When I told the director of the yoga room that I was available, she put the date out, and then she asked me to send the title, but she announced it before I sent the title. So the title, I think, was just Zen Meditation. As usual. And then I sent her a title with the course description, but it never got posted. What did it say? It said it was going to be about sitting and social activities. Oh, okay. So the title I sent was something like that, yeah. Pretty close. Say again.

[01:03]

It was about how sitting meditation can have an impact. Could you speak up, please? I am with my French accent. But I remember strongly that it was about the fact that sitting meditation has an impact on the environment. Yeah, right. This is why I am here. Right. So the title that I sent was more exactly, it was Silent Sitting and Social Action, which is slightly different from social activism.

[02:07]

And then there was some description, too. And part of the reason I sent it was, part of the reason I offered it was that the last series of classes the image was sitting in the middle of fierce flames. Something like that? Cries of the world? Sitting in the middle of the cries of the world. And another image was sitting in the middle of fierce flames. Both of which the people in the class could sympathize with, because many people feel that there's lots of flames around them and lots of cries around them.

[03:13]

And I proposed that Buddhas sit in the middle of all the flames of the world, all the suffering of the world. That's where they sit. And they sit still and quiet. And from their stillness and quiet, action comes. Like earlier I said, we're sitting here together in stillness and silence. I didn't mention that I'm talking to you. But my words came out of this place to you as a gift from stillness and silence.

[04:20]

Everybody's actions come from stillness and silence. However, if you don't remember stillness and silence, you may not understand that your actions come from stillness. And if you don't understand that your actions are coming from stillness and silence, then you don't understand reality. You don't understand Buddha's activity. And again, during that series of classes, like Tyler, among others, brought up, what about action? So the proposal is, action does arise. We do think, which is an action. There's three types of action.

[05:26]

Thinking, which is the basic one. Speaking, and physical postures. These are three basic types of actions. Buddha's think, Buddha's talk, and Buddha's make gestures. Buddha's wave their hands, Buddha's salute, Buddha's make yogic postures, Buddha's speak, and so do we. So, because they're, it's hard to believe that the appropriate response to the flames of suffering,

[06:30]

it's hard to believe or have faith that the appropriate, that the beneficial response to injustice will come up spontaneously from stillness. But I'm proposing that it does. And also, the inappropriate responses also come up out of stillness, which is not understood or not cared for. We always respond to injustice. The question is, is it beneficial? And so the Buddha is supposedly teaching us how to respond beneficially to suffering in all its varieties. Beneficial in the sense of demonstrating to people

[07:34]

a beneficial response, so that they can also make a beneficial response. So, because of those questions around this image of sitting in the middle of suffering, which each of us, I'm proposing, each of us is sitting at the center. It's not like Christiane's at the center and we're in the suburbs. She is in the center, yes, but so is Barbara. Barbara Joan, and so is Jeff. Everybody is in the center of the universe. But not everybody remembers that that's where they are. And not everybody remembers silence and stillness. We don't have to, usually we don't have to remember the cries,

[08:38]

unless we're really in denial. You don't have to remember your actions. But you do have to remember to pay attention to your actions and pay attention to your thinking and give attention to your vocalizations. We do have to remember that, and we need to train to remember to observe and be mindful of our three types of action. But in addition to the three types of action, it's necessary in order to make the really appropriate response, it's necessary to remember stillness at the same time as remembering to be mindful of the action. I'm saying, really beneficial responses to suffering come from mindfulness of the response

[09:39]

and mindfulness of stillness. When I talk, stillness is there and silence is there. When I pay attention to my speech and my gestures, silence and stillness are here. When I pay really, really thorough attention and really listen to my actions, and let my speech be my speech, and let my thoughts be my thoughts, and let my gestures be the gestures, in order to let them be, I have to be there with them.

[10:40]

Of course, if I don't pay attention to them, they will happen without me paying attention. But my inattention to them does not realize stillness with them. Realizing stillness with my actions requires that I'm right there with them, letting them be. Letting them be is stillness, and stillness does let them be. If I don't join that letting them be, just letting them be, just as they are, then I'm forgetting what's letting them be just what they are, even though they are being allowed to be what they are. Once again, I'm saying that this type of attention, which doesn't do anything to what's happening, but at the same time is completely there with it,

[11:43]

that promotes the realization of the most appropriate beneficial response. So again, your calling for questions regarding action in relation to sitting still in the middle of suffering prompted me to offer this teaching. But another thing that prompted me was that I offered a retreat last weekend with the same title. I made that title before I made this title. I thought that title would be good for this class. So now you have it. And I've just come from Santa Barbara where I offered a retreat with the same title and the same description. Pardon? No, it was in Santa Barbara.

[12:46]

And I also was, what's it called, stimulated to make this response. What's my response? To offer a topic for meditation. I was stimulated to offer a topic called Silent Sitting Social Action. That was my response. The stimulus was, would you give us a title for the retreat? But another stimulus was that last class and another stimulus was that Tracy came to Green Gulch and offered some information about activity, about actions that we could be involved in to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, to reduce overpopulation,

[13:58]

to reduce other kinds of pollution. That was another stimulus which stimulated me to sit in stillness and silence and stimulated me sitting in stillness and silence to respond like this. One of the things I mentioned in Santa Barbara was that the classical, classical Zen in China is an image it's also I guess two,

[15:02]

it's two words, classical Chan or classical Zen. But that's an image. And it's an image of some people who practiced stillness and with that stillness or from that stillness they engaged in dialogue. They encountered each other in dialogue. The classical image of Zen in China is a people in dialogue. Before that time, excuse me, before that image was created Chinese Buddhism and Indian Buddhism

[16:07]

the images that were put out were very different. And that image of the classical image of Zen there's very little evidence that at the time these dialogues were occurring that the people in those dialogues were writing down the dialogues. So what we have here as the classical image of Zen is an image of people dramatically conversing with each other which again led me in the past to say to you that Zen is conversation. Zen is dramatic dialogue. It's encountering each other. This practice of Zen

[17:10]

which is living in stillness and silence is an active practice where people are thinking and talking and making gestures towards each other. And so many people have problems with the Zen stories because these people actually like touch each other. They're having conversations but they also grab each other and close doors on each other and twist each other's noses and pull each other's ears. There's very few examples of them kissing each other. But nowadays, you know, things are different. So what I'm saying to you is that I don't know if those encounters actually happened but 100 or 200 years afterwards the people who were the successors of those people

[18:15]

made stories of them and the stories were primarily about them interacting with each other. Social action. Zen was portrayed as having a social dimension. Zen doesn't just have a social dimension. Early Buddhism was often typified not as having much of a social dimension. Mostly the people were like mindful of their own posture and own breathing and own thoughts. They meditated inwardly and it was beneficial. They became free of suffering by inwardly in some sense dialoguing inwardly. Zen is bringing a major social dimension along with the inner dialogue

[19:17]

that we have now, outer dialogue. And one of the meanings of drama is that drama, the Greek drama is very much about karma. Greek drama is very much about stories about because of this, this and because of this, that. Very much talking about the cause and effect of human action. Drama. So we're talking about conversations that are involved in cause and effect and some of the conversations are literally about cause and effect. The silence and stillness impacts the whole world. The whole world supports silence and stillness.

[20:19]

But part of the impact of silence and stillness is a type of conversation which the Zen school is the primary unique image of spiritual life or spiritual practice of the Zen school is conversation. Nowadays in Japan, for example and I think in China I don't know so much about China but I think in China and I don't know about Korea but in all those countries Zen has been a very influential school and the Zen school but nowadays when a Zen teacher gives a talk

[21:23]

in those countries almost nobody asks a question even when they give a talk about somebody asking a question which they often do they give talks about a monk came and asked so and so a question or so and so asked a monk a question they tell stories about these social interactions and after they finish the story often the monks, the nuns the lay people who are there don't say anything and sometimes those people from Asia come to visit the United States and they go for example to a Zen center and they are really surprised that when a teacher gives a class or a talk the students ask questions they are really surprised even though they know from the stories of the tradition that that's what they used to do, supposedly very formal

[22:25]

the Chinese are very formal even though they are Chinese-American you can see that they are Chinese-American it's natural and they used to be formal too a long time ago they were formal but these formal people dramatically interact now this also then ties in one more time with something else that was brought up when Tracy came to Green Gulch which was kind of like you could say four levels but you could also say four concentric circles maybe I would say four circles of conversation so for example one of the things that would perhaps have a very positive impact on the health

[23:27]

of the global environment would be educating girls did you know that in some parts of the world people are afraid of educating girls they try to stop them from getting education and they are afraid of what would happen if they did they are afraid of the changes that would occur if girls got education and then grew up to be women with education so one of the main things that this presentation that Tracy made was saying was that educating girls could have a very positive impact on the global environment in terms of percentages of impact

[24:30]

it's one of the biggest ones and then right next to girls educated is family planning and next to that is women partnership shareholders female shareholders and all of this is going on but having it going on more affects the whole environment but how is that going to happen it's going to happen by conversation if it doesn't happen it's also going to be happening by conversation there was recently a big warning

[25:36]

another big warning from the scientists this is the last call folks you better do something soon and one of the main things they say for starters is reduce or stop eating beef they didn't mention chicken and pork or fish beef the environmental impact of growing beef especially in certain parts of the world is tremendous they produce so much carbon dioxide their waste produces so much methane so many trees are cut down to grow feed for them and so on the impact of beef is really huge and people reducing the beef

[26:38]

not to mention cutting it out could significantly reduce CO2 emission and I saw on BBC along with this warning they had interviewed people in London would you be willing to reduce your beef somebody says well I already have somebody else says no way if you knew it was going to help save the world no way somebody else says I would the one who says no way in order for that to change it's going to change by some kind of conversation each of us with ourselves need to look at some of these things and have a conversation with ourselves to see what we think to see what we're willing to do

[27:38]

to see what we're willing to change and in order to have that conversation thoroughly I'm saying you're going to have to practice stillness and silence in order to really effectively find out what's going on with you you need to listen to yourself and be quiet with yourself to see what you're what do you really want what are you really willing to do so that's the first thing look at yourself in relationship to some of these issues some of these social issues then next your family some of us

[28:41]

in some ways are fortunate in some ways unfortunate because we live with people who seem to agree with us but if you talk to them more thoroughly you'll find out you don't even though you might vote vote the same for president when it comes down to other things one person says I don't want to go out today because I don't want to drive the car the other person does want to drive the car it doesn't mean necessarily everybody's going to agree with you even after you have a conversation it's the conversation that's going to save the world but anyway you start talking to your family about some of these issues and you can develop skills talking to your family doesn't mean everybody's going to agree

[29:42]

but the skill level the encounter dialogue can get more skillful I don't know what's going to happen in this world but what I'm suggesting is that if we develop this Zen practice of dialogue we will have enlightenment we will have peace we will have harmony if somehow global warming was reversed and we didn't have that problem anymore if we didn't converse with each other we still would not realize peace and harmony did you follow that? we didn't used to have global warming we didn't notice it, right?

[30:44]

and we had a lot of problems back then before things were melting we had plenty of problems, didn't we? I'm saying, we will always have problems even if we reverse this global crisis we're still not going to be at peace unless we do this practice I'm proposing that and if we do this practice, we'll be fine but I don't know what will happen with the environment I think that if we want to work in certain ways we're going to have to have conversations with ourselves, with our family and the next step is you people are almost my family but the next step is with a bigger group that you can still talk to

[31:46]

you can still see their face you can still hear them with your ears and see them with your eyes like the people in your school or your neighborhood and every time you move out you develop new skills of communication if you skip over yourself and try to talk to your family the likelihood of having a good conversation is reduced if you skip over your family and try to talk to your neighbors the likelihood of the effective beneficial conversation is reduced so I don't talk to my wife and I talk to my neighbor and I have a problem talking to my neighbor because I didn't listen to what my wife told me about the way I talk you know I went to talk to them about blah blah blah and it didn't work out

[32:46]

well that's because you didn't listen to me I told you not to talk to people like that but you didn't listen to me each level is equally as important as the other we just need to start with self then family, then neighborhood and then with the skills that you develop excuse me for saying so Mr. Obama was a neighborhood organizer he learned how to interact with the government in the neighborhood he was a good community organizer he learned how to do that but he learned how to do that because of his grandmother and his mother and his friends and because of who he was so the link between the people we can't see the many many people

[33:47]

and our family is that intermediate ground of community organization but there too we have to have these dramatic encounters and I'm saying and to be successful at these dramatic encounters these Zen encounters part of Zen is take care of yourself and be quiet with yourself and then you can be quiet with others which often involves being quiet with others like being quiet and listen to them like one person this weekend said she's lucky she has somebody in her family who's completely different from her who's super conservative and she's liberal and she's vowing to try to listen to him and be interested in him it's very hard but she wants to do it okay

[34:50]

that's my overview of that topic that's one of the topics I want to talk to you about during this whole thing stillness and silence we start the class with that and then how our conversations are part of our practice even if there was no environmental, but there's always an environmental hazard environmental crisis there's always problems that need to be encountered with compassion and words there's other topics which were suggested which you might get to but I thought I'd start with that one since it was announced also notice the difference between action and activism activism has an ism on it

[35:53]

buddhist action or buddhist activism goes beyond buddhist activism and isn't activism anymore notice the difference between between action and activism between democratic and democraticism between catholic and catholicism the ism tends to be rigid and rigid tends to be suffering and I've also told you over and over Suzuki Rishi said buddhism is not one of those religions like catholicism catholicism, judaism and buddhism the buddha way is when buddhism goes beyond buddhism that's the buddha way and if judaism goes beyond judaism that's the buddha way

[36:56]

it's not being stuck in our views, that's the buddha way but I cannot get out of my views by myself I need your help I might think, hey, I'm totally unattached to my views, and then you say oh yeah, you really are so that's a start, okay? ready, Elena? at a certain moment when you were talking I saw a kind of a fusion or an explosion and out of that what? birth yeah right, yes? so at the very beginning when you started talking you were talking about silence and stillness

[38:00]

and how an appropriate response comes from being mindful of your words and gestures and actions but also taking care of them or understanding them and I wanted to probe that a little bit further what is I know what mindfulness is and then there's something in addition to that like some kind of acceptance I'm not sure what it is and I want to understand that because I feel like to have a conversation with someone that is stuck or if you're stuck or the responses are coming out in a way that the other person can't hear them is not helpful to have a conversation with someone who is stuck

[39:02]

and both people can be stuck for two people who are stuck to have a conversation yes it's not usually that helpful no it really is helpful for two people that are stuck to have a conversation that is what's helpful because it's only by having a conversation that they're going to get unstuck however if they're stuck it's going to be hard to get the conversation going and being mindful I might discover that I'm stuck or I might discover that I think you're stuck and I'm stuck in my opinion that you're stuck and I'm wondering how I can get you to stop being stuck okay people when we have these kinds of discussions

[40:05]

people say, but what about if somebody doesn't want to talk to me or what about these people that I'm surrounded by that are stuck and I usually say, well it might be helpful for you to say to them can I say something to you? and they say, what? and you say, you know, I just want to confess to you that I'm really feeling stuck and then they say well you should get over that and then after you walk away they might say I wonder why she mentioned that to me but if I think you're stuck and I tell you you probably would just rightfully say you're the one who's stuck mindfulness will help us mindfulness and generosity and ethical discipline

[41:06]

and one of the main bodhisattva precepts which you've received one of the big ones around conversation is you want to say it? that's not on the list there's ten, right? which of the ten is very relevant to having conversations around being stuck? seven, number seven what's number seven? you remember what? I'm praising you for not remembering good job at not remembering number seven is not praising yourself at the expense of others some people who are vegan praise themselves at the expense of meat eaters

[42:07]

some people who are stuck oh no, some people who are not stuck praise themselves for being less stuck than some other people but this is a violation this is going against one of the precepts of compassion which is if you're too good at something, fine but don't put yourself up above people who are less good at it if you manage to figure out how to eat things that don't harm the environment that's great, how wonderful but if you think you're better than the people who are eating environmentally destructive food if you think you're better than them that thought is environmentally disturbing stuck up too exactly, stuck up

[43:10]

stuck up or it's righteous you're righteous but you're self-righteous I'm righteous and you're less righteous that's self-righteous we're talking about being righteous but not righteous like I'm righteous I'm more righteous than you that's not righteous, that's unrighteous that's unjust for me to think I'm better than you just because I can speak Spanish and you don't in fact some of you can speak Spanish really well much better than me but if you think you're better than me because of that that's environmental damage that damages the harmony of our relationship that makes you not such a good teacher you can't teach Spanish to me so well

[44:11]

because you're teaching Spanish to a person who's inferior to you in your view this view is nobody is inferior to us yes, [...] you so you gave the example of the Zen stories from China as showing that Zen teaching was very at its core about dialogue and conversation excuse me, slight difference Zen people said that Zen was that way we don't know if it ever was that's what's put out as classical Zen it's those conversations like what? I mean, were you telling us that because you were going to expand into showing us how all of our social action also involves conversation

[45:12]

I mean, did you, yeah but I'm not saying that they actually were that way right, but that's immaterial it's kind of immaterial because even if there never was a Buddha we have creatively made an image of him or her and it's good for us to know that we today right now have an image of Buddha which never existed before because the nature of the Buddha way is that we're constantly creating it so the next thing I was going to go to was that those monks in those stories that are powerful teaching stories twisting noses and stuff they were not trying to say change the structure of the empire or change the system of serfdom and economic system they actually weren't involved in that they were doing something else

[46:13]

maybe they were maybe the monks at that time were actually doing that but that's not the stories that were told about them later we don't know what they were doing but later people said the people later said what they were mainly doing in their spiritual practice was this they might have also been doing things to help poor people we don't know because that's not what we're being told well, that's an interesting speculation so I'll just get to the final point which is I'm thinking of the ways in which many of us are engaged in social action in the world that we live in and it involves not just having a conversation and listening humbly and not being arrogant it does involve that but it also involves actually

[47:15]

there's lawsuits going on in Georgia right now to prevent the death of democracy so is that a conversation? does that come within the realm of your conversations? Yes and I'm also proposing that if you're going okay that you're more skillful if you practice compassion at the same time I'm suggesting that you're going to be more skillful doing this if you don't think you're better than the one you're doing this with that's a challenge that's a what? challenge I'm saying that this path is more challenging it's hard to do a lot of stuff but to do it with compassion

[48:20]

in a way it's even harder it's raising the bar the person that comes to mind right now his name is Donald Holy Hollywood do you know his name? Donald Hollywood he's a civil rights lawyer he was a civil rights lawyer he's the guy who got Martin Luther King out of jail they actually put him in jail for a while and he got him out fast if he'd stayed in a little longer he might have been killed he was right in the middle of it all and they arrested him and put him in jail but once you get him in jail nobody knows what's going on Mr. Holofield got him out and I've heard Mr. Holofield talk and he doesn't talk down to people he's got tremendous courage and he speaks with dignity

[49:23]

and respect and he also got Martin Luther King out of jail by kind of you could say going like this and like this he made a big effort running around to various judges and different jails and stuff like that he was very energetic with his sidekick who was another famous civil rights lawyer who you maybe would find but he did it with dignity and also sometimes he was in court and the courtroom was filled with people, African Americans watching this guy talk to the white people and he talked to the white people with respect and dignity and courage he didn't win all his cases but he taught people how to have a conversation

[50:27]

and you can these Zen stories people are scared of them because these people yell at each other Linda's going like this these fists going back and forth Chinese people did not do that if they did it they got in big trouble but these Zen people were like really in the stories they had a lot of energy scary energy which modern day people are afraid of when they hear the stories sounds like these Zen people are violent I'm saying these are stories for us to look at can you have a high energy argument with somebody and have it really be a dialogue in order to realize peace tell me it's something like Hollywood Hollowell Donald Hollowell

[51:31]

and his assistant was another really important civil rights person I wasn't so much struck by the feat of getting Martin Luther King out of jail but that was great I was struck by the dignity and composure I felt like even if he hadn't gotten Martin Luther King out of jail which would be terrible he still would have demonstrated the path of freedom for all people so all these actions we do whatever they are each one can be done with dignity and respect and so brushing your teeth you can do with dignity and respect this morning I was washing dishes

[52:31]

and the thought occurred in my mind if you let go of what you're doing you can do it better if you really care about something and you let go of it you can really do it well and we see that in art we see these people who maybe weren't always letting go as they learned their art maybe they were tensing up as they learned it trying to balance on one foot trying to hit that ball in the process of learning how to really have a conversation between a bat and a ball you're probably not right at the beginning knowing how to have a conversation when you really relax with it you find the conversation

[53:33]

I think I've told you before what's his name Willie McCovey I think it was Willie McCovey is the batter right Reggie Jackson is not so either Reggie Jackson or Willie McCovey said when I'm there when the ball comes it looks like a pizza so I'm proposing to you that Zen is saying two things one is that here are some stories about spiritual life and their stories of conversation and sometimes they seem to be fighting and part of the story is that they thought they were fighting and then they found out that actually it was a love fest but it looks like they were fighting and they woke up to that it wasn't fighting another part of it is

[54:37]

that no matter what you do there's no action that you do where the Buddha way is something other than what you're doing so like if you're driving your car it's not like when you're driving your car and then you're going to park and then go into the yoga room and practice Buddhism when you're driving your car there's no other Buddha way someplace else from driving your car and that way of driving your car where you realize Buddhism is here and no other place and by Buddhism I mean the path of peace and welfare for all beings can never be other than what we're doing right now and if you want to do work on this and work on that fine, that's great but don't do this and then Buddhism

[55:39]

do it in a way that it's Buddhism right there even before you get through the sentence again I've told you this story many times which is similar to me just saying to you that in order for me to be really good at anything I need to give it up and when I give it up I will be able to do it more skillfully more wholeheartedly and of course much more relaxed I'm proposing that you can make tremendous effort and simultaneously be relaxed Michael Phelps if you watch those swimmers they're all working really hard super hard, I mean almost superhumanly hard

[56:39]

he was the most relaxed the other guys are working hard and they're trying to relax but they don't know how to make that level of effort and relax so the Buddhas make great effort for the welfare of beings and they also renounce what they're doing so that they can do it more effectively more perfectly less self-righteously yes right now in terms of action and some of what we've talked about there's an intensity about it because it feels like we could have a great loss we could have a great loss of human life on this earth or we could lose our democracy and so in a way in order to respond this way we have to let go of

[57:41]

our result I'm saying in order to be most effective well I think we can't we don't know we don't know what? anything we don't know what's going to happen let go of expecting a result while you're expecting a result here I am I'm doing something and I notice I'm mindful I notice I'm expecting a result so then I'm mindful of that if I'm mindful that I'm expecting a result I can let go of expecting a result without trying to get rid of it without trying to get rid of it and also without getting rid of it so here I am trying to get a result but my job if I'm trying to get anything is to renounce that

[58:44]

so that I can work more effectively but this is not about trying to have myself be somebody different the person I am is the person who wants to do that thing and so now I want to do that thing as the Buddha way which means I renounce that thing in order to benefit beings there's two kinds of renunciation one is renunciation so that I'm free the other kind of renunciation is so that I can help others more effectively so that my agenda to help people doesn't get in the way of helping people but I still have the agenda to help people it's just that if you really want to help people get over it and then help them get over being stuck up on your great ideas but it doesn't mean get rid of your ideas

[59:46]

get rid of your wishes get rid of your agendas it means relax and let it drop away and then you're like you've got the whole universe working through you as usual but now you're not getting in the way of everybody empowering you to do your job each of you have a great responsibility which is there every moment you have great power but if you hold on to anything including your power it's just kind of it's counter-indicated from everything you want to do so we have to train we have to train to learn how to do something with full energy and also be relaxed but in order to relax we also have to be aware that we're not relaxed sometimes

[60:46]

to try to relax before you acknowledge that you're not you're fairly unlikely to succeed yes so self-righteousness sort of carries within a connotation that it's not good is there a kind of righteousness it's not self-righteous there is constantly righteousness it's all over the place and as soon as somebody gets a hold of it it's been defiled there's plenty of righteousness it's all over the place but people are being possessive of it and then they get stuck up on it stuck up is a key word tonight it's my righteousness I got it and if you don't well then you're inferior to me that's self-righteous

[61:48]

but you can be righteous and I can even see it and then suddenly I see oh it's Charlie's righteousness whoa be careful here I hope he's aware of what he just did that he made this righteousness his and he tried to use his righteousness to get something rather than say here world here's some righteousness it doesn't belong to me it's just righteousness and if you disagree with me you're not inferior to me and I'm not superior to you just because I've given you this great gift parents are not superior to the children they care for they're wonderful and they often slip into thinking that they're better than the children or that they know better or that their view is superior and the child's inferior that happens they've got righteousness but they don't know how to be mindful of it and gentle with it

[62:49]

and tender with it so it can drop away and then it can function more fully so there is righteousness we've got it all of you have it you already have it it's been given to you by the whole universe you're exactly like you're supposed to be but if you grab a hold of yourself it gets twisted and the universe makes us also people that try to grab onto our righteousness it makes us that way you don't make yourself a person like children don't make themselves into people who naturally are possessive of stuff but children are naturally possessive like I tell you, my granddaughter when I told her that I was her mother's father she said, no you're not, she's my mother she's not your daughter she's my mother and then do I look down on her

[63:50]

thinking that her mother is one thing and one thing only her mother forget about her brother's mother but her mother, who's so kind taught her that actually yes I am your mother but I'm also his daughter oh yeah and little by little, with kindness her mind is opening up to her mother's something other than her possession with kindness towards ourselves and others we can perhaps stop eating beef and it won't harm anybody the farmers will adjust, the cows will adjust the grass will adjust but if we're not kind we're just feeding unkindness anyway, thank you so much for coming tonight it's a joy to be with you

[64:50]

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