Well, my reflection on what you said, on the little pieces that I've read, it feels to me like a literary reminder of now, and that now is everything at once, and everywhere. And that the idea that if you sit, you can see the Buddha, there's the truth, that whatever that is that you see is that, and that it's happening everywhere all at once, in multiple dimensions and in every way. I like the idea of the atoms and the many worlds, that it feels like an effort to language

[01:00]

being here at all. And that's beautiful, poetic, philosophical, and practical way to awaken, if you're lucky enough, for at least a minute, now. So, thank you. Hi, Rev and everyone. I'm just having a little trouble with some of the language. It feels kind of deified to me, like prayer, awesome spiritual power of the Buddha. It's kind of moving, to me, the beings that are into a God realm, and I'm having resistance to that. So, I'm wondering if you could maybe translate it for me in a different way that... Well, you know, in this sutra, and in many Buddhist sutras, there's a lot of gods there.

[02:15]

But the gods are students of the Buddha. We're not so much praying to gods, we're praying to our teacher, the Buddha. And also, the Buddha does not, what is called the Buddha, allows gods to be in the Great Assembly. So, it isn't like no deities can come into this assembly. Deities and ordinary people, ordinary humans and deities are both welcome here. But we're not so much praying to the deities any more than we pray to other people. But we are praying to the Buddhas. We're saying, would you please listen to me? Would you please... We're actually praying, in a sutra anyway, we are praying to the Buddha to teach to us the Dharma. And you, among other people, you have prayed to me. You prayed to me to receive the Bodhisattva precepts. You requested them. You didn't think I was a deity,

[03:21]

you thought I was a preceptor. And so you requested, you prayed to the preceptor, and you say, I receive these precepts. But not as a deity, but as somebody who has also asked for the precepts to his teacher and received them, so now I can give them to you. How does that help you? It does help. That part helps. But ultimately, it still feels like, if there's like a lot of gods hanging out, and they're kind of praying to Buddha, it's... Yeah, this, from the early Buddhism, Buddhism's got lots of gods in it. From the first part of Buddhism, there's gods, there's kings, there's gods, there's demons in the assembly. It's kind of like what he called all-inclusive assembly. It's, you know, diversity. The Buddhist assembly is about diversity.

[04:24]

And we do not banish deities or demons. And if you don't want them around, you're welcome too. You can be here even if you don't want to be here. Yeah, I'm okay with them being around. I guess I just, I always kind of interpreted, you know, the concept of Buddha and the Avalokiteshvara as, you know, independent co-arising, or the interconnection of everything. That's what Buddha is. Buddha says, if you see dependent co-arising, you see the Dharma. If you see the Dharma, you see the Buddha. The Buddha is dependent co-arising. Okay, so I'm just getting a little hung up on language, maybe. And language is dependent co-arising. And language is Buddha. Language is Buddha. And you can get hung up on Buddha. Right. All right. I'll work on it. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for expressing yourself and your hang-ups.

[05:30]

Thank you. Please continue. I have a lot of them. Thanks. Bye. Having a lot of hang-ups is like having a lot of people in your assembly. You've got all these demons and deities and gazillions of hang-ups. They're all in the assembly. Your hang-ups are praying to the Buddhists for teaching. I'll keep praying. Thank you. Remind your hang-ups to keep praying, too. I will. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, Reb, and hello, Assembly. I just wanted to mention something that Deborah's comments made me realise that I'm doing in relationship to this text. And there's so much stuff in there. It's just like in Christianity, in the Bible,

[06:35]

if the mind tries to comprehend it, it just starts having sparks and zaps and whatever. It's really… So, I found that I just don't try to… I learn not to get sticky while listening to this text, just like with current politics. It really helped me to just… Okay, I hear, I see this and that and that, and I let it be. I just witness it, and that's it. So, it's really a good training not to get stuck to absolutely anything. Is that a good approach? Yeah. This samadhi is about not grasping all these distinctions, not getting caught in all these distinctions. Exactly. And if I do get caught by anything… Trying to shock us into giving up grasping and open to the Buddha body, which cannot be grasped.

[07:41]

Yeah. And if I see something that I'm grasping or pushing away, that's something to notice, and that's it. Just move on. That's just confession and repentance with that. Yeah, exactly. I'm grasping. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm sticky. I'm sticky. I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I actually… I kind of wanted to move on to the next narrative element in this description of the samadhi. If you're ready, I appreciate the initial response to quotes in the presence of the Buddha. They see the Buddhas in 10 directions. The next thing that happens is these Buddhas praise the bodhisattva in the samadhi. And there's extensive praise of the bodhisattva.

[08:42]

So, then I stop there too and say, any responses to when you're sitting in samadhi, when you're sitting in the Great Assembly in this Buddha samadhi, does it seem at all relevant that the Buddhas are praising you right now in samadhi? Because I could imagine some people say, I don't get that the Buddhas are praising me. Again, I don't get it either. The way the Buddhas are praising cannot be grasped. However, I am thinking about, I am contemplating that in this samadhi, which I have requested to be living in, I am being praised. Not I'm being praised, but the practitioner here is being praised by all Buddhas. And what relevance does that have? And to make it easy for you,

[09:51]

I used to have a teacher who, you know, was alive 50 some years ago and before, who I used to sit with. His name was Suzuki, Shinryu Suzuki. I used to sit with him in silence. And most of the time, in silence, he didn't say his praise. I couldn't hear him praising me with his voice. And I wasn't trying to get him to praise me. Does that make sense? But I think he was praising me. And he was praising the other people who were sitting with us in silence. I think, and when I sit with people, I don't say anything usually,

[10:55]

but I'm praising the people I'm sitting with. Now, I'm not the Buddha, but I'm the Buddha's disciple. So, I'm learning to praise everybody who is practicing. But I don't necessarily say it. And I wonder if the people I'm sitting with realize that I'm praising them. And that the Buddhas are praising us when we're in this samadhi together. It's part of the deal that Buddhas appreciate our effort. Now, it may not be surprising that we appreciate the Buddha's effort. Like, that we appreciate our teacher's effort. Maybe that's not a big surprise. And people do sometimes say to their teacher, teacher, I appreciate your efforts. I appreciate that you come and sit with us,

[11:57]

and that you teach us, and that you listen to us. I appreciate that. But people may not understand that the teacher appreciates you, and is praising you. And one of the main ways they praise you is they sit with you, and they go to the yoga room with you, and things like that. That's one of the ways they express their praise of you. But maybe you don't feel praised. So, I'm stopping to see how you're doing with the praise. I see a yellow hand. Yeah. Hello. I don't know if I feel praise, but I feel support. I feel the support of the community, the Buddhas, the ancestors, the entire lineage saying, let's go, or continue, or

[13:07]

you've said warm hand to warm hand. I don't think of it as praise so much as just a lot of support, which you could interpret as praise, but... You could. Because praise sounds like good or bad, but this is just keep going. Yeah. Or stand strong, sit still. The support was kind of there at the beginning. You're present with the Buddha, and the Buddha supports you to enter Buddha's practice. Yeah, so... And maybe you don't think of that as praise. That's why I stopped, because maybe people don't think that being supported is one of the ways people praise you. That would be me. That would be you. Thank you. We appreciate and we praise you for being you. Thank you very much. We know it's not easy. Permit the frog. It's not easy to be green.

[14:09]

Thank you, Rev and Great Assembly. I feel greatly encouraged to continue my efforts in my practice. Even when I get wobbly and start backpedaling or get hung up, I had such gratitude for the encouragement. It feels like just wonderful encouragement and to keep practicing. A joyful effort, sometimes. Sometimes more effort, effort. But just great gratitude for that, and I very much sense the presence of it. It's quite wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. I just wanted to say I took note that the Buddhas even pat us on our head.

[15:28]

That's coming up. That's coming up. It's a follow-up on the praise. On this conversation about praise, I have limits about the notion of the Buddhas. Praising me. I feel like, you know, I can accept that there's a great celebration going on, but it feels impersonal. I think the idea of taking it in a personal way makes me uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable with that. Well, again, if you look at the sutra, when the Buddhas are praising... Here's the Buddhas praising, okay?

[16:38]

So then the Buddhas say, Good! You! They say you to Samantabhadra. You are able to enter this concentration with the praise. You're able to enter the concentration. Now, you didn't enter all by yourself. You asked to come in, and we guided you in. And it's good that you can do that. You did a good thing there. Good! You are able to enter this concentration. Of the Buddha body illuminating sentience. And yeah, by means of the power of the Buddhas. Yeah, you can activate all the cycles of the teaching and reveal the oceans. Yes, it's like praising somebody by saying what they can do. You can continually come back to this sutra and read it.

[17:42]

That's a praise. You can appreciate this sutra. You can be devoted to this sutra. You can memorize parts of this sutra. You can chant this sutra and you can invite other people to chant the sutra with you. This is the way the Buddhas would praise you. They would praise you for your practice. It's not exactly personal. It's praising you for doing the practice. That's the way the Buddhas are praising the Bodhisattva in this section of the book. Praising for the doing of the practice. Not praising, you know, good Karin. But praising Karin who does the practice. And that may be difficult to accept too. But that's the way they're doing it. They're praising all the practices which Samantabhadra is able to do. I just find it easier to think of that they're celebrating all of this going on.

[18:46]

Celebrating is fine. Celebrating the Bodhisattvas and celebrating their practice. Yes. Celebrating is fine. It's one big party. It's one very big party. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And then the next thing that happens in the Samadhi, after being appreciated and celebrated, after the practitioner is appreciated and celebrated in the presence of the Buddha, the next thing is that the Buddhas bestow the Dharma, bestow the teaching on the practitioner in Samadhi. In Samadhi, the Buddhas give the practitioner the Dharma. And sometimes, this is very important for this Sutra and other Mahayana Sutras, sometimes teachings are given to the Bodhisattvas in Samadhi

[19:51]

that have never been seen before in the world. So that new teachings come to the practitioners of the Bodhisattva Samadhis, which they then can bring out into the world, which have not been seen before, but are given in hopes that they are relevant to the new situation that people are finding themselves in. So that's the next phase of the Samadhi, is the bestowal of the Dharma upon the Samadhi practitioner. And again, if you can relate to this for a moment, I'm happy to hear from you. If you'd like to talk about any questions or any challenge you feel about that, when you're in Samadhi, the Buddhas are going to give you teachings. Any problems or encouragements there that you'd like to share would be welcome. All right. Can you hear me now?

[21:28]

So, I ebb and flow between the practice in everyday life and sort of the esoteric or ethereal prose in the Sutra of the congregations and the Buddhas and the story in the Sutra. And I know that in the Dharma, in the truth of it all, there is no separation, but in sort of my mental framework, I'm having a hard time joining the words of the Sutra with just the practice of everyday life, of trying to take care of myself, take care of other people, to aspire to my bodhisattva vows.

[22:35]

Well, you said bodhisattva vows just now? Yes. So, one of the bodhisattva vows are Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. So, that vow is that you would enter everything in your daily life. That's one of your vows. Now, you may have difficult understanding that vow and realizing it, but that is one of the vows, which means that every aspect of your daily life, every particle of your daily life, every feeling you have, every emotion you have, every color you see, every door you touch, everything you do, every particle of what you do, they're all Dharma doors. That's a bodhisattva vow, is to understand that. And you're saying sometimes you have trouble understanding how something

[23:39]

is a door to this Dharma, or how this Dharma is a door to what you're doing. Yeah, more the second than the first, I think. So, the Dharma that you're having trouble relating to, that is a particle, which you're having trouble seeing that as a door to Dharma. You're having trouble seeing the Dharma as a door to Dharma. That's a perfectly good problem. And I think a lot of the people in the Assembly, I think, would share that with you, that maybe they feel okay about seeing banana slugs as Dharma doors. But some people have trouble seeing banana slugs as Dharma doors.

[24:41]

But they can see suffering children as Dharma doors. They can see, now there's where I want to find the Dharma in this suffering child, so that I can help that child be free. So, you could say Dharma doors are boundless. I vowed to enter them. But you could also say Dharma doors are boundlessly challenging. There's endless challenges to find a door, a Dharma door, in endless challenges, endless challenges and difficulties of daily life. Yes, I agree. I mean, I seldom feel like there are not enough challenges.

[25:43]

And not just challenges, not just challenges, not just difficulties, but finding the Dharma in the difficulty, or the difficulty of finding Dharma even in things that aren't difficult. Where's the Dharma in kind of like feeling comfortable? How is that a Dharma door? And I don't need it to be a Dharma door. I'm comfortable. I don't care about entering Dharma doors. Now, if it's pain, I would like to find the Dharma door in the pain. But the Dharma door in comfort, I don't care about that. I'd just be comfortable. No, don't skip over the comfort. That's a Dharma door too. Otherwise, if you don't find the Dharma door in the comfort, you might get stuck in the comfort. It's possible. It's possible. Yes. Thank you, Rob.

[26:47]

Thank you, Rick. Thank you. Hi. Hi. Good evening, Rob and Great Assembly. I just wanted to know, so do you have to be in a Samadhi in order to receive the Dharma from the Buddha? Do you? No. No. It's just that Samadhi is a very good place to do business with Buddha. Because the next things that are coming up in this practice is when Samantabhadra comes out of the Samadhi. We didn't get there yet. So that's part of the narrative is coming out of the Samadhi. And coming out of the Samadhi, you can continue the practice, but you're not actually being quiet and still. And you're more active.

[27:51]

And that's practice too. So you receive things in Samadhi and then you come out of them and you give some of those things that you received to others. And actually, in this chapter, when the Bodhisattva comes out of Samadhi, just coming out of it brings many, many blessings to many, many beings. Leaving the Samadhi is very helpful. Somebody coming out of Samadhi brings more or less inconceivable blessings to many, to inconceivably many beings. But Samadhi is part of the deal. So if you have not entered the Samadhi, then you're not part of the deal. Is that it? No, you can be benefited even if you haven't entered the Samadhi. And part of the benefits when you haven't entered the Samadhi is feeling encouraged to enter it.

[29:00]

For example, feeling encouragement to sit in the presence of Buddha. So once again, I appreciate your question because sitting in the presence of Buddha and offering yourself to the Buddhas to enter the Samadhi, you enter the Samadhi, you see the Buddhas, you receive the teaching, you get patted on the head, you come out of the Samadhi. And when you come out of the Samadhi, you help other people who are not in Samadhi to wish to be in Samadhi so they can enter and receive the teaching in Samadhi. But even before they enter, they're already benefited and encouraged and inspired and uplifted by the person coming out of Samadhi. And they start practicing. And one of the ways they start practicing is getting ready to sit in the presence of Buddha and enter Samadhi. So you learn things in Samadhi

[30:03]

that you can't learn downtown. It just reminds me of a story of one time, the newly elected governor of California, his name was Jerry Brown. He came to Tassajara shortly after becoming elected. And we had a dialogue with him at Tassajara. And we asked him about the fact that he was a Catholic priest before he was governor. And we said to him, well, why did you become a Catholic priest? He said, I could work on things as a Catholic priest that I couldn't work on not as a Catholic priest. And then people said, well, why did you run for governor? He said, I could work on things as governor that I couldn't work on as a Catholic priest. So when you're in the mountains, you're not so busy with stop signs and shopping

[31:12]

downtown and so on, you can do things that you can't do downtown. But then you leave the Samadhi and you do things downtown that you can't do in the Samadhi. So it's a circulation between entering Samadhi, seeing the Buddhas, receiving Buddha's encouragement, support, praise, and receiving the teachings which are bestowed and the pats on the head, and then coming out of the Samadhi and sharing the Samadhi in daily life. And then going back into. So what we do at Zen Center is we enter Samadhi in the morning and then we go out to work. When I first came to Zen Center, I moved in across the street from Zen Center before it was located where it is. When I was in Japantown, I lived across the street, I got up in the morning, I went to sit in Samadhi, I left Samadhi and went to work for Bank America.

[32:17]

Programming computers, and then I came back from programming computers and sat in Samadhi again. Every day I entered and left, entered and left into the daily life. So it's a cycle between Samadhi and leaving Samadhi and re-entering Samadhi. By skipping the Samadhi, we're missing part of the process, but we can still be benefited even before we enter Samadhi and we can benefit after we leave Samadhi. Does that make some sense now? So I think I'm judging my meditation as sometimes in Samadhi perhaps and maybe most of the time not. So I feel I'm not sure. Do you have a comment about that? Say again, what do you think you're doing? You know, like I might be sitting Zazen, but I feel like I'm not collected. So I wouldn't say I'm necessarily in Samadhi, I would say I'm sitting.

[33:21]

So you're sitting, and so the sutra is saying when you're sitting and you're not collected, then you might just offer your not-collectedness to the Buddhas and invite them to come and bring you into collectedness. Thank you. Please let me join your collectedness. I, the uncollected one. And the Buddhas say, come on, Catherine, you're welcome. Come on into collectedness. Thank you. Absolutely. The issue of dream, not issue, the topic of dreams came up a couple classes ago

[34:28]

at the very end of the class. And it hasn't been mentioned again, but I wanted to say that when I first started reading this, I had that rather intense fear reaction. I wanted to, you know, get away from it, not read it. And, you know, the question came up, what am I so afraid of? So I didn't know. But I trust dreams, my dreams, and some are kind of, you know, the big dreams and others are just not. But I wanted to say that it was a couple nights after I expressed my fear here, I had this very intense dream. And it told me,

[35:30]

showed me, I experienced the fear of letting go. And it involved letting go on the outside of an airplane, and just agreeing to let go and drop. And I dropped and feel myself through the air, and into the ocean. And I just kept going down deeper in the ocean. And the fear was that came to me then was, oh, I think drowning would be a terrible way to die. And this voice, you know, said, well, you know, the suffering would only be for a short time. And I thought, that's true. And so I kept going in the bottom kind of muddy waters. And I knew underneath, from what I've heard everywhere, that the ocean is a fantastic, beautiful, rich place. And I awakened at the time

[36:41]

that I was going to go deeper. Now, that dream was very instructive. And it was, I was triggered by facing my fear in reading sutra. And I figured, well, I just was a a better, I'd say, but a better person or a calmer person than I was before. Every time I have a really close, intense experience about my relationship with death, I feel like that makes me a just a calmer person. And that probably is good for people in my life. So I don't know, I would like you at some point, to comment on, you know, your viewer dreams or how

[37:49]

it fits in. And, and by the way, I think this student sutra just allows, it's just opens, you know, to everybody's what do they call it, according to individual facilities, how you get wisdom. And I thought, well, yeah. So that's what I want to say. Thank you. And the person who asked about dreams before, there was a thing in the sutra where it says mastery of dream power. Yes. And so one interpretation of that, which he found in the footnotes is, that means develop the mastery to teach people in their dreams. So while they're dreaming, you're teaching. Ah, ah. So when you're dreaming, and you're learning in your dreams, yes, might be because this bodhisattva is, is teaching you in your dreams.

[38:54]

So there's a lot of bodhisattvas around you while you're dreaming. And they're giving you teachings while you're dreaming. And then you're learning wonderful things while you're dreaming. We, I think that's wonderful. I do, too. Thank you. Hello, dear Ab, Rab, hello, dear assembly. Rab, I do understand something not really. And you are saying, when we're entering into samadhi, then we can receive the teaching, because, because we are open, because we can see the true nature of everything. But now,

[39:56]

why do we have to go out of samadhi for teaching? Then... We don't have to go out. It's just that the way we teach in samadhi is different than the way we can teach when we come out. So when we're silent and still, in the presence of Buddha, we can receive things in a way that we cannot when we're not silent and still in the presence of Buddha. And also, we can help people when we're in samadhi, but not the way we can when we come out. So for example, in the Heart Sutra, the Buddha is in samadhi, and the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is with the Buddha in samadhi, but then Avalokiteshvara comes out of the samadhi and says the Heart Sutra. So if the Buddha and Samantabhadra both stay in samadhi,

[41:05]

we don't hear the Heart Sutra yet. When Avalokiteshvara comes out of the samadhi and leaves the Buddha in samadhi, then by the power of the Buddha, Avalokiteshvara gives us this wonderful Heart Sutra, which the Buddha cannot give us because the Buddha is silent and still. So in silence and stillness, wonderful things are going on, and this brings great benefit. But certain kinds of benefit need us to come out of the samadhi, like this one, to rise out of the samadhi. And then when we come out of the samadhi, we can benefit people by making hand gestures and talking and dancing. And this helps them in ways that didn't reach them when we were in silence and stillness. So bring things in form. Yeah. Form and emptiness. Bringing things

[42:11]

into, like it says in here, one of the things we get in the samadhi is we develop the capacity to use reflected images of the Buddha to help people. Yeah. Thank you. But we receive things in samadhi that we cannot receive without being in samadhi. Then we come out of samadhi and share these things. Yeah. Which, and people can't even see what we're receiving in samadhi. They can't hear what we're receiving in samadhi. But when we come out and move our body and talk, then they can get a feeling of a reflection of what we received in the samadhi. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for your question. I'd like to just go on a little bit further. After receiving the teaching in samadhi,

[43:20]

then the Buddha pats us on the head and that completes the process of transmitting the teaching to us. And then we come out of samadhi. And when we come out of samadhi, all kinds of blessings occur. And then it goes on to what happens after the blessings occur. And what happens after the blessings occur is that all kinds of the earth trembles and wonderful jewels rain down. And then beings praise the one who's come out of samadhi. And ask the one who they're praising who's come out of samadhi, they ask that one to teach. And then that one can teach. And then we have that one who just come out of samadhi, teaches throughout the sutra from that point. That's the narrative of this chapter.

[44:25]

So, does there are other comments on this strange situation? Yes. Yes. So, I just wanted to share that this detailed discussion that everybody's participating in, it's such a treasure. As I was listening, I went back to the first paragraph. And I realized of this chapter, and it really teaches us about the inconceivability of existence. And it really is an antidote to the feeling of smallness and isolation that usually we think of ourselves as. You could say it's an antidote, but you could also say it shows us how that isolatedness is a particle. And if we enter that particle of isolatedness,

[45:31]

we will discover Buddha lands without limit. Exactly. Yeah. Better said. Yeah. Thank you for doing it this way, because I kind of went over it. And then I went back to the first paragraph, and it's amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Yeah. Listening today, I heard seeing Buddhas coming from all directions, praising and being praised by Buddha. And then you brought in Dharma also in the sense of

[46:35]

receiving and giving. So, this giving and receiving is a part of all this I heard today. And it also brought me back to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. So, in a way, this whole book I read, how I read it so far, it's an expression of this Buddha, Dharma, Sangha in the sense of it's not three different things, but different aspects of the same thing of giving and receiving and pointing out that it's in this meeting and in this conversation. And at the same time, I feel that it's not only this description of this meeting in a beautiful Bollywood decoration of gods making a big party. It's not different from us. It's the same meeting we're all coming together we're doing here. And this feels encouraging in a way,

[47:45]

though I cannot really explain how I come to it. So, it's a very special thing on the one side, but also a very everyday thing to me. Because these meetings occur, there are so many Dharma gates I can enter. And I wanted to know if this makes sense and wanted to add another thing. You were asking how we read it before in one of the lectures I heard. And I found out that I read it as an invitation to reenact this meeting. And actually, this is what we're doing here. So, reading this beautiful scripture is already something, but this part of reenacting and meeting and exchanging here is the main part of it. And I'm always wondering how those scriptures do this, like how they function. It's a miracle.

[48:48]

I think this sutra is, could use the word susceptible to being interpreted in many, many ways. The sutra is susceptible or the sutra is available for us to be creative with it and to make it our own, to make it practical, to make it relevant to our daily life, to find a way to enact the sutra as our daily life. The sutra allows that. Yeah, it works. You could say, but what is it that works? When you say it, what do you mean by it? I mean, we are sitting here all together.

[49:52]

Yeah, we're sitting here all together. That works. That's how we work the sutra. That's how we are creative and innovative with the sutra. And the sutra is available for us to play with it that way. It's not saying, don't move me. This is the way I am and you can't touch me. You just have to bow down to me. It's also saying, you can play with me. I'm a playful sutra. I'm available for creation. I'm available for your artwork. I'm available for you finding new things in me. Although it seems to be very concrete in descriptions and elaborated images, it's opening a field that offers not only somewhere in history or in an imaginary poetic

[50:55]

way, but in a very everyday way. Everyday and also in poetic. It's opened everything. It's really open and it's allowing us to go in infinite directions. That's the kind of thing it is. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. I would just like to share the translation also, just what I experienced and find out shortly ago. And I think the person before talked about the by means of mastery of dream power. It is on Tom Crescent, page 159.

[51:58]

And I think Warren is on the cast before. And you mentioned you were going to look for the Chinese character for this. But you didn't mention about this last time. But actually, Warren mentioned about that and you said you were going to look for the Chinese character for that. I have been trying to look for it too, but I could not find it. But shortly ago, I found it. When the person who was talking, the people talking about this, and I remember Warren's question. So I went back to look for it. And I could not find it before. But shortly ago, I think in Chinese, it's based on the character. Found my translation by dream. But I would not understand if I were to translate. I would not translate as the mastery. It indeed is, you know, of Guan Yin Bodhisattva. His another name is called

[53:11]

Guan Zhi Zai, Bodhisattva Zhi. In a sense, at ease. In Chinese, Zhi Zai can be mean at ease. And so, I just want to share this inconceivable experience. I have been looking for this character, this text, and I could not find it. But shortly ago, I found it. Its meaning is slightly different from the translation. But just like you say, it's playful. It can be meaning many different ways. But I really would like to share in Chinese, it means Zhi Zai, means at ease, or free, freely. Free, free. Yeah. Free with the dream power. Yeah. Free of our dreams. All right. So,

[54:20]

I also want to say that, I don't know if I do want to say it. I'm going to bring it up next time. So, anything else you want to bring up tonight, you're welcome to do so. Doesn't have to be about this samadhi. Okay. Well, I would like to mention, because since you sort of mentioned it earlier, I would like to invite people in this class, when the class is over, if people are interested in getting together online to read together on Zoom, to read the sutra to each other, just to read it. So, we could take turns reading it and hearing it and

[55:28]

reading it for each other and to each other. I would really like to invite people to do that. And so, I'm kind of wondering if people might be interested. And I'm thinking about my thought is to do this once a month for an hour and a half in the time that we have been meeting for class. So, on the first Tuesday of the month for an hour and a half in this class time period. And if people are interested, I have an email address that you could let me know. It's called reading the sutra at gmail.com. And I think I'll say this again next time. Also, but just think about if you might be interested and let me know. If we read at that pace, it's a very long, slow process. But I, you know, I think people will drift in and out as it works for them.

[56:30]

So, I just like to put out that invitation now to think about that. You're muted, Lynn. Thank you. I just wanted to say that good evening to everyone. And thank you for being here. And we talked about different times a couple of weeks ago. And in Arabic, it's inshallah in good time.

[57:34]

And so, I wanted to bring that into the conversation. So, thank you. Hello again. Hello again. I wanted to share something I heard. I had an exchange with someone today that was very inspiring for me. And I was reflecting on our amazing Zendo and our wonderful fortune to have this beautiful Taiko drum and this Densho bell and the Bansho bell and all that is happening here. And thinking about the smaller sanghas, maybe they don't, yeah, like that,

[58:40]

that don't have that. And this person said, yes, but somebody started it, let's say in Japan, they were ringing the bells and doing the drums. And then it traveled into Europe. And then it pretty soon, there was just this flow that we were all included in this river of practice and sound. And when he was talking about the, like, for instance, where Karin is, it's some other different time than we're in right now. But even though we're in different time, we're still at this one time or same time or this all together. And it just made me really appreciate our bells and our drum and our sitting together, that are kind of traveling through space and time and kind of this particular in the midst of the universal that I think you started with tonight. So just

[59:47]

appreciating our drum and bell sort of opened up, joining everybody, everywhere that was practicing. So I don't know if that connected with what you were bringing up today, but I really enjoyed hearing this person speak about the flow of practice in all the time zones that we're sharing. Yeah, that's one of the descriptions of the Samadhi. Yeah. It's all the worlds are flowing into it. Yeah. And sort of past time, just thinking past time and moving into the future time. Well, what we call past and future, but anyway. And this person's about to be ordained on Sunday. So, he's got his wings. Anyway, thank you for listening. Evening, Rev. Great Assembly.

[61:07]

there's a portion in there where when the Buddha extends his hands it says their hands were each adorned with the marks of brightness being finely webbed emanating light, fragrance, and flames. What does that have some meaning? Can you speak anything about the webbed hands, like, what is that? Well, I recall a good theory is one that stimulates research and so one theory about those webbed hands is that the webs are so that when they are scooping up living beings out of the mud they don't slip through between their fingers. That's one theory. I like that one. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

[62:13]

Let's see if that stimulates more research. Good evening, Rev, and good evening Great Assembly. Good evening, Barbara. Well, I wanted to comment about, I think, Warren's comment. I was looking at one of the epithets of Buddha is the topknot. In the first chapter there's a lot of names of bodhisattvas with topknot and I was looking up what that was and it's one of the marks of a Buddha. One of the 16 or so marks and one of them is webbed hands and so I thought the topknot is really interesting and I

[63:22]

just also wanted to share, you know, that the first question you asked us, you know, this amazing opportunity to sit in samadhi and be in the presence of the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas and be blessed, receive blessings, and I really am resonating with that experience. I don't know, I just want to say another thing that is really powerful is this idea of goodness. The word goodness is, you know, I feel like we're swimming in an ocean of goodness in the samadhi and in this text and the goodness is so powerful. It really can wipe away negativity and destructive self-belief for me. So anyway, it's a very

[64:33]

powerful word and name for me. Universal goodness. Hello, good evening everyone. I would request to be reminded of what we chanted, which is Avalokiteshvara is the great bodhisattva, great compassion, and

[65:34]

then we have, but we start with Samadrabhadra. Bodhisattva, great... We say great practice. No, that's not what we say in the chant, or that I remember chanting all the time at Green Gulch. Can you remind me? I think it's Manjushri, bodhisattva of great wisdom, Samadrabhadra, bodhisattva of great practice. Great activity. No, great activity. Thank you. That's what it is. Great activity. So I tried to Google it a little bit ago and I got happiness and kindness, but no, it's great activity and I feel like, you know, along with great compassion and great wisdom, the activity of

[66:40]

this light in this sutra is just, you know, beyond, is inconceivably vast. And our practice is this activity and being attentive to, there's so much activity in our energy, in just sitting, just in our body, all this sensory awareness, all these little tiny, you know, subtle activities. So Samadrabhadra for me is this body activity, this embodiment of the flow that Sonya was talking about through all space, the activity of sound, the activity of light movement. And for me, and just in daily life,

[67:44]

just waking up in the morning, you know, how to be with that in each moment, in the activity of the breathing. Anyway, that just came to me. Thank you, whoever said activity. I didn't see or hear who that was, but thank you very much for the whole wonder of this sutra that you're bringing to us. And everyone is contributing such, you know, incredible facets of the teaching with each other. Thank you. We have a few seconds. Oh, there we go. Yes.

[68:50]

You're muted. Still. There you go. Forgot. I just wanted to say that I've been really enjoying, I guess, or just appreciating other people's responses to the sutra and have not, I felt like a desire to participate and then a shyness about it. It feels, this sutra feels, it's just so big and vast and a little overwhelming. And I wanted to confess until I heard you speak tonight, I hadn't put myself in the sutra.

[70:01]

I was reading about these enlightening beings and universally good. And it was a story about this thing that was happening, but I hadn't put myself in it at all. So that's interesting. I'm going to read it in a different way. And I read ahead. I was reading, I read chapter four. I got confused of where we were in the class. And I saw myself there because that's where it's talking about the diluted beings. There I am. Anyway, it's so interesting. I mean, reading this is just, there's a way that it's a mirror. It's, I'm learning things about where I am with, about my practice by what I put onto it. So I thought that was interesting. Very interesting. Thank you so much. I'm glad you're able to express this at this time.

[71:06]

Okay. We have a couple more, two more, one more minute. One more minute. Well, anyway, even in this one more minute, there's plenty of time to say thank you so much. And I hope we can continue for about 10 more years. Wouldn't that be nice?

[71:44]

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