Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: For more information on Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, please visit our website at www.ancientdragon.org. our teachings are offered to the community.
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Well, good morning and welcome everyone.
I think everyone that I've seen. Thanks, Patrick, for your gold thumbs up. Everyone here, I think, has been here at least one time.
Wow, great. And a bunch of people were here last week for Sasheen and are back for some more zazen. So this is really wonderful to see.
We had a wonderful Sashin led, which is a day of intensive meditation. Sometimes it's multiple days. If you're really lucky, you get to sit multiple days.
And it was kind of humid and warm, but everybody sat so well.
So I just want to thank everyone who participated in the room, especially Douglas and our Eno Jerry and our Tenzo who's not here, Mike.
It's really wonderful gift to be able to the host spotlight me. Okay.
To be able to offer Sachin.
And everyone here in some ways participates in that offering. Even if you're not in the room or you're pretty new, it just takes a certain kind of energy and generosity to bring forth a space like this.
I think this space is like an enso. It's kind of like misshapen, but still round and inclusive and energetic and a space for awakening.
So it is a miracle that we're able to do this in these crazy times.
That we can sit sasheen together and enter stillness and silence and non distraction. That we can come on a Sunday morning in this world of endurance and enter stillness and open to reality.
You might have noticed in this temple in very obvious ways and maybe more subtle ways.
But if you watch closely, you'll notice we're continually making offerings.
We're dedicating our practice and our life energy to the benefit of all beings.
This might seem absurd, right? How is this doing any good in the world still? We offer whatever we have.
This is the Bodhisattva vow to benefit all beings, to reduce any extra suffering.
That doesn't mean we're erasing pain. Sometimes that occurs naturally and even a sign of health. Now, if you don't feel pain sometimes before it's too late, you know.
So actually, in some ways we're opening to the pain of life. I saw Jake nodding because he knows, as a medical professional, you know, pain is like, pay attention to this, you know, this needs our attention.
And this precious thought of awakening for the benefit of all beings without exception might start out as tiny, you know, unformed embryonic, just a tiny glimmer of a great aspiration.
The thought that I want to come to Ancient Dragon or some other place. Could be a wooded area. It could be with your friends and family. But I want to sit down and awaken.
Not just for my. My little self, my little private Idaho, no, but equally for each and every person and thing.
Things I can't even conceive of.
A world I can never know completely.
And actually, I want to live as Buddha.
I'm like, I like that program. Yeah, until you start.
But still, this wish, I want to live as Buddha. I want to become Buddha. I want to listen and learn and honor Buddha's teachings and have this path, illuminate it, and follow it all the way, all the way home like little beast in our human experience, you know, this bodhicitta, this wish to fully awaken with reality, for reality, in reality, as reality, is called bodhicitta.
And this leads us to this practice, bodhisattva practice.
So if you read a lot of books, you might think, oh, I'm just sitting zazen, like some, you know, samurai in Japan or something.
That's what it's about.
Gonna get stronger. Gonna get rid of everything that bothers me.
That's okay.
But usually most people come in and be. I just wanna be a decent person.
I wanna actualize or know how to live my caring in this world and show up wisely and authentically in all relationships.
Sometimes you might be like, well, not in all.
Wait a minute.
But still, there is this other part that's like that little tiny embryo that says, I want to grow up and be mature, be an adult in all relationships, to be equally beneficial to those I love and those I do not love.
That's the little hard part.
Sometimes it's even hard to show up that way. It's those we love.
Or it may appear so, even with plants and insects and animals and with all the stardust in the world.
So this arising of this bodhichitta, this aspiration to mature our true self, you could say, marks the beginning of kind of a new career.
I don't think this career is listed to my knowledge on these, like, LinkedIn and social media of these other profiles. Maybe somebody has this profile like, my career is Bodhisattva career, but this is Bodhisattva. Career is, you know, career has kind of a trajectory, right?
You've got to learn some things along the way. And no matter how long you are in your career, the more, you know, the more, like, amazed you are at the world, the variety of experiences that we couldn't even imagine until we did.
And so really this Bodhisattva career is kind of a really excellent career.
Pay isn't great sometimes materially maybe, but there's another kind of richness to this life that's centered in something real and true and present and open.
But it can be kind of difficult and painful in the beginning because the first thing you learn when you begin any career, right, is that you don't know something.
No, I'm trained as a psychologist, clinical psychologist.
And you enter the room to do psychotherapy for the first time and you've never done it before.
You might have thought you were a therapist for friends or something. But it's really different, you know, and you've got people recording you and watching you and, you know, and it's really kind of amazing. I still am amazed at what I learned in that practice.
And so. But it's humbling too, right?
Because you're exposed.
And someone I met very recently told me this story. He said, I came to practice after being in this, really, Because I said, how'd you come to practice? Pretty early on, maybe. He's only a year in practice in Zen practice.
He said he was in a really difficult work situation in an international job, kind of a big corporate job. And it was really, really difficult.
And I do think he was experiencing some kind of, you know, directed harm towards him based on his social location. Let's say he was under stress and treated poorly. And he was noticing that he was like really frustrated, blaming everyone all the time.
Then he said, I suddenly realized I was part of the problem.
My own projections were adding to this problem.
And I just kept othering and couldn't help it. Othering and, and this othering and projection, right, is delusion from a Buddhist perspective. He said I was, you know, stuck, as joker Beck would say, Stuck in this self centered dream. Stuck in reactive kind of duality, unable to see any kind of wholeness and connectedness.
And he said to me, he goes, and I did not want to continue to live that way.
So he quit the job.
And as a part of waking up, he woke up and said, I recognize this arising of bodhicitta. I want to live for the benefit of everyone. And I see this limitation. And he immediately sought out a teacher, a great Buddhist teacher, not myself, clearly, but.
And the Dharma and a Sangha, really kind of brilliant, I thought.
And this pain of seeing how stuck one is and how helplessly stuck and reactive we can be is this deep wisdom that ignites bodhicitta.
So even if self absorption or difficulty or self improvement brings you here, that's okay, Bodhichitta's there.
And then, like I said, there's a training program.
You know, like some training programs are pretty short. You know, want to learn coding, you go to some kind of camp and you learn it.
But this is lifelong, maybe many lifetimes. So settle down, relax into it.
And our Soto Zen school, just for those who hasn't haven't noticed this, we emphasize this training program called Zazen Sitting Meditation. And people say, oh, that's just, that's all you need.
I disagree.
Unless you're really gifted, lucky, advanced in zazen, we need a little more help. And if you have any doubt about that, go into our library and look at all the books. And there's even more in the closet that are offering us these wonderful practices that have been honed over 2,500 years.
So Zazen, super important, it's our main thing.
But zazen explodes into or includes or is supported by and supports some other practices and something that is, you know, key are these practices called the paramitas. You know, we have these Sanskrit words that are left over from India.
There's all this terminology, but these are just six simple practices that take ordinary aspects of what, let's say character development, how we imprint on the world and open them up and help us mature and develop.
So this is, this was like a long intro into the parmitas. So I'm only going to talk about one today, but I wanted to point us in this direction, that out of this great wish to benefit from all beings, there is a path. There are some practices we can do and these six paramitas or six transcendent practices.
This term parmita means perfection.
Not the kind of perfection that plagues perfectionists, but it's almost like anti perfection. It's a perfection where you give up yourself and striving so that you can give without trying to get something.
You can receive without trying to get something too.
It also can mean reaching the other shore.
So reaching the shore that isn't grounded in ego, but a life that is grounded in community and connection in the deepest of senses.
And it's a practice path. Parmita practice is a practice path of developing and maturing to live from like this creative vitality that connects us to everyone and everything, instead of this closed up enclosed ego capsule that is highly advertised as the way to be in this culture these days, maybe always.
So these are part of this training that helps us realize our luminous true nature and the luminous true nature of everything that appears other, even though of course it's not in every cell of our body, in all relationships, in all activity and all time. That's Buddha.
So of course we're going to like fall short.
That's part of the plan. How do you learn something if you already know it? So there's a learning and every situation has that potential.
And that's the shift in this practice of parmitas. So these parmitas are very good news, very good news for us. They're hopeful and helpful news at this time. When there is a ceaseless flow, a cease downpour of pessimistic, divisive, fear based, greed based and destabilizing news flowing through and into our consciousness through news feeds, through social media, through just like general discomfort. You feel it, it's palpable.
Ah, but I'm saying today, don't worry about that yet, don't get distracted by it.
Practice some paramitas and then meet these situations with that practice.
So I apologize to everyone who's very familiar with the parmitas. They're dragged out by Zen teachers all the time.
And I still say, look again, really renew your practice in any one of these. So here's the list.
Number one, generosity.
Dhana, paramita.
The generosity that isn't trying to get something or trying not to get something.
If you want to check it out, check it out. When somebody gives you a gift and it's something you don't like, you know, like somebody that you're in love with, they give you a gift and it's like something they like in a color they like. And you're like so disappointed, you know, so, so ego's right there. So this is how this works, right?
Like it's right there.
Okay, no problem. But this is just the way we are as humans. That's why you have this training program to grow up, accept a gift graciously. But you know, if there's any hesitation in our cells, in our consciousness, in the shape of our minds, it will be illuminated as well as when there isn't hesitation. We realize that and like, wow, somebody actually gave me something that I'm disgusted by. And I was like, didn't even think about it. I'm like, great.
There's always regifting.
So the second one's ethical conduct, morality, you know, like, we're gonna have to go to confession or something. And actually we do in Buddhism, but we really almost not confess. There's like not really sin in a certain way, but there's just, oh, how do I want to live in the world? And we have this code of ethical conduct or morality to check it out because we can get very confused and convince ourselves that anything is right.
Right. Let's just get rid of the APA or the education Department. That sounds so great. Right? But ethical conduct might be like my morality says, wait a minute.
So we have to like ground ourselves somehow in the midst of the insanity that is this world.
And it's internal in me, and it's also in the surround of our culture right now.
Then number three is patience. And Teigen really kicked us off by. By starting to talk about patience or tolerance, even kashanti paramita. But don't, you know, we'll get to that in another time.
Just remember them, Start to memorize them. Start to explore for yourself how these work in your life.
The next one is energy or zeal or kind of an enthusiasm that keeps us going.
Kind of strength, actually. Virya paramita.
The seal isn't intoxicated, but it's really clear. And there's a buoyancy. You know, sometimes, you know, I'll get up out of bed and I'm kind of sleepy and grumpy. But all of a sudden something happens where I'm like, I can't wait to get to the cushion. I can't wait to practice, you know, I can't wait to learn how I can be ungenerous.
This is the kind of zeal that sustains us.
Not a kind of like, oh, I'm so in love with something and then I'm really bummed out and throw it in the garbage can because it disappoints me. Didn't give me what I wanted.
It's a zeal that wants everything to be awakened.
Then there's meditation, which is zazen. It's also called jnana paramita, but you know, we know what that is.
And then there's this beautiful wisdom, this deep knowing, this entry into non duality called prajna paramita. We chanted in the Heart Sutra. And this, the prajna paramita literature, of course, is kind of the OG source of the paramitas.
But that's for another day.
But if you get a chance, I can't help myself.
Delve into the Ashta Sahasrika Prajna Paramita Sutra, the writing called the Great Wisdom, teaching in 8,000 lines. It's really early in our school of Buddhism in this Mahayana branch and give another look. If you've looked at it and like that, memorize it. Just memorize the first verses in it.
So if you're bored, if you're discouraged, if you're riddled with anxiety, pain, confusion, intoxicated, even if you feel worthless or helpless, the Parmitas are here.
Don't you know you can coarse in that kind of nonsense. But come back to these practices.
Even if you can't sit, or if you think like, my zazen's perfect, my practice is perfect. Come back to the Parmitas, generosity, ethical conduct, patience, energy, meditation, and this amazing wisdom.
There's a really nice book. I don't know if I have it here. Yeah, I do. Great.
It's called the World could be Otherwise by Norman Fisher, who is a great teacher in our lineage.
It says Imagination and the Bodhisattva path.
But it's about the Parmitas. And I really think it's great because Norman is practical and gets to the point and is a deep, amazing, poetic person. But he points out the importance of imagination.
We can imagine showing up as more generous, more patient, more wise, more grounded with each breath.
We can imagine. I think you came here today because you're imagining that somehow there is, we can realize, like a better way to live with each other. And then we take a step into a Zen temple or into our life and just taking this on, this kind of Bodhisattva career already is rooted in some kind of imagination and a mysterious faith and a confidence. And it's kind of scary to walk into a Zen place. What is this, a cult? People running around in all these robe, black robes, you know, it looks like a witch or something. I've been called a witch before.
You're a witch?
Buddhist priest, but you can call me a witch with my staff.
There's even some brooms out there.
So we can imagine. And then we go beyond imagination and realizing that, testing it out.
And this is a wisdom. These paramitas go beyond, go beyond self absorption, conditioned reactivity, habits and patterns that don't serve anybody very well.
And this othering, these are all natural things that happen in the human awareness.
So don't feel bad if you notice some of them, feel lucky you notice them. It's the things you don't notice are most dangerous.
So when the grasping ego shows up, you know how that you know what it is. Because it's stuff like I'm the best person or the worst person in the world, this person's wrong.
Everything that I am uncomfortable about is because of somebody else. But everything that's good in the world is about me. This is like a fundamental attribution error that is part of how our brains tend to work.
So it's really difficult to give something and want nothing in return because you really realize that there's actually nothing to give or receive that we can hold onto and fix, and that everything is actually. The other side of that coin is there's complete abundance. Everything is available to us if we pay attention.
That doesn't mean it's always easy, but we can imagine setting the ego down and giving generosity and living from this vow to liberate all beings. And we exhale, we remember and take a step.
So this is not transactional giving, okay? It's not making a deal.
This is a kind of giving that connects us to big Mind. You know, Suzuki Roshi's work, Boundless Heart, and it's a fearless giving.
If you know the Heart Sutra, without any hindrance, there is no fear.
It's not transactional because this isn't a divided world that we realize in practice.
So I'm just gonna say a couple more things about this. Thank you very much for your patience, but I feel inspired by the paramitas. So you're along. Thank you for coming along with me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to delight, you know, in these practices in particular, giving. So Suzuki Roshi says, to give is non attachment. In Zen mind, beginner's mind, that is not to attach to anything.
Anything is to give. That means not to grasp onto it. It doesn't mean we don't care or have a bond.
Every existence in nature, every existence in the human world, every cultural work we create is something that which was given or is being given to us, relatively speaking.
But as everything is originally one, we are in actuality giving out everything. Moment after moment, we are creating something. And this is the joy of our life.
But this I, which is creating and always giving out something, is not the small I, not the little ego, but the big I, the spacious mind of Buddha. That's my editorial.
Even though you do not realize the oneness of this big I with everything, when you give something, you feel good usually because. Because at that time, you feel one with everything.
So.
So this teaching runs through our Soto Zen school and through many other teachings.
And there are many things we can give.
I want to just kind of focus on the gift of fearlessness, which I think is especially important.
You know, material giving. We can have conversations about how do you deal with people who are asking for money on the street. But you can give them fearlessness by just meeting them.
You know, just meeting them, seeing them, being present, and notice that you don't have to be afraid.
It comes when we show up as allies.
You know, when we do this, looking in the eye with eyes of compassion and affirmation, even offering a smile to someone nervous, entering the temple for a first time or a hundred time, just sitting, like sitting. Sasheen encourages others sitting upright.
And we offer teachings, you know, in a fearless way, by not trying to convert people or show off.
But the Dharma is given, and this fearlessness is given freely in embodied practice.
When we're in our bodies in this moment, open to what is happening, and we show up with a body and mind shaped by the Dharma, shaped by ethical conduct, shaped by generosity, shaped by compassion and wisdom, which are natural fruits of our practice, you know, that's a gift.
You know, we learn. We have to learn a lot. We have to soften our ego buttons so they're not so reactive.
That takes a long time to do sometimes.
But little by little, we're less caught by duality, and we're more confident.
Even when we make a mistake, we're confident that we can handle that.
We also learn some things.
You know, this giving. We give ourselves boundaries, and we give ourselves our own limitations in the given moment. You know, it's. You meet someone on the street and you feel bad for them. You want to give them everything.
You want to fix their pain immediately. That's kind. But also, do you have the resources to do that? Does it work in your life?
So we need to be able to meet the difficulties in life and go, move us along.
But I'll just say it's like swimming.
If you've ever been coached in swimming, if you've ever done a lot of swimming or any kind of repetitive activity like Zazen, do it again and again and again. And the teacher says something like, put your hand in the water like this, but bend your elbow this much at this time in this way.
Or sit up straight. In Sasan, you're like, I am sitting up straight, but it still doesn't feel right.
We sit again and again and again to find even though we hear the teachings again and again, we're still not right, you know? And then one day you enter the water and there's ease. You sit on your cushion, you meet a difficulty, and you're like, oh, I didn't even notice that. But that worked.
Like, that's in alignment with my heart.
That's in Alignment with how I want to live with my buddy Cheetah. This mysterious shift occurs where your positionality in the world is flowing with all things.
So this is a little introduction to generosity and I'll return to it probably.
But these paramitas, again, just to recap, you know, they help us imagine and then to creatively embody the Bodhisattva way in any of these practices, generosity is a good one. To start with. We learn when we fall short, where we get caught. And then we learn how to open and refine breath by breath, step by step. There aren't shortcuts.
These are the shortcuts actually practicing the parmitas, sorry to say, we bring forth a new imagined way and we begin to embody it and then we don't have to imagine anymore. It just.
Just realizes everything.
And I'll end with this. Dogen notes in his instructions on Zazen, because we have to quote our great founder of our school in Japan, who wrote this in the 13th century, if the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. So if you're othering etc.
Dualizing, the mind is lost in confusion.
Now suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. It's kind of like Bodhiccija rousing this aspiration. You're playing in the entranceway, but you are still short of the vital path of emancipation.
So these paramitas help us move beyond the entrance way of Bodhichitta and they open the path of emancipation in our daily lives.
And in turn, this entrance way is made wide, wider, includes more beings, and our bodhicitta opens wider and is deeper and more spacious.
And then more paramita practice expands the path, opens the gateway, and then more bodhichitta, until each and everything in place is included.
No exceptions, nothing special. It's just where life really is. It's just. Just kind of hard for us to realize it. So Bodhisattvas, thank you for listening to this long winded talk. And how about you?
You know, at ease, Bodhisattvas, Tell me how you practice with such things, with generosity, with the generosity that realizes emptiness or giver and receiver and gift are one. Do you ever try that out? And also, how does this work in your life in Zazen, what do you learn?
So thank you again.
And everybody knows. I think online, people raise their hand in room, people, groundlings. I think you just, you know, Lou will help us by giving you a mic, so go forth.
Anything to say?
I scare you.
Sandra in the house.
[00:33:28] Speaker C: Good morning.
So what came to mind is once I had read or somebody explained that, you know, you can do a personality type through Buddhism, so you might be a greedy personality type or a hateful personality type or a deluded type, and I right away recognize myself as greedy.
And, you know, I shared that with somebody, and they said, you're the least greedy person I know. And I said, no, you don't understand.
If one piece of chocolate tastes good, 5 would be better.
[00:34:06] Speaker A: Right?
[00:34:06] Speaker C: You know that. Like that. Oh, I like this. I want more.
And the reason I'm mentioning this is because the upside of that is generosity is that that that impulse to say, bring it on, give me more is also the same impulse of extending and saying, you know, why should I have fear to give because I can always get more.
So that was.
That was my thought about generosity, is that it's, you know, right there connected with greed, at least in my personality.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. I think Jack Kornfield brought that up where, you know, if you're a greed type, you're like, I like that. I want more of that. This is great. You know, if you're hate type, you're like, that's wrong. This is wrong and confused. You're like, know where I am. You know, so thank you very much.
Wonderful practice.
[00:35:08] Speaker D: Thank you.
A long time ago, I was wrestling with this. This idea of how I should interact with people who, like, they wore a cool hat today. I like what they're doing right now. Something. And I wanted to express that without it being.
Without. Without it feeling transactional, without them feeling like I was trying to get something back out of him. And I said, okay, well, the way I'm going to do that is I will go up and I'll say, that is the coolest hat I've seen all day, and then go away.
And I. And I was. I was doing this before I started a Buddhist practice. And I mentioned this to my teacher. He's like, oh, that's. That's Donna. Right?
[00:35:45] Speaker A: You.
[00:35:45] Speaker D: You're. You've created a practice specifically to avoid any. Any opportunity for you to look for the transaction there.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:54] Speaker D: Cool.
Well, thank you. But it's been very helpful for me to treat the. To specifically do something nice and then find a way to remove myself so that there's no pressure on either of us for there to be a transaction.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: Thank you. Wonderful, Wonderful practice.
And you just intuitively arose what is your name again?
Nate.
Yeah.
Jake and David Ray. Oh, David Ray. Sorry, I didn't see you back there. David Ray.
[00:36:25] Speaker E: Thank you so much. So this is. This is a reprise of the very first comment I ever made at Ancient Dragons Endgame when Teigen was talking about generosity.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: Because.
[00:36:36] Speaker E: And. And. And Nate's comment, I think, really brings this out. Like, that there's. There's so much work and skillfulness in every part of gift giving. Right. That receiving a gift is. It takes skill and. And. And finding a way to give back in a way that acknowledges a gift.
[00:36:50] Speaker A: Like the.
[00:36:51] Speaker E: Like the three graces in Greco Roman mythology are often shown playing ball. And it's like, that's what they're representing. It's. You know, it takes skill to give and skill to receive. So this is my favorite gift story in my whole life. My half brother, whom I love very much, and we didn't grow up together, you know, I would give him, you know, Christmas or birthday gifts, whatever. I forget which one this was. But the next time I saw him, after he had given me a present, he said, do you like this sweater?
Cause I exchanged the gift that you gave me, and I got this sweater. And I was like, that's beautiful.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Right?
[00:37:24] Speaker E: Because in our culture, there's all this shame and embarrassment around it. It was like, yes, I wanted to give you a gift, and you did the transformation that made it be a gift that you really liked. And then you didn't hide in shame. You told me that. I think that's really beautiful.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: And you must have given a gift receipt too.
Okay, great.
Very thoughtful.
Uhhuh. Carl, where's the button? Hi, Cat.
[00:37:59] Speaker F: Okay, so my question is, is when do you take the gift and joy?
For example, in my own life, I struggled this week with. Well, last week, giving a judge my number because he flirted with me at one of these great gay bars that we have here in Chicago. And it was hard to think and to still get past the fact that a judge liked me. And that was transactional.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: But like, a judge judge. Like a. Yeah.
[00:38:23] Speaker F: Circuit court senior finale court judge.
[00:38:25] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:26] Speaker F: From New York.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: But how do.
[00:38:30] Speaker F: No, they were at a conference.
But how do you get past that and give it into joy? Because I've had a hard time taking gifts and joy lately in my own life.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: Well, you look happy. When you were telling the story, you were like, thank you, judge.
Okay, maybe, you know. Okay.
But the other side of it is, if they said, I can't give you my number, how do you take that gift?
And so Joy is natural, but it's not prerequisite.
I do think it is actually.
When the parmitas are actually become perfections, then there is this kind of joy.
But it's equal to everything and takes a little while. So I'm happy.
Let us know how it turns out. Thank you.
Someone, Douglas is going to have to leave to go to a baby naming.
So Douglas's granddaughter, Maggie Miriam, I think is her name is being named and I think there's maybe. I don't know if it's happening in Chicago or not.
Anyone else.
Oh, wait. Oh, there you are. You weren't saying.
[00:39:54] Speaker G: Well, I decided it maybe wasn't so important that I speak. But thank. But thank you.
My. My difficulty has always been accepting things that I don't want. You know, like physical items that are maybe not exactly what I want, but also situations that I don't want to be in or feedback that someone is giving me about something I've done wrong.
And those are all, those are all gifts.
And so that's for me where my edge of Dhana paramita is. But lately I've been finding in my practice more and more joy in that because someone gets mad at me for something I did wrong and I'm like, wow, incredible.
I get to, I get to look at this. I get to like, practice with it. And it takes some of that, like, it helps melt some of that resistance in me to view it as a gift, to view it as Donna from, from that person.
And maybe that change in perspective is a gift I'm giving myself too.
[00:41:01] Speaker A: And you're also giving it to the person who was upset.
Yeah, the gift of attention, of presence, of like, oh, wait, we can do this together.
Yeah.
[00:41:12] Speaker G: Of seeing their perspective and not just viewing the whole scene through my perspective.
[00:41:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:21] Speaker G: So that's been, that's been difficult for me. But I've been, I've been thankful that I'm, you know, able to step into that a little bit more and more.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And so what we do is we study. What makes that so difficult?
You know, like people who are art students or in training in any sort.
Many training situations. I'm sure, Bo, when you were trained to be a teacher, you were observed. Right. And getting feedback all the time.
All the time.
And so it's like I was always like, great.
I didn't even realize. And this helps me, you know, even if somebody doesn't think they're helping me, somebody who's like, yeah, I want to make, you know, who gets feel bad or something. But it's still like, it's helping me open up and to also learn skills that I don't have.
And, you know, if you read the sutras, the skills that bodhisattvas who are far along in the training program have are, like, unbelievable.
You know, they're going to every single place of suffering and giving everything they have.
You know, arms, teeth, money. You know, it's like.
And there are people in this world who do that, who will offer an organization to another person, you know, so.
But I'm not saying you have to do anything else. Just what Wade's talking about is pretty good just to be like, oh, I notice where my edge is, and I'm working with that.
[00:42:52] Speaker B: So I'm very new to. To Zen and Buddhism. But a few years ago, I. I'm sure you all recall when there was the Marie Condos, the the Joy of Tidying or whatever her book was, and everyone was like, oh, this is great.
[00:43:08] Speaker A: And I did.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: I did buy her book and I read the book. But the thing that I took the most out of it, it was, you know, it was useful. It helped me declutter. It helped me like, re reevaluate my relationship with things.
But the thing that I found the most useful that I've tried to carry with me that I think is really nice, is that the point of a gift is the act of the giving.
Like the gift, the ob. The reason an object becomes a gift is when it is given. That is what makes it a gift. Otherwise, it's just an object. The object could be anything. And so once the act of giving is done, the object has served its purpose.
So if it is something that you don't want to hold on to, it has served its purpose. You can thank it for it doing that thing. It has served its purpose, and you can pass it along, you can let it move on to the next person, to the next place without guilt because it has served its purpose for you.
[00:44:01] Speaker A: Yeah, this feel, you know, it's. You give and then you're not holding on to the giving that's done and then the next thing.
So thank you.
Well, we've gone on and on here in this great topic, and I want to thank everyone.
It's probably a good time for us to move along to work, give our.
To taking care of the temple, do some bowing, and then have tea later. You know, just one thing after another in this end world.
So may our intentions. This is how we give away our practice and our bodhichitta. May our intention equally extend to every being and place.
With the true dana paramita of Buddha's way, Beings are numberless.
We vow to free them.
Delusions are exhaustible into them.
