Sometimes, even when something seems obvious, we don't mention it. And sometimes, when something is obvious, it's good not to mention it. But there's one other saying for one thing that's always to ancestors, the founders of the Zen lineage. One thing that's obvious to them that they sometimes don't mention for generations is that there is great suffering

[01:07]

in the lives of living beings, and essential work. A Buddhist practice's language is the aim to guide people To these guides, to these helpers, this is obvious. This is all they're really doing all the time. But they don't mention it all the time. But I personally feel that I should mention this over and over for some great time until everybody that practice has got that very clear.

[02:13]

Because right now, there's some people who aren't here today. And in the last time I did talk here, I mentioned this point also. Some of the people that were there at that time weren't here anymore. They were there. But I want to say this over and over until I'm sure that I'm not sure, but this point has been made and well planted in our lives. If you look at the whole range of Buddhists teaching, the whole range of teaching advantages, They do a lot of different things. There is one thing that they all share, and that is the simple dedication to the welfare of all of you.

[03:21]

That's the one thing. That's the one reason, the main reason, the one great called circumcision of the birth of Buddhist work in the world. If this is very clear to you now, you just have the understanding that you don't necessarily say it over and over for the people. But if you know that in your own heart, people may feel it. Some people may not get it unless you say it out loud once in a while. So I'm saying it out loud. I've been saying it out for a long time. And then, following from that basic scene, a couple questions that come.

[04:30]

One is, well, how do we do this work? How do we do this? Dedication to the welfare of all the community. Or another way to put it is, how is our life that we're living right now? How is it? How is it beneficial? How is it helpful right now? Here's what we're doing. Here's how we are living. Helpful. To earn more. It could be on the top of the one, then it could help the two, and so on. And in the process of looking at this question, it is usually recommended that you start

[05:43]

You're close to hope. If you don't look far away, it's not going to be far your body to see it. You check to see it at the top. And although we don't place ourselves ahead of other people, We use ourselves as a test case. If our life isn't working for us, I could possibly work for others. Could possibly potential for others for our life not to work for us. But first, could our life work for us and not be able to vote?

[06:58]

Especially though, we have to exceed right upon us. I have a paper drawing me. I'll show you a circle drawing. See the circle? I didn't yet put anything in the circle.

[08:02]

So one of the first pictures I put out to you is the circle. And I offer that as something to work with on this work of trying to help all beings. I would suggest to you that Buddha is an enlightened being and an enlightened being. work inside the circus, and work with circus. And you may have heard the presented teaching did not have an appointment to make a Buddha. Another way to say this is, in order to realize enlightenment, it's good not to have a fixed point about what enlightenment is, or have some set idea of what helpfulness would be.

[09:28]

Basically what Buddha is, is helpfulness. You need effective benefit suffering beings. That's what Buddha is. If there aren't suffering beings, we don't need this Buddha. And Buddha is working when suffering beings are free from suffering. And Buddha is working in circles, in the center circles. Buddha, they do their work of turning truth to benefit others in the midst of fierce blame, a circle of blame. These flames of pain and confusion, that's where they work.

[10:44]

You see the circle of flames, of suffering beings, there's a little sign inside saying, who does that work? That's where they always work. And in the midst of this work, a cool breed rides up for it. When I take notes on my readings and my studies, or when I'm taking notes for a talk I might give by writing something, or if I'm copying a text, I have a little abbreviation for sort of common with his term at the

[12:06]

The term bodhisattva, it might be my abbreviate BS. BS is the abbreviation for bodhisattva. But it is also used in this culture in abbreviation for bullshit. So today, my communities that I'm flooded with, because of various circumstances, are communities of circles and bulls. There are a series of fictions in Buddhist teaching called the Wolverine Fiction.

[13:33]

And there are a number of different collections of the Pulver collection. The two that are most notable and important are both Chinese collections. One of the Chinese collections by a monk named Hu Mi, had serious pictures of a bull and a bird boy. And the bull starts out black and gets progressively white throughout the succession of pictures. And after the bull is completely white, in the ninth picture, but there's no boat anymore. And in the tent picture, there's just an empty circle like this.

[14:48]

This series of pictures was very popular in China, and I think it's a lovely story, a story of the bull getting more and more pure, until finally forget about the bull. And finally forget about the bull and the herds boy, or herds girl. But there's another series of pictures, which is also by a Chinese monk named Gaolong. In that series, Both of them appear so much. It only appeared in three pictures. The third appeared the sixth. And in the seventh picture, it's a picture of somebody just sitting.

[15:58]

And the eighth picture is this empty circle. And the ninth picture, oh, by the way, this series, each picture, all the pictures in the Cangalan series, all the pictures are circles. The whole process, all ten stages or aspects, all occur in circles. Although the previous I think I really do feel a beautiful story. The one that has each one inside of a circle is, for me, I like that one bit. Because at any stage in the process, you're in the same circle.

[17:01]

Whether the beginning, middle, or end, you're in the same circle. We're all in the same circle. Buddha is always in a circle. We are always in a circle of fierce flames. And yet, sometimes we feel outside, and sometimes we feel that we get tilted. The 8th picture, the 8th circle, is an empty circle. A white circle in the middle of a black background. The 9th picture has some, uh, some branches with, looks like cherry blossoms on it.

[18:09]

And the 10th picture has, uh, that fat monk. with the bag on the back. Some people say that the third picture, that the third circle, enlightenment is already occurring. Some penetration, some reversal, some liberation has occurred back in the third picture. And that the insight has developed and developed to reach this simple circle.

[19:15]

We develop even beyond that to the 9th to 10th mission. We will open. I feel a little hesitant to take you to a certain place, but please come with me to an advanced state of enlightenment.

[21:13]

Please come with me way up to the eighth circle, this empty circle. I say, please come with me, but not that I'm there and have some entitlement to welcome you to this wonderful place of the empty circle. But let's go together to this empty circle. Before this empty circle, these previous circles worked through lots of emotional difficulty, which many of us have not yet worked through, in a sense. We feel that way. And yet, Because we're always in the same circle, perhaps we can just move right up there to the eight, to the empty circle.

[22:24]

And as Schrenzel said, what can compare to sitting quietly beneath an empty window? Leaves fall. Flowers bloom. Each in its own time. So in a way, if we don't feel ready to enter this circle, this empty circle, we can sit beneath it or next to it. Or we can enter it. Sitting next to this empty window, we can see, perhaps, the leaves fall and the flower bloom each in its own time.

[23:40]

Or we can enter the circle and there too, the leaves fall and the flower bloom each in its own time. Why are you bringing this up? What's the point of bringing this up? It's about guiding and painting sensitivity. How can it be that sitting beneath the empty window died in a century view? Well, first of all, this guy in a view sits beneath this empty window.

[24:41]

And ,, actually, you sit beneath the empty window quietly and see the leaves fall. If rather, you sit beneath the empty window and the leaves fall. It's not even you that see. The reason why he said—actually, he didn't say that. Sorry. The reason why they say that is only because they want to help people. How can such words help people? When I was eight years old, My leg would have become in shape.

[26:15]

They didn't yet have hair on me. And I thought they looked like a woman's leg. Not a girl, but a woman's leg. I used to sit in my room, and my brother had windows of free thought. I used to just sit in my room under the empty window. My mother became concerned. She thought, first of all, she thought perhaps I had a fear problem. She sent me to a doctor, check my hearing, and my hearing is OK. Next, she sent me to a psychiatrist.

[27:37]

Dr. Hansen, what his name? I went to see it. First, I went with my mother. to see him. And then... Then I went by myself. I traveled all the way across the big city to get to see him. At the beginning of each set, he would say to me, is there something you'd like to talk about? And I would say, I think I said every time he said, no. And then we would build model airplanes or model boats or build little frontier ports or mini little castle out of cardboard.

[28:40]

And I got taken home when he finished. So I don't quite fit in going to see this psychiatrist. I guess I vaguely knew that he was watching me while he did this. Watching everything move I made, step up to it. I didn't mind. And at the end, Amit said that he would say, is there anything you want to talk about? And every time I said no. But I also said thank you. I liked Dr. Harrison very much. Not only did I get the forks and bows and the airplane, I get to make them myself, but he helped me. And he would, I could actually do more complicated things with the help that I needed to do by myself. It was a good deal for me. Last night, our visiting teacher told about a friend of his, a pediatrician, that uses this circle, this empty circle, in working with Mr. Children.

[30:13]

He gives him this piece of paper with a circle drawn up, an empty circle, and Then they do something with it. He gives them some, I think, some writing stuff, painting stuff. And he said, sometimes they start off by, you know, crumping the paper up or ripping. And then later, usually they crumb down, gives them another piece of paper and they rip it up with another circle. And they come out and they start writing. And he said, they usually start writing outside the picture, outside the city. And graduate, they'll probably go into it. And one thing I thought was really important was he said that the diagnosis

[31:21]

and treatment are simultaneous. When we rip that brush, that's the diagnosis, but it's also the treatment. When you crumple it, that's the diagnosis, that's the treatment, that's the cure. When you start circling around the circle and making little circles around the circle, and finally when you enter the circle, we are alive, whether we're men or women. We are a lot, and we have energy.

[32:22]

And that energy is durable energy. It's also a loving energy and gentle energy, but it has a pull. And this pull, when this pull starts to grow into that circle, Sometimes the bull feels like a bull in your china shop. Even little children. They just walk into the circle. Or they just walk around in the circle. And what's their experience? Their experience is they knock everything all over the place. They don't mean to. But they do. How do they know? got their mother, their father, their brothers and sisters, their friends, all get upset, get angry.

[33:33]

So little by little, the little bull back away to the circle. They don't care to go in there. Even if, perhaps, they were born into this world, the best they think. And not only do they feel like a bull in the china shop in terms of their relationship with others, but of course, others are bulls in their china shop. They knock over cups and dishes and make a mess, and then others get upset and stir them. So everybody backs away from the circle when that happens. So now, in order to benefit all beings, little by little, let's walk back to the circle. And maybe not jump in right away.

[34:33]

Maybe for a while, just sit quietly by the empty circle. And maybe never really enter like a boat. but maybe just be a sitting pole, sitting quietly by the empty circle. And then, it's not so much that we enter the circle, but we fall and walk on the springboard. Maybe this is the pole of who has injured. without disturbing it. I was comforted to learn that Buddha, shopping when he put it in the name, how to eat bull.

[35:47]

That bull, I think, learned how to sit quiet and wait to see the time of peace and heart. We sit quietly by the empty window and become free of any fixed idea about what is helpful or what Buddha is.

[37:02]

to practice without holding to some conceptual fixed voodoo that break the golden chain and to clear away the gold dust of the Buddha Dharma from your eyes so that we can really help. to sit and wait and watch patiently joyously for the next opportunity, which is not our opportunity or their opportunity, but simply a thing that's fallen. Thirteen years ago, and even before that, I heard about a Zen scholar.

[38:14]

Many people said it was very important. A kind of seminary, a kind of seed. Thank you, I like it. And it was invited to come here. But it did come. In the intervening years, occasionally I would read about some things he wrote that they transferred. I'm Japanese and English. About three years ago, I was in Japan. I met another Zen student, a scholar, and a Zen artist, who suggested that we invite the friend. And I said to him, we already invited him, but he wouldn't help. I understand you've never been left again. Matt said, I think we'll be able to come. So in intervening two years, there has been considerable work of inviting this man and raising him to come.

[39:22]

Finally he came. But by the time he came, by the time he came, Well, I don't know if that would be saying this, but I think I went through, I was in a circle through this process, right? And I'd gone through maybe back and forth through many of those circles, through many of those stages of development. And it was still swirling around in some many frustrations that difficulty arose in the geraniums. And then the timekeeper arrived to say the truth that he wanted to go to the airport to pick him up. I was actually kind of upset about both of them.

[40:23]

Plus, I still wanted to go to the airport. So if I don't want to go to the airport, maybe it's somebody who can go to the airport, right? But then I thought that maybe that wasn't quite right, because he'll be at the airport. So You know, was I saying that, anyway, I thought about it more and more and I realized it wasn't quite right for me not to go to the airport. That we could try to prepare for me not to go to the airport. So I went to the airport. And none of that, but I arrived on time.

[41:33]

But his plane was late. I got pretty comfortable sitting. And I'm pretty comfortable walking. And pretty comfortable lying down. Those three postures I'm pretty good at. But I'm not pretty good at standing. And so I was standing at the airport. up to myself, I thought, how many more times did I have to go to the airport and wait? When will I graduate? When will it not be arrogant anyone for me not to go? How much more of his precious life of understanding standing at the airport? I'm ashamed to say I have such thoughts like this have to around the neighborhood with me.

[42:49]

I wear a belt. I wear a belt. I'm not happy when I wear my gloves. I'm putting it on. I like to just put it on, but when taking it off, There's various ways to take it off. One way to do is to take it off and throw it all in the corner. Another way to take it off is to take it off and take the two ends and line them up and roll it into a nice cylinder. And again, sometimes when I roll this up, I think, How much of my life am I spending rolling this thing? You add it all the time, every day, and every time that day, I roll this thing up. It's a long time to roll out. It's like eight feet long. Rolling up. Of course, towards the end, it rolls faster. But especially at the beginning, it takes a long time.

[43:56]

How much of my life am I doing like this? Anyway, it's turning out later. And later. And then I kept watching to see, at some point, this group of people start moving up from me. from where the plane was coming. I kept watching for a mass of people, and they didn't see it. They seemed like a sort of a thin dribble coming. And then at one point, I looked out there, and I saw something. I just saw something there. And somehow I saw a face that seemed to be reaching out to me.

[45:03]

I didn't know what this person looked like. I just saw, I saw, among the many faces, I saw a face coming towards a little face. And it was smiling. And it was coming with some energy. And some happiness. And, uh, then I looked at it, and it, uh, it started to become smiling more and more. Little by little, I thought, this is probably him. So then I think I, and the more I thought it was him, the more he seemed to smile. And finally he came up and he said, something like, something set on me, trying to get you in. And I said, yes. And he followed. And I was very, I forgot all about everything else but the person.

[46:15]

And I just somehow felt it was happening. And it all was, you know, I wouldn't even say it all seemed worth it either. Because I just forgot about all the effort. And for some strange reason, I was just really happy. I saw it. Last night this man, we had a lecture here. We talked about these two. These two sets. And he spoke in Japanese, and his friends are in English.

[47:30]

And I usually think that when people do that here in America, it's a little bit hard for people to sit through the Japanese part. They don't understand Japanese. So a little bit of worry whether people would find that difficult, and also whether they find even the translation interesting. In fact, I personally found my lecture pretty interesting. But actually, I didn't care for myself whether it would interest me. I only cared for other people whether it would interest me. Because, I mean, I don't want people to have too hard a time listening to a long lecture like that. Because I thought I felt something to be with some people who came along from it.

[48:56]

But for me, it didn't matter whether the lecture was interesting or not. Because the great deal about this person is much more important than anything you've ever said. The energy, the spirit, the smile, it's such a gift to me that, you know, it don't matter. I could just sit there and watch you try to help me. Just watch you try to help people through his style, which happens to be giving a lecture about penopter and greater means. But it doesn't matter what he does. I appreciate it so much that I'm just happy to sit there and be with him. I feel like I'm sitting quietly beneath an empty window.

[50:12]

And that's the night that I slept here in the building, and I left the light on in the room. Also, because I was getting very late this morning, so I kept waking up. I had four, five, and six, and so on. When that happens, I'm trying to get up. I had all the grief that helped me. He said, see that I was waking up and not having to get up and could watch me. But I thought the dream was awesome. I'll tell you what. I think it was about the time of this issue. I killed someone. I killed someone. And then as a result of that, there was a big mess. A lot of confusion, the suffering, and a lot of fear, the disturbance. And somebody came and gave me true lists.

[51:28]

I need lists for how to take care of yourself in the midst of this confusion of this life with the murderer's life. I think I had two lists and I was trying to figure out how to follow the program of these lists and try to decide which ones you use and so on. And they, uh, let me, a single light pink rose up in front of my face. I'm not open all the way out. It's, you know, starting to open. Light tape, probably the light tape ones open when they open are kind of white. Where they partially grow.

[52:31]

My nods are ripped. The white pink rose I wrote down wasn't the center of it all. The pink rose. It's the single . That's what I can read there. I don't know who that road belongs to, but there it was in the middle of my life. He could jing him and suffering. He didn't even help the murderer. I don't know what that road means, but I'm glad I saw it. The diagnosis is not true of Simon Taines. We're here in the radio, we're on the radio, we're on the radio

[54:07]

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