that a feeling angry
is a little is probably them most
contradictory emotion to the reality of
interdependence
last is actually little closer although lushness overdoing it a bit
lust is kind of related to compassion so one of the dangers of compassion is lust
that it slip into that into into attachment and greed
but angers like is sometimes totally
difficult to integrate with sense of compassion
in a sense of non-duality
so i gotta be careful of that one
it seems easy to do it
would you tell me about how you can be angry and be compassionate the same time
oh i see i see yeah
ah
well if you see someone hurting themselves
are hurting someone else
you can it's okay to just not like that the hurting themselves
even if you know that's that's fine that's not that's not ah
that's that's an appropriate anger actually but at random by angers ill will before wishing someone not the best wishing them even not to if you wish them ill
is contradictory to compassion but when they're hurting themselves to wish that they would stop and to say i'm like bet you're hurting yourself that's because very nicely with compassion
and yeah and if it if if somebody i'm so that kind of anger in a sense that you're angry towards non compassion
that may be okay
i just don't like that you're hurting yourself i don't like that
but i you know at the same time i i want you to be happy and healthy i know like that you're doing something that might hurt yourself hurt you or hurt someone else
and it may be is easier to do with children so but for the point of view of compassion everyone who is being unkind as a child
so in the buddhist sees us being unkind the bullet thinks we're being childish
you will end when a child being kind they're not being childish
they're being kind of grown up
they've grown up they've grown into you know what we have the potential for is to be kind
and really what we're really doing is where is were working non dual the compassionate and we have to we need help to wake up to that
that's my story yes
stories it in parenting
yes
yes rife
right
you see us stories about your children and you see your children have stories and then what
stories
you could you give an example
at this
you have a story of being a victim yes these are your children know or give why rice or then you see your child having a story of being a victim
yeah
okay
ah
could you here
so i have maybe i have a story and being of v she says i may maybe i've started being a victim and then i noticed my son has a story of being a victim and i'm little uncomfortable because i think maybe i've transmitted the story of being a victim to my son
and actually
you have transmitted to story being that your son but so have a lot of other people a lot of novelists and movie writers and friends the story of being a victim is one of the stories and we do transmitted to people and some people can kind of come up with it with anybody transmitting it to term victim the view of victim can
naturally from our basic delusion
so even if you didn't transmitted to or so on even if he likes it
even if you like every time you started to have the thought of the story of being a victim you like smashed yourself so they wouldn't develop he would still be able to come up with it but still even though he came up with it
and you never said it to him or never thought it in his neighborhood still we're all responsible for the stories that are coming up among us
it's not to stop your son from having the story of victim or stop yourself
is to not believe the story of it's to understand the story of victim not to believe it
the the victim mindset
yes
yeah
yes it does and that's that's the transmission of that the transmission of the dharma of the transmission of
understand the stories that you'll live in the midst of don't believe them don't believe the story that you're good and other people are bad or other people are good in your bad or everybody's bad or everybody's good
those are all stories
but listen to them all
open to them all
and understand them all and then you'll become free of them all including the basic one that's really wrong namely were not born together with all beings and we're not responsible for all beings and all beings are responsible for us that's the basic wrong one that we have to like just get over
but is basically the same thing would apply to the wrong story a harmful story a story that really is bad to believe and a story which isn't so bad to believe it's not as bad to believe other people are kind
but point is to understand all stores and become free of all stores and if you're working on that the children can feel that
that gets transmitted
they can tell him said that my mom she thinks i'm you know this or that but she's been enough that hung up on her views of me
and i have a story that that's really cool
you know
children like us to our children like of tab good stories of them
but they also know that our stories are almost never really us
i mean switching they know our stories of them are never read them
they got their say they know that and they so they kind of like it when when we have a really good story of them but they kind of don't like it that is not them
and i just those to my mother and telephone tell her friends about me and she used to say these amazingly wonderful things about me which had nothing to do with me and it really bother me because she was basically using me as a opportunity for for her to tell her friends what a great son she had
no and she'd rather have her friends thing she had a great son and actually tell her tell him about the some that the had is what my story
oh his you know president boys kind of big and strong and that's my dad you know now she'd smith these elaborate know exaggerations of any good quality i had so that your friends are probably going like what she talking about this couldn't be true or like geez you really have a great sign you must be a great mother
but i felt kind of betrayed because it wasn't really about me
exactly
but still if she told a story and and average told the story so that was just a story about my son and on this i just told you that just because of the story had if i felt you didn't really believe that that would have been helpful
but i you know
yes
yeah
astray by death
the i have lot of stories by death and i blogged death stories to and i have a story about yeah and i pray about death in general and have a story about birth and have a story about rebirth so i'm sort of like
buddhism has stories about rebirth to which are are difficult for for a lot of people in for example america have trouble with stories by rebirth because we lot of us didn't grow up with stories about rebirth so we hear stories about rebirth
we have started about know rebirth or we have started about being born in heaven but not being born again in this world
so but still i kind of feel like listen to the stories of birth listen to the stories of death
and understand them and understand that buddhism buddha buddha dharma tell stories of death
i think other religious traditions tell stories of death and some other religious traditions tell stories are real a birth after death birth into heaven buddhism also a tell stories but after death rebirth in heaven but then it says after birth in heaven and every birth back into the normal world
but not everybody gets reborn in heaven somebody some lot of people according to the buddhist stories after dying get reborn just an ordinary
we're like one story be if you died this afternoon you'd be reborn there's a good chance you'd be reborn here in california within forty nine days
but you also could be born any place
in the universe
that's a bullet that's a buddhist story of a rebirth but the point is the point i'm trying to make his try to study that story and meditate on their store and try to understand the those stories of rebirth
to become free of them
because the point of buddhism is not to get reborn and this way or that way it's to how beings in whatever form of birth and death they're going through to help beans become free of suffering
as we every rocket around the universe in various forms of existence together to the to promote freedom and peace is the agenda
and believing stories seems antithetical
we're in least ultimately antithetical to the realization of them but in the short run we have to believe stories like you have to tell you have children have stories and you have to support them in the short run otherwise they can function
you can't introduce
a skepticism and stuff like that the children too much otherwise they have too much difficulty adjusting to school or and things like that
see have to tell the story that
things will not go well if they steal and lie in things like that
they need that story
and then gradually you can help them see that that story is not
the end of the story
yes
stories
yeah
series of the aggressor
that
sort of you
i feel oh i have as i feel a little more separate from them and i feel that they feel a little more separate from me particularly the little girl i think she'll even teach out to i've been registered on her screen yet
but i i do have a really nice photograph some of the little girl in the little boy in me
ah
sledding down the the steepest hill in minneapolis in the snuff you know in december this year but i don't think she i don't think she really even noticing that the main people she notices to main person she notices their mother that's the main person and then her brother who's basically competing for it for
her mother she's like i don't think she's even noticed me yet
but little boy he's register that on his grandfather and you know that i love him and he loves me and you know
also he's really into his mother so much side
he doesn't really relate to me too much and but he's also i'm becoming a source of some stories and stories of him are starting to accumulate
but i i don't i don't feel you know i don't know the story
ireland's many stories about him but i don't have a story that
that he's more separate from me i don't have that story but i have a feeling that we're not as intimately connected and
but there's a lot of similarities between him and his cousin
and allow the similarities have something to do with
me
a lot of people say to but both them and you know where he gets that
and i can kind of say well maybe so yeah so i do feel connected to both bathroom
but i feel you know more more kind of like what is it
physical pain being separated from the one who i saw born
then from the one who was born in australia
you know that the pain of being away from them very slightly
but when i met the other grandchild grandson when i met him it was like it was in a it was check to check it was like it was there you know it it was like
he saw me and i saw him and you know that was like he was just as much as with the other one or when i first met actually the other one when i first married and he didn't hit and seem eerily at his birth he was just basically read this mr read so when he was born i didn't have much of connection with him and i am
when he was born the main connection was between he mean his mother i had this really strong thing for his mother when he was born
to see my girl become a mother was like for a father to see his daughter bail be a mother
it's really something i mean
can see your wife have a baby you see the baby but then to see the baby become a mother it's sika for a man to see his daughter be a mother it's like it's almost like it's almost like you're in on it
is close to a kind of close to being a mother because it's my girl it is a mother
sell as well as great but the little boy people are you excited about your grandson and i said no
and then asked me later i you excited about your grandson know
and then but around three months it just hit like a truck
just like
and then i've been kind of a goner ever since
and the other boy also got hit one of her song
so there are conditions for feeling closer feeling separate but i don't want to believe those either those are stories also
but i'm studying them
yeah
stories about story itself
we are
evolution of
eric's
i love to hear the story
this is the story of the lyrics and the palate if you heard that one
chrome man
asked
side by side
california
riley
our out as well
interact
the with the last tomorrow
the other practice
well protected
crispy or evolution where the lyrics could come up ahead or at best
as the evolution of our third time i would love to see maybe annoy know your website
chief
face and we'll see what's in chinese symbols
nice nice post for down website
else do that's put has put face
let's put face receiving on the website
i just happened to him peace that calligraphy ready to go
yes which i'm gonna give to the people and in this intensive
some of us
it's hard to this
is a danger of neil is him in saying everything's everything story i'm not saying anything story i'm saying stories are just stories and that's nothing is actually a story even a story is not really a story
so i'm not saying everything's a story i'm saying we have stories about many things that are stories are not the thing my story of you is not you but you're not a story that's when my stories
but the way you are is not
grasp by not a story either
you're beyond being story and you're beyond being not a story
what do i grasp
everything
yeah
the eastern nothing yes
why is it easter's
it's not eastern vs western
what meets the water and then it and then it moves over the water
what's the buddha's
see want to know what's the buddhism what else
you wonder about eastern mountains
and water k so
so the eastern mountains are moving and the eastern months by the way are not opposed to western mountains
we could change the story very easily
to western mountains move over the water can be fine with also changed it to western mountains are dancing with eastern mountains
pardon
keep know his part he had a purpose his purpose is he said what his purpose was his purpose is
to teach the dharma that's his purpose all the time he was his commitment anyway
with whatever happened to teach the dharma and so he was teaching people that day on where are the buddhist born so he thought
he thought he'd say it that way that the eastern mountains move over the water
his intention was to help us be free of our stories by using the imagery of mountains and water
it's insane that the way the mountains and the water interact is the way is the way and the place to voters are born
yes
i mean a compassion
that's free of any ideas
clinging and he had kenny cleaned ideas so for example you'll be a compassion which is free of any ideas of what is compassion
see some people have compassion but then they take and then they have the idea that's not compassion and they claim to it
so then they there they feel compassion they want to help people but then they have some idea
that's not compassion
they see somebody else and they think that person not being compassionate which is fine to think that but they don't just think that they believed that
and therefore the buddha is somehow not been realized when the buddhist sees somebody
when when when when compassion see somebody and thinks that person not compassionate they don't they don't get stuck on that idea
the compassion is not hindered by thoughts like not compassion are cruel or stupid or whatever no matter what ideas appear there's no cleaning to them all those ideas are just part of the compassion so the compassion flows freely and net free flowing unobstructed non dual compassion that is buddha
that's a buddhist and has innumerable occasions for the arising of this non to compassion and each one of those arising as a buddha
and then in addition
ah this compassion wanting to help beings wake up comes into the world in manifests in ways that people who
have limited will have compassion but it's somewhat hindered
so they they can be taught
so then the boot is manifest in this world and sometimes they manifest in a form that those people
think is not compassion and then they conveyed the person the non-attachment in the person
loses their attachment to their idea of compassion and becomes a buddha with them
a boot of according to some in transmissions buddha said get all living beings fully possess the wisdom and virtue of a buddha that's what some
transmission say but because they're attached to their ideas
they don't realize it so buddha sees you and us as fully possessing the buddha the virtues and and and wisdom of the buddha but but also sees were afflicted by attaching to misconceptions
and so we don't realize it so we're we're we're miserable buddhist
which is not exactly regular but a regular buddha is not a miserable border
but
a conventional what nine i'm not talking about that
okay
doesn't doesn't work
ah it rings the bell as the way you think make this is called jackie thinks that way belt
did you want during some other bill like correct answer bell
ordering for agreeing with buddha bell
when bell do you want to ring
yeah
ah i don't know what you did
do you know what you did
yeah
our emotions what
emotions are vehicles of delusion and emotions or vehicles of enlightenment
the mountain is if the mountain is an emotion
and if they get stuck in the mountains you know you like some altitude you don't go down to the toes you think i'm gonna be and you know in this part of the mountain rather than going to thoroughly study this mountain
then you'd then you just part of the mountain but he studied this in this emotion which is which is an example of a mountain you study this emotion way down to the toes you'll notice that this that this emotion is splashing around in the water and you'll see a buddha born at the place where the
where the emotion interacts with the water and start dancing
emotion but it's like hey this is like a liberation in motion and so before you for before we fully engage with and thoroughly understand our emotions were even if someone caught by them
but when you fully engage with them then they're opportunity than the their the way that the mountain part of the interaction where the enlightenment born so everything's an opportunity to get stuck
or to be liberated so everything's
a possible turning point or crisis opportunity were surrounded by dangers that we won't be thorough in our practice and get in trouble and hurt ourselves and others said danger all the time of inconclusive half-hearted engagement with our life but there's also the possibility that whatever's happening can be an opera
unity to realize compassion and freedom
no it's it's the thoroughness of the practice with it so when we don't fully engage with our life we get stuck
and so we have emotions we have ideas we have stories
we have stories and than because we have stories we have emotions but everything's an equal opportunity employer
and sometimes we don't take we don't fully accept our jobs so
then there's usually a story of not been very happy arising with that and know that but it's somebody else's fault yes
yes
yes
yes
warning
you kept going to where'd you go to
how is it done
i felt so
walk
close
i swear
well that's why not too many people came to talk to
they're all down a mere beach
enjoying the sunshine
so i have a story about a
story
by
mm-hmm
and
long
life
well as logic it's not so much life with a story but life without believing the story you have about life
so like you know something but
you know you don't really know how you know it but you know it and i knew the reason you know things because the universe makes you into a knowing being
but most most of us can go too long on just that
we have to make a story about
how i'm power knowing so if somebody comes up to you you have story at hand they can interact with them
but if you had a story about
come into green gulch going to muir beach or coming back of feeling bad if you had a story
and you didn't believe it
then you'd be sort of living in your intuition
you are caught by it
so it is not symmetric intuition is not away by heavy stories intuition is knocked away
when we hold to our story about what how what we know as being how we know
are we hold our story called or to our story about what we know has what we know so stories about how we know and stories about what we know stories about how are born and how we die
they aren't really they never really reach how we know what we know how are born and how we die
and we can live with what we know
free of ideas
then we're on this er den our compassion will be on an unobstructed
and some but but we need somehow we need a transmission of that
we can't we can't like find it in the midst of all of our stories but can't find a place of know stories without somebody like guiding us so we we need actually to meet the the the buddha in the world with teaching her to us
and that's again a story i'm telling you and how to like open to that with a clean to that is another kind of mystery of practice
and i don't i don't i don't particularly wished to get into a story about who you are interacting with on your trip here today
i don't know how exactly
i can make up a story and on a buddha guy to you here
and but it shows you way to be free of some of your stories
and find the little yellow square
oh yeah
how do you avoid
well it sounds not too good so far
the i'm into that
cognitive therapy
it's not we're not saying that i'm not saying everything's a story not saying the mere fact i'm saying really nothing is a story even a is not a story
as our perceptions of what's happening are mixed with stories
so what's happening or or the way things actually are is not stories
but we have stories about almost everything that happens but sometimes we were just too busy to hear stories about some things something's get by without us having time to to zap thought to slap a thorough stuart story on them and if we can't put a story on and we can't talk to people in bottom so there's some stuff that's happening or life which is kind of like i was doing that
was no light and is gone you know
before you have a chance to like make a story on tell people and you know and sell a few copies of your memoirs
not every nothing none of the things that are happening are our stories everything's beyond story so
and that's a story to but nothing is done so even stories are really stories spread the statement that a story's a story is not really doesn't really reach the story either but we need stories in r defunct one so we have them question is
how to understand them not how to avoid stories and not even how to avoid attachment the stories
but how to learn from stories and attachment to stories and hear stories which are about the way things the stories are about the way things really are but the stories part the way things really are to hear the stories which are instructing us how to not be caught by stories while we continue to use story so we can interact with people so buddha's you stories they tell store
ari's shocking we devoted to have lots of stories
and he also told people these stories are not actually what's happening i'm just doing this to help you become free and he was pretty successful telling people stories and at the end of the story is people like woke up and saw
what's that there's there is a world is a life called peace and freedom
nirvana which is beyond our stories a birth and death
and buddha use stories and other kinds of interactions with people
to initiate them into a vision and an experience of what's beyond stories
six beyond stories
and
in what's happening is where allows humans beings to arise with storytelling abilities and we can use these abilities to become free of our attachment to stories
but we can also just become attached to our stories and suffer which is this one the stories about our unhappiness is that we have a story that not everybody's being supportive of us and so on and we don't want to help everybody else and we're basically don't like these people because they're not behaving the way we want them to we have stories like that and we don't let we don't
get the joke
but were like this is not funny story i and i'm not gonna let go and that it's not funny
i know it's not that good for me to hold on this story but i'm like at least i've got something to hold onto
if you let go of the story that people aren't behaving very well
what have you got
then i'll let go of the story that's not behaving wealth i can trade it in on that they are behaving well but not just going to let go of it
and that's why you need help that's why you need a meeting with somebody to help you let go of your story somebody who's like
into the process with you have letting go of their story with your story with our stories
yes you needed to go the positive way
not no stories no stories clung to know images no concepts clung to so you have you have compassion you do want yourself and others to be happy and free but if you hold onto any stories if you cling to any ideas store
please don't really see what we mean by stories doesn't make much sense without some concept
some language now the larynx interacting with the panel
this thing has this physical thing has to happen and then has to be words and then we have a story
we have these stories now if we understand the stories we will
evolve into what we want to be and what we want to be as something that's beyond any of our stories
just like in other words we want to be who we are what we are is beyond anybody's story of us what i am what you are as beyond my stories and your stories i want to become that person
was beyond all stories like they say the true person of no rank
two person is beyond any story i want to become that person to possess the person i already am
but
and that's a story that it's possible yeah it's possible to be the buddha and what good is it's somebody who feels love for all beings and doesn't think they're separate from her and doesn't fall for any stories and beings stories are beings
beings are stories
but stories never reach any been
and some people have taught us that and they're called the buddhas and we need to interact with this understanding of stories
and it is proposed to be possible that's another one the stories
and the stories about people getting this understanding this and the first one in this historical period is called the shakyamuni buddha
the first one in this tradition but he doesn't say he's the first one of the only one he's the first historical one who stood up there spoke to people in india and he said there's lot of the buddha's right now all over the universe doing the same teaching
and as i bought his before me and it will be viewed as know for future and the boot in the future and this world's going to be my is my tray a bodhisattva who's alive right now and doing is doing his or her thing right now and we're going to have another buddha when this buddha's teachings disappear that's what the buddha said
that's a story
you know listen to it understand it don't cling to it
and as more stories are probably going to come from you and from me and from other people to make that the story production going to continue we can't stop it but we can understand it i think i hope i believe yeah
his compassion
his compassion a state of awareness that arises from continuous attention to the in uninterrupted mind
ah continuous attention to uninterrupted mind is a form of compassion it's a form mental training which is it's a compassionate way of it's an expression on it's an expression of compassion continuous attention to the uninterrupted mine is an expression of compassion
and it is compassion and it gives rise to a state of consciousness called tranquillity which will be in a good state to practice compassion now this before arriving at this stage that state of tranquility the oh he was also practicing compassion but
under more difficult circumstances because they were you know unstable and stressed
but if when you if you're born you're unstable and stressed you continuously if you continuously attend to the uninterrupted mind
you will be able to them to other kinds of passion max which are will be easier for you than they were when you weren't stable and tranquil
thoroughly understand
and then i'm not
now if that was way
the convention
fairly established
i think i mean
engaged
you know i think that this kind of technical language of the other dependent and early established you have to not we can't talk about that right now because not everybody here is initiated into the esoteric teaching the three characteristics of all phenomena which body sought because our wise about so we can we talk about their right now it's not
it's kind of like
it it doesn't include other people so can we to start but that some other time when the other people were around are ready for that discussion
turkey really
really
we can do that they understand that
the vocabularies now not not been prepared for that conversation
yes
now not doing here
well not do a means for example that i don't
i don't
think that my awareness of you and you are two separate beings
i don't duality means if you think just like to actual things that are not connect that are not really
part of one being
so a non to awareness would be where i understand
that what is appearing to me
is of the same being as my awareness
and oneness yeah our interdependence
and this entered the actual interdependence of things leads to the teaching that awareness and objects of awareness are rising from the same source but they're really not separate in there not substantially separate in being
so understanding that he's understanding non-duality and understanding that is realizing non-duality so we
the teaching is that we are actually non dual but we don't realize that so we have instruction and transmission of teaching so we can realize that even though it's already the way it is we have stories that were separate and we have stories that what we're aware of in our awareness or separate
so you need to kind of get over those stories and we need a lot of instruction and meditation on the instruction to get over it
can we also need quite a bit of hassle
to encourage us to do the meditation because
you know if we're not have some nausea is continue with our present delusion because it's you know it's so easy it is operating to sit back and enjoy the show but it's not enjoyable sometimes so is some joy of some show that's always enjoyable he asked we have one like that and it's called
now and or compassion
it's a stable enjoyment
yeah
yeah
it's not the same as you know
it's just that
they're not too different beings
me and your awareness of me or not are not like two separate bags
what were born were born together
and your percent get your for example the the picture of you is not separate from your awareness of the picture
but it seems like it is that that's where it appears to people is that there a picture of somebody i think the picture is separate from the awareness
but of course it's not
it's the mind arising such a way that it sees itself as separate from itself
and so people walk around seeing themselves as separate from themselves
they say they see they see themselves as the mountains they see themselves as the rivers they see themselves as the stars they see themselves as other people they see themselves as grandchildren they see themselves that way that's the way you see yourself
not yet a mere then you can see yourself in the mirror but ordinarily the way i see myself is like my hands and you that's so as to myself
but i think that what i'm seeing is separate from my ceiling
which is incorrect it's not separate
that's not the same either
at the same
because
because if example the mountains
aren't aware of me seeing them
the way i'm seeing however my ability to see them is because they're seeing me in their own way
mountains are looking back at me but not the same way that i'm looking at the mountains
so we're different but not separate
were different but not separate
yeah
pardon
he did
a short story
my grandson moved to l a
and he's now living in north hollywood
and
did i tell them stories morning
that's one of the stars at all
ah i didn't exactly say that he's far away but you could configure that out i could i could have said that to and l a far away i couldn't have that story too
you bet i miss me be missing your bed is correct i miss it
but i enjoy the pain of separation is such a delicious pain
i like i liked the pain of missing people i don't like the pain of being glad that they're gone
that's great
course i'm happy that they're gone but i feel bad that i'm happy that they're gone
i'm really happy that they're gone been don't feel good that i'm happy that they're gone
with my grandson i'm just in pain and is gone and it's such a nice pain it's a unique grandson pain
gets me in a certain way that
i haven't yet experienced with granddaughters
hmm
well unfortunately is not here to tell you that i think that would be really delightful if he would manifest here and give a talk on what is like
he might say something about that he didn't say something which you know i hate to say this to a i really hate to say it is but i went to l a to visit and i went with my wife who is his grandmother
and somebody said to the little guy are you glad to see your grandmother and grandfather and he said yeah grandfather granddaddy definitely
i hate to tell you that
but you know if you haven't here now and you say what it's like living in in in l a heave have seen probably he might have something to say or he might say i don't want to talk to people
he a capable of saying things like that
are you want here but then
it's like there's only one feeling like that in the whole universe the feeling of missing that person on a particular particular moment it's it's so particular and soul
unique and and it's it's own richness and it's it's so deep that it's this feeling and not another one you know and it's just it's just so it's just life you know it's life and it's it hurts but it's so delicious to have them very
completely unique feeling a missing at a particular time and a particular part of the body
and feel of the the the fullness of its uniqueness is really just wonderful
there's nothing like it and then that's gone and then there's nothing like the next brandishing
and to have experiences like that is like
especially with no stories around
er no attachment to stories it's just like this is a sort of like
but it makes it all worthwhile
life
mix the trouble worthwhile to have some experiences like that and it just it there's a lot of pain or a little pain associated with it
you want have it or not
yes
you can pass on this one all ticket i'll be alive
yes
menu yes yeah menu face receiving
yeah
yeah
well i'm make a short comment and that is that menu face to face transmission in a sense is a very ancient way of people being together
it's comes from the time when we have a comes like even today the few indigenous cultures and we still have they still live on and maintain themselves very clearly by menger by face to face oral transmission
and then the buddha dharma particularly zen and originally buddha very much emphasize this face to face transmission all of the enlightenment stories are buddha talking to somebody face to face and then later in the tradition of the buddha dharma and you don't hear about it so much people were you know
they were doing all the variant of various other interesting things that are talking about but in the zen school his face to face thing was reactivated and re emphasized so in zen
the sands were saying our tradition is an oral tradition and they're also saying that shakyamuni buddha was an oral transmitter
so from two thousand and five hundred years ago and like fifteen hundred years ago it's ten hundred years ago eight hundred years ago zan has been maintaining a face to face oral transmission and now as as this technological world where oral transmission seems to be like where is it we have a few little zen centres where the oral
transmissions continuing
and so it's like we're on the verge of having oral transmission totally annihilated
by the force of our technological life
where people think telling stories and telling stories about not believing stories and doing a face to face this light
what what's that
not to mention that if you ever were interested in and you would go into a room to do this menu
your heart would beat so that you could hardly speak so people it's kind of frightening to come away from your computer and going to room and meet somebody face to face so it's not a a popular thing to do
unless you think you're in a lot of money for it or something
which is why i do it
yeah so or the oral culture
sundays are really in danger now and zen is a zen is an oral culture and it's in danger of being snuffed out
in the face of
technological involvement where people are you know i know when i was when i was in college when i was in graduate school at the university of minnesota i supported myself by doing computer programming for the psychology department where i was a graduate student and i i went into the computer room to submit my program to test it out
and i was looking for that they would call the operator of the computer
i was program but i wasn't i did not operate the computer so i went looking for the operator and i couldn't see him and i went back sort of back in some back area you know and i found the operator and i went up to him and we saw me he was terrified to see a person face to face you know
because he's like him and you know he wasn't aware he wasn't like into face to face transmission if you're into face to face transmission than almost anybody can come up to a new because i say how you to you're here to oh another one another one another one but if you'd like if you don't have a faces out there in a face shows up this like big shock
so face to face transmission is in danger right now of being annihilated when i'm no no no no not annihilated but going into a phase of extinction
and then probably will happen someday that the buddhist tradition which is a oral transmission a face to face transmission will disappear in this world
the public that probably will happen because even this face to face transmission is impermanent however
the story is that it will re-emerge again another world
and it will flourish again
so now we're just like taking care of it and tell to get blown out of the water and it's you know compared to the strength of it in the past maybe it's really a lot weaker because of the technological environment we live in
where people can actually like not be with people for a long time and it didn't used to be like that people court with people were like really scared
you know what were we grew up being together and if you wanted to hurt somebody just push him out of the group that was enough for them to be like really scared it's a way to discipline
people as just just push months out the group for a while and i get really scared horses do that too i understand that there
that horses are forced to called horse packs or horse herds are matriarchal the a female runs the show runs the heard and the way they discipline the teenagers of course the little colds can be very naughty and they're not going to push him out of the group but as i get mom mature it had lessened if they don't quote
operate with the situation they pushed they push the adolescent out
where are the wolves can get them and after they're out there for a while they come back and regionally and say okay okay okay
and where that way to really were really did we really are we really are
outgrowth of communal life and now we can be in the strange situation of being all by yourself and think that face to face transmission and oral transmission or culture isn't necessary or even just weird and old fashioned or whatever
that doesn't mean the oral transmissions easy or not scary
and not dangerous
it just means it's it's worth spiritual life in zen anyway lives
maybe we need a new religion you know where people are getting
getting getting somehow getting spiritual advice without face to face transmission but i what comes to mind as they have these huge now assemblies where thousands of people in the room and now they are these big screens behind the preacher so everybody can see the pictures face you know from various angles so maybe face to face transmission will find a way technology to
to survive
because it's okay if it's on a screen as long as you're scared
as long as when you go down there to the screen you put screen on and there's the buddha you feel your heart beating and like wow this is like all mice the cares that hung around are racing to vanish like a like a like a gambler's lucky streak and i'm an i'm in menu you know it maybe can happen with computer screens
i don't know
are people trying to probably
yeah
it doesn't sound like this socialism like devil's advocate this sounds like as advocate
does your heartbeat when you're doing that
and you you can hardly speak
does it get to that point
are you are you in menu at that time
what
okay
so she's she survived she survive in technology that diamonds coming through after all it's if it can happen great but there's a danger
the careful
when you're white when you're playing with your computer toys
be careful that you're staying in touch with contact with that but that compassion that's free of any ideas make sure you're in touch with that when you start your computer i think they'd probably have lots of signs in their computers say stay in touch with nando compassion when you start this thing
maybe in a year little yellow little boxes
don't start this computer until you enter into meditation on non or compassion okay
i won't
this is a story about that
zen master gets up in the morning and it goes to brush his teeth he looks in the mirror and he says master and then he says yes
are you awake yes
don't all day long don't let anything distract you from this i bought
that's a true story
can you believe that story
don't don't attach to a okay but even though you don't attach to you can act it out you can do that when you brush your teeth you can have a conversation
with your teacher
every morning while you're brushing your teeth
mr mean
it's think it's time to have lunch now
green gulch has allowed us to have this long meeting
thank you for coming even breaking through the know that the closed sign and coming in here it's really great