Can I see a check right there? During meditation lately, I've been offering the teaching that enlightenment is living in silence and stillness.

[01:02]

Can you hear that in the back? Enlightenment is living in silence and stillness. I've been saying that lately, when people are sitting silent and still. And then I turn it and say, living in stillness is enlightenment. Living in silence and stillness is enlightenment. Quite a different way of speaking, which is the same thing, is to say that, for as

[02:15]

for a sentient being, to be a sentient being is enlightenment. For an unenlightened being, to be an unenlightened being is enlightenment. For an unenlightened being, to be an unenlightened being is stillness. For an unenlightened being, to be enlightened is just not to move. And when an unenlightened being doesn't move, an unenlightened being is an unenlightened being, and that's enlightenment. Stillness, Dogen says, all this, however, all this, what is he talking about?

[03:20]

This inconceivable, boundless, great function of enlightenment, the way enlightenment is working, occurs in unconstructed silence and stillness. He adds in unconstructed, which is correct, but you don't have to say unconstructed, because you can just know that stillness is unconstructed. You don't make stillness. You being you is not made. You are made, I am made, but you being you is unconstructed. Can you hear that? The stillness of you being you is unconstructed stillness. And the Chinese character that Dogen uses for this stillness, it means stillness and silence, nice word. It has a radical word in it.

[04:27]

It means stillness and silence, quiet, still, peaceful. For ascension being to be ascension being is just not moving. So, there is this intimate relationship with stillness, being, ascension being, and enlightenment. Enlightenment is not stillness, but for ascension being to not move is enlightenment. And enlightenment occurs in the stillness of things. Enlightenment occurs in things being themselves. That's where it functions. So, enlightenment is a great function of not moving. It's a great roar, lion's roar, of silence.

[05:34]

And it's not made. We say, just wholeheartedly sit. Or, just wholeheartedly sit still. Just wholeheartedly be yourself sitting. Just be a deluded person. You don't have to get a little bit less deluded. You don't have to get more deluded. Be the deluded person you are right now, completely, and body and mind drop away. This morning, a new student at Green Gulch came to talk to me and he said,

[06:38]

he said, how should I practice meditation? I hear all these different instructions. I said, well, what comes to mind is don't move. Just sit. And don't move. Just be still. And I might have also said, just sit and be yourself. He said, what about all this other instruction? I said, all the other instruction is just trying to get you to sit still. It's wonderful. It's marvelous. But people don't want to sit still. They want to do something fancy or so. Here's something fancy. Do that. Who doesn't know the ancestor Dogen?

[07:48]

Would you raise your hand? You never heard of him? Everybody heard about Dogen? He's the one who wrote the thing you just chanted. Hey, hey, Dogen. Hey, hey, Kosho. Okay, Dogen, you know I'm up there? Dogen. So, Dogen was on TV last week. Did you know that? No. I didn't know it either. He was interviewed on a talk show and the guy said, what do you teach your students? And he says, I teach them to just sit. Just sit still. And the talk show guy said, was that enlightenment? And he said, yep. He said, what about all the other teachings like following your breath and counting your breath and studying koans?

[08:51]

And Dogen said, oh, they're good too. He said, but I thought you said that just sitting still was enlightenment. He said, that's right. But some people won't sit still unless you give them a koan. It's like that story about the little duck that was born and got separated from her mother. You know that story? You do? Did I tell you already? Last Sunday? Yeah. So, there was a little duck who got separated from her mother and she was walking around in the world kind of like, Estoy perdido. I'm lost. I don't know what I am. Who am I? And she walked by a pond and there was a bunch of ducks there.

[09:52]

And the duck said, hey, sweetie, come on, swim with us. And the duck said, I don't know how to swim. And they said, yes, you do. You're a duck. I said, I'm a duck? I don't believe you. They said, okay. But I would like to go swimming with you, but I can't. I said, well, here. Here's a sky hook. Just hook this on the sky and hold this and you won't sink. So, the little duck went in the water and hooked the sky with the sky hook and swam around with the other ducks. Not this one. What? It's not this one that I knew. It's not the one you know? I told the different one? The chicken one. Chicken one, yeah. Yes. A chicken story. That's a different story. This is a story about a duck. Chickens, American chickens anyway, I don't know about Italian chickens, but American chickens, generally speaking,

[10:52]

do not go swimming. Do Italian ducks go swimming? Italian, excuse me, American chickens don't swim. Do Italian chickens swim? Yeah. Chickens were domesticated 2,000 years ago in China. So, one day... Enlightenment is funny, isn't it? It's funny. It's funny to see a sentient being being a sentient being. It's funny. What's funny is enlightenment. You are seeing enlightenment. Isn't it fun? So, the little duck is walking along the road with the other ducks, and, I don't know, maybe a dog comes running around, and all the ducks jump in the water, and the little duck jumps in the water too, but she forgot her skyhook. She's swimming around the water with the other ducks, and the other ducks say, Hey sweetie, where's your skyhook?

[11:54]

Oh, I forgot it. Do you notice what you're doing? I'm swimming. I'm a duck. I'm a duck. So, that's the same with human sentient beings. Those are duck sentient beings who realize that they're ducks, and that's their enlightenment. For a duck to be a duck is enlightenment. But we have a harder job than being a duck. For a duck to be a duck is a hard job for a duck. But it's easier for us to be a duck than to be ourself. So, we're born, and somebody says, For you to be you is enlightenment, and we don't believe it. So, here's a koan. Hold this koan, and you'll be able to be yourself. Follow your breath, and you'll be able to be yourself. So, these are wonderful skills,

[12:55]

but it all comes down to being yourself. And you and me are sentient beings. We're living beings. We are deluded, but even though we're deluded, we can realize enlightenment by being deluded. However, being deluded is really hard. I mean, just to be deluded. Usually, we say, Okay, I'm deluded, but a little bit I'm not deluded. Or, I'm deluded, but I have some other things I'd like to do besides face that. I mean, I'm deluded, but I got to, you know, get my health insurance. And while I'm getting my health insurance, I may not be able to remember that I'm deluded. I may not be able to be a sentient being for a while. I got to take a break from enlightenment. So, for a sentient being to be a sentient being,

[14:12]

requires that the sentient being do a very deep study of themselves. A deep study of the reality of being a sentient being. And the reality of being a sentient being has innumerable meanings. There's innumerable ways to study it. And they all require that you study. That you turn around and pay attention to yourself, no matter what you're doing. No matter what you're doing, to turn around and look at yourself, even though you don't know what yourself is. Turn around and ask, anybody home? Turn around and ask, what is the self? Turn around and ask, who am I? Turn around and look at your karmic consciousness. Look at the story you have about your life right now. You always have one, like you do now,

[15:14]

like I do now. All morning here at Noah Boad with you, I've had a story about my life. So did you. And my story is that I was very happy, because I was studying myself. I was remembering to be a sentient being. Remembering to be a sentient being is remembering to be enlightened. To remember to be enlightened is to be a sentient being. Buddhas do not remember they're enlightened. When we remember we're enlightened, we're a sentient being. But when we remember we're a sentient being, we are enlightened. Some people have a fairly easy time remembering they're enlightened.

[16:18]

Everybody has kind of a hard time remembering to be themselves. And if you don't have a hard time, fine, I'm not contradicting you, but then do it again, and again, and again. Oh, this is getting hard. This is getting hard. Can we take a break? Yes. I brought this today and I thought it was apropos, because it says, don't worry about being stupid. It doesn't say be stupid. Literally what it says is, stupidity is hard to find. Or it's not easy to find stupidity. It's here, but it's hard to find. Stupidity actually cannot be found. And neither can genius. Geniuses are stupid people

[17:22]

who are not worried about being stupid. But even if you're worried about being stupid, I have a fan for you. Don't worry about being stupid. It's okay. Because if you can really be stupid, completely, that's enlightenment. No kidding. So I'm very happy to be with you today, and I hope you're really happy to be here too. Because this is a day to live in stillness. To be still. To not move. To not move. To not move. For the rest of the day, don't move. In other words, this is a day to be yourself.

[18:24]

And for you to be yourself is not moving. Is what we mean, or what Manjushri means by... Can you hear Manjushri? Manjushri. What does Manjushri mean by not moving? To be yourself. If you ask Manjushri, Are you the prince of Dharma? Huh? And Manjushri says, Well, yes, but it would be better to call me the prince of delusion. The prince of greed, and confusion, and hatred. Better to call me a prince of that. Also, I just wanted to mention along these lines,

[19:33]

that if you don't have any fear, that's not the same as fearlessness. Fearlessness is a way of being afraid. When you're afraid completely, you're fearless. When you're afraid completely, you're not afraid to be afraid. You're fearless. Fearless doesn't have any meaning if there's no fear. So, we have a lot of frightened people around here, so we have a lot of opportunities for fearlessness. We have a lot of worried people here, so we have a lot of opportunities to not worry about being stupid, etc. Okay?

[20:43]

So, please be enlightened. In other words, please be yourself. In other words, please don't move. And there's an art to this. There's an art to being yourself. There's an art for sentient beings to be sentient beings. It has six parts. First, welcome your sentient beinghood. Welcome your body and mind. Welcome your stupidity. Welcome your karmic consciousness. Welcome who you are, even though you don't know who that is. Welcome who you don't know. Welcome who you think you do know. That's the first part of the art. Next part is to practice the Bodhisattva precepts. No matter what you are, being yourself is the way to return to Buddha.

[21:46]

And never forget, learn to never forget to return to Buddha. How? Be yourself. Could you give me an easier way to return to Buddha, please? Okay. Next, be patient with yourself, being who you are, and be patient with what you keep forgetting to practice. And be patient with other people forgetting to practice. And welcome other forgetful practitioners. If I can wholeheartedly notice and welcome my own stupidity, then I can welcome other people's stupidity and other people's genius. If there's anybody around who's willing to be stupid, I welcome them too. Next comes zeal, enthusiasm, but not fanaticism, right?

[22:49]

Somebody said yesterday that she thought some of the students at Gringotts were fanatics. I looked up fanaticism. It means unreasoning enthusiasm. Buddhas are enthusiastic, but they also reason, so they're not fanatics. But they're really enthusiastic. Another way to put it is be hard-working, work hard. Another way to say it is work wholeheartedly, be wholehearted. And then comes be concentrated, be calm. Be calm with being yourself. Be gentle and relaxed. With what? Being me. That's my job. To be calm and relaxed with being me. Be calm and relaxed at the same time you're really enthusiastic.

[23:57]

Not calm and blah, but enthusiastically calm. Calmly enthusiastic. And then, if you're this way with yourself, you won't dwell on yourself, and when you don't dwell on yourself, then you will know for sure that nobody can find you. And that's the conclusion of the art of being ourself. Is there anything you want to say, Timo? Yeah. You haven't mentioned that a sentient being being a sentient being, is that any other than Buddha? Is it anything other than Buddha? No. Buddha is nothing other than a sentient being being a sentient being. But, Buddha is not a sentient being.

[25:01]

But is a sentient being, who is a sentient being, a sentient being? Yes. Thank you for your question. A sentient being who is being a sentient being is a sentient being. Buddhas are not other than that. A sentient being being a sentient being is Buddha. The sentient being being a sentient being is Buddha. So, Buddha, of course, is not separate from the sentient being being a sentient being. But the Buddha is, and also Buddha is not separate from a sentient being not being a sentient being. It's just that Buddha feels compassion for the sentient beings who are not realizing being a sentient being, and for the sentient beings who are being a sentient being, Buddha is Guru. Bravo Manjushri, very good. You being you is not you.

[26:10]

You being you is enlightenment. Enlightenment isn't something you possess, just like your body isn't something you possess. So Buddha is not separate from us ever, and Buddha is not any different even, Buddha is not even different, Buddha is exactly the same, precisely the same as you being you. Precisely the same as you being you. But Buddha is different from you, and that's something to be patient with, gentle with, and calm with, and so on. But you seem to be trying. Can I repeat what you said? Yeah. That was the imitation of Timo. Did you hear it? So you said a sentient being, being a sentient being, is a sentient being, and is Buddha.

[27:26]

No, no, the sentient being who is just a sentient being, which is Buddha, is still a sentient being. Right, that's what I'm referring to. But the sentient being being a sentient being is not a sentient being. I see. The sentient being being a sentient being is not a sentient being. It's Buddha. Right. But the other sentence which you said when you made the distinction is like a sentient being, being a sentient being, is still a sentient being. Not being a sentient being. What other word do you use? Yeah, the sentient being who is being a sentient being is still a sentient being. Oh, I see. And that is also called a Bodhisattva. Sentient beings who are not being a sentient being, they're not doing Bodhisattva work. They're fighting the Bodhisattva work of enlightenment. They're not enlightening beings because they're not demonstrating being a sentient being.

[28:30]

So Bodhisattvas come into the world to show sentient beings how to be sentient beings. Buddhas don't show how to be sentient beings. They give teachings on how to be a sentient being. They show you enlightenment. In other words, they show you what it's like for you to be you. And they give you instruction on being yourself. Yes. Could you talk about how enlightenment is beneficial? Well, I can talk about how it's beneficial, but before I talk about how it's beneficial, just let me say that enlightenment is being beneficial. So it's a little bit of a distraction from enlightenment to talk about how it's helpful. Because enlightenment is being beneficial. I guess that was my question. Is there anything other than that? It's not the least bit other than that, which is also to say that being yourself is nothing other than Buddha.

[29:35]

Being yourself is nothing other than helping others. The way to help others is to be yourself. And if you want to be yourself, help others. It's the same thing. So, another way to say it is helping others is being silent and still. Is realizing unconstructed silence and stillness. Because that demonstrates to them what they need to do, but also it does all kinds of other Buddha work occurs in unconstructed silence and stillness. All kinds of great Buddha work occurs in you being you. All the ways of helping people occur in this mode of delusion being delusion. Yes? Don't move. Is that a frozen state or a fluid state?

[30:39]

Is it a what kind of state? Frozen. Is it frozen? Or fluid. Is it frozen or fluid? Well, I'm tempted to say it's frozen, but I don't think you want it to be frozen. So, for you it's frozen, for me it's fluid. Homa? You're so far away. I was contemplating on how the stillness is and there's no form, no talk, no nothing to it. Did you say there's no form to stillness?

[31:40]

Is that what you said? Yeah, that's right. There's no form to stillness. There's no form to you being you. There's no form to a form being a form. There's no form to blue being blue. Vlad? You're getting distracted from yourself. By that question. Don't go there anymore. Give it up. Give it up. Notice how you're having trouble giving it up now. See how you're having trouble giving it up? Watch that person who doesn't want to do this. Yeah, she's fighting. Yeah, there she is. Study that person. It's hard, isn't it? You want to go off into this question. Don't go there. Give up. Give it up. Come on. Give it up. Notice how you're not giving it up. Notice how you're resisting.

[32:42]

Isn't that wonderful? Love that person who won't follow this instruction. Love the person who wants to go back to this trip she wanted to go on. Do you see her? Take care of her. Stay with her. Be with her. Love her. Okay. Yeah. Okay, good. Elizabeth? I'd like to ask a stupid question. Stupid question. Don't worry about being stupid. So Shakyamuni Buddha, Gautama, Siddhartha, Gautama, was he a sentient being who became a Buddha or did he stay a sentient being? When he became a Buddha, he was no longer a sentient being. When he was a Bodhisattva, he was a sentient being.

[33:51]

When he was a Buddha, he changed into a Buddha. He's not a sentient being anymore. No more delusion for him. Too bad. Bye-bye. Is there permanence in that? What? Is there permanence in that? Was there permanence in the teacher who taught impermanence? There was no more impermanence in the Buddha than in the sentient being Bodhisattva. No more impermanence. But there's not zero permanence. Did you say permanence? I don't think there's any permanence, no. I don't think there's any permanence anywhere. But there are some things which are not impermanent. But the things that are not impermanent are not permanent. They're just always that way. Like the fact that you can't find anything isn't permanent. But things are always that way.

[34:52]

Things are well established in not being able to be found. That's not an impermanent quality of things. That's a quality of impermanent things. And it's also a quality of these ultimate things. Like unfindability is an ultimate thing. But it's not impermanent. Does that make sense? Yeah, it's part of the kind of... I think I've got to accept this as part of the Buddha's teaching about how the universe works. Buddhas kind of like don't get to be a Buddha again. They make room for other people to play that role in the universe. But what happens to them? Well, what happens to them is that their teaching is practiced by a number of sentient beings. And also other Buddhas who are still around. But Buddhas do this thing, actually, of not lasting forever.

[36:02]

Part of what they do is the thing of being impermanent. So I guess I would say that the historical Shakyamuni Buddha manifested impermanence, but that's a show. The actual Buddha is not impermanent, but also the actual Buddha, I wouldn't say is permanent, but the Lotus Sutra says the actual Buddha is eternal. But I don't like to say permanent. Will? Is performing yourself different than being yourself? Well, if the performance is wholehearted, no. As a matter of fact, I would say, in order to be yourself, part of what you have to do is perform yourself. So I would suggest that, in fact, people are performing themselves,

[37:06]

and it's a question of noticing it and wholeheartedly accepting that. But a lot of people are performing themselves and do not notice it, and do not accept responsibility for their performance, even though there they are, performing it quite nicely, actually. But if they would be more wholehearted about it and honest about that, then they would be able to enjoy the teaching more. They would realize the Buddhas are with them now, more fully. So we encourage people to wholeheartedly perform being themselves. Yes, Jim? Thank you for that.

[38:08]

It brought up something for me, in that I've noticed that when I perform myself, afterwards I shudder at the exposure of putting myself in front of people. What's up with that? Pardon? I don't understand it. I don't understand it in myself, what brings on the shudder. Because if you're saying that this is... I think when your performance is... perhaps if your performance would be even more wholehearted, you would welcome the exposure at the time, rather than later noticing that, in fact, you did show yourself. Voluntarily, you did.

[39:10]

This leads us to realize that we're always exposed. We're always performing ourselves and we're always exposed. And by accepting responsibility for the performance and embracing the performance, we more and more realize the exposure and get more and more used to the exposure. But as you first start, the first zillion times that you actually consciously, wholeheartedly, or almost wholeheartedly, give yourself to performing yourself, you may not quite yet notice how fully you're exposing yourself. And the more you do it, the more you realize, the more you realize and are willing to be naked. It probably has to do with starting this kind of thing later in life. Not taking it on, hiding in the early part of my life. It's a shock. Yeah, right. So if you were raised in a theatre troupe, that would help.

[40:18]

Right. So the Buddha Sangha is a theatre group. Yes? Can I wholeheartedly be greedy? You can wholeheartedly be greedy, yeah. Can I love myself doing that? You can wholeheartedly love yourself when you're greedy, yes. You can learn that. And of course, you can not love yourself when you're being greedy, too. You already know how to do that. Yes. Yes. Yes, Breck? This just seems like a conundrum to me, though, because I, being myself, includes, from moment to moment, being greedy or not loving myself. Yes. So,

[41:19]

wholeheartedly, I know I do it, but I don't know how I can not wholeheartedly be myself, moment to moment. Because, it's just how I do it. You can't actually avoid it, but you can think you avoid it. And one of the ways to think you avoid it is to not notice it. If you're not paying attention to yourself, you're missing out on it. And when you miss out on it, you could actually think that you're not wholeheartedly being yourself. You could actually sort of wish that you weren't you, and actually fall for that wish. You could wish to be somebody else, and even try to give the impression that you were somebody else. In other words, you could do this unreal thing called hiding yourself, called being deceptive, called lying. Lying isn't real, but we can dream as though we could say, I'm not me. So, we can trick ourselves by not paying attention.

[42:24]

Part of the being is the thinking. Part of the being is the thinking. And if we don't attend to our thinking, then we don't perform the thinking. If we don't perform it, we don't see it exposed, and so on. So, to be ourselves actually is a big exertion. It requires mindfulness, and not just mindfulness, but gentle, patient, generous, calm mindfulness. Of what? Of our thinking. Which could be anything. Which could be, nobody knows what I'm doing, everybody knows what I'm doing, I'm lying, I've been greedy, I have a story of me being greedy, I have a story of him being greedy. So, whatever stories of him being greedy, and he's a little bit more greedy than me, or a little less greedy than me, or equally greedy, anyway, we have these stories about what's going on, and who's on first, and who's on second. We have all these stories going on.

[43:28]

Every moment, we have a story. But are we performing it? In order to perform it, you have to check out what the story is. In other words, you have to study your mind, your karmic consciousness. So, it isn't just, okay, fine, I'm myself, I'm being myself. Well, can I ask you some questions about how it is to be yourself? And you say, no, no, I don't want to get into that. But if someone says so, then we can ask them questions, we can find out. We can find out if the person's actually checked out the person that they say they are. Or they just sort of like, you know, writing what you call a release form to, I'm studying myself, fine, that's it. No, I'm studying myself right now. And now, and now. I'm studying my mind, I'm studying my story, now, and now, and now. Which is similar to saying, I'm practicing in stillness.

[44:32]

If you are still, you'll start to notice that there's somebody there, and who it is. Just happens to be you. And this you doesn't own this body, etc. You start to notice all this stuff when you practice stillness. You start to notice this stuff when you stop running away from yourself. But it's not just not running away, it's actually coming home and checking it out and being kind to it, taking care of it. You're welcome. Anything else you want to bring up this morning? I have a question. Yes? Abby? My question is that I'm not hearing you ask us to be analytical necessarily, but I also don't hear you saying that you shouldn't do that. Right.

[45:34]

For me, sometimes the silence and stillness feels like I'm trying to achieve something, like a particular state of silence and stillness. Okay, so here's your example. She's trying to practice silence and stillness, and she's successful enough at practicing silence and stillness to notice that she's trying to get something. She wasn't necessarily sitting down and saying, I'm going to sit down and see if I can find out if I'm trying to get anything. She just sat down, you know, there she was sitting there, and then she noticed, hey, wait a minute, what am I getting out of this? Or, am I trying to get something out of this? That's one of the things you could discover if you sit still. In other words, if I stop running away from myself, I start noticing myself, and I'm up to various things, like getting something out of practice, or getting something out of life. If you just sit still, you start to notice,

[46:35]

hey, I'm trying to get something out of life, how ridiculous. Or... Or... Or something else, yes, what else? Or the why part, why, why, why. Or you notice, hey, there's a bunch of whys here. You discover lots of stuff about yourself when you sit still. As you sit still, you open up more and more to stillness. What's stillness? Stillness is being yourself. The less you're distracted from yourself, the less you're moving, the less you're moving, the less you're distracted from yourself. When you're not distracted from yourself, you start noticing yourself. And then you start saying, enough of this stillness, I've got to get out of here. The stillness is really troublesome. I'm noticing all these... stupidities. And if you notice stupidities, it's better than noticing... In a way, it's better than noticing all these realities. Like it's real to get something out of life, rather than it's stupid to try to get something out of life.

[47:37]

So back to analytical, which we just skipped over. If you are silent and still with your mind, you'll notice that your mind is sometimes analytical. So then you become friends with the analytical mind. If you start studying your... If you sit still and you start noticing your mind, you'll notice that you are analyzing your mind. You'll notice that you are. Analysis is a normal capacity of sentient beings, in particular of human sentient beings. It's normal to analyze the right side of the room and the left side of the room. You make the room into right and left and middle, upper and lower. This is normal. Downstairs, upstairs. This is analysis. This is greed, not delusion. Oh, there is delusion with the greed. Oh, this is hatred. Analysis is a normal thing to discover and then study it, be with it,

[48:42]

and you'll learn about analysis. It's part of the deal. But I'm not so much telling you to analyze, I'm more like telling you please pay attention to yourself and you'll notice that you're an analytical being. You are analyzers. You do take things apart. And you're also synthesizers. You put things together. You create stories and you take them apart. You create stories and you analyze them. You analyze them and put them back together. This is normal. But what's unusual is to pay attention to the process, is to study it. That's unusual. That's the work, part of the work of Buddhas, is to study what you're up to. Okay? Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Can I ask one more question?

[49:43]

Yeah. As I was listening to you, I noticed that I could get lost in your words. Yes, you could. And not be aware of myself at all, just to understand what you're saying. Right. Very good. Did you hear what she said? She said as she listened to me, she becomes aware that she could get lost in my words. In other words, as she listens to me, she could get lost, she could wander away from studying herself. So, it's a great skill to be able to listen to someone talk, to hear their words, and simultaneously be aware of your own self while you're listening to them. To be aware. I'm afraid. This person is talking to me and I'm afraid. I'm uneasy. I'm concerned with whether they like me or not. I'm concerned with I'm concerned with how what they're saying applies to me. This is normal that you have these concerns.

[50:43]

What's good is to notice that you do. But sometimes you're listening to the person and you can't lose track of yourself. But also you can lose track of yourself when you're talking. You can get lost in your own words. So, we easily get turned away from ourselves, out into our own words, other people's words. That's easy. That's the normal way of the world. This is the way of turning around, going back, and noticing that somebody is here, listening to these words. Somebody is here, speaking these words. This person has This person has has these things going on right now. This person is fairly comfortable with slurred speech. This person is fairly comfortable with being stupid. And fairly comfortable with wondering whether he's stupid or not. Or this person is really not comfortable with being stupid

[51:44]

and hopes nobody else noticed. And so on. So, it's easy to get distracted by what I'm saying and it's easy to get distracted by what others are saying. What's hard is to study the self. It's easy to get involved in movement and noise. What's hard is to enter into silence and stillness. So, we have this special place here to encourage entering silence and stillness. Unconstructed stillness. Unconstructed stillness. Immediate realization. And then again. And again. Unconstructed stillness and immediate practice of studying the self. Studying the self. Studying the self. Studying the self. Moment by moment. And patient if you forget. And come back. Did you say divided?

[52:54]

No, it's united. Did you hear a question? It says, is it divided intention? Like listening to the other person and being aware of yourself? No, it's united. It's to unite your attention. To not be dispersed. Usually people are dispersed outward. This is a way to go inward and unite your awareness of the world with your thinking. It may seem like you're going back and forth at first. But once you're home, then you can look at the world from home. When you've turned away from your home, you feel like you have to abandon the outward in order to go back home. But you don't have to. Once you get home you can say, Oh, I'm here and I can see the world. Yeah, and this is the way I see the world. And the world may not be just the way I see it.

[53:54]

Oh, I'm open to that possibility now. Before, the only way it could be was the way I saw it because I didn't incorporate that what I was seeing included me. Today we're probably going to do a well-being ceremony. So if there's any people you'd like to include in the well-being ceremony, you're welcome to give us, maybe give Carolyn their name. Write it out so we can pronounce it correctly. We'll do that at the end of the day, if you'd like. For any of your friends. Is that enough for this morning? I mean, for this afternoon? Thank you very much. May our intention equally extend to every being and place.

[55:02]

With the true merit of the Buddha's way, Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Diligence is insatiable. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Now we have a lunch break.

[55:52]

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