Do you have any expectations of what I might be talking about tonight? No. The topic for the retreat that's happening this weekend and I guess until Monday. It is, I thought something like, embodying the wondrous dawn, or is it embodying the lotus sutra? What are you talking about? Inacting. [...] Inacting, embodying the wondrous embody the wondrous truth.

[01:03]

Another way of saying it is embody the inconceivable truth, a truth which is inconceivable. But it's nonetheless the truth. And it's the truth about the truth that I'm concerned about. It's the truth about everything. The truth about each of us human beings. And it's also the truth about non-human beings. It's the truth about animals. It's the truth about fungi. It's the truth about mountains and rivers. It's the truth of the universe. That is the truth which I am coming to discuss in acting.

[02:22]

Part of what I propose to you, I will tell you the story or make the proposal that this truth of everything in the universe, which nothing I can say about will reach it, but still I'm going to say something about this truth. And what I'm going to say about it is that it is It is how we are related. The truth is how we're related. How we're related is the truth. The truth is how we're related and that we're related. And not only are we related, but we are related in a mutually supportive way.

[03:48]

We are actually supporting each other. Human beings are supporting each other. Human beings are supporting all non-human beings. And all non-human beings are supporting human beings. This is the inconceivable truth. The inconceivable truth is like that. How that actually is, nothing I could say to actually reach that. And yet, me saying it to you, I propose to you, is coming from that reality. So this truth is an existential reality. How is it? It exists. in inconceivable mutual assistance. And again, I'm not saying that what I just said is true, or the truth, but that is the truth I'm referring to.

[04:51]

And the question is, we call it to an act that. There is a scripture called the Lotus of the Wondrous Diamond, which I will be discussing tomorrow and the next day and the next day, which is a scripture which is talking about how to actually grow something out of this, how to plant seeds in the truth and have these truths sprout into a beautiful flower. in the world and I would say this is how to make the Dharma manifested embodied and enacted in among all beings together with all beings and I just thought I might mention to start off because

[06:13]

Yeah, because I think so much to this, many of us are concerned about this. For example, we had this war that the story is that the United States Army and Air Force are in a war now, but they're fighting some other human beings on this planet, particularly in an area called Iraq. So that's the story I've heard. that there's this war going on. And I also hear the story that it looks to me like the United States, some people in the United States of America, I think that actually it's a good idea for this country to

[07:14]

to rule, to command, to dominate, at least militarily, to dominate the world. It looks like some people think, some people have an imperial or imperious attitude towards the rest of the world. but they think that we should actually be telling the rest of the world what to do, and we should be commanding and dominating. So I've also heard that this is a very powerful country. The United States is sometimes, I guess, called a superpower. But it seems to me that a stupid power doesn't have to use the superpower to dominate or to command or to order or rule other powers.

[08:26]

It seems to me that that isn't necessary. But some people seem to think that the superpower should influence in the form of domination and be superior or something like that, rather than be a great power among all beings and use that power to help all other countries and influence them in the direction of encouraging them to also help each other, this power could be used to teach the truth of our interdependence and our inconceivable mutual assistance, the power of this country could be used to enact the truth, rather than enact the why, the falseness, the falsehood, that we don't need the rest of the world, that they may need us, but we don't need them.

[09:38]

And we don't need to talk to them. Maybe they should talk to us. Maybe they don't need to talk to us. We'll just tell them what to do. And that's a lie. That version of reality, I would say, is a lie. It's not actually in the core, in any way, the way we actually know. So, you know, I'm a grand author in various ways. And somebody could say I'm a powerful grandfather. I have vital energy in my relationship with grandchildren. I mean a lot to them. I can do a lot to them. I can give them tremendous love and support. I can be patient with them. I can also be impatient with them.

[10:40]

but I do have a big influence on them, but they also have a tremendous influence on me, which I really enjoy. I need them. They need me. They do need me because I'm one of their grandfathers. They need my devotion because that's reality. I am devoted to them, but they do not need me to dominate them. even though I'm the grandfather and I'm powerful. They do not need me to dominate them. They do not need me to rule them. They do not need me to command them. And in fact, I don't do much of that. And if I ever try, it doesn't work. My power is undermined and wasted in pretty much any attempt to command them and control them.

[11:42]

So I don't do that much, commanding and controlling. I make requests and I make gifts. When I make gifts, I make requests which are gifts to the grandchildren. And I do the same thing with my Dharma children and my Dharma grandchildren. I have Dharma children. offspring from me and the Dharma, and I have Dharma grandchildren, and I treat them the same way. I get new gifts. I am not in control of these Dharma offspring, sometimes called students. I'm not in control of them. I do not command them. I do not dominate them. I do not dominate them. That's the truth. I do not. And I also do not In fact, I do not embody the lie that I dominate and control these Zen students.

[12:50]

I don't. Who of you might even say that you're a student in relationship to me? I think some of you might say that. Say, yes, he is a teacher for me. And if you feel like I dominate you, command you, control you, I would say that's a lie. If you think, if you say that I think that I do, I would say, well, please help me see that because I think it's a lie. And if I fall into that lie, I want you to help me. I want you to point out that I'm acting in accordance with a lie. I'm acting like I think. If I'm a teacher, I should control the students. I must admit, in my earlier days in the role of a teacher, I did try to control the students. When I was first in this position called teaching Zen, I thought, well, I should just teach them to practice like I do, because I practice.

[13:57]

I have good practice, so I'll just teach them how to do it like I do. And I'm a good Zen student, so I'll teach them to be like me. And they came to me, and they said, what should I do? They said, do this, and they'd be fine. And they tried to be like me, but they couldn't. So they stopped. And they stopped doing what I was instructed to do. So then I changed my policy and started to help them be themselves, which they're very good at. And who they are is somebody who I am not in control of, who I do not dominate. And also, it doesn't dominate me. And who they are might be someone who they like to control me. So who they are is someone who lives in a lie sometimes. They live in a lie that they can control me. It's needed sometimes to try to control me. But I don't try to control them when they're trying to control me. Because I can.

[14:58]

If they don't try to control me, they can try all they want. Whenever they're trying to control me, they're successful trying to control me. They never get set for controlling me. They never control me. I never control them. They can try. I used to try. I didn't either. They may still try, with themselves or with their students. I let them try. My grandson tries to control me. I let him try. Sometimes he lives the lie of thinking he's successful, that he's got me under control. I let him live that lie. I don't control politics. I'm gracious with his attempt to control me. Now, I do sometimes break down and say, you know, I'm not having fun. I play with you now, and the score is 240 to 0.

[16:01]

I want a break. I let him, you know, win, [...] win. And after a while, I get tired. I like to play a different game. One where, you know, I have a little bit more chance of coming on equal footing with you. We cannot control the United States of America. We cannot control it into giving up this tendency towards imperialism. We cannot control it. If you try to control, if you try to stop it from being imperial, if you try to help it be imperial, No matter what we do towards this imperialism, no matter what we do in this country, which is trying to have such a global control, the empire will fall.

[17:13]

This is part of the Dharma. The empire will fall. It will fall. It will fall. It all fall. And we cannot stop it from falling. It will fall. But what I want is before it falls, that the empire will fall. I would like to get this wonderful, this beautiful country with all these beautiful treasures of humans and animals and plants and mountains and rivers. I would like to get this wonderful, powerful, vital nation to get ready to be a great thing in the world after the empire falls or after the empire is gently set to rest. It doesn't have to crash like a huge giant falling down.

[18:16]

The giant can go down gently and lie upon the earth and take care of all of its children. It doesn't have to crash. It will come down. It doesn't have to crash. The Soviet Union, which is a ringly powerful, did not crash. It went down fairly gently. When it lost, when they gave up trying to control Czechoslovakia, they gave up to it. Not all empires end in tremendous violence and chaos. I would like this country to get ready to start living the truth. starting acting in truth so that when the empire falls, it will fall, but there will be this lotus which grows and it's falling. We can start drawing this lotus with the empire still struggling to exercise its demand.

[19:22]

And we can do that, each of us, by taking care of the truth. We live in the truth. We live in the truth. All the enlightened beings live in the truth. We live in the truth. The enlightened being has opened to it and exercised it and transmitted it. We are in the midst of the truth. That's where we live. That's where we dwell. That's where we live and live our life. And beings who understand it are transmitting to it. and we are receiving this transition of the True Diamond. However, if we don't practice receiving it, we will not realize that we're receiving it.

[20:24]

We will not realize that we're living in it. We will not realize that we're getting it and transmitting it. If we don't practice, we won't realize that we're receiving to and giving the truth and receiving the truth. And how we're doing that is our way to practice that. So that's why I'm talking about enacting the truth. If we enact the truth, this enactment will grow up and become more and more alive and vivid. And a viable, powerful, beneficial nation will grow up simultaneously with this unhealthy situation. We can't wait.

[21:26]

Actually, we can wait, but I'd rather have us not wait until anything falls apart to try to build a new nation. So how do we practice? How do we enact? Well, one way we do it is with our physical body, our posture. We, for example, we can walk around. Walk around. Make every step you take walking around the truth. With our body, we can make vocal utterances. And every vocal utterance can be speaking the truth. And we can think about it.

[22:27]

Step by step, we can think of the truth. And we can think of the living truth. And we can think that part of the truth is that if we don't practice it, we won't realize it. And we can notice that when we don't use our body, speech, and mind, when we don't use it, we don't realize it. You can verify that. You can notice that when you don't put your actions forward for the truth, You don't really feel like it's being realized. And when you look at it for it, you can realize it. You may not right away, but you can. I don't know any stories of people who didn't devote their activity to the truth who realized the truth.

[23:33]

Maybe there are. I don't know any. I see, I hear about, I witness, I experience in myself and others that when we think or talk or walk, and that's not for the sake of the truth, we feel more or less out of touch with it. And when we're out of touch with it, we're more or less miserable and more or less stagnant and more or less at risk. of being violent, disrespectful, cruel. Another word for this, the one in your story is intimacy.

[24:36]

intimacy among all beings. So it includes intimacy with all the people who are promoting, who willingly think it's a good idea, who have the will in their mind to make the United States a global dominator, a global military dominator. Some people think that. We are intimate with all those people who think that's a good idea. Yeah, it's the United States to command the rest of the world. We are the best country, the strongest country that we should dominate. Those people, we are intimate with them. They are supporting us. We are supporting them. How we do it is inconceivable. You can think of it, but that's an important thing. We can never say never, but we're not going to be able to know this after a while. Only a perfectly enlightened being knows how it is actually that we support each other.

[25:49]

So it isn't that we do something to be intimate. It isn't that we do something to support each other that's already the case. What we do is that we are constantly active All the time, every moment we're active. And our activity is brought to us, is given to us by the whole universe. And so I am active, you are active, I am active, you are active. All the time we're active. And that activity, I say, needs to be given. Needs to be given. Consciously, willingly, devotedly, wholeheartedly. And I would say also, it is giving. But if you don't feel that you're giving yourself to every person you meet, you're missing out on the reality that you do give yourself to every person you meet.

[26:50]

And I think many people who have not yet been able to see, to understand fully, that they give themselves to every person they meet, They can sense that they don't give themselves to everybody they meet. You can be aware of that. You can be aware, well, I don't really want to give myself entirely to this person. I actually do not want to. I don't want to be a servant of this person. That's what I think. I can see that I think that. It's not a lie when I think that, but thinking that is a lie. It's not really true that you don't want to give yourself completely to all beings, but it is true if you think that.

[27:53]

That's true if you think that. And by admitting that, you're doing the same thing as all Buddhas have done in their evolution to Buddhahood. They, at some point, did not want to give themselves They had the father who did not want to give themselves to one or more beings. One or more humans, one or more animals, one or more mountains. Great, enlightened beings had told stories about themselves. In the past, they did not want to give themselves completely. But they also said, I've got to look for it. By confessing, repeatedly, that I did not want to give myself completely to every single being in the universe. In other words, that I not want it to accord with the reality that I do give myself to the whole universe, and therefore not accord with the reality that universe gives itself to me. By admitting that, I have opened to that, and I have gradually opened to the fact that I do give myself

[29:05]

all beings and all beings do give themselves to me the whole universe is baked on me I baked on the whole universe and there's not the least bit of me in addition to the whole universe the whole universe is who I am and it's who everybody is and nobody is anything in addition to the universe most human beings think they are so when you think that When you think there's you and you, there's a good lesson. That's part of how to practice the truth. Practice the truth by admitting, I've heard about it, but I actually am not ready to accord with it. So my way of according with it is to admit that I don't want to accord with it. There's somebody who I do not want to get into it. But I do want to learn to be intimate.

[30:08]

I do want to learn that I'm intimate. But I have not yet learned it. And I admit that I haven't yet learned it. Because I've heard it. That by admitting this, that opening to this, I will open to how I am intimate. I will open to the truth. The inconceivable truth. of cooperating with all beings. Through such a realization in each of us, through each of us working on this, we can become a light in this world, on this planet, in this universe, for this country. We can become beacons of cooperative power. We are powerful people in a powerful country. If powerful other beings We are powerful and we want to give our power and acknowledge that our power is given to us.

[31:11]

We want to realize cooperative power. Power which appreciates and respects all other powers and wants to do everything together rather than control other powers. other human beings, other planets. And as we move towards learning this, there will be many difficulties. They usually start off, but how can you do it in this situation? You know? So, you know, like my grandson, what do you mean? When he was a little baby, he lived in Chinatown in San Francisco. And I would go visit him.

[32:12]

I would go visit him. And I'd go down the hall to his apartment. He would open the door, and when he saw me, he would close the door. And then his mother would force him to open the door and let me in. But she wanted me to come in, because usually when I went in, I would wash the dishes. Thanks, Dad. And then I, and then after my grandma got, you know, used to the fact that I was in the house, he sometimes would kind of want to hang out with me and maybe go to a park nearby. So he went to this park just a block away, right in the middle of Chinatown. San Francisco Chinatown is a little bit like China. It's like, you know, it's real crowded. And the streets are, you know, packed most of the time. It's up late at night. So we're walking down the street, and my grandson wants to go into the street where there's cars and trucks.

[33:17]

And, of course, I don't want him to go in the street because I think he's going to get hurt. But I try not to be imperial about it. I don't want him to be old now. I'm trying to, like, cooperate and eat power for life to share. And I'm powerful too, and I'm powerful in a somewhat different way than either. Like, you know, I could probably just integrate over power and keep them on the sidewalk. I didn't want to do it that way. I wanted to, like, somehow work it out together. If he ever said together with me, I always do whatever it is. If I say together with him, he doesn't necessarily go along with it. Anyway, I was struggling with him and struggling with him and without just simply, you know, cruelly stopping him from going to the street. Me together somehow managed for him not to go in the street. But it was kind of like, you know...

[34:18]

I was tempted to say, you want me to tell your mom? She's not into this. She's more into the pink. You know, when you're scared, you know, when you're a single parent, it's like, I can't stand cooperative power. United States is like a single parent. It's like over a while I'm trying to take care of his children. But we're scared to death. We're scared. This is dear center here. We're scared. We've got a government single power with all these kids. We can't be cooperative. We've got to, like, dominate. Well, I'm not a single parent. I'm not a single grandmother. I've got a lot of people helping me be a grandfather. A lot of people who want me to tell good stories about being a grandfather. So I was trying not to dominate him. And it was somewhat successful.

[35:21]

He didn't feel crushed in the interaction. He didn't feel overpowered by my great force. It was a struggle. And we both did quite well. And he didn't go on the street. But after he was older, a long time ago, I thought, I should have gone into the street with him. I didn't think of it at the time. I should have just taken his hand together and said, why go on the street? Okay, I'm going with him. Go on the street. With me, he'd be virtually, he'd also say in the street as on sidewalk. And then he could feel, you know, he could experience how would a dangerous place that street was with these big trucks itself. He couldn't get it from the side, and I couldn't let him go by himself. But with me, he could learn, oh, wow, this is really, it's kind of exciting, too.

[36:23]

Let's go on the street again. And I think, yeah, he can do it again. You can learn with me. I can learn with you. And you'll learn from this kind of thing. He would learn that he's not big enough to go on the street by himself. He would learn. So he would learn. If I go on the street, When my grandfather was around, I should take a picnic. We should go together. This is a scary thing. Dangerous. Not just for the spirit, but dangerous. He could get hurt, he could get hurt, the trucks could get hurt. The trucks could get hurt. Gearing away from people. It's a dangerous situation. That's an example where I didn't quite get it, I didn't quite get into the rhythm of it. I welcome you to bring forth the situations where you can't, where you don't yet believe that you can be cooperative, the situation where you think you have to be imperial and dominating, and you just happen to be the one who knows what's right, so you can get orders and people should do what you say.

[37:37]

So I welcome you arguing on this, and also welcome your wholehearted intention to remember the truth of your essential human nature because you're human but it's also it's also the truth of the essential uh tree nature of essential earth nature essential sky nature things of bananas love nature everything's essential nature is the same the same true Dharma. And I welcome your commitment, your intention and commitment to think about this, to use your thinking, to never forget the truth, always remember the truth. So you join the truth, cooperative life, cooperative energy, cooperative power.

[38:42]

If you take care of that, if you nurture that, if you practice that, and if you thereby realize it, And I welcome again your feedback. I want you to struggle with me when I struggle together with you. Thank you. Could you note that cushion over here? Give it back. Put some questions over there. Anybody want to come out and interact with me? Play with me? Come up here in the street? You're welcome to come and express yourself. Weren't we sitting at this? Well, you can sit up here right on your knee. Want back here? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, [...] no.

[39:49]

I asked him to come closer and he refused. Now there's one speaking here with you and I of the alphabet. What's it about? It's a story. So... If all that arises, then what really is there to do? You are doing this. Anyway. All day long. Yeah. So I'm just saying, give all that you're doing to the truth. Really doesn't. People do not think that what I'm saying right now. is a gift to all beings. You don't think that. It is. In fact, that doesn't count any of you as I, because that's the kind of being you are.

[40:53]

But if you don't think that, you think something else. And if you think something else, you suffer, you become frightened, it's up. Right. Well, it seems until thought settles into the plundum. That's right. That's right. So keep giving your thought to the plundum. And give your body to the plundum. That's how you practice it. But the thought and the body and all that arises from the fundamental. That's right. That's right. But if you don't practice that, if there's a sense, like we sometimes do, it's fundamental. It's complete and all-pervading. But if there's a slightest gap, the slightest difference, it is a tremendous distance.

[41:58]

So if there is in you, or if there is in your mind, the slightest sense of being separate from other beings or from the fundamental, it seems like you really are separate. Yes, but it hurts. And it makes you frightened. Well, it's our other class. It's our other class. It's our other class. But that part is enough to make you afraid. Maybe you. Maybe you, but that's where peer comes from. It's from that sense of separation between you and other people. I'm not saying for sure they're afraid. I think most people, if you just scratch them a little bit, they're probably out there afraid. They're afraid because they think that the belief that you need is a little supplicant. Right. Well, it seems easier to just develop a you, though. Say again. There's the fundament and then this you concept arising somewhere on top of that.

[43:01]

If the you goes, then all the rest of it has to go, too. But there can be a you without a heck of it to go. Things don't have to go away. It can just be a realization of the you and the fundamental. I'd like to. Right. At which point the you dissolve. Say again. At which point the you dissolve because the fundament is containing all of it. Like saying there's a bug and the fundament. What's the point? What's the point of what? I'm saying there's still a you when there's a fundament. I'm not going to say that. I'm not so much saying that there has to be a you. I'm just saying you don't have to get rid of the you to realize. Oh, well, it ranked it. But you do have to give it you to the fundament. Otherwise, there's a withholding. Right. But again, you're saying you gave me you to the fundament. I actually didn't say you give it. Yes, you did. OK. You have to be given.

[44:02]

By the fundament too. Wouldn't you say by? Grab it. I did. Yeah. You was given by the fundament to the fundament. That's the usual situation. And there's some thought that doesn't join that, like the Israelites in misery. That particular type of thought. Obviously. But other kinds of thought are not miserable. Thoughts of how we're connected, although they don't reach how they're connected, are not miserable. No, I think they go to the same place. Okay. Because there's a separation there. You can think that without believing a separation. My sense is the action out of the fundamental rises before thought. Before or is it thought? I know, I just have to express it somehow. Okay. But I'm saying it's not actually before or after.

[45:12]

Fundamentally includes also. And are we practicing now? What are you expecting? I'm asking if I, while I'm talking to you, and giving my conversation to you, And feeling like you, I'm deceiving the conversation. And I practice it. I say I am. And I have to do it, so I'm asking you if you are. And for me, all this just arises from funding. And what's your answer? My answer is for me, all this just arises from funding. For me, what'd you say? Yeah.

[46:13]

And I would like, I hope someday you'll be able to see it if I have to see giving. I want that for you and me. Right. And my sense that there is giving to practice. Yes. Are you enjoying it? Yeah, I get to enjoy it. I want that for us. And I appreciate your gifts. I appreciate yours. Thank you. You're welcome. Do you feel complete? It's not me to feel complete. Any other options?

[47:18]

Yes. Would you like to see me? All right, please. Thank you. I feel disconnected. How do you feel new? I'm pretty connected I usually feel pretty frightened when I'm disconnected You feel disconnected? You do, yeah. I think that's, that is, I think, our human condition.

[48:24]

When we feel, we feel separate, we're disconnected. We feel connected. You do. And then the thought of being interconnected seems like just a thought. The thought of being interconnected is just a thought. You call it it. It's a thought which has a logical connection to what is being taught in your condition as reality. And the thought that we're disconnected, it's just a thought that we're disconnected. Already there's no basis in reality to the thought that we're disconnected. There's no reality at all to be disconnected. And the practices that promote this connection are a certain type of practices. It's called being fighting and dominating other people and trying to control these. And the practices, the realized connection, the practices through the middle of the other beings are related to it and to be generous with them and realize and think about and talk about how they're doing as to us.

[49:35]

Those practices open us to this reality, which is the basis of the past. actually as a basis to the thought, we're connected. The basis to the thought, if we're not connected, it's not disconnection, it's delusion. So there's some reason why we have this delusion, but the reason is not because we're disconnected, the reason we have the idea to be disconnected is because we're connected. Connection has led us to think of being disconnected, and our connection has led us to think that we're connected. So connectedness has led to both these thoughts. One hardship goes with the afraid, the other with the experience. One puts us at risk of violence, the other puts us at risk of compassion. So you seem to be aware of this feeling. On one side, when you feel this connection, you're fighting.

[50:39]

When you think you're connected, it's just a part. However, If you practice in a coordinate, the thought of being connected, then you would practice giving. You would be gracious to yourself, feeling that way, thinking that way. Feeling that way and thinking, feeling connected and thinking connected, you would be gracious to yourself. You would be gracious to other people who felt that way, who thought that way. And you would be gracious to people who do not think that way. You would be gracious to people who thought that way. disconnected and pointing. You'd be gracious to them if you wanted to realize the truth of the thought that you're connected. So that's what I'm saying. If you practice it. If you practice being connected. Practice it as if you realize you're connected. Kind of goes as if you realize it. But one way to practice it is as if you realize it would be that if you felt like you weren't connected.

[51:41]

you would treat yourself like a enlightened person would treat yourself. So while you feel disconnected, you still treat yourself as though you understood that there was an evolution. It's like if you see a child who you love, who thinks you don't want them. You know they love you. They don't. They're afraid of you. They feel separate from you. But you can be gracious to them. So if I myself feel disconnected, I can treat myself as I would if I understood that I was connected, being gracious to myself, and not try to control myself out of my lack of understanding. Where does this grace come from? It's your nature. Your nature is you're a gracious person. That's our essential nature. that we graciously gave ourselves to the new girls, and a part of our graciousness is also that we were born graciously.

[52:55]

I work with kids sometimes, and I like what you're talking about because it resonated in terms of not being imperial power. But I've yet to feel connected after working with kids because I do feel like it's a really good example of I don't really know how to not be an imperial power with kids and probably with people in general. But you do know how to be an imperial power with kids. I know how to be an imperial power. You do know how to try to control them and dominate them. You know how to do that. Right. And that way of being... You will see that world collapse. Yeah, and you feel... You will see it collapse. Every afternoon, you'll see it collapse. A day will come when the imperial power will not be functioned. Hopefully, before that comes, you develop this public power, cooperative power with the kids.

[53:59]

When the empire dies away, there will be this new nation, new relationship of cooperation with the kids. As long as you're scared, you know, maybe not keep using the imperial power. Fire, get the kids under your control. Get your kids under control. Control your children. Control your dog. And so you're scared. And you don't feel connected. The people who are telling you to fire you, get the kids under control. So you go along with the imperial thing. So you can spot that. You can confess that. I confess. that I'm caught in the pattern, trying to control these dear children. I'm trying to do that. And I'm looking for someone to be cooperative. And you keep looking for that, and then suddenly you see it. And you see sometimes, oh, well, that I'm starting to do it, I could join them. I could join them and do it with them rather than stopping them and do it.

[55:03]

And when I join them, It's different than them doing the dangers of a wholesome point. Because when I join them, it's not a wholesome the same way. Were you really stepping into the street in front of the truck? Would I? Definitely. I just didn't think of it. I was thinking narrow-mindedly, like, if he goes to the street and gets me hurt, I don't want that. It's kind of true. It probably would have got hurt. It might not have. Maybe the car trucks put his spot. I don't know. But I didn't want to take a chance of going into the street and getting hurt. So I tried to hear that you're not going to the street. But I can go into, I certainly go in the street. I do, I have gone in the street at that time. Usually they had to go in the street to get to the park where they were going. Of course we usually cross with the light at the crosswalk. Right? But it's still dangerous. Even that's dangerous. So crossing a millionth state and without the crosswalk and the lights, it saves more danger.

[56:08]

But it's, I think it's a more character we can do it. And now I, now I'm getting a bicycle with them, you know. You know, I've been in shape to get on bicycles with cars and stuff like that. And, you know, that's also dangerous. You know, they go, God, how do I cooperate with them? We could stay in the closet and never clean up. It's not going to work. I'm out there with them. I'm doing the dangerous thing with them rather than trying to stop them from doing the dangerous thing. I want them to learn how to negotiate the dangerous world rather than keep them from the dangerous world. I'm not pushing them into the dangerous world. I go with them if they want to go. Basically, that's why I do that. Like, you know, another story I tell about him is when he was even, when he was a little bit older than that time in the street, he had a little kid's gardening set, gardening tool, and he said, like, it's wintertime in California, you know, after dinner, dark, like November, December, he said, let's go down into the garden and dig in the dirt.

[57:28]

And I thought, see, it's kind of, I didn't think it's too dangerous, but it seemed scary to like a three-year-old boy to go on in a cold, dark night, you know, into the garden and so on. Don't want us. It's quite an adventure. I said, okay. So we went. I go with him into this kind of scary trip, dangerous thing, dark, you know, in this country. And as we got closer to the garden, suddenly he heard some noise. He said, what's that noise? I think it's frogs. And he said, you mean like ribbit, ribbit? And I said, I said, yeah. He said, okay. So he walked some more, and the frog noise got louder. And we were walking the only dog named Rousey. It got closer and closer to the palm of it. And he said,

[58:28]

I think Rozzy's getting scared. Let's go home. You know, and he also wants to go out in the woods, you know, sometimes make a weapon. You know, he goes in and he wants to back out. So I, you know, I don't have to control him. I just have to be with him. I like to control this world. I have to be with him, though. I can't control it. But what I can miss is hard participation with it. I'm saying, I'm here making a world. We're doing this together. I'm giving myself to you and you're giving myself to me. We are reacting to the truth together. And it's dangerous. And I have a habit of trying to control people away from danger. Me and others. I'm the adult teacher or whatever. I'm trying to control the kids away from... dominate the kids away from harm rather than together with them to cooperatively negotiate the danger.

[59:39]

Together. So they help me negotiate the danger rather than resist me dominating the thing to safety. So anyway, you already know how to try to dominate them away from harm. Now, before that habit dies, learn the new one. called cooperatively together, walking a path of peace and safety. Because the path of dominating people in the safe, you know, making America a place that's completely safe, is a period. America is not a safe place. It's not a safe world. There are dangers. But teach people how to deal with it. We can do that peacefully. And that's grace, the gracious thing? That's the way to be gracious with the situation and you realize the grace in the situation.

[60:42]

There's already grace in this world. This world we have is a gracious world. But if we don't practice graciousness, we don't realize it. Being a child is a gracious situation. is a gift. We are a gift to the situation. The children of children are a gift to the situation of the gift. But if we not trace this weapon and we try to dominate it, we'll miss the giving. We'll miss the cooperative vitality of our life. We'll miss it, more or less. And the attempt to dominate it will collapse eventually, but it ignites something else before that. We're all going to be flat out of the prison. But before that happens, you know, you grow this new thing. The realization could be there when it leaves all of our dominating power, which we will lose.

[61:46]

The coming time you can't dominate anybody anymore. But you can still be generous. and you're not dominating. And when you're dominating, you miss how generous other people are to you, which is a great tragedy. All these children have been gracious to you, testing you the way they do, wanting to go on all these questionable directions. Questioning them is okay. Where are you going? Please tell me when you go someplace. I want you to know. I care. If you don't tell me, I'll worry. Please tell me. And to tell them that as an act of cooperation rather than another act of control. Does this make sense? Oh, yeah. Good. Yeah, that looks great.

[62:49]

Thank you. I really appreciate it. Please take care of it. Oh, yeah. Did you have any expectation of willingness to end? Yes. I have a situation in which I'm having a hard time figuring out how to cooperate. She had a situation where it's hard to see how to cooperate. I have a mother-in-law who is pretty demented, but not, you know, not demented enough to, I mean, she can have conversations and she can keep track of something for a short while. So we recently, all her children, made a decision to support her and assisted living community.

[63:54]

Can you hear her? Yes. It was a decision of her children to put her in an assisted living situation. So she claimed that we did this behind her back. She claimed he did it behind her back. That we didn't consult her. Didn't consult her. So she definitely feels dominated. We talked with her about it for months and months and months. So I feel the vitality draining from me because I feel really badly for her. But I don't know any other way to do this. I feel like I've sort of found myself saying, well, we're the parents and we have to make these decisions for you. Yeah, we're the parents. We make the decisions for you. We make decisions that affect your life and we don't consult you.

[64:55]

You're saying that that would be a good thing to say? No. Well, you can say it. You can say, I confess that I have thought, and I'm making a decision to protect your life, and I did not consult you, I did not talk to you about it. And I'm sorry I did that, because that's not the way I want to live. Or you could say, I did talk to you about it, because you remember it. And now, here we are again, now you do understand it, and so now I'm consulting with you again, although... I did talk to you about it in the class. And if you don't agree that I hear you saying you don't in one day that I said, but again, you do have the ability to realize that we do not really feel somehow that we're being generous with a person. If we feel like we're being, if we really truly feel we're being generous, we realize that they're being generous with us when they tell us that we're dominating them, that we're disrespecting them, that

[66:01]

you know, we don't care about them enough, we're doing anything behind their back, that we're, you know, terrible children. If we really do generous towards them, we really feel like they're being generous with us. You can see it. If we don't, then we sort of say, you know, my understanding is not complete. Somehow there's something here where I thought I would be generous, but I don't think she'd be generous. Or even, I think she'd be generous, but also I am. Or I think neither one of them should be generous, so that's even better. both trying to control each other rather than we're both cooperating in what's happening. Sometimes I really appreciate the challenge. So that's like being generous. Appreciating challenges is part of being generous. You realize challenges are here. I don't think that He felt that way.

[67:02]

I don't think she appreciates the situation that she's in. You don't think she appreciates some challenges or all challenges? I don't know. I don't think she appreciates... It doesn't seem like some people do not appreciate challenges. They're just people, the gift that some people are to us is a gift of someone who does not appreciate the challenge. It's still a gift. And people who don't I appreciate challenges. I'm talking quite challenging. Yeah, what's challenging is seeing how much it's suffering. It's very challenging. It's challenging, too, to miss suffering. And I'm saying to you, the outrageous, inconceivable truth is that this suffering, which is very difficult to need and love, it's not difficult to love, but it hurts. And again, it is a gift. The pain you feel when you see her pain is a gift to you and me and her.

[68:08]

It is a gift. If you can see that, you will be happy, and your happiness will grow in the pain. It's the happiness of the truth of giving that grows in the pain that you can't think of the people you love. That's the flowering of the truth. And whether or not she's happy won't have an effect on that. Pardon? Whether or not she's happy won't have an effect on that flowering of the kids. It does have an effect. Her unhappiness. Because your dentist told you, her unhappiness hurts you. But you hurt you because you love her. Her suffering is part of the reason this flower is growing. And also, this flower is growing for her. It's growing for another two, not just for you. That's really hard to see. It's really hard to see, but it's really... Miss Ballard means that when she... When she's suffering, because she does not see what's happening to her as a gift.

[69:15]

And you're gracious with that suffering. She sees that graciousness. On some level, she sees that you're actually letting her not appreciate what you're doing. You're really letting her be that way. You're appreciating her the way she is, including that you want her to be happier, and also you feel pain. You're being gracious towards your pain and her pain. You're being gracious towards her appreciation of you. You're appreciating her. She's seeing that. She's learning that. She's seeing the form of growth. Sometimes I think that. This truth is irresistible. We're all going to go along with it. I'm just doing my part right now. This is where we're headed. We're headed towards the realization of this truth. We're being forced in this direction by the truth.

[70:20]

It doesn't mean you just don't say anything. The truth is to make it something, just talk about it and think about it. Why that book? Thank you. I have a tremendous structure in my female of being retired and not having... Do you hear what she said in the back? She has a tremendous luxury of being retired and not having to work within an institutional structure. And so I'm finding through practice, through being around this manga, that when I interact with the corporate, which is very often...

[71:29]

I'll be on the phone. If you don't get circled around the phone loop and you find a person, the first person will usually say, well, that's our rule. We can't do that. That's the rule. And lately, rather than getting angry, I've been able to say, thank you for being kind to me. And is there somebody I can talk with you, talk to who might be able to explain the role? So they'll give me the supervisor. and oftentimes we have the same discussion. And again, I'm really trying to be gracious enough to say, thank you for trying to help me, but I'm still not understanding why the rule, and the rule keeps being the corporation. It's not a single person. So you move up, and I'm finding that at some level, at the very end, I'm still able to be gracious to the last person, but I get off the phone and I want vengeance.

[72:29]

I want that corporation to come down because it's a rule that's meant to do what's right but not what's good. And I don't like being that vengeful because I work very hard at being gracious and respectful as I move up with different people. But nobody takes... The corporation doesn't have any responsibility. It's the it. And I don't know how to work with that. And as I said, ultimately, it makes me feel vengeful. Like, I'm going to get this corporation. I'm going to take them down in some way. Yeah, so the it of the corporation may be understood as a different it from the truth of mere dependence. And it may be the it of... the corporate power value of cooperative policy. The corporation did not see itself as cooperating, for example, with something else in the world.

[73:34]

So there are such lies in the world as an understanding of the corporation, which is not in accord with the truth. And those things come into our life, and then you're trying to be gracious with this, and kind of be gracious with it. And what I'm proposing is that if you really can be gracious with it every split of the way, you will actually not hate the lie. You will not hate the lie, you will not hate it. But if you miss a few steps, you start to lose your footing, and then you're basically not feeling actually This lie is a gift to your realization of the truth. Now, at that point, I want to control the lie. I want to change the lie. So then you say, okay, I lost it.

[74:37]

I'm off balance. I'm not in the path of peace anymore. I'm on the path of vengeance. So basically, I'm going to control back. If I don't control me, I'm going to control them back. That's what I'm doing. I like to admit it again. I can have this ingraciousness with me admitting it. and I'm admitting it, and also I'm admitting it. The way I would do it is I admit it not by myself, but I admit it in the presence of the truth, in the presence of those who understand the truth. I walk again into my confession that I'm actually thinking of taking a break of the truth right now. And going for the false use, because they're hurting me with the falseness that you're hurting back with the falseness. And I can't recognize a person to work with. It's them. You are working with those people. Those, well, but the corporation is not a person. Yeah, but you're working with those people.

[75:40]

On the way, yeah. Each one of those people. That feels good. It does feel good. And that's You work with who's in your face. You work with who you've got right now. That's who you're practicing here. You don't practice it with who you can't see. Yes, just come on. Take back if you don't practice it. If I understand you correctly, you're saying that there is no place for coercive power.

[76:43]

Is that true? I think there is a place for coercive power, and I think we have seen it. The United States of America seems to be a coercive power to some extent. And there is a place for it, and I'm just saying it's an unhealthy, corrosive, harmful manifestation of our powers being used corrosively and coercively, and it could be used cooperatively and generously. Right, okay. And it's not going to work. It's going to come to an end, and it's going to cause a lot of damage before it comes to an end. And then, hopefully, along with that, we'll be developing some of our color going towards cooperation. So this new thing, this cooperative thing, which does not have to end. And cooperation is always the case. That lives forever. That resonates for me. At the same time, I do have this sense of there being times when corruptive power comes into action.

[77:53]

And I have this image that someone shared with me, for example, the Dalai Lama with his bodyguard. Someone said he's driving along in his limousine, meditating, and he's trying to buy his bodyguards. They're looking around him. Is there a plight? For example, we have policemen that protect us. I'm not personally defending myself, but there are these people out there that are prepared to take coercive power. And I guess that's my question, and that I kind of struggle with is, you know, can we really get beyond their deem some element of coercive power? OK. So now, the Dalai Lama bodyguards are kind of like me, the grandfather. You know, there are a certain kind of power around him. Because it was a strength around him.

[78:55]

And we don't know what they would do if he was in danger. I don't know what they would do. But they wouldn't necessarily be coercive towards the attack on him. They might beat the attack. in some very creative way, you know. I don't know. But considering what they're working for, they might have a way of deceiving the dangers, the threats to them, in a way that will be beneficial to all concerned. Not necessarily, their job might not be coerced with people. So again, there's a way of dealing with force which can use it in such a way that it's not really that you're coercing it, but that you're dancing with it in such a way as to realize no harm. In some way, that requires more skill than just symmetrically opposing it.

[79:59]

So in other words, you cooperate. You cooperate with both. And when a person feels the cooperation, they're transformed by the cooperation to some extent. They may not be transformed to the point of realizing what has happened. But they are transformed, just like they're transformed by genetic opposition, they're also transformed by so many of them, by something surprising. I guess what I want to do is, although, again, the vision resonates for me, I feel I have this kind of sense that coercive power acts as the ways to protect me and other people. But you apparently really do not feel like there is any kind of healthy place for coercive power. And that's, I guess, really all I want to be clear on, because for you, there's no place for coercive power. It is a place for it.

[80:59]

It's not a healthy place. Yeah. I would say coercive power is unhealthy. Even if it seems to protect somebody even shortly, I would say it's unhealthy. And I'll just stop with this. To give a graphic example of your grandson, if someone was threatening him immediately with a gun for example, are you going to start, or you have the capacity to restrain the person? I could say that. I might have the capacity to change the wisdom, but I also might have the capacity to deceive the bullet myself. And I'd say, please shoot me. Please shoot me. Please shoot me. Please shoot me. Don't shoot him. And that's not quite... Is that what you would do? I don't know if I... Your gun's right there. The gun's right there, and you're here. I might say, could I buy that? Could I buy that? Could I buy that?

[82:00]

Okay. I've all learned about this. Okay. Thank you. You're consistent with... I'm not saying I would. It's like with my grandson. I was trying to control him, actually. But in a kind, gentle way, I was trying to keep him out of the street. I really was trying... I wasn't really coercive to understand that he cried at something. And I wasn't using my physical force. I was more using Pat Putnam. But he was okay with sorting. But what I really should have done was to go in the street way. You can also try to distract and deflect because, you know, how about some ice cream? But when I actually do corn too necessarily, right? Because the mother doesn't want me to control them by sugar. But I think there's a way of not controlling him, but protecting him on he and I finding the place, the river of peace in the world.

[83:09]

There's a flowing river where that's safe and harmless and peaceful. It's here. And we find it together. I don't tell you this is the safe way. This is the peaceful way. We find it together. And it's here a flowing space where there's no hindrance. And we can find it. So some martial artists, when somebody comes to attack them, they take the person's energy, and they move around and set the person down. And the person realizes, oh, I see this person is plugged into the place where I fall in a non-harmful way, and I can't hurt them. And they also don't let me hurt anybody else. But they're in this flow of energy that doesn't hurt me or them. And they're kind of like, this, I want to learn that. And somebody sees it and says, Yeah, I had a place where I could use my force against somebody, but you found a real vital place there. I want to learn that. I'll be listening very closely. I want to be convinced. I still have the sense.

[84:11]

Practice it. Practice it and you'll find, just like I do. It's very hard to practice. Actually, I do. Yeah. I do. Yeah. And when I practice it and I can't do it, I realize this is no good. This is not what I, this is not the best place. And when I practice in it and I'm called with it, I said, please take the way. This is the right person. In accord with the truth. This is like, you and me together is where it's at. But sometimes I get into me, community to you, but community to you. That's not where I'm working. So you say you want to be convinced, and saying, practice it with me. Yeah, right. My reservation is, and I'll say this enough, because... Your reservation is, yes? Again, I'm not convinced yet that sometimes coercive action is not the best choice, but I'm open to getting beyond that.

[85:14]

Maybe that's what you can see. Sometimes you can't see better. You see, this person's in danger, So I'm going to coerce this person to not hurt him. It's the best I can see him come home. You can't see a way to cooperatively protect this person you're going for. You can't see it. So at that time, probably in that way, what would it be better to find another one? And sometimes the Buddha could see it, and sometimes the Buddha couldn't. Stories of harm is coming to attack all these people. He went out in front of them. He coerced them by just sitting in front of them. That was enough. Just a Buddha in your path. He stopped them. He kind of coerced them, and you're going back to the country. You know, just by being quiet. And he did it the second time. He coerced them again, you could sit. But really, he didn't think that way. He saw they came. He left to meet them, and they did this thing together, and them going back.

[86:15]

And they came again. The third time they came, he saw food. He didn't go up. People say, go stop them. But this time they won't. They won't be stopped by anything. So they come in and attack its people. I don't know if they thought it was going away. But even a Buddha sometimes can't stop people from being hurt. And in that case, I'm saying that he's cooperating with me. It's unfortunate. It's terrible. But still, the truth is there that when bad things, harmful things happen in the world, the Buddhas are cooperating. They're being generous and gracious with people who do not understand graciousness. And people who do not understand graciousness are more or less harmful. And the gracious ones should teach them and make graciousness look really, really attractive.

[87:19]

and really, really beneficial, and they will gradually join the path of peace and transformation, like people just continually offering them more examples of how good it is. And then, of course, offering it in situations that are challenging or most difficult, but that's where people really need to be convinced. And I'm really impressed when you can Practice creation is in those situations. Thank you. Thank you for your question. Good night. Can I see a sound? Yes. Very good. Sure. You want me to see a sound? By the trees of green, red roses to you.

[88:28]

They're probably for me and for you. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. I think to myself, what a wonderful world. I think to myself, what a wonderful world. The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, are also on the basins of the people walking by. I see friends shaking hands, saying, how are you? They keep me steady. I love you.

[89:37]

I hear babies crying. I sleep and grow up. They've been very much more than I'll ever know. And I think to myself, what I want to do for the world. Yeah. I think to myself, what I want to do for the world. Yeah, I mean, I didn't.

[90:12]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_78.9