Yes, Emmanuel. No, thanks. But let there be light. And today our precious Abbess has reached the auspicious age of 55. Congratulations. I give this morning's event to you as a gift of Dharma. So let's make it a good one, okay? What? Is that enough? Say yes.

[01:10]

Yes. At the beginning of the, towards the beginning of the Heroic Stride Samadhi scripture, the Bodhisattva Dhridhamati, which means, Dhridhamati means firm or firm intention. They sometimes translate it as firm intellect. which is also possible, but I also like firm intention. This bodhisattva asked the Buddha, actually first this bodhisattva's thinking, I would like to ask the Buddha a really good question, a question that would be really helpful.

[02:21]

And then he talks, thinks in his mind about all the ways he'd like his question to be helpful, and the Buddha hears him thinking about this question and says, go ahead and ask it. And then he asks the question. And I didn't want to read it at the beginning because, partly because the question is about the samadhi and it makes the samadhi sound so good I thought you might think it was, you know, something other than what we're doing. But now that you understand that that's not the case, I thought I just might read to you his question about this samadhi. Okay, Manuel, set the light a little bit higher so I can read it.

[03:41]

Thank you. So Dhritamati says to the Buddha, what is the samadhi through which a bodhisattva rapidly realizes unsurpassed, complete, and perfect awakening? He's never apart from the Buddhas, but always with them face to face. illuminates with her own light all ten directions, acquires the wondrous wisdom so as to destroy all demons, all maras.

[04:49]

These maras are very important in this sutra, which I hope to get to that at some point. What is the samadhi through which a bodhisattva obtains mastery of knowledge and wins spontaneous knowledge, obtains untaught knowledge and does not depend on others, possesses indestructible eloquence?" And it goes on for pages. And then the Buddhist says, good question. He really has an excellent question. If you want to learn how to ask questions, this is a good place to look, a good lesson on questions. And the Buddha then says, this samadhi is called the heroic stride samadhi. Bodhisattvas who obtain this samadhi can, since you ask about it, manifest parinirvana,

[06:00]

in other words, which is completely nirvana, without definitively ceasing to be. So with the samadhi, you can enter into perfect nirvana and still be walking around here. And then he goes on and says some of the things that are possible, but now I want to go to the practice again. So Dhridhanandi says to the world-honored one, how should a bodhisattva cultivate this samadhi? And Buddha says, In this translation it has a different bodhisattva asking Buddha the question and Buddha talking to this bodhisattva.

[07:42]

In this other translation it has Ritamati asking the son of the gods about it. But anyway, somebody asked somebody about how to cultivate the samadhi, and somebody says, So somebody says, what... Oh, excuse me. This is the wrong piece of paper. This is the one. Okay. Somebody asks, and the answer is, if a bodhisattva wishes to attain the samadhi, what dharmas should she cultivate? And the Devaputra Manifest Minds replies, if a bodhisattva wishes to attain the samadhi, she should cultivate the dharmas of an ordinary person.

[08:48]

if she perceives the dharmas of an ordinary person, or if she perceives the dharma of ordinary people, the dharmas of the Buddha will be neither joined nor separate. This is called cultivation of the heroic stride, samadhi. So first the answer is, if you want to cultivate the samadhi, you should cultivate the dharmas of an ordinary person. If you perceive the dharmas of an ordinary person, the buddha dharmas will not be joined or separate from those ordinary dharmas, the dharmas of the ordinary person. And that's cultivating the samadhi.

[10:01]

So we need to be clear what the dharmas of an ordinary person are so you can spot them. And then when you perceive them, when you learn what they are and you start perceiving the things of an ordinary person, then when you perceive them, without them being joined to the things of the dharmas of a Buddha or separate from the dharmas of a Buddha, then you're cultivating the samadhi. The next question is, what conjoining and what separating are there in the dharmas of a Buddha? So, Dhridhamati asks Manifest Mind this question, and Manifest Mind says, conjoining and dispersing or separating do not exist even in the dharmas of an ordinary person, how much less so in the dharmas of the Buddha.

[11:15]

So again, what is cultivation? To be able to penetrate the fact that there is no difference between the dharmas of an ordinary person or ordinary people and the dharmas of the Buddhas is called cultivation. In fact, there is neither joining or separating in these dharmas. This is because In all the co-locations of these dharmas there is no characteristic of birth. In all the co-locations of these dharmas there is no characteristic of destruction. In all the co-locations of these dharmas there is the characteristic of emptiness. In all the co-locations of these dharmas, there is no characteristic of encounter among them.

[12:22]

That's the reason that in the dharmas of an ordinary person, the dharmas of the Buddha are not joined or separate. You can't separate the dharmas of an ordinary person and the dharmas of a Buddha in all their co-locations. They do not have the characteristic of arising or the characteristic of destruction. They do have the characteristic of emptiness. You can't join empty things. You can't join things that don't have the characteristic of birth or destruction. When you see that the things of an ordinary person are neither joined nor separate from the things of a Buddha, that's the same as seeing that the things of an ordinary person are birthless and deathless.

[13:37]

And birthless and deathless is sometimes called Nirvana, but also sometimes called Buddha. The things of an ordinary person, when seen correctly, are, again, not joined to or separate from the things of a Buddha. So seeing that is also seeing the suchness of the things of an ordinary person and the suchness of the things of the Buddha. and that is cultivating the samadhi. These, all these things, all the things that an ordinary person have a suchness like this, and because of their suchness they cannot be, there is no joining or separating. There is interdependent creativity.

[14:45]

And if we can see that, we see that they're not joined or separate from the things of a Buddha or anything else. There is no joining or separating. In fact, penetrating this fact is cultivating this samadhi. I see hands are raising. Should I go on a little bit or should we go a little further or start taking questions? Take questions. Go on. Take questions. How many people want me to go on? How many people want questions? First, how many people want to go on? How many people want questions? People who want questions are right in front. And that's the way it is sometimes. We lost the election. Now yesterday, then it goes on to say, you know, that right after that, Dhridhamati asks Manifest Mind, you know, to where does this samadhi go?

[16:04]

To where does this samadhi extend? And Manifest Mind says, it extends to the minds and practices, or another way to translate it is it extends to the mental activities of ordinary people, all ordinary people. So, but does not take those minds and practices or those mental activities as its object. Now the samadhi is aware of the mental activities but its object is to study how those mental activities, its cultivation is how those mental activities are suchness. So it sees the ordinary person but it's concentrating on the suchness of the ordinary person and the suchness of the Buddha.

[17:10]

and the suchness of the relationship among ordinary beings and among ordinary beings and Buddhas. So it goes to all the ordinary beings. In other words, not in other words, which means that the samadhi that you're in the midst of goes to all your mental activities. And it goes to them, goes close to them, becomes intimate with them. And becoming intimate with them means that you don't take them as an object. Because taking them as an object gets into that they're separate or joined. It's rather you go to them and take their suchness as an object. And the suchness of your mental activities is that they are not separate from or conjoined with you or anybody else. In that way, the samadhi goes, that's one of the places the samadhi goes.

[18:15]

It goes to everything you think all day long, but goes to the suchness of everything you think. And again, the suchness includes that everything you think, no matter what it is, and no matter what you think about it, All those ordinary things are not conjoined or separate from the dharmas of the Buddha. The samadhi's there. Then it also goes close to all the Buddhas. But again, it doesn't go to the characteristics of the Buddhas. It doesn't go to the spectacular auras around the Buddha. It doesn't go to the Buddha's delight coming from between the eyebrows that demonstrates Dharma throughout the universe.

[19:18]

It doesn't go to these characteristics. Although they're there and it's close to them, it goes to the Buddha. And the Buddha is not the characteristics. In other words, it goes to the Buddha practice. That's the Buddha. In the Zen school, Buddha practice is Buddha. Buddha is not the marks of the Buddha. Although the Buddha has marks, that's not Buddha. That's just the address of Buddha. Like the address of Gordon is Gordon. But Gordon is not Gordon. Gordon is Buddha practicing, practicing Buddha. But in the Chinese, the character they use, it's a Buddha practice, and the character also could be translated as conduct.

[20:23]

And the word conduct is good because conduct has the etymology of being led together. Buddha, which is Buddha practicing. Buddha is a practicing Buddha or practicing or Buddha practice. Buddha is nothing more than our intimate relations with others. Buddha is nothing more than Buddha practicing, and Buddha practicing is our intimate relations with others, I might say that Buddha conduct is nothing other than her or his relations, intimate relations with others.

[21:36]

But it's not just hers, it's ours. Another way to put it is, Buddha is led by ordinary people into intimacy. That's Buddha practice. Buddha is led together into intimacy with ordinary people. That's Buddha practice, and that is Buddha. So if you like, for example, an example of that would be you having some, experiencing some dharmas of an ordinary person.

[23:04]

So there's some dharma, you see some dharmas of a nirnaya person. Those dharmas are leading you Or actually, and you are being led to those dharmas and those dharmas are being led to you. Or Buddha's activity is being led to those dharmas and those dharmas are being led together with Buddha. So that's the intimacy where these ordinary things are not or are in a such-like relationship with Buddha. So one of the ways to get a feeling for this is by practicing compassion towards the ordinary dharmas, the dharmas of ordinariness.

[24:42]

bring compassion to these dharmas of ordinariness. Now, of course, I cannot bring compassion to the dharmas of ordinariness because I'm an ordinary person. Ordinary people can't really practice compassion. But they can try. Of course they can't. But they can try. Now you say, well, I'd rather have you say that they can and then I'll try. But anyway, Buddha's intimate relation with the dharmas of an ordinary person are compassion for and with the dharmas of an ordinary person.

[25:59]

And compassion is not to be joined to the ordinary person or separate from them. It's the such-like relationship or the relationship of suchness with the ordinary person. That kind of relationship is compassion. You're with them, but not separate. And so you're not separate and you're not joined. You're with, you're not joined. Or I shouldn't say you're not, but being with the ordinary person, intimately with them, is compassion. This is also called patience. This is also called giving. This is also called practicing the precepts and of course very much including confession.

[27:10]

This is also called diligence or enthusiasm for the previously mentioned and to be mentioned in the future practices diligence to this practice of compassion. And by the way, parenthetically, diligence includes rest, taking rest. This also includes this intimate way of being with the things of an ordinary person includes the samadhi. The other practices I just mentioned promote the samadhi. In a sense the samadhi is the culmination of all these other compassion practices and includes all these other compassion practices. So that finally we're with other beings or there is this intimacy with other beings

[28:18]

or there is an intimacy with your own ordinariness. And out of that intimacy there arises wisdom. And when the wisdom arises, you see that the ordinary things and the Buddha things are not joined or separate. Then, finally, the compassion has been fully accepted And also the compassion, in a sense, was being given fully before, but somehow it's given before but rejected. It somehow isn't completely given. So that's how the ordinary beings together with the Buddhas realize the Buddha's giving and so on. if there is perceiving of the things of an ordinary person, but there is not the feeling, the perceiving, also the perceiving or the understanding that these things of an ordinary person are intimate with the things of a Buddha, in other words, intimate with the compassion of the Buddha, in other words,

[29:51]

the ordinary, the things of an ordinary person are receiving Buddha's compassion. If you don't see how when you spot a thing of an ordinary person or a mass of things of an ordinary person, if you don't see, if you don't perceive that this mass, this twisted mass of ordinary things, if you don't see that it's surrounded by Buddha's compassion, then if you start to see some compassion coming to this ordinariness in the form of giving, giving in the sense of being magnanimous, Letting this mass be a mass in the sense of practicing the precepts with this mass, and particularly in the form of confessing the mass.

[31:03]

Confessing the mass, the tangled mass of ordinariness, confessing it and confessing it, confessing it is bringing compassion to it. Confessing it is not trying to get rid of it. Confessing ordinariness is just confessing ordinariness. Period. That is starting to open up to the compassion of the Buddha, which is coming there all the time. Practicing patience with this mass of ordinariness is starting to open up to the compassion. Being enthusiastic about giving and precepts and confession and patience. Being enthusiastic about cultivating the things of an ordinary person. And also be enthusiastic about taking rest from this intimacy when you need it so you can go back wholeheartedly.

[32:11]

That's compassion too. Rest, you resting, is compassion. Buddha wants you to rest so you can come back wholeheartedly. And then finally the samadhi, to bring this samadhi to this ordinariness in this way that we're talking about. where finally you see. And when you see the suchness, then all those kinds of, or when there is the seeing of the suchness, then all those kinds of compassion are now coming unhindered. And then at that point there is a realization that this compassion has always been coming. So finally there's no resistance to the compassion And then when the ordinariness doesn't resist the compassion, the compassion really works. So that's how the ordinariness is actually guiding the Buddha into the realization of Buddha practice.

[33:22]

The Buddha practice can't happen without the ordinary person participating in this way. The Buddha can't do it by herself. We have to, like, stumble along, confess our resistance. Here I am suffering in my ordinary life. I admit, I confess, I do not receive Buddha's compassion right now. I get a little bit, but I don't, like, have the big-scale, multidimensional, multidirectional, total, immersion in Buddhist compassion. I do not see that accepted, you know. And I kind of, now that I'm saying that, it sounds kind of silly. Why wouldn't I accept it? But I have to admit, I don't. I do not feel totally bathed in Buddhist compassion. Saying that is compassion. It's not the same compassion as when you confess that you do actually totally accept it.

[34:30]

when you confess that you do totally accept it. But confessing that you do totally accept it is also part of it. Confessing that you don't accept it is part of Buddha's compassion and invites Buddha's compassion. And whatever you do in terms of confession loosens you up, makes you ready for this samadhi, Compassion in the form of patience is being with your ordinariness. Patience is not about getting rid of ordinariness. That's called impatience. Okay, we've had enough ordinariness. That's enough. That's enough is ordinariness. This is too much, is ordinariness. It's not enough, is ordinariness. Patience is not about not enough, enough, or too much.

[35:36]

It's about, again, being intimate with the pain of ordinariness. Practicing the precepts. One of the precepts is to embrace and sustain forms and ceremonies. One of the forms and ceremonies is to sit upright. in a meditation hall with other people. It's a form. Another form is to sit upright in your bedroom by yourself. Another form is to sit upright on the toilet with everybody. There's some monasteries like that where you sit together, you have rows of seats. You sit together with the other monks We have it here at Green College. There's partitions between them here. Then they also have urinals where the monks stand in rows, upright, in upright posture.

[36:42]

This upright posture is not so that you're standing in some posture. You're standing in some posture in order to be intimate with the things of an ordinary person. Upright posture helps you be intimate with ordinariness. Have you noticed? Now, you can also, of course, slouch and be intimate with ordinariness, but I think it's harder to be intimate when you're slouching than when you're sitting upright. Not impossible. What upright posture means is the most intimate way to be with your ordinariness. That's what upright posture means. And any posture where you're intimate with your ordinariness is upright. And Buddha is upright with your posture because Buddha is intimate with your posture.

[37:51]

And intimate with your posture means that you're patient with your posture. You're not like saying, I've had enough of this posture. I've had too much of this posture. I'm going to get rid of this posture. Now there is talk like that. Have you heard that talk? I've had enough of this posture. That's an ordinary person thing. I've had just the right amount of this posture. I've had not enough of this posture. These are ordinary dharmas. Okay? The uprightness is to be with those comments, to be with the workings of the mind in relationship to this posture. To be intimate with the physical and mental activity of this person is the uprightness. That's a precept. The first pure precept of Soto Zen is to use your physical body as a way of being intimate with the ordinary physical body.

[39:00]

And when there is intimacy with the ordinary physical body, there is realization of intimacy with the practicing Buddha. And the ordinary person who gives her body and mind over to this uprightness helps Buddha into intimacy with this person. Buddha's been waiting patiently, not rushing you to be intimate with your body. But if you're not intimate with your body and mind, or if you're resisting the intimacy of body and mind, you're holding Buddha away. And Buddha's not pushing you to knock it off. Buddha loves you in your resistant form. Buddha is close to you and would like you to let go of your resistance, but it doesn't really matter whether you let go or not.

[40:04]

Buddha can want this from you and be happy if you would do it, but also be happy to be with you prior to your relaxation. I'm the more I allow any kind of puny giving, precepts, confession, patience, enthusiasm, or, you know, samadhi to come to this ordinariness, the more I get ready for intimacy with... Buddha who is not going to get rid of me once we get close don't worry or you

[41:22]

So now sometimes I feel a little embarrassed to tell the same stories over and over and over and over, but I tell them over because I keep seeing new things in them. They keep being demonstrations of new teachings. So I kind of have to tell them over again because they're such good examples. So I could try to find new stories to demonstrate new teachings, but it's, I think, also helpful for me and you to see that the old stories, actually all the teachings are in all the old stories. So here's one. This is like, you know, this is a story. Here's a story. The story is of this guy who liked dragons. He liked carved dragons. and painted dragons. So he had a house. He was a kind of a wealthy Chinese guy and he had a house and in his house he had like jade, carved jade dragons.

[42:38]

I think he had coral dragons, you know, stone dragons, wood dragons, painted dragons. His house was full of dragons. He loved dragons. And one time a dragon was flying over his house. And somehow I forgot, but found out that there was a dragon aficionado down in this house. So I thought, hey, this guy would probably like to meet me. Yeah. This is completely irrelevant, but it's kind of cute, this next thing. My daughter, who has not told me I cannot talk about her in public yet, and she also actually likes me to talk about her son in public, has told me that she met this man a while ago who is a martial arts instructor.

[43:48]

And when he found out that her that her teacher was her father, excuse me, that her father was a Zen teacher. This guy said, well then he'd probably like to meet me. And my daughter said, that's the first guy that ever said that. Usually they'd say, well, I'd like to meet him. Either they'd say, do I have to meet him? Or I'd like to meet him. But this guy said, well, he'd probably like to meet me. So anyway, that's what the dragon said. He'd probably like to meet me. So the dragon kind of swooped down in the house. And this guy maybe was standing on the veranda. overlooking his beautiful little tea garden.

[44:52]

The dragon swoops down. The guy sees the dragon and faints. So anyway, you know, there is this thing, the Zen people picked this up, that we're making these little carved dragons, you know. We're making these little, here's my little patience with myself, you know. I'm sort of like, I've got these problems, and I'm going to practice patience with these problems. I've got these pains, and I'm going to practice patience with these pains. Or I've got these pains, and I'm going to even invite, hey, how about having a little patience here with the pain, please? I'm going to practice confession of this pain. I'm going to confess this pain. I'm going to confess my ordinariness. I'm going to confess my judgments and my preferences and my criticisms of myself and others and my wish to be different. I'm going to confess all this ordinariness.

[45:53]

But another way to put it is, let's have some confession here. Okay. And you feel it. And the more you feel it, the more the dragon that's up above the house is starting to notice that maybe you'd like it to come and visit you. And it'll come to visit. But when it comes to visit, you know, if it's conjoined with you, you'll faint. What? Maybe you can take it? No, you can't take it. You can't take being conjoined. You'll blow apart. And you can't take things separate. Being separate is your ordinary situation. Here you are suffering and knowing the dragon's not with you. And even the dragon, you can't stand it. Carved dragons help you get ready for the big dragon. When the big dragon comes, practicing with the carved dragons will ready you, will ready you to be able to receive the real compassion.

[46:59]

And you'll realize then also that the dragon was always with you. That's why you're making these carved dragons. There's another story here, but the kitchen's leaving. It's not a story about the kitchen, but I wonder if I should bring this story up today or tomorrow. Maybe it can wait till tomorrow. It's a Zen story about about this ordinariness business. But maybe that's enough today. So please consider allowing You can have the ordinary approach that you are going to practice compassion towards your ordinariness, or you can have another approach, which is also ordinary, that you're going to receive any compassion in the neighborhood about your ordinariness.

[48:18]

Your ordinariness means your body, your mind, all your mental workings. You're going to let the samadhi which comes to you, it comes to you, but it doesn't focus on your ordinariness. The ordinariness is focusing on the ordinariness. The ordinariness is kind of like, I wish I had a better ordinariness. I wish I had an ordinariness which was so ordinary that it was like the best ordinary in the room. Or whatever, you know. Anyway, there's ordinariness twisting and turning on the ordinariness. Now, I'll let the compassion come. I'll let the compassion come. I'll let the samadhi come. As much as possible, I'll open to the samadhi. Here I am sitting here. There's still all this concern, but still there's this like, oh, come on. Okay, samadhi, come and be with me. And I know you're going to be with me, but you're not going to be focusing on my problems because I'm already doing that. What you're going to be doing, samadhi, samadhi presence, is you're going to be like

[49:23]

looking at how this ordinariness, which is like really thriving right here, and I'm getting more and more intimate with it. As a matter of fact, that intimacy with it, I just noticed there's some compassion in that intimacy. Wow! And I also invite any other compassion and any other samadhi in the form of coming and being with me and sharing suchness with me. Please come and share suchness with me, samadhi. May all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas be compassionate to me and free me from karmic effects. Come and be with me. Share their wisdom and compassion with me. I'm open to it somewhat. But I can't be totally open to it right now because I'm really busy dealing with my ordinariness. But as much as possible, please come all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and Save me if you can. But I know actually, I understand that actually you can't because I'm resisting.

[50:26]

So I'm going to try to resist less and less so you'll be more successful because I want to make your Buddhism, Bodhisattva successful. So actually, okay. I'll join you. I'll be responsible too. I'll want to be that way too. Even though, yeah, okay. Okay. I want to practice the samadhi, or I want to give myself, throw myself into the samadhi. I want to practice the compassion of giving myself to the samadhi, giving myself to the samadhi, and also give myself to the practice of patience, which is included in the samadhi, which means I'm not going to like getting rid of myself and getting rid of my ordinariness. I'm not going to get into that. I'm going to give my ordinariness to this. not give it as a sneaky way to get rid of it. So now there were some questions.

[51:30]

Catherine, did you have a question? Well, right at the beginning, when you... That's okay. It was in the part about darkness not arising, not ceasing, having emptiness and not encountering. And I wanted to know if you could clarify the not encountering. You know, I haven't had time to look up that character, but I think it means... One meaning of encounter is to meet. Another meaning of encounter is to oppose. I think they don't oppose each other. They meet without opposing. Because another translation of that character is acceptance. that among all the co-locations of dharmas there's acceptance, I believe. Because there is no characteristic of acceptance.

[52:41]

So there's, you know, I think they're just trying to point at intimacy. But I had a little trouble with that too, that no encounter and no acceptance. Could no encounter have to do with not accepting? Yeah, right. Yeah, well, this no encounter, this word, this character that's on that page in the Chinese text which is translated as no encounter and also translated as no acceptance, This is like the reason why there's no joining or separating. So there's no joining or separating, and then the reason for that is that these dharmas have this nature. Empty things don't encounter each other and don't accept each other, and they don't arise or cease, actually, so there's no way that they can be together or be apart.

[53:52]

This is intimacy. And this intimacy is the pentacle rising. And this intimacy is emptiness. And this is what the bodhisattva is trying to understand. So that the bodhisattva can be immersed in this working with people in this intimate way. And then the intimacy saves the people. The intimacy with the ordinary person saves the ordinary person without, as we say, moving a particle of dust. You don't have to lift the eyebrow or tilt the ear or clear away the complexion or, you know, get a facelift to realize Buddhahood. The ordinary person and the Buddha are non-dual. So we're really like being compassionate here.

[54:59]

And this teaching is being compassionate to ordinary people. And compassionate means to be intimate with them, to be devotedly intimate with them, but not to fix them up. The ordinary people are trying to fix the ordinary people up, which is fine. We're not trying to get the ordinary people to stop trying to fix the ordinary people. They can't stop. We're also not trying to get the ordinary people to stop wrecking the ordinary people. They can't stop that either. Because since the ordinary people can't stop trying to fix the ordinary people, they can't stop hurting the ordinary people. Because trying to fix the ordinary people hurts the ordinary people, and that's ordinary. Have you seen that around? So we're in a world now where people are trying to fix situations by mowing down people's houses, right? That's the world we live in. And as I promised, someday we'll talk about how karma is a teaching of intimacy.

[56:09]

But it's too late today, I think. So anyway, get the picture? Forget it. Yes? I don't understand why... This question is about the same part as Catherine's question. I don't understand why, if there's no arising, why do we talk about things arising? I mean, why, for example, why did the Buddha talk about it? Well, I think I just don't understand. I think I don't understand the arising, but I know we talk about things arising, so... I think the Buddha talked about things arising to get people's attention, to develop people's compassion towards ordinariness. Because in ordinariness we see things arising. Ordinary people see things arising and ceasing. But actually, as you know, sometimes they don't even notice things arising and ceasing.

[57:15]

I mean, they're in the world where actually in their world things are arising and ceasing, but they don't even pay attention. In other words, they don't pay attention. And not paying attention is an example of not being compassionate. Does that make sense? Part of being compassionate towards ordinariness is to notice that ordinariness has the quality of arising and ceasing Compassion is to pay attention to this ordinariness, is to cultivate this ordinariness. Okay? Cultivating this ordinariness means partly to pay attention to it. So then you start noticing, oh, there's a rising and ceasing here. I heard about that. And now you start seeing it. So seeing the rising and ceasing, Buddha mentions that as a kind of a tip on what to look for around ordinary things. One of the main things that ordinary things have is a rising and ceasing. They have these marks.

[58:17]

But when you start to see the non-duality between the ordinary and the Buddha, you start to see that these arising and ceasing things are intimate with the Buddha things. And the Buddha things are not arising and ceasing things. So then you start to see that really these dharmas don't really have arising and ceasing. Okay? But first of all, teaching arising and ceasing is like teaching people to sit upright. It gives them something to tune in to ordinariness. Because that's where we start. We start with the world of arising and ceasing. We study that world. So that's the first level of teaching. Then you bring lots of compassion to the world of arising and ceasing and you start to open to the world of no arising and no ceasing and emptiness. You bring attention to the world of form. and then you bring compassion to it. Bringing attention to it is already compassion and you bring more compassion to it and more compassion to it or you allow more compassion to come and more compassion to come and then the compassion in the form of the samadhi come.

[59:27]

It's hard for the samadhi to come if you're not giving and ethical and patient and so on. But if you can practice these forms of compassion which include paying attention to birth and death then the samadhi is allowed. When the samadhi comes, then you understand there's no difference between the world of birth and death. I shouldn't say there's no difference, but there's no conjoining or separation between the world of Buddha, birth and death, and the world of nirvana, the world of ordinary, and the world of Buddha. Then you see these things. But before you see them, it's just being mentioned to you that the reason why There's this intimacy between Buddhas and ordinary people. The reason for it is that dharmas are already that way. Dharmas are already, actually, originally, nirvanic. They're nirvanic first. You know, someone says, oh great, I've heard of this, this is like the Big Bang, right?

[60:32]

First there was like everything was in the same place and nothing was moving and nothing happened and then there was this explosion because it's such a dynamic situation and then there was a universe. So that there is a universe is ordinary, that there isn't a universe is Buddha. But Buddha wants to share that there isn't a universe with the universe. And that's compassion. So we have to open ourselves to this compassion. Not have to, but there's possibility here. Carve these little dragons. Yes? What was the significance or the symbol, what did the live dragon in the story symbolize? What does it symbolize? Buddha. Perfect compassion. perfect intimacy. And Buddha is, again, Buddha is Buddha conduct.

[61:41]

So the real dragon symbolizes us working together intimately. And if you hear about intimacy and you think, that sounds good, and you write poems about intimacy, draw pictures of intimacy, make movies about intimacy, write novels about intimacy, practice the tango, whatever, you know, you do all these things to get yourself ready for total intimacy. And you're ready for total intimacy when you're ready to not be conjoined with somebody or separate from them. And the more you practice meeting people in this upright fashion, in this compassionate fashion, giving precepts, patience and the samadhi and so on, the more you practice that, the more you become ready and willing to open to complete perfect dragon relationships.

[62:51]

Yes? About three questions ago I was going to say that samadhi was the relationship between And I think the way you use intimacy between ordinariness and Buddhahood. But now I see it more as compassion. Samadhi is compassion. This Samadhi is compassion. Yes. It comes forth as a result of seeing the relationship between the Buddha, the Buddha things, and the ordinary things, and how they interact with each other.

[63:57]

Right. And when this vision becomes available, you see that that's always the way it was. Buddhas have always been intimate with ordinary beings. There's no Buddhas. Buddhas are not something other than intimacy with ordinary beings. Because Buddhas are not some thing, Buddhas are a practice. of Buddha. And the practice of Buddha, or the conduct of Buddha, is Buddha's working with ordinary beings. That is all that Buddhists are, actually. Now, if you look and see, well, there's that person who has those nice qualities. That appearance is what we often grasp as the Buddha, but that's not really the Buddha. It's apparently the Buddha. It's conventionally the Buddha. In the ordinary world, that's Buddha. But the real Buddha, is the practice that the Buddhas are. And the practice that the Buddhas are is the way we're actually working together, intimate relationships.

[65:05]

Steven? Dharma, in this case, means like any phenomena, like physical and mental activity. So you name it, any experience that you have that arises and ceases, that's a dharma of an ordinary person. And dharmas of Buddhas are not going to arise and cease. They're like nirvanic. But what the Buddha is, is not the dharmas of the Buddha. The Buddha is the working together intimately with the beings who are into like birth and death. Yes. Antony? You said that Buddha is not the universe? What? You said that Buddha is not the universe?

[66:13]

Did I say that? I didn't hear that. You said that Buddha is not the universe. I don't think I said that, but maybe I did. But I'll be happy to say that Buddha is not the universe. Buddha is the intimacy of the universe. Buddha is the way the universe is practicing together. Buddha is the way the universe is one big practice event. Buddha is the way the universe is free. Buddha is the life of the universe. Buddha is the way we're intimate with each other. That's Buddha. And the way we're intimate with each other is actually activity. It's our conduct. It's the way we're helping each other along. And none of us can practice by ourselves, and Buddhas can't practice without us, and we can't practice without Buddhas.

[67:17]

We're just one Buddha mind. So, I could say that's not the universe, but it's the intimacy of the universe. It's the way the universe is, it's the manner in which the universe is appearing and disappearing. Buddha is the beauty of the universe, etc. And we, ordinary people, are not separate from that beautiful Buddha. What do you think of that? Thank you.

[68:18]

Can you speak about the role of non-attachment? If you have your ordinary dharma, or your ordinary tangled mess, and you've got some concept about... The role of attachment? One role of attachment is that attachment is necessary for Buddhism. Attachments are opportunities for Buddha to be compassionate. Attachments are places, opportunities to receive compassion, compassion receptor sites. And then is non-attachment, practicing non-attachment the way to make it that site? Is practicing non-attachment a way to make it that way? No, it's already that way. It's already a receptor site for compassion. Non-attachment is a way to realize the compassion. Compassion is already coming to all those little attachments that are floating around in this universe.

[69:20]

Compassion is like right there all the time. Hello, hello, hello, hello. Flying around, waiting when you... And when the attachment site starts sending out messages, okay, we're ready for you to come. We're getting ready. And then the compassion says, are you sure? It's going to be big. It's going to mean like, you know, you're ready to let go? Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on. Wait a second. No, no, I changed my mind. But there's that kind of thing, you know. How do you get ready? Yeah, that's a good question. How do you get ready? That's part of it. How do you get ready? A part of getting ready is, would you like to get ready? Yeah. Would you like a little bit of compassion now? As much as possible. Well, not as much as possible. You're not ready for as much as possible because you're not ready for it. You want to get ready, right?

[70:21]

Do you think you're ready for the big one? Yeah, well, there's a sense of being unworthy of that thing. There you go. That's in a way. Yeah, that's in a way. You're unworthy. No, not me, no. You know, or maybe her. Yeah. Well, I'll see how it works on her. Whoa, that was tough. I don't want to do that. Did you see what happened to her? Yeah. Actually, she looks pretty good to me. So you want to try it? Yeah. Okay, so we're ready to receive a little patience with your suffering. Ready to receive a little patience with your tensions and your attachments.

[71:24]

Ready to receive a little patience, which means a little bit like, hey, it's okay that you're attached. It's okay that you're really uptight. It's really okay. You ready to hear that? Yes? It's okay that you're uptight. Are you ready to hear that? It's actually okay that you're uptight. I mean, really okay. You ready to hear that? Almost, huh? Yeah. It's just hard to believe. Yeah, hard to believe, right? Lack of faith. So what do you do? Are you ready to receive the precepts? including the confession that I'm hard to believe these teachings, hard to believe that it's actually okay that I'm uptight. It's hard to believe that. I confess that. Okay, I confess it again. I don't really believe it's okay that I'm uptight. I don't really believe it's okay that I'm uptight. I really don't believe that it's really okay that I'm uptight. I don't really believe Buddha's saying to me, you know, it's okay that you're uptight.

[72:27]

I'm uptight myself. I'm uptight myself. But I don't really believe that, even though Buddha's like looking at my face saying, it's really okay. I don't believe it. When Suzuki Roshi was dying, you know, I shouldn't say dying, but anyway, shortly before he died, after, I think it was after Richard Baker's Mountain Seat Ceremony, or just before, I don't remember which, we were in a room with him. It wasn't his funeral, because he was still alive. We were in this room with him, you know, And he was sitting in a chair and he said, I think, I can't remember the exact sequence, but I think Kadagiri Roshi crawled over to him on his knees and put his head in his lap, crying. And Suzuki Roshi said, It's okay. It's okay that you're crying. It's okay that you're laughing.

[73:28]

It's okay that you're uptight. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. And so you just, if you don't ever hear that, you need to hear that. You need to say it to yourself or get somebody to say it to you. You need to learn to say, in English or Japanese, it's all right. It really is all right. Still, we want you to become Buddha, yeah, but it's okay. If you're ordinary, it's okay. If you're ordinary means you're out of attachments, you're uptight, it's okay. And you need to just like, if you want to get ready, just keep listening to that. Keep remembering the Buddhas are saying, it's okay that you're the way you are. It's all right. No problem. Of course it's a problem, but no problem if there's no problem. Then you start getting ready for more patience and more patience and more acceptance and more generosity and more confession that you don't believe these teachings, that you don't believe that Buddhas are going to bring all their compassion to you, that you don't believe

[74:45]

But this is his vow. Dogen's vow is, may all the Buddhas be compassionate to us and free us from our karmic habits of resistance to their compassion. May they. So there's endless practices to get us ready to accept what's already being offered and to accept the samadhi and enter the samadhi. Endless practices. There's one. So when you feel that resistance, like, oh, yeah, sounds good, but... And confess that, I confess that, and confessing that, that's compassion. The confession of the tension is compassion. It's part of precept practice. And your precept practice won't be perfect until you understand... actually, until you see and immerse yourself in this vision of the non-duality of yourself and Buddha. Until you immerse yourself and really see that, and see that and immerse yourself back and forth, even your confession won't be completely perfect.

[75:54]

But this process is available. Okay? Yes? This is for Linda. Okay, is that enough for today? So if there's time, I'd still like to talk to you about how the teaching of karma comes into this, particularly the Buddha practice, which is Buddha, and also tell you a few more Zen stories about ordinariness and dharma and how they work together.

[76:50]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_89.13