Well, one of the things I wanted to talk to you about this year is the word vehicle. And some of you may have heard of what's called the three vehicles, and some of you may not have. But at a certain stage in the history of the tradition, they spoke of three vehicles, which were the vehicle of the listener, the vehicle of the Buddha who was enlightened by conditions, and the vehicle of the Bodhisattvas. But a lot of times people speak of the vehicle of the individual vehicle, which is also the vehicle of the listener, where you listen to the Buddha's teachings and you understand

[01:06]

them and you achieve liberation, or where one listens to the Buddha's teachings and practices them and attains liberation, attains understanding of the Buddhist teaching and liberation, oneself. And one might aspire to such personal liberation. And that aspiration and that practice which a person sees as, I'm listening to the Buddha's teaching and I'm trying to practice the Buddha's teaching. It's kind of what we call the individual vehicle path to freedom from suffering. And the Buddha seemed to teach people who had that kind of aspiration and that kind of practice, and in the process of teaching them, people did seem to have that kind of

[02:06]

realization and that kind of freedom and peace. And there's another vehicle, which is called the great vehicle or the universal vehicle, which is the aspiration to practice in a way that liberates all beings, and actually to attain Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings. And then there's a Bodhisattva practice. But what I would say to you is that the Bodhisattva practice is not so much the practice of what I'm doing by myself, although it includes my personal effort to listen to the teaching and practice the teachings, but I'm actually aspiring to a practice which includes everybody else and actually is everybody else's practice together with me. So the Bodhisattva vehicle has the aspiration to attain Buddhahood for the welfare of all

[03:12]

beings, but also it has that aspiration, that vow, but it also is a practice, which is the practice of all of us together. It's not me coming to this temple and practicing by myself, it's me coming to the temple and all of us practicing together. It is the practice of all of us, and not just us, but everybody, all beings in the universe, all living beings. The practice of all of them is the way I would understand the Bodhisattva practice. But that doesn't exclude me thinking that I'm coming to the temple and I'm sitting down and I'm talking to you and I'm trying to practice generosity and I'm trying to be careful and I'm trying to be patient. It includes that. But although it includes it, that view doesn't embrace it, doesn't comprehend it.

[04:14]

The Bodhisattva practice is only comprehended by everybody's practice. So the Bodhisattva practice doesn't exclude the individual conceptual version of practice, doesn't exclude it, it completely welcomes it. So the Bodhisattva practice practices with individual's understanding of their individual practice. The way everybody is generous towards my individual effort, and I'm generous with my individual effort, all that is the great vehicle, generosity. And that's infinite, it's universal, it's the way we're all practicing together. It's the way we're all doing the same practice. And a third vehicle, which I would relate to these first two vehicles, is called the

[05:26]

one vehicle, which is kind of an extension of what I just said, it's the vehicle which is the vehicle of those of us who are doing the universal vehicle, and those who think they're not doing the universal vehicle, who don't want to do the universal vehicle. They're not aspiring to attain Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings, but they are aspiring to attain personal liberation by applying the Buddha's teachings to all of their life. So the individual vehicle and the universal vehicle, the third vehicle, is that they're one vehicle. Now there's other vehicles, which are the vehicle of I wish to be the richest person on the block, I wish to dominate others, I wish to get people to like me, I wish that

[06:28]

people would hate people who don't like me, I aspire to work for the misfortune of everybody who's not appreciating me. Those are other examples of vehicles. And the one vehicle is saying that all those people on those vehicles which aren't trying to do anybody any good except for me, and actually wanted to punish people who aren't like me, and etc., all those other ways of life are the same as the bodhisattva vehicle and the individual vehicle. That everybody is on the same path, even those who wish to be on the path of individual personal liberation, and probably wouldn't mind that other people also attain personal liberation, but are not so much interested in promoting everybody attaining universal liberation.

[07:32]

I myself am not into that when I'm on the individual vehicle. So again, this one vehicle is saying that there are these other vehicles, but really they're the same. They're identical, even though they sound different. And that's part of, I'll be talking about that more in the future. An example of that is that, well, somebody said to me that somebody who is interested in practicing silence and stillness in yogic discipline, wishes to practice that way. One of his friends said to him, do you apply the same energy in the subtleties of social

[08:43]

interaction that you do in your practice of yogic meditation, in the subtleties of yogic meditation? And I didn't hear the person's answer to that question, but that was the question, and I thought, well, part of what I wanted to emphasize is the one vehicle, which is to put effort to give life energy to the subtleties of meditation in silence and stillness. I think that should get as much energy as giving our energy to the subtleties of social interactions with other people. But the next step I would suggest is that when we are practicing with the subtleties of silence

[09:54]

and stillness in yogic meditation, that that actually, in the one vehicle, is a social practice. Sitting in a meditation hall, even if nobody else is in the meditation hall, in terms of the one vehicle, is a social practice. Of course, if I say to somebody that meeting with other people and discussing the teaching and discussing the practice, that that's social, most people would say, yeah. But they might not see that this discussion is occurring in silence and stillness, but it is. That the Buddha's practice is a social practice. It is the practice of all beings together, and it occurs in silence and stillness, and

[10:57]

sometimes humans would look at the situation and say, there's a hundred people sitting in that meditation hall, and everybody's sitting still, and everybody's silent. Okay? And most of the people there would say, mm-hmm. But what they might not be able to see is that these people are having a conversation. That it's a social event, from the point of view of the one vehicle. That they are all enacting the one practice of all beings. The Buddha's practice is social. The Buddha's practice is with everybody. The Buddha goes through various transformations in her practice, and her transformations are the transformation of all beings. And if we had a Buddha in this room, who is sitting with us, the Buddha's presence

[12:05]

would be communicating with us. The Buddha would be having a face-to-face communion with us, even though the Buddha might not be saying any words out of the mouth. The Buddha would be saying, in many languages, I am here with you. I am practicing with you. My practice is your practice. They would be sitting there, and to some people it would be very clear that the Buddha was saying that to us. The Buddha's sitting there, saying, hello, guess what? My practice is your practice. Hello, guess what? Your practice is my practice. Without saying those words, people could wake up to that's what the Buddha's presence is. I'm looking at you, and I'm identical to you.

[13:10]

Even though you don't think that, that's what I see. And I can see that you don't think that, but I do think that. And also, even without thinking that, I realize that. And then sometimes, as you know, the Buddha starts talking, in, for example, English, or other languages, and then it looks like the Buddha is talking to the students. Yes, now it's getting social. Yes, but it was social before. When the Buddha was sitting in the midst of the assembly, the Buddha was not practicing by herself. She was the practice of everybody. And some people are... It's wonderful, they put a lot of energy into social relations

[14:15]

in the form of talking to other people, and they really like giving a lot of attention to the subtleties that are involved there, and I would say, great. Now do the same when you're with people, and you're not moving or talking. And some people are really willing to give themselves amazingly well to sitting still and silent, and taking care of the subtleties of that. But they don't realize that this is a social engagement. That they are socially engaged. That you cannot sit still and silent and be fully engaging with the subtleties of that. You cannot do that without interacting with the entire society. As a matter of fact, you are. Your practice of cultivating your own presence is other people's cultivating of their presence.

[15:18]

Your practice pervades them when you're silent. When you're silent, your silence pervades all beings. And when you're talking, your talking practice pervades all beings, including the people who are sitting silently. And they are listening to you, whether they know it or not. The Buddhists sit with us, and they hear our cries in silence. They're sitting with us, and even though we're not saying a word, or even thinking a word, they hear our cries. And their hearing our cries is their practice. And their practice of hearing our cries is our practice. Because we're crying to them, they're responding to us. They're responding to us, we're crying to them. So, this is the one vehicle, which allows the universal vehicle,

[16:23]

and allows the individual vehicle, but it also points out that they're the same. And not to mention all the people who are not either one of them, and are on the catastrophe vehicles. They're also on the same vehicle. But in this catastrophic, very sad and painful way. So I hope that you can give your full energy to what looks like your individual practice. That you give your full energy to being silent and still. All day long, and all night long. And that will help you in your social practice, where you're communicating with people all day and all night. Communicating your stillness when you're talking and when you're not talking.

[17:25]

Communicating your silence in silence and in speech. For me, of course when the Buddha is talking, the Buddha is speaking silence. The Buddha is speaking silence. The Buddha is silence speaking. Silence talks. And talk does not reach the silence. And that's what the silence has to say. So may we do this social practice of face-to-face transmission in silence, in stillness, and when we're walking together, working together, and talking together.

[18:30]

And in both cases the subtleties are infinite. But the subtleties, the infinity of the subtleties of our social life together, in silence and stillness, is realized by taking care of the limited things. The subtleties of the limited. The subtleties of birth, and growing up, and going to high school, and then teaching high school students, and being parents to high school students, and then being, hanging out with old people, and then die. All these things are social opportunities for stillness, and silence,

[19:37]

and wholehearted, genuine conversation, which again promotes the subtlety. I can't be subtle enough without you, without your requests, and comments, and feedback. That promotes the subtlety of my attempt to speak with you, and vice versa. I need you to question me, to help me question myself. And you do question me, and this is part of the face-to-face social practice of us together. So, our limited view of our social life together, like 40 or 50 people here,

[21:04]

that view, that appearance of these individual humans, and relating to those limited beings, and those limited appearances, offers the opportunity to open to our unlimited life. Where we can learn things that we can't learn without opening to that, but also we can't really open to it without opening to our limited life. And we do have some problem opening to our limited life. When it manifests in the form of people hating us, people being attached to us, people disrespecting us, or us having those kinds of feelings towards people, at that point it's difficult to open to the subtlety of all that limitation.

[22:09]

But we can. We can open to it. We can be compassionate to it. We are being compassionate to it. That's reality. We are really open to all the twist and little, subtle limitations of my life, for me, and my life for you. You've been enjoying the limitations of my body for a few months now, watching how I work with my limitations, watching how you work with my limitations. And in our not rushing ahead in the recovery process, and not shrinking back from it, and being upright with the recovery process of this body, we're ready for the next limitation, the next catastrophe. I hope we are.

[23:21]

And if we are, we're open to something where there's no catastrophes and no limits, which again encourages us to do the same work of working thoroughly and subtly with every limitation. And in the thorough exertion of every limitation, there is the realization of no limitation. And if we learn from no limitation, that helps us deal with limitation. And then if we do, we realize no limitation. And again, that helps us in the path which is limitation and no limitation are identical. They're two sides of the pivotality of everything, of every limitation. And so we have this thing about clocks, which give finite messages about time.

[24:40]

And Oscar has demanded and proclaimed ending early, and I get to decide when early is. And I think early is somewhere around now. That's what I think. And you support my view, right? We're working together here. Isn't that great? May our intention equally extend to every being and place.

[25:22]

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