One story that could be told this morning is that we have been practicing together for a little bit more than two days. This is our third day together. And during this time, we had been performing the Buddha way. And I have proposed over and over that The Buddha way is performing the Buddha way.

[01:05]

As we perform things, as we carry out activities, moment by moment, the Buddha way is those activities carried out for the sake of the Buddha way. And this morning you came into this room, I say you came into this room, I came into this room, and on your behalf I made offerings to the Buddhas. On your behalf, on my behalf, I made offerings to bodhisattvas,

[02:19]

and arhat, inexhaustible Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and offered incense. Someone else lit the candle. I don't know when that person lit the candle if that person was intending that that candle lighting was a gift, was an offering to the Buddhas. So even if that person didn't mean it as offering to Buddhas, right now we can offer this light to the Buddhas. The flowers on the altar, so pretty in the sky, can also now be offered to the Buddhas. So, the great bodhisattva vow is to make offerings to Buddhas, and this morning we performed the vows of the great Bodhisattva of making offerings to Buddhas.

[03:28]

Also, we offered prostrations to express our veneration, our love, our honor, honoring our worship And worship, the root of the word worship means to recognize worthiness. We recognize the worthiness of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, and we express that with body, speech, and mind. We think these Buddhas are worthy of respect. These Bodhisattvas, these great compassionate beings, they're worthy of honor. They're worthy. And we prostrate ourselves to express our veneration. The great bodhisattvas vow, promise, commit to venerate all Buddhas.

[04:33]

Today we practiced it. This morning we performed the vows, we put the vows of the great bodhisattvas into action. And when we bowed, Buddhism was alive, the Buddha way was alive at that moment. When there's bowing, the Buddha way is alive. When there's not bowing, the Buddha way is lost. I praise the Buddhas. I have been praising the Buddhas. Did you hear me praise the Buddhas? I say the Buddhas are in the Bodhisattvas, in the Arhats, are worthy of praise. They are great beings. And one of the ways to praise the Buddhas is to recite the Buddhas' teaching.

[05:40]

So as an act of praise, I say I heard that the Buddha said, those of you who wish to realize enlightenment need not study many things, need not study many teachings. Study only one. What is it? Great compassion. study only one great compassion. And when you study great compassion, and when you become great compassion, all the qualities of Buddhas are you. You are all the qualities of Buddhas.

[06:45]

And how do you study great compassion? By performing the Buddha way. How do you perform great compassion? Pay homage. Pay homage. Pay homage. Every moment. Pay homage to the Buddhas. Honor the Buddhas. Every moment. Make every moment of your life and honoring a veneration of the Buddhas. This is great compassion. The Buddhas and the Buddha ancestors, what they transmit is veneration of Buddhas.

[07:53]

They transmit that. If you receive this transmission and practice it, you are receiving what is transmitted and you are practicing great compassion. Also, all Buddhas have practice making offerings to all Buddhas, and they transmit that practice. When you receive the practice of making offerings to Buddhas and perform it, you are practicing great compassion. All Buddhas have praised all Buddhas and have become Buddhas by praising Buddhas. When you praise the Buddhas, you are performing the Buddha way. And then we have the next vow of Samantabhadra. What is it, Joe? Remember? The next one? . All right.

[08:56]

to confess our shortcomings. Now, we haven't practiced that today yet, did we? Did we confess any shortcomings yet? We did already? Good. Bet you got an early start. And I was thinking, you know, during this retreat, I'm very happy to report that I have been experiencing paying homage, making offerings and praising Buddhas. I've been feeling that a lot. But I stopped and I thought, have I been confessing shortcomings? I thought, am I in denial? I haven't even noticed I've been confessing about shortcomings, so I started looking around for some shortcomings in my behavior, not in yours. I wasn't looking for your shortcomings. You may be happy to hear.

[09:58]

I'm not watching to see if I can find any shortcomings in you. I'm not doing that. I gave that up at a length. And then I noticed one. And it was that last night I went to the refrigerator and received some leftover salad and some soup from the night before the retreat started, leftover soup, and ate it. And I thought, I think Galen said to me, I'm not sure, I think Galen said, help yourself to whatever's in the refrigerator. I think she might have said that, but I wasn't absolutely sure she said it. So I thought, well, actually, I could have called her on the telephone and said, hey, she's the resident teacher here, and also she's the tenzo now.

[11:10]

She's the tenzo. She's the head cook, so I should ask the head cook, did you say I could have myself, that I could receive? I consider the whole refrigerator a gift to me. Did you say that to him? And I would guess you would say, yeah. Or she might have said, let me think about that. But anyway, it was kind of lazy that I didn't call her and say, excuse me, Reverend Tenzo. Did you say that? That was kind of a shortcoming, I think. I don't think it would have bothered her too much, would it have, if I called and asked? Yeah, she would have been delighted. But sometimes people say with me, they say, I don't want to bother you. Really, they're lazy, but they say they didn't want to bother me by asking me if they could go in the kitchen and have all the chocolate chip cookies. They didn't want to bother you. Anyway, I didn't think it would bother her.

[12:14]

I thought she would appreciate that. I could say, even Suzuki Roshi, I could take away even and just say Suzuki Roshi would sometimes ask me or talk to me about some things he wanted to do. And it didn't bother me. I was surprised that he would be asking his student about things that he was thinking of doing. But I thought, yeah, that's really great that the teacher asked the student. you know, or consults with the students about his activities. So when I was, you know, in the city center, and director of the building in the city center, sometimes, one time he was going to a movie with some other students, and he came to me and told me that he was going to do that with the students, but they wanted him to go to a movie, so he wouldn't be going to Zazen that night. But he's kind of like checking it out with me. Didn't say, may I at least go, but he did check it out with me.

[13:20]

And another time, maybe I told you this one time, a visiting teacher came to Tassajara when I was abbot. And he was like 20 years older than me. And, you know, very venerable old teacher. And his jisha came to me, his attendant came to me and said, If you don't ask the Roshi to take the night off, he'll go to Zazen." But he really doesn't want to because he's really tired. So I went to him and I said, "'Please, rest the night. You've had a long trip. Please rest.'" And he very happily said, thank you, and went and rested. But without me offering that to him, he would have just followed the schedule.

[14:25]

Anyway, that was one shortcoming I thought. So I thought I would say, I think I was a little lazy there. I wasn't completely sure she said, go ahead. And so that's a shortcoming. I confess and I thought a little bit bad, not super bad, just a little bit bad about being a little bit lazy. A little bit lazy, a little bit bad. A lot lazy, a lot bad. So I have been now, I can say I did the Forming Confession and Repentance, which is a bodhisattva practice, right? Have you been doing that bodhisattva practice today? Great. So at least two, three, four. Not yet. So anyway, the day's not over, but the moment is over.

[15:27]

Yes? Ah, trying to get credit, huh? Yeah, sometimes do notice. But it's true. Noticing that you haven't been practicing confession and repentance is, and then confessing it, counts. So, yes. Thank you. Thank you for noticing. Now the next one, the next bodhisattva practice, the next practice, the next performance of the Buddha way that Samantabhadra recommends, I really have been into quite vigorously during this retreat, and that is to rejoice in the merit of others.

[16:34]

I have really been rejoicing in your merits. It's been a real delight to just see your virtue and see your merit, and I've been rejoicing in it. That's been good. I've been really into it and I'm still into it. And then beseeching the Buddhas. I have been beseeching the Buddhas. I haven't been beseeching the Buddhas as much as I've been rejoicing in your merit. So that's a shortcoming. I haven't been beseeching the Buddhas as much as I could or requesting the Buddhas to teach. requesting the Buddhists to teach. So there's a shortcoming I just noticed. I hadn't been really requesting the Buddhists to turn the great Dharma wheel as much. So I'm going to work on that one more. See, I noticed the shortcoming, I confessed it, and then I say, yeah, I want to do that more.

[17:37]

So noticing it makes me say, oh, that's some place for me to make a little more effort And then requesting the Buddhas to stay around, that too I have, those two go kind of together. That one I've also, what do you call it, needs improvement. That one needs improvement. I've got to work on that one more. A lot of people feel weird about that. You know, where are the Buddhas, requesting the Buddhas? Bodhisattvas are... their hearts are so big, so open, that they actually do this amazing thing of requesting Buddhas that they can't see to turn the Dharma wheel, to request Buddhas throughout the universe to turn the Dharma wheel and send that Dharma wheel teaching flying towards us. So I'm going to work more on those two. The next one is to, you know, follow the Buddha way.

[18:40]

Follow the teachings of the Buddha. Follow the teachings, follow the practices of the Buddha. That's the next one. And I think that's exactly what we've been working on. We could do better, but that's what we've been working on is following the teachings of the Buddha during this retreat. The next one is the next performance possibility that Samantabhadra offers us is to accommodate to accord with other living beings, to offer gifts to everybody you meet according to their needs. Each person you meet, offer them a gift that harmonizes, that accords with your relationship, that's appropriate. to the relationship.

[19:44]

And that too I think we've been working on here. And we have formally been doing a tenth one which is to dedicate or pass on the benefits, the merit and the virtue of our practice here. After every Dharma talk we dedicate the merit We give the merit of our practice away to all beings. We wish it to extend to all beings. We extend, we share the benefits. We've been doing that formally over and over. Have you noticed that? But then also, informally, each moment, you can do that too. That's one of the things you can give. If there's any merit around here, Due to this practice, I give it away. I give it away. So those practices we've been doing, right? We can do better.

[20:45]

We can do more wholeheartedly. But so that's been our practice here together. And I also feel that In a sense, this group has done three days together, or will have done three days together in one night. And then tonight, in a sense, you could say that the retreat we're doing will now welcome many people to join. That's one way to look at it. But another way to look at it is that this retreat will end at dinner tonight. And we will have done this three days together. And now we will join another group of people to start a new retreat, a weekend retreat. So either way, it's fine that we are doing a five-day retreat and people will join us at the end, or that we had done this retreat and now we're completing it.

[21:55]

And then we get to start another one tonight with a lot more people, if they happen to come. And that will be different. It will be more crowded and there will be a transition of adjusting to their presence. And this adjusting to their presence or accommodating or according to their presence is a bodhisattva, is the practice of a bodhisattva vow, the vow of accommodating to these people and being generous with these people that are coming in, helping them enter into the practice here. And I was talking to someone just a little while ago about when we first come into a practice situation, people are coming from various places.

[22:59]

You know, they've been doing various different things and you put them together and they start bumping into each other and the differences between us are kind of like little roughness points between us. Some people are coming from high pressure systems, some people are coming from low pressure systems, you know. And then there's this kind of integrating, accommodating to the different pressures that we're bringing. And I thought of it like you take rocks and you put them in these little cages, these little like wire containers, and you shake them. And they bounce off each other and they shake for hours and hours and weeks. And they bump into each other and they bump into each other and they polish each other. and they become more and more shiny from bumping into each other.

[24:06]

But the bumping is sometimes a little, you know, a little touch there, with the rough edges on rough edges, or rough edges on smooth edges, or smooth edges on rough edges. So this is part of our practice, is to enter into a container together and then bump into each other. And as you bump and bump and bump, they become more and more brilliant, and more and more light starts to emanate a lot, practice together. So that all started to happen to me. And once again, I said this a million times, and I'll say it a million one more time, and then I'll say it more later.

[25:10]

And that is, at that place in what we just chanted, where it says, by revealing and disclosing our lack of faith and practice. It says, and. And I mentioned that it could be faith in practice. Or it could also be faith practice. Okay? Lack of faith and practice, lack of faith in practice, lack of faith practice, or lack of practice faith. In other words, what I'm emphasizing is lack of faith that the practice is enlightenment. lack of faith that the practice is the Buddha way, that the performance of the practice is the Buddha way, rather than if we perform the practice and perform the practice, someday we'll attain the Buddha way.

[26:15]

So we vow to attain the Buddha way. Yes, we do vow that. We want that. We commit to that. Okay? And also, we have a teaching that practice is the enlightenment. The practice is the attainment. And we lack some faith in that. You know? Like, when we offer incense, you know, when you put the incense in the incense dust, in the incense ash, when you put it in, as you put it in, that offering realizes the Buddha way. That offering is the Buddha way. We think, well, you offer incense and then something good will happen. Well, yes, that's right. But don't miss the fact that that incense offering realizes nirvana.

[27:19]

That incense offering is realizing peace. Make it that way. And then notice that when you do say, This incense often realizes the Buddha way. This performance of the Buddha way is the Buddha way. Notice that you have maybe some doubt about that. Isn't there something more to it than that? Like, aren't I supposed to like sprout always? Aren't I supposed to be like totally omniscient? No, it's not that you're supposed to be totally omniscient. It's just that when you offer incense, That realizes total omniscience. When you offer incense, you know total omniscience. That is no other total omniscience. There's no other omniscience than the practice.

[28:23]

And we have some doubt about that. When children on the beach, or in the sandbox behind the house, come together and make a little statue of the Buddha out of sand. Okay? They are performing the Buddha way. And they will realize the Buddha way. There's one way to say it. They will realize the Buddha way. Children who make little Buddha statues in the sand, they will realize the Buddha work. What I'm saying is that is realizing the Buddha work. They are realizing it. And when you see them, you see them realizing it. And when you see them realizing it, you're left over joy of their virtue, but also of something more than just their virtue. the great way is realized.

[29:24]

But once again, we lack, sometimes we lack faith in that. We think, okay, offering sense, now what? Yay! Hail Bodhi. Bodhi Svaha. Welcome, Bodhi. Welcome, Enlightenment. [...] Now. And one more farewell remark for this three-day retreat is that if you listen, if you read what Dogen wrote there and then you read the writings of certain Indian and Tibetan and Chinese practitioners of the Buddha way, you will find them talking very much like Dogen.

[30:31]

You will find Indian and Tibetan practitioners talking about revealing and disclosing your shortcomings in practice before the Buddhas, in the presence of the great, omniscient, beneficent, divine practitioners, the realized ones. This practice that Dogen's talking about, the so-called Zen master, you will find back to India, China, and Japan, same bodhisattva practice. But many Zen students are unfamiliar with this thing about, first of all, confession and repentance. Until recently, most Zen students thought it had nothing to do with Zen. Just not central. But it is central to Bodhisattva practice.

[31:36]

And paying homage to Buddhas, a lot of Zen students. I don't know exactly when it was, but it's probably... After 1975, a Zen teacher, a so-called Zen teacher named Soen Roshi, have you heard of him? He was an important person in bringing Zen to America. He had a student named Tai Shimano Edo who started a Zen-do with him in the Catskills. It's called Dai Bosatsu Zendo. Dai Bosatsu means great bodhisattva. So the zendo in the Catskills is called great bodhisattva zendo. And Soen Roshi, at that time when I met him, was shortly before he died.

[32:44]

I didn't know he was going to die any minute, but it was shortly before he died. And I was really impressed. about how even, how energetic he was, but how even his energy was. He was like pretty old, 75, something like that. And I was like 30, 32. And, you know, you could say I had to work to keep up with him or that he had no trouble keeping up with me. We were kind of on the same level, but I thought, this is pretty good. This guy's very good. Like I said, energetic and even. And he was really into this. Namu Daibo Satsu. Namu Daibo Satsu. He was really into it. What? Homage. Homage to the great Bodhisattva. That's what he was into. He was abbot of Ryutake-ji Monastery in Japan, which is not too far from Sujiguroji's temple.

[33:50]

Anyway, it's Hakuin Zenji's temple, the Uttakaji. So he was an abbot there for a while, and the abbot there now I think is one of his students. So at the end of his life he's into veneration of the great bodhisattva, homage to the great bodhisattva, worship of the great bodhisattva. At that point in my practice, 32-year-old Zen priest, I was surprised that this is what the Zen master was looking at. Namu Daibosatsu. In fact, that's what he was into, and he was very happy about it. Most people do not think that a big Zen master would be into, that his practice would be, moment by moment, homage to the great Bodhisattva. And as I told you before, when Dogen Zenji was getting close to his death, he was in Kyoto, and he wrote out, I think he either wrote out, going for refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, or he just wrote out Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the characters, on paper and

[35:19]

and hung that calligraphy to a pillar in the room he was in, and he walked around that pillar, walked around that pillar, going for refuge, and he took the treasure. So I just want to say this is Bodhisattva practice. I wouldn't say the Zen practice, I would just say that all the Zen masters of old have done this practice. It's simple. Children can do it. Just like children can offer incense, children can bow, children can make sand buddhas, children can say namo daivosatsu, children can go for refuge. It's very simple. Children can do it. and Zen masters can do it, and Zen masters do. Children sometimes don't. Children sometimes don't make offerings to Buddha.

[36:22]

Children sometimes don't pay honors to Buddha. Have you noticed? They sometimes don't. But Zen masters do. But it's not well known that they do. But they do. Their whole life is that. And it's easiest to know that it's when they get old. Now some people think when they're old they can't do any of the fancy stuff, so they go to some basic practices. Yeah, maybe some, maybe they can't. So they go to the basics, they go to the ground, because they're going to the ground. But they could do the fancy stuff, I think, if they wanted to. Sometimes they do fancy stuff. But Suzuki Roshi was not too fancy towards the end of his life.

[37:23]

And the morning he died, he didn't do anything particularly fancy. He just was in his bed, in his room, and he died. However, at the moment he died, 132 Zen students dumbled underneath him in the zendo. 132 Zen students started to practice the beginning, the first period of the sashin. So as he died, 132 people practiced zazen. You see, that's fancy. Anyway, it's wonderful, I think. It's not his strength. It's that we're practicing. OK, it's just like, clear? That's kind of clear? Do you have any feedback for me?

[38:32]

Do you have any feedback for the group? Getting off on you for Google? You want to get a classic? Let's go. You go out and buy some big memo.

[39:39]

It's my memo. You must be talking one part of the day with me, you might hear. I corresponded with a guy in Amarillo, Texas. I corresponded with a guy in Amarillo, Texas. He's out there practicing all by himself. No, I don't think. He's out there practicing. You hear what Bruce said? He said he's not there practicing by himself. Are not. They are not? Are not. Yeah. He's out there thinking he's practicing by himself, but he's not practicing by himself. But he's a beginning student, so he does not yet understand that the Buddhas are wisdom, right? I don't know. I think he does.

[40:40]

He does. Yeah. But he's not practicing by himself. No. No. OK. He's out there in Amarillo practicing with all the Buddhas. Right. And you're corresponding with him. Yeah, how auspicious. And he, like, gets up every morning. He used to do it for an hour. Every morning, in the morning, he'd put the knives, load it for 40 minutes. And then he does the same thing every night. And he'd chin it in and do all kinds of practice. It's quite amazing. Listen, it's a little hot, a little dim place. You know, it's a very, you know, relation. You never get that Amarillo. I don't know. I think it's like the collection. You know, you do. Yeah. Hallelujah. And he thought, but doing it, you know. So you said you were here in July.

[41:41]

I went by to see him on vacation. I've gone back to doing some Zen reading every day. The CDs you gave me by Rev Anderson were really good. I thought both of his books, Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains and Being Upright, they are excellent. Wow. I have read them twice. Isn't that amazing? It is amazing. It is amazing. I agree completely. So he says, by the way, do you know if Rev Anderson plans to write any more books? I wish he would. So I was wondering about that. Yes, books are being written. They're bubbling up out of the air.

[42:42]

This yesterday, Dave asked me to write a book about stories of . And I said, if somebody wants to all on my talk, they're in here. A lot of stories in there. So not needed to find them unless they're I listened to the talk, and I was able to transcribe it into a computer. You can just say something, and it'll show up. But anyway, that could be a nice book. I'm also working on a book of stories called Grandchildren, which I told you about. I'm trying to put them together into a book. And then there's also a book on priest training. So being upright is kind of like a bodhisattva initiation ceremony. And then the next open practice could be priest training for some people.

[43:54]

It would look like that sort of community service. And these books, fortunately, many people are working on them. So moving by dog, they probably get the missed project. Don't cry. So you still like to send me email channels? Yes, I like it. I can understand that. And I heard you speak of it, right? Yeah, and those are also the Someone's working on making a book out of the river. You don't know? When those books were published, I was very surprised.

[45:14]

I got more feedback on the book than I did, if not for the talk or one smile. All those, almost all those talks were in the articles, articles in San Francisco's 90-D. And I almost never got any feedback on any of those talks. Nobody ever said thank you or that was a good talk for me. But when they're all put together in a book, because in some ways, in a book, because they concentrate on what they do or something more on books, so their hope opens more. They don't get a lot of positive feedback on part because they never got any positive feedback on before. Well, it's interesting. In some ways, books are good that way, that people somehow, When they enter into the project, they concentrate more, and then they continue. And they do some tackling that.

[46:17]

It's paid you to a, what do you call it, a magazine you're on. And then there's hearing, and then there's a Dharma talk, and then there is a, you know, okay, different venue. And being upright, you know, I was really worried that all the people would be a voice. But it seems to me, not just that some of the books that people read, which, you know, they read things that they read, but they use it. It's like a practice, really. I'm just so happy that people are using it. As they prepared to receive the first lots, they moved the book, and they had helped him get ready to receive the consult. So I didn't really, really go down what I thought might be something so great about me.

[47:18]

They actually wrote the book. They put my name on it for some reason. I've never done anything by myself in my life, including my unskillful actions. And he had an offering this morning. I wanted to understand a little bit more about what this means.

[48:55]

It says we melt away the roots of transgressions. We melt away the transgressions. We melt away the roots of transgressions by the power of our confessional repentance. And I wonder how. You wonder how it happened? Yeah. Well, I can tell you some stories about how it happened, but they're just historic. How it happened, like everything else, the way things actually happened, you can see that there are 50-odd stories about how it happened. So if you veer off the path, And then you confess. If you notice that you veered off the path, and then you confess it.

[49:58]

And when you feel some sorrow about it, that sorrow can stimulate you to say, oh, I would like to go back on the path again. And the more times you do that, every time you do that, it has an impact on the pattern which led to veering away. Just like I'm not, I thought it like when I was a kid, I used to sometimes eat these hamburgers called White Castle Home Live-Ins. Actually, there was a White Castle place right next to the YMCA in Minneapolis. And after I worked there, I sometimes would go and have a White Castle Home Live-In. It's kind of the track of Little White, kind of like Little White Burbank. In the cold winter, you know, you'd walk by and the windows were all steamed up and smelled kind of good. You'd go in there and have a hand of it. And one day I actually, I don't know how it happened, but I actually ate it slowly enough so I could actually take it.

[51:09]

And when I could take it, I could notice that I had eaten something that was not poisonous, exactly, but more something that was not really food. And then I felt some discomfort and sorrow over having 11 friends or whatever. But I would put something in myself, I felt some sorrow. And I think that that would be the end of my . And I think [...] that would be the end of my . And then you keep smoking, and you'll feel bad. And then you keep smoking, and you feel bad.

[52:14]

But they're aware. And then you feel bad. And then you feel bad. And suddenly, one day, it's over. But again, if you're feeling bad, you have to be careful about the swallow. If it wasn't out there, you'd get better at this depression and indigestion. There's so much other things like drinking is on. If you can be aware of a connection over and over, the pattern that you're sending your way to this distraction starts to get eroded somehow. The power of consciousness, of awareness starts to seep into the pattern and melt away its roots. But again, part of the art is that, you know, you're doing this practice for some joy and some patience.

[53:20]

You're not beating yourself up while you're doing it. That would be another indicator. You're just saying, oh, I have shortcomings. That's fine. No big deal. Bodhisattvas do this practice. I'm not a terrible, terrible person. I'm just a normal, changing being. Bodhisattvas are sentient beings. They're not buddhas. They're great sentient beings. They're supremely wonderful sentient beings. But they are sentient beings, and they do still make mistakes. Bodhisattvas still have something to confess in return. But they do. They enjoy it. They feel good. then they'll do confession of penance because they know that's what they're compassionate about. So part of consulting the company before the Buddha was also to realize this is a happy thing to do. You're not happy you veered off.

[54:22]

You're not happy you transgressed. You're happy you have a practice to deal with it that you do together with your friends, your great friends. So you're doing that, and they're doing that, and we're doing that. or the feeling there should be a feeling of joy in the process of confessional repentance. But in elaboration of doing that possible, not the way to lead confession. In fact, I mean joyful, confident in the process, and patient with our own shortcomings, too. Patient with my shortcomings has been patient with other people's shortcomings. Being impatient with other people's shortcomings and being impatient with my shortcomings is a transgression. Now the thing that I'm impatient with my shortcomings and feeling sorrow about it, not really the root of my impatience with my shortcomings. And now I get to practice going with patience and with generosity and graciousness.

[55:32]

And that kind of practice of confession you can do. And that's where the roots of our show comes. But how it works is inconceivable. I have confidence in it. I see it working. I see babies crying. I watch them grow. They'll learn not to moan about their shortcomings. Then I'll let them go. When you cover your face, what will happen to you? Oh, it's been like a month. Is that difficult for you? Sometimes. Sometimes. Is it difficult for you? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Well, you're saying dance isn't typical?

[56:39]

No. Well, you know, I thought, is he taking voice lessons? Because his singing has gotten better over the years. He's practiced. It's a good story. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks to the patient with my CD. I'm not saying he's important, either. She travels long distances to hear people sing. I think I do. Yeah. She stands in blistering heat to hear people sing. Last night, I asked my older daughter to tell me stories about her children. Her younger half-sister tells me stories about her boy, and I tell you stories about him.

[57:45]

And I'm putting together, I'm writing them down to make a book out of them, which I just told you. So last night, I invited my older daughter tell me a story about her boy and her girl. And she also said to me, I'm in a singing group. And I know you like singing, so my singing group would like to sing, like to invite you to one of our singing sessions when you come to Minneapolis, Atlanta to teach. Singing is part of bodhisattva practice. Singing the praise of Buddha is part of bodhisattva practice. Singing praises the Buddhas. Of course, singing praises, defensive being, is part of bodhisattva practice.

[58:52]

OK? Whenever you're ready. Now, at least fortunately, you can write that down. But please have confidence that feeling the praise of Thee is the Bodhisattva heart in action. And you're just offering any feedback on the process. We've already given many gifts and offered lots of feedback. And I pulled too deeply for all that you've given so far. I look forward to your future gifts. Here comes another one.

[59:55]

Thank you for performing the doodoo way. My pleasure. My joy. Thank you so much for that. You're so welcome. And I just want to tell you that you have a great haircut, you know. Thank you. I realize that we're all performing the Buddha way. In reality, in the Dharma world, that was happening. Thank you. Thank you. And the more wholeheartedly we join in to the performance of the Buddha way, the more we realize that we're living in the wondrous time of God.

[61:15]

The answer is, the teaching is, we do live in the wondrous time of God, where we live. And Buddhists live there too. Buddhists know. We don't, unless we perform the Buddha work. And when we perform the Buddha work, And the performance of it is the nulling that we're in the diamond world. And if we hold back a little bit in our performance, that little bit of a very great difference is enough to put up a thin little obscuration so we don't quite see that we're in the diamond world. So we need to have to find 100% performance I'm going to depart at this point in three public performance. I'm going to depart a little early today, but I'll do my...

[62:17]

I wanted to say that, but I'm trying to compose myself to say it, so... It took me to try. It took me to try. I think that they would have been very . There's a great bodhisattva called always calm. Always . He was a great one. Oh, I wanted to say that I love the poetry of your teaching and the way that your words and ideas come together to convey these ideas.

[64:04]

There's something exquisite about that. And the congruence of your warmth and genuine I love, I love being a donor. It's just beautiful to be, to feel that for me. I was looking into the line of being congruent with Darwin. So wonderful. Well, I didn't have a question. I wanted to... He has a question. I don't have a question. I want your permission to ask. Yeah, I'm not going to ask anything. Does she have your permission to ask a question? I guess it's about me.

[65:05]

This person. Don't get out. I wonder if there's some reason why you're worried about, or not worried, because you're not worried, but why you're alerting us to your intending death. Why is on the mind a lot? Is there something going on that will I tell about? I think it's because I'm practicing. Is that it? Yeah, I'm focusing my own self there. And so it comes up quite frequently since I'm thinking about it all the time. I'm thinking about that I'm subject to death. I'm subject to aging. I'm subject to losing everything that's near to me. I'm subject to my karma. In other words, I'm practicing Buddhist teaching. So it just comes, just like I think of yesterday. Love was such an easy thing to do.

[66:10]

If that comes to my mind, also my death comes to my mind. I'm definitely popping up all the time. Yeah, but the death is right here. You can do it also. I'm born all the time, too. Here we are again. But I'm not too worried about dying. And part of the reason why I'm not the word body is because I'm not practicing words. I don't see that in my words to practice. I'm working at other practices. So I don't have much room for words. I don't see it helpful. But I do think it's helpful to be aware that I might not be here tomorrow, so today. I want to say, you know, thank you very much for being nice to me.

[67:15]

Because, you know, I don't think I'll miss a deal tonight, so I'm not going to wait around assuming that I'm going to get... So I think it's been hugely helpful to remember that I might not be here tomorrow, to not postpone getting everything away today. So back at three o'clock, step by step, I'm emptying the house. Step by step, getting things away. So when I die, other people don't have to figure out what to do with my books and my stories. They start to find who and have what. So it's more like trouble after I die. So people come in, he's gone. Everything else is gone. That's easy. He did that for us. He proved that for us. So we wouldn't have to suffer over what to do with this stuff. So I'm working on doing what I have to go. And it actually seems right.

[68:22]

But I actually do think for a minute, and indeed for time, I had reason to believe that my family's file is sudden death, not slow. So I might not have had a long illness leading to my death. I might have just found some. I might not finish one. May I continue to talk about your death then? Yes, please do. Yeah, help us all to think about that. those things, those considerations, does that seem like a certain point in your life where it becomes more of a, you just have more awareness out of it? And yet, I do want to sort of reiterate what Daddy keeps saying, don't go.

[69:29]

I think that's really good for you to say that. It makes me feel welcome to stay there with you. I appreciate that. And I had so much fun with you. Please stay with us and take this with you. Thank you very much. And continue to the finder and the Buddha. Thank you. I'll come back. Good. I'm so looking forward to your book. I'm glad you'd write it. I'm glad to hear that books are being written. Yeah, books are being written. Right. Not by me. What do you learn? Well, with me having something to do with it, all books, by the way, and the one that I'm relating to. And so are you. And you're contributing to these books by asking for them, by listening to you talk, by encouraging you to speak, all that part of how this happens.

[70:31]

As I often say to people, you may not know it, but when I walk down the street, I don't talk. If nobody's around, I'm actually a quiet guy. And if people invite me to talk, then as you see, I'd have to talk quite a bit. Well, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be able to talk. I would be quietly walking around this world. .

[71:00]

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