and appreciate the practice of Bodhidharma. And if one looks at some of the pictures of Bodhidharma, One notices that the picture often has a beard, which is not necessarily natty, somewhat of a scruffy. He has wrinkles on his forehead and a little bit of hair around the face. But in a way, he looks like a fairly ordinary, grumpy old man, but at the same time seems to be thoroughly what he is, whatever that is.

[01:07]

So thoroughly human that he doesn't know who he is. so thoroughly human that he realized vast emptiness and that there's nothing holy. Everything's free of such categories. It comes at the beginning of our practice period, towards the beginning of it, because he sets the tone of Zen practice years across the Yangtze and went to Shaolin which means little forest and sat coolly silent and still facing a wall for nine years

[02:22]

Facing the wall means that he sat with a mind that's like a wall. Whatever comes up, no coughing or sighing about it. No scoffing or praising. just totally cool. At the same time, cool in response and total warmth about everything. Or so what? And yet all this is buzzing around like little flies in his eyes. I just found this very tender spot on my face, sort of under my mouth, around my chin.

[03:34]

Sitting coolly, facing the wall, in silence, he completely brought up the true imperative of the Buddha way. The true imperative of selfless practice. of a practice which you can't do, I can't do, a practice which is inconceivable and inconceivably identical with inconceivable liberation. We would like to means you practice giving away your conception of your practice. It doesn't mean you don't have a conception of practice. You can have a conception of your practice, that's all right, but you give it away. You give away your conception, which means you drop your body.

[04:39]

In Bodhidharma's practice, you practice without holding on to your idea of what your practice is. A modern Zen teacher says you take it off and set it down next to your oriole. And it can sit there thinking about, you know, he practices this and practices that. Fine. Your practice, in the meantime, is your practice. It's not what you think of it. Not what I think of it. to let your practice be your practice, you have a mind like a wall. With a mind like a wall, that way you enter the Buddha way. This is Bodhidharma's imperative, which he teaches us by not saying anything and just sitting, just being Bodhidharma.

[05:52]

That's how he taught it. When you sit with no expectation, not trying to get anything from your practice, having given up yourself and all your concerns, when you sit like that for one period, that is one period of Buddha. That is one Since you've given away yourself and all ideas of practice, however, you don't know it's one period of Buddha or one period of Nirvana. It just is one period. This is the faith. This is the faith. This is Bodhidharma's faith. This is Dogen's faith.

[06:53]

This is Siddhartha's faith. This is Buddha's faith. Not faith in something. It's the faith of Buddha. To practice whatever practice you practice without any attachment to attainment is the prajna of the Mahayana. This mind which is free of attainment, without any concern for attainment, is a mind which is free of itself. Free of all expectations, free of all marks of realization. We call this in Zen, no mind and no thought.

[07:56]

And no mind and no thought have no characteristics by which to recognize it. With this Buddha mind of no thought, you can stand in inconceivable practice, you can sit in inconceivable practice, and you can tolerate inconceivable liberation and realize Such a practice is exactly enlightenment, is exactly nirvana. No difference. But a practice with the tiniest bit of selfishness still involved magically blocks our true nature, creates a magical In other words, people seem to have a mind of attainment rather than the mind without attainment.

[09:06]

The thing, the spirit, which needs to be given up out in front so you can see more people who need to give up. For example, in giving, If you give with some idea that you're giving something to somebody, a you, that a self is giving something to another self or another being, that process of giving may help you be aware of the self. Once you're aware of the self, then you can give it away. To give away the self before you realize what it is that you're giving away may be but not realistic. So if you give something and feel some sense of loss or regret, wanting it back or wanting something back for it, like fame for being generous,

[10:24]

Giving the self away is nirvana. Giving that self that popped up there and felt angry at not getting a thank you back for the gift. Being totally devoted to the welfare of others before yourself, hoping that others will become happy and free and get the highest welcome. If you really get into that, it may flush out or expose the self, which then again, once it's cleared, then you've got it, then you give it away. Donate this self. And particularly donate the selfishness around it. And they were very suspicious of this.

[11:32]

But I think the problem was that they were aware that without taking care of yourself, there's some dishonesty to practicing a way that doesn't take care of the self. So in some sense, the people I was talking to were in some sense awake to the fact that you need to take care of yourself because if you don't, you're going to be kind of by this Giving away yourself has to be done in such a way that you're very kind to yourself while you're giving it away. And you're very kind to yourself as you let go of all selfish concerns. Slushing out your selfishness and then beating yourself up for it until you let go of it.

[12:48]

But When it's fleshed out, be very kind and gentle. And the way to be kind and gentle with it that we're recommending here is not be kind and gentle in an individual way, but in a bodhidharma way. Just clearly observe the selfishness. Don't stick your head in it. Don't scoff at it. Don't snarl at it. Don't chuckle at it. Maybe chuckling is a little more game, but basically be right with it. That's really the kind way to deal with it. Understand that the selfishness is a little raw when exposed because it used to be hiding under a rock, keeping it in a safe place. So when it actually gets out in the open, it's feeling vulnerable and raw. Don't rush in and smother it with affection. Don't kick it out the door. Just stay upright with it and it will get used to the cool breeze of reality.

[13:53]

Then when it's sitting there, all kind of comfortable in the midst of the vulnerability, then just let it drop off. It will if you handle it in this wall-like way. But it's very hard when there's vulnerable things out there you want to slip into. Well, now what? Where should we go next? What's going to happen? All that stuff's happening very intensely. Somebody wants to know who's taking care of the situation. What's going to happen to me? So at that time, you stay close to it. Don't abandon it. For reasons, for selfish reasons, we have abandoned our selfishness.

[15:05]

We have rejected our selfishness, and therefore our selfishness runs the show. Because we have abandoned it, it's become a power monger. If we would let it out and not abandon it, but stay close to it without doing anything, it will gradually switch from power to love. And in that loving relationship, it will drop off. self-concern. And again, in this intimate work of finding this mind like a wall, perhaps the most tempting distraction, again, is the reason for doing it.

[16:11]

Whereas the reason for his mind like a wall is as the way to... So that getting the Buddha way, then again, will be the most tempting distraction from doing the work of entering the Buddha way. getting some merit, attainment or enlightenment and liberation will be the most tempting distraction. This practice we have is so well suited for this kind of practice. The practice we have here in Tassajara literally is so suitable for actual Zen practice. In the literal, of you coming in here and sitting here and not being asked to say anything during meditation.

[17:19]

All the talk you do to yourself is optional. Optional and not even prohibited. Optional and allowed. That practice is so close that people occasionally It's so close to the actual practice of just sitting here with no idea of attainment. Just sitting here without trying to get anything. What you're usually doing is so close to sitting without trying to get anything. Many of you often notice that going to the zendo you probably won't get anything. You look forward, if you think of the next period, you realize you might not get anything out of that period. It might be uncomfortable, it might be comfortable, but it's possible you won't get much out of it.

[18:23]

And therefore, it's not that attractive. Of course, it's also not that attractive to not go in considering that you might, perhaps someone might not approve it or something. in order to explain the reason you didn't go. But you could tell the truth and say, the reason why I didn't go this period was because I realized that I wasn't going to get anything, and I did not want to go up there and spend my time not getting anything. Periods like that. At least this one I didn't need. I'd rather read a book, and I know at least I'll get something out of that. to actually go into a situation where you know you might not get much. Now, some of you might practice here that give you something, in which case then you might be salivating at the idea of coming up here.

[19:28]

But to come here with the suspicion or awareness that you might not gain anything from the next session, and to come and sit there in the middle of that, and actually let it be the case that you didn't get anything, that's virtually enlightenment. And it is exactly enlightenment if you completely settle with that non-gaining of time and the selfish point of view. Not only is it a total waste of time from what you're going to get, but on top of that, it might be uncomfortable. Discomfort has perhaps, again, the possible benefit of distracting you from the fact that you're not getting anything out of it, and just the heroic survival of the difficulty. But really, the combination of the two is often the case.

[20:39]

Actually, it's hard, just physically difficult, to be still in the midst of the more difficult thing of not getting anything. But again, that way. I don't get anything. But the practice gets to be practiced. The practice is practiced for the sake of the practice. Bodhidharma practice is then alive in this world. Of all places, right? At the place of a selfish person. So if one wants to practice any kind of meditation technique, that's fine if you can practice it without any sense of gaining anything from it.

[21:53]

Once again, if you do some kind of practice with a sense of gain and you and you have some idea of who it is that's gaining something, then just try to bring that self out in front and give that self away. Talk to generosity and use the thing that you give away, being the one. The technique, the meditation technique, may continue to go on, but there'll be nobody there then, maybe, concerned with whether it works or doesn't or makes anybody better or worse. It's also possible that the one who's concerned for gain will pop right back and then you have to bring it out in front and give it away again and so on, that you have to keep giving it away moment after moment, that it keeps popping up again and again. That's fairly likely. And one more thing.

[23:01]

And one more thing. And one more thing. is that when we're in the realm of inconceivable liberation, when you're in that realm, there's no self in there. Like I said a few times, when you come into the Dhamma realm, this Dhamma realm here, you check yourself at the door. In both senses of the word check, you check yourself and then you check it at the cloakroom and come in. There's no self in here. But then there is sometimes a, what do you call it, a kind of like a jumping out of the Dharma realm or getting up on sort of the lip of the cauldron of the Dharma realm, sort of jump up on the edge.

[24:28]

stand on the edge, or just jump over out of it a little bit, and you say something like, well, now what? Or so what? And at that point, if you enter into some kind of explanation to this one, you're just carrying on more discussion in the, as you say, in the weeds, which is not, sometimes it's necessary. Sometimes you have to talk to other people out there. But with yourself, if you enter into a dialogue with that, you stay, you've just, you've gotten out and you're staying out. You're continuing to be exiled from this realm of selflessness. to not reject that question, those questions, to not reject them, to listen to them, to hear them, and not to praise them and entertain them.

[25:37]

You stay in the realm of inconceivable liberation. You stay, I mean, you continue to be present in it. But it's sometimes difficult to tell whether you should, again, cough at it or sigh. Cough at it, scoff at it, and push it away. Or it's, oh, you take care of the topic. You have to be very careful there. Again, stay upright with those comments. You don't leave the seat of awakening. These conversations may arise intensely around a real living presence with selflessness.

[26:44]

All around selflessness are these debates. And so to respond to them respectfully, respond to them like you would probably respond to meeting Bodhidharma before he started saying anything to you. Just that you'd be present and you wouldn't lean into them too much, maybe. You wouldn't shrink back. You might try to stay upright and present with them. Treat these potentially distracting questions and comments on selfless practice, treat them like Buddhas. Because in a sense, they're Buddhas. They're testing your resolve saying, good, good, good. Are you sure you want to do this practice? You know where this is going to lead you, don't you?

[27:46]

Are you sure you want to, you know, take on the responsibility for the Buddha way? Now, they may sound like demons, too, you know, but the point is you should treat the demons, which are the same as you would a Buddha, which is, you know, encouraging you and making sure you want to do it. Treat demons and Buddhas the same. From the selfless point of view, they're identical. From the selfish point of view, you may prefer demons over Buddhas or vice versa. It depends on yourself. From the selfless point of view, they're equal. We don't prefer one over the other, and we respect both as our true self. What I think I'm doing here and what I'm, I think, trying to do is enact a little bit the dynamic situation that surrounds a mind that's like a wall.

[28:59]

A mind that sits upright, silent, and still, free of its own intelligence. is surrounded by tremendous movement and noise. And the more free you are of your intelligence, intelligence comes to say, are you sure you're not becoming retarded or damaging yourself in some way? Are you sure you're not drying up neural endings by this stupid practice? The more still you are, the more it moves all around you. The more quiet you are, the noisier it gets. The greatest silence is in the middle of the full music. The greatest stillness is the center of the greatest movement. And the greatest intelligence is an intelligence which gives itself up.

[30:09]

in minute, meticulous, impeccable detail of giving up itself, of meeting all of its tremendously complex manifestations point by point in an upright, balanced way, moment after moment after moment. And so it comes to be a matter of continuity. The practice is very clear. He showed the true imperative. But to do it moment after moment, situation after situation, that's what we have practice periods for. All we're here for, from Bodhidharma's point of view. We have certain tasks to perform, but those tasks

[31:13]

are just opportunities to see if they can be performed with a mind like a wall. You sweep the ground. Can you be involved in the busyness of sweeping the ground with the unbusy mind in the middle of that sweeping? Can you take care of the sangha and prepare the meals with all while realizing a mind like a wall. And the monk sitting in his endo, tremendous busyness. All for the purpose of remembering, not forgetting this unbusy thing. Although we don't put it on the schedule or it's not assigned to you, all the selfishness which is manifested in this community is just for the purpose of real.

[32:18]

The difference between here and other places is that it's very clear what to do with it. Whereas when you're over the ridge, you're not so sure what you should do with your selfishness. Here, you can be sure that what you should do with it, meet it with a mind like a wall, which means to study it in an upright, balanced way. Do not object it. Do not indulge in it. Study this selfishness. That's certainly what we're here for as disciple of the Dharma. And again, as I was talking to someone about, the gentleness factor here in terms of dealing with stuff around your silence and around your stillness is that the chance of learning

[33:32]

under these circumstances is greatest when there is some tension, some stress in the meeting of your present stillness and silence, which you carry with you throughout the day. some tension, some stress there between that and these constantly arriving comments and suggestions of alternatives to that presence. There's some stress when learning is most likely, or when there's some stress that learning is most likely. If there's no stress, if you're just walking around this valley, present, calm, and quiet, and there's no stress, No challenge, no nothing challenging or destabilizing that presence.

[34:46]

Chances of understanding are not optimal. A little stress helps. And so coming up to you and looking at you cross-eyed, Or somebody saying something with perhaps what doesn't sound like quite enough respect in the tone of their voice. Or someone asking you to do something which doesn't make that much sense. Or makes too much sense. Or somebody maybe saying something to you with just a little bit more respect than usual. So much more that they finally, somebody's hit the right tone. And it's like finally somebody sees how great you are. The truth. These kinds of stress points are the place to learn. But part of it also is that there shouldn't be too much stress.

[35:49]

Because if there's so much stress that you lose your center, you don't learn there either. So we have to both be present and unmoving at the same time and challenged. No stress, the learning won't happen. Too much stress, we won't be present enough to learn. So this is also part of the gentleness. If you walk around here with no challenge, something's funny. But don't then just to make sure that everything's okay. Just accept or notice that maybe something's off. And noticing that something might be off is enough of a stress. Noticing that you might be a phony is enough of a stress. Maybe I'm just faking it, pretending to be practicing it. The thought is probably enough stress. Or someone else might respectfully whisper in your ear, maybe you're a phony. That might be enough stress.

[36:52]

Or maybe that's too much stress. Maybe too much. So maybe you shouldn't whisper that in somebody else's ear unless it's really stable. But when they're really stable and really strong and really firm in their presence, then it might just pop. And, you know, lovingly, you know, lovingly, all this pop right out of you. Bodhidharma suddenly has inhabited your body. And it's come to say that. Just like, what is his name? Da Wu said to Yin Men, brother, you're too busy. But, you could handle it. Came right back. You should know there's one who's not busy here. Lovingly, whisper in the ear and lovingly, oh, thank you.

[37:56]

Well, I have something to say to you too. Lovingly of each other's comments, being present and using the stress to realize compassion and friendship and selfless identity. But not too much. and total imperturbable composure that's being questioned, that's being encouraged to come out and play. Nobody else can do your imperturbable presence. That's your job. to walk around with a mind free of attainment. That's your job, to be willing to be like that.

[38:58]

Detachment. You may have something to offer to a friend. A friend may have something to offer to you. That brings this non-attainment-oriented mind. It brings this mind like a wall into flower. It brings the flowers sprouting out of the wall. But the basis of the Zen flower is this radically simple, settled, stillness, silence, inconceivable selflessness. That's the ground, unsettled completely on the mind. You've got the mind, now completely settle with it. And then we'll come and help you, won't we? naturally, spontaneously, will interact with you. And then through that interaction, you can see it. So listen to this story.

[40:02]

It sounds tough and strict, like Bodhidharma example. But somehow I feel very optimistic and hesitation at wasting another period of our life. And yet, knowing that that smell, that feeling, has been shared probably by so many millions of Zen monks over the centuries. But this flower is a special flower. It has no characteristics. This flower has no characteristics. by which it can be recognized. Therefore, it can be anything. Which means that what is happening right now is rare.

[41:03]

It never happened before and never will happen again. It's very clear. It's hard to do. So all I would need to do now is just reminders. And for those of you, reminders. I don't know what. I need a reminder. And for those of you who are remembering, all I would need to do would just be to, you know, toss the ball to you occasionally as you practice. Just toss your ball. You understand what I mean? All I got to do is interact with you. I don't have to tell you anything more. about Bodhidharma's practice, because you understand that, right? But you might forget, so I'd be happy to remind you. But basically, there's not much more to say. Just give yourself away. That's it. What about confirmation from a teacher about one's own enlightenment?

[42:11]

Isn't that a what? Well, what I would say is that until you've been confirmed by a master, you won't have as much confidence as if you were confirmed by a master. If you have some confidence in your practice, like let's say A lot of confidence is going along really well. You can have more confidence if another practitioner whom you really respect confirms it. But the confirmation is confirmation. In this case, the confirmation is you are confirming your freedom from attaining confirmation. That's what's been confirmed. If you're trying to get confirmation, then the person who you need to meet will help you become aware of your attempt to get confirmation.

[43:28]

And then if you become aware again of your attempt to get confirmation and drop that, you will realize inconceivable liberation. Then, in order to deepen your confidence in such a practice in such a way, it would be good if you could do that inconceivable liberation thing with somebody else. So then you bring your not wanting to get confirmation to meet somebody, and you get confirmation. Can you do it with someone else? So, when the Buddha sat under the bow tree and saw the morning star and realized that all beings have the Buddha nature, the Buddha was no longer, at that moment, caught up in any selfish concern.

[44:39]

And the Buddha was not really a Buddha yet, though. But he was liberated from selfish concern. But he became a Buddha, or I should say, he became completely confident in the Dharma, when he met another person and interacted with them, and they woke up with him. Then he became part of a Buddha to Buddha conversation. And in that conversation, the Dharma was realized, exhaustively understood. But this level of interaction happens after, you know, personal transcendence of gain or transcendence of personal gain. And it's possible to have as much transcendence of personal gain as you can have by yourself to reach the top of the line of abandoning selfish concern that a person can do by herself.

[45:54]

And when you've reached that point, then you meet somebody else and get deeper or wider. like a room with a mirror in it seems twice as big. Or there's ways of transcending your transcendence, and you need others to transcend your transcendence. Well? If you've got yourself out in front there, let's say it's conveniently located out in front, it's a nice place to have it. It's usually in the back. Let's say somehow it's, for whatever reason, you've been practicing sincerely enough, you've demonstrated gentleness enough, so the self dares to come out in view, expose itself, and you let it sit there, you know, and you don't smash it or anything. But you notice that even though it's out in front, you still have some preference for it.

[47:03]

You're still kind of concerned for its survival. There's a little bit too much involvement or concern here. It isn't just a self is a self, and therefore not a self. It isn't that you right through it. No, you kind of think there's something there, and you care about it. And you care about it more than most things in the neighborhood. And moving, a lot of other things can move around and you don't mind, but when you move that thing a little bit, you notice a big deal for you. You feel this, now that you're out there, you feel the attachment and the concern, you know? Like a little speck of dust or a little scratch on this little thing makes a big difference to you. So you can, you got it out there and you're feeling this concern, you know? Okay? Now, if you gave it away, All the concern. So you can just say, okay, I'll give it away.

[48:07]

Here, bye-bye. Now, did that work? Are you like, now, look, there's a self, there's not the self all around it, and I feel the same about the self and not the self? It looks like you've been successful in giving it away. That's what it's like. In other words, relief. Big time relief. No special high density concern around this thing anymore. It's now like your energy is open and clear about everything. And the self's out there too. You didn't smash it out of existence either. The gentleness and honoring it got it out to expose itself. The being willing to live with the knowledge that you're selfish has allowed you If you cannot tolerate being selfish, if you were told big time that you're a selfish kid and got punished for it so much, you're probably not going to easily admit that you're selfish now.

[49:12]

But I'm here rooting for you to admit it, you know? And I'm telling you some confidence that there's some other people rooting for you to do that too. Big names, you know? And if necessary, I'll start name-dropping heavily to encourage you to let it out, to admit what's always been there. You were just a little shaver, and you were told not to be that way. And so you said, okay, well, if you don't want me to be that way, well, I'll pretend not to be that way. But after a while, you forgot the little joke you played. So now, let it out. And when it's out there, It's the gentleness which is going to let it be out there. Now, once you're gently, I got it out there. Now, just when you're ready, when you're ready, don't be ahead of time. Don't rush yourself. It's an urgent matter to let go of this thing, but don't rush. If you rush, there'll be a backlash.

[50:16]

So, sometimes you'll rush, you get a backlash, you But don't just lay back and go to sleep and say, no problem. There's an urgency to do this. If you don't do this pretty soon, you're going to miss your chance. Pretty soon means before you die. But also, I would say as far as possible ahead of when you die. Because if you wait until you die and you have Alzheimer's and stuff like that, it's not going to be so easy to do it. Because when you have that, you can't feel the intensity of this concern. So while you're still strong and healthy and you can feel all your tremendous youthful energy wrapped around this thing, Now is the time to start admitting it. Because now you can really feel the difference between heavy-duty concern and none. Or anyway, unprejudiced concern. It's not like none. You're not prejudiced. You're concerned for yourself like you're concerned for others. So we say concerned for others first to get a feeling for what it's like to be concerned for self equally. So, when you got it out there, now

[51:19]

But straightforwardly, just give it away. Did it work? Did it disperse that pattern of tension? Did the charge come off it? If you think it did, then tell others about how the charge has come off it. And you'll know how to do it. kinds of creative ways because it doesn't matter how you tell others once the charge is off. You can do it stupidly, childishly, arrogantly. You can say, hey, guess what happened to me? I just had this great thing. I just dropped myself. What do you think of that? You can do it like that if you want to, but you might not do it that way. You might do it really sweetly like, guess what just happened? Relieved and lightened up. That's me now. Hi, me, light, light, light me. What is it? Meg Light. Hi, hi. Who knows how you'll do it? The point is, you don't know anymore how you do it, except you don't want to hurt people.

[52:23]

That's all. So you do it gently in a way that they might be able to enjoy. Say, oh, I'm going to offer my self-liberation to you. Here's a little gift for you today. Guess what happens? This isn't like sort of brag. I just want you to know. Part of this is what I want you to know. What do you think of it? And maybe the person will scoff at you or cough at you or sigh at you. Maybe that will happen. And maybe that won't bother you at all. And that would be a confirmation. Oh, wow, that's great, you know. They totally put me down and it hurts. It hurts when they put me down, but it's not like, it hurts me like it would hurt anybody. I mean, it hurts me like it would hurt somebody else who heard them say that. It's the same. No different. Then that's how you... In other words, you'd be free. You want to. In other words, you could be yourself. Once you've given yourself away, you can be yourself.

[53:28]

Before you give yourself away, you can't be yourself. You won't let yourself be yourself because you're always selfishly concerned about how to present yourself to optimize your game. So then you're always blocked and stuck and tense and planning and calculating, hung up and miserable. When you're free of it, you can be you, whatever that happens to be at the moment. which is constantly changing. We welcome this. You're welcome to be this way. Please, come forward. Yes? What about attempting enlightenment for others? Please. But it's the same thing. Attempting enlightenment for others means practicing the way for the sake of the way.

[54:35]

This self attempting to practice the way of enlightenment for the sake of others. This self attempting to be selfless for the sake of others. That's right. Selflessly practicing means practicing for others. Practicing for others means selflessly practicing. Selflessly practicing is enlightenment. On what? Am I encouraging you to do that? I would encourage you to realize that you're constantly giving people feedback about how they're living their lives. You're always doing that. You're always doing that. They never don't give you feedback.

[55:44]

If they're slow? If they're slow, they're giving you feedback on your patient's practice. What'd you say? If it was a serious question. Pardon? If my question was a serious question about whether you would want it to come. What do you mean? I didn't feel like you were unseriously asking that question or that it was an unserious question. But I answered it the way I answered it. The way I answered it was point out to you that you do give feedback to everybody all the time. You ask me if you should. You ask me if you shouldn't. And I told you, you are already doing x nonstop. Don't jump to more than what I said. First of all, I'm telling you that what you asked about, you're already doing.

[56:52]

That's my first thing I said to you. You are already doing it. You give me feedback whenever I practice. Whenever you meet me, you get feedback on your practice. Whenever you see anybody, that's feedback on your practice, because what you see is your practice. If you see a bunch of jerks in this valley, that's feedback on your practice. That means your practice is very sick. It's not totally cool. At that moment, your practice has just been told something. Your practice is off. When you see Buddhas everywhere, that's a comment on your practice. Okay? You simultaneously are walking around here giving feedback to everybody on their practice. When they see you, how they see you, then they see their practice. That's already going on. First, let's work... You asked me, should you do blah, blah, blah? Should you give people explicit feedback on their practice? But before you get on to what you want to talk about, in other words, you asked me about doing...

[57:55]

Number stage number two, without mentioning stage number one. I'm one first. Number one is you're already giving feedback and already getting feedback. Take care of all that. And when you're taking care of all that, then we can talk about other kinds of feedback. When you're really seeing somebody, when somebody comes up to you, you see that's feedback on your practice. And they're into seeing your feedback on their practice, then you might have something to say. For example, you might say, would you like some feedback on your practice? And in fact, it happened. And then you might say, well, actually, there was this particular kind of feedback. In addition to the one you just got, I wondered if you'd like. And they might say, well, what is it? You say, but then I'll be giving it to you. And they might say, okay, I'm ready. Let's have it. You say, well, you've got a problem in this area. You might say to them, you say, Cool, thanks.

[58:58]

But this should be coming from somebody who's getting feedback from the other person on her practice watch every moment of the way. You don't walk up to somebody not getting feedback as you walk up. I go up to her. One step, feedback. Another step, feedback. I'm getting feedback as I approach the person. The feedback is, I don't want to talk to you. And I think, now, gee, what kind of a practice do I have? This person doesn't even want to talk to me as I approach. Well, of course, easy to switch over to what kind of practices she had that she doesn't want to talk to. She doesn't want to talk to me because she's angry, arrogant, unappreciative, and deluded. That's why when I walk up to her, she gives me this message like, stay away. If she knew who I really was, she'd be saying, well, please come and give me feedback. You know? No, no, it's the other way around. What is it about my practice that's causing this person and starting to tense up? Why is their smile becoming very kind of like stiff and kind of ironic?

[60:10]

What's happening here? And if I approach in that way, I don't really necessarily have that much to say. I've got plenty of work on myself. Now, could I ever not comment on somebody else's practice after all that? Maybe. I could say, well, now I've arrived. Here I am. And I've just gone through all this stuff about, you know, my practice in meeting you. And I think there was something I wanted to talk to you about. What was it? Well, I can't remember. Oh, that one. Yeah, I remember what it was. And you still might have something to say. And then you start all over again. your job is to get feedback, and you're receiving it all the time, then you're a good person to give feedback. You're already a good person to give feedback, even if you're not receiving any feedback. Even if you don't know you're receiving feedback, you're giving people feedback already.

[61:15]

It's happening all the time. But something specific, tell somebody verbally, And that's very questionable whether you should do that. But sometimes it's very helpful. But it should be a dance that the other person wants to do. Meantime, you've got a tremendous amount to work with. If you walk up to somebody and they have this look in their face like, I'd love to get some feedback from you, please give me some feedback. And then that's a person you might feel a request from. And you might say, you know, like, you want some feedback from me. Is that right? And they say, please. You say, well, on what do you want me to give you feedback on? Well, you know, Hans, I wanted feedback from Suzuki. So he gave it to me sometimes. And when he gave it to me, it wasn't necessarily positive or negative.

[62:19]

I just felt like I wanted him to give me feedback. Whatever he gave me, I always felt was kind. But that's because I wanted it. The nature of my practice was with that person, I wanted feedback. And he saw that and gave it to me. Sometimes people come to me, and officially speaking, they say, please give me feedback. They think they're supposed to say that. But I don't feel like they mean it. And they kind of like to say, no, please give me feedback. And I say, OK, OK. I won't. Other people could come in and say, OK, I will. It's in the heart. If the person's open, they want to use the relationship to know themselves. If a person's close to you, that tells you about your practice,

[63:22]

and tells you about how to respond to it. But first of all, you've got to be present with what's happening with you in order to appreciate what you're already doing. You're already giving each other feedback. You're already giving people feedback. They're already giving you feedback. If you would just take up residence with this mind like a wall, you will enter into that dance which is already going on. And then once you realize we're already jumping rope together, then we back and forth too. But if you don't know we're already jumping rope together, if you don't know what's going on and you start tossing balls to people, they're going to trip on the rope that they don't realize they're jumping. Do you understand? Because we're already doing something fairly complicated together. And if you introduce something else without realizing it, you won't be able to handle it. But if you know what we're already doing, then you can throw another element into it, and we can do that together.

[64:29]

So much is going on already. Let's sit down and see what that is. Sit down and see what's happening. Okay, now, now, one, two, three, hello, India. He told by his teacher, the teacher said, Don't go visit the emperor. When you go to China, stay away from the emperor. Stay away from powerful people and politicians. Don't go near there. So there he is, meeting the emperor. And the emperor, who's a big Buddhist patron, asking this visitor, what's the highest meaning of the holy truth? There's a lot going on there. The Buddha is trying to be present. The emperor is trying to be present. but they can't really dance in a way that the emperor understands that they're dancing. Bodhidharma tried, but even though he was a great master, he couldn't get the emperor to dance in a way that the emperor said, hey, this is fun, dancing with Bodhidharma.

[65:38]

No, he couldn't get it. Then later he heard, you know, that Bodhidharma was Avalokiteshvara, and he said, oh, I missed that one. That would have been great to dance with Bodhisattva, infinite compassion manifesting right here in my face. as this scruffy little guy. I missed it. Too bad. Did Bodhidharma give the emperor feedback? No, he just said, I don't know, and left. But he went up there, and he gave the emperor feedback by sitting there, showing the emperor how the emperor could meet him. If the emperor would sit like that, then he and Bodhidharma could dance. So since we don't have any pictures of Bodhidharma dancing, I guess you're going to have to be the picture of Bodhidharma dancing. You're going to have to show the world what it's like when Bodhidharma moves. This is really funny, because meeting the emperor, you can't just really chuckle at ease.

[66:42]

It's kind of funny, you know, but you have to kind of like be careful and sort of be a little bit careful. You can't just like, oh, you might get in trouble. You can do it, but there might be consequences. It's not like this is just, you know, totally safe situation. So see how he played it, Boidana, like he didn't like totally like lie. He told the truth, and yet he also was watching the rules of decorum. See, it's not like just do whatever you want. There's indulgence in whim. It's finding your true expression in the situation. So it's tough. It doesn't always work, so it didn't work in this day. There are misses. That's part of the thing, which we will see. We will now. But we can still be in the game, even though we're missing a game of meeting in this kind of .

[67:53]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_85.61