Can you talk a little bit about what a personality is? I mean, like, we're all dependent, but yet we're all unique. What is a personality, did you say? Yeah, like what a personality is. A personality is a dependent core rising, and when it's something that falls into the category of existence... an identity, then it's a personality that has had a superimposition of an essence upon it. So there is a pattern of causation that produces a personality, a psychophysical personality, but when it becomes identified and moves into the category of existence, then it has had an essence or a self put on it. So there can be a personality without a self on it. And that's a dependent personality.

[01:07]

And there can also be a personality that is seen as a self. In other words, it is seen in the absence of its, or independent of its, as not dependent. Independent, not dependant. Well, like for example, certain patterns of behaving, like when certain stimulus happen, an organism responds in a certain way. And then certain other stimulus happen, they respond in another way. This kind of thing. This is a particular pattern of this particular living being. That's the way this person behaves. Okay?

[02:10]

Okay? And they behave that way in response to certain conditions, like when light comes to them or a thought comes to them and some organ responds, a consciousness arises, and then they act based on that dependent core rising. This is a particular person behaving that way. And that's a personality. However, you don't have to project a self onto it. So in terms of the 12-fold chain of causation, after consciousness comes what we call nama-rupa, which means mind and body, which means these constituents of a psychophysical personality. Now that psychophysical personality, because it's arisen from karmic formations and ignorance, is probably seen as a self.

[03:10]

It doesn't have to be that way. But usually, personality, when it exists in the realm of conventional reality, it's associated with a self. In that realm, then this personality or self gets projected onto everything that this person knows. So they try to do good, but really it's just a projection of their self. So they're trying to do good, which is nice, but they can't do good because they're projecting their personality as a self onto the practice of good. So in that realm, the best we can do is to try to not cause too much damage, but also to try to guide ourselves towards the truth, towards dependent core rising.

[04:19]

Because otherwise we're just projecting our personality on everything, our self-personality on everything. I didn't understand that last part. About? About projecting. In other words, if a person is coming from their personality and they do good there, I didn't get that. I lost something there. I guess I'm saying that everything we do based on the belief in self is basically not really good.

[05:31]

So you try, you make a moral commitment in the realm of where you still believe in a self. That moral commitment is necessary in order to become enlightened, in order to wake up from this misconception of self. However, as long as we still believe in self, we can't really do good. Good can happen, but not from this, a misconceived consciousness trying to do good. Because really all I'm doing is projecting a false conception onto what's happening. And perpetuating, actually, that process, which is not good. Is that similar to carrying yourself into the room? Yes. It's the same thing. Carry yourself into the room of doing good. So you're just enacting delusion upon the topic, the room of good. Now, if there's a moral commitment to do good and to avoid evil, then when you go into the room of good, you're trying to practice good.

[06:43]

However, you're practicing good in a deluded way, which is not good. And if you practice evil in a deluded way, it's not good either. But in some ways, it's not that much worse. Because not to be very effective at practicing evil is not that bad. So we really can't even do evil very well. To try to do evil, that's not going to work very well either, usually. However, without even trying, because of our deluded mind, we're quite successful at evil. Because it's in the love of delusion? Yeah, because we're cranking the delusion thing another thing every time we do something based on delusion. That's why we confess every morning, because to the extent that we're carrying self, we're still cranking that greed, hate and delusion thing.

[07:54]

Can I ask one more question? We don't like to think that, but in Zen monasteries where they're supposed to be practicing, you know, wisdom and compassion, they're still practicing confession because to some extent, they're also walking into the room, you know, and imposing themselves upon all things. The monks are, they slip into that. And so they don't even know how much they're doing, so they just say generally, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion. They don't even know when it starts or when it stops. But still, There's this dependently co-arisen commitment to practice good. However, part of the dependent co-arising of that could be totally selfish. However, it's still necessary to make that commitment, even if it's a selfish commitment.

[08:57]

because you're accountable, and you make the commitment to practice good, and then we can say, yeah, but you're not practicing good. You said you want to, but you're not, because you're deluded. So then you realize, well, I guess I should get enlightened. Not just go ahead and just practice good according to my idea, because I'm being told my idea is off. But since I'm committed to practicing good, I probably should evolve in such a way that I really could join the practice of good, which is not going to be something I'm going to do by myself because I don't do anything by myself. But when I first experienced the commitment to practice good coming out of my mouth, at that time, I didn't make that happen either. But then, and I know that, but I thought I did.

[10:04]

And that was wrong. So when did you find out you didn't? When did you find out you didn't? Well, you find out you didn't when you hear the teaching that you don't make your own actions, that you're not an independent operator, that you are a dependent co-arising. You don't make your own actions all by yourself. You're responsible for your actions. When people hear that they don't make them by themselves, they say, well, then I'm not responsible. No, you're responsible, plus you're responsible for everybody else's. And they're responsible for yours in the realm of dependent co-arising. So actually, there is such a thing as good karma, but good karma is not actually good. because good karma is still based on coming from the place of, I did it. I, who is an independent person, did this.

[11:07]

So I can't take refuge in my own personal action, in my own personal attempts to do good, because my own personal attempts are deluded because I'm carrying myself. But I can take refuge in the dependently co-arisen me because that me is the me that's in accordance with the teaching, the reality. The reality is I'm a dependently co-arisen person and that person, the dependently co-arisen person, is in the realm of good. The good exists in the realm of dependent co-arising. That's where goodness is. However, evil is also a dependent co-arising. But the way evil arises, dependently co-arises, is in dependence on ignoring the truth of dependent co-arising.

[12:13]

So evil arises through dependent co-arising dependent on ignorance. good arises in the realm of dependent co-arising depending on wisdom. So we have to get into the realm of dependent co-arising in order to realize the goodness that arises in accord with dependent co-arising. And if we're not in that realm, if we're in the realm of I do this and I do that, it's not really good. It's relatively good in that world, but in that world everything is actually, everything based on that delusion is perpetuating the delusion system, which is somewhat not good. But some things, even though they perpetuate the delusion system, because they're done based on a delusion of self-doing them, okay, some things are this form. I think I'm saying this, but what I'm saying to you is I'm saying I am deluded.

[13:22]

Although that's still based on my delusion. It is a confession of my delusion, so it kind of points in the direction beyond believing. this perspective in which I just saw this thing happen. So we can do things in the world of delusion to point us and guide us to the realm beyond delusion. The realm beyond delusion means the realm beyond your thinking, but particularly beyond believing in your thinking. This is taking refuge in dharma rather than taking refuge in yourself. And taking refuge in Dharma is a little unfamiliar because you can't exactly get a grip on it. So there's instructions in this world for people who are still holding on to things about how to enter the realm of Dharma. And so one of those instructions is let go of your discursive thought.

[14:32]

Let go of your thinking. That's a kind of a warm-up to entering the realm of Dharma, which is relaxing, I mean, which is calming. Relax with your discursive thought, which is hard when you hear that your discursive thought is tied up with delusions. But still, you have to do that. You have to be kind to yourself and other people in the realm of delusion where you can't really do good. Good can happen, but it can't be done by you as an independent person. However, you can do good as an other dependent being. Your dependently co-arisen self can do good. But when you superimpose a self upon that process, then you create a world where there isn't good happening, even though you could think there is.

[15:41]

There was a film, I can't remember the name of the film, where the guy's on a television show. So this is sort of like, until we get into the world, until you accept that... The world that we thought was real isn't real. You're sort of on the television. He's on a television show and he doesn't realize he's on a television show. It's sort of like that. It's sort of like that, yeah. So we have to get off the television. You don't get out of the television. You don't actually have to. No, you have to just say, this is a television show. I don't believe it anymore. So, you know, like, I don't know what, like, you know, on the television show, he could, like, go into a grocery store and he could think, you know, okay, and then the people can give him too much change, okay, and he could say, hey, you gave me too much change.

[16:50]

And they say, oh, thank you very much. That was so nice of you. And he might think, gee, I did some good there. And the person might say, yeah, you did some good there, but actually it's just a show. It's just a TV show. Well, he thinks it's not a TV show, but everybody else thinks it is. He didn't really do good. It's part of the show. It's just part of the show. But when he gets out and looks back, from outside the show, he actually sees, well, actually I did do good. You know, it was good. Now I see that. But I also see that I was totally deluded about where I was. So I didn't really understand what was happening. So now I see. Somehow we have to stop believing that things are the way they appear. Otherwise, that cuts into the actual good that we want to do. But also, you see,

[17:53]

If these people, if the money that they gave you too much of isn't real money anyway, then what does it matter that you gave some back, you know? Or you kept it. It's all sort of like, right? That's why you can't determine good by yourself. And when you get outside the show, you can see that. And you actually are outside the show, actually. Although the show surrounded him, there was a bigger world around him the whole time. He just didn't know it. So the actual big world is always here, it's just that we don't know it. And we can, in some sense, we'll never really be able to see it because you can't see the whole ocean. But you can know that there's a bigger world. You can stick your head out. No, you can't actually stick your head out. You can just hear that there's always more than you can know. And therefore you can sense all the time, sense all the time, something's missing. So when you do good, because this teaching has got into you, when you do good, you know something's missing.

[19:06]

You don't just say, okay, here's the extra money. You gave me too much. You give it and you say, that was good. You do that because you're trying to practice good, right? You do that, you give them, you say, you gave me an extra dollar, here's a dollar back. You do that because you're committed to doing good. Okay? But because this dharma fills you, you know there's something missing. It's still based on self? Yeah, in some sense, you think there is a self to this act, that this was a good thing, and you know there's something missing in that. because you're aware that the causal situation is not limited to this representation you're working with. So that sense of something missing changes the way you do good. And in a sense, it makes you feel like there's something missing in your good.

[20:10]

In other words, you kind of feel like there's not actually good in the good. The good is empty of good. It's empty of the way it appears. It's empty of the way it appears, but still I do the appearance of good and I'm committed to do that. And being committed to do it helps me remember that something's missing. So I do the good, and I listen to the teaching, and my commitment to good helps me realize that even while I'm doing good, something's missing. And I get used to that sense of something missing, and I get used to it because it's happening over and over. And the reason why it's happening over and over is because I'm filled with the Dharma. When I'm not filled with the Dharma, then I do good and I think, now that was good.

[21:10]

That was sufficiently good. That was like actually good. I mean, that was good. But that's because the dharma hasn't filled me. And I'm arrogant, too. So you're doing good, but you're doing it arrogantly. You're doing it proudly. Again, when you're listening to this teaching, you do good. When they give you too much money, you do good. It means what's good is to tell the truth and give them the extra money back. That's good, right? But there's something missing in that. There's something hollow in that. And you know that because you're listening to this teaching. You know it's not really. having an essence called good, but you do this hollow good, this dependently co-arisen good, even though you can't see it. You know it's dependently co-arising. Therefore, you're grateful to do the good. And the person who's on the show is grateful you did it too. Everybody's happy, but they're really happy when you're not proud that you gave it to them.

[22:16]

And you're not proud when you listen to this teaching. Because you say, well, I gave it back, but something's missing. This is not the whole picture. And that wasn't actually good in the sense that the goodness of it was the way it appeared to be good. The goodness is there, but it's not the goodness that I can grasp. That's the goodness which is a projection of my personality. That's the goodness which I do by carrying myself into the practice of goodness rather than the goodness which happens when all things come forth and then I give the money back from witnessing how that happened. That's the actual goodness which I didn't do. And the thing that's good about it is not the – well, actually, it's the same thing, that the actions which are given and – which are received and given, those actions are the actions of goodness.

[23:32]

which are going on all the time, but when you don't see it, you exile yourself from the realm of good into the realm of personality, where again, everything's not really good. There's just relative good and bad, and what's good is what helps you remember that when you do good, something's missing. And remembering that takes you down back into the dharma which you've been ingesting, which keeps you from getting proud when you do something good. But you're grateful. See how that kind of works? I think that helps. I think Jim was next, I'm not sure. Is this the reason that, at least as I remember, precepts are generally written in this abstain from doing this and abstain from doing that sort of thing rather than go out and do good.

[24:35]

They say abstain from thinking ill of others and things like that. Is that the reason that precepts are written in that particular vernacular? Well, maybe. But there's other precepts which are put positively. First we say, the pure precepts are put as, I vow to embrace and sustain. In our Chinese version, I vow to embrace and sustain the regulations and ceremonies, those practices which are conducive to enlightenment. And then I vow to embrace and sustain all good, and I vow to embrace and sustain all beings. So those are put positively. But the embrace and sustain is interesting. The Chinese character which they use there, which is applied to these practices of Buddhism,

[25:39]

And actually, the first category in the three pure precepts, it's actually... This is getting a little complicated, but... Maybe I'm not going to get into this right now. I'll just say the first category is sometimes translated as, or sometimes seen as, practice that which is conducive to enlightenment. Do the practices which are conducive to enlightenment. And those are actually that contain the practices which are put as don't do this and don't do that. And then practicing good is not really practicing restraint things, doing good things, and then practicing saving beings is positive too. But the character, which I translate as embrace and sustain, that character also means to receive Buddha's compassion. It's a character which, it has a hand, A hand radical on the left side here and on the right side has three ears, the character for ear repeated three times.

[26:53]

So it's translated as embrace and sustain or sometimes as fulfill, but it also has this thing of listening and acting, listening and reaching out the hand that comes from listening or kind of like receiving and doing. but doing from receiving. So it's kind of like you receive Buddha's compassion, you receive all this support and then you act. So that particular character in some sense already recognizes that this activity of the precepts is not coming from you. It's more like you're listening with three ears and then from that listening you're kind of like this Buddha robot. You know, like you're driven by the beneficent conditions of the Buddha's compassion. You're acting for Buddha. All the Buddha's teachings come forward and then there you are and you act from there. And then one of the categories that you're acting upon is a category of where you're actually practicing avoiding certain unwholesome acts.

[28:01]

But even the act of avoiding them is coming not from you, but from you receiving the agency to do these precepts. So we do act, but we receive our license to act. We're given the license. We're given the ability to act. Because all of our activity depends on things other than itself, and all of our activity depends on something other than ourselves. But we are given, we do act. But we need to understand that it's independence that we act. It's because we're being supported. That way is to act in an enlightened way. And that way you're not proud of. You're grateful to be a servant to all these conditions, and you have confidence that it's good. Now it's actually good.

[29:03]

The things I do, and I do them because I'm committed to do good, but still the things that I do, something's missing when I listen to this teaching. But if I don't listen to this teaching, then nothing's missing, right? Then I'm committed to good, and I do good, and that's fine. Well, yeah, sort of. I mean, it's better than bad because since it's doing good, since you say you want to do good, you'll listen to me when I tell you, hey, wait a minute, that's not good. Now, if you're not committed to good and I say, hey, that's not good, you say, so what? But if you're committed to good and people say that wasn't good, you listen to you, you might listen to it. Because you have some sense that good is not something you totally determine by yourself. It's got something to do with whether other people like it. So if you're committed to good, it's good in the sense that you're open to education. So like you're committed to good, so I can tell you that everything you do in the realm of personality is not really good.

[30:10]

It's relatively good, but not really good. But there is a realm... where real good happens. The realm of reality. The realm of actually where we're working peacefully and harmoniously together. Where we actually are mutually creating our lives. And everybody actually is helping everybody out. There is that world. That's how we get to exist. Because nobody has slipped up on doing what it takes for us to be here. Therefore, we have life. Thank you. Thank you to Pinnacle Rising. Yes, Bob? I think you already answered. Matt? I just had a question about the good and evil. He had a question about good and evil? I had a question about good and evil in the...

[31:11]

Dependent co-arising realm. And it seems that evil is, I guess, the furthering of delusion. And then good would be... Evil is the furthering of delusion. And it's also the acting from it. And then the good would be just simply what happens moment to moment, the arising and cessation of everything is good, which would contain the evil anyway. The way things are happening contains the evil, yes. So evil is actually part of the world of enlightenment. However, in the world of enlightenment, evil doesn't do any harm because it's understood.

[32:15]

It's like a sword in the hand of a skillful person. But even advanced teachings, if they're mishandled, can be evil. So like emptiness, if mishandled, can lead people to revoke their commitment to moral discipline. And get further deluded? Well, I don't know, it seems like they're sufficiently deluded. Because they misapprehend a teaching which, if apprehended, if worked with properly, would free them from their delusion, would help them stop assenting to their delusion. So as I was saying earlier, you know, in the realm of delusion, in the realm of where there's a self coming into the situation, even before you wake up, you can practice compassion.

[33:29]

And one of the forms of it is tranquility, where you just kind of like lighten up on your thinking. You let it go or relax with it. And this is... calming and it's good for your health. So when things come, relaxing with them in some sense is to not grasp them or seek anything else. Okay? And you actually like try to cultivate not grasping what comes or rejecting what comes. Not grasping what comes or seeking anything else. And that's a kind of calming practice that is tranquilizing. However, that not grasping and not seeking, when it would happen spontaneously, that would be wisdom.

[34:31]

That would be not just suspending the thinking which is trying to grasp and seek, but actually acting that way because that's what you see as possible. In other words, you do not see any way to grasp and you do not see anything to seek. So, grasping is death. And seeking is birth. And not grasping is no death. And not seeking is no birth. To let go of grasping and seeking is calming. To simply Not grasp and not seek is wisdom.

[35:39]

So this is one way you can see the relationship between calming and wisdom. If you have wisdom, you would naturally relate to things in a way that's calming. Before you have wisdom, you don't see things this way, but you start acting like you would if you had wisdom. you let go of these activities. Even though there's still a tendency to go for them, you train yourself to let go, and that's calming. As you listen to the teachings more and more, you actually don't grasp and don't seek. And then you realize no birth and no death, which is another name for Buddha. or nirvana. Nirvana is sometimes called the birthless and the deathless. So you realize freedom of the Buddha when you don't grasp or seek anything. And if you practice relaxing with phenomena, in other words, letting go, at least for now, grasping and seeking, put yourself in some special situation where you can actually, like,

[36:56]

Not grasp, let go of grasping, let go of seeking for a while, even though they're still tempting you. Well, I could think about, I could plan the menu for the next meal now, or I could plan my trip back home now, but the retreat's still going on, so I'm not going to grasp that. I'm not going to seek, figuring out the rest of the day. And then you're still practicing tranquility. However, you still think you could grasp them, and you could seek them. But when you actually don't and actually you see it's not really possible, then that's more like wisdom. And then that's how wisdom naturally leads to tranquility. However, tranquility doesn't naturally lead to wisdom. But it's like you would be. It's similar. The way you relate in a calming way is similar to how you would if you had wisdom. Now, I mention that because I wanted to read to you this wisdom teaching here in Genjo Kong, which someone asked me about this morning, which starts out…

[38:09]

Firewood becomes ash and does not become firewood again. Yet do not suppose that ash is the future and firewood the past. You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood, which fully includes past and future and is independent of past and future. Ash does not become firewood again after it is ash. You do not return to birth after death. Accordingly, birth is understood as no birth. It is an unshakable teaching in Buddha's discourse that death does not return to birth. Accordingly, death is understood as no death. Birth is an expression complete this moment.

[39:21]

Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. We do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring. Now, it says here that firewood becomes ash And this morning I thought, no, firewood doesn't become ash. I thought, no. Or anyway, firewood doesn't change into ash. I thought, no, I thought firewood just dependently co-arises and then ceases, and then ash dependently co-arises and ceases. But ash depends on firewood. And firewood depends on ash.

[40:22]

But this says, actually, firewood becomes ash. And it doesn't become firewood again. I'm fine with that. But I actually... But here, then he says, but do not suppose that ash is the future and firewood the past. That sounds like what I was saying is that ash is not the future of firewood. Firewood has a future, but ash is not the future of firewood. Ash has a past and future, and it depends on firewood, but it's not the future of firewood. what we usually think is that I change into the next person that I am rather than I arise right now and I cease and then another person arises and ceases and I have a past and a future but I'm not the past

[42:02]

And the person I become is not the future. That's a person who exists in the phenomenal expression of being that person. And that person depends on and that person has a past and a future and depends on them. But I'm not the past. I mean, I'm not the past of my future. And I'm not the future of my past. He was sort of directing his argument that causality, our concern, causality in the conventional world, we tend to think that firewood becomes ash. Yeah, and matter of fact, he says firewood becomes ash.

[43:11]

Now, what's possible here is that he means in the conventional world, firewood becomes ash. And in the conventional world, it does not become firewood again. But then he says, however, do not suppose that ash is the future of firewood and that firewood is past of the ash. So it isn't exactly that firewood carries over into the ash. But we think that we carry over into the next person that we are. But really, it isn't the next person that we are. It's actually the next person. But that person isn't the future. That's a person. I'm not the future. You're not the future. And I'm not the past of the future that hasn't come yet.

[44:12]

This is another teaching about the pentacle rising, this section of this genjur koan, another way for you to meditate on this. And notice how we think that I change into this now, and this changes into this now. We think there's something here. that gets carried over. Whereas really, there's just the dependent core arising of this, and the ceasing of this, and the dependent core arising of this, and the ceasing of this. Moment to moment? Moment. Moment by moment. Nagasaki moment to moment. Moment by moment. And I have a past and future right now, but I'm not a past or a future. I'm not the future. of a five-year-old boy. But that five-year-old boy had a future. I'm not it.

[45:16]

I'm not it. But we think I am. He didn't think I was going to be his future. And I'm not. And you're not my future either. But that you don't have such a problem with. So this is an example of a Zen teacher giving you a teaching to meditate on. Think about it. Think about this teaching. Think about how dependent core rising works with this teaching. And notice, again, how something sticks there, how there's a little bit of unshakiness about our past and our future and how this person got turned into that person, into that person, into that person, And it was the same person all the way along, since five years old up till now, same person.

[46:25]

There is a lineage of causation, but not of individual independent people. It's a lineage of causation of dependently co-arisen people that didn't have a core. But we think that there's a core that's transmitted rather than just dependency, dependency, dependency. So because of dependency, there's a connection between one dependency and another dependency. Dependencies depend on dependencies, so they're not like cut off. They have past and future. But notice how we think there's some kind of thread going through there, other than dependency. And there is an identity, but the identity is what's pulled out of that process by putting an essence on it. take the essence away, and there's no identity in the process, even though the process is a nice causal process, but it doesn't have an identity. It's just, except its only identity would be all the things it depends on, but that's not an identity.

[47:31]

You have to put an essence on to get an identity. So this is another nice little paragraph to use to study dependent co-organizing. Apply it to firewood, apply it to yourself. And notice the sticking points. And the sticking points and the freely flowing points would be the points of self and letting go of self. And convincing yourself more and more of a new way to think about life and death. Anything else at this time? It's slightly before the bewitching hour. We had a request. We had a request asking you to say one of the participants has to leave. What's that? You still want to say it?

[48:31]

Anyway, an hour later. Now it's okay, huh? Looks like it's going to rain. It is raining? See, it looks like it's raining. It is raining. You see, there's some kind of thing working there. Let's see it. This is a song that comes to, this is a song that may be somewhat relevant. I have two of them that recently are quite relevant to this teaching. One is, it was like this. Boom, boom. Boom, boom. Boom. Boom, boom. Boom, boom.

[49:33]

Boom. I can do what I want. I'm in complete control. That's what I tell myself. I got a mind of my own I'll be all right alone Don't need anybody else Gave myself a good talking to No more being a fool for you But then I see you and I remember How you make me want to surrender to DCA You're taking myself away D.C.A. You're making me want to stay with D.C.A. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

[50:34]

for my Dharma talk. I just wonder why they never do. What? And there's another one that kind of makes fun of us that's related also to meditating and to Pinnacle Arising which is Some enchanted evening You may meet a stranger You may meet a stranger Across a crowded room And somehow you'll know You'll know even then That you will be meeting Again and again Who can explain it?

[51:51]

Who can tell you why? Fools give you reasons. Wise ones never try. Some enchantment. You may meet a stranger. You may meet a stranger across a crowded room. And somehow you'll know, you'll know even then, that you will be meeting again and again. And then there's something that I quoted in Warm Smiles from Cold Mountains, which is Shakespeare. which I think goes, oh day and night and rainy days in Pittsburgh, how wondrous strange.

[53:03]

And as a stranger, bid it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than I dreamt of in your philosophy. When the Dharma fills your body and mind, you realize that. Still we dream. But when the Dharma is filling us, we remember that there's more than what we dream. So it's a little bit either humbling or humiliating that we walk around with this dream. But if we can remember the teaching, then we'll remember there's something missing. Something's missing in what I see here. So then I... I'm a little bit more gentle about what I say and do because I realize I'm trying to do good, but something's missing because I'm trying to do it.

[54:21]

But still I want to. There's a dependent core arising of a wish, a wish that good will be done, a wish that thy will be done. Thy will of goodness for all beings. There's a wish. And that's a dependent core rising too that happens to us. And that's a wonderful thing. But also because of understanding the nature of our mind and noticing that we have a self that we're carrying, something's missing in the fulfillment of that. But we keep trying. We have that commitment. But we also understand as humans, something's missing. And if we keep that in mind, it may be realized through this limited vehicle. But if I forget this is a limited vehicle, if I think the circle of water is the ocean, then my dream of being part of goodness will be undermined.

[55:31]

Not destroyed forever, just undermined. Whereas if you remember the limitations of your vision of goodness, that will help facilitate the realization of the best for this world. We have to keep remembering the teaching, otherwise we slip back into thinking, this is good. I did good. and be proud. Because certainly if you can do good, you should be proud. But that ain't the way things happen. Everything good we do is because of everybody helping us. Good can happen because people are helping us. If we understand that, good will happen, unobstructed. But we do sometimes not understand that, so then there's an obstruction, which we confess. Round and round.

[56:34]

Does that make sense? It's a difficult practice. It's a difficult transition. But I feel you and I are making the transition, little by little, from delusion to enlightenment. Also remembering that the relief good friends, delusion and enlightenment. They're not in two different worlds. Delusion's part of the structure of enlightenment. There's no enlightenment without delusion. They're intimately connected. So we don't want to put down delusion. We want to be compassionate with delusion and deluded people, and then we can be free of delusion. But as it says, delusion is boundless, inexhaustible, something like that.

[57:35]

Still I vow to become free of it. I don't like to put an end to myself. You know, sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. I don't like that end to them so much. I like more like cut through or be liberated from or untie them. Chinese character actually is a character that means to cut. But to cut also can be to cut off, and to be cut off can also be to end. So cutting and untying and ending are kind of related. When you untie a knot, in a sense, you ended the knot. When you untie delusions, in a sense, they end. So I don't want to be too down on the word end them. There's some ambivalence I feel about end them.

[58:39]

Is that enough for this morning? All right. Thank you very much. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place with the truth.

[59:05]

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