Sitting in this hall with you yesterday, I was deeply impressed by the stillness and awakeness in the room. Over and over, moment by moment, this group of people sat very upright and still in the midst of whatever was happening for us. In one, a very influential meditation text,

[01:53]

in China, it's the text actually that was the model for Dogen Zenji's Fukan Zazengi or Dogen Zenji's, in some sense, fundamental instructions on Zazen. In that text, which is this model for Dogen, it starts out by saying, A bodhisattva who studies wisdom should first arouse the thought of great compassion, excuse me, should first arouse the thought of great compassion, make extensive vows and

[03:00]

carefully cultivate samadhi, carefully cultivate tranquility and concentration, vowing to save all living beings, one should not seek liberation for oneself alone. I don't know if yesterday while you were sitting so upright and still, if you were contemplating the issue of great compassion, this text that I just read says that if you want to, what

[04:09]

study, if you want to study wisdom, if you want to realize wisdom, you should first of all have great compassion, but I don't want to tell you that you should, I want to ask you to look to see if you do. And some people have told me over the years that they've looked in their heart to see if there's great compassion there, if there's the wish, the desire for peace and harmony in this world, and if there's the wish and desire to give one's life for the welfare of all beings, and many times people have come to me and told me that they looked and they couldn't find it,

[05:17]

they didn't see it, but still I really appreciate that they looked, that they inquired into their mind and body and heart to see if there is some feeling there like that. And people also reveal, have revealed to me, and I've certainly had it revealed about myself to myself, that there may be impulses or thoughts which are not really concerned primarily with the welfare of all beings, thoughts of anger or jealousy or disrespect, thoughts of greed, feelings of greed,

[06:37]

feelings of envy, feelings of anger and hatred. So people can see those things, those afflictive emotions, but sometimes can't see the emotion of wishing for the welfare of all beings. But by revealing and disclosing our involvement with distractions from compassion, the root of transgressing from compassion melts away. Part of compassion, a big part of compassion, is revealing and disclosing our lack of compassion.

[07:59]

It is compassionate to confess a lack of compassion in your own heart. And by confessing over and over any lack of compassion, by confessing again and again any lack in the practice of compassion, the root of transgressing from compassion melts away. Every time you confess a lack of compassion, that is an act of compassion. Confession is an act of compassion. And even if I confess that I do not wish, that I do not feel that I want to be greatly compassionate,

[09:00]

still, at the moment of confessing, that I don't see that I want to be compassionate, I am being compassionate. If I'm truthfully saying that I do not feel compassion for one or all beings, that act is compassionate, even though I don't feel it. And the more I confess my lack of compassion, the more my body and mind become filled with compassion. The more I admit, simply admit, honestly admit, lack of compassion, the more compassion is realized.

[10:08]

Then, if I finally can feel the wish to give this life to the realization of Buddha's compassion, to the realization of not just compassion for all beings, but enlightened compassion for all beings, because it's possible to feel compassion for all beings, but still not be completely enlightened. So I may feel the wish for the welfare of all beings, and the next step is to wish for Buddhahood in order to facilitate that compassion. And if I wish for such a great thing, then another problem that may arise is,

[11:16]

what a big job that is, and how far I am from that great state, that great way. And I may feel that I would never be able to attain it, or even everybody I know would never be able to attain it. And that may be so. But I think that sometimes you can see something, you can see some person doing something, or you can hear a story about a person doing something,

[12:19]

and your first feeling about what you hear or see is that you want to be that way, and you want other people to be that way. You do sometimes just simply want to be that way. Then you may think about whether you can or not, and you might think, well, I can't, not yet, but I want to be that way. I would like to be fearless, I would like to be generous, I would like to be helpful. Yes, I would now, but can I be? Well, I don't think so, but I would like to learn how. You see someone dance and think, I'd like to learn that dance, do I know how to do the dance now?

[13:26]

No. Would I ever be able to dance as well as that person? Maybe not, but I might be able to learn a little bit, and that would be good too. If I hear someone speaking Spanish or Italian, would I like to be able to speak with them? Yes. Can I? No. Would I like to learn? Yes. Do I have the opportunity to learn? Not right now. Would I like to arrange for the opportunity? Yes. When I hear about people who are greatly compassionate, who have achieved great states of serenity and wisdom, I may wish to be that way.

[14:27]

Am I that way now? No. Is there a way to learn how? Yes. Would you like to enter that way of learning? Yes. Would you like to vow to enter that way of learning? Learning to be compassionate? Learning to be compassionate the way you really want to be compassionate? So that all your actions emerge from compassion? Yes, I would like to learn that. Wanting great compassion, wanting to learn great compassion,

[15:35]

and vowing to learn and realize great compassion, this is often recommended at the beginning of Zen practice. In some sense you could say Zen practice is great wisdom practice. If you want to practice great wisdom in the Zen school, we start with compassion. It is a wisdom that is grounded, that's based in great compassion. It is the wisdom of the Bodhisattva and the Buddha, the wisdom of those who wish to realize Buddha. It is based in compassion,

[16:36]

which originally is this feeling, and then is the vow, and then once you have this feeling, not the feeling that you've achieved Buddha's compassion, but the feeling of Buddha's compassion, the desire, the will, and the aspiration to Buddha's compassion, is Buddha's compassion, and yet it's not yet fully enlightened compassion. This wonderful thought, which some of you may have glimpsed, tasted, been touched by, been inhabited by, a moment or more, but in fact, moment by moment, it happens. If you've had a touch of it, you may know that it can be lost,

[17:42]

even though this wonderful thing may arise, it is impermanent, and it can be lost. So once it arises, we need to then practice in such a way to not lose it, or, if we lose it, to practice in such a way to find it again. Finding it means, again, where is it? Where did it go? Where is the great compassion? I don't see it, I don't... oh, there it is! Great! Hi! Yes, I do want you. Yes, I want to give my life to this wonderful thing. Yes. Yes. And now, enter the practices which protect this great compassion and develop it.

[18:46]

And the practices which protect it and develop it are the practice of giving, the practice of precepts, ethical discipline, and again, ethical discipline involves the compassionate practice of confession and repentance. And that protects this thought, so that once this thought, once the vow to live from great compassion, for great compassion, in the midst of great compassion, once that vow has arisen, then there's the practice of confessing every time there's any lack of intimacy with great compassion. Once you feel the great warmth of the Buddha,

[19:54]

the inconceivable love of Buddha for all beings, once you have a glimmer of that, then there's the practice of confessing any distance from that, any turning away from that, any even trying to get a hold of it. Grabbing it, you lose it. Of course, turning away from it is also possible. Of course, you really can't get away from this thing. Buddha's compassion never lets you get away, but you can ignore it. You can resist it. My resistance to Buddha's compassion, your resistance to Buddha's compassion, is just resistance to compassion, which is always touching us. And this is the compassion which you may want.

[21:00]

You may want a compassion that touches everyone who resists you, that touches everyone who resists compassion, and touches everyone who doesn't resist compassion, a compassion which reaches out to every single living being, reaches out, offers itself, regardless of who it is or whether they say thank you. Feeling that compassion, then you have something to tell, whether you're close to it or far from it, whether you're taking care of it or ignoring it. And if you ignore it, then you practice confession. And then you're practicing back on. And then from confession and precepts, you move on to patience, practicing patience,

[22:03]

practicing patience. So she is, of course, a very nice situation to practice patience. Any discomfort you have, any discomfort, any uncomfortableness with feeling sleepy or too awake, too agitated or too energetic, any discomfort in your body or posture, any discomfort with the schedule, any discomfort with the other people, any discomfort with the chanting, with the bowing, with the walking, with the sunshine, with the flowers, with the hillside, with the ocean, with the sky, any discomfort with anything, that's an opportunity to practice patience. Practicing patience takes care of this heart of compassion. Not practicing patience with irritation and discomfort,

[23:13]

we can lose, we can lose this wonderful heart of compassion. Practicing compassion does not mean no discomfort will come to you. Of course, you still can have difficulties, even though you have this great warm heart towards all beings. Even though you've been touched and visited and given this wonderful, great compassion and wish to live for it, you can still be harassed and disrespected and hated and resisted by beings, which hurts often. It's not necessarily pleasant. You can still get sick. All these things can happen to you in the practice of compassion, and that's why we need to practice patience in order to protect compassion and facilitate it.

[24:14]

And patience is compassion and protects compassion. Giving is compassion and protects compassion. Ethical study is compassion and protects compassion. Confession is compassion and protects compassion. And then comes diligence. And yesterday, you practiced diligently. You did. And that was wonderful. The way you practiced yesterday, the way you're practicing today, protects compassion. You protected compassion. You protected even the exploration for whether there was compassion. But looking for compassion is part of compassion. Taking care of children, looking for them is part of taking care of them. Where are the children? Where is the compassion?

[25:18]

That's part of compassion, to look for it, to remember to look for it. Where is it? Where is the compassion? Where is it? I don't see it. Don't get too excited in your look. King, keep looking. I think that might be it. There it is. There is the compassion again. So, you did make a great effort yesterday. It would be wonderful if you did it today, too. Next way to protect compassion is the practice of tranquility, the practice of concentration. The unsurpassable way to protect compassion is with wisdom. Wisdom protects compassion. So, wisdom is based on compassion,

[26:18]

and wisdom protects compassion. Particularly wisdom gone beyond wisdom, perfect wisdom protects compassion. With compassion we are never... then we don't... we don't get involved in any distractions from it anymore. So, we study wisdom, and we also practice, hopefully, giving. So, you and I can make the rest of this session, and also the first day of session, we can make this a gift. We can see this practice of sitting here and practicing this style of life as a gift,

[27:20]

something you're continually giving to all beings. And it also follows to practice the precepts during session. And it also follows to practice patience and so on. Now, when we come to tranquility, sometimes we use the word shamatha, the Sanskrit word shamatha. Which means calm abiding or mental stabilization. Sometimes we use the word samadhi, which means to be gathered, to realize one-pointedness of thought.

[28:22]

And this can be translated as tranquility, concentration, and so on. In the text I quoted earlier, at the beginning of the text it says, the bodhisattva who studies wisdom first of all arouses the thought of great compassion, makes extensive vows, and carefully cultivates concentration. That text was written about a thousand years ago, and in the last thousand years, the Zen school has gone through lots of changes, and different teachers have emphasized the practice of samadhi in different ways. And I'd like to discuss a little bit about this with you.

[29:31]

About the practice of tranquility, and to talk about it to some extent in relationship to the practice of wisdom. And, while I'm talking, I hope that you and I will continue somehow to meditate on great compassion. To remember great compassion

[30:33]

in the discussion of the practice of tranquility, which itself is not necessarily great compassion. It is possible to practice tranquility, to train the mind along the lines which come to fruit as tranquility, without great compassion. The Buddha Shakyamuni practiced tranquility very diligently in India, and had companion yogis who practiced with him, but it is not necessarily the case that all his friends, who were very good at tranquility, had the heart of great compassion. I don't know if they did or not, but it is possible to practice tranquility without

[31:34]

the presence of mind to remember great compassion. It is possible to intend to practice tranquility so that you become tranquil. I don't think it would work to practice tranquility hoping that you would be tranquil and nobody else would be. That would be, I think, rather cruel. But just not to even think of other people. You still could get quite concentrated and quite tranquil just being concerned with your own tranquility. Now, I would suggest that if I tried to practice tranquility during this session, without attending to great compassion, or to put it dramatically the other way,

[32:38]

if I wish to practice tranquility, if I wish to train my attention to promote tranquility and didn't want anybody else to attain tranquility, or at least hoped that I would attain it way ahead of everybody else, of course that attitude would not be conducive to tranquility. So actually, I think, wanting everybody else to achieve tranquility before me, wanting all of you to be tranquil, wanting all of you to be deeply tranquil and at ease and flexible and awake and buoyant, wanting all of you to be that way, is a pretty tranquilizing thought. But I just, I remind you and me as we proceed in the discussion of tranquility

[33:40]

to see if you can listen to and speak about tranquility without forgetting great compassion. So it's possible to talk about something that's part of a bigger thing and lose track of the bigger thing. Right? What do you call that? Forgetting the forest for the trees? So as we focus on this aspect of compassion, try to remember the context of this practice at the same time. That will help, actually, the practice of tranquility. I think it will. You may not feel like it because if you're aware of the big picture at the same time as being aware of the small picture,

[34:41]

you may not feel as focused on the small picture when you're aware of the big picture simultaneously. But actually, that might be a more appropriate way to focus on the small picture and not being so focused on the small picture. It's possible to get overly focused on tranquility and turn tranquility into a kind of darkness or what we call... It's possible to become over-collected. And I don't know what kind of discussion will follow, but before I start... I shouldn't say before I start. As I start, I want to start with a simple instruction for tranquility,

[35:43]

which I think, which I like. I think it's very appropriate for people who live, particularly who live in the United States of America. So we have some people visiting from foreign countries for this retreat, but we live in the middle of a country which is, you know, involved in wars all over the planet. So we live in a country that has a tremendous amount of violence in it and perpetrates tremendous violence all over the planet. So we live in a country, we live in an environment which is extremely violent. Have you noticed? Very violent place we live in. We're affluent and violent together. Funny combination, but... So it's easy for Americans to get overwrought about being serene.

[36:49]

It's easy for Americans to get hysterical about getting calm. It's easy to get violent about being peaceful. We can do that. This is a war for peace. We're doing a war for peace. This makes sense in America, right? War for peace. Not war and peace. War for peace. War to protect people. That's our way here to a certain extent. A lot of Americans think that's a good idea. So now you're in a retreat and you're hearing about practicing tranquility. So, because of that tendency of our environment, the basic instruction for tranquility I offer to you is to be upright, physically upright, mentally upright, and face whatever comes, whatever happens,

[37:55]

whatever happens, whatever comes up, whatever thoughts, whatever feelings, mental feelings, physical feelings, mental thoughts, physical thoughts, whatever you're aware of, whatever comes, whatever goes, whatever comes, meet it. Meet its coming, meet its going. Whatever comes, meet it. Be mindful, in other words, of everything that happens. Be generous in practicing mindfulness. Generously give yourself to be mindful of whatever comes. And,

[38:57]

when you meet whatever comes, meet it with complete relaxation. Each moment, whatever comes, meet it with complete relaxation. So, this is a basic instruction which I suggest for training the attention. Mindfully meet whatever comes with complete relaxation. If tension comes,

[40:02]

meet the tension with complete relaxation. If tension comes, don't try to get rid of the tension. Don't hold on to the tension. Just meet it with relaxation. If relaxation comes, don't try to hold on to the relaxation. Don't try to get rid of the relaxation. Try to meet the relaxation with relaxation, which lets it go, if it's going, and lets it come again. If a happy face comes, if a respectful face comes, meet it with complete relaxation. If an angry, disrespectful, suffering face comes, meet it welcome it. Welcome suffering face with complete relaxation.

[41:10]

This is a basic instruction, basic training. It's an instruction for training which may come to fruit as tranquility. . Maybe that's enough for starters. Any questions about that simple start? . . I think that

[42:23]

I have a general impression that Americans overwork more than any place else in the world. I think we seem to be the most excessive over the top on just about everything except compassion. . Seems like it, you know. Seems like it. If you go to Europe or Japan, for example, or Europe, I haven't been there, actually I was there a few days ago. I was in England and I didn't see any hummers. . Do you know what a hummer is? . You don't know what a hummer is, right? . Do you know what a hummer is? Tell her what a hummer is.

[43:26]

. [...] I didn't see one hummer. It's difficult to see a hummer because the country is not big enough for a hummer. . They're just, you know, if you tell Americans, there are other instructions for tranquility, eliminate conceptual thought. . Don't let certain thoughts arise. These are traditions, you hear that in Asia. You know, don't let your mind waver at all from what you're concentrating on. There's such talk, which is sometimes good for somebody who's already living up in the mountains very serene and doesn't have a hummer or never even saw a hummer, you know, who walks everywhere. For people like that, wherever you go,

[44:29]

you don't tend so much to overdo it. But if you're in a car, you know, all you've got to do is press on the gas with your blood full of caffeine, it's easy to overdo it . . and get angry at the other people who are overdoing it. But people who are walking, they don't usually get that angry at the other... we don't have, like, walking rage, right? . When you're walking along the street, you don't get that upset about people, you know, walking ahead of you. . You can, but it's not, you know, it's not that big a deal. I think we overdo, very easily, even instructions on tranquility. We work too hard, you know, I'm not tranquil yet, I've been practicing now and I'm not getting calm. This is quite typical in America . Germans are well known for taking lots of vacations.

[45:32]

They're very diligent, they make really, you know, they make their cars really skillfully, but they take a lot of vacations. Americans, like, overwork, because, you know, we're scared of losing all of our wealth, we're so rich we're terrified, we're scared, we seem to be the most frightened country in the world, and the reason we're more frightened is because it's good business to be frightened. So, America's a place where you've made the people so scared that the only alternative, you know, the only thing to do when you're that scared is conquer the world. So the people who want to conquer the world get the Americans so worked up and so frightened that we say, I guess we have to conquer the world because if we don't conquer them, they'll hurt us, they'll take all our wealth, they'll invade us, they're invading us, or, you know, Iraqis are going to invade us, and, you know,

[46:34]

we're the most, seem to be the most scared and the most violent, but violence and fear go together. People who are afraid are the most violent. The instruction is not, I think the instruction has to be relax with this wonderful, challenging practice, otherwise we get too wrought up, we get too excited, we get too, we work too hard usually. I don't know if you worked too hard yesterday. Didn't look, didn't look too bad, actually. You worked hard, but didn't look too hard. Now, I'm saying, actually, if you can just relax yesterday, but now bring mindfulness to it, which was there already, I could see, you weren't sitting the way you were sitting

[47:36]

by accident, you were sitting that way because you were mindful, you didn't come on time for the periods by accident, you came on time because you were mindful, you heard the bell and then you came, and then you sat there at your seat and you, you found your seat, not by accident, but because you were paying attention to where you were. You sat the way you did because you were mindful. Now continue the mindfulness, and now, to deepen your tranquility, now bring more relaxation to this same effort. Don't discontinue the sitting upright, which you did very nicely, but now bring relaxation to that, and now bring relaxation to everything that comes, and I think that's good for for everybody, but particularly for Americans, I feel, we overwork, we work too hard. Part of diligence is resting.

[48:40]

Part of wholehearted effort is to rest. Tranquility practice is to train yourself so that you can deeply rest. When you're deeply rested, you also then have lots of energy, and then you can start studying wisdom. I have a two-part question. First, do you or can you make a distinction between compassion and love? Make a distinction between compassion and altruistic love?

[49:42]

Yeah, altruistic love or empathy or co-dependence or Oh, sure, no problem. Can I do the first part? Is that alright? So my my empathy is that maybe you didn't want me to just do the first part? Is that right? Is that right? Is that right? It's okay? Okay. So anyway, the first part is what's the relationship between or distinguished between compassion and empathy and altruistic love and co-dependence? Okay, so I think empathy is a

[50:43]

is a capacity that human beings have the capacity to develop an empathy. Empathy is not something that what do you call it? Empathy is a resource that can grow and grow. Like sometimes little children don't have much. Some little children don't seem to have much, but they can learn it. You can teach them to develop how to get better at empathy. Like they can say, I think so-and-so is feeling such-and-such. And you say, why don't you ask him? And then they ask and they find out that that's true or not true and then they get better at it. So empathy is part of compassion. It's a dimension of compassion. So if I notice that I'm uncomfortable and then to notice and then to sort of be able to see that you are and to imagine what it's like to be you and to become more and more effective

[51:50]

at imagining what it's like to be you, that's part of the development of empathy. And that's part of compassion. That's one of the aspects of compassion is empathy. And just like compassion can grow and grow, empathy can grow and grow. So of course the Buddha has tremendously developed empathy. An enlightened being actually is very good at sensing what's going on with us and sensing our feelings. But that's something that you can develop. And compassion can be for yourself. You can wish that you yourself would be free of suffering. That's not altruistic compassion. But wishing that other people would be free of suffering and even like be more concerned for their freedom from suffering than your own, that's actually in some sense

[52:50]

considered to be a superior compassion where you're more concerned with other people's happiness and freedom from fear and suffering than your own freedom from fear and suffering. Of course when you're, if I'm more concerned with your happiness and your freedom from suffering, I've just taken really good care of myself. But it is possible to be concerned for someone else's happiness but again to try too hard, to go too far, to care too much about their freedom from happiness. It's possible to go too far and that's related to I think that's where wisdom helps. And codependence is related too. I think codependence really has a compassionate side to it. For example, if you live in a situation, the typical situation

[53:51]

where someone is like a drug addict or an alcoholic or something or, I don't know, what is it, abusing people and you kind of want to make the situation not too upsetting or try to keep the family together or something, that's kind of kind actually. But the unconsciously going along with the problem, that's what we call codependence, that you're supporting them to continue in some unhealthy mode. What do you call it? You're colluding in the problem. And it's interesting that collude has the etymology of collude to play together. You're playing along with the person but not unconsciously. You're not admitting that actually you're facilitating the problem by not bringing it up perhaps

[54:53]

or bringing it up in such a way as to not to rock the boat. So not wanting to rock the boat is actually kind of kind but being unconscious, that undermines and disturbs the compassion. Yeah. Yeah. Or there isn't precepts. So you could like, you could want, for example, a lot of people, you know, many, many mothers and fathers want their children to be happy and healthy, right? They really do. Like many mothers just feel very upset when their babies are crying.

[55:54]

They're geared to not be comfortable hearing that baby cry. They want the baby to stop crying and not just because they put duct tape on the face. You know, they want to really be like calm and at ease. They want that and partly they want it because when they're not that way it makes them very uncomfortable. Right? But sometimes what they do is they sometimes take drugs, you know, to make the baby cry and they take drugs so that they can tolerate the cry. So then they don't take such good care of the baby. They want the baby to be happy but they intoxicate themselves and then they don't facilitate their activity of helping the baby be happy. So practicing the precepts, being generous, being patient with the baby, these are ways

[56:57]

to practice the compassion for someone you do feel compassion for. But many people you feel compassion for when they turn at you and start screaming at you and you feel irritated, you forget about the compassion and you just think you are like a very irritating person. You're very negative. You're very disrespectful. You're very obnoxious. I hate you. That's what happens to you and it hurts. Or they're throwing things at you or they're hitting you with hammers and you know, this is just a little baby, you know, this is just a little deluded Zen student. It's really okay. I'm not going to get... I'm going to practice patience with this person and if you do, then this person who you care for, you don't hate them. So you have to practice giving, precepts, patience and wisdom.

[57:59]

You need all that in order to not lose the compassion. Wisdom, of course, is the ultimate protection. But you need the other ones too unless you've already got the wisdom. If you've got the wisdom, you've got the other ones. Okay, now second part. Oh no, you can do it the other way around. You can practice wisdom first. It's just that the... What? No, it does. It does. Right.

[59:12]

Would that be... Sorry. So you're proposing, could another path be first develop wisdom and then, once you have wisdom, then practice compassion, plus... Would it automatically arrive? Would it automatically arrive? Well, I would say,

[60:32]

maybe. But, usually what happens for most people is they, without compassion, they aren't particularly interested in wisdom anyway. But let's say somehow you had a person who was interested in wisdom but didn't have much sense of compassion for herself or other people. Let's just say that. They start practicing that wisdom and they thought, that sounds cool, and they start practicing wisdom. Okay? They're practicing along, but they're not trying to do good. They don't think, oh, practicing wisdom is good. They're just saying, I'm interested in practicing wisdom. I don't care about other people necessarily. I'm not making a statement on that. I haven't found great compassion, but I am for some reason but anyway, they don't care about that. I'm not going to say that to them, maybe. I would just say,

[61:34]

oh, so you want to practice wisdom and so on and so forth? But my experience would be that you can go a certain distance in wisdom, but without compassion it stalls. And one of the main places it stalls is that as you get into wisdom, unless you've made a commitment to ethical training, which is part of a fundamental aspect of compassion, is commitment to ethics, the precepts of compassion, unless you've made that commitment, as you get into some realizations of the nature of things, you might think, especially in somewhat deep realizations, as you start to get into somewhat deep realizations or deep possibilities of the way things are,

[62:35]

namely, that good and bad are relative, you might become nihilistic if you hadn't made a very strong, very, very strong commitment to precepts. Even people who have made a very strong commitment to precepts and then embark upon, based on that, embark upon studying wisdom, as they get into the wisdom, they sometimes lose their precept practice to some extent, because they think, well, those precepts are just relative. They're not, you know, they're not ultimate truths. Well, it's true. Precepts are not ultimate truths. The lack of self of the precepts is the ultimate truth. But if you see the lack of self of the precepts, which is good to see.

[63:36]

That helps you practice them, actually. And as a result of seeing the lack of self of the precepts, you think, well, the precepts don't matter. Then your wisdom has just become nihilistic, which is almost psychotic. You could even be, you know, then you can think, which some, some people who have quite a bit of spiritual attainment have got to the point where they've had some insight, and they say, wow, I can do whatever I want now, because good and bad have no self. That's true. They don't. But if the Buddha was with you at that time, the Buddha would say, you should take two steps backwards to where you think that good and bad do have a self. Because when you think, now that you think they're not having a self,

[64:38]

you've jumped to the wrong conclusion, which is, I can do whatever I want. I don't have to practice the precepts anymore. So how do you practice the precepts? How do you practice ethics? How do you practice compassion once you realize that compassion has no self either? But if you think that compassion has no self, or even see that compassion has no self, and then you give up compassion because it has no self, then this is not Buddha's wisdom anymore. This is an incomplete understanding of ultimate truth. It is a kind of understanding of ultimate truth, though. But it's incomplete. It's coarse. It's raw. It's wrong. Now, if you have an incomplete understanding of ultimate truth, but you have a tremendously powerful grounding and compassion, that ineffective, incomplete wisdom

[65:39]

is not going to cause much trouble. Because the compassion will keep saying, keep working. Deepen that. Deepen that. Whereas when you have an incomplete understanding of truth, you might even think, no need to deepen. This is deep enough. This is great. I'm free. I'm free. I don't have to worry about compassion anymore. So from the kind of compassion that naturally evolves from perfect wisdom is the compassion by the perfect wisdom. In other words, there was already compassion, and then there was perfect wisdom, and then there's purified compassion, and then there's deeper wisdom, and purified. So before you even start practicing compassion somewhat ineffectively, there's some wisdom. Even to think of practicing compassion is somewhat wise. Even to notice that you're suffering

[66:42]

is somewhat wise. The Buddha taught us the first truth is the truth of suffering. So if you hear the truth of suffering and you go, yeah, I kind of, I think that's a good point. That's some wisdom. This is a wisdom teaching. The truth of suffering is a wisdom teaching. And if you start seeing this truth of suffering, you have some wisdom. And then when you see that you have compassion and want to live to free people from suffering, that's the compassion, but it's connected to an insight. Namely, I'm suffering. I have insight that I'm suffering. When a little kid says, I'm uncomfortable, mommy, that little kid has some insight. When they wish to become free of it, they have some compassion.

[67:43]

When they say, you seem to be suffering, mommy, there's some insight there, there's some wisdom there. And I want you to be happy, mommy, that's compassion. So there... Pardon? Pardon? That's what she... That's right. One doesn't really come before the other. But still, it's more like compassion is the ground and wisdom is the tree. It's a little bit more like that. And maybe then compassion again is the leaves or something. But it's a cycle. And they do sort of come along together, but also you need... you don't need much wisdom to feel compassion in a way. You can be really, really deluded and still feel compassion.

[68:46]

The compassion you feel can be totally, almost totally mixed up with your self-concern. So that you feel compassion for people you think are on your team. So like a lot of Americans feel compassion for the American soldiers, but they don't feel compassion for the Iraqi people. It's compassion, though. To care about the American kids that are getting killed, that's good. But that can still be twisted by self-concern. But you can feel compassion without much wisdom. And you can feel some wisdom without much compassion. But the Buddha's wisdom, anyway, is based on compassion. And... where I'm coming from is that I've been working on wisdom teachings for the last few years.

[69:55]

So as I come to this session, I think, can I talk to these people in this session about wisdom? And I think, I can, but I have to make sure they're grounded in compassion before I can start. And I may never get into the wisdom teachings during this session, but then you can practice patience with that. Which is very closely related to wisdom. Patience is very closely related to wisdom because if you're patient enough, you can accept the Dharma which is right in your face all day long. But without great patience, we can't stand to see the truth. It's too much of a disturbance to our delusion to open to it. But if you're supremely patient, that state of being,

[70:57]

you just naturally open to reality without any wisdom teachings. And you don't need them because you can handle them. But most people, along with the patience practice, also get wisdom training. So I'm just, I don't want to get into, otherwise, usually we don't talk about compassion getting heady. Compassion isn't necessarily very intellectual. Whereas wisdom is intellectual training. And intellectual training can get heady. So, just like up in the tall parts of the tree, you can get, you know, you can forget the ground sometimes. So I'm just trying to ground any discussion of wisdom before it comes up. And also, I would like,

[71:59]

when it's time to develop tranquility, which is also part of the grounding for wisdom, I thought I'd talk about tranquility for a while. And then, if we're, when we're calm, I may not have to say much about wisdom for you to be able to understand. Once you're well grounded in compassion, and particularly in deep meditation, sometimes when you're really calm, it's not that difficult to understand deep truths. And, but some people can understand quite a bit without much training in tranquility. They're just, their particular disposition is perhaps quite calm already. Was there any other

[73:07]

thing you wanted to bring up? Yes? Well, I understand the connection between being calm and being relaxed and feeling compassionate. It's kind of easy, if I'm relaxed and I can feel compassion, I do a whole lot of things, but as soon as I'm hurt, for example, some pain, my compassion is gone. So how would you suggest, what would I do in this situation? Patience. Patience. So, again, the order of, the usual order of the practice is to protect compassion. The usual order is giving, precepts, confession and repentance. Patience. Diligence Calm. You don't have to be in that order necessarily, but when you're practicing calm

[74:08]

and then somebody comes and attacks you, you may have to practice patience rather than practice calm with the attack, because the attacks already hurt you. And if you can be patient with the irritation or the negativity that just penetrated you, then when you're calm, you kind of open up, you become more vulnerable. And then people can hurt you more. So if we're all tense, you know, and protected, and somebody comes down in the valley and says, you stupid Buddhists, you know, we're protected, you're like, oh yeah, well you're a stupid Buddhist hater. But if we're all sitting it hurts us deeply. We become more sensitive. When you sit in tranquility you become more tender.

[75:09]

You become more raw. You dare to start opening up. And this is part of what makes you ready to receive wisdom teachings. But part of what makes it possible to do that is that you have this practice of patience so that in your tenderness, when somebody comes to you, you know how to go to that pain and address it in such a way that you don't, you know, freak out. You know how to handle sudden and chronic pain. That supports tranquility, and then when you're in tranquility and you get hurt, people can still hurt you when you're tranquil. It isn't that you're more sensitive to other people's suffering, more sensitive to other people's difficulties, and more sensitive to your own in a way, but you're relaxed with

[76:11]

it. But then some new shock can come in there, and if you can practice patience quickly, then you can relax with it. So just like a pain, like a physical pain, some real strong physical pain, the main thing about patience is to try to experience it in the smallest possible doses. So if you have a pain, try to experience it in the most small moment. If you experience it in small moments, it isn't so bad. You can tolerate it, but if you experience it in even minutes, or even several seconds of certain pain is too much, but you don't experience pain in seconds even, or minutes. You experience it in minute moments, which are smaller than seconds. When you learn to stay in

[77:12]

the present, then pains can come, and you can deal with them pretty well. So you need patience, and you need to be practicing it a lot. You don't wait to start a big pain. You practice it ongoingly, and there are little things to practice it with ongoingly. And then when the big one comes, you're trained, and here it comes again. Oh, I've been waiting for this one. Great. Oh, wow. I'm staying here. Oh, my goodness. All right. Yeah. Oh, geez. Get down to the little thing. Remember, get to the little one. Get to the little one. Okay. There I am. Okay. Now I can relax. But try to relax with five minutes of big pain. It's too much. So to meet a big pain with complete relaxation means meet a big

[78:13]

pain in a tiny moment. So to meet a big pain in a tiny moment means you practice patience with that big pain, and then a big pain in a tiny moment, you can relax with that. You can relax with huge, terrible pain if you take it in the moment. So the relaxation is not this focusing on the moment. That's the patience part. Patience is partly to be mindful of the moment. Mindful of the moment is part of patience. Not just the moment. That's the time thing. Be mindful of the moment and be mindful of where you are. Right here. Here, excuse the expression, here and now. Here and now. Here and now. That's part of mindfulness and that's part of patience.

[79:15]

So here and now with the first truth. Here and now with the first truth. Here and now with the first truth. That's patience. Then when you're in that mode of patience, then you can relax. But if you're here and also in the past and future of the pain, that's too much. You can't relax with that sometimes. This person's been mean to me for hours. For years. You've been mean to me for years. I'm not gonna put up with it anymore. Well, of course. Of course you can't stand somebody being mean to you for years. It's too much. So why don't you just give up that one and just deal with them being mean to you now. And not even in the last minute but mean to you just this present moment. That you can deal with and say, OK, I'm gonna relax with that. And there you are.

[80:16]

Being relaxed, present, and compassionate with this person who's being mean to you. Who's criticizing you. Who's saying you're no good. Or something worse than that. Which hurts. Perhaps. Because this is a person you've been really nice to. You've been very generous with. Very patient with in the past. And now they're rewarding you by saying, that was really stupid all those things you did. Whoa. That hoits. Hoits. But it hoits in little moments. And I forget about the past ones and the future ones. I'm just working on this one. OK. All right. OK. All right. OK. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Relax. Now I can relax with it. I can relax with the little tiny ones. I can't relax with the big ones. But the big ones are delusion anyway. Forget it. This person being mean to you all these years. That's just your memory.

[81:18]

That's not really what they are. That's a dream. Let it go. That's also another part of relaxation. Relaxation means, complete relaxation means relax with this and also relax, let go of the past. Relax with this means relax with the future. Let go of the future. Let go of past and future. Deal with the present. Let go of past and future. Deal with the present. Sounds like Zen, huh? Well, it is. That's it. Remember, let go of the past and future. That's part of complete relaxation. It's not like, I'm relaxed but I'm going to hold on to the past. That's not complete relaxation. That's partial relaxation. Or, I'll let go of the future but not the past. Or, I'll let go of the past but not the future. Okay, bypass,

[82:18]

but the future, I'm going to... No. They're still there, past and future are there. It's just you're letting go of them all the time. Always letting go of them. They're there. They're available. But you're relaxing with them. How long has pain been going on? We have a record. If you want to know, we can tell you. But right now, I'm just letting go of that. How long have these people been mean to me and disrespectful to me? We have records. We can remember. But, I'm letting go of that right now. I'm dealing with this little teeny person right here right now. That's it. Who is this? What is this? I don't know, but I'm relaxing with it. And this is the mode in which I can receive some teachings about this. Does that make sense? Okay, it makes sense.

[83:21]

Now, can you remember? That's the hard part. Remembering to do that. Remember. And also remembering. This is part of compassion, is to remember that. It's part of... Remembering patience is part of practicing patience. And practicing patience is compassion. And remembering this is part of relaxing and calming down with what's happening. And that's part of compassion. So these are good practices and they're compassion practices. And this gets us ready for wisdom teachings. So we're laying the ground, we're cultivating the field, getting it ready for wisdom teachings by considering these

[84:22]

meditations on compassion and giving and precepts and patience and diligence and relaxing. Be mindful to relax. Be mindful in a relaxed way to remember to relax. Be mindful of what's happening right now in a relaxed way and then relaxing with what we're relaxing with. This training sets the ground for wisdom. Be mindful of what's happening.

[85:56]

Be mindful of what's happening. Be mindful of what's happening. Be mindful of what's happening.

[87:26]

Be mindful of what's happening. Be mindful of what's happening. May our intention be unyielding and to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are nonetheless. I love to save them. Visions are

[88:55]

inexhaustible. I vow to enter them. The gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to enter them.

[89:21]

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