Did you enjoy the chant? You did? At the beginning of studying the Heart Sutra, on the perfection of wisdom, I'd like you to consider what is the ultimate concern of your life. This sutra seems to me is within a tradition of beings who are actually seeking to realize the greatest

[01:42]

state of being that can be achieved, that of Buddhahood. And so I ask you to look within yourself and see if you can feel a request in yourself to realize a state where all skillfulnesses, all forms of skillfulness have been realized and all forms of unskillfulness have been released. Can you find in yourself the wish or the vow or the request?

[02:56]

Can you feel the request within you to realize Buddhahood, I've mentioned many times that people actually sometimes sincerely tell me that they didn't really come to Zen Center to become enlightened, or that they wanted to be enlightened enough. Some of them say, well, I'd like to be enlightened enough so that I would be free of suffering. I actually did not feel that interested in saving all beings. That's too much for me. I appreciate that honesty.

[04:02]

And still I ask, is there a request for you to realize a way of being that you would want to benefit everyone in the most complete way, that they could be benefited at a given point in time. Even Buddha cannot enlighten people who are not ready. But people who aren't ready, still Buddha has the skill to help them as best that they can be helped at that time. Do you have any resistance or question about being able to help people in the most appropriate way, moment by moment? And do you have any question about letting go of anything that doesn't promote the welfare of every being you meet?

[05:10]

Of course, part of what promotes the welfare of beings is to notice our unskillfulness. But noticing my unskillfulness is part of the request, is part of responding to the request to be really beneficial beings. I'm not going to talk too much about that tonight. Maybe I'll talk about that more next month in preparation for the bodhisattva initiation ceremony. But it's because of wanting to be a Buddha that one could do the practice of being aware of your own unskillfulness. If you don't want to be a Buddha, you might think, well, I don't want to be a Buddhist, so I don't have to examine in detail my own shortcomings.

[06:22]

I didn't say I wanted to be a Buddha, so I'm not going to look at that. So if you see any shortcomings in terms of your wish to realize the supremely beneficial state of Buddhahood, then part of that wish would be to also be aware of any resistance you have to that realization. But I ask you again, from now on, to look at that, that question of your basic motivation in life. What is your ultimate goal? wish, your ultimate request for life, what is being asked of you inside? Does that make sense?

[07:29]

Any questions about that? Not so difficult. Just the difficult part is to keep asking the question, to be mindful of the question in moment by moment. That's not so easy. And I know regular people around the world who have asked that question and gotten the answer, and actually got the answer, which I think everybody really does come to finally, that they do want to be the best that they can be, and they do want to let go of what really isn't worthy of them. So in studying the Scripture, I think my feeling is what's appropriate to study in the Scripture is not to try to get anything for yourself.

[08:39]

but to study the scripture in order to realize the greatest benefit for all beings. And again, that goes very well with a scripture that's very deep and very difficult, because if it's difficult and you're doing it for your own temporary benefit, then the difficulty would be a problem. But if it's difficult and you have the aspiration to become a Buddha, it's not a problem that it's difficult. This class, we're only going to have, I guess, four meetings on Monday nights. But, of course, the study of this teaching of perfect wisdom goes on. It's been going on all year so far, and it will continue indefinitely.

[09:47]

So although we only have four Monday nights, The study of the heart of perfect wisdom has no end. There's no end to it. So this is just a little, not even a start for some of you, this is just a little squeeze on the study of perfect wisdom, a little four-week squeeze, and then see what happens later. to realize in Buddhahood there's two basic kinds of modes to the body of the Buddha. One mode is what we call the truth body and the other mode is the you know, the phantom body or the form body, the body that appears in the world, which you can see.

[10:54]

The condition for the truth body is the practice of wisdom and the truth body of the Buddha, the actual body of the Buddha. And the condition for the realization of the form of the Buddha is the practice of skill and means, compassion practice. The development of wisdom and the development of the true body of Buddha comes through various kinds of wisdom practices So there can be wisdom practices about the conventional world, conventional phenomena, and there can be wisdom practices about ultimate phenomena.

[11:56]

And the supreme form of wisdom is what we call wisdom gone beyond wisdom or perfection of wisdom. And that form of wisdom has for its object what we call emptiness. or the lack of inherent existence of phenomena is the object of supreme perfect wisdom. The object of skill and means, practice, are conventionalities, conventional phenomena. So in order to become fully a Buddha, we need to meditate on ultimate truths and conventional truths.

[12:59]

We need to practice with conventionally existing things, and we need to practice with the ultimate way that conventional things exist, which is that they exist empty of inherent existence. This sutra that we're talking about is actually teaching both types of practices, teaching compassion and wisdom, but the wisdom practice is explicit. because it's explicitly offering us teachings on emptiness. It's explicitly proclaiming emptiness. So that's the focus of the sutra. But the sutra is implicitly teaching skill and means.

[14:05]

It's implicitly teaching compassion. So when studying the sutra, we need to be actually, in order to realize Buddhahood, and even in order to realize an understanding of the sutra, we need to be practicing skill and means together with wisdom in order to realize the wisdom. So I want to just say, you know, can you see how the sutra, do you have any sense of how the sutra is teaching skill and means, how it's demonstrating, how it's offering teachings in skill and means implicitly? Skill and means is sometimes expressed as the practices of giving, the practices of

[15:07]

discipline and ethical precepts, the practice of patience, the practice of diligence, the practice of concentration. Can you see how the sutra is teaching these practices? You can? Of course, you haven't seen the sutra yet, but anyway. Yes? It takes patience, concentration, and diligence to read or try to understand the sutra. You have to give your time and attention to the sutra. You have to be patient with the study of the sutra. You have to be patient with the development of your understanding. What else could you say there? Anything else?

[16:15]

No? Yes? Yes? You have to be gentle with yourself if you don't understand. And yes? Anything else? Yes? Yeah, right. There's a skill and means by putting this teaching about emptiness into a form that you can conceive of. Right. So it's offered up. The ultimate teaching is offered up in a conventional package for you, which is a gift. And it's also a patience with people. You know, hey, people need it offered in a conventional form. And it's kind. and so on. And it's diligent of the Buddha and the bodhisattvas to offer it this way.

[17:18]

Marioko? Pardon? You have to be flexible, yeah, which comes with concentration. Yes? Precepts, virtuous action, that's a condition for better understanding, for wisdom arising in a more clear way, and also as a result of understanding more, the precepts take on more meaning. That's probably important. Right. Practicing virtue will help you understand. And also, this sutra, the actual sutra itself, is an expression of virtue. It's an expression of the virtue of the Buddha. Yes? Being a teaching of no fear, then that priest wants to act more truthfully, if you're not looking to the perspective of oneself.

[18:26]

Say it again? In doing the teaching, there's no fear? Yes. Then perhaps that belief wants to act more scrupulously, and the concern is no longer protecting what was perceived as a solid self. Yeah, but what you're talking about is more like a benefit of realizing the wisdom. That would be one of the benefits of realizing the wisdom. Yes? I start passing that sutra out there? Trying to be distracted by this paper that's going to be circulating. Yeah. Okay, so it may not be quite enough, so I have an opportunity to share.

[19:28]

It's a different one. Oh, yeah. So people who live here can get more copies tomorrow. People who don't live here want to take some with them. Take one with them. One per person, okay? Okay. Another thing I would mention about now that we're going to look at the sutra and what I'm passing out here now or what's being passed out now here is a different version of the Heart Sutra from the one we chant here at Zen Center. I'd like you to see this other version. which in a sense is a little bit more, what do you say, it's a little bit clearer in this version how skill and means are being offered in this sutra.

[20:40]

This version that you're receiving is the Heart Sutra in, I believe, 25 slokas. A sloka is 32 Sanskrit syllables. So this version of the Heart Sutra is a little bit longer than the one we usually chant in actually East Asian Buddhism. In China and Japan, a shorter Heart Sutra has become more popular. This one's not chanted so often. This one gives more conventional, historical, geographical personality to the sutra. And this, to me, is an opportunity to highlight that the sutra itself, even the shorter version, It's offered, as Berndt pointed out, as something concrete for you to take a hold of in your hand and look at and read, something you can touch

[21:57]

which is actually an expression about the teaching about emptiness, about the teaching about what's the object of perfect wisdom, but in a form that you can actually see and touch. So the sutra is first of all an object of devotion. The piece of paper and these words are first of all an object of devotion. It's a wisdom teaching explicitly, but it starts out in a kind of non-rational, non-intellectual way. In this sutra, the exposition of emptiness is just coming out of the heart of the bodhisattva. It's just speaking her mind about the emptiness she sees. There's no Argument?

[23:00]

There's no reasoning with you. They're just telling you. And the question is, does this help you? Does this touch your actual faith? The other work that needs to be done in order to develop wisdom, the more penetrating examination of the nature of the teaching and phenomena and how to apply the teaching to phenomena is not so faith-oriented. But if it's not based on the faith, it's not based on this conventional event, this concrete thing, it usually will dry up. The wisdom meditation, the wisdom practice will dry up. we need to right away put a taproot down into devotion to this text.

[24:05]

Not the text itself, but the devotion to the text as a concrete access to the Buddhist teaching. Without this concrete expression, this basis, Again, I think you lose a dimension of the kind of consciousness which realizes wisdom. Later, maybe even later tonight, I will talk with you about the sutra, and that talk will also have an element, there will also still be an element where your faith can come to your assistance in listening to the discussion, because your listening to the discussion will be based on

[25:15]

think on whether or not you think it's worthwhile to listen to what I'm saying and to listen to the discussion in the class. And whether you see that actually we're having this class so that you have a concrete way of studying the sutra. So now we have this scripture before us, and I'd like to just start by chanting it. You're not familiar with it, so the chanting may be a little rough, but I'd like to have someone hit the mokugyo. And there's someone at the mokugyo, yes. And to chat this longer version here.

[26:19]

Where are you? There you are. Can you read it? Do we need more light? Can you read it OK? This is the light? OK. Heart of perfect wisdom, sutra. Thus I have heard at one time the Lord dwell, Rajagraha, I'll repeat. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We need to be in true concentration at the time of struggle.

[27:29]

We are not alone. [...] but it's got nothing to say to me that I can't see and that I won't be there. I'm not there to watch, I'm here to drive you back. Look at my face, tell you what I want, we ain't dropping out, but I want you to help me. I want you to stop, but I can't believe it. I shouldn't have slept in your house. Thank you. Thank you.

[28:51]

That's the only problem we know to try. What makes that take us back? That's the only thing we can do. That's the only thing we can do. That's the only thing we can do. It is what it will be. It is what it is. It is what it will be. It is what it is. It is what it is. It is what it is. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry for troubling you with such a nasty reason.

[30:15]

I don't believe in a recession. No, it was no consciousness. Nobody knew it. No, nobody knew it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Thank you for watching. is now operating within the restriction of obligation. There is now suffering within each nation. Now stopping the crime is now an issue. Thank you.

[31:16]

What I think what you see right there is what you guys realize. We love that. We appreciate what we see. We like to see what we see. We like to see what we see. We like to see what we see. Thank you for watching. Thank you. Thank you.

[32:37]

Thank you. [...]

[33:47]

Thank you. It says that it's the Lord's teachings. the Buddha's teachings, you could think of referring to Abalokiteshvara, but this is a sutra. And so a sutra means that it's actually under the auspices or through the auspices of the Buddha.

[34:55]

In this particular sutra, In the beginning of the sutra, we hear the description of the scene, and we're told that the Buddha has entered into a samadhi. Some other translations say that the name of the samadhi is this deep splendor, rather than he gave a talk about the deep splendor, that the deep splendor is the name of the concentration he entered into. So the Buddha is in concentration, and the merit, the merit, of his skill and means of being in the samadhi gives rise to Shariputra. Also, while the Buddha is meditating this way, Avalokiteshvara is also meditating. At the same time that the Buddha is in this concentration, Avalokiteshvara is meditating and sees that all phenomena lack inherent existence. Then, through the power of the Buddha's meditation, Shariputra comes forward and asks Avalokiteshvara, how should a son or daughter of good family train themselves if they want to course in the deep perfection of wisdom?

[36:19]

So Avalokiteshvara's question is also coming from the Buddha. So if Buddha's disciples were talking, but their talk wasn't actually empowered by the Buddha, then their conversation would not be called a sutra. Now, I'm not saying that there's ever any conversations between Buddha's disciples that aren't empowered by the Buddha. I'm just saying that what we mean by a sutra in this tradition is a conversation either directly from the Buddha or from a disciple of Buddha, empowered by the Buddha. So this is an example of the Buddha did not verbally give this teaching. The Buddha gave this teaching by being in the virtuous state of concentration and having two of his disciples have a conversation which delivered the sutra.

[37:29]

Then he came out of the concentration and praised his disciple. That's why it's a sutra. It really is the Buddha's teaching that's going on through the Buddha's children And it says also, son or daughter of good family. And the way I would suggest to you that good family means here is that you're in the family of those who wish to be like their parents. who are the Buddha's children. That's what I mean by good family. In other words, they wish to become, they wish to realize their family tradition of Buddhahood. So that's the people who want to practice perfection or wisdom. Again, some other people who are in pretty good families want to practice some other kinds of wisdom. that aren't necessarily the wisdom which comes to fruition as Buddha.

[38:31]

Buddhas depend on the perfection of wisdom and other kinds of wisdom. But some people who do not wish to become Buddhists could develop other kinds of wisdom, and they'd be in a different family then. So there are other lineages of wonderful spiritual people, but they just don't want to be in the Buddhist family. Again, I ask you, can you feel that you would like to be in Buddha's family, you would like to be Buddha's child? So when we have bodhisattva initiation ceremonies, this is like ceremony for people to receive precepts who want to be Buddha's children, which means they want to grow up to be Buddha. Another difference in this sutra and the other one which I'd like to point out is in this sutra, it doesn't mention that when Avalokiteshvara saw that all the, it says five skandhas here, that means all phenomena.

[39:36]

Five skandhas means the five different collections of phenomena which embrace all phenomena. I should say all conventional phenomena. and saw that they lacked inherent existence, in our usual version we say, and thus relieved all suffering. In an old translation it said, and thus was relieved of all suffering, or thus was saved from all suffering. But that sounds like Avalokiteshvara was saved from all suffering, rather than all suffering was relieved. Avalokiteshvara's vision saves all beings, not just Avalokiteshvara. This rendition doesn't mention that anybody was saved by that vision. That's another difference. Pardon? I started really thinking for the doctor.

[40:44]

Yeah, it does, doesn't it, in a way? So I guess in some people's understanding of the teaching of the Christian tradition is that Jesus saved all beings quite a while ago. You're already saved, right? And that if you believe that, then you will realize what's already the case. Is that correct? Not in all branches. Yeah. So in the Gnostic branch, for example. Yeah. Okay, well, they have some wild differences then. But in the Buddhist tradition, it isn't just that you're saved. Okay? It's that you're saved and you wish to become a Buddha. It didn't say that when Buddha realized the ultimate truth, and Buddha saw that all beings were saved at that time, and all beings actually attained the way of enlightenment, it didn't say that Buddha saw all beings became Buddhas.

[42:17]

So Buddha actually not only saw the truth and experienced a contented heart and freedom from suffering and the Dharma nature of all things, But he also understood that all beings are relieved in the same mode that he was in. He was in the mode that we are saved. He saw that. And he saw that everybody had the stuff that it takes to be relieved. However, he also understood that not all beings realized that. And he actually didn't even, at first supposedly, he didn't even think that they would be able to understand the method by which he had realized that they're already actually free, or actually free of suffering. But only Buddhas fully realize how we are. So there still is the issue of whether we want to realize this. And realizing this means also that we would be able to demonstrate, to prove to our own satisfaction and to other people's satisfaction that this had been realized, because there would be a form body that people could see where you could actually prove to people that salvation was possible.

[43:44]

prove to them, and if they listened over and over to the proof, they would actually become convinced and realize it, if they wanted to be convinced and realize it. Does that make some sense? I don't know if I can say the last part again. Yeah. I said what? Yes. Yes. Well, actually, this came out of a book where it was folded in half.

[44:48]

Actually, it was in a book. So folding it in half might be okay, but can you fold this in half as an act of devotion? I said to somebody, actually, she was talking about something she was doing, and I said, can that be, that thing you told me about, can that be an act of devotion? And she came back and saw me about a month later and she said, I remember at the end of the last conversation you said to do everything devotedly. And I said, well, actually I said more like do things as an act of devotion. It's slightly different, I think. So rather than do this devotedly, sort of like put the devotion on top of this, have holding it be an act of devotion. Does that make any sense to you? That you pick it up as an act of devotion rather than try to figure out a devoted way to do it. And if you don't feel like picking it up as an act of devotion, well, just don't pick it up.

[45:52]

So, you know, as I think about this class and what I'm suggesting to you as this kind of devotional base for the kind of analytical penetration that we're going to try to set up, I think, you know, I feel bad because I feel pain because, I don't feel bad, I feel pain because I often miss coming into the Zen Do to chant the Heart Sutra in the morning because I'm talking to people about the Heart Sutra in the other room. But I kind of miss, you know, I don't want to be where the people are chanting the Heart Sutra, where they're doing that. So, partly I ask you all to please chant this every day, if you would please.

[47:05]

No, it could be this version, but at Zen Center now we're chanting a different one, right? We just chant the Heart Sutra, whatever version you want, but do it every day. So we do it here. So I ask you who live here to do that. I mean, I think some of you are going to do it anyway, whether I ask you or not. But I'm also now asking you to do what you're already doing for me and for all beings. So when you're chanting here in the morning, remember you're doing it for everybody. You're doing it for all the people that can't be in the room to do it. Like even the teacher of the class on the Heart Sutra might not be in the room, and you're doing it for that person. And you're chanting that sutra and also chanting the sutra for that person's teacher who's dead. And you're chanting that sutra for that person's teacher's teacher. You're chanting that sutra for all the Buddhas. That's why we dedicate the merit of the chanting to all the Buddhas, because they want you to chant this, because that's what they live for, to give you this piece of paper and have you chant it so that you become a Buddha.

[48:11]

So please chant that for all beings. And those of you who don't live here, try to find a time in the day when you can sit down and chant it. Not read it. Read it's okay. Read it. Read it. That's good. Read it. But recite it also. Say it out loud. If you can, say it out loud. Sing it. Copy it. Memorize it. These are acts of devotion which will sustain and support the development of wisdom. Just the chanting itself isn't the same as actually being able to overthrow your ignorance. But it's necessary to do it, I think. And all those Buddhist temples where these people did in history of Buddhism where people actually did realize some wisdom about this emptiness were places where they did the chanting too. And I think you will find too that if you do the chanting there'll be some energy there and some energy or enthusiasm for also being up for the reasoning side of it, thinking about how emptiness actually works or how emptiness is the way things actually work.

[49:31]

Emptiness is the way things actually work. Without emptiness, nothing works. Everything would be frozen. Nothing would function. Only because things are emptiness can there be life. To understand that is hard work and unfamiliar work. That's why you need to be well-nurtured You need to take this teaching as food, spiritual food. But it's also that your taking of it is a spiritual food, too. You're receiving it. You're devotedly thinking of it. So please try to do that as part of the study on a daily basis. less than a daily basis, but try to make some commitment, if you can, to some time you can do it, some number of days of the week, if possible every day, and do it for me. Do it for everybody that can't do it.

[50:35]

Somebody has to keep the Dharma alive. Please, you be the one. You be one of them, I mean. And if you can't, then you practice the virtuous practice of saying, well, I couldn't today, and it hurts that I couldn't. I can't do everything, but I wish I could have chanted it. And if you can, please do. And when you're done chanting it, you can do the chant that we're going to do now. which is to dedicate the virtue of what you just did to the beings that you did it for. And Susan or Diana can give you, you can get, if you don't know this chant by heart, you can get a copy of it to recite. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way.

[51:49]

Being thou numberless, I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. I vow to enter them. This way is unsurpassable. I vow to become. that you have to take, you have to follow these different ways to become effective. And it seems to me that this is a time that by realizing that there's, realizing you don't gain in suffering, then there's a realization that often can be . That means a living quintile, that there is a kind of threshold that

[52:57]

That's not what we want to do. We feel great when it gets late. There are better things to be done than to be in a very passive state, because you are living in a different state. Things can be very difficult. And I wonder if that's what you're thinking about as well. Well, I started with asking what your motivation is. And so, do you feel the request to realize what we mean by Buddha? If you don't, then I would say, well, what is the deepest request you can find? And then what problems do you have with realizing Buddhahood is, I don't know what it would be, we could talk about it, but in some sense when you wish to become Buddha, you have to some extent said, well, I guess I'll do the Buddha way.

[54:14]

So you do kind of think that the Buddha way, I guess the Buddha way would be the way that would be apropos of realizing Buddhahood. Pardon? Those who don't cross the threshold of what? Oh, to say those beings who are not Buddhists are not Buddhists? It doesn't say that? Somebody who didn't formally take the precepts that they would be excluded in some way? Somebody who didn't take the precepts would not be Buddha. Let's see, how can we get out of this trap?

[55:20]

Just a second before you save me. I think that In order to realize the form body, there are various practices available. And so it's not that you're excluded, but what reason would there be to overlook some virtuous practice? And if you had a good reason, then that would be a virtuous practice. So it's just, do you wish to realize all virtues? And then if yes, then fine. And if no, then we can talk about that. What's the problem? So it's only by your own unwillingness to do the practice would you seem to not do the practice. The Buddha would see you as fully possessing these virtues, but if you are tightened up, then you feel like you're not doing them.

[56:31]

it's really an illusion that you're not, because you're part of this whole thing. That's what the Buddha sees. And yet, if you don't feel that request and follow through on it, you may feel like you're exiled. So you exile yourself by your own. Our mind is the thing that exiles us. We're not actually exiled or excluded. But if we think in a certain way, then we can experience a lack of virtue. But it's an illusion. Virtue is real, and non-virtue doesn't exist, really. Are there some other comments? Yes. What came up to me about Buddha saying all beings... Buddha was saving all beings? Buddha, in that moment of realization, you know, all people were saved, all people were... Buddha, it was a far outside of time. It's a thought outside of time, yeah.

[57:35]

Because time is also a phenomenon which lacks inherent existence. So in that time, there's no time which exists apart from the mental imputation which creates the conventional thing called time. Right. So that also takes care of various things. When time has been, what do you call it, when we've been relieved of time, we're also relieved of suffering. You need time for suffering. No, thanks. Yeah. Can I go through the text? I'm not going to go through this text line by line, but if you have a question, go right ahead and ask. I don't mean that they're the words of the Buddha, because obviously in this case we're not saying the Buddha said this, but it's under the auspices of the Buddha or through the Buddha's function that this is happening.

[58:54]

If we don't see it that way, then we just wouldn't call it a sutra. That's all. Yeah. No, actually, Shariputra does see it. Shariputra is usually seen as a person who does not represent perfection of wisdom. Usually he's the archetype of an earlier form of wisdom, which still saw, didn't see, for example, an inherent existence of people. Most people see that their personality has an inherent existence. But the early Buddhists understood that that was an illusion, but they still, to some extent, thought that the aggregates, the components of the experience of a self, that they existed. So in the old text, Shariputra was the teacher of that type of wisdom.

[59:55]

He was a wisdom master. and he taught people. Also, Buddha didn't teach people sometimes in detailed class situations. He did it for the Buddha. But in this sutra, he can be seen as actually, he's acting as a bodhisattva to ask Avalokiteshvara about bodhisattva practice. So he does... Yes, right. He's a bodhisattva monk in this sutra. This all... Exactly. Right. And if we didn't feel that way, that would be okay. If we had an argument, then we would just have a debate about whether we would class this as a sutra. They'd put it as some other class of phenomena. But We have received this now as people feel that we're looking at this as a sutra because we feel this does represent the Buddha's truth.

[61:03]

And the actual power, that's why I wanted you to read this one partly, because the power of this is not only does it give a context, more context, but it also tells you that this sutra is supposed to be coming from samadhi or concentration, which again is part of the reason why it also makes sense for us to be chanting it in Zen tradition. Yes? Pardon? At the prospect of helping people? Yeah, sometimes if I, like, for example, if I, again, think of, like, sometimes washing people's feet with my tongue. Sometimes I think, well, some people's feet, okay, but some other people's?

[62:10]

I don't know about that. But although I may feel some resistance to washing some people's feet with my tongue, I do not have resistance to learning how to be happy to wash people's feet with my tongue. I would be perfectly happy to be able to wash anybody's feet with my tongue, not to mention with my hands. I don't have any problem about being able to do that. Matter of fact, I like to be able to do stuff like that when I am able to do it. I used to be, when I was in college, one of my jobs that I did to work my way through college was I was an orderly. in a rehabilitation clinic where I was a patient when I was two. So there was a, in Minneapolis there was a, this is an example now what you're getting now is a sutra, okay, in a sense that I'm giving you kind of something concrete to get a hold of so you can have faith, you know.

[63:15]

So when I was a little boy, I went to this place called the Sister Elizabeth Kenney Institute. It was the first Kenney Institute in the world. She was an Australian nun who had this new idea about how to treat poliomyelitis, particularly in children. They used to put braces on them. She had some experience, according to the movie starring Rosalind Russell, which is also the name of my dog. She was an Australian nun, an Episcopal nun, who was also a nurse. And she was out in the bush in Australia, and there were no doctors around. And she was called to somebody's house, and this little boy was paralyzed. And so her intuition was to keep his legs, to put hot packs on his legs, and to massage him. And she did that. And after the inflammation went away, he was okay.

[64:19]

He just walked, you know. The infection lasts for a certain period of time. In my case, it lasted for 21 days. It can last longer or shorter. But if during that 21 days you would not give any exercise to those muscles and the paralyzed ones can't move, if you don't keep the blood circulating through them, and keep massaging them, the ones that are still working start to bend the little young bones out of shape, distorting the bones, and also the other ones go atrophied. So she massaged the ones that were paralyzed and massaged the ones that weren't paralyzed so that the bones stayed straight. Anyway, she had good results. And she tried to tell many doctors about this and they wouldn't listen to her because she was just a woman nurse, right? She traveled all over the world trying to get some doctors to like sponsor this, to spread this teaching. And then she, in the movie, and it's true too in certain other ways, conventional world, she went to a convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and gave this talk.

[65:28]

And most of the doctors said, but one doctor afterwards came up and said, I think I'll sponsor you. And they started a little clinic in Minneapolis. in 1943. And after two years, I was there paralyzed and got that treatment. If I had lived a little older, lived in a different city, I wouldn't have got the treatment and I would probably be limping still. Actually, I am limping, but that's from another thing. So I was a patient in the hospital when I was two, and then when I was 21, I went back there as an orderly, taking care of patients. And one of the things I did for people that were paralyzed was I reached inside of them, up inside of them, and pulled their excrement out of them because their muscles were paralyzed.

[66:28]

They couldn't move their bowels, so I did that for them. And at first, I thought, well, you know, I had a problem. But after a while, I was OK, you know, really OK to do that for them. no problem in giving back to these people who had bodies that were kind of having some problems, you know. After a while, it was really fine. So I know that it doesn't feel good not to be able to serve beings, but still sometimes there's some queasiness, especially if you're allergic to the person. Some people you're allergic to. Some people smell a certain way that really drives you into kind of an allergic reaction, so it's really hard. Or some people do various things that make it hard to embrace them, right? But I have no resistance to learning how to do that. These limits, I'm not wedded to my limits. Now this teaching is about how to become free of all limits.

[67:30]

And then it doesn't mean you do everything. It just means you can do anything that's appropriate and you have no personal problem with anything because you're not in the realm of time or personality. You're in the realm of emptiness, which is what this teaching is about. And you're always in the realm of emptiness, but we're trying to realize that. realize the mode in which beings are freed from, you know, queasiness about whatever happens. Emmanuel? This is one of the prime teachings of emptiness. Is this an example of definitive teaching? Is it a definitive teaching? According to some, it's a definitive teaching. According to others, it's interpretable. But I... I would beg you to let me just say that for now, rather than getting into a discussion of these different types of scriptures.

[68:38]

Yes? Is what love? Is it love? Yeah. That's exactly what it is. It's compassion. Yeah. But part of love is also to wish to realize part of what love can become is not just hoping that people would really be free of suffering, but also wanting to facilitate that and realizing that because of a lack of wisdom, the facilitation can be undermined. Because if we don't understand the nature of phenomena, we do all kinds of things which are not skillful, because we have unskillful emotions arising in us, like liking people too much or too little can arise from not understanding the way things are.

[69:40]

If we understand the way things are, we like people just the right amount. you know, not too much or too little. In other words, we're devoted to all beings, but not excessively because we understand their nature. So you just naturally have the right amount of concern, which is like unlimited and appropriate. But just because of the way you understand, because you understand correctly what you're looking at and its relationship to you, and how its relationship to you makes you see what you are, too. So you understand what you are and what other people are, so naturally you can fulfill your compassionate feelings. So my intention is not necessarily go through the line by line, but to go right into the basic teaching of emptiness. But in order to go into the basic teaching of emptiness, I just tonight just start you off with that.

[70:48]

Again, emptiness means that all phenomena lack independent existence. The acronym for independent existence is IE. And the acronym for inherent existence is also IE. So all beings, LIE. All phenomena, LIE. Lack independent existence or lack inherent existence. So that really is their ultimate nature. But in our sense, all phenomena lie because all phenomena appear to HIE to have inherent existence. That's the way they appear. Our nervous system naturally coughs up an appearance of things existing independently.

[71:50]

And there's, you know, that's part of the situation of life for us, is that things appear to exist in a way that they don't. So we have to now train ourselves by listening to this teaching which says, actually these things which appear, all these phenomena which appear to inherently exist, actually lack this inherent existence which they appear to have. We start out by just listening to Avalokiteshvara tell us that. And he's in the sutra. He's not going into detail about how that's so, you know, reasoning with us how it's so, but he's actually telling us a little bit about the relationship between emptiness and the things that are empty. So he's telling us a little bit about it, but not kind of like talking us into it. He's just telling us something about emptiness. So one of the things he tells us is that, right away, he says, everything has this characteristic of emptiness. By the way, Everything has the characteristic of emptiness, but emptiness is an characteristic of phenomena.

[73:09]

It's not the characteristic of phenomena. All phenomena have this characteristic, but they also have another characteristic. forms have the characteristic of lacking inherent existence. They have the characteristic of emptiness. So that's why it says all things, all forms and all phenomena are marked by or have this characteristic of emptiness. But all phenomena have another characteristic, and that is that they have the characteristic of existing conventionally. All phenomena exist conventionally. all phenomena exist conventionally. Some things that aren't phenomena, that don't exist, don't exist conventionally. But everything that exists has a characteristic of lacking inherent existence, and it also has the characteristic of existing conventionally. In other words, existing dependently, not inherently.

[74:14]

So the way things exist dependently is actually, it says, like for example, form. The form, it says right away, form is emptiness. The nature of things that exist dependently is that they lack inherent existence. And lacking inherent existence is form. The nature of things that lack of inherent existence is that they're conventional existences. The nature of things that lack inherent existence is that they exist conventionally. So things have these two ways of being, the conventional way, which is where we read the sutra and chant the sutra, where there's Buddhas and bodhisattvas and practice. And then there's another way things exist, where there's no sutras and there's no Buddhas and bodhisattvas and there's no forms.

[75:23]

There's just the lack of inherent existence. And then it says, this lack of inherent existence is none other than the conventional way. The way form lacks inherent existence is not different from the way form conventionally exists, namely form. So form is not different from its lack of inherent existence. Form is not different from its emptiness of independent existence. Its emptiness of independent existence is no different from the form. That's what it's telling us. He's telling us that. Now we can discuss that and we can look at that and we can reason about that until we're convinced, until we know for sure that that's true. I just read this example a couple of days ago of the difference between a scientific proof or a scientific experiment and a mathematical proof.

[76:37]

An example I heard was you take a chessboard and then you break off two corners of the chessboard, like you have a chessboard or checkerboard with 64 squares, 32 are black, 32 are white. If you break off two white ones in the corners, then you take a domino, which is big enough to cover two squares, then the problem is it proved that you cannot cover the chessboard with 31 dominoes. If you have 34 squares, I mean 64 squares, you take off two, that leaves you with 62. So if a domino covers two squares, you could theoretically, possibly maybe you could cover the 62 squares with 31 dominoes because each domino covers two squares, right?

[77:42]

If you try that, if you do try that, you will be able to find out, the first time you try it, you will be able to find out that you were unable to do it. And you can try again and again and continue to not be able to do it. Then you might have a theory that you can't cover the chessboard with these 31 dominoes. But you never know, and that's like a scientific proof. You make a theory, and anybody can come and try it. And if anybody is able to cover the chessboard with 31 dominoes, your theory's out, right? But you know that it's not really true. It's just a theory. Does that make sense? Because you know that if somebody comes by, they could disprove it by doing it. You don't know, you have no way of knowing that nobody would ever be able to do it. You just know that you couldn't. Huh? Well, I don't know if it's induction.

[78:43]

What you can do is you can just... I don't know if this is induction. You tell me if this is induction. So you have every, on the chessboard, every other square... is next to a different color square, right? So domino always goes, no matter which way you turn it, unless you have it go off the board, but you can't have it go off the board, otherwise you lose part of your domino potential. You'd miss a chance. So you want to use a domino to cover, because you're trying to cover it. So it's going to cover two different colors, right? So if you put the dominoes down, You're going to cover one black and one white always, right? However, we just took off two whites from the corners, OK? So how many white squares do we have now? 30. How many black do we have? 32. You can't cover 32 black squares.

[79:44]

spaces with 31 dominoes, because each domino always covers two different colors. So I don't know if that's deduction, but that's the way you know that nobody's ever going to be able to do it, and you know for certain. However, you can't yet see it, but you know it's true. You can be certain. we need to look at this teaching of Avalokiteshvara until we're certain that the way we see things is not so. Otherwise, our natural habit of misconstruing phenomena what do you call it, carries the day, carries the moment. It's always there. And then that restricts our ability to interact in the appropriate way because we're not... Huh? So... But the sutra is not actually reasoning with us, okay?

[80:58]

The sutra is just something for you to look at and just keep taking in that teaching, which tells you about the relationship between form and emptiness. And it's just Avalokiteshvara, just expressing your heart. That's all. And just telling you some things about what emptiness isn't. And it's not something that's really ever separate from conventional existence. It's never separate from the realm of compassion. It actually is the true nature of the realm of compassion. So by emptiness, understanding emptiness, we really understand the conventional world. We understand how the conventional world really is. It is, but it lacks inherent existence. So I also keep reiterating that we have to have this devotional attitude towards this text to give yourself the dimension of your being that can stand the kind of examination which is required to transform your attitude.

[82:09]

So you need to have this warm, virtuous practice going along, and reading the sutra, and listening to the sutra, and reading the sutra, and listening to the sutra, and taking in the teaching is an expression of giving, patience, precepts, diligence, and concentration. Can you see it? And that's why we have this thing to work up the compassion side of the practice so that we can stand the wisdom side, which is a little bit hard on us to actually change our mind, not have our mind changed, dislodge and challenge the way we usually think. Yes. No? That wasn't a hand raised there? No. OK. Any other questions before we dedicate the merit and virtue of this meeting?

[83:12]

Yes? I wonder if you might have some suggestion about how we might take care of these objects. Do you have some suggestion of how we could take care of these objects? Does anybody know how to be devoted to a piece of paper? Well, I was thinking that, too. I saw some people fold in half. But then I thought, well, actually, this came out of a book where it was folded in half. Actually, it was in a book.

[84:12]

So folding in half might be okay, but can you fold this in half as an act of devotion? I said to somebody... Actually, she was talking about something she was doing, and I said, can that be, that thing you told me about, can that be an act of devotion?

[84:33]

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