May we do a little ceremony of introduction and recognition. Can you hear me well in the back? Can you hear me well in the back? So I'd like to ask each person to say their first name and pause and everybody say the name. Okay? Ready? Ready? Royce. Royce. Danielle. Danielle. Matthew. Matthew. Sally. Sally. Glenn. Glenn. Basia. Basia. Constance. Constance. Tom. Tom. Mighty. Mighty. Louise. Louise. Gail. Gail. Daniel. Daniel. Daniel. Enrique.

[01:03]

Enrique. Tabitha. Tabitha. Jeff. Jeff. Jeff. Sam. Leo. Leo. Dylan. Dylan. Zach. Zach. Zach. Dave. Dave. John. John. Terry. Terry. Thank you for coming to this practice session. Thank you to many of you who

[02:06]

worked diligently before this retreat to get ready for it. Thank you to all of you for the work you're going to be doing during the retreat with your body and mind. The title of this retreat is Buddha Activity. Did you notice that? What's your name again? Tabitha. Tabitha? Is that like the cat? Tabitha. Oh, it's like the cat, but not the same. Tabitha? Tabitha. Like bewitched. Did you say bewitched? And did you touch her nose when you said that? Did you hear about the title of the retreat being Buddha Activity?

[03:17]

Yeah. You didn't come because of the title. No. Well, may I tell you about the title? Buddha activity, you know, what I mean by that is the activity of Buddha, the activity of great wisdom and compassion. So I don't, I'm kind of not thinking of great wisdom as just like some great with itself, you know, brightly shining in the universe. Even though it is a great light shining in the universe, it's not by itself. It's a light that interacts with living beings. And also, that's just like for empty space.

[04:24]

It's a great compassion for all living beings. that great compassion for all living beings, that great wisdom which is illuminating all living beings, those are activities. Compassion and wisdom I see as activities. And great compassion, great wisdom as the activity of Buddhas. But also it's like the way Buddha lives. You could say the way Buddhas live lives is great wisdom and great compassion. The way Buddha lives is illuminating living beings and listening to them and calling to them back and forth, intimate relationship, an intimate dance between living beings and Buddhas.

[05:26]

That's Buddha activity, the dance. That's kind of a little few words about ... Did you go like this? No, you didn't? Okay. Am I speaking loudly enough still? So ... The unusual thing that I might be saying to you is that, you know, the word zazen, have you heard of that word? It's like, it's used around this temple somewhat. It's on the schedule, maybe. Do you see on the schedule? Six o'clock in the morning, zazen. For me, zazen is a word that was used by some of the ancestors and it's also still used now.

[06:34]

But the way the ancestors understood it, the way the ancestors understood it, the way I understand it, is that zazen means Buddha activity. Now, I guess all the schools of Buddhism would say Buddha activity is really important. We love Buddha activity in this tradition. Does that make sense to you? But a lot of people think of zazen as like, I don't know what, something other than Buddha activity. Like five o'clock, six o'clock in the morning, zazen. Some people don't understand that means during that period of time, it's a time for Buddha activity. It's a time for great wisdom and compassion. It's a time to practice that.

[07:37]

Go sit down, eat wisdom, profound wisdom, and great compassion for all living beings. And also, Yeah, okay. That's what I, that's my perspective I offer you, that that's the in-house term for Buddha activity is Zazen. There's some other in-house terms for Buddha activity which I will mention fairly soon. In less than five days, I will. And some of you will hear me when I do. Maybe. I'll probably hear me when I do. But if you don't hear me when I say these other in-house terms for Buddha activity, it's okay, because I'll say it again. And again. And I'll just keep doing it as I live until it sinks into everybody in the universe.

[08:46]

So I'll have to live a long time. What do I want to sink in? I want to sink Buddha activity. I want it to sink in. Understand that in Zen, all the practices are Buddha activity. Zen also, there's another one. Zen is an in-house term for Buddha activity. So Zen is a term for Buddha activity, and Zazen is an in-house term for Buddha activity. Now, and there's a little house where I live where there's some other in-house terms for Buddha activity, like breakfast is an in-house term for Buddha activity. Walking meditation. Does it say walking meditation or kin-hin on the schedule? Hmm? What does it say?

[09:49]

You don't know. The Eno doesn't know what it says. That's great. That's great that you didn't look at the schedule, put it out and didn't whoop it. Anyway, does it say walking meditation or kin-hin? It says both? Okay. So kin-hin, it could be called walking Buddha activity. or the Buddha activity of walking, and so on. Chanting meditation, serving meditation, eating meditation, Buddha activity. So one of the great advantages of the in-house term is that it's short. And then you can say the Zen of this and the Zen of that. But it's more cumbersome to say the Buddha activity of this and the Buddha activity of that.

[10:53]

So Zen is kind of short and simple. Also they have Zen heritage, right? And Zen style and Zen cooking. Have you heard about that? Zen driving. Nice and simple. What that means is Buddha activity of those things. Another thing is that at noon service, can we chant this chant, which I think says, what does it say? Self-receiving and employing samadhi on your chant card? So we'll do a chant at noon services during the And that chant is about, guess what? It's about Buddha activity. It's words about Buddha activity.

[11:53]

Now these words that would be chanted do not reach Buddha activity, and they're not separate from Buddha activity. But they're there to help us open up our minds to what Buddha activity really is and awaken to it. Buddha activity is already going on right now in the universe. So we don't have to make it happen. But we have the opportunity to wake up to it and enter it and enact it. Great compassion is already going on nonstop in this world. But if we don't practice it, we might not realize it sometimes, or might not realize it almost ever if we don't practice it.

[12:58]

But if we do practice it, the practice of compassion realizes the compassion which is already going on. This chant, which is about Buddha activity, it's again on the card, it says, self-receiving and employing samadhi. For this retreat, I request that we, that the person who introduces the chant, instead of saying self-receiving and employing samadhi, that they say, samadhi. Can we do that? Buddha samadhi. Or if you like, Buddha Activity Samadhi. No, no, no. Just Buddha Samadhi.

[13:59]

Buddha Samadhi. This chant is describing Buddha Samadhi. Samadhi is usually used as a word for a collected... ...collected, calm, open awareness. Collected, concentrated, calm, open awareness. So it's that kind of awareness of and with the activity of Buddha. That's Buddha's mind. It's undistracted from Buddha activity. Some of us sometimes are in, some of us, not samadhi. Sometimes we're not collected. We're not undistracted.

[15:05]

We're not calm with our activity. We're active, but we're not like right there for it. So Buddhas are right there for Buddha activity, is right here with us right now. But if we're not present with our human, ordinary human activity, then that will, in a sense, distract us from the Buddha activity which is going on right now. So this chant we'll call Buddha Samadhi. The Chinese characters which are translated as self-receiving and employing, those three words, self-receiving and employing, those are translations of the characters of that samadhi. So it's a literal translation. Self-receiving and employing.

[16:08]

And receiving and employing can also be translated as self. enjoyment, receiving and employing, can be also, instead of saying that, or fulfillment. And it refers to the Buddha mind receiving and enjoying Buddha activity. It's a joy to receive. It's a joy to be a Buddha. It's a joy to be embracing and sustaining all living beings with great compassion, even though it also includes lots and lots of sadness, or lots and lots of sadness. For Buddha's pain is omnipresent,

[17:11]

And they accept it. And they joyfully meet it with compassion. The compassionate embrace of all suffering is the Buddha's joy. And they also illuminate all the suffering. And illuminating the suffering And liberating beings with this illumination is also joyful. So Buddhas are right in the center of all suffering. I talked about that last time I was here, didn't I? Does that sound familiar? Sitting in the middle of all suffering. Did that stick? Not so much. So just once again, from previous times, I propose that all of us are sitting in the center of the universe.

[18:16]

The universe doesn't have one. It has centers all over the universe. They're centers of the universe. Our sun, our star, in our little solar system, in our huge solar system. That sun is at the center of the universe. The Earth is at the center of the universe, which is what people used to think. They were right. The Earth is the center of the universe. And every living being from beginning, well, for the last... How many billion years has the Earth been around? Four and a half. For the last four and a half, the Earth has been the center of the universe. And somewhere along the way, life started to become present on the planet. And each living being was the center of the universe.

[19:19]

The universe made each living being from that time on. Each of us is at the center of the universe. Each of us depends on the whole universe. And the whole universe depends on each of us. So Buddhas are sitting in the middle of suffering, embracing it with compassion. And Buddhas are also embraced by compassion. Buddhas are receiving the illumination of Buddhas and transmitting the illumination of Buddhas And that receiving and transmitting illumination is joyful. We also are sitting in the same, not the same, in our own unique center, receiving compassion and giving compassion, but we have not yet understand that deeply.

[20:23]

This text, which we'll be chanting at noon service, is an excerpt from a longer text written by Ehei Dogen Daisho. It's written by him It's called Bendowa. At the beginning of Bendowa, it says that all Buddhas and ancestors have a wondrous, like an inconceivably wonderful means to transmit the teaching. And the hallmark or the standard of means of transmitting and receiving the teaching, the hallmark of it is Buddha Samadhi. So the Buddha Samadhi, the Buddha activity, is the hallmark of the transmission. The Buddha activity is transmitting the Dharma.

[21:46]

But the Buddha activity is also to receive the Dharma. And that receiving the Dharma and giving the Dharma, and being aware of that process, process is the hallmark of the transmission of the Dharma. So one of the hallmarks of transmitting Dharma is to transmit it, to give it to others, but also is to receive it from others. So Buddha giving and receiving activity, which again is going on all the time. And just to give you, kind of like to warm you up to Scripture, to this teaching, it says in there something like this. Each moment of zazen, again, in-house term for each moment of Buddha activity, imperceptibly accords with all beings.

[23:04]

and fully resonates through all time. So again, the zazen I'm talking about is a moment, a moment of zazen is a moment in which you and I with each other and with all beings, fully accord. Right now, fully according with all beings, that's Buddha activity. And the way we are resonating throughout all time is Buddha activity. called Zazen in this house.

[24:07]

And another phrase around that same part of the text says something like, again, each moment of Zazen is equally the same practice and equally the same enlightenment as you and all beings. Or just of all beings. Zazen practice is equally the same practice as all beings and equally the same enlightenment. So Buddha's enlightenment, of course, is great, but it's the same enlightenment as all beings. practice is great and it's the same practice as all beings. So Buddha's practiced together with all beings and the way we are practicing together with all beings is the same way that the Buddha is practicing together with all beings.

[25:22]

And the way our enlightenment is the same as all beings is the way Buddha's enlightenment is the same as all beings. That's Zazen of the Buddhas. That's Buddha Samadhi. But it's imperceptible. I can't perceive how I am in accord, really, even with one of you. I mean, I might feel like we might have a little conversation. I might say to you, well, are we in accord? You might say, This is great, we're in accord. Well, that's right, we are. And I might say, how do you know? And you might say, well, because I can see it. But we can see accord sometimes. Like sometimes we feel like we're in accord. I think we're not. Or sometimes we perceive we are.

[26:24]

And sometimes we perceive we're not. That's part of our life. But there's another accord which is not sometimes and sometimes not. There's an accord which is unceasing. That's the one with all beings. And that we cannot perceive with our consciousness, with our unconsciousness, with our body. We can't perceive it, but we can perceive by the way we can perceive it, by the way our body is supporting all beings and all beings are supporting our body. That's called a Buddha body. We perceive this imperceptible mutual assistance. Zazen, Buddha activity and so on, we perceive it with what?

[27:27]

We perceive it with imperceptible accord. That's how we perceive it. So it's not an ordinary perception. It's imperceptible. Imperceptibly accord. Each moment of zazen imperceptibly accords with all beings. And imperceptibly resonates throughout all time. And this imperceptible accord with all beings, it's not a delusion, it's wisdom. Most perceptions, perhaps all, are delusions.

[28:31]

most perceptions are a mental construction of something. The something's not a delusion. The perception of it is. You're not a delusion. The perception of you is. the perception of you is a mental construction of you and that mental construction usually has a somewhat subliminal or very subliminal message written underneath the construction which says, this is a delusion. So, Audrey's not a delusion. Audrey's not a perception. But, bodies and minds of humans together with Audrey and the whole universe give rise to perceptions of Audrey.

[29:42]

And underneath the perception is each one has a different one and then each one says, this is not a perception, this is Audrey. And believing that this is actually Audrey is delusion. Before that is just like a picture. or, you know, whatever idea of Audrey. And even the thing, this is really Audrey written underneath, is just like a little message. Believing it is being fooled by the universe, which is to these perceptions. And Each moment of zazen fully accords with all these delusions and doesn't fall into any of them. Matter of fact, to fully accord with something goes with not falling into it.

[30:48]

It's like if you're dancing with someone, to really dance with them, you don't fall into them. and you don't fall away from them, you're with them and you're according in the dance. You don't own them, you don't disown them, you're just with them, according. Not owning, not disowning. Not abiding in them, just being with them. That's the wisdom part. And here's another little introduction to delusion which you've heard about, I think. which is like a definition, which is to practice and confirm all things, carrying a self, is delusion. Like I got a self here. When I was a kid, there was a TV show called Have Gun, Will Travel.

[31:53]

Have a self, we'll travel. I'm traveling around in the universe. We have a self here and it's moving around the universe. And it's meeting this person and meeting that person. It's practicing Zen. It's practicing law. It's practicing medicine. It's practicing parenthood. It's practicing childhood. I, this, is practicing various practices and affirming various things. That perspective of I do it, I do the activity that's here, that perspective is illusion. And you may have noticed that one. So in consciousness, there's a sense of self. Sense of self.

[32:55]

And a lot of people say it's in the middle of the consciousness, over on the side. But anyway, we've got a consciousness, we've got a self there, got an I. Okay? And what that is, we're not sure necessarily yet. It might be an idea, it might be a smell, it might be a touch, it might be a feeling, emotion. But anyway, there's a sense of self in there. And then there's various ideas of many things, and some of the ideas relate to the self. And one of the main ideas in consciousness is, here's an idea, here's an idea, the self is going on here. Here's another idea. The self made the idea that the self was directing what's going on here. Here's another one. The self owns some of the stuff that's going on here, usually the good stuff.

[34:03]

And being the director of all that's going on, there's a feeling of pride for this masterful creature And also, since it's so wonderful, there's kind of a and loving it, there's also often a feeling of disgust about it. I'm sick of myself is also in there. But the self doesn't make all this stuff happen, and the self does not direct all that's happening. Those are delusions that live with the self. Afflictions So the normal situation of consciousness, having a self and having the affliction of thinking the self is doing the living, doing the acting. That's the normal delusion system, delusion pattern of normal or I should say at least common human consciousness.

[35:11]

Before I go on, I just want to briefly again, that consciousness and those delusions and all the pain and stress and fear around those delusions, because it's quite frightening if you're in charge of this whole, what's going on. That, you know, will you do it right? Will you do it wrong? Will you be rich? Will you be tough? It's like, if I'm in charge here, this is a big response. This is a big responsibility. I want to do it right, etc. And also other people might not approve of the way I'm directing everything and then I might get in trouble with them. It's a frightening situation. And it's calling for compassion. All the time. And all this delusion and all this suffering that comes with it is calling for compassion. And you could say, we are being called to be compassionate.

[36:29]

And you could also say, our life is being called for compassion. And our life is calling for compassion. This deluded situation, which is calling for compassion, and also our life is being called to be compassionate towards all of our own suffering and everybody else's. I'll come back to that. Now I wanted to shift a little bit picture of the situation. For example, yeah, remember I said about two to practice and confirm all things while carrying a self, or for the self to practice everything, that's delusion. And then to turn the table is everything, for everything, for everything, for the whole universe, to come forward and practice and confirm the self is enlightenment.

[37:35]

When everyone comes forward and practices you, that's enlightenment. When everything comes forward and confirms you, that's enlightenment. And of course, that's not stressful. Even if you're in stress, to confirm you in your stress, that's not stressful. So the stressful, I'm doing this, I'm practicing Zen, delusion. And Zen, everything's doing me. Zen's practicing me, enlightened. They meet at me, which just happens to be at the center of the universe. Or you could say it meets at you. For you to practice everything, that's delusion. You could say that's your delusion, that's you in delusion, practicing everything.

[38:41]

That's delusion. and it's connected to yourself. And everything to practice you, that's enlightenment, as you. And those two are living together at the center of the universe. What's living together? What's this? What's this over here? This is delusion. Remember? This is delusion over on this side. What's on this side? Yeah. Enlightenment are both living together, closely connected, not even connected, inseparable from self. All things come forward and practice and confirm the self. The self comes forward and practices and confirms everything.

[39:44]

Delusion. The delusion and the enlightenment. I was talking to someone like this and she said, there's a lot of self there. Yeah, you can say a lot. There's a lot. But anyway, there is self. Self is at the center with delusion. And usually a lot of people would put enlightenment above delusion. Because it's free, it's stress-free, it's illumination, it's liberating, it's really great. And delusion is painful and troublemaking. But they're both connected to the self in each moment. universe. They're never separate. They interfuse each other.

[40:50]

They dance with each other. And that Zazen is, you know, Buddha activities, not the delusion, you could say. Maybe not surprising, right? But it's also not the enlightenment, equally not the enlightenment. What it is, it's the interfusion of the two, is Buddha activity. It's the enlightenment in the middle of the delusion and the delusion in the middle of the enlightenment. That's the Buddha activity. So you don't get stuck in enlightenment in Buddha activity. Buddha activity has got tons, not even tons, ounces of enlightenment, grams of enlightenment, galaxies of enlightenment. And it leaps beyond that enlightenment all the time.

[41:55]

And leaping beyond the enlightenment, inseparable from delusion. And delusion leaping beyond delusion is enlightenment. But then enlightenment leaps beyond enlightenment into delusion. That's Buddha Samadhi, Buddha activity. I mean, I'm saying that's Buddha activity. And this Buddha activity of the self doing

[43:00]

pivoting with Zazen doing the self, me doing Zazen, pivoting with Zazen does me, that pivoting imperceptibly accords with all beings who are doing the same thing. They are, you know, each of you is, and Zazen is doing each of you all the time. And that is the same practice as everybody else. And it's also the same enlightenment as everybody else. But it's actually not the enlightenment of the enlightenment coming forth and practicing each thing. It's the enlightenment which is the pivoting of that enlightenment with delusion. So there's waking up, to the delusion, and then there's leaping beyond the waking up, realizing the integration of delusion and enlightenment.

[44:03]

That's the same as all beings. Of all different kinds of delusions and enlightenments, they're all basically doing the same thing, which is they're practicing Buddha activities, practicing them. Now, an essential enterprise for us to, I don't know what, be devoted to, give ourselves to, and watch the dynamic of I do it and it does me, is compassion for everything. Without being compassionate, Any delusion that we have a chance to meet, being compassionate to it, we cannot realize what's already going on, which is compassion.

[45:17]

And so we're sitting all day, walking all day, whatever, we're here all day, and we're being asked all day to be compassionate all day to everything all day. And we're responsible. So that's our responsibility. That's our responsibility, and we are responsible to accept that responsibility. And we do, and we can also not accept that responsibility. And if we don't accept it, we're responsible for that, too. But we also can accept it. And we do. And we can want to, and we can We can think we do, and we can want, yeah. And that's part of the deal, is to want to accept the responsibility to be compassionate to everything, to all the stuff that's coming at us in the midst of delusion.

[46:35]

In the midst of enlightenment, we do accept everything that comes. Because the enlightenment side is when everything comes forward and makes us or creates us, at that point we accept everything that makes us. Because we accept. But another part of our life is we sometimes don't want to. Okay, you guys. I'm putting these on just in case you want to say something before I go back to San Francisco. If ever. Thank you for listening to that again.

[48:16]

Okay, do you want to bring anything up before we conclude this morning? Yes? What is compassion? What is it? Well, I don't know. And yet, I just wrote a book about it. And so in that book there's various, various compassion practices are offered. So part of compassion is not exactly a practice. It's more like just a sense of responsibility. a sense of responsibility is part of that people are calling to you and they're saying, Leo, help! Have you heard that one? Daddy, help!

[49:31]

Heard that one? So part of compassion is you hear that, which is being responsible that you hear it, because it's somebody's calling to you and they want you to listen to them, and when you do, you're being responsible to their call. So you're hearing the call is part of compassion. And then you might feel like, oh, and then they tell you, they say, I'm in pain, Daddy. And if you're like, well, I want to help you. That I want to help you, that's kind of like, not exactly a practice, but it's kind of a practice. But it's so quick. It's just a response. It's kind of compassionate, that I want to help you. I'm listening to you. And I want to keep listening to you. Keep listening to you is kind of like a vow. I commit to keep listening to you. It's like a vow. I vow to listen to you. sweetheart, if you're in pain, I want you to keep telling me and I want to listen to you.

[50:36]

That's kind of, that's the vow kind of compassion. I want to listen to the suffering of all beings because that suffering is calling to me. It wants me to listen to them and I want to do that. That's kind of like the vow, the compassionate vow, okay? Then how do you put that into practice? The first one is general. So then you start practicing generosity towards the cause. You want to listen to the cause of the world? Do you? Do you? Do you want to listen to them? Okay. So then, if you want to, then the first practice is be generous to them. The first practice in training yourself. So you got the vow to practice compassion with all beings, right? Or at least with a lot of them. You want to, but you also have to train yourself, train your mind. So you train your mind by training your mind to be generous with all the calls, which are similar to generous with all the visitors.

[51:46]

So if it's, and there's lots of pain, a lot of the visitors are painful or stressful. So you learn You practice welcoming. And people often bring up, do you fake it until you make it? I don't really think you fake it. You just try it until you mean it. So if somebody calls to you, and maybe they call to you with a real harsh voice, or a disrespectful voice, or anyway, they're in pain. Like a woman I know, when she hears little babies cry, she says, oh, it reminds me of the bad old days. To hear a baby cry, and every time that baby cried, it hurt so much. And those were really bad days. This mother was in so much pain because that baby really cried and hurt so

[52:59]

bad old days, it was so hard. So we train, we learn how to actually welcome the pain, welcome the stress, welcome the sickness, welcome the insults, welcome the outrages that are coming to us, welcome them. Not like them, Welcome them. Not like all the pain. You don't have to like it. Welcome it. That's the beginning of compassion. Also welcome pleasure. But welcome doesn't mean you let it come, which you might, and then grab a hold of it. And the same with pain. Welcome doesn't mean it comes and you grab it. You come as a gift. You're not possessive of it when you're practicing generosity with the pain.

[54:09]

And the same with pleasure. You welcome it. You care it. You give it away, too. Not to get rid of it. but to let go of it if it goes. That's the beginning. Then you practice ethics. Ethics are the second practice of compassion. Be careful with all the cries. Be gentle and tender with all these cries. All these cries are, I think I mentioned it last time I was here, all these cries are from fragile beings. Living beings are fragile. Even though they may be bustering and all puffed up, they're actually fragile and they're calling for compassion and being tender and careful and respectful of all this life.

[55:17]

because the fragility is in the realm of life and death. In that realm, there's so many calls for compassion, being careful and tender and respectful, practicing the precepts, not killing, not stealing, not... Practicing them are ways to be compassionate to these cries. and then be patient with them, because this pain is not going to stop. It's omnipresent. We're training ourselves to be a Buddha. We're training ourselves to be a Buddha is Buddha activity. And Buddha activity accepts the pain is omnipresent. Oh, there's pain again, yeah? That was like, again, means in the previous moment it was there, and now it's here again, and now it's here again, and it's on. And I'm training to accept it.

[56:24]

And I'm training to be patient with it not ending. And it's changing all the time. It's not always the same. But anyway, the practice, I'm training the practice to be always here. I'm training the practice to always be here. the different varieties of suffering. That's a short course on trainings in compassion. Then it goes on for diligence and samadhi. And then wisdom is part of making the compassion really fully mature. We need wisdom. as part of developing great compassion. Without wisdom, we might just not, you know, not be able to be. Some situations, some people, we might just say, they don't deserve it.

[57:26]

Or some things about ourselves, no, I don't deserve compassion. But with wisdom you realize, oh no, there's no exceptions. Compassion reaches everywhere and so does wisdom. Okay? Anything else this morning you want to bring up? Yes? If there is omnipresent suffering and pain, how can one know the truth and the suffering? I think at a certain phase in the history of the world, or anyway in the last 3,000 years, some people understood the third noble truth as cessation meaning the end. So one way to understand the end of suffering is in the Enlightenment I mentioned at first.

[58:30]

when all things come forward and realize you, at that moment, it's like maybe there's no suffering. You don't have to call it the end. It's not there. So in one side of the story, there's like no suffering. But another way to understand that third noble truth, which is called cessation, is that suffering and now there's not. Almost like you went from where there is suffering, I'm practicing, to practicing as me. When you shift to that other side, it's like, in a way, suffering ceases. So that's one way to understand the third noble truth is delusion to enlightenment. And you're over on the enlightenment side, the enlightenment way of looking at it. looking at what? Our life. I do life, life does me.

[59:34]

What life does me is not, there's no suffering there. However, that's just one side of the story. The other side is, I do life, that's suffering. I make babies. But babies make me Maybe the suffering of I make babies ceases when I shift to babies make me. But another understanding is that the suffering never really happened because it never was so that I made the babies or I did the Zen. So it really never really happened. It's just a delusion. But if we're in delusion and then we flip to enlightenment, in a sense the delusion seems for a moment to have ceased. If delusion ceases, suffering ceases.

[60:35]

If delusion is extinguished for a moment, suffering is extinguished for a moment. But I'm suggesting Buddha activity is not just the enlightenment which is the cessation, it's the inseparable dance between suffering and enlightenment, or suffering and freedom. And what is the cessation? The fourth truth is the practice. So the practice is the cessation. And what's the practice? The practice is being compassionate to all this stuff, all this suffering, being compassionate to it, being careful of it, being ethical and generous and so on. With all the stuff, that's the practice, that's the cessation. But that also opens to

[61:38]

Embracing the suffering, the cessation of the suffering is embracing the suffering. Embracing the suffering, you flip to the suffering does me rather than I do the suffering. But it goes, it's back and forth all the time, always dancing together. And so in this picture that I'm giving you, we don't get rid of anything. Nothing's eliminated. So all the suffering... it may be easy to understand that when suffering people call for help, they aren't saying, please eliminate me. Occasionally people do say, please kill me. But I don't think people, what do you call it, in their right mind, they do not want to be eliminated. They want to be met with compassion. Our suffering is not saying, please eliminate me.

[62:46]

It's saying, please listen to me. Please be here with me in a compassionate way. And please teach me how to be compassionate so that I can teach others how to be compassionate. And in the meantime, it may appear like, for a flicker, that suffering is extinguished or ceases. It may look like that. And you might be over on the other side where there seems to be extinction. But I'm saying these two are pivoting. How are you doing? Also I just popped in my mind that the fourth bodhisattva practice of compassion is called energy or enthusiasm, and part of energy and enthusiasm is resting.

[63:49]

Part of developing compassion is sometimes resting, work of developing compassion. Anything else this morning? Yes, what's your name again? Thomas. Thomas? Thomas. Looking back at the paramitas and thinking about compassion and wisdom, the last two, it reminds me of the Heart Sutra... You mean the last two of concentration and wisdom? Yes, just in general. It reminds me of the Heart Sutra and how Avalokiteshvara is kind of the central figure in the dialogue, and the Bodhisattva of compassion is describing shunyata and emptiness.

[65:01]

My question is, does compassion lead to the understanding of shunyata or emptiness in general? Yes, it does, and you can take away in general. Or put it back in. You can also add in particular. Understanding shunyata in general and in particular. Both. And it also understands shunyata, how in general and in particular are included in each other. Yeah. So that's... I mentioned that sometimes. The only perfect wisdom scripture I know of where Avalokiteshvara is the main and actually only Bodhisattva mentioned, but anyway the main one even, he's in some other ones or she's in other ones, but not the main figure. And so we have the Bodhisattva who is really good at practicing compassion, who sees the emptiness of all phenomena.

[66:10]

And this vision, this seeing, which is imperceptible, I would say, beyond hearing and seeing, this kind of seeing, because it says clearly saw, but this is not a perception, I would say. It's a knowing, it's a wise knowing. That perception relieves all suffering and distress. It liberates it. But I don't think it eliminates it. And then Avalokiteshvara starts talking. The first part is talking about Avalokiteshvara. Somebody is telling us that Avalokiteshvara was practicing deeply the perfection of wisdom. great compassion was practicing the perfection of wisdom and saw all phenomena.

[67:19]

Anyway, all the phenomena of the five aggregates are empty. But then, this compassion which was practicing, then it starts, continues to practice by talking, by living in the world of language, another human being named Shariputra and talking to us. So Avalokiteshvara doesn't just relieve all suffering and then enjoy that all by herself. She comes and teaches us. She's happy to be back in the world of teaching. Teaching is me. I'm doing the teaching, the teaching is back into the world of I'm doing the teaching or this bodhisattva's teaching. to beings who are practicing, and so on. So I wanted to ask, is there, in your opinion, or definition of compassion, could compassion and empathy be used synonymously?

[68:52]

I think that some people use them somewhat differently. That compassion is like these practices, and empathy is more like, almost like feeling compassion, It's certainly like understanding where people are at, so to speak, in their suffering. But usually we don't call empathy being careful or being patient. But empathy would be very helpful if you were being patient with another person and you kind of understood why they were while they were so unhappy. So the empathy would be very helpful. So the Buddha does seem to have empathy, great empathy. Like someone told me recently, no one will ever understand what I went through, the suffering I've had.

[69:56]

Although she says that, I think in a way she would like somebody to understand a little bit anyway. So kind of understanding where someone else's suffering is, or even their happiness too, sort of being able to, as we say, put ourselves in their shoes, is more of empathy. The actual activity of addressing this thing which we kind of have a feeling for, That's more like the compassion. The compassion is more like the embracing. The empathy is a little bit more like kind of understanding. So, in a way, empathy is more like that you kind of understand how the person would feel, even though you're not exactly the same person. You kind of can see, oh yeah, if I was in that situation, I would really be terrified. I would really be in pain. I would really feel pain. the meaninglessness of life, if I could see that, yeah.

[71:03]

It's more like that. And then that might be part of what motivates me to, like, practice compassion. So if that's the case, now that I understand how that person has come to be, like, a more difficult example would be, now that I understand how that person has come to be so arrogant You know, here's a person who's so arrogant and they tell me that they're so much better than everybody else, including me. And I kind of can see how they are that way. I can kind of see how they think they're better than me and how they think they're better than a lot of other people. I can kind of see how they have this really obnoxious way of seeing the world, that they're above everybody. Yeah. So, I would like to practice compassion towards. Yes, I think empathy will help me be compassionate.

[72:07]

And I think compassion will help me, will develop my empathy. If I'm careful with people, you know, if I practice ethics with people. Treat them with respect. and I'm gentle with them, I think that might open the doors of empathy for me. Like somebody says something to me, and I'm careful before I speak. And then I might say, oh yeah, I can see. But they might say something like, blah, blah happened, and I just might not see that as a problem. You know? Like people treated me this way, and it was terrible. And I might think, oh, well, people treat me like some pretty big, strong people don't mind getting punched. Matter of fact, they love it.

[73:16]

Some people love to box and tackle each other. So then someone told me, somebody punched me. And the person thinks, that's not a problem. I get punched all the time. I love it. I punch back, too. They don't understand that for this person, it really was horrible to get punched. Well, I don't understand it, so. But I respect the person. I'm careful with the person. And before I say, well, that's not a problem. It wouldn't bother me. Before I say that, I listen to them. And I think, hmm. And I'm careful of it. And then maybe I go, oh, I think I can see why that would really be a problem. Wow. I never saw that before. Yeah. Yeah. That would be terrible.

[74:17]

Oh, now I get it. Now that's the empathy. But some people have it kind of naturally. I don't know, actually, maybe nobody does. Like little kids, you know, they squash bugs. And their parents say to them or their friend, would you like me to squash you? And they go, no. They kind of get it, but then they forget. They need quite a few lessons to actually sense that other sensitive beings have feelings and they should be careful of them. My grandson used to like to hit me with hammers. And I wouldn't let him do it. Would you like me to hit you with a hammer? And he'd go, no. So in that way he learned that maybe if he didn't want to get hit with a hammer, that maybe it would be hard for me. He knew that he wouldn't like it. But he did kind of want to hit me to see what would happen. Also, he used to like to throw rocks at me.

[75:21]

He'd throw rocks at you. Like you'd throw rocks, you know, over towards other rocks. But then he wanted to turn the rocks towards me. I said, wait a minute. So some people pick up on empathy really fast, really easily, and they never forget it. They're like empathic and skillfully for many years. Other people, they're not too good at it, but by practicing compassion, they can get better at it. By doing compassion training of being careful and gentle over and over, we sometimes can open up to people who have feelings that And then that will help our compassion. So I think compassion and empathy are not really synonymous, but they're more like complementary. Some people, like I say, they're very generous, but they don't have much sense of the effect of their compassion. They're not too good at that side.

[76:24]

Other people are pretty generous, or are also generous, but they're also very sensitive to that their generosity, how their generosity might feel to someone else. Like you might give someone a gift so bad that they didn't have the ability to give that same gift. And some people kind of feel that up, so they give carefully, sensing that they might embarrass the person by giving them a gift. because the person can't give it back to them in a similar way. I can remember one woman who wanted me to do something for her but she was embarrassed to ask because she was having trouble getting used to how much help she needed as she got older. And I did this assistance for her. And she really seemed to be embarrassed that she was being assisted.

[77:25]

And I was seeing a therapist at the time and he said, yeah, old people do sometimes act like they don't like that you're helping them because they're so embarrassed that they need it. They do want your help. Help me understand. Oh, yeah. She wants my help, but when I get it, she's embarrassed, so then she kind of like, almost like insults me for what I gave her, because she's in so much embarrassment. So I had this feeling, and this other person helped me empathize with her. I want to better understand the coming into. I get the delusion and the enlightenment. But I don't understand the part that the enlightenment is happening.

[78:31]

The enlightenment. The baby had me. I don't understand. Yeah, so you want to understand that. In other words, you want to understand enlightenment, because that's enlightenment, the baby coming to you, the practice coming to you, the practice doing you, compassion doing you. To understand that means you want to understand the enlightenment side. And that's good that you want to understand it. And if you want to understand the enlightenment side, then practice compassion in the realm of I'm practicing compassion, which is delusion. So in the realm of delusion, but in a compassionate way. And as I practice compassion with my delusion, more and [...] more,

[79:33]

as I become more and more wholehearted and I practice generosity, wholeheartedly I practice generosity, then generosity says, hello, I'm practicing you. And so as you fully do the diluted side, you meet the other side. The other side says, hi, whoa, I didn't know you were here, yeah. So, Yeah, so let's wholeheartedly be deluded. But in order to wholeheartedly be deluded, because we're deluded, you know, we're like hugely deluded, but we're not necessarily wholehearted about it, which is another delusion. You're kind of like, well, I'm deluded, but I'd be less deluded than I am. That's not very generous. Generosity is, I seem to be about this deluded, and for now I sort of like, my job is to be this deluded. And I notice I'm having some resistance to it.

[80:38]

Someone also, or... But our resistance to our delusion, our resistance to our situation, our resistance is also calling for compassion. So like we have with these forms and there may be some resistance to them, like the bell rings for Zazen. Maybe there's a little bit like, oh, could we have it a little later? Or it occasionally might happen that the break is too long. I wish the break wasn't so long. Some resistance to what's going on, like I don't want to really be or I don't really want to be with this person. This person is like a little bit not me. Well, being compassionate to this resistance, like welcoming the resistance. Welcome resistance. So again, in a way, resistance is, you know, one of the main varieties of delusion, like we're resisting being where we are.

[81:51]

We're resisting having what feelings we have. We're resisting being who we are. Of course, that's good. But we seem to do that occasionally, especially when it's painful. But even some people are in pleasure. They resist it. It's like, I can't stand this pleasure. It's too much. I don't deserve it or whatever. I don't know. Or it's going to go away. They resist it because they can't stand it. So resistance is also calling for compassion. And if we're compassionate to all these delusions, we'll see the other side of the story. Because it's right there. And then we can just keep practicing compassion. ...enlightenment, and then we'll realize that the compassion is right there with the delusion. So then we don't get stuck in the compassion. The enlightenment is not separate from the delusion. So first of all, we realize in practicing delusion, oh, there's the enlightenment.

[82:56]

Then we practice enlightenment, there's the delusion. Pretty soon we... Oh, first of all, it's like they flip. Then we start to realize that they are mutually inclusive. So first of all, we're deluded and we don't see that enlightenment's right here. Then we see, oh, enlightenment's here. But we might think it wasn't here before. Oh, here, delusion's here. After a while, they become, in some sense, homogenized. But, you know, the water and the milk never are really, they're still separate and different, but they're homogenized by going back and forth. So if you realize the other side, that's good, because that's important. So thoroughly being this side, you realize the other side. And then realizing the other side thoroughly, you realize the other side again, back and forth.

[83:58]

They're mutually supportive and mutually inclusive. They interfuse, they interpenetrate each other. like in the chant you did this morning, the Precious Mirror Samadhi, I think it says, like the double split hexagram, I think it says relative, absolute, does it say interpenetrate? Interact. Interact. Absolute and relative interact. But another translation is apparent and real interact. But delusion and enlightenment interact. All dualities really interact. But if you feel like, I think, excuse me, if you feel like, I'm not saying you've said this, but it's felt like,

[85:01]

I think, you know, I know enough about delusion. I'd like to know more about enlightenment. That's okay. But I want to know more about enlightenment. It's fine. But you would know more about enlightenment if you knew enough about a delusion. So sometimes you feel enough delusion already. That's more delusion. I want to fully accept delusion. delusion because I understand that that is what enlightenment does. It fully accepts delusion. I want to realize enlightenment, yes, but the price of admission to understanding enlightenment, to realizing it, is fully accepting delusion. And that process is open-ended. It's not like, okay, I fully accepted delusion, that was great, and I got this wonderful enlightenment, that was great, and now we're done.

[86:04]

No. Now again, fully accept. Because you're enlightened, you'll be better able to fully accept.

[86:12]

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