I'm wondering about a couple of things. So the wish of a bodhisattva is to save all beings. And you talk about the pivot between self and no self. Is the pivot the place of saving all beings? Yeah, the pivot is, it's not just the pivot, but it's the It's the pivotal activity. The pivotal activity is the activity of saving all beings. Can you know that pivot? It is described as knowing without thinking. Like, for example, if you watch ballerinas pivot or gymnasts pivot, they know how to do that. But they aren't necessarily thinking, I am pivoting.

[01:05]

They don't necessarily think, I am doing this triple axel in skating. Is triple axel like jumping over in the air and spinning around? So I think when they're successful, they do not think about it, but they know how to do it. So the Buddhas know how to save beings, but they're not thinking, I'm saving beings. And they're not thinking necessarily, I'm Buddha doing Buddha's work, but they are doing Buddha's work. So it's described, so in there's a text which starts out, the pivotal activity of all Buddhas, the active pivot of all the ancestors. It is knowing without thinking. It doesn't mean there's no thinking, it's just you're not thinking about that. I guess I have trouble understanding how you can come to that kind of a place. It's practice. I think understanding how you get to that place comes to you when you're actually a Buddha.

[02:12]

For example, I don't understand how I learned English. But I did, apparently. But I don't know how that actually happened. For example, when I was practicing as a little boy and people were giving me feedback, that's part of it, but that's not a whole story because my whole body got transformed. My neurology got transformed so I could speak English. But I don't know how that happened. I can't tell how what I'm speaking now is changing my brain. But it is. We understand that now. Everything we do, everything we think, everything I say, every gesture I make, transforms my body, which transforms my neurological process, transforms my unconscious cognitive processes. But actually how that's going, we tell stories about. And scientists even tell stories about it. And then their stories are called theories. And they test their stories with experimentation.

[03:16]

but they don't really know how it's going. They just did these theories and continued their research. So we can do research. The process by which you come to this understanding and become better and more skillful in practice is the process of karmic causation going in the direction of enlightenment. But the Buddha said, the only Buddhas understand how the process actually goes. But the Buddha tells us there is such a process of the karmic causation of enlightenment and the karmic causation of delusion. There is a process, but you won't understand the process until you're completely enlightened. But you can join it before you're completely enlightened. Okay. Yes.

[04:19]

I was just going to apologize and say I didn't understand. I think I asked a question and you spoke more about it. And I sat in the back and I thought, I don't understand a word he's saying. You thought, I don't understand a word he's saying. You thought that, you had that thought. I didn't. Well, let me just say to you that the more that thought, I don't understand a word, the more that's just that thought and completely that thought, the more it will be realized, not, I don't understand a word. That's the pivot. But if I resist a thought like, I don't understand, then I tend to be caught in it. But if you're completely whatever thought it is, you realize not that thought.

[05:21]

You become liberated from it. So if you're playing the part of a person who doesn't understand, if you play that part, you know, at the level of really wholeheartedly playing that part, you realize not that part. In other words, you'll realize liberation from that part. And then if you play the part of liberation fully, you'll become free of the liberation part. Because liberation should keep going, pivoting, and becoming free of liberation. Yes. You're welcome. Nice to see you again. I take care of a cat. And my thinking was I'm

[06:22]

Is it okay to stay just with animals then? I mean, does this pivoting... I don't think... You can stay with animals, but basically you're staying with yourself. That's the main thing. I doubt that in this lifetime I will ever pivot with a human being. I don't see myself helping at that level. And... If you're completely being the person who's taking care of the cat, you will realize not the person who's taking care of the cat. And that will relate to all humans, because you already include all humans. Anything you do that's helpful to cats or mountains, Because you already include all beings and pervade all beings, the help you do there helps all the beings that you're already including.

[07:42]

But it's how you include all cats and all dogs and all mountains and all people, how you actually include them already, is basically inconceivable to us. So the global part of your work with the global background of taking care of a cat is not coherent. The foreground of taking care of the cat is coherent. But without the background of everybody else, there would be no taking care of the cat. So if you completely take care, if you're the person who's taking care of the cat and you do that completely, you're also not the person who's taking care of the cat. Because if you're just the person who's taking care of the cat, that's just a mistake. You're not just a person who's taking care of the cat.

[08:48]

You're also a person who supports me and supports everybody. That's also what you are. It's hard to see when you're in here. Do you say it's hard to see? No, you cannot see it. All you can see is, what do you call it, some representation of your life. You can see that. And that representation wouldn't be possible if you weren't there in contrast to that representation. But that representation wouldn't have any meaning except by including all other representations. There's no... Representations can't appear unless they appear as something else.

[09:51]

As a matter of fact, they can be anything. And you realize that The more you become this person with these representations, you realize freedom from this person and these representations. But you can't see it. You could say invisible. Yes? I was talking to my mum on the phone the other day, where I'd moved to, and from that page you can see two things. You can see a mountain that goes down and ends in Little Brooklyn Sea, and you can also, if you look the other way, you can see where the cliffs have fallen down into the sea, and the houses are beautiful. And as I was looking at these things, my mom said this phrase, oh, bullies are found where the mountains close, touch the sea. Is that correct? Because I don't remember . I just had this amazing aha, because I

[10:54]

when she said toes, right? And I was looking at this toes, beautiful rock toe, but they're solidly into the sea, and the water swirls around it, like it's a beautiful curve, right? And then to the right was a kind of, where it was not like the distinct mountain and the toes, it was the whole cliff has gone in. I had this realization, also, like, they're like... Wonderful. Yeah. And those are the walking mountains. And then I also realized that when I practice or when I, you know, think about that pivot, often for me the issue is my, like, losing the whole mountain going into the city, you know, rather than keeping the distinction of the tone and the plateness of the tone. Mm-hmm, very good. And then when you have sort of thought that really, like, oh, wow, that's a serious... Wonderful.

[11:59]

Your mother heard that teaching, I think, from me. So, it's a picture, it's a teaching from, again, ancient Zen teaching, which is saying that the eastern mountains are moving over the water. And that's an answer to the question where are all the Buddhas born. The Buddhas are born where the eastern mountains move over the water. That's where they're born. The pivot between the mountains and the water, that pivot there, is where the Buddhas are born. That's what the ancient Chinese master said. And then the Japanese ancestor Dogen says that the place where the mountains touch the water is of course the feet of the mountain.

[13:03]

The foot of the mountain is the bottom, right? We call the bottom of the mountain the feet. It's the feet of the mountains that touch the water, not the peak of the mountain. And then he even says, and then at the tip of the toes, at the end of the feet is the toes. So it's actually not just the feet of the mountains that touch the water, but the toes of the mountain touch the water. And when they touch the water, the water splashes up. That's the pivot. So our job is to be the whole mountain, all the way down to the toes. to be the mountain of our self. And that's mountain's job too. Mountain's job is to be a mountain from the top all the way to the bottom. And at the bottom is where the mountains are pivoting with everything else. And so we, each of our experiences is like a mountain.

[14:07]

Our job is to go all the way to the bottom of our experience. And at the foot or the toes of our experience is where Buddhas are born. toes of our mountain touch the waters, the toes of our life, the toes of the mountains of our life touch the waters of our life. There's the pivot. And you made an interesting point, is that sometimes when people get close to the feet of the mountains, they get frightened because they think maybe the mountain, because the mountains are on the water, they think the mountains might actually fall into the water, but they won't. They will dance on the water. And Dogen says, if those mountains stopped walking on the water, if they ever had stopped, then the teachings of the Buddhas would not have reached the present. but they have never stopped. So the teaching of the Buddha does reach us. In other words, if reality stopped being like this, then the teachings would not be true.

[15:14]

They wouldn't reach us. But it isn't just people that are like this. Mountains are like this. And mountains never stop being mountains, just like that. So reality is actually sponsoring this teaching to keep coming to us. But it's hard to be completely yourself right down to the feet of what's going on right now. And then again, the next moment, to be completely this mountain all the way down to the feet. It's challenging. But completely being this mountain realizes the water. And not just the water, but the pivot of the mountain and the water. Thank you for the vision this morning. I thought quite paradoxical, really. I didn't realize that's the aspect of sand-pigeon music, the paradox, the cultural interaction.

[16:18]

perception of things. So, from what I gather, you say self and the representation of self, the one we realize that we are made of, of everything that is not. What I realize that I'm made of, anything that's not me, then I become my true self? Well, then you become free of, you can become free, you could say, and you could say your true self is freedom. Another one way to just say it more thoroughly, when you realize the self is everything that's not yourself, then you realize that there's self is not self, and then you become free of self. You can call that true self if you want to, but then you need to realize that so completely that you realize the true self is not the true self. Yes.

[17:24]

Yes. Yes. Why is it in your what? To realize you're not just... Well, did you say why is it that you have to go to the end of the journey? It's not that you go to the end of the journey, it's that you go to the end of this mountain. Just this mountain. Just in this moment you have to go to the end. It's not the end of the journey. The journey is Buddhas being born moment by moment. That journey never ends. Buddhas aren't born and then the journey's over. Because Buddhas continue to be born every time the mountains move over the water.

[18:29]

And every moment the mountains are moving over the water. So the journey never ends. But in this moment you can completely be in this moment. Or not. I mean you are completely in this moment. But in this moment you can fully give yourself to this moment or pretend to hold back. You really can't, but you can trick yourself and say, well, I'd really rather not be here and therefore I don't really feel like I'm here. Well, you really are here in the form of a person who feels like he's not here. We are all here, but we can trick ourselves sometimes and say, no, I'm not here. I'm only partly here. Well, that's the type of mountain you are. So there's no end to the journey Unless everybody was free, there would be no end to this journey. Buddhists continue to be born and then born again, which means they go beyond being Buddha.

[19:31]

There's no end to Buddhists transcending Buddhahood. In other words, Buddhists are like bodhisattvas. Buddhists are realized Buddhists and also they're on the path of realizing Buddhists. They're both. So there's an end to the mountain, in other words, the end of this experience. in the sense of it being complete. Yes, and this very moment is the whole world, this moment. It's just this moment of the whole world. And whatever part you want to work on, and a good place to start is with yourself and your idea of your sense of self and the sense of self, and the sense that you are the actor, for example, doing your talking or your thinking. And to be that fully, you realize that that actor is not that actor. And then that's where Buddhas are realized.

[20:34]

Fully realizing the actor is to go to the foot of the mountain At the foot of the mountain, the mountain moves off of the water, which relieves the mountain of itself. And Buddhas relieve us of self-clinging. But we have to fully be the self in order to receive the relief. And that's our responsibility. This teaching is encouraging us To be fully ourselves in this moment, and now in this moment, and so on. And to keep doing that until everybody learns this. Yes? So I'm trying to wrap my mind around it, or my being maybe, around teaching today. And I want to paraphrase it so to make sure I understand it. Oh, you're going too far. To make sure you understand it's going too far.

[21:36]

But you can be that person who's going too far. I'm the person who tells you you're going too far. Now let's be the person who's going too far. Here she is, folks. This person's going too far and she's going to completely be somebody who's going too far. She's going to be absolutely sure that she understands. Here we go. the natural state is the natural state is the self being fully the self and being free of the self The natural state is the self, not the self, but the self pivoting on not-self. That's what I meant. Oh, okay. And we need the self to operate in the world. We need the self in order for there to be any appearance, in order for there to be any representations in mind.

[22:39]

We need a self. We have a life where there's no representations appearing. That's part of our life. This is our unconscious cognitive process. There aren't really appearances. And there's not a self. We do have a mind and a body that doesn't have a self. But in consciousness, where we learn normal human life, there we have the sense of a self, of an agent that allows contrast. And actions that will lead to the necessities of life. That's what it is, right? It doesn't exactly help us, it's just that the way we move through life, it's there. If it wasn't there, we wouldn't have consciousness. Nothing would be appearing. We'd still be alive, but we wouldn't be human consciousness anymore. We would be living beings who have cognitive processes, but there would be no appearances, there would be no representations, there would be no presentations.

[23:41]

There would be no awareness, for example, of the teaching, of how we're helping each other, and so on and so forth. But also, there would be no lies and deception. So we move between the self and non-self, in a way? We do. Or maybe better to say, non-self is the way we move from self and not-self. Not-self and self are pivoted. And non-self is the life of that pivot. And then when we have some longing, we get stuck in the self. We get stuck in the self, which means, again, getting stuck in the self means you're half-heartedly self. Right. No, I get it. When you're half-heartedly self, then you don't realize not-self. And so then you're stuck in self because you say, I don't want to be here. So part of the process is healing that wounding to liberate oneself from... Healing the wounding so that you're willing to be completely wounded.

[24:46]

Yeah. Yeah. So, but sometimes we... Not resisting the woundedness. Yeah, not resisting the woundedness, we realize not woundedness. If there's woundedness, it's pivoting with not woundedness. But if we're not willing to be wounded, then we can't have the not wounded. And when we have the not wounded, that's pivoting with wounded. And if we're not willing to totally be not wounded... then we don't realize wounded, which we might not mind. But we should not get away from wounded when we realize not wounded. It's the pivot that we want to realize. That's our life. The Buddhas are not over on the side of being Buddhas. They're pivoting with sentient beings. Enlightenment's not being just on the side of enlightenment. Enlightenment is seeing the pivot of enlightenment and delusion. turning. That's the non-self. The non-self is realizing that self is not self.

[25:51]

And not self is self. Or realizing form is emptiness. It's not form or emptiness. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. The pivot is the Buddha's activity. That's our life. And there's paradox, and that's a problem. Paradox causes philosophical problems. But still, we have a self, and the self allows contrast, and the self allows a sense of interconnectedness with something that is absolutely distinct. Self allows that. Yeah, and so you hear this teaching and you can see, is my heart actually open now to be wounded? And the answer might be, more so maybe this teaching is encouraging me to open my heart to all the pain

[26:59]

that appears to me. Because this teaching would suggest that a pain comes if you can completely be the pain, then you realize that the more the pain is pain, the more the pain is not pain. The more you're this, the more you become liberated from this. The less you're this, the more you're stuck in this. The less I'm willing to be me, the more I'm stuck in me. The more I'm willing to be me, I realize the pivot between me and not me, which means the pivot between me and everything that's not me, and I cannot be here except by the kindness of everything that's not me. And so, therefore, also, I can be anything. I'm free of myself. I can be anything when I realize this. But in order to be anything, I have to be something completely and realize that something is really appearing, that what's appearing here is something else.

[28:04]

So I have to check my body and my heart to see if I'm willing to put this into practice. And sometimes I might feel like, that's too much right now. Maybe later. Yeah. I think that the pivot in that is that the more fully you accept what's called the setup, or the serious part of the joke, when you completely accept the setup, you understand the joke, which is not something in addition to the setup. It's just you understand now the setup isn't a setup anymore, it's a joke. So like in my case I was saying, could I give another example?

[29:10]

And then I thought, and I was going to give another example, then I thought of the example of jokes, which I also thought that was kind of funny. But I had the setup that allowed me to think that doing another example other than the one I was going to do was funny. and other people didn't have the setup yet, so I gave more of a setup. Okay? And then some people, as I gave more setup, people started to get the joke, and some other people didn't, so I gave more setup. If I give enough setup, people will totally accept the setup, and when you totally accept the setup, you start laughing. So here's an example. Yes? You believe in yourself, Did you say believe? If you completely accept the setup of yourself, you'll get the joke of yourself. Yes. So here's a setup, okay?

[30:15]

This is a setup. In 1987, the Pope John Paul came to visit the United States. And one of the places he visited was Carmel. Carmel Mission, which is dedicated to Onesiparo Serra, right? So he went there. He went there as part of the canonization process of Father Serra. And there was a group of non-Catholic people priests were invited to meet the Pope. So non-Catholic includes Protestant and Buddhist, in this case. I don't think there was any rabbis in the group. Anyway, there were Protestant bishops and a Zen abbot were invited to meet the Pope.

[31:18]

So I got to meet the Pope. This is just part of the setup, OK? I'm telling you it's a setup, right? And as you get more into the setup, you're going to be... something's going to happen. And I'm just telling you setup. But without the setup, you're not going to get the punchline. Has the punchline come yet? It's almost there because I'm giving you more information about the setup. So anyway, on that same trip, the Pope went to a cathedral in Montana. And in Montana, they have big open spaces where there's almost no people. So the Pope was out in the middle of nowhere in his limousine with his chauffeur and the Pope told the chauffeur that when he was younger living in Poland he drove himself everywhere and that he really liked to drive but he can't drive anymore.

[32:21]

Now he's chauffeured everywhere, like now. And the chauffeur said, well, nobody's around. He said, you got the joke already. But it goes on. So you got that one. And so he said, you could drive for a while. So the pope starts driving. And again, nobody's around. So the pope starts driving fast, faster and faster. And then a state trooper comes up. and pulls the limousine over and goes up to the driver, you know who the driver is, and gets out his ticket book and starts writing the ticket and sees this very nice person there and says, this father, right? Padre, Papa, right? Papa John Paul. So he sees Papa John Paul And it's not even Father's Day, but he just can't give him the ticket.

[33:24]

So he goes back to his car, and he says to his partner, he says, I just can't give that guy a ticket. And the partner says, you can't make exceptions, but he's such a nice guy. You can't make exceptions. You still have to give him a ticket. Well, I just can't. He said, Give him the ticket. So the guy goes back, but he can't give him the ticket. So he goes back to his partner and says, I can't do it. And his partner says, well, what's going on? Who is it? And he says, well, I don't know who's in the back seat, but the chauffeur is the pope. This is how our mind works. But you have to get into it a little bit.

[34:25]

The more you get into it, the funnier it is. And you switch. There's the pivot. The pivot is basically kind of funny. It's kind of funny to be released from suffering. Even though suffering is really a serious issue, and the Pope's got a big job, and speed laws are important, and police are important, and car maintenance is important. This is all serious business. And yet, all this stuff can pivot. And when it pivots, we're free. And there's a relief. And it's funny. But you have to, like, get into the setup. If you don't completely get into your woundedness or your seriousness, You can't pivot. So you're just stuck in seriousness and woundedness and stress and whatever. So we're not talking about getting away from that stuff. We're talking about... letting that stuff, using the self to guide the full realization of whatever it is, mountains, stress, fear, woundedness, whatever it is, let it be completely itself, down to the toes, and then the water will splash up.

[35:44]

And it'll be a little funny, maybe. And if it's not funny, that might be funny too. Yes? When would that humor stop? Would that humor continue to pivot to the next phase? Well, you should let go of the humor as soon as your muscles in your stomach start to ache. or before you shouldn't keep trying to be funny because that's you know but if you actually like if you if you completely were funny you know if you do the funniness all the way to the bottom then you switch to not funny yeah and that's usually what's happened after you fully enjoy the punchline of a joke and you laugh to your full then you're ready to be serious again you know, not to be stuck in, you know, in the humor, but just do it fully, and now we're ready to be serious adults again.

[36:46]

And then being fully serious adults, we can see that we're silly children. And when we get the jolt of that fully, we can be serious adults again. So serious fathers, being fully fathers, they become children. Children becoming fully children, they become fathers. Mothers becoming fully mothers, they become children. Children being fully children, they become parents. And so I told you this, we brought this thing about the blue mountains are constantly walking. There's another line to that teaching which is, a stone woman gives birth to a child at midnight. And giving birth to a child means that the parent is completely a parent, so you have a child, but it also means that the parent becomes the child. And the child becomes the parent.

[37:47]

That's where the Buddhas are born. When children become parents, and parents become children. And parents become parents, and children become children. And then, the next moment. Not getting stuck there. Yes, Tyler. Thanks for coming today so I didn't have to call you to tell you that story. I keep thinking about a person who is very cruel, for example. And it's the idea that if they were fully 100% a cruel person, they would realize not cruel person. And it isn't exactly that they switch to not cruel person, which they could do. but that they realized the pivot that was there all along, which they didn't realize, so they were stuck in being cruel.

[38:50]

So in order to be fully a cruel person, we need a lot of compassion. And so there are stories of people who are doing the cruel thing, and a lot of compassion comes to them and helps them fully realize how cruel they are. And when they fully realize how cruel they are, they realize not cruel. Like the story of, what is it, the Christmas Carol, right? Scrooge gets a lot of compassion. to realize how cruel he was. And by realizing how cruel he was, he realized his pivot and realized not cruel, not stingy, not a miser. So if somebody's caught in cruelty, They need to receive lots of empathy and compassion. And they need to learn that and apply that to their cruelty. And then they'll realize the fullness of their cruelty.

[39:55]

And then they'll realize simultaneously what's always been there, not cruel. But it isn't that not cruel is all by itself. There's no not cruel by itself, too. It's there with cruel. The Buddhas, of course, are kind, because they realize cruel and not cruel are doing this, they are transmitting great compassion. If we don't realize how cruelty and not cruelty are pivoting, we can still be compassionate, but it's not full, because we're maybe caught in our idea of compassion. We don't realize that any idea we have of compassion is in pivotal relationship is in a dynamic, dialogical intimacy with not-compassion. So we're not telling people to be cruel, we're just saying when there's cruelty, let's bring compassion to it so the cruelty can be completely just that and nothing more.

[41:05]

then you realize what was there right next to it all the time, which is not itself. And again, it's not so much to become not itself, but to realize this, the pivotality of our life, which is when you realize that, then you're not abiding in being cruel, which most people want to not abide in being cruel, but you're not abiding in being not cruel. To abide in not cruel is also to abide in cruel. To not abide in not cruel is to not abide in cruel. And to not abide in either is to be fully either. And that's our exercise, is to be fully whatever side of the pivot we're working on. I just can't help.

[42:12]

You just can't help. That's just who you are. When you're being cruel, and it's not passionate to you, knowing this teaching, is that the right path to completely soak in that coolness? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I could be compassionate to myself, I could just be by myself and I could notice I'm being cruel. And then I could hear a voice saying, how are you feeling? How do you feel about what you just did? Do you think that was a good thing? But a sweet question. Well, actually, no, it wasn't so good, I might say. But somebody else who's very kind could come and ask me the same question. How do you feel about what you just said to that person? And I might say, Oh, it was fine.

[43:15]

It was no problem. And they might say, Oh, it was no problem, huh? And I say, Yeah. But, well, maybe I was a little cruel. And they say, do you think you were a little cruel? And I say, yeah, actually I was really cruel. Oh, you were? Yeah. So kindness will help me face up to and completely accept how cruel I am at a given moment. And I can remind myself of being kind when I notice I'm not being kind. So, for example, we have a practice called confession and repentance. If I notice I'm not being kind, I could say, I could welcome the great compassionate beings. I could say, great compassionate beings, please concentrate your hearts on me. I wish to make a confession that I, who aspire to be Buddha's disciple, was just impatient or not generous to that person, and I'm sorry.

[44:27]

This is what great beings would do when they notice that they're not being generous or careful or honest or patient. Then they would say, oh, they would notice it and they would ask for compassionate beings to come and be with them while they express and be honest about the unkindness which they just did. And then they go back to trying to be kind. with the support of all kind beings. And also all unkind beings are also supporting us. Yes? Could you speak up a little bit? Yes, I'm sorry. Being that it's Father's Day, I am struggling with personal challenge. I have a father who's chosen to not speak to me for my beautiful son.

[45:36]

And I feel very torn because I feel like, okay, if the Buddhist way would be that I should send him a card or a present or say something kind, but I also, there's been a other part of me that doesn't necessarily want him or my mother who are both abusive in different ways and have been cruel to me and my son, doesn't necessarily want them in our life. So I don't know, I feel this tension between I have an obligation to just manifest something because he's my father. And then I have another, you know, feeling of, well, why? Well, I could have given a different talk today. Okay. from the point of view of being not a very good father, and how I would deal with me not being a very good father.

[46:43]

But I've given that lecture before, so I gave a different one today. Today, the Buddhist thing to do, if you have parents, whatever kind of parents you have, the Buddhist thing to do, the primary Buddhist thing to do, is to be yourself. Completely. Now it's possible that if you were doing your job as a Buddha, you would be yourself and send somebody a card. Buddhists could conceivably send cards to their parents. It's possible. I don't know what they're going to do once they become Buddhas, except that they will keep transcending being Buddha.

[47:51]

That's what they will do. But how many cards or flowers they're going to send, I don't know. They often do hold up flowers, stories about that. To send cards before you're doing your job is kind of a distraction. Your job is to be yourself completely, every day, including Father's Day. If you were completely yourself on Father's Day, you would realize, not yourself. If you realize not yourself, your parents are included in that because before Father's Day, on Father's Day, and after Father's Day, your parents pervade you every moment. You are pervaded by them. This is the teaching. And you pervade them every moment. They are in your life. They are your life. They're my life too. Your parents are my life.

[48:52]

My life pervades your parents. Their life pervades me. Your parents don't just pervade me, they pervade you too. But parents don't really pervade their children more than they pervade me. They pervade their children in a different way. What's the difference? The way they pervade you is you. The way they pervade me is me. The problems you have with them are the way they pervade you and the way you pervade them. The problems I don't have with them, because I don't know them, but maybe I do know them and I do have a problem with them. The problems I have with them is the way I pervade them and the way they pervade me. How do I realize this reality? By being me. moment by moment. That's my Buddhist job. And if I do that fully, then I will realize not me.

[49:55]

And then I will realize the Buddha's activity. And that, because they are included in me, they will be benefited. I will be a beneficial son or a beneficial daughter if I take care of myself that way. If I betray myself and run away from myself, I'm not beneficial and I'm not a good son. And a lot of, I coach and encourage many people whose parents want them to be somebody different. I say, I understand that they want you to be somebody different. But your job, the thing that they really want you to do but don't know, your job is to be you. You're the only person who can give them this daughter. Not the daughter you used to be. daughter you are now. This is your gift to them. But the daughter you are now is both that you are their daughter and you are not their daughter.

[50:56]

That's who you really are. That's your thing you should give them. So not denying that you have very difficult feelings about them, And to be completely those difficult feelings is the path to realizing not those difficult feelings. And it isn't that you switch from difficult feelings to not difficult feelings, but that you pivot with that. And in the pivot, you are entering the place where your parents are benefited and where your parents benefit you. That's the Buddhist thing. And there may be cards flying out of that place. I don't know. If I think of my parents right today, I'm not going to send them a card. I could. I could say, put my father's name and put address unknown and put it in the mailbox. And I wouldn't even have to put stamps on it.

[51:58]

But someone might say, you're just causing more trouble for the postal service. So I just think of that, that I have a message I want to send to my father, who I don't know where he is, and my mother, and I don't know where she is. My message is, thank you. Thank you for being part of what gives me life. But I also can say the same thing to all of you. Thank you for giving me life on Father's Day. And I want to be able to say that to everybody, And if I have any problem saying that to everybody, it's probably because I'm not willing to be me. If I'm willing to be me, then I realize not me. And when I realize not me, I realize me. And now I'm in the place where I can really say thank you to everybody. And where everybody is included in this. This is the work of Buddhism. And if you don't do this work, you're not doing that work.

[53:03]

And if you don't do that work and you send a card, you're still not doing that work. And if you do that work and you don't send a card, you're doing the work. Did any of you get a card from Buddha this morning? I didn't. But I feel like Buddha came to me today, giving me her gifts all morning. Thank you very much. So I can say thank you. Buddha gave me thank you, so I can say thank you. But I have to be here to receive that gift. And being here is a big job. It's difficult. What time is it? 12. So it's getting close to 12.30, huh? So we could stop now if that's okay. So happy Father's Day and happy Mother's Day and happy thank you, everybody, today.

[53:55]

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