We have this expression in the Japanese expression coming from an ancestor named Dogen, which in Japanese is san shi monpo. San means to visit or practice or meet, and shi means teacher, so the first part of the expression is to go meet the teacher. The second part is monpo, which translates as to ask about the teaching, to ask about the truth of the Buddhas. Also monpo can be understood as in addition to ask about the teaching, to listen to the teaching.

[01:00]

The word, the character mon means to ask and listen. So part of the practice is to go meet the teacher and listen to the teaching and ask about the teaching, but also to be listened to and to be asked. People may be quite familiar with listening to the teaching coming out of the teacher's mouth. So that's to go meet the teacher, listen to the teaching come out of the teacher's mouth, but also the teacher might ask you questions about the Buddha Dharma. That's part of the practice, to ask and listen to the teaching, to be asked and listened to about the teaching.

[02:10]

Many times people have asked me, do you need a teacher in Zen? And I usually say yes. We need a teacher to do this practice of listening to the teaching and asking about the teaching. Being listened to, we need a teacher to listen to us and to ask us, to talk to us about how we understand the Dharma. And the ancestor says that this is part of the practice. So some people, the other part of the practice is called wholeheartedly sitting. Like, really like, being present with your body and

[03:18]

mind, or having a present body and mind is also a practice. So the practice has these two parts. One is being present with yourself, your body and mind being present with itself. The other is a conversation between your body and mind and another body and mind, or many bodies and minds. Those two parts, they really hit the mark. They So earlier this morning, you were practicing being present with your seat. And the seat where we sit, I would say, is the

[04:20]

seat, the place of awakening. With you sitting at the place of awakening, being present, your body and mind are being present as your body and mind. And now we're doing the listening and the asking, face to face part. So again, some people, a lot of people think that they can practice by themselves, just sitting. And then they wake up, oh, there's another aspect. It isn't just sitting, it's also meeting somebody and listening to the teaching and asking about the teaching. It's also that. It's both. And these two are not actually

[05:25]

separate. They're one thing waking up to itself. So by practicing meeting with the teacher and listening to the teaching, we come to understand that when we're wholeheartedly sitting, but when we're wholeheartedly a present body and mind, that's a conversation. So now I'm having a conversation with you, and you're having a conversation with me, and in this conversation, I'm asserting that when you're sitting in silence and stillness, that's a conversation. I'm saying that to you.

[06:25]

So that you can wake up when you're sitting. This will help you wake up to your sitting being a conversation. Pretty soon I'm going to stop talking and you're going to get a chance to sit again. But you've got this message to take to your sitting. It's like a time bomb. It's going to blow up your mind. Your awakened mind to more and more full inflation. And it goes the other way. Sitting is necessary in order to wake up to the truth. But when you're having a conversation, actually, that is sitting. The conversation is actually sitting still and silent. The sitting can help you wake up. In sitting, you can realize that there's sitting in the conversation, and the conversation can help you wake up so that there's a conversation in the sitting, whenever.

[07:50]

So some people think, I've been practicing sitting for many years at my house. It's been good. I was all by myself. Now I realize that there's another part of the practice called a conversation with the teacher about the Dharma. This is great. And sometime later the person realizes, all those years I was practicing by myself, I wasn't practicing by myself. All those years I was sitting in my house with no one else around, I was in conversation with all beings while I was sitting. The two sides work together. It's very nice. We're enacting that here. Now, another part that I've talked to somebody else about recently, different conversation, different person. Maybe even a different gender of person.

[09:08]

And I've talked to you about this before, but now might be a good time to say it again, because it's kind of surprising what I'm saying, is that just like sitting alone, you're actually in conversation, and when you're in conversation, you're actually sitting alone, all one. Alone is all one, right? Just like that. When you're calling to someone, when you're talking to someone, you're also listening. I'm calling to you, and not only am I calling, I'm also listening. Not only am I calling, but the calling is listening. The calling is listening. I'm calling, and I'm listening.

[10:16]

And you're listening, and you're calling. And some people might have trouble understanding how they're calling right now, if they're not talking. For a few seconds I was quiet. Did you see that? That time the pause was longer. Did you see that? There was a pause. I wasn't talking. Did you see it? Did you observe my silence? Did you listen to my silence? Did you hear my silence? Did you hear that silence? You're listening to my silence. And I'm listening to yours. And now Michel made some sound, and I heard it.

[11:24]

What may be not so easy to understand is that Michel's sound, his call, was a call. What may be hard for you to understand is that during my silence that you were listening to, I say you were listening to my silence. But it may be a surprise to hear, but while I was silent I was calling to you. And I'm proposing that I was. When I'm silent with you, I'm calling to you. And in my silence I'm listening to you. When I'm talking, I'm calling to you and listening to you. When I'm silent, I'm calling to you and listening to you.

[12:29]

When you're silent, listening to me, you're calling to me. When you speak to me, you're calling to me. I'm listening to yourself and me, all the time. It's kind of like there's an opportunity here to wake up to this. This is the reality of the Buddha mind. You've been calling to me, I've been listening, and I've responded to your call. I've been listening to your call, and I've responded to your call by speaking.

[13:30]

And so far, except for Michelle's cough, you've responded to my call by not speaking. But even though you weren't speaking, your silence was a call. Your silence is a call. Your silence is a call. And I'm going to probably just keep saying that for a while. Except I didn't. I changed to, I'm going to probably keep saying that. And I'm just about, yes? Are you calling? I'm calling. Calling in the form of a hand gesture. And then, now calling in the form of laughing. So you're calling for compassion. I'm calling for compassion. I'm calling for compassion. You're calling for compassion. When I'm silent, I'm calling for compassion. I came here this morning, and I sat with you.

[14:47]

I sat in this seat, and I called for compassion. And the compassion was here. Isn't that nice? And guess who gave it to me? The universe. The universe. Each one of you gave me compassion. What I call for. Thank you very much. Now, if I hadn't called for it, I would be living in a different world from the Buddhas. But I don't live in a different world from the Buddhas, because you can't get out of the Buddhas' world. Buddha will track you down wherever you are, and slap you with compassion. You can't get away from Buddha's compassion. It's impossible. It's impossible. People have tried, but nobody has succeeded. And even though they tried and did not succeed, they said, I succeeded, I got away from Buddha's compassion, I was living my life, and nobody was compassionate to me.

[15:49]

Nobody. Some people do that. But that's, of course, a big call. Yes. Okay. Maybe you can comment on this. My experience is, to hear this and experience what you're saying is true, when there kind of like, could be the next second, when I'm just not here. I'm literally asleep. You're literally asleep. Yeah. I mean, I'm there, present. Everything is, you know, exactly as you are saying. But then, there's, I'm gone. You get distracted from that. Yes, in the dreamland. You go to dreamland. Yes, dreamland. Dreamland, he goes to dreamland, and in dreamland, it's like, hey Paul, we got other things for you to deal with other than that.

[16:52]

We don't need you to meditate on this teaching. What we need you to do is, blah, blah. Not even really, coming back, not even really aware of what the dream was, but kind of aware that it was... Well, sometimes it's hard to remember dreams when you wake up, after you wake up. Yes. Yeah. That's part of the deal. That when we drift off into a dream of something other than the Buddhist teaching, at that very time, in that dream, we might think, I'm not calling for Buddhist teaching right now. I'm calling for something else. Well, that would be... That would be more of it. Oscar, would you go see if you can find a little black box near those sailboats? There's five sailboats in the Doksan room. Oh, those, I was going to the arena.

[17:56]

What? It's a marina, yeah. These sailboats float in the sky. They're part of a mobile, which recently fell apart when I opened the door to the deck. The wind blew them apart. We're in the process of repairing the mobile so that the sailboats can be up in the sky again. And I was going to say to you that we forgot to record this talk, so it's probably going to be a really good one. But now I see that there's a recorder here, so it probably won't be too good. A good one is a docu-recorder. Is there something other than the Buddhist teaching? There is nothing other than the Buddhist teaching. Even though part of Buddhist teaching is to say

[18:59]

that's not Buddhist teaching. Or at least, yeah, that's not the true Dharma. For example, if you don't have, if you've got the Buddha Dharma, you have a teaching of refraining from all evil. If you don't have that teaching, it's not the true Dharma. But we do have that teaching, so it is the true Dharma. Is forgetting evil? Is forgetting evil? Kind of. Depends on what you're forgetting. If you forget how stupid everybody is, that's not evil. If you forget how worthless everybody is,

[20:02]

that's not evil. If you forget to distract yourself, that's not evil. I could have distracted myself. I had a chance to distract myself, but I just kept paying attention. I missed an opportunity to be distracted. It's fine. I think it's fine that you never get distracted for the rest of your life from the teaching. That'll be okay. Other people will take care of that job for you. Yes, would you tell me your name again? Emily. My teacher stopped speaking because he died. Is he still calling? Your dead teacher is calling, yes. And your dead teacher is listening. And you're calling to your dead teacher.

[21:05]

And you're listening to your dead teacher. And I'm calling to your dead teacher. And your dead teacher's listening to me. Of course, different, in a different way than when your teacher was alive. It's different. Everybody's listening to me in their unique way at this moment. Everybody's calling to me in their unique way at this moment. And I'm listening to everybody. When I'm listening to everybody, when everybody's calling me, when me calling to everybody, and everybody listening to me, that is my life. And when I die, when we do this death thing, it'll be the same. And this is the Buddha mind, which you can't get away from. But you can be distracted,

[22:07]

and also you can even not have heard about it. Most people have not even heard the teaching that everybody's calling everybody. People have heard, yeah, they haven't heard that teaching. What they have heard is their own mind, which says, I'm calling some people and not others. What's your name? The lady with the kind of reddish hair. Laura. Would you say your hair is kind of reddish? I suppose so. Laura. I just called her Laura, and she answered me. But also Laura called to me, that's why I called to her. Anyway, a lot of people have not heard this teaching, but they do have a thought,

[23:10]

I sometimes call some people, but I don't all the time call all the people. Most of you know that you sometimes call some people, right? Most of you have called somebody, and you think that you did, right? Now I'm saying, that's right, you did. And sometimes people listen to you when you call, right? Most people think that I was sometimes listening. That's right, you were. You got it. It's just that it's totally true. That's totally the case. I wouldn't even say that that's totally true. That's totally the way things are. Things being that way, it's the truth. And that's the Buddha mind, which we can't get away from, which we have right now, and we have the opportunity to take care of it.

[24:13]

And we are taking care of it. And we're all taking care of it in a unique way, from a unique place of awakening. How many of you have heard of the word Dojo? Raise your hand. So what does Dojo mean? Training hall, practice place. Literally, Do is the path or awakening. The Chinese character Do or Tao means the way, but in Buddhism it also means awakening. And it also means in Chinese, to speak. And Dojo, the Do, is a place. So it's a place of the way,

[25:18]

but it's a place of awakening. And in Zen, each person's seat. So we have the Zendo, this building is a Dojo, right? This is a place of awakening, but each person's seat is a Dojo. And it's a Chinese translation of a Sanskrit word called Bodhimandala, or Bodhimanda. So, it's the bodhi's awakening, and mandala is like the circle of the seat for the awakening. Each person, wherever you are, even if you're walking down the street, you're walking every step at the practice place, at the training hall, at the place of awakening. And everybody's calling you to take care of the place.

[26:19]

Please take care of your Bodhimanda. Please take care of the place where awakening is happening, in your unique place. Please accept the responsibility to your place and your time. Everybody's asking you to do that. You're asking everybody to help you. Everybody is helping you by asking you. You're listening to everybody asking that. And you're training to open to this. Infinite requests that you're making of the universe to do the same, and also to help you practice. SILENCE

[27:40]

SILENCE I had a thought, which is that you're calling for me to be quiet. And then I said that to you. And now I'm saying that to you. There are beings that are calling out that don't always know what they want. And I wonder if that matters. Did you say beings are calling out and they don't know what they want? Yes. They make a noise, but they're not always clear what their request is. Yes. Like somebody might say, for example, they might say, Do not be compassionate to me. They might say that.

[29:02]

They're calling for compassion, and the way they express it is, Do not be compassionate to me. Or they might say, I hate you, granddaddy. That's the way they might call for compassion, is by saying, I don't want it. Yes. They don't know they want compassion. Yes. And I often use the example of my grandson. He's having breakfast in L.A. and he's being witnessed by his grandfather. He has two grandfathers, but one of them is me. And that one that's me was watching him eat breakfast. Just showering him with adoration, appreciation, and devotion. And he wrinkles his face up and says, Would you please stop staring at me? Now at that moment,

[30:07]

he's feeling hassled by my adoration, and he's calling for compassion for me to lighten it up, to give him a break from this beam, this golden beam of adoration. Give me a break, granddaddy. I'm uncomfortable with all this. And maybe he does know he's asking for me to give him a break. So I do. I look at the ceiling. He asked for me to stop looking at him like that, and I do. But he didn't necessarily know. I'm calling for that weird guy to stop giving me whatever that is he's giving me. It's too much for me to receive that and eat breakfast. With practice, you can actually eat breakfast and receive that. But most people feel like, if I was receiving all that love, I wouldn't be able to lift my spoon or my fork. So give me a break.

[31:09]

I want to eat. I don't want all that love. I want Cheerios. So he calls for my gift of looking away from him, and I do. And then he gets it. After he gets it, he starts talking to me again. And he allows me to talk to him. But he needed that compassion in the form of turning the intensity down a little bit. But he didn't know he was asking for compassion. But he seemed like he was. And if somebody says, I hate you, it doesn't sound like they're saying, would you please be compassionate to me? But they are. They want you to listen. They want you to listen to them say, I hate you. They're saying that because they want you to hear, I hate you. And you kind of listen to it. And then they feel like, okay, I'm sorry I said that to you, but I'm still glad you listened to me so I can feel sorry I said it. Because, yeah, the full impact of talking that way to you

[32:09]

doesn't really work if you don't even hear it. But you not only listened, but I think you heard it. And I appreciate that. So, yeah, we're trying... This is a process of waking up to Buddhahood. And Buddhas are listening to everybody, being called by everybody, and they're being called for compassion and wisdom. And they're giving it. And they're teaching other people that they're the same. Buddhas are looking at us and saying, you're just like me. You don't realize it yet. So we have this teaching which we say over and over. But Buddha wakes up and says, now I see that all living beings fully possess Buddha's wisdom. I have a time-socket surgery. Before Buddha woke up, Buddha didn't... Before Buddha woke up, Buddha didn't know that everybody fully possessed

[33:09]

Buddha's wisdom. Buddha's wisdom is to see that everybody possesses it. And also to see that they have misconceptions and attachments, and because of those they don't realize it. And I used to have misconceptions and attachments, and I didn't realize it. Now I realize it. And so I'm going to help them realize it. Realize what? What they've already got. Which is, what they've already got is that they're calling to everybody, to listen to everybody, being called by everybody, and listening to everybody. That's Buddha's wisdom. That's Buddha's wisdom. And they've already got it. But because of attachments, like to breakfast, and getting, you know, eating it, we might say, later on that, please, give me a break from this Buddha mind. And then, again, if you are given a break, then you say, okay, now, you can turn it on again.

[34:10]

So what I'm hearing is, I'm just the shape that I am. Well, you're just the shape you are, and by the way, you're the whole universe in that shape. Five feet and a half. Yeah. And, the whole universe is in the shape of not being you. So all of us, you know, the whole universe, we're all not you. And you're all of us as you, not us. What's your job? I think you're doing a good job, by the way. And you might actually get different shapes then. Oh, yes? Hi. I agree. I was considering this

[35:15]

story about the breakfast, then could you please give me a break? He didn't say, give me a break, please. Yeah. He just said, would you stop staring at me? He said part of my Buddha training is to know where the dial is when I'm listening and calling so that people, that beings don't feel harassed. Like there's some way about responding versus like too much, you know, like being tuned in, tuned in to how much is the right... That's the sitting. The sitting helps you realize, the sitting is that you are the dial. The way you are right now is the dial. If I'm tuned in. You are, no, you are tuned in. You are tuned in to you right now. That's what you are. You are, you are being tuned in to,

[36:16]

you are being tuned in to how you are. How you are, is that you are being tuned in to the way you are. That's how you are. That's the dial. So sitting is to, is to sit, is to let that dial be. When you let that dial be, you know how to do this conversation. And if you talk too much, if I talk too much, it's because I'm, I'm not fully sitting. When I'm fully sitting, I'll talk just the right amount. So that's why they go together. You gotta do the job of being you in order for you to respond properly when I say, would you please stop looking at me? And if you're, if you're doing your job, you can do what I'm asking you to do. Now if I'm not doing my job, I'm not realizing how well you've done your job. Doing exactly what's appropriate to my request. So responding, would you, if I say,

[37:17]

please stop looking at me, that's me being dialed in. That was him being dialed in. That was the way he was. That was perfect. Okay. Yeah, and I think he was pretty good at that. He said, just said, would you please stop staring at me? Then, and then I, and I looked at the ceiling, and he was there for that. He saw that. He was the boy who saw him look at the ceiling, and then he was ready for the next round in this interaction. Both of us, I think, did pretty well. He's, he's doing his job. I'm doing my job, and his job is to say, this is too intense, granddaddy, give me a break. I say, okay. He sees that. He says, okay, I'm up, I'm up for another installment in this conversation. And the more, but we have to do a job of being rabbits on him. The dial is me being me. And me being me

[38:17]

is that this dial is a conversation. But I have to, I have to be the dial. I have to be in me in order to appreciate the conversation. That's why, again, we need, we need a conversation to realize that sitting is a conversation. And we need sitting to realize that the conversation, when it's really working, it's sitting. Everybody's sitting there. Not just dialed in, that everybody is a dial. Everybody is a place, is a Bodhi Mandala. Everybody is a place of awakening. So part of our job is, you know, accept responsibility for what's going on with you right now. And then you wake up, oh, it's a conversation. And when you're in conversation, accept your responsibility in the conversation. And so we're training at that. Yes? In the same conversation,

[39:19]

when you're sitting and your interaction is one person at a time, I could see that. I could see it's much easier to be in tune with your, but then I'm just thinking of your position sitting there as there, and then I see everybody else. Everybody's in their own channel, and then you sustaining the whole room as that alignment. Yes. It almost, it looks impossible to me. It just, how could that, how could you do that? It just doesn't, it appears as impossible. I do it because everybody's helping me. I do not do it myself. Everybody helps me be the person who's this way. I could not do it myself. I did not make myself. You made me. And it's...

[40:20]

Yes, I understand that. But what I'm saying is, what is it that allows us, I know the word is stillness, but it's just like, I feel like there's this stillness has to, to become who we are in order to be able to sustain that in conversation with all the different channels. It requires tremendous amount of stillness. It's just almost as vast as this whole universe. That's right. What you just said is true.

[41:21]

And then to embody that in the body of the human mind, body, that is to me is like, it's just inconceivable. It's just that. It's inconceivable and it's tremendous. Those are words that are appropriate to it. Yeah. So what you just said was true and then the comment that it's impossible is wrong. Yes. It's not impossible. Yes, Nettie. What? Somebody else is calling me? Yes. Yes, Helen. Do you also mean

[42:32]

sustaining by like the ground and the sun and your flesh and the air in your lungs? Like when you say all these, do you also mean everything? Everything, yes. And all these things that you mentioned are calling to me and listening to me. And they're also calling to you. I do it. They're not just calling to me, they're calling to you too. And you who are called by them are calling to me. That's how I exist. I'm the universe calling to the universe, meeting the universe, giving rise to the universe where I am. And I have a responsibility in this situation which I'm training at. Which I'm training at by being devoted to this teaching. This teaching that I'm training at it. And this teaching that

[43:32]

by training we can actually realize what's already the case. And that training seems to be required. So part of the thing is that I'm made into, we are made into sort of ironic beings who are the way they are and no other way and yet we have to practice. It's a job to be ourselves. Even though we are what we are, it's also a responsibility to be how we are. And being children, we, when we're children, we don't know how to accept and care for that responsibility. So we're in the process of growing up and becoming more and more responsible to everybody. And more and more responsible to everybody being responsible to us.

[44:33]

So I'm devoted to a teaching which says all of you are responsible to me and all of you are responsible to each other. That's a teaching. And then how to accept the responsibility of that teaching and be responsible to you for me, for helping you understand that and being grateful to you to help me understand it. Because I wouldn't be able to hear the teaching without you. But I do have you so I can hear the teaching. The teaching says remember, remember this teaching. This is a teaching to remember. It says to me and it's saying to you. But again, the human mind goes, What? I have to work at being how I am already? The way we already are is that we have to work at being how we are because we're hard working. And so in a way it's effortless

[45:39]

when you're hard working to be hard to work hard. Yes? I notice though that I have I have habits that I'm concerned to work on. You notice some habits? I have habitual ways of thinking or reacting to situations. But maybe I really shouldn't I guess, what you're saying that's not really who I am. Those habits are pulling me out of that being. You notice habits? Habits, things appear in your mind which look familiar. What did you say? Certain ways of behaving appear in your consciousness which look familiar and kind of like not just familiar but like habitual. You see things like that?

[46:40]

Yes. And what are those things doing? What is what did you hear those things are doing those habits? What are they doing? They're calling. They're calling. They're calling for compassion. Yeah, but first they're calling to be their own. What? First they're calling you to be like to have a rotten attitude towards someone else. That's the problem. The way they're calling the way they're calling might be have a rotten attitude. That might be the call. Right? That's the way the call is being expressed at that time. And that call is calling to be listened to with compassion. That's what I'm saying. So all these habits are calling for compassion. Am I talking loudly enough? All the habits are calling for compassion. If there's anything that's in your mind that's not a habit it's also calling for compassion.

[47:42]

Like, oh, something just happened and I never saw anything like that before. And it's saying you never saw me before, right? I'm not a habit. I'm a newcomer. And I'm also telling you that all the things that you usually see are just like me. They're also newcomers calling for compassion. Now I'm calling you to say, how are you doing? I'm calling for you just so I can be ready with you. How are you doing? How are you feeling? I feel better about that. I feel better about being compassionate to the newcomer as well as the not familiar. I feel better treating the familiar more like the newcomer.

[48:43]

You feel good about treating your habits with compassion. Do you? Right, and if I just first need something or something I'm going to be nice to it, probably. That's what I want. At least civil. Usually when the first meet comes up with somebody, you know, usually immediately say, get out of here. I'm sick of you. Yes? So, is it a waste of time then to analyze diluted behavior? Well, it might be a waste of time to analyze diluted behavior if you haven't already listened to it. If you haven't already observed the diluted behavior with eyes of compassion, then analysis is going to kind of not work very well. Just like, you know, if somebody was sick and you were,

[49:48]

and you were, you wanted to analyze what the problem was, but you didn't want to be anywhere near them because you're so disgusted with them because their illness is so, you know, not something to, like, look at with compassion. Like, you look at it and turn away. And then, from turning away from it, you try to analyze it, probably not going to work so well. You say, well, I'm turning away with my eyes, but with my fingers I don't feel what's going on over there. Well, that's okay. You can use your fingers to, you can listen with your fingers. And then you can analyze the situation and see what kind of, what kind of a call is this. Like, would you please stop staring at me? So my mind analyzes that and considers various possible responses and we come up with looking at the ceiling. I also could have gotten to the breakfast table or lay on the floor and rolled around. A lot of other possible responses.

[50:50]

But I did sort of analyze what he said, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to hear the sentence. So there was some analysis, some grammatical analysis, and also some social analysis, like, would he be alright if I, does he actually need me to be staring at him? I think it's okay, I don't have to keep staring at him. If he was tightrope walking, I might say, I gotta keep staring at you, otherwise you might fall. He said, no, stop staring at me anyway. I said, okay. Can I at least get underneath you before, you know, so on. So there is analysis going on and analysis serves insight and wisdom when it's founded on compassion. Great compassion, or as compassionate as you can be prior to wisdom. Be that compassionate. Be totally, as much as you can be compassionate and that will open the doors of your analysis a wide. There is a place

[51:52]

for analysis. And for your information, I did have a really kind of, I don't know what the word is, in some sense, not quite elaborate, but a structured presentation I was going to bring up today, which I'll just tell you, you want to hear it? It's kind of late, but I'll just tell you it and then maybe later I'll go into detail. The structured presentation was to tell you about ten, I'm not sure, four veils. So I have a lot of fours today for you. Four teachings coming in sets of four. So I was going to tell you about four veils of the true body of Buddha. And then I was going to tell you about four practices to purify our life of those four veils. And then I was going to tell you about the four things

[52:54]

you realize when you purify your life of these four veils. I'm going to tell you about that. But I didn't. But I did. And they relate to what we were just talking about. The first four veils are, number one, hostility or enmity towards the great vehicle teaching. Number two is strongly adhering to the idea of an individual self-existence. That was number two. Number three is a fear of the suffering of samsara. Fear of the suffering of samsara. And number four is

[53:57]

a lack of diligence in caring for the welfare of others. Okay? Those are the veils. Then the practices which purify them are I wonder if one may think of that was the practice that purifies one of the veils is the practice of great compassion. That cures the veil of not being devoted and diligent in the care for the welfare of beings. And then for this belief in self, the medicine for that or the thing that purifies that belief in this individual self is analytic wisdom. And then the thing that and then the fear of of the suffering of samsara the thing that purifies that fear is

[55:00]

the practice of tranquility of meditative stabilization. That's how we can deal with the fears of samsara and be willing to dive into the ocean of all suffering beings. And then the thing that purifies us of our hostility or enmity towards the teachings of the great vehicle is to be devoted to the teaching of great vehicle. So this morning I gave you a great vehicle teaching which is that we are calling to all beings. And we are listening to all beings. And they're all calling to us and listening to us. That's a great vehicle teaching. But that teaching might be something that you feel some hostility towards because it might seem really strange. Or enmity towards.

[56:01]

Because it's so strange to think that that Donald Trump is calling for compassion. And you're listening to him. That might be something you feel some hostility towards. And that you're calling to Donald Trump for compassion. And he's listening to you. That may be difficult for you to accept that teaching. And when I... So that was what I... I can go into more detail on this later. But in that presentation the way we don't see reality is because of these four veils. These four veils. And great compassion and analytic wisdom are part of what this veil drove away. And revealed the body of Buddha. Which is purity and the real self.

[57:07]

The true purity and true self. And true joy. And true permanence. Of the Buddha body. The Buddha body... In other words, it is permanent. It's always so. It's well established and will never be otherwise. But we're calling to each other. That's always the way it's going to be. You're never going to stop calling to everybody. And everybody's going to never stop calling to you. And you're never going to stop listening and they're never going to stop listening to you. That's the Buddha body. The true Buddha body. Now, there's also a temporary Buddha body which is that, you know, sometimes we listen to people and sometimes we don't. But that's temporary. There's always this universal thing going on. But it's veiled by, for example, a hostility. It's such an amazing teaching.

[58:08]

And I just will say a little bit more. The word host is a wonderful word. It's one of these words which changed from what it originally meant to kind of its opposite. So the word host originally meant an enemy. An invading army. A host. It still has that meaning of being an army. But the original meaning of host is that way. And the Latin root is hostilis which means an enemy. But the word host which was really a foreigner or an invader or you could say a guest turned into that which receives the foreigner. That which receives the visitor.

[59:10]

That which receives the invader. So hostility actually has a root. The root goes to the original. The enemy. But that the enemy can turn into the host who welcomes all beings. And that's the way the Mahayana works. And also the word enmity is another possible translation of it. And when I saw that word enmity in one of the translations I thought of a poem which is in case 98 of the Book of Serenity. And one line in the poem is Who may I be? The ultimate closeness seems almost like enmity.

[60:13]

The Mahayana is ultimately so close to us that it's almost like would you please stop staring at me? Would you please stop staring at me Mahayana? Give me a break! And when you're far away from it like if your granddaddy is in another city it's fine. You're looking at you know he's in San Francisco looking at LA, no problem. But when he's right in your room right in your dining kitchen area and adoring you it's too close. It's almost like he's attacking me. So the Mahayana is so close to our heart that we have this teaching is so close to our what we are. It's almost like we want to push it away. It's too intense. It's too tremendous. It's too mysterious. Tremendous means it makes us tremble. But it's trying to make us tremble into being what we are.

[61:17]

Be the dial. Be the placeable. Tremble into being the place of awakening. There needs to be compassion in order for the wisdom to function and the wisdom will function there. If you're devoted to the teaching that's strange be a host for this strange teaching. But before you're really a good host you may be somewhat hostile towards it. And that's normal. And then be patient and compassionate with how difficult that practice is and all beings. And then you can do analysis. Can I hear more about the analytic wisdom? An example? I think you can. I think you'll be able to hear more about it. So I pray that you

[62:18]

take good care of yourself so that for the rest of your life you can hear more about analytic wisdom. Let's just keep studying. What is this assertion? What is this firm belief in independent existence? What is this firm belief that you do not include Donald Trump and you're not included in him? Let's analyze that. Because the teaching says that's not so. We have to look to see that. We have to be compassionate to this to this self-clinging. And by being compassionate to it we can analyze it. Then the analysis turns into wisdom and we'll see there's no such thing as an independently existing self. There's an interesting face here

[63:20]

calling me with... Contemplating. Contemplating. Yes, Aryeh? Donald Trump not listening to me? Donald Trump is listening to you. Right. But this idea that he's not or that maybe like the idea that maybe my boss isn't or my friend. This is a very, very common... Very common to think that somebody is not listening to us. Is there like a particular like sutra that would be good for us to read like more about this or something like this? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra and then the second thing that comes to mind is an essay by Dogen called Face-to-Face Transmission.

[64:21]

Those come to mind. They're both about meeting. They're both about conversation. The Lotus Sutra says only a Buddha together with a Buddha can fully realize the ultimate truth of all things. Only by that conversation between a Buddha and a Buddha can we realize the ultimate truth of all things. That's the main teachings of the Lotus Sutra. There's also a classical by Dogen called Only a Buddha together with a Buddha. And what's a Buddha? Well, you are. You're a Buddha in the way

[65:26]

that you are the whole universe coming together and meeting itself and giving rise to you. And that way you are in conversation, for example, with Denise, the way she's that way. You're already that way. You're already that Buddha way. And in order to take care of it you need to have a conversation with somebody else who's already in that Buddha way. And everybody's a candidate for such a conversation. So Lotus Sutra, chapter two, and Dogen wrote two fascicles which are closely related to this point. But the way everything is is the Buddha in that form. But that's not enough. The way everything is in that form has to have a conversation with something else.

[66:28]

That's everything the way everything is in another form. And that conversation is what we're trying to practice. And so the Lotus Sutra and those two fascicles by Dogen are a start. Yes? Do the two Buddhas have to know that they're Buddhas? Say that again? Do the two Buddhas have to know that they're Buddhas? Do they have to be actualized Buddhas? Yes. They have to be actualized Buddhas in the sense that the way you actually are is an actualized Buddha. That person has to that person has to be dialed into that. Otherwise that...

[67:32]

When you're dialed in you're not... When the dial is dialed in it's not looking at the dial. It's the dial. So... We are that way already. We are already that way and we are already in conversation with other beings who are that way. And that's the way things really are. But we don't realize it unless we join that. Unless... You don't have to think, I'm a Buddha, but you need to be joining the practice of accepting the teaching that everything's making you the way you are. If Buddha was going to be you, Buddha would be just like you are. Except Buddha knows how to be you completely and you're training at that. Before you're willing to be you, you haven't arrived at you as a Buddha. Buddha knows how to be you though. So you have to be completely you

[68:33]

otherwise you won't realize the way you're supporting and supported by the whole universe. When you accept that responsibility, now you've accepted the responsibility of being the type of Buddha you are. But that's not enough. You now have to have conversation with somebody else. Like go meet a teacher. Take a walk. Listen to the teacher. Talk to the teacher. Tell the teacher about who you are. See if the teacher's ready to meet you. Being a Buddha in that form. Meeting a Buddha in your form. And you feel like, now I've accepted my responsibility to all beings and their responsibility to me. I think Buddha's here. That's where Buddha's living. In that mutual responsibility. Mutual, unlimited responsibility. That's where Buddha lives. But a Buddha then has to have a conversation in order to fully realize this truth. We're already this way. We already have Buddha's wisdom.

[69:33]

But if we have any idea about it and any attachment to what we are or aren't, or what Buddhism is or isn't, any attachment to Buddhism or not Buddhism, then we don't realize we're Buddhadharma. And so we have conversations and we can help each other to notice if we have any attachment to ourselves, others, Buddhadharma, not Buddhadharma. And if we notice them, then we practice compassion in the form of I have a conversion. I have a conversion. I'm attached to something. And it's actually several things. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And now I want to try again to give up my attachment, let my attachment drop and be who I really am. Which of course I already am, but I have to work at it. And me being who I really am, that's what Buddha is.

[70:35]

Buddha is you being how you are right now. And Buddha wouldn't change you at all. Buddha would just do you more fully than you have yet been able to do. But you aspire to Buddha, which means you aspire to be completely yourself, which means you aspire to be the whole universe in that form that you are. Thank you, universe, for making this person. Thank you for this person and thank you for considering the possibility of accepting this gift, which would be your Buddhahood. But again, it's not just accepting this gift, it's accepting that you are a gift to the whole universe. Accepting all that is accepting your Buddhahood. And then have a conversation with other people who want to do this, which is everybody. Everybody wants to learn this, even though they haven't heard about it yet. And when they do,

[71:37]

they may have some hostility towards it. So then we have to figure out how can we get people who are hostile to this teaching to be devoted to it. But we've all gone through that phase where we've been hostile to it and now we're kind of like getting ready to drop the hostility through devotion. It isn't like you push the hostility away towards this thing. You just be devoted to it right along next to the hostility. I'm hostile, but somebody who's next to me is totally devoted. I heard about this Zen teacher, a Western Zen teacher who studied in Japan. I guess she was a pretty good student of Zen. She was a German woman and she was in Japan studying Zen. And she really thought this bowing that they were doing in Zen temples was really not her cup of tea. Something like that.

[72:39]

In other words, kind of stupid. Kind of not something she wanted to do. Something she had a lot of hostility towards or resistance. So there was somebody there who you could call, her name was Erngard Schlegel, who you could say, well, Erngard is resisting this Zen practice of doing all these prostrations. But she was doing them. But she was resisting. And she noticed while she was doing them and resisting that there was somebody there who was totally not resisting them and was bowing to what we say, just bowing to beat the band. Really bowing while she was going, who is this? Who's doing this bowing? This is the whole universe. But we have some resistance to the whole universe animating this creature. Especially when the creature is bowing. But that's a really good opportunity to realize

[73:43]

I don't want to do this but somebody else does. And who is that? Who is that masked man? Who is that whole universe that's performing this bow alongside somebody who thinks I don't want to do it. Or I'll do it but I really don't want to. This is our ironic situation. Yes. Okay, well, this talk has not been very long but even so maybe we should stop because people might be hungry. Right? Some people are hungry.

[74:24]

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