The Virtue of the Bodhisattva's Delayed Gratification 

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here's a story
spiritual beings
dane sometimes
to appear in time and space

so they are they participate in the creation of a space like like the surf the space here to pack to practice with body mind and spirit
so this is up here this is a practice place for the spirit
to make a whole
to make it
healed and whole
he's called no gold
doesn't many stories about
how it came to be called know abode
and that that name could be used
two up as a kind of them
slogan or emblem
of the practice of the spiritual practice in this space
this could be one could say this is a place for a bodhisattva to practice
and ah there's a teaching for body surface
what our soft as a one definition of a body cipher is a being who is on the path
i'm the voice office
and the path of the boys suffers is sometimes talk about as the path
the buddhahood the bodhisattva path is for buddha candidates before candidates for bhutto
so one could say this temple is as name which is
the name for the kind of mind that is taught and bodhisattvas has taught to beings who are candidates for buddhahood

in the in the story of a
oh
that's it the spacing this is a space right there's also the time that this space has been provided for bodhisattva practice for quite awhile
come into the end of a of a time period called a year so another year of the space being provided
is coming to an end
and when it comes to an end then there might be the start of another year which gave the so the opportunity to consider
what was a practice be in the new year or even what will the practice be
in the next fifteen days of this year

i actually today would suggest or anywhere i'm definitely open
to this practice place not just be available for body surface
not just be available for people who are on the path to buddhahood i would also like this to be open to people who are on the path to
what we call
enlightenment
the non buddha type
in early history of the tradition there was a buddha
and a buddha
indicated that this buddhahood was the fruit of the bodhisattva path
and the buddha head up a number of the wonderful disciples or students
who'd listen to the buddha and looked at the buddha and these things became enlightened
they became enlightened by listening to the buddhist teaching and when they were listening to the buddha's teaching they heard the dharma and when they heard the dharma then became enlightened
but they were not buddhists they were called in sanskrit there cause trauma cause
with means potter's they are listeners sometimes rather was translated as disciple
but literally means that the listeners
the beings who are her listen to the buddha and heard the dharma and became awakened

the buddha
welcomed people who wanted to be enlightened disciples not just modi surface
so it seems like we should hear also welcome people who wish to be enlightened even if they do not wish
to walk the path of the bodhisattva
today i'm i'm open to the possibility that some of the my hair be here just to be coming lightened but not necessarily wish to walk the path of the body bodhisattva
because you could it is possible you can become enlightened in this lifetime
but technically speaking
nobody in this room right now is going to become a buddha and his lifetime because our dear compassionate founder in india shakyamuni buddha
have monopolized buddhahood in this time period
and he gave this cheating wants the buddha's teachings in the world which it is fortunately
there can't be another buddha until the teachings are forgotten and lost
and the next mood is already been specified so it's not gonna be you
for me this far as i know
it's not like we're going to be reborn as maitreya buddha the next border actually is present and waiting
for her turn
the next mood is alive right now in the world in the universe
and as soon as the teeth of the marvellous teachings of the buddha's disappears in this world of patience
the next lord and maitreya will come and give the dharma again
fortunately we have set up

so there in some sense that we talked about three vehicles
ah
the vehicle or the three vehicles three goals three types of enlightenment the enlightenment of one are called the listeners the shah because the enlightenment of the project buddhas and the enlightenment of the borders
the boot is usually don't have prachtig buddhist in their assembly
they have occurs in their assembly
the buddha's have traffickers in the assembly they don't have a buddhism their assembly except for the buddha but they also can have bodhisattvas in their assembly
the early tradition was a tradition of the buddha with these enlightened disciples or disciples who are on the path to the enlightenment of the shrub occurs
that's the early tradition
and a later tradition is the buddha has traffickers hand body surface in the assembly
or people for the head the border and has body surface
traffickers
and people who are widely strava cars and people wanted the body surface in los angeles

again in this in the realm of time mr years is into close i'm kind of warming up to ask you where do you stand
what path you wish to walk
i haven't yet asked your and estonia my night
i proposed to you that there is a profound continuity between the early
history of this tradition in india
and the bodhisattva
the body sought some movement of this tradition there's a profound continuity between those who aspired to be enlightened under the under the leadership and
teaching of the buddha
but did not aspire to become buddhas
only aspired to become enlightened with this body this human body
that's the early phase of british history the later phase is there were beings in the buddhist assembly who aspired to be buddhists
but aspiring can be a buddha is not the same as aspiring to be enlightened in this life
you can be enlightened in this life
but we will not be buddhas in his life
it's a much
it's a much longer path
then can be accomplished in one lifetime
we at a ceremony recently for the hill and green and green gulch
and it was ceremony where one of varsity
so long term practice of our community served as head student and then there were questions to this person and people some of the people in the audience spoke of this person has been a buddha
sometimes people use that the term buddha kind of informally non technically and sort of affectionately you're a buddha neither was i really respect you i think you're wonderful
i know i am okay with that i'm not going to
i'm an acceptable talking like that
if i hear any of you calling a threat and buddhism a new permanent except that you're talking like that
and i'm i'm probably feel like raspberry i feel they've really been kind of the they've really big they're safe i appreciate you
and then if later because that i heard i heard a homer call sesay a buddha is this ssa really a buddha and i said well

let's go ask him

there is a i'm proposing again there's a deep continuity between the early phases of british history and the phase where the bodhisattva ideal was a arose and the continuity is the continuity of renunciation and non attachment
in the early tradition there is the practice of renouncing attachment and realizing the mind of know abode
in the bodies for the strava cause the buddha taught that in the later tradition for for the bodyshop idea arose there was again this practice is overarching practice of non attachment
of selflessness that's the continuity
the differences one one group is wishing for enlightenment in this life even today and the other is
wishing for supreme perfect enlightenment of a buddha

so the difference between the earlier and later tradition is not so much that later tradition discarded the early tradition but that i added new practices to the old ones
new house
in particular the vow to become a buddha
i may maybe i mentioned his first
no family imagine second first i'll mention that i would suggest the question why
how could someone actually wished to be a bodhisattva
to take on this
immensely long and challenging path the brotherhood
how can somebody say yeah i wanna do that
and i would say that
in in this phase of history most
modern most scholars would say most scholars of buddhism would say that the the cause
have wishing to become a buddha
his compassion for others
is concerned for the suffering of others that that's the cause it's a cute sense
an acute sense of the suffering of others had a wishing to up
work for their liberation the fat
that thing which is also called karuna
compassion that's the cause of the motivate us to that's the motivation
a taking on the vow to become a buddha
the bodhisattva vows i like the vows of the buddha shakyamuni buddha's vows are very similar
are identical to bodhisattva vows
why would anyone
love some take on his boss
many most almost all western scholars say because of compassion
for others and for all others
but there's another
motivation
which is not so often talked about these days
but is in the tradition
and that motivation is
that they actually that the person who wants to them buddha wants to be a buddha in order to be a buddha
that they actually want to attain the broader body
of course that can only be attained by
and virtually inconceivable amount of practicing compassion towards other beings

so i've i've talked a lot of people about their motivation over the years and some people have
call me that on they do want to become enlightened
awesome to have a safe i don't want to be enlightened that's too much i just want to feel a little better
i don't want complete liberation i would like eyes too much for me to think about i would like a little i would like some
for me and then hit on the service said emphatically but they say are often sort of kind of
the kind of wondering that's okay if they could be in the zen practice arena wishing to feel a little more liberated a little bit more free a little bit more relaxed
able to sleep better at night and so on
of course i was support that
how that's not wanted a traditional goals other
patricia goals are basically
enlightenment and freedom
and buddhahood they're not the same boat has a good buddha has a previous one buddha has enlightenment and freedom but buddha has other qualities
whereas has the qualities that if you put and place where there was no teaching the border would discover
an
and give it to that world
so people say that to me that if some people say actually i i i do want to attain enlightenment but don't i'm not here primarily to help the other people as as and our ten enlightenment
but i do want to i would like to be in light i would like to be completely free of suffering i would actually want that
i definite i don't i'm not aspiring to be a buddha so again some people to say that those firing to enlightenment too much for them
some people say okay i can aspire to enlightenment but not to buddhahood
some people say i'm here to help myself in a very profound and
wide way but i'm not here primarily to help others
some other people say i'm here to help others that's why i'm here i don't care about myself i don't care if i get enlightened i just want to help other people some people say that do that one is i think for a less really quite popular in that one
i imagine that people feel that it's okay it's okay to say i'm here totally for it for the welfare of everybody else in the community and i don't care about myself or for i'm in i don't mind myself by in i'm i'm going for me to come along with all that good but primarily i'm here to help others
i think people feel comfortable there because assad doesn't sound selfish
when it's not done some selfish to me either
so i want to help others but enlightenment to my just let me devote my life to help others
that attitude actually is not in a trapeze not actually in the tradition too much and we to you that too much i hear being devoted to the welfare of others
yes
but are you devoted to the welfare of others for others for for buddhahood
the of bodhisattva has devoted to the welfare of others but what's the motivation to be devoted to the welfare of others all others
not just the others that you would like to be devoted to but the ones that you
don't want to be devoted to
have we like to learn to be devoted to the people that i don't feel devoted to
oh how come on i just to to the core and be great
for if actually think it's necessary to be buddha to make a buddha and i want to make a buddha

i myself have suggested that bodhisattvas
ah wish to live in the world with all living beings i've suggested that that that kind of perspective and body surface kind of saying well that would go with the reason i'm doing this is because i care for the welfare of being so of course it would make sense that i would wanna be intimate with them and
it's like can practice compassion with them

but the other side is that actually
has it making a buddha might actually involve that you don't spend time with living beings
in order to develop the buddha body
that when a nice and not think i'm making that that line of making a buddha
for which sometimes involves
not engaging with other living beings
that way
kind of relates to the earlier way are becoming enlightened with where one is an know gives up
involvement
gives up certain environments
in order to realize non-attachment
am i say that people start to feel
something about the challenge of becoming enlightened and something about the challenge of being a boy
as and as zen tradition
kind of combines the two traditions were to traditions
well actually to me i should say in it a kind of involves a to traditions but also involves even more so the to motivations
the zen tradition is about
the concern for the welfare of others but it's also about making buddhists
a zen monastery is called a buddha making house a house for making buddhists
but is the it's a house where other
beings are there practicing closely together
but in some of the teachings from the bodhisattvas that the people who wish to be buddhas
the boy thought that is encouraged to practice solitude
to go off in the wilderness by herself
in order to make a buddha
and the buddha
the historical buddha went off into the forest to make a buddha
in the zen tradition we say we call the monastery of forest and we stained we stay close together we don't go off into the wilderness so we try to have solitude
with other people around
so kind of combines the bodhisattva passes to engage with living beings because we're concerned for their welfare and also solitude to make a buddha
food is need in order to make a buddha you have to get to prices compassion was living beings trend you need solitude
in a both
can make a buddha
but someone might think but to make him but maybe know some people say if you can just make a boat and by practicing compassion
the reason why i'm on this modi south impact the reason why i wanna be a buddha is because i'm concerned for the welfare of big say okay but part of becoming a buddha is to practice concentration and wisdom in an order to practice concentration and wisdom
you need solitude
so
hi
ah
two two nights ago i mentioned in berkeley and on december second i mentioned a green gulch
an image from the book movie jack
and as image
ha that appears in a chapter which has called the pulpit

and the pulpit is a raised platform for giving heart
sermons
but it's also a raised platform and a whaling boats
so when the author of moby dick named the chapter pulpit he was
he was playing with the pulpit as a church
for the scene and took place in a church of a preacher getting up into the pulpit but he also i think knew that
he knew the people that the a platform at the end of a whaling board is also a pulpit
that's the origin of the word
the the word come from the platform on a boat and is transferred to the church

and so has meant it on a stormy night this minister this preacher comes into the church
and goes up to the pulpit and this pulpit or in order to save space doesn't have as doesn't have steps it has a rope ladder
and the minister climbed up the ladder to get into the pulpit
and when he gets into the pulpit he pulled the ladder up into the pulpit
cutting himself off from where he came from
that's part of the practice
you you you climb into your place for you're going to sit
and then you pull the pulse the ladder for you pull the way you've got there up into your seat you cut off how you got to you're sitting place you cut off your past and also you cut out for future if you cut off how you gonna get on your sitting place you go to you're sitting place and you give up past and future
because well you're looking for this place to find a mine of new abode and melbourne talks about this place that he created a self contained stronghold
for replenishing
for replenishing the meat and wine of the word

the continuity between early tradition of those who wish to become enlightened in his life and those who wish to become buddhas a continuity is the pulpit
his solitude
he's a place
to go and sit and pull up the rope from the past which is also the rope to the future pull the rope to the past or future of put him down in front of you and sit there and realize enlightenment for buddhahood
the continuity between realizing enlightenment in his life and realizing buddhahood
someday the continuity is the practice place
the difference the

i'd like to tell you that
there's another topic which i wish to raise and i'm going to raise it now but i'm not going to go into it or go into it later today
i won't tell you about it though and as the topic of whether the bodhisattva practice
why i'm talked about that
football is a schreiber good practice
imitative of the buddha or is a shrub can practice of practice of relating to the border
and there's a body sought for imitating the buddha or is it a practice of relationship with the border
that's a topic i like the resonator
for now
i want to
discuss with you now that i've said this to how this is for you and and also i'm asking you to consider
an enlightenment in this lifetime
do you inspire to give him his lifetime to the path of becoming a buddha
knowing that the path that you're not going to become a boat in his lifetime
and you have some questions about this
this question is offered to you as we come to the close of the year for you to consider
the rest of your life or hum
even
a lot longer than the rest of your life
okay
how think about this with your yes yes and think
given that we're out of luck
in this lifetime
watches his lifetime
it's not the life i can't become in my lifetime this that has been done
can't have a condition
robert yes there is a possible soccer
in my life or
did you hear his question is it isn't possible become a bodhisattva
ten lifetime my wife
in my lifetime or in this led to the answer i would say is yes
and hardy become a bodhisattva any questions about that
for questions you have about that
any questions about how to become boy sofa yes sexually what sets a person on that path studying the dharma and which sets of someone on the path of boys after a motivation
and i propose to you that the to motivations ah
two motivations
and i said the most common one this at in this phase a history than most common one that people will set tell you that looked at buddhism da say that the concerned for the welfare of the concern for the suffering of others is is the has to start that's the motive a
asian for wishing to enter this path not but
not so popular to say this day but if you look at the buddha's teachings you look at the records of them of the bodhisattva vehicle tax there's another motivation
which doesn't exclude the former one you can still have compassion but it's not just it's the primary one is the wish to be a buddha
it's to wish to realize a buddha body if you had the either of those two motivations or both
then you couldn't actually
wish to
here's see just wishing to help others is not a bodhisattva vow the boys out of our is wishing to help others but also wishing to have wisdom buddha's wisdom it isn't just i wish to help others i wish to help others with the unlike and
mind
right now i wish to help others with the mind of god
that's i think that's great person does good
i just some people as you mad you know some people what they think helping others is given their mind a lot of other people think that's not helpful and we have you noticed that we have quite a bit going on now where people are doing what they think is help from other people think it's really really not helpful
what you're doing is not helpful please stop it
but i'm trying to help you this is not helpful
but still there is this thing in us that we want to be helpful
if you want to be helpful and you want to like also some wisdom so that your help i'm not just according to your idea but i'm going to reality
words you actually wish to become really enlightened in order to help other days
he like to come most supremely and perfectly enlightened in order to help other beings that wish if somebody saw for is not just wishing to help others it's wissing to wishing to realize the buddha body in order to help others the thing of the thing i'm showing today is is the wishing to realize buddha by in order to help others
this is it the should realize the buddha body that's primary the central or is wishing to help others that central and i'm saying the at this time in history wishing to help others as central is
does most people say that's what it's that's the motivation wishing to be a duda in our others that's the buddha apart secondary but the bodhisattva vow is both of them i wish to become buddha in order to help others
but you can also just take away the helping others i wish to be buddha is helping others
and an order to be a good i know i have to help others quite a bit
i have to help others have dinner
anyway they asked pretty much i will help them that way
that will be part of a path and making a buddha is to give myself to others
if you have those kinds of motivations
and which kind you have you have one the other or both
combined if you have the motivation the next step would be that you actually wished wish to practice that way that wish that my opinion you make a vow you say i i wish and i i commit to this wish and then next thing is if you take care of that wish
for a while you become a bodhisattva just a wish doesn't make a bodhisattva
however body soft as have that wish
if you take care of that we should become a bodhisattva and it can happen
in this life it could even happen in a few minutes
some people who took care of that thought really a lot of few mess they've become bodhisattva
in this life
ah yes yes yes yes

let me very carefully thought he saw visit it can be enlightened that they have to be careful not to get the kind of enlightenment that will preclude their path to buddhahood
this is a technical twist is that if you get is that these early students and buddha became enlightened and him
and then they act but they couldn't that one sitting the way they became enlightened did not allow them to become buddhas
the way they became enlightened is that got no more opportunities at the end of their life to develop the buddha qualities so body surface need the ability the enlightened they need to get enlightened without getting enlightened in such a way that they can't keep working on this buddha path
so it is kind of tricky thing or a a a student of care about buddhism said that cannot on
body suffers must not be able to be the first stage of tropica which has three stages for stages stream entry where they first wake up and then never return i want to return or never return or and fully trained or car hot was the four stages
and even the first stage even at the first stage you and most seven more lifetimes that's not enough to become a buddha
debris such as have to understand as well as the are as a as a stream enter and so on
they have to understand the as well as them and yet not get involved with that
in such a way that they only have seven more lifetimes

well the wow
the vow is what protects them the bow is what keeps them are very careful not to
enough to abide
in that situation of awakening
in order to go from the early middle and final stages of the enlightenment of the disciples
the buddha's have do not abide in know stages otherwise they just become enlightened disciples

which watching the ball
the said
again let me say there is a deep continuity between the the path of the enlightened student of the border is a deep continuity between that enlightenment and the enlightenment of a bodhisattva and continuity is non attachment
renunciation that would include renouncing enlightenment
that's a continue it
all the buddha's disciples should not have enlightenment it shouldn't be possessive of it that promotes it
so the disciple should be like that too and they are the disciples i don't have enlightenment they enter it and live there that's their life because their enlightened they don't think about i have enlightenment
we're like these are like really wise people
there the cycles of the buddha there were like successful broader projects food is coming buddha's make these buddha's make this one from disciples by interacting with them and teaching them
and his disciples when they really understand they don't have enlightenment
have you don't have anything they don't have concentration either they don't have they don't have compassion they don't have generosity and patience and humility they don't have anything
and nothing has them
these are like sages brutus sages
authentic disciples of the buddha
who do not wish to become buddhas they're happy to be enlightened and free and you know you know and be compassionate and patient and ethical and careful and tender and free they're happy to have to be that way without attaching to any of it
come that's some good
yeah
it is now even today in this world
you know
the in in the buddhist world
the people are very careful that any you know people people do not claim to be sages of that quality
you know if you ask some of the sages some of the picture possible sages in the buddhist world are you what are you want the sages have you are you a disciple of buddha are you enlightened disciple the people who are wish to be enlightened disciples if you ask them that they won't say so
they will say yes it's is part of the countries you don't say yes to that
and then sort like other people say for you personally as now
so it's not clear that there are any of these three mentors or huts in the world today but some people think there are but the ones who are won't say that they are
they won't say yes i i am us are hot i am completely enlightened disciple employer they don't sit down and talk like that the buddha however get to talk like that
it's a and in zen monasteries we do services on a regular basis some temples on a daily basis we pay homage to these sages these these stream enter his these
our hearts we we spread pay homage to all the people who are on the noble path now there was follow the enlightened disciples and the great ones who had who have gone all the way we honor them these are amazing disciples and buddha and they're there
icon is a real enlightenment it just it doesn't have the wish to become buddha
so they get to habit not have it but they get entered and live there and not
participate and rebirth anymore and and during a time
the on that path they bring great benefit to the world we honor that
and more people enter their path and bring great benefit to the world
and between the time they enter and when they don't enter anything anymore
they give great benefit to the world but they do actually in fairly short period of time
they're not around anymore a spiritual beings

it's not very amazingly high level of spiritual awakening a very deep wisdom but it doesn't they did not wish to become buddhas
when the buddha matter her first disciples does five guys
apparently none of them wish to be a buddha
have we know of
but then they somehow will you listen to boredom really listened that became enlightened sages
and the story as they weren't reborn
of guys
that was the end for them and and for the time they awakened until they went into perfect complete nirvana
in other words they got they were actually entered into the dharma and all that was left with the dharma they entered the truth and there was nothing but truth
between the time that they entered in that point they helped many other people and to the path and many many many who entered and entertain awakening there are great disciples and book it's a wonderful thing but this is other path which
sort of are dealing with now the path of the bodhisattva which wishes to be buddha any questions
yes
charlie at a question
and you ever heard a question
and if gosh yes
nobody surface
he not you help them the way to ask you to like they they ask you to know ah don't know what's what's an example on
why are they say of they say can i have your clothes and you say ah yes and also a full moon to
the him as performance okay my i'm gonna to you know so you don't necessarily given with to ask for this kind of and drugs some kind you want you know the same what is considered i don't have the can't on with this guy
the second i have your body said which when you want
so you basically you you get honestly give them what to ask for but your give them whatever you have to give and if what they want is what you have to give you give it to teresa up as learn to do that and as as you can imagine is quite difficult thing to learn
but they learned basically to give themselves
not because anybody needs them
a weapon but they have to give but they need to learn to give police office need to learn that in order to be buddha
and so there's many stories are in is history now of the border
when he was a bodhisattva giving himself
and it isn't the sometimes you give these people don't ask for like the buddha
the fire didn't exactly ask the buddha to give them his body he just saw their hungry and he thought of and they accepted the gift so body surface practice giving the first practice are becoming a buddha once you get on the buddha path the first practice generosity
and that in our it works it it it becomes pervasive any questions
helen

so i thought

few minutes
clear the path to on
the path to enlightenment in his life
the these two approaches to that path
away and a priest but they would say in order taxi fulfill the path in his life the lay person would before they die have to become a machines a priest but to become a monk or nun
know
the the enlightenment this life has there's two types of disciples of that path
lay and monastic but in order to have the enlightenment or take it back
you can you can actually be become a stream enter as a lay person
i don't know if you can become finished all courses a a person
the bodhisattva has two vehicles
lay and monastic the a lay person can be a bodhisattva
a lay person can be a bodhisattva for many lifetimes
monk a monastic can be a bodhisattva for many lifetimes
monastics the monastic pretty surface who live in this world now will not become buddha in this lifetime there in the labor already served as will not become buddhas in this lifetime that's a teaching i haven't heard in a contradiction to that except people saying hey some sort of buddha
which i'm happy to hear
however there's also teaching that at the time of becoming a buddha you have to switched over to being a monastic
but it's possible i kind of unlikely that you'll be a a library cipher for a few billion lifetimes and then your last when you become a monk
it's the possibly be a monk for many lifetimes belief a labor iza for for many lifetimes among for many lifetimes a laborer is that for many lifetimes month trip back and forth you can practice the boys off away and you can also practice the other way as a monk or lay person
is just step in that tradition there was more of a feeling like the lay people are not really doing it
i shall know that's true but
can lay people in the electrician the are examples of them becoming ah
stream interest you know lay people who became our hearts and examples
this is a real in the city as you can realize it but the moment you realize that your immediately seek for nation
but are estimator has an our have felt
harris because the theater has to anything
so
then argan are examples in the scriptures of lay people come into the buddha interacting with the buddha waking up and then saying i want to become a monk
and of course is also examples of monks coming to the broader waking up and saying i want to continue
there i don't have any examples about monkey in the both are waking up in the encounter and say not want to be lay person
can not only expression and the author condition and mom comes to the border
the wakes up and says now i want to be a laborer is alpha among teresa for comes to the murder
got this a month a reason for comes to the buddha has a deep awakening
and says i think i should become a lay person
i think i went i think i will facilitate the path of buddhahood
it seems to me quite likely them in the path to buddhahood
if if if i'm being was was a monastic bodhisattva for many lifetimes
he probably would be the case or it might be helpful for them to be ah
a labour he sought for for a while
okay
isn't it interesting what i'm saying
i see you make and linda next i think
thinking of with his last thing you are saying or thinking about the ten goals in the picture of going back to the marketplace yes yes
but a question
kevin
so she's referring to tend the ten are starting pitchers the last one is going back to the marketplace have to after the after the partition goes through this evolution
he looks like there's somebody enlightened going on there
and that that process could have been followed has a monastic for as a non monastic as a lay person you could go through that process that's one vision of it and we get to the last one is possible that the
that if if you'd gone through the process of evolution is a monastic the last when you might go into the marketplace as a lay person
henan and then go around again as a lay person
and then as as an ad-free and and for you as a lay person going through this process of enlightenment going back to the marketplace might be going to the monastery
the this is about the mind of no abode right this is both traditions are about
not abiding anywhere that's what people need to realize
yes
no of
it's not him exactly no future no past is that you pull the wrong profession put it your seat pull up the rope of passion for your seaters and isn't the there isn't any you just see logo them
okay with okay given a possibility that there are not any lifetime
if suddenly
yes then
how so
i'm thinking about what is the
this story about there is no other day
we cannot

well this is the last part first what does it mean that there's no other buddhist what made nor the buddha's know no borders in this world he said there has been one yes and in this world period of time in this war sir
yes sir
okay so that cannot happen
another was nobody else can communists in his historical situation nobody else can come and tell us for the first time about the dharma has been possible
okay
it's not going to happen to is already happened counting telling that not
well the the brewers are the ones who actually disk without abiding anywhere they come up for they come up with the teaching for beings in a particular world where they haven't had it before
so let's not going to happen again until
until materialism completeness triumphs and people are totally uninterested in the buddha dharma anymore
there's they're they're they're suffering but they don't put the bullet i was going to help him and then click the stop taking care of the teachings because stop taken care of they stop learning they stopped pino an increase in his last then martyr i will come and everything will be very lovely
to be empty world we full of love
love dharma length
yes

i would say to that ah the ten ox hurting pictures i would say
who could apply to the the the traffickers
i don't see the ten oxford in pictures of vote itself of all except at the end
and maybe the last one is the boy south of our
that the the if if somebody had gone through that ah that the process
entertained on
complete personal enlightenment or not buddhahood
if they were a sofa they were then they might they might give up or whatever form they are practicing and of tender the marketplace
and is going right is the i've seen a ten are sharing pictures for the boy saw the use keep going round and round and round and round and round and round around them round
paul was with the same motivation to help people by going around this and tell every time you go around you develop more qualities of buddha's more like qualities to go round and round and round and as i remember him saying at the first class of the last time i gave a class on those ten are selling pictures i said the first one
the first stage is the last stage
actually before you start the first stage is the last stage
if the last days before even start this process that's the marketplace
accepted
except the last phase you understand that the first stages the last stage
but you don't hold onto that
let's see him again bobbie
my question was
is there a choice between
the
safa
why

it seems it looks like when you look on the mind of the person
the mind has made a decision
you know but the the living being that has this mind which says i want to become i want to realize buddhahood or i want to i want to realize enlightenment and i understand my my mind understands that in order to be a buddha i i'm not going to be able to go from
here to buddhahood in the next seventy six years
or the next hundred
i understand it cannot i want i don't want that i wanna have an enlightenment in this lifetime even imprint even electronic and even perhaps and like manic packet there could come in ten years or something the buddha in the history of buddhism the buddhist first five disciples were already highly trained yogis and they were
went from his first talk to complete enlightenment have to know in this lifetime and about a month or two
having you know this intensive training with the border in a month they're all completely finished the course
so hidden in the mind of living being they might say i would like to do that i would like to have complete enlightenment in his lifetime
so when it happens looks like your mind decided on that
so that kind of like a decision and then they said and i wish to live according to that decision to had the bow
the also some other basic it has happened to him i would like to get give my whole life to the welfare of all beings again that's what most scholars think is the motivation to the bodhisattva path the boys out that is so hard so huge how could anybody dare to take it or
because i care so much as so much suffering i care so much i want to help
the other one is i think is buddha thing is so great i think it's the best thing and even though it's really hard to attain i i see that i see the wish
and i i see the decision to live that way
that's the way i want to live i myself you know tell stories about my background i didn't see the buddha but i saw was i think maybe body surface and when i saw body surface i thought oh i wanted to my the the decision wrote in my mind i'd like to be like them
i'd like to be like this enlightened people who are not trying to complete their enlightenment course in his lifetime
and i might have seen examples of people who did complete their enlightenment program in his lifetime and i didn't know that they were in other words i am i might have seen some who are enlightened this lifetime and didn't wish to be buddhist by thought they were totally cool i saw some others who were enlightened
but they wish to be buddhist so they're not gonna finish their course i could have been turned on by both of those types
so he bought the minds in no human minds decisions do arise so the big at the beginning this kind of like a human mind thinking kind of like decision arises in the mind
and it often arises when the living being sees another living being or another practitioner
when they hear another practitioner and they think i wanna do that i wonder what they're doing or i knew this thing which they remind me this amount they've been charles me to make me think i want to do this
i want enlightening in this lifetime or i want
and some day
a tough decision can come so i'm asking you to look to see what's going on with you
where'd you where are you at
yes
the software
i can see it because
when anything
production on my imagination
was on my ideas is not yet
to make food as my imagination father this is he's though she's the i am the he just doesn't exist know so far i say so here's an example where she said where she saying she's out i hear that and when i first her
when a first started to hurry and towards san
i did not see examples of buddha's i i didn't really hear about shakyamuni buddha i saw examples of body surface
i wanted to be a bodhisattva but wanting to be a boy saw find suggesting two ladies and gentlemen
some people would say some description with say wanted to be a bodhisattva is not what bodhisattvas wanna be
wanting to be a body such as wanted to be something really is wanting to be somebody who wants to be a buddha
but if you don't notice the partner wanting to be the border which some people don't they see the body and bodhisattva sissy oh wow i'm gonna be like that person many find out what the person's like they say why don't want to be like you
you wanna be a buddha yeah oh why don't be like you anymore
he was so beautiful the way the way you make lunch you know it was so beautiful i wanted to be like you the way you to care that person the way you responded i wanted to be like you now i find out that you wanna be a buddha i wanted to i want to be like you when you didn't up but i don't want to apply to one i don't share your goal of buddha
good

still the motivation for become buddha could be the our compassion rather than actually just wanted buddha knowing very close by so it's kind of within both there
and so where are you at i'm asking you this as as income to the end of the year where are you at where do you want to go what path you wish to walk what practice you wish to practice and those who wish to have better night's sleep are welcome here
those who want to be better looking are welcome here those want to be ugly or a welcome here those who want to be young again are welcome here those who wish for enlightenment as lifetime are welcome here and those who wish to realize buddhahood for the welfare while beings are welcome here too i just thank you to check to see where
are you at what you're saying
and i tell you when i first our parties and i did not think i wanna become buddha i did not think that i didn't have any i actually had no sense of how
amazingly weird i should say where how amazingly inconceivably
magnificent are the possibilities of life than a boy it is however i did see how magnificent somebody sought this were and i wanted to be like them i want to be able to like you know not being possessive of my junk
wish i was
bodhisattva softer skin
do amazing acts of generosity which anybody would be astounded and inspired by
but the people who are astounded inspires still might say well i want to be booted of him as a whole of the like that i want to do that that i'm okay with
part of the bodhisattva thing and okay with that the thing about becoming good as a bit much yeah right
but the person you wanna be like has opened up to this the same
yeah so you partly wanna be like them and partly don't
so let's be my car let's be real let's look at our minds and see where we stand that growth into our hearts and licensee or do i really want to be a buddha or not do i wanna be a bodhisattva what they wanna be buddhists to i want to be really good person yes markups i want to be really good person okay fine that's great
it hasn't been i we look at that we look at that and also the somebody asked me on thursday night is everybody gonna be a buddha
dash is everybody going to be a bodhisattva
and i said the lotus sutra says from the lotus sutra which is very important for the the particular to lineage that i'm living in
oh and there's people in this lineage who really felt the lotus sutra was where it's at and the lotus sutra says everybody is gonna be buddha and everybody whether they know it or not is a bodhisattva even the people who wanted personal enlightenment in this lifetime and got it
really doesn't
they're actually on the bodhisattva path they're gonna become bored of such a lotus increases but others would you say
that not everybody has to be a bodhisattva nadim are just what is it
there's there's two versions of how out of the others what might be called bodhisattva universalism one is everybody here's a bodhisattva when they know it or not the other one is everybody
should be
that the weak the weak version of off the universalism is everybody should be the strong version of everybody is everybody is on a path and soto zen to some extent
then he is the strong version which is faith of this tradition is that you are already on the bodhisattva path
but there's another version which is not funny something universalism by bodhisattva
the word is that some people are boys office as some people aren't some people want personal admiration and others want to put a hood and not everybody is wanting brotherhood and the other people ah
in in in the lotus sutra the people who walk personal liberation
you're stuck there are looked down upon summer but in early tradition that tradition of personal enlightenment in this lifetime or a lifetime and whatever you are
that was considered an authentic version of the bullet practice
and when the buddha when someone becomes a buddha they're going to have a bunch of disciples who want to enlightenment in this lifetime
the book is devoted to the people who are not bodhisattvas and boys office
the devoted to give them teaching
but there's a phase of of the development of boost tradition where the people who are interested enlightenment this time i am not interested in buddhahood their kind of they're not considered authentic disciples by some
point of view i myself i can't get there i wanted i want to honor the people who don't wanna be body suffers the same time i honor the lotus injury which says everybody is a bonus offer some kind of enough
pretty god i'm kind of in up
i'm on a boat
his boat is in rough waters and even if the board was in smooth waters when the harpoons sticks into the way or the book the boys not gonna be as with wires anymore
i'm
more or less racing through the waters and the rope
which is connected harpoon is whipping by me all over the place and the you know
and you are there to i'm sharing with this suits and i'm hiding you under the podium on in the church on the podium on the front of the whaling boat
and
no animals were harmed in this show
the harpoon was inserted into the whale you know and when it didn't hurt the whale
but once it got onto the whale it's pulled this boat really fast in his rope is going by really fast and would have to be very careful
once again i'm saying to you
this is a great opportunity i'm not saying you know this is your last chance i'm saying this is a great opportunity to consider these matters do you want enlightenment in this lifetime
do you want to be helpful in this lifetime
they want to be helpful and have enlightenment
and
work on the path of becoming buddhahood where do you stand on these issues or questions your health
yes
yes

compassion is is definitely part of the path to enlightenment in this lifetime
definitely
but compassion is not the same as saying i wish to be a buddha
so in order to in order to have enlightenment this lifetime those doesn't frozen in the students of the buddha's and historical buddha they had to practice compassion in order to be concentrated you can't wait to be concentrated in the broadest sense with our compassion so the our hearts this teenagers had to
practice compassion in order to be a payment or key you cannot be a scream enter or should practice compassion towards self and others
okay
you look like at it just have some question about that for the question

and will do you understand me saying i'm saying that the path the terror of the the caravan of path in order to actually become enter the the would call the the noble path the cat hinter with compassion that's what i say that make sense to you i'm agreeing with people say
compassion is part of their path
the compassion is not the same as saying i wish to get buddha
although he had that compassion to do that too
for both pass require compassion the broadest compassionate and wise and those who wish to receive bruce was to have to practice compassion
but i say that not everybody that became wise
wish to be a buddha
but some people who wish to be bought has become wise
however their wisdom does not take them to stop before buddhahood
their wisdom takes him along the path and along the path and along the path until they reach their goal buddhahood the other when the texan along the path and they reached a single stream enter or finding our hardship in both cases as compassion in both cases where detachment in both cases the
renunciation of possessive things there's if both cases of generosity more start with generosity okay
a different goals
can i replace it with dozen has no goal right and the isn't as does have a goal
the goal isn't is making borders
and in the process of making buddha's zen is completely respectful of the people who wish personal liberation in this lifetime
the path of making buddha's is to be compassionate to all beings who do not wish to be boys
consciously or unconsciously
a is to make buddhists the bodhisattva path is to make borders question is what's your motivation
and an and do you feel motivated to make a buddha and if you don't wanna do you feel motivated to make to realize enlightenment being a little bit more help for the you were yesterday what kiss to sink by yes

on the way other people would recognize it would be through their behavior
so was questioned is finances

i wonder where enlightenment is
more we're all wondering what it is wondering what enlightenment is in a normal part of the path of enlightenment mr one year bought it fixing fixing on what it is and attaching to what it is that isn't compatible with it
but in fact the way other people judge it is by our behavior what attracts us to enlightenment is the behavior of enlightened people the performance that enlightened people were nasty and selfish and the on
we probably wouldn't be attracted to the enlightenment business
most of us i wasn't always attracted by examples of astounding shocking surprising generosity and flexibility and can opportunity
i already knew i already i have i had already seen people being kind of not praise and will sometimes that shockingly selfish and saw a shockingly impatient and so shockingly have rigid and shockingly not funny
i'd already seen that then i saw people who shockingly generous shockingly flexible shockingly relaxed shockingly patient shockingly humble shockingly
helpful
and i found it odd that those people are working on enlightened or maybe i want enlightenment
then after you get attracted to enlightenment than than you see people who are supposed to be enlightened acting as we are ways that don't look generous in size or forth and then you have those problems
what's the word kindled to how cool like minutes by seeing the behavior of wise people
and people get to be wise because they're compassionate but they're not just compassionate the compassionate compassionately receive teachings and then they understand the teachings and then the dharma and an act like dharma
some people are compassionate effective
they feel compassion care for the beings but then they think sometimes other beings part
somehow they care for the beep but can they have thought that this being as a jerk
they say i want to be compassionate but when they see everybody as room is a rat or and the formulation the compassion after all
we need wisdom to
in wisdom is wondering what what is what is enlightenment wisdom is also wondering what is delusion what is suffering what is freedom for is a living being with the body sorry for what's in our hot what's a buddha they went from wisdom wonders about this
and wisdom wonders what is your goal in life what do you want to devote your this life too
do you wish to devote your life to realizing buddhahood or enlightenment but not put on are both he can do you can choose both can you can choose neither i don't use enlightenment and i don't use buddhahood i just choose
the elements exist but better person
every day
okay we've got you go
and they will help each person with her goal we who wished to attain buddhahood help everybody with their goals
or not
have you been want to get that ball
you start to strike already
you don't have already

tangier equally to every and place where for sugar
this way the
for us
if i to have that the erasure
an inexhaustible
damn
a salad bar owners
the to enter them the this way is unsurpassed of all i got to become
has an appendix to the talk this morning
i also want to mention after for the last few years here we've had a ceremony
around new years where people would def
telegraph am
agreed in a traditional greeting and bring it here and offer it
this year we had trouble finding a day to do that
because of sort of where new years felons on
the work we are were gonna do that the next meeting of a know about would be february fourth
but i just want my broad i brought with me this this sub this collection of these are
astounding documents
whichever people rose by him mostly one person type different
and
if you wish to harm
right out a document like this and send it
to me or anybody else
you're welcome to do so even though we want to have a day or here to do that in a new year
an ivory i read these things and i'm in i'm touched the people will write statements like it's it's almost like you know
he sort of in the ballpark with i wish to do rudolph
the people can write factors is just amazing i respectfully offer you happiness in the new year i humbly ask for your guidance in this year
teacher or buddha not really
but teacher or buddha
hi practice with you i asked me i i practice with your protection i pray for your health in body and mind unlimited prosperity and long life
peace and tranquillity in your temple and all good fortune i pray for this with my whole heart
that's a traditional greeting to offer to the teacher you're welcome to do that if you'd like you can just send it or bring it next time you come
hey i'm just you know
hi ah what's the word
i wonder
if i would ever be worthy
to receive such kindness i wonder i am i am receiving it but i wonder i wonder i wonder if i'm worthy
i actually do wish to be worthy of it
do i wish to be buddha can i say i wish to be buddha
i'm i'm looking to see if i wish to be buddha
and leave you wish to be worthy of such kindness such good wishes
if such kind has come to you which it might
and do you wonder if you're worthy of such kindness i wonder if i am i don't say oh i'm i'm worthy of this i don't assume i don't expect such kindness but it comes
and i wonder am i worthy of it
i want to be worthy of it
i do
i aspire to that
but i don't know if i will be worthy of it in this lifetime
but i aspired to be worthy of at some day
do you ask my question thank you very much