again
zen meditation is
the seed and fruit
of enlightenment
zen meditation is the seed
the sprouting and of the see the stem
the flowering of enlightenment
the fruit of enlightenment and from the fruit comes more seeds
for further
germination sprouting
flowering and fruiting
this is a particular view of zen meditation
this view of them meditation is that it includes the whole process
of
ah awakening of enlightenment and also that ah enlightenment is something that has fruits
and the fruit of the enlightenment
is the practice
of the flour and is the practice which is the seed and cause of the flower said it's a total process and yet living beings may maybe
participating in different aspects of the prostitutes at different points
so we can delineate the whole process of of enlightenment into different parts but we also understand that it's actually a whole process the whole process
good because the meditation
some people think it's and user meditation
you attain enlightenment and
liberation and that's it
but this view is that you're practising meditation you realize enlightenment and freedom and then
you continue to zen meditation
from a place of freedom
he also said join you are sitting that this enlightenment process is is living and
stillness and silence
that's where it lives
and you can almost turned around and say living in stillness and silence
that's enlightenment
but tom
maybe it needs to be stated that live in a living in stillness and silence for the welfare of all beings
is the buddha or the buddha's enlightenment the buddha's live in stillness and silence but buddhas are are the welfare of all beings
the welfare of all beings is living in stillness and silence and if you live in stillness and silence or if there is living and stillness and silence for the welfare of all beings
that's
that either is buddha or you are living together with buddha
hi i heard a little snow
it of an interview and i think the interview was of
a man named mike nichols
and i think mike nicholls is the director of a play this
going on in new york called death of a salesman
and i think i heard him say that
arthur miller understood that done
most of us are living and lots of different places at once
and then he said that her that
the more disturbed we are the more we're living in different many different places and i would say also times
and what you could say when you disturbed you're living in many places are when you're living many prices you're disturbed
and there's things that appeared to us than challenges
challenge us to believe that it would be appropriate to actually
be in the present where you are
like i was saying last week like that it would be appropriate to be looking at a chimney
coming out of it top of a building and berkeley
appropriate did i say appropriate appropriate to what appropriate to being awake
appropriate to living through the welfare of all beings
an appropriate to not being disturbed
property being at peace
and this kind of like being
president in one place the place you are
the in order to do that you actually need them
be there without holding on to being there
so it's not a rigid like unwillingness to go some place else it's a willingness to be where you are without attaching to where you are
it's not attach it to where you are so that you won't be disturbed
it's being where where you are
because you have heard a teaching that if you go to many places rather than where you are if you think about where you came from him where you're going whether it's okay to be here
if you think of other times and places other than here you may be disturbed
you will be disturbed
so
i like to relate this point to what i raised last time which was
that an order to care for the aspiration for enlightenment in order to care for enlightenment
an aspiration which matures into full enlightenment and which blossomed into benefiting paintings in order to care for that we need to train so one of the ways we need to train between the train had been present
lots of stuff going on
and and in the midst of all it's going on
can we train ourselves to be present in this
well tremendous
tremendous change tremendous blocks
to be present
did you something so simple and
unadorned as to be ah
present and available to train this aspiration to kick present and to care for this aspiration
i was recently in new york city i was in the part of new york city called brooklyn rather than for example
where's a broadway where they shows a place i was in brooklyn
and when i was in brooklyn i remembered the name of the tv show i saw when i was a kid and the tv show i think was called
the naked city
and
in the beginning at them of the shower at the end of the show
pretty sure at the end and maybe at the beginning
they said
there are eight million stories in the naked city this has been one of them
or
there are eight million stories in the naked city this will be one of them
the population of new york i guess was eight million than a number of people they weren't counting the rats
the number of humans in new york has been around eight million so at any given moment there's eight million stories
in what in the naked city
the city's naked but it has living beings in them and they all have stories
can not living beings could they have the story that they wished to live for the welfare of beings and then they could could they accept the nakedness of the situation
they just be present wherever they are
and
that's that requires training
and last week i mentioned that
the the the training exercise
which is called the first pure bodhisattva precepts it's a training of being present is the training of
letting go
of all those things that make us feel like that the challenge us to be present all those things which makes us feel like i can't be here i have to go some place else i have to look in betsy
i can't be present or i can't be president if i look at betsy resident
okay i'm looking at betsy and i wish to let go of being distracted when i'm looking at betsy
just a simple
situation the naked situation of being almost not even able to say bestie but i'm here looking at her
the train to be that way
and i mentioned that this precept is a precept that has he could say have two sides or you could say that the two sides of training
to be a body sought for the two sides of training and enlightenment or called laid les side and monastic side the both the lay side of the monastic side have this precept of
giving up
distractions from presence
both lay and monastic
size of the bodhisattva path have the precept
of presents the training and presence
the restraint of distraction from being present they both had that in that practice that precept unites the two size
but in a monastic side
you might be looking at
different things
you might be hearing different things you might be meeting different things
which are trying to be present riff then if your home on the lace side
but in both cases the practice is basically the same it just that the forms that you'd been challenged by are different and lot of people would say the monastic forms are not so difficult to remember
that the name of the practice is to be present because the monastic forms often are signs on the wall saying require
or signs on the wall saying
birth and death is really important don't waste time
but even in the lay situation you you going to people's offices and they have things posted on the wall like think or you know
be here now people try to make reminders wherever they are
whether they're in a monastery or in a business setting or in a house people postings around to remind themselves to be present
the first bodhisattva precept is to be present in the first bodhisattva precept is to be still and quiet
there are different situations in which we are trying to to do that practice
so simple and when you in when you start practicing it
when you actually get into it even a little sometimes
the forces of distraction
you know the the images we don't say be present
those images was don't say hey be present the images we don't say it's okay just to look at a vira
now is the the things that say you know there's somebody more interesting to look at than fran
you can look out for a little while but you should look around the room to see maybe there's somebody more interesting
those those images are those ideas which say you know this might be something more important than what's happening here those are the forces of
although the results
and they're they're forced for results of our past distractions
that make it hard for us to actually do something so simple as to be present in the moment
one of the one of the common
ah images that comes common ideas that come to somebody who starting to be present is this is boring
this is a waste of time
i'm not getting anything out of this these are the these are the forces which
which challenge or challenge for deny the value of being present

and sometimes they make us feel like well yeah it is boring i probably should do something more interesting this is such a waste of time just being present
and then of course then we start being many places again and i were disturbed
if you want to be hum
a presence for the welfare of all beings then
it may be that do need to train at being in one place at a time
take one step at a time
one breath at a time
and
be silent and still
all day long
aspiring to enlightenment it includes aspiration to being still
huh
any feedback to me or to you or to us that you care to offer
yes bureau

me
it's possible that she did
it's possible that she did as possible that you didn't go anywhere and you are present there
i think it's
if were present we can be open to the possibility of somebody else's to
if were present we can open to the possibility that someone else's present
and we don't seem to think of them to be open to that possibility
and we're actually in accord with everybody else who's president and were present
where present together
when were present
and the people who aren't present were also there to witness their
their distractions
and to be present for them being distracted
like watching children run around
and on some level they're they're receiving instruction on being present
but they are not yet necessarily interested in it
and some children are present
but there are attached to being present
so again i'm saying that
really being in one place includes
not overdoing that
and being aware of the things i've just changed nor know and we now and have another opportunity big being given to us
so it's a dynamic presence a dynamic presence
yes

i'm using language to talk about stillness and silence and i'm and i i guess i'm i'm
i imagine that that you could hear what i'm saying and make in a language out of it
but you can make images out of what i'm saying
linguistic images a lot out of what i'm saying
i imagine that
and then i imagine that might help you imagine your way into stillness and silence
in other words you might be able to imagine your way into not being distracted from whatever language is before you
and you could also imagine your way into understanding that you can have language before you in such a way that you feel like your ear and several different places at once
the story in front of you is not naked it's dispersed
but you can recover from the story of dispersion
he can be present with a story that before you felt dispersed by
you can notice that you feel distracted and dispersed
and be present with that
and then you're not in several places you're in one place
with this appearance of dispersion
rather than perhaps a story of being in a bunch of your employees a bunch of different places
hi the story that your present
i have a story that your present
and i wondered when you moved quickly and put your hand on your ear if you if you noticed any difference
yes worry
a couple of weeks ago she heard something that resonated with this class and she's been
thinking about it
you've been working with that ah

i agree you have the right to remain silent
now what about anything you say can be used against you
did they say can i will

they don't say
did but they don't say anything you say or do can and will be used
to support you
they don't say that
i don't see that

the first part of the greeley you can take literally you have the right remain silent
anything you say or do can be held against you ah i know about start i just got can be held against you
but will
i think that's not true
i mean maybe just not true that
everything you say what will be had held against you i don't know if if you're able to hold everything against you but maybe maybe the people who are speaking know how to hold everything against people
it seems like pretty difficult to hold everything to hold everything against a person
but that you might hold against them that seems reasonable
i think that maybe just saying that on
to warn the person
to be really careful
yeah

maybe so we have a lawyer raising his hand yes

yeah
yeah
or there's also the statement
if you speak you get thirty blows and if you don't speak and thirty blows you are you deserve if you speak you deserve thirty blows if you don't so in a way maybe that's a kind instruction to tell people you are in a predicament
be careful
be very careful
be silent and still
they don't say don't say that but in a way
they're telling you you can do it they're saying you can be in a zen meditation session now
yeah the right to practice then
and we're here to remind you of that
that's really quite kind of them
and how often do we remind ourselves that we have the right to remain silent
how often do remind ourselves of them
how often have you told yourself that today
that you have the right
to remain silent even though some people say speaks be
what
not everyone agrees that we have the right to
he's a be or remain silent
it's interesting that some situations like that we're really in a predicament people say that to us
yes
the emphasis said
he didn't actually write that book
he gave out you he wiki gave talks the talks were
recorded and transcribed and they made it into a book and the name of the book is you have to say something he might have said that at some point but he didn't write that book
he might have actually written state the statement you have to say something i don't know if you actually were railroaded he did say he did write on notes for his talks
yea since you have to say something
you have to say something and you have the right to remain silent
you have the right to remain silent when you speak
and that right is the right
the drink when you're doing that for the welfare of all beings
he yes friend

the workshop hat is training people to be present

hmm
you
now it's also how to hurt somebody say
that when they were in concentration camps
there were certain things that they looked at the if you looked at certain things you would hear you would go your just lose your mind you go crazy
so you have when you saw certain things you had to think of you know
you know beethoven's ninth symphony
otherwise if you look at this thing is horror that you were saying he would you would just to
you will children be annihilated by it
well i don't think so
i think beethoven's ninth symphony is is to is been present
the thing is it they're saying when you look at certain horror you cannot be present
i'm i'm almost no one can be present and witness certain horrors that not witnessing it there are being drawn into it and there are certain certain things are so horrible that when you look at them your mind goes and fifty directions at once you know kind of like you blow your circuits
you're not actually there with that thing and it's so terrible so bizarre so insane so unusual that almost no one can be there and witnesses
but these train witnesses in know this like these women in black who go on a witness these horror scenes around there actually trained and watching horrible things and they're not telling each other to think of other things i write an author time each other but
so i think there is rather than go insane when you see horror
will your mind just kind of like goes off in a million directions at once so again i think i would suggest the more you the more your mind goes to different places when you look a certain things the more disturbed you will be so it isn't that they tell a person to think of fifty different things they they try to focus on accept some
actually one thing like your your your baby's your mother your life you're mature your wife your husband to focus on something positive
and be present with that
so here i'm saying focus on stillness
and but if the person is is a modest them
is on the verge of basically fragmenting and
in new mumbai directions and being all over the place because of what they're looking at or what they're feeling
maybe it would be more skillful
to pick some image that they could focus in on
and be present with
but i was saying to you before focus on the image in front of you
and then sync using what of the images really horrible and you cat focus on it was an okay that's not be attached to that list books on something else in brothers
criminal damage that you can focus on

yes

not you said even if it's a horrible thing but you're making a story there it's horrible yeah

right

how did you say something to yourself today
oh and something in the neighborhood of you have the right to remain silence
did you say something dear said sought to day to give yourself the gift of being present
so we have this class here to on
part of the reason for his class is too
during this class to
remember that
in order to take care of the seed of enlightenment
we do have to keep training at giving up distraction from being present
because we all we all know how to be distracted and there's lots of causes and conditions to be distracted so we need to train have being present
and
hey so did you do that today
and if you didn't what your intention for tomorrow what your detention for the rest of the night
yes

you you do what

change
girl
story
the

you have the right to speak to
yeah
yes doing their own destiny
the distance practices
yes
the what
power meters i mean the up hadn't helped conduct price
oh yeah probably in parma days sanskrit and maybe pirate bases polly
am himself
mr but what if when i wasn't when i have been in the in america they have pentagon never thought that
my from america and they have to
emily
determination a resolution and the came up
just fine things why
what would you say to someone that is operating on that list of ten and not that the was
i would say that the ten are included in the sixth
there's also in the mahayana there's there's also a ten
but the last four
are actually just kind of auxiliaries to the first six
so
what are the last four
they are
ha
skill and means vow powers and knowledges
so
ah
i think that the first one skill and means applies to giving
ethical discipline and patience
and the powers applied to energy and they
one of them the the vow excuse me i think it's vile powers think the vow applies to the energy or enthusiasm and the power applies to concentration and the knowledge applies to wisdom so
the the six parliament is include
i'm loving kindness compassion the six power meters are six dimensions of wisdom and compassion so they include compassion
they're they're actually a they're actually a an analysis of compassion
and they include loving kindness they include a picture equanimity
equanimity is included in concentration so
this the six can be unfolded into infinite practices but the teaching is that usually no matter what you can say we can find a place for dental six
my honor buddhism is definitely founded on loving kindness and compassion yeah
what sort of said
at all
i think it's interesting to see were laughing
i think about
personal practice
list of all that
the fire
all spelled out

great
not her
you're right
at least today or
yes
is your name dharma banner
daniel donovan
i do i see down a banner
with

what really strikes me

a true
he regret not having said some helpful some some helpful things that you could maybe have said
here have the right to remain silent so that you can
say the things you want to say
he have the right to be in a place where you can speak the truth the beneficial truth

what would have yeah you might have been able to
and you might be able to
in the future if you're really there
also ah if you miss the chance and then you're quiet again that might help you see that you missed your chance
if you make a lot of noise ft missed your chance that may be distract you from that you mr chance
yes

day
what

well looking at the lotus flower you know
a written first a lotus flower it is the first well the first time he notices a flower is probably a bud right and then it goes from abide in start to open
and the loudest it it opens but then it is the it opens there's a first opening of it but then usually the lotus will close at night it usually opens in the daytime and the there's a day in which it opens
and then it closes at night usually doesn't just open once
in one day and then drop its leaves it could i guess in a storm that the lord is might open and the wind is so strong that it blows if he blows the paddles away that could happen
but at the weather isn't too severe the lotus will close at night this is the lotus flower
now it's representing enlightenment
so it's opening the flower opens in the daytime and closes at night then it opens in the day night and closed at night and you're saying what determines when a walk close again

the thing that determines when i won't clothes again is when the petals fall
once the petals bali will not close again
what determines when the petals fall
the maturity of the plant
so even enlightenment will you could say will open and close and the closing is not all bad because as i mentioned to you insects go inside the flour and hang out there at night in the
protected from the cold
by being inside the flour at night so the closing is is not a bad thing it's part of maturing process of the it's part of the maturing process
and it'll keep opening and closing
until the pedals are too weak to close anymore and fall off at that point
we're moving into the more you know getting closer and closer to the maturing of the of the process
when there's no more like it it's not them are showing the the wonder of enlightenment but doing it work

so patience of what leads to the flower in the first place
but isn't like your patient and then you enter into reality and realize enlightenment and then you're not patient anymore
there's no need for patients know the passion for the practice of patients goes on even an enlightenment and even and even in the fruits of enlightenment the patients is going there asthmatic patients as part of the fruits of enlightenment so if there's opening and closing in your practice in your life
if it's a good opening
there's pat those patients with the opening but maybe the not maybe open doesn't need patience maybe to closing where you need to be patient
and then if you're patient there be more opening and maybe again maybe you have no problem with opening so there's no tests so there's no need for patients so then you have closing so the patients keep going on through the whole process it's not like buddhist ah
need enlightenment to be realized and then there's no more excuse me need patience to be buddha's did they do need patience but it's not like then there's no more patients practice
because patients doesn't just mean with difficulty patients means with
ah with it with the reality patients with reality that's so dynamic that even buddhists have to be patient with reality
have to endure it have to forbear how dynamic and intense it is
even buddhas are still effortful it's still a kind of exercise
there are enlightened but they're but they're working out to
they're complete the
you know they're fully developed but now their development is the way they're working with the situation which is again these six perfections the six perfecting practices
the the patients in that ethics and and generosity and the enthusiasm and concentration wisdom are the way of engaging with beings
but still it's kind of may be quite uncomfortable to closing going on
hmm

so what's your question about fear
that's often the case young
however closing doesn't always happen when their sphere it just that when there's fear there's often closing
like the darkness of the night the lowest closes maybe the lowest gets maybe it's afraid in the dark
and so sometimes they're closing to the fear but these practices of presence
in terms of general generosity is the main is the first step towards opening to fear
and then and then if you're open to fear now if your gracious with fear will then be careful of it because fear something where you can easily start closing to see you need to be careful not rigid but be careful not to see if not as you're opened opened fears pick
careful see you can be continued to be opening to it
because it it's again it's a dynamic thing to it may show you more and more challenging faces
huh
huh
huh
huh
huh
huh
how any other offerings tonight yes planet
yes

from the right to remain silent i say yes i do have ideas

yes and i i i think i mentioned last week to that
the precept for example the first pure precept for training the mind of enlightenment the first pure preset for bodhisattvas is the preceptor have been talking about tonight
and using the forms of your daily life as opportunities to be present is this isn't it is a way of speaking but his first pure precept
and i mentioned to you that this precept
in practicing this precept is the precept that you receive
i told you about this
and
her i or i heard about this
and i was told about this
i received this precept i didn't make it up myself i didn't think well i'm gonna practice bodhisattva precepts and this is the one i want to do i received this precept
and then i endeavored
to try to understand it correctly so this is an example of a lineage because i received the precept from a place where the precept was previously received from a place where as previously received so these are precepts these are
training methods which nobody made up on their own but everybody we see them as a gift from someone who received it as a gift
so there is the idea that we we need to receive these so there needs to be a lineage
otherwise
we don't know what didn't call that but we can be solipsistic about the practice
so that that's one way to got the first way that i thought of what am i sort of meant by that this precept is something we need to receive
and i'm saying that i've received this precept i didn't make it up
one might wish that they had but this precept was not made up it from beginning with time
and it's a tribute to think that's transmitted
one could aspire to at once once you hear about it who wants to offered to you could aspire to it
so that's the first and it comes to mind you have further questions about this this issue of lineage
huh

i'm ah
you is uses something more than mere passing something to you you could say the lineage is that you're more than you just didn't just you that's who you are the lineage is that you're more than just this time and right here if we think this is the only thing there is to simon but if we don't understand that there were signs before assignments
we don't understand simon

right
it is a it's an invitation to understand that that if you think buddha if you'd like for example if you think shakyamuni buddha is the first buddha and there wasn't a buddha before him you don't understand shakyamuni buddha
if you think same is the first simon
you don't understand simon
so lineage is a way to us to understand what's in front of us right now or anything
so organised it's jack is so much that
there's something more than somebody giving me something but then i'm more than who i think i am
because of lineage
yes
gift to increase after really
you been to
the a day of something with the

new more than their thought
right you're giving them this year we are what you are but you have this
yeah
express
yeah you're giving them what they already are really
which somehow it's hard to be realized unless they receive something to realized that there was nothing was gained
so we somehow need to receive something in order to realize that nothing was gained
and we even need to want something
to learn how to want without trying to get something
that's another aspect of lineages to go to a lineage and want to receive the lineage to the to be freed from trying to get something from the lineage
but some people might stay away from
our oline edge because they sense that if they would go to the lineage because that that that our activate some kind of defilement you know the third kind of wise in the sense that they know that if they go to a lineage and try to get something from it that wouldn't be good
you know that they're the right that's not a good thing to do
but if you don't go to energy to do and don't notice it
if you don't go to the lineage and ask for something and find out that you're trying to get something when you asked for something you don't notice that you're trying to do trying to get something lot of other places but you don't you don't you don't notice it it's not so obvious so then you don't feel so
you know
the
that makes sense and in that that's a difficult it's difficult to sort of see something and you wanna go there and you want to receive something which you'd like to receive it without trying to get something that you'd like to receive
leave without gaining
and a lineage is a good place to receive without gaining but you're gaining ideas will probably come out in the process until you see them and are kind to them and dropped them
but it's kind of its kind of message it to start to see i'm trying to get something comparison
etc
but if i wasn't around here i wouldn't even notice that i'm trying to get something and i'd feel much better about myself
i'm not trying to get they think i'm not like
yeah
and i and also you might even feel like well i'm going to file this lineage of non acquisitiveness
but actually it isn't even a lineage of non acquisitiveness it's a lineage of non addiction to acquisitiveness because acquisitiveness is okay
just like non acquisitiveness is okay it's just
to be hung up on it
his problem in the lineage that we're talking about here is the lineage of not being hung up including not being hung hung up on being hung up on by i'm not a hobby
so that's why
you have the right remember may sound mean you can speak
from silence
from not trying to get anything by your speech
yes
just leave them
right to remain silent could also mean
to say

lineage is too big
two
yeah sorry you

pardon i cannot know you cannot know it all and when and that's also applies to when it is fred
you can't know all of spread either
cell lineages to help you realize you can't know all of friend to live in all fred
the
really

please check out
ah how much silence and presence you
except
during the next week
i will i will try to notice hostile how much silences dullness in presence i accept
how come and tell you what i found out next week
thank you very much