Paying Respect to the Great Teacher
Welcome! You can log in or create an account to save favorites, edit keywords, transcripts, and more.
Wait. Oh. Just stop. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Recently, I was standing on the earth in the mountains.
[01:15]
I was waiting to go to the meditation hall of the monastery. And the person attending me said, Where does it say that if there's prostrations in the world, there's buddhadharma in the world? And if prostrations cease in the world, buddhadharma ceases in the world. And I said, I think that's in the Treasury of True Dharma Eyes.
[02:17]
The chapter called Dharani. Dharani. Later I thought, maybe I'll go read that chapter in the Treasury of True Dharma Eyes. Because Treasury of True Dharma Eyes is a text of many essays by Ehe Koso, the person whose Va we just chanted. So I read the chapter. I started reading the chapter. And today I'd like to tell you about this chapter of the Treasury of True Dharma Eyes. Dharani often is translated as a spell or an incantation.
[03:38]
It's something that's proclaimed. It's like a proclamation with the hopes and confidence that this proclamation will have some great benefit. So, for example, we often chant the Dharani of Great Compassion. Dai He Shin Dharani. Who just came? Who just came in the room? Oh, welcome. Christine. Huh? What? Pardon? Maria. Maria, sorry, Maria. It wasn't the Anointed One, it was the Anointed One's mother. So we make this proclamation of Great Compassion in hopes to realize Great Compassion, in hopes that it will come to be.
[05:03]
So at the beginning of this essay, it says something like, Those who have clear eyes of practice have clear eyes of Dharma. Those who have clear eyes for the practice and study have clear eyes for truth. And those who have clear eyes for truth have a clear eye of practice. Can you see the pivot here? There's a pivot between eyes that are clear about the practice and eyes that are clear about the truth. Eyes that are clear about the truth, eyes that are clear about practice.
[06:06]
So there's a pivot between the eye of practice and the eye of truth. And there's a pivot about whether there's the eye of the truth pivoting into the eye of practice or the eye of practice pivoting into the eye of truth. So I see a pivot there. And then the ancestor Ehe Koso says, The authentic transmission of this pivot is inevitably due to the influence of paying respects to a great good teacher. Which is the great purpose itself and the great Dharani itself.
[07:08]
The great purpose is the realization of this pivot. And the realization of this pivot is the Dharani. Another translation is that the authentic transmission of this essence. This pivot is also called the essence. The essence is where the eye of practice and the eye of truth are living. The essence. The character can mean pivot, hub, essence, essential, necessary. So another translation would be the authentic transmission of the essence is due to the power of prostration. Prostration is what led me to this chapter.
[08:24]
So the character means both prostration, the term is prostration, but also paying respects. A traditional way of paying respects in India and other parts of East Asia is by prostration. Prostration to what? Prostration to what? To the great teacher. Prostration to the great teacher.
[09:42]
There is a wonderful instruction about how to do prostrations to one's teacher. How to do prostrations in sort of the literal sense of joining the palms and bowing down and touching your head to the ground before your teacher. And there is a dynamic here, another pivot between your teacher and the great teacher. Your teacher in one sense is a created phenomena, a human being maybe.
[10:47]
But the great teacher is not just a created phenomena, a human being. But your teacher and the great teacher are not really completely different and they are not completely the same. But there has to be some way to express your respect. There has to be some way to express the prostration to the great teacher. And the human teacher, the limited teacher, the form teacher, the manifest teacher is an opportunity to pay your respects. You can also stand on the ground and just pay your respects with no one around to the great teacher. You can prostrate yourself by going down and touching your head to the earth to the great teacher without a human teacher nearby.
[11:49]
And then our great ancestor Ehe Koso says, Thus, bringing tea and making tea is the pivot of mind. Or, thus, bringing tea and making tea realizes the pivot of mind, or the essence of mind. And this bringing tea and making tea refers to some stories. Some stories from ancient China. Would you like to hear them? Yes. Good. The first story is about a man who we call Lung Tan.
[13:13]
We being we in this tradition. Lung Tan, which means dragon pond or dragon swamp. One of the most delightful Zen stories features dragon pond in the role of the teacher. The story that is being referred to here is the story of dragon pond before he was a teacher, when he was a young person. So I could tell you the stories about dragon pond when he was a teacher and then go to dragon pond the boy, the child.
[14:16]
Or I could tell you the stories of dragon pond the child and then go to dragon pond the teacher. Which way? Should we go? Teacher first. Teacher first? You were going to say? The opposite. The opposite. How many people want to hear the child and then the adult? How many people want to hear the adult and then the child? Undecided. Undecided. How about both of them side of things? The child contains the adult, the adult contains the child. May I tell you that I just recently heard the story of Lung Tan when he was a child.
[15:20]
Previously I heard the story of Lung Tan, the adult Zen master. And when I heard the story of his childhood, there is something about the story of his adulthood that gave me another possible perspective on him and the great story about him. So, I think actually I will take you on the tour that I went on. And then you can have the little surprise that I had. Or maybe you won't, but you can hear about my surprise. So, I heard the story about, it actually was a story about, it starts out to be a story about another monk who finally became a disciple of Lung Tan.
[16:37]
And this monk's name was Dasan, which means virtuous mountain. He was a Buddhist monk and he was a very committed and enthusiastic scholar of the Diamond Sutra. Of perfect wisdom. He read the Sutra and many commentaries. Maybe he even wrote commentaries. And then he heard about a school of Buddhism, which came to be called Zen school, where they were said to propose that you could directly realize Buddha without dependence on the scriptures. Without dependence or relying on, for example, the Diamond Sutra.
[17:43]
He became incensed about this, thought it was really heretical or something like that. And he determined to go to where the Zen people were and, I don't know what the word is, anyway, refute them, if I may. But refuting sometimes can be rather devastating in the land of theological assertion. In India, if somebody had a certain view on a theological matter and you debated them, and they lost the debate, they had to turn their clothes inside out and become your disciple. So in India you could walk around and force people to give up their religion if they would debate you. There was maybe a pre-debate agreement. We say, if I win, you become my disciple. If you win, I become your disciple.
[18:49]
In China it wasn't quite like that, but a little bit. So he was going to go down there and interact with these Zen people. So there he was, tromping through the mountains of China. And on his way into the Zen territory, he comes upon a refreshment stand. And the refreshments that they serve, we call in Cantonese, we call these refreshments, Dim Sun. Dim Sun is Cantonese for Tian Xin. Which means, dot the heart, dot the mind. Which means, refresh the mind, refresh the heart. That's what Dim Sun means.
[19:52]
These little refreshments that perk you up on Sunday morning. He comes upon the stand with the intention of getting some refreshments. And the proprietor of the stand is, I think often said to be, a somewhat elderly woman. And she says to him, what's in your backpack, reverend sir, reverend priest? And he says, it's the Diamond Sutra of Perfect Wisdom and many commentaries. I am a great scholar, or I'm a scholar of these things. And she said, oh, well, I have a special deal for you. I'll ask you a question about the Diamond Sutra. I happen to know a little bit about it. I'll ask you a question about the Diamond Sutra.
[20:56]
If you answer it, I'll give you free refreshment. If you don't, you're not going to get any refreshment. The guy says, fine, go ahead. She says, in the Diamond Sutra it says, present mind cannot be grasped, cannot be apprehended. Future mind cannot be grasped, past mind cannot be grasped. Did I say present first? That's good. Reverend priest, with what mind will you refresh yourself? What mind will be refreshed? And the great scholar had no answer. And she said, well, that's it then. I recommend to you that you go see somebody who lives over this mountain.
[22:05]
His name is Dragon Pond. So he goes to see Dragon Pond. And when he gets to Dragon Pond, he goes into the hall. He looks around and he says, I've long heard of Dragon Pond. Now that I'm here, I see no dragon and no pond. And then Dragon Pond steps out from behind a screen and said, thus you have truly arrived at Dragon Pond. Dushan was allowed to stand in attendance with Luangtaan until late that night.
[23:14]
And finally Luangtaan said, it's getting late, you should go. Dushan went to the door, raised the curtain, looked out and said, it's dark. Luangtaan brought him a lantern, handed it to him, and as he handed it to him, he blew it out. And Dushan was illuminated. The next morning he burned all his commentaries and said, I will never again doubt these Zen guys. Dushan became a principal disciple of Luangtaan.
[24:22]
And Dushan had a disciple named Shui Feng. And Shui Feng had two disciples, one named Yun Men and the other Fa Yan. And the Yun Men school is one of the most important schools of Chinese Zen, and the Fa Yan is another. So this interaction between Dushan and Luangtaan transmitted this pivot of mind, which is the great Dharani, which is the great matter of the Buddha Dharma, to transmit this mind, this mind that sees the practice and sees the truth.
[25:27]
Luangtaan transmitted it in this way, in that intimate meeting. Now, when Luangtaan was young, he happened to live near a teacher named Tian Hua Dao Wu. Tian Hua Dao, Tian Hua, no, Tian Huang, Tian Huang Dao Wu. Tian Huang lived near the entrance of a monastery called Tian Huang, which is why it's called Tian Huang. Didn't say that he was an abbot, but somehow he was a great master that lived near this monastery. And when Luangtaan was young, he lived in a family, and the business of the family was, and this is the kicker, the business of the family was cakes, refreshments.
[26:37]
Luangtaan grew up in a cake-selling family, and he used to bring, maybe on a daily basis, he used to bring ten cakes to Tian Huang Dao Wu. For some reason or other he brought these, he made these offerings to this monk. For some reason he paid his respects to this monk. And every time he did, the monk Dao Wu kept, set aside one cake. And after some time the boy said, how come you always set aside one cake for my descendants?
[27:43]
He said, I have lots of cakes. And Dao Wu said, well, since you have lots of cakes, it wouldn't do any harm if I set one aside, would it? And the boy had some understanding, and decided to leave home and study with the person who he had already been prostrating himself to, by bringing him these cakes. The prostration process was going on in the form of bringing cakes. The transmission of the pivot of mind, the transmission of the essential heart, had already started. He is questioning. He is coming to the teacher, the teacher is setting aside cakes. He is asking the teacher. The teacher tells him he understands something, and he decides to move in to study with the teacher.
[28:46]
After some time, the boy says to the teacher, I have been with you for some time now, but you don't teach me anything. About what? About the pivot of mind. You haven't taught me about the pivot of mind. You haven't taught me about the essential heart. Dao Wu, the teacher says, all the time you've been here, and I might add, since the first time I met you, I have done nothing but proclaim the essential pivot to you.
[29:51]
And the boy says, the boy Lung Tom says, well how have you been doing that? And Lung Tom said, when you bring me cakes, didn't I receive them? When you make me tea, don't I receive it? When you come and bow to me, don't I lower my head? This is the transmission of, this is the proclamation of the essential heart. And the boy Lung Tom understood and became the adult person who could help the scholar become the successor in this vital lineage. So what I realized in the story, in a sense,
[31:00]
was that he then became teaching and he had all his family members then set up stands around the temple. So when people came by, his family members would test their understanding and unless they were enlightened, they would be sent, if they were enlightened, they would be given refreshments and they could go on. But if they weren't, they would have to go see Lung Tom. So he had his sisters and his cousins and his aunts stationed all around in the mountains to catch the fish and send them to the dragon pond. Now, I haven't heard anybody else make this point but me, but this is my speculation. My happy speculation is that this wasn't just an accidental lady out there. She was part of the big program.
[32:04]
So here you can see, maybe you can see, here we may be able to see that this is the way the prostration was in this relationship. The prostration, the Dharani, is paying respects in many ways. The formal way is by prostration, offering incense in prostration. Another way to put it is that the way that this essential heart is transmitted is transmitted in intimacy. Intimacy of paying your respects to the teacher and the teacher receiving your respects. Paying your respects to a human teacher and have a human teacher receive your respects. As a ceremony of paying your respects to the great teacher
[33:12]
and having the great teacher receive your respects. On this little stage here, on this big beautiful planet, which actually is a very tiny little speck in the universe, a beautiful, wonderful, green-blue speck, with all kinds of beautiful beings on it. In this limited place we can act out paying our respects to the great teacher of the universe. So it says, bringing tea realizes the essential mind, the pivot of mind. It also says, making tea, bringing water, and so on, are also realizing it,
[34:13]
which refers to another story. I could tell you the story this afternoon or I could tell you now, take your choice. One now? How many nows? Lots of nows. Okay, well, here's a now. Once upon a time in China, there was a disciple of Buddha who was also called a great teacher. His name was Guishan. Actually, just Guishan. And he had two big disciples. One was called Yangshan, and Yangshan was called Little Shakyamuni in those days. And the other disciple was Xiangyan. Xiangyan. Those two disciples. I believe that's what the names were.
[35:14]
So one day, Yangshan, these disciples were his attendants also, notice how the first story, Guishan came and attended Lungtan. Lungtan previously had attended Tianhong, Tianwang, Dawu. They had an intimate relationship where the mutual respect is being expressed. Now here, Yangshan is attendant to Guishan. So Yangshan comes to Guishan, and Guishan happens to be taking a nap. So Yangshan comes in, and when he comes in, Guishan turns and faces the wall.
[36:15]
And Yangshan says, I'm your disciple, don't be formal with me. So Guishan starts to get up, by which time Yangshan has started to leave. Can you imagine that? Comes in, the teacher is taking a nap, the teacher turns, the disciple says, I'm your disciple, don't be formal with me. And then the disciple leaves. Teacher starts to get up and says, calls him by his other name, Huiji, Huiji. And so Yangshan, his name is Yangshan Huiji. Huiji comes back, and Guishan said, I want to tell you my dream.
[37:19]
And Yangshan leans forward, close to listen. And Guishan says, I want to hear your interpretation of it. And Yangshan gets up, goes away, and comes back with a basin of water and a towel for his teacher. His teacher receives the water, washes his face, and dries it with a towel. Then Xiangyan comes in. Guishan says, Welcome, we're glad you came. Yangshan and I have just been sharing miracles.
[38:28]
And Xiangyan said, I've been right next door, I saw it all, I witnessed it all, really clearly. So Guishan says, Well, now you give it a try. He gave Yangshan a chance to try. Now you give it a try. And Xiangyan then leaves and comes right back with some tea and gives it to the teacher. So the teacher says, Let's hear your understanding of my dream. One brings a bowl and a towel, the other brings tea. And then the teacher says,
[39:37]
Your wisdom and miraculous powers far surpass that of Shariputra and Mahamalgalyana. The two head monks of Shakyamuni Buddha. Shariputra was the specialist on wisdom and Mahamalgalyana was a specialist on miraculous powers. These two far surpassed them. How? By bringing water and a towel and bringing tea. By by paying their respects to the great teacher and realizing the pivot of mind. So they live together and they're interacting
[40:43]
throughout the day. Before Yangshan came in the room, he wasn't in the room. The teacher was taking a nap and there was no attendant there. But then the attendant came and the teacher turned. At that time also, Xiangyan wasn't in the room. He was nearby though. And when he heard the miraculous hubbub, he paid attention. And then when the time was right, he came in and did his thing. His prostration. His prostration was to make tea. The prostration is the interpretation of the teacher's mind, of the teacher's dream. It's the interpretation. It's your understanding. If you prostrate yourself, you will get an understanding. If you have an understanding, a correct understanding, you prostrate yourself. If you prostrate yourself, you will realize this mind. If you realize this mind,
[41:47]
you will prostrate yourself. But the prostration, as you see here, there is a formal prostration and we do practice it. But also prostration is bring tea, bring cakes, bring a basin of water, bring a towel, bring tea, bring your heartache. But bring your heartache as a prostration. Bring your heartache as a Dharani, a great Dharani that realizes the great mind. This is a miraculous, this is a miraculous possibility. Someone told me, she said, one time I heard Teya, Teya is the name of my
[42:49]
youngest daughter, she's 34. One time she walked by me not too long ago and this woman, this Zen student who is now a priest, saw her walk by me and when she walked by me she said, Hi Daddy. And when she heard that, this priest heard that, she thought, I like that. I like that, Hi Daddy. I want to try it. So she called her daddy on the telephone. Or she called her father, you might say, on her telephone. And she said, when he picked up the phone, she said, Hi Daddy. And he said, Who? He only has one daughter. He's got a bunch of sons, he has one daughter. She says, Hi Daddy. And he says, Who? And she said, Hi Daddy.
[43:52]
And he burst into laughter. Apparently it had been decades since she said, Hi Daddy. And at the end of the conversation he said, You know, it would be okay with me if you say that to me again someday. And she said to me, I guess he received my prostration. I guess he appreciated my prostration. You say, Hi Daddy. But when you say, Hi Daddy, I hope it's like paying your respects to the great teacher. Your daddy's not the great teacher. But, here's a chance to pay your respects
[44:53]
to the great teacher by saying, Hi Daddy. And she said that she received some Halloween candy from him. And in the package it said something like, Happy Halloween, Daddy. This is prostration. It's in this kind of, this is the situation in which the true mind is realized. Put on Buddha's robe, offer incense, prostration, yes, yes, and yes, and yes, and yes. Say, Hi Daddy, yes. Bring tea, yes. Bring cakes, yes. Bring water, yes. Bring your heart, yes. And always,
[45:54]
this is paying your respects to the great teacher, not for yourself, not for the teacher, but for the realization of the essence of mind, where the eye of study goes with the eye of reality. Constantly turning. And the eye of practice is very clear. The practice is to pay your respects to the great teacher. And don't let what's happening stop you. Even the most ordinary daddy gets a Hi Daddy. Even the most ordinary teacher, the most flawed teacher, you pay your respects as a way of paying your respects to the complete,
[46:56]
perfect, unsurpassed enlightenment. Don't wait to meet a perfect person until you start doing this practice. You can start this practice immediately. Just like Karen did, she brought me some tea. She brought some tea. And I received it. And I drink it. And it's a miracle. It's a miracle to drink tea. It's a miracle to, what do you say, dig holes in the ground at no abode, so we can plant native plants. You can do that here. To clean the temple, it's a miracle. To have lunch together,
[47:57]
it's a miracle. To have lunch. To pay your respects to the great teacher. So I thank my attendant for asking me that question and sending me on this journey to the land of the great Dharani, to the land of miracles. To the land of paying our respects and prostrating ourselves to the great teacher. Thank you. Do you care to make any offerings?
[49:03]
Yes? How do you see, you just spoke about relating to Dogen also saying before prostrating, offering incense, chanting. Oh, thank you, yeah. Drop away body and mind. Thank you. Thank you. I was talking about this, as you might have guessed, since it came up in the monastery, where does it say this thing about prostration. I talked to the monks down there and one of the monks asked, what about Dogen Zenji, who just said, he just said, I read anyway, he wrote, the essence of mind is realized through the influence, through the power of prostration. Through the power of offering incense
[50:06]
and prostration to the great teacher. He said that, right? In another place he says, from the first time you meet a master, without engaging in incense offering, bowing, chanting Buddha's name, repentance, or reading scriptures, you should just wholeheartedly sit and thus drop away body and mind. So, Reverend Nina is saying, what about that? And here is what about it. It said, from the first time you meet a master. But when you meet a master, what do you do? You offer incense and bow when you meet a master. So, if you look at the story of Dogen Zenji, he studied for a number of years, by the time he was about 25 or 26, he had been studying pretty intensely since he was a boy, meeting various teachers, and then he met a master. But finally he met the teacher
[51:07]
of his dreams, Tiantong Rujing. And when he met Tiantong Rujing, he offered incense and did prostrations. At that time, his teacher said, the Dharma gate of face-to-face transmission between Buddha and Buddha, ancestor and ancestor, is now fully realized. First time they met, he said that. Then Dogen entered the monastery and practiced sitting. And one day during sitting, Rujing said something like, somebody was sleeping and he scolded the person for sleeping and he said, you people should just sit and drop off body and mind. And body and mind dropped off for our ancestor.
[52:08]
He was wholeheartedly sitting, the teacher gave the instruction and body and mind dropped away. Then afterwards, he went to see the teacher. What did he do? He offered incense and prostrated. And the teacher said, what's up? And he said, body and mind have dropped off. I think the teacher was about to or did something, praise, something praising him and he said, don't praise me too easily. And the teacher said, dropped off body and mind. So, so, offering incense and bow and wholeheartedly sit.
[53:10]
Offering incense and bow and without offering any more incense and bowing, drop off body and mind. And, yeah, Does that mean offer incense and bow dropping off body and mind? That would be convenient. That's called one-stop shopping. Drop off, offer incense, bow and drop off body and mind. Or offer incense and bow and drop off body and mind while you're offering incense. Why wait? You didn't want to wait to hear the story this afternoon. Why wait for enlightenment till this afternoon? Actually, it's already afternoon. Why wait till later? We can drop off body and mind now. Okay? Yes? I have a question to ask everybody. May you join this body
[54:17]
as an offering to this great teacher and make history? Without offering incense? Yes, without offering. Okay. In this fascicle, Dogen Zenji said also instructions to the teacher, the human teacher, during the ceremony. He says, when the disciple, when the student does the prostration to the teacher, the teacher joins her palms and receives the prostrations
[55:18]
without also prostrating. He said, occasionally the teacher may do a prostration, but the usual thing is to receive the prostration without prostration. That was Dogen Zenji's instruction. Yes? So, one thing, despite very respectful intention, it might only be that he is feeling bothered or clumsy. Can you speak to that? Did you say if you wish to express your respects, but you feel awkward and clumsy? Do you have a question about that? Well, in that case, I guess you would express your respect in an awkward, clumsy way. Huh? I'm not saying to do it,
[56:18]
I'm just saying that the teaching here today is that if you are offering your respects to the great teacher, it's in that context that this essential heart is realized. Now, if you're offering it and you're awkward or, what's the other word? Clumsy, then to offer in an awkward, clumsy way, that's the context at that moment. So-and-so walked up to the teacher to offer incense, slipped on a banana and fell on her butt. And the incense flipped out of her hands, flew through the air and landed in the incenser. I mean, in the censer. The Buddha said, another miracle. She dropped her bottom and her mind.
[57:20]
Of course, the point is sincerity. If you're elegant and sincere, fine. It's okay. If you're awkward and you're sincere, fine. One time, the founder of the major tea ceremony tradition in Japan, I think it was Sen no Rikyu, he was invited to tea by a farmer. And the farmer, of course, didn't have precious tea bowls imported from China. And the tea he had, I don't know the quality of tea, but he didn't have very special treats, but he gave the tea master what he had and the tea master said that it was one of the greatest tea ceremonies he ever experienced.
[58:23]
So in contemporary or in the 20th century American children's books, there's a children's book called The Littlest Angel, about, there's going to be an opportunity to make offerings to the great teacher. Some, I guess, called God. Anyway, all the angels are like looking forward to this and they have, you know, major high quality gifts to offer to the great teacher. And the Littlest Angel doesn't have much resource for offerings. Does anybody know what the Littlest Angel brought? I don't remember. Huh? A whistle, a song? Anyway, probably brought some, I think the Littlest Angel was kind of feeling a little awkward because these big angels were bringing these big, grand,
[59:27]
radiant offerings to the great teacher and the little one was feeling kind of like inferior but still she brought her little offering and the essential heart was realized in that children's story anyway. So, yeah, we may be ragged and funny. We don't have much money but we travel along singing our song side by side. Right? Shoshanna? I have a question. Yes? This is about maybe integrating this into daily life at some point and when you speak of
[60:29]
a human form so if you're making an offering to a human being and the human being doesn't receive, you give tea and given that this is a form of giving and receiving is a form of transmission is there still the possibility of there being a transmission because she doesn't receive? So you heard a question? I don't know if it picked up on the recording. Do you think it did? So the question is if you make an offering to a human let's say you're making an offering to a in this case, in this context we're making an offering to a human we really are but we're also not just doing it for this person or for ourselves we're doing it to realize the great essential
[61:29]
Dharani mind. That's what we're doing this for. So if we say Hi Daddy we're giving this to Daddy and Daddy may really appreciate it or Daddy may not. In the story I told Daddy did appreciate it but if Daddy doesn't whatever Daddy gives back is what Daddy gives back. If you offer if your offering is intended as a prostration to the great teacher no matter what comes back you still made the offering and the great teacher may say okay I'm going to support this person to literally reject your offering but I have received it and my response is to test you by supporting this person giving you something which literally looks like not receiving. When you make offerings in the most perfect way
[62:33]
it does not mean that people will say thank you. It tests it tests the point it tests the point of the whole thing it tests the pivot of mind it tests the eye of practice it tests the eye of Dharma. You're doing this to realize this eye of Dharma this eye of practice and then the response sees if it can operate on the response and a lot of times it can. Like the story that sent me to Zen was a story where a great monk a good monk was falsely accused of committing a crime that he didn't commit and when he and I think he had this essential heart and when they attacked him he saw he had the eye of truth and he had the eye of practice and the eye of practice said to the insult to the false accusation
[63:34]
the eye of practice gave rise to the speech is that so? That's what he said. In response to this attack. That was his test that was his response that was his offering and then later people found out that it was not truth he did not commit this crime and they came back and they effusely praised him not only for not only for being innocent but the way he responded and the way he the way he responded for a long time to that attack and he said from the same place is that so? Same response in this case from the same mind always in both stories what he's primarily doing is prostrating to the great teacher as a way to take care of
[64:36]
this mind but it's not like it kind of hurts when people slap you in the face and if it didn't my feeling was from the first time I heard the story if he was superman and the slap in the face didn't bother him at all then the story is not as interesting it's when it actually hurts a little bit and you still can say welcome and also when it's really comfortable and you say welcome rather than can I have another one of those? that you really are in both cases you're not attached that's that mind that's how he keeps turning the turning is the constant turning is the dropping drop body and mind drop body and mind and drop body and mind but drop body and mind also means here's another now here's another one for you
[65:36]
you drop that one here's another one it's not like drop body and mind no more body and mind you've got to do it again oh another one of those? ok another body mind oh that was good another one? constant offerings constantly receiving a body mind constantly employing it in the way receiving and employing it in the way always turning actually it doesn't say the pearl in the bowl turns of itself it's not like working at turning it's just rolling around in there by yes I was just visualizing as you were saying this constant constant move then where's the pivot there?
[66:38]
you're making a pivot with your hand see the pivot? you're making it with your hand your hand's going around in a circle, see it? there's the pivot it's right there don't look now you're looking at the ceiling I was looking for a pivot yeah if you look you're sitting there making the pivot with your hand and looking someplace else for the pivot so you're actually in the pivot if you keep looking for the pivot you're going to keep missing it the pivot is right here you've got to stop looking for it someplace else so you say hi daddy and it's right there don't say hi daddy and where's the pivot nothing's there don't let that stop you some people are stopped by nothing there some people are stopped by what is there
[67:40]
whatever's there or not there don't postpone prostrating yourself to the great teacher don't postpone it don't say when I see the pivot I'll prostrate show me the pivot of mind I'll prostrate before that I'm holding my prostrations in my pocket
[68:03]
@Text_v004
@Score_JJ