I was struck by something I just heard chanted, which was confessing and repenting in this way. One never fails to receive profound help from all tutors. And I heard Profound help. And oftentimes in the tradition of Buddhist Dharma, profound means difficult. Like the, let me say, the profound perfection of wisdom. Reflection in wisdom is deep, is profound.

[01:01]

Part of what that means is it's hard to understand it. It's hard to realize it. So part of it could be understood as when you invest in repent, you never fail until you see a deep and difficult to understand help. This is my experience. It doesn't say confessing and repenting is when one never fails to receive superficial help from the Buddhist ancestry. Sometimes when you confess and repent, you do receive superficial support from the Buddhists and ancestors. In other words, sometimes when you confess and repent, you can feel perceptively right away the help. This field really helped. Right away. That sometimes happens.

[02:04]

But always, the deep help is there. When you confess, you always find that at a very deep level, at an imperceptible, invisible level. Your confession is an offering, and the Buddha's receive it and send you back great thanks. But it's hard to see sometimes. There's a level at which it's always hard to see. And there's a level where it's easy to see, the party level we sometimes see and sometimes don't. And again, by revealing and disclosing their lack of faith and In practice, faith and practice, revealing and disclosing that, the root of our feeling separate from the wonderstime that melts away.

[03:13]

Part of a great deal of the way that happens is inconceivable. Some of it's inconceivable. about working more later, but right now, I'll just want to mention it for you. At the end of that, in chapter two of the Lotus Sutra, it says this wonderful thing, you know, I like it very much, that even children, in your platelets, gathering sand on a beach, for a shrine to the Buddha, All such beings as these obtain the Buddha way. And Buddha's original vow, as expressed in chapter two, is, by the Buddha way which I walk, I desire universally to cause all creatures to enter the same

[04:27]

But to enter the same way and walk along with me. It's not quite the same as Buddha wants everybody to be enlightened. Buddha likes that. Buddha likes people to be enlightened so that they can enter into, join the party. Enter in doing it with me. Not just you're enlightened over there by yourself. I want you to join me in this thing. Because that's the actual Buddha way. It's this way I'm walking with everybody. I want you to come and join it. You sort of have to wake up to join it. But the waking up is at the main point. And that's this entry point. And that's what Buddhists want us to enter. So they're trying to show it to us at superficial and deep levels. to get it to wake up to it so we can enter it.

[05:32]

And there's certain parts of chapter 16, which I'd like to just go over. Just in case we won't be going over these things after I read. And I also want to mention that In Soto Zen monasteries, in some Soto Zen temples in Japan, this verse section of this chapter is in the regular daily circuit. And this thing is chanted every day. But it's one of the things that is chanted on a regular basis, chapter 16. They also chant chapter 25, which is about calling on Avalokiteshvara. And I think that if you ask multi-American Zen students, it's chapter 16, a verse section.

[06:35]

Let them read it. And he said, this is chanted by Zen monks in social school in their monastery. They would be surprised to hear that they're chanting this kind of stuff. They might say, yeah, they're chanting. But really what it's about is like sitting and having enlightenment experience. not about chanting this kind of stuff, but it is about chanting this kind of stuff. They do chant this. And some of them are actually thinking about what they're chanting. So I thought it really kind of struck various points, and I'd like to share the places I was struck. One of them was. I exceedingly manifest nirvana. But in truth, I do not pass apriquiescence. I remain here always speaking the Dharma.

[07:42]

The Buddhist followers here speaking the Dharma. I always stay right here. And using the power of spiritual penetrations, I cause the alerted beings, although near me, not to see me. I was just struck by that. The Buddha is right here, right now, near you. But if there's some inversion in your mind, the Buddha causes you to see her. Isn't that an amazing statement? The Buddha is right near you right now, right next to you. Not just some Buddha, but many Buddhas are near you. And they love me. And they totally wanted me to enter the way that they're walking. But they caused you not to see it right now because of the birded tendencies in your mind.

[08:43]

And they left behind instructions about how to deal with these inversions. And if you practice the instruction about the inversions, When your mind flips back over into the upright posture, they will appear to you. But they do not want to show themselves to you in your inverted state, so they actually cause you not to see them, according to this. They want you to see them because you need to see them in order to enter the way. But they want you to get ready to see them, so that when you see them, you'll say, Oh, thanks for coming. I'm ready to meet you. I'll see you later. I know maybe tomorrow I'm busy. Actually, I don't know if I'll see you tomorrow, but I know you love me, so whenever I meet you, you'll be there, so then I'll come up. Now, that's not the spirit that they want us to have.

[09:46]

And the next part that I thought struck me particularly was... At that time, I and the Sondra Assembly all appeared on... Oh, excuse me. I guess that would be this part too. Multitudes seen as passing into Crescence, and they... extensively make offerings to my relics, my shaviya, all cherished, all longing for me, their hearts look up to me in thirst, living beings then faithful and subdued, straightforward and compliant in mind, single-mindedly wish to see the Buddha, caring not for their very lives. At that time, I and the whole assembly here of all the bodhisattvas and marhats appear together with them on the magic vulture mountain where I say to living beings that I am always here and never cease to be.

[11:08]

So again, if we are making extensive sensitive offerings to the Buddha's or the Buddha's relics, cherish, pardon, longing for the Buddha, and in our hearts look up to the Buddha's thirst, hunger, hungry for the Buddha's teaching, the Buddha's faith. Faithful and subdued, straightforward and compliant in our minds, single-mindedly wish to see the Buddha, then Buddha appears. So you can, like, go to an altar and offer candlelight to flowers, incense, and frustrations. And you can do this extensively with the wish to express the deep wish you see a Buddhist, and then the Buddha will appear to you. And in that being, you will enter the Buddha way.

[12:14]

Or you can sit up with on the earth. And every moment of sin can be an act of inviting Buddhas to come. It is actually. Every moment. This posture is offering to Buddha and an invitation to Buddha. It's praise to Buddha and invitation to Buddha. It's honoring Buddha and inviting Buddha. That's every moment of sin. I have nothing else to do in my life make my body and mind and voice, and offer me an invitation to the Buddhists to come. And this way my mind becomes uninverted, and I become ready to receive meeting with the Buddhists, who are always here, but who do not appear if I'm distracted from being ready for the meeting. So I think about, you know, sitting is nice because you can do it moment after moment.

[13:24]

Okay, moment of sitting, [...] moment of sitting. You can also deal with offerings. It's hard, you know, offering after offering after offering after offering, orange after orange after orange. You can just, you know, put an orange on, take it off, and author it. But some people do it that way. They just make offerings all the way. Some people do frustrations all day, but they're like, how do you mean this? But some people do it, they just bow, [...] bow. And they kind of say, yeah, I want to say, come on, come on, come on. I know you're here, but come on, shave yourself. And Buddha says, well, you're still kind of inverted, the way you're bringing those bow. And what are the inversions? Inversions are seeing permanence in what is impermanent. Seeing purity in what's impure. Seeing self in what doesn't have a self.

[14:29]

And seeing kind of, I think it's beauty in what's not beautiful. And seeing pure in what's not pure means to think that something like, I don't know, a Mercedes, It's going to give you happiness. To think that something in the world is going to actually give you happiness, rather than understanding that the way you take care of things is what gives you happiness. So you can work on these inversions by sitting. To sit, without going to get something when you're sitting. To sit. without thinking that your sitting is permanent. To sit without understanding that your sitting doesn't have a sight. And in the end, practice and giving.

[15:32]

This is the way, moment by moment, we get faithful, subdued, straightforward, compliant, single-minded. I wish to see the Buddha, and then the Buddhas appear. and expound the lotus structure. And that's what they're saying to the living beings. I am always here and never cease to be. And then another little couple of theories. But using the power of explaining devices, I manifest ceasing and not ceasing. And living beings in other lands, reverent and faithful and aspiring, I speak the unsuppathed government. But you who do not hear this, think that I pass away into quiescence. So right now, we think the Buddha is not here, but the Buddha is someplace else teaching right now.

[16:34]

And not really, but lots of seeds like that. And he is teaching in the living environment, so he's also here. But he's not teaching it now because we don't want it. So right now, the Buddha sees living being sunk in misery, and yet I refrain from manifesting for him in order to cause him to look up in thirst. Then, when their minds start to fill with the onion, I emerge and speak Dharma." And again, people's idea of Zen is many monks are not sitting there, you know, longing for Buddha. Come on, Buddha, we're not doing that. They're sitting there saying, I don't need Buddha. I'm kidding. But the sutra is saying that people are sitting in meditation longing for Buddha. Buddha will appear to them.

[17:35]

They really want to see Buddha. And again, in earlier parts of the worldly sutra too, people say, would you give a talk? And he says, you don't really want it. It's not that you don't really want it, but You might have liked it if I told you. You might get confused and end up disparaging. And then wouldn't be good for you to reject me. So maybe some other time. And then I asked him again, and I asked him again. He says, OK. But in the process of asking him again, some of the people in the audience, they really don't want to hear the Dharma walk out. I think they probably think, these sonatics who really want to hear it, even though he kind of told them that he's going to say some stuff that's not very easy to listen to, they can stay and listen, but I'd rather go someplace else. It sounds like the same old thing to me. And so they walk out and they'll say, it's okay if they laugh.

[18:36]

And then he teaches them in his Dharma. But he doesn't want to give it to them if they don't really ask for it because he does not want to reject it. That would be good. They've already rejected it enough, but they don't hear it, so they're asking for it. But now that they're ready, can you see, if you want to make sure that they're ready, there's something that they need to find pleasant to hear. Excuse me, Reverend Sabri, can you easily go to your library and find a copy of the Sarangama Samadhi Sutra? Do you know where that is? I wanted to get that sutra because that sutra has a really good example of bodhisattvas asking questions.

[19:43]

It kind of gives you like a inside view of what goes on in Bodhisattva's mind when they ask questions from somebody's office. Vision market, for example. Oh, you can't find the library copy? Thank you for your efforts. So he sees different beings, and he wants to help them, and he stirs with compassion, yet he refrains from manifesting for them in order to cause them to thirst more. So then he will appear. With such powerful spiritual penetrations throughout asamkiyayas of theon,

[20:49]

I remain always on magic Vulture Peak, mystic Vulture Peak, and also dwell in other places. So Buddha's always in the same place teaching Vulture Peak. He was also in a lot of other places, as people wish and need. So right here, you can see the Buddha teaching on Vulture Peak in India, right here. And he also is teaching here, which is non-Vulture Peak. when beings see the eon ending and ravaged by great fire okay this sounds familiar right we see in a sense we almost see an eon ending we see catastrophe here and there when beings see that at that very moment my land is peaceful and secure always filled with gods and humans Gardens, groves, halls, pavilions.

[21:52]

It has various precious adornments. There are jeweled trees with many flowers and fruits. Where living beings roam in delight and God's play celestial drums. Always making various kinds of music. And mandava flowers are scattered upon the Buddha and the Great Assembly. My pure land is not destroyed. Last, multitudes see it burning entirely. Worried, terrified, and miserable, such ones are everywhere. All these beings with offenses, because of their evil karma, causes and conditions, pass through awesome periods of eons without hearing the name of the triple treasure. All those who have cultivated merit, virtue, and who are compliant, agreeable, honest, and I would add upright, because that character has two parts.

[23:03]

One is honesty, the defense upright. All those who are practicing upright, in the mud, it says cultivating merit and virtues, I would understand that as you're in the mud, you're putting your roots down in the mud, you're in the world of illusion, And in that world of illusion, you are a compliant, agreeable, promising operator. Even about that way, you will see the Buddha teach you the Lotus Sikra right now. And then sometimes, for the disassembly of people who are practicing this way and seeing it, I state of the Buddhist life span is limitless. So now, in a sense, now that we're hearing the Buddhist state about the limitless life span, in a way, our minds are not perverted, because we're hearing these teachings.

[24:10]

The Buddha's telling us now, as religious, about the limitless life span. The Buddha is telling a verb of showing up on you. I'll be careful now not to reject it. Otherwise, we go back into this other situation, a few lines above. To those who see the Buddha only after long intervals, I speak of the Buddha as being difficult to meet. So the other challenge is the unsurpassed penetrating a perfect damaged railing network, even in a hundred thousand million tropics. That's for people who see the Buddha in intervals. Every time the Buddha is saying, no, it's not difficult to make a Buddha. The Buddha is here right now, and you're ready for it. Well, I'm going to stop now for a little while because I'm

[25:22]

kind of feeling like these striking points, you need some space between. And coaching the netherly terminate description. So I just wanted to kind of slide also a bit. One of the chants that we often do at Soto Zen practice places is a section of one of Dolby's works called . And it's a section on this practice of sitting upright in the midst of the self-fulfilling awareness.

[26:24]

of sitting upright in the midst of the inconceivable dharma. So again, we had the practice of sitting upright as an offering to the Buddhas, and sitting upright as an offering to the dharma. In the Neal chant, it says that we make offerings to the Buddhas and the Swami. It doesn't usually talk about making offerings to the dharma. I think we can see our sitting practice as an offering to Buddha, but also as an offering to Dharma, or as an indication to the Dharma which surrounds us. Second and next step, the awareness of the Buddha and the Dharma which have together. The Buddha is all the helpful forms of existence which are surrounding us.

[27:27]

It's partly the teaching that clarifies that helpful existence is not separate from us. The Dharma is saying it is exactly our ascension nature. Dharma is teaching us that this helpfulness to something which is our nature, and we sit upright in that awareness that we encounter it and help by nature ascension beings that are helped. It is our nature that we are assisted and supported. And it is our nature that we assist and support. And that nature is not separate from us. And that nature is Buddha. So we sit upright in that situation. And that's our practice. And this practice, this way we're practicing together, it says, in this text, that this does not appear within consciousness.

[28:35]

In other words, it's inconceivable mutual assistance. That this, and then later it says that even if all the Buddhists tried to even marinate this practice, they would not be able to. And it also says that every moment of this kind of practice, the translation comes to you, every moment of this practice is equally wholeness of practice, equally wholeness of enlightenment. Thank you for looking for that. Every, each moment of practicing in the midst of this, it is the wondrous dharma. Every moment of practicing, together it's all buddhas.

[29:36]

It's equally homes of practice, equally homes of enlightenment. The none translation would be, every moment of practicing this way is the same practice and the same enlightenment as all beings. So the actual practice that we're talking about here is the same practice as all beings and the same enlightenment as all beings. That's the action practice. That's the path, the true path of enlightenment. It's the practice of all of us and the enlightenment of all of us. That's the practice. And they call that in this school zazana. But some people think of zazana is what they are given, not what all beings are given. Not even other people who are sitting in his end there with them.

[30:46]

The zazana that you see promoted by the Buddhists is the Buddhist zazana. And the Buddhist zazana is the same zazana It's the same practice that you have. And the Buddha's enlightenment is the same enlightenment that you have. That's the practice. And that practice, which is Uri's practice, the merit of it can never be measured, even by all the Buddhists. It can be measured, but not fully. It's an inconsolable merit. of an invisible way that we have the same practice and the same enlightenment. So our sitting is offering to that practice. And the way we're sitting, which is the same way that everybody's sitting, but the way we're practicing, which is the same as the way everybody's practicing, that is what our sitting is offered to.

[31:49]

So I have some little story about my sitting. I do. And I offer this to the practice, which is the same practice as me, and all of you, and all Buddhas. I offer it to that practice. And I offer my enlightenment, which is not mine, separate from yours. Whatever enlightenment I have, which is the same enlightenment as you, that's the enlightenment which I offer my enlightenment to. practice. And this enlightenment and this practice is what doesn't appear within perception, but includes all perception, is unconstructiveness and stillness.

[32:54]

It's an unconstructed stillness and quiet. So this actual way we're practicing together, and we all have the same practice and we're walking in the same path, it's a stillness and a silence. It's still and silent. Everybody's there doing the same stillness and silence. And In the stillness, mind and objects, or mind and the environment that we know, the mind and objects merge in the realization of the strongness and go beyond the realization. Our mind and objects, our knowing that we know enters into the stillness and leaves the stillness. enters into this immediate realization and leaves the immediate realization, merges this realization and goes beyond realization.

[34:04]

This has happened all the time. This is the practice. And it's all inconceivable and reliable. So we use our sense of stillness and we use our feeling of silence of the way to open to the actual stillness and silence. So we try to make a quiet room where we can kind of like remember to think of quiet. And we try to sit still to remember to think of the stillness. This is our ritual stillness and ritual silence to open to the actual. The actual. stillness and silence. It's always there, even when we're running around like a chicken, with seven heads. The one verse of Dharma is stillness and silence, and even that combined and objects are always entering and leaving.

[35:17]

There's tremendous activity in stillness and silence of the wonderstone. So we do the ritual of sitting still and quiet to open to actuality of unconstructed silence and stillness of a made realization. Knowing that this is just this stillness and this silence, it's just our cognitive version of it. This body, this posture, It's just a cognitive version of Buddha's posture. That's why it's good to carve a Buddha. Because every time you sit, you carve your Buddha. A silent, still Buddha as a ritual to celebrate the actual silent, still, immediate meditation.

[36:20]

And every moment, there is the style of unconstructedness in stones. That's where the true Dalmat is fully alive. But we must, you know, we must make a carved version of this. And the carved version of this is offered as a invitation to the real working. a carved meal, a carved city, a carved spoon, a carved siren, with an arcing of words done, part of the immediate realization which will be invited to appeal to us and to edit them. You can't take that section and do the list of the Not all Buddhas and all ancestors have made it to be taught to enlighten you to sit up like that.

[37:32]

That's part of it. That's where it sits. All this wondrous Dharma does not appear within the system. Sometimes people have recognitions of this, which is great. They did a glimpse, which is great. but the glimpse is not the same as the stick. That who can be met with recognition is even though you're seeing the realization, it's not the realization itself. It's like you can see a dance, but it's not the same as the dance itself. The dance is happening, whether you recognize it or not, in case you recognize it, That's funny. That's wonderful. Hey, we're dancing. You're wonderful. I think we're dancing. Is this dancing? In fact, when I was practicing tango, somebody would be dancing at me and say, I think we're doing the tango.

[38:38]

I think it's happening. I think it's happening. And all of a sudden, some people are watching. I think you were doing it. I think it happened. I'm almost like that. Very nice. Very encouraging. Wow. There was a moment when I recognized the dance, but it's not the dance. The dance itself gives immediate realization of the dance, recognition of it. When I talk about culture, which I won't have time to go into, we've talked about culture, and we're a little bit into the recognition. If you like recognition, recognition is nice. It's nice to know that you're doing dance. after all that practice. It's nice to know. But more important is the dance. And the dance actually goes out before you recognize it. The teachers see the dance that the students do.

[39:43]

They see the dance when the two big students are coaching each other. We haven't even got, they're still thinking to hear from each other, but they don't want to film each other, it's, [...] it responds to each other, so I'm just connecting with each other, and, I mean, the bass is good. If the bass is captured, it has unconstructedness and stillness in the And why do I have the entrance in drawing the mind to create something that clearly works in that, but this is done. So we will have found the person who had this signature. But I will tell them in the meantime that in the, towards the beginning of the scripture, which is called, in English it's called

[40:54]

the Heroic Stride Samadhi Sutra, which I've talked to you about. And in the beginning of the sutra, there's this wonderful Bodhisattva who has this thought, I'd like to ask the Buddha a question, a really good question. And then he thinks about how good a question could be and how helpful a question could be. He wants to ask a question that helps everybody in all these innumerable ways of thinking how he could help me. He's not the least bit trying to get an answer. He's just trying to ask a question that would really help me. And then the Buddha, he is this bodhisattva there who wants to ask this really good question about this really good topic. And the Buddha sees that and says, boy, that's terrific, the question you want to ask.

[41:58]

Go ahead, ask it. So then he asks the question, and it is a fabulous question. And the Buddha says, that really was a great question. So I appreciate your great questions, and I hope that you would try to make us offerings to Buddha. and hope of your major questions and will make your questions in order to benefit the innumerable beings in innumerable ways. Did I tell you a story about my assistant? So one time we just kind of studied this. We just had to discuss this section of this Bodhisattva. I think his name is Drita Monti. that we're discussing this question, this skillful question-asking. And, oh, by the way, after these bodhisattvas ask questions, the Buddha often says, that was a great question, and of course you ask this question through the wheel of the world in order to help many few beings.

[43:09]

The reason why you ask is to help other people. You weren't trying to get anything for yourself. You already know the answer. You just want me to respond. You just want everybody to hear this question to help them, and you want and to be able to hear my response. That's what you're up to. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for bringing this question into the world and getting me to respond to it for a lot of people. So then later that day, my assistant at the time, who was mostly sitting, but I guess on his break, sometimes he would chuck to see if any messages or something. He went home and turned his telephone on. And the telephone rang, and this woman, you know, asked him if she could talk to him, and he said, OK. And then she said that she had a credit card that she wanted to give to him.

[44:11]

And she was explaining the merits of the credit card. And he listened to her. And after a while, he thought, maybe I should ask a good question. Maybe that would be good. He asked a really good question that would help many meetings. So he said, do you have to make a certain amount of money to get this credit card? And she said, well, yeah. And she said, well, how much money? I think he said, well, how much money do you have to... You walked out in order to have this court card. She said, well, how much money do you have? And he pulled her. And she said, well, I get this small, such and such amount, and I also get a scholarship to save it. And she said, where are you?

[45:13]

I think she also said, that wouldn't be enough. Where are you? I said, wait, that's been nowhere near enough. There are you. And then he explained where he was, and he said, oh, wow. Can I come here? And he said, sure. He said, you can't smoke? He said, well, no, not the actives. It was a special area. We went from the meditation hall where you can smoke. And he said, well, thank you very much. He became a great senior master. Hey, I won't tell you her name. She'd like to sing in real life. Well, again, I...

[46:20]

I like the feeling of bodhisattvas sitting upright in meditation halls, playfully offering their body and mind as an author to Buddha. A lot of playfulness, yeah. Here's my body, here's my mind, here's my practice as an author to Buddha. And like little children, yearning to meet their dear, dear Dharma mother and father, yearning to meet the Buddha so that they can meet face-to-face and meet the people who are just transmitting this Dharma faith, like those children, really want to meet the great teacher of the inconceivably wonderful Dharma. and that they do this playfully, you know, enjoy, and they enjoy it, so they can do it moment after moment.

[47:26]

I want to playfully, like childish way, entering into the practice that's inconceivable. A reasonable adult would probably not do that. I'm going to sit down and enter the practice, which is the same practice, the same lighting as all beings. Give me it, Rachel. A child might say, hey, that sounds like fun. The same practice and the same enlightenment as Jin and her? Wow, yeah, okay, let's try. Let's open to it. Is there anything you object to do, Colin?

[48:30]

Well, all these days of wondrous teachings and wondrous practitioners and the Lotus Dormat. And the Lewis Dance Company. Just, you know, how do we not completely fall in love? And that's it, you know. In my life now, I'm finding that I'm very active. I know a lot of people where I live. I work with all kinds of people. And sometimes I get so tired of the kind of interactions with people because they're not practical things. I mean, I can love them and learn from them, but I find I prefer, you know, my preferences are to be Zonga.

[50:30]

Well, you just took care of that very nicely. If you're practicing people and you have any expectation, you get exhausted. But that little bit of expectation mounts up and exhausts us. Expectation, slight distraction from giving. Or preference. Preference. Expectation. Well, so, how to practice without presence? Well, when you practice and you walk up, what will get in the tiredness of it?

[51:37]

Without presence, the only expectation you'll be tired. Okay. That's how it'll be. So when you're tired, then you're in that mode. But when we're getting exhausted, it's okay to rest. And to rest, we have some energy to give it another try and say, now can we go back and meet these people, these beings, as a gift, right? As giving ourselves rather than arranging to fulfill a purpose or arranging to fulfill an expectation. Or if we have expectations and preferences, make them gifts. Just give them away. Somebody that we like, who needs some expectations and preferences. If you know anybody that's shot on them. That would be Buddha. Give him to Buddha.

[52:39]

Thank you, okay. Well, you can just be generous with no expectation. Enough of those. matter who you're going to be generous with. But anyway, if we notice that we prefer to be generous with disciples of Buddha, then let's be convinced that. And we've left when we're getting a consequence of that preference, preferencing. Well, I just, yeah, I wonder how really practical it is. How practical what is? Well, my preferences, you know, I get so, time is so short now. Well, I have that situation, I sometimes think. There's that situation where people are inviting me.

[53:43]

In this situation, I think I'll invite you, which one should I go to? I think, well, in that situation, I don't think I'm yeeted. In this situation, I think I am. But there's a function which only I can afford now. But yes, I do. And then suddenly I'd prefer to go to the one where I'm simply more yeeted than the one where I don't see any yeeted. So then I got a problem if I prefer that. So how can I go from one where I think I need it, and not for the one where I don't think I need it? Without the sermon, going to the reasonable one, and avoiding a certain place to time. That's the term, okay? It's possible, so just to go the right way without the sermon. Like, here's some people who I like to know. Yeah, they seem to be doing something, they don't need my help. And over here, they seem to be doing something, they do eat my hat.

[54:48]

So maybe I should go in the direction they eat my hat. But it'd be nice if I could afford to go in a way where it's really useful. In order to actually, I wouldn't, let's sort of, I wouldn't avoid going someplace where I'm really useless and where people wouldn't even, like, notice whether I'm there or not. But sometimes I clean it out, Jeff. I think, you know, maybe I should go in the dining room without and, you know, just be with people. And they go there, and I sit down, and nobody even notices that I'm there. I think, well, I could have went, but he seemed to be at his use. Maybe it was. I couldn't see it. Maybe in some very fond level, they were happening, and I was helping them. But in this other place where, on the superficial level, it was pretty clear that I was happening, they said, thank you very much for being here. So it looks like And on the level I can see, it looks like this is beyond useful. On the level I can't see, it's useful over here, but I can't see it.

[55:49]

So on the level I can't see, if this is useless, I'm wasting my time. Nobody wants me here. Even though they're asking me to come. And now that I've come, they have to acknowledge my presence. So it's kind of tough. The key is to have a preference. And I laughed. I might not have a preference about this thing. But then I realized that I should probably keep tracking this preference, because I'm the main one who knows about it. So I've got this preference. That's the problem. That's the actual complex. That's the actual nurture of mud. It's my preference to be what I'm useful and not to be what I'd like redundant or way too kind. But I do only have a situation where I feel like I'm useful here, but I'm not useful there. be good for me where I'm useful. So like for my grandson, I'm a superficial lover. I feel like I'm really useful to him because one of my grandsons really only has one grandfather, like I did, because of some problems with his father being kind of really missing point or not being around.

[57:03]

So his father's father is not available. So he's got basically one grandfather And I get so really good, useful, to serve this function as grandfather to him. It seems really good. It's the only little boys who I don't, they got, like, I have another grand, I know it's five grand fathers. Oh, just five, to make it work out, he has five, and he's wonderful. So I don't feel it's necessary to him. Although, that's, I mean, I just, you know, I do still Hey, I went to the end and gave myself to the end, but I feel like if the one who only has one, I'm more needed. But I, I got to watch, do I prefer being more needed to where I see being less needed? That's my problem. That I can, I can share that problem with you, you can help me, but basically, I'm the one who knows that I prefer, well, I think this is more useful. So that's something you'll watch off for.

[58:04]

Blase, Blase Angela, come on. Right there. Tough though sometimes. Like if you were 60 people, you know, who were studying at Duke University, and one person thousand miles away says, would you come and visit me? You'd be, see, that's a tough one. Kind of like they're figuring out back in an airplane and stay here with all these students rather than going through all that stuff. to do this thing or to have any insurance of much use. It's tough. Is there a preference there? If there's no preference, what would happen? I think the door would open, check the Dharma, and we would understand. We would understand how everybody, the people far away who are asking us to come are helping us, and we're helping them. I think it's just this preference thing. It's when you took a jingle for you.

[59:08]

And for me. To take care of it and study. Right. You know, it's very related to the teachings you're bringing of inspiring people to fall in love with the Dharma. I mean, that's really what... I've been reading several commentaries on the literature and I... You know, it's fall in love every other word. It's what they're suggesting to you, you know? I agree. Yeah. Yeah. So if you do that, then to make a step, you know, it's hard to fall in love with everybody. No, no, no, no. That's the nice thing about the Lotus Sutra. It makes it easier to fall in love with everybody. That's the nice thing about the Lotus Sutra. The law of the Lotus Sutra says, if somebody you're not loving, you should go over and spend time with them.

[60:17]

Your love should be extended to that reason. It points you in all the places that you should go. It tells you to do this universal thing. That's the nice thing about the Lotus Sutra. Because you clothed with secret items, they fell in love with you, not taking me away. Even my neighbor who tells me it's a shame that I'm a Buddhist. But at the same time, I'm learning with the rapture. It's quite incredulous. Take that verse and roll them into an offering to buddhas. Give yourself to him. Make yourself a gift to buddha to him. You need to say it, but when you're a lot with the wellness to treat, such things can happen.

[61:20]

Who did lots of Christians? Who did lots of Jews? Who did lots of Muslims? Who did lots of atheists? Who did lots of Christians? This morning, you talk about the handwriting of the Lotus Truck, and I read one of them. So, may I upload the handwriting of the Lotus Truck in space? Can I write it over to you? Right now, so I've got a chance for me to move down.

[62:43]

I don't know how to do it. Niao. Niao. Hwa. [...] Chi. Nian. Hwa. Nian. [...] Yeah, writing into space is very ecological. And then can I draw the pretty sour, well, I just say the mushroom. Uh, the Buddhist father, uh, put out from the earth and you remember about this mushroom.

[63:47]

Well, I, I don't think I can, let us, let us, let us, let us go. But can I just throw a mushroom in the air? Okay. So I can, yeah, all the things that I need to die, but I will make sure I, before I die. You draw a mushroom because you don't. It's cool. Another thing I want to share with you is when I know you were a proper bottle, those have sutra. So I agree though. That's good too. And last time when I mentioned to you, often I read a palette of all the buddhisattva. I feel released again. I won't take a break. You want a break? Well, last time when I do that and I mess into it, then for you to say, say, okay, I can take a break.

[64:56]

But this time when I go here, I feel that I won't join those police officers. I think I have it tomorrow. Okay, thank you. Do you have any offerings today? Just to give gratitude to the transfer I'll have a question. So I have to confess, I find the Locust Sutra difficult to understand.

[66:21]

But your teachings have been really valuable for me. I guess this whole time I've been really noticing how many judgments come up for me around lots of people and how much of a separation that is. How painful that feels, first of all. what kind of a separation that feels like from the true Dharma, I guess, or the true relationship, and then to just the process of just, yeah, I guess you can use the word confessing, or just acknowledging that disconnection, and then just kind of letting it go. And I guess it's just a process of bringing awareness to these places where we are We're stuck with their preferences and where other people and parts of ourselves rub up against us.

[67:23]

And we experience them in a way that feels very separate. And it's very painful. And I've noticed that before. But I just feel like you've given a teaching that's just very, very practical. And so I just wanted to thank you for it. It's also... I just want to say, you said to just acknowledge it, but then you said it's painful. So just acknowledge it, and then also feel the pain. Acknowledgement is the compression part. But then you feel the pain, that also is part of the process. Because that's what you're speaking about, you want to find a way, even to judge people, but without separation. Yeah. Because you can judge some moments forever without separating. Yes. It's possible. But if you judge and separate, then you notice the judgment and the separation and the pain.

[68:27]

And the pain will stimulate you to judge without separating. Like the judge would say, oh, that's just like me. You know, judge says, oh, they're that way, but that's me. You know, oh, they're that way. And that's how I came from the pain. Or they're that way and that's how I look. They're that way and that's how I'm separate from you. But the pain of that separation, when you feel it, will push you back to not necessarily getting up the separation, not getting up the discrimination or the judgment. But judge without separating. The judge can relax. The judge can be warm and gracious with the judgment. So one kind of judgment that you feel like pulling away, one kind of judgment that you feel like going towards the separation of evil. You feel bad in evil. It's a different type of bad. But if you're literally gracious with the separation, then you start to be gracious with the discrimination of the judgment, and then the judgment is cured.

[69:40]

Judgment is cured. And then you start treating the judgment All the different judgments are the same. You can teach all the judgments the same, there'll be no separation. And so in that judging without separation, is that the way that we can sort of enjoy our relative selves, our relative differences? We can enjoy it, yeah. So the non-institutional dating wisdom is a non-judgmental wisdom you can play. Doesn't mean you don't discriminate for a judge. You just need to treat all your discriminations the same. So, discriminating this way, you're gracious. Discriminating that way, you're gracious. So you relax with the discriminations of good and bad, skillful and unskillful, friend and enemy. Doesn't mean you don't take friend and enemy, because some people are wearing a badge since 500. And they want you to see that and recognize that.

[70:40]

So you say, okay. I see it says Kennedy, they say right. And you treat them the same as somebody who brings the sign that says friend. If you have a friend sign, that's the case they say right. You treat it the same. Do you treat them exactly the same? Or you treat them with the same... Exactly the same. ...withstanding? Exactly the same in the sense that you're generalized with both. Okay, in the sense that you're generalized with both. But in one case you say, oh, you're an enemy. And they say, right. And then they say, oh, you're a friend. They say, that's right. And we talk different, you know. And in both cases, though, but if a person's holding up a sign, the entity sign is somebody who's happy and enlightened, you know, you're happy to see them. You go and get an entity sign. And suddenly you've got a friend sign, but they're all heightened, and you've fallen, and thunk in misery, and you feel pain. So you see different things, you discriminate. If you treat both the animals. And the same for the parts of ourselves, too, I would guess.

[71:43]

Well, when somebody shows you a sign that's an enemy, that's probably a part of you. It's a different part of you because it's the source of a sign. Right. So you relate to everything, you relate to your mind and the objects of your mind the same, namely, generously, namely, ethically, and so on. And in particular, you're noticing this key factor of judgment, separation, pain. The pain will push you to find judgment, period. Judgment, period. Judgment, patient. He's a man, period. That's just what he is. He's just the kind of person who is. That's it. It's enough. It wouldn't be that. But that's always one thing to do. And then you have this other thing, which is if you judge and separate, it hurts. It's a pain, discomfort. If you feel that, I will guide you to find a way to have a judgmental mind without letting it separate you.

[72:55]

If you're generous with the judgmental mind, it's separating function deteriorates. Or it's disarmed. So it's the same, you start maybe with the generousness towards the judgmental mind, and then that relationship also becomes the generousness of the object that you were judging. Maybe it's just one relationship. Exactly. You come to realize that the person was giving you a gift when they brought you themselves so you could judge them. Absolutely. And when you see that, there's no separation, and it's more painful, and there's no fear. But before that comes, you have this helper, which is noticing of the genitive and separation kind of pain. And that feeling back is the repenting that gets you back on the path of realizing the blind or the others.

[73:56]

Thank you very much. skiing with an old friend named Foster. I've known him since the seventh grade, and it took a lot of trouble for us to get away from the wives and get a few days off together on the ski slopes. And the first morning of the ski part of it, he came down with gout because he had foolishly I think, drugged some red wine and taken some aspirin right before. So I got to ski a couple of days by myself instead of with my friend.

[75:00]

And one day I was riding back on the bus. I didn't have that much to do. So I had been thinking about and chanting that Om Mani, pay me home, the jewel is in the lotus. And I was chanting that. on the way down and I started chanting it more and more slowly and I had this thought that Foster and I are just a couple of fuck-ups. We're just almost 60 years old and we're still a couple of fuck-ups. And that's when something really clear about the jewel and the lotus and the dharma and the mud really came through, because you never lose your imperfections, but you never lose your perfection either.

[76:01]

And that helps me quit beating up on myself and others so much. That helped you to put your boots down in the imperfection, embrace lovingly embrace the imperfection, relax with the imperfection, and give attention to the imperfection, and then eat it graciously. Notice while trying. Thank you. So let us continue then to practice which is the same practice and the same enlightenment as all beings.

[77:18]

Please, please, please. Please, please.

[77:24]

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