I proposed to you earlier that these ten oxherding pictures of these ten oxherding poems are, you know, ten chapters of a story that's going on. It's a story of awakening that's going on in stillness. So the context is the same in all the pictures by that proposal. We talked about the song of the precious mirror samadhi. So this is a story about what's going on in that samadhi. If any of you weren't in the class and would like a copy of that song And I'll give you a copy of the song.

[01:02]

The song's singing about what's going on in the samadhi. This is a different song. This is a song about the the the herder and the herded. The trainer and the trained. Subject and object. Conscious and unconscious. All kinds of dualities like that. Ourself and ourself. This is a story about the process of enlightenment which is the process of becoming intimate with ourself. Enlightenment is intimacy with our self and of course our self is everything.

[02:13]

So this is a story about becoming intimate with everything. And everything wants to be trained and everything wants to train us. We may or may not want to train everything and we may or may not want everything to train us but everything wants us to train everything and everything wants to train us so all this is going on in stillness like it or not we live in stillness we live in the same place as enlightenment and we have problems with that it's a hard place to live And it just happens to be where we're living. We're not really living in delusion, but enlightenment includes delusion. We're not really living in movement, but all movement is included in delusion.

[03:19]

In order to join this process of becoming intimate we need to remember that this is going on in stillness. We need to remember stillness because that's where it's happening. It's happening where we are without moving. So we need to remember that. It's part of our job. Our job is to become ourselves and part of that is to remember stillness and continually or repeatedly perceive it. We don't make it. It's given to us by the whole universe. The whole universe makes you just like you are right now, not the slightest bit to the right or left of where you are. Accept that situatedness. You have been situated where you are exactly, precisely. So remember it, receive it, and then practice there.

[04:35]

We got way up to the third picture or the third verse. And the third verse says, at the end of the third verse, well, I'll say the whole verse. On a yonder branch perching as a nightingale cheerfully singing. Or you could say, on a yonder branch as a nightingale cheerfully singing. Or you could say, on a yonder branch perching A nightingale. See, here's the difference. A nightingale as a nightingale. A nightingale's perching on the branch, a yonder branch, a branch out there.

[05:47]

And it's cheerfully singing. But if I say on yonder branch as a nightingale, what I mean... What I mean is the ox is perching on the branch. I mean everything is perching on the branch as a nightingale. And everything is cheerfully singing. The sun is warm and a soothing breeze blows. On the bank the willows are green. The cow is there. Nowhere is she to hide herself.

[06:51]

The splendid head, decorated with stately horns, can reproduce her. And Charlie commented towards the end of the class that maybe the painter wasn't listening to that poem when he drew the rear end. Yeah? realized a few minutes later that the painter could have been laughing pretty hard as he painted this, because he, it says, the rhetorical question, what painter reproduced this hat? So he didn't bother. Or he sidestepped the challenge. Or he sidestepped the challenge and drew the rear end. So this is like we see the ox now, and what do we see?

[08:15]

We see the ox's head. Yes. We see the ox's rear end, according to the painter. Maybe we see the part of the ox that we didn't think was necessary to see. Or we thought maybe we should see the whole ox, but not just the rear end. You could say it's a fast-moving ox, too, on top of that. It's a rear end. And we see it. So what is this splendid head?

[09:18]

What is this ? Is it everything we thought it would be? Is it what we didn't think it would be? It's love, yeah. And do we feel love for the rear end? Do we feel generosity towards the rear end and everything in the neighborhood of the rear end? Are we going to be careful with the rear end now that we've seen the rear end? Well, in stillness, we do rear ends.

[10:21]

You know, a rear end shows up and we practice gratitude towards the rear end in stillness. That's how we are with rear ends and heads. And we're also careful with them. So there's a little bit of challenge here, maybe, to be gracious and grateful to backwards and not run away from it or try to get the front end. Pardon?

[11:26]

He looks like he's chasing it. Well, also in stillness, there might be some chasing. And we didn't think... So now we have... So, you know, in the first stage we, what... It was happening in stillness, and what was in the first stage was confusion. Remember? Confusion, but still, even though it was confusion, it was confusion and stillness. There was stillness, but there were swollen waters, and there was searching, and there was singing there, too. In the same stillness, there was singing. There were birds in the trees, but I never heard them singing.

[12:32]

No, I never heard them at all till there was you. Till I saw the rear end. The beast has never gone astray. It's right there. We're in stillness with it and yet we feel confused and don't know how to proceed. In the second picture we see some way to proceed and we've heard some teachings and, you know, And we see some of these teachings in the stillness. And maybe we go after them. And maybe we go after them fast. Yes?

[13:39]

It's like, in the same way as the rear end, we only see a part of it. In seeing the rear end, we only see part of it. We don't see the whole. We don't know what animal it is. We don't know what it is. We're just getting a glimpse of what it is. Yeah, we might not even know it's an animal. Usually you see the best things first, but in fact... in order for us for there to be fruition, to see the whole whatever it is. It takes time. Yeah. It takes time, or it's calling for time to be given to it. It's calling for generosity. so there's still a request for generosity there's a request for ethical discipline but at the beginning we don't hear it and in the second phase we don't quite hear it either but we see some trace

[15:06]

and we follow the trace and then when we see when we meet ourself now we start this is not what I thought it would be I didn't see anything before now I'm seeing it this is not what I thought it would be but I'm going to be generous with this surprise I'm startled by what I see now. I didn't see anything before really. I saw the tracks, this possibility. Now I actually see something to be intimate with and it's not what I thought I was going to be working on. And so there's a request, would you please work on this rather than what you thought you'd be working on? Would you be careful of this and don't like say, could I have not given? In other words, take what's not given, try to get what's not given. I'm going to be generous towards it and I'm going to receive it.

[16:09]

I actually see something now to be generous with and to be careful not to take what is not given. And what is given, what's given is the rear end. What's given is confusion. But before you didn't see the confusion as a gift. Now you see the confusion as what you're trying to be working with. You were confused but you didn't see that the confusion is what you should be working with. You are projecting all kinds of false ideas about who you are. And then you got some clue about how to work with that. And now you're actually saying, oh, this would be working with. Yes? The gesture of the person is kind of similar.

[17:21]

Mm-hmm. Louder. Yeah. So in the third picture, we're starting to be confronted with the non-duality of the herder and the herded. We're starting to, it's dawn, we're at the beginning now of actually with the non-duality of this, in this training process. The non-dual process that's going on in stillness, now we've got something to do that with. At the beginning we didn't have, we didn't have any idea. Then we got some idea and now we have an opportunity. A rear end.

[18:24]

A confusion. Yes? Louder. You see the whole thing, yeah. That's generous of you. It's generous of it to show that. Being generous is nice to add, but it's an addition, did you say? Yeah. Okay.

[19:35]

Well, I'll be generous with that comment. Aren't you adding something? Well, me too. I'm like you. I'm adding something. It is adding something. This whole journey is adding something. To what? Reality. But if we don't add something to reality, we just might miss out on it. Or we might not. And we might, in not missing out on it, we might realize that we didn't miss out on it. So this class is about partly that we won't miss out on it, but it's also addressing that sometimes people feel like they are missing out on it. Yeah.

[20:44]

Yeah. So then what should we do with such a person? I don't know if we need to do anything. You don't know if we need to do anything? Is she okay? What if she doesn't think so? What if she's all wrapped up and calling for help? If she calls in the right direction, she might be all right. She might be all right? Yeah. What are you calling for? To turn the ox over is one complete thing. And that's extra. I mean, when you describe the stages or the steps, It feels to me that, again, it's interpreting the one, two, three, four, five, and you said in the outset of what I heard was that it's true because then it's in time and it's not really happening at the observed time or in space, but it's not the thing itself.

[22:13]

So there really aren't steps and stages about steps and stages. Yeah. And the bodhisattva path isn't really steps and stages, but steps and stages are taught. What for? Hmm? Yeah, to realize there's no steps and stages. So we have steps and stages to realize that there aren't. So there aren't, but most people do not understand that. And therefore... they have a little bit of a problem.

[23:17]

Which you may have noticed that people have a little bit of a problem. So, since people don't understand that there's no steps and stages, we have to go through steps and stages so that maybe not everybody, but Maybe everybody. I don't know. And if anybody doesn't need to go through steps and stages to realize that there aren't any, they take care of the people who don't realize it. Because this particular thing is for bodhisattvas. This course here is for bodhisattvas. This is about compassion. Compassion. So there really aren't any steps and stages but both seem to go into the realm where there seems to be steps and stages and where some people feel like this stage is not the same as the later stages and therefore they have problems with that.

[24:37]

This beginning stage of confusion the last stage of embracing confusion from liberation to help people. So we can go on to another stage, which is the stage of catching the cow. So there's seeing the cow, now catching the cow. And yeah, and in the introduction to this, and the verse is like this. Is her will. How ungovernable her power. At times,

[25:40]

she struts up a plateau. When low, she is lost again in a misty, impenetrable mountain pass. So before we saw the cow, Now we're actually going to touch it, and we're going to feel its power. And it's got a power that's unbeatable. This thing we're trying to get into an intimate training relationship with, we're now touching, and we can feel that this thing is not going to be governed like Lois. She's not going to be governed like me. or even dick.

[26:43]

Not to say we want to. So it's a little bit different to see it and already it's startling because we're getting the rear end. And now we're going to actually touch, I don't know where, we're going to touch it and now we're going to feel that this rear end's got power. Not to mention the head and the horns and the legs. We're going to touch it and feel this thing is too powerful to control. At the beginning of the process in the first picture, in stillness, there was still a little bit of confusion about whether the situation can be controlled. Maybe something can be controlled. Maybe there's some part of our life that's powerful and we can control those parts. At this point, the poet's suggesting that

[27:52]

She is wild and she's got a strong wild and she's ungovernable. And still we're going to like interact with this ungovernable bull, cow, ox. Are we? Well, in the third phase we are doing that. Oh, another, what are you doing here? Yeah, well, if I was the, If you were the cow? If I were the cow, I would think it's disrespectful to catch me by the tail. You would think that? Yeah. How about by the horns? I haven't thought about that one. Well, think about it. OK. Zooming in on the picture, it looks like he's actually got a rope around the neck. He's got a rope around it. And when you got a rope around, that's another way to feel the power. Put a rope around it, and that'll help you feel the power.

[28:56]

Okay, I just want to go on a little bit here, and it says, where does it say that? Oh, in the introduction, the introduction says, long lost in the wilderness, The boy has found the cow and his hands are on her. But owing to the overwhelming pressure of outside world, the cow is hard to keep under control. She is constantly longing for sweet-scented grasses. Remember before she was like smelling the sweet-scented grasses? She's still longing for them. She's made herself available, but she's still kind of like longing for the sweet-scented grasses of the fields.

[29:57]

She hasn't got over that. She's there. She's there. could have been what? he could have tricked her he could have tricked her in other words she is controllable you can trick her you can make her present herself to you she presents herself but she's also not in control of the presentation she's not in control either She's not in control of longing for the sweet-scented grasses that she used to be involved with, but she's still longing for them here, and that's a big pressure on her. She kind of wants to have this relationship with the ox herd, but she's also still interested in

[31:04]

the sweet-scented grasses. And it's not exactly that she's distracted from this intimate relationship that they're starting, but sort of pulled in another direction. And he and she can't control that. But this is part of what they have to deal with. And then it says... The wild nature is still unruly and altogether refuses to be broken. It is the cowherd's wish. If the cowherd wishes to see the cow completely in harmony with herself, he has, this is the punchline, he has to ...has to use the whip freely. Freely.

[32:10]

Okay, so she's ungovernable and to use the whip freely. But the whip is not to control her. It's not like she's uncontrollable and with the whip she's going to be controllable. It's that she's uncontrollable and part of her uncontrollableness is that she wants to go to the sweet-smelling grasses and she also, part of her uncontrollability is that she wants to be intimate with the cowherd and she wants the cowherd to train her. And she wants to train the cow herd. And you cannot stop her from wanting the cow herd to train her. And you cannot stop her from wanting to and working on training the cow herd. This is the non-duality which first surfaced in the previous picture. The previous picture is a non-duality of the rear end and the head.

[33:17]

and it's a non-duality of if we can accept the head that helps us accept our relationship with the cow now we're feeling the power of the cow and part of the there's a wildness here an ungovernableness here not an untameableness the cow can be tamed but in order for the cow to be tamed somebody else has to be tamed It's not just the cow that's going to get tamed. The cow herd's going to get tamed too. The cow herd wants to be tamed. He's asking to be tamed. Otherwise, it would not be good to be using this whip. This whip is, we've been given permission to use this whip, but not to control, but as a gift to the relationship. It's being asked for. It's being permitted as a vehicle for intimacy, not a vehicle for control.

[34:33]

This cow is not untameable. Did I mention that Shakespeare's play, The Taming of the Shrew? Did I mention it last week? Did I mention it this week? Yes, I did. I did, too. I did, too. Yes, I did. It's about this shrew. You know about shrews? There's a lot of shrews in the United States. They're very small. They're very small mammals. They weigh about as much as a dime. And they have a metabolism with hummingbirds. They have very high metabolism, so they have to eat a lot every day. So they're really, I don't know what to say, vicious. So I guess they had some shrews back in England, too.

[35:41]

I don't know how big they were, but anyway, we got a lot of them here, especially in the western part of the United States. Have any of you ever seen a shrew? You have? Yeah. Not too many people have seen them. They're very little and very fast. And they're stinky. They smell really bad. And eagles do not, eagles and otters, do not have a sense of smell. So they gobble up the shrews. Most humans have not seen a shrew. Anyway, in England they had some shrews too, high energy, sometimes females. And sometimes people wanted to train. But in order to train the female, the trainer has to be trained. So in that story, she does get tamed, but he gets tamed too. They tame each other. That's what this is about. This is about you taming your animal. nature and your animal being taming you.

[36:41]

You conscious being taming your unconscious and your unconscious taming you. It's this intimacy. And it's not about control. It's really not. And at the beginning of this process the person is like nowhere near considering giving. Therefore they're just totally confused. Then they see some traces of well maybe control is not where it's at. Then they meet something. So what's their response? Are they generous with this? Are they respectful? Are they careful? If they are, if you're careful and generous towards this ungovernable energy that's now showing itself to you, then it will allow you to come up and touch it. And then you can feel, ah-ha! I've long heard of you and why they say you are ungovernable.

[37:43]

Thanks for letting me touch you, though, so I can feel that. In the third picture, we feel the presence a little bit. In the fourth picture, we're actually touching it. And now we're getting more convinced that this is not about control. And the funny thing is, the not controlling is that there's a whip to be used, and it's being requested. And do we request it? Daniel says, no, I think we should request it. We should request it to be given to us, I would suggest. But I'm not trying to control you into agreeing with me. Or I'm not trying to control myself into agreeing with you. But I am being whipped. Poor boy. Maybe the whip The whip is generosity. The whip is ethical discipline.

[38:48]

And the whip is patience. Patience whips the ox. And the ox is patient. The ox whips us with patience. And when we get whipped with patience, we hang in there. And when we whip the ox with patience, not trying to get the ox to be different, but as a gift. The gift is, I'm going to be patient with you. I'm going to be patient with you. You're wild. You're still trying to go back and get those yummy, grassy smells. And I'm going to keep whacking you with patience. And no matter how long you're going to do it, I'm going to hang in there with you. I'm your intimate friend. And I'm going to stay there with you. As long as you need to keep smoking, I'm going to stay with you. As long as you need to keep whatever, I'm going to stay with you.

[39:51]

And I'm going to work on my energy. Because I need to be enthusiastic about having such a wild, powerful, ungovernable partner. which we all have, but it's not going to let us touch it or get close if we're not already being generous and careful of it. It knows it's not exactly like it. It's not under control either, but it naturally runs away from us when we're not generous with it. It says, this guy is not suitable to see me. I gave him a view and he tried to control me so I'm out of here. He can just, no, then you're back again. Or the second stage. You're maybe seeing, I see the traces of her running away. This is not the end of the story. I can try again to follow the traces and if I follow them and I'm ready to be generous, she'll show herself again.

[40:58]

How wonderful that will be. And then I can say, okay, this time I'm going to be generous with you. This time I'm going to be careful of you. I'm not going to try to control you. And then she says, okay, you can come a little closer and see if I let you touch me. If then you'll continue and be patient with how it feels, how scary it is and how You know, it's really a challenge now because I still want to... Can you see me? I'm still trying to get away from you, from us. I'm still trying to not exactly maliciously destroy our... I just want to go back to those sweet-smelling grasses of earlier stages. And that's what I am. And I want my partner to be generous and careful and patient and enthusiastic about being the way I am.

[42:01]

And I'm more than a handful. And I just think this is so wonderful that we could possibly entertain such a vital and challenging relationship. A relationship with somebody who is overwhelmed by the pressure of those delicious grasses. And also overwhelmed by the pressure of anybody who's trying to control her. And all that comes when people are disrespectful of her, which is the same, it applies to us. And this, Ted found some other translations and he said, let me see what it said.

[43:02]

Anyway, I think you said that you found that translations were the trainer and the trainer. Is that what you said? Oh yeah, here is what you wrote. Already we see that the sameness of the ox and the boy are in the no place to hide and no place to turn. The sameness of the ox and the boy is in the being of the ox. So when we first see the ox, the sameness is revealed there. But the non-duality of this thing we now see in us is starting to be revealed. And how to cultivate this, we start with generosity and ethical discipline. Now we've got this precious non-duality. We take care of it by being generous.

[44:13]

And then we move on to continue to take care of it by being patient. And our reward is to be generous and ethical with this non-dual relationship. Our reward is we get to get closer to it are more fully realized in non-duality and feel the power. And that makes us, you know, tempts us to revert to being not so generous because, you know, no, no, no, no, not this. No, yeah. Then you're going to lose it. But not forever. You just go back to the earlier stage where you can see it, but you can't touch it. I let you touch me, and when you felt it, you reverted. You can't touch me anymore. But that's not forever. If you practice generosity and ethics with me, I'll let you touch me again sometime, but I'm not saying when. And I'm not in control about when I'm going to say when

[45:15]

because I'm trying to be ethical and I don't know when I'm going to be ready to get closer. All this is going on without any movement. So in stillness, this stuff is revealed to us. In stillness we see the, whatever you want to call it, of the confusion. You know, the confusion. Being lost and yet there's There's cicadas singing. They're not lost. The not being lost is right there, but we're confused. It's not really lost, just kind of like not knowing where we are. That's revealed to us. We get to see that. We get to feel that. That's a revelation. In stillness, we get to find out our basic confusion. Then we're revealed. We get to see some tracks. Then it's revealed we get to see who we're going to meet. Then it's revealed the power of it.

[46:19]

Revelations come to us as a reward for being still. these revelations are being offered all the time, you could say, but if we're not still, we're not there to receive them. When we're still, we realize, oh, thank you. Here's a revelation. Yes? Or I will be sent back. I will be sent back when I'm ready. Conditions will bring me back to you. It's like, again, what popped in my mind is the story of Amor and Psyche.

[47:25]

You know that story? I'll come back to that story later. But it's like that. It's not so much, I'll come back when I'm ready. Yes, it is when I'm ready, but I'm not in control of when I'm ready. It's not like I'm going to wait and I'm going to... No. No. It's a little bit like a kid pouting in their room. They don't know when they're going to be done pouting. Pouting is kind of good in a way sometimes. So anyway. The pouting is a revelation. If we use the whip In the fourth picture, in the fourth stage, if we use the whip without realizing it, then the one who asked us to use it, who we didn't hear, and we went and had used it, that one who wants us to use it for the sake of our intimacy will run away from us again.

[48:35]

It's like that game that some of us used to play when we were children. And ways of saying it was, Captain, may I? What's the other way? Mother, may I? In the northern parts of the country, they'd say, Captain, may I? In California, maybe they'd say, Mother, may I? But anyway, it's like the captain or the mother says, you can come closer to me. But we didn't say, did you say, may I? And so if you don't say may, if you forget to say may I, if you just get to register that you've been invited, get sent back. And we get excited, you know. Somebody says, come on. And then we don't say, well, just a second. Gift, so I'm going to give a gift. What's my gift? I'm going to go. But I'm going to be careful and say, did you invite me? Yes, I did. Okay, now you can come and touch me. But if you jump ahead... If you're not careful when you get invited, you get invited because you were generous.

[49:39]

The invitation to come closer is because you've been generous. Third stage, you're generous, so now you get to come closer. Okay, come on closer, but you've got to be careful. Did you actually want me to come closer? No, I did not. Okay, come closer. I'm not in control of testing you, but I think I am testing you. I know. I'm not trying to test you. I'm not trying to be testy or difficult, but it looks like I am. It looks like I am difficult. Do you see that? That's part of the... There's a wild power here. It's a wild animal power, and it's being offered... and you're being invited, but you have to be careful of it and check, can I come closer? No. Yes.

[50:39]

And then you go closer and now you feel something you didn't feel before. a new revelation, the power. And then if you're not patient with that, because it can be painful, it can be scary, and you can feel pain of the fear of the power. Did you ever go near a horse when you were a little kid? Some people just walk right up to them and no problem. But when I went near a horse when I was a little boy, I could feel that power and I was afraid of it. It wasn't a jumping around horse. I could just feel the I remember I did not. And they often use that as an example in our practice of like when you actually are a long ways away from the horse, it's like beautiful, right? Like I thought horses were beautiful. And I went into the stable and I thought, oh, beautiful horses.

[51:44]

But then as I got closer, I could feel the power. And I was not comfortable. So we have to be patient with that and don't push ourselves too much. You know, wait until we feel... What kind of horse is this? You can come closer. The horse is okay with that. She feels okay about it. You can come closer. And we gradually start to become more and more patient with that energy and also more and more enthusiastic about, can I go visit the horses again? I didn't have a horse to, like, get to the point of having enthusiasm. I hope this is relevant. A few weeks ago, I saw a documentary called Buck. Buck, yeah, Buck. Horse Whisperer. Yeah, Buck the Horse Whisperer. I did.

[52:45]

I played the part of the horse in one of those. I was the one that they had to put down. I was the horse I was the horse that they had to put down you know well but it worked out I became a human and here I am I've had a hard time but I'm not complaining I'm grateful to be here even though I had to be But I requested it. It's part of my training. How you doing? Is the bull here? Are you touching it? confused with the violence of the whip it's not domination though but when we that the catching the cow a big part of the catching of the cow is to transcend aggression

[54:23]

The fourth picture is about transcending aggression. And it's also about hierarchy is kind of an opportunity for aggression. Did you say domination? Yeah. Yeah. What the person is really requesting is intimacy. That's what we're really requesting. That's what our nature is requesting. The cow is requesting intimacy with the cowherder, and the cowherder wants intimacy with the And part of the process is, can you discipline me?

[55:27]

Can you use the whip as a means to transcend aggression? That's part of what's being dealt with here, is to make the compassion. And if we stay away from using the whip, How are we going to transcend aggression? That's the question. It has that line, freely use the whip. And I feel like that whip has to be requested. We have to be given permission. Yeah? Well, that's the whole parable that, you know, When was it written, those poems? A while ago. A while ago. And very different nowadays. You know, today is International Women's Day, and you're talking about whips and, you know, wanting abuse.

[56:34]

And, you know, that's very complicated. So it's sort of like, you know, I was thinking, well, somebody said discipline. What discipline and practice in order to complete this circle of enlightenment, as it were, you know, being trained and training. So if you look at it that way, you know, it's like little whips, well, okay, that's like, you know, the monks that are learning or in practice for just meditation, how they're kindly teacher, I don't know, would hit them over the back with a bamboo stick It's a wit, but it's discipline, but it's also to remind you to wake up, you know, if you're a monk. And so the language is... The language is... It's inappropriate for today, for many of us who are very sensitive to some of those words.

[57:43]

Yeah, so you're saying the language is inappropriate, and... I have a feeling about that, and the feeling I have is that I'm touching, I'm touching the cow, and I'm feeling her power. Well, but the power I'm feeling is the cow telling me that the language is inappropriate. That's part of the vitality of the situation, is the cow gets to say, talking about this whip is inappropriate. That's part of the energy of the situation is that part of the description of the process is being, you'd say, questioned or even maybe disagreed with or rejected in the energy of the cow.

[58:44]

The cow is saying, Well, you've been good to me now, so you can touch me now. And then when you touch, you feel like it's saying, don't touch me, or don't touch me that way. That's not an appropriate way to touch me. It's not like... The message you get is always, this is fine. Yes? Louder. Yeah, I heard that you're saying that and you're saying that it doesn't directly translate. And I'm saying that you said, but does what you just said, does that translate into the modern day? Pardon? Yeah, maybe, maybe not. Does what you say translate into the modern day? Is what you're saying today, is that translated into the modern day? That's what being said today. Is what you're saying today what you're saying today?

[59:46]

And are we dealing with that right now? Yes. I tend to see that as a skill. When you meet that under something, in order to make it come and you come and be with it, it's that skillfulness that has been... Yeah. Everything in this story, all this stuff is stillness. This is all the activity of stillness. So we meet, we get to touch, the oxford gets to touch the cow now, and the cow is saying, give me stillness. From a distance, you gave me stillness. When you looked at me, you gave me stillness, and now I'm inviting you to touch me.

[60:47]

And when you touch me, I want you to touch me with stillness. Yeah? Yeah. of being a symbol of some power or domination. I think it says freely or free use. And it's free. It's free. Because they're often. And who's going to be who? They're a league. And this, the whip, is that joint. So it's the freedom that goes with this exchange. It's a whip. It's trading with this. That feeling part is what, for me, takes it out of the ground and puts it into . Yes.

[61:53]

Also, it has something to do with this conversation. I've seen that there's a kind of a dance, A dance, yeah. This is a dance. These pictures are a picture of a dance that's going on in stillness. And it's got different aspects of the dance. And now we're on the part of the dance where ropes are being put around cows. That's part of the dance. And it's all going on in stillness. intimacy the fire is in a way this issue of energy and like there's a fire in me and there's a fire in you and you know there's a fire in this room and so somehow it's like how do we make

[62:57]

I just think of my own marriage, right? I mean, we're learning after 35 years to talk to each other, because we're each individual people, and there are misunderstandings, but then you start learning, like, that person doesn't have to hurt me, it's like, I can ask for something I want. This is like the dance. So, in a Or even talking to a teacher. You know, I might interrupt you if I don't want to be interrupted or something, but it's part of the dance of each of us being ourselves. So that's kind of how I see it. I don't see it as so much violence, but how do we coexist and be intimate and still be ourselves and let the others be themselves. Yes. So intimacy might include letting other people be themselves.

[64:08]

That might be part of intimacy. And intimacy might be a process of overcoming aggression. Yes? I feel like the risk in... Mm-hmm. So I heard you say the word shock, and I think shock is part of the process of enlightenment.

[65:15]

It's not always shocking, but sometimes it's a shocking. Sometimes the revelations are shocking. So in the earlier one, that when you first see the ox, you might be kind of stunned. And so some people were stunned to see the rear end of the ox. So being shocked is sometimes part of the process of becoming intimate with someone. And also becoming intimate with ourselves. There are shocking revelations. So again, putting a rope around an animal, or around a human animal, or a non-human animal, that could be seen as shocking. So, and I don't want to, I didn't particularly edit these pictures, white out the rope, and I didn't white out the word Whip. So we have words like whip and we have pictures of ropes as part of a process of becoming intimate.

[66:43]

And so the question is, if those things don't apply now, then we could say they don't apply and move on. Maybe that's a good way to deal with them. But I feel, to some extent, in a pleasant way, I feel in a pleasant way like I have been whipped by you people. That you have whipped me. And whip me means beat me. But in a joyful way, I feel really happy about the way you're responding to me. But I could also see it as a kind of whipping that you're doing, as part of your touching me, to train me. I think you want to train me. I think you want to see, can you train me? And it's an ongoing process. I'm wondering, can I train you?

[67:46]

Can I be trained by you? I have a thought that in stillness, in stillness, you want to train me and you want to be trained. I have this idea. I think that's sort of what these pictures are about, is that we want to see if other people want us to train them, train them into intimacy with us, tame us. Do other people want us to tame them? And do we want to be tamed by other people? And at the same time, I am a wild animal. And so are you. So you're not necessarily... You're going to maybe jump around a little bit and kick your feet and rear up and make some sounds and run away and run at me. I think that's part of it. That you're going to give me some bumps and some shocks.

[68:48]

I'm up for it. Are you? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So now we have one person that can see she wants to tame me. Two people at least. Okay. Do you want to tame me? What? You want to say something? Go right ahead. Pardon? Literally. You can say maybe it doesn't translate literally, but that's one way to say it. Another way to say it is it does translate literally. It does. And that you have problems when you translate it literally. Because we're actually dealing with literal translations of Chinese words. But also it translates non-literally. It's literal, and when you translate it literally, you learn certain kinds of things. Then you translate it non-literally, and you learn something else.

[69:51]

Then you translate it both literally and non-literally, and you learn something else. So it does translate, and sometimes when you translate it, you feel misgivings or questions or objections. But some people don't. And then when you translate it non-literally, they have a problem with it. So a cow is a kind of non-literal translation of a human being. So anyway, I think We're trying to get at any sense of lack of intimacy, right? Lack of compassion. Is there anything you can't be compassionate with? And we should be revealing where we think this is enough compassion for today. But I feel that you're doing great at training me. I really feel grateful to you for the training you've given me tonight.

[70:55]

And I'm glad you're up for this between these wild beings that we are and the possibility of developing complete compassion through this meditation on these pictures. Thank you so much. And I hope somebody comes back beside me.

[71:20]

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