I feel a little silly to say this but today is one of those special days. Like, you know, every day. Often when I, you know, come and sit here and discuss the teachings of the Buddha, I feel like, oh, this is a special day. So that's how I feel today, that this is a special day. And it's a full moon, I think. Is it a full moon today? Is it a lunar eclipse today? So on full moon days, in the Buddhist tradition, the community of practitioners often have been gathering for 2,500 years on the full moon and on the new moon.

[01:14]

And they recite the precepts that the community... vows to practice, and they also confess that they've been having whatever trouble they've been having practicing the precepts. So we did that here in this room earlier this morning. And then later today in the afternoon, there will be a ceremony where a group of 16 people will formally enter into the practice of these precepts, the precepts of this community, this community being, I don't know what, but you could say the community of... of this temple, of this... yeah, of this temple.

[02:26]

And this temple is... founded in the spirit of what we call the path or the way of the Bodhisattva. So the ceremony of receiving the precepts, by receiving the precepts of the Bodhisattva, we enter the way of the bodhisattva. The precepts are offered to us and we are asked when we receive them, do you wish to receive the precepts? And if we say yes, then the precepts are given. And after we receive the precepts, we are asked in the ceremony, from now on, and even after realizing

[03:28]

Buddhahood, will you continue to practice these precepts? And then the people who are entering the path of the bodhisattva say, yes, I will. So this afternoon, 16 rather mature adults who have, in some sense, many of them already had a rather full life Some are, maybe one of them is under 30. I'm not sure. Are you? Yeah. One of them is under 30. I think one. Are you under 30? No. So one's under 30, and the others are of undisclosed maturity. I haven't asked them exactly, but some of them have confessed to me that they're over 50. And so now, some of them in the second half of a century, they are now wishing to be kind of like babies again, to be born again into this path of the bodhisattva.

[04:48]

A bodhisattva is somebody who is on the path to become, excuse the expression, Buddha. So people who enter the bodhisattva path are kind of taking on a big job They're daring to enter the Buddha training course. And these precepts are for them, to help them to meditate on the path of becoming a Buddha. They aren't necessarily arrogant in this, in the sense of saying, oh, I'm going to be a Buddha, but more that they understand that in order to be helpful to beings, they need to give beings the very best. And the very best we can give another being is to give them our enlightenment, to share enlightenment, to share

[05:57]

our pure compassion with them. In order to become a Buddha, it seems to me, what's entailed is to learn how to become intimate with all living beings. Enlightenment, in fact, is the way we are intimate with each other. It's the actual intimacy of all beings that is enlightenment. And those who realize it are willing to be intimate with everyone. And the way we're intimate with each being will be different.

[07:02]

The way we're intimate with humans is different from the way we're intimate with dogs. Some people are quite willing to be intimate with dogs, but they're not sure about being intimate with humans. But this Buddha is willing to and vows to and actually has realized intimacy with all living beings. So entering the Bodhisattva path, is entering the path of learning how to be intimate with everyone. One time I was talking to some people about how Buddhas were taught by the tradition that Buddhas realize or attain what we call nirvana, which is freedom, complete freedom.

[08:31]

But Buddhas don't stay in nirvana. They don't live there. They don't have a permanent abode there. Buddhas are willing to come into the world and practice together with suffering beings. Without suffering beings, Buddha has no life. So after that discussion, one of the people said to me, he said, after Buddhists realize enlightenment, do they like, do they come and live in the world with ordinary people like you and me? And I said, yeah. Matter of fact, they marry all beings. But this marriage is not necessarily, what do you call it, it's not necessarily some people's idea of marriage.

[09:39]

It just means that they're intimate with all beings. But today, in some sense, the people who receive the precepts will be marrying all beings. And I don't know if they were expecting this. when they talked about receiving the precepts, but in a sense that's what it's about, is a ceremony of entering into marriage with all beings. And in Zen Center, when we do marriage ceremonies for like two people, usually it's two, but sometimes in a sense it's more than two. Like sometimes people get married who already have children And in a sense, if you marry someone who already has children, in a sense, you marry the children of the person, too. And also, you may not wish to think of it that way, but you kind of marry their parents, too.

[10:49]

Once you start marrying one person, it sort of opens the gate to a lot of other marriages. So people are often rather shy or maybe even afraid to get married because they know it's opening the door to potentially a lot of difficulty and danger and vulnerability. I'm married to that dog. And a lot of other people are, too. So in Zen Center, when we have a marriage ceremony... The way we do the ceremony is that we actually, we don't exactly give the precepts in the ceremony, but they're recited.

[11:55]

The people who make the vow to live together in a Buddhist way, in an enlightened way, receive the precepts or recite the precepts in the ceremony as a symbol that they're getting married to each other and that they will probably use these precepts as a they agree to use these precepts as a way to live together. And I think in the formal precept ceremony, that's in a sense what's happening too, is we receive these precepts as a way to live together with the other people who are being ordained that day, but the way to live together with all beings. The way to live together with all beings in peace, in harmony, and in a beneficial way, mutually beneficial way, a way where we're married not to possess beings, but married as a vehicle to benefit beings and to liberate beings from suffering and liberate oneself from suffering.

[13:11]

These precepts are simultaneously a way to live together with other beings and simultaneously a way to fully express yourself. Someone said to me the other day that her stepmother said to her one time, just be yourself. And I don't remember the context of that statement, but I guess that statement was given on an occasion where this woman was trying to be good, trying to be a good stepdaughter, but probably trying to be good was probably making the stepmother uncomfortable. Do you ever have somebody be with somebody who you feel like they're trying to be good and you feel kind of uncomfortable because you feel like they're trying to be good and somehow it's something funny about it?

[14:30]

Like they're not being honest or something? They're trying to be honest rather than just being honest? Do you ever have a feeling like that? Somebody's like... Anyway, that's what I think the situation was. And the stepmother said, just be yourself. And she said to me, but I didn't know how to be myself. And I thought, and so she said to me, I think, well, how can I be myself? And I said, 16 Bodhisattva precepts. That's how to be yourself. How to be yourself. You want to know how to be yourself? Don't kill. Don't take what's not given. Don't misuse your sexual energy. or other people's sexual energy. Don't lie. Don't intoxicate yourself or others. Don't slander. Don't praise yourself at the expense of others.

[15:36]

Don't be possessive. Don't be angry. And don't disparage yourself the Buddha and the truth and the community. That's a little bit about how to be yourself. Those are 10 of the 16 precepts. Another three are practice right conduct. And in the Zen school, it means practice the forms of Zen training. These will train you to express yourself and learn about any selfishness that you're involved in and become free of it. Another precept is to practice all good. And another precept is to benefit all beings. These are ways to be yourself.

[16:37]

And these are ways to be married to someone. These are ways to be intimate with someone and intimate with yourself. And the first three precepts are to return to enlightenment, to return to the truth, and return to the community of all beings. These are the precepts by which we can just be ourselves and not make people feel that we're not being ourselves. It doesn't necessarily make people feel comfortable, however, when we're being ourselves. In this way, we might become rather difficult for almost everyone, which is part of the reason why we're afraid to be ourselves, because we're afraid of the difficulty that might arise if we told the truth. So how can we tell the truth in a skillful way that doesn't harm beings and expresses ourselves and promotes intimacy?

[17:49]

This is a dangerous prospect. How can we actually like wade into the mass of life and be intimate with it? By telling the truth. By not lying. By saying, for example, I'm afraid to actually become close to some people, to be intimate with some people. Admitting that you're afraid to be intimate with someone is a step towards intimacy. Or even saying, honestly, I'm going to move now a little farther away from you. If that's the truth for you, that's a step towards intimacy even though you're moving farther away.

[18:52]

You're not really moving farther away in terms of actual intimacy because you're telling the truth. In marriage, in a marriage ceremony, one of the statements that is traditionally said in the Christian ceremony, in the ceremony at one point people say, I plight thee my troth. I plight thee my truth. Troth means truth. I put my truth in plight to thee. The Bodhisattva, the Buddha, puts his truth in plight to thee.

[19:53]

In other words, you endanger your truth to other beings, one by one. And the main way to endanger your truth is to express it. to tell people what it is. So, not so that they will damage it. You don't necessarily, you don't want them to damage it, to criticize it, to refute it. But you endanger it to refutation. You endanger it to criticism. You endanger it to change. By putting it in danger, you let go of it. Or you let go of it and put it in danger. This is a key ingredient in being a Buddha. By endangering your truth, by letting go of your truth, by letting go of your truth, by letting go of my truth, there is a possibility for intimacy, there is a possibility for true marriage among beings.

[21:01]

Letting go of your truth and me letting go of my truth, there's a possibility of realizing the truth. The truth that is the truth we all share, that liberates us all. And the truth that I hold onto keeps me in bondage to my truth. And even though I'm in bondage to my truth, I'm familiar with what this prison's like. I'm familiar with my truth. I like my truth, of course. And it is the best truth, of course. But that's exactly why I'm in bondage to it and have trouble letting go of it. It is my truth, which I might convert to more than my truth. Like, I might convert my truth into absolute truth or the truth.

[22:02]

You have your truth, but if your truth isn't the same as my truth, your truth is not... the truth and mine is. After a while I forget it's mine and think it's the. Letting go of my truth, you letting go of your truth, in this way we enter the path to Buddhahood. Doesn't mean you don't have a truth, it means you just relinquish it. for the sake of marriage to all beings, for the sake of Buddhahood for all beings. Yesterday we had a rehearsal for the ceremony and I forgot kind of an important part. At the beginning of the ceremony there's an invocation where we invite all the Buddhas

[23:04]

throughout the universe to come and support the ceremony. We invite all the enlightening beings, all the bodhisattvas, to come to the ceremony and support the ceremony. And at the invocation we do something which I forgot to mention yesterday. We practice renunciation. Now the people in the ceremony had already read a little pamphlet describing the ceremony, so they knew about this, right? You knew about that part, didn't you? But I forgot to mention it, so now I'm mentioning it. Renunciation. And as part of that, if it's all right with you, I'll come around and cut a little tiny bit of your hair off, just a little, as a symbol of renunciation, as a ritual. as a ceremony of renunciation. So as I said, one of the precepts is to embrace and sustain the forms and ceremonies of Zen practice.

[24:13]

This is one of them. And in this ceremony, when I cut your hair, at that moment you can think about whether really you're willing to renounce your truth. And renunciation has two meanings in the dictionary that I looked in. The first meaning is the one I think is appropriate to this ceremony, and that is to let go, to give up, to relinquish. The second meaning is not so much what I mean. The second meaning is to reject. or disown. Disown in the sense of relinquish I think is appropriate, but not disown like, you know, I have nothing to do with that.

[25:14]

So that's the first part of the ceremony, renunciation. And renunciation means to plight your truth, to endanger yourself to all beings. And plighting your truth means that you will practice looking for a way to sit to express your truth, to get your truth out in the world where it can be in danger. One of the truths that might be part of your truth is, I would like to learn how to be a bodhisattva. And I think some people are afraid to tell people that. Because then they would say, oh, you want to be a bodhisattva? Well, who do you think you are to be a bodhisattva? How arrogant, they might say. You want to become a Buddha? Isn't that a bit much? If you tell someone something you dearly want to do, something that's a deep inner intention, if you expose that to them, you're vulnerable.

[26:32]

If they criticize you or tease you, won't that hurt? Couldn't that hurt you? Don't you feel scared if you tell someone your dearest intention? So I don't necessarily say you should go find someone who you think will ridicule you if you tell them what's dearest to you. I don't suggest you do that. That would be harmful maybe for you to intentionally try to expose yourself to someone who will disrespect you and hurt you. But I am suggesting that the path to Buddhahood involves finding a way to eventually tell everybody that you are devoted to them. that you want to help them in any way you can to be healthy and free of suffering. And to let go of clinging to try to control who you show yourself to.

[27:42]

I'm suggesting that receiving these precepts are part of the same process of finding a way to show ourselves to others completely and to get to see ourselves in the process. So, part of what's dangerous is to disclose, to reveal your vow. So I would just model this by telling you that I want to learn how to be devoted to every one of you.

[29:22]

I want to learn how to be devoted to every one of you. I want to learn how to give myself completely to every person in this room. I want to learn that. I feel that if I could learn that, I would be very happy and I would have no fear. Well, I don't mean just people in this room. I mean all people, but including every single one of you. And because I know that when I am devoted to one of you at that moment, if nobody else is around who I'm not devoted to, then there's only one person to be devoted to. And if I'm devoted to that person, I know I'm not afraid. Unless I would think if anybody else showed up, I wouldn't be devoted to them. If I'm devoted to one person and there's two other people standing around and I'm not devoted to them, I'm afraid.

[30:30]

Then I'm afraid. I'm afraid they'll be jealous. They'll hurt me because I'm not devoted to them and I am devoted to this person. So, of course, one way to solve that problem is don't be devoted to anybody. Then nobody will be jealous. Don't marry anybody because if anybody sees you married to one person, they might be jealous because you're not married to them. Or you can marry someone, but don't show them, don't let anybody else know that you're not devoted, how nice it is when you are devoted. No, that's the usual way. And the beginning of the ceremony is I let go. I renounce my patterns of clinging. I renounce my patterns of protection. I renounce that. Maybe I can't really do it, but I wish to renounce all my clinging, all my protection. protection against devotion to living beings. Buddha has complete devotion to each one of us.

[31:36]

That's what it's like to be Buddha. That is happiness. That is freedom from fear. Leaving one person out from your devotion, still you're a little afraid. But I disclose that to you, and disclosing that to you, I know I make myself vulnerable to each one of you. Now, each one of you can hold me accountable to being devoted to you. Each one of you can say, well, how is that response an expression of your devotion to me? And then I say, well, I wish to then respond to that and talk to you about how it is, or if it isn't, to say, I'm sorry, that wasn't devotion, but that's not what I want to do. That was a slip. I'm sorry. I confess I wasn't devoted to you at that time. But that's not the way I want to be.

[32:38]

The way I want to be is to be devoted to you. And I appreciate you pointing that out to me. And here's a little Bodhisattva training merit badge. Because you helped me, you helped me by pointing out to me that I wasn't being very attentive and devoted to you. That's the beginning of the ceremony. And so I hope that the people who are doing the ceremony now are ready for this, this renunciation, this relinquishment of all selfishness and the relinquishment of

[33:40]

Well, I should say again that you vowed to learn how to relinquish all selfishness, that you vowed to learn how to give up all resistance to being devoted to all beings. Maybe you can't do it today, but that you want to learn how to do that. That's what the beginning, that's what the renunciation for me would be about. I feel, I don't know how you feel, I don't know how you feel now, but you look, some of you look like you're... I don't know what, suffering.

[35:46]

Maybe you're contemplating this... the prospect of marrying all beings and whether you could stand to be that vulnerable to all beings. And maybe you're saying, geez, I don't know if I could do that. No, I can't do it, but I don't know if I want to do that. Is anybody thinking that? One person here. Two, two people. And the rest of you are, what? Three people are thinking that. The rest of you are thinking, four people, five, six, seven. Seven people are thinking, and the rest of you are like, ready? Ready to dive into intimacy with all beings? Is that right? Someone said that as she approached this ceremony, it seemed like there was like, in a sense, more trouble or more,

[36:58]

Yeah, more challenging type of interactions with people seem to be coming to her. Like she's the example of like, you know, in a parking lot. Now America's, you know, especially certain sections of California, you drive into parking lots and like a large number of cars in the parking lot are brand new cars. You ever seen that happen? Like certain neighborhoods of the state, you know, you drive in and like everybody looks rich. They've all got nice outfits and nice shiny cars with no dents. Have you seen that? I drive around sometimes and I'm just amazed at all these nice brand new cars. It's not even like a car dealership. So anyway, this woman was in the parking lot and she carefully opened her car door, but it touched the car next to her. probably had touched a car that didn't have very many dents on it.

[38:03]

And the person, the driver, came over to her and expressed some, I don't know, anger, yelled at her. And she said she was sorry, but then he just got, he seemed to keep yelling at her even though she said she was really sorry. I didn't ask her whether she said she was sorry because she wanted to mollify him or she really was sorry or what, but anyway, it was kind of an upsetting thing to have somebody come and scream at you for touching their car. I don't know if it even scratched it or anything, but it touched it. And sometimes if you're parking, you know, and you touch the car in front of you, the person gets out of the car and comes back to you and yells at you. Anybody ever happen to you? So, you know, these kinds of things seem to happen to her more as she approached the ceremony of receiving these precepts.

[39:05]

And she wondered about that. And I said, well, I don't know exactly what to say. But in a way, I think not so much that receiving the precepts brings on that stuff exactly, but rather that receiving the precepts maybe opens you to that stuff. With the teaching of the precepts, you maybe dare to go and park someplace. Without the precepts, you probably should just stay in your house and order things by the telephone. Because if you go out of your house, you're going to run into some difficult interactions where your truth of the way to park your car is going to be endangered to somebody else's truth about how you should park your car. It might happen to you. The precepts are about what to do when your truth is endangered, you know. I was trying to park my car as best I could. I thought it was a fairly good job. This person said, that was not a good job of parking your car. A really bad way. You're a terrible parker. And you don't know how to open the door of your car either.

[40:07]

That's really bad. This person's yelling at you. You didn't ask to marry this person. But actually Bodhisattva did ask to marry this person so this is their beloved there yelling at them. You didn't know how your beloved was going to manifest but here it is. Here's your dearly beloved screaming at you. You never met him before but here he is now. It isn't exactly that the precepts brought this on. The precepts just open you to this person. This person walking around who needs Buddha. This guy needs Buddha. This guy needs Buddha. This guy is really upset that somebody touched his car. Imagine what that's like to be in a car and somebody touches it and you get really angry and go scream at them. This is not happiness.

[41:08]

This is fear. This is fear. This is hatred. This is pain. This is torment. This is hell. This is hell. This guy's in hell. You parked your car in the parking lot and you touch somebody who's in hell. And you touch somebody in hell, you just touch them, and that hurts a lot when they're in hell. So they lash out at you. They need Buddha. As a bodhisattva, you're there to give them Buddha back, which could be, I'm really sorry. But also, excuse me for saying so, not only am I sorry, not only am I sorry, not only am I sorry, but I'm devoted to you. And I'm not afraid of you. I'm going to hang in there with you in hell. I can see you're on the verge of hurting me, but I'm not going to turn away from you. I'm going to live with you forever until you are Buddha, person of hell.

[42:09]

And I've got these Bodhisattva precepts to help me figure out how to be Buddha with you. For number one, do not kill. I'm not going to kill you. I'm not going to kill you. I know how, but I'm not going to. Now, if this person is much bigger than you, you don't even remember about killing. But if they're smaller than you, like a mosquito, you might think, oh, this mosquito doesn't need Buddha, so it's irritating me, so I'll just eliminate it. No. This mosquito needs Buddha, too. This mosquito's not in hell, maybe, but this mosquito's in a ravenous state and wants to suck your blood. And you don't want to, maybe, but it needs Buddha. Next precept, don't take what's not given.

[43:18]

Next precept, don't misuse sexuality. Next precept, don't lie. Each one of these precepts shows you a way. Don't be possessive. Don't be angry. Don't slander this person in your mind even. Don't praise yourself at the expense of this person. It doesn't cause people from hell to attack you. It opens you to them. If people are in hell, they need Buddha. They need bodhisattvas to come to hell and love them and be intimate with them and marry them. They need it. And of course, the way to deal with somebody who's in hell is different from the way to deal with someone who's not in hell. So we need to learn, with the eight of these precepts, how you respond to someone who's angry at you, different from the way you respond to someone who's lusting after you, different from the way you respond to someone who's confused about you.

[44:35]

Each case, you respond differently. But if in your heart and with your words and with your body you show people that you're available to be devoted to them, they will come and give you these challenging opportunities. So in fact you will experience more and more challenge as you proceed along the path to Buddhahood. People will give you more and more challenge. And if you are able to respond to the challenge skillfully, the reward will be more and greater challenges. This is the path to Buddhahood. It is challenging. It involves being insulted. But it involves not just being insulted, but it involves being insulted when you're open to the insult.

[45:42]

Already, probably some of us have been insulted. But some of us are so close to the insult, we maybe don't even notice it. So the point is not so much that you're being insulted or not, because you are being insulted. I guess some people might say, I would like to insult you, but are you open to it? Because if we're closed to the insult, we're closed to the person. And if we're open to the person, we're vulnerable to insult. Precepts are our way to deal skillfully with the insults, with the painful interactions we have with beings. Sometimes just the look on someone's face, although they don't mean it to be insulting, still really hurts us if we're open to it. If you're devoted to somebody and they're in a lot of pain, it can hurt. It's not neutral when they're suffering because you're open to their suffering and it hurts.

[46:45]

Buddha is open to our suffering. It hurts Buddha when we suffer. Buddha is full of joy in being devoted to us And in that devotion, Buddha is open to us. And in that openness, Buddha feels pain when Buddha sees our pain, sees our anger and torment. The precepts actually are quite natural when we're completely comfortable with someone. When we're with someone and we're really comfortable, I mean like really comfortable, we don't think of killing the person. We don't think of stealing from the person. We don't think of lying to the person. I mean, you say, well, I'm comfortable with someone, but I still don't want to lie to them. I still don't want to tell them the truth because the discomfort, the comfort might end. But I'm talking about really be comfortable, so comfortable with someone you feel like you could actually tell them the truth. Can you imagine being that comfortable with somebody?

[47:46]

Like, I'm comfortable and I'm really comfortable because I feel like I could actually tell them anything and they'd still love me and be with me and the comfort would Still be there even if I told them that I think their, you know, dress is not that cute. Or I don't like their haircut. Or, you know, whatever. Imagine being comfortable and then the precepts are naturally there. You don't slander somebody when you're really, really comfortable with them. You don't praise yourself at their expense when you're comfortable with them. You're not possessive in their presence. Like imagine being with your most darling little baby your most precious offspring, in a comfortable moment, you don't possess anything and hold anything away from her or him. You give them anything. Now, at that stage of life, they're not asking for that much, so it's pretty easy. They don't say, can I have a car? All they want is milk, warmth, and attention.

[48:49]

You have no resistance. When you're really comfortable, these precepts are naturally there. And that's fine. So these precepts are how to be comfortable and be happy and be intimate. And also these precepts are naturally come when you are intimate and are happy and are comfortable. They're ways to be devoted. And when you are devoted, they naturally manifest. However, a good share of the time, maybe almost all the time, you're not comfortable with people. Then the precepts are the way to be with that discomfort. And that's really where we grow, is when we're uncomfortable with people and then we use the precepts as a way to be with them, to not kill them, to not lie to them, to not slander them, to not be possessive,

[49:54]

to not be angry, and so on, even though we're really uncomfortable. The precepts are ways that we can stay with the person, stay with the people in this closeness. And eventually, there will be comfort. And then, after there's comfort, then we'll get another insult. and another opportunity to grow in skill, to grow in adversity. So in one sense the precepts, the renunciation means enter into relationships and now use the precepts to make peace with all these difficult relationships, to make peace with the difficulty of being devoted to people who are suffering. who are very challenging in their suffering.

[50:55]

How to stay close in a skillful way. We don't have much time left with this body. So to me it seems like a wonderful possibility to use this body as a vehicle of devotion to all beings in what little time we have left. That's really what it's there for in terms of your Buddha nature. Use this body as a conveyor of Buddha's love with the aid of these precepts. And learn how to renounce all distraction from this wonderful devotion to all beings.

[52:03]

to learn how to renounce and let go of all resistance to being Buddha. You know, it's funny, but I feel like saying, my God, isn't it amazing that each of us right now could give up all resistance to being Buddha? and just embrace the possibility of being totally loving and intimate with all these difficult people. You know, it could happen today. And sixteen people are on the verge of such a renunciation. But even those who aren't in the ceremony could still renounce all resistance to realizing Buddhahood.

[53:06]

Right now. I'm just, you know, thrilled at the prospect myself. For myself. And that's basically how, that's my vow. I want to give up all resistance to being your servant, your slave. But when I say slave, I mean slave. I mean your slave. But I also want to tell you what it's like to be a slave to you so you know the slave you've got. Because I'm a particular slave. And I have particular things to tell you about what it's like to be your slave. So I want to do it the way I have to do it. In other words, I have to tell you my truth

[54:08]

so I can endanger it to you. But that's, for me, the wonderful thing about this ceremony is I get to myself re-enter this path of the Bodhisattva with these 16 people. And all of you can enter the path of the Bodhisattva right now, if you want to. Dare I ask, do you want to? Do you want to enter the path of realizing Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings? Yes, I do. In the ceremony I ask people, you know, I don't actually ask that question, but that is the question. Do you wish to receive and practice the precepts of being Buddha?

[55:17]

And they say, yes, I do. So now I ask you that question, and are you ready for me to ask you that question? Now, do you wish to receive... No, I might say, do you wish to enter the path of being a Buddha for the welfare of all beings? Did anybody not answer that question? Okay. Those who didn't answer, what do you say? What do you want to say? Thank you. Anyone else that didn't say, yes, I do, would like to say what they feel? I don't know. Not ready? Was it okay that I asked you the question? It's hard that I asked you?

[56:22]

Do you feel I'm devoted to you? Great. So I would like to say to you that I appreciate you telling me that it was hard that I asked. And I hope that you let me know if you want me to ask you again, I'll ask you again. And every time I ask you, I ask myself. When I say, are you ready to enter the path? I think, Reb, are you ready? And sometimes right away I think, yes, and another time they say, well, just take a second now and think another way. Are you really ready? Okay, yes. Anybody else that, so we heard it's hard, not ready, not yet? Any other, yes? I don't think I'll make it. You don't think you'll make it? You won't make it to Buddhahood?

[57:29]

So you don't want to start? Well, he doesn't think he'll make it to Buddhahood, so he doesn't know if he wants to start. But remember, to make things simpler for you, not only making it to Buddhahood means that everybody else makes it too. So you're also not sure everybody's going to make it, right? I'm sure about that. You think everybody's going to make it but you. Okay. Well, if you don't think you're going to make it and you don't want to start even on the path if you don't think you're going to make it, then I would invite you to come and discuss with somebody that particular resistance or that particular reservation about the Course.

[58:36]

That's a good thing to discuss. Feeling not ready... is fine, and then you can, like, discuss that too, about what does it feel like to not be ready. Discussing how it feels to not be ready is part of getting ready. So all these reservations, if you, of course, again, I might say, well, bring them forth, bring your truth forth. By answering my question, you plighted your troth to me. You told me your truth, so I could, you know, interact with you about it, and then maybe you'd let it go in the interaction. So is there anybody who doesn't even want to even let on what the resistance is? And so we really invite you to let us know whatever resistance you have, to even letting us know what your resistance is. Any requests?

[59:54]

You mean first of all? No. When I say any requests, I'm not speaking of a specific request. Are there any requests that you have at this time? You like a song? What song would you like? You like that one? So there's been a request for a song up here in the front. And if there's no other requests, then there's only one request. Is that it then? And she has a specific request, which was a song called, Try a Little Tenderness. It's been a while since I sang that song. I don't know if I know the words anymore, but the last time I tried it, it was something like this.

[60:56]

I think it was. When she gets weary, women do get weary wearing that same shabby dress. When she gets weary, try a little tenderness. She may be waiting, just anticipating things she may never possess. So while she's waiting, try a little tenderness. There's more, but I can't remember. Huh? Huh? So try a little tenderness with this course. It's a very challenging course, as you know.

[62:03]

But... Let's try it, okay?

[62:25]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_91.22