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 through the generosity of our supporters. To make a donation online, please visit our website.
I don't know why, but I feel excited about this Dharma talk this morning.
Not always the case, but I was aware of that arising in me.
And we're on week six of our practice period here at Ancient Dragon.
So some of us have signed up, but all of us are sort of embraced by these eight weeks of just adding a tiny bit extra or for some people, a lot extra practice and focus in our practice. And the theme for, for this practice commitment period is Buddhist practices for caring for all beings.
And I must say that this is not the Dharma talk I expected to give this morning.
But yesterday I listened to five videos from the venerable teacher Gil Fronsdahl, and I was like, wow, just in the nick of time. I listened to these because it really resonated with me, a distinction he makes between compassion and caring, which I'll get to later.
And we must be on the same Dharma wavelength about this.
So for the middle three weeks of this practice commitment period, I think everybody, pretty much everyone knows that we've been exploring these great ways of caring, these caring practices called the Brahma Vihras, which are also known as like the four Immeasurables, these beyond calculation practices.
They're also Vihara is the sacred dwelling.
This is a dwelling in our lives, ways to dwell in our lives that are encouraging, maybe even fundamental to showing up to life, to every being in place with care and caring.
And as the four Immeasurables or the four Brahma Vihras promises.
There are four of them and we've looked at three so far.
We've looked at equanimity, which is a boundless, balanced, non dual calm presence with everything that is just this.
It's a kind of warm, spacious wisdom and non reactivity.
Then we also looked at metta or maitri or loving kindness, which is this kind of goodwill, friendliness and mudita, appreciative joy.
And today compassion, Karuna.
And somehow in our school of Zen, of the Bodhisattva path, the Bodhisattva vehicle, Bodhisattvayana, we're kind of compassionate cheerleaders, as Leanne Schutt mentioned in her talk, if anybody looked at that.
So we hear a lot about compassion.
So I want to talk today about compassion as an active response to suffering, as a complete, thorough presence with suffering, obstacles and challenges to fulfilling that kind of response in a skillful way.
And then a little bit about this earlier and later practices and then this care and compassion distinction that great Teacher Gil makes.
So you ready for me to go a little crazy talking about so many things in one talk? But like I said, I'm a little fired up.
So this word compassion is with the way that this word karuna in old Indian languages is translated in English.
And for our purposes, this is a feeling that arises when we meet and contact suffering like airpoints meeting compassion.
When stress arises, we naturally want to soothe it, to alleviate it.
Now sometimes we want to just get rid of it. But this compassion is this kind of warm like ah, I want to help.
And of course whenever we want to help, there's a problem, you know, I want to help you, I you separation.
But it's still wonderful this felt experience, this being moved, you know, to respond to alleviate pain.
And it has an active quality. You know, the roots, the linguistic, etymological roots of this word karuna is to do or activity. So there is this active responsive flavor or fragrance of compassion in Buddhism.
And the function in some ways of this is this feeling.
Like almost all feelings, experiences, they motivate us to do something and this is motivating us to help reduce suffering.
I could say it's sort of harm reduction for ourselves and for others.
And like I said, whenever we try to do something, it's a little dangerous. So there are enemies to compassion that kind of lead us astray. They kind of look like compassion, but it's real easy to fall into kind of a trap of sentimentality.
So these are called near enemies that we need to look out for like kind of pity, which is a little bit of looking down on, oh, that poor person has that flavor of I'm just a little better than they are or a lot better.
There's this kind of ego driven helping.
You know, I'm going to give you advice before you even ask because I know what's best for you.
So we have to be careful.
Also there's a sense sometimes, you know, when you want to help someone, it's because you can't stand their suffering.
You know, anybody who's worked with dying people know that you cultivate this presence with a kind of non interference with a process that's natural, like death, physical death, dissolution of the body, sickness, old age, death.
And yet the minute you start to tell somebody how they should handle that, it really is often coming from my own discomfort and just being with real difficulty, like I'm more comfortable if you're not suffering, that can be this ego driven motivation.
And then there's a kind of collapse into sorrow, that is despair.
You know, I'm so overwhelmed by all the suffering in the world.
And indeed right now we're really challenged because all the suffering in the world is amplified by technology that surrounds us.
It has such a different feeling now. I remember being in a place where there was tremendous, like right in my face, suffering people, hordes of people surrounding me, begging hordes of people sleeping in excrement on the street.
That feels really different than the constant bombardment in technology that we have now in social media, in, quote, the news feeds.
So this.
I did not feel like collapsing when there were all these people around humans in irl, you know, right in real life. But sometimes I feel like collapsing under the weight of all of this repetition of the true suffering in this world. But it's packaged in a very dangerous way, I think manipulative way by virtue of the amazing technology that humans develop. It's like, oh, atom bomb, good idea. And then it's like, oops, maybe we got a little ahead of ourselves.
And you know, oh, smartphone, good idea.
So this despair or collapsing into sorrow is a danger.
You might think about it yourself. Has there ever been a time when you kind of wanted to and it kind of devolved into one of these, like near enemies, you know, or codependency.
That's an extreme form.
When we need somebody to be sick to feel good about ourselves, we need to be helping to feel good about ourselves.
Of course, there's the far enemy of cruelty and I think extreme.
But, you know, we can be cruel to ourselves with self suffering.
And if anyone listened to Leanne, she poignantly talks about revolution, actively squashing an insect. You know, this described it because she acknowledged this cruel impulse and could for that and share it so kindly, you know, if only we could do that, constantly feel like, oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.
So this practice of compassion is a process of learning, developing, refining, you know, refining.
And in some ways it's being mature or it's maturing, ripening compassion as a skillful response that's learned through mistakes and even successes. Like, it's okay if, like there was a win.
Like I finally got past my own ego and my own tendencies and was still and clear and wise enough to actually seem to benefit. And the world was giving me feedback that I, my compassion bore a beautiful little fruit. You know, even if it's a tiny win, it's okay to celebrate that, you know, people sometimes are like, why are you still sitting zazen? You know, after all these years, what brings you to practice?
And I always say the alternative's much worse. But what I mean is that if I even think I have a chance, a snowball's chance in hell of meeting the world in a way that manifests compassion with an appropriate skillful response, I find sitting is really helpful, that our zazen is really helpful. We learn a willingness to feel discomfort.
We connect to our vow to stay close to suffering beings and not turn away, to be with this burning world.
But. And we learn this somehow intuitively and in an embodied way.
To stay present with something really difficult without turning away at first might begin. The easiest part maybe is the pain in my hips or knees, but then the pain in one's heart and at seeing one's tendencies that to be cruel.
That's some pain that takes a long time to just really be caring, to open to.
We also learn stability or calmness.
As a psychologist, I would call this self regulation or opening a window of tolerance that we actually can stay present, aware and connected to ourselves and others under stressful conditions.
And that window can be like super narrow when somebody pushes the right button.
A lifetime of Zen practice out the window.
This is true of me.
You've all seen it.
This is the beauty of sangha still coming back to our cushions, opening to ourselves and others, we get confident and we start to learn and know in a deep way that we have this skill to be calm and present and then willing, continually willing to know suffering so deeply that this compassion manifests in a way that actually helps.
So one of the things that great teacher Gil Fransdale said was to be free only when you're comfortable is not to really be free.
This means.
It means that when I'm assigned a job now called Guiding Teacher of Ancient Dragon, but sometimes it's cleaning the bathroom or responding to emails that it's not just at my comfort and convenience that we learn to be free in discomfort, I think, was Gill's teaching.
So this practice is about not turning away and also not to see actually, you know, what happens if Amazon doesn't bring your package quickly enough.
You know, that's just one little example.
And of course we're compassionate when we miss the mark to the lack of compassion, to the lack of skill.
This is.
This is the mantra of our great teacher, Reb Anderson.
So I want to just touch on briefly compassion from two perspectives. Let's say this is the sort of early origins of the brahma vihras, the four immeasurables in early Buddhism, sometimes called the old way.
And this Bodhisattva practice we have is called the new way, you know, Mahayana.
But this way of the elders, let's say in this teaching, which is really where our practice of Brahma Vihara sort of evolved from, was actually, and I've seen this written in multiple places, not just in a bunch of videos streamed by Gill, but that the early conception of the Brahma Vihras, and that includes, of course, karuna or compassion, is, is that it was a meditative abiding. So you were cultivating a kind of samadhi or meditative awareness.
And this is like expanding or radiating compassion, this cruelty free awareness.
It has a little stamp on it, cruelty free product called compassion, pervading the whole world.
And this kind of samadhi, karuna, was said to liberate the mind from the hindrances or the things that cover our true self, our true nature, that keep us stuck in the bottle of suffering and stress and general nonsense.
And these coverings, you know, traditionally of course, are sensual desire, ill will, laxity, slacking off, sloth, angst, and a kind of paralyzing doubt.
So that's sort of the old way. And sometimes, sometimes people are like, oh, you Mahayana people took compassion and went crazy with it. But we kind of did.
And in our way, especially with the Brahma Vihras, these bodhisattva compassion cheerleaders kind of practice through invoking.
In our new way, we invoke compassion. We call it in. This is kind of a doing aspect, connecting through words, ritual imagery.
We call in compassion. Kind of like, okay, I give up, you know, Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, we invoke it through mantras and Dharanis such as Om Mani Padme Hom. I don't know anybody has ever come across that.
But this is compassion as a jewel in the middle of this lotus that's rooted in mud, rooted in our obstacles. We call out to Kanzeon Bodhisattva with the enmeijuku kannongyo, or we invoke the mind of great compassion in the Daishin Dharani.
Sometimes we visualize, we have all these images of bodhisattvas, like this one right here.
Actually at least three in this picture.
They're all over the place in a temple to remind us and imagine the possibility of actually meeting suffering with a responsive care. You know, this bodhisattva here has all these arms, thousand arms, hands with eyes in Them to see how to respond, but to respond naturally, like reaching back in the night for a pillow. Just a natural response. And also has everything they need, healing herbs, knives, flowers, you know, whatever, to respond. So this kind of bringing to mind a visual image, calling it in, is another form of this invocative or invocational practice.
Another form is this kind of nenning that we do, which is sometimes just bringing to mind compassion.
Not just with phrases in another language, but with something very simple, like may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, or beings are numberless, I vow to free them.
You know, like may all beings sever the roots of suffering, sever delusion, ill will and craving, may they find relief from physical pain.
And then there's this kind of simple, what I call evocative or a way of being, that compassion naturally arises if we're not too caught up in something.
It's a feeling that naturally arises to help.
And we can just appreciate that when we're moved, when it arises, like flows up in our zazen in our life, and appreciate it not be like, oh, I shouldn't feel filled with compassion and care.
I better be this person sitting zazen. No, if we feel it in the body, it's very light, almost like watery or waters, you know, like going into a nice hot spring of compassion.
So suffering itself. So, you know, in meta practice or kindness practice, goodwill practice, we're focusing on may all beings be happy.
But this other side, you know, Karuna, is a little difficult because it's like centered right in the middle of suffering. As a matter of fact, it's triggered by suffering. It arises from contacting and connecting to suffering. That doesn't mean like being overwhelmed or whatnot, but it's actually like a little difficult, even though it's also kind of nice.
And when we encounter this, we're naturally moved to act and then we're naturally kind of humbled because the ego arises pretty quickly when we encounter suffering and our personal biases and lack of skill, the limits of this wish to be inclusive and present and helpful become apparent.
Maybe the example that first really struck me, you know, like a fierce wind, was from this, this book thread, you know, kind of falling apart book that is the Bodhitraya Avatara by Shantideva.
It's pretty weird, but it says something like the virtue of suffering is no rival, since from the shock it causes intoxication.
Sometimes that's translated as despair falls away and there arises compassion for those in cyclic existence. That's basically Everything arising and ceasing, everything that falls into our appearance realm, there arises compassion, a fear of evil or let's say a fear of doing harm.
Like you know, you kind of realize, oh my God, suffering's triggering this compassion. And then it's like I don't want to do any, I don't want to contribute to any more suffering anymore. So there's almost like this fear of it and then a longing, it says a longing for the conqueror, but a longing to, to be free of the hindrances to compassion.
And Shantideva says kind of before this.
So maybe he had to say this before this, before the blow of like getting us to be interested in the virtue of suffering as having no rival because it triggers compassion.
He says there is nothing which remains difficult if it's practice.
So through practice, with some minor discomforts, even major discomfort becomes bearable.
Thank you Shantideva.
So this from that space of being open, witnessing, not overwhelmed, but just present with the way things are dissatisfactory, stressful, full of suffering, extra suffering, the compassion arises.
We kind of commit to like I'm afraid of my own capacity to do harm, I don't want to do that.
And this delight in virtue, in releasing obstacles.
I don't know if any of you were able to find Reb's talk that was in our reading list or resource list, but he says in this talk obstacles to great compassion are part of the process of realizing great compassion.
So when an obstacle comes along, don't just whip it, you know, enjoy it. Be like, oh thank you so much for helping me along the path.
Norman mentioned that another obstacle or main obstacle to compassion is this despair or being overwhelmed that we begin. We have a fear that oh, if I open to suffering, I'm going to be overwhelmed.
I won't be able to stand it. Well then don't do it then settle down, regulate and learn.
But that fear, if we don't try, it's a little like exposure therapy to fear stimuli.
If we don't get a little close to it, we don't know if it's really going to overwhelm us. So we have to have this like, let me, let me, let me open a little and if that's too much, I can close the window.
And we have this like self protective, like Norman says, something like we worry that we'll be plunged into hopelessness where our heads would explode.
So we protect ourselves from the very opening that compassion requires. We don't need to do this.
We just continue, go back to Your cushion, settle in.
And then in our zazen, we'll be like, oh, I suffer. All beings suffer.
I vow. I recommit to my vow to sever my connection to the causes of suffering. I don't want to add more to this mess, and I want to learn how to do that.
This is the practice of the Brahma Vihara of Karuna, compassion.
And if anyone checked out Leanne Schutz video.
But she also encourages us that we have to know suffering deeply, not just our own suffering or what appears to be some other individual suffering, but we see suffering and the causes of suffering beyond ourselves and others to start to understand and know structures and systems of oppression that create suffering.
You know, you could say there's a whole suffering industrial complex and a lot of social rules or ways of thinking, and we have to know those systems and the isms of oppression. We have to know those too.
And we have to allow it in, not contract. Like Leanne said, something like this shouldn't be in my space.
This oppressive activity shouldn't be in my space.
And then all of a sudden, ice is outside our door.
There it is.
So we learn this compassion is learning process of how to open to it so we can study it wisely and meet it openly and helpfully without pushing or fleeing.
So I'm just going to quickly make this distinction that Gil. Gil makes, because I've been. I told you I'm excited about this, that he mentioned that compassion, the English translation of Buddhist, early Buddhist scripture, translates a couple words from the Indian languages.
Karuna, compassion as compassion.
But also he said something really interesting. There's another word that is often translated as compassion called anu kampa. This is a new word to me.
And I was. And it means, Gil said, you know, whereas Karuna has this active response, it appears in a much more limited way in early Buddhist writings.
And this other word for caring, which we also, or it has been conventional to translate it as compassion, this anu kampa really means care and resonance. And it occurs like 90% of the time that compassion is translated, which I thought was so interesting.
And this anukampa means to resonate or vibrate along with others.
So this is our bodhisattva, almost this connective energy.
And so this energy is seen to be innate and a fundamental capacity to care where there's no suffering required.
Like a being doesn't have to be suffering to evoke this care called anukampa.
Imagine that, you know, for Karuna, there's some suffering required because it's responding to that. But this anukampa is basic caring. And when I was thinking about the theme for this practice, commitment period, I thought about Buddhist compassion practices and I said, no, that's not quite right. It's just caring.
Just caring, no suffering required. And then I found there was this word for it, so I guess I'm not the only one.
And also I was happy that Gil brought this forward.
And it's a simple kind of care and affection.
And it is something that's at the heart, you could say, of Soto Zen, in my opinion, which might change.
But at this moment, you know that this kind of caring of Soto Zen isn't sentimental. It's not analytical. You don't have to work necessarily to bring it forth. Although zazen may appear like work to some people, but this naturally arises from seeing our connection with every being and place in.
Throughout space and time and just being with the way things they are beyond appearances.
And somehow we see our limitations and we want to still connect more.
And we just care for the world.
And it's unconditional and unconditioned. I say unconditional, not dependent on my like or dislike or my preference or my convenience.
And unconditioned that there's a mystery to this.
Why care for an insect? Or why. Why care for this cup?
This is our way in Soto Zen called memetsu no kafu, that's careful, caring, attention to details that. But it is a spirit and a tender care that doesn't need compa. Doesn't need suffering as a prompt.
It's just boundless, inclusive, and conditional, unconditional. Sorry.
So this, this kind of care is a.
Almost a relief, you know, oh, I don't have to go into suffering 247 to be compassionate or caring. I can just be caring whether they're suffering or not.
I can just resonate with the frequency of all beings in this moment.
So that's way more than I needed to say. I apologize very much, but thank you very much for listening to me. And I wonder how this resonates with you.
You know, if any of these things like near, far enemies or just care spontaneously arising and how that differs from compassion, what that is like for you.
Anybody have anything to say?
She so does.
I was thinking about this caring without suffering. I was thinking, you know, sometimes how you see a friend, you're getting ready to go someplace, and you just reach out and straighten their collar, like, let me just fix that. And then you just move on. It's not a. It's not thought about or not thought about. It's just. Yeah.
Sometimes you even do it and they don't notice.
Yeah, Emil.
So I have two questions. The first question from, if you're gonna choose one of the viharas, that holds the other three, what it would be. And my second question, how can I extend compassion to someone like Netanyahu who are committing genocide?
Because if I look at him, I understand from our practice that he might be suffering, which I do not sometimes see.
So how can I care?
Thank you.
Well, I can't tell you.
However, you know, sometimes you care for someone who's creating extra suffering by not feeding that in them.
And if you know that greed, hate and delusion feed suffering, then sometimes you might be like, I think I'm going to give you a ticket to Mar a Lago.
That's Anahu, and you are going to stay there. You can't run a country because you're creating too much suffering. You know, suffering and compassion isn't always. Doesn't always look nice.
You can be kind, but not nice.
And your first question, which I kind of forgot, we're going to choose one. One. Oh, yeah.
So in our practice, we avoid picking and choosing.
But I would say that in some ways, it isn't the Brahma Vihara, but it's anukampa that unites all of them. This kind of fundamental resonance and caring. But if I had to pick a Brahma vihra, I think equanimity, but it has to be a warm equanimity, because they all work together.
But you can pick one out and play with it. But remember, when you pull the thread, all the threads come with it. So, yeah, it's enough.
See? See what happens? And of course, in parentheses, Zazen, Zazen, Zazen. Zazen will answer your question.
Ah, yeah. Nathan Bodhisattva, good to hear from you.
Hello. I'm glad you mentioned menmitsu, because when
[00:36:55] Speaker B: you were talking about caring.
[00:36:56] Speaker A: Hold on one second, Nathan, we need to increase your volume in the room.
Try again, please.
I'm glad you mentioned the menmitsu, because when you were talking about caring, I thought, oh, that sounds like menmitsu, because
[00:37:09] Speaker B: I read a blog post about that
[00:37:11] Speaker A: by Jiryu Mark at San Francisco Zen center about a decade ago. And.
And then you said the word. So that was great.
In the blog post that Jiryu Mark
[00:37:24] Speaker B: wrote, he said, you know, we've had
[00:37:27] Speaker A: a mindfulness movement, now we need a menmitsu movement.
Yep.
And this is part of our practice in Sangha.
And sometimes careful attention to Detail.
Some people feel criticized by that, but I think it's a really healthy that's like our forms in the room.
Why it might take me so long to get settled is you're bringing this awareness.
And I will also say that there's great joy in taking care of whatever's in front of you with complete presence because you're willing to be with the suffering as well as the joy. And when we go into, you know, Nathan, you're not in the practice commitment period. But in the last two weeks, we're going to explore these practices raised up by Paula Arai, who wrote this book, Little Zenbook of Healing, about Japanese practices that and her own practice as a Asian American woman of Japanese descent, you could say ascent that are really homey and beautiful and healing.
And so I think that this, this is a side of memetsu no kafu, this careful attention to detail, which is very accessible to us. You know, how we chop a vegetable.
So thanks for bringing that forward.
David. Oh, David Weiner in, in online.
[00:39:10] Speaker C: It's a, it's a question in the form of a comment.
In a certain way, I see myself when I'm walking along a path and I see a beautiful flower and I look at that flower and I take that flower, and that is compassion.
And it is in the same way with people, whether they are suffering or not suffering. Can I take them in and be with them?
Bernie Glassman talked about for knows I'm a hospice chaplain, but he said for being a good hospice chaplain, you come in with no agenda. You have no forethought or plan, and you just bear witness to what is going on. You bear witness to the experience that the person is having.
And then when appropriate, you have an appropriate response, but only when it's appropriate.
And so I'm trying to combine those two things. Looking at the flower and being with no agenda and bearing witness to what's going on.
And I'd like to get your comments on that.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: I'm happy that you're working with those two things.
Please continue.
Howard in the house.
[00:40:34] Speaker D: Hi. I'm going to start with something small.
This week I've been very irritable and I don't know why, but I know why one morning I was very irritable. It was because my cats woke me up at 5am I don't wake up at 5am and I was incensed.
I was angry in a way. I was not angry for probably almost a year. I don't remember being quite that angry. I was like, why am I so Angry. And you know, there's that refrain that we always say about, you know, the best time to do zazen is when you don't want to do zazen. I'm like, out of spite, I am not doing zazen this morning. I refuse out of spite to sit this morning because I'm so angry at these cats. I am plotting their demise.
[00:41:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:41:14] Speaker D: Plotting their demise and all this stuff. And I'm like.
And the funny thing is I just, I still just sat there, like on the couch, like stewing, fuming, like, you know, like evil eyed. My cats were just doing their own things. Whatever. They forgot about it already.
And even though I didn't like set aside time to sit, I had sat enough that I was like, damn it, I see it, I see it. I see it going up, I see it going down. And now it's time to feed the cats.
I don't take a nap later. It's not that, it's not that hard, right? And it's. And I, I do think I come back a lot to the. You have to take care of the things in front of you.
Because I, I think for a long time I used to be, you know, I, with compassion or just caring or like trying to be of use or something. Like, I think I, I got stuck for a really long time and I still get stuck on it of like, I gotta do everything, I gotta fix this, I gotta do that, I gotta jump into these things or else I'm not really committed or I don't really care.
I, I can't do all of that. And I think that's a really honest, compassionate thing for myself too. I can't do all of that. But I can do the things that are in front of me that I am, have some skill at. That's how I best show up in the world. And I can't fix everything.
But this is how I'm gonna have to show up. And this is the way I'm gonna have to care. And that's gonna be enough in the way and at least enough for how I'm going to be doing this.
Yeah, compassion. I, I've related more to the compassion as an active kind of thing, but not in the sense of like, I'm gonna like sit here and like force it to come out. But it is something I have to, I have to respond to. It is I inevitably have to respond to in some kind of way. And the way I inevitably have to respond to it's the things in front of me. Whether that's.
Did I Put this book down really hard. Did I put it down with some care and intention. What about a client in front of me who. I can't fix their situation. There's so much messed about their structural situation. I can't fix it. But I can be here with them, and that's kind of the best I can do.
So thank you for your talk.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: Thank you.
Or your cats who were starving, suffering for your attention.
[00:43:31] Speaker D: Yeah. Two hours before their.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Yeah, their. Their time.
No, your time. It was their time.
But. But this is. You know, and also, we have to bear our limitations.
You know, if we get the magic wand that allows us to turn the world in a beautiful way.
You know, like, if I invent a way to get rid of all plastics and turn it into a great offering for Buddha, put it in on a piece of charcoal, and it doesn't kill or hurt the universe to turn it into love and compassion.
I'll offer that, but, you know, the likelihood of that is extremely low for me.
And so we do what we can, and we have to be with our limitations, so. And you offered your cat your rage, and they were like, whatever, where's our food?
They loved you anyway. They loved you anyway.
Yeah, right.
But the other part is really great, right? Like, after you sit a while, it's like, okay, you know, all the old stuff doesn't work. All the old greed, hate, and delusion. There's new ones that pop up all the time. But your general, like, habits, you know, they don't work.
What really works is this care.
It feels right, it resonates, it radiates.
Anyone else?
That's good. Ah, Douglas. No.
Douglas, that's okay. 2. No, you're right next to me, so we have to get you in on the party.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: Well, I was thinking of Amal's question about whether there's one of the viharas, Brahma Viharas, that might encompass them all. And I guess I think I agree with you about equanimity, but, you know, there's been a.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: It's okay if you disagree.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: No, no, I wanted to agree before that came up in Mahayana, thinking probably before that there's.
And in the Vimalakirti Sutra, for example, it's a question about, well, what is the foundation for compassion, for Bodhisattva's compassion? And Vimalakirti says it's really two things. And I think he means they're complementary, but they're different. But they're complementary. And one is the recognition of suffering in others because you've suffered yourself and the other was the compassion that arises from the experience of emptiness. The experience of non separation. No picking and choosing. The experience of this life that encompasses everything.
And that's the experience that gives rise to taking care of everything, even if it's not suffering. Even if you haven't experienced any comparable suffering. So I think that not picking and choosing is the awareness that includes everything is something that's very helpful and it sounds very, very abstract.
Except that it's not abstract. It's very much like the experience of zaza just being here with everything and responding to the concrete fact of being with something or someone and taking care of that.
And I think that can be there even if you haven't shared comparable suffering. Suffering comparable to what another person has felt.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: Anyway, thank you.
I think this goes over here.
It's like being with your cats when they wake you up in the morning and being really frustrated by it and still feeding them, even though you were like, I'm going to withhold your food for another hour because I'm mad at you.
But in your heart you're like, oh, maybe I won't do that. Maybe I'll feed you now. Maybe you can just sit on my lap while I do saucen Meow.
Anyone else?
Okay, thank you very much, everyone in the cloud and.
