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Calm Minds, Compassionate Connections
Talk by Sangha Tenzen David Zimmerman at City Center on 2020-05-21
The talk centers on the importance of maintaining a calm mind to perceive virtue and fundamental goodness in others, drawing from Zen teachings to navigate interpersonal interactions during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It references a story about Suzuki Roshi and Ed Brown to illustrate the need for personal mental discipline and employs Buddhist concepts such as karma, bodhicitta, and practices like Zazen to cultivate mindfulness and compassion. The speaker also reflects on Thomas Merton's realization of interconnectedness and emphasizes the practical application of recognizing universality in all beings to overcome conditioned biases and judgments.
Referenced Works:
- "Not Always So" by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi: This text is used to illustrate how expectation and judgment can cloud one's ability to see virtue in others, emphasized by Suzuki's advice to Ed Brown.
- "The Dhammapada": Quoted to support the notion that personal mental states are primarily responsible for experiences of suffering or joy, reinforcing the talk's theme of internal responsibility.
- "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching" by Thich Nhat Hanh: Implicitly referenced in discussing concepts like bodhicitta and interbeing, providing context for mindfulness in everyday life.
- "Walnut Street Epiphany" by Thomas Merton: Merton's experience is used to underline the recognition of interconnectedness and shared humanity.
- Lojong Teachings (Tibetan Buddhism): Referenced regarding the slogan "drive all blames into one," which encourages personal responsibility over blaming others.
Concepts:
- Karmic Conditioning: Discussed to explain the habitual cognitive patterns influencing perception and behavior.
- Brahmaviharas: Mentioned as practices promoting virtuous qualities like loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity.
- Mantra Practice: Used as a tool to redirect negative thought patterns toward a more compassionate mindset, exemplified by the mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum."
AI Suggested Title: Calm Minds, Compassionate Connections
Good afternoon, everybody. Thumbs up if you can hear me. All right. Excellent. Well, it's a joy to be with you all again. And for those of you who are new to a Tuesday and Thursday online practice sessions, my name is David. And I appreciate everyone joining. And just to give you a brief kind of overview of what we'll be doing this evening, this is typical. We'll start off with a period of zazim and meditation. And for those who are new, I will offer some guiding words to kind of lead us into it and then eventually taper off into silence. And then afterwards, around six o'clock, we'll have what I call a darmette. a mini Dharma talk or some words of encouragement. That will be about, say, 15 minutes or so.
[02:31]
And then we'll open up the floor for the screen or the realm for all of you to share anything you'd like to share in terms of your practice and or questions that you might have about this evening's Dharma or anything else you'd like to bring forward. So... This is a wonderful opportunity to kind of support each other in our practice. It's always beneficial to have the companionship of good Dharma friends as we try to nourish and cultivate an awake heart mind, and even more so during these particularly challenging times that we are finding ourselves in the midst of. So thank you again for being here. Why don't we go ahead and enter into the period of meditation. And I'm going to suggest that you find a comfortable upright seated position, one that allows your spine to be upright and for your chest to be open.
[03:47]
And you may wish to consider resting your hands in your lap. maybe with the left hand resting in the right palm, and draw your chin slightly down and in, and feel the gentle lengthening on the back of your neck as you do so, as if the crown of your head is kind of reaching just very gently towards the sky. rest your tongue on the roof of your mouth with your lips slightly parted. Breathe in gently through the nose. Typically in Zen, we practice with our eyes open, gazing softly down in
[04:53]
front of us. You may wish to practice that or if you find it more helpful right now, particularly since you're sitting in front of a screen, you might wish to close your eyes. The main thing is try not to fall asleep. Keeping our eyes open helps to kind of bring in more light and keep the mind a little bit more alert. So throughout the meditation, giving yourself over to both the physical and mental posture that is attentive and yet relaxed. So I'm going to sound the bell three times to begin the period to bring your awareness to the sound of the bell. When you first hear it, its duration, and then as it fades away, Once it fades away, bring particular attention to what is it that remains?
[05:56]
What is it that continues to be present before, during, and after any experience that you might be having, including this sign of the bell? At the end, I'll bring the bell once to finish the period of meditation. the same directed attention that you gave to the sound of the bell.
[07:11]
Now direct that attention to the breath. As you take a deep breath in through your nose, feel that you're inhaling a fresh, nourishing breath. Maybe hold that breath just for a moment. and then releasing, exhaling. And taking in a deep breath, taking in a nourishing breath, holding for a few moments, and then slowly releasing. I suggest you do this several times.
[08:13]
Taking in the breath, holding and releasing. And as you release the breath, releasing any effort or any tension in the body, you see me being nourished by the breath and then releasing releasing efforts and releasing tension throughout the body as you breathe out. And now in the breath, we gently squeak through you and release any of the collective tensions or energies or that there are difficulties that you may still be holding on from your engagement to today.
[09:21]
And meditation is a chance to allow ourselves to release a habitual tendency to do and instead, simply be. Allowing yourself to release the conditioned imprint of doing with each gentle exhalation. Let me move it more deeply into the body, into the present moments, into being right here with each exhale. Resting your attention in the stillness of the body.
[11:05]
Gentle flow of the breath. You lose connection to this stillness, this quality of simply being, and find your mind getting distracted or busy again, mind wandering off with thoughts and planning and worries. Simply bring your attention back.
[12:14]
Back to the breath. Back to the body. Back to the quality of stillness. We simply sit here. Reconnecting to just being. Continue resting in this just being. And you do so gradually, feeling the wind with stillness. An innate quality of silence permeates your entire body.
[13:19]
as your mind settles and your intention begins to rest. Notice that the thoughts will become wider. continue to become aware of the stillness and the calm of simply being. When we can rest our attention in this quality of simply being, What we notice is that our attention naturally becomes more nurturing, warm, connected, and spacious.
[14:54]
Continuing this way, releasing your habitual mode of doing, and discovering the richness that think we be. But continuing now resting our attention fully in stillness and silence into a spacious quality of being, knowing that that quality of stillness and presence is always there, always here, even beneath the constant, maybe persistent,
[16:10]
a doubling of thoughts and feelings. It's always waiting for us to return to. Continue, not only the breath, if you will, but simply allowing no earnest to rest in open spaciousness. Either way, experiencing the nourishing, replenishing, refreshing quality of our pure being. Continuing your silence there.
[17:23]
Well, thank you, everyone. Thank you for sitting Zazam together, quietly in stillness, letting go of doing and simply relishing the experience of just being So, excuse me. I'm going to start my adjournment today with a confession. Which is already choking me up. So, during this time of shelter in place, one of the most challenging parts of the day for me is whenever I go outside for a walk.
[32:33]
And I like to go at least once a day in order to get some exercise. And since I live in San Francisco, I'm walking mostly around in my urban neighborhood. And while I enjoy being outside and after spending most of the day indoors in front of a computer, I also find it actually kind of stressful right now. And in large part, because it seems that so many people around me seem to... disregard the recommended pandemic safety protocols, you know, like wearing masks and staying six feet away from each other. And I often find myself like surrounded by joggers who aren't wearing masks or aren't being conscious of the space or couples crowding the sidewalk or people just hanging out who don't really get a sense of the relationship with others around them. And I find myself getting kind of annoyed and irritated with such folks. And I'm not too pleased to confess that.
[33:34]
I think, hey, I'm a Zen teacher, I should be above this, but I notice this is what's coming up. And I'm often just unable to fathom why people would deliberately, in my mind, selfishly, disregard the lobbying of others as well as their own during this time of COVID-19. And as various cities and states begin to reopen despite the persistence of the pandemic and the fact that there's no vaccine or cure at the moment. And the varying degrees of businesses and social interaction are going to be allowed again with certain restrictions. I think many of us, like me, are going to continue to have to consider what degree are we willing to put ourselves in situations which we might find stressful because Not everyone shares the same level of concern about infection or well-being of others or following the recommended health precautions.
[34:37]
And this is kind of expressing my own kind of relationship with how I look at these particular protocols or what comes up for me. In any case, yesterday I went for another walk in the late afternoon and... Again, I encountered a lot of people out and about doing their thing, and in many cases, many instances, not heeding the recommended safety protocols. And once again, I found myself entertaining all kinds of irritations and complaints in my mind about these rude, disrespectful people who weren't taking safety practices seriously enough. And I'm wondering, am I the only one? Is there anyone else who kind of has those thoughts arise? Yeah, I see a few of you, right? It's always nice to know that I'm not the only one who is struggling in this way. Anyhow, as I was entertaining my righteous indignation, I suddenly recalled the story of an exchange between Suzuki Roshi and Ed Brown.
[35:40]
And the story goes that it seems that not... long after Ed Brown had become the head cook of the Tenzo at Tulsa Horizon Mountain Center, he went to Suzuki Roshi to complain about his kitchen crew and the problems that he was having with them. And he basically was saying, how do I get my fellow workers to practice the way they should? And Ed explained to Suzuki Roshi that he was endeavoring to practice his instruction to, you know, to wash the rice and and do everything that he was, you know, taught was good kitchen practice, but that others in the kitchen often disregarded them. They came late to work or they disappeared from long bathroom breaks or when they opened their mouths, their hands kind of just, you know, stopped moving. They just kind of were just talking too much or just basically not following the kitchen guidelines. And they just weren't following the rules. And so, you know, Ed was basically asking, how do I get them to really practice?
[36:44]
However, contrary to what Ed expected, Suzuki Roshi did not say in response, tell them to be more mindful. Instead, he listened attentively. And his, you know, his nods kind of punctuated Ed's litany, you know, with kind of a look of confirmation. Finally, it seemed that his teacher seemed completely sympathetic, at least according to Ed. However, when Edward would finish speaking, Suzuki Roshi paused a bit, and then he startled Edward Brown by saying, if you want to see virtue, you'll have to have a calm mind. If you want to see virtue, You'll have to have a calm mind. So now, obviously, recalling the story in that moment, you know, when I'm out there on the streets, you know, I recognize that I did not have a calm mind just then.
[37:52]
My mind was agitated by judgment and resentment because I perceived others as not being mindful, as not properly practicing. And furthermore, I was also not able to see the virtue of the many people who were, in fact, following the safety protocols. When I really stopped to look around, I was like, you know, at least 70% of these people are actually hearing the guidelines. I could only see what was wrong, you know, those who weren't doing what I expected them, what was missing, rather than actually seeing the people who were making a good effort. You know, what was present and beneficial in the conditions? And I know myself, you know, my particular karmic conditioning is that I often see first what's missing, what's lacking. You know, my bias is towards a mind of lack. What's not right? Rather than noticing what is right.
[38:56]
From a Dharma perspective, to see virtue in others... is to essentially see their fundamental goodness. And another name for this fundamental goodness is good in nature. To see another's virtue is to see their capacity to act or aspire to act ethically and compassionately. To act with wisdom and integrity and a genuine care for others as well as themselves. Seeing virtue also means we can generously acknowledge the effort of others, even if those efforts don't quite hit the mark. So, for example, if you were the head of the kitchen, you might demonstrate to the crew how to cut the carrots. And yet there may be a few crew members who have, for whatever reason, problem gauging the proper sides.
[39:57]
And, you know... Similarly, many people may have started diligently wearing masks following the protocol, but in time kind of slipped back in that particular practice because they just found it too uncomfortable or for other reasons. They may just stop. Everyone is doing their best. Everyone is doing their best given their particular karmic conditioning to recognize practice and make manifest their fundamental goodness. Can we recognize that? Another way we can describe this virtue that the Tsukiroshi spoke about is as bodhicitta, the mind that strives towards awakening, empathy and compassion for the benefit of all beings. It's a fundamental goodness to awake
[40:57]
to our interconnectedness, our interbeing, and to that which we fundamentally are, open, spacious awareness. But, as Suzuki Roshi reminds us, to see and be in touch with this virtue, this fundamental goodness, requires a calm mind. loving mind doesn't believe or cling to the various unwholesome negative thoughts and beliefs that regularly pass through it. When we find ourselves criticizing others, then we can recall and practice the Rojong slogan, the one that says, drive all blames into one. I'm not sure how many of you are participating in the practice period that's going on right now with Mary Stairs, but she's studying a series of Tibetan teachings, traditionally called Olojong teachings, and one of the slogans is, drive all brains into one.
[42:01]
Now, this slogan means that rather than blaming others for our agitation and our sense, for our state of mind, we can instead take responsibility for this mindset that's presenting itself. And when we take responsibility, we have the ability to respond, right? To work to purify and transform any harmful mind states that might arise. And the Dharmapada, the Buddha said that mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief. They are all mind-wrought, all mental states. The positive and negative are mind-wrought. In pure mind, a person speaks or acts. Suffering follows them, like the wheel that follows the foot of an axe. Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief.
[43:04]
They are all mind-want. If with a pure mind, or a quiet, calm mind, a person speaks and acts, happiness follows them, like their never-departing shadow. So the Buddha is saying that the mind's habitual cognitive or relational patterns shape the kind of mental states that we experience. Our conditional mental habits are going to influence or color or shape what it is that we're experiencing when we look out into the world or look inward for that matter. So if we continually respond to life with thoughts and emotions that are aversive, or grasping, or fearful or judgmental, will I experience greater suffering? And if we respond with mindfulness, patience, and compassion, including when we perceive others not meeting our expectations, then we'll experience greater joy in ease.
[44:13]
As you probably know, there are many Buddhist practices to come in mind, including, of course, Zazen. There's also the practices known as the Brahmadiharas, the divine abodes, or the loving abodes, and these include the practices of loving kindness or goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. There's also the six perfections and a number of other practices that I'm sure you might be already aware of and you can find. Sometimes I find that my mind is particularly judgmental and critical, which does happen maybe way too often, and I have trouble kind of disengaging this critical mind, I practice with a mantra. And for those of you who are unfamiliar, a mantra is a spiritual word or phrase or a brief prayer that we kind of repeatedly, we can repeat silently to ourselves to calm the body. quiet the mind, and to improve our concentration in order to kind of restore our mind and our spirit.
[45:27]
Mantra is actually, it's a Sanskrit word, which basically means mind protection. So mantra protects the mind, particularly against negative or wholesome mind states. So what I do is I repeat a slogan or a verse to kind of redirect the flow of my mind into more wholesome, compassionate direction. And one of the mantrams that I use is a Tibetan one that many of you might be familiar with. It's , which translates as jewel in the heart of the lotus. And I repeat it over and over as a kind of helpful tool to override the negative critical thoughts and help to kind of quiet and suit the mind. So I'm just going to repeat to myself quietly or sometimes even aloud if no one's around. And let that kind of fragrance fill and quiet the mind come to mind.
[46:35]
So it kind of helps to lighten my mind and bring a little bit more sense of subtleness and ease. So As I continued my walk yesterday, working on calming my mind and acknowledging the fundamental goodness in others, really trying to make an effort to say that, I ended up recalling a particular writing by the American Trappist monk and social activist Thomas Merton. And the piece is known as the Walnut Street Epiphany. And it refers to a sudden insight that Merton had on a particular street corner in 1958, apparently, that eventually redefined his monastic identity. And what happened is he began to kind of, instead of staying in the monastery all the time, he realized that he wanted to have greater involvement in the world. You could say better than sheltering in place in the monastery, he realized it was important to get out into the world more.
[47:35]
And he became, as a consequence, involved in social justice issues. So this is what he wrote as he was standing on the street corner. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I love all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another, even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. I was talking about the world of the monastic. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. Not that I question the reality of my vocation or of my monastic life. But the conception of separation from the world that we have in the monastery, or maybe shelter in place in this case, too easily presents itself as a complete illusion.
[48:44]
I have the immense joy of being human, a member of a race in which God himself became incarnate. And for those of you who don't lean towards Christianity, you might say Buddha. The Buddha mind became incarnate, became the human. as if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. Buddha. And if only everybody could realize this. But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. The luminous line of awakening is what we found until we are. And this piece, you know, from Merton, whenever I come across it, it kind of re-inspires me to kind of step outside of my own internal sense of self-righteousness or
[49:55]
stupidity or separation that I can fall into at times, and instead recognize the light, the inherent virtue and fundamental goodness of others and myself. To see the Buddha nature, to trust that everyone is simply doing the best they can to show up as completely as possible despite our climate conditioning. So to really acknowledge and have patience in curing concern for others and do what we need to do to protect our own minds, because the world, in most cases, isn't going to do it for us. Okay. So I'm going to end there, and I'd like to open up the floor and see if anyone wants to share any of their particular experiences or practices. Barbara has put down below instructions for how to raise your hand in the participants.
[50:56]
She has them in the chat field, but you can raise your hand in the participants icon at the bottom. So what are you practicing with? And Barbara's also going to help me to identify if anyone has raised their hand. I see Fred. Hello. Hello, Fred. How have you been? How have I been? You're welcome. Thank you for your insight tonight. So, yes, it's about the season of Manwushi. I've been a Zen practitioner for a couple of years, but I come mostly from Mahayana tradition. So when you mentioned this, Um, Moni, Moni, Maha, Moni, Yes, Soha.
[52:13]
Um, Moni Padmian? You mean the mantra? No, it's a little bit different. So, Um, Moni, Moni, mahamuni yet so okay yes it's an ode to uh it's even more particular it's um being enlightened um so it's a it's a great um meditation um whether this time of the year it's a sudden uh i just don't know i see i'm not sure whether it's exactly this time of the year but it starts usually around uh july interview um so the
[53:19]
the seasonal the relation of season with uh meditation and the result of the mantra um into meditation that they form so um i don't know um i guess that's my contribution uh the hungry And if there's any connectedness, I would greatly appreciate any. Does that particular momentum have a way of translating that you resonate with? Well, it's gold. It's just gold and... joy, it's the attending of Manjushri.
[54:29]
In Mahayana, if you read about Manjushri, there's different sukha that can be referred to that one. um but uh generally just um anything google mind history um or gain um to the uh realization of my mission so we need the scriptures Manjushri often is the figure on the altar in the Zendam, in the meditation hall, you know, and has a sword, you know, also in particular has a sword that is to cut through delusions. So Manjushri is a figure of wisdom. Yeah, yeah.
[55:31]
Yeah, so this idea of cutting through negative mind states, cutting through delusion, get that, you know, with the clear mind, the pure mind, to be able to manifest and come forward. So it has a similar resonance. Right away from the belly. But yes, it's a work. Thank you. Thank you, Fred. Appreciate you sharing that. Thanks. I see Sonia Gonzalez. Hi, can you hear me? I can hear you. Okay. I just started getting back into Buddhism and meditation. And one of the things I'm doing during the pandemic is reading all the books I've purchased that I never had time. And I found this book, The Teaching of Buddha. I have no clue where I got it or how I got it, but I've been reading it. And one of the things it was saying is that there's nothing wrong, nothing's right. That's one of the... And I thought, okay, I sort of understand that if you're getting behind, if you put yourself in somebody's shoes and see their reasoning, it's something you don't agree with.
[56:41]
You can see it from their point of view. And then I turn on the TV and all these people are walking around without masks, going to the beaches. And I went, oh my God, they're so wrong. And I just found your talk today to be resonant because I was thinking, how do you deal with that? What would an enlightened person do? do with something like that. When you see behavior that you think could be hurtful to other people, to themselves, I was trying not to be judgmental, but thank you for that. It answered that question. They're doing the best they can. I'm doing the best I can. So I just wanted to show that. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And we often talk about, you know, in Zen, the absolute and the relative realm. So the two perspectives, you know, the absolute in which everything is already perfect there is no separation there is no self and other you know there is no right or wrong you know there's just being itself right it's only our human relative mind that produces concepts and ideas about self and other right and wrong and on the relative level yeah you know conditions have consequences
[57:52]
causes a condition. So a virus causes sickness to human beings and is a way to take care of it. So on a relative level, there's things we need to do. But on the absolute level, we could say there is no virus. This is for the heart suture. There is no virus. There is no eyes, no ears, no body, no mind. There's no separate entity there, right? And so to hold both of those in mind simultaneously, to You know, be aware of the absolute realm. Okay, there is no separate being here. There's no one here that's going to get sick with the virus in that sense, you know. And on a relative level, the absolute is manifesting as a relative. And on that level, we need to take care of things. So we've got, you know, both at the same time that we need to attend to. Thank you. Thank you, Sonia. Does anyone else have something they'd like to share? Nicholas.
[58:54]
Margaret, do you see Nicholas? I think there you go. Thank you. Hi, thanks for your talk and the time to sit at Sazen. And yeah, I wanted to ask about karmic conditioning. And because I think I was relating to a lot of the things you said and going for a run today and trying to follow the guidelines and having cyclists come by very closely and feeling pretty annoyed and reactive. And my understanding of karma is one's own doing. And I guess if we see uh the there being no separation then it's kind of just like the doing of the universe and then the conditioning that that being like the the doing of the the universe um yeah i was just curious on if you could say more about karmic conditioning thanks
[60:14]
Karma we usually talk about is intentional action. So there's a way that the mind is focused or intended, a direction it's going. And that direction of mind, we enact through our actions and our behaviors. Now, there's also the fact that our mind is conditioned. It's been shaped by our fact that we're human, by the family we've grown up, the circumstances we've grown up, You know, the language we speak, the fact that we speak a language, our mind is shaped by all these causes and conditions that we may or may not have any choice or control over, right? So the flow of the river of life itself, we're just part of that currents. And there's also an aspect that we also have, when we can set the intention, particularly with bodhicitta, the mind of wanting to awake, and see no separation to live from a place of Elizabeth and compassion, we can kind of direct the flow of conditions to be more wholesome in the sense that they recognize our interconnectedness, right?
[61:35]
So we're gonna always deal with this, as being humans, we're always gonna have some degree of a lens or a coloring in how we understand and perceive the world. We can't escape that ultimately, you know. as long as we're human, as long as we have a human life, right? We can't escape that. But we can work to mitigate that, to lessen that coloring, to try to kind of clear the mind a little bit more of those conditions we're perceiving. So when someone drives by you, or rides by you on a bike, your conditioning that's coming up is that first, you've been conditioned to be told there's a pandemic going on, there's a virus out there. and you have to do this and this and this in order to protect it. The reality is there's all kinds of viruses out there all the time. There's all kinds of germs and other things that are just unfolding in their own way, and that could probably kill us, right? But right now, our mind, because of the kind of media saturation, is so focused on this one thing called COVID-19.
[62:41]
What all of us are supposed to be doing to address COVID-19 In the meantime, many of us have actually forgot climate change, you know, and systemic oppression and all these other things that are killing us and killing other human beings. Because right now we're just focused on this one thing called COVID-19. So we'll notice how the mind's narrowed to that. And then we kind of see this kind of conditioned black or white, good or bad, a dualistic perception, right? Me and them. I'm doing good things and they're doing bad things. Of course, maybe if you were on the other side of it, you might be thinking, those fools wearing masks, don't they know that this virus isn't a big deal and that you don't have to be so stringent about precautions? So they have a different mindset, a different conditioning arise. So their response is gonna be based on their conditioning, on their particular view or mindsets. So we're all of us, we're swimming around with our particular conditioned view.
[63:44]
Our responsibility is to concede our conditioned view, to take responsibility for that, to know that it's karmically conditioned, and do what we can to particularly focus on lessening that conditioning to the degree that we lessen the sense of a separate self. We reduce the sense of being a separate self, right? And we act instead from a sense of deep connectedness and deep love and relationship with others. So the person who kind of comes, you know, jogger who comes by us, you know, if we can note the impulse, the criticism, you know, the mind, the thought, it's a thought. You know, we see a jogger, we feel the sensation of them going by, the thought arises, you know, COVID-19, I could, you know, I could get sick. And then we point to them. They should know better. And that only matters because we're worried about our own health in many cases, right?
[64:45]
We're really concerned about, am I going to be well? And yes, we do care about others at times. So in that moment, the animal impulse is my safety, my well-being, right? And how dare they threaten us. So fear comes up, right? It's a conditioned fear response at a deep level. I might die, right? And so if we can pause a moment again, just note that conditioning, you know, rooted, notice the thoughts that come up, notice the impulse to embody those thoughts by acting on them in some way, you know, maybe by yelling at the person, you jerk, you know, or doing something else that we probably would regret, you know, in most cases, right? And instead, can we take a pause for a moment and say, what is a loving way to respond? What is a way to respond that comes from a place of connectedness? To undo the condition of aggression and harm and find a loving way to respond.
[65:52]
Now, we might still say, I wish you would wear a mask. I wish you would honor six feet distance. We can express what we feel would be beneficial boundaries. It doesn't mean we can't do that. But we do it from a place of connectedness, rather than separation. We do it from a place of love and care and wisdom. I'm sharing with you what I understand to be best practices. I hope you'll join me in doing that. And then we give them the choice. And they will respond, or whatever they respond, based on their conditioning. where they still perceive a sense of a separate self that they need to protect or make sure is happy and so on in the way that they perceive it. So we're all doing this together. We're all making our best efforts to really gear, fundamentally, we all think we're doing what we can to be happy, to be free, to be at ease, whatever way that we perceive and define that happiness.
[67:01]
we're making the best effort but uh we get tripped up by our conditioning i don't know if that helps you know that's a yes okay thank you um i don't know if there's any other hands oh yeah actually i see what time it is um I see one response here. Thank you, David. Your talk resonated with me as well. I've also been frustrated when I go out for walks. Thank you for reminding me that everyone is doing the best we can given their own chronic conditioning. I love the idea of chanting something like, So, again, what can you do to protect your mind from negative mental states? in any way perpetuating a sense of separation and harm.
[68:02]
That is the real virus, right? The real virus, the real pandemic is one of separation, receiving separation when it doesn't exist. The virus of greed, hate, and delusion, the fundamental disease and dis-ease, dukkha, that the Buddha was trying to address by the practices that he offered us. So good luck out there. I think I'll go for a walk now, take up my practice. And again, it's a practice. I may be challenged, but it's a practice. I keep working at it. I keep making my best efforts to go out into the world in a way that's loving, in a way that can be beneficial and helpful, do the best that I can. And also forgive myself whenever I am not so able to do that.
[69:11]
So, okay friends, it's a joy to practice with you. Thank you very much. And good care. Thank you. See you next week.
[69:31]
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