Someone asked recently, how does this practice help others? And I said, this practice. And I don't remember exactly what he said. It was something like, being mindful of He said some other things too that he meant when he said this practice.

[01:07]

And I said, so you can maybe add some other things you might want to add on to that as this practice, whatever practice you do. That make sense? And then after you finish the list, I would say to you, well, does that practice help you? And he said, I think so. And I said, well, I think I feel a little bit more calm and relaxed and patient. And you can add to the list of ways you feel that some practice helps you. And then I said to him, well, when you do that practice and you feel like that sort of when you practice that way, do you think that makes it so you can be more helpful to others?

[02:22]

And he said, yeah, I think so. And then he said something like, is it that direct? And I said, well, it can be. You can see it that way. Does that make sense to you? In other words, it's possible to view your activity as your activity and see that some ways of acting seem helpful, beneficial, seem healthy.

[03:24]

And that when you're doing those practices that seem in accord with being healthy and skillful feeling well, that that might make you, in some cases, better service to others. And I've heard and I've read that the founder of the Buddhist tradition, Shakyamuni Buddha, did apparently teach people ways of taking care of themselves, which made them more readily able to care well for others. I like this.

[04:28]

It's an example he used of acrobats. So he told the story about these acrobats. There was some acrobats. They were called bamboo acrobats. And apparently one of their feats was that the male acrobat would put a bamboo pole on his top of his head. And the female acrobat, whose name, by the way, was Frying Pan, would climb up the pole and bounce at the top of the bamboo pole on top of his head. And they would put this demonstration out in public and give presentations to them. And so they made a living being acrobats in that way. And one day as she was climbing up on his shoulders to mount the bamboo pole, he said, now you watch out for me and I'll watch out for you.

[05:40]

That way we'll be able to successfully do our feat, collect our money and go home. And she said, a venerable master. he was the acrobat, she was actually an acrobat apprenticed. She said, venerable teacher, may I ask you, you've got it wrong. You look after yourself and I'll look after myself and that way you can take care of me and I'll take care of you. And the Buddha said, the apprenticed is right. The teacher, you look after me and I'll look after you. She said, no, you look after you and that'll take care of me. You take care of yourself, you know, beware of your body and posture and how you're holding that thing on your head. That's what you should do and that will take care of me and I'll go up there and that will take care of you.

[06:42]

And the Buddha says, she's right. And he said, and how do you take care of yourself so that you can take care of others? And he says, by practicing the four foundations of mindfulness. Like this conversation I was referring to before. By being mindful of your posture and your breathing, being mindful of your feelings and emotions, being mindful of how you're functioning, that makes you, that's good for you and that makes you more readily able to Being aware of your discomfort, being mindful of it, helps you practice patience with it. And being patient with what you're mindful of, your discomforts, then you're better able to take care of others, and so on. Does that make sense? So how do you take care of yourself so you can take care of others?

[07:44]

Well, by being aware of yourself. That's how you take care of yourself to take care of others. And then he says, and how do you take care of others in order to take care of yourself? Well, the way you take care of others is to be patient with them and to be kind to them and gentle with them and nonviolent with them. If you're patient and gentle and kind and nonviolent with people, that takes care of them, but that also takes care of you. And if you take care of yourself by practicing mindfulness, then you can be patient and gentle and kind and non-violent. Because actually being mindful of yourself is being patient and gentle and non-violent with your own experience. Learn on yourself how to be non-violent. I just wanted to mention briefly that in order to be nonviolent, we need to be fearless.

[08:56]

And that's a big attainment. But anyway, so I mentioned that. People want to be nonviolent. A lot of people want to be nonviolent. And they especially want people to be nonviolent with them. But if other people are afraid, it's hard for them to be nonviolent with you. And if you're afraid, sometimes it's hard to be non-violent with others. So part of the way you take care of yourself so that you can take care of others is to be mindful of your own fear. By being mindful with your own fear, you can be gentle and patient with your own fear and you can achieve fearlessness. And when you're fearless, you can be non-violent with yourself and others. So, Because you're aware of yourself, you don't trip over yourself while you're trying to help others. You're totally engaged with your own experience so you can care for others. And when you do it patiently, nonviolently, fearlessly, gently, and lovingly, that totally takes care of you.

[10:08]

So it really goes round and round. And the Buddha taught this way to people. And this way of teaching to people was teaching the way this person was talking to me about. In a sense, it's teaching from the perspective of what the individual can do that would be helpful to themselves and others. What the individual can do that would be helpful to others and helpful to themselves. That's what the Buddha teaches. The Buddha teaches this way particularly to people who see the world that way. What way? Who see the world as a place that they live in, where they do things by their own power. Where they see that they do actions by their own power. And then the Buddha teaches those who see the world as a place where they live independent of other people,

[11:13]

And when they do actions independent of other people, hopefully, it benefits them beneficially. But they have this perspective of doing things from this person who is separate from other persons, and this person who is separate from all Buddhas. This is the normal point of view of human beings. that you're separate, and to perceive that others are separate from you. This is normal. It's innate. And Buddha teaches to people who see the world that way, and most of us can see the world that way, and most of us can only see the world that way. So Buddha teaches us who see the world that way how to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others. and teaches us a practice that takes care of us and benefits others. mentioned quite a few times, but not every time he talked this way.

[12:27]

He also taught that this approach to practice, although it is beneficial and meritorious and virtuous and actually will lead to liberation eventually, The mode of practice is tainted. It's tainted by the misconception that the practitioner is separate from other beings. It's tainted by the view of an independently existing . However, even though it's tainted, if you follow this skillful practice, it will lead you to a practice that is not tainted. So the Buddha teaches, for example, these four foundations of mindfulness. And they're within the big picture of the Eightfold Path. And he teaches the Eightfold Path. And the Eightfold Path is right view, right intention,

[13:33]

Right livelihood? Right speech? Right action? Usually right action is, not to criticize you, but right action is usually third. So usually it's right, what? Right view? Right, right, right, right speech, right, right, effort, right, mindfulness, Right. Okay. Got it? Right. [...] Mindfulness. Right. She said right wisdom. All these mindfulness practices are wisdom practices.

[14:39]

Right. [...] Yeah, all those are wisdom practices actually. But even though we're included with that wisdom path are concentration practices and precept practices. But anyway, under the mindfulness practice are the four foundations of mindfulness, okay? So that's the Eightfold Path. And the Buddha then says, okay, that's the Eightfold Path. Now, what's wrong? So he talked about right view. The first thing he says, what's wrong view? Well, Wrong view is the view that whatever you do doesn't matter. You can do whatever you want, doesn't matter. There's no consequences of what you do, so don't worry. That's wrong view. Wrong view is also that it's not possible to achieve enlightenment.

[15:45]

That's wrong view, etc. Then he says, what's right view? Right view is that actions do have consequence. But there is cause and effect. The world is a place where there's interdependent causation. That's right view. And right view is also that it is possible to attain supreme perfect enlightenment, and so on. And then he goes on to talk about what's wrong intention. Well, wrong intention is, for example, to want to hurt people, to have violent thoughts towards people. It's wrong intention. Right intention is to want to be non-violent, to want to be kind, to want to protect life. That's called right intention, and so on. All right? So he goes through the list of what's right and what's wrong. But then he says, after he says what's right intention, he says, and there's two kinds of right intention. There's one kind of right intention or right view. is tainted.

[16:45]

The other kind of right view is not tainted. One kind of right intention is tainted. The other kind is not tainted. It's still right view. And right view, if you practice right view, the consequences are beneficial. And the benefit comes back, he says, the benefit comes back. Where does the benefit come back to? Guess. You, yes, that's close, you. No, it comes back to you who is separate from other beings. It comes back, he says, you write about it, it comes back to you, but he actually said, if you do right action, if you do right intention, if you do right speech, if you do right livelihood, you do all these things, the benefit, the merit, the virtue of these practices comes back to the point of attachment. That's what he said. It comes back to the point of attachment.

[17:47]

Attachment to what? To the idea of an independently existing person. That's where it comes back to. And you might think, that doesn't sound too bad. If I do good things, the merit comes back to me. But it is fine. It is good. But it's tainted. It's tainted because of that. Then he says, what's right? It's not tainted. Well, it's also, he doesn't say it's meritorious. He just says, it's liberation. It's freedom. It's nearby. And he doesn't say that it comes back to the point of attachment. It doesn't come back to the point of attachment because there's no attachment. It doesn't come back to the individual person. It's liberation. It's not liberation for... He didn't say it's liberation for the one who is attached to herself. It's just liberation from... It's basically liberation from being alone in the universe all by your tough self.

[18:48]

It's freedom from delusion. It's freedom from attachment to the idea of being an independent person, which means it's freedom from fear the fear that comes with being independent. And as long as we think we're independent, we're threatened by fear, and therefore we're potential violent beings. So anyway, the untainted Eightfold Path not practiced from the point of view of an individual person. The early Buddhist teachings taught this, but they also taught a path that you can do under the auspices of thinking that you're an independent person. And you can still do a lot of good in this world while you're carrying around this idea that you're independent of the rest of the world. You can still do a lot of good if you do these practices, the Eightfold Path, from you by yourself doing the Eightfold Path.

[19:52]

It's still good. It's still meritorious. And you get the merit. And as the merit accumulates more and more, you get closer and closer to the limit. this little box, and entering into the practice which is not the practice of you all by yourself, the good practice of you all by yourself, not to mention the bad practice of you all by yourself. You leap beyond and you enter into the path which doesn't have pain, doesn't have outflow. You enter into, excuse the expression, the practice of the Buddha, And you warmed up to it by doing the practice of a person. And you did it really well, so now you're ready to leap, leap into the presence and practice of the Buddha. And the practice of the Buddha doesn't have outflows, and the merit of it doesn't come back to the Buddha. The merit of it, the liberation of it,

[20:56]

goes everywhere. It goes to all and it penetrates into the space between the atoms of rocks. It resonates all over the universe and actually it's going on right now and it's a question of jumping into it and joining it. And this kind of practice is the practice that Well, this is the practice of the Buddha. The Buddha taught this, I think, looks like the Buddha taught this, but in the Zen tradition there's considerable emphasis on not so much the practice of the person, but the practice of the Buddha, the Buddha practice. The ancestors of the Zen tradition, some of them, especially what, for example, was very influential, is called the sixth ancestor of Zen, and he said that the Buddha is the practice of Buddha, or is the Buddha practicing.

[22:15]

The Buddha is the practicing Buddha, or the Buddha practice. The Buddha practicing or the practiced Buddha, that's Buddha. Enlightenment is the practicing Buddha. That's enlightenment. And what is a practicing Buddha? Or what is the practice of a Buddha? It is the practice of all living beings. That's the practice of a Buddha. Like right now, we have here in this room a sample of all living beings. And the Buddha practice is the practice of all of us. That's the Buddha practice. And that Buddha practice is the Buddha.

[23:22]

Enlightenment is the practice of all the people here in the room. And enlightenment is intimate with all of us right here together now. All of us. And, of course, extending out to the entire world, including everybody, including everybody, including the people who seem to be cruel to each other. the Buddha practice is including all the terrible, painful situations among beings everywhere. And that practice, of course, is inconceivable. You can think about it. I can talk about it. You can imagine it. I can imagine it. But the way, actually, we're practicing together in this room is inconceivable. And the way we're practicing in this room is the practice of the Buddha. The Buddha is not somebody who's in this room who's got their own practice, or somebody who is dead who had its own practice, or somebody who someplace counts on the planet who has her own practice and may come to .

[24:43]

That kind of attitude is the attitude of the practice of a person. So some quite developed and enlightened person would be capable of thinking of her practice as what she does someplace by herself. The practice of a Buddha. The practice of a Buddha is totally present in this room. And it is not only the practice of all of us, Not only of us, but it's the way we're practicing together. The practice of the Buddha is the way we are intimate with each other. That's the practice of the Buddha. And that is Buddha. Buddha is what the Buddha is, what the Buddha taught. Buddha is the way we in this room are intimate with each other.

[25:45]

It's the way we're interdependent with each other. It's the way we do not exist separate from each other. It's the way we are born of each other. That interdependent way that we are together is the Buddha. And the way we are together, the way we are living together right now, is the practice of the Buddha. Now, if someone says, how is this helping others? This is actually the way we are helping. This practice is the way we are helping each other right now. In fact, it is the way we are helping each other. that is the practice of the Buddha. So that practice is exactly the same as how we're helping each other.

[26:50]

But there's a little bit of a problem because we can't conceive of this, we can't package this, and we have a little bit of problem with the practice that we can't package. So this is a little bit of a difficulty for us. Being mindful, however, I propose to you that being mindful of how we are practicing together with each other, however you can be mindful, with your body, with your breathing, with your feelings, with your thoughts, with your concepts, with your intuition, any way that you can touch into and be concentrated on how we are practicing together,

[27:56]

That way, that kind is the awareness that the tradition of this temple recommends we practice within. This is sometimes called the self-fulfilling awareness, the awareness of how we are fulfilled by each other, not how we're depreciated and wounded and degraded by each other, but how we are realized by each other, the awareness of that, the mindfulness of that, the concentration on that, is the basic context of Zen practice. So one Zen ancestor named Dogen says, all the Buddhas have taught that the true path to enlightenment is to sit upright in the midst of the self-fulfilling awareness.

[29:04]

The true path to enlightenment is to sit upright in the midst of the awareness You are practicing together with all living beings. And of course that is also all Buddhas because that is the practice of all Buddhas. So there is this upright sitting, even be upright sleeping or slouching sleeping or leaning back in your chair. or leaning to the side, or smiling, or frowning, or scratching your shoulder. But anyway, whatever you're doing, that activity in the midst of this awareness is the true path to enlightenment. I laugh because I just thought of the story.

[30:16]

I was teaching in Texas, and I was teaching a rather difficult scripture called the Gambhirakta Samdhinirmocana Sutra. The deep meaning which comes by unraveling the intention of the Buddha. It's a rather difficult scripture. I was talking with people about this teaching, and to help the discussions, I had the people chant certain parts of the scripture three times. At Zen Center also we study the scripture. I've been actually, I talk sometimes on Sunday about it, at least indirectly, because I don't want to frighten people away with this horribly difficult scripture. But anyway, we're studying the scripture here, and I was touching it there, and it's kind of difficult.

[31:24]

And some people here have problems with it. They don't understand it. They say things like, it seems like it's Greek. It's Greek to me, as they say. I don't, you know, just like I don't understand anything that's going on, some people say. And... And so one of the things I suggest to people here is that if you don't understand it, memorize it. I remember when I was in college in math classes, one of my math teachers taught me that. Actually, I don't know if he taught me that or if he quoted Leibniz. Is it Gottfried Leibniz? who said, if you don't understand a mathematical proof, memorize it. If you don't understand a poem, memorize it. He didn't say that, I'm saying that. If you don't understand a teaching, memorize it.

[32:25]

If you want to understand it, that might help. Anyway, so reciting it helps get it in you to help you memorize it, to help you understand it. So anyway, he's chanting this and he's thinking to himself, I do not understand anything about this. It's like, it's difficult, it's painful. Gambira, by the way, means difficult. Deep means difficult in Buddhism. The deep truths are difficult. Superficial truth, those are the ones you already are seeing. You're seeing superficial truth. Easy, isn't it? It comes naturally. Deep ones are difficult. So anyway, he was having a difficult time and he was having a little dialogue with himself while he was chanting this, and he said, but I'm going to keep chanting it. And then he heard me talk about this approach to study where you enter into the awareness that you're practicing not by yourself.

[33:31]

You're not reading these Buddhist scriptures by yourself. So before you study the scripture, you say, excuse me, excuse me, Buddhas, great bodhisattvas, would you come and practice with me? Would you join me in this practice? But he did that. At the beginning of the chanting he said, I'm not practicing alone. And I invite all the Buddhists to come and practice with me. I know you already are, but I just want you to know that I'm also welcoming you." And he said, and it was, the sutra was, the scripture was perfectly clear. And he said to me, I'll never practice alone again. See the stick I have in my hand?

[34:35]

This is called a kotsu. I don't know what kotsu is. It's a Japanese word, kotsu. How you would translate that. But anyway, it's a stick. It's got a little curl on the end of it. Looks like one of those party favors where you blow on them. But it's basically got a little hook at the top. And one time I was in Japan, somebody asked a Zen priest, what's it for? He said, it's for pulling the Buddhism bodhisattvas down into the room. Of course, they're already here. They're already here. But if we don't invite them, they're so polite that it's as though they're They say, if you don't really want me here, I won't mention, I won't stress that I'm right here with you. So if we say, please come, they say, I thought you'd never ask. If you're not walking around,

[35:47]

in the midst of this self-fulfilling samadhi, if you're not walking in the midst of this self-fulfilling samadhi, then you're not actually realizing the path, the true path of enlightenment. And you're just walking around by yourself. So you yourself, if you invoke the presence of the Buddhas, all the Buddhas, all the Buddhas, which means each Buddha brings with her all sentient beings, you're invoking the entire universe of enlightenment to join you in this walking. Then you are walking in the midst of the self-fulfilling awareness. And another way to speak of this, which is actually, in some sense, to unpack the expression fulfillment, another way to say fulfillment is receive and receive.

[36:59]

So it's actually an awareness of how you receive your walking and use it. How you receive your sitting and use it. How you receive your movement of your arms and use it. How you receive your body and use it. How you receive your feelings and use them. How you receive your life and use it. Walking in that awareness is the true path of enlightenment. Standing in this path breathing in this path, lying down in this path, rolling over in this path, dancing in this path, eating in this path, any activity you do in that awareness is the true path. If you do not practice in this awareness, if you practice rather in the awareness of being by yourself and being related to other people, or not even being related to other people, but basically even though you're related, you still feel independent, that path can be conducive, beneficial, but it has takes.

[38:03]

That path can warm you up to get ready to leap into the Buddha practice. To open your heart, that practice can get you ready to open to all Buddhas, all Buddhas, all bodhisattvas, and all beings. Buddhas, of course, it may not be a surprise to you, have open hearts. They're not afraid of people, any people. They're not afraid of animals. They're not afraid of trees. They're not afraid of mountains. They're not afraid of rocks. They have open hearts to all beings and to all their friends, the other Buddhas. And we're their friends too. We're their lifeblood. So a self-centered practice, a wholesome, skillful self-centered practice can work and get us ready to leap into the practice of the Buddha, which means we open our hearts to all beings, and by opening our heart to all beings, we open up our heart to all beings.

[39:11]

We open up our heart to see how we're receiving help from all beings. So another way is when you're ready, consider how you are receiving help right now. Not how you have received help, although it's a related and helpful question. To meditate on how you've received help is a warm-up to how you are receiving help. Like you might think, oh, when I was in high school, that teacher helped me, or when I was In grade school, my mom helped me. Actually, I went to the YMCA in Minneapolis one time. I was trying to play pool. And these, what do you call it, these European Americans who are bigger than me wouldn't let me play pool. And I wanted to play pool. And they gave me the impression that if I did try to play pool, they might physically harm me.

[40:18]

They wouldn't wave from the pool table. They would hit me with pool sticks. That was the impression I got. They did not hit me. And then an African-American boy, who was also bigger than me, came over and said, let him play. And I thought, hey, I got helped here. So that comes to my mind as somebody who helped me. But that's a conceivable help. Now I'm talking about how are you being helped right now. Nobody's protecting you from mean people right now that you can see maybe. How are you being helped right now? And now, and now. Not, excuse me, I changed it. I said how are you being helped? I think it's better to say how are you receiving help rather than how are you being helped. How are you being helped makes you think about what's helpful and what's not helpful. From the actual mode of the self-receiving, how are you being helped right now?

[41:29]

How are you receiving help? How are you receiving help? How are you receiving help? How am I receiving help? How am I receiving my life? How am I receiving my life right now? I invoke invoking the presence and compassion of the Buddhas with confidence that we are not separate from Buddhas. Moment by moment, invoking the presence of all Buddhas and all beings, with confidence that we are not separate from all Buddhas and all beings. Thus we enter Buddha's way. Thus we enter the path of enlightenment.

[42:32]

by invoking the presence of the Buddhism. The path of enlightenment is not to walk it by yourself. That's not the path of enlightenment. That's a tainted path which is a warm-up to the path of enlightenment. And you may have to, and I may have to, walk the tainted path of individual person practicing in order to have the merit to dare to open my heart to the Buddha's practice Okay. If necessary, let's do that. But whenever we're ready, let's leap into the true path of enlightenment, which is to live upright. Admit to this awareness. the Zen teacher Dogen says, from the first time you meet a teacher, without engaging in reading scriptures, bowing, offering incense, chanting and invoking the name of the presence of Buddha, confession and repentance, just wholeheartedly sit and leap into the state of awareness.

[44:01]

So then sometimes when I read that, I thought, well, is he saying we shouldn't read scriptures and we shouldn't bow and we shouldn't offer incense and we shouldn't invoke the presence of the Buddhas and we shouldn't practice confession and repentance? Is that what he's saying? Sounds like it. But then he says other places he practices confession, he teaches chanting the Buddha's name, he teaches offering incense, he teaches bowing. He says when there's bowing, there's the Buddha way, and when there's not bowing, there's not the Buddha way. He really wants people to bow. Bowing is a real important practice. But he says, just wholeheartedly sit in the midst of this awareness. But I think what he's saying is, before you bow, and while you bow, before you read scriptures, and while you read scriptures, and before you eat breakfast, and before you And before you do anything, enter the center of the universe and then do the practice.

[45:14]

He's not saying don't read scriptures. He's saying, Scripture, sit upright, stand upright. enter the Buddha's heart and mind. Enter the Buddha mind and then, in the middle of Buddha's mind, then pick up a Buddhist scripture and read it with all the Buddhas around you. When you pick up a telephone, without engaging in telephone answering, just wholeheartedly sit in the midst of the self-fulfilling awareness. Now, sitting in the middle of the self-fulfilling awareness, answer the . Hello, guess who is here? I mean, who is here? Hello, who are you? Open your heart to all the Buddhas and then you might be able to open your heart to the person on the telephone. Sometimes without opening my heart to all Buddhas, I still open my heart to the person on the telephone, and I would say, great, just extend it.

[46:29]

Don't just open your heart to some people. Open your heart that we sometimes think of when we bow, and it's written in Chinese originally, and it could be translated as, Bowing, that which is bowed to. Nature, empty and quiet. The nature of the one bowing and the nature of the one bowed to are the same. Self-body, other body, not two. Realize liberation together with all beings, arousing the supreme intention, return to true nature. We practice bowing and sometimes we practice bowing and we think, I'm practicing to those boons who are separate from me.

[47:42]

I have to remember the bowing here and what's bowed to have the same nature. This body and that body are not two. [...] We innately think this body and that body are two. It looks like my body and your body are two. the true path of enlightenment is to enter the awareness that this body and that body are not two. This body and your body and my body are not two, and your body and Buddha's body are not two. Thus we plunge into the liberation of all beings. Thus we arouse the supreme mind. This practice doesn't have outflows.

[48:48]

It's not tainted. And the merit of it doesn't come back to any point of attachment because there is no point of attachment. There's only interdependence. There's only living together. So if we can remember this awareness throughout the day, we are on the true path of enlightenment. And if we forget it and come to a meditation hall, then maybe when we enter the door we can remember it. If we don't carry it with us all day, then at least when we sit in the meditation hall, it's going to be sitting And this sitting here is, as I sit, or as the sitting happens, I invoke the presence and compassion of all the Buddhas.

[49:53]

Usually the person who, we have one meditation period, and they get to carry the stick that pulls the Buddhas into the room. But you guys could make yourself your own little hook and just, you know, pull them in when you start sitting. I may get in trouble for suggesting that, but... Because then you will all be masters. Little sticks, pulling Buddhas into the room where you're sitting. But some of you sit alone, away from the Zen centers, so you're actually the leader of the meditation period in your room. So you can make yourself a little hook. Even a crochet hook would be good. You know, just a little tiny hook is enough to pull all the Buddhas. It doesn't have to be two inches wide. It doesn't have to be many light years wide. Just a little hook can pull all the Buddhas into your room because all the Buddhas practice together with each person.

[50:55]

Each person practices with all the Buddhas, but all the Buddhas practice with one person. So all you've got to do is say, come, come. And then you'll be able to hear that when you say, come, that's actually the Buddha's saying, come. When you invite the Buddhas, that's the Buddha's inviting you. Don't say, come. If you don't say, welcome, then you won't be able to necessarily hear the Buddha's saying, welcome. And you can, you know, there's other ways to do it, but the point is, your feeling is, you're saying, welcome Buddhas, I want to practice with you, and I heard you want to practice with me. Of course you do. I just forget sometimes. But now I'm telling you, I remember. Oh my God, I'm practicing together, I mean, oh my Buddha, I'm practicing together with God. The center of Zen practice is receptive.

[52:14]

The center is receptive. The center is... We're receiving help from all beings to live. We are dependent. Fundamentally, we are dependent on each other. I depend on you. At my center is my dependence on you. My center is receiving your help. That's my life. And of course there's nothing solid there because I'm just the reception of all your assistance. So I'm grateful to you for this life. And I'm receiving the help of all Buddhas and bodhisattvas at my center. That's my center. There's nothing solid there. It's just what's possible, the help that I'm receiving. And then around that center is all my activity that's possible because I've been given this life. And that's masculine. So we have this feminine center and this masculine expression. This masculine expression surrounds .

[53:20]

That's why it's self-receiving and employing awareness. You receive a life which you then use and receive a life which you then use. And you use it completely and that's it. And you receive a life and you use it completely and that's it. This is our life. A full moment of life. You receive it and you live it. Feminine masculine, feminine masculine. This is the way we are. Being in the middle of that awareness is the true path to enlightenment. A nervous system which imagines things are not that way. We receive a nervous system which perceives the world as being separate from us and sometimes helping us and sometimes not. And the nervous system is very active trying to figure out who's helping and who's not. And figuring out what to do to those who help and what to do to those who aren't.

[54:24]

That's going to go on. That's given to us, actually. You get to be that way. But we also need to invoke the presence and compassion of the Buddhas and all who are not separate from us in order that that misconceived version of the world doesn't dominate our life and make us frightened, potentially violent beings. And today, since it's so early, I have two songs. For me, this is early. This has not been going on for more than an hour yet. That's not very long for me. So I'm going to end early and have two songs. My first song is one which you've heard before. It's more kind of like, not so old-fashioned.

[55:25]

Okay, ready? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Do you know this one? Do you know this one, Bernard? You don't? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I can do what I want. I'm in complete control. That's what I tell myself. I got a mind of my own. I'll be alright alone. Don't need anybody else. Gave myself a good talking to. No more be for you. But then I see you and I remember how you make me want to surrender to Buddha's way.

[56:30]

You're taking myself away. Buddha's way. You want to stay. On Buddha's way. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. That's not so old-fashioned, right? Now here's an old-fashioned one. And for this one, I invite Jane to come up here and sit next to me, stand next to me. So this song really must be done with someone else. Plus also, she just happens to be with this song, she told me. Is that correct? I did say that, yeah. Okay. Does anybody have any reading glasses nearby? I do. You do? Do you need them? No. Okay.

[57:33]

Can I borrow them? They're bifocals. They're bifocals. Your help. I hate this part, though. Okay. I probably won't be able to reach the high register. Oh, okay. We'll start low, then. When you walk through a storm... Is that too low? That's just not the beginning. The beginning? When you walk through... Hold your head up high and don't be afraid of the dark. At the end of the storm is a golden sky and the sweet silver lark of a lark.

[58:37]

Walk on through the wind. Walk on through the rain. Though your dreams with hope in your heart and you'll never walk alone you'll never walk alone Go on. I actually think, I actually feel that realizing intimacy, fear will not just dissipate, but will simply not, there will be no fear.

[59:53]

The Heart Teacher says, without any hindrance, no fears exist. The hindrance he's talking about is the hindrance from feeling separate. feeling that our personhood is separate or that individual dharmas, individual phenomena are separate. Those are two kinds of obstruction. When those obstructions drop away, there's no fear, none. But of course that's a very great attempt for those to have the insight into the nature of things such that you don't have those hindrances anymore. So you can also approach fearlessness by just studying phenomena in general, not just . And when intimacy is already the case, we just need to realize it. And just realizing it is this very challenging process called the path of Buddha, together with everybody.

[60:58]

But I think, yeah, without any hindrance is the same as realizing intimacy. I would use that language for the same phenomena. The teaching of interdependence in some ways is because it's the reason why things are impermanent. It's because they're interdependent. So interdependent makes you more understand why things are impermanent. And when you understand and remember that they're interdependent and impermanent, your behavior will start changing. But it has to sink in, and it sinks in from... Actually, lots of moistening up by the teaching. Sometimes I say that at the beginning of a retreat, if I give some teaching, it's a little bit like pouring water on a dry plant. If you pour the water, it just puddles on, it beads or puddles on top of the ground and sometimes runs off.

[62:07]

So you shouldn't pour too much water on a dry plant. But you should spray it, you know, maybe. Just spray it, spray it. Then it becomes moist. Then you can pour water on it and it sinks in. And after a while, it's moist. But you pour lots of water on it and it just goes whoosh. And the same with people. If you just moisten yourself with the teaching, just gently explore yourself with the teaching more and more. After a while, it really sinks in and you change. But it takes a lot. You can't just do one more. because we sort of have gotten used to not hearing the truth. So when the truth actually comes, it sort of bounces off of us at first. So you just have to keep applying it again and again and again and again. Gradually, it sinks in. So by the end of retreats, I say things to people, and I just watch the word bounce off them, you know. If it's something they're unfamiliar with, it's kind of like, hey, that's not going to get to me. That's not how I think.

[63:11]

Get out of here. But at the end, it's like whatever you say just goes right in. Whatever it is, you go, boo-hoo, and they say, oh, I get it. Yeah, right on. So you have to be patient with the process of watering yourself with the teaching, of putting a little Buddha in your ear that keeps giving you some simple teaching that, you know, easy to carry around with you in the day, like other depictions that applies to everything you see. What comes to my mind is, just recently I heard on the radio somebody who's had considerable experience observing and interacting with people who have, who are, what do you call it, autistic. And this person said that autistic people actually can see, visually for example, that they can often see a face, for example, just as it is. And because they see it as it is, namely they just see how the face has patterns of shade, patterns and shadings,

[64:19]

Because they see that, some of these people can paint very well. Even as children, they can paint very well because they just put in the colors and the shadings and there it is, a perfect rendering of a face. They actually see the face as visually, they see the face how it is visually. And then you say to them, you say, I don't know. They see it as it is, but they can't recognize it. Whereas another child, can recognize it both in the person's face, and they can also recognize it on the paper. But they don't see it as it is. They see it as recognizable. And if you see a face in a recognizable form, without training, you can't translate the recognizable form into paper. So your normal kid who can recognize a face, when they start drawing it, you see the funny things they put down on the paper. They recognize it in the face, but they don't recognize what they're actually seeing. They're mostly into recognition.

[65:22]

That's what's important for the little baby, is to know, this is my mom and that's a dog. So the reason why we're built this way is so we can recognize things, not so we can see them as they are. And people who are wired somewhat differently see how they are, but not recognize, and they have some problems hanging out with the people who are into recognition rather than reality. So I actually don't walk around in a recognizable form, but you make me into a recognizable form, so you can say, hi, Reb, or whatever. Hi, Reb, I don't like that. But if you see how I am, you don't know how to talk to me, because you're just seeing these patterns, you know, of my face, the color and the shade, and also the color and shade around me. That's what you're actually seeing. And if you saw that, you could just like easily paint a picture of it and you wouldn't know what it was. See, when we see things, or when we actually directly experience things, the first direct experience is not meaningful.

[66:29]

We have to interpret what's happening as being something else in order to get meaning. And we're, excuse me for saying so, but we're addicted most of us. And because we're addicted to meaning, it's hard for us to wean ourselves or recover from the addiction of meaning and switch over to start seeing things how they are prior to being converted into a meaningful form. Things don't come as recognizable. We interpret them so that we can recognize them. And we think the interpretation is the thing. So the child interprets their mother's face as being this image. And then when you ask them to draw a picture of their mother's face, they try to draw the image rather than what's actually the basis of the projection. So you have to train them for many years until they can start drawing something that looks like the face.

[67:31]

It's quite interesting. You're welcome. Yes. You need to be fearless if you want to be nonviolent. If you want to be violent, then being afraid is really good. Most people are afraid of people. Yeah. Yeah. And you won't be in trouble if the snake's not afraid of you. Snakes do not actually like to bite people. Except maybe really, really big snakes might want to eat you. But I never heard actually of so far. It's very uncommon the snake eats a person.

[68:33]

Mostly snakes, the thing they go after is prey. They're afraid. So if the snake's not afraid of you, you can be as afraid as you want of the snake, and the snake won't hurt you. Well, I was thinking about when you were taking care of a ghost. And I was wondering, like, at what point does taking care of oneself enter the realm of selfishness? Because then, essentially, the character is taken care of. She said, at what point does taking care of yourself enter selfishness? I would say, when you view yourself as being independent of others, then everything you do from that perspective is selfish. Everything. However, you can do wholesome, skillful things from a self-centered view, and you can do unwholesome things from a self-centered view.

[69:41]

If you really believe your independence, then everything you do is basically touched by, tainted by that. See, that's why Buddha said, this is the Eightfold Path, but there's a tainted Eightfold Path, and the tainted Eightfold Path is the way you first do the Buddhist practice. So these are good practices. They're wholesome activities. But because you still believe that you're independent of others, all these activities are somewhat tainted. There's some kind of gaining idea involved because you feel separate from other beings. But they're still good. And the more you do these practices, the more you get ready to do the same practices under the auspices of the belief in independent self. Then your activity, no matter what you do, isn't selfish because you don't see things that way. say, well, is this action, like, benefiting me more than this person? What way to be able to tell if it's an action?

[70:42]

Well, there are many lipness tests. Fortunately or unfortunately, you can't apply them all yourself. Because you could do, you know, if you get a lipness test and test yourself, that's why you kind of need companions. So you enact the practice of the other. Actually, you enact it with other people. And one of these people is so-called your teacher. Your teacher can test you sometimes and see, for example, if you're attached to anything. Before you even noticed, you didn't notice, oh, I'm born by the question of the teacher. I'm born by that request. You missed it. So then self-centeredness right there. So there's various ways to find it. And we have these forms that kind of flush out our selfishness, like a schedule.

[71:45]

things are happening at certain times, and you notice, I'd rather go a little bit later, or I'd like to go a little bit ahead of time. I want to get there a little early and be the best student. I want to be a little late and be kind of like the naughty student, right on time. Even being on time, you kind of like go, I was on time, wow. You know, I was early. Wow. I was late. Wow. Or I was late. Oh, I'm good. I'm late. I'm such a bad student. Maybe the teacher will notice me now. So anyway, the schedule, the form, offers opportunity for all kinds of self-centeredness to surface. So in some sense, a litmus test for the clinging is the forms of practice. So you do the forms of practice and all the kinds of little tricks we play around the practice start to offer opportunity to notice about ourselves and for others to notice about how we're a little bit hedging our bets, fooling around, manipulating, basically seeing this activity in the person who's acting as independent.

[72:56]

The form flushes it out. Then once you see it, Once you see the selfishness, then you can become intimate with it and get over it. But sometimes we're not so courageous and we rather distract ourselves from our fear than just face it. That's part of the reason we're not practicing by ourselves. We've got all the big fearless Buddhas around us, you know, and they actually would like us to face our fear. Just say, okay, come on now, help me, I'm afraid. Help me face my fear. Okay, sweetheart, face it. I'm right here, you know. I'm just right here with you. You can, we can face this now. Here we go. Okay, just keep working on it. Not all by yourself. With all beings, with all the Buddhas who have had the same problem that you have. Before Buddhas were Buddhas, they were afraid too.

[73:59]

Shakyamuni Buddha was afraid too. Shakyamuni Buddha was afraid. He said he was afraid. But he knew he was afraid. And he faced his fear. And he got intimate with his fear. The night of his enlightenment, there he was sitting Armies of snakes came at him. He was afraid, but he didn't move. He said, I'm not going to move. I'm going to face this fear. He sat up straight and opened his heart. Okay, I'm afraid, but I'm not going to move. And I had the whole earth here and this tree to help me. He didn't just sit by himself. He sat under a tree. The tree helped him. He faced the fear. And when he faced the fear, the army went away. He was afraid that night.

[75:02]

But he faced it. And he didn't move. Before he sat down, he said, I'm not going to move. I'm going to face this fear. And then... various kinds of attractive formations appeared to him. And he said, I'm going to relax with this. I'm not going to get excited about it. And then the greatest test was, who do you think you are to get enlightened all by yourself? And Buddha said, I'm not doing it by myself. I'm doing it together with the whole earth. I'm not personally doing this sitting here by myself. I'm not personally overcoming this fear. And the demon who was questioning him, accusing him of self-centeredly attaining enlightenment said, prove it. And he took his hand and he touched it. And Earth said, yes. But sometimes we're not so courageous and we rather distract ourselves from our fear than just face it.

[76:18]

That's what we need to remember. We're not practicing by ourselves. We've got all the big fearless Buddhists around us, you know, and they actually would like us to face our fear. Just say, okay, come on now, help me, I'm afraid. Help me face my fear. Okay, sweetheart, face it. I'm right here, you know. I'm just right here with you. You can, we can face this now. Here we go. Okay, you're ready to just keep working on it. Not all by yourself. with all beings, with all the Buddhas who have had the same problem that you have. Before Buddhas were Buddhas, they were afraid too. They faced their fear. Shakyamuni Buddha was afraid too. Shakyamuni Buddha was afraid. He said he was afraid. But he knew he was afraid. And he faced his fear. And he got intimate with his fear. The night of his enlightenment, you know, there he was.

[77:20]

And these armies of snakes came at him. He was afraid, but he didn't move. He said, I'm not going to move. I'm going to face this fear. He sat up straight and opened his heart. Okay, I'm afraid. I'm afraid. and I have the whole earth here and this tree to help me." He didn't just sit by himself, he sat under a tree. The tree helped him. He faced the fear. And when he faced the fear, the army went away. Buddha was afraid that night, but he faced it and he didn't move. Before he sat down he said, I'm not going to move, I'm going to face this fear. And then various kinds of attractive formations appeared to him. And he said, I'm going to relax with this. I'm not going to get excited.

[78:22]

And then the greatest test was, who do you think you are to get enlightened all by yourself? And Buddha said, I'm not doing it by myself. I'm doing it together with the whole earth. I'm not personally doing this sitting here. I'm not personally overcoming this fear. And the demon who was questioning him, accusing him of self-centeredly attaining enlightenment said, prove it. And he took his hand and the earth said, yes.

[79:02]

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