i saw an article in
offers time newsweek but it was an article that does to the title was
the gospel truth
and it's a body was about christian christianity i think
part of that with the article was a bar wisdom
ah was kind of the looking at them with sometimes it's called gnosticism
in
in the history of christianity
and
so this is take out you know i would call am someone lay presentation of of christian scholarship or whatever but those kind of interesting anyway that this that they talked about
them
had a certain point in the history of the christian church
the to
two principles or something are two issues were fairly well settled
and one issue was
the importance and i would say the end the authority of scripture
and the second one was the authority of apostolic succession
in determining what is and what is not acceptable christian thought
so know if anyone would disagree with that but i just started interesting idea anyway that these are two main
ideas are two main tenants are two main principles in in what came to be the
the dominant
form of christianity
the front of christianity that had the roman empire behind it
again first that the authority of scripture
and second the authority of the apostolic succession to determine i guess the understanding interpret the understanding of the scripture
the gnostic tradition for the gnostic movement or whatever it is
was
among other things the parlayed that i wanted to suppress his that it it was about
exploring your own psychic process
exploring your own experience
as a religious exercise in accord with the teachings of jesus
and i also read a book several years ago called the american religion i think by harold bloom
and here
he didn't deal with the catholicism roman catholicism he dealt with any didn't deal with lutheranism i don't think he dealt with particularly like with mormons and jehovah's witnesses and and cost of church and
one of his points is that american religion is especially these these traditions their gnostic
they have to do with people's actual experience rather than getting it from the apostolic succession about what you know what's authentic christianity
and i think
i thought that that was interesting
and in some of these churches you actually have to have some kind of realization before your admitted you have to have an ex who experienced before they let you become a regular member
personal a personal understanding personal revelation and and a mormon church was set up by a revelation of this adam smith and still today that the leaders of the mormon church have ongoing revelations not not everybody's revelations are considered to be
as important as other people's since it's if some kind of apostolic succession there but they have apostolic succession of revelations of new revelations rather than
appetite apostolic succession of interpretations of scripture
heard the word gnostic is related to the work
yeah yeah yeah right
prajna yana some new
that new in it in sanskrit is a cognate with now of gnosis gnosis and it's greek
yeah knowledge right
so
so in the catholic church
again i i should probably shouldn't even say this but i would say that it seems to me that a catholic church
there there seemed to be a recommendation that people just believe
that that worked the the work of salvation has
has been done jesus has saved you and you need to believe if you believe that then you're not align with the reality of salvation
and i don't know that how many protestant churches at that lines up with to that the the salvation has already been accomplished but you have to like except that and not resist that it's not like you have to save yourself
and i wouldn't say that ended in the tradition of buddha dharma you have to save yourself exactly
the buddhist have already in some sense you could say
ah you could say that the buddhists have already verified
our nature and so on some sense of buddhists have already realized our salvation
also you could say that at the same time that they've realized that they also understand that we don't necessarily understand that
when the buddhist or realize they see that everybody's realized with them
but they see but people don't get it because they're attached to their views
so the in education in order to understand that they had by nature
a liberated
ha
i'm a liberated act reality of their life
so there's some some relationship there ah
in these traditions
so
in a buddhist tradition we have scripture also
and some people have faith in buddhist scriptures
and also they have faith in the authority of the lineage through if there's lineages some people have faith in the lineages of teachers
and so they believed that scriptures or have authority and that some people have authority and interpreting the scriptures and teaching about the scriptures
so we have a win in zen to we have read riverside scriptures and we also some of us have some confidence and some faith that people who are in apostolic succession in zen that maybe would be worthwhile listen to their understanding of the scriptures
but
it's also the case i think prelate in the buddha dharma that a higher a higher recommendation then
the authority of scripture and the and the
validity of seeing people that we respect and listening to them tell us what they think descriptions are bought a more important mode to move into eventually is by actually reasoning with ourself or reasoning and our own mind and reasoning with each other
we will come to a deeper understanding than we can come just by accepting scriptures from someone else
is it
from the paper or from someone else's interpretation
ah or by commentary yeah but
and then one step more profound and hot more highly recommended is direct experience
and this is maybe it does direct experience part and the reasoned analysis part are more over the gnostic side
and you find
actually you will find some of this in in american roots in american christian traditions is that they actually are in some ways but into direct experience of the divine
our direct experience of reality
however some of the established churches don't seem to particularly recommend that for their for their faithful
i don't know if that's true but it doesn't look like and we hear the catholic church recommending i don't hear the pope recommending that the followers of of him would have direct infallible
cognition of reality he's the infallible one
but even in his case has not necessarily by direct cognition but by mary by apostolic infallible succession i don't know
but there's something here for us to look at is that
part of the american culture is that even before we were ah
subjected to the buddha dharma we still lived in an environment where there was some validity in the culture for having direct experience of a liberating reality
and also alleged to have very very weak strain of a reasoned analysis leading to a can
very clear and accurate conceptual cognition of reality that's not just very that's not so strong in america but very strong in a buddha dharma and strong and science
and an american buddhism there's not much not real strong among among non people who are non asians is not very strong to believe in scripture i feel
but isn't there some with their
so on
i don't feel that in the people were practicing buddhism there's a lot of like belief in scripture like they were you read a scripture and that you think called that it's true because of scripture you were like a read as an text and say well because it's in his own book it's true
for whatever reason i think people often feel like well it may be true but ever standard anyway so i don't know what to do with it so a lot of it just so profound and difficult to understand especially the mahayana scriptures that people you know
aren't in some ways i'm tempted to like believe it just because it's in the book
happy people who them because it rings true rings true with their experience maybe that's as possible yeah yeah

is the what
free inquiry

these are technical term
was given all that scripture of the buddha yeah yeah right
i scriptures are denied scriptures or a scripture that denies the word of the buddha
yeah

right
so there's a scripture called they are hard is it
know how do you say it and in the pali word calamarca
so as the scripture where the buddha said you know don't just take what i said just and believe it because i said it
check it out for yourself you both in reasoned analysis and direct experience kate
but that's only one scripture he said that
the dead but then i just want to point out that the fact that it's only ones guipure
doesn't doesn't matter they're just one scripture was enough
i've i've talked about this point before is that the buddha i think although i don't not be said i can't find where he said this but the buddha's words are not the buddha dharma
that goes along that scripture what i'm saying is not the buddha dharma
so then people say okay so if you hear something from the buddha your recently buddha said don't take it as true unless you verified it
by reason and by direct experience
what why

yes
yes right
so though should be verified also
now there's some things which you cannot verify
until you're completely enlightened so some teachings he offerings and these these you will people verified but other ones you can
but this this this statement have you verified for yourself is another statement which is that you cannot hear the dharma unless you need a buddha
so the buddha
doesn't tell you the dharma but the buddha talks to you
and by meeting the boot and talk with into buddha you get ready to be able to hear the dark
so you need a buddha in order to hear the buddha dharma at the buddha doesn't tell you the dharma it just when you hang out with a buddha
long enough you hear the dharma
and i've told you stories about people who are with the buddha they do not hear the dharma the buddhist talking to them and they're not hearing the dharma and then in they're not seeing the buddha they're looking at the border they don't see the buddha they're listening to the buddha but they don't hear the buddha dharma and then
they hear the buddha dharma while the buddha's talking to them they hear the buddha dharma
and they needed to be talking to the buddha to hear it
but what the buddha says is not the buddha dharma and the way the buddha looks is not the buddha dharma but you need to be looking at buddha to see
the buddha dharma of the way the boy looks
so that scripture that says check this stuff up for yourself
should not overthrow the fact that the buddha also says here i am and you need me in order to
in order to actually
here the dharma but what i'm saying to you right now is not the dharma
the dharma is beyond concept that's right
and what i'm saying to you you're you're you're taking in conceptually
and you need to be talking to me right now and taken this in conceptually in order to get rid it ready to hear the dharma the inconceivable non conceptual reality
so i am i also thought i i mentioned to you have something i think as nice thing about the m
the since the analysis of the one of the epithets for the buddha is to target togheter
to the buddha is
you know he's a buddha
the buddha is a leader of
humans and gods the buddha is the tamer of those who need to be tamed teacher of what needs to be taught the victor the
the victor over delusions on and and
neither one of the things is the buddha is to target and the togheter is kind of a neat word because that's the the long a in the middle
ah
leads to two possible ways of splitting the word up one way would be pata
agatha and the other would be tatar gotta
the park gotta or kappa character so to target the could mean both
the vastness qatar
dustless which has been gone two dozen switch which has been gone too
and that's that's tatar gotta gone to dustless
qatar gotta the other is the haggadah vastness which has come
to the buddha is both going to the truth
in arriving at the truth
takata arriving at the way things are and realizing it but also the buddha is tatar agata is the coming of the truth are coming from the truth
and i think that in soto zen we're both these the target is
and i think it's to me it i think it clarifies was going on if you realize we are both
pekka gotta going to going to qatar going to such miss going to the way things are going to reality and realizing it
that's the gnostic way
that's the way and of
indirect cognition and a recognition was a to came to types you can have indirect and direct indirect conceptual cognition and direct non conceptual cognition to go
through direct and indirect cognition to no such as
and way to go there is by turning a light around and shining it back
on your experience
to actually in the buddha's have done this they have studied their own mind and realized the nature of their mind
the such lists of their mind
so the buddhist have
gone to such as but also buddha's come back from such this and they teach
but we also are these two things
we are going
we are going to such as through our study of art of our mind and or and our body and our speech by study our activity we are doing what the buddha's all have done this is the gnostic process
a studying ourself learning about ourselves and learning about ourself of our psychic our psycho physical
causes and conditions learning about this is the path of tatar gotta
which all buddhists have traveled
but buddhas are not fully buddha's until they come back and teach
so all buddhas are also coming back so we also are practicing
data i got that we are teach it we are practicing
as the return of truth or the coming of truth when we sit we are both going to such this but are sitting is also the arrival of such miss we are in our practice
the coming of such as we are in our practice the coming of buddha
both
which is similar to
embracing sustaining and being embraced and sustained
similar dynamic
so we have a fake side
that we give our body and mind
over to the function of the buddha coming into the world
you say here's a body
that is now being used
as a place on earth where
such as is coming and realized here
i'm not doing it and yet i give my body for the place for to be done
this is not something i know
this is coming from knowing
into this form and this form is not it
but this form is the ceremony
this is not the buddha this is not the ineffable dharma this is a ceremony
which is a way that it comes into the world that's a faith statement i offer my body as an as a statement of faith that buddha comes into the world
the that i'm sitting here isn't it is a testament
to that buddha comes into this world
the other people or for some reason or other enjoy sitting still in the posture that the buddhists at in
is a testament to that they're not just enjoying it but they're enjoying being servants to the enlightenment
allowing enlightenment to be manifested in this way they feel okay about that
and it looks like the way the buddha did it by kind of a coincidence a ceremonial coincidence
you can also get up and walk like buddha walked and let the walking be a case for the coming of the buddha
you're not trying to get anything you're actually giving yourself over
to the gift of dharma to appear in the world through your action
it's pure faith now trying to get anything you're just giving giving giving you're giving yourself as a place where the time is received
you don't need to get anything because you don't know anything about this it's totally inconceivable and vast and yet you're devoted your life
for this to be realized in your body at some place on this planet for people to see and enjoy
also there is this thing about but you don't you don't get it you don't understand necessarily at this point
the other way you will understand
however if you never turn around a study yourself
if you never learned the boot away and you just practice according to faith he probably someday will understand
just by sitting as a testament to the coming and buddha
completely wholeheartedly qatar agata you will become to tar gotta
and similarly of course if you become qatar gotta he would naturally will become to talk up park potter agata you will naturally come into the world so the story of buddha is
he took a walk up in the mountains reach the truth and and came back that's once that's when going to do it but you can do it the other way to i've just sitting with no gaining idea wholeheartedly offering yourself as the coming of the buddha as the as one of the ways the buddha can appear in this world
and you will go up to the mountain and realized the truth
so he's really on separate as that they think about the word to target the is that the to the comings and goings of the buddha you cannot separate them
in chinese however they didn't they didn't figure out a way to play with their characters to do that so they chose one side and the chinese side they chose was tucked up agatha they chose
the such as coming
so in chinese they don't they don't say doesn't has gone they say vastness come but they don't see that's gone one they say the thus come on
ruth thus live coming
good it's nice that way he got both and they don't they're they're inseparable
you embraced to dharma dharma embraces you
they're inseparable
is trying to embrace you but if you're an embrace it he miss out
in a few embrace it down without realizing as embracing you you miss out so i got to both sides
and lately i've been emphasizing putting a lot of emphasis on
actually the gnostic side of the practice
that you actually can look around and and be aware of what's going on in your mind every moment in every moment something's going on and that's your intention that your karma
and that is the problem that the buddha pointed out the problem is what's going on your mind the activity of your mind has consequence and if you do not understand the activity your mind
the consequences are that you've become
hindered in realizing such as
but by studying carefully
the workings of your mind
the workers of your mind evolve positively and your vision becomes clear and you will eventually see
that's all of your activity has always been selfless there was never a self in your action but if you don't study your action
then if we don't study or action then it will be hard for us to see that are action is selfless it'll look like
a self doing something
separate you know from other sides who are doing things separate from other selves
and faith can be tested and knowledge can be tested
the gnostic side can be tested by can by direct experience and reasoning and faith can be tested
by the way practice
but how wholeheartedly it it happening
hey
ah ah
like doing your practice period to zahar and you know
following the schedule and not being too early or too late ditch period
and if you're if you are too early or too late that you practice confession repentance about your lack of faith in the practice
that you are you didn't he didn't really believe in practicing i thought maybe who worked better if you're little early or a little late
yes

he said it can my equating reason analysis with turning light around

well i put it first of i put it not some nice much before but rather in hierarchy of validity
who are the most important so scripture
it is somewhat useful especially about teachings which you will not be able to verify teaches about things which you can verify
either by reason analysis or direct experience in the early phases of your evolution but you can verify some teachings
ah that are in the scriptures
by reasoned analysis and direct experience
but some amu cat

i couldn't hear you

ah
you know technically speaking know technically speaking i i don't think this and tradition says that it's it's records are scriptures
we do call that you know we do save that we had this thing called the platform sutra
but generally speaking i think that goes along with the thing that the scriptures are actually things that the buddha teaches
they've actually coming from the buddha the zen teachings are more about how to deal with scripture
how about how these people dealt with scripture
and allah the majority of them are how
me how they
didn't get into it what wouldn't get into the scriptures anybody who is trying to get into it
it was an opportunity for you know spinning the person around from their scripture grasping ah
habit
the story we studied in the last packet barriers so about this about the fox cool on is one of the examples of a zen story
where
there's actually is a discussion of the the doctrine of karma
it's one of the few zen stories where they actually get into and the in a discussion of how karma works and and kind of like showing it mostly they they're about how in our people are hung up on it the teachings and how to release them from it that's also in this story
so i don't i don't really consider our are we all that we treat them with reverence as though they were scriptures were actually saying that these script these these when call these stories are neither inside nor outside of the scripture
their stories to help us find a transmission which is neither inside nor outside the scripture
which doesn't depend on the scripture and doesn't
contradict scripture but the scriptures are actually coming from the buddha and people can give teachings which art
basically as interesting or is important what the buddha said
but they're not scriptures because they're coming from that person rather than through the person from the buddha so some scriptures in the tradition are somebody's talking is not the buddha but it's coming from the buddha's concentration practice at the heart surgery although i can touch bar is doing the talking but it's coming but she had shakyamuni buddha's sitting in a
neighborhood and is through the power of shakyamuni of meditation that the body sought was giving the heart sutra
some other pregnant upon me to sutures the boot is actually directly talking
so that
and there's other ways at the buddha can directly teach and then they're called scriptures but some of the great bodhisattvas also have given teachings according to the scriptures
and some of the teachers they have given have been written down in those are would cost shastras their commentaries are not not so much commenters even but they're coming from the body sought but not the buddha of this tradition
and some of these teachers some of these body ciphers will be buddhists have been predicted already
but but the zen teachings are heart the teachings of enlightened disciples of the buddha but they're not really scriptures
in the sense of what are the word of the buddha
however
the tradition is i think saying that by interacting with zen masters
you can enter into a way of being so that you will actually be meeting buddha
and we're not saying that the zen masters the buddha
but were saying that by interacting with each other we can enter into a concentration
such that we will be meeting the buddha and we will hear the dharma and we will realize that we're hearing the dharma because we're meeting buddha face to face
so in soto zen we said we venerate the face to face transmission of buddha to buddha
and we have the teaching that we must enter into that face to face transmission and or to hear the dharma
and you can hear the dharma in two ways
indirectly and directly
and if you have been reading scriptures about the diamond before that
that's fine and bib in people read scriptures and sometimes when they're reading scriptures wholeheartedly because the scriptures do have some authority
why you're reading the scripture you can hear the dharma
and you here at least two ways indirect and direct
but before you had an indirect cognition or direct cognition while reading the scriptures you can still read the scriptures and they still have some authority in the tradition
and you can check one scripture against another to verify what a points get right or wrong
and you can use scriptures to help you understand how their scriptures this is this is valid in this tradition
but that level of intellectual pursuit
is is a warm up
to a cognition you never had before
which is not in the scriptures
another way i thought of this by the way is that tatar gotta is like the it looks at practice as like the lot launching pad how to launch into and town agata is a landing pad
so one way of approaching practices this is a launching pad this is where we go forth into the dharma by studying what's going on we go forth were launched from here into the ineffable inconceivable perfection of wisdom
the other way is the perfection of wisdom is going to land here
this is a place at lands
so in both cases though we have what are called traffic control
you can take off now the other one of you can land now
i don't know it's a habit related to your ordering of the way things are done in order
but i don't see them as one two three exactly
because you can read scriptures and have both direct and indirect valid cognitions of what the scriptures were written for
you can also have not it's possible not to have read scriptures and get some kind of instruction
even nones scriptural instruction so many zen monks i should say many but some zen monks didn't really get much scriptural instruction they got direct instruction from the teacher
and
yeah in some sense in sometimes the buddha was talking to somebody again and they wrote down what he said to them and what he said to them was what is this the scripture
but what he said to them is not what they heard when they woke up and the scripture descriptions again the buddhist talking to someone there listening to the buddhist say these words and they hear the dharma the scripture says the buddha said this and the person understood
but some scriptures the buddha delivered in not always produce end with somebody understanding many do but not all
in some sense some teachers didn't work at the time
but they still wrote them down because the people writing donner the people were actually remembering i should say they were remembering just because somebody in the audience who wasn't them understood so we had this another strange thing about this tradition is that there was somebody in the audience of the buddhist talks who could remember what the buddha said and that person was not hearing today
karma
leclair it's a rather strange historical presentation that we have a tradition where the teachers teaching and one of the people in the audience ananda his attendant his hearing the teaching and remembering it but not hearing the dharma
somebody else and audience is hearing the hearing the buddha talk
and here in the dharma and sometimes ananda would be tipped off the buddhists say by the way and under that guy woke up so none would remember that too so nanda would hear the buddha's words
remember them and also hear the buddha tell him that somebody heard the dharma not you but somebody else heard the dharma and he would remember that too
so in that was not from you know that was not because of the scripture but the scripture was the medium in which the person was meeting the buddha but the buddhist face was there to all the whole time
but not everybody met the buddhist face even little boy's face was in their face not everybody saw the buddhist face and realized it was buddha to buddha
when you hear the dharma year during that meeting
okay
ah yes

it seems to be the case that it was oral that's why i'm
that's why when they when they actually got together to to decide what the what the canon of scripture is there's gonna be they weren't scriptures yet
scriptures scriptures usually mean written down thing
the oral transmissions were sunanda magically wonderfully apparently remembered all the things the buddha taught
and so there he was and they had to have him come to the meeting with all the enlightened disciples and he wasn't one of them
because they wanted to hear him recite the texan they would decide whether whether what he'd say which all the stuff he said would would be the canon of the buddha's teaching and then they probably changed what the buddha said somewhat and rendered it into verse because it's i don't think we've saying that the buddhist spoken verse
because lot of stuff is tina is lot of a lot of the stuff was like hi how are you today you know and
i mean that's what it says this is the boot that they did they greeted each other they they exchanged amenities and so they they had kind of normal conversations or whatever the language was
but then when and under told them the name than they stay converted those into a kind of verse form to make it easier for them to memorize and also to make it easier for them to not for the
how to make mistakes in the memorization i probably went on for three hundred years before they start writing it down
i don't know the exact
agreed upon number that scholars have arrived at this point but
ah yeah i think that i think that when when they first
had a meeting together i don't think it was polly
did they put it into i think they i think poly it came to be in poly when they wrote it down and it came to be in sanskrit when they wrote it down
they didn't have another lie i guess they didn't have other languages that had writing by the time they would wrote these things down they weren't they weren't they decide they wrote down in sanskrit and pali and i don't know which happened first when they started writing down he probably happened here and there
before that they were probably different or lineages being transmitted and they may not have been sanskrit or up polly when they were or i don't know we don't know what they were before they are written down
or they might have been they might they might have said let's let's convert this stuff that you're telling us ananda into sanskrit let's let's let's start chatting and sanskrit or list are chanting at polly
but i'm to me it seems clear that they wouldn't when they first heard it they wouldn't have done it in both languages they would have done it in something that was appropriate to the the people in the group and maybe the group has already split into a wide enough diversity of disciples so as some of them would be
better able to put into poly than others and others will be a better able to put it the sanskrit than others
and maybe right away when they started reciting it they started reciting in sanskrit pali but i don't know of any record of the discussion of what languages they started to say the buddha's teaching in as recitation
there's no it doesn't i should say no but there isn't extensive notes on the on the cob linguistic discussions on that early me of those early meetings i don't there was enough of they're mostly interested in preserving the buddha's teaching they were not so much interested in preserving their there
discussions in their methods of preserving it
yes it seems then that the transmission and it's not like putting something into the disciple with a funnel it's more process of induction were like the etc a magnet chris avoir so so the in the receiver something you stimulated from within that person based upon kind of a to
the to the dharma yeah it's more like the the put the boot is doing with people is to a tune them
so that they can let the dharma be poured into them the truth is coming from within receiver not be portland to follow it it's like the truth is being stimulated inside the receiver weren't more than more than being poured in well or the truth is is being open to in the restaurateur that the buddhist helping the
person become a receiver
and so the example which i've mentioned before as the buddha says it's like somebody climbs the top of a mountain and then they can see things from the top of the mountain
but you know and if they defeat to sell if they say down the mountain you know up here i can see i can see these this these beautiful palm trees swaying on the beach and these ladies doing this fancy dances and have all kinds of nice drinks down there too
and the person says what're you talking about you crazy you know the buddha doesn't teach later or maybe he tried but i don't think so anyway yeah maybe i maybe he tried and nobody got it so that is when does is he walked back down the mountain takes the person by the hand and walks them up to the top of the mountain where they just see themselves
so read the boot doesn't really give it to them the boot brings the person to where they can see it for themselves and the but it does that by getting the person to look at themselves
and then you can see it
and here it
but you have you cannot
you need help to get ready to receive it and that's what the buddha was willing to do
and then and when in what he said while he was doing this for people
who is recorded
and also what happened to some of the people is recorded to and the other people got to listen to the warm of thing they are doing for some of them
and when know not without some of some use for them it would like the warm up to the warm up
and for some people it was a warm up period when he finished the scripture they were done for
yes

where i mean by practice
our practice
is the way that you are
when did when am i gonna say no
ah
hope and easy yeah
the practice is the way that you are what a magnussen
no
practice is the way you are
that's practice in order to see this he need to pay attention to what you're doing
now what you're doing when you first look
you know when you first look at what you're doing what you don't see this when you first look
you may be see one side of this when your first look you see a partial version of this when you first look and this by the way is embracing a standing practice is
the way you're embracing sustaining all beings and way all beings are embracing and standing with that's practice
fact is the actuality of your existence
practice is the way you real is is is inseparable from the realization of the truth
when you first start trying to practice what you do as you pay attention to where you are
and what your and what you see you're doing and when you finally arrive right where you are
the practice occurs

so the practice is actually what's going on and some substance is a question of practicing to wake up to the practice
and the main hindrance just to appreciating the practice we call comic hindrance and then there's other kinds of hindrance to but the first hindrances karmic hindrance and that comes from not paying attention to our activity
paying attention your activity we more and more find our place
and realized the practice
okay
okay

yeah there's poker with practice
him

would you speak up please

what yeah

yeah there is
and the ways that every action
it is done for the sake of realizing the boot away
that's how it would be and that's how it is supposed to be in a monastery the every act that the monks are doing they do for the sake of the buddha dharma they do at that this is the were got the tatar agata everything you do
you do as an opportunity for the realization of the truth that's the way you see it that's the way you intended that your point that's the point of what you're doing
and you're actually here paying attention to what you're doing
so it's not just theoretical it's practical that what you're doing right now is the occasion is the landing pad for the triple treasure and you're offering your your offer a year activity as the place to realize the triple treasure
whether you inside the monastery outside that is necessary
otherwise you're missing
the practice
if you can do that outside the monastery fine if you can do it inside fine can't do it inside that's too bad if you can't do it outside that's too bad
i would say if you want to realize this
and then the debate is can we actually
do it without lots of support and the answer is well we hope so but it's even with lots of support it's hard
even in the monastery it's hard
even here today it's been hard to be moment by moment remembering
that your body speech and mind activity
is dedicated
to the realization of peace and harmony among all beings which requires the realization of truth
it's hard to learn to do that
for everybody
and then we had to be realistic about how much support we need to tune into that and stay with that
and if we don't feel like we have sufficient support to quietly consider the causes and conditions where we can find that support and realize that support
because again it's support to realize that you're supported
it support to realize that you're supporting people support to realize
the practice or remembering that your support years you're embracing and sustaining everybody and also
that that everybody years is embracing and sustaining you see it as a question you don't really know who this person is you're looking at that you're embracing of sustaining
and you don't know who this person is looking at you and embracing and sustaining you don't know where they are
the your the carrier you're paying attention but you don't know who they are
you're learning to
be mindful of that
of that sadness
and we want to be able to do that
consistently
because if we don't
there's consequences and if we do this consequences do but the consequences of remembering seem to be good and the consequences of forgetting seem to be unhappiness
so i said to someone earlier today and i've said many times now you can see you're practicing together with people
i guess you can see that
some people in the room will move and now in this room can't see right now that they're practicing together with people it's possible some that somebody still using i'm not practicing together with those people
they're not a practicing with me i'm all by myself here all alone these people are not supporting me and i don't want to support them some people might be thinking like that
not consciously
some people walk into dharma tsongas and think i'm not practicing with these people they do think that
yeah
the if you if you see it that way you feel lonely yeah but it's also possible that here with this packed in here like this that baseball possible that everybody in this room can get to oh yeah i am practicing with people i am so i do support these people you know i came here today to support these people that's what i'm here for
for i didn't i stayed the whole day and supported them i am ah that was a big successful day of supporting other people to practice you may feel that way all of you and you also may all feel yeah and these people supported me all day
i see i'm practicing together with people more fine that's true
that's that's
top top you see it now if you go away from here and don't see it your proxy with people than you don't see it
and that's that's that's hard so i sometimes they have you
you shouldn't be someplace where you can't see that for very long
he shouldn't spend too much time
looking at the world and say i'm not supporting this and the it's this isn't supporting me don't spend too much time there if you can't see it get back to some place where you can if you can see it someplace go there
soon where you can remember i am i are not an amusement remember but see i'm helping these people i mean anyway i'm trying to help these people i'm trying to nurture these people and these people are trying to nurture me and and they are and i am
yeah that's what i want to see and i do see it now if you start taking people away you'll lose it or don't don't tolerate that for very long
because once you get in that space of where you don't see that you're helping people and we don't see it you want to help people don't see the people want to help you and i help you when you're in space that's based can can go home to a month or year cause you know what is the end of it but the end of it is get back in some situation where you can see
see that oh here's some people that i want to help i care for these people i know if i am helpful but that's what i'd like to be and i think they want to help me
and they now helping me then you're know you're seeing like the buddha seas
that's good i would say
and once again don't don't go away from this if you can't see it when you go away if you can't see it when you get up in the highway if you don't think like some people came from sacramento when you get back on the highway if you don't if you can't remember that your happened as other people you know people are cutting in front of you you
helping them my go ahead i give you the place i love you you helping me your mind me my practice by driving so selfishly
if you can do maybe she just pull over
you know pull off the freeway for the lot until you remember okay now
can what is it again we're
i'm going out there to help those people on the freeway i'm not just trying to get to sacramento i'm going to practice with those people i'm gonna be an encouragement of them i'm going to be polite to them and they're going to help me with my practice okay here we go
i have make make the trip back realistic a long time
but you know if you pull over to you know wait till really late at night when is very few that makes made me easier
give me and that one of the car okay i'm your friend

so it's a radical suggestion that we we are our practice is to practice together in a group
the saga is
really part of buddha already
but if you don't see that than you need to
he acted out in gross terms like with people and plants and animals you need to like do it until you get it that this is the way houses
and again if i forget it than i have to go back into the training situation again where i can see okay okay here's people nor am i am i ready for them my up for them
no am i ready up for the now am i ready of the out to my radio yes yes i am fine in okay i give up i'm i'm devoted to these people okay i got
i don't want to get not been devoted to these people that's no good our like
on either devote to me to her wow great wow

the i think i do that wherever you are
if you can't do it where you are and you think some other place might be harmful or go to that place to get the hang of it again and then
go and see if you do it in a less populated neighborhood or a neighborhood where the people aren't so obviously
your family
you're down with them
when the buddha appears in the world there's nobody not in her gamma family
even though they never saw the devoted before with all these i get it actually went to boot at first appeared he did not see a dime a family somebody had to say no there are people here who wanted a want to practice with you are really
and then where can go oh yeah you're right there are oh yeah i oh yeah okay i'll i'll do it
ha speaking of buddha family on today is the day of the month when way
when we do
moral service for suzuki roshi
would you like to do a memorial service for him
okay well if you would we can do that we know how right
thank you very much for
supporting each other today
how did it was too crowded
but
yeah
well i thank you very much for your great efforts today and thank you for helping each other and and accepting a jealous help
as far as i could tell you
you have no problem with that right you say right did you so okay with you if all those people who helped your day
he added might helping everybody
there it did you help everybody today we up for that
let's get hard so
yeah
yeah right
yeah it's
we're not used to being open to this exchange of support and and nurturing
that's that's we have to train for to get ready retrained to get ready for the real practice

exactly is some point you not to think about it
and even though you don't have think about it you do so you can tell people about it
so who doesn't have to think about the is just totally immersed in it but then a buddha realized oh if i don't think about it i won't be able to tell these people who don't know they're doing this thing with me so think about it how could i turn off
there's a truth i fortress for you and so on
say under figure to think in our to talk to people
but when he went to talk data when he got to tell that there was no thinking necessary but when he came back he landed in the world of thinking and then talk to the thinkers in the thinkers one of them woke up right away oh oh
oh
where are they part
k
i also i have some copies of this if you like a copy of
di forty
fortunately no
so shall we set up for the memorial service
so maybe we just to stand up and try to like get arranged
for that