I have a memory that in the first class I said something like, the creative mind plays with the objects it loves. And I clarified that love doesn't mean like or dislike. It doesn't mean like-like. It means love in the sense of compassion. And then I've tried to discuss with you what that love is like. And that love is basically, even though some creative minds do not, have not heard of the teachings of compassion of bodhisattvas. In fact, I think the creative mind needs to do something like the bodhisattva compassion practices in regard to the objects that they're aware of in order to enter into a concentrated, relaxed, playful relationship

[01:08]

with the objects of awareness. And then, in that playfulness, one enters into the creative relationship. And in the creative relationship, one finds freedom from suffering. Now, in particular, I was talking about bodhisattvas being creative and bodhisattva freedom. So that would follow the similar rules of other creative beings, except that the bodhisattva creativity is not just about their own personal freedom, but it's primarily about the freedom of others. So for the bodhisattva this being compassionate with what they're experiencing, and being concentrated with it based on that compassion, and being playful with it, which is the beginning of wisdom, and entering into creativity with their experience, is done together with other beings.

[02:36]

so that they will be free. It isn't just personal freedom that they're devoted to. So bodhisattvas, part of their work is not only to be kind to what they're aware of, but to teach other beings how to be kind to what they're aware of, so that other beings can relax and focus and play. And then with that bodhisattvas then play together with their playmates. And they together with their playmates realize freedom through that creative play. I have a number of examples of this, which we can get into this week and next week.

[03:57]

And some of the examples I'm playing with at Green Gulch during the session. So in addition to saying that the bodhisattva, of course, is developing a compassionate mind, and then the compassionate mind leads to a concentrated mind, and the concentrated mind is focused and flexible. So it can be focused and playful. But again, they practice with others And their job is to teach others how to play, which means they need to teach others how to concentrate, which means they need to teach others how to be compassionate. As the compassion moves forward into concentration and play, they move into wisdom. So their ultimate job is to teach wisdom and teach it by realizing it together.

[05:05]

So the bodhisattva is not like they have the wisdom and the other people don't. Their wisdom is the wisdom they realize together. Which example should I use first? Well, before I use the example, I just also want to point out something I mentioned at the beginning of this session we just started, which I think it's good to remember that for most of the practice of the Buddha way, for most of the practice of the teachings of the tradition, the central concern is living beings.

[06:12]

Now you could say, in a sense, the central concern is enlightenment, but the central concern is the enlightenment of unenlightened beings. It's not the primary concern of Buddhism for most Buddhists. It's not the enlightenment of the Buddha, but how the enlightenment of the Buddha can help suffering beings. and in the great vehicle tradition, it's primarily how living beings who are suffering, how others who are suffering can be benefited first and then liberated. The main cause of suffering is clinging The basic definition of suffering is experience that's with attachment.

[07:20]

So the Buddha says, in the first teaching, the Buddha said, the noble truth of suffering is this. And he didn't say life is suffering. Well, he sort of did. He said birth is suffering, old age is suffering, sickness is suffering, pleasure is suffering, pain is suffering. In short, all experience where there's clinging involved is suffering. All experience where there's grasping of the experience. We live we experience. And when there's grasping in our experience, that's the definition of suffering. And the grasping is based on misconception, on delusion.

[08:22]

What's the delusion? The delusion is there's something to grasp, like, you know, health. Life can be grasped. We have that illusion you can grasp life. And then when we have that illusion, when we believe it, then we try to grasp it and we suffer. We think birth can be grasped. We think pleasure. We think pain. We think other beings. We think food. We think health. We think sickness can be grasped because we think they're out there separate from us. If they were, we could grasp them. They're not. When we realize that, there's no grasping and there's no suffering. The process of being compassionate to what we're aware of while we're still deluded leads to the ability to be concentrated with what we're aware of when we're deluded.

[09:24]

And that leads to the possibility of being playful with what we're aware of when we're So when we first start playing with our experience, we still think that our experience can be grasped. But when we're concentrated and relaxed and start playing, we start to enter into the realization that there isn't really any separation between experiencer and experienced, between knower and known, between self and other. But until we enter into this dynamic, intimate relationship with what we know, we still keep thinking that what we know is out there. But it's not. But we think it is. So we don't try to get rid of what we think. We try to engage it compassionately, concentratedly, playfully, creatively, and then we understand that nothing's out there.

[10:32]

Out there is a construction. That's not our relationship with each other. We're not out there from each other. We are other, but other is not separate from self. We're not all the same person. We're all different people, and none of us exist independent of each other. But we have a mind which is constructed in a way that it looks at itself when it meets somebody else. And while it's looking at itself, it says it's separate from itself. So then it also feels separate from the beings which it meets through its constructions. And there's a cure for this delusion, which means there's a cure for attachment, which means there's a cure for suffering. And that is what I just said. Be kind to the situation.

[11:37]

Concentrate with the situation. Relax and play with the situation. And enter into creativity with others. The example that is pressing for me to bring up now is one that some of you have heard before. I'll tell it again. When I was about eight years old, maybe nine, I spent a lot of time playing by myself in my room. quietly, I was actually having a pretty good time. I was pretty happy playing in my room by myself.

[12:40]

And now looking back, I feel so blessed that with all my problems, whatever they were, I actually could enjoy being quiet, and playful and pretty relaxed. However, I didn't really understand that the things I was playing with were not out there. But I was, anyway, I was in training. My parents were concerned, though, that I spent quite so much time. I did play with other kids. And when I played with them, I think I oftentimes was not very playful, even at that time. And I'll talk later maybe about, well, maybe I'll talk about now. No, I'll talk later about how I wasn't playful and how and what is not playful.

[13:43]

So they had my ears tested. They thought that something was wrong with me. So they had my ear tested and my ears were okay. How many people have heard this story before? Quite a few. Can I tell it again? My ears were okay, so then they sent me to a child psychiatrist. Not a psychologist, a psychiatrist, somebody who could administer medication. His name was Dr. Hansen. And my mother took me, I think, the first time. I lived in Minneapolis, which was not a huge city, but anyway, she took me to the hospital. I think the name of the hospital was St. Barnabas Hospital. And I think in that first session, she was there with me and she waited. And Dr. Hanson and I went into his office and he said to me, is there anything you'd like to talk about? And I said, no. Have you heard the story before, Josh?

[14:45]

I said, no. And he said, well, would you like to play? Or I don't know if he said play. Maybe he said, would you like to build something like a boat or an airplane? And I said, yes. And we started building things. And we built boats and airplanes and ships and cities. And he had all this material to build his stuff with. I suppose my parents were paying something for this, but anyway, we built this stuff, and he was, you know, a grown man, and together we could actually do quite, build really nice stuff. And then I got to bring the stuff home for my little brother to destroy. And at the end of each session, he would say, is there anything you want to talk about?

[15:48]

And I think every time I said, no. And if I can briefly mention that once a month all the crazy children were gathered together and we had a party. And I remember particularly playing Old Maid and that there was ice cream and cake at the party. And I traveled all the way across the city by myself. In those days you could send a kid across the city by himself and back in the winter Because I enjoyed it. And I stopped going because I wanted to play soccer after school instead of going to see him. But I really enjoyed my time with him, playing with him. Can you tell us about the not playing football part with the kids? Can you tell us the part about not being able to play football with the kids? Well, basically with the kids, when I was playing with kids, I wanted to win.

[16:52]

And I would say, basically, when you're trying to win, you're not being playful. Children can be playful. And I would say that when they're being playful, they're not trying to win. And adults can be playful. And when we're playful, we're not trying to win. Tracy's furrowing intensely. Am I sure? Well, I'm sure, but I'm playfully sure. She said, am I saying that if you're playing and you want to win, does that mean you're not being playful? The answer is no. Yeah, but if you are playing and you want to win, then what do you do with your wanting to win? Tracy?

[17:56]

You be playful with it. And how do you be playful with wanting to win? Tracy? You don't know. That's playful. I proclaim that to be quite playful. I don't know is quite playful, actually. Which is, again, I just said. You said be playful, right? Didn't you say be playful with the I want to win? And I asked her, how do you be playful? And she said, I don't know. That's being playful with wanting to win. What would have been a non-playful answer? Let's see. What did I ask her? I said, how do you be playful? And then you would say, this is the way to be playful. That wouldn't be so playful. And then I would say, no, it's not. And you'd say, yes, it is. But you actually would mean you wouldn't be just playing with me. You'd actually think that you found a way to be playful.

[19:00]

That wouldn't be so playful. But I was actually, even though she gave a better answer than I was going to give by saying she didn't know, the way you'd be playful with the wish to win is by being compassionate to the wish to win, loving the wish to win. Love the wish to win into playfulness. Be generous with the wish to win. Don't hate the nasty little trying to win. No. Love the child who's trying to win. Be careful and ethical and just with the child who's trying to win, even though the child is a number of decades old. Be patient with the child who's trying to win. And now You can calm down with the child who's trying to win. And now you can play. And being playful is, I wonder how we can play now. What is play again?

[20:01]

What was play again? And that starts to, now you're calm, you're focused on your playmate, your plaything. Your field of play, you're focused, you're flexible, and you're wondering what it is. And then somebody can tell you, we're going to play this today. And you can say, I don't want to. And you can be playful with that. And they can be playful. And so you don't have to not want to win in order to be playful. But if you're attached to wanting to win, you're not playful. If you're attached to wanting to lose, you're not playful. I once was blessed with the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with Gregory Bateson. Do everybody know Gregory Bateson? Yeah. So he may turn out to be a major thinker of the 20th century.

[21:05]

His father was also named Bateson and was a close friend of Darwin. And his wife was a Zen student and she kind of brought Gregory to Zen Center. So he gave talks at Zen Center. And then also his wife, you know, actually got Gregory to come to the Zendo some, sit and give some talks at Zen Center. And I, in 1980, in 1980, I was invited to go to Esalen Institute. And at that time, I was going to bring my daughter, and my wife was going to go to France. My daughter was three and a half. She's the mother of a person I'm going to tell you a story about play in a minute. And also, she's the mother of a person I'm going to tell you in responding to Robin's question about miracles also in a little while, if we get to it. She's the mother of two topics about play.

[22:10]

But anyway, at that time, she was with me and her mother was in France. And Gregory was at Esalen Institute, too. And he would come to my talks. I was invited to give talks on Zen. He would come to my talks. So here's this leading thinker, Margaret Mead's husband and so on, coming to my talks, and I was just this kid. Very interesting man, and he liked to play chess. So he asked me to play chess with him. And we played with his father's chess set. It said 1860 on it. So we played chess. And how did I play chess? Did I try to win? I did not try to win. Did I try to lose? No, I did not try to lose. What did I try to do? I tried, and I haven't always played chess this way, I tried to play the most interesting game for him.

[23:16]

Which doesn't mean that I don't pay attention, and it means that I tried to make moves that I thought would be interesting. I tried to play with him. And in fact, I did win some games, and he won some games. But I was primarily trying to make an interesting move, maybe a shocking move. Donald, what's happening? Your face. How are you feeling? I'm good. And he loved those games. And he wanted to play again and again. And he was dying. And when I left Esalen after two months, I gave him my beads to hold because he was a longtime smoker and so on and so forth. And he looked like he had lung cancer, but he certainly had breathing problems.

[24:20]

And when I said goodbye to him, I didn't know if I'd see him again. But I did see him again because he came to Zen Center to die. And he died that spring of 1980. And yeah, I played with him not to win. And I noticed that this was the first time in my life that I played chess with somebody not to win, but to entertain them. Part of the reason I did that was because I thought how disrespectful for this young guy to try to beat this brilliant but old man. Chess players usually are not very good when they're 76. So I just thought if my young mind could beat him, yeah, fine, no problem. But to try to beat this great man, it just really seemed off the... He was being kind to me, so kind to me, to come to my talks and spend time with me and tell me about his friends.

[25:31]

And then for me to try to beat him? It just didn't seem appropriate. But he wanted to play, so I played with him. And I did beat him sometimes. And when I beat him, he was happy. And when he beat me, he was happier. And as he was dying, he said, I hope we can play some more chess. So this is what bodhisattvas are interested in. They're interested in playing with somebody forever, which brings me to another example, another principle. When bodhisattvas are playing with people, when people are being playful, they're not playing to win, I would say. Well, how does the game end? They're not interested in playing a game that will end.

[26:34]

They want to play a game that doesn't end. And it's very difficult to play a chess game that doesn't end, but that's the kind they want to play. And so here's an example. I was playing recently on my trip down to Los Angeles to see my newly born granddaughter. My grandson, we were staying in a place that had a nice table tennis set up. And he mostly wanted to play with his mother's husband, who is now his parent in a way. Doesn't call him father, but he recognized that this person is his parent now. And he wanted to play with him for whatever reason. Probably he had already been playing with them and they had nice games.

[27:36]

But when his father was not available, he asked me. And when we first started playing, I have not played ping pong much in my life. And the last time I played was about a half a century ago. So we started playing, and I think the first game, the score at one point was 18 to 1. And he had 18, and I had 1. And we played some more, and the scores were similar to that. But at a certain point, I felt... I felt like, well, he wasn't really playing with me. And was I playing with him? I thought I was. I was happy for it to be 18 to 1.

[28:37]

And then it got to be like 21 to 3 or whatever, and that's the end of the game. And then we played some more games, and then there was other opportunities to play. But after a while, I felt like he was really... kind of into crushing me. And in one of the games, basically didn't want the games to go on forever. He just wanted them to end as quickly as possible, with him the winner, and then another game which would end. He wanted a succession of games that didn't go on. And at a certain point, I said, I don't want to play anymore. And he accepted that. And then we played some more games. But finally we got to a place when I started to, in some sense, learn how to play the game. But one game was specifically really interesting because he invited me to play. And I was tired at the time. And I thought, well, I didn't really want to play.

[29:41]

But I thought, well, he's inviting me. So I play with him. That's the way it always has been. And I started playing, and I really felt like I was almost falling asleep when I was playing with him. And I noticed that I didn't have to be awake to play. And I was actually playing better than before. I mean, there was no... And... And he became much kinder to me in that game. And the game went on and on and on and on. The score, final score was 32 to 30. And he really enjoyed the game and so did I. We really got into playing.

[30:46]

If you're trying to make each serve go as long as possible, even if you want it to go as long as possible, that takes some skill. But then in the process of promoting it to go on, you are mostly concerned with getting the ball back to the person so that they can hit it back to you, rather than getting back to the person so that they can't get it back to you. So one or both of you might be tempted to return this gift in such a way that the other person couldn't return it. And if the person's giving you a shot that's easy to return, that makes it easier for you to return it in a way that they can't. So he was tempted to do that, but didn't. And so the game went on and on, and he really enjoyed it. So the bodhisattva, not only the bodhisattva's play, and really anybody's play, is wanting it to go on forever, which is pretty hard.

[32:02]

It's pretty hard to keep the play going. That's the characteristic of play. If you're not playing, if you're playing football or baseball or tennis or ping pong, if you're playing but not to get it to go on, then you're not playing, I say. And that's easy to keep that going because it's going to stop soon. But play that's going on, it's easy to lose the play. And that's part of being playful is you lose the play. And yet that's part of what you have to accept is that you keep losing it. But playing in a way that you're not trying to play, you don't lose that because that one is not, you're not trying to make that keep going. So it's pretty difficult, actually. So that would lead you to play ping pong and get to a score of 150 or something. Can you imagine that? That could happen. And this is called freedom from suffering.

[33:07]

But it takes concentration to get the score up to 150. But it takes more than concentration. It takes generosity to keep returning the ball in a way that the person could get it back to you. And all of this maybe without even telling the other person that you're doing this, so that you're both trying to get the score to go high. And now, a related topic. this grandson's sister. He has a little sister now who has actually, this little girl has a blog. She has a blog. She's the blog. And her father maintains it for her. And so, huh? The blog is frankieling.com. Her name's Francesca Ling.

[34:14]

Ianoli, Ianoli. So the blog is frankieling.com. Do you want to see her? Check it out. When I was a kid, there was this TV show called, I think it was called Andy's Gang or something. It was sponsored by Buster Brown Shoes. And the ad for Buster Brown Shoes in the... Insole of Buster Brown shoes was a picture of Buster Brown, a little boy with his dog. And then the ad was, I'm Buster Brown. This is my dog tag. Look for him in there, too, or something like that. So anyway, look for me in the blog, too. I'll be the guy with the short hair and the baby's head in my hand. So anyway... I wanted to play now with Robin, who last week gave a gift of saying something like, she doesn't know if she ever saw a miracle.

[35:22]

Did you say something like that? Yeah. So I did some research. Pardon? Yeah, if you saw, you didn't recognize it. So anyway, I thought about that. And I'm still thinking about it. So I've come to play with you around that issue of miracles. And one thing I wanted to say is I looked up the word. And the first meaning of the word is something that happens Yeah. The first meaning is something that happens that appears unexplainable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or as an act of God. So in Buddhism we don't think that events

[36:24]

We don't say that events are explainable by the laws of nature, but we do not think they're supernatural. They might be explainable, but we may not be able to explain them. We have been told that the Buddha can explain them by the laws of nature, but only omniscient beings can see the laws of nature working. And we don't think there's a god that's running the show. We think causes and conditions of nature cause events. But human beings just make up stories of how cause and effect goes. They don't actually see it until they enter into a creative relationship with these events and become free of delusion. And then they realize how the laws of nature work. But prior to that, we do not see how anything works.

[37:32]

Really, we just had stories. So in a way, according to the first definition, a miracle is something that we're having trouble making a story about how it happened. But the second meaning of miracle is one I'd like to talk about a little bit. The second meaning is something that excites awe. And I think maybe I told you The grandmother, who I'm married to, of this girl, was down at the birth, and she called me and she said, unbelievable, unbelievable. And people often these days, when they're very happy about something, now they say, incredible. When something wonderful happens, they say, incredible. In other words, I can't believe it. It's so wonderful, I can hardly believe how wonderful it is. I'm so happy, I can barely believe I'm so happy or whatever. It's like when things are really the way you want them, you say you can't believe it.

[38:37]

Funny, huh? And so I said to my wife, is she really or is it not so much she, but is it this thing called birth, this thing of a living being? freshly delivered into this world. Is it unbelievable? And she said, no, it's not unbelievable. It's miraculous. It's awesome. It's awful. It fills us with awe sometimes. And that's another meaning of miraculous or miracle. It's something that makes you feel like, makes you, the root of it is, wonderful. And then the root goes to something to wonder at and wonderful. So that's, it means to wonder. And yeah. So it's not so much, it's actually in the miraculous, it isn't like you say, oh, that's a miracle.

[39:44]

It's more like you You may be saying miracle, but it's really because of the state you're in. It's not so much the thing is a miracle. So it's your state, really. And when you're in that state, when you're in the state of awe or wonder, then what is at that moment, whatever you're looking at, according to that meaning, is miracle. a miracle. And also, like with Gregory Bateson, it was kind of a miracle that I got to spend that time with him. I was in awe of not so much him, but the beauty of the relationship. that neither one of us were in control of. And many beings were contributing to him have this young, devoted person to be with and me to have this old, devoted person to be with. It was very... I don't know how that happened.

[40:49]

And I said the same thing about being with Suzuki Roshi. And sometimes I said it out loud. But I often thought... You know, I know a lot of people who They're really good. Compared to them, I haven't done much good, I know. But they didn't get to meet him, and I did. Why did I get to meet with him? Why did I get to hang out with him? I couldn't figure it out, and I still can't. But a lot of things come together to do that. And when I got married, my wife's mother said about me, There's a Chinese expression, which is, he must have broken a lot of mokugyos in his past life. A mokugyo is this wooden fish. It's a wooden drum that's struck in East Asian Buddhism when they're chanting. So there's an expression, he must have broken a lot of those, not by crushing them, but by using them so much, by practicing so long, that he wore out a bunch of drums.

[41:59]

He must have wore out a bunch of drums in order to be able to marry my daughter. Which is true. Which is true. I must have. I have no idea that I did, but I must have. There must be some reason why I got to spend time with Gregory Bates and Suzuki Roshi. and a lot of other kind people, so many kind people. Dr. Hansen, Donald Moyer, Laurie Schley, all these people. How come I'm so fortunate to hang out with such wonderful people? Why do I get to talk about Dharma all the time? I don't understand why. I'm, what do you call it? It's awesome. It's just awesome. So it's a miracle.

[43:02]

Robin, that's for you. You're welcome. Thank you for accepting my homework. So again, bodhisattvas are interested not just themselves playing, like with colors or their own mind, but they play with their own mind together with somebody else playing with their mind. And there's an overlap between the two people playing with their mind. And in the overlap between the two people, or more, two people or a whole group of people, can all be playing with their mind, all be practicing compassion towards what they're thinking, practicing compassion towards how they imagine each other, being calm with what they imagine each other to be, being playful with what they imagine each other to be.

[44:24]

And then there's an overlap between the way we're playing with how we see each other. And in that overlap, that's where bodhisattva's enlightenment lives. But it's an interpersonal enlightenment. It's not this bodhisattva's enlightenment. It's not that bodhisattva's enlightenment. It's our enlightenment. And that's the bodhisattva's freedom, is the freedom together. And at Green Gulch now, we're studying some stories, and we're playing with those stories in the session. But I think for now, I feel I've offered you enough, so I now invite you to play for the rest of the time in whatever way you'd like.

[45:33]

We can bring up those stories later. When the people from Sashim come back, I welcome your feedback. I welcome your gifts. Yes. What did you say? Okay. So not only didn't you agree with this person, but they were crummy. It's possible that somebody would be not crummy and you wouldn't agree with them, right? It could be a genius who you disagreed with, but it wasn't. Okay, good.

[46:37]

Well, that was playful of you, to drop the crummy. Hand over the crummy, because crummy doesn't sound all that bodhisattvic. Oh, okay, sorry, sorry. This is from your past thoughts of crumminess about people before you started practicing ethics. That was 10 years ago. Yeah. This crossing the fingers means many things. One of them is, I want to remember something. And this... No, I just want to say, this cross finger is about slimy. Go ahead. So one day she gets a collar on the collar, and this woman's very religious, very right-wing, fundamental religious.

[47:40]

And she gets a collar, and the collar says, you know, I believe in God. He got me, showed me miracles. And the talk show host said, are you kidding? Go to your back door. Open the door, and that's it. And I don't know what they were calling that, but I fell in love. And I had a completely different relationship, probably, with everything from that one person. Wonderful. Wonderful. Awesome. Awesome. So slimy is the bodhisattva, the baby bodhisattva in you ten years ago. Bodhisattvas are interested in slimy people. They maybe feel guilty about being interested in slimy people because they think that there's something perverted about it.

[48:45]

But actually bodhisattvas are interested in slimy people and also They're interested in non-slimy people. So your interest in her was a sign that you're opening your, you're interested in things that are not necessarily what you would consider to be, what's the, huh? Enlightened, yeah. Do we get miracle in the sense of awe or wonder? And my question is, we tend to do more with the Buddhist thought around miracle. You have seen that. You've seen outside. So if you go to there to be playful, that's good.

[49:55]

And then bring now, then bring your playful and meet somebody else. Because it is, yeah, it's more challenging to do it together, even though it's more challenging to do it together. Because sometimes the other person doesn't seem to want to play. They want to beat you, maybe. So then how do you work with their wishing to beat you rather than play with you? rather than be playful with you. And so sometimes you say, I don't want to play anymore. But that's just temporary. In the long run, you'll come back and play. Sometimes you're getting tired. You need to rest so that you come back and play again with somebody who doesn't want to play, who wants to win, wants the game to end, and then play another one and want that one to end. But that's harder. Right?

[51:01]

I'm probably missing a lot. It's playful of you to be open to that you might be missing something. That's playful. Or some things. Yeah, that's good. But it's good that you're open to that you might be missing something. Yes? Yes? Oh, that's not so good. But I was kidding about that not so good. That was good too. Yes? Yeah, about it going on versus ending. I don't understand that. Yeah, she said she doesn't understand about it going on, that you're playing a game that you would like to do forever. Thank you for coming, Maria. I hope you feel better. What? Thank you.

[52:04]

Thank you. So I'm saying the Bodhisattva wants to play a game that goes on forever until everybody is happy. They want it to go on until everybody's happy. That's one way to understand it. Because it's almost, well, there's no I that is going to win or have a beginning. There's that, too. Or there is an I, but the I is included in this big, long-term program of everybody being at peace and being happy. So that's going to take a while. That's one way to understand this. And a key ingredient in realizing the happiness of all beings is that you, well, there's many aspects of it. One is that you're not trying to get anything, like the end of the game.

[53:08]

And also, at the same time, I want to say again, the playfulness, which is a key ingredient in bringing happiness, is very easily lost. It's very fragile. So even though we're trying to keep the playfulness going, in fact, it's hard. But the bodhisattva would like to keep the playfulness going, would like to be playful and creative in every encounter. But other people influence it, and maybe the bodhisattva shouldn't keep playing too long after the playmate loses it. But it's also possible that the playfulness will go on even though your partner loses it. And you can playfully recognize that you don't have a partner anymore, and you just keep the playful thing going until they're ready to play with you again. So in a way, you want to maintain the fire of creativity for the welfare of the world. You want to keep it going.

[54:10]

you don't want it to go out. This spirit of not just, it's the spirit of wanting people to be free of suffering and wanting them to understand. It's that spirit. But it's also the spirit of knowing that this wish needs to be flexible and open. It can't be like a tough, if it's a hard-edged wish to benefit all beings, then it'll be lost. So the playfulness, the generosity and ethics and patience and concentration, they protect the spirit of enlightenment. They protect the wish to live for the welfare of others. They protect it. But the ultimate protection of the spirit of compassion, of altruistic wish for enlightenment, the ultimate protection is creativity. which means wisdom, which means the whole process is insubstantial.

[55:17]

The realization of the insubstantiality of the whole thing really protects it. And in the insubstantiality, its impermanence is included, so it can continue even though it's impermanent. There can be continuity of the discontinuous events. That's why the the bodhisattva wishes to do this game forever. Accepting that that's an aspiration and sometimes they do lose it. So then they go back and try to find a way to play it more continuously. And also it's not, they're not driving it by themselves. There is like a river of creativity. There's like a river of this creativity that the bodhisattva can plunge into with everybody else. So once they get in the river, they don't have to keep it going, they just have to keep swimming.

[56:19]

And they want to keep swimming until everybody jumps in and realizes that's where we are together. There's re-initiation. There's a falling away. There's a reinitiation if there's a falling away, and that can be from the point of view of the bodhisattva herself or her friends who are kind of falling out of the flow back onto the bank or falling out of the flow up into the road, the paved road. Where there are games that end. where there's games that end and winners and losers and people who somehow don't really feel devoted to all beings, but just some. But if everybody jumps in this river, it's impartial. The compassion is impartial.

[57:22]

And it's easy once you're in the river, but we can get distracted from it. Bill? Pardon? Wonderful. Awesome.

[58:24]

How do you get playful with terror? Well, I have an answer. But I've given it before, so now I'm going to ask you. You tell me, Bill. How do you be playful with terror? I've taught you. Pardon? I didn't say, I know. There's this story we're studying at Green Gulch right now. The teacher says, I don't care whether you figure it out or not. How do you play with, how do you, are we talking about play? Well, what it is is how I would say it. Say if an entity had the experience of terror. How would they lighten up on that? Yeah, right. Trying to obliterate terror is not what we call lightening up. You may have seen that technique used, right?

[59:37]

We had some terror back in, what was it, in 2001, was it? We had a terror thing. And the response, not right away, but after a little while, the response was, obliterate the terror. That's not now seen as lightening up. So you're right, lightening up is not the way to have a playful response or a light response to terror. So I'll give you one more chance for you to tell me how to lighten up when terror comes. I've told you before, and I don't mind telling you again, but I just want to see if you can tell me. Pardon? Pardon? Well, I didn't exactly tell you the answer because you didn't ask the question before, but I told you something which... Yeah, I have told you the answer. So it's fun for me if you don't know because then I get to tell you again, but I'd like to see if you can tell me. Okay, good idea.

[60:41]

That's exact. Huh? A new verb? Yeah. Compassionate. Compassionate. Exactly. Got some terror on you? Who doesn't? Okay, so what do we do? We compassion it. Number one, the first dimension of compassion is what? No? I was very creative of you, but wrong! What did you say? What? Well, it is love. The first dimension of love is? Trust. Trust, but trust what? Giving. The first, well, the first, trust means the first is pay attention to it.

[61:43]

Acknowledge it. But acknowledging is the first dimension of being generous. So the first practice with terror, if terror is what we're talking about, the first practice is giving. Thank you very much. Welcome, terror. There was a moment there at 9-11 where somebody said, I think it was Colin Powell said, patience. There was a moment there, and the whole world was in sympathy with us. And then Bush said, war on terror. He didn't say be kind to terror. He said, kill it. Bodhisattva says, I love terror. Not like, I love it, and I'm going to keep loving it until all beings are free of it. Bodhisattva vow is, terrorized beings are innumerable. I vow to love them into freedom.

[62:45]

First by being generous towards them or towards their terror. Terror in me, terror in you. Bodhisattva vows to welcome your terror. Got some terror? Welcome terror. Welcome terror. Welcome terror. Thank you, terror. I accept you, terror. And then next practice of compassion towards terror is be careful of it. Practice ethics with it. Be just towards it. Don't slander it. Don't call it sleazy, slimy terror. Call it awesome. Terror is awesome. No wallowing. Wallowing is not compassionate.

[63:49]

Bodhisattvas do not wallow in terror. They meet terror upright. They stand or sit upright and open to terror when it comes. What I mean by, you know, train bodhisattvas. They welcome it. They sit upright. They open to it. And they're careful of it. They're martial artists. They don't try to kill it. They don't lie to it. They don't slander it. They don't put themselves above it or below it. They don't hate it. They don't get intoxicated in the presence of it. They don't misuse sexuality in the presence of it. A lot of people, when they're terrorized, they misuse sexuality. and so on. They practice ethics. When terror comes, they practice ethics. That's the next dimension of compassion. And they practice patience with it. They meet, they [...] meet the terror in the present.

[64:56]

And then they generate the energy to calm down with it, to focus on it, to pay attention to it, and to relax with it. And then they start being playful. Then they start dancing with the terror And in that dance, they realize what terror is. They realize terror is not out there. And they realize freedom from terror. So first, compassion towards terror, leading to playfulness, leading to lightening up big time. But not lightening up like spacing out, not dissociating lightening up, like you mentioned earlier. Not wallowing in it, not dissociating. It's a concentration that doesn't dissociate. It's a concentration which keeps, what is it like that in the Godfather says, keeps your family close, but keep your terror closer.

[65:57]

Keep your enemies closer. And then you can protect your family. But if you've got your family between you and your terror, that's not a good location. You want your terror close so you can take care of your family. And who is your family? All beings. The bodhisattva, all beings. So they get close to the terror so that they can protect beings. And they can show other beings what to do with their terror. Because everybody's got terror. As you say, who doesn't have it? So bodhisattva, this is how they lighten up with terror. And this lightness leads to playfulness and creativity and freedom. And thank you for your question. Thank you for playing with me. Yeah.

[67:04]

Yeah, right, exactly. You can't scare me. I'm already afraid. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm already, what is it that, you know, that story, I know it's politically got problems, but anyway, you know, the story of Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox and Brer Bear, you know that story? where they finally, Brer Fox and Brer Bear finally capture Brer Rabbit, you know? Brer Rabbit's deluded. They get him with the tar baby, right? He sticks his hand in the tar baby and tries to get out, right? Tries to push himself away from this trap. He isn't compassionate. He doesn't say, oh, tar baby. Well, first of all, he isn't compassionate to the tar baby. He says hello to the tar baby. Tar baby doesn't answer. He didn't treat the tar baby like Dr. Hansen treated me. Hey, tar baby, want to talk to me?

[68:08]

No. He got angry at the tar baby because the tar baby didn't want to talk. So then he hit the tar baby. Well, that's not good. Now he's stuck. What does he try to do when he's stuck? He tries to get out of being stuck so he gets more stuck. He was not practicing compassion towards that tar baby, and so he got in trouble, big trouble. So then they got him. And so then the bear and the fox wonder what to do with this rabbit. And the bear says, I want to knock his head off. And the fox thinks, well, maybe we could do something better than that. This is what you're going to do with him before you cook him. Let's knock his head off. Torture would be, what kind of, so. The rabbit gives him torture ideas. He says, you can torture me this way. You can put me in solitary confinement, whatever, you know. Anything. Just do not throw me in the briar patch, whatever you do.

[69:13]

Don't do that. This is being playful with the terror. And it worked out really well. The rabbit protect those guys from being murderers. But they're still hungry. And they became vegetarians. They switched to a plant-based diet. Bears actually can be vegetarians, right? Yeah, they're omnivores. Foxes actually can get by on plant-based food too. I saw a fox with her pups one time walking around Green Gulch with a huge loaf of bread in her mouth. It was almost as big as she was.

[70:15]

So they actually can. They're somewhat omnivorous too. So if they wind up in a vegetarian community, they can survive. However, it's difficult for the vegetarians to live with bears, but not impossible. We had a bear recently and it was difficult to integrate into the community. But anyway, it left on its own accord after interacting with the dumpster. So thank you for playing with the bodhisattvas tonight. And we have one more play date next week. I'll bring some more things for you to build. And you can take them home with you. Thank you very much. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. The true merit of Buddha's way

[71:24]

Beings are numberless, I vow to save them.

[71:32]

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