is the last meeting of this series. I'd like to lay time for questions, particularly Gloria had a question that didn't get answered last time. Maybe I'll just start by drawing your attention to the second paragraph of this text towards the end where it said, you should just wholeheartedly sit and thus drop away body and mind. And the same as not grasping or seeking anything. And again, as I just said earlier, this just sitting, this just wholeheartedly sitting Dropping away body and mind also means that when you're sitting, for example, you don't hold any idea like dropping body and mind.

[01:10]

Have the idea about dropping body and mind, the body and mind dropping off. That idea may be going through your mind as you're sitting. Someone may actually say that to you while you're sitting. And when you hear that, you may think that. But not grasping that is dropping off body and mind. Not seeking that the person would say it again so you could not grasp it again would also be dropping off body and mind. As I've said in many ways, one's sitting to not have anything in mind. In other words, there's plenty of things in your mind, but to not possess or grasp anything what's happening the practice is not grasping anything that's happening it's like a completely still this is complete stillness in the midst of whatever is arising and ceasing basic practice the way to put it which i've said over and over is in the midst of whatever is happening

[02:28]

completely relax or complete relaxation in the midst of whatever is happening, whatever is not happening. At the end of the class last week, Mary asked a question or made a statement and a question. After hearing about this Samadhi and reading about how things in nature are engaged in Buddha activity. All the mountains and the rivers and the trucks and the buildings and the people and the frogs and the dogs and the lizards and the rivers, everything is engaged in Buddha activity. And the Buddha activity of everything conveys Buddha's guidance to us. And when that guidance reaches us, it then resonates back from us then guides everything in nature so everything in nature is engaged in buddha activity and benefits us inconceivably and then it resonates back from us and helps the whole universe inconceivably that kind of talk mary said like seems like uh

[03:58]

self-receiving, this receiving benefit and employing benefit awareness, the awareness of receiving and employing help. It's with all of nature. It seems, she said, like very ecological or like ecology. And that it seemed that someone who had attained such an awareness, someone who had become like that, would be very relaxed. And I said, totally. When you have this kind of awareness, you are really totally relaxed. When you see how everything's helping you and how this help that you're receiving is then being given away, given back, and comes back to you and is given away, when you see this, when you're in the awareness of being helped and helping, when you're in the awareness of this mutual assistance, which is at the same time inconceivable, you're aware without even grasping onto how it's so.

[05:22]

And this is very relaxed, numb. So that's so far so good, but then she said, how do you know if you're in this state? And then I mentioned that being concerned with knowing whether you are is not part of the relaxation. As a matter of fact, you can't conceive of how you actually are in this samadhi. Concerned about knowing comes from not being relaxed. When I'm completely relaxed, I'm not concerned about whether I'm relaxed. A little bit relaxed, I might want to be more relaxed. But when I'm totally relaxed, I don't want to be more relaxed or less relaxed. I'm not worried about whether my relaxation lasts or not. When I am relaxed like this, I work all out for the relaxation of all beings.

[06:27]

When I receive this complete relaxation, then this relaxation turns into working for the relaxation of all beings. It is, by the way, not so hard to know. Relaxation of other people is easier to know about than your own. So this imperceptible mutual aid working for and being worked for helping others and being helped by others, this quiet being helped and helping, receiving help and employing help, is enlightenment itself. Part of the circularity of the instruction that I've been giving is that

[07:28]

One who has become this samadhi is very relaxed, and being very relaxed, you become this samadhi. You try to be relaxed, it's not going to work. And yet, somehow, if you receive relaxation, which is being given to you right now, everyone's trying to get you to be relaxed right now, even though they're not talking literally like that, they're calling you various bad names. But if you are relaxed, you become this samadhi. If you're relaxed, you don't grasp anything. And if you don't grasp anything, you become this samadhi, enter this samadhi. This samadhi becomes you. So the relaxation is before and after the samadhi. Also during the samadhi. The non-grasping before the samadhi seems to be an entrance into the samadhi and also non-grasping is a result of the samadhi and non-grasping is the samadhi one more small point is that if by any chance you ever are not relaxed by any chance you ever grasp anything in your mind or seek anything

[08:54]

If by any chance you try to have some nice meditation instruction to carry around with you, by any chance do you think that you're going to help people rather than you're going to receive help and then that receiving of help is going to be employed? If you think any of those ways, what are we going to do? which is not that difficult, is notice that you're thinking that way, that you're clinging to these things, and you confess that you're not doing the practice, which is the upright sitting in the midst of the Samadhi. Just confess it, and if you want this practice to be realized, confess it and reiterate your devotion to this Buddha Samadhi. you're still grasping and seeking you're still wishing you had a better state of mind you still wish you could remember what the instruction was or whatever and of course other things too that you might be involved in besides meditation attachments just keep confessing and reiterating the way you really want to be you want to be buddha then

[10:18]

remember that you do and confess that you just slipped off buddha there for a little bit because you were like not completely relaxed as this process is repeated over and over this melts away the root of veering off from the samadhi the more you admit any transgression from the path of the samadhi closer you are to being settled in the samadhi, unshakably, deeply, thoroughly. I just wanted to go through this text a little bit at the beginning of the third paragraph when it says, when even for a moment you express the Buddha's seal in the three actions by sitting upright in samadhi, So what's the Buddhist seal that's going to be expressed in the three actions?

[11:22]

What are the three actions? Sitting, standing, sitting, standing, lying down. Those are three actions. But no, three actions are body, which includes sitting, standing, lying down, and running, and also limping. Mind. Mind. and voice, speech. So the three types of actions are speech, thoughts, and physical postures. So what's the Buddhist seal on those three types of activity? When they're all pointed in one direction. When they're all pointed in one direction. And what is that one direction that they're all pointed? What? upright drop body and mind yep drop body and mind and what else just sitting dropping body and mind same thing the buddha seal is receiving receiving buddha's guidance and giving buddha's guidance receiving buddha's guidance and giving buddha's guidance

[12:46]

receiving help from all beings and helping all beings. That's the Buddhist seal. So, and if you drop all body and mind, you can accept that universal help and become a universal helper. So that's the shape of the Buddha's mind, is receiving support from all, receiving guidance from all things which are engaged in Buddha's activity, and then resonating back instruction and help to all beings to practice that way. When that's on every activity, then of course the next line follows. The entire world will become the Buddha's seal. If I am being helped by all of you, and then that help which I get from all of you resonates back to you, then we're all involved in this Buddhist seal, this samadhi. But we have to have body-mind dropping off all the time, otherwise we kind of like, you know, hold on to some idea of what it would be like if everybody was helping us.

[13:56]

For example, for me, I have to understand how it helps me but quite a few people are not in the class anymore. Their absence is how they're engaged in Buddha activity in my life. Now, it's easier for me to appreciate how your presence is you being engaged in Buddha activity. That's easier for me. And how then, when I feel that your presence is being engaged in Buddha activity, I feel like you're helping me. making it worthwhile for me to walk over here from San Francisco. Easier for me to see how it's resonating back to you. But I have to do it with everything. That's what I want to do. And if I hold on to anything, if my body and mind doesn't keep dropping off, then my body or my mind kind of can interfere with me being totally intimate with the samadhi.

[15:00]

If my body and mind is not dropping off, if I'm clinging, I'm holding on to my thoughts and my opinions and my judgments and my values about how people should be helping me. Still, this resonance is happening, but I cut myself out of it by holding on to something in my mind, some judgment, some standard of what it would look like for those people who aren't here to be helping me. They really want to help me by coming to class. People are making it easy for me. Too bad. And one, I'm not going to go through this. A couple of things I was going to say, but actually I kind of am giving up on them. Buddha's face. What's the original face? It's the face. It's the face a body-mind dropped off.

[16:08]

It's the face before you knew how to cling to anything in your mind. You happen to have that face on the front of your head right now. You have your original face. It's your face before you hold anything, before you grip anything. try to grip what I just said about the original face, that's not it. I mean, that's going to interfere with the original face being able to function. But anyway, now you all have your original faces on, so please go to work. The original face, to meet all beings, some of whom do not understand that they have the original face on, Relax with that.

[17:09]

Don't worry about it too much. Like zero. Imperceptible mutual assistance. The fact that we're all helping each other is enlightenment itself. Questions? Gloria, you had a question at the end of class. Do you remember it? I do. I mean, it's been shifted itself from the world down to how the Buddhist doesn't think you should care about it. question was, how many Buddhas does it take to shift the paradigm? And then the answer was... What was the answer? It doesn't need to be shifted. It doesn't need to be shifted. That's how many Buddhas it takes. It doesn't need to be shifted. And And it takes all the infinite number of Buddhas for it not to need to shift, because it's already shifted.

[18:10]

But what you said is, I'm not sure that I got it right, but I hope it is. I used to really be disturbed when I had a few people say they are the only ones that create that reality, but in a sense, but that it's all quite normal. They create that reality. Well, it's not that they create it by themselves, but it's also that whatever reality they are, however they're manifesting, as a rock, as grass, as a man, as a woman, as a sick person, as a healthy person, whatever they are, they're engaged in Buddha activity. And the way they're engaged in Buddha activity is how they're being helped by all beings to be the way they are. Even if they're suffering a lot, they're still being helped to suffer. When you suffer, you get assistance to suffer. Of course, many people say, well, no thanks.

[19:16]

Or, you know, leave me alone. I don't want any more of that kind of assistance. And then when you are suffering and you don't want assistance in suffering, then you go to hell. Because now you're suffering, but you're like cutting off all your support. But if you're suffering and you realize how you're being assisted in that suffering, you wake up to Buddha. I mean, you wake up not to Buddha, you wake up, you become Buddha. Even when Buddha had some problems, after he was Buddha, he still got sick. Everybody helped him be sick so he could be a sick Buddha. You show us how Buddha is sick. And he didn't say no thank you to his sickness. And he didn't say no thank you to all the beings that were helping him be sick. As a matter of fact, there was a story about, you know, somebody had a story in their mind about how he got sick and he told people not to grasp that story they had about how he got sick and punish the person who they thought was responsible for him getting sick.

[20:24]

the person who fed him this poison by accident. This vision is like, if you're suffering, you realize that you are being helped to suffer. You are being assisted by Buddha's activity to suffer. So even though you're suffering, you have great growing Dharma bliss. and also the dharma bliss of how you're being helped, but also how this being helped is resonating back to all those who helped you. So even though you're suffering, you are happy and helping and being helped and helping and being helped and helping and being helped and helping infinitely, unobstructedly, perfectly suffering. without the slightest bit of not suffering exactly the way you're suffering not just that you're not it's not just that the universe isn't blaming you for what's happening to you actually what's happening to you is an opportunity to save the world no matter what distracted and trying to fix the blame on somebody like yourself or somebody else everybody's responsible and that's good news

[21:50]

goes with the samadhi, that goes with Buddha's mind. Nobody's outside the responsibility network of our lives. Nobody. Not the slightest. Nothing's excluded. Everything's included. Patty? When you say it doesn't seem true, I wouldn't recommend you believe in something you don't think is true. What do you mean by not true? Well, it says here over and over again that these things do not appear within perception. You look at, when you look at a rock, you probably, you can't, you may think, you look at the rock and you think, oh, I see how that rock's helping me. Okay? You may think that. But your idea about how the rock's helping you is not the way the rock's helping you. You can't see the way the rock's helping you.

[22:52]

The way the rock's helping you is the rock being the rock, and you can't see the rock being the rock. You can't see Patty being Patty. Come to understand this? Take a guess. Yes. What? Just be with it. And what is it like to just be with it? By the way, you said it. What do you mean by it? Just be with whatever's happening. Just be with whatever's happening. And how do you just be with whatever's happening? Without grasping. Without grasping or pushing away. Pushing away is seeking something else. Without grasping or seeking, if you're that way with whatever's happening, you will understand This thing which is inconceivable. This inconceivably wonderful teaching. I shouldn't say wonderful teaching. This teaching about an inconceivably wonderful life.

[23:56]

What movie, what's it called? A Wonderful Life? Is that what it's called? It's a Wonderful Life. That movie's about that, right? This guy thinks he's in hell. Right? You know that movie? That movie? This guy wants to commit suicide. He thinks he's in hell, right? That's what he thinks. He's being helped to be, like, bankrupt and whatever else, you know? So he's going to commit suicide. And then, I don't know about the story, but it looks to me, without even knowing anything about the story or remembering it, that without moving a particle of dust or changing anything, he somehow realizes that it's a wonderful life. does he do that well he gets like right down there to like getting ready to commit suicide and somewhere around there i think he kind of like let's go of something and letting go of something sometimes you get to see oh i i get it it's a wonderful life everybody's helping me i didn't see that before i thought just like two i thought two people were helping me and those two people were helping me

[25:04]

I couldn't help them because nobody else was. Matter of fact, they were helping me and I wanted to help them. Like I wanted to give these two little children who were helping me some food, but I can't give them food because these people stole all my money. It's like holding on. That's the way things look when you're holding on. It's like some people are on my side and some people are not. Ones who are not are not. They're not helping me. I don't see it that way. right you don't see it that way that's because you're holding on to your body and your mind your body and mind you're only going to see some things helping you some of the time rather than everything helping you all the time plus you helping everything all the time but not you helping everything but rather that you're being helped you receiving that help is then employed You receive all this kindness and then you give it away. You receive all this love and then you give it away.

[26:06]

How do you see that? Just no clinging, no seeking. That's it. And you won't know when you're not clinging and seeking, but you don't have to know when you're not clinging and seeking because you're not clinging and seeking, so you're fine. You don't need to know you're in love and healthy when you're in love and healthy. If you're still concerned about knowing whether you're clinging and seeking, you're still clinging and seeking. So you can spot your clinging and seeking, you can see that, but you really can't see when you're not clinging and seeking. It doesn't matter because you're like totally into Buddha's work then, and that's what counts. Now, you would be able to, however, by the way, expound various Buddhist scriptures, you know, effortlessly. be able to tell people the way things are, even though you don't see them with your eyes. You could tell everybody with total confidence how they're all being helped and how they're all helping you.

[27:07]

With total confidence. And, you know, no matter what happens, you would be happy. And no matter what happened, you would be kind. And you'd never be afraid. These kinds of things. And you might just say, well, maybe I understand something because I'm not afraid anymore. you kind of get a hint, maybe, that you're a Buddha. As a matter of fact, you can say, I'm a Buddha. Buddha can say that. Excuse me, I'm a Buddha. How do you come to that? Well, I kind of, I sort of see it. Back to your question, how do you get to see this realm that's inconceivable? How do you see it? Your wisdom? By body and mind dropping off. And again, as I said earlier, if body and mind has not been dropped off, then just admit it. That wasn't body and mind dropped off. That was holding on to body and mind. That wasn't no seeking and clinging.

[28:11]

That was clinging and seeking or just clinging. And now it's seeking. There's some seeking. There's some clinging. I admit it. And the more I admit it, things are getting calm around here. less anxiety. There is more energy. I'm not going to cling to any of that. Okay? So, you know, that's the practice. Run it right now. Yes? What did he... What did he many, many years ago told the following story? And so... That's a story too. Yes?

[29:15]

You haven't dropped yet. Obviously you haven't dropped yet. You're still concerned with the next step. So I think you need to stay in the hall of mirrors a little longer. By the way, if you put a dog in a hall of mirrors, they won't go crazy because they won't know it's them in the mirror. But we will. Human beings know that the person in the mirror is themselves. Chimpanzees can learn that, though, eventually. But little humans... can learn it really soon. It's amazing how early humans can tell. They can barely walk and they go, wow. Six months old kids can tell it's them in the mirror. It's amazing. We are into face to face. And we go crazy with it. And finally we collapse in insanity.

[30:17]

And then we see it's a wonderful world being in this hall of mirrors. Wonderful hall of mirrors. Wow. I see Ron is hanging. Was there somebody else that had their hand up earlier? Edwin, you did, but you're done? Like, do you ever think you're right? It's like that. Huh? It's like that. Whereas I may say some things, you may say, well, that's just his opinion. He thinks such and such. You may be sort of relaxed about what I think, unless I think something about you that you really like or something. But when you think something and think it's true, you're grasping it, rather than just sort of saying, well, I think that. I think it would be better to do it this way. And it would be better to do it this way.

[31:18]

Then you're grasping it. Well, it just happens to be so that it's better to do it this way. It's not that I'm grasping. Yes, that's grasping. Rana first. Relationship between samadhi, compassion, fear, and grief. Is there a relationship? Yeah, they're related. Samadhi is the way to be compassionate and with fear and grief. Yes? Yes? Not me not calling a doctor, right. Have a sick child. know it's your child or somebody else's child and so you think maybe you think it might be good to call i think it would be good to call a doctor and you call a doctor so your question is how can you what how can you make the call without seeking something yes well for example how can i like say hello to you without seeking something start with that imagine that i could say hello to you without seeking something

[32:39]

Exactly, I might be I might I might say hi Without really expecting that you're gonna like it or dislike it, but just want to like I just I just feel like I got this high in me and I feel like it won't hurt you and I think it might be good and Basically, I just want to like be this guy who's got a high so I say hi, and I don't expect anything But I do want to say hi And then I do say hi and it seems to be all right with you. And I think, wow, that was good. That was great. And if there's a sick child there, I might think, well, I'd like to make a telephone call. But do I expect to get the doctor when I pick up the telephone? Maybe not. Maybe I'm going to make a telephone call, but I don't necessarily expect that it's going to work. This is an experiment. So I pick the telephone up and the telephone's dead. Maybe. But I didn't get to make a telephone call, but I did get to pick up the receiver and listen and find out I was dead.

[33:45]

What should I do next? You know? So now I think now something else may arise that I'd like to do. This scenario perhaps, you know, sort of doesn't make a very good story because picking up the phone and not getting upset, I don't scream in frustration. I just do it. The phone's dead. This is Buddha activity, you know. This is like, okay, got a dead phone here. So maybe I should go, but just a second before I make another telephone call, maybe I should go back and check on this kid. How you doing? And I go back to check on the kid, not expecting anything. Not expecting the kid to be better or worse, but just going to express to the kid that I'm concerned. I don't know if it's going to heal this kid. Maybe just like a little attention would do it. We're going to make the kids sicker. Maybe you going to telephone call with the expectation it's going to work will make the kids sicker. It's all kind of like boot activity. What's really going to help?

[34:47]

This kid and me and you are going to die soon. But can we wake up before it's over? Yes. Now, if we don't wake up before we die, I think that would be a shame. The most important thing is pure love be realized, for me anyway, that pure love be realized prior to, you know, later. It's always possible. So why forsake the most important thing between you and that child? Why forsake the most important true relationship the way you are helping her or him and the way he is helping you the way he is helping you to be the person you are who cares about and wants him to be healthy and the way you're helping him the way you're really working stay with that and then see what you do and maybe you do make a telephone call but you stay with the samadhi and in that samadhi you're helping each other whether the sickness goes away or not

[36:01]

If you're in that samadhi, when you make the telephone call, you don't get distracted from the actual process of awakening that you're in with this child. And if you do forsake that, you may say, you know, well, there's something, you know, it's partly that you care about the child that you forsake the child. It's partly that you care about people that you don't do what's really good for them sometimes. Does that make any sense? So that's why I start with easy example, saying hello. Just gradually try to do it more and more and extend it into the more and more, into the situations that are actually more and more important. In a way, they're more important. Again, I've said this many times, it's very difficult for people to understand how you can wish that somebody who's sick would be well and not seek that they be any different from what they are.

[37:07]

You actually do not wish they were different from the way they are when you appreciate the way they are and wish for them to be even more happy. But some people never get more happy. And they need somebody to love them the way they are, not the way that they're going to be later. If you love someone for what they can become, if you wish that they would be something other than they are, you hurt them right now. Teach them seeking. You teach them to erode their life. They may not take the lesson, Not everybody falls for it, but a lot of people will. Especially the people who you love the most because they really appreciate you loving them so much. So then they say, well, since she loved me so much, I guess I should do that bad habit that she's teaching me. Because she's loved me so much, so I guess I'll start seeking and wishing I wasn't who I am.

[38:11]

But, you know, some children then say, you know, that was really nice of you to teach me to betray myself because you... didn't want me to be the way I was and I gave up on me too you wanted me to be smarter healthier than I was I learned that from you thanks a lot then you taught me to be sick when I'm sick when I'm well and you loved me whatever way I was and you knew that I could develop and I had great potential but you never were impatient for it to be realized. And you did everything you could to help me realize my potential without seeking that I would realize it. And if I didn't want to accept your gifts to help me realize my potential, you didn't get angry at me because you didn't expect when you gave me a gift that would help me be healthier or more developed.

[39:16]

You didn't expect when you gave it to me that I would accept it. You gave it to me with no expectation, with no seeking. That was your real gift to me in life. Thank you. But I had to test it for many years to see if you really would give me the very best. And you did. You gave me the very best. You gave me love with no expectation. You took me to the doctor with no expectation. You took me shopping with no expectation. You took me to school with no expectation. You took me to soccer with no expectation. You always wanted me to do well, but you didn't expect it. And so I had to do badly at everything just to see if you really, really would not expect anything. That was my Buddha activity for you. That's the way I was helping you to see if you could stay with like really loving me purely i had to do that for you mom it's hard though it's very hard not saying it's easy because our habits are to do something to get something rather than to be what we are

[40:36]

and be what we are period means drop off body and mind but also it's not just that it's that when you are what you are period and body and mind drops off you realize that you are what you are because everybody helps you be who you are it's not like you are what you are all by yourself you are what you are because of the inconceivable Buddha activity of all beings you being what you are is helping all beings realize that they're the same this samadhi is the authentic gate to enlightenment. But it's not easy because we have habits of being in an anti-samadhi. Ready before Elena, she wants to do a second one. Anybody want to do a question? Okay, number two, Elena. What? No, we have lots of time.

[41:41]

It's a real story. This is a true story. In other words, this isn't a story. This is a fact. Yes. And the father picked her up and began to squeeze her like a... And pretty soon she went... Pretty soon she smiled. She smiled and put her on the floor and she... And I never... I hope you're not clinging to it, though. No, I... To my life, the Father was being helpful to this poor constrictor. One story about, now you're making a story about the story, and that's a good story.

[42:42]

I have another story. She lost touch, you know, she lost touch with how to nurture herself, how to soothe herself, and then his body reminded her. Another story. Samadhi is just a way to soothe yourself under all circumstances. Receive the soothing and then let the soothing go back out to everybody. It's a way to feel squeezed by the universe and then turn around and squeeze the universe. The story is like very apropos. And do you have a question, Cindy? Comments? Linda? Sonia? Mary? Yeah, I just wanted to ask a question. Okay. Well, last week we talked about, I mean, I know I've heard it before, the notion that...

[43:47]

because I got it, so it made things really easy for me to know that there's really nothing to do. So I thought to myself, well, how do you realize this is your state, but it's not your understanding, it's not your realization. And it's great for what you were talking about, relating to the discussion, is that maybe the realization of samadhi is about not interfering with already going on in? I mean, they're talking about when they say there's nothing to do. There's nothing to do means is not interfering. Interfering. Yes. So, in the discussion about the child, not take away his or her, because that's part of that person's, that's their thing. I mean, part of what this life is all about.

[44:50]

But at the same time, you don't want to impose your idea of what non-suffering is. So it seems to me what you're saying is to just take care of things, pick them up, trying to not put yourself into it as much as Well, you made it a little extra complicated there at the end. You were doing pretty good. Yeah. Right. You just went a little too long. Quit while you're ahead. So with the suffering child, the Buddha does not. You know, we've got Buddhas all over the place. How come they don't just come and take the suffering away? They don't. What do they do with suffering people? What do Buddhas do when they meet a suffering person? What do they do? Receive the suffering. They receive the suffering as Buddha's activity and they give back what?

[45:53]

Huh? Love, yeah. So Buddha doesn't come and take the suffering away. Buddha loves the suffering person. And the love, the way Buddha loves people is like Khanda. to show them reality that's the way buddha loves beings so suffering beings buddha you don't take the suffering away you show them reality like you say how are you suffering or you say hey should i call a doctor but this is all part of like basically just helping you and her or you and him or you and it love wake up So Buddha does not take away suffering. Buddha gives teaching, gives dharma. It doesn't interfere. The Buddha becomes intimate with the person. And the Buddha already understands that the person is intimate. So the Buddha enacts and shows the intimacy.

[46:56]

And in many ways, sometimes a person doesn't get it at first. Buddhists don't always... Buddhists don't have, what do you call it, a thousand percent, you know, hit rate. I don't know if their batting rate is or whatever, but they try over and over, and that's not a problem because they love their work. So they try over and over and over to convey the teaching of the person in a way that the person will be able to see that they're receiving the teaching. And then when they're sick and they feel like they're receiving the teaching, they start to feel better and they want to receive more teaching. So they listen and watch and study more and then the Buddha gets more. So you're not interfering, you're aiding them. You're aiding them in their suffering to become free of their suffering. interfering you have no expectation you just give give give and receive and [...] give thank you for this opportunity to be with you and your sickness here here thank you here thank you here this kind of relationship is not interfering the person's helping you you're helping the person everybody's helping you help them you're helping everybody help them you're helping everybody help themselves this is the samadhi

[48:17]

the non-interference mutual aid samadhi. The bliss samadhi, the way of being in love with all suffering, sick beings, appreciating and respecting people's illnesses. We can't take them away, so maybe we shouldn't either. But Buddha can love sick beings, so maybe we can work on that. The samadhi is to help us So be able to be with kind of life. Any other comments or questions you'd like to bring up? Yes? It's a way to be the animal we can be. Yeah. It's a way to be the animal we can be. Talk about renouncing things so you can practice better? Yes. You can say the state's so free that you automatically let go of stuff, but also automatically letting go of stuff, you're in the state.

[49:26]

Just relax completely with all this struggle. Samadhi. Samadhi. Now, you're not behind the plow. That would be the time where I would rationalize to myself, okay, now I'm not going to be perfect, so I'm going to set aside now, do this thing, and then when the child is okay, I'll do it first. Right, that's what a lot of people think. And I just have a lot of problem with what I call . Yes. In the animal kingdom and the of the dog. Yes.

[50:29]

If the future integrated in that example, as a parent, that example somehow . It's different. It's a different example. And it also seems like one that's harder for you to let go of your attachments about what to do. Sounds like. But again, you know, just look at it this way. Or consider it this way. There's you and there's somebody over there who's more skillful than you in terms of helping your own child. And that person over there who's more skillful than you is you. with no attachments to your child? Who do you want to be? The more skillful one or the one who wants to help his child but is somewhat, what do you call it, encumbered by his attachment to what would be helpful for his child?

[51:32]

Which one do you want to be? If you would be more helpful without attachments to your child, would you want to be that person? That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the person who's more helpful than you usually are helping your own child because he's not attached. He's got all your abilities, plus he's not attached. So he's more flexible and intelligent. One of the things about the human animal, one of the things, not the whole thing, but one of the things, is that we have this brain which makes us more flexible than almost any other animal. Okay? When we are tense and grasping, we erode our flexibility. We learn best when we're relaxed. If you're tense, you may not see what you can do for your child because you can't play with the situation. Being playful with a sick child, being relaxed with a sick child will often be part of understanding what is beneficial for the child.

[52:39]

that's what i'm talking about i'm talking about you have certain abilities and your abilities are your abilities and if you have no attachment you will care about your child as much as you care about your child and you have all kinds of genetic equipment to help you care a lot about your child you have no attachments all your abilities will come forth and flourish and any attachment will reduce that somewhat not a hundred percent but somewhat for the sake of our loved ones we need to be relaxed so that we can like hear like sometimes you're charging off to do something and the child says dad you can't hear him because you're like you've decided already dad he's not listening Because you're already like, I'm going to do this for my kid.

[53:44]

Dad? Yes? Here a second. Listen to this. You know? And then you get what you really need to do. That one piece of additional information. So then maybe you do call the doctor and say, and he said blah blah. Oh. If you hadn't heard that, you might have like gone to the wrong doctor or whatever. got the wrong medicine, who knows what. But you did have ears, but you couldn't hear because you were tense. So I'm talking about making yourself the most skillful and helpful person you can be, the best animal we can be. And part of our animal abilities is that we have this tremendous capacity to be flexible. Part of our potential Buddhahood is that we have tremendous, tremendous body here. Fantastic, unbelievable.

[54:47]

Even on the commercials on TV, this commercial I saw in the community center at Mill Valley, I don't have television reception, but this is a picture of Bob when he realized that there were more neural connections in his brain than there are atoms in the entire universe. There's a whole universe right up here. If we can relax, we can learn. We can learn. We can evolve. We can be the best we can be. We can realize our potential. We have old habits which are not helpful. They're like the clinging and seeking. They don't help. We can be a better father, a better spouse, a better mother, a better daughter, a better son, a better friend. We can be better at all the things if we are in this samadhi.

[55:49]

The problem is that sometimes when things get real scary, we tense up and think, oh, no, I'm not going to practice this samadhi now. I'll practice it after I get through this crisis. bad you know because you miss you miss going through the crisis in the samadhi and realize my god this is this is when it really counts this is when it really helps and that's what you know sometimes people do not forsake the samadhi in difficult times and i hear people say you know the practice came you know at that time sometimes it has to be overwhelming before you give up your usual thing And then you realize how effective the practice is in the most important situations. Yes? Market, yeah. Yeah, I'm glad. Exactly. You're in the supermarket of the health profession. You're in the supermarket. It's being in samadhi.

[56:54]

Usually it's like me here and then I go to act and then I go to work. I act on the world. That's the usual way. This is the mode of anxiety. You're relatively successful or relatively unsuccessful at you controlling and operating the universe. This is like receiving and employing. It's not just receiving. It's receiving and employing. But it's employing from receiving. So you get all this information, and then it resonates out. You're helped by everything. You see your child's sickness as something that's helping you live, not an hindrance. This is something that you're given this information and you want everything. Give me it all. It all comes to you and then it gets employed. So it's receiving and giving. But we usually say giving and receiving, but the samadhi is more like receiving and giving because our usual approach is I'm already here and then I do stuff.

[57:55]

The samadhi is I'm not already here. Everything is given and then there's me. I'm alive. I'm here. And I'm a parent and I have a sick child. wow, that I've received my parenthood, now I can employ it. But if you're already a parent and you lose track of the fact that it was given to you, then you're encumbered by the a priori parenthood rather than the parenthood you receive in the moment. Same with being a teacher. Same with being a spouse. You receive it. When you can see yourself receive it, so to speak, when you see it coming to you, and you see it employed. So it's very active, but it's also receptive. It's receptive and active. That's why it's called self-receiving and employing. This says self-fulfillment, but literally it means self-receiving and employing. And when you see how your self is received and employed, that's the fulfilling self.

[58:56]

The unfulfilled self is the self you've already got. The self you've got is unfulfilled. The self you receive and employ is a fulfilled self. And it's also another translation of receiving and employing is enjoying, self-enjoying. This is the enjoyable self. The self you receive and employ is the enjoyable self. I had a little peek at an inconceivable Samadhi of the Buddha. Thanks for not freaking out too much and listening to this amazing talk. Yes, Fran? Another series planned. The next series is, in a sense, is a continuation of this.

[59:58]

in terms of different ways of understanding the teachings, different levels of understanding, different levels of wisdom about these teachings. So it will be kind of a continuation, but at the same time, I think new people probably will be here, so it may look like a new course, too. But you'll probably be able to see it's the same course. Just a few more dimensions added in. Maybe call it something like Three Wisdoms of Buddhist Yoga or something like that. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that. Okay, I'll tell you. I'll tell you. It's going to be at the end of March. No, it's going to be in March and April.

[61:03]

So most of March and a little bit of April. It's going to be a short one. The schedule of the yoga room. There's other events are coming to meet it towards the middle of it. So they're crushing the end of it. It's a kind of defective class. But I'm going to come anyway and take care of my sick little class.

[61:35]

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