since the great earthquake and tidal wave struck Japan, consequences of which spread over the whole world. During these 10 days, it looks like another war has started in Libya. It's prevention, so far, is the language. UN forces are trying to protect civilians from the Libyan army. American children or young adults are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[01:16]

As I was coming into the hall, I saw our head cook who had just, I think, got back from Germany where she was taking care of her mother. ...was precarious. A week or so ago, my spouse's car, overheated, was destroyed. Last night my spouse did not... She stayed in the East Bay because her mother was taken to the emergency room with an infection.

[02:30]

And she stayed all night in the hospital with her. And today... It could probably be a surgery to try to clean the infection. But she's 94 and such operations are very precarious. In the middle of the night, the power went out here. It's dark this morning with candles. And I wondered if I would be able to be heard if I gave a talk today. I've gotten used to electronic support.

[03:37]

Can you hear me in the back? I can yell though, but I haven't been doing it for quite a few years. I don't know if my voice would hold up. My throat is growing old and closing. My body is shrinking. Originally, I've heard, there is the unborn in which there's not even an originally. River.

[04:41]

The river becomes a road and spreads out and covers the whole world, or makes a firm surface upon the river. But because this road was originally a river, It yearns for the original flow of events. On the road there is then constructed houses and individual selves.

[05:57]

nuclear power plants and skyscrapers. The world is split into two, self and the world. In order to have something firm to hold on to, But this whole constructed world is just imagination. And it was constructed so that we could have something to hold on to in the flow, so we could anticipate, predict, and premeditate which are very useful tools for living beings, great accomplishments of biological evolution.

[07:13]

But we forget that they're just tools. And when the road cracks and the houses fall and the selves change. We become anxious and afraid and stressed. We keep doing something to get control of the situation, to get a hold of something permanent. But everything is originally impermanent and flowing. So it's a constant In the midst of this, as I mentioned recently, in Minnesota, they say there's two seasons in the year, winter and road construction, or road repair, actually.

[08:23]

Because in the winter, the roads freeze and crack and buckle. And then when the roads are not frozen, they spend the rest of the year trying to repair them for the next winter. In the midst of this constant construction and destruction, this constant construction of self and the world, things and the challenge that reality meets them with, it's hard to remember to practice. And what is practice? Practice. it's hard to remember to ask, what is practice?

[09:33]

When the car overheats, what is practice? When the great wave hits, or is coming and hits, it's hard to remember, what is practice? When the house falls down, when the memory's gone, when the health changes, it's hard to remember, what is practice? When a new building is constructed and looks so lovely and solid, it's hard to remember, what is practice? Even building a new meditation hall, everyone may look at it and think, oh, it looks so lovely and solid, it'll last maybe hundreds of years. Can practice there. Yes, it is wonderful that people can practice there. But what's the practice? And how about now? What's the practice when you look at a newly constructed building? Both in the coming of the new and the going of the old, it's hard to remember

[10:48]

What is practice? To ask what is practice. But asking what is practice, which is hard to remember to do, is practice. It's hard to remember. Even in the river it's hard to remember. Even in the river, even in the flow of event, it's hard to remember what is practice, to ask what is practice. And in a way, it's equally hard or maybe harder to remember it as we're building it and as it's cracking. As we're building a house, it's hard to remember, what is practice?

[11:54]

Because we're trying to build a house and put the bricks in the proper position. We're concentrating, which of course, if we're building a building, building it well actually goes with asking the question, what is practice? So building it skillfully, actually remember the question, what is practice? But it's still hard to remember to ask the question, what is practice, when you're building it skillfully, because building it skillfully is hard too. It's hard to concentrate on your work. But concentrating on the work is compatible with the guarantee that you'll ask, while you're doing your work skillfully, What is practice? What is the way of enlightenment? Right now, while I'm carefully doing this, while I'm carefully making lunch, carefully cleaning, because when we're cleaning the house, it could be that we're trying to make the house clean permanently.

[13:10]

We're trying to get a substantially established clean meditation. When we try to make substantial things, it's very hard to remember that things are insubstantial. Not impossible, just difficult. Just very difficult. And then, of course, when the things fall apart, again, it's hard to remember. And what do we teach our children? We teach them, build your house out of straw or grass. When the wolf comes and he huffs and he puffs and he blows on your house, he'll blow your house down.

[14:15]

And then if you build it out of, I don't know what the next material... Huh? Sticks. If you build your house out of sticks, when the wolf comes and he or she blows and blows, she'll blow your house down. But if you build your house out of bricks, then when the wolf blows and... it won't blow your house down because you built a permanent... house. And that's the thing to do. And get everybody in the permanent house until we're protected from the wolf. Now we're protected from the wolf, but we're also now in prison. We can't get out. Not until what? Not until the wolf blows the house down, then we can get out. But otherwise, we don't dare get out because the wolf's out there.

[15:18]

So we're safe and trapped and scared and stressed. And it's hard to remember to practice. But then a poem might come to mind, especially if you memorize it. And you can memorize this poem today, which I memorized some time ago. It was less than 1300 years ago. when I memorized this poem. But this poem was expressed about 1,300 years ago, maybe. Leaky tumble-down grass hut or straw hut.

[16:25]

This leaky tumble-down grass hut leaves openings for the moon. Now I... the moon, that is. All the while, it was reflected in the teardrops falling on my sleeves. When we sense or see a crack in our house, we may cry. When we sense or see a crack in our body, in our friends, in our loved ones, we may cry.

[17:33]

It's hard to remember at the moment of crying to look at the teardrop to say, when you see the teardrop, what is practice? Or on the roof, what is practice? Power was out, but the room wasn't leaking. How nice it was to sit here, to listen to the rain rather than feel the rain dropping on us. It's very nice. But when the crack opens and you look at it and say, when you remember to wonder what is practice when the roof cracks open and the rain comes in, then we can see the moon.

[18:43]

If we've been crying for a while about this house that's falling apart, it's never too late to notice the moon and the tears. The moon is in the tears, the moon is in the sky, the moon is everywhere, but we have to look at it. We have to remember that it's there and not be just trying to patch the roof. It's okay to patch the roof, but can we remember to practice? We don't have to make the house fall down. It'll do that naturally. The eye that clearly sees the practice

[19:57]

is the eye that clearly sees the truth, the moon. This is called the essential pivot of the Buddha ancestors. The pivot of always looking at things in terms of how you can practice with them. That way of looking at them turns into the way of looking which sees the truth. What is the practice? Rather than, how can I avoid getting hit again?

[21:11]

And how come you hit me? What is the practice here? Look at our new meditation hall. Oh, isn't it beautiful? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We built this building, we rebuilt this building in the 1990s to make it earthquake something. Earthquake something. Safe or what's the word after that? What? Earthquake proof, earthquake resistant, earthquake sound, but I think something like safe, but there's also something like a, huh? We retrofitted it to be earthquake something.

[22:15]

And there's various words you can put after that. You could put after it was acceptable to the government. you know, as a reasonable amount of retrofitting. Because even, not even, because construction workers and government officials do know that it's only to an earthquake of a certain size, and I think actually the number that this building was built to withstand is less than the one that happened off Japan. I don't think this is built for that size earthquake. So if an earthquake happens here, well, it's, you know, you can go outside, hopefully. We have more exits.

[23:19]

Or you can stand in the doorway or get under the tonnage All these are reasonable things to do, but while you're getting under the tan, while you're going out the door, maybe you could remember every step of the way. What is practice? What is practice under the circumstances of an earthquake? What is practice when your loved one is sick or when you are sick? What is the practice? What is the practice? How can we remember that in the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? How can we remember? Well, by remembering. The more you remember, the more you remember. But it's not, your memory of practice is also not a permanent thing. So somehow it's happened that this building has been built for us to come in here and talk about remembering to practice.

[24:28]

When the building falls down, the first practice is to say thank you. On the list of practices on the Buddha Way, we don't have a practice called no thank you. You can say, no, thank you, but you really mean thank you. We have the practice of welcoming insults. But when someone insults us, it's hard to remember to welcome an insult. When someone tells us that we're unwelcoming, that we're a host, that we're a stingy hostess. When they say that to us, it's hard to say, to feel and remember to feel or to look for. How can I welcome this insult? I heard that's practice.

[25:35]

How can I welcome? Outage? Failure? What's some other words? Do we have a power outage this morning? Did we have a power failure? Did we have a power cut? Did we have a power reduction? Vacation? Did we welcome it? Did we welcome it? Each of us who experienced it can look. Did I remember to welcome it? I think I missed it. Then I remembered to welcome it. Then we can start constructing again. Well, it's actually nice to be in the dark. But then the next practice to remember is to be careful. Be careful when the house falls down. Be careful when you're... Be careful when... Be careful.

[26:49]

Be vigilant. Be careful of every action. But not again to get back in control... But in the context of being generous, be careful. In the context of practicing rather than trying to grasp permanence again. When you're trying to get things to be permanent and under control, be careful then too. In both cases, if you're trying to make things stable and permanent, control, being careful, goes with that nicely. But in a way it even goes better with being with the flow and being with the impermanence of the constructions. It goes even better with them because practicing

[27:52]

being careful with destruction, we're right in the middle of seeing reality. If you're practicing with destruction and trying to reconstruct, again, being careful is compatible with turning towards practice, towards looking at the destruction rather than denying it and trying to close the hole in the roof so you get rid of the moon. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't repair the roof. And then be patient with the pain the pain of the destruction, the impermanence that's in the face of our construction.

[29:03]

Be patient with the discomfort of it. It's painful to have our body change, to have other people's body change. It's painful. To have the constructive change, is painful. And then in seeing the practice in these situations, there is contemplating enthusiasm. Enthusiasm about what? About the practice. Remembering how good it is. Why is it good? Because if we don't open the eye of practice in this situation,

[30:07]

If we keep denying the flow of events and keep trying to confront that insult to them, a more energetic attempt to control and construct, again it contributes. If we contemplate that, you'll see it contributes to stress, constant striving, anxiety, violence, ill will, unreasonable desire, unwholesome behaviors. Contemplating that, we become more . We aspire to practice with events, practice with construction, practice with destruction.

[31:10]

learn to practice constructing without making things, trying to make things. Try to make things as skillfully as possible while understanding that they're going to fall apart. They're going to come apart when the conditions which sustain them are no longer present. And then what good is it to build things if they're not going to last? Well, consider that. It still might be good to clean the house even though it's not going to be permanently clean. I live in a house here at Green Gulch and I often clean it, or anyway, tidy it up. And then some other people come into the house and change it in such a way that the house becomes untidy.

[32:23]

And one time those people went away for a while. And the house got tidied up. And they went away. Just kept being tidy, tidy, tidy. But I still was hungry for the river. And I wanted them to come back and mess it up. Because the messing up the house... that this clean house is actually just a road on top of a river. And really, it's okay to have a road, but we need the river because that's our first home. We are hungry to go back in the river

[33:31]

And living on the road is stressful, but they're not separate. The river is the road and the road is the river. And that's why the road breaks, no matter what we do. So when the road breaks, it's an opportunity to return to our true home. But we have to practice this shock with this destruction in order to realize this. Still, I wish to make a donation to the Earthquake Relief Fund.

[34:37]

And I pray that the Japanese people, and I think they are, but I pray that they practice with this great challenge I see that some of them are practicing with it. And it's very helpful. And we can practice with it too. Now the airplanes and there's some radioactive above normal radioactivity with these airplanes coming from Japan in the luggage and in the people. And public health officials are saying, yes, the radioactivity of these planes is above normal. However, it's considerably below what is harmful.

[35:46]

So don't become agitated and take some of these medicines, which may be bad for you. Don't do anything in response to it other than be informed. But they don't say, the public health people don't say, practice with this radiation. Wonder, what is the practice with this radiation? So, I'm saying it. The practice with this situation in Libya What is the practice with the muddy land and the wet roads?

[37:17]

What is the practice? Be careful. Be vigilant. Yes, that's good. And this is a way to practice while you're driving. Not just to be in control of the car. but to open your eyes to the truth. And that pivots right there. The truth and the practice turn on each other. The truth is always before us, and the eye that sees it is the eye that practices with it. Not the truth. Well, I shouldn't say not the truth, but the I that sees the way to practice with the superficial, constructive is the I that sees the truth, free of our constructions, free of our constructions about who we are, who other people are,

[38:34]

The eye that sees that truth of others and self is the eye that sees practicing with ourself and practicing with others. Being gracious with others, being gracious with ourselves. Being careful and vigilant of others. Careful of everybody you meet and be careful and vigilant of yourself. being patient with others and being patient with yourself. Be patient with their pain. Be patient with your pain. Be patient with their pain and how they express themselves when they're in pain. Sometimes when they're in pain they express themselves by insulting us or accusing us. So to be patient with their pain, to be patient with their and be patient with the pain we feel about their pain and about their attacks of themselves or others or ourself.

[39:49]

And again, look to see if you're enthusiastic about practicing in this way. You aspire to someday constantly practice with every situation And also, do you aspire to be really calm and concentrated? And again, do you aspire to constantly question, what is the enlightened practice now? Now. And now. What is it? Not necessarily — you may get a response. It would be that you would help me right now. Okay, I hear you. But that doesn't mean you stop wondering what it is. The questioning is the working of wisdom. The answering is another thing to question.

[40:53]

So that's a little bumper sticker for you. Questioning is the working of wisdom. The answer is the next thing to question. Don't grasp the answer to what is practice, but receive it gratefully and wonder what practice is as you get an answer to the question of what is practice. That bumper sticker got too long. It needs to be edited way back to the beginning. There's so many songs to sing.

[42:49]

I wonder which one would be best for practice. Heaven, I'm in heaven and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak and I seem to find the happiness I seek when we're out together practicing cheek to cheek. Heaven, I'm in heaven

[44:13]

And the cares that bothered me throughout the week seemed to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak when we're here together practicing cheek to cheek. May. [...] Seng-gai. No, I think that's wrong. I've got three things to mention.

[45:21]

It might be sen-yu or sen-yo. I'm sorry. I'm reminded this week that terraforming recently had to do with the three, four billion years of our planet and the interaction of biology with having to do with the river turning into the road. We wouldn't exist without plate tectonics, without earthquakes having to do with the silicate carbonate cycle, and I think cycle is the key word, of which volcanoes are part of it. Absolutely necessary for higher forms of life, if we are a higher form of life.

[46:26]

And this Dharma talk this morning, it seems spoke right to that. the idea of the other side of things. My wife's brother worked for a tie product company one time, to the extent that these ties on this building might be Simpson tie products from Oakland, California. The most favorite part of his job was on Friday as an engineer. they would test these ties by to learn the, which is the other way of looking at something like this. And then the last item I wanted to bring up, have you heard of the Japanese word called ganbatte, which is a new word to me, G-A-N-B-A-T-T-E? Ganbatte. Have you heard of it? Yes, a friend of mine lives in Tokyo, and in a beautiful letter, To me, he included a paragraph about Ganbatte, which apparently on many different layers it can get to the point of do your best.

[47:35]

Do your best. And they say Ganbatte Kudasai means please. So Ganbatte Kudasai, please do your best. Or another word, another way of translating Ganbatte is wholehearted. Please be wholehearted. That expression, gambate kudasai, is in Buddhist practice context, but it can also be used in sports or something. Anything else anyone wants to discuss? Yes? Yes? The last time I sent a letter to Japan, I was in high school. I saw some people in the post office yesterday, madly putting stuff together for their relatives.

[48:41]

I wanted to send something to our friend. Will it get to him, do you know? I don't know, but I think it will. I think if the post office accepts it, that they'll be your friend in their efforts to get it there. And once it gets to Japan, people in Japan will do gombate for you. They'll do their best to get this package to your friends. Japanese people are deeply impressed me about how diligent they are about helping each other and helping anybody on that island. If you're a guest in Japan, they really want to take good care of you. They may not want you to come in the first place, but once you're there, they really take good care of you.

[49:49]

Please come. Please come. Yeah, come in. Microphone, yes. With so many natural disasters, it almost seems like we're having disaster of the month, you know, first with Haiti and then with New Zealand, and there were others. And as each one passes, I'm feeling of somewhat incapacity to really lend a hand other than sending a check or sending a prayer. I would really like to understand some distillation of what exactly the practice as it relates to natural disasters or disasters in general. Well, body aging

[51:01]

And her body being sick, in a sense, is a natural disaster. Now, somebody may try to blame other people for their illness. But like my mother-in-law's infection in her leg is a natural disaster. And her daughter and I are trying to respond to this health disaster. and her brother and sister. The whole family is trying to respond in a practice way, which is to be gracious towards it, to welcome it, to say, okay, I'm here, totally here for you having this disease. Like my wife was with her mother all night last night. Her mother knew that she was there with her. And I think wife being gracious to offer her presence and also to receive her mother's illness and not tell her mother that she shouldn't be sick or that she wasn't sick or that there's no problem.

[52:14]

This kind of thing isn't necessary. We can just welcome the disaster and be there for it when it's affecting other living beings but also when it affects the land that we We are there. And one time, one of our students was murdered on the streets of San Francisco, one block from the Zen Center. And we went to the site of the murder and I was standing near his body and another student was standing next to me and he said to me, Why can't we always be like this? And I knew what he meant because the way we were with our dead friend was the way we want to be all the time.

[53:19]

We weren't complaining. We weren't blaming. We were just totally present there. There was no distraction. We weren't looking to make ourselves comfortable. We weren't trying to make ourselves uncomfortable. We were just there. And he was dead. by modern clinical evaluation, he was dead. They weren't trying to do anything for him medically. But we were there for him. We weren't there for any old person. We were there for him. And the way we were there for him was the way we want to be all the time and also the way we want to be for each other. Whether the other person is alive or dead, there's a way we want to be with that person, which is totally careful of what we say.

[54:24]

People weren't talking about baseball, you know? People were talking, he was talking, this guy was talking, and what he said was, why can't we always be like this? Why does it take a murder to be present? It doesn't always, but sometimes something like that will make us remember what we're here for. We're here to be present and open and careful and patient, not complaining how painful it is that a friend gets murdered, just to be there and to be calm and to wonder, why can't we be like this all the time? Why don't we practice all the time? This is the way we were at that time with this, you could say, unnatural disaster, a murder. But it's a kind of natural disaster because human beings are insane sometimes. And because of that, they naturally kill each other. So when you have a sick person, they do certain sick things, maybe.

[55:27]

So we have, in some sense, all of our disasters are natural. Disasters between humans, between humans and animals. between animals and humans, between and the humans and the land. Like humans, you could say open pit mining is kind of a natural disaster. Strip mining is kind of a natural disaster. Oil drilling is kind of a natural disaster from a certain perspective. Clear cutting forests is kind of a natural disaster. And then when the forests come on fire, that's a natural disaster. All of these things are in some sense just natural forces of cause and effect. And disaster means the stars are dissed. The stars are upset. You know, the cause and effect is difficult for us to accept and practice with. But sometimes when it's a disaster, we remember to practice. Sometimes when it's pleasant, we don't remember it.

[56:30]

to be present and uncomplaining and generous and careful and patient and calm so if you practice in response to these disasters I think that's the greatest gift you can give and you might also write a check but when you write the check hopefully you keep practicing while you write the check still be careful while you write it and be present and calm and patient while you write it. Don't be in a rush to finish writing. Take careful attention to each letter for the sake of the recipient. It's possible that they'll get the check and they'll look and be more impressed by that than the number. I went to a dental hygienist one time And she looked at my teeth and she said, you made my day.

[57:35]

The fact that I take care of my teeth is her. Because the fact that I take care of my teeth means that I think the work of caring for teeth is important. It's a gesture of respect towards her work. It isn't that I made her work easy. It's that I encouraged her that she does something that I think is important. too. So if you practice, that encourages other beings who are experiencing natural disasters. And not everything's a disaster, but everything's an opportunity for practice. Including disasters aren't more important than What's the thing that, is there a word that goes with disaster, something good that happened with the stars? So whether it's a gift, pleasant thing or unpleasant thing, what's important to me is that whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, in both cases, I practice.

[58:49]

Because that's our greatest gift, I think, in this world. You're welcome. Any other offerings? I actually don't know what my question is really. I don't know what my question is really. It doesn't have to be a question. It can be a statement like that. The struggle that I find... Can you hear him okay? The struggle that I find... Myself, I'm attracted to situations where we're all, you know, in heaven together. Turn it this way. I'm attracted to these situations where people are in heaven together.

[59:55]

You're attracted to heavenly situations? The thing is that I find myself wanting to be good or to do good and then Struggling with people because I want them to, I want things to work well. Yeah. And I find my expectation and if I fall into anything, I'm always falling back into there's, you know, blaming this other person, the Libyans or the people in my life or blaming myself for not doing something. Okay. Can you hear him? And if ever I sit back and be patient, then I can sort of dissolve that that goes away. But it keeps coming back all the time. It's a frequent visitor. Yes. It's not even a visitor.

[60:57]

It's a recurrent visitor. Yeah. Yeah, it's coming to visit for a while, either from the inside or the outside. this visitor is going to come. So the practice is to welcome this visitor So when you wish things to go well, that's a visit. Welcome that. When other people wish things to go well, welcome that. When your expectations of things going well do not manifest, welcome that unmanifested wellness or that unhelp, that illness or that misfortune. Welcome that. That's the first practice. And if you can't welcome it, welcome that. And you're telling me this right now that you wish things to go well and when they don't you have trouble welcoming it.

[61:59]

Telling me that is part of the practice also. It's called confessing that you're not doing something that you really would like to do. Part of me is enthused by that. Part of me... Did you tilt it up again? Part of me is enthused by that. Part of me feels like that's a recipe to be the lubricant for other people. Let me hold it a little farther away. Part of you is enthused at the possibility of this practice. Right. And part of you is feels that that's a recipe to be somebody else's lubricant. A recipe to what? To be somebody else's lubricant, to be just used by the world, to be stepped on and ignored and thrown away. And it's to be playing by a set of rules that seems unfair and unjust.

[63:03]

In a way that I could see it as you'd be a lubricant. Now, somebody would come and... perhaps insult me, and I would meet them with graciousness, so I would become a lubricant to them, to their insulting process, right? And I would lubricate them into the practice of generosity. They would slip, they would slide into generosity by that tricky practice of of me welcoming them when they're attacking me. I was myself lubricated into the practice of generosity by somebody who practiced generosity. So in that way you're a servant of people learning. When you practice generosity towards people who are insulting you, you're a servant to them to help them learn I believe it's probably true that I'm not really being generous because that's not the actual effect of my behavior.

[64:11]

Yeah, and to be aware of that, again, is the being careful. So when you practice generosity, you practice carefulness afterwards because even while you practice generosity, there can still be what we would say subtle ethical infractions. Mm-hmm. You're doing this good thing called being generosity, but there may be some subtle infraction there, so you be careful. And if you're being careful, that also then helps you go back to the generosity practice. Do it again in a more careful way, a more ethical way, with no kind of like hidden agendas and... I shouldn't say no hidden agendas, but... with the awareness of the hidden agenda, the agendas have now been exposed. And there's still some awareness that there may be other hidden agendas, other agendas that are still hidden. In other words, practice generosity with an awareness that you have unconscious processes simultaneously. And that by practicing generosity over and over, the unconscious processes are affected and evolved

[65:18]

towards cooperation and integration with the practice of giving. But when we first start practicing giving, not first, but as we practice giving it's a long process for the giving to become completely purified of all delusion. So deluded people start giving and when they do there's some defilement or delusion in their giving process, but by continually practicing it and being careful along with it, the whole process of the living being becomes revolutionized so that someday the giving could be completely and non-dualistic. I'm encouraged by that. I still feel that there are moments when in fact it doesn't, it seems to be the reverse. It seems like I am collapsing and becoming more and becoming less skillful as I become more aware.

[66:24]

That's possible that sometimes you'll become, you know what I call it, more unselfish than you were before. It's possible that today I'm more selfish than I was yesterday. That's possible. That can happen. I could say I'm pretty good at working on my selfishness and then moving to a day where I'm not working on my selfishness. I'm just indulging in it completely, much more than I did the day before. That can happen. That's part of the core. setbacks do occur on the path of selfishness. People on the path of selfishness have setbacks too. The setbacks they have is everything that they want to have happen not happen. People on the path of getting over selfishness, they have setbacks too. But their setbacks are not when bad things happen to them. Their setbacks are when they indulge in selfishness.

[67:26]

which means that when they don't practice generosity. But people who are being stingy and do not wish to practice generosity, they don't have setbacks in generosity. They don't have setbacks in getting what they're trying to get for themselves. So the spiritual path, you have setbacks on being spiritual. In the selfish path, you have setbacks on being selfish. In other words, people are not cooperating with your selfish program. The other one is you're not cooperating with being selfless. You're being selfish. But that's a normal part of it. Even the great Buddhas have told stories about their past selfishness. Told stories about how they were shocked to see how selfish they were. But somebody who sees unselfishness is growing spiritually. For me to be shocked at how selfish I am is a spiritual growth. event. For me to be shocked how selfish you are and not welcome you, that's a spiritual growth thing.

[68:41]

Thank you for the words and the songs. Pardon? Thank you for the words and the songs. You're welcome. Thank you for the words. And you didn't sing a song, did you? Stephen, did you wish to offer something? I just wanted to thank you for coming today. You could have been elsewhere. I just wanted to thank you for your generosity. You're welcome. Please come. Thank you for being here. I have a question about something you shared.

[69:54]

You said, if I heard correctly, that natural disasters include the BP oil spill and that that's a natural disaster because I think You also framed it as being part of cause and effect. Yeah. Do you have a problem with the word unnatural being applied to a man-made disaster? Did you say you have a problem using the word natural? Yes. I would consider it an unnatural because it's not directly, but is... human-caused out of our lack of understanding. Did you say human-caused? Yes. Yeah, so I guess you don't consider human-caused natural-caused, but I consider human beings as natural phenomena. We are, but I would call it a perversion.

[71:00]

understanding as opposed to our human understanding. I agree that human beings can have perverted understanding. And when they have a perverted understanding, then I'm saying that what they do based on that perverted understanding is a natural event in the sense that they are acting out of their perversion. They think that this is good and that's not correct and then they do something which is harmful to nature based on their perverted thinking. But perverted thinking I see as a natural phenomenon arising in biological organisms like Thank you for clarifying that for me. Thank you for your question. That allows me to see your reasoning. My other question, or my question for you, and one that I've been... working on for many, many years, is what is our purpose here?

[72:01]

I can see the purpose of so many living organisms of which we are a part of the whole web of life. But I'm wondering what our purpose is when I see that much of what human beings in is not understanding that we're connected to the web of life and doing a great deal of destruction so maybe on some spiritual level it's growth so that we grow beyond it before we're gone i mean i don't know anyway i would pose that question thank you so much for being here I think for me it's important that I ask myself, what is my intention, what is my purpose in life?

[73:15]

I keep looking at that, which is similar to if I say my purpose is to practice the path of peace of the Buddhas, If I say that's my purpose, then that's the answer, but then I ask again, what's my purpose or what's the practice? So for me, the answer that comes is to live in a way that promotes peace and happiness among beings. That's my purpose. But other people may have other purposes that they feel in response to that question. Like some people get rich. And then you might say, what's the purpose of that? And they say, well, then so I can give my wealth to my children. And then one might ask, so is part of your purpose to care for your family? And the person might say, yes.

[74:17]

And that might be... And I might say, is that even a higher priority than the wealth? Is that the main thing, is to take care of your family? And the person might say, yes. So that's their purpose, is to take care of their family. And that's... And so in that way, I would... with that person, that value. Because my purpose is also to take care of my family. And maybe my family is expanding to include more and more beings. So I would share with that person, yes, I want to take care of my family too, and I want to include more people in my family, more and more, so that I That's my value. And that person might say, well, I don't feel that way. So at that time, I would try to include that person who doesn't want to expand his family in my family.

[75:20]

Like I have people in my family, especially young ones in my family, who do not wish their family to grow. They want to keep it small. But I see them as part of my family. And if I have a bigger family, my family who do not have a big family, those people may see that I have a bigger family so that they have someone in their family who has a bigger family. And then we'll interact with that so that my values and their values are interacting. And they'll see whether I'm attached to my big family and trying to shame them into having a bigger family, in which case I don't think I'm really practicing what I'm preaching. So I think it's a growth that we expand our family of beings to include the whole ocean of beings, the whole sky of beings, the whole earth of beings.

[76:27]

That's my value. But I know there's some people who I wish to include in that who do not share that value. And I wish to make them as dear as those who share my values. So, yeah. Okay. Any other offerings? Christine? So you talked about practice and you gave a lot of good examples about how one practices and what that looks like. And then earlier in your talk, you talked about the idea in that poem of the moon being reflected in the tear. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the relationship of a practice of generosity that's really to me seems on, I mean,

[77:29]

seems to be a very warm practice, compassion, generosity, kind of a very tangible thing as opposed to the metaphor of the moon as this truth that's kind of crisp and cold and distant in a way, to me at least, and how that practice relates to that idea of truth. Does that make sense? Yeah. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that the moon is reflected in the teardrops. And the teardrops, when they first come out of your eyes, and they come, you know, they often come from, you know, you're grieving over impermanence. You're grieving over someone dying or your roof blowing off or you getting sick.

[78:36]

We cry and then So that crying is the current opportunity for practice. So if you consider, or a coldness, cold comes. Someone is cold to you. Or you're cold to someone else. And you're warm towards, you practice warmth towards that coldness. In some sense the moon is used as an example I think mainly just for its illumination and the illumination is not necessarily considered warm. But the illumination can be seen as something which brings light to the warmth. Shows you that the warmth perhaps is not Warm.

[79:39]

It's a light that shows you that, yeah, that's crisp, that helps you see that things are not just the way they appear to you, that you can't actually grasp warmth. Warmth sounds good, but you're not really being generous towards it. So the truth which will come to you if you practice warmth towards all beings and carefulness towards all beings and patience with all beings and concentration with all beings, the light, the clear light that comes with that, the wisdom light, will purify all those practices of any self-clinging or grasping to them. And any self-clinging or grasping to these good practices causes them to become, well, exhausting.

[80:44]

These practices will be exhausting if while practicing them you grasp them. And we can practice generosity and we can practice ethics in a grasping way. It's still good to practice them, even in a grasping way, because practicing in a grasping way will lead to being able to see them in the light of the cool, clear moon. And when you see them in the clear moon, you'll see, oh, there's some clinging there. But really, there really isn't any clinging. And there really isn't anything to cling to. And that could be seen as cool, that kind of cool vision of the fact that you can't grasp anything. But that cool vision is based, you know, like sometimes we say, cool eyes or cool head and warm eyes. belly.

[81:46]

So the clear vision of wisdom that sees that there's nothing really to be done and nothing to be grasped, no beings to help, that's a huge warmth towards all beings. If you see that there's no beings but you don't feel warmth towards them, you should Let go of that seeing of no beings. Bodhisattva's seeing that there's no beings is based on this huge warm tummy and warm heart. So there is a kind of coolness to wisdom in a way. Wisdom is cool. And I came to Zen because I thought it was cool. I didn't think it was cold, I thought it was cool. Yes. Is that from there? Somebody over there? Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. I'll keep it short.

[82:47]

Maybe. Keep it short, maybe. So I find myself, well, I found myself rooting for the British and the French to pound Gaddafi. and his troops that are trying to dismember the hopes for a more democratic Libya. I'm thinking I shouldn't be rooting for death, but I am, because I feel that more death will happen if Gaddafi has his way. I hear you. Well, it's possible maybe to, you see someone about to hurt someone, and you might be rooting for somebody who is trying to protect both parties from harm.

[83:51]

So it's possible that you might see, oh, this person is about to hurt that person. Person A is about to hurt person B. Person C, who protects both person A and person B from harm. One could hope for that. And without having an ill will towards the aggressor, but hoping that the aggressor will come up and see how much more wonderful it is to stop being cruel to that person and thereby protect the potential harm-ee from the potential harm-er. Not wishing just to protect the potential and harm the harmer. It's possible to adjust your vision a little bit. However, admitting what you just said is part of the path of realizing this impartial beneficence towards both aggressors and aggressees.

[84:59]

Okay? I appreciate your honesty. What I'm talking about doesn't make a very good movie. I think in addition to your question, Christine's question, I'm wondering in the Hindu tradition, can you hear me? In the Hindu tradition, in the yogic tradition, it seems like they talk about our original self, that it has a kind of foundation of this. Yeah, there's like being, consciousness, and bliss, or ananda, as I understand it.

[86:09]

And in the Zen tradition, we say that the true self, our original self, is empty. There's nothing graspable about it. I mean, maybe bliss is not graspable, but I never hear any Zen teacher talk about kind of bliss. Oh, you don't? Well, you want to know now? Yes. The zazen I speak of, the zazen I speak of, the sitting meditation that I'm teaching, is the dharma gate of peace and bliss. It is totally culminated in enlightenment. can never reach it. So it's peace and bliss, but you can't trap the peace and bliss. It's not only peace and bliss, it is cool peace and bliss.

[87:10]

It's like you can't even get a hold of this peace and bliss. You can't move it. It's so big you can't get over it, and so big you can't get under it. It's like cool. But it is bliss. And peace. Now you heard a Zen teacher talk about it. But we also emphasize you can't find it. You can't find this bliss. You can live it, you can taste it, but you can't find it. And you can't find any Buddhists or any Hindus either. Yes, you want to come? Are you brothers? You two? You two look like each other. No, no.

[88:14]

The guy with the gray on. Look at each other. Is he good looking or what? Thanks. Is he good looking? No, what? Embarrassing. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I won't call you a handsome devil anymore. Just curious. Thanks. I'm nervous about this mic as well. Thanks a lot for the talk. It was really great. What I've really taken away from it is the importance of being welcoming and receptive and generous and that those are all very close. But I'm wondering if you... Is the side effect becoming very passive in your relations with others?

[89:26]

No, that could be a side effect. A side effect of being generous could be that you become passive. Another side effect of being generous is that you become very, what's the opposite of passive? So a side effect of being generous can be that you'd be active or passive. Those are side effects that could happen. When you're practicing generosity, you're ready for all side effects. When you're practicing generosity, you don't say, well, I'm practicing generosity, but we're not having those kinds of side effects. That's not what generosity is like. I'm practicing generosity, and I'm totally open to all the side effects. I see it with generosity, but I have questions about being so welcoming. Can being welcoming have an active aspect? Synonym. Very welcoming, and I do try it. end up getting sort of just talked at a lot by... Talked at a lot?

[90:31]

Yeah. Again, thanks for your question, because you can welcome somebody and then you can say, would you stand a little farther away, please? You can say, welcome! And the person can come up real close and say, would you back up a little? Or you say, excuse me, you stay right there, please. Okay? Okay. I welcome you to stand there. Now, I'm going to back up two steps because I feel uncomfortable. So you also welcome that you feel uncomfortable when they get too close. Or the person's talking at you. He feels they're talked at. But you've already welcomed them. And now you're welcoming them talking at you. And then you welcome saying, could I say something? So welcoming doesn't mean that you don't give other things. When you welcome somebody, Give them other gifts, too, like boundaries, like requests. But you're doing it in a welcoming way rather than a controlling way. Welcoming is receptive, yes.

[91:36]

Welcoming is an action that's receptive. It's not exactly passive. It's more like, Yeah, it's also passive. Passive means that you're receiving it. So it's passive, receptive, and it's also active. Generosity is a way to get over the duality between passive and active. That's the ultimate purpose of generosity, is to get over actor-action separation. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for the question. Thank you. You're welcome. So I've been doing a generosity practice for months and months, and it's really fun.

[92:38]

Really, really fun. Well, it was until I got to a little point, and it was with my partner, and I discovered that I had sort of an unconscious part of the practice, which was that I was hoping that he would become true, you know, that it would just happen. And when that didn't happen, I became extremely angry. I mean like powerfully angry. And I've noticed a couple of other times I've become powerfully angry. And not to say that to him or do anything with him about it, but the anger, I guess I was surprised to see anger come out of a generosity practice And it was there. And then, well, there isn't much I could do about that.

[93:43]

That's my unconscious being, because I certainly wasn't, it didn't come up because I was thinking something. I thought something after it came up. But what do I do with the unconscious parts that arise when engaged in a practice? Well, of course, be generous towards them. Right. Welcome them. Right. And when you practice generosity, when it's wholehearted, you don't expect other people will be generous. And one generous, you can generously wish other people to be generous. But to wish that other people be generous in order to get them to be generous is different than just wishing it. Right. But you don't necessarily notice that you get it. So wishing something and trying to get something is kind of giving something and trying to get something.

[94:47]

So we have to learn to give without getting. And so if you keep giving, you'll notice that when you don't get, sometimes you get upset. So that showed it wasn't pure. So then that back that there was an agenda you didn't notice. And then you can be generous towards that. And then you can notice if you expect something towards that generosity, like, for example, not doing that anymore. And then when you do it, you get angry at yourself rather than, oh, yeah, I was generous towards a subtle infraction in my giving, but I wasn't really generous towards it because now it happened again. I thought being generous to it would be the last time I did it. And no, here it is again. Mm-hmm. Like the gentleman talked about before, there's going to be a recurrence of these infractions. That's why you practice generosity and then be careful, be vigilant to watch after you practice generosity to see if you're subject to any regret.

[95:48]

Right. Like you give the gift and if they throw it in the garbage, can you go, cool? Cool. I gave the gift, they threw it, I gave it, I meant it as a gift. And when they threw it in the garbage, I was generous towards their wasting my gift. So that would be a deeper generosity that you could toss, they toss away your gift. Or that you offer them the gift and then they say, I hate you. And then you can see, well, did I give the gift hoping that they would like me? But now they tell me that they hate me, and I'm cool with that. So maybe that was a pretty good gift. I think I'm a long way from that. Yeah, I was way ahead there, didn't I? Yeah, you did. But I notice that the infractions. This is what we aspire to. Right. To that kind of giving, which is like true giving. Right. And not, you know, we know that giving is going to have some good effects.

[96:54]

But being able, in some sense, being able to postpone the good effects for almost forever. Right. So one of the key factors of bodhisattva practice is actually to postpone gratification extremely long time. The people who can postpone gratification can perform great feats. It's not just postponing the gratification that's good. That in itself is not such a good deal. It's just that what you can do if you can postpone gratification just expands, you know, endlessly. And people who can't postpone, even though both people want it, the one who can't postpone it, it's hard for them to accomplish much of anything. So to give gifts, which is good, and postpone the gratification like forever, that allows you not only to give,

[97:59]

supreme perfect enlightenment also. Right. My infractions keep coming. They come up in a different form too, because maybe it was like a disappointment that he didn't learn. Disappointment that he didn't learn generosity from mine. Or then it comes up in another form which there should be more fairness. There should be more fairness. And welcome that too. Welcome there should be more fairness. Like a teacher, you're teaching the students, they don't learn. The teacher teaches, they don't learn. You're giving your teaching, they don't learn. You give the teaching without expecting that they'll learn. And part of them is like trying to see. She's giving this teaching. And I wonder if she'll keep giving it no matter how long I take to learn it. So I'm just not going to learn this just to find out how generous she really is. Also, how patient is she? For them to learn that you're generous and patient and whatever you're teaching them, including the practice itself, is nothing compared to the generosity and patience and carefulness that you have in response to your gift.

[99:16]

So do those... like mine, do they dissolve in the practice of generosity by extending that generosity another step? Is that how it... I mean do you... They not only dissolve, yes they will dissolve, but they'll dissolve anyway. Oh, even if I don't expect that. They'll stop coming back to visit in the way that they used to. They'll come in new ways. Right, right. That's what I mean. They come in new ways. But the thing is, in the new ways they come is they can come in the form of other people. So whether it's coming inside or outside, it doesn't really matter after a while because you welcome whatever. This practice will eventually lead you to see that there never was any infractions in the first place. There never was any stinginess. There never was any impatience. All this stuff, actually none of it can be found. You can't find bliss, and you can't find stinginess, and you can't find impatience, and you can't find pain.

[100:19]

You will enter, in other words, the dharmagate of repose and bliss. And in the meantime, all these patterns will change and give you new opportunities for growth. Well, it's a fabulous practice. It's a fabulous practice. Absolutely. I've never found one. It's my favorite. I guess that's a little bit of grasping right now. In a way, giving is basically enlightenment. It's basically enlightenment. It is the best. It's the beginning and the end of the whole thing. However, at the beginning, it's impure. In enlightenment there's no separation between the people you're being generous to. So at the beginning there is. Or not the beginning, all the way until perfect enlightenment. Which isn't exactly the beginning. Okay. So. Or we could have 15 more questions.

[101:24]

Yes. Yes, Elena. You have 15 questions? You're welcome. Actually, I was trying to form it correctly in my mind to ask the question that I really want to ask to do with... There was a woman here once who talked about her inability to withstand the suffering of others. And you said something to the effect that

[102:25]

you can't force others to stop suffering so that you don't have to suffer. And it's something... I'm not asking the question... I mean, I hope that some question is coming out of this. Well, one question I heard was, how do we withstand the suffering of others? Yes. And that's what I've been explaining today. Practice welcoming it, be careful of it, and be patient with it. That's how we can with others, is to learn those practices. And then also learn diligence about these practices and learn concentration. But the first three are particularly the way we can stand other suffering, but also it's the way we can bring benefit to other suffering beings. So now to the suffering. But simultaneously it makes us able to be present with it. And being gracious with other people's suffering means that you do not try to get them to stop suffering.

[103:37]

You graciously accept the way they're suffering right now. And then they can suffer a different way the next moment. Or they can suffer less. Or more. Generosity is the beginning of opening to our own suffering. And with patience, we become still with it. Yes? Just a follow-up question. Oh, it's way over there. The mic. How are you? Just a follow-up question to the lady's question. Can she be generous to herself by dumping that guy and exercising generosity to someone who deserves it? Oh, oh.

[104:41]

Can she be generous to herself by dumping the guy? Yeah, I mean, why? That's possible. You could say to somebody, I've got this great gift for you, I'm going to dump you. Yeah, that's a gift. It could be. Thank you. And now I'm going to dump myself. Thank you very much.

[105:13]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_82.11