I almost feel like I would be good to apologize whenever I use the word Buddha. So, I kind of apologize for it, but I need to in a way. Buddha is a being that has realized the truth. A Buddha has realized peace and justice. Buddha realized great compassion. And Buddha is not just one being. Buddha is Transmission.

[01:03]

Buddha is a face-to-face meeting. Face-to-face meeting is a situation in which the truth ...realized, boosts the situation of realizing the truth. Of course, the truth is all-pervading, but there needs to be a practice to realize it. And the practice that realizes it is the practice of intimately meeting all beings and practicing together with them. Last week I felt there was some difficulty in understanding how your practice, you know, the way you're practicing with your

[02:17]

body and the way you take care of your body and the transformations that come from you taking care of your body and you taking care of your mind are the same as the transformation of others. If you take care of yourself skillfully That is skillful transformation. And it's difficult to understand how the way you take care of yourself is also the way you're taking care of yourself. So I will continue to talk about that to try to help us understand that. So again, Zen meditation, world... A basic teaching from the earliest teachings of the Buddha.

[03:26]

When he taught the Eightfold Path, the first part of the Eightfold Path is right view. And maybe the central thing, the teaching of right view is karma has consequence. the actions that occur in our human consciousness. Human consciousness, which I think you probably all are familiar with. It's an awareness where you seem to be. It's an awareness where you are there, and you're seeing a world, and you're involved in various actions. and to you. And the actions that occur in that kind of consciousness are called karma.

[04:30]

And all these actions have consequence. Everything I think, every gesture I make, All these gestures have consequence. So everybody, everybody's practice, everybody's life is world transforming. You all, we all are world transformers. My understanding of the Buddha's teaching is we're all world transformers. Everything we do transforms our own body-mind. Every conscious act transforms our unconscious processes, transforms our body.

[05:42]

And our transformed body and unconscious cognitive processes support another moment of consciousness, usually. And in that consciousness the activities that I do in that consciousness have consequence, again, for my body and mind, but also all my karmic activities transform the world, transform the world I live in with you. My view or my experience of the world is not the same as yours and yet we're living in the same world. And I'm transforming it moment by moment and so are you. When we are practicing Zen meditation, which also I mentioned, practicing Zen meditation means practicing enlightenment, we also transform the world.

[06:58]

I practice enlightenment here, which I want to, and when I practice enlightenment here, which I want to, and I'm happy to do so, and I aspire to, It transforms me. And it transforms me. I want to be transformed. I'm so happy to be transformed by the practice of enlightenment, which transforms my life into stillness and silence and peace and all kinds of wonderful things. It makes here... But Zen meditation isn't just that I'm being transformed. It is the whole world is being transformed with me. So when I practice enlightenment, which transforms me, it transforms the entire universe.

[08:03]

And if I do not practice enlightenment, it also transforms the entire universe, but not in the same way. take care of things properly, I create injustice here for me. And I'm sorry, but if I create injustice for me, it gets transmitted to you. I'm sorry. So that's why I say I'm sorry. I don't do my job. Because it isn't just that I'm falling down taking care of myself, but when I don't take care of myself, That's transmitted to you. You share in my irresponsibility. And again, the meditation, the enlightenment practice I'm talking about is not just that I'm being responsible, but that I'm being...

[09:19]

...in a relationship with you. So I'm not only responsible for taking care of my body, which is part of my job, I'm responsible for taking care of my body, my face, and my meeting with you. The practice of enlightenment is the practice of meeting face to face, which includes me taking care of my body, you taking care of yours, me transmitting to you if I'm skillful, you transmitting to me if you're skillful, and we meeting. And that, certainly, you can see how you transform me and I transform you. And that transforms the whole universe. And if we don't meet each other, it's the same. But we don't want that other We don't want irresponsible meetings because they create the conditions for injustice and war and murder.

[10:35]

Face-to-face meeting, murder is impossible. The face-to-face meeting has a complete resistance to murder. The power to do the impossible is paralyzed. We cannot murder. We aren't restraining ourselves. Well, we're restraining ourselves by reality. But if we're irresponsible, all these things which we don't want can manifest. And it's hard to understand this. So my responsibility is to take care of this body.

[11:41]

As I said last week, this fragile, precious body, I have a job now to take care of it. And it's a big, difficult job. I'm not supposed to put more than 40 pounds of weight on this leg is very difficult. Remember that because I can easily put more than 40 pounds on it. And it doesn't hurt, but I'm not supposed to. very challenging to remember every step with this leg. The other leg would put all my weight on it, no problem. So this leg has a different mindfulness assignment from this leg. It would be easier in a way if they both, but anyway, this is my situation. This is my responsibility, right? And you all want me to take care of this, right? And because you do, it makes it... I feel uplifted and supported to do the difficult job of taking care of this fragile body and this fragile mind.

[12:52]

That's part of my job. So I can meet you. So I'm responsible for this. I'm responsible to meet you. And in that meeting... where both of us are fully responsible, this meeting is Buddha. This is what Buddha's doing. An ancient teacher said, Mountains and rivers and earth are born together with the person. And again, many people have trouble understanding that. They think that the mountains and rivers are there and then the person's born.

[13:57]

This is saying that they're born together with the person. I am born every moment, and I'm born together with the whole earth every moment. And he goes on to say, all the Buddhas of three worlds, which I think he means past, present, and future, all the Buddhas are practicing together with each other. We are born together with the whole earth and the mountains and rivers each moment, and each moment all the Buddhas are practicing with each of us face to face.

[14:59]

The practice of the Buddhas is, of course, to practice with you, and [...] you. Of course, right? Buddha is practicing with you, and you, and you, and you. ...together with all of you. And all of them are practicing with all of you and all of them are practicing with each of you. And if I am not responsible for this practice that's being done with me, then I'm not doing my job. And if I don't meet you, it's the same. You are also practicing with me, all of you. So the Buddhas are practicing with each person.

[16:11]

So each person is practicing with all the Buddhas. And if you're practicing with all the Buddhas, you're practicing with the people who are practicing. So you're practicing with everybody too. But we're trying to learn to accept this complete responsibility. The way our true life is that we are practicing together with everybody. Just like the Buddhas who are practicing together with each of us. And this practice that we're doing together face-to-face, this is the practice which transforms the world in the direction everybody wants and then to our face-to-face encounters.

[17:27]

It seems to like create afflictions. And even so, the Buddhas are practicing with us when we seem to not be willing to practice with everybody. And they're practicing with us the way we are when we're not able to practice with everybody. They're practicing with us and they're practicing in the same way that we are. And they're doing it wholeheartedly. And they're seeing that we're resisting. And they're practicing just like us at that moment. And they're looking at us and seeing that we're just the same as them even though we don't seem to be ready for it.

[18:39]

Who are not ready to practice with all Buddhas are practicing together with Buddhas who are ready to practice with us. And they're not rushing us along. They're practicing just like us, but without any resistance. But without any resistance? They have no resistance to being like us, but we do sometimes. Like I told you a few weeks ago, I got this new body delivered to the world I was in and I had some resistance to it. I entered into a course of medical assistance to relieve me of some problems I had.

[19:43]

And then I got sort of more intense, more, you know, much bigger problems. I had a fragile body and I wanted something to happen to it so it would be more comfortably fragile. And then it got much more uncomfortable. And I got this, unexpectedly, I got this new fragile body and I was a little bit like, this is actually not what I was expecting and I'm not sure I really want to take it. But that didn't last too long. I'm pretty much over it. And I'm working with this body moment by moment, every moment a new one, and each one... And I'm not saying the resistance will never come back.

[20:47]

For example, if I should happen to fall down and then I have to go back to the hospital, there might be a moment of, oh, I don't want to go to the hospital. No. It's so noisy there. People are constantly coming to make sure you're not dead. Whereas at Green College, people are not coming to check on me all the time. They're not really checking to see if I'm dead. I'm not sure this is the right moment, but I have a big resistance to having lost Fred. Yeah. Well, the Buddha is practicing with you. And the Buddha is not resisting you being like you are. The Buddha is not resisting you experiencing resistance.

[21:55]

And the Buddha is not resisting Fred either. Whatever Fred is, the Buddha is not resisting that. The Buddha is practicing together with whatever Fred is. But you don't want to do what the Buddha does? You want to resist what Fred is? Yes. Yeah, and Buddha's not like you. Instead, Buddha says, you're just like me. But the Buddha's not resisting you resisting. And I don't want to resist you resisting either. So if the resistance keeps going up, I want to practice with you, just like the Buddhas would do. But the Buddhas don't. aren't resisting Fred. They're like practicing with Fred. The Buddhas are practicing with Fred. They're not like resisting. And the Buddhas are practicing with you who's resisting the way Fred is. That he's not like Fred, the guy who's walking around anymore.

[23:01]

He's a different Fred. Doing a lot of exercises. Yeah. That Fred, no more. And also the Elena that we used to have, she's not here either. But, you know, I'm trying to accept that Elena, this new Elena. I appreciate you telling us that you're resisting. And I just mentioned to you, Buddha's practicing with you and with Fred. I don't know what Fred is and I don't know who you are. But I still want to practice with you And you can practice where they are. You can just practice with how they look. Like, oh, there they are. I don't know where they are, but I really don't know who I am, but I'm going to take care of what I think I am and I'm going to give the gift of me to this meeting. This all starts with giving. You give the gift of meeting the other.

[24:05]

Just like Buddha gives the gift of meeting you. Yes? Do you have any practice with someone else's resistance? I have a friend who is very resistant to very bad things. So resistant that they don't want to go on for a year. Very resistant to any help or assistance. How do we use our practice to meet that kind of resistance? Well, my friend over here, this lady, tells me she's resisting. And she tells me that the resistance is increasing. So what do I do with her? What do I do? I mean, what do I want to do? I want to welcome her... No, she's resistant.

[25:11]

I want to welcome her resistance. She told me she's resistant. So I want to welcome her resistance. And I want to welcome your friend's resistance. And I want to welcome your friend's... What is it? Your friend's feeling like, this is getting too much, I can't put up with it anymore. I just told you a little minute ago, I had a little bit of that. Like, too much work to take care of this, this, too much. I can think a thought like that. In other words, resist like, oh goody, I got this new, very fragile body to take care of, you know, and everything's kind of like... Oh, you know, great, let's do this. I then hesitated to do that. There was a hesitation in me. And maybe there's a hesitation in you when you meet your friend who's resisting so much, resisting unto death.

[26:19]

Well? Okay, now we're resisting. Now what are we going to do now? Well, let's accept that I'm resisting and then maybe a little light will go off and you realize that you welcoming and practicing with your friend who is not welcoming anything, it seems like, You're not just doing that for your friend, which is a hard job for you. You're doing it for everybody. You're doing it for this whole nation. Because the whole nation is like your friend. Your whole nation's got these various kinds of resistances. The news is full of resistance. Resistance, resistance, resistance. And then there's resistance to the resistance. These people out, and then people say, no, you can't do that.

[27:24]

Resistance back and forth all over the place. Resistance to what? To meeting. To wholeheartedly meeting. Well, we got that, so then we meet that. We do what the Buddhas do, which is to meet people who don't want to meet, to meet people who are resisting, who are putting up walls, to meet people who are protesting against putting up walls, to meet everybody. But the Buddhas, the Buddhas are practicing with everyone. I'm not kidding. That's the message. It's not like they're practicing with 99% and then there's these seven people they're not practicing with. They're practicing with everybody, including the people who say, I don't want this around me ever. And some people say, I'm out of here.

[28:28]

This is too much. And it's easy to understand. It's so hard sometimes to be responsible for your own suffering. It's so hard you might think, what's the point? Well, the point is, The whole world's like you. And if you take care of yourself, you're taking care of not just yourself, but everybody. And then, for me anyway, then it's worth it. And if you've got a friend and he's really difficult to take care of and he doesn't want to take care of himself, that's a big job for you. But it isn't just for you and your friend. It's for everybody. And then, well, if it's for everybody, it's still really hard, maybe, but it's not actually harder.

[29:29]

And it's not exactly easy. It's just that now you realize everybody's supporting you to do your job, which is to take care of your friend who doesn't want to take care of himself, which is a really hard job. And you're only going to be able to do it because we're all helping you. And we are helping you so you will be able to. And you are helping me so I will be able to keep doing this thing that I have to do. And if I don't do it, then I'll have to take care of the consequences of not doing it. Which will be probably to go back into the hospital and have another operation because I made my leg short because I rushed. I didn't want to go so slow, so I put too much weight on, and then my leg was short. And they can fix that.

[30:29]

But then I have to go back into the place where people don't, I've got to make sure I'm not dead. I don't want to go back there. But if I get there, my... Okay, welcome, hospital. That's always my job as what? As a practitioner of enlightenment is to welcome the meeting. Not just welcome my stuff, but welcome it with you and realize that I can't actually meet my stuff except for you and by you. But because of you, I can go on to do this really hard thing in this world. I cannot do it by myself. It's too much. I'm not that important just for myself.

[31:31]

I don't think I'm that important for me, but I'm really important for you, and you are for me. As a favor to me, would you please take care of yourself? And that's not enough. As a favor to everybody, would you please take care of yourself? As a favor to me, would you be a Buddha? it seems there's no enlightened self or individual, there's enlightened action, there's this face-to-face activity. Well, there is enlightened self, but it's the self that's in this meeting, both selves. There's enlightened, this guy's enlightened and this guy's enlightened. They're both enlightened because they're in this relationship. So they get to share. But the real, the center, the pivot point of the enlightenment is the way they're meeting each other.

[32:34]

But they're totally immersed in this thing, so they're kind of, I'm going to call it, they're raising this enlightenment. So they're enlightened. Everything's enlightened. They're doing enlightenment work. It's just that they're doing the enlightenment work together, not by themselves. There's nobody over here by himself being a Buddha. all radiant and so on. Buddhas are all radiant and so on, but they're radiant the way they're working with everybody. So there are enlightened beings, it's just that these beings are in this meeting. They're not just... There's no egocentric enlightened being. There's just beings who are free of ego. through this meeting and then those beings are enlightenment. So bodhisattva means enlightening being or enlightenment being. They are beings, their constitution is that they're into others.

[33:38]

Their constitution is into everybody else. That's the kind of thing they are. Their experience is everybody else. In other words, they're enlightenment beings. They're not just themselves. I myself am others. That's the kind of being they are. So they're enlightenment beings. And they don't get rid of their self. It's just that their self is just about meeting with others. So there's nobody by himself, and of course there's no enlightened beings by themselves. But we really are enlightened beings in the way Buddhas are practicing with us, and we're practicing with Buddhas, and we're practicing with each other, because we are practicing with those who are practicing with others. That way we are enlightenment beings, are enlightening beings. And in that way we are in a egocentric position, which we do not get rid of.

[34:44]

Just like we don't get rid of our fragile body, we don't get rid of our fragile consciousness, which has our fragile self, which sometimes thinks the self isn't fragile and resists being fragile. Right? Cool? You're welcome. Tell me your name again. Patrick. Patrick. I'm just wondering, in terms of the practical considerations, all of the people in the world face-to-face. There seems to be practical limits. I had a conversation with a friend of mine over the weekend. He was saying, oh, you know, I went to this event and there were some people there who were really not that nice. They were really unkind kind of people. And I was thinking of the doctor. Where Buddha talks about in some of his sayings, you know, we should really keep company with wise people.

[35:48]

Yes. Keep company with fools. And we shouldn't get involved in gossip. You know, there was some kind of maybe gossiping going on. And I'm wondering, you know, my response to it was, well, you know, you have to avoid those kind of people. You know, and in my own life, practically speaking, I've had people that, you know, they carry a lot of acid that really tried to avoid them. And, you know, thinking of the Donald Potter, you know, let's start in this practice. how much time and effort all of us have to put into all of these potential face-to-face meetings that we have. So what are the limits in terms of how many people we can really meet face-to-face? And are there any? In the conventional world. Well, thank you. I heard some different dimensions of your question. One dimension is this thing about associate with wise people and avoid fools.

[36:54]

So, I'm not going to disagree with the Buddha, all right? That was a, you know, I recasted. I think the Buddha did say stuff like that, like, hang out with good friends and don't hang out with bad friends. Okay? He's quoted as talking like that. And I'm not going to disagree with that. Okay, so... I don't think we have any problem with hanging out with wise... I don't have any problem with hanging out with wise people. I've made some considerable effort to hang out with wise people. As a matter of fact, I'm telling you right now, tonight, the wise people are hanging out. So, it would probably be a perfectly good idea and practical if you would welcome them. The wise people are supporting you to practice.

[37:56]

And they're already supporting each other. So, associate with them. Their friendship is where it's at. Now, the wise people, I would say also, are practicing together with the fools. It's people called Buddhas. They are practicing with these fools, which I might feel like, you know, it's too advanced for me to practice with those fools. I mean, I know I am practicing with them, but, yeah, distance, so limits. I might feel like I need some limits. And I think you can practice with people face to face and have limits, practical limits. Like, I need a break from this conversation.

[39:04]

Or I need you to stand a couple feet farther away from me. But that can be the way I'm practicing with them. We don't skip over our limited relationships. Our relationship with each of you is limited by my face, your face, and language, and bodies. And negotiating these limits is part of the meeting. And that's a practical sense. And sometimes I may say, those people are I do get in situations where people are bad-mouthing people. And I often just walk away from that situation. That's happened many times that I'm saying things, harmful things about people I care about.

[40:05]

And I don't see a way to actually, like, Let them know, other than walk away. And if I walk away enough times, over the years, they kind of get, you know, he keeps walking away, and I start trashing so-and-so. And then, without me saying anything, after a while, they stop trashing so-and-so, and I'm around. It's not, you know, they get... And I don't, like, come in and, like, talk down to them and say, you know, blah, blah, blah. I do set a kind of some space there and they can feel it and I try to do it with respect so they don't feel put down they just feel like you know and then maybe they know he's a Buddhist priest and you know he keeps walking away every time we do this you know 10 20 you know I guess he doesn't like it so maybe when he's around we just won't talk like that

[41:08]

And actually, you know, who knows, maybe we shouldn't talk about that ever. Maybe they totally changed. I don't know. But I do know that over the years they changed. Because I told him, you know, and gave him many lectures. And they kind of know, also they kind of know, if they were in trouble, they kind of know that if they came to me for help, that I would be kind of like, yeah. They kind of look like a professional friend of theirs, even though we don't say so. This is like practical. But I'm not going to just sit there and kind of pretend like this isn't really hurting me, they're talking that way, and I'm not going to try to control them, because that'll, you know, it just doesn't work. But I can influence them by letting them know in a respectful way that I'm uncomfortable. And the relationship is transformed.

[42:14]

That's one dimension I heard from you. That part of enlightenment. For example, I just saw the Buddha. This wonderful, this great disciple came to see him who had doubts. This person was like a teacher of many people. But he also Quite enlightened. He was enlightened enough to know that he had some doubts. He was enlightened enough to know that he hadn't fully realized the truth. This kind of guru. And he heard about the Buddha. And somehow he thought, you know, find that guy. Maybe he can help me. Because I am a teacher, but I'm not sure. I don't have real... my faith is not fully realized. So he went to see the Buddha, traveled a long ways, came to where Buddha was, which is the Jeddah Grove.

[43:25]

And he said, where's the teacher? Where's the Lord? And they said, well, he's in town doing his alms round, begging for lunch. So he went to town. He describes the Buddha, and he saw the Buddha, and the Buddha looked really good, looked really calm and sweet and dignified and just like, you know, a movable, radiant happiness and peace. Yeah, that must be him. So he goes up and he says, Teacher, I have a question about the Dharma I need to ask you. And the Buddha met him face to face, of course. Fully, of course. Giving him the Buddha. Because he was the Buddha, so what did he give?

[44:26]

He gave the Buddha to this wonderful disciple, seeking guidance. even though he was a pretty high-level teacher, humble enough to go and say, somebody can teach me something, I think, gave him the Buddha. And the Buddha said, this is not a good time, monk. The Buddha set a limit, gave him a limit. You know, he was begging for lunch. It's not a good time for him to give these talks when he's begging. The Buddha gave a limit. Now, respectfully, of course. And so, all the more, undisturbed, this seeker still felt like, this is my guy, I think. Please, you know, we don't know what will happen. In other words, this is not a good time. After lunch, you can ask me. And the guy says, we don't know what's going to happen after lunch.

[45:30]

So please ask me. Please let me ask." Second time. Buddha said, it's not a good time. And then a third time he asks. And the etiquette of being a Buddha is that if people ask you three times, even if it's not a good time. Okay. So, Buddha can set limits, does set limits, you can set limits. If it's not a good time for you to meet, you can say, maybe later, I'll meet you later. I don't know when I'll meet you, but let's just... And then, if I'm not ready, maybe we can renegotiate. But right now, I'm not ready. Or two minutes, or ten minutes. These meetings, it's a negotiation.

[46:36]

And there can be meetings, real, true, face-to-face meetings which realize justice and enlightenment where both parties are setting limits or offering limits, expressing their uncomfortableness, expressing their fears, their doubts. their lack of energy or whatever. I need to take a rest now. I'll come back after a rest. That's a very important part of this meeting. And some people you just feel like, well, you're just too intense for me this week. You can't be near you when you talk like that, and so on. Get the picture? That's one kind of practical thing. The other kind of practical thing is that even if you feel like somebody wants to meet you and you feel like, great, that's just right for me, let's meet, then what does it have to do with that meeting you're helping all the people that you can't even see?

[47:43]

Because you can't see everybody. So, is that the absolute level? You can call it absolute, but anyway, with people you can see, and people you cannot see are practicing with you. This is the mysterious, inconceivable dimension. You can't see the Buddhas three times right now. I can't see them. But what I mean by Buddhas is the beings who are practicing with me right now. But not just the ones that I can't see, but the ones that I can't see that are practicing, not just with me, but with everybody. And the Buddhas are telling me

[48:44]

that I should hang out with wise people and I should not hang out with fools. That means I should meet fools in that way and wise people in that way. The Buddhas are the people who are practicing with me, who are giving me instructions. I sometimes can see them and I sometimes can't. But right now in this world, almost nobody can see Shakyamuni Buddha. I shouldn't say them. Many people cannot see Shakyamuni Buddha. You know Shakyamuni Buddha? He lived supposedly 2,500 years ago. You have these teachings you brought up. Well, then later in the history of this world, there's a teaching that Shakyamuni Buddha is still here. And most, I shouldn't say most, anyway, many people cannot see Shakyamuni Buddha right now. But there's a teaching which says Shakyamuni Buddha is here right now practicing with you.

[49:48]

But you can't see him with the same eye you see people. But if you practice wholeheartedly with the people you meet, if you make no exceptions, and meet this person, and [...] this person. And if you practice that way, and you're gentle, and honest, and upright, and flexible, and you meet everybody that way, you will see Shakyamuni Buddha right here. You will see the infinite Buddhas. But you're not going to see with the same eyes that you're going to see with the eye that's called wisdom. Wisdom can see that all the Buddhas are practicing with us, including the historical Buddha.

[50:52]

And this is hard to understand, right? And the places where it's taught, they often say, it's hard to understand, now here it is. What's hard to understand, Buddha is practicing with you right now. And you can't see, you will not, I will not be able to see Buddha practicing with me if I skip over practicing with any of you. But if I don't skip over practicing with each of you, and I'm gentle and honest and harmonious and flexible with each of you, I will see the Buddhas right now. I'll see the great Shakyamuni Buddha and all the others. It will be as clear as your faces will be that face, which is invisible. I can clearly see an invisible face. That's so wonderful. And seeing that face makes me just more want to meet these faces that I can see.

[51:59]

And again, when this teaching appears, it says, this is the most difficult teaching, but it's also the best. And it includes practical limits that you apply to each person's limits. With you people, I have certain sets of limits which I do not have with my grandchild, and I have limits with her that I don't have with you. I can talk to you about things I can't talk to her about, and I can talk to her about things that you don't want to talk to me about. If she was here, you would want to talk to her, but anyway, there are limits of our meanings, but the limits do not... They're what we work with to meet. They're what we work with to be wholehearted. I think Bill and Tracy and Charlie. Okay.

[53:06]

By the way, I enjoyed seeing you in the movie. I enjoyed seeing you in the movie. Oh, you saw me? I did, yeah. Yeah, you weren't the star, but I still enjoyed seeing you. I said, hey, this is my friend, Bill. Did anybody tell you I was in there? No. I recognized you. It was just a picture of you. Something that said a lot about how... Except the wise. The wise aren't running away from that person. Huh? He does need you. That's why the wise do not run away from him. But sometimes the Buddha says to people who are ...to stay away from certain people, because he could see that these students, if they get too close to this person, they'll do something really bad.

[54:31]

You know, they'll harm that person. So he said, you know, not you, but... To this monk, he said, you should stay away from those people, brackets, because if you get close to them, you're going to do something really harmful. Meantime, the Buddha is like totally realizing that fool needs him and the Buddha is totally giving himself to that fool. But his beginning, a lot of Buddha's teachings are for beginners. And he sometimes tells beginners, stay away from there. And then he goes over there. Like, you know, his country was going to be invaded by an army. He didn't send a bunch of fools out to sit in front of the army, because they would just get trampled. They sent the Buddha out, and the Buddha stopped the army. And the Buddha knew he could stop the army.

[55:34]

And then the army went back, but then they came back again, and the people asked the Buddha to go and sit in front of the army. He sat in front of it. And he did, and they went back. And the third time they came and asked him to go, he said, this time they won't stop, so he didn't go. So the fool does need the Buddha, and the Buddha is practicing with the fool. But also the Buddha says to some of his disciples, you know, so later. Do you know the story of the Billy Goats Gruff? You know that story? Yeah, so the little... They're trying to get the people across the bridge, you know? So they send the little one and says, you know, don't bother with me. The next one is much more delicious. So, you know... Sometimes it's better to not try to get the little billy goat to hang out with the troll. It's not a good idea. But the big billy goat, you know, they're a good match. So the Buddha's saying, you little billy goats stay away from the trolls.

[56:38]

So after you guys are all safe over there in your meditation, I'm going to go hang out with those dark, foolish trolls. They're my boys. I love these boys. But I've got to make sure you guys are okay first. I don't want you getting munched on by those. Okay? Buddha's totally... Trolls are crawling for Buddha's compassion. All those beings and the orcs, is that called orcs? The orcs and the ghouls, they're all... I'm coming, baby. But we don't send Buddha's children to hang out with the... Actually, we do send Buddha's children, but we send Buddha's grown-up children, not the babies. But we still teach the babies, you know. Now watch how I take care... Would you say a little more about what face-to-face is and isn't?

[57:53]

What it is? When you do and don't meet, you say face-to-face. Well, like right now, I'm meeting you face-to-face. That's what I mean. Well, that's easy. Okay. And also, I hear you saying it's an easy one, and I'm listening to you, and now you have something about a hard one? I think you're saying you can have face-to-face with somebody whose face is this, whose body is that. Yeah. Like right now, I'm telling you, you are having face-to-face transmission with all Buddhists, and you can't see them. Who can't you? No one. So what's the deal? Why are we distinguishing face-to-face if everything is face-to-face? Why are we even having that? Because we can miss the chance to practice it. Like, for example, you can look at somebody and turn away.

[58:59]

and not mean it as a way of meaning. You can say, I'm not going to give myself to meeting you. Of course, that's another kind of meeting, but you may not actually think you just turned away from the meeting. You may feel like, I'm not practicing generosity. In other words, you deny that you're in a generous relationship with a person that you're in a generous relationship with. What does face-to-face mean? What does it mean? It means, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, this is what the practice is, is to meet face... I've got a face, you've got a face, and we're meeting now, but I don't know what it means. I just know this is my job. And you're calling me, you're calling me, and I'm responding to you, and I'm calling you to meet me.

[60:04]

I don't know what it means that I'm calling you. I could say, well, what it means is, is that the way we are? The way we are is we're calling each other. Calling each other to account. We're calling each other into question. What does it mean? Well, peace is what it means. You make it sound like dead is face to face, as though some things aren't. Well, I don't mean to say that some things aren't. Did I say some things aren't? We can miss it, yeah. Like I can toss you a ball. Whoops. I could toss you a ball and you can miss it.

[61:09]

But I still tossed you the ball. The Buddhas are practicing together with you right now, face to face. And if you don't give yourself to that, it's like you can miss it. Just like you can meet an ordinary human being who you can see and they come over to you, and they're like giving themselves to you, and you might feel like they don't want to have anything to do with you. And they might say, that's great, thank you so much. And you might go, oh, I get it. I just did give myself to you when I told you I didn't want to meet you. Thank you, so now I see that I actually, I had no alternative to meeting you. I thought I did, and now I see that I don't. This is how Buddhists feel.

[62:11]

They don't have alternative to meet you. Not having an alternative to meet you is similar to not meeting you. They understand that you're calling to them, and they're coming to meet you. That's what they're here for. And if you resist meeting, you still might not be able to say, oops, I resisted. How silly. And, you know, wake up and say, I'm sorry. And I told you over and over about so many stories of somebody who's making a big... somebody... then they get to that somebody and then say i don't want to meet or maybe later but that's that's the meeting and all the way from when they first wanted to meet they were room he has a lot of poems like that

[63:24]

We're always meeting. Meeting is reality. Meeting is the dharma, the truth is intimate meeting. Inconceivable dharma of the Buddhas is an intimate meeting. The truth is meeting. This is the truth. We're meeting. And you have this now, so take care of it. That's our teaching. And if you get distracted in the game, then you just say, I'm sorry I got distracted. I thought I had somebody better to meet than you. So that's why halfway through the conversation I said, I don't want to meet you anymore. I want to meet somebody else. I'm sorry. Then when I got to meet the other person, I didn't want to meet them. It's the cocktail party, right? Which is why, you know, I kind of stay away from parties.

[64:31]

They're too advanced for me. Almost everybody talking to me is looking for somebody else to talk to. I'm not wise enough for cocktail parties. To have one person after another walk up to me and not pay any attention to me. It's too hard. So I live in a world where when people come and talk to me, they like to actually look at me. And then they try to get away. But not because it's more interesting, it's because they're just not used to reality. Which is, reality is we're intimately meeting. This meeting that we have, when it's wholehearted, is the door to meeting all Buddhas and transforming the entire universe in that moment, in the way we want. But if we shrink back and get distracted or get excited or whatever, we say if you get excited, you fall into a pit.

[65:39]

If you hesitate, you're going, oh, huh. But that's not the end of the story. Just say, I got excited, I'm sorry. Let's try again. Let's try again. And every moment we have opportunity to meet one person, two people, actually meeting everybody. Because all the ones who are meeting everybody are meeting us. But we can't see that. It's inconceivable. The Dharma is inconceivable. And by taking care of the conceivable, we open to the... And opening to inconceivable, we are flooded with inspiration to try again with the conceivable. When the Dharma fills us, we're willing to work with our limited... working with our limited relationships, we open to the inconceivable inspiration of the truth, which is face-to-face transmission beyond our idea of it.

[66:57]

But we have to also be a face-to-face, and that's a big job. So we have to do that in order to realize that. So a non-meeting would be, I'm really not ready to talk to you now. That could be a meeting. But a non-meeting would be... There's no non-meetings. So in some sense, you could say non-meetings do get away from you. They get away from everybody because there aren't any. But a meeting could be, this is too much for me right now, I need a break. That could be the meeting. I don't want to talk to you can be a meeting.

[67:59]

You could say that to me and I might go, there's many stories like that where one person says, I don't want to meet with you and the other one goes, oh, that's so great. And then the other one says, oh, I get it. I love you. Oh, that's terrific. Oh, now I say I do. There's this thing called waking up from the dream of I don't love you. But sometimes you have to say I don't love you for the other person to go. And that's the story I was going to tell you next week. Yes? How... I guess I'll be specific. How can I inspire my employees to be responsible? Or how can I inspire responsibility in others? How can I inspire them to be responsible?

[69:03]

By being fully responsible to the appearance of insufficient responsibility. You could say partial or major irresponsibility. For you to be responsible will inspire, will transmit the responsibility. It will wake them up to the responsibility. I don't think it's working, though. If you're fully responsible, your eyes will open to that it is working. It is working. If you're fully responsible, you won't be able to see it. Even without them changing at all, you can see that they're being fully... really, they are being fully responsible. And if you're fully responsible to them, then that will be transmitted to them. Really, they are being fully responsible? Yeah. I don't see that.

[70:05]

You're right. You don't see it. So I'm saying if you're fully responsible to the meeting where you feel like this person is not fully responsible, you will transmit the full responsibility in doing so. You will see that they are, but they don't really, you know, without changing them at all. It sounds like a different world that I'm living in. I mean, it sounds like you're saying, I'll realize the world is different than I think right now, which is... Yeah, it means it's like your eyes open. If somebody just said to me yesterday, said, you know, loyalty is really important to me and people aren't loyal to me. I said, well... If you're more loyal, you'll see that these people are... You'll see more and more how loyal everybody is to you. So for you to realize how these people are fully responsible, you do your part, you bring your fully responsible... And in that meeting, you will wake up to their full responsibility, even if they don't.

[71:07]

But every time you realize... It's not so much that you're transmitting to them that you're fully responsible and they're not. It's that you're transmitting to them that they are, if you are. If you are fully responsible, you will see that they are and you'll still be able to see they look like they're not. They don't get it. You're getting it now. You're saying, oh, they are fully responsible. And the way they're doing it is by saying, you know, I don't want to be very responsible. If you see that, now you're transmitting it to them. What does it mean to hold someone responsible? Hold? Hold? I think it's more like

[72:11]

Well, I've got to say, for now, to hold someone responsible and to be held responsible means is enlightenment. In enlightenment, you hold me responsible or you call me into accountability in an enlightened relationship. you put me into question, you put me into accountability, you call me to responsibility in our enlightened relationship, and I to you. So enlightenment is like that. That you're calling me, you're saying, come and help me. Do your best. Give me your utmost. Give me your whole life. That's what you're asking in enlightenment. And I'm saying, yes. And also, when I say yes, you feel like you're being called.

[73:15]

It sounds like an enlightened way of holding someone responsible is pretty different from an unenlightened way of holding someone responsible. Yeah, it is pretty different. In the unenlightened ways, you're not fully responsible. You're trying to get them to be fully responsible. But if I'm responsible, then I see how wonderfully responsible you are, even though you're saying, I don't want to be that responsible. So some people say, you know, like, I offered, I was going to offer this Bodhisattva vow ceremony at Green Gulch, and a bunch of people said, you know, I have resistances. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to do Bodhisattva. You know, I thought it would be just wonderful. You have a chance to make these vows. Oh, cool. I don't want to do that. Well, we didn't do it. And some people said, we better not do this.

[74:15]

I don't want these people to stop me from having the ceremony. But you accepted, didn't you? You didn't want people to stop? What? Some people didn't want me not to do the ceremony because some people didn't want it. Because some people felt like they were being forced into these inconceivable vows to help the world. I think are so cool, you know, I don't do it or anything, but I like to make the vows. And some people just felt like, you know, and I didn't, I just thought it was a gift, but I realized that to give this gift to something that some people are not ready to receive, you have to sort of like So now that if I want to do that ceremony, I should just offer the ceremony and people can come to it rather than people are already there and I come and say we're going to do the ceremony because they feel trapped. You could have done that.

[75:19]

We're really trapped. Someone could suggest that, that you have a ceremony and people could come and not come. We can talk about going into details on this next week if you want to. Some people say they do not want to be Buddhas, and Buddhas are practicing with the people who say they don't want to be Buddhas. And the Buddhas look at the people who say they don't want to be Buddhas and say, I'm just like you. Buddhas are fully responsible and they look at people and say, I don't want you to be a responsibility for me. And they look at the person and they say, this is my boy. I'm just like him. And you see that they are, they just don't get it. But you can see they don't get it. They don't get it and they say they don't want to get it. And you totally see that they're just like you. Keep transmitting that to them.

[76:22]

And then they finally realize, oh, okay. I guess I do want to be Buddha. But not because you force them, but just because you realize that they really do, even when they say, I don't. The way some people want to be... And many people, I've told you this before, many people come to me, they've heard about Zen centers or about enlightenment, they come to me and say, you know, I'm not interested in enlightenment, it's too much. Can I stay? Yes, yeah, you can stay. The way people approach enlightenment is sometimes by saying they don't want to go in that direction at all. It's just not interesting to them. They just want to, you know, lose a few pounds. Okay, fine. That's part of our program. So we'll put you on a solid protein diet.

[77:25]

Thank you very much. Oh, by the way, the first part of the chant is a dedication of merit. And the second part of the chant is a life of vows. Okay? First part. That was the dedication of merit for this class. Now we make bodhisattva vows.

[77:56]

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