Is there anything you'd like to bring up? Anything you'd like to offer? Any questions? Any comments? Elizabeth? I think it's so important to thank Karen because she really did an excellent job for this morning here and for us. I kind of want to say because it was so good. That hasn't helped. Yeah, Joseph had a great deal of help. Many people .

[01:02]

Yes. So my news agenda was so recorded . I guess there was something I didn't want to say, which is that many years ago, I went to a talk with a Dalai Lama in which he said, compassion and dealing with life is simply genuine kindness. And I feel like, you know, the manifested is going to be able to try to help us all with that. It's just awesome. that I'd like to offer my gratitude for this time and this place, and I'll sit at the door, all of you, to help me in my practice.

[02:45]

The one thing that will stick in my mind from this teaching is having compassion and being intimate with cosmic consciousness. hearing the stories and the offerings that many of you gave me an opportunity to be able to practice that intimacy with what you are experiencing, at least what I think. So anyway, I'm very grateful for this opportunity. It's very good. It was a lot. I feel very full. Like Thanksgiving, you know, after Thanksgiving, ain't too much. And so I'm going to have to lay down for a bit now. Digest. Digest everything.

[03:47]

So anyway, thank you all again. Make a chair for me. So I also wanted to offer my thanks to Karen for bringing us here and to Reb for offering the gift of himself to my mother and through my mother to me.

[04:51]

I had a Zoom meeting with her mother in India. Because my mother, when she saw Reb, recognized and acknowledged that he's a gift to the world. I just want to say I'm new to this Sangha and I felt very welcome and I really appreciate that and the whole teaching of intimate with uncomfortable feelings and life, karma, is new to me, and I'm looking forward to exploring that.

[06:13]

So, thank you, Reb, and thank you, everybody. Hi, greetings, everyone. I too, like all of you, you know, just find the unbelievable opportunity to all be gathered together to study the Dharma. It's very special. What I wanted to emphasize is how meaningful it is that all of us, I know for myself, have been able to talk to almost virtually everyone here about the things Rebbe is teaching, checking out our stories, sharing what's going on with us. Am I still in reality? Have you ever been around? Anyway, I'm grateful to all of you. Thank you. I seem to remember teaching from early on, which was something like birth and death in each moment.

[07:56]

And during the pandemic, I would get off the phone from seeing someone or I would go to the grocery store and come back. And then there would be a fair amount of time before the next event happened. And I thought, well, what is this feeling that's coming up? Sadness at that arc of imagining an event, living an event, and coming to the seeming end of the event, at least that would be the story in my mind. And how it feels so sad. I can feel that now as we've come through this particular event. And I don't want to really do anything with it.

[08:59]

Thank you. I'm also new to the Sangha, and it has been so a delight to be here. And I feel a different quality of Sangha than I have felt before. Thank you for the invitation, Reb. Feeling how we support each other becoming intimate together. I really have felt that in the welcome and in the presence in Zazen and in the dining room and with all the sharing, the conversations.

[10:01]

And I hope this isn't irreverent, Rev, but I have always felt, and felt again this weekend, that this delight when I hear you teach. And I've had this thought, you're a comedian. I never laugh with such joy and depth as when you're illuminating in your teaching. And I... I'm carrying that joy with me in this teaching and invitation to compassion. It took me quite some time to settle in this weekend, the first few sessions.

[11:11]

It took me a lot of concentration hearing, and I so appreciate, like this morning, it was all I could hear rape and everybody talking with this baton and I noticed how much easier it is to be attentive and to be present when I don't have to constantly try to understand that all were people being part of everybody. I just noticed, sitting in the circle now, how deeply I'm touched also. Like I also feel the force. a gratefulness. And ease also after almost two years not seeing people. I live alone and it was very challenging, like for many people in many ways I know.

[12:17]

And it makes a huge difference for me to be in the presence of real being directly. So thank you very much. Thank you, Reb. I think the mind is full of confusion.

[13:27]

I've watched my mind and I think I'm beginning be compassionate towards the confusion. with the support of all of you. And sitting compassionately with the four aspects, and I'm speaking mainly of confusion, will help me to begin the process of the realization that I can't, it's not my confusion.

[14:36]

Possibly I'm beginning to see that I can't find confusion in my mind. And I'm deeply grateful And Suzuki Roshi didn't name you the whole works for nothing. I'm also new to this Sangha, and I'm thankful for how welcoming it's been.

[16:13]

And I've heard it said that Zen is being your true self and being intimate. And for me, sometimes that can be a challenge. It involves trust and really being present and being where you feel welcomed and there's a level of trust allows that. to happen more readily. And so I'm very thankful for that. And so thank you for your teaching, Reb, and everyone else for your support. I was thinking how it's not only Reb that's very funny, but this group.

[17:51]

It's the works. But then I thought that I shouldn't take the microphone. It occurred to me the talking stick and the circle I was very attached to the way I taught because I was in a circle. And we had a practice of passing an object to, when you turn to how lovely it builds community. And the teaching I'm taking is of no preferences. It's a very hard teaching because check this out, compared to Zoom.

[18:56]

Clearly observe. That's funny. What's your name? I forgot your name. Vivian, yeah. I just wanted to add my appreciation especially for Marlena. Are you here? Hi. Vivian, at the end, Elizabeth, for reminding us of some of the suffering that isn't just individual and that is, you know, structural or collective or, because it's very common and easy for, especially who are quite privileged to really be involved in

[20:26]

practicing for compassion and awareness in our own lives. But thank you for bringing that larger life into the room a few times. Yeah. I am very grateful.

[21:42]

And I would also like to reflect on the enormous gift that you gave to us on Zoom. Weeks when I was very isolated, on Sunday at 10, I could get your face completely in front of me. And often when I'm in a group like this, I know you're talking directly to me. And so then having you and I just there was also you talking directly to me. And, Reb, I appreciated it and continue to appreciate it so much. Although I love this opportunity, it takes some time and distance for me to get face-to-face with you But I'm almost getting used to the facsimile.

[22:44]

And I have a preference that maybe you won't stop doing Zoom. Thank you all. I'm one who extremely prefers benefiting all.

[24:30]

So when I hear people benefiting Zoom and when I hear people benefiting circles like this, it makes me feel complete. I just want to make the offering to the to and I'm offering this to myself as well which is to continue to explore the basis of preferences and yeah I just wanted to encourage that in myself and I want to express my gratitude for being able to hear the Dharma

[26:45]

And when I think about a life that's been filled with opportunities to hear the Dharma and practice the Dharma and be supported by the Dharma and realize the Dharma, it's beyond anything I can really express. And I'm hearing, you know, don't waste your life. And I feel like, you know, I've had such a fortunate life to really understand, you know, don't waste your life to engage with the Dharma and practice the Dharma. I've just been so fortunate. So I just wanted to express that and offer that to everyone. Thank you, and thank you, Tenshin Roshi.

[27:49]

Goodbyes are difficult. I like to say to be continued these days. And I really feel I needed to thank you, thank Paul for the recording. And thank you, Susan, so much for being... Jisha? Was there another word? I don't know. But thank you for the dokusan tending And thank you, Amanda, for the bell ringing. And thank you, everyone, for being with me this weekend. And Rep, I want to let that one sit for a moment. Thank you, everyone, for being with me this weekend. And I hope you hear that my whole life is a thank you to you.

[31:09]

That my practice and my life are a thank you to you. And I hope you hear that. My heart's pounding, perhaps because I got excited about something I was just feeling or realizing.

[33:25]

And as I took my first steps, I said, maybe you should have waited. But I... I can feel the exquisiteness of this moment that we're all speaking of. And it feels like that timeless moment that has the whole last 18 months in it. So we've all sort of percolated and erupted isn't the right word but I won't wait for it right now. All these gratitudes for this weekend and unlike usual when that happens there's thoughts of the future and I really

[34:37]

I really don't to the future, particularly about COVID like this could be a little, a little moment in time. There's no expect subsequent And now I fear rambling on, so I'll let that be what comes out right now. Thank you. But thank you for this lovely sharing this weekend. We're at the end. We've had a very emotional day. But I would like to remind you of the beginning. Reb gave us a very interesting intellectual gift on the first day when he introduced the distinctions between preference, wish, desire, vow.

[35:51]

Those are important distinctions. They're very subtle, and in their subtlety, I think lies a deepness that would be worth pursuing. And he also emphasized how we could do testing of our various things. I suggest that we take those concepts that he gave us, which are all part of our lives, and play with them. Play with them so that you figure out when you have a preference and when you have a desire, and when one isn't the other. and so forth. So I think that for me is a big takeaway from this session, and it was in the beginning, so I emphasize that. The other thing that I really liked were the two stories about in the weeds and on the grass meditating, where when you ask the man, what are you thinking?

[36:54]

He said, I'm not thinking anything. Well, then you must be not awake. I'm thinking too, but I'm in non-thinking. I think that was a profound distinction as well. So I want to just leave you with, everybody's talked about the emotional thing, but I would like to leave you with those two things, I think, that are pretty profound intellectual distinctions. Thank you, Reb. I appreciate that a lot. As a largely solitary person, I want to thank my friend Marie for enticing me to get out of my solitude and come to this event.

[38:12]

It's been very rewarding. I think that it's been a wonderful experience to be introduced firsthand, in person, to this system of great compassion and lack of preference. But what I really... really want to say is that so many people have great questions and experiences, it's not always easy to speak out in a fairly large gathering. And all of those questions, I think that the real substance of this weekend has been in REB's responses and the issues brought up by people. So I want to thank every one of you who participated in that and made this so much an exercise in dual arising.

[39:21]

Tracy told me she's going to leave at 12.05. So it's almost 12. And so that we don't have to lose her. Yeah. We're going to lose them. We're going to lose them. So before we lose them, I shouldn't say before, before they abandon us for a better world, I wanted to say that I feel that the Sangha has accomplished very well. Thank you so much for summarizing it so well at the end. And I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Bodhisattvas enter to enter the world of suffering, and they enter there to teach people how to observe it and play with it.

[40:50]

So I think we've done well. We've entered the world of suffering here together. We've observed it and played with it. and hopefully we are discovering the truth of it also, just like some other people did in the past. So thank you very much everybody for receiving the Dharma and giving it back. Please continue. And before Leon does his usual request, I will offer what he's asking for. Ready? This is the Mount Madonna farewell song. When the red robin comes bop, bop, bopping along. Along? Along. There'll be no more sobbing when she starts throbbing her old sweet song.

[41:56]

Wake up. Wake up. You sleep. Wake up. Get up out of bed, cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red. Live, love, laugh and be happy. Then comes the part that people don't know so well. Though I'm walking through fields for hours, rain may glisten, but still I listen for hours and hours. I'm just a kid again, doing what I did again, singing a song. When the red, red sun comes, bop, bop, bopping along. Bop, bop, bopping along. Congratulations to the Madonna old-timer.

[42:59]

...reunion, and thanks for the old-timers to welcome the new-timers. And have a safe journey back.

[43:12]

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