ALL HAIL THE POWERFUL! is the practice of patience, big patience, great patience. Patience, the root of patience is the same as passion, which means suffering or painfulness.

[01:07]

Patience is the ability to endure the pain of our life. It's an ennobling quality. And it's maybe the most important quality But there is no most important quality.

[02:17]

When I say most important, it's because I'm talking about it. It's what Buddha is talking about when he says, life is pain. Life is painful. I think maybe that's a good interpretation of the First Noble Truth. the truths are noble because they teach us the meaning of dealing with the painfulness of our life. Maybe the first truth is life is painful and because of our desire.

[03:23]

Desire is not bad, it just gets us into a lot of trouble because we don't know how to deal with it. Cixin is great patience to deal with the painfulness of our life. Pain and suffering are not the same. Pain is a feeling and suffering is an attitude. Buddha says there is a way out of suffering.

[04:29]

If you know how to deal with the painfulness of your life without trying to get rid of it, then you can be free from suffering. If you try to get rid of the painfulness of life, you just end up in more suffering. So this is, we sit Zaza in order to prove this. So zazen, sashimi, is like a persimmon on a tree.

[05:44]

If you try to eat this persimmon before it's ripe, it's all astringent. and makes your mouth, yeah, fuck her up. So you have to wait till it gets ripe before it gets sweet. But if you try to taste the astringency out, drained out, the persimmon won't get ripe. You just ruin the persimmon. Because the astringency is the element that makes the persimmon ripe. In the same way, if you try to get rid of all of your terrible thoughts, your anger, your lust, your criticism,

[06:56]

all the demons that plague your mind. If you try to get rid of that in order to have a nice peaceful mind, your mind will be ruined. Because all these demons are the stuff that's necessary for transformation. That's why it's not good to make value judgments. So the process of transformation is painful. Transformation takes place. by itself when you put yourself into the process.

[08:01]

So you have to endure the painful process of transformation. But endure is maybe not the right word. In a sense, it's right, but it's only half right. The other side is to enjoy the transformation. Within pain, within the pain, there's pleasure. And within the pleasure, there's pain. You can't have it one way. As you know, in whatever venture you take up, we usually take up something because of the pleasure.

[09:16]

Whatever we enter into, we do it because there's something that we want that is pleasant to But within that, at some point, there is pain. Whatever you do, you meet someone, and you want to live with them forever, and you make this bond because it's so wonderful. But within that wonderfulness, a lot of pain. It's inevitable. You can't have the one without the other. But, and we're always trying to get rid of it, you know, the bad side. But the bad side is necessary. You cannot have transformation without the positive and the negative.

[10:23]

You can sauce in. Don't try to get rid of anything. Don't judge. The most wonderful thing about Zazen is garbage. Garbage is the most vital fertilization, substance, or transformation.

[11:32]

If you've ever made compost, you know this. Compost garbage really stinks. But when it goes through the process of composting, at the end it smells very sweet. So, we are garbage machines. Garbage... machines... and composting machines. So, I have this great patience

[12:40]

great patience is to just be able to sit and let this process happen. If you try to rush it, it doesn't work. If you try to rush it, you get impatient. If you wait for the bell, and then the process is not working anymore. It's no longer Zazen. You can get a little impatient, but you should recognize this is impatience and let go of it. This, of course, will always happen. There will always be a point where you say, where you have to make a decision about how to relate to your painfulness.

[13:54]

You can think of, Suzuki Roshi always used to say, don't think, I am sitting Zazen. They're just painful legs are sitting Zazen on a little black cushion. Let go of me and mine. When you focus on the body, there's just this mudra, not my mudra. There's just this back, not my back.

[15:19]

There's just this painfulness, not I am being. If you start to create a self, then you lose a self. The main thing is to bring out the very strong spirit of endurance. Sometimes people say, well, this is just an endurance trip. Just an endurance trip.

[16:26]

Yes, it is. It's just an endurance trip. In the Prajnaparamita Sutra, there's a line, the patient endurance of the uncreate. It's the patient endurance to let things come as they come. and let them go as they go. It's like an ocean. Sometimes the ocean is very calm, not much happening.

[17:27]

And sometimes the big waves. And when the big waves come, we get really scared. You should ride that big wave. If you let it crash over you, you get drowned out. So, no matter how big the wave is, just ride the wave. Ride the wave. You can actually enjoy riding that big wave. You have to let go. And in this ripening process, at the end of Sashim, no matter what it was like,

[18:51]

There's always some calm feeling. Some big feeling, which you can't describe. During Sachine, you say, I'll never do this again. But next time, sign your name. Because there's something awful and something wonderful at the same time. Difficult, but there's nothing like it. So this difficulty bringing forth our buddha nature, just expressing buddha nature.

[20:00]

All of the garbage, so-called, being produced is just an expression of buddha nature. These are the waves on the calm sea of our nature. Sometimes there are no thoughts. But if you try to preserve the state of no thoughts, you fall into the deep sea of emptiness. And if you try to keep producing thoughts, morass of discriminating mind.

[21:10]

So without falling into vacuity and without falling into discrimination, that's where you have to be. Just letting everything be. Making a big effort and letting everything come as it comes and go as it goes without catching anything and without pushing anything away. We get caught by discrimination all the time.

[22:22]

But don't be discouraged by that. We're constantly discriminating. I don't like this. This is painful. This is bad. We think of all of the reasons in the world why we shouldn't be doing this. But they're all empty. It's just our kicking and screaming when we're pinned down. You shouldn't be pinned down. You kick and scream because you feel that you're pinned down until you find that you're not pinned down, that this is actually ultimate freedom.

[23:39]

Within this restriction, there's ultimate freedom. This is the most restricted posture. You could probably find some other restricted posture that's just as restricted, but this is the immovable posture in which you find the most freedom. Until you find that freedom, which is total liberation, you'll be kicking and screaming. So, we have to have big, big patience. Big patience. Even if you run away, whether bodily or mentally, you'll still come back.

[24:48]

So I'm very patient. I have to be very patient with everybody and with myself. I don't always try to get people to be good. Because you can't really do that. Transformation takes place by itself. You can set up the conditions for transformation, but the process has to happen by itself. And each one of us has to enter into the process ourself. But we don't enter into the process for transformation. Transformation just happens. We just sit as it for no reason at all.

[25:51]

If you think, now I'm making progress, now there's transformation. That's not Zazen. You have to enter into Zazen with just pure motive. Sitting to sit. And to be as open as possible. It's hard to open ourselves to painfulness. That's very hard. Very hard. And even though we do it a little bit, you know, a little bit at a time, that's why it kind of takes a while. You know, it's a long process because it's hard to open ourselves to that gratefulness of life. But the great pleasure comes in being open to the pain.

[27:01]

It's not masochistic. We don't create the pain as a pleasurable experience. It's just that The pleasure comes not from having pain, but from experiencing non-duality, experiencing our true Self. So when we hide from pain or try to escape Because you really can't escape the painfulness in this life.

[28:12]

Birth is painfulness. Childhood is pain. Youthfulness is painful. Middle age is painful. Old age is painful. And death. All these stages have their own Painfulness. High school was painful. I'm glad that one's over. Do you have any questions? I'm interested in, would you talk about the difference between trying to get rid of something and trying to let go?

[29:30]

Trying to get rid of something is to not have it there. When you get rid of something, you don't want it to be there, right? And letting go of something is, it can be there, but you're not attached to it. If I try to get rid of my pain, I don't know how to do that. That's what we'd like to do, but we can't. So, we have to let it be there, but not be attached to it. And the way to not be attached to it is to not try to get rid of it. As soon as you try to get rid of it, you form an attachment to it. Because you don't want it. And you can't get rid of it.

[30:32]

So naturally it bothers you. To not be attached to it is just to not let it bother you. Don't be bothered by it. You understand? I'm not sure whether I do. I know. But that's the effort to make in Zazen. It's just to not let it not be bothered by it. It will bother you, but don't let it push you around. How do you do that? Well, let's see. Day after day after day, pretty soon, you're just sitting there. That's why the process of ripening has to take its own course.

[31:37]

At some point, you just don't worry about it. I appreciate the compost metaphor. In reference to his question, you don't have to pull up the... in the garden of your mind, you don't have to yank up the weeds like you're knocking anything. The weeds look like crazy. Just don't feed them. Just don't give them any compost. up you know maybe my house is small and we don't have enough room but I have a house and you know my legs hurt

[33:03]

Yes, but is, I wouldn't call it delusion, but it depends on the situation. I would call what you are talking about appreciation. Isn't it? Yeah. We can... feel appreciation for whatever we have without discriminating it. Sometimes, if someone has a very angry disposition, I'll give them the practice of gratitude for everything. So if someone insults them, They bow and say, thank you very much.

[34:20]

If someone gives them a compliment, they bow and say, thank you very much. This is a practice of non-discrimination. And that's what Zazen is. Thank you very much for this, whatever this is. Not discriminating. pleasure from pain, not discriminating one thing from another, accepting everything equally. This is this is how you practice Sachine and Zazen. Thank you for everything. No discrimination between one thing and another. Everything is received with exactly the same mind. oh yeah well yes you you know you can't breathe into the pain like sometimes pain you know it's just the most dominating thing you know and all you can do is breathe you're you're kind of

[36:01]

just paying attention to the breath because that's the only refuge there is, you know? So then you just breathe into the pain. And then you can count. And your whole focus and attention is just on that breath, on each breath. And then you think, should I uncross my legs? And then you take this breath. And then you realize, well, I took that breath, and they didn't uncross my legs. Maybe I can take the next breath. And then the next breath. Well, I didn't uncross my legs that time. So you just take refuge in the breath. And you realize that it's just one breath at a time. you're reduced to living one moment at a time.

[37:10]

And it's terrible and painful and scary, but it's real life. There's nothing but just this breath and this feeling. Paul? At some point, on cross your legs it seems to me because people injure themselves and I've got a little bit of that on one leg and there's always this question it's hard to tell I think I can tell I think the pain turns change in character but I think that's it's not addressed much well it is addressed but we have to keep readdressing it only you can tell when you should do that. And the effort, you know, is to stay in the position and to become more and more calm, actually.

[38:18]

But if you feel that you should uncross your legs, then do it. So there's no onus on uncrossing your legs. There isn't. Yeah, but it's hard to tell. Well, you yourself don't feel good about it. What? You yourself don't feel good about it because your effort is to stay with the United Cross. So you don't feel good about uncrossing them, right? But nobody else cares. I know that. You have to make, it's just a personal decision to make. I think as, for the first few years, you will, most people uncross their legs to one degree or another.

[39:20]

After you practice for many years, it's easier to not uncross them. So it's just a matter of Again, a matter of ripening and time. And even after a long time, some practitioners still find it difficult to keep the legs up. So the effort is to stay in the position. And if you want to, you push yourself. But there's always a point at which When you feel you should, you don't want to do that, don't do it. I don't know how else to say it. There's no rule, you know. But, you know, the more you put yourself into the,

[40:28]

firmness of sitting still, the more you actually can do that. But it shouldn't be an endurance contest to see how long you can sit. That's not so good. But you know, when I was practicing with Suzuki Roshi, we'd come to almost the end of the period, and then he would say, I'll sit for 10 more minutes." Just when everybody was, you know. And that, I have to say, you know, that endurance, that kind of perseverance, really helped everybody. Because you can actually do more than, it brings out more of you than you think you have. You think, well, this is my limit. But actually, it's not your limit. Not necessarily your limit.

[41:32]

On the other hand, so that's one aspect. On the other hand, when you feel you have to uncross your legs, just do it. Get off the train when you feel you're getting sick. It seems to me that the First Noble Truth is life is joyful, and the Second Noble Truth may be life is painful. It's almost like we forget the First Noble Truth and we rush right into life is painful. And it is painful, and sometimes, well, it follows quickly upon life is joyful, but what about that being the First Noble Truth? Well, the First Noble Truth is life is painful because it's joyful. And life was joyful because it's painful.

[42:39]

But joy is never mentioned. No. Because Buddha was called the great physician. And he was just diagnosing our problem, not expressing, you know, of course life was joyful, everybody knows that. The problem we have is with our pain, or with our suffering. So he's addressing the problem with suffering. He's not saying, this is what life is. He's saying, the problem that we have, or our illness, our disease, is our suffering. And the way to deal with suffering It's like this. And saying, this is the cause of suffering.

[43:46]

Now, suffering is the thing. And the cause is desire. So that's the diagnosis. So it's a diagnosis. the way to get rid of it, or deal with it, there is a way to deal with it, is the third truth, and the path to his fourth truth. So he gives the diagnosis and the cure. That's what the Four Noble Truths are. Yeah, but it does seem like Buddhism actually supports Christianity. cultivation of joy. Because it would seem like everything you said is true, but I didn't really like what you said, because there is how you cultivate joy. And I rarely hear that at church, I rarely hear that here.

[44:49]

And that's a very important issue, as well as how you deal with suffering. Well, the path is the cultivation. So, although Buddhism does not dwell on suffering, Buddhism dwells on how to get rid of suffering or how to deal with suffering. That's what Buddhism dwells on because it talks about enlightenment and realization and does not posit a specific feeling over another because If you say happiness or joy, Buddhism always talks about happiness quite a lot, actually, but not in a dualistic sense. Joy and happiness are definitely attributes in Buddhism, but not in a dualistic sense.

[45:55]

That's why we don't say, well, get rid of all of your pain in order to be happy. Because that's just falling into duality. That's just trading one thing for another. So Buddhism goes deeper than just being happy. The pursuit of happiness is a false pursuit because happiness arises as a result of something. You can't grasp happiness. You can't make a happiness. People try to make a happiness, but it's always doomed to failure. Because of nothing, everything is impermanent. So this Buddha's message, everything is impermanent.

[46:58]

You try to make a happiness in an impermanent situation, and your house crumbles. So happiness is the result of understanding. So understanding is the most important thing. That's where we put the emphasis. I know that we have lots of questions, but it's time to go. It's our purpose.

[47:43]

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