People call it a hill. It's a smaller hill. It was last class. Does anyone have the Govind's Vow, A.E. Krishnamurti? Did I give that to you in that package? Yeah. Oh, OK. Yeah, it was nice. Could we read it? You could share it. We could be reading it together. I have to get a chair if you do it. The Ehekoson Kotsugamo. We vow with all beings, from this life on through our countless lives, to hear the true Dharma, that upon hearing it, no doubt will arise in us, nor will we have any faith, that upon meeting it, we shall renounce worldly affairs and maintain the Buddhadharma, and that indeed so, the great earth and all living beings together will attain Buddhahood.

[01:16]

Although our past evil karma has greatly accumulated, indeed being the cause and condition of obstacles in practicing the Way, may all Buddhas and ancestors who have attained the Buddha Way be compassionate to us and free us from karmic effects, allowing us to practice the Way without limits. May they share with us their compassion which fills the boundless universe with the virtue of their enlightenment and teachings, Buddhas and Ancestors of all who are as we, we in the future shall be Buddhas and Ancestors. Prevailing Buddhas and Ancestors, we are one Buddha and one Ancestor. Awakening Bodhi Mind, we are one Bodhi Mind. Because they extend their compassion to us freely and without limit, we are able to attain Buddhahood and let go of the attainment. Therefore, the Chan Master, Lungyong, said, those who in past lives were not enlightened will now be enlightened.

[02:21]

In this life, save the body, which is the fruit of many lives. Before Buddhists were enlightened, they were the same as we are. Enlightened people of today are exactly as those of old. Quietly explore the farthest reaches of these processes and conditions. as this practice is the final transmission of a verified Buddha. Repenting in this way, one never fails to receive profane help from all Buddhas and ancestors. By revealing and disclosing our lack of faith and practice before the Buddha, we melt away the root of transgressions by the power of our repentance. This is the pure and simple color of true practice, of the true mind of faith, of the true body of faith. what was it what was underneath pure instead of pure i don't know what to do with that but it was redundant oh true oh true true final film oh true and simple color true practice okay so tonight we have three more things i can get through

[03:39]

Which is, it's a lot. And if I had to do this class, or when I do this class again, I'm going to try to do it in six classes. Because it's cramming too much in. But this is the last class, and this is what we're doing. So we have the 8th, 9th, and 10th grade precepts. And those are really interesting. I resolve not to withhold spiritual or material aid, or I vow not to be avaricious or mean. That's greed. The ninth is, I resolve not to harbor ill will, which is hatred. And the third is, I resolve not to abused the three treasures in respecting the Buddha, unfolding the Dharma, nourishing the Sangha.

[04:48]

So I guess, naturally, recognizing greed and hatred is a set with delusion. And in a way, this one is about deluding oneself and others. So I hadn't realized that before I ever looked at it again. Maybe it's worth looking at. So begin with the eighth. An enormous version of this eighth precept is Self-nature is subtle and mysterious. In the genuine, all-pervading dharma, not being stingy about a single thing is called the precept of not sparing the dharma facets.

[05:49]

I'm not sure about that. I'm not sure about that. Not sparing. Does it just mean being generous? I'm not sure it's sparing. It's not being sparing. Anyway, anyway, that's the way it was. That's the way it is. And then what? Another kind of section? Dogen's version. is one phrase, one verse, that is the 10,000 things in the one hundred verses. One dharma, one realization, is all Buddhas and ancestors. Therefore, from the beginning, there has been no significance at all.

[06:54]

So I see these. And then the other one is, I found, bound after Harvard, the will, in Bodhidharma, says, self-nature is subtle and mysterious. I like this one. In the realm of the selfless Dharma, not contriving reality for itself is called the precept of non-indulging. I like that. That's quite helpful. And then Dogon, not negative, not positive, either real or unreal. There is an ocean of illuminated clouds and an ocean of ornate clouds. I have to say, I don't really understand the text. Anyway, producing these is clearly an extension of other research studies that we have studied. So the reading has to be a little looser, maybe a little special.

[08:08]

Readiness and stinginess are other names for taking life, or taking what is not given, denying what belongs to everyone. when I was talking about in the beginning, kind of reframing the first piece of this, not living at the expense of anyone. In this case, it resembles that. It also resembles not taking what is not given. But it's kind of the other aspect of it, which is, not simply not living at the expense of others, but not giving others what they need to live, what they need to understand. The same thing is true of not taking. It's the other side of not taking what is not given. It's not giving what you can offer.

[09:14]

It's keeping it for yourself. So it's just kind of fine-tuning that way of looking at the world. And in this interdependent world, world of imagination, which is constantly in motion, even all of ourselves belong to all beings. So when we withhold ourselves, we're denying what we owe it. We hold tight to our money, our thoughts, our possessions, and we do this like we're trying to get a grip on a flowing stream, which we can't do it, but the foolish will try. It's like if you grab hold of the world,

[10:19]

slips to our fingers. But if we carefully sort of take a vessel, our hands, and sort of move them, see if we can grab it, then we can, you know, we can hold it just enough to satisfy our thirst. Be refreshed. But we tend to have a habit of holding on to things all the time. We hold on to our material possessions, even when we see those around us. So for the Dharma, it's written here, it says, not being stingy about a single thing is called the precept of life.

[11:24]

It's very dark, in a sense. So it's not holding on to anything. It's rescriptive for yourself. And it's quite a challenge to be able to walk in. I don't know about you, but there are many people who need to be convinced to walk by them without breaking their stride or forgiving them. They may need money or material things or food or shelter, but also people need A kind word, a direct look, something on the shoulder, the ear. Spiritual authority.

[12:27]

I think it's a very important point. I was going to say something about this when we were walking down the chat again, about being able to give everyone a dollar or a quarter. It's as much a spirit with which you, in a way, don't give. Because the reason it's everybody's decision to make, the one to walk by, And I think there's all kinds of other subtle factors. We look at so many situations where we just feel like the problem is so large. $4 here, $9 here. It doesn't touch it. think about that, some of us feel just overwhelmed by this.

[13:39]

See this great wave of suffering. But breaking this precept is about, in the face of this wave of suffering, creating a Instead of a seawall to protect yourself, that's great for peace of mind. Instead of letting yourself go, and even if one cannot resolve it, go away, one can always acknowledge it, make an effort to acknowledge what it is. In the Jewish and Islamic traditions, there's a, what's it called?

[14:52]

A sadaka? Box? Zibaka. I think in the American it's a sadaka. But it's Nasser, he keeps this box out of the room. And whenever he goes out, he puts a cage in his door. And when it's full, he takes it out in the street, and he gives it all to somebody. And he gives it to that person without any value. He gives it to a person who has it. And he does not consider Because this person doesn't have to spend it on a bottle of wine, or some drugs, or food, or whatever. He just gets food without judgment, without himself being there to decide who deserves what.

[16:08]

It's just, if it's being asked for, it just gives. And that really is fun. And it helps me watch myself grow. And it also helps us tighten up. And there's also you need to hold on to and take care of the things that are in your stewardship as well. You don't give everything away. I don't think, in some sense, I shouldn't run this story. It's, I don't know, from the Jihad phase, I didn't want to listen to the story of this guy who gave everything away. He gave his house away. He gave his wife away. He gave his kids away. Whatever anybody asked for, he gave away. It didn't work out so well.

[17:12]

I can't remember the whole story, but it was kind of taking, it was not middle way practice. So I remember Aiken Roshi talking about this recently, saying that, yes, I really want to be a guru, but if you want me to give you a typewriter, I'm not going to do it. Because that's the tool that I work with. And to do that would be giving away something that one works with, that one can create good with. So it's challenging. And of course, more to the heart of this piece, at least, be extinguished with the Dharma. So Dogen says, one phrase, one verse, that is the 10,000 things that are in your presence.

[18:19]

So the 10,000 things are the 10,000 Dharmas. And one of those Dharma gates that holds both forms of dharma. And we just the effortless talking of an appropriate word, you may be silent. You can help someone realize the different words. So don't withhold the word, or they can come up. And the 100 grasses are done. just inexhaustible delusions, which are just inseparably bound up with our life. So with one word, we can help you perceive both the Dharma beings and also see the delusions that we have in our minds.

[19:34]

Pull us up with that. And this is where we live our lives, right in the midst of both those darkness and those exclusions. And one phrase, one verse can help us to see our life right at that moment. Faith and worship, in my book, it says, the bounty of a phenomenal world is matched by the bounteous spirit of the individual. He's saying this is the way it is. It's a limitless, generous world. And our nature is that very lesson. It's one of the wonderful things about doing this for a formal office is that we get to serve and be served.

[20:48]

And no one is ever stingy. The cooks aren't stingy. The servers aren't stingy. And those of us, as we're being served, we are not being stingy with our response as we meet it. So it's a whole dance of generosity. Because in practice, we have this kind of boundless nature of life. And it's just been so great to be served one of these meals, and then have people come around and offer you food again. And each time, to do it in a really thoughtful way, and to come around and be willing to make personal contact. So I think it's wonderful to sit around the kitchen table and grab yourself a beer or two or something.

[21:56]

And that's, you know, we practice that way as an act of dana paramita, the perfection of generosity. And when we bow, we're not stingy either. When we bow, the act of bowing is the act of giving everything away. It's giving away our ego. It's giving away our own self for the benefit of others. It relieves us, but also, as we're lifting our hands, we're offering to everybody. We're offering ourself. So that's also keeping the peace up. but not in the stage of the Buddha.

[23:08]

And finally, coming again to this Buddha-mind aspect of the thesis, in that sense, since there is ultimately no you about me, but from just these kind of convenient clumps of feelings, and flesh, and experiences. Everything belongs to each other. And there's no one in particular. Again, this is the essence of it all. I've been doing for this historical motivation. It's keeping people's perspectives, recognizing or realizing that mind of light is about impermanence, of perceiving impermanence in oneself, but it's also

[24:25]

Easy come, easy go. That's easy come, easy go of us keeping this precept in. So any thoughts or questions so far? It's pretty clear now that we have changed I mean, they knew that was the signal. It was clear that that student knew what the signal was, but it wasn't clear whether that student was comprehending that not giving that signal meant that that group might not go away.

[25:46]

And, what was the title of that? I was serving as a student, and I finally decided that permanently would be among all the students the part that I was in. Because my take was that he wasn't. That student wasn't. But it still exists. But it seems to me that you have two options. was to actually communicate to that person, that person, which person, would involve them in stepping a little bit outside the curve.

[27:14]

So, what's the way to be generous with yourself? And the other thing was just people are pissing in the room. You know, that would have, and if you're going out of group, you're going out of group. That's what I would have done, that would have been fun. Just keep going. No, I didn't mean that. But I meant just like, if they're taking a lot of food, then that's what they're asking for. And that has, you know, I have no way of knowing, is it tuned out? Is it weed? And, you know, if they actually need that food.

[28:20]

And other people have less. Nobody's losing anything. And it's not a matter of life and death. And if they notice later, if you're going around and they notice, they might notice, oh, the food went. Oh, I took a lot of food. And then that's a matter of their reflection on the practice. There's no right thing. But I think you can both trust yourself, and you can also trust the karmic unfolding, or whatever. Does that make sense?

[29:24]

Yeah. That's also OK. That's fine. My sense was this person wasn't paying attention, and that they were out of bounds. And I have this image of a manger where the girls just keep on filling the water, and the food bowl would not There would have been rice everywhere. It's just stupid. But then, if you had done that, if you had gone that route, then that would have been you being stingy. Generous with the rice would have been stingy. Because you wouldn't have been doing what's helpful to the world.

[30:25]

Boy, it certainly did help. Just so many serving stories. I've served. Her thoughts. I think of that coming to me 15 or 20 years ago, when I took a two-week road trip, five weeks, a walk, and not two weeks. I just didn't have a whole lot of time. And as I walked, these two girls who used to live in the park, I would think that they were all the same. And there's this one point where I'm not interested.

[31:28]

And this is absolutely ridiculous. I know they drink, but I've seen them, and I saw them. And anyway, I kept walking forward, and I heard nothing. He still is there. He said, hi, what's your name? And this whole thing involved, where one of the problems that people were supposed to say, but then, you know, Five of us were all involved in the conversation. And then one pulled out his toothbrush and gave us all of his teeth. And the other guy also gave me his teeth.

[32:31]

This is pretty good. I said, who cares? And it just, I mean, it sort of completely broke, you know, I mean, I was never really scared of people, but it just changed my view of meaning. Yeah. It's cool. It's, you know, little things like deciding what to do about the rice sometimes changes, you know, a good thing. I feel. Generosity, being generous towards people, giving something out loud, just being there for someone.

[33:41]

And it just really stirs that up. The older you are, the more judge-worthy you become. You can see that it's generosity. But it's more than that. It's more than being generous and bringing out the good in yourself. It's just so dramatic in terms of the loss of business and the crisis. And the process of assessing the relationship goes to that. It's just squeezed into that. Well, this I would agree, actually. It would be great to do more of that, but not right this way. Because, I mean, well, but obviously folks from this world You can't talk about this without talking about Dhammakamita, without generosity. And it's multidimensional. And it's just to quickly get rid of weakness and generosity.

[34:50]

It is the ear of this. It is the ear of the Dharma. It is the ear of this. this stinginess is framed in that. It's withholding those things. The last six months or so, Lori and I have been having a conversation about our child-bearing process and wondering, how do we give fearlessness? If the Alexandrian religion is sensitive, He has a limited imagination. He's scared. How do we help him be fearless? But it's really rich. I think next year, I actually want to teach a class on the Bodhisattva's four methods of guidance, all of which actually is given.

[35:59]

Why don't we move on? So the knife is like this. I vow not to harbor the whip. It's one of those. This is another one. If you ever want to get a good discussion going, just bring up anger. And it's true practice. But the precept doesn't mean, don't get angry. It's really about, and it's not about when you get angry, stuff it away someplace. It's really about what we do when we come to it. how we experience it, how we take it.

[37:05]

And it's very connected to the vow that we're doing now. The center of that vow is repentance. It's a very internal and external force. So the Bodhisattva anger comes up in our natural lives. And the Bodhisattva is anchored in a couple of ways. The main way is as a tool for understanding ourselves. It's really nice to have a calm mind, smoothies, energy, smooth life, where it stops. But just regulating your life doesn't mean going through with a bulldozer and just flattening all the hills, all the emotions.

[38:14]

It means practicing whatever comes your way. It means being grateful to someone who is in your position. Because it helps you to look at yourself. And he quotes Zen, Korean Zen teacher, Sun Tzu. The one who praises you is a thief. The one who criticizes you is your true friend. And in John D. Davis, as of the Bodhisattva, there's a whole section about how your opponent is your teacher, how they want you to see yourself.

[39:23]

It's hard, because the farmer in your will is a teacher. And it's really, I feel like it's illogical. I usually, actually, I don't get that angry. But it's still great. And I got angry at something yesterday. And it was really the cause I went to that place. You know, there were actually these chemicals in my body that made it very difficult for me at that moment to not hold on to it, to not harbor it.

[40:25]

I could see something going on in me, and I wasn't able to let go of it, to let it monitor me. And I had to do a few things to try to change it. Of course, one thing is I couldn't do it, just to physiologically shift my energy in that moment. But that wouldn't have been enough, because I wouldn't get anywhere you'd like to see. I also had to look at the practice aspect of it. I realized we were working with prisms. So how might I just convey this?

[41:27]

Well, how might I work with this? And that helped me change. I was talking to somebody later in the day, not about that situation, but just about having a practice which one, over time, even though you may not, even if you can't do it, Even though you can't do it perfectly, you may fail, we have these patterns of teachings that we take in over time, and you can use them. Whereas many people in the world, they don't have these teachings. Well, they have them, yeah, they may have them from their childhood, from the recesses of their childhood.

[42:30]

But the patterns that they reinforce in their lives don't are about modernity. So we're lucky that we have this practice. And we're lucky that we have this, that we can use anger as a tool for seeing ourselves. I think for a lot of years, I remember I'm thinking that I didn't want to give up the anger, because I thought if I gave up, it would be something bigger, or less vivid, or what, I'm not sure. And I just didn't want to.

[43:36]

I can't say it was a waste of time, but it didn't go anywhere. And it's true that we are kind of dwelling on that. I don't feel like I'm at the same risk. But I don't feel like I should be. It's a lot easier to have something to practice with, so that one can actually let go of these states of mind, justifies. If a thought is pushed, for some reason you may not even understand it, and it comes up. But if it comes up, you can also move through it. My anger is now all gone. But it's not controlled.

[44:38]

It does simply control. It tries to. So that's one. The other is the Dalai Lama who wrote a book called Healing Anger. which has some really good stuff in it. But it's about anger as a magician's sword, or it's a compassionate ferocity of a guardian. And it's using anger to protect life. It's using it in subverting. cleanly and completely. Even something like that you're using right there.

[45:40]

It's like the way that kind of fierceness that a parent will protect their child. And also, But it's also tricky. It's tricky to use it. Manjushri uses it. Well, Manjushri is also a Bodhisattva. He does the karma. And also, for those of us who are mere mortals, when we use it that way, even if we lose the best of intentions, It's also sometimes expressing karma that we have prepared ourselves.

[46:49]

And so it's not always as clean as it might have been. So you have to be really, really careful when you're using it. He also, in that book, he describes the difference between hatred and anger. Anger is okay, hatred is... Right. Well, anger is useful and hatred is... Hatred. Yeah, I mean, he's defining it in a way that he doesn't see anything positive in hatred. But there's this other, this quotation, it's interesting. There's a sutra dependent on maya in this quotation, which is a kind of warning about this. So the bodhisattva who breaks the precepts out of desire still holds sentient beings in his embrace, whereas one who breaks precepts out of hatred

[48:06]

forsakes sentient beings altogether. And I think in this sense, it means the desire realm is a little easier to deal with than the anger realm. Now, in fact, in the human realm, they may not be so easy to distinguish. The desire realm can be motivated by the anger realm. But it's an interesting point that breaking precepts of desire, one still holding on to saint-gene beings, still holding saint-gene beings in one's grace, whereas one breaks precepts of hatred of saint-gene beings, and forsakes saint-gene beings. I'm not sure these days how to harness a particular text. Should I hit pause? No. OK. They're not going to hear this. But then this text goes on. A gauri sattva should not be afraid of the passions which can help him hold sentient beings in his embrace, but he should fear the passions which can cause him to forsake sentient beings.

[49:19]

So that's a little more extensive, more clear. But that's such a monotone. way of looking at the world. It actually, so to say, some patients are better than others. Some patients are OK, whereas you wouldn't. I mean, so it's kind of, and I think this is probably what the Dalai Lama was talking about. It's sort of seeing the value of that human heat. whereas the whole rest of earlier Buddhism and of the Vinaya is about being cool, cool ones. Does that correspond with your experience? Or is it more the experience of the Tathagatagarbha?

[50:23]

But I think there's a, and there is, as I have used the experience of Herodotus, there is ethical equal. There's a coolant that says it's extinguishing, probably the most popular term, which is not the end. It affects nearly all the orders that were considered historically unseemly. But the Maya, in a way, is embracing, embracing, letting the heat rise.

[51:30]

Because that's just part of life. Our bodies make heat. It's pretty important. And now, I have a thought, really, But anyway, I think one has to be really careful with how one uses this anchor. you're building you're actually building on

[52:34]

We're harboring it. When we're harboring it, it's like we're cultivating it. Well, we can give him a Harvard, but don't drop the handkerchief. It's a hard work to practice. There's a really wonderful speech by Martin Luther King. I can't remember all the words in it, but it was really Very clear. Another thing that I think is sort of like the difference between two of the others, sort of anger, but is the idea of accomplishment.

[53:55]

You can have some sort of emotion that's beyond that emotion. I'm not a driver, sir. The idea that maybe the sanest thing we can do is just to avoid circumstances in which we know. Well, that's good. That's good, but life is sneaky. to what John was saying, I really like this.

[55:03]

I hadn't got this before. It's mine. From Bodhidharma, it's here. In the realm of the selfless Dharma, not contriving reality for the self is called the precept of not indulging. Not contriving reality for self. So the outrage It's usually based on a perceived attack or offense against one's identity. And one's identity as opposed to another's identity. A lot of what we have in this world today is this horrible conflicts of course that are based on seemingly on the illusion of conflicting identity.

[56:06]

And then the realities of actually building on that and doing real harm. It's not like they're just illusory. The identities are illusory, but the harm that's done based on that is real material stuff. This is a very strong position, not contrived with reality. So I'm not trying to shape it in accord with who we want it to be. So it's actually a good practice. If you remember that line. How am I contriving reality for myself in this situation? What's my, or to put it another way simply, what's my story?

[57:12]

What's the story I'm telling myself? What is it? I think I want to move on, because we have just one more preset, which is really complicated. We don't have much time. But it's the 10th preset. I vow not to abuse the three treasures. In the Bodhisattva ceremony, we say, we read Dogon's text, to expound the Dharma with this body is foremost. Virtue returns to the ocean of reality. It's unfathomable.

[58:15]

We just accept it with respect. And Bodhidharma is, I think this Bodhidharma piece looks a lot In the realm of the One, not holding dualistic distinctions of ordinary beings and sages is called the precept of not defaming the Three Treasures. So that's getting back to the Gaudiya's vow. It's like those who in past lives were not enlightened, now will be enlightened. Before we were enlightened, they were the same. We enlightened people today are exactly like those of old. So defaming the three treasures means holding the delusion that some people are enlightened, some people are not. Some people are chosen, some people are not. Some people are worthy, some people are not.

[59:21]

those kinds of dualistic notions, not seeing that all beings are Buddha is a thing that's introduced. Also part, right? So we take refuge in these three churches. We take refuge in the three churches of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We take refuge in the end of Sakhim. We take refuge in each Bodhisattva sermon. We take refuge in each major ritual that we have, inculcations, weddings, divorces, whatever it is. It's the fundamental act. of becoming a Buddhist, actually, is taking refuge.

[60:27]

And recognizing that the refuge is already there. Something that Mr. Dastatani Roshi says, I think this isn't appropriate. Whenever someone thinks, I am just an ordinary person, she has reviled two characters. There are no ordinary persons. There are ordinary Buddhas. Yet the dream that one is an ordinary person becomes a nightmare in which one cannot awake. And, of course, Canada.

[61:28]

But that, I think, is the really key question of this research, the questions looking at who am I, not ordinary, because I'm Am I special because I'm a Buddha? Who am I, and where do I live? That's how you keep yourself. By raising that question, and by allowing, letting in that understanding that one is Buddha, So it is an art distinguishing between special and ordinary.

[62:41]

And I think that helps to unpack the research a bit. But it also goes to all kinds of different people. It pertains to different experiences. We've all heard about, read about, known abuses of power, in a sensual way, by teachers and religious people. breaking the trust, that kind of horizontal trust between people is the same thing. It's an expression of self-love.

[63:47]

It's a model. And it's terrible because it's sometimes used as a cover of religiosity or a cover-up dharma or Buddhism that's used to justify these things. And that's why this fence is actually, in the Bhakti-bhoka, in the Naira-gurus, this is the fifth of the Parajapa fences, which is actually the heaviest one. Those are the fences which If you break one of those rules, you're out. You're out of the order. You cannot combat their killing, stealing, and sexualizations.

[64:52]

lying, but certain kinds of lying. And a musical three-trigger is computing. In one way, it's conventionally described as ascribing powers to oneself, consciously. But it's also, in a sense, using the Dharma for self-aggrandizement. So it's serious. And of course, it brackets the 10 precepts. So on one hand, you have the precept not to kill is the first one, which includes all the others. And then at the end of this list, you have the precept not to abuse these three treasures, which also includes all the others. But every one of these precepts is about distinguishing between self and other, between ordinary people and sages.

[66:01]

They all are, we will also talk about that, they also, this comes back to the question of relationship. These ethical principles are about how one relates to those or habits or practices or things that are around us, but mostly to people and beings. And when you distinguish between ordinary and sage, then you're creating terms, sub-terms for a religion that are not And the direct one-to-one, what are you saying? This is really a problem.

[67:06]

The culture is based on objectification. You've never been around somebody famous. You see this. It's such a weird thing. dynamic was that everybody wants a piece of them for themselves because they're special. And if they're special, you can get close to them or get some piece of their aura that you're special to. And from that person's, the other person's side, it's very hard to negotiate those kinds of objectifications. It's very hard not to feel that one, especially. And it's also true that one needs to do things to protect oneself from that kind of energy that we have here. And also not to buy in to the objectification and believe the whole illusion to itself.

[68:13]

So, And it just makes me think how hard it must be for somebody like Richard Gere to practice the Dharma. And how necessary for someone like him. What a wound that is. And I know what's also, I think of other people, Alan Ginsberg. He's somebody I actually did know. And I would stand back and watch this people just kind of do drama to his energy. And because he had dharma, he was able to handle it pretty gracefully and create some space for himself. But all of us have to do this, regardless of how ordinary or obscure our lives are.

[69:16]

There's situations, there's always situations in which we're objectified or we're objectified. Yeah. That's a life-long learning. It's a character, but I don't know how to do this. It's scary. It's a fairly decent plant. So I don't think that this stuff is a matter of time.

[70:46]

In that sense, there's a sense in which you can't address too much matrix. That's the other side, where there's nothing to be abused, and they can't be stained. They just continue as they are. And yet, we have to, while they can't be stained, we can fall short. So if we hold those two things, body and soul, I think that's absolutely important. I don't know what the issue of that was.

[71:48]

I remember we were in Pinch Buddha, and how that plays out in everyday life walking down the street. It's just like, you know, the panhandle situation. How do I approach that person who's that person? And there's this abstract point of view. There's this very practical, this visceral way in which I said to myself, I'm going to do this as a doctor. in a tourist statement, and he was quoting it. In a what? Tourist statement. Oh. And somebody said that you don't have to give alms to everyone, but you do have to look in their eye.

[72:51]

And I have found that incredibly helpful with a number of homeless people in the West, with Miami general thing, like I don't have to give. To look somebody in the eyes, before that, I would just try to, you know, And earlier when you were talking about generosity and stuff, I thought of that. I think you may have come in just after we talked about almost that exactly. Damn. But thank you for validating. You put it ever so eloquently. But I think that's right. You may not. You give what you can give. But we need to give of ourselves. And that's where they all, if we're stingy, we're holding back because we're distinguishing between that person as Buddha and ourselves as Buddha.

[74:03]

What? I knew you should get it from me. Oh, OK. And it's all on tape. There's so much more that one could say about this. I just don't know how I'd get into it in the short term. But I think that It's just, it's so hard. It's so hard to think about people doing terrible things. Think about yourself doing terrible things. How is this really good? How is this the action of good? It's a really challenging question.

[75:22]

And also, you are the Buddha. How would you like people to relate to you? You talked about how you relate to somebody on the street. How would you like that to relate to you? It reminds me of what we say in the wheelchair, which is we need to support life. and to practice the way of Buddha, which is, actually, I think they added me to support that later on. But practicing the way of Buddha was not discriminating.

[76:27]

Right. That was just my point. So what's deserved? Right. Well, monks don't ask, and nuns don't ask what's deserved. I'm sure. Well, theoretically. I think a lot of them don't. But there's a lot that don't, yeah. But they'll eat it, it's a given. And for their life, it's important. Right. I mean, it's really hard. You know, my friend, Santi Carlo, stays with us a lot. It's taken us a number of years to be able to draw out of him what it is that he would appreciate being served. I mean, at first, he was very reticent to say. And you sort of have to think, well, what do you need? And that was one of the pizza practices. But some of them did the practice.

[77:28]

Some monks actually did the practice of mixing together. You know, they got this one big bowl, right? You know, they actually did the practice of mixing it all together. Or chips. Whatever it is. I have heard about it. What? I've seen, I mean I've heard people who have done, you know, like a monk or a nun or a truth, but it's false and people just... Oh, they put everything in it. Yeah. Mechanical. I didn't know that it was such a beautiful and made me in a certain kind of charge. Oh, it was actually a harmony. Oh. And we ended up having this huge amount of ice cream right on top of everything. Kanaka can just see it melting.

[78:35]

But that's their practice. It's a practice of non-discrimination. But all those are to the same person. Let's go. It's hard. Let me just look at our food actions. I mean, I'm no different. I don't even have a reaction to it. There are all these different ways to live. There are all these different ways to live Buddha. And to respect sweet treasures. Where it gets tricky is when then some people say, well, that's the right way to live. You're picking and choosing. I'm Buddha. We're not treasures to discriminate. We can name all of it to be treasures. So I don't know how to put this in perspective.

[79:39]

In meeting everybody in a very straightforward and relevant way, Well, you say you can't control it if you get angry. Well, but you can work with it. Try to respond. We have just a couple of minutes more. Is there anything anybody would like to say as we So that will say, near the end of this. So it's really near the end of this class. And then it comes out of the center of the practice class, obviously. Now, of course, you're right. You're right. You're right. It's true. [...]

[80:42]

It's true. [...] It I love studying this. Like, you know, one of the things that would be good to do would be to actually, when we talk about this in the past, we had in our Dharma group, I think it was for about a year, going through the precepts, you know, we would just like take We just keep on wondering until we got tired of it. And Lori's been doing that for a very long time. It's a really good thing to do, to go through that.

[81:48]

And also then to be able to go week by week and take up a certain practice. within what she said, and see how it's working. How are you doing this particular thing that you're doing? Where are you failing? Where are you succeeding? What does it feel like? Either way. So I'm not exactly sure how to organize that, but it's something that kind of gets me. It's one old story about how hard it is to have a fix like we have, and keeping it pristine. Fifteen years ago or so, I was even more insecure. I had even lower self-esteem. And I was very emotional all the time.

[82:53]

I'd get into fights. I'd get into fights with people. which, upon reflection, is clearly not done. But the place where my wife and I were living, upstairs, there was a guy who was blind. She was an immigrant who had a temporary visa. She was dependent on him. to the United States, which she was in an unusually and even more powerless position than she might have otherwise been. My wife and I went up to talk to this guy and talked to this guy a few times. And to no immediate avail, we'd still, on occasion, hear of infeasible confrontations between the two of them. And we had talked to him a couple of times, and had one more time with my wife, and I just, with one line, almost, just rushed out of our apartment and went upstairs.

[84:05]

And their door was unlocked, and I slugged this guy, because he was with his wife and his daughter. I ended up getting physically more injured than he did, because I ended up cutting my hand on his teeth, and I had to go to the hospital, and I had to see, and I had to avoid infection, and, you know, he didn't, you know, he didn't have any lasting damage. And, um, but after that, um, you know, we had this uncomfortable conversation after I got back from the emergency room, and I had my hand all bandaged up, and, you know, he was fine, he was looking at me, and, um, Then shortly thereafter, my wife and I moved away, and about six months later, we encountered this woman on the street in downtown San Francisco. I hadn't seen either of them for months. We said to her, how's your wife?

[85:07]

What's going on? Are you still with this guy? She said, yes. How is it that you shouldn't have slain that guy? He was going to kill you. He was going to give you huge savings, she said. Since that day, he hasn't touched you. Go figure. Well, that's, um, That's a good example of, I think, a Bodhisattva intervention. And also, that may have helped the situation. It may have. And it may have, you know, come back in some other light form.

[86:09]

How many legs? You know, but you, I mean, and you immediately did. Actually, the quantum result was very immediate, which is good. The quicker it happens, you know, the better it is. You know, you've got bed, you've got to get to the hospital. That's a very good point. Maybe, maybe it was pretty. This is what, uh, Shri Hari Roshi was always talking about, the emergency case. He said, you should face your life, but it's an emergency case. You just do, not necessarily impulsive, but you do what's natural. You focus on what's natural for you. And if you're supposed to do that, at that point, that's going to be a training that evolves into, you might do something different to that.

[87:26]

That's why we have a great boss in CPR and all this stuff. So that when we face a crisis, we have training. When we face an emergency, we have a sense of what to do. And that's what I think the precepts are, those kind of trainings, actually taking a pause in mind trainings, or mindfulness trainings. I'll make up a bibliography.

[88:10]

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