Composure in the Midst of Trumpism

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BZ-02543
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morning
no
yeah maybe
reminds me of when i was a kid i used to
a fish of the venice pier
and the ocean park pier
and that all day long i'm good at the end and all day long i would watch the water ebb and flow the waves and that's how i learned meditation
true
well
lately
there's been a lot of our
ah
difficult
our circumstances in our lives threatening circumstances in our lives and many people have been talking to me and saying what should we do
as if i know
ah nevertheless i have to say something
and so because i have to say something i have true 'em
ah
respond to this kind of challenge which is my challenge as well as everyone else's challenge
so ah
as i am zen buddhist practitioner
is there anything that is an obstacle
was
yes the yes but the obstacles
a obstacles or our practice
difficulties or our practice
because life is difficult
so
how ah
a practices how we keep our composure how we maintain our composure in the midst love life
life's difficulties
life's disappointments
ah and
part of our difficulty can you hear me now we grow even cause were part of our difficulty is
not understanding
the undulation of life
some sarah
it means something like the undulation a wife to create i like the word undulation inside the waves undulate
now we live in a world of waves
we live in a world of highs and lows
ah great expectations and great disappointments
and one follows the other like the like the ways of the ocean
we expect something wonderful and really want to have something wonderful
to happen in our lives and when it starts going up
we think this is always gonna be going up because we don't want to think that what will happen when it goes down
when we get into the trough
and the power of the trough bring create the wave
and an and when all the conditions are
no longer there to keep the way high we
go it everything goes back into the trough so this is our life we have to understand it and accept it
and how do we accept it
with composure if we don't have composure we just get tossed about by the waves
so this is vicky is that only should include racial teaching but this is what he taught us
and he taught us through doesn't
don't be attached to the highs and don't be attached to the love
don't be attached to our the wonderful feelings that you have and don't be attached to the and the painful feelings that you have
come on in
ah
so this is the simple response but what does it mean
how do we do that
ah

i have a number of things you that
ah nice one is this say
the desolate the three fundamentals of buddhism
all things are impermanent
we have to understand that all dharmas are without self
and all things are full of suffering
within the bliss of nevada
that's our big go on this is how like our life is described
as the dharma
all things are impermanent means that nothing lasts everything is in flux there is only change
oh
the momentarily the dimas flesh into
existence
and then disappear
there's nothing that last
past present and future are all ungraspable
we think that the president is graspable but the present is our of the best
it's great
if you think that's not so good
that's called suffering
so food or said
the only thing i teach a submarine and the meaning of suffering and how to deal with it
so all things are impermanent everything comes up
ah a dependent on everything else
if we realized that everything comes up dependent on everything else
we realized that what am i is everything else
everything else is what i am
so we're cosmic beings
we contain the whole cosmos
it's not that we contain that as but the whole cosmos is that is who we are
but recording of the further out the air and so instead of trying to earn as zero she said catch the tail of a comment which people will pity you for
you just know your life down
towards the possible
for us
and because wherever we are whatever we're doing contains the whole universe
so we say there's really no
lot no birth and death usually transformations if we understand that there is only transformations
i'm actually realize that we can enjoy our life moment to moment
even other isn't a multi
so the reason is because all dharmas are with ourself
because everything is continually changing and transforming what we consider herself is only ourself moment to moment
but a true self is the whole business
this is just fundamental buddhism so the third one
all things are full of suffering life is that's the the usual stereotype the third one life is suffering that's the any side life is just suffering even when it's wonderful it's still suffering
because it doesn't last
we can enjoy it well as a blake's as catch the joys of flows
but at the mahayana says all things are full of suffering within the bliss of nirvana
so we must
access nirvana within
are suffering
otherwise we just fall into
this a nap
into opposition's
cope
for lack of a better word duality

and how do we do that
with composure
composure is all things are full of suffering within the blessed of nirvana
so
nirvana is only found with his are suffering
within our disposition
have difficulty

so we understand this through something
johnson is the way buddha teaches us
we don't have to have anybody saying anything it's it's put herself into bonus hands
and experiencing the difficulties and the joyce without being attached to either one
if will become attached to either joy or the difficulty
ah we'd fall entered into a
february
so how do we maintain our composure within every situation
so the next one is
our king midas golden touch
is a story on which we all know but i'm kind of this is the child version
king made us and the golden touch
midas maybe people say might have muffled buddhists
i like to elect to use i as is which most most well-liked languages do we have both
anyway many years ago there lived a king name
bittersweet king i just had it when little daughter whose name was mary gold
king midas is very very rich
it was said that he had more goal than any other king in the world
at least from his point of view
one room of his great castles of most filled with yellow gold pieces
by a liar
at last the king grew so far that is gold that he loved it better than anything else now the world i mean you've heard that
he even lived a better than his own little daughter rosy cheeked gold is one great wish seem to be for more and more gold
one day while he was in his golden room counting his golden money a beautiful dionysius
stood before him
the boy faced shown with a wonderful life and he had wings on his cap and wings on his feet in his hand he carried a strange looking want and the want also had wings

midas you are the richest men in the world should the ferry the dionysius there is no king who has as much gold is you
maybe said the king
as you see i had this room for gold
photo i show it off but i should like much more for gold is the best and most wonderful thing in the world
are you sure as the ferry
i'm sure entered the king if i should grant you one where said dionysius would you ask from ago
if i didn't haven't but one wish to the king odesk and everything i touch you should turn
two beautiful yellow gold
your wish will be granted for the ferry and sunrise tomorrow morning your slightest touch will turn everything into gold but i warn you fit your gift will that make you happy
this is the lesson
i will take the risk said the king
the next day king midas a week about very early he was eager to see if the fairies promise to come true
as soon as the sun arose he tried the gift by touching the bed lightly with his hand the bed turn to gold he touched the chair and table upon the instant they were turned to gold speaking was wild with joy he ran around the room touching everything he could see
the hall to shiny yellow gold
the king soon felt hungry and when

now a strange thing happened he raised a glass of clear cold water to drink it so goal
not a drop of water capacity lips the bread turn to gold under his fingers the meat was hired and yellow and shiny nothing can get he get to eat all with gold gold gold his little daughter came running again
of all the living creatures she was the dares to him he touched you with his lips and at once a little girl changed to a golden statue a great fair crept into the king's heart sweeping all the joy out of his life in his grief he called and called upon dionysius who had given him the gift to the golden touch
oh dionysius the big takeaway this horrible golden gift take all my lands take all my goal take everything only give me back my little daughter and a moment the beautiful dionysius was standing before him
do you still think the gold of the greatest thing in the world as dionysius no no cried the king i hate that i excitedly other stuff
are you sure that you no longer wish to golden touch as dionysius i have learned my lesson said the king i no longer think go the greatest thing in the world
very well said the very over diners just take this picture to the spring and the garden and fill it with water then sprinkle those things which you have touched and turned gold the king took the picture and rushed to the spring running back he first sprinkled the head of his dear little girl instantly she became his own darling berry gordy and
and gave him a kiss the king's sprinkled a good food and his great joy turned back to real red and real butter then he and his little daughter sat down to breakfast how good the cold water tasted how eagerly the hungry king and the bread and boat butter to meet and all the good food the king aided his golden touch
so much that he sprinkled even the chairs and tables and everything of that the fares gift had turned to gold so our question is where is dionysius now
when you really need him
that question
ah when the king and no longer is some
thinks the golden most wonderful thing in the world
so transformations are possible
you know with miracles do happen
so don't hold your breath breathe
just breathe
keep your attention and kid and keep your
mind down here in your horror where your composure friends as place
breathe deeply
when you when you see one atrocity after another pretty deeply
realizing that all things are passing
and this to a pass
and ah
where do you really abide
we abide in our composure and where is the root of our composure
we find it in him if we practice as in we've touched the root of our intuition
and that ah
without
expectations
we find her
that we can actually stand where we are and i'll be blown over by anything even know
cruelty
then ah
ah
i'm
delusion
harm
all around us
if we lose on composure actually we become vulnerable and lose everything
you know the samurai which we don't particularly admire for their own cruelty but
i'm the only whether they they can actually win a battle was to maintain their composure
without fear
as soon as you lose your composure in a battle
you're vulnerable
and usually live

so
everything has its
you know
as there's only change
we find that
i'm
the pendulum swings i've talked about this before many times the pendulum swings
i'm
the
i'm
and the case of humans human animals
we have a tendency to wander build things so we create societies we create you know great wonderful
advancements for for what we think our advancements for you will binge and the world and then suddenly the pendulum swings and everything is destroyed
then the pendulum swings again and we show building everything of forgetting all about the destruction
thinking that is always gonna be this way and then pull the pendulum swings back that's the way the world works
the way the world works
and
it's okay to build up as long as he realized that it will always be torn down
were born and we die
so to speak
and that's the that's the way the world works so what is born is destroyed
when we're now in a in the pendulum has no it in the downswing of destruction is really an it's terrifying
terrifying was happening and a dung for and destruction
we were the upswing
of a completion
and it looked like it was just we're all hoping that
vanity would take over would continue
but then boom
and that's
how to take but it's like and it's inevitable
you think that there were always if we really
sisyphus
the store your system is building rolling about up the hill never gets to the top
so
this is why buddhism a period of
that's the reason why buddhism appeared in the world because that understanding that realization
so
ah buddhist not surprised and these things happen because it's inevitable it's a dualistic world
every action every action has an equal opposite reaction that's physics out i don't know anything about physics but i know that that every react every action as an opposite equal reaction
it's inevitable because the dualistic nature of world
so buddhists are concerned with non duality
how do you how do you live in a dualistic world
ah understanding the love non-duality
that's what buddhist practices about
at the reconciliation of opposites

so i'm already this before
this is the tigers cave
talked by i'm on the heart sutra by albert almora
a buddhist abbot and as an aberdeen in the beginning of the twentieth century
he says because all because the world's stand on illusion
even good is no more than an occasional event caused by associations and will the associations are bad the manifestation created by the good entirely disappeared
relative good and evil are always appearing and disappearing
such as says the merit may be piled up as high as the himalaya one flash of anger and it is all consumed
marriage from good deeds with associations to become a little unfavourable or destroyed with the flaring up of passion
our life is destruction of what has been built in the building up of boot has been destroyed underneath building a destruction and underneath destruction building repeating over and over again the same sort of thing
all worlds of illusory attachment or to self or the same
the pitiable human state
this period pitiable humans state is symbolized by the buddhist story of sign of cholera
in the ruined temple the the the apparently that say i'm this is a well-known store in japan everybody knows it
it's about
ah how everything has built up and destroyed but there seems to be a can play out of some kind
and it in this temple in the ruined temple of dyson g there is a representation upside know cholera of which a good deal remains
there's the dry riverbed of the story and in the middle stands a great stone figure of the bodhisattva gizo gizo is a bodhisattva that damn escorts
dead children are a fetuses or whatever to
somewhere
a rounded have been piled up countless little pagodas the story is familiar to all japanese
have those who die in early childhood go to this place and employ themselves building the pagodas
they remember their parents in the world and build one it for their father one for the up and one for their mother piling up the stones one by one a demon certainly rushes in from the side
that were like an iron poles smashes done everything they built the children terrified run to the same chisel and hide themselves for a while in the long sleeves of his compassion we get the feeling of pointlessness that it is futile to keep building up a stone towers only to have been smashed down by the demon
the demon is presently
smashing down
if they are always to be destroyed by building
but that will not do for this is fay no are the place for the karma associations find fulfillment when a demon goes up the crowd for children come out again and build their pagoda towers just they think they have finished outcome for demon and olive destroyed
what was built up is broken down and then what has broken down as rebuilt repeating again and again the same task is the state and sign of guevara it is not is not our human condition also like this
in the world for relative good and evil raised up an illusory attachment to self
maybe we may do some good but then when the karma associations are unfavorable evil passions arise and destroyed all we rebuild what was destroyed and what we build and rebuild a and what we build is again destroyed when we think we have completed something it disappear
years and what has disappeared again comes about to the endless so the endless wheel of life result revolves
this is the character of the a human condition and in spiritual training it has called the law of circularity what goes around comes around what a thing to happen to such a splendid man to say thank you know we think so much of somebody and then suddenly
they find something terrible about him he's an embezzler but a wonderful thing
to happen to such a splendid man this is all the shifting of human nature for the point of view of spirituality it is only going round and round in the world and relative good and evil
it is not the profound spirituality all the worlds of were illusory sticking to self or the world's at birth and death
so

ha
where's our optimism
oh mother pat yes
our are bound hands
was what you're saying
yes

well for human being
that freezes repentance is how we how we attain a obtain our freedom because
it's so easy to get caught
by our feelings and emotions you know
we did the whole thing about the buddha dharma is how we free ourselves from this dualistic world
that's what it's about actually
so we do something we try out something because it's interesting once
and then we think well maybe i'll try again
so i try out again and we be like it or not like it
but we still are not on caught by it
but then when we do it a third time that becomes a habit and we get caught by our habits
somehow we were we
recognize that were caught by rabbits which we don't habit habits which we don't always do
and most of the time we walk around and caught by all kinds of habits not understand that that's a where we are until some somebody the fishermen both paul up and were hooked
so the fishermen of karma
the comic fisherman
oh god that happened
ah and then we can get out of it so
repentance freezes
i mean a camp for your least of freezes in recognizing that were caught
and gives us a way
i'm to a turn around the six ancestor in the platform future is is repentance means
simply to recognize
your transgression
and turn around and go to other way
yeah
a big word
to place the stand as in your composure
not being
composure means
i can find you your place in the world
and i'm not get pushed off your place
is that what you say meeting place to stand between
practice
to attack protect protect your children
well you know the as a mother protect your only child
oh
you should
sacrifice your life for that
and she be able to do that that's what mothers do
i'm not sure if that's your job and yet and yet the pendulum swings into tragedy
we have maintaining composure and that situation means
ah accepting the the the pain
ah
with equanimity
yeah accepting
we we have to accept all this pain that's happening in the world
at this very moment with equanimity
if we get pulled around by too much by are really we can't help not
we we can't help feeling our feelings immense feel your feelings
but understand your feelings as well
i'm
weeping is is a way to unburden yourself in a way
there's a saying man
no nothing else will help with a a weeping is an open gate
ah
but if you get addicted to weeping
then you become a victim of your own of
our feelings
so feel what you feel deeply
don't stop your feelings
which are very deep but at the same time you're here
and ah
not allow yourself offered to be a victim of your feelings

the more
and then
does it end to morning
and i go on
our otherwise we will just i become victims so of our own making

so
we grieve
but we also grave with our understanding
if we don't have understanding that are we only have ever grief
and we can take a lifetime forever
but ah
in the face of our
our political situation which gives us much grief
to not let let it overwhelm us otherwise we can't do anything to turn it around
who can become helpless
ah
russ really appreciate your talk today and i agree with every point you raise for thank you for that a there's something kicking around and washington out where
ministers rabbis graceful be able to reach from open yes and i'm wondering about the virtue of separation of church and state and
where i feel supported and encouraged by your list of a stretch of the day of whether the we americans to hold onto that you or maybe changed
that's good because i also learned that
and i thought well if they can breach from the pulpit skinner
that's what i'm doing today
a kind of but what i'm preaching is this dharma actually
yeah
i'm not saying we shouldn't coalition vote for
aren't know stuff like that
but is supplied
the
i think i've missed something
did you answer the question where is the optimal where's the optimism i don't think the question was the optimism but that's implied the question was what shall we do
so
everybody has to find their own way about what to do you know if i say you should do this and you'll come back at me having failed
you said
and besides our practice actually is to find out what to do
that's i go on you know every every activity has its own go on
what's the right thing to do at and in the was the right thing to do
ah
fundamentally and what's the racing to do actually
so when you can put those two together as one than you have way to go
when i say actually meaning ah
let our intuition and form us
and then later on
reasoning work together with her intuition
and that's how you know what to do
let your reasoning worked together with your intuition because your intuition and comes from the larger place bigger big mind
the intuition comes through big nine and reasoning come through the brain
smarter mind
and when those two are and think it's one thing and then you have your balance the heavier calm composure
oh charles
thanks
i was thinking about it the myriad accent
the political action swinging the pendulum
and
although the pencil or babies ringing forest destruction today i look at the history that i've experienced in my life
the ferry douglas macarthur when he wanted to use your time bomb in korea
the
downfall of joseph mccarthy
yeah
downfall of richard nixon
so i see today i said
just another opportunity for
well you know that the the secret is how you ride the wave
it's really how you ride the wave
ah
when the it goes down you write it down without being overwhelmed by it and when it goes up you help push it up but the the secret doing that is we call it driving a wave and riding the wave
so we were carried by the way and we also drives away and when we do that seamlessly
we do both in the same time
i don't know how many of you are surfers
but where where where surfers in her life
roof where our lives life surfers
so there's no out there's no other is no saying as not to be safe is only
skillful response and composure
that's i like that
we say it's only dharmas are you going to say it's only dharmas rolling along
when you say there's no self there's only diamonds rolling along with him
it's not if you say there's no self that's not that's only half the picture if you say there is itself that's only have the picture so the self is not itself and what does not itself is the self
that's a i co and second go for the day
ah yeah
you are
what does proportion look like in the face of mammal in the face of evil
i'm
it means to recognize evil
ah but maintain your integrity in the face of everything
to your integrity so that's composure maintain what what you really what you can freely you can you can't change in yourself it's your fundamental integrity
so when you're faced with evil
what are how do you act you get that's when you really have to know well who am i
even though i'm there's no self
you know what what are my values
none maintained your values
skillfully then you have a way to act skillfully even though it may look like you're not maintain your values
because if you stick to maintain values
ah you know there's this wonderful book by a jerk lutheran who was the blind
leader of the french resistance during the second world war
and he describes how
being in a concentration camp he said
those people who are the the most proud and most strong they get eliminated first
the only way you can get through the concentration camp is to be a nobody
as soon as you're somebody
you're finished
so that's interesting i recommend that book to everybody
the autobiography of a jackal sharon them then there was light
i talked about it years ago here
but so what does it mean to be nobody
that's another that's that was his corn
ah so
to actor
favorite basic
mr five five
a he wasn't getting himself away yeah right
if i was thinking about as
how quite quite
yes
yeah
thanks for that latter