The Teaching of the Buddha’s Whole Lifetime
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Coming to Zen Center to receive training; extensive discussion and planting rice fields can both be appropriate response;
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once again i i
i want to say that
one instruction is given about how to enter
and live in odis wisdom
sometimes people think that the instruction is telling people to do nothing about the world
so the to the instruction of
in the same there will be just the scene
in the heard though me just heard
and again then that was first to could be spelled different way is right
so like in the political scene there will be just a political scene
and that you know
in the heard activity of humans there will be just a heard activity
so this training and and letting things be sometimes people think that's like not doing anything in response to the world
but it is it is an instruction
in perfect wisdom it is an instruction in relieving suffering and distress and from this place
of receiving of relieving suffering and distress responses to sit to the world will arise from this wisdom
for example
you might speak a sutra it might speak or teaching
but you also might just say to somebody
do you think it's okay to pet on a first date
a lot of possibilities arise from infinite possibilities are there
at this
pivot of your life
it can respond
in any way that appropriate
but before that response comes there is
a very energetic training program to enter into
buddha's wisdom
and that training program has a lot of work it's it is working hard in a relationship to the world
prior to understanding it
want you understand it you will continue to respond to the world
when you're in training you're responding to the world by training
like you're sensing i need training so as i came to zen center because i thought i needed training
i wanted to be a certain way but i felt like it wasn't just a matter of waiting for good luck to be the way i wanted to be i heard that there was a training program
and by doing this training program i would join the other people who entered into this way of being
but when you hear the training program it may sound like
watch like not doing anything
like sitting up in the mountains
hours and hours on end just sitting still
it doesn't it seems like not do anything but the young man who was doing that is in training
he's sitting there thinking how strange it is that a young man is sitting in the mountainous
how strange but it kept sitting
and a young man out in the rain in the winter digging up in the mud
when his friends are back in the city
drinking delicious coffee and reading the sunday paper what's he doing there
he's training
he's training his way into buddha's wisdom
but he also looks at himself and says how strange that i'm living like this
he's training himself
to let things be
he's training himself to let
plastic water pipes a plastic water pipes
you may be don't understand what i'm referring to shall tell you
when my first work assignments and the monastery was to repair the water lines which are made of plastic pipe
and the waterline broke in a storm so i was asked to go with another person to repair the water lines so we repaired the first break and then we went to fix the second break because we knew there were several we've got the second break i send it
my partner let's go back and fix the break and he didn't say what you mean we already fixed it he knew he didn't really fix it we sort of fixed it we didn't really let the break be the break
what kind of interested in getting the job done rather than letting the breakbeat a break and interesting that break appropriately we didn't address a grip appropriately because we were half heartedly preparing it so we got to train at fixing a pipe a
appropriately which means fixing it the way we knew it could be fixed and so he went back and fixed it and and then we went to the next one this is training in a thorough in being intimate in letting things be
a way that they're calling to be let it be we train at this and we become
we become the person who enters into wisdom and then if we keep entering it will respond appropriately
but there continues to be this
how strange that we're doing this rather than really do something again when i went to study i thought i wanted i thought of various things i wanted that i thought i might be good at it helped the world
but i sense that i would be better at doing those things if i trained my senses
so i can see what's going on
more clearly than i could see i knew what i wanted to do in various realms i saw various ways to be helpful i thought would be good if actually could sense what's going on effect before i went to work so i thought that might help me train myself so i went to dance on her to train so
so that i could make the appropriate response and some area or other
so some day maybe i'll make an appropriate response after i get trained
again about a thousand years ago in china there was a zen teacher whose name is
his name was dead song
which in japanese is pronounced and jizo
so and his temple was
a monastery caught named after the bodhisattva jizo which means earth store bodhisattva so they called him her store
zen master
so one of his former status came to visit him
and he asked the former student who had left him
partly because he wasn't entertaining enough for that rumor student who became a zen master but anyway he he
he just couldn't appreciate this this needs on this earth store bodhisattva from zen master
must really came back to visit and the teacher said
where have you been he said in the south
and he said what's buddhism kind of buddhism's going on the south and he says his extensive discussion and i might say yeah extensive discussion
our extensive
and doing stuff
and then detox hood how does that compare to me here planting the fields and making rice balls
and the monk said well what are going to do about the world what about the world and get answers or what do you mean by the world
and that's
i think it's pretty much the end of the story
but there might have been one more thing the mug might embody
no
the just what do you call the world
twelve is called it's on plants the fields or nissan plans rice
but a monk might have answered the question and then the conversation would have gone on
so i've been proposing to hear that
the path of peace is the path of conversation
wholehearted fully responsible conversation is the path of peace it's a pop of face to face transmission of peace
you can be in the south having extensive discussions
you can be in the north planting
rice fields
the realization of peace has come as come from meeting each thing
face to face boy
and that's hard to trust
we think there's something more a meeting with meeting what's coming to us in this situation fully
when we have trouble believing that the universe pivots on this meeting right now that this is our assignment right now
and is hard to like fully pulling in my face to you and you and receive your face given to me and you to receive my face given to you and give my face give your face to me as a training opportunity which we work at and there's no end to the training
that
and so that's something other people can join and witness and learn and are also is a place where the appropriate response is entered and express entered unexpressed me
and the appropriate response
the possible appropriate response is are unlimited
we have to
bring our limited face to meet another limited face
in order to meet and realized the unlimited face
yes
if i feel like i'm not meeting correctly
if i feel that way than i can say i can confess i feel like i'm not meeting correctly if i feel like i'm not giving my face to you completely i can feel like you know
you know him i felt like i didn't really get my face to you completely i'm sorry
i can say that and i can also invite
all the buddhas and ancestors to come and witness my saying to you that i feel like i really didn't give my face to you wholeheartedly i was holding back a little bit and i'm sorry i can say that or i can feel like okay hello here's my face and you can look at me like
when you're going to give me your face
i can go ups
didn't i give you my face and you say we are i'm not sure i'm wondering did you you you seem to be looking around the room not at me so i don't like to go to cocktail parties
not that i did invite it anymore
but i i kind of
but if i got invited i probably maybe i should go but they don't invite me because you know
i have i i have some call it when people are in front of me and they're looking for someplace else i say hello
usually when people make me an ha cocktail parties they aren't looking at me as are looking for somebody interesting to talk
and i'm not that interesting to talk to song
so but they don't confessed to me you know i'm very sorry i'm not i'm not paying attention to you they don't even notice that i'm kind of uncomfortable so again i need two pieces of plastic pipe and i don't give them my face and i put them together with are giving them my face
and then i say i'm sorry i'm going to come back now and try again and try again to forgive myself
in this process will lead to being able to fully give myself with no getting up my giving up my resistance to this limited face being fully given to another limited face this is the training
he
yeah so anyway if now that you don't believe that confession and you're saying that when you said that if you feel like that was like fully meeting me at that moment
or
yeah okay have a what about me
yeah well i'm here by the way hello
you can't you can't do it by yourself that's what i'm saying to you can find yourself that you don't feel that you did pretty well and i'm over here thinking
i have some questions for you
you cannot you cannot fully address your confession by yourself and so you're you're saying i don't believe in the power of confession that's a perfectly good confession which you say you don't believe in but again if you do that wholeheartedly and you're looking at me things may change you may go
wake up to some things which you cannot wake up to unless you look into my face and look into his eyes which are looking back at you and saying
really or whatever you cannot do this by yourself you cannot wholeheartedly beer soap by herself and only do it with the help of others because others are you
and you can also say i don't believe in this practice of meeting face to face
and you can eat you cannot do that express that you don't believe it fully
without saying into somebody else is i don't believe in saying to somebody else it's okay okay i got it mr you're talking to me still i'm telling you you need somebody else to call that into question maybe things could be indifferent and if you open yourself to that he started to become more fully respond
ansible
yes
was one
in itself as a conversation or the conversation
about doing the conversation
you might you might start
thinking that you're not having a conversation
and as you get more into the recitation and you start to notice or example that you didn't turn this page carefully seeing go back and turn out again and you tell one here friends he didn't turn up fully can they know what you mean if you really get into reciting your real
as that you're talking to the scripture and the scriptures calling to you to be read and you're calling to the suture and should reveal itself to you
conversation is reality but sometimes we don't understand it and even if we think it's or conversation sometimes somebody says to us
did you want us to be a monologue
have we got who are well no can i say something and so on so really conversation there's no sutures without people reading them
and there's no reading them without the sutures that is a conversation but if we're not concentrate enough we don't necessarily realize it
like ice east i studied various scriptures which i thought were important and there were to like i thought
dead as things i've ever read so i would i wouldn't force myself i close them and that i open him again because i heard that there are the important and as i became more concentrated
they they came alive the lights went on but there you know it's mean not bring myself to them so they can they can't call to me i it as the as the concentration build somehow is in our the book takes his mask off and show as you
would it really is a world takes its mascot but there needs to be this dialogue and we need to be there for it
hamburger to protect personal attack
yeah or hip or he's already successful at it
he he's following his breathing
and as briefings saying sutra to him he didn't read you read this the perfect wisdoms scriptures because when he when he follows his breathing and he's fully present for that the breathing takes his mask off and starts singing these such as to him
if people really search surgeries and they read them with that same presence the suitors will take their mask off and show that they're actually breath
the world is
it's kind of reveal a shock to us everybody's trying to show themselves to us we have to give ourselves to the meeting
yes john and paul
raise the issue about the perception of the string of the passes i entered responded to the world
are not even pass him doing nothing like being passive is something anyway
the are you receiving things but you're not doing anything you're just not giving anything you're just receiving
but but giphy it's even worse than that it's doing nothing
so i was reflecting when he said on the oxford issues yeah the ten picture of the lock after going through the training re-entering the marketplace would open yes and i i like confess here to apply think of myself doing something especially like fighting for justice i usually go
with questions who yeah
yeah and i came to zen
to to learn how to open my clenched fist i mean i knew how to do it
under certain circumstances but a search teams under certain circumstances my fist don't open like when i'm being attacked they stay clinched a really punch
but how about when you're being attacked have the fist open
i want to learn how do that and then the super rich just decided talks about yeah
yeah
yeah so we're training at this so we can do something which we already know how to do but we sometimes to pass on the opportunity
for whatever reason habit
opening to the situation and no matter what it is how about that well that takes training that's why i came to san as i wanted to learn how to be like that i sensed i could i heard about jesus and i thought what he is i like jesus is teaching but i didn't really
i couldn't relate to walking on the water and stuff like that
but i can relate to opening my hand when i'm attacked
rather than defending i already knew how to defend when i didn't know how to do it was welcome an attacker
with you know with with give be not welcome with give be throwing hands welcome aggression and realize peace i want to learn that i sensed i need training
do this rather than this
or even to this
do sometimes one usually would go like this i want to learn how to be flexible under all circumstances i thought that was cooler than any particular thing
and i still do so this is cool that's cool but
nothing stuck in either one super cool that's this place this place is not this or that this place has not abiding in this or that that's what i thought was really cool i still do that's the as activity that's the
somebody said that teaching is not inevitable it's like just for this person a buddha teaches this and for this person's something else is the boat there and ready to me appropriately
yes paul
gonna super
zach thing john was talking about the first haven't really heard us who that is the critical point
will say that of robust consciousness or whatever
translation that and well it's really bad some aspect of it going will take politics right now agree i can very easily
humbly bow but doesn't say don't do anything or don't give up which i translate for your sake he could we be present about reality of what you know and respond well to the reality and realize that this thing as saying to you
be a bodhisattva it is an avatar coming to you and say please let's come up with some compassion here
and isn't that hard let's come up with some respect here isn't you know isn't it hard
you can you can sense somebody's lying and still be willing to give your life for that person
so we have a lot of line going on it looks like but i have a granddaughter who i often mentioned who lies to me
but
i know i to mean her by saying that she is my bleeder she leads me to compassion so i can lie down in green pastures and so on she's leaning me she's my guide to to buddha's wisdom and compassion and saw these things are everything
not not necessarily especially but monsters are guiding us to
to great compassion who and now we say this to remember that everything's guiding us through it but in and also not necessarily more also monsters are calling us to come back with tenderness and give our whole
life and face to the meeting and in the meeting will wake up and their proper response comes but before that appropriate responses listen and look and welcome and respect and again i met looks like not doing anything but it's the way
way you it's the way you enter the wisdom where what you do will be wisdom acting rather than wait for practicing wisdom until after you do this thing
do the wisdom practice first
and then from wisdom
a proper response and that's hard for us to believe in
so i recognize it's hard
and i still want to believe it practice it
and when i do practice that i i've never regretted it i never felt like well i wish i had blah blah instead of
respecting inspect it instead of mankind i wish i had been cruel
i wish i'd try to control
rather than
neither for this person
fortunately or unfortunately i'm pretty well convinced that i cannot control anybody
it's not a difficult for me not to try
except for habit i try sometimes
but i didn't control you into laughing just now even though i really wanted to go