on Sunday morning at Green Gulch, I gave a talk. And one of the things I brought up in that talk was a story about an ancient teacher. He was the most prolific of all Zen masters in terms of having enlightened disciples. He had 139 enlightened disciples. His name was Master Ma or Master Horse. And when he was close to death, one of the monks came to visit him and asked him how he was. Maybe he said, how's your health, Master?

[01:03]

And he said, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. And sun-faced Buddha is a Buddha that lives 18,000 years or 18,000 eons. And moon-faced Buddha is a Buddha that lives one day and one night. How are you? Sun face Buddha, moon face Buddha.

[02:07]

How are you? Infinite life, finite life. So here's a person who's about to die, so he could say, he also could say, just moon face Buddha, because he's going to die maybe today. But he didn't. Or he could say sun-faced Buddha because he's a Buddhist master, so he has access to infinite life. But he didn't. He said sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. Where he really lives is in the pivotal activity of sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. the pivotal function of infinite life pivoting with finite life.

[03:12]

That's where the Buddha lives. That's our practice, is not just to go to infinite life, and it's not just finite life. It's that they're pivoting on each other. That's the practice, is how they're pivoting. And also it's been mentioned that our life is a self and others. Self is finite, others is infinite. Our life is self pivoting with infinite other. And again, the teaching which I brought up on Sunday and brought up again last night is a teaching from early days of the Buddha's teaching where he met somebody who really, you know, wanted him.

[04:43]

He came to the Buddha and said, please give me teaching. And the Buddha didn't really want to because the Buddha was busy doing something else. And he said, now is not a good time. But the person persisted. And so the Buddha gave in and gave the teaching. And the teaching is something like this. I'm going to change it. I'm going to change it for tonight. I'll go back to the original form later. The Buddha said, train yourself thus. In the finite, there will be just the finite. Train yourself. In the finite, whatever the finite is, a color, a smell, a taste, a touch, a sound,

[05:50]

a feeling, an emotion, a thought, whatever the finite thing is that's here, let it be just that. Train yourself to let sounds or to let what is heard just be the heard. Train yourself to let what is seen be just what is seen, and so on. Train yourself so that this fear is just as fear. This pain is just as pain. Train yourself like that. And when that's the way it is for you, when the finite is just a finite, then there will be nothing more than the finite being the finite.

[07:03]

There will just be the finite being the finite. There won't be like an infinite. There won't be any more. There will just be the finite is finite. The color is the color. The pain is the pain. And then you will not Be with it. It's not like you get rid of yourself. It's just that when you let things be, there's nothing more than letting them be. So you're not with the thing anymore and also you're not in it. you're not with it, also you're not not with it. The Buddha said, when for you in the finite, there's just a finite, then you will not be with it. That was a short form of you will be not with it or not with it.

[08:05]

You won't identify with it or disidentify with it. And you won't be in it and you won't be outside of it. all that drops away and is just finite life. Finite life. And when you're not in it or with it, identifying with it, disidentifying with it, then there's no here or there or in between. There's no self, and other, and in between. There's just the end of suffering. Is that a place then beyond the pivot?

[09:09]

It is the pivot. The pivot is neither here nor there or in between. The pivot isn't here or there. It's the pivot. It's the pivoting of here and there. There's no here all by itself. And there's no there all by itself. There needs here. So it's not going back and forth? It's not going back and forth. Well, it kind of goes back and forth without moving. being a self doesn't have to move to also be other you can't have a self without other so right away self is also not self so i don't really i don't really need to exactly go back and forth The nature of self is that it's not self. The nature of not self is that it's self.

[10:10]

That's the nature of it. And by the way, that's the way things are, whether we accept it or not. However, if we accept this, then this thing happens to us called the arising of the vow of the Bodhisattva arises in us when we accept that we are a self and we are others. When we accept that our life is the same life as all beings, when we accept that, and all beings' life is the same as our life. When we accept that, which is already the case, but when we accept it, the bodhisattva vow arises. In other words, the wish to attain Buddhahood in order to benefit all beings and also you could say the vow or the wish

[11:18]

to live that way. And you can also say, I guess, choosing that kind of life. But someone also asked last night, well, who chooses? And I think I said, your nature chooses. Because you're others. So, if I choose to devote this life to other beings, it's actually Not me that chooses it, because I'm not just me. All of you choose me living that way. And also I also am in on it. But all of us don't choose some people to live that way, right? So if you walk in the class of one, don't tell us that, then everything is choosing them. They're not shooting at us.

[12:20]

Yeah. So they are included. They're included. Everybody who's not in this class is included in this class. If Harry's in this room, but if Harry was in this room and he didn't accept his teaching, then we would all be included in his not accepting the teaching. However, since he doesn't accept the teaching, he would not have the vow. So it would seem like he didn't choose it. But, you know... And this is maybe a good segue to this issue also that came up last night, which is in some traditions they have a god which is in charge of causation.

[13:31]

And then when they have God in charge of causation, then people say, well, why does God make such a world where there's so much suffering and cruelty? Why doesn't God just make a world where everybody is kind to everybody? Why doesn't God make a world... Why doesn't causation dash God... Why doesn't infinite life... Some people think... God's infinite life. Why doesn't infinite life make a world where people aren't deluded? And so there's various theories, you know, scientific theories, for example, about why life has certain structural defects. Namely that, for example, humans and some other animals, the way they understand the world is they think they should attack other living beings. that they should take revenge on them, that they should humiliate them.

[14:34]

It seems to me that we have a world where that happens because people have these stories like this person should be humiliated and I'm going to do it because they humiliated me maybe, I think. So why does God make a world like that? I don't know if Buddha actually gets into explaining that. But I think science is now trying to explain it like showing that the misunderstanding of self is sort of in the body, is in the cells. But I'm not explaining why the world is the way it is. I'm saying the Buddha is addressing the way the world is and also the way the world isn't, which is the way many people think it is. So Buddha is trying to help the people who misunderstand the world, not so much talking about why people misunderstand.

[15:48]

The Buddha does mention that misunderstanding the world is suffering. but he doesn't exactly get into all the details about why we misunderstand. He just gives a way of relating to the misunderstanding in a way that's liberating. For example, if you have suffering or a misunderstanding, if you have fear or hatred, there's a practice for that by which you can be free of it, before you can explain why people get into such a terrible situation. Yes? I was thinking, this is reminding me of, my student yesterday said, and he doesn't believe that there is racism. This is the part of the class that now he doesn't like this class because now the students are talking about this subject.

[16:56]

And he doesn't accept it. And then many students raised their hand. They were trying to explain to him why there is telling him. And the more that they told him, the less that he was accepting. And he does not want to be seen as white or named as anything, and he's not doing that to other people. So it doesn't exist. And this reminded me if he accepts or he doesn't accept, that if other students were giving you many examples, some of their personal life and some statistical demographic examples, but it doesn't really matter if he accepts it or if he doesn't accept it. It's good to hear that this is how he's thinking, but it doesn't change what is.

[18:02]

And so it's reminding me of the infinite, being in the infinite, in the infinite being. That pivotal situation is with him, with everyone, whether Sometimes I'm aware of it, and sometimes I'm not. But that doesn't make any difference whether I'm aware or not it's happening. That's what I understand. And when you say, it's happening, what is the it that's happening? Well, just like the racism is happening, that a pivotal self, not self, or non-duality, like, is... The pivotal activity is happening regardless of what he thinks.

[19:15]

Is that right? I agree. And so, if you have a person who thinks that racism doesn't exist, two things I think about that person. First of all, that person who thinks that racism doesn't exist includes all the people who think racism does exist. And he also includes all the people who think they're not sure if it does or not. And it includes some other people who think it doesn't. This person who thinks there isn't any racism includes everybody. And he's included in all the people who think there is. and all the people who agree with him. And the people who think that there is, it's the same for them. So we actually have a finite life and we also have an infinite life. We seem to have a practice which we do alone and we also have a practice which we do together with everybody.

[20:19]

And we are practicing together with everybody whether we accept it or not. However, if we don't train, we don't understand that we include everybody and we're included by everybody. For example, if I think there's not racism, then there's a training for me. If I think there is racism, there's a training for me. If I'm not sure, there's a training for me. If I hear the teaching of my relationship with all beings, if I agree with it and I don't practice, I still don't understand it. If I don't agree with it, but I practice, I will understand it. So if I don't agree with the teaching that I include all the people who disagree with me,

[21:21]

The teaching is, again, all the people who disagree with me are included in me and I am included in all those I disagree with. If I don't accept that but I do the practice, I will realize the teaching which I didn't accept before. Because if I do the practice, I realize there isn't a here and a there. There isn't a me and the people I disagree with over there. There are people I disagree with, but they're not over there and they're not here. They're me and not me. And that's the end of suffering without me changing my view. I could still have the view there's no racism. It isn't like when you do this practice, the people think there's no racism and no holocaust, that they get a lobotomy.

[22:28]

It's rather that they will no longer be abiding in their view that there's no racism or their view that there's no holocaust. But also, if they think there is racism, they won't abide in that either. even though they think there is racism. And if I think there is racism and I don't abide in it, then I can have a harmonious relationship with other people who think there's racism in a different way from me. We both think there's racism, but we don't agree on many things. Because we have all these selves. And all the selves are different. And all the selves include each other. But each self is everybody in that unique way. And it disagrees with all the other unique ways which include it and which are included by it. So there is a practice of sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha.

[23:38]

There is a practice of believing that there is racism and not believing it. Those two things are pivoting with each other and there's a practice to realize that, which is to let things be. So that we have the mind of the person who liberates beings from their positions is a mind that doesn't abide in any position. and that we have to train minds that do abide in positions. We have to train them so that they realize that there's no abiding in the position. There's not a here or there or in between or try to think of something else, not that either. So, yeah, so while I'm talking to somebody who says, There's no Holocaust. There's no racism. Can I let that person be?

[24:40]

And can I let me be? And can I let the way I feel be? Can I let things be? If I can, then there will be the end of suffering. And that's not the end of the story. That's just the end of suffering. And then you can go to work transmitting this So talking about how to enter the pivotal activity. Because there, there's peace, there's freedom, and the appropriate response to all the different forms of suffering comes from there. Which again is not to try to meddle with people who have different views from us,

[25:42]

but to let them be and to show them how to let things be so that they can become free of the position that they have which is different from ours. Yes? Yes? Did you have your hand raised? Who did? Oh, Sean. Sean and Catherine? Catherine, did you have your hand raised? No, you're just pointing at Sean. Sean. I guess I could have something significant to say there. Suppose you're interacting with someone, and they have a position that you find really difficult. In this example, somebody's putting forward something that you find to be very painful. I see that almost as a parallel to a physical stimulus that's hard for you to take. For example, let's say you ever put a little gate in your throat, and it's banging on the pots, and you can't make no noise.

[26:49]

It's really everything for you. Would you say that by the parallel to somebody who has a position of one form or another, you almost kind of feel like there's a jarring sensation inside you from that negativity going forward. How do you practice with that? Well, you said how to tone it down, but I think before you said how to tone it down, maybe you said something like how to deal with it? Or how to maybe receive it in a way that is less intense for you, less painful for you, so that you don't react so much. as I've often said before, we have these six practices, six bodhisattva practices, which are six practices to help us tonight, I would say, let things be.

[28:04]

Six practices to help us let things be. Because if we can let them be, then we will not be with them. So, without training, when a pleasant sound comes, we're with it. We're in it. When an unpleasant sound comes, we're with it. We're in it. So one might think, well, maybe it would be good to just try to learn how to let things be with less intense pleasure and less intense displeasure. Maybe. Anyway, let's just say that we've got not so difficult situation. And then we can, like, let it be. Because it's, like, not too intense for us.

[29:20]

Let it be means we can be generous with it. it means we can be careful of it. Because let it be doesn't mean look in the other direction. It's like let it be while you're paying attention to it. It's not like let it be and then leave. That's not going to work. You have to stay with it in order to get over being with it. Our basic problem is that we're with things. and we're in them. So being generous and careful and attentive and patient and enthusiastic about letting things be and then also being relaxed with them helps all those practices help us let them be. And if you can use those practices to help you let things be, then you're a success at Buddha's activity.

[30:37]

And then when some things become so intense that you cannot be generous towards them, you cannot welcome them. then you're a failure. A failure at Buddha's pivotal activity. You're a failure at the Zen practice or Buddhist practice. You're a failure at being Buddha. Because Buddha can be generous towards what's coming. But now I can't. I can't let it in. I want to close the door. I want to avoid it. I'm not going to let it in. I'm a failure at the Buddhist practice. However, now that I'm a failure, maybe I can welcome being a failure.

[31:41]

Maybe that's not too much for me. So there's a basic practice called welcoming failure at being a Buddha. Confession and then, I'm sorry, But it's not so much about looking for less intense stimuli. It's more like working up to all stimuli. And right now, that's too much for me. And I welcome and I accept and I'm gracious with me having that pain be too much. It's not against the rule when the pain gets so much it's not against the rules to maybe take pain medication. You don't have to take pain medication, but you can do it. And that's interesting to say, you know, like I've told this story about I had a hernia operation about 15 years ago.

[32:46]

And after I came out of the operation, a medical staff person came in and said, When the anesthetic wears off you become more aware of the pain. And we're going to give you some pain medication to take when the pain comes. But we have to let the pain come first before we give you the medication to see if it works. And so I said, okay. And then I was awake and I said, okay. And then the person left the room and then I felt this pain coming. I said, oh, there it is. Here it comes. There it is. Here it comes. Here it comes. Here it comes. Okay. You can come back now and give me the pain medication. I can test it for you. But the person, and I didn't call out, I just waited for them to come back and say, how are you doing?

[33:54]

And I would have said, the pain's here. And you know what? I was kind of welcoming it. And then the pain got bigger or deeper. and then I was still welcoming it, but still a little bit looking for when's the person going to come back. I didn't call out, but I was getting more interested in their return. And then I started to notice that I was tensing up. I wasn't welcoming it so much, you know. But all the while I could kind of sense that what I was feeling, which was increasing, was just the tip of an iceberg. I could just feel some huge thing coming And I thought, you know, I might not be able to relax with this thing and welcome it. I mean, I'm already kind of like not doing too good a job at it, but I might like be really like not good at all.

[34:56]

I might like be like trying really into avoiding it. But again, I did not get to the point where I cried out to draw the hospital staff into the room. The person did come back. And they gave me the medication and I took it. And then there was a time between taking the medication and when it had an effect and the pain got bigger during that time. But it never really did get to the point where I was like, I definitely cannot be here with this pain. I was able to be with the pain, but not like just in the pain that was just the pain. I couldn't do it. It was still like I was with it. so the practice that's available to us now is everything that you've got happening with you now see if you can let it be itself and then when you do it completely you will you will verify it will be verified that you're not with it and then some pains will be so strong that you just

[36:15]

can't let the pain in the pain. There's just the pain. You can't do it. So then you're with it. And that's a difficult thing to be with is a big pain. And then also you're identifying it's my pain. But again, even if it's a mild one or even if it's a pleasure, it's the same suffering. So part of the practice is to be patient with our current level of training and our current level of being able to let things be themselves. Realizing I'm not actually 100% letting things be. I'm still sort of holding out a little bit. In other words, I'm still here a little bit with it. So part of the fear, part of the difficulty of letting things be is as you get closer to letting them be, you sense that if you actually went all the way and let them really be just what they are, that you wouldn't be there with them.

[37:25]

So they would just be them and there wouldn't be a you with them. You say, well then what? So you back away. And now you're with it again. So then you're not letting it be because you're having a little bit of with it. A little bit of with it is not it just being itself. When it's just itself, you're not with it. You don't get rid of yourself. It's just you liberate yourself. And also you liberate the thing. So this is what you can actually test. And I was talking about that on Sunday, and someone tried it out in their mind, and they really got scared, because as they approached letting something just be itself, they got a taste of not being with it. And not being with it means, I'm not with it, means there's just a thing. What about me? And she got in there and then she said this other thing opened up which is like an overwhelming possibility that the self would be annihilated if you weren't with the thing.

[38:39]

The self will not be annihilated but we can feel like if I would just let whatever it is be whatever it is then I wouldn't be with it, and if I wasn't with it, I would be annihilated. That's not correct, but you think that, you feel that. So a fear comes up as you get close to letting things be. Just that thing. Now, when that comes up, then you do the same thing with that fear. Let that fear just be that fear, the fear of annihilation. And then do it again. Do it with that. And then maybe you might be able to allow yourself to not be with the fear of your annihilation by letting the fear of the annihilation just be the fear of annihilation.

[39:40]

Totally honoring the fear of myself being annihilated. which you can actually access. Well, you might not be interested, but you can actually access the fear of you being annihilated just by letting things be. And I'll tell you beforehand, you will not be annihilated. It's impossible. It's impossible because nothing is annihilated. But even though nothing's annihilated and the Buddha beats that drum, nothing's annihilated. Also, nothing lasts. Still, the fear of annihilation, the Buddha doesn't deny that. The thought of annihilation, the Buddha doesn't deny that. One, two.

[40:47]

So for example, when I try to be patient with my sister, and I let my sister just be my sister. it worked out a little better, you know, if I'm not trying to change or control the way that the situation is going. But there's this kind of... I get caught up in that sometimes, because... In fact, sometimes I start to think, how am I good at this? I'm actually like... I can hang out with her, and she doesn't like, you know... I can't push my buttons anymore, I'm able to be still and be patient with her. Maybe if I'm really patient, she'll start to calm down too. She'll start to be more careful and be more successful. And then I slip into thinking I can actually win at that.

[41:54]

And succeed at having her You know, being a, you know, sort of the boy in that way. And so even the practice of non-control in and of itself, can I still become this, have to control someone? If I'm just patient with my partner enough, I'll become more of the person I want to be. You know, does that make any sense? And so, Correct. In the process of trying to let your sister be your sister, in that process, lots of sneaky things will come up. Each one of those, you should let them be too. Like, I'm trying to let my sister be, and then the thought comes up, and maybe if I let her be, she'll start being the way I want her to be.

[43:13]

I'll let her be, I won't try to manipulate her, and then maybe, even though I'm not trying to manipulate her, maybe this method will get her to be the way I do it without manipulating her. So this is part of the path to letting things be, is as you let them be, all kinds of little squirty things come around the head. Things you didn't even know about before. Like a lot of people don't think, if you would just let people be, they would get to be the way you want them to be. Most people don't even think of letting people be. They just directly try to get them to be the way they want. But now if we try this new practice of the Buddha, then the new sneaky things that we never saw before will come out. But they're also things to let them be. You got it. Okay. Okay. I've been suspicious of the Buddha because, you see, if you get good enough at this, there's no difference between letting them be and not letting them be.

[44:25]

I mean, so, for example, somebody comes to the Buddha and says, oh, give me the teachings. He says, no, no, no, I'm too tired right now. He says, no, no, no, really, give me the teachings. He says, no, I'm too tired right now. I ask a third time. He says, okay. I had trouble living, literally didn't know. You could tell how sincerely the guy was asking. I said, no, he's going to ask me a few more times. He was like, no. I said, yes. He could see that coming. I said, yes. And nonetheless, he said, I'm trying to get through this guy for me to ask a few times. So let's just give him the check. And so if you get good enough at being patient, you will I mean, you are controlling yourself. I don't know. It reduces down your singularity. Another way to put it is, if you get good enough at patience, you join what is causing the situation to be the way it is.

[45:31]

You join reality. And reality is kind of manipulating things into being just the way they are. The whole universe is making people be the way they are. You join the whole universe when you let things be. Yeah, and trying to picture what it's like is a slight distraction from letting things be. So again, this woman, she started to practice letting things be, and then she thought, well, that would be like being annihilated. That's one version of what it would be like, is that you get annihilated. Well, that's not true, but that's one of the ways it might be like. All the ways it might be like are the ways that you're being with that process. You haven't quite got there yet, and so there's all these ways that would be like it, which aren't it. They're just ways of being with it.

[46:35]

As you approach not being with things, all these new amazing ways of being with things come up, like being annihilated with them. or live forever with them. Also last night someone said, well how do you know when you're actually letting things be? Which is similar to how do you know when you're being wholehearted? In the process of letting things be, part of the process is to be kind of called into question all the time. and be suspicious of, having people be suspicious of you. So the Buddha is called into question and the Buddha tells us that when you're actually being careful of letting things be, you're called into question. But you don't get called and then you can learn to be called into question without trying to be somebody who is not going to be called into question anymore.

[47:40]

This is part of letting things be is that people are questioning me about whether I'm letting things be and I'm one of the people. That's okay to ask. That's part of being totally so present with something that you're not with it. And Linda? Linda? So then you get to the point where you can let things be, and then the real work begins transmitting. Once again, you get to the place where you can let things be. And so that's the end of suffering, and now you need to get to work, there's the real work of transmitting. And the word transmitting, I got a little, what does that mean? And because... I guess I'm asking the difference between, I don't think maybe only you transmit or the Buddha, but are you saying that we transmit or we model?

[48:47]

It came to me this weekend, I was in Tahoe with family, and it turned out that the last night that I had reservations, they said, I'm going to be gone. And so I said, huh, okay, I guess I'm meeting. And my kids said, well, they're lucky I got a friend for me. Which is true. Was I feeling something or was I just practicing? What's the difference? Well, there's two things that come to my mind. One is that I said this thing about transmitting because when I said the end of suffering, people might think, well, that's the end of the story. It's not the end of the story. It's the beginning of the transmission of the freedom of suffering. However, before you reach the place where you can really let things be, before you get there, you're also transmitting. But what you're transmitting is not there yet. You're transmitting that you're not letting things be.

[49:48]

So sorry, we're transmitting delusion before we get to that place. Can't stop it. sorry, we cannot stop transmitting delusion. That's why really we should go to work because between now and when we go to work we're just going to be transmitting delusion. So it's not like, you know, you can wait till later and then... No, there's going to be problems if you don't get to work. And once you get to work then there's going to be a time before you're fully trained. And you're going to be transmitting all the way along. But you're going to be transmitting delusion. And also the Buddha is going to be with you during that whole process because Buddha is right there with your latest version of delusion. So it's not like a bad thing. It's normal that we're deluded but we don't let our delusions be.

[50:50]

And then we start training and we're still deluded and we're learning how to let them be. And we're transmitting all along. But when you finally get to completion of finally letting things be, then you not only are transmitting this freedom from suffering, but also you understand finally that everybody's included in your realization. So they were with you while you didn't understand, and that was too bad for them that you didn't understand. But you didn't understand to the extent to which everybody was included in your immature practice. When your practice is mature, you actually understand how they're included in your mature practice. and how you're included in their immature practice.

[51:52]

And you're not trying to get away from their immature practice the way they're trying to get away from their immature practice. And also trying to get away from other people's immature practice. And trying to manipulate other people's immature practice into mature practice. Buddha is not trying to manipulate our practice into mature practice. Buddha is not God. Buddha's transmitting mature practice to us. But Kent is not in control of when we will listen to it and practice it and how long we have to practice it. But the Buddha is transmitting the end of suffering, which is the pivotal activity of ourselves and all beings, which is part and parcel of letting things be. Completely. And we're always there, but if we don't accept this teaching and put it into practice, we don't understand it.

[53:03]

Yes? When you say practice... I understand me sitting on a cushion, observing. But you said something, literally, in the Shastriya Chakra, you said something about there are six practices to let things be. Yeah. So, we've got... Six practices to help... Basically, the practice is let things be. That's the short version of it. And what are the six practices? Where do I go to learn the six practices? You don't go anywhere. You just sit right there right now. So the six practices is one of the practices sitting on the cushion. The six practices are you listening to me tell you the six practices? I don't need to know what they are. Yeah, well, I'm going to tell you now. Oh, okay. Their generosity, welcoming things, being gracious to them.

[54:04]

It's kind of like letting them be for beginners. You start with that. Let them be as best you can before you find out how difficult it is. But you can say to your sister or your mother or your friend or your enemy, you can say, welcome. You can say to cancer, welcome. You can say to broken leg, welcome. That's an exercise in the first practice of opening the door to letting things be is to practice generosity. Like I often tell the story of 17 years ago when I fell off a bicycle in Houston and hit the cement. I said, shit.

[55:06]

But then I said, relax. I recovered. I didn't say welcome, smashed body onto cement. I didn't say welcome. But then I did say welcome. So, sometimes I get derailed from welcoming what's going on. And particularly when it's really intense. I might. But sometimes when it's not very intense at all because it's so subtle, I can barely even notice that it's calling to me to welcome it. Anyway, everything that happens is calling to me to let it see. Everything is calling to me to support it in the practice of being just what it is. The beginning is welcoming. Thank you very much. And then you practice being careful of it. For example, don't try to kill it.

[56:09]

Don't try to get something other than it, than what's given to you. Don't say bad things about it. Don't misuse sexuality in relationship to it. Don't lie about it and so on. Be careful of it. It's the next practice called ethical discipline. If you let something in to your life, if you're generous with it, then you have to be careful of it. You have to be gentle with it. You have to be tender with it. You have to love it in this careful way with all your actions, with your thoughts, with your words, with your gestures. That's the second practice, ethical discipline. Third one is patience. like to be there with it in the present moment. Third patience is enthusiasm. These first three practices take energy, but now you have to like... You've got enough energy... You had enough energy to do the first three practices.

[57:15]

Now you have to... You have to fuel up to get more energy to do the next ones because they're more subtle. You need more concentrated, heroic effort to move on. And so you think about, I actually think it would really be good if I could let things be and not be with them and not abide in them and end suffering and transmit it. I think it would be really good. But actually, I'm too tired to do those practices. Maybe I'll do them later. And you keep thinking about it because the thing you're thinking about is what you want. You want to do these practices. You want to do the first three and you want to do the next two, which are concentration and wisdom. You want to do them because you realize they really will help this world WORLD OF SUFFERING. THEY WILL TRANSMIT END OF SUFFERING IF YOU CAN REALLY HAVE A LOT OF ENERGY FOR IT.

[58:21]

BUT RIGHT NOW YOU'RE KIND OF TIRED. SO YOU HAVE TO THINK OF YOUR ASPIRATION AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL YOU FEEL LIKE, OH, I FEEL A LITTLE MORE ENERGY. I STILL DON'T FEEL READY TO GO TO WORK, BUT I FEEL MORE. AGAIN, NOW I THINK I HAVE ENOUGH ENERGY TO GO TO WORK, BUT I'M NOT SURE. AND AGAIN, I'M READY TO GO TO WORK. And then you start to like, again, open to it. More energetically than you could at the beginning. And relax with it. And interact with it and be playful with it. It being whatever you're trying to let be itself. And then when you can completely let it be in concentration, through concentration, again letting it be means you're not distracted from it, you're open to it, you're not trying to control it, you're moving with it, and now you can let it be and then you can see that you're not with it and so on.

[59:24]

In other words, then the wisdom comes. pushing in your everyday life as well. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. And this applies to other people, like dogs. Dogs, yeah. It applies to dogs and cats and humans and the weather and your health and other people's health and the political situation, all these things. it applies to. Letting each thing that's confronting you, that's coming to you, letting it be. And if we can do that, then again, we're not with it or in it, and this is the end of suffering, and then also it's awakening, it's waking up to everybody's included in this, and let's do it again because everybody's included in this. But although they're included in it, they're not doing the practice yet.

[60:28]

So all these beings who are included in this are fighting what's happening and insulting what's happening and hating what's happening. They're not being careful. They're not being generous. They're not being tender and kind to each other. But they're included in this realization so I have to keep working at this until they start doing the practice too. And I have to do my own practice though. And again, if I do my own practice, everybody's included in it and it gets transmitted. If I don't do my practice, everybody's included in not doing my practice and that's transmitted to them. So all my laziness from beginningless time has had consequence and I want to accept that. And because of that I feel motivated to make better and better contributions to this universe.

[61:35]

I want to contribute the end of suffering to this universe. by working on my own challenges. And to be able to remember, moment by moment, to let things be. Which again, in a six-fold way, is to do these six practices. But they all come down to basically just letting things be, which means again they come down to not being here or there or in between, not being with people, but they're just people. And they're just dogs, and they're just cancer, and they're just death. But when there's just death, there's death and infinite life pivoting on each other. There's death without suffering. So it isn't getting rid of cancer and death and anything.

[62:39]

It's like honoring everything and helping everything be left to be itself and then not abiding in anything. And that's the mind of Buddha. And try it. It's hard. It's hard to do this practice. And when you try it and you see how hard it is, you're getting into it. When you can feel yourself not letting things be and coming up with these side trips to not let it be, that's what happens when you're into it. When you're meditating, you have new problems that you didn't have before. It isn't like you have no problems. You have new problems. You have the problems of being somewhat successful. Noticing that you're resisting letting things be is getting closer to letting them be. Like some people don't even notice that they don't let people be, that they're messing and manipulating with everything they run into.

[63:45]

They don't even notice it. We have to notice it in order to get over it. We have to notice that we're with everything in order to get over being with anything. Yes? I feel in my dullness tonight after just coming back from the log and playing a trip, you know, and being jet-lagged. Even in my dullness, I can feel that what you're suggesting would be really good for me. It would be a good thing for me to do. I have a question about somebody like the first person that you spoke about that doesn't believe in racism. See, when you were letting your hernia pain be

[64:45]

there was no kind of moral component to your pain. It was really, really just pain. But if there's somebody who doesn't believe in racism, or if there's somebody who brutally beats people up because they have power or something, then there's a different component to it. So is it possible, well, please explain to me more about letting something be And also intervening to take care of it in the moment. Intervening to take care of it in the moment. To take care of harm that's being done. If someone's about to hurt themselves, about to fall down the stairs, I will respond to that without exception.

[65:54]

I will always respond to what people are doing. If I meet somebody who says, I don't believe in racism, or rather, I do believe there's no such thing, if I meet someone like that, I will respond to that person. I always, I respond to everybody. The question is how... Well, I don't know if I am. Is my response letting them be? I have to look and see if I am. I want, actually, when I meet someone who tells me there's no, I don't know, whatever, there's no racism, there's no such thing. There's no such thing as racist ideas. I'm reading a book now which is called Stamped from the Beginning. The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. It's so sickening to hear these racist ideas. So I'm reading about all these racist ideas in the Middle Ages, in Europe, and in Puritan America.

[67:03]

I'm reading about these racist ideas. So while I'm reading about them, can I do this practice of letting those racist ideas be just those racist ideas and let how I feel be how I feel? But what if I met somebody who was like, either espousing racist ideas or saying that there are no racist ideas. Or acting in a racist way. What if I met somebody like that? So, what about intervening with them? As Vivienne said, if I intervene, what we may find is the person just becomes more tenacious. and less willing to open up to letting things be. For example, if you press somebody who doesn't believe something, they may become less willing to let people who disagree with them be that way they are.

[68:12]

Who knows if that's going to be helpful? I don't. What I'm betting on is that if I could let somebody who has a view which is very different from mine or yours, if I could let them be and also let you be, I'm saying that I would access the end of suffering. And in that case, I don't know if this person's view would change at all. So you're talking about, before we get to that, what about protecting somebody from harm? Well, like what? Like get the person not to talk anymore in the presence of children? Get the person not to give, you know, make sure that they don't have a podium at school to tell kids that there's no such thing as racist ideas? I don't know about that. But if I did think of something like that, I think... this person should not be teaching in this school.

[69:17]

I might think that thought. They're not qualified to teach mathematics or the history of racism. They're not qualified to talk about this. I might say. But is my talking, is my saying that coming from letting that person be? Yeah. And I'm saying, if I don't let the person be, and I would... if I don't let them be, and I would let them continue in their position, or get them out of their position, or work to get them out of their position, either one of those cases, if I'm coming from that place, I would say, I'm perpetuating, I'm transmitting, not letting things be. And the world, I could say the world doesn't need any more of the transmission of not letting things be, but whether I say that or not, it's going to get more. there's going to be more not letting things be. And I have to also let that be if I want to practice the Buddha's teaching.

[70:19]

Now, again, you can say, well, maybe if somebody was letting things be and they were transmitting this teaching, maybe people would also pick up the teaching. That's the point of this teaching is not only to end suffering but to transmit it. So if I meet someone who disagrees with me or holds some really hard to understand position and I let them be, it's possible that they also could let themselves be and let their position be and let go of it. But if I try to get them to not have their views and switch to mine or somebody else's, they probably aren't going to learn how to let go of their view. And if they don't, I'm just perpetuating suffering.

[71:24]

I might even be perpetuating racism because I'm perpetuating people who have racist ideas who are abiding in them to continue to abide. Somebody needs to teach people who are abiding in racist ideas how not to abide in them. Intervening and manipulating probably will teach them to abide more strongly. Or switch to something else and abide in those. I would like to teach the people who are working to free people from racism, I would like to help them become free of being with their agenda, and I would like to have the people who have racist ideas to be free of their... I'm talking about freedom from our delusions. That's what I'm emphasizing here. Not manipulating people's delusions, but transmitting

[72:25]

people being free of their delusions rather than fighting their delusions. Okay? Thank you very much. Good night. One more class. Please come.

[72:43]

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