Once again, I say over and over that awakening is living in silence and stillness right here, right now. Another way to say it is awakening is alive in silence and stillness right here, right now. There are slightly different ways of speaking, but I agree with both. Enlightenment is right now living. Enlightenment is right now living in stillness, and it's alive in stillness. And when we are living in stillness, then we're there with it. And

[01:02]

as usual, we have to make an effort to celebrate stillness. We don't have to make stillness. Stillness is already present. And again, in stillness There is awakening, there is awakefulness, and there is the activity in this stillness, the awakened activity of liberating beings so they may realize peace. In stillness there is a, in this activity, there is a dynamic interaction between each thing and everything else.

[03:05]

The activity that's going on in stillness, which we can call Buddha activity, is a pivotal activity. In stillness there's a pivotal, a pivotal mystery going on, or a mysterious pivoting going on in the stillness, which is the Buddha activity. there's a mysterious pivoting going on which is liberating beings from being stuck in their position. Beings are always in some position but they're not stuck because they're in this pivotal relationship with everything that's not them. And this relationship is an activity.

[04:19]

It's going on in stillness. In our daily life, we can remember stillness. We can receive it. It's being offered to us every moment. We don't have to go anyplace to get it. If we go someplace when we... We don't have to go anyplace to get it, but if we do go someplace, when we arrive, it will be given to us. But it's not necessarily go someplace else to receive it. Wherever we wind up, it will be given to us. But if we don't remember it and receive it, it's almost like it's not there.

[05:27]

And then it's almost like the place where this Buddha activity is going on is like someplace else. So we need to practice remembering the stillness in order to realize it. And we need to remember that enlightenment's living in it in order to realize it. And we need to receive it. And then we need to practice it. And then we need to transmit it because we do. Only because we do. I think maybe on Saturday Tracy asked me something like, Why do we have to include everything? Did you say something like that? I was talking about how I include all of you and how all of you include me.

[06:37]

All of you include everybody and everybody includes each of us. And I think Tracy says, why do we have to include everything? Something like that? Yeah. The reason why you have to include everything is because you do. That's the way you have to because it's your nature. Which also means you include all evil beings and all good beings. It means you include all evil beings, all evil you include, and you also include all good. There's no good or evil that we do not all include. So those who practice this inclusion of everything and being included in everything, they can say, you know, like Thich Nhat Hanh said, I am the pilot. I am the cruel person.

[07:44]

I am the selfish person. I am the insensitive person. But I'm also the sensitive person, and the kind person, and the careful person. And in stillness I receive all beings, and in stillness I give myself to all beings. So I need to remember the stillness where this is living. This is enlightenment. It's the realization of reality. And being inclusive in our daily life, trying to be inclusive in our daily life, where we can actually see, like, I want to include that person and I don't want to include that person. But when I don't want to include somebody, this is a problem for me because I have a teaching given to me, which is I do include everybody.

[08:57]

So I also include that I don't want to include that person. but I don't want to abide in my opinion or my feeling to include people, and I don't want to abide in my feeling that I don't want to include some people. So in either case, if I want to realize all inclusiveness, I need to dialogue with those I want to include in order to realize my all-inclusiveness and also to dialogue with those I do not want to include or who I don't think I do include. I need to dialogue. I need to have conversations in order to not be trapped in my view or my wishes. The way I really am is before my opinions and views.

[10:05]

Like, the way I'm all-inclusive is before my opinion that I'm all-inclusive. And the way I'm all-inclusive is also before my opinion that I'm not inclusive. It's before any kind of discrimination. We're all inclusive. And we are that way. We are a way that's before our discriminations. We are that way. And that way we are includes us as discriminators. So we are discriminators, but our discrimination cannot reach the way we're really inclusive and being included. But we can practice that in our realm of discrimination. We can practice trying to be inclusive of everyone and then talk about how to do that.

[11:09]

Like if somebody walks in this door and making a lot of noise during our meditation, we might re-include the person, but we also include that we might ask them to be quiet. So in order to really realize it, we have to have conversation about these issues, which we do in this class and in other venues. We talk about this with each other face to face. We talk about real issues face to face in order to realize the face before we were born. The face before we were really born is our face of our body that includes all bodies and that is included in all bodies.

[12:17]

That has a face before our parents were born, we say. So I will continue to explore this original face before our parents were born with you, which is alive in stillness, and from which the activities of Buddha... not from which, with which the activities of Buddhas are living, and from which the Buddha activity appears in the realm of discrimination. appears in the realm of after we're born. Where we maybe see some people who do not want to be inclusive and we don't want to include them. We only want to include the inclusive ones.

[13:20]

So that's kind of a summary of quite a bit. And maybe that's enough for starters. Yes. I want to mention a question I do remember from Saturday particularly, because when I went in and asked you if Hitler had just taken office, was it our job to be compassionate to him? And your answer just felt extremely helpful to me that I wanted to bring it up now with the class. And here's what I remember, I don't know if I really said. Did you hear what you said? Yeah. She remembers asking me if Hitler was just coming into office, should we be compassionate? Yeah. You said that? That was your question? That was my question. Okay. Could I change your question? Sure. if Hitler came into office, would it be appropriate to the bodhisattva way? Right, and that was part of your answer.

[14:25]

Oh, that was part of the answer. Okay, sorry. Should we be compassionate? And I said... And you said, well, there's no should, but it... There's no should. I took away the should too soon. So then you said it would be yes. If that's your path, the bodhisattva path, yes. Yes. And then you pause, and you say, but that doesn't mean you just lay back and just give up. You know, part of being compassionate would be, can be, to say to somebody, stop, or to say to somebody, this, or like this. So the distinction between that you didn't waver in that, yeah, the job was compassion, and I didn't know what to do, because I had all these other emotions. So, not only the permission to be compassionate, but demanding to be compassionate, that you're not laboring on that. Demanding yourself. I'm sorry? Demanding yourself to be compassionate.

[15:27]

Demanding myself. Because you want to be. So you demand that of yourself. And I couldn't see my way to that without hearing you say that. With permission to define it, it doesn't mean, I don't know, whatever it's going. So, that's what it is. Great. That was nice. Also, now many emotions have just come into office in our bodies. And it's appropriate to our bodhisattva way to be compassionate to all these emotions that have moved in. all these difficult emotions. And many other people are having a really hard time and it's good for us to be compassionate to the emotions that are moving into office in them. so that they can find their way to deal with these things so these emotions don't undermine their efforts.

[16:30]

So some people are like, a lot of thinking is moving into them. They're so involved with thinking they're getting incapacitated by overthinking. And again, you know, the tan has a long history of saying to people, you know, let go of your thinking. Not stop your thinking, but let go of it. But before you let go of it, you have to be kind to it. We're not trying to kill our thinking. But if we don't let go of it, it can wipe us out if we get too caught up in it. Right now a lot of people are having trouble sleeping because they're thinking too much. But I'm not telling them to stop thinking. I want to bring compassion to their thinking so that they won't dwell on it so much and then they won't get wiped out. We want people to be serviceable with what's going on, right? But anyway, I'm not telling you you should, but if you wish to

[17:39]

free people in the midst of the situation, then it would be appropriate to be compassionate to everything. And by the way, somebody told me that Michael Moore predicted Trump to win and he went to Trump headquarters and they were very nice to him because of his predictions and he wanted to go see Trump and he went in and got quite a ways into the building because he wanted to ask Trump to, you know, not take office. He wanted to talk to him and say, well, would you please not accept this offer? He didn't get all the way, though. But he got quite a ways into the building, and the people were quite nice to him, and he was nice to them. So, yeah. So I see, let's see, Leslie?

[18:46]

Leslie? Oh, you changed your name to Lisa. Lisa. I have two questions. As a technique to stop overthinking, I find myself wanting to use, like, mantra, repeating to myself, may all beings live in peace, and may all beings be free from suffering. Yeah, well basically before I get into the Zen stuff, I think that's a good, that sounds like a wholesome response to you know, too much thinking, you know, overactive thinking, overactive discursive thought.

[19:51]

That loving-kindness meditation is a good response to that. to be saying to yourself, may all beings be happy, may all beings be at peace, may all beings be free of stress and fear. Okay? That's discursive thought. That's thinking. But it's not overthinking. It's actually a kind of I might say, uninflamed. It's kind of simple relative to what we can get into because we have tremendous thinking power. So that's actually substituting a simple form of thinking for kind of like a an inflamed, potentially harmful overthinking. So it's good to substitute the simple, which is heading towards letting go.

[20:53]

And that kind of thinking leads to relax, relaxation usually, and calming down and opening up. And in the process of opening up and relaxing, you even let go of the thinking, may all beings be happy. See, when you first start thinking, may all beings be happy, you might be kind of rigid about it. But as you do it more and more, you start to think, may all beings be happy, and you're doing it, and if you don't do it, fine, and if you do do it, fine. It's lovely to do it and lovely not to do it. It's not like when you're doing loving-kindness meditation, it's good when you're doing it and bad when you're not. When you first start, you think it's good when you're doing it and bad that you're not. But the person who thinks it's bad not to do loving-kindness meditation, we want that person to be happy and free of such nasty thoughts as people who aren't doing loving-kindness meditation are naughty.

[22:01]

Okay, so anyway, and so Lisa thinks that that's not a Zen meditation. Really, nothing's a Zen meditation. Zen meditation is that whatever you're doing, you do it wholeheartedly. That's the Zen thing. So if you're doing loving-kindness meditation, you could say, well, it's not Zen unless you do it totally. But if you do loving-kindness meditation, you know, totally exert it, it's not that then the loving-kindness meditation is Zen, but you're practicing Zen because you're totally exerting loving-kindness, which means you're not abiding in loving-kindness. You're doing it to beat the band, as they say. And you're doing it so fully that you're not abiding in it.

[23:07]

So all the different Buddhist meditations that you hear about in the history of Buddhism, you know, a lot of people say, well, can you do that at a Zen temple? Sure. You name it. And you can do it at a Zen temple, but at a Zen temple you're supposed to be working towards doing it so fully that you're not doing it. So like, can you think in Zen meditation? Sure. Is Zen meditation thinking? No. Can you not think in Zen meditation? Most people think, well, sure. You can definitely not think in Zen meditation. And you're right, you can not think in Zen meditation. Is not thinking Zen meditation? No. Zen meditation is not thinking and it's not not thinking. What is it? It's thinking which is so energetic and wholehearted that it's not thinking.

[24:14]

And it's not thinking which is so energetic that it's thinking. That's the kind of thinking that there is in stillness. It's a thinking which is not thinking. So if you can think of any other Buddhist meditations and ask if they can do that, if they're part of Zen, Not really, but if you do them wholeheartedly, that's totally at the center of Zen. And where do you do wholehearted X? In stillness. And then in the stillness, the loving-kindness meditation is pivoting with not-loving-kindness meditation. My other question is stillness. To me, in my own mind, I think of it as space. Space is fine. In space, yeah, you can stay in space. No problem. It's this, when whole, when loving-kindness meditation is done wholeheartedly,

[25:28]

it becomes not loving-kindness meditation, and that's Buddhist activity. That's Buddhist pivotal activity. So we get liberated from loving-kindness meditation, and then we get liberated from being liberated. And go back to loving-kindness meditation, maybe. In the meantime, we are thinking, but we have to train to think wholeheartedly, because we have habits of half-heartedness. And again, we're kind to the habits of half-heartedness, and when we are, the half-heartedness becomes wholeheartedly half-hearted. And then we're free of half-heartedness and wholeheartedness. Wholeheartedness, it doesn't get stuck in wholeheartedness. So now, this world needs us to accept the responsibility in our daily life of being wholehearted.

[26:38]

If we can do that, we can make our best contribution. And, of course, a week and a half ago, that was needed. That was needed. And if we're willing to do this practice, we are needed. The world needs us to live this way. It really needs it. And it needs it now. And it needed it before. And in a way, maybe it's clear that it needs it now. And maybe it's clear that it's our responsibility. That it's needed for... The world needs us to do this. And we're going to be acting all day long for the rest of our lives. That's going to keep going on. But is it going to be wholehearted? And I don't know, but I want it to be. I think wholeheartedness, again, will help beings not be stuck in their position.

[27:43]

If they're Republicans and they're wholehearted, they won't be stuck in their position. If they're Democrats and they're wholehearted, they won't be stuck in their position. And one of the ways to test if you're stuck is by conversations with people who have difference of opinion, which is really kind of everybody. Like my granddaughter, she has differences of opinion with me. But we're working on it. What are we working on? I'm not working on getting her to switch her opinions to mine. I'm not trying to do that. It ain't going to happen by me trying to get her to be. She might switch, but it won't be me that does it. I don't know what will make that happen. And I might switch to her views. that may happen, but it's not going to be that, you know, no external force is going to make the switch.

[28:45]

It's going to be this total dynamic relationship that's going to make it happen. Yes? Because in the world, it seems, maybe it just seems that way, people do affect other people's opinions by actions. Did you say affect? Affect, and get them to change. I mean, look, I don't want to equate us with Fox News, but Fox News for 20 years has been putting certain things out into people's heads, and that has caused them to form certain opinions, or pushed them further towards having certain opinions. I think people do persuade each other when they talk to each other. Sometimes it doesn't mean they do it all alone. I don't want to overstate that. Are you saying my perception is wrong, or is there somehow not as big a difference in what you're saying or what I'm saying? I wouldn't say your perception is wrong. I would just say that your perception is a limited version of the causal process.

[29:50]

The way it's actually working is not within your perception. But you do have a perception of how it works. Like you have a perception of how Fox News affects people's opinions. You have a perception of that. But I'm not saying your perception is wrong. I'm just saying the way it actually is working. And I'm not saying my perception of it is wrong either. It's hard for me to actually see how Fox News... It's hard for me even to have a perception of it, because I don't watch Fox News enough to even get a perception. But I hear about it, so I have a perception by hearsay. But the way it actually works, the way the people on Fox News affect other people, the way that works, is inconceivable, I would say. But my consciousness, I believe, and I've received the teaching that my consciousness has impact on yours and yours and yours and yours has impact on me.

[31:03]

I have a feeling, I have a perception of the impact of your consciousness on me. I perceive it. You know, and I'm enjoying right now the impression, the way your consciousness is changing me. I have a perception of that right now. And I'm enjoying it, and I feel good about it, and I don't think, well, something's wrong here. Jeff's consciousness is impacting mine. I more feel like, well, yeah, that's what's supposed to be going on. And I kind of feel like mine's impacting you, like you're nodding. I have a perception of that. So I agree, Fox News has impact on all of us, even those of us who don't watch it, because it has impact on people who we know and so on. But that's a perception. And the way it actually happens, fortunately, is much more wonderful than any perception can reach.

[32:06]

So like I have the perception that Fox News is... I have a perception that the teaching is that Fox News is working with me and I'm working with Fox News in a peaceful and a harmonious way. I have a perception about teaching like that. But I actually can't see how that is. I actually feel like there's some stress between me and some of the people on Fox News. I've heard that there's this guy in Fox News named Riley. And I've heard of some of the things he says. And what he says, it has an impact on me. What he says and I think has to do with his consciousness and the impact it has on me is it's very painful for me to listen to what I hear he says. It sounds very disrespectful and whatever. It has an impact on me. Does it change my views?

[33:08]

Yes, it does. It changes my life. I cannot avoid being changed by Mr. O'Reilly. He's affecting me. He's affecting my life. But he ain't in control of me. He has no idea even how to begin to control me. Maybe he does have an idea, but his idea is not going to control me, but it's going to affect me. and my sense of how it's affecting me is not, it's just a limited version of it. But it doesn't mean I don't respect my perceptions of the process or yours or my granddaughter's. What I'm proposing is that if we practice properly with our perceptions of causal process, we will come to actually understand the causal process beyond our perceptions

[34:12]

understand the actuality of causation. Understanding the actuality of causation is to understand something that's inconceivable. And that leads us to be able to do this thing called most effectively working for peace. But there's nothing about in this process of realization, of causation, about in any way disrespecting anybody's perception of how the process is going. But also understanding that the perception is always a very limited version of it. And we're not going to stop having these limited versions. That's going to keep going on. The question is how to become free of our limited version. And the way to become free of it is by being kind to it and also other people's limited version and avoid having a war with people who are holding on to their limited versions as the actuality of causation.

[35:25]

and then not only not get into war, but access the place where peace comes from or is living, where it already is living. So I agree with you totally. We impact each other. I'm totally into that in the sense of I am nothing but the impact of all beings. That's all I am, is the sum total of the impact of all beings. But the fact that I'm nothing but the impact of all of you, etc., is why I'm not stuck in being in this position, and why I can, because of the way I really am, of including all of you, I'm not stuck in how I am, and that's how I can receive that and transmit that. which I'm believing is the path of peace. And it means that I respect all these people who I perceive of speaking in a way that I find painful.

[36:36]

My perception is that that's really harmful, unkind speech. And my perception is that there's a teaching that says I can practice kind speech towards people who are apparently speaking unkindly. And I don't have to, like, get into that is just apparently unkind, I can try to apparently speak kind right away and be generous and so on. And that is proposed as the path to enter stillness, to find the actual activity that liberates beings and realizes peace. So we're going to continue on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, on a moment-by-moment basis, we're going to keep having perceptions, and our perceptions are going to be affected by other people's perceptions.

[37:38]

If people perceive me as a bad guy, even if they don't tell me that they do, it changes me. If they perceive me as a good guy, even if they don't tell me, it affects me. If they actually tell me, it affects me in addition to them thinking about me. If they make hand signals to me, like, or other hand signals, which I won't make, if they make these hand signals, that impacts me. Their gestures, their facial expressions, their posture, their voice, and their thoughts all have consequences for them, the actor, and for me, their partner. So we're including all this with compassion in order to enter into reality. and use reality to become servants of reality. And then let our perceptions be servants of reality.

[38:43]

Yes? So when you say that causal relationships are too complex to perceive... Yes, I do say that. And Buddha teaches that. And you can have perceptions of them, but again, the perceptions are what we call a reduction, a narrow version of them. And then you said that something between what the end was and that, so you said that about causal relationships and then something, and then that the perception of them is not a conscious perception. Perception of... When I use the word perception, I mean a function in consciousness. Okay, but in order to understand causality, which is one of the efforts we're making... It's one of the central... Causation is Buddha.

[39:47]

The Dharma is actually causation. We call it dependent co-arising. Dependent co-arising is the Dharma. Dependent co-arising is the Buddha. The Buddha is the process of creation. But the Buddha is not the creator. The realization of causation is Buddha. And that is not Consciousness, or that is consciousness, that is not... It's not consciousness. It is the truth of the dependent core rising of anything, including consciousness. The dependent core rising of consciousness is the Buddha, is the Dharma. And realization of that is peace. The dependent co-arising of a feeling, the dependent co-arising of a color, the dependent co-arising of a person.

[40:52]

That's the Dharma of the person. And co-arising means at once? It means many, many factors are coming together. And so the Buddha teaches, and not just Buddha, but Other people like Mr. Hume and Mr. Kant, they say, you know, causation is not, you cannot perceive causation, but you can realize it. And they were working at realizing it. And they got pretty good at it. And if you read Hume, I think you're like, if you get in there and you're kind, you're going to enter actually, you're going to enter into causation. by entering into this total exertion of his intellect. But he's not perceiving causation, he's exercising his intellect to a point where he realizes it. Yeah, realize it. We can realize causation, and we can perceive it like we can say, you know, we can say,

[42:01]

Like, we had this class, and then at 9.15 it ended, so the class caused the end of the class, which came right after the class was over. But causation is not sequence. It's much more complex than that. Yes, yes, I think I heard what Barbara Jo was asking about, which is that it's, when you said it's beyond conception, not beyond consciousness. I think that was the thing that you were hearing in what he had said previously. It is in consciousness. No, I wouldn't. Consciousness is a dependent core arising, but consciousness cannot realize dependent core arising because consciousness, where there's somebody there, is a limited version of causation. What you see as causation in consciousness is a reduction of the process.

[43:08]

And in consciousness we do have various perceptions or theories of causation. And in science, we can make a theory of causation, and then we make an experiment, maybe that would test that theory, and then maybe the experiment agrees with the theory. But my understanding of the scientific process is when the... experiment agrees with what the theory would predict, it doesn't prove the theory. It just means that experiment accorded with it. And at any point the theory can be refuted by a certain experimental result. But some theories are called good because they stimulate people to do experiments. And then after the experiment, if the experiment confirms the theory, by being with the theory you predict, then that tends to produce more investigation.

[44:16]

And that's called a good theory. But you cannot prove a theory as true, but you can disprove it. And you state what would disprove the theory, and once you do that, the theory is done for. What I'm interested in is the is Buddha, the realization of causation. Yes. And isn't it possible to be conscious of realizing that? Yeah, the Buddha is conscious, so the Buddha is conscious, I realize causation, and then the Buddha says, my consciousness that I realize it is not the realization itself. Yeah, it's not within consciousness, but it's... It can't be consciously described or... Oh, he can consciously describe it. But it doesn't reach it.

[45:18]

And then he would say this description doesn't reach it. Yeah. And he did say that. For example, the Buddha gave this teaching. How many of you people heard about the twelve lengths of causations? not so many, but anyway, he gave this teaching of the twelve different phases of dependent co-arising of, for example, human life and death. He also sometimes presented it as ten, as eight, and as six, and I think maybe down to four. But these are conceptual versions which consciousnesses can hear and look at, and there's pictures of them too. You may have seen this whale of life and it has these 12 things around it. And anyway, this is a picture, this is a concept of dependent core arising which the Buddha gave. But that's not dependent core arising, that's a conceptual version of it. The Buddha said, I have realized an inconceivable thing, and I'm talking to you about it right now, and what I'm saying doesn't reach my realization.

[46:26]

To say, I have realized, is that to say, I have become conscious of? I had become conscious of, but also I had become conscious of so I can tell you that I realized it because I wanted to mention that to you because I've gone beyond words and I've come back now to use words with you so you can go beyond words. I've gone beyond conception and realized this thing which is inconceivable and I did that in order to come back to show you how you can do the same. And there's no such thing as realizing without being conscious of that. Casey said there's no such thing as realizing without being conscious of it, and there is such a thing. What is it that? What's it like? It's not like anything. It never was like anything. So we say, you know, you've heard this thing, when Buddhas are truly Buddhas, they don't think they're Buddhas.

[47:27]

– You heard that? – Not necessarily. Sometimes it's translated as not necessarily, and sometimes it's translated as not. I think not necessarily is better. So I think a Buddha... Anyway, you people can realize causation. The Buddha said you can realize causation. In other words, you can become Buddha. And when you become Buddha by realizing causation, you won't necessarily think, hey, I'm Buddha. You won't necessarily think that. You won't necessarily think, I've realized causation. However, if somebody says, we have some questions for you about causation, you might say, yes, well, what are they? And then they ask you the questions and then you start, you give them this teaching, and you're aware that you're giving them this teaching, and you're aware that it's correct. But your awareness that it's correct is not it.

[48:30]

It's just like a conscious thing. But you don't necessarily think that. But you can. And I also often say bodhisattvas do not necessarily walk around thinking, I'm a bodhisattva. They do usually walk around thinking, I want to be a bodhisattva. But when they're actually a bodhisattva, they don't necessarily think it. As a matter of fact, they might even say to their teacher, do you think I'll be a bodhisattva someday? And the teacher might say, uh-huh. Matter of fact, you are now. And they go, oh. Like the Dalai Lama, he was told when he was a young boy that he's an emanation of the bodhisattva of infinite compassion. You know, he was told that when he was a little boy. And he thought, wow, that's really bizarre. Now I think he's about 80. But I think when he was around 70, he thought, well, maybe so. So when you understand, you don't necessarily think, I understand.

[49:38]

But you might. It's okay. A bodhisattva could think, I'm a bodhisattva. They could think that. It's okay. Just like they can think I'm a person or I'm a republican. You could think those thoughts. But the thought I'm a Republican doesn't reach what a Republican is. And the thought I'm a man doesn't reach what a man is. But I could think that. But I can also walk around without thinking I'm a man. And still I am. I realize it. But do I realize it? Well, no, I don't realize it unless I practice being a man. But I still am. And if I finally did practice wholeheartedly being a man, I would realize it, but I wouldn't necessarily think, oh, I realized it. But people might say, have you realized it? And I would say, yes, because they asked me. And when they asked me, I said, oh, yeah, right. It's like when I was in Japan one time, I was in a temple, and this thing came up in my mind, nodo kawaita.

[50:43]

I heard that in my mind, and I thought, I knew it was Japanese. I thought, what does that mean? I didn't know what it meant. I thought about it. I said, oh, I know what it means. It means I'm hungry. It means I'm thirsty. Nodo is the throat. Kawaita means has become dry. I said, oh, it means I'm thirsty. And I thought, oh, and I am thirsty. I didn't really notice that I was thirsty, and then this thing came up, Nodo Kawaita, and told me I was thirsty. And I didn't know what it meant. And then I figured out what it meant and I figured it applied to me. So, you know, I was thirsty. And you can actually, like, be full of compassion. Like, be totally like, I just feel so much compassion. And then the thought comes up to you maybe that you're compassionate in a foreign language. You don't know what it means. You figure it out and say, oh, yeah, right, I am.

[51:46]

And you are. But when you think it, that is not it. That's just like... Noto kawaita is not being thirsty. I was thirsty, and I didn't even know it. And then this thing came, but that wasn't the thirstiness. I didn't know what it was, and I figured it out, but it never was being thirsty. And you are really, actually, you really are... Yeah, you really are thirsty. And then sometimes when you say you're thirsty, you realize you're thirsty. And sometimes when you say, I feel compassion, you realize you're compassionate. But also you sometimes realize you're compassionate, somebody walks up to you and they say something, like sometimes women, particularly when they're breastfeeding, somebody else's baby cries and their breasts give milk.

[52:46]

They don't even know it. They look down and their blouse is wet. The compassion comes. You are compassionate beings. You do give yourself to everybody and you accept everybody. That's the way we really are. You are bodhisattvas already. And you can't get away from it except by getting distracted. And then sometimes you can think, oh, I am a bodhisattva. So anyway, you can think you're enlightened, it's okay. But the thought, I'm enlightened, or the thought, I'm stupid, does not reach your condition. Yes. I don't know, was somebody in front of you? Okay. Fran, sorry. So I have a friend who's stuck into... You have a friend who's not only in denial, but stuck in it? It's very painful for him.

[53:56]

And for you, probably. Yeah, to watch that. Yeah, to watch that, yeah. So I'm wondering what advice you would give to someone. What advice I would give to you? How about to you? Huh? You're the person who's talking to me now. I would advise you to be compassionate to this person who appears to be in denial to you. In denial. If you're compassionate to him, if you let him be that way, you let him be stuck in denial. Denial is not a problem unless you're stuck in it. Like you say to me, you say to me, will you help me, Reb? And I say, no, or no. You asked me for help, and I deny that you asked.

[54:56]

You know, I can switch from that position. But if I'm stuck in it, then I have a problem. So if you're compassionate to me when I'm in denial... You transmit that to me. If you're generous towards me and let me be the way I am and the way I'm suffering, if you let me be that way, and you also let yourself be the way you are, who's concerned for me, and you allow yourself to be somebody who's letting me be who I am, you're starting to be compassionate with you and me. And you're transmitting that to me. I may not get it right away. And then you're careful of me. You know, like you don't kill me. You don't lie to me. You don't slander me. You don't think you're better than me. You know, you're not stuck in denial, you may feel. But you don't think you're better than me. This is like being careful. You don't have ill will towards me.

[56:00]

And you're not trying to control me. and you don't have ill will towards me, and then you're patient with me. All these practices which you're doing with me, who is kind of stuck in being in denial, you're transmitting them to me because it impacts me. And you're not in control of the impact, and I'm not in control of the impact, but everything your consciousness does changes me. And if you're practicing generosity towards me, that changes me in a different way than if you're trying to get me not to be in denial. Trying to control me, that also affects me. But if you're transmitting compassion to me, I can learn it from you. And if I can be compassionate with my denial, I can gradually come to a place where I'm living in stillness with it. So all these compassion practices help you be still with your love of your friend and help you transmit your stillness to your friend and he gradually gets the transmission of stillness and in stillness he will wholeheartedly now be in denial and when he's wholeheartedly in denial

[57:25]

he will realize that denial is not denial, and then he'll be free of it without getting rid of it. When you wholeheartedly exert denial, you realize, you verify, you prove that denial is not denial. In other words, you realize the pivotal activity of Buddha's Not by getting the person to stop being in denial, but by helping them be wholeheartedly the way they are. By you rooting for the person to be wholeheartedly. Loving-kindness meditation, you could say, isn't Zen. Denial isn't Zen. But wholeheartedly being in denial, the wholeheartedness is Zen. Not abiding in the Denial. Not abiding in telling the truth. Telling the truth, if you're abiding in it, you're not in stillness.

[58:33]

And by abiding, you're resisting the non-abiding quality of, in this case, denial. Denial is non-abiding in the position of denial. It is in that position. And it's much more important to me to help the person who is in denial not abide in it than to get them to stop being in denial. Because if they switch to something else, what else could there be besides denial? Can you give me another example? Something else besides denial for a person? Yeah, can you think of something? Okay, go ahead. Yeah. Realization. Acceptance. Acceptance. So, for me, it's nice to switch from denial to acceptance. I like that. But it's more important to me that the person doesn't abide in acceptance than to be in acceptance.

[59:39]

I like people to be kind, but what's important to me is they're not abiding in kindness. Because really, we don't abide in kindness. But you have to practice kindness in order to realize that you're not abiding in kindness. You don't have to practice cruelty to realize you're not abiding in cruelty. It's not necessary. Unless you have cruelty. Then it's necessary. But you can realize that there's not abiding in cruelty by not abiding in kindness. And in order to realize not abiding in cruelty, we have to be kind to the cruelty. By being kind to the cruelty, we settle into the stillness of cruelty. And there, cruelty is not cruelty. And that's where the liberation occurs. So anyway, back to your example, if you just pour on the wholehearted compassion, you transmit that to your friend, you help your friend be totally in denial, they'll become free of denial.

[60:46]

And not by switching from denial to affirmation. which they could do anytime, but if they do switch, if they do become free of denial and switch to affirmation, then they might also not abide in affirmation. This is what I want for people. This is the bodhisattva mind, not abiding in anything. Including compassion? Including compassion. You shouldn't abide in that. You said shouldn't again. And I'm not telling you you shouldn't say shouldn't, because every time you say it, it's so wonderful. Correct-o! Or you could say, an advanced bodhisattva doesn't. Beginning bodhisattvas. So we say, our disciple of Buddha is not possessive of anything. We mean an advanced disciple. You could be aspiring to be a disciple of Buddha and still be kind of possessing some Dharma teachings.

[61:49]

But an advanced student is not possessive of even the Dharma, even compassion. They're not possessive. And in order to not be possessive of compassion, you have to practice a lot of compassion. And when you practice compassion, you probably will notice occasionally that you're a little bit stuck in compassion. And you notice that compassion, which is such a good thing, when you get stuck in it, it becomes a bad thing. Not the compassion, but the spin stock. Yes, Valerie. Are there other ways to awaken another than living in silence? You mean, can you talk? No, he said, is there other ways to help people than living in silence? Yes.

[62:59]

Yes, I said that. By the way, the Chinese character... that's been translated as stillness also means silence. So in stillness and silence is where beings are helped. So your question is, is there some other way to liberate beings other than in stillness and silence? No, there's no other way. That's the word, yeah. But in that silence and stillness you can talk and dance and shake hands. But there's no movement necessary. You don't have to go someplace else and be somebody different to wake people up. You don't have to blink your eyes to wake people up. You can be just like you are right now, but totally. If you're totally yourself, that liberates you and everybody else. But if you move a little bit to try to help people, then you are moving away from being yourself.

[64:07]

No. No. In other words, there's no other way to help people than stillness, which is to say there's no other way for you to help people than to be completely yourself. That's the only way to help everybody. And when you're completely yourself, you're not yourself. So non-abiding is the only way to liberate beings because that's the way we are. Only reality liberates beings. and reality is not moving and reality is not talking. However, reality sponsors all the movements and talkings that are going on. And the way that happens is inconceivable. However, you can realize the inconceivable process by being completely yourself. you join the inconceivable process by which you being completely yourself, which is not moving from yourself, and which is not saying anything about yourself, that liberates all beings.

[65:15]

And how that happens is inconceivable, and you realize it. You prove it, even though whatever you say about it doesn't reach it. And you can say stuff about it, but you know you're just kind of kidding. Anyway, I have this big job and so do you. My job is not to be Valerie, it's to be Reb. Your big job, if you want to liberate all beings, is to be yourself and being yourself is stillness. You do not have to move at all to be yourself right now. Now you can move if you want to, but that basically should be another Valerie that's not moving. When you say not moving, do you mean physically not moving? Do you mean not moving from who you are?

[66:16]

Yeah, that's what I mean. Yes, but each moment that you move, you're that person. Like you're sitting there, you're that person. Then you move over here, you're that person. So the movement is just like really just change, which we interpret as movement. So there's constant flow of valeries. Each moment is a new one. But each one is just that one and not another one. And there's this practice of you like really accepting that and settling into that. That's the practice by which you realize you're this person. And that helps us all. If you would do that and transmit that to us, which you are doing already, but if you don't practice it, you and me kind of don't get it. So please do. Which, of course, we are doing, so do it again. Yeah, John, did you want to... Did you have your hand raised a while ago?

[67:17]

No, I just think you really should help her... Well, guess what? She and I have a big job. And so do you. So you've got to be John. And you know, I think you're doing a pretty good job. And I would like you to continue, please. Yes. Okay. Thank you for doing these classes. I'm sorry we missed a couple. Well, I'm glad you came for the finale. One of them we actually had, we believed from Sacramento, we had a fight right as we were in the car. We made it out of the driveway to be allowed. I was like, I don't know. So we're working on this.

[68:19]

I don't know. I don't know. It's called, we call that homework. This is a class where you can try it at home. Go ahead, try it at home. Again, thank you very much. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way.

[68:58]

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