Thank you all for coming. I'm sure you're tired from a full day of work week at Greengold Farm. We maybe all share that. Myself, I'm a little bit under the weather. I hope my voice carries. Can you hear me in the back? I've diagnosed my affliction as... separation the delusion of separation between myself and this mountainside that I'm wrestling with as we try to put the spring back where it was so it's so nice to come together at the end of the day and just sit together and remind ourselves what we're doing here that we're we're free of whatever happened today and whatever will happen tomorrow and we're just here together Enjoying our life.

[01:02]

And then tomorrow we'll get up and work hard. So thank you all who came to work to support this work week. And Suki, of course, for your coordination of it. We recently had a celebrity guest, Wendell Berry, and some others came here. came through, and we had a conversation, a kind of informal conversation with him afterwards, a few of us in the small dining room, and the president of Zen Center, Robert Thomas, asked Wendell Berry what we should teach here if we do, you know, as we move maybe towards more kind of environmental education and really sharing this stewardship this environmental aspect of our practice with with the broader community and he said that the the most important thing we would teach is to just ask the question where are you to have people ask that question where are you and that as soon as you've asked where are you then the natural follow-up questions are um how did he say it now what what does where i am have to offer me and what do

[02:28]

I have to offer where I am. So we're studying that. I think we're living that this week. And it's hard to know. It's hard to hear the land and the trees speaking what they want. And then what they say to one person a few years later, they say something else to the next person. So we have this kind of humility in our work here of making our best guess about what we hear in the murmurs of the creek about what this land wants. So... These Wednesday night talks have been about the paramitas, which is kind of a Buddhist, surprisingly, system of practice, kind of maybe a map of the practice or a way of looking at some of the key aspects of Buddhist practice.

[03:45]

And maybe some of you aren't familiar with the whole list, so I'll just go quickly through the six. There's generally six paramitas or... Perfections, transcendent qualities, these qualities that have crossed from this shore to the other shore, the paramita, perfection. So there's generosity and morality and patience and vigor and concentration or meditation and wisdom. One thought I had in thinking about how to present the paramitas was to think in terms of water, which is what I've grown accustomed to thinking in terms of. And so I kind of figured out, or sort of squeezed out, some way in which water fulfills each of these paramitas.

[04:50]

And asking myself, well, what would water do? WWWD. You know, sometimes it digs in and sometimes it flows around. And it always is harmonizing with its conditions. But particularly, I want to talk tonight about concentration, jhana paramita, which for me is this, in water, kind of the quality of water hugging its... its bedrock, its supporting structure, wherever it's, it's never apart from what's supporting it. So that kind of togetherness is what I feel about how water expresses this paramita of concentration. But I'll spare you the rest of my water paramita stories.

[05:51]

And just bring up jhana paramita, concentration or meditation, which is maybe a lot of how we think about what we're doing in Zen practice. If you're here working, maybe you feel that Zen work is to be concentrated on the task at hand, in your body, connected with with your breath and your body, the physical experience, the tools, the object, and connecting with this field of experience, these objects of experience in a kind of focused way where extraneous things aren't creeping in. And I I support that entirely, if you think that that's what Zen work is, and I kind of think that it is, and I try to do it, and I encourage you to try to do it.

[07:03]

And also, I want to fill it out a little bit, so maybe through the course of the evening we can... I want to encourage this side of our concentration on our work, and also... maybe look at that a little bit and see what kind of limited view is in there about how we think that we should be doing this practice or living our life. So concentration is actually the name of this Buddhist school where the Zen school Zen basically means concentration. It's a Japanese version of a Chinese version of Pali word jhana, which means concentration, meditation, absorption, and is also, in the older Buddhist schools, is kind of, becomes a technical term.

[08:04]

There's these four specific concentrations that monks go through, each one more subtle than the next, until by the fourth jhana there's nothing present. in consciousness except equanimity and wakefulness. So there are these very particular states. And we think, I think anyway, of Zen, we have such an emphasis on wisdom, you know, and every morning we chant this Prajnaparamita Sutra, homage to the perfection of wisdom. But actually, we're not the Hanya school, we're not the Prajna school, we're the Zen school, the concentration school. So for me, when I hear that, or know that, and have my idea of Zen practice as related to concentration, then I find that I'm using my degree of concentration as kind of a gauge of my practice of Zen.

[09:08]

So if I'm concentrated, you know, if there's just kind of the shovel, and the hands and the dirt, then I'm doing good Zen practice. I feel like this is, I got it. And then if I feel kind of scattered, then I don't feel like a follower of the concentration school. And I wonder, you know, I wonder whether there's these six paramitas, and I use, I think I use concentration. Maybe I just kind of like concentration. Concentration kind of junkie. as I think flourish like weeds in our lineage. And I think there are other schools that actually might use other paramitas as a gauge of their practice. And maybe some of you don't have this particular maybe affinity with concentration or attachment to concentration. So maybe you kind of go through your day

[10:10]

assessing or gauging whether you're patient or wise or generous, and use that as your standard. But I think for many of us, particularly with some of what we hear and think about Zen practice, we're using this concentration as our gauge. You know, when we're gauging, and then we remember that we're not supposed to gauge, and so then... try to get so concentrated that we're not even gauging our concentration. So just dig ourselves deeper into that situation. So let's see. There's a couple of stories I want to share. One is maybe just while I'm maybe casting some doubt on this kind of concentration, I'm thinking of something that happened a couple days ago as we were opening up this spring, which I don't know if you'll have a chance, but you're invited to come up and look if you can brave the steep, narrow trail.

[11:34]

But it's really an exceptional thing to see this That's most of our drinking water. Anyway, we were kind of unearthing it in a very concentrated and absorbed and present way, we thought. And then we pulled some rocks away and we saw, you know, we saw a newt or two. Then we pulled some more rocks and we saw this giant newt, you know. Yeah. Like a giant newt. And we said, wow, look, a giant newt. Oh, it's like a moist lizard. It is a moist lizard. They kind of swim. They're amphibians, I guess. So they kind of, they like the water and they swim.

[12:35]

Sometimes they're kind of more dry or more wet, and there's some controversy as to how you should handle them, whether they're good to pick up or not good to pick up. They're poisonous, but also they're kind of... But we digress. Let's concentrate. So... So, you know, we took out this... One, you know, caught this newt and put it in a bucket to take somewhere else because we're doing our job. And then, you know, move some other rocks because we're concentrated on our task, which is to unearth this spring. And then we find another one and we take it out. And then there's, you know, three or four and they're kind of seem like kind of running around, swimming around behind these stones. And we just continue with our project, pulling them out and taking them down to the creek as we go.

[13:38]

And we have 15 of these, which we find out later are Pacific Coast salamanders, actually, which is not an animal that I had seen before. And we had kind of uncovered this nest of these creatures, and we didn't know what they were. And it's not that we didn't care what they were, but they weren't what we were concentrated on. They were kind of... they were kind of interfering with our concentration on the removal of, you know, the exposing of the spring for the benefit of all beings, you know. So... So then a little later, you know, this consultant that we have who kind of drops in now and then to advise us... on the project, you know, we brought this up and he said, oh, yeah, maybe they're Pacific Coast salamanders.

[14:40]

I think that they're endangered. And we thought, oh, you know, that didn't occur to us that maybe they were endangered. And maybe we've done something horribly wrong. And so then, you know, that was a cause of some consternation and conversation, and later on we looked it up, and actually their population is healthy here in California, and I expect that at least a few of the ones we removed have managed to find some new home in the same watershed. But this kind of concentration, or what passes for concentration as a kind of narrow focus or limited concentration. Don't talk to me right now. Don't interrupt me. I'm concentrating. It seems like one version of concentration that is pretty far from perfected concentration or from jhana paramita.

[15:48]

So especially with this emphasis on concentration, personally and in our school, how do we remind ourselves to not settle for a kind of concentration that's not wide and inclusive and responsive, actually, the kind of stiff concentration. And I think there are also, we sometimes embody this in our school, this kind of stiff concentration, which isn't, I think, the true name of our school. It certainly isn't the paramita of concentration. So as I was thinking about this physical concentration of body and mind harmonized with tools or objects, I thought of another experience I had

[16:58]

with a Zen teacher who I was studying with in Japan, a kind of charismatic old Japanese Zen teacher named Tangen Harada Roshi. And he gave some teachings on this that I want to share. One morning during a kind of tea ceremony, every week we would have a formal tea, which would involve... some drum rolls on this taiko drum that was kind of like in a kind of distant alcove up high in the ceremonial hall and there was a kind of rickety ladder going up to it and so this particular morning there was this young monk up there who was hitting the drum kind of to dramatize the arrival of the flowing-robed and very concentrated old Zen master.

[18:02]

And he starts walking into the hall, and the drum sounds fine to me. I'm probably thinking of something else. But I don't notice that the drum sounds bad. And then he kind of starts running, kind of like yelling and running towards this ladder, you know, and gets the guy to come down and goes up himself. He was really kind of old and shaky going up the slider. And then he hits the drum. He hits the drum himself. So boom. And it was kind of like I also didn't notice that it didn't seem like a particularly good drum hit to me. So I was afraid, a little worried for him that he had been trying to prove something about this is how you hit the drum, which seemed like had been his attitude going in. And so then he hit another time And that was, you know, it's like, okay, now, you know, he's kind of warming up. That was a pretty good hit. And then he hit a third time, and it was like, there was kind of a stillness kind of came over the room, you know, reverberating out of this perfectly hit drum.

[19:15]

And so then he, you know, he took his seat. in the hall, and we drank our tea, and then he gave some words about this occasion, about what he had been teaching, which I think were teachings about how to be concentrated, how to interact with physical objects. He said that he had hit the drum three times, and that the first time he was trying to hit it the same way that this monk was hitting it and he had some some qualm about the angle of the monk's body and felt like from that angle he couldn't the monk wasn't really able to engage his his hara you know his belly center and so he was kind of off balance so he said that's kind of demonstrating how to hit the drum incorrectly and then the second time he said that he was trying to to demonstrate hitting the drum correctly And this is an important part of Soto Zen training, is there's a correct way to do everything, and you should do it that way.

[20:22]

And so when his body was lined up in the correct way and he hit the drum, he was able to use his full body and get the power and have the relationship with the object. So concentrate in that way by doing it correctly. And then he said the third time his concentrated effort had been... to just become one with the drum. The third time, it just became one with the drum. And that's, you know, more than this correct way, this precise physical way to be hitting the drum, this maybe spiritual or kind of whole being connection, meeting and merging with the drum. And that to me seems like at least starts to seem more like what we mean when we talk about perfection of concentration, this kind of becoming one, you could say, with our object of concentration.

[21:30]

Although to say that we need to do something or have some attitude or do something in a particular way in order to become one, like now we're not one with the drum, and if we do the right thing, then we will be one with the drum, is also not quite how we approach concentration in our school. I'm thinking in the ordination ceremony that we do, we say, in faith that we are Buddha, we enter Buddha's way. With the faith that we're Buddha, we enter Buddha's way. We're Buddha, and then we enter the way, but we're already Buddha to begin with. I really have appreciated this teacher's teaching on becoming one with the drum.

[22:39]

just to clarify that it doesn't mean that right now you're not one with the drum. That if your mind is wandering and you're shoveling salamanders, that you're not actually disconnected. And this to me starts to point to a deeper aspect of our practice. Concentration isn't to get our mind to be some way so that we become something that we're not already. We're not correcting ourselves or our minds to become Buddha. We already have faith that we're Buddha and faith in our connection with everything. And so we can practice this connection with everything, but it's not because there's something lacking. Are there any objections? hopefully not or perfect perfect concentration I feel like the paramitas are this kind of you have the virtue the paramitas each describe a virtue in this case concentration and then for me the concentration part is one thing and then that it's a paramita is kind of like

[24:08]

the blowing apart of that thing in the way that we usually think about it. So in that sense, that is wisdom, I suppose. Another story that I wanted to share about concentration and its dubiousness was with another elderly Japanese Zen teacher. I haven't... spend so much time with elderly Japanese Zen teachers, but they make an impact. There's a kind of charisma or spiritual and also cultural presence that makes an impact. This story has less to do with Sasaki Roshi himself, who is a Rinzai teacher in Southern California. But it's an experience I had you know, in a few weeks that I was practicing at his temple, which is, you know, Rinzai Zen very focused and intense and full.

[25:18]

The days were full. The nights were empty. Short. And short, yeah. So... So we were doing this very intense practice and there was a lot of pressure. Everybody's working on this koan and trying to succeed by concentrating on this ancient teaching with so much fervor that the teaching will dissolve into the Buddha's ambrosia. And mostly it doesn't. Most days the experience is of non-ambrosia. And so you go in to see this teacher, you know, several times a day and mostly he kind of like, you know, you bow and then he kind of laughs at you and then rings his bell and then you leave, you know, to do more of the same but harder.

[26:20]

So, you know, I was... you can get down on yourself after a while, you know, going through this after, you know, even just a few weeks. And another aspect, the life was very structured. There wasn't, you know, like a coffee tea area or like a shower that, you know, a private shower or something like that. So I found personally it was kind of challenging that the caffeine... dosage was coming kind of like unpredictably um and sort of inconsistently and kind of suddenly you know so you know you'd be kind of you hadn't had you know any tea or coffee for a while and then just suddenly you know like bring a cup of coffee and you um so so you know i had been feeling really down and like my really was failing at my concentration and then you know this cup of coffee appeared um And I drank it.

[27:26]

And then I went back to the meditation hall, and I was on fire, you know? I was really concentrated. I was really moving on this koan that I was working with, you know? And I got in that for a while, you know, about just enjoying my concentration, I guess, my vigor, you know, another paramita. the non-paramita aspect of which may have often to do with caffeine. But then, you know, soon it dawned on me that all that had changed between the last period of meditation and the current period of meditation was a cup of coffee I had drank, and that if, like, the great way of the Buddhas kind of pivoted on this random cup of coffee that I had received... then I was, I don't know, I was following perhaps a limited way.

[28:29]

So that really stuck with me. I think I felt something at that point about more like what the path wasn't, what the way wasn't. It can't be about this. It can't be about this if when I'm drinking coffee it's good and when I'm not drinking coffee it's bad. It's not about concentration. And that's actually the only thing that I said to Sasaki Roshi that he tolerated. I have no answer to my koan at this point, but I do now believe that it's not about concentration. It does not have to do with concentration. He appreciated that before kicking me out. So that concentration as a condition is kind of how I think we tend to see concentration, and definitely how concentration resulting from causal condition of coffee.

[29:42]

This is concentration that's based on a particular condition. I remember being struck... Norman Fisher, former abbot here, also surprised me when I was complaining to him or kind of feeling sorry for myself about how many peanut butter sandwiches I was eating between meals. And he said, oh, so you don't have... So you're not disciplined. Who cares? You know, kind of like, get on with your practice. You're not... And it's like, oh, so... having or not having the condition of discipline isn't a factor, isn't kind of like a basis, isn't what we're about. Anyway, it struck me later that those two teachings were related. I want to read a little from Zen ancestor, one of Soto Zen, an important Soto Zen ancestor, a.k.

[30:52]

Dogen and Dogen Zenji. in the Mountains and Water Sutra, which has much relevant to this week. Actually, if you have some time for some reading, I recommend it. I'll read a short section here. He's talking about mountains and waters and how you should see them or not see them, including that water maybe doesn't flow and that mountains maybe do flow. if your mind is open. So he says,

[31:54]

is not something to be attached to. Even if you have the highest understanding of mountains as all Buddha's inconceivable qualities, the truth is not only this. These are conditioned views. This is not the understanding of Buddha ancestors, but just looking through a bamboo tube at a corner of the sky. So if our practice is based on a conditioned view, we should be clear that that's not the understanding of the Buddha ancestors and that in fact as always as all we can do perhaps we're just looking through a bamboo tube at a corner of the sky So again, it's not about having the right set of conditions, which for me, I notice sometimes that I think of the right kind of life.

[33:09]

Like, am I having the right kind of life? Am I living my life the right way? Which means are the conditions how I want them or how they should be? Are the conditions how they should be? But... But that can't be the deepest foundation of our practice. It has a place. Aligning the conditions of our life has a place in our practice. But it can't be the foundation of our practice. And it's hard to say then what else there would be. But I think we have a feeling for that. I think we all have some kind of feeling about... some kind of truth of our life that's not about how we're doing.

[34:13]

The way that Dogen says it is the way that he describes what this what's apart from this conditioned view there is something free from all of these understandings and I think again that we all We all know that. It's a question of expressing it. How do we express in ourselves and to others what it is at the foundation of our life other than how we're doing? There is something free from all of these understandings, all of these conditions. And Dogen says, the way he expresses it is, Green mountains are always walking and eastern mountains travel on water. which doesn't help me anyway. But I appreciate his effort, his finding some words to touch this unconditioned place or this place that's free from our various understandings, our various practices and attainments and virtues, our collection of virtues.

[35:37]

so we can't live there either exactly or that's another problem that is embodied in some of us sometimes in Zen is trying to live in green mountains walking on water and you know, free of these conditions. Our life is in these conditions, and our practice is, in a large part, you know, getting it together. Pull it together, you know. Line up your life. Make the time. Find yourself. Know your body. Concentrate on your work. So in Zen teaching, there's always this kind of back and forth so Suzuki Roshi talking about concentration I feel like he encourages concentration in a way that's based on this deeper understanding that it's not just about getting concentrated but you know come on follow your breath let go of extraneous thoughts

[37:07]

Just do what you're doing. He says, we say concentration, but to concentrate your mind on something is not the true purpose of Zen. The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. which I think is a kind of concentration. So he is having it both ways here, as Zen people want to do. It's not to concentrate your mind on something, but the true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and let everything go how it goes.

[38:10]

And there's some kind of concentration required to have that perspective, to see things as they are, and to let them go as they go. So he says, The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. This is to put everything under control in its widest sense. Zen practice is to open up our small mind. So concentrating is just an aid to help you realize big mind or the mind that is everything. If you want to discover the true meaning of Zen in your everyday life, you have to understand the meaning of keeping your mind on your breathing and your body in the right posture in Zazen. Or I'm sure he'd say in whatever we're doing. You should follow the rules of practice and your study should become more subtle and careful. Only in this way can you experience the vital freedom of Zen.

[39:15]

So... So let's study this together as we work. Is our concentration opening up our minds to the mind that is everything? Or is it narrowing down our minds to the mind that is, you know, me and spring, me and mountain? So knowing somewhere, somehow in ourself, and it's a concentrated effort, but making the concentrated effort to find our faith that we are Buddha, our faith in our connection with everything.

[40:26]

And then from that, trying to act and concentrate accordingly. Yeah. I want to close here with a few more words from Suzuki Roshi because he expresses it much better than I can. Concentration is not to try hard to watch something. In zazen, or work practice, if you try to look at one spot, you will be tired in about five minutes. Not to mention you won't see or you won't appreciate that you're seeing some... possibly endangered and undeniably magnificent creature. If you try to look at one spot, you will be tired in about five minutes. This is not concentration. Concentration means freedom. So your effort should be directed at nothing.

[41:28]

You should be concentrated on nothing. In Zazen practice, we say your mind should be concentrated on your breathing. But the way to keep your mind on your breathing is to forget all about yourself, and just to sit and feel your breathing. If you are concentrated, you will forget yourself, and if you forget yourself, you will be concentrated. I do not know which is first. So actually there is no need to try too hard to be concentrated on your breathing. Just do as much as you can. If you continue this practice, eventually you will experience the true existence which comes from emptiness. So... Let's make our best effort, a wholehearted, vigorous effort to become one with each thing we're doing. But there's no need to try too hard. Just do as much as you can. And if you continue, you will experience what you're already experiencing, which is why you don't have to do much.

[42:35]

That's the secret. Just do as much as you can. If you continue this practice, eventually you will experience the true existence which comes from emptiness. Thank you for indulging me in my musings on concentration. I hope it hasn't distracted you too much. I think we have a few minutes left if people have questions or comments or additions. What do you mean by faith, that we are Buddha? I'm not sure where that is, because it needs to be based on something. I mean, I think we're not the only ones to have this issue. It needs to be based on something, but if it's based on something, then it's not faith anymore.

[43:40]

so it's related to experience in the same way that this you know that our little concentration is kind of can be a gate into a wider field in the same way it seems like our faith kind of I don't know I don't know There needs to be some experience, I guess, at some point, some orienting, some wanting to base your life around the possibility that you're not doomed forever to be a separate, isolated, suffering being. So maybe it's just wanting the world to be this way. and putting all of our faith and energy into being in a world that's that way.

[44:45]

But I think there's more to it. I think as we kind of gain confidence in the experience that we're already having, our faith, at least in the practice, occurs. So no, I can't really answer your question. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for asking. I don't know if maybe you said this in a way that I didn't get it, but how can you notice that your concentration is not a kind of delusion? Chances are it is. So it's maybe knowing or assuming... You know, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, assume that your concentration is diluted. It's not, I guess, I think what I'm trying to say is not so much that there's a kind of concentration that's the right kind of concentration, or enlightened concentration, paramita, jhana paramita, and then there's a kind of concentration that's diluted.

[46:06]

It's more like that any kind of effort or any way we think about concentration just has these limits, that's all. It's not that we shouldn't take up the practice. I guess more mundanely, I think the salamanders were a good example, or interruption. Interruption is a good example. How wide is your attention? We're focused on our shovel, and... And the dirt, are we also hearing the sounds, you know? Like the beep of the reverse truck coming up. So that's something that I sometimes work with, is can I widen... Once I've established some concentration, can I widen that field to include more and more? So it's not like it was diluted before and it's enlightened when it's wider. It's just that it goes from kind of smaller to bigger. Another way it's often... talked about is from kind of gross to subtle or heavy, very effortful to less effortful.

[47:14]

So what you're making like very concentrated effort, you know, then once that's there, then let that kind of relax. So towards widening and softening, I think, is the direction. To me, that seems somewhat that once you see the salamanders, you might require wisdom to understand what to do with them. It's not a matter of a certain kind of concentration, but you didn't know they were possibly in danger, and so you just put them somewhere else. Right. Like, you can be concentrated on a certain act, but you never know if it's the right thing to do or what purpose it has unless there could always be something that proves you wrong.

[48:17]

So, I guess, how would you relate to the wisdom and the concentration? Yeah. In that case, I think maybe not even wisdom, but just knowledge, you know, some knowledge of the situation. Wisdom, in terms of the paramita, is more like really knowing the oneness with the salamander or the essential non-being of the salamander, which doesn't help its preservation necessarily, at least not without the other paramitas in place. I think what I noticed in that wasn't so much what we did or didn't do, because I think, you know, we... it didn't really occur to us that it might be something special. It didn't occur to me anyway. And if I really had had that knowledge, then I might have acted differently. So it's not so much what I did or didn't do as much as the energy that I felt on reflection, seeing the situation that happened, I could kind of reflect and see the way that I was driven in a way that didn't feel like it was responding.

[49:31]

I guess I could have just given them more time. I could have played with them a little more, looked at them a little more closely. We spent some time looking at it, but it was more like my attitude that they were in our way because they were interrupting, they were distracting. But thank you. I'm not just trying to criticize me and the work crew and saying that we did the wrong thing, but just what's the energy behind it. Yeah, you were saying that concentration goes from Prague to the Sun. And we are saying self-receiving and employing samadhi, so samadhi would be a form of concentration. So I don't know if you want to say something about that.

[50:42]

Yeah. I think it is. Sometimes the words are sometimes used even interchangeably. Or sometimes that concentration is the means and samadhi is the result or kind of the state that comes about through concentration. But self-receiving and employing samadhi is there. So thank you. Thank you for bringing it up. If I recall correctly in your previous Dharma talk, I think it was in a Sunday, you had an ongoing, call it I think a joke with one of your Brahma brothers about saying something like, from now on, no really, from now on. I'm just wondering if you could refresh our memory and

[51:43]

maybe say if that too had to do with concentration. And so what kind of effort did you make to pull that? So Francisco's referring to a practice that a friend of mine had that whenever it would occur to him, he would sort of resolve... And that from now on, he was going to really practice, you know. So kind of like as soon as, I don't know, he would just kind of wake up out of something and he would say, you know, from now on, from now on, I'm going to wholeheartedly practice. Kind of like, yeah, maybe more the paramita, one of the later, kind of optional paramitas is vow.

[52:43]

So I feel like that's more kind of renewing the vow, the aspiration to practice kind of heroically, you know, even though, you know, from now on and then the next step, stumbling, and then saying again, you know, from now on. So I think that that doesn't I think it doesn't take much concentration. It just takes to make that aspiration. It just takes just some regret or some, you know, some regret at something that just happened or some idea of another way. And then I think it just arises that feeling like, you know, So I guess in terms of the paramitas, more like vigor, there's also kind of vigor there, because you're kind of stoking this fire from now on. So vigor and vow, I think, are more in that than concentration.

[53:48]

But I could say, you know, now that you're reminding me, that from now on, I will not... settle for any kind of understanding or any version of practice that's based on conditions. I won't let how I am become more important than who I am or what I am. Okay. So from now on, from now on, I will live that way. Someone? I also like your illustration about mutes, and it alluded to my parts also, what you were expressing about the value of being one with something.

[54:59]

And for me, I can explain it. I feel one sometimes when I'm driving with my car, but I'm definitely not one with this car. This is definitely not me. So feeling one with something is definitely separating from something else. Feeling one with something is separating from something else. But if you're one with the whole world, it's like being one with nothing. Thank you. You can't become one with... I think, genuinely become one with one object and not some other object. You know, the quality by which you're becoming one with something else needs to... extends everywhere. But you said it more clearly. So thank you. Thank you.

[56:00]

Okay, maybe one more... Oh, I want to thank you for bringing up the salamanders. I was part of that crew that destroyed the mass. For me, it's been one of the most powerful teaching situations that I've encountered for quite a long time. And so I'm grateful for that. Thank you for talking about it. Well, I'm not sure. I'm working on it. It's broad and deep, but if I bring it, my side of it to bear what you're talking about, concentration, it's like, as I was throwing the shovel, I wasn't in a condition of concentration at all. I was in a, sorry, called more aggression. sound asleep, really.

[57:03]

And when this spectacular find occurred, it was like a real wake-up call. I knew instantly that what I saw in front of me was really part of what I had abandoned in Sharing the world with other creatures that are silent and mute and helpless. That's how it worked for me. Thank you. Aggression. Aggression passing as concentration or vigor, you know, I think. It's also a problem. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[57:58]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.2