I'd like to say a little bit about the use of the word stillness. So, in a way, there's got two kinds of stillness. One kind of stillness is a stillness which some people, which humans sometimes think they can see. There's another kind of stillness which cannot be seen, which is the way things are being themselves. So, the way, yeah, if you see a tree every way moving in the wind, you might think, oh, that tree is not still. But every moment, that tree is where it is,

[01:04]

being how it is, and no other way. And it is completely the way it is, and no other way, and that is the stillness of the tree at that moment. Then the tree changes. It changes in relationship to the wind and gravity and other factors, and then we have a new tree, which is in a new position in the universe. Also, if a tree is on earth, it is also moved with the rotation of the earth, and the orbiting of the earth around the sun, and our galaxy's movements. Each moment, the tree is a different place in the universe. It's a different tree. It has a different shape, a different weight, a different temperature.

[02:06]

It's constantly being a new tree, a new tree, and whatever tree it is, it's that tree, and no other tree. And being what it is at that moment is the stillness of the tree. And we're the same. We're always in our phenomenal position, which could also be called our Dharma position. We're always in our Dharma position. We're never someplace else. And being where we are, as we are, is stillness. I propose that to you, and I offer that to you to meditate on. Now, there's also the stillness where we might look at ourselves and think, oh, I think I'm still. Or we might look at ourselves and think, I don't think I'm still. And at the moment when I might be sitting,

[03:11]

thinking that I'm not still, somebody else could be looking at me and think, he's so still. When I say so, somebody asked me, how can you be so still? And I said, because I'm always moving. But anyway, we might think we're still, or we might think we're not. Those opinions, being just what they are, is stillness. If you think you're still, at that moment, that's what you think. And being that way is stillness. If you think you're not still, that thought is also in the position of thinking, I'm not still. And that thought is still. Stillness is not a matter of opinion, it's reality. And opinions are also

[04:12]

in stillness. For the full, fleeting, tiny moment that they are, they are just that way. And then they're not. We practice in the Buddhist tradition, in various schools, we practice sitting on the earth, upright and still. But that practice we do is like, you know, when we're walking to our seat, we might think, I am not yet at my seat, I'm not yet practicing stillness. Fine. I know you're not doing the ritual enactment of it, of sitting at your seat. And then you sit at your seat, and you sit, and this posture is a ritual enactment, but it's also a testament, a statement of belief. It can be a statement of belief in stillness. I know I move slightly,

[05:15]

but every moment I'm sitting here is a statement of my faith in the stillness of all phenomena. My faith in that things are the way they are in no other way. And I'm one of the people in the world who sits and expresses that faith in the stillness of all things. Expresses the faith of being in our Dharma position. Like Padogan says, the mountains and rivers of the immediate present are the manifestation of the path of the ancient Buddhas. The mountains in the present, right now, the rivers right now,

[06:16]

are manifesting the path of the ancient Buddhas. Abiding together in their phenomenal position, in their Dharma position, they culminate the qualities of thorough exhaustiveness. But we're that way too. Right now, we are manifesting the path of the ancient Buddhas. We are abiding together. All of you are abiding with me, making me be here and nowhere else. And that is the exercise and we sit and practice meditation in this posture to exercise the reality of our true position, which is always so. Sometimes we may be moving,

[07:18]

sometimes we may be sitting still. But whatever we're doing could be a testament to being in our Dharma position. And that exercise realizes the path of the ancient Buddhas. Yes? I have a misconception operating, because somehow I thought that stillness was when my mind is in the present, no matter what's going on, that that's still. But if my mind's racing ahead into the future or going back into the past, is that also stillness? When your mind is racing into the future, it is none other than racing into the future. When your mind's racing in the future,

[08:20]

it isn't racing into the past. And if you could pull off racing into the future and the past at the same time, then that would be your mind. And it would be just like that and no other way. And being just like that is stillness. Whatever you think, day and night, is always what you're thinking at that moment. Now, if you're thinking, I wish to be mindful of the present, and I think, actually, I am mindful of the present, and I do feel like I'm really here, if that could be your thought. And that thought is also still. Even though it's thinking about being mindful and remembering it, it's also still.

[09:20]

You could also be thinking, I wish to be mindful, but I'm totally distracted, you know, and I'm barely, I'm not even, I'm not even aware that I'm distracted. But of course, you just told a joke. Just like people would say, hello, I don't want to talk to you. Do you hear me? I do not want to talk to you. And I don't want you to talk to me either and tell me that you heard what I said, but I do want you to listen to me. But I don't want to talk to you. I can go on like this until everybody gets the joke. I believe that I am still, and I want to practice to realize that,

[10:23]

to realize that faith, and also to encourage other people who I believe are just as still as me, even though they may say, I don't want to practice stillness and I don't believe in it. They're just as still as me who believes in it. That's what I believe. And I would like them to realize that, which, in other words, I would like everybody to realize what I think is the truth. And I think the truth is that you are who you are, and you're nothing but, and that's your stillness, and if you can accept that stillness, you can become free of whatever you are. And you are free of whatever you are because you're only this stillness for the moment, and then you're free of it. And even before you are free of it in the next moment, you're free of it right now.

[11:26]

The stillness of you and the stillness of me is the liberation of me and you. The stillness of me realizes that I'm both me and not me. When you're completely what you are, which is the way you are all the time, you're completely the way you are, and you're not the way you are. That's going on all the time. So stillness is always there, and in that stillness, which is always present in every moment, you are yourself, and you are otherwise. Always. But if we don't accept and believe in stillness, it's hard for us to accept and believe that we are ourself and not ourself, which means we have trouble accepting the truth. The truth is I'm me and I'm not me. I'm me and I'm other than me,

[12:33]

which means I'm free of being me without getting rid of me. I'm nothing but the whole universe coming together and meeting the whole universe, giving rise to the whole universe in this unique form. And that's the same for everyone. With the whole universe bearing down on you, I should say bearing down on itself to give rise to you, there's no room for getting away from that. And even if I don't believe it, the universe made me a person who doesn't believe it. Yes? Yes. I want to say, there's a major hindrance to appreciating freedom, or kind of an obstruction to this memory,

[13:37]

like you keep remembering something. That's part of what keeps you having the sensation of being stuck and free. That could be a condition for the sensation or the idea of not being free. And that obstruction, which is a condition for the not feeling free, that's feedback to you on your faith in stillness. Okay. An obstruction is feedback to you that you don't believe in stillness. Because if you believed in stillness, you would see the obstruction is an opportunity to let it be and realize the obstruction is not an obstruction.

[14:38]

all obstructions are feedback to us to see if we can let the obstruction be completely the obstruction. And if you can't, then you think it's an obstruction, but you are resisting it because obstruction isn't very nice. I don't like obstruction. But if you completely let the obstruction be obstruction, which, in other words, let the obstruction be still, which it already is, you will realize it's not an obstruction. So the phenomenon of feeling obstructed and not where all kinds of other good struck, the obstructions are all feedback. And some feedback you realize it's originally looking like an obstruction, but actually it's coming for me to get the joke. It's a setup for the joke that it's actually not an obstruction.

[15:46]

And here we chanted today, in any event, for example, in any obstruction, in any moment, in any place, all are none other than the marvelous revelation of the glorious light. Any obstruction, any time, any place is none other than a revelation of the light of Buddha's wisdom. All obstructions are none other than that. All non-obstructions are none other than that. Everything is actually revealing the light of Buddha's wisdom. That's what this Zen guy said. How are you going to see the light

[16:49]

in Angela, in Dylan, in Gloria, in Marie, in Robin, in Susan, in Audrey? How are you going to see that light which is, in any event, is being revealed? Well, I don't know. I think you might consider having faith that that might be the case, and be there for it, which you are. You're there for obstructions, aren't you? Maybe you don't want to be, but you are. You're there for the obstruction and you're there for wanting to get rid of them. But even though

[17:50]

here's obstruction, it's an opportunity for revelation, here's resisting it, it's an opportunity for revelation. Everything is, at any event, and any resistance to any event, they're all opportunities for the revelation of the marvelous, glorious light of Buddha's wisdom. And, you know, we have some other possible examples where we're just not going to go with that, like the T-word. The T-word is not, is the T-word a moment? Is it an event? The T-word isn't even an event. I'm not even going to let it be an event. I'm resisting it so much, I'm not going to even let it exist.

[18:54]

But anyway, when it exists, it falls into the category of any event with no exceptions. A crazy person is the marvelous revelation of the glorious light of Buddha's wisdom. A crazy person. A sane person, also. Parenthetically, I heard a definition of sane. Sane is not the opposite of insane. Sane is the having the resources to not humiliate others. Sane is the having the resource to have a conversation where others don't get humiliated and you don't either. Sane people

[19:56]

are none other than the marvelous revelation of the glorious light of the Tathagata. And so are insane people. And so are crazy people. And sane people know how to not humiliate insane people. And one of the resources that would allow you not to humiliate people is if you could remember that everybody is the marvelous revelation of the glorious light. And also you are looking at them even though you might have trouble seeing it or believing it. Now you say, but if I did believe it and then I saw it, then I would be looking at crazy people and seeing the light and, you know, then what would happen? Well, let me know. Tell me if it's a problem

[20:57]

that you have the most profound respect for crazy people, that you really, really respect them, you know, to the bounds of the universe. And can you have a relationship with somebody based on that? Yeah, you can say, excuse me, could I ask you a favor of you? may I say something? I need you to be quiet. Or I need you to move over a little bit. You can talk to somebody like that with a lot of energy and love and respect. It's possible. You can also say nothing to the person because you don't respect them. You don't think they're worth your time or your love. They're so worthless. I'm not going to waste any love on them. This is saying they all deserve tremendous gratitude and respect. But we have to treat them that way in order to see this

[21:58]

and once we see it, well, it would be natural to respect them. It comes naturally once you see the light. And once you see the light, you will know, you will be able to give them the best medicine for their illness, for their delusions, for their detachments, for their fears, for their resistance to their own life and the life of others. You'll be able to dispense all kinds of good things for them which will reverse global warming. This is all going to reverse global warming. And it's not separate from us, though, too. I mean, it includes us, it includes us. I'm included in all crazy people and all crazy people are included in me. That's the light. That mutual inclusion is the light.

[22:58]

It's a glorious light to open. That's the glorious light is we're all working in harmony, giving life to each other with no exceptions. Nobody's left out. Nobody's not your supporter. There's nobody you don't support. All crazy people I support. I contribute. I'm included. And this Zen teacher sees that now. After lots of years of learning how to respect everything, he can now see, he can tell us everything. There's no exceptions. I'll be right back. Edward? You mentioned, Roshi, you said once that you wish or you hope that the Great Assembly remembers, recalls, practices, and transmits stillness. And you forgot one thing.

[23:59]

Remembers and receives. Remembers and receives. And practices and transmits stillness. So I'm now remembering it and I'm receiving it and I'm practicing it and I'm transmitting it. And I hope you all do the same. And it's available. But if you don't receive it, you kind of miss it in a way. Not really, but I pray that you, even though you can't miss it, I pray that you remember it and receive it and practice it and give it to others. I do pray for that. Yeah. It sounds, when you say that we share this stillness or that we are participating in stillness altogether, that intuitively feels that it's true. And then, I also hear the teaching of transmitting stillness and I don't quite understand how one could transmit what we already are or participate in it.

[25:01]

Well, that's exactly what Buddhists transmit. They transmit what we already are. That's what they transmit. They transmit the way we are. The way we are is that we're transmitting it. We're all transmitting the way we are. The whole universe transmits to me the way I am. And I, and we all, and I'm transmitting to you the way you are. I'm part of it. I'm not, I'm not doing it all by myself, but I'm part of the transmission of you being you. So, and Buddhists transmit that reality. They've realized it and they're like a beacon of it. They're saying to everybody, I'm just like you and you're just like me. However, I realize that you don't quite believe it as fully as I do. And you don't see it the way I do, but I'm totally included in you not seeing it the way I do. And you're included in me seeing it the way I do. And you will come to see this more fully. You're on the path to fully understanding this

[26:02]

and then being able to, and then when you understand it, you're going to be able to do some things which you haven't been able to do yet. Like, like respect the most disturbing things and show people, other people how to respect it. And in that place we'll become free of the most disturbing things. We will reverse global warming. This is how we do it. Global warming comes from disrespect. Disrespecting our own fear of pain rather than giving it love. Disrespecting other people's fear and pain. Their fear of their lands being taken away. Their trees being cut down. Or losing their jobs cutting down trees. Everybody's afraid and because of a lack of love and conversation it's getting, it's getting hotter and hotter. This is feedback that we're not, the conversation isn't full enough yet. There's somebody

[27:02]

we're not talking to and wholeheartedly enough. So let's work on it and work on it and that will reverse this direction that we're on and the direction is still saying we're going in a difficult direction but we're telling you we're going in a difficult direction. We're hearing that. We're telling each other. We're listening to it. And we're considering more and more that maybe we will realize that this is calling to us for compassion. Not calling for hate but telling us we haven't been, we haven't finished our job and now we have this job, this great job. And we are, we remember the way things are, we receive the way they are, we practice the way they are and in this way

[28:03]

we transmit the way they are. And others are doing it for us too. And the more we do it, we realize we're helping everybody and everybody's helping us. This is the Buddha's, the Buddha's vision. And again, the Buddha says, I see this now. What can I say? I see it. And this is the way it is but I also understand that people don't get it yet so I'm here to help them get it. Just like people tell me they don't want to talk to me and they don't realize that they're talking to me. And then I just love it when they tell me they don't want to talk to me. I love that way of talking to me. I find it very attractive. Rabbi, I do not want to talk to you. Do you hear me? Do you hear me? But don't say anything because I don't want to talk to you and I don't want to hear from you. They don't get the joke Some people say that

[29:05]

and they think it while they're telling it they're getting the joke. It's a joke. They're putting on a little show. The show is I don't want to talk to you. Do not talk to me and I don't want to say one more word to you so I'm not going to ever say any more to you and if you make me and so on. Do you get the joke? Almost? Yes, Jackie? So this is kind of rudimentary. I've had instructions of being silent and still during sitting meditations and then there are lots of conversations going on and I think I'm not being silent and still. And that's another moment of conversation is that you hear the instruction be silent and still you notice that there's a conversation going on and then another word

[30:07]

another sentence comes in well it looks like I'm not being silent and still. Also the instruction is just concentrate on your breathing. Okay, there can be that instruction too. There could be that. That could be an instruction. There's another instruction which is do not pay attention to your breathing. Is there another instruction like that? Yeah, I just gave it. Do not concentrate on your breathing. Did you hear it? I did. Yeah, that's another instruction. And while I'm giving you various instructions some of which might even contradict each other for your benefit I'm saying can you remember stillness no matter what I say to you? And you're also saying today that you're still no matter what. There is no not being still. Is that what you're saying? I'm saying there is no not being still. Except for, of course,

[31:09]

not being still. That's the only one there is. So, if there's stillness there's not stillness. And there's not not stillness. And so on. So, but we're not being I'm not praying that you will remember not stillness. And I'm not praying that you remember not not stillness and so on. I'm not praying for that. I'm praying that you remember stillness. I'm praying that you remember being where you are in your position. And while I'm remembering stillness in my position I can remember stillness while I notice that somebody's talking and it seems to be me. I can remember stillness right now while I am talking. It feels alive.

[32:11]

And I can remember stillness while I answer your question. Oh, the stillness doesn't have a feeling. It's silent Yeah, it doesn't have a feeling but you can have feelings about it. You asked me how I was feeling but I thought you asked me how I was feeling when I was remembering it. Right? My body doesn't know stillness. My body is stillness. My body doesn't know it. It's not something other than my body. It's my body being in my dharma position is the stillness. But when I pray that you'll remember it that's like a verbal thing in my head. That's a prayer and when I do that prayer I feel something as I do that prayer.

[33:13]

And feeling what I feel encourages me to remember stillness more. And the more I remember stillness the more I realize it or the more the remembering realizes it. But realizing it doesn't mean you feel it. Because, again people think, well, I don't feel still. When you don't feel still you're still. When you do feel still you're still. But the feeling of stillness and not stillness is not the stillness. It is still. When you feel not still you are — that's the event of the day. When you feel like you're still the feeling of stillness is not the stillness but that feeling of stillness is still. it's not moving. And I want to remember the stillness that's there regardless of what I feel. That's what I'm trying to remember. Because I feel various things. You name it, I feel it. And as I go through all these feelings, and as you go through all your feelings, I

[34:16]

pray that I and you remember stillness as the feelings come and go, and change this way and that way. And when I remember, that's a mental activity which I can perceive, and I feel good when I'm remembering, and I feel good when I'm praying for memory. But I pray for this because I think that if we remember, receive, practice, and transmit, we will open to the actuality of stillness. And in realizing the actuality of stillness, we realize Buddha's wisdom. We realize that whatever you're going through is a marvelous revelation of the inconceivably glorious light. Can you say that's also emptiness? Can you define stillness as emptiness? I don't know,

[35:23]

but I'll take that under consideration. That was all delivered to you in stillness. That stillness can sponsor that kind of thing. So I hope to see you again for more conversation to reverse global warming. I don't think we want to end global warming. Sometimes it's a good thing. We want to reverse it. We want to cool it down, but not eliminate warming. Warming is sometimes good. But we want to reverse it a little bit, right? We want to cool it off. But not too cool. Just reverse the tendency.

[36:28]

Bring it into balance. Just so. Yeah, just so. Bring it into just so with our practice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[36:42]

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