I have a paragraph, a fourth paragraph of this. The world to the most part catches the eye of the diamond by approach, grasp, and inclination. And he who does not follow that approach and grasp the determination of mind, that inclination, and disposition, who does not cling to... This is myself, who thinks suffering that is subject to arising arises, suffering that is subject to ceases. Such a person does not doubt, is not perplexed. Herein his knowledge is not other-dependent. That term other-dependent means it does not depend on another person. Somebody else can tell you about that. It's different other-dependent. It's not that dependent. No. Here it says his knowledge is not other-dependent. Here in his knowledge is not other-dependent. So if you took other-dependent, that particular other-dependent doesn't mean here in his knowledge is not a dependent core rising. It doesn't mean that, because he just said that everything is a dependent core rising.

[01:06]

Even the ceasing, even the ceasing... of the entire mass of suffering is a dependent co-arising. See, the suffering is a dependent co-arising. Did you see that? The suffering is a dependent co-arising. The ceasing of suffering was also a dependent co-arising. The ceasing of suffering depended on the ceasing of ignorance. So enlightenment is a dependent co-arising, and delusion is a dependent co-arising. Delusion arises based on ignorance, based on ignoring the way things are actually happening. And enlightenment arises based on not ignoring what's happening. So both of them are dependent co-arising. So that place where you say they're not other dependent, it would be kind of funny for him to teach you dependent co-arising and say, knowledge isn't a dependent co-arising. What he means is that you don't have to learn this from another person. At that point, when you're practicing that way, you don't need another person anymore to teach you.

[02:10]

So at the beginning of the teaching, you do need somebody to teach you. He's teaching these people. But he's saying, once you are meditating this way, he'll be teaching you in a way. In other words, this is partly that in the time of Buddha, there was an idea that some people had to give you some chunk of knowledge that some people had certain sacred knowledges which they would actually pass to you, and you had needed that. But he's saying that once you start seeing the way reality is, you don't need somebody else to tell you what's going on. You don't need some special guru to initiate you once you've been initiated into the nature of reality. Okay, so now I think... I feel like maybe now I just want to ask you, do you have a sense of how to actually meditate on the character of your experience?

[03:22]

Do you have a sense of how you would practice that? I'm not sure I even heard the question. Do you have a sense of how you would, from moment to moment, apply the Dharma teaching that phenomena, that all phenomena are dependent co-horizons? How you apply the teaching of the other dependent character of all your experience, how you would apply that moment by moment? Do you have a sense of how you practice that way? Well, actually, my sense is My sense is to kind of, like, say it to myself and then see if I see it. Okay. So you say, what would you say to yourself? I would say, this is, well, actually, there's probably something happening. But if it were to answer a question.

[04:24]

Like right now? Like right now. I would look and see if I see that this The answer is, so it's codependently arising. It depended on the question. It depended on things I've learned from my voice to other people. Okay, so that sounds a little bit like what Will asked. Does that remind you of what you asked? So I would suggest that you... that you actually... I don't want to actually say, don't do that, because it's actually kind of okay that you're doing that, but rather to suggest that when you're talking or listening, you have an experience of speaking, you have an experience of listening, at that time, rather than how it's arising independence on things other than itself, you actually listen to the teaching that that's so.

[05:27]

Because in the sutra, it doesn't say that... The Buddha says, first I teach people dependent co-arising. First I teach people that they do not arise from themselves. They lack a nature of being self-produced. I teach them that first. And then he says, when they hear this teaching, then he describes how the process of evolution starts to occur. He doesn't say when they... is when they hear it. So I think actually that saying it to yourself after you've heard it from the Buddha, that's either hearing it from the Buddha or hearing it from yourself, that hearing it, [...] is more actually the immediate initiation. And that… I don't want to suggest that, for starters.

[06:35]

So are you suggesting that… I'm actually imagining reading it? You could read it, but sometimes, like right now, you're listening to me, you're having the experience of listening, and you simultaneously while you're having this sensory experience of listening to me, and also you're translating these sounds into English and understanding that as this complex process is going on, you're simultaneously being mindful of the Dharma teaching that every moment that's going by here, it has another dependent character. You're listening to that teaching moment by moment. That's what I'm suggesting, is how to apply that Dharma teaching to the process of listening to somebody talk. So you're listening to that teaching while you're listening to me. But you're listening to that teaching while you're listening to the... But you're listening to that teaching while you feel your head tilt back.

[07:46]

You're listening to the teaching while you feel the smile on your face. So you actually kind of have this teaching drip. Every moment you drip a little bit of this teaching into the experience. You apply, you're mindful of the Dharma teaching simultaneous with whatever experience you have. The Dharma teaching is the same in each case. dependent, dependently co-arisen, [...] or other dependent. Or another way of saying it is, this experience lacks self-production. This experience doesn't produce itself. This experience doesn't produce itself. This experience of seeing you doesn't produce itself.

[08:52]

And what I'm seeing over there, you, you don't produce yourself. You don't produce yourself. This person I'm looking at is not producing himself. He's not producing himself. He lacks self-production. He lacks self-production. I'm mindful of that teaching while I'm looking at each one of you. And mindful of that teaching means I'm listening to that teaching. I'm actually listening to it. And those words, and they're balancing these other words, which I'm unconscious of, which is, this person is self-produced, this person is self-produced, self-produced, self-produced, self-produced. That's our usual thing we're doing, is we're saying everything is self-produced. You're actually talking to yourself that way. You're holding that concept. So it seems funny to us to be listening to the verbal teaching from the Buddha, for example, lack of self-production, lack of self-production, lack of self... Everybody, every moment, everything is a lack of self-production.

[09:55]

It has that nature. So we feel funny about applying that teaching, but we don't feel funny about applying the contradictory teaching, because the contradictory teaching is instinctive. We instinctively are saying, self-production, self-produced, self-produced, self-produced, self-produced. It's unconscious, though, but we're doing it. And we would feel funny about saying that, but in some sense you might even say that. You might say, I think this person's self-produced. I don't quite get it, but I'm saying that I do just because I've heard that I do think that. Or I confess that I think you're self-produced. In other words, I confess that I think you're actually out there separate from me. I confess that I see you that way. That's a confession. On the other side, you bring the Dharma teaching to bear. I've heard, though, that this person is not self-produced, not self-produced, not self-produced, not self-produced.

[10:57]

I've heard that. So that's what I would suggest, rather than try to see how they're not self-produced, or to see how they're dependent on other things, because you can't, I don't think you can see that. What you do see is, the way you usually see things, is that they're mixed with the vision existing on their own. That's the way they appear, because although the way they're actually coming to you, they're actually coming to you in this other dependent way, But that gets overlaid with the idea that they're coming as self-produced. And that gets mixed together to other dependent nature. And to make up stories about how they are other dependent is an approximation to how they're, but it's not really it. It's still another version of it. Like, it reminds me of that famous

[12:00]

What some of you read probably in your early days of Zen study about the guy who studied, it was the first actual Zen in the art of, right? The first Zen in the art of was Zen in the art of archery. That was the first time they experienced it. I don't know what it was in German. It was written in German, I think, originally. Yeah. Yeah. You know that book, Zen and the Art of Archery? And then there was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. And then there was Zen and the Art of Everything, right? But the original one was about archery. And remember, the archery teacher said, pull the bow back and hold it until the bowstring is released, but not by you. And he said, well, be as though the bowstring goes through your fingers. So then he tried to figure out a way to approximate it. By without letting go of the bow, he held it half as strongly, and then he held it half of half, and half of half of half, and half of half of half of half, and it went without him letting it go.

[13:17]

He didn't really let it go, he just held it half as strongly. And when he let it go, the teacher said, get out. The teacher saw him. he saw this trick he was doing, and he said, get out, and wouldn't let him come back for a long time. He begged to come back, but he didn't let him, because it was like this trick he pulled. So this kind of conceptual approximation of the story of how it happens, it's understandable, but we're actually trying to leap beyond our conceptual versions of how things happen. And just listen to a teaching that they happen in this way. Work on you. Let the teaching work on you. And some of what will start to happen to you, some of you, I mean, Tim already reported, as soon as you hear of this teaching, actually, when you first hear of it, Even before you even think you're starting to apply it, maybe it does sink in.

[14:19]

You start to notice, for example, that things seem less real, or you feel like you might wet your pants, or something, you start to change. especially when it first hits you. And later you might start again to try to think of a conceptual way to make it work, kind of a beginner's mind way. You may notice you start to change, or you might think, oh, well then I can do what I want. Or, oh, then nothing matters. And that isn't quite exactly understanding the teaching, but it shows it's having some impact on you. Rather than you've sort of figured anything out, you just listen to the teaching and you notice you're changing. And then, as I said, if you notice you're changing in certain ways, you probably should stop listening to the teaching and go back, emphasize compassion. So, for example, if you think you start as important as you used to think so, if your commitment to morality is starting to get weaker, you probably should go back and

[15:29]

re-express your diligence and commitment to moral discipline until you feel grounded in how necessary it is, and then go back to the wisdom practice. Or if you start feeling really agitated or uncomfortable or tense, then maybe just go back and practice compassion in the form of tranquility practice. Or if you start feeling arrogant, maybe you should go back and practice compassion in the form of precepts and confessing that you're not working with the precept of not praising self at the expense of others. Or you should go back and practice generosity. So anyway, there are certain ways which the wisdom practice actually is working pretty well, but working too strongly. because it's undermining your honouring of the conventional world.

[16:35]

It's undermining your love for conventional phenomena. You need to go back and get grounded there, get relaxed in that calm. And then when you feel settled again, then go back to the wisdom practice. Yes? So, a little while ago when you were suggesting Keep this present in our mind all the time. Yeah, be mindful of this teaching at all times. Almost like a mantra, what you're saying. Almost like a mantra, yeah. So I was listening... Except that... So that you lose your mindfulness of what you're saying. So you want to keep being mindful rather than just get on a repetitive track. See, mantras, you could use mantras just sort of like... Then that can be more like your breath, the compassion practice.

[17:42]

In fact, somebody was talking to me about the mantra, the mantra for Avalokiteshvara, om mani padme hum. This is a mantra set to invite compassion into your body, right? So this is not a . Although you need some mindfulness for it, it's more like a practice that it's like a constant invitation and reminder of compassion. So it's like a mantram, but mantrams have to be careful that they don't turn and become somewhat unconscious. So when they say in the Heart Sutra, while practicing the pramita, you saw all five statuses be empty. Yes. It's the same thing. Basically, yes. So, for example, you see the five skandhas.

[18:45]

For example, the color skanda, the form skanda, the color blue. You see the blue as empty, means that you're meditating that on the blue has its other dependent character. Its other dependent character is empty of the concept of blue. But blue is actually empty of the concept of blue. And it's empty of the concept that blue has a self. Which means that the blue is empty of being out there, separate from you. Because if you have an idea of what blue is, of being a self, then that blue is different from you. If you have a self and the blue has a self, the blue is out there separate from you. So when you realize that blue is not separate, you actually are working with something that's happening in this other-dependent way, and then you realize that this other-dependent way doesn't have any kind of an own being,

[19:57]

project onto everything, including blue. So then you realize that the blue, the skanda blue, I mean the skanda in which blue belongs, the form skanda, the feeling skanda, the conception skanda, all the karmic formations, all these skandas are actually happening in this other way. You're meditating on that. And you see the self you project is actually absent there, the empty of a self, the empty of own being. The Heart Sutra doesn't tell you, doesn't emphasize to you that you should be practicing meditation on the pinnacle of rising. The early teachings tell you about the pinnacle of rising, and then the Prajnaparamita Sutras, like the Heart Sutra, jump to emptiness. And I'm sort of between the two by telling you that the meditation on dependent co-arising should be continued over while you're meditating on the teachings about emptiness.

[21:10]

The teachings about emptiness are about the emptiness of dependent co-arising, emptiness of dependently co-arisen things. That's what... Emptiness applies to impermanent dependently co-arisen phenomena. And it's telling you that no story you have about how they happened actually reaches them. Especially the story, most of all the story, that they exist independently. So I'm actually suggesting the practice of remembering the Buddha's teaching moment by moment. It's remembering it in relationship to being aware at the same time of what's happening. So it requires that you're practicing mindfulness of what's happening. You're not just remembering the Buddhist teaching. That's not enough to have it be a wisdom practice.

[22:13]

A wisdom practice means you actually apply it to what's happening, so you have to be mindful of what's happening. I mean, you have nothing against that, right? It's a problem in the sense that it's hard to be mindful of what's happening. because we have to train ourselves to be able to be continuously mindful. But once you can be mindful of what's happening, that's why it starts. ...of your body. See if you can, like, as you're walking around, be aware, for example, that you know your weight's mostly on your right foot. There's a little bit on the left foot. And now my left foot's off the ground and it's flying through the air with the greatest ease, and it's... And now I've shifted the weight onto the left foot. So in this way you can actually be mindful of your body as it's walking. This is mindfulness of your body. The yogi knows that she's standing on her left foot and that her right foot is behind her left foot and is now leaving the ground and going forward.

[23:24]

So you're aware of what your body's doing. This is mindfulness of body. You know you're standing up. You're aware of some details about how you're standing up. This is my focus of the body. And this first meeting of my focus of the body. Now I'm, again, going towards this chair. I'm aware that I'm going towards the chair. And now I'm where my ankle just hit the chair unexpectedly. And now I'm sitting in the chair, getting ready to sit in the chair. I'm touching the chair, and I'm now... shifting my chair more and more, more and more, and now I got a lot of my weight on the chair and not so much weight on my feet, and the chair's holding me up. So this is like basic mindfulness practice, and this is a wisdom practice. This is not so much a compassion practice, although it's not uncompassionate to practice wisdom. But it's emphasizing just being aware of what I'm doing,

[24:27]

what I'm doing. Now, again, this practice works well if I'm practicing compassion simultaneously. Namely, that I'm doing this moral commitment based on diligence, based on patience, based on tranquility. So I'm also fairly calm about this. That will make it easier for me to practice mindfulness because I'm basically feeling pretty good because I'm practicing compassion. I basically already... However, I don't have enough wisdom, so I'm going to practice wisdom now. And I start practicing wisdom by practicing mindfulness of what's happening. And then I'm going to bring teachings about what's happening to bear on what's happening. And again, the basic teaching, the first teaching, is that this experience of sitting in this chair is arising in dependence on things other than the experience of being in this chair.

[25:35]

And the person sitting in the chair is like that too. His feelings are like that. And I'm going to remember that and listen to that teaching. Also, I think Lynn said, she said to me earlier, she thought this is rather advanced practice, and somebody else asked me if this is advanced practice. And I said, this is kind of advanced practice. I haven't got, you know, and started talking about emptiness is advanced practice. Emptiness is the ultimate teaching of Buddhism, really, so it is advanced. But you just happened to have caught me in an advanced practice time. So you're getting a taste for advanced practice. And if you're not ready for it, anyway, you heard about it, and then later this will register on some level, and then later you'll come back to it again. So...

[26:38]

This is advanced practice. In a sense, that's why I also want to keep emphasizing compassion is not too advanced for you, though. Compassion is not too advanced. That's the beginning. The beginning practice is compassion. Okay, so that's not too advanced for anybody. There are certain realms of compassion that you may have no sense of. There may be certain challenges to your compassion that are too great that you're not ready for it. But basically some compassion practice is appropriate. And now I'm telling you about the wisdom practice too, which will help your compassion practice. But in some sense the wisdom practice is quite simple, but the way I'm teaching it is kind of hard. Because, you know, it's so simple that that's part of why it's hard. Because you can't really get a hold of it so easily this way. because I'm asking you to sort of forget about your stories. Yes. I'm wondering if a kind of clumsy metaphor could be like pointless painting, where an artist has created a picture of a bunch of little dots.

[27:48]

We're trying to be aware of our experiences, really. A bunch of little dots. We make a story about it to make it coherent, something we can cope with and respond with. But it's as if we're trying to become aware enough so that we're just right down to the dots. And then even as you make the dot, you listen to the teaching while you make the dot, dependent core rising, dependent core rising, dependent core rising. Actually, let's see, is it hard to drive a car and do this? I think what's usually considered to be harder to drive a car and do is harder to let go of your discursive thought and drive a car, although it's not impossible.

[28:50]

That sometimes is said to be hard to do, to let go of your discursive thought while you're driving. Anyway, basically, doing these kinds of meditations at the beginning is good to have a chauffeur. Okay. So, you know, see if you can get somebody to, you know, you be chauffeur now, and I'll meditate, and then you can pray later. Maybe every hundred miles you can pray in 15 minutes. Fifty miles, yeah. Depends on how fast you're driving, but forty to fifty miles is about one period of meditation. But if you have trouble doing this meditation while you're walking, then maybe because you have trouble doing this meditation while you're walking, or you have trouble doing this meditation while you're talking, but once you get better at it, you can do it while you're driving. Yes?

[29:52]

I have a couple of questions about the technique itself. Yes. Just to clarify, it's not a contemplation practice. It's not a contemplation practice. It's not a contemplation? Right. It is a contemplation practice, but go ahead. Okay. So… Tell me what kind of contemplation practice you think it's not. So if you're… Today I tried out, when I was sitting on a cushion, to see what would happen. So… Meditating, using the mind, teaching, things are dependently co-arising. And so, you know, the lawnmower has been so gracious to me today. The lawnmower comes and then you apply the teaching, you know, the lawnmower is dependently co-arising. Well then, for me, the temptation is there to start contemplating the lawnmower and the whole story. and kind of like, you know, breaking it apart with words and meaning. Yeah, so I would suggest that you, if you see a story about the, if you see a story about the, that every little, every little dot of the story, you apply the pinnacle horizon to every dot of the story.

[31:08]

And that's, and that's when Lynn thought, oh, that would be hard to, it would be hard to drive a car like that. But it wouldn't be hard to sit in a cushion and watch the story of the lawnmower dot by dot. You could do that. But it's okay to follow those threads as long as you keep applying the teaching? Yes. Yes. See, mindfulness practice, you're not trying to direct the flow of, like earlier Will said, would you just do a to articulate your flow of consciousness or your stream of consciousness. You can have a stream of consciousness and it can be a storyline or not. Now, again, this is a big parenthesis, okay? But the parenthesis is when the stream of consciousness has a storyline, then there's usually an imposition of personality on the story. There's usually some kind of, like, ego involvement when the stream of consciousness becomes a coherent story.

[32:13]

That's okay, though. In wisdom practice, you can have a stream of ego projections on the sequence of events. That's okay, because you can study that too and realize that even ego projection onto the storyline or onto the stream of consciousness, that's also a dependent co-arising. So the point-by-point co-arising, but if there's some coherence between the points, that's also a dependent co-arising. And that coherence is due to the dependent co-arising that is projection of ego onto the process. That's a dependent co-arising too. Now, it is a dependent co-arising which is a fantasy which denies dependent co-arising. Because ego, the idea of separate self, is saying, this is not a dependent co-arising.

[33:17]

But we, the human beings, imagine non-dependent co-arising and project that onto things. That's our false conception. We do not think we're dependent co-arisings. We ignore that. And if we start listening to Pentacle Rising, it's possible that there would be spaces where we wouldn't see coherent stories anymore for a while. We would just see dots. And then again, the ego gets scared when it just sees dots, so it wants to make it into a story. But when you see that happening, you can be aware of that too and say, oh, there's a coherence thing coming back there. The ego wants to get reestablished in the form of making itself seen as a story and therefore having lost control of the situation.

[34:24]

But I'm not suggesting that you do or do not do that. I'm suggesting that you apply this teaching to whatever happens. And then you're also going to apply a teaching, which I just gave you, is that when you see coherent stories being applied to sequences of events, that is the projection of ego. The actual way that this guy out there mowing the lawn, the way it actually is happening, the way he's mowing the lawn and who he is in the lawnmower, And this whole establishment here that we're having this retreat in, that whole picture, the way that's happening, it does not have the particular coherence that you make of it, or that I make of it. The conventional world for each of us is self onto the seat. That's another teaching. But I'm not asking you to think about that one all the time.

[35:27]

I'm asking you to try to think of this other teaching, which is not about how we project ego, but how things actually happen prior to the projection of ego. Or at the base of projecting ego is the way these things are happening, the way the guy's mowing the lawn is actually an impersonal process. And you meditating is actually an impersonal, non-ego process. This teaching is to initiate you in an impersonal process. And when you start trying to bring stories back onto the non-ego process, which is our usual way, you can just say, OK, there, I'm doing it again. Fine. I confess. You don't have to even stop. Just, again, listen to the teaching, which reinitiates you back into the non-ego. The Pentagon Rising. Yes, I hope. You mentioned before about compassion, not losing our love for the conventional world or compassion for the conventional world. Yes. So, by taking the ego out of that, is it easier to release the storyline aspect of it?

[36:44]

Is it easier for us to be compassionate and loving of the conventional world? I think it is, yeah, actually. In other words, if I have a story about you, My story about you is my personality being projected upon you. If I listen to this teaching and let go of that story a little bit, I think I'm better able to be devoted to you, actually. I can still remember the teaching of being devoted to you, even though I don't know who you are anymore. I don't know who you are because, I mean, I could know who you are, if I wanted to, but that would mean bringing my ego back into the situation and having you be the story that I decide to tell about you. Which is a narrow, usable story. Like somebody was talking to me also earlier today. Anyway, I won't mention the person's name, but the person talked about how she notices sometimes how narrowly she thinks about things, and when she notices how narrow it is, it kind of like loosens it up.

[37:50]

But she has noticed it, how narrow her view is of things. And I thought, you know, I used to have this really narrow view of Italians. When I was a kid, I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and very few Italians, actually. Almost all the Italians I ever knew worked in Italian restaurants. And the other Italians I knew were from the movies, and they all had greasy hair, or gangsters' girlfriends. That's what I thought Italians were, people who were like, were gangsters or had restaurants. Somehow, even though I had some education, I forgot about the Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance. I forgot about the Roman Empire. I forgot about those really nice shoes. I forgot about Maseratis and so on. I just thought Italians were like, you know, gangsters and people who had restaurants in Minneapolis. You know, you can have a really narrow view of people.

[38:55]

Just, you know... Right? And it works just fine, right, to have a narrow view? But that's just, you know, that's all it is, just a projection of your ego. It's not really the way that people are. And sometimes people say to me about how much, you know, I must admit, sometimes people tell me how they see somebody and they see such beauty. I'm just astounded how much beauty they see, how great they see the person is. And I just go, wow, that's amazing, you know. Just like some people, what they see in their own kids, right? Actually, the way people are is fundamentally beyond everybody's view. Nobody's view actually reaches the way people are. This teaching is to keep not telling yourself people are great, not telling yourself that people are purple, not telling yourself that people are dependent on co-risings,

[40:03]

which means they aren't what you think they are, because dependent core rising is an inconceivable process. But what you do see is based on dependent core rising, and you can see people, and you can mix in your story about them. But when you're doing this teaching, when you're listening to this teaching, it may be that you still tell stories about them, the lawn mowing process, the lawn mower and the lawn mower, the person who's driving it, and the mowing. You may have that story, but you may not have the story, too. You just may be going, dot, dot, dot, of experiencing the lawn mowing process and listening to the teaching and opening to an entirely different take on the process. The story may or may not still be being projected, but you're listening to a teaching which is not the story.

[41:10]

It's just one story about everything. So it's not anymore a story of the lawnmower than it is a story of you. So whatever you're doing, you apply this teaching to so it starts to cut through In a sense, it starts to cut through your relating to things based on your story of them. Even though your story is still hovering and landing now and then, and hovering and landing, or even stays landed, you're going under it or behind it. to this basic reality, to pinnacle rising. And as the more you get in touch with this, the more you let this in and let it sink into you, you start to relate more on this basis than this basis. Which means you start to relate more skillfully, more virtuously, because you start disenchanting yourself of your story about the thing. you start disenchanting yourself about your relatively narrow version of the person or event.

[42:19]

Even though the story is still there, it loses its grip on you. Yes? This would be compassionate in that you're cutting away your own projections about the person, allowing a little bit more of them to shine through to you. Well, it's actually, you say it could be compassionate. It's wisdom which will purify your compassion. It's not really compassion, it's more wisdom. Because you may care about this person already a lot, but you may care about them too much. Because your story is, this is my totally wonderful blah-blah, you know? You know? Or you, or... You may care about them a lot, but you may say, this is my totally disappointing blah-blah. But this teaching will take away that narrow version of people leads to excessive involvement with them.

[43:27]

The more universal your view of people, the more appropriate your response. And universal in the sense, the more you treat them the way they are universally. People are universally dependent co-horizons. The more you relate to them the way they always are and the way everybody always is, the more appropriate your behavior becomes. And so that's one of the ways you can tell when this teaching is sinking in, is that how it relates back to compassion is you actually start to be more compassionate. But it's not actually a compassion practice. It is medicine for compassion. It should make your compassion get better. That's why if your compassion starts to be eroded, then you have to take a break from wisdom for a while. It's not working right. You're not doing it right. It should enhance your compassion. It should make you less involved with the people you're too involved with and more involved with the people you're too little involved with.

[44:32]

Your involvement with people is really compassion. The wisdom is to perfect that involvement. And wisdom will perfect it because wisdom is telling you actually the actual nature of the involvement. The actual nature of the involvement is that you depend on each other in a way that's beyond your story. But again, it's okay to tell stories about how you're dependent because the story is basically true in the sense that you're dependent. It's just that your version of the dependence is too narrow. But when you tell stories about how you're dependent on somebody, there is a truth in it because you are dependent. I am dependent on you. You are dependent on me. But when I tell you how, that's a narrow version of it. But if you don't think you're dependent and then somebody shows you how you are, it starts to open you to the dependence.

[45:43]

That's good. You know what I mean? Like if you think someone wasn't dependent on you, and then they come and tell you that they are, you go, wow, I didn't know that. That's not really how they are, but still, since you didn't think they were at all, it's a slight improvement. Now you realize, oh, I didn't even know you were dependent on me. Yeah, actually, when you go to meditate, that really encourages me to go meditate. So I kind of depend on you to go. When I see you going to the hall, I go too. So you really help me. Wow, I didn't know that. But it's not actually, it's just kind of like a very narrow version of it. So these stories are somewhat helpful. But I'm actually suggesting you go right to the source of the teaching, which is, he didn't tell a story exactly He just said, the basic principle is, dependent on this, that arises.

[46:51]

Depending on that, this arises. That's the basic teaching which he gave in the discourse. The basic principle is, this arises in dependence on that. The teaching is not, this arises in dependence on this. This arises in dependence on itself. That's not the teaching. So actually I'm suggesting that we try to be mindful of this teaching basically consistently, continuously, for our whole life. This is the basic meditation practice. And it should be practiced together with compassion practices, together with ethical study, moral commitment, generosity, patience, diligence, and tranquility practice. You should be doing those practices along with mowing the lawn.

[47:56]

You should be doing those practices. And when you're mowing the lawn, you should do those practices. Mow the lawn as a gift, as an act of generosity, Everything you do should be an act of generosity. Mowing the lawn should be an act of generosity. You should do that as a gift, as a kindness. You should do it in an ethical way. You shouldn't take the lawnmower unless it's given to you. Do things with the lawnmower. You shouldn't praise your lawnmowing at the expense of other people's lawnmowers. You shouldn't ride, you shouldn't push the lawnmower around thinking about how bad other people mow the lawn and try to make people not like them for how poorly they mow it. You shouldn't be possessive of people or the gophers that are sticking their heads up. You shouldn't be possessive of your lawnmower or possessive of a well-mowed lawn. And so on. Practice the precepts while you mow the lawn. In other words, practice compassion while you mow the lawn.

[48:56]

Be diligent about it. Be patient while you mow the lawn with the gophers who are ruining your lawn. Give up plans of gopher murder. So practice compassion while you care for the lawn. There's a way to do it. Always do the compassion, but then also When you're ready, when you've got your compassion stabilized, then bring the wisdom teaching. Bring the wisdom teaching. Every moment of this process of mowing the lawn in this compassionate way, every point, every point, the pinnacle of rising, the pinnacle of rising. And then watch and see, over time, if you become more skillful and more virtuous in your lawn mowing, or whatever it is. Because there should be this enchantment around the lawnmower and it should gradually lift so that lawnmowing isn't that different from working in the kitchen or discussing Dharma or any other activity.

[50:12]

All the activities start to become similar, actually, because they all become more and more virtuous become more and more virtuous because they become similar. In other words, you tend to give everything your very best. Not too much, not too little. Because everything has the same character, basically. Does that make sense? So the more you listen to this teaching, the more it sinks in, the more virtuous will your response be. Because the more it sinks in, you also realize not only is everything dependently co-arisen, but everything is impermanent, unstable and not worthy of confidence. Again, Lynn was telling me about how she had this ecstatic experience of walking through the clover this morning. You know, and then the guy comes and mows the clover. It was just like classic. Yeah, it's classic.

[51:13]

There's classics happening all the time. Classic examples of Buddhist teachings are happening under your nose all day long. She was telling me, Apply this teaching and you'll see the actual classic unfoldment. So this lawn has become, you know, quite an opportunity for... Does that make sense? But I know it's hard to learn how to do this, but it's a simple instruction but hard to actually apply it. Yes. So it's a lot. Obviously, you're going to, while you're staying up, you should lose the practice, you know, running through the clover. And then when you come back, is it recommended to go back to the teaching, apply the teaching, or to wait for something to come to you, you know, like the weed whacker, and then apply the teaching or just go straight back to the... So let's say you're...

[52:18]

you lost track of the meditation, so you're asking how to return to it? Yeah. Well, you return to it, I think, basically you return to it by first of all becoming mindful of what's happening. So if you're walking in the grass and you've lost track of the teaching, then you would return to it first of all by being aware that you're walking in the grass. Okay. I think I was meditating sometimes. Again, what was the meditation? Oh, yeah, the meditation is, first of all, try to be aware of where you are. Where am I now? Okay, I'm standing on this hill in the grass in Pittsburgh, you know, and it's not quite as hot, and I'm standing here. So you're aware of that. You're mindful of your body. And then... Oh yeah, and then I'm going to listen to the teaching now. The teaching is that this experience I'm having here, standing in the grass, this is dependent in the core, right? It's happening in dependence on things other than itself.

[53:22]

All beings are supporting me being here. All Buddhas are practicing together with me right now. And I'm not making this happen. So you know you're back on the job. You take a step, now you're taking a step, another dependent core rising. The Buddha Dharma is with me as I'm walking through the grass now. And if you can't remember the T-shape, maybe you should just stop. It's maybe easier if you're standing. Okay, dependent core rising. Now see if I can take a step and remember dependent core rising. Dependent core rising. Again, I'm not still wearing my body, and dependent core rising. So little by little, you can learn how to be... So again, it isn't just going around thinking dependent core rising, dependent core rising, dependent core rising, and not knowing what foot you're standing on.

[54:34]

Start with compassion. It starts with you being aware of what you give yourself diligently to what you're doing. And then the beginning of wisdom is to be aware of what you're doing. Just simply notice, not controlling, not trying to do anything, just being aware of what you are doing, aware that you're practicing compassion. So you're basically just walking around, Try to be aware every moment of what's happening. Then, you know, take on listening to the teaching at the same time. You apply. These are four different dimensions of mindfulness. Start here. You might say, okay, I'm walking through the grass and I'm feeling really good. My mind is fairly calm, let's just say.

[55:37]

which, for example, says, the truth of suffering is that suffering dependently co-arises, and it co-arises depending on craving. And craving arises, I think, more independently. So I think I'll pay attention to that in co-arising. and then see what happens to the craving and the suffering. I'll test it now. I'll see if Meditation of Dependent Crow Rising starts to work on that craving and the suffering arising from that craving. Check it out, see if it happens. You might find that the teaching actually works the way he said. And if you lose it, and you practice compassion with yourself when you lose the practice, when you lose your wisdom practice or your compassion practice, if you violate the precepts, if you're impatient, you practice compassion with your lack of compassion.

[56:45]

Right? You practice compassion with a lack of compassion. You don't be mean to a lack of compassion. You're compassionate with a lack of compassion. You don't compound a lack of compassion. You remedy it by practicing compassion. If you forget to practice compassion, if you forget to practice wisdom, you practice compassion in the form of patience with your forgetting. You practice confession. Confession is part of ethical discipline. You practice confession with your forgetting to practice wisdom. Confess and reiterate your intention and go back to work without beating yourself up. Confession is sufficient. Confession and reiterating your intention. Confession and repentance. Repentance means that you want to do the practice that you just forgot to do. And then you confess that you didn't do it, you reiterate that you want to do it, and then you go back to work, back to play, playing compassion and wisdom.

[57:54]

Does that make sense? Confession and Buddhism just to oneself, or is there another practice of confession? Well, it says, usually it says, when you confess before the Buddha, so you don't practice by yourself, you practice before the Buddha, but As you get more developed, you understand that practicing before the Buddha is to practice before the Buddha, but not with the Buddha being something separate from you. However, you should see if you really understand that by going to practice confession to somebody else. To see if you can go, for example, if you can go practice confession to your teacher, and develop an intimacy such that you don't really feel like you're practicing confession to somebody else.

[58:58]

And if you're afraid of the person, then you still have to work with that until you're not afraid anymore. Because the most important thing to confess, of course, is your belief that people are separate from you and that Buddha is separate from you. But it does say to practice before the Buddha. But if you don't do it before the Buddha, it's still of some use to practice it to yourself. And in a sense, when you practice confession to yourself, you're really practicing confession before the Buddha. But I would suggest that in practice you actually do it with another person. also, because that maybe you can check to see if you really do understand that there's nobody out there separate from you. And if you did, you wouldn't have any problem telling another person. And if you do have a problem telling another person, you've probably got a little work to do there. So really there is not a Buddha out there separately from you, but you need to verify that and test it by doing the ritual of confessing to another person.

[60:13]

and seeing what happens when you do it with another person. They're people, it's just that they're not separate. There are Buddhas, but they're not separate. Okay? Enough for today? And also, some of you are having some interesting experiences when you do these bodhisattva vows, because they're kind of amazing. But anyway, let's do them anyway. Okay? May our intention equally penetrate and place with the Things are no less. I am to save them. Depreciation is all that is possible.

[61:19]

I am to mend them. Darkened gates are boundless. I am well to surrender them. Blood is rain, it is possible. I am well to and unsurpassed penetrating and perfect dharma is a rarely met with human indulgence and enlightenment to help us happen to see, to remember and accept. I ought to taste the truth of that to talk to those words. In order to encourage the development of wisdom, the Buddha spoke words, and these words, I would suggest, were words to help people train their thinking.

[63:37]

in such a way that they could think about the teachings which told them how to train their thinking. So there were teachings that people could hear and think about, about how they could think about the teachings to train their thinking to think about the nature of phenomena. and to change, to gradually change the thinking about phenomena, because the way people generally think about phenomena is incorrect. However, even though they... and not only that, but although people think about phenomena in an incorrect way, they believe the way they think about phenomena. they aren't necessarily able to say, the way I think about what's happening is true, but basically people agree, most people agree with the way that they think about what's happening.

[64:58]

And they say, yeah, that's similar to, yes, it's true. Although they usually don't go that far. because we're pretty busy, so we just say yes. So we see things a certain way, which means we think about things in a certain way. We think about things and we think we're seeing them the way they are, and we agree with that. So the wisdom teachings are to gradually help us stop agreeing with our misconceived ways of thinking about And we need to talk to each other in order to help our thinking about our thinking change, to change our thinking from believing our thinking to actually see that we actually don't think properly.

[66:02]

And actually there's almost no way to think about what's happening that really is appropriate to what's happening, and that's part of also what we're trying to learn to think in that way. That's kind of an apology for me talking to you in such a way as to encourage you to think in certain ways. There are certain ways which I'm not encouraging you to think, which you're probably going to do anyway. But I'll just leave that to you. For example, to think how stupid some people are, I'm not necessarily encouraging you to do that. But you might do it. In California, a lot of people think George Bush is stupid, for example. That's because people in California think they're so smart.

[67:06]

Anyway, Deborah asked if we could introduce ourselves again, didn't you? Would you like to do that? Huh? You would? Yes, please? Okay. So, would it be all right if we start over here? Can we start with you? Sure. Okay. Karen. Corinne. [...] Nancy. Nancy. John. John. Jim. Jim. Barbara. Barbara. Lynn. Lynn. Avey. Avey. Dawn. Dawn. Eric. Eric. Deborah. Deborah. Terrez. Terrez. Jenny. Jenny. Lisa.

[68:12]

Lisa. Rannigan. Rannigan. Tim. Tim. Bob. Bob. Will. Will. Catherine. Catherine. Reb. Reb. You happy now? Yes, I am happy that I did that. And I reached father registration, so I'm very thankful to know your face is with me. hearing these teachings, feeling the impact or some of the implications of these teachings. The other day, Don said he felt he could see how sort of the implication of his teaching would be freedom, that this would be really free if you let these teachings really sink into you.

[69:14]

He started to sort of be in accord with them. And then he said also that he felt There was also some, what do you say, some fear or some shock or uneasiness about that freedom? Something like that? Yeah, something wonderful and yet also, yikes. Something like that? And so I thought... A couple of times after that I thought of this event that happened that I experienced in Japan. One time I was in Japan and I was visiting a temple and a retreat and as part of the retreat they were going to do a ceremony called an animal releasing ceremony where they release captive animals. in a ceremonial way.

[70:17]

I don't remember exactly all the details of the ceremony, but we had an altar. This temple was actually built right next to a golf course. So we put the altar outside in a nice grassy area up on a rainy day. We did some rituals and so on and so forth, made some offerings. And then we had all these chickens in cages. And at the climax of the ceremony, we opened the cages and the chickens all flew out. And then the ceremony ended, and then there was kind of a vegetarian feast for the humans afterwards, a nice buffet kind of thing. And everybody went to that except me and a couple of other people.

[71:22]

And then I noticed the chickens were coming back and crawling into the cages. And I thought, hmm, that song seems familiar. Something familiar about that. You know, they were out there free, but then they're kind of like, well, now what do we do? And I was like, play golf? Bury our heads in a sand trap? What do you do? What do you do now? Ah, ah. Let's go back in the cages and be, you know, it's simpler back there. Now, I thought, that's like humans. But then I also wondered, did they use these chickens over and over for animal reducing ceremonies? Are they just trained to, like, be, you know, get back in the cages and they take them and liberate them someplace else?

[72:24]

But again, that's something like humans. Over and over again we get liberated and then, but, eh, we want to go back in our cage. But then we want to get out, so we get liberated and go back in our cage. Something about that sounds, something familiar about that.

[72:50]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_84.26