say
except
so

as sometimes we say a little bird told me
yeah in the back
can you mean it back
you had a part about the little bird
you know that expressions are
little bird told me
first wasn't a little bag
just a regular byrne told me
the spread was about the size above
male praying
in a prayers get to a bot can grow to be five foot four
in the crane said rhonda byrne said
i hope you know
how blessed you are
by the people practice with you

and i said
i know
enbridge said i don't know if they know that you know
he should tell him
so i won't tell you i
i got blessed by practice by practicing with you
and others are not here today
blessed by the job called the sanga the assembly of practitioners
help us
in part of what tab
right away for can hear knock on you
part of what is the blessing is at the a real song is not the people you would choose to practice with
not a select group of people
but you think would be best for you but actually in the people for
the buddha way
that makes a bigger group than what we might choose
some people we might really like to practice with don't want to practice
so we don't get those ones anyway i'm blessed by
people
one of practice
when i first i guess my first i was drawn to buddhism to the boot away
by stories of
i think stories which describe the compassionate activity
the skillful compassionate activity
of zen monks

i was drawn to
stories of the manifestation are buddhists love
as enacted by
male and female
zen monks

i was not actually originally attracted by buddha's wisdom but more by buddhist love
but i wondered how can one behave in such a skillful and loving way as these people seem to have behaved i gradually found out that the the source of their skill and and love was wisdom it
because of the way that they understand
it's because of the way they understand the world
get their able to act the way they did
huh
in the great lotus sutra
the buddha said the buddhist shocking money said that the boot all the buddhas appear in this world
because of one great condition
one great condition which has four parts
buddha's appear in this world buddhist love appears in this world because of the desire
to open
open people's eyes and ears the buddha's wisdom
and the desire to demonstrate buddha's wisdom
and the desire to
actualized
realize if i might say today
choose
buddha's wisdom
and because of the desire
to help beings enter buddhist wisdom
good love the manifests in the world because of the desire to open beings demonstrate to beings help beings realize and enter buddha's wisdom
that's what the lotus sutra says the buddha's come because his desire to help beings open
see the demonstration of realize and enter buddha's wisdom once we have
realized and entered buddhist wisdom naturally
compassion buddhist compassion arises from our understanding from our wisdom from the way we think
so part of what buddha's appeared in the world for is to help beings learn the buddhist way of thinking

when the buddha was sitting under the boat bodhi tree the tree of enlightenment in india long ago
he can the great awakening when he was thinking as he was thinking thoroughly about how things happen
as he was thinking about how everything
arises independence on everything else this is what buddha was thinking about when buddha or cabo
and because he was taken because he woke up thinking about how he and all things are interdependent
it naturally followed that he wanted to help and benefit all the beings that he was interdependent with
he wanted to teach them this meditation in order to benefit them
and he taught them with words
he spoke he interacted with them physically and verbally
two how beings
see
and realize see and choose the way of thinking that woke him up
from the dream
that he was alone that he lived independent of other beings and the suffering
from his
from his false thinking the buddha shakyamuni spent
long time thinking not like a buddha
the buddha shakyamuni ignored buddha's truth for a long time
but finally he stopped ignoring the truth of how things happen he looked at it and realized it he chose to think like a buddha
and therefore he was a buddha
so on it has sense the main characteristic of his teaching is this or dependence of all things
the dynamic way that everything happens
and he encouraged people to have faith in the study of causation
and that means that whatever is happening to us
and some very difficult things happened to us some very painful things happen
and painful difficult things happened to him
people of all things happened to the buddha
but throughout the difficulties of his life he was able to trust studying what's happening rather than put his energy into trying to control what's happening

so get in my my history of practice the stories that turned me towards practice where stories of people who
look at what's happening rather than trying to change what's happening and by looking at what's happening and how is happening
rather than trying to control what's happening they were what's happening in a very beautiful and loving way
so do you which where do you choose do you choose to ignore buddhist truth and try to control what's happening or do you tried to
look at the truth
and then from entering that truth you become
what's happening and what is happening then as you as a compassionate being you wanna be a controlling being are a compassionate being
we already have a strong tendency from way back to try to control
some people feel that they're totally unsuccessful some people feel that there
quite successful but everybody suffers when they try to control what's happening rather than see what's happening those who see what's happening or wise and wisdom is born from compassion is born from their wisdom those who try to control what's how
interdependence dependence and what come from them is ah
ha
well
i don't want to speak or fault today
submitted my own to say that when i am not looking at your independence i can be
impatient
i'm grateful
i can feel not blessed by the people who i practice with who are not under my control
all these people i practice with are not under my control
none of them
not even me
if i ignore it or dependence i can become quite irritated that you people are not doing what i want you to
right name a couple of days ago we have we had a service here evening service
which is held at a certain time and there's even a signal bell ringing to tell people what is happening and about twenty five people came late i saw them

you may think i'm bragging now when i say this but actually i was not irritated by their tardiness

i was impressed by their tardiness
invite a massive number of people again
it was impressive it was actually wonderful that they came at all
i was not angry with them for coming late
even though some of these people came from thousands of miles to follow the schedule
from europe japan mexico you know all of united states they came to be late
i wasn't irritated and so the next day i mentioned to them you know the great opportunity of being on time
i've not been too early or too late you know some people are late because of whatever they want to write one more letter or do one more push up or sit up
read one more paragraph one more stamp on a letter
are some people just you know don't want to follow the schedule other people are right on or even early because they want to be the best had following the schedule anyway
everybody has this opportunity of working with this issue of being on time so the next morning i mentioned to them
about dinner on the opportunity of being on time but i wasn't angry at them i was just an i think i felt enthusiastic about the opportunity of them coming on time for the next evening service
and the next evening service
they were under my control

they were all on time not one person was late
one person came in after the door was but that person is a person rings the bell so they have to come in like there on time and maybe the people relate just didn't come in i don't know
it's almost like the world comes under your control when you give up controlling and start studying what's happening it's almost like it's under control
almost except as be better than being under control better
because it is under control it's like i'm being under control but it is surprising
unpredictable way
then everything blesses you
in a way that you could never have arranged your blessings

then when buddha saw how things are happening buddha said how wonderful it is that everybody is like right in line with buddha everybody's buddha everybody is like totally in relationship to this way things are happening he was so happy
but he also realized that because people don't turn away and ignore this the way things work and try to control him because they have attachments for things going to a certain way they don't see this beautiful world theater dependence so he wanted to teach them and he did
and he was blessed by people to that practiced with him so it's been passed on

so please consider whether you want to enact
want to embody want to choose interdependence
where do you want to choose and trust studying how things happen
when you're suffering rather than trying to control your suffering do you want a primarily be like a buddha and see how how are you suffering how does it happen that you're suffering how does it happen that you're anxious one of the conditions for this anxiety what are you holding on to
can you actually suffer without attachment check it out do you want to check it out i should say
do you want to look and see how it's happening that you feel this way
in other words they want to think like a buddha
think like a buddha would think if a buddha where you
so sometimes when people are really having a hard time i asked him while the buddha was in your shoes right now or and your body and mind right now
how do you think buddha would practice
and many times people tell me
how buddha would practice
many then students know how buddha would practice a buddha were in their body and mind at the present moment
sometimes they have a slightly different opinion about the way buddha with practice and i do and i sometimes tell know i think buddha wouldn't be so such this a little bit different than that
sometimes they agree with me and sometimes they don't usually they do
because it's pretty simple how buddha would practice even known as lots of other ways of thinking how buddha with practice other than the way buddha would practice but really it's pretty simple harboured of practices and whatever situation buddhas in no matter what's happening to buddha but always looks
at the same thing
food is always doing the same practice really
even though everything's always changing and it's extremely dynamic all the time the buddha always has the same practice which is buddha is looking at how everything's coming to be
because that's all there is to look at there's nothing else other than was coming to be there's not an alternative really and buddhist
choose what's happening
but you know even a person who is suffering a little or a lot and who knows how buddha would practice in their shoes right after they tell how buddha would practice then they don't practice that way sometimes
because of the habit of not doing what they know buddha would do it's so easy to do something other than what buddha would do because you're programmed to do with buddha wouldn't do
i gotta do is not make any effort and go to sleep and you'll do exactly what buddha wouldn't do almost for sure
even though you know what buddha would do is just like open her eyes and look at what's happening
with no gaining idea just simply oh oh oh oh oh
oh
but that's awfully boring and difficult isn't it oh oh oh oh
who could do that
buddha
buddha can practice like that
be just being here being amazed at what's happening here so as one of the stories which i
first term it is in
and now when you hear some of you hear the stories for the millionth time you can go oh
he's telling that story again
and some of you you've never heard i can think oh that's a news story and why here's the story it's about a zen monk his name's mr hawker when reverend haku and
he lived in a fishing village not far from the zen centres founders
a fishing village or he'll grew up on the pacific side of japan
and so a girl young girl became pregnant
and she told her parents that miss reverend hawk one
it was the father of the child
in reverend hawkwind was not married to this girl and reverend horton was supposed to have any girlfriends and actually
our boyfriends
he was supposed to be like you know
looking at what's happening
they're not trying to make things go one way or another
so here's this baby and in the new in the womb the girl says he he's the dad
so the parents go to him and they say you are new or bad disciple of buddha
your bad bad monk
terrible monk disgraceful monk
and when a baby is born you can take arabic
and hawkwind says all
oh
oh
in japanese i think he probably said ah so desktop oh is this what's happening is this the way it is is this how things are coming to be so it's come to this this kind of thing
police that if they say so then the baby was born and the parents the parents of the the grandparents brought the baby brought the granddaughter i think as a daughter to hawkwind
so you you take care of it so he did take care of it he got a wet nurse and for two years he and the wet nurse took care of this baby
now maybe if you know if you look care for the store you find out where he had his disciples to the babysitting i don't know but anyway
the baby was with him in his temple for two years and finally the girl said told the parents of truth namely that it wasn't haku and who was the father
a young man in the fishing village was the father then the parents went to hawk one and said we're so sorry we falsely accused you we criticized you were defamed you
and you didn't defend yourself and you took good care of our granddaughter
here are a great monk
here are great disciple of buddha and how quinn said oh
oh is this what's happening
wow houses how how did this happen
when i heard that story i thought
that's the way i wanna be
i want wanna be like that i still do

when someone came to me today upset a little bit upset anyway suffering because he was feeling
lonely right here in this meditation hall packed with people this person was feeling lonely
people can feel lonely in a crowd of course no matter how much can say no matter how at a certain point it pressed enough we stop feeling long way but up to a certain point we can feel alone even when we have lots of people around because we can think of ourselves as cut off and separate so this person was feeling the ang
wish are feeling separate
have a practicing alone
so one of the ways
to enact or choose
choose to meditate on
the interdependence of things one of the ways to choose meditating on causation is to practice with other people

to experience the interdependence
the
and sometimes the storm that happens as you get in close relationship with other people
but to choose to choose to an act
interdependence by entering into practice with others
so that you can choose to look at how you and others dependently colorized together so they can see that how that happens how your experience arises in relationship to all other beings or at least the ones you can see now
and there are stories of buddhist monks meditating alone
but
in this particular lineage of practice of this temple the ancestor say that we never practice alone
these stories are people going off and practicing by themselves are not the stories are buddha's at the buddha was not practicing alone ever
not the buddha the diluted person prior to understanding dependent core arising he thought he was practicing alone
but the buddha knows that we never practice alone
if you know if you think you can practice alone then it's probably good feeder practice in a group for a while so you can get over that idea that you're practicing alone
nobody practices alone nobody lives alone
nobody does anything alone

but we think that
this is called ignoring that you're not alone
it's called ignorance it's painful
now what about practicing with other people well that's temporarily more painful
so a lot of people do pretty well with their own little apartment and their own refrigerator

and when they start practicing in a group day they experienced the difficulty how meditating on interdependence then sometimes day when you were it's hard it's hard to look at how are interdependent
but looking at that is the way to realize buddha's wisdom is the way to realize buddhist thinking is the way to realize buddhist love
the purpose of buddhism is to realize buddha's love
and to help other people realize buddha's wisdom so they can realize buddha's love
it's not the go up by myself
and put myself in some special state where i feel good
and he stayed i get into no matter how good is just a temporary vacation from my buddha work
might feel really good but it will end and when it ends i may be in worse shape for facing my life than i was before i went on vacation
i'm not prohibiting vacations i'm just say
that they're not really the buddhist work the buddha's work is to dive into
the complex interrelationships that we each of us have with all beings
now of course it does help if you experience some stability in the middle of this extremely energetic and intense situation called life
it's good if you have a nice seat to watch from so we'd actually do practice sitting still here in this room
we have actual periods where we can try to be still and quiet in the middle of
the dynamic life
but it isn't that we're trying to get quiet and quiet our life our life is however noisy it is and basically it as noisy as it is
and the way to realize the peacefulness is not by trying to pretend like it's peaceful but to see how it's not peaceful
for is to be calm and the middle of the activity and watch how it happens when you see how it happens you'll see there is great harmony and peace in the way things happen
if you hear stories about zen about ancients and teachers who went off in the mountains and practice by themselves i say that but that stories about our stories of people who have spent many years in the group training with the other monks
and finally they really saw how their life was none other than the other monks the garden vegetables the mountains and the trees and all beings and when they finally realized this interdependence the truth of this interdependence then they got off in the mountains and they sit there waiting
ing for people to come and bother them
waiting for the group to come in form around them it's an invitation to all beings to come and enjoy a person who doesn't ever forget that no matter where there's no people within miles they always are with everyone such
people are waiting for people to come and in interact with them

so we're give people will listen to this kind of talk
ah
and believe it we're going to need more zen centres
but you can make a zen center in your house
just packet with beings
open the door and invite all beings into your house somebody of people already have packed houses i know so you're fine

are you practicing with all beings
do you see are you watching to see how
things are coming to be
are you willing to choose
the world of interdependence
are you going to choose buddha's wisdom

and once again it's hard once you choose it
because of our habits of laziness
and because of our habits of thinking so as we turned towards the world of interdependence are still holding the idea of independence with we still feel anxious
until we drop
i believe in our independence we're going to feel anxious
we're feeling that anyway
but as we begin to turn towards meditating on our interdependence and allow ourselves to be in situations which
which help us see that they actually highlight our sense of independence and can highlight our sense of anxiety so it's it's difficult to make the transition from being in situations
that ten to
temporarily assuage your anxiety
distract us from our anxiety which arises from independence to turn into our situations which bring our attention to our anxiety which bring our attention to herself concern that transition is is is tricky and that's no reason why we
we need
we need others who are doing the same to encourage us to make this transition from trying to push the anxiety away which come from pushing others away in switching to facing the anxiety which comes from pushing others away and seeing
the call the source of the anxiety and entering into meditation on the cause possession of the anxiety and so on so this is a difficult practice but if you look at the stories of all as all the ancestors not just of zen but all a buddhist schools
they all have that difficulty in their background making this transition from ignorance to wisdom
nobody had a real easy transition including shocking mooney buddha
isn't it was embarrassing transition for him

and we need to be patient with ourselves
that even when we see exactly what would be good can even when we try it out and it is good we forget
so again many times people come and they say blah blah blah suffer suffer suffer
and then and then ah
and i asked them where what would buddha do they can tell me
and they say why can't i remember this
so even what you know as good even what you really believe as buddhist wisdom still it's hard to remember
so here's the there's the challenge of developing continuity in what you already know is the way you want to live
so if you can do it if you can remember once a day or once a week
one that's pretty good so some people come to green gulch once a week and once a week they remember
oh yeah as good and then the rest of the week they forget and then next week some people remember twice a week some people remember once a day some people remembered ten times a day some people remember a thousand times a day and so on
you might have a journal count the number of times a day when you remember to think like buddha
including as you count deny your accountant have to sort chart in a resort to get up like six and nineteen as you charge your improvement to like look at the improvement the way buddha would look at the improvement like our houses coming to be on getting into improvement here
i'll look at that i'm getting more and more like a buddha who ah oh i'm getting to be a great meditator wow
oh no i'm getting bad again
do you have a sense of your meditation is it let go is it a kind of leveling off now or is going up
without getting into wanting it to improve can you do know whether it's improving or not

for most of it sits goes up and down up and down
and often times it goes down right after we get some input with challenges it to grow like we're going along pretty well and we think all my practice is going pretty well and then somebody one of these other practitioners are teachers or whatever come up and tell you something which is like toad maybe very different from what you thought buddhism was they say well that's
buddhism not what you're doing
oh then at that time you may be have a little adjustment problem i've like instead of like thinking where houses happening are all you kind of go know what hama going to cope with this or how can i prove that person's wrong or whatever
i shut them up
a burn that book
so up and down your practice goes

okay probably that's enough right
simple message simple buddhism difficult buddhism simple difficult buddhism
choosing buddha's wisdom
meditating on how things are happening
putting all our energy and studying how it happens how to suffering happen
what are the conditions for it how do we live together how are we live in together
fundamental radicals buddha dharma
you
but not easy so okay
i gotta song
this whole talk was just a set up the song
i have advanced to for later
ready to song is a the words are by by a buddha hammerstein
and the music by buddha rogers
the written during the second world war
animal a war they were making music

came ready excuse my probably the wrong key or whatever but this a human
when you walk through the store know costume when you walk through a storm whole geo
ah and be free
dark at the and
the storm is go sky and thus we server so var lark walk on through the ring

water on rock on where know how in your heart and you
the
lol you know
no

judy asked about the transition i referred to have been to some extent we we carry with us a a deep habit
i'm thinking of preceding ourselves as separate from other beings as separate from our environment
green
and because we feel that we exist separate from my violent our environment
because we feel separate from the other
we feel anxiety with a threatened by the other
this is this is my understanding anyway of the the basis of anxiety is that everything around us is
seen as not us and push and threatening us
some anxiety is a in a sense of
part of the human condition because the humans generally speaking see their see the environment as other
and then when we feel anxiety we anxiety is very difficult for us to be settled with it face
so then we we tend to run away from the anxiety by in by various means
try to dalet it or distance ourselves from it by getting busy
or are taking drugs or whatever to keep distant from the anxiety
but keeping different from the anxiety also means keeping distant from this this
not keeping distant from but just sort of like being involved in the idea of separate existence but not facing up to that either

and if we start practicing a in a group or with a teacher
the teacher or the group might encourage us not to do things to distract ourselves and to numb ourselves
in relationship to the anxieties so in a sense to anxiety may seem to be stronger when you start to meditate
but i don't think it's stronger necessarily
it's just that you become more aware of it now sometimes when people can become more aware of anxiety than they go into further reactions to the anxiety so it could be the that you know
maybe it's good to be a little bit numb sometimes rather going to some massive panic attack
but if you can
somehow face the anxiety then you're an innocence in a good situation because you're facing your to basic human condition a basic aspect of human existence is it is that we see ourselves as separate and with so anxious
but it's okay to feel as comfortable as possible with the anxiety so part of our practices to make ourselves become more skillful at being present with the pain be more patient
with the pain was more stable and calm with the pain of anxiety
and if you can be present with anxiety you'll start to see how it arises how it comes to be
when you thoroughly understand
how the anxiety comes to be
then you will also thoroughly understand
how you see yourself as separate and as you understand how you see yourself separate
you will start you will be more and more able to see that you're not separate
when you see how you're not separate when you see the truth of interdependence
you will be contented
and the anxiety real on
i know anxiety will be
have no basis in that understanding
the basis of the anxieties is the
kiss the compression that we are independent that we're an independent person has the business of anxiety without this view there's no anxiety
but the transition is difficult because you start to face the anxiety more fully
you gradually start to let go of things you do to distract yourself from the anxiety so the anxiety
in a sense you become more intimate with it but when you achieve full intimacy with the anxiety
you're very close to understanding interdependence
tom was the same thing
intimacy with anxiety is almost the same as
the root of anxiety dropping away
so the buddha was an anxious person to shakyamuni buddha was an anxious person
he experienced anxiety but he learned how to not run away from it
that was unusual about him he somehow
his his meditation was able to
support him and facing anxiety and seeing how it happened
he saw the dependent core arising
the truth of how anxiety the core arises and when he saw that he was released from this
the cyclic process by which anxiety horizon by which we do things
to perpetuate it
and the whole structure and
rigid process of cyclic anxiety was dismantled by that vision
many ways in which he was it a difficult meditation practice
it's not easy
although there could be some great joy
in the practice
because you sense that you have right faith that you understand that you're doing the the correct practice you doing the practice that the enlightened beings have done
in of difficulty that they had like you're having normal
buddhist difficulty
which might be some encouragement to you
there's other kinds of difficulty which aren't so encouraging and actually don't need any encouragement so you don't need to like
yeah you know adopt all forms of torment
just the ones that are conducive to enlightenment
and that's part of the process of study is to check out with other practitioners whether the kind of torment you're involved in is required or optional
so banging your head against the law may not be necessary but facing your anxiety probably is
it's hard to skip over your anxiety
yes
everybody's getting her own personal
live deal with
after some thirty years
severe practice that you've had to do you find it here photo
eradicated are you dealing with them
so she she asked me if if my personal bugaboos are eradicated or i'm dealing better with them or she didn't ask our has been no improvement at all
the
i'm afraid to ask them
well i'd say
there's been a tremendous improvement
i'm much happier now than i was thirty years ago and i was as i was pretty happy thirty years ago
thirty years ago i i was happy enough to realize
that i was never going to be really happy it by going in the direction i was headed
looking that certain kinds of basically i was pretty happy i trying to control the world i had things pretty well under control
but i sensed that
that little bit that wasn't under control was never going to come under control
and i was gonna die feeling like i missed a big opportunity
if i didn't on
change my direction
for basically thirty years ago i was in good health
i hadn't wonderful friends
i was in i was a graduate student and
i had a really nice dean
i was pretty happy but i noticed a few little flaws for example one time i was riding home to my lovely apartment and a gorgeous apartment for seventy five dollars a month
this is an eighteen fourteen
and i like and and i lived in a i lived in a slum but i had a really nice apartment in a kind of slum neighborhood and lot of native americans lived in my neighborhood and it was a bar block from my house or a lot of and hung out in one day i was driving home and my lovely the
italian motor scooter
and i drove by this bar and there were these
we ran outside men and women outside you know drunk cause i this bar ah you know being drunk being drunk and right
and i felt in my heart that i didn't want to associate with them you know i wouldn't want them to come to my nice little apartment
with my lovely little books and my nice carpet
but then i thought really bad my heart felt really bad that i that the supreme beings i i am i didn't want to deal with them
so things like that made me realize that although things are going pretty well my heart was not really can totally content because i knew that i mean i i didn't feel right about that so when i read the stories as and monks
who weren't afraid of drunken people coming into their nice little house
because they didn't really think it was their house
they weren't show whose house whose whose sometimes
i mean they kind of know is their house but then they kind of there usher in a way that maybe wasn't everybody's house and so they can do wonderful things
so i so i wanted to be like them so kept thirty years i'm a little bit more like that or even a little bit more like that is a great thrill
being slightly my patient slightly more kind slightly more willing to see him inner connected with everybody makes a big difference
so yes it's much different but i basically have some of the same problems i had back then that i still may be have a slight aversion to having
ah
you drunk and street people you know come into my house and make a big mess
but i guess i'd rather have them come in then be all by myself in my nice house
so has been there's been some improvement
i'm happier and be i'm pretty happy and i also noticed that some people like it and i'm happy so that makes me happy too
and i have some people aren't happy that i'm happy but that's interesting too
i see that several hands rey renamed martin and what's your name
cleo okay renee
and salvy
maintaining an open heartedness in the face
something bad
she has a difficulty maintaining open heartedness in the face of some difficulty
well maybe don't try to maintain just try to have open hard for a moment
just try for a moment and then again
and again but it is hard to open your heart to pain isn't it
so part of part of one way you can work on being open hearted in the face of
in face of work
did you say in the face of something harmful one way to be open hearted but it is to accepted your heart isn't open the open hearted about the fact that to hard closes when you feel harm accepted it's a natural thing for you to recoil from certain kinds of pain and attack
it just like your body doing his thing it's just like an astoria told you about the monk who was being insulted
and then he was being praised in my feeling the stories that when he was being insulted his his face kind of like felt he could feel the difference he could feel a difference in his cheeks
from with son was going you dare hear any and when some was going all your one of i think does your cheeks naturally respond differently to the to the harsh language
the harsh vibration and or the soft loving vibration i think your body just great respond differently now if that isn't the way the story went okay but i thought is better story if if you wish if his body actually responded differently
so one case your body feels really tight in on in here to irritated the other case your body feels warm and relaxed but
but regardless of what your body feels that you could just isn't so much that you say oh i'm so happy that i'm being attacked are all i don't care and i'm being praised it's more like what's going on here
so your heart you're actually your your body may actually tightened up in certain situations
he just physically you do that and maybe as good at a tightens up in situations maybe that's intelligent that it tightens up
when it gets really cold or really hot
but your practice your meditation is always the same year it also that the houses happening houses have been houses happening how does it happen that when they insult me my i get tense how does it happened that every time they say that i relax how can that person who was make me happy hogmanay get seduced by this how come i always get turned off by that it
it's not so much that you don't
react this way but that no matter what happens you always study he always go what is the truth here what is the buddhist truth
so you're kind of open-hearted in the sense of your mind is open
or your spiritual your spiritual heart is open even though your physical heart may be tightening
so you can go in as it like you can go into a situation that makes you get tight but then you can study in the nigger relax like have you going to call water and your body naturally maybe tightens up a little bit but it just keeps keep it never will keep moving gradually well actually i'm still alive
it's okay yeah actually it's wonderful and he or another world he crossed he crossed from the world of you know seventy two degrees to the world of fifty degrees and that the transition your body go wait a minute what are you doing a good guy about you i am
it sure there's already we're already made you're going to die now the heart goes vulnerable and diverting but then you say why don't know it seems our interests you know it's like you know it's i just and pretty serious that yes great
it's wonderful and then you go back out from the cold water and you just gone through a transition
can you have more flexible courageous person
but sometimes a messages you know what is this is changed our i think you're going to kill yourself isn't as yeah it looks like i am so get out of there sometimes it is going to kill you and you shouldn't you should take care your body because this body can practice the boot away so take care of it don't hurt it but sometimes the body just you know shocked by a change
and it's really all right is just it is a big change so you can let you can sell your system goes into change change change change change and this changes okay change change change the it's okay
so that's part of what you learn to do in meditation as you learn to ride these changes and you can tell which ones are actually going to hurt you and which ones are just
your system questioning whether this big change is okay a lot of times it is in sometimes it isn't but the practices all the same what's happening how is it happening what's happening as it happened to him all all all all ah moon moon
k
the practice had the heart of practices of can be open all the time but the physical hard as to follow certain physical rules you know the body has certain lawfulness to it and you can't get it to harder to call without giving you lots of feedback
so many clear

what if you saw in the story of the monk who was falsely accused what if you have what if you are the father
in appropriately so have some child and people are criticizing for then what do you do
on guess cleo
not sure
no was taken another story different story where you're wrong somebody when you did something that other people think is wrong and you think is wrong then would have been how you practice
you would think that you'd try to make up make it up to you might yeah but that's not the doesn't necessarily as first thing you do
you might apologize that's not necessary in the first thing you'd do
recognition of the wrong
and then how do you then then what
or how do you recognize the wrong
well i'm not going to push you any further he did the same practice that you do when you're not wrong but even haku and who isn't who was falsely accused he no he didn't necessarily say oh i'm falsely accused so i'm just going to sort of like not defend myself i think he'd probably and i think he
probably considered well maybe you know it's not so much this is not true but more like how does this happen
how does how does it happen to people call you a jerk and call you a great person has it happened so even if you do something which someone says you did a bad thing cleo and you think yeah that was bad still part of you sitting watching or somebody saying i did a bad thing oh and and i think i did a bad thing but in both case
says you're studying how does it happened as some was talking to me like this how does it happened that i think i did a bad thing
even if you if somebody says you do a bad thing and even if you agree it's not necessarily so
it's not necessarily so
for example someone could say to you cleo you know it was a bad thing that you were born and you can say i agree with you but does not necessarily so
but you might think so
was that to extreme an example
someone might say cleo you're a woman and you might think that so it's not necessarily so that to extreme an example
a lot of things that happen are not necessarily good or bad
for example death is not necessarily good or bad but it happens you can call a good or bad but the point is how does it happen
looking at how it happens is the buddhist way of thinking about it so if you do so if if if you do something is someone says it's bad and you agree that's fine this is something that's happened you did something someone thinks is bad you agree that's fine
and if you could apologize that's fine too
but what did you learn from that maybe nothing
maybe something but what do you do something good or bad don't miss a chance to learn this is a moment when you could understand what life's about you might be enlightened when doing something bad
it isn't that as good as bad it really is bad and you shouldn't do it but to understand that might be your enlightenment
and sometimes you might do something good but not even understand what's good a butter how it happened so you still think i individual person did a good thing he's still anxious and diluted even though you did a good thing and everybody says clear that was great
he's still scared that maybe the next moment you do something wrong and they're going to wipe you out
but if you do a good thing and people say cleo that was wonderful and you go what was wonderful about of house is happening how does it happen that now they're praising me
how is that happened that people are like me rather than how they like me how go to sleep now
so i went i'm stressing is that everything that happens is an opportunity to understand the truth and the truth is not just what you think is going on or what everybody else thinks is going on
i'm do what everybody else is thinking is going on including the crickets in the mountains but basically
everything's an opportunity to understand reality
can be and be calm
oh pick me had become a place where buddhist love is realized
so maybe you maybe if you do something as people don't like it and you agree maybe you apologize fine but maybe i don't apologize
maybe just cry
maybe a role in the dirt
maybe you say could i play to do that one more time just like gonna get the hang of it and learned and learn how i don't want to do it anymore and some person my sake yeah do it six more times it'll will help you sometimes someone smokes a cigarette you know and you say really bad to bet for your health in a music i know
but can i do it a few more times just so i can understand that with your with your supervision and tell me while i'm doing it how bad it is i really wanted like meditate on how bad it is
it's a messy okay i don't want you to do it has really bad bedroom if you've gotta do it i'll support you
what does it take to make a buddha
that's the thing
it takes more than just not doing this and not doing that it means also that you watch and study while you're doing what you're doing okay
which is a little bit more work than just like you know trying to control yourself although please try to control yourself you know and not too bad thing that's true but don't just do that has to study yourself every step of the way that's what i'm recommending your martin

right
our relationship

so anxious
what's going on
right

i'm one so
one
ah
ah
can you hear what he's saying everybody ah know he was anxious to you know an anxious means anxious nervous nervous and a painful nervous not a happy nervous okay so he's anxious or it's a french word for anxious yeah so he was anxious and he was trying to he didn't like the anxiety was trying to get
push the anxiety away okay in try to find some way to push it away
i pushed it away stage
ah
i got
what a shock from the separation
her separation from her know that i needed to religions
yeah when i was in college when i was a happy college graduate student
i did a big paper on separation anxiety
it's a very pervasive kind of anxiety
chimpanzees feel it
you must feel it is very basic this separation anxiety
so
yeah so i sometimes feel there's that that's not the only kind anxiety but anyway i sometimes feel anxiety and doesn't feel good but if i but when i let myself feel it i feel like i'm on the earth again
i feel like i'm dealing with my life and i feel much better than when i'm running from it so as possible to feel anxiety but not be enslaved by it
no one united in other ways not run away from it not do things to make it go away or two things to avoid it but just when as there is there was not okay don't go look for it
the
howdy
i was wondering
it goes up in mountains in the world
really doing now
a steady interdependence with all beads
the beatles with the trees with everything for you you think maybe they are doing that how will they might be doing that but usually in in the history what i'm talking about historical examples of cape he had these historical examples in the zen of these certain masters who went up in them
mountains to meditate on interdependence with the beatles and the crickets and sign like salvia talking about but these people who did this in history there were already trained in the monastery before they did that there are a graduate students gay because you may think i'm gonna go up in the woods now and meditate in on a my relationship with the
with the cricket and the beatles and the and the saw bugs and spiders and the redwood trees you might think i'm gonna go do that and so you go do that you feel she is so nice to be on here nature well that's fine
that's okay but you may be actually kidding yourself
and so one way to find out just kidding yourself as someone may come along to you and say go back to the monastery salvi and you may say no i don't want to
and feel anxious all of a sudden again so
most people need a lot training before they can go out in the woods and really not in or and really understand interdependence out there because lot of people think they're into interdependence but it's just because things are going the way they like them that they think they're in india interdependent the way interdependence working is that they feel comfortable
but if the tree starting on turning around and start hassling you
then you may say all i don't see the interdependence of this now they've trees my enemy
but most people don't trees don't talk to most people thought that way most people do not have arguments with trees most people do not feel insulted by trees most people don't feel in competition with trees most people don't feel jealous of trees so all this kind of petty ass phenomena that come up from self-centeredness in south korea
and don't come up for most people with trees and crickets and stuff like that
cake but i have to say
you're talking about trees i i i was in trails for seven days in rye it
happened at i i was a very beautiful environment is beautiful tree ah he came out of me to mount the tree yes and then suddenly i came to sort of our trees that when kind of across ah and it was impossible to brian
every trees right and wrong
kind of mine on the time ah that that's one experience but then the other experiences you're going another trail there was this incredible
hoo ha talking about eight stories you know very tall yes everything's green dark you don't see this guy yes i can steer yeah very various dear young
almost anything because i was by myself he is saying hey
i came to my practice a star written that the is happening now so i started reading in the right now nothing has happened he leaves keep on walking ah and i did i feel that i learn you know it sounds i can do yeah sounds like he did that's that's more like being in the
a monastery

by okay so that's good
yes
choice

going on
this time
choices

well first of all i'm try to find out what is the person's what is the person's concern in this life one are the up to
and depending on what they want to accomplish than i would advise them in a quarter of what they want to accomplish
if they want to accomplish the buddha way then i would advise them to choose to study how things happen
and from that way of meditation that way of thinking about what's happening their actions that their ashes will emerge from that meditation from that understanding
just like you now you know when you have certain experience in your bladder
you act in a certain way
you feel like i wanna go to the toilet but you also have an understanding of society and so on and dry cleaning bills so you wait you know until you get to the women's room before you go
are you go outside or whatever you know you given your understanding of how things work you behave a certain way given your understanding of your skills and your talents and the society you live in you act a certain way
but when you don't understand interdependence
you don't act as it as lovingly and as compassionately as you doing you do understand interdependence
so if you want to act in like a buddha acts that's your agenda in life than i would say study what's happening and when you see what's happening you will naturally respond he will naturally you'll you'll make decisions like going to the toilet
in the same way you decide how to go the toilet that's how you decide what work to do things like that he'll be as simple as that the hard part is to see reality
and that means you have to spend a lot of time looking at what's happening rather than spending time trying to figure things out looking at what's happening studying how things are happening is different than trying to figure things out it isn't that you're trying to figure out what's happening is that you're trying to understand what's happening
so that's what i would recommend to someone who wants to
ah you know understand the buddhist truth now if someone wants to get rich i give different instructions
okay if someone wants to be in a gorgeous i give different instructions if someone wants to be powerful and give different instructions
but whatever in structures i give according to what the press wants they all will finally come down to you know the same place by to start with where the person's app rather than tell people dictation you know meditate on near independence that they're not interested in buddhism yet
see style to start with where they are but if they weren't in buddhism know what i would say so makes sense
he does
i guess

yes you can but
the secular world i don't know what you mean by secular world but most people
in order to accomplish this study need a teacher
because if you don't have a teacher you may go around with your idea of what it means to study what's happening
and your idea of what it means to study what's happening is not what it's like to study what's happening when you when your study what's happening if they give up your idea and just look
but we tend to not wanna do it that way we tend to want to look the way we want to look or we were used to looking so we need to teach her
the opportunity to go into a situation where we give up are all ideas and don't grab under new idea and study without without he didn't let you give up your idea it's that grew up your old ideas
so when you go to meet the teacher you give up your old ideas and new ideas come up but then you don't grab the new ideas either you study them so so most of us need relationships like that in order to like purify our study
to test to see whether we're holding to our understanding of how to study
so when the in strictly speaking a monastic resident or out in the marketplace you need a teacher until you're fully trained
so
you know that they're really can censor isn't a secular world
everybody really has to be
in training
otherwise we you know we get stuck right yes
what you're saying
trying to understand what's happening for you
somebody interaction yes have you seen reality because you tend to stay in reality
you don't stay in reality reality can you can't stay in reality reality is changing all the time i mean reality is that everything's changing all the time he want to stay any place
i i'm going to say that
try to understand you can have stepped back from
when you try to understand you step back
it's hard to test they can take the pass an
keep your lifetime
am i understanding answer
some time
check back and you just wanna sit down and just sit down and observe but you can't do that when you have to do right
to hear it she said she said
she feels like she has to kind of step back from what's happening and sit down and observe and she doesn't feel like she can do that and go to work
is it takes a lot of energy sometimes to see riot happen
yeah first and the emotional yeah my luggage that that comes with a right you have to go through the feeling the pain again yeah i was thinking
yeah how'd you know with going to
yeah so in fact that is it is hard and so that's why we do have zen centres is to try to learn get more skillful and meditating so you can meditate even while you're doing complex tasks
and you can meditate even while some was talking to you and given new complex information
hey my aunt why you doing complex physical movements that you can still continue to be aware
and sometimes
if you're doing something that's really complex
you move into a way of being with that activity which actually is meditation
when you kind of get to a place where you can
anymore and he any longer separate yourself going to quote from what's happening he actually do start understanding how things are happening but in are more pedestrian life
we said we we do hold back
from what's happening somewhat in order to have a sense that we're doing things and we're controlling things i'm effectively getting on the bus i'm gonna be able to get off at the proper stop so i can get to work at a certain time we ordinarily think that
but that's a rather unintended situations i really gets intense we can't keep up anymore
so we spent a lot of our time wasting our time halfheartedly doing things and we continue with the idea that work and we have things under control
we feel i was pretty good i i controlled my trip to work i was pretty good
so it's another another time i went to work and i stayed i continued my usual idea or what reality is namely i get myself to work by my own power
rather than i got to work my love love got me to work
what
until you get the hang of how love get you to work it's hard maybe to fuck to make the transition so this is part of the reason why we in a sense need special traditional practices is to get the feeling for how what it's like to change the perspective and then if you change of perspective can you exchange can you extend that changed purse
aspect of into the workplace into the street
and the answer is it takes many years to collect that new perspective pervade your whole life takes many years
and you're experiencing difficulty
so i think we're all everyone knows i think understands it so it just takes a long time
right
since they can hear what time is it should stop birth to a quarter of
think the man with the glasses and the mustache was next
he only asked god of ignorance
standard original aspect
ah well yeah
the universal
from kansas
yes
i don't understand
the ritual as back to guess here

don't understand
patients
well i'm
ha the forms are opportunities
to surface
and highlight
and thereby make easier to meditate upon selfishness as the main purposes of forms
we could make new forms
present will we eat here in the meditation hall we can make a new western form of eating make new western protocols for eating
and it's but still someone might say okay put aside what countries from why do you have a a formal way of eating why not eat just sit down and eat cake right why to have a formal ritual way of eating at that you teach people in than everyone sort of like agrees to do the ritual on a new
check on the ritual or the reason for that is for i just said is to surface egotism so it can be studied to flush out our selfishness see can study it a lot of people
are human beings
and human beings are naturally self centered
self cleaning