Buddha activity is something like the unceasing effort to free all beings so they may dwell in peace, so they may live in peace and harmony. Okay? That's one way of talking about Buddha activity. It's an activity, an effort to free beings so they can live in peace and harmony. Okay? And as I mentioned yesterday, or I could say, as was mentioned yesterday, and one of the in-house terms in Zen houses is Zazen. And Zazen is the term that I use for Buddha activity. Zazen is an activity.

[01:05]

Zazen is an activity of freeing beings so they may live in peace and harmony. And this Buddha activity, this Buddha activity Zazen, is functioning in unconstructed silence and stillness. Which you may have noticed it said in the chant yesterday, It said, all this, all this what? Do you remember the chant yesterday?

[02:11]

All this, but I'm asking you. This is a, what do you call it? This is a pop quiz. All this, what is all this? Yeah. All this going on in Buddha Samadhi, this Buddha activity is going on in a Samadhi of unconstructed stillness and silence. It says silence in the text, but that Chinese character means silence and stillness. This liberating beings so they may dwell in peace is going on in an unconstructed silence and stillness. And unconstructed things don't have beginnings and ends. So it's a ceaseless, beginningless, endless process. This is Azen. It fully resonates through all time.

[03:13]

All past and all future. In that kind of stillness, which is unceasing, this liberating activity is functioning, living. And again, this is what I call Zazen, or Zen practice, or Zen. And another word, another thing that was in the chant and I brought up yesterday is this Buddha activity, which is also called what? This zazen, in each moment of it, this Buddha activity, each moment of it, imperceptibly accords with all beings. So the process of liberation is a process of according with all beings, but not just the way you can perceive.

[04:25]

It's an imperceptible, unceasing accord It's always going on. We don't make it. It's unconstructed. It is created by the whole universe. It's unceasing. And we can enter it and realize it. That's my proposal. It's an imperceptible process of liberating beings. It's an imperceptible, inconceivable process of liberation that's unceasing. It's going on all the time. It's a question of how to jump into it, how to let it jump into you. And I would say it's a question of that. Please remind me to deal with questions later. Now, I think I said it yesterday, but I said a lot of stuff yesterday, so you probably can't remember everything I said.

[05:35]

And I can't either. And I'm kind to myself about not being able to remember everything I say. And so I'm kind to you if you don't remember everything I said. But I think maybe I said yesterday, but I'm not sure. that everything is calling for compassion. Did I say that yesterday? Good. And I'll say it again. Everything's calling for compassion. And also, I don't know if I said this yesterday, everything is listening. Buddhas, of course, and great bodhisattvas are listening with compassion, but they're also calling. They're calling for it. They're saying, come on, compassion, let's have it. Let's have more and more and more. So Buddhas and bodhisattvas are listening and calling, and we are too.

[06:37]

And everything about us is. Our fear is calling for compassion. In order to awaken to this Buddha activity, Zazen, we must accept the responsibility of listening to everything with compassion. Accepting the responsibility doesn't mean we can fully exercise it yet. Just like, I don't know, accepting the responsibility to be a good parent doesn't mean you're a good parent. It just means you know that's your job and you accept it. Accepting the responsibility of freeing all beings so they can dwell in peace doesn't mean you haven't actually got into that yet. But you know it's your job and you want to do it. You want to accept that responsibility.

[07:41]

You want to be responsible. for what you're being asked to take care of. And everybody's asking you to be compassionate. And if you accept that responsibility and exercise it, you will realize Buddha activity, which is already going on. And you'll also realize that it was going on before you accepted it and entered it, and that it goes on forever. Buddha activity has no beginning or end. because it is the activity of the universe in the way, in the mode of releasing beings so they can live in peace. Even though I say everything is asking for compassion, a lot of people don't believe me. And even though I say it, when people say, leave me alone, I don't want to talk to you, I may forget for a moment that that's their way of saying, please be kind to me.

[08:51]

Get away from me. Please be kind to me. I hate you. Please be kind to me. Like Louis Armstrong used to say, I see friends shaking hands saying, how do you do? They're really saying, I love you. I see friends shaking hands saying, how do you do? They're really saying, listen to me. Buddha activity includes everybody.

[09:54]

So another important in-house term that I'd like to bring up today is just sitting. Have you heard of it? It's kind of a synonym, it's a synonym for Buddha activity. It's a synonym for Zazen. Just sitting. But again, it's not the synonym for Zazen which I do just to help me. It's not that kind of Zazen. It's the Zazen which is the unceasing effort to free all beings. That's what I... would use just sitting for. But just sitting has a wonderful nuance in it that, yeah, it has a wonderful nuance so it's good to use it now and then and figure out what is being pointed at by that term.

[11:10]

And I'd like to bring up a little story which happened Now last year in Minnesota, somebody came to see me who I'd known for quite a while. And he said to me, I've been practicing just sitting for quite a long time. I think maybe he said maybe 10 years or so or more, he'd been practicing just sitting. And he said, lately I've been practicing mindfulness. And he said to me, what's the difference between mindfulness practice and just sitting? And I said, I won't ask you to guess what I said, it's too hard. I said, I don't know what the difference is, but I know how they're the same. Did you hear what I said?

[12:18]

I know how just sitting and mindfulness practice are the same. I said, when you practice mindfulness, free of any impulse to gain something by practicing mindfulness, it's just sitting. Was that clear? Would you say it back to me? Yeah. When you practice mindfulness of anything free of the impulses to gain something from that practice, then the practice is just sitting. When you sit and you're mindful of your sitting, when you sit and you're mindful of your posture,

[13:23]

and you're not trying to get anything from that mindfulness of your posture, then your sitting is just sitting. You're just sitting, not trying to get anything from it, not trying to avoid anything by it, etc. You're just sitting. And you're just sitting as an act of the unceasing effort to free all beings so they can dwell in peace. So you're mindful of the unceasing effort to free all beings so they may live in peace without any impulse to make that a gain. I want to free all beings so they can dwell in peace without making that into a gain or, of course, also not a loss. Freedom is freedom from gain and loss. I want people to be free of that.

[14:26]

And I wish to practice that without gaining anything by the practice. Because gaining anything by the practice is antithetical to the practice. I mean, I should say, trying to gain something. So we could go on quite a bit about this non-gaining way of Buddha activity. Couldn't wait. The Diamond Sutra of Perfect Wisdom. Have you heard of it? Have you heard of perfect wisdom? So there's a bunch of scriptures, a bunch of sutras, which are called Prajnaparamita Sutras. So one of the Prajnaparamita Sutras is the Heart Sutra.

[15:28]

Another Prajnaparamita Sutra is the Diamond Sutra. Another Prajnaparamita Sutra is the Prajnaparamita Sutra in 8,000 lines of poetry. Another one is the Prajnaparamita Sutra in 25,000 lines. Another one is the Prajnaparamita in 100,000 lines. And then there's a whole bunch of other shorter ones. There's lots of Prajnaparamita Sutras, and one of them is called the Diamond Sutra. And in the Diamond Sutra, I think the Buddha says to his kind of leading student in this sutra, is Subhuti. And he says, what do you think, Subhuti, when the Tathagata, namely the Buddha, but he doesn't say when I, he says, when the Tathagata, brackets I, attained unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment, did I gain anything? Did I acquire anything? And Subhuti says, no, indeed, O Lord, you did not.

[16:33]

Therefore, it's unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. There are enlightenments floating around this world that aren't unsurpassed. They're surpassable. And in some of those, in most of those, the people gain something. They get something when they get it. Like they get illumination, and it's a gain. So to receive illumination free of gain and loss, that's the Buddha's awakening. But of course, animals and even plants, living things are into like gaining stuff to combat the second law of thermodynamics. We live in a universe, we live on a planet, and all around our planet it's really cold. Somehow we're keeping too much heat now. And we humans tend to give off heat when we're in a cold place.

[17:40]

So you have to keep eating rice. So we naturally are taking in stuff. We're naturally We're just prone to try to gain something so we can continue to live. But we can become free of this, which is a very stressful program that we're in, without getting rid of it. So, again, we can practice mindfulness of breathing, mindfulness of posture. And if any ideas of gain come up, what are those ideas of gain calling for? Yeah. So a lot of Zen students, if not all, when they're sitting, ideas of gain come up and they're asking for compassion. And if we practice compassion towards our impulses to try to get something out of practice, if we practice compassion with our

[18:50]

tendency to turn Buddhism into a gaining thing will become free of those gaining ideas without getting rid of them. But it usually takes more than one installment of compassion to one event of gaining idea. I don't know how many it usually takes, whether it's 806,000, 10 million, I don't know, but it's a lot from what I've been able to tell. And we've already had more than 10 billion moments where we tried to gain something. And there's going to be some more coming. The question is, are these moments of impulse to gain something from life, are they going to be listened to with compassion? If they are, more and more, there will be freedom from these impulses to gain something from life.

[20:00]

So we have mindfulness of posture, you've heard about that, mindfulness of breathing, mindfulness of your feelings, mindfulness of what's going on in your mind, like fear, or contempt, or arrogance, or, yeah, or thinking that other people are arrogant and you're not. self-righteousness, and also kindness. All that stuff is going on moment by moment. Well, not all of it every moment, but lots going on every moment, and all of it's calling for compassion. We also can practice one of the virtues and challenges of the Zen tradition, in some Zen temples anyway, is to be mindful of forms.

[21:28]

Like be mindful of a schedule. Rather than, okay, this is a meditation retreat, you know, but there's no schedule. You just practice meditation whenever you want to or don't want to. do walking meditation. There's no form that you have to be mindful of. So we offer various formal structures for us to be mindful of. We also have practices to be mindful of how we eat. how we chew, how we use our utensils, and even how we clean our utensils, and forms of how to serve other people food, and forms of how to receive food. We have all these forms which you may have noticed. And all these forms are opportunities to be mindful of them. And in being mindful of them, there's an opportunity to perhaps be aware of any gaining idea around the mindfulness of these forms.

[22:40]

If you're mindful of these forms without trying to gain anything, that's Buddha activity. But some people, I won't name anybody right now, when they practice these forms, they notice that they're trying to gain something from them. And they may or may not be embarrassed about that. But they certainly will be stressed about it. Because it's stressful to try to gain something from mindfulness. And it's stressful to try to gain something from anything. But now we have a practice which is devoted to helping us become free of trying to gain something from life, and then we can try to gain something from that practice. However, the situation is auspicious because agreeing with a number of other people about the forms, we have a chance to notice that they're not doing them very well.

[23:49]

Or we have a chance to notice that they have some gaining idea about practicing the forms and that they're not practicing the Buddha way. They're not practicing just sitting because they're trying to gain something by the way they fold their cloth or by the way they bow. It's a great opportunity. And if you ever notice that you think somebody's not doing too well, that's also an opportunity to be compassionate to your thought that these people are really trying to gain something from Zen practice. You know those people? They're trying to gain something that's not just sitting, that's not Buddha activity. But there are some people who are not doing that. And I'm one of them. So anyway, all these are opportunities for compassion. The other people who are not practicing so well, and me when I'm not practicing so well, these are opportunities for compassion.

[24:59]

But also, other people can question me and ask me, were you trying to gain anything by what you just did there? Because I might have noticed that I was trying to gain something, but I might not have noticed how deeply I was trying to gain something. And so other people can say, were you trying to gain something when you gave that talk? Were you trying to gain something when you sat that period of meditation? Were you trying to gain something in the last period of meditation you sat? And you might say, no, actually no, I was asleep. And when you went to sleep, were you trying to gain something? Uh-oh. I think I was. You can rest without trying to gain something. And you can rest to gain something. You can eat lunch without trying to gain anything from it.

[26:04]

And of course you can eat lunch to try to gain something. And so you can ask yourself, did I try to gain anything from lunch today? I think I did, yeah. And then you can confess and repent. I'm sorry that actually I didn't just have lunch, I tried to gain something during lunch. I mean, having lunch is a full-time job, actually. It's an opportunity for wholehearted practice. And if you practice having lunch wholeheartedly, that's called just having lunch, or also called just sitting. And yeah, it's a big, it's a big bunch of moments. Each one, each moment of having lunch imperceptibly accords with all things. But if we get distracted from wholeheartedly having lunch by like trying to gain something, then we miss the wholeheartedness of it.

[27:09]

We close the door on the Buddha activity somewhat. we close the door on. Zazen, we close the door on. Just sitting. But if that's the case, we say, I noticed I closed the door on Buddha activity, and I'm sorry. And say it in the presence of Buddhas, so the Buddhist, after you finish saying that, the Buddhist can say, may I ask a question? You say, what? Okay, yeah, go ahead. So there's a great deal that we can discuss around this question, around this practice, the practice of questioning and being questioned.

[28:23]

We could talk a great deal around the practice of being accountable, the practice of being questionable. So that's a potential big discussion we could have. But we've been here for a while and maybe I said already more than you can remember, so I'll stop now for a while and see if you have any questions. Yes? The title of the Diamond Sutra, is that a direct translation of the Chinese word diamond? Yeah, it's diamond or it's also like, let's see, have you ever heard of a vajra?

[29:29]

Yes. A vajra is like a, also it's called sometimes like a, it's a, Yeah, it's a diamond, but it's also like something that you use particularly to cut things. So in original Sanskrit, it's vajra, and it's translated into Chinese, they use a Chinese character, which means diamond or vajra. So it's really about cutting, not about a diamond. It's more about cutting, yeah. I think they did have diamonds, but I'm not sure. Anyway, another translation instead of Diamond Sutra is... A more full translation is Diamond Cutter. Diamond Cutter Sutra. Diamond Cutter Perfect Wisdom. So Perfect Wisdom is a diamond... You could say it's a diamond cutter. It's something that can cut diamonds or it's a diamond cutter that cuts things. Anyway, it's about cutting through...

[30:31]

entanglements of delusions with wisdom. Yeah, right, exactly. The way delusion is cut by wisdom, the way delusion is liberated by wisdom, and also the way wisdom is liberated the way that wisdom is protected from getting stuck in wisdom by delusion. Like somebody gets some nice wisdom and then delusion comes along and says, can I ask a question? And if wisdom says no, then we say, this is not mature wisdom. Wisdom beyond says, sure, question me. Can I defile you, please? Sure, go ahead, defile me. Can I cause you, can I irritate you? Sure, go ahead. Can I ask you some really stupid questions?

[31:33]

Yeah, fine. Can I disagree with you? Okay. Yeah, so wisdom can cut and liberate. No, wisdom cuts delusion and delusion cuts wisdom. They free each other. Of course, it's not so good to be stuck in delusion, right? And by the way, in the vow, delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to whatever. That character actually doesn't mean just delusion. It means greed, hate, and delusion. It means afflictions, all the afflictions. So it's usually not so good to be stuck in afflictions, in greed, hate, and delusion. But it's also even worse to be stuck in wisdom. So delusion naturally keeps testing wisdom. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for testing my wisdom. Yes. Abbot Snowhut, do you have something to offer?

[32:37]

The other day, you know, it's really hard talking to people in certain contexts these days, you know. People are asking for help, but... The way they're asking is challenging? That can be challenging. And I was at a place making a lot of phone calls for a certain reason, you know, calling and saying, Hello, my name is Gabe Lennon. How are you? Would you like to, can I tell you about such and such? And I got some very interesting responses. And, yeah, some of them were really surprising, but most of them were nice because I was happy. But one person said, Uh-huh. You don't know how the other half lives. And so what would you say to that? I don't know what I would say. What do I want to say? I would... I would want to... What would I want to do? I would like to listen to that.

[33:37]

And if I was really listening, I might say, I totally agree with you. I don't. Thank you so much That's what I might say. Or I might say, do you realize that you're talking to a frog? And I just emerged from my little pond to call you ... But the first thing is I want to listen to them. And then if I really listen, then I'll call to them in a way that maybe they can listen and we can start a conversation. But I don't know what I would say. So start by... Okay. You don't know how the other...

[34:39]

half lives, welcome it. Welcome it in your whole body or in particular your ears maybe. But let that come in and then see what comes. She said when she calls these people sometimes she said, hello, this is Galen. So I might call and say, this is Tenjin Zenki. You want to know what my name means? Hello, I'm a Zen priest. You want some instruction in Zen? You don't know how the other half lives. That's right, that's Zen. You know, thank you for helping me. This call may be recorded for quality purposes. But I don't know what I would do. That's part of the practice is

[35:41]

You're listening. You're listening. You don't know how you're going to listen. You don't know what you're going to do. But you trust listening. You're practicing compassion. But you don't know how you're going to do it. But you trust the compassion and then you see how that goes. And if it doesn't go well, usually it's because some immaturity in the compassion process. Because compassion isn't like, okay, I'm going to be compassionate to this person and they're going to like me. It's not like somebody's crying out and you listen to them and they say, thank you. I mean, they might, but compassion isn't trying to get some particular result. Like you listen to people with compassion and they say, thanks a lot. They do sometimes say that. They go, and you go, like listen, and they notice it and they say, thank you. They do sometimes. But sometimes they don't.

[36:44]

But the compassion doesn't say, well, okay, I'm going to give up. Somebody might say, oh, I'm going to give up. That's not the compassion. The compassion says, welcome rejection of my compassion. Welcome not noticing that I was trying to be kind to you. Welcome. And, of course, if they do notice it, welcome noticing that I'm listening to you. Yes? What's the imagery of the diamond thunderbolt? Diamond thunderbolt? Sometimes the Vajra is called a thunderbolt. Right. I think there too it has maybe like a cutting quality, the thunderbolt. like the cutting quality of wisdom. Is Enrique Spanish for Henry?

[37:54]

Enrique? Okay, so can I say something to that? Sometimes people say, Zazen imperceptibly accords with all things. That's okay. I think a better translation, a better way to teach it is, each moment of Zazen imperceptibly accords. It's more like the moment of the moment of imperceptible accord, that is zazen. So to say zazen does this is a little bit dualistic. Really zazen is this. Zazen is imperceptibly according, rather than zazen does this thing. The zazen of the Buddhas is not separate from the imperceptible according.

[39:01]

In conventional spirituality, Zazen imperceptibly accords, or Zazen is imperceptibly according with all things. Yes? My question is about imperceptible, something that's imperceptible. Yes. How do we know anything about it? I mean, we only know things through a perception. I mean, at least. So we had various kinds of cognition, which I think I mentioned last time I was here. So I talk about basically three kinds of cognitions that humans have that I've noticed or I've heard about. One is consciousness, where I am. There's an I here. And it has perceptions and it knows. There's awareness of perceptions in consciousness. Every moment has perceptions in consciousness, and there's awareness of them.

[40:10]

We also have unconscious cognitive process, where also there's perceptions, but there's nobody there knowing them. There's not a me there. There's the causes and conditions for me in my unconscious process, and there's the causes and conditions for me in every cell of my body. Cells have a self. But it's not the self like, it's not a little I am here in the cell. The self of a cell is the way a cell can discriminate between inside and outside, or what belongs in and what doesn't. That ability of a cell is like a kind of a precursor of the self that finally comes up into the seeds for self and the unconscious come from the body, and then the seeds come up into consciousness and mature as a sense of self in consciousness. And then there's this confusion in consciousness, thinking that I have that perception.

[41:14]

So there's unconscious also. But then there's also another kind of mind, which is wisdom. And wisdom knows things that aren't perceptions. Wisdom is free of perceptions without getting rid of them. And wisdom knows this imperceptible mutual accord. Wisdom knows how delusion, I know this, I know that, I do this. Wisdom is the knowing of how that works with that knows me or that does me. Wisdom actually sees how delusion and enlightenment are turning on each other and that whole process. The I do this is perceptible. The this does me is imperceptible. And wisdom knows even beyond that, it knows how those two realms of enlightenment and delusion are dancing.

[42:24]

That dance is imperceptible. That realizing the dance is wisdom. It's not like wisdom's over here seeing the dance. Wisdom is realizing that dance. Just like some people practice dancing and they dance. They can actually dance. But sometimes when they're dancing, they do not perceive that they're dancing. While they're dancing, they might actually be perceiving the music. But the music's not just what they perceive. But they are having a perception of the music, but not necessarily perceiving that they're dancing. But other people might be perceiving that they're dancing. And then while they're dancing, they might suddenly say, oh, I have a perception that I'm dancing. But you can dance without a perception of dancing.

[43:25]

You can also do what I often mention. In figure skating, they have this thing called, is it called a triple axel? Is that what it's called? You go up and you spin around three times or something. That's kind of like something that can happen. But I've heard, I don't know, I think I've heard they ask some of these people who can do this triple axel, they ask them what they were thinking about while they were doing it. And their thinking might have been going on, but I hadn't heard any of them saying that they were thinking about doing a triple axel. they might have been thinking, I don't know what, I wonder if my mom's watching me. Or they might have been thinking, that's a bright light above my head.

[44:30]

Or they might have been thinking, I'm high in the air. Or they might have been thinking, I'm really comfortable. And they might have had perceptions. but they probably weren't thinking about doing a triple axel. They probably learned through millions of exercises that that does not, at a certain point, when you're first learning, you maybe think, okay, we're going to try it now. But when you actually are in there, it's not perceptible. It never was. The people watching are having a perception. The judges maybe are having perceptions. So we do do things that we are not perceiving all day long. And we are all day long imperceptibly according with all beings and fully resonating through all time. That's going on all the time. It's a question of now.

[45:33]

The wisdom mind is to be that, is to do that dance, to do the dance which we're already doing. And in that dance, it's a good chance that we will not think, I am doing that dance. But rather, or won't even think, I'm doing the dance is, I see it pivoting with the dance is doing me. We wouldn't necessarily see that. We might think, oh yeah, I've heard about I drew the dance delusion pivoting with the dance does me enlightenment. I've heard about that and I understand it. But that statement that I understand it might be coming from actual wisdom. So if you understand the dance, you might actually think, oh, I understand the dance, or maybe even better, the dance is understood. But not necessarily.

[46:35]

And in one of the texts called Genjo Koan, it says, there's two translations, it says, when Buddhas are really Buddhas, they don't necessarily think, I'm Buddha. Another translation is, when Buddhas are truly Buddhas, they don't think that. I'm not sure which is the best translation or which is most true. I would say, I would go for not necessarily. In other words, I think Buddhists could possibly think anything. Like they could think, I'm a frog. They could think, I'm a Buddha. But they don't go around all day long thinking, I'm Buddha, I'm Buddha, I'm Buddha. Or I'm a frog, I'm a frog, I'm a frog. But they could think anything. But they don't have to ever think that they're a Buddha. And same if you do a triple axel. You don't have to ever think, oh, I'm doing a triple axel.

[47:37]

But if you do do it, you're probably pretty happy during those moments because at that moment, ladies and gentlemen, when you do a triple axel, you imperceptibly accord with all things. You can't do it except for that moment of genius when the whole world comes together and makes this person. This person doesn't do it by themselves. They have a coach. They have parents. They have a big sports program. They have genes. They got a lot going to make this amazing thing. They don't do it by themselves, and they don't think so when they do it. Before they do it, they might think, okay, I'm skating along and freezing, and I'm going to do this trick. It's coming up. And I am skating. I'm pushing this leg and that leg. They can be deluded, you know, as they're leading up to that, and without much awareness of enlightenment. They can just be, I'm skating. towards this place on ice where we're going to leap into the imperceptible.

[48:42]

Or skating's doing me. They can do that too. But the actual dance is not something I can do, and it's imperceptible. And people can perceive it, but the actual dance is imperceptible. And Buddhists could also think, this is wonderful, this freeing all beings so they can dwell in peace. This is a fabulous job. I love it. I love this Buddha activity. It's so great. They could think that. But they are that. Like you can think, I'm a woman or I'm a man. That's okay. But you are, whether you think it or not. And you are in this dance, whether you think it or not. And in fact, even though you do think it, that's not it. And even if you think you're not doing the dance, that doesn't cut it either.

[49:45]

We're talking about wisdom as the realization of reality. And reality is a little bit bigger than human perception. But it totally includes it. And it totally realizes the way human perception is dancing with all other human perception. The reality is realizable, is the amazing claim of the tradition. But in order to realize it, there's a requirement, which is compassion. to perceptions. Perceptions of friends shaking hands, saying, how do you do?

[50:48]

Perception of enemies saying, I hate you. All this stuff, if we practice compassion with it, we open to what they really are. And what they really are is everything's imperceptibly... It's so funny that me imperceptibly according with everything, also everything's imperceptibly according with me. So everything, all my fears and friends and enemies, they're imperceptibly according with me already. And if I don't say thank you, They just keep on their mask of perception. But if I really practice compassion with all these perceptions, they take off their mask and they show me their imperceptible truth, their imperceptible life, which is my imperceptible life and your imperceptible life. And also,

[51:52]

What seems to be required is practicing compassion towards the discomfort of the unknown. So this Buddha activity is mysterious and it's, excuse the expression, tremendous, as in tremble. When you start to see glimmerings and openings, you start to tremble a little bit or a lot. It's awesome. And we can get used to the awesomeness as we hear about it and meditate on it. We can get used to the trembling by being kind to our other tremblings, our other frightening things. By being compassionate to them, we get ready to welcome more and more challenges, the challenge of zazen.

[52:56]

And one more thing which I want to mention, but later, okay? Just remind me. The relationship between the unconstructed stillness where this imperceptible process is living. Did you get that? Unconstructed stillness, unconstructed silence, in which this Buddha activity lives. I would like to talk to you about the relationship between that and constructed silence and constructed stillness. Okay? We'll talk about that more later. There are signs around this. See that over there? There's a sign which says, Noble Silence. That's a silence construction project over there. That's constructed silence. So there's a relationship between the constructed silence projects and the unconstructed. So we'll talk about that later. Yes? I wanted to ask, in the Buddha activity that you're describing, how does that relate to practice realization?

[54:02]

It is practice realization. So Buddha activity is not like Buddha has a practice separate from the realization. Buddha's realization is practice. Want to know what Buddha's realization is? It's practice. And actually that's what practice is too. Zazen practice is realization. It's not like we do the practice and get the realization and now we're all set and don't have to practice anymore because that's not like that. But many people do understand it. You do the practice, you get the realization, and you don't have to do the practice anymore. because you got realization, which is really wonderful, isn't it? But you have to continue the activity forever. And that's also forever realization. Yes, yes? Basia and Anna? As I was listening to your expression about Zazen, it didn't sit with me when you said, it is in unconstructed stillness.

[55:14]

And I thought, that's still dualistic. And kind of as we were going, I thought, well, no wonder Dogan came up with this mountains and walking and talking kind of. Because really, that's what Zazen is. Yeah, that's what Zazen is. And whatever we try to kind of limit it to some kind of comprehensible ideas, it's already distorted. Yes. So extremely, I mean, everyone loves this. Yeah, right. So right now, in some ways, language is so totally insufficient. Yeah, and we should be compassionate to this horribly insufficient language. Oh, sweet little language, you can't do anything. You're having a hard time, aren't you? And then if we're really kind to language, language still has a hard time, but it takes off its mask and shows us that it has a reality too. And part of its reality is it doesn't reach what it's talking about most of the time.

[56:19]

And it's not real. Well, it's real in a constructed way. Anna? My actions are my only true belongings. How does that accord with what? My actions are my only true belongings. How does that accord with what? How does actions... Well, the way I would... Yeah, so we're... Yeah, so in the realm of my actions, that's the realm of I do things. Okay? So, that statement could be understood as encouragement to pay attention to my actions.

[57:27]

to be compassionate with my actions. In other words, my, I think you said, my actions are my only true possessions. I think that's like a high recommendation to pay attention to your actions rather than pay attention to your cars or your books. So among your possessions, the true ones, or the ones which will take you to truth, among your possessions are your karma. So this is saying, pay attention, compassionately study your karma. That would be a really good thing to be mindful of. Study karma and also be mindful of karma and be mindful of the teaching that karma has consequence. And so I'm responsible for karma. In other words, let's practice compassion with karma.

[58:31]

How does that work for you? Yes? Could you say more about the stages of enlightenment? Stages? Yes. Well, yeah, stages of enlightenment. Because you said that you can do enlightenment, you can be enlightened in a moment with gain, but it seemed to me that you're still thinking of a separate self if you're thinking about your gain, and I never understood that. Yeah, so one level of enlightenment would be that you would wake up to something that you didn't know before, For example, when you try to help people and try to be kind to people, and you feel like you're successful, and they also agree and say thank you and they seem encouraged, that seems like compassion, but it still might be, in some sense, what's the word, tainted by some sense of separation.

[59:37]

So it's compassion, but it's not compassion where you are free of the idea that the helper and the helpee, the one who's giving and the one who's receiving, you haven't yet understood that there's no real separation between them. So you're practicing compassion, but you don't have... And practicing compassion is somewhat wise. There's some wisdom in it, even if it's defiled. Sometimes it seems like you can do that real, true compassion, and then the mind steps in afterwards and pats me on the back. So is it like a moment-to-moment? I think, yeah, a moment-to-moment. So you said sometimes, actually, and you said using language, sometimes you can practice it, but already that's a defiled way of talking. But there may be some moments where it is practiced, where you don't think you did it, even.

[60:42]

But you notice some compassion was practiced here. I think there was just some giving. And in that giving, there was like, the giving did me. And the giving did us. And you might even feel like, you might notice it and feel like, wow. And then you might pat yourself on the back. Or you say, would somebody please pat me on the back? Because I was here when that happened, right? I was one of the people in the group where the compassion happened, so pat this back. And like in, I think in, I've heard that in AA they have people who are sponsors and then other people who are not yet sponsors. But they're both the sponsor and the other people are in the same organization, and some of the people who are not sponsored are still using alcohol, but they're still allowed in the group.

[61:48]

They don't kick people out for drinking, right? Is that right? You don't get kicked out of AA for being an alcoholic, right? Yeah, so if you slip into abusing alcohol, they don't kick you out. But if you're a sponsor and you abuse alcohol, you're not a sponsor anymore. So you never get kicked out of this process, even if you pat yourself on the back, which is one of our main addictions. Patting ourself on the back and getting other people to pat us on the back, we're kind of addicted to that. And actually everybody is patting us on the back all the time. That's actually not a problem. It's more like a challenge to let them pat us without making that into a gaining idea. Because everybody is patting us and we're patting everybody. That's going on all the time.

[62:50]

It's just watch out for falling into trying to make that happen because if you try to make it happen in some sense, you're saying it's not happening. That's why you have to try to make it happen. So, that's the other thing I was going to mention, is that the implication of just sitting is that this just sitting is that you're doing right now with who you are right now. In other words, who you are right now is who you want to be. who you are right now is imperceptibly according with all things. That's the implication of just sitting. You don't have to go someplace else for this to happen. And turn it around the other way, the implication of all beings are right now imperceptibly according with each other, that implies the practice of just sitting.

[63:56]

Yes, Dave. Or maybe you first, since you haven't asked a question yet. What's your name again? John. John? Yes. I have a hypothetical question. If we woke up tomorrow and moment of silence no longer accorded with all beings... If you woke up to that? Yeah. I mean, like, literally woke up, got out of bed, and then tomorrow, for whatever reason, that stopped happening, and saws then no longer accorded in such a sense. What would be different? How would we know? Let's say hypothetically that somebody... First of all, somebody's asleep and they think they do zazen.

[65:14]

That's a familiar sleep state. You know about that one? I do zazen. Most people know about that. And they may not say it out loud because they don't want to get criticized for talking But anyway, a lot of people think, I do Zazen. And even sometimes people say to people, you do Zazen. So there's that side, which we are perceiving. Then it can happen that you wake up to, oh my God, Zazen does me. Somehow you just, you get it. I mean, before you even say it, you go like, whoa, this is really the other side of the story, isn't it? Amazing. And there's no stress in Zazen doing me. And I'm responsible, but I'm not in control. And nothing can ever stop this. And it's like, I'm not afraid anymore. And whoa, and I didn't do this. I didn't do this seeing that everything does me and Zazen does me.

[66:22]

I didn't make that happen. But I see it. It's seen now. It's been revealed. My secret loves no secret anymore. It's out of the bag. We see it. We all see it. It's not just me that sees it. Everybody sees it, even though they don't think so. Because that can happen. And in addition, there can be, that's some wisdom there. In addition, but it's imperceptible how that happened and what that is. It's imperceptible how it is that Zazen does me. I can't see how Zazen does me, other than me. I mean, when Zazen does me, all there is is me, which Zazen does. So I can't perceive that Zazen is doing me. but in fact I understand it. In the next moment somebody can say, you know, did something happen to you recently?

[67:23]

You say, yeah, there was this kind of event of, there was a kind of realization that happened in my neighborhood of Zazen doing me. And then somebody can say, that's total... And then you go, oh yeah? So then you kind of like slip back over to the other side, which you're quite familiar with. But it isn't like that other side stops. It's just that you got a little vacation. You vacated the realm of delusion and the realm of enlightenment. I should say, not even you. The realm of delusion was, for the moment, vacated. The self which does things was vacated. And we got a new self which things do. So there was an, how do you call it, an inhabitation of enlightenment occurred, or not even occurred, was alive.

[68:26]

And I got to be there in the same area. It did me, I got to be there for this new perspective on me being done by the universe. And there was accompanying joy and stuff like that, and fearlessness and energy and life, all that was there. And then, beep, and it flipped back to the other side. And then, we usually don't notice this, but the thing, the conditions which allowed the vacation from I do the universe over to the universe does mean the thing that allowed that vacation from that place over to the other place, was that you were being compassionate to the slums of self-centered activities, to the pollution of I'm doing the universe, to that nasty way of seeing things. Because you were compassionate to it, it dropped away and you got this new world.

[69:29]

But then delusion comes back and says, can we ask a question? Can we test your awakening? And if you say yes, then there's more awakening. If you say, no thanks, I'm staying over here, then you flip back without even saying, I want to go back. But you can also just say, test me. Test me to see if I can give up this joy. Give me some pain. Give me some, call me a fake and see if I can say thank you for that. And if you can, you start to realize that the realm of delusion just deepens the realm of realization when you see the interaction. But at first it's like realm of delusion, stuck, [...] stuck. Compassion, compassion, compassion. Freedom from delusion. Entering awakening and then awakening gets challenged, and the harmonization of delusion and enlightenment is, what do you call it, commences.

[70:38]

So you got to, there's a commencement of awakening, and then there's a commencement of interaction between awakening and delusion. First there's just a long course of delusion, learning to be compassionate, and then, whether you know it or not, somehow there was compassion, and then there was commencement of awakening, then there was commencement of awakening, happily reentering negotiations and concourse with delusion. And that's the real practice, I would say. But still there's this kind of back and forth thing can happen. Like, oh, delusion, wow, hey, hi, oh, enlightenment, oh, hello, bye-bye, and oh, delusion. Oh, hello delusion, we're going to let you be. Even attachment delusion? Yeah. Well, then you're free. Okay. Now we're free. You ready to give up the freedom? Yes. I mean, really?

[71:41]

Yes. Are you back in bondage? Yes. Now you're free. So really we're both all the time. And also there's kind of like flipping back and forth. All the time? Well, not all the time. Some people haven't flipped yet. In their memory, they just know long, long, long time of delusion. They haven't flipped because they haven't been kind enough to the delusion. So you've got to be kind, if you're kind, and also without trying to get anything, because kindness is not trying to get anything. If you're compassionate to the illusion without trying to get anything by the compassion, you will flip. There will be flipping. And the flipping will be, from flipping, you're not going to flip yourself, you're going to get flipped into the realm of you getting flipped.

[72:42]

You're going to be practiced flipping. into the realm of where you're practiced. And then I will commence and then after the commencement you re-enter the realm where you do the practice and integrate that with the realm of practice of you forever. And draw more and more people into this process of imperceptible mutual accord between the flippers and the non-flippers, the deluded and the enlightenment. We're all working on this together. But we have a job to do, which is be compassionate all the time. And that you can perceive, your effort. Even though the compassion is not what you perceive, you can perceive that you want to. Like right now, do you have a perception that you would like to practice compassion? Can you perceive that? Can you? No? You can't perceive that you want to? You don't have to if you don't.

[73:47]

Anyway, I want to and I perceive that I want to. That I can perceive that I want to. Is that enough for this morning? Yes, Dave? Yes. Did you say you had to go? Great for him. Big cathedral, Gothic cathedral, pseudo-Gothic cathedral. Well, in the end, the organ was like gigantic, big music. And the expectation of a crimson occurred. Yeah. Why music does this sometimes?

[74:52]

I don't know, but it does, doesn't it? Western music started in churches. Music is part of the spiritual process. Zazen makes you tremble prone. It makes us prone to tremble, but Zazen also helps us tolerate the tremble. So, kind of like, okay, let's tremble. Okay, let's tremble.

[75:43]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_89.77