During this practice period there are two kinds of themes that I will be focusing on. One is the theme in the class on the Zen stories of the Book of Serenity of how to study stories which means how to study phenomena. Focusing on the Zen stories, the traditional Zen stories, and how to look at them in such a way as to understand the Dharma. And the way of looking at the stories can be applied to the way of looking at everything we see and everything we experience.

[01:07]

The other theme will be the Four Noble Truths. And during this time, I wish to emphasize the Eightfold Path. which is the fourth truth. Truth up the path, which realizes liberation from suffering. And the Buddha Shakyamuni often spoke of the path in terms of eight different aspects. I actually spent quite a bit of time talking about the first aspect of the Eightfold Path during the last practice period. So the Eightfold Path is called, the Eightfolds are called Right View, Right Thinking,

[02:27]

right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi, or right concentration. Now the word right is the English word to translate the Pali sama, which is the same as the Sanskrit, samyak. And what they mean, they can be translated as right or correct, or appropriate, but also as complete or comprehensive.

[03:35]

So, complete view or comprehensive view, complete thinking or comprehensive thinking, Complete comprehensive speech. Complete comprehension action. Complete comprehensive livelihood. Complete comprehensive effort. Complete comprehensive mindfulness. Complete comprehensive concentration. This is a way to express in words the Eightfold Path. Sometimes it is taught that these Eightfolds can be looked at in three different groups.

[04:46]

one group dealing with wisdom, one group dealing with virtue or action of the wholesome type, and one group dealing with concentration. One group, the group of the dealing with wisdom, is called the first two. Right view and right thinking is about wisdom. Right speech, right action and right livelihood is about virtuous conduct and comprehensive Effort, mindfulness and concentration is about concentration.

[05:51]

Of course, all these are interpenetrating each other, but for the sake of learning, they're broken up into eight and also broken up into three groups. Another way to say this instead of wisdom, virtuous conduct, and concentration is the way things are, human action, and state of mind, or state of being. Wisdom is just really about the way things are. And virtue is about the way of conducting ourselves which promotes wisdom and the proper state of being.

[06:55]

And samadhi is about creating a certain state of being which is conducive to the birth of wisdom and which is based on virtue. In one sense, we have to start with number one, right view, to a certain extent, because part of right view is to study the whole program. And usually, if you look in the scriptures, when the Buddha treats these Eightfold Paths, the section on right view is maybe 10 times as long, or 20 times as long, sometimes, as the treatment of each of the other seven aspects.

[08:04]

It's wonderful teaching about how to have the right view or the right understanding, which is really the final point and which is the basis of liberation, this right attitude. But this practice period, I want to start not with right view, number one, but with right speech. right action and right livelihood, so that we can immediately start practicing some practices as of tonight. And then go through right action and right livelihood, and then after we do that, perhaps go to right view or to the Samadhi section and maybe end the practice period with right view and right thinking.

[09:07]

We'll see. But anyway, I would like to start with right speech tonight or comprehensive speech. And I will not try to finish talking about right speech tonight. This is a message to me. Do not try to cover the topic tonight because I think these people want to go to sleep. Yes, sir. So right speech or comprehensive speech is taught Again, the early teaching of it by the Buddha was stated positively and negatively. Stating negatively, right speech, proper speech, good speech, comprehensive speech is to abstain from lying,

[10:22]

to abstain from tail-bearing, spreading tales about people, to abstain from harsh speech. and to abstain from gossip or idle talk or vain talk. Those are four basic aspects in terms of abstinence. We abstain from those four dimensions of speech when we practice right speech. Abstaining from them is not enough. There's also positive aspects of each one of those in relationship to each one of those, which I will bring out a little bit of.

[11:28]

In terms of our bodhisattva precepts that we receive and transmit here at Zen Center, right speech is spoken of as not lying, not speaking of others' faults, not praising self at the expense of others, and not speaking in a disrespectful, degrading way or limiting way about Buddha, Dharma or Sangha. Our bodhisattva precepts sound different but are actually almost identical. If not, I'm just plain identical with these four aspects that are brought up in the early scriptures. So I'll start with the early treatment. So first is such a big one.

[12:39]

Not lying. I think actually I'll postpone it and go to, in some sense, an easier one. I think it's easier. Tail-bearing. This means that you hear something there and then you tell it here. to cause dissension. Or you hear it here and tell it there to cause dissension. The point is, it's information you receive, and information may be correct, it may be You may have heard it and checked and found out that it's correct.

[13:46]

And then you go someplace and repeat it. And your intention is to cause dissension. Or you heard it over there and you bring it back here. And your intention is to cause dissension. You wish to split people. You wish to make two people or one person think less of another and feel less affinity and kinship and oneness. You wish to undermine a person's good reputation. You wish to make people respect and appreciate them less. even though you're conveying maybe what does to your ability is correct information.

[14:50]

That's your intention. This is avoided. This is abandoned. This is given up by one who tries to practice right speech. Give it up. All those juicy pieces of information which can undermine your competitors, give it up. which can make people feel separate and not like those people who are your enemies. You give it up. In practicing the abandonment of tail-bearing one one endeavors to unite what is divided. If people are divided, you try to make them together, try to make them friends.

[15:53]

And those who are already together, you encourage them in their unity. You encourage unity and you try to heal splits and divisions. This practice of right speech in these terms is to express joy in concord among people. Delight and rejoicing in concord and speaking in such a way as to promote concord. And this is closely related to the Bodhisattva precept of not speaking of others' faults. And people, sometimes when they hear this one, they just can't believe that it makes any sense or could be possible.

[17:02]

How could you live a life where you didn't talk about other people's faults? You have to talk about other people's faults, they say. But the key point is that you want to cause dissension. So, for example, if you're in a monastery and some person comes late to meditation, repeatedly, you might want to, if you were like in charge of the meditation hall, you might want to talk with the person's teacher about the phenomena of them coming late again and again. Or someone might be sleeping in the zendo during period after period of meditation. You may want to talk with their teacher or their friend about the situation. If you bring up this problem, which could be seen as a fault,

[18:07]

If you bring this information, or if you hear about this and you bring this information to somebody else and your intention is to make them think less of their student, make them think this is really a bad student, if that's your intention, then this is what we call tail-bearing and it should be abandoned. But if your intention is really to help the person and you bring this information to this problem with the sincere intention to help the person, be on time or whatever, or figure out what the problem is, then I think it's not really like talking about their faults or spreading tales about them, but it's really trying to help them. And that may be okay. You have to look inside yourself and see what you're up to. Things have happened here at Green Gulch.

[19:08]

You know, we have had practice periods here not too long ago, before some of yours time, but not so long ago, like maybe three years ago, four years ago. It was before we actually managed to keep the monks in the valley during the whole practice period. And so some of the monks went out on Thursday nights. They sometimes got in cars, sometimes several in one car, and went over the hill and went to bars. And some didn't even go to bars. They went out in the street and bought harder kinds of intoxicants, like cocaine, heroin, speed, marijuana. And they ingested the materials During a practice period, somebody's on heroin here.

[20:13]

Can you believe it? Now, no, they didn't tell me before they went out that that's what they were going to do. And when I saw them packing into the car, it never occurred to me that that was what they were up to. But someone told me what they were doing. And so I went and asked him, and they said, yeah. So, particularly the one who was doing heroin, we asked him to get some treatment. And the other people, we asked to stop. In that case, I don't know if the person was... who told me was trying to lower my opinion of these people. But I really appreciated it to find out because I think it was very helpful that I found this information out and could put an end to this practice. And in some ways I didn't really lower my opinion of these people.

[21:21]

It just made me aware of a problem that had to be addressed. And when I spoke to this one person, about this heroin business I I endeavored to speak in such a way as to not speak to him as though he were a low form of existence but I sincerely felt I wanted to help him you know get out of this mess but there are times when it's very helpful to inform um the teachers in a monastic situation of some problem you see so that they can come to help if you can't take care of it yourself. But again, look to see is there some way you can tell that, find something in your way of talking about that so you're not trying to get the person in trouble but trying to help the person. Maybe you'll find it now and say, well, what if I can't find a way to say it in a really kind way?

[22:30]

Should I still say it? Maybe you should. As a bodhisattva, you should take upon the bad karma of speaking in a tail-bearing, divisive way in order to save the person. It's best if you can really speak just from the concern for this person's welfare. So again, this is one sense talking about giving up that kind of divisive talk, but also speaking in a way that creates harmony and concord. Try to say things that will make people respect each other more and work together better. Try to find ways to talk like that. If you can't find a way, it's okay. Just don't talk.

[23:31]

And look inside until you find that way of talking. It's in there someplace. At Tasahara, last fall, when I talked about right speech, After that, the doksans which followed that talk, six in a row, people came and didn't say anything. I'm not saying this just to make my life easier. Anyway, six in a row, people just came and sat down and didn't say a word after the talk. Because I guess they really were being very careful about whether they were, you know, Well, you'll see the other things. Next one, which is also not so difficult to see, is harsh speech. Just talking harshly and roughly. you know, loudly, and the kind of talk that hurts people's ears and makes them kind of like nervous and, you know, kind of edgy and hard to sleep that night kind of talk, kind of talk where the person's just kind of like, they just feel kind of like their stomach turns and their skin crawls and they just feel, you know,

[24:59]

rather than talk which makes people feel more present and relaxed and sort of like calm and, you know, here and in their body and that kind of talk. And you've got to be careful not to talk too much that way otherwise, and we put people to sleep. So you have to go somewhere between the kind of talk that keeps them up all night and the kind of talk which puts them to sleep immediately. Sometimes when I give a really nice talk, most of the people go to sleep, especially at this time of night. So I'm trying to not speak too soothingly until, you know, just for a few more minutes. At the end of the talk, I'll speak in a really soothing way so that you can all just go right into sleep. It's almost time. So basically, it's really to speak, you know, sometimes they say speak in such a way that you'd speak to a child, to a baby that you, you know, a baby that you liked.

[26:13]

Oh, hi. Hi, sweetheart. How are you? Let's point a little bit more on this stuff, you know. Oh, are you? Can you cool on right up now? It's comfortable. Nice, sweet talk. If you can do that without being condescending. And the last one is actually not that difficult. It's actually not that, I don't think myself, it's that difficult to talk to explain, but quite difficult to practice. And that's, what do you call it? Vain talk, idle chatter, gossip. Gossip, you know, it's interesting. Gossip means God-sib. You know, like good or God-sib.

[27:16]

Like sibling or kin. So it actually has the origin of godparent, godchild, that kind of thing. I think it originally meant the kind of way you talk to someone who's really close to you. That's kind of the origins of it. And in some sense, with those kind of people, you can say, you can talk idly, in a way. And you get by with it, it's not that harmful, maybe. And you're really intimate with something, maybe. Maybe that's the origins of gossip. I was saying to someone just the other day that My therapist said to me one time that he used to listen to his mother talk to one of her best friends, or her best friend, or her most regular friend. Every day she would talk, her mother and this other woman would talk on the phone, and he used to listen to them, and he could never figure out what the point of what they were talking about was. It seemed to be like... just, you know, almost contentless...

[28:23]

information but he said they had this they had this conduit of communication going that they maintained every day and whenever anything really important happened they had the relationship and they could convey this really important information through this channel of communication because they had kept it going even on days when they really didn't have anything to say there are some people who you might want to talk to, or anyway, you might want to talk to somebody on certain occasions when you really have some very powerful problem, very painful problem. But you can't necessarily talk to everybody about some really big problem. Not everybody's up for hearing, you know, like... a really big problem from you. And with all the pain and misery and confusion and whatever has come, all that, not everybody wants to hear that.

[29:30]

Not everybody's up for that. And also you don't feel like you can talk to everybody about it. So to have a relationship like that might be really helpful at that time. In a sense, a good sib or a good friend, because you can convey that kind of information at that time. So to have the relationship built on just daily contact might be very useful. And if that's the reason for the relationship, if that's the reason for the conversation, then it's not really idle chatter. It's building a relationship. Like student and teacher meeting every morning and saying, good morning. It's not that profound, you know, good morning. But just to say good morning every morning, you know, is very helpful sometimes. And to do it, whether you want to do it or not, you just do it.

[30:32]

Or like, you know, there's many other examples like that where the content isn't that important, but the intention is to build a relationship. So then it's not idle chatter, even though it's not really... important stuff. Otherwise, this aspect of right speech is talking about not speaking, basically unless it's going to be helpful. Not speaking about trivial things unless it's helpful to speak of them. And this also includes not speaking of things that you haven't checked out whether they're true or not. Like you hear something and spread it or send it to somebody else before you verify it. Especially gossip has to do with things that are rather sensational or intimate and personal.

[31:41]

This is quite interesting things to pass along. Quite interesting to hear, juicy to hear, and juicy to pass. But it also often includes the spirit of not checking to see whether it's true. Now, if it's true, then you check to see, now, are you spreading this just to entertain people? Are you spreading this to undermine people? Or are you spreading this to help? But even if you're spreading it to help, it's still good to check to see if it's true. Gossip has to do with this kind of passing trivial information that's not really worth your effort to speak. You're distracting other people from their meditation and not necessarily checked out whether it's true or not. Now, if we were practicing that, some of us might find that what we speak about usually has just been cut down quite a bit. Maybe for some of us, 80 or 90 or almost 99% of what we say to people would be eliminated, so then we would have nothing to talk about.

[32:49]

And that might be a big change, and people would say, what's the matter? Well, you could say, I'm practicing right speech. And they could tease you and stuff like that. But anyway, a lot of people have a hard time adjusting to this one because they do spend a lot of time gossiping. And I know some wonderful people say, actually, that's the most interesting part of my life. I really think it's good to gossip. You know, I love to gossip. It's like, it is really, it's, you know, these are people, a lot of people that, you know, are not drug addicts and stuff. For people like that, this is like, you know, about the most fun thing that there can be. It really can get high on gossip. It's really juicy stuff. And if you're passing on a lot of juicy stuff, then people know you like it, so they tell you more stuff. So you get the stuff flowing, and you can really be a source. And there are people who are, you know, I mean, they get stuff flowing through them, and it's really juicy.

[33:51]

And they have an interesting life that way. This aspect of the precept is suggesting that you give that up and that you speak in a way that is at the right time, that's beneficial, that's based on experience and fact, that kind of thing. I remember somebody said one time, Suzuki Rishi didn't say much. This is a person who wasn't a student at Zen Center. Actually, he owned a record company in New York. He said, Suzuki Rishi didn't say much, but when he said something, it was worthwhile. He wasn't a chatterbox. But when he talked, it was usually worth listening to. And he was pretty careful about what he said.

[34:55]

It was pretty useful, most of the things he said. Such a person, the Buddha said, is their speech is a treasure. Because when they speak, they really are trying to give a gift. They've carefully considered whether this will be beneficial or not. And their speech is really a treasure. Now, there is an exception to this, in a sense, not an exception, but... And that is, sometimes it is beneficial to people if you do idle chatter. Because sometimes people are really upset, are really nervous, are really tense, and are just distracted. And if you do a little idle chatter, they feel more comfortable, and it actually is beneficial. Sometimes it's beneficial to do stuff that, under ordinary circumstances, for a normal person, would be idle chatter.

[35:58]

For the normal Zen student who is present, alert, concentrated and mindful, they don't need idle chatter. They can take care of themselves. They're coping with their suffering. They're present. But for someone who's really in an extreme, extremely nervous and extremely uneasy and extremely anxious and extremely frightened, sometimes a little idle chatter makes them relax. In that case, idle chatter is good. It helps them. So you probably shouldn't do it. And if you come up to them and you're really mindful and silent, they might get more nervous. So you should give up your silence and so on to make them relax, to help them relax. There are situations like that. And it doesn't happen too often at Zen Cerenville. You have to do that.

[37:03]

So part of doing this practice, which I'd like to just bring up, is that I'd like to ask, not tell, but ask, is it all right with you folks if other people practice this way? Is it alright with you folks if the other people in the practice period don't do a lot of idle chatter in your face? Would that be okay with you? Anybody have any problem with that? I'm not asking you to stop, but I mean... And is that okay? If anybody has a problem with that, let me know. I can talk about it. But I think a big part of this is that a lot of people feel that they're not allowed to stop idle chatter because other people expect it of them. So they sit down at the table and they think they're supposed to go talk about baseball or whatever, because people feel uncomfortable if you don't do that. But if it's clear that other people feel okay about that, then you don't have to do it in order to make them comfortable.

[38:08]

And I have this kind of silly thing to say, and that would be, if you do want someone to talk to you in an idle way, why don't you just pass them and say, could I have a little idle chatter, please? Would you just, you know, kind of gossip with me for a while? I'm really feeling insecure. Just tell them. And maybe unless somebody asks you, you don't have to do it. I mean, no one's asking you to do it, apparently. Okay. And if I get feedback that that's not the case, I'll at work meeting announce that actually it is being requested and you should do it. If other people don't need you to do it, then the question is whether you can give it up yourself. And I just want to also mention one other aspect of this is that... A lot of people do not want people to idle chatter towards them, but they don't know how to tell the other person that they don't want to because they don't know how to say, you know, stop blithering in my face.

[39:10]

They don't know how to say it some other way, like, you know, I really appreciate that you're speaking in this vain way, but you can stop now. Or I'd rather have you not just trash me with this stuff, you know. It's hard to say, you know, what you're saying is not really such a treasure that I want you to continue. Actually, I prefer silence to what you're saying to me. It's hard to find a way to say that. Shut up. I want to say something really kind to you right now. Would you stop talking for a second so I can say something kind to you? Just for just a second here, please. Just want to say, it's okay with me if we're quiet for a little while. Is it okay with you? It's hard to find a way to say it that's not, you know, to stop the person who's trying to help you by yamming at you. And sometimes they get on this cruise together, You know, day after day you're on the crew of somebody and they're just constantly talking at you and you can't find a way to tell them to shut up.

[40:18]

You shouldn't tell them to shut up because that would be rude. But you can't find a way to let them know that they're really distracting you and making it hard for you to do your work. A lot of people say, come to me and they just can't figure out a way to do that. And I sometimes say, well, maybe you can get a third person to tell them for you or... Or, you know, have a little meeting with somebody else and find a person who can help you say it in a polite, kind way that you really would like them to stop talking to you during silent work or whatever, or also at meals and so on. But if you were just maybe know that it's okay to tell someone that you'd rather be quiet or something like that. If that's okay among this group of people, then you could maybe try that. And I think probably somebody will just sort of, probably will say to you, would you please do a little idle chatter to me now?

[41:22]

That's nice. If they ask you to do it, it's not idle chatter anymore. You're asking if you're doing something they want you to do. So you're fulfilling your request. So that's idle chatter, gossip. The other one's harsh speech. And the other one is... You know, conveying information with an intention to cause divisive division rather than harmony and concord. And the last one is lying. But I want to give a whole talk to lying. I think lying actually is the most difficult and profound problem that we have. It's more. more difficult to figure out what it is. So next time we'll talk about whining. I think.

[42:27]

And then go into right action after that. Oh, we'll actually talk about also this praising self at the expense of others and disparaging to portray. So I am I think this is pretty practical, because we all do speak, to look at these four things, idle chatter, harsh speech, tail bearing, and lying. And one other general thing I'd like to say is that In the practice of right speech, there is an overall balancing issue, and that is, which I also will talk about more later, and that is, words are very powerful among us, among us human beings.

[43:43]

Words are very powerful. You can break people's hearts with words, you can You can discourage people with words. When I was a kid, we had this expression, sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you. Or sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me. Well, that's not true. Sticks and stones can break your bones, that's true. But words can hurt you. So words are very dangerous. even before they're spoken. In the head, words are dangerous. And when they're spoken, they're dangerous. So they're very dangerous, very powerful, very important in our life. Words can also be extremely helpful. They can encourage, they can guide, they can enlighten. Words can be extremely helpful. And the Buddha's main gift, Buddha's main gift, the main miracle of Shakyamuni Buddha is his words.

[44:51]

He could do all kinds of other stuff, like, you know, send out light rays between his eyebrows for several hundred million miles and eliminate beings and myriad other world systems and stuff like that. He could stick his tongue out, way, way out, you know, and clean the whole universe with it and stuff like that. He could do all kinds of miracles like that, but the greatest miracle was his speech. What he said was the greatest miracle. So words can be very helpful and words can be very hurtful. So, how can we skillfully handle this great human power of speech? This is our great challenge, our great work. So be careful and gentle with words, but also I want to encourage you to express yourself. I don't hope, actually, the next 45 people that come and see me won't say anything.

[45:55]

So I want you to fully express yourself verbally and physically. I want you to fully express yourself. I really do. That's necessary to fully express yourself in order to understand yourself. And at the same time, be really careful of your expression. And part of full expression is to be careful. To express myself fully without being careful is not really full expression. Full expression includes care. But if you get so careful that you don't express yourself, then you're missing something important too. So we have to learn how to speak in this helpful way. So I beg you to fully express yourself verbally at the right time, in the right way. Have a hard, hot temper, and they say, well, I was just expressing myself.

[46:59]

That's just who I am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you might, I don't know, you might feel, you might feel, possible you would feel, you did express yourself just now, and that was your expression, but you know, I feel like you would express yourself more fully if you could express yourself, you know, without that anger. I don't think the anger really facilitated your full expression of your, you know, your total being. I feel like incorporating carefulness and concern for others as you speak would make your speech more comprehensive, would make your speech more complete, would ensconce the aggressive energy of your speech in a bigger picture.

[48:04]

And when you're speaking to someone who's talking that way, who's speaking angrily and saying, well, that's just me expressing, you can also speak to them in a way that's very big and supportive and showing them a big response, a comprehensive response in your speech to maybe what their speech, which is, again, not wrong in the sense of wrong, like right and wrong, but small, not full, not the full expression of their life. So, as I said once, when I was a young kid, I was enjoying being a bad boy. And I met a big man, you know, and he took a liking to me. He loved me, actually. And he gave me a lot of attention and support. And he said to me, you know, it's easy to be bad. What's hard is to be good. So when someone is doing something that's less than their full potential, challenge them to be bigger.

[49:09]

And sometimes when I meet young people, particularly young boys on the street or something, and they're doing some kind of petty activity, I oftentimes don't tell them, you know, what you're doing is really bad because that's kind of a compliment. I more emphasize the fact that, you know, you can do better than this. This is really not your full potential to be like stealing hubcaps or beating up on little kids or... Why don't you move that whole apartment building instead of moving this bicycle? Or, you know, why don't you save all sentient beings? You know, take on something up to your speed. You're a great person. You don't have to do this petty little thing. So I think they usually respond to that better than, like, trying to fight against the small-scale thing that they're involved in. So it is true that when a person is angry, they are expressing themselves, but not fully.

[50:10]

Not fully. You may feel that. You may sense that they have a greater potential and speak to that. Does that make sense? Yes. Well, so the Buddha said there's two kinds of right speech. Mundane Right Speech, Laukika Samyak Vaka, and what is it? Lakotara Samyak Vaka.

[51:17]

transcendent, super-mundane speech. So, mundane right speech is when you refrain from hard speech, you refrain from idle chatter, you refrain from tail-bearing, gossiping, you refrain from lying. You refrain from them, you give those up, and also you do the positive side of these things, That's like, I don't do those things. I do do these things. This is good karma. This produces good results and promotes spiritual opportunities and supports your practice of the rest of the path. The super mundane path, the super mundane right speed doesn't come from me. It comes from selflessness. It's not me speaking anymore. It's like once realizing selflessness and once you have the right view, Once you see that your suffering comes from believing in self and you've given up the belief in self, speech can still come through you.

[52:28]

But it's the earth speaking through you now. It's the whole solar system speaking through you. It's the whole universe speaking through your body and your voice. It's not you anymore. It's not karma. And the other kinds of right speech is beneficial. But this is not only beneficial, But this teaches selflessness at the same time. The other you could still be teaching wholesome, but still self-centered action. Now you're teaching wholesome, selfless action. Like we say in the Jomira Samadhi, although it's not fabricated, it's not about speech. In the super-mundane path, you're not involved in fabrication anymore. It's a dependently co-arisen world for you now. But still you can talk. I mean, you can talk, but still talk can come out of this person who's no longer dealing with speech selfishly, like I talk to you.

[53:30]

It's more from the point of view of you and I together are dependently co-arising, and I'm talking now, and now I shut up, and maybe you talk next. We'll see. That kind of right speech, that super mundane right speech, also includes right view, right thinking, and all the other things. They're all there in that one. But it's possible to practice right speech and not yet have a realized right view. In other words, it's possible to speak wholesomely, beneficially, pleasantly, and appropriately, and all that, but still not yet understand selflessness. So you're doing the best you can prior to that, in this case, in terms of speech. All right. Anything else tonight?

[54:36]

Yes? How do you balance full expression and gentleness and care in such a way that you don't censor yourself? That's exactly what happens. When they're balanced, you don't censor yourself. When what comes out of you is coming out of gentleness and care, it doesn't need to be censored. And the gentleness actually helps you express yourself fully rather than keeping you back. It facilitates, it makes you speak bigger and more fully rather than restraining you. If the gentleness is restraining you, it's not yet the right kind of gentleness. So when the gentleness is balanced with the full expression, you've got the right kind of gentleness and the right kind of full expression.

[55:41]

The Buddhas fully express their nature, and they do so gently. They speak in such a way that it goes into our hearts, and they aren't holding back. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. They are intentions.

[56:27]

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