last week
ah november seventh
don meyer time
and down where it would you i guess i i think he's the founder of the yoga isn't room so right yeah
he started teaching yoga
and called the place he taught the yoga room
did it started the julia morgan center
so
yes for he
he was a great yoga teacher and refined and gentle
creative very creative yoga teacher
and had many students who became great yoga teachers
so i had a very jan richard and beneficial life

and
i don't know exactly when but somewhere between or bobby i would think between twenty five thirty five and forty years ago
he invited me to offer
classes on zen meditation
and
the first class his word and can i give instruction and posture
and
yeah loves instruction and posture because it was a yoga room
and gradually the
and of early glasses day we started out with meditation and then we had some teachings and discussion and we'll end with meditation but down lately we haven't been ending with meditation and innocence of we started with quiet sitting than we have
it kind of rambunctious discussions and then quiet sitting and lately we have not had the quiet sitting at the end
the class
has became as a community
i'm a lot of people
coming for many years and one of the people came from any years was donald
he came i think can tell any kind of physically financially physically didn't work from to come
but he came and he was a very sincere student
of the teachings
so
who was profound gratitude to town we continue our life together

the
theme of this series was
stories of enlightenment and
as we have already discussed
enlightenment
he's not a story
but there are stories of enlightenment and a lot of the stories of enlightenment seem to be about becoming free of stories of enlightenment

living beings are those who
have delusions about enlightenment
or you could say have stories about enlightenment which they believe
an attached her
buddha's are those who are greatly enlightened about the stories
all the stories but in particularly buddhas are greatly enlightened about the stories of enlightenment and other words their enlightened a bud
any delusion
in relationship to enlightenment
and the delusions that we have a bot enlightenment are
often appear as stories
sometimes it sure is quite short like
here's what here's a short story of enlightenment this is not enlightenment period
or he is not enlightened period
as as are too short stories or i am enlightened period that's another short story about enlightenment or that was a really great enlightenment we just had destiny so stories are fine but the problem with our stories is we tend to believe some of them
we
we don't necessarily believe others people's stories but we have a strong tendency to believe our stories the ones that a current our consciousness
and then other ones appear in our consciousness which are called other people's stores and we believe some of those
anyway
believing in the sense of apprehending a story as the truth of our life that delusion
in or you could even say in the spirit of oh to called western philosophy
there is this period of western philosophy called the enlightenment
and during that period part of what the enlightenment was about was about becoming free of
stories which are called sometimes superstitions and myths

however enlightenment that that enlightenment of western philosophy i don't know
if it had fully exercised not believing in the stories of the enlightenment
i think i think they like miss tilney some help so that not to get stuck in the enlightenment
and so there are modern
people who are some of whom to have died not too long ago like in the sixties and seventies who criticized
the enlightenment and pointed out for example that if you strongly adhere to the enlightenment which frees people from superstition
and make some kind of headpiece if you strongly adhere to that ah
it's really it's really
toward is totalitarian
it's
it's on compassionate

some people are have worked to save the enlightenment from shock the enlightenment from shying away from self criticism

some people some a kind people have worked and criticize the enlightenment to help enlightenment not shy away from criticizing itself
because philosophy can get stuck in itself

so we've been talking about are some ancient stories fairly ancient stories that occurred
several hundred years before the enlightenment
like almost a thousand years before his enlightenment we've been talking about stories like that
thousands too much it would be
more like eight or nine hundred
eight nine one hundred years before the enlightenment there was a lot as and stories were being remembered and we've been talking about them and
and so for the last class i sent out an office clear a suggestion that you just think about the last six weeks and see if any stories of enlightenment happened to pop up in your neighborhood consciousness

and again you don't worry about with it
the stories were about a real enlightenment or not
but if it just seem like there were some enlightenment going on that would be enough perhaps to tell a story about what seem to be kind of an enlightening
it's or and enlightened turning of events
because one of the stories i tell about enlightenment is that enlightenment is turning
enlightenment is lives in crisis
did you hear me say before
yeah it might like men lives in crisis crisis to the definition of crisis is turning point
where like like people sometimes people get healthier are sicker
and i often mentioned the chinese compound for the which is for crisis is made of two characters one character is danger the other characters opportunity
so
enlightenment lives in where there's a there's danger
the possibility of slipping into delusion this way or that way but also the opportunity to not fall into diversion or as we said to beginning of the class there's an opportunity not fall into the secondary
on the path of put it there's a possibility to not fall into
stories about buddha
and there's a danger of falling into stories about buddha
and that danger is ongoing and the opportunity to not fall into
the wonderful buddha away is ongoing and that turning
is an ongoing is ongoing
question of hot like join it
and it's been going on
for a long time
and for example has been going on for six weeks last six weeks
and i will get his unceasing it's unceasing open ended
ungraspable and unavoidable
so anyway i once again invited you if you happen to have
been visited or been given some stories of enlightenment for the last six weeks you're welcome to
express the story and if you'd and then you are welcome to tell to to express a poem about the story
because the story the meaning of the story won't be in the words
but still knowing that without depending on the words of your story we can talk and away the tree from the story we just told
yes
it's a just story of adjusting your glasses
don't be afraid to just adjust your glasses glasses or it through three people glasses go ahead and adjust your glasses he won't be required to give a story in order to give story you don't need to construct not okay it's all right okay who wants to tell us some store
he's
yes
want to learn exchanges into a nice day out
worse singer and songs our conversation in funding my experience they're feeling tired and writing and all hundred models
conversations that anger
a teacher and for the enlightening quality is a great
recreation marilyn is sharing yeah edges thank you for this

well now
i'm excited about this experience
realizing
you got excited and attached
we have one of our one of our palms and our tradition is
if you get excited you fall into a pit

you know if you get excited about about teaching
so here she is telling us that happened
okay we're we're ready to hear something
oh
she is in the hospital again
nine
oh ways is ignite one match amer still hot
i'm an idiot holly
like in his room herself green my supreme the kings of this chair believe me watch his own apartment these grey walls and losing me all separate separate beds by the isn't
until remembering to turn to work in this have to described the stillness happening to me how to describe spaciousness of this chair beside his walls is brett to describe as soft treasure
in the scheme it is impossible i turned toward this to
thank you

the paper rustles
i had to
can the people behind her here could you would you mind standing up
and and and we just we we just stand yeah easy case if he could get me to stand here or go back stand there
maybe maybe better stand here because then people can see here
your
you're in nig matic incontinence
a awakening
the stick hit the young monk and i have disdain
on my cheek song back we discussed his journey how to monk at humans temple asked whether the stick broke still the still impulsive rage of my aging parents lingers on my skin
a broken promise of protection
as i listen
these stories invite me to look above the weeds of sorrow for the broken rod to see be armed into the inclusive duff's
clearly observe
thus
have to him
gwinnett we yeah that's a good idea of appetite come back with that one several and come back
the

i'm
we produce down and read george to
and

can you hear
could could you may be stand over by ron and talk in that direction
i've been meditating spread and members passed on or about seven years
used by experienced thirty
as far as to cause
it was surprising to me is that each
this one the
similar process
it was something like this in class for advertising so
no aches mountain rivals
hi concentrate
it sure those in a patient process edition by the grass concepts as to an inner patient and read oh boy he was offered me her to see them as a
a a experiences sort of us to as three classical world at last hi there was something is change my body and mind set practice and remember the experience fireworks
practice and offer reply will start to remember each process years the information is synthesize
buy a home asked me was realizing it was power
our have used to teach my by rain and each time it comes with new series hostels
clearly the remedies to sit rafer engage with the song is the
could you hear her king great
thank you
as some of you've heard me say before
when we have our this is like
we have sessions spread apart by a week but still something like like carmen said happens but sometimes we do five days or seven days in row of sitting a similar thing happens and
he's used for the first day they're swarmed some resistance but not so much usually second day the resistance becomes stronger third day up often a little stronger for day not necessarily more
and the fifth day
people start to
let go of resisting
what
resisting being where they are
and the six day often
people are like pretty much like just there
unfortunately there's only one more day
but usually the fifth and sixth day people are pretty settled and accepting where they are and half i also mentioned that one i sometimes during those things situations i i've sometimes it just people's posture and
not really adjust but like checked the posture
to starve feel with we're going on with their back
and but even when i just when i touch their bag even i'm not pushing them around much still there's a little bit of a response
there's a little bit of sense of of the hardness or the supple and us of the of the back
so i mean i make i make enough of a touch so i can feel but that sometimes is also enough a touch for a person to feel maybe some other possibility
but at the beginning of them at the beginning of the sitting first day people's backs are kind of hard
and there's not much give but and sometimes i because there's not much give i i maybe put a little bit more pressure on just see if there would be any give
and then sometimes there isn't and then i let it go at that
but as the week goes on the bodies gets softer they become more tender
and i many years ago the image of watering a potted plant came to mind
if you have a potted plant and as and the soil is dry if you pour water on it it basically runs off

which is you know and if a but not completely as a little bit of it sinks in but if you spray it lightly then there won't be much run off and the the surface will get moist if you spray it again the surface will get moist and this and the moisture will go down
and after
repeated application of the moisture
the
the soils
pretty moist and then you can like poor the poor water on it and in a not to spray but pour the water and the water goes right in
yeah no goes right through so that's another that's another story of enlightenment
if we keep me so part of the thing is we if we don't water
if we don't give our put herself in situation where the moisture can
touch us printer
the situation has a chance to touch us and penetrate a little but then if we wait too long before the next touched
again it'll be dry again so we need to find out how often
how often we need to touch it so that the soil it is moist but
most people do not
do it enough
so that they're ready to have it just like poor i threw them
right away
so that's why we need
sessions of training where we can feel the resistance if you feel the resistance that means your that is working
and then it can work more
so then you do it again and you'll feel the resistance and you do it again and if your as existence little by little if you keep doing it you we do become porous and had tons flow through us
since his part of our
each of us has to keep in mind how much
whoa how much we need to keep it going how often we need to expose ourselves
so that we can go in
that's the story of enlightenment
the process of enlightenment requires that we
her in some situation where we actually can feel the resistance
acknowledge the resistance
that's part of the that's part of the program
and again
if you wait too long to do it you won't even notice the resistance which is really sad
if you feel resistance something's happening
and then you say grew and
okay when am i gonna give my body and mind another chance to be touched and to accept or resist but again resisting
his part of accepting
and we are in this process
and we are at risk we are adults
so we have an opportunity to accept the responsibility of keeping in touch with this this issue of her weeping
have we been touched enough that we feel the resistance
yes
some
story
that guy
is stress
last i said it best
and i notice and notice the last chance
nursing so
that's what it is
celebrate sater said
here took on always think that the last year as i'm sorry if i have been worse
one thing you notice ration way was has been was joking about something about the situation and and middle of august tension i laugh and have been fairly and then get healthy and and so i think that felt a little bit like when it gets worse than
the i was getting permitted by who by the absurdity of what was going on but i saw that it was so there it is
yeah
yeah
the program of getting rid of resistance is a form of resistance
you now
we're trying to get having a minute and agenda or and intention to get rid of resistance is another kind of resistance
so there was a moment there were there was if excuse the expression a breakthrough and opening there was a relaxation the relaxation allowed the laughter
but it's even more funny i would think if the if the tension did not go away it's even funnier
this is mark is more ironic that i'm tense i this is not funny
i'm tense there's no humor in this and then
see i'm story that is
at that moment you relaxed with how on that it wasn't funny relaxing with it isn't funny is the punchline
and then it's even funnier that the tension still there

and you know and part of the funny thing about buddhism is that buddhism has a lot of talk in it you know i'm a lot anyway i frequently see in the buddhist
literary output i see the word get rid of
and eliminate heave and destroy
well that you know in in a way that's really silly and yeah it's really funny and
and it's also kind of sad that people actually believe it when when a buddhist teacher says get rid of something that's really like the funniest thing a buddhist tissue could ever say
like the buddhist get rid of something

sarah
just teacher say get fittest
but i don't member
any particular buddhist teacher saying that but in route but in reading i've seen it and i've seen at five in in the teaching of
very respected teachers
and
i've had a problem with it for quite awhile that kind of talk
and now i'm a little bit more on i was more of a sense of humor about this kind of talk and my problem with it
and i'm not trying to get rid of the people who are saying get rid of
and i'm trying to learn
how to be open to not getting rid of anything
which includes not getting rid of people who are trying to get rid of a lot of stuff
so the the reading people are welcome
the not reading people who are welcome the people who get the joke or welcome that it will get the joke you know goes to the zen masters
they get the job and from my early my early attraction to then was it seemed like these people got the joke of this universe
but not by putting it down not by putting down all the difficulty but actually by being so intimate with it that they relax
and see the other side and it just
it breaks into laughter and we one of them what's called archetype of stories of zen which i translated with linda's husband one time
it's called it's a festival called face to face transmission and in that fastest girl there's a story the festivals when i translated with cause and the beginning of the story is
once shakyamuni buddha we have stories about him

get
he couldn't get the flower vase and several people laughed
but back in the old days he he got the flower out and it could say he twirled it this is a twirling right
and this is a turning
twirling okay so he twirled the flour and one person in the assembly
smiled
but what he said was actually
the face of that person broke the face broke
into a smile we says that we say broke into laughter broke into a smile

yeah so that's what attracted me as and as people breaking into smiles breaking into laughter
leaping out of rigidity without n n and but living out of rigidity without getting rid of it is more funny than leaping out of it and then leaving behind know living out of it without doing anything

the boot away is basically leaping

i never thought i could love him but i do now
oh yeah work to be done

so that was a a story and opponents of same time
to pay someone told me about
an elderly a person who was quite a bit older than him who live near him who who was his neighbor and he helped this person for twenty years he assisted him during various things around his house that he couldn't do by himself and
he asked his neighbor who he really took good care of one big favorite and that is if you ever sell this house please don't solid to somebody who then in a rented out
two
renters
and the man did sell it to somebody who did rent it out
and after all those years of caring for this person he felt betrayed

and he kept taking in you know after the man sold the house he he felt betrayed but he kept visiting the man in the
what's the word assisted living and nursing home and so on and kept visiting him and taking care of him but deep in his heart
he still felt betrayed and angry
and then couple days ago at a place called green dragons and temple he was sitting in the meditation hall and
he broke
he broke open
and found his love for that man
man didn't do anything his own vision of him broke and he saw the love that he always felt for him
and i
no
i didn't say what you give me a poem about that
i thought it was a bump a lot what he told me so but next time i see him i say when you rent me a poem about that story
i won't tell him it's and enlightenment story i'll just say what you wrote a poem about how you
got this other perspective and could get in touch with your love for him again

okay
what they are please stand up i think i think it does help
and especially if you maybe you talk this way

i love east along university avenue which spits out a skinny in car horns fast on as fans and the last eeditit on the three and mark
this chaos happens matched by the state of air like my brain i am ashamed of my wearing lots and their random your factories until i remember to accept them to refrain from rejecting life in any more suddenly returned to the other cars and auto
he's the boss and i state of of or no questions no means only the her passion and this until i project another up and mr once again office hits arising

barbara joan
it's now a good time to do this next one
it might be or
you can wait a longer feel like
and ethical of a anything i have some homes forbid that
go
okay
he has never thinking that was good when you stood here can you hear
here you have a county
grand his son
you may have heard read sorrow is palpable
my grandson time
six weeks ago
in one story rapids on a hill in san francisco and his young grandson wanted to dart into the street seed truck hand so read took his sons hand and together they went
how to give it the in-system child
and perhaps his grandson in different stories set at the table not listening or hit read the in the face and now this young monk angel child is our teacher he has entered
a very darwin lesson we always need to learn that we too are in ohio and you're into that are teachers have her near across all time in their perfect storms the once they left in comment

yes sir misha

the series home when it falls away is always
as a group of close i took out the dog before that by with flashlight scanned the woods but glaring eyes editors raccoons foxes valentine's a strong wind was blowing the northeast battling the trees yeah well at last
the north are rich toffee a massive fire was advancing on the that distance while you're watching first the rabbit
turning away and touching all the fire department explained in darkness the fire period much closer action was there was no game personally but it was still time to contained a another spot fire heat and flavor
here's before we call him to lead and win over there we laid out will just tell ya there was time to say want to take like a we but when the load of that stuff was memory everything reveals himself be marked by boss he spent a sleepless night listening to the my
our the other waves shake loose leaves from the trees carrier oil
in the morning hours then or the cell phone came a new story was time to joining the leaves were
only down from about we found stones and roads gridlock gas stations markets and eateries steak or by some people we were never in danger of pigs
a few days after the smoke started declare the cell phone rang again was the doctor within israel
the biopsy revealed fire great with them it was going to be aggressively but there's still time to a survey and other fire didn't swear goodbye
very away intention of of all danger on he's an opportunity to whip and read for work at have refrained various eagles are playing her death working a and are all sentient beings personally verified
close to a server will come by here the working on the way
the shape keeps me instead i should know fast way results and as mayor i wouldn't sleep take my weight so i learned by know have you
thank you

yes
years later and can still feel the spar be touched my that

yes

across the earth a butterfly flaps its wings causing ready to burst of us about weaving a particular threads and universal fabric or is if the conversation that causes the butterfly flaps its wings thus come
the turning of the wheel and the flapping of wings and the conversation and student teacher khayyam butterflies
thank you

yes

this is called one class
class i was enjoying your sauce in ma'am
then not a couple hitting bamboo the news and a grandson's death in a sudden sense pushed in size from center stage
and for a moment they floated this

yes
breaking move together

yes
you know
true story is
i'm sitting here with him twelve years old
you play windows cry weapons
his hands how name course of the keys
her voice is merging in harmonically
after we started he turns me and just look
and the whole each other's gaze hope and energy and endurance
the song
he asked why why did you write that song
i've been
ab
why is he shares some is me
is my thing
why has to share his conclusion was

huh

last cycle by nancy read this
it's called casting the movie
i'm in a cafe telling a story to friends a tail so compelling my delivery so dramatic a casting director sitting nearby hears me she caused the movie director on herself breathlessly she cries i think i've found her
when i audition room is so moved everyone weaves if the studio says no to casting me the director swears he will quit i become best friends with the star i become best friends with the stars best friend i win an oscar my
speech is terrific and even though i am a dumpy woman in her sixties with gray and her hair and a sagging chin i am in huge demand this has never happened before and the entire history of movies
it's such an amazing story you may well ask what happens next what happens next is nothing there is no next and if there were it would be more of the same or less words and phrases so compelling so dramatic
you can call the director you could say i think i found her and you would be right i sleep dream and awaken to air that is fresh a room that is neat and cool dreams generosity vanity our words on a breeze
phrases make the curtains rise and fall oh what wind such a storm out there ruin such stories we tell
thank you

oh

a question has arisen and it is the following
what have you learned in this series of meetings
what have you learned in the series of meetings this fall in the yoga room on thursday night

the

clearly observe

here's or

can your meal
the user though we can can be done have
snobbery our

could you hear him

a two thousand euro traditions alive
very
no leaving
louder please only known early
the in from

that turns
when
why is he asking

huh
enlightenment is not a story for is easy to get attached to the stories that in mind
it's easy to get attached to really good stories
the
he is
ah

how come his way he's tell our stories will have another chance
that guy
the bush

you face breaker

yeah
hmm
he just again

yes
are pushing the
did you say vision notion notion
well one notion is in the endless future
to claim of it

so she's put them on challenge
you know
no
i wish i could share
my
i think nina simone
feels the same
on the way over here i heard on the radio
mister rogers said
look inside yourself and find
your love
and that's important because if you find it then you can
show it to your neighbors
and your neighbors or everybody you meet

thousand arms and i felt
hello

i pray you remember that
i pray that you remember that
i love

huh
this is all group for of it
if you're very welcome

thank you thank you thank you