Silent Sitting & Social Action

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Zen students often ask how our practice of silence and stillness relates to injustice and our environmental crisis. In this class we explore this question and study the intimate interplay of beneficial social action and silent sitting.

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we had disdain for this series one at one of the themes was
silence sitting and social action
and we've been talking a lot about
compassion
oh

so one one picture is that in silence sitting
sitting in silence
ah we are practicing compassion
we are
him
observing
observing in all directions
with eyes of compassion

and we're learning how to observe
hum
in in a deeper and deeper way

we're observing a living beings that we care for
do you play
that we really appreciate and we want them to be protected from all harm and we want them to have the best possible life which would be a life
where they're free of suffering
and even beyond being free of suffering where they can engage in helping others which is
the taken engaging compassion so we want we feel compassion for them and we wish them to learn how to be compassionate because that will be
that will be the best protection for them and will be the great joy for them

and some images of of this process again are one images sitting silently and i may have mentioned many times that the legendary founder of the zen tradition in china
we we call bodhi dharma
and i just briefly mentioned that
when i first started hearing about forty dharma and as and tradition i thought bodhidharma was a historical figure
now i
and how i could say now i see it his life as historical light
you know as in bud light
in other words legendary and i'm gradually getting his to appreciating legendary in certain areas more than
historical
historical if you if you take storage or seriously you might feel like that's what happened in that skit but legendary allows us to
creatively participate in the legend
the legend of bodhidharma
ah
we can
be creative if we can modify every day we can tell we can tell the story differently
and the different stories are not more true than the others
but they may be better than true like i just thought of them
the odyssey and iliad of this person they call homer
he broke down in a nice away
stories that had been going on long before him but he wrote them down in a different way than they were before him
and his and then he told the story so well that the creative process kind of stopped
before him the stories were changing generation after generation and then he changed him again so beautifully that everybody else just gave up has started to say what you know they just repeated what he said without much alteration
that happens sometimes
great
art is sometimes and the tradition of living tradition
but fortunately exam we don't have any people like that so
it keeps evolving
so i can tell you stories about bodhi dharma
which sucks you know some of which are kind of like what i heard but the way until it today will never be has never been told before so bodhidharma had a meeting with the emperor of china
a legendary meeting
with the historical emperor
so but when when you have a legendary meeting with a historical emperor the emperor kind of gets his his expression infected by the legend
the emperor isn't a is in a story that maybe he'd never participated in in history but with we imagine that he did and the meeting is he's having a meeting with bodhi dharma and at one yeah
yeah and they and in this story the emperor who was it a major supporter of the buddhist community
and also studied himself a lot and had had historical friends that weren't in less legendary and away the bodhidharma he hung out with
that emperor didn't kind of understand his meeting with bodhidharma
if i can just bracket and say we're not not want our disgust her at the end of the story bodhidharma left and the the national teacher religion the imperial court sent to the emperor after bodhidharma leh
left to know who that person was
you know who that indian monk was
an emperor said know who was he said that was
a lucky touch bar on bodhisattva for that was the body surfer of great compassion that you just met
an emperor heard about bodies up body or of lucky touch bar before but he'd never met him before and by he met him but he missed he didn't know he didn't understand who he was meeting so then he said well let's go sent messengers and bring them back so i have another chance
body side for an infinite compassion and that the national teacher said even if he sent a whole country he won't come back
and i would say however emperor if you want to study with them you can go
in study with them but you can he's not going to come back you had your chance to meet him in your own house if you want to meet him in the future gotta go to his house which is much smaller than yours it's a little cave as matter of fact
anyway the founder of zen tradition
according to that story was a great bodhisattva of compassion but
there was never a the oblak you touch far are the bodies out for great compassion never looked like that before
like bodhidharma
ah
a great zen scholar maybe the greatest and scholar of the twentieth century i had the good fortune to meet one time and it gave me a little some of his artwork
and a thing was a sketch of bodhidharma
facing up facing the wall because of a body damage it descriptors bodhisattva sat facing a wall for nine years and so he take a picture of bodhidharma
sitting facing a wall and then he said something like facing a wall or gazing doing wall gazing
a flower blooms in the back
so is his face in the wall and a flower blooms in his back
her out of his back
and that flower i'm he didn't say but i understand the flour is the send school
and so we often say
at this flower bloomed when he came and it had five petals which are the five schools of them
which you know
became the
this gives expression objects a predominant the dominant predominant form buddhism in china after a while and definitely the almost all the zen monasteries were zen monasteries institution lives and was really if again exceeds the
expression took over in china
through these five schools from this one flower which bloomed in the back of this monk bodhisattva of great compassion
so there we have silence sitting for nine years and this flour comes up this flower is a social action of that sitting
the social action they're sitting was
many many great monasteries with many many monks and nuns and many many lay people supporting them and practicing with them millions and millions of body it first came out of that silence city the social action of that bodhisattva sitting inside
silence was
the chinese buddhist world after a while as the social
activity social
cultural
no mud which has lasted as up till now to this room
we are more or less celebrating and an acting body dharmas compassion
his compassion is to some extent our lives or our lives are to some extent his compassion
i'm not even his compassion for compassion which he taught which wasn't his it isn't ours it's the compassion which is truth of our life

now
there's other images about of lucky test far
in in india and tibet
i'm lucky test fire was usually in the form of a man
quite handsome man often
offer with a mustache and looking like a princely man wearing principally clothes and a princely haircut
with lots of jewels and beautiful clothing
but in diamond wasn't dressed like a prince he was just like monk very simple
not so
you know
gorgeous
but when
as buddhism was transmitted china ability touch bar started to become depicted in a female form or a feminine form and
and that form
is isn't is now and has been for quite a while the dominant form the female form the goddess even not buddhists say it's the goddess of mercy
so if you go in chinatown you see these goddesses of mercy and know everywhere in the windows in altars of restaurants in people's in the goddess of mercy of the lucky test for they may not even know the name goddess of mercy when they maybe they're translated in english but the chinese translator
should have a look church for have a look other means of looking down upon log into the world is far the deliberated one who looks down upon the world the and uk's a liberated one because i say the law
liberated compassion
this ability test for are sitting in silence and her compassion is liberated
and spreads out over the whole world are a test fire
and when the chinese translated that they translated as observing the sounds
guan yin but also one get guan and when observing the world sounds
in japanese say on
observing the world sounds
and and again now it's mostly it's the most common that your probably now is often in white porcelain
and it
looks like caught somebody tall thin woman with flowing right white robes and often she's holding ah of a base with a flower a lotus flower in it but sometimes she's holding the vase in one hand and the flour and and
other and sometimes she's holding the vase in one hand pouring
water out of an pouring water of compassion out and holding the flower he's a very common ones
but this others for example and i'm not very common but i was in paris one time and i went to music he may and it they had a wonderful collection of buddhist art and one statue i saw there was
of guanyin sitting like this in a cave
like bodhidharma i never seen it before
and in the cave there was a shelf to her right and her left
it was not put into it didn't look at boardroom it'll have a female form group very beautiful flowing robes and she had shelf to her right and left on the right shop there was a vase and less shelf there was a flower she put her equipment down her equipment of
social action
the flowers she holds up in the world and the water she pours upon bags were set down and she was doing the silence sitting part so mostly you see the picture of of low-key touch bar dispensing compassion in a way that people can see like water being poured on people
and flowers being offered
but that offering comes from the silence sitting in this statue he could see the silence sitting and that in a sense the the social action seem to be quiet
and then another not very common but what you know there's millions of they're probably a million of these are making actually there may be five hundred million or even a billion of these other ones but not as as the former ones
another common form of lucky test far his with
a thousand arms
and sometimes a thousand arms are represented by like michelle i had i told you a greater tulsa home
at know about we we have the statues and i got in china which has about how many arms michelle your painted it
you painted a yeah number you painted into gold
i think it has about sixteen arms so ability church for of sometimes as sixteen sometimes has to sometimes has four when it has for it often has to in meditation murderer
she is representing the silence sitting and to
with the maybe the vase and the flower or flower and a scripture
so
one half half half the under being represented by sitting in stillness the other are by dispensing social social justice social conversation and then there's a thousand arm one
and the thousand arm is sometimes represented by like
sixteen twenty five but sometimes i have picture with the axis has a thousand
and then many of them have implements like maybe
one hundred implements symbolizing i would say the adapting this social offering
to the circumstances
okay so
the founder of zen school is that is that silence setting and dispersing innumerable blessings
silence sitting and in the silent sitting listening to the world observing all beings with compassion in the silence sitting and from this meditation on compassion and silence and stillness comes a thousand arms a million arms
i heard this lady you know who lived in paradise
and her house burned down and he went to chico and she went to parking lot by a grocery store and she said there are hundreds of people there who came to help
she says overwhelming compassion
you know coming forth to help
the people of paradise
and she was she was so inspired and encouraged even know
she had lost a lot of a lot to see that great compassion
petrov lucky josh for
no to get more
don't know what toward it
to get more zen about it i brought this story up to you already but i'll do it again
we have to have to of our ancestors and ancestors one's name is
cloudy cliff
and the other one's name is enlightenment enlightenment
or enlightenment path
yeah yang and darwin their close friends
and union the younger of the to ask the older what is what does oblak he touched far do how does you have ob look and touch bar use all those hands by the way a lot of the hands handsome also have eyes in them
so the thousand hands and eyes what does the body bodhisattva for a great compassion do with all those hands and eyes
or how how does he use them or how does she use them
and the older monk says
it's like reaching back for a pillow in the middle of the night
that's how i use him
you really have thousands
it's like reaching back
for thousand pillows
in the middle of the night
and then know
the younger monk says
ah i understand just like maybe you do
and then the older monk says how so in the younger monk says
hands and eyes all over the body
an older monk says you said quite a bit there but you only got eighty percent
and the younger monks says
well how about you elder monk elder brother and the elder says
has an ice throughout the body

so ah yeah
that's maybe my offering to start tonight
is where training so that
so that these these flowers of compassion these hands and eyes of compassion have pervaded our body and mind
so that
spontaneously these hands reach out
into the into society
into the fire
back to the pillow whatever just comes right out of there because it's
it's been trained into the into down into the body it's no longer in the surface is completely trained into pervading the person so everything they do just come very naturally
like they see food after hungry they salivate

but i'm proposing that this kind of activity comes from one who is ongoingly sitting still there not just at and observing sentient beings was eyes of compassion and they're not just observing sentient beings with eyes of compassion there so
sitting still and observing them
all the better to see them
because they're silent and still they can see in the proper way they can see
without grasping what they see
if we observe and we grasp we have what we talked about before a sentimental compassion
and it's sentimental to see a sentient being and grasp them as they appear
but by practicing sitting silent and still hand meditating we gradually can see people without dwelling and what we see and that then thereby the hands come out just in the right way not know not like okay i'm gonna i'm i'm
going to put my arm on here and i'm going to get that pillow know just

okay that's enough for starters maybe
wow

yes murray pardon looking at the other cases are a of yeah
yeah yeah
any guesses
a loser and one one
know that can be one yeah
i can be one
like many other hand along with the
he's no
oops asset as the
why is it

i think i should use my research before i say
but you know there's this there's there's this murderer this murderer this murder and this murderer
there's there's a this murderer and this murderer and you should put them together like this this is the murderer of
if he's gives expression of a lucky test far as boss
the the buddha of infinite life
or infinite light amitabha around my tires that buddha has this murderer
what when when she's in meditation she adds his murder
and am
when she's standing up she sometimes goes like this
so
this might is possible that this is avalon lucky test for his mood ride or known
you can also go like this
i like this like this
so this could be like for
socially interacting and this for medication but i don't know why this
again up have like a test for his teacher have a look at church far is the attendant have
ami tires and on your tires as mergers like this like this and like this and have lucky church for are often times when is depicted with jewelry on and so on
up in the crown there's a statue
and the statue is up
his teacher amitabha is up and up on us up on his head sitting in meditation like this
of the ways you can identify some statues of a good test for because the buddhist sitting up in his crown but i'm not sure about this
yes pardon
let me put my hearing it on

what did you say
autumn is a okay
yeah or no peace be with you

so he just to another murder there you might like this
whatever release
yeah i mean it in a in a literal sense your heart is like usually in in the midst of contracting
your blood's flowing
here there's there's a a major thing going on in your stomach and your in testing jungler group we got a lot going on in here
but in each moment in each moment your urine urine that your heart in each moment your blood's where it is and not someplace else in each moment of the contraction of your heart it's right there partially or completely closed in each moment your thoughts the thought you haven't not another one
so in a very minute cents more by moment in each moment of experience there's no their stillness however we can perceive that minute moment so but we can think of it and weekend and we can remember it
and remembering the stillness
which we can't perceive and which you can get away from you because you're you can't get away from where you are you can't move from where you are however in you change and then you're off when you change your in another position
your heart can move from where it is but that it changes and then it's a different place so in this way we're remembering the stillness and remembering the stillness if i remember this illness than when i look at you you look different than when i don't remember the stillness i see
the you differently when i remember stillness and an ice and i understand your differently when i remember silence silence and stillness are there
even though there's also from from another level of perception movement and sound so it's it's a it's a
meditative exercise or it's an exercise in deepening and compassion
to observe people to listen to people and remember stillness and silence
so they're talking and while they're talking you remember silence which is similar to what they're talking you're not talking you're actually listening
and even though you're listening and your own mind there may be some comments on what they're saying so i'm talking and you're in your mind commenting on what i'm saying and depending on what your comment your nod or you know and you're responding to what your mind is doing with what you're hearing
and yet if you remember stillness during this process it deep a deepens your perception
so it's not it's sought it is not just sitting still is sitting still and practicing compassion as not just practicing compassion it's practicing compassion in stillness and again i'm lucky touch bar is sitting so
still practicing compassion and from the stillness all this while this blossoming happens all these blessings come up
and they come up in stillness but they also can look like they're moving
and then you know if somebody walked in here they might say well these people are sitting still
and the people might say i know we look like that but actually we're moving so you know there's two sides of it
so we we ritually an axe stillness with our body but in our mind we also remember complete stillness which are which we can't physically or consciously perceive complete stones
how does this can arise
did you say consciousness can arise
right
yes that's right that's right yeah yeah and went one time i was i had been traveling in the east coast doing fundraising for zen center
very busy new york city i come back to green gulch i going to the meditation hall and i offer incense
and i think
how great it is to not do anything if i was doing something you know
but there's something i was doing was nothing if i was really i wasn't trying to get that incense stick in there and get that incense to burn
i was acting but i really wasn't doing anything and another time before that i was it take i was moving the somebody gave an incense and i was how was watched it go into them
ah consent burner and i saw that i saw it in that process i saw stillness and advert throughout the process i saw that there were stillness so it is so this is a meditation instruction to wake up to stillness
and and but i couldn't see the stillness and yet i understood it when i guess i could see the movement so i i wish me could say not shock but stunned stunned that i could see stillness i could see the invisible stillness in the moment
and i could you know and you can hear the inaudible silence
in the sound

and you know it just might come to you gratuitous gratuitously as a as a grey as grace but it's recommended that we remember it it seems to make us more ready to discover stillness of movement and silence and sound
and then
discover that their sound and silence
and then you can hear it differently than when you don't know that you're listening to the sound and silence so a lot of people know that they're hearing noise and noise but were when we want a compliment that was hearing noise and silence or hearing silence and the noise it's a fuller picture of life
that we're changing and that at every moment we're exactly will we are and nothing else so or finish moment or like an immovable mountain but the mountain is unstable
so it changes and then the next mountain is an immovable mountain and a changes and the next month so we have fragility and instability
and unreliability
and we can be consistently remembering that and then and then were and then were realize a kind of stability in the midst of change
so then you know the our compassion becomes more unhindered
why
not remembering our job
because we get excited and don't remember stillness we're we're excited
i got so excited i almost forgot to be still
or i got so excited i forgot to be still but i i was still still i just forgot to remember it and so all there was was
they excited yes
what
it is not timely
wow
what time what what what time is what what time is it
how many still for that
he is time to be still is a stillness now remembering stillness

right

she said she can appreciate that there's still no in between things are like there's some people might say there's silence the to in the words
one people in on that know that's that's one way to get out some idea of it
but in another sense the stillness i'm talking about is inconceivable so it doesn't fit into like at the same time of things or in between them
yeah
ah the
early die
here
the pictures she seen a body term are kind of alarming she said
thank you for bringing that up he's not so he's not gorgeous
no
he's he's got he's one of those beings that you wouldn't wanna meet in a dark alley
right
oh scary he's a scary guy
he's a guy and huh
he's kind of barely it looks crazy yeah and yeah so there's then they have explanations are wise looks are crazy
ah
well what is his eyes look crazy because if they say because he cut his eyelids off
so wouldn't fall asleep
pardon
once again
did it work they did not only did he not go to sleep but buildings or other people didn't
he had a contagious wakefulness that's a story that he he cut his eyelids off so he can stay awake and then he he he put his eyelids on the ground and
the tea plant was born
happy
the green tea
and yeah that's one story about him
so why wouldn't you go after seeing that he had
i'm not sure but it might be that he realized that in order for the emperor to understand them the emperor had to take a long walk
it's just too easy for the emperor sake mirror the mirror grade teacher gimme in our chance but i think this is me talking it doesn't say and most of the records if the emperor would walk from basically southern china had to northern china where bodhidharma went by the time he got there he might be ready
two here and make bodhidharma but i think he had to make it a bit more effort than he was ready to make and again it
his t his court teacher didn't say he he will come back but you could go see him
and then if he got if he got up there
bodhidharma probably would have done something to help him make even more effort so that he could
surrender himself
to his compassion
our depression to say his compassion surrender himself to compassion
give himself to compassion donate himself to compassion not body dharmas compassion
not your compassion compassion it's is here around us all the time we are in solidarity with it but
we have to train in order to surrender ourselves to it
the bodhidharma has keep surrendering himself to it
and then you know you can join his surrender and by surrendering yourself took this compassion
september which surrender himself
if he would surround himself he wouldn't need to see bodhidharma but he might have to take a long walk in order to get into the surrendering
the next
so bodhidharma does look pretty scary and then because it's because he doesn't have eyelids his eyes are just you know if like christie and
she was going
so as eyes are very big and he is on you know he's he now in china he's like a his his kind of lanka a deity
and in japan to had these daruma dolls if you heard in the daruma dolls or bodhi dharma
and if going to lick you know they're like festival dolls their little shape like this you know like a sitting for your often red rose with a beard and big eyes and then children are not just children but part of the festival should paint the eyes in
so this this whole culture of you know the eyes the eyes of compassion and they're big
kind of like those keen dry throat
they're big eyes of compassion with the eyelids removed and they're very intense
same kind of scary
if you could argue know if if the if you could actually see the compassion and might be kind of scary of got to see how big it is how how utterly in mark enormous and all pervading compassion really is and maybe it would be hard to like accepted
so we have to gradually work ourselves up to accept it and give ourselves to it
but
that's what the silent sitting as for is to surrender to this great compassion and then let it flow out of you let it flow out of you into social into social action
and then come back and sit and meditate again and settle into it give yourself to it give yourself to it and then if you give yourself to it it will be given through you
yes
maria
well you know where you are you in the moment you're where you are you can't move from there
you otherwise you wouldn't be there
my great now you're you're there you can't be some place sounds but things change and then your leg on the other side of the room
but when you're other side room you you're over there you're not you know where you are now you're always where you are
many years ago i went to a
hobbies and i went on vacation up by clear lake and they had this this free music festival and on the front of the i think i'm the front of the
they're designed for a switch something like
was it
how to go it went like
wherever you go that's where you are
so you know
and then and then things change in your someplace else but here you're always where you are at in the moment
well doing something with it
doing something with it will spontaneously arise when you accept it
just like when you accepted than your hand just reaches back for the pillow in the night
there's no did you say when you're supposed to do there's no supposed to do not supposed to if it is no supposed to they're just what you do
so you're still worry about your wherever you are and if you complete the
yeah well there really isn't anything to do but you can try to do something about it but that just another moment and then and then year and then you're stuck in trying to do something about it that's what you're doing
trying to do something about it is not giving yourself to it
it's not surrender yourself to where you are and who you are
but when you surrender yourself in the next moment actions will come from that surrender
and those actions are not what you supposed to do there what you're doing
and then you can surrender yourself to i'm doing this i'm talking to tracy i'm listening to rub
in the moment i'm not moving but i i just some i just saw this hand come up and touch my eye but that was many moments there was many different positions of my hand and each when my hand with halfway to my face it was exactly halfway it wasn't like to a third of the way
it couldn't be authority was a half and it wasn't three fourths it was halfway and then when i touch my face it was touching my face and it wasn't not touching my first and then went to moved away in it was where it was you always are where you are
everybody knows that right zens pervaded to that extent but do your surrender yourself to that simple fact the answer is well i'm training at if i want to
why do i want to because i think then my action rather than being what i should be doing it will be action to express compassion
not mine
not yours but compassion it so i'm proposing that the deep compassion comes from this
the stillness and silence it comes from the way you understand things when you're not trying to get anything from them when you're whisk things and you try to get something and essentially distract yourself from just being with them
and when you don't distract yourself from bay with things action arises from that but it's a different action
it is hard for you to attend to the action because you just skipped over attending to the last action so now you don't intend to this one so you keep missing the virtue of your life
yeah
gloried in job is to me understand to fix them visit popular when
would always see recovery go here
yeah just like ah
yeah
yeah
mom and lambs the
veneto region him a were everywhere that the way hackers learn it was
empty as in several game
he added a real pickle
did you hear that
so they had these dolls and and when she learned was the way using me you buy these little dolls and they can be this size or
there there if they get really small it's hard to and panty eyes so they're often about this size but they can be much bigger so so one way you use them as you buy them in the eyes are empty just wait and then you have a goal or wish and then you paint the i am
and i think there's also the teaching of paid them carefully
and then when your wish comes true you paint the other one am and he said
and it makes sense
patient because the devil is
hi
sir
yeah
yes go back to tracy comparing her comment
i've been is incredibly difficult by now is a town
lately
you're not blaming you're just saying it's difficult
yup
i'm not blaming you i'm just saying your difficult
you're challenging i have to evolve to have really high level to deal with you
suggestion sir
any suggestions
no here
or like her yeah i might i have lost suggestions
i have a lot suggestion most of what i say are our suggestions
that so
if i think it would be good for me if i remembered stillness when i encounter
technological events
kai remember stillness and touch these screens
yes i can
do i sometimes not remember yes i do but could i have and still performed the the the procedure yes i could
figure skaters
can do triple axels and remember stillness
and they get trained to remember stillness when they do those moments because they have they cannot afford not to remember stillness when they do those moments they cannot be someplace else when they jump off the skin off the i
ice into this thing they cannot be someplace else

have some people leave the ground and and they can be somewhere else and then they don't complete and on than a crash protection succeeded that you have to be very much where you are in each moment as you're spinning through you have to be there and if you look away
way
it
you crash
so it is possible but we don't require that were gone
these devices alive devices and we're working with are called user friendly
they're they're friendly to the user they do not require the user to remember stillness
we could have computers
where if you lose your stillness to computer just goes off

you know either it either is it goes either goes off or yells at you
like virginia woolf wrote a book called to the lighthouse
if you're reading that and you
are not remember a stillness you a some of it for most people it's almost impossible to understand
this guy was his name this has earned his the current a novelist named jonathan franzen
he says
i think the important thing about for novelists are novels is to help people concentrate
so somehow they they write in a way that you're attracted to but you it requires you to pay attention
so how can you write an attractive way and also require people make people wanna stay with you because they realized that they don't stay with you they lose you
and ladder and so a lot of people do require that but then no one reads them
so in it's too bad because they're not helping with too much because nobody's look nobody's doing the work doing making an effort that would require for them to read their books
you know what's his name ma'am
james joyce or jonathan friends as good friend what's his name
david what foster wallace he kind of requires it
if you're willing to do it you know but
if you if you don't concentrate it's almost impossible to finish his book
so anyway
the the stuff we use is not require you to remember silence and stillness but you could
the people who use of some technology they need to remember scientists tell us in order to operate it
that those devices are not user friendly their user challenging not challenging their stillness but yeah they're challenging their stillness and but they're also saying that challenging that stillness like dump is tom don't be attentive so there's actually i think there's a combination with user friendly and not needing to be still room
member stillness and also be more susceptible to watch on the screen so you buy something
until your press certain things so he would be very helpful if we all remembered stillness when we used these devices it would be very helpful and willing to show other people how to do it
but it's hard
by think possible so let's try to do that let's try to remember stillness the next time we encounter one of these devices and if you turn the radio on the same try to remember stillness when you turn the radio on now the radio is not as difficult so
so when you noticed you're not for your when you notice you for getting stillness turn the radio off
go back to marriage to illness which is when i say turn the radio on i mean in the car
if you're
listening to radio and you notice your for getting stillness turn the radio off and that will not hurt your driving at all
i find i find that remembering stillness when i'm driving i think it's a really good and my driving i feel is better
however you can dry and as you know without paying any attention
you know it's you get your unconscious cognitive processes that are driving and you can you can talk to people and daydream and you know all kinds of stuff you don't have to be there you have to be quiet but being quiet i think is really helpful you're driving and if you do things like turn the radio on which aren't necessary you can drive without having a radio on right
if you turn anything on to entertain yourself
see if you can stay present and silent when you turn on and then if can't turn it off
and enjoy the ride in silence and stillness you you can remember it while you're driving
and it's actually not that hard when you're driving
and the driving as she is kind of call in you please pay attention and being still helps you pay attention you notice much more than if you have the radio on i think what do you think

as the gutter know i imagined that were most people take drivers tests these days they do not have a lot of music blaring
i think they're kind of concentrated on them on the test but after they passed the test they may get somewhat distracted while they're driving so yeah let's let's try to do that let's make a vow you and i to to try to remember stillness and silence when we're using technology
and then we can report back to each other our practices going okay
who wish to but if you do remember stillness when you throw it
and rember stillness when you launch it crashed into the ball and sink and sink down
take take pictures of it
with another technology but when
and send us and send us pictures and when you do some of the pictures remember stillness when you send us the pictures that's that's we're going to work on okay and her yeah like it
i watched one one person operate a computer and if like watching a pianist
and i don't know what he was going on with him but again people can play the piano and is beautiful ways and remember stillness and methods the highest levels i think they remember silence and stillness so you can do that you can you can do that was computer but you have to train to be able to stand that kind of presence when
you're an eye level of performance but and think they could mutually enhance each other
yes it is his confrontation
result
ah yeah i think i think it's kind of the result of it because concentration can be applied to things other than remembering stillness
so you can remember stillness without actually thinking of it
you can you can actually be the result of remembering stillness to be concentrated but then you can turn your concentration on to compassion center were talking about remembering stillness and then in stillness
look at suffering beings with compassion but again here
the way you've looked at him with your concentrated is deeper
and clearer and more open than if you look at them when you're not concentrated so remembering stillness helps us concentrate
an ointment it comes to fruit continuously are frequently and steadily remembering stillness you become calm because you let go of your thinking when your come
you can then turn this concentration on to years meditation on compassion
but this meditation on compassion is living in the middle of your body having realized the stillness
without you don't remember them because you your body is holding it in its openness and stillness
in his presence in the moment
it's realizing rather than thinking about so we we start again has often said you start with remembering stillness then receive it
i remembered and then receive it and then practice it when you're practicing a you're not at that moment necessarily remembering it and receiving you're just you're being the stillness in the middle of everything and then from that place a being the stillness of prey
purchasing it transmitted
and your transmitted just like reaching for a pillow in the middle of the name it just me you're naturally that the light of the of the concentration which is the embodiment or the realization of the stillness has a light and that like just naturally go goes after
people can all you know that thousand arms
thank you for your question
yes
in
why would he true
well the deeper truth is in the movement is there too
but it but if you forget the stillness you don't see the truth of the moment
yeah your pardon it's more easy
yeah i think it's more basic in the sense it's more it starting from it's starting from war here so you know we were here first and away and then we move
we're not we're not we don't start moving
when you start you start you're not didn't start before you started
didn't move into starting you started so innocence stillness is the the position you're in is more basic than where you might go or where you been
so yeah so what do we do emphasize dharma position that your actual true position rather than where you're going so if you realize your dominant position than you changed from your position into another position
and went out and another thing that goes with this is that when you realize your position
this is so wonderful when you realize your position
you know hold
you're more open to give up your possession when you realize it but if you don't realize that you're kind of think he can hold onto it when you really realize your position you you know you know you can't do it with and hold onto it but if you're moving you think it can hold on the thing i mean if you think you're moving
and you're not in this position than you think he can hold on things
yeah so not attachment goes with being where you are
because where you are is what you give up where you are

okay it's getting close to the time to stop
not to say people are fringing or anything

yes
a tidy announcement from charlie
oh are friendly
it been there for her voice to she's insects and she has a computer that doesn't really know how use it she wonders if anybody is interested in spending just a little bit a sign of her to figure out how to use the internet so that she can listen to rela
how reported stage so if anybody wants to do that even new you
there are very easy
she lives in her i think she lives in this town which isn't really a town lafayette i tried to find it i went to visit one time and i put in accounting to hear is can lead to a town
after struggling or know anyway i put it in my gps and i couldn't i couldn't i put in proper blood kensington and dinara talking about anyway she lives in kensington i think
just don't on
so thank you for making the announcement
and i think i know some people who like to do that yes
as a
pardon this didn't grow up my back
in a way here
so i i practice sitting still and these flowers came
a i didn't make them come
but but because i said still flowers come
thank you

thank you very much