So the 16 great bodhisattva precepts in this tradition, the first three are the precepts of refuge, or the refuge precepts. So that would be the precept of going for refuge in Buddha, going for refuge in Dharma, going for refuge in Sangha, or going for refuge in enlightenment, going for refuge in the truth, the enlightened truth, the truth of the enlightened ones, and going for refuge in the community. In a sense, going for refuge in Buddha, again, includes ethics, but is much broader Going for refuge in Buddha means going for refuge in giving, ethics, patience, effort, concentration, wisdom.

[01:01]

It means going for refuge in the fullness of awakening, the fullness of compassion and wisdom, not just ethics. And going for refuge, so going for refuge might become ethical as you reflect on your action as going for refuge. If you look at your actions, if you're careful of your actions, then that's kind of ethical discipline. If you'd be careful of your actions in terms of, again, being vigilant of them and studying them, but also reflecting at the same time, how is this action, for example, now I'm talking to you and making gestures, how is this action going to refuge in enlightenment?

[02:09]

Or is this action going to refuge in enlightenment? Or, I would like this action, I wish this action to be going for refuge in Buddha. I wish to go for refuge in Buddha while I'm acting now. So that emphasis in some sense goes beyond just reflecting on my action, but actually giving my action or dedicating my action to awakening one of the comments on these practices is speaking of things which I think let's see take my little chart here

[03:17]

I guess I have to get my glasses. Oh yeah, here it is. So speaking of things which adulterate these practices, One of the things that adulterates them is what's called incorrect association, when with respect to the other perfections, the other practice, one lessens one's efforts of those perfections. So that would be like, it would adulterate the practice of ethics if you lessened your practice of giving and patience while you were practicing ethics.

[04:54]

It would lessen the practice of patience if you it would adulterate the practice of patience if when you're practicing patience you lessened your effort in ethics and giving and effort and so on. So we may talk about one of the practices at a time and focus on it but while we're focusing on one try not to lessen your attention to the others because that would actually that would adulterate the one you're focusing on if you lessen your attention to the others. So it's such a balancing act between focusing on something and taking care of other practices which go with that practice. So again, coming back to ethics in a sense as it includes all the other practices in another sense the other practices can be distinguished.

[06:04]

So in a sense going for refuge you could go for refuge and forget about ethics and you could practice ethics without going for refuge. You could be practicing being careful of your speech careful of your gestures you could be doing that and that would be compatible with ethical discipline. But you might not remember while you're paying attention to your speech to also be going for refuge in Buddha. But you could. You could remember to go for refuge while you're talking and while you're trying to talk carefully. You could remember to be patient while you're giving careful attention to your speech. And when you're practicing going for refuge, you could remember the Buddhist precepts, which would make sense.

[07:16]

So those are the first three precepts, but they're not, strictly speaking, focused on ethics, but of course they include ethics. Because the Buddha's teaching is partly about ethics. But the Buddha's teaching isn't just about ethics. And the Buddha is ethical, but the Buddha is more than ethical. Ethics doesn't reach all of Buddha. Then the next three precepts, which again, there's a certain way of looking at them or speaking about them that doesn't necessarily sound so much like ethics. The next three are embracing and sustaining forms and ceremonies, embracing and sustaining all wholesome or beneficial action, and embracing and sustaining all beings.

[08:21]

An earlier way of talking that the Buddha gave, or the earlier teaching the Buddha gave was, the Buddha said, what is the teaching of all Buddhas? It is to avoid evil, practice good, and purify the mind. The historical Buddha taught that. In the Great Vehicle teachings, the parallel is to embrace and sustain forms and ceremonies or to embrace and sustain the forms and ceremonies that are conducive to liberation. And the next one is to embrace and sustain all good, which is the same as the way the Buddha taught. And the third one is to embrace and sustain all beings. That's parallel to embrace, that would be parallel to practice or to clarify or purify the mind.

[09:28]

So in the great vehicle, embracing and sustaining, working for the welfare and liberation of beings is parallel. That's the way to purify your mind. It doesn't sound so bad to embrace and sustain your own welfare and embrace and sustain your own liberation. But in the Mahayana it's more put like embrace and sustain the welfare of all beings, particularly others, and embrace and sustain the liberation of all beings, particularly others. There's a little bit of a problem to be focusing on your own welfare and your own liberation. There's some problem there. But the Mahayana construction is to work on the welfare and liberation

[10:36]

everybody not focused on yourself even though again focusing on yourself doesn't sound so bad to me but it's got a problem in it that it can it can limit the realization of the most beneficial state it can get hooked into some limited view. So parallel to avoiding evil in the early way of talking is to embrace and sustain forms and regulations. That's a way to avoid evil. You can try to avoid evil which is recommended by the Buddha but then another way of doing it is here's some forms and ceremonies to perform and in performing these ceremonies you usually do it in the context of other people who are performing the same ceremonies and the same regulations so you're practicing in community and that way

[12:00]

You can try to, it still is appropriate to try to avoid evil, or abandon evil, but by being devoted to forms, you can get a lot of help abandoning evil. Because other people are trying to do the same forms, and if you're practicing these forms in an evil way, they probably would notice. because you have they think you've agreed to practice the same forms that they have and you think they've agreed to practice the same forms that you're doing so in that way you can get feedback and support and also there's a teacher usually involved in the picture somebody who you're asking to give you feedback usually we don't put it that way these days but you're asking somebody to give you feedback on your evil People don't say that to me very often, but they kind of say it.

[13:05]

They say, like, if you see me veering off the course, would you give me some feedback? What course? Well, the course of non-evil. If you see me veering off the course of goodness or the course of compassion or the course of wisdom, would you give me some feedback? but it's somewhat similar to saying, if you see me veering off into evil. Evil is, as you know, live spelled backwards. So if you feel, if you're veering away from what life is about, if you see me veering away from life, please give me feedback. And then we have these forms that a person might want to be practicing, like being mindful. So if somebody's forgotten to remember, if they're not mindful of being mindful, the first meaning of mindful is to remember.

[14:14]

If they're not being mindful, they're asking for feedback. Or I should say, if they appear to not be mindful, they're asking for feedback to some people. So the person may say then, did you want feedback on your mindfulness practice? The person might say, so what? Or who asked you? I thought you asked me for feedback on mindfulness practice. I did, but I don't want it now. Not from you. Or whatever. Say, okay, see you later. And then they come and say, would you please give me feedback on my mindfulness practice? The other day you didn't want it, but now I do want it. Say, okay. So then you see them and you wonder if they're practicing it. So you say, would you like some feedback on your mindfulness practice? And that time they say, okay. Say, well, were you mindful just now in the way you picked up that broom?

[15:17]

Were you mindful just now when you bowed to me? Were you mindful just now when you said good morning? And then the practitioner might say, I'm not sure. Or, you know, I think I wasn't. I think I forgot. I do kind of remember saying good morning, but I was not really very much there. One of the early Zen stories I heard was a monk who practiced quite a long time with his teacher. And then his teacher said, well, I think you pretty much learned what I have to teach you. You can go off on your own now. And the monk went away. But he still came back to visit his teacher now and then. And so he came back one rainy night to visit his teacher. And he came in to see his teacher and said, good evening, teacher. And the teacher said, good evening, disciple.

[16:24]

And the student said, do you have any feedback on my mindfulness practice? And the teacher said, on which side of the entryway did you put your shoes and on which side did you put your umbrella, your raincoat? And the student couldn't remember So then he studied six more years. Maybe another version of the story was the teacher didn't ask if he wanted feedback. He just asked him as soon as he came in. You know, you can imagine coming in out of the rain, you know, you kind of put your shoes over there and you put your raincoat over there and you come in and say, hi, teacher. Teacher sees you're kind of in a hurry to get that wet stuff off, you know. Shelter. And the teacher looks at you and says, I wonder if you did that mindfully. It didn't look like it. Maybe I'll check. Which side did you put your shoes and which side did you put your ankle?

[17:29]

And the student starts to turn around to look. But the teacher didn't say, you weren't mindful. The student just realized he didn't know, and so he stayed and trained more. And then he left after six years. And from then on, he remembered to pay attention to what he was doing. So because of that form of shoes and raincoat and entryway, the form is pay attention to where you're putting them. And if you're committed to that, the teacher can ask you also wearing your robes putting your various possessions down other places the teacher can watch you also your fellow practitioners can watch you and they can say I wonder if that was mindful the way he did that and sometimes the way you do it is they think boy that really looked mindful the way she set that down really looked mindful

[18:43]

Maybe I'll ask anyway. Did you feel you were mindful when you set that down? They say, well, I give myself a B minus, actually, because I did sort of, my attention did flicker a little bit there. I was pretty good. I mean, I was somewhat there, but I had a few, there were a few moments of forgetfulness in the process of setting the glasses down. Would you like some feedback? They're on your nose. So forms and ceremonies involves a commitment to forms and ceremonies.

[19:48]

Letting someone know that you're committed to certain forms, that you want to embrace them and what they are and getting feedback on that. And then those forms are ways to avoid evil because when you're mindful, It doesn't mean that you're perfectly enlightened, and also if you avoid evil, it doesn't mean you're perfectly enlightened. Although avoiding evil is enlightenment, you might any moment slip away from that. So, when you're mindful in some sense, when you're really paying attention to what you're doing, in some sense at that moment you're protected from evil. But the next moment it's possible to be not mindful and then you can slip again. It is proposed in tradition that you get to a state of realizing perfect wisdom and then you don't slip anymore because the way you see things makes it impossible to slip.

[20:58]

But before that, before a certain stage of understanding, You can avoid evil, avoid evil, and then slip into it. Avoid evil, avoid evil, and slip into it. Be mindful, be mindful, and then lose it. Be mindful, be mindful, and lose it. Be generous, be generous, and get distracted. Be concentrated, be concentrated, and get excited and distracted, and so on. We're working towards not so much perfection, but realizing the state which is naturally... in accord with all these practices where the effort is natural. Sort of like where the body and mind have sort of been totally reprogrammed or converted over to be in service of these practices. These practices have been done so that the basis of the practice is now totally for the practices.

[22:03]

And then also the next 10 Bodhisattva precepts in this tradition, so 3, 3 and 10, 16, the next 10 look and sound a little bit more like what people usually consider ethics, like not killing, not stealing. not taking what's not given. These practices, in one sense, they do sound ethical to many people. And the emphasis here is slightly different. The emphasis is on how these are ethical practices for the welfare of all beings, rather than ethical practices for the purification of the practitioner. So the emphasis is on that not killing is a teaching which can be practiced and it brings benefit to suffering beings.

[23:09]

It's not so much it's a teaching which is practiced and purifies me, although in some sense it might purify me, but the emphasis is on how it's beneficial to others to not kill, to do the practice of not killing benefits and is a welfare to others and not taking what is not given is a benefit to others and how not misusing sexuality is not to make me you know crystal clear chaste chaste chalice guy but it's a benefit to others and not lying isn't to make me into Mr. Honest Of course, that's all right, but it's basically, it's mostly, it's to help others, to be honest, to help others and so on. All these practices not intoxicating is not so that I'm pure and clear although in fact that does maybe contribute to my clarity not to intoxicate but it's to have beneficial relationships with all beings to benefit them by being sober by not being intoxicated.

[24:32]

So another principle here is that since these practices are for the welfare of others we would not adhere to these practices if they weren't welfare to others so we're not trying to make ourselves pure and hold on to them for our own purity we're doing these practices for the welfare of others so that if it helped others we would not practice these practices because the point of them is to help others not to be perfect at these practices and that's a real tough point One of the easiest ones to understand is if some people are looking for somebody because they want to be cruel to the person and they ask you where the person is, you might say, and you think you know where the person is, you might say, I don't know where they are. Or you might even say that they're in a direction opposite to where they are because you think that that would be beneficial.

[25:35]

So the truth you're telling is, I want to protect all beings. I want to benefit all beings. And code for that is, the person went that way. But in another sense, it is like a lie. It's not the truth. And if there's any harm in that, it's mostly for you, yourself. It doesn't hurt the people you talk to. People want to be cruel. You've protected them. You robbed them of the opportunity of being cruel, which is good for them. And you help the other person too. But mostly you help the ones who are going to be cruel by sending them in a direction which will take them away from their cruelty. But it's a little bit of a problem for yourself that you did that.

[26:42]

It kind of makes... It kind of twists your mind a little bit to do that. But for the welfare of others, I'll let my mind be twisted a little bit. Just like I said before, do you want to do that? No. Yes, you do. Yes, I do. So being flexible... means that you might get a little twisted. So benefiting others is a higher priority than me being perfect or me being anything. There's nothing about me that's important as benefiting others. So if me being a trash heap helps others, I wish to be a trash heap. If me being a tidy arrangement helps others, I'll be a tidy arrangement.

[27:46]

But I'm not a tidy arrangement just because I'm attached to being tidy. I'm a tidy arrangement. I want to be a tidy arrangement if it's beneficial to others. And sometimes it is beneficial to others. But sometimes being a mess is a benefit to others. If I think that it's going to be more of a benefit to be a mess, I should be a mess, according to this. So these precepts are about beneficial relationships. These ethical precepts are about beneficial relationships rather than me being a virtuous guy. It's practicing virtue without necessarily identifying with it or possessing it for me. Now, of course, one does get involved in it, you know, get drawn into the virtue business when you practice virtue. But it's best to get drawn into it completely, so completely that you're not owning it or attached to it, that you're just a servant of it.

[28:57]

You're a servant of virtue rather than being, in a sense, a master of virtue, a possessor of virtue. You don't own it. It owns you is somewhat better. And when it owns you, in some ways it's better because it won't forget you. And you don't have to remember it because you've given yourself to it. So you find, you just, you know, it's very nice. You find virtue is like working through you and you don't have to like keep harassing yourself all the time to be virtuous. Maybe you did in the past, but you've donated yourself to virtue enough so that it's taken over and you're a good servant of it. But still, you read some Buddhist texts and they talk about mastering virtue. I don't wish to disparage that way of talking. I just am saying that maybe the other way around is more enlightened, to let virtue come first.

[30:05]

and take over your life rather than you go take over the virtue business. Does that make sense? So if you're going to take over a business, probably virtue is a good business to take over, but taking over is not so good. And if you're going to be taken over by a business, virtue is a really good business to be taken over by. This way of talking is more compatible with generosity, that you give yourself to virtue and you receive virtue as a gift rather than you're possessive of virtue and you own it. It's more like if there's any virtue around, it's a gift to you and a gift from you. You give it away and you say thank you for it being in your life.

[31:09]

So this attitude towards these ethical precepts is more in line with and based on generosity. How wonderful that these precepts have been given to me. How wonderful for me to give them away. How wonderful for them to be given to me and for them to practice themselves in me and how wonderful that I'm not attached to them. and I notice that I'm not attached to them, that doesn't make me forget them more. Some people feel like, well, I have to be attached to these precepts, otherwise I'll forget them. I have to be attached to non-killing, because otherwise I might kill. Well, you won't necessarily be more likely to kill if you don't attach to it. In fact, Oh, I can't prove it. Really, I can't prove it. I think that if you receive these precepts as a gift and you say thank you and you promise to also give them away, that it's more likely that you'll practice them if you're not attached to them.

[32:16]

Especially if you got them as a gift in the first place. If you think you stole them, it may be more difficult to give them away. But if you think you stole them and you gave them away, now you're on the right page. Because if you give them away, you realize, hey, they were given to me in the first place. I didn't steal them. I didn't steal these precepts. I asked for them, yes, but it wasn't a theft. I just requested them. And they were given to me not because I made the person give them to me, but just because the person wanted to make sure that I wanted them before the person gave them to me. So I said, may I have them? The person said, yes. And then the person gave them to me. And, yeah, I didn't take them. I kind of have a little problem with the word taking the precepts. I want to take the precepts. I like better to, the Chinese character is received. And the Chinese character for receive, if you put a hand in front of that character, it means to give.

[33:28]

So you have the character for receive, receive the precepts, jiu kai, the precepts is kai, jiu kai means to receive the precepts, but actually jiu kai means the character that's usually used is the character which has the character for receive and the character for hand next to it, which means to give. So Jukai actually means to give the precepts. But we say, you know, in English, idiomatic English, it somehow works to say take the precepts, not meaning to take what's not given. That still, I think, is better to say. I'd like people, I'd like to shift to say receive the precepts. People say, but some people say I'd like to take the precepts. I think it's nicer to say I'd like to receive the precepts. And I wish to give you the precepts. not that I wish you to take the precepts from me sometimes people say I take the precepts with somebody that's closer to I receive the precepts and also we say I take refuge in Buddha but literally the original way of saying it is I go for refuge in Buddha I go for refuge in Dharma I go for refuge in Sangha it has you know uh

[34:47]

The word for going for refuge is saranam gacchami. That can be translated as refuge. Saranam means to return and gacchami means to go. So to go and return means refuge, refuge. So refuge is a good translation of go and return or go and rely on. saranam gacchami so we go to these we go we go to these precepts we return to these precepts and now we have the practice the next practice is patience or forbearance tolerance endurance And I often emphasize that this practice is about experiencing discomfort, experiencing pain in the smallest time and space.

[36:16]

that we actually do experience pain in very small moments. And it's helpful to actually be there in the tiny little moment of pain. Because that's actually the way we're taking it in. Tiny little moment by tiny little moment. To be there in the present. And when you're there in the present, you're very focused. You're very undistracted. There's no... There's not much possibility of wiggling or trying to get away or fighting it. You're really being tolerant of it. And again, that tolerance echoes with being gracious. But now we're being gracious. We're taking the graciousness and really focusing it on the present moment and we're being gracious towards pain. And so this focus, it's being gracious with pain in the very, very most present part of the present.

[37:40]

This world, that we're living in has the epithet or the name in Buddhist tradition this world is called able to practice patience or patience opportunities is the name of this world it's a place where you have the opportunity to practice patience It's very difficult in some realms of existence to practice patience because there's no pain. So in certain heavens, in certain states of meditational attainment, there's no discomfort. So it's actually hard to practice patience. And in order to have Buddha's wisdom, you have to have patience. You need patience. So it's possible to be concentrated and go into some excellent state where there's really pleasant, wonderful place where there's no pain.

[39:05]

And it's possible that you come back from that realm and experience pain, but when you experience it because you haven't trained at patience, you lose your patience and you become violent or, anyway, aggressive, harsh. crabby. We have a scripture which is popular in Zen called the Diamond Scripture. And in that scripture, the Buddha refers to himself and says, you know, in my past, in my evolution, I developed great patience.

[40:20]

I worked on patience and I got really good at patience. so that when King Kalinga chopped me up in little pieces, I did not have any ill will towards him. So the Buddha tells a story about himself in a past life where he was chopped up in little pieces by a a king, and he did not feel ill-will, he did not wish ill upon the person who was chopping him up because he had developed so much patience. Some of you might say, well, I'll never be able to do that, so I guess I can't be a Buddha And I would agree with you.

[41:26]

If you cannot be that patient, you cannot be a Buddha. But the Buddha is saying, if you practice patience, and you keep practicing and keep practicing, you will get that patient. And if you get that patient, you can be Buddha. In the meantime you can practice patience and you're on the path to Buddhahood, but you're not a Buddha yet. But if you keep practicing patience you will be able to stand anything without feeling ill-willed towards people who are nearby. And in this story of the Buddha, his name, I don't think he gave himself this name, but anyway, his name was, oh yeah, his name was Kshantivadan.

[42:27]

Kshantivadan. Kshanti is a Sanskrit word for patience, which means, I think the etymology of it is capacity. You have the capacity for, well, for example, for pain. You're big enough to feel the pain. And in Pali, I think it's called Kanti. And Vadan means somebody who practices it, who's on the path of something. So kshanti vad means this person who's on the path of patience. So that was his practice and he lived in the forest and he practiced patience out there in the forest. And to make a long story short, a king came out into the forest to have a nice party in the lovely environments of the peaceful forest where it's a little cooler than in the open spaces.

[43:31]

of India and after he had his party he fell asleep and his concubines wandered off and discovered this yogi sitting and you know they asked him how he was doing and he gave him some talks about his practice of patience and they really enjoyed meeting him and feeling his calm and patient loving presence And then the king came wondering where his concubines went. He felt like this yogi had robbed him of his concubines and got very angry. And then the concubines went to this king and said, no, no, he didn't attract us. We just wandered off because we thought you were asleep and didn't need us. He's really just a peaceful guy. Leave him alone. But the king... didn't listen to them and they were very unhappy to see that because they thought he was going to be mean to them and they went away and he was mean to this yogi and he went up to him and said, what's your practice, false yogi?

[44:36]

And he said, well, my practice is patience. He says, oh, your practice is patience, huh? So then he chopped off his hands. He said, now what's your practice? My practice is patience. And then he provoked the king. He said, you're trying to test my patience, but you don't know where to test it. And he said, well, where is it? He said, it's deep within me. Then the king cut off his arms. And then so on. And after he cut something off, he said, what's your practice now? And he said, my practice is patience. Oh, yeah? You fake? Cut off some more. And he cut off his ears and his nose. But he still could talk.

[45:39]

So he said, what's your practice now? My practice is patience. And then the king, and he said, but the king does not know where my patience lies. Where does your patience lie? He said, deep within my heart. So the king kicked him in the chest, knocked him over, and walked away. And then the general who was with the king went to the yogi and said, please don't get angry at the king. He said, it's okay if you get angry at the king, but do not destroy him. In this story, at that time in India, these yogis were respected as having great power and in Buddhism there's two kinds of false yogis or false ascetics. One kind is ones that use their power to manipulate the world and the other one are ones who don't really practice it sincerely. So this general was afraid that this yogi was going to use his power to hurt the king.

[46:42]

But the yogi said, I'm not angry at the king. I only wish the king well. I'm not going to hurt him. And he didn't say it, but he could have said, I'm not a false yogi. I am not a false practitioner of patience. I really am practicing it. And that's why I don't have ill will toward you or the king. I don't have ill will towards anybody. And no matter what you do to me, I will not have your will. So this is a story which supposedly the Buddha said about himself. Now there's some historic and there's some scholarly debate about this. Some people say, no, these stories were made up after the Buddha died and they're part of the Mahayana tradition where they made up stories about the Buddha in past lives which makes the Buddha sound like he's the product of this long evolution of compassion.

[47:45]

And that the Theravada school has adopted these stories because they're really good stories. but that some people think they aren't really from really ancient times, you know, at the time of the historical Buddha. So he didn't really tell all these stories. And I can see some merit in that story because some of these stories are really long. This is a really long story. I can hardly imagine the Buddha telling such a long, elaborate story about what an excellent yogi he was. But anyway, in this story he became amazingly, superhumanly, even like super divinely patient with assault, insult and physical assault. He was able to receive this and be present and not feel ill will towards the administer of these insults and these abuses. So it's hard for us to imagine how we could be that patient.

[48:59]

Or even to think about, I guess we could think about, would I want to be that patient? Not so much would I want somebody to cut me in pieces, but if somebody did cut me up in pieces, would I want to actually not have ill will towards them? So being a grandparent is nice because you can imagine one of your grandchildren accidentally cutting off your fingers. You know? just accidentally dropping a knife on your fingers and chopping them off. And you could imagine not having ill will towards this person. Certainly, it makes it easier if they didn't really want to cut your fingers off. But what about if they wanted to? Because my grandson did actually want to not cut my fingers off. Well, yeah, maybe that. But he definitely wanted to hit me with hammers. He wanted to hit me with hammers. And he likes to pinch me and stuff. He likes to pinch me. He said, does that hurt? No.

[50:02]

Does that hurt? No. Does that hurt? No. Does that hurt? Yes. Does that hurt? Yes. Does that hurt? Yes. Now you can stop. Does that hurt? He likes to see what will hurt me. And he likes to hurt me. And he wanted to hit me with hammers. I said, no, no, I don't want you to hit me with hammers. That's too much. And I also don't want you to get in the habit of hitting people with hammers. With my daughter, too, she used to do things to me. I said, I don't really mind you doing these things, but I don't want you to get in the habit because if you do it to other people, it might be a lot of trouble. So I think you should stop doing it to me. So people who you love and who kind of love you also might want to hit you with a hammer. Or just cut your fingers off just to see what that's like. What would happen if I slit those off and they fell off? I don't necessarily want it to hurt you, but I would kind of like to see how the knife works on the hand.

[51:06]

And if they did that, you might possibly be patient with them and not have any ill will towards them. It's possible that you wouldn't want them to have their fingers cut off, but you might say to them, which we often do, They say, can I cut your fingers off, granddaddy? I say, well, would you like me to cut yours off? No. He often asks me, can I do this to you? And I say, would you like me to do it to you? And sometimes he does do something to me, and I do the same thing to him, and I say, well, did you like it? And sometimes his mother says, if you do that to granddaddy, he might do it back to you, so you should check to see if you really want him, because he will never get angry at you, but he might do the same thing back to you. And he does it back really well. So you probably don't want to do that. I used to do that with him and like take my word for it. It's something you should take, be careful of. But when I, if I do it back to them, I maybe don't feel any ill will just like, oh, you like, you want to play this game? Okay, fine. I'm up for it.

[52:08]

Are you really? Do you really want to play this game with granddaddy? Do you want to punch granddaddy? You can, but he might do the same back to you. Do you want the back? No, no. I just want to hit you. I don't want you to hit me back. So we had these kind of talks, but I can actually be insulted and attacked by certain people, and it's not that difficult to have no ill will. And I wouldn't actually like to be able to be attacked by a wider range of people and actually have no ill will towards them. I would like that. I actually love that when that happens. One time in a class, someone said in class, you are a crappy teacher. No, no, he didn't say that. He said, at dinner the other night, I was talking to some people and I told him you were a crappy teacher. And when he said that, I, you know, I really found that I just chuckled. I was very, I laughed.

[53:09]

And I was very happy that I laughed. I thought, how wonderful that I'm laughing instead of feeling something else. I was so happy that I laughed I love it when people attack me and I laugh I love that so I would like to and not laugh there's two kinds of laugh one kind of laugh is you try to hurt me and that didn't really hurt that's one kind I like that a little bit but the other one is it did hurt you got to me and it's funny it's so funny that you're hurting me it's so funny and I I love that I just love it. And you maybe know this wonderful, this amazing story, it's called The Kite Runner. And the part of it which I kind of liked the best was a scene like this, where this guy, the hero of the novel, the author, the author's writing about himself,

[54:15]

And the things he tells us he did are like the most horrible things. The author did the most horrible thing. He had a friend who loved him so perfectly. And his friend got raped. Actually, his brother got who he didn't know was his brother, got raped by some other boys, and he stood by and let it happen. And that brother would have given his life to protect him from anything. And he knew that, and he let that happen. And when I saw that, I just thought, oh, don't do that. Don't let them hurt your brother. Don't be a coward. It was so terrible that he let... his most beloved friend be abused and didn't do anything. I just thought, that's like the worst thing I ever... The boys beating him up, that was terrible.

[55:23]

But for him to let it happen, given the love that he received from me, I just thought that was like the perfect, most horrible thing. And he thought so too. That's why he wrote it. And he wanted to get punished for that, and he didn't. And then, many years later, he got in a situation where the guy who brutalized his friend was in a position of power and brutalized him and was beating him up within an inch of his life. He's practically dead. And he started laughing. And he was laughing because he was being beaten within an inch of his life. And this is what he'd been yearning for all these years. And now he's finally getting it. And he finally realized, I'm getting what I always wanted for betraying my most beloved friend.

[56:28]

I'm finally getting it. How funny that is. That when you're being beaten to a pulp, this is what you've been asking for. And when he laughed, that saved his life because the guy just stopped still, couldn't understand what was going on. And he managed to get away. But it was the laughter that stopped the guy from beating him. He didn't have ill will towards that guy. He realized the guy was actually helping him, saving him by doing what he knew he needed namely to get the retribution, the consequences of his terrible betrayal of his best friend. So anyway, when we're abused, really, we should say thank you. We should say thank you. We should say welcome. We should say thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Not because we like it, we don't like it. And not because we hate it.

[57:29]

We should say, thank you, so we won't hate it. And we should practice patience if we wish to benefit all beings and liberate all beings. We have to learn this. And of course, we can hardly believe we'll be able to. But actually, it's possible that you would kind of get the joke when somebody's insulting you, that this is actually what you're asking for so that you can practice patience. So that you can become Buddha. We need this kind of stuff. But you don't have to go looking for it. Pardon? Call A&T&T? Call A&T&T? I missed that. Right. Right. Nobody else.

[58:33]

No, no. I used to say, before that, before trying to call AT&T about your bill, before those problems were occurring, there was another situation where you'd call AT&T. The information used to be possible to actually, you could actually call information for less than a king's ransom. So I used to call her information or something to try to get a telephone number or whatever. So back in those days, I sometimes said, you know, if you told me I had cancer today, I think I might be able to say, okay. I might not get depressed. I think more likely for me, the thing that gets me is to call the operator and have her be rude. It's like, wait a minute, they're not supposed to be rude. But when somebody tells you you have cancer, you don't say, wait a minute, I'm not supposed to have cancer. I mean, you might, but you might say, oh, I've been waiting for this. I thought this was going to happen. Here it comes. Okay, here's the big one. I've been ready for this. But when the little one comes, you think, oh, the little one. I don't need this little one.

[59:33]

So sometimes people commit suicide over not being able to get through to AT&T. No, it's not. I do cry. Are you AT&T? Are you? No, but are you AT&T? Ah, yeah. Again, she didn't get my joke. I asked her if she was AT&T. She didn't get my joke. The joke is, we think AT&T is not us. The joke is, The joke is, the joke is, AT&T, here's the joke, AT&T is not you. That's the joke. AT&T is not you. Get it? Oh, yeah, right. AT&T is not me, right. Ha, ha, ha. I get it. That's a joke. That's a joke that AT&T is not me.

[60:38]

And I get it. See, for a long time, I thought AT&T was me, but that was a joke, and I fell for it for many years. For many years, I thought, you know, I thought Kate was not me. And finally, I got the joke. I got the joke. Kate's not me. I got the joke. The joke that she's not me. Reality is she is me. The joke is she's not. The reality is AT&T is you. The joke is AT&T is not you. And when you call them and what they do to you is not you. That's not you. And you don't get it. But when you get it, when you laugh, you got the joke. It's a joke we're telling on ourselves all the time about everything pretty much. All these things are not me. These people are not me. AT&T is not me. This insult is not me. The king is not me. Pain is not me.

[61:39]

That's the joke. And sometimes we get it and we laugh. Because we get it. Oh, I get it. It is me. This guy who's beating me up is me. He's what I've been asking for all along. But I didn't get the joke. But you're getting close to get the joke, the AT&T joke. But you sort of have to call AT&T to get it. You can't just sort of think it. You have to call in for them to sort of really, what do you call it, rub it in that Rub the joke in. We're not you. We're not you. We're not going to talk to you either. Until you get it. Yeah, you're doing something wrong. I said, I don't know whether you're going to be able to fix it.

[62:44]

It's under 40 feet of snow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No problem. Yeah. You're doing something wrong. And I came out with a big machine that moved 40 feet of snow against a little box of ice and wine. Yeah. I was shocked. Pardon? I was shocked. Did you think you were shocked? Yeah. I thought... Yes, Travis. Not necessarily. That is often the case. That is often the case, but I'm saying something slightly different. I'm saying that you think that others are not you. That's what I'm talking about. That you think others...

[63:45]

That their problems are not you. Which is not unrelated to what you said. But you can see somebody else who's doing something that you feel okay about doing in yourself, but you still think it's not you. and you don't get the joke. That's a joke. It's a joke that your mind is playing. Our minds are jokesters. They play this joke. The mind shows itself something and tells itself that what it's showing itself is not it. Like I show myself, I show Reb, Reb, and then I say, that's not you. But that would include that I if I see something I don't like, I think the thing I don't like is not me. But also if I see something is not me and I like it, that's the same joke. And you could say, well, are the things you see in other people things you like in yourself?

[64:50]

Maybe. But I'm saying something more fundamental, is that in either case, if you think it's not you, that's a joke your mind's playing on yourself. Our minds are tricksters. They do that trick on themselves. And there's various reasons for, you know, our theories for why our mind does that. But that's what I'm talking about. That is a basic joke, which is also a basic affliction. Because that joke, if you believe it, is painful. That's a delusion. It's a delusion that I'm separate from you. It's a delusion that you're separate from me. It's a delusion that my mind says, this thing you're seeing, which I'm presenting to you, or which I'm presenting to myself, is not me. Can you say something?

[65:55]

Is it okay, Travis, if she said something? Are you okay if we go on to her now? Okay, yes. No, I didn't think of it in those terms that I was sort of on the right track in empathizing, feeling like I could be that person. I wasn't thinking in my head, oh, I'm that person. I think there was a shift because at one time I was impatient. Empathy is definitely moving in the direction of realizing that I could be that person on the other side of the line. I was that person. Thinking that you could be that person is a step in the direction of I am that person. Open to the possibility that this person out there is you is a good warm-up for that person is me. Yeah, so empathy is definitely part of moving towards this wisdom Empathy is part of... These are compassion practices.

[66:58]

Ethics, giving, and patience are compassion practices. And empathy is included in ethics, giving, and patience. Empathy is in there. In all of them. And they get you ready to move into wisdom where you realize, oh, the others, others are really who I am. Matter of fact, literally, wisdom sees... that we are nothing in addition to others. We are just simply this other. We're the total of all other, each of us. And each of us is the total of a different other. Like, I'm the total of everything that's not Reb, but you aren't. You're the total of everything that's not Angela. You're the total of everything that's not... Don't tell me. Don't tell me. Don't tell me. Huh? Clue. You have a clue?

[67:59]

Okay, a clue. Ross. Ross? Flagmaker. What? Flagmaker. Flagmaker. Betsy. Betsy. So you're the sum total of everything that's not Betsy Ross. So we're each our own other. So each of you have your unique other. But you're not following that? Well, we have five minutes. You are your children. They're other than you. You're your husband. You're your father. You're your mother. You're me. You're Deirdre. You're Susan. You're Betsy. You're Angela. You're the sky. You're the moon. All that stuff is other than you and all that is what makes you.

[69:01]

And the one thing that you're not is Jessica. Who you think you are is not you too. That's just your thought. You're that too. Part of what you are is who you think you are. But who you think you are isn't you. Who you think you are isn't your toenails. But your toenails are you. But more than just your toenails. Your skin, your history, all your past thoughts, all that which is other than you makes you. But not all those things make me. Because one thing that makes me that doesn't make you is Jessica. Jessica makes me, but Jessica doesn't make you. Jessica doesn't make Jessica. Jessica is the sum total of all the things that aren't Jessica. Where did it play in? That topic is a bit much to bring up with only two minutes left.

[70:01]

But we can take care of the thing here, the sum total of the others, but we can't do that one yet. We have to do that later. But that is related. That fits in very nicely with wisdom. Don't worry. But I'm just saying basically... We think that others are not us and others are other, but they are us. And that's who we truly are, is others. Our true character is called other dependent. Our true other dependent character is our basic character. We are not produced by ourselves. That's our basic character. But we are produced, and we're produced by others, other things, other phenomena. And they all too are produced not by themselves but by others. They are not self-produced. They have the character of being produced by others and they also have the character of having absence.

[71:10]

They have an absence or a lack of self-production. Each of us lacks self-production and each of us is other-dependent. But all the other people who our other dependent, we depend on them. They are who we really are. And we tend to think we're something in addition to what we depend on. As I often do, I draw a circle of the universe, and I say, here's the universe, and people think, yeah, that's the universe, and there's one thing more besides the universe. And everybody thinks it's themselves. You don't think I'm in addition to the universe. You don't think Susan's in addition to the universe, but Susan does. You know? So I draw a circle with a little bump on top. We all think there's a little bit of, there's one little thing added onto the universe. But there's not. There's just the universe, and that totally accounts for us. We're nothing in addition to the entire universe.

[72:12]

But we think we are. It's silly, but we do. And the whole universe means, for you, the whole universe that makes you. But you're not something in addition to that. You're all those other conditions that make you. In other words, you are the others. The whole world is who you really are. And we can have another conversation about free will later, okay? Now, I don't know, but I think there might be a snack out there for you. chocolate maybe? they make you pay for chocolate it's an additional income item does anybody have any chocolate for Betsy? but they are going to give food just no chocolate but who knows maybe now the word's out maybe they'll put chocolate out for us

[73:17]

So you have a two-hour break. Please enjoy the fog.

[73:27]

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