Embodying the Lotus Sutra 

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huh
have you may know that the time for this classes as embodying the lotus sutra
and
the full name the lotus sutra as i've mentioned over and over is something like
the
the lotus flower of the wondrous truth scripture
so the title of the lotus
flower scripture
enclose lotus flower
one just dharma scripture so the wondrous diamonds in the title
so in a sense that looks like this picture is about the wondrous dharma
and again as i mentioned this to warm up on this meditation again that there's a there's a discourse telling us that
the buddha or seems to be ready to give us a discourse to expound the wondrous truth of the marvelous inconceivably great
and supremely helpful truth
that's what it seems is happening is kind of promised by the buddha that this is gonna this discourse on this is going to happen but then it doesn't
happen
when then i also mentioned that die in
the as a draw so as in the for name for lower center has the mahayana
a great vehicle
a lotus flower of the wondrous dharma scripture and you and one of the things are shared in the great vehicle
practice and great vehicle teaching as the teaching of the wondrous truth
the ultimate truth and the ultimate truth is
cold emptiness fairly
what a comment for voidness
and ah
it's the truth that everything is empty
for everything is voidness
everything is empty and everything is emptiness
so that truth is the highest truth in the great vehicle teaching and the lotus sutra is part of this great vehicle
this great vehicle movement in the world so it's teaching must also be it's truth must also be emptiness
hand and the proposal on the great vehicle is that
in order to
be liberated we must understand the highest truth we must understand
the truth of emptiness
the must understand emptiness
it's also taught that in order to understand emptiness the truth of emptiness highest truth who must also understand and be familiar with conventional truth
so an example of conventional truth is
a book a book as a conventional truth
for example of book that tells you is gonna teach you the highest pierce is a conventional truth not all books which are conventional truths
say that they're going to teach you the highest truth
but the lotus sutra is a book or conventional truth
which says that the buddha is going to
it tells the story of the buddha saying that that this heist with will be offered and that is not offered but the prom the description of the buddha of be ready to give the desire to teaching and i'm not doing it that's a conventional truth
and if we become familiar with this conventional truth
then we met be ready to receive the ultimate truth
no fact we have to be merely with conventional truth in order to receive ultimate truth

the lotus sutra also says in conventional language in conventional designations it's tells us that he did this book is the embodiment
of the ultimate truth
book as a conventional truth which is an embodiment of the ultimate truth
we had this conventional a truth that it that it is this type of conventional truth which is the embodiment of the ultimate truth
and away and one of the ways it bodies it is by telling us that it's going to teach us in not teaching it
not teaching it directly
it kind of teachers it by saying there's going to kind of does promising it is related to it
when it doesn't go so far as to actually
give the
detailed full
exposition or expounding of it
last week i think i mentioned maybe did the first week to the last week i mentioned that
in order to
here or see or realize ultimate truth
we need to
what does say we need to do
he's why
and that's right i didn't say last week by scientists week
yeah what did i say last week when you watch the price of admission to the seeing and hearing of the ultimate true dharma the ultimate truth what is what is necessary
remember just what is here
just hearing just hearing you just hearing when you're hearing
and just seeing when you're saying and just smelling when you're smelling and and what and what do all those ways of being have in common
what's what's happening when you that way
yourself you're you're you're you're kind of practicing yourself but you're also practice the emptiness because emptiness his selflessness
so no self for non-self our selfishness is a synonym for emptiness
so in order to realize selflessness we need to be selfless
in order to not just hear about it and kind of understand it but to realize it we sort of have to get with the program we have to practice being selfless in order to realize bay selfless
we need to practice being the truth in order to see and hear the truth
such seemed like really straightforward right
i don't know is it
and then me up we have to enter we have to give up self in order to understand selflessness
we have to make herself a gift
in order to hear and and receive and realize the truth of our selflessness
we don't either
in sometimes we isn't that we reject or
throw away self
because that would be a little bit like saying that there was a self said make sense to reject it or throw it away is like it's more like you actually are believing in yourself but can make it a gift
but can you see that actually horse it's not something to hold onto it's something to give away it actually
it's not something to have
if something is given so that it isn't that doesn't exist at all it's just that it's independence doesn't exist at all
so i make myself a gift and one of the ways i make myself again we talked about last week when dave
when you hear something
in in which you hear they've just heard when you're that way with what you hear you actually have given away yourself
he made don't think you give away yourself but you did because you're not holding onto the self put hearing heard
you're getting with the program of selflessness
when you
take care of yourself that way how to take care of yourself that way when you gotta self like you know
charlie's got herself
roderick got herself
the video but they're selfish is not an independent self it's a relative self a self having to do with charlie having certain qualities and depending on many things and so there's a self
and same for all of us
but we don't have a sell be to hold onto but we do have self we can give away
and how do you give it away
in i heard there's just a heard at that time you give away yourself
but even heard there's the heard and new and used to holding on the news you haven't really got with the program of you give yourself being a gift
this doesn't feel like the self is something that separate from the hearing which makes it whenever you hear anything that's part of yourself
i like present we human beings hear certain things
that other animals don't hear and they hear things we don't hear
and also some of us here things that others others don't but the fact that some of us don't hear certain things for some was do is what makes the different selves submissions
so we are actually created by everything we hear see smell touch taste and think
and when there's justice activities and nothing no self in addition to them
then we have become actually familiar with an intimate with conventional truth we become so intimate with conventional truth that there's no itself in addition to conventional truth there just conventional truth like third the see the smelled the touched
the taste
the mentally carbonized
so that's that was the way last week i talked about how to give up
the self
make yourself a gift for
get rid of can say the idea you use this separately from what you hear
the to live separately from the sound of a truck or use a separate from from the voice of another person
and when when in heard they just heard then there's not you and me when when you hear my voice and in hearing my voice there's just the sound of my voice
there's just what you're here then there's no you and me
there's no you suffer from the you and me are still here i'm talking you're listening but there's no you separate from me
that's called getting with the program of conventional truth and be ready to receive the ultimate truth
the lotus sutra
the lawsuit as been more to say than just that it actually is teaching ultimate truth but it's also teaching us had a practice with it
how to practice with conventional truth in order to open to the ultimate truth which it for indicate
and so i mentioned that is another kind of practice another way to sort of get with the program of selflessness or another way to practice selflessness which i think i just spoke of as worship last week
so this week i would like to move over and look at that way of becoming familiar intimate with conventional truth and again becoming intimately with conventional church major get warm are ready to be selfless but before i do that i wanted to
tell
two then stories
which i feel are related to the lotus sutra although they don't mention it
one
what would the other have an analogies conventional truth
to related to time one occurred before the other that's a conventional truth
and a one occurred after the other than a conventional truth
one occurred before the tang dynasty
one actually want occurred in the beginning of the tang dynasty in china and the other one occurred at the end of the tang dynasty
in the first story

a monk comes to visit the person we call the sixth ancestor of zen
and the sixth ancestor says to the person who comes what is it that does comes
which is a kind of pun
because the get the person or just come and he sang what is it just comes but does come is also an epithet for buddha
so he's asking him
what is it that just came here namely what are you
are you know what has come when you came but also he's saying what is buddha
and also is asking what is
the dharma because the buddha dharma are not separate and a and the buddha the historical buddha says when you see the dharma you see me
when you see me you see the dark
and again parenthetically whenever you see the dharma like if you look in our person
if you actually see the dharma what you're seeing as the person the actual person when you see somebody when you actually see somebody you've seen the truth
so when you see the truth you see the buddha
why you look and you can see why you're looking at a person
but in order to see the truth when you're looking at a person
you need to make yourself a gift
and in fact again you need to get with a program have you been a gift you are actually a gift that's part of the true dharma is that everybody's a gift
so you have to joy you have to make yourself a gift and order to get what the truth that your gift which is in the truth teacher gift is the same as a truth that your empty
at your emptiness century
put conventionally in different ways
so anyway back to the story close parentheses
among comes to see the sixth ancestors six after says what is it the dust comes
actually i sure mr l i'll make it a longer the monk countries as where you from and among says
a monsoon
and and then the ancestors as what is it that that comes and monk said
to say it's this misses the point
that's the lotus sutra
what is the dharma to say it's this misses the point the book doesn't say that he says i'm gonna teach you
the true dharma and then he doesn't tell us what it is he doesn't say it's this or not this
if he had said it was this he would have missed the point that he wasn't in the mood and missing the point in the lotus sutra
he wasn't a point of saying the dharma is really important
and i'm not gonna miss the point
the dam is really important i'm and tell you about it and then not tell us he did not point out it it is not indicated he did not say it's this
and not to criticize many many buddhist teachers but many buddhist teacher say this is the truth very kind of them to
ah
you know mr point by telling us what it is
santa louis sector can just sit there and be weird
so anyway he says to safe this to say that buddha's this to say the diamonds this misses the point and then the teacher says what does that mean is no practice or realization
because if he wouldn't say that if you want to say with the dam is hygienic practices are you gonna realize it how you gonna wake up and be free by seeing the truth if you won't tell us what it is
and the monk says i don't say there's no practice or realization just said it can't be defiled
by saying what it is you can say what it is but that won't violet
and but also i won't say what it is i want to but i won't even try to defile it
and then disadvantages says in parentheses very good cause francis
this undefiled way is what has been protected by all buddhas
now i'm like this and you're like this too
again upon on
dustless now you are thus nine thus
now you are buddha know i am buddha and i can't tell you what that is now you are the truth now am the truth and i can't indicated and you can't indicated
and
being with this is how to be surplus this is instruction and bay selfless so we're getting a lot of attention to this truth and we're not been told what it is and we're not trying to get it right
we come here to his room to hear about the ultimate truth that will cure all ills and we don't try to get it
my fact we just try to give ourselves away
with no expectation and we understand that if we do that with no expectation we will realize this truth
and another story is a of one of our ancestors who is a founder of our lineage in china
and one of his students said
this all just kind of
make this more idiomatic he said you met a lot of great zen masters and some of them recognize you
and then you met this other guy who not so famous and not you know doesn't seem to be so special but this is the one you seem to venerate the most
how can we venerate him when you've met all the other great zen masters that are famous all over china how can we venerate this kind of i don't know what apparently mediocre master
and he said something like it's not the profundity and brilliance of my teacher that i appreciate
but what's what i really appreciate is that he never directly indicated anything
he never told me you know what the truth was
in somebody's other great headmasters kind of death

hey now time for another way to give of self and that's true
know that the well that's true
giving up everything and one way to give up everything is too
worship something
and doesn't mean when you worship that you're automatically give up everything you have to worship in the right way
but anyway can worship or veneration is a way to
give up self
can i go myself
somebody said to me
just recently and she said she'd been doing a ceremony of going for refuge in buddha
diamond sangha
so if there there isn't there is a practice there is a practice
i'm going for refuge
are returning to the ultimate truth
you can return to conventional truth but also you can return to ultimate truth
returning to ultimate truth is nowhere to say there's a practice of realizing ultimate truth
so the of is talking about the ultimate truth think the wondrous inconceivable truth so they can be a practice of returning to going for refuge in his ultimate truth which is the same as going for refuge in buddha
which includes also going refuge in the saga
and i think she said something like
in doing this ceremony is it necessary to
i don't like he said despite the she said is necessary to relinquish something and i said
yeah
she said what and i said everything
so when you actually when you when you go for refuge in the buddha when you return to the buddha and when you return to the highest truth in order to actually had that happen
you need to relinquish everything
when it get relinquishing everything means you open to the buddha you opened to the dharma the open to the sanga
so the lotus sutra the book or quite the the speaking of the book the hearing of the book in order to got to goes to actually realize to going for refuge in his truth you have to open to it and aren't open to it you have to let go
everything
so worshipping it
in the sense of opening to it
but also you have to focus on it
at the same time
so you're you're opening you're paying attention to it an opening to it
you're paying attention to it and your venerating it when you venerate the buddha
when you worship the buddha he returned to the buddha
venerating a buddha
then there's one buddha not to or not you in the boat anymore
now if you venerate the buddha understood still you in a buddha that's life when when you hear you something in still you and hearing
so seeing somebody
and training yourself so that in what you see they're just as seen as not new in the sea is the same as venerating the person
actually look at somebody
and venerate them and then the proper way in the effective way means that all the easy where you're saying there's not you
sing for you and them but in the ceiling does not you seeing them they just seeing them when you see something like that that's giving up yourself or making yourself a gift to them
and it's also venerating them and it's also going for refuge in them and it's also going for refuge in the truth
and then some kind of subtleties in this which i can't party alluded to is
here's an
and i heard somebody say the other day that devotion may be a path by worship just makes everything worse
where i worship just makes things worse
and a person went on to say more in the sense that ah
devotion
you know focusing on someone giving them your attention
and
ah heightens our energy in attention that heightens your attention energy your energy and intention
but there's a tendency in humans and other other kinds of people there's a tendency to because they idealize
the focus of the worship
idealized the focus of the worship to idolize a focus of the veneration
and that idealization
of the focus of the veneration and you can do this with the lotus sutra to if you at the lotus sutra if somebody you know and you can hear a lot of wonderful things about the load of symptom with my contribute to idealizing it as the greatest sutra something
at the highest as the embodiment of the highest teaching of a basically being the buddha in in incarnate writing friend your hands you can go on get quite excited about that
in the process
if you idealize it
can you say it's a high center without idealizing it may be hard when you idealize it
you get into emotional projections for back into emotional projections and you reinforce kind of dualistic thinking
so that's why list put these two kinds of teachers together is that can you venerate
so fully that there's no identification i mean know it idealization which is similar to no identification
and as and there's a verse which i've said here before ah it's a bucket a verse from boeing person
bowing person bound to their nature no nature person bowing person bound to both are empty both are selfless
this body and the other body not to plunge into that inexhaustible
truth
live in a vow
to be selfless
and realize thereby the truth
hell
without talking about the lotus sutra or the true dharma you can we can just practice in the heard over yet to heard
in the scene they will be just to scene and if we practice that way
that will be away for us to be selfless and by being selfless we will see we will realize
the dharma at the lotus sutra is about
but another way which is the same thing but to seem different is to venerate this truth
venerate this buddhists
and in that way go for refuge in his truth go for refuge in the buddha's
and again when your venerate things properly you go for refuge in him when you go in refuge with them properly
you ah
he venerated
and then one additional big point is that another another aspect ha
you don't have to think about this necessarily but i'm but after i tell you this you might think about it for a little while
and that is that way that that when you are
when when there is this kind of 'em veneration of something
have somebody like veneration of a broader veneration of the highest truth when there is that veneration
when it's the right kind of regeneration there is going for refuge and when the really is going for refuge that is what what what's happening there as you and the thing venerated if if if it's should sit in the case of the triple treasure put it on sanga you and a buddha or spiritual
what that time
so this this this veneration for the selfless way of being
he is actually happening happening within a communication between you and what your venerating
i see you atlanta and i'll be right with you
hey self harm
and i want to stay one more thing is sort of life see so you're sort of in on that
you can on something
and that is that i when i wrote the chinese character emptiness on the board the character that they want abusing for emptiness for the highest truth this is voidness but the character looks like a schematic drawing of a body
gay and one of the wonderful things about the lotus sutra from my perspective is
that it it's it's giving us a teaching about emptiness
without indicating what the teaching is or what emptiness is but it also gives us because it more indicated it leaves us lots of room for how to flush out
the ultimate truth
and it and how to flush it out mean how to me
embody it
kind of flesh it out how to embody the ultimate truth in the world together with everyone and i've alluded to this bags like a dream to say it again so you saw you feel my commitment to bring up how the sutra teaches ways of embodying this truth in
our own body in our own family in our own nation our own planet but
it's not ready to do that yet but just can tell you that that's part of what the lot of suitors about the lotus this class is about embodying the lotus sutra which means it's about him bad body in the ultimate truth and the lotus sutra which doesn't tell you what the ultimate truth is is very much part is is said is is
the embodiment of it and we want to embody the lotus sutra which is a embodiment of it we want to embody that truth in buying a lotus sutra is the same as embodying highest truth and the lotus sutra is very much about embodying highest truth and teaches us how to do that
and now i think we'll have time to talk about how it teaches to embody it
but before it
before embodying it we sort of weeks could get in touch with it
now i'm talking about how to get in touch with how to open to it had a realize it how to understand it and then we his back to work it
so at this stage i'm wondering how you're doing with physically opening to this truth which is truth which is so open
how to open to the uneducated supreme dharma how's how's it going on you want to tell the you want to bring up now
the veneration
yes
isn't it
do you say is that it is an intentional or is it was
it's intention and it's receiving
veneration his intention on me i want to venerate i've heard about i've heard veneration he's a practice that that a ceremony actually i can do this it's a ceremony i can do
ah which will reach the actual veneration but i have to do some ceremony because the veneration is also empty
the dam is empty the buddha's is empty so i could have ceremonies in order to realize was empty so veneration is also empty
in other ways ultimately it doesn't have any self by itself either so i had to do rituals about all this stuff so i do i have intentionally do i do intend to do veneration
but veneration isn't just what it isn't just my ceremony
like an intend to venerate you as the sanga i can attend to venerate the teaching i can intend to venerate the lotus sutra and when i when my mind and tends to do that when i think of that action during the ceremony in my mind of veneration but the actual veneration
it's not the ceremony salmon doesn't reach the actual the veneration the actual veneration
i have to do what doesn't reach it in order to realize what does not reached by what i do as a general principle practice have to do a ceremony
to realize what the same one can't reach because we're we're we're doing ceremonies about ultimate truth
and i certainly don't reach ultimate truth because you can get and if it's not it's not someplace he is ungraspable
but by doing things and knowing that what you're doing doesn't reach it you realize it so we can realize it we can't get it
so it is an intention but it's also received he received veneration when you do the ceremony of opening to what's happening you receive veneration because you're in a very veneration is actually your life your life his veneration of the truth you are disciples of the truth you are working for the truth is
nobody else you can work for but the truth
you are working for the way things work
yeah everybody is a disciple of of actuality however if you don't practice a ceremony celebrating that you will miss it
because you do some other ceremony
which will be a ceremony of falseness
you can be a ceremony of something you can get but you can't get anything
so we have to be ceremonies we don't get anything
which celebrate that we don't get anything and then and then veneration is one of them worship is another one and these meditations are other one's going for refuge is another one so these are going for refuge and federation or the same
when done properly
yes elizabeth

i'm i'm just etymologically worship means
to come from the road worthy so worship is to is to knowledge worth worthiness or the worth of something so you acknowledge something worthwhile veneration can relate to venus me love
so i'm so i'm talking about both are acknowledging the worth of something and expressing love for something okay but then there's some details about how to do that
gay
name they both of them are it isn't like loving like going to get a hold of something it's loving like opening your body mind to it or make yourself a gift to it
receiving it and intending to receive it
but not knowing how that receiving will go or what you will be receiving because you have been generous not manipulative
you know trying to get this truth to that truth this this buddha that buddha this person that buddha
so that's that is that that the type of veneration we meet here we don't mean veneration which is to idealized or to identify
what your venerating
to idealize her identify what you think is of worth
now there's some tentative identification just so you can focus
but it's not really identification is just it just enough to be able to pay attention to something and then test your selflessness on it and if you test your selflessness on it and you're successful and yourself as testing for use you know than the truth will be will be revealed and then you can work to realize it
with all your future intentions
has your know the hand back the yes
linda

yeah
yes
good

yeah
exactly
there's someone here is going over there yeah instead of the others
okay well again english word refugees nice because it's it's like the age it's like the sanskrit word and like the chinese word the basic meanings to return
so ah
and again verify what what is meant in the tradition by venerating the buddha is means the same as to return to buddha
so
yeah but also up veneration doesn't doesn't doesn't elucidate the the the function that when you venerate a buddha he returned to a buddha
but when you if you venerate the or what
the i guess
if the word that word refuge emphasizes that when you venerate something you kind of become it
the veneration doesn't tell you in its in it's linguistic structure that that what you venerate you will become
wreckage referees tells you that you're going to return to what you're going for refuge in going towards it but actually returning
do it you're becoming it

it fleshes out the emptiness of it so so we go from in india
the most common word to use his relationship between ourselves in the buddha and i've the relationship between ourselves and the truth in between our relationship between ourselves and the community the most common word that you throughout the buddhist world
is to return to
and rely on
yeah
yeah and also someone would say
hi to respect who said this
some or a samurai said this than the samurai said
it's okay to respect what i just don't rely on
but don't the template word for wreckage is to return to and rely on
so we we we do rely on buddha we need buddha
but how do you rely on without grasping
so some people say well lot of people of course people usually rely on things and grasp things that that's what they're going to get now we're talking about relying on something that we're not supposed to grasp so you think well maybe face don't rely on and i won't grasping and that's a lot of people do with their teacher their human teacher
if they they noticed that they rely on their teacher that they tried to control their teacher if they rely on a teacher than new and then they love their teacher and venerate venerated teacher and then they want something from their teacher because they're they're relying dashed getting hold of the teacher and trying to get something from the teacher so they think well maybe if i just want
rely on the teacher then i won't try to get something that teacher and then it will be frustrated anymore that this teachers not giving me what i'm trying to get
so actually and i have relationship like us for some people were actually trying to get something from me
and they really love me
but they're frustrated because they're not getting something that they're trying to get and i'm like this i don't know what to call myself if other than like sounds like can really good teacher for this person because i just can't
ah give them what they're trying to get
i can give them lots of stuff but it they try to get something i can't i can't be something to get and that's very painful for them because they loved me so much in love they want to get something from the one they love
but they can't suddenly think me if i just stopped loving or just stop relying on the teacher
but then i wouldn't be it would be so painful because i didn't rely on them in love them then i wouldn't try to get anything
then i just gonna be all set
we've you'd be good on the side of not trying to get anything that sounds good
but to but to stay but are not allow people so that you to avoid trying to get something that's not so good
so can you really we do need the teachers we do need the buddha and we do rely on the buddha and without we need to learn how to rely in a way that were really is returning
we're just one we need to find that sweet about the buddha and venerate the buddha without trying to get anything from the border
and that's hard it's hard as i said you last week somebody somebody tried to his practice which i told you don't he says if you wanna see the buddha nature to want to realize buddha nature then
i then think as you're hearing from are here as you're thinking
think as you're hearing that was instruction in how to be selfless
let me try to is so hard to do it is so hard to like here i now listen to me and have what you're hearing just for your thinking and have no more thinking other than hearing me know like thinking i'm pretty smooth good woody saying that it's not so good what he's saying or what when know how much more easy going to say are you know none of that
just when you hear me
you think you are thinking you do think you're a thinker but when you're hearing me to thinking you're doing is actually that you're hearing me and as nobody in addition to you hearing me than the hearing of me try it it's hard
however it's highly recommended as the mode in which you will be able to receive
the wondrous done of sutra is also the mode of going for refuge
of relying on the truth which will be revealed to you without trying to get it without trying to get anything beforehand and then when you actually get to see the truth and feel the truth and realize the truth not grabbing ahold of it not attach
not identifying with it or this identifying with it being intimate with it
and the same with conventional truths the intimate with conditional truth will you open to them
you're familiar and open to them not trying to get anything from them because conventional truths are wife what's an example of a conventional truth hearing
a sound is conventional truth if you can be this way with the conventional shoes
i mean you open tell me you're opening a conventional truth
we opened as a conventional truth you open to the ultimate truth
gareth i decided to check
what you're saying is
you know my selfishness the learning curve for me flame which
you
april
erica
felt this would not that i was playing
play i think
you mean everything you're you're equating like really is
visible working for what it
zealand or south
no no it's not not clinging
happier now watch it
the
non-cutting goes with giving
venerating without clean
venerating without grasping venerating without trying to give it get anything yes man clinging goes with non grasping yes
basically sentiment so
in rgb like selflessness we have to realize not clean
but as i've often mentioned
so often is that it's difficult to realize non clean however it's
it's a little bit easier to notice the clean
you can probably notice a little cleaning now and then
and if you notice cream then you can confess it in the presence of the triple treasure in the presence of the buddhist and by revealing your clinging
the process of revealing the cleaning and revealing that you don't feel so comfortable with clinging either
that just some sorrow and pain around pretty revealing that melts away and confessing and revealing that defending it melts the root of this deep habit
can the habit of in heard there's the hurt and me that's clinging
so i can vouch oh yeah it's not just to hurt yet it's still me and her me and her name the same mean what i'm thinking me thinking me hearing me say there's still that however i've got a notice it i can confess it and i feel little actually although it's normal it's also normally painful
separation and by going over that
you can go over that people can be aware of this and be aware of this and be aware of this be aware of this and reveal this undisclosed this fall from however and it melts this process melt the route
and then there comes a time when there is actually in the her duchess to hurt
and there's an opening to the truth and as not grasping of it
but part of the confusion of this world or national challenges as were under some people say grasp the truth
so it's a little bit of an oxymoron to grasp the truth unless the truth you're talking about is the truth of suffering
grasp that i think pretty well but that does not really the truth of suffering that's just experience of prefer you can you can do that but really you're not grasping at either it just thinking you can grab suffering is also suffering thinking that you can grasp pay pleasure is also suffering anything that you think you can grasp a color that you can grow
asp is suffering a sound that you think you can grasp if you think can grasp the sound that's up from that was saffron basically as is clean
and becoming familiar with that process and being generous with that process and venerating that process of cleaning
opening to that he opened to clean
if i close to some part of the conventional world some part of the world of suffering the conventional world is the world of suffering if i closed a part of it
doesn't work
for me to open end to the ultimate truth i had to open to the conventional world and ourselves convention truth in order to open to the ultimate truth and as you know it's difficult to open to conventional truth sometimes
i do really be open to them
which is difficult
to see something in in seeing it be open to it to the extent that or you all there is a saying and what you're saying
but you almost get the kids like you can almost look at me and just have to just be for you all there is a seeing me
can almost hear my voice in almost like
in here in what i'm hearing there's just not as i know there's something extra there's something extra
almost not something extra almost just the sound of his voice
it's really not that far away sometimes

no
is it was in the band michelle and tracy
sound is different senses

he's

now i hate hearing it's a little more islam more subtle
yeah i think it is no wait us which was recommended
while the buddha and in the buddhist centre he started with the heard to inherent of used to herd started with hearing
can anyone to seeing
and then he went to a summary of the next five next three and then he's in he went to
your mental objects
so i think
that many order of subtlety
the all all i recommended all we need to open to his way to oliver
he will do that then they won't be anymore the south separate from other
what or space between
and that will be the end of suffering
he says
such as hearing now he didn't say that he didn't say was better he just said can he to understand he said in the to just to hurt as for started but he didn't say you should start there but even if you start there then came out you have to come back to beginning again it was for all these things treat them all that too
yourself to be that way with every every experience
and that type of instruction is now and since so much that kind of instruction the lotus sutra there is it's there to some extent but slow shutter is using more recommending a worship and veneration as a way to be selfless
so that you can understand like a lotus sutra is
working to help us understand and then as can also will tell us how to how to body that once more and more have you realize that how to make it more thoroughly and body once you see it and understand
taree see
did you hear that
the passage this week crystal glasses that
yeah
this is what we like
st augustine
i was you
i will yearn for the until i rest in it yeah interestingly i will yearn for the until i rest in the
yeah
yeah
it's the summer i will yearn for the until arrested me i will venerate the until i rest in me when i first are yearning for you i made me feel like the you and me
so i'm not really a rest and tells her to like trying to get something probably
but i yearn an iron until finally
why not
i'm not identifying or dissident if i'm not i'm not idealizing
what i'm yearning for i'm just yearning because we're related and i'm resting in our relationship so fully that there's no me and you
yeah
what a coincidence
laurie
found in described do something like

house
not good way you described as i like myself that is
it works
to people
how does the way talk about what they're doing that's a problem for them is time like what you're saying
well you could explain more but i before you do i start on
if somebody isn't in touch with the
in heard there's the heard plus something that has happens to be me if they're not interpret that sense of i think i'm hearing
then maybe we should
maybe we should check out to see if they can get in touch with that because it's there but they can if they can't feel it then it's it's like to maybe maybe to watch the background for them and we need to bring that florida a bit more so that then they can confess it and drop it
so in that case if if if like was a think they're really hurting the object yeah right
so they don't notice that there's to somebody they are thinking that they're doing that so we need to help them identify that otherwise this will be at another piece of us or canada additional trick than the one we're usually been bewitched by the
yeah or the in this case you might say they've idealized emerging with the object
which is which again is like reinforcing the for the emotional projections
okay
so that would be assaulted catch a how and help them become aware of it so that they could watch that and knows that that's not really
that's not really the veneration which is really like selfless veneration
but we're going to we're gonna go through some selfish veneration before we get to self to selflessness that can be part of the deal just like if you try to do the practice of in the heard don't get to heard there's going to be some period time when there's not just to hurt in the heard there's you and the heard but as
somebody can find that they're probably just an unconscious of that and when you will need to help them so good a thick it's nice if they come forward and tell us that so if they only that is this notice that your idealizing the state of when it would be that in the heard that just heard
somehow work for this trained trained for this without idealizing it without trying to get there
you might not notice that that's the same thing you're trying to get over
that make sense
yeah it's just what they feel with other more real
like for me i i after
the others when you start worshipping i think here to some extent you're willing to modern with the word is
give a little more strength to what your venerating
so here's a withered is a beginning of of a year
and you know what the word idealized is one word and not aware to identify because we identify with something we're actually idealizing it because we really do idealized ourself
that's some ways so which are venerated something we notice and we slip into idealization than our own idealization of ourself as coming on the open
so but at the beginning anyway when you start venerating for lot of us anyway it's good of weakening our self importance
and then to notice don't where do we go from there to then just to get to be that it's not it's that they get more important rather than equally important
equally important enough considering how important we think we are
yeah
you say that
the object veneration

separation itself after the problem
the thing
i'm
how i see him
is merging a problem that you said basically
yeah merging nine wins embodies all of a problem because sometimes we are merged because we're independent
but murray a kinds of kind of merging which would be that
he would basically just take yourself and put it into the other
you have merged yourself with them rather than realize which is quite different that does know you separate from them
realizing that you're you're not really merged the kid is not separate but to sort of slip yourself into the other person
i make them more important than you you're still separate from them when they're more important than you so then to avoid making them more important to you to sort of like enter them
going to go under their under the auspices of them
and hide within them that's not the same as realizing that your that there's just them in other words there's no you in addition to them because there is no you in addition to what you're hearing
but you are a person because you're hearing so you depend on the other person you can use a separate from them are you depend on the colors that you're saying there's no is no you separate from it but you think there is
and because of that
you're in pain and because of that you'd like to merge with it maybe some people would like to merge with it some other people like to get control of it but in some cases merging would be awake a technique for avoiding trying to get something for example in all those sufferings
surface is subtle yet so i'm not sure if this is much profession it's serve about the word realizing yeah
which at least in my past this that has sort of a statement about realizing things that sir embarrassing if you don't realize something yeah so this is or didn't you realize that your car's running
as if something
it's also this sort of my mind your understanding of that word has been that it's just a mental process that you know you can realize things just by just by knowing them to by finding them out
but when we talk about realizing for example realizing the truth and mts
it seems like it's more than just
someone telling it to you or are you coming to understand it is
a was this is a so it's maybe this is the question does it involve also
the intention or doesn't involve something more than just knowledge to realize in that way
but didn't want an advantage the word one of the advantages of the word realize is that it has two meanings one being to understand and the other to manifest
one make real so if you hear the truth of emptiness and you understand it
that's that's part of realization of emptiness is to have understanding of even mental understanding
but the other part of realization is that you become emptiness you act like it
you behave in accordance with your understanding
so the word realizes two meanings it does actually the referring to desert two different things that are related you have some people can understand things but now manifesting
like some psychologists you know they've perfectly well understand it there's no grasp yourself
but they don't they don't manifested in their life they act like they thought there was one
even though they've studied this feels that they're very they're quite convinced but not convinced to the extent that they actually are acting like that
i think i've spent a lot and i say psychologist but i i mean i say psychologists because oftentimes they do understand that for some zen buddhists don't yet understand it but artists in substance as well but actually act like it
have actually do understand it
and against in some ways ah
during the ceremony of veneration
he's actually manifesting an understanding
your relationship with the buddha's or with the truth
you know the understanding or something in addition to the the thing you're doing your action is to understand that more like realization it is and understanding because you actually demonstrate the understanding you do have it
but cannot just say oh i get i understand venerating
you're actually thinking of it and an understanding that there's no additional realization or understanding over what you're doing
so that would be again understanding correctly and in body
now that the realization which is different than than just think to than just to fit thinking you understand it
yes so is it is the is it sort of
one one meaning a realization includes that this or the the broader meaning and in the narrow meaning is that is if one included than the other is that is to understanding meeting included within the actualization of in his earlier separate what you're saying
is is he is the understanding included in the actualization yes
and i was just go in other words the type of understanding this important is the actualized understanding rather than just the mental understanding so within isn't just that you understand something like i get it it's actually hear that way
i mean because your understanding the way you are in this case your understanding the way you are
and you actually your action is now the way you're showing your understanding
so you understand me he has an show you show it
but also nothing you can understand would be that if you don't understand that you can practice confessing that you don't understand and then when you practice when you actually confess that i don't understand you are
you've realized that teaching of practicing confessing that you don't understand by confessing that you don't understand there's a realization
and that's also a practice so the practice and realization had the same whereas some tennessee you think that your practice in in his realization that does not practice separate from the realization and that's where my realization
that's the kind of realization we're talking about because one that there's not a practice of separate from it
his needs getting in the late if you set a shirt with bread project
comment or that short
getting closer to his afternoon you are getting close geographically and the also my mind was kind of getting close to what was happening last week
and
thing came to me it i didn't get it
as came again i can get it and then it came again three of these were coming but you weren't getting them know that that was the words they will coming i can get it to bring mutually or the word i don't get a quote as the phrase the phrase quotes i don't get it unquote yeah and a venue for life and
several times
and i just felt very
visual and neutral because of it have escaped tennessee
now let's think about the harder for those yeah it sounds like the way you were with the quotes i don't get it on caught the way you were with that
where's the inspectors he is when you've practiced with it
but it came to me rather than me i'm getting i'm going to practice i know yeah right and i
sofa yeah it was a little fun it's okay to have little from don't worry
huh