On August 9th here, we started to contemplate the 15th book of the Flower Adornment Scripture. And today I'd like to continue this contemplation of the teachings of the 15th book. The name of the chapter is... the ten abodes of bodhisattvas. So in this temple called no abode, we contemplate the bodhisattvas' abode. We do that.

[01:03]

We contemplate the abode of the beings who are on the path of realizing Buddhahood in this world of suffering. The speaker of this book is named Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva.

[02:04]

And this bodhisattva was in a great assembly and many Buddhas were coming to the assembly. This bodhisattva sat and by the support or through the support of the great spiritual power of the Buddhas, this bodhisattva entered a state of concentration. a samadhi. And the name of the samadhi was Infinite Skillful Means of Bodhisattva's Samadhi. It's the state of concentrated, open, relaxed, undistracted awareness of the bodhisattva's

[03:12]

infinite unlimited skillful means dharma wisdom bodhisattva together with the kindness and support of the buddhas entered this samadhi and in this samadhi dharma wisdom received many many many many teachings and received many, many praises. Oh, and in this samadhi, all these Buddhas appeared to Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva in the samadhi. Entered the samadhi, and all the Buddhas appeared. And one of the kind of unique aspects of this chapter... maybe not unique, but kind of unusual aspects of this chapter is all the Buddhas who appeared to the Bodhisattva had the same name.

[04:19]

Many, many Buddhas appeared in this Bodhisattva's Samadhi in front of the Bodhisattva Dharma Wisdom. And they had the same name. And what was their name? It was Dharma Wisdom Buddha. All the Buddhas were called Dharma Wisdom Buddha. All the Buddhas had almost the same name as the Bodhisattva, except instead of Bodhisattva Dharma Wisdom, their name was Buddha Dharma Wisdom. So this is the Samadhi that this chapter is talking about. Now, if we were to also sit together in the presence of Buddha, and Buddha supported us to enter this samadhi, which, by the way, seems to me would be a wonderful thing, if we could enter this samadhi and see these Buddhas in this samadhi of infinite skillful means of bodhisattvas, maybe those Buddhas would have the same name as us.

[05:37]

I think it might be good to consider that possibility that when we enter Samadhi, all the Buddhas that appear there to us have the same name as us. Now, I think you're quite familiar that maybe when you enter into Samadhi, you have such and such a name, like your name is Zev. When you enter Samadhi, you have the name Zev. But in the Samadhi, you realize that everything that appears there, all the Buddhas that appear there also have the name Zev. And these Buddhas who have the same name as you, Zachary, and Annalisa, and Sophie, and Doug, these Buddhas give you the teaching in the samadhi. That's where it's given to you. So...

[06:43]

If by chance you had entered the samadhi, if you are in the samadhi right now, the Buddhas are there with you and they're giving the teaching right now. And so I wonder, are you open for that? Are you ready for that? To be in this bodhisattva samadhi and have all the Buddhas appear in front of you? But they appear, but they have the same name as you. I'm not saying, are you in this samadhi? I'm not saying that. I am saying, however, would you consider if you would like to be in this samadhi, if you would love to be in this samadhi? And I think, well, I think I would love, but then I might think, is there something required of me after I enter?

[07:45]

Because you're going to go into this great samadhi, right, where you're going to receive all the Buddhas and all their teachings. If you're allowed to enter here, is there something required of you? And I would say, mm-hmm, yeah. And now you're going to find out what's required of the bodhisattvas when they enter. So they're required to receive all the teachings, all the teachings, all the teachings. They're required to receive all the Buddhas. And they're required to get patted on the head by the Buddhists. So all the Buddhists pat the bodhisattvas on the head. And it didn't seem to be a problem for Dharma wisdom bodhisattva to have all these Buddhists patting her on the head. And then she arose from the samadhi and started teaching. And she's received the teachings, now she's going to share them.

[08:52]

So one of the things she says was that all the Buddhas have this teaching and they all teach the abodes of bodhisattvas. So I have received these teachings on the abodes of the bodhisattvas, the ten abodes of the bodhisattvas, and now I... I am called upon to share this gift with you of the ten abodes. And so Dharma Wisdom Bodhisattva says, the abode of bodhisattvas is vast. And part of the implications of vast, I would say, are that it's ungraspable. You can't get a hold of it. It's infinite. It's infinite and it has infinite means in it, in this abode of the samadhi in the bodhisattva abode.

[09:56]

And then there's ten abodes within this general abode. And then it says, what are the ten? And then it answers, then Dharma, I think Dharma Wisdom says, what are the ten? the abodes of the bodhisattva, which are vast and actually no abode, there's ten. That doesn't mean there's only ten. I'm going to tell you, ten abodes. And what are they? They are the abode of the initial arousing of the mind of awakening. which is the mind which aspires to awakening, aspires to Buddhahood, in order to benefit this world of suffering.

[11:03]

And that is the thought that occurs in the mind of ordinary people like us. However, when it appears, we are then bodhisattvas. but earlier I asked you if you would consider whether you want to enter the samadhi, now I ask you to consider has this mind arisen in your ordinary human consciousness? The first abode is the arising of this aspiration, this resolution this wish, this determination to realize the most authentic awakening of the Buddhas and to then use it and express it in order to help all beings.

[12:08]

That's the first abode. The second abode is called the abode of preparing the ground. I was preparing the ground. The next nine, the next nine abodes are kind of like supporting the first. The next nine help realizing this aspiration. The next nine are about training. And even before we get to the next nine, under the heading of the first abode, we will hear about some training, and I'll talk to you about those trainings today. Anyway, I'll say the second one is preparing the ground. The third one is the abode of practice. I could try to say the other ones, and I think I probably would be able to, but would you hold this, please?

[13:31]

Oh, look, here's the ten abodes. What are the ten abodes? They are the initial arousing of the mind of awakening. Number one. Number two, the abode of preparing the ground. Number three, the abode of practice. Number four, the abode of noble birth. And I know the word noble has some problems, but noble birth means where you're born. So a noble birth is that you're born in hearing the Dharma. When you meet the Buddha, you're born in a certain way. It's a noble birth because you're born in the Dharma. Number five is the abode of fulfilling

[14:54]

the skill and means of bodhisattvas. Number six is the abode of correct mindfulness. Number seven, the abode of non-regression. Number eight, the abode of youthful nature. Number nine, the abode of the prince of teaching. And another one is the abode of coronation. Those are the ten abodes. And again, I know the word prince aside from the, I think the musician, the Minnesota musician prince, people don't have a problem with. But the prince, other uses of the word prince are problematic for people. But I etymologized prince. I found out that it means it's made from. I think it's made from primus and garpe.

[16:01]

What is it called? Garpe. Garpe diem. So primus and carpe. Prince etymology means the first chose. So all these beings are bodhisattvas and the prince is... the ones, male or female, that are chosen first or next. And the last one is the coronation of the one who is chosen for this job of Buddhahood. Those are the ten. Now, number one, which is the abode of the first arousing of the mind of awakening. the aspiration, the determination, the resolution for awakening. And then it says, kind of, not very, unusually it says, what is it?

[17:09]

What is this first abode? And then it explains various situations in which it arises. It just gives a few. But there's infinite situations. where this mind arises. But it doesn't say what it is. It says the situation in which it arises. It's something that arises when certain things are there. And basically they're all about intimate communion. And it starts out by describing a situation of intimate communion with Buddha. And then lists a bunch of other intimate communions and concludes with the intimate communion with the suffering of all beings. But sometimes when it first arises in somebody, it arises when they meet the Buddha who looks really wonderful, who's doing something really beautiful, who's doing something just wonderfully, accessibly kind.

[18:22]

They see that And they think, I want to achieve Buddhahood for the welfare of this world. Or I want to devote my life to realizing Buddhahood for the welfare of this world. Not so much I want to be Buddha, but I want to work on this. But some people, what they do is they see a little or an ocean of suffering and they think, I want to be a Buddha for all these beings. I want to be able to help all these suffering beings. I really want to. And I see now the possibility of that. And I aspire to that. So the thought, what the thought is, actually, it's a relationship between all beings with no limit.

[19:25]

That's the first abode. Okay. Then it says something like this bodhisattva producing this mind or this mind being produced in a bodhisattva is done and one translation is Another translation is conditioned by. Again, ten difficult to attain things. And that's the translation of Thomas Cleary. Another translation is, which is more literal, it's ten difficult to obtain dharmas. And I'll just tell you beforehand and maybe later again, it turns out, although it doesn't say it in the sutra, that these ten things are the ten powers of the Buddha, which are difficult to attain.

[20:49]

So when one aspires to Buddhahood for the welfare of the world, This aspiration is conditioned by the powers of the Buddhas who we aspire to realize. And if I tell you about these powers, which I will, you might think, those sound really difficult to attain. You might think that. I think that. So Buddhahood, I aspire to it, but it's difficult to attain Buddhahood. And now you want to hear about how difficult that might be? Well, let's hear about the powers of a Buddha that you're aspiring to be. Does that make sense? So here we've got this situation where we've now aspired to this thing, which is just an amazing, kind of crazy thing that we would aspire to be Buddha in a way.

[21:58]

We practice secretly working within like a fool, like an idiot. Like an idiot, we aspire to be Buddha? How grandiose, how arrogant. Nevertheless, that's what we're talking about here. Something that's inconceivably vast and wonderful, ungraspable. I aspire to realize something that's ungraspable and... universally beneficial. I aspire to universal beneficence, which I cannot get a hold of, and also I cannot avoid. You can't get away from this Buddha mind either. You can't get a hold of it, you can't get around it, you can't get under it, you can't get away from it. And you aspire to this thing, wow. Now we're going to hear more about how great Buddha is, but also we're going to probably become somewhat humble when we hear about these things because we might think, whoa, that would be difficult for me to attain.

[23:03]

Or that would be difficult to attain. So after this amazing grandiose wish arises, we hear even more about how grandiose it is, but also we can see. that we do not yet have that power. And again, you might hesitate and think, do I aspire to have that power? Think about it. The first one, I think, is something you might dare to aspire to. The first, rather than say all ten of these Buddha powers, by the end of which you won't remember the previous ones, I'll just start with the first one. which again is not that surprising to me. The first one is the wisdom that knows what is so and what is not. That's the first of these things that are difficult to attain.

[24:12]

And practicing this bodhisattva mind is conditioned by... the knowledge, the wisdom to know what is so and what is not. So when you hear about it, you have just been conditioned by those words. You have just been conditioned by the possibility of knowing what is so and what is not so. That's part of the environment in which we practice this Bodhi mind. is to know that we're aspiring to something which knows what is so and what is not. Other translations of this might be helpful. It's the Buddha mind which I aspire to knows what is the case and what is not. It knows what is possible.

[25:17]

and what is impossible. And in the early, this is a Mahayana Buddhist text, but these 10 powers of Buddha also appear in the middle-length sayings, number 12, middle-length sayings number 12, which is called the Lion's Roar. And part of the Lion's Roar is to tell us about the 10 powers of the Buddha, Tathagata. And the first one is to know in the possible what's possible. Or to know the possible as possible. And also to know the impossible as impossible. That's in the early teachings. The middle link sings. The lion's roar. That's the first hard to attain thing that we're conditioned by in practicing the Bodhi mind.

[26:20]

The next ones, most of the rest of them are the Buddha's power to know about people. Of course to know about herself, but it's also to know about people, to know what they are. So it's in order to help them. It doesn't say others, it doesn't say self in the sutra, it says number two is the wisdom that knows the retribution of good and evil karma. So that's one of the things that conditions the bodhisattva path, is understanding the wisdom that knows the retributions of good and evil karma. The consequences. So the Buddha looks at sentient beings, the Buddha mind, sees sentient beings, and the Buddha mind understands how they are and how it is that the way they are is consequences of their past action.

[27:27]

Buddha sees that. And that helps them help people. Just like now we have a very salient and well-known thing that people are aware of now is called trauma. or what we call the syndrome of karma, of trauma, post-traumatic stress syndrome. We're aware of that now. The Buddha sees somebody and the Buddha understands this person who is acting this way, who is suffering so much, part of what's going on here is the trauma they've gone through. So that helps the Buddha understand how to teach them, to know what kind of trauma they have, how to be kind to them and help them work with this trauma in their background.

[28:31]

That's an example of knowing how a person is manifesting consequences of past karma. They also have the wisdom of knowing all the faculties of living beings. Again, in the sutra it doesn't say the wisdom that knows all the faculties. That's all it says. It doesn't say living beings. I'm adding in that it knows the faculties of living beings. So I'm adding the living beings part. Does the faculty mean abilities? What does faculty mean? Know about how they see, how they think, how they smell, how they touch. Can they walk? Can they not walk? Can they have babies? Can they not have babies? The Buddha knows all the faculties, which helps the Buddha figure out how to teach people. Some people do not speak English, so we've got to adjust to that.

[29:35]

They don't have the faculty of speech, of English, so we teach them in Chinese. Next one is... the wisdom of various differences of understanding. The Buddha, the Buddha knowledge knows different people have different understandings and we know that we're not trying to get them to be different, we're just knowing that they have these different understandings. And then the Buddha knows the differences in the various realms that beings live in. And the Buddha knows where all paths lead. Everybody's on a separate path. path that's leading. The Buddha knows where it's going. And then the Buddha has the power to know the concentrations, the liberations, and the samadhis. The Buddha knows the past lives of beings. The Buddha has divine eye to see beings. And the Buddha knows the universal end of all the outflows for all time.

[30:43]

These are knowledges which you may think, yeah, I don't have those knowledges. Actually, I don't have any of them. But I aspire to Buddhahood and Buddhahood, I aspire to something that has these knowledges. This is just to make me realize I'm aspiring to something and in a certain way I'm not there yet. But it's good to hear about this so you don't think you're done. From the beginning. You're not done and yet you're aspired to being done. You aspire to being Buddha. The universal end of all the outflows for all times. Yeah. Because outflows are not real. But we have to practice to realize that they're not real. And then here's an example of outflows which will be applied coming up soon.

[31:51]

I'll apply it. And Justin brought these outflows up I think the last time he was here for a sitting. He read about something and he brought up the outflows. He brought up three outflows. There's other lists of outflows, but he brought up three. And the three outflows in this tradition... are the desire, like the lust for non-existence. That's number one. Number two is the lust for existence. Number three is the lust for sex. Those are three outflows. And the Buddha knows the end of those outflows. And we can look at we can look at these outflows, and by studying these outflows, we're doing the work which will realize the end of them.

[32:54]

Yeah, I think I'll, maybe I'll wait till I get it, bring it up a little bit later in the talk, because it will come up. Yes, Rick, I think because they're into gain and loss, and being into gain and loss is suffering. So, like, I'm in pain, maybe really strong pain, so I want to get out of here. I want to lose this pain. I want to get out of this painful existence. I desire... non-existence it's so bad I tried other methods but now I see they don't work so basically I just want to get out of here and so we can and I propose to you before we get there that we can die without trying to get out of here that we can meet death without trying to get out of this painful life it's possible I think the Buddha and Suzuki Roshi

[34:12]

And other teachers have demonstrated they died, but they weren't trying to get out of here. The Buddha was suffering. The Buddha was sick. The Buddha was in pain, and the Buddha died. But the Buddha wasn't trying to get out of the pain because he had ended the outflow of trying to get out of pain to get out of existence. So we can die without trying to get out of existence. And many people die because they're trying to get out of existence. We're talking about... not having that outflow. Now the other one is, which people usually try before desiring non-existence, is they try to get a particular kind of existence, like happiness. They try to get happiness, and they do so in a greedy way. Like they're not happy, right? Have you ever been not happy? Have you ever seen anybody who wasn't happy? And then when you're not happy, do you sometimes greedily wish to get happy if you greedily wish to get happy when you're not happy that's an outflow when you're not happy you can still wish to be happy but you can wish to be happy without trying to get away from your unhappiness it's possible and you can be unhappy and wish others to be happy without trying to get them to get away to get anything

[35:42]

To wish for happiness without trying to get anything, not to mention to wish without happy without being greedy to get it. Have you ever seen anybody being greedy to get happy? Have you? Yeah. Have I ever been greedy to get happy? That's an outflow. Just to think I would like to be happy, that's not necessarily greedy, that's just a thought, which I actually... You might have some time. I don't have it very often, to tell you the truth. But if I do have it and I get greedy about it, then it turns into an outflow. Then it causes suffering. To suffer and want to get out of the suffering is the non-existence. To suffer and want to get at different kinds of situations, that's the greed. That's the wish for happiness. And to be greedy about that, it gets to be an outflow. And then the other one is just sex. People can have sex without being greedy about it. It's possible. Have you ever heard about that?

[36:46]

Sometimes people are involved in sex, but they're not trying to get anything. They're actually being generous. They're giving themselves to sex. They're giving themselves to being. They're giving themselves to non-existence, but not greedily. Okay, Rick? come back to this in a minute so those are the ten things to be aware that this is a teaching given at the beginning of the path about so-called the end of the path and the first one I think is pretty non-controversial to know what is so to know what is not so of course I aspire to that so I can help people And then more information about helping people would be helpful. Now comes ten more things in this first abode.

[37:53]

In the vast first abode, there's ten more things which we are encouraged to encourage. Ten things to encourage and study in this vast abode. abode of bodhisattvas. Again, I think maybe I'll just, rather than read all ten, this time I'll start with number one. The first thing to encourage, it says to encourage and study, or encourage and learn about, is making offerings to Buddhas. So the first thing to encourage here and learn about is making offerings to what you aspire to. I aspire to, for example, I aspire to know what is the case and what's not.

[39:03]

I aspire to that knowledge. And now I make offerings to it. One way to make... I'm making offerings to it right now. I'm telling you about knowing what's so and what's not as an offering to knowing what's so and what's not. I'm saying all this to you as an offering to Buddha. I'm offering myself to remember... how great Buddha is, and I offered myself to remember that I aspire to it. I offer my remembrance of what I aspire to as an offering to Buddha. Remembering that you want to be Buddha is an offering to Buddha. But there's many other offerings. In other words, everything you do can be an offering to what you aspire to.

[40:04]

That's the first of the things to encourage and learn about because it may be difficult. I just said a little bit about what offerings are. But we're encouraged to learn about what offerings to Buddha. What is offerings to what we aspire to? That's the first one. Second one is the one I think I want to really go into today. Maybe I'll just start now. It's a big one. Number two. And by the way, number two is related to number 10. Number two is gladly, happily dwelling in birth and death. And sometimes I look in my mind or I listen to other people, I say, this sounds like birth and death. Because most people are in birth and death.

[41:11]

And I'm in birth and death. And then people show me how they're in birth and death. They give me moment-by-moment updates on birth and death. And again, this is not just birth and death. It's not just birth-death. It's birth-death, birth-death, birth-death, birth-death. It's not just happiness. and then loss of happiness. It's not just health and sickness. It's health, sickness, health, sickness, health, sickness. Many people are very happy when their baby comes. They just think it's so wonderful. They're really happy. This is just unimaginably wonderful. And then when death comes, they think that's not so good. And then after that, they get a birth again.

[42:17]

This is birth and death. Liking and disliking. Liking birth, not liking death. Liking birth, not liking death. You look really sad. Thank you. Now, ready? Are you ready? The second stage is to happily, happily remain in the world of birth and death. Not the happy of happy birth, and it's not the happy of happy death. It's the happier being in the suffering of birth and death. Bodhisattvas really, really happily live in this world of birth and death.

[43:21]

That's encouraged. And then to learn how you can be happily in all kinds of suffering. To learn and study how that would be possible. not to try and make yourself that way, but just to hear this teaching and check out the situation. What situation? This one. Well, in this one, there might be some, again, wanting to get something other than this. That's an upflow. Or excuse me, a greedily wondering to get something other than this. Even when people are happy, they sometimes want to get another one or a different one, a better one. This is good, and I feel a wish to get a better one. But again, he doesn't have to be ravenous about getting a better one, but it can happen. And then we have suffering.

[44:29]

So how can I really joyfully live in this mess? I'm studying that. I've been encouraged to learn how to joyfully be in this mess and be with other people who are in these messes, I should say, because it's changing all the time. To be in the mess of birth, birth is messy. To be in the mess of death, death is messy. To be between birth and death, mm-hmm. So this is the number two and is connected to number 10. And number 10 is being a refuge for the beings who are in birth and death. Number two is remember that you want to be here so you can help people. You want to have a mind of the Buddha so you can help people. But that means you have to be in the place where people need help.

[45:36]

And people are often in a situation where they need help. And what do they need help with? They need somebody to show them how to be joyful, not about the suffering, but in the suffering, joyful to help people, joyful to be a refuge to people who are trying to get out of here. Or be a refuge to people who are trying to stay here. Finally, I'm happy. Let me stay here. There's many Zen stories about that. Somebody gets happy and the teacher says, no, give it away, hand it over. I'm finally happy and you're saying I had to let go of it? I'm not saying you have to let go of it. I'm just saying, please give it to me. You don't have to get rid of happiness and you don't have to hold on to it. But if you do hold on to it, or if you do try to get rid of happiness, some people try to become free by getting rid of happiness.

[46:47]

Holding on to it will be suffering, and trying to get rid of it will be suffering. You don't have to try to get rid of unhappiness, and you also don't have to hold on to it. But either way, some people hold on to unhappiness, and that's suffering. Some people try to get rid of unhappiness and that suffering. So this is all birth and death. And the second thing to encourage, encourage in yourself. And by encouraging it in yourself and getting good at it, you're a refuge to others. Because they can see, wow, if I could... be like that person in this mess, that would be really, that would be Buddha. In fact, that is Buddha, is to be joyfully here in the suffering for all suffering beings. That's number two. And now you also heard number ten.

[48:00]

What's number ten? Being a refuge to beings who are in suffering. And one of the things you have to do in order to be a refuge is to joyfully be in the realm of beings who need a refuge. So there's seven more, but I'll stop there and do the seven more later. Because these two are, I think, really appropriate for our situation. Like some people were here today and went to a demonstration, the No Kings demonstration. So when they go there, are they going there with no offflows? That's for them to look at. Do you go to the demonstration to try to get rid of unhappiness in a greedy way? Or do you go to the...

[49:01]

demonstration to show people how to be happy in the middle of the demonstration about all this suffering. We're here today. Are we here to get happiness? Are we greedy for happiness? Are we greedy to get rid of our suffering? If we are, then we practice kindness to that. Can we be present with our suffering and also be present with trying to get rid of our suffering? We're encouraged to find that and study that and learn about that. I think that's enough about those ten. These are the ten for the first, the ten things that are... the bodhisattvas are encouraged to study and learn on the first abode of bodhisattvas.

[50:07]

Yes? Yes? Is the idea that it's feeble? Well, In fact, it often is feeble, that's true. But I think the reason for saying initial is partly to be aware that this is a very tender sprout. This is a baby, baby, baby Buddha. So we should be very careful of it. It's very fragile. It won't always be fragile. But right now, when it first arises, it is fragile. It's like a beautiful new baby. It's so wonderful. But also, part of the reason for mentioning the initial is because this sutra is teaching that the initial is the same as the final.

[51:17]

So I just want to mention, this is the initial, and you'll find out later that it's the same as the final. So we want to emphasize, it isn't that... We have the initial and then we have somewhat better and better and better. It's the initial and everything in between the initial and the final. The initial and everything between the initial and final is identical with the final. But it's the final in the form of the initial. And it's the initial in the form of the initial, which is the same as the final. And it's the final in the form of aspiring. It's the final in the sense of aspiring to the final. It is the final in the form of aspiring to final. So the initial is both, let's be very careful of this tender little sprout. I think as Dogen's energy says, when it first arises it's like a candle flame.

[52:19]

See that one over there? You can probably, some of you can easily blow that out. Like from here I can't. But Zachary maybe could blow it out. It's very fragile flame. But if you take care of that flame, it will become like a forest fire. And if you blow on the forest fire, it gets bigger. It doesn't get smaller. But if you flow on the baby, we're very careful of it. So I'm being very careful today. I'm not blowing very hard. But someday you'll get blown on really hard and you will not go out. You will just grow. Again, the more it grows, the more messes come to it. And it grows from all the obstacles. and challenges and insults and cries it grows from all that and sometimes it goes out because the wind sometimes is too much so then we have to go to your teacher go to your friends say it blew out I can't find it anymore I no longer wish to be Buddha because when I wish to be Buddha all these afflictions came to test my wish and it blew it out

[53:51]

Okay, and let's look for it again, okay? And find it again. So you can start over even if it gets blown out. It does sometimes get blown out unless it's cared for. And so right away we have this and then the second thing is can you find the joyful willingness to live here? Can you find the joyful willingness to live in the lack of joy? Or people are saying, I'm not joyful, I'm suffering. Can you find the joy in being with them? That will protect this flame. Because if you don't have joy, the flame can easily be blown out by suffering. But you're getting ready for the suffering. It's going to come, and I'm getting ready for it by being joyful. And when it comes, I can say, thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming. making it more difficult for me, but also you didn't blow it out.

[54:56]

Thank you. I feel more capacity now to be with beings. I was asking also about the relationship between precepts and doing number two, for example. Yeah. Well, one of the precepts is we have, in this tradition, we have three collections of pure precepts. The third collection of precepts is called embracing and sustaining all beings, which includes all the way that you help people. That's one of the precepts, literally. The other ones are the same, but one is literally about embracing and sustaining beings. And it doesn't say so, but it could say the precept of joyfully embracing and sustaining all beings. Is there anybody you don't feel joyful about embracing and sustaining? Well, learn how to do it with that person. Check it out.

[55:58]

Have you found this place of being joyful about being in suffering? Your own and with others. Yes? I have a question about birth and death. Yeah? Birth and death is mentioned in the Yeah. It seems like something triggers the cycle, like contact. Yeah. It seems like a cycle of suffering. It seems like a cycle of what? Suffering. Yeah, that's right. The 12-fold chain is a cycle of suffering. And it's conditioned by, starts out with ignorance. And then the latter part is there's birth, and then there's following birth.

[57:01]

Well, actually, there's not birth, there's becoming, right? That's birth. Becoming, and then following becoming, is old age, sickness, and death. So between becoming and old age, sickness, and death, is the pain of samsara. which concludes and then starts over again because of ignorance. So this is talking about wherever you are in this whole chain, this chain, wherever you are, from the beginning to the end, the bodhisattva is willing to live there, to live in ignorance, to live in karmic formations. to live in consciousness. And this consciousness might be a bodhisattva consciousness, but it's surrounded by suffering.

[58:08]

And so we have these instructions for those who wish to live in the world in order to help people. Thank you. Yes? Yeah. Maybe because it's so powerful. It's built into our body in a way that, for example, it's not so much built into our body. to have a wish to watch certain TV shows. They don't... Huh? Louder? It's fundamental. It's so fundamental, yeah, it gets special attention. So in Sanskrit it's karma raga.

[59:16]

Karma. Karma. Karma raga. Karma is sex. Greed, lust for sex. Which people so often slip into greed for it rather than just, okay, if it's helpful, we can do that. And then greed for watching a TV show or greed for what your home team went in the game. Or eating breakfast. Greed for it. You can eat breakfast because you think it's good for you. And you might help other people for you to eat so that you can help them. You can do that without the greed. And you can enjoy it without greed to get the enjoyment. It's possible. This is part of the training. But a lot of people, when they're eating, it's a horrible situation. They're just really suffering because they're greedy for something around the food. And then again, some people, after sex,

[60:19]

and all the different other forms of suffering that they've been trying to get don't give them relief, then they say, well, I'm just checking out. I'm not going to do any of that. Well, that's another. And then they get greedy about it rather than just a thought. Yes? Are you making a connection between humility and joy? Well, This joy, it would be good if this joy was, what do you call it, aided by, in the context of, humility. So the second thing that bodhisattvas are encouraged to learn about is living in this world joyfully, not because we're happy that everybody's suffering, but we're happy that we can be with them. I'm not happy that you're suffering, but I'm happy to be with you.

[61:20]

I'm not happy that I'm confused and stupid and sick, but I'm happy to be here with that. Now, I hear about that, about being able to do that. Yeah. And that's good. I feel encouraged. But then sometimes I'm not joyful about being here, and I want to get away. or I want to fix the situation rather than to be here with it. But trying to fix a situation is the situation. Birth and death is trying to fix birth and death. But again, when I'm trying to fix birth and death, it's possible for me to learn how to be joyful about being present with trying to fix birth and death. However, I notice that sometimes I'm not joyful, and I'm trying to get away from birth and death. And I've heard about this thing about joyfully being there.

[62:23]

And then that humbles me. I wasn't too joyful there when I heard that I have cancer. I wasn't too joyful. No. Yeah, I wasn't too joyful. Plus, I wasn't joyful about being with my lack of joy. I heard that I had cancer, I felt kind of bad, and I wasn't really happy to be there with me. And I'm told that that's possible, and I didn't do it, and I'm sorry. So I think these practices, like the first ten powers of Buddha, these practices in some cases might make us humble if we reflect on our behavior. I'm unhappy, I'm challenged, I'm frustrated, I'm surrounded by obstacles, and I have the aspiration to be joyful, to be there with them, to liberate them.

[63:34]

And right now I'm not feeling joyful about it. I just want to get rid of them. But again, wanting to get rid of them, I could be joyful about being there with that. So it's possible to to recover from trying to get away from sentient beings. But that may involve noticing I was trying to get away. And I forgot about being joyfully present with this mess. It's connected to sincerity. It's connected to sincerity, yeah. If you have this, part of being sincere about being a Buddha is to do what Buddhas do. is that they're happy to be with sentient beings. If you're sincere about being a Buddha, then you'll be sincere about doing Buddhist practices and also be sincere about noticing your shortcomings. By revealing and disclosing our lack of sincerity in the presence of Buddhas, we melt away the root of trying to get away from birth and death or trying to control birth and death.

[64:47]

So we're not The bodhisattvas are not trying to control birth and death. They're trying to liberate birth and death. But in order to liberate birth and death, we need to be on site. And not only that, but we need to be on site, joyfully, because we're in the proper position to realize Buddhahood, because Buddhahood is realized at the center of all suffering. I had a taste of being at the center of all suffering, and then I lost my joy of being there. I'm sorry. Now I'm going to start trying to find out how I can find joy again of being where Buddha is, which is at the center of all suffering. That's the seat I aspire to, and sometimes I get a taste of it, and I lose...

[65:47]

my enthusiasm for being in the pits. And I confess my lack of enthusiasm. And I think that's part of the job of being at the site, is to reveal that I was trying to get away from the site of Buddhahood. Now I'm back at the site of Buddhahood. There's confession and repentance happening on the seat of awakening. You don't have to get off the seat to do that practice. What you're confessing is kind of off the seat. You're confessing the suffering of being lazy or whatever. But confessing is on the seat. You get that? Confessing is on Buddha's seat. What's being confessed is the suffering that surrounds it. That make sense? That's almost worthy of a bumper sticker.

[66:51]

So the Buddha and all the suffering, they're together. And the Buddha is at the center of it all, completely, joyfully, calmly at the center of it all. And a lot of it is trying to get away from that center. And the Buddha sits at the place where people are trying to get away from. And they can't get away because the Buddha is always with them. Even though they're trying to get away, they cannot get away. But they can learn from the Buddha to confess that they're trying to get away. And then they're back at the Buddha's seat. So what I'm doing now to some extent is what's coming up in the remaining things to encourage. I'm talking to you about these teachings and that's part of what's on the next seven is to talk about these teachings.

[68:04]

Is that enough for this morning? All right. Let it be enough.

[68:15]

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