huh once again
tuning in to this series of meetings there was a kind of
title for this meditation course called enlightenment and delusion or something like that
and then there was a further comment that we will look at the dance of enlightenment
and delusion
so in one sense you might think enlightenment or thing which are i might think enlightenment a thing that dances with delusion
but another way is perhaps that the dance with delusion is enlightenment
so the like lightman not something in addition
do the dance with delusion
or
dancing with delusion the way of being with delusion
in a kind of dancing way
his enlightenment you could say with delusion enlightenment in the midst of delusion
ah sometimes we might say that in enlightenment in the midst of delusion is buddha's his buddha
sometimes might say that those who are enlightened in the midst of delusion our borders
it seemed a little bit more intimate is to say
being enlightened in the midst of delusion is buddha
another way to say it is dancing
with delusion
he's buddhist
how this kind of enlightenment particular seems particularly appropriate for all called body surface though isn't a path to buddhahood
and that's a little bit of potential confusion in the
history of the tradition a buddha dharma
and it come from statements like so and so had a great enlightenment experience
as though enlightenment or something that
what happened to somebody or
or that enlightenment is somebody's experience
and tonight i kind of feel like those kinds of got kind of language is referring to when somebody wakes up
and seized the dance
they know they would they didn't see the dance before they saw delusion kind of
we all see delusion but most of us don't know his delusion
but they saw they solved they saw what most of a c namely delusion and they knew was delusion and then they woke up to that there was a dance going on
splish splash that was taken a bath come around saturday night
there was a party going on i awoke to the party
i didn't realize before
but then we also have the statement that that which can be met with recognition is not realization itself
so if someone wakes up and sees the dance
with delusion sees the world of delusion with all diluted people are just one diluted person or just one delusion but that they wake up and see there's a party going on
there's a dance here
this is this delusions not all by itself it has a partner
and his partner
is the dance
sometimes people wake up to that have an experience of that
they recognize it which than is a big deal however that that the thing are seeing is not the realization itself and the seeing is not the realization of self the realization
is there
and they're recognizing it but the recognition is not the realization you can see people dancing
but what you see is not the dance
you're very happy sometimes to see people dancing or even see yourself dancing but seeing yourself dancing seeing somebody else dancing
that's not dancing
dancing is not the same as recognizing dancing however sometimes when people are dancing they sometimes think i think i'm dancing
my god it's happening
another way to say this which sometimes is offered his
a great understanding of delusion
her great understanding in the midst of delusion
but again to me it seems now that
that the great understanding is not that your cylinders understanding delusion
but that you're dancing with it
it's not that you look at somebody and say i understand you and i understand my relationship with you you can actually acted out other than just set i actually you you you're saying of it could be the dance
but this actually more of an activity
this enlightenment
the understand he's more of an activity with delusion it doesn't eliminate delusion it is a way of being with delusion and being what delusion in that way liberate delusion
being with sentient beings in this way liberates the sentient beings
and bodhisattvas are sentient beings
still see delusion they still see sentient beings but they plunged into the relationship more and more wholeheartedly until all there is if the dance with delusion

and again it could happen to sentient beings that they wake up to the dance and they see the dance and they recognized dance which is doesn't hurt usually or it can hurt but
it can be part of the process of dancing is to be aware that you're dancing but some again i think probably that in the greatest dance performances the dancers are not thinking that they're dancing
and even when we're watching a great dance performance
ah i think sometimes we do not think they're dancing
we don't even think they're good
you know we could but i think when really watching and we were really with them that they don't think they're dancing and we don't think this is amazing
later we might think that was amazing i'm glad i was here for that moment when i start thinking about dancing and beauty and just
the dancer was there and i was there and that was it
i kind of wish i could have been there to say how good it was but i wasn't
huh
so in that sense where we don't eliminate delusion but when we dance in the whole hearted dance with delusion there's no delusion
it's not that it's eliminated its that we realize that it's not actually there the way things are usually they're so the way we usually perceive things
is that they're they're kind of by themselves now we know they have relationships but they look kind of like they're standing there
by themselves and even if we see little filaments connected between them and everybody else
we still probably think the little film months are standing by themselves it just the way we see with with as delusion
and at perception perception usually as we make the universe into little graspable objects
it's not wrong that this is charlie is not that's not that's not the delusion that delusions at charlie's out there separate from rab and tracy
and friend
it looks that way before i do any practice with it it just comes that way that things seem to be out there kind of on their own i know it's not true but that's the way they look
and let's not miss prospect that as love that let's dance with that
let's find the dance with these with his delusions and there's an infinite variety of them some of them are really crazy
and some are just ordinary things like a person
hi i just want to briefly mention the word could spear
se which i'm i may come back to later
before the surf before the series is over but i just love this expression i read in this novel called bleak house
where this lovely young lady named esther summer sun says
blah blah the general conspiracy
to keep me in good humor
she seized as general conspiracy in this world of diversion to keep her and good few humor and she is
very deeply touched by the great kindness that is you know of this conspiracy
and i would maybe later talk about some other kinds of conspiracies
but before i do i wanted to talk about something that someone gave some feedback someone gave me
and the feedback was i have a problem with bowing
and
he in this a practice set up some people are practicing bowing in some other people aren't
bombing is one of the ways
boeing is a delusion and boeing is a way to dance with delusion is bought a delusion in the sense that when we think boeing about out there separate from us or that's about that's not a bow and there's a renew the bawling and the not buying are independent of each other bodies and lose
yeah but also bowing is that is a means by which to practice dancing with delusion
it's a tradition of form
to learn to be enlightened
it's a traditional form to learn how to be with delusions of like nine my body and your body
to be with my body in your body or my body and buddha's body to be with those delusions
the delusion of my body and delusions a buddha to be with those delusions in such a way to cut through the delusion
deliberate the delusion of my body and your body

satellite to talk about this dance since he's been practiced here
now we also have the way has been practiced here is that a number of people when they come to their place of sitting they bought their place and then they turn some is some according to the traditional zen method they turned clockwise
and then a bow wait in the other direction from their seat
saw the the one way to understand this is many ways to understand this but one way to understand it which i recommend to you is that when your body your place
your bowing to the place of enlightenment
ha
in the chinese characters for this place that you sit ah ah are pronounced in japanese anyway dojo which means
a way place or place for the way and the way also means the word way or dow also means enlightenment in the buddhist tradition so it's an enlightenment place
or in sanskrit it's the body mandela or body munda the place that we said
is the place of enlightenment
in the yoga room
there is a number of places were different people sit in each place
is a place of enlightenment
each places a body manda
a dojo
so he bow
we pay our respects we pay homage to the place of enlightenment or this place of enlightenment is the place where each of us sit it's a place for each of us
be ourselves
it's a place where each of us are trying to completely to be who we are at the moment
it's in other words
it's a place where we are
trying to enter into not moving
so as i mentioned before
for you to be yourself is not moving
for you to be yourself as stillness and in the stillness of you being yourself is where enlightenment lives and now that it is enlightenment enlightenment is
the nature of you being you your nature your sentient being nature the condition of you being you is enlightenment
and for you to
except that and be still with that
are actually food accept that is to bestow with it and for you to be still with it is enlightenment for you to be willing to be yourself is enlightenment which again is the same as for you to be dancing with yourself
version of yourself
and the place where you'd do that is the place of enlightenment and wherever you are if the place of enlightenment
if you're practicing being yourself where you are
and where you are of course you're not moving in a place you are you can move away from the place you are can distract yourself in the place you are and be in another place and you can distract yourself from that place but actually where are you are
and the fact of you being the way you are is what is meant by body and that's big still so we venerate the place
by bowing to it when we set traditionally and then we turn clockwise and bow wave and that bow is to everybody else is to it's about the buddha's
and it's about to all bodhisattvas and it's about to all sentient beings so that's one way to understand as by
did the seat and balling away
it's also you know it's it's we don't usually do it but
we sometimes do do it then instead of didn't we do a full prostration to the place we're gonna sit
if there was little crowded in the ogre and to do that maybe a little bit too radical for the yoga room to do that but in your own home you could do a full prostration to the place you set
because again the place she said place you awaken the place to practice being yourself is that if you bought their place you're also buying to buddha because buddha is
the dance of you with yourself
so you can do a full prostration to the place you sit at home if there's room
and then dive into that place
now the word body sad for
is often translated as
enlightening being body means enlightenment or enlightening and sought for being so enlightenment being or a being
who's essences enlightenment that's reasonable translation but today i like to bring up to another translation of the saatva part sought that can mean being but in the context of bodhi sought but could also be translated as hero or heroine
and the tibetans actually translate body sought for from sanskrit into tibetan as
enlightenment mind hero
what's the heroic part to heroic part is
being yourself
that's the most heroic thing to do
which means living in the midst of all the things
that are happening to you
the have the courage and the heroic spirit which is going to be ourselves
that's the body saatva who lives in her place
eventually all day long
so i sent she's every moment is bowing to the play she is her feeling is full prostration to the place years
so again usually we slipped back into feeling separate from others
or philly separate from buddhas
or even identifying with others
as part of our feeling separate
identification is
is a delusion
we're not to put the same as other people
so there's a traditional verse when boeing
for example by to a buddha or bodhisattva nutritional vs
person bowing person bow to
are literally the activity of boeing
and the receiving of the boeing
so it actually has a true character the word for boeing and and has in chinese character for boeing and then an active marker and then the character for boeing and a passive marker
so that which is bowing
and that which is bound to
or the act of boeing and the receiving of the bali
or sentient being and buddha
if i'm bound your buddha
their nature is the same
they may know nature
their nature is to be themselves and being ourselves we become free of ourselves so person bowing person bound to act of buying or that which is bowing in that which is bound to
their nature no nature
so again this this dance or bowing to somebody about to somebody a person a statue but also bowing to a practice
i bound to it you bought to the practice of sitting by bowing to the place of sitting you actually dancing with you're sitting place like contango you know you kind of like look across the room in mechanical
kind a bow and shin she looks away because she doesn't want dance with you
or you are you look at our in chicago chicago's
it started moving towards you
he doesn't have to dance with you
she she has her ways to avoid it if she doesn't want to
so you can about to or you can
so
same with you're sitting you bowed you're sitting place bow to enlightenment
and the nature of that which is bowing in that which is bound to have this the same nature my body other bodies next line is my body other bodies not to
plunge now i plunge into the inconceivable wow
and live
the life of enlightenment
so this this dance or boeing is
is to cut through the sense of
op separation which is part of the reason why some people have trouble with boeing is because ah
they have a feeling like they're bowing to something other than themselves or that putting something on a pedestal
putting things on pedestals is another dance is another delusion
can i do into delusion of putting something up on a pedestal at a delusion but can you dance with the delusion of putting something on a pedestal
i'm putting something down we recommend not putting anything down
don't put anything below you don't put anything down
just put things up
and then dance with that don't put it up and attached to it
dance with
put it up and say
may i dance with you put her up me i dance with you put him up may i danced with you
and as she says no hey
okay wait
and ask again eventually she'll say yes
when she says you're practicing dancing
when she realizes that you accept an honor her rejection of you
so this this way of real
lead to a statue or a teacher where the buddha again as the same way we relate to ah the dharma same way relate to the saga same the community and the same way relate to all the practices we we
practices and but then dance with them not venerate them and solidify them venerate them and dance with them
so that the to realize that their insubstantial be devoted to them to in order to realize their in substantial
be devoted to them in order to not cling to them
be devoted to your dance partner
in order to realize the dance not in order to get control of your partner
but it is not in control and divert diluted beings
diluted beings are the ones who are trying to control diluted bags
and buddha is not trying to stop diluted beings from trying to control themselves and others
if we could stop them would boot stop them maybe so but put it understands that she cannot stop them so what she does is she joins them
she joins them in controlling
by dancing with the controlling impulse

if somebody has problem with boeing
the body starts for bows to the person's trouble having bowing
the bodhisattva venerates
sentient beings who had trouble venerating central banks
the bodhisattva venerates
the body talk for plays with those who do not want to play some kinds of games like to good as
if someone is not playful if someone is bound to the buddha but not playful but they're bowing
but you know they're really they're really boeing but they're not playful about the bodhisattva comes and teaches them how to play
in the buying process if somebody is refusing about a buddha refusing about bodhisattvas refusing to honor teachers than the body set comes in place teaches them how to play in refusing to bow
and when i propose that when you start to become playful with your refusal to bow
you were bow
you will be so grateful to be not caught by your refusal
de bow that you will by
to express your gratitude for freedom from your resistance to boeing
and those who who are resisting bowing by pub by bowing on playfully so i'm suggesting if you're practicing bowing on playfully you're really resisting the bow said makes sense
if you're rigidly
if you're coercing yourself into bow
get another is not being playful with a bow you're really resisting the ball
i'm composing an order to actually bow with no resistance
you have to be playing with it or dancing with it
and if you if if i were able if i was if i was resisting the bar even though i did many bows
you know over the years
in this lifetime i've done quite a few bows
now
if i wasn't being playful but then i started to be playful than i think i would bow in express my gratitude and finally being able to be playful at this thing i've been doing for all these years on playfully
and even if you get a free of your non playful and dancing way of boeing and you're overwhelmed with joy and freedom and gratitude for finally bowing in a playful way
a moment later you can lose it
and the uptight about it again
not every lose the playfulness lose the dance and make the bow into another separate delusion which you have not been playful with because it was so great this is too great to be playful with this realization is to wonderful
to be relaxed about and to dance with
this dance was so great forget to dance i want to possess it
you're a great dance partner this was wonderful and now i want to own you
normal sentient being
delusion
what is that becomes again to be playful with the one who has become possessive of their wonderful friend
and the wonderfulness of their friend was revealed to them when they weren't possessive of their friend and when they became possessed of other friend they lost touch with how wonderful they remembered it was wonderful but the person is no longer wonderful
because
a delusion
i've had enough of wonder now it's like get hold of the wonderful

so here's a this is a particular
that's that
we can practice

ha i think that i have another wonderful
topic to talk to about but i to do it next week and the topic is
hum
political life
on the north american continent
and the struggle in the last
two hundred and
fifty years or so
over
ah
the natural rights of human beings
in in north america
in a place which now come to be called united states of america
so i'd like to talk to you about that as another exercise in dancing with delusion and the wonderful prospect of our bodhisattvas can help
with the american with the american battle the american fight over
what you got
the right to life
i'll get back can stop there and bring it up next week
also i did some calligraphy for you
and the calligraphy isn't isn't isn't a chinese and i'll do it an english to if i can but the the cook if he says
the condition of
a sentient being
is precisely enlightenment or a sentient being being a sentient being is exactly itself
bodhi
and
ah i have an old dilemma in situations like this in one sense i just wanted to say that to you
in our sense i don't want
you know take credit for it or anything
but i don't want to also i don't want to tell you this is from a my on a surgery or that's why it's true
i'm only telling you that is from my honor cetera so that i don't take credit for it but i'm not telling you that to get you to believe it
let's just say i said it to some guy set it to you
am and he and he didn't and somebody told him about it i didn't think of about myself actually
i think we all have a glimmering that that might be so but to really sing it to the highest hill that's a different thing
or sing it from the highest hill to the government golden daffodils
any
in m invitations you like to offer
and rica

hey would you say it again

and if anything can be substituted now
anything
could be an opportunity
to ah
dance with anything could be anything could be danced with every the horace per say everything is inviting you to dance
any situation is inviting you to dance with it every every situation is inviting you to enlightenment
which is the way of being with the situation which is being playful unattached and wholehearted with it

where

you will work
k

did you say a vanity
what is vanity
yeah i don't mean
absolutely perfect absolutely perfect
absolutely perfect but you missed it
you missed it it was absolutely perfect he thought it was a conflict
so
that's it right there is perfect that we're always concerned with were always involved in vanities
and
but we resist that were totally involved in vanities

yeah yeah part of me wants to have it all figured out that's essential being
i think that's an example of a sentient being and the person who wants to have it all figured out
it would be good if that person would basically turn around and be that person
who wants to have it all figured out
and that would be like being very low be super vain
pure better be pure vanity and that's the path to the truth is to be the person who wants to figure out what's the best vanity and i am suggesting because of of because of the ancestors i'm suggesting
at the that
the path the truth his vanity
because we are vain beings
i'm going to shop for vanities is the path the truth
the path the truth to dance with the shopping for vanities were always shopping from vanities and if we instead of thinking i want to figure out think i have i've gotta figure it out i finally got it figured out
that's another vanity
and being willing to be that person is equally good opportunity for enlightenment

oh
sometimes if you start dancing with yourself you don't get to choose you just get to dance
but not using anymore just dancing just flying it's a wonderful ecstatic spinks and freedoms but not don't get to do any decisions sorry

yeah yeah and then they engender decision comes from someplace where did they come from i like learned this trick i had to get a of district or there i am again hi
the vein ones who wants to possess this magical thing that just happened a decision made from a different place

it is not as having to do with it it just had no more to do with york that concept in any other concept
and that's part of being a hero is to go to shopping center to shop or something and have their heroic spirit to like not be able to decide what to do if that's where you are
to be totally lost
in the marketplace

and play with that person who's like that
enlightenment is playing with that person is dancing with that person
how any other
yeah i'm inviting you to dance
huh

ah the procrastinator
i invite i am inviting a procrastinator to dance

passing
wow
okay now that procrastinators forget about procrastinating now you i invite the deb the boxer to come and dance
this is that this is the
here this is the heroic invitation the invitation from the hero is i invite the procrastinator to come but dinner somebody else comes with him and i didn't invite you i invited somebody else know the hero or
the hero invites and then welcomes whoever comes
i invited you and our somebody else has coming i changed the invitation to the new person now
i want to buy
good
yeah
realize

has been watching a boxing
yeah
was getting back to them

well that's right it yeah that's right i would say attracted to delusion that what you said but is just to correct delusion
i was
you we are living in layers of delusion
they're back to back but also face to face
the face to face his his his good but also we shouldn't be attached to face to face sometimes turn around back to back
back to back delusion is enlightenment
back to back vanity face to face vanity
so look at the vanity acknowledge the vanity is turning around him is turning the vanity around
usually vanities a distraction from reality but if you face the vanity you're going back towards a reality
back of my vanity
i'm gonna i'm i'm turning away from the dance
but now i can turn back
and be with my diluted vein agenda
and then now not next moment comes
where's the vanity now
i don't know and i'd like to or there's vanity

yeah it's unsettling and then we have to be
we have to be okay and settled with unsettling
we have to become with
being agitated
with the let go of our com and welcome agitation
welcoming agitation brings more com
harley so
i have trouble crises as and by myself and i'm thinking about it as a dance can make sense that way
so usually danced by myself either
more of a social being
no you are more of a social being there are nine social being so
do you have some advice for how to find the dance jr
ah well
as a matter of fact yes
so
when
when i think i'm alone
i
i try to remember that i'm being alone
for the sake of all beings
and i invite all beings to come and sit with me
when i think i'm alone i tried to
remember
that i'm never alone
because i'm because when i think of
one or two or three people that i want to live for
i'm not alone anymore
and when i think that i'm doing a practice
i'm giving myself to practice are not alone anymore it's me and the practice
and if i think is my practice then i wanna be with the deluded person who thinks of practice belongs to him so i'm also with the diluted guy here
so there's an enlightened man is diluted me
and both of them might both of them might be practicing for the sake of all beings
when we practice zazen by ourself designs were practicing his desires in of a diluted person
buddha's do not practice by themselves they do not practice for themselves or by themselves that's so the practice which were doing with the buddha's the practice which the buddha is are practicing with
so right now
the buddhas are practicing with each of us i say
and the way they're practicing with us is the practice right now the buddhas are dancing with on each of us
and the way they're dancing with each of us is the practice
that's what does the zazen of the buddha's
if i think that i'm partially by myself i've forgotten about the buddha's were practicing with me right now
but even though i forgot them they're still practicing with me
just like you can be it you can be attending to a child the child may forget that your they're attending to him and maybe say uncle charlie where are you
i'm here
are you ready to say i'm here as soon as a song single charlie where are you the made you realize that you're there are maybe not maybe you have to say i'm here
so the buddhist have sent the message that they're with us
and if we really want to see him they'll show themselves if we don't want to see see them very much they won't show themselves but even though they don't show themselves they're still practicing with this so when i when i'm practicing in a group of people in the same room when i'm practicing in a room there's no other people in the room i still
feel that i'm practicing in that room i'm living in that room for all the beings who aren't in the room
but the buddha's who are also not in the room are with me
buddha's are buddhists are no more with me when they're outside the room than when they come in the room when they're outside the room there are the room saying it's wonderful to practice together with ramp
i'm so happy to practice for the welfare of ram
and they come in the room to the same then the god of the room just the same
for for non voters being in the roman azra makes a big difference
but for me
being whether people are in the room or outside the room i'm not less devoted to people were outside the room than a people in the room
so i'm not less devoted to people aren't in this class than the people are in this class
and also if you leave the class i don't stop being devoted to you
it isn't it is my morning devoted to when you're same room with me is usually the rome it's like over
so for me
the private dance is to dance with the person who's me which includes to dance with all beings
and if i'm not going to dance with me then i think
i feel sometimes like i'm not practicing with everybody
when i'm when we're totally willing to be ourselves we realize we're practicing with everyone
and realize a relaxing with everyone including the great buddha's helps us helps us be yourself
it's hard to be ourself that's the real hard thing
remembering that remember to practice the welfare of others is great buddha remember bodhisattvas remember remember that others have supporting us is wonderful but the point of it comes down to all that support the year giving others resonates back to you and helps you be yourself
which is the hardest thing
if you really are living for the welfare of all beings they will help you admit how vain you are
and if you can really accept a van your
the truth will be realized
for the sake of all the people who are supporting you to realize that truth
and they want you to realize it because they need somebody to show them that they can be themselves
that you're supporting them also do this heroic thing of being themselves of sitting at their place and being were there
of learning how to do that in not a mean forceful way but in a delightful playful dancing way
to love delusion not like or dislike it
so wherever we are we can practice way and sometimes we're in a room when there's no other human in the room and nobody thinks there's another no human being thinks there's another human in the room and buddha's don't think there's another human in the room
but you're totally practicing with the humans who are not in the room
you really feel that way and it can be tested you can invite some humans into the room and see
you know if you can verify that you have been practicing for their welfare even when you couldn't see them with your eyes and sometimes you find out that when they're actually in the room with you you can continue to be devoted to them just like you you were when they weren't in the room
which is wonderful to see i wasn't just dreaming that i was devoted to beings when they actually could near to me i continue to be devoted to them
again can be devoted to people they can see but not people that can't see other people can be devoted to people that can't see but not people they see where the body sat for the bullet is teaching us to be devoted to people we can see
we have picked the delusion of seeing somebody and the delusion that they're not here to be devoted to both those kinds of gigs yes

you
to support you to support which you offer to other people

oh if you if you feel supportive of other beings and particularly if you feel to support other beings to be themselves i mean you support the being but you actually support them to be the way they are
and you and you hope that that will help them
and you have some some lots of teachings to to help you see the teachings are helping you to see that them being themselves would be really good
and being themselves they have to be relaxed and playful and loving to themselves you really want that for people you really are devoted for people having that opportunity and that support you offered to all beings resonate back even help you do this hard thing which you think would be so good if they did
and that support you actually do practice it and you do feel like thank you and then again you want it resonates back from you than to them
praises for self concern
mirror mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all
any ideas you have your self or vanities yes
as it as the christian bible says vanity vanity all is vanity
that's all there is delusion delusion all there is a delusion delusion vanity seeing things
in grasp a bolt form seeing objects as graspable things it's a grasp of a woman and other graspable woman that way of seeing things his delusion that's vanity
it's very vain to think that you can look out in the world and make the world into little packages
what we do think that
so let's admit any vein people here
yeah hallelujah
we're admitting were vein of such a terrible
huh
yes you are
and you know who loves you
okay
i think you get the picture
now give it up