last time i i suggested to i think i did two kinds of stillness
constructed stillness
and unconstructive stillness did i
and
i think it's kind of
amazing that i talk about things like that
did you hear if you heard about two kinds of told us before i told you about it
the second half
so this kind of new on this idea of constructed stillness and unconstructive jonas
who me have sounded like one
yeah
or existence and emptiness because forms you just one example hurt his feelings and things are
cathy could you move that way a little bit please
thank you
thank you
so i'm
so i don't know i said last week but this week i would say that there is a teaching that
ultimate truth
which is sometimes called emptiness
and existence
they're the same
and also they enter the interpenetrate each other they include each other
and that relationship is a
i'm a teaching that's offered to help us in the work of
freeing being so they can live in peace and harmony that kind of abstract teaching in a way
or it's actually also it's an abstract teaching about the relationship between something that's abstract emptiness
emptiness actually is an abstract known
and it has a relationship with or concrete nouns
it is the nature of all concrete things
but also also all concrete things are actually also
this abstract ultimate truth
and that relationship
is a key ingredient particularly in this happened
in a particular school of zen which we sometimes call soto or south charm it's a keen teaching the principle of all phenomena and phenomena the interpenetrate each other and include each other

so yeah so constructed stillness and construct stillness
have a reciprocal interpenetrating relationship

and i think i would maybe just say last week that one when we get together and sit still coming years said still that's a constructed stillness and we said quietly it's a constructed
silence
there was also when were sitting there was a fan going and it was making some sounds
and we didn't we didn't eliminate those sons
right did you have fun
we didn't try it i thought maybe turning the found a hot but i thought you let it be
i'm letting the fan be is happy poll of constructed stillness
so we we constructed a stillness and silence
in this room
and that has a function or that is a function
and then is another stillness which we don't construct
which again is is here with the constructive stillness
and the construct a stillness can offer us some
it can offer it offers us opportunities and the unconstructive stillness offers us other opportunities the the guidance
how the guidance of of how to live in a way that is beneficial to all beings that guidance comes and lives doesn't really come into lives in unconstructive stillness

and construct a stillness may often
what's the word on

would be appropriate
yeah
opens opens onto allows the unconstructive illness
if without constructed stillness we might not be open to the unconstructive
the and constructed always with us we can't get away from it because you can't get away from something that's not constructed
you can only get away from constructed decks
and so after the class matter know how long a minute ten minutes to hours but pretty soon after the class a story came to my mind from my childhood

i didn't
it and historic stories are constructed
but the delivery of the story to me
mine know who constructed the delivery
if seem like goes a gift to me the story from my childhood my i don't know how old i was when i saw it but i think not too young
and story is i remember it was
a story about some russian aristocrats anyway kind of wealthy people
who are kind of having a party
and
in my memory that there was drinking at the party
and i remembered that it was vodka but it's a russian story so a problem with vodka and it was mostly men in this at this party
image that this is russian men get together and drink a lot and also the gamble

provides a kind of story as kind of party that i remember they were drinking and and they were having a discussion and
somehow came up in a discussion that
the way i remember it was
one of the people that another one of the people are proposed to all the people
that nobody could stay
could go into an enclosure like a cell or aren't an enclosed room and stay there i didn't remember how long it was but it turns out the story was for fifteen years

now again i didn't remember this but one thing's led me to research this and i think what i found out was that the story i was watching in this tv show was a short story by anton chekhov
which is called the bet
so in the story they were there were arguing about what which is most humane
capital punishment or life imprisonment
and one and the and there was a the banker was the host of the party i think and there was also a young lawyer and the young lawyers said i think
life in prison life imprisonment is more humane than
then capital punishment southern the guy said okay let's see if you can
let's see if you can do it benefits if you think of two man i bet you can stay in an enclosed space like a prison not regular prison but prison reconstruct it you can't stay there for fifty years and i'll bet you i think it was two million rubles their brute force
what are they have russia
report
the rupees in india rubles in
room ruble
rubel in two million rubles okay so how was the bed and of
so i'm that's what kind of i remember to the and i found out that that was a bed fifteen years and when i remembered i couldn't move was at a year or five years or ten years turns out is fifteen years in the original story
so this young man goes into confinement and
solitary confinement
not just a prison but solitary confinement and as i remembered in he went through a lot a lot of stuff came up
so i can remember he got really disturbed and upset and depressed and that even he was thinking of killing himself in the process
but gradually settled down
an interest in in off story he did a lot of reading thing
i remember it to put that he was in a room that had a lot of books into it but
it either in it had books in its core p in he hadn't asked for them and they were brought to him he did a lotta reading
ah i don't remember if the room had the books and he started reading them or if he requests the boat books and they are brought to him he also in addition to being depressed he also tried drinking
why was in there but he sorted got through the drinking he got past the suicidal thoughts and the depression and started to use the opportunity to read lots of books about many different topics
and the way i remember the story is he he just his whole aspect just kind of calm down over the course of the story
it has got quieter and quieter
he wasn't i don't think he was like a zen student who was trying to quiet himself
but
he did quiet down and that's to constructing are constructed quiet
oh he went into an enclosed space
and he had nothing to do but be in the room and he he flailed and
rebelled against was going on you know he was not quiet and still when he went in there but he gradually the situation constructed stillness which wasn't there at the beginning
and then was there
and then
again the way i remember the story and that and that's the way it is that during these years the the banker who made this bet with this young lawyer he went into financial
basically
difficulties and as as the time approached
for the
conclusion of this bed i think he actually went in the story he went to the young man and said i'll give you a thousand dollars and you can leave it on to good state of the end and then if offer five thousand dollars but the unmanned wanted to finish
anyway the day before the fifteen years were up the banker realized that it can lose and he wouldn't he would be bankrupt if he paid the guy so he when to kill him
and on
and he went into the room and the young man was asleep maybe on at a desk and there was a note there and the note said that he was gonna leave the day before the time was up that he no longer
was looking to financial
and material things for his happiness that divine
liberation was what he thought was important and when the man read the the note he did not kill him and left the room
and then just before the time was up the young man did leave the room scenario fifteen years older and when he left the room
and gave up the money
and i thought
that appropriate response came to him from he was guided to that
by the unconstructive stillness
and and it didn't come to him until apparently in the story the weight and check told him he didn't come to him and top sort of
read the end he wrote that note
so
he he was in this situation of gradually settling down and then he received his guidance at the end because if he if he didn't do that
ah
not only would he have gotten killed but this man would have killed him it would have been who nobody killed anyway
nobody kills anybody nobody killed anybody
no but the bank who was thinking of killing him because he couldn't pay the bet
and if if the young man came out he which they will pay the debt and this thing was this disc that was witnessed he would react he would be bankrupt to pay it so
but i just felt like this in that example the the guidance came to him
but in a gag that guidance was from the beginning but he couldn't see it until he quieted down so the constructed stillness
is part of the deal even though the constructed stillness is it isn't doesn't bring the guidance

but they worked together
and so part of our practice is to spend time
during the constructed stillness to make ourselves available
stillness and the guide new switches living there
all the time
and so part of our practice is to
is this teaching
that is that the unconstructive stillness includes everything all the time and and in that stillness guidance is being offered to everything all the time
but if we don't settle down in our room her body and mind
we usually do not see it we do not realize it we do not receive it
and not just settle down we have to deal with what's going on in the room
with compassion
and if we don't deal with it with compassion
we have to deal with that with compassion
so in the beginning a story he was not dealing with the situation with compassion but gradually he started to be compassionate towards his situation
plus he stayed in the room

and i told the story to somebody this morning and she said wasn't other a twilight zone
and i said maybe so then i
i went online
i i googled twilight zone
and i went through the episodes
no not all of them i don't know how many i went through
but i stopped before i finished all of them because i ran into
an episode that was called
barbara joan guess the bed but it wasn't the bed
it was the episode was called silence
i thought maybe that's the one
so i went to it and read about it and it had and i'll tear the whole story later okay but just want to tell you that the story is based on a short story written by anton chekhov called the bet so i saw the bet
i didn't see this story from into or maybe i saw the twilight zone to but aren't member it i saw the original short story a tv because it's just short story right it's not actually a play he wrote place to it wasn't one of his plays it was one of his stories made into like a play
and it was based and rod serling
road and a tv program based on a bad cold silence
and the street and that story does not have the same the same message of the previous one
that story the bet was similar a party and somebody betting that science or couldn't be quiet for a year couldn't be silent for a year that was the twilight zone one
but in that story
the person who is that that he could be quiet for a year actually did not
did not quiet down

and his cell was this the room he was in was a cause anna
a recording so if you did if you made any sound or talked to anybody because people brought him food and stuff if you talk to what are you will be recorded so that that's desperately occurred you know like in the sixties with sixties technology
so what good man did was he had his vocal chords severed
in order to win the bet
and he didn't win it

so that that story doesn't have the same message he did not get this
enlightened guidance
he did not actually he he cheated he did not actually deal with being silent for here
he found a way to get around the difficulties that that would involve
and it and it didn't run it didn't work out well for him
a very sad story
he winds up without the money and can't talk but
the other one we have a happy
a happy buddha

i didn't understand for when you said regarding instructed stillness and the and construct the stillness and struck the stillness allows for guidance and he said something back in cash
the compassion is necessary to deal with the movements
and now we have three kinds of karma road physical movements voice and thoughts so in order for them in order for the mind with all that going on to come down
we need to like be in a room with that stuff and not run away from it
and
at first we we
you know we just
we're just adding to the all that by commenting on it and trying to get away from motor control it to whatever
but by practicing compassion with what's going on things calm down
and are constructed stillness and silence comes to pass
but the and constructed what is there from beginning of time
but if we don't practice the constructed style then we if we don't stay in the room where the unconstructive stillness is deliver the room is our body and mind if we don't stay in the room with our body and mind
the guidance which is living and unconstructive stillness we miss it because we're looking some place sounds for our life
which means we're not being compassionate to our life
but by being compassionate we we developed this
constructed stillness and silence
and by being compassionate
to all the activity of our life part of being compassionate is not to force the silence and not to force the stillness
like not to not usually he usually not say shut up to the talk
usually listen to it
and be respectful of it
and be generous and gracious to it and be careful and tender with it and be patient with it
be patient with all the wiggling and twitching and
squirming and writhing tensing etc and other
yeah can yack yack
or you know all that
home wedding caught the insults we see coming from others and that we are feeling towards ourselves
by being compassionate to that
that constructs a stillness which like comes and you know deepens and spreads
and maybe sometimes backs up because we start practicing compassion are like you know maybe as as a as the tranquility
as the stillness as the quiet start to develop maybe we tried to get it to develop more
maybe we try to make them more of it that makes sense people some time to do that
they started to come down and then they try to be more calm be more kept trying to be more com is not really being respectful of the current level of com
so you know like if you have like if there were a scale of com like if you had a scale of one two thousand if you're com was a to
and then you did in your practice compassion towards your com
your com will go up towards thousand
and when it gets to like one hundred and seventy five you might feel very happy and then but it gets there by practicing compassion and you might feel very happy and say let's have more
but does not compassionate to ask for more
to try to make it more
it goes up by letting it be
letting low level of tranquillity be the tranquillity you can see
goes up or renewing gets deeper
letting the distraction be the non distraction starts to grow but trying to make the less distraction or make more com is not respectful of your current situation so that makes less com generally speaking
if you try to make it some more com you become less com
generally
yes
even if so you're having also
data mine arrives yes would have been compassion
just no matter how and also include just me
is that no medicine
that's that's that's kind of a a brief statement for compassion let it be like let it be let it be let it be let it be mother mary's what we whispered words of wisdom let it be yeah let it be and then we can articulate
eight that will let it be
into you know basically the five perfections of the body bodhisattva
letting unwholesome states be doesn't mean ignoring them it means attending to them as though they were a precious living being
wholesome states also attending to them as though their precious living beings and states that aren't clearly wholesome or unwholesome attending to them as though they were precious living beings me because they are all life is pro
shes even unwholesome life is precious
and being kind to unwholesome life
creates the creates the it is the compassion which lets the
let's the tranquility start to develop with the on wholesomeness and the and wholesomeness in tranquility
start to be like not really a problem anymore
and not to mention that the tranquility with the unwholesome this
i haven't heard of any stories or the boot of freaking out in the face of on wholesomeness the boot is like com and present and compassionate with on wholesomeness no matter how much and then this unconstructive stillness comes and liberates the unwholesome us
i can the story he started out kind of unwholesome he was trying to prove a point and win some money and and he went into some really unwholesome spaces but he was kind to them more and more and he calmed down and then he got the great guidance
so take
hey still the would recommend doing wholesome karma but the boot it doesn't say do an awesome car may be cruel to to put it doesn't say practice wholesome karma and being cruel to unwholesome karma he didn't say that
he said practice wholesome karma and don't be cruel to anything
nobody
like going on
the in one life the buddha was being tortured by a king cut into pieces he said i did not give rise to ill will towards him
i practice compassion
even though he was
cutting me up in pieces
and so because of that on the buddha
if you practice compassion towards on wholesomeness you will become buddha
also you don't skip over for a practicing compassion towards wholesomeness because some people are really practicing wholesome action
have you noticed some people are really can really wholesome in their conduct but it isn't like board that not going to give them any compassion know they they take it the compassion to
okay terrain your any problem with having compassion to people who are doing or being skillful
who are still suffering they're skillful but there's still suffering why there's still suffering
because
they have not finished their course of compassion
they're doing wholesome things but they have not yet developed sufficient compassion to receive
the guidance of unconstructive stillness but they will because they're practicing compassion
everybody that's practicing compassion will become buddha
and when we start practicing compassion usually we are selective
most people start with selective compassion i haven't heard of people who start with like
universal
unconditioned
conversion that's something most people have to work up to yeah and we are we're in that process
even the buddha did not have it
there was a time and buddha's evolution where there were some things he looked up with not compassionately and he told us about that and he said he was embarrassed i wasn't compassion on that occasion and i'm i'm embarrassed that i wasn't sorry
i don't recommend that to you yes bill
about this story is really discouraging
he doesn't suit your mob left or chair
and
oh well i can tell you a little bit more i will between now and the nice class i will try to read the story and you can do
but i did hear a little bit more about the banker and that was when the banker went into the room to kill this guy
and saw the note
and read the note he was moved to tears he was deeply touched by this guy's compassion
and so not he it wasn't just that he didn't kill him because he didn't have to he also this guide transmitted something to him
so it wasn't but
it's an important part of the story and there's other part important budge to i mean i just didn't have time to tell you the whole short story but i'll learn more about it because i think it's all
i think anton chekhov is a pretty good storyteller
and this story that he told had a big influence on me when i was a child and then and now
on constructive tone as gave it to me again
with the new understanding of what was being given to me a new understanding of the story a new a new dharma jaw came
as a gift of from and i didn't make it come it came to me and also the tv show came to me too and gave me this beautiful story which had a big impact on me i would say
i don't know but how did how does a out to be before they understand that story would sit through it
ten twelve probably not maybe eight who
yeah anyway i couldn't been to my older comes i stop watching tv at a certain point
but i do not i don't know when the show she was but i wasn't in college there wasn't one of those stories
i remember
in this practice we say mean there's no real source i'm checking my understanding is no real source of the guys it
the me on constructed stone
zachary
where's where's the guy is there a source to the guys

i think the source of the games his reality
but reality doesn't doesn't actually have a like a substantial core the soda the way that
the way that all phenomena interpenetrate each other and the way they is is a principal and the way that principle interpenetrates with all phenomena is it is a teaching
so and the teaching is about the way things are so in a sense the source of this on constructed guidance or this guidance of the unconstructive the source of it is the way things actually work which you could say is dependent arising but it is not like it doesn't have like us center that's a
that's a substantial thing
so reality is working as sell haute
but in the process of working itself out it has made living beings who have consciousness and the living beings consciousness is very narrow and deceptive and misleading
and a turbulent and giddy and frightened and afflicted so that's part of reality is that such consciousnesses have have and are constantly arising consciousnesses which had in them
appearances which don't actually exist like independent beings and things i've done are appearing so that situation the it the way that that works he's actually in concert with all the other beings who have that situation and that concert
is cannot be seen in this in this limited way because it's not a limited concert
but that concert
is actually what's going on and concert wants these
watch these are what these limited consciousness is to open to it so that they don't get
stuck in their limited views but an order to open to this concert that's going on the individual players need to allow compassion into their space
but there's not there's not really like a source it's it's the way everything's working together is kind of the source
but and so now kind of backer starting out we have this guidance and could have been started out with a gap is kill killer so i'm disappointed that he could understand maybe
is falling
again how how the and constructed stillness works
is imperceptible
so you could make a story however that if it gets imperceptibly worked to make this person right to the guide this person it worked to guide this person to write the note and this note was a transmission of the guidance so when were guided to practice
in beneficial actions the beneficial acts part of the benefit of them is that there a transmission to other beings of how to receive the guidance which led to this this this beneficial action so we're acting all the time the question is how to bring
wise guidance into in into close proximity to our action so we're acting all the time the guidance is sitting there how can we allow the guidance to come and embrace our action to guide it in such a way as to show other beings how to allow that to come
i'm in guide their actions so in that story he was guided to write the note
and the man came and read it to the man was guided
he he a still you could have till shot him and or he could have been so insane that the guidance wouldn't work
the that the the the young lawyer who is not so young anymore he was guided to write it but that doesn't mean that when people read it they're going to see what's been given to them and this man was going in there was not he hadn't been key here he will hadn't come down he was very agitate
good but still the power of that transmission of that node did sort of snap amount of his murderous impulses and she is in check of wrote this who he wrote short stories right can you write a to novels
this is a short story a long story would maybe tells the story of the bankers evolution beyond that so that i'm telling you as a long story is that the banker in order
continue to practice after that
that that he that what a young man gave him deeply penetrated his life and changed his life and he he he went on to understand what the young man understood
as a longer version of check our story
and we we need tolstoy to
the to it does doesn't it here's an example of a tool shows an example of that evolution he went through
similar evolution this aristocrat becoming a peasant

so
i've been quite far this question for yeah but another and
if anderson you're saying that this guidance is that it's already present
and we were interested in in on that train that need to practice a way that allows about to
for
now we need to a lot allow it so it looks like to be there are certain practices that's me look like is more in a court that think that is less important to me zaza a courtroom fat but like playing computer games on my phone doesn't work as
currently
well act for but it also sounds like either is isaac or my computer games with
accessing passion is a dark again and ensue
let allow that guy persona instructed the stones
yeah i basically grew outside changes slightly in that
in a way
compassion isn't exactly i really don't want to say this don't i didn't really say what i'm allowed to say compassion is a dharma gate the way everything's a dharma gate
the computer games or dharma gate sitting with other people in silence and stillness as dharma gate compassion is a dharma gate
however
practicing computers does not necessarily show you by itself had computer playing with computers is a dharma gate
we need to apply compassion to the computer games and to the sitting in order to realize that the computer games and the sitting and it's and the we need to apply compassion to the compassion to
by applying compassion to everything everything turns into a dharma gate
so computer
activity
izzy dominate everything is a dome get nothing's not but an orange had discovered that we need to bring all this great wholesome
compassion to the event and then event takes it mask off and shows you the same dharma as when zazen though in that we think a and takes its mascot and shows us what it really is so really
everything we're doing all day long is zazen it is broader activity but if we're not compassionate to
pretty much everything then we keep the doors somewhat closed can the selective compassion
it is evolving towards unselected a good compassion so it's like not just it's not just about and only practice compassion towards marry but i practice compassion towards married every moment not just some time with married but it's every moment with marry ever
monk with marty every moment of maggie every home mortgage with elena every moment with airing every moment with everybody
that really opens the door and making exceptions kind of can it closes it and closing it a little bit as kind of like counts but it's not the end of the game it is like oops i closed a little bit i'm sorry
let's try again
and there's unlimited moments of hope diamond gates opening and every time they open and they opened in stillness which is that the stillness we don't really make them drop away we just stop resisting stop holding back our club and everything that teaches us
sometimes a hold back and he seems like the news
based on
my own personal so that i'm holding onto other thousand views
the a computer that he so so now i have a story about someone wholesale and a of the distraction it doesn't feel like it's in a way for her doesn't feel where
compassion as a second really like ever gonna work and right
exactly so
so lending just as earlier but what about unwholesome thing so
if if computer activity is unwholesome
it still is calling for compassion and it's deserving of compassion and even and even if you don't think it is that thought that you don't think it is is also deserving of compassion
and if you think some if using what's going on when you're sitting as derby deserving of compassion i would say i think the buddha agrees with you anything you think doesn't deserve compassion and buddha disagrees with you but the buddhist still feels compassion with you why in what she doesn't agree on
and and and you will you will open to that compassion and you will join that compassion we are in this process
however we do miss a beat now and then and we do sing so well known that
i'm not going to honor
that i'm not going to respect that i'm not going to be generous with that i'm not going to be tender with that
okay well that's another thing to be compassionate to all those i'm not going to do that all the moments of not been compassion all the moments of making exceptions the practice doesn't apply here this is ridiculous don't be silly
like that story it being upright about the the counter in a story
it's a story in being by about a canter candor is a singer in the synagogue right
and and he
he and his family were being harassed by a member of the kkk
and
at first they did not practice compassion towards him they you know that the their religion is to practice compassion right it was that's the religion love them love your enemy
but they didn't do it even though he was a professional religious person but then he snapped out of been so maybe we should practice compassion to this
this cruelty this unwholesome behavior of this guy and they started to do it
and some of their friends when they found out what they were doing they said come on this is too much you're crazy
it can look ridiculous to be you know to be compassionate to some people is just ridiculous
but that's not the buddhist story when a story is
even if it's ridiculous and ridiculous means
ah susceptible to ridicule so doing certain buddhist practices you could easily be ridiculed
but to go ahead and continue to practice compassion even if you are ridiculed that's the way that weren't learning we're learning that way but sometimes when we see how ridiculous it is which shrank back and say no i'm not going to be that ridiculous
that's too much
but too much isn't wrong it's just another thing to be compassionate
yes
a customer
know what i'm talking about far out to copycat
worse
the them
yep
yes
well she asked it though
i don't i couldn't help myself
i d i i'm not seeing right now are all contemplate this though i'm not seeing right now
on some section of the universe or in some point in history when compassion wasn't part of the deal
because basically compassion is just the working of reality
so reality has been working
from before there was a beginning and it didn't stop working when there was a beginning a reality doesn't really have a beginning
compassion is working on a regular working
while the way the way you are supporting me all day long
the way
we're going
yeah i've got i've got i would call the way you're supporting me in reality is compassion you're being generous to me you're letting me be you're being you're being careful of me and gentle with me
you're you're being patient with me
she's really patient with me
she has our time with me but she's patient
right aren't you aren't you huh
you are disappearing the passion of you're saying everything i'd say was everything i i didn't i didn't say i didn't say patients at everything patience isn't cruelty patients as an impatience
i'm not saying your impatience with me if you ever were
i'm not saying that's the way your compassionate to me
i'm saying your gear packed your patients with me
is part of your compassion with me
your respective mean you're you're letting me be i know all the
thought you were also saying that compassion he said is the way everything is that so that's so that's the way everything is is we just said the way things aren't is that where and we're not supporting each other and we're we're not we're not respecting each other and we're not being generous
and we're stealing from a job that's the way things aren't
but that's the way they look in our consciousness and because they looked that way if we attached to that we suffer
and and we had we do sometimes attached to it and we do suffer so that's our situation we got part of our life is things that don't exist or appearing
and there's a teaching i can come to that space which can guide us with that situation where this all this stuff that's not happening that's appearing there's a constant production of things that don't really exist
and there's guidance of how to deal with it in the first thing is to be compassionate to all of it
you know little if you've got some unwholesome disappearing some cruelty appearing some not compassion appearing or it's kind of like or kids that's enough okay fine we got we don't need any more cruelty thank you now we can go we have something to work on now let's be compassionate with it
now if by a chance there was no cruelty that's okay too we can be compassionate with that
and somebody saying well is this kind of boring there's no cruelty we can be compassionate to that
am i missing something i don't see any cruelty lately
that's okay
the you can think like that sometimes
and then there's also you can be compassionate to that to that's not necessarily a wholesome is just kind of like i don't think there's necessarily a wholesome thought and i don't think it's unwholesome
what's the thought i don't see any cruelty i don't think that's necessarily a wholesome or unwholesome
but i still think that that also
being compassionate of that is in accord with reality being compassionate is in accord with reality
i forgot the part of them believing what helping see
and being compassionate to that you settle down with it and this and this constructed stillness comes and then the under guidance comes to not just remember that this is the way it appears and it's not really so that's that's true but now i'm looking at you
oh and i see
marty looks like that but that's not really what margie is okay i got that teaching and if i really come down with that i get to see the way marquee really is
which is not just that she isn't what i think she is your more than
you are all more than just not what i think you are
you also are dharma gates
and reality is
working on us to help us realized reality and part of reality is when we're not realizing reality or stressed so we're motivated to realize it because we some because in fact we are being called to realize it because it is our nature
your to realize it our basic nature is
buddha's wisdom and we have to work with
human delusion in order to open to buddha's wisdom which is our basic nature are basic nature is not delusion it's are temporary nature is are provisional nature
it's temporary
and it would practice compassion towards all the temporariness we open to what doesn't have beginning or end which has bought a wisdom

this is a clarifier being compassionate towards say any state and also can is not the same thing as encouraging them thing to continue doing examples thing
see i guess i notice selfish selfish thoughts and actions of myself if i'm compassionate towards them i sought the same thing is saying to myself just go ahead and keep on being selfish it's at least as the way think of it we still ah
it's like noticing this is whatever it is there's some being inside of me that is doing that selfish thing and i am compassionate twenty that be it's not the same thing as a great big red
it doesn't actually it's not so much it's not so much telling her what to do it's more like you're you're you're taking care of this suffering being that who was calling you for compassion in this really kind of upside down way
you know like a thing i hate you can stay away from me don't don't want to help that's the way of saying help me
i hate you and i hit everybody else phenomena
it's some poop so that's the way it's asking for compassion but you not to say generally speaking it's not good to say eat more poop
once in awhile with very advanced to instant teacher says eat more pooper
but that's usually when people are a puppy to just actually want you to be kind to them
so they can stop doing that and when they feel the kindness they realize this to earn really need this
but i did hear a story about a certain buddhist practitioner who was hanging out with his teacher and his teacher said
what's that and the students said that's a cesspool teacher said go into it
and then
stood when it that porn and there was some stuff with the cesspool floating on the surface which was sometimes called turds
and the teacher said eight that turn
and the student eight the term
i did hear that durham
i just story i and and then somebody said to that student who later became a teacher or the how did you feel after you eight the he said i was very happy
so but that's that's not read just one beginners practice

but you can if if i ask you to go into a cesspool
you can say no
in a compassionate way
no
the
now again i'm not trying to get you to go into says okay i'm just but i am suggesting to you that if certain people were in the cesspool calling to you for help you would go into the cesspool
i wouldn't have to tell you to go in you we just dive in and get that person out of there
right
and one of my first jobs at tassajara was plumber and i spent
time in says post yes as my job is my kids my month job says
story is called dreams a disaster
it a new book called a new book called dreams of a zen master the master yoda story was in a book called shoes
it isn't that book yes
for for real but i and it hasn't been published yet it's it's it's a virtual book this and this is one of the stories in that virtual book which is he in all you all you have that story right now right
we also have a story of nettie sing i ain't going in or cesspool
but again you can say no i'm not going to follow your instructions dear teacher as an act of compassion that can come from you can few can compassionately offer that you can be guided to say no
some of the publisher author time which was in your dreams
yeah that was an old alternate title in your dreams and the another altered neither a alternate title was in your face

dreams of isn't
in the word where does the virtual reality stop
and what does it begin i guess it couldn't have virtual beginnings and endings
yes there was a short film one
cassis yes the chemicals and that's exactly a job was we now a suicide and they didn't call him on your wife and that sort of job
rising as the head of practice
a suit
what the conqueror that minister claims to turtles
yahoo
a really nice job
that's a very rare is very different now
it's very different however
compassion applies to both situations in both situations are calling for compassion
i propose that i'm trying that out
i'm trying out whether
whether i am
whether i believe that you know
i know what a number and drying up with i believe it i do believe it i'm trying it out as my belief so i'm trying out compassion for all any situation you tell me i'm going to try compassionate
any situation told me i i'm going to try
and i'm betting that that's necessary for all of us and my bedding
i'm betting it all of us are in the process of learning how to give compassion to every situation in order to bring welfare to the world
and ah yeah and if any of us ever do not want to bring welfare to the world
i want to be compassionate to them but i think most of you do want to bring welfare to the world i'm just saying i think this is necessary but it's not the whole story the whole story is we basically start with compassion and then the compassion not only is appropriate to bring benefit but also allows
his kindness to come with shows which guides us on how to respond
from that compassion
besides just thinking about what to do
we're in an i don't get not getting rid of thinking about what to do but letting the guidance come in and embrace our thinking and are talking and are gestures assists you know
ah it's just a wonderful this opportunity that we have and it's it's so wonderful that we are
availing ourselves of this opportunity we are we're doing it
it's so great congratulations on being on the boat away
the use if something before we go i just wanted to ask that is i think about this or that people like somebody will say caste system in india needs fixing that has been shouldn't happen
yes yes even the boot the bournemouth said that
and if the buddha says this caste system should be fixed the buddha it should be treated with compassion
and if you treat the buddha who says we should fix it was compassion that will bring benefit to the situation
so if anybody's if in the situation is calling for compassion that the compassion not necessarily thinking they should be fixed
the compassion is more like jumping into it with them
but not like jumping into him like this is a good thing i want more of it it just i'm gonna be here with you in this situation
i'm gonna i'm gonna let you be so you can learn how to let yourself be in some untouchables do learn that and there's something really dangerous about cultures
okay some untouchables let themselves be they accept their situation and become leaders of their community
and bring benefit to their commander some untouchables are
yeah they're wealthy people
cannot be
elaborate on
okay but i would just say bringing compassion to the most horrible situation is the way to bring benefit
it doesn't mean that
and the benefit is
it could be beneficial to fix something but sometimes things cannot be fixed so as not a matter of fixing them it's a matter of
bring compassion to the something that's not gonna get fixed like for example death is not going to get fixed
but people can die with compassion
towards themselves rather die and they can receive other pupils
and they can be they can die in a way that has beneficial so i watched this occur she die and his dying process which we weren't as zen center we were not into fixing it we we didn't hear if i don't know if this is before chemotherapy but he had liver cancer and there was
no discussion of chemotherapy
hmm
anyway he didn't have any chemotherapy i don't know why he didn't but we didn't enter and he and his wife and we weren't like thinking he we're going to fix this cancer that was not on the board it was like he's dying and we're going to be with him and he's gonna let us be with them
and so that was his death was very beneficial to us to to go through their dying process with him
it was much faster than we thought it was gonna be
but it wasn't really terrible he was because he he showed us so well how to deal with his pain he was in pain he wasn't just sick he was he was in pain and he was still suzuki roshi and he was teaching just as well as he taught when he could walk around
down give talks and work with us and so on he was still bringing benefit to us and showing us up him showing us how to bring benefit to him even though the situation was not something that we're going to fix
but if some other situations we can say we could say or we're going to fix it but doesn't mean we we but in the people are trying to fix we can practice compassion there too
as
that that yeah yeah it's not really
hey matter the situation
i
yeah
well
the situation so the buddha didn't teach that suffering was real the buddha taught the truth of suffering
and the truth of suffering as it has causes and conditions
but it has a conventional reality
it exists conventionally suffering does
now suffering does but
my thoughts about you
they existed thoughts but what i'm up at the thought there's no such thing about course corresponds to there's no there's no reality to the part of much of what i think of you
wow
but but suffering with believing my thoughts about you
there's truth in there's truth in that it doesn't really exist
but it doesn't it also doesn't really not exist suffering doesn't really exist suffering doesn't really not exist
but what i think suffering years or what i think you are if i believe when i think you are then i suffer
and then if i turn my attitude
like that i had towards you on the suffering and think this is what suffering is and think that what i think suffering is is was suffering is that i suffer
so what i think suffering is is an illusion if i believe it it's a dealers when i think you are is an illusion i believe it it's a delusion and i suffer
delusions or afflictions
and their afflictions because we believe the disappearances has something more than appearances
but the suffering them that we feel when we
deny reality
that has as that has a reality
and again we don't say that that suffering does not exist
we also don't see it does exist
it is in where this between those extremes and is calling for compassion and if we practice compassion towards the suffering we wake up to the way suffering really is

and as you say this discussion will go on his chest her
the that is just as discussion so far discussion will go on
until everybody
here's a true dharma and everybody realizes great compassion
the the discussion will go on

thank you very much