The Pivotal Activity of All the Buddhas

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at the beginning today i i mentioned that this fall
not uncommonly
for the practice period
the focus will be on the body south freeway
or know practice for the welfare of the world
and i wanted to mention that
when i was in sweden this summer
a bursts a very sincere
young man
came and told me that
when i talk about them the bodhisattva path the path of
living by acts of compassion to all beings when he hears about that he kind of feels like
he just feels like overwhelmed and a trapped in this this is kind of that the idea that that he supposed to do that kind of life a it just feels like just
he's gets really tense and upset because he doesn't get ready to make that kind of commitment to make it make his life that way even though he actually does devote his life to helping many people
and he's happy to do it but when i bring up to do this with everybody
he just says it's just too much a can't stand that yet
let's say fine so wanted to say that you
but i'm talking about this bodhisattva
of living
by acts of kindness to all beings
but i don't want my give you the feel like i'm like you have to do this
yeah the my says stuff like in the morning do one good thing for somebody in the afternoon do one good thing
i agree
but then there's is also the point of war bodhisattva is doing it for everybody do you wanna be somebody who just have some people are some time that's great
but then i'm talking about this other path but i don't want liked frightened people with this
the prospect of this link kind of grandiose idea of the kind of ours that make buddhists
and yet i keep bringing this up i'm sorry

huh
i'm sorry if it if it
seems too much
and it makes you feel
i'm frightened frightened or overwhelmed
i also
mentioned
in the past that when i first came to zen center
i came
because i wanted to learn how to practice meditation on a daily basis
and i felt that if i practiced
with a community of people are in a community where where there was daily meditation and people were doing that that that community ah activity would support me to become a regular practitioner
and i did come and there was a community and a did support me to do that and i did become a person who does could not does it
find a regular basis for fifty years
when i first went to censor i did not think i think i'll go to san francisco to help the people at zen center practice meditation
i didn't have that thought did not arise in my money i was going to send center because i thought the people there who are practicing would help me practice regularly and they did help me
also i went to san francisco zen center because i thought i heard there was a teacher of zen practice
and i thought what that good to have a community support the practice and a teacher who could guide me in the practice and give me feedback on the practice
who's there to help me with the practice which he has been doing for
fifty years
and i didn't go he was there and he was happy to help me and he did help me it was all very nice but i did not think i'm gonna go to san fransisco and helped that zen teacher
the ascent teacher
i didn't think that way
i did not think that way but little by little i started to think that way and after even before suzuki richard died i felt like i was going to the zendo and for him i felt like i was at zen center to help him
and i i became a person who was there so he could help me but i also became a person who was there to help him and more and more i felt like he was like really kind of saying tensions on thank you for helping me of course he's still
a teacher but i was helping him
the student
can help the teacher that's the program that teacher helps a student the student health to teach her this teacher serves a student the search serves the teacher
it often says exam stories so as i went and serve so and so for thirty years
of course so and so serve the students
of course a buddhist serves all living beings are all living beings serve the buddha but when they first start practicing it mean we don't have the id want to go help to help out buddha
that is the practice we have buddha buddha helps us
when you first came to know about human resource cover coverage nobody had to maybe that will be helpful to me
and maybe it was
and the more you gotta know boredom i think i'm gonna go no bone help those poor suckers that women that go there those people need help i'm gonna go help good and by the way i'm also going to help them because they help me
and so every time we come here everybody helps us it supports us and we'd do a day like this and we support the other people
and the more we practice my realize it is mutual
and i love it i loved everybody's helping me
help them
that the people that may help them helps me i love that that's the practice of the bodhisattva if you're not ready for that understandable when i first came to censor i was not ready for that i didn't have i didn't make any sense to me that i would be helping a pupil at sensor but it didn't take that long because he couldn't they started to come to me
and say thank you my friend said you don't really helps me that you get up every morning and come here
and i'm really helps me that you're sitting there next to me it really helps me that even when you're sick you you still make an effort were really i'm okay
huh
huh
several things came up today and
them
another thing that came up was somebody came to me and
told me that they were wondering
if there is like some training program for lay people
so that i think this person or this purse maxi with somebody who years ago was considering entering priest training with me so this person had the idea anymore yeah you have a training program for priests
and i do
he said you have a training program for laypeople and i said
yeah i do so i'm doing it doesn't i'm doing here this is my training program from people
only priest in the room as me
i'm here to train laying people and again i'm here to train
any kind of lay people but particularly the i'm here to train lay bodhisattvas i'm here to train people who
want to be body surface
but i'm not rushing you to want to be a he sought from but
if you'd wanna be i'm happy to do my best to train you to be
you know below every girl soccer everybody some from are above average forty seven or supreme in semester for islam i'm help you and i have high heritage to help you to support you to train to have a body soccer mind of know about
code
i wanna do that and the what and to way i'm doing it it's like this and away i do in the future will be like how high do it in the future and the way i do it next month will be a bit different from this month even though it might look just to say

there's two kinds of bodhisattvas in a way
you say there is the priests monastics and delay
and label he sought as and priests bodhisattvas are both
teachers bodhisattvas our teachers
priests can teach priest to be a body shot the priests can teach bodhisattva priests they can teach them naked train priest can train lay body suffers
i think that i think
i'm a priest i can train priests bodhisattvas and i can trained lay body surface we can do that
also lay bodhisattvas country can train lay body surface and lay body surface can train priest body sizes
it's a lot of body supposed to are lay teachers lay up teachers and they can teach priests and like so both directions we can teach
and were actually teaching people to be teachers
to teach the dharma by showing how to practice it

are you leaving
well thanks for coming thank you for the thanks for the crackers and that ended up
putting on hours

so i i would i want you to be bodyshop for teachers but also i don't want like back you into a corner where you feel like you have to be
i want you to i want to help you find out what kind of person you wanna be and if you want to be a body sought for i'd be happy to support you and help you learn how to do that kind of life
and as i said from the certain points point of view from a certain point of view for through certain eyes i say you all are bodhisattvas you can't get away from it but i don't want to say that in a scary way
you know from a certain point of view you all will become buddhas whether you're like it or not
that's a certain point of view not the point of view is you are already practicing the boys yourself away whether you think so or not
if you think you're not that's the way your car if you think you are that's the way you are
that's a certain point of view but again i don't want to frighten you by talking like that so forget i said it if it's frightening

i want you to be teachers of
compassion and wisdom in this world
when we're living together i want you to learn to be that kind of person if you want to be

and i'm not forcing you
and nobody else is forcing you
it's a matter of your own nature
nothing came up today if somebody said well what happened if everybody like
at realized
the boy start for mind what would happen to all the pain
in the world
when like disappear and the answer is no
buddha is understand pain
and
but does not destroy it
buddha understands evil but does not destroy it
buddhist art or not into destroying the into liberation
of all beings
yes although the paying tobacco away with the suffering go away
when you understand suffering
what do you understand that suffering does not come go
therefore it will not go and also it will not come as to understanding of suffering buddha's don't tamper with it
they liberate beings in relationship to it

perfect thicker the soldiers fundamental issues
rockwood pay he was was that suffering was that arose from wishing things were different suffering arises from wishing things are different
right
when somebody just not as wishing things are different but
ben kind of stuck on that
lucky you could say this person is sick i wish they were healthy you could wish that
and understand that wish and not a of it and not abiding in it is liberation with that situation which your wish he would be alleviated subsequent to a wish it's acclaimed intuition
yeah when you're talking about on are some sort of nature
access doesn't smell
could you say a lot of list when you're talking about rs some some nature yes i'm would you just dead moments ago is you're not talking about us just an astronomer the time that ever that's right
who are not special you for that access while we're special this sense it your korea and she's mighty yours you're here you're only one of you say that your special but everybody in the universe is like you
in that way
you are the center of the universe and so as everybody else everywhere if there's nothing but centers

every place includes all places every time includes all time
all the time to like that all the people are like that all the grizzlies are like
but we we
we had this big job
a being in the place and the time where we are
so if you want to realize this
then the job is to be compassionate to situation so you can actually be here and be which in be a special person you are so completely that you realize
the person you're not or for i should say so you realize not that special person and that dynamic is what
the work of buddhist is the dynamic of you being used so completely that you become free of you
and everybody who is completed themselves becomes not a himself and that dynamic is liberation
and that's brewed as activity
what is are so completely buddha's that they're all sentient beings
what is aren't nothing in addition to all living beings
they're just the way all living beings actually are
and to to realize that we have to be who we are
and to realize who we are we need everybody support and we do have everybody support we need to accept it

so in be sad
i was saying i was grateful for this teaching that the activity and nobody suffers is too
i performed acts of generosity and that that was part of saving all beings and you said i get that wrong i am starting to get it going
so she entered good that this comes with perfect time
the bodhisattvas life is to do these acts of compassion to all beings and that's what saves them well not quite
what saves them is realizing that their life all these beings that you're been devoted to that their life that their existence is your existence that's what saves them
doing the acts of compassion lead you to realize that the beings to whom you are devoted that their life is you live that's liberates beings
the acts of compassion themselves but they do is for being too at this realization they take the realization and make a buddha out of it
so you can be you can do acts of compassion for beings
without having this realization of these beings are who you are
explain the part about making the making a buddha and when you have this realization uses realization
realization is you are my existence you are my life i start with that exist that realization then from there
but i can have that realization perhaps today right now
let's just say i do it okay
or maybe say you do
that's not quite yet buddha
you have to like put that realization to work by doing acts of compassion to all these beings we realize on yourself that makes the buddha
you can also do those practices before he had the realization but the then the practices are leading you to the realization what she has a realization that you unfold that realization by these actions and then they make the body of the buddha
currently yourself in friend wine who's performing the axe a prior know nap for yourself why didn't the one that becomes the buddha is the one who has the realization and a lack of separation why do we becomes the buddha is the one who has a realization that
what has been reared that the one who has become realized is everybody other than yourself
no

perfect thing now that could implicate it's okay
i he smiles and frowns and they made in and says i'm worried about your hips match
not an elephant
i see some worry about me which might hate actually not really be worried but just compassion
and i thank you for your great compassion towards me and towards each other and i'm hoping that we continue to practice compassion towards each other and ourselves
i'm never going to make buddha in this world in this way
and thank you for listening to the strange talk