I want to talk about, this morning, the heart of our Zen practice, our Zazen, and our practice when we get off the cushions, too. And in this tradition of Dogen Zen and the Suzuki Roshi way, I would say that the heart of our practice is what's called in Japanese, nenbutsu. The nen, or nen, and nenbutsu means to, well, it's the character for mindfulness. And it means to remind or remember. And butsu, of course, means Buddha, so to be mindful or remind ourselves and remind Buddha of Buddha. and to remember Buddha is what our practice is about.

[01:02]

Some of you, I see some raised eyebrows because some of you know that Nembutsu, as it usually is used in Japanese Buddhism, is the practice of the Pure Land School of Japanese Buddhism as opposed to Zen. And the word nenbutsu in Japanese most often is used for the practice of just chanting the name of Buddha, and specifically chanting the name of Amida Buddha. So a little footnote before I get back to our Zen practice. Well, there are a few different Pure Land schools in Japan. The most predominant is Jodo Shinshu, a true Pure Land school. And their practice is just to chant Namo Amida Butsu, because Amida Buddha made a vow before he became Amida Buddha, when he was a Bodhisattva, that anybody who just chanted his name would then be able to enter his pure land.

[02:16]

In some branches of pure land, Japanese pure land Buddhism, that's understood as after you die, you get to go to this beautiful heavenly pure land of Amida Buddha, if you chant his name. And some branches of Japanese pure land Buddhism, they chant it a lot. One branch says, you just have to chant it once, Namo Amida Butsu, and then you're guaranteed of entering into the pure land. And another, Jodo Shinshu, the most popular form of Japanese pure land, they understand that you can't, well, Shinran, the founder of that school, who was roughly contemporary with Dogen, who founded our Soto Zen teaching and practice in Japan, that for Shinran, he couldn't even chant the name of Amida Buddha unless Amida Buddha kind of gave him the grace to do that. So he had this radical sense of humility. And in that school, they had this idea of self-power and other power.

[03:17]

And for them, at least some forms of Zen where there's the idea of through your own diligent practice and awareness and study and so forth and hard practice, you can gain enlightenment. So some schools of Buddhism kind of look that way. And for Jodo Shinshu, you had to totally rely on the power of Amida Buddha. And Jodo Shinshu is in the West as well as Zen. In fact, there's two prominent Chicago temples, probably more, but the Chicago Buddhist Temple on Broadway in Leland near Lawrence is one. They offer Zazen now, too. And then there's the Midwest Buddhist Temple down on Menomonee, a little further south in Lincoln Square, Lincoln Park, excuse me. And actually, the Jodo Shinshu School, the True Pure Land School, has one of the very few Buddhist seminaries in the United States, in Berkeley, the Institute of Buddhist Studies, where actually I've been teaching for 18 years.

[04:26]

I still teach a course there online from Chicago. And this spring, I'll be teaching a course in Zen. So I'm their token Zen person. And it's possible to audit that course if you're interested. But the point is that Nembutsu, as is usually understood in Japan, is about chanting the name of Amida Buddha, recalling Amida Buddha because of his power and the benefits to be accrued to that. And actually, there are practices in Buddhism and Buddhist history and other Buddhist cultures of chanting the names of other Buddhas. So we actually do a chant, we'll do it tomorrow night, to Kanze on the Bodhisattva of Compassion. And before Amida Buddha became the main object of devotion historically in Asian Buddhism, Maitreya, the next future Buddha, who's now a Bodhisattva, there was a kind of calling on Maitreya Buddha.

[05:32]

And actually for us too, when we when there are ordination ceremonies, lay ordination or priest ordination, part of the ceremony is that as the ordinees enter into the ordination space or zendo, they chant Om Namo Shakyamuni Buddha. So in Zen, Shakyamuni is the main Buddha rather than Amida Buddha, and there are many Buddhas Mahayana, great vehicle, Bodhisattva Buddhism. Also, as people prepare and work with their sewing teacher and prepare to sew raksus or okesas, these lay monk robes or priest monk robes, with each stitch, they say, Namu kiyabutsu, which is a way of also kind of bambutsu, homage, or, well, it means I take refuge in Buddha.

[06:35]

or I plunge into Buddha. So we sort of have these chants to Buddha in our tradition, too, not as prominent. Our major practice, of course, is zazen, which we've just done, just sitting upright, just being present, inhaling and exhaling, sitting straight, whatever that means in our particular bodies, sitting upright, facing the wall, facing ourselves, inhaling and exhaling. So the part about Jodo Shinshu is kind of a historical footnote, but I would say that our main practice is Nembutsu, reminding ourselves, first of all, of Buddha, remembering Buddha, paying homage to Buddha. How do we

[07:38]

Remember Buddha. So in Dogen's practice of zazen, we don't do this practice as a way of eventually later on, if you practice really hard, eventually you become a Buddha later on. This practice is based on the awareness of Buddha nature, that Buddha is already right now. as you sit down, as you inhale and exhale. Buddha nature is this quality of buddhaness, of awakeness, that is present right on your cushion or chair, and underneath your cushion or chair, and kind of above your cushion or chair, and in the body and mind sitting on your cushion or chair right now. And our practice is in some ways at its heart simply to remember this. to remind ourselves, oh yeah, Buddha.

[08:41]

So we remember something very ancient. We remember something, as we say in Zen, that has to do with your face before, your original face, before your parents were born. something very deep. So this is not a matter of having some idea of Buddha or some understanding of Buddha. So whatever brought you here this morning, whatever brought you to consider doing this kind of practice, we recall something deep this morning. thought of awakeness, this thought of kindness, this thought of caring about the quality of your life. How do we remind ourselves of something very ancient, something very deep, so deep we can't, any word I say about it is, you know,

[10:06]

totally insufficient. And yet, we remember Buddha. We remind Buddha. We recall the mind of Buddha. We remember this subterranean deep possibility of just being awake, not about becoming some super-being, becoming someone other than who you are right now, this body and mind on your Krishna-chair. Somehow there is some buddhaness hanging around, so we remind ourselves of Buddha. And sangha, our practice of sangha, of doing this together is also to remember Buddha, to put together all the different members of Buddha.

[11:17]

So to find our wholeness, our whole mind, whole body. So the fingers on our hands are called sometimes members. We remember, we reconnect our whole body of Buddha. And in Sangha, we remember the Buddha body, which is all of us practicing together. So many of you have experienced that it's supportive, it's helpful to come and sit together with others. Some of you have tried to do this on your own, and some of you have done that for a long time, and yet to breathe together in this space, this dojo, which maybe you know that Japanese word from martial arts studios, but it's also the place of the way, the bodhi mandala, the place of awakening.

[12:22]

So this is a place of awakening. And yet, it's something that we remember together. Song is to put together the different members of this practice body. So this is very deep in terms of our actual practice of zazen, this actual practice of just sitting. We remind ourselves of Buddha. One way we do that, you know, on the altar in the center of our Bodhimandala space is an image of Buddha. And I just did prostrations to this wooden statue. But we don't bow to a piece of wood. We bow to what that represents, the Buddhaness in all of us. And all of Buddhist art, all of these statues and pictures of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, are also to remember Buddha.

[13:28]

in ancient times in Asia before people could read sutras. Just to see Buddhist statues was how they remembered Buddha. And then we do the practice of sitting like that Buddha. So all Buddhist statues are teachings to us about how it is that we find our own seat, our own upright presence. My own deep entry to this practice was seeing having the opportunity to travel a little bit in Kyoto and Nara when I was young, and seeing these statues and being very impressed. And I didn't understand why, but I saw in these Buddhist images a kind of uprightness, a kind of dignity, a kind of calmness, a kind of awareness. So we have Buddhist images to remind us of, oh, this is what it looks like to sit as Buddha. And Ehe Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen, 13th century Japan, whose writings I talk about a lot, and have translated some, in one of his earliest writings about Zazen, Ben Dowa, talk on negotiating the way, he says,

[14:57]

that one just sits and displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, that all of space awakens. Extremely radical statement, which I've talked about and studied and considered for thirty-some years, what does it mean for space to awaken? What does it mean that reality itself becomes enlightenment? That's one part, but then this practice is to display the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind. So this is what our image of Shakyamuni Buddha sitting up there on the altar is doing, and it's what each of us is doing when we sit satsang. to display the Buddha Mudra with our whole body and mind. So this Nembutsu, this chanting, in the case of Jodo Shinshu, chanting Namu Amida Butsu to Amida Buddha, could be understood as a kind of mantra.

[16:12]

Mantra is going back to pre-Zen and pre-Pure Land Buddhism in Japan as a kind of tantric Vajrayana practice to have some phrase that you repeat again and again. And this was developed in Dogen's time in the Pure Land school to chanting Namo Amida Butsu, to Amida Buddha. And also in the Nichiren school chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. homage to the wondrous Dharma Lotus Blossom Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, which was also important for Dogon. But for us, parallel to mantra or chanting a phrase is mudra. Mudra most commonly is considered to refer to hand position. So this is the mudra we use in our zazen, holding it against our body. There are little fingers against our abdomen, sort of below the navel, with thumb tips touching, this kind of oval shape.

[17:13]

But there are other mudras. So Buddhist statues sometimes go like this, which is said to mean, have no fear, or in Native American context, how? It shows no weapons here, don't be afraid. And then there's another mudra with a hand extended, giving or granting generosity. another main practice. And in the Japanese Vajrayana schools that were the background for Soto Zen and Pure Land and Nichiren, there are manuals of many, many, many hand gestures that are called mudras. What Dogen is saying, though, is when one displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, Space Awakens. What does that mean? To display the whole, the Buddha Mudra with one's whole body and mind. Well, I would say this is Nembutsu. This is remembering Buddha. This is reminding Buddha.

[18:15]

Not remembering Buddha as something in the past or in the future or in the present even. It's putting together the members of Buddha in your own body. Reminding Buddha. Recalling the mind of Buddha, the heart of Buddha. The word for mind, the most common word for mind, shin in Kokoro in Japanese, also means heart. Remembering the heart of Buddha. Re-hearting Buddha. Finding the heart of Buddha here. Not, you know, eight centuries ago, but here, today, in this place, and in this body and mind. Dogen says that Zazen is about displaying the Buddha mudra with your whole body and mind. So in Zen, when we say to remember Buddha, or remind Buddha, or recollect Buddha, or be mindful of Buddha, this isn't just about our mind.

[19:26]

We have a kind of problem in the West where we think of mind and body as separate. And they didn't think that way until this time. So it's not just re-minding Buddha, it's re-bodying Buddha, re-embodying Buddha. How do we find Buddha's body and mind heart as we sit, displaying this Buddha mudra? Just sitting upright. And of course, sometimes, you know, sometimes, A Buddha may take different mudras. Sometimes Buddha will sit with his hands or her hands like this. There are images of Buddha. You can see some in the Art Institute downtown with one knee up, still with back upright, as you're sitting down. That is also re-minding, re-bodying Buddha. You're upright. So that is finding a way to express Buddha resting, resting his legs.

[20:29]

So there are various ways to enact the Buddha mind, but we start with this zazen posture, this experience of deep re-minding, recollecting the mind and body of Buddha, because they're not separate. So our practice is to enact, to express Buddha's mind and body. In this mind and body, our own mind and body, here this morning, on a Sunday morning, Again, this isn't about figuring out or understanding Buddha. Some of you have very good understandings of Buddhism. That's not, you know, that's fine, that's okay. You can enjoy that, but the point is, how do we actually put together the mind and body of Buddha? Honor on Kushner Chin. Doing that, This awareness of Buddha, celebrates Buddha in the world, helps us see and deepen our own experience, our own reminding, in this body and mind, of what Buddha is, how she works here today.

[21:41]

So, fundamentally, this asana practice is to express the mind and body of Buddha. the whole mind and body. So that word whole is important to me. Again, Dogen says to display Buddha mudra, Buddha position and awareness, Buddha body and mind, with our whole body and mind. And he says about Buddha nature, all sentient beings complete or in their completeness or in their wholeness, Buddha nature. So this is about finding our wholeness as we sit. finding this sense of fullness and wholeness. And this actually changes the world. It changes this body and mind in subtle ways that we don't always necessarily see. It transforms how we are in the world. This isn't to say that we suddenly become perfect Buddha bodies in the old sutra, 16-foot golden bodies.

[22:52]

No, it's about how do we find and express and enact Buddha body-mind in the wholeness of this body and mind. Now just to remember, recollect, regather, remind, rebody Buddha in this body and mind doesn't mean that that fixes everything. Because This isn't, it's not that you, Dogen also talks about Buddha going beyond Buddha. It's not about, you have some experience or understanding of Buddha, or even that you sit Zazen in a very nice way that displays the whole, displays Buddha Mudra and your whole body and mind, and that's it. No, it's an ongoing process. Because it's not just about sitting in on our cushion, it's about also what happens when we go out into the world. And we know that our world and our society is violent and cruel and militaristic and incredibly corrupt now, and that there are many problems.

[24:05]

So, when Dogen says, when one displays Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, all of space awakens, he's talking about our environment. our society, the world we live in, that in some ways it awakens. That doesn't mean that all the problems get fixed and that we don't have wars anymore and that the massive corruption stops. And yet there is a way of practicing this displaying Buddha mudra with our whole body and mind when we get up from our cushion, when we go out into our lives. So I also want to talk about that this morning, that this practice of remembering Buddha, reminding Buddha, It's not just reminding ourselves of Buddha, it's also reminding Buddha of Buddha. Through our practice, through our wholeness, through our willingness to be present and upright, we remind Buddha of Buddha. We don't do this just for ourselves. Of course, this practice does help us find some calmness, some centeredness, but we don't do this primarily for ourselves.

[25:16]

We do this because we realize we're connected with everything else. So when we come together and remember Sangha by sitting together and supporting each other to do this, each of you, as we were sitting now, was supporting everybody else in the room to take on this and display this Buddha Mudra with each of our whole body and mind. So when we get up and go out into the world and into our life and into you know, interacting with neighbors and family and friends and relations and relationships with our co-workers and so forth, there's also this practice of nembutsu, of reminding, recollecting, remembering Buddha. And there are some tricks to that, or there are some, you know, ways to do that. How do we express or enact Buddha's body and mind? as we go out from the temple and into our lives.

[26:22]

How do we find our way of reminding ourselves of Buddha during our everyday activity? How do we remind Buddha of Buddha? In some ways, this is the most important part of our practice. And it's fine to come and do zazen. In fact, it's extremely helpful to come and do zazen practice together with others and connect with this possibility of remembering Buddha, of Nembutsu. But then how do we take this out into the world? This is the point of our practice. Buddha's practice, bodhisattva practice, is about relieving suffering. helping suffering beings, helping all beings to awaken.

[27:26]

So how do we remember this in our busy work lives? It's pretty challenging to remember Buddha in the course of our busy work lives, in the course of our family lives, in the course of everyday activity. So there are a number of ways of intentionally reminding ourselves of Buddha during the week when we're not sitting in samsara. And I'll recommend to you Kevin, who's here this morning, did a talk about this a while back that's on our website, talking about various skillful ways of remembering Buddha out in the world during our work life. Various things. Some people wear Buddha beads. I don't usually anymore, but I used to all the time.

[28:30]

Beads are used formally in some Buddhist schools to count mantras or to count prostrations, but also just as a way of remembering, oh yeah, Buddha. I'm trying to remember Buddha. I'm trying to bring Buddha into my life. That's one kind of reminder that you can carry around with you. But there are also other practices. My first teacher, Nakajima Sensei in New York, said, whenever you enter a doorway, you can remember Buddha. So, you might forget that, but then when you remember it, okay, I'm going through a door. This is a doorway, a gateway to some opportunity for remembering Dharma, remembering Buddha. When I worked at Parallax Press, where they published Thich Nhat Hanh's books, they had this practice, and it could be a little irritating at times, but any time the phone rang, you'd stop.

[29:34]

If you're in the middle of, you know, I was just editing, if you're in the middle of typing a word, you just stop. You know, finish the word. It's sort of a little bit like our temple cleaning. When the bell rings, we stop whatever we're doing and put everything away and come to bow out. But, you know, the telephone can be an opportunity to remember Buddha. That's Buddha calling. And, you know, some of us may have the impulse to, as soon as the phone rings, pick it up. But you can wait. You can wait till the third or fourth ring. If the person really wants to talk to you, they'll still be there. So you wait till the third ring, say, and that gives you a chance to remember Buddha. And take a breath. And exhale. Maybe take another breath. Remember your breathing. So, there are many ways, there are many tricks for recalling Buddha in your everyday activity. There's a whole chapter of the wonderful Flower Ornament Sutra that has various gathas, or verses, that you can chant when you're entering a doorway.

[30:39]

It doesn't mention the phone ringing in that ancient sutra. going up a hill on a road, or going down a hill on a road, or brushing your teeth, or washing your hands, or before eating, so our meal verses come partly from there, before eating, after eating, before drinking water. going on a windy road, going on a straight road. There's many, many cases of these various things that one does in one's ordinary activity. So we could amplify from that, getting onto the L platform, getting off the L, starting our car, stepping onto our bicycle, whatever. There are ways of using the opportunities of our daily activity to just do this simple Nambutsu practice, remembering Buddha. Oh yeah, Buddha. And you don't have to chant the name of any particular Buddha, although you can if you want to.

[31:48]

But how do we remember Buddha in our everyday activity? How do we remind ourselves of Buddha in our everyday activity? And if you forget, you know, for weeks at a time about Buddha, that's okay. When you remember again, okay, Buddha, oh, what's that? Where's that? How's that? What's the Buddha mudra here in this situation? And then maybe the basic, again, final and basic practice of reminding Buddha. has to do with appreciating others. So this is maybe advanced practice, but you can do it right away, all of you. So part of the practice of buddha nature is to see buddha nature in others. It doesn't mean not seeing buddha nature in oneself, but seeing buddha nature in others, too. Respecting others, respecting all beings.

[32:49]

The most powerful Nambutsu practice, actually, is respecting the Buddha nature and others, particularly with people you have a hard time with. So somebody at work who does kind of inconvenient things or gives you a hard time. Oh, yeah, there's Buddha nature there, too. Where is it? It'll be hard to see, but how do we practice respecting others? and also respecting ourselves, of course. You know, I want to go back to this self-power, other-power thing in closing, that in the formal Nembutsu practice in Jodo Shinshu and in Pure Land, it's about calling on the power of Amida Buddha, calling on this idea that Shinran had, that he had this incredibly radical humility. He just saw his own worthlessness very deeply. But he trusted deeply in Amida Buddha and saw the necessity of that.

[33:56]

I think in our Nembutsu practice, called Zazen, in Dogen Zen, we have this kind of integration of self-power and other power. We see Buddha in ourselves. We sit, do this Zazen practice, and remember, as we display the Buddha Mudra with our whole body and mind, remember Buddha, oh yeah. So you don't have to, again, as you're sitting, you can just sit and be present and see the thoughts come and go and enjoy your inhale and enjoy your exhale. You don't have to think about Buddha. But in some ways, by taking this posture, this mudra of zazen, you are reminding Buddha of Buddha. And so where is Buddha? Buddha is in this body and mind. So Dogen says to study the self. but studying the ways to study the self. How do we see? So we may have problems seeing Buddha nature in some others, and we may have problems seeing Buddha nature in ourselves sometimes.

[35:02]

Part of our practice of Zazen is to study the self and become very familiar and intimate with our own patterns of grasping and aversion and confusion and so forth and see the ways in which we don't trust ourselves and we don't trust Buddha in and as ourselves. And there is a kind of self-awareness power that is part of Zazen's Nembutsu practice. But also, it's when we, Dogen says, when we study the self, when we are willing to just not run away from ourselves, to be present with this body and mind, then we forget the self. We let go of the self. We let go of our self-clinging a little bit. It may come up again in the next breath, or maybe tomorrow, or whatever. But when we really are willing to be ourselves, willing to be intimate and friendly with this body and mind on your cushion or chair right now, then we forget the self.

[36:09]

And also, we see our connectedness to all others. So there's another power here, too, in our practice. We remember Buddha. Buddha is also other. Buddha is in, you know, we see people in the world expressing Buddha, expressing kindness and caring and awareness. We see people in our lives expressing this, and we see, oh yeah, Buddha is other as well as this self. So in some ways, again, I would say that Dogen and Dogen's Nembutsu, our Zazen Nembutsu practice is about connecting self and other, just like it's about connecting body and mind. We don't just remind ourselves of Buddha. We re-body Buddha. We create Buddha's body in our lives. So that's a little bit about how this Zazen practice is also a radical Nembutsu practice, reminding, recollecting, remembering Buddha.

[37:19]

Any questions, comments, responses, please feel free. Yes, Scott. It's funny how what you just mentioned was exactly what was going through my head this week. I've been so confused on dealing with the outside people as far as and how they're acting, and how they're treating others, and how they're not being kind, and how they're being disrespectful, and not thinking nothing of it. And I know they just don't understand, and they just... I see all this, and I see my anger, and I see my attention for it, and I see what's going on with me, and I understand that that's there. But the thing is, I'm still biting my lip about it. What you just explained there just brought a couple of tears to my eye just right now.

[38:31]

I can think of it in that way of Buddha and to get that out of myself and then unwind because it can eat you up. Thank you, thank you for your testimony. Yes, remembering Buddha, part of remembering Buddha and reminding Buddha is not to turn away from the sadness. This is a difficult Buddha field to practice in. This is technically called the Buddha field of endurance. It's hard to endure this. I think this is probably always true in every time and place. There are lots of particular ways in our time and place where we do live in this incredibly corrupt society. incredibly militaristic society. And that affects everybody, all of us, and people we interact with.

[39:33]

Don't think about acting kindly. You're right. Don't remember that they're Buddhists. How do we respond to them? That's several other Dharma talks, but also we have the precepts as a guidance to that, whether or not you formally take the precepts in that ceremony we have, just to act to benefit all beings, to try to support life rather than harming life, to try and speak truth rather than deceiving, not hold on to anger, to not harbor ill will. Of course, we feel when we see harm happening, we can feel anger and aversion, but how do we not turn that into grudge and resentment and hatred? So part of that is learning to take care of what you can take care of.

[40:35]

And if somebody is acting in a way that really upsets you, the skillful thing may be What Buddha might do is just to step away from that, to split. I can't deal with this person right now. And if that's the case, you should know that. But even that person who's acting in a way that obviously they don't have some intention to be kind or to care, somewhere there's some possibility that that could be awakened. And most of, with some people, we don't have the ability to do that. Maybe even Buddha wouldn't have the ability to do that. Or great bodhisattvas maybe couldn't do that right now. But we remember, oh yeah, there's some possibility in this person. But we have to take care of ourselves too, and not try and do more than we can do. So the precepts are guidance, and the precepts come back to taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.

[41:37]

So as I said in the beginning, we have this practice of chanting Namo Kiya Butsu to take refuge in Buddha, to turn towards Buddha. This is what we do when we come in satsasa, we turn towards Buddha. So what would Buddha do? And Buddha might just leave the situation alone. Try and take care of yourself when you want to bite your, you know, when you want to react with anger to somebody acting in a harmful way. How do you instead know yourself well enough to see if there's some way you can respond that might be helpful? So this is, you know, this is a lifelong, endless practice. How do we respond to, with caring, as Buddha, to all the situations in our life? But thank you for bringing that up because, yeah, this is difficult when we step out of our Zazen posture. We have to be careful. Thank you, Scott.

[42:40]

Other responses to Scott or other comments or questions? Yes, Matt. Well, I work as a restaurant manager, and particularly with a lot of I'm required, in my supervision of them, to uphold certain standards of the company. And so, it's a big challenge for me to, you know, as Dogen says, let you be you and let me be me, as a way of giving, sort of reconciling trying to effectively change a person's behavior for the sake of this business, but also making it a space where I can encourage awakening other people.

[43:46]

And I realize that it's not necessarily talking about Buddhism. Some people don't want to hear about that. It's great when it happens. dealing with customers and dealing with my employees in a way that's, you know, lets them be themselves and also, you know, displaying a certain attitude that, I guess, reflects patience with myself, you know, the willingness to refrain from getting angry or upset you know, impatient with people. I think I'm just now, after a year of working the same job, I'm learning that that simple daily act with each new person can be a way of, you know, encouraging, benefiting all beings, you know.

[44:57]

And I guess it used to seem too simple. Oh, it can't be that easy, you know, just being that example. Thank you. Yeah, it's not easy. And this isn't about Buddhism. You don't have to be a Buddhist to do this or encourage Buddhism. This is about basic values. And I think we can talk about it that way. How do we express awareness, caring, kindness, respect? So sometimes the respect you make in your, it sounds like that job you have is a wonderful place to practice. How do you express respect? And when there's a customer, a kid who's acting out and doing very harmful things at some point, you may need to respectfully eject them from the restaurant or call the cops, I don't know.

[46:03]

How do you do that without respectfully to the potential of that person. That would be an extreme situation, of course. But yeah, you have a responsibility to take care of the space and so forth. But also, how do you do that taking care of all the people, even when they're difficult? So congratulations on that practice place you have. Yes, Jeremy. There's a quote we have back there that says, the title of it is, There's Nothing Wrong With You. And I found that that's a really good way of working with difficult situations with other people, is to remind them, if you can, if you're intimate enough with the person, that there's nothing wrong with them. Because I think a lot of people feel like there's something internally wrong with them, and they can't cope with the situation in a helpful way. So I found that. even related to people, in the back of your mind, that there's nothing wrong with this person.

[47:09]

Yeah, that's interesting. I'm not sure I would say it exactly like that. I might say there's something right with you. But yeah, we all also have patterns and habits from, in Buddhism we say, from many lifetimes of grasping or hatred or confusion. Still, yeah, ultimately, this situation, this life, this body, this mind, no matter how much you might question it, there's this possibility of wholeness, of rightness. And what's wrong with us, in some ways, there's a song, everybody's hurting. Or in some ways, all of us are damaged in some ways by our life. All of us have sadness and loss and so forth.

[48:11]

We have to, remembering Buddha is also to remember that. So, anybody you're, you know, if somebody is angry at you, there's some pain or sadness underneath that. But ultimately, there's nothing wrong. But then how do we work with, you know, what Scott and Matt were talking about, the difficulties that come up when people act in a harmful way. So yeah, we have to acknowledge the whole thing, the rightness and the woundedness of all of us. Yes, Kathy. It's making me think about a lot of things. One is the whole idea of skillful means, which is what I think we're talking around. It makes me think of an interview I just saw this weekend with Stevie Wonder and Tavis Smiley.

[49:15]

And Stevie Wonder was saying he especially appreciates now when people are voicing discontent with something that's going on, but in a positive way. You know, that you can witness people doing it in very destructive ways, you know, when they see something that needs to be changed. Or you see people doing it in constructive ways. And he kept emphasizing that. So I had been thinking about it, trying to think of examples of it. But in my own life, and I got reminded of this lately, I remember once being at a job where the organization really was a mess. And I would be in this... and talk about other people, and I love that, being in such a class where you take 24 hours to get back to normal. And so I got to thinking and talking with other friends, you know, it's like, okay, isn't there something better we can do with this time?

[50:21]

And so, but it means you have to sometimes speak up and offer a more constructive way, or given this circumstance, what do we do? I think also, we're in it sometimes, and part of it, and how to be aware of it, but also to make constructive suggestions, or lead it in that direction, seems to be part of this. Good. Thank you. I agree. Yes, Stevie Wonder is wonderful. Any other time for one more comment? Yes, Jane. Yes, on a slightly different note, but I'd like to say that I was really touched by the image of the doorways.

[51:26]

This idea that the Dharma gates are boundless. Yes. You can enter them time and time and time and time again forever. And it's like running around in your job through all the doorways. It's like a fresh start. A reminder that this is the present, this room is something else, this is now. It just struck me as Good, yeah. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. We will chant a little bit. Yeah, so to not get stuck in some description of our life or situation as whatever, as in some negative way or some hopeless way, but to see new opportunity. Even new opportunity to respond to very difficult situations in our lives or the world.

[52:34]

So we have the practice here when you enter this room, whether from the front or the back door, to take a step or two or three and then bow just to the space. Now, if you're at your office or workplace and you enter a door and bow, people might think you're weird or you might not want to do that at the restaurant because that's imposing something. Oh, maybe it would be okay. You might try it once, but you can still have that sense in your heart of, oh, here I am in this restaurant again. What will be the opportunity today to see dharma?

[53:18]

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