to hold up a vision of a realized universe in which all beings live together in complete wisdom, love and compassion, completely responsible to each other, naturally mutually interdependent. I hold up a vision of boundless interdependence, a silent bond among all of us, not just all

[01:22]

of us humans, but also non-human living beings, and not just living beings, but non-living beings, all of us together responding to each other, constantly, peacefully, with complete wisdom and compassion. This state, I hold up to you, I hold a vision of this state to you, and I can call that state enlightenment. The realization of this state is, of course, a great happiness, this state, this way we are all working together, is a great light, and realizing this light is a great happiness.

[02:22]

And a great liberation. And persons can realize this, but the person does not realize it by herself, but only realizes it when she gives herself away and gives herself up. When she gives herself away and gives herself up, she opens to this light of perfect wisdom and compassion, together with all beings. And from there on, he can work, joyfully, to help others open to this perfect vision of peace and harmony, who then can help others learn how to open to it, and so on.

[03:27]

I hold up this vision and I hope I hold up this possible way of living with it, and realizing it. I also mention that we sometimes are closed to this vision. Closed to this vision means we ignore it. We have a habit of ignoring enlightenment. Ignoring the way we are completely responsible for each other, without limit. Ignoring this, then we experience craving and fear. Fear and craving. Opening to this vision, letting this light of our interdependent, mutual support in,

[04:36]

the fear and the craving drop away. We stop ignoring enlightenment. So today I have a simple, basic suggestion. And that is that, if we can live our practical lives, moment by moment, wholeheartedly, the habitual body and mind, which ignores enlightenment, will drop away.

[05:38]

In the wholeheartedness. If we can wholeheartedly sit, if we can wholeheartedly stand, in wholehearted walking, in wholehearted reclining, in any position, in any activity, in the wholeheartedness of it, the ignoring body and mind drop away. And we open to the relationship, which has always been waiting there, to be realized. And from there, we work together with the beings who we have just opened to, to help any of those who have not opened, to open.

[06:41]

And I also wish to suggest that, that the activity of making vows, vows making solemn and dignified commitments, to great compassionate endeavors, is a way to assist us, moment by moment, in being wholehearted. So, I'm speaking to you now, and I want to be wholehearted in my speaking.

[08:06]

I'm sitting here, I want my sitting to be wholehearted. My hands are moving around. I wish this hand movement to be wholehearted. I vow, actually, I vow, right now, in your presence, to make my bodily gestures, I promise to learn to make my wholehearted effort in all my bodily postures. I promise, I make the commitment to learn to make my speech wholehearted. And I vow to make my thinking wholehearted. And vowing to make my thinking wholehearted is thinking, of wholeheartedly thinking.

[09:10]

It's thinking of making my action of thinking, speaking, and posture wholehearted. Thinking that way, wishing and committing to that way, can support, can lift up all your activities into wholeheartedness. Whatever you're doing, it can be borne up by the great vows, it can be lifted up and infused and warmed up into wholeheartedness. And then when the nod of the head, or the scratching of the nose, is together with this kind of intention, this kind of commitment,

[10:10]

it becomes wholeheartedness. It becomes wholehearted, and in the wholeheartedness, we receive great encouragement. So, in one sense, when we are wholehearted, we open up. In another sense, when we open, we become more wholehearted. So, if I wish to be wholehearted, then it would make sense for me

[11:12]

to vow to open up to all living beings. It could also make sense to open up to one. Now, that would be a little bit of a warm-up. Open to one living being. And if you feel that wish and feel that ability to open to one, then how about two? And at some point you might consider, well, how about opening all the way? How about opening to all beings? Then that starts to open on to wholeheartedness.

[12:17]

If you're wholehearted, you can also naturally open to all beings. It's kind of very closely related. And, of course, if you open to all beings, one of the beings that you open to is yourself. One of the beings you're open to is the way you feel right now. And what you're thinking right now. So, it's open to all your own experiences. And at this point, we can't really open to everybody else's experience,

[13:18]

because we don't know their experience, but we can open to them, open to those who are going through their experiences. And we can open to those who are going through their experiences who are not open to their experiences. We can open to people who are closed to their own experience and closed to ours. We can learn to open to them. I hold that up as a possibility, that you can open to people who are cringing from their own experience. And in that openness, begin to teach them that they too could open and become wholehearted. Before we're open to everybody,

[14:24]

or, I should say, when we're not open to everybody, which is similar to before we are open to everybody, but it's more like when we're not open to everybody, we feel, or I should say I feel, like my heart is a little dusty, or has cobwebs in it, or maybe a little bit moldy. But maybe not moldy, because mold sort of needs moisture. Sometimes it's more like dusty, like arid and dusty, and not very alive. And if I have been alive recently, if I've actually experienced having somewhat open heart, then when my heart is not open, it feels dusty and moldy and dead.

[15:28]

My experience is that the heart can open, your posture can open, your speech can open, your mind can open, you can be wholehearted, and then later, or not later, and in that state of openness, you can experience, for some reason or other, some pain. And then in that pain, there is some tendency sometimes, or some ancient habit to say, well, forget about being open. It's not really a good idea. Forget about being wholehearted. You get hurt when you're wholehearted. So let's just close down a little bit here for a while. Okay. Ooh, it's kind of dead. Closing down wholeheartedness is kind of dead,

[16:35]

or just plain dead. Or not even death, but dead. Like, not death, exactly, but a strange combination of life and dead. Dead life. No, I don't like it. Is there some way to get back to wholeheartedness now? Some way to find the way back to opening up to all beings, including the one who just hurt me, the one who I opened to, and I was so open to, and I was so generous with, and now in that relationship I got hurt, and I started to not feel so generous, and closed down. Yep, that's what happened. Yeah. Ready? One, two, three, let's start over. What is the point again right now? Okay, wholeheartedness.

[17:36]

What's the point of wholeheartedness? Oh, let's see now. Oh, all the hindrances to enlightenment drop away, and then I feel happy and enthusiastic to help others, or again, those others who, in the process of helping them, it might be painful to be with them again, and I might close down again, but I'll try it again. Here we go. Again. So I was talking to somebody who, you know, she lost her old body in a big way. She had this great, almost like highly, what do you call it? What is it? A high-functioning body,

[18:38]

a body that could do pretty much, somewhere in the neighborhood of anything she wanted it to do, and then there was a bicycle accident, and then there was a broken neck, and so I'm fragile, she's fragile, I broke my leg riding a bicycle, she broke her neck riding a bicycle, and so now she's grieving the loss of this wonderful body that she doesn't have anymore. She has to grieve that body to start taking care of this body. There's a little bit of closeness to losing a really nice body, and getting one that's not only fragile like the last one, but has manifested the fragility in being, relatively speaking, broken.

[19:42]

So part of opening is open to how fragile we are, with or without some major dramatic change that we can notice, open to how fragile, open to how fragile other people are too then. And I said to her that, you know, she was a caregiver, and particularly she was a caregiver to people's bodies, and I said, I think you can still be a caregiver. If you can open to your fragile body, and share your fragile body, and acknowledge your fragile body, with other beings, all of whom have fragile bodies, you can be a great helper, you can still be a great caregiver. If you can open to your fragile body, and be gentle and tender with your fragile body, and be upright with your fragile body,

[20:47]

and be honest about your fragile body, and grieve the losses of your old bodies. If you can open to that, you might be able to open to a lot of other fragile bodies, and show them how to open to themselves, and other fragile bodies. If we don't feel fragile, and we meet somebody who also doesn't look fragile, that can be lots of fun. Teenagers have that kind of experience quite frequently. Like a perfectly unfragile teenage boy meets a perfectly unfragile teenage girl or teenage boy, and they interact. Two non-fragile beings can have quite a nice time together. Actually, even in those moments, I would say that if those two beings who think of themselves as indestructible

[21:48]

would open to how fragile they are, they would experience a much deeper, a much more moving encounter. I think that's my experience. Now I'm not a teenager anymore, so I don't have this non-fragile person meeting non-fragile people. But I still sometimes also, like a teenager, resist really accepting how fragile I am, and letting other people know it. So then they might also not be open to showing me how fragile they are, and everybody is OK. And nobody is really meeting fully, all the way. So when we start opening,

[22:56]

and we do start opening, try a little tenderness. But also be upright. Don't lean into your opening. Don't lean into your fragility. Don't lean into other people's fragility. Don't lean into other people's fragility. Lean into it, and don't lean away from it. Be upright with it. And upright, you know, when you see someone who is manifesting fragility, part of us feels like the one thing to do is to lean into them and say, Oh, darling, you're all fragile. You're all broken. This feeling of leaning forward. So I caution you against the leaning forward. I caution you, in a sense, to grasp this other person.

[23:59]

I caution you against that, or to not do that. But be with them, without leaning into them or away from them. With the warning that if we lean into this other person who is fragile and who we care about, if we lean into it, that will cause us eventually to wish to lean away from them. To try to run away from them. Because leaning into them, we lose our life. We lose our life when we lean into them, and we lose our life when we lean away. To be balanced with them, and still totally open to them. Balanced and open. It's not balanced and closed, that's cold. But balanced and dare to feel what it's like, and show them that they can do the same. And be very tender with each other,

[25:02]

because this is going to potentially be uncomfortable. And be honest, and be harmonious. And then we realize our life. Then we realize our wholeheartedness. Then we realize our exuberant vitality. We say like a vigorously jumping fish. We feel the totality of our life, which we cannot feel without meeting other people in this way. I can't feel wholehearted by myself. I can only feel it when I'm open to all beings, and I'm gentle with them. When I'm open to myself, and I'm gentle with me. When I'm honest about my meeting with you, and honest about my meeting with myself. And very gentle, and very upright, and open.

[26:05]

Then life washes away the body and mind, which is resisting our relationship, which is enlightenment. But it's hard. It's hard when you break your neck to open to your fragility. And be gentle with it. It's hard to give up trying to control when you don't have a broken neck. And when you do have a broken neck, in a way you might think, well now it's even harder to give up control, even though I totally can see I don't have control. I can't brush my teeth anymore by myself. I can't even tell, say, when the toothbrush person is going to come. I can see that I've lost control, but I have not yet been able to give up control. We do not have control.

[27:09]

In the world of enlightenment we do not have control. We have perfect wisdom, unhindered compassion, and love, but not control. Loving people is not controlling them. Compassion is not controlling people, and wisdom is not controlling people, or yourself. It's just the way we are. And it's a question of opening to it. And it's hard. I broke my leg on a bicycle, so I'm still trying to completely accept this new leg, day by day. This new leg, which has metal in it. It's an ongoing relationship between my mind

[28:11]

and this wonderful old friend, who is not really my old friend at all, but a new friend. Now, what about more serious injuries that I'm going to get? I'm trying to get ready for those. And I just wanted to bring up another major point, and that is that there's this kind of balancing act in the tradition of the teachings of enlightenment between the individual becoming liberated and liberating the whole world. So some people feel like, you know, that the teachings of enlightenment

[29:13]

in the history of what's called Buddhism have been successful, well, at least they've been successful at providing beautiful systems of meditation for people to be, for individuals who wish to practice those systems of meditation to become liberated from suffering. And there's a proposal that those who are liberated and those who wish to be liberated can only really be liberated together with everyone else, like I said earlier. And yet, there's some incompleteness in the realization. So I think actually that the teaching is both about individual liberation and liberating the whole world.

[30:13]

It's about both. The liberation process works through individuals in relationship to other individuals. And also, I just want to mention a couple, at least one more indictment towards Buddhism. I wouldn't say against Buddhism, because the indictments towards Buddhism are welcomed by, enlightenment welcomes indictments about itself, indictments about its full realization. And one of the indictments is that historically, Buddhism has not been historical enough. And historically, institutionally, the Buddhist institutions have seemed to accept, and sometimes could be indicted for ignoring

[31:16]

cruelty, tyranny and injustice in the government of the country that they live in. Once again, Buddhism could be indicted and has been indicted over its history for ignoring or even supporting or colluding with the cruelty, injustice and tyrannies of the governments in the countries where they live. Now, someone else could say, they could be indicted for accepting it. But accepting is a difficult word, because acceptance is part of the program of meditation. But accepting tyranny doesn't mean

[32:19]

that you wish to support it, or accepting it doesn't mean that you're not going to work to transform it. It just means, you might say, I accept that this looks like tyranny, and I accept that this looks like horrible cruelty. I accept that that's the way it appears. This is a great disease of our country. I accept that. I'm not sure that the government is being cruel and unjust. I'm not sure that this corruption is true, but I'm open to the possibility that there's an amazing amount of corruption and inequity in our government, of this country and other countries. I'm open to consider the possibility that most of the countries are, if I can say this gently, protection rackets.

[33:19]

Did I say that gently enough? I'm not saying that they are protection rackets, but I've heard that indictment, and I feel that I should open to all beings. I feel that it would be good if I opened to all beings. I actually want to learn that, and it's difficult for me, and one of the beings I want to open to is the indictment of the national governments of the contemporary world as monstrous protection rackets, who deliberately foster fear and craving in the population. It looks like that, to some extent,

[34:25]

that the government and the media that the government, to some extent, has a strong influence on. The government isn't in control of the media, but they have a certain influence, and the influence seems to be that the media is also on the same page of let's tell people how scary life is, and let's not only tell them that life is scary, but let's make them scared, so they'll watch our show, and the government, so that they will do what we tell them. It looks like that. So a protection racket is, I'm here to protect you. The situation is extremely dangerous, and I will protect you. Matter of fact, I will make sure that nothing bad ever happens to you. I will guarantee complete security. Now, in order to achieve this amazing state of complete security,

[35:30]

we may have to kill some people. Because you know that if you let those people live, I can't really guarantee you're going to have complete security. Matter of fact, we may even have to kill some of the people which we're trying to protect. For example, Americans. We want to save and protect American lives, right? Sounds good. But we may have to kill some Americans in order to protect American lives. It's part of the deal. Be realistic. Well, could the situation be a little less safe, perhaps? So we don't have to kill people to make it so perfectly safe? So it's dangerous, plus also we're offering you pretty much virtual, complete safety and security, but there's a price. Namely, not promoting some people's security.

[36:36]

And if that doesn't work on you, then we'll just make you more scared until you realize that you better let us protect you the way we think is best. We're the protectors of you. And if you don't let us protect you, there will be unfortunate consequences for you. If things happen this way, that's sort of the way a protection racket works. And there does seem to be something like that going on big time, big time in the world today. I want to learn to open to that. I want many people to open to that. There also are some other things to open to, like some government programs are actually helping people.

[37:43]

I want to open to those too. You know, I have a close friend who's a school teacher and suffers under this program called No Child Left Behind. Her experience is that this program where she's teaching, it really is difficult because for some kids the program is like totally boring and they can't do it. It's not suited for them, it's too hard. For other kids, it's just right and totally boring. But it's just right for them. They can do it, it's fine, and it's boring. And for the other kids, they can do it, it's a total waste of time because they're much more advanced than that, but they have to go through it too. So it's super boring for them, plus they're wasting their time when they could be doing

[38:47]

all kinds of wonderful reading at a different level. And all the kids and teachers have to spend hours in this system which is supposed to help people, which is really questionable. And the people who run the system, I've heard, the people who are governing the system, I heard, I read, I mean, that of the five people who run the program in Harper's, you know, I said the five governors of this program, four of them have business interest in the businesses that supply the textbooks for this program. And the average amount of income to the governors who run this No Child Left Behind, the income they get from the businesses which supply the textbooks, who knows what else, is $727,000. So I opened to that.

[39:52]

And now I told you, and you can open to it, or whatever, I suggest you open to it. Open doesn't mean believe. Just open to the story. Somebody, and Harper's is putting it out there, and if they don't get sued, maybe, you know, watch and see if they get sued for putting that information out there. A very high percentage of the people in the government who are regulating corporations, a very high percentage of them, looks like 80% maybe, of the people who regulate the corporations, used to be lobbyists for those corporations. And you might say, well, that's good, because they know how they work, and so on. But anyway, it's something to open to. It's part of something to open to in this world. It's a being, or it's many beings, to open to.

[40:56]

And be upright with. Don't lean into them like, you're wrong, and I'm right. Don't lean away like, I'm wrong, you're right. No, no, just be upright with them, and gentle, very tender with the lobbyists, with what appears to be corruption. Be upright. Be honest. Be open. Be harmonious. And receive complete wisdom, compassion, and love, and bring it to these people, and transform the world. Not you by yourself, you together with everybody who you've opened to. Everybody who you've opened to, and you are gentle with, gentle, tender, soft, pliant, centered,

[42:04]

honest, open, courageous, gentle, fragile, open to being fragile. I'm not an indestructible person who's going to get broken. I'm a broken person who's going to get broken. I've really got nothing to lose. I am a drifting wreckage. I'm trying to open to being a wreck. And take care of the wreck. Take care of the wreck. Be kind to the wreck. Be gentle with the wreck. And in the openness, the wreck is lifted upright. The wreck will find its uprightness. Wrecks can be upright. But if wrecks close to their wreckness,

[43:08]

they get scared, and start craving. But it's hard. It's hard to learn this. It's hard to learn this wholeheartedness. That's why we need great vows. That's why we need to vow to ask for help from all beings, and vow to help all beings. We need to vow. We need to promise. We need to commit. We need to learn to vow to help all beings. We need to vow to honor all enlightened ones. We need to vow to confess our shortcomings. We need to vow to make everything we do accompanied by the intention

[44:14]

to practice together with everyone. To bring everyone in with us. They're already there. To invite them in and think of them being with us all the time. Including everyone. Including those who seem to be harming others. I cannot be wholehearted by myself. Nobody can be. Only by remembering and thinking of my relationship with all enlightened beings can I be wholehearted. If I can think of my relationship with all beings,

[45:20]

that opens my heart. That opens my mind. That opens my body. If I close out to some enlightened beings, my body and mind close down. I cannot be wholehearted by myself, but if I open to all unenlightened beings, that openness lifts me up and makes me more and more wholehearted. And being wholehearted, I continue to wish to open to all enlightened and unenlightened beings. And again, that openness makes me upright. And the uprightness makes me ready to open. Really, we are wholehearted beings. We actually are alive. Really, we are. Already. Working together, harmoniously, lovingly,

[46:21]

mutually supporting each other. Really, we are. But if we don't practice this way, we won't realize it. And not realizing it is no good. Well, I won't say it's no good. It's a little bit good because it's job security for the Buddhas. So, I won't say it's no good. It's just fear and craving and cruelty and stuff like that. That's what it is. But there's some good in that, probably. And when I open to my own violence and cruelty and fear and craving, when I open to that, again, I start to become wholehearted. And when I'm completely wholehearted, the craving and the violence and the fear

[47:24]

burn away or melt away. I hold that up to you. And the more I hold it up to you and to me and to other people, the more wholehearted. The less I hold it up to me and to you, the more likely I'll slip away from wholeheartedness and feel less alive. I thank you for supporting me to hold this up to all of us. Thank you for your support. It's a kind of outrageous thing to be doing. What time is it? It's about... What time is it? 11.13. 11.13? Pardon?

[48:27]

Time for a song. Time for a song. I thought you'd never ask. I'd just been waiting, waiting, just anticipating. I was in England recently and after I sang, a woman came up and said, you have a lovely voice, but don't give up your day job. Thank you. And sometimes people say that after my so-called Dharma talks. That was a really nice Dharma talk, but don't give up your day job. Anyway, as you know, yogis get weary, yogis do get weary, facing that same shabby mess.

[49:31]

So when she's weary, try a little tenderness. She may be waiting, just anticipating things she may never possess. So while she's waiting, try a little tenderness. Now the rest, there's more words, but I think if I did the next part, you'd say, yeah, don't give up your day job. Because the next part, I'm sort of out of, I don't remember how quite the tone goes, and if I don't do it right, it really hurts. So I vow to learn how to do the next part for some future occasion. And I thank you for opening to the message of opening.

[50:34]

I thank you for opening to the message of living every moment wholeheartedly. And I pray that we all continue to open to live our life wholeheartedly. To save this shabby mess, this wreckage. It can be saved if we're wholehearted. And it's hard to be wholehearted, but remember, ask for help. You've got to do that. Don't do it by yourself. Okay? Is that enough? Enough for you? Enough for me. Okay.

[51:26]

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