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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again
there's a an assertion
which is also a thought experiment
great compassion is living in silence and stillness

it's also living in noise and modern
matt
but the title of this series is not noise and movement and social action
his silent sitting and social action
the practice of sitting still and silent
is for the sake of celebrating remembering
enjoying
and practicing great compassion
without moving
without saying anything
and then ah
from that place to understand how to access to continue to remember and continued to practice
great compassion
in various actions

the silent sitting is a time to to let the great compassion to enjoy it and let it like sink into your body and mind
so that when you start speaking
and gesturing
you may have a better chance
to stay in intimate realization of the compassion of the great compassion
as we are involved in things which come and go
we have opportunity to remember something that doesn't come and go great compassion doesn't come and go
great compassion has is a conversation
it's a conversation that's going on all the time
even when we don't move our mouth or make a sound
what is that conversation
the etymology of the word conversation
it is a familiarity
on together with and intimacy
conversation is intimacy intimacy is living in silence and stillness
and as well as it's living in everything we do
the silence and stillness is an opportune to practice of silence and stillness is an opportunity to
you know
absorb this intimacy
and it's the intimacy of everything in the universe
coming forward and meeting itself
it's the universe meeting the universe in the form of our life
the way the universe meets itself as amanda
is one way the way it meets itself as an yes is another way
and when it meets itself
the meaning is complete
and the meeting
in a way comes and goes but the intimacy is always there for every meeting
and we can remember that when when we talked to each other or we can forget it
we can remember it or we can get distracted from it
when we get distracted from him
in that distraction
there is also great compassion but
we might miss it
but not necessarily we might wake up in the distraction to this great the great compassion that is not the distraction but it's the way the distraction is in conversation with everything
it's the intimacy of to distraction and everything that's not the distraction it's the intimacy of me
can the whole universe it's the intimacy of you and the whole universe that's great compassion great compassion doesn't look at the universe and our care for it
there's no object to this great compassion there's no intimacy doesn't have an object
my intimacy with you doesn't have an object
i can look at you and your an object in a sense to my mind and i'm an object in a sense to my mind or of subject and my subjective experiences i want
the i want you to be protected from any harm
i want you to be at peace that's
that's a subjective way i am
and that's that's that's a kind of compassion which has objects
and i can think of one of you at a time or two of you at a time
but i can't think of everybody all the time
but great compassion is everybody all the time with everybody all the time
and that's always with us no matter what and we can remember it and realize it
while we're practicing these other forms of compassion
why we're practicing compassion towards other living beings wishing them well and not modifying our view of them with teachings
how the words sentimental compassion
like i look at somebody and i don't i don't apply the teachings to that
that person
great compassion is there too
or i can look at people and remember the teachings as i look at them i can remember that beings are impermanent momentary
compositions
are innumerable conditions
i can also remember because they are all things coming together to make them in this way they have no independent existence from everything that makes them
i can i can remember that
i can practice that
and those types of compassion or free me from the sticky compassion of looking at people
and taken him to be the way they appear which is they might they might appear permanent and existing by themselves
i can become free of that by the other types of compassion but i also
can remember great compassion

yeah
so
the remembering great compassion
more and more
the it the resource of it is more and more
on permeating
oliver actions these are physical actions but i'm doing them with you write my hands
our in social relationship with you right my words are in social relationship with you right
this is my social life right now it goes beyond this room but it's in this room i have a social life here this is a social club for me
and i'm remembering teachings and practices in this society and you are too
and you come here to remember teachings and to remember practices and to practice them here and you do
and you want to practice than when you leave and you do
not the same way you practice here
but you do
and whether you think so or not when you're here and when you're out and about
you're always
practicing great compassion
you're always practicing intimacy
and if you remember at to different life from not remembering it
and great compassion doesn't say it's better if you remember than if you don't but great compassion is the way remembering is not the same as forgetting
it's a different
intimacy there's an intimacy of remembering and an intimacy of forgiving
and most of us didn't come to this series of meetings to promote forgetting
maybe nobody here can so i'm going to go there so i can forget ah
about your opponent or practices which i'd like to practice know
you came here to enhance your mindfulness of teachings
and one of the teachers you can remember is that whether you practice mindfulness or not the way you actually are when you think so or not when you hear about it or not whether anybody the people who have not heard this teaching their the same as us
they are not there are totally intimate with us then you can't get away from the people who have not heard about great compassion we can not get away from them
and we can't get away from those have heard about it were intimate with everybody that's great compassion
and we're doing these other kinds of practice of compressions it's all types of compassion
promote the realization of the way we already are
so i think i mentioned in some past sessions that i'm i'm a little bit like i'm a medic
who is helping you i in our healed
so you can go back out into society and benefit people and come here and be healed from any forgetfulness that you have fallen into when you were doing your work with you know everybody

okay that's that's a conversation that was a big conversation piece

pretty big

yes so
what would understand
is following along seems understood what to say so
yes
at the office
museums or
i can see what you're saying we are connected to order
is there somebody to regular
of course never should all type into
that seems like different things like that
doesn't really expression
put it
but not this that that's compassionate action
feeling
so i'm feeling feel compassion for it was one is russia concert connected might feel that i don't see that
the same as compassion
yeah that makes sense to me that you that you
yeah on
this
we're not really missing anything that and that's part of that hard for you to understand that you're not missing anything
so no one thing to see
i think put them first three types of compassion which we've talked about those are actually
ngos are rather they're actually intellectual
in the sense that you can understand that you that you have an intellect which can see that you're here and other beings are there and you and the thing that it's an intellectual but it's it's also compassion because you want them to be free of suffering you want them to be protests
acted so that compassion but that's actually more intellectual and the great compassion because great compassion there's nobody out there there's no it's it's object was the compassion is not an object and all beings are not an object
we're talking about it it's actually not intellectual our discussion of it i'm using intellect to tell you about it but it actually is inconceivable
we can't conceive of we we need objects to conceive of things that to have concepts to be aware of them so the great compassion is inconceivable
non dualistic and it is it's a mind it's a mind and and it's a mind which includes all all these wishes for the well being a bit wellbeing
it includes them and wants them all to be real and it wants yeah it wants all all these compassionate wishes to be realized but it also includes people who are or parts of not compassion includes them too because the parts of non compassion
our part of what makes us compassionate
the people who are actually having thoughts in their mind of ill will are part of what makes us
feel intensely that we want to protect people from ill will
cruelty is totally embraced by great compassion
but cruelty is a phenomenon which occurs because of lack of understanding of these three types of compassion and lack of understanding of course i'm great compassion

question so
so great compassion may be seen intellectual but actually it's it's it is beyond intellect we cannot get it with our intellect the other three we can
and the other three would promote us being able to
more fully realize the great compassion which is always with us which is
which is the way we impact each other all the time it's the way you're suffering affects me and my suffering effects you i cannot suffer without it having an effect on your and vice versa that's great compassion i'll see your happiness impacts me and here and my happiness
impact you you're you're not only do your happiness impact me it is included in me
and me being included may including you also is included in new that's intimacy
and we can talk about it
and made clear that this is the name of the game it's intimacy it's conversation and then in our conceive a realm we can act out conversation we can practice it in the realm of concept like we're doing here you can raise your question and when you raise it you can
remember various teachings while you're talking to me while you're telling me i understand this i don't understand that you can also remember that all you could all the while you're saying that all the wire saying
i don't quite understand great compassion but i heard a teaching which says whether i understand it or not the way i really am
is that way
but i don't yet fully understand that i'm that way and i am and i want to so i want to understand i want to understand really throughout my body
that i include everybody and i'm including know everybody i want to understand that i don't fully understand it but i understand that's what i'm trying to understand
and then the example i think i gave last week of the story of the to ancients and teachers
talking about of lucky test far as innumerable hands which are reaching out to help beings
and the monk says once once as to the other one heart of the how of they use those hands
of compassion and those in the hands of highs and the part of the user's eyes and hands
and the one of those questioned said it's like reaching back in the night for a pillow
the way they're used as they just they just naturally emerge
from silence and stillness
and then this the the question or says i understand and the monk questions said well how do you understand me said all over the body hands and eyes and the other one says he got eighty percent
and he says or what about you elder brother and he says throughout the body
so part of the theory of this practices i remember in this teaching you actually become drenched
so that by putting in them major effort of remembering
not getting remembering the way you are not try remembering the way you are rather than trying to get to be some other way
rather get to be a great compassionate person remember that the way you actually are is what's meant by great compassion and great compassion isn't a person
great compassion isn't linda orlando orlando
great compassion is the conversation that we're that were involved in all the time that's great compassion
kate compassion is the way we actually
actually are caring for each other
and challenging each other to realize great compassion great compassion wants beings to realize great compassion
remembering that remember him it becomes throughout her body and mind and then hard gestures our thoughts and our speech in relationship
in society express this great compassion to the extent
that has been realized by us practicing remembering it so again it's to remember the way we already are
and then realize that by remembering it and it also to observe our acting
and contemplate whether we feel our action seems to be in residence with this great compassion when i talk to you do it do i remember that i'm talking to myself
i remember that i'm included in you and your included in me
if i don't remember it's not so much me judging that what i did was good or bad
but i didn't remember now what if i read now i remember then i i remember i could say
be the way i was talking to her kind of was like i probably would if i didn't remember how nice
or i didn't forget
and i didn't talk to her like i was talking to somebody who was included in me
i talked to her about what she was doing like it wasn't included in me or i wasn't included in what she did
she did something about that was me i wasn't included in that know if i felt like that then i i got derailed from way i really am and also maybe spoke somewhat disrespectfully the because i forgot the way i am
the way she is the way we are
yes
what a thorough
suffered in compassion for example
three kittens
wrestler
and i have some logical pattern for them and whom that i noticed
a lot of the earth
to do with
suffering for years of they will be suffering
in this line
there is it is suffering a sick kind of compassion
if you mix it with conversion

did you say if you mix it with compassion know soft the word compassion means with suffering
with the word compassion little the etymology of compassion is with suffering that's that's compassion is with suffering is not that suffering is is a sick form of compassion suffering is what compassion lives with
so you've got some suffering being with that
his compassion not you can also be with it and wish that the suffering would be relieved that we okay too but doesn't and actually that's another form of suffering but and and you'd be without to
so yeah be with suffering cats is compassion and being with the suffering you feel when you see their suffering his compassion
experience looking at them play was on his i have a deep sense that they're gonna be suffering
in this lifetime run a lifetime
and
the alex the joy out of cell phone to of conversion did you say it takes the joy out of suffering
didn't bash no no no compassion is the joy of being was suffering compassion is joy
compassion is joy
okay and it's joy of being was suffering
it's a strange kind of joy it's like it's the supreme joy
supreme joy
two bleam who believe
so bleam joy
yeah
to feel pain to be with pain because you care about someone or something that's compassion and it's a joy it's a joy that you care about your cats said they're suffering doesn't
undermine your joy your lack of suffering undermines your joy i'm in your lack of compassion undermines the joy of compassion compassion is joy however
even in the early teachings of buddhism there's some called near they say excuse the expression enemies but also near pitfalls right around compassion which is joy
one of the pitfalls his depression you've gotta be careful with this compassion stay on the beam because it got to be to go from joy to depression another pitfall his attachment
the started attached to the being secure that you care about it
course happens so frequently two parents that they you know they care for their children they'd want to protect them and they slip into attaching to them
veer off from compassion which cares for without attachment
into caring with attachment and the other is getting depressed and all the suffering like you know i think we've all been having a hard time lately ride with all these people suffering oliver california are fairly near by and our air being so poisonous
so hard and has and even especially on some people messing really messing with their health it's been really difficult right
practice compassion with the situation is a joyful way to be with it but you can you can get depressed here it's it's right there to slip off little bit lean lean into it so we have this expression being upright
don't lean in to the suffering that's not compassion don't lean away from it has not compassion
leaning into it you get attached leaning away
it's cruel
being uprooted with it his joyful so
now we're trying to learn how to be approved
with how to be still and quiet and listen listen so again it's easier to listen to the cries when it's quiet
an easier to look at people when you're still
sometimes we are so busy we walked right by somebody that we really care about because are moving so fast you know there's so much momentum that with we don't stop and look at the person who's
yes
think you've answered my question about three times
way i feel like i followed along pretty well
right
and i could never say the words but you said them i nodded with your help
oh and so i i really felt that i got an intellectually but i just had a strong desire to get it through body it was interesting told that story because i feel like when i really know something i know
in my by who and down it's frustrating it's frustrating to feel kind of locked at the intellectual play some i i feel like you just answer don't lean and yeah don't lean into it
so you have a desire you wish to fully embody great compassion and any other kinds of compassion and that would be held for you you're up for it and also body or somebody all suffering
they learn to accept suffering is omnipresent learn train train so that you don't
think that's gonna be a break in a pause in the suffering learn how to live with that
and one of the ways to live with it was one of the practices that help you live with omnipresent suffering is patients and the key ingredient in a patient's is not leaning into the future
so i wished to fully embody compassion so i can be with all the suffering and not run away from it
and i don't feel like yet fully than embodied it and so i lean in two a more full embodiment
in other words i don't i'm not the present
so i wish to be more fully and more consistently open to being suffering i sometimes feel like i'm not
and i wish to be and to have that wish and not and to and to have that wish and be aware of the shortcoming is somewhat uncomfortable part of what will realize what i want is to be present with my present level of incomplete realization
and leaning into a better realization is going away from patients
being here with my present level being here with your present level you being here with your present level all of us now we're doing the necessary work the necessary work of full realization is to be patient with partial realization but
part of the reason why we have partial realization is that we spent quite a bit of time leaning into full realization
and so we forgive ourselves for leaning we noticed oh i'm i'm leaning into a more complete realization oh
and that's something else now to be patient with so now i'm back accepting that are not only is my realization of great compassion partial but i'm leaning into full realization which is also partially realization and great compassion is with me when i'm not leaving and when i am meaning
okay yes
today's someone that i'm close to was suffering and emergency emergencies or state
i tried to help her i needed tell her and i did very best i could i call them whatever wisdom i could find i kept calm in sections quite upsetting her and then
i
did my best and then
i called up somebody to check on whether any do the right thing and like i did the right thing
but i didn't get feel any joy in being with that suffering i i have i was upset and then i have to kind of later separately work on getting me some come down so that i could still be okay and a helpful
but joy
tell me

did you mean you can answer a question if you want to
welcome to ask you what is the role of suffering
you were a second what's the role of suffering the grave universe it's it's compassion partner
his compassion partner
let it roll
so
and also another part of of compassion and other part of the joy of compassion another part of the joy of compassion
besides generosity you are somewhere generous what's your friend road besides patience another aspect of it is ethical discipline ethical discipline is another dimension of compassion
woods
being called into question
and you felt called into question by this
exercise and compassion
however
being called into question like wondering if i was effectively helpful wondering if i did the right thing those thoughts are not pleasant thoughts they're anxious thoughts
however in order to be fully compassion we have to have that particular variety
of anxious thought
other ones too but it's not like when you're practicing compassion you don't feel called into question you don't want you don't in either yourself like i wonder if that was helpful i wonder if i did done if i wonder if i was skillful that is part of the joy of compassion
and also other people calling us into question and saying you know i don't know a wonder if you did the wonder if that was skillful what you just did
when you first start being called into question you don't most people don't immediately think this is what i am here for
but but i can by continuing to practice realizing that wondering and other people wondering whether your helpful is part of compassion
you will feel more and more joy the more you're called into question
before i was called into question before i got a double check will just double double-checked i felt very challenged know how can i help this person without becoming upset myself
that's that's called that's being called into questions now that's part of the deal that's part of what practicing compassion involves and so i'm tell you that so when outcomes you don't think well as you know this this shouldn't be part of it this is part of it and being called into question the first
eighty seven million times are called you may not feel like oh great
but more and more you feel like oh yeah called into question is kind of a it's a little uncomfortable but it's part of this work
so like my when i go in and i see my suffering from i feel some pain but it's the pain of me caring about her
that's the that's the pain it is and that is joy
and being and then wondering whether i'm being helpful or not that's uncomfortable but that's part of the joy is to realize oh that's what it's like when your compassion you don't say well here i am i being helpful and that's it
no questions don't question me and also i'm not going to question myself and then we'll have it all could be fine that's not the way that's not the way it cause it does not ethical ethical or not i just did the right thing i hope you people can catch on eventually
ethical is i tried to do the right thing
but i wonder if i did
and also if by any chance you wonder if i did i want to welcome you wondering true because i understand
by the grace and kindness of the ancestors but that's part of the deal of developed of realized in great compassion great compassion requires that we get questioned
and that we learned to say thank you when we're question and also when i questioned myself
but i thank you oh looks like compassion is working it because i i have questions about my conduct and i in it's okay to ask your friends but if not drifted the answer yes you did the right thing and then it's over so i don't get a check but more in this sense of having conversation
ocean rather than assuaging year quit your doubts that a compassionate not trying to get rid of doubts
it's intimacy with all doubt
i might have doubts about my conduct i might have doubts about other conduct fine great compassion is the intimacy of all that
yes are yeah
the terminals
lot of terminology here yeah
accepting them back there are a concussion is
the question the question is not great so
but that is a feeling that might be okay about accepting of your doubts accepting pyramids the satisfy practice
we normally think of i know joy fury leave you feeling
elated oh no it's not that kind of joy
it's not elated it's com com
it's like you know it's like being with a friend when they're dying
yeah not exactly high
but you feel and and people often say
this is this is my life this is life and i'm sorry that my friend had to die to wake me up to it
or laptop i'm sorry my friend has to suffer so much to help me find the way i always wanted to be
and i it's such a joy and it's it's a joy this not related it's a joint that really is grounded in my friends suffering my friends difficulty one time at zen center
one of our students is a very famous terrible thing was the son of the person who wrote have you ever heard the book zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance so that man studied zen and his son came to send center and practice with us
and one night his son was walking just a cop block and a half from zen center
and some guys kill them
just a block and a half from zen center
and so we we went out there to where his body was in stood by his body and i was the police were doing their stuff and anda
they weren't rushing him off because you had died
and one a person standing next to me who
he had done
he had a
a drug addiction problems is this friend of mine his friend of ours and alcohol addiction problems
he couldn't he had a real hard time like all of us really hard time being with suffering
like welder it's challenging to be with suffering right his hundred he had a so he'd tried various little tricks there's various drugs to try to help him deal with suffering rather than compassion or i should say
the way he tried compassion was the way he can try to care for his himself with his suffering was those methods
that night he was not high
he was sober
and it was standing next to me and it turned him in he said why can't we always be like this
like what
to stand next to a murdered friend and not try to get away of course not lean into it either he was like able to be there with this horror
this is the what why why can't we always why do you have to have a murder before you can like actually be there
it's the way he was was the way he was a hose looking for
but drugs and on they take you a little too high the it's do overdoing just being he he was act i could just feel he was totally there with no assistance he was like there and that's the way he wanted to be in his life and that's why he was
the zen student also
it's a joy to be able to be if someone is you love is suffering it's a joy to be able to be with them and not turn away
like one time my teacher was at a gallbladder attack and i was his attendant we were traveling and i was as attended and i was sitting next to him on the airplane and i'd
i can just feel how hard it was for me to sit next to my suffering teacher
but i couldn't i didn't have the training and compassion to sit with the person may be most important person in my life who i cared about the most who invited me to him be as attendant now haven't this great pain and i was having trouble just sitting there with him i did not feel joy
during the moments from then on when he is
in ensuing illness when i could be with him i thought i'd felt such joy to be able to be with his suffering
and my nervousness and suffering being with his suffering
so it's that kind of joy it's enjoy this like to skills your body with this is what life's about
we're here to be together through thick and thin and if somebody's and a mature person and they're like bouncing off the ceiling with are so high well we're here to catch them
or and were we feel joy that were with these stoned people to help them not hurt themselves
like you know
i don't know if i understood the book correctly but
my understanding of the book catcher in the rye is that there's this guy little bit more mature than the children who are playing in the rye they're running around in the rye but there's a cliff at the engine at the edge of the field and the catcher standing at the edge to catch the children's that you don't run off the cliff is that's my
image of the story that's and to do their job to protect those children those crazy children it's a joy to protect them and to be there for them it's not it you're not as high as they are
you're not but you you feel the joy at protecting them and then your it's your job if you're a child does a different story but you're now you're you're a protector and you're there and you feel a great joy to protect them from accidental death due to
intoxication
it's that kind of joy it's a com sustainable joy
and it's sustained not by holding onto it but by continuing to practice compassion so and it's because we were our compassion is a little bit like this
the joy is a little bit like this
it can go into getting a little excited and and falling in a off the cliff are getting depressed and banging your head on a wall because we think we're not doing enough to help people were trying to find that balance place which has this great warm enlightened joy
you're welcome thank you for in question is did the friend who have that recognition that moment it did that change
yeah he did change it but he still
when you call it what's the word relapsed
because he said like he said why can't we be like this he wanted to continue to be like that but he couldn't because you can't keep having people that you love being murdered
you know that's a that's a big help actually when somebody you love is dying it's like a lot of people do quite well under those circumstances
not everybody some people will go anywhere near it because they
they don't want to be close to the suffering that they would feel if they were nearer someone they love with and sometimes people even say don't let them near me they won't pay them because they won't be able to practice compassion anyway
he did have good moments after that but
yeah i haven't seen him for a while
but that's work
that's where we're i'm telling you that's where we're heading were all heading to that level of presence and we're heading towards it being consistent this is the path grown
and then when we're there in a moment then we have social action
when we lose it we also have social actually are trying to develop
this consistent presence so that our social activity will be like standing right with our friends
with joy and courage and concentration and patience and spreading that even to our friend who had just died
young
chris percent
robert basics boy
just an observation in the book everyone is totally troll
exactly exactly good point yeah he wasn't able to be the catcher in the rye
yeah he he he wanted to be the kitchen in the rye he needed a catcher in the rye
and i don't know if the author of that book ever found
a catch her
this wonderful artist i don't know if he found her a catcher to help him
to catch him from running away from from being a catcher he wanted to be a catcher but he was actually more like the kids running in the fields and he knew he needed a catcher and he wanted to be we need a catcher yes and we want to be a catcher yes both we need to and the ca
conversation we're having as we are catching each other you're catching me i'm catching you were helping each other learn this
and so he didn't have a song that the author of that book didn't have a sanga
after and ran africa famous which made more
stuff around him he had to go away from it because he couldn't cope and he didn't go some place where he had somebody to help him far as i know
alan watts was like that
he also had a real insight
but he couldn't he couldn't find a catcher couldn't accept that he needed a catcher needed a sanga so he
he's a great guy and you know he really help the format of the transmission of buddhism to the west but in him and he was an alcoholic
any harm and he wasn't mean but he harmed people with his alcoholism he may one of the sons and alcoholic he drank with his son
so here's this guy with great insight but no teacher no sanga
i said we have a song of the right we have a teacher right so we can we can practice and and if we find that place that we've been looking for we appreciated but then we have to continue to practice to find it again
and again and sometimes we get help by a sick friend
hey that's nice
but
sometimes we get help from a friend who is not who's avoiding their sickness that the sickness of avoid sickness we have friends who have an addiction problems so again being with them finding a way to be with them
and then add the appropriate social response to them which might sometimes be i'm your drinking i'm i'm leaving see later
i'll come back when you're when you're sober or i'll come back when you're in recovery you can you can bet can be your social action that can come from great compassion
that can be part of the conversation the thing is remember are you doing a conversation are you trying to give you know things to go your way
as to watch
doesn't mean what if you feel i'm in a conversation with stories over tips that's what you're looking for is not you being the holder of all that's good yes
when you're someone's or sufferings is trying to or suffering see that i with this person wants to avoid suffering early your presence and i think so
it feels like agitates that or track present
how can you be accountable to store
believing that used your presence is
mean if i with some if i'm with someone who seems agitated and they they seem to be having trouble accepting their agitation
and then i see that and then i come close to them in my uneducated way and then nice and then they seem to be even more agitated when i arrive
and then can and then can i can i like be silent and still with my lack of agitation and their agitation
and can i be present with their increased agitation
you may be again and can i you know like be there totally with them no matter what they do
maybe i can and in fact is that was going on yes it is and can i appreciate it yes again and can they wake up to it yes they can but sometimes a calm person mexico agitated person be more aware of their agitation
that can happen
and the common person can you know start looking agitated if they think that will help the on the person calm down
that's fine
so again if somebody's having a hard time and your show up and they seem to be having a harder time doesn't mean you do any right or wrong it just what you have to deal with
but they don't sometimes agitated people don't get more agitated when the calm person shows up sometimes they go off thank you
thank you for coming
sometimes i call people in a telephone and and leave a message on their answer machine and then later they say off
who i saw calming to hear your voice on the answer machine thank you so much for calling don't ever call again but
i just want to listen to see later i don't want talk to you i want just call this man's in guy

so i guess i guess i feel like you know if somebody's agitated and i don't join their agitation
they might seem to be more agitated but if i can be present with all that agitation i think it does get transmitted to them
and they sometimes come down not by not by suppressing their agitation because i'm not suppressing it but by being with it like i'm being with it
but again doesn't mean that sometimes it doesn't help to get a little agitated with the person and then once you're once you've match their agitation then come down and they'll come down with you that can also be a method is a story of his and teacher who did that with a rats
with a rat
yeah now in a story he has you could say he had an old ulterior motive he was sleeping in there was a rat in the ceiling
and he could feel the rats energy level which was you know rats have a high metabolism they're busy they're busy beavers
and he said he sends the reds heartbeat
and he elevated his heartbeat to match the rats
and then he lowered his heartbeat
back towards normal and the heart the rats heart came down with him
and when you're going to rat has a heartbeat similar to that of a human they go to sleep
southern route went to sleep and then he can go to sleep
so some sometimes you can do like that
sometimes that's a good way it's not there's not have fixed this conversation doesn't have a fixed for
it's not like i'm calm and that's it and i'm not going to get agitated you know if you're agitated and used to i'm not i'm going to become know you might you might get agitated with them but you're not doing it because you're trying to you know you're not doing because you're agitated you're doing it to have a conversation and if you talk to slowly
the little you know they won't you want people to relate so of course i i often talk to you about a certain young lady who's not seven
and she's like very high metabolism and yeah outside
try to try to match hers because she's not going to slow down to mine i try to bring mine up to meet her and then we and then still even though mind get somewhat in our neighborhood there's this other thing about me that's there too
which is she can feel in the background of of matching her energy level is this other thing which she she's learning from
conversation is where it's not like i'm this way your that way and then you should be this way it's more like i'm this way your that way and let's start see if we can find a conversation in the conversation we will realize
great compassion
but it takes a while maybe to can tune into the conversation

even though we might be talking we know might not be a tune right at the beginning
so that's where the silence and stillness helps us a tune to the other person's energy level but in order to return to there's it i need to know what mine is
so i'm i'm were in both sides to try to have this meeting
not to have it had to have it to wake up to it it's already there

about

my finger could you say it again
is the teaching of right
or in a laugh
i think it's the teaching the teaching of read compassion is
one aspect of it is
ah that haircut that it's a conversation
it's not visible is it an invasion it's are invisible relationship
do i have i have a visible relationship with you can i can see my hand and your face i can see your nod i saw your blink that's that's part of our relationship but but much more is going on in our relationship and i can see
and then you can see like i i just heard the other night that are you know in a second we have like forty
cognitive events in a second in our consciousness court were more i'm here but on our unconscious processes there's eleven million
so in a second you and i are having
i'm not i'm not just having eleven million with you i'm having an eleven million with the whole universe but both of us are very an incredibly inconceivably go alive in a way that's beyond our total conscious world so that intimacy is the
way you and i are together with everybody that's great compassion so i listened to the teachings of great compassion to listening to the teachings as part of it remembering the teaching as part of it
i can't be aware of it other than thinking about some small stories about it in my mind
i aware consciously but unconsciously i am aware of it i already in a and they're doing it i'm trying to wake up to them
by remembering consciously
that we include each other and kept in our relationship includes everybody
and were included our relationship is included in everybody's relationship i got that are teaching which i remember and then i tried to act in a way that in accord with that which would be you know things like
you know respecting you
which means like look at you will get when i see you okay but then
there is is visible person in and and then wait a minute who is actually their respective goes with great compassion
not thinking that what's in my head is better or worse than what's a year although the thought might be there that thought isn't better or worse than what's in your hand if i think that way i kind of i'm not really in a conversation
so these are these are two ways that i would practice remembering and checking my karma my action in accord with those teachings

that we do
i know this is a cat i'm really anxious in ages
but the net
never let me just asked
me
a
it us about it
how have had that was
while that he had
but not that however
well there's one foot adjustment of the teaching is the stillness from talking about it still does your remember
and receive but you can't see it
you can practice it but you can't see it
the stillness it you can see like if somebody comes in here in the first half an hour of this session is they all those people is are sitting still i can see they're shedding still but as i think was it mike or not to sin but actually even we're sitting here we're we're actually moving
mumbai mama we change but in each moment we're still but we can't see that
you know your i have to move in order to see something
you know the in order to stimulate the retina yeah used the moon and open for the light to turn on the nerve in the back with in the retina so we see by movement so we can't see stillness but we can understand that it's it's reality that were all
was where we are and we're not someplace else we can remember that
and remembering that makes frenetic hysterical activity
all the more wonderful
then it's alive it's it's it's living it's life and stillness makes it possible to appreciate i mean remembering stillness and practicing it you can appreciate hysteria
but forgetting it and just been in hysteria without remembering stillness it can be something you might want to run away from
hysterics often wondered run away from hysteria
an obsessive compulsive almost like like what late to get in their obsessive about their obsessions so they want to keep are visiting the same in storage one so but ballpark are so beautiful
in stillness and silence
that's where great compassion is were realize the beauty of life even when is hysterical
anxious
frightened confused
it's still an inconceivably invisibly invisibly beautiful
overwhelmingly beautiful
that's what realized in great compassion
which then encourages us to continue the practice
so again i pray that the assembly remembers
stillness and silence and enjoys great compassion which is living there
nonstop

the
we stopped the nonstop