Relaxing in Responsibility: Zen Wisdom

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RA-04617
AI Summary: 

The talk explores the concept of relaxation amid a sense of responsibility, specifically within the context of Zen teachings on great compassion and non-attachment. A central theme is how one can remain relaxed, akin to masters like Michael Phelps and Bodhidharma, amidst responsibilities and tension, by handling resistance with acceptance and compassion. The discussion juxtaposes physical activities requiring relaxation for mastery, such as swimming, with spiritual practices that necessitate relaxation in the face of fear and responsibility.

Referenced Works and Concepts:

  • Book of Serenity: Prajnatara, Bodhidharma’s teacher depicted in this text, highlights the importance of non-attachment during meditation, playing a crucial role in the lineage of Zen teachings.
  • Wallace Stevens’ Poem "The Snowman": Interpreted as aligning with Buddhist teachings on great compassion and emphasizing a receptive, non-grasping state of mind.
  • Zen Practice: The notion of 'not-knowing' and 'non-grasping' aligns with teachings of Avalokiteshvara and Bodhidharma on observing and interacting with the world without adding or subtracting anything from experiences.
  • Koans in Zen: The discourse references the use of koans as teaching tools to challenge perceptions and emphasize ‘not-knowing’ as spiritual practice, embodying great compassion.
  • Bodhidharma's Encounter with the Emperor: Used as an illustrative example of radical non-attachment and the challenge of embodying great compassion, even in mundane interactions.

AI Suggested Title: Relaxing in Responsibility: Zen Wisdom

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Transcript: 

I remember in the Dharma Talk on Sunday, I think Ranzi asked a question about relaxation. Do you remember your question? I do. Do you want me to repeat it? It was something along the lines of, How do you relax, or how can you relax when feeling tension around the great responsibility of saving all beings and being compassionate towards everything? So her question was, how do you relax when you're feeling tension around great responsibility? of benefiting all beings, liberating all beings. Another version of that would be, how do you relax tension? Then you could expand it again, tension around responsibility.

[01:11]

As I told you earlier today, we're thinking of getting ready for a ceremony that will involve quite a bit of responsibility among us. For example, responsibility for performing a chant. And it will be a chant that you're not familiar with, so there will be a lot of responsibility involved in learning it. And I think there might be some tension arising in the process of learning. Just like some people, when they're learning a foreign language, there's some tension that may arise can't remember the word or how it should be used or make a mistake and feel embarrassed, you might tense up around making a mistake. Or you might tense up around being concerned about making a mistake. So anyway, situations in which, where we feel some responsibility, we feel tension.

[02:26]

And But at the same time, I think another part of what Ramsey was bringing up is maybe the importance of being relaxed, performing certain activities, especially if you want to perform them really well. Now, I'm not saying that all things that are performed well are performed relaxed, but almost everything I think of, any kind of activity that's performed well, usually there's relaxation. Like calligraphy. Or painting. But maybe not. Or dancing. Or skiing. Or martial arts. Or swimming. like swimming competitively. Now, you can also swim non-competitively and relax, too.

[03:28]

But to really find the fullness of what it means to swim, you need to make a big effort. And the effort could be to make a big effort to swim slowly. But the thing is that we need to be relaxed. And the time when we think we wouldn't relax would be like at the level of, you know, the gold medal in swimming. And I remember watching, what's his name? Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps. So he's swinging. He's making some effort. All those people are making an effort. If you've gotten water mixed in them, we feel like you won't make any effort. They're like making astoundingly powerful strokes.

[04:32]

And they're all great swimmers. And the thing about Michael Phelps today is that he was the most relaxed. He also has other qualities, like hands that are like flippers and things like that. But still, that's what people do, too. And these are all great, and they're all making a tremendous effort. And he was the most relaxed. I also have a Kenyan... distance runner in the Olympics. And he's winning the gold medal. You have a picture of his face and he looks like this. So anyway, relaxation is part of being able to... It's an aspect of wholehearted effort. But in order to be relaxed, we need to take care of resistance to relaxing.

[05:40]

Sometimes you might not feel that tense, but you definitely aren't ready to relax. I mean, I don't feel that tense, but I'm not quite relaxed either, and I don't think I should relax. I'm laughing because I thought of something. It's a little... So anyway, I was in a tatsara practice period, my first one, and I noticed that my body was getting very relaxed all over. And I was a little concerned that I might, you know, to have my sphincter might not work. I was afraid, I was getting so relaxed, I was afraid, whoa, nothing happened, but I was worried about that, and I just, and I let that happen.

[06:42]

But I was kind of thinking, what will happen if I just let that relax? Now, my thought is that your center is normally, can do its job, it's just normally a certain way to hold things in place, except when it's time to not. But you don't have to add, I think when we say uptight, you add extra on it, because you're afraid that you're going to lose it. And that's a general statement. When we're afraid of losing it, we maybe add extra tension. So I always say we need to. We need to. We're being called by the tension to welcome. And we need the fear to welcome it, not to try to get rid of the fear of what will happen if we relax.

[07:47]

And honoring all of our fears of what would happen if we relaxed those fears, we'll basically say, thank you very much. Okay, now that you've listened to us, you can relax and do whatever you want to do. For example, move on to being playful. That takes me to, in a way, to Bodhidharma, who I'm inviting you to meditate on as Avalokiteshvara and meditate on Bodhidharma's teachings as the teachings of Avalokiteshvara. So Bodhidharma's face does not look like some other statues of Avalokiteshvara. This particular face, it looks to me more like an old woman than an old man.

[08:51]

Looks like an old woman. And not a mean old woman, but kind of maybe a meditating old woman. She's looking down. Doesn't look happy to me. Doesn't necessarily look sad. There's a statue of Bodhidharma. So great compassion in this particular form is one of the features of the Zen school is to have a founding figure who teaching great compassion, but may not look like what you think it would look like. Now, right there, there it is.

[09:54]

Can you relax with the way Bodhidharma looks? In Japan, I don't know about China, but maybe China too, but in Japan, they have these Gori Dharma dolls. They're very common. On the street, you can buy them. I think Japanese people buy them, but also tourists buy them. But anyway, they're a little sort of... They were gourd-shaped figures, and they could have rolled back and forth, and they have mostly the face of Bodhidharma. And people buy them, and it's kind of like fun to have these. I don't know what they do with them. They don't put them on the altar. I think one of the things they do is they paint the eyes. Anyway, there's various things they do with these statues. but it has a kind of playful association. So that's what I'm saying is that how can we hear and look and see this apparent coolness or coldness or dispassion as a presentation of great compassion?

[11:15]

And part of what I think would be recommended is to relax with any tension we feel around the images of Bodhidharma and the tension we feel in relationship to that presentation of great compassion. there's a kind of lineage from Bodhidharma's teacher to Bodhidharma. And Bodhidharma's teacher, case number three of the Book of Serenity is Bodhidharma's teacher. It's about Shakyamuni Buddha and Manjushri and us. And I think Royce already told you, he's intending to interact with this case and share his interaction with you.

[12:22]

That's the first case in the book of Sravana. The second case is the story of Bodhidharma. He meets the emperor, And the emperor says, I did all this, how much merit is there? Bodhidharma says, there's no merit. It's not what you usually would think would be a kind of a kind response. This is Avalokiteshvara saying, no merit to the emperor. Looks like Avalokiteshvara is pretty brave to say that to the emperor, who could easily... punish such a person for saying that all this he's done for Buddhism has no merit. Then the emperor says, what's the highest meaning of the holy truth? And Bodhidharma says, emptiness, no holy. Again, that doesn't sound real sweet or loving.

[13:26]

What's the highest meaning? Vast emptiness, no holy. And the emperor says, who is this facing me? And Bodhidharma says, it's not a... Usually translated as not knowing. I offer a different translation because the character that I use is a character for consciousness. And I think that Bodhidharma, great compassion, is not a... It is a mind that is beyond human consciousness. So when the emperor is talking to Avalokiteshvara, he's saying, who is this? And in a sense, Bodhidharma is saying, it's beyond human issue. What's here, this great compassion, doesn't belong to this person who's talking, doesn't belong to you, doesn't belong to any human,

[14:31]

human consciousness, and it embraces all human consciousnesses. So I could have some debates with some scholars if they wanted to debate with me, but usually they translate it as don't know, which is characters not A character different note usually means consciousness. And other people translate it as, I don't know. Well, that's okay. They're interpreting. There's no I there. It's just a, who is standing before me? Don't know or not knowing consciousness. I think that Bodhidharma, in his role as representing great compassion, is representing a mind.

[15:34]

Yes? You talked about don't know mind in Zen. Is that the same characters in the old text? You know, I'm not sure. I don't think so. I think that the know of don't know... I'll check it out. There's many characters for know. This character, which means, of course, it's a kind of cognition. Cognitive consciousness is a type of cognition, and it is a diluted cognition. So, anyway, what's standing here is not diluted cognition. That's different from maybe saying, in a sense of not grasping anything. That's a somewhat different nuance. So that's a little bit there. And then Bodhidharma's teacher is named Prajnatara, which I think means the jewel.

[16:41]

And Prajnatara goes to case three, case three of the Book of Serenity. So Buddha takes the seat, Bodhidharma meets the emperor, and number three goes to, gets invited to have lunch at the palace of a king of eastern India. also in other parts of Asia, China, Japan, and Korea. Invite monks over to your house, have them perform services, and give them lunch. Very nice. And so Bodhisattva Ajahn Chah came for lunch and did not recite any scriptures or do any chanting.

[17:49]

She didn't chant any scriptures. Emperor says, why don't you, I gave you lunch, or I'm going to give you lunch, why don't you do your chanting? And he says, this poor waifu. When breathing in — I did my tonight's translation — when breathing in, I don't abide in five aggregates of consciousness, deluded consciousness, mental formations, feelings, perceptions, or forms. And with breathing out, I don't dwell in any of the elements of the six types of consciousness, which make up 18 elements. So that's just the 18 elements and the five aggregates. Usually it hasn't been translated that way because people are not so familiar. So Tom Cleary translated instead of five aggregates, He translated it as body and mind, which is fine.

[18:53]

But anyway, his teacher, when he breathes in and breathes out, he doesn't dwell in anything. And that's the scripture he recites. Hundreds, thousands, millions of scrolls he recites, not dwelling in anything, not abiding in anything, not getting involved. Maybe he has, since he's his teacher, maybe he's Avalokiteshvara too. So maybe his instruction is Avalokiteshvara type of instruction. Then you come to Bodhidharma, and he's teaching his, like Vinmei, Matsumoto, that we have written down, but he taught his his successor, his second ancestor, he said, outwardly, don't get involved.

[19:57]

You know, don't get... don't abide... This is in your consciousness, right? In your consciousness there's things, there's outward things in your consciousness and inward things in your consciousness. So, outwardly, Don't get worked up about anything. Inwardly, no coughing or sighing. In other words, no reactivity to what's there. Just those elements and these elements. And not abiding inwardly and outwardly in anything. And then Bodhidharma said, with a mind like a wall, lest you enter the world. This is an instruction from Avalokiteshvara to the second ancestor about how to relate to experience with great compassion. So great compassion listens. The cries of the world.

[21:02]

Avalokiteshvara observes all the living beings. But when observing them, doesn't dwell in what is seen. And when listening, doesn't dwell in what is heard. Just listens. And again, case one, Manjushri tells us, clearly observe. Clearly observe the photographer. And the Bodhidharma is elaborating on what clearly observing means. Look at something, don't add anything or subtract anything. Now, if you do add anything, then wholeheartedly look at the adding and don't add anything. somehow find this way of looking at things and listening to things the way Avalokiteshvara wholeheartedly listens and doesn't mess with it, doesn't meddle with it, doesn't try to improve it or decrease it or move it, just totally honored as it is.

[22:17]

That's what we can do. offers to every experience. And that's what I see Bodhidharma, as Avalokiteshvara, teaching us. But again, I know some people who just really get tense when they hear, particularly after the introductory instruction, they go, oh, don't get involved, that's the same sort, you know, bring that pass, anyway. They resist, but they really resist with a mind like a wall. Walls, especially walls in northern China, sound cold, maybe. Anyway, with a mind like a wall, which a mind which just forgets what's going on, doesn't add or subtract. That's how you enter the way of great compassion. That's the instruction I hear. And when you hear that kind of instruction, which is radical, and may not sound that much fun, it may not sound warm, it may sound cold, but it probably doesn't sound warm or hot, and I don't think it is hot, or warm, or cold.

[23:29]

I think it is just suchness. It's just that that's the way things are, and we let them be. And we transmit that way to beings. And there may be some resistance in this group, and if there is, we can welcome that resistance and then we can relax with it. And one more thing I want to say is, a poem by an American, called the snowman. One must have a mind like winter. Now, one must have a mind of winter to regard the frost.

[24:35]

and the boughs of pine trees crusted with snow and have been cold a long time to behold the junipers shagged in ice. The spruce is rough in the distant glitter of the January sun. And not to think of any misery in the sound of the wind, the sound of a few leaves, the sound of the earth,

[25:41]

full of the same wind. The same wind that is blowing through the same bare space for the listener who listens in the snow. And nothing in themselves beholds, nothing that is not there, Some people say that Wallace Stevens' poem is about Buddha. I agree. But it's also really, I mean, it focuses particularly on great compassion. Talking about how to listen. How to really look.

[26:44]

at these things in the cold, in the snow. And I think the have been cold a long time means be willing to not embellish or with things for a long time. And then you can listen to the wind. And don't think of any misery other than listen to the wind. Now I could say, and listen to the misery, and don't think of any wind. Deal with what you've got completely, wholeheartedly, without adding or subtracting. I feel like Wallace Stevens' poem is very good. I thought maybe I would... Don't think of any misery other than the sound of the wind. Let's just leave it the way it is.

[27:53]

And forgive me for meddling. What was actually the line? What? What was actually the line from Stephen? That you would change it, perhaps, to don't think of... I might add where he says, don't think of any misery, I might add, don't think of any other misery in the sound of the wind. I understand the sound of the wind to be the sound of all beings. which is the sound of a few leaves, which is the sound of the earth. But again, we might be tense about that. We might go, what will happen to me if I don't add or subtract anything? What will happen to me if I'm not adding or subtracting anything to the world? That's a perfectly good question, and it would be nice if you could relax with that question, and you could play with it, and you could be creative with it, and then you could understand it in that thought and everybody else.

[29:02]

And one other thing is that I think I already gave you the picture of great compassion as in a holy, full of great compassion. And that last emptiness could be felt. The space can be cold. It can be cold. But space gives you air. And we can be afraid of space, and that's fine. That's a great opportunity, that fear. Deliberate that fear by relaxing with it. ...kept some fear in the neighborhood, so it got something to welcome and relax with, right? And if we don't welcome our fear, that will be a missed opportunity of welcoming.

[30:19]

Okay, so that's what I wanted to bring up to date. And I'm trying not to talk about case number one. I don't want you to do it. Also, I think maybe you want that to be the case for the ceremony? Probably. Probably, yeah. Okay. You can start talking to a voice about that case. But that case is very closely related to Bodhidharma, right? Because it's the next case, the neighbor. And the Buddha is not adding or subtracting anything to anything. And yeah, there it is. So I'll stop there. So if there's anything you want to not add, please do. Yes. I thought for a while about this, I don't know, Bodhidharma.

[31:24]

And I'm just thinking about the poem you read, and I thought maybe the I don't know is because the perceiver is the one that's imputing . And so Bodhidharma didn't know what the emperor was thinking he was seeing. What do you think of that? Well, I... Or how would you play with that? Yeah, how would I play with it? Well, one thing is the emperor's... And I think the fact that he's asking questions is good. I appreciate you asking questions. And then the board of gentlemen don't know, instead of saying, I don't know, don't know doesn't say, you don't know. But he says, you know, who is it? And I wouldn't need to say, don't know, because he kind of knows he doesn't know. He's wondering. So that part's good.

[32:29]

I know Bordigalus held him in authority, and the emperor can't quite take the next step with him. And even after Bordigalus left, the emperor could have gone after him, rather than bring him back, and go after him and pay his respects to Alvaciteshvaraya, whatever he did. He already invited him. But he didn't want to be his student. What do you think about that we're making each other for the other? What do you think about making the other? That we are making the other. I think we make each other. And not just us. I make you, but other people are helping me. I'll tell them about that then.

[33:32]

Yeah. And making is a big part of what we are. And this question that Nathan asked about, is the character that's used in... Actually, one place I think I can find it, not necessarily in the way some modern people are using, don't know, but I can find the character in the story, which is the earliest example that I know of, the character of the Zen teacher named Ditsang, The name of his temple was Earth's Door. And so he was called Earth's Door. And one of the students came to Earth's Door. Earth's Door. Earth's Door.

[34:33]

Earth's Door. You could say all sorts of things. That's the name of Jizo, and that's also Ditsan. So, students were leaving town, and he said, where are you going? And Steve said, don't know. And the teacher said, not knowing is most intimate. Oh, look up those characters and let me know what the character for not knowing in that story was. Because that's kind of one of the earliest stories besides Bodhidharma, where you hear not know. Not know most intimate. I like that story. Sometimes when I get out of an activity, into free time or something, there's that kind of mind. Wonderful. Are you relaxed with that one? I think so. Sounds like he's ready to play with being a not knower, walking around Green Gulch. bumping into, are you a not an ORF, too?

[35:34]

Like Emily Dickinson, right? I have nobody. Are you nobody, too? Well, then that's true of us. This is a very loving relationship. Anything else? I can't wait to get home and look up those characters. Can you expand on the word tension as you're using it? Expand on it? Yeah. Okay, I'm ready. Tension, gripping, tightness, resistance. I don't know. Yes. Conflict. Conflict. Grasping. Abiding.

[36:36]

Being stuck. But this isn't bad stuff. Tension is like, kind of sounds like my name, but it's wrong. Religion has tension in it. and you take away the tension and the tightness, it's not. A living religion has resistance in it. And so, as you can see, Green Gulch is a living place because we have a lot of resistance here. And also, by the way, When we start doing this chanting, some of you may have quite a bit of resistance to it. Who are we doing this ceremony for? Resistance may come. If it doesn't, then it will, don't worry. If you don't resist it, I will. So we're going to be doing a ceremony for beings whom we can't see so clearly, because they're calling us, and we're going to call them to the ceremony, and there may be resistance, and that's fine.

[37:49]

That's part of what makes this ceremony come alive. We can relate. in a generous way to any resistance that comes up in the process of getting ready for this. And we're getting ready for this ceremony. We're getting ready for this ceremony because some people in this valley love it and have sincerely requested that we do it. One of them is named Kok-Yok. I couldn't say no. When are we going to do it? Okay, okay, okay, let's get ready. So it will be an interesting experience to see how we feel, what kind of difficulty we have relaxing with this new enterprise that we're going to be doing together. Do you want to say more about that RV?

[38:52]

I'm going to wait on it. Okay. Are you feeling relaxed? I'm fully in slow it. Crisp. I want to talk about some resistance that I'm dealing with. Can you hear him in the back? A little louder, Chris. I want to talk about... You can stand up and talk that way. You want to? My knees are resisting. I want to talk about something I'm resisting. It's called memorization.

[39:57]

I struggle with it. It's just like I try to make it happen. Can I say something or add something? When you say struggle, is struggle different from resistance for you? I can see the two are related, at least. Well, yeah. My mind just doesn't memorize things. And this is something that, since the Gettysburg Address... That would be a great opportunity for you then, since your mind doesn't do it, to memorize things. To try. And see if you can do 100... I can remember little bits and pieces. Oh, well, there. Okay, ready? Ready? One must have a mind of winter to regard the vows.

[40:59]

And for me to learn that poem, there was a struggle. You saw me struggle tonight. I had a little struggle. Usually, except maybe for certain little kids who have velcro lines, especially when you're about 80, to learn a poem might be a struggle. But one can be totally relaxed and have no resistance to struggle. You could also read it with no resistance. But some people might have resistance to reading. So some people would have a struggle to read it, and no resistance. You have not a struggle to read it, but resistance.

[42:04]

Some people read very easily, but they don't want to do it. And that's fine. But not wanting to do it is an opportunity for compassion. And so your resistance to memorization is calling for compassion. It doesn't mean you're going to practice memorization, but if you're heeding the call, you're going to listen to it. And it sounds like you are listening to it. Is that clear? Yeah. And if you keep listening to it, what is it again? Resistance is trying to memorize. You're listening to it, right? My resistance. You're listening to your resistance, and you're listening to your resistance enough so it's very clear.

[43:06]

Right? Now, can you relax with your resistance? I'll try it. Well, if you can, if you can relax with your resistance, then you can be playful with it. It isn't like I'm resisting and I can't play with it. I just have to leave it sitting there. I can't play. I think it's playing with me. Fine. Can you play with what's playing with you? Yeah. You can if you relax with it. I think that... Sometimes people, I can play with it, but I'm just not going to play with me. Anyway, if you relax with this to memorization, and you can play with it, and you can be creative with it, and you can be like a great resistance artist.

[44:13]

Anybody want to help you memorize? You just neared off. You added something there. You didn't stay with taking care of your resistance. I'm talking about your resistance, not to leave it behind. I'm talking about to fully engage it. So you can exist, you can have resistance, everybody can have their resistances. I'm talking about being free of your resistance. Not go someplace where you don't have any, but take care of your resistance. And I'm just telling you how to do it. I'm not telling you necessarily how to memorize. That's a different project. You're talking about blocking the memorized memory. I'm not even talking about that, I'm talking about blocking. Not really blocking anything, you're just blocking, and that calling for compassion. And in order to be compassionate with it, you have to relax with it.

[45:22]

And relaxing means that you're not adding anything, You can play with it and be creative with it and become free of it. And when you're free of it, we'll see who you are then. You may suddenly become full of enthusiasm for memorizing, even though you... Listen, that's a start. Stick your tongue out at me. That's very creative. Yes, John. I'm very fond of this idea of not knowing. And I'm interested, what I kind of have to understand, what I understand that to mean is like bearing witness to remain curious, not making good conclusions. I think all those things would come with the not knowing. Yeah, so I made sure I said it.

[46:23]

Could you say a little bit more on the intersection between this not knowing mind and the practice of paying homage to great compassion, and just the intersection there? Well, I think when you pay homage to great compassion, you are paying homage to something that you don't know. You don't know what great compassion is, do you? Now you've got this thing, you don't know what it is, but you don't say, well, I don't know what it is, see you later. You say, I don't know what it is, and I'm going to be devoted to something which I don't know what it is. So paying homage is like not letting the fact that you don't know what it is stop you from getting into your utmost respect. And then again, to praise something you don't know what it is. Or even, you know, to praise a not-know-mine, and to make offering for something you don't know what it is.

[47:30]

But even when you don't know what it is, you might find yourself at a Zen center and you're paying homage to this thing which you don't know what it is. Because everybody else is paying homage, and you join them, and you might think, what am I doing? I pull the story off about this Zen master named Irmgard Schlegel. She went to Japan, and they pay homage to great compassion there. So she's bowing and she's saying, this is ridiculous, what am I doing? So one person is saying, this is ridiculous to be bowing to this great compassion. But somebody is just wholeheartedly bowing. Great compassion is wholeheartedly bowing. And the resistance is wholeheartedly there with it. So there can be an inner conflict between not knowing and paying homage.

[48:31]

And again, this chant, which we're going to start chanting, starts off by paying homage to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, paying homage to Shakyamuni Buddha, and paying homage to, actually, to great loving-kindness and great compassion over the Kateshbara. So it can't always do a bunch of stuff. We really don't know what fruit it is, what time it is, what song it is, and we can't always do it. And then it can hear us. And et cetera. And let's see. Merit. And for somebody, who's back there? Merit, Matthew, and Abed. All right. What's in it? Yeah. I said, sorry, I met Mark when I looked at you, but I said Matthew. I can't remember your name, Matthew. Okay, so Meredith, Mark, and Audie.

[49:44]

Meredith, Mark, Audie, and Tonight there is a total lunar eclipse, and I was curious if you had any commentary on the symbolism of that in the Buddhist world, the lunar eclipse. I know the moon is very significant and often in stories. Buddhism, there's a person named Merit. And he's asking about the significance of a total lunar eclipse, which I heard is going to be red. So the role of the total lunar eclipse in Buddhism is that you and I are talking about it. I'm not saying that's a full extent of it, but that has now made that part of Buddhism.

[50:55]

In a Zen temple, a Bodhisattva named Merit, and he wanted to know how to learn Buddhism, and the old man said, you're talking about it. It is a koan. The koans are when somebody says something in a Zen conversation. The koans are usually a conversation in Buddhism. What's the meaning of that? Mark sometimes known as Matthew. Do you know that? I love it. Ma'am, I'm not sure how to ask this question exactly. Certainly, Tim will know how.

[51:56]

I'll mull it around, and we don't actually. That's good. How would one, well, I've been thinking about roles, I guess, and words, and teachers, and doing what I'm doing with my life, like householders and monks, and how would you say one should be good at one of those roles? Would one be a good monk or a good teacher? How can you be good at your role, whichever way you're in? Well, to make a long story short, we've relaxed with it. And if you can't relax, then I would recommend you to practice compassion with when you're ready to relax.

[53:02]

Because in order to be good at your role, you're going to have to relax with it. If you're good at your role, you're going to have to be able to relax and not be stuck in the idea of your role. So if you don't know what a student of Zen is, I think of myself as a student of the Dharma. I don't have any fixed idea about that. And if I start getting a fixed idea, then I want to be kind to it. I just don't have to have one, so I can just do it with relaxation. My idea of being a student, which I'm happy to do. but I want to also be creative with this thing. To be a good student, if that's the role you're going to try, want to try that one? And you've got to play with it.

[54:03]

And also, you have to play with others. I can't really play with my idea of being a student, me being a student, or you being a student. I can't do it by myself. An important ingredient, which I forgot, is that in order to play, play with it and with others, and be creative with others. And then you can understand what a student is, and that's part of being a good student, is understanding. And then you become freed up being a student. How you doing? What? Well, yeah. Need anything more right now? OK, great.

[55:05]

Thank you. And it is now 8.30. And we have, we don't want to be rigid about this, but we have that forum called 8.30. And after we do the chat, it will be about quarter of nine. Okay. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Thank you.

[55:39]

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