Because if you think that your practice is the same as ultimate truth, you're not practicing right. Your practice is off if you think that your practice is ultimate truth. If you think your practice is ultimate truth, there's something a little off about that. But if you think your practice is not ultimate truth, there's something off about that too. And then he goes into discussing the problems that you get into, the contradictions, the nonsense of thinking that they're the same, or the nonsense of thinking that they're completely the same or totally different. Then he goes into it. And that discussion is something which will take some time and take some concentration. And if you want to, I will go through this kind of challenging discourse. But we won't be able to do it in 20 minutes.

[01:06]

I'll give you a little chunk of it, though. But I want, again, stress. What I thought was really important in that is he's saying, because they don't understand this relationship properly between their practice and ultimate truth, they are not practicing rightly. So that's why I'm saying, that's why I think understanding the two truths is important, because, in fact... You do think that what you're doing is true. Or you don't think it's true. Or you think it's both true and false. If you think it's both true and false, you're just in contradiction. It's nonsense. And if you think one of those extremes, you're off. But if you really do think that what you're doing is neither the same, really completely the same, nor totally different from ultimate truth, you kind of understand your practice. So it's very important that you really do look at this and see where you stand on this, and then this discourse can help you.

[02:15]

I guess I still have a question about that. If this really didn't come up with bodhisattvas until they were bodhisattvas, which implies many years of study, to me, maybe that's it. At least many years. If not a lifetime. At least many lifetimes. Then it almost says to me that this isn't really a question that a beginner would ask themselves. At what point is it too early? to even contemplate the difficulties of that question. Well, I said at the beginning of the workshop, and I'll say it again, that this discussion, you maybe should plug your ears if you're not full of love. But maybe you don't have to plug your ears, maybe you can just say, okay, I don't have much love, I don't care about other people, but this guy's talking, so maybe I'll listen to him.

[03:19]

But really, don't listen too much because this might not be good for your health if you're not full of love. If you're not practicing compassion, I shouldn't bring this up to you. So maybe I should stop until you're practicing compassion. I don't know if I'm practicing compassion because I ask myself that when it comes up in my mind. And I can't say for sure. I don't know. Okay, well that's That's practicing honesty. That's good. Bodhisattvas also do that. That's part of practicing the precepts. It's called telling the truth. So you're honestly saying you don't know if you're practicing compassion. But I'm telling you, and your question is right, this teaching is for people who are practicing compassion. Because if you don't practice compassion, this teaching is not really going to sink in very well. Now, whether it's going to be directly harmful to you if you're not practicing compassion, I'm open to that it's a little bit dangerous for me to even discuss this with you if you're not practicing compassion.

[04:29]

That love is the context in which this teaching is offered. It's offered to beings who are devoted to the welfare of others. So, If you don't think you're devoted to the welfare of others, if you don't feel devotion to the welfare of others, and you don't feel compassion to yourself and others, and you don't... If you're not devoted to your own welfare, too, and even more devoted to the welfare of others, and if you're not compassionate with yourself, and you can feel compassion even more for others, and for all others, if you don't know that you're doing that, okay, that's your situation. My situation is That I can say all others. So your situation... I can say from time to time, from myself and others, I can say all the time, all others, all myself. Okay, so you're kind of some of the time, some of the people. Yeah, some of the times myself, some of the time not.

[05:38]

And this teaching is for, and this is, again, Bodhisattva practice, telling the truth, some of the time, some of the people. Okay? That's you. Yeah. Okay? This teaching is for people who are all of the time all of the people. And he honestly says, I ain't there yet. Okay? But I really think that this teaching is definitely for those all of the time all of the people people. Now what about the people who are some of the time some of the people or some of the time one of the people or some of the time Or all the time, some of the people. Or some of the time, all of the people. What about those people? Should they hear this teaching? And I guess I should say, I don't know. I don't know if you should hear it. It might not be good. So here I am, kind of quandary about whether I should go on to some of the time, some of the people, person. But part of my response to this some of the time, some of the people person is, would you like to be an all of the time, all of the people person?

[06:47]

Now I'm asking her. Yeah. So would you like to learn how to be all of the time, all of the people and all the plants and all the animals in the whole universe? Okay, so that's similar to the all the time, all the time, all the time, all the people people. They also want to do that. So maybe it's all right. I'm not sure. Maybe it's all right for me to talk about this, but that's who it's for. Because it's not so much that you shouldn't hear it per se, but rather that This will work better for you if you hear it in the context of great compassion. That's the ground in which this will really sink in. This teaching will go in if you feel great compassion all the time for all the people.

[07:50]

And all the time means now, for example. But it means now for all the people. Could you now? Could you feel it for all the people? Now I feel sadness. Okay. And what about compassion in the sadness? And sadness. Well, sadness, you know, compassion has an address. You know? Compassion isn't a general thing. It has an address. Its address is sad person A, sad person Edith. Okay? That's where it's happening. So sadness doesn't contradict compassion.

[08:51]

Does that make sense? I think that compassion feels like that's caring and accepting including the sadness at the moment yeah it's caring and accepting and also wishing well wishing this way wishing that this sad person would be free of suffering not necessarily free of sadness so sadness is pretty good stuff free of depression yes And not so much free of... But, you know, not free of sadness any more than free of everything. So, basically, compassion is you wish the person to be free, period, of everything. Is that happening? Can you get with that? Can you feel compassion in that way? Well, it's happened during this... I treat that I've stayed with things and gotten beyond it. This has happened, whether sitting or walking.

[09:52]

You stay with things. Or other things. Right. Yeah. And I've heard that some other people have stayed with what's happening and got beyond it. And I would say, you know, that makes me very happy to hear that some people have stayed with what's happening and by staying with what's happening, get beyond it. Running away from it, you become a slave of it, of course. So, this is good. Staying with it is part of compassion. It's very kind of you to let yourself stay with what's happening. A lot of people are not generous with themselves and do not give themselves an opportunity to stay with what's happening, are not gentle with themselves so they can't stay with what's happening, are not kind enough to stay with what's happening, but staying with what's happening is generous, it's honest, It has honesty in it because you're honestly with what's happening. It has to be gentle because if you force yourself to do it, you're not really, somebody's not willing to be there.

[10:53]

And if you gently encourage yourself and you say, okay, I'll be here. Not because you're coercing me, but because you're being so kind of attractive about it. I'll be here. and so on. So the bodhisattva skillful means are involved in attracting yourself to be who you are. So this is a bodhisattva practice that are happening. And those practices of staying with what you are is part of compassion. Generosity is part of compassion. Being honest is part of compassion. So your honesty is part of bodhisattva's compassion practice. And do you wish that all beings could practice that way? Yeah. And if there's anybody who you do not wish that they could practice that way, would you like to learn how to wish that they would practice that way? And some people say, I can't yet do that, but I would like to learn to do that. I'm willing to try to learn to do that, even though I'm not there yet.

[11:54]

But again, I appreciate Ida's question because I said to you at the beginning, As the week goes through, I won't necessarily bring you back to the beginning, which I said the beginning was compassion. I won't necessarily, every other word, come back to compassion. Because this study of the two truths is a study of wisdom, you know? It's studying truth, you know? It's philosophy. It's loving Sophie, right? You know who Sophie is? Do you know who Sophie is, Patty? Sophia, you know Sophia? Sophia is the goddess of wisdom. Philosophy is loving the goddess of wisdom. Philosophy is loving wisdom, loving truth. So, this study of the two truths is a philosophical, is a truth-loving exercise. It has to do with wisdom. But wisdom in Buddhism is grounded in compassion. You don't start with wisdom, you start with compassion.

[12:57]

Now, if you have wisdom already, Well, then you don't, you know, then you're all set. Then compassion will come out of that wisdom. So compassion is born of wisdom, but the compassion that's born of wisdom is purified compassion. But most people do not yet have wisdom and purified compassion, so we have somewhat polluted compassion. It's somewhat polluted by our dualistic thinking, so that's where we start. So we can start there. And some of us are having some trouble even getting our feet firmly on the ground of polluted compassion. But we have to start there, okay? So again, once again, you have to keep, even though I don't say it because I'm talking about these two truth things, you need to keep coming back to compassion. You need to be practicing compassion while you're listening to these teachings. Because that's what the teachings are for.

[14:02]

They're for beings that are working on developing compassion and wisdom. This is emphasizing the wisdom. You've got to do the compassionate background all the time. All right? Now it's almost 12 o'clock. So I'm just going to do a little bit more. Not really. get too far, just talk a little bit more about Buddha's response to this report, this squealer, with snitching, telling the Buddha about these other bodhisattvas who are like off track. So the Buddha says, mm-hmm, yeah, they're off track. They're not practicing rightly. They are unable to understand that ultimate truth is so subtle and so deep that it transcends sameness with And difference from practices. And the Buddha says, how so? When one practices as they do, one cannot be said to comprehend ultimate truth or to be able to realize it.

[15:13]

So I said before, if you don't understand ultimate truth, it's a relationship with practices or with conventional truth. If you don't understand that relationship, if you misunderstand that relationship, you're not practicing rightly. And then the Buddha is saying the other way around, that if you don't practice rightly, then you don't comprehend ultimate truth or realize it. So understanding the relationship between your practice, your superficial dualistic world, understanding the relationship between that and ultimate truth, then if you want to practice, you can practice rightly. And when you practice rightly, you understand ultimate truth. Okay? How are you doing? Ready for another bite? Or is this too much? You okay? You're taking five?

[16:18]

Okay, well, let's take five then. I don't want to leave Anne out. I don't even want to leave me out, not to mention Anne. And I can imagine I might be left out if I hadn't taken these notes. I feel the same as Anne. Can you take this up tomorrow morning? Exactly. Exactly. Or we could even try this afternoon. It depends on the heat of the room and everything, but I'll give it a try this afternoon. Yeah, we'll try. Yeah. Huh? No. Meet in the dining room. I think the dining room is cooler. This room is just going to keep getting hotter and hotter for the next few hours. I think... I think the dining room is a little bit cooler, although it's pretty hot there too. But I think today is not quite as hot as some other days have been.

[17:21]

And not as hot as Tassar can sometimes get. But you know, Buddhism grew up in a hot country, so... Somehow, the Buddha and the Buddha's disciples managed to stay awake for these discussions. It doesn't say these bodhisattvas were, you know, fading away. Somehow, we have to find a way to stay alert for this discussion. So, you know, if you want to, you can call a break and stand up, have jumping jacks or something, which, or, you know, some kind of thing to keep awake in this difficult time. Now, the other thing is that in India, they usually didn't have talks in the afternoons. because it was so hot. The monks usually took naps, siestas. In Sanskrit, they took siestas, whatever that is. So maybe it's too much to try to meet in the afternoon. We may have to have some, you know, late night meetings when it's in the cool of the night. That's a song, right?

[18:23]

All right, well, thank you for practicing so sincerely.

[18:32]

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