I feel some talk coming on. Some words are arising in his poor mind. What is arising is bodhisattva. Another word that's arising is compassion. Some people here are very familiar with the word bodhisattva. Probably they hear it or say it every day. And some people may be unfamiliar with the word bodhisattva. How many people are somewhat unfamiliar with that word bodhisattva? ...word and

[01:03]

Actually, I think even in Pali. Is it Bodhisattva in Pali also? Bodhisattva in Pali. So a term was used to describe the historical Buddha, the founder of the tradition in India, was called the Bodhisattva. during his life leading up to became the Buddha. So all his years from his birth to his attainment plus many past lives he was called the Bodhisattva. And then later Bodhisattva was used more widely than just for that one person who became a Buddha in this historical arena we live in.

[02:15]

And like any word, the word bodhisattva refers to something which is never fully grasped by the word. So the way the Buddha was before we can't really get the fullness of that by the word bodhisattva. And so now we use the word bodhisattva to refer to a kind of being. Or you could say a way of being, a way of being or a form of being. And the word for, the Sanskrit word that's used here for being is sakpa. Most people say, use the, make the, what do you call it, the English kind of word, sattvic, sattvic.

[03:26]

like a person who has a lot of soul or a lot of being. Sattva. And both are awakening. So literally it's awakening being. But another way to think of it is that there's a kind of being that's mainly about awakening, or there's a way of awakening which is primarily about waking up. Or another way to put it is it's a kind of being whose genius is awakening. or whose genes, whose inheritance, or whose genetic makeup is that it yearns for awakening.

[04:33]

And I like the word genius because genius originally was the name of the protective deity of the home, or the hearth, actually, in Rome, in Roman Empire. So the house had a genius, which was to protect the hearth of the home. And we all have a kind of a genius, which is something about us, some kind of like thing about us that we yearn to realize. that we yearn to care for. And there's this way of being which potentially could arise in us, a form of being could arise in us, which is a being which primarily is concerned with waking up in order to help all beings more fully.

[05:38]

In the room right now we have actually statues, like we have this statue, this big statue in the middle is a statue of a bodhisattva, a statue of the bodhisattva of infinite wisdom, Manjushri. And behind Manjushri is another bodhisattva, a smaller statue, the statue of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion. And behind me, this beautiful statue behind me, is a bodhisattva in the form of a monk. The clothes of a Buddhist monk. And this is the bodhisattva called Earth Store or Earth Womb Bodhisattva. A bodhisattva who particularly liked is willing to go into a state of torment to help beings.

[06:43]

So here's a great bodhisattva behind me, and then the great bodhisattva is in front of me. The bodhisattva in front of me is wearing royal princely clothes, this monk's clothes. So these are representations, artistic representations of different dimensions of this bodhisattva being. And these bodhisattvas are born of compassion. So many of us feel compassion sometimes. And it's possible that when we're feeling compassion, this spirit, this bodhisattva spirit, this bodhisattva being could arise in us, in our minds and hearts.

[07:51]

This wish to become authentically awake to the nature of things in order to help being. Recently I heard on the radio or something that, is it a man named Scott Peck, is that right? Author, recently died, and he wrote a book called, one of his books called, A Road Less Traveled, is that right? And I read part of that book one time, the beginning of it, and he says that in the teaching of the Buddha, or in the tradition of Buddhism, there's a teaching that all life is suffering.

[08:55]

And when I read that, then the next talk I gave her, shortly after that, I brought that up and said, I disagree with Scott Peck. And I felt sort of bad because I was only talking to 200 people, whereas he's talking to millions. And I thought he was the Buddhist teaching, not correctly, and I felt, you know, but he had the advantage. I still feel that it's not correct to say that life is suffering. I don't think that's correct. But it's somewhat correct. It's like, I don't know exactly what, like at least half correct. In other words, it's correct for a lot of us that life, that all aspects of our existence are suffering.

[10:06]

Another way to say it is that all aspects of worldly existence is suffering. And by worldly existence that means cyclic existence or existence which is existence where things seem to arise and cease. Sound familiar? So most of us are familiar with life in the form of something's arising and something's ceasing. People are born and people die. In that world, from that perspective, life in that way is all suffering. Yikes. Do you feel a little yikes there? I do. Like, at least for me mentioning that to you.

[11:13]

People say Buddhism is so negative and pessimistic. Well, I can see when you that's pretty much, that is pretty rough. So, for example, it's taught that when you have positive sensations, there's suffering in positive sensation. There's suffering in negative sensation. That's pretty clear to people. And there's suffering in Or you can say there's nauseation and positive sensation, nauseation and negative sensation, and nauseation and neutral sensation. In other words, however you feel, there's suffering in there. If the feeling is a feeling that's arising and ceasing, But before I go into more detail on that, let me just say that I don't agree that life is suffering, because not all of life, not all of life is life where things are arising and ceasing.

[12:32]

There's another aspect of life, or another way to live, whereas you're actually alive. You're alive. but you're not arising and ceasing and nobody else is either. You're actually alive with everybody, including you're with everybody who thinks that they're arising and ceasing. And you're alive, but there's no arising and ceasing. You actually accept that there's no arising and ceasing. Most people accept the appearing and ceasing. They have resistances, of course, but they accept that there's a birth and death. But not too many people accept that there isn't birth and death.

[13:36]

They accept that there is birth and death, but they don't accept that there really isn't. it's possible to be alive and accept that nothing's arising or ceasing. And in that realm of acceptance, life is not suffering. Matter of fact, it is a life which is free of suffering. It is peaceful. and there's no birth and death. And the next step is, and this teaching appeared around the time of the Buddha. The Buddha taught this teaching. And he called the world of birth and death samsara. Samsara means going around, means going from birth to death, to birth to death, to birth to death, suffering throughout.

[14:41]

And then he also taught that there's nirvana, which is peace. And in nirvana, there is life. The Buddha and the bodhisattvas live in nirvana, but they also live in samsara. And they give that teaching that there is two ways of life, cyclic existence, which is suffering, the word, the life of freedom, nirvana, nirvanic existence, which is freedom from suffering. And then later it came out among the students of the Buddha that nirvana and samsara are not separate. And this is something that I'm very happy about, that idea. that discovery.

[15:44]

Not only is there a possibility of freedom while still being alive, but that freedom is not separate from bondage. Some of Buddha's disciples in the early, well, even maybe up to today, throughout the history of Buddhism, some of Buddha's students who grew up in samsara, heard the Buddha's teachings, practiced them, and entered into the liberation and tranquility and peacefulness of nirvana. Some other students of the Buddha did the same thing.

[16:46]

They entered into nirvana, but they did further study of the Buddha's teachings and realized that the implication of the Buddha's teaching was that the nirvana which they attained was not separate from the samsara which they became free of. And so they continued to live in samsara and nirvana more or less simultaneously. So the bodhisattvas, these beings who are born of compassion, they understand that all samsaric existence is suffering.

[17:54]

But they also understand that all samsaric existence lacks substantial existence or has no self. Because they understand that samsaric existence is of the nature of suffering, they don't cling to it. And because they understand that freedom and samsara have no self, they don't cling to freedom. Because of compassion they are not disgusted by the suffering of samsara. And because of understanding the lack of self of samsara, they're not hurt by it. Therefore, they're willing to live the bondage

[19:01]

Due to understanding, bodhisattvas don't attach to or be the world of suffering. Due to compassion, they don't attach to the world of freedom. due to compassion, they don't attach to the world of suffering. Due to compassion, which understands selflessness, they don't attach to samsara and they aren't disgusted by samsara. So they go to liberation out of compassion and they come back from liberation out of compassion. And they don't attach to the world of suffering out of compassion.

[20:37]

They don't attach to nirvana out of compassion. So both out of compassion and wisdom, the bodhisattvas do not attach to freedom or bondage. the beings that are born of compassion want everybody to be free, want everybody to experience the side of life which is freedom from suffering.

[22:42]

When a loving bodhisattva sees the world, she suffers. It's painful. Somebody's trying to get out but they can't. Could you help her? She's got a nosebleed it looks like. When a loving bodhisattva sees the world, sees people who are in bondage and who are suffering all the time in that world, they suffer too. But because she meditates on the world of suffering and sees it as it is, she does not become exhausted living there.

[23:56]

And again, how does she see the world of suffering? How does she see the beings who are suffering, for whom she feels suffering? She sees this realm as not separate from freedom. She sees freedom is not the same as bondage but inseparable. She does not prefer freedom over what it's not separate from and wants everybody to be free at the same time without preferring freedom, without being attached to it. She can show the way. She knows the way to freedom. and she wants to show it. She wants to show people the road to freedom wherein they will understand that freedom is not separate from bondage. Understanding that freedom is not separate from bondage is freedom.

[25:08]

And it also allows you to live in the world of bondage without getting exhausted without being afraid of it disgusted with it so if someone, if a bodhisattva is getting disgusted with samsara she needs to go back to her meditation practice and start looking at samsara observing samsara as it is when she starts to see it as it is the exhaustion drops away. Or rather, she becomes free of exhaustion. So I can look into my mind and check out, is there any disgust for samsara? and I can also look in my heart and say, is there any pain in me with regard to samsara?

[26:23]

If I feel pain with regard to samsara, then I'm like a loving bodhisattva. If I feel disgust about samsara, if I feel disgust about the world where things are born and dying, if I feel disgust then I'm not like a bodhisattva. Or I would say I'm not like the really loving bodhisattva. I'm maybe a beginning bodhisattva who's kind of weak, not yet strong enough to look at something that I feel suffering with and see it as it is. I can't yet see it as it is. So because I don't see it as it is, I feel some disgust. So that shows me that meditation practice is not work. So again, when you see the world of suffering, when you see the world of birth and death and feel pain about it, when you suffer with it, you're just like a Bodhisattva.

[27:37]

You're just like a baby Buddha. you feel compassion just like they do. But if you feel disgust for the world of birth and death, then you're different from the bodhisattvas. And they would be just like you, except that they meditate on the world that they feel pain about. That they aren't disgusted by any suffering. They're not disgusted. In other words, they don't reject it. They're not embarrassed about it. They're not afraid of it. they're totally open to it. Because and or openness, they continue their meditation on how birth and death really is. They watch the illusion of birth and death over and over, over and over, until they see, until they see, excuse me, and or open to and accept

[28:43]

that right in birth and death, right in birth and death, there is no birth and death. There's no separation between birth and death. There's no birth without death. And because there's no birth without death, there's no birth and death. They accept that. They don't have to make that be so. They accept it, and they accept it by meditating on the illusion. And also they don't just do it abstractly, they do it from the position of feeling pain of those who are suffering, who are caught by the illusion of birth and death. the thought occurs to me that what I'm saying in some sense is quite simple.

[30:20]

So maybe I said enough. Now I also think, but if I asked each one of you to give a summary of what I said, maybe you wouldn't all be able to do so. You wouldn't even want to do so. Maybe you'd just soon forget everything you heard this morning. And I, but, could I give a little summary before I stop? Is that all right? So the summary is, according to me, it's not the Buddha Dharma that all life is suffering. Just kind of half of it is suffering. Or one of the two options is suffering in life. One option in life is suffering. The other option is peace and freedom from suffering. One's called samsara, the other's called nirvana.

[31:23]

Did you hear that part before? Then, the other thing is that samsara and nirvana are not separate. They're actually one big life which has two possibilities in it, main possibilities. The world of samsara is the world The world of suffering is the world where things seem to be born and dying. That seems to be how things are. And the world of nirvana is where you understand that that's just an appearance. Birth and death is an appearance. There's really just life, [...] life. And if we do not understand that samsara and nirvana are the same, still become free of samsara to some extent by meditating on samsara properly.

[32:28]

Namely, seeing that the realm of birth and death is always suffering, always impermanent, and doesn't have a self, and isn't pure. If you meditate on the nature of samsara, you can actually become free of it. But to take that meditation even further, you can understand that the freedom from it is not separate from it. And bodhisattvas, because of compassion, don't just want to meditate on birth and death and become free of birth and death. They want to meditate on birth and death and become free of birth and death without developing any disgust for birth and death. So that they can live in birth and death after becoming free of it and understand the inseparability of the two so that they don't get exhausted in birth and death, showing how to become free of birth and death.

[33:42]

I noticed that I'm feeling a little uncomfortable because many of you look really depressed. And when I feel uncomfortable like this, I feel uncomfortable like this. I kind of apologize to you if this talk has been a kind of talk that seems to have... I mean, I'm kind of... I share the responsibility of the appearance that this talk arose and ceased. And that I feel responsible for the samsaric quality of this last few moments. And I'm not saying that if you were meditating on the samsaric quality of this event, and that if you saw...

[35:19]

that this talk didn't really happen. If you open to that this talk didn't really arise or cease, that you would be free of suffering, and that you would look differently than you do now. For all I know, you are all free. And that this talk has happened. I don't know if you're free or not. You're starting to look more like what I imagine someone would look like if they were free, namely you're smiling. You look like you're kind of getting the joke of... Birth and death is a little bit of a joke. So, one story of the Buddha when the Buddha woke up is that the Buddha laughed. Because the Buddha was no longer fooled by the appearance of birth and death. The Buddha realized it's a joke, it's a trick, it's an illusion. unnecessary illusion, so that you can wake up from it and help other people become free of it.

[36:29]

And I'm also kind of sorry, in a way. I confess, I'm living... I'm sorry, I don't have a song about this. I mean, I can't think of one right now. Is that about this? Huh? What? You think so? I think you're right. Face the Music in Zens is a song about how to live in samsara to become free of it. I agree. But I also feel like, I feel like you may have lots of questions about this, so I would be happy to meet with you later in the question and answer set up.

[37:43]

If you have some questions about this, about any of this. I sang that song so many times I think probably some people would think that if I sang it again it might arise. Well, I'm proposing to you that I can sing that song without it arising. I can sing the song without it happening. It doesn't really happen. But it doesn't mean that you don't sing a song. It's just that the song, while you're singing it, isn't arising and ceasing. Of course, people can see it that way. But I'm actually suggesting to you that when you talk to people and when you're singing, you could open to the

[38:51]

the fact that the singing is not arising and ceasing. It's not a cyclic event. It's a freedom event. And because of freedom, you can sing. And the singing is not something that happens. It's free of happening and not happening. It's not caught in a box of, this didn't happen. It's free of that. That is possible. And if some people don't want to hear me sing this song another time, you can feel that way. Of course you can feel that way, but feeling that way, it's possible to open to feeling that way doesn't actually happen. It's more wonderful than something that happens. It's free of happening. So, if you don't like this song that might happen, if you don't like this song that might be sung without happening, that's wonderful.

[40:10]

It's wonderful, especially if you can see that when you don't like it, that that liking, that that not liking isn't really to that while I'm singing. And I also will try to open to that while I'm singing, that my singing is actually free of happening. And maybe you can tell by the way I sing that that's how I feel about it. He's singing, but I don't think he understands that that's not happening. He looks like he kind of is falling into that old trap of, yeah, this is happening. I don't think he's that open yet. And you know, you're probably right. Because it's really a very advanced practice, a very advanced attainment to actually open when you're listening to a song or singing a song, to actually open to the awesome reality that it's not happening. This requires lots of training, so don't feel bad about me not having attained that state.

[41:16]

I feel a little... I assuage myself by saying, well, that's really advanced. So it's not that bad if I haven't got there yet. I know a lot of other great people who didn't get that far. So now you look happy. You've recovered from this talk somewhat. You're ready to go on with your life. I am too, ready to go on with your life. Somewhat. I'm trying to be ready to go on with my life. Wow. How does it go? Oh yeah. There may be trouble ahead. So while there's music and love and romance, let's face the music and dance.

[42:29]

Before the fiddlers have fled, before they ask, to pay the bill and while there's still a chance let's face the music and dance soon we'll be without the moon humming a different tune and then There may be teardrops to shed But while there's music and moonlight And love and dance Let's face the music and dance Let's face the music and dance

[43:33]

Does this mean clap? Yes. Bohemian. From a beat generation from New York City. May our intention... Is there anything you'd like to discuss? It's hard to hear. Can you hear me okay? Yes, Ugo? It seems like the concept or the act of accepting that darkened desk

[44:58]

accepting that birth and death do not exist? It's not exactly that birth and death don't exist. They do exist, you might say, dependently. Depending on certain things, there is the appearance of birth and death. We don't say that birth and death doesn't exist. When we say there's no birth and death, we don't mean it doesn't exist. We just mean You can't find it if you look carefully. And what you'll find if you look carefully, birth and death, you'll find that life is basically quiet. That life is basically nirvanic. It's peaceful and quiet. Things are basically in a state of quiescence. But that doesn't mean they're not fully alive. As a matter of fact, it's saying that the fullness of life, a life of freedom, is quiet and peaceful.

[46:10]

This is another way to put it. But you also can't, if you look carefully, you can't find the peace either. You can't find the birth and death if you look carefully, and you can't find the suffering if you look carefully, but it doesn't mean that there isn't birth and death and suffering. It's just that if you look carefully, when you see that you can't find it, then you're free of birth and death. And you open to the vision and acceptance that things are very quiet and peaceful. But that also can't be found. So that's why you don't get hung up on peace. But nothing can actually finally actually be grasped. That's what we mean by no birth and death. You can't get a hold of it.

[47:12]

You can't actually grasp it if you look carefully. You can't find it. But those still, when they see the appearance of birth and death, and they see being suffering, they feel suffering. They feel pain. And even in the state of freedom, they still feel compassion. Even when they're in nirvana, the nirvana of the bodhisattva is some other people's nirvana. their nirvana, in their nirvana, they still feel compassion. They still feel pain when they see other people suffering. But they understand that there's an illusion. That's sometimes called the Mahayana miracle, is that they care about beings which they know cannot be found. But they still care about them anyway. You know, I care about you even though I can't find you. You know, that's just the way I am, you know, so on.

[48:19]

Okay? Tom? Can you say that birth and death exist but you just don't attach to them too much? Is that another way of saying it or not? If you say that birth and death exist and you don't attach to it, then that's another way to say is that you understand the way birth and death exist but you can't attach to them. So if you think birth and death could be attached to, you don't understand it yet. But when you understand birth and death correctly, clearly, you'll see you couldn't attach to it because it's not out there or in here. There's no place to get it. Understanding birth and death, understanding the way birth and death exists, is freedom from birth and death. Understanding the way birth and death exists is the same, or not exactly the same, but it leads to not attaching to it. There's nothing to attach to. You see there's nothing to attach to, but you can't attach to it not to being anonic.

[49:23]

That's not there either. You can't attach to that either. So correct understanding of birth and death leads to not grasping it, leads to freedom from it. And when you're really free of birth and death, you're happy to enter into the world where birth and death seems to be happening. But some people are rather free of birth and death, but they're also disgusted by it. So this is not the full understanding of birth and death. That's why the Bodhisattva being able to be free of birth and death and not be disgusted, the Buddhas understand. Because Buddhas are willing to come into any realm where people are, and people are experiencing birth and death, but in order to come into the realm, they sort of have to participate in the illusion of birth and death, otherwise they wouldn't be there. But there's no disgust

[50:23]

Yes? If there's no birth and death, does that mean there's no us? It's not that there's no us. There's no us separate from others. There's that. There's no you existing by yourself. There's never been such a thing as that. There's the idea of me existing by myself. But that idea is total fantasy, has no basis whatsoever. birth and death exists in a kind of interdependent way. The appearance of birth and death exists in an interdependent way. There's causes and conditions for it. And there's causes and conditions for dreaming of being independent. But the thing you're dreaming of, there's no causes and conditions for that. And what you're dreaming of is something that doesn't depend on causes and conditions. Because if it did, it wouldn't be separate.

[51:27]

What I'm dreaming of is me? What I'm dreaming of and what we're dreaming of is our existence? Separate selves? You're based on your existence, and you're dreaming of your existence, but your dream is not your existence. You dream about yourself, but your dream is not you. And my dream about you is not you either. About you depends on you. I can't dream about you without you. I never dreamt about you before I met you. And when I met you, I immediately didn't just meet you, you know, empty-handed, I whipped out a dream about you. And then I threw the dream over you. So you made my dream? I make your dreams. Well, I do create your dreams, yes.

[52:30]

I'm responsible for your dreams. But not just me, everybody else is too. Everybody's responsible. The bodhisattva has limited responsibility. The bodhisattva is responsible for all suffering beings' dreams and responsible for them believing their dreams are realities. Bodhisattvas accept responsibility for that. But they also understand all the other bodhisattvas are accepting responsibility for it. And they also understand that other people who don't want to be bodhisattvas say, well, I'm not going to be responsible for everybody's dreams. So is it 50-50 me and the whole rest of the world? 50-50? Yeah. It's concerning you 100% the world and zero you. The one thing you're not responsible for is you. It's supposed to be a relief.

[53:33]

The one thing that doesn't make you is you. Everybody else makes you but you. But you make everybody else. So it's not exactly 50-50. It's more like 100%, 100% with one exception. The one thing you think you do make, you don't. You make everything else, you contribute to everything else, and the one thing you don't contribute to is yourself. But everybody else does. Although you didn't contribute anything, you're still responsible for yourself. You're just not responsible for making yourself. And that's what people say. They say, well, if I didn't make it, I'm not responsible for it. Well, there's one exception. There's one thing you didn't make that you're responsible for, and that's yourself. Everything else in the world, you did make yourself responsible for everything. And everybody else is responsible for you. The Bodhisattvas accept that statement. They do not resist that statement. In other words, they feel no violence towards that.

[54:35]

It is violent to not accept for all beings. That's violent. And when you accept it, the violence is eliminated. You're welcome. I don't know, there's a lot of hands, but let's see. Yes, go ahead. Just one, okay? Just one, because other people want to... They want to ask questions too. Your first question is... I'm wondering if you could discuss the difference between detachment and non-attachment. I get those confused, especially about the oxymoron of bondage and freedom. And I'm also wondering if you could give some tangible examples to kind of illustrate how you were talking about how you can't have bondage without freedom and vice versa. And I'm also wondering, because I took your mind course,

[55:40]

How much of our separation from other people and from things comes from our cognition and language itself, which has no real way to kind of bring things together. What do we mean by detachment? What does it mean to be detached from something which you're intimately related with? You're dependent on everybody, so what does it mean not to be detached to those you're connected to and depend on? Because you're linked with everybody. You depend on everybody very intimately. So what does detachment mean? Well, one thing it means is you're not greedy about the connection. Well, that association wouldn't be apropos to what we mean.

[56:56]

So sometimes we say detached and sometimes we say non-attached. Detachment, non-attachment. So if we use those terms, we can use those terms, I think we have to maybe use both those terms to mean the same thing. and just explain that what we mean is that that is not being greedy about the things you're intimately connected with. You're not disgusted by them either. So everybody, you're connected to everybody, you depend on everybody, and everybody depends on you. Now, don't try to take anything from this intimate relationship. only receive what's given. That's the way. And then if you're not ready to do that, then there's still a little greed there. And what we mean by non-attachment is that you have no greed for all these intimate relationships.

[57:57]

So I have this son, right, that you heard about, and now he lives in L.A. So I have this, you know, I'm very closely related to him and he's far away. So how do I work with that connection that I have with this person to watch for the green there? strong connection and yet I'm not receiving his face. You know, it's not being given to me very much now. So, but I'm still connected to that face wherever it is. Now the other possibility is that you're connected to something and you feel uncomfortable about it and you feel disgust. So that's another sign that you're not practicing non-attachment because you're disgusted by some uncomfortable thing. So those would be signs that you don't have this non-attachment that goes with your compassion.

[59:02]

So the Bodhisattva has this great compassion and non-attachment because she's meditating on everything she feels compassion towards. She's also meditating on the middle way of that thing. She's watching how that thing she feels compassion is. So, if you see how things really are, you're meditating how they really are, you will be non-attached. Dash, you won't be greedy about it and you won't be disgusted about it. And since you love all beings, otherwise you're going to get exhausted. It's exhausting unless you understand the beings that you're devoted to. So when we care for people wholeheartedly, that's good. Now then we have to meditate with that on the Middle Way. When it becomes mature, it lets us be engaged with these people we love and be of service to them without getting pooped out and basically burned out and basically evacuating the scene.

[60:12]

because we're getting burned out because we don't see that actual being that we're devoted to. So bodhisattva has great compassion, which means open-hearted to each person and all beings, and they practice meditation on the middle way, which one way to put it is that they see that it happens. Therefore, they don't push away or attach to them. And that vision goes with being fully alive with everybody and then showing them how they can realize that too. Okay? Yes? I just want to double-check my understanding. Yes, double-check understanding. Okay. Okay. I agree.

[61:14]

I agree. Based on that premise, when there is pain... When there's what? When there is pain... Yes, yes. It is... The suffering is out there, but it's also subjective. Yes. In some ways, only in some ways, I think I am creating my suffering that the outside of me is presenting to me. not creating, but presenting to me. Okay. Because I think that I am not prepared.

[62:19]

I'm kind of losing my balance, thrown off, by all of a sudden what is occurring. You're thrown off by what? By a change. You're thrown off by change? And the change itself, to which I am not prepared for, is creating suffering. through the artificial you. Yes. Yeah, well, it's not actually creating suffering to the artificial you because there is no artificial you, but it is creating suffering in you which is not artificial you. The actual you... Okay, your identity. It doesn't really cause suffering to your identity. It causes suffering to the person who has an identity. So if we're not balanced, or if we're not sufficiently balanced, then when we experience change, it's painful.

[63:21]

So part of our practice is to try to find a way to be with change so that we don't feel pain just from change. But even those bodhisattvas are those beings which have enough meditative stability to not feel much pain when they see change. Still, those great meditators, when they see other beings suffer, they feel pain. But the pain is not coming from meditative instability. So, once again, if I don't have enough meditative stability, then I will suffer just from change. Sunday to Monday will make me painful. Like, oh, Sunday, Monday, Monday morning. But if you have enough meditative stability, then Monday morning, you go, but, you know, it's absorbed in the painful.

[64:25]

But even if you're calmly going through change, If you're a bodhisattva and you love beings, you still feel pain at their suffering. And that is what Buddha would feel. Buddha would feel pain seeing other people suffering. That's this amazing thing, that they feel pain even though they don't believe their ideas about people anymore. And they're completely stable and calm. They still, in that great calmness, they feel pain They share pain with other beings. And that's not because of not being prepared. That's because of love. That's because of compassion. And they're not disgusted by these people who are suffering and giving them pain. The bodhisattvas, when they look at people who are suffering, they feel pain.

[65:27]

But because they understand the beings and the pain, they don't feel disgust about the beings or the pain. So they don't get exhausted from feeling disgusted by all these suffering people. There was a guy, this poet, you know, I often think of, his name was Lou Welch. And he is one of the beatnik poets, right? And he, I think it was in one of his poems, you know, he walked by this this guy was sitting with his head in his hands or something and he just saw the guy and he just felt so much pain seeing him. He said, you know, if I see another one of those, if I see somebody else suffering like that, I'm done, I'm over with this. I'm not going to tolerate one more slug of pain seeing somebody suffering. So he partly was like a bodhisattva of feeling suffering when he saw suffering beings.

[66:32]

But he was disgusted. And so he killed himself, as far as we know. And to see suffering beings. So he partly had the bodhisattva's heart, but he didn't have an understanding which helped him live in this world where he cared for people so much. It's possible to care, in a sense, too much. John? When you use the term disgust, are you talking about fear? Am I talking, when I say disgust, what? Are you talking about fear? Fear? That would also be a problem. I think... It's different from fear, but I think also you could say the bodhisattvas see suffering beings and they feel pain when they see them and they're not afraid of the pain, but they're also not disgusted with it.

[67:37]

They don't feel fear or disgust, I would say. Pardon? They don't reject samsara. so they don't attach to nirvana or reject samsara. The nirvana which they realize allows them not to reject nirvana and don't attach to it and don't reject samsara. Of course they also don't attach to samsara because they see that it's suffering and they also see that it can't be grasped, both those reasons. I don't know what was next. But let's see, one man, now a woman maybe? Yeah. Yeah, that's right too. I think there's... Would you say it again, the last part?

[68:50]

When you look at things, you see that the problem comes from wanting it or not wanting things? From things that either I want, I can't have, or don't have, and... I have aversion to those things. To me, it seems like they're the root causes of suffering for me, but most of the people, more than maybe what you say is right or not. Yeah, so I guess I'm just saying that the... I do see that what you're saying, if you look at that, you would see that that causes suffering. I'm just saying those things which you see as roots, there's deeper roots. So I'm just saying that... I'm actually saying the deep root is not emotional. But these afflictive emotions of wanting too much of something or wanting less of something, in other words, greed and hatred, those afflictive emotions arise from... of the nature of things, which is that these things are out there separate from us. When we feel that the world, which is us, is separate from us, that's very painful.

[69:53]

It's like rejecting your mother. So when you feel that what's giving you life, which is the universe, when you feel it's separate from you, and you feel pain, then you want to get rid of the thing, but really what you want to get rid of is the pain, and the reason why you have the pain is because you think the thing is separate. So I'm suggesting that the sense of separation between your awareness and the world, which does appear, that appearance, is the same as the sense of things arising and ceasing. So another way, like when you give a gift, you have the giver, the receiver, and the gift or the giving, those three things. When you see them as separate, then even the process of giving is painful.

[70:58]

To see them as separate is the same as seeing that things are rising and ceasing. To see that things don't arise and cease is the same as to see that the subject, I mean the giver, the gift, and the receiver are not separate. It's the same. And seeing that kind of thing, then you do not feel wanting something unreasonably and wanting to get rid of something unreasonably. You don't feel greed and hate when you see that. So I'm suggesting that this vision is that the misconception about the way things are is at the root of these afflictive emotions, which certainly do cause . They're called their roots, the three roots, you know, the three bad roots, greed, hate, and delusion. But their root is basically ignorance or misconception about the way things are. So if you get to there, those are eliminated. That's the proportion pretty much.

[72:01]

Let's see. Maybe, yeah, I think that man was next. Hi. If you're attached too strongly to, for example, a girlfriend and you really want to be with her, and she doesn't want to be with you, how do you... How do you see that in Lando and Vegemite and getting more pleased in that kind of situation? So somebody, I want to be with somebody. You project on them certain qualities that you really must have anyway. Yeah. So, now you said more. You said now you see someone and you project on them qualities which you must have. Okay? So you think there's some qualities out there separate from you. And you must have them.

[73:02]

And actually, in some sense you're right. You must have them. You must have them. No, no, no. You must have them. You must have them. Actually. You see them. You're right about you must have them. It's true. You must have them. But you don't believe you already do have them. You think they're separate from you. And because of that, you feel all kinds of upsetting emotions. So we have to meditate until we realize that what's out there, we do have to, we must have everybody. Everybody is our life. We must have them. Some people we realize it more than others, but when we realize that, it's true. We must have them. It's false that we don't have them. It's false that we're false. But believing that that's true, hearing that,

[74:04]

is a start, but we also have to admit, I do feel like that's out there separate from me, and I don't have it, and I must have it. And I think, yes, you must have that, and it would be good if you realized that's the same with everybody. You must have it. That's who you really are. Way in the back, What's the best way to absorb the pain that you see in the world? How do you deal with it? How do you thrive with it? How do you change it? How do you help other people with it? If you want to thrive with the feeling of pain that you feel in this world, you want to thrive with it?

[75:15]

Did you say thrive? You want to... You want to feel at peace with pain? And you want to help other people feel at peace with pain? And you want to know the best way to be at peace with pain? If you want to be at peace with pain, that's what you want? Okay, so if you want to be at peace with pain, the first practice is giving. The second practice is precepts, ethical precepts. The third practice is patience. The fourth practice is diligence. The fifth practice is concentration or mental stability cultivation. And the sixth practice is wisdom. Those are the practices that we practice in order to be at peace with pain and show others how to be at peace with pain. Those are the practices. And we start with giving, actually.

[76:21]

If you can, start with giving. So that would be when you feel pain, then you you make your feeling of the pain a gift. And you make the pain a gift. And you make the receiving the pain a gift. And you also do that with everything else in your life. So not everything you do is pain necessarily, or you don't necessarily see it as pain, but you make all your actions gifts. And you make everybody else's actions gifts. You see the world as a process of giving and receiving. You give up the vision that you're taking things, or things are being taken from you. So that's the first practice, is the practice of giving. And it connects to the last practice, which I mentioned earlier, is also the way That completes the picture of how we adjust to pain.

[77:26]

The practice of wisdom is where you finally see, through practicing giving, you see that the giving, the receiver, and the gift are not separate. And that makes you more successful at realizing peace in pain. So bodhisattvas happily live in a world of pain and they feel the pain and they also realize peace and show people how to practice giving, ethical precepts, patience. Of course patience is related to pain in particular. Whereas giving is related to pain, but giving is related to everything, including pain. And as you practice giving, you get more and more open to pain. And of course we can't be at peace with pain if we're not open to pain. Giving is how we become open, we begin to become open and at peace with pain. But it's also how we become, how we open and become at peace with our desires and with everything we meet.

[78:35]

Okay? So there you have a little course, the six perfections, okay? which is, you know, it's this endless ocean of wonderful practices. Let's see, I don't know who had their hands raised when. There's one person over here from a long time ago. Over here? You're one of the old-timers here? I experience myself as something eternal. My awareness, my consciousness, In some ways, the fact that I'm going to die is counter to that feeling that I'm forever. Is that feeling that I'm eternal, is that an illusion? I would say that it's true that you're eternal, but I would say the eternal has no duration. You're a compounded thing.

[79:42]

No compounded thing lasts. You don't last. You don't even last for more than one moment. Now we've got a new you and another new you. You're constantly changing. This person is constantly changing. But whatever you are eternal. But it's not an eternal in terms of lasting. it's eternal in terms of that nobody can put any boundary on you. There's no time limit on you in the moment. But to say you last or you endure is not correct and that puts you back into the time thing. But in the moment we're all eternal. And when we realize our eternity we're not afraid of impermanence. So realizing eternity is very closely related to realizing death and non-violence. Realizing eternity is very similar to realize that birth and death are an illusion.

[80:48]

But eternity is not really an illusion unless you make it into something that lasts. Things lasting is an illusion. That things arise and last and go away, that's an illusion. But we don't reject it. Bodhisattvas are not disgusted by this illusion. And they're not disgusted by the misery of people who believe it as a reality rather than an illusion. And in that love for beings and seeing them as ungraspable, in opening to the ungraspable beauty of all things, that's eternity. Things are always that way. always that way without always being something that's lasting. So I think eternity is real, ungraspable, unlimited, and doesn't last or not last.

[81:53]

So your feeling of eternity I think would be a great service to you in protecting you from being afraid and from If you're open to eternity, you're open to, I think, to all these other wonderful, amazing things. And vice versa. Who's next? Oh, she's next? Okay. I don't know. Track of when these hands go up. Yeah. Yeah. She's feeling confused and lost. Yes. I'm just wondering if it's me or if it's the topic. If it's me, how do I get lost in this confusion? If it's the topic, can you please simplify it in summary?

[82:59]

You're feeling confused. It's basically going all over. Everything is going... It's going over your head? Well, what isn't going over your head? What isn't going over your head? I don't know, but... Usually your thoughts, I've heard your thoughts before, usually they don't go in my head. I'm like, it's something, but... This question, it's going over my head. Does that mean you're not getting anything?

[84:02]

Is that kind of like you're not getting anything? I'm getting the questions. Oh, cool. Well, that's good that you got the questions. Actually, that sounds really... The question I could relate to was how to deal with pain in general, whether it was emotional or physical. Another question which I paraphrase is how to deal with not having what you want to have. A gentleman asked about his girlfriend question. That can be generalized to say there's something out there you want... girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever, whatever it is, the ideal something, but you can't have it, and not let go of it. That was the question I understood. Okay. Or the question of the pain. Your answer to the pain was, make the pain a gift, or make the pain a gift. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, well, just a second.

[85:02]

I've got to check my watch. Oh, we have a lot of time before lunch. Please do. Okay, so let's see. I heard you say that some of the questions relate to the questions, some of the questions. In other words, you kind of got the question. Okay. I kind of felt like I got the questions too. Okay, now I would suggest you come over here and sit next to me. You can understand me better if you sit closer. Want to? Do you want to come and sit closer? It sometimes sinks in better if you sit close. You can sit there or here. You want to bring your chair with you? I just want to say that when you said you got the questions but you didn't get the answers,

[86:06]

Part of me felt really good because I feel like if people ask a question and respond in such a way that people still have a question, that that's really good. Why is that? Because I think that wisdom makes you constantly continue to question what's going on. Like this said, you know, have you heard of the Czech novelist named Milan Kundera? Yeah. So he says, I write stories, I write stories and then I write other stories which confront my stories, which say, you know, which confront my stories with questions about my stories. He said, the beauty of the novel is that it counteracts the stupidity of human beings to have answers for things and promotes the wisdom which is constantly questioning.

[87:17]

So when this is going over your head, that's one way to put it, but when you said you could relate to the questions and then my response left you with questions, I thought, that seems really good. That's kind of like, that way of continuing to question is kind of the Bodhisattva's meditation. It isn't like, looks at this person and then has an answer about who she is. It's more like, I look at the person and I have a question about who you are. And then I look at you again and I have another question. And I look at you again and I have another question. I'm constantly like in I'm wondering about who you are. So now I have this story about you. But then I continue to meditate and I have another story, which keeps me from thinking my previous story was really who you are. So if I keep questioning you, I will never be disgusted by you.

[88:25]

I will never be attached to you. But if I have my story about you and I think, now I finally got the answer of who she is. I don't want to use the word stupid, but Milan Kundera would say that's stupid. My story about this woman is who she is. So if I care about you, and when you're suffering, that means something to me. Does that make sense to you? Does that make sense to you? That I would care about you? Does it make sense? And if you were suffering, I would... You might. Others won't. No, but I care about you. I'm one of the few people that care about you. Thank you. Yeah, right. I'm on the team of people who care about you. And so when you suffer, it hurts me. I feel pain. But that's not the end of the story. The next part of the story is, I wonder who you are.

[89:28]

I look to see, how is she really? Who is this person? What is she saying? What is she being to me? And when the bodhisattva who cares for you does this meditation, they don't come to a conclusion about who you are. They keep questioning. They keep studying. They realize that you're not going to be able to get a hold of what you are, that you're too vast, actually. You're beyond their grasping equipment. So I can relate to questions, really. And the answers are dangerous and should not be held to, which is very similar to letting go of the answers. I think my feet might have a story now. Here's a story which I'm not going to hold on to. And the story is that maybe you think it's good to be able to grasp what I'm saying.

[90:33]

And that would be good. Then you'd have the answer. But there's something wonderful about being able to grasp how I'm responding to these questions. So that they ask a question and I respond and you still have a question. I think that's really part of what I'm talking about. In digesting that is meditation. But not digesting and then holding on to it. Just like when you digest things, you don't hold on to them. You turn them into, you know, you process them. And that's part of your life. Right? We didn't hold on to the food. That wouldn't be healthy. Except for I saw this movie called Super Size Me. And they did this experiment with McDonald's French fries. And they put them out to see how long they'd last.

[91:38]

After 10 weeks, it looked like it was the first day. They didn't change at all. They somehow managed to create these indestructible french fries. But there's something unhealthy about that. So usually when you receive things, you shouldn't hold on to them. So these people ask questions, you receive the question, and you don't hold on to it. Then I respond, and you receive my response, and you try to get a hold of it, but actually my responses are built to be let go of. But you don't get in in the first place, so it's hard for you to let go. So you're immediately a success. You do what everybody else should do with my questions, who got them first. Oh, gotcha.

[92:47]

Yes, I think maybe Lee was next. I don't know. Yes? I read a story about some people who have that laws of nature actually run just as well backwards as they do forwards in time. Yeah, I heard about that too. Yeah. And they were trying to explain where does the arrow of time come. Yeah, cool, huh? It seems like when you drop a cup, it actually breaks. And very seldom do you come into a room and there's a broken cup on the floor, which jumps up on the table and becomes a cup again. Yeah, right. So it seems like time goes one way. Yeah. And those ideas seem to be not in opposition or not contradicting what this talk of yours or this story of yours was like.

[93:57]

That's right, I agree. We should be open to time actually going in both directions. That would be good for us, to realize that it really could go in both directions. However, it doesn't. But when we say that, it doesn't mean we close off to that it could go the other direction. So, we don't say that birth, we actually don't say, we don't say birth turns into death, and we don't say that after death you go back to birth. We don't say that. But we do say some other things, as you may have noticed. Yes? I'm working with I hope different views come in. Good. There's no separate.

[95:02]

There's nothing outside. There's nothing separate from you. Right. But in a sense, I am outside you. I'm just not separate. Yes, I agree with you as well. Certainly in the striving or building up that training, there's so many things I've let go, thinking that I want it now, I like that, and that I don't. I wonder if there's something I can learn right now in the state of it. and grasping for are we all ? Are we all in different stages of ? Are some of us simply not the presidents of the United States ? Okay, number one is I think you started out by saying that you've been... Did you say you were wondering about bodhisattvas?

[96:19]

You said you had some questions, did you? Did you say that? And when you said that, I thought, good. Keep wondering about bodhisattvas. Have questions and have stories about what bodhisattvas are, ideas and views of what bodhisattvas are, if you wish. And your karma is that you're thinking about bodhisattvas these days. stories about them, and you'll hear stories about them. Okay? But having questions about those stories is really... I say that having questions about the stories of bodhisattvas is in accord with the bodhisattva way. So bodhisattvas have stories about... But they don't hold to those stories about bodhisattvas. They question those stories. They have stories, but they question them. They don't say, this is a story about bodhisattvas and that's the answer. And they don't ask more questions. They don't talk like that. That's my story about them. But me, I don't hold to that story either. This sense of questioning the stories about what a bodhisattva is.

[97:25]

And people will tell you a lot of good stories about these enlightening beings. That's great that they tell you that, I think. They're wonderful stories. And when you hear these stories, you may feel very happy and full of joy and want to practice that way. That's fine. And then bring together with that joy of living like a bodhisattva, of living with skill and compassion and nonviolence and energy and courage. Of course, if you think about that, it's just wonderful, isn't it? And then don't hold to those stories. And have questions about them. which keeps the situation alive and lets you continue to hear new stories of wonderful beings and inspired to go on more with practice. Okay, that's the first part. The next part. Oh, the other part is, yeah, we are not, I'm not a bodhisattva.

[98:32]

you know, but this Bodhisattva takes over me. I'm like, I'm a human, you know, but Bodhisattva isn't really a human. Bodhisattva is this being, this way of being which wants everybody, everybody to be happy and free. which actually does not hold to any idea or story about how that would happen, and yet uses all stories, wants to use all stories to help beings realize this. That's the bodhisattva. And that could be well living in a person, in a human. And sometimes it might be living really well in a person, like the person might be like, have almost no resistance to that bodhisattva. and let it totally take over their body and mind. Because it wants to, and it says, your body's ready for this, so let it in.

[99:37]

So the bodhisattva takes over the body. But you take away the human body, the bodhisattva doesn't go away. The spirit keeps reproducing itself beyond the physical body. But physical bodies are good places to demonstrate the bodhisattva. You can demonstrate it in other animals, and you can demonstrate it in mountains and rivers. This spirit can inhabit anything. But when it inhabits humans, it's particularly nice when it inhabits humans for the sake of other humans, because humans are very related to other humans. And so when you see a human who's been taken over by this spirit, they wink at you and you say, wow! It impacts you. Whereas even if you look at a human from the back, you know, who's been inhabited by a bodhisattva spirit, you might not be able to see by the back of their elbow. Because the back of a human elbow doesn't look that different from the back of a cow elbow.

[100:41]

But humans are really good for humans because we're so kind of like... face-oriented, that when it inhabits another face, this spirit can be transmitted to us. So it's really nice when the Bodhisattva takes over you or somebody else. But you're not the Bodhisattva. Now, some people, the Buddhas, when they look at people, they can tell which people have been totally taken over. Are you talking about the whole thing is energy? What? Is this the energy stuff? You can say energy, I said spirit, you can say energy, you can call it whatever you want, but energy can take the form of desiring all beings to be happy. Energy can take that form. Energy can take the form of meditating a certain way. So the bodhisattva is actually not a person, but it can become a person. It can take over a person, yeah, and it can take over non-persons.

[101:45]

It can use various facilities to fulfill itself. And we're not always, as far as I can tell, we're not always totally taken over. There are moments when we kind of feel like, well, I'd like a lot of people to be happy, but not this person. At that moment, the bodhisattva spirit is not there in that limitation. When you don't want somebody to be happy, that's not the bodhisattva spirit. And if that spirit is in your body and mind, then that is something which a bodhisattva feels compassion for. Because that spirit, if I don't want to help everybody, that's like a weak bodhisattva. It's either a weak bodhisattva or not a bodhisattva. But it's not really that... I'm not always that way, right? I'm telling you that. But sometimes that's who's here. I mean, that's who's here.

[102:49]

It's like, yeah, everybody. I'm up for helping everybody. That's a moment of bodhisattva. And it's hard to see if somebody's unlimited compassion in living in them at a moment. highly evolved beings can see. This person is like, that's a bodhisattva there, that's a bodhisattva there, that's not, that is, that, you know. So, it's very important that we remember that it has been asked, the Buddha has been asked, since only you can tell who are the people who are by bodhisattva, we probably should treat everyone as though they might be a bodhisattva. And Buddha said, right. So it's not that everybody is a bodhisattva, but everybody might be. Therefore, I should probably because I don't want to hold up a bodhisattva from having lunch. In other words, you shouldn't necessarily think everybody is a bodhisattva, but you should just, to make sure you don't make a mistake, treat everybody as though they were.

[103:56]

Try to treat They might be a bodhisattva, or rather, treat everybody as you would treat a bodhisattva. That would be a natural practice that would evolve from realizing the bodhisattva spirit can inhabit anybody. But if you look into yourself, you'll see that sometimes it doesn't... Sometimes you're putting the brakes on your compassion a little. You're resisting this a little, sometimes. And some people might feel like, I resisted a lot. I'm seldom really feeling that way. And some people feel like, I have not yet felt compassion. Like somebody said to me yesterday, he said, I had issues with this bodhisattva. I'm not sure I'm really ready to let it in. But this person is struggling with it and told me about it, so that's good. You're sort of in the ballpark.

[104:58]

Okay, is that enough for now?

[105:04]

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