intention
today's to to the to advertise words
good evening

this evening at the practice period key way he talked about a lie group talked about discipline that was the topic we had i had suggested
one i've tried it with it an element of buddhist practice and it related to a coin i was thinking about and then also on wednesday afternoons we have what we call here at city center or
practice covering meeting
the senior teachers along with the a know
about the affairs of the temple
what are the things we were talking about today was what we call with six month rule
which means that if you come to the temple as a new student a wait six months before you get involved in a relationship
i'm not going to even try to talk about that
i'm going to talk about discipline
writing music
the i
the
down the wrong person as john
how did we made seriously
pedroia is a whole lot better than i do
that's why i'm going to talk about discipline and he's gonna tell you later
and
yeah it's it's an interesting word you know even in its use in our language you know discipline disciple you know this site below a teaching the of the teacher
i other way
something about engaging a path
pam
i think many or most of this field of ourselves as engaging the path of practice the path of awakening
but then there are other
either meaning of the way discipline you know everything from give discipline someone to punish them for a breaking some rule or discipline as a set of rules are discipline as a training
as as a training that undertaken to produce some
improvement or modification
am
for the six month rule is one of our rules of discipline
and i think the range of meaning in the word helps us to see red
probably for most of us would have a range of responses you know when we talked about it in our group several people were saying well
when when i approve of the row when i endorse it you know when something in me says here that's a good thing to be doing
then i yeah
i can move with it i can accept it i can accept whatever constraint or configuration it sets for it
and maybe conversely when i don't approve
and it's hard to accept
mean
but that's an interesting grind to be in and
no part of the print the transformative nature of discipline you know this
engagement that sometimes we go training right that's too
create something other than the current set of habits of behavior
for just logically we see
maybe there's something beyond what i approve of or what i even understand

and i find it interesting cause you know having practiced some in asia
it was have practiced in japan and thailand
different general characteristics
when you go to as a japanese and monastery to my experience you expect discipline
and people expect you to expect discipline
in fact if you question the discipline they can look at job
what
you're kidding right had been good
surely you know that as well it's a by
thailand was a little more iran
one nebulous
maybe something like you find your own place in the discipline
in the monastic order there was this basic comprehensive rules you know when you were expected the vinaya so
you were expected to comply to observe the vinaya the rules monastic robes
but then things like how much he meditated or the practices like that really very temple the temple and even within the temples
you could find your own relationship to them
so here we have
sort of core expectations
and then we have
other expectations that are i try not to well laid out
and the kind of offered for you to find your relationship to them
and i'm gonna talk about that vague statement by using a con
eh
the coroner's case forty four in local record at its
am a monk questions a teacher and
as many coins are the watson said quoting a famous sutra
cultivating study is kong listening
ending study is called nearness
going beyond these two
is fully going behind
for the teacher coated gnat and the monk come up and said for what is fully going behind
and the teacher said knowing how to beat the drum
i'm learning how to beat the drum
so had him beat the drum without knowing how to do it
and how can you learn how to beat the drum by just going ahead and doing it and finding out in the doing how to do it
an
the wine discipline is the discipline mostly or discipline is a discipline
of a disciple a follower of a path
a disciple of buddha the discipline of being buddha
the discipline of engaging our lives in a way that awakens awakens ourselves and everyone
know that are disappoint
and then the subsets within that things like a six month rule
and we could take that and we could you argue it both ways
how it's helpful and how it's unhelpful how it's appropriate and how it's inappropriate
but within the context of our training
the practice realization of awakening
that's our guiding reference how does this a name of awakening
for the first part of this statement cultivating study is called listening
am
cultivating study is about discovering how to enable
the forms of practice and in fact the details of our life hideaway enable them to help us to wake up
he'd make the run to learn how to beat the drum
you live your life to learn how to live your life
he chant to learn how to check
he practiced mindfulness to learn how to practice mindfulness you said zaza and to learn how to stood says it
and this is doing
and learning from doing
he lists as listening
it it's like
yeah listen you hear the side
you pay attention in notice what's happening
he hit the drum and in notice what kind of signed comes out the drown
the chant and you'll notice what kind of signed is being made by yourself and by the whole group
he noticed how when the calculus at the pitch
it stimulates something in your voice
notice how to chant and breed
pay attention to emotion
and you discover the energy of emotion discover how
emotion and the story connected to it have a symbiotic relationship
you discover that they have a physical attribute
discover that they emotions have a way out
affecting and influencing that mental disposition the state of mind
we live life to learn how to live life
but they do that the something it's called here listening it's like attending to what's going on
when we attend a what's going on with doing
the pounds a learning process
and most of our time is doing something
to this is the first point of this with rid of this court cultivating study is called listening
attending the white school attending the what's being done is the grind of discovering
how to practice
in all the dimensions whether it's following the forms attending our emotional life
attending to my body
taking on a discipline
how would kick on a discipline and then we notice now we resented we endorse it
it inspires us
it makes us feel constricted and whatever
we resent the people who come up with it
hook him up with a six month rule anyway

for the spirit of our practice
a disciple of following a path
doesn't have some want to do with compliance
or even compliance you know
in the nature this coin while hiding his study compliance and hiding a study non-compliance
content we learn a lot through noticing our resistance
sometimes we learn a lot through just saying okay this doesn't make any sense to me and i don't even like it i'm just gonna do it as wholeheartedly as i can

yeah we venture into new territory beyond our own patterns of like and dislike and our own behaviors

six service first graze is israeli a fundamental spirit and then
everything in the service of awakening compliance non-compliance resisting delighting in
on the service have awakening
and you know when we have this attitude it's a great relief in when when we blend are
our sense the practice in our definition of practice with something to do with you know a critical mind you know criticizing ourselves or criticizing other something to do well if i do this now get it right then i'll be a good person if i do this and get it wrong i'll be a bad person or someone else
does that they'll be a good or a bad person and if
we just create this minefield
yeah it's painful to living
no for all of this know it's painful to do to ourselves and then others feel the pain when we do it to them
to really the this first phrase is a very significant phrase and practicing with ourselves and with each other
maybe this person is resisting this but maybe that's gonna be a terrific teaching for them
he you can learn a lot from that
but does that mean we're going to ignore the discipline ignore the rules know
that's the dense would carry the rules because we carry it might because we that's for shirt agreement
and hopefully as we continue with this practice period will
hung up on our roads in our details
just for the heck of it
that to heritage
careful attention to detail
then the second part ending study
it's called
uranus
it's think when you get into it
the the activity becomes itself
have i think
sometimes a single beer observes and but sometimes more like a one day sitting know
the a new you often we have this notion or i'll aldo one day sitting and it'll be like this around the it'll have this kind of purpose or intention and then you get into it
and it's like you're immersed in it
now you're you're immersed in this
amazing event called living this life
maybe a particular moment during grossed and i'm like your knee hurts or you're engrossed in some
activity of mind or something with
it becomes so completely itself any purpose from this it might be attributed to it disappears
this is nearness
it's like when we get ended the practice or just doing it
who were sitting there eating dinner tasting the food being present for the chewing
not thinking oh this is a great thing and it fits in with with and bad it's just itself
so at the heart of each activity there's it beyond comparison it's beyond any kind of judgment or concept we want to mainland with
mrs narrative
in the heart of each activity
there's nothing to gain nothing to lose it's just completely itself

these are not contradictory you know it's not like one contradicts the other study
cultivating study
paying attention contradicts immersion in the activity
now they have a complimentary relationship it's like when we're sitting doesn't know where we we sit down with pay attention to our past your attention to my breath
and then we open up completely to what's happening
and they're not contradictory practices they're complimentary practices
but i pay attention but like the training the purpose from training of of cultivating presence
the capacity to attend to what arises is diminished
for the third part of the statement vines combines the two going beyond this to
going beyond which one is it is a visitors of that but letting them be complimentary reading them support and interact the merging of difference and unity
this is amazing
this is walking into the hall and stepping up on the to tommy
when you step up in the tatami and bow there's nothing but darling nothing but stepping up
but at the same time he walked down the road take your place stand facing the front
i still
the observance of the discipline of the practice
the flow together
so a monk says well what is this flowing together
maybe on a momentary level we can and appreciated but then what a bite or when can i stay true to my own experience
great with how do i press to the authentic realization of who i am in the midst of a situation that saying do this don't do that behave like this you know maybe even on a particular morning you know should i get up at five o'clock
this morning and go and or am i so tired that it merits that it's prudent to stay in bed and get more sleep
mean sometimes very basic you know for this is what the monk asked the teacher but would have a blend these two how do you make them having find that merging and you find that complimentary balance
the teacher says
knowing how to beat the drum

it's actually more interesting answers more nuanced than just knowing how to beat the drum it's in both beating the drum
and knowing how to beat the drum
how didn't know when you're tired where they should stay in bed or get up and go to the xander
there's no prescription you just gotta be there in that moment
and balance these to the discipline
and the complete authenticity of the moment he would be there in that moment and livid do it during the moment
and doing the moment you'll learn how to do the moment
they're not separate
something about trusting
our innate authority to can be
the bring forth discipline
the true discipline and follow the path of awakening of a enacting the path of awakening
if we just break it down into good and bad
i better comply with the rule
is added
i'm gonna do what i want
is that it
nobody gonna tell me what to do i'm gonna resist he read it now they all miss the mark or something more authentic and original and in some way to almost mysterious think the answer comes out at the moment
there's a way in which were asked to trust ourselves in that moment and then collectively there's a way in which we trust each other okay
that's what seemed appropriate to

and then the monk maybe the monk goes on
and the monk asked
what is absolute truth
am
maybe we could say that can bike
can you like the mark can you get it absolutely appropriate
you know
is there a way to be there
in in immersed in just as it is
when the teacher says knowing how to beat the drum

and then for some reason this month just keeps going i guess
finally i gotta channel i can ask all these questions
and
i'm not asking about mind itself as buddha motorbike know mind no buddha
i'm not asking about the clarity of trusting the moment when you are appreciating it for what it is
what about having no concepts about it whatsoever
the teacher gives the same answer just do it
how to just do what the moment is whether it's clear or mysterious do it revered have a choice
knowing how to beat the drum knowing how in the midst of not knowing
do it
sometimes that our practice
we don't know what to do and we do it
when we put it in the language when we put it in the logic it doesn't make any sense
but that's how like
no
whether we know we don't know still we live
whether it's clear to you are not clear to regular a bed or not still he does something
when transcendent people come
how do you relate to them
when and

maybe if we think
the ourselves the the honor of thinking of each other as transcending people
know
which is i to me a very helpful way to think of each other
take to remember that am
all of our
sanga brothers and sisters
are immersed in the way they're practicing the way when we get into not me
of course our mind is gonna generate some opinions and judgments have them but to think that that they each of us
is immersed in this practicing of awakening
how do we made such a one

how do we support such a one how do we learn from such one

and we you know if if we reflect on it we notice or this is really different from what i usually do
how
usually i attribute praise and blame usually i i judge good or bad now i wouldn't be like if we just lived with each other trusting that each other's was following the way
completely how
sleeping in bull
ah hurt
none were borrowing at the cassandra cassandra buddha
bowing deeply at the concerned the buddha
no
hmm
a wonderful way with we'd unburden ourselves
the the deep responsibility to judge and
and adjudicate on each other's practice
what is it to make consenting people
how to respond to them how to enable them
i'm a teacher says
knowing how to beat the drum kit
during the practice show sick
they're completely doing their practice completely do you practice now

makes me think of suzuki roshi his wife you know she had this wonderful phrase whenever we would be doing something and it didn't make a dime but a sense to her you know and she just couldn't fathom i just say ah mary concerned
a ticket and when the put i was just like this is way beyond me
a
just leave please do it
for have kind of attitude with each other you know ah
with a years then in gang please do it
i'll do mine

from discipline to find our own
relationship to all the aspects of it
and they do it anymore
how can you possibly find them in the abstract when you can only find them getting into it him
discovering my parts of it the like to and what parts of it some some boy says no
hmm
and do you add to it
do you then criticize yourself do you feel guilty
how do you play it safe and just and
projected onto others in criticize and judge them
some learning how to come back and stay lunch just do the activity
the moment beat the drown
be buddha
the buddha in the midst of buddha
awakening buddha and
enlivening a good luck
how we get the verse for good measure

to shoot the bob
he needed ten ten crossbow
but how can that compared to the ability to beat the drum
a nice for your information
he shouldn't be crude
the sweet sweet and bitter is better
thank you

yeah and time to an equally had a tray