I apologize to you because I forgot to bring my robe of Buddha to wear. So please excuse me for being naked. The topic which I offered for the weekend, the words I offered were working and liberation of all beings. Maybe it says all being on the announcement. Starting right off with that, if you look the way I wrote on the board here, I wrote working for the welfare on the right side, and under that I wrote these three words,

[01:26]

which are three perfections, three basic precepts, three basic disciplines, which beings who wish to live their life for the welfare and liberation of all beings, for beings who wish to do that, and not only wish to do that, but as part of that, or in order to do that, they wish to realize complete perfect enlightenment. Some beings that you might meet around this world wish to live in welfare and liberation of all beings. Some beings who you might meet wish to live for the welfare of all beings and never really considered the liberation.

[02:35]

They just want the welfare. Some beings wish to live for the welfare of some beings and so on. There's different possible ways to relate to this. but actually what I'm bringing up here is I didn't write it on the description but I'm actually talking about what I'm actually going to be bringing forth is teachings, practices for those who wish to live for the welfare and liberation of all beings and attain enlightenment in order to accomplish that. These practices are in that context. Once again, on this side, these practices, these first three basic practices of these beings who are heading towards Buddhahood for the... These first three practices are for the welfare.

[03:44]

or the benefit. This SB means a sentient being. It's an acronym for sentient being. So these three practices are for the welfare and benefit of sentient beings. And sentient beings are beings who are not completely enlightened. They need help. Sentient beings are more or less subject to affliction. And affliction both means pain, but affliction also means the cause of pain.

[04:56]

And the main cause of pain that these bodhisattvas, these beings on the path to Buddhahood, the main affliction they wish to benefit the situation of the affliction of delusion. They don't want to make delusions more powerful. They don't want to make delusion more harmful. They don't want to make afflictions grow. But they wish to bring welfare to beings who are subject to affliction. Or maybe I should say affliction, delusion, delusion, affliction. They wish to benefit these beings while they're still as they are afflicted, when they are afflicted. Beings are afflicted, and when they're afflicted, try a little tenderness.

[06:19]

Try gentleness. Try kindness. These three are kind of basically analyzing kindness. Kindness is kind of conveyed in those three ways. I will go into more detail about that with you. But just now, going over to the other side, there's also the possibility of liberating unenlightened beings, liberating beings who are afflicted, liberating beings who are deluded. And the practices are diligence, concentration, and wisdom.

[07:25]

This diligence is a little bit, I always find this a little confusing that it's put over on this side. Because diligence is, I wrote some synonyms here for diligence. Diligence could also be, the synonym could be enthusiasm, zeal, heroic courage, effort, vigor. The Sanskrit word that's used for diligence is virya, which is almost a cognate with viril, the bull. It's kind of like, I want to practice giving. I want to practice ethics. I want to practice patience. So, in order to practice these practices, you have to make some effort.

[08:36]

But a diligence is placed on the side of liberation. That diligence is like a diligence that you can practice based on these practices. In other words, when you're able to practice giving, when you can really practice giving, and when you can practice giving and ethics you can practice patience and when you can practice these three practices which bring welfare to affliction then even though still there's some affliction or delusion you can move on to practice diligence really wholeheartedly and that kind of diligence is the kind of diligence that actually liberates beings that antidotes affliction, antidote suffering, loosens it and leads to its actual permanently.

[09:42]

So there's, in some sense, there's a little difference here in these practices in terms of their function. But I also want to make clear at the beginning that these fourth, fifth, and sixth of these bodhisattva precepts of these bodhisattva disciplines, they're based on the first three. So we're not talking about these practices when you practice diligence or concentration, but you aren't practicing giving, ethics, and patience. You can practice giving, ethics, and patience without heroic courage. You can. You can practice ethics without practicing giving. You can practice patience without practicing giving.

[10:51]

However, and you can practice giving without practicing ethics and patience. But when you practice giving and then you practice ethics, it's a different ethics practice. And when you practice giving and ethics and patience, it's a different patience than if you just flat out say, I'm going to practice patience, but I'm not going to be generous about it and I'm not going to be ethical about it. That will not be the kind of patience which supports this practice. liberating energy liberating effort and again you can make effort and you do make effort when you practice giving at the beginning before you practice ethics even if you practice giving you make an effort but also people make an effort when they're stingy if somebody asks you for something and you say no I'm not going to give it to you I don't want to

[12:02]

How dare you ask me? That's an expression of effort. Right? Does that make sense? That takes effort. That, you know, takes calories. Matter of fact, you could go on a regime of just refusing to be generous to everything. That would use up a lot of calories. But also, being generous uses up calories, too. But the kind of generosity... a kind of generosity that you can practice after practicing generosity. And ethics and patience is a kind of generosity that's infused with this diligence. Before going any further, I just thought I might mention that in the so-called Zen school, which, you know, you might say that the place I live, that's sometimes called a Zen-Zener, or sometimes called Zazen, the sitting Zen, or sitting meditation sometimes is called Zazen.

[13:30]

And I just wanted to say that that practice of Zazen, the practice of sitting meditation, that's the Zen school. The sitting Zen of the Zen school. Of the tradition that I'm representing to you, that Zazen is related to these six practices. Okay? And I just sort of thought I might ask you... But I'm going to ask you instead, how do you think that the Zazen of the Zen school, how do you think the sitting meditation of the Zen school is related to these six practices? You can guess how it's related? Betsy, you want to guess? You're right about that. Right, but how does starting with yourself relate to these practices?

[14:41]

That's my question. How do you think the sitting meditation of the Zen school relates to these six practices? Do you have any thoughts about that? Okay, what's your thought? I feel like when you sit, so how does that relate to these six? is that kind of me to do so? am I being kind to you? good teacher good teacher Would you like a little break? Okay, break time.

[15:42]

Break time for Betsy. Yes, Bruce. What do you mean by they? You said they are mutually supportive. So you're saying that out of meditation you're encouraged to practice these six and these six encourage you to practice meditation? Okay, thank you.

[16:43]

Recently, I pointed out, even though it wasn't Easter, and now Easter's gone, as you may have noticed, my dad used to say, Easter time is time for eggs, and the time for eggs is Easter time. So, I propose that... when you're practicing the Zen meditation, it's time to practice these six. And the time of practicing the six is the time of Zen meditation. Zen meditation is these six practices. Of course, there's an evolution. So when you first start practicing these six, you're a beginner and you haven't perfected them. And then after some time, you still haven't perfected them.

[17:47]

And then after some more time, you still haven't perfected them. It takes a long time to perfect them. In other words, it takes a long time to perfect the meditation practice. The meditation practice that I feel is being taught in the Zen school that I'm presenting is not just, for example, what some people think it is. Some people think it's basically concentration. That's what they think it is, and that's part of the reason they think that. The word for concentration is Zen. Zen is a shortening of Zen-na. Zen-na is a sort of Chinese way of saying dhyana. Dhyana means concentration. So sitting Zen, some people think means sitting concentration.

[18:48]

And it's right, it does mean sitting concentration, but it also means sitting wisdom and sitting bull and sitting diligence. sitting giving and sitting ethics and sitting patience. And again, it's that way at the beginning and then it gradually continues to be that way until it's sitting the perfection of ethics and the perfection of patience and the perfection of diligence and the perfection of concentration and the perfection of wisdom. Yes? Did you say wisdom is almost a fruit? Well, I appreciate your question.

[20:05]

The wisdom would be the way you practice the other ones without thinking that you're doing it. Did you hear that? She was saying it seems like the first five you can do them. So wisdom is... doing those other five, understanding that you're not doing them. So when you first start practicing giving, you may think, I'm doing giving. Or I'm having trouble giving. I'm doing not quite giving now. That's what I'm doing. I'm doing stinginess. I'm doing hesitation to give. So that kind of giving is, or certainly that kind of giving is giving. But it's not the perfection of giving. The perfection of giving is like wisdom.

[21:11]

It's not something you do. It's something that happens. So the perfection is where you're free of thinking, I'm doing the giving. We say that the three wheels, sometimes we say the three wheels are empty, and sometimes we say the purity of the three wheels. When we first practice giving, the three wheels are usually not empty. What does empty mean and what are the three wheels? We are not talking about giving, okay? We're getting into some detail about giving. There's three wheels in giving. First wheel is called gift. Second wheel is called gift. And the third wheel is called receiver or recipient of the gift. Those three wheels are involved in giving.

[22:13]

When you realize that there's no giver without gift and receiver. And there's no receiver without gift and giver. And there's no gift without giver and receiver. They have no independent existence. They don't exist by themselves. You can't have a gift floating out all by itself. This red Expo marker is a gift when somebody gives it. For example, now I am playing the role of the giver. I give you this gift. And now, if you receive it, then we got it down. And you say, well, I have to share it with the other people? I'm not saying you have to, but anyway, would you receive this not even knowing

[23:19]

Anything more than just, I offer this to you as a gift. Will you receive it? And then, if you think you did that, then that's the kind of giving which doesn't yet realize that how we just created this thing of you being the receiver. You're also the giver. You gave me an opportunity to pretend like I was the giver of this gift. And also, I'm a gift. that has been sent down here to you. Somebody gave me to you. Or you gave me to you. To you. Suzuki Reiji gave me to you. Buddha gave me to you. But there's no Buddha separate from me being the gift. When I'm a gift, then Buddha gets to be a giver. And there's no receiver aside from me. And if you don't receive me, the whole thing goes flop. There's no giving if you don't receive me. As soon as you do, this becomes a gift.

[24:23]

And when it becomes a gift, it changes from a marker to a treasure. But it didn't do that all by itself. It depended on a giver and a receiver. That purifies the process. When the process is purified, it's like wisdom. Giving is not something that the... We usually don't think that giving is something that's done by the gift. And we usually don't think that giving is something done by the receiver. We often think giving is something that's done by the giver, the donor. And that counts as giving. And you can do that and be very joyful about being a donor, being a great donor. It's wonderful. But now, if this is going to be perfected and be like wisdom, then we have to get past you did the thing. You're the donor, but you didn't do the donor, the donning, the donating.

[25:26]

You didn't do it. You just got to be the donor. And now you're ready to switch and be the receiver? And you say, yeah, switch. I'll be another part of the process. So that I'm not... So, you're right that wisdom is not something you do, but some people think they do wisdom. You know. But you're right that people don't do wisdom in this situation. It's not that kind of wisdom. But the perfection of giving is not something you can do. Exactly. So concentration is not something you can do. And patience is not something you can do. The perfection of patience... I wouldn't say that patience isn't something you can do. It's just that the perfection of patience is not seen as something you do. It's seen as something that arises and is there because the... there and another aspect of the perfection of these practices in a sort of not in addition to or together with that they aren't done by you even though you're totally included is that for example the perfection of includes like not grasping them the perfection of well the perfection of giving is not grasping

[26:49]

a particular position in the process so there's giving going on and I'm pretending to be the donor but I'm not attached to that or there's giving going on and I'm the gift I often feel like I'm the gift not the donor but again I don't I want to attach to that position I also want to be ready to be the recipient or the giver But really what I want to do is I want to be in the process without attaching to it. I want to be in the giving without grasping it. And meditation is perfected by not attaching to it. When you don't attach to it, it's perfected. But you have to have some meditation before you can be not attached to it. It isn't just, well, you know, for a distracted person who doesn't feel concentrated, say, well, I'm not attached to concentration.

[27:56]

It's when you're concentrated, let go of it, that you perfect the concentration. And you let go of it when you understand that it depends on these other practices. That it is nothing other than giving, ethics, patience, and concentration. But wisdom, really, what it really is, is nothing other than wisdom. In other words, it really is nothing other than you can't grasp it. So since you can't grasp it, don't grasp it. And since you don't grasp it, let go of it. And since you let go of it, make it a gift. And be patient with it, and be ethical about it. Well, I did the meditation. Say, well, it looks like I did the meditation, but I'm being careful, and... I'm being vigilant and careful about the meditation. I'm not saying I did it.

[28:58]

There's a donation of me to meditation. I have been given to meditation somehow. And I could play the role of the donor of me to meditation. But I could also play when people are sitting and there you are sitting and suddenly you realize meditation has been given to you. The meditation is a gift and you're the recipient of it. So you can give meditation, you can be the gift of meditation, and you can receive meditation. So when you do it that way, then the meditation becomes perfected. because you don't attach to it. And you wish that more giving would happen? You wish, actually. You could start right now, this weekend. You could wish that meditation be given a lot here. To all of us. Each moment that we'd be given.

[30:05]

that we would be given tranquility, that we would be given calm, that we would be given a relaxed, alert, joyful mind. And that way, since it's been given to us, and then we can even think, well, if there's giving going on, there's probably a giver. I'm willing to be a giver too. I'm willing to give everybody here. I'm willing to give all of us calm. I'm willing to give all of us tranquility. I'm wishing that we all receive it. And somehow to do this in such a way that nobody's stuck in... Thanks for your question.

[31:11]

So, you know, we just sort of covered the whole thing right there. Again, are involved in the sitting meditation of the Zen school and all the practices are involved in the perfection of giving. The first practice includes them all. But, once again, when we try the first practice and we can't even get into it, or when we think of the first practice and we immediately shift into, I'm going to do it, but I can't, then we don't feel like all those practices are involved. We feel like we're not even doing the giving. So let's start there. You can start right there with giving. And I wrote some other words for giving over there related to the first word I said, welcoming, and graciousness, generosity.

[32:18]

But I've been using the word welcoming a lot lately. And welcoming, I kind of daringly say, welcoming applies to being stingy. It isn't that I like being stingy. It isn't that I like other people being stingy. It's that the practice, the first practice when people are being stingy is to welcome the stinginess. That's the first thing to do if you've got some stinginess anywhere. If people are being possessive of something, the first practice the first practice is to be welcoming of that. If people are in pain, if people are frightened, if people are tense, if people are attached to something, to possessions or a state of mind, the first practice of the bodhisattvas

[33:39]

practice of those who wish to benefit and liberate beings the first practice is to welcome what's happening and that first practice isn't done you know now and then next moment not it's the first practice now just now and it's the first practice now it's always the first practice in each moment And as we just saw, when it's done first and completely, I should say maybe first and fully, when it's done first and fully, the other practices. So although it's done first, it includes what follows when it's done fully. But it's done first because you can't do the next ones really if you don't do this one. And you can practice giving without doing the other ones. But it's recommended to start with this one.

[34:46]

So let's start with this one. And let's see if there's any... Let's see if you have any questions about how to practice this one. Do you have any questions about how to practice giving that you'd like to bring up? Yes. Yes. Part of giving is the receiver. Yes. Yes. Yes. right right that's right so if I think I'm practicing giving right now thank you I seem to have received a gift just now I was trying to practice giving but then I got suddenly I became a receiver

[36:19]

of a gift. One could actually start, one could approach the giving process actually by starting with, I think I'll start with, I think I'll start with the practice of giving in the position of a receiver. I'm going to be a receiver, I'm going to be a recipient of a gift. That means I'm going to look at what's happening as a gift. to me to the recipient which happens to be me I'm going to practice giving now and I'm going to practice when I see you I'm going to practice being a recipient of you and I'm going to see you as a gift I'm going to see your nodding as a gift I'm going to see your wiping of your eyes as a gift I'm going to meditate on that.

[37:23]

Oops, now I'm doing meditation. I'm doing giving meditation. I'm meditating. I'm trying to be mindful that whoever comes to meet me is a gift. You start from that position of recipient. I'm going to try to be mindful that whatever happens, whoever comes, whatever comes, I'm going to try to enter the spiritual practice that first on the path to Buddhahood to see whatever comes as a gift. And I'm going to play the role of recipient. So it's going to be a gift to me, the recipient. whatever I'm going to see that as a gift to me, the recipient. I'm going to try to remember that.

[38:29]

And I'm also going to try to remember that whatever comes is a gift from me. I'm going to be the giver of whatever comes. And I want to make whatever's happening as a gift. And I wish to be a gift. So I want to be all parts of the process. And I want all things to be all parts of the process. I want you to be a donor to me. And I want you to be a recipient of my donation. and I want you to be a gift to me I want you to be a donor to me and I want you to be a gift to me and I want to be a gift to you and a donor to you and I want to be a again all those things to be mindful of all those things is the first it doesn't mean you like things or dislike things although you might it means you welcome everything

[39:48]

Yes. Is your name Trevor? Travis. Yes. So someone could say, Travis, would you like a piece of pizza? And you might say, no, thank you. if they're practicing giving, they would see your no thank you as a gift. And you might also feel like, I think I'll give them a no thank you gift. Now, of course, you can make a story of that that would make that very reasonable. You might feel there's only one piece and they want to give it to you and they haven't had one yet. And you want them to have it. you've already had six pieces, and they haven't had any, and now they want to give you a seventh, and you feel like, no thank you.

[40:57]

And you feel like, I'm saying no thank you. As a gift, you can have this piece. You can say, no thank you, I'd like you to have it. But before you even say, I'd like you to have it, you already gave them a gift. Now what if somebody... If you have a piece of pizza and somebody says, can I have your pizza? And you say, no, thank you. I don't want to give you my pizza. A person who wishes to work the welfare and liberation of all beings has to learn how to say no as a gift. We need to learn that because sometimes no is the appropriate gift. Because that's exactly what you feel. Somebody says, would you like me to, you know, be cruel to this person? And the answer is no.

[42:00]

But you have to learn to say that and remember that you've just given them a gift. We need to learn to make everything we do a gift. In other words, to do... Another way to say it is to give, to be, without trying to get it. Even to say to someone, please stop that. Please stop that. Or I want you to stop that. Please stop hurting yourself. I really want you to stop... I want you to stop hurting yourself. I'm telling you that. But it's a gift. I don't expect you to stop hurting yourself. I just want to give you the gift of telling you that I want you to stop. Because that just happens to be where I'm at right now, is I want you to stop hurting yourself, hurting this other person. But I'm not saying that to you.

[43:04]

I'm saying to you as a gift rather than as a manipulation. And also, I don't take one position in that gift. I think you're a gift to me. So I've been waiting all day to say, please don't do that. Nobody's given me the opportunity yet. And now finally I can say, please don't do that. I want you to stop. I haven't been able to say that for weeks. My voice is getting out of shape. limp i want to form that word don't please don't or just plain don't that felt good and it was a gift and if you don't and i don't expect you to know i don't expect you to follow the you don't i can say don't again maybe because i might feel it again want to give it again but second time too i'm not doing it to manipulate you

[44:08]

All this is possible in reality because in reality of me saying, don't. You made me the gift who says, don't. Yeah, so let's try to practice that. Let's try to practice giving. And part of practicing giving is giving the gift of feeling like you're having trouble practicing giving. Because that's how you might feel. You might feel that way. Yes? And it's very common that people who are not volunteers will come up to us and say, thank us for the gift of working with them.

[45:24]

And quite often there are people who respond by saying, I get so much more than I did. And I'm not comfortable with that. That's right, we don't know. Number two, we don't know. And number one, you're not comfortable with comparisons. But at number one, there was the opportunity for you to welcome that Because, you know, there you are. They're saying, I get more than I give. And then you can say, oh, welcome, discomfort. Hi, discomfort. Ooh, you came again. Every time they say that, the discomfort comes practically every time. They give me the gift of discomfort. Thank you. Thank you so much for giving me the gift of discomfort. Say something which would be more appropriate. You say this thing that makes me feel uncomfortable.

[46:26]

Thank you. You gave it to me again. Gave me another chance to practice giving discomfort. and I wasn't even expecting it, and you said it again, thank you so much. And you might even say, please stop talking like that. Every time you say that, I feel really uncomfortable. Please stop that. But I just mean as a gift to tell you, this is where Marjorie's at right now. You might even ask him before you give it, I've got this gift for you, but it's a tough gift. Want it? I've got a gift for you. I, Marjorie, have got a gift for you. But it's kind of a tough gift. I don't know if you want it. The person might say, maybe later. And you say, okay. You still gave him a gift called asking the question. So I'm going to give him a gift called ask a question. Which reminds me. In the teachings about bodhisattvas, when they're conveyed...

[47:27]

these teachings that I'm sharing with you which are given to these beings who wish to attain enlightenment for the welfare of all beings these beings, one of the things is they ask questions they ask questions of the Buddha who gives these teachings but sometimes the Buddha says when they ask the question he mentions that they're asking this question not to get the Buddha to answer But they're asking this question for the welfare of all beings. In other words, they're giving their question as a gift. They're not trying to get an answer. They're not trying to get a teaching. They're not trying to make the Buddha help people. They're just doing this for the welfare of beings. They're being like this. The way they're being is for the welfare of beings. So, you get to work with people who speak of the work in a way that gives you all kinds of unexpected, kind of hard to see maybe, gifts.

[48:32]

Hard to see what they're doing. Hard to see how you feel about what they're doing as gifts. Hospice people often are really good at seeing death as a gift. So they're strong on that. They're more able to see that as a giving kind of thing. Maybe then in an emergency room, doctors or nurses, they maybe have a harder time with that. Could somebody work in an emergency room and see these people coming in as gifts and see their death as a gift and see their survival as a gift? They usually see their survival as a gift, maybe. But to try to really work this process It's always going on. That's really challenging, but it's number one, so you've got to keep doing it. You can't stop doing it and move on to number two. See, I just got a gift. Unexpected gift.

[49:35]

Whoa, hello. Yes. Yeah, well, yeah. Graciousness is another word. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, graciousness is a good word. And, you know, gracias, say thank you to everything. Not that you like it. If you hear this, if you feel sick, if you feel pain. I don't like the pain. I probably don't like the pain. Or maybe I don't care about the pain too much. But I don't have to like it to say, welcome, pain. Again, I've got to train myself so that I say welcome to everything. Some of the stuff I'm experiencing now is not that difficult to say welcome to. I haven't had that much pain since I came to Mount Medan this afternoon. It hasn't been that painful. But if I don't do the practice of welcoming this mild, kind of pleasant situation, if I don't practice welcoming

[50:42]

this evening, this afternoon, this situation, that when I get an intense thing, I'm probably not going to start welcoming then. Without training ourselves, our natural reaction is, no, no, this is not a gift. But if you're practicing giving, and you're practicing giving, and then kapowee, you can say, oh, the giving goes on. I didn't lose it. And that totally sets you up to practice patience. I shouldn't say totally. It's just fundamental to be able to practice patience is to be able to continue to practice giving when insults and afflictions hit. So don't wait until later to start practicing giving. So now in this relatively... comfortable situation.

[51:44]

You guys look pretty comfortable right now. Like last time I saw Dale, he was really uncomfortable. Last time I saw him at Mount Madonna in November, he was in a lot of pain. Now he looks more comfortable. But I hope he doesn't stop practicing generosity towards his comfort. I hope he practices graciousness towards his comfort, because that will help him be gracious if discomfort comes again, and it might. Did somebody have their hand raised? Yes. Yes, yes. So, I choose you number one. I give you number one position. Did you say in your head?

[52:46]

Oh, your hip. You have discomfort in your hip and you're trying to practice welcoming of the pain in your hip. I have pain in my hip too. Yeah, and I'm trying to do the same thing. Except, is yours in your... Mine's in my right. Yeah, we're balanced. Okay, so you're trying to practice giving towards your pain in your hip or the pain in your hip? Yes. And I'm trying to practice welcoming to the pain in my hip, okay? All right, so then if I practice the giving to it, I look at it as a gift, as a gift to practice concentration, diligence, yeah it's a gift yeah yes you it's a gift and you're and you're trying to practice generosity towards it and when you practice generosity towards something it becomes a gift

[53:59]

It turns into a gift. It turns from potentially an insult to a treasure. One could go into more details about that, but... Yeah, well, the pain I have, I sometimes want to... I kind of want to... Not exactly make it go away. I kind of even kind of want to make it, not make it worse, but kind of like massage it or kind of grind it. It's kind of a grinding pain. It feels like there's some roughness there. And I kind of want to just kind of grind it around a little bit. But I've learned that that isn't necessarily a good idea. Right? we like to scratch an itch a little bit like that and part of scratching an itch is to make it go away but even before it goes away it feels kind of good to scratch it so that's one kind of like interesting detail of if you have comfort that comes and you you could be kind of feel generous towards it but want to want to

[55:26]

scratch it a little bit. And again, not necessarily make it go away. And we even know that when we have an itch and we scratch it, we sometimes know that that doesn't make it go away. Sometimes it makes it a little bit more itchy and we kind of like that too. We're kind of like, yeah, it's a very deep thing there. And that's how There can be giving. You can be generous towards the itch or towards the discomfort and still want to do something with it. Even though you're generous, there's more to the story. And then we move into number two. Ethics. So you can be generous towards something. The story. The next step is ethics. The next step is be careful of it. Because you can do something unskillful after you welcome something.

[56:35]

You can let a gift into your life and you can be gracious towards it and say welcome to it and say it's a gift and then you can do something unskillful with it. You can be like inattentive to it. You can let a guest into your house and then not pay attention to your guest and the guest can get lost. slip on the floor, or do some unfortunate thing because you didn't pay attention to them once you let them in. So I'm just saying that when you said this thing about this hip thing, is that after I welcome the pain, I also have to be careful of it. Because part of me wants to fool around. Okay, you're here, so let's just play with this pain a little bit and squiggle it around. I kind of want to rub the head of the femur into the hip joint.

[57:38]

And I've done that. That's not really skillful. It just kind of inflames it. But I'm not so much trying to make it go away. I'm kind of like, okay, it's not that bad. When it's really bad, I don't do that. When it's kind of bad, kind of painful, and I'm kind of okay and not angry about it, I'm fooling around a little bit. So it's possible to be generous and still have ethical, subtle ethical unskillfulness. So we let it in carefully. This is a good example. Brad? Brian? Yes.

[58:39]

Yes. Well, if you have trouble finding the donor, be the donor yourself. If you feel like you're the recipient, okay, you're also the donor. If you're the recipient of a day, yes, you are. That's part of it. A day has been given to you. But if you can be a donor, So if there's a recipient, there's a donor. Even if you don't see the donor out there, then you're the donor. And once you get good at seeing that you're the recipient of everything that happens, in other words, everything's been given to you, everything's a gift, when you can see that, then again, you come to understand that you're also a giver

[59:50]

and you're also a gift. And when you understand that, you start to see who the donor is. In other words, you understand the universe. This leads to understanding the universe, this process. This leads to wisdom. The donor isn't really you, and it really isn't somebody else. But if you can't see the donor, but you can see the gift, you're doing pretty well. Some people can't see the donor, and they can't see the gift, and they can't... They just think, this is a bad situation and I hate it. There's no giving anywhere in the neighborhood. There's no generosity. This is like just torment. Well, it's too bad. But if you can see a day, even a painful day, even a gray day, even a foggy day, oh, gift, then you're a receiver. But also you're the giver of seeing the gift. You're the bestower of giftness to the day. So the more you work this, the more you realize those three elements are always there, but you can't always see them all.

[60:57]

Like you don't see anybody who received it. Like now I can say, okay, I give you my attention, but I may feel like you don't look like you received it. You don't look like recipients to me. You know, like you all go, cover your face and push me away. You know, I tried to keep it away. Maybe it's hard for you to see, oh, that was the way you received it. So sometimes you feel like you're generous, you feel like you've got a gift, and you feel like people aren't receiving it. They're saying, no, I don't want it. That was the way they received it. you a gift. That was the way they were a recipient. That's the way they were a donor to you to help you wake up to not stick to your position in the practice of giving. Yes. See, I saw a gift there. And that's where I have a problem. I have been welcoming that gift.

[62:04]

Yeah. Even when I have a when I receive something and Yeah, like rejection. Right, and also when you're generous to somebody else, you have trouble with them rejecting your gift. Rejection is a hard thing to see as a gift. When you do it, that's right. Travis, he was having an example where, you know, where his rejection of giving, could that be a gift? So if you're rejecting, or if you're rejecting, you have trouble seeing that as a gift, or welcoming that. And if you are welcoming of someone, someone comes to you and you give them the gift of your welcoming and you give them the gift of your graciousness and they reject you, it's hard for you to say, oh, there's a gift too.

[63:10]

The gift... It really is that expression, the gift that keeps on giving. That's really kind of a Buddhist statement. The gift keeps giving. It does. The process continues to go on, but we keep thinking, we keep feeling like we're falling off the process. Like, here I am, I really do want to practice giving, I'm feeling enthusiastic about it, and I want to give this person a gift, and they're rejecting it. And I'm stopped. I had trouble then welcoming their rejection of my generosity. Somebody makes a really nice dinner for somebody and the person says, I hate this dinner. It's really hard. You worked all day to make this dinner. Offer it lovingly, wishing the best. And they say, I reject it. And also, I reject that you did this for my good.

[64:12]

I think you were actually trying to influence me. I think you're trying to get control of me. You're just being manipulative with this thing. And you think you're trying to be nice to me. Yeah, right. It's hard to welcome that kind of talk, isn't it? But people do talk like that. They give you that gift. You're so generous, huh? Well, how about this one? Can you see this is a gift? for me now I'm going to give you another opportunity accept my insults of your generosity accept my accusations that you're doing this whole thing for selfish reasons you're not ready to welcome that and can you see that not welcome gift so can you see that can you see that no as a gift Maybe, yeah.

[65:16]

Can you see the maybe as a gift? Yeah, so when you can't see something as a gift, start looking around for where you can see a gift. Oh, a gift, yes. You're welcome. When I saw, because I experienced that in my life, that, like that, gift, gift, When a person says something that is a gift, but it feels hurtful, then you could write back, well, I'm going to give a gift. And before you go any further, when you think I'm going to give a gift, that could be a gift right there. The thought, I'm going to give a gift. Don't miss that one. Don't miss the thing you're doing now. Just like you scratched your face when you asked the question just now.

[66:18]

That was a gift. And if you can't notice a gift, hey, I welcome that. If you can't practice giving, then my practice is to welcome that you say you can't practice giving. And then I try to help you find where you can. Once you find where you can, you can expand it. But when you're at a place where you can't find it and you can't see that not finding it is not a gift, you've got to find some place where you can. And then you start all over. You get back on the giving train and then you start to work it. And then it starts to expand. And then you start... And gradually you get to a place where the thing you said you couldn't see as a gift, you can. But you have to accept, I don't see this as a gift. Yes. Yes. It's happening, you know.

[67:22]

You got an atrocity, it's happening. Welcome it. Not like it. Atrocities and cruelty are the things that most, you know, in a way, are most necessary to welcome. Because what people often do is they're most likely to be ungracious. and rejecting. And feedback to the atrocity, another atrocity. A suppression, a denial, an annihilation of atrocity. This principle here is that atrocity met with these practices. Atrocity is an intense form of It's an intense form of living being. It's an intense form of... It's an intense form of delusion. Are we going to bring benefit to this intense affliction?

[68:29]

And you start by bringing benefit to it, the atrocious situation, the situation of atrocity. You start by bringing... by saying thank you to it. Not I like it, but thank you in order to bring welfare into atrocity. They are quite good at being gracious to atrocity. They live like, you know, in atrocityville. And they really like atrocity, they welcome. Atrocity, welcome. But if you take them out of Atrocityville and take them to Mount Madonna and you, I don't know what, spill half and half on their leg, they might not say thank you to that. Because they might say, I don't have to practice welcoming to a nice place like this.

[69:37]

You don't have to practice generosity towards a landscape. to, you know, pine trees in springtime. You don't have to practice generosity and welcoming to that stuff. So they don't. But they know from experience how wonderful it is to practice generosity towards horror. They've seen what happens when people do not practice generosity towards horrors. They've seen how that intensifies horror. But it's hard to see how if you're not gracious with a beautiful landscape, it's hard to see how that harms. But it does. Because if you don't practice generosity towards the hillside, you naturally, your mind can slip into being possessive of it. And thereby create affliction. and attachment and suffering. But some people are good at being generous in situations and they have trouble moving to the other.

[70:44]

Some people have difficulty with the horrible ones. Some people have easier time with horrible ones and hard time with mild ones. It's basically just, you know, where you've learned to do it, you're skillful, and where you haven't, you're not skillful. The question is, how can we extend the practice to all situations? To work towards constantly, in every situation, do the first bodhisattva practice. In other words, in every situation, be kind. Never to work towards always being mindful to whatever's happening rather than cruel. But if there's cruelty, to be kind to the cruelty.

[71:47]

And if we have trouble doing it in all situations, to be kind to our inability to do it in all situations. But then check back. Do you wish to benefit and liberate beings? Because if you do, then do you want to sign up again now for this course? Yeah. I'm having trouble with it, but I still want to practice it. I wasn't able to welcome that atrocity. I did something atrocious in response to it. And I'm sorry I did. When you're sorry you did, you're doing a second practice. When you're sorry that you don't practice the first practice, when you're sorry that you don't practice, that's the second practice. Part of the second practice is to be sorry you don't do the first practice. And to be sorry, you don't do the third practice. And if you're sorry, you don't practice the second practice. In other words, feeling repentance when you don't bring welfare is part of the practice of bringing welfare.

[72:59]

Does that make sense? Part of ethics is to feel some sorrow, to feel sorry when you don't do virtuous things. That makes you kind of want to sign up again for virtue. Yeah. Yeah. So somebody can say no to an atrocity as an act of generosity and that no says it's going to be more beneficial. It may be hard sometimes to see the difference between the no that's coming from generosity and the no that's coming from stinginess and rejection. But anyway, that's what we're talking about.

[74:01]

The ability to say no in a way that's beneficial. That's an expression of generosity, carefulness, and patience. There can be also other... I didn't write the word impatience up there with lots of... But you can also say endurance, tolerance, forbearance. So all those practices hopefully could be brought to the worst possible... The most painful, the worst possible, the most painful, the most challenging situations. And the situations which aren't so challenging, except that they were challenging enough for us to miss the chance, but it's mostly that we just forgot. That challenge, it's just that we forgot to practice what we want to practice.

[75:05]

every moment is an opportunity to practice giving. And every moment is an opportunity to miss the opportunity. And many people miss the opportunity much of the time. Which is kind of sad. There's some sorrow in that. But it's not a sorrow which like when I feel it. It could be that kind of sorrow. Someone could feel so much sorrow that they miss opportunities to be generous. They just collapse and give up and never want to practice, even try to practice generosity. That's not the end of the story, but temporarily they could feel totally about the practice of generosity. But then they get up, as Obama said, and dust themselves all over again.

[76:21]

To do what? To practice generosity with everything. Yes? In the examples that you've given today, it seemed that the commonality was that the gift of God wasn't the way to talk. Well, I think the being present with what's happening, what's happening is the way things are. The way things are happening is just the way that they appear to you. If you can practice generosity towards the way things appear to you or the way you feel things are coming to you, you will come, I think this is saying, you will come to see the way things really are. And you have to see the way they appear to be in order to realize the way they really are. If you're not present, you don't have a chance to realize it.

[77:30]

Even though you are present, and the way they really are is they're present with you. So you have to work at being present. So in the first act of presence, Not in a way. The first practice of presence is giving. It's presence with how things appear to you, with what you think is happening. So you think this is an insult, or you think this is a praise, and you're going to be present with it. To not be present, you can't really practice giving. And I also say that another way to put this is Another way to say what giving is, is to be still with things. When somebody slaps you in the face, try to be right there with the slap. To be still and quiet with it. It's part of like, okay, you're happening.

[78:31]

This is a gift. So stillness and silence and giving are important. And the same thing as being present. And this sets up presence with what's happening. But we have to love these events before we can liberate them. Not like love. Love everything before you can save. Liberate. And the fullness of liberation requires wisdom. Wisdom means that you're intimate with the way things are, not just the way, which includes that you're intimate with the way. Intimacy with the way things appear leads to intimacy with the way they are, including and beyond appearance. And the Buddha Dharma is saying, in some ways, sometime anyway, the Buddha Dharma is saying, things are is really a good deal.

[79:43]

That we're actually... There's a way we are together which is peaceful. And the peaceful way is intimate with the unpeaceful way. But if you can't love the peaceful, unpeaceful way, you have to realize the peaceful way. And loving the unpeaceful way is really, more or less, really a challenge. Especially... to do it consistently. Once in a while we can do it, which is great. Consistently, obviously, requires tremendous amount of training. So, do you want to do it consistently? And, yeah, I received that question and I consider if I want to do it consistently. I haven't answered yet.

[80:46]

I'm thinking about whether I would like to be kind to what comes consistently, be present and welcoming and careful in whatever comes. I've been thinking about it here for a while and an answer seems to be coming up and the answer seems to be yes, I would like to learn that. I would like to be that way. In other words, I would like to practice this way here. I would like to be kind with everything. And I feel, I was feeling and I feel When the teaching is transmitted to us, then we have no doubt that being kind to whatever is happening is really where it's at.

[81:58]

And somehow that has to be transmitted to us, and I hope that's being transmitted to us now. That's the basic deal is to be kind to everything. And we're just analyzing kindness now. And then I say to you, I say unto you, please consider if you wish to be continuously kind. And of course, continuously kind means moment after moment to be kind to what's happening.

[83:04]

So continuity and kindness means that you're going to be kind towards whatever's happening. Do you wish to be kind to whatever's happening? Would you wish to learn that? Do you wish to be that way? I ask you to consider that and I consider it with you and I told you I'd considered it and I do want to do it. I'd like you to consider if you would like to be... like to learn and be consistently kind to whatever is happening in life for you. And if you do then I further ask if you would like to aspire to that and vow to be that way. and that's enough in some ways of that discussion and I want to say some give you some other gifts which is to remind you that we have a kind of a schedule here for this weekend and that schedule includes having meditation in the morning tomorrow starting in this room at 6.30 we'll have a couple periods of meditation

[84:35]

About 30 minutes long. The question is, what direction should we face? And maybe I won't sit here so that I'm facing you. Maybe I will. But anyway, maybe you could just face this way. Come and sit and face this direction. You just leave it like this. like this setup. Unless you all want to make them in straight rows. Want to? Just sit where you are now. And then we'll have, in between those two periods, we'll have walking meditation. And you could do walking meditation in this room. Maybe you can make a circle in this room. Or you can also do walking meditation in a circle on the deck. And then so we'll do two periods and then we'll have a discussion and then breakfast.

[85:44]

And you might be quite hungry by then, so it may be a popular event. And then after breakfast, come back here and reconvene at 11. We'll meet for two hours. And generally speaking, when we come back, we'll come back and sit quietly. for a while and then we'll do some walking meditation and then have discussion. So that will be a repeated pattern. Then we'll have a break at 1. At 1 to 3 we'll have a break. We'll divide it in a break. And then from 3 to 5 we'll have another session. And I think dinner is at 5. Maybe. And then have another session from 7 And then Sunday, again, starting at 6.30, we'll have the meditation with walking meditation in between, followed by discussion and breakfast. Actually, that's called breakfast. I think tomorrow it's called brunch because it's at 10 o'clock.

[86:51]

So then on Sunday, it's breakfast with, again, a break afterwards and reconvene at 10 and then our final sessions. Six more sessions. We've done one. and actually we've covered everything in this first one but we can go now into more detail about the other five practices I encourage myself and you to again through the evening try to be mindful of practicing giving try to remember to practice it and also please be mindful of the question do you wish to learn to be mindful and practice giving all the time I'd like you to consider that when you come tomorrow morning I'd like you to practice giving when you're sitting and practice contemplating the question do I wish to practice giving consistently in all situations in this life which is the same as saying practice enlightenment

[88:02]

So that's what I ask you to do, and I'll be trying to do it with you. If you'd like to have an individual meeting with me... Please, you can speak to Shokuchi Deirdre Kerrigan. She will take your name down and get us together for an individual meeting, if you'd like. Is there anything you'd like to bring up tonight? Yes. It just came up to me. And that, just that, I can't help but learn to be kind to myself with the challenges I'm facing, which include tremendous energy problems.

[89:08]

And I keep pushing, and that's one of the worst things I can do for myself right now. And it feels like a push to try to stop it. So I think it was okay if I could lie to myself. Okay, I feel like I thought that in myself because it doesn't feel like belonging to the group or like hope. It's not self-vest. It's painful for me to find a prospect to even say right after an hour. It seems like about to disperse this energy bubble. It's not painful, but it's just that it's like my brain spins at the thought of just coming to that I feel like what I keep practicing is what Africa is. That's that. I'm trying to find and still keep heart. Yeah.

[90:09]

Well, just remember that the person who taught these teachings had a certain... He did recline. And he didn't... He reclined when he had some energy problems. He was reclining, not sitting. He spent a lot of time sitting, but towards the end of his life he was reclining. He was still teaching in a reclining position. But he also reclined at other points in his life while he was the Buddha reclined. So it is fine to recline. And you have our support to recline. And you have our support to be kind to yourself in whatever position you're in. And if you're kind to yourself, you may sometimes feel like you'd like to give the gift of your body. Or you might feel like you'd give the gift of sitting. Or you might feel like giving the gift of standing or walking. The important point is to be kind to your body all the time and see what emerges from that kindness.

[91:16]

And reclining may emerge from practice. Being kind to your body tonight you might wind up reclining. But hopefully without a cigarette in your mouth. Because they hate people to smoke in bed here, as you know. So please be kind to yourself and see what emerges from that kindness. See what physical desires arise. Like, oh, I think it would be good to stand up now. I think I'll walk. And how will I walk? If I want to be kind to my body, how will I walk? What's a kind way to walk? Whenever you walk, please think of what's a kind way to walk. There's not only one kind way to walk, but just that question allows many different types of kind walking. So please be kind and if it winds up that we're good, you are welcome and you are included if you want to do that.

[92:26]

You can recline right where you are or you can recline here or here. Okay? Let kindness guide you to the proper position. Yes. yes yes right yes the Buddha did not live in a training center I mean his early training was not in a training center but he was practicing he learned to practice kindness and he wasn't in a training center then later he became kind of a walking training center so everybody he would give them the teaching and then they would practice it so it was kind of a training center right there

[93:46]

So wherever you do this practice, wherever you're being kind to what's happening, you are in a training center. So in that sense, you do need to be in a training center. But you don't necessarily need to be in a place that's called a training center for you to be in a training center. So in one sense, if you're doing the practice, you're in a training center, And in our sense, if you're in a training center and you're not doing the practice, in a sense, you're not in a training center. You know, the building's called training center. The name's over the door. Just like here, the name outside here says, Welcome Tenshin Rev Anderson. But if we don't come in here and welcome, we're not... So if you're welcoming what's happening, you're in a training center. And your ability to do that is dependent on the fact that you've been encouraged to do so by others.

[94:54]

You've received this teaching. It's been sent to you many times and you're receiving it. You're living in a sangha that's giving you this encouragement. When you receive it and practice it, in a sense you're in a training center. Anything else this evening? Thank you very much.

[95:25]

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