I received a request to speak about the perfection of wisdom. So now we did. Did you hear us? The lovely, the holy. Perfection of wisdom. On this altar here, sitting in front of the Buddha, is a statue of a female divinity whose name is Prajñāpāramitā. In English, wisdom gone beyond wisdom or perfection of wisdom. So in the perfection of wisdom, wisdom goes beyond wisdom. It's a wisdom that keeps transcending itself.

[01:05]

It doesn't abide in anything, including wisdom. there's a scripture called the diamond or the diamond cutter of perfect wisdom and it says something like if you wish to realize complete perfect enlightenment then it would be appropriate to train in

[02:06]

perfect wisdom. And then it says, so if you wish to train in perfect wisdom, think like this. It tells you a way to think. And then it starts to list all the different forms of life that there could be. So it says, think like this, humans, animals, divine beings, all kinds of beings, all kinds of living beings that there could possibly be, whatever kind of life it is, I vow to take all of them, each of them and all of them, to the realm

[03:16]

of peace and freedom. So if you want to, in this scripture it says, if you wish to realize perfect awakening, then it would be appropriate to train in wisdom, and training in wisdom starts with thinking and making the vow to carry all beings beyond suffering to the realm of peace and freedom. And, almost kind of like, and yet, I think it says, and yet, and yet, even when you take, when you carry

[04:17]

innumerable beings to peace and freedom, no beings are taken to peace and freedom. And then it says, how come? And then it says, because if you are taking care of living beings, and carrying them beyond suffering to peace and freedom. If you would hold on to an idea of a living being or the idea of a person or a self that you are taking to nirvana, then you wouldn't be a bodhisattva. So somehow the bodhisattvas meet living beings, or excuse me, they vow to meet living beings.

[05:29]

Like us, they vow to meet living beings. Bodhisattvas also are living beings, and they vow to meet all living beings and work with them so that they can go beyond suffering, and enter nirvana, and they work with them. They themselves are not, at that time, kind of like concerned and going anyplace. They're right here with sentient beings, helping sentient beings go beyond suffering and beyond wisdom. So they're working with them closely, but they don't hold on to any idea of who they're helping. They work with persons without holding on to an idea of persons. They work with living beings without holding an idea of living beings while they're working with them.

[06:33]

And in this way they carry them to peace and freedom. There are ideas of persons or living beings but they engage so fully with them, with these ideas, that they don't abide in them. They don't hold the idea of who a person is, or what their problem is. In this way they work to carry beings to nirvana, and in fact there's nothing there that's carried. That's something that's an elaboration of the basic message of the scripture. That's at the beginning of the Diamond Sutra of Perfect Wisdom. Later on, in section 10c, it says that bodhisattvas should give life to a mind that does not abide in anything.

[07:47]

So the bodhisattvas give life to a mind that doesn't abide in life, that doesn't abide in colors, or sounds, or smells, or tastes, or touches, tangibles. It doesn't abide in any mental phenomena. This is another description of the mind of perfect wisdom. a mind that doesn't dwell in anything. And if something appears to the bodhisattva who's cultivating wisdom, if something appears, again, they care for whatever it is, they meet it fully, and in meeting it fully, in some sense the criterion of meeting fully is not abiding in it.

[09:11]

And vice versa, the criterion of not abiding in a color is to meet it fully. The criterion of not abiding in a living being is to meet the living being fully. And the criterion of meeting fully is not dwelling in the meeting, or the being, or yourself. So once again the Bodhisattva vows to embrace and sustain all beings and carry them to nirvana. To embrace and sustain all beings so they will mature and allow themselves to be carried to nirvana. Bodhisattvas right now are trying to carry us all to nirvana, but we may not feel ready. I have a few more appointments before I can go. I have to write my will before I go.

[10:19]

At work meeting, please remind me to talk to you about writing wills. So I want you all to write your will soon so that you will allow yourself to be taken to nirvana. in case you have any resistance because of certain business matters that you have to take care of, I'd like you to take care of that so you can allow yourself to be carried to nirvana. And when you're ready to allow yourself, I'll just tell you beforehand what it will be like. When you're being carried to nirvana, you won't abide in being carried. and you won't abide in carrying, and you won't abide in being a carrier. When you're carrying beings to nirvana, you don't abide in being the carrier, or the carried, or the carrying.

[11:28]

That's perfect wisdom. We're working for all beings to be carried and carrying to nirvana without abiding in carrier, carried or carrying. That seemed really clear to me. Was that clear to you? So, another teaching about the perfection of wisdom is that it is practicing giving where there is no abiding in giver, receiver, or gift. So the bodhisattvas, of course, practice giving, but when they practice giving at perfect wisdom, they are not abiding in being the donor, they are not abiding in being the recipient, they are not abiding in being the gift, or they're not abiding in

[12:42]

donation, reception, or gift. But all those, of course, there's no giving without receiving, and there's no receiving without giving, and there's no giving or receiving without gift, and there's no gift without giving and receiving. All these elements in the dynamic meeting, which carries the dynamic generosity, which carries beings to nirvana, All the elements have no inherent nature, no independent existence. And this is how we are carried to nirvana, and how we carry others to nirvana before ourself. Yes? Nirvana, it's a word that means peace.

[13:51]

Its basic definition is peace. In Buddhism, nirvana means peace. The root of the word nirvana is to blow out, as in extinguish. So it's a blowing out, in a way, of all that seems to hinder peace. In the positive sense, nirvana is peace. In the negative sense, it's blowing away all hindrance to peace and freedom and ease. And another example is the perfection of wisdom is practicing ethics without leaning into transgression or non-transgression.

[15:10]

So, Bodhisattva's, of course, practice giving and ethics, and when they practice it in accord with perfect wisdom, they practice giving like I just said, and they practice ethics by not leaning into transgressing, of course, but they also don't lean into non-transgression. So perfect wisdom is being upright with transgression and not transgression. It's being upright with killing and not killing. And so on. There's teachings of how to practice ethics, patience, generosity, diligence, and, yeah, generosity, ethics, patience, diligence, and concentration. And then wisdom. And so, again, the last one, the last of the first five of the six transcendent practices

[16:18]

was concentration, and the perfection of concentration is to give away your concentration. If any of you ever get concentrated, and you want to perfect it, don't donate your tranquility and your concentration. Give it away. Which is similar to don't hold on to it. Even in the wonderful state of concentration, which is necessary in order to be with the meeting, What meaning? The meeting with sentient beings. In the meeting with sentient beings we need to be remembering stillness and we need to remember being relaxed and open and flexible so that we can participate in the carrying of beings to nirvana without being

[17:19]

rigid in the process, like I'm being carried, I'm the carrier. So concentration sets the stage for being able to be flexible and playful in the process of carrying being to peace. And that perfection is perfected by not holding on to this thing that you need. You need concentration, and you give it away, and that perfects it. So if you've got concentration, good, you need it for practicing wisdom, now perfect it, give it away. Now you've got perfected, now you have the given away concentration. This is the end of the first section of my talk on the perfection of wisdom.

[18:24]

And now I'm ready to do the next section of my talk. But before I do, I'd like to hear a word from our sponsor. Yes? Are you our sponsor? Yes. Are you our sponsored? Yes. Are you our sponsoring? I am sponsoring. Which one is you? All three and none. Okay. Is there anything else? No. Can I ask a question, actually? Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. Thank you. Is it ever helpful to hold on to an idea? I feel like you were going to say it's not helpful to hold on to anything. Yeah, it's very helpful to hold on to ideas if you aspire to create stress. If you want to contribute to the misery of the world, hold on to your idea of me, for example. In the instance of insight meditation, contemplating a particular being or person, is that holding on to an idea or is that meeting the idea fully?

[19:29]

Contemplating a person is not holding on to the idea of the person. It's not. But if you pretend like it is, then you will be doing what we call the alchemy of misery. So you can take care of someone, and in taking care of them you might contemplate them, and pay attention to them, and listen to them. That's not abiding in anything. But if you think it is abiding in anything, then you're going against the teaching of the perfection of wisdom, which says take care of beings without abiding in them. Take care of colors without abiding in them. Take care of your ideas about people without abiding in them. Just in case you might think of abiding, it's saying, don't. Don't do that, so that you can realize perfect wisdom.

[20:33]

Now, if you are abiding, then don't abide in it you are abiding. Ready for the next section? Oh, no? Yes? When you talk about stillness, you don't mean concentration. You mean patience, generosity, diligence, and concentration. Is that correct? I think she said, when I say stillness, you don't just mean concentration. You mean generosity, ethics, patience, diligence, and concentration. And then she said, is that correct? And, well, let's just say it is, shall we? So this is one of these rare examples where Tracy understands perfectly. She has no doubts.

[21:37]

So yeah, stillness is all those. But stillness really, in a way, it's also remembering perfect wisdom. And stillness is another word for reality. Yes? The vow that you started out talking about. We also don't want to hold on to that, but we want to remember it. Yeah. I pray that we remember the vow which we don't hold on to. I pray that we remember the vow to attain enlightenment, perfect enlightenment, for the welfare of this world, and that we don't abide in that vow. Now, again, and then all these things which Tracy mentioned, giving, ethical discipline, patience, diligence and concentration, all those should be practiced without holding on to them.

[22:46]

Like dancing with somebody without really holding on to them. Embracing them, but not holding them, not restraining them, not clinging to them, moving with them. So all those are practices without abiding. And the vow, which is the basis of all of them, the same with the vow. And these practices that we just mentioned, those five practices, they protect and keep the vow alive. And the vow is kind of like the basis of all those practices, including wisdom. Again, in the sutra it doesn't mention the first five practices we just talked about, it goes right to this perfection of wisdom after stating the vow. So first is the vow, and then practice perfect wisdom so you won't abide in the vow.

[23:51]

And when you have the vow and practice perfect wisdom, that will help you not abide in the vow and that will protect the vow. As Ninan often says, the ultimate protection of the bodhisattva vow is realization of ungraspability of all things. So if you know that you can't grasp the bow, you will let go of it. And it's like this. See that? That's giving and receiving at the same time. Can you see it? I'm not holding on to giving or receiving. They're both there. And also the gift is there. Can you see the gift? Winking helps, it's good. And then, Homa?

[24:54]

I have a different viewpoint about abiding in me. So Homa has a different viewpoint about abiding? Uh-huh. In me. Because I was raised... Abiding, did you say, and something? In me. Oh, abiding in me. Like abiding in yourself? yeah, abiding... I don't mean myself but abiding in me in a sense that I never had a self I'm someone who never had a self but then I started to meet people who have a me and I started to appreciate them that they have a me so then I think there is no wrong with somebody abiding in a niche. Because it gives us a chance to see the niche. And if this abiding did not exist, how could we see forms?

[26:01]

So forms are abiding in their own form. I'm happy to hear you think it's wonderful that forms are abiding in what? In their form? Colors are abiding in color? Okay. So I think it's wonderful too. And I'm trying to give life to a mind that doesn't abide in those wonderful colors. We've got the wonderful colors, now how about not abiding in them? Yes, Priya? Would it be helpful, do you remember last month I asked you what you meant by abide? I asked you to define abide. And you said, without hesitation, being stuck.

[27:05]

And that was it, we're not going to continue the conversation. There it is. And I was like, OK. OK. Thank you for the story. Are you abiding in that story? It's just I found it helpful. And so I thought others might find it helpful. Yeah. So the colors are abiding in the colors. And I want to find a mind which doesn't get stuck in the colors. The me is abiding in the me, and I want to find a way to not get stuck in me. And the way to get not stuck in me, I told you before, what's that? How do you get not stuck in me? Well, it was ten seconds ago, so I can imagine why you forgot it. By fully engaging in X, you don't abide in X. Not abiding in X means fully engaging in X. So fully engaging with the color, you don't abide in it.

[28:19]

Not abiding in it, you fully engage with it. And bodhisattvas need to know how to not abide in beings so that they can fully engage with them. If you abide in them, you can't fully engage. I mean, you can't realize full engagement. But full engagement realizes non-abiding, and non-abiding allows you to be fully engaged, even with so-and-so. Yes? Is this the same as giving it away? Is not abiding the same as giving it away? Yes, it's the same as giving it away without abiding in the giving it away, or being the giver of the giving it away, or being the recipient of it being given away. So it's giving it away and fully engaging in giving it away.

[29:23]

Yes. If being stuck in something is not being fully engaged with it, would it be fair to say that whenever you're stuck in something, if you're not fully engaged with it, you don't realize you're stuck? So he said something about fully engaged means not stuck. If fully engaged means not stuck, and when you're stuck in something, you're not fully engaged. I don't know if that's what it means, but I'm just saying. If you are fully engaged, without saying what it means, you will not be stuck. If you are fully engaged, you will not be stuck. If you're not fully engaged, then you will be stuck. But if you're not fully engaged, do you realize that you're stuck? I think a lot of people think they're stuck, and they think they're stuck, And they also think they're not fully engaged. I mean, maybe they do think they're engaged, but if they look a little bit, they realize they don't think they're fully engaged.

[30:45]

So I think often when you feel stuck, you can notice that you're resisting, that you're hesitating, that you're wallowing. But as you know, The time to hesitate is through. No time to wallow in the mire. Now we have a chance to choose. We can join the Buddha's choir. Really we're wholehearted. We're deeply wholehearted. Our deep relationship is that we're wholeheartedly engaged, and our deep relationship is we're not abiding in others or self. We wholeheartedly care for beings, really. Ultimately and deeply, we deeply care for all beings, wholeheartedly.

[31:56]

superficially, you know, we may think we're not fully engaged, or that we have a choice about being fully engaged. And some people really are... Some person just told me yesterday, a couple of days ago at Tathagata, that she was afraid of not having deep relationships. And I said, well, you're afraid that reality is not in your life. But, of course, reality is in your life. You do have deep relationships, but you can't see how deep your relationships are. You can't see it. You can't see how wholehearted you are. So we look half-hearted, and when we look half-hearted, we're more or less stuck. And we can know we're stuck, and then we can say, you know, I must admit, I confess, I feel stuck.

[33:00]

And I confess, I feel half-hearted. Like that story I tell over and over again. One of my first work assignments in the monastery was to repair broken water lines. There was a storm, and me and another guy named Jim McGuire went to fix breaks, and there were several breaks. So we fixed the first one, and we went to fix the second one, and I said to him, let's go back and fix the break. And he knew what I meant. We fixed it, but not wholeheartedly. We fixed it thinking of the next break, and the next break, all the breaks we had to fix. So we didn't give full attention to this one. And we knew it. But we went back. I didn't confess, Jim. I think I did a lousy job or a half-hearted job on that last joint. And I think we should go back.

[34:02]

I just said, let's go back. And he understood. So I think we can sense when we're veering away from wholehearted engagement. We can sense when we're looking away from the pain of others. or when we're wallowing in it. We can kind of tell. I think I'm wallowing. So then we confess that to the big Buddhas, and that process will melt away the root of half-heartedness, of veering away, of transgressing from half-heartedness. Transgressing from not clinging But when we're not clinging, we have no idea of not clinging. The idea of not clinging might zip by, but also, right after, clinging is chasing out right after it.

[35:06]

Here comes not clinging! It's an active situation. Even though we're completely free, When we're not clinging, we're free of not clinging. Yes. Every time you think I understand this intellectually. You let go of it. She keeps letting go of her intellectual understanding. She doesn't want to be stuck in her intellectual understanding. She doesn't want to abide in it. So she lets it go. And then she has another question. What helps me let it go is you've been talking about face-to-face meeting for a while. Pardon? I said what helps me let go of it is you've been talking about face-to-face meeting for a while. And then I go, no, I really didn't understand that stuff that I thought I understood because it becomes much riskier. And there's another, you know, I'm trying to apply this to you.

[36:10]

Yeah. Part of wisdom is ethics. You can't have perfect, you can't, I can't fully engage with beings without ethical discipline. And ethical discipline involves other, calling me into question, putting me in question. So, yeah, that's part of the deal, is being in question. If there's no questions, we're missing out on the question part. Part of the practice is questioning. Ethical discipline is questioning. What's the kind way? And then that will lead you to have that question, and have a response, without clinging to the question or the response. I think this would be good.

[37:11]

We're thinking about, you started out with the Diamond Sutra saying, you know, beings, understanding that beings don't exist, but when there's... It doesn't say they don't exist, it's just, you're helping beings, without holding on to any idea of the beings you're helping. Like you're helping me, and you have an idea of me, but you're helping me without clinging to your idea of me. That's how you take me to nirvana. And when you care for me, when you care for this person without holding an idea of a person, You're a bodhisattva. To not have ideas of people and not help them, that's not a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is working to help people in the greatest way, without holding an idea of who the person is, what helping is, or who the helper is.

[38:16]

And that's face-to-face transmission, which is the next section of the talk on perfect wisdom. if we're ready for the next section. I guess not, yes? I'm thinking about my relationship to my physical body, and how this relates to the experience of experiencing pain or pleasure without abiding? Well, pain, I would say, is a sentient being. It's a living being that's calling to you for compassion. Your body's calling for compassion.

[39:25]

I think your body's calling for compassion, not just to your consciousness, where you live, but your body's calling for compassion to my consciousness, where I'm living. But my access to the call of your body is different than yours. I have different sense organs from you. So the way your body calls to my consciousness is somewhat different than the means by which it calls to you. But your body is calling for compassion, and your body is being called to compassion. And your body is responding to the call for compassion. And other bodies are responding to your body's call for compassion.

[40:29]

and other minds are responding to your call of your body. And your mind, your consciousness, is responding to the call from your body for compassion. So we have just plenty of calls for compassion. We are being well called. I'm being called by all of you for compassion. All your bodies are calling to me for compassion. I have no shortage of requests. And I respond. My body actually responds to all of your calls. Of course, I can't see how all your bodies are calling to my body. And I can't see how my body's responding to all your calls. I'm just saying what perfect wisdom is, which I can't see, but which I believe in.

[41:41]

And of course this being called by everybody is pretty wholehearted, and responding to everybody is wholehearted, but I can't see that. But that realm of perfect wisdom is present here with the realm of what you might call partial wisdom, or a little bit of wisdom, where you think somebody's calling for you and you're responding to somebody, but you don't yet realize that everything's calling you and you're responding to everything. You don't see that yet, you don't understand that yet, you just hear about it. So I wasn't trying to override Delfina's question, but I did move into the next section. I moved into the section of how perfect wisdom is face-to-face communion. That we are, we have a face, we have maybe two faces, one face we have,

[42:53]

is the latest version of the one that came out of my mother's body. So when I was born, I had a face. And then that face went away, and then another one came. And now we have the latest version of that succession of faces. So I've had a face all along, and here now I have one now. I have another face all along, which was a face I had before my parents were born. And I have that face now too. So the perfect wisdom is face-to-face transmission between limited faces and limited faces. Between limited me's and other me's in the wholehearted meeting of limited faces with limited faces, we don't abide in the meeting of limited faces.

[44:02]

And we open to the ever-presence of the face before we were born, which is... Is that perfect wisdom? Yes, but also perfect wisdom is dealing with the face, the limited face. So perfect wisdom deals with the limited face and helps it be wholehearted, and when helping it be wholehearted, there's no abiding in the limited face, so then there's perfect wisdom there. So the perfect wisdom is right there with the limited face, but if we don't wholeheartedly engage the limited face and not abide in it, that half-heartedness closes the door on the infinite, invisible face. So we have an invisible face with each of our faces. An invisible face is the way our face is calling all faces and responding to all faces.

[45:19]

which is the same as our body. It's the face of our body, which is the face that's calling to all faces, and responding to all faces. And this meeting, face to face, limited face to limited face, in wholeheartedness, is perfect wisdom, which includes background of the limited foreground. The background is that all faces are at this meeting. When you meet one person wholeheartedly, you meet everybody wholeheartedly. When you wholeheartedly practice perfect wisdom with one person, or with yourself, that is everybody practicing perfect wisdom, because everybody is included in you. And we're concerned with this because we vowed to help all beings, but the way you help all beings is to help this being.

[46:32]

Soulfully. That there's no clinging to this being. That's the same as other people not clinging to this being. And this is a function of perfect wisdom. Yes? You keep repeating, I cannot see, I cannot see. Would you speak louder? I can't hear you. You repeated yourself several times that we cannot see. With our eyes. So when you say seeing, you're referring to the eyes. You're not referring seeing as the way you are. Right. I'm talking about, I can't see all the people, all the beings in the universe. I can't see them with my eyes. And not only that, but when I see things with my eye vision, it's sort of evolved that when I see you, I think I've seen you enough.

[47:43]

You know, like, it's like, oh, there's Lily. Yeah, I saw her. I don't think like, well, there's somebody and I don't know who it is. It's like, first of all, that's who I'm looking at, and that's her, and this is not her. I think my vision is adequate to the person. But my vision is not adequate to non-abiding. My vision is not adequate to non-abiding. Which I think was, again, Justin brought that up. My vision is adequate to abiding. My vision is adequate to half-hearted living. My vision is not adequate to wholehearted, non-abiding, perfect wisdom. But that doesn't mean I don't totally respect the wonder of my vision. It's just wonderful. As a matter of fact, I have an appointment on Thursday with a eye doctor, and I'm kind of hoping that she'll say, oh, you have to have cataract surgery.

[48:50]

And then I'll be able to see even more how beautiful the colors are, and even more enjoy not abiding in them. All the better to not abide in you. But I think she probably won't say it. You need cataract surgery, so I probably won't get it. And I'll keep saying things in this somewhat old-age way. Some people whose vision is really bad get this surgery, and then they're like, whoa! Look at the colors. And I go, hmm. I remember what you mean. Okay, you've got a choice, Rev. You can have better vision and abide in those duties, or have your dim vision without abiding. Which would you choose? I choose the latter.

[49:53]

I choose blindness and not abide in, rather than perfect, spectacular, constantly beautiful vision that I abide in. and thereby cause trouble to everybody, and spread misery by being stuck in your beautiful faces, as I think they are. In face-to-face transmission, I am not stuck in your face or mine, and you are not stuck in yours or mine. We use the meeting face-to-face, to free ourselves from abiding, to realize that there's no basis for abiding, to realize perfect wisdom, which liberates beings and opens the doors of peace, even though there's no beings for whom we open the door.

[50:56]

We are still in Section Two. called Perfect Wisdom as face-to-face transmission. And in this face-to-face transmission, all the Buddha's teachings are being given and received. So the prototypic Zen story It's a Zen story. You will not find this story, so far we have not found this story in India. But in China there's a story that appeared more than a thousand years ago, but not 2,500 years ago. A story that the Buddha, the historical Buddha in India was speaking to the group I believe on a mountain called Vulture Peak.

[52:07]

And he picked up a flower and twirled it and winked. Doesn't say which eye. Some translations say blinked. But I go for winked. The Buddha raised the flower and winked. And one of the The monks smiled. The Buddha called to the monk. The monk responded. The monk called to the Buddha, and the Buddha... the monk said, would you please raise that flower and twirl it? And the Buddha said... And then the monk smiled. He did... oh, and he winked. I was actually just asking you to twirl the flower, but then you winked on top of it. That really was great. Good job, Buddha. And then the Buddha says, I now transmit the entire true Dharma-I treasury to Mahakasyapa, this person, the inconceivable mind of nirvana.

[53:26]

is transmitted in this face-to-face meeting. But that language leads people to think that the Buddha gave the true Dharma-I treasury to Mahakasyapa, but Mahakasyapa didn't give the true Dharma-I treasury to the Buddha. That the Buddha gave the mind the inconceivably wonderful mind of peace and freedom to the disciple, but the disciple didn't give it to the Buddha. So, I would say that seeing that meeting as perfect wisdom, it is in both directions. The Buddha did give the whole teaching to this student, but the student gave the whole teaching to the Buddha. There's no Buddha giving the whole teaching without the student giving the whole teaching to the teacher.

[54:31]

How do they give? They give by this meeting. The meeting is actually the whole teaching. And they give it to each other. The inconceivable mind of nirvana is given and received by both. Otherwise, if the Buddha is doing the giving and the great disciples doing the receiving, the Buddha might be abiding in the position of giver. And the student might be abiding in the position of receiver. But in perfect wisdom, which is the Buddha's mommy, the Buddha does not abide in the position of Buddha and the disciple does not abide in the position of disciple. And by not abiding in their position, they give their position, and they realize perfect wisdom face to face.

[55:36]

This Zen story about the way the Buddha transmits the whole teaching to the disciple, this Zen story emphasizes the face-to-face meeting, which was there before Zen arose in China, but people didn't mention it so much. But of course the Buddha was always there meeting the students face-to-face. But mostly I think people thought the Buddha's face was transmitting and the disciple's face was receiving, rather than the Buddha's face was transmitting and receiving the disciple's face. And the disciple was transmitting and receiving the Buddha's face. This point was not emphasized in India as much as we are emphasizing it today. But it was there. That Buddha face was there, looking right in those eyes, transmitting, and those eyes were looking right back at the Buddha.

[56:46]

And the Buddha, you know, the Buddha was... That's how the Buddha teaches, by this face-to-face transmission, in both directions, simultaneously. And that's how we are living. We are transmitting to each other, face-to-face. We are giving ourselves to each other. We are giving our face and receiving the other face. with everybody. And if we work on it with one person thoroughly, we will open to how we're working on it with everybody. But working out with one person thoroughly is a big challenge. Just with one person, it's a big challenge. But the good part is, if you meet the challenge, which means you meet the challenge of the other person meeting the challenge, two people can realize the Dharma for all people.

[57:56]

Okay, so that's the second part of the talk on perfect wisdom, and I now will entertain entertainment. She said there's actually no basis for abiding. There's no basis. The perfect wisdom is the lack of a basis for abiding. So then my mind goes, there's no substantial reality to abiding. There's no substantial reality to anything including abiding. And yet I gather that there's some danger in saying there actually is no abiding. to say there actually is no abiding, there is danger there, that you might abide in that statement. That's the only danger. That's basically the only danger in life, is abiding. It's doing what we can't do, that's the main danger in life.

[59:05]

It's to do what really can't be done. Like, be stingy. Abide. Abide in your money. You can't. But it's dangerous. Money is dangerous because you might think you can abide in it. There's no basis to it. But the illusion of abiding is being constantly produced. So, there is no basis for it, but it's being produced. That's why we're going to continue to have abiding, It's always going to be abiding in misery, and it's going to be accompanied by perfect wisdom, except there's no basis for this abiding. Therefore, beings who are abiding can be carried to nirvana without getting rid of the illusion of abiding. The superficial is not going to be eliminated by the profound.

[60:08]

They're always together. And we're trying to realize the profound. And the way we realize the profound is by fully engaging with the superficial. And we do have the superficial, and there's no basis for it. And if we fully engage with what there's no basis for, we'll realize there's no basis. And then we'll be free without tampering with the illusions of superficiality. or the superficial illusions. Yes? Would you also say that this face-to-face transmission is communion? Yeah. Face-to-face communion. Right. Holy communion. When you said it was a face-to-face transmission between this limited face and other limited faces, Would you also say it's also a communion between this limited face and the face before you were born?

[61:17]

Yeah. That's also... So, this face is the foreground. This face that's in the lineage of faces that have been going on for 74 years, this face is the foreground of my other face, which is the background. And sometimes, if I really wholeheartedly have this face, the background will be the foreground, and the foreground will be the background. In other words, I won't see my face anymore. All I'll see is the entire universe, and that will be my face. You could say, that's not much of a face, or you could say, that's quite a face. So it's communion between The original face and the new face, and it's communion between new faces and new faces, or limited faces and limited faces, and limited faces and unlimited faces. All that's going on in this universe.

[62:19]

That's holy communion. Just like, you know, if you go to a Catholic church. Actually, I didn't bring any wafers today. But if I did give you all a wafer to put in your mouth, you might not understand that when you taste that wafer wholeheartedly, there's no abiding in that taste. And if you can receive that communion, that touch on your tongue, wholeheartedly, you won't abide in that touch on your tongue. And all beings will receive that same wholeheartedness. But the same applies to your lunch, which is coming up.

[63:27]

But before lunch we're going to do a service This is Kim Webster here. This is Kim. And her mom died not too long ago. We're going to do a memorial service for her mom. There's a picture of her mom on the altar there. Is there anything you want to say, Kim, before we do the ceremony? No, just thank you. Thank you to everybody for being here. She wants to thank you all for being here. And I want to thank you too for doing this. Okay, so is that enough for this morning?

[64:10]

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