Caring for Everything as Awakening

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A virtual Dharma talk by Tenshin Roshi for an online gathering of the No Abode Community via Zoom.

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stolen on
if dove as an offering to the know about sanga and am yeah it seems like we really
really have realized no abode
i so
none of us are at the temple called know board right now
and
i'm
i'm in the valley of the green dragon
at green gulch
sitting in a room in the temple talking to you and your around the country various places

and we're sharing in this
a global crisis
full of suffering
a danger and opportunities and i want to begin by paying homage
two great compassion which is
functioning very well these days many people are practicing compassion towards
many other living beings and i want to pay my respects to them and i imagine you also heart sharing that respect and homage to the great compassion that circulating through this world of suffering

a great compassion is
an integral part of
great wisdom an integral part of unsurpassed complete authentic enlightenment and last sunday a green gulch i talked about
how
the realization
of awakening
ah has an indispensable component called the practice of the bodhisattva precepts

and let me say again as i did last sunday that ah i regard these bodhisattva precepts
as the source
of
unsurpassed authentic complete awakening the source of all buddhas is the origin of all bodhisattvas

add words cannot reach these bodhisattva precepts
and the buddha is who
emerged from these precepts to boot as which emerged from the realization of these precepts
they use words to guide living beings
to care for the precepts
the buddha's come forth from the precepts
offer the precepts in many ways and one of the ways they offer them is in words for example the words nonviolence and service to all beings the words
don't do all evil do all good
purify the mind they talk that way
to guide us to care for these presets they encourage us to care for these precepts
they encourage us to be mindful of these precepts
and to care for them as
we are as though and in the same way as we would care for buddha to care for the precepts in the same way that we care for unsurpassed awakening

caring for these precepts
is the way to care for a living beings
kerry for living beings is the way to care for these precepts
caring
for true awakening
is the way to care for these precepts
caring for these presets is the way to care for
true awakening
we have the opportunity to basically just care for one thing
moment after moment and that one thing has many names like
unsurpassed complete perfect enlightenment
bodhisattva precepts
refrain from all evil
when we say
yeah
when i say
care for buddha or care for awakening
i don't think of eliminating anything or improving anything
for example if i'm caring for a garden
i do not have to think that i'm improving the garden
some people do care for gardens with the idea of improving the garden and i don't oppose that
but if i care for the garden
the way i care for awakening that i'm caring for wholeheartedly but i'm not trying to improve upon it
i'm not trying to improve upon
the buddha
caring for the precept of nonviolence i'm not trying to improve
anything i'm trying to realize everything as buddha dharma
so these precepts are not in opposition to evil
they are relating to everything as an opportunity to care for
perfect awakening

everything is an opportunity for caring for awakening
i'm these precepts
our like gum one idea has their like a magnifying glass
are there like x-rays
or they're like bright mirrors

and the story comes to mind is
one of the
great ancestors of the zen tradition his name is master mom
he was sitting
in meditation all the time and his teacher
came to see him
and his teacher said
what are you figuring to do sitting there in meditation
and master moss said
i'm figure you to make a buddha

i'm figuring to
realize to make unsurpassed complete authentic awakening
and his teacher
oh
picked up a tile
and started rubbing the tile was a stone
and master mama
said what are you doing in the teacher said i'm polishing this tile to make a mirror

a master mason or how can you make up mirror on a tile
and his teacher said how can you make a buddha
by practicing meditation

the teacher did take a rock a stone and tile and he polished he rubbed the tile with a stone

and he showed the wrong way
to work with the stone and tile
to use the stone to make the tile into a mirror
is not gonna happen
but he could have said
i'm rubbing this tile
with this stone
in order to take care of this tile
what're you doing i'm taking care of this tile
as though i were taking care of unsurpassed the perfect enlightenment
but he didn't say that he's hit he he said in a sense ah
something which was not appropriate to the way of practicing with the precepts
in other words to use the tile and stone not to care for the stone is tile or the stone
but to affirm that the mirror and the stone or not the same
and therefore i should make the mirror and the tyler not the same so i should make a tile into a mirror
but by caring for the tile without trying to make it into anything but a tile
we are practicing the body sought for precepts of nonviolence
and we will realize
the bright mirror of helping the tile be completely a tile

just like if we were taken care of the buddha we would not try to make the buddha into a mirror or into a title or into a bodhisattva or into a garden
we will respect the buddha of course and we would help the buddha the buddha
practicing meditation we practice meditation to help meditation practice be just meditation practice we polished the tile to help the tile be a tile and stone be a stone
this is for example
this is doing good this is clarifying the mind this is the teaching of all borders

and
people
give me gifts all the time of telling me how there
trying to improve their situation

and i do not try to improve them when they tell me that
i tried to take care of the ones who are trying to improve things
but it is possible to whole heartedly care for things without trying to get them to be something other than what they are
what they are our doors to
the dharma
and if we'd care for them as the as we would care for the dharma
most of us are not trying to improve the dharma i haven't seen people say i'm trying to improve the dharma i'm trying to improve the buddha however they do some trying to say they're trying to improve the saga
in particular cases
and i do not try to improve those who are trying to improve those
i try to care for those who are trying to improve others and i support those who are caring for others

so now he could perhaps have a little discussion about when i've said or if there's something odd july to talk about we could do that too and you can raise your hands and i'll call on you

i'm i'll just say you can either
i put your put your hand up because we have so few people and a rebel see you that way or if you click on a participants at the bottom minton like to raise your hand when or his hands okay
actually raise your hand if you want to get this guy like this
or even go like and i'll all a new people am
then

tracy
shy about how first but i'm
jump anyway
i'm
so he said we could speak to what you just of do or anything and i am going to do both and i'll start with the anything i'm which isn't i notice i've been on kind of starving to hear from you
like
i'm i'm feel fine i feel great and yet there's a part of me that has just been almost desperate to hear you talk about talk in these times and about these times so i guess i've been wondering if for you times show up as something
really amazingly different than any buddhist practitioner and history in the world as ever had to face or yeah this is just business as usual for enlightenment lets the tools that will be used for twenty five hundred years our as
as helpful and on point as they ever were so at what i cannot that's what i've been hungry for against as the word i would use to hear from you and if i listened to what you've been saying today
think you've been saying yeah same tools that the precepts am
bring them out now
no more no less than ever and i don't know if that's what you're saying that that's kind of when i'm impugning from what i've heard you say this afternoon and
that's satisfying to me and reassuring to me
and i'm also there's upon him that's also curious and wants you to talk about do these time seem different or specialty
the try to do seem different
did they seem more different than usual
yeah i think they do
but ah
i'm also kind knows
surprise almost
how a tradition applies to suck to radical change
and how radical change is part of our tradition
we have a tradition which is set up to deal with radical change
and sure enough it seems like yeah it it can stay sort of abreast of this of this type of these changes
as high seeming to me
and another part of our tradition
about the precepts
is that part of caring for living beings as are changing
part of the care is to be asked questions like you're asking me right now
to call the tradition into question is traditional
to say is the tradition appropriate to visit to this new situation that's an ancient question
which is now being asked to day in a in a way that's never been asked before and and yet it's exactly just like all the other one times that it was questioned basically the tradition isn't is built for being questioned the tradition encourages questioning itself
if our tradition doesn't question itself and question it's relevance i would say that's not traditional
so if you hear about a buddhist to put a presentation of buddhist tradition that says
this tradition is not available to be questioned i would say i don't think that's really the tradition i'm devoted to
and actually i don't think there's much evidence there is evidence of people in the past who resisted being questioned but i didn't see them ever established that resistance to being questioned as a new authentic tradition
so for example dog and probably was questioned
but he didn't say you people shouldn't be questioning me
and you might meet some people who are devoted to what they consider to be the buddhist tradition who do not seem to be open to being questioned that can happen that's like a illness in the tradition or not illness and nutrition that's an
eldest in a person who is trying to practice the tradition is they do not want to practice it in other words to do not want to be questioned so you just questioned me but i was not opposed to you're questioning
and you could even say you know i i don't think the tradition is doing very well
that would be your view and you can say and i don't i call you when you're practicing in the way you're responding i call into question and i would say to you thank you i mean i wanna say thank you you're an acting the tradition when you do that you say i don't want you
i say what you are
the tradition include you not want into practice the tradition it welcomes that
so yeah it i'd use the word strange don't come to my mind a lot
i i've never been in a situation like this before
and then i think that hasn't always been that way that i've never been in a situation before maybe now we don't now we understand that we've never been in this situation before
and then sometimes in the past we think oh i've been here before but what's that a delusion we thought you know that we were there before i think so
now we're a little less diluted it's in seeing that were on the frontier of a new world day by day
we see wholesomeness we see on wholesomeness and all of it is calling for care for compassion i i believe
and when i see people being compassionate to what's going on i think i want to pay homage to that
if people see on wholesomeness and their compassionate to it i wanna i pay homage to their but to compassion doesn't mean you don't call on wholesomeness into question
compassion doesn't mean you don't question on skew what appears to be on skillful
but when i see if i see the appearance of something unskillful is my feeling i want to take care of this sentient big i want to help them i want to give them as much kindness as i would give you a buddha and it must respect as i would give to the buddha and this end and awakening
i look at myself and asset and if i if the answer's yes i feel right i feel i'm on the ball

are you doing their tracy
i'm great great aunt i had a thought that i'd like to share with you that in these last six weeks or have long it's ban in i acted like everyone else i'm gone up and down up and down i felt a little bit like guide i'm cheating at one way to say it why
i'm a leg up due to our practice do do all those years looking at the wall
i'm dead
given how terrified a lot of people are with the uncertainty of these times and i have my moments but there's a basis of
i all i could say is you know the teaching in my head speaking instead of my fear or
what the media is staring at me there's a there's a place where i'm
i feel i got something to fall back on or dan on and i don't know why i'm using the were cheating but i feel like oh lucky me
shooting
i mean yeah so a terrifying situation should be horrified at every moment it's like you're cheating it's like you're cheating what he said
you're cheating falling into the pit of misery yeah
you're cheating demons
but not really
you're actually a is instead of falling in with the demon you're giving the dharma to the demon
hell
like you know there's very stories about demons or harassing people and then when the people get angry that the demon goes i got him
and when people are kind of the team in the game goes on now i'm unemployed

it's a lot of survival guilt going around among the survivors
and i and i don't i don't think we should try to get register viable guilt i think we should care for survival guilt
with the bodhisattva precepts
and the survival girl may stay until we're not a survival anymore until we're not a survivor and then and then not being a survival won't have survival guilt navy
so then we can practice compassion would not being a survivor
a way out
i'm sick but it left on survivor who don't know more survival guilt one i'm relieved that right

enrique
thank you for doing this this is a wonderful opportunity to see you all
i'm
i think it is a year or two ago you told me
i should he listened to the cries of the world and it was in response system i always had a lot of trouble at the time personal troubling that for me comic situation and he told me i listen to the crime in the world by thought oh how's that gonna get hot female but damn
yet our last triumph and i am
i did find it helpful and i've tried to practice that
you know a certain understanding and compassion but i was i feel like lately as i practice let's say the cries of the world that those cries or gotten a lot louder and kind of are overwhelming to me
come to the point where i mean it
the song that's kind of easy because i can now i can relate to traces of the i like the almost because you can fall back on the practice you have some tools to deal with some of the pain that you're here on the other people experiencing
but i've been seeing and hearing fingers
that are a kind of overwhelming to me and
the one example or sanders said situation going on in michigan at the cap state capitol in michigan i saw a photograph of this man screaming in the face of a police officer in the police officers standing there and
it just stop and were talking earlier about without violence and nonviolence and i said there's such a violet
saying to me
and it feels like these times have more violence and more
pain
is it
is that really so i mean or that has just been the same all along or we just isn't just that it looks like it's more intense now than it was before
well
even if it is more intense
or even if it's less intense less even if it's less intense you're still feeling somewhat overwhelmed right thus yeah so i don't know how if it's more or less intense but i hear that you find it intense enough
i hear you saying it's intense enough for you right
yes you're not asking for to the you're not asking me for the violence to be more intense are you know know so i seems like you have enough violence around you for the time being
mac that you have so much that you're feeling almost overwhelmed by it
yeah right
yes so i think that what i hear is that you think that listening the cries of the world is good but then at a certain point you get this feeling like you're going to get overwhelmed by it
yes so now the next thing now that i see it as presenting itself for your care is the feeling of being overwhelmed

and i hear that word grow off from a lot of people
are you with me guess i am no so trying to figure out whether it's actually more than usual or more than ever that's that's that also is another kind of challenging thought which might add to the overwhelm
are you don't have do any calculations if you don't want to because you already have plenty to deal with mark packs so much that you feel on the verge of being overwhelmed
and again if i feel on the verge of being overwhelmed i recommend to myself that i take care of the feeling of being either on the verge of overwhelmed or that i feel overwhelmed i want to take care of it
listen to listen to that too so if i'm listening to the cries and then listening to them i feel overwhelmed and ice in a sense i would take care of the was closest to make my own feeling of overwhelm and caring for that will help me then open to others again
as my experience
but feeling overwhelmed is another cry to listen to and since it's your own it's good for you to take care of that first since it's right your face
and then if you can take care of that
you can take care of while nodding then you could take care of her the
the difficult to understand point is
the in the sutra where it talks about the bodhisattva whose name is listening to the christ as the world it says that to observe the cries of the world
his eyes of compassion that that observation itself
how does the listening to the cries create blessing it doesn't explain how that happens
but did the suggestion of the my honor is that listening to the cries of self and other
develops a vast ocean i'm positive energy and virtue
and feeling overwhelmed is on all the feelings of overwhelmed our in-laws in that ocean of sentient beings
so we have an ocean of sentient beings and we have an ocean of merit and the ocean of sentient beings is observed with eyes of compassion and the observation brings to the ocean of sentient beings another ocean
and i don't know it puts the origin of sentient beings into the ocean our blessings
and the key factor in the integration of the ocean of blessings in the ocean of sentient beings the key factor there is observing the ocean of sentient beings with eyes of compassion and once again in that ocean of sentient beings his innumerable examples of feeling overwhelmed
you feel sometimes i feel that sometimes the voice i can't stand this i can't take this appears in many sentient beings minds that voice is calling for compassion
i say would you say enrique is that voice calling for compassion
yes it is
i think what happens to me as i added some how our grew up i feel like i
what i ought to do is take care of others and focus you know outwards on other people and i forget about taking care of myself
oh and
i know in the practice
we talk about that that young self-care being a you
need to feel compassion towards yourself before and get good with that before you
are good with being compassionate towards others and i guess and my intellectually i understand that but in practice i've always wanted to jump ahead and
skip the me part and get to helping others and i think maybe sometimes it was thinking well they'll be grateful these others will
will thank me for it and i'll feel better
so the the usual instruction and zan is don't skip up what's right in front of you
if others are right in front of you don't skip over them to take care yourself
if yourself as right in front of you don't skip over yourself
take care of what's right and funny
and it might be you
and it's so don't skip over it and it might be somebody else don't skip over what's right in front it
as one thing perhaps good about this whole lockdown situation as yeah said that's a fact i'm forced to your what's in front of me almost twenty four hours seven days a week is just made since on there
you know how much do you and also the floor that you're looking at know
the did the floor you're about to take a step onto
i've done a lot more sweeping layaway out no
when you're sweeping don't overlook this the brew don't overlook the ground when you're walking don't overlook the step
take care of what's right in front of you and that is an accord with listening to the cries of the world the floor want your compassion to the brew much your compassion the dust roger compassion the cockroach is you got cockroaches right
everything what is calling for your compassion and maybe the lockdown helps us not overlook what's going on in our own house
yes
thank you
when did you have your hand raised a while ago
i did i did thank you have
i appreciated you bringing up the colon about polishing a tile oh and i realized there's a part of the colon that's always been it feels like an and secretary for some reason and i thought this might be an opportune time to bring it up which is after this exchange
i think master mas has some delectable than what shall i do and then none way says if you've got
a courage that doesn't go what do you hit the card or the ox and master moss or and oath he was a master at that time but master moss says it he saw it you know so to me that's like what how is it that that's
i i've never quite understood or the silence and also bringing up that
particular
image oh
or i have it
it resonate somewhat but but i would appreciate your commentary
the story does go on so after up
after the teacher ah so there's two versions of the story by the way one version story is that master mott his master mar
at the time of the story he's already master mom however even though he's master mahi still have a teacher
after becoming a master my and going beyond his teacher
get going beyond his teacher he went beyond his teacher and he still had a teacher who could still question on
so even when you go beyond your teacher you teach your dog is to yeah few questions to help you go beyond your teacher again
so here's the teacher questioning the master or maybe not the master but anyway what are you doing and that after he says how can you make a buddha by something
so again you have
your take your are you taking care of sitting meditation
are you trying to make sitting meditation into buddha
and he seemed like you know
he was talking as though he were yeah
when he caught using sitting meditation to make a buddha and that there were two things
it seems like the you might say and then the teacher says okay let's play this out now i'll do the same thing how take something a tile and then i'll try to make the tile into something else
how do this polishing of the tile to make the tile into a mirror
and ah an endo much he says and again when marx who looks at him it looks like the teacher saying that the tile in the mirror i choose me he had the tile and the mirror are two different things
so they're playing one way to read this is they're playing pretending duality
so much sitting there and he's not really trying to do anything with anything he's just taking care of sitting meditation he's just taking care of buddha
so the teacher asked him his dualistic question what do you figuring to do with this
and any he knows he's not but but mods who plays along as as well i'm trying to make a buddha i'm trying to make this city meditation and to boot buddha and then the teacher plays this game of okay now i'll do the same thing with this tile here in the stone
and then ah
i hopped i'm i'm reading this non dualistic and then the teacher says
i'm in a monk when his as at what are you doing then he tells him and then he says well how can you do and how can you do that in other words how can duality be that way and then the teacher says again how can duality be that way and then ah where did you go
what they are they keep moving around and then the teacher says that and then the monk says that the students says or was right and again he says woolworths right okay ready one two three were what's right we don't skip over that
don't skip over that that's not dualistic he sang what is right right is what
so again he's not really been looking for something other than what he said as what's right as what ah buddha what is right is buddha buddha is what is right
what buddha is right is what and right as and what is right and then then the teacher does this thing about the well if your he doesn't say exactly but if you're if you're driving an ox cart
should you hit the ox or the cart
right
most people hit the ox right
what people don't hit the if the if the if the card gets stuck most people don't hit the car right
but the teacher isn't isn't saying that said obvious right ready did you ever everybody following this he got an oxcart most people when it gets stuck they hit the ox right
because the ox drives the car right
so which one do you hit
almost nobody went to would hit the cart
but there's a question and much i think get gives a non dualistic answer by being quiet
when you're practicing the bodhisattva precepts
to realize buddha if you're practicing the precepts of the way of carried for buddha he hit the precepts already hit buddha
if the if you're practically voice offer precepts to real to to demonstrate as a way to care for buddha do and the they and you get stuck in your practice to hit to getting stuck to hit the precepts
so i couldn't hit the precepts these precepts are working already hit the buddha where you don't want to hit buddha or maybe i will hit buddha what do you hit
preserves he how you can hear everything you can hit the cart you can hit yourself you can hit the buddha you can hit the hitting
need to care for everything you care for the cart you care for the horse care for the donkey and care for the rabbit

i have to just check the card to slide i'm linda
now that's me diane i'm i'm calling a linda likes her question i'm sorry yeah well i
i'm really a p is she
well what you're saying and
either this last question of if it doesn't go what do you hit a few precepts
if your practice is stuck what you hit
what do you care for i'm just turning that those two are turning on each other there there's look so if your practice it it you know it
is there any different way you would care for the cart is very different way you care for buddha that you wouldn't care for your practice
and if i care for my practice in a different way than i care for buddha i think my practice might get stuck in yeah yeah and if i care for buddha again if i can for buddha and a different way than i care for my practice i think my practice might get stuck in and we're stuck with know what do i hit
i think i would hit i would hit both i would care for both
an iq i think when i care for both
i'm not stuck
and if i care for being stuck the way i would care for both that's buddha and that's the precepts
diane do you with
the somebody have requested
karen

thank you
if this is sort of hours from the story about polishing the tile oh have a friend to ask me for help with something that's rather difficult and i thought about it and i thought that the thing that she wanted help with funny bit to me so i said yes
and then i see that you know if i care for her in a way that lets her be her
it's a very good chance that what she asked me help her with will actually
happen the i'm trying to understand how to keep my eye on her a not
and at the same time keep my eye on where
this might know
you know tip to pay attention to both of those things and i refilled
on certain i say you have to thing yeah
one is wonder what is her one is her and one is good thing that she asked when helper
so she's got this thing she wants to help will help and you want to help her
which is most important
the to both kind of important what you think she wants you to help with this important
aren't to make it big change in her life and it would be a hard change but isn't that change about her
this isn't a change
for to help her isn't now she's yes no so relieved by helping her isn't it
yes now the but she she had proposed an eye for it with direction for that help and i don't want to entirely give out on the direction or city
yeah
i don't want to entirely give up on that give up on life on the direction that he asked for help with
i don't see a need to give up or on the direction she's asking you to help her with seems like both of the things you could care for and seems like caring for both of them is caring for her
yeah i see i see a little bit of conflict air it's like the polishing what's conflict
am i think to let her be heard it may be that thing won't get done but she wanted help with to let her be her that thing might not get done yes yeah right
and ah then the
i don't want to give up on it too soon but i don't want to push i am not follow you about giving up on something what do you tried i thought were talking about taking care of her yeah so i don't see him need to give up on anything what are you talking about giving up on
on the on the specific task which she asked me to help her was
and why would you have to give up on helping her with that specific dashed
i'm why wouldn't it be appropriate to help her
i think it's appropriate to help her i'm not sure that she being herself
can actually
do it without kind of shifting when i'm being a slightly different person than she when she is
can't you help her be who she is that's what i want to do know and won't end and couldn't you simultaneously help her with is tasked by a help her beauty is i'm not sure what this object is that what you want to do yeah i wanna do both yeah i want to do both to so if someone
he wants to do something i want to help that person be themselves that's right and i might walk with them and help them be themselves and that will help them do the task to
which might include doesn't boot does not necessarily include that they to finish the task here you go yeah because as out i often use example of if you can stand at one more time my grandson why i'm all for a walk here green gulch in the da
mark in the winter
and i i i want to help him be himself and he wants me to go with them here he wants my as my attendance on this adventure
and i want to help him be himself way tonight yes but in this case helping a be might be himself i thought actually entailed me going on this adventure with him
the great analogy
but it didn't mean we would do the adventure yeah just means i will support him being the little guy who wants to go on an adventure
and then we'll see how that turns out
i thought he would get scared he went out in the dark and cold
why didn't i but i didn't stop him from being the person he is in the house
and the and who wanted to go and it was not afraid
so i was with the little boy who wasn't afraid and i thought if we go outside you i'll get a little boy who is afraid but i didn't try to prevent him from being that little boy he would be
and if he wasn't afraid i would support him in that too
and we'd take a walk
and i'm supporting and to be who he is on this adventure i'm doing this thing which we might never do
that's you haven't got to our destination which is the garden
as we approached the garden he says you know the story right
as we approach the garden he says what's that
and by the way a little dogs walking with us little dog named rosie
as we approached the garden he says what's that and i say it's frogs and he says you mean ribbit ribbit and i see yeah and we walk some more and the frogs keep rebutting and then he says i think we should stop
is getting scare
so he became i helped him be who he was which led to us not doing the thing
you know but it did lead us to in entering into the process of ways
so i think the main thing is to help the person and yourself be who you really are
and then
no i think i have a habit of thinking that process and task or two different things and not like they're not pm
they're not
thank you thank you
any other questions at this time
denise and then deborah

when we dragged on for their shoes your now denise
oh lamb my mother passed away a couple of weeks ago from cozy
on top
i had always wanted to be by her side of the class
you're very close
eat
it happened so quickly he learned that he hospital to be by her side by
i didn't get to talk to my sister did and she spoke to the people who are caring for her
there was so kind
adjusts the smells that all of us how well compassionate they works for what she was feeling but also for what we were experiencing and now the sun up to my mother so my sister could talk to her and and my father as well and
it just they're just sewed me how you know i had this idea about how her death should go
and my role in it and
how
anyone could fill that role any kind person could be there is by her side and units
it seems
really to calm my mother to have these kind people by her side and telling her it was gonna be okay
yeah
and instances the and my car sincerely opened up and the dread i was feeling in the beginning of this or lockdown
it's not there is what's really reoriented everything you said that the precepts are like a magnifying glass
but death is to he another thing that we most and
fear when that happens there's this holes spacious round lead becomes visible
you
if you take care of it
that was my question how do you take care of this ah open my my open hearts
well
take care of it as though you're taking care of
buddha
don't try to improve it
don't try you don't try to improve buddha right

don't try to hold onto buddha you don't hold onto border
don't try to get anything from this
wonderful thing it's like you wouldn't try to get anything from buddha
don't run away from it
take care of and like taking care of
most precious thing
but is also pressures in a way that it it shows you what's appropriate it shows you how to take care of it
the precepts are telling you how to take care of everything
as a way to see through everything to the source of the buddha's
as i think you found that you did look at the situation with the precepts and got to see
the buddha and the situation namely even though things didn't go the way you wanted he saw my god bodhisattvas were there
sounds like you did
discover the buddha in your mother's dying
because you cared for the process and i'll see you cared for things going differently than the way you want it than a way you plant
so you cared for your disturbed plans according to the precepts
and you got to see where the precepts come from
that's what it seems like to me
and now he had this new situation and it seems like you take care of this new situation like you took care of your mother's dying

huh
any other offerings to
day or deborah you hide your hunger and yes
thank you denise i'm so sorry about your mother and i was just gonna ask
an try to remember my crush him after that and if one does really take care the moment practice whole heartedly is it effortless
i guess i'm confused whether i'm i'm not sure either really taking care of it
i'm
if it can really take care of something and let didn't doesn't make sense it totally does and what comes to my mind is that on when a woman has breasts that have malkin them
sometimes the milk squirts out
just even at the sound of a baby's crying melk squirts out even at the son of other people's babies crying malc squirts out in sometimes skirts was considerable know energy
it's a big effort on the part of the body to squirt that
that milk that nutrition that love gay but it's also effortless mean nobody like now you can scoot you can squeeze the breasts and so on so forth are also the baby the baby nurses and if they will a babies making an effort but the mothers making an effort to but she
not really working at it she is just flowing so kind of according to your understanding what have we are inert we are effortful beings were always making an effort as long as we're alive we're cooking
all the time twenty four hours a day
but if we're taking care of what tried to finance it doesn't seem like anything bit before or after pushing or pulling
and we can train so that we can be really wholeheartedly effortful beings but does nothing in addition to our whole hearted effort for be nothing like pushing it or dragging it it's more like it's emerging from app from the whole universe supporting us and supporting the whole unit
verse there's no gain or loss so in that sense it seems effortless
the whole the universe makes tremendous effort to make you and you make this tremendous effort to make the whole universe it's a lot big job but actually you know your effort to do some small thing may be more easily trick you than your effort to make the whole universe
so i'm sorry where'd you go she said so when they overwhelm comes in essay they're pushing her pulling it's not as afraid as fifteen or poorly
whether it's effort but has understood as as being pushed or pulling
sort of little bit off but again it's just something that's calling for compassion and if when it gets enough compassion is not pushing or pulling anymore
is just intense life which can be interpreted as
pushing or pulling are turning away or touching you can be interpreted that way and then it can be overwhelming or you could say underwhelming you know or you know too much or too little
so again if we if we listen to too much with compassion and to little with compassion we listened to them we come back upright
but we don't we don't like prohibit thinking that's too much or too little that can happen
overwhelm or underwhelmed can happen and those are opportunities again for the milk of compassion to squirt out effortlessly
thank you you're welcome
great to see you guys from all over the country ah north carolina illinois texas
southern california northern california where else
that it for now minnesota minnesota bridge
i am yes
oh can i ask a question yes ah ah so i'm trying to determine the best way to care for my son oh he's got schizophrenia
he's currently in jail every time he gets released from jail he wants me to allow him to be free and i don't feel it that's in his best interest but when i feel as in his best interest feels like
i try to fix him maybe being too controlling maybe or just caring for the best outcome for him so how can i find my way through this ticket us
know how can i discern the best way to care for him
well you said a number of things just now and why you were talking were you listening with compassion to what you were saying
yeah i think so
that's the way to go
just keep listening to your on suffering
your own
pain about his pain
just keep trying to try to not open try to stay present with what's been given to you
and that way of dealing with what's been given to you when he is given to you in the flesh than you have a chance of dealing with him of listening to him
of just like now listen to yourself i didn't feel like you were trying to control yourself
not just chinese ship an expert express the situation know you trying to express a situation and you're caring for you you're you're caring for the express her
the the diane they express your caring for her you're taking care of her
that's that that way of caring for this person right now is not trying to control her
yeah and taking care of him and the same way you're taking care yourself right now walk behind your control him because i think oh yeah
you can't control him that isn't never him and he can't control himself of course
but he can learn how to take care of himself
so if he sees example observed people being compassionate for themselves he can learn to be compassionate for him said also compassionate to him and if he sees examples of people trying to control him and he tries those he's we know he's not going to be successful
so if he's surrounded by people who try to control them when they when they get away from 'em than what's he gonna do he's you'll be out a total loss because all he knows is how people try to control him and he doesn't know how to do that
so it's good to be around people who don't try to control him but who care for him then maybe he has a chance of learning how to care for himself which he's not very good at
what and we're already sorry about that well but who's gonna teach him how to take care of himself that's some great quotes and the answer is people who know how to take care of themselves or occasionally people who are so bad at taking care of themselves that he seized her bad example and
sees all that's what i do that now i see would have been doing wrong
occasionally showing people how stupid we are helps them
but you know somebody also needs and teaches her how to the you know smart and kind and you can teach him that if you can if you can like give up trying to control yourself and give up trying to control buddha and switch to caring for yourself you can show him how to care for himself
which he might not learn really well all of a sudden
but if he learns a little that's good
yeah the places that they might put him in are usually running short of people who know how to care for themselves
and that's another painful thing for us to be kind to is a shortage of highly skilled body surface
to be patient with that even though we feel sad when we see somebody who's not very skillful if week if we can take care of our sadness and be kind to them they'll become more skillful so i don't know
yeah we're trying to
ah help people learn how to help people
i think i get it great
i mean i understand what you're saying putting it into practice as a whole different story but when you give am a practicing pretty well right now
do you just keep this up just continue this way
thank you all up your look like you're taking pretty good care anything about else today
we've been going on for a little while
the not for today ladies and gentlemen in we you say how wonderful to it
arden can we say how wonderful this has been yes you may go ahead senate this has been wonderful read
and charlie
am i wondered how we can support you rub
you know usually a know abode there's a little donation box where we can put some some energy for you and i wonder if there's a virtual wave for us to do that in these times when when at gathering and person well i would suggest today to san francisco zen center
because i'm i'm not at know about
and i'm not a zen center but i think that's an excuse for saying so i think zen center is having a harder time than no no boys not really having hard time there's nobody there needs to be fed
there's no or yeah there's no contagion there nobody's pretty good so ah since now you might make a donation to censor
and that would help me he ah you know zen center this is insider's account right get into some developed grab that then can talk about the campaign that zen centres doing right now okay sure i'll just say i i just posted in the chat for everyone
i'm to links to to where and how to make a donation and
maybe we'll send an email out with that everyone also and feel free to share it and yet just a a big campaign to help raise time raise money at these times and you'll see the there's a whole letter that explains a better than idea of so just them yeah but tart has been shared in the chat and we'll email that out
so unfortunately no abodes fine we have no staff to support
no food to buy ah yeah so it's in nobody's fine and i hope we can get back there soon to meet in person
to be there but it's fine don't worry about it
and ah a few people like a man is going over there and norbert going over there and ah ted who also going over there
and when people are taking care of know board i'd like to go over there to which not allowed to and so appreciate you asking charlie
and let us know that some way we can help you to
anything else today
thank you all for coming
you think you can see rehab and everyone thank you you have pets and to rub to see you
the flickr to see you all thank you
the see all he has taken her
may our intention usually