and
the title of the lotus sutra in
sanskrit is sad dharma
and diamond mean something like good damn good good truth or good teaching
and the lotus of the good teaching on the recommends lotus flower
and in chinese is called the
meow far
neon means this character here is meow
and far is the character for dharma or teaching her diamond teaching her truth
and lanois means lotus flower
so this character me i mean some
means
beautiful
wondrous excellent mysterious subtle inconceivable
and families dharma or truth and in teaching or true it's diamond is teaching truth and also can be used for on a phenomenon in same sanskrit dime that can be a teaching that the teaching or teaching or phenomena or
the truth
and there's other meanings to
and then
as i mentioned last week at the beginning of the sutra
there's this
scene where fast multiple people come to hear the buddha and the buddha enters into concentration
and discreet beam of light comes out of the buddha and all goes in all directions
and in the assembly there's a great bodhisattva manjushri i mean maitreya
was wondering what this all this light is about
and also described celestial foul of flowers are falling on the boat in an earth is trembling
does a great energetic
and brilliant display of
cosmic radiance
and great body sought this wondering what to all about
and maitreya then asked manjushri bodhisattva the boy sat for have
wisdom
my train by the way means
basically love so somebody out of love
asked the bodhisattva my tray and my tray on monday three and magician means splendor
her sweetness and splendors sweetness and light or are sweet
radiance
and monday she says consults his memory and says that he does remember that there was a time in the past when he saw this kind of life
and at that time there was a great teaching of dharma so that this time his life and this
flowering of showers and trembling earth is also signify that a great dharma
the wondrous daniel will be taught

and then
the buddha comes out of
this sir
this trance and tells people that them it's very difficult to teach this
this are inconceivable truth
and he hesitated to do so
and in the process of
pink begged to do it a lot of people leave the assembly thousands of people leave the assembly
and then after they're gone the buddha says fine and then he tells them
he tells them parables
and
and the leader of of the disciples in the lead the leader of the and the monk disciples in the assembly's is very happy about all this
and that
is singing the praises of the buddha and the praises of the kitchen however
in all this excitement sometimes people don't notice that the bullet didn't actually say anything
about this
wondrous truth
that he was going to give
and
so i did and i mentioned last week that this is a kind of special thing about the lotus sutra
is that it
as dramatically or perhaps more dramatically than any other scripture that we now have available to us there might have been some that have been lost but this extradition very dramatic
i promise of this very great teaching by this grow very great teacher and then the teaching is not given

and this unique quality of the lotus sutra
have it done actually proposing that it will teach the highest truth and the highest truth it seems if you read the sutra you get the impression that the highest rates of the load of suitors the same highest truth basically or as you say it's in accord with the highest truth
that's taught and other scriptures and was called them my honor
in other words in other scriptures and other discourses that are given to teach bodhisattvas the highest teaching in most of those scriptures is pretty clearly
specified as emptiness
emptiness is the highest truth and emptiness
is disgusting many mahayana sutras and this is what the bodhisattvas are being taught
is this doctrine of emptiness
so
i don't know how clearly a says notification that doesn't say much like this but there there is basically a little bit of discussion of emptiness but the overall but but since the lot of simply doesn't really give any teachings about the highest truth to speak of and highest truth is emptiness
and the highest truth is also this one does harm to the wondrous time it seems like it probably is emptiness but we don't can't be sure
but the future itself the way it's presented is actually that the surgery itself is empty
and it's empty also
and then it won't tell us when emptiness is
and the city is also as a suitor also does say however it tells us that the sutra
the sutra tells us that the sutra is the embodiment of this thing that they won't teach you
the sutures here to teach us the highest truth and the of telling us that it is the embodiment of the highest truth and it won't tell us what the highest truth is we can means that one tell us what the lotus sutra is either

i wanted to write the word emptiness here
on this it
which hasn't been written on for a while this is a character emptiness
i try to record clearer

caregiver emptiness that the chinese are finally settled down
the sanskrit word has come from me is emptiness is shown ya talk
and it's trinity is related to the adjective junior me on these empty shunyata
the time and of junior makes it into an abstract noun
so
the things are empty everything is empty your empty i'm empty all things are emptied the lot of is empty empty of was empty of any inherent existence
and things are empty of any idea you have about them
like any ideas you have of me i'm actually
mt of them
and my quality the quality of me a big of anybody's ideas about me including my own ideas for myself
the tire that the adjective is empty and the qualities emptiness i have the quality of emptiness everything about me is emptiness everything about you everything about everything is emptiness and this is a a a basic teaching of the great bodhisattvas
so on a path of compassion those great bodhisattvas what they're studying
his highest truth of emptiness
when the chinese first that translated this sanskrit term shooting and how they used to add character
a which means
ah nothing are there isn't any it means an absence
but this absence was a kind of such day had a kind of substantial a quality to it like it was that he was an it was nothing from which everything came
it's kind of like up
or nothing substantial nothing
the southern chinese deck as they understood him to is better they thought this isn't a good word so they chose this word in this word doesn't mean nothing it's basic meaning of this word is space
or sky
it's so they chose a way which means like open open space
so this emptiness
this lack it's actually an absence that it's actually a lack but this lack is not in nothing and it's not a substantial nothing either
it's more like a spaciousness
that allows everything like space does
so the lotus sutra
by not telling us what the truth is allows
a lot of space for what the truth might be
and the chinese character also
if you look at this character which is a character for space it's often seen people often see in this character that it's actually a schematic of the human body

this is the head this is the shoulders to the shoulder children is an arms and you could release got this could be the hardness of the ribs this is the pelvis and legs and feet
so the character for space
looks like a picture of a body
and the lotus sutra is like that you can say because the lotus sutra is tempted at its core
it allows us to read it
and
here it
and interpreted and apply it in a very wide way
it allows us to flesh out
it's emptiness
with all kinds of ideas
and it itself also flushes out it's it's emptiness with many stories for the basic story is a story of this marvelous event is going to occur
this wonderful teaching us gonna be delivered and expounded in detail
by this great master which isn't done that's the basic story and then there's many other stories
which fill in
but never do give
what was promised
so we never get grasp the main point and yet the sutra shows us where we can have many stories about
about this main point none of which reach it
so it can be fleshed out with all kinds of stories it can be fleshed out with
pictures
you can make picture you can draw pictures of the story
the stories in the cetera
and the stories of sector can be too
teach the stories
i should say the picture you can draw pictures which help to teach the stories in the surgery but you can also talk pictures which offer opportunity for people to worship
the sutra
which means worship the ultimate truth
which means worshipping emptiness
and you can you could worship it in many ways because there's no teaching about how to wish i mean there's no teaching what it is there are there are teachers of of ways to worship it but it's not like the ways of worshipping are limits to the ways that are mentioned because
there's no way to like eliminate any of them because the truth has not been taught
but we are taught that it's okay to talk about the truth and tried to explain it even though there's no source upon which you could actually
reach by an explanation and also it's okay to worship it
now okay worship it but the lawsuit subject recommended that you worship this truth which it won't tell you about
also because he can be fleshed out
by
by expressing it or impressing the lotus sutra on on the landscape of this planet
it also can be a fleshed out by
seeing the lotus sutra as a source
oh that
in i ever branching stream of new religions
because of it's empty core you can make you can like mass produce religions from the lotus sutra
you may be interested but
many religions have been made on the lotus sutra
you can make many mahayana religions from the lotus sutra you can make
basically there's no no end to the branches and manifestations of religious life that you can make from the sort of sector because of its openness and emptiness
the lotus sutra also can be the basis for a template for world conquest the rural transformation and world conquest
and it has been used that way
it can be think it can be used for are exchanged for our changed are transformed into political power it has been in the past and it can be in the future
all this because of
the wonderful dharma
which the lotus sutra does not teach us about so there's no limit on it
ha
when i i
i think i'd go back over that material and can give you examples for the rest of the class
but before i do i wanted to say also that the lotus sutra although it doesn't tell us what day
it doesn't tell us what the buddha taught
but it kind of tells us that the buddha didn't teach
but it didn't didn't exactly tell us that the buddha and teach you to said the buddha didn't teach what the buddha said he was gonna teach that's a kind of teacher
the buddha didn't teach but not what the buddha city with teach
and then and and then the buddha caught some other things like the buddha did not say the border with teach but like i mentioned in pass classes here and one of the main things i mentioned before was that the bullet taught
that if you practice all virtues
and are gentle
and harmonious
and honest and upright
you will see the buddha
shockey mooney
right now teaching the lotus sutra
the way shocking when he caught the lotus sutra in the past you will see that and a lot of scripture says you will see the buddha's teaching the lotus sutra however
that buddha who you get to see teaching a lotus sutra the way the buddha teaches a lot of suitors and buddha will not tell you what the lotus sutra is it'll be the same wonderful
teaching that you can't grasp but you'll be able to see it
and enjoy it and be there with it
and another basic thing is that
although again the lowest city doesn't say much about with called buddha nature
it looks like to people who have meditated on the search of for a long time it looks like to some of the great people
where she started religions based on the lotus sutra
one of the great religions that was based on loss of just called ten ten tie as founded by personally damn mountain called team mount can tie
and millions of people practice that religion
which is based on alert as it just one of the religion seconds university and the founder of that tradition
understood his understanding was that the lotus sutra the highest truth and lower is in accord with emptiness
the lowest to agrees that all phenomena empty l phenomenon emptiness
but also the emptiness is identical to buddha nature
so it isn't just that everything's ungraspable
an innocent of any ideas you have about it them
isn't that everything's just spacious and empty it's also that everything is
a revelation
of the buddha dharma and of the buddha nature
and then a basic using the lotus sutra is
if you behave a certain way you'll see the buddha's teaching and then if you continue to behave that way you will see the bullet revealing the buddha nature without pointing at it are saying what it is
and if you want to see the buddha nature the basic practices the basic practice of earlier teachings a shakyamuni buddha before the lotus sutra which is basically the practice of giving up self concern
the practice of being selfless
so by practicing selflessness
you realize selflessness
by practicing selflessly
by giving away
self-centeredness by making by donating your self centeredness to obese and being surrendering your self centeredness surrendering your self centeredness surrendering your self-centeredness by doing that
you see the buddha's teaching and you realize emptiness and you realize buddha nature
and i told this story before
about that there was whether a person his name with bahia and i'll tell the short version tonight if you want to a longer version later but the short version is via
i found the book was looking for the boot and found the border and went up to the buddha and said please teach me
the dharma
just please teach me the highest truth
and the buddha said
this isn't a good time monk
and among said
but we might die this afternoon it was in the morning this request
the buddha was he was morning time and would have a bag begging for his lunch in the morning so he was begging at the time
please teach me the highest truth please teach me the wondrous dharma
but british said i'm begging now that isn't a good time among said but when i die this afternoon
what he said
if my dive secondary so please teach me
please please give the teaching of the highest truth
and buddha said
i'm begging now this isn't a good time and amongst said
really we might die this afternoon please give the teaching now in the buddha said it's not a good time and a monk after third time and a boy said okay
he's a buyer train yourself a bus
all right there train yourself thus i think that to crisp up there and why he didn't but i would you stop there and say train yourself thus meat train yourself
the way things are
can you stop to be the way things are
in the way things are is your selfless train yourself to be selfless
at the bottom of the get that teaching on different time somebody says can you please give me the taking place as train yourself to be selfless
train yourself to be dos and the way you are herself as a train yourself to be thus selfless
hey that's another teaching
a teaching which if you practiced
you will see the buddha nature
if you practice being thus
you will see that things are empty and you would realize the buddha nature
so in this case the buddha said train yourself last but then he gave a live in more detail he said in the heard
there will be just the heard
in the scene they'll be just the scene
and then he said in the reflected
but that's a technical term which is a summary of
the touching
so to elaborate it would be in in a smelled the leader in in the smell it will be just the smelled
in the casted go be just a tasting in the touched just attached
henin me mentally carbonized just the compromised
can you see that that is a training in
giving up self
easily won't hear things
there is
me hearing
our i'm hearing
or there's there's the hearing in the heard
right as usual way here the car there's a car sound of the car which i'm hearing and there's me hearing it or there's the hearing and the sound of the car which is heard the familiar with that way that's the that's the usual self centered way of experiencing hearing but to train yourself so when when
there's the sound of the car that's it
does not the sound of the car plus me
but usually there's a sound of the characters are thinking about me in the car
where's the train yourself so that they just
in the her to just heard
that was the instruction that buddha gave to the monks who wants to hear the dharma this is isn't exactly the dome
this instruction is how to be selfless and when yourself with when you turn yourself into selflessness you will hear the dharma you will see the dharma
this isn't really buddha nature this is the way for you realize buddha nature by giving of self
concern
somebody gives that instruction and he says when for you which like that one for you when when for you in the her just to heard
and so on then there will be no
you will not locate yourself in it
our or outside of it
you won't be over there in the car sound or over here separate from it
you are not identify with it
for this that he he didn't say that but he said you are not identify with it but i would add or this identify with it
if you see something you want identify with it or dissident guy with it
if you see your picture you want identify with it he just see a picture
did you see if you see somebody else's picture you want this identify with you to see the picture
and when it's that way they will be no here or there are in between and this will be the end of suffering
an uncovered the instruction
and she immediately practiced it and realized it
and then
and book and he and his he told the buddha that he realized it
now for me that's the way it is and there's no here there are in between a nurse this is the end of suffering and thank you very much i'd like to become your disciple now and the buddha said fine so i want to point out pastor
after he wakes up and practices self back every practice of selves selflessness after you realize his selflessness and and understand the truth and understand that he's not suffer from the buddha
then he wants to become buddhas disciple and practice with buddha
the buddhist as fine he said you have the requisites for ordination and coordination ceremony requires that you bring the teacher a role in a bowl
been ordained as a monk and then you give it to the teacher in the teacher has welcomes you to come and you go forth and i'm going to give you the road in a bowl as the ordination in early days
but he said no i don't have the requisite so was have will get them and come back and you will be ordained into the group of disciples and he went to get the rolling a ball but he got situated between a mother water buffalo and her calf and was killed that afternoon

but
he received the dharma he heard the dharma
before he died
and the disciples were upset with the buddhist and don't worry he's fine he heard it emery
he's just fine
now out the buddha nature which
one of the religions founded on the lotus sutra equates with the highest truth of the lotus sutra the highest rated lotus sutra is buddha nature which is the same as emptiness
but as a kind of it is a kind of fleshed out are fulfilled emptiness it's not just the absence
it's also a presence
and
the zen teacher dogan says if you want to realize
if you want to realize this
buddha-nature if you want to realize the highest truth them of the buddhist teacher
the highest truth of the lotus sutra
the wonders dharma the lower sector than give up selfish concern
and in the way he recommends it is he says
think
just as you choose me
the he didn't exactly this but i would say think just as you now here
just as your now hearing think think as you are now hearing
the same instruction
if you can think
just as you're hearing
you will hear
the true dharma
i'm most people when they think they don't think like they're hearing they hear and think
you know i'm i'm sitting here thinking i'm thinking i'm hearing there's a thinking in addition to the hearing rather than my thinking
give me like my hearing for what i'm hearing that is my thinking
so right now you're probably all hearing my voice but is there any thinking that's in addition to that hearing and probably self
so recently i brought this teaching up with some senior center priests and i said i'd recommend your practice that practice this
practice thinking
as you're hearing make your hearing what you're thinking
one them came to me said it's really hard to give up selfish
point of view which means it's really hard when you're hearing to just here
can you really you're actually thinking when you hear and to but to make your thinking not anything addition to when you're hearing
and if you're if you're seeing to make your thinking not in addition to your seeing but make you're seeing
you're thinking
that entails
giving surrendering self centered existence
that training
and it's wonderful training
it's not really that
highest inconceivable dharma but if you practice that way you realize the highest me a single diamond because the highs and inconceivable diamond were knocking point norm is persecution i can tell us about are some people will tell us about it
but they're just telling about us tufted telling us about it in a way to get us the selfless solar year but they're not telling us which is the truth
because they can't tell us the truth the buddha can't tell you the truth but the buddha can
whatever you can say trick you into being selfless and when yourself as you will heal it hear the truth
and when you hear the truth you will be selfless
today i was visiting an old friend was was having a i heard you're having a real hard time
here
it's been sick a long time and
seven trouble swallowing and he was is good if he was afraid i heard they can choke choke to death
and
anyway he's been sick a long time and he's been a real inspiration to people the way he's continued to go through this you know decades of illness being very kind and gentle and
good spirited
but i heard you know things are getting more difficult
i went to seem today
handa
i never saw him i never saw before ah such looking so troubled
he really looks scared if his brow was very thorough
and i
just before i came in the nurse was putting some eyedrops in his eyes so he looked like he was crying
but i think he was crying too and that
anyway he look really
really upset very scared really having a hard time
and i went and sat down next to him
and he started talking to me
i'm talking kind like
it's can be hard for you to hear what he's talking like because i couldn't hear him and i had my ear right next to his mouth
he's kind of talk my

hi

his breeding kind of fast and use as you're exhaling he was saying a few words and i i didn't know what he was saying
but i was
and i want to saying anything to him
i just near him
and
at one point i i reached over and got his juice and i asked him if he wanted some i did say that and it's kind of not in drank some juice after going to do says his voice was a little bit little bit closer to me being able to hear him
and i i tried to practice
this
hearing him i tried to have what i was hearing
which i didn't understand i was hearing some sounds from his mouth
which i didn't understand but i tried to make my thinking be the hearing
my mind partly was trying to like think of what he was saying you know
my thinking was trying to like
get some meaning out of what he was saying but it was a nice opportunity to give that up because i wasn't gonna get any probably
but anyway whether i was going to get her not how about doing a practice so i've really tried to just have my thinking be what i was hearing
i've worked at that and it was really hard and also
when he was talking i had my ear hereby his mouth but then i would also like look in his face and his face was very like i said very troubled and
paint but i didn't feel like i should just have a trouble look on my face i didn't feel like i should just copy it although i i also part of me was thinking that i should copy his face and i shouldn't have a com face if he has such a pain face and i really felt like well
just a threat when i see be what i see and let my thinking be a face i'm safe and when i did them my face was not his face
while there was was his face in my face was an issue
i was really really hard
ricky was having a really hard time and i was having a hard time with him
and it was it was hard but and with and and when addition to being hard it was hard for just my hearing
my hearing his the sounds and the spaces between the sounds to have that be my thinking but when it was that way
when it was that way that it was just i would just hearing him and there was no thinking about what does it mean should i say something
am i wasting my time and my helping you
none of that when he was when he was talking and i was hearing that's all there was
we got to that place together that all i was doing was hearing him when i was hearing him
and all i was doing with seeing him when i was seeing him and it was no reb thinking about it
it was too hard for us to be together and with hat
cozy your warm
but in the hot
that they were just the heart know
it gets too hot just have to stop
and i told them was going to come over to berkeley

but then i'd come back and visit and began saturday
and i said is or anything else you want to tell me before i go
hand he did a thing again
ah
and then i him some more juice
and he said is there anything else you wanna say and he said

yeah
direct your life
in this valley
for long time
yeah man
continue
and his face cleared up
but the pain went away and he was he was smiling
we got there we got to that place you know
to suffer together you know
like that
but it's hard to it's hard when you're with somebody was suffering
for the not to be a here and there ended in between for they're not to be like they're making sounds they're crying
there there audible or the inaudible i mean yeah are audible but
the undecipherable
you know
and there's something in addition to that
it's hard for the just to be there but there can be just that because there is just that
so anyway that was it
i was very happy to have gone there and suffered with him not for very long actually but gum
when i left he was
i don't know how long he'll be able to get i'm no longer he and i were separated would be able to continue their practice but here i am not with you bringing it up again
i don't know if he when he's under no he's doing tonight
better
as we get this afternoon
and
that's where the buddha nature is realized in that way of being together that's when that's how the highest truth which
you know i can say a lot about it and i probably will if i live longer than i can also say nothing about it like a lotus sutra really
but i mostly say how to realize it
which the lotus sutra does tell us and which the had told us in other suitors to
the is really nice because the it as it goes much more than most dedicated ten
i'm sorry can tell you
actually the buddha in at first story of kind of fit to sorry i'm begging i can't tell you
if you look to start again actually the buddha was telling them it was a load of six all right
when a guy came the boot as he probably the and say now i'm going to tell you the great great great great and a guy convention will come you the greatest that i can't i've got a big
so this case he just when the guy came he just said i can't tell you in fact he didn't tell him okay if it if that's not enough for you can cannot tell you how to be selfless and you realize that i can't tell you and then you hear what i can tell you
but the lotus sutra like really works it up with and get your hopes up think we get very excited about it before it doesn't tell us
and then it says which other suitors don't so much man says now that i've told you that but the great dharma which i'm going to teach you which i didn't teach your now worship the non teaching of this
and so the teaching i talked about
just now
is a it's some is marva analytical or intellectual teaching
but there's another teaching those a to another way to to realize the buddha nature another way to realize emptiness another way to give up self is by worship
is by generation is by devotion that's another route
the selfishness which i bring up next week i mean i brought it up at all
i'll work at next week with you
so you through through worth it there's teachings of how to be selfless by which you realize
the truth and whose practices and rituals
have veneration and offering and so on by which you realize selflessness in both cases through the realization of selflessness we opened to this
emptiness which is the wonderful dharma and the wonderful dharma is empty therefore we can flush it out and all his ways
so another thing that i'm saying is that we can hopefully going to some detail and later and class about how to flesh out
this emptiness in the form of for example ah political power or
transforming the world
i'll just give you one more story about definite enough now open the questions
i i have a los angeles as we can visiting my daughter and her son who you may be can figure out is my grandson
and she she said here daddy here's a present from your an issue she said too big for me
i got this verse could be for me and it was a white t-shirt ahead a picture of them
kind of actually kind of assume me circle with barack obama's head and part of it said obama in two thousand and eight said here this is for you you can wear the even wear this
so i put it on and for it around l a for a while
and then i and then i i i actually worn on the airplane southwest airline
and before they got fined
for not safety checks property
if i walk on the have walk on this quite kind of the i'd say i'm positive positively quite energetic male flight attendant looks at me says welcome aboard he said if somebody vomit on your t shirt

since she is it opportunity there
to flush out
the lot of to bring to
to bring a lotus sutra internet political situation
when idea had since then the num number of ideas but
one of them is that i work three t-shirts
under my roads etc
barack obama and then
productivity and lift optimism mccain the up as a hillary went under their which one do you like in a lot of possibilities here lot of possibility the lotus sutra
is allowing a lot of possibilities
it can be a resource
to transform for flesh out the ultimate truth in the political arena
so

yes said tracy

it is
well that
well if you're if you're on
like if you're visiting your sick friend
okay and you're thinking something about your friend
like gum
where do you think maybe are you think i need to go to berkeley enough
then in that thought
that that i have to go to berkeley in that thinking
in that in recognition of that thought that's all there is there's not me
they've got me thinking that way
so just like one year
when you're when there's something when you when you're hearing something
hey usually there's i'm hearing or there's there's what is heard and there's the hearing of it there's some separation there
for some self centered point of view of like
the south here
which is hearing it's not that there's no self
nothing there's no self were just saying there's no self separate from the hearing the reserves miss the self centered view as as a self hearing
there's a self but didn't i myself suffer from the hearing so by training yourself so that in the hearing that just a hearing with no self in addition and the same way when you're thinking some thoughts which are sounds or smells or tastes but maybe some story
like a story of somebody saying that
you know you're you're wearing a stupid t shirt you're wearing the wrong kind of t-shirt
if you know think that
what in that in recognition of bronc and tissue there's just the cognition wrong kind of tissue does not recognize her doing the same way that you can make your hearing
the in the hearing process of just to her just to hurt just a heard
in cognizant meant of objects they just a mental object just a metal object distance market
there's you're talking
but that's not eyes yeah so that a than in that case he said i have a cognition
so that would just be the cognition and wouldn't be i have a cognition they would just be the cognition maybe i understand
or
that seems clear
but there's just that included know tracy has this cognition or created having a cognition that seemed clear
and it's hard to get to that place where the tracy's
surrendered the tracy that's separate from you to get rid of tracy penetration it's separate
from what she's thinking that's a self-centered point of view to give up
and as if someone is easy to work up to that that's the most subtle to work up to it by hearing
that
savings on and touching
so it is touching
and there's just attached
does not me touching
and as looking and seeing and there's we've seen now let's make it to
there's just a scene there's not something somebody in addition to the scene we think there is give that up
train yourself
to surrender the point of view of i'm over here see you over there just you just you just you and poorly included but not in addition my view of being
the finger centered over here for over there is dropped
yeah loss
yeah

yeah
the said
i also have it
has now gone now
like that
when you said now going to drop that veneration next week
if i feel and i invite will write whatever i mean that it's embody i'm always be worshipping
the
to do something to now
do this if i years i worked me that me to make it slippery
i agree i know that what you're saying that harder when you say you and that way that you're worshipping
right now anyway
we nobody knows what that is we came you know people don't figure worshipping probably of ceo of melchizedek to the measures but before you before you he said that we didn't know you're doing something that we could point to and grasp as worshipping but you are worshipping
so worshipping is a way to realize that that really what is it that's really what our life in reality is is that were worshipping we arts
exercising that we think there's some value in this universe in this life
and then to do the practice without the that something in addition to what's going on that's the skill
but the thing is if you think well okay where are worshipping so we don't have to worship
not true
you have to do something which is not separate from what you're doing to realize what you're doing

it's like reading a painting and writing or painting are
in reality worship
everything is actually
when rating reality

yeah that's kind of the kind of the only reason i mean let's not that i wonder if it's a the owner isn't but anyway it is then i think the most important reason is that
unless we make offerings unless we practice making offers we don't realize we're making offerings if we think we're making offerings but don't practice it we don't really realize it
if we think we're being compassionate don't practice it
we don't realize it
it's true that we are if you think you are where you'll be right but you don't realize it from a practicing
and then also to practice it in a way that you realize you're not going to the in addition to what you always doing anyway
that's the practices so wholeheartedly that there's just compassion
so there's just the suffering person and you're totally with them and does not you here and then there
and it's it's hard somehow
to suffer and is hard to give up any separation from it
but not impossible
yeah
michelle

i do a breeze
yeah
three year renovation debris fascinating takes a long time yeah
and then they might happen
get there
he fiercely
the very
face more than three
well it's aggravation
there observer realize
the suffering my i just something
presently
feel like this are worthy
the just agree and every i feel like
well you say you said when you're breathing you don't feel anything just breathing k few that when i'm breathing i don't feel anything against breathing in other words when i'm breathing
i'm just feeling breathing
but you said when i'm breathing or when i'm just breathing i don't feel anything
we usually think that when we're breathing if you don't feel something that means there's not somebody in addition to the feeling of breathing but we bet when you got to play for when are just breathing you didn't feel anything in other words they were just breathing and there wasn't somebody in addition to the breathing feeling something a feeling was
breathing
i'm have cause
every
when the observer comes in addition to the breathing yes that's a problem but if the observer comes in the observer than just the observer
then the same thing as when his breathing and there's no feeling but the breathing all there isn't a breathing is the briefing
the breathing includes it you know the body the breath that come at all their it decisional separation does not self centered point of view
and it's were so unused to it that when it gets there we think we all feel anything because what we're used to feeling is separation that's the main thing now we're into
so when i drops away we feel like nothing but actually
this there's there's breathing or there's hearing this is a touch of breath or just a hearing a breath
it's not words
there's no awareness other than the feeling of the breathing but that is awareness as that is awareness
but it's not self centered awareness
january as an actor
having
yeah and that's okay and then you can sit in the nether cognition and mental cognition rather than sense cognition and then mental cognition he can practice with that the same way and then it would be like i'm not thinking anything you might say that really is not i'm not thinking in the way i'm used to having me
the thinking they're just thinking
when their sound my thinking is sound or what is hurt
yeah
i heard you say something more lines of
base numerous religions
world conquests on this
yeah and my question is
does that imply that all of those things that are based on it are authentic or are they so how could they be
a perversion of that teaching they can all be perversions of the teaching how do you what's the difference between
does which would be authentic
the ones that would be authentic
what are they will be the biggest the they would have a practicing selflessness
the selflessness of the lotus sutra allows all kinds of ways of manifesting
but then was the manifestation occurs
a lot of sutra allows and in in it's fresh appearance than if the practitioners bring back selfishness into it with perverts the place from which there there were allowed to rise in first place
so emptiness allows things with because of because things are empty they can happen
because things are substantial and graspable they can function
if things were substantial nothing could happen everything would just be done right now
the world would have done
will be no change there over nothing happening anymore
but because of emptiness pick because things are the way they actually are many things can happen
so emptiness the teaching versa thing you can even change this this religion any way he want
but the reason why you can do that is because
i'm not going to tell you what it is
now if then you change it and you say not now we've got this new religion and this is what it is now you're not now you're blocking the next religion he made a new religion but now you killed it
and it's not a source from many new religions
it's knowledge this one and we got it and it's doing pretty well
sarah okay know
it's not and it's and it could be the source of some religions but nothing like
and it probably won't be the source of another nation because of another lady rose rose that religion we say this is not that's not us were not connected to that religion because it's not argue that this is this one
a practitioner the lotus sutra can actually once they lose sight of the place to the la souter came from which is emptiness
are you know which is
the ultimate truth
which is which it cannot be grasped once they lose sight of that the next are fighting with other new religious coming from the same place and they do fight with each other
so the lot of response is not just are buddhist schools but especially
the colossal to totally sponsored islam islam may not wish to give credit where credit is due
but some islam those who realize selfishness they would they would realize
they were realized that in one strange twist of this is that saddam hussein saddam comes from sedona
he was actually studied the lotus sutra
for various reasons memorize the lotus sutra worshipped an icicle saddam and so you got the nickname saddam from sedona

he's a true
i don't say it's true
and about what is true
please remember what is true i will not say what that is
but i've also want
the but i'm not going also say that story's true but i did hear that story that he was a student of the sutra and he got the nickname from his friends for his study of it
so you might say this change a different suitor that doesn't have any political uses
so you can you can there are other sectors like that where you can tell was no political application
so there's no danger of
you know
conflicting troublesome political implications because you can see any and that's generally speaking people can't see how you apply buddhism to social life
that's often criticism of buddhism although six different lotus sutra you can easily come up with lots of political application and political use of it because it a leg because it would you name it
you name what you want how you want to use it we can use that way however they still can be some discussion about whether you're using it properly
and whether you're violating the basic truth
are you now trying to grasp the truth in this application within that would contradict the way the buddha taught the sutra
salvia can't with the truth is you can see how the buddha taught it so now you're teaching the truth is such a way you're saying what it is you're doing differently than and buddha did in lotus sutra and you don't have the buddha sort of with you at that time probably
but we can talk about that
and i mean i'm trying to advertise those just so much but i would let i have taught you the lotus sutra is heavily advertising itself
it's telling you that you should worship it
but i'm not telling you your worship but i'm just saying that worship his away
to realize selflessness and open up to the truth which a lot of victory
is dedicated to but won't tell you about
it totally it's totally bought you realize the truth and because it wants you to realize the truth it doesn't tell you what it is
so that you can realize it
some other people want to realize the truth and in their into in their endeavor to help you realize it should they tell you what it is and then later they say i decided that way to help you
but most which is nice that whether one does not tell you and as all went about as you realizing it
but it does tell you how to realize it
in a way
and it does show you
that is not telling you what it is it's the main point stance it's not specify
i wouldn't be surprised if you understand now how to prep practice selflessness basically and then if you if you give it a try this week
the have hard time
but that you'd probably understand how to do it so you can have a hard time at it rather than not even knowing enough to have a hard time
i think you know enough to actually try it and really find it challenging
i think so probably
if you try it as and is challenge doesn't mean you're wrong it means it it just hard to make the transition from his deep habit of me thinking in any hearing and me seeing to what seen was heard what thoughts on
but it's pretty simple just really hard
it's hard to surrender self centered point of view it's deeply
entrenched
so
if you want to realize the ultimate truth this is how to do
according to some people
thank you down forgetting the black for that