There is a story that there once upon a time was a Buddhist practitioner or Buddhist priest. His name was... I'll wait till everybody does. His name was Dogen, and he taught a practice, and the practice he taught was Buddha activity. Buddha activity includes the activity of chocolate.

[01:08]

Buddha activity includes the activity of flowers, and trees, and rocks. and all living beings. It includes them, and they are performing Buddha activity. So the practice that the ancestors built and taught was the practice that includes all of us and which all of us are performing now together with chocolates and mountains and rivers. And this Buddha activity is uninterrupted, unthinkable, unnameable, inconceivable, ungraphable, and realizable.

[02:44]

We can realize an inconceivable life. And our actual life is beyond conception. And our conceptions are also engaged in Buddha activity. Our conceptions are engaged in Buddha activity which is beyond our conception. Each of us is involved in a life that's beyond our ideas. of our life and includes all of our ideas of our life. This teaching is, some people find very difficult to believe and or understand.

[03:53]

I could say more about this, or not. If I say more, what I say will be Buddha activity, and if I don't say anything, it will also be Buddha activity. I often repeat some words of the ancestor Dogen. The words I often repeat are, when even for a moment you express the Buddha activity in your actions, body, speech, and mind.

[05:01]

the whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha's activity. And the entire sky turns into enlightenment. As I said that, I thought, well, I just said all things are engaged in Buddha activity, so I kind of said it again, but I said it slightly differently, which was, when you express this Buddha activity by your speaking and your gestures and your thoughts, when you express it by using your life, all things become that. And, what I said before was, all things already are that. So when you are that, then all things are that.

[06:07]

And you are that, so all things are that. Still, it's said that when you express it or demonstrate it or display it through your actions, so somehow there is an opportunity or a responsibility being offered which is to use every moment of your life activity to express the Buddha activity, which you're already involved in, but which one might be distracted from. And if you're distracted from it, your distraction is performing Buddha activity, But you may not enjoy that because you're distracted from what you're doing. So somehow you have to be home to receive the gift.

[07:15]

Even though when you're not home, you receive the gift. But because you're not home, you don't think you received it. Like you think, well, that's actually a mistake. It should be delivered somewhere else. Or, actually, I'm not here, so I can't receive that. I'm not here so I can't receive my life. I'm not here so I can't give my life. Even though I was here, I am here, and I always will be here, and I always will receive my life and give my life. So I'm aware that we're in kind of a... I have this... I'm aware means it seems to me that we've gathered here tonight to talk about something that's very simple and very hard to believe and infinitely complicated. But it's so simple that it's like there's not much more to say, even though I can keep talking.

[08:21]

And probably will. And even though you can keep talking, and probably will. But really, pretty much it's all been said. Buddha activity. Everything's involved in it. Everything's performing it. And we don't understand that very well. And our lack of understanding is performing Buddha's activity. But it's a different way of understanding. It's a different performance of Buddha activity to perform it. Like, okay, I want to and I'm offering. It's not so much that I'm performing Buddha activity, but my activity is expressing Buddha's activity. And during the last session here, I gave some examples of some of our great enlightened ancestors who, in their training process, the process of training in realizing Buddhahood, in the process of some of the people who did that most skillfully and most successfully, there were periods when they did not believe this teaching.

[09:55]

What teaching? That if they would use their daily life to express the Buddha activity, that that would be the Buddha activity. They just couldn't believe it. So I gave examples of people like some of us who don't believe it, who got over it. So you might get over it, and I might get over it too. Get over what? Not believing that every action is an opportunity. Would you tell me your name again? Matthew. Matthew. Thanks for bringing them home. Wow. Wow. Now, it's not exactly like I understand, with my conscious mind, how these chocolates perform Buddha activity.

[11:12]

It's not exactly like I understand it, but I do have some ideas about it. And even without my idea, still I'm quite impressed by their activity, how they interacted with you, and now this box is... Doesn't have very much chocolate in it. I mentioned on Sunday that this practice, what practice? The practice of expressing the Buddha activity, which is also called Buddha mind. That practice is not a practice which leads someplace, leads something, doesn't go somewhere. Please come in, whoever you might be.

[12:53]

Please come. Please come closer. Please come. Please come. Please come up here. Please come. Asking for chocolate. What is your name? It depends. Thank you. You're welcome. There's a seat right over there if you want to sit there. Okay. All right, sure. Thank you. What did you say your name was? Haley. Haley. That's what today really is like. Daily today. Welcome to Buddha activity. Oh, great. And your glasses match. We recently had a Valentine's Day here.

[14:09]

Okay. But we didn't make much of a celebration about it, because we celebrated... That's the day Buddha died, so we didn't eat any chocolate that day. I didn't see anybody eating any chocolate. But now, we just passed away. We've done our duty so we can celebrate Valentine's Day. Haley, today, you missed the class. The what? You missed the class. The class? We had a class. It's basically over. Perfect timing. Yeah. It was very good. It gave me opportunity to announce that the class is over. I'm short enough today, so... When did you teach?

[15:16]

I... And so I'm still here. I'm still here, even though the class is over. And I... I would like to be your friend to cope with this class being over. I would like to cope with that we've already achieved the goal of this food activity. We don't have to go any place or do anything because we are already involved in Buddha activities, so we're already a success. And I'm here to help you accept that. And you're here to help me help you. Right? Didn't you come here to help me help you? So please help me.

[16:20]

I'm calling for compassion. Help me. Yes. Okay. No, you. I'd like you to express how we might cultivate confidence or faith in something that we're not really clear yet that it's so. Or in a moment when I forget or feel unsure. I heard you say some stuff like, number one, how do we cultivate confidence about something that we don't understand? Yeah, don't understand or don't feel like we realize. It's in the dark. Was there another question besides that?

[17:24]

Something we're not sure about? Yes. How do you cultivate confidence in something that you're not sure about? For example, you might not be sure what Buddha activity is. You might not be... You might not understand what Buddha is. Some of you may understand what Buddha is, for all I know. But some of you may not understand what Buddhahood is. I won't ask you to raise your hands if you don't understand. But now I actually will ask you to raise your hands if you don't understand what Buddhahood is. Some people don't understand, and some people are too busy to raise their hand. I think I mentioned that a little girl might have confidence in her mother.

[18:33]

And she also might want to be like her mother. And she also might understand that she has to grow up a little bit more before she can be like her mother. Or maybe not even be like her mother. Maybe she just wants to be. She has confidence in being a good mother. She thinks being a good mother is like something to be confident in, that that would really be great. And she wants to be a good mother. And being just a little girl, she thinks she knows what being a mother is. But she doesn't. Are you with me, Sonia? She wants to be a good mother, or she wants to be like her good mother, and she thinks she knows what her mother is, and she thinks she knows what a good mother is. And maybe she thinks her mother is a good mother.

[19:38]

So she thinks, and she wants to be it, she wants to be it, she thinks she knows what it is, and she also knows she's not yet a mother. She knows that. And she's not a good mother either. She practices maybe on her dolls or her siblings. But she knows she's not yet a mother. She knows she's playing. And a little bit bigger girl also knows she's not yet a mother when she's not yet a mother. But as she becomes more mature, she starts to understand that she doesn't know what a mother is, and she still wants to be one, just like she did when she was little, and she thought she did know what a mother is. So now being more mature, you're wondering about, well, could I have confidence? Could I develop confidence in something? And I don't know what it is. Like, could I develop confidence in wisdom and compassion?

[20:40]

Could I develop confidence in multifaceted dimensions of compassion? I think that is like the most important thing in my life. And also, yes, you can. without knowing about it, yes, that would be a more mature way to wish for it. If you have no interest in it, then that would be a different story. If you're not interested at all, well, we can talk about that. But if you have a little bit of interest in, for example, unsurpassed, complete, perfect Buddha activity, well, then you're like, actually, all the Buddhas were before they were Buddha. They were just like you. Before Buddhas were like Buddhas, they were unsure of what Buddha was. And before that, they even went through a phase where they were sure when they were really little, when they were really immature, they knew what Buddha was. They passed beyond that and became like us, where we actually aspire to becoming like the best possible human being,

[21:48]

We aspire to it, and we're also open to that we don't know what it is. And that is a more mature path to cultivate confidence. It's also ironic that we sincerely aspire to something, but we're not really sure what it is, and we just go right ahead. And accepting that unsureness makes us more wholehearted. All the Buddhas in ten directions, gathering together their wisdom, could not measure the merit of one person's Buddha activity. I mean, they could measure it. They won't reach it. They just measure it. Go measure that mountain over there. well, it's like six inches, no, it's seven inches, it's ten feet, it's 1,900.

[22:52]

Anyway, go measure, but you won't comprehend it by measurement. And it's not that there's something wrong with you. Even if there was an infinite number of you, you wouldn't be able to comprehend. But you are the mountain. Yes. Who was over there with their hand? I was over here with a hand, and I was going to try to tell a joke with the timing. Hey, did you hear that? He said the timing's wrong, and it was right. So was mine. But I didn't get much of a laugh on the last one. But I thought I knew that one. Timing. Timing's a big part of the, what do you call it, realizing Buddha activity. Is the timing what makes it Buddha activity?

[23:58]

Yes. And the timing is like now. That's the timing. And And then remember it again. It's again. It's again now. It's not later. It's again now. Now has, by the way, later. You don't have to go away from now to get later. You got later already. Now has also before. But it's three of them, actually. That's Buddha activity. Yep. What are some of the essential characteristics of Buddha activity? The essential characteristics? One essential characteristic of Buddha activity is yawning. Another characteristic is nodding their head. The essential characteristics of Buddha activity is the activity of all beings.

[25:05]

That's an essential characteristic. So what is it, when we're consciously expressing good activity, what is it that we're doing that's different than what we would be doing if we weren't consciously expressing it? Well, in one case you would be consciously expressing it, in the other case you wouldn't be consciously expressing it. That would be the difference. And then unconsciously you could discriminate between those two cases. That would be the difference. But they both would be expressing it. They would both be expressing it, just in one case, you're like not appreciating. You're not appreciating it. You're still, you are, you're Buddha activity in the form of not appreciating that you're Buddha activity. And you might also feel kind of bereft, like you're wasting your life, or you missed your boat. You might feel like that. However, when you feel like you missed the boat, you can use feeling like you missed the boat as an expression of Buddha activity.

[26:05]

However, if you don't remember that, then you just got mischievous, you don't realize, oh, mischievous Buddha activity. Or mischievous Buddha activity. When you actually do say that what you're doing with your hands and your voice and your thoughts, when you say this, I'm actually remembering this. I'm remembering that this is my job and I'm happy to do it. And there's no exceptions to my job. My job is always available. Yes? The conscious intention to harm. So you've got the conscious intention of harm, and you can use that conscious intention to harm, to express the Buddha activity, to express the Buddha mind. How about the actualization of abhorrent harm?

[27:12]

Say again? How about the actual manifestation of abhorrent harm of people? You mean you've had a case now where there was harm going on? Mm-hmm. So is harm... Well, harm isn't exactly your activity. Like, you know, if you fall down, if you just fall down, that's not exactly your activity. I mean, if I slice through someone with a sword, that's an activity. Your attempt to slice is your activity. You're moving your arm is your activity. But if you don't hurt them, if it doesn't harm them, then the moving the sword and not hurting them is your activity. The hurting of them is the way what you did hurt them.

[28:18]

The way what you did hurt them is not your activity. So you don't use the consequences you have on other people as your activity. So like if I say to you, Christopher, you're really extremely handsome. Thanks. He just smiled slightly when I said that. I thought I'd get more of a smile than I got. Okay, so anyway, now he's smiling more. Your smile is not my activity. my attempt to talk to you in a way that would have an impact on you, that I thought would be okay, that was my activity. But the fact that you kind of thought it was... The way you thought about what I did was your activity. Is there no victimization in Buddha activity then?

[29:21]

Victimization? No, it's more like there is consequences. So, I'm talking to you and everything I do, all my karma, which could be used for express Buddha activity, all my karma has consequence. But that doesn't mean, that isn't necessarily victimization, just like if I talk to you and you smile, Your smiling is part of the consequences of my action. I'm just getting at... I love the kind of poetic wide openness. When I think about concrete actions like bombing a city or things like that that Japan did with Japanese training, Zen priests and things like that, there's this kind of... wishy washy kind of this. Okay, so it can slip into you wishy washy.

[30:26]

That word's okay. But anyway, I I feel like you're, again, go back to this example of this, let's just say that You have a thought of doing the worst possible thing that could ever be done in your mind. I'd like to do the worst possible thing that could ever be done. You have that thought. And now I'm going to try it. Now, am I saying that the thought, the thought I have, I would like to do, or I hope the worst possible thing will happen, that thought is an action. And I'm saying that if you use that thought for this purpose of Buddha activity, it will not be harmful. All activity of sentient beings is Buddha activity. Yeah. But now there's a slight parsing, it seems like.

[31:26]

I didn't mean to parse it. Before I said, all sentient beings, all things are involved in this activity. Now I'm pointing this further to say, when you use your activity, your activity is not all activity. Or rather, your activity is all activity in the form of your activity. When you use your activity for this purpose, This is how you realize this activity, which you don't realize unless you used your activity to express it. And now you're bringing up examples, When you bring up the example, I didn't feel like you were harming people when you brought up the example of thinking of harming people.

[32:34]

I'm thinking about historical harm. And what I'm saying is now that when you think of historical harm, I don't feel myself that you thinking about it is harmful. I guess I'm just trying to account for activity that is concretely harmful, and how to integrate that with the notion of, like, phenomenality itself is the expression of this luminous, empty activity. I guess I would say, right now, that when you think of doing something and you miss that opportunity, that's a concrete, harmful moment that harms you. If you think it's Tuesday and you missed the opportunity of that thought to express the Buddha activity, harm has just occurred. Okay? Now, if you think of harming me, it's Monday.

[33:45]

You think that thought, you missed this chance, that's harmful. This Monday. Yeah, you think, this is Monday, and missing the opportunity to express good activity through that thought is something harmful, harmful to you and me. Now you think about, after I tell you that, you think, well, I think I hate him and I want to hurt him. Okay? That thought, if you use it this way, it benefits you and benefits me. If you think, I want to hurt Reb, and you use I want to hurt Reb to express Buddha activity, to express the Buddha mind, that helps you right then, and helps me. I'm a successful teacher. He did the practice I told him about. My teaching has consequence. Here he is, he's practicing now. Then he said, I'm not thinking of historical things.

[34:48]

If you miss the opportunity while you're thinking of historic history, if you miss the opportunity to practice, that harms you. That harms me. If you use the opportunity of thinking about Japanese people, bombing people, if you use that thought as an opportunity that benefits you and me, And like Emily's furrowing her brow, if you miss the opportunity to practice Buddha activity with that furrowing, that harms you and harms me. It's not like an eternal damnation, it's just you missed the opportunity. And that hurts you a little bit because missing opportunities has consequences. Your actions have consequences, and missing the opportunity of your action also has consequences.

[35:56]

Your actions have consequences, and not missing the opportunity... The action still has consequence, but not missing it has another consequence, which is... to realize Buddha activity. Just to think, oh, it's Monday, it's Tuesday, there's Christopher, there's a grab. Just to think those thoughts is just activity. And it has consequences. I want to help Christopher. I want to hurt Christopher. Both of those thoughts have consequences. I want to help Christopher. It's probably a little bit more harmful to me. No, I want to help Christopher. It's probably a little more harmful to me than I want to hurt Christopher. I want to help Christopher is a little more helpful to me than I want to hurt Christopher. So what I think has consequence. What I say has consequence, and my physical gestures have consequence. All my jokes have consequence.

[36:58]

To join the teaching with the activity has consequence too. To join the teaching with the activity, the consequence is realization of the Buddha way. And the consequence of that is peace in this world and enthusiasm for practice, which is enlightenment. So... I can't really say it again, but I'll say more. You can tell me what you want me to say. That's not a good idea. Okay, here we go. This is basic Buddhist teaching. Early on, what did the Buddha teach? Action has consequence. Right?

[38:03]

You all heard that. And the Buddha really like, this is life. This is really a central message. Three types of action. All three have consequence. If you think, Ross is wonderful and I want to help him, that has consequence. Which you probably can feel. And I can too. I want to hurt myself. I want to harm myself as consequence. Now, the way I said it, I didn't really mean it. I just said it as an example. And so I think the consequence might be somewhat beneficial. But I don't really know. But I do say that I am pretty sure that whatever I think, whatever I have thought, Whatever I am thinking and whatever I do think, all those thoughts, all that thinking will have consequence.

[39:07]

Whatever I say has consequence. Whatever I gesture has consequence. Asking to wait a minute has consequence. Is that okay? Yes, it is okay to wait. Now, all these actions which have consequence are also opportunities for practice. And practice doesn't change the action into some other action. It joins all actions. Practice is there with living beings who are doing stuff. Practice doesn't come in and stop the action. It meets the action with compassion. And in the meeting of the actions and the practice comes the Buddha way. So any story you use is an opportunity to be met in such a way as to realize body activity.

[40:11]

If you're talking about somebody's action, you can get into thinking about that, and that's more action. You can get into discussing it, and that's more action. That's a point to discuss your action or other people's action in the history of people. Every moment along the way is an opportunity to practice. So I pray that whatever discussions we're having about history, that we don't wait until the discussions have ended before we start practicing. Feeling, I guess, kind of befuddled with the use of this term, if it can mean so many things. Buddha activity? The term Buddha activity, if it can mean mountains and pebbles and thoughts of heart.

[41:20]

No, it doesn't mean mountains and pebbles. It's the activity of mountains and pebbles. It isn't me. I'm not Buddha activity. Mountains aren't Buddha activity. Mountains and I are engaged in Buddha activity. In being. In being, yeah. By being. By being, all beings are engaged in Buddha activity. And how are they engaged in Buddha activity? Well, for example, together with all of the beings, because Buddha activity includes all beings. So the way I'm here includes everybody in this particular form. And in order to realize that, I have to use this form for the purpose of realizing the way I'm working together with everybody else, and everybody else is working with me.

[42:24]

That's my Buddha activity. That's Buddha activity in my case. In your case, it's like you working together with all beings. Buddha activity, as Laura said, is to have some essential quality. The essential quality is the activity of all beings. And you are the activity of all beings. That's your Buddha activity. Is there a difference between activity and being? In a sense, yeah. In a sense, the activity and the being... It's like the activity is the activity of the being. Being has activity. It isn't just... It's an action. The way you are is actually that you are in this... Without movement, you are... Listening to all beings, calling to all beings, listening to all beings, calling to all beings, calling all beings, that's you.

[43:37]

Listening to all beings, that's you. You are calling to all beings and listening to all beings. That's your activity which makes you being. And that activity is the activity of everybody calling to you and listening to you call. That's your Buddha activity, but that's Buddha activity as you. And I'm also calling to all beings and listening to all beings, and that's Buddha activity as me. I can't say I understand. You just say, with I can't before. Are we thinking about what is this missed opportunity? What is it to miss? And thinking that... It's basically a thank you message. Yes. And then thinking of... What's missing for me is maybe remembering, maybe remembering that the activity... Missed often goes with not remembering.

[45:00]

Not remembering. And what I'd like to remember is that whatever activity is happening is being given to me. You'd like to remember whatever activity is happening has been given to you. I would like you to remember that too. And also, coming around, say it right the other way. I would like to remember. Turn it around. Every activity is giving. Every activity is giving. Every activity is being given to me, and every activity is given. Do you remember that? I'd like you to also. And if you forget, And you might think you used to not miss the opportunity, but you might not think that. Until you remember it, then you say, well, I missed. But when you think you missed, that's the next opportunity.

[46:01]

Sometimes you would think I missed, like I missed being behind Reggie. But I didn't miss I thought that I wasn't coming. And I'm really glad I'm here. I'm sorry I missed the nice chance I had. But I'm really glad that I'm here for the thought that I missed. So now I can really be like, sorry, and I'm here, and call you first. It's great. Reactivity. You can recover. It is. As you may have heard, in a good way, there's recovery. Calvary is possible. And not by messing around, but by waking up without moving a particle. So that's why being still is kind of like, okay, I missed being kind to Rachel, but okay, I'm remembering being still.

[47:08]

So now, thought that I missed being kind, I said, I see the opportunity. I didn't have to do anything. I had the opportunity. It was there. Before, I was sorry if I wasn't here. Well, yes, but I'm recovering. And it's wonderful to be able to Yes, yes, yes. I think you've said this, but I'd like to know if you know what it means. In the missing, the missing is a kind of separated state. Yeah, suffering is... Can I give you an example? I remember I was doing something and I had a thought about time, like, oh, two more hours of this. And then, ah, two more hours of this.

[48:12]

And then there was a consequence of the feeling of dullness. Like, oh, no. It's not a sinking feeling. And then 11.14, which was three. That was a thought about time. It was just a thought. There is no such thing as two more hours. You can't experience two more hours. And then a brighter feeling came. So there's, I think, what you're talking about in some way. Yeah, that's recovery. Missing it, and then recovering. Recovering. Yeah, okay. You recover. You actually were doing buddha activity all the way along, but you missed it, and so you suffered. But then you saw it, and you recovered, and also in recovery you realized that you didn't miss it. I didn't miss it. But I had to accept that I thought I missed it so I could recover from that thought and use that thought too. Oh, I thought of that. It's getting late, so maybe in a future meeting, if you guys ever come back to this conference, I'm just over.

[49:21]

It's over. And I'm going to come here next week to deal with those who are having trouble with it. They're over. And mind me to bring up what some people consider the greatest novel of the 20th century, which is called Remembrance of Time Lost. Proust? Proust. The name of the book is Remembrance of Time Lost. And the last part of it's called Recovery of the Lost Time. So I'll talk to you about Proust next week. Now, Proust, unlike this class, is more or less doesn't end. But this class, it's over, and again, I'll come here... We can start over again next week. From Sklatch. Haley? Yes.

[50:22]

Welcome, Haley. Thank you. Did you want to say something? I do. Go ahead. Thank you for responding there. I looked on the website today to sign up for this class. And they said this class starts at 7.30. Those people that write the website. It said it went until 9 o'clock. They did. But it's not going to. But you can stay in the room until 9. The class is also quite a while ago. And if you don't accept that, you can stay here till 9. And also, if you do not like this arrangement, you can get a refund. We're in the office. What time is the class actually? From 7.30 to 8.30? I think it's going to be like 8.30, 8.40 tonight. Oh, okay.

[51:26]

It might go later sometime. 8.33 now. We have matching time. If I really thought everybody here wanted to go to 9, I would stay till 9. If I really thought everybody here wanted to stay till midnight, I'd stay till midnight. But if one person wants to leave early... Because too little of me is fine, but too much is not good. You don't have too much yet, do you? No. So I'm... What do you call it? Quit while we're ahead. Again, I will come back, but... So, if you... If so many people have had enough, raise your hands. How many people are ready to end the class again?

[52:34]

Okay, so I really appreciate you bringing that, Haley, and you come here and, you know, I'll help you deal with the situation. And let me know, if you're welcome, let me know if this class was too short. I'd be happy to hear that. But I just don't want to keep you up too late. So, ready? Ready, Haley? Thank you.

[53:24]

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