So we study Zenki first and then Shoji. Shoji means birth and death, it also means, Sho means birth, it also means life. We say birth and sometimes we say life, depending on the emphasis or the vantage point. But the same character means both birth and life. So you can say birth and death or life and death. And zenki has various meanings. or the meaning is translated in various ways. But before I talk about that, I noticed that your copies are not very clear.

[01:01]

They're kind of bumpy, so I'm sorry about that. But I don't know, you can still read them, even though I think you can read them. So maybe we should make some better copies. And the copy that I chose, the translation that I chose to work with as the main translation was the old translation by which came out in 1976 or something like that, 72. I can't remember exactly when, but the reason why I chose this was because it's not so, it's not a bad translation, but it has all these footnotes and footnotes

[02:17]

that's what I always appreciated about Dr. Abe's translations were his wonderful footnotes, always full of footnotes, which are very important here. Dr. Abe was a, or he still is, a Japanese and he used to come to Zen Center quite a bit in the 70s and in early 80s and he did some of the first translations of Dogen. He and Norman Waddell cooperated and these translations appeared in the Eastern Buddhist magazine And Eastern Buddhist is a wonderful magazine, which would come out quarterly, and the library is full of them, but nobody ever reads them.

[03:22]

They're full of wonderful articles, but we would always look forward to these translations of Dr. Ame's, because we didn't have anything else of Nogen's. So I will use his, but you know it also appears, Zenki also appears translated by Tanahashi in Moonen and Dewdrop and also in Enlightenment Unfolds. It appears in both of those, same translation, and also in Nishiyama and Nishijima, translations of Shabbo Genzo. So you can, if you have any, you know, Moon in a Dew Drop or Enlightenment Unfolds, you can read along with that to kind of see the differences in the translations.

[04:32]

Okay, so if we look at the title, Zen is not the Zen of sitting. I mean, it's not the Zen of, but it means There are various characters called Zen and they're all different. So this one means total or all-inclusive. And ki means function or activity or dynamism. Here the title is Total Dynamism, the dynamism of the totality, the universal dynamic quality of life,

[06:49]

It's also called undivided activity because it's non-dual. In essence it's not two things. And Cleary calls it the whole works, which is a kind of nice double entendre. the whole works. And it's the whole works. So that's kind of cute. So you kind of get the feeling of the whole. So Dogen says, according to this translation, in the culmination of its quest, the great way of all Buddhas is emancipation and realization.

[08:13]

I'm going to read the first paragraph. Emancipation means that life emancipates life and that death emancipates death. For this reason, there is and immersion in birth and death. Both are the great way totally culminated. There is discarding of birth and death, and there is crossing of birth and death. Both are the great way totally culminated. Realization is life, and life is realization. When the great way is realized, it is nothing but life's total realization. It is nothing but death's total realization. So, Zinki, or the great dynamic working, is the dynamics of birth and death, or the dynamics of life and death, the undivided activity of life and death.

[09:24]

Dogen says the great matter is the matter of life and death. That's the bottom line of our life or what it is that we need to understand or to become enlightened about. What is the meaning of birth and death? What is the reality of birth and death? So he says, in the culmination of its quest, the great way of all Buddhas is emancipation and realization. Emancipation means freedom. It means being free of something, to be emancipated, to be freed, and also realization.

[10:30]

So freedom and realization. So he starts out with these two lines. So we have the duality of birth and death. When we're on the side of what we call life, then we see death as the other side or opposed to life. But Dogen says death is not opposed to life. In a dualistic sense, we can say life and death are opposed to each other. This is life and this is death. But this is only one way to view these two aspects. So he says, emancipation, he tells us what emancipation, what he feels that emancipation means.

[11:44]

Emancipation means that life emancipates life and that death emancipates death. So life frees itself and death frees itself. And then he says, for this reason, there is deliverance from birth and death and immersion in birth and death. Both are the great way totally culminated. So, he presents us with deliverance and immersion, and he's saying that both are the great way.

[12:46]

So deliverance from birth and death is like going beyond birth and death. And immersion in birth and death is like totally being in birth, when in birth, and totally being within death in death, within death. Life covers the whole world, the whole universe. When what we call life appears, life covers the whole universe. And when death appears, death covers the whole universe. In Genjo Koan, Dogen talks about winter and spring.

[14:00]

He says, winter is a period of itself, and spring is a period of itself. Winter does not become spring. Winter is winter through and through. And spring is spring through and through. It looks like winter becomes spring, but one thing doesn't become another. One thing is totally itself in its dharma state or dharma position. So each moment and each moment's dynamic working is total. It's not, it has a momentary tentativeness, but that moment is total.

[15:05]

So even though it looks like our life is continuous without a gap, it rises up new on each moment. It's kind of like a movie. When we watch the movie, the movie is just going on and it's continuous. But if you slow it down, you'll see that it's one frame at a time. And each frame is complete. Each one of those movements is complete in itself. And even though we say that one motion turns into another, each moment is independent and discrete

[16:19]

So what we call our life is discrete moment. What we call our death is complete moment. Yes? wintering off. Yes, yes. There are causal... If it necessarily leads to something particular. There are causal connections and that is, you know, an action leads to a cause and a cause leads to an action. This is karma. Nevertheless, even though the cause leads to another action, each one is independent.

[17:32]

And so Dogen brings this up when he talks about firewood and ash, or tofu and beans. You know, there are beans, soybeans, and then And then there's tofu. Tofu comes from soybeans. But if you said to soybeans, do you know, I mean, if you said to tofu, do you know that you were once little round pellets called soybeans? Tofu would say, are you kidding? What do you mean? What are soybeans? Never heard of them. Soybeans are soybeans. Tofu is tofu. Even though soybeans is a condition for tofu, soybeans are discrete as soybeans, and tofu is discrete as tofu.

[18:40]

So if you look at any one dharma, or any one piece of existence, that one piece of existence is supported by everything. we can say, you can say soybeans are a direct cause of tofu, but the sky is also participating, and the rain is also participating, water is participating, fire is participating, earth is participating, the whole cosmos is participating in the production of tofu and upholding it. So the whole business arises all together on each moment.

[19:53]

So you can look at birth and death from various points of view. The death of soybeans is the birth of tofu. or is a cause for the birth of tofu. So one existence dies, so to speak, and another existence springs up. So actually, in the realm of birth and death, this is transcending birth and death. because one existence gives itself over and another existence is born. So birth and death is simply the undulation of what we call this life.

[20:59]

All of the various elements interweaving and giving themselves up and other elements arising. So this is cause and effect, but each moment's arising is discrete. So you talk about matter and space not being separate and being connected, but why would you how do we cut that apart? Well, when you talk about past, present and future, the present is slippery. As soon as you try to grasp the present, it's already the past, and the future is just an idea. You know, if there was a future,

[22:03]

you may be able to grab it. But the future is really just an idea. And past is also an idea. Past and future exist in the present. I guess I'm asking why the present, why the discrete moment isn't talked about as an idea as well. It is. Oh sure, it's just all ideas, until you experience it. So how you experience the discrete moment, of course, can be any time. But especially in zazen, you have awareness of the discrete moment. you have much more awareness in Zazen of birth and death on each moment.

[23:11]

So, you know, we have two or three kinds of birth and death. One kind of birth and death is you're born on a certain date, you're a child, you're youth, you're middle-aged, you're old and then you die. That's the usual way of thinking about birth and death. But then there's also the birth and death of each moment. Each moment springs up and fades. And this springing up and fading, or appearing and disappearing, is like two aspects of one life, of one moment of life.

[24:15]

One discrete moment has these two aspects of birth and death. So if we want to study birth and death, we can study it as the momentary arising and disappearing of each moment's activity. And this is Buddhist meditation, basic Buddhist meditation, to note the arising and passing away of each moment's activity, of everything as it arises and passes away. That's just basic Buddhist meditation. So Dogen says, Emancipation means that life emancipates life and that death emancipates death.

[25:26]

For this reason, there is deliverance from birth and death and immersion in birth and death. Both are the great way totally culminated. Then he says, there is discarding of birth and death and there is crossing of birth and death. So in his footnote, he says, Crossing signifies entering birth and death in order to work for the salvation of all beings. We say that Bodhisattva puts off entering nirvana. or becoming absorbed in nirvana in order to stay in the world. So crossing is like staying within birth and death.

[26:31]

The realm of birth and death is called samsara. the realm which transcends birth and death is called nirvana. So the bodhisattva willingly enters the realm of samsara beings. That's why in the four vows the Bodhisattva vows to save all beings. So, you know, the four vows are the response to the four noble truths.

[27:40]

Life is, for lack of a better word, suffering. The reason for suffering is desire. We say delusions. There is a way. This is the ailment. And then the cure is that there is a way to deal with suffering. And the way is the path. That's the fourth one. So the Bodhisattva's vow is response to the four truths. sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them. That's the vow to help save people from their suffering and confusion. And the second one is delusions or desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them.

[28:53]

let go of them, or cut through them, actually. Cut through them, I think, is more Chinese style. And then the Dharmagates, which are the various ways, I vow to study them all. And then the Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to, we say become it, but follow it. So this is the Bodhisattva's vows in response to the Four Noble Truths. So instead of saying we vow to extinguish and enter nirvana, we say we vow to help all beings. But nirvana is like crossing over from birth and death.

[29:58]

And samsara is the realm of birth and death, the realm of the duality of birth and death. So Mahayana Buddhism says nirvana is within samsara. And samsara is where nirvana is worked out. So entering birth and death is how to escape birth and death. rather than to try and separate from it, to actually enter into it. So, Zen way is, in life, totally enter life without any remainer, and in death, totally enter death without any remainer.

[31:02]

You know, in Zazen, When you have painful legs, just totally be pain, through and through, and then there's no opposite. When there's no opposite, you have transcended it. It's only when you have an opposite that you think of the other side. So Dogen says, without desiring and without rejecting, without desiring and without rejecting, to not fall into one side or the other. So he says, there is discarding of birth and death, and there is crossing of birth and death.

[32:16]

Both are the great way totally culminated. Then he says, realization is life, and life is realization. When the great way is realized, it is nothing but life's total realization. It is nothing but death's total realization, or total immersion. and the footnote says, the third footnote says, since all dharmas are the buddhadharma, there is no life apart from its manifestation and no manifestation apart from life. And then he says, see the illustration of the man riding the boat below, but we'll wait till we get to that. Footnote says, since the way of Buddhas is beyond all dualities, including the basic duality of birth and death, from life's point of view, each thing including death is life's total realization.

[33:24]

And from death's point of view, each thing including life is death's total realization. But you know, we tend to see things from one point of view. We tend to see things from the point of view of what we call life. So, Buddha says, a person's arrogant statement is, I am alive. To say I am alive is an arrogant statement. So, you know, there is a wonderful koan. Dao Wu and his disciple went to a funeral. And the disciple wanted to know about the question of birth and death.

[34:34]

And so when they got there, the disciple knocked on the coffin, he said, teacher, Dead or alive? Dao Wu said, I won't say. I won't say. And he said, teacher, you have to tell me. I have to know. Dao Wu said, I won't say. I won't say. So on the way home, this disciple said, if you don't tell me, I'll smack you. And the teacher said, it's not a good idea to do that. But he hit him. And Dao said, well, Dao said, I won't say, I won't say. So much later, after Dao Wu had died, the disciple went to one of his other disciples and told him the story.

[35:42]

And he asked what the other disciple did for the meaning. And the other disciple said, I won't say, I won't say. And he woke up. So, This birth and death is the total dynamic working of the universe. But we only see it in certain aspects. We see it through the eyes of fear, and we see it through the eyes of loss, And we see it through, you know, Edvard Munch, the Norwegian painter, had this wonderful painting of a person standing on the edge of the abyss, you know, and the earth and the person and the rest is just darkness, this black darkness.

[37:07]

And it's very, you know, it's like, what is this? It's like a big question mark. And we see it as a big question mark. What is it? And we invent all kinds of stories about it. And, But to be able to just hold the question mark, to be able to just, you know, how do you include that in your being without rejecting it or without kind of glazing it over or looking at it through some kind of colored glasses.

[38:15]

How do we actually include that without desiring it or without pushing it away? But just to hold it without a thought or without a concept So, this momentary, moment by moment, interchange of dharmas is possible, only possible, because there's no fixed self.

[39:25]

We grow up attaching to a fixed self, but there is no fixed self. nothing is fixed. There's only this continual interplay and interaction of dharmas. Suzuki Goshi used to talk about it as one big being manifesting in uncountable ways. Nothing, actually, in the universe ever gets lost.

[40:35]

Somebody asked Suzuki Hiroshi one time about death. And he said, oh, don't worry, you will always appear somewhere in some form. It's just not the form that you're thinking of or that you are attached to as me. So because we identify with the body-mind as me, we feel that gain and loss. but if we can identify with life itself as the self, it's easier to see our self as transformation, in the realm of transformation.

[41:42]

So rather than thinking of transformation as a resisting transformation, to actually flow with transformation as life itself. This is transcending birth and death. We don't try to hold on to some form that cannot be grasped. or to resist some form that is appearing. As soon as we make that discrimination, then birth and death appears. Samsara, the realm of samsara, we fall into the realm of samsara by dividing birth and death. and fixing a self.

[42:48]

So, our life, or our self, is not our self. This does not belong to us. Even though we have an us, we have a me, and we have to take care of this me, even though there is no self, we still have to take care of something. we still have to have responsibility and take care of this world, you know. But that's the function of the manifestations of this world. We are, as human beings, we're part of the manifestation the various manifestations of this world. And so we take on the responsibility of evolving and taking care of it.

[43:55]

But we're not just separate beings here to enjoy ourselves and feel unhappy when we don't. This is where unhappiness comes from. This is where the suffering comes from. There's suffering which comes from the outside, you know, which is conditions and not having enough to eat, not having a shelter, having people at war with you and all those kinds of conditions. That causes suffering. But the suffering that we're talking about is the suffering that we cause ourselves through our ignorance. That's the suffering that we mean when we talk about life as suffering.

[45:04]

The suffering that we cause ourselves through our ignorance. This is, the suffering is caused by karma, which is volitional action. Karma simply means volitional action. And it means activity or actions which are done, which are performed through ignorance. And that's why we say delusions. or inordinate desire. When we talk about desire, we're talking about inordinate desire, a desire which is fed by what we feel is need but is actually not necessary. It's like wanting, wanting, and not being fulfilled because no matter how much we want or how much we get,

[46:08]

we want more. So you can see how society keeps building itself up through wanting more and more. The more we get, the more we want. And it's a kind of never-ending spiral. And we talk about standard of living in the United States. Standard of living. I mean, at one time everybody was satisfied with practically nothing. And now we have practically everything and we're still not satisfied. We still need more, more electrical gadgets, more powerful cars. You can only go so fast on the road, you know, but you need a 400 horsepower engine, you know, and you need to get a big RV to tear up the terrain. If you ever look at the advertisements for these big mechanical beasts that, you know, tear up the environment.

[47:14]

It's just, you know, on TV, they're just tearing, enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself. They keep raising the ante of desire, you know, in all aspects. I could go on, but I won't. Yes, this is a good time to uncross your legs. So, important point here is Now.

[48:15]

There's the word Nikon or Nikon. Nikon means now. But it means, in the sense that it's used, it means the now that is always now. So, I've talked about this before, you know, we say now and then, right, now and then. But on each moment, we say now. And then, we also said now. Then was now at that time. And now is now at this time. But whenever we say now, it's always in our presence. So this now, we associate with various activities.

[49:33]

But basically, now is just the moment of now. So we usually think of our life is progressing in a certain linear fashion. And time is going by. But time going by is just one way of thinking about time from a certain standpoint. Dogen talks about time as going forwards and backwards and various other ways, which we don't usually think about. But time is just always now. And so we think of time as going, as moving. because we have a clock and the hands keep going around.

[50:40]

It's discontinuous time. Discontinuous time is simply a way of discriminating time into increments. But we're taking something that is always present and dividing it into increments. Because now is just always now. And the events are transforming in the present. Everything is just, all phenomena are just transforming in the present. So wherever you are, it's always the present moment. So the present moment doesn't really come or go.

[51:42]

Events are turning within the present moment, but we usually see it as time is going by. So you can see it from various ways and from various points of view. But if you see it in an objective way, it looks like time is going by. But if time is totally subjective, then it's just always present. It doesn't come or go. It's just always the present moment. This present moment is always is called always. I hesitate to use the word eternal because that has a little different meaning, but we usually use that term to say eternal now, but always.

[52:49]

Maybe eternal is okay if you don't color it with other ideas. It's just the always present now. This is called Nikan, now, now, now. So, moment by moment, transformations of now, which, and the now itself is not colored. by anything, or if it is colored, the color doesn't stick. And there's another word, kikon, nikon and kikon. Kikon is the dynamic working.

[53:52]

It's the same as zenki. And Kekan is like the motive force behind everything. There is the motion or the force, the dynamic force that is behind all the transformations. So this is as close as we get to some kind of deity in Buddhism, but we don't think of that as deity. what it is, the motive force, the dynamic force of the universe, the motive force that makes each Dharma exist, each Dharma's existence what it is. And this dynamic force is like the universal rhythm.

[55:03]

And practice is tuning in to the dynamic rhythm, to the dynamic rhythm of the universe. of which we are a part, of which we are an expression. Each one of us is an expression of that kikkan, dynamic, harmonious, working. Dogen says, no, the dharmas don't impede each other. or interfere with each other, even though it looks like they do. Even though it looks like there is conflict, but basically the dharmas do not impede each other. Everything has its place in the universe.

[56:09]

That's what he means. Each existence has its place in the universe and nothing can, no other existence can take its place. no two things can stand in the same place at the same time. But at the same time, everything in the universe is one place. This is what Sandokan is saying. Everything in the universe is one piece. So we say it's like the waves in the ocean. the ocean is the one big piece. And the waves are its expression. The expression of the ocean are its waves. And so each one of us is a kind of wave on the ocean. And each one of these waves is unique and different.

[57:12]

So to be able to see the uniqueness and appreciate the uniqueness and see all the way to the bottom of the uniqueness of each thing is called the wisdom of discernment. And the ability to see and understand The sameness of all the existences, of all the waves, is the wisdom, great wisdom of equality. All the existences, all the waves are equal, and yet each one is different.

[58:19]

So when you see a wave in the ocean, the wave comes to life, and then the wave subsides. And that's the life cycle of a wave. But the wave is always part of the ocean. It's simply an expression of the ocean. So when the wave is born, we say the wave is born and the wave died, but we don't say that. We just say, oh, there's the wave, and it rose and it fell. part of the ocean. But when we look around, talk about ourselves, we say, I was born and I died. Or I will die. Someone was born and they died. And then when they're born, they cry and we laugh. And then when they die, we all cry. But You know, it's a sad thing, but it's also not a sad thing.

[59:39]

It's... It is a sad thing because of our associations with each other. But on the other hand, it's an inevitable consequence of our existence. So being born may not be so wonderful. Sometimes it may be wonderful for a little while, but it's a lot of work. So everything has two sides, more than one side.

[60:48]

Everything has more than one side. You know, in the old days in New Orleans, although I've never been to New Orleans, but when I used to listen to Dixieland jazz, you know, when the saints go marching in, when they would go to a funeral, they'd play this dirge on the way to the funeral. And then on the way home, they'd play when the saints go marching in, you know, and everybody's happy and they have a big party, which is kind of, expressing two sides, you know. One side is the sad side and the other is the joyous side. So, I think that's very realistic. And shows our acceptance of birth and death. It's practice, actually. And Zenki is expressed as the vow of practice.

[62:00]

The difference between vow and living by vow and living by karma is that living by karma is like living by desire. And living by vow is living by intention. So living by vow is living an intentional life which is not affected by success and failure. I was talking to somebody who felt that their practice was a failure. But actually, practice is not a, you can't be a failure in practice as long as you're practicing.

[63:05]

Because if your practice, if you have a vow of practice, then practice is not is simply what your life is about. And it's not about getting something or being successful. It's simply about doing the practice. And sometimes you're sad and sometimes you're happy. Sometimes you feel you're doing the right thing. Sometimes you don't feel you're doing the right thing. Sometimes you're transgressing the precepts. Sometimes you're upholding the precepts. But practice is just practice. And the vow is not affected by, in other words, the vow is

[64:09]

Although the practice is within samsara, it's not moved by samsara. So if one has a real sincere vow of practice, which is no matter what your life is like, the practice is always there. That's nirvana, because it's not inundated by birth and death. Birth and death, you know, we think of birth and death as the birth and death of this body-mind. In Buddhism, in Buddha Dharma, birth and death means the birth and death of the self. The self arises through attachment and clinging.

[65:15]

Without attachment and clinging, the self doesn't arise, even though you're still there. This is what self means. Self means the ego which arises through grasping and clinging and attachment and craving. As soon as there's craving, there's a self. As soon as there's attachment and clinging, there's a self. The self is born. This is called birth. So we go through attachment and clinging and desire. That's why the desire, we say delusions, you know, because it makes us feel easier. But the real word is desire. Desire is what is the root of suffering. Because we, as I explained before, So self arises with desire and with the acting out of desire, the clinging and the attachment and so forth.

[66:29]

But when we have freedom from self, then attachment is okay. And so people say, well, you know, what about being attached to practice? Ha, ha, ha. Practice is a good attachment. You should be attached to practice. Because if you're attached to practice, it's not attachment which creates a self. if you're attached to your spouse it means that if you're attached in a good way to your spouse it means that you support your spouse and take care of your spouse as a bodhisattva rather than

[67:42]

being in the relationship through what it can do for you. Then it's attachment which is beneficial attachment, not attachment which creates self. So, when one is enlightened, then attachments are not attachments in the same way that they are when one is simply in the realm of desire, attached through desire. Also, desire is necessary. Ego is also necessary. Desire is necessary in order to live.

[68:51]

But that desire is not called desire. It's simply called basic needs. And as I said before, when desire is turned toward practice, it's called way-seeking mind rather than desire. So we have a desire for practice. You should have a strong desire for practice, you know, real strong desire for practice. Then it's called way-seeking mind. because you're not doing something in order to enhance ego. But ego is also important. Ego is our sense of self. But if we know that our sense of self is not a real self,

[70:04]

then we can sustain that self, allow that self to be there because that self makes decisions and thinks, you know? And has a sense of itself, you have a sense of yourself. But that sense of yourself is not the sense of yourself which is grasping and clinging. it simply allows you to operate in a beneficial way, then it's not called ego, even though we can say that it's ego. Psychological ego, a little different from Buddhist ego in meaning, because Buddhist ego means a substantial real self, which is not so. But there is a a dynamic which does need some centering, right?

[71:17]

And needs to, and we get, pull ourselves together. And so we have a sense of self. But we know that that self is not a self. It's simply the center from which we operate. Peter? When Suzuki Roshi spoke about naturalness, is what you're referring to, in a way, does that relate? What did he say? Well, he said in the book, he said you think of naturalness as being this, but it's something else. Well, we think of naturalness as being our desires. He said, that's not naturalness. It's natural to have self-control.

[72:20]

It's natural to look at things in the correct way. But we always think of naturalness as impulse. our impulsiveness is what we refer to as our naturalness often. So I think that's what he was referring to. But you were saying how if you don't let the ego get in the way, you just function. And so is he referring to that sort of naturalness where you aren't working just for the ego, but you just work? Yeah, you let big mind work through you. We are transmitters. Each one of us is a transmitter. We're like a radio. We receive messages, and we have various tunings, stations, you know, loudness and softness.

[73:23]

Some of us are real loud, some of us are real soft, and a lot of us produce static. and there's speaking and music and you know all this stuff and it's all coming in and then the loudspeaker projects it out and so we receive all these messages, all kinds of current. Currents are just running through us like crazy and we process the currents, the mind, the discriminating mind, separates out the various tunings, stations, and input, and creates some kind of synthesis, and then we say, hi, my name is, and I think that,

[74:26]

I think this and I think that, so we are like that. But if you take the radio apart, you realize it's just parts. This is the old Nagasena, who was the monk, and the king, what's his name? King Malinda. And Malinda, this is in India. and the conversations of Melinda and Nagasena, the monk. And Melinda questioning the monk Nagasena about Buddhism. And these are very famous conversations.

[75:37]

when Belinda asked about self, what is the self? So Nagasena used the simile of the carriage. He says, you know, there are the wheels and the frame and the hubs and the yokes and all these various parts. And then little by little, he took them apart. He said, is this the carriage? Every time he put a part on it, he said, is this the carriage? Every time he took a part away, is this the carriage? No. Is this the carriage? No. Is this the carriage? No. And he took everything away. Where's the carriage? The carriage, is it all these parts together? Is it some of the parts? Is it none of the parts? And he went through all of the various possibilities and ended up with the cart is just a construct. There's nothing, no inherent cart.

[76:43]

Cart is just a construct. It has no self. But when it's all together, it runs, you know? Yeah? Excuse me, it's after 9 o'clock. Oh, OK. Thank you. It's OK. Is the big mind another frequency on the dial or what? Yeah, tune in! The big mind is the dial, all the frequencies and the dial. and the listener and that which is being listened to. But when you let go of self-centeredness, then big mind takes the center.

[78:01]

Some people would say, when you let go of self-centeredness, the devil takes over. That's big mind, the devil. Well, don't be afraid of it. It's trusting in your nature, trusting your true nature. instead of trusting your constructs. But what big mind includes everything, which is, you know, the death of one thing is the birth of another. So that's inevitable. That's what, you know, compost is like that, right? There's the flower, there's the bud, and it grows up, and you say, oh, what a beautiful rose that is, you know, and then little by little it starts fading, you know, and pretty soon it's limp, and you throw it in the compost, and then the compost starts working with all the other parts, you know, and then it comes up as something else.

[79:17]

But it doesn't worry about what it comes up as. lets go of its roseness and just becomes whatever it is that it's supposed to be. Just like you appeared as you're supposed to be. I appear as I'm supposed to be. I didn't ask for anything. I didn't know what I was before. Maybe I was beans. Thank you for having me, Sam. So nice.

[79:52]

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