There's something i want to talk to you about, uh, maybe a perspective i'd like to share with you, which, yeah, i think it's,
it's a, for me a very interesting and also to some people a little surprising maybe.
        Uhm, so, it's a, it's a, being a perspective, it's about the way we see things. So in a sense it's like a teaching about, it's a wisdom teaching.
        Uhm, it's offered, it's compassionately offered but it's kind of a wisdom teaching and so before i bring up this wisdom teaching I just want to reiterate that usually before we, not, yeah, usually before we really understand wisdom teachings we have to practice compassion. So we have teachings about how to practice compassion and when we practice compassion we're more able to hear and enter the wisdom teachings.
        We can hear wisdom teachings before we practice compassion. We could be walking down the street and be quite, uhm, impatient and careless and stingy and still somebody might walk by and give us a wisdom teaching. We might hear it and even remember it but not really be able to really enter it and realize it - if we're not practicing compassion.                                                   So, again, i've been saying over and over - I've been recommending - I've been praying that we would learn . . .
to listen, to the cries of the world. That we would listen, that we would learn to be compassionate with everything: everything in our inner . . . inner being and everything we see as others - to be really compassionate to self and others. That we would learn that, learn to practice that steadily - moment by moment. It's in the context, uh, uh, so I, I need, in order for you to understand what i'm saying, I need you to practice compassion.
So, what i want to say is, ah
that many people have heard that the buddha taught had a teaching
called not self one non-self
our that the buddha taught at all
compounded phenomena have three characteristics not self impermanence and suffering
you heard about that
and sometimes called three characteristics of phenomena
impermanence
dis comfort
and not self or non-self

later in the in the tradition have
sentient beings
who are who aspire to the path of the bodhisattva
in the tradition we call the great vehicle can not tradition ah the buddha is revealed as giving further teachings
two in a sense compliment the early teaching of these three marks impermanence
not self and suffering
the bullet also taught
permanence
bliss
and self

but again historically it seemed like the buddha first taught not self impermanence and ill
so one possibility is that the reason the buddha taught those three was that the people the people he met
ah i want to have a lot of people he met
we're addicted
to self permanence
and police
they were addicted to
health and happiness
and permanence
and self
so he taught them these these medicines
kind of like prohibited was the those those things in hopes of helping people get over their addiction to them

the buddha taught the middle way the middle way between addiction
two cents pleasure
an addiction to denying sense pleasure least for yourself
he didn't find them in or way between sense pleasure and
denial of since pleasure
he found the middle way between the addiction to them

and these three characteristics particularly go for the first to the the ill that
phenomena are ill or suffering and that their impermanent go go well with sense pleasure
they help us become not addicted hassan not self does but not self particular that goes well with are denying the other two and becoming a saint
and i figure going to become a saint and you're going to become but there's really going to be something called freedom from addiction the sense pleasure if you get addicted to self mortification is self denial
anyway the buddha find a middle way the buddha recovered from various kinds of addictions
finding the middle way his recovery from the addictions
but once people are free of the addictions
and the buddha says oh actually ah
there's something that's herself
and is eternal and unchanging and blissful
and now that you're free of addiction
to those things i can tell you about them i can tell some people about button i can tell though those were free can hear about them now

there's two scriptures in the tradition ah that have similar names
one is called the pine von sutra and the other one's called the mob party nirvana sutra pyre nirvana sutra is his earlier text about the buddha's entry into party nevada the buddha's death
and the later one is mahayana pine nirvana story
the mahayana or the mob part nirvana sutra it teaches
that they got that the buddha sometimes has reasons for teaching not self impermanence
an ill are suffering and sometimes the buddha has reasons for teaching self
alice permanence
both of those teachings
our good medicine under certain circumstances

i i think i could stop there for a little while and and i'm
let's see if you how you see how you're feeling about
this this teacher
are these teachings is to kind of
complimentary teachings or perhaps they don't seem complimentary and when there they are
bring you to consider
yes

the way things really are
is could be called
self or r self
so again this
someone asked me about the name of this temple why why's it called new abode
i said wow
ah in a diamond interests as the bodhisattva should give rise to a mind which doesn't abide
in anything but it also said mind that doesn't abide
a mind that has leave no trace
so that mine
is in accord with the way things really are things do not actually abide in anything
they they depend on things without abiding in
so the way everything is for example the way you are
is that you depend on the entire universe
but you don't bite in anything in the universe you just are depending on everything but you can't abide in anything you don't and also the whole universe is dependent on you which is another side of how you don't abide in anything
can see why biden everything
i say well okay but boy you don't abide in anything and the when nothing abides in you that's the way you really are and that's the self that's that's who you really are that yourself
and you're always that way whatever any other way
the you being that way is not impermanent
however
you being any particular way
like you being a thirty year old a thirty year old mass is impermanent
however the way being thirty years old really is
is not in permanent
the thirty years only last for a year
but during that whole year every moment of that year the thirty year old
it's not abiding and being thirty years old
the way a thirty year old doesn't abide in being thirty years old is the way a thirty year old really is
thirty year olds don't leave any trace in reality there's no trace of and thirty years old
our people may want her to be a trace and like they want they wanted to state thirty years old sometimes
and so then there's there's belief in permanent or wish for permanence so then they're suffering and then
and then there's also not self to help people
not try to abide in being thirty
all the while
i'm there
all the while
there
there permanently
blissfully the way they are
during the whole year of thirty each day of which
it's a different day
but each different day is dependent on the whole universe and the whole universe depends on that whole day
and the whole day in my life is the same
yes

oh well
a difference the to middle western
oh

i'm a middle way between
between what you say
right in the other
the things and it's rather than an addiction to too much or too little or addiction to for example also another one as addiction to
existence or nonexistence on and another school and another scripture besides the when i just mentioned which is the first scripture historically said to be the first capture the border is a middle way which is free of the extremes
of sense pleasure and it's self mortification
and what makes a mic what makes them extreme
is that when you're addicted says pleasure it becomes an extreme sense pleasure is not and it is not an extreme if if the buddha eats lunch
and her blood sugar level goes up and she feels moon
can wait this is my happy diner
that sense pleasure is not an extreme but as she's addicted she wouldn't be a buddha
and she's addicted to the sense pleasure that's an extreme and it's suffering
but also as she's addicted to not having lunch
so she can be a holy holy person
then it's an extreme but just trying to be a whole person or not even be a whole person but just giving up lunch
it's not an extreme is just
not having much like give your lunch to somebody else
i'm not trying to get anything from it but even if you're trying to get something it's not so bad but being addicted to try to get something
that
the middle way let's go of that addiction that extreme
was or another
during leslie still
yes leslie

oh not didn't say a middle way is no identification
no it's not being addicted to identification
i can not addicted to like
this is my lunch
and i'm also not addicted to that's not my lunch
i do not identify with that lunch i do identify for this one and i'm not addicted to it to my to my identifications the or this identifications
i can identify
yeah i can identify and also i can remember
the reality of the identification and then i will not cling to it i will not be addicted to it
and it will be and that realization of non addiction
in a way it's blissful
it's peaceful
it's liberated
it's permanent
and it's it is what it is
how's that
he good
and you are you addicted to being good
is it
side if i got to personal there
has it that these two people with anybody owns over here in that neighborhood yes
karen and gene gene and karen
yeah

and the feels asked

i would say the bliss of the way we really are the bliss of the way of realizing the way we really are is the bliss of being free of addiction
and even it is an addiction
if you realize the way the addiction is your free of the addiction
and when you're free of it it on to get rid of it
such as one in a way
kind of like some wisdom and twelve step kind of work is people who are in recovery from addiction they still say i'm an attic
it's kind of wise
i'm i'm recovering without getting rid of the addict
when it doesn't eliminate attics
it teaches freedom from addiction without eliminating in attics

yeah
the buddhism blissful the is blissful and the buddha's listening to all the cries of the world
listening to the cries of the world when you actually can listen to oliver as blissful as and listening to all of them is
immutable because there's always all of them and listening to them as hall was listening to all of them saw the buddha is blissful
and also feeling all the suffer
and the board is also free and transmitting the freedom to all beings are the is listening to
and that way that the buddha is supported by everybody to support everybody
and realizing that and transmitting that that's that's what that's the self that's the way we really are were trying to wake up to that and
i realize that
in everything in our life

are you say wouldn't more about what you want you're looking for
pardon
yes

well i didn't know if i think of the function of freeing beings from addiction
the function of helping people enter the middle way if that function then the form would follow that functions as the form would accord with that
so we would use forms
for the sake of that function
so yeah so what but we're practicing here in this day together could be seen as forms
there were practicing forms like work
where
paying attention to each other
what would be a form
we're being kind to each other
that would be a form
we're speaking to each other respectfully
we're paying attention to our bodies
are aware of our posture
that's a form
we're sitting still
that's a form for being quiet for their forms are those forms following a function of liberation and
that question
follows the function of liberation
questioning is one in the forms that were use in the practice of liberation
questioning is there any addiction here
and am i did i ask that question
did i asked that question respectfully
or yeah i'm not i'm wondering if i asked the question about and possible the addictions i wonder by asked the question respectfully which gives an opportunity for somebody to say i was wondering if you did too
and so on so
i
i could go on and on about all the different forms that we do together and each one would be could be and one of the forms is a question every form to see if the form follows from the function we're did were devoted to are devoted to the function or being at peace ourselves
with others
not just myself being at peace
but the kind of peace that the border has is a piece with everybody and what kind of forms
go with follow from and follow from and lead to or even are or kind of forms actually are
the function
okay

yeah right
yeah
hmm
i heard some zucker she say one time buddhism's and i remember i mean how would he actually said but if something like buddhism is not one of those religions like
on
catholicism judaism hinduism and buddhism
buddhism is when
buddhism is when religions go beyond themselves
that's a buddhism as
zen is
is not one of those religions like zen zen is one zen goes beyond their nutzer
but also when judaism goes beyond judaism at sam
and even even jews know that that is is really sad to go beyond judaism
as reason to go beyond islam and has redesigned to go beyond catholicism or protestantism
it said to go beyond basically to go beyond to leap beyond it's basically leaping beyond and it's not just sleeping beyond delusion or various religions it's also leaving beyond enlightenment is not it again
zan is a word we use for self in a way
even was as famous for probably no self
it's actually if the word we use for as it's a be used for self one's self the self of leaping beyond the self that self the self have not been abiding in the self
not abiding in herself is a self we're talking about but usually we emphasize not abiding in the self
for those who are addicted to it and so not addicted can we say now that you're not a body the self anymore that's the self
how's your not abiding and says pleasure anymore that's real sense pleasure
so
you can have been watered plays some water please
yes
james

sensor

yeah it's like it's like sometimes a form doesn't seem to follow the function as kind of a problem
when a lot of architects would like their the form of their work to follow the function
i promise that was damn
the architect who designed something in brazil or he he designed the statehouse a bangladesh or name
louis kahn yeah louis kahn he designed this amazing thing for the people of bangladesh their state building and he was very much like like
the let's look for the form that expresses dysfunction so like
i get night somebody may say you're not portraying him well but it was some like if you if the function is like to do prostration thank you if the function is the basic function want to do is prostration than you
you take that function and then make the building go with that prostration of the function is sitting
it that's the basic function than you would build the building based on that a like human human activity is the point of the of the architecture
how
but people don't always lead the form follows function in some as more and says form follows function but as more like maybe an aspiration that i would
yes

being being compassionate to addictions
fighting in them
being compassionate to existence except addictions helps us
an insight into them and be free of them but doesn't compassion doesn't get rid of addictions
but it it helps us settle into them so completely that we don't abide in so completely settling in the something is tantamount to not abiding in
to not leaving a trace

i would say that the realization is simultaneous was letting go of whatever it is the realization of things go with letting go of them as simultaneous
let me say
body and mind drop away and your original face manifests
yes

yeah i can
but you can be attached to something that's not an activity
so you can be yeah i guess
being addicted to something in being attached to it kind of the same ya
you can be addicted to
for example giving your lunched other people
you know
and then he say why you still might survive if he had breakfast but you is like he just he would really be a bad day if you couldn't give your lunch to somebody you know and you might really hate anybody who stopped you from give me your lunch away because you're addicted to giving it away even though giving it away a lot of time
is a good thing
but also eating lunch yourself is a lot of times a good thing
your mother wanted you to eat your lunch
and it was good that you ate it see you here to as this question
but it's the addiction to having lunch that
cause stress which then leads to more addiction sometimes
that rumor that were clear
hey all right
yes

being in relationship to something greater than yourself
allow you to be free of it
kind of what i'm saying except i wouldn't say greater i would say being in relationship with everything
and and everything being in relationship to you or for you you don't recall everything greater
the universe is made like greater than you it's identical to you
yeah and also recognized everything in relationship to you will free you from addiction but you some you you you didn't mention that between the recognition that you're powerless over your addictions
in other words
my power applied to my addiction is my addiction
did you get that
i'm powerless over my addiction because if i try to use my power on my addiction as much as one of my basic addictions is to use my power on everything
so i'm powerful i can choose to eat this drink fat or do this i can choose to exercise lot and i can choose to drink alcohol i can choose to be rich i can choose to dominate people i can choose to be a good person all the summer use my power to do that stuff and i'm addicted to
using my power to control things that's the basic addiction and then it can get into infinite varieties of things that i do to the percents pleasure or for some mortification
so using my power to get over the addictions is really just business as usual
santner said list stop us but not used leslie consider like recognizing that using my power on this powered i have this power trip i'm addicted to power i'm addicted to getting things to be the way i want them to be everybody's has had that problem not everybody's an alcoholic a
organic etc but everybody's got his power trip problem look a little children are taught me at portraits
and we're trying to be compassionate to their power treads
so once we discovered this power job dash addiction recognize what power applied to this is not the way to go
anybody comment on that
and is okay
i'm powerless over it is similar to let's consider giving up using power on them plying power to the addiction and then we talked about the end of the process but in the middle is to apply power in incensed the power of attention
i'm not so much the power of control been with the force and the strength of attention apply it to the various aspects of the addiction not to try to get rid of it but to acknowledge it and then learn to acknowledge the aspects of the addiction and the surround
ending consequences to apply that attention with compassion is i didn't twelve steps to apply compassion to the acknowledgement
is it
no not miss early to to knowledge to inventory the addictions with compassion
so i'm saying is necessary
two it to pay attention the access they can the addiction with compassion by being compassionate to it we opened to this other power
which is in the other power is not my power is not my power it's other power that i support the whole universe
it's not mine
i support our universe says not mine all universe supports me and that's not mine
by being compassionate to my to my stuff and my power trips i gradually opened to the realization of the way things already are but i have because of my addiction
power trips to controlling and these two basic ways
i paused the door on reality the way to open it is to be compassionate to everything
i'm open to
about reality
heck

yes

well as i remember the ten powers are mostly about how to help people
i am so ah we can talk about the ten powers there but how to help people but i don't think they're about how to control people
i think they're how to help their forms are the i can see their forms that follow the function
illuminate of awakening and liberating beings
the the various abilities that bodhisattvas have to free people various forms of compassion
and wisdom
i think the com powers power in physics power is them
i think is defined as the ability to do work
horse power
so there's force times
so the power can do work but shy but by trying but you to use power to control things
that we're addicted to that were not just use to power which could be addict the german the power to control

crossett addictive

yeah and also him you might have some gain involve like this is gonna make me more saintly and maybe make more people know how sent me i am
when i was little boy i was around christmas time i was shopping with my mother and they had these on the streets or cider
the partners drugs they have these people dressed up as santa claus ringing a bell
so you can make donations to them and i have to money on me and i took out a corridor which in those days it was a lot of money for a boy
and i donated my quarter to the santa claus but i was watching to see if my mother noticed
and even at eight years old and he goes but eight i knew that have some off about get it being concerned with my mother noticed i gave it
i knew the santa claus would notice it
gonna want him to notice do but i really want my mother to notice how generous her little boy was and i also i've got some funny about that
so yeah i think we we have it we have some wisdom knowing that too
deny yourself with for the benefit of others could could be to try to get famous as a as a generous person or
alice took new i feel better about myself rather than just the joy of get up of giving to others before myself
and so to be aware of that that or it's is this is an addictive donation i'm addicted to donations to be aware of that and to notice that when with compassion is
that form of noticing with compassion follows from the function of becoming liberated from addiction to being a good guy
pink good guy is course a good guy but be addicted to it
is an extreme
yes

so

impermanence is permanent
they're not they're not different self phone yourself are not different
they're not they're identical
but you but you can discriminate between them

right
yeah and and being attached to that is what led border to teach impermanence and ill and not self once a free of that addiction and they can teach the other one which they were addicted to

no it doesn't continue to exist it's always the way things are
but then it doesn't really continue
but things are always the way things are always the way they are but they don't and they don't have to continue their free they leap beyond continuing and they also leap beyond not continuing so the way we are we're we're actually free of continuing and not continuing which again is buddha taught
three up
eternal islam continuing isn't an annihilation is
what are some one over here
after i carry out her hand for a second round and i received as a first rounders and i didn't call on
yes karen

yeah wisdom teachings can be offered to people who are not
in a concentrated body and mind but to actually understand the wisdom teeth and fully we need to be in a concentrated body and mind

well yeah basically listen to them and look at them in a state of concentration and and they'll be realized

slag off offer these tissues are there i did you see them
so if you're concentrated you could just listened to me say them
and ask questions about them and i respond so we're studying his teachings that's that's wisdom work as i told you earlier
that's going to be this is wisdom work but in order for this to like trance completely we realized we need to be by also been very compassionate through the throat the conversation think we're very we need to be compassionate in the middle of conversation and order to be concentrate
did in the conversation and the conversation is about wisdom teachings so by conversing about wisdom teachings we realized wisdom if were concentrated which also means a per patient and in for enthusiastic and if for diligent and for careful and were generous
as we do all that then we can have a discussion about his wisdom teachings and they will be realized
i say yes
yeah all those virtues
am
well i don't know about fake it but i would say try it
cause i think trot trying it isn't exactly faking it it just that fake rhymes with mic
so that's a nice thing about fake
but really as might just try it like just try to be generous even are you haven't quite allowed yourself to be yet i mean really were ot really in reality we are generous
we give ourselves to the whole universe all day long completely with no reservation and the universe it doesn't hold back with us either it makes it just the way we are
exactly the where we are and where we are remember we might say well no thanks universe you made me sick i don't appreciate the way you made me
the university made you that way to but also it's not just universe may do you make the universe when you say i don't want to be here
i don't like boy i am or i don't feel grateful to the universe really that your generous but if you don't practice generosity you might not get it i could to wisdom teaching generosity is a practice of compassion
by practicing generosity you can wake up to the wisdom teaching which is you already generous that's reality
another you generous but everything is and we're all being generous with each other all day long and we never are any other way that's the way the stats are self or self is the way we and all beings are being generous to each other that's the self that's competent that's blissful
that's peaceful
but we have to but we have some you know some background that makes it hard for us to accept that so we practice these things are you leaving a hobby
say
it
you go walk over there if you want to
yeah go get some food that's a good idea give her some food she's not addicted to some mortification right

most kids are not yet but they might be addicted to sense pleasure
the observer and help them become free of sense pleasure from addiction to it
which is also free of since pleasure
but even though are free of addiction we have since pleasure so we can still be free of it to since pleasure here is wow this is this is pleasure and like of it
the second i think karen
i did you as your second question in third grade

you can also listen to me and think he didn't understand

an unused and new and even that brothers time you sometimes think you understand and sometimes they get out
it pretty sure you don't
well if you're sure that you know something
yes
and by the i'm not saying you do yes
yeah addiction to be a good guy

the i think that some people have the thought that are bad guy and that such a terrifying thought that there are addicted to think in there are good guy as a technique to deal with how bad it feels how dangerous it might be to be a bad guy
how do you know
i'm well
i think that
basically usually in this case it's okay to to give the sandwich or not usually
it's probably ok
so i'm watching to see do i want to give it or not
to actually wanna give the sandwich or two i'd give it because i think i'm supposed to in order to be a good guy
and if i think i actually wanna give it then i
i feel good about that and i i might very likely give it that i'm giving it because i wanna give it i can live to see did i do whatever it was that part of an addictive pattern
and i can kind of sometimes find out even though i wanted to get it give it i was also addicted to being a good guy and that kind of to call it kind of defiled this nice thing of giving the gift
i can find out you know
i have found out that i was addicted to be a good guy and one of many ways to found out was people telling me that a bad guy and the noticing that that wasn't water off a duck's back
something actually i didn't think i was being a good guy i did but i didn't notice i was addicted to that until somebody said you are really a bad guy and i noticed what happened when they said i was a bad guy hit and was different from if i thought i was a good guy but i wasn't addicted
in this am a bad guys have really
that's an interesting perspective thank you
i see that now i'm not just true like people say
would you believe what people tell you about yourself as they actually don't
i don't believe what you tell me about myself as not my job is to believe what you say about me
if you tell me it is i'll listen to them with i want to listen to you telling me that i supposed to believe what you say about me if you if you buy an edge as almost no one ever does say that to me that
you should believe what i say about you
but if they did i feel committed to listen to them tell me there
and then if they actually after they told me that i should believe it and they tell me some stuff for them supposed to believe i commit i feel committed to listen to whatever people say about me
i feel compelled to listen to whatever questioning people have about me
i don't feel committed to believe it and the same with what i think about myself
if i think i'm a bad guy i want to listen to it and that one if i really do listen to with compassion that makes me
we're able to not be addicted to be a good guy just to be a good yeah i just keep doing good guy stopped because i liked to but i'm not terrified of being thought of by myself or others as a bad guy so i can do a good guy stuff
without being addicted to it
but some people are terrified
i'm being a bad girl or bad guy or a bad mom or baghdad there are so addicted to it that day
they acted away which no one would ever dare say that there are bad mom
they might say your excessively concerned for your children
but it's not your bad you're near not negligent your to diligent your to conscientious
you're addicted to being a perfect mom
it looks like
and some people to say in our you're right
it's so terrifying that i would be a bad mom that i'm just like or negligent mom that i'm i'm really really really not i'm really diligent and and then beyond being diligent i'm super diligent just to make sure nobody would ever say that to me and in fact maybe know
nobody ever says that the person said the children sometimes i give me a break leave me alone
you're overdoing it mom or dad
you're hurting me with your diligence and making me feel really bad
you're addicted to being good mom
please gonna get some help with that
and some mothers done doing we don't have prison
diligent mom anonymous
but really you know that's for lot of psychotherapy is as diligent mama's up enough georgia on anonymous for the people coming to talk about that they're overdoing their diligence and etc etc all the pain that comes with that both for themselves and their children
well hasn't maybe that's enough for this morning's it
and so we have these three marks of condition things
and we have three marks
for people who are free as addictions and those are three marks about you know
buddha
and three marks of
condition things to help us become free of our addiction around them so that we can realize that
the buddha the buddha our freedom from these addictions
thank you