Is that breathing okay for you? May I close it? Sorry, we usually have all the windows open for such a large crowd, and they weren't open. Then I discovered they were closed. Is the year too old to say Happy New Year? Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Did we just chant something like, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words? So I've heard that the Tathagata, the thus come one, the Buddhas, that they teach, among many other teachings, they teach that the reality has a wondrous non-duality, or is a wondrous non-duality.

[01:34]

In reality, enlightenment and delusion are not two, are not separate. Buddhas and sentient beings are not two, not separate. Compounded phenomena and uncompounded phenomena are not separate. Constructed things and unconstructed things are not separate. In other words, the teaching is that everything in the universe is intimate.

[02:46]

So if we wish to, it seems to me, if we wish to take care of Buddhas, which are not separate from sentient beings, that we need to take care of sentient beings, if we want to be intimate with Buddhas. And if we want to be intimate with sentient beings, we should take care of Buddhas. If we want to take care of enlightenment, we need to take care of delusion. If you want to take care of delusion, you need to take care of enlightenment. If you want to take care of living beings, you need to take care of Buddhas. We hear about beings called bodhisattvas, enlightening beings, commit to receive the teachings of non-duality,

[04:09]

understand them and practice them. Which means they commit to caring for all living beings and caring for and serving all Buddhas. So there is a spirit in the world which wishes to devote life to caring for all living beings. which means to care for all deluded beings, which means to care for all kinds of karmic consciousness. But first, and first again and again first, moment by moment first, Be still.

[05:15]

Don't move. Be silent. In the great work of caring for all living beings, start by being still with them and quiet. moment by moment. Now be still and then care for all beings. Now be still and do the great work of practicing intimacy with all beings. The actual intimacy of enlightenment and delusion lives in stillness.

[06:26]

The tremendous vital dynamic relationship between Buddhas and living beings occurs in stillness. Perhaps the most common Buddhist statue or image perhaps is maybe the Buddha, but second to the Buddha maybe is the bodhisattva of infinite compassion. In China called Guan Yin, in Sanskrit called Avalokiteshvara, in Tibet, Chenrezig, in Japan, Kannon, this bodhisattva archetype, there's probably as many statues of Guanyin in China as there are people in China right now, maybe more, because lots of people have several in their house.

[07:43]

And the most common perhaps in China is of a feminine form, with flowing robes, often holding a lotus flower in one hand and a vase in the other." I believe we have one of that form right behind Manjushri here. Also sometimes this bodhisattva of compassion is pictured with having eight arms, four arms, thousand arms, symbolizing engagement with all beings, totally active in stillness. But what I want to emphasize again and again is that Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion, practices stillness.

[08:48]

And there aren't too many statues and images of Avalokiteshvara modeling stillness. However, there is at least one where it's literally, literally modeling it. And I saw this statue. It's in the Musée Guimet in Paris. And the statue of Guan Yin sitting cross-legged with her hands in the meditation mudra that the Buddhists use, sitting in a cave. And her vase and her flower are set on a little shelf next to her. And that was... about twenty-seven years ago I saw that statue and I was struck that the Bodhisattva Great Compassion practices sitting still too.

[10:05]

Her compassion comes from her stillness. Now, actually, if you look at her when she's making these gestures of generosity to all beings and embracing all beings, you can see serenity and stillness in her. But her posture is not literally saying, sit still. Now we have a retreat here at Green Gulch and we're like in the fourth or fifth day of the retreat, of a 21-day retreat. And in this retreat we are gifted with your support and supporting each other to be still, unmoving, to settle into intimacy with sentient beings, to settle

[11:15]

into intimacy with our own delusions, with our own karmic consciousness. To be still and not ignore karmic consciousness. To practice that moment by moment for 21 days in hopes that Saint Nicholas will soon be here. Yeah. Could you close that door, please, Jim? In hopes that we would continue, be able to continue to be still and intimate with delusions. with karmic consciousness, with active consciousness. It is taught that sentient beings just have karmic consciousness.

[12:23]

Living beings, all they've got, all they have, really, is karmic consciousness. And it's boundless and unclear and there's no fundamental to rely on in it. Perhaps it's possible to be confident that we only have karmic consciousness. In other words, to be confident and humble that we are limited by our deluded, unclear, boundless, always reoccurring karmic construction of the world that we live in a karmically constructed version of reality.

[13:25]

To be still and open to that. To be still and remember that. With the confidence that intimacy with karmic consciousness is enlightenment. Enlightenment is not separate from our deluded consciousness. Enlightenment is not another consciousness in addition to deluded consciousness. Enlightenment is the practice of intimacy with our deluded consciousness. Enlightenment is a practice of lovingly attending and caring for deluded beings, one of them being what we call ourself.

[14:38]

Enlightenment is the intimate non-dual non-separate relationship with karmic consciousness. And the dharma, the reality, is that non-duality. Enlightenment is always intimate with every deluded being, But we need to practice that presence in order to realize that enlightenment and in order to realize the wondrous reality of the intimacy of all beings. And karmic consciousness is very turbulent and giddy and vast.

[15:43]

It's hard for us to be still moment after moment and open to it and then everything changes and again. It's a difficult practice to enter enlightenment which is not separate from dynamic, vital processes of illusion and delusion. it is said sometimes that those who intimately know delusion are Buddhas.

[17:23]

But I think another translation which I think maybe is more helpful in a way or maybe equally helpful is Instead of those who intimately understand delusion, intimately understanding delusion is Buddha. It's not something in addition, like some conscious being in addition to understanding delusion is a Buddha. The actual understanding of delusion, the intimacy with it is Buddha. or is Buddha's. And in the intimacy of enlightenment and delusion, there is an opening to the truth, to the reality of their non-duality.

[18:42]

We live in the non-duality of enlightenment and delusion all day long. But unless we practice enlightenment, unless we practice being intimate with our karmic processes, our karmic processes are not illuminated by the reality in which we live. And our karmic processes never reaches, no consciousness reaches the reality of non-duality. But if we act in accord with that non-duality, our karmic processes are illuminated by it. Our consciousness cannot reach nonduality. That's impossible.

[19:48]

But nonduality, if we act out, act it out, can illuminate our karmic consciousness. And again, how do you act out nonduality? by the practice of enlightenment. And what is the practice of enlightenment? It's to take care of our diluted consciousness, which is the same as our consciousness. Because our consciousness naturally is diluted. It naturally, before you have a chance, perceives things inconsistent with their reality. But again, embracing that process, embracing the process by which we see things as existing separate from ourselves,

[21:04]

and fully expressing and exerting it opens to the revelation of the insubstantiality of the separation, of the insubstantiality of phenomena. And opening to that, we open to the non-duality of all beings. Buddhas and sentient beings are not two, but they're not exactly the same. Enlightenment and delusion are not separate, but they're not entirely the same. They're intimate but not entirely the same. The reality of their relationship transcends sameness and difference.

[22:10]

They're not the same and they're not completely the same and not completely different. They never exist without each other. So again, we exercise enlightenment by being intimate with the exercise of delusion. And delusion is being exercised, but not necessarily with careful, loving attention. Another expression that goes with saying that sentient beings just have deluded karmic consciousness is to say that the fundamental affliction of ignorance is itself the immutable knowledge of all Buddhas.

[23:41]

What do all Buddhas know? They know the fundamental affliction of ignorance. What is the fundamental affliction of ignorance? Karmic consciousness. What is the fundamental affliction of ignorance? Ignoring reality. A consciousness that turns away from reality is a karmic consciousness. And it's an afflicted consciousness. It's a consciousness that suffers. That fundamental affliction, deluded consciousness, which comes from ignoring reality, that fundamental affliction is the immutable knowledge of all Buddhas. That's what Buddhas know. How do they know it? By studying it.

[24:45]

by loving it. They love, Buddhas love, bodhisattvas are committed to love the fundamental affliction of ignorance. Sentient beings are the fundamental affliction of ignorance. They arise with ignorance. Buddhas and bodhisattvas love them intimately. That's what they know. They know living beings. They engage with living beings. They embrace and sustain living beings. And they show living beings how to embrace and sustain living beings. They study themselves and they show living beings how to study themselves. Living beings ignore reality and they also tend to ignore themselves.

[25:47]

They ignore reality and they ignore the afflictions that arise from ignoring reality. Bodhisattvas love them in their ignorance and teach them to love themselves in their ignorance. Attending to an ignorant person ignorance is reversed. But it's hard to attend to an ignorant person because they're so lively, because they're living beings. So people bring up endless challenging versions of karmic consciousness. They're amazingly, they're wondrously, amazingly complex and challenging. All the better for enlightenment. Because enlightenment gets to embrace all these different varieties of delusion.

[26:58]

So for example, just this morning someone tells me that he has a tendency sometimes to think that it would be good to do things a certain way, that it would be better to do it this way than that way, than another way. And then if other people want to do it another way, he notices it's very difficult not to think that his way, which is a good way, it's difficult not to think that his way is better than the way that's not as good. and that he even is better than the people who do it the not so good way. Bodhisattvas love the people who think that they're better than other people. And if in their own mind they have a consciousness which thinks

[28:05]

that this consciousness is better than some other consciousnesses. Even though this is a karmic consciousness, it's a better karmic consciousness than those karmic consciousnesses. The bodhisattva vows to be intimate with that violation of reality. To love the mind that thinks it's better than some other minds. to love the mind that thinks this way would be better than the way you're doing, or this way would be better than the way I'm doing. To be intimate with whatever karmic consciousness is being given. And again, in order to be able to do this, think maybe we have to be unmoving.

[29:11]

We need to start from kind of like ground zero every moment. We need to be here to receive the next challenge, the next thing, the next consciousness to love. we must be very still and quiet in order to be able to tolerate total dynamism, in order to tolerate the ungraspable flux of our consciousness. We don't have to be still in order to get a hold of it. We have to be still in order to tolerate not trying to or not thinking that we actually have been able to get a hold of it. Again, ignorant consciousness thinks it can get a hold of things because it's ignoring the ungraspable nature of our relationship.

[30:20]

So I have to be able to tolerate that I think I can get a hold of things and be still with that. And to be still with it, I think I can get a hold of things so that I can open to that I can't get a hold of them and nobody else can. I must be still in order to tolerate my ignorance. And if I can be still and tolerate my ignorance, I can be intimate with my ignorance. And being intimate with my ignorance is enlightenment. Me being intimate with my ignorance is the practice which is enlightenment. And it's not easy for me to be with my ignorance. It's not even easy for me to be with your ignorance. But I think being with mine is even harder than to be with yours. It's very important.

[31:28]

One of the things about being still is that your home And it's good to start with the home ignorance. Don't skip over the ignorance you've got before you move on to studying other people's ignorance. We can study other people's karmic consciousness. We can. But it should be based on being still with our own and being intimate with our own. And from there, you can welcome the study of others. So, like, Jean Robinson fell down and hurt her leg recently, so probably she should learn how to walk again before she tries to carry me across the creek. First of all, you have to, like, be yourself.

[32:34]

If you want to help others, be yourself. And if you want to be yourself, well, love yourself. Take care of yourself. Encourage yourself to be fully expressed and exerted. And then you can teach others. You can assist others in being themselves. Meantime, while you were trying, they might have been watching you and learning anyway. Even watching while you fail might be encouraging to them. And someone else says, you know, aren't some karmic consciousnesses actually better than other ones?

[33:41]

As far as I know, it takes a karmic consciousness to evaluate that some karmic consciousnesses are better than other karmic consciousnesses. In the teaching of non-duality, enlightenment is not better than delusion. Enlightenment is not better than delusion. Enlightenment is the partner of delusion, and when enlightenment is fully exercised on delusion, delusion is fully exercised on enlightenment, and together they open to reality. If there was some consciousness which was better than another consciousness, if it could be found, I would say fine. We found one that's better than some other one. But to me the important thing is to love that consciousness which is better than another consciousness.

[34:59]

And to love the other consciousness which isn't as good. In both cases, what really matters is the intimacy with the consciousness. Now, is it the case that there's some evolutionary process which occurs to these karmic consciousnesses when they're cared for by the practice of enlightenment? Yes, there is an evolution within karmic consciousness. To make karmic consciousness more willing to allow itself to study itself. In other words, there's more willingness through studying karmic consciousness to continue to study karmic consciousness When karmic consciousness allows itself to be with enlightenment, enlightenment is allowed to be more involved in karmic consciousness. So there is, from the point of view of karmic consciousness, evolution of karmic consciousness allowing deluded beings to be more wholeheartedly deluded beings.

[36:16]

So one of the wonderful teachings which I have heard and shared is from a Mahayana scripture which is called the immovability or the non-moving of all beings. And this teaching is that the condition of being a sentient being that a sentient being being a sentient being, that a deluded being being a deluded being is itself enlightenment. But that means that a deluded being is with the program of being a deluded being, not a deluded being that thinks she's something else. So to wholeheartedly, the wholeheartedness to wholeheartedly be what you are, which is a sentient being, that is enlightenment.

[37:24]

Here's a Chinese calligraphic version of that teaching. The condition of being a sentient being is immediately itself enlightenment. And enlightenment is what makes it possible, or Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are what makes it possible for a sentient being to be a sentient being. Without the intimacy of enlightenment and delusion, delusion has trouble being completely deluded. Deluded beings who don't let enlightenment into their life are half-heartedly deluded. One form of being half-heartedly deluded is to think that you're not deluded at all.

[38:34]

Now, some of you would say, no, I think that's really wholehearted delusion. But I think it would be even more wholehearted to say, I'm not, I'm not at all deluded. And get the joke. to say, you know, to sing to the highest hill, I'm not deluded, knowing that I've just perfectly demonstrated delusion. Now, someone else can do a good job too, I'm sure, but this is my current delusion, so I'm saying, this is my current delusion, I never make a mistake. I'm perfect. I'm a Buddha. It's okay to say, I'm a Buddha. Go ahead, say it. And understand that that is the exercise of karmic consciousness. You can't say I'm a Buddha without karmic consciousness.

[39:36]

You've got a karmic consciousness, you can say I'm a Buddha. But that's a delusion you just expressed. You just like were 100% deluded. But in the 100% of your delusion, that's enlightenment. You couldn't say it. You couldn't be fully yourself without the help of enlightenment, which is always with you, supporting you to be a limited, deluded creature. You can't be deluded all by yourself. You need help. And you've got it. So accept it. Let's accept the help that we're receiving to be deluded. And then, okay, now with all that help, here I am, deluded. And I can say all kinds of ridiculous things if I want, and I will. And I can say clever things, but still, I'm always completely deluded.

[40:38]

Because of the great support of enlightenment, because of great enlightenment, I am deluded. And if I'm willing to be completely deluded, great enlightenment is alive. Great enlightenment is not afraid of a little bit or a lot of delusion. Delusion is afraid of delusion. Delusion wants to get rid of it. Sometimes. Especially other people's. Great enlightenment doesn't like or dislike delusion. It loves it. It embraces it. It's not the same as it. It is the wholeheartedness of it. It is the total exertion of it. And in that total exertion, delusion gets illuminated into freedom and into teaching others how to be totally what they are.

[41:44]

We're already totally deluded in a way, but we have to practice it. Which means that humility is part and parcel of the confidence of the Buddhas. The Buddhas are confident, fearless, boundlessly loving, and humble. and willing to be with other beings who are humble, and being willing to be with beings who are not humble, who refuse to just be a living being. In other words, who refuse to be enlightened. But once again, In order to be able to stand being a deluded person, we must be still and quiet. We must be present and not move away from our deluded sentient being.

[42:52]

And when actually we're willing to be a sentient being, which is enlightenment, that means we're willing to not move from what we are. And this is a training thing for us. So we have special training sessions to learn to not run away from being an ordinary person. Because ordinary people want to run away from being an ordinary person. But we can learn to be still with wanting to run away from being who we are. We can learn to not run away from trying to run away. And so the attempt to run away from this may go on pretty much indefinitely, and we can be there and love it moment by moment. In other words, we can join the Buddhas who are with all the people who are trying to run away from life. Bodhisattvas commit to this.

[43:56]

I encourage myself to commit to be intimate with the ones who are trying to run away from being ordinary, deluded people. I commit to being with myself when I want to run away from being deluded. I commit to being intimate with myself when I think it would be much better to do things a little differently than this I had a real strong example of that recently. Want to hear it? I was in a car going someplace and it was a traffic jam. Not a terrible one. Sort of middle grade traffic jam. And someone else was driving the car. So there were more than one human in the car, thus qualifying the car to be in the carpool lane.

[45:07]

Do you understand? Everybody understand? So I was in the car that could ride in the carpool lane. The carpool lane did not have a traffic jam. People in the carpool lane were going zip, zip, zip, zip. They were moving along around 50 miles an hour, or anyway, above zero. And I mentioned to the venerable driver that over to the left there was a carpool lane, and we were allowed to drive in it. But the driver did not want to go in the carpool lane. So I had a challenge to embrace my karmic consciousness which thought, I think it would be better to go in the carpool lane.

[46:20]

I think being in the carpool lane and moving nicely along the highway, I think it's better than sitting in this stuck situation. Common consciousness often thinks, this situation is stuck and over there is like a free, open, free-flowing, happy land. I think it would be good to go over there. So let's go! Rather than, let's be the person who thinks something would be better than this. And I was like, you know, almost in bliss with the agony of trying to accept my story about what would be good.

[47:23]

It was a wonderful practice occasion. Enlightenment is intimate with the person who thinks there's a better way to go. And enlightenment is intimate with the other person who thinks the other way is the best way to go. The Buddhas and bodhisattvas are committed to this practice And their commitment makes it possible for us to join it. But it's really hard sometimes when somebody is not going into the happy, healthy place. I don't know, what time is it? Oh.

[48:29]

Okay, well. Please be silent and still. And be intimate with all beings, enlightened and unenlightened. Yes, sir. May our intention equally stand to every beat. May our intention equally stand to every beat.

[49:26]

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