As I mentioned before, we're on a new Dharma wave now. We're trying to ride a new wave. Tom, could you move a little bit to your left so I can see your face? Move your body. Great, thank you. So we're on a new Dharma wave. Can you hear me, Ted? And so one word I'm using for the new Dharma wave is the teaching of Buddha nature. And there's a great vehicle scripture called the Nirvana scripture, and in that scripture it says something like, all living beings fully possess, or all living beings without exception possess the Buddha nature.

[01:37]

Where's Tracy? Did she leave? No, she's right here. Oh. Okay. And then in another very important scripture it says, the Buddha says, All living beings fully possess the wisdom and the virtues of the Buddhas. But because of misconceptions and attachments, they don't realize it. And then there's a number of other scriptures that also bring out this Buddha-nature teaching, or teaching of what Buddha-nature is and for whom that's an issue.

[03:07]

And yeah, so I might say now that Buddha-nature is an issue for all living beings. We have this Buddha nature, but it's an issue in the sense that it needs to be realized. It's calling for realization. And the realization of it is Buddhahood. So there's something about us that's calling us to realize something about us. And the realization, when that realization is fulfilled, we realize Buddhahood. Now the first scripture just says all living beings

[04:16]

without exception, have this Buddha nature. The second scripture says something slightly different. It doesn't say Buddha nature, but it actually describes Buddha nature without calling it that. It says, the Buddha says, now I see all living beings fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddhas. So the Buddhas have perfect wisdom, and they also have virtues. They have great compassion. They have great skill to help people realize that they possess this wisdom and these virtues. In a way, you could say the Buddhas, now I see all living beings are fundamentally pure, because this perfect wisdom is fundamentally pure, and this compassion of the Buddhas is a pure compassion.

[05:23]

You can maybe later ask me about what that pure compassion is, but for now, just say that the Buddha wakes up and sees that we all possess the wisdom of the Buddhas, and also the virtues of the Buddha. However, there's some kind of problem there. What is the problem? Attachment and misconceptions, or misconceptions which lead us to think we can attach to something. The wisdom which we possess is the mind which realizes that there's nothing to attach to. or unattached to, that's the wisdom. We possess that wisdom. However, we also have these misconceptions which we kind of make, and we believe them, so we think we can attach to things, to life, and we do, and we suffer.

[06:32]

Meantime, we also have this perfect wisdom and great compassion. So then the Buddha says, well, I guess I have to teach people, because they don't understand that they possess this wisdom and that there's nothing to attach to. So we have with us today a young man. I would say he's young. Maybe he feels old. Do you feel young or old, Jared? What? Yeah, when I first met you, you were even younger, right? Yeah, I met him a while ago, he was younger than he is now. Jerry is getting older. Or as we sometimes say, Jerry's not getting any younger. But still, from a certain perspective, he's young. He's young, but he's getting older.

[07:37]

Is your name Tony? Tony looks young, too. But, to me, Tony's not getting any younger. And Drew, he looks kind of young, too. But he's not getting any younger. And I could go on, because almost everybody here looks young to me. horrendous automobile accident that he was in. And his dad was not in the accident, but it was almost as bad as being in the accident, because his boy was in it. So that big trauma to this young man's body, and he's here back with us today. We're so happy to see you. Our prayers are coming true.

[08:41]

And Jerry said to me, may I say some things you said to me? I won't say all of them. Jerry says to me, there was so much support, it was overwhelming. Did you say something like that? And you could also continue, you could say, you didn't say this, but Ali can say, the support for you is overwhelming, and the support for all of us is overwhelming. The support for us is overwhelming. There's no way to attach to it. It overwhelms any attachment. It overwhelms any ideas you have about it. Like, for example, the idea that it's overwhelming. It overwhelms that too. The realization that we are overwhelmed by support and also that we overwhelmingly support all beings.

[09:53]

All beings overwhelmingly support us. We overwhelmingly support all beings. That's perfect wisdom. That's the wisdom of the Buddhas. We all have that. We are that. We are being overwhelmed by support, and we overwhelm the universe with support. That's Buddha's wisdom and Buddha's virtues. And we have ideas, misconceptions. We have a deluded mind which projects upon this overwhelming support and this being overwhelmingly supportive. We have a mind, a deluded mind, which projects on this fundamental purity which nothing can attach to or get away from, it projects on it and makes it into manageable packages like Betsy and Tony and Terry and Tom.

[11:08]

We have a mind which can turn, not turn, which can project on this life, this inconceivable, all pervading, all pervaded life, which we all possess, which we all are, project upon it with imagination, and then believe that the projection is what's there. The Buddha nature is not just that we possess Buddha's wisdom, it's not just Buddha's wisdom, it's not just the way things really are, although it is that, it's the way things really are together with the way they really aren't. It's suchness in association with pollution, with delusion, with defilement,

[12:19]

with staining. It's reality together with a powerful fantasy machine. Like I think Freud said, human beings are powerful fantasy machines. Or actually he said that they're powerful separate fantasy machines. He was right about them being powerful fantasy machines. He was not right that we're separate. We are inseparable powerful fantasy machines. We include all the other fantasy machines, and we are included in them. But anyway, he got the fantasy machine part down very well. Thank you so much. To make a long story short, this realm of our deluded mind, where we make our life into little pipsqueak versions of our life, where we diminish our life into a manageable package,

[13:52]

that realm is calling us for compassion. And if we respond to the call fully, again and again and again, that realm of misconceptions and attachments will actually, in a sense, drop away. But not by getting rid of it, but by letting it be. Because the way it really is, is that even the imagination that things don't include everything, includes everything. even my imagination that your life is not my life, even that false imagination actually includes everything and is included in everything.

[14:56]

If we just let delusion be, we'll realize enlightenment. We already have reality, we just need to let unreality completely be unreality, and that really takes a lot of training. because unreality often says, get out of my face. Somebody told me recently, she was looking at a flower arrangement which the people in Berkeley gave me last Tuesday night. Right, Tracy? Right, Charlie? Right, Linda? Where's Linda? She didn't come? Right, Marie? Gave me a nice flower arrangement and I put it on the table in my house and somebody said to me, People, so many people are kind to you.

[16:03]

You're spoiled rotten. Did you see that flower arrangement yesterday? She wasn't the one who said it, but you could have. You could have said, you know, people are so kind to you. And also Tracy gave me a cheesecake. She made cheesecake for me and everybody else in the class. And also my cheesecake had a sparkle in it, and the sparkles burned my hand. But not, you know, not too badly. I'm okay. What am I talking about? I'm talking about overwhelming support, and then I'm spoiled rotten. I am nothing but overwhelming support. That's all I am.

[17:07]

What I really am is I'm overwhelmed. by infinite support, and also none of that, but I'm overwhelmed by giving myself to all beings. That's what I really fundamentally am. And you are too. And that's perfectly, completely pure, because it's overwhelmed. However, all around this fundamental purity is a coating of being spoiled rotten. So yes, I am spoiled rotten, but that's just a polluted coating over the fact of being totally, inconceivably supported by all beings. And I do the same for all beings, and I want to realize that. I know everybody's supporting me just amazingly, and I wanna be worthy of that, which I am, by remembering that I'm doing the same for others.

[18:18]

Meantime, I'm spoiled rotten. And my rotten spoiledness is calling for what? compassion is calling me for compassion, which also means it's calling me to realize this Buddha nature, which is called Buddhahood. So we've all got the Buddha nature, which is this marvelous being overwhelmed and marvelously over ... we overwhelm the universe and we are overwhelmed by it. We've got that and we've got this corruption. Realizing that is Buddhahood, which is just being overwhelmed and being overwhelming, no longer associated with this pollution, this misconception and attachment.

[19:34]

However, although no longer associated with it, totally accepting it, totally accepting this corruption, totally accepting the suffering is the end of suffering. Trying to get rid of suffering, of course, is more suffering. Compassion doesn't try to get rid of suffering. Compassion wakes the suffering up. So, I've been having trouble, I've told you about it before. At the end of this talk we will chant the Bodhisattva Vows, and the second one is The second one is, we say delusions are inexhaustible, but that word delusion is really a deluded translation of the original characters.

[20:42]

The original characters are afflictions and the afflictions are greed, hate and delusion. But at Zen Center in the 60s, you know, all the hippies didn't want to hear about greed and hatred. Delusion they could handle. So we said delusion. But really the original character means greed, hate and delusion also means worldly desire. It means desire for something other than being totally overwhelmed by the support of the universe and something being, you know, into something other than being into how you're supporting all beings. That's a worldly desire. Okay, so those, but those are, there's three of them and then there's infinite numbers of afflictions. And then it says, I vow to end them. But now I would like to say, these afflictions are inexhaustible.

[21:49]

I vow to exhaust them, not end them, but come to the end of them. I vow to come to the end of them by moving in them totally. In the text called Ganjo Koan, there's a place where it says something like, wishing to come to the end of the element without moving in it, they will not realize the end of it. You know that part? The way you realize the end of your element is by moving in it. And our element is delusion, and by moving in delusion, we will come to the end of it, and coming to the end of it is enlightenment.

[22:56]

Enlightenment is in the middle of delusion, coming to the end of delusion by moving in it, by practicing compassion in it. So I've already talked a long time and I think I'll conclude with a story. Do you want to hear a story? Well, here's the story. The story is about two ancient Chinese Buddhist or Buddha disciples. One's named Dongshan Liangjie. and the other one's name is Song Mi. Song Mi is older than Dongshan.

[24:00]

They were good friends, and so Song Mi was like Dongshan's uncle, Dharma uncle. And he sometimes is referred to as Uncle Mi. So the name of this case is, I don't know what, something like Uncle Me and the White Rabbit. It's case 56 of the Book of Serenity. So these two people are walking somewhere in China about 1,200 years ago. No, maybe more. Anyway, more than 1,000 years ago, they're walking around China, and they're walking on some kind of road, I think, and a white rabbit runs across the road. And Uncle Me says, swift! And the younger master says, how so?

[25:09]

And Uncle Me says, it's like a commoner becoming a prime minister. You know, like in the time from going from one side of the road to the other, for a peasant to become a prime minister of China. That would be like, it's like that. And Deng Xian said, such a venerable old gentleman, and you still talk like that? And Uncle Mi says, well, how about you? And Deng Xian said, after generations of nobility, temporarily fallen into poverty. from beginningless time, the universe has been such, has been just the way it is.

[26:47]

And there is temporary falling into poverty, falling into delusion about what the world is, about what our life is. And it's temporary, you know, temporary, like moment by moment. Each moment is a temporary falling into delusion after beginningless reality and endless reality. So, Dungsan is saying, it's not like you've got this person who is going to become a Buddha, or this peasant who is going to become a prime minister.

[27:59]

It's that you've got a person who is going to wake up to their Buddha nature. not by going through the process of becoming a prime minister, but going through the process of being kind to the delusions that are part of this person. So in China, If you were a peasant, and excuse me for saying so, but I must admit, a peasant man, if you were a peasant man, if you met somebody who had a book and would teach you how to read it, you could read it, which would be very nice for you, maybe. Anyway, if you studied the books, and studied the books, even a peasant could get a chance to take a test on the books.

[29:07]

And if you passed the test, you could become a minister. And then there was the next level of tests. And if you studied more, you could take a next test. And passed, you'd become a higher minister. In this process, you could, by your efforts, gradually become a prime minister. I don't know if actually there are examples, but I think there might be examples of peasants who became prime ministers. And Uncle Mi is pointing out that it's possible, just like this, to go from being a peasant to a Buddha. But Deng Xian is saying, no, it's not go from being a peasant to a Buddha, it's waking up to your already the Buddha's reality, and you're temporarily not getting it. And each moment you don't get it is another temporary.

[30:12]

And being kind, being kind to temporarily fallen into spoiled rotten. Temporarily spoiled rotten. Or, which is kind of nice to be spoiled rotten, the other one is to be abused rotten. To be abused. Temporarily falling into being abused and feeling poor. It's temporary, and if you can be kind to being temporarily poor for whatever reasons, that you're temporarily poor, you can wake up to that you, for a long time, have been Buddha's child.

[31:15]

Now, We could just forget about the story I just told you and everything I said before that and just say, well, let's be kind to our delusion. But maybe it's helpful to tell you this so that you understand that what you're working with is delusion, rather than what you're working with is to get rid of the delusion, which would kind of disorient you. And again, a lot of people don't even know that they're working with delusion. We could just say, be kind to everything. And sometimes that's what we do say. But today I'm saying, what you have available to be kind to is basically your delusional, your deluded view of what to be kind to. What to be kind to? All beings. But you can't see all beings. But what you can see is your deluded version of them. Moment by moment, you're temporarily falling into poverty.

[32:30]

Moment by moment, you see a poverty-stricken version of all beings and each being. Each being is overwhelmed by the whole universe, but you can't see that. I can't see that. Each being is supporting the whole universe. I can't see that. You can't see that. What I can see is a major reduction of that. And that major reduction of the way all beings are is delusion. And that delusion is calling for compassion. And that delusion is calling for compassion as a warm-up. That delusion is calling to be understood for what it is. which is a delusion, and that delusion is supported by the entire universe.

[33:32]

Our delusions are supported by the whole universe. Each deluded person is supported by the whole universe, and each person is calling for great compassion so that there can be realization that this delusion is calling for great compassion, and this delusion is inseparable from reality, which realizes our Buddha nature. So we already got the Buddha nature, which is reality, everybody's got reality, and everybody is rotten to the core. Everybody's completely pure and everybody's diluted. And those two are inseparable. That's what we've got. And realizing that is Buddhahood.

[34:32]

So, we are being called for compassion and then, once the compassion is going, we're called for wisdom. We're being asked to be compassionate and we're being asked to become Buddhas. the world's asking us to become Buddhas. I like that song. Oh, it's fine to be a genius, of course, but let's not put the horse before the cart. We're being called to be a genius. Our genius is our Buddha nature. We're being called to be that Buddha nature. so fully that we realize it and become Buddha. And it's fine to be a genius, but let's not put the genius before being kind to the deluded person. And being kind to the deluded person, we'll realize deluded person is inseparable from Buddha.

[35:39]

But we're temporarily falling into poverty. and our poverty is calling for compassion. And I'm being overwhelmed by compassion. all the time, and so are you. And we're being called to get with the program. And it's hard for us because sometimes the way we're called is in the form of somebody trying to control us or bully us.

[36:48]

we don't realize somehow when the bully comes that the bully is saying, would you please practice compassion with me when I'm bearing down on you so roughly? Would you please be generous to me and tender with me when I'm not being tender with you and I'm telling you not to be tender with me? It doesn't sound like that. It sounds like, you know, something else. Like, get out of here. Do what I say. And if you don't, I'm gonna hurt you. Or even, I'm hurting you now because I hate you. I don't want compassion from you. I just want to kill you.

[37:51]

it's hard to realize that that's calling for compassion. And we have stories in this tradition, and other traditions too, of where people are being almost killed, or on the verge of being killed, and they don't get fooled by it, and they come back with blessing. I've heard stories like that. Like when Gandhi was shot, he... Well, I don't know exactly at what point it happened, whether the guy was pointing the gun and he blessed him, or the guy pulled the trigger and he was shot and he blessed him, but he blessed him. He blessed the murderer. But I think, actually, he was blessing before the murderer showed up. He was just walking along, blessing. He was doing a blessing practice. And if you do a blessing practice, then sometimes when a murderer shows up, you just continue.

[38:58]

If you try to wait until a murderer comes to start your blessing practice, it's not recommended. Do it now with these nice people. I mean, I should say, do it now with these people who you have delusions of niceness about. It's easier to start with these people, of being compassionate with these people. Isn't it easy to be compassionate with these people? These people who actually believe that you were doing that for them and they kind of know that they're asking you to be compassionate? Don't you kind of know that you're asking everybody here to be compassionate to you? Do you know that? I'm asking you to be compassionate to me, and you're asking me to be compassionate to you. Is that clear? Yeah. But if I start acting other ways, you might... I don't know what. You might kind of not understand that.

[40:00]

You might think you're just being cruel. And I just heard that a Buddhist teacher was now, what's the word, cited for abuse by many women. It's possible that many or all of those women spoke of the abuse that they experienced with him as acts of compassion, that they all did this as an offering of compassion. It's possible that they realized, oh, he's been calling for compassion all this time, and now we're going to give it to him by letting him know that we experienced his behavior as abusive. We're going to do that for him now. We weren't able to do it before.

[41:02]

Now we can do it. So the compassionate response can look many ways. And I could go on for a long time telling you stories about people who felt called for compassion, and they totally were ready to give the compassion, and they gave it, and the person they gave it to who asked for it didn't understand that they were asking for compassion, and they didn't understand that the response they got was for compassion. That's fundamentally what we're doing all day long, is we're practicing compassion towards everybody, and everybody's practicing compassion towards us. That's what's really going on. That's our fundamental purity. And Superficially, we have these little stories about what's going on, which sometimes they sound like this.

[42:06]

These people are being compassionate to me. That story is correct in a way, but what you're seeing while you tell the story is not the way they're being compassionate to you. The way they're being compassionate to you is overwhelming. You can't say anything about how compassionate everybody is being to you. You can say whatever you want. It never reaches it. And if you believe it, it's a delusion. And vice versa. You're doing this for all beings. So I'm going to stop, I'm not going to tell you all the stories about this. They're so good, though. Yes? Did you want to say something? Please do. Yeah. If I can't listen to everything I'm thinking, if I don't listen to everything I'm thinking as a call for compassion, that sort of makes it difficult to understand that everything I think other people are saying is calling for compassion.

[43:30]

Like somebody said to me recently, there's so many cries for compassion. I just can't do it. I just can't do it is calling for compassion. So, when people are calling you for compassion and you say, I can't stand this call, that's another call, which only you can hear, because it's in you, sort of. So, please help me, Amanda, and then you say, I can't, I can't help him. So, if you can be compassionate, I can't help him, he's asking for too much, then you might realize that you can respond to my amazingly outrageous request. because you can be kind to, I can't, I can't do what he's asking me to do, I can't, I can't, I can't! The cries are gifts, they're skillful means of the universe, stimulating us to become Buddha.

[44:34]

If you don't say something pretty soon, I'm gonna tell another story. Yes? Could it be wisdom, with a little packet, me, at this time, to say, Kenneth, that's also I can't do it is, I wouldn't say it's wisdom, but I would say it's skill and means. Wisdom uses the means of I can't do it to test to see if you can be compassionate to that. So wisdom is pushing you to widen your compassion. So now, I can do it. I can practice compassion, and maybe say, yeah, I can.

[45:52]

And wisdom's also offering that as a means. But it doesn't just offer, yes, I can, or yes, I want to be compassionate. It offers, that's too much. I can't, like a lot of people say, if I practice compassion then I'll turn into a doormat, people will take advantage of me if I can't practice compassion to them. That is another message, a skill and means from wisdom, seeing if you can not be tricked by that one. So it's more like skill and means than compassion, but it's coming from compassion. I mean, it's more like skill and means rather than wisdom, but skill and means come from wisdom. So all these challenges are coming to help you expand your compassion. I'm struggling a little bit with knowing when to say no is a yes, which seems like it takes skill and means over your life, but it takes some.

[46:55]

wisdom about yourself to say no. I'm just hearing what you're saying is continually yes. So, see my hand coming up here? This does not mean you have to defend yourself. You can keep talking when I go like this. If you ask me to do something like, say, would you please give me a pint of blood? And the thought comes up in my mind, no. Okay? No, I hear that with compassion. I hear your request with compassion, maybe. And then, I've done my job with her request.

[48:01]

I listened to it with compassion, maybe wholeheartedly. But my wholehearted listening to her request for a pint of blood does not mean that the thought, no, will not arise in my mind. It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that it will. But I did try to listen to her request for a pint of blood with compassion. That was my aspiration, and I gave it a try, and I felt pretty good about listening to it. And then guess what happened? A no came up. Where'd that come from? I don't know. I don't know. I'm speaking for myself. When she asked me for a pint of blood, where'd that come from? I don't know. I don't know how that happened. But when it did, there was compassion for it, and I was very grateful for that.

[49:06]

And now, instead of a request for blood, we have a no coming up. And there could be compassion for the no. equally wholehearted as the compassion for the request, for the blood. And then after that, what will happen? I don't know. But something will. Another request, another call will come. And that call is calling for compassion, and there will be a compassionate response, and if I could, like, be there fully for that request, the compassion is there. It's there anyway, but it's realized by that being present for it. So no could come up in the mind of a person who's wholeheartedly listening to a call, a request.

[50:07]

And also yes can come up. And there can be compassionate with the no, and there can be compassion with a yes. And again, I said there can be, I'm also saying there is. There's always compassion with, may I have a quart of blood? You said a pint before. So, she said a pint, now she says a quart. And what comes up in my mind, have you just doubled the request? May I have a quart? I don't know where that comes from, but it's calling for compassion. You doubled your request? I don't know where that's coming from, but it's calling for compassion. If we learn this, we will realize our Buddha nature. We will realize what we can't see now is that everybody is calling me for compassion, and everything about me is calling for compassion.

[51:13]

And getting with that practice, you'll wake up to your Buddha nature, you'll become Buddha. So simple. But challenging, very challenging, when you say a quart, I mean, you say a pint, and then you say a quart, and then you say a gallon, you know, and every time you tell me how much blood you want, no matter what, no matter how much blood you ask for, I always respond. I always do. I can't not. And I don't do it by my own power. The whole universe makes me, supports me to respond to every request you have. And my response is not under my control. It's under the control of the whole universe. And I can wake up to that by being compassionate to that process.

[52:21]

Yes? Well, to take that another step, there's a kind of yes or no that comes from a place where I might think that I'm a person who has a rule I need to follow, and that rule says I must Okay. Well, when somebody makes a request of you, you hear that, and you're compassionate towards it, like somebody asked me for a pint of blood, so my rule is, a pint's okay, a quart's not. That could be a rule, right? So she asked for a pint, I say, fine. I check my rule, and my rule says a pint's okay. Also, another part of my rule is we have to do it in a certain kind of medical facility where they know how to do it. I'm not going to let you do it. That's one of my rules. I'll give you a pint of blood, but I'm not going to let you draw it in the kitchen. It's not really one of my rules.

[53:31]

You can draw blood for me in the kitchen, but Aileen might not agree. No, bloodletting in the kitchen is against the rules of this temple. Okay, anyway. There's a request, and there's a response. What's the response? The response is, I think this corresponds to my rules. That could be the response. They made the request, and there's a rule that says, this works. This works is also calling for compassion. How about they're making a request and it comes up, this doesn't correspond to the rules. This is not an appropriate request. But that thought, that delusion, this is not an appropriate request. It's calling for compassion. So people make requests of us. We have responses. Their requests are calling for compassion.

[54:32]

Our responses are calling for compassion. And if our responses are, fine, I'll give you everything, or if my response is, fine, I'll give you something, but not everything, or fine, I'm not gonna give you anything. I'm not gonna give you anything is calling for compassion. I'll give you something is calling for compassion. I'll give you everything. Everything is calling for compassion, everything. And if we learn that, we'll wake up to that. The precepts are calling for compassion, yes. These are precepts about our nature and they're calling us to realize our nature. And the Buddha nature precepts are wisdom in the form of a request so we will realize wisdom. Can you hear her in that room?

[55:42]

Could you hear her? Could you hear her, Ted? Okay. No response is also a response. No response is also a response. In other words, there is always a response. Silence is a response. The historical Buddha was big on responding with silence. So they called him Mr. Silence. One of the names for a sage is Silent One. And the Silent Ones are always responding, and they often respond by being silent, but the Silent Ones also respond sometimes by being quite talkative. I'll be right with you. Yes? Homa?

[56:44]

Homa? Are you done? Yes. Okay, thank you. Betsy? In this moment, I'm having a block to the word compassion. The block, the block... Let's not skip over the block. It's fine to be a genius, of course, but let's not skip over the block. The block is calling for compassion. What do you mean by compassion? Well, like, hello, block. Welcome, block. Buddhism's, you know, I have this idea that Buddhism is not about blocks. It's about liberation. Anyway, and then block shows up. Welcome, block. You don't have to like the block. And you don't have to hate the block. But you might like the block. But if you like the block, then liking the block is calling for compassion. If you don't like the block, then not liking the block is calling for compassion. But maybe before we get into liking and disliking, let's just write off, not miss the chance.

[57:50]

Hello, block. Like when somebody says to me, you're spoiled rotten. Hello, spoiled rotten. Me, spoiled. It's not like, me, spoiled rotten. It's like, me, spoiled. I am, you're right, I am spoiled rotten. You people have spoiled me rotten. Welcome that. You know, Reb, you're a worthless practitioner. Not only are you spoiled rotten, but you don't deserve all this kindness. You're not worthy of it. You're a rat. You're a bum. You're a lazy bum, as a matter of fact. Some people call me lazy bum, but you know, generally speaking, you can try it on me. I'm kind of ready for that one. I kind of can see it's really funny, but maybe you don't want me to think it's funny, so maybe you have to keep saying it until I say, you know, that really hurts.

[58:52]

Did you bring a block? Yeah. So, first of all, you welcome it. You give it gifts. And the main gift that you have an opportunity to give is Thank you for coming very much, Mr. Block, Miss Block. You're welcome to be here. I don't like you or dislike you, or maybe I do dislike you, but even though I do dislike you, I still welcome you. A gracious hostess welcomes people she doesn't like and people she likes. And I welcome, I want to welcome everybody, including Miss Block. And then, next I move on to practicing relating to the block that I've allowed to be here, to be tender with it and careful with it, because it's calling me for compassion, it's calling me for generosity, it's calling me for tenderness, because the block

[59:55]

And to be seen, yeah. But again, it's ultimately calling for to be seen as it is rather than seen as I see it. But you're not, again, to see things as it is is to be a genius. And people want us to be geniuses and see them as they are. But in a way, we won't be able to see the people as they are if we're not generous with the way they appear. and they appear to be a block, like, this person's a block to my happiness, this person's a block to my good reputation, et cetera, I might think, and I can be kind to that attitude and also to the block, and be careful and tentative and tender with it and respectful of it, and then be patient with it, because blocks can be kind of uncomfortable, especially if they're sitting on our face, or pushing us into a corner.

[60:59]

We can be physically in it. But the thing that's really blocking us is our own deluded mind, which is hemming us in. So, yeah, so I'm being patient with my own deluded mind, which is suffocating me. generous, tender, patient. And now, that took a lot of energy, so now I have to go get some more energy to continue on my path to what? To seeing this person, to seeing this block, which is calling me to be seen. So now I have to say, I really would like to practice compassion towards this block, and I would like to see this block for what it really is. So now I'm going to have to, like, rouse up, I'm going to have to refresh my energy now to take the next step. And the way I refresh my energy is to think how great it would be not only to be generous and careful and patient, but to see reality in this block.

[62:11]

And I'm feeling some energy to do that now. But the next step, actually, before the seeing, will be to be still, to be relaxed, to be open to the block, to be flexible with the block and calm with the block, to not move at all with the block. but not even to not move at all, but to realize not moving at all, because it's already there, the not moving. So I have a lot of enthusiasm to realize being with this block as an act of compassion with the block, not to try to get rid of it. I'm just going to be with it completely, calmly, openly, tenderly. You wouldn't confess and repent that you have the block? The block is not something to confess. The thing to confess and repent is, number one, I confess and repent I was not generous with the block.

[63:16]

The block came, and I said, get out of here. I forgot to practice generosity. I'm sorry. I would confess getting distracted from what the block was calling for. The block was calling for compassion. I got distracted from practicing compassion towards the block. And I, instead of welcoming it, I thought about, I'd like to get rid of you, Mr. Block. I want to get rid of you. Mr. Block is not coming to me to ask me to get rid of it. Mr. Block is coming to me to be seen and liberated. and on the path to liberation, I'm gonna have to be really compassionate to the block. But if I forget or get tricked by the block and think that the block actually would like me to annihilate it, well, I confess, my deluded mind got in there and distracted me from the practice of how to deal with my deluded mind, which says this is a block, rather than my

[64:22]

awakened an educated mind which says, this is the skillful means of the Buddhas to wake us up. Like it says in the chant we sometimes do at the end of the day, talking about all these difficulties that come, that they're skill and means to wake us up. Anyway, and if I was compassionate in the form of generosity towards the block, But I wasn't gentle, then I said, I wasn't gentle with it, I wasn't tender with it. It tenderly came to me and said, please be compassionate to me. I'm a block. Everybody's trying to get rid of me. Would somebody please let me be? And you say, yeah. And you're tender with it, and then you're... And the blocker might even say, I want compassion, but I know I'm a difficult customer. I know it's hard to be with me, because I'm blocking everything.

[65:23]

Like every time you try to say something, I interrupt you. I know I'm trouble. But I still want compassion, even though I'm a troublemaker. And I know it's painful, but I want you to be compassionate with how painful I am. please," and you go, okay, I'm going to be here with you, I'm not going to try to get rid of you. I'm going to try to practice compassion in the form of really being here with you, not trying to make you better or worse, that's patience. And now I'm going to start working up my energy, because the next two steps are going to take a lot of energy. and I want to do the next two steps and I want to do the previous steps and I've done them, now I'm ready to generate energy and really be calm and see." That's what the blocks are calling for. They're calling for great compassion and they're calling for liberation so they can be Buddha too.

[66:30]

So not being any different than this. Yeah, and not being any different, and by not being any different, you realize that this is otherwise. This is not just this. This is the whole universe in the form of this. And my mind, which makes the whole universe into this, is the whole universe making this. and then you wake up to your original pure nature by dealing with the corruption or the defilement of block, hindrance, obstacles, evil. Thank you. You're welcome. So, Rev, Gordon needs to go now It's his birthday. He has people coming. But I thought we could sing this song.

[67:36]

I know. Come on. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Coralyn. Happy birthday to you. You can go now. Do you want to go? Do you want to go? No. You want to stay? Okay. Is that enough for this morning? What did you want to say? Anything? That's okay. I'll ask him later. Did somebody else want to say something? You said something at the beginning of the talk about covering compassion, and you did that as you spoke, right?

[68:42]

Yeah. So, what was your question? Well, just that if there was something that you wanted to bring up this afternoon about this morning's talk, please. And same to you. Kriya, did you want to say something? Was that clear? If it's okay to be shuffled around, then it will be shuffled. If you don't want shuffling, leave town. Because this place is a shuffle.

[69:28]

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