The Mind of Enlightenment 

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huh
ha concentration on the mind of enlightenment
is the purpose of removing the causes
have
suffering
he days for the purpose of
purifying the
resolution and the aspiration
to realize buddhahood for the welfare of all beings to purify that
of
the causes of suffering
to purify it of self clinging to purify the wish to purify the altruism of selfishness because it is possible that a sincere altruistic
aspiration and resolution could arise in a sentient being
but still have
self-cleaning present
and that we've been emphasizing
focusing on this intention to
realize
the the buddha away for the welfare of all beings in conjunction with remembering
to think about others as ourself
just think about and be mindful of the equality of ourselves and others
ha this type of meditation originated in india but it was transmitted to east asia
the china and korea and japan and so on
and some ancient zen teachers say has said that the entire universe
is the true human body
the entire universe is the true
body of the south
our true but har-tru body the true body of of ourselves is the entire universe
so this mindfulness
and i'm getting used to the thought that others or ourselves
that all other beings on myself this
does part of the work of purifying are altruistic intention of selfishness
based on this sense
that others are ourselves we then move on to another step in this process of
relieving self clean
and that is to further
meditate on exchanging self and other
so one kind of exchange is if you wish something well for yourself if you were something good for yourself
while wish it for others
that goes along well with thinking others are ourself
but i'm
when others are not well
when they're in trouble when are having hard time
then it may be even it may be difficult for us to wish
to be like them
and wish for them if we're well to be like us
so again
when we wish well for ourselves that's fine
and then ah i mean i find means wishing what wishing ourselves well
desiring particularly pleasure for ourselves is home to be reversed and wishing others well
and if others are not well learning to wish to change places with them
and also learning to
not get involved in the thought of how difficult it will not get involved not get overly involved in how difficult this would be to the extent that we would think that i would never really be able to
wish to change places with all suffering beings
the thought that that we can everyone that we wouldn't be able to
think about exchanging ourselves with suffering beings that thought is another thought which we should let go of
there is a
there is a thing called the golden rule which i think isn't it something like do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you
so that's kind of related
but the golden rule
he doesn't miss doesn't necessarily include

changing place with others
but to thoroughly get over self green that's one of the things we need to learn to think about and think about and think about until
it becomes the way we think that we actually think that way
what if we're well and their know what if worse sick and they're well then will we change places with them
why not
i think about it anyway
but it's most important to think about changing places with people when there were days when they're suffering
wait in a sense we can't really change place with people it's more something that we think about and see if we really
do think that way more and more
and noticed if we feel actually once we start thinking that way see if we feel that are joyful intention to live for the welfare of others is becoming
more and more joyful
and we feel more and more energy for this wonderful practice
so this both of these practices
require a lot of enthusiasm and breed more enthusiasm

these practices should should not be depleting
changing place was suffering beings
is not depleting
it's enlivening
this is what buddhists do and they have
unbounded energy buddhas and bodhisattvas do this and have unbounded energy
they need a lot of energy to do it and when they practice way they're enter their energy becomes more and more unhindered
so the path to buddhahood involves this purification of the path to buddhahood
but people often do think that this would just be too difficult
that these purification practices these practices of relieving are altruistic resolution of any kind of self centered nice were just too hard many people would think that so we have to learn to admit if we think that way
get that far off and open and find a way to let go of it so that we can apply ourselves to this difficulty
with them
yeah with so without worrying without discouragement so it it it is often difficult and challenging to do this practice but that
that's kind of normal but as good as practice bodhisattvas practice difficult things
giving up south korea is a struggle
however it is also called the comfortable practice because relative to
practicing the other way is comfortable it's joyful
but it's it's a it's a
it's just as a struggle there
in the process in the joyful process often put away
huh
and as i mentioned in the last series of classes
all the joy in the world now and later
comes from working for the happiness of others
and all the misery in the world now and later comes from working for this welfare of ourselves before others
and so it says
it's helpful to like discriminate between what's helpful and what's not helpful
so that we can
how do it how for it's good to learn to clearly discriminate between the causes of happiness and the causes of suffering because if we don't clearly discriminate then the happiness is undermined and the suffering will be increased
so clear discrimination as part of of developing habits

you may have lots of questions about these these are two practices of purifying bodhicitta the practices of
seeing the quality of self and other and exchanging self another
but before i opened the questions i just wanted to briefly maybe briefly mentioned kind of a big point
which can be developed later
in your life and i mentioned earlier
about how this bullshit arises
and we also talked a lot about how to take care of at once arises so i suggested to you how it arises
and as anybody remember when how where or how i suggested it arises
or
how he said it arises member
don't be afraid to show off
being still and silent
yep i don't doubt be good
did he answer
but how does the resolution arise how does this particular resolution arise
yes

okay so what i said but i said was
when what i'm saying includes what people have said but it doesn't occur by what a sentient being does
like wishing people well or something
and it also doesn't occur by what buddhas and bodhisattvas do
it occurs in the communion between the sentient being
and the buddhists
it's in the in it's in the spiritual communion that this but the star arises now
the sentient being might be wishing someone well
some but wishing someone well isn't the body bodhicitta
the bridget is if you are wishing someone well and you're in communion with the buddha's as you know as you wish them well if you're wishing well
is a stimulus to the buddhas and they respond to your wishing what wish well wishing in that stimulus of your well wishing and the buddha's meeting you in that interaction
the thought the the thought of enlightenment arises so it doesn't arise from them
they wish you well buddha's wish you well
but take no matter how hard they wished that day by themselves cannot make this thought arise
but when but in the in the way that your well wishing stimulate and is responded to by buddhas
in that communion this can arise it doesn't always arise in that communion but that communion is where it arises
huh
so story i tell often one of the stories i tell often is
that i heard some stories about some zen
monks
but in order to hear these stories i had to read them
when i read them i heard them
and of course stepping back from that somebody had to give me the book for i had to be stimulated to go look for the book
for just started the places i make the effort to read a book about zen or but zen monks so i'm reading that
ha that's my i'm doing that i'm offering that
and so i'm not too i hear this story
but i'm
there's something besides the story that carson and of fanbase do something besides is something in the story or something besides the words the story responds to my reading of them
oh no we're not everybody that reads the story
hasn't same reaction that i did when i read the story so many people do
but not everybody does
so when i read the store these stories something responded to my effort to read and then this thought his body checked her this wish to be like the people in the stories of rosen in me and the people in the stories where people who were devoted to the welfare
of others who were wish to realize buddhahood for the welfare of others
they didn't say that in a story
they they did something
something which demonstrated that
and so in that interaction i
i made it i made it on offering and i was met and something arose in me or something arose
but i didn't i didn't necessarily realize that
that when i read
i was making a request or an offering
and i didn't realize that something responded to me and in that relationship this thought this aspiration arose now i said no i look back at it and i tell you that's an example of that all i know is that the that it arose so it isn't always the key
case that when this body checked arises you understand where where it came from you might think it came from you or you might think that the buddha's made it happened to you
so this this story about how this arises is a story that occurs
i'm in a culture which
believes that buddhas are present
in the world with sentient beings and are responding to sentient beings
i just it's a culture that's been strongly influence for example by chapter sixteen of the lotus sutra
which says that buddhists are present in the world
and they will respond to us sometimes they'd always liked to
but they have to wait for the red causes we have to make a certain kind of offering
for them to respond now having said that
i would say we have to make a certain kind of offering for them to respond in such a way that we're aware that we made an offering and if they made a response
there's another level of this story of this
theory in a way
of the presence of the buddha's with us that another level of it is that we're always
where all was offering
ourselves for an inert for for an interaction and they're always responding but usually
people are not aware of the offering and the response
just like now i look back at the story of my
history and i see and offering which i didn't see at the time when i see a response for tendency at the time
and there's other times
while we could look back and find that there was an offering
and there was a response and there wasn't the arising of the body chiptune that's also possible
i would say that
other times we can see that we make an offering we don't feel there's a response
however even there there's that there's a her relationship other times we feel like we didn't make an offering we got a response and there to there's a relationship
it's in these relationships were were unaware that were making an offering that we're asking for something that were stimulating enlightenment and enlightenment responding and we don't know either side and other cases where we are aware of the offering and were aware of the response in other cases were not
aware of the offering and we are where are the response in other cases where where
aware of the offering and not aware of the response
and in that in that communion in that dialogue between the enlightened and the unenlightened is where this thought arises because this the rising of this thought is
what buddhists are trying to stimulate in central bags because this thought is the
is the beginning of the process and the ongoing process
what voters are working on
ha
i'm going to touch higher this vault for three months practice period and the beginning the practice period i'm going i i i think i'm in i intend to bring up to the
did the participants
ah

sitting
as you know an offering
the to set up this this communion
at the at and i i said the beginning because as sometimes at the end of the practice periods i when we have a question and answer session at the end of the practice trades there's often a question by one of the participants like what
does are sitting here in these mountains have to do with helping beings
what does the offering a power sitting
what responses there to that in terms of helping beings
so
some people believe and and that
this sitting is in fact
an offering which is met by the buddhas and which transforms his world which transforms it which will transform it
even though many people can vary for can see the offering but cannot see the response
and in some cases right now people are making this offering we don't know about it
and after we don't know their response
but some people who believe this are the very people who spend their whole lot who spent almost their whole adult life
practicing sitting
they may give talks also
but perhaps while they give the talks what they're really doing why they're talking is making the sitting
which they believe is the sitting
of
the bodhisattvas
typified by
the founder in china who we called bodhidharma
what is that what was his teaching he didn't say some stuff and what little he said
we long remember but mostly compared to what little we have like a paragraph or two
he spent nine years sitting
to make clear
what
to make clear of doing something that transforms the whole world
that was his way of transforming the world and you could say well
maybe that body and people some people say but we can't really find this bodhidharma history even but certainly there was this
this thing called zen that happened in china and and it in it traces itself back to this person who practice that way
he was making an offering and being met by the borders making an offering and being met by the buddha's generating
the spiritual context in which
the biggest country in the world
became influenced
and if you think about this practice to you might think oh this sounds this is too difficult
i couldn't do a practice like that
but then before you think about how difficult it is
you have faith in it
so this is some related to the previous discussions and body chipped
and is a warm up
because now we've been for classes on meditating on the conventional boy chipped and the next two classes will be about the ultimate body checked her
so this this this is kind of
preparation for meditation on ultimate bodhicitta
so if you have any questions about the conventional but the practice server
seeing others herself and the practice of exchanging ourselves with others
you're welcome to bring up
any comments or feedback
yes

is your acronym many well i think written marianne says something about being still at the beginning
so this this both these practices of equality and exchanging equality of self and other and exchanging self another both of these are
offered at this point
in the context of being able to focus on is in an undistracted way
when we were undistracted
that also goes along with been relaxed
and still and calm and economists
so this meditation on equality
i may be have distressed enough is to be practiced in the context of equanimity
and then hurt her question is would there be some enthusiasm there right

the
this concentration requires
great
enthusiasm
yeah we the pre the previous the the earlier practices of giving ethical discipline and patients require enthusiasm but not as much
as this as concentration
and if you practice if you have enthusiasm and vigor in practicing giving
ethical discipline and patience
by practicing patience
by not wiggling around your suffering and being present with it that releases a lot of energy
the fuel more enthusiasm
so we we we need to practice the first three in order to have enough enthusiasm to practice
the fifth and sixth
but he sought for practices of concentration wisdom so we're not talking about concentrating
and in concert in being a quantum quantum's about bodhicitta to be economists about
the equality of self and other
and we need to be enthusiastic about being com
and really want
to become really want to be economists and also really want to remember
what we're here for
really want to remember that we're living for the welfare of others really wanting really really wanting not to get distracted from that
and if we do get distracted then we go and practice ethical discipline which is
involves oh i just got distracted from what i wanted to do so i practice confession repentance
which is part of ethical discipline
then i go back
and pratt and my enthusiasm now is greater i go back now and practice concentrating on the thought of enlightenment on the mind of enlightenment
and i've and i choose yeah stickley want to learn to be mindful to remember that others or myself and that i need to exchange myself with others in order to purify my heart of selfishness
so there needs to be enthusiasm
for there to be concentration and when there's concentration there needs to be more enthusiastic enthusiasm to continue it
and in fact if your concentrated it does tend to promote enthusiasm to continue but not one hundred percent locked in that that will happen so if you get distracted and you have to recover
so you've got distracted and then resume your enthusiasm practice again to go back to the concentration on what on this case on body chapter on what on purifying bodhicitta that make sense
so we may think that tranquility isn't like brimming with energy but in fact buddhas are tranquil and
they're like know they're they're glowing
with energy the light comes off them which pervades and illuminates and encourages beings spiritual light
which which comes from this this concentration
but not as not hysterical disturbed spiritual light
nada
but it caught not a manic radiance
ah i haven't there's a picture in my interview or a green gulch into picture of bodhidharma sitting facing the wall and his his most famous disciple
ah is there with him offering him his forearm as a little kind of like gum
gift
to demonstrate that he really is enthusiastic
and i liked the picture partly because around the body down with figure is a little bit of a a little bit of a a subtle halo around this grumpy guy facing the wall
it's actually kind of little bit anyway it looks very soft kind of like buttery so
hotline around his nice around his robes
he's sitting still facing the wall for nine years and this light is coming off of him for nine years
there's lots of enthusiasts there's there's there's there's vigor and enthusiasm there and stillness and undistracted ness and joy
and so on
come your name again
chin chin

what basically the same way you you see me as yourself same way you look at me and you say he's me
just like that
they are you doing that with me now
ah
shouldn't do it tracy
do it fred
do it josh do it with everybody and if you run into somebody is a no no no no no then moved onto somebody else and come back later
if somebody's been cruel to you and you said i can't do with this person
take a break and go move onto somebody else
but the fact that they're being cruel to use i can see it makes it a little harder but
but if you work in the more you can keep doing a get used to it you will act you know like i said if if you get used to thinking this way nothing but this particular person but just thinking about in your meditation thinking about it for everybody
everybody everybody then what happens is
you see this person and you think it without you know without telling your train so that when you see a person you think well that's me who's being mean to me he still can see there being mean and skillful oh now me as being mean to me or me as being named have me as being mean to myself myself as being mean to me
so that makes it possible to do the other practices the beneficial practices and of giving you can be gracious with this person has been cruel to you
so part of the stories that turned me to then were stories of
people who are being gracious with people who have been cruel to them
and this but these people were training at this before these stories happened
so
if you spend time and quiet stillness reminding ourselves
that all sentient beings on myself all sentient beings are myself they are myself there myself that when someone attacks you have a chance to say all this to this is myself
but i wouldn't say you know start flat footed with somebody has been cruel to you and then and then try to see them as yourself gotta you gotta be in a swing of it
get used to it and then without remind yourself people just communists in oh me oh me oh me oh me oh me you see that everything that comes is giving you your life even if they're being cruel to you they're still giving your life you're alive
it's are you know if you're there to be treated cruelly you're alive
and the buddha was treated cruelly by some people shocking money buddha was treated cruelly by some people but when he saw them he said this is me this is my friend
this is my friend and my friend is me
everybody's my friend everybody gives me life everybody gives me like everybody gives me life that's that's giving
he practice giving but you can practice giving it to have a little bit of while some people aren't my are are not me
so we had to purify ourselves from that so that nobody can knock us away from practicing giving
but we have to train at it
and then
and then when somebody's cruel to you or any other people that you care about which is everybody
then you meet their cruelty with
selflessness and compassion that's the point
the point is to become such a person
and when you hear about somebody who does do that an end and he and you make the effort of hearing that story
and ye and then it rises in you you would like to be like that and body chipped to has arisen in you because of the interaction between you paying attention to the story and the buddhist coming to meet you
so yeah
i was turned to send by stories of people being treated cruelly and coming back with kindness
and now that but people treated kindly and graciously and coming back with kindness exactly the same kindness for cruelty and kindness
cause some people even when they're treated kindly they they don't come back with compassion they come back with greed for more
so they just over there this one kind of big reaction
non non compassionate reaction to kindness and praise and they have another kind of on compassionate response to insult and cruelty
so i want i thought it was cool and somebody could respond to cruelty
with kindness but even even cooler even cooler that they respond the same way to praise but the same basically the same kindness it doesn't make any difference which means to respond to everybody with kindness
like the buddha
supposedly could i mean he could respond everybody with kindness this is a buddha
and sometimes we would like to be like that we think that's really that's we would like to be able to set that example in this world is suffering
but right now maybe
maybe we we can imagine situations it i wouldn't be able to be kind in that situation okay maybe you wouldn't
or i wasn't such a such situation and i wasn't guy okay than i would confess
i wasn't kind when i got treated that way
gay but i but i still wanna be that way
yeah i still wanna be that way and i'm going to train myself over and over until i become that way and i've heard that those who did become that way train themselves a long time
and they had a hard time just like i do
so i'm i'm not discouraged that i have hard time because i feel like this is normal to learn this this thing
it is difficult it has been difficult it is a struggle
but don't worry about it that is a struggle that's normal
okay
henrico
a strictly
what others
a can't understand the problem is his like
the purpose of it will be through and depression
the the second from others
he wouldn't that but it also would would it not been to but another way to put it is it would remove your ear you're cleaning your self clean
national not feel
that as a compassionate continuously
feel
yeah
yeah but you still even if some of those cases you still might have a further training to do in order to exchange yourself with them
was that like comparing with down
did you say parenting yourself yeah great yes
yeah
yes parent and towards
towards learning that others are herself which means parenting or being taught and trained how to
i'm not feel separate which all but but in again another little twist on it is can you exchange places that didn't get to know that gets another and gets another layer or twist on the attachment because
again there's some people with who you might feel you don't feel like ah
yeah that that you may be see are the same as them but you can't change places

well you don't assert certain you don't notice
part of that i would say yes but you wouldn't necessarily i pray that they get what they want if what they want to hurt them
when you know the you can see it in some cases of people got what they want like their next their next drug infusion if you pray that god for them that wouldn't necessarily on
yeah you print you pray for their happened if you work for their happiness and for people that will resent you know that's that's really great if we can do it with them and if we can't do it with somebody else and then as you get more and more into doing for the other people gradually moved to the people that we feel resentment toward

it is and it is the antidote to disturbing motion a disturbing emotions
yes
yes
almost imagine
enjoy
i'm state yourself and others
suffering

join the game
the
the same frame as really
you can put you can you can't imagine feeling joyful about letting suffering into yourself

o k so maybe that was so what can't you can imagine experiencing the suffering
really
adding more joyful
well ah
yeah so i guess it maybe some debate about whether you're letting the suffering in or whether you're opening to the suffering even up
you can still laugh

how can be joyful except on principle
wonderful but in reality
too funny
reading through suffering
well in a take a particular example you're with someone and you see them suffering and you don't feel open to them
and probably that isn't joyful can you imagine that
so this person i'm i'm conscious enough to realize this person seems to be
stressed in pain they seem to be suffering and i i noticed that i'm a little close to them i'm having trouble being patient with them
i'm having trouble remembering that
there myself
okay now i'm remembering that there myself
and then you can check to see if you ever do open to their suffering you can see if joy comes if you don't open the suffering that i'm not saying that that would be joyful
so i guess you have to open to it to verified if it's gonna be joyful but i think you can find out pretty quickly that if you're with someone who is suffering and you're not open to it i think you can see that does not particularly joyful
except in a real nasty way like i'm sure glad i'm not like this sufferings wretch
no that's not that joyful the some just kind of like nasty his
but
i think you might be able to find no i'm actually not open this person and i wish they'd stop being this way
you know i kind of wish did i wish they'd be happy and because i find a kind of uncomfortable to be with them and not be open to them
i find a kind of uncomfortable to be impatient with them
okay now i'm being patient with them i feel better when i'm patient with them if i'm with someone who is suffering and i'm being patient because i feel somewhat irritated and uncomfortable when i'm with people who are suffering especially if they're expressing themselves in certain ways like screaming
so have a look in test is listening to the suffering right patiently listening
the suffering of the world
and thinking these beings on myself
and if she opens to that she feels great joy if she doesn't feel open to it she doesn't feel so good
all see anything about and
to start with one start with one you know
start with while i'm cooking
of star with one
start with one
and then to
we're not even to start with one and the next one and the next one in the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one don't think about the fact that door six before that are the just ten more coming or that there's
a race ahead of them don't do you not ready for that maybe just do one after another after another
and notice
check it out when you when you we actually do open to the pain when you actually opened you feel joy check it out i'm saying
this is the joy of the bodhisattvas is to open to the suffering of others and their own
it's not a worldly joy
it's a spiritual joy
have a couple of
overwhelm he said
was it overwhelming
opening
that you stay away
on in this
overwhelmed by suffering with the idea that
was fun
yeah well i've looked at touch bar as overwhelmed by the suffering of the world but overwhelmed in a way that he is economists
and doesn't get distracted from the listening while being overwhelmed
there was overwhelming there's nobody does nobody there
anymore that's been washed away there's just listening and openness
and everybody
is who the practitioner is
the practitioner who sense has been overwhelmed
by everyone who was the same as everyone gives the practitioner her life
this
have to do these trainings
to get to be the place where you're not resisting anymore
bill and charlie
bill
me

manic enthusiasm
mission yes your enthusiasm
well you said used you said admissible
for it's it's permissible it is permissible but it we mean by manic is i think that the it isn't economists
useful it is useful for developing compassion but it itself undermines the the magnus or the lack of equiniti and the enthusiasm will cause the you know what to call a drainage and this enthusiasm
yeah but the control is a manic people are often into control

well but he you you don't have to think of up in that case it into indigenous is charlie controlling it you just putting it to some other use
ah rhea reapply and divert can divert
apply it somewhere else other than just using it to disturb the to make to undermine the enthusiasm
yeah
turn it turn it to a more beneficial direction
but
yeah i think
i think i'd ride i i i wish to learn to not stamp out our energy that's not economists
i wish to learn to be economists with non economists energy
so non-equity quantum was manic energy is an opportunity for patients and equanimity and with patients and equanimity with non economists energy that may be able to that may be possible to turn it into a way
a where it will become kind of us like move it from a narrow channel to a wide channel where in costs mood or engage it was some resistance that you know where could that was where that resistance could comment
like putting it through water wheel or something
but we don't want to crush anything we don't want to be overbearing
even to ah which anything
even though the thing is perhaps causing harm we find want to find a way to be friendly to harmful phenomenon
hmm tough yeah yeah just like it was tough for
scientists to find ways of relating to certain diseases
to make can make you know
medicine for them
but they didn't just they didn't just try to crush the does when they found a disease entity they didn't just try to kill the disease entity
the they studied it try to understand it by understanding that they found a way to protect beings from it but it just go around killing all kinds of disease it doesn't necessarily benefit anybody other than just that disease and gonna hurt anybody because i kill that one i killed that blog i killed that virus
but how do we understand it that's much more difficult
no
just a blowtorch a bunch of viruses
that doesn't necessarily help anybody but to study them is very difficult and to understand them very difficult lot of takes a lot of enthusiasm to understand certain diseases
and then by understanding them than we can protect beings from them
which is the points to protect beings so they can evolve ah
so
on a quantum was manic energy how do we work with that understand that in such a way
two
i haven't be an opportunity finally of understanding
have it be opportunity for realizing the truth of
manic energy if we find the truth of manic energy it's the same as final truth of anything that's what we're here to do is to find the truth because that's what helps people
you are
yes joe
ah silly question
okay

i think that this is a good opportunity for your imagination
and one of the best ways to imagine it
is by sitting for nine years the
i guess you have plenty of time to think about bodhidharma
and you'd be thinking i'm doing what he dharma did and it's only been half an hour
and
i have quite a ways to go here
i'm gonna i'm an anomaly i haven't understood him yet in the first half an hour but i think of i keep this up i'm in a really have some great realizations of bodhidharma just imagine what it's gonna be like after about four years
and then a question is should i go to the toilet
should i go to the toilet

this is the commune spiritual communion
should i go back in sif again
so he was in camp spiritual communion for nine years he was working with the with the buddha's he was a great body sought by working with the buddhist for nine years
all time in this in a spiritual communion him in the buddhist practicing together for nine years and he wasn't deciding for himself when dugard the toilet and went to take a nap
but
i think that the usual way the story goes in you're welcome to modify it in your imagination is that he was already
a great but he sought for when he went to sit there
he had already visited the emperor
and when he left the emperor he was already seen as of loki test for
i'll look lucky touch bar went and face nine years as act of great compassion to transform chinese civilization which this tradition diff
and here's the prototypic model of transformation
to sit still like a buddha and as you get into it you realize he wasn't by himself
he was with the buddha's they were in communion all the time the and you know heat the body mind was already well developed in him when he came to china according to the story so a well developed voyage to goes there and uses this form to transmit the body check
due to transmit the buddha mind seal this is the way he chose to demonstrated by sitting that way
the buddhist sat for six years but a damaged that for nine after the buddhist sad for sick
years the buddha than talk
but the boudoir continued to be sitting while he was teaching he continued to be doing the same practice so the buddhist sitting there the buddha sitting there teaching is the
bodhi dharma sitting there facing the wall is bodhidharma teaching
huh
and when his students showed up he didn't he didn't talk to him and he did and he did respond to a student he did train his student
he had
a few successors
one story i said that he had for one of them became designated as the second ancestor but i suppose they had for students
but these are for successors and he had many students
but he sat facing the wall of nine years
so
i think we should use you should it would be good if you spend at least nine years thinking about him sitting for nine years with you're sitting with your face in the wall for nine years yourself or not i'm hopefully the live nine more years so you can have at least nine years to think about him sitting nine years
and then after that you might decide you're going to sit for ten
yes

is it a facing yeah definitely
and i i think you're sitting still and upright his faith thing too
that some people sit upright and still and they believed that that's gonna be beneficial in his world
i'm like when i first started doing it i thought well the people who i most admired did this practice
so probably i if i did i might be able to become like them because they did this practice doesn't guarantee it but i noticed that they all did the same practice so high when i first started sitting i did it because i thought that this was part of the training to become a bodhisattva i believe that
i didn't believe it like oh i really believe this i believe it enough to i believed it enough to do it some people's i really believe it
i'm laughing because
when i was a fairly new student at zen center
ah i've tried i moved to zen center and after being there short time i became what called the dorm manager
the manager of the dormitory so and then and then when we moved his from bush street over to page street
into the new building their i became dorm manager of the new building to so i would meet new students who had come who really would believe that solves the sitting meditation was really what they really wanted to do they really believed that would be beneficial to them to get up early in the morning and sit
like a zen monk
and then when morning came i noticed that they weren't there because i know i was
as my job to notice whether they went are not now would go to their room and i would say or
it's time for meditation and they would say oh i don't want to go to meditation
so they it at night they believed that it was a good idea but in the morning they didn't
so the
to get up to spend your life sitting still or to spend party or life like one hour a day two hours a day and to do that for
decade after decade
it's like that because you believe in it you believe it's good just like i guess maybe a brush your teeth because you think it's good you believe in toothbrushing
huh
you believe as you believe it's worth your your your effort
so it's a kind of faith in in in in something
and maybe you feel well dental hygiene as i know i am i have more confidence in that than i do that sitting upright and still is beneficial
by the way next monday
the date will be eight nine ten
and that's the fortieth at your birthday yeah it's the fortieth anniversary of made becoming ordained as a priest
so i often think why did a young man spent all those hours sitting upright and still have isn't so it's kind of funny the spend so much time doing that instead of other things
that young man sometimes spend their time doing not you know not to say i didn't do those things but the sitting cut into my those other things quite a bit
thousands of hours
for for decades devoted to this practice i guess i believe in it but even when i believe in that sometimes i think i could believe in any more
i can be more enthusiastic than i am
about this is bodhi dharma is getting
this is one moment right now have nine years of sitting i may not sit nine years but bodhidharma actually didn't sit nine years old once he did it moment by moment
so am i doing one moment of bodhidharma sitting
what i like to
when i like this moment of sitting to be body dharmas moment of city but i like to did he want to
did he want to do one moment of bodhidharma sitting probably probably repeatedly
add it is faith it is an expression of faith it is the
in some sense is the central face of of then is to sip
faith
and then priests current zucker she their job is to encourage people
to sit like bodhidharma
by talking it up it is really egypt this is great river
but also occasionally do yourself
people say wow is this various sitting
after all these years he still sits
hmm strange world
so next week i'll try to focus on the ultimate bully chapter with you
huh

huh