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brutus

good evening

still and missed the jokes are i was traveling the thousand and i was trying to sit back and seven different where sonia was trembling jami for them than island for his younger
the
yes
hold it
okay thank you can you hear is not very well now they're about this
about cause you to miss were so now i want to be comfortable joking with you
how's that
the great
the works we have it as some
is this this was was was donated you donate this to us thank you very much this will help people with hearing impairments
here are a gamer talks because we have this new system sound system so thank you very much
so this is the eve of the beginning and practice create tomorrow is the first meeting of the practice period
orientation in the afternoon
thursday afternoon people will be arriving
friday his tongue are you
saturday bigger orientation with or aoki instruction and then sundays
we're rolling
into the regular schedule
hum so i i wanted to talk a little bit tonight about the feeling of practice trade because i feel
ah the practice for isn't just for the practice pre of participants it's really for olive green gulch and also everybody who comes your feels when we practice period i can feel the difference in the valley and
i am
i have a very
strong feeling about the importance of doing practice period and those of you who far
signed up to do it i really i was in figure out this talk i realize how strongly i feel about you receiving the benefits from to practice period
and those of you who are not in registry but have been at other times can all help this happen and can then receive the benefits for yourself as well and then that benefit goes out to everyone so it's it's a mutually young it's a circular thing
so the schedule is going to be a little bit different for pepper spray them with than we've done before we're going to be an end the practice period orientation will go over this in depth but i wanted everyone agriculture to know that we're going to be having two periods of thousand in the evening so for the last
i don't know how many years in the evening we've had one period of sales and from seven thirty to eight ten and will have that purchases and plus kenyan till a twenty and then another period of thousand eight twenty nine so it will be closer to tassajara schedule with two periods or thousand in the evening
those of you working in the kitchener sometimes after your dinner and other people to you may want to relax a little bit if you've been working all day but this will give you a chance to
ah shower whatever whatever if you haven't and then sit that later period with everyone and then do the refuges together with the practice create so i really encourage everyone to around
come to this end of a for either both are one of those eating periods
hum
and i think it will help the practice create participants because often at eight ten when the the thousand period has ended it's maybe a little bit too early to go off to bed and you feel like you know maybe i have a cup of tea and go to the dining room and then you end up getting into
the conversation even over vm guidelines a practice period to practice silence from the evening period all the way through until after breakfast in the mornings what's a long period of silence but background i think this might meet that feeling of better thrilled too early to go off to bed and to
yes i'm have this to purchasers in in the name
i'm
i came upon this encouraging words from masturbation rich
master glacier was the tang dynasty master who became a disciple of bhaijaan and he lived in the seven hundreds seven seventy one to eight fifty three and there's a am
encouraging words from masturbation i'm not going to reach you all of these but i was very encouraged by them
and i came upon this reference that i always got with suzuki roshi words about walking in the midst you know he said if you walk in the in a downpour you get wet cut of on the surface but if you walk in the midst of the fog you your permeated your clothes are permitted all the way through and
master guafen actually and seven hundred said
this this isn't talking about people who have come to the monastery to practice and they left their loved ones behind are there
ah baylor
life from a life of work in the world and have come to the monastery to practice and
one of the admonitions is to associate with wise france and it's as living with wise friends is like walking in the midst your clothes will be permeated with moisture
ah
so
i feel like we've gathered here a group of people who have put practice as a priority in her life this is
no mistake that we're all here together and
so i would call that you know living with wise friends people who
see the importance of
ah making practice a priority and have and the reason often that people see this as a priority is that they have experienced great suffering
in their life kind of
in a way that they can't control they can't fathom and they can understand that there's some great suffering in your life and also along with that is often an experience of compassion that arises with this experience of great suffering feeling compassion for others feeling compassion for yourself
and
wanting to on
wanting to live thoroughly
an and this this is a very strong arm
force in one's life would also happens is that over time that kind of the strength that strength of purpose that brought you practice can become
ah eroded you might say or you might forget of how it is the to got here or other things begin to take priority sort of kind of
to habit energy or so how is it that this that one can keep this the original beginner's mind actually feeling a why you came to practice keeping that fresh and alive
it's kind of determination to practice and
one way that's
traditionally talked about his to look at impermanence this is one way that you can
re energize yourself about your practice and it'll for young people i often feel like to talk about of permanence feels a little abstract you know sometimes school looking at their own strong bodies and
minds and
but down
if you actually look carefully at yourself and at your friends and at those loved ones you can see improvements you can see the grey hairs you know you can see that a person is here one day and not hear the next almost like that and
bearing this in mind bringing your attention to this to impermanence to see a prevalence a buddha said to see impermanence is to see dharma so
it's it's not necessarily easy to bring impermanence bring impermanence into your consciousness into your
ah into your daily reflections
and yet and this is what question said it is a song
i found this very young strong

i won't repeat the exact words but out
basically it's one gay will find yourself i don't mean to be morbid but this is what's coming up for beat tonight so one day you will find yourself on your deathbed wracked with pain and
almost unable to think clearly confusion and you may think how is it that i let those years go by without practicing strongly how can i have done this and and have great regret and great remorse so to come together for a practice period to be
in this situation or everything is set up for you to practice ah
thoroughly and with great support being fed and
sheltered and having the teaching be presented and having wise friends to on
to practice with
so my feeling tonight is to please not waste this opportunity and as ah my games are reading but i'm pleading for myself to to not waste this opportunity that we have ah
and the way we wasted is
but what we have to offer in the practice period is now the forms of the practice period itself ribs to take up this i know working out or okay if it's falling behind
you know how do we transmit this feeling of determination and looking at impermanence carefully how do we are how do we pass that onto someone you have it you that's what brought you here and then how do you maintain that and the forms of the previous period are all
i meant to help you look at this help you look at impermanence help you focus on your what is the most important thing for you what brought you here and to not forget so
ah
so i know rib as people head of came about coming to the greatest group are you enthusiastic you know are you enthusiastic about the forms of practice barrier because that's really all we've got
meaning could come to a damage hawk or
i do some study on your own and so forth is is fine and it's wholesome activity but to actually
thoroughly enter the practice you have to put your body into it you have to thoroughly without holding back thoroughly
ah
practice and and that means practicing the forms when i say forms in it's kind of just a shorthand way of saying all the mindfulness practices all the
yoga practices that we offer including you know like standing sitting walking and lying down
so here's this eight weeks where the distractions are very little or or less
we asked people to stay in the valley for the most part or in the practice period and i know others have you are not in the practice period mages
on your own not run around so much perhaps it's winter it's darfur there's a turning in
the light there's a light in the evening so naturally you may be stay or close to the harith across the home
wow so so we have this eight weeks and
to not waste it you know there's so many people who think if i could you know i would go to a monastery or go and be a breakfast food if i could read my job or if i could get eight weeks offer if i could if my family wasn't at the aged my kids at this age and if they were older i would go and go to greenhouse should do this guy
because barry
so i feel like
as many people who would like to be able to do what we're able to do
and then we often find says saying gee i wish i were somewhere else that i wish i could be
anyway where where she were somewhere else that there was she there somewhere else so
to just settle completely settle with
ah the offerings of the cracks spirit which means a schedule
the thousand and and not
you know when you hear the sounds of the hard when you hear the sounds of the bill you stop what you're doing you turn your attention towards are going to the sandow or stopping work going to service or whatever it is to run
to ah
throw yourself into the simple practices that are offered a forms of the practice which is how the tt is transmitted that's one of the main things about zana isn't that but teaching itself is transmitted through forms it's it's style of the said teaching that form
forms become
they inform the they become informs me that word up and they inform your life so that it's inside of you the forms are inside of you not something you apply or copied by you actually do walk mindfully enquire you do pick
things up and i completely there as you set it down and pick it up
but this is the kinds of things that are taught as forms you know but
ah
often there's some resistance to the forms and i'm saying i'm trying to point to the forms as therefore you they are completely for you to thoroughly understand the teaching in your body
that's how it gets transmitted so
so you know i guess my wishes that
everyone takes this up with found
rabies use the word enthusiasm enthusiasm needs to be filled with god i think that's the etymology of to be filled with this kind of energy of wanting to do this creates this harmony that we all feel and and we we actually
support each other more and more if everyone is doing this together
so
so this determination and bringing in providence into your that you we don't have this much time we don't know just like the hand says you know birth and death is the great matter awake awake everyone don't waste time that's our harm you know that's what it says in
ah
each time you hear the hon if you could remember what's written on it
so for me when i first started practicing as many of you know i was in a great deal of suffering and confusion and depression also and ah
the years i spent doing practice periods
ah mostly at her at first because we didn't offer them and other places in the same way
i personally felt this made a enormous transformation for my life can be able to do this kind of practice
and
i feel am
ha
this is one of the greatest gifts that we have to offer the world actually are three practice places is something that we call pack experience it is it's so
it's unique and it's hard to come upon in in in in many lifetimes this kind of situation etc for
so
i
vm kenzo kilcoyne the admonitions for the head cook talk and you've heard this before
perhaps but it talks about the mind of the head cook who is cooking for the community and this is talking about monastery cooking
what they were they need for this job and what we all need is a scrum big mind or magnanimous mind joyful mind and parental mine or the mind of a caring for others with the minor of how apparent cares for a child
lol
and
i feel that this these three minds
the magnanimous mine has talked about as oceanic and wide and stable and able to see it of a broadway what's going on and not to take sides to quickly not to have narrow view this magnanimous mind and joyful mine is is what it says it's a mind that
even it's not the joy of 'em
you know i like this dessert and really glad we've gotta have it or have dessert tonight it's a joy a joy for my net there whether you like something or not it's it's a moment joyfully practices in both adversity and when things are easy rip that finds joy that kind of
deep joy mine
so that guy's shit iz magnanimous by big mine and then kitchen is this joy and roshan
his parental mind
and in this predicament i feel like is so necessary for how we get along and the practice period because if this mind looks on everyone as if they were
your child and
ah
this is not predicated or is not necessary to have your own children to kindle this mind that that sees other people and feels like they're you want to care for them as if they were your children without holding back
and my sense of these mines is that they arise out of the practice that but they're not intellectual or a conceptual my that you can kind of try to engender kind of they they actually arise out of this thorough practice
have ah
taking care of your body take care of your mind and and practice crew
peg spirit is the way it doesn't point to the way it is the way
i sensor angeles to pursue else him back down
i am
i realized he'd prepared to this that i feel as i said very strongly about this a ah
so
i've seen
i'm
it's a one thing i am
i was hoping to do in and if you'll allow me to do this
do this on occasion i was thinking that we could move into like tooth and spend a few minutes
ah we sometimes do this when the priest get together and have these accordingly priests meetings where you just say to another person
what it is your practices and how you
feel you might not feel you might but how you want to practice during the practice period those of you in the practice period
i think hopefully a pretty clear about that those of you not an apprentice period maybe there's something some way that you want to practice during it
and i just thought you could say that to another person and they could say back to you or that's one thing you could say are also what might be hard for you to do during the practice period
and the third thing is how you might support the practice period and i know that for those of you're living in cloud hall there are many ways you can support those the practice period for example
really keeping the silence during thousand and after nine o'clock not having conversations in the bathrooms really being careful about doors and sheet and walking and all the sounds
this is something everybody can do and it really can contribute to the feeling during the practice period so
there's also a hefty sittings anyone on their day off can sit are arranged it to sit there is formal breakfast in dining room that are available for not only the practice period there is helping to serve and have their sittings
is a lot of ways that we can all turn towards this practice great time
this technique handbook stepping into freedom an introduction to buddhist monastic training has a lot of ah
it has this encouraging words by master grecian and then tick nhat hanh ah talks in in a long essay to young monks and nuns who have just been her again and they're pretty pretty young it some of them
you know in their teens and he tries to encourage them
and i think what are the main thing that he goes over and over is practicing mindfulness
wow
so
mindful that i'll just read a delivered my for this is the energy that can shine light on our whole life and nourish our bodhicitta or this original thought of enlightenment that propels us into practice
so are mindfulness of all these what seemed to be small things but actually create a whole atmosphere alpha
oh an environment that really allows you to practice and he says if you go to a monastery
a try it don't necessarily make your decision if that's the monastery for you stay there for a while actually see how the practice is going there are how are people practicing look for yourself and see
if you're encouraged by the way people are practicing and if you're not then don't stay at that monastery
so
ah to create a place that encourages others to rub to practice hard and to take up the practices
however i think we got his their kind of place and i think
but but i also think we can
really put our energy towards this not just assume that this is a good print place to practice for people and assume that this is an encouraging environment actually it really takes each person to create them
so that would be another thing that you could talk about is how you might
practice mindfulness or encourage others to so would that be all right if we we have a little bell here and i thought it's a little bit after eight we could maybe have each person speak for about an
not that long maybe three or four minutes or something like that
and you can actually have a dialogue or just one person speak in the other person listen and then switch
so even if you don't know the person next to you it doesn't matter just turned
they're out and

from the sounds of bed
those conversations it sounds like everyone is enthusiastic
ah
so to meet our suffering through the practice of
a practice period is a great gift to the world it's a gift to ourselves to all our loved ones to each other to to study are suffering
ah in this way and and
ah not turn aside
and it doesn't take you know on great sir intelligence you know like really being a smart or something in the
you know it doesn't matter whether you're a dull witted or not that's not the most important thing to be really are
ah highly intelligent that's that that's not necessary it just takes his heart and determination to our
look at yourself and steady yourself which means studying every single thing you do that's the self we're talking about not not just something that search ends here but everything you come in contact with every can you think every mind object every site object every sound
object smell taste touch a bulldozer all this is the south the system body the five skanda big body not just it doesn't end sort of here and not there so these practices of mindfulness in a the forms
at the practice period
allow you help you to steady this and to
i realize this pic self
and it's a big relief that it doesn't take great intelligence know that great intelligences are hindrance the three three hundred says are great beauty great intelligence and great wealth
how rich we usually think of things that we might like to have you know but those will get in a way of your actually
settling yourself
they just that will distract you
so we're we're all happy that we don't have any risk
hello
written that they are some of us do have many of your
so ah
i am forgetful
ah
so in this last thing i want to read as question is his is getting of like from with these monks he saying
the buddha gave us precepts and what tick that hong kong mindful manners that's how it translates justice compartment of mindfulness in all in all your daily life bringing your this supposed religious aspiration into whatever it is that you do
mindful matters to help us the buddha gave us precepts and mind for manners to help us dissipate darkness and realize enlightenment these practices are as pure as snow stop doing what causes harm and overcome your confusion develop your beginner's mind and practice deeply the
precepts and mindful manners
otherwise how do you expect to understand the teachings of the highest we're convening the mariana if you don't change your ways how will your your mind settle on itself ask your elders for guidance or you may think your dreadful practices excellent stop missing the chance to be with brothers and sister
years more experienced in the practice stop wasting your time hanging out eating and speaking i agree how are you at all better than there was lost in ordinary life when you eat in years run against your bowl and when you finish we leave the hall before others have finished as
every time you stand up or sit down unmanned for you disturb the whole saga you don't keep up with the most elementary studies and so forth you know
the and i like this in a lot with someone gives you feedback you don't listen you only say i am a forest monk what does that mean the
and then so the dentist to me as who will be there to guide and teach the next generation of monks and nuns certainly not you so
hello this is for is he really use some
you know sometimes this is kind of nice it is called encouraging words because you hear that you
the
you may feel insulted you know for something or you may feel like he's right this masturbation is right you know but for me the most important thing of this is who will be there to guide the next generation if weren't out the ones who completely and thoroughly understand the practice how can we pass it on if we don't understand how
if it meets her suffering how can we pass a knack for the next generation
so
so thank you very much for your attention tonight and down

it is there anything anybody would like to ask her say
yes imagery today the schedule is actually hundreds of years old sent you this particular schedule was enlisted well ah i see it comes from the japanese tradition which
comes from the chinese tradition so i think the basic schedule and i think they had a lot more thousand like
they talk about sitting till after eleven and then getting up at two thirty and sitting more you know for the early morning hours so i think there's variations but the basic schedule of zazen in mind for as in form a breakfast in silence and mind for work and steady
is yes variable not our particular schedule you know with two hours in the afternoon off i think that's are expression of the schedule but yes having a schedule like that is very old
yes things you said you were reading that
was developing new beginners line which had kind of a contradictory south was thinking that the beginner's guide is sorry think of as been sort of undeveloped or at least of mine that has not yet developed hours in overlay zone habits
that sort of stuff and sorrows kind of fit in work at process would be and it kind of has a or feel to me and were gradually writes kind of instead of developing meeting adding onto it gradually kind of wedding girl
concepts or within or habits and ways of thinking it
i'm stuck in something like that
so it sounds like you're suggesting rather than developing it like
i'm adding on thinks that gradually of your develop this beginner's mind it's more a divesting yourselfer and covering it as as the the development there yeah so maybe development i think you're right
anywhere just a the phrase cock yes album
in got to it you get all of this input
all of his knowledge that you've come to accumulate and this is sort of right
we're reading gun accumulations but in this case of accumulated
metal debris or in ghana
yeah
oh to me it was it was practiced the precepts and this mindful manners which is mindfulness basically develop your beginner's mind i think
i'm
we're not really taught necessarily especially in university to you know set the book down with full i promise and with you know on the table work
it's not
it's completely skipped over there anything to do it right that i suppose baby fewer scientists doing experiments you have to be very careful but i think it's
so you experiment would turn out right rather than in and of itself
the importance of taking care of each thing but down anyway so
it's almost like you beginner's mind will develop like a baby or something on its own it will come forth
if you take up the precepts and mindful manners
exactly a my polishing america
to keep it free cash for to the accumulations them
astra i hope not
i am
i'm
you know whenever i think of that phrase i think that it doesn't go far enough you know to just keep a free it's more that the further the second poem at responded that is there is no
mere there is no dust there's so
the understanding that is beginner's mind i think so
i feel like all these practices
it won't will get very tiresome if they're keeping the mere free of guest that's what we're doing it's more penetrate it's it will help you study what the mind actually is
that's that's what is pointing to or helping with rather than keeping a guest off so i am
you know i'm
keeping the dust off the mind are keeping everything like looking really polished good is a kind of gaining idea right is and that kind of thinking will make it very hard to develop or two
express or to realize your beginner's mind because you're always trying to cater it's seeking outside you're looking good are keeping it all is to me
so i'm
i think a misunderstanding of these forms which is why people hate them or not hate them but people have trouble with them is that it's a you can
i mistakenly turn it so that is just one more kind of way that you gotta get approval and look good and you know
fuss about yourself feel badly about yourself because you can't do it you know to me and that's when they begin their
that misunderstanding of doing or not doing but expressing your life through forms misunderstanding of that is some
well it's very sad you know an anet some
and if you're feeling discouraged often it's because of something like that starts a good time to talk with somebody you know and see if you can can realign yourself with expressing truly who you are through the forms or with the form so that the is actually do that rather than trying to get
to be something other than who you are it looks good
sarah have a hard time balancing no gaming right there
this feeling i hope that i need to have again happy in order to make extra
well pounds or what is it gets me through this
the whole universe gets to defend undermining actually
and
so
you know if what's getting you to the zendo is kind of the cancun is going to knock on my door or the he knows gonna be mad at me or
something like that pretty soon it's gonna be pretty hard to get a general in fact you're gonna hate it when you hear that wake up bell you know
and start resisting like hard because
it's for some other reason than your full expression of how you want to be in the world
an hour how the world is completely you it costs to the world goes general
so but yes we do
ah
the desire to want to practice or want to understand your life is don't worry about that you know and we don't worry about that in terms of gaining idea think you've gotta have that are you would be here in sauce start with that don't you don't have to fret about that one that's that's okay
it's okay
it's it's a am
it's a what's the word
prevent apprehension
provisional it's a provisional gaining idea that will help you to drop any ideas so it's okay
that
i just thinking that aren't you
i was just thinking that
like a couple of strong tackle j
there we talked about
the new guidelines has erie's
our living at sunset and have that kind of brings about this quality
questioning and i often find myself and as i know
it's a very
yeah vermont state of mind where like prime during here is not often
hi
i think it has the same quality though it encourages me to write renewed my browser to practice harder
i like i mean just you know satellite was like you were talking about being able to offer support to the practice period ago i went out onto your permission times when a device tax period and i said right i really want to wake up tomorrow but i like set it to someone and i regretted it later now because it is a
even though it was getting what i was feeling it was like i felt like it was on
that's not necessarily the most important thing now right

i'm curious how you feel i could write i know during that meeting you then which talked about the fact that i didn't people than how many years have that same kind of
feeling come up like whoa
is my practice could our color and that's the right thing and providence of like is this what i should be doing for
he said
it's a thirty now so i'm just gonna and speak to this and them and my anarchy hum
this kind of inquiry never antsy know examining your life it's getting and you know what we offer you this the spread is period or residential practice a greenhouse you know when it comes to the end of that face your life if if it comes to an end to be too
know that and to go onto the next thing the next way you want to express your whole body mind and so
sometimes being an apprentice prayer could really clarify exactly that it's time to
be a dentist
the somebody at casar they finally realized that's what they always wanted to be in a bid resisting it for years that grandfather their dad was against they wanted to be a dentist and they get in there good dentist
so
anyway it's
practice in residential practice in practice period or otherwise is not the only way to practice by any means
it's and is rare and it's wonderful and
and when that time has done for you to know that it's done is song
he's joy you know bittersweet because you sad to leave your friends and credits so this examination is is necessary
even if you've been here for twenty thirty years when it's time to go it's time to go and enough that speaks to what you're saying but
this
how as for you know say to somebody i don't want to get up you know you may be saying that because you want to be encouraged to get up and you can you actually say could you help me please
because you know i'm having some trouble right now but maybe if you say it that way
you can actually get the help you need instead of baby brother person feels discouraged just or the editor but anyway it's area and don't know what happened in that instance but that you couldn't restrain totally or you could put in some way like and need your help to have a buddy is what's going on for me hooked put them from you so we can help each other like
okay well let's ah
second night thank you

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yes