Good morning, everyone. First of all, a happy Mother's Day to any of you who are mothers here or online and to anybody else who has mothers. We're nearing the end, not quite, of our practice commitment period. in which we've been talking about sections, chapters about the Great Awakened Light of Shakyamuni's time. And actually, we've had talks now on all of the selected chapters that we're highlighting. I want to go back today to talk about chapter one, which is the assembly of the Buddha before the monotheism appears.

[01:12]

So, starting with some excerpts from the translation by Robert Thurman, which we've been using. Some references from that. And one thing is that it talks about all of the. If you want to suffer so present. But it talks about the first chapter is about the Buddha field or Buddha. That is created. When a Buddha awakens. Which is to say all of the space or land or. Train and all of the assembly around. It comes up with you.

[02:19]

And, um. Yeah, so, um. But it says that. talking to one of the disciples, Shariputra, not yet a Bodhisattva, he says, living beings born in the same Buddha field see the splendor of the virtues of the Buddha fields, of the Buddhas, according to their own degree of purity. So we all see the Buddha field differently. And one of the this is one of the people from the Talitha Chatham, who was there, and he certainly has attained conformative tolerance of ultimate earthlessness. So I've talked about this many times during the practice period, this basic teaching, this primary teaching in Sanskrit on the part of the Dhamma Chatham.

[03:34]

Here, here he goes. Thurman translates this as the tolerance of ultimate breathlessness. We can also read it as the patience with the ultimate ungraspability or unknowability of anything. This is very important teaching, very important awareness. And I'll come back to it later, but just this patience with this fact that we can't totally get a hold of anything. This is described as equivalent to the complete awakening of the Buddha. So in this chapter, there's also descriptions of the assembly, all the different beings who are in the Buddhist assembly. the time when this sutra begins. And with this description of how they all flee to transcendence, the pramita, the bodhisattva practices, generosity, tolerance, patience, morality, effort, meditation, wisdom,

[04:55]

skillful means, strong liberative technique, which is very important, and vow, commitment, which is also very important, powers or abilities and knowledge. So anyway, it won't be a test, but this is, some of you have heard of this many times before, so I'll just show you. And then there's a list of numbers of names of different Bodhisattvas. It's compared to some upper suttas like the Tantra Sutta, the Ornament Sutta. It's a fairly short list, but there are names of many Bodhisattvas, most of which we have not heard of or are not so prominent. in East Asia, Ratnasura, Ratnapriya, Ratnasri, Indrajara, Jalani, Ganja, and so forth, but also Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion. We've heard about Mahastamprakta, and sometimes Avalokiteshvara, Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Great Strength.

[06:05]

Maitreya, the next of the cipher, and Manjushri, who's our author of Siddha Boel, Shakti Muni. Manjushri Bodhisattva of Insight and Mystic. So, all of these folks are present, and also many disciples and spirits in this spirit field of Shakti Muni. As is true in many suttas where it is described, There are also many spirits and disciples and other sometimes strange beings who are part of the assembly, part of the Buddha field. The sutra talks about the purification of the Buddha field, how that happens. So this is sort of a review, but also I want to re-emphasize this idea of the Buddha field. of the Buddha land, which is very important to us, and very important in, well, in all of Buddhism, but particularly in East Asian Buddhism.

[07:16]

The Buddha says, the Buddha field of Bodhisattvas is a field of living beings. So, Bodhisattva embraces the Buddha field to the same extent that they cause the development of living beings. So, Bodhisattva's help to develop all living beings. This is their main mission. And therefore, they embrace the Buddhafield. They embrace the Buddhafield to the standard extent that living beings become disciplined, become aware, become engaged in the practice. They embrace the Buddhafield, his Bodhisattvas, to the extent that through entrance into a Buddhist field, living beings are introduced to the Buddha knowledge. So as we enter a Buddhist field, and in our case, the Saha world of Shakyamuni Buddhahood, we are introduced to Buddha knowledge, Buddha awareness.

[08:30]

So this happens for us through Zazen, just simply through upright sitting, but also through studying, through listening to Dharma talks, through reading sutras and Zen talks. But all of those for us are about supporting and encouraging our practice. So, The siddhi says bodhisattva embraces a Buddha field to the extent that through entrance into that Buddha field, living beings increase their sacred spiritual faculties. So bodhisattvas encourage other bodhisattvas to develop their spiritual faculties. through these different teachings, through these different awarenesses that arise naturally as part of just sitting upright. And the Buddha addresses his disciple, this is so because the Buddha field of bodhisattva springs from the aims of living beings.

[09:46]

So our intention is very important, our caring, about the world is very important. Total dedication and kind resolve are very important. So Buddha goes on to say, Bodhisattva's Buddhafield is their mind of total dedication when they attain awakening, the ornaments of all virtues, will appear in this Buddha field, in our Buddha field. So many of the Mahayana sutras, including the Malakirti, talk a lot about adornments and how entering the Buddha field, constellating the Buddha field, there are many adornments, like all the cushions in this room, like the Buddha, like the planet behind the Buddha,

[10:50]

Like all the people in the shul and all the people online. Many adornments to. Bluefield arrives. Through this total dedication. Before the sacrifice. Also. Bodhisattva's spiritual application is tantamount to the high resolve. Their high resolve is tantamount to their determination. Their determination is tantamount to their practice. Their practice is tantamount to total dedication. Total dedication is tantamount to their liberative technique. Their liberative technique is tantamount to their development of living beings.

[11:53]

So this development of living beings is destined out, and seems to continue to the purity of their Buddhafield. So this is a little bit about the Buddhafield that is created, and again, It emphasizes this patience with the ungraspability of all things. Clearly, there's tolerance of the birth of such things. This has to do with realizing that we need to give up our sense of controlling the world and its events. Of course, There are many things that we can't control. All of you in this room were able to arrange your life and the world in order to get there.

[13:00]

All of you online were likewise able to arrange your situation so that you would be joining us, thank you, online today. So... We have control, sort of control of something, but ultimately, ultimately, the sutra and the Buddhas encourage us to realize that we cannot have, that ultimately, to be patient with the fact that ultimately we cannot understand or grasp or control events, dharmas, beings, to be flexible about our sense of risk. So I want to come back to the sutra and to conference about the Buddha field,

[14:07]

Etienne Armand, who was one of the first translators, maybe the first translator of the sutra, back at that translation in 1962, into fresh. I'll come back to that, because he also has an extensive note about Buddha fields that I'll talk about. But first I want to note and honor the founder of our branch in Buddhism, E.H. Dogen, who lived in the 13th century in Japan, a monk who went to China when he was young and brought back this lineage that we are part of. And we will be chanting on later during our service, the Self-fulfilling Samadhi, Jiji Salman. And Dogen, you know, he doesn't do anything that's totally original. He's very well read. He's well known in all of the teachings of the Buddha way from a very young age. But he does something very creative with them, and even in his very first, one of his first writings, Bend-O-Wah, Discussing Zahra and Engaging the Way, in the section of it that we will check, called T.G.

[15:20]

Zahra's Self-Fulfillment or Self-Enjoyment or Self-Realizing Samadhi, which is another way of talking about Zazen, Dogen applies this idea of the Buddha field to Zazen practitioners, to all of us, in a very unique and creative way. Because, of course, Dogen, one of his many main teachings, is that just to, just Zazen, just to sit upright, as we do, is itself realization of awakening. So this practice realization, we don't do this Zazen practice, this meditation, exercise, you might think of it as. We don't do that to achieve something in the future. We're not practicing as a method to realize some higher state of being.

[16:26]

state of mind or awareness, we, as Duncan says very often, we sit just to see what is already here deeply. So we're blessed today to have somebody sitting in their first period of justice. Please repeat your name. Jacob. Jacob, hi, welcome. Thanks. Yeah, so from the very first time, 1.6, according to Dogen, all of practice realization is present. We may not realize it, we may not see it, we may feel, you know, some difficulty in sitting posture, we might realize that our mind is racing around, there's all these thoughts and feelings. Nevertheless, what we will chat later is related to this idea of the Buddhafield. And Dogen says that when one person awakens, the whole realm, the whole field, all of space around them becomes awakened.

[17:32]

So I'm going to read an extended section of what we're going to chat later. Dogen says, when one displays the Buddha-mūtra, it works all body and mind. And buddha-mudras are sometimes this, or this, or this, or our sitting in mudra, this. But also, our whole posture and physical presence and awareness is a kind of mudra, buddhist mudra. We sit like buddha. Whether we're sitting full lotus or half cross-legged, or on a chair, or kneeling, we're sitting like buddha. So, again, Dogen says, when one displays this Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind sitting upright in the samadhi, even for a short time, everything in the entire Dharma world becomes Buddha mudra, and all space in the universe completely becomes awakening. So this is a powerful, radical statement according to our usual sense of Newtonian physics or whatever.

[18:41]

But he's really talking about what happens when the Buddha field is constantly, all spaces in the universe can completely be trounced, awakened. He goes on, Dogen says, therefore it enables to increase the Dharma joy of their own original grounds and renew the adornment of the way of awakening. So each of us is renewing the adornments of the way of awakening just by being here this morning. Simultaneously, all living beings of the Dharma world in 10 directions and six realms become clear and pure in body and mind, realize great emancipation, and in their own original space, appears, at that time, all things together, awaken to supreme awakening, and sit upright under the regal Bodhi tree.

[19:47]

At the same time, return the incomparable great dharma wheel and begin expressing ultimate and unfabricated profound prashya or insight and wisdom. So this is what Dogen claims happens when we sit in Buddha Mudra, even for a short time. And to connect it with the Vimalakirti Sutta, this is exactly what the Vimalakirti Sutta is describing as the creation of Buddha fields. But Dogen is applying it to our practice. in our world, in our lives. Again, this is based on our usual sense of the reality of the world being composed of objects, cushions, carpets, tables, maps.

[20:55]

Candles. Flowers. We usually think of those as. Objects. Dead objects. We think about that. About other people too. Sometimes we think about that. Of ourselves. But this is not reality. The sutras say. That. When we are willing. To take this. This. This. Body and mind's state of uprightness and awakening. It changes everything in the whole world. Again, this is not our usual way of thinking, but it's just exposed to a wonderful Nova PBS documentary about, partly it's about Einstein, but it's really about quantum entanglement. So if you email me, I can send you the link to this incredible film.

[22:01]

Or just email me at artphilwithancientred.org. Now, Clans of Entanglement is current physics, science, that says these are things that went, but they've demonstrated this. They have done science experiments which verify that a particle or an event in one solar system is connected simultaneously, for example, to an event in another solar system. That doesn't make sense to us. Things that happen in Chicago right now are totally entangled with events that are happening in California or Japan or the Ukraine right now. That's current physics, science.

[23:06]

And so science is catching up with Mahayana Buddhism here in the 21st century. But I want to go back to the sutra. Again, this is early translation into French in 1962. It's the translation of the that was translated into English in 1976 by Sarah Bowen. And it's very dense and academic and full of elaborate footnotes and academic contexts. There's a recent translation, I have not had a chance to see it, but it was here recently, by Louie Gomez and Paul Harrison. And it's a new translation from the Sanskrit version of this sutra that has recently been discovered.

[24:09]

So, as the world turns, so to speak, neo-discoverers are happening in Buddhism and in lots of physics. But going back to Lamont, he has quite extensive note about Buddha Kshetra. Kshetra means fields, Buddha fields or Buddha lands. So, amongst other things that Rimon says in his note, he says that adorning the Buddha field is done through great compassion, the great compassion of Buddha, the great compassion that helps ripen beings, that's the word he used, to ripen beings is to help beings realize this reality. So this great compassion.

[25:11]

The door on the spirit fields. Also, our practice of that. Practice of that what what is happens is very important. To the creation and the blindness of these Buddha fields. The ship. So. Vow is. You know, we sometimes talk about this in terms of commitments. Just the commitment to show up and sit together. To show up and sit together with others, whether in person or online, is now... It seems like the word now is... any controversy with the wedding vows or the foreboding side foot vows or these eternal vows. But thou also has to do with commitment to take on some project, take on some commitment to accomplish, to arrange something, to adorn something.

[26:30]

So some of the people here are taking on vows and commitments to support our Sashin next weekend. Our first three days Sashin since 2019. So we are renewing our practice from the pandemic and from that disruption of everything in the world. How do we commit ourselves to taking care of this world, taking care of this Buddha field. So when we do that, we are creating a Buddha field. We are adjoining a Buddha field. There are many examples of that in this room. So many of you have taken on projects to take on something, to do something that is helpful. Wade and David Wright and his technos have

[27:36]

Take took on the commitment to. Make our hybrid system. It allows online people to join us to talk to make that more. More accessible. Everyone. So thank you. Thank you all. All of you again are involved in this practice and now which includes. You know, the great William Sartre cows were translated into conceivable cows. But also just everyday cows to take care of the garden, to leave the garden out vacuumed, to take care of cleaning the tap water people do after service, and so forth. So Lamar's note on Buddha kshetras, on Buddha fields, also says that there are as many Buddha fields as Buddhas.

[28:39]

Each Buddha, each awakening one, creates a Buddha field. And as the scriptures tell us, this means that there are infinite Buddha fields. So the Amitāṃsaka, while we were doing the sutra, that some of us recite, study, we have recitation once a month, clarifies that there are countless Buddhas in each atom. This again is not how we usually think of reality. And each Buddha, is accompanied by many bodhisattvas. So there are infinite Buddha fields.

[29:46]

Ramat has a lot of information about Buddha fields. He says there are three kinds. There are pure, impure, and mixed Buddha fields. In Chapter 1 of the Non-Curity Sutra, there's a whole discussion about this because Shara Kutra thinks that the Buddhist field is a messiah world, that we are all in the world of ignorance. It's infuriating. So what does that mean about Buddhist past practice? And there's a demonstration of how it's actually infuriating, but it's subjective. Beings are pure, impure, or mixed. Pure and impure. Subjectively, based on how beings see them. So how we see reality in the world changes the world.

[30:51]

This is also a basic principle in physics. I think that's part of the Heisenberg principle, that that when we observe something, when an event is observed, it changes it. I don't quite understand quantum physics or quantum entanglement, but it seems like they are saying that how we see events that things exist, things only exist when they are observed in some cases. So, modern physics is as strange and wild as Bodhisattva teachings. So we live in, so all of this, all of these Buddha fields are based on mind, based on how we see things, and also based on emptiness.

[31:59]

All the Buddha fields are empty. And at some point, Amon says, all the Buddha fields are actually one Buddha field. even though they have different, they may seem to have different qualities than the Mahakati Sutra. There are Buddha fields of great, you know, many light years away, and sometimes some of those beings from those other Buddha fields show up in Mahakati's middle. It's not how we usually see things. It's a very radical sutra, very radical teaching. It unsettles our usual conception of reality. It's challenging. So, the Saha world, the Buddha field that we all live in, Shakyamuni Buddha's Buddha field is called the Saha world, or the world of endurance. It's a difficult world.

[33:07]

Maybe I'll talk more about this tomorrow evening, but there are For these satsvas from different Buddha fields who are at war, when you go to them all to teach you through, hide all your light and beauty because they won't be able to stand it in that sattva world. And also, please be gracious and don't put them in contempt because they're so tiny and pure in that sattva world. But also, even though it's the Saha world and the Lotus Sutra, thanks to Shakyamuni, this earth splits open and tens of thousands of wonderful Bodhisattvas spring forth from out of the Sanjuras, the earth from under the ground this house is built on. So, It's easy for us to see all the impurities of our world, and it's not that we should ignore that.

[34:13]

How do we take care of the difficulties in our world, the injustices and environmental destruction that's happening now? But how we see it changes it. So this is an advanced, challenging teaching. But this is basic to bodhisattva teaching and bodhisattva practice. Bodhisattvas are awakening beings who help all beings awaken. Amara also says that all Rudra fields are themselves sentient beings. This whole planet, this whole world, this whole solar system is a kind of sentient being. It has a kind of awareness, has capacity to act to support living beings.

[35:22]

Buddha's great awakening empowers all sentient beings. which is to say all constituents, and all the beings within these constituents, and all the beings, microscopic beings within our bodies, in square photos, soil. So the world is much more reality, is much more, Siddhartha uses the word inconceivable, beyond our perceptions. It's much more wonderful and strange than anything we can imagine. So again, this is what says in his note about Buddha lands. That all Buddha lands are actually one And that's kind of strange in how that translates into quantum entanglement, but it seems relevant.

[36:38]

And also that brutal rads are all inclusive. Brutal rads include all beings. So this is kind of tricky stuff, but how do we actually in our own lives, in our own practice, support brutal rads? Adore Buddha's wheels. Allow Buddha's wheels to lead Buddha's wheels. How do we cultivate, rather than control, our responses and our offerings to each other and our world and to all the Buddha's disciples? So our practice is to develop this quality of responsiveness, responding to all of the difficulties and sufferings that also can be seen when we get through it.

[37:44]

And again, the Saha world is the world of endurance, the world of difficulty. So actually from another point of view, this is a very advanced river field to be practicing. This is a Buddha field in which Bodhisattvas are most challenged. I've heard, I can't verify this first hand, but I've heard that Bodhisattvas from many, many different Buddha fields are kind of all waiting to be born in this Buddha field because they know that this is where they're most needed and where they can make the biggest difference. So this is an opportunity for all of us. How do we do our ability? How do we develop and cultivate our ability to respond, our ability to make offerings to each other and this world and all beings, even beings who are suffering greatly?

[38:51]

And again, just to Review this as this is related to this important teaching. Part of the dog shouting saying that in Sanskrit meets patients tolerance. With the high grasp ability, the unknowability. The inability to control all the many things. Because we are part of that. We're part of that field of. Quantum intelligence. You can't really understand, but they don't hold it. So, it's kind of wild stuff. I could keep babbling, but I won't. So, any of you who have comments, responses. Questions about. I need this or anything else, please.

[39:56]

You know three and then very good. Not recalling people in on its own and. Well, Cole has her hand up like this, so I'm going to start with you. Those to join us in Cleveland. Can you hear me cut? Is that an accidental hand or is that What am I imagining? I don't think there's a hand, and I'm feeding a little monster lunch, so I'm in and out with my attention. Oh, okay. Well, thank you for that offer, and please take care of the violence for us. That is my intention. Good. I think that's even your vow. Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Yes, Eve. I don't know what about the words that were translated, this assembly and you said the Shetra is the shield and what's the statement?

[41:09]

Shetra means shield. Yeah, but the word Shetra, you know, in English shield, it's got, you know, different senses. There's shield in the sense of like a metal shield. the sociologist, anthropologist, Pierre Bourdieu, you know, he uses field to talk about social fields. And he used it because of, not so much because of the field, metal as field, but the idea of a magnetic field. So I was just wondering, you know, with Kshetra, why did they use English word field and What does it correspond to? It's also could be translated as a land. It's more like a field. It's like a prairie. It's a spatial dimension, but it's also ground. It's also this ground we sit on. I think that's the meaning of it.

[42:14]

I actually like the magnetic field idea better because although I think And I think there's limitations to the way we'll keep this subterfuge. Because if you think of sentient beings constituting the field, it's a little different. You know, we have a magnetic field. You know, you can see it, right, when you have a layer of violence and they form a pattern. But when you think of sentient beings creating a field, it comes... you know, it's not just the Newtonian bureaucratical you're acting on, but that you constitute a field because you align yourself with what's around you, which seems to me to make more sense in terms of the way you're talking about Buddha field. And I also wondered about assembly.

[43:15]

I mean, assembly in English is a noun. And you know, if you say meeting or gathering or whole band, one of my Phoenician languages, you know, which again, you get that idea of intentional alignment. Yes. Which to me, again, that makes more sense than connecting assembly and But anyway, I'm wondering what the Sanskrit was for assembly. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what the subject is either. But the assembly just means that those who gather, this is in all sutras, they start with Ananda saying, this is what I heard at one time, because he had this He was the Jisha, the attendant from Buddha, and he also had a photographic memory, so he recited all the sutras. But they often start with a description of all the beings who are present.

[44:18]

So that's what they simply mean. It just means all the beings who are present to listen to the Buddha. But it's more than just a collection. Well, it's their presence and energy. Energy, when you say energy, that's that idea of intentional alignment. Yeah, well, they showed up. They showed up, yeah. And like you were saying, we have control over where we show up. So it's not just a collection of objects. It's a gathering of people that are intentionally coming together and showing up. Right. So in the case of the sutras, There are some sutras, like the flower ornament sutra at its beginning, has many, many different kinds of spirits who show up. Night spirits, day spirits, river spirits, mountain spirits, multiple body spirits. It's wild. And that's the description of reality there. But going back to Buddha's field or Buddha land, I think you're right that magnetic fields is not, but that's only part of it.

[45:25]

It's electromagnetic fields, it's physical object fields, it's mechanical fields, it's, you know. I mean, I think there's limitations to the magnetic field metaphor and, you know, the way this, what do you use to say, it's a sociological metaphor. I mean, but what he was trying to get at was when you talk about a social field, when you talk about people aligning themselves, it's different than just like, it's different than a particle being acted on. It doesn't have to do with that intention. Yes, it has to do with that intention. So thank you. Thank you. Other comments or questions or responses? Thank you. No subversive response. David Red. Thank you, Taigan. So I had heard you mention that you were going to talk about this chapter, so I looked at it again. And coming back to it after studying the rest of the sutra, it seemed, well...

[46:35]

strange and on first reading like almost i mean first reading this morning it seemed almost naive to me and i was relieved to get to the place where sariputra says hey what about the fact that the world is shit what about the fact that everything in the world seems to be covered in order uh because the the rest of the sutra seems to want to talk about how you know the path of buddha is the path of the passions is the path of the obstacles and and you know You got to that in your talk, too. It's strange that this book starts with this really full-throated expression of the inconceivable wondrousness of reality. And then in that chapter, there's only the... And Shari Kutra kind of looks like a stooge. He's the only one saying this thing about... about the impurity of the world, which I guess is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

[47:37]

Anyway, those are some things that came up for me, listening to you talk and rereading that chapter. Yeah, thank you. I think most of the start from that place, certainly the Flower of Asutra, the Avatamsa actually means... Flower ornaments is a kind of Chinese translation, a name for the citrus. In Sanskrit, more like abundance or multitudes. All the abundance, everything. Anyway, but yeah, it starts from this place of wonder, as you said, and how wonderful and inconceivable and marvelous reality is. But then it does go into, once he's introduced in the second chapter, there's this great awakened layperson involved in all of the events and phenomena and disciplines and possibilities of this world.

[48:45]

And he goes into that and intentionally for the sake of helping to develop and cultivate such beings. There are all such beings to see this possibility. So I think, you know, it's an interesting question. The sutra is starting off with this vision of wonder and beauty. Then I'm but also not ignoring, and this is the important part of the bodhisattva work, not ignoring, not just settling into some sense of rejoining wonder, bliss, which is a capacity that Zazen can't bring us to, but as Mahayana bodhisattva practitioners, then we see all suffering beings.

[49:48]

all the difficulties of this Buddha field. And how do we respond to them? That's the question. How do we take care and respond? How do we make offerings to all the beings to help all beings realize the possibility of wonder and beauty and splendor, which is also, which is this world, but also without ignoring racism and cruelty and fascist politicians. I was gonna ask, as I was talking about this, has anybody seen a Disney movie called Strange New Worlds? Can you say something about it, Whit? Oh, it was delightful. I don't want to give away any spoilers. No, don't give away any spoilers.

[50:49]

But speaking of spoiling, though, I understand that now there's a teacher in Florida who is probably going to get fired for showing her students this movie. Yeah, the son in the movie is gay. Oh, my gosh. Which I imagine would be the reason. Fletching my pearls, yeah. Oh, well, you know, so that kind of thing is happening. Books are being banned. Some of my favorite books, Tony Morrison's Beloved is one of my three favorite novels. It's being banned in many states. There's a lot of difficulty, and there are people being... Killed in subways in New York for just being mentally unstable and needing help. There are people being marginalized and treated. I mean, you know, we go on talking about all the difficulties in our world.

[51:55]

And it's important not to ignore them. That's part of what the Bodhisattva teaching is about. But it starts from this place that what a wonderful world it could be, you know. So, anyway, thank you. Other questions, comments, responses? I don't know if that helps David, right? It does. Thank you, Shaggy. Any other questions? Karen, are you raising your hand? Oh, no, you're having a drink. Good. Please take care. Anybody else? Questions, responses? This is strange stuff. This is, you know, This suggests quantum physics, quantum entanglement, should just curl it up. And it's, which fits so well with some of the descriptions of reality with Mahayana sutras. Yes, it does not. Yeah, it does not is one expression of that in the Mahayana sutra.

[53:03]

Everything is totally interconnected. And when somebody on Alpha Centauri, it's a cold. Mike might sneeze. It's just, it's all, yeah, we're all connected. And this is a nice idea, but science is showing us actually physical reality. As strange as that sounds. Other questions, comments, reflections, responses to this? Is your hand up again? Yeah, I mean, if nobody else wants to say anything. Yeah, it's a good clip. Yeah, please. Yeah, when you were talking about patrol, I mean, I was thinking about COVID and what we can learn from COVID. And I was meeting an evolutionary biologist talking about the evolutionary virus and he said,

[54:06]

We, you know, lately the mutations have been less, you know, been more benign, but there's no guarantee that that's going to continue. He said, you know, what he thinks is that eventually we'll get another worse one. And the question is, so we can't control that. but we can control how we respond. And what I think some of us are trying to do is, you know, try to respond to what that means for taking care of people, right? For taking care of the people that have been most vulnerable. And that's the challenge. Yeah, I'm not even sure that we can control our responses because who we are each of us sitting on, wherever we're sitting, here or online, is a combination of so many different experiences and qualities.

[55:17]

So we can't control our own responses, but we can pay attention and observe them and see, try to see, how to respond more helpfully. Yeah, but I mean, I was thinking, you know, not, I mean, we're talking about an assembly and we're talking about a group of people. So you're talking about not just yourself as an individual, but how you align yourself with others and work together. And I mean, I'm in public health. So, you know, people in that field are, and it is a kind of field. in the sense of people trying to lighten themselves to each other. And while none of us individually have control, if we pay attention to each other and work together, and that goes back to the idea of the assembly and conscious gathering, you know, then, yeah, we could change the way we're collectively responding, which is what we saw people try to do.

[56:26]

Yes. So that's about Sangha. Yeah. In the widest sense. How do we learn from each other, how do we see each other, how do we appreciate each other, and our various offerings and attempts at skillful, liberative techniques as Sutra describes it. So yeah, this is a big project, and it's an endless project. It's intimate, and it's not just about The people in this room or any room, it's about all Buddha fields. I'm totally connected. All Buddha fields are one Buddha field. So there are many resources for helping us to see how we are responding to help us cultivate more productive responses and how to develop our ability to make offerings to all beings.

[57:29]

So yes, thank you. Thank you. So there's time for one or two more comments or responses, if anyone has any response. Karen's hand is up. Yes. Thank you. I can't hear you. Okay. I just have a very small comment. I just wanted to say that I really love how Buddhism and physics complement each other. And also, I wanted to tell you that I am grateful that you talk about that. I think it's important. So that's all. Thanks. Thank you, Karen. Please take care and get well. Yeah, well, there's so many different fields of endeavor and study in our world now that are responsive and that are making offerings to the well-being of all beings.

[58:44]

And so, you know, it's very easy to feel overcome or daunted or hopeless about the situation of the world and our politics and all of that. But beneath the surface, you know, maybe on the subatomic or quantum entanglement levels, there's all kinds of stuff happening that we don't appreciate that is very relevant to addressing the suffering of the world. And I think this might be why suddenly, sometimes, wonderful things happen. You know, given examples of this, coming down, apartheid ending in South Africa, gay marriages being recognized by the Supreme Court, you know, all kinds of things happen suddenly that would not be, that were not expected. even a very short time before.

[59:47]

And I think this is not unrelated to all of the ways in which we are connected and which from different Buddha fields, maybe unbeknownst to us usually, helping helping to make things better. So. Emergence. The systems theorists call it emergence. Yeah. And just like the emergence of what he suffered from under the ground in the Lotus Sutra, which is startling and amazing. So maybe we'll, we'll stop on that note. We have, I've already sought for the vows to, to recite together in that announcement. So. Thank you all very much.

[60:36]

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