in our first class, mainly I talked about aspiration, I think. And I left towards the end with the kind of encouragement to contemplate what your aspiration or what aspiration is living in your life. What's the big wish of this life? And I had a big wish that you would... And I still have a big wish that you would wonder about that and that that would become clear to you what the big wish of your life is.

[01:17]

If I had the big wish of... of enlightenment being realized in this world. That would include the wish that beings have that wish. Beings having the wish for enlightenment is concerning Buddha's enlightenment is fundamental and necessary. Enlightenment is the fruit of this wish for itself. And enlightenment is, the Buddha's enlightenment is helping others with understanding that others are who we really are.

[02:26]

It's the kind of helping that goes with the understanding that others are not separate from us. There's other ways of helping that are not joined with that understanding. That's not the Buddha's enlightenment. The Buddha's enlightenment is the kind of help that helps people in the context of that wisdom. So it's the kind of helping that It does not just help people, it not just benefits people, but will eventually liberate them. And not just liberate them, but initiate them into helping others in the same way that they were helped. So the Buddhas want to help people in any old way, but the central way the most important way to help people is to help people become helpful in the most helpful way.

[03:39]

When I see and hear about the way this world looks to people, at that time, the world kind of looks that way to me. When people tell me the stories they have about the world, I often kind of see the world the way they do. And people tell me stories about how unhelpful some human beings are to each other, to animals, to plants. So I hear a lot of stories, and I hear about problems which seem almost like, how could we ever do anything with such a terrible situation?

[04:48]

And at that time, I often don't have any bright ideas. But I do have a wish still, often. I still wish that enlightenment could be realized right now. And I also understand that for that to happen, I have to wish it, or there has to be the wish. And there is the wish, so that part's good. And also I understand that for this wish to come to fruition, for this wish to be realized, I have the understanding, which I'm happy about, I'm happy to have the understanding, that not only is there a seed, a wish, to realize enlightenment in this world now, and now and now, but also

[05:59]

there are practices which take care of that wish and bring that wish to the point of supporting the entry into reality. Reality which does not deny the stories, does not deny the unhappy stories, it just understands them as ungraspable. And in that understanding, there is a liberation from those stories without messing with them. without degrading them, without, you know, like disparaging them. Stupid. That the stories are stupid is another story.

[07:04]

But actually, while those stories are going on, while they're being witnessed, there is an understanding that they are actually in substantial integration with them. And then the practices which take care of the wish, the aspiration for Buddhahood, those practices are then engaged in more fully than before the entry into the understanding. And then those practices continue to care for this wish and to continue to bring it into full as the best understanding, the most helpful possible understanding, the most helpful possible wisdom in the world as it stands, as it sits, as it is for the moment.

[08:16]

And then the job is done and the job is then Buddhahood just keeps working and working on living beings, stimulating them somehow to give rise to this wish. And to hear the teachings of how to take care of this wish And then they take care of the wish, and they enter reality, and they continue to take care of the wish, and then they join Buddhahood. And then, again, they join the process of stimulating living beings somehow to take care of it, enter reality, and take care of it beyond entry into reality, to Buddhahood, and so on. That's the picture of this class. And that's the story of this class. And I wish that this story... And the practices that take care of this wish and bring it to the point where the wish gives rise to a wisdom which is able to enter reality, those are called...

[09:42]

the six basic bodhisattva training methods, the six basic bodhisattva precepts, the six basic bodhisattva practices, and they're also called the six perfections. They are six perfect practices. They are six perfected practices. They are six perfecting practices. And these six practices are giving, ethical discipline, patience, courageous effort, concentration and wisdom. Those six practices take care of the wish that Buddha will be realized and that everybody will join in that realization.

[10:46]

That Buddha will be realized in order to help everybody become most peaceful and happy way possible now. And that process will go on until everybody's participating in it. That wish is protected and developed by these six practices. And again, they cause the entry into reality, and then after entry into reality, after initial awakening, these practices are continued, but now more effectively than before, now with the correct understanding of what they are. So that's the basic picture ...basic picture for this class. Any questions about that basic picture or the innumerable implications of it?

[11:54]

And questions you might have about it? Yes? Ben. Ben. Good idea, Ben. One, two, three. Giving. Ethical discipline. Patience. Heroic effort. Concentration. Wisdom. All these six are actually the ethical practices of someone who wishes to realize Buddhahood, because if you wish to realize Buddhahood, you have ethical ability to realize Buddhahood.

[13:02]

Does that make sense? If you commit to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of this world, then you have an ethical discipline to follow through on it. And these six practices are what you do to realize Buddhahood. So one of the second ones called ethics, really they're all included in the ethical responsibility of one who wishes to realize Buddhahood. Yes? Yes? Could you hear what he said? He said there's some stories about people who the story is they had no training and somehow they had awakening. So, for example, the sixth ancestor of the Zen tradition in China, he was walking through the marketplace in Guangdong, Guangzhou, I mean, which used to be called Canton.

[14:15]

Yeah, Guangdong. Walking through the marketplace in like the late 7th century, and he walked by a... I think a fortune-telling booth or something like that, and the person in the booth was reciting the Diamond Sutra. And when he got to Sattva, he said that a bodhisattva, in other words, somebody who is aspiring to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of the world, a bodhisattva should give rise to a mind that has no attachment or no abode. When he heard that, I think, I would understand the stories, he entered reality when he heard that. When he heard that, he entered reality. And Adam's saying, the story is that he had no training before he heard that. Okay? But I never heard the story that he had no training. All I heard was, selling wood in the marketplace, and he heard that.

[15:24]

But I never heard that he wasn't trained. And The bodhisattva teaching is that when somebody hears a teaching like that, which the story is he heard it. Somebody who hears that teaching and enters reality, well, other people were in the marketplace. This guy was chanting it there. Other people were walking by. Did they hear it? Well, they heard it, but they didn't hear it in such a way that they entered reality. He did. Now, in the background of what I was saying to you is a teaching from India, coming from a bodhisattva named Asanga, who lived about 200 years before the sixth ancestor did. And he had a friend named Maitreya Buddha. who is his teacher.

[16:26]

And anyway, a sangha now is teaching us that the people who enter reality are the people who hear a lot. In other words, who listen to the teaching a lot. So, according to that, this bodhisattva who became the sixth ancestor had been listening to that teaching a lot. It doesn't say that somebody, the first, that ascension being the first time they hear this teaching, for example, about what a bodhisattva is like, that the first time they hear it, they go from believing that something, that things can and they hear the teaching not to grasp things, and as soon as they hear it, they stop. They have to hear it over and over.

[17:28]

So the Mahayana teaching, the teaching for bodhisattva says, the people who can hear this teaching that there's no in this world, enter reality and save the world, like the sixth ancestor did, are people who listen to that teaching a lot. And when you listen to this teaching, just like you're listening to it now, when you listen to the teaching, your mind is, your body is formed by listening. But the people who actually hear the teaching and enter are the people who have done a great deal of listening. So the story of the six ancestors does not say that he did not train before he heard this. Here he was, a layperson selling firewood. He heard the teaching. The Mahayana teachings say that somebody who can hear the teaching that deeply has been listening to it for a long time.

[18:36]

But we're not told, I don't know the person's listening career. And I would say, and I don't know Ramana Maharshi's story, maybe they do say he had no training. Okay? We also have a person named Shakyamuni Buddha, right? What about him? Well, did he hear these teachings before he discovered them? Yeah. The historical Buddha did not say that when he awoke that he hadn't been studying for a long time. He told us that he had studied with Buddhas before and he listened to their teaching before. And one of them said, you're going to be a Buddha and your name's going to be Shakyamuni. So our historical Buddha told us that he studied with Buddhas in the past and he listened to their teaching in the past and he had lots of enlightenment experiences with those previous Buddhas, but his enlightenment experiences were the ones where he entered.

[19:46]

And the sixth ancestor also, when he heard that teaching and he entered, he still was not a Zen master. He was pretty good, but The person who was reciting it told him if he wanted to learn more about this, there was a person up in northern China that could teach him. He knew. He knew enough to know that he needed more training. He didn't think, I had no training and now I'm going to start training. He knew he needed more training. So he traveled north to receive more training from the so-called fifth ancestor. And again, the story that I've heard is, on the way, the sixth ancestor who heard this teaching and awoke in the marketplace on the way he met a nun and he talked to her and she realized that he was awakened and she asked him to give talks or give a talk at the monastery and he gave a talk and the people appreciated it so they asked him to give another one so he gave another one and pretty soon there was a huge congregation listening to his talks

[20:58]

in the talks was on his way to study with his teacher. So he finally realized, wait a minute, here I am stopping and now I've got this huge congregation of students, but actually I need more training before I'm a teacher. So he said, sorry folks, I hope you enjoyed the show. I have to go. I really have to go. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. He's moving on up north. So he goes to see the fifth ancestor and gets more training. And then after he... The successor of the fifth ancestor, the fifth ancestor says, okay, get out of here now and do not teach for a long time. Go hide. You're not ready to teach. So then he continues to train. After he becomes successor and receives this ability and this authority, he still has to mature more before he can actually come out and do the responsibility of teaching.

[22:07]

From the time he awoke until he started to teach, there was a long training period. The first part of it was actually relatively short. In other words, the time from to when he walked to his teacher and the time he spent with his teacher. He only spent eight months with his teacher. But the time from there to when he started teaching himself was 16 years. So he trained for about 17 years from the time he awoke before he started becoming the sixth ancestor. How long? I do not know the story about that. But I'm saying to you, if anybody here didn't wake up tonight, don't worry. All you got to do is do a lot more training. listening. Enter reality are those who listen to the teaching a great deal. And when your mind, your karmic mind, or when my karmic mind thinks about things like stillness, rather than thinks about things like gain,

[23:19]

the mind that shapes, the karmic mind is a mind that has a shape. And the shape of the mind is the karma of the moment. And when the shape of the mind is the shape of the teaching, there's consequence of a mind that's shaped like the teaching. And the consequence is the unconscious mind, which supports the conscious karmic mind. And the unconscious mind then supports the arising of another conscious mind which has a better chance of shaping itself around listening to the teaching. And if it does, the consequence of that is that the unconscious mind is again transformed and transformed and transformed until there's more and more conscious minds that are kind of like, I don't know what they're kind of like, coral or something, you know, just kind of like looking for the sunlight. for the Dharma. Is there any Dharma around here?

[24:24]

I want to listen to the Dharma. So, that's what I would say about those stories. If you just look at the historical Shakyamuni Buddha and don't listen to it, it looks like he only had one life. But the Buddha and Suzuki Roshi and so on would say, if you think that Shakyamuni Buddha is the only Buddha, you don't understand Shakyamuni Buddha. Shakyamuni Buddha was preceded by other Buddhas and studied. That's what Shakyamuni Buddha said. So again, I do not know the story of who the Sixth Ancestor studied with before he was this wonderful guy walking through the marketplace. I don't know his story before that. However, his teacher, the fifth ancestor, there is a story about him. Kind of an amazing story. Want to hear it? So the sixth ancestor's teacher, the fifth ancestor, he was a

[25:35]

And once upon a time, there was a man in China. Before there was the fifth ancestor, there was a man walking around China, and that man met somebody who was called the fourth ancestor. Are you following it? So before the fifth ancestor, there was a fourth ancestor. And there was a man in China who met the fourth ancestor. And the man said to the fourth ancestor, please let me be your student. And the fourth ancestor said, you're too old. And you can be my student. So the man went down to the river nearby, and that's the last we hear of him. And there was a young woman down at the river, and when she came up from the river, shortly after that she found out she was pregnant, and she didn't know how she got pregnant.

[26:45]

And her parents were very upset with her because here she was pregnant and she wasn't married, and they were actually, they weren't nice to her. So here she was pregnant. So she had this baby and kind of ostracized or rejected from her family. And she had this baby. She was having a hard time. She's walking along the road in China. And she runs into the fourth ancestor. And the fourth ancestor says, would you like me to take that boy off your hand? And she says, as a matter of fact, I would. And so she gave him her son, and that boy became the fifth ancestor. And now if you go to the fifth ancestor's temple in China, there's a big building there which is called something like the Great Mother Hall, dedicated to this woman who performed the service of making the fifth ancestor.

[27:55]

So like that, but there's not a story about what the sixth ancestor was up to before he was this guy walking around the marketplace. Sorry. If there's an aspiration to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of this world, if there's an aspiration to help people in this world be at peace with this world and then help others be at peace with this world. It isn't like I aspire to be at peace with this world with all these terrible stories. I aspire to be at peace with it and happy with it. and everybody else continues to be miserable with it. And that's not what I aspire to. I aspire to work for the thing that will make everybody happy with this world, or in this world. I aspire to realize that everybody can find peace and happiness in this world, not waiting for it to get fixed before they get happy, but waiting to be happy and at peace so they can help others be happy and at peace.

[29:13]

And if everybody is happy and at peace, I don't know about fixing the world. But maybe if some people were happy and at peace, some things would get fixed. I really don't know. I'm just wondering about, can we work on this before things get fixed? Because I just can't figure out how they're going to get fixed, at least not very soon. But I can figure out that people and be happy right now if they would just stop believing the way they think. Looks like Bill fainted.

[30:22]

And now Bill is lying down. How's he doing? You're fine. Do you know you fainted? Bill heavily dozed off. And we are still wishing for his Buddhahood. Well, I just said quite a bit. Any questions? Yes? It seems like most of the stories I hear

[31:25]

Well, it's a difficult question because it's, what do you say, it's a little bit tricky about calling people Zen masters. You know what I mean? They may say, well, so-and-so is a Zen master and blah, blah. So that's kind of difficult, you know. So who are we going to say is a Zen master? Well, I personally cannot figure out, I cannot see... I don't understand how I could possibly be in the position to be able to be supported to think about the Dharma so much.

[32:56]

I can't figure it out. So to me it makes sense to me that I have a lot of background that makes it possible for my mind to be thinking about Dharma a lot. When I became engaged to be married, my mother said this Chinese phrase, which means he must have broken a lot of mokugyos. A mokugyo is a wooden fish that people, it's a wooden drum that people strike. So she said, I must have broken a lot of those to have the good fortune to marry the person I married. They don't break. They really don't break, unless you work them quite a long time. And she said, I must have broken quite a few. But that Chinese expression for you must have

[34:03]

you must have been a beautiful baby because baby look at you now." Or, you must have done a lot of good because look how fortunate you are. So that's a concept. But to actually be able to see how many bokugyos have been broken, I can't see it actually. I do not understand how I could be so fortunate to meet the people I've met and to receive the encouragement I've received to study the Dharma. But, for example, all of you are encouraging me to study all week, to listen to the Dharma, so I can come and tell you how important it is to listen to the Dharma all week. And I don't know how that comes to be the case that I'm so fortunate. I don't know how that works. I cannot see how it works. But the teaching is, that the ability to enter into the teaching is dependent on doing these practices, and the ability to do these practices comes from listening to stories about these practices.

[35:12]

When you hear these practices, these six practices, when you hear those, you are, tonight we have listened to those practices. Your mind has been transformed, has been perfumed by your mind thinking of those practices. And also one would say, in order to even be in this room, you must have done a lot of good things to be in this room. To be able to spend this evening in a quiet place, it isn't, you know, lots of causes and conditions make that possible, that you could have such a nice, quiet place to be in for a few hours. But I can't actually tell you, I can't actually see how each of you got to be here some people almost never have a chance to sit for half an hour quietly and to hear that enlightenment is living in silence and stillness. That's a very fortunate thing to hear, that you are hearing the Great Vehicle teachings.

[36:19]

When you hear that, you are hearing the Great Vehicle teachings. And when you hear the Great Vehicle teachings, they are not separate from you when you're hearing them. You can't hear something that's separate from you. You are a person who's hearing, and your hearing is not something different. What you're hearing and the action of hearing that you're going through right now is not something in addition to who you are. It's not like there's you and your hearing. You are a hearing. You are a hearer. And what you're hearing is not separate from your hearing. So when you hear these teachings, you are these teachings. When you hear of the six perfections, I'm not saying you are the six perfections, but you are the hearing of the six perfections.

[37:21]

And when you are the hearing of the teaching of the six perfections, then there's a possibility that you'll practice them because you are the hearing of them. And if you look at the hearing of them, you will realize wisdom. Because in the hearing of them is reality. Reality that there's not the teacher and the teaching and you. When you hear the teachings, the teacher is not separate from you and the teaching is not separate from you. And if you hear that over and over, you have realized wisdom. And at that time, your aspirations are nicely protected. Yes? You said a few minutes ago that a mind has a shape, this karmic moment. Could you repeat what you said? Yeah. The shape of the mind, the shape of your mind is actually the definition of the karma at that moment.

[38:26]

So, technically speaking, the historical Buddha defined karma as, he used a Sanskrit word, and he used another Sanskrit word called chaitanya. And chaitanya means the shape of your mind in a given moment. Now chaitanya is often translated as intention, or will, or volition, If you look at your mind, in your mind there's some tendency. So just before I started talking, I looked in my mind and I noticed there was a tendency to want to tell you that there was a tendency. I looked in my mind and saw it speak and I stopped before I spoke because I was intending to tell you later of what I just told you.

[39:30]

And what I told you was I looked in my mind and saw the intention to speak. So it would be easier for you to understand that I actually looked in my mind, saw an intention. The shape of my mind was it intended, it wanted to tell you something about the definition of karma. And so I actually did an example of looking in my mind. looking on the shape of my mind and I saw that intention. That intention is the karma of that moment. And then I expressed that intention verbally. And that verbal expression was a physical ramification. It was a physical karma, vocal karma, to reflect the mental karma. So karma is always cognitive, but there's three kinds of cognitive action. One is mental cognitive action, one is verbal cognitive action, and one is postural cognitive action.

[40:38]

And they all have shape. Shape is the definition of karma. And then the karma is wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral. Neutral means you can't tell whether it's wholesome or unwholesome. I, in this case, thought that those intentions were wholesome because I felt pretty clear I wanted to make something clear. I hope you understand this. So I thought, I'm looking and I'm saying, I think that's a pretty wholesome intention. I did not have, there wasn't much trace of, I really didn't feel like I wanted, there was no ill will towards any of you there. But sometimes if you look in your mind, you might actually find, which means ill intention, which means ill volition, that you actually look in your mind and you can think, oh, I actually would like that person to not do too well. For example, if you're in a race, you might actually wish the other person to not do very well. that would be called an unskillful action.

[41:39]

Actions, generally speaking, you can't say for sure, but they look kind of unskillful and they probably will make you unhappy soon or later. But we don't exactly know how it works. We hear from the Buddha to watch out for will. In other words, watch out for minds that have the shape of wishing somebody to not be happy. or wishing somebody to be sick. That's like ill will. And that's a shape your mind could have, which probably most of you have occasionally seen in your lifetime. You've certainly heard about it, that someone actually wishes somebody to be sick. That's ill will. And the mind that's shaped like that is a karmic consciousness that has that shape, and we usually call that Unskillful because ill will really does usually cause, we don't know exactly how, we don't know how, but it causes suffering, especially to the person who has a mind shaped like that, like shaped towards, I wish this person would be sick, rather than I wish this person would be happy.

[42:55]

I wish this person would be at ease. That's another shape. Then there's a mind which thinks, I wish this person would be happy. But there's another feeling which says, that wasn't really that sincere. So you can have that thought and think, well, I wasn't really wholehearted about it. I said it, but a little bit I wish they'd done well. Or I'd rather have somebody else be as well as I just wish they would be, or something like that. So in that case, you can actually look in your mind and see this. And what you're looking at is the shape of your mind. You can also, when you're thinking of a teaching, I would like to practice giving. Just to think of giving is your mind is in that shape, and your mind is now in the shape of a practice which has conduced it to awakening and benefiting all beings. And then in addition to thinking of the shape of giving,

[43:59]

I really like the practice giving that enhances the shape and makes it more kind of like receptive and in accord with that which will protect and develop this wish. I'll stop there and see if you have any questions. Yes? Could you say something about the dependent co-writing of these comic formations? Could you say a little bit more about that? So you're in prison and people are telling you about their minds now. about the past?

[45:04]

Okay, and what's the story you want to use to give an example? Yeah. Yes. Okay, so you've got a common consciousness and it thinks, this is a common story, it thinks, I must be violent, otherwise I won't be able to survive here on the street. That's a karmic thought. And these people told you that they remember they had thoughts like that. Okay, now what... There seemed to be an environment that supported that. It was not like autonomous production or something. It was coming to be... So, like I said, how did I get to be so fortunate to be in a situation like this where none of you probably are wishing that I will think that I need to be violent in order to survive?

[46:13]

right? None of you are wishing that for me, probably. I guess that. None of you want me to think. If I'm not violent, I probably won't survive the night. So I'm in a situation where everybody's supporting me, not just to not think violent thoughts, but you'll probably all want me to think non-violent thoughts, I imagine, probably. And if I wouldn't do anything violent, you probably would have lots of questions for me about what I imagine that. Okay? So then I think, well, how can I be so fortunate that everything's supporting me to think of nonviolence? So then you wonder, well, how does it happen that somebody gets in a situation where everybody seems to be saying to them, you know, if you're, they say, if you're nonviolent, people will attack you. So they say that, the kids say to each other, if you're not, if you don't come on as tough, people will think you're weak and they'll attack you. They tell that to each other. So then you say, how does a person get in a position where people are talking to them like that and making it so hard for them to dare violent thought?

[47:21]

Because if they think it, they think, if I think it, these people tell me that they'll attack me, that I'll look weak. And then thinking that thought, I will get hurt. How does a person get in that situation? And what did I say for how I got in the situation of you all supporting me? What did I say? I do not know how I got in such a good position. I do not know what training led me to be in a position where you're all supporting me to think of nonviolence as the way to go. You're all supporting me to think, if I think of nonviolent thoughts, I won't necessarily get beat up tonight. You're also not telling me, you're not telling me that if I think nonviolent thoughts, I won't get beat up tonight. You're not telling me that, are you? Because you don't know. I might get beat up, but you're not telling me that I'd be a fool if I wasn't thinking of violence all the time. You're not telling me that. I do not know how. And I do not know how other people get in the position where people are saying to them, you must be aggressive and you must not show people the slightest weakness.

[48:31]

Okay? I don't know how they get in position. But I do know some of those people who live in those neighborhoods, something happens to them and they change. And they dare to be vulnerable. I know there's those stories, too, that they live in the neighborhoods where they were told when they were kids, if you show weakness, you'll be attacked. And they listened to that, and they showed toughness, and they watched. Somehow, how did they get fortunate enough to see what happens when they acted tough and when they got in trouble? How did they come to learn that? But now, after going through that course of be tough, otherwise you won't survive, they were tough and they did survive. And then somehow, at some point, they got to a place where somehow they thought, well, I'm not going to be tough. I'm going to dare to be vulnerable. how did that opening happen, that they dared? In the same environment where they heard these stories all these years and they were tough all those years, what happened that they somehow tried something different?

[49:37]

And then when they tried something different, they thought, this is what I am in life for. I'm not here to beat people up so I can survive. I tried that. And I did survive. And here I am. I'm alive. And I was mean to people. And now I just tried something really different, and this is what I'm here for. How could they be so lucky as to make that turn? I don't know. But when they make the turn, then they make the turn. And it's not that they never turn back to the other way and say, well, that was foolish. So, you know, that story in the Les Miserables where this guy, kind of a nice guy, steals something and then he gets put in prison where if you show your weakness, if you show your goodness, you get attacked.

[50:38]

And he got tougher and tougher. And then he escaped from prison and he met this priest and he stole the stuff from the priest. He stole the stuff from the priest. You know that story? Right? You don't? So he stole the stuff from the priest. He was a mean guy. He got mean. How did he get mean? Being in prison and if he showed any goodness, this prison warden saw the goodness and he attacked him. Just like people say, you show your goodness, you get attacked. Who do you get attacked by? You get attacked by somebody who doesn't dare to be good, who thinks that they'll get attacked. And they see you. You don't get to be able to do what they're not allowed to do. And he got attacked, and he got attacked, and he got harder and harder, and he escaped from prison, and then he was running around looking for help, and he met a priest, actually a bishop. The guy took him in, and when the bishop left the room, he stole the bishop's candlesticks, or either the candlesticks or plates, and he ran away.

[51:44]

Do you know this story, Anna? It's in Being Upright. I haven't read it either. Have you read Being Upright? Some of it, yeah. I haven't read it either. Anyway, it's in there. Have you seen the musical? Anyway, so he stole these silver candlesticks and the police caught him and they brought him back to the church and they said, we caught this thief with your candlesticks and the priest said, I gave them to him. And the police said, okay, and they left. And then he said, You didn't give those to me. I stole them. He said, I gave them to you. And here's some silver plates, too. And then he snapped. How did he get so lucky to run into that priest? I don't know. These stories are saying we do not know how people get in situations.

[52:46]

Only Buddha can see how somebody gets in a situation where people are telling them If you're not violent, you're going to perish. I don't know how they get in that position. However, somebody has to come and help them. Otherwise, they'll just keep spinning around there forever. How they got spinning around there, I don't know. But somebody has to go there and say, I gave you the candlesticks. Somebody has to troll the person that is the natural state of affairs, and if you admit it, you can open to the beauty of this life. Somebody has to go and show this person. If somebody shows them, they can turn around and wake up. How do they get in the situation in the first place? The Buddha says, do not... Buddha made me say, okay, I'll tell you. But after I tell you, don't spend any more time figuring out how you get in the next situation.

[53:50]

Do not put your energy into that. Put your energy into your aspiration. And what do you aspire to? Well, I aspire not just to be in this neighborhood where everybody's violent. I aspire to teach everybody in this neighborhood nonviolence. How am I going to think of that? Somebody's going to have to walk up to me and show me how cool that is. Without that, I'm not going to think of it. The priest had to show him. Whenever this aspiration arises, the only way this aspiration can arise is because we hear, we hear it. Somebody has to say it to us. Our karmic consciousness, which is normal stuff, being selfish and so on, does not think of this. It does not think of it. It happens because somebody talks to us and we hear it.

[54:52]

How do we get to hear it? Somebody talks to us. And we hear it. How do we get to hear that? Somebody talks to us in another way and we hear it. And gradually we start to open to more and more outrageous stories. And this woman who I heard lives in the streets and helps kids in the streets, who was one of the tough kids and she was in gangs and stuff, and she said, but I had what was necessary. Somehow somebody talked to her, somebody got through her, and now she gets through to the other girls. she shows them that the path of nonviolence is somehow cooler than the path of violence, is somehow more beautiful. So I aspire to realize nonviolence in such a way, so thoroughly, that other people would actually open to nonviolence.

[55:55]

And I do not get in a position where they're not open to hear that yet. I do not know why the other people in the marketplace did not hear it and the sixth ancestor did. I just know the story is he heard it and then he was this great person for many thousands of people because he heard it. And I aspire to work to realize that kind of realization, not for myself, not as myself, but to have that kind of realization in this world. And I've also, there was a person in these classes in the past, one of the people in the past classes here, who taught and teaches poetry in prisons in California. And she also teaches poetry to the kids in Richmond and Berkeley. And one of her students in prison, she decided that she wanted to be married to him. So she married him, and she is married to him. So her husband...

[56:59]

And she visits him in prison. She's his wife. They have a marriage, and he's in prison. And I told this story many times. Here it is again. She said to him, when you were doing those things that led you to prison, could anyone have stopped you? He said, no. I had to do those things. Did people try to stop you? Yes. What would have helped you? He said, what would have helped me is if somebody loved me. So if we're not going to make mistakes, it just means that if somebody shows us love, when we do make our mistakes, we have a way to learn. Like we're violent and someone showed us love. So we can say, oh, well, there's another option. I think I'll try that next time. Matter of fact, I think I'll try that from now on. I probably won't be able to do it from now on because I have a habit of violence, but that's the way I want to go.

[58:06]

And I know this violent path. I do not want to do it anymore, but I probably will. I want to learn this new one. Somebody showed me that. I want to try it. But I don't know. Now, if you do, you will enter into this space where you understand how this all works, you can see how it all works, but you won't necessarily go around and tell people how it works. You'll tell them how they can get into a position to see how it will work. In other words, you'll teach them how to be a Buddha. When you're a Buddha, you can see how it works. Before that, you should focus not on how to figure it out, but how to get in a position where you will be able to see it, where you won't have to figure it out even, where you just see it. In other words, you will aspire to know whatever will be helpful to people. And how do you do that? Well, you have to want to. You have to actually want to be the best possible thing for all beings, and then you have to do the practices to take care of that. And you will eventually know exactly how that all works.

[59:11]

And that will be one of the facets of your realization. But it's not the most important one. That gives you confidence because you actually see, oh yeah, this really is the way to go. I can see how it works that way. But the thing that's important is you'll be able to get people to practice. That's what the Buddhas can do. And not just Buddhas. Lesser beings can also encourage. Yes? You've been talking about listening. So I'm Okay. I heard recently from a friend who does comfort prevention work about a prison which apparently has a whole lot of women and lifers and some of the older ones who have something of a mode of getting along, getting a lot of younger women who are a lot more violent, a lot more angry.

[60:15]

Apparently one or some of them brought all over California looking for somebody who would help them come to the prison and help them learn conflict prevention and not, you know, sort of less violence in their feelings. Because the prison, they're all there for so long that they're going to have to live in that kind of hell. I don't know who it was, the name I know that got there to help the department was me and my daughter. That was Noel, N-O-L-L. And they started something called Prison Peace Project or something like that, Prison Peace, find it on the internet. most interesting things was that the women said, we started to try to do some of the things you were teaching us to do, you know, the internet or e-letters. And we found one of the most important things that a lot of the young women, even we, didn't know how to do was we didn't know how to listen to each other.

[61:19]

We started practicing listening to each other. Good excuse, thank you. Any other responses, questions? Yes. The story I'm talking about is one of these women, women interrupters. Yeah. And she was, this lady, this lady was, yeah, she was, she was a tough cookie. You know, she was a gang girl and she became, but now she's an interrupter. And, and she, now she dares to be vulnerable.

[62:27]

in a skillful way, you know, in a way that will encourage nonviolence. There's a documentary about it, and then Terry Gross, I think, was interviewing the people who made the film, plus this leading example, this woman. about people who are committing violence. I feel like they're the most vulnerable. People who are committing violence are the most vulnerable? You're talking about turning and then becoming vulnerable or allowing yourself to become vulnerable. But I think if you're behaving that way and you're under the control of your karma, then I think you're in the most vulnerable place you can be. You may be right, but I kind of think that everybody's vulnerable.

[63:34]

And I think the key to nonviolence is to witness. The more you can witness vulnerability, the more you can respond nonviolently. I propose that. Martial artists are really good at witnessing vulnerability. They can really relax with it. So in sort of reflecting on your question about what it takes to shift from a certain situation to another situation, from the way you've been living as a gang member to open to the light, I'm thinking of some young men that I worked with last year. It seemed like they really identified themselves with their thoughts, so they had a lot of thinking going on. And so, and they thought they were that. So, and they were very, like they didn't really see any other self. And I kept thinking during that time, I wish, you know, they're thinking, just in that kind of simple act, that you're not that, that you're not your story, and you're not your situation, and coming in and have this,

[64:52]

I mean, I'm thinking that everybody comes in with their consciousness and it's there for you to take care of, and I'm longing for somebody to be helping you with that. It's there to try to remedy by correcting actions. Okay. I heard you, I think. Now, I have a different view. Okay. I think we are what we're thinking. I don't think there's me in what I'm thinking. And I don't even say that I identify with my thinking. That's too dualistic. I'm just what I'm, all I am as a karmic being is my thinking. What's helpful is not to fix me, but to witness me. And then in that witnessing, the person might say something like, This is what I witness, and I think you can do something better than that."

[65:58]

He witnessed me when I was a boy and said, you know, he witnessed me enjoying being a naughty boy. And then he told me how he was a naughty boy when he was a boy. And then he said to me, you know, it's easy to be a naughty boy. What's hard is to be a good boy. He was trying to fix me. He was just trying to challenge me with something more, I don't know what the word is, more interesting. So now I'm just thinking about myself and the, like, interior mind and unwholesome thoughts that arise. Yes. And I'm thinking, okay, so what is she telling me? Telling me that I am that? Yes. Well, I'm telling you not so much that you are that. I'm telling you you are nothing other. It isn't like there's you in your unwholesome thoughts. You're not other than it. Okay? Now, if you realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings, then what do we do with such a thought?

[67:10]

What do we do? Then? Yeah, but then what practice we do after we're observing it? Notice that it's unwholesome. What do we practice? Right. Yeah. Yeah, right. Well, I guess the way you were talking about it is separate. We have this arising. We have this unwholesome mind. we have this unwholesome mind and we also have this wish. Got the wish, and now unwholesome mind comes to visit. I wish for Buddhahood, for the welfare of all beings. Now an unwholesome guest has come, which could be called my mind, or it could just be called an unwholesome mind, or it could be called me, unwholesome me.

[68:12]

It has come. Now, because of this wish, I want to practice with this by being generous towards it. Wish will get derailed. I don't want my wish to get derailed. I want to take care of this wish. I want to bring this wish to fruition. So I got to be kind to this, whatever nasty creatures show up. Inwardly, you know, outwardly. So practice giving. And then we move on to ethics. So now I'm going to practice ethics with this. I'm going to be careful of it. I'm going to keep my eye on it because there could even be some faultiness in my giving. So I'm going to practice the precepts in relationship to this difficult guest. And now I want to be patient with it because this guest is kind of painful. Ill will is painful. And and so on.

[69:13]

I'm going to do all these practices. And now things have changed, and we'll get another moment. But if I could do all that, there could be entry into reality on the spot with this ill will. It's possible. Now we'd have liberation with the ill will. And then these practices, which I've done now with the ill will, there won't be any ill will anymore. Next thing that comes, we'll be more skillful with it. Any questions? You okay? You don't feel fine, so what do you want to do with that? You're witnessing not feeling fine, and you're being compassionate towards not feeling fine. And how are you being compassionate towards nothing fine? Feeling fine.

[70:21]

Yeah. Just like you would love a little boy who wasn't feeling fine, right? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for being honest. Yes? What's the function of immaculate conception? What's the function of... What do you mean by immaculate conception? I guess you just answered it. So the point of immaculate conception is to make Buddhas. Among the interesting implications, which one are you referring to? It seems to leave out... It seems to leave out... It's on the tip of your tongue?

[71:47]

It seems to leave out a father. It seems to leave out a father. Well, the father in this story was the fourth ancestor. The father, the man that you don't see again, he's the boy. The man who went down the river, he winds up in the womb of the father. He's not the father. He's the boy. The father is the fourth ancestor. But he doesn't have sex with the girl. My story is tonight it's Immaculate Conception. But the sixth ancestor also became a Buddha, but he wasn't by Immaculate Conception.

[72:52]

He had a regular father and a regular mother. If I can't answer this question sufficiently... To what? Okay. And I have some time. How much time do I have?

[73:25]

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