Thank you for coming and thanks to Alice and Donna and Leon and Elizabeth and Joe and all of you for organizing this retreat. It was worth the trip. So I came here to study the mind of mountains. I came to study the body of liberation. The mountains are neither sentient nor insentient.

[01:09]

We are neither sentient nor insentient. We are the mountains. The mountains are us. Understanding this is the mind of mountains. There's no mountains aside from us and we have no life separate from the mountains. Realizing this is the body of liberation. I heard somebody say, I don't know if I'm more confused or not. I don't know what that person was talking about. But To be aware of confusion is very helpful. As I said yesterday, to be aware of how words spin us about, to watch how your

[02:12]

Like, I don't know what, thinking of the welfare of beings and then somebody says something to you and you think of perhaps vengeance. Suddenly you're turning from beneficence to vengeance. How did that happen? Well, somebody said something. A word can turn you from wishing to be so kind to wishing to perhaps not be so kind. And then flip again. Oh no, actually, I remember now what I want to do. We live in this karmic consciousness which is excited and disorienting. We're trying to learn a way to row the boat of compassion in this rough situation and stay with our job. when we see the really rough waters up ahead and just stay here and pay attention to how to take care of things skillfully.

[03:19]

Yesterday I wrote on the board there KC with a circle around it which means karmic consciousness. It's a word, it's a word, a couple of words describing the situation of living beings. Living beings live within this, within a conscious enclosure where they imagine, for example, that they're separate from each other, that they're separate from the mountains, and so on. And this karmic consciousness arises, one of the main things it depends on is past karmic consciousnesses. We think karmically, we think in language because we have thought in language in the past. When we are living in this world of language, there's consequences. Language is an action in our mind and our body and our mouth.

[04:21]

And it has consequences. Those who have become free of karmic consciousness has sent us a message. And the message is, karmic activity has consequence. And the consequence is that it supports theorizing of further karmic consciousness and so on. It makes a cycle where there's birth and death. And in that realm we have problems. So how can we become liberated from these problems and help others to become liberated from these problems is a question which has been raised. And it's a desire which has arisen in some of us. This liberation arises by listening to the teachings and listening to the teachings and listening to the teachings about the nature of mind and how to practice with the mind in order to realize the teachings of the nature of the mind.

[05:36]

So we listen to the teachings of the nature of the mind, but we also have to practice teachings with our current situation in order to prepare the ground for these teachings to penetrate us And this morning I wrote on a piece of paper here, I wrote, I run out of space so it's kind of scribbled, but basically here's what I wrote. Words and phrases are discriminating consciousness. And words and phrases liberate discriminating consciousness. So words and phrases are karmic consciousness. Words and phrases are the working of the mind which encloses us, and wherein we imagine separation from our work in each other.

[06:41]

There's not a consciousness in words and phrases. Words and phrases are consciousness, a discriminating consciousness. deluded consciousness, confused consciousness, karmic consciousness, defiled consciousness, that limiting, constricting consciousness is words and phrases, I'm now enacting that situation, but also there's a teaching which has come which says these words themselves which are liberating consciousness, the words can liberate discriminating consciousness. In other words, discriminating consciousness, when it receives certain teachings, can liberate discriminating consciousness. So we talk. The Buddha Shakyamuni, one of his names is Shakyamuni. Muni means silent one.

[07:42]

And the silent one talks. The Buddha has no words. The Buddha is silent. And the silence is not without words. It has no words, doesn't have any words, but it can speak words. And the words it speaks are to liberate beings from words, which means liberate beings from consciousness. But liberation does not mean killing consciousness. So we practice ethics towards that which we hope to release or to be released with. We're kind to karmic consciousness. We're compassionate to karmic consciousness. And for compassionate karmic consciousness, teachings about the nature of karmic consciousness will be realized, not in karmic consciousness, but with karmic consciousness, because the teachings aren't really in or outside of karmic consciousness.

[08:51]

Karma consciousness thinks things are inside and outside. But when you're free of karma consciousness, you're free of inside and outside. And again, I... I mentioned that one of the ancestors of the Zen tradition said, you know, where are all the Buddhas born? And then he's asked that question in Chinese, and then he answered in Chinese, eastern mountains travel over the water. And then I calligraphed this, and I wanted to tell you that it says up here, you might not be able to read it, but it says, I intended to write, eastern mountains travel over the water. That's what I intended to write here. And then I dot the bottom, it says the whole works. And the whole works is an English translation of the part of the Buddhist name that Suzuki Reshi gave me.

[10:00]

It's Zenki, which can be translated the whole works. So I wrote my name at the bottom since I tried to write this up here. And this square red seal here says, is a Chinese character, Zenki, which means the whole works, to be translated as the whole works. And the red seal in the center is a seal for the characters, the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Jewel. And if you look at the character, it looks like, if he looks like mountains traveling over the water. So again, I just wanted to tell you that for those of you who would like one, there's more here for you. All day long we have the opportunity to take care of, to be compassionate with, confused, turbulent, karmic consciousness.

[11:15]

All day long we have the opportunity to practice enlightening virtues with what's going on in consciousness. taking care of, words and phrases, taking care of current consciousness, we will arrive at the time and place where Buddhas are born. So, that phrase I just mentioned was a response to the question, where are the Buddhas born? They are born, where are they born? Eastern mountains move over the water. And yesterday I also mentioned that in order to find the place where the mountains move over the water, we need to take care of the mountains.

[12:21]

We need to be good mothers and fathers, good caregivers of the mountains. And those mountains and these mountains, all mountains. And if we take care of the mountains, we walk to the foot of the mountains where the mountains touch the waters which are liberating, the waters of reality. The mountains are always touching the waters and moving over the waters. Our common consciousness is never separate. reality is never separate from buddha's but we have to completely be our karmic consciousness in order to feel the touch of liberation if we're half-hearted about our confusion then we're going to be half-hearted about our relationship with what's right there with us and how do we

[13:29]

How do we wholeheartedly embrace and care for the mountains? How do we wholeheartedly embrace and care for our mind? Well, by doing... First of all, it might be good to check and see if you would like to wholeheartedly embrace the mountains. Would you like to totally walk from the top of the mountain all the way to the bottom? Would you like to Yeah, would you like to fully engage your body and mind with the mountain? And would you like to do this in order to benefit all beings? The San Francisco Giants were in a playoff series with the Cincinnati Reds, and the Cincinnati Reds came to San Francisco, and the way things worked out is that Karmic Consciousness said that the Cincinnati Reds won the first two games.

[14:39]

And a lot of the people in the stadium in San Francisco were very quiet. And then one of the players on the San Francisco team said something like to the other players before the third game, which they went to Cincinnati to play. So they played two games in San Francisco, and the Reds got more runs than the Giants, so the Reds won those two games. And they went to Cincinnati. which has a reputation of a place where that team wins most of the games. And it looked like the Giants were done for. And one of the players gave a little pep talk. I don't know how he happened to give a... I don't know why they let him give a pep talk. Maybe he's a... I don't know, maybe he's a meditator or something. Anyway, he gave a talk to the team, and he said something like, All we can do is go out there and play for each other, not for ourselves.

[15:46]

And we can only win the moment. That's all we got. So Deepavata was pretty encouraging. I don't know if he said more, but that's the part that somebody sent me. It was Hunter Pence. Hunter Pence, yeah. And I heard that he's been giving pep talks. He has. Right at that moment. They win? They win. Yeah, they won three games in a row. And, you know, I was listening to my, I overheard some people, and one of them's sometimes called my grandson, and the other one's called my son-in-law. And my grandson said to my son-in-law, do you think they can win after losing the first two games? And the son-in-law said, I don't think so. But it would be exciting if they did it. And he said to me, do you think that Giants can do okay in the playoffs?

[16:48]

And I said, well, you know, it's, last time when they did well, it was like, it was kind of like magic. It was like, it wasn't really about, it was something really big. How that stuff works out is somehow at that level, at that level of play, something else starts happening more than usual. And I think, I feel like at that level of play, the players and the audience are very concentrated. And I think there's a lot of generosity and I think a lot of concern for the welfare of the team and others. And something like that happens on both sides usually, that people get focused in a really good place. and these miraculous physical and mental mountains start walking and dancing in amazing ways, so I don't really know what's happened.

[17:53]

And I try not to, I really don't want to wish anybody to do not well. I want everybody to do well. But I must confess, if I know somebody quite well, it's easier for me to focus on wishing them well. So it's nice to get to know people well so you can wish for everybody to do really well. Come on, you know, this is your chance, do really, come on, do your thing. And then they do it and it's like, wow. I wonder if that had anything to do with me wishing them well. I don't know. I thought... So these teachings, in order to let them penetrate, we have to be concentrated.

[18:55]

Actually, it's kind of an opportunity for me to have this new vocal setup. I have to be more concentrated when I speak. I have to find where there's some resonance opportunities. If I miss, the air goes flying off and doesn't touch anything. It's moving in different ways, so I need to concentrate. This is kind of like Big So, see, so where is it? It's around, oh there it is, I can talk there. So it helps me concentrate. And I hope to encourage you to concentrate today so that you can hear what you're thinking and hear what you think I'm saying.

[20:06]

I need you to concentrate in order for these teachings to really enter you and then carry with you. The lady yesterday said she was taking notes, and I said, well, just let go. You can take notes, but let go of these teachings. It's the best way to let them come in deeper. thank you and then let go and actually they they they go in deeper you think if you think if you're squeezing you'll keep them longer but actually they'll they'll penetrate you more deeply if you say just let them in and then let go of them and they penetrate more than just in the gripping area so again how how do we

[21:12]

How do we embrace, how do we engage seeing and hearing and so on? How do we embrace the mountain holy? By doing the practice of checking to see if you want to. First is aspiration. Do you wish to fully engage your phenomenal life all the way to the bottom of it where you'll meet a water of reality and liberation? If you do, then the next thing would be perhaps to practice giving up any attempt to get anything out of the practice of embracing the mountain. Of course you want to liberate all beings because you just said you did.

[22:18]

You do aspire to that. And then, if you do, then let go of trying to get anything out of that. Give up thinking that this liberation of all beings and benefit of all beings, give up, let go of, in a kind way, let go of believing that that liberation is separate from you now. If you wish to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings, if that's what you want, then start by remembering that the Buddhas that you wish to realize are not apart from you. It's wonderful that someone might wish to embrace the mountains fully for the welfare of all beings and try to get that.

[23:28]

That's really quite wonderful. But it's more wonderful to do that without trying to get that, to do it without trying to get it. to do it and remember that what you're trying to get is not separate from you, because if it really was, it wouldn't be possible to realize it. It's not separate. What we want is our true nature. That's what we want. But it's difficult to be present fully Period. But that's the first step, in a way, after clarifying that you wish to be fully engaged with your life moment by moment.

[24:35]

You can, in a sense, you can win the moment. You can fully live the moment. But if you try to get full living in the moment, it makes a little bit of a discrepancy. And a little discrepancy is enough to make a big discrepancy. And we can be wholehearted. It's possible. But start with, in some sense, that understanding in some sense that discriminating consciousness is an illusion. That the discrimination between yourself and Buddhas, or between delusion and enlightenment, the discrimination between them is a delusion. Does that make sense?

[25:37]

The discrimination between delusion and enlightenment is a discrimination. Enlightenment is a non-discrimination between enlightenment and delusion. So enlightenment's not trying to get away from delusion, but delusion sometimes is trying to get away from delusion in order to get with enlightenment that it thinks it's separate from. It wants to get away from what it's not separate from to get together with what it thinks is separate, but enlightenment's not trying to get away from anything. It's actually the not being away from anything and also the not being with anything. In other words, it's free of all these categories of with and not with and so on. But we live in the realm of with and not with, inside, outside. And if we're kind to that, We will become free of it. But first, again, start the kindness practice with understanding that the sense that we're going to go someplace or we're going to get better or worse or that what's going to happen is separate from what we are now.

[26:52]

Try to let go of that at the beginning and at the middle and at the end. At the end, you'll realize it. But now, while you still think that there's such a thing as separation, just say, okay, separation, I renounce you. I don't hate you. I just let go of you. And you may come back because you've been there almost all the time, so you'll probably come back, but I'll just keep letting go of you. I'll let go of that discrimination between myself and Buddhas, between myself and others. I'm going to let go of it. And if it comes back, if I really let go, I'm not going to be that upset that it comes back. If you renounce trouble, if you renounce it, then you also renounce complaining when it appears again. If you try to get rid of it, then of course you're quite upset when it comes back. But renouncing isn't trying to get rid of. That's still your... If you try to get rid of delusion, of gaining something by practice,

[27:57]

The delusion just got you. The delusion says, oh, success again. Somebody said that yesterday I reminded them that I was channeling Johnny Carson. I don't know what I just said there, that thing about, oh, I got that thing. Was that Johnny Carson? No. It wasn't Johnny Carson. I don't know what that Johnny Carson part is. He let me know. Yes, Paulie? Hey, here he comes, without even being reminded of his invitation. This is Paul, right? Right. Not really, but that's his name. But it is right. It is right. We could do this again now. Is it really? It still is. This morning you've been talking a lot, and yesterday, you've been talking a lot about realization.

[29:05]

Really? Yes. I've very much been taking in realization stuff, and about the preparation for realization, and concentration. And concentration. And I, in my practice, spend much more time, as I've told you in previous years, on ethics and acting, which I'm seeing, I'm hearing some parallel, yes? Did you say you've been concentrating on ethics and action? Yes, yes. Wonderful. I would never stop you from liberating me.

[30:08]

And it feels, this morning, in hearing the talk about realization, that the steps that I've been taking towards ethics of first making sure I actually want to do it, And then not being attacked. And you say it being ethics. Yeah, a particular ethics. Maybe today is generosity day or compassion day or whatever. A precept. A precept, yeah. That you wish to practice. So you check to see, do I wish to practice that today? And then I often say yes. And then as I'm practicing, I feel like if I'm trying too hard and maybe let that go, So I think that's where, for me, where ethics is different from realization in the way that you've been talking about it this morning, in that ethics has an action behind it.

[31:12]

If I'm going to be generous, I do something generously. If I'm going to be thoughtful, I will do something thoughtfully. And so I'm trying, I guess my question for you then is, with realization, which just appears or not, how is that different from ethics, if I'm starting from ethics and not from realization? The first response is, realization is not different from anything from the perspective of realization. Ethics is realization. But before ethics comes to its full fruit, which is realization, The incomplete embracing of ethics can allow the thought that there's some separation between ethics and realization.

[32:12]

There isn't. Even in the most beginning attempts to practice ethics, there's no separation between ethics and realization. Realization cannot be separated from anything. You're never apart from realization. However, karmic consciousness can think that you're apart, and karmic consciousness can think that you're not apart. When it thinks that you're not a part, it actually, that thought agrees with reality. When it thinks that you are a part, my ethics practice is kind of like pretty beginning level. It's not the level at which I aspire to. I forget or whatever. And when I'm forgetting, then it's easy to think perhaps, since I forgot ethics, I probably suffered from realizations. But that's just a thought. The only way there's a separation between Buddhas and sentient beings is that sentient beings think so and believe it.

[33:15]

But that's not a real separation, that's just an imaginary separation. And still, because there's no separation, it's possible to keep working on ethics for You know, because there's no separation between ethics and realization, we don't feel like, well, I'll do, well, we shouldn't say we don't feel like, but even if we feel like, geez, I'm not making much progress on ethics, realization says, well, just keep working at it. You know? Realization says, I'm supporting you. Keep it up. Thanks for doing a little bit. I'm not exactly thanking you for forgetting to do it, but I'm telling you that now that you forgot to do it and you noticed it, that's normal. The great ancestors have also forgotten. And we have a practice when you forget ethics or when your ethics is not quite complete.

[34:16]

but your ethics isn't so complete that it's obvious that it's, it's just completely clear that it's realization itself. Because it's so complete that it's like totally ungraspable and boundless, and the mountains and rivers are dancing in the water, you know. You might think, well that looks like realization. And that thought, That seems like realization. It's also not separate from realization. But the thought, finally there's realization, that's not realization. That's not realization, and that's not realization. Also it's not realization, and so on. But it's not the tiniest bit separate from realization. All your thoughts about, this is realization, this is not, none of those thoughts are separate from realization, and none of them are realizations. They aren't bad. They're just not separate from realization. Some of them are kind of good. Some of them are really wonderful. Some of those, for me, actually become the intention for ethics.

[35:25]

Some of the what? Some of the thoughts of realization. Some of the, oh, I had a realization. Oh, but I haven't been doing my ethics practice. That's almost a reminder of, hey, I had a realization. I should do an ethics practice. The deluded thought that you had a realization could be very encouraging to your practice of ethics. Right. And that shows how the deluded thought, hey, I got it, actually was not separate from realization because that The deluded thought actually got you to do what is not separate from realization also. But we are not going to understand the non-separation of our life from realization if we don't practice ethics. It's a little twist there, you know? You've got to practice ethics in a deluded way to realize they're not separate. If you, in a deluded way, don't practice ethics, that's not going to work.

[36:27]

If you don't practice ethics, you think that's separate from realization, too. People who don't practice ethics, they also think they're separate from realization. If you examine the real life, even if you say, I don't practice ethics, plus I also don't practice realization, if you look carefully, You might find out that they actually do think that it's separate. But maybe in some cases, in some great mastery, you might look very deeply and find out, oh, they don't practice ethics, and they don't practice, and they don't think there's a separation from realization, and they're not practicing ethics. You might find that and say, wow, how did that work? You say, well, because realization is ethics, but I don't practice either. But most of us are not there. Most of us are. We want to practice ethics because we realize that if we don't, we keep forgetting about the non-separation of this and total liberation and total love for all beings and so on, and fearlessness and stuff like that.

[37:35]

And when we do practice ethics, we feel oftentimes really encouraged. And when we do have a sense of realization, we think, I think ethics would be good. But sometimes people do have a sense of realization and think, I don't need them anymore. That can happen too. But fortunately, it hasn't happened to you lately. Right. It's been a long time since I've felt like that I don't need to be doing ethics. So people who think they have realization and don't need ethics, you should encourage them to go talk to somebody. about that. Maybe even you say you're worried about them because this is called nihilism, where they have a sense of liberation or, you know, freedom from all problems, and they think they don't have to practice ethics. In other words, they think this realization doesn't require the actual action. They may say, I have realization, and this realization is not separate from ethics, but aren't due ethics anymore. Mm-hmm. Realization allows you to plunge into ethics wholeheartedly.

[38:42]

What you're doing. I feel like I am a lot. Sometimes. Maybe a lot, but sometimes. Great. I'm happy to hear that. Thank you. I don't know how that happened, but it's great. I don't remember how it happened either, and that's even better. I can't reproduce it. So is it clear how to fully embrace the mountain? First of all, do you want to? And what's the reason you want to? Do you feel that fully embracing the mountains will bring the liberation of all beings? And do you want that? So that's for you to keep checking. That's keeping, that's checking your aspiration.

[39:48]

And if so, then you go to work and the first practice is generosity. Generosity towards the moments. Next practice is, and generosity is part of ethics in this program. But there's another kind of ethics, which is ethics in terms of like what Paul was saying. being careful of all your actions, all your thoughts, all your speech, and all your postures, to be careful of them, which requires some mindfulness and presence. But also, in order to be effective at that, you need to be generous. You need to give yourself to what's happening. It's hard to be careful of what you're doing. It's hard to be careful of how you relate to people if you don't actually accept what's going on. So first of all, let what's happening really be here, and then be careful of how you deal with it. It's possible to be generous and also be kind of uncareful.

[40:51]

Some people are really generous, but they're a little bit uncareful after they're generous. Like, you know, some people over, you know, they get too much. They give before they, you know, are careful with how they give. You know, they could spill hot water on somebody. So after being generous, then we practice being careful and conscientious and mindful, and then practice patience, and then practice, again, going back now to your aspiration. Oh, why am I doing these practices again? Oh, yeah. because they benefit suffering beings and also so they set the stage for refueling aspiration and moving on to concentration. So fully embracing the mountains requires concentration. In order to understand fully our moment-by-moment life, we need to be concentrated.

[41:53]

And concentration is focused. So we need to be focused. So if you're a male and you get to go in the men's bathroom, you have these urinals. And when you're at the urinal, there's a wall in front of you. You get to pay attention. There's a wall there. And you get to be aware of your posture. while you're standing in front of the wall. This is a traditional Zen practice. You know, when you're looking at a wall, to be aware you're looking at a wall. I'm a Zen student, I sit there, spend many thousands of hours facing the wall, but when I go in the bathroom I don't face the wall, no. I go in the bathroom, I continue to practice meditation, In the bathroom, there's a wall there to remind me. And this is a meditation opportunity too. The women, I know you don't face the wall usually.

[42:53]

You have the door. You have the door. Yes, the door. So you look at the door, set your concentration to practice, and then you open the door. So concentration is part of walking to the bottom of the mountains where the Buddhas are born. But concentration is also being flexible and open. It's not a rigid focus. It's a focus, and when you get focused, then you're more open than usual. Usually, if you're not focused, your mind's like somewhat selecting and pushing some things away, but when you're focused, there's no defensiveness anymore at all. balanced focus you're not overly focused so you're ignoring you're not rejecting you're just present and open and relaxed and now there's lots of possibilities for example the possibility that you're mostly or entirely diluted

[43:58]

And in concentration, which is sponsored by generosity, ethics, patience, and aspiration, you can tolerate that possibility. It isn't that you grasp that possibility, yes, I am totally deluded. It would be a little bit or a lot deluded to grasp I'm totally deluded. Just be open to it. It's a teaching. Your teaching is you're totally deluded. It's one of the teachings. It's not really true. It's just something you have to be open to. If you're not open to be totally deluded, then you're going to be a little bit deluded anyway in your lack of openness to that teaching. So I'm not saying I'm not totally deluded and I'm not saying I am totally deluded. I'm saying in my whatever deluded I am, I think it's cool to say I wish and I wish other people to be open.

[45:11]

possibility that they are deluded. Most people are open to the possibility that other people are deluded. That's a big thing that's going on now, right? A lot of people think those people are deluded. I can't believe how deluded they are. And those people think those people that think we're deluded are really deluded. So a lot of people think other people are deluded. But I don't hear them saying, well, maybe I am too. I think it's really cool to be open to the possibility that I'm deluded. And I think I appreciate remembering that almost all the time. Not that I'm always thinking of it, but maybe I try to walk in a way that kind of demonstrates to me and others that I'm remembering that I'm deluded. But what way of walking that? Is it crawling on the ground? Is it like banging my head with my cane?

[46:14]

No, I think walking upright is a good way to demonstrate that I remember that I'm deluded. I try to remember to walk upright because I'm deluded. And I also walk upright because my delusion is not separate from enlightenment. So being upright, I'm open to being deluded and I'm open to being enlightened I'm open to being humble, that I'm a deluded sentient being, and I'm open to being non-separate from Buddhas. So I work on my posture as a way to remind myself without necessarily thinking, I'm deluded, I'm deluded, I'm deluded. But this posture, if you come up to me and say, Mr. Deluded, I can say, yes, did you talk to me? As a matter of fact, I was. Or, no, I wasn't. Oh, okay. Okay. Mr. Confused? Yes.

[47:15]

Mr. Buddha? Yes. Great Teacher? Yeah. Stupid Idiot? Yes. How's it going? Any response that you'd like to offer to me to help me understand whether any other way I can offer you anything? Any questions? Please come. I have a confession. to the right place.

[48:20]

I have joined a club that's kind of called the winter of my years, the old folks. And so I'm in that group that sometimes traditionally looks at things and say, boy, it's pretty bad now. And I was talking to Justin and he told me that he and Tiffany had a brand new baby. Congratulations. And I thought that is that is that moment just after the falling in love and getting married of supreme optimism. But In this old folks club that I'm in, I hear this remark coming from me about how the Middle East is diluted and the United States, middle of the country, is diluted.

[49:32]

And I worry about the future. And then you said to us yesterday that the mountains and the rivers and the whole earth are born when each human being or each entity is born, born anew. Together. Together. And that gives me great hope. But I needed to confess to you that I often feel despair And that despair is born together with the mountains and the rivers and the trees and the great earth. It's born together with that despair. And the Buddhas are practicing with the person who's feeling despair.

[50:33]

So the baby. The baby, the despair baby. No, the true baby, the new baby in our Sangha, our temporary Sangha here. The despair when it arises is a true baby. It's a fresh, it's a fresh despair in an old folk. A fresh old folk with a fresh despair. That's a precious baby. It's a precious baby. It deserves as much love as this baby, which is called six weeks old. They both deserve the same treatment, exactly the same treatment. Ah. Okay, my old story is not to like the bad thought. Yeah. and that thought not to like it, that's another baby, a precious, that's precious.

[51:47]

The baby, I don't like despair, I don't like the bad thought, that baby, from the point of view of Buddha, that baby is as precious as this perfect little baby. It's as precious, they're both opportunities for compassion and they're both opportunities for wisdom and liberation. But we're set up in one sense to have it a little easier to take care of the newborn baby sometimes than the grumpy old lady. But even though it might be easier sometimes with the baby than with the old lady, but sometimes it switches. Sometimes mothers want to kill their babies. who are just saying, mommy, [...] and driving mommy crazy. Mommy wants to get rid of the baby. Doesn't want to be kind to the baby because the baby's driving mommy to the edge of her nervous system. And sometimes when the old lady is complaining, sometimes somebody says, oh, how adorable, how precious.

[52:55]

That's the right attitude, always. But still, how precious doesn't mean you don't say, I totally disagree with you, baby. I totally disagree with you, granny. You can disagree from a place of complete appreciation of the opportunity of despair or whatever. You can still say, no, I don't agree. Or, you know, I have a different view, which I offer you as a gift because you're such a great opportunity. I'm going to give you the best thing I can get you, which is my honesty. I'm not trying to manipulate you. This is an expression of my appreciation of where you're at. You do the same thing with yourself. And will you kindly repeat that teaching from yesterday about the mountains and the rivers and the whole earth?

[53:57]

Will you say that phrase again? The mountains and rivers and the whole earth are born together at the same moment as each person. And that's true, you know, at the birth of a baby, and that's true every moment in our life. And the Buddhas are practicing together with each person in each moment. And people have some doubts about that. And the ancestors say, well, if you doubt this, how can you understand it? You can understand it by saying to yourself, the mountains, the rivers, and the great earth are born together at the same moment as each person. Like that's why I said, Leibniz said, if you don't understand it, there memorize it it's not that you hold on to the teaching to understand it it's that you listen to it over and over and over you spend your time listening to the teachings that you don't understand if you understand the teachings say thank you and let go of it and then it goes deeper you don't have to keep listening to it necessarily once you understand it think but you have to let go of it

[55:18]

Then it goes deeper. And if it ever pops up again, say, thanks, that's one of my favorites. Let go of it. The ones you don't understand, keep saying to yourselves over and over until you say, oh my God, that's my life. Say, got it? Say it. That's my life. Yeah, but say the thing that's your life. Hmm. The mountains and rivers and the great earth are born at the same moment as every person, and the Buddhas are practicing with every person at every moment. Practicing together. Practicing together. It isn't just that the Buddha, you've got the person, the Buddha's practicing with you. The Buddha's practicing together with you. Together. Together. They're going where you go, they go. Together. Together. And they're not arguing with you, they go with you. Together. We're doing it together. And we're being born together with the mountains. Together. Born together at the same moment.

[56:19]

Together. It isn't just that we're born and they're born at the same time. We're born together. There's no birth of mountains without us. There's no such thing. And there's no us without mountains. There's no Buddhas without us. We're born together. The practice of Buddhas is the same practice that we're doing. It isn't like they've got this really great practice. It is like they have this really great practice, they do have a great practice, but their practice is the same as ours. It isn't like they've got a great practice and ours is something else. It includes all of our beginning, middle and advanced efforts. It doesn't go away from us when we forget the practice. It's the same practice as we're doing. They're doing it together. It's the same practice. And our enlightenment is the same as the Buddha's enlightenment. Our level of enlightenment is the same as theirs. Except that theirs is not just our level of enlightenment, but everybody's level of enlightenment.

[57:23]

Whereas ours, we sometimes don't see that it's everybody's. We think ours is lower or higher than somebody. That's our level. So they're born together with us at the same time, and Buddhists are practicing together with us. That Buddhist practice is to practice together with everybody. But sentient beings have to learn that. And the way you do it is by you practice together with everything that happens to you. So if it's despair, you practice with that. If it's wanting to get rid of despair, you practice with that. These are all your babies that you learned to practice to take care of, but not clinging to them, not being possessive of your good and bad states. That's part of fully embracing the mountain of despair. Beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful. And it's beautiful beyond beautiful too.

[58:25]

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I was sitting on the floor one day in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is kind of in the middle of the country, but up in the north part, where people are frozen into enlightenment. And it was winter. Actually, it was March. Yeah, it was winter, yeah. It was actually a little bit, it was the end of February. I'm sitting on the floor and on a bed in front of me was one of my teachers, Kadagiri Roshi. And he was getting close to passing away. He started to get cold. And his wife was sitting next to me. And a few days before, his and her first grandchild had been born, a little boy.

[59:33]

And his wife said to me, when the baby's born, people are usually happy. And when the husband dies, people are usually unhappy. But both the husband and the baby are having a really hard time. It's really stressful to go through this. It's hard to say who's having the harder time. They're both going through this tremendous, intense change process. But we who are watching may think, in one case, happy because we're getting something, in the other case, unhappy because we're losing something. But it's really, in some sense, she said, it's really kind of the same for the people. That's what she said. And I, in my ad, you know, we need to join that.

[60:35]

We need to embrace both situations so we don't get happy with one and unhappy with the other, but become liberated with both, liberated with birth and death. But it's not easy. although we're happy with the baby being born, you know, the happiness may be changed by, you know, feeling like, I got this baby. I got the baby. Rather than, I got the baby and I go with the baby, I go with the happiness. And the same on the other side. Please come. My father had a saying in this vein. Your father? Yes, he had a saying in this vein. He says, when you're born, you cry and the world rejoices.

[61:39]

Live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. Lovely. Shall we do some walking meditation now?

[62:15]

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