Tonight I'd like to talk about the fourth of the six transcendent practices of an enlightening being, which is called the virya paramita, the transcendent practice of enthusiasm. So a few weeks ago I talked about the transcendent practice of giving, and then I talked about the transcendent practice of ethics, and last week Norman talked about the transcendent practice of patience. Next comes the transcendent practice of enthusiasm, then the transcendent practice of

[01:10]

awareness or concentration, and then the transcendent practice of wisdom. The wisdom after wisdom. These six practices are ways of protecting and developing the spirit of complete perfect awakening. The mind or the attitude of complete perfect awakening is protected and developed by these six practices. I'd like to say just a word about this thought of enlightenment tonight.

[02:15]

The thought of enlightenment is the seed of enlightened activity in the world. And as I've told you before, Dogen Zenji says that among the things that are born in the world, there are three things which are very unlikely to reach maturity. One is fish eggs. Another is fruit, which apparently is either very delicious or very fragile, something like a mango probably. And the third thing that once born is very unlikely to reach maturity is the thought of attaining complete perfect awakening in order to benefit all beings.

[03:26]

The wish that they will all attain the highest freedom and happiness before oneself and the unstinting, unreserved dedication to work for that end. This is the thought of enlightenment. And when it's first born, which is a wonderful moment, from then on it needs to be protected and developed in order to reach maturity. And it's hard for us to be consistent in developing this thought. in the onslaught of daily affairs and our responsibilities around this nice valley here, Green Gulch, with all these helpful people presenting us with koan after koan, we sometimes forget to practice these six perfections and we lose track of this wonderful thought of enlightenment which I think many of you have had the pleasure of meeting.

[04:33]

the pleasure of experiencing. Also I want to remind you about this thought of enlightenment that the thought of enlightenment does not depend on any conditions. It doesn't need apples or warmth or cold or pain or pleasure or males or females or sugar It doesn't depend on any conditions. In other words, the thought of enlightenment can arise under any conditions. It does not depend on any conditions for its birth. It is independent of conditions. It does not depend on pain. The thought of awakening, the thought of enlightenment arises from the thought of enlightenment.

[05:46]

The arising of the thought of enlightenment is the thought of enlightenment. It doesn't come from me. It doesn't come from you. It doesn't come from self. It doesn't come from another. It comes from the subtle communion between sentient beings and enlightened ones. And this thought of enlightenment is arising right now. And again, it is arising now. And this is the only time it ever arises. It doesn't depend on anything, and nothing can stop it. However, once it has arisen, which it is doing right now, in order for it to reach its full grandeur and efficacy, we must take care of it. Although it does not depend on any conditions and is completely free of all conditions, which is why it's so wonderful, it can arise in prisons, in hell, in heaven,

[07:02]

in Macy's. It can arise in Green Gulch, any place here, in anybody. Although it does not depend on conditions, it always arises with conditions. So right now, as it arises all over this room, in every single molecule, in every atom of this room it is arising, it arises with our conditions, without being dependent on them. And again, Dogen Zenji says that when the thought of enlightenment arises, together with our conditions, it is a freely offered hand. It is a single hand freely held out in the world of all sentient beings. The thought of enlightenment which is arising right now in conjunction with our conditions is a hand freely held out

[08:14]

So I refrain from reviewing giving and ethics, and I just want to say a little bit, looking back at the previous transcendent practice of patience, patience is to endure the harm which we receive from others. It is to endure hardship, like the hardship of cold and heat, of sickness and bodily pain, the hardship of our jobs, and the onslaught of our responsibilities. And it is to accept the truth, to be patient and endure the truth. and it is to observe what's happening with equanimity.

[09:31]

It is not to observe and accept hardship, insult, and the truth with gritting teeth. It is to observe these things with equanimity. Once one has realize the practice of patience, one so one has gotten, as I've spoken of, to the center of the fierce flames of our life, the flames of insult, hardship, and truth. There, because one is not running anymore from things and is equanimously observing what's happening, a tremendous amount of energy is released, which was previously dedicated to running scared. This energy now is available to the next practice, the practice of effort. If we don't patiently accept the insults and hardships and truth of our life we will have less energy available to try to do the wonderful practice of

[10:51]

enthusiasm, caring for attending to the suffering of beings, caring for attending to suffering beings. is an excellent source of spiritual energy, including caring for your own suffering. If you care for it, you'll find it is a source of great spiritual energy, maybe the greatest source, maybe the best source. Anyway, an excellent one. The practice of enthusiasm is also a source of spiritual energy. Anyway, patience. Patience is the primary cause of enlightenment.

[11:59]

The unsurpassed, complete enlightenment is a direct result of the practice of patience. Patience is good. Patience is the primary cause of enlightenment, but what is the primary support or cause of the practice of patience and giving and ethics and concentration and wisdom? The primary cause there of the practice of the transcendences is enthusiasm. Whenever you praise these perfections, these transcendent practices so highly, or whenever I do, I worry that I'm going to run out of praise.

[13:04]

Got to be careful. How can you praise patience so highly and then turn around and praise enthusiasm so highly? Well, there's a slight difference in the praise. Did you notice? One is the praise is the primary cause of enlightenment. The other one is praise is the primary cause of the practices of the six perfections. So enthusiasm supports patience. What is enthusiasm?

[14:15]

It is finding joy in what is wholesome. It is finding joy in what is good. Just as I mentioned before that the practice of giving in many ways is to address stinginess and think about giving until you feel actually joy at the thought of giving something. The practice of giving is not just the exchange of good, it is primarily the joy of the thought of giving something away. Here the practice of enthusiasm is thinking about and enjoying and meditating on how wonderful wholesome activity is.

[15:17]

Now if I just say the word wholesome or good, I might imagine that that leaves some of you, including me as I just said it, kind of cold. Wholesome, what's so fun about that word? When I think about wholesome, what is wholesome? Right away, part of the practice of enthusiasm is that when you hear the word wholesome, you have to think about, what is that? It's going to be hard to get enthusiastic about the word wholesome or the idea of wholesomeness unless you actually get into what's an example of something wholesome. You know, I'm sort of not hurting my mind, hurting like hurting a cow or hurting a sheep.

[17:56]

I'm not hurting my mind right now over to think about what is wholesome. So I'm having trouble thinking of anything wholesome. Now I wonder, is it unwholesome for me not to hurt my mind over to wholesomeness? And I think, well, you know, maybe I was feeling a little rude to my mind and to yours to herd it over real quickly to start thinking about something wholesome since I said I'm talking about enthusiasm. And if I'm going to tell you that enthusiasm is to be happy or joyful about wholesomeness, maybe I should give you an example of wholesomeness and then I could show you how to get happy about it. And what kind of happiness is there about this wholesomeness?

[19:13]

What kind of happiness is it when I think about how I feel about it? Well, first of all, for me it is a happiness or it is a joy. It's going to be not exactly on a slow burn or a low burn or even a pilot light. but probably not an explosive enthusiasm about good. So as I'm turning on, as I'm tuning in and turning on to what kind of joy there would be about wholesomeness, I want to approach it carefully. That's how I'm feeling. I don't want to rush at it. I want to approach it and come in proximity to it or intimacy with it in a way that I think I will be able to sustain. I want to take joy and wholesomeness in a way that I will be able to do kind of like forever.

[20:22]

As a matter of fact, I almost would like to tune in to the joy of wholesomeness, which I felt before I started talking to you about it. Rather than come in here and kind of crank up some special show here, which then when we walk out the door, it'll just disperse, and you guys will feel like, well, he came in here and he jazzed us up, and now what? Or he jazzed himself up. And now what? I kind of would like to tune into maybe something that's already there. An enjoyment and an enthusiasm which you already feel about something called wholesomeness. And again, I feel like if I approach the topic carefully, with a kind of steadfastness, a kind of careful step after careful step, that you and I both will be able to come in closeness with it and perhaps also walk out the room with it, so that I won't heat you up and you'll catch a cold when you leave the room.

[21:44]

I guess I'm trying to tune all of us into an appreciation of our actual state rather than create some kind of artifact of this chatter here. And in fact, part of the practice of enthusiasm is to be very careful and steadfast in your practice, in the practice of wholesomeness, and in the joy about the practice of wholesomeness. Find a level of kind of a level of, what do you call it, like how you tune a carburetor? a level of, what is that called, the idol? Or whatever, the way you tune your, the way you burn your spiritual fuel, a tuning which will be even and which will be able to go on for a long time.

[22:57]

And then that particular aspect of steadfastness and consistency of an enthusiasm, imagine an enthusiasm or a vigor in practice that is steadfast rather than a kind of vigor which has big highs and lows. That's one aspect of the practice of vigor is steadfastness. And steadfastness is also one of the primary antidotes to laziness. So in most of us there is an endemic situation or an endemic tendency towards laziness. Enthusiasm is the antidote to laziness. and one aspect of enthusiasm's antidotal function to laziness is steadfastness.

[24:18]

Another aspect of enthusiasm is which I mentioned before is actually then to meditate on wholesomeness. Another aspect of enthusiasm is to review your aspirations to, on a regular basis, and again, in conjunction with steadfastness, steadfastly, carefully, regularly, kind of like always possible, review your aspiration. Remember what you intend to do. And another aspect of enthusiasm, of the practice of enthusiasm, is what's called the practice of, and it's translated two different ways.

[25:24]

One way is the practice of rejection. Another translation is the practice of rest. Part of enthusiasm, part of the joy in wholesomeness is to rest. part of effort is to rest. But another meaning of rest is to reject. In other words, sometimes rest is to take a rest. Another part of rest is to stop doing something that you don't need to do anymore. And another part of rest or rejection is to not take on something that you're not yet ready for. So in my talk to you tonight, as I'm talking about enthusiasm, I rested or I rejected a certain way of talking that I and you were not ready for yet. There's a certain way of talking or thinking about practice that sometimes I'm not ready for.

[26:32]

And if I talk about it beforehand, even though it may sound really good in a sense, in fact, it's too early. part of being enthusiastic is to take something on at the time you want to do it. For example, to do a practice period when you want to do it. To do a sesshin when you want to do it. Now some of you people have a problem because a sesshin's coming up on a certain date. It would be nice if, when it started, you wanted to do it. Sorry, we scheduled it on a kind of specific time. So it would be good if we all started to get ready to want to do the sashin when it starts.

[27:32]

Now, what happens with a lot of people is they don't, so they start, they're not ready, and, in fact, they're not enthusiastic. However, as things proceed and the pain develops and one practices patience, one then starts to become ready for the sesshin. Sometimes one's ready for the sesshin about on the fifth or sixth day. And on the fifth or sixth day when you're ready, it is funny. It's cute. However, the preceding four days are not so funny. So aspiration, what do you want to accomplish? Well, I don't know what you want to accomplish, but you might want to accomplish the practice of giving.

[28:37]

You might want to practice the transcendent practice of giving, which will really turn you and all sentient beings around and will protect and develop this wonderful thought of enlightenment, your great aspiration. You might want to practice ethics. avoiding evil, practicing all good and saving all sentient beings. You might want to practice that. You might have that aspiration. You might want to practice patience. You might want to practice concentration. You might want to practice wisdom. If you want to practice those things, those are your aspirations. Enthusiasm is what primarily gets you going, initiates these practices, sustains them, and brings them all the way to completion. It even protects you from being satisfied with partially practicing these. It kind of is that feeling of, let's do it all the way.

[29:44]

Wouldn't that be great? To practice giving all the way. To give myself completely to the practice of concentration. Wouldn't that be neat? Not only wouldn't that be neat, wouldn't that be like really great? And not only that, but thinking about it, wouldn't it be great to approach this practice very carefully and steadfastly so I don't slip off it all the time? So moment after moment I can stay with that intention to develop these practices. And also, wouldn't it be great to take a little break from these practices right now? Because I'm getting stressed out. I've been pushing too hard on these practices. I thought they were so great, but I tried too hard. And now I've got to rest. I'm getting stressed. My back's hurting. My head's hot. It's time for a break.

[30:48]

And I can take a break because I'm enthusiastic. I'm not a bum. This is an enthusiastic person taking a rest. I'm going to enthusiastically rest. And if they come and say, what are you doing? I'll say, I am resting. What are you doing? As a matter of fact, I'm so enthusiastic about taking a rest that before I even take a rest, I'm enthusiastic also about not making certain Zendo officials make unnecessary trips. That would be neat. Save him the trouble. I'm going to go tell him. I'm going to take a break. What do you think of that, Tayo? I see what he says. I'm enthusiastic about seeing what he says when he sees how enthusiastic I am about taking a rest. Not only that, he'll probably be fairly happy to see how happy I am because that's what he's concerned with, too, because that's what he wants from me.

[32:00]

And also, I save him a trip to come and find out what I'm doing. He hates walking up and down those halls, knocking on doors. Now he doesn't have to come and find one person because he knows where I'm going to be. I'm going to be enthusiastically resting. And after I'm done resting, I'm going to get back in that Zendo and sit. Or I'm going to go back and work. Or I'm going to go back and give. Or I'm going to go back and practice patience with this pain. He's going to be happy to hear about this. I said, I'm going to do Tayo. What do you think? Maybe Tayo will say, hey, I'm going to do that too. I don't know what that is. Maybe take a rest. Who are you going to tell? You can tell me. But I want him to tell me enthusiastically rather than some other way. Like sometimes people, when they say I'm going to take a break, they're upset, right?

[33:04]

They're not practicing patience because they don't practice patience. They don't have the energy to say, I'm going to take a break. They're not accepting the pain of their situation. Therefore, it's hard for them to really enthusiastically, steadfastly, with aspiration and dedication, say, it's time to reject the practice of whatever it is, whatever this specific wholesome thing is. So laziness, laziness is a powerful habit. It lives, you know the Buddhists, what the Buddhists are? You know, I told you about where they are. They're around the thought of enlightenment. The thought of enlightenment is in every pore of your body, in every cell of your body, the thought of enlightenment is arising right now. Also in every pore of your body there's laziness. In every cell of your body there's laziness.

[34:06]

Laziness is a powerful inhabitant of human beings. Laziness takes three main forms. One is indolence, entropy, not entropy, inertia. We like to stay where we are if we're comfortable. Even if we're not comfortable, sometimes we like to stay where we are. If we're having a good period of meditation, the bell rings, we don't want to move. If we're having a nice little break, we don't want to get up. If we're reading a good book, we don't want to stop. If we're doing some work and being really effective and accomplishing a lot, we don't want to stop. We want to keep doing what we're happy doing. Indolence. That's a kind of laziness. Another kind of laziness is enjoying unwholesome activities. Not even enjoying. It's just being involved in them. The enjoyment of them is not laziness.

[35:10]

The enjoyment of them is unwholesomeness. It's the engagement in them. It's the tendency to get engaged in this laziness. Unwholesome activities are distractions from wholesomeness. Going to the movies could be wholesome or unwholesome. It depends on your attitude. Wanting to hurt people. is unwholesome. Wanting to hurt yourself is unwholesome. The tendency to slip into that is laziness. Another kind of laziness is the laziness of self-deprecation, to say, I can't do it. So somebody says, if you want to attain enlightenment, you've got to shatter, pulverize Mount Everest. And you think, oh, gee, that would be a lot of work. Or, I could never do that, or I'm not good enough for that, or whatever.

[36:15]

That's called laziness. But the thought of, when you hear about that, to say, okay, if that's what it takes. I don't know if that's true that it takes that, but if that's what it takes, that's what we'll do. Of course, we won't just sort of like, tear out of here to do it, we'll steadfastly, carefully, step-by-step do it. Because, of course, you can't move Mount Sumeru or Mount Everest all in one big thing. But little by little you can do it. But even if you can't, even if you never make it, which you may not, the point is when you hear and say, That's enthusiasm. Being rigid is not wholesome.

[37:24]

Being rigid is a kind of laziness actually. I say that before I say that following a schedule in the sense of you're in a group situation and the bell rings to do something, it is, generally speaking, wholesome. It's wholesome to move, to respond as soon as you hear the bell or the Han, the first hit. In fact, again, when you hear the Han, when you first hear the Han, the first hit of the Han, when you first hear the bell, in fact, again, you do respond. You do. The reality is that you respond. It's good that you respond because you do respond.

[38:34]

Goodness is reality. your body and mind respond to the sound of the Han. To notice that response, to enjoy that response, to take joy in the fact that you are a responsive being, that's wholesomeness. And that is enthusiasm. to then think about and even get really enraptured with the thought of how responsive you are to everything that happens, including that Han, including this schedule. That's developing enthusiasm. Then the Han goes again, boom, and then again you respond. Through this kind of enthusiasm, in a very short period of time, you will go through lots of thoughts. For example, you will consider whether you want to go to the next event or not. And actually getting there on time is also, I say, has a lot of positive qualities, especially if you got there as a result of not rigidity, not coercion of yourself, but respect of your actual nature of being a responsive, wholesome creature, and you enjoy that.

[39:55]

To be on time in that way is, well, it's a celebration of your nature. And you walk in that door happy. And you walk in that door, hopefully, if you're on time, it's also a result of steadfastness. It isn't that suddenly there's this big burst of energy and then you fall on your face. There's a burst of energy because you are a burst of energy. Moment after moment, you are a burst of energy. But also to be steadfast so that you're burst after burst, step after step, and you can get to the event on time and sit in place. I went to a special session one time with a Zen teacher named Narzaki, who at that time was, I don't know how old he was, over 60, 66, I think, and not in very good health.

[41:03]

And he had been an abbot since he was 28. He'd been a monk a long time. And I noticed, and he was not leading, he was not like the doshi, he was not leading the meditation periods. He was the teacher. He was giving the lectures for the special session, but he was not the abbot of the place, so he didn't, like, open the zendo and stuff. So he was supposed to be there, like, approximately the same time as the other monks. Of course, he had a jisha and anja to help him get there in time, I know. But anyway, still... And I can imagine them saying, Roshi, come on, time to go. Better hurry up now. Stop reading that book. Put your toothbrush down. I don't know how they helped him, but anyway. I noticed that he beat me to the zendo. And he was kind of a little decrepit, and he walked kind of slowly, but he kept beating me to the zendo. And then I started watching my behavior, and I noticed that when those bells and horns went off, I noticed that I did a lot of stuff.

[42:08]

additional stuff besides just trying to get there. And I thought, maybe the reason why he beats me is because he doesn't do all that stuff that I do, because I can walk a lot faster than him. But he kept beating me. So I tried little by little to eliminate some of this extra stuff I was doing, which was not on the schedule. It doesn't say, you know, Han starts at that time, and then you're supposed to be there by that time, and you're supposed to do all these other things in between. It didn't say that in the schedule. It just says, Han, Zazen, or whatever, you know. I thought maybe he was just going like, Han, go to the Zendo. It looked like that. The way he walked looked like all he was doing was going to the Zendo. He was really willing to give up everything else but go there. You know, it looked really good to see the old guy shuffling along in there. What? He has visited here at least once. And he's visited Tassajara at least once.

[43:10]

He came with Kadagiri Roshi. Right. And when he came to Tassajara, I was abbot. He was visiting. And he's old and he has back problems, like I said. And his attendants came to me and said, He's tired, been traveling, you know, and he's going to follow the schedule here, you know. But if you would invite him not to follow the schedule, I think he would be very happy." So I went up to him and I said, "'Naruzaki Roshi, would you please not go to Zazen? And he said, oh, yes, thank you. And he didn't go. He rested.

[44:14]

And when I used to be in Tayo's position over at the city center, when I was Eno there, one time, and not just one time, but one time, my teacher, Suzuki Roshi, came down the hall with his wife and some other students, and he came into my door and he said, excuse me, I'm going to the movies. And I thought, well, have a good time. Thanks for... And he left, and he said, I'm sorry. You know, he was going to miss Zazen. And... I thought, you know, this is really something. Here is my teacher, this old master, getting my excuse, this young kid's excuse, you know, permission to go to the movies, so to speak. I didn't feel like it was, I think he was, I felt like he was enjoying it. I certainly enjoyed it. And I've always thought, if Suzuki Roshi could come to ask this kid, or tell this kid that he was going to the movies, well, we all should be able to do that.

[45:23]

not should be able to we'll be able to do it may take us time to get to that place where we can go tell children that we're going to the movies there's a possibility i heard this christian story one time about these uh... you know before i tell you the story i want to tell you just give you If there were time enough, if there was time enough, I could show you that I really do love the practice of enthusiasm. I'm really enthusiastic about enthusiasm. And I'm really holding myself back so that I won't get ahead of you or behind you. But I'm going to stop pretty soon after I tell a few more stories. But even though I stop, I just want to tell you beforehand that I have a Mount Sumeru

[46:27]

that I'm trying to move. Because that's what it might take. And I'm very happy about that. So anyway, here's a story. The Christians who lived in the desert, in the Egyptian desert, they had some really good monasteries there. And I've heard that one of the main causes of the downfall of those monasteries was the that the teachers kind of got a little hung up on the younger monks. You know, there they were out in the desert and there's not much out there for entertainment. They didn't have TVs. They didn't have any sugar. You know, a big feast for them was to have some lentils. They could sleep, but anyway, there was the joy of beautiful young monks. They can be quite a joy.

[47:28]

Even here in America today, the joy of young male and female monks is quite attractive, quite a distraction up in the mountains sometimes. Anyway, that was considered to be one of the downfalls, is that some of the abbots and senior monks got kind of like interested in these beautiful young monks, and they started to get you know, sometimes jealous and competitive with each other around these lovely young creatures. So there was a rumor that one of these abbots was in love with one of his monks. And so an ethics committee came to the monastery to check out the abbot. They said, well, we've heard, you know, that you're in love with one of your monks. And he said, well, just a minute. Let me show you something. So they went to the cells where they had the monks. And he went up to one of the cells, and he knocked on the door, and he went, no.

[48:34]

And then the ethics committee heard the shuffling on the floor. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. And then the door opened, and the monk said, yes, sir? And the abbot said, would you go over to the library and get me such and such a book? And the monk said, OK. And he went. And then the abbot said, now I'd like to have you meet the person who you're accusing me of being in love with. So they went to another cell. And the abbot went, and the door opened. And the monk said, yes, sir. And the abbot said, I just sent your neighbor to get a book. Would you go tell him I don't really need it? And he said, OK. And he went. And the abbot said, come here. I want to show you something. And they went inside the room over to his work table, where he had been copying a manuscript.

[49:38]

And he said, look at that. And the monk was writing the word, oh. And he had stopped in the middle of the letter to answer the door. And the mind that Abbott said to the other guys, he said, see why I love them? This is called enthusiasm. Enthusiasm can also be, and is really primarily, enjoying other people's wholesomeness. Is to notice all the wonderful things that these other people are doing. And sometimes people notice that you're enjoying it, and then you get busted for it. But if you just stop there, it's not so bad. But sometimes you can't help really appreciate other people, and that's a big part of the practice of enthusiasm, is to notice the effort that other people are making, the wholesome effort they're making.

[50:46]

Everybody is actually making a wholesome effort. Sometimes we have to say to people, well, you know, you didn't tell me what you were doing. You didn't call and tell me you were going to be late, or you didn't check with me before you took that wonderful break, or before you did this or that, and I really would appreciate it if you would tell me. That has to be done sometimes, because that's in fact what we have to do. It's our job. It's not right not to say things sometimes. But even so, the practice of enthusiasm is to remember that the person you're talking to is practicing something very beautifully and to really rejoice in that. notice how patience is important because if people do things like don't tell you they're going to be late or take a walk in the forest without telling you and then you have to spend hours looking for them we do this kind of thing sometimes uh... you know it's irritating it makes you nervous it's painful it's painful to worry about people to worry about your children or your friends who are maybe lost who didn't tell you where they were going

[52:10]

You've got to work with your pain. If you work with your pain and accept the insult and abuse and difficulty that that was, then you'll be in a position perhaps to watch with some equanimity and even then with equanimity say, you know, I really had a hard time. It was really a hardship walking all night looking for you in the forest. This has really been a difficulty for me. You can say that with equanimity and also you can also really appreciate this person and rejoice in how wholesome they are and rejoice in the wholesomeness of rejoicing in their wholesomeness and rejoice in the wholesomeness of being patient with the difficulty you had looking for them in the forest and so on. We have to have a lot of difficult conversations here at Green Gulch. We have to talk with people about painful issues.

[53:20]

We have to care for and attend to the suffering of beings here quite often. Even though our suffering here is not so horrendous, still we have lots of pain to take care of in ourselves and others and attending to this pain in ourselves and others and talking to each other in the midst of this pain in the midst of these difficulties will bring us energy and then to think about how wholesome it is to do that will bring more joy. And then to apply that practice steadfastly, step by step, again, as you approach these conversations, as you approach these interactions, to do them carefully. Not to come too fast, not to hold back too much. To come carefully and work your way carefully into the conversation to discuss this difficult thing.

[54:27]

This also is very good. And to remember your aspiration when you enter into a conversation. What again are we doing here? I hardly dare say it, you know, how wonderful it is. Can you think of something so wonderful when you start a conversation? When you sit down next to somebody at the dinner table, can you remember what your highest aspiration is and still eat? Well, maybe. If you do it carefully... Little by little, can you remember? And even to think of this aspiration, you might feel some pain. Well, I better stop. This perfection of enthusiasm is the bodhisattva's work.

[55:38]

The bodhisattva's work is this happiness, is this joy in wholesome activities. This is the work of the enlightenment worker. And the work of an enlightenment worker is this. So we do work. We work. This is our work. And we apply this enthusiasm to wisdom, concentration, patience, ethics, and giving. We steadfastly remember these other five practices, and we carefully attend to them. And in this way, we protect and develop this thought of enlightenment and bring it to maturity.

[56:56]

So my little plan for the rest of this practice period is that next week I will begin to talk about concentration practice. I vow, I intend to talk about concentration practice carefully, steadfastly, politely, and, if necessary, to take a rest as I present it, as I consider it, to not take on concentration practices that are too advanced and also to put aside concentration practices that we no longer need to do. And then after presenting concentration practices, I would like to move on to insight practices So that will take us into the sesshin. So that's my plan.

[58:08]

And as a way of getting us into insight practices, I will also be discussing with you the three pure precepts as a mode of discussing the perfection, the transcendent practice of wisdom. you naturally will be practicing the other six perfections. You will naturally be giving yourself to the practice. You will naturally be practicing ethics. The issue of ethics will be constantly before you. You will naturally be trying to deal with and care for and attend to suffering beings. you will naturally be developing compassion for yourself and your own suffering by breathing. And you will, by doing the sesshin, you will naturally be working on making an effort.

[59:15]

And if you can find a way to make the effort in sesshin joyfully, then you will be developing this practice. And, of course, you'll be working on concentration. So those five will be happening and then in whatever way you wish and I will be feeding you teachings about wisdom. So we'll be working on all six perfections during the session. And I'll tell you now and I'll tell you again, if during the session you lose sight of any of the perfections, any of the transcendent practices, please feel free to Ask, where is such and such a perfection right now? Where is such and such a transcendent practice now? Ask yourself. Ask one of the teachers. Ask in lecture. Ask in your sleep. Happy Thanksgiving.

[60:36]

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