Thank you. you

[02:22]

May I tell some stories? Once upon a time there was a person who realized And this Buddhahood, which was realized, was not realized by a person. The realization was beyond the story I'm telling about the realization.

[05:30]

It was a realization beyond all stories. Again, I'm telling a story about a realization that's beyond all stories. I don't know if I exactly believe that story, but I tell that story over and over, that there was a realization, a perfect Enlightenment, complete enlightenment, great compassion, unsurpassable wisdom. That's beyond all stories. And from this realization, a person started talking. and a person said to some of his friends, when they asked him how he was doing, he told them that he realized perfect awakening.

[06:32]

And then he told the story of awakening a number of times, and some of the ways, some of the stories he told about the awakening, which don't reach the awakening, were written down eventually, and we can read them. So, he said he sat under a tree, which became the tree of awakening, and, yeah. And the way he told the story, or the way the story goes in some of those stories, with a sound like he, sitting under the Bodhi tree, realized the awakening by himself. It sounds like that, the way he told the story. You know, he's speaking conventional language.

[07:46]

I realize this, I realize that. So there's those stories which sound like the Buddha is saying that he realized the awakening. But later in the history of the tradition, other scriptures appeared where Buddha told a different story. about becoming Buddha. And one of the stories is that the Buddha was sitting and saw the morning star and said, now I, together with all beings, realize I, together with all beings and the great earth, realize the way, or become the way, the Buddha way."

[08:51]

That story is told often in the so-called Zen tradition. And there's a story which is more like a legend about the Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree, which the legend goes something like this, that the Buddha, I don't know, at some point the Buddha went to a river and I think went to get water and he put his water container into the river and the water container went upstream. And then he thought, oh, it's time for me to sit and realize the way.

[09:56]

And he sat down under this tree and he vowed not to move until he attained the way. And while he was sitting, a large number of visitors came to see him who seemed to be trying to get him to move, to move from his stillness. And he responded to these visitors who were kind of challenging him, challenging the stillness. He responded to them with loving kindness. and they backed off and let him sit. But then, finally, the super challenge came. The super challenge came of somebody came to visit and said, who do you think you are that you can attain the way that you can do it? And he didn't quite say it the way I'm going to say it now. Who do you think you are that you think you can attain Buddhahood by yourself?

[11:01]

This is a legend. This is not in the canonical stories of the Buddha, realizing the Buddha way. It's a legend. But in that legend, the last challenge was, who do you think you are that you can attain the way by yourself? And the Buddha, I think with his right hand, reached down and touched the earth and asked the earth to witness that he could be still and be allowed to attain the way, and the earth shook, I think a thousand ways. A roar of support came to the Buddha and said, yes, you can sit. But in this story, he wasn't doing it by himself. He was being witnessed and supported by the great earth.

[12:07]

But again, in the Zen story that I told earlier, where the Buddha says he attained the way together with all beings, Some people might say, well, that Zen story, the story of the Zen tradition is a legend, someone might say. So, I'm suggesting that the Buddha way, the way of the Buddhas, I can't say the way of all Zen practitioners, or all Central Asian or Tibetan, or Chinese, all the schools of Indian and Tibetan and Chinese and Southeast Asian, all those different forms of Buddhist practice, I can't say that all of them think and understand that their practice is practicing together with all beings. I can't really speak for them. And I really can't really speak for Buddha either, but I can offer you the thought

[13:12]

and I can offer it with some energy, that the Buddha way is a social practice. It's a practice together with all beings and the Great Earth. And that social practice embraces all the beings who think they're not doing social practice. all the beings who think they're practicing by themselves for their own personal liberation, they're included in this social practice with the Buddhas, even though they don't think so. And of course, it includes the people who want to do a practice which is a practice of all beings, the practice together with all beings. Those who are called bodhisattvas,

[14:16]

who do not practice by themselves, who do not want to practice by themselves, who believe that they want to do the Buddha practice together with all beings. It seems like most human beings have a mental condition called consciousness.

[15:22]

In other words, that's how it seems. In this consciousness, it seems like there's a lot of human beings who have consciousness like this consciousness. where there's like me in a world filled with many living beings. From what I hear from people, they're living with a consciousness like that too. A state of awareness that has me in it, or has an I in it. Do some of you have something like that? Three people have that. Four. That's what I thought. In consciousness, I think that. I think that. Or that is thought in consciousness. Where I appear, there's the thought that other people have such a mind. I

[16:33]

seem to appear in this consciousness, and also in this consciousness is the thought that there's other cognitive activities besides consciousness that are simultaneous with the consciousness. One of them we could call unconscious cognitive processes. So in consciousness there is the thought, in the consciousness which I might call this consciousness, there is the thought that there is a vast and in some ways much faster and more complex cognitive process which is not known to consciousness. Consciousness knows about it, but not directly, by hearsay. And I'm saying that that cognitive process is the one which is, for example, responsible for these hands moving in the air right now. I am not consciously moving these hands.

[17:37]

However, I am conscious that they're moving, but I'm not consciously orchestrating this amazing event. I cannot consciously do this, but I can see a picture of what is going on, but you also see this maybe, right? You're also not consciously orchestrating this, are you? No. I'm no more consciously orchestrating this than you are. My hand just stopped. I did not decide consciously to have them start. I think they're going to start again now, and they didn't. Now they're going to start. but they didn't. I said they were, but they didn't. And you say, well, you actually said they were, and then you told them not to. I'm not in charge... I didn't do that. In other words, in consciousness where I seem to appear... They moved some more. Did you see them? They're all over the place. Who's in charge of these things? Well, I would say nobody's in charge of these things.

[18:39]

The unconscious cognitive process isn't a somebody. It's not even a nobody. There's not a self there. The self can't keep up with it. It's amazing. It's totally awesome. It's just indescribably wonderful. And it supports the arising of this consciousness. However, yeah, however, it can hear stories about Buddhism, but in some ways, yeah, it can hear stories about Buddhism. But the consciousness, the consciousness, I don't know what to say about it, the consciousness is an important place to practice. The consciousness needs practice going on there.

[19:41]

That wasn't conscious. I mean, I saw it, but I had not... Anyway, I heard a teaching, and I heard me say it, which is that pretty much everything that I hear is calling to me for compassion. Everybody I meet is calling to me for compassion. I hear that story. In consciousness that story is arising. Infinite living beings that seem external and internal are calling for compassion. And I hear, actually, some of those voices, or some of those voices are heard in consciousness. And there's a thought in consciousness, all these voices are calling for compassion.

[20:53]

So, for example, someone just told me that in his consciousness a voice arises occasionally which is, something's wrong with you, and the you that's being referred to is the person who seems to be in that consciousness. The voice can also arise in consciousness and be referring to other people than yourself. Both of those voices, for example, Reb, there's something wrong with Reb, that voice is calling for compassion. There's something really wrong with Reb, that's calling for compassion. Even though I didn't mean it when I just said it, still it was calling for compassion. You know, like, would you please compassionately appreciate how funny that was? Would you do me the favor of realizing that was a good joke? Now when I think there's something really wrong with you, when I think that thought, that's also a calling for compassion. When you tell me that there's something wrong with me, you're calling for compassion.

[22:01]

When you tell me that something's wrong with you, you're calling for compassion. That's what I think in consciousness. Frequently, Hundreds of times? Thousands of times? Hundreds of thousands of times? What do I think? I think everybody I meet, everything I think, everything they think, everything they tell me they think, everything they think about themselves, everything they think about others, everything they think about me, everybody's calling for compassion. and big, good, wonderful, real great compassion too. That kind of stuff comes up in consciousness. I don't know if that's coming up in unconsciousness. If it is, great. Great.

[23:06]

It can't come up in the unconscious without having been supported by the unconscious, however. So all these wonderful thoughts like, everybody's calling for compassion, everything's calling for compassion, that wonderful thought, I say wonderful thought, I think wonderful thought, that wouldn't be there without the unconscious cognitive support. And there is the unconscious cognitive support, so there is that thought. That's just wonderful, is the thought that just arose. In consciousness, about consciousness, are you following me? Yes. Okay. Now, although, you know, with you looking at me right now and with me I feel called for compassion by all of you, and I feel called to talk about compassion by all of you.

[24:19]

To talk about it in hopes that we'll practice it, or that I'll practice it. Because without talking about it, it might not be practiced. Talking about it transforms my unconscious cognitive processes. Every time I say something, my unconscious cognitive process, my body changes to support more of that kind of talk. And when I talk about compassion, my body and my unconscious cognitive process change in the direction of supporting more talk about compassion. So here I am doing it. because I'm called to be doing it, and I get it that I'm being called to do it, so I'm doing it. And I'm going to change my talk pretty soon, probably, just as an act of compassion. Because I know it gets irritating if I say it over and over too many times. Again, where does this

[25:25]

Where is this talk happening? For me, it's happening in consciousness. Now, what else is happening in consciousness? Well, it's a lot of other stuff's happening. Consciousness that I'm talking about, where I am, is, it's giddy. It's very excited. It's turbulent. It's excited to the point of making it difficult to stay oriented, to be oriented to what? To listening to the cries for compassion. Recently, I was at Green Gulch, and I slapped myself in the face, and somebody said, you know, it hurts me when you slap yourself. So I'm not going to slap myself today, because I don't want to hurt you. when you see me slap myself, even though I feel fine about slapping myself.

[26:26]

But anyway, when I get slapped in the face, or when someone spits in my face, or when someone tells me that there's something wrong with me, with a frown on their face, so I don't understand that they're just kidding, Like if they go, there's something wrong with you, granddaddy. Okay. Granddaddy, you're funny. Sometimes I get disoriented from... I don't get disoriented towards being defensive. But I'm not trying to be defensive. I don't feel, everybody's calling me to be defensive. I don't feel the call. I don't think that. I don't think that's what you want from me. I think you want to take care of me, but I don't think you want me to defend myself against you and ward off, ward you off.

[27:34]

I don't think you're calling me to ward you off. I think you're calling me to open up to you in a really kind, gentle, tender way. That's what I think you're calling for. But if you come up to me and slap me, my unconscious cognitive process is right on the job there and says, this may not be good. Usually when people slap you, it's not a good situation. This is not time to be listening to somebody with compassion. It's time to defend. So the unconscious sends a message up to consciousness, defend! And the consciousness goes, I was trying to listen with compassion and now I get this big strong message, defend! And now I'm kind of disoriented, should I respond with compassion or should I defend? It's a challenging situation, this consciousness.

[28:37]

Consciousness is also sometimes called Headquarters. Headquarters. It's also sometimes called control center. It's also sometimes called command center, which just makes things all the more confusing and turbulent. Anyway, here it comes. Somebody slaps me. The unconscious says, you know, a high percentage of the time when people slap you, this is not good. A high percentage of the time when people slap you and insult you, usually it's been worked out, probably it's not a good time to be open and gracious. So it might send that message, and so the conscious says, well, I want to practice being gracious, but I'm getting this other message saying, don't be gracious, at least hesitate to be gracious. Kind of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's the point again?

[29:43]

What's the point again? What am I being asked to do again? This is like normal. This kind of situation. So in a case like this, this is a job for Buddha. This is a job for Dharma. This is a job for Sangha. We need help. Again, it's a social practice, so we're being called to practice socially, we're being called to practice with compassion, and when we get disoriented, which we're at risk of being, we need help. And we need help. And also we need help. We need help from Buddha. who's giving us the compassion which we've just got disoriented about, who's giving us instructions, who's reminding us, and who's reminding us by her presence and by her teaching, which is, everything's calling for compassion.

[31:05]

And you're also calling for compassion. But also we need a community And if we've got Buddha, we've got Dharma, and we've got community. But again, when we get slapped, when we get insulted, we might forget one of these three things, or two of them, or three of them. because we get disoriented. However, even though we forget sometimes, one of them or two of them or three of them come back and call to us and respond to our call which we don't even know we're making.

[32:07]

You know, we're trying to listen to others with compassion. We get insulted and we forget about listening to them. But when we forget about listening to them, we cry out for help. We put our hands up in defense in these defending hands, or we put our words up to defend in these defending words, or we put our face up with a defending face in response to what? Forgetting that what just happened was calling for compassion. And when we forget that what's happening is calling for compassion, what do we do? We call for compassion. We forget about listening. But after we forget about listening, what do we do? We call.

[33:08]

We were calling, actually, before. Welcome, Ellen. You'll probably catch on, Ellen, but I'm just mentioning that everybody's calling us for compassion. Everybody's dialing us up and saying, compassion, please. Everything that happens in our mind, for example, I'm a stupid idiot, that's calling for compassion. There's a person who's been standing back in the corner because she doesn't have a seat. What's your name? What? What's your name? Beth. Beth. Hey.

[34:11]

You're welcome to go. You won't disturb. Oh, you have to be near the door. Why don't you stand over there, right? I can see you better and you'll be closer. You'll be closer to the door. Is that a good place for you? Got enough air? What? You want a chair? She does not. Do you want a chair? That's great. Okay, so anyway. I won't say, do you get the picture, but do you get a picture? Because it's not the picture. It's a picture. It's a picture of somehow the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha have got into our consciousness, have made an appearance, and told us about what's really going on in this world in terms of realizing Buddhahood.

[35:21]

It's not really, really true that everybody's calling for compassion, even if they would all say, is just provisionally true. And if I take care of this provisional truth, which is everybody's calling me for compassion, and I'm calling for compassion from everybody, if I work with that provisional truth, I'll wake up to the ultimate truth. So anyway, since I've been talking for so long, I just wanted to maybe say that We need all three of these jewels. We need Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And we need all three because they're really one thing. Buddha really is a social phenomenon. And the social phenomenon of Buddha is called Sangha.

[36:23]

Buddha really is a social community. That's what Buddha is. And the social community of the Buddha is the Buddha. The social community is the Buddha. The Buddha is the social community. And the Dharma makes that understood eventually. So, I have gotten into a position where I feel, in consciousness at least, that I need the Sangha, the community, the community which is Buddha. I need the community which is Buddha, and right now I can see a community which I understand is Buddha. I can see a community right now, it's visible to me, which I understand is Dharma.

[37:29]

And I also have the thought, I need such a community. And it's been given to me. So I'm pretty happy that I have what I need. And this community, one of the reasons why I need it, one of the reasons I need it is to remind me to remind me to send a message into the confusing consciousness where I get insulted, to send me the message, no matter how insulted you get, we still want you to respond with compassion. No matter how bad it gets, no matter how insulted and attacked you are, We would understand if you don't respond with compassion, but still, we would like you to respond with compassion. No matter how mean we are to you, we really want your compassion. We don't want you to hate us when we're mean to you. I need you to remind me of that, and you do.

[38:38]

And that's Buddha. Buddha isn't just some complete perfect enlightenment, it's a social event that reminds us of complete perfect enlightenment. Buddha is both enlightenment and reminding us of enlightenment. Buddha is both great compassion and something that reminds us about it and gets into our consciousness, our disorienting, confused consciousness. It gets in there and goes, Wake up, wake up. Hello, hello, wake up. Are you there? Yes. Are you awake? Yeah. Are you gonna continue this practice all day? Yes. It's like that. We need it. I need it. I got it. Thank you. Now, when this group disperses later today, if there were somebody who is really quite developed in the practice,

[39:44]

and they couldn't see these people anymore, they would still understand that they are surrounded by a community that's supporting them to remember the Buddha and the Dharma, even though they can't see any humans anymore. The Buddha woke up to the Sangha under the Bodhi tree. Well, I think, I'm not sure, I haven't heard it said, the Buddhist said, I'm going to sit down now under the Bodhi tree and I'm going to be all by myself and I'm going to realize the way. Even though all these visitors are coming, really, I'm doing this by myself. I didn't hear him say that. But maybe he thought that. Maybe he thinks, I'm going to attain the way. But when he attained the way, he woke up to that there was a Sangha there the whole time, and there always will be from now on.

[40:47]

But some of us, maybe me, have not yet been that awakened, so that we sometimes don't feel like we're surrounded by people who are calling to us for compassion, compassion, compassion, and who we call to for compassion and they give it to us. We don't get that when we're walking all by ourselves sometimes. or when we're surrounded by a bunch of hysterical teenagers who are screaming and hollering. We feel insulted by the community, not called for compassion. They seem like they hate us. But we need compassion. to little by little or someday wake up to that we have the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha with us all the time. We need to work on understanding that we are surrounded by people who really want us to respond to them and ourselves and all beings with compassion.

[42:02]

And again, right now, it's very clear that's being called for. I'm being called for that. To me. And I appreciate that. But I also want, when this retreat's over and I'm going back to Green Gorge, I want to realize that there is no diminishment of the Sangha. And I want that for you. And if you don't believe and don't understand that the Sangha is with you all day long, all night long, wherever you are, then it's usually recommended you go someplace where you do understand that, like here. Do you understand it here? And if you don't understand it here, then it's good to come to express that you don't understand it here, so that we here can help you understand that we here want that from you, and you want that from us.

[43:07]

And with what you currently, in this way, we will eventually understand that the Sangha's with us always, which is the same as the Buddha's with us always. So I'm telling the story that the Buddha is always with us. that if there's no Buddhas, fine, but if there's any Buddhas, I'm saying, they are practicing together with each of us. And the Buddhas drag with them the Sangha, and they drag with them the Dharma. So the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the triple treasure, is all pervading. There's no place it isn't. If you can find a place where you believe it is, great! Enjoy it! But also, if you find it here, then somebody here is telling you, it's with you wherever you go, and that's a future possibility of your awakening deepening and widening, that you understand wherever you go in the world,

[44:23]

the Sangha's with you, the Dharma's with you, and the Buddha's with you. And if you can feel the Buddha's with you, great! Okay? That's wonderful. And then, by the way, something else comes with Buddha. If you feel like the Sangha's with you, great! But there's also Buddha and Dharma, if they're Sangha. They're one thing that's all-pervading. It's with us all the time. And we need to realize that if we want to realize the Buddha way together with all beings. Along this line, I mentioned a few months ago that I talked about What does it take to hold a family together? Because you've got several people with karmic consciousnesses, they can get disoriented from their love of their family members.

[45:36]

They can get disoriented from their devotion to the welfare of their parents or children or brothers and sisters. They can get disoriented when they feel like their parents or their children are insulting them. Did you know that sometimes in some families, the people in the family feel like the other people are insulting them? Isn't that amazing? These people love each other so much and they feel like, you're disrespecting me, you're not listening to me, you think I'm worthless, and sometimes the person says, that's right, I do think you're worthless. People and families talk like that to each other. I heard something like that. And they don't get the joke. Like when my daughter was little, she used to call me a lazy bum. And she said some other stuff. And every time she said it, I thought, now here's this person who loves me as much as she loves anything in the world, and she's calling me a lazy bum.

[46:43]

I thought that was really funny, and I would laugh. And she did not want me to laugh. And she kept trying different ways of insulting me until finally I didn't laugh. And then she was like, that's what she really wanted. But she did finally succeed, where I somehow didn't get the joke. and I could like really just like take it, boom! It really hurt, and she nailed me. And she needed to do that. And I needed to respond to her with compassion, which I did. I was just a wounded daddy, totally feeling like, oh, I'm here, and you got me, and I can see you're happy. What holds a family together? I suggested good stories.

[47:46]

Again, what are the good stories? The good stories are stories that encourage us to remember the triple treasure. that encourage us to remember that we are calling to everybody for compassion, and everybody's calling. Stories that remind us everybody's calling us for compassion. Everybody's calling for us to feed and nurture the Sangha. Maybe in the form of them, that one person. Maybe in the form of three people. Maybe in the form of women. Maybe in the form of men, maybe in the form of the young students, or the old students, or the sick. Anyway, people are calling to us in the Sangha to help us do our job, which is to listen and respond with compassion. So, stories are helpful. We have a lot of stories. And so, John Wolke responded to that by saying he would be willing

[48:56]

to archive the stories of our Sangha. And the stories of our Sangha could be the stories of these people with these people, but it also could be the stories of these people with other people. But the stories of how you are socially inspired and supported by other living beings to practice. Stories like that. Or stories about how you weren't inspired to practice, and then you woke up later to how you were. Or whatever. Anyway, stories of the Sangha. He's willing to archive them. So if you want to contribute to the stories of the Sangha, Whatever Sangha you're in, if you want to tell your Sangha stories to promote the Sangha, you can also tell Buddhist stories and Dharma stories too, right?

[50:02]

So he can archive those too, if you have any Buddhist stories or Dharma stories. But also, if you have any just stories of the community, of the community you're living in, that you're waking up to, that you're appreciating, and that's appreciating you. It can be stories about how people appreciate you. I have 10 stories about people appreciating me. I would like to put them in. Here's 10 stories of how people, from Ted, 10 stories about how people appreciated him. Do you have any of those? One or two. You have one or two. Here's another one. I appreciate you. One day, Reb said, in front of everybody, I really appreciate you, and I'm not, and I am kidding, but, you know. So now that's a story which you could tell John if you want to, or John could hear it. He witnessed it. So you could put that in, or he could tell you his version of it.

[51:05]

Okay, so if you want to contribute to that project, John is willing to devote himself to it. Is that right? Yes. And you can find out his... and he's going to store this stuff in the cloud. With Charlie's help, perhaps. And Charlie might help him. So we've got this little Sangha story project which you can join at your leisure, at your compassion. Now this thing that happened here during this last hour, I didn't plan on talking about this, but it just came up. It came up in response to meeting some of you face-to-face this morning. It led me to come in here and talk like this. I had another talk that I wanted to give. And it's kind of like it could have a title, and the title could be, Appropriate Response.

[52:17]

So maybe I'll just say the title, Appropriate Response. So, this comes from one of our family stories about a teacher named Cloud Gate, not Cloud Storage. Cloud Gate, Yun Mun, a Chinese ancestor. And a monk asked him, what was the teaching of a whole lifetime? What was the teaching of the whole lifetime? Brackets, Buddha's whole lifetime. Close brackets on the Buddhas. What was the teaching of the Buddha's whole lifetime? And Yun Men said, one translation would be, an appropriate response.

[53:27]

That was the teaching of the Buddha, his whole lifetime as the Buddha. The Chinese characters are actually Meeting, the first character is meeting, second character is, it's just a horizontal line, which means one, or each, and then the next character is teach, or expound. So what the Buddha was doing the whole lifetime, he was meeting each living being and teaching. meeting each living being, teaching, meeting each living being, teaching. In other words, he meets the person and then whatever was appropriate would be taught. He wasn't carrying this pile of teachings. He didn't have anything other than complete, perfect enlightenment.

[54:33]

He didn't have anything other than the Dharma, but he wasn't carrying it. It just, when he met people, it responded. He responded, he responded. When he met people, they called him, and he responded. But also, when he met people, he called them. So he called this monk, and the monk came forward and said, What was the Buddha's whole lifetime teaching? And then he responded. And then the monk responded. He called the monk. The monk came and called him. He responded. But then he called the monk by responding. And the monk responded by telling other people what he said. This was going on for the Buddha. So that was what I was going to talk about. But it's getting too late to talk about that, so I'm not going to talk about it very much, but I'm just going to say one more thing about it.

[55:36]

And that is that... I think I'll bring it up... I've been bringing it up quite a bit for the last few months. And it's a distinction between guidance, guidance, between being carefully— it's between caring for things, caring for yourself, caring for others, caring, guiding, embracing, and sustaining, which Buddhas do. They guide beings. They embrace and sustain them. They respond to them with compassion. That's what they do. And then there's this other thing called control. They don't do that. So what I was going to talk about is looking at this thing about control and then looking at it in relationship to guiding beings as opposed to trying to control beings.

[56:54]

And I was going to just really talk about what a big problem we have now in this social, in the Sangha. In the Sangha, we have this problem of karmic consciousness is really at risk of trying to control beings. When beings are calling In pain, there's a strong risk of trying to control the beings who are calling out for compassion and get disoriented from responding to them with compassion and carefulness, getting disoriented from that compassionate care into trying to control them. That's what I was going to talk about. And I probably will someday. But I might talk about it this afternoon, okay?

[58:01]

I hope you can stay and join in the fun. It's going to be fun. But not because I'm controlling it into fun, just that it will be. But I don't know if you're going to wake up to that, but it will be fun. It will be Buddha fun. It will be dharma fun, it will be sangha fun. Okay? So I hope you can stay for the fun. It's going to be really fun. But I don't know what that means, by the way. Is that enough for this morning, or do you want to talk about something? Pardon? I hear enough? Did you want to say something? Okay, if you want to say something, I have a request of you. Do you want to hear my request? I would like you to say it louder than you've ever spoken here before.

[59:10]

If necessary, turn around and face the other direction. I guess what's coming up... Can you hear her in the back? They can't hear you, man. So maybe you can turn around and sit. Talk to those people in the back of the room. We can hear you here if you talk. See Brent back there? Okay. See if he can hear you. What's coming up for me as Red is talking is that phrase about nothing special. And so as Red is talking about an appropriate response and the way we can be in a compassionate relationship with one another, I don't know, it's just been coming up over and over that this is not an exclusive situation, it's something that we all

[60:15]

can engage in and in the way that we can all engage in it. anything special. And nothing that any of us owns, per se. Even two people that look like they're engaging in, say, an exclusive conversation, perhaps, others are benefiting by the quality of their relationship together. And I noticed that as a teacher in the classroom, in terms of taking care of the environment... Can you hear her? if I can support the quality of one student to another, the kindness in which they speak to it. I just noticed that the other students in the class are able to really sort of relax and engage differently. And I think this probably is the case also in our families, where if the parents have loving and respectful regard for each other, that the children, whether or not they're

[61:21]

appear to be in that conversation or that interaction. And I guess I'm also feeling about the stillness and remembering the stillness that we have that practice and that as we're engaging compassionately with one another and aspire to remember stillness, that maybe we also realize that we don't That's not mutually, that's not an exclusive thing. It's not something to be possessed. And of course, that makes me think about the precepts. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you, Amanda. Ariyé? Correct. Ariyé? Speak, Ariyé, please. May I ask a question? Yes, you may. There's a relatively new relationship in my life where I feel like I've tried to be really compassionate, and I sometimes feel like, it's like with the manager, and I feel like sometimes I'm being controlled in some ways.

[62:32]

You feel like you are being controlled? Or there's an intention to control a large number of the way that I operate, and it's very... It seems like very challenging to have compassion because... And I wonder if that's still... It seems to me that's still ought to be my intention no matter what. I wonder if you have any advice in these kinds of situations. Yeah, so... I'm not saying it ought to be your intention. I'm just saying Buddha is practicing compassion with all beings. Buddha is not trying to control beings. Buddha is trying to transmit compassion, like Amanda was just talking about. Now, a lot of the people that Buddha is trying to transmit compassion to are beings who are trying to control even the Buddha. It's challenging to give up trying to control somebody and switch to being tender and kind and generous and patient and careful with them and give up trying to control them when they're trying to control you.

[63:50]

When they're disrespecting you in the form of trying to control you, get you under their control, crush you into what they want you to be. It's challenging. which requires compassion to deal with that. Yes, that's very hard. And yeah, I agree, it's very hard. And the people who are trying to control me are calling for my compassion. They're afraid of what will happen if they don't get me under control. Like some people, Like some teachers think they'll get fired if they don't get the kids under control. And maybe the principal comes and says, if you don't get these kids under control, I'm going to fire you. And sometimes maybe they do fire the teacher, because they don't get the kids under control. But sometimes they don't fire the teacher. Sometimes you just say, I'm going to fire you.

[64:53]

And this teacher says, I hear you, and I will do my very best to be kind to these children. And the principal might say, I'm not asking you to be kind to them, I'm asking you to control them. And the teacher might say, I hear you. And the teacher might be practicing compassion towards the principal who is telling them to crush these children into submission. And this person might listen to the teacher, the principal, with compassion, and the principal might wake up to what they said is not really what they're here for. They're actually not here to crush children into control. They're here to help the children become healthy, happy, compassionate adults. But in the meantime, you might get threatened. If you don't get these people under control, you're gonna be in big trouble. And that's very difficult to not get disoriented.

[65:54]

That's why you need a Sangha around you to say, R.E.A., we're with you. We're supporting you. We need you to be compassionate to this person who's yelling at you and threatening you, not only trying to control you, but he's trying to make you control other people. He's trying to make you be cruel. He wants you to be cruel. And we're here to tell you, we need you to be kind to him. And we're going to support you. And even if they fire you, we're just going to lift you into the state of Buddhahood. Where you can continue to be kind and compassionate to the person who fired you. And transmit love and compassion to all those children. And watch all the children wake up to that Arye did not get afraid of the principal and try to get them under control. But he responded to the principal in this totally cool way. And then they all start responding to the principal that way, too. And the principal finally wakes up, because the children teach the principal compassion, which the teacher taught them by not getting distracted from kindness and switching to control.

[67:09]

But he had a lot of support. He had the Sangha reminding him, we need that. So when people are trying to control you, we are here to support you, to be compassionate to that person. And compassion could take the form of saying, excuse me, sweetheart, could I ask a question? What? Are you, by any chance, trying to control me? Of course I am! Oh, just checking. Thank you. Just checking. Thank you. Is that enough for this morning? Thank you very much. I know a whole bunch of other people have, too. I'm asking, is that enough for this morning? I see five hands. But, you know, it's been going on for a while. So if it's enough, even though I appreciate that there is lots of interest, we could go on.

[68:11]

And on and on. It's fine with me, but is it enough? Can we have lunch? We can have another gathering later today and we can get into this guidance and control thing. The Buddha's guidance and somebody's control. Who's trying to control? His name starts with T. the big T in the sky. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible.

[69:12]

I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. So now we have food is being offered to you, to eat.

[69:42]

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