So one vision of this practice period was focusing or concentrating on great compassion, taking care of that, trying to wholeheartedly engage with great compassion, and also paying homage to the forms and ceremonies of the practice period, like the schedule, the zendo activities, the work activities, and how these activities or these formal procedures and ceremonies provide a container for engaging with great compassion. And remember those ten vows and practices of Samantabhadra?

[01:07]

Do you remember them? What's the first one? Pay homage to all Buddhas. Pay homage to all Buddhas. Number two? Praise the virtues of heaven and earth. All right. Number three? Number three? Make offerings. Number four? Confession and repentance of our shortcomings. And number five? Rejoicing in the merits of others. which is slightly different from praising the merits or the virtues of lotus. It's rejoicing in the merits of others. Not to say you won't praise them, but you can rejoice in people's merits without praising them. You know, you just see them do something virtuous and you go, I praise you.

[02:14]

The rejoicing is emphasized. And then there's Five more. But I'll stop at that one, okay? Rejoicing in the merits of others. And the newcomers are... Mark. Mark. Nathan. Nathan. Yeah, you. Aaron. Okay, so... You know, just picking up that practice of rejoicing in the merits of others. This is one of the joyful practices of bodhisattvas. And it was recommended by Samantabhadra in the Avatamsaka Sutra at the end.

[03:17]

Today, as you may have noticed, we had a ceremony which had a formal structure and various formal activities that created a container for great compassion. And I would like to rejoice in the merit of our Eno. His great virtue was evident all over that ceremony. What a joy. Did you rejoice in his virtue? Yeah, once. That's where it's at. And while I'm at it, maybe I could also rejoice in the merits of Tonto, who also made a great contribution during the ceremony and before, and supported the Eno to do the Eno's job.

[04:34]

It's a joy. We are rejoicing in your virtues. Okay. I rejoice in the Great Assembly's virtues. And rejoicing in the Great Assembly, yes. Rejoicing in the virtue of your chanting. You learned to chant, and you chanted, and I rejoice in the virtue of your chanting, your skill, your sincere effort. It's a joy that you did that. Good work. And then there's the altar. You may have noticed the altar and other celebratory symbols present in the room. And so there we made that. The cheetah, is that right?

[05:37]

She was hiding down on the ground there. She was really hiding. But she didn't read. I thanked her, and I rejoiced in her great efforts. And then there is Hoku, who did such a great job with those bells. Thank you. And those clunks. And those clappers. That was great. And there was the attendants, Hika and Beth, who were so attentive to help me get through that event. And there were many other people who helped the Ino. Thank you all for helping the Ino.

[06:39]

And there were the... We had this term called ryoban, which means two rows. So we had two rows of, what do you call them, senior staff who made incense offerings very nicely. They practiced, they rehearsed, and they remembered what they rehearsed and performed it very well. It was a joy for me to see them. I never know what will happen. I don't expect things to go any old way, but they went very well today. And then there is And the musicians. That was so beautiful. Miyoko, that was great.

[07:41]

Sonia, that was great. Zuzu, that was great. Kendo, where are you? It was great. Carolyn, thank you so much for leading. Riley. And Riley. Where is he? Great. And the Mokuyo. Which? The Mokuyo. Where are you looking first? I was just looking at you. Are you? Are you trying to evade appreciation? In the Buddha Dharma, as you may have heard, we're all on the same path, the same dharma, the same realization.

[08:54]

the same practice. Yes? I appreciate Sonia making a cake just for the ceremony. And Solomon made it here. Sonia? Yes? I want to appreciate how sweetly you invite it. The hungry ghosts and the spirits in, sometimes it's kind of scary. But they were just sweetly invited in. I wasn't trying to scare them. You weren't? And then I also, while you were chanting, one of the staff went down. They went down in front of us. Thank you for the appreciation. As I was saying before I was, I don't know what, in the Buddha Dharma, we're on the same path, the same dharma, the same realization and the same practice.

[10:11]

So, We don't compare, really. There's no superior or inferior in the Buddhadharma. We're all of the same practice. However, even though there's no superior or inferior, You were great. He knew her well. Congratulations. This is just to, you know, celebrate Samantabhadra's practices, right? Rejoicing in the merits of others, which we did today. We practiced that. Not that we were trying to practice Samantabhadra's vows, necessarily, but we practiced them. However, I don't know if you vow to continue that practice or not. That's for you to consider. I vowed to continue. But again, although I vowed to continue it, I didn't make it happen today. I didn't go in there. I'm going to rejoice in the narrative.

[11:16]

I just went in there and rejoiced and came up. And it came up in many other people, right? We were rejoicing in each other. Okay. And that ceremony... provided a container for you to do the great compassion practice of samantabhadra. Does that make sense? Of course you can do it other places and times, but this is one where, like, you can just go ahead and rejoice. It's not going to be a problem because of the container. Nobody minds that you're in that room rejoicing in the merits of others. or I can tell, because of that container. Sometimes when you rejoice in the marriage of others, some of the others have a problem with that. Do you understand what I'm saying? No, you look like you don't.

[12:19]

You don't? Yeah. Or sometimes, like, if I rejoice in the marriage of Linda, you know, Genmi-yo feels envious. But that doesn't happen because of the container. In the container you can go ahead and rejoice in the merits of people, and other people can work with that because they know they're in the same container. So go ahead, rejoice in whoever. If you don't mention my name, I'm still there. So anyway, that's the practice. One of Samantabhadra's practices was alive and well in that container of that ceremony. It can be other places, but... Anyway, it was really there to date, and the form, the ritual, created a space for all that to happen, for all people, for so many people to make such a great effort, and to be appreciated. Yeah, and it didn't, like, what do you call it, because of the container, it didn't, like, spill out a whole, you know, it was contained, and it took us.

[13:32]

I wanted to also mention, as you know, yeah, in less than a week we will start the great Rohatsu Sashin, sort of the big Sashin of the year, which is the Sashin we celebrate, the Buddha. realizing the way, together with all beings and the greater. That's sesshin we have starting in less than a week. And so sesshin means, sesshin is made of two characters. One is, in Japanese, satsuk. and the other in Japanese is shin. When you put satsu together with shin, you get sashin. When you have tsus at the end of words in Japanese, it makes the syllable of the next character, the first syllable, doubled.

[14:46]

So sashin means, and the satsu means to embrace and sustain. or gather, or nourish, or bring up, like bringing up a child. That's the first character, embrace and sustain. The second character is mind or heart. So sashin could be translated as embracing and sustaining the mind, or embracing and sustaining the heart. So this, says Shin, because of our practice period, this will be embracing and sustaining the mind of great compassion. We have been embracing and sustaining it all this practice period, and now this will be a time to even more deeply and continued the practice of embracing and sustaining the mind of great compassion.

[15:52]

Daishin dharani, we sometimes say, great compassion dharani, right? More literal would be great mind of compassion dharani. the mind, great compassion mind. So we have this opportunity for seven days to be present with embracing and sustaining the mind, the Buddha mind of great compassion. We asked a question. Yes. Seems like I thought we were saying this isn't something that we sustain, it's quite the opposite. We're in the habit of sustaining the mind in a certain way, and Great Compassion is what arises when we let go of our habitual mind. Yeah, that's right.

[16:54]

How is it that mind which lets go of all the thoughts? Letting go of habitual thoughts? Yeah. The mind that lets go of habitual thoughts, in a different way, we sustain that mind. We don't sustain... I should say, people do sustain habitual thoughts. But great compassion gives that up, and great compassion is to be sustained by remembering it, by paying homage to it. You take homage to this mind which let go of habits. We praise the mind, the heart that let go of habits. We make offerings to the mind that let go of habits. And so on. So we do practice... Bodhisattvas vowed to practice to embrace and sustain all beings. But they don't vow to embrace and sustain holding on to habitual ways.

[18:00]

But if a sentient being is holding on to habits, the bodhisattva embraces and sustains that being who is holding on to a habit. Okay. Well, it's almost time to stop. And so before we do, is there anything? This is kind of like, what did I say? Oh, yeah. This is kind of an informal situation. Sashin is more formal, and you may feel not so, I don't know what, relaxed and at ease to speak as you might feel tonight. You know, so in this more informal situation, I ask you, How's the practice of great compassion going in this practice period? How do you feel about it? How do you think about it? So this is a time for maybe you to share with your friends.

[19:05]

Everybody can hear what you have to say about this practice of great compassion. Do you want to stand up and talk to the group? You don't have to. Well, thank you. Yes. You can talk to them about how it's going. I'll come to you, too. Go ahead. I'll be here, too. My name's Buster Brown. Look for me in that shoe, too. Go ahead. Well, first of all, I want to thank everybody for all of your great compassion. And then I kind of have a question. Something that comes up is the matter of form and how it holds us.

[20:17]

in our practice of realizing, I guess, great compassion. And so I thought maybe you could speak to that. How forms hold us in the practice of compassion? Well, yeah, and in particular, the little book of the Suriji, it has, you know, it's pretty specific about how we are to hold ourselves, I guess, is the way to say it. So, great compassion and the svaragi obviously seem to be interlinked in some way. Did you say great compassion and svaragi? Is that what you said? No, and the practice guidelines that are in the svaragi. Oh, okay. They support each other, that gallery.

[21:23]

Yeah, these forms are gifts from great compassion, and they are possible containers for great compassion. Right. So they sustain our realization of great compassion, I don't know if they sustain it, but they provide a context for it. Right, the container that you were talking about. But they don't do it by themselves. They don't do the... Right, yeah, there's an interaction. But they do provide a context for us to, in that space, to look at the practice. To study the self? Yeah, to study the self, right. Mm-hmm. Like, for example, a guideline of time to be quiet. So it's a time to be quiet. And that provides an opportunity for me to study myself.

[22:26]

Like, did I remember that? What am I doing? Am I quiet? Am I talking? And also, it provides an opportunity for other people, maybe, if they want to talk to me, to think about that and wonder if that would be appropriate, since maybe in this situation, like, what is it, when the Han starts, we're supposed to be quiet in Cloud Hall, is that right? Yes. Is that right, Valerian? Yeah, I'm joking. So that's a form, be quiet when Han starts. So that form provides an opportunity to be kind to other people by respecting their space. and also for them to be kind to you and respect your space, that form is an opportunity for us to be more careful of each other around what we're going to say. It doesn't mean we can't speak, it's just that we're given that form to contemplate whether it would be appropriate to speak or not.

[23:33]

And so then how to compassionately relate to people within that form. That's one example that just pops in my head. Sure, yeah, and it seems also that creates a space to hear yourself as well. Of course, there's no... It creates... Like I just said, it's a silent time and if you feel like talking, look at yourself. What are you up to? Do you think it's going to be helpful to talk? Or are you just kind of nervous and feel like talking? And then, oh yeah, I guess I am. This talk is like just nervousness. It's not going to help anybody. But I have this in me, this nervous twitch to talk. Oh, that's interesting. And so that form makes me realize what a nervous guy I am. And also, and Satan, take care of that guy. And that helps other people so I don't bother them.

[24:35]

I'm aware, oh, I'm kind of like on the verge of disturbing people who don't really want me to talk to them during this time of... But I was going to do it, and I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm learning about myself, and I'm practicing great compassion by knowing that about myself, which, again, protects other people, doesn't distract them, and so on. And then we can also say, in your orgy, it's another form. When we're doing that, you know, we're pretty concentrated, and we usually don't... We usually don't bother other people when we're doing our yoke. And if we do bother other people when we're doing our yoke, usually that means we're going to, like, you know, knock our bowl over or something. Even if you look around at other people, it makes it harder for you to concentrate on what you're doing yourself. Now, when you get really good at this practice, you can do it with your eyes shut and looking on the people. But, you know, the container can be violated.

[25:40]

But it's another form to practice compassion and to be aware of ourselves and to be aware of how we are in relationship to others, like I'm sitting here, uh-oh, I just saw something and was I thinking I'm better at orioke than that person? So that orioke form helps me see, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I'm actually doing that what the precepts are not about, thinking I'm better at orioke than other people. Now, in the dining room, I don't know, maybe some of you in the dining room think, I'm better at going through the buffet line than other people. I never heard about that. Or I'm better at eating oatmeal than other people. And that person's not as good at eating oatmeal than I am. But in the zendo, because of the form, there's a way to do it.

[26:42]

And there you can notice your greed, hate and delusion much easier in a way than you can in the diner room. So this is an example of how those forms give us a chance to look at ourselves, discover our shortcomings, be kind to ourselves, confess and repent. And without the forms, like I say, most people are not doing that. They're not paying as much attention in the dining room or on the deck when they're eating as they do in the zendo. That's my feeling. Let me know if I'm wrong in your view. Okay, is that enough? One more little thing. Okay. I'm putting a form on you. Is that enough? Oh, don't confuse me, Reb. Don't confuse you by bringing up what you brought up? Can I hug you? No.

[27:45]

No. Yeah, one more little thing about one. Okay. Do you think it would be helpful to the people? What's that? Do you think it would be helpful to your friends? I do. Okay, let's hear it. I do. That was another form. All right. Appreciation. We've talked about mind, the form of how we hold our mind, and not just in our day-to-day world, but in the Zendo, talked about speech. Now, have we talked about body? How we hold the body. That's what I did when I talked about orgy. It's a body practice. Right. So how you move your hands and look at the bowls, and how other people do, and how you notice that. Usually you don't know what they're thinking mentally, but you can watch how they're practicing, and they're watching you. So that's an example of physical posture.

[28:45]

Right. Posture, so posture. We have some other ones too, like sitting. So you can notice, am I sitting on my posture? Am I upright? Am I leaning? And also, as you know, some people also can see you. And then they can ask you questions about your posture. Because we have that posture practice. And bowing and walking. So we have a lot of physical practices in the Zendo. Outside we do too, but... it's like the way people walk around outside, it's not so clear that they want you to ask them about their posture outside the zendo. But in the zendo, I think people are made more amenable to be questioned about their posture because it's a posture, it's a posture perfect room. It's a posture room. It's really about posture, physical posture. Yeah, so that's another physical practice in a formal sense in that room. When I started practicing Zen, I saw the practice in the Zen... For me, it was like predominantly physical posture awareness.

[30:02]

I wasn't too much into my mind. how my mind was going. I did notice sometimes, however, that when my physical posture was very uncomfortable, my mind had some comments. Okay, Hoko, I don't know if you were next, but I do see your hand. I could be next. Was anybody ahead of Hoko? Something that I wanted to say, but I wasn't... I don't know if it would be helpful. Well, why don't you think about it for a while, and I'll come back to you. Do you have something you think might be helpful? It seems like when you were talking about the forms that you give us space to notice maybe if we're being led by greed, hate and delusion. And then one might think like, oh, I'm kind of lacking a little bit in this one area.

[31:11]

Maybe I could improve a little bit. Which seems like a helpful practice. And I think what comes up for me is that like another practice that maybe I don't hear so much spoke about is like maybe just starting with the focusing on I am good enough or I'm not lacking something and how maybe noticing or like, oh, I'm messing up over here or I'm messing over here could generate a feeling of maybe not feeling good enough, but I feel like maybe the root cause of Sometimes greed, hate, and delusion is like, oh, I don't feel good enough, so I'm going to go get something over here. I'm going to get rid of this thing over here. Have you seen that with a con, greed, hate, and delusion? It seems like I want to hypothesize that maybe not feeling good enough could be a root cause of that or something. So maybe starting there as opposed to, oh, I'm noticing that I'm not enough over here. I'm lacking a little bit over here. But also, yeah, maybe... Well, you know what they did back then?

[32:15]

Yeah, I do. I think what you brought up is not the root cause of creating delusion. I think it's a delusion, not a cause of delusion, except in the sense that delusion is the cause of delusion. The thought that you just said, that's a delusion, not true. Right, that you're not good enough. No, it's not true enough, and it's also not true that you're good enough. That's not true. That's another delusion. You are, and you always will be, inconceivably greater than good enough. Good enough is never going to be what you are. And you're also inconceivably greater than not good enough. That's not you. That's a delusion about you. which could happen to you. It could happen to you. You could have a delusion. I'm good enough. I'm not good enough. But that's not the cause of delusion. That's a delusion. Yeah, maybe not, but it seems like oftentimes a step before somebody goes to reach out for something, maybe they feel like they're lacking something.

[33:23]

Yeah, so illusion often appears... There's the first delusion before the next delusion. Well, you've got greed, hate, and delusion, but basically greed and hate are based on delusion. Delusion is the center of gravity. So based on I'm not good enough, Let's get some of Sonya's tape or something like that. So the daytime delusion we get into greed and hate. Yeah. However, before we move from the delusion, for example, I'm not good enough, before we move from there to like doing something to assuage our worry about not being good enough, which could either be greed or hatred. Like, if I'm not good enough, which is a delusion and I believe it, then I could hate myself. Or I could try to make myself better based on I'm not good enough.

[34:28]

That would be greed and hatred. I would suggest even before you reach away from delusion of, I'm not good enough, before you go away from that, bring in great compassion for that delusion. Great compassion is right there, listening to you say, and watching you think, I'm not good enough. Great compassion is not talking you out of it. It's just saying, I hear you. I hear your delusion. And that can be the end of the story right there. Just to win me through compassion and freedom from that thought before you even do something about it to try to make it go away. Or, if anybody here ever had the thought, I'm good enough, or I'm above average, if anybody had a thought like that, that thought is calling for great compassion. And if I don't take care of that thought, I'm good enough, that can also lead to greed and hate.

[35:38]

For example, if somebody comes up to me and says, I'm good enough after I thought I was, I'm going to hate them. poking a hole in my delusion. Or, you know, maybe not poke a hole, but push it around. Because you're not going to take this delusion away from me because it's true. I am good enough. My compassion is just like, okay, I'm here with you. Would you say great compassion is good enough, or would you say that that is an illusion? Great compassion doesn't encourage you to say that great compassion is good enough. Great compassion does recommend that you say thank you. Great compassion recommends that you pay homage to it. Great compassion recommends that you praise it. Great compassion recommends that you make offerings to it so that you can realize how full it gets here. But great compassion isn't telling you not to do anything.

[36:40]

I'm saying don't do that. It's saying, I'm here with you no matter what you do. I'm with you. And I'll never leave you. And that presence will free you from whatever you are and whatever you think and whatever you say. Do you have any feedback for me? Thanks for the response. You're welcome. Thanks for the offer you made to me. And so Drew's taking it over. And Josh, did you have your hand raised? Yeah, I did. The way you just talked about clear compassion, it wants us to pay homage to it so that we can realize how... Yeah. Not because it wants it. It wants us to realize it, and we can't realize it unless we pay homage to it.

[37:45]

Sure. Yeah. Or another word for homage is line up with it. Orient yourself towards it. It wants us to wake up. Yes, go ahead. Sure, yeah. So I've heard a lot of people talk about their belief in what they maybe call God in a similar way. They believe that God wants them to pay homage to him, to recognize that, oh, we're never separate from God. God is... Kind of the same. Kind of the same. Yeah, so, yeah. At least some people's version of God. God's got some kind of close relationship with great compassion. Sure, yeah, that's what my question was. I was wondering, along that same kind of line, is there anything else that people refer to what you're calling great compassion? Do they use other words for it? Buddha? Buddha-sher. Buddha-sher, yeah. Bodhisattva, Zen master, Zen mistress, whatever.

[38:49]

All the great things in the world that I've heard of are just great compassion. There's really only one practice, really, that's important, is great compassion, which, of course, fully embraces wisdom, great wisdom. Great compassion understands. The reason why it's so great is it understands that everybody else is separate, not separate from it, And so no matter what's happening, it's there with it. And it's not trying to get it to be different. It's not even trying to do anything. Well, it's not trying to do anything. It is awakening the person through this intimate relationship. It's not trying to be intimate. It is the intimacy. And for some people that's what God is, and I would say for me that's what Buddha is, and I would say for me that's really the truth of our life. That's really where we're at all the time, is that we're embracing and sustaining each other in a way that we can see with our eyes.

[39:57]

You can also see with your eyes, and that's what we call a carved dragon, which is an intimate relationship with the real dragon, which you can't see. You can't see how you're helping yourself. That's the truth of Mahayana Buddhism, I would say. And you can't see everybody helping you. That's the reality. and paying homage to that reality, and paying homage to that reality, somehow we become that reality. And if we don't pay homage to that reality, we postpone becoming one with it, even though we already are. Okay? Yes. Linda. Yes, Linda. Where is she? This was a question from the ceremony today. We talked about it the last time we had a tea with you.

[41:00]

He brought up the story that it's sort of origin story of Mokulana. He was seeing his mother suffering in hell, and Buddha told him, if you do this ceremony, you can help her. So today in the reading that we all read out, they said for the deceased, we wish for you to find, and then all these things, right? You're suffering disease, get nourished, and all of those things. So, you know, I put my family members' names in there, and I've talked to you about that. But my mother's dead. So who are we helping? That's my question. Who are we helping? Well, there's so much I could say about that.

[42:08]

But one thing that comes to my mind after I say probably one thing It's like a hand of stretching emptiness. Before and after its exquisite peel, it permeates past and future. When we do the ceremony with your mother's name, we save your mother in the past, and we save your mother in the future. There's a past and a future to your mother and a present. So the present is we're doing that ceremony, and then there's the past, when your mother was dead for a certain number of years and then alive for a certain number of years. It pervades all those past times, and it pervades the future of your mother. That's the proposal here. It helps in the three times. And who is there? All your mother, when she's a little girl, is being helped. Your mother, when she was a mother, is being helped.

[43:10]

Your mother, when she was dying, is being helped. And the future of your mother, as your mother progresses toward Buddhahood, you're helping her progress toward Buddhahood by itself. Do you feel that there's somebody who is that person who is progressing towards Buddhahood? There's nobody who is any person. You can't get a hold of anybody. So you are a future Buddha, and I can't get a hold of you now. Plus, I can't get a hold of who you're going to be tomorrow. And I can't get a hold of the Buddha you're going to become. I'm just saying what the ceremony is about. It's about benefiting you in your past and future, benefiting your mother in her past and her future, there never was anything I could get a hold of when your mother was alive. There's nothing I can get a hold of now, and I can't get a hold of the future now, but I can join you in wishing your mother well on her path to Buddhahood, which she's on.

[44:17]

She's on this path, but I can't get a hold of her when I can't get a hold of you. but I still want to help you who I can't get a hold of. Just like I still want to practice the bodhisattva path and I can't get a hold of it. A lot of people say, why would you want to practice something you can't get a hold of? And I would say, yeah, why? I don't know why I'm the way I am. I don't know why I love you, I just do. I don't know why I want to be a bodhisattva, I just do, but I don't know what it is. And the Avatamsaka Sutra is full of these great bodhisattvas saying, I don't know what a great bodhisattva is, but I'm totally into it. I want to be a bodhisattva. I don't know if I am, and I don't know what it is. If I let that stop me, that's too bad. But it doesn't. Partly because I don't want it to stop any of you.

[45:21]

You want to be a bodhisattva just that you don't know what it is. Of course, you have ideas, kind, and so on. But what is that kindness really? That's not so easy. Are you ready? I suppose so. I'll do my best. Here we go. I'll do my best. Here we go. And I'll make a fool of myself. Young age, you mean. Yeah, I hope so. So there have been observations that have been made from the point at which this coming into awareness of awareness being mentioned or a great compassion. When you say coming into awareness, is the awareness you're referring to, like conscious awareness?

[46:26]

No. It's, oh, yeah. Like right now in this room, do you see a bunch of people? What? Do you see some people out there? Is there room of sharing in your lives? Yes. And is there you in your lives? Yes. That's what I would call consciousness. And so some things come into that awareness. Is that what you're trying to do? Yes. And yes, that, well... This, how about this? Are you talking about like coming into this awareness or some other one? Coming into this awareness, or how do I say this? It's like when the teaching came into, like that parents' teaching came into existence within my conscious, Within my consciousness, within the mind.

[47:34]

You say, within my consciousness, and that's what I would call consciousness, where it seems like it's yours. Yes, yes. So an image of the teaching appeared there. Yes, yes, yes. And when that first was termed, that gave rise to... sort of unlocking this ability to that then for that awareness to have although it was already present for it to be aligned or at least for there to be recognition that it is there and that it's all pervading What's the suggestion? So you said that it allowed it to be... He also said that it allowed it to be...

[48:36]

aware that it's aligning with something that's already there. Something that... Yeah, like, for example, compassion might actually, it might be the idea that great compassion is here, that idea that great compassion is here, that might appear in this consciousness. And then you might think, you might think, I'm aligned with it. However, that thought that you're aligned isn't just a thought. Yes. You actually are aligned with it. And the thought that you're aligned with it doesn't knock you out of alignment. You are in alignment with it. Because when it's there, it is in alignment with you, and you can't get away from it. However, alignment, if you don't align yourself with it in the conscious way, if you don't you don't realize that you're already doing that. And you don't realize that great compassion is always painfulness to you. So when it appears in your consciousness that this thing could be there, something that's with you, and is there to liberate you from suffering, that idea appears in your consciousness, and you can still

[49:48]

I'll make an effort to align yourself by simply saying, I wish to align. But to say I am aligned is different because that might confuse you to think that the thought is true. Yes, yes, and I completely... But you're still aligned even though you think you're aligned. And if you think you're not aligned, you're still aligned. And if you have no thoughts like that, you're still aligned. So the alignment is like reality. So then with the consciousness, it is kind of needed that in consciousness we do say, I align myself with it. I pay homage to it. That brings the realization into our life. But you can recognize it, but the recognition isn't it. What it is, is that it homages it.

[50:51]

That proves it, that verifies it, the practice. hearing and for receiving and for... I was gonna say paying homage to Great Compassion and allowing for there to be a correction in the way in which I was speaking. Yeah, we can correct the way we're practicing in consciousness. which I was working with you on. And so I suppose that I wanted to ask this question, which was, actually, no, it was just a comment or something that I'm actually very grateful of, which is this observation of

[52:01]

of great compassion and awareness meeting moments of self-perpetuated pain and delusion and seeing as moments where I feel like I'm hurt and a story arises of a feeling that I am disliked or that I did something, and someone else is feeling some way about it, and they're having thoughts and telling stories about me, and I'm telling a story about how I'm seeing them, and there's this big, huge thing that's happening inside my mind, and then just having, meeting it with great compassion, or a great compassion, knowing that great compassion is meeting it. Yeah, meeting it. And it's not messing with it. It's just meeting, and the meeting liberates those thoughts. All of them. The meeting is what does the work.

[53:04]

And we need to remind ourselves that we want the meeting. I want the meeting. Come on. You're welcome to come. Please come. I pay homage to you to meet, to help this meeting happen. And in great compassion says, Fine. I'm here for you. Thanks for inviting me. Even though I was already here, thanks for inviting me. It's getting late, so let me call the next person, which was... Who was it? Zuzu. Maybe. What's your name, Zuzu? Sometimes. Sometimes. I heard in Hoko's question some of the pain of separation. Yeah. And sometimes, I guess I have a confession to make, the grief that I feel or can feel when I believe myself to be separate can actually be like this really opening cleansing

[54:14]

form of actually being quite grounded and quite stable. And I wonder about that in relationship to communion. that actually the acknowledgment of some form of separate experience and the grief of some form of separate experience is actually what can enable, or I felt enabled, some form of communion. Right. So another way that I've been talking about it is, the first part is confession, and the grief is repentance. I confess saturation, and maybe I confess belief in it. I confess certain tears, and I believe it, and I have grief about them. It's painful for me to believe. I feel sorrow in believing that I suffer. And so the communion is actually this movement through this

[55:18]

One more step. That's your part. You said, oh, all right, there's an appearance of separation. And I most certainly, I believed it. And now I am sorry about believing it. And I'm believing that I believed it. And that, then, you beckon off to the Buddha. That completes the medium. Like right now, you're saying this out loud. So that saying out loud, you're being listened to, and you say that you're being listened to, that's the community. If you can't have the community, you should have something to offer. This is your offer to the community, that you honestly say, this delusion, separation of care, I believed it, and I read it, and I also offer this great compassion.

[56:22]

And that offering verifies the cleanliness. If you don't offer it, it's too much over on you, not enough in relation to it. As if I would say, it wasn't good in me talking to you. Yeah. It looks like he has something more to say. I don't know if I do. But I guess something that comes up is that in order for there to be an outbreak, I wonder if there has to be a separation to occur. No. A great compassion doesn't have any separation from you. and offering himself to you all the time. So you can be with a person and maybe have a sense of separation, but there isn't really any separation. You can think that there is, and you can see, well, there seems to be separation, but I don't believe that. And so I'm with that person, and even if there appears to be separation, I know that's a delusion.

[57:27]

And I keep giving myself to that person just like I would give to myself. So there can't be giving without anything caught up in a sense of separation, including not trying to be giving without trying to get rid of the sense of separation. So we say, Because the three wheels, the emptiness of those three wheels, so the giver, the receiver, and the giver. There's no separation. That's the period. And so that doesn't mean there's no appearance of a giver and a receiver. It's just that we understand that they're not separate. And we still keep giving, even though we're not separate. This is my great compassion, gives without concept. It gives by not being self. It gives intimacy.

[58:30]

But also we get very compassionate with intimacy, too. We give ourselves to that reality, and that reality gives itself to us, and there's no separation. And us often includes the illusion of separation and all the fear and grief that comes with it. Russian is to not be healthy anymore. It's being with us where we are now, with our current cultivation of not falling for this deep delusion of separation, which will come by having a nervous system. Okay, well, thank you so much. I'm just going to stop. And here we go. Together, on the same time.

[59:32]

May our attention be for the sake of the people and the parties. Thank you.

[59:45]

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