I just wish I wish that you have enjoyed this class at least as much as I have, if not more. I really wish that. Because I really have appreciated being here with you and discussing this song. And part of me is tempted to summarize but I think if I do that it will probably be a mistake because it will take the whole night. I want to respond to questions, but I can't resist saying a little bit, which is part of this song, I see part of this song as a statement or an assertion of faith. And part of this song is a... an instruction about how to practice in such a way as to take care of what has been asserted.

[01:15]

So what's asserted is that there is an intimate transmission of a teaching and that this teaching which is transmitted, the first part of the faith is this teaching, if you practice it, it's a guide for all our life and it relieves suffering. That's one assertion. The other is that you already have this teaching. And then so the other part of the teaching in the song is instructions about how to take care of what you've already been given. So there's instructions in temple cleaning, taking care of the temple where you practice. And there's also the teaching that you have this already. You just need to take care of it. And in the temple, there's lots of stuff happens.

[02:20]

Everything in our life happens in this temple. And so we have these questions. So I have a question here. And this is a question which I just summarize it before I read it. It's a question of some kind of a challenging relationship, the description of a challenging relationship. And when I read it, I thought, That reminds me of a story about, which I don't remember very well, but I think it's a story that takes place in Asia someplace, maybe China. There was a difficult situation. There was a drought. And so they invited a rainmaker to come to their village. And the rainmaker came to the village.

[03:23]

And she said, do you have someplace I can stay for a while? And they said, yeah, there's a hut over there. So she went in the hut and sat still for quite a while. And I don't remember what happened, but I think she sat there and that while she was sitting there, it started raining. So here's the idea is that in whatever difficult situations going on in our life, which means to some extent whatever difficult situations are appearing in our consciousness that we're aware of, we have this teaching that's been transmitted to us, and if we take care of it, the teaching will guide us in how to behave.

[04:38]

And so the way we take care of what's going on is is to be compassionate with whatever is going on. And this compassion sort of comes to fruit as a state of stillness, or I should say a realization of stillness. Stillness is part of what is already transmitted to us. But if we don't practice stillness, we may miss it. So, for example, you were just doing walking meditation and usually when people are walking they think, well, there's movement. Movement is appearing in consciousness. But stillness might not be appearing in consciousness when you're walking. But there is a stillness in each moment while you're walking. Each moment is actually still.

[05:41]

But if you don't remember the stillness, if you don't remember the stillness, then it's hard to practice the stillness, and then it's hard to transmit the stillness. And in the stillness, mind and objects enter realization and go beyond enlightenment And when it's time to rain, it rains. And various—and guidance comes. Guidance comes through taking care of what's going on so that the teaching that is transmitted to us can be realized. So here's the example. The question is, what if an adult with a, oh no, what if an adult with whom you are romantic is repeatedly yelling at you and talking so fast they don't listen?

[06:50]

And then it goes on, but I would just say that's the situation, right, so far. difficult situation. This is what's going on in the temple. So the first thing to realize, you know, and this is maybe an ongoing relationship or maybe it's a really fast Maybe it's a very short-lived romantic relationship that's just been going on for a little while. But anyway, one might say, we don't have time to realize stillness in the midst of these things. But I would still say, if you're asking me, I would say be still with this person with whom you're romantic who is yelling at you and who is talking fast, yelling and talking fast, and not listening. Be compassionate with this appearance, with this yelling, fast-talking, romantic person.

[08:00]

Be compassionate with them. Be generous with them. Be ethical with them. Be patient with them. Be diligent with them. And enter into samadhi with them. Now you can realize the teaching which has been given to you and the teaching will guide you. I don't know what the teaching will guide you to do. I don't know. And I really don't. But I'm asserting that this teaching is saying that if you are compassionate towards whatever's going on in your world, and you take that compassion to the point of entering into a stable, undistracted, open body and mind, body and mind, that you will realize the teaching that has been transmitted to you.

[09:13]

And that teaching will show you what to do. It will guide you. And it will be good. It's a good guide. The person went on to say, so you say something compassionately, you say compassionately that it is hurtful to you that this person is yelling at you and not listening. You say that. This is an example. and then says, you know you cannot control them. They continue to behave in that way and you break off the romantic relationship. And the question is, is that unkind? Or is it trying to control them? So you're in this situation and you compassionately tell them that you feel

[10:16]

that the way they're acting is hurtful. And it says, you know you cannot control them, so you're just telling them how you feel, that what they're doing is hurtful, and you know that you can't control them. And sure enough, while you know that you can't control them, sure enough, they're not in control, and they continue to act in this way that you find hurtful. That often happens. You might tell someone compassionately that you find what they're doing painful or hurtful. And you might not be saying that to control them. And they might continue to act in ways that you feel that way. And then it says, and then you might walk away from them. You might say, I'm going away now.

[11:20]

I won't be seeing you anymore. Or at least, I think maybe I won't have a romantic relationship with you anyway. This is what I'm offering you. And again, that can be offered not as control, but just as an offering. You can do that without trying to control the person. And again, you could even think, I can't control them. obviously I can't. But sometimes you might say, I can't control them, and I'm going to stay with them anyway. I'm going to stay with people that I can't control, which are the only kind of people to be with. And this is one example of somebody that I can't control, and I'm going to stay with her. But you can also say, I can't control you and I'm going for a walk.

[12:23]

And you can go for a walk not trying to control them and not holding it against them. You're just going to give them a gift of you taking a walk. But the main thing I'm saying is that there's many possibilities but there's a teaching which will guide us And not just guide us from, like, you know, like, I request that you stop yelling at me, and they don't. And you might say many things in response to that. But whatever you say, like if you say, well, I'm leaving, and you start leaving, But that's not the end of the story. Because in the next moment, if you're still with your leaving, from there another guidance will come. And it might say, I'm back. And then you might say, I'm leaving again. I don't know what you'll do.

[13:25]

And I'm not saying, I'm not trying to control you into not trying to figure out what to do. And I'm not trying to control myself into giving up trying to figure out what to do. I'm not trying to control myself into that. But I'm encouraging myself to give up trying to control. And if I don't give up trying to control, I just keep encouraging myself to give up trying to control. And by giving up trying to control, I enter into samadhi and entering into samadhi wisdom starts to become my guide rather than my figuring out mind. The wooden man begins to sing. I don't make the wooden man sing, and the wooden man doesn't know how to sing. But the wooden man begins to sing when we enter the samadhi of this teaching.

[14:32]

And when he begins to sing, the stone woman or the stone man starts dancing together with whatever this offering will be. Nobody can figure out how to make the stone man sing. And nobody can figure out how to make the wooden man sing and make the stone. You don't figure that out. You enter the samadhi. And you together with the Samadhi, your life gets guided by this wisdom, this concentration in which there's wisdom. And it might look like you're saying, I'm going to break off this relationship. You might say that. But when you say that, that's something that's going on in the temple. And so you should be compassionate to that statement, I'm breaking off this relationship, or this relationship is getting broken off.

[15:37]

This relationship is broken. It's kaput. Such a statement could come out of this samadhi. But in this samadhi, there would be flexibility. It would be soft and flexible. It would be like kaput. It's a joke. that I'm offering. I mean it, but I don't mean it. And then, you know, people who, I don't know what, they're having problems, they get the transmission if we remember it. remember the stillness and practice it, then it gets transmitted. And when it gets transmitted, then the other person, the other people, will also enter this place and then they'll get guidance. Not by you guiding them the way you think they should go, but the teaching of reality, the teaching of suchness will guide both of you.

[16:44]

But it might look, at a certain phase in the relationship, it might look like, see you later, alligator. It might look like that. But it also might look like, no matter how much you yell at me and if you never listen to me, I'm just going to always be devoted to you. And you also might walk out right after that. But, you know, you're totally convinced this is not an abandonment or, you know, This is just, you're not in control of yourself either. You didn't make yourself do that. If you're in the samadhi, you understand you're not making yourself doing it. You realize you are in service of this teaching which has been given to you and which you're taking care of. It's been given to you, you take care of it, you're in service of it, and then it serves you. It serves as a guide when you serve it. So that's what I'm emphasizing here.

[17:48]

It's not to say that if you break off the relationship that is controlling or isn't controlling, you know, and if I say it is, well then that's just another thing for me to be compassionate to. You know, to be flexible about. It is. That was compassionate. That was controlling. That wasn't controlling. These are things going on and they should all be treated the same. Then the rain will come. And before the rain comes, it's not going to be raining. And there can be compassion with not rain and compassion with rain. And there can be compassion which brings what beings need. So I'm saying stillness first. Always, each moment, remember stillness.

[18:54]

Yes? Yeah. You can take the word romantic out. You could put in, instead of romantic, you could put blank. You could put X. You could put enemy. You could put, you know, put anything in there that you think is an exception to this rule. You know, put the things in there which you think you should not be responding to compassionately. Put all them in there. and then see how you feel about that, and then the feeling is another thing in there. When you feel this way, when you're in a relationship where you feel this way, whatever, just whatever, when you feel successful, when you feel like a failure, when you feel encouraged, when you feel discouraged, it isn't like when there's encouragement, when your mind is full of encouragement and you're just totally enthusiastic and joyful, it isn't like, well, then you don't have to take care of it.

[20:00]

It is nice to be enthusiastic, but you still have to take care of the enthusiasm even when it's bubbling over. Yes? It's not really a middle ground. It's the intimacy. The intimacy isn't really a middle ground. The intimacy is a middle way. Again, I proposed... I think you were here for all the classes, weren't you? I'm proposing that intuition is one of the ways of knowing that occurs in consciousness. It's one of the ways you know.

[21:12]

But you know without being able to explain to people how you know. It's just like, how do I know that women are smarter than men? I don't know. I just do. It just came to me in a flash. And then other people say, well, I know because I've studied. I've been doing all this study. Here's these statistics and so on. I figured it all out. And that's how I know that, and such and such. Somebody else just has like, and a sensation is similar to intuition. And that sensation is not rational. You just, you don't really figure out a color. You don't figure out how to put a name on a color. And feelings also, feelings are rational and you can kind of explain them, you know. But these are all things to take intuition, feeling, sensation and thinking or reasoning.

[22:17]

They're all, some are rational, some are non-rational. They're all objects of compassion. They're different ways of knowing objects in consciousness. And One person sent me a lot of questions which I'll get to maybe. Yes? Mind and object enter realization together. One other translation is mind and objects of mind merge in realization. So in this Samadhi the awareness and what it knows, its object, they're one point. There's the feeling that the knower and the known are separate is kind of dropped in samadhi, in stillness.

[23:21]

So one translation is they merge in realization. And then they go beyond awakening. They merge in realization but they don't hold on to it. So they enter realization and leave it. Enter realization and leave it in stillness. They being awareness and object of awareness. Or knowing and object knowing. Or you could say knower and known. All these dualities are, at least for the moment, in stillness one point. And in that one-pointedness, we can realize this teaching. So we enter realization. And having entered realization, because we've entered realization, realization, one of the nice things it does for us is it doesn't even tell us, it just guides us to not hold on to the realization.

[24:27]

So we enter realization and then go beyond it. And while we're in realization and while we're going beyond it, we are being guided to respond appropriately to the objects which there is one-pointedness with. in such a way that there's relief of stress and suffering and realization of harmony and particularly the harmony of knower and known. So there's a knower of all of you. And in samadhi, all of you and the knower or the knowing are peacefully, calmly, not separate. Looks like you have some more questions. I don't know why I feel this way.

[25:31]

I don't know where this idea comes from. And somehow... She said she was feeling comfortable with not knowing. He gave some examples. She's feeling comfortable not knowing what? For example. Yeah. She was observing an idea arise in her mind and she was open to the understanding that she doesn't know where this idea came from. And she didn't know how it came. And she didn't feel like she made it come. You're open to that. And you can call that not knowing, okay? But also, you were aware of that, or there was awareness of that. So it was known, there was a knowing, that there was a knowing of not knowing where the idea came from.

[26:41]

Here's an idea, I don't know where it comes from, but sometimes here's an idea, and I think I do know where it came from. I got a story of where it came from and I believe that story of where it came from is where it came from. The teaching is saying don't believe that the story of where this thought came from is actually where it came from. The way thoughts come up are much more complicated than any useful story can ever embrace. The stories that are totally useless, the ones that are too complicated to be of any use, they're closer to the way our thoughts arise. But you're telling me now that you kind of opened up to the understanding that you don't know where your thoughts come from. And I am open to that understanding, too. And I also want to be open to the understanding that I do know where my thoughts come from, even though I think that I don't.

[27:45]

I actually think I don't know, but I also want to be open to the thought, I do know. I just think that the thought, I do know, is not correct. But I could have that thought, and you could have that thought, and my leader could have that thought. You know my leader, right? Yeah. She does have that thought. She thinks she knows where everything comes from. You're maturing and now you're opening to the thought that you don't know where your thoughts come from. And I think the teaching is we do not know where our thoughts come from. And we are not in control of what thoughts arise in our mind. But we're responsible for them. I see Chris, and before Chris was Charlie. Maybe I'll ask later.

[28:47]

Okay, Chris? Yes. Yes. Yeah, I'm responsible, but I'm not in control of the way I'm responsible. Yeah. Yes, right? Yes.

[29:50]

The soup wins? The soup doesn't exactly win. The soup is powerful, but also the soup is transformed constantly by the place it supports. There's another factor though. The causal process isn't just this inconceivable soup causing the arising of various consciousnesses. That's important. And it isn't just that the consciousnesses are constantly transforming the soup. although that's a lot. It's also that there is a teaching. It does not reside, the teaching doesn't reside any place.

[30:53]

Yeah, the teaching transmitted by the Buddhas and ancestors doesn't reside anywhere. Thank you for your question. This is very important. The teaching doesn't reside in conscious mind. It doesn't reside in unconscious mind. It permeates both and it is the intimacy of the two. The intimacy of you and me doesn't reside in you and doesn't reside in me and doesn't reside in between, almost in between but not quite. Our intimacy is not residing. It's the way we are giving life to each other. And each one of us individually as people, we have individual consciousness which is in relationship with the soup. And the soup is shared between us. And intimacy of my particular soup to my particular consciousness and intimacy of me with our shared soup and all that, that is being transmitted by the Buddhas who have realized it.

[32:04]

by practicing with their consciousness in such a way as to transform their mind into another kind of mind, a third kind, which we call wisdom. And that's what the ten ox-herding pictures are about, is how there's the yogi and then there's this ox, this mind that transformed the mind. But there's a teaching of how to transform the mind, which comes from the realization of the intimacy, which doesn't abide in anything. And the unconscious mind doesn't know how to abide. However, it is partially the consequence of thinking that we can, and therefore it supports the continuation of thinking that we can abide. But these teachings are coming in to say, we bodhisattvas should learn how to make a mind that doesn't abide.

[33:09]

We're being taught that and now we're trying to figure out how can that be? How can we make a mind that doesn't abide? Because we're not going to get that mind by controlling ourself into that. So it's this very subtle process of joining the project of making a mind that doesn't abide anywhere with the encouragement and rooting of the Buddhas to make such a mind. and telling us that it's already been transmitted to us. So we're not really like making it all ourself. We're just trying to give our life to it so it can give its life to us. Now you watch to speak. Okay. Rain check. So I feel like I understand what you're saying. And I don't want to get stuck on this. And I hope I'm not perpetrating anybody by asking a question I've asked twice in two other classes. So I want to try to just say it really, really clearly. But I feel like, well, so I looked up the word control.

[34:18]

And it seems there are two possible interpretations of the word. One can mean sort of like complete control. And another way of interpreting the word can mean partial control or influence, but not complete control. But more or less sort of in control for it. And I feel like if we think that the control was an all or nothing, option, that it's either like, yes, I've made it happen all by myself and nothing would have stopped me, versus, nope, I had no way of making it happen. I have no idea how it happened. And if those are the only two options, that feels perilous to me. But the first option you're realizing is perilous. The second option, I'm not suggesting the second one.

[35:23]

OK, right. The second one is, well, I'll stop. Go ahead. Thank you. So both of those options feel perilous to me. I agree, both of them. I'm talking about a middle way. Good. And I'm glad you are, because that's what I think makes sense. That's what I think you're saying. I talked with some of our classmates about it, and there seems to be some getting caught on the words there, that if we say, I can't control such and such, but then we're like, but wait, I'm responsible for such and such. And when we said, I can't control it, it almost absolved us of any connection to it. So I think, My understanding, and the way I've been trying to re-say things as we say them, is that I have influence, or high influence, and I don't know how I influence, but

[36:37]

But my self and my actions influence what happens. And other people influence me. And I don't know completely how, but I do know that somehow it influences. And that if I have a pool cue and a cue ball, And I move these, and I think to myself, I'm going to move these objects, and lo and behold, they move. I don't know all the nuts and bolts of what made it from that intention to the action happening, but I do know that I was involved in that, and there's some responsibility there. And partly because of that. But I worry when I hear you say that we don't control the thing. Because people say, oh, cool, cool, not my fault. I didn't scratch the eight ball. That wasn't me. OK, so that was my point. I'll stop.

[37:38]

And I wonder if you want to modify that at all or if that sounds OK. I agree that we are influencing each other. Every action, all the actions that appear in our consciousness influence, and they influence the unconscious process, and therefore they influence our body. I agree. In other words, all of our actions have consequence. The consequence are the influences. So influence. But in consciousness usually there's this thing in there which is not about just influence. There's a thing about control. Consciousnesses naturally have this confusion about the self. One of the types of problems of self is called self-pride. It's an exaggeration of the power of the self.

[38:43]

So it's normal in human consciousness that there's an idea that I can control things. The idea is, I don't hear it so much that it's not on the list of afflictions, it's not like the kind of modest, self-modesty, you know, it's self-pride. It's self-aggrandizement. I can control things. That's normal stuff that's going on in consciousness. Not just I'm influencing. I agree. We do influence. Whether we think so or not, we do. But it doesn't say that there's four afflictions and one of them are five afflictions and one of them is self-modesty. That's not one of the afflictions. Self-modesty, like, I had some effect on things. My karma is part of what makes the world happen. That's not an affliction. That's like Buddha's teaching. What you do has consequence. And we're responsible for our actions.

[39:49]

But if you look up the word responsibility, you will find one of the definitions is Sort of like the fact or something of having control over someone or something. That's one of the meanings of the word responsibility. But I personally do not feel like I'm in control of the weather, but I feel that whatever the weather is, I have some influence on it. And I respond to it. Even though I can't make it rain, I can give you an umbrella. Or I can say, let's stay indoors. And also, I had something to do with the rain, but I don't know how I do. Someone said, well, you drive a car and that affects the environment, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, yes, but I don't know how that worked. So I think the affliction is self-pride is this

[40:54]

this wish to make things happen according to my power. That's a normal affliction of self-consciousness. And it's not just, I wish to have some influence, because it's not just that. And some people actually don't even want to have any influence unless it's like super strong. I don't want to be responsible for all these influences. Like I influence my family and I influence my children and I influence my neighbors. But I don't want to be responsible for all those influences. But I wouldn't be willing to be responsible for the things I'm in control of. And then the things I'm not in control of, I'm not responsible for. So I'm saying... Try on the idea of influence, fine. Try on the idea that everything you think, everything you say, every gesture you make, I'll be watching you. Every vow you break, I'll be watching you.

[41:56]

Try that on. To watch carefully all your actions and to be generous with them. Make sure that they're gifts. be ethical with them, careful, be patient, and so on. Because all your actions have consequence, they all influence this world. And other people do too. We're all influencing this world to the point of we're co-creating it. But we're not in control of the world we got. However, this teaching is saying, if we practice with the world that's arising, we can enter the samadhi and have guidance in the best way to respond to the situation, which we have made together. Feeling that better for you now? Yes. Very good. I don't know if you're next, but I'm going to call on you anyway. I was just wondering if, in Charlie's example, a pool cue with control may be intending to sink the ball and getting upset with it.

[43:01]

No, that wouldn't be control. That would be trying to control. Because you obviously weren't in control. You wanted to be in control, but you weren't. And so if you think you can control, and then things are not in control, then you feel stressed. However, if you think you can control, and you hear a teaching about giving up trying to control, you might give it a try. And still play pool. And play pool without trying to control. When I was about, let's see, it was a while ago, back in 1970, no, back in 1980, I had the good fortune to be staying at Esalen Institute. And there was a man there who was 76 at the time. His name was Gregory Bateson. and for various causes and conditions, partly that he was interested in Zen, he kind of invited me to hang out with him.

[44:14]

So I'm hanging out with this very neat old man. You know, who doesn't know Gregory Bateson? He's a British man. His father was buddies with Darwin. So he comes from an English scientific family. And he was Margaret Mead's husband. He's an anthropologist and psychiatrist and psychologist and cybernetics guy. Some people think one of the important thinkers of our era. Anyway, here's this great person living at Esalen who invites me to play chess with him. And I was really not trying to control the chess game. I was trying to make the best, most interesting moves I could make.

[45:19]

But I didn't feel like I was going to control my interesting moves, because I knew I couldn't control them to be interesting. But I definitely wasn't trying to control the outcome of the game. I was just making offerings to him of my younger brain operating these chess pieces. But still sometimes I would see a move and I would make that move. But if he made a, you know, if he came back and took my piece or whatever, that was fine with me if I made a good move, made an offering. a gift and also not trying to beat him and not trying to get winning and be patient with the game where you know it's not about it's about like being there with him and he's sick you know and also be concentrated but I'm suggesting you get concentrated by giving up trying to control that doesn't mean you give up being careful

[46:28]

As a matter of fact, you try to be careful of everything you do. But I'm suggesting that when you really get into the thorough carefulness, you need to give up trying to control. Trying to control will interfere with your carefulness. I also use the example, maybe I told you, a friend of mine is an eye surgeon. And he said, if my daughter needed eye surgery, I would not perform myself. If I could, I would get one of my colleagues. Because with my daughter, my hand would be shaking. Because with his daughter, he probably would be so much trying to control that his hand wouldn't operate. He would be so aware that his hand was not in control that it would start shaking more. You need somebody who in some ways is more numb, or in a way who is more enlightened.

[47:31]

Because unless you're enlightened, you're operating on your own daughter's eyes. If you're trying to control too much, your hand will not be steady. And I don't even know if there's any great pool players in the room, but I think a great pool player is somebody who gives up trying to control. just like a great jazz musician. They practice, they [...] practice, and then they go, as we say in Zen, they step off the top of a 100-foot pole. They throw away their discipline, and they enter the samadhi, and the stuff comes out. And sometimes, as you know, we had this whole generation of great artists who took heroin to assist them giving up trying to control. Because when you take heroin, it kind of like maybe can turn off you trying to control a little bit.

[48:35]

Like the control thing just gets turned off, which is very pleasant. It's very pleasant when the trying to control thing gets turned off. It's very nice. And that's kind of what it's like in Samadhi. We lost all these great players because they took heroin. Charlie Parker and one person we didn't lose is Anita O'Day. She took it too for 15 years, but she survived. All the other ones died, except for Miles Davis, he survived. But Charlie Parker and all those other people... they took that drug so that they could give up trying to control and they had all this training so then they entered this place and then this the wooden man sung and the stone woman got up dancing it's like I'm sorry that they had that they used those drugs I wish somebody could do what they did without drugs and maybe somebody can I don't know

[49:42]

In this tradition, we're kind of saying, maybe we could do something like what they did without drugs, by developing samadhi. Because in samadhi, you can do a... In samadhi, the wooden man sings. I don't make him sing, but he sings, and it's really great because the stone woman starts dancing. Are you the stone woman? I do want you to, but I'm not trying to control you. I'm giving up trying to control you. But still, I do hope in an uncontrolling way that you behave very well. So go right ahead. Speak beautifully. I've always had this intuition or this... I'm trying to find a beautiful word now rather than I can't, so I'll speak however it comes out, beautiful or not.

[51:04]

I've always had this certainty, if you want, that a musician in the middle of the most complicated concerto, with engaged fully, emotionally, physically, is or can be in complete stillness. They are. I agree. They can be, and I would say they are. But they sometimes realize it. And my question is, in order for those people to have that stillness in the middle of great involvement, they've had to have a very severe training.

[52:08]

And how... How can I come to have that stillness in the middle of my own life with my very awkward and mediocre practice? Did you hear what she said? She said that she pictures some musicians as they do these amazing things, they realize stillness, and out of this stillness which they realize in the midst of all this tremendous activity of playing the piano or whatever, they realize stillness and then this amazing thing comes out of that. And she said, but she said they did a, she said, severe training. And maybe some of them did do a severe training. But, for example, I don't think Mozart did a severe training. But I think Beethoven did.

[53:13]

But rigorous, I would say, yeah, rigorous. I would say thorough, yeah, thorough. And then Elena said, but how can I If I don't have, she didn't quite say it, with my non-thorough discipline, how can I? How would I be able to realize stillness without thoroughly cleaning my house? Yeah. Well, you won't be able to and neither can I. We have to do what they did. We have to do what the ancestors did, and they were thorough. They thoroughly cleaned their house. But, ladies and gentlemen, a subtle distinction between they thoroughly cleaned and that their house got clean. It isn't that they thoroughly cleaned their house and their house was clean. Their house was clean before they started cleaning it, and they did thorough cleaning.

[54:16]

Our house is already clean. And from that clean house, this amazing life can bloom. But it isn't that you get the house clean, it's that you thoroughly clean it. And thoroughly clean it includes that you don't clean it too much. That you're not obsessive and compulsive about cleaning. Some people try to obsessively and compulsively play music or dance. And sometimes they have a teacher which spots it and gently or whatever way gets them to let go of trying to control their discipline. I think I told you the story from the movie Mount Mozart, haven't I? You've heard it, haven't you? Well, here's the story. Who has heard that story from me? It's from Mao to Mozart.

[55:19]

Did I tell you a story? Oh, great. So here's the story. Isaac Stern goes to China after the Cultural Revolution, where a new generation of musicians are allowed to play instruments. So there was a whole generation of Chinese musicians who had to stop playing, especially Western instruments. So he's going there. maybe five or ten years after the Cultural Revolution. So now there's a generation of well-trained musicians of Western music and traditional Chinese music. And he's got this young man up on a stage playing the violin. Isaac Stern, you know Isaac Stern? violinist. He's going to teach this boy something. The boy is about 20 years old, 18 or 20, and he's playing very skillfully.

[56:21]

Obviously, he's had tremendous discipline. And 3,000 people are in the audience. And he's got an orchestra behind him. It's a concerto. And then on top of all that, Isaac Stern is standing right next to him. And Isaac Stern says to him, start singing. And Isaac Stern starts singing. And he tells the boy to sing with your violin. And he's disciplined enough so that he can keep playing the piece without dropping his violin. instrument and running off the stage with Isaac Stern yelling at him and singing to him. Can you imagine? You have to be pretty skillful to do it in the first place. And then to continue with this very famous teacher singing to you and telling you to sing with your instrument. But he's good enough. He can stay there. And then he lets go.

[57:24]

He's still trying to control a little bit. But he's good enough to let go of trying to control and the piece goes on. But now it starts to sing and you can feel it changes from exactly the way it's supposed to be, sort of, to recognizing that it can never be exactly the way it's supposed to be. If the music is the way it's supposed to be, it hasn't yet arrived. But you have to be quite skillful to actually continue to play the piece and let go. Most of us, if we let go, we just stop. But he'd done it enough times and his unconscious processes in his body could support the performance. So our unconscious process makes it possible, for example, to speak English. And if you are very careful about the way you speak English, You can let go of trying to control what you're saying and then poetry comes out.

[58:25]

Or prose like James Joyce comes out. And he's not in control of it, but he's disciplined enough. And James Joyce also used drugs, sorry. So how can we be disciplined enough not use drugs, and let go. This is our challenge. And we have to be disciplined. So you have to work on your practice. You have to do the temple cleaning. We all have to. And everybody that does the temple cleaning can realize this teaching. Everybody that receives this teaching and wants to realize it and then does the temple cleaning can realize it because you've already got it. You already have this. You don't have to learn any new skills. You don't have to do any new performance things.

[59:31]

You just need to apply the practices to your daily life. This is daily life. The art of daily life. For everybody. That's why it's called... the great vehicle, the universal vehicle, the Bodhisattva vehicles for everybody, including very skillful musicians and also unskillful musicians like me. But we can't get around being diligent and generous and careful of all of our action. We must do that. And the feeling you have when I tell you that, that needs to be taken care of. Yes? Is there what?

[60:36]

Yeah, I don't think there's anything we can actually do in consciousness. If you actually look really carefully, you'll see there's no karma. What karma is, is the activities that are occurring that are co-opted by the idea of self. the self is living in this space called consciousness. There's this sense of self, and coming with the sense of self is this self-pride, which is I own these activities, and I'm even in control of some of them. That's an illusion. We're not actually, the self is not actually operating the consciousness. But coming along with the self, which is in the consciousness, are the self-view activities. self-pride and self-confusion. And with the self-pride, like I'm in control, plus there's some confusion, maybe I actually am. Maybe I did actually get control of my girlfriend.

[61:47]

They're arising from the unconscious, yes. Yeah, it's more than just awareness. Yes. Conscious mind is not just awareness. It is awareness. Part of conscious mind is awareness. There's five aspects of conscious mind. They're called the five aggregates. One is the awareness with a self. The unconscious mind has awareness, but there's nobody there. This is a conscious, and somebody's here, And then there's perceptions, feelings, all kinds of emotions. It's a very active place where consciousness is living. I mean, it's an active consciousness where self is living. It's a tremendously rich situation. However, it's very poor compared to what supports it. What supports it is much more complex, much richer.

[62:56]

Consciousness is a highly reduced version of our cognitive process. However, it's a special one because somebody's there and we can learn things in consciousness that we can't learn. You cannot learn language in the unconscious. You cannot hear and understand language in the unconscious. But the unconscious supports the place where you learn. You can't learn to ride a bicycle in the unconscious. Say it louder. The unconscious is, yeah, people, I think Spinoza said, people think that their freedom is they can do what they wish to do, but they don't realize that they don't actually get to choose what they wish to do.

[64:03]

So the unconscious gives rise to our wishes. And then we think, oh, I can do as I wish. But sometimes you realize I'm not free. I can't do as I wish. But you think, if I could do what I wish, that would be freedom, even though I'm like a robot, a wish robot. And sometimes I can fulfill my wishes, which I call freedom, and sometimes I can't, which I call frustration. But there's one other ingredient, which is the teaching of suchness. da-da-da-da-da-da, it's transmitted to you. And the teaching of sessions is giving you these teachings which are saying, this is an illusion. And also, if you practice, if you take care of the situation, you will understand, actually, the reality of the situation is that what's happening is not really being done by you, even though you're there thinking so. If you look carefully, you'll see it's not so.

[65:05]

The teaching of satsang is saying, look really carefully and ask for help to look carefully and keep looking carefully and you will see that there's no control from within consciousness, there's no controlling agent and also especially it's not you, it's not me. You will see this and when you see that, you will see that karma is not actually really there. And that starts to transform the consciousness and the unconsciousness and the body into wisdom. And that's what the ten Oxfordian pictures are about. It's how this process of transformation occurs. Yes? I have a feeling that I'm lucky to have this thought You're very lucky. I don't know about, again, lucky, I don't know about lucky.

[66:08]

You're very fortunate. You know, like my mother-in-law said that I must have broken a lot of mokugyos. You know what mokugyos are? Moku means wooden. Moku. This is not a wooden man, this is a wooden fish. A wooden fish. So in Asia, they have these drums, which they hit to do their singing. So they go... You know where it says inquiry and response come up together? It literally is drumming and singing come up together. Drumming and singing come up together. So my mother-in-law said about me that I must have broken a lot of mokugyos in my past lives because look who I married.

[67:18]

Do you follow that? You said lucky. You said lucky. Okay? You're not just lucky. You're fortunate. You have good fortune because you did a lot of good things. You did a lot of... You were generous. You were ethical. And because of that, you have good fortune. And you have the good fortune of having this body. Having this body is very good fortune. Having a human body is an amazing opportunity because you can hear these teachings. But it's not just luck. It's not just random. And it's not under control. All of you are the results of a lot of good action. And maybe even some enlightened action. That you can now understand English and hear these teachings. And not only that, but you have the good fortune to consider remembering them.

[68:23]

It's very fortunate. So I agree with you. You are very fortunate to have this body. And then now to have a new one and another one and another one. This is so fortunate. So that's why we should take care of it. We have this body. We have this teaching. And so now we have the opportunity to take care of it, which is another one of the definitions of responsibility is an opportunity to take care, an opportunity to take care of something or to deal with something. And that I agree with. We have the opportunity to take care of this body, this mind, and everybody we meet. And that's how I would say it was your responsibility also. It's a great opportunity. we are so fortunate. And we shouldn't hide from that because sometimes when we realize how fortunate we are, we feel some sorrow that not everyone is as fortunate as we are.

[69:36]

But we should be careful of our fortune and we should be careful of our feeling that other people are not as fortunate. and take care of all that, be kind to all that, and share our good fortune. Share our life. Give our life. To all beings, because their life is not separate from ours. Our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way.

[70:44]

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