It is often said that the point of the Buddha way is to simply liberate all living beings and the great earth from suffering. The point of our practice is to be kind to all living beings, animate and inanimate. Being kind to all living beings could also be understood as to be kind under all circumstances. You were alone, on room, wracked and ravaged, tormented, and emotional suffering.

[01:23]

You had cancer. or some other terrible disease, all by yourself, with no one around, the point of the Buddha way is that we would be able to be kind under those circumstances. That we would be compassionate under those circumstances. and embody and realize unhindered compassion. If someone in space, some other creature, human or non-human, the point is that we would also be able to meet this person

[02:31]

who's coming to help us in our pain or perhaps coming to increase our pain. That we would meet this being too with kindness. Even if they started trying to help us and moving us around in our bed and causing more pain and fussing with our wounds in an unskillful way and making more pain, we would be able to kindly say, No, thank you, darling. That hurts much more that way. To be kind under those circumstances or in circumstances where you're not comfortable. This kindness then saves the being that you're meeting. It shows them how you are kind under the circumstances of this meeting.

[03:36]

They don't know how you were kind before they even arrived. with yourself and your own suffering, but they see how you respond to them with kindness. And then they say, I'm going for a little walk now into death. Would you come with me? And you say, certainly. And take their hand and walk into death with them. with no gaining idea, with no fear, no reservation, just pure, unconditioned compassion. This is the point of the Buddha way, and this is the great joy of the Buddha way, and this is the beauty of the Buddha way.

[04:42]

It's all that's necessary. And in order to be able to do this, one must be liberated and awake. What I just described is what's possible when we're liberated and awake. What I just described is The third pure precept of the 16 Bodhisattva precepts, the precept of embracing and sustaining all beings, being able to embrace and sustain all beings, being able to embrace and sustain every circumstance of your life. And the word, the original Chinese character, which I say, which I translate as embrace and sustain, is that character which is also the first character in the term Sashin.

[05:57]

Last night, the acting Hino, said that during Sesshin, something about we make the effort to collect the mind. Did you say that? Collect the mind. That character can mean to collect the mind. Setsu, in Shin, mind or heart. To collect your heart. To gather your heart. That's the way she talked about it last night. But you could also say that Sesshin means to embrace and sustain your heart. A character also means embrace and sustain. It means to nurture your heart. Nurture your mind. It means to tend to your mind. It means to take responsibility for your mind. It means to develop your mind. It means to purify your mind. It means to assist your mind. Accept your mind.

[07:02]

It means to join hands and walk through birth and death with your mind. It means to accept your mind, accept your heart, accept your feelings, accept what's happening with Buddha's compassion. Take in what's happening with compassion and save whatever's happening. That's sashin. That's, in a sense, all there is to it. It's not easy to accept with compassion whatever happens. It's not easy to assist and take in whatever happens with compassion. How can these people do it? These beings that practice this third precept of embracing and sustaining, of nurturing all beings, how can they do it?

[08:08]

They can do it because they are selfless. because they have no outflows. Having no outflows means to sit with no gaining idea or to sit being free of all the gaining ideas that are buzzing around the universe. Some of the gaining ideas you are aware of. Others, other people are aware of. And we take turns trading gaining ideas. But anyway, they're out there. We have access to them. They can be tuned in on the Internet. But in the midst of this endless array of possible gaining ideas, we just sit upright and don't indulge in them. This is called sitting with no gaining idea.

[09:10]

This is the way one is who is able to embrace and sustain all beings. If you've attached to a gaining idea, that will hinder you from taking somebody's hand and walking through birth and death with them. Maybe hinder you from taking anybody's hand, but at least somebody's. But then if you have any idea that you're attached to, while you sit, if there's anything you want to accomplish, you're indulging in that want, then there's some situation where you won't be kind. And won't be kind can get pretty intense. I mean, won't be kind can turn into will be cruel. will be snotty, and so on.

[10:16]

On the other hand, if you sit with no gaining idea and you settle into that way of being, then you spontaneously will embrace and sustain all beings. You will be able to join the big club of the Buddha who are able to do this. How are they able to do this? Through this selfless practice of ending all outflows. It means you observe your breath without expecting anything for it. It means you observe your body. It means you observe your mind without dwelling in them. It means you observe anything with no gaining idea. You can follow your breath if you want, but you follow it with no expectation of gain.

[11:25]

Following the breath in that way ends outblows. You have pure mindfulness. Pure mindfulness means mindfulness which is purified of gaining ideas. Mindfulness without trying to get anything from your mindfulness. Now, there are scriptures which explain what will happen to somebody who practices mindfulness. You will become enlightened if you practice mindfulness. However, if you practice mindfulness with the idea of getting enlightened, then mindfulness is not mindfulness. It is impure. It has outflows. And it may be wholesome, but it entrenches the practitioner deeper and deeper into the world of selfishness.

[12:34]

You can practice any meditation technique you want. You can memorize poems if you want. You can recite scriptures if you want. You can do anything you want, anytime, anyplace, throughout the universe, and it won't be a problem unless you try to get something from it, unless you expect something. If you can observe the five aggregates without dwelling in them, without expecting anything from them, the five aggregates will bloom into this incredible, ineffable, inconceivable Buddha mind. This kind of selfless practice brings everything to bloom. Tore Zenji said, wall gazing, a spring flower blooms in the back.

[13:48]

And you can understand that in a variety of ways. One way is you're facing the wall. While you're facing the wall, a spring flower is blooming behind you or a spring flower is blooming in your back. or a spring flower is blooming right where you are, your spring flower is blooming as you're sitting. Your sitting is the blooming of a spring flower when you look at it. However, it's in the back. You don't know about it. This is an inconceivable blooming. This blooming is happening all the time, and the point of this blooming is not only that it's reality, Not only that it's incredibly joyful, but that it gets transformed into whatever form of kindness will be helpful. This is the three pure precepts.

[14:56]

The first pure precept is things are always blooming. Everything is blooming all day long. Throughout the entire universe, each thing is blooming. All of us are completely interconnected. There's no separation between any of us. We're one thing. There's no separation between Buddhas and sentient beings. This is the way it actually is. This is the true body, the Dharma body of Buddha. the first pure precept of embracing and sustaining, of nurturing the regulations, in some sense arbitrary regulations of Zen, aligning yourself with those,

[16:03]

is a way to express your alignment with the non-duality of you and all the Buddhism ancestors. And the non-duality of you and all the other people who are practicing. And the non-duality of you and all the people who aren't practicing. And the non-duality of you and the person you'd like to be. These forms, these practices, this sesshing schedule, this posture are ways for you to align yourself to the reality of a way that is basically perfect and all-pervading. But without aligning yourself, you don't realize the second precept, which is the practice of all good.

[17:11]

The practice of all good is simply to appreciate non-duality. of all beings and to settle into that appreciation and to accept the joy of that non-duality. When you completely accept and settle into the non-duality, then you set up the possibility of the third pure precept. you allow yourself to become a being who can be transformed into whatever is appropriate in order to help beings. As far as I can tell, the key

[18:19]

that's required to let this process happen, to let the realization of the Dharma happen, is that we practice selflessly. now in this practice period whatever forms we do or don't do we do them without any outflow without any gain or loss this means we give up gain and loss for our a person like us to give up gain and loss is to become selfless. Then everything you do from such a position of renunciation of gain and loss will be without outflows.

[19:22]

And then the whole process flows through effortlessly. You will then be exposed to a unthinkable, conceivable, inconceivable joy. In that state of inconceivable joy, you will become an opportunity for all beings to transform you into what is needed for you to help beings follow the same path. All this is inconceivable, and it's initiated by doing a practice which is inconceivable. When you practice selflessly, you don't get to also check to see that you're practicing the way you think selflessness would be.

[20:32]

Giving up gain and loss means also you give up the gain of being ill. or the gain of being able to tell what's not going on, or the loss of knowing what's going on, and so on. You give up whatever it is, you give it up. You are doing a selfless practice. You're not a selfless person, you're doing a selfless practice. You're still a selfish person, you don't lose that at all, don't worry. But a selfless person now plunges into a selfless practice. The selfless person is buzzing around the selfless practice all the time, checking to see if someone wants to return to the old way. Selfless practice does not talk to this, does not speak to this. I don't think I'm going to keep talking for another hour today.

[21:44]

I accepted a session schedule which has not very long time allotted for the talk. So I'm probably going to stop pretty soon unless something... But I'm just going to take a little squeak. I'm just going to take a little squeak now and tell you that At the edge of my speech is an inconceivable realm of discourse that could be very, very short or very, very long. It's inconceivable. Anything can be drawn out of it and passed on to you. And I'm not going to tell you all about what the inconceivable is. I'm not going to go on forever talking about something that we don't And if I did talk about it, the only reason for telling you about it would be so that you can practice without any idea.

[22:55]

tell you how inconceivable the actual process of actual liberation is. I don't have to tell you all about that. I could never finish anyway. But I don't have to tell you even much about it if you will just practice from now on without gaining ideas. And you don't need any more talk. But to get into that, I think to help you practice without trying to get anything. Because selfless practice is not something that a person can do by herself. Anything that a person can do by herself is not selfless practice. It is selfish practice. You can fluff it up and try to make it cute, but it's still selfish. Because you think so.

[24:01]

It will always be selfish, even if it's totally, sincerely intended to be unselfish. As long as you think that you're doing it by yourself, it's still selfish. It still has outflows. It's still a time bomb. Selfless practice is what you do not do by yourself. Selfless practice is the practice you do with everything. And you cannot conceive of what you do with everything. You can think about it. You can think, okay, and we're doing this all together here at Casa Hara. You can think of that, but that's not... We are not capable of conceiving of everything. This is not a problem. It's just the way things are. It is a problem, however, if you think that what you can conceive of is the actual process of living. You cannot. You can think of those things, but you have to abandon all those thoughts.

[25:10]

Just drop them. Selfless practice is inconceivable. The practice of selfless practice, the pure practice, is inconceivable. You cannot do an inconceivable practice. But you can realize it. You can realize it. You can manifest it. You can actualize it by simply letting go of the practice, all the practices that you personally can do. So then, as you go through the day and you personally do things, you do them with heart flows. That is your job. To sit here, just to sit here.

[26:15]

To work in the kitchen, just to work in the kitchen. And that's it. No tasks at all given away. And if you do that, this whole process is set up. Then you realize the Dharma body. You actually manifest the reality body of Buddha. And then, because of that, this joy which you don't even know about completely suffuses you. And that makes you relax. Makes you relax deep down. And then all beings can come and massage you into whatever shape Buddha they want you to be. And you let that happen. And they take you here and they take you there. And you go with them wherever is necessary. and they have their companion in the form of you, the you that has been transformed through selflessness.

[27:19]

When you give up all selfish concerns, then all beings which have constantly been sustaining you and embracing you and making you, then you realize that that's happening. this assistance that people are giving you, this imperceptible help that you're constantly getting, you now accept it. Then, once you accept it, it resonates back from you and imperceptibly helps all them and you realize it. And then it becomes mutual. It's all imperceptible. If you want to get this and understand this and conceive this, you're slipping back into selfishness. It's really important to understand this. And I just described it to you, but not so that you would conceive of it, but so that you would give up whatever conception you just got about how it works.

[28:29]

I'm telling you about this, but I'm not recommending that any of us hold to this idea. But just use this as an encouragement to realize the working process. Is this inconceivable one. The one that actually helps people. Actually lets them go. I mean like big time full scale release. It's an inconceivable one. And the one where it seems to be. which is fine, is the realm of selfishness. Selfishness. People are not released in the realm that we can think of. But to let go of the realm you can think of, you plunge into the realm of the unthinking. There you realize your support and you realize how you support. You realize it. You don't perceive it. You realize it. You make it real.

[29:32]

You don't make it an object of your thought. You give up your practice as an object of thought and you realize the practice which is the real working Buddha's compassion. This is called a little squeak, a little peek at the realm of inconceivable liberation. Just because of the schedule, basically. What's required of us is that we manage to sit free of outflows, mindful, purely mindful, Just mindful. No more, no less than that. Forgetting completely at the moment of mindfulness of Robert, forgetting completely that that mindfulness of him, especially will bring complete enlightenment to the observer.

[30:45]

I forget that. Because if I remember that, I'm not paying full attention to him. Looking at my pain. If I'm purely mindful of my pain without any gain or loss, forgetting about that mindfulness of pain will liberate me. If I forget about that, that awareness will liberate me and everything else. And that awareness is not my awareness. So we have the incomparable opportunity to sit for a few days and practice this way, and to work in the kitchen, and to clean this way, and to walk around this place in this way. That's all we're being asked to do, as far as I know.

[31:50]

But it means giving something up. And that's very hard.

[32:03]

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