I wish, as I often do, I pray, as I often do, that the Great Assembly may receive silence and stillness. I further wish that the Great Assembly will remember silence and stillness. And I pray that in this silence and stillness, this assembly may sit upright in the presence of Buddhas and offer this sitting

[01:44]

to the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, and all sentient beings. May our sitting be of service to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and sentient beings, and the Great Earth. I also pray that this assembly will transmit in silence and stillness this sitting for the welfare of the world.

[02:55]

you Thanks.

[06:19]

May we begin by paying homage to this great assembly, by praising the sincerity and compassion of this great assembly, and by welcoming this great assembly. For example, welcome Jennifer, Welcome, Breck. Welcome, Amanda. Welcome, Warren. Welcome, Ranigan. Welcome, Amirana. Welcome, Donna.

[07:45]

Welcome, Tracy. Welcome, Carol. Welcome, Rosie. Welcome, Basia. Welcome, Margie. Welcome, Martin. Welcome, Fran. Welcome, Michael. Welcome, Sandra. Welcome, Meichu. Welcome, Anu. Welcome, Cynthia.

[08:54]

Welcome, King. Welcome, Jim. Welcome, Timothy. Welcome, Karin. Welcome, Gail. Welcome, Ted. Welcome Marjorie. Welcome Linda. Welcome Kate. Welcome Sarah. Welcome Rosa. Welcome Karin.

[10:02]

Yuki. Welcome, Susan. Welcome, Angela. Welcome, Catherine. Welcome, Christiane. Welcome, June. Welcome, Jack. Welcome, Linda. Yes. Welcome, Kim. Welcome, Barry. Welcome, Jim. Welcome, Sonia.

[11:08]

Welcome, Jackie. Welcome, Deborah. Welcome, Vivian. Welcome, Chia-Ying. Welcome, Jeff. Welcome, Stephen. Welcome, Barbara Joan. Welcome, Jeremy. Welcome, Green. Welcome John and Laurie.

[12:16]

Welcome Gayathri. Welcome Kathy Burke. And welcome, Reb. I think maybe I should go and get a piece of technical equipment to plug this computer in.

[13:25]

I might run out of power. I'll be right back. Thanks. During this series of classes, during this series of assemblies, we have gone through the first three of the 39 books of the Sutra.

[15:05]

There's much more we could discuss in these first three books, but I think I feel good about how much we've been able to to learn about the first three. And particularly, number three, I'm trying to remind you again of this opportunity to sit upright in the presence of Buddha in silence and stillness. But also, there's an opportunity to stand upright Somebody told me a story about she was waiting for a bus on Fillmore Street in San Francisco and there was an old man also waiting for the bus. And somehow she found out that he was like 100 years old. And she said, what's the secret of living so long?

[16:13]

And he said, I stand upright in his presence. So I've also been emphasizing sitting upright, standing upright in the presence of the Buddhas who, in this sutra and other sutras, we are told they are practicing with us all the time. They're always oriented towards practicing with us. So wherever we are, we can be mindful that we are in the presence of the Buddhas. And we can offer our mindful presence to the Buddha's presence. We can offer our presence respectfully, as service to the Buddhas, and also as service to all sentient beings.

[17:22]

The Bodhisattva in Chapter 3 vows to sit upright, practicing in the presence of Buddha, but also the Bodhisattva vows to sit upright and be of service in all the ways the sentient beings are calling for. And we start usually by mentioning the Buddha because being of service to Buddhas empowers us to be of greater service to all sentient beings than we could be if we weren't living in service of Buddhas. Living in service of Buddhas supports and enriches our service to sentient beings.

[18:25]

That's the theory of this sutra. And really all the Mahayana sutras And when we sit upright in the presence of Buddha and we offer our services, we offer our respect, We offer our homage. We offer our praise. We offer our stimulus. We sit upright and stimulate the Buddhas.

[19:26]

We offer our requests of Buddhas. All these things we can offer to Buddha. We can also offer incense, flowers, candlelight, food, and other things. All these offerings stimulate the Buddha, and in response to our offerings, the Buddha aids us and imbues us with the power to enter the Samadhi. We don't enter the Bodhisattva Samadhi by our own effort. We do make efforts, for example, We make the effort to sit upright. We make the effort to offer our upright sitting, moment by moment. These are efforts we can make. But it is in the way our efforts stimulate the Buddhas, and the Buddhas respond.

[20:28]

That's the way we enter into the Bodhisattva Samadhi. Our own personal Samadhi may have various virtues, but it doesn't have the full range of virtues that the Bodhisattva Samadhi has, which is done together with Buddhas. And as the Sutra says, in this Samadhi, in this Samadhi, all the swirling worlds flow into it. And sometimes, when I'm watching the world swirling, I have difficulty being, what's the word?

[21:31]

Upright and open and present to the swirling activity of living beings and the weather. But in this samadhi, this swirling doesn't disturb us. It doesn't disturb the samadhi. all the swirling turbulence of the world flows into it. So we can be calm and collected and present even in great turbulence in this samadhi. This samadhi does not eliminate the swirling turbulence of worlds. The volcanic eruptions and the end of eons. All that occurs.

[22:32]

But if I try to be present with that by my own power, it will be very difficult. In this samadhi, which I practice with you all, and with the Buddhas, I can embrace it all without getting disturbed. or rather the Samadhi in which I am living embraces it all without disturbance or dispersion. Also in this Samadhi, as the Sutra says, we will receive the praises of Buddhas and the Buddhas will bestow upon us many kinds of skills which can be used to help beings become free. In this samadhi we receive the teachings and the knowledge of these teachings which will aid us in being of service in this world.

[23:40]

In this samadhi also we naturally protect and maintain all the different cycles of the Buddha Dharma teaching. All the Dharma wheels are protected and maintained, are not cut off in the samadhi. Even the end of the world does not cut off the teachings in this samadhi. Also, I wanted to again remind you of what I brought up last week, which is that one way the cycle of teaching occurs is that the Buddha gives teachings.

[24:50]

and people receive them and may receive them with joy. And then they may meditate on these teachings and find creative ways of using them. And some of these creative ways are really brilliant and wonderful and beneficial. The teaching is beneficial and also the insights and innovations may come forth from these teachings. And then these wonderful innovations can benefit many beings. However, it is also possible that these innovations emerging from the teachings or in relationship to the teachings can gradually become rigidified. can turn into schools, can turn into systems, which are also beneficial, but they can become rigidified, and then the life, the beating heart of the Dharma, the beating drum of the Dharma is inhibited.

[26:16]

So then we go back to the Sutra, and the Sutra inspires us to not be restricted by the great interpretations of the past, the schools and the systems of the past, and to come to make new and creative expressions and applications of the Sutra's teachings, even if they're different from the systems which have been set up based on the Sutra. Still respecting the Sutra, of course, as an inspiration, and respecting the systems, but not being caught by them. and coming up with our own interpretations. And then again, our interpretations, if they're really useful, can turn into systems and schools and become useful.

[27:30]

But then those schools and systems can become rigidified. And then again, we have to go back to the Sutra, which encourages us to be creative and come up with things that are relevant to today. So, we will go forward, I pray, and we will together continue to, you know, play with these teachings and innovate with these teachings and be creative with these teachings, applying them to the never-ending challenges of daily life. And this is the last meeting, the last session, and my intention is to continue exploring this oceanic scripture, to keep exploring it as long as the Assembly is up for it.

[28:54]

So, for example, in Rome, for example, on December 2nd, I will explore the Sutra with people at Noah's boat hermitage. I will bring up the Sutra and enter the Sutra with the assembly at the hermitage of Noah's boat that day. And that will be recorded and you can listen to it. Or you can come and join the assembly in person. And then, in January, we have the intensive at Green Gulch and the assembly there will also meditate on this sutra. We will do Zen meditation on this sutra, which means we will do bodhisattva meditation on this sutra, which means we will meditate on this sutra together with each other and with the Buddhas.

[30:08]

And in this meditation we will discover things which have never been seen before. And that will be for three weeks and On three Sundays, there will be online broadcast live streams of the talks on Sunday. And many people in this assembly will also be at the intensive. And others of you can come in person, if you're in the Bay Area, you can come in person on Sundays. And if you're not in the Bay Area, or you're not in the intensive, you can watch it live stream on the 7th, the 14th, and the 21st of January, 2024. You can be there. You can be there in person, and you can be there through the magic of the internet.

[31:17]

Then, after that, if all goes well, we will continue to explore the boundless ocean of these teachings. And also, I say, if all goes well, because as I told you last week, I'm intending to have a procedure to open up my abdominal aorta so that more blood can flow into my legs. And that procedure is scheduled for the auspicious day of December 15th. That will not be online. But if you want to, you can wish me well on that day. And I'll wish you well on that day too. Before I get the procedure, I'm gonna wish you all well. Really, I will.

[32:24]

Unless I forget. And if I forget, and when I realize I've forgotten, I will confess I forgot, and I'll say I'm sorry. Because I'm doing this, I'm going through this procedure, not just for me, but for you. so I can walk up inclines with you. So that's an overview and an underview and a distant view of our ongoing study of this sutra, our ongoing exploration of this sutra, our ongoing meditation on this sutra, our ongoing being creative with this sutra, and so on. And I hope you're inspired to keep joining these assemblies. Because if you're not, if you don't keep coming, I'm going to quit too. And go on to something else that you would be interested in.

[33:31]

I'm not attached to continuing this great study if you don't want to study it. Now, as usual, I welcome the Great Assembly to bring forth the Dharma in your own way, to make offerings in your way to the Buddhas and the Great Assembly. Reb, do you remember, I don't know if you remember, do you remember when I am calling you for a while and at Mount Madonna, I think, I know I remember you singing, Come on, Buddha, light my fire.

[34:35]

So this is, I think- I do remember. Come on, Buddha, light my fire. So, in this samadhi, all the swirling worlds swirl into it. So, okay, Kahnzeon, Brian Jones. Film of scared star, scarred, scoring nothing. Dug, drugged by all the pretty blondes. The coffer mean in Maine, the lion's might, might is spelled M-I-T-E. Five mother childs before 25, unique as Warhol prints. And all his instruments so divine, even God couldn't choose between them. Sacked by his boosted band to drown a kitten in some shallows of a cram, was he compassion. His stone signature is gone, gone. Really gone, gone beyond gone. The whole world's a broken symphony howling wolf in his sheer ear.

[35:41]

Is this your Samadhi song? It's my Udumbara flower song. Yeah, your Udumbara flower song. Thank you for your song. You know that it would be untrue. You know that I would be a liar if I were to say to you, Buddha, we can go no higher. Come on, Buddha, light my fire. Come on, Buddha, light my fire. Try to light the night on fire. Good evening, Rev. Good evening, Jeff.

[36:48]

Thank you, as always. So could you, I know they're not the same, but could you possibly describe the difference between being in the state of Samadhi or Samadhi and enlightenment? Like what is the relationship between those two? Because I think over the years you've described enlightenment as not one great all consuming enlightenment to last forever, but as being something that's there all the time that you realize, you know, from time to time or whatever it was, I'm not articulating it nearly as well as you do. But so how, how, if any, would you differentiate? Or is there a relationship between the two at all? Or are they just two separate things entirely? Well, it seems it seems like the Samadhi that we're talking about here is the way the enlightenment works within the Buddha mind.

[37:49]

It's the way it's working sort of within the Buddha's mind. And then, as in this sutra, the bodhisattva who's in this samadhi, which is the way the Buddha's mind works, arises from the samadhi and then starts interacting with people. But the enlightenment is functioning in the samadhi, but in silence and stillness. And the teaching is being done in silence and stillness. And the transmission is in silence and stillness. But that is enlightenment working with the bodhisattva in the samadhi or working with us when we're in samadhi. And then we come out of the samadhi and we carry the samadhi into daily life. That's also enlightenment. But then we're talking and walking and doing various things to convey this awakening. So samadhi is a, this samadhi is describing the way it is inwardly for the enlightened mind.

[38:58]

And then there's other parts of the sutra which you're talking about, what it's like when the bodhisattva comes out and starts interacting with beings. In this class, it's the bodhisattva coming out of the samadhi and having conversations. Well, I'll think about that. I'll sit with that for now. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for your question. We see you smiling, Susan, but we can't hear you.

[40:02]

We see you smiling. You look frustrated. I found it. You found it, okay. Several sessions ago, Reb, greetings, greetings all. Several sessions ago, I remember you asking if we had any thoughts or feelings about this teaching that we're studying. It stopped me cold. I've been thinking about that question and a story came up and I thought, well, I feel wonderful about this teaching that we're talking about together. We're talking about it, but I realized in the many decades that I'd been holding what I felt was like a secret. Um, and I couldn't remember if I'd ever even told you this story.

[41:19]

Um, and the story, the way I tell it to myself anyway, it goes like this. It was, I think it was about 1982. And it was the last session I was, the last session I was sitting at the city center. And I can't remember if you and Rusa had moved to Gringotts yet in 82. So I don't know if you, I can't remember if you were there or not. But what I remember was I was terrified of the moment that I would go to meet the teacher alone in Doksan. And I think Ihsan Dorsey was leading the session and I said, Ihsan, I really want to sit with everyone in this session, but I have a problem. I don't, I'm terrified to go into that room. And Ihsan gently and kindly said, well, our form is if you're, if you join the session, that is one of the components. So I joined the session and day one and day two, day three, I was getting more and more terrified because I could feel the moment coming when I would be in line to go into the room.

[42:37]

And I silently sitting on my cushion, I screamed out for Avalokitesvara to help. And she came, and she was right there. And when the moment came to go into the room to meet the teacher, she came as well. And she made the entire situation safe, safe for me, safe for the teacher. And it was a pivotal moment. When I went back down and then had a couple more days to sit, she never left. In fact, she never leaves. But I felt like I couldn't really say that, because it sounded kind of nutty, especially in the context of our form.

[43:42]

But here, with this assembly and with you, I can say this out loud now to you. And you won't think I'm crazy. No, I don't think you're crazy, but I might. And that would be okay with me. Even if I think you're crazy, you can still say it. And Avalokiteshvara is going to stay with you. Even if I think you're crazy, Avalokiteshvara will stay with me. Avalokiteshvara is in solidarity with us. She's no place but with us. And you can say that now, even if people think you're crazy. And it turns out, spoiler alert, we've already, she comes with a lot of friends. Yeah, so many. And we can still go to the grocery store or even have a glass of wine with a friend.

[44:48]

You can do anything, even do bad things. I'm with you when you're doing bad things. Thank you, Susan, for the story. You're welcome, Ren. You're welcome, everybody. Sarah. Hello, Greg. Hello. Hello, great assembly. In this class, in this series of classes, when I heard you talk about prayer, I got very unsettled. And my ears were tuned, my ears were tuned to listening of, who is this prayer to?

[45:54]

And who is it? Is it something else outside of myself? Is it something other? And I never heard that. So I never, even though I was listening for that bit, I never heard that this Buddha These Bodhisattvas, the assembly is not outside of me, that we're still contained in one. And so, I became more open to hearing things after that. That felt nice. Thank you. Buddhas pray too. Bodhisattvas pray. We pray. We wish.

[47:00]

We wish. We vow. And we commit to our wishes. And Buddhas do too. We have the same practice and the same awakening as the Buddhas. Thank you. And we aspire to be Buddhas even though we have the same practice and the same awakening as the Buddhas. Thank you, Sarah.

[48:06]

Hello, great teacher. Hello, great assembly. I wish to offer my gratitude to the Buddhas in the assembly. And I feel, I'm confessing to feeling resistance and welcoming that. I am in an ocean here with my son who has returned from college, and he's growing up, and he needs his mom, but not as he once did.

[49:21]

In a new way. In a new way. He's being creative. and we're being creative together. That's the way. Like me acknowledging my shortcomings and sharing with him my aspirations and my intentions as his mother, as we move forward, exploring an adult-to-adult relationship. Yeah. Yeah. And I believe without this silence and stillness, without this practice, I don't know that I would see the way

[50:33]

And so I'm experiencing this transition and suffering and grief, I guess, grieving. Yet, I'm not sure how to say it, but practice holds us up. Practice allows for verbal communication, sometimes it's not verbal, sometimes it's... Nonverbal. Nonverbal, thank you, yeah. So I'm just deeply grateful for practice and I just wanted to share. Yeah, so I wish for you to find new ways to be a mother.

[51:39]

And I wish for your son to find new ways to be a son. Yep. Great assembly. John, Laurie. Yes. I'd like to just express my appreciation to you and the rest of the assembly for the teachings of this class. And I confess I'm no closer to understanding the Dharma, but I have a better appreciation of the limits of not only my karmic understanding, but the cultural, sort of the cultural karmic enclosure that I'm in and been raised in.

[52:43]

And that's come from some of your observations about the translations themselves from the Chinese, and also from other members of the Assembly who are knowledgeable about Chinese, and showing just how fluid some of the interpretations are in the translations, and in particular, some of the speculation about what Cleary might have been trying to associate in our own cultural understanding. So, you know, like others, I come from a Christian upbringing and words like bow and prayer trigger cultural. karma in my mind. And it's hard to approach these teachings in that way. And yet, at the same time, I see my own limitations when that's held up in front of me. And that's been important. And so in listening to you talk about the cycles of teaching as well, about things becoming calcified and needing new creativity and inspiration, I'm also respectful of just how malleable and fluid Buddhism and the teachings are, that they can move through these different cultures.

[53:54]

that have their own karmic trappings and sort of reinvigorate them and then get trapped in them again and then move to another culture. And it's something about what I've taken from this class is something about that pliability and trying to apply that to my own understanding and just seeing that I'm in this karmic enclosure and trying to open up to that and just, as you like to say, be playful. play with it and see where it takes me instead of always trying to fixate and grasp. And so I just wanted to share that appreciation. I've learned a lot in this class. Thank you. And this sutra is encouraging you to be flexible and creative. Sutra is the way it's built. It's not really promoting us to be rigid. It's encouraging us to be honest, upright, and playful.

[54:57]

Well, it's also frustrating if we are trying to be rigid. That's what I've felt. Yeah, yeah. Also, it frustrates rigidity. It frustrates trying to get anything. It frustrates making a system. Definitely. Even though people did make very creative interpretations of this sutra, and they made this creative interpretation into systems. But then some people came along and said, hey, we don't have to get caught by these systems made from this sutra, which is telling us not to do that. Well, what I've seen is that understanding the historical systems is a way to reflect on my own system making. I actually explore and enter those systems, see them for what they are, then move on to the next. And there's something about that that is making me resist systemizing this now, although it's a constant daily effort. So thank you very much.

[55:58]

Thank you very much. By the way, I just thought I might tell you that in one of the study groups, we're on the verge of starting to study Chapter 5, which is called the... Clear, I think, translated as Ocean Bank... No, Flower Bank Ocean of Worlds. But another translation would be Flower Treasury Ocean of Worlds. And this Chapter 5 is describing Vairochana's Pure Land, And so I asked the group that I was studying, about to study chapter five with, what they wanted to do. And they said, we'd like you to go and get some jewels out of that chapter and bring them to us. So this morning, I went into that chapter, and I got some jewels. You know, I found some jewels, and I actually made some jewels out of that chapter this morning.

[57:00]

It took me a while, but I made up some precious jewels, which I'm gonna show those people the next time we meet. Okay, Breck, maybe. Hello, Reb. Thank you. Yeah, go ahead. What time of day on December 15th are you going to have? You don't know. But I think it's going to start, I think it's going to start in the morning because it's a one-day thing. Yes. It's like a, what do you call it, outpatient. Yeah. So I think probably in the morning and then they'll watch me for a while and then send me home. So it'd probably start, you know, 7, 8, 9, something like that. Okay, well, I, with your permission, I'd like to invite the Great Assembly to chant the in May, at some point that morning, in the hopes of promoting a good outcome.

[58:06]

Thank you for your procedure. Yeah, thanks. And I also for you. Thank you. I will need it. What chapter will you be working with, do you think, on December 2nd? Do you know? No, I don't. I'm not sure what I'll be doing. Okay. We'll just read a bunch of them in advance, I guess. Sounds like a good plan. Okay. And thank you very much for this series of classes. Yeah. I have always had a resistance to. I found it with the Lotus Sutra, and I found it with this sutra. And I guess based on what you said, with john a few minutes ago, that's a result of some sort of rigidity.

[59:10]

And I would love to say that's totally dissipated, but I'm not there yet. Okay. But I will keep keep at it. with you as you are. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Reb. Thank you, Breck. Thank you, Great Assembly. Hello, dear Reb and dear Assembly. And yeah, Reb, So I just wanted to wish you well and prayers for you, a successful procedure. And I hope you heal well. And I'll be thinking of you on December 15. So what I wanted to share, what's coming up right now for me, is the very first class when I joined this series, and you talked about the sutra and all of that, I didn't feel inspired by it because I felt

[60:33]

So maybe I'm making a kind of a confession right now. But I remember when we did the Lotus Sutra for the three-week intensive, I was very excited by it. I was interested. And I wasn't feeling it so much. I just felt like, I've heard this before. It's the same thing. It's just said in a different way. It's all talking about this vast interconnectedness of everything. And I felt very kind of jaded. And partly, I think it's because I've been studying these, I mean, not Zen, not Zen texts, but in Advaita and yoga texts. And I've been in this sort of game for, I don't know, over 20 years, I would say, of studying these various texts and reflecting on them. meditating on them. And I think I feel a little jaded or saturated or, you know, not feeling inspired.

[61:36]

And what was interesting for me is, you know, when I sat with that, you know, I love, like, how you say, you know, when you have a conversation, you know, with the resistance, you know, you always talk about conversing and being generous with and, you know, all of those kind of words. And when I sit with that and what I really touch deeply into... When you sit with the feeling jaded? Feeling jaded, you know, kind of that, you know, you could use words like resistance or just kind of like blah, you know, not really feeling it. When I'm with that, what I touch into very deeply when I'm quiet and still with it is a deep a longing in my heart for that union, if you want to say.

[62:44]

And that longing that I feel in my heart is very true. there's something very sweet about the longing itself. Like when I feel it in my heart, all the jadedness falls away. It's like it feels very alive, very real, very true, and wholehearted in a way. And so in a way, I feel maybe maybe that's sort of where I need to rest my attention and forget about trying to understand the text and study and read. I don't know. It's just that. And then moments like when you're singing, come on, Buddha, light my fire, or when you do the bowing, and when you're greeting everybody, it's so deeply touching to me, and it brings me so much joy.

[63:54]

And that's why I show up every week. I'm like, why am I here? I keep asking. I'm like, why do I come to these classes? I don't really, I'm not really interested in this sutra. But it's just this sweetness of your laughter, the connection that you have with each person in this group, and your enthusiasm for the text that sort of brings me back, I think, to these gatherings. Yeah, anyway, I just wanted to share that with you, Reb, because that's sort of, that's what's in my heart right now. Yeah, and in these gatherings, you can bring your jadedness and feel that we're totally welcoming it, and you can bring your resistance, and we can see the sweetness and the longing that's in the jadedness.

[64:55]

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I wish you well for the 15th. Thank you so much. Sorry, I read something. Yes, I'm in California now. This class is very different, earlier in the evening. I've slept through most of it, unfortunately or fortunately. But I also feel that love from just everyone in the presence and the bowing, because sometimes I miss a lot of the sutras. But I just wanted to ask a couple of things.

[65:57]

One, you just mentioned that even at the end of the world, the teaching of the Samadhi will continue, or it doesn't change the teachings of the Samadhi. You said something like that, right? Yeah, this Samadhi, the swirling changing worlds, the formation and destruction of the worlds flows into this Samadhi. This Samadhi doesn't, you know, this Samadhi doesn't come and go with the way the worlds do. That's what I was trying to understand. What continues? How can it continue if it's the end of the world? Like, where is it? It doesn't continue. It's just the way... It's the way all the worlds, the swirling worlds are swirling. It's the way worlds are being created and destroyed.

[66:59]

That whole process is in this Samadhi. And I guess just for me personally, I've, I've been doing several sessions with Tejo and great tree and, and I've, and what stayed with me is a deeper sense of calm and, and it's different than I've ever felt before. Um, so it feels a little bit, I don't know, I like my own little smart is happening, but, um, I guess I don't know what that is. You know, it's just some things seem to lift, and I just feel kind of calmer about everything, or more... subtle. I don't know how to describe it. You may have entered the samadhi. I don't know about... Are there different samadhis? There are different samadhis, definitely.

[68:01]

Some samadhis seem to come with... be done... by individual effort. This samadhi includes all the individual efforts. All the samadhis are included in this samadhi. But there's different samadhis. Some people are focused on cooking. Some people are focused on their breathing. Some people are calm just by discovering it by accident. All these individual experiences could be called, those could be called samadhis too. And they're included in the samadhi, this samadhi. And they're not separate from the samadhi? They're not separate from the samadhi, no. But some samadhis, it seems like some people feel like, my samadhi today is separate from my samadhi yesterday. Or today I have samadhi and now I don't, and now I do. So that situation, all that's flowing into this samadhi. So what makes a samadhi a samadhi?

[69:05]

that everything's collected and gathered into one. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Rob. Thank you, Great Assembly. You're welcome. Yes, I just, I think what I love so much about this is just the beauty of the way things are expressed and just the joyous, just the joyous jubilation of it and that it has a playfulness and just, you know, just that joyousness that the The joyous celebration of... The joyous celebration of us getting together.

[70:10]

We get together and this joy happens. Yeah, it's lovely. Thank you so much for your presence. Also, I wouldn't be this way if you weren't here. I really want to continue with this teaching and learning about it. It's marvelous. It is marvelous, it's true. And many of us will be with you on the 15th, offering you our prayers and support. All the better. You're all welcome to go into my aorta. Okay, thank you so much, and thank you Great Assembly. I want to have a really big aorta. OK. Hello, Reb, and hello, Assembly, and my talking cat.

[71:36]

She's complaining, looking for attention. So I just wanted, since nobody was ready to talk, I just wanted to say thank you for this gathering and for your time with us. I didn't have any resistance to this thing. I was more like, I don't think there's much that can be said about this sutra, but I'll show up and see what Rem can come up with. And it's kind of interesting that even though I had no expectations and whatever, something happened, something feels like during this period of time, some kind of a softening around the edges, some kind of a letting go of needing to make sense or understand happened. So there isn't really much to be said, is it?

[72:42]

You said quite a bit. So maybe I'll show up sometime and visit you over there. But other than that, just life goes on. Thank you. Thank you. She talks. She does. I'll just express that I just feel so happy in your presence.

[73:58]

I mean, I like being in the assembly and watching everyone else, but then I show up and I'm like, oh, this joy is bubbling up. So it's pretty cool. I am grateful for the class and it seems like it went fast. And I am looking forward to continuing to study the sutra in the future. But I'd really like to tell you a little story. And then I thought... Can you say that again, please? It's not an appropriate thing to do, but whatever. I'm going to do it. So the story is... Are you going to tell a story? I'm just going to tell a story. Is that okay? Please. Tell me a story. It's hopefully pretty short, but I was on BART.

[75:04]

coming home from work a couple of days ago and I sat down and then a man sat down next to me and I noticed that he was walking with a cane but I had a book out and I was reading and it was Entering the mind of Buddha, which I was reading, I'm doing the city center practice period with Paul Fowler, and I was reading and felt like maybe he was reading over my shoulder, but I couldn't really tell, but I was fine, and I was reading along. And then he said something. He said, what book is that? Or what's the title of that book?

[76:06]

And so I showed him, and he read it, and he just, he gets really happy. And he said, I meditate all the time. I am just like, what? Why? I have this transcendent experience, and then I see you, and you're reading this book. book and it's all coming together. He was like really, really happy. And I felt like, you know, BART can be a pretty impersonal place. And it was just like we were in our own little communion happening there. And he asked me my name and this, this bump, this bump, this horse. So I went back to reading and I'm like, I gotta give him this book. I had to. It wasn't like I made a decision. It's just, I've gotta do this. So I did, and he was really happy. And it was just such a great little encounter with another Bodhisattva.

[77:10]

It just felt like there was something like perfect. It was really lovely. It sounds like the Bodhisattva arose from the Samadhi and got on Bart. Yeah, I was reading the chapter on concentration. Wow. Yeah, wow. life, right? Yeah. Anyway, thank you so much. And yes, I will be taking everyone to enjoy it, too. Thank you, Christiane. Thank you. Hello, Reb. Hello, Green. It's so nice to be here.

[78:12]

Yeah, thank you so much for these teachings and the class. And, yeah, there was just some things that I really appreciated. One thing in particular that's coming to mind is this description about the pulses and rhythms and the process of the Buddhist history. And I feel like part of that rhythm that you were describing between teachings being kind of kind of becoming rigid and then people breaking away from that. I noticed that like I kind of had... Could I add something to that? So another thing that can happen with these teachings is that they can become kind of oppressive or domineering

[79:15]

Like they're out there and people feel like they have to bow down to them. You know, they can't argue with them. That's another kind of, that's another aspect of becoming rigid. People feel like, that's such a great commentary, I have to agree with it. Yeah, thank you for pointing that out. It's kind of interesting that you're saying that because the thing that I was feeling like bringing forward was, I think I heard you describe this also as the teachers in some of these examples were so great. And their articulation and understanding of the teachings were so great that people couldn't find another way to interpret. And I really appreciated that you illustrated it with that word, great, because I noticed when I was first hearing you tell this story, I was kind of falling into thinking that the teachings

[80:33]

that way were not as good as the teachings when we're creative with them. And I'm really glad you used the word great, because then I was feeling like, oh, like both, both expressions are just so important and dear. And I feel like I was really treasuring the greatness that the teachers are offering. For example, the gems, and the treasures that you've been offering. Yeah, and if they're really great, that can make you feel like you're not allowed to say anything different, because they're so great. And the Sutra is saying, come back to me and I'll encourage you to not get caught by these great teachings. Yes, yes, I hear you saying that. And I guess the next question that came up for me was like, how is the sutra doing that, calling us to be creative?

[81:42]

Well, I think by being not systematic and ungraspable, but some of the commentators in this great tradition are so brilliant and their comments are so wonderful that people feel like, Somehow they don't see that this great commentary is saying, you can't get a hold of this. It's like you can get a hold of it. It's like this, and it's so great. So I have to bow down to it. It's okay to bow down to it, but I have no choice but to bow down to it. It's so brilliant. Whereas the Sutra can just be strange, you know? It isn't exactly like you have to bow down to it. And like these people, like Gayathri and other people, you can resist it. You can resist this sutra. You can have problems with it. You can find it... You can have what it's called... You can be jaded about it. You can say, I had enough of this.

[82:44]

It's tedious. But some commentators are so brilliant, you can't even say it's tedious. It's just overwhelming. And you just have to bow down to it. Which is great. But it's not. It's so powerful, you can't even rebel. But the Sutra is also powerful. But you can rebel against the Sutra. The Sutra says you can be rebels. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I'm trying to stay with you with this playful discussion. I feel like it's kind of turning on its head kind of my previous view of of the way teachings get solidified and our relationship with them.

[83:46]

Yeah. Some other people said, they said, I feel like I'm being turned on my head or turned inside out. This is part of getting us to be present and not grasp anything. Okay, and if I may just mention one other thing that's been very exciting for me is I think that I heard you talking about clinging to distinctions recently. And I feel like that's a really big challenge for me. I feel like I have a very strong We have human beings make discriminations and they usually attach to the discriminations. Yes, yes. I feel like kind of passionate about the topic and I know that

[84:50]

discriminations and distinctions feel really important to me, but I'm appreciating that you're talking about maybe not clinging to them, like I'm thinking about how to take care of these discriminations. Not clinging to the discriminations, but also not clinging to the separation between a good class and a bad class. So we do discriminate, that was a good one, that was a bad one. That's okay to discriminate, that's not bad. The problem is to cling to that they're separate, to their duality, because they seem to be dualistic. And again, we're not trying to get rid of that either, but just let go of it. And this sutra helps us let go of these distinctions, because it has so many distinctions to let go of. Okay.

[85:53]

Okay. Okay. Okay. Continued. Okay. Thank you. So maybe so. Great. Great. Um, I've missed quite a few classes for several reasons. All of them I'm sure acceptable to you, so I won't go into the excuses. But some of them have been spoken here tonight. I'm from a medical family, as you may or may not remember. And the first thing I do is think that, well, it'd be okay with Reb if I grabbed my phone and look up such an operation.

[86:59]

All fall, I've had some intuition that something wasn't quite right with your health. And because I'm not around so much personally, I can't go up to somebody and whisper how's Rev's health at Green Gulch. And I got to somebody a few weeks ago who probably would have heard if it had been real serious at any rate or might not have or would eventually anyway. But I've been feeling that and the way we do when our dear friends the people we love most might have something that would mean that we wouldn't see them on a regular basis live on Zoom and we would be remembering our most wonderful and most important memories. So what I found here was that there's something which is a one-day procedure, which is an outpatient, which looks a lot less scary than some of the other descriptions of other kinds of things that might be related.

[88:10]

And not without its dangers, but a lot of people get through it okay. But as you say, if we do okay, and I'm doing it for me, and I'm doing it for you. Spoiler alert, oh no, whatever. Gee, when was it not that way with you? I want to remember a few things. So, so memorable. So many memorable moments, but the quiet and the stillness of the beginning of this session, so basic to everything you've done for all of these years. And what was it with all the jewels of the Sutra?

[89:15]

Well, we got to remember, I guess, in the Mahayana, that the riches are unbelievable of this thing we call being. We call what? We call being. Being. Being. And I remember, I'm remembering, I used to come out to Green Gulch when I was able and attend a bunch of different classes getting all the way through the Book of Serenity, although I started partway through And I remember noticing then, because I seem to be able to notice expressions, or I think I can, good enough for me, new and different personalities. We're not talking psycho here, we're talking just reflecting different beings and allowing them to happen. And me watching it and enjoying it enormously,

[90:20]

And there'd be one and another and one and another and one and another over a period of weeks or years. And that seems to me is connected to the Sutra and to what you're saying about. But now you're being really explicit about Buddha, Bodhisattva experience, the interaction. So I guess you're saying dancing with beings. And I think I expect to get through this folks, you know, but if I don't remember these things and we expect you to get through too. And you will always be with us, not only for the 50, 60 years you have been, And you will always be with everyone who has some exposure to your teaching.

[91:26]

And you go, Guy. Thank you. Good evening, Rev. Good evening. Good evening. Great assembly. Thank you. Yes, best of luck on this procedure. It looks pretty straightforward. Smooth sailing. We'll be with you, and you'll be with us. It's all good. I just loved when you sing. And that seems to be... a great example of this rhythm, different rhythm of the teaching. And I found myself thinking, well now, is that Reb teaching or is that Jim Morrison teaching?

[92:33]

Jim Morrison is included in Reb's teaching. There we go. Reb's teaching is included in Jim Morrison. I suspected as much. And what kept coming up for me, because I kept thinking about this in terms of a musician, in terms of basically improvising on on the classics, you know, the old teachings, Western European music, and I understand that. And so, I have a really deep appreciation of what you were doing because of your scholarship in this area of Chinese Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism and all of the sutras and all of that. I'm just... really in awe of that. So when you come out of that with Jim Morrison, you know, that's not just, that's not just Jim Morrison doing it, you know.

[93:44]

But anyway, what I thought was the Avatamsaka Sutra inspired you to give us this teaching about the rhythms. of the Dharma, and it just, I couldn't get out of my head Gloria Estefan singing, the rhythm is gonna get ya. Is that an example of updating the Dharma? Yep, and you're updating it right now. Thank you, see you soon. Hello. Hello. We just have a couple of minutes, but I guess I just wanted to share some of the things that were on my heart. One of them is that I've been thinking about this sutra and the samadhi in terms of like, or its relation to non-discriminative awareness.

[94:50]

And I've also been thinking a lot about bodhisattva ethics, and how, I guess what's coming up for me is a feeling that it seems very kind of like an ethical practice to be questioning and questioning one's aspiration. It's like sitting in the presence of Buddhas and also with all the gifts that come with that, you know, the Bodhisattva's ethics and the Bodhisattva's aspiration and swimming with beings in this in an ethical, upright manner, in a free manner that allows everything to be itself and just receiving everything. It's just very – it seems kind of stabilizing, like this – Morisoff ethics feels kind of like a stabilizer in this hole.

[95:55]

Not that it's within one's grasp, but I don't know, I'm just thinking about how to practice and be upright in the presence of the Buddhas, and I guess with the assistance of the Buddhas, but I wonder if you might have something to offer to that. Yeah, I would say that It is an ethical responsibility of bodhisattvas to enter this samadhi. And in this samadhi is where we really take care of the precepts. And again, we don't do it by our own power, we do it together with each other. We work together in this samadhi. We question ourselves, and we're questioned in the samadhi. Now... Thank you.

[97:03]

The name of that book, You Know Being Upright, is Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts. The Bodhisattva Precepts is Zen Meditation. It's Zen Samadhi. And Zen Samadhi is the bodhisattva's ethical responsibility. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, well, it's wonderful and it's a little bit sad, too, that this series is now seeming to go into the horizon. But it's been so lovely. You have, we have, been a great, great assembly. Congratulations to the great assembly.

[98:05]

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