Yesterday it was sunny here and around six o'clock I left this room and there were clouds on the horizon in the west over the ocean, illuminated by sunlight so they were golden and pink. They were backlit. And as the sun set, they turned blue and gray. Today it's raining. The weather seems to be changing and it's

[01:16]

dark. I seem to be changing and most things I know seem to be changing. And many people I meet are uncomfortable. And sometimes people even tell me that they're unkind. To others and to themselves. And people tell me they're afraid. They're afraid of not having enough time to finish their work. And I don't know why. I don't know why. I don't know why. And they're afraid of what will happen if they don't finish their work. And I hear about

[02:42]

people being unkind with such an intensity that it's almost unbelievable that human beings could be so violent and cruel to each other. And then things change again and again. And so there seems to be a world of change and a world of suffering. In the Buddhist tradition, the early Buddhist tradition in India, there was a person called

[03:48]

Buddha. There was a proposal that there was a possibility, there is a possibility for human beings to become free of this suffering, to become liberated from this world of impermanence and fear and cruelty. And that there was a path of practice whereby the practitioner could become free of this world of impermanence. Of this world of measuring time. Of this world of calculating and worrying about whether I have enough time to make the next decision.

[04:51]

And that I must, I must do this and I must do that because there's a deadline. Early Buddhism proposed that there is a path of liberation from such a world. And the key to liberation was to get over being concerned with your independent self. And the way to get over it was to understand that it was an illusion. That the core of this misery was attachment to a misconception. And that if we can actually see through and let go of this misconception, we will be freed. We will transcend the world of measured time and enter into a world of eternal peace. And it's an eternity that has nothing to do

[06:00]

with being measured as a long time. It's an eternity beyond measurement, beyond calculation. It's an eternity of giving up calculation. Of giving up messing with time for personal gain and protection. And it's an eternity that has nothing to do according to the history of the school. Some people did it besides the Buddha, the founder. Some people did attain and are still attaining liberation from this world. But there emerged after some number of years following the death of Buddha, there emerged the impermanence of the Buddha, there emerged another view of things. Which was that the

[07:15]

world of misery, the world of cruelty and the world of selfishly concerned with time selfishly concerned with how long I've been sitting here. I saw some of you doing that. Some people were looking at their watch. And I was measuring how long you were looking at your watch. Some people were counting their fingernails. Some people were counting their toes.

[08:20]

What emerged in the Buddhist tradition, in the tradition of the disciples of the Buddha was another way of seeing the world of suffering and its relationship to the world or the possibility of liberation from the world of suffering. The early Buddhism called the world of suffering, the world of measured time, samsara or birth and death. Samsara means going round and round, birth, death, birth, death, birth, death, birth, how long, how long, how long, death, how long, birth, how long, death, birth, oh, birth, how long will I get to live? Will I be allowed to live? Will I be allowed to live? Will I

[09:38]

be supported? What should I do to live and reproduce? And now death coming. Death coming in the form of old age, Alzheimer's, other kinds of sickness, misery, fear and death. That's one world of samsara, birth and death. And there's another world called nirvana. They were seen as one transcends the other. Now it emerged to see that actually these two worlds, the world of utter misery and also mild misery and also sometimes pretty sunsets that go away, followed by rain, that world has the same nature as the world of

[10:40]

liberation. And these people, these beings on this planet who came to see that felt that they were disciples of the Buddha who seemed to teach early on a way of escaping or transcending the world of misery into the world of eternal, unmeasured peace and bliss of nirvana. They understood the Buddha as meaning, yeah, there is a possibility of liberation. But the liberation is the same nature as the misery. Liberation is good and necessary. It's part of the deal. We need it, don't we? No, we need liberation. But then in addition to needing liberation, we need wisdom beyond the wisdom of liberation. We need the wisdom

[11:43]

which sees these people felt. We need the wisdom that sees that the liberation is the same nature as the bondage, as the world of measured time. Eternity and measured time have the same nature. They're not different at all. So the feeling emerged among the disciples of the Buddha to find a way to live which didn't escape from misery to find liberation

[12:48]

but found liberation in the middle of suffering. Not to escape and transcend by being separate from all of our painful relationships but now to find the liberation in the middle of them. Being in the middle of the world of suffering, actually, most of us are pretty near to it.

[13:53]

If we take lots of drugs, we get kind of like distracted from that but most of us are pretty close to the center of the world of suffering. So we don't have to go anywhere to be in the middle of the world of suffering. We don't have to go anywhere to be in the world. We might have to go somewhere to admit that we're in the middle of the world. That's what a Zen center is for. It's a place to go where you can actually like face it, face that you're in this world and not distract yourself by worrying how much more time you have to suffer before the deadline. So once you arrive here in this world of suffering, where's the liberation? Right in the middle

[15:21]

of it. Well, I don't know but the first thing that comes up in my thoughts is, I don't know what it is, give it up. Give up the world of suffering. It's not doing you much good and matter of fact it's kind of difficult for you. Why don't you just give it up? And then the thought arises, the answer, well because I'm attached to it. I'm attached to it, to this world of suffering. I'm attached to thinking about the future as segmented off from the present and I'm attached to thinking of the past as segmented off from the present. I'm attached to thinking of time and as segmented and also measured. I also measure how far

[16:23]

in the future and how far in the past. I'm attached to that way and I'm afraid of what would happen to me if I didn't stay kind of like abreast of the time in a calculating way. What you need is, you see, to come someplace where somebody else will keep track of the calculations for you. You need an attendant who will be involved in measuring the time and you can just like relax and let go of time. And then if you ever get scared and think, jeez, I should know what time it is, you can ask your attendant who is like totally anxious, always being sort of ready to always tell you what time it is. And literally speaking that's one of the reasons for having a meditation group is you can come here and you can let go of time and somebody else will keep track of the time for you. They'll tell you, okay,

[17:29]

now it's time for lunch. And they'll say, now lunch is over now. Now it's the after lunch break. Now the after lunch break is over. Now it's time for meditation. And we'll tell you when the period is over. You don't have to worry about how long it is going to be. And even though we say that, sometimes in meditations people say, how long is this period going to be? It's been going on, I haven't looked at my watch, but it's starting to hurt. I think it's maybe going on long enough. I wonder how much longer it's going to go. But I guess I could just let go of this world of being concerned for how much longer this period is. Maybe it would be all right. Maybe that wouldn't hurt anybody. So some people say, yes, but I don't always have an attendant. So even when I do have

[18:41]

an attendant I'm not going to let go. So in fact they come to a situation where they don't have to keep track of time, but they go right ahead and continue anyway. So we keep gripping onto and holding the world because we're afraid of what will happen if we let go. And when we hold on we're afraid of what will happen too. So holding to the world, we're afraid. And thinking about letting go of the world, we're afraid, so we continue to hold on. But anyway, there it is, kind of simple, just let go of it. And letting go means let go and when you hear the little word come up in your head, well and then what? Let go of that too. Let go of and then what? It's not exactly and then what, you see, because what you're doing is by letting go you're

[19:48]

entering the world of eternity where there isn't any and then anymore. You enter into the world of no and then. You enter in the world of living with no measurement of whether this is now or then. Yikes! Wonderful but yikes! Is it obnoxious to say ladies and gentlemen these days? Does anybody mind if I say ladies and gentlemen? Huh? No? I went to Minnesota one time, which is my hometown, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I went to my hometown and I said ladies and gentlemen and somebody really got

[20:49]

mad at me for saying ladies. She said, that's like truck drivers talk like that. How about honored followers of Zen? Anybody mind if I say that? How about it, honored followers of Zen? How about just let go of the world right now? Just let go of past and future. Just let go of body and mind which calculate past and future and calculate present, even measuring the present. This is long present. This is a short present. That's the measured present. That's the present where we're imputing

[21:51]

measurement onto it. You know that one? Long present, short present, high quality present, low quality present. How about just opening up to letting go of calculating how things are going and just living before it's too late? How about just living and not waiting and wasting this moment by thinking of what's next? Or if you think of what's next, how about just let go of what's next? If you think where is this going, how about just let go

[22:53]

of where is this going? The question where is this going has done its job. You heard it. It's over. Give it away. I didn't mean to put that like telling you what to do. That statement followed, how about it? How about it? How about letting go of your body and mind? How about letting it just move on? It's doing it anyway. How about accepting that your body is impermanent, your mind is impermanent and it's flowing along. How about like letting

[23:54]

that be and joining it? Joining the impermanence of your experience. Just let it flow. How about it? This is kind of a brief way to put it, but this dropping away of your body and mind is the condition, or it's the mode, it's the way to live such that you'll find yourself living in the world of liberation. Which is not the slightest bit different from the world you're in right now or the world

[25:02]

which you just gave up and which other beings may still be living in because they haven't given up. And you're in this world with beings who are still holding on and do not feel liberated because they're holding on. You're with them and you're not afraid to be with them because you understand now that being with them and being liberated is no different. And you're liberated with them. You don't know anything because you let go of what you know. You let go of what you know and now you know something. And what you know, someone might calculate, is a lot better than what you used to know. You know liberation and then you let go of

[26:03]

that. And you're happy to let go of it because you don't have to hold on to it. Because its nature is that it cannot be grasped, really, and also the world cannot be grasped, really. That's why the world is the same as liberation. But if we're holding on even a little tiny bit, that holding on, I'm sorry to say, interferes effectively with the realization of liberation. But not holding on, joining the dropping off club, that's the way that we don't interfere with the reality that's always here of the world of suffering in its most and least intense

[27:06]

manifestations and everything in between is exactly where we are liberated. Because liberation is not someplace else. So we don't have to be afraid to be in the world, that's liberation. And it isn't just that we're not afraid to be in the world, but we decided not to be. We're not afraid to be in the world and we know that there's no way to get away from it. All the ways of getting away from it, really, are just perpetuating it. Yes? What? What? If body and mind are dropped off every moment of

[28:13]

your life? If you let go of body and mind every moment of your life, they turn off your electricity because you didn't pay it by a certain date, so says Elena. But Elena's story is just one story among quite a few other possibility stories. Here's another story. If you let go of body and mind every moment of your life, okay? As a matter of fact, already all of you, every moment of your life, from the first moment you're born, you have been letting go of body and mind every moment of your life. You've already been doing this every moment. Your body and mind has constantly been dropped off every moment, never missed one. Never did you miss, never weren't you a dropping off body and mind, that's what

[29:22]

you are. I'm talking about realizing that. Most people don't understand that. They think they can hold on to their body and mind for at least a few seconds, or a week, or ten years, or eighty years. Your body and mind is dropping off all the time. Your body and mind is impermanent. You can't hold on to it. Holding on to it is holding on to something that's changing. It's an illusion. It's a big confusion. So, if you're holding on to your body and mind, I don't know what's going to happen with your electricity bill, but Elena says, if you let go of your body and mind, that your electricity bill won't get paid on time and they'll turn off the electricity, right? So that's her story. But another story, now she doesn't

[30:23]

have that story anymore. Another story is that everybody, whether they are paying their electricity bill or not, their body and mind is constantly dropping away. But the people, the one who realizes the dropped off body and mind will understand, will understand that the world of getting your electricity bill paid or not, that the world of getting the electricity being turned on or off, that that world is exactly the world where liberation is realized. So it's not by making sure your lights stay on that you're going to be liberated, and it's not by having your lights turned off that you're going to be liberated. It's not by paying your bills that you're going to be liberated, and it's not by not paying your bills that you're going to be liberated. It's rather that if you're concerned with paying your bills and you're concerned with whether your lights are on or not, that you're miserable.

[31:27]

That's the world, the world where you care about your lights being on and you're afraid of them being turned off. That's the world. And right in that, and that's the place where you like give up being caring about your lights being on. You give up that. You give up the mind which is worried about or wants to or doesn't want to have the lights on. You give that up. And then, if the lights are on, you're happy. If the lights are off, you're happy. If you pay the bill, you're happy. If you don't pay the bill, you're happy. And now that, well, that's enough, I guess. That's enough. No, it's not enough. It's not enough enough. In addition to that, you can go around and joyfully teach other people who are terrified

[32:31]

that their lights are going to be turned off. You can teach them how to give up their attachment to having lights and be free of their fear because you're in that mode of not being caught by lights and darkness. Right in the middle of the lights and darkness, you're free. So you can joyfully show others that they can be free too, right in that same concern realm. You understand that, and it's not just that you understand that having the lights on and having them off are pretty much the same, but you understand something else. You understand that being free of concern about the lights happens right in the middle of being concerned about the lights. So you don't even have to stop worrying about having the lights off or on. You just let go of the concern right there, right there. So you can be like a normal

[33:37]

person, you know? You normal people, we normal people can be normal people because that's where liberation occurs, is being a normal person when you're a normal person. You don't have to get a little bit better before you understand that this present normal person is exactly the situation where liberation occurs. But I can't exactly say what's going to happen with the lights. I think, let's just have question and answer during question and answer, because it's probably time for question and answer, right? Yeah, it's basically question and answer time. But some people might not want to go to question and answer, probably, I guess. Is there anybody here who doesn't want to go to question and answer?

[34:40]

Must be one person. No? Yeah, one person, see? So if we adjourn now, then we can have question and answer. And it seems like it might be a good question and answer because I bet some of you just can't imagine what I'm talking about being possible. What about my little babies? I can get along without the light, but what about my little babies? They need light, so I've got to get that bill paid for them. And if I let go of my concern for paying the electricity bill, what would happen to my kids, my little babies? Wouldn't that be irresponsible? You can be a Buddha and still pay the electricity bill. You can also, if you're a Buddha, get somebody else to pay it for you. I mean, that's one of the minor powers of a Buddha. But you may have some doubts that it would be possible to actually

[35:59]

give up the world. That was very good. You see? The power of the Buddha. So I was going to say, you get the picture? But if you don't, come to question and answer, and we'll clarify all your doubts. And then you can enter into the mind of Buddha, the mode of Buddha, which is just give up body and mind and enter the eternity right in the middle of this world of impermanence, and show everybody else the path to liberation for ordinary, totally

[37:06]

ordinary people. This is for ordinary people, this path of Buddhahood. So maybe the non-ordinary people don't have to come to question and answer.

[37:21]

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