Last week, last weekend we had a workshop here at Green Gulch on, it was about, it was titled, What is Suffering? The subtitle was, Is Suffering the Path to Liberation? And this weekend we have a workshop on yoga, and it's called Yoga and Zen, that's what it's called. something about practicing yoga and Zen together, or what's the relationship between Zen practice and yoga practice. I think sometimes we, some of us may feel that with so much suffering in the world, How do we even dare doing some kind of practice which might bring us personally some peace or happiness?

[01:09]

Do some of you feel like that sometimes? No? Somebody told me once that he felt that way. We might sometimes feel guilty if we're happy. Are we overlooking something? Are we ignoring some of the suffering in the world if we feel at peace? Thoughts like that may occur in our minds or in our hearts. So as you may have heard, in one sense, in a really true sense, everybody's really doing the best they can, really doing their best and everybody really is really beautiful and truly what people are is the Buddha.

[02:23]

And yet there's all this suffering, intense suffering on this planet So this is the dynamic situation we live in of how to acknowledge suffering in a healthy way, how to not deny the fact that so many creatures are miserable, and yet to acknowledge this in a way that's healthy, that doesn't lead to depression and paralysis, but actually a way of looking at suffering that energizes us to practice the way of Buddha. What is that mode? What is that style?

[03:26]

What is that art? of acknowledging suffering that is beneficial to ourselves and to the other people we see who are having a hard time. That's what we were talking about last weekend. And I think yoga practice, I would say, is part of this too. And in fact, last week we talked about suffering quite a bit. And people had, it was rather intense for the people there, but actually we had kind of a good time acknowledging suffering. Seemed like it anyway. At first we were kind of like, at the beginning of the workshop we were a little tense. People didn't know what the workshop was going to be. But as time went on, as we talked about our suffering and being open to acknowledging our suffering, people seemed to get happier and happier.

[04:33]

So one of the things I mentioned at that time, which I might mention again today, is that in every moment of experience It is the part of our inheritance as being human beings that our mind is constantly evaluating our experience. Every moment, consciously or unconsciously, in other words, either consciously or unconsciously, we evaluate how we feel about what's happening. Or another way to say it is how we feel about what's happening is our evaluation of the moment. And we have three basic evaluations that we do every moment.

[05:35]

We evaluate it as positive or pleasant. We evaluate it as negative or painful. Are we evaluated as kind of like, well, I can't say it's one or the other. It might be one, might be the other. I'm not sure. In other words, a kind of neutral evaluation. And we do this every moment. I mean, we, in other words, there is a function of our mind which does this every moment. Like you hear the sound of that child's voice crying and you evaluate it positively, negatively or neutrally. Sometimes we're aware of our evaluations. Sometimes our evaluations are in the background of our awareness. But we're always doing it. This is quite normal.

[06:39]

The Buddha, awakened person, also does this. So there's three kinds of sensation or three kinds of feeling. And we can't control how we do this. Otherwise, some of us might just sort of like turn it over to positive all the time. The way we evaluate the moment is not... a voluntary act. Actually, the way we evaluate it is a result of our past action. It's dealt to us, so to speak, by our past action. But even if the hand we're dealt is lots of negative sensation or lots of positive sensation, there actually are also three kinds of suffering, which in Buddha's teaching, the word the Buddha used for suffering and the word the Buddha used for negative sensation were the same word.

[07:48]

The Sanskrit word, and also Pali sounds the same, dukkha, dukkha, dukkha. And dukkha has the root, the etymology, meaning a wheel that's out of round. Something's off. Something's not quite right. In other words, it's evaluated as not being quite right. So there's dukkha, this basic sensation of dukkha. There's sukha, which is pleasure, a pleasant sensation. And then there's neutral sensation. I forgot the Sanskrit word for it. Anybody know it? Huh? Sattva? Okay. Sattva, which means being. Anyway, then the Buddha talked about three kinds of suffering on top of these, which the first one's called the suffering that you have when you're in a negative evaluating state, which is called dukkha-dukkha, the suffering of suffering.

[09:02]

the fact that there's something off about something being off. Next is dukkha-sukha, the suffering in pleasure. And the next is dukkha in neutral sensation, which is the suffering that we feel or the uneasiness we feel by the simple fact that we can't that things are conditioned, that we can't tell whether it's positive or negative. Like you say, well, it's positive, but I wouldn't be able to tell it was positive if it wasn't negative and that kind of thing. As you look at your sensations more and more, you might find that just the fact, you start to realize that just the fact that things are caused bothers you. There's something funny about, something bothers you about that. Now I wasn't this fly that's flying around my face, you know, I was having mostly negative sensations about that.

[10:06]

Until I realized I could tell you about it and make a joke. And then I felt good about the fly. But I couldn't control that. And now it's gone. And that may be the last joke you'll hear today. So when we're in suffering, of course, we feel uncomfortable and have problems with suffering of negative sensation. And we feel bad about that and we kind of want it to go away and we're not easy with it. That's the suffering of suffering. Then there's the suffering in pleasure, which is basically we're afraid we're going to lose it. We're afraid it's going to go away. As a matter of fact, we even think, well, probably it's going to go away. Or, how can we make it last? Or, I want to do that again. Or, I'm losing, I'm not even appreciating why it's happening because I'm thinking of the future of it.

[11:11]

These kinds of annoying things around pleasure. I can't even experience pleasure. And then there's the other one I mentioned, which is the suffering of just feeling uneasy about the fact that things are caused. These are three kinds of suffering. In the origination of delusion, which is sometimes presented in twelve stages, a twelve-step program that the Buddha presented of the origination of birth and death, I think the first link in the chain of causation of this program is ignorance. The next stage is karmic formations. The next stage is consciousness. The next stage is, I think, called name and form. The formation of, basically, I would say, of body and mind, or mind and objects.

[12:13]

And then the formation, the next one is called the six sense gates or the six doors of the senses. And the next one's called contact. And the next one's called feeling. And the next one's called craving or thirst. an enlightened being, a being who lives in this world of human beings, lives with suffering beings, and yet is awake to the true nature of things, a Buddha, goes through the first, I believe, six stages there, ignorance, karmic formations, consciousness, name and form, or body and mind, six sense doors, and feeling. No, contact and feeling. Actually that's seven, isn't it? Goes through the first seven and stops there.

[13:16]

Does not go on to the next one, which is craving or thirst. and therefore lives in the world with everybody else, feeling like other people feel, but doesn't wish for it to be otherwise. Acknowledges pain when there's pain there. Fully acknowledges pain. And therefore, because of being able to fully acknowledge pain, also being able to fully acknowledge pleasure. And also be able to fully acknowledge neutral states. Buddhas are involved in feelings and acknowledgement of their feelings. The complete acknowledgement and therefore the release from the human situation while being human, fully willing to acknowledge being human and therefore released. But if we crave

[14:24]

we wish for things to go on in a certain way or stop going on this way, if we try to manipulate ourselves rather than just acknowledging who we are, then the cycle keeps going around and around forever. And it heads into lots of difficulty later on. Real sickness is why in death and old age, but old age in the sick kind of old age, which is a perpetuation of this basic wish that things were otherwise. And wishing that things were otherwise with them, well, anyway, it gets worse and worse. As someone said to me, getting old is not for sissies. And this guy was younger than me already. So that's what we talked about last week, the suffering business, acknowledging suffering.

[15:36]

And as I said, as we talked and encouraged ourselves and other people to acknowledge suffering, we started feeling better and better. So one of the key things here is that the cause of the unnecessary suffering, in other words, the suffering which happens all the time, whatever our evaluations are, this ongoing suffering that there's never a break in because there's never a break in the craving, this suffering can be completely removed. And the way it's removed is by removing the cause of it. The cause of it is this craving, this desire for, you know, for what's happening. Rather than just the desire to let things be what they are, we desire, and we desire more of it, we desire the future.

[16:40]

But the trick is, or the catch is, that the cause, the craving, cannot be removed unless you see it. And also, usually unless you see that the craving is causing the unnecessary suffering. But if I blind myself to my experience of pain or pleasure, particularly if I blind, what I usually do is try to turn away and ignore or deny my suffering, if I don't face that, and I would also say if I don't face it fully, then I can't see the cause of it. Even if I face it quite a bit, If I leave, if I sort of hold back from looking at it, the part that I'm holding back, the part that I don't dare to see about my suffering, that blinds me from fully seeing the cause. If I can partially see the cause by partially admitting my suffering, that helps some.

[17:50]

But in order to really fully see the cause and therefore possibly remove the cause, It's good to see the whole cause, the wholeness of craving, and to see how devastating it is. But it's hard to see it if I've already blinded myself from what it causes. Does that make sense? Can you hear me? Does that make sense? That thing? So, acknowledgement of whatever suffering we're doing helps us see the cause of the suffering. And when you see the cause of the suffering and you actually see that such and such does cause the suffering and you can see how it happens, then this wonderful thing starts to develop in us, in our heart. And that is...

[18:53]

The mind of renunciation. The wish to actually give up craving. which also involves give up attachment. But craving is first, then attachment. So I said number seven was feeling, number eight is craving, number nine is clinging. So a Buddha is one who is not clinging to everything. But before giving up clinging, we can give up craving and step back to just experience. Just experience. If we can just experience our pain, which means to be patient with our pain,

[20:01]

If we can be patient with our pain, in the realization of pain, we can see clearly what the fundamental problem is. And the wish to drop the fundamental problem will get stronger and stronger. So all Buddhas are said to sit in the middle of the whole world of all living beings. They sit in the middle of the world of beings who are suffering in all varieties of suffering, in all varieties of awakening. Buddhists sit in the middle. They sit there and they develop a soft heart, a soft mind. And this soft heart this soft mind, this pliable, supple mind that is developed by living in the middle of and in contact with all living beings, this mind is the mind which gradually develops the will to drop everything.

[21:21]

The will, the wish, the desire to drop everything grows up out of this patient sitting in the middle of all beings. this is the mind of renunciation by sitting in the middle of all beings you develop this mind of renunciation and then based on his mind of renunciation when you really want to give up attachment and craving and you really understand that the reason for wanting to give it up is because it causes suffering you also realize that other people are also suffering for the same reason. From your patient's seat, in the middle of your pain and pleasure, you can more clearly see that other people are acting out the same pattern. And you feel connected to them because you see that they're like you.

[22:30]

They're in your family. They do have the same manners. They have the same etiquette. They have the same style of living. They're very close to you because they do the same thing. They have feelings and they have craving and everything else. And the more you see that that causes you suffering, the more you understand that it causes others suffering. And the more you want to actually give up your craving for something other than this or more of this or whatever, the more you're convicted and convinced that that's the way to go, the more you want others to go that way. and the more compassion is born. And compassion is not just feeling sympathy for other people's suffering. It's that. You do feel sympathy for other people's suffering, and also you feel sympathy for what they do to cause their suffering.

[23:33]

But you start to develop an intolerance for letting them go on forever in this pattern of abuse. You start to not be able to bear anymore the idea that people will go on like this forever. You can handle the moment by moment suffering of yourself and others. What you don't like is this clinging, that this craving and clinging would go on forever. But without being patient with my own pain and therefore being clear in the peacefulness of that patience and being able to see, it's actually pretty hard. My compassion is not fully developed. And therefore, the mind of enlightenment, the spirit of enlightenment, the mind that wants to actually practice the Buddha's way for the benefit of all beings, is also not, can't be really fully turned on.

[24:37]

If I still kind of want to hold on to the world, if I still want to hold on to my life, if I still have craving there, not to mention, I would say, take that back, if I still am not sure that I want to let go of this craving, if I'm still not sure that I want to be free of this thirst, then it's hard for me to be sure I really want to practice the way because I'm ambivalent. So this renunciation is first. And again, renunciation is hard to do unless we acknowledge the pain and see that the thing that should be renounced, namely the craving, namely the thirst, unless we can see that that's the problem, we won't really want to give it up.

[25:51]

And the way to see that it's the problem is to acknowledge our pain. And because if you acknowledge the pain, and you can see that it's the problem, that will come along with the acknowledgement of pain. And that's where yoga comes in, in that yoga is the healthy way to acknowledge pain. I said there would be no more jokes today, but actually there's going to be at least one more kind of joke, or you might think it's funny, and that is somebody gave me a newspaper article from Lansing, Michigan. East Lansing is where Michigan State University is, right? So, of course, in East Lansing, probably some level of enlightenment is going on there, but in Lansing, I don't know what's in Lansing, but anyway, in Lansing...

[26:59]

this newspaper article came, and that is the state educators have abandoned or given up the idea of teaching breathing exercises in kindergarten through eighth grade as part of a health program, deferring to the concern that that teaching these breathing exercises would be conducive to devil worship and mysticism. That was a little bit funny, right? A little bit not funny also. And then to remember that these people who are concerned that breathing exercises will be conducive or something to devil worship, that these people are doing the best they can. I would say, actually, that if you do bring the exercises, it might be conducive to realizing that you are a devil worshiper already.

[28:05]

To think that it's good, you know, to... What is that? What's that book? It's a movie, I guess. It's also a book by Irving Stone on the life of Vincent van Gogh. It's called The Lust for Life, wasn't it? So he was a great artist. So lust for life. To think that lust for life is a good thing, you're kind of a devil worshiper. Sounds innocent, but lust for life is actually not so good. But also, lust is kind of good. Right? Right? Lust is kind of good, right? It's kind of like craving, yeah. Lust is kind of like craving, so... But devil worship is kind of good, too, isn't it?

[29:18]

Seems to me that the important thing is that devil worshipers should know their devil worshipers. If they are. And cravers should know that they're craving. Or cravies. What is it? Cravers? Is it cravers? Craverettes? What is it? Is it cravers? Cravers. They should know they're cravers. If you can see that you're a craver, you will, the mind, from seeing that you're a craver, from clearly, calmly seeing that you're a craver, this the will to drop body and mind will get stronger and stronger. And when it reaches full strength, you will drop body and mind. Or rather, body and mind will be dropped. However, body and mind are constantly being dropped anyway. That's already what's going on. It's just a question of getting your will and your wish to be in perfect correspondence with reality so that you can join the show of your body and mind being dropped.

[30:24]

you can join the show of you being free. You actually are free. The question is how to catch up to that reality. The way to catch up to it is to drop holding on to what's already gone. But we have a strong habit to hold on, so we have to counteract that by this renunciation. And this renunciation promotes compassion, real compassion, full-scale compassion. and the real strong wish to actually drop body and mind. Those two together, compassion and the wish to renounce the world and the wish to realize supreme enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, those two together create the authentic mind of enlightenment.

[31:26]

Okay? So how does yoga help in this process? Well, one yoga teacher I heard one time, I was lying on the floor at the time in some posture or other, and she said, if you stay in any yoga posture long enough, and I would say myself, well, I'll just finish what she said, if you stay in any yoga posture long enough, you will eventually realize you're uncomfortable. And I would unpack that a little bit by saying that when I was listening to her, when she was saying, if you stay in any yoga posture long enough, I thought she was going to say, you will find that it's very pleasant. Or you will find, I thought she was going to say some kind of like a really nice thing. Like you will, you know, your lotus chakra on the top of your head will open up.

[32:29]

And every petal will be illuminated by innumerable Buddhas dancing and singing. I thought she was going to say something like that. But she didn't. She said something different. She said something about the acknowledgement of suffering through and promoted by the yoga practice, the yoga posture. Sometimes I think that we practice yoga, like sitting cross-legged with a straight back and all that, all those good things, or other kinds of yoga postures and poses we strike or assume. We do these, I think, sometimes with the hope that we'll have some pleasure there. But that's our motivation. Well, fine. That's fine. The trick is to stay in one of them long enough maybe only a second sometimes, maybe sometimes several hours or several days sometimes, but if you stay in the yoga posture long enough, you realize you're uncomfortable, she said.

[33:37]

And I thought at that time, well, that was worth the price of this yoga class. Just that statement, just that little surprise. And I would also say that, I don't know what she meant, but what I assume is that to be in a yoga posture means to be in a posture, to have a posture that's healthy. That's good for your body to be in. That's not an unhealthy posture. As a matter of fact, it's a posture, a healthy posture, that's done correctly. Of course, if you try various postures improperly, you'll get pain right away because... But if you stay in a healthy posture, a posture where you're safe, there, too, you will eventually realize you're uncomfortable. So, in fact, we should be experiencing healthy pain, if possible.

[34:41]

In other words, pain that comes not because we're sitting or standing in the wrong way, but pain that comes by the nature of the way we think, by our craving. you have pain due to standing or sitting the wrong way you can't tell so easily that even if you're completely comfortable you crave and therefore you suffer she also said look at people who are sleeping you know most people think they're pretty comfortable when they're sleeping they're constantly moving She said that anyway. Maybe it's not true, but anyway, people are moving all the time in their bed to get in a more comfortable position. They're dreaming about more comfortable positions. Or people sitting in a really comfortable easy chair, they sit for a while and then they move to get in a more comfortable position. We're constantly moving, looking for more comfortable positions because we're starting to realize I'm a little bit uncomfortable. Yeah. So the yoga practices are ways to not cause yourself discomfort.

[35:52]

Everybody's uncomfortable all the time, in every posture they're ever in. All day long, everybody's uncomfortable. They're uncomfortable when they're in pleasure, they're uncomfortable when they're in pain, they're uncomfortable when they're confused about which it is. They're all the time uncomfortable, basically, except in those moments of awakening. But even in awakening, you have still positive, negative, and neutral sensation. You might be in pain. But people who aren't awake are in pain all day long, non-stop. Did I say people who aren't awake are in pain all day long, non-stop? Yeah, that's what I meant to say. But most people, unfortunately, or whatever, anyway it's the way it is, do not know that. When you practice yoga, you start to realize that. You start to realize that you think something's off.

[36:56]

You think something's off. You don't like the way it is. You want it to be different. You're worried. Yoga will show you that. Sitting still with your back straight and your legs crossed or in a chair or taking a walk but being right there with your posture or standing on your head or doing many other wonderful poses, if you stay there long enough and you make the posture correct, then you realize that there's nothing wrong, really. There's just positive, negative, and neutral sensation. But you think there's something wrong because you don't accept what's happening. You want, you're craving, and that's causing suffering. Yoga shows you that if you do it thoroughly. If you learn how to do the posture as well, then you know that the reason for your pain is not because you're not doing the posture well, because you can see I'm doing the posture well.

[38:00]

I'm sitting in a posture that's really great. Here I am, full of energy and relaxation and composure and presence. This is wonderful. And I am craving. I'm messing around with myself, even in this state. People arrange their lives to go up in the beautiful mountains of wherever to sit there in peace with the lovely sounds of the creek and the owls and the sight of the moon and the gurgling of this and that. They sit there and they work and they stretch and they work their bodies so they can sit very nicely and then they can realize that somebody's there wanting it to be different and causing ongoing misery. Sometimes in those places, those wonderful places in the world where people are meditating like this, sometimes they have electrical equipment like generators to generate electricity.

[39:06]

And sometimes they turn on the generators when the people are meditating. And the people get upset about the sound of the generators. because they think, that's causing my suffering, that sound. So what do we do? We turn the generator off so that they can see that that cause of suffering is removed now. Now what's the cause of suffering? The room's not warm enough. Well, turn the heat up. The food's not good enough. Make the food better. Give them everything they want so that finally they can realize that there's nothing outside causes your suffering. However, there's just positive and negative and neutral sensation and clinging, craving. So as they sit longer and longer up in those mountains, as they are willing more and more to stay in that body and not run away, the more they realize what the problem is.

[40:09]

First is renunciation. That's first. Now, they don't usually tell you that in Buddhism because it's the most horrible thing. They don't usually tell you when you're walking in the door, oh, by the way, you have to give up everything. Give up all your attachments, which means before your attachments, give up the craving which causes, you don't tell you that right away because they're afraid, we're afraid here at Zen Center that you think we're trying to get your money. So we skillfully don't mention that to you right away. Except sort of as a joke when we're doing fundraising. But really, that's first. First is renunciation. People don't like that word. They don't like the reality of it. But actually, you don't have to do it before you like it. I'm just telling you that it's first. But I don't want you or me to do it before we want to do it, because renunciation is actually something you want to do.

[41:29]

If you don't want to practice renunciation, that's not renunciation. Renunciation is that you want to give everything up. Renunciation is not that you think you're supposed to, but you don't want to. That's already what you feel like. Renunciation, the mind of renunciation is that you want to drop body and mind. You want to not crave something other than this anymore because you see that it is causing the suffering in this world. It is the main cause is that craving. That's what's causing the problems in this world for us. So when you see that, you want to. So don't worry about that you don't want to yet if you don't want to. Don't think that that not wanting to is renunciation, that you're supposed to feel that lousy way. That's not renunciation. Renunciation will start to happen to you when you acknowledge your pain patiently, safely, in a wholesome situation, and you see that even in this wholesome, safe, healthy situation, somebody's messing around with the fundamental nature of the universe.

[42:37]

And that's me that's doing that. And when I see that I'm doing it, I will notice almost everybody else is doing the same thing. And I actually can hardly bear it. Renunciation, number one. Then, after renunciation comes true compassion and true wish to practice the Buddha way and realize the Buddha way fully for the benefit of all beings. The real wish for that comes after the real wish to drop the whole thing. The real wish to overcome lust for life leads to the real wish that other people will really be happy and really be free of their craving and their misery. So those are, first is renunciation, then is compassion and

[43:39]

mind which wants to attain complete perfect enlightenment for all beings okay now some of us have tried and it's good to try to think about and generate the mind which wants to benefit all beings wants to attain enlightenment for the sake of all beings to try to generate that mind before practicing renunciation, before finding the mind of renunciation, we try to give rise to, we say sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Every single one of them. We try that. Try it. It's good. It's very good. When somebody thinks that way, if I see it, I feel really happy to see them say that and want that. I really do. even if they consider it, it makes me happy. Not to mention if they really sincerely say, I want it. However, if I don't have this mind of renunciation too, well then, my joy and their joy is much, much greater because that's actually going to work.

[44:55]

Until we have this mind of renunciation, this thought of enlightenment, which is wonderful, will not be fully wonderful. So renunciation first, then the vow of enlightenment, then the wish for this great thing. Okay. And then there's a third thing, which I just allude to, which is kind of what is called oftentimes Zen practice. But really what Zen practice is, is what these two things I just talked about, plus this third thing. First, renunciation. Then the mind or the spirit of attaining perfect enlightenment for all beings. Those two. And the third thing is what we call non-dual meditation. In other words, as the Buddha said, right view. the right attitude about this program I just told you about.

[45:59]

Okay? The program of renunciation, real fierce renunciation, and real fierce, deeply kind and compassionate intention to practice the Buddha's way. Those two in conjunction with non-dual meditation. Those three things are what it takes to save the world. Zen practitioners have to do these first two. What Zen is famous for is the third one. It's famous for this non-dual meditation. For these outrageous statements like, all that stuff we just talked about, you know, the renunciation and stuff like that, the bodhisattva's vow, all that is, they say these terrible things, these shocking things. They say whatever, so they protect those practices.

[47:00]

Because if we do those practices thinking that we're doing those practices according to our idea of doing those practices, those practices are not real. So we need to also do this non-dual meditation along with these practices. And what are these non-dual meditations? I don't know exactly, but... Oh, one of them is just sit. Of course you just sit with renunciation and the bodhisattva vow to save all beings as your root. But then what do you do about all that in the end? Just sit. Or, if you don't sit, take a walk with a friend.

[48:08]

Have tea. Interact with somebody. Get close to somebody. Do something that's completely ordinary, in other words. So the great protection of this wonderful mind of enlightenment and the wonderful mind of renunciation, the great protection of it, is that there's really nothing to it. It's completely, absolutely, thoroughly ordinary. It's so ordinary, it can be special. But the other way around I'm emphasizing, it's so special, it's so wonderful, it can be ordinary. In other words, it can be your life. That's non-dual meditation. That what's appearing right before you right now is actually your life.

[49:12]

you don't have to do some special fancy thing in order to realize the Buddha way. As a matter of fact, you must do ordinary things in order to manifest the Buddha way. After creating this extraordinary mind, this extraordinary vow, then how do you realize that extraordinary vow? By being ordinary. If you have to do something extraordinary to realize the extraordinary, well then, it's dualistic. And it's not the Buddha way. However, of course, it is ordinary to occasionally do extraordinary things. So you can occasionally do something extraordinary on some natural frequency table. I don't know how often extraordinary things happen.

[50:32]

But what attracted me to Zen was that the miracles of Zen were very close to the miracles of daily life. It was the difference between holding your hand in a fist and opening it. There's not so much, it's not so different, and yet it's all the difference in the world. And one's related to the other. From a fist, you open your hand. From opening your hand, you make a fist. Sometimes it's a fist. Sometimes it's an open hand. Sometimes the hand is clinched in attachment and it opens in release. Sometimes it's open in attachment and closes in compassion. Sometimes it's open in peace and harmony and it closes in around the suffering of the world. Sometimes it's clinging and stuck in the suffering of the world and it opens in release and compassion.

[51:36]

But it's right there at your fingertips. And of course, this willingness to be ordinary takes us right back to the beginning of the willingness to suffer our state. So all these Zen koans are about these, are instructions in this non-dual meditation. But when you study Zen stories, it's good to remember beforehand that the monks in these stories are supposed to have been practicing. I would say the monks in the stories where these stories are successful, where these people are successful, in other words, they succeed, to the lineage of the Buddhas. In these stories, I understand that these monks are already practicing renunciation and the bodhisattva vow to save all beings. They've already got that deeply living in their body. And then these practices that are told in these Zen stories are ways to protect those from becoming dualistic.

[52:43]

So I have some stories about, you know, I have a book here, I mean. And in this book are some stories about these guys doing this kind of stuff, or these girls doing this kind of stuff. And, you know, I kind of want to read them to you, but it's kind of getting hot in here. So anyway, there are stories about this kind of ordinariness. There are these stories about ordinariness, stories of how to protect this practice from becoming something other than your life. But these stories should be read, I feel, from the point of view of what I've been talking about today. And it's actually kind of hard to understand these ordinary stories unless you have this previous ground upon which to do that. It's getting hot, isn't it?

[54:02]

It's hotter at the higher altitudes. I think it might be beyond your absorption level. One of the Zen teachers said his name was Stonehead. He said, what did he say? He said, if you want to know this undying, undying person in the hut, don't separate from this skin bag here and now. What? What did you say? Don't separate from this skin bag here and now if you want to know this undying Buddha who lives in this hut. I'll read you a story about non-dual meditation at question and answer.

[55:09]

If anybody wants to hear stories about that kind of stuff. Because it is getting hot. May our intention

[55:21]

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