Thank you. An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfected karma is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million papas. having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I have the Tathakata's words.

[01:10]

So good morning, and especially good morning to the children. This is the children's day, and I'd like to talk to you just for a little bit. I want to read you a story, and then you can go off and do some of the other, I'm sure, fun and interesting things that are planned for you. And I also have a little request of you at the end. So we've been talking. By the way, anyone here who wants to listen can listen to this story. I think it has something to do with what we've been studying, which is at this point in the practice period, the practice of giving or generosity. So this is a story. Maybe some of you already know it. It's called The Giving Tree. Does you know this? Well, maybe the few of you that do can enjoy hearing it again. And I'll show you a couple of the pictures as we go along. So it says, once there was a tree.

[02:32]

So this is the tree we're talking about. And she loved a little boy. And every day that boy would come. Let's see. And he would gather her leaves and make them into crowns on his head and play king of the forest. And he would climb up her trunk and swing from her branches. He had a very nice relationship. And he would eat apples because she was an apple tree. And they would play hide-and-go-seek. And when he was tired, he would sleep in her shade and take a nap. And the boy loved the tree. There he is, hugging the tree. Really loved that tree. And he loved it very much, it says in the book, very much. And the tree was happy.

[03:33]

But time went by and the boy, well, he got a little older and he got a girlfriend. And the tree pretty much was alone. Then one day the boy came to the tree and the tree said, come on, boy, climb up in my trunk and swing from my branches and eat apples and play in the shade and be happy. I'm too big to climb and play, said the boy. I want to buy things and have fun. I want some money. Can you give me some money? I'm sorry, said the tree, but I have no money. I only have leaves and apples. Take my apples, boy, and sell them in the city, and then you'll have money, and then you'll be happy. And so the boy climbed up the tree and gathered her apples together. and carried them away, and the tree was happy. But the boy stayed away this time for a long time, and then the tree was sad.

[04:39]

But then one day the boy came back, and the tree shook with joy, and she said, come boy, climb my trunk and swing from my branches and be happy. I'm too busy to climb trees, said the boy. I want a house. I want a house to keep me warm. I want a wife and children, so I need a house. Can you give me a house? Well, I have no house, said the tree. The forest is my house. But you could cut off my branches and build a house. Then you will be happy. So the boy cut off her branches and carried them away to build a house. See how generous the tree was? All those branches. And the tree was happy. But the boy stayed away for a very long time, and when he came back, the tree was so happy she could hardly speak. Come, boy, she whispered. Come and play. I'm too old and sad to play, said the boy. I want a boat that'll take me far away from here.

[05:43]

Can you give me a boat? Cut down my trunk and make a boat, said the tree. Then you can sail away and be happy. So the boy cut down her trunk and made a boat and sailed away. And the tree was happy, but not really. And after an even longer time, the boy came back. I'm sorry, boy, said the tree, but I have nothing left to give you. My apples are gone. Oh, my teeth are too weak for apples, said the boy. My branches are gone, said the tree. You cannot swing on them. I'm too old to swing on branches, said the boy. My trunk is gone, said the tree. You can't climb. I'm too tired to climb, said the boy. I'm sorry, sighed the tree. I wish that I could give you something, but I have nothing left. I'm just an old stump.

[06:44]

I am sorry. I don't need very much now, said the boy. Just a quiet place to sit and rest. I'm very tired. Well, said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, being a stump and all. Well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, boy, sit down. Sit down and rest. And the boy did. See? And the tree was happy. So that's the story. Now I want to do a little experiment, okay? What I want to do is I'd like to give each of your children two dollars, okay?

[07:49]

And the first dollar And I want you to do this with your parents. Talk to your parents about this and discuss this and see how you work with this, okay? The first dollar, I'd like you to buy something for yourself. A piece of candy. I don't know. You can't get much for a dollar, but you can get something. What? Okay, good. She knows. I'm sure you guys know something you can do. So use the first dollar for yourself. And the second dollar... I want you to give to somebody who you want to be happy. And then check out and see what happens. How does that feel? How does it feel to spend the dollar on the thing, which will make you happy, I predict, for a fairly short period of time? And how does it make you feel to give the dollar to someone to make them happy? Are they happy enough to then give someone else a dollar? Maybe, huh?

[08:54]

Anyway, check it out. See how it goes. So each of you come up and get $2 each, and then you can go off and do the rest of your activities. So come on up. It's for you. Come on. You don't have to. There you go. Anyone that wants to can. You certainly don't have. You want some, sweetie? Okay. There you go. There you go. You're welcome. You're welcome. Is that everybody? Let me get you all. Okay. Oh, one more. Here you go. Sure. I have just enough for you two. Okay. Anyone left out? Okay. Thank you very much for your attention. Bye-bye. If it's crowded and you want to move forward, you're welcome to do so.

[10:22]

So first of all, I would like to say hello to everyone. This is the first opportunity I've had to sit in this seat on a Saturday morning and I've been living out of Green Gulch for the last eight years. Before that, I lived here and at Tassajara, so this is not a new experience, but it is new, this particular part of it. And I'm wondering how many people here are here for the first time today? Interesting. Well, this is my first time too, so let's do this together, okay? When I mentioned that we've been studying giving, there's what we call a practice period going on, which is a period of time when people make a greater commitment to their sitting practice and to having conversations with some of their fellow practitioners and working with teachers and coming to a few more events.

[11:39]

So it's a container that we offer a couple of times a year for people to... go deeper into their investigation of, well, one way to say it is the truth, looking for truth in their life and equanimity and upright conduct. There are some guidelines, various, many, many guidelines that Buddhism offers to study these kind of, this way of the truth and the way of being upright in our lives. And one of them... It's called the paramitas, or it's another word meaning perfections in Sanskrit. And there are a list of six or ten, depending on which kind of tradition you're following. And I'm not going to go into all of them, but I will say that the first one is dhana, or giving. It's sometimes called generosity, but... Paul Haller, who's been leading the practice period the other day, said that it's actually a verb.

[12:40]

So it's the act of giving. And it's the very first one on this list, which can be sometimes seen as a circle. So it's a very important part of our lives, and it's a wonderful, wonderful practice that is the foundation for pretty much every other practice that we do. Paul brought up the question the other day, whether we already have to be generous in order to give, or whether the giving itself makes us generous. And I think that's a very interesting thing to ponder, which I have been doing. And I welcome you to ponder it today. I don't know that we're going to answer it, but I'll let you know a little bit about how I've been approaching that question. When I think about... giving. I think about the things that are easy for me to give and there are plenty of things that I think that I give and I know there are plenty of things that you give because I see exchanges all the time from small to fairly large things or pieces of time or bits of wisdom.

[13:56]

So I know I give some and I know you give some. What aroused my curiosity is what's the What's the limit of my giving? Where won't I give? Where do I stop? And I think the easiest way of looking at that question is looking at it in terms of the material realm. Of course, we can give things other than material things, but that's an easier realm to actually study, I think. So when I look at what I'm not willing to give, It comes down, and I want to study that arena, it comes down, I think, to a study of attachment, being attached to a thing. So maybe that's true for you, too. I'm making an assumption that it is, but I'd like to look at some of the causes and conditions of attachment to material things as a way to approach loosening

[15:04]

that attachment so that my giving, my generosity, might flourish and grow. So one of the primary conditions for encouraging this attachment is our excessive consumerism culture. And there's this wonderful book, which I actually am going to recommend, and I'm sorry, I forgot to check to see if we have it in our bookstore, but it's called Hooked. And it's various writings by different Buddhist teachers that have been put together by Stephanie Kaza, who is herself a Buddhist practitioner, on greed, desire, and the urge to consume. I don't think it's a mystery to anybody that we are encouraged to consume. And advertising, there's another book called Culture Jam, which is... Not so new. It's been around for quite a while.

[16:05]

And in that book, it described advertising as micro jolts of commercial pollution, which I thought was quite interesting way to look at it. We're being assaulted with these jolts. I was recently in the process of buying a car, and I was noticing more about cars and about car advertising. and you may have seen this billboard, but there was a billboard for a Lexus, which I was not considering buying, but still, there it was. It was actually down, one of them was down here on Franklin, just past page, and it said something like, can desire be manufactured? And then I think there was a companion ad that said something like, here want becomes need. Isn't that, I mean, they're actually saying it. You know, the subtlety is gone. This is a really, this seems very true, right?

[17:11]

Desire can be manufactured. Well, it can be, excessive desire can be manufactured. I think we are creatures of desire. There's a certain amount of life energy that leans into things. And there's certainly a built-in mechanism for survival that has to do with sectioning off our territory and protecting it and making sure that this particular piece of existence gets fed and nurtured and flourishes. And, of course, that's something that Buddhism takes a look at and actually has the audacity to say can be reversed. But here we are, creatures of desire. and creatures that suffer from the way that we work with that desire unskillfully. So I want to be clear when I'm talking about consumerism and desire, I'm not talking about not buying anything that's too extreme.

[18:14]

It's more subtle than that. It begs the question, what is enough? And that's a very, very difficult thing to answer. Particularly if we're in the micro-jolt of being assaulted and convinced, maybe, that we need certain things in order to what? So I want to just be so mindful of the time. Let me find my watch. So what do these ads do? and how can also, besides being aware that we are being assaulted, which I think we are, but reminding ourselves how difficult it is to live in this assaultive environment. The ads promote, and this is something that I got from Stephanie Caza, a climate of self-centeredness revolving around material desires.

[19:22]

So these... This culture encourages us to reify, stabilize, solidify the sense of separate self by saying it needs to be fed. It needs to be fed more than that needs to be fed. It needs to be more beautiful than that in order to compete for what are being put out there as not enough resources. Did any of you make yourself more beautiful before coming here today? Thank you for admitting it. I looked in the mirror. I went like this. And I was going to pinch my cheeks. You know how your mother used to tell you to pinch your cheeks and bite your lips to sort of give you color because I'm not wearing any makeup? I didn't do that, though. I just did it now. So what were you making yourself beautiful for?

[20:25]

Yes. Convention. Convention. So do not stand out. Yes. Respect others. Nobody's going to cop to something really good. I had a hook out for that. What I was looking for is, and I know there are a lot of, there are going to be a lot of responses, and later there's something I'm going to ask you to do that's going to bring something up. And I'd like to keep some of the questions for question and answer, so there'll be time for that. I think one of the reasons it's so easy to fall into the response to this request to beautify ourselves is because we actually think that we're separate and we're trying to build a bridge.

[21:41]

We're trying to attract another being close enough so that that gap, that I would like to propose imaginary gap, can be bridged and that we can have an intimacy and a connectedness that we think is missing in our lives. You really want to ask a question? I just wanted to say we're visual creatures. And this is the first... Don't move out of here. We're prone to respond to that. Visually, yes. I think, you know, fine. Not nothing. I'm not talking about not paying attention to the boogers in your nose. But I am suggesting that the anxiety that causes us to do more and really worry about it is possibly around this sense of separate self and trying to bridge that gap. Let's see.

[22:43]

Where to go next? One of the things also that Stephanie Caza brings up is that the role of religion is to raise awareness. And I really like that. Awareness of many things. On one level, awareness of the self and our motivations and our delusions around having a separate self and all of the activity that comes from that. But also, awareness of where things come from. And this is the Buddhist proposition of interdependence. So looking at... whether or not there's a solid self is one gateway into loosening this attachment we have to things. The other gateway is through being aware and making ourselves more and more aware of how things are related to each other. And we might even start to consider, when we have an itch that we're trying to scratch with buying something, to actually consider in that realm of decision-making

[23:52]

whether or not that activity, that buying activity, causes pain to anyone else. And balancing our own need, our own need to quell anxiety for a, as I said to the children, a fairly short period of time, if at all, because there's another proposition that even in the midst of pleasure they're suffering, there's a name for it called sukha dukkha. It's really a very interesting study. So, but still, Is this activity something that's causing pain? And I think we're in a wonderful environment for being reminded of these things. There's a lot of local information if we are interested. And that's a big question. How interested are we? Because the more I know, the more my desire to buy things is going to be curtailed. That keeps me from wanting to know more. So I am, at this point in my life, trying to push that edge a little bit.

[24:54]

And I remember about six months ago, there was an article that was available at Green Gulch about fair trade coffee and a whole history, a whole study of what happens when you, you know, with the whole coffee, the world of coffee and how people are treated and paid and not paid, et cetera. And I realized that I had been allowing Green Gulch to buy fair trade coffee, but in my little private kitchen, I was going to Pete's and buying, you know, Costa Rica blend or, you know, Major Dickinson's or something that I felt I want a different taste. I want to have this unique taste in my mouth. I want to have this experience. And because I think I took the time or the, anyway, the article was there and for some reason I paid attention to it, supported by the environment that I live in. The next time I went to Pete's, I was looking at the list, and my eyes went a little higher, and what do you know?

[25:55]

There's a fair trade blend at Pete's. How long has that been there? I have no idea. I didn't want to see it. Because now, I can only buy fair trade blend. I know what happens. And to me, that was kind of a balance that I wasn't willing anymore, having the knowledge and the information about what happens when I make certain choices about coffee, and I happen to believe the material that I've read, and I've done some extra study on it. I'm not willing to participate in that anymore, so I give up. I renounce a momentary flavor preference for helping, hopefully, people live a better life. If I hadn't read that article, my eyes wouldn't have... That could have been on there for two years on that list, and I'd never have seen it. So this raising of awareness can be done on a very concrete level of having your religious practice provide for you some information about this.

[27:07]

And I think we do this to an extent, and I'm hoping we continue to do it and... And I'm really interested in learning a lot more myself and challenging myself to want to know more, even though it means I have to let go of something. So that's certainly one of the advantages of, I think, many, many religious groups are emphasizing this. And a church is one place where you can get this information. This is another wonderful sentence from Stephanie Caza. She said that once we see, we shift from seeing these objects as separate to seeing the relationships that form them, this relational understanding can support ethical restraint and fruitful inquiry. So the ethical restraint is making that decision about your pleasure versus others' suffering and then continuing to look

[28:12]

continuing to look. So a few days ago when the people in the practice period got together, I asked them to consider coming today and bringing something to which they were moderately attached. And I'm wondering how many of you did that? A few. Okay. Okay. So in order for everyone to be able to participate in this experiment, I'd like you all to just take a moment and go through in your mind a little inventory of some of the things. Just see what rises up in your mind and see when you come upon something that it would hurt you a little bit to give away. And just go through that process. I'll give you a minute so that you can really consider and look at what you are holding onto in that way. I'm not talking about something super, super important, because that's too hard a place to start, but just something through which you have moderate attachment, whatever that means.

[29:22]

So just take a minute and contemplate that. So those of you who brought something, would you turn to the person on your right and see if they're willing to accept you giving it to them?

[30:37]

Okay. And those of you who didn't bring something, keep in mind that sense of anxiety around giving something away. And I'm going to investigate a couple different objects that I brought and tell you what goes on for me. So this is a cashmere sweater. And I had two of them. I had one that was a lighter gray. And when I was in Ireland, I left it in the retreat center. And so now I'm done to one. I didn't like this one quite as much as the other one, but I definitely like it a lot. And it's soft. And to me, you know, the kind of sense of softness, it has two things which I think are real. One, I think that by wearing something soft on my skin,

[31:51]

I'll be a better person. I'll be softer. I'll be encouraged to be, because I'm not dealing with rough, right? I'm dealing with soft. And also, I think I can control my pleasure with this. I think I can actually make my life permanently pleasurable by having this on. That's the delusion. I think, I mean, even though it goes away, you know, fairly soon, I forget I have it on. I mean, occasionally during the day I might remember it. It feels good. People often come up and touch me. And they go, ooh, you know, I don't know what that means. Ooh, you know, it might mean a lot of things. But there's a sense, I think, with objects that we... We're looking to control our life, both in terms of how things are so impermanent and constantly changing, and wanting to create pleasure for ourselves in some kind of permanent way. So that's one delusion that you might want to look at about things.

[32:58]

Do they really, really control anything? It's such a mind game. It's so easy to pop it, too. It's just not true. It's just not true. So that's one aspect. And I'm going to actually, would you like this? You're welcome. I hope it doesn't. You're welcome. So I think... It's important in considering and giving things away to consider what the relationship is in the giving. As we say, you know, in our meal chant, there is no giver, no receiver, and no gift. And because of that, there actually is a receiver and a giver and a gift, right?

[33:59]

So please wear it well, and thank you for helping me work with the attempt to control my life. The other thing I want to bring out is I think another thing we do with objects. I think what we do is we anthropomorphize them. So this is a piece of amber that I got when I was in the Soviet Union doing a film project there. And I saw it on someone's shelf and I said, oh, that's beautiful, not knowing that when you say that, People are obligated to give it to you. And so I got this piece. And when I thought about what could I bring that was an object that I felt some kind of a, you know, there's a story in here and my life is in here and my identity is in here. My identity is not so much in the cashmere sweater. That's more about control. This is more about identity.

[35:00]

You know, like a picture that your grandmother gave you. Is your grandmother in the picture? Is the Soviet Union in this piece of amber? If I give it away, will the Soviet Union disappear? Actually, it did disappear, right? After I left. Actually, I left, but the day I left was the day the Berlin Wall came down. But also, it's not only the territory that this came from, because in... In many ways, that could be a useful way of looking at this, right? This came from the ground in a certain part of the earth, and it was dug, and it was then mounted, and it was given, and it was held by someone, and now it's held by me. So it has a life pattern, it has a shape based on all of the components and everything it's touched. But the hard thing in here is my film career is in here.

[36:02]

If I give this up, the fear is, and this is how irrational this is, I'm going to forget about my film career. I'm going to forget that I went to Russia and made a movie about Chernobyl. How ridiculous is that? But that is truthfully one of the threads that would keep me from handing this to somebody. If it disappears, the disappearing of things, It's about control. It's about trying to control change. If I hold on to the past, it's always going to be there and nothing's going to change. My identity is not going to change. I'm always going to be able to draw on it whenever I want. It's totally not true. So would you like this? You're welcome. from the Soviet Union. And it belonged in the apartment of a woman who had traveled a lot.

[37:15]

And I think she was Lenin's secretary. So it has a history, whatever that means, but don't give it too much meaning, okay? Thank you very much. Well, we could go on, but I think just this study is... The real gift to me is this study, to get to study how I hold on to things. And in that process, soften the grasp and widen the possibilities for generosity, which is how... how we all really are. We are all giving each other our lives. That's what we're doing. And the planet included in the we. We are all giving each other our lives. So to just get out of the way of that, to get out of the way is the ultimate generosity.

[38:20]

And I want to end by this poem. by David White. And it's called Enough. Enough. These few words are enough. If not these words, this breath. If not this breath, this sitting here. This opening to the life we have refused. again and again, until now. Until now. Enough. These few words are enough. If not these words, this breath. If not this breath, this sitting here, this opening to the life we have refused again and again, until now.

[39:32]

until now.

[39:40]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_94.99