As you know, throughout this practice period and during this esheen, I brought up the Buddhist teaching about training yourself thus. He said, train yourself thus. Train yourself like this. And then he gave some instruction further. So it's a way of training yourself, but it's also a training in and leads up to the realization of dustness. So this training in dustness, this teaching of dustness, as it says in the beginning of the precious mirror samadhi, this teaching of thusness has been intimately communicated by Buddhists and ancestors.

[01:14]

So now you have it, so please take good care of it. Please study it further and more deeply. And I've been talking about the way the Buddha talks about studying and practicing thusness or suchness and using the sutra on unlocking the mysteries, unlocking the mysteries of life, unlocking the mysteries of the Buddha's teaching, unlocking the mystery of creation. of dependent core rising, unlocking the mystery of suchness. And I have really appreciated your receptivity to this teaching.

[02:17]

And I intend to continue to study and practice this teaching of the Buddha, both in a simple form that's presented in the Pali texts and also in the form presented in the Mahayana sutras. And I also, as you saw yesterday, want to look at how the Zen teachers give this teaching. So yesterday we looked at how Bodhidharma in my view, gave the same teaching, gave another little door into the same meditation on the Pentecost arising in such a way that the words don't reach it. So,

[03:20]

Although I may not go deeper into this teaching this morning, I want to tell you that's my intention, is to continue to study this wisdom teaching about suchness. The reason why I don't know if I'll go into it more is because I feel that it's appropriate to talk about something else this morning, and we'll see if there's any time left. to go back deeper into the meditation on the nature of phenomena. And what I'm referring to is that I don't know how many interviews I've had during this session, but about somewhere around between 120 and 140 interviews. And I would say maybe, maybe 50 of those interviews, I brought up the practice of patience.

[04:28]

And I told some of the people, you know, I'm seeing this and the need for the practice of patience with a lot of other people besides in your case. It seems like a practice is really up for much of the sangha right now. So this morning I want to discuss with you the practice of patience. I also mentioned that I have a few theories about why it's up so much. One reason is, in some senses, people are getting more settled. And as you get more settled, in some senses, you open up yourself more. In some sense, I think people are maybe letting go of some of their protective coating.

[05:32]

And your reward for that is to experience perhaps more irritation. that phenomena, when you give up some of your defenses, phenomena become more provocative and inflaming. So you have more to deal with. So the more you deal with successfully and settle with, you get more to deal with. The length of the practice period also tends to just both Open people up and they open up to more difficulty. But as we open up to more difficulty, we're more challenged by what's happening. So we need to, along with our opening and settling, we need to keep working on patience. I feel that even this teaching that I've been bringing up to you is to some extent irritating because it's, it offers a tremendous prospect and at the same time is difficult and subtle.

[06:57]

And, uh, uh, it's, you know, it's somewhat irritating to have something offered which is so subtle. And, uh, promising and challenging at the same time. Some things are challenging but not promising. We say, well, challenging, so what? I don't care. You're not interested. But something that you're really interested in is challenging. You need patience to work with it. So basically, I'm just saying that I think in order to go deeper into this practice, many of us have to get more comfortable. I talked about getting comfortable earlier. And the funny thing is, if you get comfortable... If you're successful at it, then you open up more, and then you tend to get uncomfortable.

[08:04]

So then you have to make yourself more deeply comfortable. And if you're successful, then you get more comes at you, and then you have to make yourself more deeply comfortable. And this is a normal process, I think, in practice. So that some of the ancestors could get comfortable under extremely painful situations, because they got so skillful, they gradually got used to anything. Got used to it means they could experience anything without freaking out and trying to find somebody to blame for life. Another thing I said at the beginning, which I'd like to say again, is that we have this place here to learn how to not turn away from life.

[09:15]

And I may not even turn towards life either, but just not turn away or towards, but simply face it. And the more you face it, the more life says, well, she's facing this okay, looks like she's okay, let's give her more. Your psyche does that. She's okay. We can tell her. So it surfaces something more to face. And if we're successful at that, it gives us more. Successful means if we face it without punishing anybody, without punishing the psyche for showing us, without punishing our body for showing us, without blaming somebody else, the psyche says, well, that worked out pretty well. Let's show her more. The main way that I practice patience and recommend, the central way, is having to do with finding the center of pain.

[10:37]

Physical pain happens in time and space. It's located in time and space in the phenomenal world. Mental pain, if it's purely mental, is only located in time. So my basic recommendation is in the midst of irritating, challenging, oppressive, painful, situations that we try to make ourselves comfortable under the circumstances. If the circumstances change, if things get more comfortable just by change, fine. But if this, in the moment of discomfort, in that moment, in that phenomenal package of discomfort, try to very much be in just that moment and not be leaning into the past or future of that pain.

[11:52]

Sit in the middle of the flames of the pain and irritation. The flames do not necessarily go away, but it's the best place to sit under any circumstances. It's hard to find the center sometimes because there's flames in your face and you can't really see where the center is. So you just have to sort of like, where, you know, where's the present of this pain? Where's the now of this pain? And it takes sometimes quite a while to find it. When you find it, you don't necessarily know it. But if you do find it and then you move away from it, then you know you found it. Because it flares up and burns you more when you move away from the center and you can feel it.

[13:03]

You don't instantly feel relieved the moment you get to the present. Sometimes you do. Sometimes as soon as you get the present, you feel much more at ease. And you say, ha! Flames all around, but they're not actually burning me. I mean, they're kind of like I can smell my hair burning, but they're not burning the skin. So, and then you'll notice when you get there that there's a whole bunch of Buddhas around you. That's where they're hanging out too. They're not running away from pain. Buddhas don't run away from pain. They don't. They're not afraid of it. They're not afraid of suffering. They don't like suffering. They just live in the middle of it. That's all. And any sentient being who's in the middle of his or her pain will find that they've entered the realm of Buddha.

[14:06]

Because that's where the Buddhas are. In the middle of pain. And when you get there, a cool breeze rises on the eyebrows, they say. I myself have had some problems, some pain. I went to the center and I find I'm convinced that's where to live. And I've seen other people go there and get relief. Even while the pain goes on, even while the sickness goes on, there's a cool spot there. You have to feel, I think, you sort of have to feel the pain now in order to find the center. If you don't feel the pain, you won't know, you'll just keep wandering forever. But if you can feel the pain, you'll figure out when you get to the center.

[15:07]

As I said, either right away or when you move away from it, if you're paying attention, you'll notice where you are. When I was a kid, we used to play this game. I don't know what the name of it was, but one of the main instructions in the game was warmer, warmer, hotter, colder, warmer, colder. You move around the room trying to find this thing, and they tell you warmer, colder. Did you ever play that game? That's how you find the center of the paint. Sort of. Kind of like that, except sometimes it's hotter on the way to cooler. That's part of the problem. Pain is to make yourself comfortable and calm and to help yourself be comfortable and calm, to find comfort and calm in the middle of sickness and pain.

[16:09]

Pain is not only, I mean, patience is not only a way to be comfortable under our difficult circumstances, but it also has many other benefits. One of them is that the energy which we usually expend in trying to figure out who to blame for this, and trying to get away from it, and resisting it, and trying to push it away, and so on, that energy... which is spent fighting our discomfort, is no longer being spent to fight the discomfort. So you're sitting there and all that energy of resistance is now available for something else. When you're in pain, you don't particularly want to do anything good.

[17:17]

You just want to get rid of the pain if you're not practicing patience. And you do put energy into just wanting. But when you're at the center, all that life energy then gradually becomes available to you and you start to want to do something. Enthusiasm sprouts up at the center of the practice of patience. you start to think that you would like to do some of the good things which you didn't want to do when you were fighting the pain. You didn't want to do it because you didn't have any energy because you were fighting it. And also, you're angry, so you're angry at the good things too, somewhat. Matter of fact, maybe the good things is what you really were most angry at. In the early days of Zen Center during Sashin, one Zen student sitting in Sashin, he thought, oh, this is the Japanese revenge for World War II.

[18:34]

They sent these Zen teachers over here to torture us. And that cute little Suzuki Roshi, he just created this torture chamber and sucked us in here, and now... Fortunately, no one hurt him. He had some big, strong disciples, but they didn't hurt him for this torture chamber which they thought he set up. In one of my early lectures that I attended, which was given by Suzuki Roshi, I was sitting cross-legged and, you know, I'm heartened by the fact that he gave long lectures. Like sometimes an hour and 45 minutes. That was a long one. So you give a lecture and then it'd be question and answer. So during question and answer, I was sitting in pain and I said to him, is the way Zen masters suffer the same or different from the way the students suffer?

[19:51]

And he said, the same. I don't know if that was true or just he wanted to say what I wanted him to say, but he said what I wanted him to say. I think, you know, maybe it is just the same, but maybe they practice patience with more skill. That may be the difference. Same pain, though. I don't know which is the first step. Make yourself comfortable and then face life. Make yourself comfortable and then don't turn away. Or don't turn away and then make yourself comfortable. I think maybe it's, first of all, the Bodhisattva practice is, don't turn away, then make yourself comfortable. Because some people are comfortable and then they say, okay, that's it, just I'm going to stay comfortable. Anyway, don't turn away from your life and then make yourself comfortable. Do nice things for yourself, that's also part of patience.

[20:52]

Bring a sucker to the Zendo. You know, don't necessarily, like, be sucking on it, but just have it right there. You can reach in and touch it sometimes during keen heat. If I wanted to, I could suck this. That's nice. This is a dog biscuit. You know? If I wanted to, I could give this to Rozzy. That would be nice. I've got a whole bunch of things here, nice things I could do for myself. Anytime I want to, I can make myself comfortable. I know how to make myself comfortable. If things get tough, I'm going to make myself comfortable. I'm not going to run away from difficulty, but when it comes, I'm going to stay and I'm going to take care of myself. I'm definitely going to take care of myself. And also, bodhisattva, if you're in trouble, bodhisattva will go where you are and help you too.

[21:55]

They're not afraid to go into your fire. And in this sutra, the Samadhi Nirmocana Sutra, it says, you know, some people, some of my disciples, seek the tranquility of sainthood. That's what the Buddha said. But those people cannot sit on the seat of enlightenment and attain unsurpassed awakening. They can't sit there because they are afraid of of pain and their compassion is slight. In order to sit on the seat of enlightenment, you have to practice patience. So that's one of the sort of nice byproducts of patience is you get to sit on the seat of enlightenment. Without patience, you can't sit there because you're afraid of pain. And without patience, you can't have great compassion because you can't open up to it, the pain.

[22:59]

When you open up to the pain and don't run away from it, you naturally become compassionate. You know? Naturally. Because you see, this is tough. And what about these other people who You know, compassion arises in that place at the center of the flames. All the Buddhas around you, compassion is arising out of them. It comes up out of you. And you're not afraid. So you can sit on the seat. And guess where the seat is? It's right there. In the middle of the world of pain. With all the varieties of pain orbiting around you. That's where we sit to attain great enlightenment. There are some suburbs where you can find some peace, but enlightenment doesn't happen there. Don't lean to the right.

[24:04]

Don't lean to the left. In time or space. Don't think how long you've been being tortured. Don't think about how long you're going to be tortured. You can handle this moment. If you can't, you'll faint. Don't worry. If you can stay awake in this pain, that's because you can stay awake in this pain. If you can't, then we have to find some way to make you comfortable so you can. Every irritation that comes is an opportunity to practice patience. The oyster can't make a pearl without some irritation, some piece of sand or broken glass touching their very, very sensitive tissue.

[25:15]

We cannot make enlightenment, the jewel of enlightenment cannot be made in our heart. There's no irritation pressing on our raw senses. If you're irritable, you're lucky. You have there the seed of enlightenment. You need to then bring patience to it and then there'll be compassion with that irritation and you can sit on the seat Patience is the primary condition for enlightenment. So, many people here are up against it now. It's getting hard in various ways. You're getting irritated at various times, by various phenomena, are irritating you, are oppressing you, are hurting you.

[26:17]

Now, let's deepen our patience practice and realize that it's a Sangha-wide event. Everybody needs to. Some people it's like really urgent. Other people it's urgent too, but they're already into it. Some people are kind of surprised, but they have to do it. But already people are starting and some success is occurring. Already some people have come and told me, boy, it really made a big difference when I saw That when I was thinking of the long history of my suffering in this way, that my long history of struggling with this negativity, that when I thought of that, it really did make it harder. And when I put it aside, it really was easier just to set it aside. We have enough problems now, most of us. Now, if somebody doesn't have any problems, and you used to have them, then maybe you should think of them. it up.

[27:20]

If your present life isn't challenging at all, then let me know and I'll say, well, didn't you have some problem back in... It's a special little trick that we can do. Okay, so we need to practice patience with our irritation. If you've got some irritation, you can practice it. If you don't have any, come on. You know, hand over your drugs. You know, what are you doing? What are you doing? You know, what is it? You know, what did you smuggle in here? What did you discover here? What is it that you're using to distract yourself? Now, some people's drug is thinking of somebody cute. It's a good drug. You know, some cute people, just think about them. That's a good drug.

[28:21]

For a while, anyway, it doesn't work indefinitely, but just think about them. It'll take you away from your suffering for a little while. Some people are good at that. That's their drug. And I know some drug addicts who, when they come off drugs, that they start thinking about sex. That's their, you know, what they call transitional addictions. So, but fortunately, most people here, their addictions are starting to break down. And they're less and less able to turn away from their ordinary life. That's good. But anybody who doesn't have any problems, come on. Join the rest of us. Please. Please. It's for all of our benefit if we just open up to life. Now, of course, if you're completely enlightened and you open up to life, it's different.

[29:24]

But, you know, then your suffering would be ours. So come on. So that patience will help you settle and become comfortable with your difficulties. with the difficulties of this training and then you can start opening up to the difficulties of studying what's happening which is in some ways more irritating to like really like look and you know to look at what's happening can be quite irritating so or to listen to somebody talking about emptiness and different kinds of essencelessness and tell you, you better understand this in 10 minutes. This kind of stuff can be very irritating too. But although it may not be as irritating, you have to be even more quiet and more calm and more present to follow it.

[30:26]

So you have to have extra patience so you can stay steady through this challenging teaching. So, again, I'm bringing this up because it really does seem to be necessary just to have a decent life here, but also it's necessary to take deeper steps into studying the teachings of wisdom. And one other example of this, or another dimension of this, is someone had a headache, and I hope I'm not telling too much. This person worked in the kitchen. And... He was cutting vegetables, and he was concentrating on cutting vegetables, which felt pretty good. But he wasn't paying attention to the headache. She said, is that right? And I said, well, no, really. It's better to first go to the center of the headache than to go to concentration before you face the headache.

[31:38]

Because if you try to concentrate before you face the pain, the concentration might be a distraction from the pain. And if you're trying to distract yourself from the pain by the concentration, the concentration won't develop very well. you're postponing your time for the patient's practice. And eventually, the lack of taking care of this pain will, you know, erode or just take away your concentration. Your concentration will collapse. Your concentration will collapse if you don't sit in the middle of the pain that's going alongside of it. Now, on the other hand, if you first face your difficulties, okay, just because they're there, Then your energy comes up, which is there. You have energy. You are alive. Your energy comes up, and then you want to concentrate on cutting vegetables.

[32:42]

And then when you start concentration, the concentration is because you want to, not because you want to just because you want to do it because it's good, not because you're trying to distract yourself from your pain. And that concentration won't collapse because it's fueled by natural energy out of your life. It's not fueled by trying to escape. So patience, energy, enthusiasm, then concentration. That's a stable practice constellation. You do have to keep eating now. The thing does run on carbohydrates and so on. So keep eating. That will supply you with enough energy. And then when you're concentrated, well, then naturally you're ready to look at what's happening and understand the, you know, thoroughly established character of carrots. So, let's see.

[33:53]

Now it's 10... Now, there's two ways to go now. We could have questions, or I could go a little bit more into the teaching that I was doing before. Open that up a little bit more. Or I can do that later. Get some class or something next week. So, do you have any sense of which way to go? Do you want to open up for questions now, or do you want me to go a little bit more into the teaching? Huh? What? A little bit more teaching? Okay. Well, I want to say that someone helped sponsor this next phase of the program, and that is our... I'm not going to say his or her name because I didn't ask her beforehand, but later we may announce the sponsor. Well, there's two sponsors. One of the persons is a regular matriculated student, Of the practice period, the other sponsor is Dogen Zenji.

[35:00]

And the other sponsor is Buddha. With these sponsors we have now the image from the Genjo Koan. First of all, the teaching and then the image. The teaching is when the Dharma does not fill your body and mind, you think it's sufficient. In other words, you think your understanding of what's going on is sufficient. When the dharma does fill your body and mind, you understand something's missing. Okay? That applies to the three characteristics of all phenomena. When you're having a phenomenal experience and the Dharma doesn't fill your body and mind, you think that your understanding of what's going on is sufficient. You know, like that Brooks, you know, nice guy, blah, blah, that's sufficient.

[36:03]

Got him down, okay, there's David, and so on. When the Dharma doesn't fill my body and mind, I think that what I think they are is pretty much a pretty good idea, you know? I know, I've studied, you know, I've known them for a while, right? I know these guys. I got them down. I studied them for, you know, 627 hours. I know them. But if I studied them 6 million hours, and the Dharma fills me more fully, I realize something's missing. When you study a little, you think that your mental imputation about what's happening, that pretty much characterizes it. But when you study more, you realize something's missing. What's missing? Creation of the universe. Dependent core rising is missing. I can't see that. I look at a person, but I can't see the dependent core rising. Something's missing.

[37:05]

But when I feel the something missing, I feel good because now I know the truth. Something's missing. Now I know that there's something besides what I think is going on that's going on, namely Dharma. It's missing from my perspective, but I feel it. I intuit it. I'm encouraged by it. And I realize that this person or this whatever it is, is my access to the infinite interdependence of creation. But it's missing from my perspective. Feeling that, I'm touched by suchness and released from the misery of thinking That what I think or what I see or what I touch in terms of my imputation, which is necessary for this to happen, that's enough. So then the image, the wonderful image of going out in the middle of the ocean and you look around, there's no islands or anything.

[38:13]

It looks like the ocean looks like a circle of water. Now what most people do, believe it or not, is they actually think that the circle of water is the ocean, or that the ocean is a circle of water. I mean, not in the ocean, but in our daily life, that's what we think, that's our habit. And the relationship between the circle of water, which is our only way to experience the ocean at that time, We have no other way. We can't not experience it that way. That is the way we experience it. We shouldn't try to experience it another way. I mean, it's okay if you do, but you could sit out there and say, well, actually, I kind of see that over at the edge there there's some kind of not-circular stuff, like there's Japan. In fact, the way you're experiencing it is a circle of water. Face it. But that's not really the...

[39:18]

the totally established story of your experience. And the way that circle of water is, is because it's surrounded by an ocean. It wouldn't be like that if there wasn't an ocean around it. The circle of water would be different. It wouldn't have those currents in it. It couldn't build up such big waves if it was the same size that you see it. Although what you see is all you can see, still what you see could not be that way if things were all you see. So you realize, you're in the ocean, you realize something's missing here. In other words, there is more to the ocean than this. So we know beforehand on the ocean that there's more to the ocean than we see because we pass through it.

[40:25]

But with people and with our own feelings, we sometimes forget this. This is what's called thinking that what we see is sufficient or strongly adhering to the appearance as what's happening. strongly adhering to that the circle of water is the ocean. If you stay out in that water long enough and keep studying the water, you will understand the rest of the ocean. You will see by the way the waves are in the circle of water that there must be some great, wondrous events surrounding the circle of water. Otherwise, there couldn't be waves like this. And where did this whale come from? And then where did it go? Circles of water cannot hold, this little circle of water cannot support one whale or even, not to mention a troop of whales.

[41:32]

Must be bigger than I can see. And the whale comes and says, beep, beep. No matter what you do, that's all you're going to see because You can't have an experience without rendering the ocean into a circle of water. You can't. If you could see the whole ocean, it would just be a circle of water. You say, well, what about if you get up, you know, above the earth? Look down. You're still seeing a circle of water. There's no way to avoid it. We have to use this limited thing, mental imputation, to make what's, excuse the expression, infinite into something conceptual. Otherwise we do not have phenomenal life as a human being.

[42:35]

That's our phenomenal world. We swim in that one. And then if you think about the other part of Genjo Kwan, if a fish swim in the water, and no matter how far they swim, they never run out of water. And if they leave the water, they die at once. We swim in mental imputation. And no matter how far we swim, We never run out of mental imputation. If you try to leave mental imputation, you'll die at once. No experience. Mental imputation is life to us. That's our life. But it's not the whole of our life.

[43:41]

But if you try to even leave part of your life, you'll die at once. Okay, is that kind of clear? That's the way I see it. Nice parallels, so I thank my sponsors for that. Yes, Max? I don't understand why an online doesn't exist without communication. Like if you're not doing that, then it's still... Like you said, the clock, when you talk to someone, you don't hear it, but it's still clicking.

[44:56]

Is it? Well, then it is for you. So then you make it tick. No, if you don't hear it, it's not ticking. I have no idea. I mean, I could have an idea. I could say it's ticking, but then as soon as I think it's ticking, am I actually hearing it? And if I'm not, then it might have stopped. But if I go in and I listen to it and I hear it ticking, then it's ticking for me. But I could be right next to you and it's not ticking for you. So for you, it's not a phenomenon. You're listening to a conversation you're having. We're both in the same room. I'm listening to the clock. I'm hearing it tick. You're listening to Sarah talk. You don't hear it tick. For you, it's not a phenomenon. Now, if I don't hear it ticking either, and then you and I start talking, and we say, I wonder if the clock's ticking.

[46:03]

Then we can both stop talking to each other and listen. If it's ticking, it's ticking. But if it's not ticking, I mean, if we don't hear it ticking, and nobody hears it ticking, then who's going to say it's ticking? We clocks, ladies and gentlemen, do not tick. Unless there's a person there. They don't. That's not what they do. But when they get in touch with people, sometimes people say, the clock ticks. The clock doesn't say, I tick. The clock doesn't say, yeah. Unless it's a special clock that has a little yeah thing on it. The universe does not come in the packages that we experience it. Rosie doesn't think the clock ticks. Fish do not think the clock ticks. But Rosie hears the clock.

[47:06]

You have a phenomenal experience that Rousey hears the clock. Okay? That's what you have. You don't know what Rousey's doing. You just know your experience of Rousey. You don't even know. Even if I say the clock's ticking, you don't know what I mean. I might be lying. I might not be able to hear it. You might call me on the telephone. Is the clock ticking? I say, uh-huh. And you say, I can't hear it. I was lying, sorry. We're living in a circle of water, you know. We live in a circle of water. That's not the ocean. But it is what we think is happening. We think the circle of water. We do think it's ticking. And then we don't think it's ticking. And then we do think it's ticking.

[48:11]

a circle of water and sitting in the middle of the pain. Sitting in the middle of the circle of water of pain. If you like. I do. This monastery is a circle of water. I'll put this to you. Somebody joins this monastery and Virtually from the beginning, it doesn't turn up to any Zedno events. It doesn't turn up to any Dara talks. And if they turn up for meals, because as you say, it runs on carbohydrates anyway, takes the food, doesn't engage with anyone, goes back to their room, and goes on like this indefinitely. Now, in my experience of the generosity of this monastery, there will be a time when the superiors, the practice committee, whoever will allow that situation.

[49:34]

I've seen that happen. The generosity expresses itself in that way in this institution. However, if we sit with this kind of pain, and because we are a community, that pain gradually communicates itself to others. There must come a point where the decision has to be made. Taking our point about being made comfortable, if the monastery is to make itself comfortable in order to deal with this situation, then it may be necessary to ask this person to read. They will ask them to leave, not on the basis of anger. If anger has existed, it's perhaps inevitable. But surely, on the basis of where we are, there comes a time we're simply sitting with pain in that way.

[50:40]

We're making ourselves comfortable. Whoops, whoops, whoops. There you fell off the path, right there. You have to sit in the middle of pain. There's no alternative. Otherwise you get angry. So what does the master do then? Well, watch and see. Watch and see. What does the Buddha do? Sometimes the Buddha tells the person to leave. Then sometimes the person doesn't leave. And the Buddha said, well, I told you to leave. The Buddha said, I'm not leaving. The Buddha said, okay. A lot of times the Buddha said, you're not going to leave, I'll leave. Sometimes the Buddha said, we need this person here. We need one person like this for the rest of the monks. Let's keep this person. I want everybody to see what happens when somebody doesn't follow the schedule. Look, see? You're all happy. She's miserable. I'll keep this one.

[51:42]

What the Buddha will do from the position of sitting in the middle of Cain... being enthusiastic about practicing good, being concentrated and wise, what the Buddha will do, there's only one way to find out what the Buddha will do. Look at the Buddha, see what the Buddha does. Or, be the Buddha yourself. And then you may find out, then you'll see what you'll do with the person who's responding to the discipline in the way you described. What you will do, by the way, will be beautiful, beneficial, and an encouragement to all beings. It will awaken the recalcitrant and the non-recalcitrant. It is a blessing to past, present, and future generations. It is just simply wisdom and compassion and skill and needs. But what it will be, who knows? The Buddha may say, everybody else leaves the monastery, let's just leave this guy here. You know?

[52:45]

Just all kinds of wonderful things can happen. I might say, let's have a feast. Who knows what they'll say? But you're right, they will respond, there will be a response. It isn't that they just sit there, it's that that sitting in the middle of pain will blossom into great teaching for this person and for the rest of the community. How the Buddha responds to the so-called bad monk is a great teaching. How the Buddha responds to a good monk is a great teaching. I can remember this one story. I think it was a Zen monastery. This monk said, went to the teacher and said, the monks' bowls are disappearing. Something seems to be taking the bowls away from the monks. And the teacher said, well, do a search and see if you can find out where the bowls are.

[53:46]

So they did a search, and they found this one monk, for some reason, had taken most of the bowls from most of the other monks and had them in his room. So the teacher said, gather all the monks and tell them to get all their possessions together. So they all went to this guy's room, and they put all their possessions in his room. That's what one teacher did. Some other teachers kicked monks out for the slightest infraction. Slightest infraction, like that one great story of the head cook, you know. The teacher was out of town and the monks were hungry and the head cook went into the storehouse that he wasn't supposed to go into and took some special ingredients for the food to put it into the monks' food because they were sick. some essence of ginger or something.

[54:48]

Teacher came back and said, somebody had been tampering with the storeroom? The head cook said, yeah, I did. I gave the monks the special stuff. He said, you did? Out. Out. For that act of kindness, you violated the rules? Out. That's what it can look like, too. And that, for me, that was a great teaching, hundreds of years later. And then the way the monk responded was a great teaching, too. He didn't complain, he just left. And so on. It's a wonderful story between the two of them. It helped, anyway, it produced this wonderful response in the student. The student woke up by being related to by the teacher in that way. That's the whole point. Right?

[55:51]

Isn't that what they want to do? They don't want to look good. They want to wake people up. And hopefully they have the compassion to want to wake them up and the wisdom to know the response that's appropriate for this person to help them do the practice that's appropriate for them. Patience or whatever. Yes, Martin? When you said earlier, bring a sucker to the zendo, I said you were talking about me at last. I wondered who had my suckers. The three characteristics of phenomena. When trying to separate... made it easy, number one and two, but implicate meaning and panachlorizing in order that suchness may appear. Yes. I got the impression that I could do it with a patch of grass, just with a patch of grass, with the greenness and the panachlorizing, but I had a feeling that if I was able to actually

[57:03]

I agree. That's what it would be. He would tap into the suchness of all phenomena. Because this suchness is called the thoroughly established. In other words, it's established throughout the world. So that's what, and that's some stories like that, right? The monk looks at a blade of grass and understands. The monk hears a pebble hit a bamboo and understands. He doesn't just understand that. He understands the whole thing about his practice. He understands his mind. And your mind, and Buddha's mind, and all minds. But there's one thing you said, and it isn't that you separate them, okay?

[58:10]

They are already separated. That is a thoroughly established suchness. You don't have to separate them. They are already separated. It is that we understand, we see the separation. That's the point. It's already there. Phenomena come with this nirvanic separation. They come with that. That's the way they come. Everyone that's ever delivered to you brings the full-scale Buddha Dharma with it. It brings the history of delusion and it brings the fact of nirvana. You don't have to make nirvana, you have to see nirvana. It's already there, in this teaching anyway. And when you see it in a blade of grass, then you look up and you see it in the blue jays. and you see it in your enemy who is still your enemy but you see you know you see so maybe we can stop since the kitchen is leaving and it's kind of late anyway and we'll have more classes and things and let me know if you want to go deeper into this awesomely subtle sutra

[59:29]

I'm going in there. Look for me there too. I don't know if you want to do it. So the next class, we can make a plan of where to go next in our studies. And I sense, you know, that things are getting difficult. new kinds of difficulties are coming you've gotten through some old difficulties early difficulties and now you're moving into a new phase a new variety a new landscape of difficulty so I bring up the practice of patience but I also want to say that I'm really I'm really encouraged by your practice I mean I think you guys are doing really great so far I'm really happy to be practicing with you here.

[60:32]

I don't feel like I'm wasting my time being here with these people. I'm honored to practice with you, so please keep up the good work. May our intention be great.

[60:52]

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