This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. There's an aspiration which is discussed often in the so-called Zen school or in the broader sense in the great vehicle tradition universal vehicle and that is the aspiration to wish to realize unsurpassed authentic awakening in order to benefit all beings

[01:00]

to realize a true understanding in order to be most helpful to all beings. This aspiration is called the mind of enlightenment or the spirit of enlightenment. So the being or beings who have had this aspiration arise, or the beings in who such an aspiration arises, are called bodhisattvas. They are on the path to realizing enlightenment for the welfare of all beings. Enlightenment in this context means not just wishing to, it includes wishing to benefit all beings, but enlightenment means benefiting beings.

[02:03]

Enlightenment means helping others. And this helping of others, this enlightened helping of others, includes the wisdom which understands that everybody, everybody you meet, every being you meet, is really yourself. really understand that, then we wish to help all beings and we really can. Before we understand that, we can still try to help beings, and we should. But we're somewhat hindered if we think others are not ourselves, because that's wrong. We're hindered by the ignorance which sees others as separate from ourselves. We can still try, though, and we must.

[03:05]

in order to understand that others are not separate from us we who do not yet fully understand that need to practice compassion to all beings and when we practice compassion deeply enough widely enough the truth will appear to us in the context of inconceivably profound compassion, the inconceivably profound wisdom will arise and the inconceivably profound truth will be revealed. Last week I told a story about an ancient student of the Buddha who wanted to meet the future Buddha in order to receive the teaching.

[04:13]

And he practiced compassion and he practiced compassion until finally his compassion was so deep he actually could see the future Buddha right in front of him and he could receive the teachings from the future Buddha who told him when they finally met that he was always present it just that because her compassion wasn't fully developed or wasn't developed enough she couldn't see her but she was always there once we can see her then we can receive her teaching and Not all spiritual beings wish to become Buddhas in order to help all beings. Some people who are really on a spiritual path wish to understand for the sake of becoming free themselves.

[05:23]

So there is an aspiration to become personally liberated. And many of the Buddhist, the historical Buddhist students, were people were humans who wish to become personally liberated and the Buddha helped them the historical Buddha helped them become personally liberated but the tradition of this temple is not just personal liberation but universal liberation if one has this wish to become helpful to all beings in order to realize that wish in order to realize the aspiration for true understanding and unhindered compassion and skill in helping one needs to train the wish the aspiration is the thing that we're constantly taking care of

[06:34]

The enlightening being, the bodhisattva, is they're basically developing that fundamental wish, that fundamental aspiration. They're taking care of it. That's their work. To take care of it and develop it until it becomes, this wish becomes actual Buddhahood, actual enlightenment. And the way they take care of it is their training process. The training of the bodhisattva. of the Buddha way the training and making of Buddhas so if we have this wish then the next step is do we wish to enter training so that this wish can be realized because once again the ancestors say this is a great wish it's no one can say how good this wish is It is so wonderful. But in order to realize it, in this world, we have to train ourselves.

[07:42]

And so last week I started to talk about the training of a person in whom this wish lives. And I somewhat apologized to anyone who has not yet discovered this wish, I apologize to anyone who does not feel this aspiration in her heart or in his heart. I think it may be the case that really, at the inconceivable depth of our heart, this wish lives there. and we just haven't realized it yet, that all of us really wish to help all beings. That may be the case. So I apologize if this discussing how to train in order to realize this wish is not in any way helpful to you.

[08:54]

But may I continue? One way the training is described is called the ethics, the ethical training of a bodhisattva. And the ethical training of bodhisattva is often presented as having three aspects. The first aspect is called the ethics. Last week I called it the ethics of presence. Another word for it, which is more literal, translation of the Sanskrit word samvara, is the ethics of restraint or the ethics of stopping.

[09:57]

That's the first type of ethics that bodhisattvas... in order to realize enlightenment. The next kind of ethics is the ethics of gathering all wholesome things. Gathering all the wholesome ways of practicing. And all those ways are summarized and encompassed by six practices. giving, ethical discipline, patience, heroic effort, concentration, and wisdom. These practices are six which embrace innumerable practices. So this is the second type of bodhisattva ethics, is to do these practices, which gather all wholesomeness,

[11:07]

and develop all the qualities of enlightenment. And the third aspect of bodhisattva ethics is service of all living beings, human and non-human. So the first type of ethics basically helps us be present and settled. so we can perform the other two types of ethics. The second ethics, again, develops all the qualities of enlightenment, and the third ethics develops all beings. To really practice the third one really requires that we're based in the first two. However, we are encouraged to start

[12:09]

practicing the third right away. Don't wait until you've mastered the first and second aspects of ethics before you try to practice the third. So from the beginning we try to help and serve other beings, but we understand that we're going to be not fully successful until we practice the first two, or unless we are practicing the first two. And last, excuse me for talking about the past, but last week I said that this week I would talk about the next two, and I will. I did. I did. And now I'd like to put more attention, give more attention to the first one, the ethics of restraint or the ethics of presence. So the ethics of presence, the discipline of presence, also the different discipline of restraint in the sense that we're learning to restrain being distracted from being present the ethics of restraint along with the other ethics is something that's given to us it needs to be given to us

[13:42]

and then it needs to be correctly received. All these ethics, the essence of this training is that the training is given to us by somebody other than ourselves. We do not decide ourselves what the training will be. We ask someone to give us the ethics, the training methods, and then we discuss with them what they are so that we have a clear shared understanding of these training forms. So, for example, some people say, OK, I would like to receive the precept

[14:45]

restraint I would like to receive the precept of not being distracted from where I am but I don't know it I don't really know it not being distracted is like I don't know what presence is like I have some idea but maybe I'm wrong could you help me find a sense of presence and then one might actually talk over with a preceptor And actually find, oh, this is presence. Yes. I feel present. I'm not thinking about the past or future. I'm just here. Is this presence? And the teacher might say, seems like it. At least that's clear enough for now. And then with that, you might notice quite soon, maybe next moment, oh, now I'm not. Now I'm like someplace else, even though I'm here, I don't feel like I'm here like I did before.

[15:50]

Presence, presence with what? Presence with, for example, fear. Presence with physical discomfort. Presence with Presence with perhaps losing your memory. Presence with well, presence with noticing that you're not being respectful to someone. And Ten years ago, I was riding a bicycle in Houston, Texas. And the trucks were kind of getting close to me, so I thought maybe I should get off the road.

[17:00]

And in the process of trying to get off the road, I fell to the cement hard. And many stories followed this event. One of them is the story that the femur in my right leg broke. And then I went to a hospital, and then they put a titanium rod in my femur, with some other kinds of titanium screws and stuff. And then I went to what's called rehab, rehabilitation exercise program. And while I was working with the physical therapist, I think the physical therapist said something about my bad leg. Like, you know, I don't know what, move your bad leg now.

[18:05]

And I said to him, it's not my bad leg. It's not my bad leg, it's my dear, dear. 58-year-old sweetheart that's been serving me all these years. You know, so wonderful thigh. I'm so grateful to have had this for 58 years and it's still serving me. It went through this operation. It let itself be drilled into and have a rod put inside of it and now it's still serving me. It's not my bad leg. It's my... It's my broken leg. It's my hurting leg. And the physical therapist said, thank you. This is helpful. I shouldn't be calling people's body parts bad. Somebody told me.

[19:14]

He actually told me. that he's worried about losing his memory. Yeah. And then he talked about his memory getting worse. And I said to him, I hope respectfully, to call your memory worse or better. is not the precept of presence. And when we talk about our memory, which is evolving, like my daughter had a little baby girl, her memory is evolving now. Can she remember what happened a few moments ago?

[20:17]

I don't know. It's hard to find out. But we know that children, when they're like five or six, they can tell you in minute detail what happened just a fraction of a second ago, whereas some older people can't remember what happened. Like, what was I saying? And the child can say, you said... They have that kind of memory which is like almost everything... that they just heard they got it. And the older people had memories like that when they were younger. But their memories have evolved to a place where they sometimes don't remember where they were going or what they were about to do. And sometimes they notice that. They notice like, I don't know what I was... I don't know why I'm in this room. I walked into this room. What did I come here for? I mean... I think I had an intention to come in here and do something, and now I'm here.

[21:18]

What is it? At that moment, you're aware that that's the kind of memory you have. Then there's a practice, a presence of being there, standing in the room, present. With what? Well, the room. And with a memory that remembers, perhaps, you perhaps remember your name still? You remember that the space is called a room in English. You remember various things, but you don't remember what your intention was upon entering. That's your situation. And you can say things are getting worse. You can say this is bad. But that comment is not being present. a distraction.

[22:18]

Usually it's a distraction from all my darling memory, which I'm here to take care of. And in order to take care of your memory or your leg, the first precept for taking care of your own leg or your own memory or anybody else's leg or anybody else's memory, the first precept is restrain distraction from taking care of them. If you're taking care of something, it's easy to be distracted. Precept is to learn to not be distracted when you're taking care of somebody. And we have to train ourselves to do this because we easily look away from who's right in front of us. Especially if there's pain in their face or neediness in their face. We have to train ourselves to be there with them so we can take care of them.

[23:19]

So we can practice generosity, for example. But to practice generosity with somebody who's in front of you, who you're distracted from, you can try, but it's more difficult. It's not impossible. You can look away and hand them a gift. But this precept says to actually be looking at them when you hand it is more effective. To be with them and to be with yourself when you're taking care of yourself so this person also said I know I notice my memory is such-and-such and then I notice it's getting worse and I said not only is that not practicing the precept up restraint up distraction from taking care of your memory but that precept When you don't practice it, it will make you suffer. And he said, right, when I notice it's getting worse, then I start worrying.

[24:25]

So if you... Yeah, so worrying about losing your memory is another thing. When the worry comes, you can also practice presence with the worry. And then when you practice presence with the worry, which came because... not being present with the word worse and the word worse came from not being present with this state of memory or state of loss of memory the precept of being present means you're present with everybody you're present with yourself you're not into gain and loss you're restraining getting involved in gain and loss. You're present with your memory without thinking, oh, it just got better, oh, it just got worse. You're not getting distracted by better and worse about yourself or others.

[25:32]

So again, the physical therapist, you know, it's hard. It's hard. It's hard to take care of your leg and not say, it's better today. It's better. It's hard because that's conventional. People say, how's your leg? Better. How can you speak of it more respectfully than better? Well, you could say it's great. Great is not better. And you can say it's great even if it hurts more. Or you could say the pain is great. We can learn how to speak in a respectful way that doesn't put things in this gain-loss realm. And when you're present, you're not elaborating on what you're taking care of.

[26:41]

This being with what's happening without elaborating is a precept restraint restraining what restraining elaborating on what you're looking at at what you're tasting at what you're touching well if you're tasting something can you say delicious can you say delicious without elaborating on the taste I think so it's possible but you can also say delicious and distract yourself from tasting. I remember Suzuki Roshi, and one of the first things I heard him say was, when you look at a flower and say beautiful, that's a sin. But it's hard to look at some people's face without saying beautiful. Just sit there and look at it. It's like, I've got to say something beautiful.

[27:47]

I can't stand just to look at her. I have to say beautiful. Well, okay, fine. You slipped. Now, be present that you slipped. Okay, I said beautiful. I couldn't stand just being with him. I had to say beautiful. It's just too much to just be here. So I'm going to take a little bit of a side trip and say beautiful. I've had various, you know, I've had this problem with my elbow for about nine months and recently it got infected and it was hard for me to be present with it when it got infected and it was throbbing.

[28:53]

It was hard. Just to be present with it and not think, oh, it's getting worse. How about just, it's bigger than it was before. looks it's red more red or even not more red it's just really red and it hurts it's hard to stay right there with just and now I should go to the emergency room and they draw draw some stuff out of it that's yellow how can you how can I be there how can you be there like really like practice disciplining what Disciplining the mind, the wish which wants to realize enlightenment for the welfare of all beings. This is a perfect opportunity, not a perfect opportunity. You're in the emergency room. You have a chance to work on your Buddha mind by being present with the situation.

[29:54]

And then I also just got a message about how much it's going to cost for that visit. I was just there for a short time and it cost a lot of money. And then I got a chance to be present with that number. And be grateful that the precept of presence has been transmitted so I can practice it with that number. Or if I don't, if I don't, practice it with my slipping. Once you're clear about these practices, then you can notice when you don't do them. If you're not clear about them, if you have no forms, no training forms, you can't tell when you're not doing them. But that's why they're given to you. You don't make them up yourself. They're given to you by the Buddhas. And then you clarify them, and then you can see when you not do them, and when you don't do them, you can do them. When you slip, you can not slip. Or you can slip again.

[30:56]

And eventually, anyway, start practicing. Ethics, first type of bodhisattva ethics. It's really simple in a way, but really difficult to start dealing with our life, restraining, seeing it in terms of gain and loss almost all the time. But if you can see the gain and loss ideas, you can say, there it is, there it is. There it is. And the more you notice, oh, I'm seeing this meeting as a loss. Oh, I'm seeing this meeting as a gain. I see this as a loss. I see this as a gain. The more you notice that, then you have a chance to say, well, how do you feel about that? Do you actually feel kind of embarrassed because you have received a precept which will train your enlightenment mind and you're not practicing it? How do you feel about that? And at some point, you start to feel a little embarrassed.

[32:00]

You actually regret just being with somebody. Like maybe you make a long trip to go be with somebody. Somebody you think, I really want to be with this person. And you get there and you try to get away from them. You know, the person you most want to be with now that you're with them, like, well, I don't want to see you later. It's so intense to be with the person you want to be with that you want to get away. And that's because the training isn't strong enough to allow us to be present with who we want to be with. And we want to be with ourself and we want to be with everybody we meet. Deep down, that's the kind of life we want because that's the life of the Buddha. The Buddha, of course, when Buddha meets somebody, the Buddha is not distracted from who she's meeting, right? The Buddha is not looking around for somebody else to talk to when she's talking to somebody.

[33:03]

The Buddha is not looking for a better student than this one. Right? Or if the Buddha is, we don't want that Buddha. We want another one. We want a Buddha who pays attention to who she's talking to. Of course. But you get that way by a lot of training. If I'm talking to this person, this is the person I'm talking to. I'm not wanting this conversation to get over with so I can talk to a better person. We have that impulse, but this is to be restrained. Restrain the impulse to talk to somebody other than who you're talking to. Like, I really don't have the impulse to talk to another group of people right now. It's not that difficult. I don't have that. I'm not tempted to say, I wish I had a more receptive audience here. I'd like to go to some other room.

[34:06]

But the receptive people go over there and I'll come see you. But sometimes when I'm talking and everybody's kind of like frowning and sleeping, I sometimes might tell, geez, maybe I could go someplace else. Different group of people, different audience that's like more like, hey, this is really interesting what you're saying. like this is really helpful thank you so much but today I don't have that I don't have that impulse so I don't have to restrain it when we hear the word restraint we may have some difficult feelings because I think we actually do not want to be restrained we don't want to be suffocated of course we don't want to be choked One of the principles here is that when you're really enlightened, you are not restrained anymore.

[35:13]

You're present without restraining yourself from being distracted. In order to be able to be that way, in order to be able to express yourself fully, you need to train yourself at restraint. You have to go through the restraint training in order to not need to be restrained anymore. The Buddha is not restrained, but the Buddha practiced the ethics of restraint for a long time. So the state we're wishing to realize is a state of total unrestrained compassion because It's clear what is good. And it's clear that it's not good to be distracted. So we don't have to restrain distraction. But to get to that place of total unrestrained compassion, we have to restrain distractions from what we're doing.

[36:18]

We have to discipline ourselves at being present. But the point is not to be wind up all restrained. The point is to be unrestrained Inconceivably. Skillful and helpful. So. The ethics of restraint. In a sense it had. It is limited. And it is not the whole of the bodhisattva training. It is the foundation of developing all wholesome behaviors and serving beings.

[37:20]

Just to do the ethics of restraint does not fully realize bodhisattva training. The ethics of restraint doesn't exactly develop positive qualities. It just restrains distraction from being present, which is the foundation for doing wholesome qualities, for developing wholesome qualities. The ethics of restraint is, even though it's not the whole of bodhisattva ethics, even though it's not the whole of the ethics that make it Buddha, it is very powerful. and very beneficial the ethics of restraint can come to fruit as personal liberation full freedom for the individual practitioner but the Bodhisattva is not interested in just personal liberation so they must in addition to developing this basic ethics they must develop all these positive qualities

[38:31]

and all these service skills. And it's a little confusing sometimes if you look over the Buddhist ocean of teachings, because you will see some stories of the Buddha giving teachings which are teachings of just the ethics of restraint. And then you see the Buddha giving the teaching to some people, and they practice it, and they are enlightened spiritually. quite quickly. The Buddha did give teachings of the ethics of restraint or the ethics of presence to some people. They did practice them and they did become enlightened to the extent that they were personally liberated from suffering, which is, of course, who can say how wonderful that is? The Buddha wanted that for this person. The Bodhisattva doesn't just want that. They want

[39:32]

that for everybody. So they must do further practices. So one example of this early teaching is one of my favorite stories of the Buddha. There was a person, a man, it was a man, I guess, a male. His name was Bahiya. I think they say he, Bahiya, but it could be she. And Bahiya... was quite developed and humble, even though he was quite developed. But he wondered if his understanding was correct, so he realized he needed to go get precepts from somebody else, from somebody who had trained with the precepts long enough to be a Buddha, to be really enlightened. And he heard about this person named Gautama Shakyamuni Buddha So he traveled to see him. He heard about where he was.

[40:35]

He went there. And when he got there, he saw these monks, a lot of monks practicing meditation. And he said, where is the teacher? And they said, the teacher has gone to town to basically beg for lunch. So, bahiya, went to the town that he heard the Buddha was at, and he looked around and he saw his teacher. And he went to his teacher, very happily, and said, teacher, please, please give me the precepts, give me the teaching. And the Buddha said, Buddha was not distracted from this person. Buddha looked him right in the eye.

[41:36]

Buddha looked him right in the heart. Buddha touched his heart with his mind. And the Buddha said, I think the Buddha said, Bahia or venerable sir, this is not a good time. Somebody can come and see you, you know. And you can be just like the Buddha. He can say, Venerable One, this is not a good time. It's 12 midnight. I need to rest. Or whatever. The Buddha said, it's not a good time. But he was, this is the Buddha's compassion. It's just tell the person that it's not a good time. but my feeling is the Buddha was right there with this person. And this person could tell the Buddha was right there with him.

[42:38]

And he appreciated the Buddha was right there with him, and he wanted the person who was right there with him to give him to teaching. He didn't come to the Buddha and find this distracted person who couldn't even notice him, who says this is not a good time. He met somebody who completely was there for him and said, this is not a good time. And he felt that wonderful gift. So he gave the Buddha a gift. And he said, but sir, life, everything's uncertain. We don't know if we'll be alive this afternoon. So please, Buddha, generally speaking, the Buddha begged before lunch, please give me the teaching now. And the Buddha said, Venerable one, this is not a good time. And Bahia said, but sir, we do not know how much longer we will be alive.

[43:41]

We may not be alive this afternoon. Please give me the teaching now. Was that the second time? That was the third time? Okay. So generally speaking, even if the Buddha doesn't want to give the teaching, any additional teaching. He gave the teaching of presence, but this person wanted a little bit more teaching. He wanted teaching a little bit more. He wasn't quite getting it. He wasn't quite getting the teaching of presence. It was actually being given to him, but he didn't get it. Do you understand? The Buddha was showing him the teaching, but he didn't get it. So since three times, he was basically saying, three times, I'm not getting it. Give me something else. I'm not... I'm not getting this. So then the Buddha gave it. The Buddha said, okay. All right. I tried twice. Now, since you're asking a third time, okay, here it is. Bahiya.

[44:42]

Train yourself thus. In the scene, there will be just the scene. In the herd... there will be just the heard. In the tasted, there will be just the tasted. In the touched, there will be just the touched. In the smelled, there will be just the smelled. And in the mentally cognized, there will be just the mentally cognized. This is the Buddha's instruction. And then he went a little further. He said, when... When for you, in the herd, by the way, this is teaching in the ethics of restraint. Okay? In the herd, there's just the herd. There's not like, oh, this is better, this is worse.

[45:45]

In the cognized, just the cognized, it's not like, oh, this is like, again, this is a loss. There's just what you hear. There's just what you see. There's just what you think. So the Buddha is training him in ethics of restraint. And he said, when you get to the point where that's how it is for you, then you will not identify with it. You will not be like, this is my thought. This is my idea. You will not locate yourself in it. I'm in this thought. I'm in this sight. And the Buddha didn't say it, but you also, I would add, you will also not say, this is not my thought. This is not my thing. I'm not located in it. And I'm not located in it. Neither locate in it nor not locate in it. That's what it will be like when you restrain yourself from being distracted from your experience.

[46:53]

And it will be the same if you're talking to somebody. I'm not located in this person, I'm not located outside this person. There's just this person. There's just this person. When there's just this person, there's just this person. And the Buddha said, so when you practice this way and you reach this place, or in the scene there's just a scene, and in the herd there's just a herd and so on, then you will not locate yourself in what you're hearing. And then there will be no here or there or in between. When we look at somebody and there's a here and a there and in between, we're not really present with them. When we're really present with them, there's not a here or a there or in between. And this will be the end of suffering. When you're losing your memory,

[47:55]

And there's not a here and a there and in between. You may be losing your memory, or you may have no memory, but there you are, standing in the room, not knowing what you're doing there, and you're free of suffering. You can't remember who's free from suffering, but you're... Anyway, there's freedom from suffering. There's freedom from suffering because you have trained yourself thus. You have trained yourself into thusness. You have trained yourself into reality. And that's the end of suffering. And by the time Buddha finished talking, Bahia had received the instruction, practiced it, and realized freedom from suffering. He heard the precept. He practiced presence 100%. He was an advanced practitioner already, but he received this teaching, practiced it, and was liberated from suffering.

[48:58]

The Buddha saw it. Bahiyaya enjoyed it. And this is an example of how this first bodhisattva precept can produce individual liberation. But bodhisattvas do not stop there. They move on to learn the skills beyond personal liberation, so that they can help all beings and realize Buddhahood. But they share, they share with the individual vehicle people this basic practice. They share the practices which give individual liberation, but bodhisattvas, although they've received individual liberation, they give it away. They do not hold it. They have other things to do. besides be personally liberated. Something really wonderful, even more wonderful than personal liberation, is the liberation of all living beings.

[50:01]

That's inconceivably wonderful. Or it's a bigger inconceivably wonderful. And Bahia said to the Buddha then, I wish to basically become your disciple, to join your community. And the Buddha said, Do you have the requisites? So when Buddha ordained people into the monastic discipline, they would bring him a bowl and a robe, and then he would give it to them. So there would be an exchange of gifts between the ordinand and the Buddha. Giving the robe and bowl was a formal way of becoming... disciple, but you had to bring it to the Buddha. The Buddha didn't have a storehouse of robes and bowls that he handed out. Now he could have, but I think maybe he thought, he didn't hear him say this, he didn't tell me this, but I get this feeling that he thought it would be a good idea for them to make the effort to get the stuff.

[51:13]

So they'd have to go around and ask people, would somebody please sponsor, you know, give me a robe, would somebody give me a bowl so I can join the Buddhist group? So he went, the Pahya, the newly enlightened, personally liberated, wonderful person, went looking for a robe and bowl so that he could come to the Buddha and become ordained into his group. And he got between a mother water buffalo and her calf and was killed, or I should say, died in that interaction. So he was right. Maybe this afternoon we will not be alive. He wasn't. And some of the monks heard about that and said, well, what about Bahia? And Buddha said, don't worry. Practice presence. Bahia realized wisdom. He's fine. He's a success story. So the people who realize individual liberation do the same basic practices that those who wish to realize the liberation of all beings.

[52:29]

It's just that those who wish to realize the liberation of all beings move on from pure presence practice. Move on from restraining distraction from being here. Move on from putting aside issues of gain and loss in this life. Move on from not trying to get anything ever. That's another aspect of the precept of restraint. You're not trying to get anything anymore when you're in that practice. You're just giving. You're not trying to get. You restrain trying to get and give yourself to giving. Those who realize this can stop there and have freedom from suffering. Those who wish... to practice the bodhisattva vehicle, go forward to do the other practices of giving. They give away their personal liberation. And they practice. And then again, so they practice giving, and they give away their practice, they give away their happiness, they give away their unhappiness, they give away everything.

[53:40]

They practice that, they practice that. And then they move on to ethical discipline. And under ethical discipline, In other words, they continue to practice restraint and then they practice patience. That's one of the reasons that bodhisattvas do not hold on to personal liberation because they have to practice patience in order to make a Buddha. You have to crank the patience machine. You have to work the patience mojo for a long time to make a Buddha. So Buddhas do not go to personal liberation because there's no suffering there. There's nothing to be patient with. Bodhisattvas stay in the world of suffering, which most of you might notice you're located in. You are, most of you probably, unless some of you are gone to personal liberation and don't want to come back to visit us, bodhisattvas are living in the world of suffering with all suffering beings. In other words, they have something to practice patience with because we have to be practicing patience to make a Buddha.

[54:46]

if you just practice the ethics of restraint and you can realize person liberation and you stop there you cannot develop the positive quality of patience if you give it up you can and then you go on to develop heroic energy where you actually develop the energy the aspiration again You keep fueling, you keep nourishing your aspiration to live for the welfare of all beings. You keep developing your aspiration to develop concentration and wisdom. And then you practice concentration and wisdom. Those are the second type of bodhisattva ethics. And the third type, again, along with the first two types, is then you think about all the opportunities to serve beings. What time is it?

[55:51]

Whoa. Sorry to keep you here so long from your practice of presence. I really thank you for being present. And I hope that... I hope that we continue to practice presence... The world needs us to do this simple and difficult practice. The world needs present people, which is similar to saying the world needs Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Please be present. Please consider committing to be present. Even if you don't want to be a bodhisattva, even if you just want to be personally free, do it. That would help, too, if you're personally liberated. That would be a big help. So it's up to you whether you want to just be personally free from suffering or if you want to work for the welfare of all beings.

[56:51]

Either way, being present, restraining distraction from being present is essential. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[57:38]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.7