I often use a practice slogan, which is, meet whatever comes with complete relaxation. The word slogan is, I believe, an Anglo-Saxon word or a word from Scotland, which means battle cry. So it's a kind of a kind of rousing statement. to set forth on some big enterprise. Whatever comes with complete relaxation.

[01:07]

Another kind of summary statement I sometimes make is a few words that describe the process of practice and liberation. The six or seven words are trust, relax, play, create, understand, and liberate. So the second item there is relax. So trust seems to be necessary in order to, some kind of trust seems to be necessary in order to relax.

[02:40]

So what kind of trust, or is there a trust, or is that the right word, for some conditions or some prerequisite that we've taken care of? that we're taking care of, so we feel that we can trust. It is hard to hear? How hard? So what kind of ground need to be prepared in order to, in some sense, trust that you can relax? Trusting that the environment allows you to relax, or would allow you to relax, and or the environment around you

[03:46]

would allow you to relax, that the people and conditions around you would feel okay, would support you to relax, and that inwardly you would be in a condition that would be all right to relax. And then again, I feel that in the state of relaxation we can be playful. And again, it's pretty hard to be playful. You can play like you can play poker, but not be relaxed. I don't know if good poker players are relaxed or not. I don't know much about poker. I don't know much about algebra either. But anyway, there are certain things you can play. I think, in a sense, you can be in the game of playing, in a sense, and not be relaxed. So I say play, but I mean also being playful.

[04:51]

I'm looking for a kind of playfulness that depends on being relaxed. And then with this playfulness, it is possible to be creative or to enter into the creativity of the moment, which of course is always there, otherwise nothing would be happening. But how can we enter into the creativity of each experience? If we can enter into the creativity of each experience, it seems to me that we will understand the nature of our experience. And if we can understand the nature of our experience, will be liberated in the midst of our experience. And again, if we are liberated and understand and are playful and relaxed, we can welcome others into the process too.

[05:55]

Even if you trust that you can relax and you enter into relaxation and enter into playfulness and creativity and liberation, still other people may not be ready to relax and be playful. But part of being liberated is to be able to relate to people who do not want to play and who are very tense and distrustful of relaxing, trusting, and of you, and everything you value. Part of being creative is to be able to work with whatever comes, to be relaxed, to be able to relax with whatever comes. But this is a very... I'm offering this slogan, but in some sense, it's a very tall order to realize it. I'd like to look at a little bit how to trust, how to develop the kind of trust that will facilitate relaxation.

[07:22]

Someone sent me a a communication telling me that March 21st is the new year in the Persian culture, called Noorun. Is that what it's called? Noorun? And it's also in this valley, we call it the first day of spring. So first day of spring and new year In Asia, at New Year's time, I don't know about what we do here, but at New Year's in Asia, in China, in Japan, I think at New Year's they do New Year's cleaning. Do we do New Year's cleaning here? Some people do and some people don't. But there's another term we have called spring cleaning, right?

[08:32]

That's a more popular term. We don't have the word summer cleaning or fall cleaning so much. We have, mostly we use spring cleaning and dry cleaning. Thanks for laughing at that joke. Give her a mic. So spring cleaning may be helpful may help promote trusting that you can relax. So this communication from this Persian man said that at that time people, one of the things they do I guess in preparation for the day is they make a little fire, small fire, and they jump over the fire as a symbolic act of letting go of negative feelings.

[09:34]

For example, you could let go, you could consider letting go of your hatred and resentment towards certain people who you feel have been unkind to you or unhelpful. You could also consider letting go of your hatred and resentment towards yourself. Can you hear okay now, Jane? Hatred and resentment towards yourself for unskillful behavior that you've been involved in. spring cleaning letting go of letting go of um stuff emptying your house now if we start emptying our house we might not be able to finish the spring cleaning just in a few days around march 21st it may take not just the rest of the year, but it may be an ongoing process of emptying our house.

[10:42]

Emptying our house. Are there any things in your house that you'd feel more relaxed if you let go of them? Or when you made arrangements for how to let go of them? And after letting go of these negative feelings, then I think I heard that on the New Year's, then people get together and they have picnics and conversation. Again, if we can trust that we can let go of some stuff, then we trust that we can relax, And if we trust that we can relax, we may be able to be playful with people and have a conversation. A relaxed, playful conversation.

[11:52]

We may be willing and open and ready for that, even with someone who has not yet let go of resentment and who has not yet relaxed. Even if most of us trusted that we could relax and trusted that someone may turn off the amplifier without warning, of course in the attempt of trying to help me, still some people will appear to us By the kindness of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, some people will appear to us as not wanting to play. I can't say for sure, but a lot of these beings that appear to us to say, I don't want to play with you, I don't trust you, I'm not going to relax with you, I don't want you to relax or try to play with me. A lot of these people who are doing that are actually great spiritual beings trying to help us to see if we can play with difficult partners.

[13:03]

So like most of you are probably like pretty much ready to play, but some people have come to this assembly to play a special role, to push up deeper levels of relaxation and playfulness. So my grandson sometimes does not want to play with me in certain ways. Like yesterday, we were down in the, we wanted to go to the strawberry patch, and I told him, we can go there, but there's no strawberries yet. So we went to the strawberry patch, and there are some strawberry plants down there. And there's one little tiny strawberry there that's mostly green, and a little tiny bit of red on it. And he said, I love that kind of strawberry. Then he wanted to make a tree fort.

[14:22]

And actually, we were able to make a tree fort in the tree next to the swings. It might still be there if you want to go see it. And after we built it, he wanted to make a sign which said basically, you know, this tree fort belongs to Maceo and don't anybody else get into it. So we went to the office and we made a sign. I did the writing because he can't yet spell very well. And I said something like, Maceo and Reb built this house. And then he said, now write stop on there. So I wrote S-T-O-P. He said, no, no, like this. And I was going to do one of those circles with a cross. He said, is that what you mean?

[15:27]

He said, no, like a hand, like this. I drew a little hand on there. Like stop, you know? There's a little hand on it. So if any of you go down there today to check out the tree port, you'll see this kind of unfriendly sign here. I don't know what to do about it. If I take it down and he comes back and checks, I don't want him to say, what happened to the sign? I don't want to lie and say, I don't know. And if I tell him I took it down, it'll be trouble. Or granddaddy. But I think I'll just leave it there for a while. It's okay with you guys. So I don't really want you to take that term stop, literally. However, a tree fort is really just for like up to about 35 pounders. If anybody bigger than that gets on it, it will break.

[16:27]

But little kids can sit on it. It's not much of a tree fort. But anyway, he has pretty stringent... ways of playing with me. Sometimes he doesn't seem to be so relaxed. You want to play this way and not that way. And if I try anything, try anything, try anything, if I try anything, it's pretty much usually not acceptable. Following orders is fine. Once in a while, oh, I know, if I try to pull a fast one, that's the term I was looking for. If I try to do something uninstructed, He's often going, no, don't do that, granddaddy. But once in a while, I can reach over and blow on his stomach, and he kind of laughs, and that's OK. But a lot of times, or sometimes I just suddenly pick him up and throw him into the sky. That's OK, too, sometimes.

[17:30]

Another thing to look at that I've been looking at as a kind of spring health cleaning that may help me trust that I can relax is to give up, one way is to give up privacy. give up privacy. In Zen practice, and also in generally speaking in Buddhist monastic training, one of the ways we help meditators get ready to relax, is to set up situations which help them let go of privacy. When we're holding on to privacy, it's a little bit hard to relax.

[18:50]

Does that make sense? Now, that doesn't mean that that children can come in and sleep with their parents necessarily, but rather that the parents, even though they may have a separate room from the children, are not attached to their privacy. There is privacy in a sense, but they let go of it. When it's there, it's there, and they let go of it. When it's not there, it's not there, so they don't have to let go of it. But part of spring cleaning in the spiritual sense is to look around and see if you're attached to privacy. Another way to put it is, are you ready to receive guests?

[19:54]

If no, what would help you be ready to receive guests? And if you can identify that, some things that would help you, like maybe brushing your teeth might help you be more ready to receive guests. Putting on a bathrobe might be, pulling covers up over your chest might help you be ready to receive guests. What I'm gesturing towards is that feeling, the feeling of, hey, welcome. I can now say that. Now I kind of feel like I can say welcome. And before I brushed my teeth, I didn't really feel like I could say welcome because I thought, well, I might offend someone by my unbrushed mouth.

[21:02]

My unclean mouth might be offensive, so I don't feel like I can say welcome because even saying welcome might be irritating to people or nauseating. But I actually also feel that once you identify what you need to do in order to welcome gift, even if you haven't done it, you're more ready to welcome. Because if you know that, not know it, but you feel that if you brush your teeth, you could say welcome, then even though you haven't brushed your teeth, when the guest comes, you can say, you know, I'll be able to welcome you more fully if you let me go brush my teeth. And they may say, hey, you don't have to brush your teeth. I don't mind. I'm an eagle, and I have no sense of smell. Did you know eagles have no sense of smell?

[22:03]

I believe owls don't, too. That allows them to eat very smelly rodents. Fruits are one of the main staples of owls. They're very tiny, little, high-energy mammals. They're mammals. I think they're about the smallest mammal and one of the most numerous in North America. And they weigh about as much as a dime. And they really smell bad. The eagles and owls don't mind. What can I clean away? What can I let go of that will make me more ready to welcome guests? As I have mentioned a few times before,

[23:10]

The word host is one of those special words in English that originally meant the opposite of what it means now. Originally, the word host, the etymology of the word host, is guest. The original meaning of host is a stranger or an enemy, like an enemy. An opposing army is called a host originally. But the one who took care of the host became the host. Then the place to take care of the host became the hospital, the hotel, and so on. The hospice. The Buddha is the host. The Buddha is the way of being which welcomes all things. which is not holding on to any privacy from anything.

[24:14]

Because the Buddha realizes that life arises in dependence upon the other. So holding on to privacy is one of the ways that we don't trust to relax, to be playful, and to enter into the creative process where the thing we're wanting privacy from is actually revealed to us as being our life. Sometimes it may not be easy to find relaxation and playfulness, but it might not be too difficult to find your attachment to privacy.

[25:20]

So again, if you can find that, maybe even meet that feeling of not wanting to give up the privacy and see if there's some way to encourage the letting go and the holding on to the privacy. And there are formal practice opportunities for that, like sitting together in a meditation hall, at least during the meditation period, You're with other people. Now, they are not reading your mind, but you are showing them your body and not being private about your body and its posture. Now again, even while sitting in meditation, sometimes people want to move because they're uncomfortable, and sometimes they try to hide their movements from the neighbors.

[26:23]

Some of you have had that experience, maybe, or seen somebody like that, who you can tell is trying to move, but doesn't want you to notice. Now, again, not wanting to disturb somebody by your movement might look similar to somebody who's trying to hide their movements. But look inside. It's pretty clear there. Whether you're really not wanting to disturb the neighbor or whether you don't want them to know that you can't, either that you don't feel like you can stand the discomfort or you don't wish to stand the discomfort of the posture and you're thinking changing the posture would be good. Again, some people are changing their posture in sitting and they don't really think it's good. They actually sometimes think it's bad that they're changing their posture because they think that they should stand the pain and that not being able to stand the pain and changing their posture is a weakness.

[27:32]

That's another piece of housecleaning to do there about the feeling that you think you're lazy or cowardly to change your posture in meditation. So another way to present this way of developing trust, the kind of trust that will allow the relaxation which allows entry into the process of liberation. But let me say also, before I get into this, that if you wish to enter the process of liberation and you're really uptight and distrustful and relaxation seems far away, if you wish to achieve, to realize liberation by yourself or together with other beings, that wish is actually enough to enter the process.

[28:38]

So just wanting to be liberated is actually starting to enter the process a little. It's just that once you want to be free and want to help others to be free from suffering, to go deeper into the process, you need relaxation. So another way of talking about developing the ground to set up the possibility for relaxation because again relaxation is not something that you force upon yourself or others relax knock it off it's not exactly that way although sometimes for some people they understand that that's a joke and it works is basically practice compassion towards yourself and others and that also is another way of talking about developing the trust to allow the relaxation.

[29:46]

And again, the compassion is to want yourself and others to be free of suffering, which depends on being uptight and holding on tight. Suffering depends on holding on tight someplace. Deep down in our mind, we're holding on tight. We think there's something to hold on tight to. and we hold on tight to that there's something to hold on to. We believe there's actually something to hold on to at the center of each moment. There isn't, but we think there is and we grab for it and that's another version of the root of suffering. So for people like that, people like us, we wish them to be free and then we start the actual practice of compassion.

[30:59]

The wishing them to be free, the wishing them to be free and the wishing to work to help them be free is compassion. But then also to put it into more active form, we say it as giving, virtue. patience, diligence, and concentration. These activities promote the trust which allows the letting go, the relaxation. So giving is, you know, kind of like being generous, but being generous like, I would emphasize being generous in the sense of Don't wait long to be generous. Be generous right now with what's happening right now. Don't wait to be generous until you get to the pantry to get the cookies to give to somebody.

[32:05]

Be generous with the person right now. Be generous with yourself right now. In other words, let yourself completely, try to let yourself be completely what you are. That's connected to being ready to give up privacy. If I'm, I don't know where, and I'm not letting myself, and I'm not sort of fully engaged and letting myself be the way I am right now, I may not want anybody else to see me. I may not be ready. If I'm on the pot, the toilet seat. If I'm sitting there and I'm not being generous with myself, I may not want anybody, any guests. But if I'm really generous with myself on that pot, I'm not holding on to my privacy.

[33:15]

And a guest could be welcome. I don't necessarily send out invitations. Because most people are not interested. But if someone should happen to come by, if someone should happen to come by, it's not like, oh my God, I'm in trouble now. They're going to see that I do this too. And in this way. It doesn't mean people will like you just because you accept yourself. Okay, I can deal with it. I'm like this. It smells like this. Okay, I can deal with it. It doesn't mean other people will want to deal with it. But you're not afraid to receive yes. And also, if you're not afraid, it doesn't mean when you're not afraid you don't warn people. Say, you know, it's okay with me if you come, but I just want you to know over here it's a little smelly.

[34:22]

But, you know, you're welcome to come. Some people do not close the door when they use the toilet, for whatever reason. And that sometimes shocks other people. Sometimes the other people say, you should close the door. So, okay, I'll close the door. Fine. Do you want me to? I'm okay with that. But whether the door is closed or open, are you using the open door or the closed door? Are you hiding in the toilet there? Are you actually afraid of people coming in there and seeing you? Check it out. Now, could you like gently, gently, tenderly make yourself into a Buddha under those circumstances, who is not afraid of a person coming in and seeing them do a normal human activity?

[35:36]

What would it take? Well, one part of what's involved there is being generous with yourself, giving yourself permission to be what you are completely. Try it out. That's actually compassion. With little kids, we don't like, you know, we help them do that. They want to do it sort of various places, right? like you have a little baby it's not a matter of her she's not embarrassed of excreting excreting waste products anytime anyplace with or without a diaper she's not embarrassed about it so then we train the little kids to go into the special area to do it and little by little they get afraid At first they're attended and supported and applauded for going in there.

[36:39]

Nice work, beautiful, that's a good one. And then little by little it becomes a troubled area. At first there was no privacy issue. How about eating, the other side of the process? Are you eating anything that you would kind of like some privacy? Anything you're eating you want some privacy about? Well, how can you be generous with yourself when you're eating? Can you let yourself be the person you are when you're eating? How about when you're napping? Can you let yourself nap when you're napping? Let's take a little jump over to one of these other compassion practices called diligence. Okay? Another way to make yourself ready to relax is to practice diligence.

[37:45]

It's to practice effort. And part of effort, part of diligence, is taking naps. Rest is part of diligence. If you really want to be diligent, we need to be diligent about resting. Resting is part of heroic effort. You can make some effort and not let yourself rest. In other words, be stingy with yourself about resting. You can still make some effort, but you may not be able to relax if you don't let yourself rest. And again, and to be generous with yourself and say, I now give you a rest. I let you rest and I let other people rest. Are you really, are you willing to let other people rest? Are you willing to let yourself rest? So that when you are resting, you're not afraid to receive guests.

[38:53]

When you're resting, You're not holding on to your privacy. Sometimes you go into a room, nobody's there, you seem to have privacy, and you rest. That's fine. Are you afraid someone will come in there and catch you resting? In order to be a Buddha, in order to enter the process of liberation, I suggest that you need to be able to You need to be able to be generous with yourself as you approach rest and when you are resting. The world needs, actually, Buddhas, and Buddhas rest. And also the reason Buddhas rest is so that they can work hard. Hardworking people rest. Not all hardworking people rest. Some people just work hard all the time, but working hard all the time is not diligence.

[40:01]

Diligence includes rest. Rest is part of compassion. Diligence is part of compassion. And diligence and rest, effort and rest, go together. They work together. But If you don't, check out and see if that's connected to being afraid of letting go of privacy. And again, is that related to you really not accepting yourself in your ordinary activities? And again, if you're doing some ordinary activity like eating and you do not want other people to see you doing it, perhaps there's another way to do it that you would actually be okay with people seeing you do. And actually, it's more the way you want to do it. But some people can eat like, you know, I don't know what the word is, but eat in a kind of not very dignified way, like what's his name?

[41:08]

The great person Falstaff? Shakespeare's Falstaff? I don't exactly know Falstaff very well, but I have the impression that he wasn't like a dainty eater. Did he kind of shove food in his mouth or pour drinks down his throat and spill in the process? Did he do that? I don't know. There's maybe no stage directions about that. How does Falstaff eat? Anybody know? No Shakespearean scholars here? Huh? You think slovenly? Yeah. Was he embarrassed about it? No. So he was a great guy. This is about being a great person. Relaxing is to let your greatness out of the box. Doesn't mean all of you will become slovenly because it may not be your style. But what is your style?

[42:15]

What is my style? Another side of this relaxation is practicing virtue. Practicing the precepts is also part of compassion. And if you practice the precepts, that also helps you be ready to relax. If you are actually noticing that you want to take something, that you want to steal something, you want to take something that's not really being given, if you have a greedy impulse and you want to take something that's not being given, that's going against these precepts of virtue. And if you have that impulse, then it's hard to trust that you can relax with that impulse. And actually, I actually, you know, wouldn't say that you should relax, that you shouldn't relax with that impulse.

[43:27]

I would say, actually, yeah, go ahead and relax with that impulse, or consider relaxing with that impulse. But consider relaxing with that impulse together with the intention, the firm intention, not to act on that impulse. The kind, part of kindness A big part of kindness is not to take what's not given. A big kindness is not to steal. Not stealing is compassion. If you're really committed to not taking what's not given, then you can relax with the impulse to take what's not given. But if you're not committed and you do not think it's really a great idea not to steal, if you're not feeling like, oh boy, not stealing is really kind to me and others, and I really want to practice that, then when the impulse to take something that's not given arises, you can relax with it.

[44:28]

You can be generous with it. You say, hey, me, right over here, want to take something that's not given. I want to take something that's not given. That's what's happening. That's arising in me. and i can be generous with me just like again my grandson my dear adorable grandson wants to take things that are not given he comes up to green gulch and there's a big yellow motorcycle in the kids play area it's a motorcycle it's it's supposed to be a motorcycle but it's got four wheels but it's shaped like a motorcycle and he says to me he says out. Well, I'm going to take that home. He doesn't live in Green Oak. He wants to take it to his house in San Francisco. He said, that used to be mine when I was a little kid. And I brought it out here and left it here, but I want to take it home now. And he looks right at me when he said that. And he kind of thinks that's true. So he kind of was lying, and he kind of wants to take this motorcycle that's not being given to him.

[45:31]

But I don't hate him for that. And I want to relax with my grandson who wants to steal the motorcycle. If you really are committed to virtue, you can relax with non-virtuous impulses that arise in yourself and others. And if you can relax with the non-virtuous impulses in you, You can be playful with them. You can enter into their creativity. You can understand them and be liberated from them. But if you don't practice compassion with yourself in the form of virtue and generosity and patience and diligence, then when these things arise,

[46:32]

hard to relax with them and if you can't relax with them basically well do your best but you're not going to be able to you're not going to be free of them until you can relax with them we can't be free of things that we're not relaxed with if we're tense with something it's not that the thing's got you it seems like the thing's got you but it's really your attention that's got you. If you grab it, it seems to grab you. If you grab it, it drives you. But if you don't grab it, nothing, you can be free. But it's hard not to grab stuff unless you're very compassionate, so that you can relax. Being patient, being diligent, And being concentrated, being present and calm with whatever comes.

[47:45]

Being present and calm with whatever comes. Also is a form of compassion which facilitates relaxing with whatever comes. Being patient with whatever comes. Whatever uncomfortable things that arise. Grandsons that don't like you. Grandsons that boss you around. It's uncomfortable. It can be uncomfortable what they do to you. Grandsons who gouge your flesh, who pinch your nipples, who put both of their legs in the sleeves of your shirt. These are actual things that happened yesterday to me. You can put your arm up my sleeve, but not both your legs. It stretches my shirt. Would you like me to put both my legs up your sleeves? Being patient with the pain of your grandchildren, of your children, of your spouses, of your lovers, of your teachers, of your students, of your parents, of sickness and health.

[49:04]

Being patient with it is part of compassion. And if you can be patient, this also prepares you to relax with whatever comes. to meet it and relax. Practicing virtue, practicing giving, practicing patience, practicing diligence, practicing concentration, all these practices are ways to be ready for the big relaxation in entering the process of playfulness, creativity, understanding, and liberation. Let's clean house. Let's compassionately clean the house so that we can practice compassion in the house.

[50:10]

The house we carry is always with us wherever we go so that we can welcome beings fearlessly and relax with them and play with them and so on. I watched that 11, 11, and 11 seconds. May our intention

[50:43]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_88.9