I was struck by something I just heard chanted, which was confessing and repenting in this way, one never fails to receive profound help from all through this. An answer. And I heard profound help. And oftentimes in the tradition of Buddha Dharma, profound means difficult. Like the profound perfection of wisdom. The reflection of wisdom is deep. It's profound.

[01:01]

Part of it that means is it's hard to understand it. It's hard to realize it. So part of it is that it could be pretty serious. When you invest in repentance, you never fail to see a deep and difficult to understand This is my experience. It doesn't say confessing and repenting is when one never fails to receive superficial help from the Buddhas and ancestors. Sometimes when you confess and repent, you do receive superficial help. support of the buddhas and ancestors. In other words, sometimes when you confess your sin, you can feel perceptively right away the help. You just feel really helped right away. That sometimes happens.

[02:02]

But always the deep help is there. When you confess, you always find that at a very deep level, at an imperceptible, invisible level. Your confession is an offering, and the Buddhas receive it and send you back great thanks. But it's hard to see sometimes. There's a level at which it's always hard to see. And there's a level where it's easy to see, but that level we sometimes see and sometimes don't. And again, by revealing and disclosing our lack of faith in practice, faith and practice, by revealing and disclosing that, the root of our things separate from the wonder's dharma melts away.

[03:13]

Probably a great deal of the way that happens is inconceivable. Some of it's conceivable. Maybe I'll get into that working more later, but right now I just want to mention at the end of chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, it says this wonderful thing, and I like it very much, that even children in their platitudes, gathering sand on a beach, for a shrine to the Buddha. All such beings as these obtain the Buddha way. And Buddha's original vow, as expressed in chapter 2, is, by the Buddha way which I walk,

[04:18]

I desire universally to cause all creatures to enter the same way and walk along with me. It's not quite the same as Buddha wants everybody to be enlightened. Buddha likes that. Buddha likes people to be enlightened so that they can enter into, you know, join the party. It's entering, doing it with me. Not just you're enlightened over there by yourself. I want you to join me in this thing, because that's the actual Buddha way. It's this way I'm walking with everybody. I want you to come and join it. You sort of have to wake up to doing it, but the waking up gives you the main point, and that's this entry point. And that's what Buddhists want, is to enter. So they try to show it to us at superficial and deep levels to get us to wake up to it so we can enter.

[05:29]

And there's certain parts of chapter 16 which I'd like to just go over, just in case we won't be going over these things after I leave. And I also want to mention that in Soto Zen monasteries and some Soto Zen temples in Japan, is this verse section on this chapter is in the regular Dhamma Sutra book. And this thing is chanted every day. It's one of the things that is chanted on a regular basis, chapter 16. We also chant chapter 5, which is about calling on Avalokiteshvara. And I think that if you ask multi-American Zen students, you quote them, it's chapter 16 in the verse section, and let them read it and say, this is chanted by Zen monks in a social school in their monastery.

[06:42]

They would be surprised to hear that the chanting is coming still. They might say, yeah, the chanting, but really what it's about is like sitting and, you know, having enlightenment experience. Not about chanting this kind of stuff, but it is about chanting this kind of stuff. If you chant this, and some of them actually thinking about what they're chanting and going, hmm. So I look really kind of at various points, and I like to share the places I was struck. One of them was I exceedingly manifest nirvana. But in truth, I do not pass into quiescence. I remain here, always speaking the Dharma. The Buddha is always here speaking the Dharma.

[07:45]

The court deals. I always stay right here. And using the power of spiritual penetration, I cause the alerted beings, although near me, not to see me." I was just struck by that. The Buddha is right here, right now, near you. But if there's some inversion in your mind, the Buddha causes you not to see her. Isn't that an amazing statement? The Buddha's right near you right now, right next to you. Not just one Buddha, but many Buddhas are near you, and they love you, and they totally wanted you to enter the way that they're walking, but they caused you not to see it right now because of the inverted tendencies in their mind. And they left behind instructions about how to deal with these inversions. And if you practice the instruction about the inversions, when your mind flips back over into the upright posture, they will appear to you.

[08:57]

But they do not want to show themselves to you in your inverted state, so they actually cause you not to see them, according to this. They want you to see them because you need to see it in order to enter the way. But they want you to get ready to see it. So that when you see them, you'll say, oh, thanks for coming. I'm glad to meet you. Rather than, oh, I'll see you later. I know you'll be here tomorrow. I'm busy. And actually, I don't know if I'll see you tomorrow, but I know you love me. So whenever I meet you, you'll be there. So then I'll came out. Now, that's not the spirit that they want us to have. And the next part that struck me particularly was, at that time, I and the Sangha assembly all appeared on, oh, excuse me, I guess that was part two, multitudes seen as passing into quiescence

[10:16]

And they extensively make offerings to my relics, my chaviya, all cherish, all belonging for me. Their hearts look up to me in thirst. The beings then, faithful and subdued, straightforward and compliant in mind, single-mindedly wish to see the Buddha, caring, not for their very lives. At that point, I and the whole assembly here of all the bodhisattvas and marhats appear together with them on the magic vulture mountain, where I say to living beings that I am always here and never cease to be. So again, if we are making extensive offerings to the Buddhas or the Buddhas' relics, cherish, ardent, longing for the Buddha, and in our hearts look up to the Buddhas in thirst, hunger, hungry for the Buddha's teaching, for the Buddha's faith.

[11:37]

Faithful and subdued, straightforward and compliant in our minds, single-mindedly wish to see the Buddha. then Buddha appears. So you can, like, go to an altar and offer candlelight, flowers, incense, and prostrations, and you can do this extensively with the wish to express the deep wish to see a Buddhist, and then the Buddha will appear to you, and then in that being, you will enter the Buddha way. Or you can sit upright on the earth. And every moment of sitting can be an act of inviting Buddhas to come. It is, actually. Every moment. This posture is offering to Buddha and invitation to Buddha. It's praise to Buddha and invitation to Buddha. It's honoring Buddha and inviting Buddha. That's every moment of sitting.

[12:39]

I have nothing else to do in my life but make my body and mind in voice and offer an invitation to the Buddhists to come. And this way, my mind becomes un-inverted, and I become ready to receive a meeting with the Buddhists, who are always here, but who do not appear if I'm distracted from being ready for the meeting. So I think about, you know, city is nice because you can do it moment after moment. Okay, moment of city, [...] moment of city. You can also deal with authoring. It's hard, you know, authoring after authoring after authoring after authoring, orange after orange after orange. You could just, you know, put the word on, take it off, and author it again. But some people do it that way.

[13:43]

They just make offerings of it. Some people do frustrations of it. But being like, how do you ease after a while in your forehead? But some people do it. They just bow, [...] bow. And they just kind of, yeah, I want to see Buddha. Come on, Buddha, come on. I know you're here, but come on, shave yourself. And Buddha says, well, you're still kind of inverted the way you're moving those bowels. And what are the inversions? Inversions are... Seeing permanence in what is impermanent. Seeing purity in what's impure. Seeing self in what doesn't have self. And seeing kind of, I think it's beauty in what's not beautiful. And seeing pure in what's not pure means to think that something, that something like a, I don't know, a Mercedes, it's going to give you happiness.

[14:49]

To think that something in the world is going to actually give you happiness rather than understanding that the way you take care of things is what gives you happiness. So you can work on these indulgences by listening. To sit without having to get something when you're sitting. To sit without thinking that your sitting is permanent. To sit without understanding that your sitting doesn't ever suck. And then again, practice in giving. This is the way, moment by moment, we get faithful, subdued, straightforward, compliant, single-minded, I wish to see the Buddha." And then the Buddhas appear at Valkya Peak and expound the Lotus Sutra.

[15:52]

And that's what they're saying to living beings, I'm always here and never cease to be. And then another little couple of theories. But using the power of expanding devices, I manifest ceasing and not ceasing, and living beings in other lands, reverent and faithful and inspiring, I speak the unsurpassed garment. But you who do not hear this, think that I passed away in the quiescence." So right now, we think the Buddha's not here, but the Buddha's someplace else teaching right now. And not really, but lots of seeds like that. And he is teaching the living women, so he's also here. But he's not teaching it now because we don't want it. So right now the Buddha sees living beings sunk in misery, and yet I refrain from manifesting for them in order to cause them to look up in thirst.

[16:57]

Then, when their minds are filled with the onion, I immerse them. And again, people's idea of Zen is many monks are not sitting there, you know, longing for Buddha. Come on, Buddha, put up your mat. They're sitting there saying, I don't need Buddha. I'm kidding. But the siddha is saying that if the people are sitting in meditation longing for Buddha, Buddha will appear to them. They really want to see me. And again, in earlier parts in Lotus Sutra 2, people say, would you give a talk? And he says, you don't really want to. Because it's not that you don't really want to, but you might not like it if I told you. You might get confused and disparaging. And that wouldn't be good for you to reject me. So maybe some other time.

[17:59]

And then they ask him again, and they ask him again. He says, okay. But in the process of asking him again, some of the people in the audience, they really don't want to hear the don walk out. I think they probably think, These fanatics who really want to hear it, even though he kind of told them that he's going to say some stuff that's not very easy to listen to, they can stay and listen, but I'd rather go someplace else. It sounds like the same old thing to me. And so they walk out, and Buddha says, it's okay, they laugh, and then he teaches them this dharma. But he doesn't want to give it to them if they don't really ask for it, because he does not want to reject it. That would be good. They've already rejected it enough, but they don't hear it. So they're asking for it, But now that they've read it, you can see, if you want to make sure that they've read it, this might not, you know, be something that they, that they need to find pleasant to hear.

[19:01]

Excuse me, Reverend Savory. Yeah? Can you please go to your library and find a copy of the, of the Sarangama Samadhi Sutra? Do you know where that is? If you can't, would you be better than I? OK. I'll show you. I wanted to get that sutra because that sutra has a really good example of bodhisattvas asking questions. It kind of gives you, like, an inside view of what goes on in bodhisattvas' minds when they ask questions to some bodhisattvas. Gretchen Martin, for example. Some of you say I would face the library deep.

[20:06]

Oh, you can't find the library copy? Thank you for your efforts. So he sees suffering beings, and he wants to help them in fear. He's stirred with compassion. Yet he refrained from manifesting for them in order to cause them to thirst more. So then he will appear. With such powerful spiritual penetrations throughout of eons, I remain always on the magic vulture peak, mystic vulture peak, and also dwell in other places. So Buddha's always in the same place teaching bodhicitta. He's also a lot of other places, as people wish and need. So right here you can see the Buddha teaching on vulture pig in India, right here.

[21:16]

And he also is teaching here, which is non-vulture pig. Oh. When beings see the aeon ending and ravaged by great fire, this sounds familiar, right? We see, in a sense, we almost see an aeon ending. We see catastrophe. here and there. When beings see that at that very moment, my land is peaceful and serene and secure, always filled with gods and humans, gardens, groves, halls, pavilions, and various precious adornments. There are jeweled trees with many flowers and fruits, where living beings roam and delight, and gods play celestial drums, always making various kinds of music. And the mandala flowers are scattered upon the Buddha and the great assembly. My pure land is not destroyed.

[22:18]

Plus, multitudes see it burning entirely. Worried, terrified, and miserable, such ones are everywhere. All these beings with offenses because of their evil karma, causes, and conditions pass through awesome periods of eons without hearing the name of a triple treasure. All those who have cultivated merit, virtue, and who are compliant, agreeable, honest, and I would add, upright, because that tread care promise has two parts. One is honesty. The other one is upright. All those who have practiced upright in the mud. It says cultivating merit and virtues. How do you restore that? You're in the mud. You're putting your roots down in the mud.

[23:20]

You're in the world of delusion. And in that world of illusion, you are what? Compliant, agreeable, honest, and cooperative. Being in the mud that way, you will see the Buddha teaching the lotus stick you're riding on. And then sometimes, for this assembly of people who are practicing this way and seeing the I speak of the Buddha's life-stand as limitless. So now, in a sense, now that we're hearing the Buddha speak about the limitless life-stand, in a way, our minds are not perverted because we're hearing his teaching. The Buddha's telling us now, as we read this, about the limitless life-stand. The Buddha is not an avert of showing up I'll be careful now not to be objective, otherwise we could back into this other situation a few lines above.

[24:29]

To those who see the Buddha only after long intervals, I speak of the Buddha as being difficult to meet. So the other challenge here is the unsurpassed pain creating a perfect diamond-drailing network moving in a hundred thousand million tropics. That's for people who see the Buddha in intervals. Other times the Buddhist say, not that we've got to make a Buddha. The Buddha is here right now, and you're ready for it. Well, I'm going to stop now for a little while just because I have a feeling like these striking points need some space between.

[25:31]

And I'm hoping we never return to that description. So I just wanted to kind of explain also that one of the chants that we often do at Soto Zen practice places is a section of one of Dolin's works called Bendo Wa. And it's a section on this on this practice of sitting upright in the midst of the self-fulfilling awareness, of sitting upright in the midst of the inconceivable Dharma. So again, we have the practice of sitting upright as an offering to the Buddhas, and sitting upright as an offering to the Dharma.

[26:44]

In the Neil chant, it says that we make offerings to the Buddhas and the Sangha. It doesn't usually talk about making offerings to the Dharma. But I think we can see our sitting practice as an offering to Buddha, but also as an offering to Dharma, or as an invitation to the Dharma which surrounds us. To sit in the midst of the awareness of the Buddha and the Dharma which are together, The Buddha is all the helpful forms of existence which are surrounding us. The Dharma is partly the teaching that clarifies that helpful existence is not separate from us. The Dharma said it is exactly our essential nature. The Dharma's teaching is that this helpfulness is something which is our nature. And we sit upright in that awareness of being helped and helping by nature, essentially beings that are helped.

[27:58]

It is our nature that we are assisted and supported. And it is our nature that we assist and support. And that nature is not separate from us. And that nature is Buddha. So we sit upright in that situation, and that's our practice. And this practice, this way we're practicing together, it says in this text that this does not appear within consciousness. In other words, it takes any conceited mutual assistance. that this, and then later it says that even if all the Buddhists tried to make it a merit of this practice, they would not be able to. And it also says that every moment of this kind of practice

[29:02]

the translation he comes to use, every moment of this practice is equally wholeness of practice, equally wholeness of enlightenment. Thank you for looking for that. So I'm looking out. Well, good. I'm impressed. Each moment of practicing in the midst of this It's a wondrous diamond. Every moment of practicing together as all Buddhas is equally wholesome enlightenment. The nun translation would be, every moment of practicing this way is the same practice and the same enlightenment as all beings. So the actual practice that we're talking about here is the same practice as all beings and the same enlightenment as all beings.

[30:07]

That's the action practice. That's the path, the true path of enlightenment. It's the practice of all of us and the enlightenment of all of us. That's the practice. We call that in the school of zazen, But some people think that zazen is what they are given, not what all beings are given. Not any other people who are sitting in a zendo with them. But the zazen that is being promoted by the Buddhists is the Buddhist zazen. And the Buddhist zazen is the same zazen, is the same practice that you have. And what is enlightenment? It's the same enlightenment like you. That's the practice.

[31:07]

And that practice, which is Udi's practice, is a narrative that can never be measured, even by all the buddhas. It can be measured but not told. It's an inconceivable narrative of an inconceivable way that we have the same practice and the same enlightenment. So our sitting is a offering to that practice. And the way we're sitting, which is the same way that everybody's sitting, But the way we're practicing, which is the same as the way everybody's practicing, that is what our sitting is offered to. So I'm doing some... I have some little story about my sitting. I do. And I offer this to the practice, which is the same practice that me and all of you and all Buddhas are offered to that practice. And I offer my enlightenment, which is not mine, separate from yours.

[32:19]

The enlightenment I have, which is the same enlightenment as you, that's the enlightenment which I offer my enlightenment to, my practice. And this enlightenment and this practice is what doesn't appear with any perception, but includes all perception, is unconstructive mystic stillness. It's an unconstructive stillness and quiet. So this actual way we're practicing together, and we all have the same practice and we're walking in the same path, it's a stillness and a silence. It's still inside. Everybody's there doing the same stillness and silence.

[33:21]

And in this stillness, mind and objects, or mind and the environment that we have, the mind and objects merge in the realization of the plane and go beyond the realization. Our mind and objects, our knowing and what we know, enters into this stillness and leaves the stillness, enters into this immediate realization and leaves the immediate realization, merges this realization and goes beyond realization. This has happened all the time. This is the practice. And it's all inconceivable and realizable. So we use our sense of stillness and we use our feeling of silence as a way to open to the actual stillness and silence.

[34:30]

So we try to make a quiet room where we can kind of remember to think a quiet. And we try to sit still in the room to remember to think of the stillness. This is our ritual stillness and ritual silence to open to the action. The action, stillness and silence, it's always there, even when we're running around like a chicken with seven heads. The one risk environment is stillness and silence, and even that combined and objects are always entering and leaving. There's tremendous activity in stillness and silence of the wonder stone. So we do the ritual of sitting still and quiet to open to actuality of unconstructed silence and stillness of innate realization.

[35:37]

Knowing that this is just this stone's And this side is just our cognitive version. This body, this posture, is just our cognitive version of Buddhist posture. That's why it's good to carve a booth. Because every time you sit, you're carving a booth. a silent, still Buddha, as a ritual to celebrate the actual silent, still, immediate meditation. And every moment there is this silent unconstructedness and stillness. That's when true dharma is fully alive.

[36:40]

But we must, you know, we must make a carved version of this. And the carved version of this is offered as an invitation to the real working. A carved mirror, a carved city, a carved stone, a carved siren, with an offering to worship, act upon the immediate realization, which will be invited to appear to us in critical You can't create a section and do this. Not all Buddhas and all Ancestors have made a complete class of enlightenment to sit up right in the midst of copy. That's part of it. That's where it sits. So all this wondrous dharma has not appeared within the system.

[37:46]

Sometimes people have recognitions of voice, which is great. They get a glimpse, which is great. But the glimpse is not the same as the state. That which can be met with recognition is even though you're seeing the realization, it's not the realization itself. It's like you can see a dance, but it's not the same dance itself. The dance is happening, whether you recognize it or not. If you recognize it, that's funny, that's wonderful. Hey, we're dancing! Oh, wonderful! I think we're dancing. Is this dancing? In fact, when I was practicing tango, somebody would be dancing at me and say, I think we're doing the tango. I think it's happening. I think it's happening. Also, some people are watching. I think you were doing it. I think it happened.

[38:49]

There are moments like that, which are very nice, very encouraging. Wow, there was a moment when I recognized the dance. That's not the dance. The dance itself gives immediate realization of the dance, recognition of it. And that's already what we've talked about earlier, which I only have 20 minutes to go into. We've talked about culture. We're a little bit into the recognition. You know, if you like recognition, then recognition is nice. It's nice to know that you're doing a dance after all that practice. It's nice to know. But more important is the dance than recognition. And the dance actually goes on before you recognize it. The teachers see the dance together, the students do. They see the dance when the two big twins are courting each other.

[39:54]

And they meet at the dance. They haven't even got, they're still bickering with each other, but they're going to film each other because they're not even close to each other. They're just connected with each other. And the dance is good. If the dance fractured, it has unconstructedness and stillness in the mind of the intern going to mind to create something that's clearly working now, but isn't going to happen. So, uh, a 50-mile over-the-head phone, the person who had this seizure, But I just felt in the meantime that in the, towards the beginning of the sutra, which is called, in English it's called the Heroic Stride Samadhi Sutra, which I've talked to you about, in the beginning of the sutra there's this wonderful Bodhisattva who has this thought, I'd like to ask the Buddha a question, a really good question.

[41:13]

And then he thinks about how good a question could be and how helpful a question could be. He wants to ask a question that helps everybody in all these innumerable ways of thinking how a question could help him. He's not the least bit trying to get an answer. He's just trying to ask a question that would really be helpful. And then he has this bodhisattva there who wants to ask this really good question. and about this really good topic. And the Buddha sees that and said, Boy, that's terrific, that question you want to ask. Go ahead, ask it. So then he asked the question, and it was a fabulous question. And the Buddha said, That really was a great question. So I appreciate your great questions and I hope that you will turn them into offerings to Buddha and hope I've made your questions and will make your questions in order to benefit innumerable beings in innumerable ways.

[42:32]

Did I tell you a story about my assistant? So one time we just had studied this, we just had discussed this section of this body software, I think it's named Drita Monty, and we were discussing this question, this skillful question asking. And, oh, by the way, after these bodhisattvas ask questions, the Buddha often says, that was a great question, and of course you've asked this question through the wheel of the world in order to help many few beings. The reason why you're asking is to help other people. You weren't trying to get anything for yourself. You already know the answer. You just want me to respond. You just want everybody to hear this question to help them, and you want them to be able to hear my response. That's what you're up to. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for bringing this question into the world and getting me to respond to it for a lot of people. So then later that day, my assistant at the time, who was mostly sitting, but I guess on his break sometimes he would chat to see if...

[43:49]

any messages or something. He went home and turned his telephone on. And the telephone rang. And this woman asked him if she could talk to him. And he said, OK. And then she said that she had a credit card that she wanted to give to him. And she was explaining the merits of the credit card. And he listened to her. And after a while, he thought, Maybe I should ask a question. That would be good. He asked a really good question that would help many readings. So he said, do you have to make a certain amount of money to get this credit card? And she said, well, yeah. She said, I think he said, well, how much money do you have?

[44:53]

She said, well, how much money do you have? And he called her and said, well, I get this small stipend with such and such amount, and I also get a scholarship too. And she said, Where are you? I think she ultimately said, that wouldn't be enough. Where are you? I said, well, that's nowhere near enough. There are you. And then he explained where he was. And she said, oh, wow. Can I come in? And he said, sure. He said, can you smoke? He said, well, no, not the actors. It was a special area, way away from the bad technology to smoke. And he said, well, thank you very much. Hey, I won't tell you her name. She'd like to sing in real life. Again, I like the feeling of bodhisattvas sitting up late in meditation halls, playfully offering their body and mind

[46:38]

as an offering to Buddha, out of playfulness. Yeah. Here's my body, here's my mind, here's my practice as an offering. And like little children yearning to meet their dear, dear Don, mother, and father. yearning to meet the Buddha so that they can meet face to face and meet the people who are just transmitting this Dharma, that they, like those children, really want to meet the great teacher of the inconceivably wonderful Dharma. And that they do this playfully, you know, enjoy and they enjoy it, so they can do it moment after moment. I want to playfully, like child-initiating, enter into a practice that's invisible. A reasonable adult would probably not do that. I'm going to sit down and enter the practice, which is the same practice and the same enlightenment as all beings.

[47:41]

Give me a break. Like a child might say, okay, that sounds like fun. The same practice and the same enlightenment as Jim and her, Wow, yeah, okay, let's try it. Let's open to it. Is there anything you'd like to do to kill it? Well, all these days of wondrous teachings and the wondrous practitioners and Lotus Dormat.

[49:25]

And the Lotus Dance Company. Just, you know, how do we not completely fall in love? And that's it, you know. In my life now, I'm finding that I'm very active. I know a lot of people where I live. I work with all kinds of people. And sometimes I get so tired of the kind of interactions with people because they're They're not practical things. I mean, I can love them and learn from them, but I find I prefer, you know, my preferences are to be seeing a sangha.

[50:30]

Well, you just took care of that very nicely. If you're practicing with people and you have any expectation, you get exhausted. created to fascinate people, but that little bit of expectation mounts up and exhausts us. Expectation is a slight distraction from giving. Or preference. Preference. Expectation. Well, so how to practice without preference? Well, when the person walks up, up will get him to be tired.

[51:36]

If they're not present, they won't appreciate you, you'll be tired. That's how it'll be. So when you're tired, you're in that mode. But when we're getting exhausted, it's okay to rest. And after the rest, we have some energy to give it another try and say, now can we go back and meet these people, these beings, as a gift, right? As giving ourselves rather than arranging to fulfill a purpose or arranging to fulfill an expectation. Or if we have expectations and preferences, make them gifts. Just give them away to somebody we like who needs some expectations and preferences. If you know anybody that's short on them, But we notice that we prefer to be generous with Disciples of Buddha and that's we can place that Mm-hmm.

[53:04]

Can you give us one consequence of that preference, preferencing? Well, I just, yeah, I wonder how really practical it is. How practical what is? Well, because my preferences, you know, I get so... Time is so short now. Oh, I have that situation. I sometimes think, there's that situation where people are inviting me, and this situation where people are inviting me, which one should I go to? I think, well, in that situation, I don't think I'm you. In this situation, I think I am. but there's a function which only I can perform there. But yes, I do. So it seems like I prefer to go to the one where I seem to be more needed than the one where I don't seem to be needed.

[54:09]

So then I have a problem if I prefer that. So how can I go to the one where I think I'm needed and not go to the one where I don't think I'm needed without the servant going to the reasonable one? Therefore, it's only a waste of time. That's the truth, OK? It's possible to go the right way to top of . I care some people who are like, you know, yeah, they seem to be doing something. They don't need my help. And over here, they seem to be doing something. They're needing my help. So maybe I should go in the direction they need my help. But it'd be nice if I didn't prefer to go in the way where it's really useful. Actually, I wouldn't avoid going someplace where I'm really useless and where people wouldn't even notice whether I'm there or not. Sometimes I think, you know, maybe I should go to the dining room, you know, and just be with people.

[55:14]

And they go there and I sit down and nobody even notices that I'm there. I think, well, I could have went, but you see, didn't seem to be of any use. Maybe it was. I didn't see it. Maybe on some very strong level, they were happening, and I was helping them. But in this other place where, on the superficial level, it was pretty clear that it was happening, they said, thank you very much for . So it looks like, on the level I can see, it looks like this would be what I'm used to. And the level I can't see, It's useful over here, but I can't see it. So on the left, I can't see it. This is useless. I'm wasting my time. Nobody wants me here. You know, they're asking me to come. And now that I've come, they don't even acknowledge my presence. So it's kind of tough. Key to having a preference. I laughed. I might have had a preference about Stacey. But I might realize that I should probably should keep tracking his preferences.

[56:16]

I'm the main one who knows about it. So I've got this preference. That's the problem. That's the actual complex. That's the actual nurture of mud. It's my preference to be all that useful and not to be what I'd like redundant for a waste of time. But I do all inherit that situation where I feel like, be useful here, but not useful there, and maybe be good for me, or be why I'm useful. So like for my grandson, I'm a superficial lover. I feel like I'm really useful to him, because one of my grandsons really only has one grandfather, and I'm the... Because of some problems with his father being kind of really missing point, or not being around. So his father's father is not available. So he's got basically one grandfather, and I get, so I really get useful to serve his function as grandfather to him. It seems really good.

[57:17]

It's the only little boys who I don't, they got, like I have another grandson who has five grandfathers. Just to break things work out, he has five, and he's wonderful. So I don't feel it's necessary again, although that's how I mean ages. And I do still pay homage to him and give myself to him, but I feel like if one loop only has one, I'm more needed. But I, like I watched Kurt, prefer being where I'm more needed to where I seem to be less needed. That's my problem. that I can share that problem with you and you can help me. But basically, I'm the one who knows that I prefer . So that's something you watch out for. Like if you were 60 people, you know? who was studying the deep end of Italy, and one person 1,000 miles away said, would you come and visit me?

[58:25]

You'd be, see, that's a tough one. I'm willing to fill it up to get on an airplane and stay here with all these students rather than going through all that stuff to do this thing, which I'm not even sure is of much use. It's tough. Is there a preference there? If there's no preference, we'll move anywhere we happen. I think the door would open to the Dharma. We would understand. We would understand how everybody, the people far away who are asking us to come are helping us, and we're helping them. But I think it's just, it's preferencing. It's when you think a jewel for you. And for me, too, it's like, take care of it and study. Right, but you know, it's just very... Related to the teachings you're bringing up, inspiring people to fall in love with the Dharma.

[59:28]

I mean, that's really what... I've been reading several commentaries on the Bodhisattva and, you know, it's fall in love, every other word, it's what they're suggesting to you. You know? I agree. Yeah. So if you do that... Yep. Then to make a step, you know, it's hard to fall in love with everybody. No, no, no, no. That's the nice thing about the Lotus Sutra. It makes it easier to fall in love with everybody. That's the nice thing about the Lotus Sutra. The law of the Lotus Sutra says, If somebody you're not loving, you should go over and spend time with them. Your love should be extended to that person. It points you in all the places that you should go. It tells you to do this universal thing. That's the nice thing about the Bodhisattva Sutra.

[60:30]

It tells you, close the sutra now. You've fallen in love with me. Now take me away. Even my neighbor who tells me it's a shame that I'm a Buddhist, But at the same time, I'm learning with the rapture. What is it? It's quite incredible. Yeah, and take that person's woman into an offering to Buddha. You have to offer it to Christ. Give yourself to him. Make yourself a gift to Buddha to him. Thank you very much. Thank you. Buddha loves Christians.

[61:42]

Buddha loves Jews. Buddha loves Muslims. Buddha loves atheists. Buddha even loves our students. Well, this morning you talked about the handwriting of the lotus trough. And I really want to push the way, squeeze the way, slide away. I get awkward. So may I offer you the handwriting of the lotus trough in Chinese? But can I write over to you? So I got a chance to be able to do that. Niao. Niao. Hwa.

[62:44]

Hwa. Hwa. Chi. Nien. [...] Yeah, writing in space is very ecological. And then can I draw the footy flower, well, you say the mushroom, the footy flower part out from on the earth, and you mention about the mushroom.

[63:47]

Well, I don't think I can make the sculpture. I want to sculpt. But can I just draw myself in the air? I don't care. I can... All I think that I need to do is play a mixture act before I die. You can draw a mushroom because you don't. And I think I want to share with you as well, when I... So when I know you will probably follow, those have to drop. So I read the scripture again. And last time when I mentioned to you, often I read a part of all of the Star Wars. Talk from Earth, I feel released, and then I won't take a break. You want a break? Well, that's last time when I do that, and I mentioned to you, and then for you to say it.

[64:52]

say, okay, I can take a break. But this time, when I read, I feel that I won't join those groups. And I think I have those two. I think I have it. I will bring it in tomorrow. Okay, thank you. Any other offerings today? Just to hear, gratitude for answering my question and many others. Thank you.

[66:15]

So I have to confess, I find the Lotus Sutra difficult to understand, but your teachings have been really valuable for me. I guess this whole time I've been really noticing how many judgments come up for me around lots of people and how much of a separation that is from, well, how painful that feels, first of all. and then what kind of a separation that feels like from the true Dharma, I guess, or the true relationship, and then to just the process of just, I guess you can use the word confessing, or just acknowledging that disconnection. and then just kind of letting it go. And I guess it's just a process of bringing awareness to these places where we're stuck with our preferences and where other people and parts of ourselves rub up against us.

[67:22]

And we experience them in a way that feels very separate. And it's very painful, and I've noticed that before. But I just feel like you've given a teaching that's just very, very practical. And so I just wanted to thank you for it. And it's also... I just wanted to say that you said to just acknowledge it, but then you said it's painful. So just acknowledge it and then also feel the pain. Acknowledgement is the confession part. But then you feel the pain. That also is part of the process. Because that's what... It stimulates you to want to find your way even to judge people without separating. Because you can judge someone else, whatever, without separating. Yes. It's possible, yeah. But if you judge and separate, then you notice the judgment, you're aware of the judgment, and the separation, and the pain.

[68:27]

And the pain is being able to judge without separating. Like the judge would say, oh, that's just like me. You know, the judge says, oh, they're that way, but that's me. Or that way, and that's how I connect with them. Or that way, and that's how I look. Or that way, and that's how I'm separated from them. But the pain of that separation, when you feel it, will push you back to not necessarily getting up the separation, I'm giving up the discrimination of the judgment, the judge without separating. The judge can relax, the judge can be warm, can be gracious with the judgment. So one kind of judgment you feel like pulling away, another kind of judgment you feel like going towards, that just separates you in both. You feel that in both. It's a different type of that. But if you're literally gracious with the separation, then you start to be gracious with the discrimination and the judgment, and then the judgment is cured.

[69:39]

Judgment is cured. And then you start treating the judgment, all the different judgments, the same. You can teach all the judgments the same, there'll be no separation. And so in that judging without separation, is that the way that we can Sort of enjoy our relative selves, our relative differences? Maybe enjoy it, yeah. So the non-discriminating wisdom, or non-judgmental wisdom, you could say, doesn't mean you don't discriminate or judge. It just means that you treat all your discriminations the same. So discriminating this way, you're gracious. Discriminating that way, you're gracious. So you relax with the discriminations of good and bad, skillful and unskillful, friend and enemy. But me, I don't think friend and enemy, because some people are wearing a badge that says, friend. And they want me to see that and recognize that. So you say, OK, I see.

[70:41]

It says friend and enemy. And they say, right. And you treat them the same as somebody who brings the sign that says friend. If you accept a friend's sign, you can say, right. You're treated the same. Do you treat them exactly the same, or you treat them with the same understanding? Exactly the same, in the sense that you're generalized with both. Okay, in the sense that you're generalized with both. But in one case, you say, oh, you're an enemy. And they say, right. In another case, you say, oh, you're a friend. And they say, that's right. And you talk different. You know? And... In both cases, though, but if a person's holding up a sign, the entity sign, is somebody who's happy and enlightened, you know, you're happy to see them. You don't have to envy them. If somebody's got a friend sign, but they're all heightened, you've fallen, and thunk in misery, you feel pain. So you see different things, you discriminate, but you treat both ends. And the same for the parts of ourselves, too, I would guess.

[71:43]

Well, when somebody shows you a sign that's an enemy, that's totally part of you. It's a different part of you, because it's the source of the sign. Right. So you relate everything, you relate your mind and the objects of your mind the same, namely generously, namely ethically, and so on. And in particular, you're noticing this key factor of Judgment, separation, pain. The pain will push you to find judgment, period. Judgment, period. Judgment, cushion. He's a man, period. That's just the way he is. He's just the kind of person who says, that's it. That's enough. That's what you need out. That has only one thing to do. And then you have the solitary, which is to judge, And separate, it hurts. It's a pain, discomfort. If you feel that, I will guide you to find a way to have a genuine little mind without letting you separate.

[72:54]

If you generous with a genuine little mind, it's separating function deteriorates, or it gets disarmed. So it's the same, you start maybe with the generousness towards the judgemental mind, and then that relationship also becomes the generousness of the object that you were judging. It's just, maybe it's just one relationship. I mean, it's that sort of... You come to realize that the person was giving you a gift, and they brought you themselves so you could judge them. Absolutely, yeah. So it's full of directions. And when you see that, then there's no separation, and it's more painful, and there's no fear. Before that comes, you have this helper, which is noticing of the genitive and separation and pain, and that feeling that is the repenting that gets you back on the path with realizing the blind of others.

[73:56]

Thank you very much. I went skiing with an old friend named Foster. Known him since the seventh grade. And it took a lot of trouble for us to get away from the wives and get a few days off together on the ski slopes. And the first morning of the ski part of it, he came down with gout. because he had foolishly, I think, drunk some red wine and taken some aspirin right before. So I got to ski a couple of days by myself instead of with my friend.

[75:00]

And one day I was riding back on the bus. I didn't have that much to do, so I had been thinking about and thinking, chanting that Om Mani Peme Hum, the jewel is in the lotus. And I was chanting that on the way down and I started chanting it more and more slowly and now I had this thought that Foster and I are just a couple of fuck-ups. We're just almost 60 years old and we're still a couple of fuck-ups. And that's when something really clear about the jewel and the lotus and the dharma and the mud really came through because you never lose your imperfections, but you never lose your perfection either. No, I've never lost it.

[76:02]

And that helps me quit beating up on myself and others so much. And you helped me, yeah. I've helped you too much. Put your roots down into the imperfection. Embrace, lovingly embrace the imperfection. Relax with the imperfection. And give attention to the imperfection. And then eat it graciously. And notice, well, Charlie, So let us continue then, practice which is the same practice, the same enlightenment as all beings.

[76:59]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_75.32