Once again, starting my lecture tonight, I'm struck with the analogy of giving talks and serving food. Tonight it's a little different than last night. Tonight I was thinking that basically I'm just going to study the same thing I've been talking about all week, you know, and I kind of think, well, why would you want to hear that, since you've already heard it before, some of you, a number of times. And then fortunately I came up with the image of the fact that we eat every day, day after day, essentially the same food. And we kind of, three times a day sometimes, and then we kind of do it up in different ways and present it in little different packages and, you know, arrangements, and then we eat and we feel nourished. So it's going to be, you know, a little different package tonight and a little different presentation. So, I don't know, maybe you can stand another meal, another talk.

[01:04]

I've partly been struck by this because, well, I'll get back to that. Last night we talked about concentration and the fact that concentration or absorption is not really dependent on the object. And we spend a good deal of our lives looking for that elusive object that is going to be so absorbing for us because we have, as I mentioned, a deep yearning or wish to be absorbed. And it's absorption where we feel whole in our own body and mind and we're also one or we feel completely in harmony with what we're doing, with the world we live in. And, in fact, we've stopped thinking about how I'm doing in the world and being in the world and we're just absorbed and how wonderful this feels. And usually we think we only get it with a person when we fall in love or particular

[02:08]

things that today somebody was saying, well, you know, lots of people are taking up hand lighting and various kinds of life-threatening sports. So there's another way to see where you can get real concentrated under those circumstances because if you make a mistake, you lose it, you can lose your life. So you tend to concentrate a little more and then people find this very exhilarating. We used to, at Zen Center, have this kind of opportunity because we used to have a stick that when you were meditating, you could get hit. So that kind of got us charged up a little more adrenaline and then we concentrated harder than we would otherwise. You know, you get hit a few times and then... I'm serious about this. And you go through, like, why did they hit me and I wasn't doing anything wrong and why are they punishing me and I'm really trying my best already and it's not my fault if I'm falling asleep and this kind of schedule they have around here and so on.

[03:10]

So then you get through all that stuff and then at some point you keep getting hit and then you say, well, God, whatever it is, anyway, I guess I better, you know, get it together and sit down and lose. And then pretty soon you're really humming. And Zen, I think, on the whole, I think I mentioned this, but one of the things I think it emphasizes is, well, what I feel like, having done a little bit of some other practices is that Zen particularly emphasizes concentration or absorption and also emphasizes work or a physical kind of participation and engagement with life, both in the sitting posture and sitting practice that we do and then to engage in work with some energy and vitality. And that kind of energy and vitality and concentration seems to be a couple of the aspects that Zen emphasizes. But lately, anyway, we don't have a stake in the Zen dome as much. We don't hit each other as much. And so we're not, we don't have that kind of impetus for absorption, you know, either

[04:15]

the, we don't have the promise or the threat. You know, we don't have the promise of some person or event particularly and we don't have the threat of some punishment, you know, if we're not doing it. I was, when I was back in Vermont, they said that, at the Tibetan center, they said that at the first seminary, the Trungpa Rinpoche did, and there was a hundred or two hundred people there, and they started out with having a vegetarian diet, which is unusual for them because of their Tibetan tradition, they tend to eat more meat because in Tibet, they're one of the few Buddhist cultures who tend to eat a fair amount of meat because of the climate and everything and the cold weather and not so many crops grow and then eat a little meat and it's very sustaining for them. But they were having a vegetarian diet and then after a month or so, Trungpa Rinpoche said, well, he wanted, now that people were settled and calm in their practice, he wanted

[05:18]

them to begin to deal with negative, more negative emotions and aggression and things, so he introduced meat into the diet. I said, gee, well, you don't have to have meat, you just get a stick and hit each other. So one of the points I was making about, well, when we talked about concentration involving applying the mind to the object, that it takes some effort or, anyway, basically effort to apply the mind. To start with, the mind does not naturally stay with the object, so at least for initial period of absorption or concentration, you have to keep applying yourself. It may be that after a while, the mind naturally stays with the object, but most objects that we come in contact with in our life don't have a kind of fascination and inherent absorbing capacity to grab us. So initially at least we have to apply the mind to the object and then there's a factor

[06:22]

of joy, which is being touched or moved by things, and in that case we respond to them, and then some happiness or ease, relaxation, it's a quality of feeling at home in what you're doing, and when you feel at home, then you can relate again more closely to things, rather than feeling like you're in an alien place and alien objects and so forth. Where you don't feel yourself, you don't feel at home, so that helps. And then the fifth factor, well, there's two factors you'll find in my name, but the last one, the one-pointedness itself, the collected mind, focused attention, non-scattered, so it's not jumping from one thing to another thing, but staying with the object. But the other factors, application of joy, happiness, all help reduce the concentration. And so what I mentioned in particular then also was that, as you can see, this is not

[07:26]

dependent on the object, it's dependent on my developing these characteristics, these qualities, in my activity. Tonight I thought I'd talk about, well, sort of several, I thought I'd talk a little bit more about joy, kindness, generosity, we may get a little bit too patient, I thought I'd talk a little bit about these qualities, because they're tremendously important qualities, and it's the qualities that a lot of us appreciate about cooking, the quality of cooking for other people, essentially, for our family, for our friends, children, and this quality of doing an activity to benefit others. And so it's a tremendously powerful quality that comes up all the time around food, and

[08:27]

it's a quality then that we can also have while we're working then, and a quality that we can also extend more directly to ourself and to other people, and not just with food. And I wanted to, so to, and again, interestingly enough, you see, what seems to be the emerging theme this week is that this also, this, the quality of kindness or generosity is again not dependent on the object. Interestingly enough, you see, that to have kindness or joy, we don't have to have the object that we already naturally feel kind towards or naturally feel some joy, but we can practice extending the kindness that we already feel in our lives or the joy we already have in our lives to other objects and other things. One example for me, when I first noticed this most clearly was when I used to, we had the

[09:35]

kitchen over here, where the dish shack is, and this end over where the eating area is now, and we, the kitchen crew not only worked in the kitchen, but then we served the food. We did the whole thing, you know, you cook everything, serve the food, and come back and clean up. And nowadays we have people come in and serve the food. But in those days, so we had a lot to do. And everybody, not just the kitchen crew, but everybody here at Tushara kind of worked like that. And I think only one or two people who practiced Kriya died. But it's said to be very meritorious if you die while practicing Zen, so we didn't worry about it. So I would, along with other people, serve the food. And Suzuki Roshi was here, and I noticed that I'd come into the Zendo, and serving Suzuki Roshi, I felt tremendous warmth and appreciation for Suzuki Roshi.

[10:35]

Tremendous gratitude, respect, and so when I served him, I just felt like I was serving the most wonderful person in the world, and I was so careful. You know, so just careful, I wanted to just get the food in there, just not disturbing his absorption or being in the slightest. And I know later on somebody in a question and answer ceremony said, How do you feel when I serve you food? They asked Suzuki Roshi. And he said, I feel like you're offering me your entire being. And that's how I used to feel when I was serving him. Like I was offering him my entire being. And ladling food, and spooning the food, and then just wanting to be so careful, you know, like not hit the side of the bowl with the spoon, and not get too much, and not have it fall outside the bowl, and not have it slop on the side of the bowl, and all of this, so I'd be very careful. And then the next person that I served, you'd serve him first, and then go to the next person. And there'd be a little, still a little, share.

[11:37]

And then the next person after that, less. And by the third person after Suzuki Roshi, it was, Can't you get your bowl out there any faster? And I'd say to myself, you know, we're all silent there, Zendo. And just, come on, you know, and get it out there, and just slop it in there, you know, and then feeling like, oh, I've got to get this done. And then Zendo was supposed to do things fast and energetically, and these people are slowing me down. And then zip down the row. And then we used to have a, I mean, I don't know, I used to feel it was sort of a competition to do the service. And then Suzuki Roshi would do it. You know, the end of the row first. These things are important. So one day, I don't know, I don't remember exactly, well, if it was while I was serving or, you know, completely outside of the context, but I thought, now, well, wait a minute, why do I do that? Why do I serve Suzuki Roshi one way and these other people another way?

[12:39]

And what's the difference, really, between Suzuki Roshi and them? And somehow I just had to sort of brainstorm, why don't I just serve everybody as though they were Suzuki Roshi? So this is the kind of quality of extending, where initially you may have some sense of respect or generosity towards one person in particular, or then at some point you realize, I can treat everybody that way. And I know that on the surface, or superficially, everybody isn't Suzuki Roshi. You see all these little nods and kinks, and they want more of something, and sort of like you have a limited amount, and you want to say, easy, you know, I've got to get to the end of the row. And so they're doing all these things, and then some people are sort of like, they see some kind of food coming, and they get horrified. Because it's something like, in those days, that was the macrobiotics for here,

[13:44]

so if it was eggplant or tomatoes, or even raisins in the oatmeal, you know, it's sort of like, oh, God. And then we had a rule, you have to take some. You know, it's your practice to take some of each dish. You know, rather than saying, no, thank you, but it's just a practice. In other words, because the original Buddhist practice with food is, Buddha ordained, when he ordained the monks, and then their practice is to go out begging, and then you put out your bowl, and you take what you get in the bowl. See? And whatever is offered to you, that's your food. So, we're all together in a community here. We're not going out into the outside world to beg for food, but we still have some vestige of that tradition. So we say, when you're in the Sendo, and you have your little bowls there, when the food comes around, you take some of whatever it is that's offered. But you can say, I want a little bit. You say that like this, you know, when the server comes, and you're about to receive the food, and you go like this. Or they would go...

[14:46]

And then, of course, if you're in a mischievous mood, you might just give them a huge helping hand. So, needless to say, in other words, it's not so easy necessarily to treat everybody as Suzuki Roshi. But it starts, first of all, with this kind of flash, like, why don't I? Or, isn't everybody at some level, you know, at the base of their life, this pure being, a being with pure intention, a being worthy of respect, worthy of being honored, worthy of being venerated. And Suzuki Roshi happens to have developed in himself in a way that you can see this right on the surface. But isn't everybody at the fundamentally, you know, so Buddhism teaches this anyway, that fundamentally at the very bottom is, all beings want to be happy, all beings want to avoid suffering.

[16:04]

And, yeah, we know they get confused, and they get misplaced intentions, and so forth. And they do harmful things, and get angry and greedy, and various things. But they're actually at a certain level, and Suzuki Roshi would teach us this, everyone is doing their best, even though it looks like something else. And it's, you know, even the fact that they're confused, and they're acting out, or doing whatever they're doing, this is just the confusion, this is not them, that person fundamentally, or you could say the nature of mind fundamentally. Mind itself is completely clear, and still, calm. And it's the confusion that we don't recognize that in the first place. And mind itself, in the first place, is not dependent on objects.

[17:08]

And we keep thinking it is, and so then we want this object, we don't want that object, because my state of mind is dependent on which objects I have to deal with. See? And because we think that, then we start trying to manipulate the objects, and peoples, and ingredients that we have to work with. And this causes a big problem, and then we never work it out satisfactorily, because we end up having all these other ingredients that we get anyway. And people in our life, and things we have to deal with, we didn't ask for. You know, as I said the other day, that's uncalled for, we say. Somebody, or the things that show up in our life. So, again, the quality of joy, the quality of kindness, this quality of respect, or generosity, how you treat somebody, how you treat things, this is not dependent on the object. One person, one person like a Suzuki Roshi, or someone you fall in love with, or even looking at something very closely one day, many things can awaken something in you, can awaken that feeling in you.

[18:12]

But then if you think you can only have that feeling with that person, with that object, see, that's a mistake. Just like if you go to the museum, or, you know, the store, and then, you know, or someplace, and you look at a wonderful painting, you look at a painting, and something about it really moves you, and then you say, I've got to have that painting. You think you're ever going to have that experience again? You know? I mean, you just had it. It's gone. And now you think, well, if I had the painting, and I bought it, and I had it in my house, you know, I could have this every day. It doesn't work like that, you know? So, over and over again, we can notice that the experience of feeling is not dependent on the object. Some object can touch something, and then it's awakened, you know, and then it's up to you in your practice, so to speak, that you extend it into other places. That after you've had that experience with the painting, you can look at a person, a chair, an onion, carrot, whatever it is, and then, you know, you can have it touch you in that way that the painting touched you.

[19:14]

Okay. I thought I'd read you a couple of things from Csikszentmihalyi here about washing dishes. Well, first of all, something about washing dishes. Let's understand. On the previous page here, he mentions tea ceremony. It may take two or three hours just being together and drinking one or two cups of tea. The time is not spent talking, only being together and drinking tea. Perhaps you think this is irresponsible because the participants are not worrying about the world situation. But you must admit that people who spend their time this way know how to drink tea. And they know the pleasure of having tea with a friend. This reminds me that I did tea ceremony, studied tea ceremony for about a year.

[20:20]

And one day in tea ceremony, I said I didn't really like tea ceremony very much. You know, you have to sit in seiza, you know, seiza like this. I have to sit like this, right? And this is harder to do than sitting cross-legged. And no cushions. You know, when we do this, you know, people do this in Zen, you have a cushion, right? You sit like this. And the first time I did it, I was at a tea ceremony at somebody's house, and I was sitting like that, and my legs completely fell asleep. And then at one point, everything started getting kind of a yellow tint to it. Do you know what that's about? I didn't know what that was about. And then gradually the yellow started getting dark, and it was kind of orange. And I went, this is really interesting. Everything is kind of orange. And then it was kind of brown, you know. And then pretty soon everything was black. And then everything had the same color, but it was on its side. So I guess that's called fainting.

[21:29]

Is that true? Yeah, that's the first tea ceremony I went to. So I'm not a great fan of tea ceremonies. This is a start. But I studied tea with Suzuki Hoshi's wife, Suzuki Sensei. And I forget if it was while Suzuki Hoshi was still alive or not. It was probably after he had died. So I was studying tea ceremony with her, and it was one of these things that if you were blah-de-blah, you'd study tea. Well, okay, I'll do it. But anyway, one day I was just sitting there, and you just sort of sit there, and it's going through all this stuff. And usually I feel kind of bored. And you're like, Jesus, when are we going to get to the tea? And you've got to try to remember all the movements to make and all this if you're doing the tea. And then you've got to remember, you've got to learn these little Japanese phrases about, excuse me, but I'm going to have my tea before you have your tea.

[22:32]

But you say it in Japanese. So you say, excuse me for going first, but you say it in Japanese. I can't remember these things. Anyway, one day I was just sitting there, and then I was just tremendous calm, like I had never experienced before. I just sort of sat there, and then the room was, you know, it was just this little tea room, but it was like bigger than this room all of a sudden. And I just felt so calm, and like I was in the middle of this ocean of calmness. And I thought, now, how come that never happened in Zendo? But after that, you know, once the feeling touches you, then you can take it other places. Then you start to say, well, you know, okay, now I know that can happen. Now it's sort of awakened. So once it's awakened, then you can start to find it in other places. You can start to find it whether it's in the meditation hall or in your work. Okay, so individual things and circumstances and so forth have this power. But if you limit it to those things, then pretty soon you're trying to manipulate it, and then you're saying to the person, hey, you know, you used to give me a thrill,

[23:37]

but now the thrill is gone. And you start to manipulate people, you know. You really should be doing this thing for me that you used to do for me, that got me off, you know, and you're not doing it anymore, and what's wrong with you, and you don't love me anymore. And then you start, you get involved with these kind of things because you think that feeling comes from the person, and now they're depriving you of it. So that's completely misguided. You've got to take the feeling that's been awakened and then start spreading it around. Okay, so now onwards. Devoting two hours to a cup of tea is, I agree, a little extreme. There are many other things to do, gardening, laundry, washing dishes, finding books, writing. Perhaps these other tasks are less pleasant than drinking tea or walking in the hills, but if we do them in full awareness, we will find them quite agreeable. Even washing the dishes after a big meal can be a joy. Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred.

[24:37]

In this light, no boundaries exist between the sacred and the profane. I must confess it takes me a bit longer to do the dishes, but I live fully in every moment, and I'm happy. Washing the dishes is at the same time a means and an end. That is, not only do we do the dishes in order to have clean dishes, but we also do the dishes just to do the dishes, to live fully in each moment while washing them. If I'm incapable of washing dishes joyfully, if I want to finish them quickly so I can go and have a cup of tea, I'll be equally incapable of drinking the tea joyfully. With a cup in my hands, I'll be thinking about what to do next, and the fragrance and flavor of the tea together with the pleasure of drinking it will be lost. I will always be dragged into the future, never able to live in the present moment. So, when we do things like this, when we have some feeling,

[26:01]

Dogen also then, in the instructions to the cook, talks about joy as being one of the qualities that he encourages the cook to develop. And this is a joy then that's not dependent on accomplishment particularly, or particular flavors, but just the joy of being in the moment, and looking at things, appreciating things, seeing things. So, and then, as I said about joy, having things touch you. So, you know, it just looks like an onion to you, but you can, you start to see an onion, and the onion can be your child, or, you know, it's like your arm. And it's so, it's like a very small child, because it's so sincerely what it is. And it's so, you know, it's just, it's not anything else.

[27:02]

It's not pretentious. It's also, it's not prideful. So, it's so sincerely onion, and then you can look at it, and it knows, it knows so well how to be completely an onion. It's really remarkable, you know, that something has this kind of, something, you know, that an onion has this kind of knowledge of how to be an onion. And that it's not, it doesn't have these kind of qualities of, you know, as I mentioned, this kind of confusion or anything. It's just, there it is. And then it goes on, and it'll just do that, you know, just be that. And then it lets you do whatever you will with it. You know, it's completely at your mercy. You can take it and toss it in the garbage, you know. Or you can hack it to pieces, you know. And you can make a mess of that onion, and the onion, you know, just lets you do it. You know, or you might make something very delicious, and you might burn the onion, you know, and it just lets you do it. And all the food has this kind of quality, you see.

[28:05]

It's completely, each thing is completely what it is. It's very sincere, and it doesn't, it doesn't, it lets you do these things, and it doesn't tell you, well, wait a minute now, don't treat me like that, you know. It's very interesting, they're very, so it's sort of up to you, you know, how are you going to treat the onion, you know, because it's not going to tell you exactly. But if you burn it, you'll notice I burned it, or, you know, you can notice various things. So part of this is the quality that, interestingly enough, that once you're touched by something, then you want to, you feel like you want to treat it kindly, once you're touched by it. And when food touches you like this, then you treat it kindly and considerably, and you're careful with how you handle it, and you don't exactly just sort of toss it around. And, you know, somebody today read the interview I'd done in the East West Journal,

[29:09]

and so I was reminded of that, and I hadn't looked at that in a long time, but I had, when I'd done that article in the East West Journal, I had just talked to someone who, a yoga teacher from Ghana, he actually lives in Great Britain now, but originally he's from Ghana, and he was actually one of the, his family was like one of the ruling families at some point, and then they had to, they were into exile, and so he had to, you know, get out in the middle of the night one night and went off to Britain. But he said that in Ghana they would never consider eating anonymous food. In other words, they wouldn't eat a carrot if they didn't know who grew it, and, you know, what farm it came from, you see. And we have the idea that this food, it's just stuff, you know, and it's exchangeable, you see. It's completely exchangeable, interchangeable, it's all just the same, it's all just carrots, you know. And we don't sort of have some sense that there's also this kind of spirit that comes along with it, that there's these people who have worked on these things, and there's these people who have grown them, and all carrots aren't exactly the same carrots, you see.

[30:14]

And once you start to think that carrots are just the material, then you can do whatever with the carrots, and you don't have a sense of joy, you know. They're not going to touch you, it's just more stuff, it's just more things that matter, you know, matter. It's dead stuff, it's just matter. It's not vitality, it's not spirit, it's not energy, it's not the people who grew it, it's not the people who shipped it, it's not the people, you know, and so on. So, then, when you think about it, when we think, we tend to think about these things, it's just matter. You know, it's hard to feel joy, it's hard to feel kindness toward it. Then you, you know, so we treat things, we pop them into all sorts of machinery, and we do all these different things, and we bang them around, and then, you know, let's get the food out. Well, I don't know, maybe here we don't do any of that stuff. But, anyway, you understand the point I'm making, that this is what happens with food. And the more we see it as something other than just, or more than just matter,

[31:16]

then we have this kind of resonance, this kind of quality of some resonance, and also some recognition of, I'm also the food. You know, you're also the food. My hand is equal to the food, the food is equal to my hand. And then, you know, and it's my heart. And I'm working on my own body and mind here, and the bodies and minds of others. And so, then, kindness and carefulness in how, in the hand. So, again, I can read a little something here from Thich Nhat Hanh, where he says something like this. He says, Have a look at the apple tree in your yard. Look at it with complete attention. It's truly a miracle. If you notice it, you'll take good care of it. And you, too, are part of its miraculousness. Even after caring for it for only a week, its leaves are already greener and shinier.

[32:22]

It's exactly the same with the people who are around you. Under the influence of awareness, you become more attentive, understanding, and loving, and your presence not only nourishes you and makes you lovelier, it enhances them as well. Our entire society can be changed by one person's peaceful presence. So, in terms of kindness, one of the qualities that Dogen mentions and that other people mention, and I mentioned it the other night, the kindness is often the feeling of a parent with a child, and the way in which we will, for ourself, not think about our own heat and cold,

[33:24]

and think about our child, give our child our clothes so that they'll be warm, and we're willing to be cold so that they can be warm, and that kind of spirit, the effort that we make to take care of the child is often used as an image for thinking about kindness. So, in the instructions to the cook, Dogen says, So, when you're handling the water and the grain, take care of it with compassion, as though you were taking care of your children. So, this is again, with each item of food, with each thing, there can be this kind of kindness. And kind of tending something, rather than just, at the same time that we're working on it and sorting it out,

[34:28]

washing it, cleaning, separating the dirt, cutting it up, but it's not just to get it done, it's also, the doing of it is kind of an expression of kindness, and then it's also our generosity. There's a certain generosity of mind and body and being that we give to food when we work with it. And just to work on cooking is this expression of this generosity. You don't necessarily have a feeling like, how generous I am, but the fact is, when you're cooking, you're giving yourself to the preparation of food. So, if you're giving your attention, your time, your energy, your vitality is going to the food, and we call this generosity. It's not something besides the fact of doing it, but you have to have some feeling of being generous, by doing this, do you see what I mean?

[35:29]

It's just the effort itself is giving, it is being generous. Okay, so... Oh, and... So anyway, I guess I think I've said that. And then as the cook, I've talked about this a little bit before, but then it's the cook's job, so to speak, you know, I mentioned to be generous. I've mentioned, when I examine it carefully, I find that it's important to me just to offer the food. I've done my job, if I offer the food, and then other people, it's up to them what they do with it then. If I start to get involved in telling people, I think you're being kind of greedy with my food,

[36:36]

I know I wanted you to like it, but I didn't want to just scarf it down like that, alright? I wanted you to have a little sort of awe, I wanted a little religion, I wanted a little bowing, you know, in the process of your eating. And I wanted, you know, I want some kind of compliments and so on. So if I start to get involved in that, right, that's called manipulation, you see. So all I have to do is offer it, and then you really have to let other people do with it what they want. You know, eat it, eat it fast, eat it slow, like it, not like it, tell you they like it, tell you they don't like it, not tell you anything. And otherwise, it's just, it's a level of getting involved in manipulation, rather than generosity and just the kindness that's involved in the offering. And curiously enough, you know, I'm also going to tell you a few things from a talk by the Dalai Lama,

[37:44]

and he says at the end of his talk the exact same thing about his talk. He says, I'm reminding you about some of these things, and for those of you who are Buddhists, I'm reminding you about these practices, that you can be reminded of them, and perhaps take them up with renewed vigor. For those of you who aren't Buddhists, perhaps you'll consider these practices, and if it doesn't seem to be of interest to you, then it's there of no use, set them aside. Very simple, very clear, you know, he's not saying, what I told you is really important, and you know, you should take it to heart. And if you don't, well, I just think you're a jerk, you know. So, it's a wonderful kind of, see, now that's again the quality of certain, that's the quality of certain kind of generosity. And he says, and his talk is from 1979, and he says, I'm 44 years old, this is almost 10 years ago now, I'm 44 years old, and I concentrate my effort in my meditation, in my life, on developing kindness.

[38:52]

That's pretty striking, you know, of all the things that he might concentrate on as a Dalai Lama. He says, wherever I go, I tell people to be altruistic and kind to others. And this is, I don't know, I find that really touching. And in Tibetan Buddhism, as he explains in his article, to some extent, there's two aspects really to Buddhism, one is this aspect of kindness, generosity, altruistic feeling, and then quality of wisdom or enlightenment, clarity. And he says, and then these are equally important aspects. So, I thought I'd read you a little passage from this thing. This is a little article that was passed out at Green Gulch from Tarot Tokyo, it was at Green Gulch, it's called Training the Mind by the Dalai Lama. What was I going to read you? Here it is.

[39:56]

Here it is. There are many words of advice, many precepts, but the meaning of them all is love and compassion. Within the teaching of Buddha, there are very many powerful techniques capable of advancing the mind with respect to love and compassion. A good mind, a good heart, and warm feelings are the most important thing. If you don't have such a good mind, you yourself cannot function, you cannot be happy yourself, and consequently, your own kin, mate, or children, or neighbors, and so on, will not be happy either. And thus, from nation to nation, and continent to continent, everyone's mind will be disturbed, and people will lose happiness.

[40:58]

But on the other hand, if you do have a good attitude, a good mind, a good heart, then the opposite is true. So, in human society, love, compassion, and kindness are the most important things. They are something really precious and very necessary in one's life. Therefore, it is worthwhile making an effort to develop this sort of good, good heart. Thank you. So, I find, for myself, over the years, I find it quite possible to... I feel very touched by the Buddha event, you know. It's just my particular... I seem to be touched in that way, and so I have this kind of feeling towards food.

[42:01]

I like this, and I find cooking in a very excellent place to practice expressing a kindness and generosity of spirit in this way, and offering my energy, my body, my time, in the preparation of food, for the benefit of others. It's real hard to just do it for yourself. I find that most people do. My father died a while back, and my mom says, I don't cook anymore. And I used to think it was so tiresome, cooking for your dad. And now I see that there is a little more to it than that. Traditionally, also, there are, in Buddhism, various forms of loving kindness meditations,

[43:02]

and interestingly enough, one of the meditations is to actually say to yourself, May I be happy. May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I be free from suffering. May I enjoy ease of well-being. May I be generous, and may I help others. May I realize complete liberation for the benefit of others. We have trouble starting with, May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I be free from suffering. I mean, I've always tended to start with, you know, the carrots. And, you know, wishing them well. And helping them become, as a Rumi poem says, the lovely vitality of a human being. But also then, if you, so whether you start with yourself,

[44:06]

or you can start with somebody that you have some naturally positive feeling towards. And one way to do it is while you're sitting, or take a few moments to visualize the person in your heart, that you already have a lot of positive feelings for. Similar to perhaps, as I mentioned, Suzuki Roshi. And then you let this person be in your heart, with this feeling that you have towards this person. And the persons in your heart, you have this want towards the person. You have this wish for their happiness. And if you want, you can actually say, May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be free from suffering. May you enjoy a long life. Peace of well-being. May you attain complete liberation. And freedom from afflictions. And when you say that, you know, you're not just wishing that other person that. Because that person's in your heart now. So, it's not just somebody else.

[45:10]

That's also then wishing yourself that, you see. So in some ways it's not much different than sort of saying it by yourself. Because the person's right here. It's you. Other person that you have that feeling for is you. And then, with that as the basis, you know, you, or sometimes it's suggested you take something that you kind of don't feel particularly one way or another about, and see if you could extend this form, compassion, kindness, feeling of good wish to that person. And then take somebody that you can, that you really find difficult, a difficult person. And can you wish them well? They need it the most of all, you know. And again, each of us is sometimes that difficult person. So when you, you have to realize, of course, then that you're not just wishing that difficult person out there well,

[46:10]

but you're also wishing the difficult person that you are sometimes well. Rather than, when you find yourself to be a difficult person, you go, yuck, oh, God, are you being difficult? And then, you know, and then having that kind of negative attitude towards yourself when you're the difficult person. So it's tremendously powerful to, that kind of practice, that you're, when you take even somebody that you feel positive for, and you put it in your heart, then you're wishing yourself well. And then, if it's a neutral person or a negative person, you can equally wish them well, and that's also you. And wishing yourself well, even at that time, when you're the difficult person. Thank you. I think that's about it. Oh, I have one other story to tell you.

[47:12]

Two other stories. How about one more story? I love the story that I heard one time about the 11-headed Avalokiteshvara. We should have a picture. Avalokiteshvara. Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of compassion. Saving, if you, Avalokiteshvara is said to save anyone who sincerely calls the name of Avalokiteshvara. In Japan, in Japan and China, it's also known as Kuan-an or Kuan-yin. You see these beautiful, graceful women, As Kuan-an and Avalokiteshvara are graceful women, she's often carrying a pitcher and a vase with life-giving water. Or sometimes a little pearl, symbolizing a kind of wholeness and treasure quality, which is sometimes known as the wish-fulfilling gem.

[48:16]

And flowing robes, she sometimes rides around on a dragon. Sometimes, as Avalokiteshvara rides, what is it, a lion? No, that's Manjushri. I don't know, I can't keep up with it. But anyway, the Bodhisattva of compassion. And there's one particular Avalokiteshvara then that has 11 heads. So there's this head, and then there's a head here, and here, and here, and here. And it's just great, you know, there's all these heads. And also, Avalokiteshvara, sometimes in Japan, they have the Avalokiteshvara that have a thousand arms. Avalokiteshvara is said to have a thousand arms. And in each hand, there's an eye that sees the suffering. And then the hands are there to help. So this is a story about how did Avalokiteshvara get 11 heads. So to start with, Avalokiteshvara just had one head, like the rest of us. And one day she thought, in her travels, or at some point she realized anyway that there were all these beings in hell

[49:25]

who were having a tremendously painful time of it in hell. And hell in Buddhism is not quite the same as Christianity where it goes on endlessly. It can go on for a really long time, but eventually you can get reborn someplace else. But anyway, it still can be a pretty long time, even if it's not forever. And Avalokiteshvara decided, these people are suffering tremendously, I want to help them, I want to save them. So she went into the realm of hell. And one of the things you see about Avalokiteshvara is that this Bodhisattva appears in whatever skies the beings need her to appear in. So to fishermen, she can appear as a fisherman. And to carpenters, she's a carpenter. And people in hell, she can appear as a being in hell. So it's not all that startling for them to run into this Avalokiteshvara in hell. So she went to hell, and she managed to get all the beings there. Like, come on, I'm going to show you how to get out of here. And they're kind of like, oh, okay, thank you very much.

[50:28]

So then she gets them all together, and she gets them going out of hell, to lead them out of hell into another realm. And they get to the borders of hell. And she's kind of making sure that they all get out, you know, and go on their way to the next realm. And they're just about all out. And she turns around, and she sees multitudes of beings just kind of wandering in hell like it's the greatest place there ever was. And they have no idea the suffering and pain that they're getting into, and she goes, like, it just blows her mind. You know, having gone to all this work, all this effort, and now there's innumerable more beings wandering in. And literally, her head exploded. It blew her mind. Literally, her head exploded. She just lost her head. So it's said that Amida Buddha, at that time, gave her another head.

[51:30]

This is number two. So at this time, she thought, I better go and save all those beings. And so she went back to hell again, and got them all together, and encouraged them to leave and to get out of hell. And she would show them the way, and she led them to the borders of hell, and they all went out. And she turns around, and by golly, just all these beings, they just keep coming in, you know. And there's even more back there than she'd let out. And once again, it just blew her mind, and her head again exploded. Alright, so it happened, and again, Amida Buddha gave her another head, a new head. And this happened eleven times, or ten times, I guess, before she had a head that would not explode under those circumstances. Okay.

[52:35]

So, I love this story because people say, well, how can I do this? And I don't think there's any other way to do it, you know. And usually people say, well, if you just develop a little strength and patience and endurance, and you just have all these great qualities, well, just take some equanimity, you know. Go down to the local Dharma drugs and say, well, I'd like some equanimity now, and I'd like some more concentration, and I'd like some patience. And, you know, thank you very much, and yes, indeed, here's my meditation ticket. I've done my time on the cushion. And you've got all this stuff, and they say, now I'm going to go and save all these beings from hell. It doesn't happen like that. We sort of wonder, where am I going to get the strength to deal with this? And the place you, and you don't get the strength to deal with it, you just, you know, it blows your mind, you fall apart, you go to pieces. And then, somehow, you get this other body, you know, and start all over again. And this is the way, this is the way I think, you know, I've always appreciated the qualities, the qualities of this story, but this is the way our life works, isn't it?

[53:39]

So, that also reminds me, I had a poem for you. And so, I guess I can sort of end the talk with this poem. This is another poem by the Russian woman, Anna Akhmatova. Somebody said the other night, it's not Anna Akhmatova, it's Anna Akhmatova. Well, that's not the Shostakovich or Shostakovich. Which is it? It's eternal puzzle over there, so it's Shostakovich or Shostakovich. Oh, I see. So, I don't know. All right. Anyway, Russian poet. And this poem has a sense of, again, the kind of, similar to the story I just told you, kind of strength that comes at the end, okay, or after some suffering. And it goes something like this. I can't remember exactly, so, the important parts I can kind of remember, but I can't remember exactly, so don't try to follow me. But, if all who had come to me for help in this world, all the battered wives, the criminals, the suicidal, the insane,

[55:01]

if each had given me one kopeck, I'd be richer than all the kings of Egypt. But, they didn't give me kopecks. Instead, they shared with me their pain, so that now I am stronger than anyone, and I can bear anything, even this. Oh my goodness, I can't believe it. I thought I was here at dinner, and it's ten after nine. Exactly the same as last night. Well, thank you very much. And may I say, once again, we're going to be putting the room back in order here. And I want to remind everyone that out here is a quiet area. There are people sleeping upstairs, perhaps. And so, when we move the chairs around here, we would like to ask you to pick them up, and then put them down, rather than sliding them across the floor.

[56:12]

Because when you're sliding them across the floor, you're making tremendous noise. And if, per chance, somebody was sleeping upstairs, that's sort of like the chalk on the chalkboard, or the painting on the chalkboard. So, please, once you've placed the chairs, pick them up.

[56:25]

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