Last night I proposed to you that the origin or the source of wholeness, healthiness, is enlightenment. And enlightenment involves seeing the way events, things, phenomena, experience, the way they come to be. When you see the way things come to be, you realize wholeness. Because you see that the way things come to be always involves you and everything.

[01:10]

You see that. And if you can see that, you realize wholeness. You realize health. You realize holiness. Perhaps I shouldn't say you realize, but wholeness and healthiness is realized, and you're completely included. And so is everybody else. And this is seeing. And even some of the people that are included in this, you also see they do not see it. But even though they don't see that they're included in this healthiness, they still are included. And in the vision of how everyone's included in healthiness, and in the vision of seeing that some people are resisting being included, or resisting seeing being included, there arises the wish that they too could open their eyes to this possibility and enter into the way of wholeness and health, the way of seeing how things come to be.

[02:34]

So as a beginning meditation, and also this meditation goes on forever, but it's also an introduction, to be able to see how things come to be is to meet whatever comes to be, to meet whatever comes with no fixed perspective. To meet whatever comes to being with complete relaxation. Just a minute ago I was talking to some drug addicts out in the lobby there, and we came up with another way of saying this is, meet whatever comes, okay, be aware of it, and think Valium.

[03:53]

So it's not just think Valium, it's meet whatever comes. So the first thing is you meet it. You meet it, not something else. Whatever comes, you meet that. Maybe some people come and they say, okay, here's Klaus. I can meet Klaus and relax. But somebody else comes and you say, this person I can't meet and relax, so this person I'll pretend like they're close and then I can meet them. In other words, you don't really meet what comes, you kind of space out and then you can relax with it. Like something comes and you feel irritation. In other words, what comes is irritation.

[05:10]

And you say, this is not irritation, so you don't meet it. And then you kind of say, this is not irritation, this is not irritation, so you start to relax a little bit, because this is not irritation. Well, it's probably better to do that, to say, this is not irritation, than to like slug it. But to some people do, they try to talk themselves out of situations where if they would recognize what's there, they would grasp a fixed perspective, and if they grasped a fixed perspective about this thing, they would cause major damage. So they try to talk themselves out about what just came. Well, but that also continues this unwholeness, this broken, broken hell. You need to meet whatever comes. And so letting go of fixed perspective is one way to put it. Another way is think valium. Another way is complete relaxation.

[06:12]

Another way is relinquish all your views. So whatever comes, you know, each person you come, if you look at each person, there's views that come up. Quite a few, very fast. If you look at them longer, more will come. If you look at somebody for an hour, many, many views would come up about many, many things. If you grasp them, the mind becomes disturbed. Your vision becomes blurred, clouded. You can't see what's before you. If you do not grasp those views, in not grasping those views, the mind becomes calm and eventually stable, buoyant, flexible, pliant, vivid, fresh, clear, and joyful.

[07:28]

And then you can see, you can begin to see what this thing is more fully. At first you think you see a person and you just see that person. You do not see the whole universe supporting that person. That's where you start. And then because you see an individual thing, you have views which you grasp about that thing. Another way to talk about how to meet is to meet or greet everything that comes without engaging in discursive thought. Again, discursive thought means thought which sort of runs back and forth. And again, discursive thought is available to most of us all the time unless we have taken a lot of Valium.

[08:44]

And the discursive thought might get kind of limp and kind of hard to grasp. But with discursive thought available to us, We meet something and there's a possibility of not engaging in it, of relinquishing it. Just like now, you may be hearing someone talk, you might be hearing a jet high in the sky, and there's lots of discursive thoughts available to you, if you engage in them, this promotes the turbulence and instability and heaviness and rigidity of your mind.

[09:56]

If you let go of all the thoughts all the judgments, opinions, preferences and views you have available to you right now while you're hearing these sounds the mind starts to calm down to relinquish picking and choosing while you hear these sounds to relinquish selecting what you experience, to relinquish checking what you experience. Not that these functions and activities of mind are not flying all around you fairly constantly, but you just don't grasp. This mode of training your attention to what's happening and training your attention to the capacity of your being, the capacity of your mind to know things without engaging in discursive thought.

[11:26]

To know something without elaborating it. So you're training your attention actually to look at a way of knowing, to look at a way of being aware, which just knows with no elaboration. This way of knowing is already here, this is the way awareness works, it just knows. But there are other aspects of mind which can elaborate on what is cognized. So every moment there is the knowing of the event, knowing of the object, knowing of the object, awareness of the object, awareness of the object.

[12:29]

Every moment that's there, And cognition just knows. It doesn't elaborate. Mind is always like this. Every moment, this is available. And this is a great resource because if you can train your attention towards that way of knowing, training your attention in that way stabilizes and heals the mind. but we also have the ability to comment on whatever happens, to have discursive thoughts about whatever happens, to have judgments about whatever happens, to have prejudices about whatever happens, to try to pick and choose what happens, to try to select what happens, to try to check what happens, and so on. We also have all those other capacities. We have a great mind. For the attention to be looking at all these other possibilities and involved in them, promote a broken mind, a disturbed, rigid, heavy, dark mind.

[13:40]

Maybe powerful, lots of energy, but sickness too. So the beginning of the dependent core arising of hell, or yeah, we could say the beginning, or a beginning, is to face what's coming in this spacious, open, relinquishing mode Another way to put this is that whatever comes, whatever you're aware of, you meet it, you greet it, you face it, you care for it, actually.

[14:58]

You become intimate with it without giving in to any impulse to control it. So I'll start with the example of breath. It's kind of not such a controversial example. Breath. So first of all, let's say breath comes. If it doesn't come, you might start looking for it. A little bit. But the first step is that you know breath. You're aware of breath. And it's often, if you're having trouble finding it, if you look for an inhale, it might be easier to find an exhale.

[16:04]

So I'm not saying, I don't want you to go on a big heavy duty search for breath, but you just be present here and be ready for breath. Be ready to be aware of an inhale. I just noticed one. And now there's an exhale. So this is something that's coming to me. Inhales and exhales are coming to me. And I'm, yeah, wow. I'm aware of an inhale. And now I'm aware of an exhale. The next thing is to let go of conceptual vibrations of the breath. Let go of discursive thoughts about the breath.

[17:08]

Meet the breath which you're aware of with complete relaxation. So, you know, meet this breath with, think Valium. Or if you're not familiar with Valium, some other drug. Heroin. Not cocaine. Don't meet the breath with cocaine. Cocaine would be the way, would be the drug of meet the breath and then elaborate. Boy, this is really cool breath. Wow, this is your breath. Hey breath, brother, brother breath. Sister breath, hey breath. No, no. Don't get involved in all that about the breath. Just meet the breath and you have the capacity to make comments but you let them go. You feel the breath.

[18:13]

In other words, you're aware of the feeling of the breath. That's how I discovered it. I felt it in my body. I felt the tactile sensation of the breath. Tactile sensation of breath. I'm aware of the tactile sensation of breath. I rest in the tactile sensation of the breath. And resting in it means meeting it, not losing it, not being unaware, but being aware in this completely relaxed way. Not trying to get anything from the breath, not trying to get anything from awareness of the breath, Even though there is the idea, well, what am I going to get out of being aware of my breath?

[19:14]

There's an idea that's a discursive thought. Just let it be. Don't say, get out of here, you greedy meditator. No. Somebody's trying to, like, calculate what they're going to get out of being aware of the breath with complete relaxation. Well, if we let that person in the room who's trying to get something out of being with the breath with complete relaxation, that person's going to cause trouble. Somebody should get rid of that person. Get rid of that thing. Getting rid of any kind of gaining idea, getting rid of the discursive thoughts which are trying to figure out how you're doing, how well are you doing in the meditation, what you're going to get out of it, those discursive thoughts, to try to get rid of them, is getting involved in a discursive thought. To try to get rid of discursive thought is getting involved in it. To happily welcome the discursive thought, what are we going to get out of it? Well, let's just sit down and calculate what we're going to get out of it.

[20:16]

That's also getting involved in discursive thought. So just to release it means you let yourself be surrounded by all kinds of, all the capacities of mind which are up there, which can calculate, engage, and judge, and choose. All those things are there. Those aspects of the mind, those abilities are always with you. It's just that you don't fall for them in this meditation. And actually in no meditation which is the dependent core rising of health do you get involved in it. But in the meditation which is the dependent core rising of health although you do not get involved in discursive thoughts you do notice if you are involved in discursive thoughts. So if you notice you're getting all caught up in judging your meditation or choosing or wishing you had some other kind of meditation than when you have, if you notice you're involved, then you just notice that and relax with that.

[21:30]

So you confess that you're off track And you just let it be that way, and that's relaxing with noticing that you're all caught up in a fixed perspective. And then as soon as you do that, as soon as you notice it that way, you're back on track. So I chose breath, which tends to be a mild topic for a lot of people. But whatever it is, whatever you look at could be like that. Like you could look at illness itself this way. If you already have illness, unwholeness, unhealthiness, if that's what's presenting itself to you, then the same meditation could be applied. But that's a more advanced topic in a way. It might be easier to start with the breath because the strength of our impulse to grasp discursive thought about illness might be stronger than our strength to grasp discursive thought about breath.

[22:44]

Unless the breath is kind of like in a state called not being there, which is associated with illness, right? I can't breathe. When you can't breathe, then you're strongly tempted to grasp the discursive thought, I'm in big trouble. I've got to do something about this. I wish I could find somebody to blame for this, and so on. But when breath is operating fairly well, the impulse to control it is not as strong. But when you have illness, impulse to control, the habit of grasping control of it is very strong. Or if there's something you think is very precious and it's in danger, like someone you love or you help,

[23:54]

then there's a strong challenge and it's very difficult to not grasp some ideas about it, some preferences about it. That's why we sometimes start with just being aware of the body, and as we can retreat in the breath to see if you can learn how to do it there, and then we can extend it to more difficult topics like disease, illness, unhealthiness, abandonment, betrayal, attack, and so on. But everything could eventually be dealt with in the same way, and then with everything you can calm down And when we come down with this non-graphy, the reason we put the project at first, the possibility of inquiring, problem-solving, the creativity are available.

[24:58]

But when we grasp the fixed perspective about and we bring this creativity and inquiry and problem-solving about what it is. Sometimes people think of this type of message. Hearing about this kind of meditation or hearing about meditation in general, sometimes people think that, what do you think? One is they think that this kind of meditation might be silent with clothes. Part of the reason why they think that is sometimes they go to meditation halls and they see the people. They look like they're in silent with their clothes. They're sitting still, they're silent, they look peaceful. Right?

[25:59]

Then you think that. Because if you're inside some of those people, you find out that it's very dynamic, highly changeable, challenging experiences that they have while they look like they're sitting and saying, oh, but actually maybe lots of sounds are happening in their head. And they may be meeting each sound as it comes, each thought, each tactile sensation, meeting, each one, meeting, [...] and meeting perhaps in this quick relaxation. So they look, you know, they look very relaxed, maybe they are very relaxed, but they're relaxed, you know, like playing a very intense thing at tennis.

[27:05]

If it's possible to be relaxed, and then if it's somebody who's batting balls back to you very fearfully, it's possible to relax, it's possible to be tense. In tense, you might just think you have to be affixing to the idea of winning. You're affixing to the idea of the way the being should go. More difficult examples could be brought up. A typical example is if you're a parent, or if only people hear the teacher of one young people, you're caring for these beings, and then you're taking care of something, a child,

[28:09]

or an animal, or a garden, or a group of children in a schoolroom class, or a business, to take care of something for a while, we may come to think we own it. Now, there's a lot of people who get in the business, think we own it, so, you know, I'm the owner of the business, right? Then think we own it. Right? Well, I do own it. Okay, okay. But thinking that you own it and grasping that, then there's the business going what? It's perfectly fine to have the idea, I own the business. Some of your employees may also think that they own the business. Or even if they don't think they own the business, they may think they tend to partner with it. Like I own the shop, the shopping area, I'm the buyer. That's my class.

[29:11]

I own this class. So if you take care, when you first start taking care of things, sometimes you don't think you own it. Now, when a baby's born, sometimes people immediately feel like they own the baby, even before they start taking care of it. But actually, the mother has been taking care of the baby during all pregnancy, so they're probably already feeling that she owns this baby, like my baby, even before they see it, my baby. So there's some usefulness in that. Right? However, it's something to get over. As soon as possible. If you want to be a good mother, good father, get over thinking you own these kids. If you want to have a good business, get over thinking you own them. If you're in charge of a department, get over thinking you own that department. If you want to have a good garden, get over thinking you own and address the garden. But again, it's hard. It's easy to not own something.

[30:13]

Like, even if somebody gives you a business and they say, now it's your business, it's easy to not, you know, hold on to the idea that you own the business that they just gave to you and you've got the papers that say you own it. They say, hey, you own this. Look at that. It's easy to, like, not get into that if you don't care about the business in the first place. If you don't care about the worth of it, sometimes people might give you a business that's in debt, too. Your business, and it owes a lot of money, is yours now. Take it. You're now in debt. Take this business. It might give you a business that's supposedly valued to be a positive worth. They give it to you. And if you don't care, then he might not attach to it. He might not think, I own it. And he said, do you want to say, well, yeah, I do it, [...] and you don't care. So you don't stress. But if you care, it's hard not to possess.

[31:14]

If you care about someone, to take care of them, and love them in a devoted thing, it's hard not to slip into possessing you. And another thing that's hard not to slip into is control, kind of control. You can't control people. but if you take care of them for a long time, you start slipping into the impulse to control them. Then with your breath, if you don't care about your breath, and you don't pay attention to your breath, and you don't attend to your breath, and you don't devote hours and [...] thousands of hours caring for your breath, if you don't do that, that's pretty easy to not try to control it if it's operating that good. When you spend a lot of time meditating on your breath, you tend to think that you'd want to get control of it. So relinquishing control is also a way to talk about how to relax with things that you're devoted to, things that you meet and devoted

[32:23]

So, the entry into the awakening, which will heal us, is being devoted to everything. Devoted to your threat, devoted to illness, devoted to all beings, devoted to every experience, devoted to everything that needs to meet it. without giving into the impulse to control. Caring for it, caring about it, wanting the best for it, wanting the best for your body, wanting the best for your mind, wanting the best for your breath, wanting the best for your friends, wanting the best for everything, okay? And meeting everything with complete generosity and gratitude, and so much gratitude for this meeting that you cannot possess it, and not try to control it. This way of being with things is good in the beginning. And then, it also has the, it also is the vertical horizon of the clearing of the mind of the one who meets things as good.

[33:35]

This way of meeting things is good for the things you meet, It's good for your business. It's good for your garden. It's good for your children. It's good for your students. It's good for your spouses. It's good for them because you don't hurt them anymore. But this non-harming way of needing things also holds you, is the holding of your mind, is the healing of your mind. So you're healing yourself while you're relating to others in this tender, non-drafting way. And the ambition is beginning to set the ground to be able to see what's really going on. But people have questions about this, right? So like Myra was asking, if you have a business and you're trying to have a business plan or goal, how can you work towards that without grasping

[34:36]

Is that right? Do you want to phrase the question again? Well, it seems like when you have a certain direction, a specific direction, it's almost like taking your perspective. Okay? Is that clear? If you have a certain direction, it seems like picking a perspective. Having a certain direction is just simply a perspective. I'm looking in that direction. I'm looking in the direction of this business being a benefit to everybody that works here. That could be a perspective, a goal, an intention, an orientation, okay? So that's perfectly fine. To not have any views would be more or less like not having light.

[35:45]

So you have views, you have perspectives, you have intentions. What I'm saying is that when you notice, when this view comes to you, and you even say this is kind of like my view or the view of this business, and everybody finds up for it then, Everybody meets that view moment by moment or whenever it comes with our graph. In other words, we have this view and then we have some ideas, some discursive thoughts about what that view means in this situation. We want to have a good business and put different ideas about what that is and if If one of the people or more of the people grasp their idea, their discursive thoughts, their opinion, their preferences about how to realize their goal, they're not goal, they're just a fear gift. If the goal is to have a business that's beneficial for anybody that works here.

[36:46]

And you could also have a different business plan. The business plan of health is to have a business that's a benefit to not just everybody that's a business, but to the other businesses too. That will be beneficial to your so-called competitors. That will be beneficial to all people. And if you do not attach to all the things that human value, discursive thoughts, and both the control around this wonderful business realm of benefiting the entire world by discursive. If you do not attach to it, or in the mind that doesn't attach to it, health starts to arrive. And health includes relaxation, calm, buoyancy, clarity, energy, enthusiasm, readiness to do whatever would help this business benefit the entire world.

[38:03]

Okay? That's enough for now. Get your trust in the name. Are you asking if you can do so skillful at this meditation that you can respond to everything yourself?

[39:18]

That's the idea. And again, if you're practicing this way already, when you're not challenged, and the challenge comes, possible that you can continue that meditation even more challenged by something more challenging. But if you're not doing this meditation, if you are needing, well first of all, if you're not needing what comes, in a way do not pay attention to what's happening to you, if you're not being mindful, then what's probably happening is you're moderately aware of something, but not really for any attention. Plus, you're probably with the habitat and grass. Basically, what most people are doing is walking around, not paying much attention to what's going on, and in that vague awareness of what's happening, they're spending most of their time commenting on what they barely even are aware that they're commenting on.

[40:25]

And so their mind is very disturbed and dark, and unflexible, and unready, and rigid, and promoting being the source of the promotion of unwholeness and illness, which then they're barely aware of, and then they have a bit of a response that they're involved in. That's a big harm. And then if something really big comes, then they're sometimes just totally incapacitated. But one thing good about that is they start to realize something's happening. They at least meet back. They're kind of like, hello, guess what's happening? Something is happening, and it's this. And they kind of go, well, could be something else, please? I'm sorry, there's no alternative, finally. This is your life. And you just stop for a second and you stop arguing.

[41:27]

And you finally start to be aware. Oh, I have X. X is happening. And like, you know, I tried to wiggle and squirm, but like it's like just there and it's like very vivid. You start to come awake. But unfortunately you had to get really, really sick before you noticed. I am ill. I am unhealthy. I am unwhole. I get it. Oh, where am I starting? Now, then you take them to say, let's get rid of this thing. Let's get control of this thing. Get a life. But you know when they say, when the kids say, get a life, what they mean is relax. You know? Kids are bopping down the street. Some of the kids running around grabbing their pants, you know? Say, take me with you, I want to be in your gang. Say, get a life. It means let go. Get a life means you've got a life. But we have this thing about, take charge of your life, right?

[42:32]

And sometimes people say that to you just when you first start becoming aware. Like you notice, okay, I got a problem. It's very vivid, and they say, take charge of your life. I think the kid's thing is better, like, yeah. In other words, you got it? You know, Dad, you're sick. Get a life. In other words, Dad, would you please notice that you're sick? And stop, you know, hackling me. You know, I got a life. You know, I'm playing, you know, ping pong right now. I got a life. You know, you got one too. You know, you got some problems. Go take care of yourself, Dad. You know, stop trying to control me. You got enough problems yourself. Get a life. Relax. Face yourself. But if you're not doing that, then if something comes very fast and you don't have a chance to pretend like it's not happening, then it gets you and you grab it and it's reacting. And if you're relaxed and aware, aware and relaxed, aware and non-exactly, then it's possible that you can meet each challenge and continue the meditation.

[43:48]

Sometimes, many times, the challenge is to break, and you have to say, hey, this is a chance to learn. I can grow on this one. This is like, you know, I was going along pretty well, you know, things are happening, I was meeting, and I wasn't grasping, and I was cool, and I was healthy. And now this thing hits, and I'm grasping it, and I'm not healthy anymore. But here's a chance to grow and learn. The challenge is things that push you If you're practicing meditation, they're going to push you back into the pattern that's called illness. And there are ways to develop more skill. So they're good. And illness is good, too, if you don't feel challenged. Yes.

[44:56]

You do have a relationship with the virus, right? And now you want to have a good relationship. Right. Yeah, that's your immune system is not, you know, not your problem. It's American to have good relationships. You can have a warrior spirit if the warrior spirit's a warrior about being relaxed. Well, want to be a warrior? Yeah. Well, let me know if you want to be a warrior. I'll teach you how. Okay? If you don't want to be a warrior, I'm not going to impose warrior training on you. But if you'd like to be a warrior, I'm a warrior, and I can teach you how to be a warrior.

[46:06]

A good warrior is totally black. A tense warrior is a dead warrior. Unless there's no other warriors around. Put a tent warrior up on a hill at Mount Madonna, it probably lived for several days. But you put a tent warrior among relaxed warriors, and, well actually, that's better. Put a tent warrior around some other tent warriors, you know, they slaughter each other. Because, you know, they're so stressed. And they just, like, go all kinds of damaging things to themselves, and while they're hurting themselves, they hurt anybody nearby who... Now, if there's people who are nearby who are relaxed, They try to hurt them, but they're so relaxed they don't. So a good warrior, a warrior who is a benefit being, is relaxed. So if you have a virus, that's a good example of a virus, okay? There used to be a smallpox virus, right?

[47:09]

So you have this guy, what's his name, Edward Jennings. I would say, I don't know the whole history of the relationship, but at a certain point in the relationship, I think that Regina kind of relaxed the sun virus and developed this new relationship. So he kind of started to understand this virus. And in the process of understanding the virus, he started to notice some other virus. So when you're relaxed with the virus, You can inquire into what your relationship with the virus is, and you can open up to problem-solving about this virus. Here I am, I've got this virus, we've got to live together. How can we live together in a non-pountiful way? How can I help my immune system work it out with this virus? Maybe they could have a peaceful relationship. I don't know if any viruses have ever been eliminated.

[48:16]

Who knows? I don't think so. But how can we have the relationship between viruses? Isn't that the question? The fans, for number one, meet the virus with no fixed questions. That's the question. Again, smallpox virus, Edward Jenner, who meets at some point, I think he met that virus with no fixed perspective, and then he saw other viruses. His inquiry and his creativity came into play in relationship with this virus. And what did he notice? He somehow noticed that the miltonaries out in the nice green hillsides of season had better complexions than a lot of the other young girls did. He sort of wondered, how come they don't find it all possible? And then he found out that a lot of them had, in their particular work, they got cowpaw.

[49:31]

And then his mind could see the relationship between getting cowpots and not getting smallpox. And they don't get cowpots with the fact that people are getting smallpox. And so he did some experiments and found out that in fact, getting cowpots can cause the Indian agents and getting snacks. So then he figured out a way to give people a little piece of cowpots and then they didn't get smallpox. If you saw this way of protecting beings and working out a non-damaging relationship with smallpox virus by working with cowpox. So you can find a way of having a relationship with something dangerous by needing it and relaxing it.

[50:40]

That's the point. And you can be quite warrior-like about this, like the eye is going to be very vigilant, ready to meet whatever comes to your life. And I'm going to do this as though I were trying to protect me and all beings from time. I'm going to be a great apoptic warrior by developing these creative and problem-solving modes of all things. So smallpox virus doesn't kill smallpox virus, right? It helps the immune system get ready to meet the smallpox virus. And the immune system and the smallpox virus work it out. Does that make sense?

[51:44]

I think he said something about the immune system trying to kill the virus. Didn't you? Well, you think it is? You've got that perspective? Right, well, yeah, so I would say you have that perspective that the immune system is killing the virus, okay? That's a perspective. What do we do with that perspective? What am I suggesting you do with that perspective? Don't grasp it. You've got the perspective. You probably won't forget it. And if you do forget it, let me know. I'll tell you what it was. I won't forget it. It's a perfectly reasonable perspective, isn't it? A immune system kills viruses. Maybe it does, who knows? But don't grasp that. Just consider that's a possible perspective. It's available to you. Put it on your perspective shelf. I was doing this workshop in Houston and I was going to get someone who was giving me a ride to

[52:49]

We're meeting, and this big white truck drove by. And on the side of the truck it said something. And I said to the driver, I said, oh, look, a Zen truck. And she looked back and laughed. And it said on the side of the truck, shelving concepts. So anyway, that's Zen meditation. But it's shelving them. But when you shelve them, first of all, do you notice what concept you've got? You've got a concept. The human system kills viruses. Take that concept and put it on a shelf. If you need it, it's there. Now what? Next concept, thank you, shelve it. Don't grasp it. It's available to us. It may be true, it may be useful.

[53:51]

That's what that company is about. They have concepts on how to shelve things. If you want to know, they'll tell you how to shelve stuff. That's their business. But in the meantime, put all your concepts, including the concept of how to shelve concepts, on the shelf. And then, that way of being, generally speaking, promotes your music. Because your music is not only developed by being exposed For example, some, what do you call it? Vaccines. And vaccine comes from cow, right? I think the first vaccine was for cowpox. It was a cowpox vaccine. That's like all the vaccines. So these immunizations are the way to stimulate your immune system to get it ready for its interaction with viruses. One way to stimulate it is immunization, but the other way to stimulate it is to relax.

[54:58]

Because the immune system operates best when the lady who lives all around us is like not stressing herself by attaching the concept. The immune system then lives in nice neighborhoods, and it operates well. And does it kill the vaccine? And does it kill the virus? Maybe, because it kills it. But sometimes it doesn't pull it. Sometimes it just works out a treaty with it. Same with cancer. Some people have different kinds of cancers. One kind of cancer is the kind of cancer that you just work it out with it. Because with cancer, this cancer means to have this stomach complex. And they say, look, If you just don't get too big, you'll have to stay. Now, if you get too greedy and try to take over the whole thing, you'll be really rich for a while, but then you're going to lose your whole host.

[55:59]

You know? So if you just stay within certain limits, we can keep the host to keep living, and you can keep living. But if you try to take over the whole river, you're going to lose your whole thing. It's like, you know, what they call hunting certain animals to extinction. It doesn't make sense in a way. Temporarily, you'll get rich, but then to the scene, you're used to it. The successors won't have anything to hunt. So the immune system, a very complicated system, and the virus systems and other ones, they can work it out. You can help them work it out. by immunizations to stimulate the system fine, but also by not stressing the whole system. Sometimes the stress is what actually initially sets up the breakdown of the immune system. But even if the immune system is always challenged and never really does work it out with this virus,

[57:08]

Another part of your being has a good relationship with the virus. And that part of your being is healthy. And that part of your being is more important. Because the body, the kind of body that has its immune system, that kind of body, that kind of body is temporary. That kind of body is the body that's born in ignorance. And it's going to grow anyway. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of it. That's because the big mind, the mind that doesn't come and grow, mind of Buddha, that mind takes care of all bodies. So it isn't that we have this big Buddha mind that doesn't come and go, which isn't born and dying, because we don't care about our bodies, because the Buddha mind is the mind that cares about all bodies, that wants to take care of all the moon systems and help them have the relationship with all viruses. It's the mind that cares about viruses too. But it's a mind that knows that it's not... This mind knows that we're not too worried about what it caused to be dangerous virus species.

[58:18]

The virus seems to be defined as far as we met. We do not have... I haven't heard these, you know, the people who are protecting the forest saying, we've lost six species of viruses. They're not worried about that. It's the big ones that we're worried about. The bears and the tigers and the coyotes and the people. These are the big ones we're worried about. The viruses, you know, are doing fine. Somehow we haven't... I haven't heard that, but maybe some biologist as well can tell me that now we're lazy creatures of viruses because of all the food. We know these creatures are horrible. I think the coral reefs, I've heard, have lost one-fourth of them. And they're really neat things, the coral reefs.

[59:18]

And somebody said that if we keep going where we're going, 20 years, we'll have to all be gone. So how are we going to protect these coral reefs? Some of us would like to, but we'll work towards that end. I'm, for me anyway, the way I'm going to work, Donald, is to try not to rid you about my views about what you could do to the demise of the core of you. Some of you may say, you're not doing enough, and you say, I hear you, and I'm not attached to the idea that I'm not doing enough, but I am doing it. That's not the power of me, and you follow. which I think is a path of health in my mind and a path of health in my relationship with my viruses and my brain and my parasites. What do you think? Great. It should be enjoyable. This perspective, if you tune into this perspective, there should be joy in it.

[60:22]

There should be Eve, joy, and flexibility, stability, lightness, and readiness to help your body have a good relationship with the entire universe and help all the parts of your body have good relationships with each other. And to enjoy and care for the whole, to enjoy and care for a body, or to care for a body in a joyful way, with the most health, even though this body is a bit old, even though we're caring for something that will not, you know, it's going to have some problems. We joyfully care for this body. We're grateful to have the opportunity to take care of our bodies which they just cleaned up. What happened? great relationship with food.

[61:40]

So, there it is. Now we have food offered. Now we're meeting the topic of food, okay? So we have varied perspectives about this, things about food. Shantithi, I think that in the endeavor to find the appropriate relationship, the beneficial relationship with food, we should be aware of the food and not being involved in our discursive thoughts about our relationship with food. But you do have thoughts about your relationship with food, okay? And getting involved in your discursive thoughts about food, which is getting involved in discursive thoughts about your relationship with food, and to get in with that mode of finding, looking for your true relationship with food by following that mode, is to follow the mode of rigidity and disturbance, inflexibility, confusion, and happiness.

[62:41]

You will not be able to find your true relationship with food by trying to get involved in certain thoughts about your true relationship with food. You also will not realize your true, healthy relationship with food by rejecting your discursive thoughts about food. So, in your relationship with food, you have lots of discursive thoughts, you have lots of views. Let them be. Then, tell them and use them in a way that's beneficial. First of all, meet to meet your ideas of the food, meet your views of the food, and let them go. And in that mode, you will find the creativity, the mode of inquiry, where the appropriate relationship with the food will be worked out. And in that situation, you may find ways of having a conference with the food.

[63:51]

It made it feel like you're working it out pretty well. The food may say to you, who knows what the food may say to you? I'll just tell you one story about you talking to a food, okay? You may go to the food, you may go to the carrot, and say to the carrot, okay, I kind of, I kind of would like to keep you. Would that be all right? And the carrot might say no. So you might say, okay, see you later. Then you might go to this tea store, buy some carrot seeds. And then go, take the carrot seeds home, go out in the, go out in some, go in the little, go in the little world, pick up some fruit, pick up some carrot seeds, ask them if they would like to be planted or not. They'd say, if I plant seeds, can I eat some of these? And if they say no, well, they don't plant.

[64:55]

Well, you go with some bean seeds. If they can find some seeds who would rather have your support to grow up to be a full plant of edible maturity and let you help them live and fulfill that life process. And that they would give themselves to you to be eaten at a certain point in their life because they're going to die anyway. The question is whether you feel that you really are helping them have a life as a being or as a carrot to a certain point. And at a certain point, what's going to happen is they're going to become food for you. It's like you are going to become food for something else. Even if you get treated, you're going to be food for something else for a while. Right now you are interested. So if you don't think something's giving itself to you, and you ask it and it says N-O, I don't want you to eat me now, I would suggest try to find something that would say okay to you.

[66:07]

And it's possible that some plant would say okay. And it's even possible that some animators stay up there. But you have to make sure you surpass them if it's OK. The Buddha gave her body, in many lifetimes, to other beings. And we know some people who are not usually called Buddhas, but who have given their bodies to see the other bees. Like in Oakland, the Oakland earthquake, you know? Freeway collapse. Mother and a baby were in there, you know? And they were taught for a long time, and the baby said, Mom, now I'm hungry. The mother opened her veins and gave the baby blood. The baby did, the mother died.

[67:10]

Sometimes we give our bodies to other beings. Other beings are cleaning us right now. The question is, are you feeling your body? And are you feeling your body? In a way that's most beneficial. The way you can get your body to other beings right now is perhaps you can finish the retreat and still get your body to other beings. Because maybe you think it would be good for me to to live a little longer because maybe you're taking care of your guardian and your children and your friends and your business. But even at some times, you get to live a little longer. But when it comes to beauty, we should think this is a gift. Second of the great precepts of a Bodhisattva, of one who wishes to be a Buddha for the welfare of all beings in social events, the second precept is do not take what's not given.

[68:11]

And you walk over that building and they give you that freedom. And they put a gift into that business they need to consider. And they see how you say too much gifts. Ask that question. Consider that. Open. Open. And don't fit their perspective like, yes, it is gifts. Or no, it isn't gifts. Even if you ask and they say no, don't fix that perspective. But without somebody, if I say somebody not used to and they say no, even if I don't fix that perspective, I still might say, okay, I won't. Or I might say, and I probably wouldn't say, okay, I'm going to eat. But I might say, well, even though I can't need to, could it be all right if I could be off?

[69:13]

Or could we need somebody else to get? They might say, fine. You'll find something else. So I think, consider whether in your relationship with the steward, is there a reaction of preferences If they're grasping what [...] they're gras I'm really confident about this because I let go of it. The more I let go of it, the more it comes back in my face and says, yes. This is the way to have healthy relationships with food. If you go to food, we have all these people eating disorders now.

[70:16]

They go to food and they're barely aware when they arrive. They're barely aware. It's part of the reason why they're barely aware is because there's so much pain for them around food. And part of the reason why there's much pain around food is because they're grasping views about food. I should not be overeating. I should not eat anything. I should, you know, I'm evil, I'm bad. They're grasping views. They're practically blowing their awareness away and they go eat without even thinking about what it is or how much it is. They're not even there because they're grasping the views about this thing. As you release, it is near the body again. Face, the external, you start to relax, you need to start opening the pool. I mean, if it's open, I'm not going to eat anymore. I'm eating so fast, I can't taste it, I'm not closing. It's gone. This way of approaching food opens up enlightening other relationships.

[71:19]

will be used to do it in a healthy way And for most others, because the graduate education process isn't like, you know, you go from having all these habits and suddenly they all drop away. But at some point, you know, they do actually sort of suddenly drop away, even if they suddenly notice. Like when people quit smoking, I think it stops. It's funny. They didn't know they stopped. But it might take a long time to then to assimilate in its data. to be convinced, just for their body to present. Lots of moments of noticing, needing your cigarettes, over and over, noticing what it's like, letting go of the juice, noticing what it's like, letting go of the juice, so you gradually find the It's a way, it's a creative way, creative possibility of like, do it this way.

[72:35]

Like, you see how to do it, but if it opens up, you go, oh, that's how. And then, it's a ride, the end is a ride. And you're there to see it. It's the end of that. I think I'm going to have to stop this question. Before I respond to you, you want to speak to people? You want to help me? Tell me something to them. Are you okay? That's anybody not okay. Anybody who's not actually afraid to say anything. That'll pay now? How? That'll pay how? Need something?

[73:37]

Anybody need anything that they're not getting? Huh? You're hungry? Well, come over here. They're going to serve you... There's going to be a lot of food available here in half an hour. In the meantime, if you'd like to go out and prove it something, you're welcome to do so. Tiger. Anybody else hear anything right now other than me? Yes. What do you mean again? Melodine. Melodine. Yes? Okay, so Melody says she has a lot of discursive thinking about what I'm saying, and that she feels like it's too big to bring up all this discursive thinking before that.

[74:48]

You sincerely do. Yeah. And may I say something to you about that before we get into that discursive thinking that you think it's too much to bring up? But I'm suggesting you let go of it. For starters. Huh? Yeah. Not get rid of it. Just let them be. Let all of the descriptive thoughts see. Okay? And then, if you think it would be good to bring forth these descriptive thoughts in the spirit of bringing them forth to see if we can discuss them without attaching to them. So the descriptive thoughts, I think you can grasp what kind of thing is served in mind. but also the descriptive thoughts are things you can meet. You can meet a descriptive thought while letting go of the descriptive thought about the descriptive thought. So you can meet then descriptive thought in a calm, flexible way, and we can discuss it without either of us attaching to our values and descriptive thoughts about the descriptive thought we're talking about.

[76:02]

So the mistake of feeling I would say that you can bring forth any descriptive thought you want to, but please notice if you're attached to them as you bring them forth, or if you're just bringing them forth because they are coming. So if a descriptive thought comes, I'm suggesting not that you ignore it, but that you meet it. Meet the descriptive thought. And that's it. And relax it, which means let go of discursive thoughts, thoughts of discursive thoughts. I can get out of discursive thoughts, such and such is a problem. And you can have another discursive thought, which is, I shouldn't be thinking of it. So you recognize, of course, such and such is a problem. And you let go of, I shouldn't be thinking of it. And then when you relax, you have, of course, such a type of problem.

[77:03]

You're flexible with such a type of problem. And without grasping it in a different way, you may define your true relationship with the perfect thought. You find feelings. You find thoughts. You discover feelings. The challenge for you would be, is it possible for you to discuss with us certain descriptive thoughts in the spirit of just meeting us, meeting them one by one, while kind of playing into the philosophy as you meet from the discussion? Well, right now I'm talking to you. Can I talk to you? and meet the words that are coming to me that speak to you. You see, meet the coming of these words. What do I say?

[78:03]

And you speak to me. And meet those words and meet your speaking. Do you want to try? Pardon? Like right now, you're speaking to me. So you're needing it, and you can meet, you can talk to me. Yeah. That's right. Right. So you find the mind applying these things, and so you get sort of involved in that.

[79:04]

Right. And so what I'm suggesting is to try to learn how to give that up, even though it seems like that might be fruitful to get involved in that line of thought, right? But as a training, since you've been doing it, you have a lot of experience doing it, right? So most of you do. And I'm just saying that mode, unless you've already attained the state of stabilization, so that you're really veered into, really paying attention to the non-elaborative responses, unless you're well-focused on the non-elaborative, if you get involved in the elaboration, you lose track with the tranquility, and then you get brought up in the thought. So I'll tell a story here, which I told the other night in the class, in the class of his birthday, on this meditation, healing meditation.

[80:13]

So the story is about two Zen monks. One's sleeping in the ground, which you can understand as discursive thought. Okay? Sleeping back and forth, that's what discursive thought means. Back and forth, back and forth. The other monk comes up to him and he says, you're really busy. And the one who's sleeping says, you should know that there's one who's not busy. I'm sleeping, but I know there's one who's not busy. In other words, right while a discursive thought is going on, there's also a knowing, is it not discursive? Awareness itself has the quality of a non-discursive. It just knows, with no elaboration, with no business, just knowing. Even while there's discursive thought going on, it's also

[81:20]

an invisible, a non-dissertive, direct, simple, non-elaborative forensic. If you are deeply convinced and infinite with this aspect of mind, which is a simple, non-elaborative knowing, if you know a concept with no elaboration, you're really focused on it, and your attention is trained on it, then the mind is calm. Then, based on that calm mind, you can turn to discursive thoughts. Because even in the discursive thoughts, the unbusy one as well. Yeah. And then you can evolve into discursive thoughts with calm, reflectability, and lightness, and clarity. But if you do not have a intimate relationship with this non-discursive aspect of your mind, then you're not calm. enough to get involved in the business.

[82:22]

This is my fault. I'll go back to this place. So, sitting in the ground, the other one comes up and says, you're too busy. The one who's sleeping says, you should know that there's one who's not busy. I do. You should sit. Then the one who's criticizing says, General Simu, Two realities of the mind. One, if there's an un-busy one, if there's no elaboration, and then there's a busy, which adds elaboration to everything in its mind. Are there two? And I understand exactly three. Yes, there are two. And then the monk, or the monk with the moon, raised the moon and said, which moon is this? Which moon is this?

[83:27]

The busy one and the busy one, and the other one's walked off. There are two, but there's two aspects of one month. And if you only pay attention to the busy one, is agitated, stiff. And again, if you only pay attention to the dizzy one, that means not to take attention to the grass, then the mind is disturbed and not calm, and it's not serviceable, it's not ready to heal. If you only pay attention to the under the one, and to be calm, that calm has a dead end. because you're then, you know, if you only paid attention to that, actually it wouldn't be calm because you actually have to pay attention to both. You have to pay attention to that, which will calm you, but you can't cut off the other one.

[84:30]

Because if you cut off the other one, you're getting involved in the other too much. So without rejecting the busy one, you just let it be busy. I'm [...] busy. So you don't reject the busy one. You just tempestize on busy ones and you calm down with the busy ones. Then when you're calm, then you can dance with the busy ones without cleaning. You can push on the busy ones a little bit and watch the back up. You can push on you and use the back up. You can interact with the busy ones in this calm, flexible, joyful, clear way. So eventually we want to be able to dance with the spiritual mind dance with conceptual elaboration, but first of all, we've got to get our feet on it. Then I think of Fred Astaire.

[85:31]

But not just Fred Astaire, these garages. And when they were dancing, sometimes I felt like Fred Astaire was emphasizing non-elaboration, calming down. Ginger is flying all over the room, doing these fantastic elaborations of human movement, flying into the air, flipping around and coming back down on one little high, we have feet, perfectly on a slippery, glossy floor with great chill and beauty and totally collaborative with that. But the basics of the whole thing are Fred's feet. And Fred's feet is light and buoyant as he is, and is creative and flexible, and is joyful and clear and concise about everything he does. He also has his feet on the ground. Every foot is buoyant and very clear, very solidly, very flexibly, very happily, very lightweight.

[86:39]

In a firmly and lightweight place so he can move so that ginger doesn't get thrown across the floor. There's stability in their dancing, and they can elaborate. But before you can do the stuff that they did, you've got to be relaxed. You've got to be grounded. You've got to be calm. You've got to be flexible. You've got to be clear. He meets each situation with a flexible mind. He meets each situation, giving up his view of what the dance will be. He has lots of ideas of what to do. They both do. But he's not holding to it because this ginger goes in the direction he's not expected. He's got to go with that. And he can because he's not lucid. You shouldn't be over there. You shouldn't be over here. No. You shouldn't be over there. I know. But actually, you're over there. You should go on a relationship. And that's the dance.

[87:41]

So let's try to, you know, in fact I am talking to you, at the same time I'm talking to you, I'm saying, do not attach to what I'm saying. Listen to what I'm saying, please. Let's read each word I say and have the worship thoughts ready at hand to comment of what I'm saying. You could judge what I'm saying. You could prefer what I'm saying. You could select what I'm saying. Or where could I would say something else? Or where could I continue to do this? Or where could you have breakfast? All these things are there. And you let go of it. And you're calm. No matter how long you could do it. And then after breakfast, you'll dare to bring up it if you want. if you think you'll be good. Okay. There it is. Yes.

[88:48]

Who aren't meeting what's coming. Uh-huh. Yeah. Now, it's, what do you call it, the valium. The valium could be applied after the mutiny. First you need it without the valium. It's like, okay, that's going to spread it unaided by anything. This will set it. And then put it out. If I meet Lucetta and then I start grasping all my ideas about Lucetta, then I get very tired of looking at her.

[89:50]

But if I keep looking at her and let go of my discursive thoughts, then I keep getting fresh to Lucetta and it's not tiring. So I think probably what's happening is that you're being mindful but also grasping your views while you're being mindful. So you have to pay attention and meet what's happening and then think value. Meet something, think value. Meet something, think value. Hello, hello, hello, hello. But if you just keep meaning things, okay, I'm really mindful. Watch this thing. Watch that thing. Watch this thing. You're actually holding on to your idea of mindfulness and getting stressed. And the more longer you practice mindfulness, the more tired and stressed you get. Pretty soon you go like, just take it out. Or if you don't take it, just like, stay it out, okay? somebody's probably someplace in this apartment. I suppose somebody's, you know, alive or somewhere in the neighborhood, but I'm not really too specific, because it's too tiring.

[90:56]

So, start by practicing mindfulness, okay? But then, immediately start relaxing at the same time. Otherwise, mindfulness is immediately draining. Even mindfulness can turn into burnout. If you've got a very strong, clear sense of what mindfulness is, and you're holding to it, and you're gonna practice it, and no matter what happens, you're gonna be mindful, it gets tiring. So finally, you're completely successful. I'm mindful of each thing. I never miss a step. I'm aware of everything. I'm successful, I'm a successful meditator, but I don't like this. This is successful meditation, forget it. I didn't come into this, I came here for last. And I tried that. I've done that. I got myself under control in my meditation. I did. I finally got so mindful, like, you know, you couldn't put a pin in my mindfulness. Because if you did, I would go, oh, there's a pin. I was really mindful. I got there, and with no distraction whatsoever.

[92:01]

But I had this big, heavy holding on to being mindful while I was being mindful. So it was stressful, and I didn't like it. So I gave it up. in a quite different way, which is more relaxed and gentle. So training yourself, first of all, meet the thing, then relax. And training yourself in relaxation can also be a gentle, not like forceful training in relaxation, or forceful training in mind. It's a gentle, it's a training in mind, gentle. and not holding to your idea of what mindfulness is. But keep trying, and then if you get tired, stop because, you know, you need a break because you're not doing that. Then try again. And here's the final way of doing that here is resting in the mindfulness.

[93:05]

Mindfulness saves the resting, the resting aids the mindfulness. Without resting, mindfulness is totally. But without mindfulness, resting doesn't have any place to be applied. If resting, you know, if you stay south, you can't really rest because you can't rest about anything. You can't practice your own attachment if you're not patient. But even rest, even trying to rest without practicing anything, it's just. Like people go on vacation, you know. You don't need them to kind of relax, but they're not actually working with something to relax with. Maybe we could sit quietly for a little while and keep on breathing. Is that okay?

[93:56]

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