I like the saying, in the subtle round mouth of the pivot, the spiritual work turns. In the subtle round mouth of the pivot, the spiritual works turn. And another saying that comes to mind is that the Buddha way the way of peace and harmony among all beings is basically leaping.

[01:05]

It's basically leaping clear or jumping beyond. If we're feeling twisted and constrained And in great difficulty, the Buddha way is basically to jump clear. If we're feeling free and at peace, having a good time, the Buddha way is basically leaping clear. if we're in a good state or bad state, no matter what state we're in, the Buddha way is not to camp out where we are, not to hold on to our suffering, not to hold on to our bliss, not to hold on to our freedom, not to hold on to our bondage, but to jump free.

[02:19]

Actually, it's not even too jump-free, it's jumping, it's the jumping, it's the leaping, it's the turning. It's the turning right where we are. That's the Buddha way. In practicing giving, in practicing either leaping free, leaping clear, is practicing giving, is practicing ethical discipline, is practicing patience, is practicing diligence, is practicing tranquility, and is practicing wisdom. These practices are what leaping clear is. And leaping clear is that when you're doing those practices, when you're practicing giving, when you're practicing ethical discipline, when you're practicing patience, that you leap clear in the practice.

[03:29]

And the practice is leaping clear. And that wasn't too difficult for me to say. But to practice it is our great challenge. And what I was thinking of focusing on was this focus. I was thinking about focusing on this, on this turning point, on the pivot, the pivot where we turn. Of course, wherever we are, there's a pivot there. Where is the pivot right where we are now? Where is it? What's the place where we turn and what's the way of being at that place where the turning can happen?

[04:38]

In this way I want to talk about being at the crisis of the moment, finding the crisis in the moment. In each moment there's a crisis point, and that crisis point is where I suggest the spiritual work turns. Of course, in most moments, if I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of the moment, if I'm somewhere in the vicinity of where I am, I like to be sort of off in the bleachers looking at a distance at the crisis point. It seems safer to be at some distance from crisis. But the crisis is the turning point.

[05:52]

Crisis means turning point. It's root. A Greek root means turning point. And the root of the Greek word is to decide or to separate or to sift, like in a sieve. The place, the turning point where some things fall through and some things don't. The decision point in each moment. Where is it? What's it like there at the place where we turn, at the place where we're living the actual spiritual life? And I invoke the Chinese character or a Chinese character for crisis.

[06:52]

And actually it's not a Chinese character. It's a compound, a Chinese compound of two characters. And one character is opportunity. And the other character is danger. At a crisis point, there's danger. And there's opportunity. Which is part of the reason why we'd rather not be at the crisis point. but be at some distance that seems safe, where there seems to be no danger. But where there seems to be no danger, when we're in a place where it seems there's no danger, we are closed to the opportunity of turning. We're actually at the pivot. But when we close our eyes to danger, when we say, I'm safe, when we think there's no danger, when we close our eyes to danger, we close our eyes to the opportunity of the crisis.

[08:10]

If we close our eyes to danger, we close our eyes to the Buddha way. It doesn't seem so bad to close your eyes to danger. It's a natural thing for us to do. When you go to the movies, something scary, go under the seat. close your eyes, plug your ears. Seems natural for a child to do. But in that closing of our eyes and ears to the danger of the moment, we also block out the opportunity. It's there waiting, but we're turning away from it. And also, turning towards the danger isn't quite right either.

[09:25]

But just being present at the place where there is danger and not turning towards or away from the danger, then you don't turn towards or away from the opportunity. Turning towards turning is not turning. turning towards the pivot point, you move away from it. But to be open to the pivot point, to be open to the working of the spirit, means to be open, but not turning towards danger or away from it. And being open to opportunity of the turning, to be open to the moment of the pivot and not leaning towards it or away from it, crisis, a crucial point or situation in the course of anything, an unstable crisis, an unstable condition.

[10:57]

an unstable condition in political, economic, personal or interpersonal affairs in which an abrupt decision or an abrupt and decisive change is impending. A sudden change in an acute disease, for better or worse. a point in the story at which the hostile forces are in the most tense state of opposition. Someone said to me recently, how can we be intimate if I don't feel safe I think it's okay to feel safe.

[12:17]

And then if you feel safe, do you feel safe enough to open to danger? No. Is there anything we can do to make you feel more safe so that you can then feel open to danger? to intentionally go into a dangerous situation is moving towards the danger. So there's some situation which doesn't seem to be more dangerous than normal danger, but where we might be able to open to the danger. So this room doesn't seem more dangerous than that room, But I think if I go into this room, I'll be able to feel the danger more easily than in this other room.

[13:26]

I don't think this room is more dangerous than the other room because that would be foolish. That's not the point, to go into the most dangerous room. It's to go into the room where you dare to open to the danger the most. Because the place where you're open to the danger most is the place where you're open to the opportunity most. It's not where there's the most danger necessarily. Basically, there's always danger. What does danger mean? It's related, by the way, to The Middle English word danger, which means power or dominion, peril, damage. From Old French and Vulgar Latin, which means strength or excuse me, sovereignty or master.

[14:41]

exposure or vulnerability to harm, danger. It isn't the actual harm, it's the exposure or vulnerability to the harm that's the danger. It's also the source of that vulnerability. What does vulnerability mean? It comes from wound. It means susceptibility to being injured and being unprotected from danger. The Buddha does not teach, did not teach, you are invulnerable. You're not in danger of death. You're not in danger of ill health. You're not in danger of getting old. You're not in danger of losing your job. The Buddha didn't teach that. The Buddha said, we are in danger of death. And not just on Thursday or Sunday.

[15:49]

We're in danger every moment of death. We're in danger every moment of getting old. We're in danger every moment of being sick. We're in danger every moment of being injured. We're always in danger any moment it can happen to any of us throughout our life. It's normal to be vulnerable to being injured. The thing is to clearly see this. The Buddha didn't say, be afraid of this. The Buddha said, if we can clearly see our vulnerability, if we can open to our vulnerability, open to our danger, and see it clearly, then we will be in a place of leaping clear. He didn't say if we're afraid of our vulnerability. No. or in denial, or running away from it. No. And he didn't say there was no vulnerability.

[16:52]

Let's help each other face the danger. Opportunity. It's related to a wind blowing towards a harbor. Ab two plus Porteus Harbor. Opportunities blowing us towards the harbor. Towards true safety. What's true safety? leaping clear, constantly leaping clear, constantly jumping I wanted to talk about crisis with you.

[18:38]

I wanted to talk about the situation where there's danger and opportunity. But I also realized, I felt, that to talk to you about this was dangerous. And then I thought, that seems appropriate, that I would talk to you about something that I felt was dangerous. that I would talk to you about something that was so simple that I wouldn't, you know, there wouldn't be much to say. Because I would just say, well, crisis, danger, opportunity, and that would be it.

[19:46]

And then I would be in danger of various things. Especially if it came a long distance, just to hear that. But I thought, that seems good for me to be to bring up something that's dangerous as opposed to some other topic which I might bring up which I thought, no, that's a safe topic. For example, Buddha is your friend. But if I say Buddha is your friend, which is true, I think Buddha is your friend, definitely. Do I bring that up because I think that's a safe thing to bring up? And then do I show a bad example of Buddha? And then, just before I came down here, I thought,

[21:02]

In the subtle round mouth of the pivot, the spiritual work turns. And I love that saying, but you know, part of what I liked about it was because I thought if I would say that, give you that quote, I would be safer because I'd have a little bit more to say. It wouldn't be so stark like, okay, crisis, that's where it's at. And then I thought, oh yeah, and what the Buddha way is leaping clear. So I can say that too. That'll protect me even more. I could hide behind these nice sayings, which I really love. But not just that I love them, but I'm using them to hide from the danger of telling you not much. The danger of what people might do to me if I don't give them enough to make their trip worthwhile. Or the danger of people thinking I'm cruel because there's so many people who are having such a hard time.

[22:20]

How can you dare to bring up danger to people who are having such a hard time? And I think, yeah, how can I dare? If somebody is having a hard time, how can I dare? How can I dare to feel the danger of being with somebody who is having a hard time? Do I dare to go into the dangerous situation of being with somebody who is having a hard time? Someone who doesn't feel safe and is yearning to feel safe, who feels every step that they might fall to the ground. How can I dare to be a person like that?

[23:26]

How can I dare to join in being a person for whom every step is dangerous? How can I walk knowing that every step I might slip? Every step I might make a mistake. Every step I might be cruel. How can I enter into that crisis point I'm trying to encourage myself to live in crisis as much as possible, ultimately in every moment. And if nobody else wants to join me, that will help me live in crisis all the more. And if everybody does join me, that will help me live in crisis all the more. If all of you are living in crisis and opening to it, you will encourage me to join you.

[24:36]

If you're living in crisis, it won't add to your crisis that I'm around. And it won't detract. You'll be able to include me in your life. Oh, here comes the crisis person. No problem. He's going to come up and ask me if I'm in crisis. Or if I go and see him, I won't feel safe. But I'm already not feeling safe, so I can go meet him. I'm already open to danger, so I can go be, enter the danger of being with him. Matter of fact, I can check and see if he's ready for the danger of being with me. Maybe he's not, and I'll catch him. And that'll be dangerous because he might be upset at me embarrassing him, the preacher of crisis, running away from crisis. So the Eno's now trying to move the insect into a better crisis situation?

[25:52]

It's a dangerous insect? Don't put it in the donation box. So this person says, how can I be intimate with you if I don't feel safe? But let that turn. How can I feel safe enough to be intimate with you where I'm not safe? Or rather, how can I feel safe enough to feel the danger of being intimate with you where I can realize the safety of leaping beyond our relationship?

[26:57]

How can I realize the opportunity That's there when I open to the danger of being with you. How can I feel safe enough to dare to open to how dangerous it is to be with you so I can realize the opportunity of being with you? Danger. Exposure. Again, we're always exposed to each other. Can we open to that exposure? Sometimes I think, you know, when I'm teaching, I should, not should, but it would be good for me to take my clothes off.

[28:11]

But if I take my clothes off, and I think of taking my clothes off as an act of exposure, and I usually don't take my clothes off, because I think that would just be too much exposure, like, Part of the exposure would be exposure to what would happen, how people would say, you know, well, that's against the law, you know. That's indecent exposure to expose that much. It's indecent. So then I would be opening myself to what people do to you if they think you're being indecent. And there's another part of the exposure. There's some parts of myself which I might be willing to expose, you know, like, my deltoids or something. Not bad deltoids. But then maybe there's some stretch marks near the deltoids I'd rather not expose.

[29:18]

Expose myself like all of myself and think of what parts of me don't I want people to see because that would be dangerous if they saw them. They might not like certain parts of me. If I go into the meeting and expose myself, there's some danger that I won't be appreciated, that I won't be respected, that I won't be, yeah, that I won't be safe. Someone asked me if I would tell her the words to a poem which she heard long ago.

[31:25]

And I said, yes. So now I'm going to recite that poem, if it's all right with you. May I recite the poem? This is a poem by a Chinese person who lived about 1300 years ago named Wang Wei. This is a translation from Chinese into English. It's called Autumn, I think. It has turned cold. The mountains grow... more vast and more blue. The autumn waterfalls are louder. I take my cane and go out the gate for a walk. I can hear the last crickets

[32:35]

singing in the chilly evening. I am happy. The rays of the setting sun shine through the evening smoke that hovers over the village. I throw back my head, drunk with beauty, and sing the willow song at the top of my lungs. Wong Wei was calling himself an old man when he was 40.

[33:44]

Today I think he tuned into his fragility and vulnerability early in life so that he could open to the opportunity of beauty. He used a walking cane early in life so he could feel when he went out for a walk as though he were going to fall any minute. He opened to the vulnerability of our situation and he got drunk on beauty. I'm not recommending getting drunk on beauty, but he says he did. I wouldn't even recommend getting high on it. But I just say, if you want to, open and live in beauty, the price of admission is opening to how vulnerable you are right now.

[34:52]

If I close to beauty, I close to vulnerability. If I close to vulnerability, I close to beauty. Last Sunday I went to the Mill Valley Community Center, which is the... there's an exercise room there for Buddhists. You're welcome to come and exercise there in a meditative way. Sometimes when people are using the exercise equipment, and if they fall asleep while they're exercising, I sometimes come and adjust their posture. Ask them if they wanted to use the machine that they're sleeping on.

[35:54]

Anyway, last week I was there and out of the corner of my eye, I watched this football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the, don't tell me, the Washington Redskins. And the Washington Redskins were being, in a way, they seemed to be being very mean to the San Francisco 49ers. They looked like they were being mean. They looked like they were, like, really intoxicated with testosterone and maybe some other kinds of steroids. But they were jumping up and down and throwing San Francisco 49ers around the field, and they were scoring lots and lots of touchdowns. And after they took our touchdown, they jumped up and down with joy at the beating up on the other team. And then I just looked out the corner of my other eye out the window, and I saw these

[37:04]

I think they were usually mostly women, and they were taking care of these very, very tiny little humans. These people were at a distance, but these babies, they were so tiny. They could walk, but they were extremely tiny little creatures, and these women were standing around them taking care of these very, very tiny, fragile little living creatures who could walk. But we're always on the verge of falling down. And it was so lovely to see these tiny little figures moving on the playground in one direction, seeing these huge, extremely powerful humans bashing each other. And I thought, I don't want to watch those mean people anymore. But then I thought, well, the nice thing about watching them is I really feel, I could actually feel for the San Francisco 49ers the way I do for the kids.

[38:07]

They were like weak little children getting in danger, you know? And I thought, well, maybe this very aggressive situation is good because it helps people get in touch with some people anyway, especially the people who are from San Francisco, get in touch with their fragility and vulnerability to see how our football team can be just totally crushed. Because part of me thought, don't watch out of that eye, just look at the little babies, the vulnerable little darling babies. But I think more the point is don't get stuck in pro football and don't get stuck in taking care of little babies. Take pro football, dangerous opportunity.

[39:10]

Taking care of babies, dangerous opportunity. Wherever you are, do you see the vulnerability? Do you see the danger? It's always there. And can you sympathize with that and enter it and show other people that place where we're all actually together, endangering each other and setting each other free. Endangering each other and setting each other free. Find that place where we're working together on the Buddha way. Don't be turned off that point just because you see danger all around. It's not... It's... It's characteristic of the Buddha way that it's surrounded by danger. The jewel is surrounded by danger. If you can relax and enter that spot, it's right there all the time. Okay, so I'll just do one more thing to endanger myself, or not endanger myself, but open to the danger I live in.

[40:36]

I'll sing a song. Not only will I sing a song, but I won't even sing the whole song, which is, you know, I don't know, which is most dangerous. They're both dangerous. If I sing the whole song as dangerous, because you have to listen the longer, If I sing her half the song, that's dangerous because she might be angry at me for just saying half. Whatever I do, I'm in danger. But do I dare to face that? I don't know. That's my intention, is to live at the center of the turning point where the practice lives. even though there's danger all around, there's also opportunity all around. You give your hand to me and then you say hello and I can hardly speak.

[41:45]

My heart is beating so and anyone can see You think you know me well, but you don't know me. No, you don't know the one who dreams of you each night, who longs to be with you, who longs to love you right. No, you don't know me. No, you don't know me. No, you don't know me. May I and I'm true equally stand to every being and place with the true merit of the good way.

[42:48]

Did you say which things you can stand to learn from? Is that what you said? Yeah, to stay in that position, how do you make the choice? Because they've been dealing with layers, and that kind of danger is off to you. I think you could say that there's layers of danger.

[43:55]

In other words, sometimes you can see that something is dangerous, and then if you open to that danger, then you can actually sometimes see that it's more dangerous than you first thought. And if you open to that, you can see that it's more dangerous than that still. The thoroughness of danger maybe something that we would have deeper and deeper revelations of. So if you see some danger, you can start with that. And can you open to and relax with the danger you see? And I would say that one of the rewards, so one reward of opening to danger is that you get to see all kinds of beauties that you can't see when you turn away from the dangers which you're somewhat aware of.

[44:57]

Does that make sense? And so one reward of opening to danger is that you also open to beauty. But then another reward is you get further, deeper revelations of the danger. I think anxiety is potentially harmful. So again, opening to anxiety, to the danger of feeling anxious also opens the doors of beauty. Most artists are somewhat open to anxiety. And again, if you're able to open to anxiety and then receive the benefits of that openness, then you can open to more anxiety.

[46:03]

So there's some level of anxiety or some level of danger that is, you know, that we... I think that's too advanced. Some dangers are too advanced for us to open to. And I would say too advanced in the sense that Actually, I take it back in the sense that it isn't exactly that they're too advanced to open to, but there's some dangers which are too advanced in the sense that we don't open to them, but that we go towards them or away from them. So we're not able to just open. If we can just open to the danger, then I think things will go well. But there's some dangers which we tend to go towards and some dangers which we tend to go away from. So those dangers, in some sense, we are not yet ready to open to them. So we react by resisting, by withdrawing or diving into them.

[47:06]

So I mentioned to somebody, we don't want to be antiphobic, right? We don't want to go towards what we tend to go away from. Okay, does that make sense, not to be antiphobic? As a matter of fact, there's a very nice scripture in what's called the middle-length sayings by the Buddha, and it's called Fear and Dread. And I'd like to tell you the whole scripture because it's not too long, but I'm just going to talk about part of it. It's number four. It's the fourth scripture in the middle-length sayings. It's called Fear and Dread. So the Buddha said that when he was in the forest, And he lived 2,500 years ago in India, and he went into forests that were more wild than they are now. And in a sense, people were more aware when they went into those forests that forests are dangerous places.

[48:08]

There's dangers in forests. Of course, there's dangers in cities, too. But it's not so much that the forests were more dangerous then, but I think that people were more aware that they were dangerous. Now people think if you bring enough guns with you in the forest, they won't be dangerous, right? They're still dangerous because people got guns in the forest now. So now the animals might hurt you, but somebody might shoot you. So anyway, forests have always been dangerous and they still are. Cities have always been dangerous and they still are. But people used to be aware that forests were dangerous. And now some people are not because they take a lot of drugs and take a lot of weapons. And they think, hey, nothing's going to hurt me in this forest because I'm going to... That kind of thing, right? Anyway, back to Buddha. He's in the forest and he said, when fear came upon me, If I was walking, I would just continue to walk. When fear came upon me, if I was sitting, I would just continue to sit until I let go of the fear.

[49:15]

If I was lying down, I would continue to recline. And if I was standing, I would just stand. So, in other words, when the fear comes, just be there. So if you're in the walking, be there in walking. If you're in the sitting, be there in sitting. He didn't say if fear comes, if you're walking and fear comes, start running. Or he didn't say if you're walking and fear comes, sit down. He said just basically don't move from what you're doing. Don't let the fear push you around. Don't run towards it or away from it. And then continue that practice until you're free of the fear until you start turning. But there can be fear which is so strong or so, I should say, it is such a fear or such a danger that you do run towards it or you do run away from it.

[50:17]

So in that sense it's too advanced at that time. So then you confess I ran towards it or I ran away from it. But I'm not saying run towards the fear. I'm not saying even turn towards the fear. Just face the fear that comes to you. So that's one of the things I like, one of my favorite quotes from Walden is where he says, all you need to do is sit still long enough in an attractive spot in the forest and all the inhabitants will exhibit themselves to you. You don't have to run around the forest to look. They'll come to you if you just sit still. So don't go looking for the dangerous things. Don't go running away from the dangerous things. Just be here and the danger will manifest. It's already there. And also, what is his name? Kafka said something like, all you have to do

[51:18]

is sit at your desk, you know, and the world will eventually come to you and show itself to you. It will roll at your feet in ecstasy. But there's sometimes when we just say, well, this fear is too much for me. I got to run towards it or I got to run away from it. And that's not quite right, but, you know, we can learn by that mistake. Okay? And then there's successive layers that can uncover themselves. If the practice is going well, you keep getting challenged. If you're not getting challenged, well, then your challenge is you're not getting challenged. Your challenge is you can't grow because you're not getting challenged. And that's a challenge. Some people, the hardest challenge for them is not to be challenged. You're always challenged, but it's good to know it and feel it, because that's where you grow.

[52:27]

Like trees, they're challenged at the cambium layer, you know, the layer underneath the bark. They're challenged there. Do you know what I mean? They're challenged by bugs and so on. The bark isn't really challenged. but the bark's not growing. And the inner structure of the tree also is not really challenged. It's like just a storage unit. But at the surface where it grows, the tree is challenged. And we're challenged at the surface where we're growing, we're challenged. We're in danger where we grow. That's normal. So it's kind of a question of accepting the place where our life is is where we're growing and in danger. That's the most lively place. The most challenging place is the most lively place.

[53:29]

And again, we can be challenged in a way that doesn't look like a challenge. Yes? Yes? In your song at the end, The implication I thought was that going towards love could be one of the most dangerous places. Yes, going towards love. Well, love is dangerous. Going towards love is also dangerous. Going away from love is dangerous. But even if you are not going towards love or away from love, love is still dangerous. Love can hurt you. It can hurt to love. If somebody's suffering and you love them, it hurts. So that's what some people do is they think, well, if I just don't love this person enough, I won't get hurt so much. Someone said that to me not too long ago. I said, I think if I just cared about you less, I'd be more comfortable.

[54:33]

Yeah, maybe. But don't try it. So if you care about somebody a lot, it's dangerous to do that. Because then if they don't like you, it hurts. And if they do like you, maybe you like that, but they might stop. So that hurts, that possibility. But to move towards them or away from them, that's not the place of turning. That's not the Buddha way. The Buddha way is don't go towards or away from the danger of love. What? Be in it, yeah, which is where you are already. But when you start to feel the love and see the danger, don't try to get away from there and don't try to go towards the frightening parts.

[55:39]

the crisis. Find the crisis spot, find the crisis in the middle of the love. Find the place in the middle of the love where you can spin and turn, where you're turning and spinning. There is that place. It's always where we really are. So it's kind of like finding the place where we actually are right now. That's the place. And then the practice occurs in that place. But this place is not a place you can get a hold of. If you got a hold of it, you're distancing yourself. You can't get a hold of it, you can't get away from it. So big you can't get over it, so small you can't get under it. It's like just where you are, you can't get away from it. It can't be an object of recognition. You can tell people about it, but that's, of course, just a story about it.

[56:46]

It's not it. If you think your story about that place is it, you distance yourself. I'm still trying to puzzle the part where questioning the love itself, because it's Especially in my younger days, love was such a total illusion. I didn't know this person. I was just projecting something onto this person. And anyone can tell, you think you know me well. Yeah, so it's good to question love. If love's in the neighborhood, question it. Hello, love, can I ask you a question? Are you an illusion by any chance? No, I'm true to you forever. No impermanence here. Yeah, question love.

[57:49]

And that would be dangerous, to question love. But not questioning love is also dangerous. Love is dangerous. Everything is dangerous. everything can hurt you. Or you can be hurt in relationship to anything. The thing doesn't really hurt you, but if you're unskillful with anything, it can hurt you. If you're unskillful with milk, it can hurt you. If you're unskillful with sharp knives, it can hurt you. If you're unskillful with medicine, if you're unskillful with love. So question everything. That's part of not Going towards it. Don't question as going towards and don't question as going away. Some people actually think that it's disrespectful to ask a teacher questions or to, you know, if they don't understand or they don't agree with the teacher. But actually it's good to question the teacher but not in the sense of trying to get away from the teacher or go towards the teacher.

[58:58]

But find that balanced place, that crisis place with the teacher. And asking questions from that crisis place. Like, who are you anyway? The teacher is saying that to the student, who are you? Hopefully from that crisis place where the question is dangerous. If you say to somebody, who are you, that's dangerous. If you don't ask somebody a question, it's dangerous. But if you ask the question, it may help you get in touch with the danger. If you go into the room to meet somebody and be with somebody, that's dangerous. You stay out of the room, it's dangerous too. But if you go into the room, you feel the danger. Now some people feel the danger outside too, and they stay outside because they think there'll be more dangers to go into the room. With the teacher, right? Which is the root of the word, the master is the teacher, is the root of the word danger.

[59:59]

The master, the Lord, go in the room and meet the sovereign, the powerful one, You go in there and then you can feel a little fear. Does that make sense? So go in there, but not go in there to go towards the danger, but go in there to feel the danger and meet the danger. And what other situations can you go into that you think reasonably offer you the opportunity to feel the danger where you'll feel other opportunities? And it's okay to consult with your friends before you go into these situations where you'll feel the danger. Not where there is danger, but where you'll feel it. And you might say, I already feel the danger enough here. I would say, well, good. So since you feel danger here, how about going in here? And the person might say, okay, yeah, right.

[61:05]

I'm dangerous, it's dangerous here, it's dangerous there. But actually, why go there? I'll just stay here until I feel completely comfortable. And when you're completely comfortable with this danger, you're ready for other dangers. Like the Buddha. When he was in danger, it's not the danger, it's the fear. So feel the danger until you're not afraid anymore. And then you'll be ready for another danger, which you may also be afraid of for a while, but then you stay with that until you're not afraid, and then you're ready for another danger. Yes and yes? And yes? Being here is being in danger. That's right. Exactly. Exactly. Find your place right where you are, over and over. And there is danger there. And the more you find your place, and the more you're doing the practice of being where you are, the more you open to danger.

[62:09]

You don't have to go anywhere. That's right. Wherever you are, you're in danger of death. You're in danger of getting old. You're in danger of losing your job. You're in danger of getting sick, wherever you are. Wherever you are. So then, be there, and you have a chance to open to the opportunities of where you are. The opportunities of becoming free right where you are. You don't have to go someplace else to be in danger. You don't have to go someplace else to be free. But you do have to be where you are fully in order to realize freedom. And the more fully you are where you are, the more you open to danger. So being here also, I feel like being here is being in danger and also it feels like being a lot. What a coincidence. Yeah. So where is the death? Where is the death? Yeah. The death is like, it's always there when you're alive, but the more alive you are, the more alive you are, the closer you feel to death.

[63:23]

And what a lot of people do is they go into especially dangerous situations where they can see death is very close because when they feel death is very close, they feel more alive. When you feel very alive, you feel death close. When you feel death close, you feel really alive. So that's one of the problems of war is that men in war do wake up to the closeness of death, but then they feel alive. You know, some of them don't take drugs. They actually go into the situation and feel the death and they say, this is horrible, but I never felt so alive in my life. And I never cared about my friends as much as I do right now. Because when you're alive, you care about other life. When you care about other life, you feel more death. So, we don't go towards death, we just open to life. And open to life means you open to the danger of death.

[64:30]

Because all life is always in danger of it threatened by death. Yes? Why shouldn't you go towards the danger? Because if you go towards the danger, you're overlooking the danger that's already with you. That's one of the reasons. You don't have to go anywhere. You don't have to move towards the danger. It's already with you. And if you move away from where you are, you overlook the opportunity of the present position you're in. That's one way to do it. Going towards the danger is similar to going away from it.

[65:37]

As we say, turning away and touching are both wrong because it's like a massive fire. If you go towards the danger, you get burned. If you go away, you get frozen. So you just stay with it. It's already here. You don't have to go anyplace. I don't like this danger. I want that danger over there. Matter of fact, I don't even notice this one, but I do see one over there. Like the danger of having an affair with somebody rather than the danger of being with your partner. The boring old danger. I'm in danger of boredom if I stay here. I'd rather the danger of like sudden death than boredom. Yes, yes. Sometimes when you're intertwined in a relationship... Sometime when you're intertwined in a relationship?

[66:42]

Yeah? That's what a relationship is, is to be intertwined. And someone sees more the danger and someone else sees more the opportunities and they're walking kind of crossing the same path. Yeah? Specifically, I'm thinking about a parent Okay, I would say, can I say something to that? But you'd rather go on, is that right? If you have two people and one sees more the danger and one sees more the opportunity, okay, then I think that the, that both of them are not seeing very clearly if one of them sees, you know, more danger and less opportunity, and more opportunity and less danger. They're both, one's not, one's going towards the danger, the other one's going away. Now to see different dangers and seeing different opportunities, that's okay. But if one's kind of like going around saying, this is just like opportunity line with no danger, and the other one's this is danger line with no opportunity, then the one's leaning towards the danger and the other one's leaning away from it.

[67:47]

So really both people have to be balanced. And that's part of what the relationship can do is that you can tell the person, you know, you're overemphasizing the opportunity and underemphasizing the danger. And they can say, you're overemphasizing the danger and underemphasizing the opportunity. And you might say, well, since I'm overemphasizing the danger, it's easy for me to admit that I'm overemphasizing the danger. Because that's one of the dangers that I'm overemphasizing is overemphasizing danger and underemphasizing opportunity. But you're underemphasizing danger. You're a coward. And since I'm overemphasizing danger, I don't mind telling you you're a coward. That's maybe a little bit too rough, so you're too much into the danger. So one's too pessimistic and one's too optimistic, maybe. See, you can balance each other. You can do that dance of not splitting into roles, but antidoting the other person's imbalance.

[68:50]

So the woman helps the man be more feminine, And the man helps, or not the man, but one helps, let's just say a man helps a woman be more masculine, and a woman helps a man maybe be more feminine. If they're emphasizing, you know, one side too much. Is it appropriate, this kind of a dance, is it appropriate between a parent and a young adult child? Yes, yes. And we often think children can't stand, you know, can't stand to open to danger. So we want to make children safe. And I think somehow we need to make the children, I don't know about making the children feel safe, but more make them be aware of danger. But not by scaring them, but showing them fear dangerous things in such a way that they can become aware of the danger.

[69:55]

But we don't want them to become aware of danger and then flip into fear. We want them to be able to open to the danger and see how they behave when they are aware of the danger. But again, not to make them afraid, but to make them enlightened that this is a dangerous situation. So they can be present and upright And we're tipping them off to dangers which they may not be aware of yet. But not to make them afraid, to make them courageous and realistic, which are kind of the same thing. And children can do the same with the adults, the older people. Help them also not be afraid by showing them how dangerous life is. And children actually do that quite well, actually. especially they show their parents how dangerous life is because they're constantly demonstrating this child is in danger.

[70:57]

So children do in some sense say, hey mommy, there's danger here, look, I'm doing this dangerous thing. Just the other day my grandson was swinging on the play structure down there in the garden, you know, and doing various other things, you know, and I thought, you know, I'd I don't want to tell him not to do that because it's dangerous. So I try to be nearby to catch him if he falls, but I don't want him to become frightened. And I want him to be able to face the danger and be there with it. So I say, you know, like, hold on. You know, hold on with your hands there now. Hold on with your hands. So anyway, he shows me danger a lot. And sometimes I have to remind him of the danger. Sometimes he doesn't notice the danger. He shows me danger, his behavior. I see danger a lot for himself and for me.

[71:58]

He does things which are dangerous for me quite a bit. And yesterday we were also doing a little carpentry and he was swinging the hammer. He was trying to bring his head close to the nail and bringing the hammer back real close to his head, and he hit himself. He hit his head with the hammer. I said, you've got to keep your head away from the nail. Put the nail out to the side there where you're hitting at a distance, rather than getting your head down real close to the nail, because then you'll hit yourself again. But also, when he was younger, he used to try to hit me with hammers. So we're working together there, and it's dangerous, you know, but pretty nice situation where he's showing me danger, And then I'm also feeling the dangers and telling him about the danger. So together we're being kind of like sharing openness to the danger. And then also there's this a beautiful day with the little boy. And I guess maybe a beautiful day of being with the old man.

[73:02]

I don't know, he seemed to be having a nice time too. So we had this beautiful, great opportunity yesterday. And it was pretty much, you know, nonstop danger. lots of danger. And this morning, you know, just before I came down here, I wear this, this obi, you know. I'm going to expose myself now. See this? This broad belt I wear? It's called an obi. So I put it down on the ground. I was wrapping myself with it so the end of it was on the ground. And he came and stood on it. So then I pulled on it. And then he went to the ground. And I was sorry because he went to the ground kind of hard. And I said I was sorry. And so then certain other people were there witnessing the scene and

[74:03]

And they reviewed another scenario of how it could have gone. So we decided that I could have said to him, would you get off the belt? Because I want to pull it now. So I think in the future, next time he steps in the belt, I'll say, would you get off? I want to pull it. So that was dangerous and, you know, granted he didn't do too well on that one. Also, you know, I told you the story about at the zoo a couple weeks ago and I was at the LA Zoo with him. Not all of you heard that story. Did you hear that story? No. So we're at the zoo and he's got this orange. How many people have heard the story about the orange? Not too many, huh?

[75:08]

How many people want to hear the story about the orange? So the people who heard the story of the orange can hear it one more time because, you know, these stories should go down in history. So we're at the zoo and he's got this orange and he starts to peel it and I ask him if he wants me to help. And I don't know if he thinks it's dangerous for me to help him peel oranges or not, but he said no. So he peeled it, he got almost all the peel off But then the end was still kind of closed. So I asked him if he wanted me to take the end off so he could take it apart. And he said, yes. I took the orange and put it in my mouth to bite the end off. And he got very, very upset that I put my mouth on his orange. Now see, now there was an example of I wasn't aware of the danger and neither was he. At least I wasn't. I wasn't aware of how dangerous it would be for me to bite his orange. But it turns out it was very dangerous, and he got very upset with me. And it was really difficult for quite a while at the zoo with my grandson.

[76:15]

You know, he really got mad at me. I kind of, I thought, oh, bite an orange. That's not a dangerous thing, you know. You're not going to like, your grandson's not going to like totally freak out if you bite the orange. You know. But you never know. You bite an orange, you never know what's going to happen. Suddenly, little people may get very, very upset with you. So anyway, we went on like this for quite a while, him being angry at me. And finally, he seemed to have gotten over it somewhat. And he, you know, I felt a little hand reaching up to mine. We're holding hands again. And pretty soon he started riding on my shoulders again. And things seemed kind of back to normal. And then at one point in the afternoon he said to me, if a Buddhist master saw what a terrible job you're doing, he would fire you. So... And then some people say, what did you do when he said that?

[77:27]

And what I did was, I stopped walking, just like Buddha, just stopped there. But what I was doing was just trying to remember the story. Okay, yes, yes. I'd like to quickly or briefly highlight a certain crisis that's going on in the world right now, which has to do with the Pakistan Kashmir earthquake. And it's a time-critical crisis where the relief that can be put in there and money works needs to be put in there by the end of this month, the latest, because some of the villages will be under five feet of snow starting December 1. And I would love to talk with anybody after Q&A who may also have ideas how to assist.

[78:34]

Oxfam, O-X-F-A-M, America.org. knows what to do with the money. The Pakistan Army did not know what to do. They bungled. And this is a case where private relief efforts will do a lot better than a governmental relief effort. so if people in this room know people who are in a position to give and maybe some people who would normally give at the end of the year they could be encouraged to a learn about what's happening of which uh... there's a good two page summary article in the october twenty eight issue of economist magazine uh... then We can be conduits for the people who are in a position to give and would encourage them to bring that giving that they might otherwise do towards the end of the year to bring it forward to right now.

[79:45]

It's a very time critical crisis. So if anybody has a There's another potential vehicle, Grameen Foundation, which is a spin-off of Grameen Bank, but they don't seem to have quite the critical mass of like an Oxfam. So if anyone wants to talk about this after Q&A, I'll hang around for a little bit. Thank you. Thank you. Just a second. Is there anybody who hasn't asked a question who want to? Yes. Yes. It's a song, and I think of songs often, and I want to know if this is going towards or staying with, and the words of the song... Don't stay with either. Don't stay, just be, be with, because things might change. I took one look at you That's all I meant to do

[80:47]

And then my heart stands still. Sounds fine to me. And then let it turn. Yes? Another question? Yes? Could you talk a little bit about, I think, the crisis Can I talk a little bit about facing the crisis of death? The crisis of death. Well, what occurs to me is the crisis of death is life. And just like the crisis of life is the danger of death. The danger of death is life. Life is the danger of death.

[81:49]

Death is in danger of life. And life is in danger of death. Life is also in danger of life. Life is endangered by other kinds of life. But one of the things that life is in danger of is death. And death is in danger of life. And so if you can feel the vital danger or the threat of life to death, that will be part of the ceremony. In some sense, the ceremony is for realizing that we, the living, are endangering the dead people, dead beings. That's part of it. But our endangerment of them is part of their opportunity. That we living have a relationship with the dying, the way the dead have a relationship with us.

[82:57]

Meaning we're endangering each other. But that endangering is part of the opportunity of life and the opportunity of death. If we don't endanger ourselves, if we living don't endanger ourselves to death, we're not fully alive. Just like if we don't endanger ourselves to each other. But similarly, now we endanger ourselves by doing the ceremony with the dead, and the dead hopefully will be encouraged to feel how dangerous, how they're endangered by our life. So we set up a relationship between the living and the dying through the ceremony. excuse me, between the living and the dead, and also all the living beings are subject to dying. So all of us living beings are dying, but we're not dead. And the more we open to the dying and the dead, the more alive we become, but also the more alive we become, the more they're endangered and not stuck in death.

[84:04]

So the living and the dead both can be liberated from life and death. Okay. Yes? I had a question about... I kind of lost you when you were talking about jumping, leaping. That's what happens. When you're staying in a place, but you're also jumping and leaping. Is it joy that comes in the middle of jumping and leaping and staying? So it seems like... Not staying, being where you are. Just like when you jump, You have to jump from where you are. You can't jump... It's hard to jump, you know, like those astronauts up in the airplane. It's hard for them to jump without gravity. So when you have gravity and mass, then your feet are on the ground, and then you can push from the place you are into jumping. And why are we jumping?

[85:06]

I don't answer a lot of questions. I jumped out of that one. Did you jump with me? Yeah. Well, good. How was it? I'm just a little confused. You're just a little confused? Yeah. And are you jumping? Say it again. Are you jumping? Is there jumping? I don't think so. You don't think you're jumping? What do you think you're doing? Not jumping? You think this is not jumping? Well, you're using jumping as an analogy for something? Well... I guess I'm missing the analogy. I don't know if it's an analogy. I'm kind of asking if you're jumping. And you don't think you are? So you think you're not jumping? Is that what you think you're doing? How is not jumping? How is it? Well, I don't know what jumping feels like, so I don't know what non-jumping feels like.

[86:09]

You don't? So you don't know what non-jumping... So if you don't know what non-jumping is like, are you not jumping? I need jumping defined. You need jumping defined? Do you need not jumping defined? Yeah. What do you mean you need it? To know if I'm doing it or... Do you really need not jumping defined? Do you really need it? Is that true? That you really need not jumping defined? Yeah. Okay, well, that was my only question. Okay. Well, if you have any more later, let me know. Yes. Yes. Being open, I was just kind of relating your relationship with your grandchild that to me as a child it looks like they're always in this state of vulnerability.

[87:19]

They're always open without even thinking consciously or without even saying, I'm going to be open or whatever. Because they are right there. Their children may, on one level, we as adults and we as children, we actually are always open. But we don't necessarily notice that. Matter of fact, we sometimes think we aren't open. In other words, we think, I'm not open to this person. We feel that way. It's not true, but we think that way. And thinking that way, we feel trapped and frightened and et cetera. We feel miserable when we feel that we're not open. And children are open and were open, but children oftentimes do not feel they're open, do not think they're open. And then there are really good demonstrations of what it's like when you don't think you're open, and there are usually good demonstrations of being frightened beings that think they're not open.

[88:20]

Or more like being. I think somehow as I get older, I get into this thinking and analyzing it rather than just being it. kind of trying to connect the dots, whereas the children are just there. In your example, when you said that fear, it looks like there was some sense of fear that you tried to change the situation so he would not be harmed, he would be safe. Whereas from his viewpoint, he wasn't even thinking about being safe. He was just playing, he was just there. He was thinking about being safe. As a matter of fact, he was trying to get his head close to the nail so that he could see better where the hammer was going to go. He knew that there was a danger of him hitting his hand with the hammer. He was aware of danger, but he wasn't aware of the danger of hitting himself with the hammer.

[89:23]

So I actually wasn't exactly trying to make him safe. I was just trying to help him not hit his head. But I didn't think that if he didn't hit his head that he would be safe. He just wouldn't be hitting his head. And I wanted him to know about the danger of hitting his head too. Which he found out about actually. He did hit his head. So I was not really trying to make him safe. I was more like trying to make him wake up to the danger of being a carpenter. Especially a little carpenter with a big hammer. And Because I didn't really think at that time, I didn't really think I could make him safe. I thought we were in a dangerous situation. You know, we were out in the jungle, you know, the eucalyptus jungle with nails and hammers and saws. It was dangerous, but I was trying to, like, help him and me relate to the danger in a way that we could get through this in an educational way.

[90:29]

Is that enough for today? Yes? Did I purposely pull the belt? I purposely pulled the belt, but I did not particularly want him to fall down. I didn't. No, I just wanted to get the belt and put it on. And I could have asked him to get off the belt, but he seemed to be standing on it intentionally. I thought he was standing on it so that we could do this thing I called him standing on it, me pulling it. I thought that's a game he wanted to play. And I kind of wanted to play the game myself. But his mother and grandmother kind of wanted me to play the game of saying, would you get off the belt? But I actually preferred the game of him standing on it and me pulling it.

[91:37]

But I didn't particularly want him to fall down. But sometimes we want to play the game called stand on the belt and have granddaddy pull it and see what happens. That's another game. But the mother and the grandmother didn't want to play that game. They didn't want to watch that game And this is, you know, an opportunity for further discussions here. I thought he was being playful. No, I'm just saying I thought he was being playful. So I thought he wanted to play the game called Stand on Granddaddy's Belt and Have Granddaddy Pull It, rather than Stand on Granddaddy's Belt and Have Him Ask You to Do Something. Rather than him do this physical thing and me talk, I thought he wanted to do a physical thing and me do a physical thing. But then when I did this physical thing, then he did this other physical thing, and that was kind of a shock to everybody, including me. That was a little bit too dramatic for me because he really did go down.

[92:39]

Now, of course, it was a carpeted surface, but it was still very fast. He rapidly went down. And it was kind of like, I don't know about this granddaddy kind of thing. And I kind of felt like, hmm. So anyway, I kind of felt bad about it in a way. But it's, you know, I was trying to be playful. I was being playful, but being playful doesn't mean that you don't make mistakes. So I think I kind of made a mistake, and yet... It was also kind of wonderful, that mistake. Did you get fired again? Huh? Did you get fired again? I didn't get fired. The mother and the grandmother didn't say, you are fired as granddaddy. They didn't go, but they were thinking about it probably. But I think more and more, it's not so much that they'll fire me, but just that they want me to be in what's called continuing education.

[93:46]

And I thought, you know, it wasn't like I, you know, I kind of felt bad, and I kind of accepted, and I went to granddaddy's school there for a few minutes. Yes? And that question about the relationship where one sees opportunity and the other one sees only danger. Yeah. Yeah. I want to verify how do you relate to beings who are anxious and closing down and manipulating and hiding and so forth. How do you relate to people who are, again, what is the list? Hiding. Manipulative. Closing down. Closing down. How do you deal with them? Anxious. How do you deal with them? Well, first you start with giving. Practice giving. You start there.

[94:54]

Even before you practice giving with them, you might also notice this is a dangerous situation. Here is somebody who is hiding, anxious, closed down, manipulative. This is dangerous. Then there's also people over here who are not hiding, not manipulative, not anxious, and not manipulative. That's another dangerous situation. So it's good to feel the danger of everybody you meet is dangerous. And then practice giving with these dangerous people, with the dangerous manipulative ones and the dangerous non-manipulative ones. Practice giving. In other words, let the non-manipulative ones be non-manipulative. But do that as an act of giving and let the manipulative ones be manipulators as an act of giving. And then you help the non-manipulative, non-hiding, non-anxious ones, you help them turn and not get stuck in being non-manipulative, non-anxious, and

[96:01]

and then you help the manipulative, anxious ones to turn too. You enter into the turning of the relationship if you can enter the danger and enter the opportunity by practicing giving. Again, giving is the first practice of turning. It's the first way to start entering into how the situation is turning. One of the ways the situation turns, you meet somebody who is manipulative, and you let that turn into them not being manipulative and you being manipulative. But not really manipulative, just temporarily manipulative, and then turn out of that and let them be manipulative and you be non-manipulative. So they're hiding and then you're not, and then you're hiding and then they're not. Or they're anxious and you're not, and then you're anxious and they're not. Like somebody who's really anxious, you go up to them and you say, oh, I'm so anxious. And they get a break from their anxiety. They say, you are?

[97:02]

You don't look like it. Well, you say, I'm not anymore. Now you are. And so on. You enter into that. In other words, realize that nobody's really stuck. It's just that we're Pretending to be stuck and miserable and defensive and manipulative and hiding. We're just pretending. How do you know that? Huh? How do I know that? Because you help me. Thank you. Do you want me to tell a story about how I know it? You give your hand to me and then you say hello. And I can hardly speak My heart is beating so And anyone can see I think I know you well But I don't know you No, I don't know the one Who dreams of me each night Who wants to know me well Who wants to give a fight

[98:16]

No, I don't know you well. And you don't know me well. And that's the way I dream. And that's my story. And now it's lunchtime. So have a good one. And I'm going to San Francisco to play with my grandson.

[98:36]

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