8th, 2001. Talked about your attention, Ray Vanders. Renunciation. This feeling comes up now and then that it would be good to discuss bringing the renunciation up. So I did. And then also the thought comes up, well, maybe that's enough on that. Come on. And then the thought comes up now.

[01:03]

Yeah, I think it was when I was maybe going off with African Indians. And, you know, it occurred to me that I'm wearing this robe to have a show. Right. Right. And I'm not trying to talk people into becoming priests, but one nice thing about being a priest is that frequently when you put the robes on and then the priest, oftentimes it reminds me about annunciation. So that's one nice thing about being a priest. It kind of reminds you. I couldn't remember it without being a priest, but Somehow, if you're not a priest, you don't feel quite as... Inappropriate, maybe. If you're not taking care of renunciation, but if you're a priest, you kind of feel like, oh yeah.

[02:09]

What is that? That thing at the beginning? I don't know, but I'm glad I thought of it. It comes up to me as a... A meeting like this, the pronunciation is... Give me some order. Maybe they'll get too discouraged if there's no order, so give me some order, but then try to feel like, well, really, that's kind of like not really about pronunciation, really kind of like... Don't try to control what happens here. That's really the spirit of renunciation. So... Yes? Did you have your hand there, up there? Yeah. Yeah.

[03:15]

Yeah, so I guess there's two styles, renouncing everything and renouncing some things. I would say, how about everything? That would include the ones about denouncing certain things. Yeah, that's the nice thing about being a priest, is they ask you that question. And then what do you say? I have a headache. I have a headache today. Please go ask Brother John. Isn't that nice if they ask you? You can wonder about it. It's an awesome question. What if you renounce? What is renunciation? And at the beginning of, as you know, one of the documents that we study in Dhamma Transmission is kind of a diagram of the progress, you could say, of a bodhisattva, or a Buddha, or a Zen priest.

[04:38]

The first issue was the initiation by a counterclockwise sphagnum. The sphagnum is going opposite direction from clockwise. Clockwise is the way the world goes. Which is attachment, seeking, seeking, grasping, [...] Grasp, non-grasp. So what is renunciation for you and how you practice it? Some people say it's okay to grasp. Some people would say, you know, I would not grasp these things.

[05:40]

I kind of think, you know, It's not okay to grasp anything. Absolutely anything that's useful in that non-grasp state will re-emerge and it will function through non-grasp rather than function through grasp. So that's another part of this thing here is that entering the way of compassion and wisdom through renunciation If you start practicing compassion, bodhisattva career, compassion is then practiced through renunciation. In other words, you practice compassion through non-raspa. And the beginning of the 25,000-line Prajnaparamita, to rectify Sariputra says to Buddha, well, how does a bodhisattva endeavor in this perfection of wisdom?

[06:46]

And then Buddha says, you, the bodhisattva, the great being, frightening being, the great being, the bodhisattva Mahasaya, stands in having stood in Prajnaparamita by way of taking no stand in Prajnaparamita. You stand in prajnaparamita by way of not grasping prajnaparamita. You dwell in perfection of wisdom by not dwelling in it. And then you practice giving of this person's prajnaparamita. You practice giving by renouncing. Practice giving Right? Giving is renouncing. You practice giving by renouncing, but actually what you do is you practice giving by not even renouncing.

[07:51]

You practice giving through no renunciation. So you renounce giving when you practice giving. In other words, you don't even give, you're not even... You don't seek to find the receiver, the gift, and the giver. And yet, you enter into the practice of giving in that way. So you do these practices of compassion, you practice giving... without grasping the process of giving. The other ones too. You practice meditation without grasping the meditation. The perfection of wisdom, the perfection of meditation is to relinquish meditation. The perfection is to give up the pleasure of meditation. Not that there isn't any pleasure. That's why I think this nice thing we have here This is what we have. Huh? What? What? A zendo, right?

[08:52]

Yeah, I was just going to say that. We have this zendo, and we go in there and we sit down. People practicing meditation, they get into it, and they actually have a nice time. Or, in the old days, at least. And then when they're having a nice time, guess what we do? What do we do? Huh? We renounce it. We renounce it. And how do we renounce it? Well, go ding. Give it up. My mood won't come apart. It's locked in samadhi. It won't come apart. Some people used to sip through kidney. There was a period where we let people sip through kidney because it's the kidneys. It wasn't because they weren't having a nice time. Anyway, just ringing the bell, you give it up. Now, some of you are giving up torture, so it doesn't mean... Thank you.

[09:55]

Give up torture, too. If you're having a hard time, give it up. If you're having a nice time, give it up. The perfection, but particularly giving up meditation is called the perfection of meditation. Giving up. distraction. We call it perfection and distraction. So, we do these practices, these wonderful practices. Prajnaparamita, the beginning of the 25,000 line version of it, the first thing that Buddha said, practices, these practices, stands in the perfection of wisdom by not standing there. Relies on it by not standing there. Endeavors in it by not grasping. All these practices Compassion practice of giving, precepts, patience, enthusiasm, meditation, all these are practiced through non-native aspects. And this definition of the way the Bodhisattva practices, the six perfections appears at the beginning, and it appears 26 pages later, and it appears 89 pages later.

[11:07]

And in the commentary, on this sutra, the French translation of the commentary on the sutra by Nagarjuna, the whole second volume is on this point, of the way the bodhisattva practices the six perfections, in other words, the way of practicing compassion together with right view. So the combination of compassion with right view is that you understand that there really is no such thing. The thing there which is giving, and thing, which is precepts. Thing, which is patience. We practice. We receive the precepts. We promise to practice them. We repeat them every now and then to remind ourselves of them. And we practice them through non-apprehensions, through non-grasping. Even the precepts, we don't grasp. We release them.

[12:10]

But First of all, we wholeheartedly plunge into the commitment to practice. But that doesn't mean grasp them. That means receive them and see if you can receive these precious practices through non-apprehension. Kansa's translation of the Prajnaparamita, over and over, if you hear it, if you read it, in English you hear it. And through non-apprehension, and through non-apprehension, all these practices, and through non-apprehension, through non-grasping, all these practices are done in the mode of renunciation. Yes. What? When you're non-grasping? Yes. And what? When you're non-grasping. Anyhow, when I see myself, oh, wow, I did crash right now, and it really cut me down.

[13:16]

What is the real one? It's a crystal. Something out of the universe. Yeah. Angels? No, no, no. Again, I would like to parenthetically remember I said something about our hearts, like putting parentheses next to our hearts. It's our hearts and angels. I can talk to you about that later. Okay? So that's... You know, I refrain from trying to control and have some order, but I just thought now that I'm just giving an excuse to give some order. And that is, the Zen teacher Wang Bo talked about three kinds of renunciation, which I hate to say, looks like needs to be lower, middle, and highest. But you could say primary... That's not nice, right? Middle and great renunciation. The primary kind of renunciation is that you practice many, many excellent virtues.

[14:20]

Like all these kinds of compassion. Practice all these virtues wholeheartedly, voted to, with some hope of reward. Okay? This is one, this is a primary, this is the way most people start practicing virtues. Do something if you didn't know it was going to bring some benefit. Right? Seems reasonable. That's sort of like the way you have to start. Do things that you think would be beneficial. I mean, virtues are the things that bring benefit, right? Virtues don't cause problems in your life. So you start practicing all these virtues with hope of reward, and then you hear... the teachings of Prajnaparamita. You hear the teachings of perfect wisdom. And then you understand the teachings of emptiness. Okay? So then you stop grasping and practice. But first you start doing these things with focus and reward.

[15:25]

And then that has the merit of bringing you the teachings, the Dharma teaching of all this stuff you're doing is empty. So then when you hear that teaching and it sinks into you, you stop grasping. So that's the first kind of renunciation. The renunciation is that you stop grasping these wholesome dharmas that you're involved with. The middle kind of renunciation, you're practicing those same virtues, But while you're practicing virtue acts, you're practicing it through non-apprehension. You have no expectations of the Lord. You simultaneously do the practice and not grasp the practice. On one side, you're grasping.

[16:26]

On the other side, you have no expectation of the Lord. There's no reason to do it other than just being done. So it kind of follows from the next previous one. So you're more like in the middle. So that's kind of the middle. And the highest kind of renunciation is where basically all obstructions to enlightenment have been removed. You no longer are feeling the idea of not only are you not trying to get rewards, but you also don't see yourself as doing these practices. All kinds of things that hinder you, or I should say, not even hinder you, but that hinder these practiceful realizations are dropped away. There's no attachment anymore. Not even an idea that you're doing this stuff.

[17:29]

Now, there's complete readiness for Buddha. While you're generating the conditions for Buddha, of simultaneously readiness for it. In some sense, another way to talk about these three kinds of enunciation is the first kind. When it happens, when you pull some practices and the teaching of emptiness hits you, you are free of any kind of boundary to what's relevant. to what's a relevant practice. Everything becomes relevant. And there's a quote, I'm quoting now, there's a text called the little, the verses on the little, the verses on the little way by Nava Juno, chapter 26, Karaka 11, where he says, for those who

[18:31]

to whom emptiness is relevant, everything's relevant. In other words, for those who have been impacted by, who have been touched by emptiness, everything's relevant. There's nothing that's not relevant. And for those who haven't been touched by emptiness, you go so far as to say nothing's relevant. And you may think, well, I don't think I've been touched by emptiness, and I think some things are relevant. I don't think everything's relevant, so I think some things are relevant. That's why I would suggest you think about that, if Wanda Juna said so. But maybe, if you don't think everything's relevant, maybe you don't think... So, the first step of renunciation makes everything an opportunity. That is nothing. It's not relevant at all. one. Okay?

[19:37]

You're doing these practices of compassion. You're in the compassion waters. The right view is washing over the compassion practices. So the right view is cleaning the compassion. The compassion is developing the right view. The compassion is providing food for the right view. And the right view is washing the compassion. It's cleansing the compassion with any kind of grasping. You're really into it. And in that situation, it becomes clearer and clearer. There's no boundary. There's no boundary between your suffering and other people's. It's very clear. It allows you to take care of yourself. And it allows you to take care of others with no hindrance. Wash the boundary by washing the practices. You wash the boundary about who they're for and whose problems are.

[20:39]

Washing away. That's the next level that you're taken to by the second kind of renunciation and the third kind of renunciation. It's really radical because you don't even... You have no idea of what the practice is. You have no idea, but other people would also do it. There's no grasping. So, in that sense, that's the ultimate great renunciation, the one that makes you totally ready to do what's appropriate, to make your body and mind totally available. It sort of needs to be based on... Because otherwise you might say, well, won't I perhaps accidentally abandon somebody if I don't have some idea of holding on to people to take care of them? So you're, by the two previous kinds of renunciation, you're using all material and between yourself and others in terms of concern about suffering.

[21:44]

Then you can move into the realm where there's no separation between yourself and others at all. But first of all, you're connected to their suffering. You're released from not being connected to their suffering by the middle kind of renunciation. So these different renunciations put us more and more thoroughly into the soup of the churning of wisdom and compassion. Caring about being suffering and not getting stuck in it. And because of not getting stuck in it, caring about it more. Being involved with people in their suffering, but being cleansed of being involved. More and more thorough inter-penetration. Go back to the floor. Thank you. Yeah. It's clear that time that you could... Right.

[22:56]

And so, it seems like if you keep doing these kinds of passions and foregoing endeavors, in a sense, you're putting down self and ego in one hand and even back up with the other. Uh-huh. And it's, um, so it seems like it's more important at that point to figure out a way to let go of ego and self. Let's do it. Don't hear much, shall we? As soon as possible. In a natural way. I can see that actually we do feel this connection and we want to help other beings. Yes. By the way, in terms of this, writing these three things out here, the right view are two kinds of polychip.

[24:09]

Compassion is only for the relative conventional body check test. Like, I want others to see both of us. And here are these ultimate body check tests that we use. It's just that there are no others. I don't see any others. And so renunciation helps us purify our view of the ultimate body check test. The ultimate body check test together helps to do the best body check test. Again, To the extent that the Bodhisattva does this... One way is risk. Transcendence. To the extent that the Bodhisattva doesn't see any bees at all, all the different types of compassionate activity are carried out.

[25:14]

Effortless. It's spontaneous. To the extent that she doesn't see any bees, she carries out All these compassions act differently. I think actually she does act differently. At least it's just carried out. In the not seeing of beings, these compassions act differently, they're carried out. But she isn't actually doing them. She may appear to be doing them, but she isn't doing them. They happen, but she doesn't think she's doing them. We think she's doing them, but she doesn't think she's doing them. It's because she has ultimate bodhicitta success. Because she has ultimate bodhicitta, she doesn't do it for her doing. That really frees up her compassionate activity. But I should say, it really frees up compassionate activity. It frees up giving and the precepts. Because it washes them of her doing. So these two together are bodhicitta.

[26:21]

And renunciation is how we enter the practice of two kinds of relationship. The compassionate, the practices of compassion, done from the conventional perspective, from that arises the nirmanakaya, the form body of compassion, which looks like somebody doing good things for people. And from the practice of right view arises the dharma body, These two together realize the way. Yes. You can see it that way. She's doing it. Can that cause it? An appearance? Or a catch? Well, it's just like there could be this concocted in an activity Which is happening spontaneously and effortlessly.

[27:25]

It can happen. Okay? And somebody is looking over there and saying, she's doing these good things for people. And that somebody, Christy, has the same name as the one who did this. One of the somebodies who said, it's the name of the person that they're saying is doing it. She still has it nervously. Which could be evaluating. It could be like saying, yeah, well, evaluating usually comes out as sufficient and insufficient, what good or bad. Evaluations could happen. As a matter of fact, she is a vehicle that comes out of her mouth like good and bad. She says those things. She doesn't see any good or bad, but out of what we call skill and means, she says, she speaks of good and bad. She doesn't see any individuals or things, but she says things and individuals. Yeah, that's what it says, isn't it? It says, yeah, it says right here. In the Samadhi of the heroic progress of the Bodhisattva, it says that.

[28:35]

With their wisdom they do not see anything, neither beings nor things. Through skillful means they procure the welfare of beings in every way. Because they don't see anything of beings through their skill and means, through their wisdom they don't see anything, but through their skill and means they procure all kinds of wealth. They don't see self-nature of actions or fruition and they teach the law of action and fruition. They don't see the self-nature of passions and samsara and they teach clear knowledge of the passions of samsara. They don't see nirvana and they talk about nirvana. they don't see any distinction between good and bad, and they talk about good and bad. So, all this stuff can happen. It is happening. So, you know, people up here talking about good and bad and precepts and all that stuff, it's all happening. But actually, simultaneously, while somebody, like, I think I'm doing this, or you think I'm doing this, there is selfless giving going on.

[29:44]

This stuff is being given, while it looks like it's being given selfishly or self-centeredly, it is also being given selflessly. And actually, what's being given selflessly also happens to self. And if you see a self in what I'm giving, you might see a self giving. If you don't see a self in what's being given, you also see that there's no self giving. These two worlds are locked together. The conventional ultimate are locked together. You don't have one world together. Yeah, that's right. So let's have it. You don't want to tell right now? If I knew what they were, if I can say this right now, it would be in my awareness.

[30:48]

What makes you think they're there? I can't say. It's the spirit of the team. It's the something. It's the spirit of the force. Okay, well, so what's your point? My question is, where do you get that help? So you're not seeking to see them? You seek to see them, you'll miss them. If you don't seek to see them, they'll be given to you when you don't want them. You seek them now, now's not the time you'll get them. If you had them, you would be seeking. If you're not seeking, if you're not seeking any reward, you get lots of rewards, which you don't think are rewards.

[31:50]

If you apprehend the rewards, you get more. If you don't apprehend much more, you get much more. That's the law of man. That's what they say in the books. Think about it. It doesn't seem like the way it is. But the more you don't try to get, you get. Let's see who's next. Yes? Any kind of giving, whether or not you're totally wrapped up in it. If I'm giving, then there's always something. Because any kind of giving, even if you're wrapped up in I'm's. Okay? She says that it's always selfless giving. It's not so much that that's selfless giving, but that that way of giving that you just saw, right with that way of giving that appears to be of you giving it, simultaneously with that, is the ultimate way that that giving is.

[32:57]

Okay? With unwholesome action, there's also selfless giving. Of course, unwholesome actions are selfish giving. So with selfish giving, selfish giving in an unwholesome way, like selfish giving would be like, you know, promote you and hurt them. That's what you give. Selfish, unwholesome giving. But to give someone something that they want, It's good for them that you enjoy giving and make you happy that you do it. That's conventional giving. You give such to them. You give up that to them. That's conventional giving. Simultaneously with that conventional giving is unconventional giving. The ultimate way that that giving is happening is that it's happening selfishly. You aren't doing it by yourself.

[34:02]

Everybody's helping you. That's happening simultaneously with that. But also, that giving, if you look at that giving carefully and you see how everything helped it, you realize that it was selfless giving. It's only by a limited view of your giving that you can see that you're doing it. That limited view is the dimension of the view, the narrow view, which seems like you're doing it. The action of giving this thing to that person. Narrow picture. Right with that narrow picture is profound picture. Always. And most of us If we're looking at the profound way, we can't see the profound way. The Buddha has said, I can see both simultaneously. I can see right while somebody's, or even while I'm doing this convention, I can ultimately see right there simultaneously. The Sanskrit word, it's very interesting to me, the Sanskrit word for the convention word,

[35:06]

When they translated it into Chinese, they played out the dynamism of the word sambriti, which is a word used for convention. And the word sambriti, which means conventional, conventional truth, has this... Depending on whether you put two R's in it or not, it can be covering or revealing. The conventional truth kind of... The conventional truth of you giving a gift that conventional perspective covers the ultimate view, which is you're not doing it by yourself. You're not giving it to somebody other. It covers that world where self and other are not the same and inseparable. The world where we're not the same and inseparable covers the world where we're not the same and inseparable. It also reveals the world where we're inseparable Not the same and not different.

[36:10]

The world of emptiness, at the same time, it covers it. That's why we take care of the conventional world, very thoroughly, in thorough care for the conventional world. If you stick in the concept of the conventional view with the conventional view, then you have, like, a sort of a mocked-up conventional view. A kind of fairly sophisticated conventional view, which is a fine... And I see the merit of putting a little tag on every conventional thing called, this is actually empty. Put the hard scissor on top of everything that happens. It's empty, it's empty, it's empty. This is still a conventional thing. This, this, it's empty. It's a word. But that word, it's empty, might help you put your hands together and bow to it.

[37:13]

Remembering the ultimate truth, even though what you're remembering is a conventional remembrance, might help you take care of the conventional. That's why Mr. Suzuki, uh, Mr. Suzuki Roshi's second wife, was a principal in the kindergarten, and, uh, Ginny Baker once asked her, you know, what's the most important thing to teach kids in kindergarten? And she said, gosh, sure. And I don't know if she said this, but I think that's what she said. The reason she started doing this is because all diamonds are empty. So everything you meet, put your hands together and remember that all diamonds are empty. It kind of reminds you, again, like I said, the first level of renunciation is to hear the teachings of emptiness. It's relevant. So everything you meet, every conventional thing, if you hear the teaching of emptiness, it reminds you, this is relevant. This person is relevant. This person is like relevant to my life.

[38:14]

See, this person is to the point, is pertinent to what I'm here about. In that sense, a little ultimate tag on every conventionality reminds you to follow and respect and honor as they think. Honor as they think, honor as they think, honor as they think. you're still working basically a conventional message to yourself which encourages you to practice care of the conventional as a practice of emptiness in the sense that you take care of everything with no distinction so you're practicing emptiness with the conventional in order to realize emptiness actually He didn't quite say that, he said, all of them to you. If it's that nothing's relevant, or it's just that the things that we think are relevant, they're not real.

[39:38]

It's just that we have an idea we have relevant. Yeah, right. I think that's right. Because I think we do think, well, some things are relevant. But there are things. We're trying, maybe in a selfish way, to commit a selfish act. Right. We think it is, but we're still thinking about it. We do work which we're trying to do unselfish acts, we're trying to do proof things as best we can, and we see some situations in which that would be relevant, right? And then we see other situations you think, it's not, now it's not relevant to practice selflessness. I don't want to practice it. It's not the time to be practicing compassion. That's because emptiness hasn't impacted you. So when emptiness is relevant means it's actually like touched you, kind of like taken over your body, so that now, in a conventional way, you practice in a non-conventional way. In other words, in a conventional way, you do this strange thing, practicing compassion in every possible situation.

[40:43]

Not even every possible situation, every situation. So, if you're still picking and choosing emptiness, then emptiness hasn't really impacted you, and you haven't found the relevance of things yet. Because the relevance of things isn't that some things, the relevance... isn't that this person is worthy of my love. The relevance of this person is that this person is one of the people that I'm going to love. This is the current opportunity among all beings. That makes it quite different. Then this person is more than just devoted to this person. This person is in a way I'm devoted to all people. So then I'm not being selfish. This person is this person's close friend. It's more relevant then. You're much more relevant to me then. Like I'm talking to you for everybody. So I have virtually no restriction of how generous I can be because I'm not saving up.

[41:47]

Or I'm not holding back because people with jealousies. Because I really understand that you are relevant. But I don't distinguish between you and others. I see the image, but I don't grasp it. If the image changes, I don't call off compassion. Because the new image is relevant. The new you is relevant, too. But if you change from this to that, you're impacted by emptiness. And I may say, well, that I was compassionate, that I was devoted to, but I'm not devoted to this. The way I see people, if it's a new person you are, it might be different than the way I see people in the old system, the previous system. But it didn't, I don't get knocked off of the practice of compassion by new changes. You almost think you get deepened by, yeah, Zeus, I can even take care of him when he's like this. This is like good stuff. You know, I thought this, when he got like that, I would probably leave him.

[42:53]

But this is great, I can hang in there with him when he gets to be really what I usually like. My likes and dislikes are not really pushing me around. Now, this is relevant. This is relevant to Bodhisattva's career. And emptiness makes everything like that. Without emptiness, Bodhisattvas do their best, like, you know, they're like, that's not trying to be like that person. I tried to be, feel this person's really dear, but really, some other people are a little bit more dear. well, I guess emptiness hasn't really been that relevant to me yet. Okay, fine, I accept that. But I kind of pray that it would impact me so that I'd be free of picking and choosing among beings because it's really kind of a tiring thing to be picking and choosing. But devotion to who you're talking to is not tiring unless

[43:55]

Unless it's this person that you would be devoted to and you wouldn't do it. Then even though you haven't switched yet, you're still getting tired. Or even if this person hasn't changed yet and you're kind of wishing that they would stay in this ballpark, you're getting tired. Or even if this person is just perfect and you're kind of hoping they don't get more difficult, you're getting tired. That's cool. It's called outflow. Your energy is leaking because you're kind of choosing back on this path. Yes. Is outflow karma? No. Outflow is like, it's like, you know, and you grasp them, and then you get a shock. Or your knees get weak. Or, you know, or you feel like I can't pay attention to you anymore. It's like a psychophysical disturbance that happens. It could be true.

[45:01]

If I see you, and I'm not actually in the middle way, I think it's psychophysical disturbances. And then, in the face of these psychophysical disturbances, then I might think, I gotta do something about this. And then, I do karma. Which then creates more challenges. My non-attachment. It's nice. But the karma is what you do in order to cope. It's what you selfishly do to cope with your situation most of the time. Karma sets up the grasping, which causes the disturbance. Again, very tempting to try again, to try karma again. Because although it didn't work last time, maybe if I try harder this time, it'll work. The system just keeps selling itself. Yeah, well, this time it'll work. This time it'll work. This time. Where would I put outflow in 12 links?

[46:06]

Actually, outflow, they often try to put outflow as impurity, but I like to leave it at that because the original Sanskrit is between the floods. Chinese character has I made a graph that would show water flowing. So it's like energy flowing in and out of you. Gain and loss. It's what, when you're attached to gain and loss, when you're attached to existence and consciousness, then that tends to, with breath, that kind of tissue thing, then you get into the theory of the gain and loss in your body. It could put you to have increasing energy or decreasing energy around all of this. And go back and forth. Anyway, it causes disturbance and pain. As you can see what's going on. That's the thing. We actually can see these opportunities on grass either.

[47:32]

Just to like... be confused about which one to address, and not pick either one. I haven't chosen either one, I haven't picked either one, but, you know, I'm still discursive. [...] Are you happy yet? Linda? Linda? Everyone is being overlapping.

[48:46]

That's what most people would think, yes. In a conventional world. Yes. But even in an ordinary situation, people feel the convention of I choose. So if the convention is I choose, what's the convention of you? Oh. And in some situations you might feel like, well, maybe in a monastery situation I really have to get into choosing. That's the thing about karma, is that you think, well, maybe in some situations I can renounce my karma. But when it gets tough, then the karma says, now you have to be karmic. You have to choose. You have to act. You have to see the world as you doing it. You must do that. You hear that message. And then When that message comes, how can you respond to that? Can you respond to that without falling forward or not? That's the conventional message. You must choose. You must be sad. But, you know, one of the fun, for me, one of the fun things about being alive now, and it might be 50 years from now, I don't even know where that is, is that this message, this conventional message that you must choose, has been given to you before you have the chance to choose that message that you just gave yourself.

[50:13]

Your nervous system has given you that message you must choose. And you didn't choose that message that was just given to you. So mostly, you know, we're told by ourselves that we should look to make decisions, but the decision has been already made. And we can fight it or whatever, but we have no way of negotiating the message that's coming to us. So, on the conventional level, it's the level where we have this so-called conscious mind, which is like now, I've been told we have to make a decision, try to figure out the decision. But really, the doctor's decision has already been made. Now you must make a decision. You didn't have yourself. You didn't create that message to yourself. That this thinking out of your mind, out of your nervous system, the thing of the consciousness, you couldn't control it.

[51:17]

The thought comes to you, this is really dangerous. You didn't decide to say that. You didn't choose to say that. And then a such message comes, you must decide what to do now. So, then we say, all this stuff's coming to us that we have no decision to make. Now we're being told we do have a decision. But we have no control over being told that we're going to make a decision. We ourselves don't even know if we're going to make a decision. That's not a decision. We think that. And there's some usefulness to giving it to a conscious mind to do that. And so we do. And that's what we call karma. And I tried to let go of that. What is that in the state of renunciation, activity will come forth. And it's possible to see that they don't come by the way we thought they could, by the usual perspective. But they can come another way. Not through self, but through the need of penetration called the body, mind, and environment to create response.

[52:23]

And if you let go, that clean, apprehending habit, you can sometimes see how it's actually working. So that's why it's nice to be in situations where you can get this new perspective. I do believe that's truly what you see here. And sort of reform your behavior, reform the activity of the being, to get out of this self-centered, self-interfering. To complement the self-centered, to live through this, to complement the real life, to complement it after, to behave. So get the selflessness to come forward more, to accompany the selfishness through renunciation of the usual view that will keep the other. Renunciation doesn't mean to look away from the usual view. You have to study every usual view.

[53:24]

Buddha taught that the Buddha might have had the ultimate view while teaching these Vinaya precepts. He might have had the ultimate view because he also taught that these teachings are like a raft. And after you get to the other side of the river, You don't have to carry the raft around anymore. So the Buddha said, about the precepts, he said, those precepts are for you, not for me. I don't need them. In the early teachings, he said, in the early teachings, he said, it's like, it's like, excuse the comparison, but anyway, he said, it's like a king who has a, what do you call it? He said, a theme park. A game park. And the king can go out there and do whatever he wants with the king. But other people have to get permission to go out there. And they have to follow the rules of the king.

[54:43]

But the king can do whatever he wants. So the thought is, these precepts don't apply to me. The monks don't apply to me. Some, they don't. So I think he would say in the early teachings that once these precepts have performed their function, you don't need them anymore. If they really were the way to behave, If not having sex with people that you can't, like, want to have sex with, if that was really no good, then you would never be free of that rule. You'd never be free in other words. You could never practice renunciation of that rule, right? But also you'd always be bound by that rule. through all world systems, you know, in all universes, you kind of be there, kind of, I can't do this. But actually, I'm saying, too, you can't do this. The Buddha said, you know, and also with that, [...] that sutra, Fear and Dread, at the end he says, he's talking about these practices he did, not for video so much, but more like,

[55:54]

Actually, I would say it's more like the practice. In that chapter, number four, he teaches like not moving, basically, in that sutra. In any situation where he feels fear and dread, he just doesn't move. The practice. And that worked out pretty well. Then the fear and dread would drop away whenever he just stopped moving. He didn't do anything to fix it. Just go. trying to fix the fear and dread and the fear and dread would subside. At the end of the scripture he says, I'm going to help him. I can point out that this is when he was talking to one of his Italian disciples whose name is Singer. He says, so you might think, you know, since I still do these practices, you know, going out in the woods, out in the jungle,

[56:55]

and doing these practices, you might think I'm not free. In other words, if I'm doing these practices, you might think I'm not free because I'm still caught by the practices. If you're still doing the practices and apprehending them, you're not free. So if the practices free you, you can give them away. So if the precepts have freed you, pratyamoksha are called that which is conducive to liberation. If they've done their job, you don't need to use them anymore. Sex is not bad. It's just that giving it up for a while might set you free. And if it sets you free, that's what's important. It's not important that a few people are not having sex. The important thing is that one of those people is liberated. That's important. But one more person being liberated is really great. One less person having sex is not a big deal. Some people might say that. I think it's terrible that this person's not having sex. This is my wife or whatever.

[58:03]

Or somebody else might say, well, that's one less baby that's going to come. But then you might find out this person's, you know, infertile or sterile, so no problem. We're not going to have any more babies here. So this person's not having any more sex. This is a wound to society. But if this person were liberated, that would be great. See, if this person abstaining from sex for one or two incalculable eons would promote their liberation, great. But after they're liberated, guess what? But the Buddha said, if you look at me, you might think I'm not free because I continue to do the practices which I did before I was free. But it's not true. I am free. But I continue to do them for two reasons. One is to set an example for future generations, and the other is I like to. I practice the precepts. As far as I know, the Buddha liked to not have sex with all sentient beings, which were his friends.

[59:11]

He had a lot of friends and did not have sex with any of them after he was Buddha. Before he was Buddha, though, he had some sex. It was because of sex that he was born. Sex is not bad, but renouncing it might be quite useful to some people. There it is, it's an opportunity, but it's not like an absolute good. It's a conventional relative practice. Under compassion, it could be under compassion, it might be helpful to help you become free so you can more easily help people. But if you grasp it, Even in the early teaching, if you grasp the conventional understanding of this thing, it backfires on you. You can become cold and hostile, and you can start hating those who are having sex. Especially maybe your fellow monks are having sex. You might hate them. Well, if you're not supposed to hate people when they cut your arms and legs off, how about hating them just because they're not doing well on the precepts?

[60:14]

But if you cling to the precepts, It's going to be really hard. Precept breakers. You notice that if you ever spend a little time practicing the precepts and like kind of like, yeah, I'm really doing it. Wow. And then you look around and see the people who weren't. They look bad. They do not look good. They don't look attractive. They look ugly. They're like snowballing. doing all these selfish little human activities that you don't do. But if you don't cling to these practices, and you practice them anyway, maybe the practices make you more appreciative of them. The Vinaya should make the monks more appreciative of the people who aren't practicing the Vinaya, who love them more. Was the Buddha that way?

[61:16]

Did the Buddha love the people who went practicing the precepts? The Buddha could see, this non-precept practicer, this person is ready to practice the precepts. Come here. Come here. You should come. You think about the precepts. The person is not ready to practice the precepts. Disgusting. Sorry for them. But they were ready. So we have to be careful, and that's called renunciation, not grasping precepts. Using them as part of the second paramita of using the precepts in a skillful way. Practicing all the precepts, grasping, and also... Not seeing any beings, but teaching the precepts to the beings you don't see. And not seeing good and bad, thinking about the good and bad in all the precepts. Because it's helpful. Once it's done, we don't go over that.

[62:19]

We do, actually. We should have a good reason, mainly. We're just holding them. Not we're holding them, we're just enacting them in order to help people. Skillful means. People need to see something. Okay? Helmet? Yes? There was a predisposition to having shaky knees around certain things. Shaky knees is... No, your predisposition... Shaky knees is the manifestation of predisposition. So karma makes you... Huh? Yeah. So the vipākara, the result of the karma, is that you're predisposed to feel certain ways about certain things. With the karma, you see some people and you start to salivate. You see other people, you go, you know, predisposed to feel that way.

[63:21]

Some people, you feel weak-kneed and so on. You see, if the weak-kneed, though, is a thing, you're predisposed for it. It's a manifestation. The predisposition doesn't mean it's going to happen. Let me rephrase it a little bit. It's really that you have predisposition when you see a certain object or something. Okay? So in a situation like that... That would be fine. That can happen. But at the time it manifests, at that time... See, predisposition... I'm laughing because Buddhism isn't kind of neat. It's kind of worked out for myself. Predisposition means it hasn't happened yet. We're walking around, all of us, with a bunch of predispositions, which could be shortened to disposition. We're disposed, we're predisposed and disposed in a certain way as a result of past action.

[64:26]

We can't see our predispositions until they run into something that causes them to precipitate. When they're manifested, is a time to practice renunciation. Renunciation with the manifestation, then the Dharma comes. Whatever Dharma you've had the opportunity to be washed by, comes to you. So, like, for example, there's a predisposition, something happens, and then this thing happens, and it happens, and you practice renunciation, and then you hear the Dharma. And if the thing's happening, it's Dharma. Like, you see, oh, this is like... This is the unfoldment of karma. Like, I'm seeing Buddhism, like, being played out right here. Because of renunciation, the activity, the manifestation is a Dharma message. Nice, huh? And then you say, oh yeah, well, that's why I should practice. And because I practiced, I was able to practice renunciation because I practiced renunciation.

[65:31]

This thing which I might ordinarily thought was like something unfair, more horrible, or something I should try to control and do more karmically. The thing now is nothing which reminds me to practice renunciation and to go back to compassion. So this affliction reminds me to practice compassion because of renunciation. You can be practicing renunciation before something and that's good because when it does, it can affect you that you will. If you're practicing pronunciation, then when the shit hits the fan, you have a chance to keep practice going. This is a big deal, you know, because I see some shit coming myself.

[66:14]

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