Absolutely. So they're talking about the first bodhisattva precept, which is going to refuge in the Buddha. And going to refuge in Buddha is one of those practices which almost all the different

[01:04]

Buddhist tradition practice. And then after the decades, we have the three chair precepts. And the three chair precepts are, the three chair precepts, the three Bodhisattva precepts, are the body of the Buddha. So, in a sense, those precepts go back to and rely on Buddha. And the next precepts are like, in a way, the embodiment of the body of the Buddha. I don't know exactly where this juxtaposition of the body of Buddha with the three third precepts, when it started in Mahayana tradition.

[02:17]

But I first saw it in teachings of the Thich Nhat Hanh pastor. That he put the three bodies of Buddha in correspondence with the three third precepts. And I'll try which one it actually was. The pairing is a church peer precept, which is a precept of discipline and bonds and ceremonies. That precept is It's not exactly corresponding to what's called the Dharma body or the true body of Buddha.

[03:24]

It's the Dharma body of Buddha. And then the second precept, which is the precept of practicing all good, that precept putting correspondence with what's called the reward body or the enjoyment body of Buddha. The third precept is the precept of replacing sustaining or curing all feelings. That precept is putting correspondence with the transformation body of Buddha. So those three bodies And it's different with the same, but in a different way. In Sanskrit, they're called dharmakaya, kaya body, dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya.

[04:27]

Dharmakaya, truth, law body. Sambhogakaya means bliss or spiritual orgasm. And pneumonia means transformation or even like magical, or magical phantom appearances that can be appearing in various forms that might be useful to people, to beings, not just people. It can be appearing as a person, for example, a person, a human for human beings, a dog for dog. a plant per plant. The first precept

[05:40]

And again, the way they get Chinese is that to embrace and sustain the precepts of the directions of forms and families. And that character embraces the same, which I said I'd post, and I haven't posted it yet. I can't find it in my notes. I may know how to write it, but I have it written down someplace. Anyway, this character embraces the same that goes with this precept. Yet the character, the usual meaning of the character of Joshua, which is very compatible with the Buddha Dharma, is that it has an active and a passive understanding. And that's in accord with Parviz, that I'm receiving support my distance is because I am nothing but the reception.

[06:46]

I'm nothing in addition. I'm not the least bit of anything in addition to receiving support. Out of all my support, that's me. I'm nothing in addition to that. So I am a receptive phenomena. I am the phenomena of reception. But also, I give. I'm active. I receive a being of the active. I'm also active. So when it comes to these precepts, I embrace and sustain them, and I embrace and sustain by them. So in the way of practicing them is already included, cutting through the distinction of active and passive. If you practice the first precept, the first pure precept, or if you say, in the practice of this first precept, if you're over on the active side and not realizing the passive side, you're caught by the distinction between active and passive.

[07:56]

And if you're caught by the distinction of active and passive in the practice of these forms, Buddhist forms, these then-forms, if you're caught by that, it's not the precept. It's practicing one's inherent knowledge from the afterthought. It's practicing them, but it's not the body itself that proves that. But it is a precept. You know, you're following the schedule, you're cleaning the window, you're sitting up straight, you're prostrating pretty much properly, you're offering incense, you're talking to the teacher, you're listening to the teacher, and you're doing all these forms that people have always done in the tradition. Which is good, generally. However, It's not the Bodhisattva precept. The Bodhisattva precept is when you use practice, but do not call that a distinction of active and passive.

[09:03]

Also, if you think, oh, everybody's supporting me to do this practice, and I'm just receiving the practice. If you do that one side, That's not the Bodhisattva precept, because you're caught by the distinction. You're caught by the discrimination between action or active and passive. This precept is when you're involved with the practices, with regulations, with the ceremonies. The ceremonies are happening, but you're not caught by the distinction. That's the Buddha. And that's the dharmakaya. That's the Buddha. That's the true body of Buddha. It's when you're living your life, not caught by distinction, any distinction. You're not caught by the distinction between self and the Buddha, for example.

[10:10]

And actually, we have little chants that we sometimes do while we're doing some of the forms of . For example, when prostating, they had a chance to do it like that. Kind of accumulate a lot of calories in this room. So when bowing, you have to bow with a chant, which is person bowing, person bowing, their nature, no nature. But actually, it has the character for bowing when it has the tactic markers, and the character for bowing, and the tactic marker.

[11:13]

So the one who is exceeding the bow, the Buddha, and the one who's getting involved, like the prostrator. They have the same nature. They don't have a nature. In other words, it really isn't the nature of the receiver. There's nothing substantial about the receiving side, and there's nothing substantial about the passive side. They're both ungrateful. Realizing that, you're not just on one side or the other. My body, the other body, is not truth. You embark in the Buddha, It's a form, additional form. And if I'm not caught by the distinction between ourselves and the other, between this body and that body, between active and passive, that's the voice of the preceptor. If we're caught by it, we're doing probably a wholesome thing. That's not the voice of the preceptor. It's not the dharmakaya, not the true body of Buddha. It's not the body of Buddha.

[12:17]

But the body of Buddha is when somebody does something about the Buddha, not taught about it. None of these forms are harmful. In itself, if you're cruel about them, there's nothing selfish about them. And then if you practice them, not taught by distinction, they continue to be. not comfortable. However, if they're not, if they're not comfortable, if they're non-cruel, non-evil, connected with a mind which is not caught by the distinction between evil and good. So you're avoiding evil by doing this form, by following these regulations. You're avoiding it, which is fine, which is good, The Buddha taught his disciples, avoid evil.

[13:19]

They heard him taught them, avoid evil without being caught by the distinction between good and evil. At the beginning, he didn't make that point. He just said, avoid evil. We'll talk later. Someday I'll tell you that I told you to avoid evil, but I didn't say to attach to the distinction between good and evil. You did. And I didn't trust you for that. But now it's time for me to tell you, you're a big kid now. You want to be Buddha. You want to live on the true body of Buddha. Now it's time to avoid evil and let go of the distinction between good and evil. Now that's the Buddhist doctrine. Someone said to me earlier in the retreat, but don't you have to attach to not killing or not abusing children?

[14:21]

If you are attached to not abusing children, and then you don't abuse children, I would say, fine, if you don't abuse children. But attaching to it makes it not avoid proper action. What do you practice? Practice not abusing children because they want to not abuse children. They love not abusing people. They do it out of desire, out of love, not out of attachment to avoiding evil. But if you're attached to avoiding evil and you avoid evil and say, well, good, you avoid evil. Now, people can do it in a spiritual way. rather than the typical way. You need to find a way of avoiding evil, not from attaching to the evil which is separate from the good, but avoid evil because you're committed to avoid evil.

[15:30]

You want to avoid evil. And your commitment is so clear and so strong, you don't need attachment anymore. Sometimes you don't need it, but it hangs in you by hand. It's actually, I can be good to people. I don't need to be attacked to be good to people. I can say, well, what's the attachment now? I haven't had it come in the past, so I don't have to think. And I could drop it, and I'd still, actually, I'd be more into it. The attachment's actually slightly constricting my kindness. But it's not just to be free. It's to unleash. the love that we feel that we've got to touch. But yeah, quite, you know, dedicated practitioners think, don't you have to be attached to not killing?

[16:37]

I mean, and we get to be attached to not killing ourselves. You don't have to. That's better if you're not. In fact, it's not killing without a passion for it. It's more enjoyable that way, actually. It's much higher. That's the Dharma body of Buddha. And the Dharma body is also described as vast, like space. And it responds to being vast. Not being caught. And let it take heart to the welfare of the die-mongering. And that that is the non-attachment even to that getting beaten.

[17:43]

Shouldn't you? No. Not in the dumps, though. The attachment will hinder your ability, not your ability, but the ability to respond. And then, I'm not going to go into it right now, I don't think, but the spawning story, or spawning stories, They were about this bad dharma body responding to being. The first three were two beings that both had realized the dharma body was responding to each other. The second one was about one being who had realized the dharma body was responding to one who had not yet. Time to initiate. the second body, into the first body.

[18:46]

And take 52 of the Book of Serenity. That's on with one of the, I think it's , says the Dharma body, the true body of Buddha is like that face. yet it can respond to being. And then he says to himself, the monk, what's the principle of response? And the other monk says, it's like a donkey looking into the well. And he says, pretty good. He got 8% of that one. And then actually, the other master said, well, what would you say? He said, I would say it's like the well looking at the donkey. There's a principle by which that space, spacious, unattached love responds to being.

[20:03]

And then the next tiered precept is called practicing all good. And there, too, there is a commitment to practice good together with not being caught by the distinction between good and evil. First, there's commitment to practice these forms, which avoid evil. There's no attachment to the form Now there's a commitment to practice good, which is not necessarily formal. We need wide open good. It could include the previous behaviors, but it's not formal. The work of formality has been done by previous ones. So in this tradition, is that the Bodhisattva tradition, the Zen tradition, goes very well with it. The initiation into the true body comes through formality, using form.

[21:12]

And so the nice thing about Zen is that you have forms that you use, and you can enter the practice without attaching to being on time and being in the station, between being on time and being late. Practice the form of being on time without being attached to being on time. Being on time doesn't hurt other people. But if you're attached to being on time, you might hurt other people that are linked. Do you understand that? Doing orioki doesn't hurt people. But if you're attached to the form of doing orioki, you might hurt people, especially yourself. Look at that person over there. Look what they're doing to us. We're never going to get the pets for you if you sign the rules now because that's easy.

[22:17]

What are you doing? These forms are not harmful. They're avoiding evil, but if you attack them, they could backfire. Now we have by the formal method we've now entered into the time of body activity and now we're ready to enjoy it. Now comes the joy. The first part is like, cut away the attachment to discrimination.

[23:18]

Stop that, stop that, stop that. No, no, no, drop it. Just do it. Got attachment? Yeah. Ooh, wow. No, not even that. Don't distinguish between how and not how, or knowing how and not knowing how. Don't get caught by the difference in knowing and not knowing how to do these forms. Now we have pure dhamma body, pure dhammakaya, cosmic radiant photography. Now we have fun. Now we talk about good. But again, practicing good, not liking good, and hating not good. Practicing good without liking it, and not to mention, of course, without hating. You hate good. But how about not like it?

[24:20]

Not like it? What do you mean, not like it? Yeah, I'm not kidding. This is a body traffic crucial. Isn't that wild? Wholeheartedly practice good. Okay, fine. But wouldn't liking it make it more wholehearted? No. It makes it less wholehearted. Wholehearted is a takeaway to liking and disliking. Then it's more wholehearted. More happiness. More better happen. More and more happy, happy happen. They look at the injured. Avoid evil, yeah, but not hate evil. Like, avoid. without discriminating between evil and good. Now do good without discriminating between good and evil.

[25:23]

Okay? That's the enjoyment. You get to do good with the end of the thing and doing good. Like you may have noticed. Very enjoyable. Even more enjoyable if you don't like it or dislike it. Try it. I've heard of you. Now, that's the bliss body I put in. Then, the merit of these two bodies, of these two other practices, then turned over to help others be transformed into helping. And when you transform it, again, you transform it without being caught by Then you can finish. And then it's Bodhisattva practice for getting in that creative. Those three together are the three pilates.

[26:26]

Three sets of the Bodhisattva. Those three together are the body of the three bodies of Buddha. The whole filter of the Buddha's body. And one of the same stories are about reaching precepts and using the transformation body to initiate people into the edited body. And of course, with the transformation body and using the edited body, they're transformed into what will induct people into these practices. So just to practice avoiding ego, or practicing form and ceremony, and just to practice good, and just to practice helping people, those are practices. And they sound pretty good to me, but to then compare the meditation practices with Buddha, surrounding them by a context of not being caught by distinction between the three, or within the three, conversing in body, thought, and action.

[27:43]

When I first started hearing about this teaching and meditating on it, I was kind of surprised. So maybe you are. I was happily surprised. Wonderful. I don't know how you feel. Anything back on now? Are you surprised? Are some of you surprised? You don't have to be. Are you trying to form a volunteer? Yeah. Are you trying to form a volunteer with me? I wonder what... I'm a little confused about not discriminating and doing something .

[29:04]

You hear her really well? No. I'm sorry. I think we're doing okay. Really? Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, great. All right. You're confused about... Do me something wholeheartedly and not discriminate it. But sometimes when I do something and it would seem to me that it's being done in a non-discriminating way, I'm not sure that there's enough effort there or that it is wholeheartedly. And I don't know how to tell, and I don't know if it matters, I think I addressed it before. I don't mind addressing it again. But what I said before was something like, if you put a little bit of energy into something, like, for example, if you put a little bit of energy into cleaning the sand gum, just a little bit, or even quite a bit, and then people come in and trash it,

[30:15]

you might not notice that you're caught by the distinction between clean and dirty. And if you put all your energy, don't hold back at all, in the clean and the dirty, and then people come in and trash it, it makes it easier for you to see if you have any attachment to the distinction between clean and dirty. Actually, I would even add that it's actually, I would say, that you really can't put your whole heart into cleaning if you have some attachment to the distinction between clean and dirty. We can't actually give you a whole thing, but you can give a little bit. while still having the attachment to the distinction between clean and dirty? You can give a little bit, of course. You can give none, of course.

[31:19]

Right? Does that make sense? Oh, I think it does. Doesn't it make sense? I was kind of halfway before you. I'm so proud of you. I'm hearing it. Don't go to that one. She asked. Yeah, let's go to that. So do you realize it's possible to not put any energy into cleaning your dendo? Like, yeah, look, here's a dendo. You live in Cleveland. You could feel like, I didn't make any effort to clean that dendo. It's possible to feel like you're not trying at all. Then you're coming up to a retreat, and you get assigned to the cleaning crew, and you just do a little cleaning a little bit. Who is that? But then you do much more than that, okay? And when you do much more, it's easier to find if you have any attachments to it being cleaned. Because then it's people like, if somebody comes in and says, who cleaned this thing though? Is Jason cleaning it? Yeah, I tried really hard to clean it.

[32:24]

I gave it a lot of effort. They did a really lousy job. And then if you're caught by the distinction between quality and good, or clean and dirty, then you pick out milk. Now, if you didn't try at all, and you did a lovely job, you think, I know, no problem. But you don't have a problem. You don't think you have a problem, because you're depressed. But you . You know, you don't notice that you're attached to cleaning therapy. But if you put more energy into cleaning, then it's not too difficult to find out if you're attached to the distinction between cleaning therapy. Now, when you give up the distinction, then you can really wholeheartedly clean. And after that, when you finally can wholeheartedly clean, No, you're just in talk.

[33:25]

You're not even there anymore. You're just a clean machine. Then people can, like, dirty this window, and if you're not in talk, you're done. And you feel like, wow, job security. Thank you very much. Whatever, you know. Or do something else. One that's lovely. And the phones look like they're not. I need another example. I have a... I have an example. Okay, great. It's really a question. When I'm ringing the bell, okay, and then sometimes the bells get rung in a way that sounds... I can't distinguish whether it sounds good a lot of time or not. And sometimes it's This is louder. The next one's quieter.

[34:25]

And then it's like, oh, OK. And then I just think, OK, next time. And so then I think, oh, I need to be suffering, because if I'm not suffering more about this, maybe it means I don't care, really, that I'm not doing this wholeheartedly. But when I'm doing it, it seems to be really wholehearted. Yeah, quite a bit of heart. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Really? Right. Yeah. So then I thank you. If you're hitting the bell and you feel like, boy, you know, that was pretty wholehearted. Maybe not completely, but pretty good. I feel like I wanted to do it well. I don't know if it was, but I wanted to. I really put a lot of myself into the bell. Okay? Mm-hmm. And then the question is, is it going to be pretty easy for me to find out whether you're attached to doing it well, not doing it well, or doing it low-heartedly, or doing it half-heartedly?

[35:27]

And I would say, you're becoming a candidate for some education about catching kids' speech. But if you didn't feel like you made much effort, you hit the bell and say, I don't really care about the bell. I don't care whether it's on wood or not, or whether it's on pine or not. And I barely even care enough to lift my arm to hit it. And then I come up to you and I say, Kathy, there's something a little bit, you need to work on this bell with me today. Because you're like, oh yeah, okay, fine. I don't care. Mm-hmm. And you might be quite attached to the distinction between hitting it and not hitting it. That doesn't show. When people make an effort, like you hit the ball, ring the bell, and you [...] get pretty good, get more and more skillful.

[36:32]

and then you get sort of promoted to the teacher of the bell ringing. Okay, put it in. Thank you. You start training people at bell ringing. You put a lot of energy, blood, sweat, and tears into training them. And then they do something not related to what you taught them. Yeah. And you feel perhaps a lot of self. Yeah. Horrible. Yeah. Thank you very much. Then you see that you were attached to doing it properly and not doing it properly. Then you see now you've got some ways to work. And then you go and you say, not to them necessarily, but you could even to them say, I confess to the Buddhist. I'm trying to practice this because the fact is the only example.

[37:38]

I've been putting a lot into it, still clinging to the distinction between the proper way and the other way. Matter of fact, the proper way and evil way. I'm caught. And then if you keep working with people, they generally will keep giving you the gift of continuing to do it, not the way you taught them. Some of them are intentionally doing that to try to help you. Some of them are just, you know, they've got their own problems. They're terrified that you're going to hate them. They can make a mistake, so they can make a mistake, because they're so frozen with fear that you will hate them after you've made this big effort. If they make the slightest mistake, so then they freeze and you make nothing but mistakes.

[38:41]

They can't remember anything you taught them. And you do it. And you hate them. Because you made such a big effort to teach them. And they hate you for hating them. And everybody's aware that they're attached to the distinction between discrimination. But everybody's got plenty to confess. And you keep working on them. Finally, you're not caught anymore. After being caught many times and noticed many times. Caught, caught, caught, caught, caught. I know how to do these things. I know how to teach these people. And when I put my whole heart into it, and I don't just teach people the way we learn and do it. I let various people learn this thing. So then, therefore, if I open the door to people who aren't already professionals at this, we have a variety of performances.

[39:41]

And one of our people here is a band teacher, a high school band teacher. Anyway. Then you can see, because you put your heart into it to help these people learn and to make a good Zen Lord, it has beautiful sounds and it runs on time, on the right instruments, for the right reasons, and things don't go that way. After many freak-outs and many confessions of freaking out, finally the day comes when it happens according to plan, and you don't like it logistically. Or it happens according to chaos, and you don't like it or dislike it. And then, now we have precepts that are not that real. But there's a tendency for people not to put their whole, not to put, again, I would say you can't put your whole heart into it until you realize it, but you can put in 99%, or 95%,

[40:45]

And if you put in 95%, you're much more likely to notice the attachment when you put in 2%. So put in as much as you can, as much as you're capable of, and then you make yourself a fitting duck for education to notice that you're clinging to the distinctions. Is that clear enough? It gives me a lot of work right now. Thank you for the question. So again, you know, the practice is giving. Giving with no expectation. If you give a little bit, and you have some expectations, you might not notice you have the expectations. But if you give a lot, then you have expectations.

[41:53]

And, of course, it doesn't go the way you thought. Then you notice, oh, I must have had expectations. There's a story about Nagarjuna, a great Indian teacher. And he had a wonderful disciple named, whose name was Aryadeva, which means a noble deity, Ayurveda. And there was a big, powerful magician up in northern India who was defeating all the Buddhist masters in the state. And so they called Nagarjuna to come and, you know, whatever that guy, disengage, neutralize him. Nagarjuna was busy, I don't know, making cupcakes or something. So he sent his student, who was also a great master, to debate this guy. And he said to his student, on the way, you will be asked for something.

[42:57]

Well, you may be asked for a gift. And go right ahead and give it. But be careful. If you have any expectation and regret the gift if it doesn't go the way you expect, You want the gift back. But if you give it and have no regrets, no matter what happens, you'll get it back, whatever it is that you're after. So he's driving along, and he meets a blind beggar. And the beggar said, can I have one of your eyes? And he takes out one of his eyes and gives it to the beggar. But of course, the beggar didn't have plant technology. So then you try to put the eye in, and it doesn't work. Then he gets angry and smashes it on his thumb. And R.U. Davis sees that, and regrets having given. He was a great practitioner, but there was a little bit of expectation he'd give.

[44:03]

If there's expectation in the giving, it's not the bodhisattva giving. And again, if you give a little bit, like your fingernail, and somebody tries to put it on the end of their fingernail, it's not what you need to do with it. And then they say, ah, it doesn't work, and they throw it in the garbage. You kind of go, hey, I'm going to touch. But if it's one of your eyes, and they smash it, you think, huh. I thought they were going to use it for some good purpose. Well, they're not giving. But that's the principle. Do you want to get something? Which one would you want? I don't know. Earlier, in the last talk, you mentioned that when you have anxiety or fear, that's an indicator that you're attached or that you're caught in discrimination.

[45:31]

Yep. I did say that. Is that the same as sadness? No. I hear you. I hear that. Sadness is... I distinguish between sadness and depression. Sadness and grief, I consider to be a medicine that a healthy body offers to a not fully enlightened person. It is this... sadness, for example, you see a situation, or you're even told a situation, that is somebody's injured, hurt, killed, anything of that nature, and sadness comes. Is that not part of discriminating consciousness that becomes caught in the story of that situation that they either saw or heard about?

[46:42]

To me, sadness is a sign of being caught by discrimination. It's an indication that we probably are caught by some discrimination. So I think sadness is medicine for somebody who's caught. The sadness itself is not discrimination. It's a healthy, it's kind of like a medicine for people who are caught by discrimination. It's not ultimate medicine. It's a temporary medicine. It's like first aid. It's not the cure. So generally speaking, when things change, if we do not accept the change and hold on and tense up, then it's a healthy action. And if you open to the sadden, you might let go of what you want. much stuff to walk in. Then you're back like you, in the present.

[47:48]

And now you work with your, you know, your actual present situation. That's why I think sadness. So sadness would be? Sadness is different, for example, than fear and anxiety. Is there a difference between getting upset and being sad? Yeah. I wouldn't use sad for getting upset. You can get upset about being sad. People do. But generally speaking, when I'm sad, I do not get upset. I generally think when I feel sad, I just stop as much as I can, and it's over, too. I consider it like, it's like, kind of like, I'm getting this message. Eat this sadness. Open to this sadness, and you will be refreshed. And generally speaking, I have pretty much profile. When that sadness comes and re-comes, if I accept it and open to it and feel it, I feel refreshed by opening to it.

[48:51]

Would you use the same method with anxiety? With anxiety? Would I open to it? Yes. However, the anxiety doesn't go away when you open. The sadness will go away. once you're open to it. You may come back later to a future attachment, but the anxiety stays open to it. And then when you're open to it and relaxed, then you can start to look, where's the attachment? Where's the discrimination I'm holding on to? Oftentimes, you can find it quite quickly. If there are events, find them, the discrimination that you're Is there a threshold where you've gotten too far with sadness to where opening to it would not cause that? I see a sadness sort of as a continuum where you have sadness and then it becomes depression, despondency.

[49:54]

Depression is not depression. I don't think depression comes of being saddened. I think depression comes from thinking about laws and arguing about laws, fighting. Now, I think some people say, no, no, depression is more physiological. But that physiology and the thinking are connected in my sense. And some people physiologically or even genetically You know, it's immediately preconditioned to fight law and argue about it, think about it a lot. But if you think in certain ways, it has neurochemical consequences. which go with the depressed neurochemistry. And medicine can help that. But the psychological thinking actually is different than the thinking that can drive sadness.

[51:00]

Sadness does not come from repetitively arguing about loss. It actually comes more from a more healthy response of the body to clinging It would be good if you let go. I don't know how to get you to let go if you would feel this. If you open to this, you will let go at the same time. It's like your forearms tense, and if somebody can throw you a ball and you open your hand to catch the ball, your forearms relax. So it's like if you open to this sadness, some other part of you lets go. Depression, you can't just open to it. and the person doesn't come from opening to some feeling. In some cases, if I find out the person seems to be depressed rather than sad, I wouldn't recommend that you just sit quietly and open to it.

[52:03]

In that case, I would recommend either that they take medication, you know, homeopathic or pharmaceutical-y, take medication, do something with their body and mind that will reorganize their, you know, processes to balance the chemistry. So generally thinking of something depressed, I find that it can help them if they do symmetrical physical activity. Like swimming, running, not tennis. Or golf. But, um, Garden work, kitchen work, dancing, especially dancing when you pull aside your body and get to play. These kinds of things change the psychophysical situation. I think of good medicine. And then there's also medicine, which is basically the same thing as exercise.

[53:08]

And I don't mean to be polite about this, because I know it's a terribly, terribly challenging question. But I hadn't. I had a very positive training like that. I think the sign of health in a person who's got a problem with cleaning is that self-medication. The body offers the medicine, and all you got to do is open to it, and you're cured of that problem. Then you're back to it. in the normal situation of where you're present, the combinations that you're helped by and that you're anxious about. So when you notice that someone intoxicated out of your mind, so taking pharmaceutical drugs in that instance would not be violating that procedure? Again, that precept can be practiced on a level that would be, what do you call it?

[54:21]

You could literally not be violating that precept by taking medication, literally not violating it. But it wouldn't be before you stopped the precept unless you did that precept with no attachment to discrimination. But you could take medication. without it being an intoxicant and not violate that precept. But you wouldn't accomplish that precept if you discriminated between depression and not depression. And it's possible to be depressed, although it's not easy to be depressed and not discriminate between being depressed and not being depressed. and realize that precept while still being depressed. And take medication without being caused by the discrimination between taking medication and not taking medication.

[55:26]

All this can be practiced as a given gift. You can take medication as medication as an act of giving yourself a message without any expectation of reward. And the reward could come or not, but you ingested or accepted the medication with no expectation of reward. You accepted the medication as an act of generosity, or you accepted it with a generous mind. with no expectation. And then sometimes the reward doesn't come, and sometimes a reward does come. If it doesn't come, you're cool. If it does come, you're cool. I got a lot of clothes on.

[56:39]

Thank you for trying to find out. You're welcome. Thank you, gentlemen. So I have to leave, though. I mean, I want to go back there. You can't go there, can you? No. It's like, I need to leave. Is that what I'm saying to you? I had to leave because I had to go with my stepson to a football project at the state park, you know. And he's really beautiful. He might be a good hotel. He might be a good hotel. You might think it was heaven. Yeah. You might think it was even California. Yeah. And you might be caught by the distinction between Texas and California. Or not. Were you caught?

[58:40]

Not with that. Not yet. But, you know, I feel still, you know, when I'm coming in You know, it's kind of like, you know, I went to a theater today, you know, and over there, you know, and I think, you know, in a way, you know, sometimes I think of what you're saying, you know, about the button and how, you know, We're practicing the forms, and you're watching us do the forms. I'm watching you, yeah. Except you can't cut me off. It's kind of like a parent and a child, in a way. Kind of like that. And then the question is, am I caught by the distinction between parent and child? I can look and see. So I saw, I was really kind of trying to watch my mind and see the discriminations come, you know. And, you know, like this group of people are really wonderful people, and all these are really wonderful people.

[59:46]

You're discriminating them into the wonderful group. Yeah. It's really great values. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Yeah. Not un-wonderful, not un-wonderful. There is one. And I was watching them with me and my stepson, you know, because we don't feel all that great, you know. Not that great, not that great, not that great. Am I caused by that? Not that great? Not that great? Am I caused by that? Not that great? Am I caused by that? You get the look, right? Yeah. And so it's just kind of over and over. You know, all this stuff, all day long. Thanks to taking care of that practice of watching to see if there's any being caught by these conditions. But you can't do it all the time. It gets tiring.

[60:46]

It gets tiring? Well, the practice of giving, you can learn to do all things. I was talking to someone earlier. For example, you can have this observing of your mind, observing whether you're caught by the thinking. You can do that as a gift. And again, the way you can tell if it's a gift is you feel joy in the fact of watching The discriminations arise and watching this theater is anything but suffering. You watch that as a gift. So you watch it joyfully. It's a joy to watch. And you watch it as a gift knowing that the Buddhas all have been watching this way until they realize the mind of non-discrimination, they're just like you.

[61:48]

Before they were Buddha, there was some passion of discrimination. But they joyfully did that practice, so they became actually consistent and . However, whatever kind of activity you're doing, sometimes it could break. It could rest. However, practice of getting can be applied to the exercise program of observing discrimination and attachment. But then you can also practice getting when you're deaf. So giving, actually, is a practice that is one of the easiest practices to tune into and be consistent with. To be mindful every moment takes longer than to be generous every moment. Generously give your attention to watching your discrimination, and checking to see if there's any sticking in them.

[62:52]

And we'll take a break from that sometimes because you're getting tired in your rest. And then rest. And rest joyfully, wholeheartedly, happily, as it is. Without expectation when you rest that you're going to get rested. I'm letting myself rest that I might not be rested. I don't know what's going to happen when I rest, but I give myself to resting. And now I give myself to go back to the journey, what kind of discriminations are going on, and if you're any clean. Sometimes when you're resting, it may be not so good to be looking to see if you're clean. Better take a break from that meditation. Most religious practices have rhythm in them. I mean, when you get good at them, you have rhythm. You're welcome.

[64:03]

What can you tell in the closing? I'd like to pick up on the conversation. I can do what I want. I'm in complete control. That's what I tell myself. You see? The question of fear, rather than the fear in the body. Fear, yes, uh-huh. Could you explain further on that?

[65:05]

Well, basically, if I discriminate between you and me, and I cling to that, I feel anxious. And then if I think, add a little... contemplation of future into that I feel fear. But isn't that distinct from the physiological response that the body has in situations? Nope. This is physiological. This is body-based. The creation of a distinction between yourself and others depends on your body.

[66:08]

It's in your body, too. Your body interacts with the world, and that interaction is constant. And then, in this interaction between the body and the world, comes distinction. They're body-based. And then those distinctions, if you believe them, have physiological effects. It's a body-mind thing. Standing at the edge of a cliff, it seems very natural. But I suppose to you, if you overcome them, That seemingly innate sense of fear of leaning over the cliff will drop away. And people say, but then how would you not fall off the cliff? There are other ways. It isn't the physiological reaction to the sense that the cliff is suffocating them.

[67:11]

The bottom of the ravine is suffocating them. So this comes with the physiological. If fear was just in our head, it wouldn't be such a problem. But it takes over our whole body. Our body participates. And this process of medication will transform the body. The discriminations are innate. come with this body. Survival mechanism? Well, you could say a survival mechanism. You could say it's a revival, but you could also say perhaps a reproductive mechanism. Some fears are not about you're not going to get killed. Some of our fears are not about avoiding being killed, but avoiding not having a baby.

[68:13]

Most teenagers in America today, only occasionally are they afraid of getting killed, and they're constantly afraid of not having a date or having a date. They're more afraid of having pimples than getting killed in most neighborhoods. It's not all about survival. Some of it, it's about reproduction. Reproduction actually is more of an issue than survival. If you reproduce in many conditions, it doesn't matter too much whether you live after that. And they say more about reproduction. They say more about reproduction than they do about survival. They talk about survival of another generation. OK. So there's some perfect. biological purpose to these mechanisms. And then we're now trying to find a new way to deal with them to bring more happiness and less violence to the world.

[69:22]

And, you know, be generous towards these mechanisms. Being generous towards them is one of the key medicines. Be generous towards them. Don't let it control you. He said, but don't let it control you. If you're generous towards it, that means you're generous without expecting anything. If you're generous towards things, they don't control you anymore. And again, generosity is, in some sense, the fundamental gesture of becoming free from fear. In generosity, fear is done up. And the joy of generosity here can't stand the joy. So again, generosity should be practiced forward and when we are late, too, if possible.

[70:29]

It is possible. Because we can practice it. We can practice generosity, and we're usually afraid of it. when you do that. And also, you practice martial arts, and martial arts is a way to degenerate with your body. And by degenerating with your body through these forms, you can become more and more durable and less and less violent through these forms. More degeneracy. more careless, less violent. And you can get your body involved in it. And then we do that. We get our body involved. It's not just thinking about it. All that's part of it. We use our body to rebel and stuff like that. Make sense to you?

[71:34]

Just get up, walk. Yeah, okay. Yeah, right. Put your body on the line in a generous way, and you gradually become unafraid to enter your Zen. A lot of people, when they first come to the Zen Center, they open the door, they see everything, all the seats lined up and clean. They get scared because they feel like, my God, this looks like a place where you can make mistakes. You know, you have to walk straight down, you know, to walk right between everything and not lean toward one side of it. You know, it looks like a place where you can make mistakes, and it's right here. I mean, to learn to be generous in this space of this practice, so generous that you're so joyful, then that fear actually... After many years, I figured I'd get burned off.

[72:35]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_77.22