I heard that one time a Zen teacher in China spoke to his group and he asked the question, what was the Buddha's teaching during her whole lifetime? What was the Buddha teaching the entire life? And then he answered the question himself, and in Chinese, I think it was three Chinese characters that he said, I think he said, meeting each, teach, or teach,

[01:08]

meeting each. In other words, what the Buddha was doing was, every time he met some, some person, in every meeting, in each meeting, he would teach. Each person he would meet, each tree he would meet, each animal he would meet, each mountain he would meet, he would meet and teach. And actually now that I say this to you, it isn't exactly like when he met that he would teach, but that in each meeting there was teaching. That's what the Buddha was up to. When the Buddha met a mountain, there was teaching. The mountain was teaching the Buddha and the Buddha was teaching the mountain. Buddha says, thank you mountain for

[02:09]

the teaching, the mountain said, thank you Buddha for the teaching, nice to meet you. And of course when people met the Buddha, usually they would thank the Buddha, and he didn't necessarily thank them, but I think he understood that they were teaching him what to say. He didn't come and say, I'm going to tell him about this today. He'd be there some place in India, he was mostly in India, he'd meet people, and he met somebody who would think, oh, maybe they'd like to hear about this, and then he'd meet somebody else, maybe they'd like to hear about that. I think that's the way the Chinese phrase is. In each meeting, teaching. Teaching, meeting each thing. One translation I like of this into

[03:14]

English is that what the Buddha was doing all throughout the teaching career was an appropriate response. When he met people, he understood, if they were requesting something, he would respond. If they weren't requesting something, the teaching would be there too, but since they didn't request it, they would not notice that he was giving them the teaching. But when they requested, he responded. And I might mention this morning, another translation could be appropriate assistance. What the Buddha was doing was appropriate assistance, or appropriate giving. Is that a current term, appropriate giving? No? It is kind of

[04:18]

like one of the fundraising terms, appropriate giving. Is there some term like that, that fundraisers use? So, you could say that what the Buddha was up to, or what enlightened beings are up to, is they're up to, when they meet current events, and current events could be, you know, like you could be sitting in meditation in your room, or in a meditation hall, and there are current events for you to a great extent of how you're feeling, what you're experiencing, what you're thinking about. And then the question is, what is Buddha under the circumstances of me meditating, what's the appropriate response to your experience?

[05:21]

When you meet a person, what's the appropriate response? And then of course we have now current events, like wars, ecological disasters, accumulating disasters. Have you heard about that? There's some word of current manifesting disasters and impending disasters. And there were disasters at the time of the life of the Buddha, too. He lived in a time when there were disasters. There were current events like that, disasters to individuals, individual, personal, psychological disasters, and social disasters, and environmental disasters. He lived at a time like that, too. And when he met these disastrous, or potentially disastrous events, he was involved in giving

[06:39]

an appropriate response, to have teaching arise in the meeting. He taught, one of his main teachings was, actions have consequence. And the other day on the radio I heard Al Gore say, we live in a time when people don't really pay much attention to the consequences of their actions. It's not something that, there's a real strong message out there like, let's pay attention to the consequences of our actions. The advertising doesn't say, buy this, and also when you buy this product, be aware that there will be consequences of buying this product. Invade this country, but when you do, be very aware that there

[07:48]

will be consequences of invading this country. Buy this car and fill it with gas and drive it, but when you do, drive responsibly. Be aware that there will be consequences, even if you're sober, there will be consequences of these actions. This message seems to be, a lot of people don't seem to be paying attention to it. One of the things that Buddha gave over and over again was the teaching, actions have consequence. When we think certain ways, there's consequences, and part of the consequences is that we tend to think the way we thought

[08:54]

before, and our minds have a tendency to create a kind of enclosure. The mind tends to make its own world, its own enclosed world, and then when the person lives in the mind-created enclosure, they sometimes feel unfree and suffer. And similarly, we now have the environmental analogy to that, or parallel to that, that our actions have created a physical enclosure, that all sentient beings, humans and non-humans together, have now apparently started to create a physical enclosure, called an enclosure built with greenhouse gases. So both for our

[10:01]

own psychological enclosure, our own psychological entrapment, and for the physical entrapment and the disasters that may come from psychological and physical entrapment. The Buddha responded to that, again, by giving teaching, and the teaching was, pay attention to action and its consequence, study causation, and study yourself, study what yourself is, learn what yourself is, and understanding the social and environmental problems of our lives,

[11:04]

by lying and understanding our own mind, our own personal causal patterns. This morning as I came into the room, I noticed that there were some empty seats, and I crossed my mind, maybe it would be good to move Gringo to the other side of the hill, so that not

[12:13]

too many people have to drive here. Of course, then we wouldn't be a Gringo. But there's a little bit of a problem of this valley, is that not too many people live on this side of the mountain, so if you want to come here, how do they get here? Well, kind of a problem. If you walk, how do you walk? It takes a long time to walk. You ride a bicycle, that takes a long time too, and if you walk or drive on the highway, it's not very safe, because there's cars and motorcycles on the highway too, so it's kind of uncomfortable to walk over the mountain to Gringo's, although some of you I know do it. Going over the hills is very pleasant, but it takes quite a long time. This is a problem, I think. I feel some

[13:15]

stress about how do we practice here in a way that doesn't have disastrous consequences. How can we study the situation and learn about ourselves in such a way to find us freedom from the negative consequences of driving cars here. Actions have consequences. Studying karma, studying action, studying intentional action and its consequences is something

[14:22]

that requires quite a bit of intention, it takes quite a bit of intention to study intention. We have enough trouble just acting, but then if you look at what our intentions are in our actions, to consider carefully each action, or you might even say, to consider that each action is an opportunity to meet the situation and find the teaching. Each moment, each moment is an opportunity to meet the moment and consider what's the appropriate response. What's the appropriate response? What response is coming and what consequences might there be? Once

[15:31]

again, it is recommended that we hear the teaching that every action has consequences, and that studying that, listening to that teaching and studying that teaching in our own life, in our own activity, is what the Buddha wanted to give to people because the Buddha felt that giving that teaching would liberate people from suffering and would help them also have appropriate responses to their moment-by-moment events. But I mentioned that this kind of meditation is not necessarily a meditation of the mind,

[16:51]

even. And so, if there's a question of how to encourage ourselves in such a way that we would be willing to happily be careful, be attentive, be focused on the practical moment-by-moment life that we're living. I somehow found myself, the thought in my mind, that this morning, that I, and this

[18:07]

isn't really, this is just me groping to express myself, that I was kind of feeling like I'm feeling pain, I feel pain, but I'm not unhappy. I was feeling not unhappy, but I felt pain, I felt pain, I feel pain about what's happening to our world, what's happening in our world for humans and for non-humans, and for the world itself. I feel pain about it, but I'm not unhappy. And it isn't that I want other people to feel pain, it's not that I want other people to feel pain, more that I want people to actually be happy. However, the

[19:16]

happiness, I think, needs to find a home in pain, because pain is part of the deal here, it seems like. If I'm happy, I'm actually willing to spend my life, to give my life, to studying action and its consequence, because the consequence of action, some of the consequences of action, are suffering. Not all suffering is due to past action, but past action is a key, our current action is a key to understanding our suffering. So I feel like I need to be

[20:19]

happy in order to practice studying pain and where it comes from. I need to be happy in order to open up to the actual arena in which action has consequence. So that led me to look at some teachings which are just a little bit shocking. And I bring these teachings to you in hopes that I'm responding to current events by offering these teachings, and that I offer these teachings in hope that you and I will be able to open, happily open to the

[21:23]

study of action and its consequence, and open to the study of the pain which is the consequence of past actions, and thereby turn the enclosure, the suffocating enclosure, into a door. So the first kind of somewhat shocking teaching along this line, which I want to give to you, I want to give this to you, this is something I hope is a gift, I want this to be a gift, it's the teaching about the effective conditions for terror and delight. And so there is a

[22:25]

verse about this, and it goes something like, the suffering which comes from bodhisattvas, the suffering which comes to bodhisattvas, the suffering which comes to those who wish to study themselves in order to understand life's problems, and help people. Bodhisattvas are those who wish to develop understanding so that they can benefit other beings. They're beings who want to help other people, all other people, and all other beings, but they also want to understand cause and effect, so that they will be better able to help people, because they need to teach people how to study cause and effect in order for people to be

[23:25]

happy. Without studying cause and effect, bodhisattvas have heard and believed, without studying cause and effect, without studying causation, without studying how action has consequences, liberation from suffering is not possible. I've said that before, sort of, but I'll say it again. I would like to refute the idea, the presumption, that liberation is possible without studying causation. And then I hope to establish the confidence that

[24:29]

liberation is possible in the environment of studying causation. So bodhisattvas are beings who want to encourage all beings to study causation so that they can become free. They're beings who not just want people to be free, but want to teach people how to become free. And once again, the way to become free is through learning about yourself, your active self, studying the active self. So these beings who want to help other beings become free, suffering comes to them. But the suffering comes to them, the pain comes to them on account of compassion. Suffering comes to them because they care for the world, they love the world,

[25:38]

they want to help the world, and because of that, pain comes to them. And they've been taught beforehand, and now you're hearing too, that if you wish to live for the welfare of the world, if you want to take care of all living beings, pain will come to you due to your wish to help all beings. Pain can come for other reasons too. Mainly, pain can come because of the consequences of action, and also because somebody is mean to you, or the season changes, or you get sick. Pain can come for a lot of reasons. But I'm talking

[26:39]

about a special kind of pain, a pain that will come to you and to me, if we care for the welfare of all beings, pain will come to us. It will come because we care. And when it first comes, it's terrifying. Not only do we get pain, but it's terrifying, even to someone who really cares for the welfare of all beings. And this is because, at the beginning of our practice of caring for all beings, that when the pain comes, we do not yet understand the true nature of the pain. It almost never happens that the person at

[27:43]

the beginning of their practice of working for the welfare of all beings, at the beginning, they understand the nature of suffering. They want people to be free, but they don't start out by understanding the nature of suffering. They start out usually by wanting people to be free of suffering, and then the reward is, you feel pain. And it's terrifying. But if you're committed to this, and keep studying, eventually you will understand, for example, the equality of yourself and others. And by understanding the equality, or the non-separation

[28:44]

of yourself and other beings, the suffering causes only delight. There's a verse on the surpassing happiness of, or caused by, the surpassing happiness caused by compassionate suffering, suffering surpasses happiness.

[29:56]

There's a verse concerning the fact that the suffering born of compassion surpasses all mundane happiness. So when I mentioned earlier that if you really care for the welfare of all beings, suffering will come to you, pain will come to you. Now I'm giving you a verse which says that the suffering you feel out of compassion, that that suffering surpasses all mundane happiness. Suffering surpasses all happiness. What kind of suffering? The suffering you feel when you care for one being, two beings, all beings, the suffering that you feel due to caring for the welfare of beings, surpasses all happiness. What could

[31:09]

be more marvelous than this? That suffering born from compassion surpasses all mundane happiness. Even those who have accomplished their own aims are deprived of that. Some people have attained liberation, personal liberation. It's possible. But they don't feel this. The Bodhisattvas who feel the pain born of compassion feel this happiness. There is nothing more wondrous than this, that a Bodhisattva whose suffering is born of compassion becomes happiness that surpasses all mundane happiness.

[32:16]

There is a verse on the benefit of compassionate generosity, or mercy-driven giving, and it's very simple. Generosity accompanied by compassion provides the brave and firm-hearted ones, the Bodhisattvas, with the happiness of generosity. There is a verse on accepting suffering out of compassion. Out of compassion for sentient beings, out of compassion for the sake of

[33:36]

sentient beings, the Bodhisattvas do suffering for the benefit of others, will the compassionate ones not embrace? Or, what suffering will the compassionate ones not embrace in order to accomplish the benefit of others? Maybe one more verse. This verse is on the growth of three things and their fruit. And the three things are compassion, giving, and wealth. Those three things and their fruits, which are three types of happiness. So compassion,

[34:44]

giving, and wealth always increase for the compassionate one. From this comes happiness of three kinds. One born of love, the next one born of assistance, and the third born of produced by the capacity to assist. So, three practices, compassion, giving, and wealth. And then their fruits are three types of happiness. Compassion grows by continual practice of compassion. Now actually generosity and wealth are part of compassion too, but basic

[35:52]

compassion, the basic concern for the welfare of others, it increases by continually practicing concern for the welfare of others, which I mentioned earlier, you get a gift called pain from doing that practice. Then, based on that compassion, which grows by continual practice, then there is possibility of generosity, and generosity grows on compassion. So compassion grows on compassion, and generosity grows on compassion. And then there is wealth, and wealth means the ability to assist people. So the wealth grows, increases, based on generosity.

[37:00]

And then as I practice, as we practice compassion, the happiness from practicing compassion increases. As we practice giving, the happiness coming from assistance increases, and as we practice assistance, or wealth, which is the capacity to assist, the happiness comes from being able to assist. The ability to assist gives rise to happiness, and all these happinesses enable us to continue to practice. And one more verse, this is the verse called the verse encouraging giving, or generosity. I increase, I cause to increase,

[38:15]

I fully develop beings, I gladden, I attract, and I lead. It is as if compassion encourages those who are weak in giving. So in a way this is compassion talking. I increase, I cause to increase, I fully develop beings, I gladden, I attract, I lead. I am willing to, how do you put it, I am willing to embrace any suffering, all suffering, happily, for the welfare of other beings, for the welfare of all beings. And my willingness to embrace,

[39:28]

my contemplation of the willingness to embrace any suffering in order to benefit beings, this generates the happiness of love. Then, based on this, the actual practice of giving, giving whatever is available to give, which is always, you always have yourself to give, you are never without a self to give. Based on that compassion, based on the happiness of being willing to embrace the suffering which is coming to you because you are willing to embrace the suffering, you are willing to embrace suffering? Okay, here it is. The willingness to embrace any suffering that will benefit beings gives happiness in embracing whatever

[40:33]

suffering is being given to you. And out of that comes the practice of giving, which is already there, but now we see it blossoming. And then comes the happiness of giving assistance, and you are giving the assistance of showing, whether you tell people or not, that you are happy to assist them in the midst of the suffering which you are receiving because you are happy to assist them. So now the generosity increases, and based on the generosity, wealth comes. But this is a wealth of the ability to assist, and sometimes that takes the form of the ability to assist someone who is hungry, somehow food comes into the picture. Or the ability to help someone rest, by offering them some place to rest. Or to give someone

[41:41]

water who is thirsty, or to give someone a seat who needs to sit down. But of course, it also is primarily to give them teachings. Teachings which will help them enter the study of their actions and consequences. So there is an action, it's an action called considering, called thinking, called using your mind and your heart to contemplate living for the welfare of all beings. And then there is the continual effort to listen to the teaching which tells you beforehand that if you do actually care for the welfare of all beings, you will receive

[42:42]

the gift of suffering, of pain. But if the pain comes because you care for others, you will be happy. You must be happy. If you're not happy, then you need to consider what you need to consider. Am I unwilling to embrace this suffering which comes to me because I care for others? Am I unwilling to embrace this suffering now for the welfare of others? Am I unwilling to embrace this suffering for the welfare of others? Whatever suffering is here, am I unwilling to embrace it for the welfare of others? And if so, I confess I'm unwilling. Now, how can I possibly have the opportunity to be willing to embrace

[43:53]

the pain I feel now, not just as a great feat, but for the welfare of others? Such that I will feel the happiness of compassion, a happiness which surpasses any mundane happiness according to this teaching. And I say to myself, and you can listen to me, although you may not be willing or ready to do such a practice, please understand that this is the practice that somebody is willing to do for you. The Bodhisattvas are willing to embrace my suffering even if I'm not. And they will feel suffering when they embrace my suffering, and they will feel happiness, a delight when they embrace my suffering. They're not happy that I'm suffering, they're happy because they're embracing my suffering. They're happy to be with me. They're

[45:01]

happy to not be afraid of my suffering, and they also know that if they embrace my suffering they will be happy, and that their happiness in embracing my suffering will help me embrace my suffering, and will help me embrace other people's suffering, and will bring me great happiness. And from this happiness I will have the courage to practice generosity, and from that generosity another kind of happiness will come. And because of that happiness and that generosity, another happiness will come with another practice called the wealth of ways to assist. And having a wealth of ways to assist, seeing that and enjoying that, and you feel pain, that's worldly pain, that's worldly unhappiness, you feel unhappy. And then you hear that somebody is saying bad things about you, and you feel unhappy, that's

[46:02]

worldly unhappiness, worldly pain. Does that make sense? The Bodhisattva's pain, the person who is like on this helping other people, helping all beings thing, the Bodhisattva's pain, they get over that kind of worldly happiness and worldly pain. They don't get over happiness and pain, though. They have a different kind of happiness and pain. So rather than having pain when they lose something, they have the pain which comes from caring for the welfare of others, the pain of caring for those who feel pain when they lose something. And that person, they feel pain because they care for that person. They don't feel pain because they lost something. They feel pain that the person is unhappy because they lost something. And not just that, but they feel pain that the person is unhappy because they lost something,

[47:09]

because they care for the person. They wouldn't feel the pain for the person who feels pain because they lost something if they didn't care for the person. And that kind of care is a delight, a happiness which surpasses the worldly happiness of being happy when you get something. So the Bodhisattva, those who wish to care for the welfare of the world, they kind of like watch themselves to what extent they're still like, get happy when they get something and get unhappy when they lose something, they keep an eye on that, and gradually they might wean themselves from that. Which is good, because then they can focus on the other kind of happiness, and unhappiness, or the other kind of happiness and suffering. Ideally, or not ideally, but ultimately, you'd be just on the Bodhisattva

[48:21]

suffering and happiness trip all the time. You'd be so busy with that, you wouldn't have any time to even hardly notice when people were insulting you or praising you, because you're so busy coping with embracing all the misery and being totally delighted that you're embracing it. So once again, it's not that you're delighted that people are suffering, it's that you're delighted to embrace the suffering. And to embrace suffering without delight is impractical. But there is a delight which surpasses the delight of getting something you want, or having people say great things about you. That kind of delight is okay, but it's not okay. It's not okay because it's a distraction from the delight that comes from embracing suffering, and practicing giving, and having the ability to assist people. And

[49:31]

by people, I mean not just humans. I mean ant people, cockroach people, and banana slug people. I recently, someone helped me with banana slugs, they told me that if you ever touch a banana slug, it's real hard to get that stuff off your fingers. Also, if you get a banana slug, if you lick a banana slug, it's very difficult to get that sticky stuff off your tongue. But someone told me that the chemical composition of that stuff is very similar to the highest quality face creams. So I haven't yet started smearing it on my face. That made me sort of be much more respectful of banana slugs, it was very helpful to me because I used to sort of, I must admit, banana slugs were not high on

[50:31]

my list of those I'm devoted to. But they're moving up, you know, they're kind of on the chart now of those that I wish, I'm concerned for the welfare of banana slugs, to some extent, anyway. I'm not so much in touch, and actually I am in touch with the suffering of banana slugs. There was one, some of you may have seen on the stairs by the kitchen last night, did you see that one? Who saw the banana slug on the stair last night? You see it? Yeah, well somebody stepped on the banana slug, so anyway. So there's an opportunity to like, and I kind of missed it actually, to open to the suffering of the banana slug, to embrace it. So I'm not happy that the banana slug got stepped on, I'm not. What I'm happy about is the possibility and the actuality that I could feel pain, that I care enough,

[51:32]

as they used to say in the 50s, that I care enough to give the very best. Which is that when someone is suffering, I give the willingness to feel their pain, not their pain, but feel the pain with them, and I give, I'm willing to embrace it, and then I'm willing to make other gifts. And because of the gifts, I have other abilities. So compassion makes possible giving, and giving makes possible all kinds of wonderful modes of assistance. And each of these things, the willingness to embrace suffering, gives rise to the happiness of love and compassion. Then that makes possible the increase of the practice of giving, which gives rise to the joy of giving and assisting, and offering assistance, and giving assistance,

[52:38]

and then again. So these joys make it possible now for us to open to this world of global warming, of war, and all kinds of other misery, and to open and embrace it all, and know beforehand that we will feel pain, but that pain that we feel surpasses, not just, it surpasses all worldly happiness. That's the message from the Bodhisattvas. And I think we need this in order to fully function, to really help people, to be willing to help people, all types of people, we need that energy, we need that happiness. And when we have that

[53:44]

happiness, we will be happy, but it won't be just that we'll be happy, like happy that we got something, or happy that people like us, not that kind of happy, happy that we dare to live in this world for the welfare of others, happy that we dare, that we have the courage to embrace all suffering. But it's not just, okay, I have the courage to embrace all suffering, here I do it, no, I'm happy to do it, it's a happiness. I need happiness, Bodhisattvas need happiness too, and they get it, and they get the highest quality happiness, the happiness which allows them to plunge into the most painful situation, and also in medium painful situations, and low painful situations, all kinds of pain they happily embrace, all kinds of pain that they feel, and the pain they feel is the pain coming

[54:50]

from caring for suffering beings, so by being willing to embrace all the pain they feel, they're also willing to embrace all the beings that they meet, and in relationship with, they feel pain, because they care for them. And this is the way they do the Buddha's work, of meeting each person in such a full happy way, not happy like happy, like no problem happy, it's more like problem happy, problem embrace happy, I'm happy to be with you in your suffering, here I am with you, and that meeting is what the Buddha is doing, meeting people and responding appropriately, by giving, giving the teaching that you can be happy being with all suffering which arises because you care for all suffering beings. Then we can do whatever we can do, I don't know what we're going to do about this global

[55:59]

warming, but we need to be happy in order to embrace the problem and work on the problem, we need to be happy to embrace the suffering that comes from caring for beings which makes it hard for us to drive our cars, because we feel some pain about that, because we don't want to poison the environment for our grandchildren, but I feel happy to feel that pain, and I'll probably keep riding in cars, just like some of you will, but I want to embrace the pain I will feel. There is pain there, I want to embrace it, and we'll see how that works out. So that's my pain, but I'm not unhappy. I'm in pain, not because I lost something, and

[57:26]

not because I gained something, and I'm in pain not because people are insulting me to my face or behind my back. If that happens, I might feel some pain, but that's not the kind of pain I'm telling you about right now. I'm talking about the pain I feel because I care about, particularly the children. Most of us are going to be gone pretty soon, but our children and our children's children, I feel a lot of pain for them, but I'm not unhappy. So I can spend, if I keep this happiness generating, then I can join the helping process for the rest of my life. So I hope you find a way to care for people, care for all beings, and understand that this pain that's coming is a pain which, because it's coming from

[58:31]

caring for this world, it's better than any happiness that comes from getting what you want or having people talk well of you. And that if you develop that happiness through giving and assisting and continually caring for others and feeling more pain and embracing more pain and feeling happy about that and embracing more pain and feeling happy about that and embracing more pain and feeling in that way. I hope that you all can really do that thoroughly, because it's too much for me to do. But if you do it thoroughly enough, I'll probably start copying you, out of shame at least. So please help me by practicing this way. Show me that it's possible to embrace the suffering that you're feeling because you care for the world and that you're really happy about it. So I have the perfect song for this, but the problem with this song is that I sing it over

[59:44]

and over. That's the problem with this song. But the good thing about this song is that, because if you care for the welfare of all beings, you can embrace the pain you feel when I sing it. But if I imagine the words of this song, it's like, it seems quite appropriate to what I was just talking about. So it's a kind of nice summary. And I don't want you to be, I want you to be happy about all the suffering that you're feeling. I want you to be happy about the suffering you're feeling because you care for the welfare of others. I don't particularly want you to be happy about the suffering you're feeling because you lost some money. I don't particularly want you to be happy about that. But if you are, if you're happy for the suffering you feel from loss and losing money, that's okay, I guess, actually.

[60:46]

Okay. Ready? There may be suffering ahead, but while there's music and moonlight and love and romance, let's face the music and dance. Before the fiddlers have fled, before they ask us to pay the bill, and while we still have a chance, let's face the music and dance. Soon we'll be without the moon, humming a different tune.

[61:52]

And then there may be teardrops to shed, but while there's music and moonlight and love and romance, let's face the music and dance. Let's face the suffering and dance. Let's face the music and dance. May our intention be true.

[62:31]

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