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oh today's the to the to toyota's words
good morning everybody
especially distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the first rose
honey
i was reading a talk of suzuki roshi who found it said center it in the talk he said that he went to a
the sunday school at the psychology and the children saw him meditating and they immediately got into meditation posture and they said we can do that too
and then soon as i got into the pasture than they said know what do we do
so i thought this morning with the young people i would
meditate with you just for a few minutes
are you ready for this
whoa wait a minute day they haven't the size basement
are you ready for this yes
will i'll take that as a yes okay and i thought that maybe it would be good to meditate standing up because it's better than sitting down in a city down the so a squirmy
so what do we all stand up that means everybody where we all stand up
so we're gonna do some
standing meditation
okay
so the first thing is
pay attention to being standing probably you stand all the time you don't notice so pay attention to the bottoms of your feet can you feel the bottoms of your feet on top of the cushion
soft
steady can you feel that who can feel the bottom of their feet
yeah you can feel
isn't it something that earth underneath this building
supporting you all the time
whenever you're standing up
but feel your whole body's weight
held up by the bottoms of your feet on the floor

so now
see if you can project your mind's eye into your belly
fill your belly like just like you just set something very good to eat and you feel it in your tummy
and feel how your breathing make sure belly go in and up so take a good deep breath in and the breath out
when feel it in your belly another one
can you feel that you're welcome can you feel

not pretend the breath is coming from the bottom of your feet all the way up to the top of your body
you can even list your hand up like this

starts to feel calm after a while isn't it
starts to feel like when you breathe in the air it's like taking a drink of water you can feel it coming in so clear
ah that feels good
hmm
somebody's hiding over there
the mysterious twinned breathing babies hiding
in the forest of dad
where are they
that they are

okay now
feel how that feels
feel you can feel a little tingly who feels a little tingly i feel tingly
okay now we're going to do something very complicated
you ready
very slowly
paying close attention every minute with lift our two arms up slowly by slowly by slowly up over our heads
till our fingertips are pointing up towards the ceiling
and now we're gonna breathe and stretch for the ceiling
and breathe out
and breathe in and stretch for the ceiling
and breathe out
when we stretch now this time we're going to go up on our toes
stretching up and down breathing out in a breathing in
and down breathing out
in up breathing in
and down breathing out and now we're going to very slowly breathe in and out and let the arms comes slowly by slowly by slow the by slowly down and our sides and feel how that feels can you feel how that feels in your body

now we're gonna breeze by filling up a very large ball put your arms out in front of you pretend you're holding a big balloon okay that's it
and when you breathe in you're going to fill up that balloon
and when you breathe out at shrinks back in
fill it up
and let it go back

that's great
yeah when you're a kid they always tell you learn how to share do they tell you that they used to tell me that when i was can learn how to share which is difficult to do but actually the you think about it we're sharing the same air think about that
we're perfectly sharing the same year all the time
nobody's taking more than anybody else we're sharing year that you're breathing i breathed this same here
isn't that nice
so it must be pretty good friends were sharing something very intimate together the same air
now let's sit down and have just a few minutes of sitting meditation

so just a few more minutes for sitting and then will be finished and then you guys can go and do yoga and other things that i know our plan for you this morning

no this kind of sitting meditation
is very special
first thing you have to do
the way you do that as you imagine
you've seen puppets rate pull from a string you've all seen on tv and different places yeah yeah like pinocchio exactly yeah so pretend that you are a puppet okay and there's a string that comes from right here the back of your head
and the string is coming from way up in the sky and someone is very gently pulling on that string and pulling you your back up so your lifted up and you'll feel almost like a bird flying
you feel lifted up by that string very gently they're lifting not yanking it but very very gently lifting so you're sitting like this and all of a sudden it feels like
coming up okay
not just like we were a minute ago feel your breathing
take some big brass feel so good doesn't it
what a nice things
i know that everybody's very busy tube you kids are probably have many appointments and things
very busy but when you breathe
it's just like a refreshment
you don't have to worry about anything
feel the breathing through the whole back
how can a here comes the important part and we'd be very pay very close attention to this part
our meditation will be
that we're going to listen
very closely
to the sound of the bell make us gonna hit a bill
three times now let's pay attention on this is very important he's gonna hit at once and then big pause and then another time and big pause and then another time big paws know what i want you to do is be breathing and listening very carefully
to the sound of the bill when the sound of the bell
disappears into the sound of the raindrops and you can't hear the sound of the bell anymore
because it's dissolved into the sound of the raindrops
stand up
and then after you stand up sit down again it will do it again with three times so you have to listen very carefully
to the sound of the bill okay so we'll hear the sound of the bell will here at fade away into the raindrops when i'm you when we will it stops and becomes only the raindrops and will stand up and then we'll sit down again and we'll hear it again
it's very hard to pay attention that strongly but also it's very interesting because it's hard to tell if to really be quick and clever to tell when the sound of the bell disappears
are we ready ready
yeah i'm not really a hold on to credit
okay i'm ready everybody else ready okay you ready okay we're already hearing go

how can we all stood up at the same time and we all waited for me to stand them
i'm the only one with years around here it can't be
i thought surely one of the children would stand at first
okay that's once

okay here we go

and when you're standing up can you remember your feet
can you feel your feet
okay it's twice
once more

you still hear sound
it's hard to tell in a way you know in the sound ends
did you
you heard it to you can tell just when it ended you have good ears have great ears
well thank you very much i think we're finished you did a great job there and if anybody asks you do you know how to practice meditation you can say yes i do
okay so you guys can go if you like now if you want to go out you have your shoes over here
because i was thinking that before you go out i was so impressed today by the boot is on the altar that a before you go out maybe you can just go for a second and just take a look at how beautiful those buddhas are on the altar
and then you can go out and do yoga everything

that big one is is bigger than a person

by
by
why
good goodbye

yeah

not so good morning again
that was pretty exciting i thought
i do have a talk prepared for you this morning on the case eleven of womankind but
before i i begin that
two things are on my mind that just occurred to me and i wanted to share them with you a first of all
i don't i don't come the green gulch as much as i used to and so
i don't have a chance to bow to the statues on the altar very often so i was startled and impressed this morning become in
and bar to these beautiful figures that we have and that have been
we were fortunate to get and have we been feeding them with incense were all these years and they become more beautiful with with it with the time going by
so it was i was startled and they've you notice i took longer than usual to bow because i didn't wanna leave you know
but it reminds me i i got a phone call from a friend who told me
what i already knew which is that
the taliban
who is the ruling elite in afghanistan is now
systematically based on muslim theology their understanding of muslim theology destroying many many you know afghanistan was very important in history of buddhism
coming from india through afghanistan on the silk route and many many important
good images priceless
images exist in afghanistan and and being defaced blunt literally blown up and i don't know what we anybody can do about that but ah certainly to be aware of it and to express if we can our shock and dismay
if you
blow up
buddha images you seldom do that in a context in which you're kind and peaceful to everyone else in fact the taliban regime is not kind and peaceful to its own people and the blowing up with a buddhist statues is only a yeah
symbol in a way of the way that it runs its regime so
we don't control what happens in afghanistan but at least as human beings we should express ourselves somehow to whoever it is that this worthwhile expressing ourselves if only to each other or someone else anyway i just wanted to mention my sorrow over that
and then also as i was driving here i was listening to click and clack
maybe it sounds like some of you know about click and clack they're they're very smart people and they began their broadcast with a news item
it seems that in a publishing a house in new york
which had many employees one employees
i died
at work at their desk
and it was five days before anyone realized that the person was dead he was sitting there it had a coronary heart attack and he was sitting there for five days and no one realized that he was dead until he died on monday and on saturday
the cleaning person notice these this their asked them why were you working over the weekend and when he didn't reply and he realized that he was dead
apparently this is really true that this happened in the the people in the publishing company explained that he was a very diligent worker that he was not unusual for him to be sitting at his desk for five days not talking anyone and just sort of sitting there because he was so diligent have said very little so they all thought that he was just you know as usual hard at work and didn't realize that he was
dead
so click and clack mention this because they said well we have a large staff and we were worried that maybe that's true
the our staff so they said that they went around
shaking people to make sure that they were alive and they all woke up and said that yes they were alive it was all right
that's so they were relieved
they often mentioned by the way click and clack that whether sponsors is a dewey cheatham and how
effect
and i was in cambridge last week massachusetts where they were there program originates from and in fact
i don't know if it's but there is an office building you see when you walk down the street you look up in a second story and as it says on the window do we treat him and how
and i i've never gone up there i've seen it before i've were going up there to find out what kind of affirm that is but
it is there
anyway it just the story made me wonder are we all alive and everybody here alive
or are we actually all dead not sure
hard to tell sometimes
yes to do that the those of you who are far in the back there are now free seats because the children who left if you want to come up front i feel free to do that

anyway really it's sometimes it's not clear
well there were alive or dead
something to pay attention to anyway so now that i got all that off my chest
case eleven moment can
ah here's the case
jojo visited a hermitage
knocked on the door and shouted anybody home anybody home
the hermit
held up a fist
too shallow here to drop anchor
georgia said and went on
another time he came to a hermitage and knock the door anybody home anybody home
hermit hello fist
jojo bowed deeply with reverence and said free to give and free to snatch away free to kill and free to revive
so that's the case
moments comment on this case
both times fists held up
why did he approve and then disapprove
tell me where is the core of the complication
if you can give a turning word on this point you will see that jojo's tongue has no bone in it he is free to pick up or push down
be that as it may do you see that it was yoga who was seen through by the hermits
if you say the one hermit is superior to the other
you have not yet got the i have xin if you say there is no difference between them
you have not yet got the i have zen
so that's mr mullins comment on the case in his poem goes like this i like a shooting star
activity like lightning
the sword that kills
the sword that gives life
so that's our subject for this morning
so in this story we have those of you who have heard me speak before know that master jojo of the story is one of my favorite zen masters
so here he is again a appears many times in the classical collections
this morning he's testing some hermits although it is not entirely clear whether he's testing to hermits or the same hermit twice
there are other stories in which jojo engages in this kind of testing
but not in the way that one might think
if you remember gl joes personal story he practiced for forty years with his teacher nonchalant and financial and died he said i'm just a beginner and then he went on twenty years of pilgrimage to try to improve his understanding and at the age of eighty or so
so he settled down to teach
and you have the feeling that after all of this
jojo was beyond almost anything including zinn
and that his teaching must have been very mellow and very seasoned
as why enjoy his teaching so much
so many of the collins have to do with this issue of testing
testing to see who realizes the way and who doesn't testing to see who realizes more and who realizes less
on one end this kind of testing is very valuable
because it's through this kind of dialogue and debate and dynamic exchange together that we learn and refine our understanding
which is always changing
yesterday's understanding is yesterday's understanding it's no good for today
today we need the understanding of today
so we're always investigating always looking to see
what is true and then what's true now
and of course this is not just something philosophical or some finery of doctrinal points
it has to do with how we intimately see the world we actually live in and therefore how we live in
so testing is something
very important very good the spirit of testing constantly working on our practice for the sake of practice itself
taking a vital and intense interest in our practice is something necessary
because the alternative is to think that there is some resting place
and not only is that not so
but also it's the ultimate cause of suffering
so we have to have testing it's very good
but on the other hand that testing is a problem because it implies that there's something correct
some kind of gold standard that's in somebody else's possession
and that can be used as a yardstick to measure us
and that is not useful
in fact the whole idea of testing plays into our a human confusion on two levels
first of all psychologically it plays into our natural deep seated
human lack of self confidence
now of course in this world there are very confident people and there are other people who are not so competent
but that's just on a conventional level when it comes to ultimate matters
i think every human being feels deep down a tremendous sense of inadequacy and dread everyone without exception because we all know
that we don't know really
we all know as it says in one of the psalms
that we are like grass that springs up in the morning and is mowed down at night
we know that all that we build up
falls down
and we're all like
children when it comes to ultimate matters
life and death matters since none of us has ever died at least that we remember
and none of us has really come close to seeing ourselves naked and face to face
the when we get that close
we all feel this dread
so naturally when someone brings up testing we we feel very nervous
and we automatically assume that were wrong
and that the authority whoever that may be in our minds is right
whoever's facing us must be right and we must be wrong that's how we think
the second level on which testing plays into our common human stupidity is a metaphysical level
because our language and way of thinking seems to be constructed
to look for and to expect to find
some fixed truth
we are very susceptible i think all human beings are very susceptible
to the idea that such and such is the truth
and that everybody else other better believe it or they're absolutely wrong this explains
the actions of the taliban
they have found
the fixed and ultimate truth
and they feel sure that they ought to be rooting out anything that isn't that

these days for many of us we don't believe in a fixed truth because it's much more currently fashionable to believe that there is no fixed truth
the truth is shifting and relative
and then we believe in that as a kind of fixed truth so actually we're not so different
because our human minds are simply not nimble enough
to be able to float in reality as it really is
changeable and constantly in motion
and yet at the same time just like the ocean which is changeable and constantly in motion
having always one taste wherever you stick your finger in
so testing is something difficult because it plays into these tubes habits psychological and metaphysical that we have so we always have a tough time with testing
jojo on the other hand being this old seasons and master of so many years training no doubt was long past caring
who was right and who was wrong
he only wanted to live this day clearly and kindly and happily
and to help others to be the same if you could
he was certainly someone who never had anything to gain and never had anything to lose in any kind of encounter
so he must have taken on the issue of xin testing
with a kind of delighted chuckle deep in his throat
and i'm sure he always had lots of fun with the monks need to feel that there was a right and wrong and that they were going to find it but there was a shallow and deep and that they were going to find the deep and let go of the shallow
the story
brings up a specific moment of testing but but really and truly
we are tested
and every moment of our lives every moment
every moment we are tested
and every moment we are passing and failing the test
that's our life better get used to it
the matter how we react how we understand every moment we're always failing and always passing
and yet on the other hand it does definitely matter what we do
it matters how we feel and how we pass
and it's clear that there is a right and there is a wrong definitely there is
the idea that there's no right and wrong is certainly wrong
but right and wrong you see are not fixed externalized facts out in the world
they are fluid
they are dancing with our lives
so right and wrong are the gold standard
but like gold they are always changing shape according to conditions
whether it appears as a ring
or bracelet
our goal leave buddha
it's still gold even when it's white gold which looks like silver
so good and bad are relative but not only relative
they're also absolute and yet to think that you can know them in some kind of graspable or possessive a or even definable way
it's definitely not right that's wrong
so in the case in front of us jojo is testing some hermits
as i said this is possibly two different hermits on two different occasions although it may well be the same hermit
being tested twice
probably it makes no difference which the true is which the to as the case but it actually might be a little clearer if it were the same hermit being tested twice who made exactly the same response both times
so first a word about hermits
who do appear with some frequency and the chinese as in literature
you hear about them less and japanese and literature in which cinematic monasticism is mainly emphasized but in chinese zen very much like in the early christian monastic tradition the idea was that you would live in a monastery
for some time
as a training to be a hermit
and this is expressed in the rule of st benedict or in the beginning benedict says
what is the follow is a simple rule for beginners
i'm sure insane this said benedict was being very humble and modest as he is throughout his rule
but also i think he really meant it i think he was really serious that he meant that he was riding a training rule for beginners
and this was true and early christian monasticism people would go out after many years of communal training and not just one year or two years but many years of communal training they would go out and be permits
and that was considered to be the graduate course
this became more rare in the christian tradition as time went on and thomas merton had a
are you for about twenty years to be allowed to be a hermit about one hundred yards away from his own monastery
because it became a less common
but this kind of tradition was the same thing in china
where monks would train a monastic lee and then they would live for some time as hermits and then perhaps they would return to the world to teach or otherwise find some way in simplicity to benefit society
so a hermit in a narrow sense mean someone who is secluded
sorry and hermitage far from others probably somewhere in the mountains the forests
but in a wider sense hermit means a monk who was now living separately from the monastery in a kind of utter or ultimate solitude
in freedom of being oneself
having left all desire for everything else behind
in other words in terms of what i'm speaking of this morning a hermit as someone who lives by no external standard
and no standard doesn't mean you know standard no sense of ah you know restraint as if one were lawless and self centered
it means freedom from inner and outer confusion freedom from inner and outer fixed standards in harmony and fluid with what is
thomas cleary who has written commentaries to many of the cases of the milan collect all the case is actually the woman com writes this in his commentary to this case eleven he says
zen hermits work
illuminated graduates of zen schools
who isolated themselves for a period of time in order to develop their transcendental inside and practical knowledge
in such a way as to prepare them to re-enter the ordinary human world in a very special state of balance
to be complete zen masters they needed to be effective communicators at some common level in order to can contact society
yet they also needed to be free from this is a beautiful clear he isn't yet they also needed to be free from personal nostalgia for the human condition in order to contribute to society be free for personal nostalgia for the human condition is quite wonderful nowhere to be a free
ah contribute to society a range of knowledge genuinely beyond the fluctuating and vulnerable subjectivity of ordinary human psychology with all of its anxieties and wishful thinking
it's that great
in spare terms therefore a zen buddhist hermit it hasn't quotes as and but as hermit is someone who has attained nirvana and is thus inwardly beyond the world
the isolation of the hermit need not be grossly physical
seclusion in quotes is a symbol
and also a description of the psychological independence both emotional and intellectual that comes to the individual through the experience of nirvana
so in other words being a hermit is an inner condition rather than something literal
so in that sense i think our practice for all of us is to aspire to be sent hermits
and lately you know i feel like as interment myself
we had
now my wife and i have two sons grown up young men and we don't see them that often but over the
christmas time holidays they came to visit us
and four of us were together constantly during that couple of weeks
sometimes i have my in-laws live nearby so sometimes they were with his tooth there was quite a gang of us together
and we had a great time actually was one of our most successful visits they haven't all been successful this one was
and we have a pretty small house
it's kind of like one room or less so the four of us were sleeping together eating together getting up the same time going to bed at the same time it was a real exercise and togetherness
and the whole time
i really felt like a zen hermit
i mean i felt completely a part of what was going on and i really enjoyed myself
but i really felt like also like as interment and i don't know if i can explain
what i mean by this without making it a misunderstanding because i don't mean to say that i was aloof in any way or beyond what was going on
in fact quite the contrary i felt know a greater ability and myself to engage and be part of my own family than i have ever felt
so it's very involved with what was happening very happy and full of joy to be with
my family which is such these days such a rare occurrence
and yet at the same time even though the four of us were constantly together in this little space i didn't feel cramped

i was involved with everything but
not cramped
and maybe some of you can relate to the fact that sometimes a family can be quite cramped
to the point where it can become painful that which were all yearning for you know the human being as yearning for love and family and all this and then you have love and family and you say boy this is really a tough situation fact i didn't know that there will be this much misery and human life
and it can't dance and people as a great surprise well how did that happen because a family can be extremely cramped
and when it gets cramped everyone feels the pressure of that cramping and everybody is in pain
and hurting one another
even though everyone may love one another and have a good heart
so i think that in our practice
people say oh is there any practice for families well quite the contrary i think if you have a family or in in a family as we all are you need to practice
to make a little more space so you're not so cramped
so innocence i think we all really need to be permits
always in seclusion always utterly alone full of spaciousness and also never alone
always connected but in freedom
in spaciousness and openness
so that's
my little commentary on the idea of hermits these are the hermits that he goes there's a kind of people he's visiting k to hermits or one hermit
anyway he goes to visit them
the hermits or always home
so when he knocks on the door and he says anybody home anybody home it's not like he thinks they're not home
as usual in zen dialogues
something very simple and every day is the taking off point you don't need to look for profound philosophical questions to bring up
the everyday questions that we'd take for granted or
to bring up the whole truth and nothing but the truth
things like
how are you
what's new
good morning
what what can be more profound
then these sorts of questions so there's a kind of question anybody home anybody home
everything
raises the whole truth all the time if you are willing to look closely enough
so he asks anybody home in the hermit holds up a fist
so here we could wax philosophical about the fist we can really get into this right
the fist the fist stands for one this stuff you know
the fist to fist stands for emptiness the fist to fist such this and so on we go on
fill in blank or we can get really isn't and we mean we could say it's a fist
first is the first just a fist
that would be good it can do that
so all that is good when we could we could amuse ourselves no end
it doesn't matter you know really what we call it or whether to pfister or toenail
it's a simple hermits answer
it reminds me
obama this very strange answer that's repeated many times in the bible god calls out the abraham and abraham says here i am
probably
you know in the story of jesus jesus says here i am somewhere i'm sure
moses for sure is called on by god and he says here i am
in hebrew this word is hany
here i am it's the jewish fist
the old testament fist nothing fancy about this nothing coy about it
it's something very straightforward in other words without fear or irony or intellectual isation or non intellectual isation it's just life every moment calling to us
and whether we intended or not whether we like it or not whether we know what we're doing or not we stand forward when life calls us there we are
this is it
here i am on this moment of time here i am
this moment
is the moment in which i am created
i can't get this moment back when it's gone
i can't eliminate it
it's unrepeatable it's unique
it's endless
it's an infinite opportunity if only i will seize it
and it's not subject to discussion or evaluation
it's not communication it's presentation to be present
being alive to what is
it's beyond subjectivity beyond objectivity
this is the fist of the hermit this is the fist
of every moment of our own lives if only we would be alert to it like this morning standing
whoever notices the bottoms of one speak standing and yet we're standing supported by the earth all the time someone says i need support i need support but the support is there the earth supports us
all the time if only we would
notice that it so
in commenting on this fist in his commentary to this case shebaa yama roshi quotes a marvelous old japanese poem and that goes this way whether to call it crazy or rude i leave it to someone else to judge
peach blossoms are by nature pink
pear blossoms are by nature white
how you can forward how i come forward
this different how i come forward now how i come forward later
are you come forward now how you come forward later is different
each according to its
conditions
so that's our test
then the rest of next part is the test results
you wait for the mail to come and get your test results
so now though we have a different sense i think of what the test results are
yes it's a test because it's human
the test and be tested
but also were beyond that all of us
and so even though were tested were always free of testing
too shallow here to drop anchor and jojo says in the first instance
now this is a very typical saying of georgia like all of his sayings it's simple
clear
and also highly ambiguous
on one hand it means oh you're too shallow your answer is no good i'm not staying around here
but also a shallow was something really good actually
the shallow and deep are both shallow and deep
shallow water is really good it's clear and you can see right down to the bottom
and not being able to drop anchor as a surgeon was too shallow here i'm not dropping anchor not being able to drop anchor is also something very good that means that you don't rest anywhere you just float along with the current
and during the holidays and still he of her about our sun's coming one of the things we did as go kayaking
and the elkhorn slew which is really wonderful thing to do
and in the elkhorn slew the water is quite shallow
and the current is not very swift
and we just floated along which kayaks seem to do quite well i don't know if kayaks have anchors but these didn't to imagine going out and kayaking and anchoring unless you're going scuba diving or some
kayaks don't need a hackers
they're very light and streamline so you just keep moving easily through the wire
so this is the desert jojo's judgment on the first hermit for the first instance of the hermit
since you always have to make judgment
we're called on in this world and their judgment discrimination because that's what the world is after all judgment and discrimination that's what you and i are we are judgment and discrimination so we have to make judgment and jogos judgment in this case is bad and way and good and way
then he gives the test results for the second hermit
for the first tournament again
this time he sees the same fist and immediately boss oh wonderful wonderful free to take life and free to give life three up three down he says the same first
same response maybe even the same hermit
so i would be clearly as we see from the commentary really not right to say that the second hermit is better than the first one or the same hermit improved with second time where that jojo saw it differently the second time around
his second response is really the same as the first and also different
the first response was bad and good this one is good and bad
and that's freedom after all good and also bad
freedom is readiness commitment
and also acceptance
if it's good it's good if it's bad it's bad joshua responses were only his own fists raised
georgia was only saying here i am
i am jojo and that's how it is for now
in the midst of his judgements he made no judgments
he neither held onto nor rejected these two hermits he was free and so were they
as master mama makes clear in his comment when he says do you understand that master georgia was seen through by the to hermits
just like shallow water a master zhao is fully transparent
there isn't a mysterious bone in his body and he does not come on like a profound zen master he's just an ordinary person with nothing special to hold onto
it's easy to see through master xiao so i'm sure
if you're looking for an old chinese zen master you can see through that if you're looking for an elderly gent hobbling along the mountain pathway you can see through that too
profound buddhist insight or a doddering old man sometimes it's hard to tell the difference
either one or both together are easily seen through
for the hermits there was nothing at all to see through they had no image of master jojo at all
and to be sure they weren't put down
in the first instance or puffed up with pride at they're being praised in the second instance they probably felt the breeze of jojo's words and they appreciated it
another poem on this point quoted by shibori i should buy amorosi goes the spring breeze in a tree has two different faces
a southward branch looks warm
a northward branch looks cool
and i'm sure they also felt the judgments side of jojo's words
when they were told to shallow too shallow they thought ah to shallow better work harder
and then they felt also when told how beautiful taking life-giving life perfect practice
they felt
one movement one wave
i imagine that there was a beautiful feeling of warmth and recognition that passed between these old zen hermits
it's very pleasant i think to meet and recognize another traveler on the way
the eating and other the past treader you feel as if you knew each other a long long time
you feel encouraged in your own path
it also quite ready to move on
that's how it must have been
for jojo in the hermits when they encountered each other
and i'm sure they were having some fun with each other because testing is ultimately something quite funny
because a human consciousness is ultimately something quite funny
tragic of course
in its consequences sometimes
so we can deny that but at the same time usually pretty funny
there's a line from tibetan lama launch and paw i think it's launch a bot that says so
everything being void is perfect
and so one can't help but burst out laughing
and similarly
an old zen master you on commenting on this case that i'm talking about said when you see clearly how can you suppress a laugh
i think
a spiritual practice always has a sense of humor in the middle of it
if not think again
so i think these old hermits and java were having a good time together enjoying a good laugh
for us however who are still in training still working on it not quite where they are yet
and we're still with notice cart reflexively attached a good or bad especially when it pertains to ourselves and how the world reacts to us
for us we need to appreciate and contemplate this old story
these olds and masters are demonstrating for us that there is good and there is bad the good and bad really do matter
good as good or bad as bad and yet it is always all right
and peaceful either way
buddha-nature is always buddha nature whether it appears as good or it appears as bad
so i think a good practice for all of us is when we find ourselves
puffed up with praise
or in despair over criticism
our self criticism
we find ourselves overjoyed with our glorious successes and good luck
and disgruntled semi-permanently with our failures
and our bad luck
we need to study this case
we need to learn how we can hold up a fist all the time
whether were praised or blend
in other words just pay attention clearly to are suffering how suffering goes
try our best to feel it now deny it but you have the same time not be caught by it
and when we do inevitably get caught by it to note ah caught by suffering again
because i think we all know that ultimately
there's no preventing
ah difficulty
our practice is not a question of eliminating difficulty
if we live in the human world if in fact we are alive and we do have a human body
definitely trouble comes
not a question of eliminating trouble it's a question of how do we receive and understand what happens to us whether it's trouble or natural
the culminating spectacular event that happened
at the very end of our visit with our sons
was at the night before they were to get on the airplane
one of them staying out of course all night long before the early morning flight
lost his wallet
and the keys to his apartment
so we all had to go through a great deal of trouble to deal with this question of how do you get on the airplane with your e-ticket when you don't have identification
and how'd you get into your apartment in a big industrial building of artists when you don't have a key and there's no doorbell
under the best of circumstances it's hard to get into his apartment building but
this time it was really gonna be hard because he was arriving at something like one in the morning
so this was pretty bad

but
i was very proud of him and also of the rest of us because
he just sort of like dealt with it and try to figure out what he was gonna do
in an end he did figure it out
and fortunately none of us went berserk
got mad at him and told them are stupid he was an irresponsible or anything like that we just all said are this problem going to have to work can we do how are we going to get through this what what are we going to do with this
yes definitely he lost his wallet and his keys yes definitely this was a problem
so we had to figure out what are we going to do
and then do it which is what happened
if jojo were around i think he would have done the same thing
so it's always nice to speak with you thank you for being so patient sitting there all this time
enjoy the rest of your rainy sunday afternoon
me