One of the types of wrong view is the view of attaching to the precepts. Precepts, of course, are very important in our practice. we still shouldn't attach to them. So there's this thing called Srila Bharata Paramarsha which tightly holding to the precepts. So yesterday I was happy to see that you people don't. Most of you don't adhere too tightly to the precepts because apparently the bell was not rung And yet you managed to stop working.

[01:02]

It's pretty good. Some people were not able to stop without adhering to them and without hearing the bell, because they keep working until they hear the bell, no matter what. So I had to go around telling them to stop working. Please stop. Please. It's getting dark. Another thing I just thought I might mention is that someone told me that when he came to Tatsahara, he had something like, well, one of the main ideas he had about practice was to not get into gaining ideas. And I said, That's good. He said he had a strong Zen background and that was one of the aspects of his strong Zen background. And I think that that really is part of a Zen background.

[02:08]

To try to practice being free of gaining. Just keep cleaning your glasses and cleaning your glasses with nothing. look occasionally to see how they're doing. But no gaining idea, just cleaning the glasses, cleaning the glasses. It's a lovely practice. No gaining idea. Then he said, but then I got here and I heard all this stuff, fantastic achievements of shamatha and vipassana, understanding emptiness and liberating all beings. I started to feel kind of insecure and inadequate but the stuff they start feeling greedy wow i want to get that other people feel like i'll never be able to get it why can't i just go back to my no gaining idea practice what's still the same practice it's just that what do you call it uh

[03:15]

When you were down in the farm, you didn't know there was anything to get, so you thought, you know, this is easy to practice, no gaining idea, I'm just here I am. But when you hear about what bodhisattvas can accomplish, then you either feel like, oh, or, eh. So, exposing Zen students to this material flushes out their latent gaining ideas. They think, you know, here I am cool, you know, here I'm just practicing, just following the schedule, eating what's given, and so on. This non-gaining idea is great, and it is. But, you know, you haven't even seen anything about your gaining idea yet. So then you come and you hear about what's possible, and then the gaining idea comes out, like I say, either in the form of like, oh, I'll never be able to do it, which is a gaining idea. It's a negative version of it, or, boy, I'd really like to.

[04:24]

So, that's the nice thing about bringing in the vision of what bodhisattvas actually can get into, that it actually becomes even more pure in our practice, because we because we realize even more how impure we are. In order to get really pure, and so pure that you're even pure of getting pure, you have to realize, you know, how impure you are. And some things which we don't know how much we'd want them until we see them. So there are a number of nice stories about Zen monks, and probably all traditions have these stories of the monk who trains for quite a while, becomes kind of freed of greed, graduates, goes down the mountain, gets to the city, and suddenly the greed flies up again when he sees the beautiful people.

[05:26]

So then he says, oh, goes back up the mountain for another six years. Don't worry if you feel insecure and kind of like insecure and inadequate in the face of some of these stories which you haven't heard yet about what bodhisattvas need to accomplish in their vows. Dharma gates are boundless. Dharma teachings are boundless. I'm going to learn them all. If you start feeling insecure, that is something to notice that there's your gaining idea. So what some people do is they start feeling insecure when they look at these teachings and then they say, well, I'd stop looking at them. They're not secure anymore. I will talk about this more later, but that's called the strategy of escape. It's called put your head in the ground, about one foot under the ground, and you don't have any gaining idea because you don't look at anything that makes you feel it.

[06:43]

Now, I think it's better to... Don't force yourself too hard. But anyway, if these things come flying in your face, you didn't even ask for them, and you start feeling kind of like pain of gaining idea, don't run away from it. You're being shown. You're gaining idea. You need to see this. But you don't need to force yourself to see it. It'll be just offered to you sometimes. So there it is. Of course, if you get greedy, this is great, I'm glad you're finally studying these teachings about emptiness, because this is the real stuff, I feel so great, I'm in the right place, and there it is again. So when you realize that, then again you feel like, oh, I don't want to study this stuff because I feel so dirty. Gaining idea monk. So then you avoid studying this stuff and you feel like, hey, I'm no gaining idea.

[07:47]

See, I'm okay. I mean, like I'm a real Zen student. No gaining idea. This is it. I'm like, here's Suzuki Roshi incarnate, you know. No gaining idea. Just blah, blah, blah. I'm cool. You know, I'm not trying to get anything around here. And I feel really secure. So at that time, it's nice if the big You know, the big, incredibly beautiful... ...rolling down the road into Tassajara and saying, this is what you've been waiting for. Here's the real thing. And you can feel, well, it was nice being cool, but actually this is what I want. I've got to admit it. So don't worry about this, in a sense, because this is good that you're getting this exposed, if this is happening to you, if you're either trying to get away from these teachings or trying to get them.

[08:54]

Now, what I want to do is to go into great detail on some of these matters, but again, in order to do so, I think I need to keep giving the overview. It feels like it. And by the way, I liked having the bell rung last time. Would you raise your hands? How many people did not? And the other people don't care, I guess, huh? Most people, I thought, not most, but the majority who raised their hand. More raised their hands. liking it than the ones who raise their hands disliking it, despising it. But some of the people who said they liked it said they would like it a little less often.

[10:05]

They did, honestly. Could you do that less often? Somebody is just sitting. Is Shikantaza... Is the content of Shikantaza studying dependent core arising? And I said, well, I... I put it a little differently. I would say the content of Shikantaza is... I would say Shikantaza is the study of dependent core rising. I wouldn't want to put Shikantaza on top of, you know, like you got the study of dependent core rising and Shikantaza is on top of that. So our practice of just sitting is the study or is studying or is the way to study dependent core arising.

[11:19]

Again, if you hear about how important and wonderful and fabulous dependent core arising is, the teaching of dependent core arising, the practice of dependent core arising, the understanding of dependent core arising, if you hear about this, he might start moving over in that area. Just sitting is no gaining idea. If you're not like going to go and try to get this teaching, you hear about the teaching of dependent co-arising, you don't get involved in that. What do you do? You just sit. However, there's kind of like a training phase of just sitting, and then there's a realization of just sitting, just like there's a training in studying dependent core rising, and there's a realizing of studying dependent core rising.

[12:28]

So when you first start training yourself in sitting, you're still kind of like you sitting. I'm going to sit. and guess what I'm going to do when I get there? I'm going to sit. That's the training phase. I'm going to go to the zendo now. As a matter of fact, I'm training myself at, like, just going to the zendo rather than I'm going to go to the zendo, but I'm still at the phase of I'm going to go to the zendo. And entering the zendo, I want to check myself at the door, and they're just going to be entering and sitting. No more me sitting. I haven't got there yet, but this is the training I want to do. So again, I'm going to train myself that in the sitting, they're just a sitting. In the body sitting, in the body hearing, in the hearing, in the seeing, they're just going to be that. And I'm going to train at that. For a while, it's going to be me hearing, me seeing, me thinking.

[13:34]

That's not yet Shikantaza. That's Gantaza and me. It's not just sitting. It's just sitting and me. But there's a training phase, which will last for a little while, of me and just sitting. And after a while, there's just sitting, which is very similar to after a while, there's just sitting. But that's a little bit tricky, that one, so we say just sitting. And in that mode of the sitting is just the sitting, then there's no me in the sitting, then there's no identification with the sitting, then there's no me in the hearing or the heard, which means there's no identification or disidentification with the heard, there's just the heard. And then there's no location, no here and there, and this is the end of suffering. But in the process, there is the studying of dependent co-arising, because there is the studying of the dependent co-arising of ignorance.

[14:43]

As you train, in the training process of just sitting, there is studying or awareness of the dependent co-arising of ignorance. You watch the ignorance arise. You watch the ignorance arise of I'm. The objectively existing me does the objectively existing Zen practice. The inherently existing me does the inherently existing Zen practice. You see that in this training process. So then you also see the dependent core rising of suffering. You notice that practicing that way is suffering. So the content of the just sitting is the dependent core rising of suffering. but it's a dependent core arising of ignorance and suffering. And then the content of Shikantaza, when Shikantaza is just sitting, when it finally is just sitting, then the content is still dependent core arising, but now it's a dependent core arising of, instead of ignorance and suffering, it is a dependent wisdom and the end of suffering.

[16:02]

And this person said, I can't do anything about clarifying basic ignorance but sitting still. And I said, wait a minute. Before, stop there. I can't do anything about clarifying ignorance. That part about but just sitting, you see, it's like I can't do anything about clarifying basic ignorance, but I can do just sitting. Anything about clarifying basic ignorance, stop. I can't clarify basic ignorance. I, me clarifying basic ignorance, is basic ignorance. This is a sample of basic ignorance. Me clarifying basic ignorance. I can't do anything about basic ignorance. That's just sitting. But you say, I can't do anything... about clarifying basic ignorance, but just sitting, you now enact ignorance.

[17:15]

If you say, I can't do anything about basic ignorance, period, sitting, and that does clarify basic ignorance. What is ignorance, by the way? What? It's ignoring reality, yeah? It is a consciousness. It is a consciousness which sees and believes what? It sees and believes inherent existence. And if it's looking at a person, It sees and believes that this person inherently exists. If it's looking at a conventionally existing banana, it thinks that the banana inherently exists. This is ignorance. What's the seed of suffering?

[18:16]

So the seed of suffering is this consciousness which sees and believes. By the way, sees and believes can also be called views. Views, generally speaking, in Buddhism means that you see and believe. Just seeing the idea of inherent existence and not believing, that's not the view. If you see it and don't believe it, it's almost like not seeing it at all. But the combination of seeing objective existence and believing it, that's ignorance. Then, to see the lack of inherent existence is an antidote to seeing inherent existence. To see inherent existence and not believe it, to really not believe it, is to see that you cannot find it. You really don't believe it. Wisdom sees the lack of inherent existence.

[19:28]

This is something I've said before, but every time I say it, you understand it better, right? So now you understand pretty well, right? That point. Something else I would just like to say, these are kind of like little examples. If you see, if you have a consciousness that sees inherent existence and believes it, that goes with thinking that freedom is independence. And our country is founded on that, the Declaration of Independence. If you see and believe inherent existence, you probably will think that freedom is independence.

[20:39]

Our country, the USA, is founded on the Declaration of Independence. But that's an interpretable teaching, not a definitive one. And my interpretation is that the Founding Fathers were not as ignorant as they sound when they said the Declaration of Independence. meant was the declaration of independence or freedom from not actually independence from but interdependence with colonialism it's supposed to be independence from independence from colonialism right but it's really interdependence with colonialism. We couldn't have this country if it wasn't for colonialism. And not only that, but the main in colonialism that we're interdependent with is a colonialism of the belief in independence, which is what makes England take over the whole world and cause all that trouble.

[21:58]

there is the belief that freedom is independence. And I thought an example of that is that I wasn't actually in the swimming pool when I was thinking this, but I was just thinking of the swimming pool. I thought, you know, I go down to the swimming pool and I, generally speaking, I stay kind of like in my own lane. You know, I don't go over into other people's lane. So, and there... Generally speaking, the other people are doing the same. We're all just being fairly well-behaved, going up and down our little lanes, back and forth. I just had this image. Well, first of all, I had this feeling like, well, this is not very playful. Here we are all in our little lanes, you know. We don't reach over and tickle each other or anything. And if we bump into each other, we usually, well, excuse me, or sorry. Especially if they hit you really hard.

[23:05]

After this talk's done, the swimming pool's going to be packed. But anyway, I was thinking, you know, it's not very playful that we're just going up, staying in our little lanes there, you know? It's kind of like... I was thinking, I just had this vision of just swimming diagonally while the other people are going straight back and forth, you know? Wouldn't that be more playful and free? Free of the limits of these straight lanes? There's that idea, you know, that that would be freedom. But it would also be kind of like, it would be kind of painful for a lot of those people. And it actually, I wouldn't, if I was swimming diagonally, I wouldn't really be all that free to run and bang into these people and stuff. The freedom doesn't mean that I'm independent of them. Another image I got from somebody was that some people and this one person had this idea that overeating in some sense is based on the idea of an inherently existing person, a person that's free of relationship.

[24:34]

You can eat all you want and there's no consequences. At the moment of eating, you say, no problem. And the person who feels that they inherently exist is suffering, so they want to eat a lot to distract themselves from it. And there's no consequence. Freedom for this person is having being unrelated. But actually, freedom is being related and being dependent. And all other beings are dependent on you. I think I want to say this.

[25:38]

Yeah, so I just say, you know, like I said before, suffering, the seed of suffering is this ignorance, this view of inherent existence, which means the view of objective existence. Things exist objectively out there on their own. That's ignorance. That view, believing that appearance, seeing things appearing that way and believing it, that's ignorance. Okay? And then... When you see things this way, depending on that, suffering arises, okay? That's a dependent co-arising of suffering in short form. Seeing things that way and believing them, depending on that kind of seeing, ignorance. When that kind of seeing ceases, when that kind of seeing and believing ceases, ignorant, suffering ceases. Okay?

[26:52]

This is something which supposedly you can actually observe for yourself. The Buddha didn't say... I mean, he did... Don't just believe this because I said so. See if you can find this out for yourself. And if you can, you don't have to believe it then either. You'll realize it. You might... you might consider checking it out. See if you could find one of these links and see if things happen the way I suggest. I believe that they do happen that way, just because I said so. But you might just, if you want to understand what I'm teaching, you might just take a look and see if things are like this. About right? Good going, Christina. On behalf of us all, we all supported you. Say thank you, Christina.

[27:54]

You're welcome, Christina. No, we say you're welcome to Christina. We helped her. Okay, so once you granted and granting inherent existence... If you grant it, then suffering will arise. And if you grant it, then it would make sense, when suffering arises, basically, that you would try one of two strategies. Actually, one of three strategies. The first strategy you might try would be to get control. things are not going the way you like them to, get them under control. If you grant objective existence, then getting these objects that are out there on their own under control would make sense.

[28:59]

Does that make sense? If you don't grant objective existence, then it would not make sense that you would try to get them under control. Plus, you wouldn't be suffering, so you wouldn't want to anyway. The other side is if things are kind of not all disrupted and everything and you're suffering, you might just try to escape. Escape, of course, the problem with escape is that Bodhisattvas do not try to escape from this world of suffering. They don't try to because they vow to enter it on purpose to play with all beings and liberate. But also they don't try to escape it because that just deepens the sense of duality which is what drives the world of suffering.

[30:08]

So that's why escape is a strategy which the bodhisattvas do not recommend for themselves or others. On the side of control, the attitude of control also is the primary condition for what you're trying to control. The primary condition for the suffering is this happening. more karma. When I first started practicing Zen, or early in my Zen practice, I heard this teaching, Soto Zen teaching, of three parts.

[31:11]

One is control your posture, control your breathing, and control your mind. If anybody, Taigen, do you know where the, is Taigen here? Do you know where the, what the original of that is? The word control, I didn't look for it yet, but anyway, the word was translated as control. Traditional. What's the character? Is the Indian got the word control too? Okay, so after a while, after I practiced it in for a while, I thought that word control, it didn't really make much sense to be controlled, because I noticed then students, when they tried to control their breath, I noticed that they got in big trouble. Not so bad. And when they try to control their mind, they get even more upset. So after not too long of giving Zazen instruction and talking to people about practice, I realized the word control was really

[32:13]

I didn't know if I thought that was a good word to use, and now even more I feel... I don't say you should never use it, but it's a suspicious word to use. It seems to cause more trouble. So I think actually take care of in a loving way care for the posture, care for the breathing, care for the mind. And I... Or be intimate with the posture, be intimate with the breathing, be intimate with the mind. And I have several times that I saw in a Tokyo airport of this Japanese woman taking care of her little boy. And she... closely attended him wherever he went. She was like his jisya, sort of.

[33:15]

It's kind of like being the jisya for a drunk. If you're the policeman for a drunk, you just strap him down to his chair, put him in handcuffs so he can't hurt anybody. But if you're the attendant, you know, like devoted attendant, respectfully attend to this drunk and try to prevent his drunk from walking into windows or falling down escalators or, you know, molesting other passengers. So she just went with him wherever he went. She was right behind him. So if he fell, she could catch him if he was going to hurt himself. But she didn't try to restrain him. So, again, this is a spirit of, I think, also Suzuki Roshi. Don't ignore the body Don't ignore the breath. Don't ignore the mind. Also, don't try to restrain the breath.

[34:17]

Don't try to restrain the mind. So, you know, that image. Give the mind, give the breath, and give the body a big field. But keep your eye on them in the field. Watch the cow all the time. Attend to that cow, but give that cow a lot of room. Always be with the cow. But don't try. Don't be respectful of the cow. Lovingly attend it. Be devoted to it. So, again, be devoted to your body. Be devoted to your body posture. What will that devotion give rise to? We don't. Be devoted to other people's postures. So I walk around, I'm devoted to your postures. And I make suggestions out of that devotion. I'm not correcting your posture. I'm not controlling your posture. I'm caring for your posture. I'm devoted to your posture. But I don't know, I can't control your body.

[35:20]

But out of that devotion to your posture, from me to you and from you to yourself, your posture will evolve in a beneficial way. But if I try to control your posture, you don't like that. You like it a little bit, but not much. A little bit of... At least there's some caring, probably. Even though I think you have lousy posture and you better get it fixed right away and here's my instruction to do that. Still a little bit of caring in that. But I think you appreciate more that I'm just trying to help if I can and maybe you could... And the same with your mind. I'm devoted to your mind but I'm not trying to control your mind. And so a number of Zen students show me their posture, but also they come and talk to me and tell me about their lousy meditation practice. They say it's lousy. They say, I'm sleepy, I'm distracted, my posture's going blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[36:26]

And I'm tempted to say something to get that thing under control. Over the years, I've heard of some ways to get these cows under control. And these people coming, these suffering people, oh, my cow's like, you know, doing this, my cow's doing that, my cow's doing this, you know, don't you have something that I can do to get this cow, you know, better behaved? And I feel like saying, well, yeah, you could. And you could, you know. And I know a few tricks. And there is Buddhist texts which tell you tricks about how to get this cow under control. But again, I think Suzuki Roshi, at his best moments, was that thing about that cow a big field. If that cow wants to sleep for 40 years and drool all over, you know, on the sutra books, let it.

[37:34]

but not unattended. Be right there next to the cow watching it drool. Being tempted to sort of like try to stop it, but giving that up. Watching the dependent core rising of the impulse to control this cow. And it's a lot easier to control it than it is just to attend to it no matter what. In order to be one with what? The drooling cow, yes. Do you have to drool also? If you have to drool also, then you will drool also. But you might not have to. We can't say what will be required. And that brings me to the next topic, which is

[38:38]

Oh, two strategies. Oh, thank you, Vicki. That's a sharp one. The third strategy is, the third strategy to work with freedom, I mean, to work with suffering, to attain freedom from suffering, involves, well, I already said it, but I didn't tell you I said it, it involves facing the suffering, which means facing the ignorance. That's the third strategy. It's Like, what is it, the Apple computer company has this, like, think differently or something? A picture of Dalai Lama, and it says think differently, does it? Think different. And they have other people, other pictures of other people think different, too. Who else do they have? Huh? John Lennon. Huh? Martin Luther King, yeah. Think different. Try another way. So here's another way. To control the situation.

[39:43]

of suffering, or escape it, why don't you face it? While being devoted to your body, breath, and mind, face it. Uprightly. Suffering, suffering, [...] face it, [...] here's the suffering, it's happening, we're suffering, face it. Moment after moment, face it. And then, in this just sitting away, facing it, you'll start to see the dependent core arising of the suffering, which is the dependent core arising of ignorance. So then you face the ignorance. You face this ignorant consciousness. And then after facing this view of inherent existence, then you look at it carefully. You carefully, you look at this inherent existence thing, which is the source of the suffering, a key ingredient in the suffering anyway.

[40:50]

You look at the E-I, excuse me, you look at the I-E, you look at this object, this inherent existence that seems to be there. You look at it, you look at it, and you look at it until finally you realize L-I-E or N-I-E. You realize there is... Wow, there is no inherent existence. I mean, look again here now. Look again and again and again and you keep not finding it. And you keep not finding it until you're free of suffering by not finding it. And free of ignorance. So now you've found the consciousness which is called the wisdom consciousness. that there is no inherent existence to be found. It sees and has been convinced that there is no inherent existence to be found. It sees the dependent core arising of the ignorance.

[41:54]

It sees the dependent core arising of things and sees that dependent core and inherent existence are contradictory. So in this world of... In the meditation on dependent core arising, as one enters into this meditation on dependent core arising, one comes to... in the world of dependent core arising.

[43:24]

The dependent core arising of suffering and the dependent core arising of the end of suffering. Living in the world of the dependent core rising and the end of suffering, we're living in the world of mutuality with all beings. And living in this world means freedom from suffering for you. But it also means freedom from suffering for everybody, because it's the world of mutuality. Baijong said, if one is liberated, a thousand follow.

[44:26]

And if you or I live in the world of the dependable arising of suffering, if you are suffering because you're deluded, If you're confused, then 10,000 are confused. So this is not to make you feel worse about being ignorant. You don't join in your fate. But in fact, they do. When you live in that world, other people share your suffering. Even the Buddhas share your suffering. You may not like this information but I'm still offering it. That when you're deluded the whole world is deluded with you. And when you're enlightened the whole world is enlightened with you.

[45:34]

And for me the information that the whole world is deluded with me encourages me Not that I want my delusion to be shared by other people, but just that it is. It's not relinquishing views, relinquishing false views, I would say, at least relinquishing misconceptions, relinquishing habitual views. Emptiness actually, when realized, is you actually see something. So when you relinquish habitual views of inherent existence, you get to see a view of no inherent existence. That's a view. But you don't have to relinquish it immediately. A little while until it becomes slightly habitual, and then you have to relinquish that view too.

[46:47]

As soon as any view is habitual, it's time to relinquish it. So that's emptiness, that's the middle way, that's the pinnacle arising. But I also want to say that beyond relinquishing the views, these persons who have no inherent existence and no location, You've given up everything. By giving up everything, you enter into the world where your fate is everybody else's fate. Did I ever say before that that...

[47:53]

In the world of delusion and suffering, your fate is the same as everybody else's fate. Yes. That's not the deluded point of view. The deluded point of view is that your fate is not other people's fate. But in the world where you think you are other people's fate, It's other people's fate to share in your fate of suffering because you think you don't share the fate of other people and they don't share yours. I like that one myself. Is there any kind of, what do you call it, osmotic pressure on that one? In other words, do you have any problem that your fate is other people's fate and their fate is yours? In the world of delusion.

[49:04]

Now, if you have no problems with that in the world of delusion, that your suffering is their suffering, which that you might not mind, that they share your suffering. What do we say? Suffering likes, what is it? Company. Misery likes company. Misery. loves company. Misery loves company. So that part we don't mind. That other people would share in my misery. But do I feel like other people's misery is I share that. And if I hear that teaching and I try that on and finally I get to the place where I feel like other people I share it. Then I'm suddenly in the other world. of liberation from suffering where they share my liberation. Relinquishing of my separation from their suffering. Now, if I relinquish it, I'm in the world where now I'm sharing my freedom.

[50:08]

So both, if you feel free, somewhat free, do you feel fine about sharing your freedom with others and letting them be free? Is your liberty as much of as you. You like your liberty, can they have as much? And similarly, you don't like your suffering, can you have as much as them? Even if they have more. For me, this has a kind of It's a good one. Is there any extent to which I don't want your suffering? But even if I don't want it, can I say, but I share it anyway? Or is there a little bit of resistance to your suffering in me?

[51:12]

That's what it's like in the world of suffering, to have some resistance to yours and other people's suffering, but particularly to theirs. Because if you're suffering, if I'm suffering amount X, then I actually am resisting sharing the suffering of somebody else who is experiencing X minus 100. Isn't that funny? Some people are suffering less than us, and sometimes we don't, we can't share theirs because we're stuck in ours, which is more. I mean, I'd like to suffer less, right? Like, you're suffering less than me. I'm suffering terrifically. I'd like to suffer less, but somehow I can't suffer less because I won't share your suffering with you, which is much less than mine. My suffering is so serious that I can't, like, not have this level of suffering by sharing. A good state.

[52:21]

Isn't that funny? Why can't we do that? How come? Well, because we're attached to our suffering. A weird thing to be attached to, but at least it's ours. And then we get to keep being separate, which is why we're suffering. Now, this other side of it is, I've got suffering and these other people have more. That's maybe easier to understand. But actually, I think people have as much trouble sharing the suffering of people who are better off as they do with sharing the suffering in those who seem to be suffering more. I think because we're attached to our baby, our suffering. We feel like we must suffer exactly like this, which is true. But, although that's true, we can at the same time share all these other varieties. I think that, to me, today, that's the main point. Not that I try to escape or control my suffering.

[53:24]

I don't do either. I just face mine. But not only do I face mine, but I open to everybody else's. I mean, that's the idea. That's the meditation. And that's the meditation of Zen, which is When one understands, many do. When one suffers, many do. When one is, what do you say? When one is liberated, 10,000 follow. And similarly, if you're working with one person and helping one person, you help that one person and 10,000 follow. There's a, on the top of one of the Natsumes at Green Gulch, it says something like that, has a bunch of leaves on the top, and it says, I think, doesn't it say that on the Natsume? Seeds? And does it say on the lid of the Natsume?

[54:31]

From one, ten thousand spring forward. So, from your liberation, Everybody shares your liberation, but also when you're helping one person, if you help that one person, that helps many. And this is not a way to let you off easy so you only have to save one person. I wouldn't use it. It's more to help you realize that you share everybody else's enlightenment and you share everybody else's suffering and vice versa. And this is because of emptiness. This is because things are empty and independently co-arisen. And this is the... And one more thing I want to say before anything else happens is that is, I was in the middle of talking about how I get tempted when people tell me about their practice to tell them something to do.

[55:34]

And I used to tell people what to do, something to do, about how to take care of the cow. But now I less and less do that. And part of the reason why I feel able to do that is because there's other people around who will tell them what to do. Other practice leaders, they can go up to them and they'll actually tell them, here, I found this new and you won't be sleepy anymore. It doesn't have any caffeine in it. And Which seems fine, you know? I mean, if I had that thing, it would be hard for me not to say, well, wait here, take this. Don't tell anybody I gave it to you. It really works. It really, like, wakes you up. Permanently. But, you know, I really feel like that's not the spirit of practice.

[56:38]

I think the spirit of practice is when you have a lousy practice, don't get involved in your lousy practice. And that means like, okay, I got a lousy practice and I'm not going to get involved in my lousy practice because that's going to fix my lousy practice. That's still getting involved. There's nothing I can do to clarify ignorance. There's nothing I can do to wake up. There's nothing I can do to get my practice on track. Right. There's nothing you can do. Actually, there's even nothing you can do to make your practice... You can't make your practice any worse either.

[57:45]

You can't make yourself any lazier. There's nothing I can do. Right. Now we're talking. But let's not talk too much about this. So anyway, I try not to tell you anything you can do to fix your practice. And when I adjust your posture, I'm not trying to fix your... I'm not trying to fix your posture. It's just an act of devotion. I'm not improving you. I'm not trying to improve you. I'm not trying to control myself. It's just that if I'm slouching, there's a possibility for me to do an act of devotion called sitting up straight.

[58:50]

Why is it an act of devotion? Is it an act of control? I don't see it that way. I don't have to see it that way. Is it an act of escape from the situation? I don't have to see it that way. I can see it as an act of devotion, an act of doing something which I think would be nice for me, called sitting up straight, which makes the pain in my heart have more room to suffer, which makes the pain in the back of my neck easier to tolerate, which seems healthier. So I do that, but I don't have to get into that it's an improvement, a control, or an escape. And then maybe that doesn't last very long. And so then there's a chance to express devotion again rather than, oh, darn, that didn't work. It's like another opportunity to practice devotion to this body. But I can't do anything.

[59:53]

I can't even do devotion. But if I live in the world of mutuality, if I see mutuality, then that vision allows body and mind to respond to suffering beings in a caring way, in a devoted way. I don't do it, but the vision of mutuality lets it happen without me doing it.

[60:56]

I don't do the thing about people. I just do. I don't do that. I just do. Just like before we said, I don't age my body. It just does. Dependent on birth, it ages. Dependent on a vision of, dependent go arising, there's caring about beings. Not just caring, but there's responding in a caring way. Not in a controlling way, not in an escaping way, in a caring way. because that's the world that we're living in. It's all shared. So, again, enlightenment, the Buddha, is, what is it, Yunman asked,

[62:00]

And I don't have the original of the Blue Cliff record, but he said, what was the Buddha's conduct? I don't know if he said this actually, but what was the Buddha's conduct for his entire lifetime? And you could say, what was the Buddha doing? He wasn't doing this. How was the Buddha being led along together with all beings? How was the Buddha led together with all beings his whole lifetime? And Yunmin said, one translation, which I like, an appropriate response. But another translation, which is kind of clunky, but I think picks up another aspect of it is, meeting each responding. Three characters, meeting and then character for one, which means and responding. The nice thing about that one is it emphasizes that it's a one-time deal.

[63:08]

This particular suffering, this particular cry, when the Buddha meets that cry or hears that cry, on that occasion, there's a response. That's it. Let's see, it's just a response on that occasion, which is also related to apropos. Apropos means, appropriate means to apropos. to this case so in mutuality not only do we naturally respond caringly but because in mutuality we have no we don't we don't hold the policy the policies arrived at mutually so what was helpful a minute ago we don't necessarily hold on to if we hold on to what was good a minute ago then we have what we call like a behavior we're holding the right thing and doing the right thing rather than practicing together and the appropriate thing happens in individual behavior i hold it and i'm doing it in the conduct of the buddha i'm not holding it you're not holding it but working together

[64:25]

there's the appropriate response. And this can happen when I see or when there is the vision of dependent co-arising. So, again, sitting in mind like a wall away, our eyes open to dependent co-arising. When our eyes open to dependent co-arising, we are in the world of mutuality. In the world of mutuality, we respond appropriately. just like the Buddha. But the ways we respond, the Buddha never had a chance to do, because we're now in a new world of mutuality, so our responses will be the ones we're talking about here, the ones we're seeing. And there's no one like this before. Okay.

[65:33]

Is that enough for today? I would like to do another class. If you can remember, this is a context class. This is the big picture of the class. The next class, I think I'd like to go into detail about how, you know, in this realm of where there's nothing you can do about clarifying ignorance, I'd like to go into the world of clarifying ignorance that you can't do. Into the details of clarifying ignorance, which I can't do. But I tell you, before the class, it's going to be really, you know, a tough thing not to get involved in.

[66:39]

Really detailed. And the grasping mind might start to come up. And it might be really hard. So maybe the next class, if you don't want to get in there, you're excused. I'll warn you again beforehand. Yeah, I will. I mean, if I remember. But it does nauseate some people to look at ignorance. Ignorance. Thank you.

[67:42]

Since the blackboard is here, I just thought I might write something on the board. Sorry. You're worried about her. Yeah. I'm sorry. The blackboard's way back here. But what I'm going to write is really simple. I have a mathematical and mathematics, as some of you may have heard, is the language of reality. When physicists and chemists and stuff want to express their findings in a way that can be tested in reality, they use mathematics.

[69:17]

So anyway, what I wrote on the board is A equals and I wrote error, which means implies A does not equal A. The fact that A equals A implies that A does not equal A. Or the fact that A equals A is precisely the reason why A does not equal A. This is what I call the logic of unsupported thought. This is the logic of Prajnaparamita. Notice it does not say the fact that A is A means that A is B. It doesn't say that. It doesn't violate conventional reality by saying that A equals B. A equals A, which is conventional reality, is the reason why A does not equal A.

[70:26]

So, we can talk more about that next time. May our intention equally penetrate.

[70:39]

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