It seems that during this week we've been discussing the compassionate path of becoming just this person, just this ordinary person. And thus, by becoming just this person, realize the Buddha way. This phrase, given by Yuen Yen to his student, Dongshan, seems to be a creative, skillful gift, a new way of expressing the teaching of the heroic strides which says, if you want to practice the samadhi by which the bodhisattva attains the buddha way, cultivate the dharmas of an ordinary person.

[01:33]

So the lineage of the Heroic Stride Samadhi comes to and is transmitted as just this person. Dungsan realizes it and then Dungsan gives his own creative response and writes the From the precious mirror's body comes the teaching of the five ranks, the structure of the koan systems of the Zen schools. The Heroic Stride Samadhi is

[02:55]

the conduct of an ordinary person. And by being just this person, thereby realizing that Buddha is the conduct of non-duality, the conduct of the intimacy of ordinary people and Buddhas. ...is the conduct of being led together in one mind. One mind that is just the intimacy of all sentient beings and all Buddhas, and there is no karma.

[04:01]

Buddha is being led together in one mind. Blossoming out of this being led together in one mind, in the process of Buddhas being intimate with living beings, Buddha appears in various ways. One of the Buddha appears. In the Buddha appearing, Buddha appears in a way that ordinary people can see, namely as a person who is born and dies. and who demonstrated the attainment of enlightenment. But this one person attaining enlightenment in India, 2500 years ago, and other one persons attaining enlightenment in India, China, Tibet,

[05:19]

Southeast Asia, Mongolia and so on, these are illusions, skillful illusions. This is the Buddha body of illusion which blossoms up out of the actual Buddha, the activity of intimacy of Buddhas and living beings. out of non-duality comes a phantom body, a dream body, a transformation body, so people can see a story. When Buddha is enlightened, it is not just Buddha that is enlightened. When Buddha's enlightenment or enlightenment is of all beings. There's also a dharma body, a true body of Buddha, and there's a bliss body of Buddha.

[06:36]

But any of the bodies of Buddha, Buddha is not dharma body, the true body, which is the whole universe as it really is. And Buddha is not the orgasmic enjoyment body of understanding the relationship between the dharma body and the phantom body. And Buddha is not the phantom body. Buddha is not Buddha's bodies. And Buddha is not the wonderful, subtle attributes of Buddha. Buddha does have attributes, Buddha does have bodies, but Buddha is not her bodies or her attributes. Buddha is living beings being intimate with all Buddhas and all sentient beings.

[07:44]

So a monk asked Dongshan, among the various bodies of Buddha, what doesn't fall into any category, or what doesn't fall into the category of any of the bodies of Buddha?" And Dungsan said, I'm always close to this. How do we realize this closeness? How do we practice this closeness? Just this person. And how do we practice just this person? By being with the things of an ordinary person. If we can be compassionate enough

[08:49]

with the dharmas of an ordinary person, we can settle into being an ordinary person and relax with it and play with it and realize that Buddha is the non-duality of this ordinary person and the things of a Buddha. When the things of an ordinary person, when the dharmas of an ordinary person appear, we practice magnanimity with them. We have a big mind about them, generous with them. We let them be what they are. We practice patience with them.

[09:51]

We practice the bodhisattva precepts with them. We practice diligence with them. We practice samadhi with them. We practice the precepts. For example, we practice all good when we meet things of an ordinary person. And practicing good means we do the practices which help us be an ordinary person. We need to be very kind to ourselves to be able to stand being an ordinary person. As most of you know, it's very difficult to be an ordinary person. It's considerably easier to be a god or goddess. It does take some effort to make it to godhood, but that's not the Buddha way. But also, you know, it's a free country. The Buddha way is to be an ordinary person completely, so really relaxed with it.

[11:02]

With the encouragement of the national teacher of China, I dare to be an ordinary person because it looks like he could do it. If the national teacher can be an ordinary person, we can be ordinary people. If Dung Shan can be an ordinary person, we can. Suzuki Roshi was, in my view, quite an ordinary person. I went to see him. I gave up my life, so to speak, to go practice with him. But that was after I saw that my life was not heading the way I wanted it to go. Even though it was a nice life, I could see, oh, this is not the right trajectory here.

[12:15]

So I went to study with him. His talks I heard him give, he said that he wasn't enlightened. Brackets. I'm an ordinary person, close brackets. That's what you do when you translate something and that wasn't said. And I thought, oh, here I am, here I came all this way. to study with this Zen teacher, and now he tells me he's not enlightened. But I thought, still he's the best teacher I've ever seen, so I'll stay. Although he may not be enlightened, those feet can teach me. Those human feet that I see walking on the ground in front of me while I'm sitting, they can teach me. So I'll stay. The next week he said, I am Buddha.

[13:18]

And I must admit, I thought, oh, good. But he was more ordinary when he said, I am Buddha, than when he said he wasn't enlightened. One time, I was in the Abbot's Garden with him, and we were moving rocks. And his wife came out of the cabin and gave him some orders. And he quietly listened to them. After she left, he said, I'm going to put her on a leash. And I thought, hmm, this sounds like a regular husband doing what's necessary to survive.

[14:30]

He didn't keep that to himself. He let his little disciple hear it. Very helpful. such thoughts occur in the mind of the Zen master. Just like for me, admit that I'm an ordinary person to all your people. But like I say, if the national teacher can imply it, I can admit it. Now, it would be bragging to say that I've completely settled into it and, you know, completely relaxed from being ordinary.

[15:32]

But it's not, or I might even be bragging to say I vow to become completely settled in being an ordinary person and completely relaxed. And I do that, I make that vow because I think it's really good Because I think if I can relax with being an ordinary person, then I can play with other ordinary people. And in that play, I think that Buddha will be realized. I think in that play, that relaxed play, Buddha is realized in this world. And in that relaxed play, we are... to live and die together, which is the Buddha way. That's what we're doing anyway, living and dying together. It's just getting with the program of reality and enjoying it and spreading the joy and encouraging others to join in what's actually already going on.

[16:46]

So we do practice good, we do practice the precepts, but we don't practice the precepts to improve ourselves. We practice the precepts to make ourselves more and more able to be what we are, to be ordinary in relationship. The precepts we feel more and more comfortable being an ordinary person. The compassion of the precepts, the compassion of those precepts gradually makes us able to be a person who is practicing them. Many people tell me now that they have trouble practicing the second major precept of not taking what is not given, which positively means that whatever is given to you, you receive it.

[18:30]

In other words, every moment of experience you say, welcome, rather than later, or no thank you, or... This is... Rejecting what your experience is in the moment is basically stealing. You're planning a big heist. You're getting ready to get something that's not given. You're waiting. I don't want this. I don't want that. For something that's not given. When is it going to come? When am I going to get it? This precept shows you shows me that there's an ordinary person here. And by confessing that I don't want this and I don't want this and I don't want this and I want something else, I'm trying to get something else, by confessing that over and over, you become more and more honestly accepting that there's just this person.

[19:35]

The precept is there because ordinary people have trouble with it. Do the opposite. Now you could say, well then why don't we tell people to take what's not given? Wouldn't that help them? Their ordinariness? Funny thing is, it doesn't. Telling them not to be the way they are seems to be more helpful than telling them to be the way they are. In other words, rather than say, be a thief, and that'll help you realize that you're a thief, and then people realize they're thieves. Ordinary people think they're independent selves, think they're not intimate with all other beings. think they're better than somebody or worse than somebody, rather than intimate with somebody.

[20:59]

Human beings feel like they're isolated selves. And when you feel like that, the way that feels is seeking something that's not happening. Seeking, seeking. When you feel like an isolated subject, conscious being, You naturally seek. You don't see the way mind and object are intimate, so you want to get an object. And we're uncomfortable with this. And practicing the precepts is the form of compassion that helps us get comfortable being that kind of person, an ordinary one who naturally has a feeling of seeking and longing pretty much all the time. Longing comes from delusion, so deluded beings long and seek.

[22:05]

But rather than try to get rid of this person, talk them out of their delusions and their seeking. Well, actually, it sounds like we are trying to talk about practice not stealing and practice not seeking. All you've got to do is practice not seeking. But the reason why we say to practice not seeking is so that you can realize that you're seeking. And then when you realize you're seeking, and we say, now that you realize you're seeking, now don't seek anything. In other words, you're seeking now. Accept that. And actually feel it now. Now that we told you not to, now you say, I'm seeking, I'm seeking, I'm seeking. Now. Now you're home. Now make yourself. I'll bring the patience and the giving. The precepts show you how ordinary you are, and then you can practice patience and giving to yourself.

[23:09]

Patience and giving are surrounding the precepts, so you can settle into the precepts which help show you what an ordinary person is. An ordinary person is the place you can see. You can't see the Buddha, except that the Buddha appears in this fantasy way. But you can realize intimacy with the Buddha if you're willing to be this ordinary person. But of course, we're resisting it, we're shrinking away from it. But patience, giving, and then also diligence, enthusiasm, Okay, I do want to do the practice of Dongshan, of Yuen Yen. I do want to practice the practice of the national teacher, the practice for ordinary people. The practice for ordinary people is to be ordinary people.

[24:13]

The Zen forms are to help us be ordinary people. In other words, help us realize that we're ordinary people. Actualize it, understand it, and stop resisting it. Again, people who are ordinary people, those are the ordinary people. Buddhists do not resist being ordinary people. If we're free of resistance from being an ordinary person, then we are an ordinary person who is not resistant. And you might say, well, that's not an ordinary person. And in a way that's true, it's not. It's an unusual ordinary person. It's a rare ordinary person, but they still have all the ordinariness, resistance, and they're relaxed.

[25:24]

And at that relaxed ordinary person, the intimacy, the non-duality of ordinary person and Buddha is starting to appear in the world. So this is a happy ordinary person, an enlightened ordinary person, a bodhisattva ordinary person, but still an ordinary person. By the way, I wrote out some very ordinary words with my ordinary hands. I wrote out some of the teaching phrases of this session. I wrote them out after session if you want them. in Chinese and English, like, just this person, and Heroic Stride Samadhi in Chinese and English.

[26:36]

Actually, just this person, I haven't been able to find the characters for it yet, sorry. And the very conduct, the very Buddha conduct is Buddha. So that's kind of a summary of this. Maybe that's enough for now. Okay? You ordinary people really encourage this ordinary person. You pretty much set there being ordinary people really well.

[27:39]

Running away from being ordinary, much that I saw, including that you were trying to run away from being ordinary, but you were aware of it. You were very aware. I felt, you know, you came and confessed, I'm trying to get away from being an ordinary person. Good. Good confession. So, I'm really grateful to you for your efforts I'm sorry. Oh, by the way, one of the bodhisattvas in the Heroic Stride Samadhi Sutra, Shurangama Samadhi Sutra, has a name.

[29:56]

In Sanskrit, well, we don't really have Sanskrit. The guess is that the name in Sanskrit is nama-mati. And nama means name, and mati means intention or mind or intellect. The big bodhisattva, the main bodhisattva who's talking in that sutra is called Dhridhamati. which means firm intellect or firm intention. So this one's called nama-mati, it could be translated name, name-mind or mind of name. Would you please help me find a more poetic way of saying name-mind or mind of name? Well, if you can't say anything now, maybe later, if you have some thoughts of some other way of saying that, I just feel funny saying mind name.

[31:16]

But maybe I should, maybe I should just accept that that's just an ordinary name. Just let it be there. But I kind of would like some help. Yes? Appellation mind? Appellation mind. Appellation intellect. Thank you. Yes? Poet mind. Poet mind? Distinguishing. Distinguishing? Label mind? Brand name bodhisattva? Naming mind.

[32:24]

Proper. Proper. Proper. Just proper? Proper mind. Okay. There may be trouble ahead, But while there's music and moonlight and love and romance, let's face the music. Before the fiddlers have fled, before they ask us to pay the bill,

[33:32]

And while there's still a chance Let's face the music and dance Soon we'll be without the moon Humming a different tune And then There may be teardrops to shed So while there's music and moonlight and love and romance, there's music and dance. May our intention

[34:47]

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