Remove the obstructing defilements and clear away all your taints. Listen to the perfect wisdom of the gentle Buddhas, taught for the wheel of the world, for heroic spirits intended. That's interesting, for heroic spirits intended. That fits into some of what we're going to talk about tonight. What we did last week was we read the first section of this chapter six, which is stapled onto this, which is a suggested practice. Do what again? Read the whole thing? Yeah. And then we were supposed to try to do the practice and then we were going to come back together and talk about what it was like. I guess that little plan got derailed. So, this section called Range of Jubilation.

[01:12]

Do you want to read it? Should we read it again? Yeah, I'd like to read it again. Let's just read it one paragraph at a time. Each of us read a paragraph? Yeah. Okay. Okay. The Range of Jubilation. Subuti. A bodhisattva, a great being, considers the world with its ten directions, in every direction, extending everywhere. He considers the world-systems quite immeasurable, quite beyond reckoning, quite measureless, quite inconceivable, infinite and boundless. He considers in the past period, in each single direction, in each single world-system, the Tathagatas, quite immeasurable, quite beyond reckoning, quite measureless, quite inconceivable, infinite and boundless, who have won final nirvana in the realm of nirvana which leaves nothing behind. Their tracks cut off, their course cut off, their obstacles annulled, guised through the world of becoming, their tears dried up, with all their impediments crushed, their own burdens laid down, with their own wheel reached, in whom the fetters of becoming are extinguished, whose thoughts are well freed by right understanding,

[02:23]

who have attained to the highest perfection in the control of their entire hearts. He considers them from where they began with the production of the thought of enlightenment, proceeding to the time when they won full enlightenment, until they finally entered nirvana in the realm of nirvana, which leaves nothing behind in the whole span of time up to the vanishing of the good dharma. as preached by each of these Tathagatas. He considers the mass of morality, the mass of concentration, the mass of wisdom, the mass of emancipation, the mass of revision and cognition of emancipation of those Buddhas and Lords. In addition, he considers the store of merit associated with the six perfections, with the achievement of the qualities of a Buddha, and with the perfections of self-confidence and of the powers, and also those associated with the perfection of the super-knowledges, of comprehension, of the vows, and the store of merit associated with the accomplishment of the cognition of the all-knowing,

[03:43]

with the solicitude of beings, the great friendliness and the great compassion, and the immeasurable and incalculable Buddha qualities." And he also considers the full enlightenment and its happiness, and the perfection of the sovereignty over all dharmas, and the accomplishment of the measureless and unconquered supreme wonder-working power which has conquered all. and the power of the Tathagata's cognition of what is truly real, which is without covering, attachment, or obstruction, unequaled, equal to the unequaled, incomparable, without measure, and the power of the Buddha cognition preeminent among the powers, and the vision and cognition of a Buddha, the perfection of the ten powers, the attainment of that supreme ease which results from the four grounds of self-confidence, and the attainment of Dharma through the realization of the ultimate reality of all Dharmas. Actually, this is my favorite part. He also considers the turning of the wheel of dharma, the carrying of the torch of dharma, the beating of the drum of dharma, the filling up of the conch shell of dharma, the wielding of the sword of dharma, the pouring down of the rain of dharma, and the refreshment of all beings through the gift of dharma, through its presentation to them.

[05:00]

He further considers the store of merit of all those who are educated and trained by those demonstrations of dharma, whether they concern the dharmas of buddhas or those of pratyekabuddhas or of disciples who believe in them, who are fixed on them, who are bound to end up in full enlightenment. He also considers the store of merit associated with the six perfections of all those bodhisattvas of whom those buddhas and lords have predicted merit of all those persons who belong to the Pratyekabuddha vehicle and of whom the enlightenment in Pratyekabuddha has been predicted. He considers the meritorious work founded on giving, morality and meditational development of the four assemblies of those Buddhas and Lords, i.e., of the monks and nuns, the laymen and laywomen. He considers the roots of good planted during all that time by gods, Nagas, Yakshas, Gandharvas, Asuras, Garudas, Kinnaras, Maharagas, by men and ghosts, and also by animals, at the time when those Buddhas and Lords demonstrated the Dharma, and when they entered Parinirvana, and when they had entered Parinirvana, thanks to the Buddha, the Lord, thanks to the Dharma, thanks to the Sangha, and thanks to persons of bright mind culture.

[06:22]

In his meditation, the Bodhisattva piles up the roots of good of all those, all that quantity of merit without exception or remainder, rolls it into one lump, weighs it, and rejoices over it with the most excellent and sublime jubilation, the highest and utmost jubilation, with none above it, unequaled, equally unequaled. Having thus rejoiced, he utters the remark, I turn over into full enlightenment the meritorious work founded on jubilation. May it feed the full enlightenment of myself and of all beings." Great. So we were hoping to talk about, we talked about trying to do this, and Alan and I both tried to, and Ross, I don't know if you did. I'm doing counseling. And so we thought we'd talk about what happened, and then we'd move on. I don't really know how to proceed.

[07:26]

The three of us can talk about what happened. You guys can listen. Well, they can also talk about any common experiences or questions as they come up from what we're talking about. Maybe Ross should start. So I was supposed to be How did you do this? Passing over this dedicating jubilation. It's funny, last week when we were talking about it, it seemed very easy to sort of

[08:29]

It seemed easy to talk about how good it feels or comfortable it is to share the merit of practice, and for some reason right now it seems really awkward to bring it up. I'm stuck. Okay. But I will say something before. Nice help. Maybe you guys can get the ball rolling, I don't know. Yeah. I'll pipe in. Well, I had a couple different experiences.

[09:33]

One of the things we talked about was just that this is, that we emphasize very much practicing with difficulty, or you know, tend to, and you know, classes to talk, so this is a way to practice with something besides difficulty. Practicing with your joy and also seeing emptiness or letting go of good things too. And I didn't even try to do it exactly the way they said it here myself, because I couldn't get my mind around the vastness that they're bringing up here, but I did The thing that I focused on was friendliness, which is one word that's mentioned in here, and just trying to think of all the friendliness that's been the basis for people getting along, continuing over the centuries, and all the friendliness between people that I could see in my daily life, and just focusing on reminding myself, and all that I could imagine going on since the beginning of time.

[10:38]

It seemed to be, especially for some reason for the first couple of days, I was, I had a very positive attitude naturally and I would just feel so happy to be here and everything seemed so beautiful and I would lapse into these states of joy pretty naturally and then it would be very easy to say, you know, I turn this over, I turn over the meritorious work found on this rejoicing. May it be the full enlightenment of myself and of all beings. And, you know, I didn't... You articulated that. Yeah. You said that. And then the other thing that happened, I didn't notice any effect afterwards, so in a sense maybe it was kind of purifying, because it was a way to keep it rolling or something, you know, rather than sort of accumulating the joy somehow. But the other thing that happened is, if I wasn't in a naturally... in a state, in a sort of joyful state or focusing on the positive state, I found that the more I tried to think of good, the more awful things came to my mind.

[11:49]

The more I thought about Bosnia and, you know, everything, you know, the more I tried to think about friendliness, the more I thought about the negative. And that's, I didn't go any, I mean, I didn't have I didn't go anywhere with that. I just noticed that in a certain sense my mind too is used to focusing on the negative. And the news doesn't promote... You don't hear news reports about these areas. things happening, the Tatagatas and the massive morality and all that. So you have to kind of imagine it. So that's all I have to say. Well, I had interesting experiences with this in the course of the week.

[12:52]

Hi. Hi, Deity. Particularly, it was vivid to me during Sashin, which is usually, a one-day Sashin is usually very hard for me. It takes me a day or two to settle into any new kind of circumstance like that. I was very aware, there was kind of a joy that was rising, sitting with people, and in the afternoon, I spent a lot of, in the afternoon and evening, I spent a lot of time talking with people, practice discussion, and some people

[13:56]

had suffering, you know, were suffering really palpably. And one of the things that came up for me sitting with them and talking was there was a joy, for me at least, in the intimacy of that communication. And what I found is when I actually could articulate that joy, it could be turned over. And the source of that joy was both in the intimacy of that situation, but also in the intimacy of the whole Sangha, the whole shape of the practice that we have.

[15:04]

And I was very aware of that and I talked about that with several people, looking at the painful conditions of our lives and then thinking of the refuge that we have in Zazen and in the communal aspect of Zazen, that that's a really fortunate circumstance to have in our lives, that sustains us in ways that we would not otherwise know, because we would otherwise have the same suffering, or something like it, maybe not quite the same, our knees may not hurt as much, but we'd have the same same psychological and existential kind of suffering without the same resources of sustenance and without the same wellsprings of joy to draw from.

[16:13]

And that seemed to be helpful in the conversations that we had. It was a very powerful experience. it just developed a very strong feeling. And the other aspect that came up for me when working with that was that we were, the way we talked about this was, okay, when the joy comes up, we turn it over. And what I realized is that as suffering beings and as sentient beings, we're also the winning or unwitting recipients of great jubilation and merit that's being turned over to us by the Buddhists and Bodhisattvas and by other sentient beings.

[17:26]

And I was very aware of that in the course of this week. I was aware of trying to turn it over as it was arising in me, but of also trying to see what the source was of the joy, of the jubilation, where it was coming from in me. what was quite interesting was I couldn't really find the source uh... which certainly is in harmony with what we've been talking about in here I think I couldn't find the source but I began to think of it as if I were the recipient and each of us were the recipients of jubilation that was being shared by other beings, which ties us together in a very close community.

[18:39]

So that's what came up for me. And I also find it hard to stay with, because now I have a kind of cold, and I'm tired, and I'm not in such a good mood. But that all these things, I have some faith that all these things are continually shifting. And that at another time of day, or if I go home and play with Sylvie, then joy will come up again. These things are continually shifting. But that's what came up for me. And I was really reminded of it. I've seen the Dalai Lama yesterday. Did anyone else get to go? I mean, he's very joyful.

[19:40]

There's another context I want to talk about him later, but his joy is very evident. David Luke, who died yesterday at lunch, and realized that all of the really strong Buddhist teachers that I've ever come into contact with, what I related to was the joy that they communicated. And often it was a kind of dharma joy, and a kind of It's part of this turning over. When I find a person like that, I kind of want to hang around them. Because some of that might rub off.

[20:44]

And in fact, it will. That's the thing. I think when I came to the practice, I sort of believed you had to be born that way. But that's not a particularly Buddhist point of view. Or at least, you are born that way, but you're not aware of it, maybe. Well, yeah, you are born that way. Everybody's born that way. Right. In fact, if you look at... I have a baby picture in my womb. And clearly, it's from about when I was six or eight months old, I was clearly born that way. My parents used to ask me, in my early teens, my mother would point to the picture and say, what happened? I want to point back and say, you happened! Or the world happened. But we unlearn that. But somebody like the Dalai Lama has trained himself to dwell in that ease and joy.

[21:54]

I'm very much turning it over very naturally and just giving it away, giving it away, giving it away. He said he made a point of saying detailed thank yous to everybody involved and then thank you to everybody there for sitting in the sun, you know, when he was in the shade. He just kept this kind of generous, this generous sort of giving away of his joy and warmth, you know, very naturally, just constantly. I was struck, because I'm just going to identify with what you were saying, Laurie, about feeling a little bit of tension. When you start feeling enthusiastic about something, and then you start considering the problems that you'll run into with your enthusiasm, well, how far will this enthusiasm take me before I run into some serious problems out there, let alone something like blasphemy? And he sketched all these problems, and then he just said, well, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? I'm not even sure how to fix these problems, but I know that without hope and enthusiasm and intelligence, You know, and he was not daunted at all.

[22:56]

He didn't seem daunted at all. Then he walks off, he walked off, like, when he walked off the stage, it was kind of like, wow, here's somebody. He doesn't mind if he runs into problems. He's just sort of dedicated to being like this forever. And you just kind of wanted to follow, just wanted to throw tricks along with him and watch him do the same thing tomorrow and the next day. That was really impressive. He wasn't daunted at all. Well, that's what some of these people do. That's what Thich Nhat Hanh does. That's what Maha Gosananda does in Cambodia. Maha Gosananda is planning a peace walk from Phnom Penh to Pai Lin, which is the Khmer Rouge headquarters. And this is happening in May. And he doesn't care. And it's not because he's disconnected, you know, he knows what the dangers are, he knows exactly what they are, and he has this quality of air and joy and a quality of steel and determination at the same time, a quality of fearlessness, which we'll also get to a bit later.

[24:05]

Anyway, that's some of the thinking. It reminded me, doing this practice reminded me of what I get from our teachers. From Mel also, this kind of ease and single-mindedness and just enjoying his life as best he can. That kind of non-dauntedness, undauntedness. For me it's interesting to look at the difference between the very literal articulated transfer of merit that we do when we chant in the mornings and afternoons, and then the transfer of merit that kind of goes unstated. There's this homeless couple. The wife and child haven't shown up in a while.

[25:11]

She's been sick, but he's been out front of our store asking for money. And he wasn't around for a few days, and a customer came in and she said, have you seen the man of the family lately? I said, no, I haven't. She said, well, I have work for him. And I was looking for him to tell him about that. And he's actually a very energetic guy who actually doesn't want to just be on the dole and begging. He just wants to earn a living and be respected. So I saw him a couple of days later on the way to work in the morning. He was at a French hotel, which is on the way up to where I work. So I said, hey, how's it going? And we chatted. when I see him periodically. And so I told him, did this woman get a hold of you? She wanted to give you some work. And he smiled and he said, yes, her name is so and so. I did see her and I had told her that he's at the French Hotel sometimes. So they made this connection and I felt good about making a connection with him again and that it was kind of after the fact that they in fact had, he had gotten his bit of work from her and was able to make a few bucks and then I just went on my way to work.

[26:25]

So I looked at it afterwards and I felt good about the exchange. He smiled and seemingly felt good about our little chat and acknowledgement of this sort of relationship that we had. And something was transferred there, but it wasn't like, I feel good and I'm transferring the merit over to him or to the universe. And I think there's a place where we're doing both those, where sometimes it's not so readily discernible and sometimes it's quite clear. I remember hearing talks about how we transfer merit after the Samaritans accrued during Zazen or during the chanting. And people say, well, you don't hold on to it, you give it away. So that was sort of the most clear example of my experience of feeling jubilant or good about something and kind of passing it on in some way.

[27:29]

It's almost like just feeling it is so natural to share it that you don't really feel like you're doing anything in a way. That to say you're turning it over in some way almost seems extra, you know. Although I did feel like I want to tell this guy about this thing, so that's a very obvious thing that I know this is going to feel good when I tell this guy that he's got some work lined up, because that's what he's looking for. Right. But I guess it's to the degree that you want to carry that around with him, trying to get happy by building up this merit, as opposed to just kind of flowing with it. But what you were saying about the Dalai Lama not being sort of daunted by the problems, it's like we can never get rid of these problems that arise. So somehow or another it's like realizing that there's always going to be something coming up. Mel's talked about, you know, you put out this fire over here and another fire kind of happens over there.

[28:52]

And just taking care of the next thing. Anybody else want to say anything? For me it's not actually, I don't know exactly what it's meant by turning it over, but it's like what Ross was just referring to, sort of giving up the merit of whatever. But certainly sometimes you get this feeling of, you do something and you go, wow, that was letting go. And all of a sudden you feel like, there's this feeling of making progress. And I very rarely actually turn that over, the feeling of making progress. I go, I'm making progress. And I don't then go, and it's me, you know what I mean? I feel like I'm making progress. And I don't then go, I don't, you know, I just don't, it's me I kind of really hang on to. So it is kind of an extra thing to just go, well, it's cool.

[29:56]

Yeah. I felt like it, anticipating doing this practice, I had that feeling. you know, that I knew that it was an extra thing, that I didn't always give it away, or that it wasn't always so easy to give it away. But somehow doing it, it didn't feel quite that way. Well, it's tricky. Because the question is, how do you practice with these things and not fall into some attachment to them? And that's one of the dangers in this section four, how perverted views can be avoided. The Bodhisattva must not, as a result of the thought by which he turns that over, become one who perceives a thought. It is thus that the meritorious work founded on jubilation becomes something which is turned over into full enlightenment. If he does not perceive that thought, identifying it as this is that thought, then a bodhisattva has no perverted perception, thought, or view.

[30:57]

But if he perceives that thought by which he turns that over, identifying it as this is that thought, then he becomes one who perceives thought. As a result, he has perverted perception, thought, and view. So that's tricky. I wondered about that as, you know, reading this and trying to do their practice. The other way that they put it is, bringing to mind a sign, but not treating it as a sign. And I wondered, you know, if people who had read this chapter thought about that, or were, you know, troubled by it, or had figured out how they relate to it.

[32:01]

You know, something I was impressed by, I didn't do this just before class, you know, just after this part that you just quoted, they give all these different examples. Like, in different ways. Right. Like, what you just read, it's like a little hard to... It's like, well, what exactly, you know... There's a number of ways of interpreting that, maybe. And then I was kind of struck, because he gives all these other examples of a correct way of turning it over, as opposed to the wrong. You know, this would be one way. And here's, like, another one. And here's another one. it feels like letting go, just so it comes up naturally. So I was struck by that, that there are just all these different examples. Do you see what I mean? In this long paragraph? Yeah. Is turning over meaning giving up? Or letting go? At least that's how we're talking about it.

[33:15]

Treating it as empty? Well, yeah, that's actually what they get into, but Treating it as empty. It's a little bit different than treating it as empty. It's like if you think you've accumulated some merit, give it away. Which is sort of the same as seeing it as empty, but it has a little bit different feeling for me. But I think that the whole rest of the chapter is sort of, you know, how do you do this turning over within the context of being within perfect wisdom as we studied it in the first couple of classes. How do you do this turning over without settling down in the process of turning over? How do you do it without getting caught up in it or perceiving a basis? There are several different ways they keep talking about it. But basically, the rest of the chapter is they present this practice at the beginning and then the rest of the chapter is, well, here's all the problems with

[34:21]

trying to do this practice or hear the pitfalls and the dangers in here. And I actually, I have to say that I went to Dogen because I felt like this, we read this chapter on giving in Dogen and I felt like it sort of deals with all the issues, the pitfalls and the issues in a much more easy for me to access way. I think we should read that. And we want to read that to you. We sort of were joking to ourselves that, you know, it's interesting to get to a point where you choose Dogen as the accessible alternative to something else. Often this particular fascicle is very accessible, but often he's very impenetrable too. So we were joking about that. Do you want to read it now? Yeah, I think we should read it now because I think it's in here. It's in The Bodhisattva has four methods of guidance.

[35:23]

The four methods of guidance are giving, or dana, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action. And all of them, in a way, are manifestations of giving. They all seem to me to be aspects of dana paramita. And it's interesting, because we're back here talking about the paramitas. Now, in the scheme of six paramitas, dana is the first, and prajnaparamita, the perfection of wisdom, is the last. So, to me, thinking about this, this is where the circle meets, just at that point where dana paramita, if you practice it this way, as a bodhisattva, is prajnaparamita. charity so I'd like to let me read this section which is not too long I thought one thing I want to say just to preface I feel like part of what we all talked about are all of our ways of talking about trying to do this practice and the sort of ungraspable quality of it is what they mean by not perceiving a basis you know I mean I think we were sort of well what's the basis of this you know so I think that I just want to congratulate everybody who spoke that

[36:47]

that I didn't feel like we were really getting a hold of it, which was good. So, giving, or dana, means non-greed. Non-greed means not to covet. Not to covet means not to curry favor. Even if you govern the four continents, you should always convey the correct teaching with non-greed. It is to give away unneeded belongings to someone you don't know. To offer flowers blooming on a distant mountain to the Tathagatas. There's another translation that Lori copied for that. It's just like giving away unnecessary things to somebody you don't know. Offering ungrudgingly to the Buddhas tiny flowers blooming in the heart of distant mountains. or again to offer treasures you had in your former life to sentient beings.

[37:53]

Whether it is of teaching or of material, each gift has its value and is worth giving. Even if the gift is not your own, there is no reason to keep from giving. The question is not whether the gift is valuable, but whether there is merit. When you leave the way to the way, you attain the way. At the time of attaining the way, the way is always left to the way. When treasure is left just as treasure, treasure becomes giving. You give yourself to yourself and others to others. The power of causal relations of giving reaches to devas, human beings, and even enlightened sages. When giving becomes actual, such causal relations are immediately formed. Buddha said, when a person who practices giving goes to an assembly, people take notice. You should know that the mind of such a person communicates subtly with others.

[38:59]

Therefore, give even a phrase or a verse of the truth. It will be a wholesome seed for this and other lifetimes. Give your valuables, even a penny or a blade of grass. It will be a wholesome root for this and other lifetimes. The truth can turn into valuables. Valuables can turn into truth. This is all because the giver is willing. I'm going to skip a bit. Buddha said, if you are to practice giving to yourself, how much more so to your parents, wife, and children? Therefore, you should know that to give to yourself is a part of giving. To give to your family is also giving. Even when you give a particle of dust, you should rejoice in your own act because you correctly transmit the merit of all Buddhas and for the first time practice an act of a bodhisattva. The mind of a sentient being is difficult to change. You should keep on changing the minds of sentient beings from the first moment that they have one particle to the moment that they attain the way.

[40:05]

meet us. Mind is beyond measure. Things given are beyond measure. Moreover, in giving, mind transforms the gift and the gift transforms mind. I think that's pretty much what this section is about. It's really the part that we came to at Laurie was uh... that phrase came to your mind? I kept thinking about this thing about giving away the flowers on the distant hillside and that is really being given without a basis, you know? And I kind of had this yearning for reading the rest of that and finally I found it and I really feel like this I don't know, for me, to read this after I mean, maybe you didn't feel like you had to study it the way we did to try to teach it, you know, but after, you know, trying to crack this nut of what are they talking about with this perceiving of basis and all, and then to read this, it was just like drinking water or something for me.

[41:19]

It was so generous. It's the only word I can think of. But it's very interesting, giving away, you know, giving unnecessary belongings to someone you don't know. Right, or to offer the flowers blooming on a distant mountain to the Tathagata. You know, all of this is giving what already belongs to everybody, is finding some way for them to have it, for you to share it. And then he sets the context later that giving to yourself is a part of giving, that you have to be able to do, you have to be able to turn over your jubilation, in a way you have to turn over your jubilation to yourself, that you actually have to allow yourself really to rejoice in that.

[42:25]

And that's tricky too, because I think for some of us, and I don't know if this is a Western thing or it's just a human thing, but when the rejoicing comes up, very quickly following the rejoicing is the thought about, well, it's like you were saying, personally it's like the thought, what's wrong? Or when is this going to go away? That's not, that's withholding jubilation from, that's withholding it from yourself. And if you can't give it to yourself at that moment, then you actually can't turn it over. So you're talking about guilt. I don't know if it's guilt.

[43:29]

I mean, I dwell a lot in guilt. It's some of my cultural baggage, but I'm not sure so much. I think guilt is a factor, but I don't think it's just guilt. I think it's also just dukkha, which gets translated as not so much suffering, sometimes as ill, or unease, that there's something wrong. that your mind creates out of the sense of impermanence, a sense that there's something wrong, that from your habit of knowing that this jubilation is going to then move into something else, you feel that it's not permanent, and if it's not permanent, then what good is it? but it's not quite the same as guilt. It's that expectation of calamity and you know the impermanence of this jubilation that you feel right now will eventually lead to your ability to dissolve itself and becomes suffering eventually and this kind of future tripping.

[44:50]

Rather than just staying with what's happening which happens to be the jubilation at that moment. It's like getting a shot or something But I think there's a wisdom side to that, there really is. I think we all subtly know how attached to that jubilation we are. So you can enjoy something in the present and not be attached to it. I really do, I think you subtly know. I think we do often guilt whatever you're doing there, like this expectation of karma, that's kind of realistic. I don't know, but in my experience I think that I subtly know when I'm attached. And then it gets very confused after that, because then I start judging and saying, why can't I enjoy the present moment? And then all of a sudden it's very, very confused. So I think some subtle part of it is very intelligent and kind of knows when we're sort of attached to this jubilation without sort of just really... Do you kind of feel for what I'm saying? Yeah, I think it's the shortcoming of intelligence, though, frankly. You do?

[45:51]

Yeah. I mean, I think it is intelligent. But I'm not sure it's helpful. There's many ways of looking at it, it's funny. I mean, if you just stay with that, I mean, if you just stay with that sort of intelligence, which is always checking and evaluating yourself, and it never gets beyond that, then you're absolutely right. But I mean, could you just sort of, could we just sort of look at it as just a process in the practice, as being, since we are observing ourselves moving along and the change is occurring, I mean, wouldn't that be sort of the questioning being part of the process of, I mean, it's a part of that welling. If that's how you're doing it, uh-huh. The welling of the sort of sorrow that comes up with it, and when you see the,

[46:55]

the joy, you kind of, as you said, the expectation of the sorrow that will follow is there too, and that's sad too, so it's hard to stay with the moment, and that's part of the sorrow of it all, is that inability to stay with it. Well, I think that's right, but the part that, this goes back to something that Laurie was was talking about at the beginning, when she was talking about in the Prajnaparamita, what if we trained ourselves in the Prajnaparamita to the point where when the jubilation arose and the idea of suffering arose to go over there that your idea of jubilation

[48:26]

that impermanence might also lead back to jubilation. But that's also a possibility. Not only is it a possibility, it's a likelihood. And this is the part that for some mysterious reason in our human condition, we don't We tend to stop it at the suffering part. We tend to feel, well, the suffering part, this is the real part. This is the reality that our joy is going to turn to suffering. But there is also, it's the constant turning. There's also the truth that that suffering is going to turn is also going to turn, has the basis for turning back into joy.

[49:28]

And that's a very promising, it's a very promising circumstance. And I think that that's the circumstance that the Prajnaparamita is talking about and that the great Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are talking about. And when I was reading this, Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance, I was reminded of, there's actually an excellent commentary on it by Kadagiri Roshi in his book, Returning to Silas, and it's actually This section, I don't know how many of you have seen this book or read it. It's a little sad to me because it's like I don't really find Kadagiri Roshi in this book, the way I've experienced him.

[50:43]

So it's a disappointing book in certain ways. I can't quite hear his voice or see him. But this section is actually the best in the book and gets the closest to it. It's a commentary on the Four Methods of Guidance. And I thought I would point to a few things from here because they come back to what we were talking about earlier in terms of fearlessness. In Buddhism there are three kinds of giving. Giving materials, giving teachings of Dharma, and giving fearlessness. Along with giving the Dharma, giving fearlessness is very important, particularly if we are practicing the spiritual life.

[51:51]

According to the Buddha, there are four kinds of fearlessness. The first is fearlessness arising from the awareness of something omnipresent in the world. The second is fearlessness arising from perfection of character. The third is fearlessness arising from overcoming opposition. Even if we have been thrown into despair, we should constantly be mindful of the many people who have stood up straight in the midst of their despair, and whose examples can give us strength. Their attitude, their way of life, gives fearlessness to others. Our present life is supported by the past and the future. Even though we fall into hell in the present life, there are still great possibilities for the future. Even though we may believe that we don't have any future, that idea comes from our limited understanding.

[52:58]

If we really don't have any future, we cannot exist. That we exist now shows that we already have a future. The possibility of that future gives us fearlessness and enables us to exist from moment to moment. We cry, we struggle, we despair, and we have many difficult experiences, but those experiences are good signs that we exist. They inspire us and encourage us to live in peace and harmony. That is why we can practice the giving of dharma and fearlessness. we have to stand up straight, continuously, in whatever realm of existence, suffering and pain we find ourselves. And then, very naturally, we see something omnipresent. Century after century, Buddhas and ancestors have done zazen, shikantaza, without reward, and have become free from suffering.

[54:03]

by understanding human beings very deeply and by helping all sentient beings. Even though intellectually we may be skeptical about the idea that zazen is realization, still we can do it because of the practice of the Buddhas and ancestors in the past. This really gives us fearlessness. We found this interesting because they're always talking about fear in here, right? They're always talking about one of the big things that comes up in the perfection of wisdom is fear. So... If someone can hear this teaching, that there's no basis, no attainment, and in no way get anxious, then you're doing okay. Nobody says that. Right. Yeah, in here it says, a bodhisattva who is propped up by a good friend would thereby not be, which would be another bodhisattva, would thereby not be cowed, nor become stolid, nor cast down, nor depressed, nor would his mind be away from it, nor have his back broken, nor tremble, be frightened, be terrified.

[55:26]

These are all the dangers and pits that we're likely to sink into in our lives. But with this practice of Prajnaparamita and Dhanaparamita, fearlessness arises. It arises as we identify with with the Buddhists and Bodhisattvas, and it arises as we identify with, to me, with actually the everyday struggle of people that we practice with. It's not necessarily such, you know, not necessarily such great remote Bodhisattvas, but actually the people that we're

[56:27]

surrounded with people who sit next to us in the zendo, the people that we bow to each day. That's why I like this section here, a bodhisattva who was propped up by a good friend. because it's not necessarily some exalted good friend. It's a Bodhisattva who's propped up by another Bodhisattva, which is what we all are. And in this section, in this chapter 6 as well, there are some different... I guess in the rest of the book, up to this point, I've been reading Bodhisattva as kind of being at a certain stage, a certain very almost fixed and established stage of development.

[57:43]

But actually, in a couple of places in this chapter, there are references here, a little above that on page 126, they tell you to be careful about expounding this doctrine in front of a Bodhisattva who was newly set out in the vehicle. And then later in this chapter, at the bottom of page 131, talks about a There are two kinds of bodhisattvas there, one who perceives a basis, a reason for things, and a bodhisattva who sees no basis or sign. we were thinking of it at the bottom of 131, for although the basis perceiving bodhisattvas have given a good many gifts, they have also reckoned them up as a good many.

[58:52]

This is like Emperor Wu in the case of Bodhidharma who wanted to know what merit there was. He reckoned up all of his gifts. He knew about the temples that he had built and the ordinations that he had done and the sutras that he had copied and he wanted to have a reckoning to know what merit was there from them. But he was still a Bodhisattva. He was still a Bodhisattva. And there still was merit. So, one thing that comes a little clear in this section And this is also encouraging to us, is that actually there are, even though we're not supposed to think of steps and stages, there are different stages of development in the course of the bodhisattva's path.

[59:56]

In Zen we don't talk about it so much. If you read the Tibetan commentaries on this stuff, Actually, that's all that they talk about. They're constantly talking about all of these stages with very fine technical gradations of rights and responsibilities, accomplishments, shortcomings, and practices to attain the next stage. So, we don't pay so much attention to that. We treat each other as bodhisattvas. It's like, I always think of, Eiken Roshi talks about this, I always think of Nyogen Sanzaki, who used to, who was probably the first really accomplished Zen teacher in America. He actually taught in L.A. at the beginning of his Dharma talks, he would address everybody, he would say, Bodhisattvas, which was a rather revolutionary act.

[61:14]

And some of them got it. And some of them reached a more developed stage of Bodhisattvahood from being exposed to his teaching. In Buddhism, the supremely mature bodhisattva is one who perceives the equality of all dharmas and just sees all human beings. He just sees human beings. They are all exactly equal. They just sort of fit right on top.

[62:30]

They're just ways of describing situations. That also reminds me of how the Dalai Lama began his talk yesterday. He began it by saying, basically, all human beings are absolutely equal at the moment of birth and absolutely equal at the moment of death. That in those moments there is nothing that anybody has that's any more than anyone else. And to him that was a very powerful argument for for, I think, creating a greater sense of equality for what happens in the middle between those two moments.

[63:36]

It was very nice. Hey, Miss Linda Cornwall, do you guys want to have a look? Maybe a little space in case you need the 10-second pause before you... Can you say something? I started a new ritual a couple of weeks ago and reciting, chanting, kind of brief dharani three times before leaving home. It's a new kind of practice for me in the more devotional aspect and I find myself fairly unconsciously. This came to me this evening when I listened to you talk, that indeed I do leave home lighter and more jubilant without really knowing it.

[64:45]

So, that's why I can report back to you. What is it? What is what? The Dharani. If you don't, if you want to share it. Yeah, sure. It is in Chinese. Briefly, it's Guanyin. Something about inspirational. Something inspirational. Dharani. Did you make it up or is it traditional? No, I have it in a little thin booklet I got from a temple in China. I recited in front of a painting that was done kind of, I don't know, by a relative who was quite old and illiterate, but she did this

[65:57]

allegedly this watercolor of Guanyin. I hang it in a very secret place. I don't let other people look in it. It's kind of like a closet. So that's what I was doing. And somehow this kind of reverberate. Yeah, that's, you know, I don't know where you guys finished the discussion about the, you know, the jubilation and then the suffering and kind of alternating or... And I kept thinking, maybe you guys got to this because I had to go to the bathroom, but You know, you don't get the feeling with the Dalai Lama.

[66:58]

It's like he's looking at them both at the same time. He's looking at the suffering. He's not, like, realistically tempering his joy because he knows about the suffering that people are experiencing. It's like they're coming from the same well, you know. It's like, so, I think that we don't need to you know, push away the jubilation on the basis of its impermanence. Anyway. I'm reading a description of the first noble truth that everything, the underlying flow of everything is suffering and that the joy that we feel of jubilation or lightness that we feel is It's real in a sense that it's what we're experiencing, but it's an overlay to what the undercurrent of life is about.

[68:06]

It's not that we have to get depressed about it or sort of temper our joy knowing that pretty soon sufferings can arise and rear its ugly head. But there's something about knowing where it all comes from that gives us, I think, Like you said, the Dalai Lama was where he was coming from, knowing the source of all that. We can live our life a little differently. Well, this chapter is constantly talking about all the various ways that you can try to cling. And that's where the trouble That's where... That's where we begin to distinguish between joy and sorrow. And... You know, I think the Bodhisattva can move... And this is what was... I got from the... Can I hear, Roshis?

[69:19]

commentary that a bodhisattva is standing, there's no distinction between this joy and sorrow. It's all just the actualization of being and that just standing up in the middle of that. And I think that standing up in the middle of that In a way, even though it may be joy or it may be sorrow, when you see somebody standing up heroically, as was advocated in the verse that we read at the beginning, even if they're standing up heroically in a sorrowful, in a tragic situation, In some strange way, we get some joy from that.

[70:21]

We get joy and sorrow together in a mixture that can't be separated, that can't be picked apart into individual elements. And we just have a very strong feeling for that. And there's something very whole and deep about a deep sorrow that I'm sure everyone has experienced that is not so distant from joy. Well, that reminds me of, I guess, my one great influence in my life.

[71:26]

It was this Englishman who was a minister in Honolulu, and he was always joyful, never fearful of anything. During the Second World War, he went to the Traverso Sanitariums, which were scary places for most people in the 40s because it was so contagious. And he had asked me to play the organ, which he carried, one of those pump deals, which he carried into the sanatorium. And my mother would repeatedly have me take many, many baths after I returned, so I wouldn't catch tuberculosis. My father said, don't sweat it out at all, you know, don't worry about it. She went in with Hotoki-sama, or she went in with the Buddha, so everything just repelled, you know.

[72:31]

But he always had a twinkle in his eye, and although he received a lot of discrimination because he was English in Honolulu, he never let that... did everything. And he lived till 94 years of age. And towards the end, he had cancer of the spine. And his secretary would say, Reverend Hunt, shall I give you some pain medicine? And he'd say, Tokiko, if this is suffering, let me experience it to the fullest. And he would just be with it. And that was, upon hearing that, was just, you know, inspired me to great admiration more of him as a person, as a model.

[73:39]

Because most people would say, please give me the medicine. I need it. And just get very angry if he didn't get it. But he was totally opposite. How is that virtuous? How is that virtuous, not taking painkillers? He considered his life to have been just such a beneficial life. before he died. It doesn't necessarily mean it's non-virtuous to take the pain medication. Right. Pain is a very tricky thing. I mean, sometimes pain will just flick you away. There's, you know, no matter what your attitude is towards it,

[74:50]

But Agnes is saying, I mean, I think what I'm hearing is that that was a heroic spirit for her that was a model for her. Right. Because even in the greatest suffering, he was present. Mm-hmm. That's the fearlessness, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And maybe it was, maybe it was, it was fearlessness and also If you can manage to keep letting go of the pain, instead of holding on to it, then you can examine it more easily. And through training and circumstance, sometimes you can do that. That's a very fortunate way to die.

[75:55]

As Dori said, I don't think there's any more... I don't think there's... It's not... It may be... It's a better teaching, perhaps, but it's not necessarily a greater virtue than not being able to take the pain. That's also very human. You know, it's... It's a human response also to become frightened. We would prefer not to, but there's no sin involved in experiencing that way. John Cabot Zinn at Mass General in Boston. is actually helping people overcome their pain.

[77:03]

I know you're familiar with what's going on. But I think that's, I think actually his method is, I mean his method is mindfulness, mindfulness of the body and of states of mind and of letting go of the clinging. That's what he's teaching. And I think it's proven to be a tremendously fruitful technique as far as it goes. So we're sort of nearing the end of our last class together. Anybody have any final gift?

[78:11]

One thing Ella mentioned earlier on about a passage about being propped up by another Bodhisattva and admiration for people who are these sort of great teachers to all of us who've our models, like the Dalai Lama and Maha Goswami Nanda, that actually the people that we are, the people that we find ourselves relating to are actually the more common people, and it's like... That we're propped up by. That we're propped up by, and that we do get propped or inspired or something rubbed off on when we come into contact with great teachers of renown that most of the time we spend with kind of ordinary folk and to find the spirit in them seems to be beneficial, at least it has been for me.

[79:13]

And of course the juice is turned up when you come across someone who is walking lighter and it's just, you know, more evolved as a teacher. Right, but there's a pitfall where if you just realize that you're always propped up by everybody that's around you or whatever. Well, that just shows the interrelatedness, right? Yeah. I really want to, I recommend that people, when you get a chance to read it again, yourself this giving chapter. It's in the Bodhisattva's Four Methods of Guidance. I think it's great. Actually, if you read the whole Four Methods of Guidance, it's a short fascicle and it's just really beautiful and very deep and it's an explication of what we've been trying, struggling

[80:17]

to study for the last five weeks. One of the things that I was just feeling as we've been talking for the last few minutes is that the point is maybe that, you know, when we talk about this, you know, unproduced... I was wondering for the first couple of classes we labored through these, you know, the unproduced thought and not coursing in the skandhas and all this, and it maybe sounded kind of dry, but to realize the point is that When you have those insights, when you have that non-appropriation of all dharmas, what happens is jubilation and giving. Not like some kind of detachment or something. No, I think what happens is intimacy, is a closeness, is a feeling of connection around you.

[81:21]

And that is really the heart of our practice, and that's the heart of Prajnaparamita, is just this connectedness to everything. But it's difficult. We have tremendous storage of energy, just incredible amounts of energy, and we dedicate almost all of it to ourselves, even when we're helping other people. But when you realize there's nothing to attain, And it's just a tremendous amount of energy we have. And I dedicate 99.44% of my energy to me because I really do firmly believe that there's something I can achieve for myself. That's my general way of perceiving things. You're dedicating energy to yourself so you can carry it on to the next moment to other people. It's also knotted up. You don't really have it. That's the problem.

[82:22]

If you dedicate it to yourself, you don't really have it. You can't access it in quite the same way. It's not accessible. But it's all knotted up in these ideas of achievement and attainment and giving this and giving that. And if you really feel or if you perceive that it's actually impossible to attain anything, actually physically impossible to carry anything with you from one moment to the next, for yourself, Well, what are you going to do with all this energy that you, you know, previously just sort of nodded up with? You may as well, you can go in any direction with it, you know? Well, our process of understanding that is, in that sense, we're practicing both the sudden and the gradual school, that it could be very sudden. And, you know, at any moment we could realize that and then forget it.

[83:24]

And also, as we continue to practice over the years, there is a dropping away. And that I find very hopeful. And you can see it, you know, as you as you practice with people over a long period of time, you can see that transformation and you can even sometimes catch glimpses of it in yourself, but usually by reflection. You know, usually you can see it more by how other people are maybe moving, you know, how your universe is, your planetary system sort of spins around. But that's the gradual side and that comes with just day-to-day practice.

[84:27]

So I sort of want to continue myself delving into this Prajnaparamita because It's been a groping experience, and I apologize for the groping. This has been kind of an experimental class in that sense. It's not a class where the teachers have pretended to any mastery of the material. But I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to grope with you. because we had all decided we were going to study this, we had to do it. That's actually why I like to take these classes and also teach them from time to time.

[85:30]

Do you have anything to say? Anyone else? I have one thought. about jubilation, I feel there's a state of natural and self-conscious, freest kind of giving also, is that state of mind that you give what is not given yours, like wildflowers and other peat. That's it. I don't want to do that practice. What was the thing that you were doing that was in category of giving the birds to the air and the flowers to the mountain or something like that? I think it's in Dogon.

[86:31]

Yeah, it might have been that section that you skipped. The flowers to the wind and the birds to the seasons. give the birds to the seasons and the flowers to the land. Which I found very poignant, and maybe this is my last word, very poignant and kind of troubling because in a sense, as so-called civilization goes on, the very things that we're not allowing is giving the birds to the wind and the flowers to the season. We're making it, you know, we're creating some other reality where that, where there's no room for the birds or the flowers. And that's, that's very painful. So giving the flowers on the hillside to the Tatagatas, well, you have to remember the flowers.

[87:40]

We have to remember the importance of their being and their continued existence. So, that's what I'm trying to think about. Oh, I have a last word, too. I'm sorry. You know, I think we can practice... Dogen says is, give yourself to yourself, and that just sounds so much like Zazen to me. And to do Zazen, you know, not so much going into it with the idea of practicing with difficulty, which of course if difficulties come up, we'll practice with them, but to do Zazen as an act of giving, giving yourself to yourself. Okay. Thank you. Thanks everybody.

[88:34]

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