Good evening again. Welcome. Welcome. I've just driven back from Green Gulch Farm, where I had really the great joy of being in the old barn with the students and the guests and giving a Dharma talk, which I've done many years, for many years, and still it always feels very fresh and awe-inspiring, you know, how how nice it is that people come to share the Dharma teachings. All these years, you know, Green Glitch has been there such a long time now, and they keep coming, and it's really, it's very dear. And like you, keep coming, and I really appreciate that. So, this evening, we're looking at, we're getting toward the end of Send My Beginner's Mind. We're still in the wisdom chapters, the... the Prajna chapters that are emphasizing emptiness teachings. So this title of this talk that we're looking at tonight is Attachment Non-Attachment, and it's followed by a quote, Suzuki Roshi quote, that we attach to some beauty is also Buddha's activity.

[01:28]

That we attach to some beauty is also Buddha's activity. So this talk began with one of my favorite subjects, as I think you know, science. Science told us several centuries ago that the sun does not rotate around the earth, as many of us humans had once believed, and rather that the sun is just hanging out there, as are we, and that the earth travels around the sun and spinning on its axis as it goes. When one side of the earth is illuminated by the sun, we call it day. And when the other side is illuminated, we call it night. And yet, as Suzuki Roshi quotes Dogen, saying, shifting to a Dharma perspective, even though it is midnight, dawn is here. And even though dawn comes, it is nighttime. Roshi says, this is the understanding transmitted from Buddha to the ancestors, from the ancestors to Dogen, from Dogen to us.

[02:31]

that night and day are not different. They are one thing, sometimes called day and sometimes called night. He then says that practice and the activities of daily living are one thing. We call zazen everyday life and everyday life zazen. And so too with calmness and activity, usually we think that we sit zazen and once we leave the zendo, we go back to the activities of our regular life. We think in terms of separation, in terms of this and then that. In the Buddha Dharma, this and that are one thing, co-arising at the same time, this, that. Meaning we have no way to escape from right here. Right here, moment after moment, just this is it. Just this is that. And so on. Roshi says that each existence, each moment, depends on something else.

[03:32]

In fact, depends on everything else. There are no separate individual existences. You've heard this many times. And yet sometimes humans put the stress on oneness or sameness, and other times the stress is on separateness or difference. So we have these two truths. We have the ultimate truth. We have the relative truth. Sometimes we stress the ultimate truth. Vast emptiness, nothing holy, sometimes the relative truth where everything is holy and sacred and to be cared for. So separating these two, treating them as different, however, is not our way. Our way is to appreciate the oneness that is within and as each and every variation that we find along the way. So the oneness is right here. It's always right here. And it's in each and every thing. There's a rock. There's the ocean. There's my dear friend Stephen, and so on. Oneness.

[04:33]

And so on, and so on. Each thing is the oneness. It's complete. So for each named thing, there too is this oneness. This, Roshi says, is why we emphasize everyday life in our practice rather than some particular state of mind, such as bliss. You know, the trouble with bliss, or what we call heaven, is the same trouble as we have with everything else. It doesn't last. You know, nothing lasts. And that's the sameness or the oneness of all things. They don't last. I remember when I first started to practice at Zen Center, I became very fond of the bliss or contentment that I found in those long sits that are part of the Zen training curriculum, you know, sashins, practice periods. And then at some point I noticed that bliss didn't seem to change. It was always kind of the same. Here we are, bliss again.

[05:36]

Oh, there it is, bliss again. And then I thought, this bliss is getting kind of boring. The fact that it doesn't change was kind of boring. And then I thought, I wonder if boring is the next step before enlightenment. Wouldn't that be nice if that's so? The next step after boredom. is awakening. So Roshi talks about the way we humans have of referencing our states of mind, quoting from the famous introductory statement that Dogen makes in his essay, the Genjo Koan, meaning actualizing the fundamental point. Although everything has Buddha nature, we love flowers and we do not care for weeds. Although everything has Buddha nature, we love flowers and we don't care for weeds. This is how we humans naturally see things. I like this and I don't like that. Dogen's antidote to the human's natural way of seeing things is to recommend that we leap clear of the many and the one.

[06:39]

We leap clear of the multitude of differences and of the one or the sameness. Just don't get involved. Don't get caught. Don't get caught in either side of one or of many. And then he says, this is the Buddha way. leaping clear. And in the Buddha way, there are birth and death. There are delusion and realization. There are sentient beings and there are Buddhas. And yet, in our attachment, blossoms fall. In our aversion, weeds spread. And how so? Because we carry ourselves, this I, forward and experience those myriad things. That those myriad things are in relationship to what I think of them. You know, that's delusion. That those myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. This is Dogen's saying. It's non-dual realization in which there is no separate self. There's no thing outside. Whatever you're experiencing is your big self.

[07:43]

And it's all-inclusive of everything else. It's hard for us. At such a time, the I has stepped out of the way. You know, way out of the way. And there's just... the magnificence of the whole, of the oneness. So this is like an accordion. Sometimes we're able to stretch our minds, our experience out so we can recognize the vastness that's there. And other times we're like at a pinpoint. We're just staring at a dot on a page. That's us too. Both sides of that are complete. Whether it's very wide or very small, it's complete. It's Buddha nature. Roshi goes on to bring up an even more challenging set of dualistic propositions, more challenging than night or day, zazen or everyday life. He brings up the very familiar human emotions of love and hate. Where there's hate, there is love. Where there's love, there is hate. Love and hate are one thing.

[08:45]

We should accept hate and love despite how we feel about them. That's interesting, isn't it? We should accept hate and love despite how we feel about them. I hate hate and I love love. So either way, we accept them despite how we feel about them. We should not be attached to love alone. If we love only flowers and we hate weeds, we are leaving out a whole lot of what gives life to this planet. You know, all those weeds. Right now, I don't know if you've all noticed, for those of you in California, the rains have come. And when the rains come, The weeds all over the hillsides, these beautiful hillsides, where I am up here, all directions, there are these lovely rolling hills, and they are turning emerald green. This is just about my favorite time of year in California. Everywhere you go, it's all green, a bright new green. And those are weeds that are growing out there.

[09:45]

By the time summer comes, they will be brown, and they will be highly flammable. You're right. Fire season. So this teaching is inviting us to consider a more subtle acceptance of what we find in this life, you know, like the weeds and the flowers, like the love and the hate, the light and the dark, the bliss and the boredom. You know, everything is included. Not caring for weeds is included and loving flowers is included. Otherwise, we would all be under some form of martial law where only love and not hate, only flowers and no weeds, you know, only liberals and no conservatives, and good luck with that, right? If we know both sides are there, he says, then it's okay to attach to something and to do so lightly, you know, in the light, so to speak, you know, in the non-dual awareness, to see your preferences and to hold them lightly, you know, I kind of like, kind of like yellow.

[10:48]

You know, that's okay. But just to be aware, it's a preference. It's just a preference. That's all. There's nothing wrong with the other colors, you know. So in our practice, we don't emphasize one side or the other of any dualistic proposition. We do not emphasize anything. All we want to do is to know things the way that they are. And if we know things the way they are, there is no need to point at them. There is no need to grasp anything. and there is no thing to grasp. Flowers fall, and we're sad. Weeds spread, and we're sad. There is no problem. There's no problem. There's no problem being sad. It won't last. So this reminds me of the very first koan in the Book of Serenity, which some of you are familiar with. It's entitled, The World Honored One Ascends the Seat. The World Honored One is the Buddha. So the World Honored One Ascends the Seat, means that the world-honored one, the Buddha, is about to give a talk. So ascending the seat means he's going up on the talk.

[11:51]

He's going up on the seat, you know, like I did this morning at Green Gulch. I went up on the seat and I gave a talk. So here's the koan. One day the world-honored one ascended the seat. Manjushri struck the gavel and said, clearly observe the dharma of the king of the dharma. And he pointed at the Buddha. Clearly observe the Dharma of the king of the Dharma. The Dharma of the king of the Dharma is thus. The world honored one then got down from the seat. He didn't give a talk. So what's going on here? So the trouble in this story has to do with Manjushri pointing. So he, Manjushri, is the bodhisattva of wisdom. And in order to help people, he's pointing at the Buddha sitting up on the Dharma seat about to give a lecture. So that's helpful. He's helping people.

[12:52]

And the Buddha, on the other hand, also, in order to help people, gets down from the seat, indicating by his actions that the Dharma is thus, meaning that the truth is always right now and right here, whether you're pointing at an empty seat or you're pointing at a seated Buddha. Either way is thus. And any way you point is thus. It's all thus. Just this is it. So the problem is that we think there's only one of those is the king of the Dharma. You know, only the seated Buddha. You know, sitting there outside of ourselves. That's what we're looking for. We're looking for something outside of ourselves. You know, that's what we've come to see. And the Buddha is saying, no. that you're wrong. You've got to turn the light onto yourselves. You've got to look at yourselves to find the awakened spirit, the awakened quality of your life. So Suzuki Rashi says, it's when we put emphasis on some particular point, some particular pointing, that we always have trouble.

[14:01]

We should accept things just as they are. This is how we understand everything and how we live in this world. This kind of experience is beyond our thinking. In the thinking realm, there is a difference between oneness and difference. But in our actual experience, oneness and difference are the same. There is no need to think. In the last part of the talk, Roshi turns to feelings again, the feelings of happiness and sorrow, which he says are not separate from one another. They are two sides of the one coin of reality itself. Where there is happiness, there is difficulty. The difficulty, that happiness will end. And where there's sorrow, there is happiness. The happiness, that sorrow will also end. So this is the true understanding transmitted from the Buddha to us. So that's what I wanted to speak about just a little bit this afternoon, this evening.

[15:06]

And I would love to hear what you all would like to say or ask or bring up. First of all, I'd like to greet you, welcome you. Let's see the little bar here. Okay. Oh, good. So I see Kathy. Hello, Kathy. Welcome. And Helene. And Griffin. Lisa. Oh, Corey. Oh, Corey. And Tim. And Marianne and Carmina. I'll bet it's nearby. And Michael. Hello, Michael. And Kate. Fernando. Welcome back, Fernando. I haven't seen you in a little while. Welcome back. Thank you. Cynthia. You're welcome. And Jerry. And Meredith. Welcome, Meredith. Justin. Welcome, Justin. Kosan. Shozan. Paul and Kate. I see Paul. Hello, Kate. I'm sure she's around somewhere. There she is. I see her hand. Hello, Kate. Tom.

[16:07]

Senko. Hello, Senko. Good morning. Hello, Hope. And Caroline, thank you for the lovely card. Adrian Benner. And Genshin. Dennis Alatier. And then there's an SR. Maybe that's Suzuki Roshi. Sure enough, there's the hands. Okay, great. Welcome. Welcome, Roshi. checking in on us. So please, whatever you'd like to bring up and talk about. It's kind of a busy time of year, I would imagine, for all of you. It certainly is for us. So whatever you would like to share or ask about, please do. Very nice, Broussan. Jerry. Oh, you must have heard the talk. Yeah, that was so sweet. I was telling them, for those of you who didn't hear the talk, that when I studied tea with Mrs. Suzuki, you know, it's fairly common among, I think, the way Japanese people train with each other and certainly the way you train in tea is there's not a lot of complimenting that goes on.

[17:28]

You know, basically, you do tea, you do the best you can, and then you bow to your teacher at the end and thank them, and then you go out of the room, and then you do that again the next week and the next week and so on and so on. And so after many years, maybe 10 years of doing tea, as I was leaving the room, I thanked Suzuki Sensei, and I bowed, and she said, very nice, Fusa, very nice tea. And I was like, wow. You know, could you say that again? Anyway, that's what Jerry was referring to. Very nice, Fusun. Lisa, hello. Hello, Fu. Thank you. So I, you know, I was most struck with that first koan. And, you know, maybe it's just sort of a bit of snarkiness on my part that I project onto others. But I always wonder if, you know, the Manjushri pointed... And the Buddha got down because he just said, no, I'm out of here.

[18:33]

You're wrong. You point, you're wrong. I don't know. That's the snarky part? That's the snarky part. Snarky Buddha? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, that's an interesting interpretation. And I think it can be seen that way, you know, that he was being rude. Yeah. Yeah. Manjushri didn't get it, and that was the lesson. Yeah, yeah. And the other side of that is that koan is much more memorable than any talk he might have given. Yes. It's like, huh? You know, it really brings us into inquiry. You know, what's going on? And then the commentary to that koan is about that, you know? Like, what's going on here? Why did the Buddha, the awakened one, not give a talk? And was it really Manjushri's pointing?

[19:36]

Or what was the talk? Maybe that was the talk. You can't point at thus. The king of the Dharma is thus. And maybe by doing that, it left people with a better understanding or a deeper understanding of the meaning of thus. I don't know. I don't know. I certainly got a thrill when I read that poem. You know, it's like, wow. That's the first one in the Book of Serenity, you know? Yeah. I really, I do like it because you can, you know, you can take it so many ways. Yes. Work with it so many ways. Yeah, it's like paintings, you know, abstract paintings where you can basically interpret them. And the poems are like that. You know, you can bring your own thoughts and inspiration and, And I've enjoyed Koan studies with people because that's just what happens. We rewrite what they mean. But then you have a snarky Buddha. That's your contribution.

[20:37]

Thank you. Thank you. You're going to stop there? Okay. She's getting down from her seat. Oh, Helene. Hello, Helene. Hi, Fu. Hi, everybody. It's really good to see all your faces. I just wanted to thank you for your talk. And in this holiday season, I have found cause for more suffering with my family. and your reminder to accept things as they are and to really gave me a moment of light.

[21:41]

And I wanted to thank you for that release of feeling. Well, you are welcome. You're so welcome, Helene. It really makes me happy when you come and speak and get to see you and smiling and all of the things that you do. So thank you. Thank you. Hi, Griffin. Hello. Welcome home again. Thank you. I have a question, I think, about what my attachment to what I call weeds and what I call flowers. So we're doing a sort of a five-day mini retreat. And so Saturday I did a lot of sits and contemplative small groups and had a perhaps, you know,

[22:52]

a calmer, more connected feeling day to my life here. And then what often happens is that there's a swing. So I wake up this morning angry, tired, perseverating. With some, you know, perspective, I wanted to go back to do, you know, the morning Zendo and I was, you know, I'm questioning, first of all, why this is a common thing for me to sort of have the swing from a day where I've, you know, had more refuge to a day where I suppose I am just rejecting more my weeds. I wanted to go to the Zendo. This is what I like.

[23:55]

And even though I liked and I wanted, I turned my back on it. And it feels unnatural. And I think it has to do maybe with an idealized practice that makes the day of... You know, a day where you begin with the strong impression of this is a weed instead of this is a treasure. Follow a day of the opposite. Do you find that? I used to find it more. You know, I think you wear out some of that... pivoting kind of gets tiring it's like bliss you know it's like oh no not bliss again oh no not boredom again you gotta get tired of your states of mind i think over time and certainly you you've done a lot of sitting i've done a lot of sitting and you get a lot of opportunities you get tired of your states of mind you know like oh no not that'll suck so

[25:05]

Some of it is really just not biting. There's a saying that my partner often uses about the shampa. I think it's a Tibetan term. It means the hook. Don't bite the shampa. Don't bite the hook. The hook's there. I mean, you know, your mind is really trying to get you to grab a hold of self-centeredness. You know, like, it's all about me. It's all about me. What I like, what I don't like, and so on. The pivot is our ego. It's all about me. and what I do and don't like. So the relief that I think you felt when you've spent time in the Zendo and the me sort of maybe went behind the curtain for a little while, you know, that's your reference. You know that you can go there. You know you've had that experience. And then when you're not there, you can remember that, you know, I know there's another way of seeing. I haven't forgotten. You've been perfumed by the times that you found the relief in your practice. And that perfuming just continues to work away at the parts of yourself that are still kind of cranky and raw and rough and old habits.

[26:13]

It takes quite a while for old habits to yield to freshness. It does. It takes quite a while. So we have to be patient. No, the patient acceptance of the continuous arising of non-existent phenomena. You want to write that down? The patient acceptance of the continuous arising of non-existent phenomena. That's our primary practice. And as somebody once said, patience practice doesn't count when you're feeling patient. It's when you're... That's when you practice patience. When you're angry, that's when you practice loving kindness, right? So the antidotes are kind of opposite world. Turning, turning, turning. And keeping that pivot oiled until it basically yields.

[27:17]

You know, you're just not fooled. You're not fooled by your mind. As the Buddha said, I know who you are. Tamara, the evil one, the master of illusion, I know who you are. You are myself. And with that, Mara vanishes. Hello, Fernando. Welcome. Hi, Flo. Good to see you after a while. Can you hear me? Yeah. Thanks. So I just got a new job, which I'm grateful for. And we don't have temples here, but I'm lucky to have a friend to sit every day with. So I just wanted to talk about the non-dual proposition you were saying, you were talking about.

[28:25]

So it's a little bit of a strange example, like a philosophical thought experiment. But I mean it literal and metaphorical at the same time. So say there's someone who has insects as pets. So he has butterflies, different kinds of worms. He likes the variety. how beautiful they are. And then other animals, other insects, let's say bees. Bees are nice, I guess, and interesting. But then how about a cockroach? How about having a cockroach and taking care of the cockroach or two of them? and then feeding them, taking it to the garden, pet it with proper being clean and everything for your safety.

[29:40]

How about that? And is this perspective of non-dualistic thinking good to have that kind of relationship with the kukrish, because he's also a living being. And in a metaphorical way, how about getting more friendly with the grumpy one, the more quiet one, the one that is not very cheerful all the time. So I wonder what can you tell us about that? Yeah, I think that's a perfect example of, you know, having a very wide and broad willingness to meet what's there. There are cockroaches. You can't say, well, there aren't any. There are, you know, there are all those things you named.

[30:41]

And there are grumpy people. There are happy people. And there are irritating people. There's all the different, you know, just like in the animal kingdom and the insect kingdom, we got all of it. And so each of us meets each of those things with a certain set of feelings. Maybe your friend loves cockroaches and worms and so on. There are actually quite a few people who do, like study insects and love insects. And there's some people love to study other kinds of elements of our life. But it's okay if you would rather not have a cockroach for a pet. That's okay. You want to respect your own way of having preferences in this world because we do have preferences. So just be aware of them and be kind to yourself and try not to hurt the thing that you aren't drawn to. You don't have to hurt it because you don't like it. You could let it go or take it outside. You know, it took me a while.

[31:42]

I never... very fond of spiders that kind of give me the creeps. And I had a great big spider in my cabin at Tassajara. And there was a time I would have simply gotten a fly swatter and, you know, sent it away. And I've learned to get a cup and a piece of cardboard there and carry the little spiders outside. So I feel as though there's ways. We have ways of working with our preferences and yet without having to harm others. So I think maybe the basic principle is not harming. Not harming. And it doesn't mean loving. Like there's a part of the Dhammapada where it says that love is not conquered by hate. I mean, hate is not conquered by love. Hate is conquered by not hating. I think not hating is... probably more accessible or possible for us than to love something that we don't like.

[32:46]

And that doesn't seem very reasonable. But not hating it. You know, I think we can get there. And from there, we cannot harm it. We can take care of things, even though we don't necessarily like having them in the house and so on. So I do think that's our challenge that you're bringing up. I think that is the Dharma challenge. How to work with what's appearing. In fact, you know, in the face of our preferences. Right. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Hi, Tim. Hi, Tim. Hello. I'm going back to a few moments ago when you said we are Mara. We have Mara inside of us. That actually mirrors what I've been thinking recently. That Mara is not an abstract God or entity or that actually sounds strange, but I am Mara, but perhaps I am actually Mara for other people.

[34:00]

I am snaring them in my own concept of self, of myself, and my concept of samsara, basically pulling them into samsara as I experience it. What do you think? I think it's a great one. I really got a little thrill when you said that. Oh, that's good. I'm going to steal that, Tim. That's very good. I'm stealing it from you. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. We'll steal it from each other. When you think of Mara as the master of illusion, and you think about how the imaginarium that we carry around with us all the time, through which we view the world, through our imagination, that's Mara. Mara, the master of illusion. You are myself. It's my imagination that's creating the world that I love and that I hate.

[35:05]

You know, I hate cockroaches and I love butterflies. You know, that's my mind that's calling those things good or not good and so on. And I think your point that my preferencing various parts of the world impacts the world, right? That how we treat others impacts the world. And I think you're right. We become Mara. We become the external presence that threatens and that creates discomfort. So I think that's a very wise thing to keep in mind. It's not just you that's benefiting by recognizing the power of your own imagination, but others will benefit the more you recognize, oh, that's just me. That's just me feeling like that. I don't have to speak about it. I don't have to act it out. I can basically hold it and turn it. Keep turning it like you do when you want to smooth those rocks, like Suzuki Roshi talked about, putting them in a tumbler.

[36:07]

Put rough rocks in a tumbler and you keep tumbling it, and then they get very smooth. So I think that's our job as Mara's. I tried to describe my wife, or she doesn't believe me, but what am I doing when I sit on that? It shouldn't. Twice a day. And I described it to her as, I don't set a clock. I don't have any rules. I'm sitting there. But I told her that I sit until the fog of self starts to dissolve. And I'm aware. Maybe it won't dissolve, but I'm aware it's sort of to lift away. Nice. The fog of self. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. You know, a lot of people, myself included, after doing our first long sits, I remember at Green Gulch going out in this light of day, and oh my God, the grass was so green.

[37:15]

And there were so many little blades. It's like, where'd they come from? Well, where have I been? What have I been doing? Yeah. With my mind, you know, what kind of fog has been, you know, perpetually, like that little Peanuts character had a cloud around his head. You know, they were basically, we're basically fogged in a lot of the time. We're not really seeing the beauty of the world that's right there. It's always right there. So that's a very nice way to describe it. Waiting for the fog. Yeah, to lift. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Hello, Marianne. Welcome. Welcome. Hello, Fu. Hello, Sangha. Good evening. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the virtue of courage.

[38:19]

It seems to me that it's a very courageous act. to accept these teachings, especially like today, where happiness is sorrow, sorrow is happiness. There is happiness in difficulty and difficulty in happiness. So even though you say, as you shared tonight, that we have to hold these opposites, what we love and what we hate, gently, I think this also needs courage to do so. Yeah, I agree. You know, it does take courage because we're kind of vulnerable species. You know, we're a very appraised species. We don't have much weaponry, you know, tiny little fangs and hardly any claws. And, you know, we're pretty easy to attack. So we're frightened. I think that's our main setting is fear. And so I do think courage.

[39:21]

And I remember reading about fearlessness. in Dharma and thinking, oh, I want that. I want that fearlessness, you know? And then it took a while for me to realize it's fearlessness. Fear. Not no fear. That's not going to happen. But less fear. Like learning how to hold whatever that bodily sensation is. Like I had this morning before I went into the Zendo to give a talk. It's always reliably, there it is, you know, like, ooh. And so I need to let myself just keep breathing and keep breathing and walk right through the door and put the mic on and start talking. And I've done that so many times that I actually trust that the fear will pass. And that the joy of being able to talk about the Dharma will arise. And, you know, and that pretty much is what happens. But the fear always comes, you know.

[40:22]

So I do think there's an element of finding out that you have the courage to meet those times and those experiences that normally you would avert from them. You just go hide under the bed. Right. Right. But that's not much of a life, hiding under the bed. Right. And even the courage to just do zazen. The courage to just drive when you're driving. The courage to just walk when you're walking. Absolutely right. Absolutely right. Absolutely right. And, you know, what supports our courage is focus, concentration, training. Practice driving. It's not your first time behind the wheel. You actually have training that you're respectful of others when you drive. when you walk outside and so on, that you actually have developed skills for me in the world. And I think that, you know, courage has a lot of companions. And I also think it's cultivated by ritual, what you were saying this morning.

[41:30]

I think it does build up a certain moving forwardness, maybe. That's how I might define courage, moving forwardness, you know. Yeah, nice. Nice. Yeah. Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot is courageous act. Indeed. And we're all very brave. Thank you. [...] Lisa, you're back. Yeah. Marianne's question reminded me a little bit of sort of out of the back reaches of my long-term memory. of the Theraveden teaching that, or story, that when the monks were fearful in the forest, what the Buddha taught was metta meditation. And that always puzzled me.

[42:31]

You know, if, you know, it's the idea then to get your courage, to reduce your fear, By focusing elsewhere? Well, if Metta is elsewhere, but I don't think it is anymore, right? Granted. Just like Mara is, I know who you are, you are myself. Metta, I know who you are, you are myself. I'm generating that heart, that warmth in my heart. for the world, for others, for the animals that I'm afraid of. I mean, I love the story of the Buddha meeting the wild elephant. Terrifying. Have you ever seen pictures of wild elephants? Horrifying. This elephant was rearing up and snorting, and he just was very peaceful, and he held his hands up, and the elephant calmed down. I've seen that actually in a video of a monk.

[43:36]

in the forest doing that with an elephant to just, you know, basically gesturing peace and the elephant calm down. So, you know, we don't, we can't control what's coming at us or what might jump on us or whatever. We can't, we can't make, keep that from happening, but we can have a posture or a willingness to meet what comes and with, with as much, uh, awareness and as much kindness and so on. And, you know, sometimes it's not going to work. Tiger's just hungry. I'm not that impressed with your, you know, your little gesture. But, and we know that our time is coming. It may not be a tiger, but it may be other kinds of organ failures and so on. And no matter what it is, we are going to be there to meet what's happening. And so how? How are we going to prepare ourselves for that meeting with things we don't like?

[44:40]

You know, not so easy. But I think this practice is about that. You know, it really is. Okay. Well. Okay. Very nice to be with you. I think it's fine for us to end now. Unless anyone wants to bring in another comment or question, I can wish you all a good evening. What? Oh, and a Happy New Year. My very intelligent tech person just clued me and wished them a Happy New Year. So Happy New Year. Yeah, that's right. I guess it will be New Year next time I see you all. So I hope it's a good one. I hope the one that's passing is good to have gone and that the one coming is the one we've been waiting for.

[45:50]

So I wish you all a good evening and a Happy New Year. If you'd like to unmute and say goodbye, you're welcome to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Tonga. Thank you. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Thank you for another year of your teachings, Fu. You're welcome. Thank you. Happy New Year. Well, everyone.

[46:20]

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