This fall, I've been bringing up the word compassion a lot. Have you noticed? We had a class on Monday night over the mountain in the Green Dragon Temple. I think it's called something about great compassion in Zen or the compassion of the Zen masters. And also the theme for the practice period at Green Dragon Temple I think is also great compassion in Zen. And we often remember the great being,

[01:14]

the enlightening being, Avalokiteshvara, who is sometimes called the Bodhisattva of great compassion, the enlightening being of great compassion. In one of the rooms upstairs we have, in some sense we've called that room, it's the room of Avalokiteshvara. It's the room where we have many statues of Avalokiteshvara on a beautiful altar, which was given to us. The central figure there I found in China and brought it back. Yeah.

[02:16]

And then there's another statue of Avalokiteshvara on this altar. This one looks quite different from the one on the center of the altar upstairs. This one has like two arms and two legs. The one upstairs has many arms. And there's more than one up there that has many arms. Somebody recently said to me something like this. They said to me, I think I heard you say something like, if you just keep listening and listening and listening, something good will happen.

[03:22]

And this person I think was thinking about listening to the teachings. And listening to the teachings and listening to the teachings. And one of the good things that might happen if you keep listening to the teachings is you kind of might, you might go, oh, ah, I understand. Does that make sense? Does that make sense to you that if you listen to the teaching and listen to the teachings, that someday you might go, oh, I understand. Like in Zen training temples, they chant the Heart Sutra, you know, over and over, day after day, year after year, century after century. And the people who chant it, as they're chanting after some number of years,

[04:37]

they go, oh. And by the way, the Heart Sutra, the person who's teaching the Heart Sutra is Avalokiteshvara. The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion is teaching the perfect wisdom of that great Mahayana perfect wisdom sutra. The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion teaches us perfect wisdom and practices Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, practicing deeply the Prajnaparamita. So again, this person said,

[05:40]

I heard you talk about listening and listening and maybe she said, is that right? Did you say that? I said, well, yeah, I did say something like that. I said, yeah, but listening, listening, listening to the cries of the world, that's Avalokiteshvara's name, listening to the cries of the world. It's not listening, [...] listening to the cries of the world, just one listening. That's, that's his name, listening to the cries of the world or observing the cries of the world. That's, that's guanyin or guanjizai, guanjizai, listening to the cries of the world. No, no, guanji, guanyin, guanji, guanyin, guanjilin, guanyin, listening to the cries, kanan, listening to the cries

[06:43]

or observing all sentient beings. Observing all sentient beings, listening to all sentient beings, an ocean of blessing arises beyond measure. And one of the blessings that could come would be that you would understand sentient beings, that you would understand their cries, that you would understand the teaching. That would be one of the blessings that would come to you if you listen to suffering beings, if you listen to your own suffering, now, [...] if you listen to other people's suffering, now, now, now, one of the blessings is you understand the teaching. But also another blessing is that beings will be liberated from suffering. Another blessing is that great peace will be realized.

[07:47]

In this world of suffering, great peace will be realized by listening to the cries of the world. And many other blessings too, although that's sort of top of the line. And then the person said to me, but I mean like listening, listening and understanding the teaching. Well, that would, yeah, and understanding the teaching, that's how peace is realized. But also the teachings, when you hear teachings like, maybe you're hearing some teachings now, I don't know, are you? Perhaps, there might be some teachings that you're listening to right now. If you listen to these teachings, one of the blessings of listening to these teachings is understanding them. But these teachings are the cries of the world. These teachings are the cries of the world. I'm not saying, ouch, ouch, ouch. I'm saying, compassion, compassion, compassion.

[08:49]

Compassion is my cry. Are you listening to it? Compassion is the teaching. The teaching is compassion. Does that make sense? The teaching is compassion. Does that make sense? Does it? [...] Well, before we get to my cry, compassion is the teaching. Does that make sense? Compassion is the teaching. Does that make sense? The Buddhas are teaching compassion. Are the Buddhas compassionate? Well, yeah. Right? Buddhas are compassionate. What do they teach? Yeah. Compassion is the teaching of the wise ones. The compassionate ones teach compassion. So, if you listen to the Buddha's teaching, you're listening to compassion, and maybe you're not learning it yet.

[09:54]

Oh, yes. But you don't understand it yet, but you're learning. You're learning compassion even before you understand it. And when the Buddha talks, that's the Buddha's cry, and it's the cry of compassion. And everybody who's saying, ouch, and help, they're also crying. They're also compassion criers. Everybody's calling compassion, and everybody's teaching compassion. And if you listen to the cries, and listen to the cries, and listen to the cries, and listen to the cries, you will hear the Dharma. It's in the cries, because the cries are the teaching of compassion. So, listening to suffering beings, you're also listening to the teaching,

[10:55]

and listening to the teaching, you're listening to suffering beings. Now, the Buddha isn't exactly a suffering being. The Buddha's like totally cool and happy, but the Buddha understands that all the suffering beings are the same as Buddha. Yeah. And the suffering beings don't understand that yet. Okay? That's my basic and actually kind of new teaching. Did you hear the new teaching? The cries of the world are the teaching of compassion. Listening to the cries of the world, you're listening to the teaching of compassion. Listening to the cries of the world, you will understand, you will understand the teaching of compassion. If I don't listen to the cries of the world, I'm not going to say if you don't, because I know you will, but if I don't listen to the cries of the world,

[11:59]

then I'm not listening to the teaching of compassion. Does that make sense? If I don't listen to the cries of the world, then I'm not listening to the teaching of compassion because the teaching of compassion comes through the cries of the world. Are there plenty of cries of the world? So there's plenty of teaching of compassion. Even somebody who is being cruel is crying for compassion and teaching compassion. The cruelty isn't compassion. The cry is calling for compassion. And listening to the cry, you'll hear the teaching. I could go over this repeatedly, and I just have. I could continue repeating myself, and I will. But you can also take up the baton. One time somebody came to talk to me in Minnesota. I was doing a retreat there.

[13:01]

And she said, what's that kind of, what's that baton you're carrying? I said, oh, I hadn't heard it called a baton before. But I guess it is a kind of baton. A baton is something, the two main meanings of baton are, one is something like a conductor of an orchestra uses to sort of, it is, this is kind of a baton for the dharma orchestra. But another meaning of baton is a stick that's passed from one person in a relay race. But that's also what we're doing here. This stick will be passed on. This is a, we're in the Buddhist relay race. From generation to generation, we use these things to pass on the teaching of compassion. It is a baton. Now you can pick up the baton of what?

[14:03]

Of listening to the cries of the world. And you can repeat it. And you can pick up the baton of listening to the teachings of compassion. And if you listen to the teaching of compassion, you have received the baton of the Buddhas. And if you practice it, you can transmit the baton. The baton of the practice of listening to the cries of the world. The baton of listening to the dharma of the teaching of compassion. And if I don't receive this baton and pass it on, if I don't receive this baton of listening to the cries of the world, then I, in a sense,

[15:06]

miss an opportunity to listen to the cries of the world. But in the next moment, I can recover and listen. I'm leaning over here for emphasis. Now I'm leaning over here for emphasis. What am I emphasizing? I'm emphasizing something I think that I just said. Everything I've said so far, I'm emphasizing. I think what I said is really, really where it's at. Where is it at? Listen to the cries of the world. And that will be very beneficial.

[16:09]

Listen to your own suffering. Be right there for it. That will help this world. You got suffering? Be there with it. That will help this world. That will bring blessings. Other people got it? Listen to them. That creates great oceans of blessing. And that's also teaching and receiving the teaching of compassion. This is where it's at, this morning, at no abode. Now, another thing that came up recently, somebody's talking about, can you practice or express compassion without using words? And I don't know what I said, but I might have said yes.

[17:12]

The Buddha sitting in this world, can you imagine a Buddha sitting in this world? Can you imagine a Buddha sitting in other worlds? Can you? Hmm? What? [...] Some of you can, and some of you said so. Anyway, I can imagine a Buddha sitting silently. Can you? We have a Buddha here that's quite quiet. There, see? He's sitting there, he don't say nothing. He just keeps sitting. He keeps just sitting along. That's our Buddha, quiet. Muni means quiet one, silent one. We have these banners, homage to Shakyamuni. Our Buddha is called the silent one. When the Buddha's sitting in silence,

[18:25]

is the Buddha teaching compassion? Yes. I think so. What else is the Buddha teaching? Wisdom. Wisdom. The Buddha's sitting in silence teachings, compassion and wisdom, without saying a word. Just nice little body. Compassion. Without saying so. But the Buddha also talks. This one doesn't, but Shakyamuni Buddha did talk quite a bit. Some people even said he was rather talkative. He did talk a lot, but I think, although I don't know for sure, that he was silent more than he was talking. When he was silent, was he teaching compassion? Yes. When he was talking, was he teaching compassion? Yes. When he was sitting, was he teaching compassion? Yes. When he was walking, was he teaching compassion?

[19:28]

Yes. I agree with you people. Okay, so, when you're sitting in silence, do you want to teach compassion? Yes. When you're talking, do you want to teach compassion? Yes. When you're listening, do you want to teach compassion? Yes. So, somebody asked me, can compassion be expressed without words or without talking? The answer is, can compassion be expressed with words? Can the compassion be expressed in many, many ways? I agree with you people. Thank you for playing with me this morning at the compassion playground. And then I said to this person who asked this question about,

[20:34]

can compassion be expressed without words or speaking? I also said, it's kind of like a woman who's breastfeeding, if she hears somebody else's baby crying, maybe 50 feet away, sometimes her blouse becomes moistened because the milk just squirts out. She doesn't necessarily, she probably doesn't say squirt. Most breastfeeding mothers don't say squirt. They just let the baby onto their tits and the milk comes. Maybe if it doesn't come, they say, come on, come on, come on. Anyway, that milk of compassion can just squirt out as soon as it hears a cry without saying anything. Okay, and then I thought of another story,

[21:41]

which is case 89 of the book of the blue cliff. 89, and the name of the case is, the hands and eyes of the Bodhisattva of great compassion. So like, again, this Bodhisattva of great compassion has two hands and two eyes. Up and upstairs, the Bodhisattva has, I don't know, quite a few hands and I think has several faces, I'm not sure. And then two eyes in each face. So there's a number of hands and eye, number of hands, many hands and many eyes. That's, again, could be seen as a sculptural teaching that there's many ways that compassion is expressed.

[22:46]

It's expressed with this kind of hand, that kind of hand, this kind of hand, this kind of hand, this kind of breast, that kind of breast, this kind of voice, this kind of, these kinds of, it can be expressed in many ways. Two hands, four hands, eight hands, a thousand hands. So that's the name of the story. It's about this Bodhisattva whose name is, listen to the cries of the world, who has lots of ways to do it. Lots of ways to listen and lots of ways to teach. So we have two of our Zen ancestors. One of them's name's Yunyan, which means cloudy cliff, or cliff of the clouds, or cliff in the clouds.

[23:48]

And he's a teacher of the founder of our school in China, Dongshan. He's Dongshan's teacher. And he had a Dharma brother. They both studied with Medicine Mountain, Yaoshan. And his Dharma brother, who was, I guess, older than him, was named Dao Wu, Dao Wu, Dao Wu, which means path awakening. And so the younger brother asked the older brother, what does the Bodhisattva of great compassion use so many hands and eyes for? And Dao Wu said, that's one translation, but maybe you could try also,

[24:55]

how, how does Avalokiteshvara use all those hands and eyes? Grandma, your eyes are so big. What do you use them for? I use them to see you. What does Avalokiteshvara, how does the Bodhisattva use all that equipment, all that compassion equipment? And that's what the younger brother, Yuen Yuen, asked older brother, Dao Wu. And Dao Wu said, it's like someone reaching, reaching back, groping for a pillow in the middle of the night. So here's a hand, right?

[26:06]

One of Avalokiteshvara's hands. What does she use that hand for? Well, she uses it for reaching for pillows in the night, in the middle of the night. Oops, sorry. Sorry, Noboda, I broke one of your bells. How does the Bodhisattva of great compassion use these hands and eyes? It's like groping for a pillow, reaching back, not just in the dark, but reaching behind you for a pillow in the night. That's how the Bodhisattva does compassion. You get it?

[27:09]

You get it? It's like the milk squirts. It's like pillow. It's like that. Can I finish the story? Okay, so then the younger brother, hearing that, says, when he hears about the arm reaching back in the middle of the night for the pillow, that's Avalokiteshvara, that's how Avalokiteshvara uses the arms. He says, what does, what does Yunyuan say after he hears this interesting teaching? What does he say? Yeah, I understand, he says.

[28:11]

How about you, do you understand? And, well, if you don't, then you're a little bit different from Yunyuan, but maybe not so different. Anyway, Yunyuan said, I understand, and then Dawu says, well, how so? And he said, hands and eyes all over the body. That's true. And then Dawu says, you said quite a bit there, but it's only 80% of it, and then Yunyuan says, well, how about you, elder brother? And Dawu says, throughout the body, hands and eyes. I would say, you know, so when we hear this teaching,

[29:16]

it starts to cover our body. And hearing it more and more, we get more and more coated with this teaching of compassion. But as we go off further and further, and we're being coated with it, we use it to respond. But as we listen to it more, it sinks into us. And when it finally sinks all the way through our body, then it responds, but it's no longer me responding from my surface of me, it's like my whole being, including my surface, but not just my surface. My digestion, my heartbeat, everything. Everything about me is teaching compassion. And how does it get to be like that?

[30:20]

By listening and listening. One of the blessings of listening is your whole body, these hands and eyes pervade your whole body, and everything you do teaches compassion. Somebody lifts, you can lift your elbow and teach compassion. Somebody else can lift your elbow and you teach compassion. Other people are teaching your compassion because it's throughout your body. But at the beginning, it's all over your body. You hear these teachings, they get all over your body. That's pretty good, 80%. But it can sink in more deeply. And we are in the process of these teachings of compassion sinking into our body. We're also in the process of these teachings

[31:27]

coating our body, covering the surface of our body and then sinking into our body. Covering the surface and sinking in. Both of those things are going on now. And most of us have not been thoroughly and completely pervaded and transformed by this teaching yet. But we keep remembering this teaching and listening to this teaching and remembering to listen. That's the process. Okay. And then there's a poem. I'm celebrating this conversation between two ancient teachers. Dharma brothers, because they had the same teacher. Okay. I have a Dharma brother who was ordained

[32:37]

the same day as me. I have some other Dharma brothers who were ordained on different days from me. But one Dharma brother was ordained the same day as me and he's a very skilled carpenter. And I helped him make a coffin for me. And now the coffin's downstairs. In the garage. You can go smell it if you want to. Smells very nice. So I just finished making this coffin with my Dharma brother. And we had some conversations while we made the coffins. You know, kind of like, you can sand that now, he would say. You can put some glue in there now. You can drill a hole. So we just heard a conversation that occurred more than a thousand years ago, supposedly. A conversation.

[33:38]

This conversation, this is like the classical Zen image of practice. It's the classical Zen image of practicing what? Compassion. It's a classical image of Zen, what? What? Zen teaching. It's a classical Zen image of compassion. It's the classical Zen image of wisdom. It's a classical Zen image of the Buddha way. What is it? No, what is, it's a conversation. The classical Zen image of compassion is a conversation. They're calling to each other and listening to each other, calling to each other. This is the way, the classical, maybe that conversation never occurred, but that's the classical image

[34:40]

of how the Zen people practiced compassion. How did they do it? Talking to each other. Were they also quiet with each other? Yes. The silence, however, is part of the conversation. The classical Zen image is not somebody sitting silently, it's somebody sitting with somebody else in silence and talking. Silence, talking. Silence, talking. That's the classical Zen image. That's how the Zen stories are. They're used to teach compassion and wisdom. So that's the story we heard. And now here's a verse celebrating it. All over the body is right. Throughout the body is right. Bringing up is still 100,000 miles away.

[35:47]

Bringing it up. And bringing up could be me telling you this story. Spreading its wings, the rock, a rock's a kind of bird. Spreading its wings, the rock soars over the clouds of the six compounds. It propels the wind to beat against the waters of the four oceans. What speck of dust suddenly arises? What wisp of hair hasn't stopped? Do you see? The net of jewels hanging down in patterns.

[36:57]

Reflections upon reflections. When do the hands and eyes on the staff, where do the hands and eyes on the staff come from? Ha! I didn't want to give the talk that I just gave today, but now that it's over, I accept. I had something else that I thought was really interesting, but I'm not in control here, and neither are you. But you made me do it. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have said that stuff. That might've been okay too. But it wasn't what happened. Now, if anybody who has been patiently waiting

[38:14]

to raise their hand and eyes, they may do so. Whoa. Whoa. Brux, Sonia, Homa, and Patty. That's kind of a tie, but maybe boys first. Huh? You defer, okay. Okay, will you defer also? Okay, will you defer? Will you defer? No, there's one more. Okay, will you defer also? Okay, so everybody deferred. Anything else? I hope, please excuse me for, please excuse me for soiling your clothes with milk. I'm sorry. Especially if you're non-dairy. Pardon? You changed?

[39:16]

Sonia says, Sonia, what I really wanted to talk about is that kind of talk where she says, I changed my mind. That's what I really want to talk about. Did you hear that? She said, I changed my mind. Another way to say it is, my mind changed. How about that? I do too. But also, thanks for using the example of I changed my mind. I changed my mind. You heard that expression? I, I'm changing my mind. But my mind is changing, as you may have noticed. Sonia, Sonia, the mind, the mind changer, also, Sonia, the one whose mind has been changed. Let's hear from that one. That mind had the imagination that it's the compassion that's already here. It's, that's right. It's listening, listening. Even if you're not coming to Buddha at all, it's not like, what'd you say?

[40:19]

It's not like there isn't any. It's not like there isn't any. No, it's not like there isn't any. It's like there is any. Compassion is already here. We're talking about waking up to it. And the way you wake up to it is by listening. And the compassion's already listening too. If you join the listening, you join the compassion which is already here. What are the four great oceans? Pardon? What are the four great oceans? The Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian, and the Mexican. Southern, the southern ocean. The southern. That's, how about that four? I can make up another four if you want, but let's do southern, Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian. Indian's good, right? That's where Buddha used to live. He used to live a little bit north of the Indian Ocean.

[41:20]

North and surrounded by. The Indian Ocean, okay. The Pacific Ocean, that's a good one. And the Atlantic and the southern. So this birdie, what's the birdie? The rock. This birdie, this compassion bird, it's got wings. And when they beat, they beat the whole ocean up. And that bird is here all the time. Never goes any place, because it's already every place. And we're trying to wake up to this bird of compassion so we can be its servant, and we can ride on its back. And there's room for all of us on this bird. Daksha. Bideshan. Hi. Sometimes it gets overwhelming.

[42:27]

Yeah. It feels overwhelming. Yeah. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed. Yes, listening to the cries. Yeah. The distant ones or the near ones. Sometimes listening to the cries seems overwhelming. Hey, I gotta say, where's my little kit? Where'd my kit go? Hello, kit. Where'd it go? Anybody know where it went? I found it. I got a little kit here, which will help me hear you better. Make my ears bigger. See, this is my little device. Somebody gave me these. I won't tell you who. I know who. I know you do. So you shouldn't say either. Okay, so anything else you wanna say, Breck, besides listening to the cries of the world can seem overwhelming?

[43:29]

Nothing more to say. You want me to say something? So when you're listening to the cries of the world and it seems overwhelming, what's the teaching? Huh? Be compassionate. Be compassionate to the feeling of overwhelmed. Listen to overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. How are you? Overwhelmed. Oh, you're overwhelmed. Yes, I'm overwhelmed. Listen to the, I'm overwhelmed. Listen to that. And maybe that won't be so, maybe you can listen to I'm overwhelmed. Take care of I'm overwhelmed. If I don't take care of, if I'm listening to you and then I feel overwhelmed and I don't listen to, I feel overwhelmed, then I won't be able to listen to you very well. If I'm listening to you and I get a,

[44:32]

the call of nature comes and I don't listen to it and pretty soon do something, you know, relieve myself of that call, then it'll be harder for me to listen to you. So I listen to that so I can listen to you. So when you're listening and you hear overwhelmed, listen to overwhelmed. Let me listen to overwhelmed. Then I can listen more. We take care of ourself when we feel overwhelmed so we can take care of others. We listen to our own cry, overwhelmed or overwhelming or I can't go on, we listen to that. And then we can listen to the things which we were listening to before. But we had a response and we should listen to our response which is, this is overwhelming or this is discouraging. I'm trying to help people and they don't seem to be helped

[45:35]

and I feel discouraged. Listen to, I feel discouraged. Or I'm listening to people and they seem to be, they seem to be helped. I'm encouraged. Listen to, I'm encouraged. I'm encouraged is calling for compassion. I'm discouraged is calling for compassion. I'm no good at this is calling for compassion. I'm above average at this is calling for compassion. Everything is calling for compassion. That's why Avalokiteshvara calls, listen to everything. That the name of the Bodhisattva is listen to everything including, this is too much for me. I need a break. But it's not that you don't listen to, I need a break. You listen to, I need a break too. And then when you listen to, I need a break, you didn't take a break but you listened to, I need one.

[46:37]

And then you lie down and take a nap. And then you listen to, lie down and take a nap. And then you wake up from your nap and you feel like, oh, I can go back to work now. And you listen to that. And then you go back to work and you listen to that. Everything, if you're doing all day long, every motion you make, every thought you take, I'll be watching you. Okay. Okay. Exactly. Yeah, homa, the defer, the deferment. I'd like first to express my dream. And my dream is that I hear the cry

[47:43]

as the compassion itself. Cry is the compassion. It's not bringing compassion to others or doing anything. Just the cry itself is compassion. And my dream is the ability to be, I wouldn't say that, but I would say be compassionate. So therefore, I'm not in this mind of doing or not. You just went off track. You were fine up to that point. And then you veered off. That's what you veered off. Because this thing which you said, not the mind, that's compassion too. That's the compassion, not the mind is compassion.

[48:43]

The mind is compassion. Everything is compassion. When you hear it, when you listen to it, when you realize it's teaching you, don't exclude the mind. Yes, yes, yes. Okay, yeah. It's all included. Nothing excluded from this compassion. And then if we, yeah, and we're in the process, we're in the process of being that, yes. We're in this process. And we want to bring everybody along in this process. And we are. We're all doing it. And then things happen which we think are exceptions to the process. And then we slip off for a little while. I can see, I can see the fidgeting, so I need to constantly include the fidgeting.

[49:46]

Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, we need to keep including the fidgeting. The fidgeting is calling for us to... Fidgeting is compassion, that's what it was saying. The fidgeting is asking us to come back and be with the fidgeting. Patty? Patty? Well, earlier, I was talking to you, and I was overwhelmed by the suffering in my family. And the talking that I realized that I was trying to hide the suffering while I was feeling it. And when I allowed compassion to tend to the suffering, I was feeling quite unexpectedly

[50:51]

when I noticed that I wasn't suffering anymore. Yeah, you weren't suffering anymore, but the suffering was still there. It's just that you became listening to the suffering. You became not hiding the suffering. Suffering was still... The suffering is present, but when you listen to it, the listening is not suffering. So there's suffering, and without getting rid of the suffering, there's the joy of listening to the suffering. So we got suffering, now we have compassion. But compassion doesn't get rid of suffering. It just creates this beautiful, joyful, peaceful mind right in the middle of suffering. Because again, Buddha sits in the middle of suffering. So maybe I'm here suffering, and now there's compassion, but maybe now the I is moved over into the compassion part.

[51:52]

So it's almost like I'm not suffering, but I didn't get rid of any suffering. Compassion doesn't get rid of suffering. It lives in the middle of it, and shows people that there can be peace in the middle of suffering. And in the middle of the cause of suffering, too. Ignorance and delusion and attachment. Yes? So it's hopeless. It's like an endless reservoir of suffering that we never... Endless reservoir of suffering, yeah. Never escape, I mean, it's just there, it's just that... We never escape it, and Buddhas accept that. And accepting that we don't, accepting never escape suffering, all this compassion comes to help all the suffering beings. So we have Buddhas and suffering inseparable.

[52:56]

And Buddhas are... And we need to hear that it's inescapable in order to settle down and become a Buddha. Which is similar to we need to stop trying to escape, because compassion isn't trying to escape from the ocean of suffering. Compassion is opening to it and listening to it. Like a Buddha. And not trying to get rid of it. And we have various skills, generosity, ethics, patience, diligence, and tranquility to help us open to it. And realize Buddhahood so other people can do the same practice. Trying to get away from suffering is hopeless, but it's not hopeless to become Buddha in the middle of it. And be a blessing to all suffering.

[54:00]

That's not hopeless. Yes? Two weeks ago I heard you say, great compassion, great compassion, compassion resides or lives in stillness and silence. That's very useful. Yeah. So the Buddha's sitting in the middle of all suffering, and the Buddha's sitting in silence and stillness, and emanating compassion. And sometimes by winking. Winking? That's the, again, the first, supposedly the first Zen story is Buddha winked at Mahakasyapa. Buddha's sitting in silence and stillness, and from the stillness, the hand comes up with a flower in it. From the stillness, the compassionate teaching

[55:03]

of raising the hand with a flower and twirling the flower. Classical Zen story. Conversation of Buddha's hand with a flower in it, twirling. And then the Buddha winks. And it's hard to say whether the Chinese character there means blinked or winked. I like winked. So from silence and stillness comes great compassion, and the form of it is raise up the flower, twirl it, and wink. And then in response, from silence and stillness comes great compassion in the form of the student's smile. The teacher's sitting, the great Buddha's sitting in silence and stillness. From the silence and stillness comes this conversation in the form of raising the hand with the flower,

[56:05]

twirling it, and winking. The student also in silence and stillness smiles. They're having a conversation in silence and stillness. They're mutually transmitting compassion to each other and wisdom. All this is occurring in silence and stillness. And then the Buddha says, I have a treasury of true Dharma eyes, which I now give to this student. I have the inconceivably wonderful mind of nirvana, which I now give to this student. And from silence and stillness, I give it to silence and stillness. Yes, what would you like to say now?

[57:21]

I would like to say that Carl and I this past week had- Carl's her son. We had a conversation in tender tension. Tender tension. We found ourselves. Great combination. Yes. TT. TT. And I just want to say that I'm grateful for practice. And it's not what the outcome was. It's that the conversation continues. Well, it's not what the outcome was. It's tender tension. Yes. It's already, there it is. And then the outcome of that is, we don't know, but maybe more practice. That would be nice. And it was peaceful. It could have not been. Yes, tender tension. Peacefulness is tender tension.

[58:23]

It isn't just peaceful. It isn't just peaceful with like no tension. If there's no tension, it's peaceful with no tension. There's peaceful no tension also. I mean, excuse me. There's tender no tension also. Don't be mean to no tension if it ever occurs. So tender tension is peaceful. Peaceful is being tender with tension. Peaceful is being tender with relaxation. You know, don't kick people for being relaxed. How dare you be relaxed? But people sometimes do treat relaxed people untenderly. It happens. And also people teach tense people,

[59:26]

treat tense people with untenderly. But the bodhisattvas are tender towards tense people. And towards their own tension. I should say the bodhisattvas aspire to being tender to their own tension and to other people's tension. The bodhisattvas aspire to being tender with people's frowns and grimaces and smiles. They aspire to that. And by many years of training, they get more and more consistent in this world of change. Somehow the tenderness keeps coming up more and more frequently through training and more and more blessings through training. ♪ The evening breeze caressed the trees tenderly ♪

[60:41]

♪ The trembling trees caressed the breeze tenderly ♪ Thank you very much, tender ones. I meant, excuse me, tender foots.

[60:56]

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