Wednesday Lecture

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SF-03612
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it's really would
well it's getting darker and darker and darker
until we get to the solstice which yes
not too far away

and this is the time of year when people all of the world i wanna bring light it's getting so dark that they want to bring some light into their lives
in southern as festivals the as festivals of light
and right now this is the fourth night of hanukkah
which is also called the festival light
hence our festival of freedom to

so i don't know how many of you are familiar with the holiday what it's all about but it commemorates
yeah an event that happened in one hundred and seventy b c which was right around the time when the pressure per meter ah was being ah
was first coming forth
in india
and the greeks and the
jews were
then i had a big site
and the yeah

the m
ah
at the end of the site the cooper kind of guerrilla warfare people named the maccabees are one and they wanted to re step we enter the temple
ah and light a light called the eternal light that's usually burning in the temple
and the only had oil for one day
but
for some reason the oil lasted for eight days you know look like there has just enough for one day it kept burning for eight days and so they they said a miracle happened here a miracle happen here which
the first letter of that sentence in hebrew those letters are on a toy called the adrenal that's played during this time of year during this holiday
and those four letters it's a gambling game you either lose ah
when half of the pot when all of the pot or get another turn anyway those four letters mean a miracle happened here so it commemorates app
and it's it's a kind of minor how the but it sir it's a joyous one it's one of the only festivals that goes on in the winter
so what about these miracles a miracle happened they aren't miracles happen anymore
any miracles happen we are patent class on monday night where we were talking about the heart sutra and the mantra that comes at the end gatti gatti para gente para some get a body spa ha and yeah i thought
rather lively discussion
about
mantra and magic and
the efficacy of saying such syllable sam
this buddhism is their magic and good a similar as data
strange ah
addition that's not really part of the real thing can email us i appreciated the class which everyone talked for me because my mind had been totally obliterate it for the last week or so so everybody just completely taught the class
in tati tenor disgust
whether ah
a miracle happens or what is magic
till the word miracle ah
of the word miracle it means something now you know outside of natural law or
something that you're astonished by
and it also means
but one of the roots means to smile
so that that's in the yeah kind of embedded in the definition of miracle is something that makes you smile
well if you put it that way
our miracles happening to miracles happen nowadays
also
in the word miracle one of the root of the the word mirror comes from the same thing
and you can see how that would be to look at something with astonishment to gaze at something with attention and to be mirrored or look in a mere
there's some
there's a mirror in one of in this car this and maybe some of you have the same kind of mere and etched on the mirror it says
a buddhist teaching it's as objects in mirror are closer than they appear
have you ever seen that if you read them
i sit on the passenger side which is where it's written in our current i've often looked at that and thought what anything what are they trying to tell me objects in the mirror are closer than they appear
and i think that's what buddhism teaches about objects
ah what are objects what what his mind and objects or a subject and object
that was my question to norman last week to what are mind what is what his mind what is the buddhist teaching of mind and objects objects in the mirror are closer than they appear
and i got a wonderful chance to work with that this last week because i had a whopping case as most of you know of poison oak
and
so so there i was having various sensations which we talked about in the heart sutra class trying to get the scandals in view and ah
remove the the notion of an eye or a person and just look at the scandalous the flowing five aggregates are heaps that makes up
what we call i or what we call our psychophysical personality stream
so it's a very good exercise for be and
ah as someone said you've lost but yeah the am
the competition or i don't know what it was but
so the poison oak the on the sensations of the poison oak were extremely strong oh and the kind of although it wasn't life threatening a i mentioned to someone today it was not this is not a life threatening disease at least this case maybe there are cases that are
so there was no fear that i was going to lose my life or
there was just
plain torment was just torment and
those of you have had it know that
it's it's maybe or for me it was it's easier to work with other kinds of pain than this particular kind of pain which was
seem to cry out for something to relieve it
that would be even some stronger more severe pain than what or discomfort than what was going on already so
i wanted to
well actually when do you issue here when he told me in appalachia the care for boys noga what they do is dump the person and clorox has called white magic
and i when she told me i thought oh that would have been perfect you know something searing and burning and more intense and that would relieve the pain
ah but i didn't know about white magic and so
we didn't try that but that's that's another kind of magic is a white magic but wanting to scald you know to have something scalding and
so this is some this is not so unusual actually when we have emotional pain or trauma we often
in a confused way i think want to do something that will be even more painful to ourselves to obliterate
the mental or emotional pain that we have already we want to annihilate
and obliterate and one can do various
extreme things to oneself in order to
which seems like being relieved from the pain but it just causes more pain of other types and can be harmful to oneself
but i really understood with them and is poison hook how one would seek for something even worse as relief it sounds
unusual but i don't cook gets all that unusual
so mind and objects
the buddhist teaching of mind in objects is that
mind and up the quiet look at the quiet peaceful mind of mind and objects
the buddhist mind of mind and objects
there's not really a problem with mine and objects
there actually quiet and peaceful just the way they are
and yet
we
and i am not settled there this is an unusual thing to think that that's quiet and peaceful mind and objects as quiet and peaceful how could it possibly be it's it's greed hate delusion it's thirst and craving in torment that's what it is that's
mine in objects is isn't it
how can there be quiet and peacefulness around mine and objects
objects in the mirror are closer than they appear
the buddhist teaching of objects the mirror are closer than they appear is pointing to the fact that mind in objects are not
separate
thinks this is the buddhist mind and the buddhist find his mind and objects quiet and peaceful
jessamyn now meyerhoff the other day showed my daughter a transfer a ticket for you know for a bus bus transfer and it said void if did
attached
and she thought that was also a wonderful buddhist teaching
so the girls told me about that i had to put into the lecture but that's true void you know sometimes emptiness is translated as the boy you know so
if one is detached from mine and objects then that understanding of emptiness
comes from this detachment
avoid a detached
so everything in the world is helping us there's not one single
thing that's outside of buddhists activity that's helping us all the world is helping us even the poison oak and i
ah
i am
that's like good news you know i want to hear about that
but the mind need some kind of training them i need some kind of training to accept this this it doesn't it's not so easy to accept this at face value that everything in the world is helping you that everything whatever happens is just the unfolding of buddha's mind
the way
this
this is not easily ah
accepted
little by little little by little we can take the sin and settle
so so anyway this feeling of being obliterated and and also preparing for this top feeling
there was nothing this is what happens when you're sick or ah emotionally distraught are there's some problem you you feel love you can feel like you've got nothing there to work with them or to come forward with you know
so
i was happy on on monday when the class was taught by everyone else could just let that happen and because so
this feeling of allowing things to come forward and
realize themselves
there's a kind of rest there like listening to some wonderful music
pet sure you don't you know it maybe a little bit but you don't know it really really well so you listen attentively and the music kind of comes forward and reveals itself for you
have been reading this
book called the to in the lotus about
a group of rabbis and jewish scholars who went to visit the dalai lama in dharamsala maybe some of you have read it or looked at it it's it's a good read it dumb person wrote it
if he carries you along the narrative moves for a nicely
and they had a big discussion on the way to dem saal about also about miracles and
a magic and even what to call the dalai lama should we call his holiness what does that mean how could a human being be called his holiness so there was long debates about what to call the dalai lama
and also when they spoke with him
ah
there was a variety of traditions that were assembled in the room and
one person spoke at length about
very emotional are spiritually
wow fervent way of practicing judaism and some of the other people from slightly different from other traditions were embarrassed you know it was embarrassing to hear about this site which is
he didn't know so much about it talking about angels the whole tradition of angels and all these angels that support everything we do this is all within the jewish tradition it's not talked about and so much i never heard about it and that that's what one of these rabbi said
ed some of us have heard this for the first time that the dalai lama's very interested in angels wanted to hear all about the different varieties and levels and
so in this tradition in the tradition that i grew up in ah
it was it would be embarrassing to be really fervently interested in
practicing strongly
the religion i didn't really know anybody and scholars and i knew
ah people who did good works and donated to worthy causes and
but i didn't really know anyone who was filled with thumb
with the equivalent word of the dharma you know
this is embarrassing
how can i find just talking about it i feel slightly embarrassed eight i know that in the diversity workshop
when now for those of us who are here for that when we're young
all those who are who are from jewish backgrounds please cross to the other side of the room
that was
unusual in a zen center context for me to be separated out as someone who's from a jewish background
and i know and zen center just like any other place in the world there's anti-semitism men sexism men
racism and all the all the isms that one can find anywhere else you can find at san center it's this place is not immune ah
and i experienced instances of this here
so i realize as i'm talking i'm sort of hesitating to wow
delineate myself in a certain way that might ah
because for someone setting up a certain idea you know or
that's that's interesting in terms of exposing oneself you know exposing oneself to the golden wind exposing oneself to the saga
hey
so we need to train our mind this is you know we call this practice period we always called practice period here the for longtime least called training period are you going down for training period and we dropped that usage ah
while back i think people had some association with training like military if they didn't like
so we say practice period but we are mind needs training in order to help
can learn how to take care of ourselves
ah when mind and objects
our intense and painful and emotional we may actually realized we don't know how to take care of ourselves we we actually don't know what to do
and maybe by this time we've learned if we go this way it's gonna be big trouble if we try to obliterate or intensify so much
for relief it's not going to work but then what do you do if you don't do that turning away and touching are both wrong if you don't touch the fire for relief but you don't want to turn away because you're going to get to
cold what do you do
he don't know what to do
often so the the buddhist teaching of our mindfulness
here's a book called the miracle of mindfulness what happens when we actually begin to pay attention to our emotional states
to our our tendencies and propensities and
with courage with heart with wholeheartedness take care of that which is before us
take care of it rather than try to obliterate or
kid ourselves
when it becomes more and more and more subtle the way in which we try to obliterate or it may not be some big intense but the am
but the more we pay attention the more we see that the hair's breadth deviation will fail to accord with the proper to you know that we say that ah
a hair's breadth deviation
is enough
so we go from big giant swings you know when we take our pasture we i'm swing way over to the right way over the left and back and forth and back and forth
come to rest smack dab in the middle with her two little sitting bones like two little feet or even
an upright and this posture
this courageous posture because it does take heart courage comes from the word quarry hurt it takes hard to sit in upright posture it takes whole hardness you can't sit upright
without heart without courage
so we sit upright
smack dab
and this ah
and this is this is a miracle you know this was a it's
this is astonishing
first of all it's astonishing that
out of all the things that we could have heard about the whole entire universe we did happen to hear about upright sitting
this is this is astonishing
many people might hear about it but they've actually to try it out we're just talking about all the people he gives us an instruction to every weekend all the people that toss to her every every summer day there's twenty five thirty five people were thousand instruction but where are they were the only sitting somewhere
you know
thousands and thousands of people in head thousand instruction in the last thirty years of sensor so luckily we heard about
this and decided to try it out
this is this is astonishing
and this makes you smile
this is a miracle occurred here a miracle happened here
a group of people sitting here quietly and peacefully
so are our training is
to find how we can live with the difficulties and entanglements and problems of our life which are not going to go away
and use those as expression as the full expression of who we are
one of the training's is something that sometimes called the for guidance is and also i saw it translated as the for ways of gathering students which am
i had some feeling that after the fact someone said all this is how you gather students but could all the students and that person does this this and this rather than someone saying how hammer going to get some students however if i try this this miss and see if they come pick it happened afterwards know before are the first is giving gifts
mrs this is a traditional kind of year to give gifts giving gifts at any opportunity
giving the gifts of
your body speech in mind the actions as well as material things
in the second one is kind speech or speaking pleasantly but kind speech in kind speech has an enormous effect even when you overhear someone else speaking kindly to someone over there you feel a wonderful feeling that will last can last
for a long time you'll remember that what someone said
kind speeches some
extremely important
in the third is
helping people to fulfill their aims
and so what people want to accomplish in their life what they want to do how they want to live to help them to do that to help people to ah
to find their true way whatever it may be
whether it's your way or similar to your way or another way
to help people to find their way
in the last one is
to live according to what you teach
sort of practice what you preach to actually
live your life in accord with all the things you are telling other people about her
and we're even if we try to do these four things were we have trouble doing that harsh speech comes out even like frogs that of my mother used to say
if someone said something mean or something that's like frogs coming on them up
frogs comes out you say a harsh word or unthinking thing and you don't give a gift you know you keep up for yourself
where it doesn't even occur to you you know
and you know you don't take the trouble to help someone kind of do what it is they need to do
and you don't live by what you teach
so i found that even though i say to my kids don't scratch i couldn't help but scratch i scratched
ha
and i felt serve
oh didn't i feel like i felt sort of nuts i felt sort of crazy with scratching having to scrape knowing that this was not going to help and not being able to not you know and the kids are say god scratch don't script
ah
so these four things everyone can try it doesn't matter about gathering students are not getting since they're also called the for ways of guidance i think this is this is a am just for ways that you can live your life
add to what you're already trying to do maybe but down
you know they accord with the precepts and six perfections and
everything else
so
everything the world is helping us
whether we know it or not whether we believe it or not
and this very mine is buddha that's one translation of ah
soco zay buju soko wins a bosom this this exact mind is buddha
this quiet peaceful mine of mind and objects
why i brought a story to return i just cause you know it's dark outside and it's hanukkah
and
this is a story of hanukkah story by isaac bashevis singer few know him and to write her many of you do here
grew up in warsaw and
i actually don't know much about him but he young
rates in yiddish and is translated and this let's see how to turn the sun
this is a story called a hanukkah evening in my parents' house
you know it's not
i found the street there was something about it it's not a really earthshaking story or very funny or anything but it of got to me so i am i thought i read it too
all year round my father a rabbi in warsaw did not allow his children to play any games even when i wanted to play cat's cradle with my younger brother moisture father would say why lose time on such nonsense better to recite psalms
often when i got two pennies from my father and i told him that i wanted to buy chocolate ice cream colored pencils he would say you would do a lot better to find a poor man and give your pennies to him because charity is a great deed
but on hanukkah after father left the chanukah candles he allowed us to play dreidel for half an hour
i remember one such night especially it was the eighth night and in our hanukkah lamp eight weeks were burning
outside a heavy snow had fallen
even though our stove was hot frost trees were forming on the windowpanes
my brother joshua was eleven years older than i already a grown up was saved to my sister handler do you see the snow each flake as a hexagon it has six sides with fancy little designs and decorations every one a perfect jewel and slightly different from all my of others
scientific books he also painted landscapes peasants huts fields forests animals sometimes a sunset he was tall and blond father wanted him to become a rabbi but josh was ambition was to be an artist
my sister hinderer was even older than joshua and already engaged to be married she had dark hair and blue eyes the idea that law was going to be the wife of some strange young man and even going to change her surname seemed to me so peculiar that i refused to think about it
when father heard that joshua heads or joshua had said about the snow he promptly said it's all the work of god almighty who bestows beauty and everything he creates why must each flake of snow be so beautiful since people step on it or turned to water hindle i asked
everything comes easily to nature joshua answered the crystals arranged themselves in certain patterns take the frost trees every winter they are the same they actually look like fig trees and date trees such trees don't grow here in poland but in the holy land father added when the messiah comes all god fearing people will return to the land of is
real there will be the resurrection of the dead the holy temple will be rebuilt the world will be as full of wisdom as the sea of water
the door open and mother came in from the kitchen she was frying the chanukah pancakes
her lean face was flushed for a while she stood there and listened although mother was the daughter of a rabbi herself she always pleaded with father to be lenient and not to preach to us all the time and she felt he did i heard her say let the children have some fun who's winning its little moisture so lucky
day hindle a said he's cleaned us all out the darling
don't forget to give a few pennies to the poor father said to him in olden times one had to give ties to the priests now the title should be given to the needy mother nodded smiled and return to the kitchen and we continued our game
the tin gradle which i had brought bought before hanukkah had for hebrew letters engraved on its sides none gimbal hey and shin according to father these letters were the initials of words which meant a great miracle happened there an allusion to the war between the maccabees in the greeks in one seventy
b c etc etc
motion i took the game seriously but joshua hindle have played only to keep us company they always let us the younger ones when
as for me i was interested both in the game and in the conversation of the adults as if he read my mind i heard joshua ask why did god work miracles in ancient times and why doesn't he worked miracles in our times
father pulled at his red beard his eyes expressed indignation what are you saying my son god works miracles and all generations even though we are not always aware of them hanukkah especially as a feast of miracles my grandmother hindu love you my daughter are named after her told me the following story in
the village of tisch wits there was a child in zedek he was a prodigy when it was three years old he could already read the bible at five he studied the talmud he was very good hearted both two human beings and to animals
there was a mouse where his father lived in every day little zadok used to put a piece of cheese at the whole in the wall where the creature was hiding at night he put a saucer of milk there
one day it happened to be the third day of hanukkah little zadok overheard a neighbor tell of a sick taylor in the village was so poor that he could not afford to buy wood to heat his hut little zada can't hurt that in the forest near the village there are a lot of fallen branches to be pick
up for nothing and he decided to gather as much wood as he could carry and bring it to the sick man
the child was so eager to help that he immediately set out for the forest without telling his mother where he was going
was already late in the day when he left the house and by the time he reached the forest it was dark
little zadok had lost his way and he would surely have died from the cold when suddenly he saw in the darkness three hundred acre lights
for while he lingered before they lingered before his eyes and then they began to move slowly little zadok went after them and they brought him back to the village to the hut where the sick man lived with his family when the lights reached the door of the sick man's hut they fill turning into gold coin
cons
the sick man was able to buy bread for his family and himself fuel to heat the oven as well as oil for the chanukah lights wasn't long before he got well and was again able to earn a living daddy what happened to sadek when he grew up i asked he became a famous rabbi father said he was known as the saintly rabbi exotic
it became so quiet that i could hear the sputtering of the chanukah candles and the chirping of our house cricket
mother came in from the kitchen with two full plate of pancakes they smell delicious
why is it so quiet the game over she asked
my brother moshe who had seemed to be half asleep when father told his story suddenly opened his big blue eyes why and said daddy i want to give the money i won to a sick taylor
you were preaching to them harm mother asked half reproachfully i didn't preach i told them a story father said i want them to know that what god could do two thousand years ago he can also do in our time
that's the and minister

so
so here we are in training period and
yeah there's a story of up a young hasidic student who wanted to go and study with a rabbi and he went all over after him trying to find him in
so he could stay with him and his friends that are you going to stay with him so that you could learn the holy talmud in the books he said no going to stay and want to see how it ties his shoes
so we have a body practice here a big body practice
and we want to learn how to tie your shoes
ah with courage and and wholeheartedness
and we can learn that from each other and
and put that into practice so that oliver entanglements and all of our problems become
the expression of our understanding
this is a miracle
thank you very much
may