I vow to taste the truth of the Tathāgata's words. Good morning. Good morning. This morning is our monthly young person's lecture. So the first part of the lecture will be directed to the young people who are here, and there's a nice crowd, people that I know and have seen come on Sundays, and some faces that I don't know. My name is Linda, and I wanted to tell you a story and talk about it a little bit, and then you'll go off and have your tea and adventure with Wendy and Margo. I don't know who else. You're staying there. Okay. So this is a story from the nation of the Cherokee,

[01:08]

the Native American people named Cherokee. Once upon a time, at the beginning of time, the world had light on one side of the world and darkness on the other side of the world, and the people had the light on their side, and all the animals on their side of the world didn't have any light at all. And it was very cold and very dark, and they got together, they had a meeting, and they said, we've got to get some light. What should we do? So Opossum said, I'll go. I'll go and steal some light. I'll steal some of the sun. And the name of the story is, by the way, Grandmother Spider Steals the Sun. So Opossum says, I'll go, and they say, okay, good. So off goes Opossum to the other side of the world,

[02:11]

and he grabs a little piece of the sun and puts it under his bushy tail to hide it. But what happens is that his tail catches on fire and he starts whooping with pain and making all sorts of noise, and the people hear him and go find him and take the sun away, and he has to go back to the other side without the sun. And everybody's very sad that he didn't accomplish his task. And they don't know what to do. And then Buzzard says, well, I can fly very fast and very high, and I'll put the sun on top of my head, and my feathers will hide it, and the people won't see it. So they said, okay, Buzzard, you go try. So Buzzard flew to the other side of the world, got a little piece of the sun, put it up on top of his head to hide up here on his feathers, but lo and behold, his feathers caught fire,

[03:13]

and he started yelping and making all sorts of noise, got the attention of the people. They ran out, took the sun back, and he had to go back dejected because he didn't accomplish his task. So the animals, they had another meeting, and they thought, what are we going to do? And they were arguing, and they couldn't figure out what to do. And finally they heard this little tiny voice say, I'll go. They looked around, they didn't even know who was talking, and it turned out it was old Grandmother Spider. She had a very quiet voice, and she said, I'll go, I'll try. Well, they didn't really think that she would be successful either, but they didn't have any other choice, so they said, okay, you try. So the first thing that Grandmother Spider did was to make a little piece of pottery, a special piece of pottery to carry the sun back in so she wouldn't burn herself. And then she began to spin her web.

[04:16]

It was a very tiny web, you couldn't even see it, and she spun and [...] went all the way from their side of the world to the other side of the world with this tiny spider's thread and her little vase, her piece of pottery. And she went along down her web all the way to the other side, grabbed a piece of the sun really fast, popped it into her pottery vessel and didn't burn herself, skipped back along the thread, got back there and gave the animals a piece of the sun. So forever after, not only did they have sun, and then fire for warmth, but containers began to be made. That was the beginning of how containers were made, useful containers. So that's the story. And I wanted to say a little bit more about Buzzard and Opossum.

[05:24]

Do you know what an opossum looks like? Have you ever seen an opossum? I haven't seen an opossum. I know what it looks like. Just a minute. You have a book that has pictures of an opossum? What do they look like? Do you remember? Same color as what? Do they have a big bushy tail? No, they don't have a bushy tail. Have you seen an opossum? What do they look like? A pointy kind of nose. What's their tail? You know, their tail has no hair on it at all. It's like a long, skinny, kind of like, looks like a rat's tail, sort of.

[06:26]

And because it burned when they tried to bring the sun back, so forever after, the opossum's tail is kind of like a long little rat. Now, I want, yes, Pam? I was once at a friend's house, and I looked out the window, and there was an opossum in the yard. Really? Going through the garbage. Going through the garbage. Now, that's one of the interesting things about them. My friend's mom took some gravel and she threw it away. Yeah, did it run away? The opossum. Yes. You know, you can all talk with Wendy some more about opossums, because she knows a lot about them, and afterwards at tea you can talk some more. I wanted to say one thing about the opossum. The opossum was alive when the dinosaurs were alive. It's a very, very, very old animal. That's a long time ago. Can you imagine that? And it also, its brain is one-fifth the size of a house cat.

[07:31]

It's kind of a primitive being, and it does routinized things, it does habitual things over and over, and it will eat whatever it comes upon. It's not very discriminating about what it will eat, but it will eat dead, alive, other sort of sick opossums. It will eat whatever. So you can imagine why the opossum didn't think that he might burn his tail when he went off, because that's the kind of a guy he is, or gal. Now, the buzzard. Have any of you ever seen a buzzard? Do you know what a buzzard looks like, or another name for a buzzard? A buzzard. Another name for a buzzard is a vulture. Yeah, and we have vultures around here, turkey vultures. And vultures, do they have fluffy, a lot of fluffy, yes, Matthew? Right.

[08:33]

They don't have any feathers. Well, of course, they burned when they went to try and get the sun. They have these bald heads. And you know, one of the reasons that they have bald heads is because they eat carrion. Carrion is dead animals, and they're very interesting. They get in there to eat, and their noses, where they breathe, are way high up, so they can eat and breathe at the same time, because they really get into the animals that have died. You know, without vultures, vultures are very, very helpful animals. And they're sacred animals in Tibet, the vulture, because they pick clean the bones of dead beings that couldn't be buried in the cold country. So they're very, very helpful. I have a story about a buzzard. They have these bald heads, and they eat carrion, this dead meat. So that's why no feathers on top, so they can keep cleaner.

[09:46]

And they also have to clean their feet, and the way they clean their feet is to pee on their feet. And that disinfects their feet. I thought you'd appreciate that detail. And there was a buzzard that was shot by a hunter, shot in the wing, and the buzzard fell to the ground, and when the hunter saw there was a buzzard, he didn't want it. So he just left it there, and this buzzard with the hurt wing was found, and they called the Humane Society, and they took care of him, and it was a crippled, it was a disabled buzzard after that, a challenged buzzard. This naturalist took care of him and became his pet, and the buzzard once was crawling. He came to my son's class, the naturalist, and he was talking about how the buzzard would sit on top of his head and play around and stand on his shoulders,

[10:47]

but one time he decided to wash his feet while he was up there, which was an unhappy experience. Now the spider, I just wanted to say a couple of things about the spider. We have lots and lots of spiders at Green Gulch, and maybe you have lots of spiders where you come, where you live. In my dad's office. In your daddy-long-legs, in your dad's office? I know, they're all over. And one thing about the spider, this particular spider that actually stole Peace of the Sun, she, from her own body, was able to spin. You all know Charlotte, right, the spider named Charlotte? You know how wise she is? Well, this spider was very similar. She pulled out from her body her web and then followed her own path that she created herself to get what she needed, and she also had a container with her

[11:50]

because it's sometimes really helpful. It's called Charlotte's Web. That's right, Charlotte from Charlotte's Web, that's right. Pam? I just want to say that daddy-long-legs are the most poisonous spiders in the world. And you know the reason why we don't... Yeah, because their mouths are so small they can't bite you. That's right, their mouths are so small that they can't get a bite, so otherwise we'd be in big trouble, right? Yeah. So anyway, I wanted to tell you this one thing. Sometimes when you have a problem where you might feel like you need something, like a bit of the sun or light or some help or support, this is a secret that the spider knows, and now I'm going to tell you about it, which is the web, this spinning web that comes out of her, you can think of your breath like this web that comes out, that's there inside you. Is that funny? laughter

[12:50]

And I know of a child who told me that when she was having a very difficult time because she was the new girl at school and she didn't know anybody and nobody was talking with her, and she was able to just bring her mind bring her attention inside and follow her breath and have that be her pathway that she could follow that was right there for her, that she could create. And then from that, she was able to calm herself. I think Grandmother Spider was very calm. She figured out what to do. She made this container. So it helps to have a calm mind to see what's the next best thing to do. So if you think of your breath sometimes as this web, this spider that you can spin out and follow. Okay? So that's all for this morning. What, Sabrina?

[13:54]

Is that a funny story? Okay, so thank you very much for coming to Green Gulch this morning, and off you go. Thank you. Thank you. See you later. See you later. So if anyone wants to come up, there's seats in the front if you're too crowded. I just want you to make sure that the parents come down.

[15:15]

Maybe there's some way you can announce. My biggest fear is that they won't come down and I can't track all the kids. Where are you going to be? I'll be in the garden. All right, thank you. Wendy just reminded me that for the parents, after the lecture, if you could please go down to the garden, that's where the kids will be, to pick them up, rather than going to tea first, to pick the kids up first. Okay? Thank you. So it's very useful to have a container. And I actually have a simple thing that I want to talk about today, which I think of as a container. Can you hear me all right?

[16:16]

Yeah? Okay. And this container is taught in various places, but in the case number 58 of the Book of Serenity, which is the diamond cutter scripture revilement. And basically the case, the different koan collections or case collections start out with commentary, a little kind of beginning, and then there's the case, and then there's commentary and poems, and sometimes several poems and commentaries on the poems. But I just want to read the case, which is kind of enigmatic, but as I go on, I'll just talk about it the way it's been helpful to me.

[17:17]

So case 58 of the Book of Serenity says, the diamond cutter scripture, that's also called the Diamond Sutra, says, quote, If someone is reviled by others, this person has done wicked acts in previous ages and should fall into evil ways. But because of the scorn and revilement of people in the present age, the wicked deeds of the past are dissolved. Now, someone might think, what in heaven's name is this all about, or what is this all about? So the basic teaching of this scripture is that if you find yourself in a situation where you're practicing

[18:21]

and you find that you're being insulted or reviled, reviled means to have abusive language spoken to you, or there's other translations of this too, which I'll read, Thich Nhat Hanh's translation and Dr. Edward Kansa from the Diamond Sutra, which I'll read. The teaching is that this is a consequence of your own actions and it foreshortens or it makes difficult things that are going to happen to you in the future, let's say, less difficult or less consequential or less powerful. It lightens whatever is coming to you. Now, why don't we just leave that right there for a minute,

[19:21]

and I want to tell you, I just got back from a trip where I went to the East Coast. I brought my daughter to visit various colleges on the East Coast that she's interested in, and we've been planning the trip for a long time, about 6 months. We got our itinerary, all the different appointments at different schools, timed very carefully. She only had a few days off from school. We were going to see 7 schools in 5 days, renting a car, taking trains. It was a very elaborate plan, and we were really excited about it. And we were taking a red-eye flight, landing in Philadelphia, 3.10 our time, 6.10 Philadelphia time, and then heading off on this adventure together. So we get to the airport on the night we were going to leave, about 10 o'clock, and we were really excited, and we went through the machine that x-rays the luggage,

[20:24]

which was not too far away from our gate, and we came out, and both of our hand pieces, they didn't set off the machines, but they said, come over here, come over here. They had to look at our baggage, our carry-ons, and we got those back, and we headed off to the gate, and we got to the gate. You have to check in with your photo ID. I had the tickets, and I look, and I don't have my purse. I had left my purse at the conveyor belt in the x-ray machine, and I said, stay right here, and I ran, I sprinted back through the airport to the x-ray machine, whatever it's called, that machine. where all the people are checking things, and I said, I left my purse here, it's a black purse, I was here like 5 minutes ago, 4 minutes ago, and they looked in this drawer, lost and found, and nothing there, no purse. And I was, I couldn't believe it, this isn't happening to me, is what I was thinking. I remember I was like running my fingers through my hair,

[21:29]

like this can't be, it has got to be here, I was just here a few minutes ago, it's a black purse. No, no one's seen anything, they don't know anything. What I saw was that we couldn't do the trip, I had no license, no cash, no credit cards, no nothing, I had the tickets, but I didn't have anything, no photo ID, they're not going to let me on the plane, that's it, we can't go. And I was just, and there was a policeman standing there, and I went over to him and I said, I have my purse, it didn't come through, could you help me? So he went over and he asked, and he walked around, no, nothing, and it was gone. There was like, do you know that feeling where there is nothing you can do? And you can't quite believe it, I'm sure you've all experienced something like this. So the policeman walked me back to the gate

[22:32]

and there we were, and he took this police report, what time, what did I have in the purse, how much was it worth, my wallet, and all this stuff. And the gatekeeper, that's not what he's called, led us on the plane. We had $11, my daughter had $11 in her photo ID, and I had nothing. And just the week before, I had left my purse at home by mistake. When I went to pick up my youngest at school, I thought, isn't this amazing what this feels like, to not have, like I wanted to get gas. And I drove to, and I don't have a credit card, I don't have anything, I can't get gas, you know, it was kind of ha-ha-ha. So then it was for real. This was 2 weeks later, there I was. Called my husband, cancel everything, wire me money, can you wire me money in Philadelphia? There must be a Western Union at the airport or something.

[23:33]

So I left that all with him, and we got on this red-eye. I don't have to go over all the details of this trip. What happened was, at the time when I was struggling with, no, this can't be, please, this can't be, there was great misery and great, you know, suffering there that I ruined this trip for Sarah through my own inattention because I don't know what happened there at the conveyor belt. Something happened. I didn't see it. They were hustling me over to look at something else. Why didn't they let me know that it was left there or say something or, it was all, but I know that it was my inattention for just a moment and my excitement about going, and I lost my kind of clear mind. That's, you know, tracking, where's your purse, where's your this, counting the bags, you know.

[24:36]

But in that period of time where it was, this can't be, this can't be, that was great suffering and where I was believing there was some alternative, there's got to be, this can't be true, there's got to be an alternative. Right in there is great suffering when we think there's got to be, that it can't be like this. Once I kind of made the shift to this is the way it is, this is it, now this is reality, and now we go from here, it was, it flipped into okay, now it's just creative problem-solving, that's it, and getting help from people. But before that time, it was great misery and suffering and, you know, fighting and wriggling around. But once it was okay, this is life,

[25:42]

it all switched, you know. So when we believe that there's some kind of alternative to our life, you know, the way our, what causes and conditions we live in, not that we can't, you know, change our, you know, change jobs or get a new apartment, I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about feeling our life, that it's got to be some, not accepting, not accepting life as it's coming. There's great pain and struggle in there. And when you make the shift, there's solidness. So this is a kind of container also to not moving. Not moving is staying completely with the causes and conditions of your life, whatever they may be.

[26:45]

And not moving may include this revilement or insulting or unforeseen circumstances and difficulties. That's part of not moving. It's not like, well, I'll stay still and not move with my life. And then everything's going to be heavenly or groovy or something. But if we try to move from the way things are, we just get more and more embroiled and more troubles. So this case is pointing to situations where, and they're talking about when you uphold the Diamond Sutra, and the Diamond Sutra teaches the Wisdom Beyond Wisdom. It's a sutra that tries to bring forth the teaching,

[27:54]

the transcendent wisdom, the Prajnaparamita, Wisdom Beyond Wisdom. And it's the basic teaching of emptiness, which can be very hard to understand. And so when people try to teach this, when someone is trying to teach the Diamond Sutra, they may receive not support and, oh, how wonderful, and I want to hear more, and this is the greatest thing I've ever heard. They may receive revilement and disdain and insults. In fact, what the Diamond Sutra says is, this will happen if you teach the Diamond Sutra. It says if someone is reviled by others, oh, so I'm going to read the different translations. So this is the diamond that cuts through illusion. This is Thich Nhat Hanh's translation of the Diamond Sutra.

[28:56]

And in this section, it says, furthermore, Subhuti, Subhuti is one of the Buddha's disciples, if a son or daughter of good family, while reciting and practicing this sutra, is disdained or slandered, his or her misdeeds committed in past lives, including those that could bring about an evil destiny, will be eradicated, and he or she will attain the fruit of the most fulfilled awakened mind. So the case doesn't say necessarily if you're just teaching the Diamond Sutra, but if you find yourself in this situation where you're being reviled, if someone is reviled by others, you can settle yourself on the fact that there have been situations where you have not acted in a way that's been beneficial to others, you have harmed others, yourself and others,

[29:57]

you have, you know, taken what isn't given, slandered, praised self at the expense of others, gotten angry, been avaricious, whatever, whatever you, when you review your activities, you know that this is part of my life, this is part of the human life, that these things happen. And so when this insulting or reviling or disdaining or scorn comes, the container, the practice container that I've found to be very helpful is instead of thinking, oh, those people, what are they yelling at me for and they don't know anything, and to just get mad at them back or try to hurt them more, that's not moving. Excuse me, that's not moving. That's moving, trying to change things or get back at someone or blame someone else.

[30:59]

That kind of activity furthers trouble for yourself. But to have this container called all beings are supporting me by this insulting or disdaining or scorning, this will help me. And the way this case talks about it is that it will, when it talks about falling into evil ways, it means there's, you can think of this as psychological states or you can think of it as situations you might get into or you can think of it as actual rebirths if you want to, but you don't have to necessarily if you're not ready to think about it that way. You can just think about realms of, they call it the hell realms or the hungry ghost realms. You can say their names for psychological states

[32:00]

of despair, pain, suffering, fear, the animal realm. These are what they call the evil states of woe, hungry ghost, where you never get nurtured, never get enough, always wanting, wanting, wanting. Maybe you're familiar with that kind of psychological state. I know I am. Or fear, that's the animal realm. Or a hell state where you have great physical pain or mental anguish or emotional pain. So these are all states that we get into. So what this koan is pointing to and what the sutra is teaching is that this experience of being insulted or reviled is a lightening of your situation. This is actually much better than what can happen to human beings in this world, the terrible, terrible things

[33:02]

that happen to human beings. So to have someone insult you or yell at you or use abusive language is very light when you think of the range of things that happen to human beings. So this is a kind of, the word matrix means womb or container. This is like a practice matrix or a practice container where you can study, use this to study, to study yourself. And of course often our usual way is to just very quickly blame others or see how they're so stupid or whatever to talk to you like that. And it's not to be a doormat either. I'm trying to point at how we can use the Buddha Dharma that comes to us in all different ways.

[34:03]

It doesn't always come as a helpful, kind word. It may come in the form of an insult. How is that going to help you to find yourself and to study yourself more thoroughly? So this situation that happened with this purse, I found myself looking around to blame somebody like, maybe it was the x-ray people who were, it's a whole scam. They get you involved with pretending that there's something to look at in your bags because they didn't open our bags. They sort of wiped them with this funny, this cloth. I don't know. I don't know what they were doing actually. And I was totally distracted. And then they noticed I was distracted then they stole it, see. So I could concoct a whole story about how it wasn't my own inattention and my lack of tracking.

[35:06]

It was somebody else out to get me. That's moving. And that's creating a state of mind of suspicion, anger, all sorts of stuff that I feel. So coming back to placing myself in this container of how is this helping? And in the commentary for the case, it says, this is how affliction, that this is how the non-duality of affliction and enlightenment is revealed, something like that. That there is a non-duality between affliction and enlightenment. Now, some people who become sick and have a disease, a terminal illness or a chronically worsening illness, and you hear sometimes how they talk about how this illness has saved their life. I mean, it sounds paradoxical, right?

[36:09]

But they now live, they can thoroughly live each moment, appreciate each day, each of their loved ones, because they're not fooling around anymore. There is not time to fool around anymore. Life is passing. And so this illness, supposed illness, has become their occasion, their conditioning matrix of full awareness of their life. So is this affliction? Is this a disease? Or is this their enlightenment? Their full living every moment, finally, as their body disintegrates, as all of ours are, and maybe theirs is going at a faster rate, the changes. So the non-duality of affliction and enlightenment is what this is pointing to. And I think our tendency, my tendency is to separate those two.

[37:10]

There's affliction over here, bad things happen, and then there's some state we're trying to get to that's where we'll be clear and it will be clarified. But the two are actually non-dual, so each thing that comes to you is an occasion. Now, I have found this to be exceedingly helpful, this particular container that the revilement and the insults and the disdain are actually foreshortening or lightening up what's coming to me. I find that a very helpful... And it too is empty, meaning, you know, that concept that I just... or that story or that container, if you can use it, then please use it and keep it well and use it well. If you don't need it, then don't hold on to it.

[38:14]

Then it's like an extra vase in your cupboard or something. But if you can use it, if you can remember it while you're being cut off on the freeway, that's for your benefit. That's so you can practice patience, loving kindness, calm mind, finding your composure right on the spot there on the freeway when you're late to work or whatever. That's all beings coming forward to support you. That's how beings support you. It comes in all kinds of ways. It's not how you want it. You know? So... So this is ways to study the self. I... I wanted to read Dr. Kansa's translation of that same little section. His is a little bit different.

[39:15]

It says... And yet, Sabuti... Right before this section it says when you're teaching the Diamond Sutra that spot of earth is worthy of worship by the whole world. The spot of earth where the Diamond Sutra is being taught and worthy of circumambulation and it's this marvelous spot. And yet, Sabuti, those sons and daughters of good family who will take up these very sutras and will bear them in mind, recite and study them, they will be humbled, well humbled they will be. And why? The impure deeds which these beings have done in their former lives and which are liable to lead them into the states of woe in this very life they will by means of that humiliation annul those impure deeds of their former lives and they will reach the enlightenment of the Buddha. So he says, you know, humbled, well humbled they will be by... I guess other people will humble them

[40:20]

and then... I actually don't equate humiliation and humbleness, but anyway by means of this humiliation or being brought low you will purify these impure deeds and will attain full enlightenment. So it's for your benefit. Isn't that a great container to have? I mean, for me it's so... it goes so against kind of the ways of the world. And when I was on this trip, I happened to be in these hotels and also at my parents' house and I turned on and saw this show. I don't have a TV at my house called The Jerry Springer Show. Do you know the show? For those of you who don't know, I wasn't familiar with this. It's a show where people are brought on to basically yell at each other and swear at each other about certain wrongs

[41:20]

that have been done to them with an audience and then at the end Jerry Springer gives a little Dharma talk about... which actually was pretty good about kindness and understanding and stuff. So that was very interesting at the end. But basically watching people... I think they're probably for the showmanship of it they're encouraged to probably go all out. But I think there's also a lot of anger there. So somebody yells at you, you yell back and louder and swear more. And one section was just all beeping. I didn't hear anything. It just must have been all expletives because they didn't have any sound. It was just beep, beep, beep. And then the bodyguards or some strong-armed people keep them from getting at each other's throats. And it's... Have a lot of you seen the show? Yeah, it's fascinating. It really was. So to actually... what would it be like

[42:21]

if someone comes on and does this whole insulting thing and to receive that with 9 bows? This is a bodhisattva who has come to help me develop my patience, my clarity of mind, my calmness, all the virtues, all the human virtues. Here they are in front of me to help me, to support me, to practice and develop. That's the container that I'm offering this. And try it. I have personally found it to be very, very helpful. So while I was... After we visited the schools, which was wonderful, and the East Coast was very beautiful, the leaves were turning and we drove through the countryside to one school and another. Then my daughter flew back here, and I flew to see my parents who are in a assisted living situation in St. Paul, Minnesota,

[43:22]

and it happened to be Yom Kippur the day after I got there. My background is Jewish background, and my mother... I hadn't been to temple for... Yom Kippur is the day of atonement, at-one-ment, the day where you try to review basically your past karma. Karma means actions. You look at the actions of body, speech and mind for the past year and admit kind of how you've been. And then there's asking, I guess asking for forgiveness and reviewing. You spend the day basically fasting and reviewing your own actions. So it's a wonderful day to set aside. I hadn't been to services at least 30 years, I think, probably something like that.

[44:23]

And my mother, who's not doing all that well, we went to temple together, and it was really kind of wonderful to be at the temple that I had grown up in, and things had changed. There's now a husband and wife rabbi who lead the congregation, and there's a woman cantor, the one who leads the singing with a beautiful voice that just, the music just transported me. I really, I just went, she just carried me up. Really, the music was so wonderful. She'd just had a baby the week before, and she was just singing, just oh. And then the cantor that I had grown up with was there too. He's 80, and his voice, just to hear that voice that was so old from my childhood really with these familiar strains of this beautiful music. So just the experience of that was wonderful, and the service itself

[45:25]

I found very interesting, especially the kind of enumeration of very particular ways in which we, I was kind of translating a little bit into how one breaks the precepts with body, speech, and mind. There was one where it said when you get angry at someone for doing those very things that you yourself tend to do, and I thought about my way that I don't keep my desk neat, but then I want my kids to keep their rooms all clean. Meanwhile, my desk is piling up. And it was just details like that, enumerating, and the practice, the rabbis were, after they would see each one, they would hit their chest, you know, what's that called? They were breast-beat, you know. And it wasn't a big emotional kind of wild thing,

[46:26]

but just their heart, you know. So it was useful to kind of see how, and then at the end, there was a very similar thing to what I'm talking about, which was if you basically admit and through your own acts of, I think it was charity, prayer, and I don't know, three words that were from that tradition, if you, from now on, if you have vowed that these were your actions and then vowed to do, to be more, have more clarity about your life and do what you know is, what is your real deep intention, this will modify these past deeds that you've already done. This will lighten them. So it was similar,

[47:26]

a similar feeling that through your own actions, this isn't like set in stone. You can, through your own actions of today, from now on, change things. So while I was there, my dad, who had a stroke and is in a wheelchair now, and for those of you who know about strokes, sometimes the life of the person changes quite a bit. So he's very different than he used to be. He had, he was chilly and he wanted me to help him get a sweater. One half of his body is pretty much paralyzed, his right arm completely and the right side of his, just fully the right side, his leg. So he asked me to get him a sweater to put on and so I got him the sweater

[48:28]

and no, not that one, and I want this one, and really abrupt, and then I didn't know how to, it was a long-sleeved sweater, how to get it on. Do you get it on the good arm first and then the arm that doesn't work or do you start with the... I really didn't know how to do it because I haven't really taken care of his body in this new way. And he got very angry. What are you doing? Stand over there! Get over here! No, not that arm, you stupid! How stupid! No, it's, what do you, don't you know anything? And just like that for quite a while. And I, you know, received this and I said, I don't know how to help you. If you tell me what I can do, I will do it, but I don't know. And then afterwards I got very emotional, you know,

[49:30]

and crying, and I mean, just not sobbing or anything, just tears coming. And then a little later he apologized for yelling at me, but what came up was this, when one is reviled and insulted and disdained and scorned, this is for me to practice and this will help me, you know. That's what arose for me during that. And it was very, it was emotional and it was not easy and, you know, it comes out of our relationship, it comes out of his illness and so on and so forth. But this container is what came up for me to practice with. So at one moment,

[50:37]

we can sometimes say that there's one precept and the one precept is to study the self, to study the self and the sermon for the service at Temple was the husband rabbi gave the sermon this time for that service, was the fact that in this day and age, he was talking about the Jewish congregation is the most educated than it's ever been in the history of the Jewish people. More people have access to, you know, learning and higher education and so forth. And it's the age at which the fewest people are studying the tradition. So there's this dichotomy between, in this tradition anyway, of the number of people who are very well educated

[51:38]

and yet have chosen not to study their tradition. And he was encouraging people to take up the studies and they were offering various adult education classes and he was saying how exciting it was to sit together with others and look at the teachings and discuss and argue and talk and wanting people to come and do it, you know. And that just reminded me of this one precept, the one precept to study the self, which is endless. It doesn't take a special study group to do it. It takes our own turning towards what our deepest intention is, which is to, well, we each have to look at what our most deepest intention is, but to realize our true nature and maybe one's deepest intention.

[52:42]

And to start by studying the self and everything that comes to you, revelment, having your purse stolen, wonderful fall days, whatever comes to you, is an opportunity to study the self. And as you all know, the Dogon says to study the self is to forget the self, and that means to drop away self-clinging and to drop away wanting things for you in opposition to things for others, to forget the self or to drop self-clinging. And when you drop self-clinging, then you're enlightened by the myriad things. Then everything is an opportunity for enlightenment, whatever it is. So I was going to tell the kids one more story, but I'll tell it to you.

[53:44]

It's very short. It's a Russian tale. Once upon a time, there was a farmer who got a big, beautiful stallion, and all the village people said, Oh, what good fortune! And he said, We'll see. And then a couple weeks later, the stallion ran away. Oh! And the villagers said, Oh, what bad fortune! And he said, We'll see. About a week or so later, the stallion returned, bringing a whole kind of little herd of other horses along with it. And the villagers said, Oh, what good fortune! And the farmer said, We'll see. And the next day, his son tried to ride one of these new horses, fell off, and broke his leg. And the villagers said, Oh, what terrible fortune! And he said, We'll see. A couple days later, the tsar sent his recruiting soldiers, army, to come in, and they gathered up

[54:45]

all the able-bodied young men, but they left the son with a broken leg. And the villagers said, Oh, what good fortune! And the farmer said, We'll see. And so on and so forth. So this attitude, this kind of attitude of We'll see, to me, is like the attitude of not moving. It's not like, Woo-hoo! How great! How fabulous! Or how terrible! It's just each thing, each thing comes, we study each thing, and we see. And we see. Thank you very much. May our intention be... May our intention be...

[55:48]

So again, everyone. So does anyone have anything they'd like to talk about? Yes, Laura. Uh, Linda, when you say that a difficult situation for the Russian people is not resolved, has worked well, or is healthy later on, do you mean in the sense that it calls forth the strengths in you that you've never had, or if you look at it in the right way, it helps you develop so that when those other difficult times come, you're more prepared to deal with them? I'm not quite sure how that works. Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, um... The teaching of karma is really, um... It's complex, you know, and it's all these causes and conditions working kind of at once.

[56:50]

So I think it... There's a tendency to kind of have a reductionist kind of way of thinking, you know, like... or fundamentalist or something. So, for example, um... If you do something that's harmful, but in a life that's basically working for others, beneficial, and so forth, that act, the description is like throwing a chunk of salt like into the ocean or something. It doesn't make that much difference, one act within the context of a life led with awareness and beneficial actions. But that same act done by someone who's, um... pretty, um... you know, pushed around by their emotions and lashing out

[57:50]

and, you know, lying and da-da-da-da-da. They do that, and they may really get in big trouble for it, you know, whereas someone else may feel very forgiving to this person. They can forgive and they understand it's okay. That other person, like, that's the last straw, you know, and they're kicked out or I don't know, I'm just... So it's a very... It's just complex, you know, it's your whole... So in this teaching, I feel like, um... we receive the fruit of our actions. There's consequences to our actions that we receive either immediately... I mean, the teaching of karma is you get it immediately, you get it, um... a little bit later, and a long time later. So... And the longer it takes for it to ripen, the fruit of your actions, the stronger and more dire it is in terms of unwholesome actions.

[58:54]

So what this teaching says is that it foreshortens that, this situation where you're being insulted and all that is a kind of mild thing that where the fruit of your actions comes to you sooner, which is lighter in terms of heavy and light. So... if you understand it in that way, if you lash back and get mad and have a whole big messy brawl with somebody who's treating you a certain way, let's say, then it's just creating more. But if you understand it in that way that we've been talking about, then the teaching is that it changes those ones that are ripening over time, brings them faster, and lightens it all up. So... Does that answer what you're saying? I think that was kind of the question for me

[59:56]

of people who are treated with revulsion and injustice because of prejudice or, you know, through no fault of their own. Yes. And I wonder sometimes if the teaching of karma comes out of this caste system in India that allows people to treat people poorly and base it on that, you know, those lower castes, castes that actually increase life when actually it was a system of injustice that killed people essentially. Yes. I don't think the teaching came out of the caste system. I think the caste system took the teaching to justify its own uncompassionate way of treating people. So I think that's one of the problems with this particular teaching is there's a tendency to use it to justify injustice. Well, of course, that's their karma. You know, you've heard that. Well, they... Rather than

[60:57]

living for the benefit of beings now, I mean, you can't... It's not up to you to say how it is that this person got in this circumstance. You just help them. And I think there's also the teaching of collective karma, like the environmental things. So it's a very complex teaching, really. I think it's a simple teaching in some ways, just you receive the fruit of your action, but there's also the ways in which that all interacts and also the collective karma of a nation or something and environment. But I think you're very right about how it's misused and perverted, actually, I think, how that teaching gets perverted for keeping the status quo and blaming people, like blaming the victim. I think there's a way that it gets turned rather than, you know,

[62:04]

acting for the benefit of people right now, not saying, well, that's an excuse not to act to help them. Yeah. Yes, Mark. Hi. You know, I found that in my life, if something keeps on repeating itself like a cycle, and it creates suffering for myself, and if I resist it, or blame other people, or draw on it when it's there, it just keeps on happening. And what seems to be helpful is if I'm able to just be with it and to really acknowledge it, take responsibility for it at that time, and not resist it, push it away, and it seems to lighten up. I hope. Are you thinking of a particular example? I can't think of anything specifically. Just in general. Yeah.

[63:06]

I think what you're talking about is like being upright or not moving, you know, and studying it rather than the tendency to do something, change it, make it, da-da-da, you know. But there's also a danger there, and I just wanted to point it out. Maybe you've all picked up on it too. It isn't, this teaching isn't an excuse for not acting when what needs to happen is an action. It doesn't mean passivity. I'm not talking about be passive, that's the way to go. If there are times to be active and there are times to be, there's no formula that we're putting out here. It's this studying what's happening to see what is the beneficial action of this moment. So, but often there's a habitual tendency to want to blame, like want to look outside and make it be them who did it or it's their fault. So your practice of,

[64:09]

sounds like kind of slowing down and staying with it, feeling whatever it is, actually that practice tends to weaken the pattern. It's a new element of practice mind in there that weakens the old pattern. Yeah? Your talk today made me think a lot about patterns and what happens to me everywhere. I know for myself that when something bad happens I might go into a certain way of responding that feels very familiar but it's very hard to stop myself from responding whether it's spiraling or thinking of the worst thing. And I was just wondering, like I was driving here today and the person in front of me was driving very slowly and I was starting to tailgate and I remember going, I better slow down because they might go into the green car. And that might not be the best way to get myself

[65:12]

to do it differently but I don't know if there are things that, I mean it's almost like I have to tell myself something and maybe I'll get a, you know, it'll come from a different mode of next time. Well, I think you're exactly right. We have ways of reminding ourselves certain things like, I think that's a very good one, like oh, they might be sitting next to me in lecture and I've just sort of, you know, I had this relationship with them all the way down the twisty road and it's going to feel lousy so I'll give them a little space. Of course, it's the same with anybody, you know, wherever you're driving, they could be your, you know, marrying your cousin or, you know, you never know what, so you, or they could be the Buddha, right? I mean, that's one of the ways that kind of a traditional way of you treat everyone like Buddha. So what if this is Buddha driving in this slow boat

[66:13]

to China in front of me, you know? I mean, it's a way to help yourself kind of remind yourself of how you actually want to be. So I don't think of that as, I think that's exactly the kind of practices, myriads of practices that there are little things like that. Oh, here's the Buddha in front of me driving very slowly and mindfully well, right? And if that helps you to not tailgate, and then eventually what you said of it coming from another place, you know, the more we remind ourselves, it's like when I said you don't need the container anymore, you know, you can put it with your other vases. It's like that. That's just how you are, you know, where you actually transform, you know, into a person who leaves enough space in front because that's how you are. That's how you want to live and that's how you live. You don't have to you don't need the raft

[67:16]

or the container to kind of remind yourself. so yeah, I mean that's what monastery living is like. It's all geared to remind you to practice, you know, the altars in front of the bathrooms and the chanting and the stepping over the, you know, the way to enter the zendo. Do you know how the traditional way is to enter the zendo? You step in with the foot closest to the door jam rather than the center of the door. So if if we've got these two doors, if this door is open you step in with your right foot closer to this side and when you step out it's the left foot. That's the practice and it's not like one foot is better than the other or the door jam is better than the middle. It's a mindfulness practice so you're present and you watch people, they get to the door and they do this little two-step and they remember oh, this is how we enter. So you can watch people kind of gathering their mind. I sit facing out

[68:17]

on this corner seat and I get this view of how people enter the zendo, you know. So, so that's where a practice center is set up to help you to practice in all these ways and then you can help yourself outside of the practice. You just carry the monastery walls with you with other ways of reminding yourself until it's just gets to be how you are. Yeah. Yeah. Hi. I have a kind of puzzling family interaction that I have. I never felt quite clear about what, why, how it could be. I went to college when I was just barely 17 and I didn't see living or near my parents for the next 40 years. So I think it's a huge and then 40 years later my mother

[69:18]

needed to be near a lot of the family so I entered into the next apartment that I was going to and so we had to get two apartments on the top of the mountain. So she stayed there for nine years until she died and well it was for a lot of difficulty because it was we were very different types of people. We had gotten along very well when I was a little girl but there's a lot of she was kind of on a childish emotional level in terms of some of the interactions and those conflicts with my father particularly. She screamed. So of course she was very accepting of transition and she followed her usual habits which was kind of hard but she you know she really when we talked about

[70:19]

it she made an effort to be more positive and not to be so negative. Well she made a real effort and was very concerned that somebody in there would see her and would blow her back and scream at me in heat and rage for years and I you know felt to some extent I could understand why she was doing that. A lot of pain and a lot of loss. She says that you know there was not as much closeness between us as she would have liked because there was a difference basically in her personality. So I didn't interact I mean I didn't react to this. Generally I would leave as

[71:19]

soon as I could and she got over these things very rapidly. I don't think she apologized but she just left right away as if nothing had happened you know. The thing that puzzled me you know I felt that I dealt with this as well as I could probably sometimes a little too coldly and actually she wanted more emotional interaction but it grew to be more positive and many fewer comfort but I never could quite understand how somebody who really loves you could scream at you with hate real hate and rage and I was so puzzled about that. I don't I don't know if you know well

[72:20]

I guess my understanding is that they do come up together you know I mean it's almost like if you were indifferent and didn't really care you wouldn't the anger wouldn't it wouldn't you couldn't get that excited about it you know so because often I mean other people can join in on this I'm sure you're familiar with it because you love someone so much they can get to you equal to like a tree you know as whatever you see on top is underneath you know the roots and the crown is equal so equal to that love is the possibility of being hurt or the possibility of being angry at that person I think it does it does now

[73:28]

unconditional love I think is or maybe I should say the love that understands that there is no self and other I think that like the prashna paramita that love breaks open it's not dualistic it's non-dual and so it doesn't constellate it's opposite in that way it's because there is no opposite self and other are seen as are understood as not two not one not two so I'm not talking about that exactly anyway maybe others have something to add to this yes last time I went

[74:36]

to see him he didn't want to see me the first day he wanted to see me and the second day he told me to go away and I started crying and the people working there said well he gets that way sometimes he's on antidepressant drugs and I thought well of course he's on antidepressants you know his face his face reality was depressed but and then the head of our lady called me where I was and said you know I'm sorry I'm back but my question is that I didn't know how to I don't know how to tell him not to be so angry I mean I understand why he's angry tell me what you yeah well my feeling about angry people is that it other than anger that is the appropriate action for that moment for the benefit of others which you know

[75:36]

I'm not not to say that you have to see in the circumstances whether that anger is appropriate meaning it's not real anger doesn't come out of maliciousness or hate it comes out of what is beneficial way to be right now and you have a harsh word or whatever and there is that kind of anger that occurs but I don't I call it's not anger in the way we think of it it's but anyway I feel like that kind of behavior if you want to call it that treating other people that way comes out of once the person suffering and unhappiness it comes out of that a person who is happy contented at peace unless there's some medication thing or something that makes the moods go haywire the brain chemistry you know yeah so if it's brain chemistry

[76:37]

you know what can I say that may just be those causes and conditions which causes yells to come out you know but basically the person is an unhappy person you know they are much more unhappy than the person they're yelling at although the person does get feel feels it it's not a it's not like you're stoned or something you feel it and yet to get angry back someone I don't know if they're in the audience but they came up at tea to say that they were just a couple days ago they were in Chicago they got their wallet stolen and they were also taking care of their dying uncle who in the last day or couple hours he was feeding him and his uncle got extremely angry at him for feeding him wrong you know and his reaction he said he wished he had heard the lecture then

[77:38]

because he got really angry at his uncle here I imagine he was thinking here I am traveling half across the country to be with you on your death bed in your you know but you know the person themselves is it's out of their unhappiness and unrest and unresolved feelings so with when you understand that where does your anger do you have anger then for them you know I think often anger and you all know this probably is a quick cover to feeling hurt you know it hurts to be yelled at by your dying uncle who you care about and travel all over to see your father your mother it really hurts or your children or your friends it really hurts but we don't want to stay with the hurt or the pain of it and so it's very

[78:38]

easy to do anger on top because we get a lot of energy from anger the adrenaline flows we can do stuff we can write letters we cannot talk to them you know and then we're kind of we feel kind of solid again you know but if you can stay with that initial feeling which is pain that comes along with the harsh words that you feel and if you can just stay with it it washes you're actually washed clean in some way you feel it completely and there's no the anger does not you don't need the anger you're just you're you're alive and it goes through you and this is my experience uh-huh yeah yeah let's see Paula

[79:38]

and then two comments when we were speaking a few weeks ago and I said to you I felt like the emotion I was describing I suddenly realized was like a big chunk of velcro and any sort of incident or human being in the past I could attach to the emotion and to me that's exactly what you were saying that inside those what helps me and as I said to you only when it doesn't matter um what helps me is to remember that that that they have anger and I just happen to be floating by and if I happen to have the compatible thing for the velcro to attach to it's gonna hurt me if I'm Teflon and the velcro can't attach it's still gonna hurt them but it's not gonna hurt me because they will experience me as

[80:38]

Teflon um it may hurt you but it will be it'll be the pain of having someone be angry rather than your own anger that hurts them of knowing how they feel inside rather than my personal to the extent that one builds up one's skill level initially you're hurt personally the better you get yeah the more you're just hurt because they're in such torment yeah I think that's maybe the bodhisattva you know you hurt because they hurt and you're unhappy because any if any being is left unhappy goodbye you're welcome uh you feel it and you don't really rest until you can help you know that's um but I love that image

[81:39]

don't you love that image of the velcro you know it's like if you're not if you're velcro and they're velcro and you you just but if you're you have this then it doesn't they can be how they are and you're you can be there but it doesn't do that thing where you're locked in it you know yeah and the other thing with regard to uh I have more trouble doing this with adults or you know depends on my degree of attachment but um one of the do things in family situations it seems to me sometimes if someone in your family gets angry at you and they don't blow like that out in the world in most of their encounters sometimes in addition to the fact that that's where you push everybody the button all the time it's it's a compliment because they feel safe doing that maybe your mother could never get angry at

[82:39]

people maybe she could but some people I the only reason I bring it up is my niece and my nephew were dramatically different people at birth just they were just so different and and my niece was one who always sees the world as a difficult place and my nephew doesn't and Kate was very difficult to deal with as a child yet out in the world she was quite skillful in a healthy sort of way but made life miserable for her parents and I came to see it as the place she was safe for her to express all her fear and confusion and then it would let her go out and she wouldn't do that in places she didn't feel safe and as a grown up she doesn't do that anymore so whether that's just a fantasy on my part or a way to help

[83:39]

look at it sometimes I think you can see it as a compliment they're not they feel safe enough to do that with you well I think that's true like in my dad's case they're the people who help him address him and do that he doesn't do that with him because he he depends on them in a certain way but he takes it out on my mother and me so I think there is that I don't I don't know about a compliment if I um I think it's um I think it's too bad actually because there's a kind of poisonous quality to it um and when you see that it doesn't have to be that way because these other people are treated seem to be there's restraint and kind words and so um it's a certain kind of taking for granted I think and feeling safe too you know they're not going to leave them but I

[84:40]

think it's unfortunate um well we'll see if it's unfortunate it's it will help my mother and me practice very hard that's all I mean in terms of bodhisattva activity that this container you know of my dad is now this bodhisattva who will force me to really practice hard I can't just sort of bumble along because it uh it gets too intense you know so that that's a container to look at it and if that's helpful to me I can feel it's helpful I don't know how helpful it is to my mom because she's anyway she's got another way of dealing with it right did that person who's going to ask a question leave or she did oh okay so I don't know who was next go ahead I have you were talking about walking to

[85:41]

and sticking up I'm looking for I have to find a tool for myself to help I know it's anger is coming mainly always the same thing like for example in this situation looking at the root education talking to people to see the root what's happening then I'm in trouble if I'm looking like solving from the root rather than just looking at what's happening right now Hillary Clinton and then always I'm going to or with a least problem or always I'm going in trouble no matter what situation I have I feel I see more people they agree to each other than me and I'm thinking okay when something is happening a good question has

[86:41]

been raised right now we have this problem not only these two people really everybody is pointing their finger to them we have this problem all over in the world but problem like I have is I shouldn't look at what is really war it's power it's money it's what she would like the attitude of this whole thing is happening therefore I'm looking for myself to see more humble in my own belief that the belief I have to help people they really need to help them I'm not defending them totally in the right direction that's something I'm so confused in this whole situation

[87:42]

and that I have been dealing with this same situation for many years with the revolution that is happening in the United States that I'm still in the same place I'm still defending or just have feelings a lot of feelings but the root problem was happening yeah well I'm not sure I understood everything you said but it sounds like your tendency is to look at the deepest part of it and then feeling like you maybe can't get at that or change that and the frustration around that and not feeling maybe other people are working in a different way than you are and not feeling integrated or something I do feel like you know when we look

[88:42]

at the world's problems and these situations it feels so vast it's so overwhelming that you almost sometimes feel like you just want to lie down and sleep or something you know but for me it kind of boils down to the study of the self actually you know that one has to start somewhere and you have to start with your own attitudes and your own actions and your own thinking you know body speech and mind how is it that that's where I start and then you know the world um and all its problems and Clinton and all his problems and all the problems you know you can

[89:43]

to me um there's some kind of clarity more clarity about what's going on so one can't skip over one's own uh state of mind contribution of of our own actions words and thinking um trying to work outside without starting here so anyway I I don't know if that speaks to what you were saying exactly but uh you know this um this diamond sutra teaches the um it has the emptiness teaching and the the emptiness teaching is basically that everything is codependently

[90:44]

arising everything is interdependent with everything else there are no separate like little pieces that are you know over there that sort of arose and have something to do with just themselves and that we're not connected the the teaching is that it is totally irrevocably interconnected and because it's interconnected you are not separate you are completely supported and uh so when you look at the world's problems you know or our political problems that are going on right now there is a connection we're all involved in this you can't sort of set it out as oh them and all their stuff you know we all are involved completely so and that's a kind of humbling you know that's and uh it's not

[91:46]

only humbling it drops this praising self at the expense of others that where I'm sort of above all that or I'm that's not me or you're all this way this teaching of the emptiness of self meaning the interdependence of self empty of separate self um you know you end up feeling compassion you know rather than derision and compassion for the whole mess you know that's what gets engendered and I think that's a very useful um place to start rather than anger or blame or to start with compassion for these beings and then how do you work to benefit um I'm coming out of a

[92:46]

tradition where um people would get angry at me and I would not get angry back but my my patterns of just not react and um coming out

[94:31]

of this training of not reacting and only being there listening I think I'm noticing now that I have limits and if I go past the limits I'm not getting angry at them but I'm myself going down and I'm getting depressed yes yes yes

[94:47]

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