huh
i am
hesitate to say this to you because it's just an idea but still i want to share it with you
and that is the issue of delayed gratification
and i was her in this article
how about study a study of delayed gratification
and up
at the act as i got an article i thought
the bodhisattva path is kind like
you could say
are are really extreme example of delay gratification
not that there's no gratification because there's lots of gratification on the bodhisattva path lots of it
but there's some gratifications or been delayed
has so the article was about the the one study they had i think when they put children in room where they can buy themselves they're old enough of that wouldn't be frightening
and i think that put me one cookie or something in front of them and they told them that if they would leave the cookie along for five minutes or something ten minutes that they will get to cookies
and some kids couldn't wait five minutes
our country where they didn't want to wait five minutes they just ate a cookie and other kids
i waited for five minutes and
and then they got two cookies and maybe i'm definitely probably ate them for all i know i remember that part
so they studied these children for years afterwards
the had destroy them you know until into dog into a well into adulthood and they found that the children who could
delayed gratification generally speaking on open and they they weren't more intelligent actually necessarily than the other ones
i think that that wasn't arthritic factor that in
that they had they were better able to like do their schoolwork and deal with life's difficulties and generally speaking there were much more successful and very much much lower rate of life
incarceration in prison for example
then the children who couldn't
ah wait for five minutes or whatever it was
so the one of the theories of the study is that if you're able to somehow delay gratification you're able to do other things that are more important than delaying gratification than delaying gratification isn't a thing i just said if you find a way
to do that
for the sake of perhaps greater gratification
you can do aside from the gratification you
aside from maybe getting to cookies you develop others you can you can develop other skills
and then again so that part of this and certain dimension of a bodhisattva path is like that if you can delay gratification of enlightenment and freedom from suffering for yourself
you can develop skills
that more he can do all skills more easily than a few on yeah
at such an idea for you to consider
if you go for enlightenment in this lifetime than you only have to delay your your gratification for must somewhere between fifteen and forty years or maybe forty three forty four forty five forty six fifty depends on the intensity your practice
some people duke and and if if if you are if you've been practicing for a long time already in some you know before you hear the dharma
in like in the case can you have actual buddha there you might be able to get enlightenment in a month or two but you have to delay gratification for interview
like for fifteen minutes source two week sir
and so the dispersed disciples the buddha they do they were good already good at delaying gratification as how they got to be good really good yogis he can't get the ganga yoga if you can't delay gratification
you know when you first sit down he not immediately gratified more effective run into some difficulties and many have you noticed when you said there's lots of difficulties you don't immediately get gratification or many do get some gratification but then you get some non gratification so we struggle over years with this issue
and to me it looks like people who keep struggling with it they become more skillful as yogis
so
that's just something to consider working with this thing of delaying gratification in order to become
i'm a more skillful person had doing things which course you know which might lead to your gratification but they're also would make it possible for you to help others
this was sometimes you know again as i mentioned
have a while ago the middle way is sometimes described as a middle way between self mortification or self denial and self or self gratification sensory ratification is between us to but doesn't say that you shouldn't have any sense of gratification or sensory pleasure
it doesn't say you shouldn't have any is ah self denial
is it isn't a snappy addicted to either one of them
and the way it can the way you find a way not to be addicted to either one of them
is to postpone his to be able to postpone gratification of this thing which sometimes is good to do
and also postpone gratification by using self denial as a to cook gratification don't be addicted to either
find a middle way
and some of my say well i do that offer my whole life trying to find that metal way
and i think that maybe in this life i could find a middle way and
repotted my mind i am i am a book which says in this very life which describes
the path
a retaining liberation in this very life but it's not a bodhisattva path it's not the path to buddhahood it's the path in this life a practicing
postponing so self gratification and for football delaying gratification
enough to develop the skills to attain enlightenment in this life and bodhisattva does it
he to a greater extent
for a greater
enlightenment
that's one thing i want to say the has he i want to say which i promised was that
i very much her have been talking to you in the past about the relationship between living beings sentient beings and buddhas
i proposed to you that
living beings
and buddhas are not separate
but as are not separate from us
we have a relationship with food is
there's no buddha's without us there's no living beings now without borders and there's no borders without living beings i propose to you i still
find that
very helpful meditation and this life
i also have suggested that the the wish
to attain enlightenment in this life for and do it and do it is necessary to attain enlightenment his life for the wish to become a buddha i suggested that these wishes for rise out of the how that relationship with buddhists
so i give his example i saw examples of body surface
and was an and in our relationship has seen the boys such as i wished to be what i thought was a bodhisattva
out of a relationship this stuff emerges
stills once that much see aspiration has risen than the questioners is the practice one of relationship with buddha's for is one of imitating borders
and in the range from totally relational are totally imitative
the path of realizing enlightenment in this lifetime
it's moreover the side of imitating buddhists
not so much having a relationship with them but doing what they doing a practices which borders have done the other side can also is song can be somewhat imitative but it's also about doing a buddhist practices in order to develop a relationship with buddha
and
that that range of imitative emulation or can reply to
the realization of enlightenment in this lifetime is moreover an imitative side the bodhisattva path can be on the imitative side and the relational side
it can be way over on the extreme religion of side and some some
instructions for bodhisattvas are almost all of our relational side
not almost not entirely so for example the great body sought for samantha ponder has his vows
ten vows
and many of the vows especially the first ones are about relating to buddhists and then as so paying homage to buddha making offerings to buddha as praising booths
bob boone is next ones are confessing your own shortcomings
and that is a practice of imitation of buddha as actually buddhas bodhisattvas him do that so you're imitating bodhisattvas then rejoicing in the merits of others which follows nicely from can
acknowledging out your own
shortcomings and the next to again are by relating the buddha's one is to ask mood is not to split not to go away
and the other one is to ask buddhists to turn the wheel of dharma so that part of the first seven five or by relating to buddha's which the great bodhisattva
samantha hardrock he does those vows and it doesn't vary extensively doesn't know lot
does it they're called the practices and mows his vows or practices his practices or house
he vows to do practices and he practices to empowers to practice so the fraud of the first seven five her about an intense relationship with border
intensely related to buddha
the next the next one
eight yeah number eight
here is
yeah
yeah number eight is i've got mixed up i think number eight is imitate all the practices and buddhists
so there again it's relational in the sense of you're looking to the buddha's but you're imitating the buddhist practices number nine is
be of service to living bags and number ten is derek vow to dedicate the merit of this whole of the first nine to the welfare of all living bags
so last ones maybe the last tour about really to sentient beings and panda among the first
eight innocence six of them are not related to buddha but one of the sixth relate buddha as to imitate buddha
so that's one example of the bodhisattva path lots of relating to buddha
but in some pretty sad instruction they say of course all disciples a border go for refuge and buddha in the early in early tradition when people wanted to study the buddha they said i want to go for refuge in you and boy with safe fine
and then sometimes when they met the buddha and i didn't go for refuge and where they just met the board and listened to the border they will wake up and then they would say i want to go work for refuge in and guru is say com
and they would go for refuge in buddha but then name again would it would be as i go for refuge in you with you and i do your practice
in some mahayana scripture is some instructions from bodhisattva as they say and when a bodhisattva and also when lay morisot from or monastic
label he suffers and monastic bodhisattvas when they go for revision buddha they should think
i must
realize the body of buddha
this is how the body surface of a revision border
not i just i take refuge in buddha i must become buddha i must become just like a buddha and the in order to for example help all banks
and this is hot going for refuge
that's
different from i'm just gonna go for revision put and by going for refuge and buddha
it's all going to work on yes
yes jackie

oh thanks for great annex thanks for asking so
for example in the practice of the great body surface mount of harder he says i start by paying homage and he pay homage with body speech and mind
okay so with your body than the traditional formal way of paying homage is to prostrate yourself
and and with your voice you say i take refuge in buddha and with your mind you think i take refuge in buddha now in our school we have a verse which we can do
and this verse is it is first i learned in the zen school but i think we find it also in books about amount of hydra
when were bowing to the buddha we say
boeing and bound to
their nature no nature
boeing person bound to person
not to plunge into this inexhaustible ungraspable wow
realize that reality
so the boys thought this encourage while by into the boot and shoe realize that the buddha is not an object or a subject
and i don't remember this this story correctly fun
but i think it goes something like this there was a zen master name one both
and
he was practicing i think was his teacher and maybe he wasn't maybe i think it was the head monk rather than the master of the temple so he wasn't some temple
and
the tree fell yeah
norbert was concerned about this tree that my fall
and it fell to smell it looks like
and we are responsible
so we've got their love to see him hopefully there was no sentient beings under it
you can go look at nothing to thank you
where was a longbow he's in a monastery and it was a local monastery who are just happened to be the future emperor of china who's hiding out apartment he actually was interested in buddhism but he's also hiding out from his brother who might want to kill him
because he was a potential rival
anyway he survived this dangerous situation and became the emperor
and while he was in the monastery he saw one bow prostrating himself to the buddha
and he knew or by bodhisattvas and bodhisattvas are trying to not enough
not rely on anything
he said what
if you're not trying to rely on the buddha the dharma sangha what how come you're prostrating
and
i forgot to tell this road basic one can i think he slapped them one was left the future emperor and mama said
i don't rely on buddha dharma and sangha
by bowing to buddha dharma sangha
and then slap them become more times for some reason and when amp when he became emperor he named one law he gave one a national title rough action zen master
or crude actions and master and then when he actually done on one board died somebody said you should give a nice her name so i did
so we
we practice towards buddha we can however if we do if we do pay homage to buddha were trying to do that without
trawling for the parents' separation
we haven't realize buddhahood yet but we're not separate from the complete realization of buddhahood
so empowered to buddha one practices to bow the buddha
and then address that apparent back duality and let go of it but some people say
i'm not i don't accept from but their friend about a border
how cruel irony the barbuda i mean no problem but about a border and not get caught by it
that's usually the way to go
for a that usually involves buying and getting caught for quite awhile
see you do you think if you keep reverently serving
the high spiritual principle
and checking to see it as an including in the process and there probably is
but this is the bring your cleaning out
so you can see it and become free of it
and not just clinging in relationship to boyfriends and girlfriends or beautiful little grandchildren
if you wish to practice there too
person holding in person person being held person loving and person been loved their nature no nature my body his body not to plunge into the inexhaustible vow realized truth with my grand with my grandbaby
staying with the babies
has seen what the borders
the buddhas are doing that practice with us and we can do that practice with the buddha's

i won't say it in correct i would just say that there's something about us when we're not enlightened there's something about our unenlightened or or non are non
the buddha body body or non-wood about in party that we've got you noticed that when
yeah so got a non buddha body body that body
his actually ah
this is a relational part that body is actually calling out to the buddha's the teachers and in the buddhist show us something and then that body has something in it that wants to practice like of witness we have that nature
but it's not really the buddha is the thing about us that wants to become buddha it's a thing about a non buddha that yearning for buddha and it can respond a can call buddhas and buddha's respond it calls in a response back for it's the part that leads us to
want to be really wise and really kind and be kind and the free of our idea of kind to
so we aren't hindered by our our concepts about kindness so that true kindness can be realized beyond the concept of kindness
we have that illness is part of the proposal
something about us wants to be morally good wazdan and wants to bring peace and happiness to the world
and that part of his calling out for teaching
but that's not merely buddhahood is calling from buddhahood it's it's something about or non buddhahood that is calling for good
there's something about our nature
even before of perfectly realized our ethical possibilities that wants to realize our ethical possibilities
sometimes they call a buddha-nature but i don't think buddha-nature is the same as buddha
put nature's the way we wanna be buddha that's more or less consciousness there's something about us that wants to be buddha or anyway wants to be enlightened and free and wants to help other people
but we also have because it's the flourishes keener ordinary body that it's complicated so when why kind of one of the border but i'm not sure actually made me too high you know
so we're struggling with a defined our war to clarify that buddha-nature on us to see where really wants to go
and somebody told me that they think i'm really pushing a bodhisattva path and i say i hear you if you think i am but i don't feel exactly like i'm pushing it i like i am kind of pushing you to ask yourself what you wanna do
and if you don't want to do the bodhisattva path than you have what i pushed us at you looked and found out something and we can work with that anybody who doesn't want to do the bodhisattva path what path you wanna do
i would like to help you find out the patty one ago because again studying a brutal way is to study yourself and if you find out that yourself doesn't seem to want to practice a boot away if you study that you're on the boat away
and if you stay yourself you you you might get to the point where say okay i saved myself and i found out i would like to have enlightenment and this life okay study yourself and you can get enlightenment in this life if you want to
study yourself can take you to enlightenment in this life
but also study yourself can lead you to realize i'm also concerned about enlightenment in this life
if i get enlightenment his life fine but i would like to have innumerable enlightenment on the way to buddhahood i found that out about myself and i forgot myself and there was enlightenment but i still wanted jesus buddha thing
so i'm not going to cling to that enlightenment
and i and some of us who were going know like
like some of you write me letters saying would you please teach me
and i i see okay i'll try to do that and some and some of us say the buddha would you please teach me
like we chatted him to morning may all buddhas and ancestors be compassionate to us and help his practice and buddhists before they were buddha's were just like us
and those who were not and have not been enlightened will be enlightened we say that kind of stuff and i asked you to believe it i'm actually i'm not pushing you to believe it but i am kind of push you to ask yourself what what does that say what is that what are these words who am i what is this
i think that goes with a good away
but it also goes with other kinds of wisdom to lesser wisdoms thrive on that kind of questioning but also the buddha where does too so there's a compatibility with the enlightenment in this life and an enlightenment
throughout many lives leading eventually to buddha or bodhisattva as art can be enlightened billions of times on their path to buddhahood
it's just that they don't stop at any enlightenment because they say i'm not gonna stop until buddhahood and then after that and not going to stop either so somebody said what about when it says in in our ceremony will you continue this practice even after realizing the buddha body and they say yes i will oh y
i continue after buddhahood
the and the buddha was actually asked that to i saw style try to stop with that story first
so the buddha was asked by this
this sir i guess he was a brahmin his name was somebody's life of upon a solly
and he said do you got him into the forest into the wilderness to practice and buddha said yes i do
and he said prison it kind of scary out there isn't it isn't an lot of wild animals and poisonous plants and
rough weather and falling eucalyptus trees
he said yes and isn't it wasn't a frightening to you said yes
and are you like a teacher too many people yes well the front will they can equally emulate you will if imitation he says yes wasn't that you're responsible for you to do something which would put them in a state of fear he said well
i don't know i when i went out there i love hi we're not there and i loved the forest now i love that frightening place because when i used to go out there and i got frightened when i if i was walking and i got frightened i would just keep walking until i wasn't frightened anymore
and if i was lying down and i got frightened or just lie down until i wasn't afraid of the of anymore and if i was standing i would to stand until i wasn't afraid anymore and if i was sitting i would sit until i wasn't afraid anymore
in that way i realized the truth and now i'm not afraid out in the forest and him i loved the author
and then and person is janice or jonas only
jonas lee said well
many johnson didn't say mean moody said now you might think since i still bought in the forest since i still do the practice even after i've realized freedom from
fear through this practice in the wilderness you might you might think i'm not yet a buddha and not yet understanding that i'm stuck in the practice but i'm not i'm free of the practice i don't have to do the practice anymore
i'm a boot i don't have to do the practice anymore
but i kind of new have to do the practice for two reasons one i had to do the practice to show the next generation until i had to do the practice because i love it
so will you continue to practice even after realizing the boot of body yes i will why will you because i love it and because i i have to show the next generation the practice sports i don't have to do anymore but i do have to do it because i had to do it so the other people will see what it looks like for somebody who has been to
doing it for a while to do it in the world they see so i have to do it for that reason but not because i'm not a buddha but because i care about other people's learning this way and also beloved by but i just love it
home and i was a time when i didn't love it when it was scary
you know when i was afraid of snakes biting me an insect sting me and i was afraid i'm going to fall through the whole into the were of entered into the pit of hell i had this stuff but then i practiced i stay myself
and i became free of fear and i realized the middle way
and i continue the practice even i don't need to anymore
for you and cause i love it
that's what the buddhists and supposedly shakyamuni buddha two thousand and five hundred years ago talk like that and he also made vows like
the unenlightened i was enlightened
the suffering i will i will give comfort
and saw he made those vows
and bodhisattvas
niklaus like good at him
because they want to imitate buddha and become buddha
it's the money people just imitate buddha but and that works too but they don't necessarily take on the same wow the burden
they used imitate the practice of for example
when you're walking
in a storm
and you feel fear just keep walking until the fear goes away if you're sitting in the storm
just keep sitting in a storm to the fair was away and so on and you will find that it's wonderful to be in the store
okay yes charlie
discussion
more
the
second prize
faith that there
have you heard about
wait for yeah i couldn't pry faith the boys soccer seems really going quite as big as there's such a thing is river that there are otherwise be ostracized his life and i struggled because i really don't believe that
and i have a lot of trouble with the i don't have a said that us
but then i think about the cookies and i'm like okay you know i don't really i don't believe that they can bring me a second for but some people i trust you know so many well and so he said as the way not several lifetimes so maybe everything was gonna find the ability to have faith you know to these energy
chain faith fifth okay let's try and maybe second people and
nrama shine we're am a campus is five thirty now i just wanna say quickly okay if if if you were told by your teacher that if you didn't eat the press cookie you'll be brought to later okay and then you waited there and then the people when they're gonna bring you to cookies on their way
they tripped and fell and dropped the cookies and plate that was on which the glass broke so the cookies hello bro glass fragments in they come in and said you were sorry we can't give you the cookies said but you said you give me to find if i didn't eat that one he said well it's still one you can have that one
but even though you feel that you don't trust those people anymore because they didn't give you two cookies you still developed
the buddhahood that you're waiting for this billion cookies at you're waiting for for passing up on a billion cookies may never come
huh what i heard that will you heard that it will end you can really trust somebody i trust that guy and he told me they're gonna come and i trust him and then it didn't come can i realized i e tricked me for all the while i was doing this practice
and this is pretty good like a and i i told you the story and i i went to i went to zen center because i wanted to practice with a group of people because i thought they would help me practice meditation i taught meditation would help me be like those or sinn body surface which i wanted to be like
and i went down there were people
and they were sitting and sure enough because they were sitting i can go sit to every morning
two periods before work i could do it whereas in minnesota by myself i couldn't sit two periods before work
because nobody was sitting at highest so with the with the help of them than so i got i want to get that and they people helping i didn't go to san francisco to help the pick of stamps is gonna sit
i went to to have people services for help me sit and they did and i said thank you but also went to have a teacher because when i was sitting in minnesota
i had questions about doctor was happening while i was sitting in a while i thought be nice to have a teacher to say it is good is a problem this as these visions and buddhahood and showing up happening and all these green and like much are they are there other problem the am i crazy or my line near i just like somebody talked her since then i went to see this teacher
and my kind of forgot about for these questions and so i went to one of his talks and would in first half and gave he said
i'm not enlightened
and i thought oh too bad that he didn't promise me and my but my friends soon my friends promise me that when i got there there would be an like zen master there
sometimes i didn't really trust those people those in there would like to see know i would say throwing me
but they told me that he was a great masters they went there and there it was and i thought okay and they said i want an enlightened saw a little disappointed
but i thought he's he's not enlightened by still the best i've ever seen
family to stand on a week or two
and then a few weeks later he said i am buddha and i thought okay
that's enough when he said that he didn't mean he was a buddha he said i'm buddha actually you can all say i'm buddha and also understand that you have not realized the buddha body
this is a girl she also said that the bucket when he was talking about the lotus increases while the person in this book is kind of an unusual person
so you are welcome to have these problems and ah i might actually ask me if you trust me in and you may say money too much none of my i keep asking you and when you say i really trust you a lot i might say
rebirth is true and then you can say okay i'm gonna believe it
we can play this game of our rebirth
as long as i'm around
about do you believe her don't you believe what problems you have with it
the thing that applies to reverse the teachers that are applied rebirth also applied of birth
and also applies to death we have birth death and rebirth gay
the character character of first and the character of death and the territory birth and will have three characteristics apply these teachings about the character of phenomena to birth
and you wanted to worry about rebirth anymore
and after you don't worry about rebirth anymore
then you will worry about rebirth anymore
he like to believe in birth to be here
yeah he are to believe in birth the practice you got suffering the character of suffering the same as a character birth rebirth and death so we can practice if you practice these teachings about the nature phenomena imply to rebirth you will become free of your problems about rebirth
once you're free of your problems a rebirth can make and that will make it easier probably for you to consider whether you want to be a buddha you can understand the nature of birth death and rebirth long before buddhahood
so in this life you have a good chance of understanding what reverses
hey weren't you understand it then you miss and now that i understand it i see it's it's not a problem
for me to commit to a path that has no beginning or end
so a little bit of enlightened in his life may help us actually be able to say oh i'm up for a path is really long i really want to do it and the implication rivers nor not a problem with me anymore because i understand what rebirth is reverses his thing which is not what i thought
it was
but it has a characteristic of what i think it is but it another characteristic which supports what i think it is which is totally untouched by what i think of it is and it has is purified characteristic which is free of what i thought it was
first death and rebirth a whole three of existence and non-existence for we understand that this none of these things birth death and rebirth will not bother us anymore and then we can make all kinds of commandments which are unhindered by this time and space
okay
right here and one give a quick question yes
my cousin is this morning when mentioned above
that you will receive
our thinking that i'm worthy of all that i wonder if i am new yeah and that makes me wonder that why you wonder that when you're giving so much as the truth when you're giving everything why do you wonder the receiving was there
i guess i feel like i mean given so much i wonder am i giving back as much on given so much i can't see that i can't quite see that i'm giving back as much as only see i see so much that i get fifty letters is my can i give back fifty letters i can't unless i returned the letters
i wonder if i used to feel this way it's ah the i see you have already used you feel that way but i wonder if i wonder if that's true
i understand you feel that way that's why you send me the letter he say oh you're so generous please continue but i wonder if i'm worthy a new saying that i'm generous just like i used to wonder how come why why do i get to spend time with suzuki roshi none of you got a chance to you how can i gotta
the i better than you i'm really not
we get a chance to
how could how did you get so lucky to be with me
don't you don't you feel like that sometimes like this is i'm really lucky to be with somebody you've got to be with him yes i i've since you're lucky but i wonder how i look at my friend you know
corey it seems to me they're just as kind or intelligence or sincere as i was are more self a son didn't get to meet uk russia
i don't understand why i don't understand why i had this great truths i didn't get it i don't understand
but still i'm so grateful focus so that not understanding because i always have trouble not understanding as soon as a characteristic of somebody like me was not a buddha when i'm a i'll understand oh no i see why i was centered because i needed a special attention
my friends and need to go because he didn't need his help but i was so bad i needed a really good teacher maybe they'll understand that but right now i don't know why we're so fortunate to live at a time
when he was there and i went there and he didn't say go away he said how you could be here to sekai
i constantly are now you know when he was dying i said
when it wasn't you know i wasn't giving the wasn't even go to this end to anymore
can go to meals anymore didn't get dobson wasn't giving lectures is basically just up in his room he didn't and so on and getting treatments i said could i guess sitting room and getting your frequency said okay
how did i get so fortunate people are watch this guy is last day i got to still why can receive his treatments and then the the shelves in person
the moxibustion person got sick and snicker he said to me said you've been watching you can do it
how did i get them
good fortune to be able to be there was an in-network i don't understand
yeah put that not understanding is called and onboard because people i'm not sitting on my words the i don't even know if i'm unworthy i don't know if i'm worthy or unworthy i wonder i'm wondering
you sure can join join a group of offering users
yeah go ahead
looking to say
i think
practicing credit
insincere way
you
clear

he thought perhaps to him
i sometimes feel as so we benefit
from the fact that your salary when you got to censor
was
i hope this doesn't sound like or that sex psychology disrespectful but that
hello degradation and suffering in your early life so that you were going to be very very very careful sincere in your practice and so the rest of your facts
from
that extreme
so
header whether it's good for us or not but i sometimes wish could
we could together do something that will leave you with the feeling that of course you're always practice in such an entire five
can we could completely fill up that part of you
has the wonder your psychology this has to wonder whether you're worthy
maybe it's a mother in kind of thing
thank you that's what happens
i know i know
make our continue not to do it
so you can tell such excellent stories as
so thank you for all your purchase this year are yeah fifteen more days
and sixteen and i'm i pray that you continue and
happy new year