I was recently informed, and so I see now that a group of Buddhist monks has been walking from Texas intending to go all the way to Washington, D.C. And these monks are walking for peace and unity in this country with so much violence and cruelty and disunity. They're walking for peace and unity. They're hoping to promote compassion and mindfulness. Welcome, Breck. And I heard that they're in Virginia now, so they're walking through snowstorms in Virginia now, I hear.

[01:10]

And probably they might be able to reach Washington by the day before our next one-day sitting. Welcome, Norbert. So this assembly, here we have assembly too, a large group of people who are gathered, I think, also for the sake of peace and compassion and mindfulness and awakening, true awakening in this world of confusion and ignorance. We're here for the sake of awakening. I imagine you can join that aspiration, that motivation for gathering together. Welcome Jim.

[02:14]

May I dedicate this great assembly, may I dedicate this meeting to peace and love and kindness and awakening. May I make that dedication. And you're welcome to join in dedicating the meeting for that purpose. So as most of you know, we have been sojourning in the great flower adornment scripture for more than two and a half years. February 17th at No Abode, we brought up the 16th book of the Great Scripture.

[03:43]

And we managed to go through the 16th book, which is only two pages long, in one meeting. And that book is about practice. It's about bodhisattva practice. And the name of the book is Practice. But in particular, the bodhisattva practice, the practice which is devoted to realizing awakening for the benefit of all beings. So you can check that out, that talk on chapter 16. And also in that chapter, we related the teaching of the scripture to a Zen story, which is one of our traditional applications of the teaching of chapter 16 about practice, about what practice is.

[04:57]

So it's a nice little rendition of chapter 16 in relationship to Zen. And also... I listened to the talk to try to give a name to it. And while I was listening to it, I heard myself witnessing and acknowledging all the suffering and cruelty that is appearing in this world. And as I listened, I noticed that there was a lot of silence in the talk. So I started off by saying, I started out by saying, I'm looking for a word to express and so on, to express my horror, my pain in this world.

[06:03]

So I notice there's lots of space in the talk We need lots of space in order to open to all this cruelty and suffering in this world. And it's available. We're here for peace in a world that really needs us to be here for peace. the world is calling us for compassion the world is calling us to aspire to awakening so looking at this scripture and

[07:12]

Chapter 16 about practice and chapter 17 is the title of chapter 17 which I'm starting to bring up to you is the merit and virtue of the first arising of the aspiration of the intention of the commitment to awakening. That's the name of the chapter. The virtue and merit of the first arising of the wish to realize awakening. That's the title. This wish to realize Buddhahood in this world and I was thinking about the Buddha I imagine the Buddha I'm I pay homage to is a Buddha who respects all life a Buddha who loves all beings not like or dislike all beings

[08:42]

but loves them completely with compassion and wisdom. Bodhisattvas are those who wish to be able to respect and be kind to every single living being. They wish to learn how to become that unlimitedly loving. They aspire to it, even though they also know, as they mature, they know, they do not know what that love is, what that compassion is, what that practice is. But they still aspire to take care of something that is too great to be grasped by our poor little human consciousness. But in our poor little human consciousness, there can still arise

[09:44]

a wish to learn how to care completely for every living being. When I welcomed you to this assembly, for each person I welcomed, I questioned myself. Do I love this person? Do I cherish this person? Do I respect this person? Am I willing to give my life for this person? I ask myself that as I call your names and welcome you. I want to learn how to love all of you completely. And some people might say, well, it's easy to love the people in this assembly. What about those other people? If they come, I'll also, when I call their name, I'll ask myself the same question.

[10:50]

And also this great scripture starts with a huge chapter which notes 40 categories of beings and in each category of beings are a very large number of beings and in each category there's 10 leaders There's 10 leaders in each of the 40 categories. And today I noticed that I didn't remember that one of the categories of the assembly, the great assembly of the scripture, one of the categories I didn't notice was people who are in prison. In my heart, I want to add the people who are in prison and I want to add the leaders the leaders of the people in prison I imagine that in prison there are bodhisattvas there are beings now we know there are beings who are in prison who were falsely convicted of crimes and some of those beings

[12:15]

in the prison who did not commit the crimes that they were sent there for I imagine that some of them may be bodhisattvas who are in prison teaching compassion to the other prisoners loving the other prisoners if I was thrown into prison right now it might be really difficult when I meet people to say do I want to be compassionate to this person? It might be difficult for me to ask the question. But that's the question I want to ask with whoever I meet. Am I here for this person? Is my life for this person? I want to learn how to be that way. In other words, I want to learn to be Buddha.

[13:17]

So I ask you, do you wish, do you wish to realize awakening so that you can be that devoted to all beings like a Buddha? I invite you to keep looking inside to see if you wish to realize a welcoming. Because the world is calling to us to do so. At the end of... Now I'm bringing up chapter 17. At the end of chapter 15, in the last...

[14:31]

few lines of verse of chapter 15, the Bodhisattva Dharma wisdom says, the Buddhas of all places and times with various powers of elucidation illustrate the mind first bent on awakening. That's at the end of chapter 15. And then the Bodhisattva says, the virtues of this aspiration for awakening cannot be measured. Then at the end of chapter 16, the verse says, at the time of their first determination for Bodhi, at the time of their first aspiration to awakening, they will immediately attain perfect awakening.

[15:37]

At the first time one aspires to true awakening, you immediately attain complete perfect awakening. At the time of first bringing forth the mind, right then the bodhisattvas obtain unsurpassed complete perfect awakening. So I note here a... kind of irony of this sutra and in some sense irony of all Buddhist sutras especially the Mahayana there's a lot of talk about attaining awakening just now having aroused the mind of awakening the aspiration to realize it

[16:57]

Bodhisattvas are able to know the first attainment of true awakening. Bodhisattvas obtain, Bodhisattvas attain, Anyuttara Samyaksam Bodhi by means of the mind aspiring to awakening. Because Bodhisattvas set their minds on Anyuttara Samyaksam Bodhi, they will attain Anyuttara Samyaksam Bodhi. Samyak Sambodhi. Attainment, attainment, attainment. And by the way, the sutra also teaches that there is nothing to attain. Since there's nothing to attain, we aspire to attain Buddhahood. We aspire to attain the unattainable. Because the unattainable is what we're really being asked to realize.

[18:04]

So maybe just a little, put our toe into the water of chapter 17. Are you ready for chapter 17 a little bit? Just a little bit? Okay, here it is. In English. It was originally in Sanskrit and then Chinese and probably, I don't know, and then Korean and Japanese, and now it's in English. Chapter 17. The name of the chapter is, again, the merit and virtue of the first aspiration, the first thought to attain awakening. Then the chapter starts with the supreme ruler of all the gods and goddesses, the supreme ruler of the heavens, named Indra, said to the bodhisattva, Dharma wisdom,

[19:23]

And this Bodhisattva has been the teacher of the previous several chapters. The teacher, the Bodhisattva teacher, Dharma wisdom, is being addressed by the supreme ruler of the heavens. And the supreme ruler says to the great Bodhisattva, Child of Buddha. Child of Buddha. exclamation point. What is the measure? What is the extent of the merit and virtue attained by the bodhisattva first bringing forth the mind of awakening? And without further ado, let me tell you But the answer is that the virtue and merit of this bringing forth of the mind is immeasurable.

[20:35]

I'm saying that. Sutra doesn't say that. I'm sort of giving you the... I'm spoiling the sutra. The merit, the measure of this... of the virtue and merit is immeasurable. We're aspiring something that has virtue and merit, which is immeasurable. So then the bodhisattva does a meditation on the immeasurable reality of the bodhi mind. And the way he does it is he starts by basically saying, suppose or imagine that somebody, that someone were to give all comforts to all suffering beings for eons.

[21:55]

course that would be, of course it's great to give comforts to one being, to give some comfort to one being. Now imagine now someone giving all comforts to all suffering beings. That's the, suppose that. And then the Bodhisattva says, the merit of that person making these offerings, making these gifts of comfort to all suffering beings, would that be great? and the sovereign of the heavens says it would be so great it would be so great if we gave comforts to all beings it would be so great that only a Buddha would know how great it is

[23:01]

It would be so great for us to give comforts to one person, but to give all comforts to all beings, of course, it would be so great that only a Buddha would know us how great it is. That's what the sovereign of the heavens said to the question, how great would it be? Would it be great? He didn't say, yes, it would be great. He said only a Buddha would know how great it is. Okay? That kind of makes sense to me. And then he goes on to say, this merit, which only a Buddha knows, this merit is basically not one hundredth of the merit of the bodhisattva, of a being aspiring to awakening. And then it goes to

[24:06]

nor one thousandth nor one billionth nor one and so on it goes on and on to basically saying this merit which is so great only a Buddha knows it is infinitely doesn't take of it doesn't even get an infinite part of the merit of the aspiration for awakening okay And then the bodhisattva dharma wisdom goes on and says, setting aside that example, did you remember that example? That's one, that's pretty easy to remember, that one example. Setting that one aside, now imagine someone, and then they talk about some other really meritorious thing. And then the conclusion of this immensely meritorious activity.

[25:09]

The question is, would that be great? And the answer is, only a Buddha knows how great that is. And again, this immensely meritorious activity isn't even one billionth of the merit and so on. Over and over, it happens. And I'm looking around. I read that. That book was published in 1974, I think. Anyway, I don't know. Anyway, quite a long time ago, I read that sutra in English. And in this section where he's making these comparisons for these great compassionate activities and comparing them to the thought of aspiring to Buddha, I wrote in the margin, I can't stand reading this anymore. It's just too much. Give me a break. But then I kept reading after I vented my difficulty in reading all these examples of meritorious deeds that are not even any fraction of the merit of this thought.

[26:27]

And this thought is a thought which can arise in your mind. in your ordinary human mind, this thought can arise. What's the thought? The thought is, I aspire to be able to love all beings with great awakening. That thought can arise. And if it does arise, the first time it arises, it is immeasurably meritorious. And if it does arise, Then we have the sutra telling you how to take care of it. Because even though it arises in your mind, it's just a thought. It's just a thought. Which is immeasurably meritorious. And it can be lost. If you're thrown into prison, you can forget it. If someone slaps you in the face, or if someone slaps somebody else in the face, you can forget this thought.

[27:30]

This inconceivably wonderful thought. However, that's not the end of the story because you can go back again and look and find it. So I am encouraging you and me to keep looking and seeing how that thought's arising. And if it does arise, great, take care of it. And then keep asking, though, because it can arise again and [...] again. We have to keep... coming back and looking for the wish to be something which we don't know anything about. We don't know anything about loving all beings, but we still can aspire to it. We don't know anything about being able to help everybody, but we can aspire to it. It can happen. Check it out, please. See if it's there. And if it's not,

[28:33]

Look again. And again. And if it is? Celebrate. Celebrate. This is the great moment in the bodhisattva's career when they find this mind, this thought, this aspiration. So that's the beginning of the chapter on the merit and virtue of going through all these examples. of meritorious things which don't reach the merit of this simple thought to attain awakening. So this is my little introduction to chapter 17 of the Flower Adornment Scripture. So we have 90 people here.

[29:36]

It's just a lovely assembly of 90 people. And you are one of them. There's quite a bit more in this chapter. This is just the introduction of pointing out how immeasurable the merit is. And then it goes on. So we'll probably be on this chapter for a little while. And you're welcome to come and join in the meditation on this mind of awakening, the mind of Zen. OK, so before more people leave, Is there anything you'd like to offer to the Great Assembly? You're welcome to do so. Good morning.

[31:00]

Good morning. So when you asked that question in the beginning, you know, do you aspire to love all beings in order to become Buddha? The first thing that came up for me was, is there any other way? And that was both, I guess, a wish to cop out and a statement that how could there be any other way? And... So I just wonder if you could comment on that. Well, you can start trying to realize Buddhahood without loving everybody. You can start with loving somebody. Start with loving one person. That's a start. But at the point of reaching Buddhahood, you are able to love everyone. Buddha is able to love everyone. Buddha is able to cherish every life. and be devoted to every life and give herself to every life and you approach that by giving your life to one and then another and being kind to yourself being compassionate to yourself if you don't feel ready to give love to somebody then give love to yourself who is not able to give love to this person or this animal or this plant that is the path

[32:27]

but you don't have to be 100% at the beginning. However, this thought of awakening, when that arises, that can arise before you have learned how to love all beings. And when that thought of awakening arises, while you're trying to learn how to love beings, that thought, at that moment, you know for the first time a true awakening. And that true awakening will help you learn how to be totally loving and totally patient and totally respectful and totally generous and totally careful of all life. It almost seems to me like you talking about it makes the thought, you know... creates the thought in our minds as well as in yours. It's kind of... One of the ways it happens is somebody talking to you about it. And you're listening. Like, oh yeah, right, I want that.

[33:31]

I want that ungraspable thing. And now I see that there's nothing to attain in wanting it. Here's the other thing I wanted to say. To say is it just seems like absolute generosity. Absolute generosity. And that's something to learn. And absolute generosity means also that generosity can look different ways. Like, for example, if someone asked you for poison, you might be generous and give them some water instead. I don't have any poison... Or I'm not going to give you poison. I'm attached to my poison. I'm keeping it for myself. But I will give you water, which I think is more appropriate for you. I'm not going to give you the keys to the car because you don't know how to drive. But I will give you driving lessons. I'm not going to give you any more of this.

[34:35]

You've had too much. but I will give you my love and I'll give you anything else that's appropriate. So always giving, but what it looks like is infinitely varied. Nobody really knows what it looks like, this infinite generosity. But we know some other kinds of generosity and they're good too. Thank you very much. You're welcome. That's good. Hello, Tenshin Roshi. Hello, Great Assembly. I have a confession. I'm experiencing fear around the unattainable. I feel like I'm on a threshold.

[35:40]

And I feel that my mind... is somewhat imprisoned. And it sounds strange, but I'm struggling with allowing that imprisonment and practicing compassion towards it. Yet, I do want to love all beings. You do. I do. And also, you want to love... I think you want to love the being who is feeling fear. Yes. I want to be kind to Angela when she feels fear. Right. Right. What... What... I...

[36:47]

I hesitate to say this because I wish to be here and now practicing compassion with what I'm feeling, but the unattainable, what if? What will happen to Angela? That thought arises. For example, that thought just arose. You told me about that thought, and it arose in my mind, but I wasn't afraid. But I could have been afraid. I could have been afraid. What will happen to Angela? But if I was afraid, my aspiration is to be kind to my fear of this unattainable, ungraspable, vast openness of being. Many people are afraid of that, and they keep very busy to push it away, even though it's always there. The unattainable... One of the things about the unattainable is you can't get away from it.

[37:49]

You can't get closer to it. You can't get farther from it. You can't attain closeness or distance from the unattainable. And so many people do not want to face that, do not want to be near that. Okay. Understood. But you don't have to be afraid of it. But if you are, then the unattainable is supporting you to be kind to your fear. The unattainable is supporting me to be kind to my fear. The unattainable compassion of the Buddhas. The Buddhas who are compassionate have nothing to attain. And they are supporting you to be kind to your fear. Am I up?

[38:59]

There you are. Up. Morning. Good morning. Okay. So I come all the time to opportunities to be with you. And I really seem to want your teaching. And I also... want to push up against you, you know, and challenge. So, that aspiration to love all beings, I think most of us in these little squares have just, could just like barely at least say, yes, I got, I recognize that. And then, the Buddha and you teach differently to different people.

[40:01]

You know, you help different people in different ways. So when I'm facing with, let's just imagine that love for all beings is actually present. When I'm present with different people, like, for example, armed, cruel people who are hurting defenseless people, I'll probably behave differently with them to help them than I would with, like, I don't know, some people on my screen right now. Or a little baby. Or, yeah. Some of those people are killing and abusing little babies. So how important do you think it is to be out on the streets right now? What do you think about being out in the streets, risking whatever, trying to protect, standing up to people, thuds with guns and so on, pressuring the people with power in the government to stop arming Israel, all of those things.

[41:12]

How important is that? You just are instructing us beautifully about and praying for love and peace as if that were a state. to be realized by us. It is, actually. What about the differentiation of our behavior and our struggle? You know what? Luther King, in one of his greatest writings, a letter from Birmingham jail, said, no, no patience. Don't advise patience. That is not what's needed right now. So what do you think, Reb? How about our activity in the world right now? Well... For example, just that last example, that I want to respect Martin Luther King. If he or you say no patience, if somebody says no patience, then I want to respect that person who says no patience. But I think a lot of times when people say no patience, it's not that clear what they mean by that.

[42:18]

Because it seems like Martin Luther King practiced patience a lot. Correct. He was a great practitioner of patience. So when he's saying in that particular case, no patience, maybe what he means is let's get up and take a walk. So if somebody says don't practice the Buddha way, you know, I want to respect them. And some of the people who say don't practice the Buddha way have been Buddhist teachers. Some Buddhist teachers say, don't practice the Buddha way. You know, just take your medicine or be kind to this person. Forget about the Buddha way. So I really appreciate and I want to appreciate everybody who says, don't practice patience. And I also want to appreciate everybody who says, let's practice patience. But I kind of feel like if I go to a demonstration and I meet, I don't know who, armed government agents, I feel that if I'm practicing patience, my presence there will be more beneficial.

[43:31]

So if I do go to a demonstration opposing some government activities, opposing politics, or non-government activities of cruelty, corporate activities, if I stand up and say, I oppose this, I question this, I want you to stop, I feel that my offering of myself will be more beneficial if I practice respect, generosity, and patience. So whatever I'm doing, like we're at this meeting, the other people are walking to it. to Washington DC, the people in Minnesota, the people in Gaza. We're all doing this, and these practices help us to do it in a more beneficial way. The practices do not, chapter 16, does not say that going to demonstrations is the practice. And it does not say not going, it doesn't say, to say that the practice is this misses the point.

[44:39]

That's what chapter 16 says. So it's not this meeting, it's not that meeting, it's not this, it's not that. It is, no matter what you're doing, to realize the truth. And so what's the practice of the bodhisattva under these circumstances? We don't say it's this, but we do say there is a practice and we want to practice it. To say it's this misses the point. That's chapter 16. So the bodhisattvas could practice at a demonstration. They could also practice at a prison. They can also practice at an assembly like this. So the question is, what is the practice? Well, I hear you. I also, I keep wanting to hear... about the importance of action in the world to save beings in very specific ways.

[45:45]

But maybe you're not going to say that. Maybe you're going to stick to the absolutely deepest fundamental practice and let the world take care of itself. For example, I told you the example of I went to San Quentin. I went to San Quentin to be with the prisoners in San Quentin. I spent time talking to them. But I'm not saying that's the practice, I'm just saying I went to San Quentin. It's like I went to the kitchen. So wherever I go, whether it's inside or outside of San Quentin, or in the kitchen, I want to do the practice. But I'm not here to say, you should go to San Quentin, you should go inside, you should stand outside. I'm not here to tell you what to do, I'm just saying, no matter what specific thing you're doing, What's the practice? Okay. And I did go into San Quentin a number of times. I also stood outside of San Quentin in a demonstration.

[46:48]

You might have been there, organized by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, to, you could say, demonstrate, you could say oppose, you could say witness the potential execution of somebody. And I went there and I tried to practice there. I tried to wish beings well. And, as I mentioned, the organizer said to me, you know, I don't think this is going to work. In other words, I don't think this is going to stop the execution. And I said, I don't know. But I really felt good about what we're doing here right now. I really felt good about it. It was respectful. We weren't hating the guards. We weren't hating the governor. We weren't hating... the person who was going to be executed. We weren't hating the warden. We were wishing beings well and we're wishing people well. That's what we were doing outside San Quentin, in the rain. But I'm not saying you should do this or that.

[47:51]

But on a given situation, I might say, let's do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. So I do do things sometimes. But I don't say that That is the practice. And that makes what I do more beneficial. Okay. Thank you for your continued coming to be with me. Good morning, Reb. Good morning, Gail. Good morning, Great Assembly. I have a variety of practices that I try to engage in to respond to the conditions of the world. I often protest on Ocean Beach.

[48:52]

We make human signs in response to current events, and I missed one of those this morning to be here with you. But I wanted to ask you about a daily prayer practice I have because it's been surprising and confusing me lately. After I meditate, I say the meta prayer. So, may I be filled with loving kindness, may you, may all beings. And when I get to all beings, I really concentrate on Well, I try to hold everyone. I try to hold all beings in my consciousness, and that includes the politicians and the ICE agents. It includes Trump. It includes everyone. And what I imagine, I wish for them to awaken because I think because I believe that if they awaken,

[49:59]

they would not commit these acts of violence. And when I wish that, I love them. I actually feel spontaneous love for Trump and for the ICE agents. But it sort of begins with that idea that if they awaken, they won't hurt. So I feel like I'm not loving them for who they are. I'm loving them for who they could be, which is kind of trying to change them. I don't love people for who they are. I love them because I think loving them is beneficial, is appropriate. I love them because that's what they're asking from me. But it isn't like because of the way they are I'm doing it. Because if there's some other way, I would also want to do it. So it's not who they are. It's that they're asking me for compassion. That's why I'm giving it. And I want to give it. That's why I'm giving it. Not because they're this way or that way.

[51:00]

Right. Or you could say I love them for who they are. In other words, I love them for their Buddhahood. But it's more like it's not about the person, it's about the practice. So then the practice doesn't stop when the person changes. Yes. Like from a nice person to a I'm not a nice person. The practice applies to both people. It changes, but it's the same practice. Okay. Thank you. That makes sense. And then I just take it on faith that me sitting on my cushion having this warmth of compassion helps the world somehow. Then it becomes faith. Yeah, that's okay. But... I wouldn't necessarily have faith that it's beneficial. I would have faith that I want to do this, that this is what I want to do.

[52:05]

And I would have faith in questioning what I'm doing. I trust questioning sitting and wishing people well. So I'm wishing you well right now. I want you to be well. But I wonder what the practice is. And I have faith that questioning my loving kindness for you is that I have faith in that practice. I have faith in loving kindness, and I have faith in questioning it. So your... Really loving kindness is... There's no such thing that you can get a hold of. But you can give yourself to it. But what is it? Yeah, I feel like what you're doing is helping me... Not become attached to a fixed idea. No. Because that will... Being attached to fixed ideas will promote cruelty. If you want to be cruel, be attached to cruelty.

[53:08]

If you want to practice loving kindness, practice it wholeheartedly, which means without attachment to a fixed idea of what it is. To say that loving kindness is this misses the point. Thank you. Very helpful. Good morning. Good morning. I was a little confused because I thought Sonja was ahead of me. Me too, but I lowered my hand too fast. Okay. I had a wonderful discussion with Dharma friends yesterday on a topic, a very related topic of, you know, being active for, um,

[54:23]

to be active for the issues we have and wanting to help people. And somehow what you said today and this morning, this thought came that it might be not so much the point of what I do, but my intention of how I do it. Do I do it with aggression and hate? What do I do with a loving heart? That might be the main point of the action. And the benefit of the action might be much better if my intention is another one than, you know, just this has to end or this has to, you're evil or whatever I do. Did I hear you right there? Pardon?

[55:25]

Did I hear you right there? Me in a good way, yes. Not beyond right and wrong. You heard me well. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you very much. I don't know if I can say everything that occurred to me while listening to you, but I want to try. And also something off of what Linda brought up. So it seems to me as I was feeling into this vast,

[56:29]

that the sutra was offering through you is that it seemed like maybe some of the first things I needed to realize is, number one, that everything changes and is impermanent and that I am empty of a separate self from everything and that I'm a space that shows up that practice occurs. Not a sonya or a self, but I contain a space which shows up and the practice comes to be either through thought or action. So it seemed as if I wasn't protecting this self or trying to get anything that I could just show up. And the patience I thought of was the patient acceptance of the Dharma that fails to be produced in my lifetime. Like, if I show up, it doesn't mean it's going to change, but this space shows up with the teaching.

[57:41]

So I think if I don't try to change something but show up, maybe the space itself takes care of itself. And then the last thing I want to say is we just had the Holocaust Remembrance Day. And we put out, I participated in putting out a table, and one of the things that I added of the names was all of the nuns, some of the nuns and the priests that gave themselves to the camps. They volunteered to go to the camps to be there for people. I think they weren't a self showing up. They were a practice showing up. Could you bring that together? Could you help me bring that together? It sounds like a jeweled necklace. How do you mean?

[58:46]

All those things are little jewels that you just gave. And so you could string them all together and put them around your neck and remember them. And there's a self-remembering that. I don't think self remembers anything. But in the consciousness where there's a self, if there's a self in the consciousness, the ordinary self-centered consciousness, there's a self there. And in that space there can be remembering of these meditations that you just brought up. But the self isn't doing the remembering. That's a delusion. So people do think that they are doing their remembering rather than I'm in the space where remembering is occurring. So it helps me if I think of myself as a space than a self.

[59:53]

The thought that you're mostly space, that you're basically space, or that you're basically emptiness, that thought might be very helpful to you. That might relieve suffering and distress for all beings. It worked for Avalokiteshvara. That's what the Heart Sutra says. She remembered that she was emptiness. She saw that she was emptiness. She remembered it, she studied it, which means she was studying the deep Prajnaparamita. So for Avalokiteshvara, it was very beneficial for her to meditate on her being emptiness, about her feelings being emptiness, her thoughts being emptiness, her body being emptiness.

[60:57]

her emotions being emptiness, her consciousness being... She was meditating on that, and that relieves suffering and distress. But you could also say, my thoughts are space, my feelings are space, my body is space. And as we know, modern physics has told us that our bodies are empty. 99.9999% face space. We are mostly space in reality. We don't think so, but our thoughts are also mostly space. Maybe moving through practice moves through space, not I move through space. Practice moves through space and also practice is space. And practice is remembering that practice is space. Again, to say that practice is this misses the point.

[62:03]

There can be remembrance of to say that it's this misses the point. There can be remembering of that. And I don't have to do it and you don't have to do it, but together there can be remembering of it. And right now there's remembering. But I'm not doing it and you're not doing it, but we're here. We're here in the place of mindfulness, of Avalokiteshvara's practice. Well, I don't know if I'm remembering, but I'm being reminded. I wouldn't be able to remind you if you weren't here. You're responsible of the reminding. That's true. Hello, great assembly.

[63:14]

Hello, Luca. The sense of separateness to me is that evil, that sense of isolation. May I say that Albert Einstein says that the basic human evil is the idea of a separate self. Compassion is not of another, but compassion is non-separateness. There's different types of compassion, but the fully developed one is there's no object. Right. But the first kind of compassion is called sentimental compassion, which is compassion towards somebody other than someone. or even towards self.

[64:15]

But towards some object is the first kind of compassion. That's how children learn about compassion. Buddha's compassion has no objects. It's just being together with all suffering. You mentioned benefits before. And all benefits are always being offered by all beings. sentient and insentient. At all times. At all times. But in our separateness, we can't see. Believing our separateness, we are blind. When we're blind, we believe that we're separate. The idea comes up, and underneath the idea of separateness is a subliminal subscript which says, this idea is true. And so we fall for it. Now, in the Buddhist teaching, we're putting a superscript above the idea of separateness and saying, don't believe this.

[65:23]

Watch out for this. This is a delusion. This is a delusion of separation. Be careful. You might slip into this. So when we struggle about what to do, The sense of being together with all beings without there being separate beings is just being together is that awareness that is completely compassionate. Yeah. And that awareness will help us be present with the struggle. Thank you. You're welcome. Good morning.

[66:40]

Good evening, everybody. It's dark where I am. So for us, it's good evening. I wanted to share a story that seems to relate in a way what you were talking about today. Last week, I was at a session in Felsentor. And we did a well-being ceremony. And one of the names was an extreme right-wing politician name. And when I read it on the altar, when everybody read it on the altar, everybody was in the first moment like, wow. And in the second moment, It turned out to be, of course, that it's not because this person has a cold, but because this person should be, or we wanted to free it from suffering.

[67:53]

And it turned out to be such a, just a right and good gesture in this well-being ceremony that I felt that out of this wish for the person to be free of suffering could come any practice, like going to a demonstration or not going to a demonstration or saying, no, please stop, I don't want this, or doing some kind of activism or not doing it. It just felt like being a good base, whatever practice comes out of it. So I just wanted to share that I really appreciated this happening. Thank you so much for the story. Thank you for listening, Madrid. For your appreciation.

[68:55]

I've been sitting here, I've been very curious about what the first arising of this mind was for the people I'm gathered with now. I remember visiting my high school sweetheart, who was at a fancy university on the East Coast. And when she was going off to class, I kind of whimpered, what am I going to do? And she handed me a copy of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. And that's my first recognition of the wish was reading that book. And what I'm realizing now is that was a definitive beginning and that now there's there's no end yeah thank you thank you

[70:23]

So in this assembly, I can feel compassion for... I feel that openness, that compassion, and then something happens. A five-year-old gets taken by ICE, and I get really angry and caught up in the attachment to the outcome. And I know this is just practice, but I guess if there's any support in how to make that transition... you know, I find I can move back and forth between those two spaces. And I'm just, I can intellectually understand it, but emotionally, I, you know, my anger feels, I guess it's just what I'm feeling and what is true for me at the moment. And so I'm feeling angry. I'm not feeling compassion, but maybe I have to feel, maybe it's just a working through it. I don't know. So are you saying, do you say two things, the anger and something else?

[71:49]

Well, I'm just saying I feel access to the compassion in this assembly. I have you, I have the great assembly, I have the Dharma. I can feel that, and then something else will happen in the world. And then I go into a lot of pain and sadness and anger, and I don't feel compassion for those people. that I see are doing that. And I'm just struggling to bridge that. So when you feel pain and sadness and anger, each of those things is calling for compassion. So that's what compassion is for, is for pain, fear, sadness, and anger. those are the things that are calling for compassion. Now, if you look at somebody and you don't feel pain or anger or sadness, then that person's calling for compassion.

[72:52]

But if you miss that that person's calling for compassion, and then what comes up is pain, anger, sadness, then remember those are calling for compassion. And if you give compassion to your anger, that will help you give compassion to more and more living beings. If you can give compassion to your fear. If you can give compassion to your sadness. That's what those things are asking for. And you may sometimes not be able to find compassion for your fear. You're just kind of like, all you can see is fear. You can't, you can't, Realize that you're listening to it. I'm listening to the fear. Oh, this listening to the fear, there's the compassion. It's here. It is here. Compassion is with us, but we sometimes forget.

[73:56]

And it's with us no matter what's going on. And so, like Sonia said, I don't know if I'm remembering, but I'm being reminded. So you're coming here, to be reminded to remember. To remember that no matter what's going on, the situation is calling for compassion to you and me. And I'm here to remind you of that. You're welcome. And if there's reminding, there can be remembering, possibly. Well, I think it's time to stop. We stop at 11.30. So thank you all for coming to this great assembly where we are promoting compassion and awakening.

[74:57]

And may we continue to have assemblies to promote compassion and a compassion which is coming from awakening and living with awakening.

[75:09]

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