Good morning. The guest house. This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all, even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture. Still,

[01:01]

Treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes. because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. This is a poem by Rumi. And it's a poem that has lately been kind of accompanying me. Some of you have already heard it or have been sent it. from me by email, because I think it's a wonderful description of practice.

[02:13]

And this whole, you know, the whole understanding of Buddha's teaching is about practice, is about being your life. Being is a verb. It's an activity. It's movement. It's not something static. Buddha said, don't, you know, don't believe just what has been said I said or what is being said I said, but take it and Study it and see if it is true in your life. So it's an invitation to practice, to practice being, to be practice, to practice your life, to be your life, to let your life be you, come through you,

[03:33]

the way it does, with nothing added and nothing subtracted, which is not easy for us. We usually tend to add something or subtract something because we have ideas about things, including ourselves. So, calls it this being human, this activity of being a human being that, you know, unasked for, we're here. Our life came as a gift, just like that. And it's here every day, that gift, every moment. And if we allow it to flow through us, to manifest through this being and this being and this being and this body and this body and this body, unhindered without getting in its way, mostly everything is perfect just as it is.

[04:56]

But because we have ideas, and we hold on to our ideas, we rarely get to see that. We rarely get to just be our life and see how things are okay the way they are. So, of course, there's a lot of written things about Zen Buddhism, Buddhism general, Zen Buddhism, trying to help us actually to practice, to be awake, to be present for the experiences that

[06:01]

come by being alive. The joys we are given, the sorrows that come our way, the pains, the happiness. One of the early texts from Third Ancestor of China wrote a poem. kind of a poem. And it says, the great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. That's basically saying everything, everything is always clear and undisguised.

[07:03]

It's always completely just itself, just the way it is, because we all have preferences. We all have opinions and ideas about things. The moment those get activated, it's like you put on some glasses that have a particular structure that only led through what fits your preference or your opinion or your idea about something. So you see it distorted. You don't see the whole thing. You don't just see it simply as it is, even though it is completely clear and undisguised in front of you. And that is so for things that you think happen inside you or for things that you perceive as happening outside, out there.

[08:08]

If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything. So, of course, you know, we have to go vote. We have to make choices about what we're going to eat, what we're going to wear this morning. Unless you're a total monk, you never have to ask yourself that question. You have two kinds of garments, one's for work and one for the Zendo. And you don't need a mirror. You don't need, you know, you need a toothbrush. And everything else is given to you. But most of us are kind of monks. When I moved from city center to, out as a resident from Zen Center to Mill Valley, I put up, you know, I packed my stuff in boxes and I was actually shocked.

[09:18]

So I said to somebody, you know, a monk has a robe and a bowl and one U-Haul. LAUGHTER in the United States. So we do, you know, we do have to make choices. We do have to make plans because we're living in a world where people keep asking, what are you going to do next? But we also need to save money for the kids to go to college. So we have to In that world, we have to think about those things. If we have a practice where we actually get closer to being so still and so present and so being with or being close to,

[10:26]

what's in front of us or what presents itself to us, we can start holding those opinions or understand that these are just opinions and if we hold on to them, they get in the way. They will distort our, they will hinder our capacity to see what is undisguised in front of us. And the bigger the distortion, the more inappropriate or the less helpful our response to what we perceive will be because we respond to only a tiny little fraction of what's in front of us because we can see only what fits our opinion. and we start fighting, ignoring, and if we can't ignore fighting, what doesn't fit our opinion, doesn't fit our distorted view, our limited view of things.

[11:40]

Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things. part of that very, very old poem. So Rumi gives us a wonderful kind of kind and loving way of how to practice to understand that being human this being human, this activity, this life of a human, of being a human, is a guest house. And the door is open to whatever comes in. It gets received with the same respect, equal respect, equal kindness,

[12:51]

you could say it's given equal space. So one of the images I often use with my students is the image of a house. No, he calls it a guest house, but also a house that is a guest house. That means if a feeling or an experience or a state of being is there that might be you might not like or you might not know really because it's new or it's something that scares you or it still gets a room in the house. And all the rooms have equal space, equal light, equal electricity, equal warmth, have a roof over them. And if suddenly there is no space for this additional feeling you didn't or experience you didn't even know, was there, you just build on another room.

[13:53]

And the roof gets extended. This is so even if the different things that live in those rooms are contradictory, don't make sense. Because life, being human, is a 360 degree simultaneous event. It's not a linear thing. But our minds try to make sense of everything or explain it. Explain why I have this opinion and why everybody in their right mind would actually have the same opinion. Which of course means the others are just deluded. They just can't see it the right way or feel it the right way.

[14:57]

So trying to make sense or trying to explain everything is like trying to squeeze holographic life that's happening all the time into a storyline that is logical. and has a beginning and a middle and an end. So you can just feel it, how that's kind of squeezing this full kind of flowing in all direction life into a thin line with a few concepts. And how much we lose by doing that. So, you know, some of you come here regularly. Some of you are here the first time.

[16:01]

Is anybody here the first time? Yes, a few. Welcome. Some of you do have already an established meditation practice. Some don't. Some wonder about it. You can... Any place you are, wherever you are, you can start with giving yourself the gift of sitting down five minutes every day and see if you can be a guest, a host, if you can host whatever is up, is presenting itself to you in those five minutes. That can be what your body feels like, very tired, very tense, very alert, restless, or what state your mind is in, worrying about something or confused about something or eager about a project or very calm, what your feeling state is, what your mood is,

[17:19]

And just try to see if you can, during those five minutes, just say, this is how it feels like this. The tiredness in my body feels like this. And just feel like it feels. Usually when we're tired, the mind goes, jumps in and says, well, I'm tired because I did blah, blah, blah yesterday or this morning, or I should go and lie down, or, oh, how horrible I have the rest of the day in front of me and I'm tired, how am I going to manage that? These are all distractions from just receiving the tiredness in your body the way it feels right now. brings your awareness, your attention into the moment and into the experience rather than interpretation of the experience or a conclusion based on that experience or a plan based on it.

[18:39]

But just this is how it feels. It feels like this. So you can give yourself that gift of practice, which is a gift to just be with your life, with yourself, where you have nothing to plan, nothing to do. You can just rest and realize that you are alive. which is actually quite a miracle if we think of the whole universe that we're sitting here. I mean, you know, if you would look from out from the stars here, with our eyes we couldn't see.

[19:42]

We couldn't see us. We're so tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny. I mean, there's no way we could see. You know, we can see the earth, but we can't see all those little creatures walking around, thinking so much, you know, thinking so much that we kind of miss the miracle of our lives. So... The guest house or practice is kind of honing and training our ability to allow what is, to fully allow what is, to include everything, to not exclude anything.

[20:44]

And that's not so easy for us. not easy for us because we want to exclude the things we don't like. You know, lately I'm waking up in the morning and I feel extremely disconnected. Another way for depression. And I don't like it. And it takes me often a long time to remember that I can't feel like it feels to feel disconnected. And then allowing to feel that and not going into the stories of, I thought I was over this, and why is this now, and oh my God, how is this going to look in the future when I get older? I'm certainly turning into that one of those old women that are depressed.

[21:51]

I thought so when I was young and now it's coming. So, you know, they have a lot of power, those thoughts. So to remember in the morning, how does it feel? Oh, it feels like this. Change is something. Not necessarily that I'm suddenly connected to everything, but it's still connected to what is. And that's an effort. That's an intention. That's having learned to sit still over many years and still learning to sit still. To be without meddling in there with my thoughts, but allowing the experience to be like it is at that moment, the way it is at that moment.

[23:13]

I'm going to read you the poem again. And then also I want to read you another poem by Jane Hirschfield, which I love very much, which I think might be helpful. But I would like you to really encourage you to see if you can give yourself the gift of being, of letting your life be that kind of guest house for five minutes every day. You don't have to go to a zendo, you don't have to sit cross-legged, you don't have to sit on a safu, you don't have to wear special robes. You can just sit down somewhere in your garden, now that spring is here, in your house, anywhere, not while you're driving. And just host of your own life, that welcoming host that is curious about who comes in the door and how is it.

[24:24]

And to remember that not it disguises itself, but if we have a like or dislike or a preference or an opinion about it, that opinion clouds our perception of it, our capacity to receive it undisguised. You know, Walden says, if you sit at the clearing in the woods still long enough, all the animals of the woods come and present themselves to you. Undisguised, completely clear, they're there. So the key is still. Sit still. Bear the feeling, bear the disconnect, bear the sadness, bear the joy.

[25:25]

Mainly we move because we're confused, we don't know what to do, we're afraid, or it's too intense. So we move so that intensity gets dispersed. So it's a learning to... hold more intensity, to hold more diversity. If we can hold the diversity of our feeling, we will be more able to actually live in peace with the diversity that's around us, with our neighbors that have different opinions, that have come from a different culture, that we don't understand in that linear understanding, but their life is also undisguised and clear in front of us if we let it be, if we give it the radical respect of just allowing it to be exactly as it is.

[26:33]

And it's not having no dislike doesn't mean now I have to like everything. It's not like trying to force you to like it. It's more if we really truly understand and are aware that this is a dislike or an opinion coming up, then we become a little more careful because we know actually we are deluded. Which is not a bad thing. We are most of the time deluded. It's part of being human. But when we know it, we tread a little more carefully and a little more respectfully than thinking, I see it very clearly and this is what has to happen. that is in terms of yourself, you know, this is what has to happen in terms of me, or in terms of anybody else, or of things, or your dog, or your children, or your boss. So to just learn to be that host that receives everything.

[27:40]

This being This being human is a guest house. Every morning, a new arrival. Every moment, a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness. Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all. Even if they... are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture. Still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

[28:43]

Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. Each is a teacher about how it is right now and helps us to be in the present moment right now. And today I read you a poem by Jane Hirschfield. It was like this. You were happy. It was like this. You were happy, then you were sad. Then happy again, then not. It went on. You were innocent or you were guilty. Actions were taken or not.

[29:46]

At times you spoke, at other times you were silent. Mostly it seems you were silent. What could you say? Now it is almost over. Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life. It does this not in forgiveness, Between you there is nothing to forgive. But with the simple nod of a baker at the moment he sees the bread is finished with transformation. Eating too is now a thing only for others. It doesn't matter what they will make of you or your days. They will be wrong. the wrong woman miss the wrong man. All the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention.

[30:53]

Your story was this. You were happy, then you were sad, you slept, you awakened, sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.

[31:13]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_98.4