The title of this series is something like Zen Meditation as World Transformation. Does that sound familiar? Did any of you notice the title? Margie, is there a brochure out there, do you think? Yeah. Anyway, what I meant the topic of this series to be is about Zen meditation. Usually when they announce these classes here, the class is called Zen meditation and then something. This time it's Zen meditation either Zen meditation as world transformation or Zen meditation is world transformation. Yeah, so I think is and as are closer to what I would like to say.

[01:04]

It's not so much Zen meditation for world transformation because that makes it sound like they're maybe two different things. So what I'm, my job is Zen meditation. Which means my job is world transformation. For me, Zen meditation is a practice of what we call bodhisattvas, which are beings whose lives are devoted, are given over for the transformation of the world in the way of transforming the world into enlightenment. into freedom, into peace, into justice, into compassion, into wisdom. That's my job, and you're welcome to have the same job.

[02:10]

But I'm not forcing you to do it, okay? If you don't want to do it, you can still be in the room. So for me, the way I look at my life now is I practice Zen and I practice working with my body and my mind and my meeting with every person I meet. That's my practice. And that practice of mine is the same practice as the whole world. That's the surprising part. So that's what I would like to remember and talk to you about. So this is almost going to be March 1st tomorrow, right?

[03:16]

So we've had two months of this year. And is your name Bumba? Bumba? Bumba, would you mind moving over a little bit so I can see you better? Move that way a little bit. And Ron, only if you're willing to do it. If you sat over there, I wouldn't have to turn like this to see you. Would you sit over there, please? There's a lot of room over there. Same for you. But you can sit there. I only have to turn a little bit to see you. I said I only have to turn my head a little bit to see you. So you can stay there. But Ron way over there. And Noe was way over there. It's a bit much. for me.

[04:21]

So at the beginning of this year as one of the main themes for this year of my practice and my meeting people is a story about the Buddha walking along on the earth with his group. The Buddha walks with a group. And there's a lot of people in Buddha's group. And the Buddha points to the points. And the Chinese character for point also means finger. The Buddha points to the earth and says, this is a good place to build a sanctuary. So I've been trying to remember that and tell people about this teaching, which is that this is a good place to build a sanctuary.

[05:30]

This country, this planet, where each of us is, is a good place to build a sanctuary. And that's hard to remember sometimes when this place is really unexpected, the way this place is. When this place seems like a really tough place. It may be difficult to remember that this is a good place to build a sanctuary. You're pulling the wire. I'm afraid you might have pulled this off. You won't keep an eye on me, okay? don't let me get out of hand so this is a good the Buddha says this is and I say I'm with the Buddha this is a good place to build a sanctuary and I said for me a sanctuary for what a sanctuary for practicing Zen which means a sanctuary for transforming this world

[06:53]

This is a good place to build a place to do a practice that is the same practice as yourself and all beings. And this kind of practice, which I'll go into again and again, it just happens to be the practice of reality. There really isn't an option. Your practice is already including everybody else's practice. And everybody else is already included in yours. So this is a time for me to remind you of that reality. And if we can remember it, enjoy the benefits of that reality. So, as many people know, Zen is often characterized as working with what's happening right now with you, working with who you are right now.

[08:07]

In other words, working with who you are right now is, in other words, this is a good place to practice a sanctuary for Zen. So I'm happy that people sometimes think of Zen that way. Twenty-six days ago I had elective surgery to remove some screws from my femur which had been in there for about fifteen years. They were put in because I had a bicycle accident in Houston, Texas, and my femur was broken. And they put a rod in to hold it together, and they put screws in to hold the rod in place. Does that make sense? But in the last eight months to a year, the heads of those screws have been irritating the bursa on my hip. So if I was sitting for half an hour, I was comfortable.

[09:15]

But if I sat for more than that, it would get more and more painful. And I often do run into situations like that. So I was having a problem. And also it got to be a point also where I could walk on level ground comfortably but when I walked uphill it hurt there. So I went to see an orthopedist and he diagnosed it as bursitis and he said, you can take cortisone shots and if that doesn't work very well we can remove the screws. So I tried the cortisone shots and they worked a little bit but I didn't want to... they lasted only for a little while. So we had electively surgery, took the screws out and the screws came out. But apparently what we didn't know at the time was that when the screws came out the top of the femur was fractured by that operation.

[10:18]

So for a number of days I was walking around with the fractured top of the femur. And at first it was... I was getting over the procedure. It hurt a little bit, but not much. And it started hurting more and more. Anyway, to make a long story short, the top of the femur broke off. So then there needed to be emergency... not really elective surgery and I think really good surgeon but it was a big operation because they had to remove all the old equipment which would traumatize the bone and after they moved all the old equipment they put in new equipment so now this this situation in this part of my body is recovering from that trauma very skillfully done but still and it takes a long time to recover from such operation but with remove with the hardware and everything it probably take a long time and I I don't you know I didn't want to stop all the teaching engagements that I had for this year so here I am

[11:43]

And there's a massage table out there in case I need it. So, you know, the people back at the temple, you know, wanted to make sure I wasn't taking too big a risk coming here. And so I'm here. I feel okay. I'm happy to see you. And When the femur broke and when I found out the operation and when I had the operation, I had a little resistance to the teaching that this is a good place to build a sanctuary. Some amount of resistance, I don't know how much. I knew it's not my vow to resist this place, but I think I did. And I'm not spending a lot of time thinking about what if.

[12:53]

A little bit, but not much. I remember you clearly when you broke your femur walking or something like that in Lucendo. Very clearly. So after the procedure I was aware that I had a new, very fragile body. And again, I had some sadness because I was a little attached to the one I had before. I think, I say, if I wasn't attached to it, I wouldn't have been sad. I would have said, good riddance, or, you know, you can have it. But I think I'm a little attached to my, that nice body I used to have, which wasn't, didn't seem to be so fragile.

[13:56]

But now I really felt like this is a very fragile body and I have to be so careful of it. I had this new kind of like baby, this fragile little baby body. And again, I was kind of like, a little bit like, hard to remember to build a sanctuary here. But then it occurred to me, oh, my body, my body is just like this country. And that was a big inspiration to me. This country is very fragile. So my job as a Zen practitioner is to take care of this fragile body. And this Course is saying this body is a good place to build a sanctuary. This body is a good place to take care of this body.

[15:01]

To be very careful and kind and listen to it and listen to what other people say about it. Like Don't put more than 40 pounds of weight on this leg. Listen to that. And so on. Various people are talking to me about this, how to take care of this body. So practicing Zen is you've got a body, It's a good place to build a sanctuary. And practice Zen. And practicing Zen is something you do in conversation with other people. You listen to how they think you should take care of your body. And also you talk to them about their taking care of their body. So I'm doing that. I'm talking to you about how I take care of my body. And it's kind of difficult, but in a way I'm uplifted by the teaching that if I do a good job taking care of this body, that is all of you taking good care of your body.

[16:21]

If I practice compassion with this body, that's the same as you practicing compassion with your body. in this way my caring for this body which is my responsibility and also my body is your responsibility but me caring for this body is me caring for your body And you're responsible for this body, so please take care of your body because if you take care of your body, that takes care of my body. If you take care of your legs, that takes care of my legs. If you take care of your mouth, that takes care of my mouth. And when we figure this out, We realize this by meeting each other face to face. I don't figure out all by myself how to take care of this body. That's not Zen. Zen is for me to take care of my body and me to take care of your body and to meet you face to face while doing that.

[17:36]

So one could say we all have fragile, precious bodies. We become more keenly aware of it sometimes, like in my case now I'm more keenly aware than I was before. And in a way I'm a little embarrassed that I wasn't more keenly aware before this thing happened. Because I should be remembering all the time this body is fragile and precious. Anyway, now it's not so difficult to remember it. So in Zen, as you know, part of the way we meditate is we take care of our body, we take care of our posture. We make this hand mudra when we sit. We take care of our body by going like this when we sit. And again, I'm now saying, when you make this mudra, when you make this hand, this meditation mudra, the whole world becomes this meditation mudra.

[19:01]

Or another way to put it is, when you make this meditation mudra, the whole world's included in it, and this mudra pervades the whole universe. When you follow your breathing, everyone's included in that. If you follow your breathing skillfully and mindfully and calmly, the whole world's included in your calm, skillful, mindful care of your breathing. and then just, you know, it comes to mind. And when we don't do it, it's the same. If we're not mindful, if we're not patient with our body, if we're not kind to our body, the whole world gets included in our unkindness. which I don't think we usually want.

[20:05]

Some people say, well, I can be mean to myself. That's fine with me. But is it fine with you if everybody else is included in that? Then you might say, well, no. Sometimes people have talked to me in the past about suicide, and I say, if you want... to hurt the people who love you, then suicide is a really good way to do it. That's like the worst thing you can do to your friends is to kill yourself. Because they're included in you. And sometimes life is so difficult, we don't want to take care of it anymore. But not taking care of it, sorry, it pervades the whole universe.

[21:08]

So there's a kind of struggle between when we're not doing our job of Zen meditation, in other words, not doing our job of taking real good care of our place on earth. Unfortunately, it isn't just hurting us. It isn't just hurting this little place. It's touching the whole world. But don't worry about that. Just stop that. And take good care of yourself and know that it's not just for you. It isn't just for you. Me taking care of me isn't just for me. And that makes it a lot easier for me to do the hard job of taking care of me. Sometimes Zen meditation is really, really hard. Zen has a reputation for being a really, really hard practice, you know, like practicing in really cold places and cold monitors, you know, without heat, not getting much sleep, having really like lousy food,

[22:31]

Now, at Green Gulch, of course, we have generally nice food, so it's not so hard that way at Green Gulch. Once in a while we have real terrible food. But, you know, it's like, you can get something else if you want to. It's not, but a lot of Zen masters went through a very, very hard training. and produced a very great compassionate being. But they couldn't do it just to make themselves into a great being. They can only do such a hard practice if it's for everybody. And if it's for everybody, it's hard, but it's possible. And sometimes taking care of yourself is going to be very difficult. And of course, taking care of the whole country is very difficult. But we all have a way to take care of the whole country by taking care of ourself in conversation.

[23:38]

Not just take care of myself according to my idea. So I'm taking care of myself and somebody says, you know, I have some question about the way you're taking care of yourself. It's to allow myself to be called into question the way I'm practicing. That way of practicing transforms the world in the direction that we want. Well, that's my beginning talk in this series of classes. And now it's time to have face-to-face conversations if you want. Of course the face-to-face conversation was going on before I said that. I was talking with you face to face. Now I'm inviting you to speak if you wish. Or dance if you like. Yes, Tracy.

[24:41]

Somebody drank this tea. Not yet. When I'm taking care of myself, it affects the whole world. I can get that. You say if I drop my hands in a mudra, the whole world has their hands in a mudra. It isn't that they have their hands in a mudra. It's that they're included in that mudra. Even that. Even that. Okay. Okay. Fine. Well, it's inconceivable. How... me taking good care of myself is the same practice as all beings that is inconceivable. Again, the Buddhas, how the Buddhas have, you know, they have this wonderful meditation practice as they do.

[25:46]

And then there is, and Buddhas are, they're good meditators, but also Buddhas are good transformers of beings. They meet beings and they interact with beings and in the interaction beings are liberated. The Buddha's inner work is the transformation of beings. So, this hand mudra, if this is my this is what I'm doing, this is my meditation, then I want this to be the transformation of all beings. I want to realize the reality of the teaching that I include all beings, and I am included in all beings.

[27:01]

So I want everything I do to include all beings, and I want everything I do to pervade all beings. So I do this hand mudra, as an expression of including all beings and being included in all beings. And there's many ways Buddhism has been expressed, but there is a tradition which I'm offering to you which says the Buddhas The way the Buddhas are is the transformation of beings, and the transformation of beings is the way Buddhas are. But they're the leaders in a sense, because we're that way too. Buddhas are reality. And they've realized it by getting really good at making this mudra. They know how to put their hands together so completely that their hands are not their hands.

[28:08]

Their hands are your hands. We have to train, we sentient beings have to train to make our hands so completely our hands that our hands are not our hands. Buddhas already know how to do that. And because they know how to do that, that's their excellent, wonderful practice and freedom. And it totally is our liberation. But we have some resistance to being Buddha. And Buddhas are looking at us, seeing us resisting, and Buddhas are looking at us and saying, you're exactly like me, but you don't get it. And I'm just going to keep showing you again how to be like me, which means to be completely you. Your practice is the same practice as all beings is a sentence in English now, but how that's so is not a perception.

[29:27]

But how a perception is like that is not a perception, but is awakening. So your perceptions include all other people's perceptions and pervade all people's perceptions, but that's not a perception. That's reality. And your perceptions all line up with reality, but reality is not a perception, but there is a reality of perception. And the same about everything about your life. And we tell stories about how people help people. That's fine. But that's just a story about it. Yes, Brent? When you think of sanctuary, you think of building a wall?

[30:34]

Yeah. Well, that's fine. But if you look up the word sanctuary, I don't think you'll find that it won't say a wall. It will say a place of refuge and security. If you say, well, I need a wall to have refuge. Okay, no problem. Or you might say, you could have said, but you didn't. When I think of sanctuary, I think of a body. It's like I need a body to build a place of refuge. Okay. So you got a body, got a wall, got a door, got a couch. Okay. Those are all places to build a sanctuary. In other words, to build a place to return to what, you know, is going to bring you peace and ease. So if walls help, fine.

[31:36]

And as you know, monasteries, they sometimes build walls around them so people can go in there and remember what they want to remember. Namely, they're inside the walls in the monastery for the sake of everybody outside the wall. But sometimes people can't remember that they're in this world for the welfare of the world. They can't remember it unless they go away from the world into a place that has walls around it. So, part of world transformation, which includes everybody, is solitude. You need solitude in order to realize your relationship with everybody. So part of my solitude is this fragile body. I'm like I'm working on this body all day long. You're not the way I am.

[32:38]

I'm like in a little monastery of taking care of this leg. And I really shouldn't leave it. Because if I leave it, that could be a big catastrophe. So I'm in this little kind of like training zone where I'm trying to build a sanctuary with this body. And if I don't take care of this, it'll hurt all of you. If I do take care of it, you'll all be, not only are you happy that I'm healing, but you're happy that I did a good job. It would discourage you if I don't do a good job. If I don't appreciate my body, it kind of means I don't appreciate yours. So sanctuary, part of building a sanctuary, is making a place to work together with everybody, to make a place where you're up for interacting with the world, but also a place of solitude where you can understand what interaction means.

[33:44]

So again, a basic principle is we need solitude to understand our relationship with each other, and we need a relationship with each other to understand solitude. Yes, Peter? Thank you. First of all, thank you for being here. You're welcome. Peter, thank me for being here. I understand a bit of what you say as a person sitting, practicing, and whatever emanates from that affects others. That's one piece of what I want to say. Another piece is that throughout the years I've always experienced meditation as basically a tremendous amount of chatter and very little ease.

[34:56]

Did you hear what he said? So a lot of people have that experience that in meditation there's lots of chatter. And as you were speaking about this and the effect of something emanating outward, I'm also thinking for the first time that there is a tremendous amount of chaos emanating out of the meeting. And is that a function of what I experience inside? Because I'm always looking for some way to better the technique, but everything that is coming at me is quite chaotic. So, what's to be done with anything? So he's just thinking tonight that he's... there's been lots of chatter or even chaos inwardly in the past in meditation?

[36:01]

Yes. And tonight he's thinking, well maybe that's because beings are giving me the chaos. Beings are the chaos of the world is included in me. It's a question, I don't know. You're open, you thought that. And I would say I agree with that. As a matter of fact, I hold up a teaching that you all include the chaos of the universe. We all do that. And if you're running around on this planet fast enough and crazy enough you won't notice your inner chaos because you'll just be into outer chaos. But if you sit still and quiet, many people discover inwardly a chaotic scene. And that's not made by you. It's made by you who live in a world and the impact of the world upon you is sometimes felt to be chaotic.

[37:08]

Now, Zen meditation is to work with that chaos. How? Just like I'm taking care of this leg. This leg is a little bit chaotic. What happened in my leg two weeks ago not tonight actually not quite two weeks ago what happened in my leg was a chaotic scene chaotic these people went into my bone and pulled out these big pieces of metal and then went in there and took out broken off pieces of bone and put these things in and went through the muscles it was chaos in there and i i was under anesthetic, so I didn't experience the chaos. But after I came out of it, then I was in chaos. When I came out, I was, not right away, but a little while, I was in chaos and I was thinking.

[38:17]

You know, my body was spinning and there were like very articulate and I wouldn't say demons, but anyway, very articulate voices going on, and images flying all over the place, and I said, whoa, it's very difficult for me to remember being present and still under these circumstances. But I tried, and I called for help to help me be still with this. And that was due... to the doctors trying to help me and doing this to me and giving me that medication all that's in me being responsible from the situation all that is rise to the situation of for example could be called chaos or worse again what's in practice it's to take care of that chaos And part of the chaos is to think about finding a better way to take care of the chaos.

[39:21]

Usually that stirs it up a little bit. So, again, it's hard even to remember, okay, we've got chaos, and the chaos is a good place to build a sanctuary. I thought I would actually go someplace else to build a sanctuary. Here I'm sitting here in meditation, there's chaos. I think I'll go next door to build a sanctuary. Somebody else could take care of this situation. Well, if you can get somebody to trade with you, fine. Somebody wants to take care of the people who are in chaos. There's so many people in chaos, so many people who are fragile, so many people who are afraid, et cetera, in this world and the planet itself. So, It's not exactly like, please give me chaos. But when it comes, it's kind of like, oh yeah, right, this is a job for me because this is what's been given to me.

[40:27]

And now I, can I say, okay, I'm going to build a sanctuary here and I'm going to be kind to this chaos. I'm not going to try to get rid of it. I'm not trying to get rid of this leg. I'm not trying to get rid of it. If I do, then I'm sorry. I apologize. I'm not doing my practice. And it may be that if you're kind and generous and careful with the chaos and patient with it, maybe things will calm down. That's okay. If this leg heals, I still want to keep being kind to it. And maybe after this heals, maybe in the future part of my life, I'll be kinder to my beautiful, wonderful thigh that's had a really hard time for the last 15 years.

[41:29]

But I'm still here, so I still have a thigh to take care of with a thigh bone inside. And I have a mind And if my mind's chaotic, my job is to practice with that, is to be present with it, is to be really kind to that chaotic mind. And again, that's really hard sometimes, but because it's not just for me, I have a chance that I can do it. So your chaos... In your meditation, if you take care of that, that helps all of us. That shows us, oh, Peter's in chaos. He faced it. Maybe we can. Similarly, if you say, I'm not going to take care of my chaos, that spreads. So if you can face this chaos it helps all of us, it inspires all of us. Tonight you open to the possibility that this chaos was not made just by you.

[42:35]

You're responsible for it and yet it's not just you, you live in a world. The world's responsible for your body and mind and so are you. And you're responsible for my body and mind and so am I. That's this teaching. Just a second, before you, the bill was before you, yes? I called to the Buddhas. I called to the ones, I called to the being who can say welcome to this chaos. Who can say welcome, not like I like it. Who can say welcome to getting spun around in a dark, hot hospital room. That's who I was calling to. I felt a little funny, but I did it anyway. And I got through that. I got through that. And then when I came out of that, it continued to be difficult, but it wasn't so chaotic.

[43:41]

It was more just difficult. And people ask me, was it painful? And the funny thing is that before the operation, there was some really painful moments. But afterwards, I haven't really had pain. And they gave me some huge pain stuff. They gave me this little green wand with a button in the middle. And they said, if you press this button, you'll get a medication that's six times as strong as morphine. Plus, you know, in other words, fast acting. And you can press it every eight seconds. In other words, not more than eight seconds. You can't go, because you'll kill yourself. But every eight seconds, you go, one, two, three, four, five, six. I didn't need it. I was looking forward to see what would this thing be. Oh, here's this huge pain. Okay. The pain didn't come.

[44:43]

But what came that was difficult was this chaotic imagery and sounds. And also just that I had this, I was given this fragile baby, this fragile baby situation. Like there's this series, this TV series called Call the Midwife. Have any of you seen it? So in one of the scenes, this lady has a baby and the baby's like six inches, no, 21 inches long or something. But the baby's arms are like two inches long and the legs are two inches long. And they don't show the baby to her right away. But finally she sees the baby and she looks at the baby and she says, oh, you're such a mess. But my mess, and she loved that baby, and it was really tough to take care of that baby.

[45:51]

And the doctor said when he talked to me after the operation, when he was about to say, he said, it was a mess. So now I have this mess, but it's my job. And it's your job too, but the way you're going to do it is different than me. You're going to support me and I'm going to support you by taking care of this mess. And things are going pretty well after I got up past that initial resistance to having this mess. Tony? Yeah, that's right. That's why building a sanctuary... I want to emphasize that right off.

[46:55]

Building a sanctuary means building a place for Buddhism, for Buddha. And Buddha is... face to face. It's not building a place where you're going to be Buddha by yourself. It's a place where you're going to be Buddha with other Buddhas. And when you face other faces, when you face other faces in the sanctuary, that's the place where we really find justice, is face to face. And in face to face meetings, There is often conflict. Somebody says, I don't agree with you. In face-to-face meetings, if they're really functioning, the other person can call you into question. Okay, so you're trying to take care of yourself and you're doing it not by yourself, but with your friends. And your friends question you and open you to be not so sure that you're taking such good care of yourself.

[48:00]

Or you're trying to take care of them, and also you take care of them, but you look at them. You look at their face. You look in those eyes. And you see, you know, there's more going on than you'll ever know. We build a sanctuary for those kinds of meetings, and there will be conflict. But that's what it takes, is to stay in the sanctuary and face those conflicts with compassion and listen to other people's differing opinions about what is helpful. And look at those people who, you know, are giving you a real hard time. That's part of what the meditation practice is. And if we work on our face-to-face relationships in this way, this transforms the whole world.

[49:02]

It isn't just a you become calm and kind. You're becoming calm and kind, meeting people, listening to people, being questioned, listening and learning, being questioned and answered, answers in question. This is a situation where we practice and this transforms the world. And it's hard. Like for example, you know, I actually a few days ago was kind of like making great progress zipping around in my locker And a physical therapist came to see me, and she said, wow, you're doing great. And then she read the doctor's orders, and a couple days later she said, you know, actually, you're not following the doctor's orders. But I was feeling fine and I was just walking right along, you know. The doctor said, only put 40 pounds, you're putting more than 40 pounds on that operated leg.

[50:08]

So then I had to like stop cruising around in my walker and go back to move the walker take a very take a very light step and then take with the operated leg and then take a heavy step a big weight bearing step with the other leg move the walker take a very light step but i was just like and it looked really nice until she read the instructions so i got sort of sent back a few steps And I'm trying to, you know, accept my demotion. Going from like, you know, a one-third is fast. So many people saw me coming in. You know, I can go a lot faster than that. But the therapist said, no. That's too much weight on your leg.

[51:12]

So I see. One, two, three. Yes? Did you want to dance now? I wanted to give you hopefully a very short anecdote of when Fred was dying in the hospital. Okay, can you hear her okay? Her husband was in the hospital, Fred, our dear friend Fred, and he was very sick. He was dying of liver cancer. And Reb called. And I hadn't heard Fred say a word for several days. And I was the intermediary, you told me, tell Fred that I'm teaching a class for him or about him. And I told Fred and Fred was very quiet.

[52:13]

And then you said, tell Fred, sun phase Buddha, moon phase Buddha. And when I told that to Fred, he burst out laughing, the most elegant, beautiful laughter. It was a chaotic, hysterical, it was a beautiful laughter of joy and gratefulness. Thank you. Cynthia? Is your name Cynthia? Is your name Cynthia? What? Bethia? Bethia?

[53:15]

Okay. Okay, I'll take you. What I've noticed about my practice, such as it is lately, is I've been trying to discover what could be positively or the angrily, how I can delve into that and make something positive. I've been struggling with that. So, again, I'm offering the teaching that anger, the Buddha points and said, this is a good place to build a sanctuary. And then, so this is a good place to return to what brings benefit in this world. How can you...

[54:28]

I'm willing to talk face to face with those who I feel are making grave mistakes. You'd like to say that you'd like to talk face to face with those you feel are making grave mistakes? Yeah. I want to do that too. And that practice doesn't just lead to justice between you and that person, although it will, that justice which you can arrive at by meeting face to face, and again meeting face to face with full responsibility. That's where justice will be discovered, and that pervades the whole world. But it's really hard a lot of the time. Do you want to say something more at this time? Emerald?

[55:35]

I was just going to say you have to crawl before you can walk. Pardon? It was just something my mom used to say, you have to crawl before you walk. Yeah, but in my case, I have to walk before I can crawl. I can't crawl. That would be later, maybe. Ron? Thank you for taking the risk. I do see an inherent tension in the fight against risk and protecting the sanctuary. So there's a tension between risk and what? And protecting, caring, Yes, well this is the story of my body. It started with me trying to take care of myself because I was having some problem with this metal and I took the risk of the procedure of taking them out.

[56:43]

So there was a tension there and one of the risks of taking them out is fracture. And so the fracture did occur If you take your children to, you know, if they're sick and you take them to the hospital, there's a risk that they'll get hurt at the hospital. So there is a tension between taking care of some things and taking risks. And if we're too risky, then, you know, and if we're not risky enough, So the tension between what you're talking about is something we can learn to interact, we can learn to meet that face-to-face. It's not face-to-face to run away from all risk. There is risk, we want to meet it face-to-face, but that doesn't mean we

[57:45]

sort of vote for the risk all the time. Some risks we don't. For example, I chose a Prius to come here in. My Prius is in the shop. After the first procedure while I was being given a ride to go do a one-day sitting, I wasn't ready to drive yet, so I was given a ride and the car had an accident. So that car went to the car hospital. So then I got a rental car, but I chose a Prius because I could, you know, have my legs in the more, that was a better position. I didn't risk the other car. So some risks we pass on and some risks we engage in. Sometimes risk brings vitality.

[58:49]

Sometimes it seems to harm. It's part of the deal. I would say the formal framework for evaluating what you're talking about. And you can say anything can fit in that spot. The formal framework for handling it is meeting face to face with another. Meeting face to face with another. That's the formal structure. I do not figure out by myself what's best for my children. I meet my children face to face I meet my, in your case, you meet your wife face to face. You do not figure out how to take care of your children by yourself. If you do, that's not the formal structure.

[59:52]

That's the formal structure of, I don't know what, a lot of people's life. That they think they're going to decide by themselves what's best. That's not what I'm recommending. I'm recommending find out what's best in conversation. Because in reality, reality is we are in conversation. Buddhas are in conversation with us. It's not like they got this enlightenment and we don't. The enlightenment is their conversation with us. And of course that is very potentially chaotic and messy conversations. Like I just thought my... My daughter told me this morning that her husband is flossing my little granddaughter. And my little granddaughter really doesn't want to get flossed. So I don't know how they're working that out.

[60:56]

Want to hear a horror story about me? Huh? You know? One person does? So when my daughter, who is now grown up, a wonderful mother, when she was a little girl, I read about the way Gurdjieff, you know Gurdjieff? He's a guru of the 20th century. He founded the movement called Gurdjieff. And anyway, his father, every morning, took him and put him in cold water. And he said, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have been able to face the difficulties of my life. So I thought, I'll do that for my daughter. So, and Gurdjieff said that when his father used to take him to put him in cold water, his mother and grandmother used to fight him to try to stop him.

[62:05]

But he did it anyway. So I took my daughter one morning and put her in cold water in the bathtub. And that was that, and she didn't like it very much. And my wife didn't like it either. This was a conversation. And the next morning, I took her and she didn't want to go. I took her in the bathroom and her legs went out and gripped the bathroom door and her arms grew. What's the name of that cartoon about this family of superheroes? The Incredibles. The Incredibles. One of them can stretch all over the place. My daughter did that. She gripped the door as I could not get her in there. So that was the end. That was the conversation. And that was the end of my doing her this great favor. So I have various ideas of what's good for you guys, but it's a conversational thing.

[63:13]

I'm not going to... It's not going to be one-sided. And if it is one-sided, please... What do you call it? What's the word? We'll talk back to that. What? Interrupt. Could I say something that Gurdjieff said that I think is fascinating? Okay. You're going to hear something from Gurdjieff. He said, enlightenment is an accident. But one has to make oneself accident-prone. And may I suggest a correction? That that was Rajneesh that said that. Somebody told me that, but at the Gurdjieff Foundation, they said that it was Gurdjieff. Okay. Okay, Rajneesh copied Gurdjieff. Because Gurdjieff was predated Rajneesh.

[64:15]

And they're similar guys. Similar. They're both very charismatic, amazing creatures. Yes. By the way, just before I go on, I made myself accident prone. Okay, I just googled it and here it's attributed to Suzuki Roshi. It's attributed. Attributed. Yeah, it says Suzuki Roshi says it. And sometimes people attribute the Dalai Lama's sayings to me. Which I don't mind. But even if they attribute my sayings to him, I don't mind. So you make yourself absolutely prone? I had this procedure to make my... more comfortable, which sounded like a simple little procedure of taking those screws out, and I made myself accident-prone because, you know, then I was just walking along and I stumbled a little bit and my femur broke.

[65:28]

So I made myself accident-prone. Yay! And I had enlightenment. The enlightenment was, this is a big pain. I want to have a face-to-face conversation with you about your exit tonight, which I don't know what you thought through. Okay. Since we're allowed to do it together, I just want to ask whether you want to maybe leave before us, so we can sit, so you have a clear pathway. Do you want to leave before I'm done? Do you want to try to jump over us? Okay, what do you want to do? Should I go first? And then as I'm gone, you trample me? Sounds great. Okay. Yes. So I'm wondering if people who need to leave could leave. If you need to leave? Yeah. Please go right now.

[66:38]

Please go. And take care of those little people. Have a nice conversation. So anybody that needs to leave can leave now. Okay. Thank you very much for coming to meet me. Thanks for coming to... Yeah. I hope to do it again next week. So, do you want to end with a little chant? equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way.

[67:34]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_85.96