in asking myself whether or not I have the vow or aspiration to realize Buddhahood for the benefit of all living beings, and whether or not the activities of my daily life are in fact a support for realizing Buddhahood for all living beings. I find myself wanting to change the word realize to celebrate. Because I find that if I use the word celebrate, then my daily activities become a celebration of the Buddha way that is unfolding whether I know it or not. Whereas if I have the aspiration to realize it, I somehow feel as though I'm grasping and also that I'm goal-driven.

[01:05]

And I feel that I've already spent a large part of my life being goal-driven, and I do not wish to practice that way. And so I'm wondering if you have any feedback for me. I appreciate you wishing to celebrate your daily life as the Buddha way. It's wonderful. And if your daily life is manifesting as being goal-driven, I wish that you would realize that being goal-driven in your daily life is an opportunity to celebrate the Buddha way.

[02:08]

Are you sure? Am I sure that what you said is good? Because you said you wanted to celebrate your daily life. So that would apply to when you're in the realm of being goal-driven. Okay. That's sometimes your daily life, right? It is. Yeah. I'm sorry to report. Yeah. So you want to celebrate that moment of daily life as the Buddha way, right? Didn't you say that before? Did you want to make some exceptions to... Yeah. So I wish that you will make no exceptions to celebrating your daily life. The Buddha way is perfect and all-pervading. There's no aspect of daily life that the Buddha way does not penetrate.

[03:16]

But if you don't practice saying thank you to the Buddha way for penetrating your goal-driven mind, if it ever arises... then it's like it's not penetrating. You say, well, it penetrated over here but not here. So when it's here and you celebrate it being here, I say, great. When it's over here and you say, no, I'm not going to celebrate it, I say, oh, you're not celebrating it. So should I just ask myself if I'm celebrating the Buddha way? Well, you can ask yourself that, but also you can ask yourself if you would like to celebrate the Buddha way in your daily life. Okay. Because you said you did, right? I do. Yeah. So then the question is, we're reminding yourself. Now, what was it again that I wanted to do? Oh, yeah. I wanted to celebrate my daily life as the current opportunity for the Buddha way. Okay.

[04:19]

Right? Right. I remember that. Yes. And here we are again. And I do celebrate it, and this is what I want to do. Okay. Right? Yeah. Yeah, right. Okay. It's hard to remember sometimes when daily life is certain ways. Yes, it is. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So about a month ago, my mom died, and I sat with her for several hours.

[05:23]

And she had morphine. She was hooked onto an oxygen machine, and I just sat with her. And my mom was always a very accepting person. And as I sat with her, something very, very beautiful happened because I could feel her slipping away. As I was stroking her head, I was slipping away. I could feel myself slipping away as I stroked her head, which is so, this has been a falling away for me for many years of different kinds of things just falling away. And so I guess I had a question when you were talking about the vow to become a Buddha, because the way I see it, the orientation's different. It's more of not a moving to become something that I'm not, but a falling away of something I'm not, which I felt when I was with my, when my mom was dying.

[06:33]

And I remember a poem I wrote. It was, our hearts are cocoons fearing metamorphosis, clinging to a dying and fragile branch which no butterfly can fly. And it seems to me that we're always in this cocoon trying to become a butterfly. So if our true nature is to be Buddha, why do we have to vow to become the Buddha? Why can't we see that we already are the Buddha? Well, I'd like to relate first of all to your saying that it seems like it's a falling away. Yeah. So the vehicle to Buddha is an emptiness. It's a falling away. So if you wish to... And it's not that we're... we can help, Buddha can help, enlightenment can help in ways that enlightenment can teach other beings how to fall away and enter the way of helping beings fall away and enter the way.

[07:53]

Before we're, you know, I should say It's not so much to become something that we're not, but to develop virtues and qualities which benefit beings. It's not so much that we're not those qualities, but in fact there's some things we don't know how to do yet. And if we knew how to do those things, we could be helpful in ways that we cannot yet be helpful because when certain things happen, we do not fall away, we tense up. Like you're saying. We cling. So we might aspire to not cling, Because if we could do that under all circumstances, then we could show other people who are clinging how to let it fall away and enter the way of letting it fall away.

[09:02]

But if you're aspiring to not cling, isn't that a form of clinging? It is possible to aspire to something and at that moment not cling to it, just want to do it. And if somebody says, can't do it now? You say, fine. It's possible. You still want to do it? Yep. Are you okay with that you can't do it now? Yeah. I accept that I can't do it now. I accept that I can't fall away. I accept that. And accepting that I can't fall away is part of celebrating the possibility of falling away at that moment. Yeah. What if it all falls away? You don't need to try to keep it from falling away. Or you don't need to cling to something that you think might not be falling away but has actually fallen away.

[10:09]

Well, when we get to the place where it's all fallen away, come and talk to me. I'm all over it. All right. Do you answer why questions? Do I? Yeah. Totally. She says, do you answer why questions? And I said, totally. Totally. Anything else? Did you have a question? Please come, if you'd like. I want to know if there is such a thing as true love I hear you.

[11:11]

Is there? I don't know. Is that it? Is that it? I asked, is that it? Did you say, is that it? Yes. I don't know if that's it. How about you? Is that it? You didn't know. I don't know what true love is, but I think it allows for I don't know. I don't know what true love is, but I think it allows for, I don't know who this person is that I'm looking at. I think true love allows for being lost.

[12:32]

Are you open to being lost? I think being open to being lost is conducive to true love, and I don't know what true love is. But I feel like if I'm not open to being lost, that interferes with the love which I don't know, but which I believe is the way to peace. The love which allows everything is the way to peace, I think. You're welcome. Near the beginning of your talk today, I heard you say something about how it's all the more daunting when you include rebirth in the equation.

[14:12]

Yeah, actually I think that one of the reasons why this heroic, this almost counterintuitive actually not counterintuitive, this heroic path of bodhisattva, one of the reasons I think Westerners open up to it is because they do not have such a problem with rebirth. I mean, they don't think, oh, I should get out of rebirth because they don't think there is any. So the idea of innumerable rebirth is kind of like... It's not something we've been trained to, you know, try to get away from. We more like to think, well, it's really nonsense. But in India, where this teaching arose originally, the people thought, well, freedom means freedom from rebirth and rebirth and rebirth. And there's some rebirths which are really tough. So when people are conditioned strongly to try to find a way out of rebirth and to hear this Bodhisattva path, which is like,

[15:22]

I've got no problem with rebirth. I'm open to rebirth, no matter what it is. I'm open to rebirth of being totally lost and confused. Bodhisattvas are open to whatever, right? So when people are trained to try to avoid that, it's... But in China, they didn't have this rebirth thing so much. And also, we don't have it so much. So it was a little easier for them to accept this story of somebody who said, I'm going to get reborn until I become a Buddha so I can help all beings. So the Bodhisattva path is more astounding in India in a way than it is in the West because of their conditioning. And then if you get into the Bodhisattva way in the West, one of the things you have to deal with is this rebirth stuff. But, you know, you don't necessarily have to do it over and over.

[16:23]

Yeah, that's kind of like, okay, sounds fine. So what is it, by the way? What is this thing that we just said? It's not a big deal. Rebirth is like true love. I don't know what it is. But I think that the path to Buddhahood is to wonder, you know, open your heart to the appearance of the words of rebirth. If you close your heart to the discussions of rebirth, that's like closing your heart to being lost or being confused or somebody who is being rude to you. The bodhisattvas have to open to whatever's in front of them and completely embrace it to realize its emptiness. So we have to study rebirth to the emptiness of rebirth. Rebirth is empty. And the path of Buddhahood is to realize the emptiness of rebirth.

[17:30]

But if you say rebirth isn't empty now, it's a substantial thing that doesn't exist. That's called, you know, eternalism or, you know, that's the extreme of it. It does exist or it doesn't exist. The Buddha way doesn't say that rebirth really exists and it doesn't say it really doesn't exist. It doesn't say that birth and death exist or don't exist. So sometimes they exist and don't exist, but, you know, it's not a permanent situation. It's just an appearance. But in India, the Indian people were really shocked by it. It's okay that the Buddha did this rebirth thing and got through it successfully. But they didn't want to sign up for it. They wanted to get out now. And the Buddha gave them a way out now. The Buddha gave many of his disciples freedom from rebirth in this life. And they were very happy about that.

[18:33]

And he was very happy for them. Then later they thought, let's do what the Buddha did. Let's become Buddhas. Well, that means we have to do what the Buddha did, which is like a longer process of evolution. But since it's more beneficial, let's go that way. But again, the Indians, although they wrote texts about this, nobody wanted to sign up to speak of. But when it went to China and Japan, people were more naive about it. So they got into it. And now in the West, It's kind of like people, you know, maybe because of movies and stuff, we dare to do this kind of thing. Superheroes and stuff like that. We're making a generation of people who are going to dare to do bodhisattvas. You know, like some people, not just in the United States, but also in England, you know, those English people won a lot of gold medals. Really, like, amazing people.

[19:34]

And now I hear they have the flu. People in England, a lot of people in England have a flu, a really strong flu. And just last summer they were like superstars. So ordinary people can aspire to be extremely good at something. And we're talking about becoming extremely good at the present moment so good that you realize it's empty. And when you realize it's empty, you realize, oh, it's the Buddha way. And then do it again and get good at that. And keep at it until there's a Buddha. People might aspire to that. How about you? Sounds good. Wow. Wow. You're welcome. Anything else this noon?

[20:38]

Yes. Would you like to come? Suffering. You spoke about... Suffering, yes. You spoke about suffering. How do you, how does one open oneself to suffering and not be swept away? Well, before we talk about that, I want to know, do we have... Does the person who we're talking about, do they wish to open to suffering in order to help all beings? I'm speaking about myself.

[21:46]

Yeah. And I am willing to open myself to help beings. I don't know if I'm capable to help all. Yeah. It helps, actually, if you realize, if you're considering opening to suffering, it helps actually, according, I think, if you're not just doing it for yourself. So bodhisattvas, part of the reason they wish to benefit other beings is so that they can open to their life. Because if you're just open to your life for yourself, you're not really open to your life. Because your life isn't just yourself. So, like, some people will go through pain if they know that it will help a lot of other people. And if somebody says, well, it'll help you if you go through this painful thing, you might say, oh, I can see that, you know, like some painful therapy or something. But I don't want to do it.

[22:48]

Like, a friend of mine, took her mother to the dentist. And she hadn't been to the dentist for many years. And that's part of the reason why my friend wanted to take her to the dentist. Because she really needed some dental care. And she went to the dentist and she sat in the chair for about three minutes. For about three minutes she sat in the dentist's chair. And she said, that's enough. And left. She wasn't willing to go through the trouble of the therapy after many years of dental neglect. So she went, but if her daughter said, you know, mother, if you leave that chair, you know, I and your other children will, you know, have tremendous pain and suffering. She might have said, oh, okay, I'll stay a little longer. Many people ask helpful people to stay around a little longer. Even though the helpful people are sometimes kind of considering leaving.

[23:53]

because things are getting difficult for them, they say, please stay a little longer. Please don't leave us because you're helping us. So they stay a little longer. So that's one thing. Now, if you wish, then if you have now the courage to consider the possibility of opening to suffering with the understanding that opening to it would eventually lead to liberation from it. It's not just to open it to be like, oh, I can open to pain. Aren't I great? It's to open it to understand it. When we understand the insubstantiality of pain, it doesn't take away the pain. It liberates us before it's taken away. we become at peace, even though the pain might still look pretty much the same as it did before we were at peace with it. And I mean a really total peace, so that you don't have to get rid of the pain anymore.

[24:56]

So the first step, if you wish to realize freedom from the pain, is to open to it. And the way to open to it, of course, first you have to admit it. Okay, this looks like pain to me. And then the first step is to be generous towards it. To be generous towards it. You know, to say, gracias. Thank you. It's not, I like you, pain. And it's not, I hate you, pain. It's welcome. Thank you. Open. Generous. Pain. You can be pain. I'm going to let pain be pain. Pain. And if I can let pain be pain, I can be me. If I can't let pain be pain, I can't be me when I have pain. And if I can't be me, I can't be free of me. Next thing is to practice ethics in regard to the pain. Don't try to kill the pain. We have painkillers for sale.

[25:58]

What do you call it? Over-the-counter, you can find. Painkillers. Not pain. Pain medicine. Pain kindness. Pain kindness. Not lie about the pain. Not try to get a different state than you've got. And so on. Practice gentleness and carefulness with the pain. It isn't just like, okay pain, and then you ignore it. It's okay, and now I have this difficult guest. And then be patient with it. And patience doesn't mean gritting your teeth, I can get through this. It means Find a way to be in the present moment with this pain. That's where wisdom lives, in the present moment of the pain, the most present. And then develop, with the aid of these three practices of generosity and ethics and patience, now develop a heroic courage to calm down with this pain.

[27:02]

and to understand its true nature. And then calm, calm, calm. Be still with the pain. Relax with the pain. You have a chance now to relax with it. It still hurts. But some people relax in pain and most people, many people, tense up. If you tense up with the pain, it's hard to then see what it is and hear the teachings about what everything is But if you can relax with it, with the aid of these other practices, now you can listen to the teaching which you may have heard or can now hear which explain to you how this pain is really selfless. It can't grab you, you can't grab it. There's freedom right there in the pain. But we have to be totally present with it in order to see the reality.

[28:09]

And then that pain is the door to the great vehicle. And then the next moment of pain, which may be so-called our pain or other people's pain, or our pain with other people's pain. Moment after moment, the cries of the world. Moment after moment, What did I want to do again? Oh yeah, Buddhahood. Well, what's the price of Buddhahood? Opening to the moment, which usually has some stress in it, or a lot. And even when it's pleasant, there's still usually some stress until we understand the selflessness of the pleasantness. So this is a heroic path for ordinary people. I'd better get on with it.

[29:14]

Would you like to? Yes. OK, great. Anything else? Yes, would you like to come? Hello. Hello. Given all the suffering in the world, and it seems in my lifetime at least that it's increasing, or maybe I'm just more aware of it. It could be increasing. We have more people than we used to have, more humans. So if there's more humans, there could be more suffering. But it also could be, and it could also be that we're more aware of it than we used to be. Right. So, for those... There's always new varieties, you know. We have sufferings now which the world has never seen before. Right. Certain special varieties.

[30:17]

So, anyway, there's no shortage of it. Right. We have plenty. Now the question is... So, for those of us who sincerely want to take the vow of the Buddha path... Yes. ...fully... Yes. How can those few people create almost a tidal wave to wipe out all the suffering in the world, if I'm saying it correctly? Well, when you're using your imagery, it's not so much to... wipe out the tidal wave but to teach people how to be you know very skillful surfers right so those so you have the tidal wave and not and so you have many beings to teach how to ride tidal waves right and and the vow is i wish to continue to teach surfing until everybody's a surfing teacher right so that so that everybody on earth

[31:35]

can surf. I get that. And there's some discussion about what would happen when everybody could surf? Would there still be a tidal wave? Well, I have a follow-up question. So those of us who want to become more skilled surfers, to teach others to become surfers, there are those out there who won't hear of it. Yeah, right. There are non-surfers who say, I have zero interest in learning surfing. I just want, some people say, I just want somebody to flatten that tidal wave. That would be okay with me. But I'm not the least bit interested in learning how to get out there in the cold water. Exactly. I don't want to do it. I don't even want to go near the tidal wave.

[32:38]

Right. Which is another tidal wave. you know, the hatred of tidal waves is a big tidal wave. So some people, yeah, I do not want to deal with all this suffering. I've had it. And so that, so then wouldn't it be great to have the skill to sort of like open to that person in such a way that they could say, I've had it. And then they look in your eyes and they say, hmm, I just changed, my mind changed. I think I'll reconsider it. Right. Like I often tell the story of I was having dinner with my wife and another man and woman and the man was a professor of psychiatry at UC California at Irvine. My wife said to him what's Irvine like? And he said

[33:40]

it's beautiful. And his wife said, it's ugly. And he said, it's ugly. And my wife said to me, you should learn that. So, you know, we see something that I think is beautiful. Can we like reconsider? Who can teach us to reconsider? Bodhisattvas live in the world to teach people how to play with tidal waves. Right. They want to have the skill of getting people to be able to say, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to. Yes, you do. Yes, I do. I don't want to do that. Yes, you do. Yes, I do. I don't want to go there. Yes, you do. Yes, I do.

[34:43]

We have to learn how to say in such a way that people are willing to change their mind. And at first, they don't really change their mind. They just say so. I don't want to be good. Yes, you do. Yes, I do. I don't really mean that, but... To have the generosity and ethical gentleness and patience and enthusiasm... to encourage people who do not want to do anything good ever. Right. Which includes really totally accepting that they do not want to do anything good ever. They just want to hurt themselves and hurt others. That's all they want to do. They just want to take revenge. And they want to see, can anybody love me? I'm like the worst person around here. Can anybody actually love that? And if somebody can, they might reconsider. Right. So I would like to learn how to be that skillful.

[35:46]

Right. Seems like it's going to take an awfully long time. Well, that's what I'm saying. That's the part that's like, you know, like, some people would say, well, that's just silly. It would take so long. It's just silly. There are other paths. where you can get skillful enough to become free yourself, but you can't yet get all the people who are defiantly resisting being happy. You can't help them, but you can at least get yourself in a place where you can become free of suffering. But to have the skill to talk all the people who are really defiantly resisting freedom, to find some way to encourage them to get That's a much longer training course. So the Buddha passed longer than the personal liberation path. And the Buddha taught people how to have personal liberation. If you look at the history, the Buddha met people and taught them and they became free. You know, in sometimes a short period of time.

[36:48]

He had many students who understood reality enough to become free themselves. And he was very happy about that and so were they. And then they went and helped other people do that. And after about 500 years, this Bodhisattva thing came up. And after another 500 years, it became very popular and still is. But even though it's popular, I still am asking myself and you, do you want to join the Bodhisattva path? Because we have teachings for you, just in case you do. Teachings about how you can learn help people who do not want to be helped who say they don't want to be helped by you who tell you to get away who tell you you're unskillful who tell you you're stupid who tell you that they have they have something to teach you you're the one who needs help not me don't you want to hang out with people like that Okay.

[37:55]

Okay. We'll continue. It may be so. Any more points of discussion today? Yes. I'm not comfortable over there. Is this on? It is, yes. If you hold it up near your face, yeah. I'd rather just be loud. Okay, fine, fine. When you were talking about this tidal wave, it was a dear, dear friend of mine lost his son in Thailand in the tsunami. Okay. So the whole time I was thinking, well, what if this tsunami, and he was like 35 years old, this beautiful boy I had known since before he was born, you know, this mother and father, Luke.

[38:59]

And he was there with his fiancee at Christmas time or the holidays, and he got killed in the tsunami. And everyone was very sad. So sometimes we don't have time, you know, like a dear friend was just killed instantly in a car wreck, you know. So to think that... And, you know, if you believe in reincarnation, then it's okay, I guess, but... No, not necessarily. But I think what you said, which I really... I think I'm asking about tragedy. ...is sometimes you don't have time. So each moment, a new wave comes, and we miss a lot of those moments. Each moment the water comes at us and we flinch, we turn away, we don't relax. We miss a lot of moments. Yes, that's part of the bodhisattva path is to notice how many waves we do not say yes to. So yes, we miss the moment.

[40:02]

Sometimes it's so fast we're not skillful enough to catch it. But wouldn't it be great to be fast enough to catch each moment And then when people have missed past moments, and then they come to you with a present moment, and because they missed past moments, now they're having trouble with the consequences of missing past moments. Can you meet them and teach them how to catch the present moment to help them get up on the wave, to help them get up on the board, even though in the past you and they have missed a lot of moments and we're suffering because of all the moments. The waves get bigger, you know, and more challenging. So can we catch this present one and the present one and the present one? Big waves are coming, so wouldn't you like to be ready?

[41:13]

Not just for yourself so you can show off, but so you could be ready to show other people how to get on before you. Wouldn't you like to help these people get on the wave of their life which includes the terrible tragedy of their son? Wouldn't you like to help them learn how to ride this wave so that they would be happy and at peace with their life of losing their son? Yeah, I would like to teach them that, or join them in learning that. I would like that. But it seems really hard, but I'd like to. And whenever somebody has had a tragedy like that, comes to me, I would like to be able to do that. Like somebody had a tragedy like that and they told me that, no they didn't have a tragedy, somebody had a tragedy and they asked a friend of mine if they could talk to this friend of mine and the friend came to me and said, how can I help them?

[42:23]

They want to talk to me about how to deal with this tragedy. And I said, well just don't do anything. Just stay close to them and don't do anything." And the person went and practiced that and came back and told me that it really helped the other person, that they just were there, didn't really do anything, they're just there with them. It's like, let's get out of the way and let Buddha's compassion manifest in the face of this tragedy. wouldn't you like to set up a situation where this great compassion could come to meet tragedy after tragedy? I should say, would you like to? It seems like ceremony also really helps, you know. Ceremony really helps, yeah. And also this is like, wouldn't you like to make every moment a ceremony where you

[43:29]

demonstrate how to ride the current wave. So we have ceremonies here. We're trying to learn how to meet the moment with these ceremonies, with these physical and vocal and mental ceremonies, to learn how to do them in such a way that other people can learn how to live their life and fully embrace it and ride it calmly. Anything else today? And Bodhisattva's skill develops, grows on challenges.

[44:34]

If you ride a wave, great. And then when the next one comes, that helps you develop your riding ability in the next one and the next one. And wishing to meet wave after wave in order to develop skill after skill and deepen the skills of teaching other people how to do the same. you very much.

[45:06]

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